The Little Brown Reader: September 2003 Archives

September 30, 2003

48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into Productivity

The Onion | 48-Hour Internet Outage Plunges Nation Into Productivity

BOSTON—An Internet worm that disabled networks across the U.S. Monday and Tuesday temporarily thrust the nation into its most severe maelstrom of productivity since 1992.

"In all my years, I've never seen anything like this," said Price Stern Sloan system administrator Andrew Walton, whose effort to restore web service to his company's network was repeatedly hampered by employees busily working at their computers. "The local-access network is functioning, so people can transfer work projects to one another, but there's no e-mail, no eBay, no flaminglips.com. It's pretty much every office worker's worst nightmare."

...

"My first thought was 'My God, this has to be some kind of mistake,'" said Prudential Insurance executive vice-president Shane Mullins of San Francisco. "My e-mail wasn't working. Nerve.com wasn't working. I eventually found out that the company web site wasn't working, either. But by that time, my inbox was filling up like you wouldn't believe."

"My actual physical inbox," Mullins added. "It's this gray plastic thing on my desktop—the top of the desk I sit at."

...

"Our office was working at roughly 95 percent efficiency," said Steven Glover, an advertising executive and creative team leader at Rae Jaynes Houser. "It's problematic to have the rate jump like that—it sets a precedent that will be impossible to maintain once the Internet comes back."

Glover said his department failed to reach 100 percent productivity only because employees stopped work every few minutes throughout the outage to see if Internet service had been restored.

"This is terrible," said Miami resident Ron Lewison, an employee at Gladstone Finance and an Amazon.com Top 500 Reviewer. "For two days, I've been denied access to the vital information I need to go about my workday. In the absence of that information, I've been forced to go about my job."

More funny...

Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 0%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shocking New Jacket Hits Street

A new anti-assault device for women wards off potential assailants with an 80,000-volt electric shock.

Dubbed "exo-electric armor," the No-Contact Jacket looks like an ordinary fashionable women's coat. But an inner layer of conductive fiber carries a low-amp charge that delivers a nasty but non-lethal shock to anyone who messes with its wearer.

"It's kind of like sticking your finger in a wall socket," said Adam Whiton, one of its designers. "It hurts. If someone tries to grab you from behind, they get the full, hefty shock out of it. That's really painful."

Designed by Whiton, an industrial designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Yolita Nugent, head designer at Advanced Research Apparel, the jacket is intended to be an alternative to handguns, pepper sprays and rape whistles.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 95%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 24, 2003

Do Not Call Registry not dead yet

By Bob Sullivan
MSNBC

Sept 24 — Consumer groups say Tuesday’s federal court ruling that blocks the Do Not Call Registry is just a temporary legal setback, and won’t ultimately stop government agencies from preventing most dinner-time telephone interruptions. A U.S. judge has ruled that the Federal Trade Commission overstepped its authority in creating the national do-not-call list against telemarketers. The FTC asked a court to stay its decision while it appeals the ruling.

Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 15%

Posted by Lance Brown at 10:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Libertarian options in the California recall

Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .3
Learning Percentage: 2%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:36 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Lieberman Begins N.H. Blitz

I saw Lieberman on C-Span at Tom Harkin's Hear it From The Heartland town hall meeting, and his performance was downright dismal. Lieberman should drop out -- the sooner the better. I don't like to make predictions, but I'll go out on a limb and say that Joe Lieberman doesn't have a chance* at winning the presidency in 2004 -- and his chances of winning the Democratic nomination are only marginally better.

* Unless Bush really, really spirals down into unpopularity (i.e., unless Bush defeats himself.)

Lieberman Begins Blitz
He reintroduces himself to state

Concord Monitor; September 15, 2003
by Anne Ruderman, Monitor staff

MANCHESTER - At his first New Hampshire town meeting, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman yesterday called the U.S. war on terrorism a "war for the hearts and minds of the Islamic world," saying it was more than just a quest to capture Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein.

"This is the time for a Marshall Plan for the Muslim world," said Lieberman, one of nine Democrats running for president. "With strength we'll achieve the security we want for our children and our grandchildren."

...

But if the scale of this weekend's blitz was different (even the posters were larger), the senator's message - repeal most of the Bush tax cuts, create more manufacturing jobs, provide affordable health care - was largely the same.

"There's this idea that if you're not registering in New Hampshire, all you need to do is retail politics, more intensity with hooha all around it and that's going to help you rise in the polls," said Dean Spiliotes, an analyst with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester. "That stuff is fine if you have a message that resonates."

Spiliotes said that Lieberman, who was largely thought to be a front-runner for the 2004 campaign, has suffered from the sudden popularity of Dean and a fractured Democratic party.

Full story

Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

MPP: Dean and Kerry improve medical marijuana positions

(Received via e-mail)

Dear Friend:

The Marijuana Policy Project's campaign to influence Democratic
presidential candidates on the medical marijuana issue in
New Hampshire enjoyed tremendous success this past weekend.

Two of the leading candidates -- former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and
U.S. Sen. John Kerry (MA) -- markedly improved their respective
positions on medical marijuana. Dean agreed to impose a moratorium on
the DEA's raids on medical marijuana patients and providers in states
that have reduced or eliminated criminal penalties for the medical use
of marijuana. And Kerry said he would stop the raids entirely.

Kerry's and Dean's evolution on this issue didn't happen in a vacuum.
This is the result of a carefully coordinated plan by MPP to influence
the candidates through a mixture of grassroots and direct activism. We
have commissioned a poll and provided the campaigns with the results,
provided them with documentation on the medical benefits of marijuana,
asked the candidates for their positions at every available
opportunity, and even protested against candidates who would rather
have patients arrested than show a little compassion.

(U.S. Sen. John Edwards from North Carolina has been the primary
target of our protests. He seems almost proud to have adopted the
position that seriously ill people should be put in prison for
following the advice of their physicians.)

All of our hard work paid a huge dividend at a town hall meeting in
Henniker on Saturday, September 20. MPP's New Hampshire project,
Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana (GSMM), asked John Kerry, "Would
you stop the raids, as president?" Kerry responded by saying simply,
"Yes." This came one day after Howard Dean, in response to a GSMM
question, pledged, "Will I do what [Attorney General] Ashcroft is
doing? No, absolutely not." GSMM then specifically asked, "You would
stop the raids?" and Dean responded, "Yeah, I'm not going to do that,
anyway." To read about these encounters in greater detail, please see
our press release.

More good news: The candidates are not the only people taking note of
our activism. We're generating a substantial amount of press as well.
Read all about our efforts.

And there will be more news coverage over the next few days. On
Friday, we expect to have an opportunity to appeal to retired
Gen. Wesley Clark -- the tenth and most recent Democratic candidate to
enter the fray. And a reporter from a major New Hampshire newspaper is
planning to do a major story about our efforts.

If you support our New Hampshire plan, I would very much appreciate
your financial support -- see http://GraniteStaters.com/donate -- so
that MPP does not run a deficit because of this campaign. Thank you in
advance for anything you can do to help.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 22, 2003

Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'

The last statement quoted below is a common technique used by Justice Department folks to diffuse "hysteria" (a.k.a., legitimate concern about civil liberties): you could call it the "We don't want to search you" method. The FBI guy who spoke at the public forum I organized in March used the same line, multiple times in different forms. "You regular, law abiding folks have nothing to worry about."

Right -- because law enforcement has never investigated, searched, or surveilled an innocent person.

They don't care what you're reading -- just what the bad guys are reading. So, no worries. Carry on.

(In the preceding paragraph, Ashcroft uses another common rhetorical trick -- painting a silly, cartoonish scenario, and attributing it to the law's critics. I call him on this in the local news hour segment that I posted on my main blog recently.)

Ashcroft Rips Anti-Patriot Act 'Hysteria'

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Sept. 15 — Attorney General John Ashcroft denounced as "hysteria" the contention by some librarians and civil liberties groups that the FBI can use a new anti-terror law to snoop into Americans' reading habits.

In a speech Monday to an American Restaurant Association conference, Ashcroft said people are being wrongly led to believe that libraries have been "surrounded by the FBI," with agents "dressed in raincoats, dark suits and sunglasses. They stop everyone and interrogate everyone like Joe Friday.

"Now, you may have thought with all this hysteria and hyperbole, something had to be wrong," Ashcroft said. "Do we at the Justice Department really care what you are reading? No."

