Medical whistleblowers speak out

Public release date: 27-May-2005

Contact: Paul Ocampo
press@plos.org
+1-415-624-1224
Public Library of Science

FDA official says agency was 'single greatest obstacle to doing anything effective' about Vioxx

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was "the single greatest obstacle to doing anything effective" about Vioxx, said FDA drug safety officer David Graham at an unprecedented roundtable of medical whistleblowers sponsored by the Public Library of Science (PLoS) and the Government Accountability Project.

In comments that echoed his now infamous testimony to the US Senate Finance Committee, Graham said that, "Nearly 60,000 people probably died from that drug. That's as many of our soldiers that were killed in the Vietnam war [who] died as a result of Vioxx use. And FDA had the opportunity, the responsibility, to stop that and didn't."

Many Buyers Opt for Risky Mortgages

High Rate of Interest-Only Loans a Concern in Virginia

By Kirstin Downey

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A01

More than a third of the mortgages written in the Washington area this year are a risky new kind of loan that lets borrowers pay back only the interest, delaying for years repayment of any loan principal. Economists warn that the new loans are essentially a gamble that home prices will continue to rise at a brisk pace, allowing the borrower to either sell the home at a profit or refinance before the principal payments come due.

The loans are attractive because their initial monthly payments are tantalizingly low -- about $1,367 a month for a $320,000 mortgage, compared with about $1,842 a month for a traditional 30-year, fixed-rate loan. If home prices fall, though, borrowers could lose big.

Leaked G8 draft angers green groups

Paul Brown, Patrick Wintour and Michael White
Saturday May 28, 2005
The Guardian

A leak of the draft communique on climate change for the G8 summit has dismayed green lobbyists by failing to include a single target or timetable to achieve greater action.

The draft, which Downing Street said was only work in progress and was being improved, spells out the danger of inaction to combat global warming. It says: "If we miss this opportunity and fail to give a clear sense of direction, then we will be locked into an unsustainable future that will threaten our long-term security and prosperity.

Drug Companies Influence Medical Research

May 26, 2005

(The Associated Press) -- Many U.S. medical schools are willing to give companies that sponsor studies of new drugs and treatments considerable control over the results, according to survey results that some doctors found troubling.

Half of the schools said they would let pharmaceutical companies and makers of medical devices draft articles that appear in medical journals, and a quarter would allow them to supply the actual results. But academics draw the line at gag orders that keep researchers from publishing negative findings.

"This is totally beyond reasonable practice. What you're seeing here is a willingness by some institutions to give more leeway than they should," said Dr. Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist and epidemiologist who was not involved in the survey.

White House Wants Search Limits Overturned

I wish I didn't think this is directed at something besides terrorism...--Dictynna

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: May 27, 2005

Filed at 11:22 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration asked a federal appeals court Friday to restore its ability to compel Internet service providers to turn over information about their customers or subscribers as part of its fight against terrorism.

The legal filing with the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York comes amid a debate in Congress over renewal of the Patriot Act and whether to expand the FBI's power to seek records without the approval of a judge or grand jury.

Honor Thy Teacher

By MATT MILLER

Published: May 28, 2005

A poll this week showed Arnold Schwarzenegger's approval rating at 40 percent, thanks to months of punishing ads that teachers' unions have run to blast his call for merit pay. In New York, meanwhile, teachers working without a new contract are campaigning to oust Mayor Michael Bloomberg for his "disrespect."

Around now, Arnold and Mike must be thinking: wouldn't it be nice if there was a way to soothe the savage union beast - while also reforming destructive union practices so that we could recruit a new generation of talent to the classroom?

There is a way: commit to making the best teachers of poor children millionaires by the time they retire. Done right, this idea would be a win for the kids, the teachers, the unions and the pols.

Researchers agree that one of the best things government can do to help poor children is raise teacher quality. Yet poor schools today attract the bottom third of the college class. Why? Compare a typical urban district with its affluent suburbs nearby. When the suburbs (1) pay more, (2) have better working conditions and (3) serve easier-to-teach kids who bring fewer problems to school, it's no surprise that the best teachers gravitate to the best suburban schools.

The Senator's Guide To Safe Sex

By Hanna Rosin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 27, 2005; Page C01

It's not every day that a U.S. senator gives a lecture and slide show about risky sexual activities -- complete with gross pictures of the naughty bits.

This was Sen. Tom Coburn's lecture on sexually transmitted diseases, held yesterday for the young congressional staff in the place where such things are talked about: the basement -- in this case, of the Capitol. It is no small thing to ask an intern who is trying his best to mimic a working adult to come to a lecture like this in the middle of a workday, considering the danger of being transported back to the blushing days of high school sex ed.

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded

Do they really believe the two deserved the awards, or was it done to buy their silence?--Dictynna

By Walter Pincus

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 28, 2005; Page A01

Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

The civilian analysts, former military men considered experts on foreign and U.S. weaponry, work at the Army's National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), one of three U.S. agencies singled out for particular criticism by President Bush's commission that investigated U.S. intelligence.

More Two-Faced Uzbek Policy

(posted May 26 1:15 AM ET)

The NY Times did some impressive reporting last month, ferreting out our policy of sending detainees to Uzbekistan, the country with the slogan “We Boil People.”

That’s why it’s so inexplicable that the paper is enabling the Bush Administration’s transparently two-faced strategy of the dealing with the recent Uzbek massacre of its own people.

Yesterday’s Times offered the headline, “China Backs Uzbek, Splitting With U.S. on Crackdown.”

And today’s edition, reporting on a high-profile meeting between the Chinese and Uzbek leaders, says:

Both China and the United States have sought closer relations with Uzbekistan...But their responses to the shootings there differed sharply.

Washington called for an independent inquiry and threatened to withhold aid unless an impartial investigation is conducted.

Sure sounds like Bush Administration is taking a principled stand against Uzbekistan, unlike those Chinese, right?

Steve Gilliard: Colonialism Ain't What it Used to Be

When the British decided to force "open the door" to trade with China in the mid-19th century, the traditional Chinese government had no guns. The Opium Wars were one-sided conflicts in which the British practiced "gunboat diplomacy"--send in the gunboats, shell, repeat and then force diplomatic concessions. And it worked. The Chinese government could not match the British Navy and was forced to make concessions in a series of treaties. The British got richer and more powerful. This kind of hard power was the advantage that European technological development had given the British as they built a vast empire during the 1800s, encountering people who had no guns across the globe.

This is just one illustration of just how much the world has changed since then (perhaps I am understating here): the European powers practiced a form of imperialism in the 19th Century in which many of their adversaries had no guns. During the twentieth century, we saw the end of the European empires as colony after colony revolted or was granted independence. In Indochina and then in Algeria for instance the French were defeated by the people they had previously occupied. Many historians site World War II as the major cause of the decline of the European ability to successfully defend their empires. The colonies became financially burdensome, especially as they drained military resources when they revolted.

Juan Cole: May 28, 2005 Part 2

Muqtada: All Factions Must Participate in Constitution-Making

The Herald Sun reports that late on Friday, ' "A suicide bomber blew up his vehicle near a police patrol, killing seven people, including three policemen and wounding 24 civilians," Lieutenant Mahmud al-Azzawi said. '

Guerrillas assassinated a major Sunni Arab tribal leader, Shaikh Sabhan Khalaf al-Juburi (al-Jibouri), 52, on Friday in Kirkuk, according to AP. Al-Juburi, though he was a Sunni Arab, had good relations with the Kurds, unlike many Sunni Arabs in the northern, disputed oil city of Kirkuk.

Juan Cole: May 28, 2005 Part 1

Military Analysts Who Lived in Aluminum Fairy Land Rewarded

Two Army analysts who mistakenly claimed that aluminum tubing bought by Iraq was for centrifuges to enrich uranium received job performance awards during the past 3 years. When the specifications of the tubing were finally shown to the International Atomic Energy Commission in March of 2003, Mohammed ElBaradei was able to falsify the allegation within 24 hours, issuing a statement that tubing with those specifications could not be used for uranium enrichment. If Elbaradei could see the falsehood of the claims almost immediately, it is not plausible that US analysts could not.

Every American should go back and read thoroughly the transcripts of the reports to the UN of Mohamed Elbaradei in February and March of 2003.

House Kills First Vote on Iraq Withdrawal

by Mitch Jeserich

The House of Representatives voted down a measure, by a 128 to 300 vote, that called on President Bush to devise a plan for a withdrawal from Iraq. It came in the form of an amendment to the $491 billion budget for the Pentagon that was passed on Wednesday night.

But the withdrawal amendment marks the first time that Congress has officially voted and debated legislation that deals with a withdrawal.

PM Carpenter: Hellfire and Damnation--In Writing

A couple of short quotes said it all.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, after labeling Amnesty International’s just-released, scathing report on U.S. human rights violations as “ridiculous,” said "we hold people accountable when there's abuse.”

Retired military judge Kevin Barry said in response to this standard White House swill: “We have so much evidence of abuse in so many locations that to say it's a couple of bad people here or there has lost credibility with the public."