Full story

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 5%

Posted by Lance Brown at 10:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots

Dean, Driven by the Grass Roots
Bottom-Up Strategy May Turn Politics Upside Down

By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 22, 2003; Page A01

By day, Jennifer Powers is a grant-writer for a school for the deaf, a Gen X'er who in past elections was like millions of others who vote but don't pay much attention to politics -- and certainly don't lift a finger to help any particular candidate.

That changed for Powers a few months ago, when the 32-year-old Philadelphian, driven by a newfound passion, switched her voter registration from independent to Democrat and became an unpaid operative for Howard Dean's presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. Today, Powers sits on a Philly4Dean (philly4dean.com) steering committee she helped set up, overseeing grass-roots volunteers she helped recruit, and communicates online with a database of 2,000 prospective Dean supporters that she helped build.

She said she does this 30 to 40 hours a week after her day job and with only online direction from the Dean campaign -- and she is not alone.

Thousands of Dean supporters -- many of whom profess never to have been active before -- have taken to the streets on their own initiative to pass out Dean fliers at urban fairs and farmers markets, donate blood and clean up beaches in his name, and raise millions of dollars for the former Vermont governor at house parties.

Full story

TruthOut permacopy

Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 07:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 21, 2003

The liars who control the White House and our government

By DOUG THOMPSON
Aug 27, 2003, 06:23

Time to stop pussyfooting around.

George W. Bush is a liar.

Many in his administration are liars as well.

They wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and bit them in the ass.

For the past few months, the pro-Bush forces have told us the jury is still out on whether or not he told the truth about weapons of mass destruction and some other key misstatements of facts that were used to justify the invasion of Iraq.

...

But lets put that aside for a moment, shall we, and look a little closer to home, to the city of New York, where even before the dust and smoke from the ruins of the World Trade Center had settled, the Bushies ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to lie to the American people.

According to a report issued by Nikki L. Tinsley, EPA Inspector General, the Bush administration ordered the agency to withhold vital information from the American public regarding significant health hazards in the New York City air after the World Trade Center disaster.

At White House direction, the EPA issued five press releases within 10 days of the attacks, and five more by the end of 2001, reassuring the American public the air was safe to breathe. In fact, it wasn't and it wasn't until June 2002 that the EPA determined the air had returned to pre-Sept. 11 levels.

...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%

Posted by Lance Brown at 11:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Free Market Advocates Fight Back at WTO

By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
September 12, 2003

Cancun, Mexico (CNSNews.com) - After days of anti-free trade protests at the WTO conference, including a protest featuring nude activists and another involving a suicide, free market advocates responded in kind on Thursday.

They staged several counter demonstrations and street-theater stunts, drawing the ire of anti-globalization protestors and environmentalists.

At a mock awards ceremony sponsored by a coalition of free market groups, actors playing the grim reaper handed out "awards" to environmental groups and other organizations that they accuse of promoting "poverty, misery, disease and premature death to billions of people in developing countries."

Full story

Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 11:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to

Pride and Prejudices
How Americans have fooled themselves about the war in Iraq, and why they’ve had to

by Christopher Dickey
NEWSWEEK

Sept. 19 — A sturdy-looking American matron in the audience at the American University of Paris grew redder by the second. She was listening to a panel talking about the Iraq war and its effect on U.S.-French relations, and she kept nodding her head like a pump building emotional pressure.

Finally she exploded: "Surely these can't be the only reasons we invaded Iraq!" the woman thundered, half scolding, but also half pleading. "Surely not!"

...
As we went down the list, I could see the Nodding Woman’s problem was not that she didn’t believe us, it was that she did. She just desperately wanted other reasons, better reasons, some she could consider valid reasons for the price that Americans are paying in blood and treasure.

...

The problem is not really that the public was misinformed by the press before the war, or somehow denied the truth afterward. The problem is that Americans just can’t believe their eyes. They cannot fathom the combination of cynicism, naiveté, arrogance and ignorance that dragged us into this quagmire, and they’re in a deep state of denial about it.

...

Bush knows what a lot of his critics have forgotten: the Iraq war is not just about blood and treasure, or even about democracy or WMD or terror. It’s about American pride. And people—perfectly intelligent people—have always been willing to sacrifice sweet reason in order to save face, to protect pride. As George Orwell pointed out, they will refuse to see what’s right in front of their noses. He called this condition a kind of political schizophrenia, and society can live quite comfortably with it, he said, until “a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

Well, that’s what’s happening right now. It’s not only American money and lives that are being lost, it’s pride. But people in the United States will try to deny that for as long as they possibly can.

...

...the bitterest contradiction of all may be that this war was waged—first and foremost—to save face after the humiliation and suffering of September 11. It was meant to inspire awe in the Arab and Muslim world, as former CIA operative Marc Reuel Gerecht and others insisted it should be. And in that it truly has failed. Every day we look weaker. And the worst news of all it that it’s not because of what was done to us by our enemies but because of what we’ve done to ourselves.

Full column

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Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 30%

Posted by Lance Brown at 11:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The late great United States of America

The late great United States of America
by Roderick T. Beaman

I've been saying for a while that this country is doomed. But I have felt that it would last until around 2020. Recent events have forced me to move that timetable up. This country will come apart by 2010. The recent case of The United States of America vs. Vernice Kuglin has caused my reassessment.

...

Full column

Hmmm...if one court case can cause Roderick to move up his U.S.A. doomsday scenario by 10 years just like that, I'm wondering a little about the stability of his new prediction.

That said, he may be right that the case he mentions will lead to some unraveling of things on the federal level. There's a huge movement in this country around the idea that there is no law that requires most Americans to pay income tax (as well as a sub-movement around the idea that the 16th Amendment was never actually ratified)...if that movement ends up proving its remarkable theory, and the courts accept it -- well, it might not make the country "come apart", as Roderick "Doomsayer" Beaman puts it, but it will surely shake things up.

Read It Rating: 5.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 30%

Posted by Lance Brown at 09:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms

NOW: Commentary - Bill Moyers on Old Friends and Comrades in Arms

We were in France last week. Seven old friends. One more reunion while there's time. We had a lot of catching up to do — grandkids and all that. On our last day we drove a couple of hours out of Paris to visit some places we had heard about long ago from World War I veterans who were still around when we were growing up.

The Marne River, Chateau-Thierry, Belleau Woods — it was at these places, in the summer of 1918, that young Americans fresh from the United States were thrown into battle during the German army's last great drive of the war, aimed at Paris itself. So fierce was the fighting that it took American Marines a month, at the loss of over half their men, to capture a single square mile — the crucial strongpoint at Belleau Woods, defended by seasoned German troops who were astounded at how the Americans fought.

...

High above that valley, on a hill once marked by trenches and shell holes, stands a monument of 24 mighty columns and two heroic-size figures. Their hands are clasped — a tribute, the inscription tells us, to the French and American troops who fought here, and a lasting symbol of "the friendship and cooperation" between the two countries. A short drive away we stopped at the American Protestant Church and studied the stained glass window showing General Black Jack Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in France, being greeted by General Lafayette.

It's only the artist's fancy, of course. Lafayette was from another era — the French nobleman who persuaded the French king to send 6,000 troops to the aid of George Washington and who then led the army that cornered the British at Yorktown, securing the American Revolution. Legend has it that when General Pershing set foot on French soil he had America's debt to France on his mind, and reputedly said: "Lafayette, we are here."

...

Full commentary

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 55%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens

This is a pretty extensive analysis of the poll in question and the race, but it's over a week old now.

Recall a Tossup as Successor Race Tightens
September 12, 2003

TruthOut permacopy

Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Wolfowitz Shifts Rationales on Iraq War

With Weapons Unfound, Talk of Threat Gives Way to Rhetoric on Hussein, Democracy

As the Bush administration's leading hawk on Iraq, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz has been a tireless proponent of the argument that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction was a compelling enough reason for the United States to resort to war.

These days, his emphasis is different. In testimony to congressional committees and interviews with reporters, Wolfowitz prefers to stress the evil, dictatorial nature of former president Saddam Hussein's defunct government and the opportunity to turn Iraq into a beacon of hope for the rest of the Middle East. He depicts Iraq as the focus of a life-and-death struggle between the forces of democracy and the forces of intolerance.

...

Full story

TruthOut permacopy

Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia

Marijuana laws struck down in British Columbia
Westernmost province joins Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia in ending prohibition

Years of protests bear fruit for freedom
On September 4, Provincial Court Judge P Chen made a landmark ruling regarding marijuana laws in British Columbia. In his decision, Judge Chen said parts of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) are "invalid" and that "there is no offense known to law at this time for simple possession of marijuana" in the province.

Judge Chen's decision was based on a series of court cases in Ontario that led a judge there to strike down marijuana possession laws in January of this year. ...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: 3
Learning Percentage: 80%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Eight Civilians Killed in U.S. Strike on Taliban

Sat September 20, 2003

By Sayed Salahuddin

KABUL (Reuters) - At least eight Afghan nomads, including women and children, were killed in a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan that also killed two Taliban guerrillas, Afghan officials said on Saturday.

In a separate incident, Taliban guerrillas killed a district police chief in the southern province of Kandahar, underscoring a revival of violence recently in a country that has seen mostly strife for the past quarter-century.

The civilians died in their beds when a bomb landed on their tent in Naw Bahar district of the southern province of Zabul on Wednesday night, said deputy provincial governor Mohammad Omar.

A U.S. military spokesman said he could not immediately confirm the report.

Mohammad Gul Neyazi, a top commander of the Taliban, and another Taliban guerrilla were also killed during the attack in the remote district near the border with Pakistan, Omar said.

"The figure I have for the civilian death toll is at least eight," Omar told Reuters. "The Taliban commander and his friend were apparently using a satellite phone, the signal of which was detected by American aircraft which then carried out the attack."

...

Full story

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4.5
Learning Percentage: 75%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 19, 2003

N.C. county's deputies relax after sheriff's arrest

LEXINGTON, N.C.--The black paramilitary uniforms and tinted windshields on patrol cars that helped make Gerald Hege one of the most high-profile sheriffs in the nation could get the boot.

The day after the Davidson County sheriff was arrested on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice, his top deputies were moving to reverse some of his policies.

...

Lt. Keith Owen of the Lexington Police Department said he spoke with Hedrick on Tuesday and was optimistic about improved relations, including a greater willingness to share information.

"We've always tried, but when you don't feel welcome, that's a different story," Owen said. "We've had (sheriff's deputies) who are afraid to stop and share information, thinking that they're going to be scrutinized for why they're there."

Owen, who is regularly in the sheriff's office to exchange paperwork and information, said he saw a difference in deputies the day after Hege's arrest and suspension.

"You saw officers walking around with smiles on their faces and actually talking to you," he said. "You could just see a more relaxed atmosphere."
...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Employees Detail Work They Did For Sheriff On County Time

LEXINGTON, N.C. -- Employees helped promote Sheriff Gerald Hege's image, his charity or helped his family while on county time and using county equipment, according to affidavits workers gave to state investigators.

The revelations come after a nearly six-month investigation of Hege that led to his indictment this week on 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstruction of justice.

Employees said in the affidavits that Hege, who tried to style himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," told them to work on projects unrelated to their official duties. The tasks included taking pictures for Hege's campaign posters, taping video for a charity motorcycle ride and helping his son move.

Hege is accused of taking $6,200 from a fund used for undercover drug buys to pay for re-election celebrations in 1998 and 2002 and to reimburse an employee for travel.

He is also accused of using a former county employee to repair gas logs at his home.

...

Full story

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 40%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:44 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended

Sheriff (or should I say former Sheriff?) Hege first appeared on my main blog in January of this year. It was on that entry that someone posted a comment alerting me to Hege's recent troubles.

The thing I'm wondering is if Hege is calling himself "scumbag" now (that's his pet term for criminals).

Controversial Sheriff Hege Indicted on 15 Counts, Suspended

By The Associated Press

A prosecutor's request to remove Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege from office depicts the controversial lawman as a bully and racial profiler.
Superior Court Judge Erwin Spainhour suspended Hege on Monday, pending a Sept. 29 hearing on District Attorney Garry Frank's petition to have him stripped of his office.

Frank's request came immediately after Hege was arrested and charged with 15 felony counts, including embezzlement and obstructing justice.

Spainhour freed Hege on $15,000 secured bond, and he was allowed to leave after being fingerprinted on the same machine used for inmates entering Hege's jail, which he has called the toughest in America.

...

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 80%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing

'Toughest Sheriff' accused of stealing
Lawman charged with embezzling from drug-enforcement fund

JAIME LEVY
Staff Writer

Davidson County Sheriff Gerald Hege -- the man known for dressing inmates in striped uniforms and holding them in bright pink cells -- was arrested Monday on charges of embezzling county money and trying to cover it up.

Hege was indicted Sept. 3 on 15 felony counts, but his arrest just came Monday after the charges were unsealed in Davidson County Superior Court.

Hege, the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff," has been suspended with pay, pending the outcome of a Sept. 29 hearing about whether he may keep his position. Maj. Dallas Hedrick has temporarily taken over the department.

...

Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 20%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:30 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 18, 2003

Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat

Stupid Microsoft Tricks
Why the Richest Company on Earth Feels it Needs to Cheat

By Robert X. Cringely

I had no idea when I wrote in last week's column about the lawsuit between Burst.com and Microsoft that there would be a public hearing on the case this week in Federal Court in Baltimore. Evidently, nobody else knew it, either, because there is no mention of the event on Google News or anywhere else I looked. This must be a relief to Microsoft, or was until you started reading this column about 20 seconds ago. You see, Microsoft did not come through the hearing very well as whole new levels of anti-competitive behavior were claimed by Burst AND ACKNOWLEDGED BY MICROSOFT -- levels that will likely haunt Redmond in many legal cases to come.

This was, to my knowledge, the first public hearing in the case. Anyone off the street could walk into the courtroom and watch the fun. That also means everything that took place in the hearing is now a part of public record and will remain so no matter what happens with the rest of the case. To even allow this hearing to take place appears to have been a terrible blunder on Microsoft's part. Or maybe it was just one in a long line of calculated risks. From the outside looking in, the risk appears to have not been worth it, but only Microsoft can know for sure.

...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .2
Learning Percentage: 90%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:38 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 17, 2003

Metro bills NFL for costs

Metro bills NFL for costs

Metro made it clear to the National Football League yesterday that it expects to be paid for the extra subway service provided for last week's NFL Kickoff Festival on the Mall.
"Please send a certified check in the amount of $57,000 made payable to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority," Metro Assistant General Manager for Communications Leona Agouridis wrote in a letter. "The check must reach the authority no later than 5:00 p.m., Friday, Sept. 19, 2003."

...
Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 65%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Raimondo: Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire

Justin Raimondo: rants with links. This is another one.

Bush Speech: No U-Turn on the Road to Empire
by Justin Raimondo

The Sunday morning talk shows were teeming with administration spokesmen, prepping the public for their boss's evening pitch for support on Iraq.Here's Colin Powell on "Face the Nation":

"It's going to cost more, and there will be continued sacrifice on the part of our young men and women. Hopefully, in the very near future we'll get control of the security situation."

Such talk no doubt made General Anthony Zinni, retired Marine Centcom chief, extremely nervous. It was only last Thursday that he'd issued a warning in a speech to hundreds of Marine and Navy officers:

"My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. I ask you, is it happening again?"

The garbage and the lies: the State Department dishes out the former, while the Defense Department's civilian leaders whip up the latter. The War Party's kitchen is a busy place: they're always cooking up something, and there's a lot on the backburner: Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia are all bubbling and boiling, albeit not yet spilling over.

The neoconservative cabal that lied us into war may seem like they're on the defensive, what with some prominent Democrats calling for Rummy and Wolfie to resign, and Maureen Dowd chortling over the neocons' public humiliation. "Tonight," she predicts, "will be a stomach-churning moment for Mr. Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare."

...

Full column

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 25%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Shame on WorldNetDaily

Most of this article by Jacob Hornberger is about a feud between he and Ilana Mercer, over what Hornberger believes is an unjustified attack on his colleague Sheldon Richman. That part of the article isn't very interesting. But he makes a worthwhile (more generalized) point at the end, and I've excerpted that here. I've noticed the same tendency that he has with some "conservatives" in forums other than WorldNetDaily.

Shame on WorldNetDaily

...