Since 2001 we’ve lived in two radically different worlds -- that of George W. Bush’s official fantasies, and that of reality. The first, having long since surpassed Wizard of Ooze dimensions, has indeed “lost credibility with the public” and is fading rapidly.

Paul Krugman: Running Out of Bubbles

By PAUL KRUGMAN

Remember the stock market bubble? With everything that's happened since 2000, it feels like ancient history. But a few pessimists, notably Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley, argue that we have not yet paid the price for our past excesses.

I've never fully accepted that view. But looking at the housing market, I'm starting to reconsider.

In July 2001, Paul McCulley, an economist at Pimco, the giant bond fund, predicted that the Federal Reserve would simply replace one bubble with another. "There is room," he wrote, "for the Fed to create a bubble in housing prices, if necessary, to sustain American hedonism. And I think the Fed has the will to do so, even though political correctness would demand that Mr. Greenspan deny any such thing."

As Mr. McCulley predicted, interest rate cuts led to soaring home prices, which led in turn not just to a construction boom but to high consumer spending, because homeowners used mortgage refinancing to go deeper into debt. All of this created jobs to make up for those lost when the stock bubble burst.

Now the question is what can replace the housing bubble.

Robert Parry: The Answer Is Fear

May 26, 2005

One benefit of the new AM progressive talk radio in cities around the United States is that the call-in shows have opened a window onto the concerns – and confusion – felt by millions of Americans trying to figure out how their country went from a democratic republic to a modern-day empire based on a cult of personality and a faith-based rejection of reason.

“What went wrong?” you hear them ask. “How did we get here?”

You also hear more detailed questions: “Why won’t the press do its job of holding George W. Bush accountable for misleading the country to war in Iraq? How could the intelligence on Iraq have been so wrong? Why do America’s most powerful institutions sit back while huge trade and budget deficits sap away the nation’s future?”

Mahablog: Who Do You Trust?

One way to distinquish between a leftie and a rightie these days is to ask, "Who Do You Trust?"

These days the Left has little trust of organizations and instutitions, public or private. This includes the Democrats. Although we may often cheer their victories and support their candidates, we still half expect them to disappoint us. There are a handful of prominent writers and politicos whose opinions we respect. But mostly when journalists or the Democratic Party actually get something exactly right it's a thing of fleeting wonder, like a comet blazing across the sky. Take a good look tonight, because it won't be there tomorrow.

The Poor Man: The Land of the Lost

The excellent Slacktivist takes us beyond The Filter, beyond the Liberal Military-Hating Media Bias, and into the Weird and Wonderful Make-Believe World of Commander Cuckoo Bananas, the most powerful individual in simian history. Observe:

The president has been traveling from city to city to conduct “town hall meetings” in an effort to persuade the public to support his plan to reform Social Security.

Except none of that is true. The town hall meetings are carefully screened events not open to the general public. These meetings have nothing to do with persuasion — no one who is not already persuaded is permitted to attend. And, of course, the president refuses to make public the details of any “plan,” offering instead a series of vaguely hinted at goals — the purpose of which is not to reform Social Security, but to replace it with a system of government-run private accounts paid for with the payroll taxes currently used to fund Social Security.

These town hall meetings are like a kind of postmodern theater. The meetings are deliberately misleading. The president knows this, and we know this, and he knows that we know that he knows this. Duplicity becomes multiplicity and one gets the sense that the president has lost his way in a hall of mirrors. […]

But here’s the really astonishing thing: Bush seems to perceive these ritualized meetings as genuine evidence of public support for his Social Security schemes. He creates and orchestrates a carefully scripted scenario, then seems to respond to this scenario as though it were a legitimate and spontaneous outpouring of public opinion. Deception has become self-deception — “he both believes and does not believe.”

Japanese 'wartime soldiers' found in Philippines

Simon Jeffery and agencies
Friday May 27, 2005

Ten weeks short of the 60th anniversary of Tokyo's second world war surrender, diplomats were today investigating claims that two octagenarian Japanese soldiers had emerged from the mountains of the southern Philippines.

According to Japanese media reports, the men were separated from their division six decades ago. Although they wanted to return home, they feared they would face a court martial for withdrawing from action.

Chemical May Inhibit Male Sex Development

May 27, 2005

NEW YORK (AP) -- A manmade ingredient of many plastics, cosmetics and other consumer products may be interfering with prenatal male sexual development, new research suggests.

A study of 85 infant boys found a correlation between increased exposure to some forms of the chemical phthalate and smaller penis size and incomplete testicular descent.

It is the first time phthalate has been shown to influence the sexual development of human males.

"This is clearly something that needs to be examined in a larger sample," said Shanna Swan, a professor at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry who headed the study.

Santorum's Weather-Related Bill Criticized

By KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Two days before Sen. Rick Santorum (news, bio, voting record) introduced a bill that critics say would restrict the
National Weather Service, his political action committee received a $2,000 donation from the chief executive of AccuWeather Inc., a leading provider of weather data.

The disclosure has renewed criticism of the measure, which Santorum, R-Pa., maintains would allow the weather service to better focus on its core mission of getting threatening weather info out in a "timely and speedy basis."

Caught In A Lie

Pentagon spokesman lied repeatedly over claim Quran abuse hadn't been confirmed
By John Byrne | RAW STORY
Advertisement Click Here

The Pentagon spokesman who savaged Newsweek for reporting a claim that a U.S. military report would reveal investigators had confirmed Quran abuse lied repeatedly to the press about such incidents, RAW STORY has found.

On Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Lawrence DiRita quietly backtracked on his claim that investigators have found abuse, a complete reversal from his previous remarks.

Daniel Gross: Neil Diamond Economics

Obscure economic indicator: immigration applications and the dollar.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Friday, May 27, 2005, at 4:26 AM PT

The dollar's movement tends to confound the plans of math geniuses, professional economists, armchair pundits, and amateur investors. For example, the consensus has long been that the dollar will continue fall against global currencies and that long-term interest rates on U.S. bonds would have to rise to help fund our twin trade and budget deficits. Yet so far this year the dollar has actually gained strength against the euro, and long-term interest rates have fallen.

Katha Pollitt: Stiffed

subject to debate by Katha Pollitt

[from the June 13, 2005 issue]

Penises were all over the news as I sat down to write this column. On May 22 faces blushed scarlet in New York State when it came to light that over the past five years Medicaid has handed out free Viagra to 198 sex criminals. Apparently the state thought federal rules required no less. The next day, researchers released a study showing excellent results for Johnson & Johnson's dapoxetine, a drug that prevents premature ejaculation and intensifies the male orgasm. True, rapists' access to taxpayer-funded stiffies vanished within hours, and they will probably have to buy their own dapoxetine too. But you have to admit, men are moving right along, sexually. They have drugs to help them get up and stay in and get out in a shower of sparks, and an array of private and public health plans to pay for these fleshly maneuvers: Last year Medicaid laid out approximately $38 million for impotence drugs; Medicare will start providing them for seniors next year at an estimated cost of nearly $2 billion over the following decade. Even the Defense Department covers them. Need I add that men don't have to worry that their pharmacist will ask to see a marriage license or plug their name into the sex offender registry before handing over those little blue pills?

No, the double standard still waves over the nation's bedrooms. The only new birth control method coming up soon is actually a nostalgia item, the Today sponge, beloved by Seinfeld's Elaine, which will be returning to drugstores later this year. Two decades into the AIDS epidemic, the only woman-controlled means of protection against HIV--now the leading cause of death among black women age 25-34--is the aesthetically repulsive, cumbersome and hard-to-find female condom. Hormone replacement therapy, promoted since the 1950s as the fountain of feminine youth and sexual vitality, looks to be mostly hype, with the possibility of heart attack, stroke and breast or ovarian cancer.

Hail Mary (Wollstonecraft)

by VIVIAN GORNICK

[from the June 13, 2005 issue]

Many, if not most, children exhibit an early talent for art or science, even intellection; but we can never accurately predict the one whose youthful giftedness will blossom not into a pastime but into a driving need: the kind of need that determines the course of one's life. Radicalism, too, is a talent that proves formative rather than casual. In creative work, the driving need occurs when the talent is exercised, the possessor of it finds that she or he is struck to the heart (not a thing that happens simply because one has talent) and a sense of expressive existence flares into bright life. That experience is incomparable: to feel not simply alive, but expressive. It induces a conviction of inner clarity that quickly becomes the very thing one can no longer do without. If it can be done without, it usually is. Those destined for a life of professional radicalism experience themselves in exactly the same way as does the artist or scientist who reaches center through the practice of the gift. No reward of life--neither love nor fame nor wealth--can compete. It is to this clarity of inner being that the radical--like the artist, the scientist, the philosopher--becomes attached, even addicted.

Mary Wollstonecraft, who, as the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, published in 1792, is known to us as the first modern feminist, is better described as an Enlightenment thinker whose life embodied the spirit of her age, and was exactly the kind of talented radical I've been talking about.