Think about it: What do many conservatives stand for today? They stand for nothing more than developing reforms to the socialist New Deal-Great Society programs that they now embrace and that their predecessors once called for repealing, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They also favor public (i.e., government) schooling, income taxation, the IRS, economic regulations, illegal invasions and occupations, the drug war, indefinite detentions, suppression of civil liberties, gun control, an ever-growing military-industrial complex, uncontrollable government spending, especially on America's 51st state, Iraq, and executive nullification of constitutional provisions.

But rather than admit the error of their ways and reject the socialistic and interventionist means that their predecessors once opposed -- rather than join up with us libertarians to lead America and the world to the highest reaches of freedom, peace, and prosperity ever attained by man -- all too many conservatives now remain steadfastly committed to embracing the omnipotent state, even while incessantly calling for new reforms to fix the perverse results of this morally and economically bankrupt system.

Equally tragic, in the process some conservatives seem to have added a new war to all the others that they are waging around the world -- a war against libertarianism and truth. What a shame.

Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%

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Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter

Dean to Top $10 Million for Quarter
Democratic Candidate Might Forgo Public Financing

By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2003; Page A03

Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, who is considering becoming the first Democrat to forgo public financing for a presidential campaign, will raise at least $10.3 million this quarter, his campaign manager, Joe Trippi, said yesterday.

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%

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Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states

CNN.com - Wesley Clark: a tale of two (early-primary) states - Sep. 17, 2003

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Wesley Clark might be a familiar face. But as Joe Lieberman knows, front-runners need more than familiar faces.

Of course, the more pressing question Clark faces today as he joins nine fellow Dems in the presidential race is how he'll be received in the early-primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire. And since we figured Clark is pretty busy these days, we made some calls yesterday to gin up some answers for him.

It turns out that Clark, who is 58 and as an Arkansan has no geographic edge in either state, enjoys far deeper support in New Hampshire -- where one of his largest draft movements is based -- than in Iowa, where Dem leaders and political minds say his military background could hurt him.

...

Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 35%

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Among the Fringers

Among the Fringers
With enemies like these, who needs friends?

By Aaron Lukas, an analyst at the Cato Institute's Center for Trade Policy Studies
May 21, 2001 10:15 a.m

I recently returned from five days in Quebec City, a quaint and picturesque town on the St. Lawrence River, which will heretofore be known as "de gaz lacrymogène du monde;" the "tear gas capital of the world." I traveled there hoping to get inside the head of the anti-globalization, anti-trade movement. Trouble is, there was no head to be found. I saw heart in great abundance — in-your-face public displays of compassion were the order of the day — but clear thinking was conspicuously scarce. If you're going to embrace ignorance, I guess you might as well do it with gusto.

...

If nothing else, my time in Quebec dispelled any lingering doubts about whether the fringe groups have anything new to offer poor countries. Their issues may be new — human rights, environmental protection, and cultural diversity — but their prescription is as stale as ever: trade barriers and redistributive socialism. Never mind that those policies have failed time and again; anti-trade activists can abide anything, it seems, except choice and freedom. Their promise of government-sponsored prosperity is illusory. Countries that have heeded such advice — Cuba, North Korea, and those throughout much of Africa — have made little progress in raising living standards, while those that have embraced free markets — Taiwan, South Korea, Chile, Singapore, and others — have seen real improvements in the lives of average people.

There is no palatable alternative to free economies and free trade. A market economy isn't simply a place where people provide goods and services in the pursuit of profits — not that there's anything wrong with that. Market competition is also a discovery process; it is a way of learning things we wouldn't otherwise know. It is that knowledge that makes us more productive, wealthier, healthier, and better able to protect our world. The ability to reason and innovate is mankind's greatest gift. Yet the only way to realize that potential, to get at the knowledge that improves our lives, is through an open-market system where people are allowed to compete to satisfy the wants and needs of others.

The faces and slogans on the fringe Left may have changed, but the combination of naked self-interest and mindless idealism remains. The Quebec protesters cared deeply about many things, but sadly, not about the truth.

Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: R3
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%

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September 16, 2003

Wesley Clark to enter the race

Unless my political radar is short-circuiting, this is the guy to watch out for. It'll take the right kind of campaign to get started at this point, but he sounds like a nearly perfect candidate, electability-wise. I wouldn't want to run against him. Though at least if I do, he'll have had 5 years to have built up a load of presidential mistakes. What I meant is I wouldn't want to be any of the other 2004 candidates right now.

A moderate/liberal retired four-star general with lots of international experience, and lots of TV and radio experience, who's a political outsider? The only thing he's missing is elected offical experience, but I don't think that's as big of a deal as people make it out to be. I think it's the prerequisite that isn't really one.

We'll see how it goes...but rest assured that this guy has the Bush campaign worried in a way that none of the other candidates even came close to.

Clark to enter presidential race

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- Wesley Clark, the retired general with a four-star military resume but no political experience, decided Tuesday to become the 10th Democratic presidential candidate, officials close to him said.

"He's made his decision and will announce it tomorrow in Little Rock," said Mark Fabiani, a spokesman for Clark.

Fabiani did not reveal Clark's decision, but officials close to the former general said he told his fledgling campaign team that he's in the race.
...

Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%

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Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship

USATODAY.com - Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship

CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."

As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.
...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%

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September 15, 2003

Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean

I disagree with the analyst who is quoted below. I think Clark could run away with the nomination and the presidency. Dean is too politically fragile, and if Clark gets in, each stumble and crack in Dean's campaign will send people Clark's way. If he can jam on the same people-powered Internet campaign thing that Dean is (and the "Draft Clark" posse is already poised to do that, I assume), I think his campaign could take off big time.

Democrats are looking for the person that can beat Bush. All other things being equal, Clark easily outshines the rest of the pack in that category -- at least given what I know so far.

Clark Weighs Political Risks of Alliance With Dean

Amid growing speculation that former Army Gen. Wesley Clark is considering joining the campaign of Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean, one military/political analyst said an alliance between the liberal former Vermont governor and the former NATO commander could have broad national appeal in 2004.

Clark, a political outsider without money, doesn't have a chance as a presidential candidate, said Robert Maginnis, a national defense analyst with Fox News who is acquainted with Clark.

But as Dean's running mate, Clark could do for Dean what Vice President Dick Cheney did for President Bush, Maginnis said.

"Cheney was the heavyweight on national affairs, and Bush wasn't," Maginnis said. A Dean-Clark alliance would reflect a similar dynamic, "and I think it could be a winner," he added.

...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%

Posted by Lance Brown at 09:39 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote

FOXNews.com - Appeals Court Postpones Oct. 7 Recall Vote

SAN FRANCISCO — Leaving room for the nation's highest court to reverse its decision, a federal appeals court in California blocked the state's gubernatorial recall election scheduled for Oct. 7 and then put an immediate stay on its decision.

Three judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the vote can't proceed as scheduled - because some of the votes would be cast using outdated punch-card ballot machines. Monday's decision reversed a lower court's earlier decision not to postpone the recall.

"In sum, in assessing the public interest, the balance falls heavily in favor of postponing the election for a few months," the court said.

• Raw Data: Read the Ruling (pdf)

The decision doesn't mean, however, that the recall can't go forward, but it may not happen on Oct. 7, as originally planned. It's possible that the nation's largest and most liberal federal appeals court might move the election to the next regularly scheduled primary on March 2.

The court stayed implementing its decision for a week to allow time for appeals to the Supreme Court on the recall, California's first voter-driven election to unseat Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 50%

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The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled

The real reason Gray Davis should be recalled
by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster

Buddy has not seen his mother in over a year. His mother misses him desperately. She is no longer quite sure what he looks like. A child changes so much at eight. She thought about him while she was locked in jail, held on half a million dollars bail. This is the second time Buddy has been kidnapped by the authorities responsible for keeping victims of violence safe.

KT Delettre, Buddy's mother is the survivor of domestic violence. Her abuser, Loren Oliver, tried to abort her son when she was eight months pregnant, battering her pregnant abdomen. He told her he would kill her, if he could get away with it.

What he did not accomplish then he is trying to do using the courts. KT nearly died in prison. Unable to raise the half million dollars her weight dropped to 82 pounds as she was slowly starved nearly to death.

...

Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 45%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

California conservatives: spoilers in the recall?