Daily Howler - May 27, 2005

WHY BROWN DIDN’T GET BLUE-SLIPPED! It’s an amazing tale of pious hypocrisy—a tale that your “press corps” won’t tell

ANOTHER DEM LEADER IN ACTION: How clueless can current Dem leaders be? We’ve marveled as they’ve understated the transition costs of Bush’s private accounts. We’ve marveled as they’ve repeatedly vouched for the SS trustees’ gloomy forecast. But just how bad does it sometimes get? Last Saturday, we got an e-mail under the heading, “Nancy Pelosi does it again.” You’ll assume our e-mailer, BL, was joking:

E-MAIL (5/22/05): I'm a student at Goucher College, and today was the senior class's commencement. The address was given by Nancy Pelosi, and she said the following: "When I graduated from college, many of the terms you use today had totally different meanings for me: Back then, chips were something you ate, Windows were something you washed, discs were something you played, and the Internet, well, let's just say, Al Gore hadn't invented it yet."

You’ll assume the mailer was joking. But no—the full speech is here, on Pelosi’s web site. Let’s enjoy the fuller context of the leader’s remarks:

Echidne: Ahnuld and the Pothole

California governor Arnold Schwartzenegger has been filling potholes as part of his campaign to improve transportation in his state. Too bad that the pothole he filled had been dug up beforehand so that there would be one to fill:

"For paving the streets, it's a lot of lighting,'' said resident Nick Porrovecchio, 48, motioning to a team of workmen setting up Hollywood-style floodlights on the street to bathe the gubernatorial podium in a soft glow.

Porrovecchio and his business partner, Joe Greco, said that at about 7 a.m. they became fascinated watching "10 city workers standing around for a few hours putting on new vests,'' all in preparation for the big moment with Schwarzenegger.

AmericaBlog: ACTION ALERT: Barney Frank challenges Bush on anti-gay counsel Scott Bloch

UPDATE: Contact the bigoted Office of Special Counsel and demand they do their jobs and stop their insubordination in violation of a direct order from the president. It's time they publicly stated that they will enforce the executive order banning discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal workplace, or they should resign. There is no place for rogue religious right activists in our government.

Office of Special Counsel HQ
Tel: (202) 254-3600
Tel: (800) 872-9855

- Scott Bloch, head of the office and chief anti-gay bad guy: sbloch@osc.gov (not 100% sure this email is correct, but try it)

- Catherine Deeds, Director, Congressional and Public Affairs, cdeeds@osc.gov

And if any has any other contact information for Scott or anyone else at his office - phone, cell, email - please pass it along.

Atrios: Almost There

Big Media Matt circles around the point:

Politics and policy aside, I think those of us who'd classify ourselves as being among the more "hawkish" brand of liberals have a media strategy problem. Roughly speaking, a lot of Democratic voters don't like us very much. What we need to do is convince more liberals that they should like us. That means spending more time trying to convince liberals of the merits of our views, and less time re-enforcing the impression that we're just opportunists searching for votes out there in some ill-defined center.

Photographing the Revolution

By Don Hazen, AlterNet

Posted on May 27, 2005, Printed on May 27, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/22105/

David Fenton is a longtime publicist for many liberal and progressive causes and organizations, including Moveon.org. His company, Fenton Communications, has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Fenton says he learned the tricks of communication as a teenage drop-out, under the wings of legendary activists Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Tom Hayden. And he has the pictures to prove it.

Fenton's new book Shots is a compelling and evocative collection of photographs taken for Liberation News Service during an era marked by its passion and upheaval -- known now as the '60s -- but in the book covering the period from 1968 -'72

Secret Patriot Act sessions wrong

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Barring the unexpected, America again will take a step toward becoming less "American" today.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is expected not only to reauthorize the already intrusive Patriot Act that curtails civil liberties in the name of security; it will expand the government's powers to invade your privacy, with little oversight to guard against overzealous or abusive investigations.

What's worse, this committee decided to discuss and possibly vote on the measures in secret, closed-door sessions today, undermining open government that makes America what it is. Regardless of the outcome of today's proceedings, the public's business should not be done in secret.

Howard Zinn: Against Discouragement

Against Discouragement
By Howard Zinn

[In 1963, historian Howard Zinn was fired from Spelman College, where he was chair of the History Department, because of his civil rights activities. This year, he was invited back to give the commencement address. Here is the text of that speech, given on May 15, 2005.]

I am deeply honored to be invited back to Spelman after forty-two years. I would like to thank the faculty and trustees who voted to invite me, and especially your president, Dr. Beverly Tatum. And it is a special privilege to be here with Diahann Carroll and Virginia Davis Floyd.

But this is your day -- the students graduating today. It's a happy day for you and your families. I know you have your own hopes for the future, so it may be a little presumptuous for me to tell you what hopes I have for you, but they are exactly the same ones that I have for my grandchildren.

The religious right’s stealth politics

I’d have much more respect -- okay, some respect -- for religious rightists if they would simply start telling the truth about their strategic goals. Ever since their more visible political ascendancy in the 1990s, they have back-doored the public realm. Implicitly through their words and actions they’ve admitted they can’t win fairly and honestly. They know the American public won’t buy what they’re selling, so they get sneaky.

Don’t take my words for it. Take those of their own, the most famous, I suppose, being Ralph Reed’s goofy 1991 comment that "I want to be invisible. I do guerrilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night."

The Franklin Affair: A Spreading Treason

There's more to the AIPAC spy scandal than 'mishandling' classified information

by Justin Raimondo

The vagaries of U.S. involvement in the Middle East were surely brought home to First Lady Laura Bush on her recent trip to Israel, on a tour of Jerusalem's holiest sites. At the Wailing Wall, where she placed a note in the Western Wall – as is the custom – she faced surly throngs of protesters shouting "Free Pollard Now!" The Pollardites also showed up earlier that morning, as Mrs. Bush paid a visit to the home of Israeli President Moshe Katsav: "Pollard, the people are with you!" they chanted.

Jonathan Pollard, the jailed spy who sold U.S. secrets to Israel, is a national hero in Israel, and Tel Aviv has never stopped importuning Washington for his release. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly brought up the issue again on his recent visit to America, where he bargained with American officials on Pollard's behalf in return for the promise of continued cooperation with Bush's peace plan. He probably got nowhere: when Bill Clinton reportedly gave in to the Israelis' blandishments in return for a promise of cooperation on his Middle East peace plan, whole battalions of top government officials threatened to resign. Perhaps, though, Sharon also intervened on behalf of another more recent practitioner of Israeli spycraft on American soil: Larry Franklin, a Jonathan Pollard for our times.

Crosses burned in Durham

By ERIC OLSON : The Herald-Sun
eolson@heraldsun.com
May 26, 2005 : 12:51 am ET

DURHAM -- Three large crosses were burned in separate incidents across Durham Wednesday night, the first time in recent memory that one of the South's most notorious symbols of racial hatred has been seen in the city.

Yellow fliers with Ku Klux Klan sayings were found at one of the cross burnings.

The Durham Police Department is investigating the burnings. After the third one was reported, the department ordered that any suspicious cargo truck or large pickup truck be stopped.

More on the Wiccan Parents Issue

Judge: Parents can't teach pagan beliefs
Father appeals order in divorce decree that prevents couple from exposing son to Wicca.

By Kevin Corcoran
kevin.corcoran@indystar.com
May 26, 2005


An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

Bradford refused to remove the provision after the 9-year-old boy's outraged parents, Thomas E. Jones Jr. and his ex-wife, Tammie U. Bristol, protested last fall.

Through a court spokeswoman, Bradford said Wednesday he could not discuss the pending legal dispute.

Limbaugh vs. Moyers

Bill Moyers says that journalists have a responsibility to question those in power.

Rush Limbaugh, speaking for the economic and political elites that currently occupy positions of authority, responds by charging that Moyers is "insane."

A debate has opened regarding the role of reporting in George W. Bush's America. But this debate is about a great deal more than one president or one moment in history. At the most fundamental level, it is about whether the American experiment as imagined by the most visionary of its founders can long endure.

GOP Tilting Balance Of Power to the Right

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 26, 2005; Page A01

As Democrats tell it, this week's compromise on judges was about much more than the federal courts. If President Bush and congressional allies had prevailed, they say, the balance of power would have been forever altered.

Yet, amid the partisan rhetoric, a little-noticed fact about modern politics has been lost: Republicans have already changed how the business of government gets done, in ways both profound and lasting.

Billmon: On Denial River

First lady Laura Bush on Monday praised Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's controversial plan for elections this year, which some opposition groups say would prevent them from participating.

"I would say that President Mubarak has taken a very bold step," the first lady told reporters after touring the pyramids here. "You know that each step is a small step, that you can't be quick."

Washington Post
Laura Bush Endorses Mubarak's Ballot Plan
May 24, 2005

Daily Howler - May 26, 2005

EXIT OKRENT (PART 3)! Final question: Why did a guy who voted for Kerry love fever swamps of the right? // link // print // previous // next //
THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2005

IF YOU’RE BORED: Today, we discuss the Newsweek flap on The Marc Steiner Show (WYPR, Baltimore). Our hour begins at noon Eastern; to listen, incomparably click here. We’ll be joined by our favorite dancing partner, Perfesser Richard Vatz, and—special bonus!—by David Zurawik of the Baltimore Sun! Marc himself is in Vietnam. Yes, we can think of several jokes about that. But we aren’t going to go there.

BORKING THE 7: What did the Gang of 14 decide? Inquiring minds are still unsure. Last night, Robert Bork gave his view on Hannity & Colmes:

Spy vs. Spy

Neighbors spying on neighbors? Mothers forced to turn in their sons or daughters? These are images straight out of George Orwell's 1984, or a remote totalitarian state. We don't associate them with the land of the free and the home of the brave, but that doesn't mean they couldn't happen here. A senior congressman, James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is working quietly but efficiently to turn the entire United States population into informants--by force.

Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has introduced legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war on drugs. H.R. 1528, cynically named "Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act," would compel people to spy on their family members and neighbors, and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person resisted, he or she would face mandatory incarceration.

Holy Toledo! 'Blade' Series Uncovers Rare-Coin Scam

By Graham Webster

Published: May 25, 2005 1:05 PM ET

NEW YORK When someone at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio, heard that a local coin dealer named Tom Noe might be doing some business with the state, Jim Drew, the Blade's Columbus bureau chief, started asking around. After all, what business does a coin dealer -- one who is also one of the most prominent non-elected Republicans in the Toledo area -- have with the government?

Atrios: People of Faith

I'd like to see what Dobson, et al would make of this...genuine religious persecution, as opposed to the largely imaginary kind.--Dictynna


My guess is that this is Spongedob Stickypants' kind of judge:

An Indianapolis father is appealing a Marion County judge's unusual order that prohibits him and his ex-wife from exposing their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals."

The parents practice Wicca, a contemporary pagan religion that emphasizes a balance in nature and reverence for the earth.

Cale J. Bradford, chief judge of the Marion Superior Court, kept the unusual provision in the couple's divorce decree last year over their fierce objections, court records show. The order does not define a mainstream religion.

...

"There is a discrepancy between Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones' lifestyle and the belief system adhered to by the parochial school. . . . Ms. Jones and Mr. Jones display little insight into the confusion these divergent belief systems will have upon (the boy) as he ages," the bureau said in its report.


In case this isn't 100% clear, this isn't a dispute between the former couple, this is a dispute between the divorced couple and the judge.

Fox Freudian Slip

Ahhh, a Fox Newscaster Freudian slip really does end the day on a good note.

MediaMatters catches Fox News David Asman in this exchange with our man Trent Lott ...

So, Senator, if we should have done it and if we had the votes to do it in the Senate -- if you guys in the Republican Party did -- then why did you need a compromise?

We, indeed ...
-- Josh Marshall

Pipelineistan's biggest game begins

I'm afraid this will be another jugular vein for someone to cut.--Dictynna.

By Pepe Escobar

History may judge it as one of the capital moves of the 21st century's New Great Game: May 25, the day high-quality Caspian light crude started flowing through the Caucasus toward the Mediterranean in Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) - conceived by the US as the ultimate Western escape route from dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf - is finally in business.

This is what Pipelineistan is all about: a supreme law unto itself - untouchable by national sovereignty, serious environmental concerns (expressed both in the Caucasus and in Europe), labor legislation, protests against the World Bank, not to mention mountains 2,700 meters high and 1,500 small rivers. BTC took 10 years of hard work and at least US$4 billion - $3 billion of which is in bank loans. BTC is not merely a pipeline: it is a sovereign state.

Avedon Carol at Eschaton: Blowout government

At the newly merged Electrolite/Making Light from Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Teresa Nielsen Hayden, there's a hot thread about the filibuster deal by Patrick in which Teresa leaves this comment:

Huh. I've suddenly realized that I know the form of this scam: it's a blowout.

Here's the deal: Your basic blowout starts when crooks take control of a legitimate business that has a good credit rating, most often by entering into an agreement to buy it from its original owners, and possibly making a token initial payment.

In the next phase, the crooks start placing large orders for easily liquidated merchandise with the business's regular suppliers, and also with new suppliers who think they've acquired a valuable new customer. And since the orders are coming from an established business with a good credit rating, the suppliers don't ask for payment up front.

Digby: Changing Their Tune

It appears that the word has gone forth. The GOP voices of God have said "ye shall spin it as a win."

Sam Rosenfeld at TAPPED quotes Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council:

"... Majority Leader Bill Frist has displayed extraordinary patience and determination in the face of liberal obstinacy. We commend him and stand with him in his effort to end the obstruction and move forward with the task of restoring a judiciary that will interpret the Constitution, not legislate a liberal agenda for the nation."

Digby: Give 'Em An Inch

Give 'Em An Inch

TBOGG points to this statement by Dr. "Whip It Good" himself:

The rules that blocked conservative nominees remain in effect, and nothing of significance has changed. Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Antonin Scalia, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist would never have served on the U. S. Supreme Court if this agreement had been in place during their confirmations. The unconstitutional filibuster survives in the arsenal of Senate liberals.

I assume he isn't a complete idiot and is just playing to guys like the one who wrote that mess below. Surely he can't be this stupid. Does he not know that Rehnquist and Thomas were confirmed under Democratic majorities and Scalia with a 98-0 vote?

Drowning Out the Real Issues

By Terry M. Neal
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005; 6:28 AM

A certain and clear pattern has emerged when a damaging accusation or claim against the Bush administration or the Republican-led Congress is publicized: Bush supporters laser in on a weakness, fallacy or inaccuracy in the story's sourcing while diverting all attention from the issue at hand to the source or the accuser in the story.

Often this tactic involves efforts to delegitimize the entire news media based on the mistakes or sloppy reporting of a few. We saw this with the discrediting of CBS's story on irregularities in President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service in the 1970s. Although the CBS "scoop" was based on faked documents, the administration's response and backlash from both conservative and mainstream media essentially relieved Bush of having to deal with the story. In other words, the allegedly "liberal" media dropped the story like a hot rock.

James Wolcott: Terry and the Pirates

A post of pure meanness...how satisfying!--Dictynna

Posted by James Wolcott

ABC's Terry Moran--the one with the purty mouth--recently gave an interview to the supercilious radio host and blogger, Hugh Hewitt, whose patrician nose is securely embedded in George Bush's patrician winkhole.

But I digress.

That Moran granted an interview to Hewitt suggests an abundance of spare time that might be better filled by finding a hobby or tending to household chores that need doing. Those raingutters don't unclog themselves, my friend.

But again I digress.

Moran told the hoot owl that there was indeed, as conservatives have contended, "a deep anti-military bias in the media."

Possible space weapons of the future

Monday, July 28, 2003

By Jack Kelly, Post-Gazette National Security Writer

Snapshots of U.S. space weapons envisioned or under development:

'Rods from God'

In April, within 15 minutes of receiving a report that Saddam Hussein had entered a restaurant in Baghdad, a B-1B bomber dropped four 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs on the place.

It now appears Saddam slipped out of the building by a secret exit. But if one space-based weapon now being researched had been orbiting above Iraq -- and had worked as envisioned -- Saddam almost certainly wouldn't have got away.

Colloquially called "Rods from God," this weapon would consist of orbiting platforms stocked with tungsten rods perhaps 20 feet long and one foot in diameter that could be satellite-guided to targets anywhere on Earth within minutes. Accurate within about 25 feet, they would strike at speeds upwards of 12,000 feet per second, enough to destroy even hardened bunkers several stories underground.

No explosives would be needed

Sobaka: Heydar Aliyev and US Politicians

From the most ragged fringe of the far-flung Soviet borderlands, Heydar Aliyev stabbed, stole and strong-armed his way to power in the 1960s as protege of corrupt proletarian chieftains like Leonid Brezhnev and KGB henchmen like Yuri Andropov. Deemed too crooked and too conservative for Mikhail Gorbachev's glory boys of glasnost,he was stripped of all authority and shunted off to the cradle of his obscurity in a remote corner of Azerbaijan, clutching his KGB-issue revolver, his souvenirs and medals dulling with verdigris. Then, finding rejuvenation at a period when most of his contemporaries were giving in to the debts of old age, he did it all over again, clawing his way back into authority as atmanof an independent Azerbaijan, easing into power over the bodies of his countrymen and the ruin of his country.

Aliyev is quite possibly the only man alive who once had his paystubs ticked by Lavrentii Beria and Joseph Stalin, and certainly the only one still in power anywhere in the world. Once a truncheon-wielding enforcer of Soviet atheism, he now unveils gilded mosques named in his honour and even went on hajjto Mecca. Once the patron of the Kurdish terrorist PKK army, he now poses as a friend of Turkey and vengeful sentry with a sword of fire patrolling the perimeter of Mount Ararat.