Wearing star-studded GOP elephant brooches and red, white, and blue neckties, they huddle around a polyurethane picnic table on the town green. With the gazebo draped for a campaign talk by their chosen candidate for governor - Republican state Sen. Tom McClintock - a group of inland, rural voters chats about the long decline of America's largest state and the man they say will fix it.

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 20%

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Bush is a neoconservative

Bush is a neoconservative
by Ilana Mercer
Posted: September 10, 2003

It's a positive sign when conservative commentators rush to defend President Bush from being defiled by the neoconservative label. The tag, thankfully, is becoming a pejorative. They will, however, have to pry Mr. Bush from the loving arms of the self- proclaimed "godfather" of neocons himself.

Irving Kristol, who emerged to "sex-up" the already flashy neoconservative "persuasion" in a Weekly Standard article, gave Mr. Bush the neocon seal of approval. The author of "Neoconservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea," credits the "current president and his administration" with reviving the faith. Under Mr. Bush it "began enjoying a second life," says Kristol.

...

Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 45%

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"Smokers' Candidate" Promotes His Cig Stores While Embarrassing the Party

This is another article about Ned Roscoe, the candidate for governor with the fatally foolish campaign angle. Good for his business maybe, but at a cost to the California LP, IMO. It's an embarassment that the LPC leadership endorsed him.

Libertarian gubernatorial candidate visits Y-S

Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -.5
Learning Percentage: 1%

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Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy

Johnny Depp: U.S. is like a stupid puppy - Sep. 3, 2003

BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- Hollywood star Johnny Depp said on Wednesday the United States was a stupid, aggressive puppy and he would not live there until the political climate changed.

...

"I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots," he told Stern.

Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 8%

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Former Waco Government Lawyer Commits Suicide

Former U.S. Attorney Apparently Commits Suicide

SOUR LAKE, Texas -- A former federal prosecutor who defended the U.S. government in a lawsuit filed by surviving Branch Davidians was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

A police officer checking on an abandoned vehicle found the body of former U.S. Attorney J. Michael Bradford shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

...

Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 78%

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September 14, 2003

Patriot II -- More Power, Please, Says Bush

So, they just want the power to violate the privacy of tens of thousands of people on the spot, on their own discretion.

Here's the question then: Why bother having warrants or judicial approval in any cases? What's the logic wall which prevents the example they give below from proceeding to the government simply always having instant access to all the hotel bases to check for any "known offender" in all fields of law enforcement?

Bush Seeks to Expand Access to Private Data

WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 -- For months, President Bush's advisers have assured a skittish public that law-abiding Americans have no reason to fear the long reach of the antiterrorism law known as the Patriot Act because its most intrusive measures would require a judge's sign-off.

But in a plan announced this week to expand counterterrorism powers, President Bush adopted a very different tack. In a three-point presidential plan that critics are already dubbing Patriot Act II, Mr. Bush is seeking broad new authority to allow federal agents -- without the approval of a judge or even a federal prosecutor -- to demand private records and compel testimony.

Mr. Bush also wants to expand the use of the death penalty in crimes like terrorist financing, and he wants to make it tougher for defendants in such cases to be freed on bail before trial. These proposals are also sure to prompt sharp debate, even among Republicans.

...

But Mr. Corallo gave a hypothetical example in which the F.B.I. received a tip in the middle of the night that an unidentified terrorist had traveled to Boston. Under Mr. Bush's plan, the F.B.I., rather than waiting for a judicial order, could subpoena all the Boston hotels to get registries for each of their guests, then run those names against a terrorist database for a match, he said.

Full story

TruthOut permacopy

Read It Rating: 9
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 50%

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LaRouche Remains Among Leaders in Democratic Fundraising

This was surprising to find.

LaRouche Remains Among Leaders in Democratic Fundraising

Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche continues to hold a leading position among the current field running for the Democratic Presidential nomination, according to the results of the July 2003 Quarterly filing with the Federal Election Commission. LaRouche ranks second in the total number of individual contributions, and sixth in total money raised.

...

Read It Rating: 5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 80%

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The wounded: America's hidden battlefield toll

The Observer | International | America's hidden battlefield toll

New figures reveal the true number of GIs wounded in Iraq

Jason Burke in London and Paul Harris in New York
Sunday September 14, 2003

The true scale of American casualties in Iraq is revealed today by new figures obtained by The Observer, which show that more than 6,000 American servicemen have been evacuated for medical reasons since the beginning of the war, including more than 1,500 American soldiers who have been wounded, many seriously.
The figures will shock many Americans, who believe that casualties in the war in Iraq have been relatively light. Recent polls show that support for President George Bush and his administration's policy in Iraq has been slipping.

The number of casualties will also increase pressure on Bush to share the burden of occupying Iraq with more nations. Attempts to broker an international alliance to pour more men and money into Iraq foundered yesterday when Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, brusquely rejected a French proposal as 'totally unrealistic'.

Full story

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L3
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 40%

Posted by Lance Brown at 09:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hitler's Enabling Act

On March 23, 1933, the newly elected members of the German Parliament (the Reichstag) met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to consider passing Hitler's Enabling Act. It was officially called the 'Law for Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.' If passed, it would effectively mean the end of democracy in Germany and establish the legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler.

The 'distress' had been secretly caused by the Nazis themselves in order to create a crisis atmosphere that would make the law seem necessary to restore order. On February 27, 1933, they had burned the Reichstag building, seat of the German government, causing panic and outrage. The Nazis successfully blamed the fire on the Communists and claimed it marked the beginning of a widespread uprising.

On the day of the vote, Nazi storm troopers gathered in a show of force around the opera house chanting, "Full powers - or else! We want the bill - or fire and murder!!" They also stood inside in the hallways, and even lined the aisles where the vote would take place, glaring menacingly at anyone who might oppose Hitler's will.

Just before the vote, Hitler made a speech to the Reichstag in which he pledged to use restraint.

"The government will make use of these powers only insofar as they are essential for carrying out vitally necessary measures...The number of cases in which an internal necessity exists for having recourse to such a law is in itself a limited one." - Hitler told the Reichstag.

He also promised an end to unemployment and pledged to promote peace with France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union. But in order to do all this, Hitler said, he first needed the Enabling Act.

A two thirds majority was needed, since the law would actually alter the German constitution. Hitler needed 31 non-Nazi votes to pass it. He got those votes from the Center Party after making a false promise to restore some basic rights already taken away by decree.

However, one man arose amid the overwhelming might. Otto Wells, leader of the Social Democrats stood up and spoke quietly to Hitler.

"We German Social Democrats pledge ourselves solemnly in this historic hour to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and socialism. No enabling act can give you power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible."

This enraged Hitler and he jumped up to respond.

"You are no longer needed! - The star of Germany will rise and yours will sink! Your death knell has sounded!"

The vote was taken - 441 for, only 84, the Social Democrats, against. The Nazis leapt to their feet clapping, stamping and shouting, then broke into the Nazi anthem, the Hörst Wessel song.

They achieved what Hitler had wanted for years - to tear down the German Democratic Republic legally and end democracy, thus paving the way for a complete Nazi takeover of Germany.

From this day on, the Reichstag would be just a sounding board, a cheering section for Hitler's pronouncements.

This document is a copy of the original, found here.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

Thanks to Cap Hayes at circleoften.org for providing the copy. I figured the more archived copies of stuff like this, the better.

Read It Rating: 10
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 8 (if we learn from it)
Learning Percentage: 15%

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Johnny Cash, 1932-2003

Mercury News | 09/13/2003 | `Man in Black' spoke for the outcast

While most of his country music peers dressed in rhinestones and wrote shiny Nashville tunes, Johnny Cash was an outlaw who dressed in black, sang hardscrabble songs in a baritone that reeked of a perpetual hangover, and whose most famous photograph had him glaring at the camera with an outstretched middle finger.

In a recording career of almost 50 years, Cash became a towering figure in American music, writing and singing about the rough edges of society, and in the process becoming an icon of coolness to hard-core country fans and metalheads alike. Cash died Friday at age 71.

Full story

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 25%

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September 13, 2003

MoveOn.org PAC Launches “Recall No, Democracy Yes” Campaign in California

I debunked Moveon's 10 Reasons Why the Recall is Wrong over on my main blog. One curiosity I've noticed since is the disparity between their assertion that "a single congressman brought us the recall", and the assertion that the recall is another in a series of efforts by the "national Republican leadership". Are they counting Congressman Darrell Issa as part of that national Republican leadership? I suppose technically he is a "national" leader, being a federal congressman, but he hardly comes to mind when listing the players in the national GOP -- and he's been effectively disappeared in terms of the recall.