The story of how Upton Sinclair did not become governor of California

By Tom Gallagher

THIS COULD BE a big year for reading California political literature. There are, after all, a whole lot of electoral activists out there coming off an election that frustrated them three times over. Anti-administration Californians shared the national frustration of George Bush's victory, following the disheartening experience of supporting John Kerry, a candidate who did not share their opposition to the ongoing Iraq war. And on top of that, they found the impact of their activities diminished by the Electoral College facts of life, in which winning California by one vote is just as good as winning it by a million. So some people who've never been involved before may just start checking out state politics, where at least everyone's vote counts the same. And for anyone looking for something completely different from the current Sacramento Schwarzenegger script, the Upton Sinclair story might be just the thing.

When it comes to politics, reactions are often instant

A study published in the latest issue of Political Psychology reports on "hot cognition." The authors find that citizens instantly, in the milliseconds after being exposed to a political concept that they have previously been introduced to, feel a negative or positive affect. Their research posits that all political leaders, groups, issues, symbols and ideas that have been evaluated in the past become affectively charged (negatively or positively) to the point that the mere exposure to them brings a reaction that is appreciably faster than a conscious appraisal. "At the moment one realizes that the letters B-U-S-H in a news headline refer to the president and not to a plant, one's affect toward "W" Bush comes to mind along with his strongest cognitive associations" authors Milton Lodge and Charles S. Taber explain.

Many Republicans Are Already Eager to Challenge Agreement on Filibusters

By CARL HULSE
Published: May 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 24 - Angered by a bipartisan deal on judicial nominees, many Senate Republicans warned on Tuesday that they were already eager to challenge the agreement by pushing forward contested candidates, as the Senate cleared the way for the confirmation of the first Bush choice to benefit from the deal.

After Talk of Compromise, Panel Is Again Split on Patriot Act

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: May 25, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 24 - Just a few weeks ago, critics and supporters of the sweeping antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act had reduced their differences to only a handful of substantive issues, and the two sides were talking openly about finding room for compromise in renewing the law.

But now, a new proposal in the Senate Intelligence Committee - backed by the Bush administration - has sent the two sides scurrying back to their war camps. The central question is no longer whether the government's antiterrorism powers should be scaled back in the face of criticism from civil rights advocates, but whether those powers should be significantly expanded to give the F.B.I. new authority to demand records and monitor mailings without approval from a judge.

Inquiry Into Dismissal of an Air Force Chaplain

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: May 24, 2005

The Department of Defense inspector general's office is looking into accusations that a chaplain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs was dismissed from her administrative job and given orders to transfer to a base in Japan because she had criticized the religious proselytizing of academy cadets.

An Air Force spokeswoman said Monday that the service had asked the inspector general to investigate the case of the chaplain, Capt. MeLinda Morton, who went public this month with her criticisms of the religious climate at the academy.

French fries protester regrets war jibe

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Wednesday May 25, 2005
The Guardian

It was a culinary rebuke that echoed around the world, heightening the sense of tension between Washington and Paris in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. But now the US politician who led the campaign to change the name of french fries to "freedom fries" has turned against the war.

Walter Jones, the Republican congressman for North Carolina who was also the brains behind french toast becoming freedom toast in Capitol Hill restaurants, told a local newspaper the US went to war "with no justification".

ACLU: Gitmo inmates told of Quran desecration in 2002, documents reveal

RAW STORY

The following is a release issued to RAW STORY Wednesday morning by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been relentlessly pursuing documentation surrounding allegations of torture at the Guantanamo Bay prison, and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

###

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2005

NEW YORK -- New documents released by the FBI include previously undisclosed interviews in which prisoners at Guantánamo complain that guards have mistreated the Koran, the American Civil Liberties Union said today. In one 2002 summary, an FBI interrogator notes a prisoner’s allegation that guards flushed a Koran down the toilet.

The disclosure comes on the heels of controversy over a Newsweek report saying that government investigators had corroborated an almost identical incident. Newsweek ultimately retracted its story because a confidential government source could not be confirmed.

Daily Howler - May 25, 2005

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 7 AND 5! We’ve marveled as big scribes fail to explain that ballyhooed Senate agreement

WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2005

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 7 AND 5: Sometimes we marvel at our press corps—and we’ve marveled this week as they’ve failed to explain the difference between 7 and 5. We refer to the Gang of 14's filibuster agreement, announced on Monday night. Instantly, Kevin Drum raised an obvious question—an obvious question which would have occurred to any sentient human observer:
DRUM (5/23/05): I guess I'm puzzled...[T]he text of the deal only mentions five nominees. The group agreed to invoke cloture for three of the filibustered nominees (Brown, Owen, and Pryor), which means they'll be confirmed, and made "no commitment" on two of the nominees (Myers and Saad), which presumably means at least a few of the Democrats will agree to continue filibustering them and their nominations are dead...

But why aren't Griffin and McKeague mentioned? Presumably, not mentioning them is equivalent to "no commitment," right? So why not say so? What am I missing here?

The Search for 100 Million Missing Women

An economics detective story.
By Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt
Posted Tuesday, May 24, 2005, at 3:42 AM PT

What is economics, anyway? It's not so much a subject matter as a sort of tool kit—one that, when set loose on a thicket of information, can determine the effect of any given factor. "The economy" is the thicket that concerns jobs and real estate and banking and investment. But the economist's tool kit can just as easily be put to more creative use.

Consider, for instance, an incendiary argument made by the economist Amartya Sen in 1990. In an essay in the New York Review of Books, Sen claimed that there were some 100 million "missing women" in Asia. While the ratio of men to women in the West was nearly even, in countries like China, India, and Pakistan, there were far more men than women. Sen charged these cultures with gravely mistreating their young girls—perhaps by starving their daughters at the expense of their sons or not taking the girls to doctors when they should have. Although Sen didn't say so, there were other sinister possibilities. Were the missing women a result of selective abortions? Female infanticide? A forced export of prostitutes?

Unite and Fight

Can the clichés! Give Iraq's Sunnis a good reason to support the government.
By Fred Kaplan
Updated Tuesday, May 24, 2005, at 2:49 PM PT

The war in Iraq is reaching its most critical stage, a stage that should be supported by civilized people and powers everywhere—Western, Eastern, and Middle Eastern—regardless of their views about the war at the outset. Yet, just as President Bush should be recalibrating and refining a case for this support, both to the American people and to the rest of the world, he's rehashing canned clichés and shallow falsehoods, which will only deepen the disaffection.

On Monday, at a White House press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush was asked whether he thought the Iraqi insurgency was getting harder to defeat militarily.

Bush's Dangerous Wishful Thinking

By Nat Parry

May 23, 2005

In Iraq, George W. Bush has demonstrated an old truism of geopolitics – wishful thinking mixed with bellicose rhetoric makes for a deadly cocktail, as it certainly has for tens of thousands of Iraqis and more than 1,600 U.S. soldiers. The question now is: can the U.S. political system wean itself from an addiction to this poisonous brew of swagger and delusion?

So far, the Bush administration shows no sign of getting on the wagon and looking at the facts with a clear eye. Instead, it’s still talking tough and demanding that everyone concentrate on the few glimmers of progress amid the death and destruction.

“We don’t have an exit strategy,” Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld boasted during a trip to Iraq on April 12. “We have a victory strategy.”

Daily Kos: Last words on compromise deal

by kos
Tue May 24th, 2005 at 08:29:30 PDT

There are those who think any compromise is a sign of weakness, and there's little that can be said to change their mind.

But here are the plain, unspun facts:

Democrats hold 44 seats in the 100 seat Senate. One independent sides with the Democrats, giving Dems a 10-seat deficit. Reid had 49 votes. He needed 51 to defeat Frist's nuclear option. Reid needed at least two of four undecided Republicans.

Echidne: Blackwell's Madrasa

The writer Jeff Horwitz went to school to learn how to make campuses havens for wingnuts and then wrote an article about it for the Salon. What's interesting about the school he chose is that it's the same one Jeff Gannon went to in order to learn how to get a White House press pass without having any journalistic training or experience.

The school, called the Leadership Institute, is run by Morton Blackwell, better known as the wingnut who made those Purple Heart Band-Aids that conservatives then used to mock John Kerry. Blackwell is not a kind and gentle soul, and his latest project is to make sure young Americans leave college more conservative than they enter it.

Digby: Talking Our Game

Oh how I wish I weren't so busy right now so that I could spend all of my time parsing the filibuster deal and thrilling my readers with my insights. Luckily, everybody else is doing it so I don't have to.

There are a couple of points that I'd like to highlight, however. I think Dwight Meredith has the right of it in how low or high the bar has been set with Janice Rogers Brown. It's actually a little bit more complicated than it seems at first glance.

On another point, I recognise that the right being upset and screaming about this is nothing unusual --- they love to be victimized --- and it doesn't indicate that we actually won anything. In the post below, I was referring to the optics of the deal; as long as the right is screeching about this as a sell out and a Democratic victory there is good reason to think that many average folks will come to believe that it is so. The right wing noise machine bleeds into the discourse whether we want it to or not. This is one instance where we want it to.

Juan Cole: May 25, 2005 (Part 1)

Sometimes You are Just Screwed

Readers occasionally write me complaining that I do not offer any solutions to the problems in Iraq. Let me just step back from the daily train wreck news from the region to complain back that there aren't any short-term, easy solutions to the problems in Iraq.

The US military cannot defeat the Sunni Arab guerrilla movement any time soon for so many reasons that they cannot all be listed.

The guerrillas have widespread popular support in the Sunni Arab areas of Iraq, an area with some 4 million persons. Its cities and deserts offer plenty of cover for an unconventional war. Guerrilla movements can succeed if more than 40 percent of the local population supports them. While the guerrillas are a small proportion of Iraqis, they are very popular in the Sunni Arab areas. If you look at it as a regional war, they probably have 80 percent support in their region.

James Wolcott: Little Bully Lobbies Big Bully into Doing Its Bombing

Posted by James Wolcott

I mean, bidding.

Not content with pimping Ahmed Chalabi and helping embroil the United States in one bloody mess in Iraq, Richard Perle wants to enlarge the theater of operations and bog us down in another one. He spoke the other day at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee--AIPAC--policy conference in Washington, DC. AIPAC has been involved in a spot of bother with the reeling in of Larry Franklin for passing classified documents to two executives of the pro-Israeli lobbying group. But AIPAC isn't going to let that put any more of a crimp in their plans than Richard Perle would let failed prophecies such as "A year from now, I'll be very surprised if there is not some grand square in Baghdad that is named after President Bush" shame him from showing his bloodless bloodthirsty face.

Drug Deal

Drug Deal

By Kelly Hearn, AlterNet
Posted on May 25, 2005, Printed on May 25, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/22081/

For Luis Lopez, a 42-year-old single dad in Guatemala, globalization has nada to do with economics or democracy. On the contrary, for Lopez, it's about something much more basic: los anti-marcas (against brands), los genericos -- the cheap, generic medications that poor AIDS patients like him need to stay alive.

More than 78,000 Guatemalans are currently living with HIV/AIDS , according to Doctors Without Borders (also called Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF). Approximately 13,500 of them are in urgent need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment; only 3,600 were receiving it as of December 2004. If, in coming weeks, Congress ratifies the bill President Bush signed last year -- the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) -- many of these patients could wind up literally dying for cheap drugs.

Environmental neo-con job?

Neocons and Greens aim to 'Set America Free' from US dependence on Middle East oil, but nuclear power may be around the corner

Could former CIA chief James Woolsey, one of President Bush's most vocal supporters of his War with Iraq, possibly have anything in common with Larry David, the creator of NBC's "Seinfeld," the irascible star of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and the husband of a committed environmentalist?

More than you'd think. At first glance it's obvious that they both are balding; they appear to be physically fit; they show up on television regularly -- Woolsey sends your BS-detector into overdrive on talking head TV, while David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is for my money the funniest program on pay television.

Of Agendas, Fetishes and Crusades

As Bill O'Reilly rails against the New York Times for what he calls excessive coverage of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, CJR Daily documents "Twenty-five separate shows during which O'Reilly covered the story of one misguided college professor as though it were the Watergate hearings."--CURSOR

By Brian Montopoli

For more than a year, Bill O'Reilly has been railing against the New York Times for what he believes is its excessive coverage of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Back on May 27, 2004, he said, "some press people are using the terrible Abu Ghraib prison scandal as a political hammer. Some people don't see that as a bad thing, but I do. I think the story should be reported accurately and aggressively, but not used by the media to advance an agenda." (Emphasis added.)

Seriously Missing

By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/23/2005

For the past few weeks with hundreds of people being killed in Iraq, the “nuclear-option” threat from Republicans on judicial nominations, and an uncertain world economy, NBC's “news” magazine Dateline has chosen to focus on snake-handling religious sects, visions, revelations and other mystical religious subjects.

Why? Because the network needs to boost its ratings fortunes and it is sweeps and the show leads into a miniseries, Revelations. Or at least that's what it looks like from here.

NBC points out that it has some serious news specials in the works, including a Tom Brokaw take on global terrorism and a hidden-camera report working condictions in Bangladesh, but admits it would be “a missed opportunity on many levels not to take advantage of the time period” and the Revelations lead-out opportunity.

OK, but we are still troubled by the escalating trend toward prime time news that flacks for other entertainment programming and by story choices driven by synergy rather than news.

Syria Stops Cooperating With U.S. Forces and C.I.A.

By DOUGLAS JEHL and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, May 23 - Syria has halted military and intelligence cooperation with the United States, its ambassador to Washington said in an interview, in a sign of growing strains between the two nations over the insurgency in Iraq.

The ambassador, Imad Moustapha, said in the interview on Friday at the Syrian Embassy here that his country had, in the last 10 days, "severed all links" with the United States military and Central Intelligence Agency because of what he called unjust American allegations. The Bush administration has complained bitterly that Syria is not doing enough to halt the flow of men and money to the insurgency in Iraq.

Mr. Moustapha said he believed that the Bush administration had decided "to escalate the situation with Syria" despite steps the Syrians have taken against the insurgents in Iraq, and despite the withdrawal in recent weeks of Syrian troops from Lebanon, in response to international demands.

Trust us to decide our role in the Army, female servicemembers in Iraq say

By Sandra Jontz and Kevin Dougherty, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, May 25, 2005

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq — If Pvt. Roxana Figueroa had her way, the Army would open up all jobs — from infantry on up — to women, and leave it up to women to decide where they want to serve.

“If women want to, and can make it, I think they should be able to serve in combat,” said the 20-year-old, deployed to Iraq with the 94th Engineer Battalion based in Vilseck, Germany.

At a minimum, women should be able to serve in combat support units, and she opposes a congressional proposal that would ban women from such roles.

“I think it’s wrong,” she said. “It’s taken us a long time to come this far, to even have engineering jobs in the Army, and now they might take that away from us.”

McClellan Backs Away from Claims that 'Newsweek' Story Cost Afghan Lives

By E&P Staff

Published: May 24, 2005 1:10 PM ET
NEW YORK At a White House press briefing Monday, Press Secretary Scott McClellan, pressed by reporters and with Afghan President Karzai in disagreement, retreated on claims that Newsweek's retracted story on Koran abuse cost lives in Afghanistan.

He also claimed that he had never said it did, even though a check of transcripts disputes that. On May 16, for example, he said, "people have lost their lives." On May 17, he said, "People did lose their lives," and, "People lost their lives" due to the Newsweek report.

Wash. Post contradicted its own previous coverage on theft of Dem staff memos

Referring to the improper access and leaks of Democratic memos regarding President Bush's judicial nominees from the Senate Judiciary Committee computer systems, The Washington Post contradicted its own previous coverage in reporting that Republican staffers "found misplaced" electronic memos. In fact, as the Post noted last year, the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms found that Republican staffers improperly and secretly accessed more than 4,600 memos over a period of more than a year.

Taranto falsely claimed Dean pronounced bin Laden innocent

In his May 23 "Best of the Web Today" column, Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com editor James Taranto claimed that Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean proclaimed Osama bin Laden innocent of involvement in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Taranto quoted Dean's May 22 appearance on NBC's Meet the Press, during which Dean highlighted "the insinuation the president continues to make to this day that Osama bin Laden had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. That is false." From the full context of the quote, however, it is apparent that Dean misspoke: He clearly intended to refer to Saddam Hussein, not bin Laden.

Taranto wrote:

As for Osama bin Laden, Dean later pronounced him innocent:

Dean: The thing that really bothered me the most, which the 9/11 Commission said also wasn't true, is the insinuation that the president continues to make to this day that Osama bin Laden had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. That is false. The 9/11 Commission, chaired by a Republican, said it was false. Is it wrong to send people to war without telling them the truth. And the truth was Osama bin Laden was a very bad person who was doing terrible things, but that Iraq was never a threat to the United States.

But Taranto omitted the question from host Tim Russert to which Dean was responding.

Perhaps O'Reilly Is Wrong

May 24, 2005

In a May 17 radio broadcast, telephilosopher Bill O'Reilly fantasized unpleasantly that terrorists might "grab" the Los Angeles Times editorial and opinion editor "out of his little house and … cut his head off." O'Reilly went on, "And maybe when the blade sinks in, he'll go, 'Perhaps O'Reilly was right.' "

What popped O'Reilly's cork was an editorial one week ago on the Newsweek controversy. The magazine reported, apparently without good evidence, that American guards at the Guantanamo prison for terrorism "detainees" had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. This reportedly led to riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan in which 14 people were killed.

Contrary to the impression you might get by following the story in the U.S. media, the riots were not about the journalists' use of anonymous sources. They were about perceived American contempt for the faith, the culture and ultimately the lives of Muslim Arabs and other dark-skinned people in distant lands.