Are they alleging that Issa was a willing pawn in a move by higher GOP forces, or that he was an unwilling dupe to a grand plan by Karl Rove? I wouldn't dismiss either possibility, but I'm not clear if that's what they are saying. Are they also saying that the same people who were behind the Clinton impeachment are behind the recall -- and if so, which people? Rove & Co? Again, I don't deny that it could be that way, but if they are going to allege that the dots are connected, I'd like to see the line drawn from dot to dot.

MoveOn.org PAC Launches “Recall No, Democracy Yes” Campaign in California

Wednesday, September 3, 2003—MoveOn.org PAC, the leading Web-based organizer of progressive action, announced a campaign today challenging one million California voters to sign an on-line pledge to vote “no” on the recall ballot in California. Criticizing the recall as the latest example of efforts by the national Republican leadership to undermine democracy, the Internet group that has proven online activists can also be on-the-ground organizers is now throwing its weight into the anti-recall movement.

Read It Rating: 3
Left/Right Rating: L5
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 4%

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September 10, 2003

Wisconsin congressman asks Bush to oust Cheney and Wolfowitz

Wisconsin congressman asks Bush to oust defense leaders

MADISON (AP) -- A congressman from Wisconsin has asked President Bush to call for the resignations of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, saying they have so mishandled the war in Iraq that they should quit.

"I recommend that you allow the secretary of defense and deputy secretary of defense to return to the private sector," wrote U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

The 18-term congressman said he thought long and hard before writing the letter, realizing that it's a serious matter to suggest to a president that a member of his Cabinet should leave.

But he said he concluded it was necessary, after talking with defense and diplomatic experts and people in his district.

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz "have made repeated and serious miscalculations, miscalculations that have been extremely costly to the American people in terms of lives lost, degradation of our military and intelligence capability to defend against terrorists in countries outside Iraq, isolation from our traditional allies and unexpected demands on our budget that are crowding our other priorities," Obey wrote.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 45%

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Al-Qaida issues a chilling warning

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Al-Qaida issues a chilling warning

Brian Whitaker and agencies
Monday September 8, 2003
The Guardian

A new tape purporting to be from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network yesterday threatened an onslaught against Americans so devastating it would obliterate memories of the September 11 suicide attacks.

The audio tape message, dated September 3, was broadcast on al-Arabiyya satellite TV channel yesterday and seemed timed to coincide with the second anniversary of the devastation in New York and Washington in which about 3,000 people were killed.

"We announce there will be new attacks inside and outside [the US] which would make America forget the attacks of September 11," said an al-Qaida spokesman who identified himself as Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Najdi. The television showed a still photograph of a bearded militant.

"We assure Muslims that al-Qaida ranks have doubled ... Our casualties are nothing compared to our (good) conditions now. Our coming martyrdom operations will prove to you what we are saying," he added.

The speaker denied al-Qaida had been involved in the car bombing that killed Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, a leading Shia cleric, in Iraq last month.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -4
Learning Percentage: 20%

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September 09, 2003

Family, Gov't Clash Over Boy With Cancer

SALT LAKE CITY - Doctors say 12-year-old Parker Jensen has Ewing's sarcoma, an aggressive and deadly cancer, and needs chemotherapy.

His parents contend he's healthy now and the chemotherapy could just as easily kill him. They accused one hospital of rushing the diagnosis and two others of rubber-stamping it, then fled to Idaho with their son to avoid a court order requiring the treatment.

Now, Daren and Barbara Jensen are charged with felony kidnapping for going into exile with the boy, setting up the latest collision between a family and the government over who decides a child's best interests when it comes to life-and-death care.

...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 75%

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Knapp: Engaging the Greens

The Libertarian Party is not a party of "the right."

Go Tom!

Engaging the Greens

There's no easy way to begin this article, so I'm going to just throw caution to the wind and begin it in the hardest way possible -- with two allegations:

1) Too many Americans regard Libertarians as "disgruntled conservatives" -- people who would be comfortable in the Republican Party "if only the GOP did what it promised to do."

2) Too many Libertarians -- at the individual and organizational level -- give credence to this assumption in too many ways, from choices of rhetoric to choices of focus.

Please don't read too much into these allegations. I am not saying that Libertarians have nothing in common with conservatives, or that "disgruntled conservatives" might not find themselves more at home in the LP. However, to the extent that the commonalities between conservatives and Libertarians take center stage, the Libertarian Party automatically limits its ability to forge an identity of its own ... an identity that it not only deserves, but desperately needs if it is ever to aspire to something other than "also ran" status.

...

Repeat three times after me: The Libertarian Party is not a party of "the right." Nor are we a party of "the left." We're a different kind of animal entirely, and until we start acting like one, we're just urinating into the wind.

Read It Rating: 10
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 4
Learning Percentage: 20%

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Buchanan: The imperial retreat begins

The imperial retreat begins
by Patrick J. Buchanan

We cannot do it by ourselves in Iraq. We need help.

That is the message sent in the clear to the Mideast and the world by our going back to the United Nations to ask for troops and aid in Iraq. Our enemies can read that message as well as our friends.
...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 10%

Posted by Lance Brown at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Private Schools Cost Less Than You May Think

Vouchers, tuition tax credits, and scholarships are being awarded in a growing number of states and big cities as a way of allowing more children to attend private schools, rather than government-operated public schools. Wherever these programs are implemented, critics claim that vouchers or tax credits won't give children from poor families access to private schools because the costs of such schools are high. But are private schools really prohibitively expensive? Not according to the numbers.

The most recent figures available from the U.S. Department of Education show that in 2000 the average tuition for private elementary schools nationwide was $3,267. Government figures also indicate that 41 percent of all private elementary and secondary schools -- more than 27,000 nationwide -- charged less than $2,500 for tuition. Less than 21 percent of all private schools charged more than $5,000 per year in tuition. According to these figures, elite and very expensive private schools tend to be the exception in their communities, not the rule.

...

Existing school choice programs have already provided evidence of the benefits of school choice both for those students that switch to better schools and for those who stay in public schools. Studies in Florida, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Arizona, and Michigan have all shown that, in areas where school choice is available, public schools, in one way or another, improve in significant ways, including test scores and parental involvement.

Fostering a more competitive market in education is critical if the quality of education in inner cities and elsewhere is to be improved. Government monopolies -- and that includes public schools -- tend to serve many or most of their clients poorly, especially in a large and diverse society. Giving parents access to a growing, affordable, and diverse supply of private schools will help ensure that the current generation of American children receives a quality education.

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: R1
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 65%

Posted by Lance Brown at 12:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Burning Man: 'Naked is OK in the newsroom'

'Naked is OK in the newsroom'

British journalist Gaby Pomeroy spent a week on a paper at the radical Burning Man festival in Nevada

Monday September 8, 2003
The Guardian

A naked volunteer journalist with a Hello Kitty nipple ring is sitting cross-legged on the floor at the daily news meeting of the Black Rock Gazette. This is the official daily newspaper of the Burning Man festival, possibly the wackiest slice of America, held each year during the last week of August in the Nevada desert.

Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: L1.5
Freedom Rating: .3
Learning Percentage: 20%

Posted by Lance Brown at 12:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 08, 2003

Libertarians urge overturning ban on re-imported prescription drugs

====================================
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
====================================
For release: September 4, 2003
====================================
For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008
====================================

Libertarians urge overturning ban
on re-imported prescription drugs

WASHINGTON, DC -- The federal ban on re-imported prescription drugs has
turned ailing senior citizens into criminals and dramatically inflated
the cost of medicine, says the Libertarian Party, which is supporting
legislation that would overturn the policy.

"This is price-fixing by the federal government, plain and simple,"
said Joseph Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. "In an
attempt to further enrich the pharmaceutical industry, politicians are
gouging senior citizens and interfering with every American's right to
buy products from wherever they choose."

Spurred by growing anger over skyrocketing drug prices, the U.S. House
took a step toward overturning the ban in July, when it passed a bill
that would allow drugs to be re-imported from Canada and 25 other
nations. But the Senate refused to adopt that legislation, and this
week a House-Senate conference committee is set to decide whether to
include that language in its $400 billion prescription drug bill.