Of Agendas, Fetishes and Crusades

By Brian Montopoli

For more than a year, Bill O'Reilly has been railing against the New York Times for what he believes is its excessive coverage of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Back on May 27, 2004, he said, "some press people are using the terrible Abu Ghraib prison scandal as a political hammer. Some people don't see that as a bad thing, but I do. I think the story should be reported accurately and aggressively, but not used by the media to advance an agenda." (Emphasis added.)

O'Reilly feels the Times, more than anyone else in the "left-wing media," has focused far too much on the military prison torture scandal. On his Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor," he has repeatedly condemned the paper for its Abu Ghraib coverage, and has kept a running tab of the number of front-page stories the Times has written about it. O'Reilly hasn't always had the numbers exactly right -- on May 27th, he said there had been "total of 50 front page articles" in the Times about the scandal, and then on June 22nd said, "They got 47 stories on Abu Ghraib on the front page" -- but his point is clear: The Times "is using the prisoner story to hammer the Bush administration." In the past year, in addition to the examples above, he criticized the Times' Abu Ghraib coverage on June 11, June 14, June 30, July 1, July 9, July 21, August 9, Oct. 8, Oct. 25, Nov. 9, Nov. 22, Feb. 16, March 9, April 12, May 3, May 16, and May 17. The notion that the Times is allowing ideology to dictate its coverage has become a common refrain on the show.

Of Agendas, Fetishes and Crusades

By Brian Montopoli

For more than a year, Bill O'Reilly has been railing against the New York Times for what he believes is its excessive coverage of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Back on May 27, 2004, he said, "some press people are using the terrible Abu Ghraib prison scandal as a political hammer. Some people don't see that as a bad thing, but I do. I think the story should be reported accurately and aggressively, but not used by the media to advance an agenda." (Emphasis added.)

O'Reilly feels the Times, more than anyone else in the "left-wing media," has focused far too much on the military prison torture scandal. On his Fox News show, "The O'Reilly Factor," he has repeatedly condemned the paper for its Abu Ghraib coverage, and has kept a running tab of the number of front-page stories the Times has written about it. O'Reilly hasn't always had the numbers exactly right -- on May 27th, he said there had been "total of 50 front page articles" in the Times about the scandal, and then on June 22nd said, "They got 47 stories on Abu Ghraib on the front page" -- but his point is clear: The Times "is using the prisoner story to hammer the Bush administration." In the past year, in addition to the examples above, he criticized the Times' Abu Ghraib coverage on June 11, June 14, June 30, July 1, July 9, July 21, August 9, Oct. 8, Oct. 25, Nov. 9, Nov. 22, Feb. 16, March 9, April 12, May 3, May 16, and May 17. The notion that the Times is allowing ideology to dictate its coverage has become a common refrain on the show.

Records-search plan alarms civil-liberties groups

By Alan ElsnerMon May 23, 4:47 PM ET

U.S. civil-liberties groups said on Monday they were alarmed at new provisions to be considered in Congress this week to strengthen the government's ability to seize private records without judicial review.

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union, the Open Society Institute and the Center for Democracy and Technology said in a telephone conference call the new provisions to the USA Patriot Act would allow the FBI to secretly demand medical, tax, gun-purchase, travel and other records without approval from a judge.

The act was passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and 16 of its provisions are scheduled to expire at the end of this year unless Congress renews them.

Iraq Can't Explain $69 Million in Fuel Oil From '04, Audit Says

By ERIK ECKHOLM

Iraqi officials cannot explain what happened to $69 million worth of fuel oil produced in the second half of 2004, raising fears that it was smuggled out of the country for private gain, according to a report released yesterday by United Nations-appointed auditors.

The report, by the auditing firm KPMG, said Iraq's recorded exports of fuel oil mysteriously declined by a comparable amount during that same period of 2004, the initial months of sovereignty for the newly installed Iraqi government.

Studying records from the Ministry of Oil, the auditors found that Iraq's production in that six-month period exceeded the recorded domestic uses and exports by 618,203 tons, worth about $69 million.

"We were not provided with a satisfactory explanation for either the unreconciled quantities or sales decrease of fuel oil," the report states. In subsequent paragraphs, it takes note of the suspicions of widespread oil smuggling that were previously voiced by American officials, and describes Iraq's weak controls on sales of oil and oil products.

Congress Won't Stop 10-Year Cisneros Probe

I'd be interested in knowing if the money is really being used for its stated purpose.--Dictynna

Associated Press
Tuesday, May 24, 2005; A05

Congress has refused to halt spending on a decade-old investigation of Henry Cisneros, former secretary of housing and urban development, despite Democratic senators' attempt to stop it.

A Senate provision that would have ended spending on the probe next month was killed during closed-door negotiations on a broader bill paying for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.).

Daily Howler - May 24, 2005

EXIT OKRENT (PART 2)! The New York Times does ID Moyers. So why did Dan Okrent say different? // link // print // previous // next //
TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2005

MAYBE NOT THE BEST IN THE WORLD: No, the Washington Post hasn’t bothered describing your recent history—the recent history of judicial nominations (our series on the topic continues below). But the Post does want you to know about Finland! In this morning’s paper, we get the good news about a new series: “Washington Post Associate Editor Robert G. Kaiser and staff photographer Lucian Perkins are traveling around Finland for three weeks to examine what might be the world's most interesting country that Americans know least about.” Indeed, how exciting is little-known Finland?

Digby: Live to Fight Another Day

My first reaction to the nuclear fizzle was disappointment, partially I admit, because I thought this was a very clever opportunity for Democrats to do the single most important thing they have to do improve their image with the public --- stand up for themselves and show some guts. The "optics" of this were sufficiently murky to make that a risky play, but I felt that we had nothing much to lose. As the Milquetoast Party, anything that shows our willingness to stick together, act on principle and face down the Republicans is indisputably a good thing. This deal doesn't exactly get that done, I'm afraid.

David Neiwert: Minutemen on the march

As I've recently observed, it's clear the Minutemen are planning on building on their success in obtaining fawning coverage from the press by expanding their project beyond patrolling the Arizona borderlands.

According to a recent Washington Times report, they'll be conducting a similar patrol in California this fall -- with an eye on even broader harassment:

David Neiwert: Brutal Hate

Monday, May 23, 2005

Amancio Corrales

Following up on the recent killing of a transgender man in Yuma, Arizona, the sheriff's department, according to a report filed by Jeffrey Gautreaux in the Yuma Sun, says it's clearly shaping up as a hate crime:

Amancio Corrales, a 23-year-old Yuma man who was dressed as a woman when he was murdered, may have been the victim of a hate crime, according to the Yuma County Sheriff's Office.

"A hate crime is not ruled out," Sheriff's Capt. Eben Bratcher said. "Until we find who did it, we don't know the motive. The situation lends itself for one to believe that's the case. Thinking someone is a woman and then finding they were a man would not sit well with some people."

Talking Points Memo: A Good Deal?

A good deal? A bad deal? We're supposed to say we got a great deal to win clearly through spin what could not be won so clearly on the merits. It seems an awfully bitter pill to forego the filibuster on both Brown and Owen, particularly the former.
And the main issue isn't resolved so much as it's delayed. The moderate Republicans agree to preserve the filibuster so long as the Democrats use it in what the moderate Republicans deem a reasonable fashion. And yet the use of the filibuster, by its very nature, almost always seems unreasonable to those whom it is used against.

Link to Lobbyist Brings Scrutiny to G.O.P. Figure

By KATE ZERNIKE and ANNE E. KORNBLUT

WASHINGTON, May 18 - In Republican Washington, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist worked all the angles.

One was a $750-an-hour lobbyist, the other an antitax activist, and they helped drive the Republican takeover of the capital and cement the party's power. Both had a close ally in the House majority leader, Tom DeLay. And they shared a conservative ideology and a friendship going back to their days in college.

Now, with widening Congressional and criminal inquiries in the capital into Mr. Abramoff's dealings, they are sharing trouble, too.

While Mr. Abramoff has been under scrutiny for more than a year, Mr. Norquist has attracted unwelcome attention in recent weeks. A Congressional committee investigating whether Mr. Abramoff defrauded Indian tribes has subpoenaed records from Mr. Norquist's group, Americans for Tax Reform, after he refused for six months to turn them over voluntarily.

NYT Editorial: Wages Lag Inflation, Again

The Labor Department's recent inflation report was good news if you don't eat, drive, or belong to the 80 percent of the work force whose pay has failed to keep up with price increases over the past year.

In April, consumer prices rose 0.5 percent over all, driven mainly by increases in food and oil. But "core" prices - everything except food and oil - didn't budge. Since a low and stable core rate signals economic growth without overheating, April's number was widely taken to mean the Federal Reserve would continue to raise interest rates gradually. Predictably, stock and bond markets rallied.

Families, on the other hand, have little reason to cheer. The core rate is meaningful for financial markets, but real people buy food and gas. Moreover, the smaller a paycheck is, the bigger the percentage of pay that is consumed by essentials. Poor families, for instance, spend at least four times as much of their pay on energy as rich families do.

Paul Krugman: America Wants Security

By PAUL KRUGMAN

It was a carefully staged Norman Rockwell scene. The street was lined with American flags; a high school band played "God Bless America."

Then, under the watchful gaze of Wal-Mart's chief operating officer, Maryland's governor vetoed a bill that would have obliged large businesses to spend more on employee health care.

The news here isn't that some politicians wrap their deference to corporate interests in the flag. The news, instead, is that Maryland's State Legislature passed a pro-worker bill in the first place. In fact, the bill passed by a veto-proof majority in the Maryland Senate, and fell just short of that margin in the House.

After November's election, the victors claimed a mandate to unravel the welfare state. But the national election was about who would best defend us from gay married terrorists. At the state level, where elections were fought on bread-and-butter issues, voters sent a message that they wanted a stronger, not weaker, social safety net.

Daily Howler - May 23, 2005

OKRENT (PART 1)! Daniel Okrent finally leaves—taking a cheap shot at Krugman

MONDAY, MAY 23, 2005

WHY DO PAT TILLMAN’S PARENTS HATE AMERICA: Maybe we’ve finally found someone who will be allowed to complain about this Admin’s endemic dissembling. We refer to the parents of Pat Tillman, whose comments about their son’s death are reported in today’s Post. Josh White’s summary of the facts sets the stage for the Tillmans’ anger:
WHITE (5/23/05): The latest investigation, written about by The Washington Post earlier this month, showed that soldiers in Afghanistan knew almost immediately that they had killed Tillman by mistake in what they believed was a firefight with enemies on a tight canyon road. The investigation also revealed that soldiers later burned Tillman's uniform and body armor.

That information was slow to make it back to the United States, the report said, and Army officials here were unaware that his death on April 22, 2004, was fratricide when they notified the family that Tillman had been shot.

Over the next 10 days, however, top-ranking Army officials—including the theater commander, Army Gen. John P. Abizaid—were told of the reports that Tillman had been killed by his own men, the investigation said. But the Army waited until a formal investigation was finished before telling the family—which was weeks after a nationally televised memorial service that honored Tillman on May 3, 2004.

Once upon a time in America

Richard Adams searches for insight in Thomas Friedman's paean to globalisation, The World Is Flat
Richard Adams
Saturday May 21, 2005

Guardian
The World Is Flat
by Thomas Friedman
488pp, Allen Lane £19.95

In her introduction to Graham Greene's The Quiet American, Zadie Smith says of Alden Pyle, the American of the title: "His worldly innocence is a kind of fundamentalism." She goes on: "Reading the novel again reinforced my fear of all the Pyles around the world. They do not mean to hurt us, but they do."

Greene has Pyle travelling with books such as The Role of the West and The Challenge to Democracy. A modern-day Greene could substitute the works of the real-life Thomas Friedman - a contemporary quiet American. Like Pyle, Friedman is "impregnably armed by his good intentions and his ignorance". In The World Is Flat Friedman has produced an epyllion to the glories of globalisation with only three flaws: the writing style is prolix, the author is monumentally self-obsessed, and its content has the depth of a puddle.

Even the title of the book rests uneasily on a conceit. Friedman recounts meeting an Indian entrepreneur: "He said to me, 'Tom, the playing field is being levelled.'" A cliché of the business world, but Friedman's brain digests it thus: "What [he] is saying, I thought, is that the playing field is being flattened ... Flattened? Flattened? My god, he's telling me the world is flat!"

This leads Friedman to modestly compare his journey to Christopher Columbus - "Columbus sailed with the Nina ... I had Lufthansa business class" - and lay out a rambling theory about globalisation. It ends with dire predictions of looming international competition, where, in Friedman's terms, industrialised economies will need to produce chocolate sauce rather than vanilla ice-cream.

The Smoking Gun: Ken Lay's Letter to George Bush

See the letter at the link.--Dictynna

Escape tunnel discovered at U.S.-run prison camp in Iraq

BY MARK WASHBURN

Knight Ridder Newspapers

UMM QASR, Iraq - (KRT) - The weight of a fuel truck collapsed the roof of an escape tunnel being dug out of Camp Bucca, where more than 6,000 suspected terrorists and insurgents are being held.

Prison authorities said Sunday the shaft was discovered Thursday when one of the truck's tires plunged into the earth between the two main fences on the camp's perimeter.

Inspired by Kos diary, bloggers take on U.S. over 2002 Iraq planning memo

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

What do a communications manager from an industrial multinational, a law student, a graphic designer and a Canadian civil servant have in common?
Advertisement Click Here

The answer? DowningStreetMemo.com.

In response to U.S. media silence surrounding a pre-war memorandum leaked on the eve of the recent British elections, the foursome created a website referencing the memo written in the heart of British government, 10 Downing Street.

Authored by a foreign policy aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the memo is perhaps the most damning ammunition in the arsenal of those seeking to demonstrate that the decision to go to war in Iraq was fixed.

“Military action was now seen as inevitable,” Blair aide Matthew Rycroft penned in his account of a July, 2002 meeting. “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”

Darwin's theory evolves into culture war

By Lisa Anderson Tribune national correspondentSun May 22, 9:40 AM ET

Eighty years after the Scopes "Monkey Trial," the battle between those who support the validity of biological evolution and those who oppose it rages on in Kansas--and in more than a dozen other states around the country.

The controversy may appear to be simply about the teaching of science in the classroom. But it represents a far more complex, widespread clash of politics, religion, science and culture that transcends the borders of conservative, so-called red states and their more liberal blue counterparts.

"This controversy is going to happen everywhere. It's going to happen in all 50 states. This controversy is not going away," said Jeff Tamblyn, 52, an owner of Merriam, Kan.-based Origin Films, which is making a feature film about the current fight over whether to introduce a more critical approach to evolution in Kansas' school science standards.

So far in 2005, the issue of evolution has sparked at least 21 instances of controversy on the local and/or state level in at least 18 states, according to the National Center for Science Education, an Oakland-based non-profit organization that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. Although such controversies have occurred regularly over the years, some attribute the recent wave to the success of conservatives in 2004 elections.

WP Editorial: Semi-Respectable Ethanol

Monday, May 23, 2005; Page A18

ETHANOL BEGAN as a political product. The idea of powering automobiles with alcohol distilled from corn acquired traction mainly because Archer Daniels Midland Co., the leading ethanol producer, is a big financier of politicians and because Iowa, which serves as Ethanol HQ, hosts that odd and oddly influential event known as the presidential caucuses. But disreputable origins do not rule out a respectable maturity. Like the young delinquent who makes good, ethanol has put on a suit, acquired sophisticated friends and become a pillar of society. Almost.

Suburban Guerilla: Smackdown

Howard Dean’s on Press the Meat with Tubby Tim. He just smacked him down after Tubby threw up a Pew survey saying that Dean supporters were more secular and liberal than most Democrats.

Howard said the methodology was in question, because it was an internet survey. And then he started swinging: “I’m a committed Christian, and I’m not going to have other people tell me how I should or shouldn’t be a Christian. That’s my personal business, and I’m not going to have these Pharisees tell me what to do.” (He also referred to those who were pointing out the mote in his eye instead of taking it out of their own.)

CORRENTE: The Mind of Ted. Dissecting a bigot.

Inside Ted's Head - Right Wing Specimen Under Glass
The Mind of Ted. Dissecting a bigot.

"ted". aka: (Ted) Edward Baiamonte, aka: Ted7000@aol.com, aka: bje1000@aol.com

Author - according to Ted's own weblog banner - of the "classic" American screed "UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICIANS". Presented in all caps. Which makes it that much more of a "classic." Ted also wrote something called "The 91% Factor: why women initiate 91% of divorce", which, as far as I can determine without wasting my time actually reading the damned thing, is essentially some kind of anti-feminist sex obsessed ballyhoo based largely (I suspect) on Ted's own divorce and personal failed matrimonial experience. And therefore amplified (at least in Ted's head) as a (no doubt "classic") standard for all such matters. What has wronged Ted has wronged the world. Or at least 91% of it. Or something like that. See for yourself. - Amazon Books link

Ted wears many masks, at least according to Ted, but if there is one thing Ted definetly is its a kind of grand portmanteaux crammed with all assorment of right-wing squawk radio canards, talking point pop political slogans, buzzphrases, bugaboos, alarmist hot button anti-liberalism causitries, antecdotal historical fantasies, cloud cuckooland economic quackeries, and any number of other looney-tune buzzings scrambling around inside the hollow skull of the Ted like so many little animated bluebirds in a Saturday morning TV cartoon. Ted, you might say, is a kind of Mary Poppins-bag of fantastic right wing props. Or a twittering animated bird brain with baggage issues. Take your pick.

You can wander off and read some of Ted's twitterings at Ted's fabulous weblog "the dumb democrat" HERE. Or take a look at Ted's alternative selection "dumb liberal" HERE. When it comes to birthing clever original names for weblogs Ted is a regular Cagliostro. Likewise, it might be noted that Ted is neither a "liberal" or a "democrat", dumb or not, which brings me back to my earlier contention that Ted is something of a fraud in progress and a liar and a deceptive cad to boot.