Currently many Americans are purchasing the U.S.-made drugs in Canada
and other nations that sell them less expensively, then "re-importing"
them illegally into the United States.

The pharmaceutical industry and the FDA have launched a campaign
against the bill, arguing that re-importation could bring unsafe
medicines into the United States.

But Libertarians say the safety argument is just a scare tactic.

"Pharmaceutical companies disingenuously claim to want to 'protect'
people from the drugs that they themselves produced," Seehusen said.
"The truth is that this industry is far more worried about protecting
its government-protected profits than it is about protecting public
health."

The free-market itself offers all the protection that consumers need,
Seehusen said.

"If companies produce a defective product, bad publicity results, sales
plummet, and eventually executives get fired," he said. "Severe cases
can result in ruinous lawsuits and even criminal charges against
negligent executives.

"The same free market that rewards successful companies imposes a harsh
penalty on those that make harmful products -- whether those companies
are located in Canada, Germany, or the United States."

The real issue is economics, not safety, said Seehusen, who pointed out
that senior citizens are paying up to six times more for drugs in the
United States. The breast cancer drug Tamoxifen costs $60 in Munich but
$360 in the United States, for example.

"By outlawing these drugs, the government is simply propping up prices
for its corporate clients and gouging senior citizens in the process,"
he said.

That's why Libertarians support overturning the ban on re-imported
drugs.

"The free-market is the best prescription for reducing health-care
costs," Seehusen said. "It's time to decriminalize prescription drugs,
and protect senior citizens from the government."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

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Secret Saudi History

"I smiled at my own joke, but the clerk's smile disappeared. 'Ask again,' he hissed, 'and I will call security to remove you from the building and have you barred as a security risk ..'"

By Sarah Whalen*

"I'm sorry," the clerk at the U.S. National Archives says: "You can't see the Saudi Arabian documents." I'm surprised. All the National Archive's documents are already reviewed and then declassified or removed. In theory, whatever's there is no longer secret.

Until 9/11.

"It's part of the Patriot Act," the clerk averred, referring to Public Law 107-56, the hastily-passed legislation entitled, "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001."

"The U.S. State Department records you requested are indeed declassified and theoretically available. But they also may contain information that terrorists can use, like names and addresses and information of U.S. citizens." I gave a blank look. "So?" The clerk's brow furrowed with concern. "A terrorist could come into the National Archives and try to steal their identities or target them for assassination."

I protested: "The documents I seek are over thirty years old and even older." Now the clerk's smile became nothing but teeth, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.
...

Read It Rating: 8.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: -2.5
Learning Percentage: 55%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bush seeks an exit strategy as war threatens his career

The President will make a dramatic U-turn on Iraq in a TV broadcast tonight to try to salvage his hopes of re-election amid Americans' growing hostility to the casualties and chaos. Report by Paul Harris in New York, Jason Burke and Gaby Hinsliff

Sunday September 7, 2003
The Observer

George Bush will attempt tonight to convince the American people that he has a workable 'exit strategy' to free his forces from the rapidly souring conflict in Iraq, as Britain prepares to send in thousands more troops to reinforce the faltering coalition effort.

Frantic negotiations continued this weekend in New York to secure a United Nations resolution that would open the way for other countries to deploy peacekeeping troops to help after Bush - with one eye on next year's presidential election - signalled a change of heart on America's refusal to allow any but coalition forces into Iraq.

...

Read It Rating: 6
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 30%

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September 07, 2003

Cig tycoon woos votes

Read It Rating: 1
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 0%

Posted by Lance Brown at 05:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Recall Gubernatorial Candidates on Marijuana Law Reform

Schwarzenegger, Other Calif. Gubernatorial Candidates Voice Support For Pot Law Reform
Margolin And Camejo Back Taxing And Regulating Pot For Personal Use

September 3, 2003 - Sacramento, CA, USA

Of the 135 California gubernatorial candidates, several have come out in favor of marijuana law reform.
...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2.5
Freedom Rating: 1.1
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 05:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Burning Man victim remembered

SAN CARLOS -- More than 100 people packed into a small chapel Friday to honor a beautiful and talented young woman who had the misfortune of being the first person to die at the Burning Man festival in its 17-year history.

Katherine Lampman -- Kathy to family and friends -- died one week ago today after she was hit by an art car at the week-long counterculture festival held in Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

Full story

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -1
Learning Percentage: 50%

Posted by Lance Brown at 05:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bringing Burning Man to the real world

Burning Man counterculture seeks social, political influence

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. (AP) - Burning Man, the wild counterculture festival held annually in one of the nation's most remote areas, is coming to cities across America.

It's time to try to influence the very culture against which this year's record 30,500 Burning Man participants rebelled, the phenomenon's founder and resident visionary said in an interview.

Ultimately, executive director Larry Harvey sees the festival's values of libertarian freedom, radical artistic and self-expression, and anti-consumerism becoming a social movement that will influence American politics.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: L2
Freedom Rating: 2
Learning Percentage: 55%

Posted by Lance Brown at 05:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 06, 2003

Former British MP sparks fury over claims on September 11 and Iraq war

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Meacher sparks fury over claims on September 11 and Iraq war

Michael Meacher, who served as a minister for six years until three months ago, today goes further than any other mainstream British politician in blaming the Iraq war on a US desire for domination of the Gulf and the world.

Mr Meacher, a leftwinger who is close to the green lobby, also claims in an article in today's Guardian that the war on terrorism is a smokescreen and that the US knew in advance about the September 11 attack on New York but, for strategic reasons, chose not to act on the warnings.

He says the US goal is "world hegemony, built around securing by force command over the oil supplies" and that this Pax Americana "provides a much better explanation of what actually happened before, during and after 9/11 than the global war on terrorism thesis".

...

He says that the plans of the neo-conservatives in Washington for action against Afghanistan and Iraq were well in hand before September 11. He questions why the US failed to heed intelligence about al-Qaida operatives in the US and the apparent slow reaction of the US authorities on the day, as well as the subsequent inability to lay hands on Bin Laden.

He argues that the explanation makes sense when seen against the background of the neo-conservative plan.

"From this it seems that the so-called 'war on terrorism' is being used largely as bogus cover for achieving wider US strategic geopolitical objectives."

Full story...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L1
Freedom Rating: .3
Learning Percentage: 50%

Posted by Lance Brown at 04:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Measure Q language called unfair

Lawrence Samuels is right on this one. The language in that ballot question (quoted below) is completely wack. Why not just have it say "To avoid the death of all children tomorrow, should we pass this sales tax?"

Monterey County Herald | 09/06/2003 | Measure Q language called unfair

Opponents of a measure to raise the county sales tax say the language that will appear on the Measure Q ballot is unfair.

"It's advocacy, is what it is," said Lawrence Samuels of the Coalition of Taxpayers Against a Sales Tax Increase. "It talks about life-threatening shutdowns and about children. We don't think the ballot question should be so biased."

Samuels said attorneys for the group are considering legal action.

Meanwhile, supporters of the sales tax increase got a major boost this week when the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce issued its support for Measure Q.

...

The following is the question that will appear on the ballot:

"To avoid life-threatening shutdown of significant portions of Natividad Medical Center's health-care delivery system, including services for emergency room, acute inpatient adults and children, primary and specialty care, maintain and improve the system countywide, and allow continued response to critical and urgent medical needs of all County residents, shall Ordinance No. 04192 be approved for the purpose of collecting a one-half percent sales tax throughout the county?"

Read It Rating: 2
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: -2
Learning Percentage: 80%

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September 04, 2003

Bring Our Troops Home and Send In the Neocons

by Ron Holland

Today is just another day and another major bombing against US and US-affiliated targets in Iraq. Our garrison troops continue under attack daily and the oil pipelines continue to explode and burn. Why the heck are we there and isn't it time to take the false neocon propaganda and the neocon advisors and put them where they have placed our American men and women in uniform?
...

Read It Rating: 8
Left/Right Rating: R2
Freedom Rating: 1.1
Learning Percentage: 8%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Inside Karl Rove's Diary

This is the second "Inside Rove's Diaries" piece I've read (the first was by Arianna Huffington), and while it's a little better than Arianna's, it's not very convincing.

Inside Karl Rove's Diary:
"Things Aren't Going So Well"

By Bernard Weiner
Co-Editor, "The Crisis Papers."

Dear Diary:

Things aren't going so well. We were on a good two-year roll there after 9/11. Our in-your-face hardball politics had so frightened and flummoxed the opposition that it looked like we were going to get everything we wanted, not the least another term in the White House.

Now there's: Iraq imploding on us; the economy still in the tank, with 2,500,000 who've lost their jobs since we took over; investigations proceeding on the 9/11 cover-up, and maybe also on our outing of Wilson's wife as a CIA agent and our lying about the air-quality in Lower Manhattan for nine months after the WTC collapsed; and a pack of mean Democrat dogs out there yapping away at our domestic and war policies.

The total control we've exercised over the mass media -- conglomerate ownership sure has paid off for our side -- is beginning to crack. We hear that even some conservative GOP stalwarts are beginning to see vulnerabilities in our approach and are wondering whether to hedge their bets and start looking for others to lead the fight.

Full column

Read It Rating: 3.5
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: .5
Learning Percentage: 0%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:04 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

September 03, 2003

Former drug warriors turn against prohibition

Altered Minds
Former drug warriors turn against prohibition.

by Jacob Sullum
ReasonOnline

In the 1980s, not many people could plausibly claim stronger anti-drug credentials than Nancy Reagan. But Forest Tennant could.

"It's great for the Reagans to get up and say, 'Let's do something about the drug problem,' but I don't know who's going to do it," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1986. "Only true professional people like myself can do very much with the drug problem."

...

Tennant has published hundreds of scientific articles, testified in high-profile trials, and advised the NFL, NASCAR, the California Highway Patrol, the Food and Drug Administration, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The Times described him as "riding at the forefront of the current wave of anti-drug sentiment."

So when the folks at the Hoover Institution who produce the PBS show Uncommon Knowledge were looking for someone to debate drug policy with me, Tennant must have seemed like a natural choice. Imagine their surprise when he ended up agreeing that the war on drugs has been a disastrous mistake.

...

Tennant is by no means the only former drug warrior who has become a critic of current policy. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), founded last year, includes more than 400 current and former police officers, judges, federal agents, prosecutors, and parole, probation, and corrections officers. The group is headed by Jack Cole, a 26-year veteran of the New Jersey State Police who worked in narcotics enforcement for 14 years.
...

Full article...

Read It Rating: 9.8
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 4
Learning Percentage: 50%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:22 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dutch Government begins distributing prescription cannabis

Cannabis as a prescription drug

The Dutch government has started distributing cannabis as a prescription painkiller to pharmacies to treat chronically ill patients. The Hague had already been turning a blind eye to medicinal cannabis use, but now it's become the world's first government to supply the drug itself, in accordance with United Nations rules on narcotics.

Cannabis sativa has been used therapeutically for many centuries. Known to the Chinese as a strong herbal remedy around 5,000 years ago, it was introduced into European medicine in Napoleonic times. Its pain relieving and sedative effects soon became accepted by Western medical practitioners, who prescribed it on a wide scale. Britain's Queen Victoria is said to have taken cannabis tincture for menstrual pains.

Full article...

Read It Rating: 9.4
Left/Right Rating: L6
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Learning Percentage: 50%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

PATRIOTs and Chicken Littles

The Burden of Bad Memes
PATRIOTs and Chicken Littles

by Julian Sanchez
ReasonOnline

It's official: The fashionable fall meme for unreconstructed Bush administration cheerleaders is the notion that civil-libertarian concerns about the PATRIOT Act have been much ado about nothing: the squawking of so many Chicken Littles.

The defense of PATRIOT has been slow in coming, in part because it was possible, at first,
to dismiss criticism as predictable carping from the usual suspects: the
American Civil Liberties Union,
the
Electronic Frontier Foundation,
and other notorious "fifth columnists," to borrow the new right's sledgehammer-subtle
imprecation du jour. Things became trickier once
American Baptist Churches,
the
American Conservative Union,
Gun Owners of America,
and folks like Georgia ex-representative
Bob Barr
began voicing reservations. The
conservative base has begun to get nervous.

Full column...

Read It Rating: 9.7
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 2.5
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Harley-Davidson has huge birthday bash

By MELISSA McCORD
Associated Press Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) - Harley-Davidson Inc. topped off its 100th birthday celebration Sunday by bringing 150,000 devoted followers together at Milwaukee's lakefront for a party featuring country star Tim McGraw, rocker Kid Rock and Elton John as its mystery guests.

McGraw rode to the stage on a Harley and went straight into a set. Kid Rock later joined him in a song, drawing the loudest applause of the night at that point, and then did more songs with McGraw's band.

After McGraw completed the set, a large gospel choir filled the stage and sang as dozens of spotlights swirled their beams over the audience, forming a cone or wheel shape.

John later took his seat at the piano, getting a mixed reaction from the biker crowd.

Full story...

Read It Rating: 4.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 0
Learning Percentage: 35%

Posted by Lance Brown at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 02, 2003

Canine Fast Food

An article about feeding the dog while RVing.

Canine Fast Food

Read It Rating: 4
Left/Right Rating: N/A
Freedom Rating: N/A
Learning Percentage: 18%

Posted by Lance Brown at 11:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bush's Southern Problem

by Katrina vanden Heuvel
The Nation

"Any Democratic candidate will be destroyed in the South," gloated Chris Caldwell in a recent issue of the Weekly Standard. Caldwell should head to Greenville, South Carolina, one of the most conservative areas in the United States, where Bush--bashing currently extends from unemployed machine operators to textile industry CEOs.

"Bush can forget about the Solid South," says Roger Chastain, president of a textile company. "There's no Solid South anymore." Chastain told the New York Times that the massive loss of jobs (2.5 million nationally) since Bush took office, and anger over the stagnant pace of economic recovery, makes the president vulnerable in a region his party has long taken for granted. Lynn Mayson, a mother of three, and unemployed for months, put it bluntly: "I'm not going to vote for Bush unless things change. The economy has got to get better." Both Chastain and Mayson are registered Republicans, part of the "solid south" that helped Bush win office in 2000.

The trade issue has become a lightning rod of discontent in these parts. ...

Read It Rating: 7.5
Left/Right Rating: L4
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 45%

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September 01, 2003

Old ID Card Gives New Status to Mexicans in U.S.

I came upon this article while surfing the racist, uber-nationalistic "American Patrol" site. On their site, the headline of this article is "Mickey Mouse Mexican card gives status to lawbreakers" -- and this is their (laughable if it wasn't so sick and twisted) "excerpt":

...The [laughable Mexican matricula consular] card has been issued by the Mexican government for more than 100 years to keep track of its citizens in the U.S. But across this country cities and states are increasingly recognizing the card, too, as officials seek ways to identify residents in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 and try to better serve [Mexican invaders].

You knpw what they say...if you're going to be racist, you might as well go the whole distance and be paranoid too.

You can read more raving anti-Mexican stuff, particularly in regard to this ID card, here.

Old ID Card Gives New Status to Mexicans in U.S.

By RACHEL L. SWARNS

INDIANAPOLIS — For nearly a decade, Reynaldo Montes De Oca Suarez strived to be invisible. He melted in and out of crowds, ducking police officers and city officials. He flourished in the bustling anonymity of restaurant kitchens here, building a life as a cook amid the clattering plates and spitting frying pans.

But in recent months, Mr. Montes de Oca and other undocumented immigrants from Mexico have begun stepping out of the shadows. This summer, Indianapolis and seven other Midwestern cities started accepting an identity card issued by the Mexican government, offering Mexicans who are here illegally a startlingly new sense of legitimacy.

In East Chicago, Ind., immigrants with the Mexican identification card, known as the matrícula consular, can now borrow library books and arrange city water services. In Cincinnati, police officers accept the card from crime victims, witnesses and suspects.

In Indianapolis, immigrants carrying the matrícula card can apply for building licenses and permits to drive taxis and operate vending carts.

The card has been issued by the Mexican government for more than 100 years to keep track of its citizens in the United States. But across this country cities and states are increasingly recognizing the card, too, as officials seek ways to identify residents in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and try to better serve immigrants.

Read It Rating: 6.5
Left/Right Rating: 0
Freedom Rating: 1
Learning Percentage: 50%

Posted by Lance Brown at 03:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack