From American Progress:
Think Fast
"Households are spending about $1,000 more per year for gasoline than they were just five years ago, an 85 percent increase" according to consumer groups' analysis prepared for the House Judiciary Committee. "In the past five years the oil industry has picked consumers pockets for 200 billion in excess profits," said the Consumer Federation of America.
"Nearly two dozen officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year at the Veterans Affairs Department sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments."
"Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, he didn't realize he would get a hard sell for Christian fundamentalism along with treatment for his kidney stones." Miller, an Orthodox Jew, "said he was repeatedly proselytized by hospital chaplains and staff in attempts to convert him to Christianity during three hospitalizations over the past two years."
"Two federal appeals court judges appeared to support giving detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, access to all the evidence against them when challenging their designation as enemy combatants. The Bush administration proposes to limit detainees' lawyers to the evidence presented to the U.S. military tribunal that made the determination."
92 percent: Proportion of the world's opium that Afghanistan now produces. Bush administration officials acknowledge that until recently, "fighting drugs was considered a distraction from fighting terrorists." The problem has become so severe that American officials now "hope that Afghanistan's drug problem will someday be only as bad as that of Colombia."
"For the first time," the Senate is expected to vote today on measure sponsored by Sen. John Warner (R-VA) "that would force President Bush to report to Congress how he intends to revise U.S. strategy if the Iraqi government fails to meet certain benchmarks."
"Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report," noting "clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely."
41: Number of Iraqis killed in violence yesterday. At least 125 people were wounded.
"A Texas businessman listed as a major fundraiser for President George Bush has made millions of dollars in profits from a federal reading program that critics say favored administration cronies at the expense of schoolchildren."
And finally: Do people love Vice President Cheney more than they love President Bush? In 2006, Cheney received at least 15 presents totaling $21,674, many reflecting his "love of outdoor pursuits." Bush received at least 20 gifts worth just $12,364. Gifts for Bush included "two wooden benches" and "jackets." At Christmas, Bush gave Cheney "$667 worth of instruments to measure temperature, barometric pressure and tides."
Wrap...
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Bush hides Rumsfeld resignation letter...Why?
From Reuters:
Rumsfeld's Resignation Letter Remains Elusive
By REUTERS
Published: May 15, 2007
Filed at 3:14 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is keeping a tight hold on Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter nearly five months after the former defense secretary and Iraq war manager stepped down.
The Pentagon says it does not have a copy, and the White House office likely to hold the letter is not subject to the law that allows the public to seek release of government documents, the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA .
A defense official, who declined to be identified publicly, on Tuesday chalked up the close hold on Rumsfeld's letter to the existence of few copies.
``I suspect there's only one copy of that and it went to the president,'' the official said.
Reuters filed FOIA requests for the letter with the Pentagon and White House.
In response to a November request, the Defense Department's FOIA office said last month a ``thorough search of the records systems ... revealed no records responsive to your request.''
President George W. Bush's office of administration, in response to another FOIA request, said this month it too had no copy of Rumsfeld's resignation letter.
But Carol Ehrlich, FOIA officer there, said the office of administration within the executive office of the president was a separate entity from the White House office, which controls its own records and is not subject to FOIA.
Pentagon spokesmen refused to release the letter in November 2006, when Rumsfeld resigned after Republicans' stinging election defeat. They told reporters to file FOIA requests for the letter.
Wrap...
Rumsfeld's Resignation Letter Remains Elusive
By REUTERS
Published: May 15, 2007
Filed at 3:14 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is keeping a tight hold on Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter nearly five months after the former defense secretary and Iraq war manager stepped down.
The Pentagon says it does not have a copy, and the White House office likely to hold the letter is not subject to the law that allows the public to seek release of government documents, the Freedom of Information Act or FOIA .
A defense official, who declined to be identified publicly, on Tuesday chalked up the close hold on Rumsfeld's letter to the existence of few copies.
``I suspect there's only one copy of that and it went to the president,'' the official said.
Reuters filed FOIA requests for the letter with the Pentagon and White House.
In response to a November request, the Defense Department's FOIA office said last month a ``thorough search of the records systems ... revealed no records responsive to your request.''
President George W. Bush's office of administration, in response to another FOIA request, said this month it too had no copy of Rumsfeld's resignation letter.
But Carol Ehrlich, FOIA officer there, said the office of administration within the executive office of the president was a separate entity from the White House office, which controls its own records and is not subject to FOIA.
Pentagon spokesmen refused to release the letter in November 2006, when Rumsfeld resigned after Republicans' stinging election defeat. They told reporters to file FOIA requests for the letter.
Wrap...
From Boehner's unfair to Christian sandwiches...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) yesterday defended the decision to place scandal-plagued Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) on the Appropriations Committee. "Where do you draw the line?" Boehner asked. "We do not want a blanket allegation to rise to the level of credibility where we are basing our decisions on it. It's unfair."
"The military system of determining whether detainees are properly held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, includes an unusual practice: If Pentagon officials disagree with the result of a hearing, they order a second one, or even a third, until they approve of the finding," a practice that critics label "do-overs."
"A United Nations human rights official said he was barred from visiting an immigration detention center in New Jersey yesterday. It was the second time he was denied access to an American immigration jail on a weeklong monitoring tour."
"U.S. forces swept up 2,000 prisoners a month in March and April, almost twice the average from the second half of last year." As of the end of March, 20,000 people were crammed into overcrowded Iraqi-run prisons, detention camps, and police stations, where detainees are often tortured.
"U.S. Embassy employees in Iraq are growing increasingly angry over what they say are inadequate security precautions in the heavily fortified Green Zone." Most staff members "still sleep in trailers that one described as 'tin cans' that offer virtually no protection from rocket and mortar fire. The government has refused to harden the roofs because of the cost, one employee said."
Stretched thin by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the "number of senior captains, or captains closest to promotion, stands at just 51 percent of the Army’s requirements," according to an Army memo.
Shirlington Limousine, the transportation service linked to the Duke Cunningham scandal, "was not qualified to receive" its Homeland Security Department contract and "instead was given an unfair advantage over its competitors by DHS officials," the inspector general has found.
Debate over Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank has "ruptured the bank's governance system so deeply that finance officials in many countries worry that it may be irreparable whatever happens to Mr. Wolfowitz. If he refuses to resign, many said he might find it hard to travel or issue directives. If he leaves, a fight over choosing his successor is sure to erupt."
"Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries," according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.
And finally: "It seems the Capitol is now manifestly beyond salvation.The Center for Christian Statesmanship, launched in 1995 to convert members of Congress and their aides to evangelical Christianity, has shuttered its operations in Washington." CQ suggests "the group brought in fewer converts than hungry staffers. Its best-attended Hill function had been its monthly 'Politics and Principle' luncheons, which supplemented evangelical appeals with complimentary sandwiches."
Wrap...
Think Fast
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) yesterday defended the decision to place scandal-plagued Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) on the Appropriations Committee. "Where do you draw the line?" Boehner asked. "We do not want a blanket allegation to rise to the level of credibility where we are basing our decisions on it. It's unfair."
"The military system of determining whether detainees are properly held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, includes an unusual practice: If Pentagon officials disagree with the result of a hearing, they order a second one, or even a third, until they approve of the finding," a practice that critics label "do-overs."
"A United Nations human rights official said he was barred from visiting an immigration detention center in New Jersey yesterday. It was the second time he was denied access to an American immigration jail on a weeklong monitoring tour."
"U.S. forces swept up 2,000 prisoners a month in March and April, almost twice the average from the second half of last year." As of the end of March, 20,000 people were crammed into overcrowded Iraqi-run prisons, detention camps, and police stations, where detainees are often tortured.
"U.S. Embassy employees in Iraq are growing increasingly angry over what they say are inadequate security precautions in the heavily fortified Green Zone." Most staff members "still sleep in trailers that one described as 'tin cans' that offer virtually no protection from rocket and mortar fire. The government has refused to harden the roofs because of the cost, one employee said."
Stretched thin by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the "number of senior captains, or captains closest to promotion, stands at just 51 percent of the Army’s requirements," according to an Army memo.
Shirlington Limousine, the transportation service linked to the Duke Cunningham scandal, "was not qualified to receive" its Homeland Security Department contract and "instead was given an unfair advantage over its competitors by DHS officials," the inspector general has found.
Debate over Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank has "ruptured the bank's governance system so deeply that finance officials in many countries worry that it may be irreparable whatever happens to Mr. Wolfowitz. If he refuses to resign, many said he might find it hard to travel or issue directives. If he leaves, a fight over choosing his successor is sure to erupt."
"Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries," according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund.
And finally: "It seems the Capitol is now manifestly beyond salvation.The Center for Christian Statesmanship, launched in 1995 to convert members of Congress and their aides to evangelical Christianity, has shuttered its operations in Washington." CQ suggests "the group brought in fewer converts than hungry staffers. Its best-attended Hill function had been its monthly 'Politics and Principle' luncheons, which supplemented evangelical appeals with complimentary sandwiches."
Wrap...
Bush finally gets his "war czar"....
From CBS-8:
Pentagon General to Be 'War Czar'
Last Updated:05-15-07 at 2:23PM
WASHINGTON
President Bush has chosen Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a "war czar" after a long search for new leadership, administration officials said Tuesday.
In the newly created position, Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, and would also maintain his military status and rank as a three-star general, according to a Pentagon official.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Bush had not yet made an announcement.Creation of the new job comes as the administration tries to use a combat troop buildup in Iraq to bring a degree of calm so political reconciliation can take hold.
Wrap...
Pentagon General to Be 'War Czar'
Last Updated:05-15-07 at 2:23PM
WASHINGTON
President Bush has chosen Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, the Pentagon's director of operations, to oversee the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan as a "war czar" after a long search for new leadership, administration officials said Tuesday.
In the newly created position, Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, and would also maintain his military status and rank as a three-star general, according to a Pentagon official.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Bush had not yet made an announcement.Creation of the new job comes as the administration tries to use a combat troop buildup in Iraq to bring a degree of calm so political reconciliation can take hold.
Wrap...
Monday, May 14, 2007
OCS Scott Bloch...Recuse yourself!!!
From truthout.org :
William Fisher Special Counsel's Ties to White House Mar Probe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051407J.shtml
Public interest groups and anonymous whistleblowers are charging that Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), has irreconcilable conflicts of interest in his much-trumpeted investigations of Karl Rove's missing emails and the firing of a US attorney, and are calling on the top White House lawyer to force Bloch to recuse himself.
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
William Fisher Special Counsel's Ties to White House Mar Probe
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051407J.shtml
Public interest groups and anonymous whistleblowers are charging that Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), has irreconcilable conflicts of interest in his much-trumpeted investigations of Karl Rove's missing emails and the firing of a US attorney, and are calling on the top White House lawyer to force Bloch to recuse himself.
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From dead soldiers to dead hearing aid...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
"More than 50 Iraqis died Sunday in bombings, mortar blasts and gunfire. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed, while 4,000 troops scoured an area southwest of Baghdad in search of three soldiers apparently captured after an ambush Saturday that left four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter dead."
Popular conservative blog RedState.org "will step up its efforts this week to force Republican leaders to pull Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) from the powerful Appropriations Committee."
"The Senate launches a major debate on immigration this week, with shaky prospects for a comprehensive overhaul" that can overcome a conservative filibuster. "Republicans are insisting on rules tougher than those in last year's Senate bill. They want longer waits, bigger fines and a trip home to the country of origin."
1: The number of Iraqi refugees resettled in the United States in April. "The total since the fiscal year started Oct. 1 is 69. At this rate, far from resettling 7,000, the State Department will be lucky to match last year's total of 202."
"The White House confirmed yesterday that the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is likely to meet in the next several weeks with Iranian officials about stabilizing Iraq, as the administration embraces a tactic outsiders have long recommended as essential to reducing sectarian violence in Iraq."
New documents" suggest that World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz "understood that his role in ordering a pay increase and promotion for his companion in 2005 might be seen as a conflict of interest but insisted on proceeding anyway."
"Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election-law violations."
"A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming."
And finally: "Expanding on his reason for saying at a debate that an employer should be allowed to fire someone for being gay, Tommy Thompson on Saturday blamed a dead hearing aid and his need to use the bathroom." "I was very sick the day of the debate. ? I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom," he said.
Wrap...
Think Fast
"More than 50 Iraqis died Sunday in bombings, mortar blasts and gunfire. Two U.S. soldiers also were killed, while 4,000 troops scoured an area southwest of Baghdad in search of three soldiers apparently captured after an ambush Saturday that left four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter dead."
Popular conservative blog RedState.org "will step up its efforts this week to force Republican leaders to pull Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) from the powerful Appropriations Committee."
"The Senate launches a major debate on immigration this week, with shaky prospects for a comprehensive overhaul" that can overcome a conservative filibuster. "Republicans are insisting on rules tougher than those in last year's Senate bill. They want longer waits, bigger fines and a trip home to the country of origin."
1: The number of Iraqi refugees resettled in the United States in April. "The total since the fiscal year started Oct. 1 is 69. At this rate, far from resettling 7,000, the State Department will be lucky to match last year's total of 202."
"The White House confirmed yesterday that the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad is likely to meet in the next several weeks with Iranian officials about stabilizing Iraq, as the administration embraces a tactic outsiders have long recommended as essential to reducing sectarian violence in Iraq."
New documents" suggest that World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz "understood that his role in ordering a pay increase and promotion for his companion in 2005 might be seen as a conflict of interest but insisted on proceeding anyway."
"Nearly half the U.S. attorneys slated for removal by the administration last year were targets of Republican complaints that they were lax on voter fraud, including efforts by presidential adviser Karl Rove to encourage more prosecutions of election-law violations."
"A Depression-era program to bring electricity to rural areas is using taxpayer money to provide billions of dollars in low-interest loans to build coal plants even as Congress seeks ways to limit greenhouse gas emissions. That government support is a major force behind the rush to coal plants, which spew carbon dioxide that scientists blame for global warming."
And finally: "Expanding on his reason for saying at a debate that an employer should be allowed to fire someone for being gay, Tommy Thompson on Saturday blamed a dead hearing aid and his need to use the bathroom." "I was very sick the day of the debate. ? I could not wait until the debate got off so I could go to the bathroom," he said.
Wrap...
Nothing better to do, Bush conducts orchestra...
From CBS San Diego:
Bush Playfully Conducts Orchestra in Va.
Last Updated:05-13-07 at 2:18PM
JAMESTOWN, Va.
JoAnn Falletta was doing what a conductor should - concentrating on the orchestra in front of her. No wonder it took her a few seconds on Sunday to realize someone behind her was motioning for a try. President Bush."Smiling at me kind of devilishly," Falletta said.
She gave him her baton and stepped aside. Gesturing exuberantly, the president led the orchestra during part of its performance of "Stars and Stripes Forever."
"We didn't expect him to know the score so well," Falletta said afterward. "He was not shy
about conducting at all. He conducted with a great deal of panache.
"That was the music played for Bush's exit after his speech at a ceremony commemorating the founding 400 years ago of Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement.
Just before the music ended, Bush turned to Falletta, who stood on a step below him, kissed the top of her head and left without saying a word.
The 400-strong orchestra was made up of about 50 members of the Virginia Symphony, plus musicians from youth orchestras around the country. The switch in conductors was impromptu, said Falletta, the symphony's music director.
"I think he may have just been seized by the desire to conduct the orchestra," she said.
Falletta did not spot Bush until alerted by a musician."I'm embarrassed now that I didn't notice him, but I was just thinking of the music," she said.
Bush stepped onto the podium and took over.
The musicians were impressed by how musical Bush was, Falletta said. "He was cueing the brass, he was cueing the percussion, he kept the tempo going," she said.
Bill Fearnside, a violinist with the Virginia Symphony, put down his instrument and picked up a camera to record the moment."It was a little shocking, but it was fun," Fearnside said.
Wrap...
Bush Playfully Conducts Orchestra in Va.
Last Updated:05-13-07 at 2:18PM
JAMESTOWN, Va.
JoAnn Falletta was doing what a conductor should - concentrating on the orchestra in front of her. No wonder it took her a few seconds on Sunday to realize someone behind her was motioning for a try. President Bush."Smiling at me kind of devilishly," Falletta said.
She gave him her baton and stepped aside. Gesturing exuberantly, the president led the orchestra during part of its performance of "Stars and Stripes Forever."
"We didn't expect him to know the score so well," Falletta said afterward. "He was not shy
about conducting at all. He conducted with a great deal of panache.
"That was the music played for Bush's exit after his speech at a ceremony commemorating the founding 400 years ago of Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement.
Just before the music ended, Bush turned to Falletta, who stood on a step below him, kissed the top of her head and left without saying a word.
The 400-strong orchestra was made up of about 50 members of the Virginia Symphony, plus musicians from youth orchestras around the country. The switch in conductors was impromptu, said Falletta, the symphony's music director.
"I think he may have just been seized by the desire to conduct the orchestra," she said.
Falletta did not spot Bush until alerted by a musician."I'm embarrassed now that I didn't notice him, but I was just thinking of the music," she said.
Bush stepped onto the podium and took over.
The musicians were impressed by how musical Bush was, Falletta said. "He was cueing the brass, he was cueing the percussion, he kept the tempo going," she said.
Bill Fearnside, a violinist with the Virginia Symphony, put down his instrument and picked up a camera to record the moment."It was a little shocking, but it was fun," Fearnside said.
Wrap...
McNulty, DOJ, jumps ship...
From AP via Channel 8 San Diego:
McNulty, Justice Dept. No. 2, Resigning
Last Updated:05-14-07 at 2:25PM
WASHINGTON -- Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys, The Associated Press has learned.
McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department's second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio, according to two senior department aides. He said he will remain at the department until this fall or until the Senate approves a successor, the aides said.
Copyright © 2006 Midwest Television
Wrap...
McNulty, Justice Dept. No. 2, Resigning
Last Updated:05-14-07 at 2:25PM
WASHINGTON -- Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys, The Associated Press has learned.
McNulty, who has served 18 months as the Justice Department's second-in-command, announced his plans at a closed-door meeting of U.S. attorneys in San Antonio, according to two senior department aides. He said he will remain at the department until this fall or until the Senate approves a successor, the aides said.
Copyright © 2006 Midwest Television
Wrap...
Saturday, May 12, 2007
San Diego's election officials..top to bottom. UGH!
Some line-up of Repubs San Diego has accumulated:
Walt Ekard:
Walt Ekard, San Diego County’s assistant chief administrative officer for the past 2½ years, today was appointed to the top administrator’s job by the Board of Supervisors. Ekard will succeed current Chief Administrative Officer Larry Prior, who leaves his post later this month for a job in the private sector.
As CAO, Ekard will oversee an organization with 17,000 employees and an annual budget of $2.4 billion. His goals include the successful conclusion of an information technology outsourcing project begun by Prior, and building upon the County’s record of efficiency and attention to customer service.
“Larry Prior will certainly be a tough act to follow. But if anyone can do it, that person is Walt Ekard,” said Chairwoman Pam Slater of the Board of Supervisors. "Walt has the experience, the talent and the vision to help us bring the County to new levels of excellence.”
Before becoming assistant chief administrator, Ekard managed the Rancho Santa Fe Association, which provided vital services to that North County community. He also served on the staffs of two former County Supervisors.
Mikel Haas:
The Diebold machines bought for use in San Diego County were retrofitted with paper scrolls that print out voters' choices in a format much like a grocery receipt. The paper stays in the machine, but voters can check the scroll to make sure it matches their votes. After the polls close, election workers post the paper records outside the polling place for the public to view.
“In California, your vote is recorded on paper, somehow, some way, no matter what system you use, whether paper ballot, optical scan card or electronic voting system,” said Mikel Haas, San Diego County registrar of voters. “Everyone's vote is preserved on paper in California.”
Michael Vu:
Elections official Michael Vu, (formerly head in Cuyahoga County) has just been hired on by San Diego County. After two felony convictions, and the removal of his entire elections board by the Ohio Secretary of State on grounds of malfeasance generally, this elections official insider has this to say about the two convicted election-rigging felons from our 2004 presidential election: " Vu defended the workers, saying they had followed longtime procedures and done nothing wrong."
Deborah Seiler:
An influential employee of voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems left the company recently to take a job as elections manager for a California county.Deborah Seiler, a sales representative for the beleaguered voting company, was hired a week ago and started Monday in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco in California's wine country. The position puts her second in command of elections in the county, under the registrar of voters.
The move raises eyebrows because Seiler played a role in a recent scandal involving Diebold and the county. As the Diebold sales rep, Seiler sold Solano County nearly 1,200 touch-screen machines that were not federally tested or state certified. When the state banned the machines because of Diebold's business practices, the county had to find a replacement for the machines and pay Diebold more than $400,000 to get out of its contract.
"This is outrageous. This is just a total runaround of the democratic process," said Douglas MacDonald, of the Community Labor Alliance, an activist group that pressured Solano County to end its contract with Diebold. "There was an open debate and discussion, and the county (supervisors) decided that Diebold is not the company, is not the philosophy, that we want behind the running of elections in Solano County. Then what happens? They go out and hire the person who was advocating that philosophy."
But Ira Rosenthal, Solano County's registrar of voters and chief information officer, defended the hire, saying that Seiler was the best-qualified candidate for the job. She had been California's chief elections official in the mid-1980s before taking the job with Diebold.
Wrap...
Walt Ekard:
Walt Ekard, San Diego County’s assistant chief administrative officer for the past 2½ years, today was appointed to the top administrator’s job by the Board of Supervisors. Ekard will succeed current Chief Administrative Officer Larry Prior, who leaves his post later this month for a job in the private sector.
As CAO, Ekard will oversee an organization with 17,000 employees and an annual budget of $2.4 billion. His goals include the successful conclusion of an information technology outsourcing project begun by Prior, and building upon the County’s record of efficiency and attention to customer service.
“Larry Prior will certainly be a tough act to follow. But if anyone can do it, that person is Walt Ekard,” said Chairwoman Pam Slater of the Board of Supervisors. "Walt has the experience, the talent and the vision to help us bring the County to new levels of excellence.”
Before becoming assistant chief administrator, Ekard managed the Rancho Santa Fe Association, which provided vital services to that North County community. He also served on the staffs of two former County Supervisors.
Mikel Haas:
The Diebold machines bought for use in San Diego County were retrofitted with paper scrolls that print out voters' choices in a format much like a grocery receipt. The paper stays in the machine, but voters can check the scroll to make sure it matches their votes. After the polls close, election workers post the paper records outside the polling place for the public to view.
“In California, your vote is recorded on paper, somehow, some way, no matter what system you use, whether paper ballot, optical scan card or electronic voting system,” said Mikel Haas, San Diego County registrar of voters. “Everyone's vote is preserved on paper in California.”
Michael Vu:
Elections official Michael Vu, (formerly head in Cuyahoga County) has just been hired on by San Diego County. After two felony convictions, and the removal of his entire elections board by the Ohio Secretary of State on grounds of malfeasance generally, this elections official insider has this to say about the two convicted election-rigging felons from our 2004 presidential election: " Vu defended the workers, saying they had followed longtime procedures and done nothing wrong."
Deborah Seiler:
An influential employee of voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems left the company recently to take a job as elections manager for a California county.Deborah Seiler, a sales representative for the beleaguered voting company, was hired a week ago and started Monday in Solano County, northeast of San Francisco in California's wine country. The position puts her second in command of elections in the county, under the registrar of voters.
The move raises eyebrows because Seiler played a role in a recent scandal involving Diebold and the county. As the Diebold sales rep, Seiler sold Solano County nearly 1,200 touch-screen machines that were not federally tested or state certified. When the state banned the machines because of Diebold's business practices, the county had to find a replacement for the machines and pay Diebold more than $400,000 to get out of its contract.
"This is outrageous. This is just a total runaround of the democratic process," said Douglas MacDonald, of the Community Labor Alliance, an activist group that pressured Solano County to end its contract with Diebold. "There was an open debate and discussion, and the county (supervisors) decided that Diebold is not the company, is not the philosophy, that we want behind the running of elections in Solano County. Then what happens? They go out and hire the person who was advocating that philosophy."
But Ira Rosenthal, Solano County's registrar of voters and chief information officer, defended the hire, saying that Seiler was the best-qualified candidate for the job. She had been California's chief elections official in the mid-1980s before taking the job with Diebold.
Wrap...
War over Blackwater USA trying to move in...
From San Diego Union-Tribune:
Panel in hot water over Blackwater vote
Recall petition, lawsuit under way
By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 12, 2007
The planning group for the backcountry community of Potrero is under fire from residents angry about the group's support of the proposed Blackwater West military training camp.
In recent days, planning group members have learned they are the subject of a lawsuit, a recall drive and a petition demanding that they retake a December vote approving the project.
During a raucous, 2½-hour meeting at the Potrero Community Center on Thursday night, the group agreed to vote again and asked residents to temper their emotions.
“We're trying to govern here in a sane way,” group chairman Gordon Hammers said. “All this political frenzy is counterproductive.”
Several of the 70 or so attendees wore bright-green T-shirts reading “Stop Blackwater,” while planning group member Mary Johnson wore a Blackwater-issued T-shirt. Comments opposing Blackwater earned applause but, to a lesser extent, so did statements in favor of the project.
Blackwater USA's proposal to build a training camp has stirred a fury in Potrero and beyond. The 824-acre site, once a chicken and cattle ranch, would feature pistol and rifle ranges, a helipad, an armory and a defensive-driving track.
Critics fear that the camp, which would train law enforcement and military personnel, would bring noise and traffic to the quiet community of fewer than 900 residents. They also oppose Blackwater for its role as a military contractor in Iraq.
The planning group decided to retake December's 7-0 vote to approve the project after more than 300 residents signed a petition opposing the plans.
The vote, to be taken at the group's July 12 meeting, is only advisory and is not expected to differ much from the previous vote. Member Jan Hedlun has since joined the group and opposes Blackwater's plans, but others still voice support.
The ultimate decision on the project will be made by the county Board of Supervisors after an approval process expected to take about two years.
Meanwhile, Potrero resident Carl Meyer served notice on six of the eight planning group members at the meeting that he is seeking to recall them. Not served were Hedlun and Emil Susu, whose membership is under review because he was not a registered voter in the county when elected. He has since registered and is expected to remain on the board.
Meyer said he also served planning group member Eric Berger, who was absent.
About 130 signatures from voters would have to be collected for a recall election to be held.
Then the Board of Supervisors must order a recall election, said Cathy Glaser of the county Registrar of Voters Office.
No other recall elections for planning group members have been held in recent memory, she said.
Panel members who received the recall notices were defiant. Jerry Johnson, noting his many years of service to the community, said, “If you want to vote me out, do it.”
Campo resident Zoe Rosell also filed a lawsuit April 24 against the planning group, claiming it did not provide adequate notice of the December meeting. The suit also names the Board of Supervisors and the county Department of Planning and Land Use, claiming they have not provided adequate information about the proposal.
Hammers, the planning group's chairman, said notice of the meeting was included in a community newspaper and on a bulletin board at the Potrero post office.
“If (Rosell) didn't see and know what was going on, then she wasn't paying attention,” he said.
Anne Krueger: (619) 593-4962;
anne.krueger@uniontrib.com
Wrap...
Panel in hot water over Blackwater vote
Recall petition, lawsuit under way
By Anne Krueger
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 12, 2007
The planning group for the backcountry community of Potrero is under fire from residents angry about the group's support of the proposed Blackwater West military training camp.
In recent days, planning group members have learned they are the subject of a lawsuit, a recall drive and a petition demanding that they retake a December vote approving the project.
During a raucous, 2½-hour meeting at the Potrero Community Center on Thursday night, the group agreed to vote again and asked residents to temper their emotions.
“We're trying to govern here in a sane way,” group chairman Gordon Hammers said. “All this political frenzy is counterproductive.”
Several of the 70 or so attendees wore bright-green T-shirts reading “Stop Blackwater,” while planning group member Mary Johnson wore a Blackwater-issued T-shirt. Comments opposing Blackwater earned applause but, to a lesser extent, so did statements in favor of the project.
Blackwater USA's proposal to build a training camp has stirred a fury in Potrero and beyond. The 824-acre site, once a chicken and cattle ranch, would feature pistol and rifle ranges, a helipad, an armory and a defensive-driving track.
Critics fear that the camp, which would train law enforcement and military personnel, would bring noise and traffic to the quiet community of fewer than 900 residents. They also oppose Blackwater for its role as a military contractor in Iraq.
The planning group decided to retake December's 7-0 vote to approve the project after more than 300 residents signed a petition opposing the plans.
The vote, to be taken at the group's July 12 meeting, is only advisory and is not expected to differ much from the previous vote. Member Jan Hedlun has since joined the group and opposes Blackwater's plans, but others still voice support.
The ultimate decision on the project will be made by the county Board of Supervisors after an approval process expected to take about two years.
Meanwhile, Potrero resident Carl Meyer served notice on six of the eight planning group members at the meeting that he is seeking to recall them. Not served were Hedlun and Emil Susu, whose membership is under review because he was not a registered voter in the county when elected. He has since registered and is expected to remain on the board.
Meyer said he also served planning group member Eric Berger, who was absent.
About 130 signatures from voters would have to be collected for a recall election to be held.
Then the Board of Supervisors must order a recall election, said Cathy Glaser of the county Registrar of Voters Office.
No other recall elections for planning group members have been held in recent memory, she said.
Panel members who received the recall notices were defiant. Jerry Johnson, noting his many years of service to the community, said, “If you want to vote me out, do it.”
Campo resident Zoe Rosell also filed a lawsuit April 24 against the planning group, claiming it did not provide adequate notice of the December meeting. The suit also names the Board of Supervisors and the county Department of Planning and Land Use, claiming they have not provided adequate information about the proposal.
Hammers, the planning group's chairman, said notice of the meeting was included in a community newspaper and on a bulletin board at the Potrero post office.
“If (Rosell) didn't see and know what was going on, then she wasn't paying attention,” he said.
Anne Krueger: (619) 593-4962;
anne.krueger@uniontrib.com
Wrap...
San Diego voters..no chance for fair 2008 election...
From my point of view, San Diego's voters are screwed. This whole set-up stinks to high heaven. Wonder how much US Reps Issa and Hunter have to do with this ... to say nothing of the all-Repub Board of Supervisors .... Don't like it one damned bit.
From San Diego Union-Tribune:
New registrar of voters already coming under fire
Ties to vote-machine makers questioned
By Craig Gustafson
STAFF WRITER
May 12, 2007
A former sales representative for Diebold Election Systems – maker of San Diego County's electronic voting machines – has been hired to run elections countywide.
Deborah Seiler, 57, who is assistant registrar of voters in Solano County, will take over as San Diego County's registrar starting June 4. She will make $150,000 annually.
Walt Ekard, the county's chief administrative officer, said Seiler's experience will be invaluable as the registrar's office prepares for perhaps its busiest year ever in 2008.
But Paul Lehto, co-founder of Psephos, a nonprofit group that focuses on election integrity, questioned the hiring of Seiler based on her work with Diebold and Sequoia Pacific Systems, which also makes voting machines.
“Seiler is known as one of the best PR people or apologists for secret vote-counting that exists in the nation, and she's coming to San Diego County,” Lehto said.
Seiler's hiring is the second in as many months to raise concern among voting-rights activists who believe electronic voting machines threaten the integrity of the election process.
Last month, the county hired Michael Vu as assistant registrar of voters.
Vu had recently resigned as executive director of elections for Ohio's Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, after a tumultuous, 3½-year tenure that included a disastrous May 2006 primary in which the county began using new electronic voting machines.
Media reports said many poll workers failed to show up or were ill-prepared to deal with the machines. They also lost dozens of memory cards containing vote counts.
Seiler has nearly 30 years of elections experience. She worked for Diebold from 1999 to 2004.
“I would just hope and trust that people would look at the full extent of my background in elections. . . . I have a good, broad understanding of various voting systems and some of the strengths and weakness of all of those systems,” Seiler said.
Seiler also served as a commissioner for the state Fair Political Practices Commission and held various posts in the California Secretary of State's Office.
Seiler replaces Mikel Haas, who county officials promoted to deputy chief administrative officer of the Community Services Group in March. He will be Seiler's direct supervisor.
Craig Gustafson: (619) 293-1399;
craig.gustafson@uniontrib.com
Wrap...
From San Diego Union-Tribune:
New registrar of voters already coming under fire
Ties to vote-machine makers questioned
By Craig Gustafson
STAFF WRITER
May 12, 2007
A former sales representative for Diebold Election Systems – maker of San Diego County's electronic voting machines – has been hired to run elections countywide.
Deborah Seiler, 57, who is assistant registrar of voters in Solano County, will take over as San Diego County's registrar starting June 4. She will make $150,000 annually.
Walt Ekard, the county's chief administrative officer, said Seiler's experience will be invaluable as the registrar's office prepares for perhaps its busiest year ever in 2008.
But Paul Lehto, co-founder of Psephos, a nonprofit group that focuses on election integrity, questioned the hiring of Seiler based on her work with Diebold and Sequoia Pacific Systems, which also makes voting machines.
“Seiler is known as one of the best PR people or apologists for secret vote-counting that exists in the nation, and she's coming to San Diego County,” Lehto said.
Seiler's hiring is the second in as many months to raise concern among voting-rights activists who believe electronic voting machines threaten the integrity of the election process.
Last month, the county hired Michael Vu as assistant registrar of voters.
Vu had recently resigned as executive director of elections for Ohio's Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, after a tumultuous, 3½-year tenure that included a disastrous May 2006 primary in which the county began using new electronic voting machines.
Media reports said many poll workers failed to show up or were ill-prepared to deal with the machines. They also lost dozens of memory cards containing vote counts.
Seiler has nearly 30 years of elections experience. She worked for Diebold from 1999 to 2004.
“I would just hope and trust that people would look at the full extent of my background in elections. . . . I have a good, broad understanding of various voting systems and some of the strengths and weakness of all of those systems,” Seiler said.
Seiler also served as a commissioner for the state Fair Political Practices Commission and held various posts in the California Secretary of State's Office.
Seiler replaces Mikel Haas, who county officials promoted to deputy chief administrative officer of the Community Services Group in March. He will be Seiler's direct supervisor.
Craig Gustafson: (619) 293-1399;
craig.gustafson@uniontrib.com
Wrap...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Internet book channel coming...
From Wall Street Journal via Media Info :
Media & Marketing: Book Channel Bound for Internet
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
The Wall Street Journal
May 08, 2007
CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster book-publishing arm next month will launch an Internet book channel called Bookvideos.tv that will be hosted on YouTube.com and other video-sharing sites. For an industry constantly held back by scant marketing dollars, the plan represents a new and inexpensive digital way to promote books and try to turn their authors into brands.
The publisher is committed to a flight of 40 videos that will be personality- driven rather than focusing solely on specific new titles. The videos, which be produced by TurnHere Inc., based in Emeryville, Calif., will last two minutes and feature such best-selling authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Zane, and Sandra Brown.
"Two minutes is about as long as you can watch something on your desktop before your boss catches you," said Brad Inman, TurnHere's chief executive.
All of the authors will be in the Simon & Schuster stable and many will be favorites of book-club members, who often want to know something about the backstory of the books they read. The videos will address such issues as how authors get their ideas, personal anecdotes about how they became authors, and a sense of who they are as people.
"It's about them and their body of work," said Sue Fleming, vice president, online and consumer marketing for the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
Simon & Schuster declined to disclose the size of the investment, but it is said to be modest by non-publishing standards.
The big challenge, says Carol Fitzgerald, president of the Book Report Inc., a closely held company that operates book-publishing-related Web sites, is whether Simon & Schuster will be able to refresh the content on an ongoing basis, and how it will inform people that new content is available. "Some authors are fabulous writers, but they aren't great at presenting their own work either in audio or video," she adds.
Ms. Fitzgerald notes that most readers don't know which publishers actually publish their favorite authors. "They could say, 'Why don't you have John Grisham?'" she said. Mr. Grisham is published by Bertelsmann AG's Doubleday imprint.
The channel is intended to address one of the most vexing issues facing Web marketers. Internet offerings are now so vast that users often find it difficult to find content they might enjoy. "The idea here is to create a bigger sliver where they can find many authors in one place," said Ms. Fleming.
For now, the publisher says the site will focus purely on its own authors. Whether it someday might invite other publishers onto the site "depends on traffic results and viewer enthusiasm," said Ms. Fleming.
Simon & Schuster, like many publishers, has tested reader interest in book videos in the past. For example, it created four test-kitchen videos for last fall's launch of "Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition."
The publisher also made a book video for Jodi Picoult's latest novel, " Nineteen Minutes," which hit the stores in March. The video, which focuses on the book, served as the centerpiece of a promotional ad campaign that ran on MySpace.com.
Although the videos will be owned by Simon & Schuster, the publisher, in a nod to the free-wheeling digital-video culture, says other sites will be free to link or use the videos in any form. Retailers will have access to the videos, and authors will be able to post them on their own Web sites.
(END)
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Wrap...
Media & Marketing: Book Channel Bound for Internet
By Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg
The Wall Street Journal
May 08, 2007
CBS Corp.'s Simon & Schuster book-publishing arm next month will launch an Internet book channel called Bookvideos.tv that will be hosted on YouTube.com and other video-sharing sites. For an industry constantly held back by scant marketing dollars, the plan represents a new and inexpensive digital way to promote books and try to turn their authors into brands.
The publisher is committed to a flight of 40 videos that will be personality- driven rather than focusing solely on specific new titles. The videos, which be produced by TurnHere Inc., based in Emeryville, Calif., will last two minutes and feature such best-selling authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Zane, and Sandra Brown.
"Two minutes is about as long as you can watch something on your desktop before your boss catches you," said Brad Inman, TurnHere's chief executive.
All of the authors will be in the Simon & Schuster stable and many will be favorites of book-club members, who often want to know something about the backstory of the books they read. The videos will address such issues as how authors get their ideas, personal anecdotes about how they became authors, and a sense of who they are as people.
"It's about them and their body of work," said Sue Fleming, vice president, online and consumer marketing for the Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group.
Simon & Schuster declined to disclose the size of the investment, but it is said to be modest by non-publishing standards.
The big challenge, says Carol Fitzgerald, president of the Book Report Inc., a closely held company that operates book-publishing-related Web sites, is whether Simon & Schuster will be able to refresh the content on an ongoing basis, and how it will inform people that new content is available. "Some authors are fabulous writers, but they aren't great at presenting their own work either in audio or video," she adds.
Ms. Fitzgerald notes that most readers don't know which publishers actually publish their favorite authors. "They could say, 'Why don't you have John Grisham?'" she said. Mr. Grisham is published by Bertelsmann AG's Doubleday imprint.
The channel is intended to address one of the most vexing issues facing Web marketers. Internet offerings are now so vast that users often find it difficult to find content they might enjoy. "The idea here is to create a bigger sliver where they can find many authors in one place," said Ms. Fleming.
For now, the publisher says the site will focus purely on its own authors. Whether it someday might invite other publishers onto the site "depends on traffic results and viewer enthusiasm," said Ms. Fleming.
Simon & Schuster, like many publishers, has tested reader interest in book videos in the past. For example, it created four test-kitchen videos for last fall's launch of "Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition."
The publisher also made a book video for Jodi Picoult's latest novel, " Nineteen Minutes," which hit the stores in March. The video, which focuses on the book, served as the centerpiece of a promotional ad campaign that ran on MySpace.com.
Although the videos will be owned by Simon & Schuster, the publisher, in a nod to the free-wheeling digital-video culture, says other sites will be free to link or use the videos in any form. Retailers will have access to the videos, and authors will be able to post them on their own Web sites.
(END)
Copyright (c) 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Wrap...
Cheney blames Bush...DeLay lectures on ethics..
From American Progress:
Think Fast
Fox New's Bret Baier told Dick Cheney, "You are portrayed by your opponents and some in the media as this sinister figure, as this cold-blooded warmonger who doesn't care about the number of body bags going back." Cheney said that he regrets the casualties, but added, "Obviously, the President bears the major part of the burden. He's the man with the authority to commit the force."
"European leaders have told the Bush administration that Paul D. Wolfowitz must resign as president of the World Bank in order to avoid a vote next week by the bank's board declaring that he no longer has its confidence to function as the bank's leader."
Yesterday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), "a loyal Republican who's always voted with the president on Iraq issues," said he will "draft a bill that implements the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report...which included benchmarks and a timeline for troop withdrawal."
Slate's Dahlia Lithwick notes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's role in the U.S. Attorneys scandal has shifted to that of a "decoy." "He's the guy who runs out in front of the hunters and draws their fire so nobody pays any attention to what's happening at the White House."
Filmmaker Michael Moore "is being investigated by the Treasury Department over a trip he made to Cuba for his new film, 'Sicko.'" The department is "investigating whether he had violated restrictions on travel to Cuba when he accompanied sick workers seeking free medical care as part of a documentary on America's health care industry."
"Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a landmark drug-safety bill." The senators pared back the FDA's power to monitor the safety of drugs and helped defeat "efforts to curb conflicts of interest among FDA advisers and allow consumers to buy cheaper drugs from other countries."
"Larry Wilkerson, an aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in a radio interview on Thursday that the 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of the Bush Administration make the offenses for which President Bill Clinton was impeached 'pale in comparison.'"
Summers in the eastern United States will be "much hotter than originally predicted with daily highs about 10 degrees warmer than in recent years by the mid-2080s, a new NASA study says."
A 20 percent increase in "drug abuse among children and youths in Iraq is worrying specialists who say continued violence is responsible for the rising number of users -- something that is compounded by the easy availability of different narcotics."
And finally: "Attend at your own risk!" Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will be speaking at an upcoming political training seminar offering "explicit discussions of ethics." DeLay "resigned last year after being indicted on campaign finance abuses in Texas and who remains under federal scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal."
Wrap...
Think Fast
Fox New's Bret Baier told Dick Cheney, "You are portrayed by your opponents and some in the media as this sinister figure, as this cold-blooded warmonger who doesn't care about the number of body bags going back." Cheney said that he regrets the casualties, but added, "Obviously, the President bears the major part of the burden. He's the man with the authority to commit the force."
"European leaders have told the Bush administration that Paul D. Wolfowitz must resign as president of the World Bank in order to avoid a vote next week by the bank's board declaring that he no longer has its confidence to function as the bank's leader."
Yesterday, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), "a loyal Republican who's always voted with the president on Iraq issues," said he will "draft a bill that implements the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group Report...which included benchmarks and a timeline for troop withdrawal."
Slate's Dahlia Lithwick notes that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's role in the U.S. Attorneys scandal has shifted to that of a "decoy." "He's the guy who runs out in front of the hunters and draws their fire so nobody pays any attention to what's happening at the White House."
Filmmaker Michael Moore "is being investigated by the Treasury Department over a trip he made to Cuba for his new film, 'Sicko.'" The department is "investigating whether he had violated restrictions on travel to Cuba when he accompanied sick workers seeking free medical care as part of a documentary on America's health care industry."
"Senators who raised millions of dollars in campaign donations from pharmaceutical interests secured industry-friendly changes to a landmark drug-safety bill." The senators pared back the FDA's power to monitor the safety of drugs and helped defeat "efforts to curb conflicts of interest among FDA advisers and allow consumers to buy cheaper drugs from other countries."
"Larry Wilkerson, an aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, said in a radio interview on Thursday that the 'high crimes and misdemeanors' of the Bush Administration make the offenses for which President Bill Clinton was impeached 'pale in comparison.'"
Summers in the eastern United States will be "much hotter than originally predicted with daily highs about 10 degrees warmer than in recent years by the mid-2080s, a new NASA study says."
A 20 percent increase in "drug abuse among children and youths in Iraq is worrying specialists who say continued violence is responsible for the rising number of users -- something that is compounded by the easy availability of different narcotics."
And finally: "Attend at your own risk!" Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay will be speaking at an upcoming political training seminar offering "explicit discussions of ethics." DeLay "resigned last year after being indicted on campaign finance abuses in Texas and who remains under federal scrutiny in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal."
Wrap...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Vegans starve baby..fed soy milk and apple juice...
From News8 KFMB-TV online:
Vegans Sentenced for Starving Their Baby
Last Updated:05-09-07 at 11:48AM
ATLANTA -- A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.
Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the mandatory sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.
The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.
But prosecutors said the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away."No matter how many times they want to say, 'We're vegans, we're vegetarians,' that's not the issue in this case," said prosecutor Chuck Boring. "The child died because he was not fed. Period."
Although the life sentences were automatic, Sanders and Thomas begged for leniency before sentencing. Sanders urged the judge to look past his "perception" of the couple."I loved my son - and I did not starve him," she said.
When the judge told the defendants they could ask for a new trial, Thomas hung his head low."I'm dying every day in there," he said, "and that could take three years."
Wrap...
Vegans Sentenced for Starving Their Baby
Last Updated:05-09-07 at 11:48AM
ATLANTA -- A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.
Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the mandatory sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.
The couple were found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.
Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.
But prosecutors said the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away."No matter how many times they want to say, 'We're vegans, we're vegetarians,' that's not the issue in this case," said prosecutor Chuck Boring. "The child died because he was not fed. Period."
Although the life sentences were automatic, Sanders and Thomas begged for leniency before sentencing. Sanders urged the judge to look past his "perception" of the couple."I loved my son - and I did not starve him," she said.
When the judge told the defendants they could ask for a new trial, Thomas hung his head low."I'm dying every day in there," he said, "and that could take three years."
Wrap...
When Bush wanted to bomb Al Jareeza's offices...
...and told Blair so in their meeting, notes were taken, then leaked:
From International Herald Tribune:
2 guilty in leaking of Blair-Bush memo
By Alan Cowell
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
LONDON: A British court found a civil servant and a legislator's aide guilty Wednesday of breaking the Official Secrets Act by leaking a classified memorandum concerning a conversation at the White House between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush.
Much of the trial was held behind closed doors and details of the four-page memorandum were not publicly disclosed.
Shortly after the leak, David Keogh, a government communications officer, and Leo O'Connor, a researcher in the office of a Labour Party legislator, appeared in court, accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act.
Keogh, 50, was accused of passing a copy of the memorandum to O'Connor, 44, who worked in the offices of Anthony Clarke, who opposed the war in Iraq.
During the trial, Keogh testified that he had hoped the leaked memorandum would attract broader interest. "The main person in my mind was John Kerry, who at the time was American candidate for the U.S. presidential election in 2004," Keogh said. "It was to help my country."
When Clarke found a copy of the memorandum among his papers, he called the police and the prime minister's office.
Rex Tedd, an advocate representing Keogh, said his client had "acted out of conscience. No doubt he did so misguidedly, and he did so in a way that was likely to cause damage."
"He did not act out of political motive or financial gain or personal advantage," Tedd said.
But the main prosecutor, David Perry, described Keogh as a rogue. "Diplomacy is a delicate and sensitive act, and it cannot be properly carried out in our interest when what one government says to another cannot be kept secret or confidential," Perry said.
A witness in the case, Nigel Sheinwald, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, said the contents of the document had a "direct bearing" on the presence of British troops in Iraq. Other witnesses said the document referred to the activities of British secret agents in Iraq.
Keogh and O'Connor were found guilty of making a damaging disclosure. Both had denied the charge. They are to be sentenced later this week. Both the defendants said they and Clarke had met at a dining club in the central English town of Northampton, where they lived.
John Farmer, representing O'Connor, said O'Connor had not sought out the document.
"It comes to him on the unfortunate basis that he was employed by a man who had a certain reputation," Farmer said. "He places it with a member of Parliament. He does not promiscuously disperse it amongst the press or a foreign power, or anything of that sort."
Wrap...
From International Herald Tribune:
2 guilty in leaking of Blair-Bush memo
By Alan Cowell
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
LONDON: A British court found a civil servant and a legislator's aide guilty Wednesday of breaking the Official Secrets Act by leaking a classified memorandum concerning a conversation at the White House between Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush.
Much of the trial was held behind closed doors and details of the four-page memorandum were not publicly disclosed.
Shortly after the leak, David Keogh, a government communications officer, and Leo O'Connor, a researcher in the office of a Labour Party legislator, appeared in court, accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act.
Keogh, 50, was accused of passing a copy of the memorandum to O'Connor, 44, who worked in the offices of Anthony Clarke, who opposed the war in Iraq.
During the trial, Keogh testified that he had hoped the leaked memorandum would attract broader interest. "The main person in my mind was John Kerry, who at the time was American candidate for the U.S. presidential election in 2004," Keogh said. "It was to help my country."
When Clarke found a copy of the memorandum among his papers, he called the police and the prime minister's office.
Rex Tedd, an advocate representing Keogh, said his client had "acted out of conscience. No doubt he did so misguidedly, and he did so in a way that was likely to cause damage."
"He did not act out of political motive or financial gain or personal advantage," Tedd said.
But the main prosecutor, David Perry, described Keogh as a rogue. "Diplomacy is a delicate and sensitive act, and it cannot be properly carried out in our interest when what one government says to another cannot be kept secret or confidential," Perry said.
A witness in the case, Nigel Sheinwald, Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, said the contents of the document had a "direct bearing" on the presence of British troops in Iraq. Other witnesses said the document referred to the activities of British secret agents in Iraq.
Keogh and O'Connor were found guilty of making a damaging disclosure. Both had denied the charge. They are to be sentenced later this week. Both the defendants said they and Clarke had met at a dining club in the central English town of Northampton, where they lived.
John Farmer, representing O'Connor, said O'Connor had not sought out the document.
"It comes to him on the unfortunate basis that he was employed by a man who had a certain reputation," Farmer said. "He places it with a member of Parliament. He does not promiscuously disperse it amongst the press or a foreign power, or anything of that sort."
Wrap...
You can eat it...NO YOU CAN'T....Sheesh!
From TomPaine.com :
Faith-Based Food Fumbles
Don't eat pork: First it was supposed to be just 6,000 hogs who'd eaten melamine-contaminated salvaged pet food. Now 50,000 have been quarantined in Illinois.
Don't eat chicken: First it was three million chicken contaminated with melamine - as the FDA's new food safety "czar" reassured reporters. Then that estimate was revised upward to 20 million.
Don't eat fish: Canadian fish meal manufactured from poisoned Chinese flour fed fish now in stores across the U.S.
The links above come from David Goldstein, one of our most heroic bloggers, who has pursued the story with the zeal of an old-school investigative reporter. (Remember when we used to have those?)
Check out the "faith-based" statements he's been collecting from the public relations agencies for U.S. agribusiness funded by your very own tax dollars, the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture:
FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating such pork is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We have no reason to believe that any of those are currently in the human food supply as a direct ingredient.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We have no reason to believe that anything other than the rice protein concentrate or the wheat gluten have been a problem in the United States recently.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“But overall, we believe the risk to be extremely low to humans.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We believe that the likelihood of illness from such exposure is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“One of the reasons we believe that this is very low in humans is due to the dilution effect.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We believe the situation in the poultry is very much like that for the swine.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We do not believe that there is any significant threat of human illness from consuming poultry.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
“We believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
“We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
Now note the statement he's collected that cancels out all of the above:
"There’s no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. […] We just don’t know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
Maybe we just shouldn't eat.--Rick Goldstein Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:12 AM
Wrap...
Faith-Based Food Fumbles
Don't eat pork: First it was supposed to be just 6,000 hogs who'd eaten melamine-contaminated salvaged pet food. Now 50,000 have been quarantined in Illinois.
Don't eat chicken: First it was three million chicken contaminated with melamine - as the FDA's new food safety "czar" reassured reporters. Then that estimate was revised upward to 20 million.
Don't eat fish: Canadian fish meal manufactured from poisoned Chinese flour fed fish now in stores across the U.S.
The links above come from David Goldstein, one of our most heroic bloggers, who has pursued the story with the zeal of an old-school investigative reporter. (Remember when we used to have those?)
Check out the "faith-based" statements he's been collecting from the public relations agencies for U.S. agribusiness funded by your very own tax dollars, the Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture:
FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating such pork is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We have no reason to believe that any of those are currently in the human food supply as a direct ingredient.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We have no reason to believe that anything other than the rice protein concentrate or the wheat gluten have been a problem in the United States recently.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“But overall, we believe the risk to be extremely low to humans.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
“We believe that the likelihood of illness from such exposure is extremely low.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“One of the reasons we believe that this is very low in humans is due to the dilution effect.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We believe the situation in the poultry is very much like that for the swine.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We do not believe that there is any significant threat of human illness from consuming poultry.” – USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007
“We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
“We believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
“We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public.” – USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007
Now note the statement he's collected that cancels out all of the above:
"There’s no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. […] We just don’t know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level.” – USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007
Maybe we just shouldn't eat.--Rick Goldstein Thursday, May 10, 2007 10:12 AM
Wrap...
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Plain talk to Bush...at last...
From Drudge Report:
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN TAKE IT TO BUSH
Wed May 09 2007 20:42:16 ET
TIM RUSSERT, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS:
Brian, all eyes on the Republican party. How long will they support the president's position on the Iraq War? Yesterday may have been a defining, pivotal moment.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, in the private quarters of the White House, the Solarium Room, eleven Republican congressmen had a private meeting with the president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the chief political advisor Karl Rove, and the White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, and others. This delegation was headed by Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
It was, in the words of one of the participants, the most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the president. Another member has said he has met with three presidents and never been so candid.
They told the president, and one said, quote, "My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President."
The president responded, "I don't want to pass this off to another president. I don't want to pass this off, particularly, to a democratic president," underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.
Brian, the Republican congressmen went on to say, "The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There's no longer any credibility. It has to come from General Petraeus.
The meeting lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, and was, in the words of one, " remarkable for the bluntness, and no holds barred honesty and the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And Tim...how did the president react and how did this then affect the instructions for VP Cheney heading off to Iraq?
RUSSERT: One congressman said, "How can our daughters and sons spill their blood while the Iraqi parliament goes on vacation?
The president responded, "The Vice President is over there to tell them, 'Do not go on vacation.'"
Developing...
Wrap...
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN TAKE IT TO BUSH
Wed May 09 2007 20:42:16 ET
TIM RUSSERT, NBC NIGHTLY NEWS:
Brian, all eyes on the Republican party. How long will they support the president's position on the Iraq War? Yesterday may have been a defining, pivotal moment.
At two-thirty in the afternoon, in the private quarters of the White House, the Solarium Room, eleven Republican congressmen had a private meeting with the president, the secretary of defense, the secretary of state, the chief political advisor Karl Rove, and the White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, and others. This delegation was headed by Mark Kirk of Illinois and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.
It was, in the words of one of the participants, the most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the president. Another member has said he has met with three presidents and never been so candid.
They told the president, and one said, quote, "My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President."
The president responded, "I don't want to pass this off to another president. I don't want to pass this off, particularly, to a democratic president," underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.
Brian, the Republican congressmen went on to say, "The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There's no longer any credibility. It has to come from General Petraeus.
The meeting lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, and was, in the words of one, " remarkable for the bluntness, and no holds barred honesty and the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen.
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And Tim...how did the president react and how did this then affect the instructions for VP Cheney heading off to Iraq?
RUSSERT: One congressman said, "How can our daughters and sons spill their blood while the Iraqi parliament goes on vacation?
The president responded, "The Vice President is over there to tell them, 'Do not go on vacation.'"
Developing...
Wrap...
Blackwater USA...
From truthout.org:
Thomas d'Evry
Phantom Army
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050907G.shtml
Thomas d'Evry's investigative piece on Blackwater includes some familiar incidents, as well as some of the company's less well-known current plans and activities.
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Thomas d'Evry
Phantom Army
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050907G.shtml
Thomas d'Evry's investigative piece on Blackwater includes some familiar incidents, as well as some of the company's less well-known current plans and activities.
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Books...Mystery to Sports Undercover...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
FICTION/DEBUT:
Karen Weinreb's THE SUMMER KITCHEN, pitched as a cross between CHOCOLAT and UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, about the unlikely friendship between a broke billionaire's young wife and her Spanish maid, how they revolutionize pastry making with such delights as their "Spanish Napolean", and emancipate themselves when they become business partners and open their own bakery, to Elizabeth Beier at St. Martin's, by Barbara Zitwer at Barbara Zitwer Agency (NA).
Journalist Sherry Jones's debut historical novel A'ISHA, BELOVED OF MUHAMMAD, set in seventh-century Arabia, the story of the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, recreating her marriage at the age of nine, her struggle for personal freedom in a society where women had few rights, and her dedication to The Prophet's vision of a true faith, to Judy Sternlight for Ballantine, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Natasha Kern of the Natasha Kern Literary Agency (world).Rights: ctisne@randomhouse.com
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Dan Waddell's THE BLOOD DETECTIVE, the first in a new mystery series featuring a genealogist as part of the investigative team of a series of murders in London, linked to a another set of murders committed more than 100 year prior, and BLOOD ATONEMENT, to Daniela Rapp at Minotaur, in a nice deal, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Araminta Whitley at LAW (US).
NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:
Author of CATCH A WAVE: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson Peter Ames Carlin's biography of Paul McCartney, exploring his impact on music and culture, his personal triumphs and defeats, and his post-Beatles relationships with Lennon, Harrison, and Starr, to Zachary Schisgal at Touchstone Fireside, by Simon Lipskar at Writers House (world).
NARRATIVE:
Resident of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and a prominent voice in Spike Lee's HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts Phyllis Montana Leblanc's NOT JUST THE LEVEES BROKE, an inspirational narrative account of Hurricane Katrina and life in its wake, with an introduction by Spike Lee, to Malaika Adero at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Erin Malone and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris Agency (World).
SPORTS:
Top referee in the National Basketball Association Bob Delaney's COVERT: The Undercover Life of Bob Delaney, NBA Official, about a long-secret life as an undercover agent for the New Jersey State Police infiltrating the Mafia, wearing a wire for more than three years to gather evidence that led to the conviction of more than thirty members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families, with a foreword from NBA great Bill Walton, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press/Sterling, for publication in February 2008, to Uwe Stender at TriadaUS Literary Agency (world).uwe@triadaus.compturner@sterlingpub.com
GENERAL/OTHER:
Kris Waldherr's DOOMED QUEENS, a mordantly humorous world history of female regents who came to untimely ends, to Kris Puopolo at Broadway Doubleday, by Theresa Park at the Park Literary Group (World English).
Wrap...
FICTION/DEBUT:
Karen Weinreb's THE SUMMER KITCHEN, pitched as a cross between CHOCOLAT and UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN, about the unlikely friendship between a broke billionaire's young wife and her Spanish maid, how they revolutionize pastry making with such delights as their "Spanish Napolean", and emancipate themselves when they become business partners and open their own bakery, to Elizabeth Beier at St. Martin's, by Barbara Zitwer at Barbara Zitwer Agency (NA).
Journalist Sherry Jones's debut historical novel A'ISHA, BELOVED OF MUHAMMAD, set in seventh-century Arabia, the story of the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, recreating her marriage at the age of nine, her struggle for personal freedom in a society where women had few rights, and her dedication to The Prophet's vision of a true faith, to Judy Sternlight for Ballantine, in a pre-empt, for two books, by Natasha Kern of the Natasha Kern Literary Agency (world).Rights: ctisne@randomhouse.com
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Dan Waddell's THE BLOOD DETECTIVE, the first in a new mystery series featuring a genealogist as part of the investigative team of a series of murders in London, linked to a another set of murders committed more than 100 year prior, and BLOOD ATONEMENT, to Daniela Rapp at Minotaur, in a nice deal, by George Lucas at Inkwell Management, on behalf of Araminta Whitley at LAW (US).
NON-FICTION/BIOGRAPHY:
Author of CATCH A WAVE: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson Peter Ames Carlin's biography of Paul McCartney, exploring his impact on music and culture, his personal triumphs and defeats, and his post-Beatles relationships with Lennon, Harrison, and Starr, to Zachary Schisgal at Touchstone Fireside, by Simon Lipskar at Writers House (world).
NARRATIVE:
Resident of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward and a prominent voice in Spike Lee's HBO documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts Phyllis Montana Leblanc's NOT JUST THE LEVEES BROKE, an inspirational narrative account of Hurricane Katrina and life in its wake, with an introduction by Spike Lee, to Malaika Adero at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Erin Malone and Jennifer Rudolph Walsh at William Morris Agency (World).
SPORTS:
Top referee in the National Basketball Association Bob Delaney's COVERT: The Undercover Life of Bob Delaney, NBA Official, about a long-secret life as an undercover agent for the New Jersey State Police infiltrating the Mafia, wearing a wire for more than three years to gather evidence that led to the conviction of more than thirty members of the Genovese and Bruno crime families, with a foreword from NBA great Bill Walton, to Philip Turner at Union Square Press/Sterling, for publication in February 2008, to Uwe Stender at TriadaUS Literary Agency (world).uwe@triadaus.compturner@sterlingpub.com
GENERAL/OTHER:
Kris Waldherr's DOOMED QUEENS, a mordantly humorous world history of female regents who came to untimely ends, to Kris Puopolo at Broadway Doubleday, by Theresa Park at the Park Literary Group (World English).
Wrap...
10 brigades to Iraq...Clinton's crossword puzzle...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
The Pentagon's announcement yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements makes it "possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year."
"Partial data on attacks gathered from five U.S. brigades operating in Baghdad" show that total attacks since the escalation began in February "were either steady or increasing. In some cases, certain kinds of attacks dipped as the U.S. troop increase began, only to begin rising again in recent weeks. Overall, 'the number of attacks has stayed relatively constant' in Baghdad, said one U.S. officer."
"The government's methods for deciding compensation for emotionally disturbed veterans have little basis in science, are applied unevenly and may even create disincentives for veterans to get better, an influential scientific advisory group said yesterday."
"Led by California, 31 states representing more than 70% of the U.S. population announced Tuesday that they would measure and jointly track greenhouse gas emissions by major industries." The new Climate Registry is seen as a "crucial precursor" to regulating global warming pollution.
"Christians are fleeing in droves from the southern Baghdad district of Dora after Sunni insurgents told them they would be killed unless they converted to Islam or left," marking "the first apparent attempt to empty an entire Baghdad neighborhood of Christians, the Christians say."
"Sen. Kit Bond's staff, worried about a potential scandal over Missouri's fee offices, suggested two years ago that the Bush administration should consider replacing then-U.S. Attorney Todd Graves." Graves eventually resigned in March 2006, roughly one year after Bond's office communicated its concerns, and was replaced by Bradley Schlozman.
"Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) on Tuesday said he won't veto a bill that would block state officials from following his order" requiring mandatory vaccinations against HPV, a virus that causes cervical cancer.
Six Muslim men "were charged Tuesday with plotting to attack Fort Dix" in New Jersey "with automatic weapons and possibly even rocket-propelled grenades." The men were not connected to an international terrorist group and their plot "was alternately ambitious and clumsy."
And finally: "What's a four-letter word for 'words in some kvetching?' According to former President Clinton, it's 'veys.'" Clinton supplied the clues to a crossword puzzle on the website of the New York Times magazine this week, as part of a special on baby boomers. "Boomer's update of a song from 1951's 'Show Boat?' That would be 'Ol Man Liver.'"
Wrap...
Think Fast
The Pentagon's announcement yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements makes it "possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year."
"Partial data on attacks gathered from five U.S. brigades operating in Baghdad" show that total attacks since the escalation began in February "were either steady or increasing. In some cases, certain kinds of attacks dipped as the U.S. troop increase began, only to begin rising again in recent weeks. Overall, 'the number of attacks has stayed relatively constant' in Baghdad, said one U.S. officer."
"The government's methods for deciding compensation for emotionally disturbed veterans have little basis in science, are applied unevenly and may even create disincentives for veterans to get better, an influential scientific advisory group said yesterday."
"Led by California, 31 states representing more than 70% of the U.S. population announced Tuesday that they would measure and jointly track greenhouse gas emissions by major industries." The new Climate Registry is seen as a "crucial precursor" to regulating global warming pollution.
"Christians are fleeing in droves from the southern Baghdad district of Dora after Sunni insurgents told them they would be killed unless they converted to Islam or left," marking "the first apparent attempt to empty an entire Baghdad neighborhood of Christians, the Christians say."
"Sen. Kit Bond's staff, worried about a potential scandal over Missouri's fee offices, suggested two years ago that the Bush administration should consider replacing then-U.S. Attorney Todd Graves." Graves eventually resigned in March 2006, roughly one year after Bond's office communicated its concerns, and was replaced by Bradley Schlozman.
"Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) on Tuesday said he won't veto a bill that would block state officials from following his order" requiring mandatory vaccinations against HPV, a virus that causes cervical cancer.
Six Muslim men "were charged Tuesday with plotting to attack Fort Dix" in New Jersey "with automatic weapons and possibly even rocket-propelled grenades." The men were not connected to an international terrorist group and their plot "was alternately ambitious and clumsy."
And finally: "What's a four-letter word for 'words in some kvetching?' According to former President Clinton, it's 'veys.'" Clinton supplied the clues to a crossword puzzle on the website of the New York Times magazine this week, as part of a special on baby boomers. "Boomer's update of a song from 1951's 'Show Boat?' That would be 'Ol Man Liver.'"
Wrap...
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
300 Acres burning in Los Angeles wildfire...
From Los Angeles Times:
BREAKING NEWS
LIVE VIDEO: Griffith Park fire threatens Los Feliz homes (KTLA)
BREAKING NEWS BLOG: At least 300 acres burn with no containment in sight. A possible arson suspect is questioned.
Photos Post your own shots
Wrap...
BREAKING NEWS
LIVE VIDEO: Griffith Park fire threatens Los Feliz homes (KTLA)
BREAKING NEWS BLOG: At least 300 acres burn with no containment in sight. A possible arson suspect is questioned.
Photos Post your own shots
Wrap...
Olbermann..Politicization of Justice...
From truthout.org :
VIDEO Keith Olbermann: Where Does the Politicization of Justice End?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtml
Keith Olbermann says: "It was at first a disturbing story about political servitude violating the sanctity of the offices of federal prosecutors. Then it was a story about employees in those offices being hired only if they were political adherents, something that rang of the old Soviet Politburo. But the Alberto Gonzales/US Attorney Firings scandal has now reshaped itself - like some governmental Andromeda Strain - into what looks like an attempt to deprive Democrats of the right to vote."
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
VIDEO Keith Olbermann: Where Does the Politicization of Justice End?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtml
Keith Olbermann says: "It was at first a disturbing story about political servitude violating the sanctity of the offices of federal prosecutors. Then it was a story about employees in those offices being hired only if they were political adherents, something that rang of the old Soviet Politburo. But the Alberto Gonzales/US Attorney Firings scandal has now reshaped itself - like some governmental Andromeda Strain - into what looks like an attempt to deprive Democrats of the right to vote."
[click link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Going to the movies? Don't touch that popcorn!
From TomPaine.com :
The Case Of The Poison Popcorn
Sometimes the best stuff documenting what I call "E. coli conservatism " is in the back of the newspaper. And in papers you don't read, like the Bakersfield Californian.
This one, in the back of Monday's New York Times , is on the mysterious illness spreading across plants that produce the chemical that gives "microwave popcorn its buttery goodness."
Buttery goodness? I guess that's in the tongue of the be-taster. At any rate, there's a bill in California to ban diactyle, the cause of "popcorn lung" in the workers. ("They can't walk a short distance without severe shortness of breath.")
And why, pray tell, is this bill necessary? Says Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, because America' $3.5 billion flavoring industry is largely allowed to regulate itself. "What we've heard is that the flavoring industry has known for yars that this is potentially a problem, and they haven't taken action," she said.
The E. coli conservative outbreaks: sometimes it's hard to keep track. You'd think you could escape their ravages by moving to a bucolic town way out in the remote California mountains.
You'd be wrong.
In Lake of the Woods, Calif., residents are being told not to drink tap water without boiling it first after E. coli bacteria was detected Thursday in the mountain community's water supply."
The water company's office manager: "Never in 28 years has this happened."
And why might it be happening now? The operative theory is that the contamination came from a broken pipe or septic tank.
Did I mention that broken pipes and septic tanks are a national crisis? That the nation's civic engineers have given our wastewater infrastructure a D-minus? That this is what happens in a nation that pretends there is civic virtue in tax cuts?
Grover Norquist, meet Lake of the Woods Wade Biery. And avoid confronting him in a back alley. Biery's is worried his eight-months-pregnant wife might have ingested some of the poisoned water. "There's part of me that's ready to go down there and lop somebody's head off."
--Rick Perlstein Tuesday, May 8, 2007 1:10 AM
Wrap...
The Case Of The Poison Popcorn
Sometimes the best stuff documenting what I call "E. coli conservatism " is in the back of the newspaper. And in papers you don't read, like the Bakersfield Californian.
This one, in the back of Monday's New York Times , is on the mysterious illness spreading across plants that produce the chemical that gives "microwave popcorn its buttery goodness."
Buttery goodness? I guess that's in the tongue of the be-taster. At any rate, there's a bill in California to ban diactyle, the cause of "popcorn lung" in the workers. ("They can't walk a short distance without severe shortness of breath.")
And why, pray tell, is this bill necessary? Says Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, because America' $3.5 billion flavoring industry is largely allowed to regulate itself. "What we've heard is that the flavoring industry has known for yars that this is potentially a problem, and they haven't taken action," she said.
The E. coli conservative outbreaks: sometimes it's hard to keep track. You'd think you could escape their ravages by moving to a bucolic town way out in the remote California mountains.
You'd be wrong.
In Lake of the Woods, Calif., residents are being told not to drink tap water without boiling it first after E. coli bacteria was detected Thursday in the mountain community's water supply."
The water company's office manager: "Never in 28 years has this happened."
And why might it be happening now? The operative theory is that the contamination came from a broken pipe or septic tank.
Did I mention that broken pipes and septic tanks are a national crisis? That the nation's civic engineers have given our wastewater infrastructure a D-minus? That this is what happens in a nation that pretends there is civic virtue in tax cuts?
Grover Norquist, meet Lake of the Woods Wade Biery. And avoid confronting him in a back alley. Biery's is worried his eight-months-pregnant wife might have ingested some of the poisoned water. "There's part of me that's ready to go down there and lop somebody's head off."
--Rick Perlstein Tuesday, May 8, 2007 1:10 AM
Wrap...
When Olbermann talks...it pays to listen...
From truthout.org :
Keith Olbermann Where Does the Politicization of Justice End?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtml
Keith Olbermann says: "It was at first a disturbing story about political servitude violating the sanctity of the offices of federal prosecutors. Then it was a story about employees in those offices being hired only if they were political adherents, something that rang of the old Soviet Politburo. But the Alberto Gonzales/US Attorney Firings scandal has now reshaped itself - like some governmental Andromeda Strain - into what looks like an attempt to deprive Democrats of the right to vote."
[click above link to continue]
Wrap...
Keith Olbermann Where Does the Politicization of Justice End?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtml
Keith Olbermann says: "It was at first a disturbing story about political servitude violating the sanctity of the offices of federal prosecutors. Then it was a story about employees in those offices being hired only if they were political adherents, something that rang of the old Soviet Politburo. But the Alberto Gonzales/US Attorney Firings scandal has now reshaped itself - like some governmental Andromeda Strain - into what looks like an attempt to deprive Democrats of the right to vote."
[click above link to continue]
Wrap...
Monday, May 07, 2007
From tornadoes to jokes...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
"The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, KS, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state's governor. Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone."
"All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you'll probably see an increase in American casualties," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's Task Force Marne, said yesterday. Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year.
"Gasoline prices have surged to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, nearly 20 cents higher than two weeks earlier," analysts say. "The previous record was $3.03 per gallon on Aug. 11, 2006."
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), "a Bush loyalist and ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee," says he has lobbied the White House to stop using the term "war on terror." "Language is important...and I think the 'war on terror' is a terrible idea," Hoekstra said, arguing that it "elevates mass murderers to the status of a standing army."
"The weekend blitz of tornadoes in Kansas and the Plains puts 2007 on track to be one of the busiest and deadliest tornado years in a decade, severe-storms meteorologists said Sunday. 'Even if the year stopped right now, it would be the deadliest year we've had since 1999,' said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for The Weather Channel."
"The Army is fixing the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in Iraq because they can jam shut during an attack and trap soldiers inside, Pentagon records and interviews show."
"Abandoning the business lobby's traditional resistance to healthcare reform, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California."
"Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws," one expert says, warning that heavy storms may cause "tear-on-the-dotted-line levees."
Over the past year, as the Afghan government "has sought to counter growing public dissatisfaction, it has tried to impose more controls over the news media. ... Parliament is now considering amendments that the critics warn could undo many of the gains made since the fall of the Taliban."
And finally: Last week, a "top secret memo" posted online from Paul Wolfowitz to World Bank staff warned employees not to visit TradeSports.com, where there is active betting on the likelihood of a Wolfowitz resignation. The respected French daily Le Monde put up a link to the memo -- with the headline "Paul Wolfowitz wants to prevent World Bank employees from betting on his resignation" -- and a translation of the memo. A few hours later, Le Monde posted an "Oops" note on its site after someone pointed out the "memo" was a spoof.
Wrap....
Think Fast
"The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, KS, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state's governor. Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone."
"All of us believe that in the next 90 days, you'll probably see an increase in American casualties," Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of the Army's Task Force Marne, said yesterday. Eight American soldiers were killed in roadside bomb attacks Sunday, one of the highest single-day death tolls this year.
"Gasoline prices have surged to a record nationwide average of $3.07 per gallon, nearly 20 cents higher than two weeks earlier," analysts say. "The previous record was $3.03 per gallon on Aug. 11, 2006."
Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI), "a Bush loyalist and ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee," says he has lobbied the White House to stop using the term "war on terror." "Language is important...and I think the 'war on terror' is a terrible idea," Hoekstra said, arguing that it "elevates mass murderers to the status of a standing army."
"The weekend blitz of tornadoes in Kansas and the Plains puts 2007 on track to be one of the busiest and deadliest tornado years in a decade, severe-storms meteorologists said Sunday. 'Even if the year stopped right now, it would be the deadliest year we've had since 1999,' said Greg Forbes, severe-weather expert for The Weather Channel."
"The Army is fixing the doors of every armored Humvee in combat in Iraq because they can jam shut during an attack and trap soldiers inside, Pentagon records and interviews show."
"Abandoning the business lobby's traditional resistance to healthcare reform, a new coalition of 36 major companies plans to launch a political campaign today calling for medical insurance to be expanded to everyone along lines Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing for California."
"Some of the most celebrated levee repairs by the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Katrina are already showing signs of serious flaws," one expert says, warning that heavy storms may cause "tear-on-the-dotted-line levees."
Over the past year, as the Afghan government "has sought to counter growing public dissatisfaction, it has tried to impose more controls over the news media. ... Parliament is now considering amendments that the critics warn could undo many of the gains made since the fall of the Taliban."
And finally: Last week, a "top secret memo" posted online from Paul Wolfowitz to World Bank staff warned employees not to visit TradeSports.com, where there is active betting on the likelihood of a Wolfowitz resignation. The respected French daily Le Monde put up a link to the memo -- with the headline "Paul Wolfowitz wants to prevent World Bank employees from betting on his resignation" -- and a translation of the memo. A few hours later, Le Monde posted an "Oops" note on its site after someone pointed out the "memo" was a spoof.
Wrap....
Steal Lincoln's body?!! Yep...new book...
From Happy News.com :
When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, apparently there's no such thing as enough. After countless books about his boyhood, his presidency, the hunt for his killer and yes, even his feet, maybe it was time for a new book devoted to what happened to Lincoln's body after he was done using it.
As its title implies, ''Stealing Lincoln's Body'' by Thomas J. Craughwell (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) is devoted to Lincoln after, as Craughwell writes in the first sentence, ''the last tremor of life'' left his body.
Craughwell details a little-known plot to steal the 16th president's remains from his tomb in Springfield, Ill., in 1876 — 11 years after he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
The plan, hatched in a Chicago tavern, was to take the coffin from the tomb, put it in a wagon, haul it 200 miles north to the Indiana Dunes and hold it until the state of Illinois paid $200,000 ransom to get it back.
[click link below to continue reading]:
http://www.happynews.com/news/572007/book-shows-plot-steal-lincoln-body.htm
Wrap...
When it comes to Abraham Lincoln, apparently there's no such thing as enough. After countless books about his boyhood, his presidency, the hunt for his killer and yes, even his feet, maybe it was time for a new book devoted to what happened to Lincoln's body after he was done using it.
As its title implies, ''Stealing Lincoln's Body'' by Thomas J. Craughwell (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) is devoted to Lincoln after, as Craughwell writes in the first sentence, ''the last tremor of life'' left his body.
Craughwell details a little-known plot to steal the 16th president's remains from his tomb in Springfield, Ill., in 1876 — 11 years after he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.
The plan, hatched in a Chicago tavern, was to take the coffin from the tomb, put it in a wagon, haul it 200 miles north to the Indiana Dunes and hold it until the state of Illinois paid $200,000 ransom to get it back.
[click link below to continue reading]:
http://www.happynews.com/news/572007/book-shows-plot-steal-lincoln-body.htm
Wrap...
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Newspapers, books, Bush/Co and the coral tree...
So...started reading the Sunday papers -- LA Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune -- this morning at breakfast on the patio at Marie's Restaurant. Finished them late this afternoon and then, after some time on this machine answering emails and reading favorite blog and website posts, sat down this eve to read some more of Brad Meltzer's thriller, "The Book of Fate".
Very strange book, that. Has to do with the Masons... Previously, when I thought of Masons, I always thought of those incredible craftsmen who built the wonderful cathedrals of Europe and Great Britan. Trust me...those men are not the ones Meltzer wrote about. This book is set in DC. Political all the way. These Masons are, for lack of a better description, completely off their rockers. But shrewd. Evil. Ugly. Powerful. I'm not liking these people at all. Murderers. Absolute nutters.
They're such bad guys, in fact, that I think I may have to go so far as to cleanse my mind by reading something like a Louie L'Amour western.
Which wouldn't have a prayer of getting my head clean of thoughts of what I've read online and in the newspapers where the Bush/Cheney cabal are running their monstrous ideas into reality.
For instance...I read that Bush is sending Cheney to the Mideast for conversations with the leaders of some of those countries. Given Cheney's thirst for power and blood and money, he might as well take his shotgun with him for all the good that trip will do this nation.
Back to writing. One of the groups in town put a notice online about their next meeting that just drove me up the wall. Special guest coming. OK. Some qualifications about that special guest. So be sure to come and enjoy, right? But they don't name the guest. Cutesy games like that just fry my rear end. Curiosity is supposed to lure me in? Not hardly. Sheesh!
And the worse thing? New neighbors going to move in next door. House has been vacant several months. Yard is badly overgrown. Like a jungle out there...both front and back. However, there in the front yard grew a magnificent coral tree. Could admire it across the back fence just by glancing out the window in my office here. Could track the seasons by watching its leaves and blooms. Looked out the window this morning and it was gone. Just kills my soul. I loved that tree. Ah, well. Such is life.
Wrap...
Very strange book, that. Has to do with the Masons... Previously, when I thought of Masons, I always thought of those incredible craftsmen who built the wonderful cathedrals of Europe and Great Britan. Trust me...those men are not the ones Meltzer wrote about. This book is set in DC. Political all the way. These Masons are, for lack of a better description, completely off their rockers. But shrewd. Evil. Ugly. Powerful. I'm not liking these people at all. Murderers. Absolute nutters.
They're such bad guys, in fact, that I think I may have to go so far as to cleanse my mind by reading something like a Louie L'Amour western.
Which wouldn't have a prayer of getting my head clean of thoughts of what I've read online and in the newspapers where the Bush/Cheney cabal are running their monstrous ideas into reality.
For instance...I read that Bush is sending Cheney to the Mideast for conversations with the leaders of some of those countries. Given Cheney's thirst for power and blood and money, he might as well take his shotgun with him for all the good that trip will do this nation.
Back to writing. One of the groups in town put a notice online about their next meeting that just drove me up the wall. Special guest coming. OK. Some qualifications about that special guest. So be sure to come and enjoy, right? But they don't name the guest. Cutesy games like that just fry my rear end. Curiosity is supposed to lure me in? Not hardly. Sheesh!
And the worse thing? New neighbors going to move in next door. House has been vacant several months. Yard is badly overgrown. Like a jungle out there...both front and back. However, there in the front yard grew a magnificent coral tree. Could admire it across the back fence just by glancing out the window in my office here. Could track the seasons by watching its leaves and blooms. Looked out the window this morning and it was gone. Just kills my soul. I loved that tree. Ah, well. Such is life.
Wrap...
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Google, McCain, Clinton..the pres candidate interviews..
Always surprises me, the things that Google gets involved with. This time they've decided to do videos of interviews, at Google, with presidential candidates. So here are their first two, and they certainly are unlike the normal interviews the media does. Very very worth watching. Enjoy!
McCain's Google appearance: http://tinyurl.com/2u6d54
Clinton's February Google appearance: http://tinyurl.com/355x2d
Wrap...
McCain's Google appearance: http://tinyurl.com/2u6d54
Clinton's February Google appearance: http://tinyurl.com/355x2d
Wrap...
Friday, May 04, 2007
From Rove to Granholm...
From American Progress:
Think Fast
“Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago” to coach a top Justice Department official on what he should say to Congress about the prosecutorial purge. Investigators are suggesting that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that he may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress.
Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made calls to the purged U.S. attorneys telling them to keep quiet about their dismissals. Elston recently told congressional investigators that those calls were placed at McNulty’s direction after he learned the prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals.
Attacks in Iraq involving lethal armor-piercing weapons known as explosively formed projectiles hit a record high last month. “The number of attacks with the projectiles rose to 65 in April, said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno.”
“World Bank directors put the finishing touches on their report into the pay raise for Paul Wolfowitz’s companion as the agency’s president blamed 'ambiguous rules' for his involvement in her promotion.”
Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced they will propose legislation that would set an expiration date for the original Iraq war authorization on Oct. 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq resolution vote.
President Bush told congressional leaders that he would veto any legislation that weakened federal policies or laws on abortion. “In a two-page letter sent to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Mr. Bush said his veto threat would apply to any measures that ‘allow taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life.’”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne heralds the Center for American Progress’s anti-poverty report issued last week. “The report deserves more attention than it has gotten,” he writes, “not because it breaks new ground but precisely because it brings together some of the most pragmatic ideas on poverty reduction.” Read highlights or the entire report.
Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, complaining that the female violinist was dressed too revealingly. “I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
And finally: “A high school student got a little taste of what it’s like to be Michigan’s governor — and didn’t find it too appealing.” After receiving a cell phone number that once belonged to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Katie Kamar started getting about six calls a day for Granholm. “This experience hasn’t given me any political aspirations,” she said. Granholm called Kamar to apologize for the calls she was receiving and “thanked her because she heard how courteous the young woman was on the phone.”
Wrap...
Think Fast
“Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago” to coach a top Justice Department official on what he should say to Congress about the prosecutorial purge. Investigators are suggesting that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that he may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress.
Michael Elston, the chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, made calls to the purged U.S. attorneys telling them to keep quiet about their dismissals. Elston recently told congressional investigators that those calls were placed at McNulty’s direction after he learned the prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals.
Attacks in Iraq involving lethal armor-piercing weapons known as explosively formed projectiles hit a record high last month. “The number of attacks with the projectiles rose to 65 in April, said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno.”
“World Bank directors put the finishing touches on their report into the pay raise for Paul Wolfowitz’s companion as the agency’s president blamed 'ambiguous rules' for his involvement in her promotion.”
Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) announced they will propose legislation that would set an expiration date for the original Iraq war authorization on Oct. 11, 2007, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq resolution vote.
President Bush told congressional leaders that he would veto any legislation that weakened federal policies or laws on abortion. “In a two-page letter sent to the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Mr. Bush said his veto threat would apply to any measures that ‘allow taxpayer dollars to be used for the destruction of human life.’”
Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne heralds the Center for American Progress’s anti-poverty report issued last week. “The report deserves more attention than it has gotten,” he writes, “not because it breaks new ground but precisely because it brings together some of the most pragmatic ideas on poverty reduction.” Read highlights or the entire report.
Iran’s foreign minister walked out of a dinner of diplomats where he was seated directly across from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, complaining that the female violinist was dressed too revealingly. “I dont know which woman he was afraid of, the woman in the red dress or the secretary of state,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
And finally: “A high school student got a little taste of what it’s like to be Michigan’s governor — and didn’t find it too appealing.” After receiving a cell phone number that once belonged to Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Katie Kamar started getting about six calls a day for Granholm. “This experience hasn’t given me any political aspirations,” she said. Granholm called Kamar to apologize for the calls she was receiving and “thanked her because she heard how courteous the young woman was on the phone.”
Wrap...
Thursday, May 03, 2007
BushCo Aggravating the JPL Scientists...
From Secrecy News:
FEDERAL ID PLAN THREATENS PRIVACY, SAY JPL SCIENTISTS
A Bush Administration plan to require a standardized identification system for federal employees poses "severe threats to the privacy rights of scientists and others,"employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wrote to Congress last week.
In August 2004, President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, "Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors," which was intended to enhance security by establishing a mandatory, verifiable, and standardized identification system for government personnel.
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/hspd-12.html
But the implementation of the Directive is doing more than that, the JPL scientists told Congress."We and our colleagues have found that this order, which is merely intended to establish a common standard of identification for access to federal facilities, is being used to gather extensive personal information about employees, including fingerprints, racial, ethnic, financial and medical information."
"Rigorous proof [of identification] does not require intrusion into the personal lives of federal employees," they wrote onApril 26.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/05/hspd12-letter.pdf
Aside from civil liberties concerns, they added, the collection of personal data under HSPD-12 has "a very negative impact on our ability to recruit the very best scientific and engineering talent to address our nation's complex technical needs."
"In the face of such intrusions talented researchers are inclined to take positions elsewhere, where the employers have a modicum of respect for the Constitution."
The four JPL scientists addressed their request for relief to Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.) since "the four of us, like the two of you, hold doctorates in the physical sciences."
Wrap...
FEDERAL ID PLAN THREATENS PRIVACY, SAY JPL SCIENTISTS
A Bush Administration plan to require a standardized identification system for federal employees poses "severe threats to the privacy rights of scientists and others,"employees at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) wrote to Congress last week.
In August 2004, President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD) 12, "Policy for a Common Identification Standard for Federal Employees and Contractors," which was intended to enhance security by establishing a mandatory, verifiable, and standardized identification system for government personnel.
http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/hspd-12.html
But the implementation of the Directive is doing more than that, the JPL scientists told Congress."We and our colleagues have found that this order, which is merely intended to establish a common standard of identification for access to federal facilities, is being used to gather extensive personal information about employees, including fingerprints, racial, ethnic, financial and medical information."
"Rigorous proof [of identification] does not require intrusion into the personal lives of federal employees," they wrote onApril 26.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2007/05/hspd12-letter.pdf
Aside from civil liberties concerns, they added, the collection of personal data under HSPD-12 has "a very negative impact on our ability to recruit the very best scientific and engineering talent to address our nation's complex technical needs."
"In the face of such intrusions talented researchers are inclined to take positions elsewhere, where the employers have a modicum of respect for the Constitution."
The four JPL scientists addressed their request for relief to Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) and Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.) since "the four of us, like the two of you, hold doctorates in the physical sciences."
Wrap...
Thillers to films....books and films coming...
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
THRILLER:
Christopher Reich's RULES OF DECEPTION, featuring an American doctor whose thrill-seeking personality has propelled him into war zones all over the world with Doctors Without Borders, who finds himself (and his late wife) at the center of a global terrorist conspiracy, for publication in summer 2008, and the sequel RULES OF VENGEANCE, to Stacy Creamer at Doubleday, by Richard Pine at Inkwell Management (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Carrolly Erickson's untitled novels in the author's ongoing series based on the lives of prominent women in history, to Charles Spicer at St. Martin's, by Russell Galen at Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency (World EnglishTranslation: barorint@aol.comBestselling author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, Philippa Gregory's THE WHITE QUEEN, for publication in 2010, followed by THE WHITE PRINCESS, and THE RED QUEEN, covering the War of the Roses period, again to Trish Todd at Touchstone Fireside, and now moving to Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster UK, by Anthony Mason (world).
Founder of the Acumen Fund (a non-profit venture capital firm providing business consulting and seed money to people in developing countries) Jacqueline Novogratz's THE BLUE SWEATER, a coming of age story of a woman and a generation determined to tackle global poverty, offering her story and the stories of entrepreneurs, from unwed mothers in Africa starting a bakery to an ambulance service start-up in India, showing how charity often fails but modest investments in local businesses can make people self-sufficient and change millions of lives, to Carolyn Carlson of Viking, at auction, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world English.)
Ethicist and public health authority Dr. Gregg Bloche's DO NO HARM, bringing us to the front lines of the Iraqi war, to ICU's and prisons and courtrooms to sound the alarm about the growing disconnect between our expectations - to be given every shot at a long healthy life - and the devastating limitations being placed on doctors, to Airie Stuart at Palgrave, in a nice deal, by Eve Bridburg and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (world).
Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent author Lyanda Lynn Haupt's CROW PLANET, at once an invitation to engage with wildlife in our midst and an eye-opening celebration of the most common of birds, crows, to Helen Atsma at Little, Brown, by Elizabeth Wales at Wales Literary Agency (World).
CHILDREN'S/PICTURE BOOK:
The Mistress of Spices author Chitra Divakaruni's GRANDMA AND THE GIANT GOURD: A Bengali Folk Tale, to Neal Porter at Roaring Brook, for publication in spring 2009, by Sandra Dijkstra at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Kelly Link's YA collection, THE WRONG GRAVE AND OTHER STORIES, to Sharyn November at Firebird/Viking Children's, in a pre-empt, by Renee Zuckerbrot at Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency (NA).Two of the stories ("The Wizards of Perfil" and "The Faery Handbag") have been optioned for film. (French rights to Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, to Gilles Dumay of Denoel, by Jenny Meyer on behalf of Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency.)
BIOGRAPHY:
Guggenheim recipient Tracy Daugherty's HIDING MAN, a biography of Donald Barthelme, prominent New Yorker contributor and one of America's heroes of the short story, to Michael Homler at St. Martin's, in a nice deal, by Christina Ward at the Christina Ward Literary Agency (World).
Michelle-Irene Brudny's HANNAH ARENDT: An Intellectual Biography, based on the discovery that Hannah Arendt wrote her masterpiece, The Origins of Totalitarianism, years earlier than previously thought - well before WWII and anticipating the horrors of Nazism; also examining the importance of Arendt's American years, including details about her life and her influence on contemporary philosophy, to Valerie Merians at Melville House, in a nice deal, by Grasset (World English).vm@mhpbooks.com
MEMOIR:
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's memoir, covering the strengths and weaknesses and successes and shortcomings of the Bush presidency "with refreshing candor," providing insider's perspective into the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and more, to Lisa Kaufman at Public Affairs, for publication in spring 2008, by Craig Wiley of the Craig Wiley Agency (world).
Ivan Sanchez's NEXT STOP, about the author's search for identity and escape from chaos in the 80s Bronx where street wars and all-night symphonies of crime were as routine as the Number 4 train, to Sulay Hernandez at Touchstone Fireside, in a nice deal, by Jenoyne Adams at the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).TV/film rights optioned to Lee Davis (co-creator/producer), Casper Martinez (executive producer/co-creator), Labid Aziz (executive producer), Luis Guzman (producer) and April Lee Hernandez (producer).
FILM:
Film rights to Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson's KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL, to Columbia Pictures and producer Erwin Stoff, reportedly for mid-six-figure option, against a seven figure pick-up, at auction, by CAA, on behalf of Marly Rusoff & Associates.
John N. Maclean's FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a book about wildfire by the son of Norman Maclean, to National Geographic Films, by Jennifer Lyons of Lyons & Pande, in conjunction with Mike Cendejas of the Pleshette Agency.
Wrap...
THRILLER:
Christopher Reich's RULES OF DECEPTION, featuring an American doctor whose thrill-seeking personality has propelled him into war zones all over the world with Doctors Without Borders, who finds himself (and his late wife) at the center of a global terrorist conspiracy, for publication in summer 2008, and the sequel RULES OF VENGEANCE, to Stacy Creamer at Doubleday, by Richard Pine at Inkwell Management (NA).
GENERAL/OTHER:
Carrolly Erickson's untitled novels in the author's ongoing series based on the lives of prominent women in history, to Charles Spicer at St. Martin's, by Russell Galen at Scovil Chichak Galen Literary Agency (World EnglishTranslation: barorint@aol.comBestselling author of The Other Boleyn Girl and The Boleyn Inheritance, Philippa Gregory's THE WHITE QUEEN, for publication in 2010, followed by THE WHITE PRINCESS, and THE RED QUEEN, covering the War of the Roses period, again to Trish Todd at Touchstone Fireside, and now moving to Suzanne Baboneau at Simon & Schuster UK, by Anthony Mason (world).
Founder of the Acumen Fund (a non-profit venture capital firm providing business consulting and seed money to people in developing countries) Jacqueline Novogratz's THE BLUE SWEATER, a coming of age story of a woman and a generation determined to tackle global poverty, offering her story and the stories of entrepreneurs, from unwed mothers in Africa starting a bakery to an ambulance service start-up in India, showing how charity often fails but modest investments in local businesses can make people self-sufficient and change millions of lives, to Carolyn Carlson of Viking, at auction, by Marly Rusoff at Marly Rusoff & Associates (world English.)
Ethicist and public health authority Dr. Gregg Bloche's DO NO HARM, bringing us to the front lines of the Iraqi war, to ICU's and prisons and courtrooms to sound the alarm about the growing disconnect between our expectations - to be given every shot at a long healthy life - and the devastating limitations being placed on doctors, to Airie Stuart at Palgrave, in a nice deal, by Eve Bridburg and Todd Shuster at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency (world).
Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent author Lyanda Lynn Haupt's CROW PLANET, at once an invitation to engage with wildlife in our midst and an eye-opening celebration of the most common of birds, crows, to Helen Atsma at Little, Brown, by Elizabeth Wales at Wales Literary Agency (World).
CHILDREN'S/PICTURE BOOK:
The Mistress of Spices author Chitra Divakaruni's GRANDMA AND THE GIANT GOURD: A Bengali Folk Tale, to Neal Porter at Roaring Brook, for publication in spring 2009, by Sandra Dijkstra at Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
CHILDREN'S/YOUNG ADULT:
Kelly Link's YA collection, THE WRONG GRAVE AND OTHER STORIES, to Sharyn November at Firebird/Viking Children's, in a pre-empt, by Renee Zuckerbrot at Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency (NA).Two of the stories ("The Wizards of Perfil" and "The Faery Handbag") have been optioned for film. (French rights to Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, to Gilles Dumay of Denoel, by Jenny Meyer on behalf of Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency.)
BIOGRAPHY:
Guggenheim recipient Tracy Daugherty's HIDING MAN, a biography of Donald Barthelme, prominent New Yorker contributor and one of America's heroes of the short story, to Michael Homler at St. Martin's, in a nice deal, by Christina Ward at the Christina Ward Literary Agency (World).
Michelle-Irene Brudny's HANNAH ARENDT: An Intellectual Biography, based on the discovery that Hannah Arendt wrote her masterpiece, The Origins of Totalitarianism, years earlier than previously thought - well before WWII and anticipating the horrors of Nazism; also examining the importance of Arendt's American years, including details about her life and her influence on contemporary philosophy, to Valerie Merians at Melville House, in a nice deal, by Grasset (World English).vm@mhpbooks.com
MEMOIR:
Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's memoir, covering the strengths and weaknesses and successes and shortcomings of the Bush presidency "with refreshing candor," providing insider's perspective into the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, and more, to Lisa Kaufman at Public Affairs, for publication in spring 2008, by Craig Wiley of the Craig Wiley Agency (world).
Ivan Sanchez's NEXT STOP, about the author's search for identity and escape from chaos in the 80s Bronx where street wars and all-night symphonies of crime were as routine as the Number 4 train, to Sulay Hernandez at Touchstone Fireside, in a nice deal, by Jenoyne Adams at the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency (world).TV/film rights optioned to Lee Davis (co-creator/producer), Casper Martinez (executive producer/co-creator), Labid Aziz (executive producer), Luis Guzman (producer) and April Lee Hernandez (producer).
FILM:
Film rights to Deborah Rodriguez and Kristin Ohlson's KABUL BEAUTY SCHOOL, to Columbia Pictures and producer Erwin Stoff, reportedly for mid-six-figure option, against a seven figure pick-up, at auction, by CAA, on behalf of Marly Rusoff & Associates.
John N. Maclean's FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a book about wildfire by the son of Norman Maclean, to National Geographic Films, by Jennifer Lyons of Lyons & Pande, in conjunction with Mike Cendejas of the Pleshette Agency.
Wrap...
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
DOD: No blogs or emails from military without....
From Secrecy News:
ARMY CLAMPS DOWN WITH NEW OPSEC POLICY
A new U.S. Army regulation on Operations Security (OPSEC)would sharply restrict the ability of soldiers to participate in public life without supervision and authorization from superior officers.The regulation also encourages Army personnel to view attempts by unauthorized persons to gather restricted information as an act of subversion against the United States.
"All Department of the Army personnel and DoD contractors will... consider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army(SAEDA) incident," the regulation states (at section 2-1).
"Sensitive" information is defined here (at section 1-5(c)(3)(e)) to include not just vital details of military operations and technologies but also documents marked "For Official Use Only" (FOUO) that may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
It follows that inquisitive members of the press or the public who actively pursue such FOUO records may be deemed enemies of the United States. In what seems to be a serious conceptual muddle, the new regulation conflates OPSEC, which is supposed to be a defense against adversaries of the United States, with FOIA restrictions, which regulate public access to government information. As a result, it appears that OPSEC procedures are now to be used to control access to predecisional documents, copyrighted or proprietary material, and other FOIA-exempt records.
A copy of the new regulation, dated April 19 and itself marked For Official Use Only, was obtained by Wired News and is posted here:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/files/army_reg_530_1_updated.pdf
Taken at face value, the regulation would spell the end of military blogging and would severely curtail military participation in public life. It imposes a non-discretionary pre-publication review requirement, stating that "all Department of the Army personnel... will... consult with their immediate supervisor... prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum." (sec. 2-1).
It was reported by Noah Shachtman in "New Army Rules CouldKill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too)," Danger Room, May 2:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/new_army_rules_.html
The terms of the Army regulation are so expansive as to create innumerable new opportunities for violations and infractions. Just this week, for example, the Army's own 1st Information Operations Command ironically posted a briefing on "OPSEC in the Blogosphere," marked For Official Use Only:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/opsec-blog.pdf
(Thanks, again, to Entropic Memes at www.slugsite.com.)
Wrap...
Wrap...
ARMY CLAMPS DOWN WITH NEW OPSEC POLICY
A new U.S. Army regulation on Operations Security (OPSEC)would sharply restrict the ability of soldiers to participate in public life without supervision and authorization from superior officers.The regulation also encourages Army personnel to view attempts by unauthorized persons to gather restricted information as an act of subversion against the United States.
"All Department of the Army personnel and DoD contractors will... consider handling attempts by unauthorized personnel to solicit critical information or sensitive information as a Subversion and Espionage Directed Against the U.S. Army(SAEDA) incident," the regulation states (at section 2-1).
"Sensitive" information is defined here (at section 1-5(c)(3)(e)) to include not just vital details of military operations and technologies but also documents marked "For Official Use Only" (FOUO) that may be exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
It follows that inquisitive members of the press or the public who actively pursue such FOUO records may be deemed enemies of the United States. In what seems to be a serious conceptual muddle, the new regulation conflates OPSEC, which is supposed to be a defense against adversaries of the United States, with FOIA restrictions, which regulate public access to government information. As a result, it appears that OPSEC procedures are now to be used to control access to predecisional documents, copyrighted or proprietary material, and other FOIA-exempt records.
A copy of the new regulation, dated April 19 and itself marked For Official Use Only, was obtained by Wired News and is posted here:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/files/army_reg_530_1_updated.pdf
Taken at face value, the regulation would spell the end of military blogging and would severely curtail military participation in public life. It imposes a non-discretionary pre-publication review requirement, stating that "all Department of the Army personnel... will... consult with their immediate supervisor... prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum." (sec. 2-1).
It was reported by Noah Shachtman in "New Army Rules CouldKill G.I. Blogs (Maybe E-mail, Too)," Danger Room, May 2:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/new_army_rules_.html
The terms of the Army regulation are so expansive as to create innumerable new opportunities for violations and infractions. Just this week, for example, the Army's own 1st Information Operations Command ironically posted a briefing on "OPSEC in the Blogosphere," marked For Official Use Only:
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/opsec-blog.pdf
(Thanks, again, to Entropic Memes at www.slugsite.com.)
Wrap...
Wrap...
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Boehner & Leiberman...bullshit artists..Whine on...
From American Progress:
CONGRESS -- LIEBERMAN: 'BLOGGERS HAVE ADDED ANOTHER DIMENSION OF VITUPERATION TOXICITY' TO POLITICS:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) led a panel discussion yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute discussing "options for restoring civility in American politics."
Lieberman and Boehner both decried the harsh incivility in politics today while portraying themselves as paragons of independence and cordiality. Lieberman described his own politics as "stand[ing] up for what I believe is right and...work[ing] across party lines to get things done."
As for the rest of politics, "The majority of people are sick of it. They think our political system is sick." Lieberman blamed "attack ads, the kind of divisiveness of the cable news coverage of politics, talk radio," and bloggers who "have added another dimension of vituperation toxicity to it."
Boehner agreed, saying he has worked to "find ways of disagreeing without being disagreeable." He asked, "Where does all the partisanship come from?" and answered it by lamenting how blogs and other outlets have put "more information out in the public realm than there ever was, and some of it is to drive one point of versus other, dividing people more and more." He called this the "breakdown of America" (See the video HERE).
Iraq, more than any other issue, has contributed to the divisiveness in politics today. And on that issue, Lieberman and Boehner have acquiesced to a failing, unpopular Bush policy while harshly demeaning those who seek to change it.
Just this month, Lieberman stated that critics of President Bush's Iraq policy were engaging in "a kind of harassment."
Boehner said that people who oppose escalation are taking the "bait" of "al Qaeda and terrorist sympathizers" by using Iraq to "divide us here at home" and derided critics' war policies as simply "failure at any cost."
Wrap...
CONGRESS -- LIEBERMAN: 'BLOGGERS HAVE ADDED ANOTHER DIMENSION OF VITUPERATION TOXICITY' TO POLITICS:
Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) led a panel discussion yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute discussing "options for restoring civility in American politics."
Lieberman and Boehner both decried the harsh incivility in politics today while portraying themselves as paragons of independence and cordiality. Lieberman described his own politics as "stand[ing] up for what I believe is right and...work[ing] across party lines to get things done."
As for the rest of politics, "The majority of people are sick of it. They think our political system is sick." Lieberman blamed "attack ads, the kind of divisiveness of the cable news coverage of politics, talk radio," and bloggers who "have added another dimension of vituperation toxicity to it."
Boehner agreed, saying he has worked to "find ways of disagreeing without being disagreeable." He asked, "Where does all the partisanship come from?" and answered it by lamenting how blogs and other outlets have put "more information out in the public realm than there ever was, and some of it is to drive one point of versus other, dividing people more and more." He called this the "breakdown of America" (See the video HERE).
Iraq, more than any other issue, has contributed to the divisiveness in politics today. And on that issue, Lieberman and Boehner have acquiesced to a failing, unpopular Bush policy while harshly demeaning those who seek to change it.
Just this month, Lieberman stated that critics of President Bush's Iraq policy were engaging in "a kind of harassment."
Boehner said that people who oppose escalation are taking the "bait" of "al Qaeda and terrorist sympathizers" by using Iraq to "divide us here at home" and derided critics' war policies as simply "failure at any cost."
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Forget Electoral College...1 person...1 vote...Do it!
From TomPaine.com :
One Person, One Vote, Really
Jamie Raskin
May 01, 2007
Jamie Raskin is a Maryland state senator and a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law. He introduced the legislation that made Maryland the first state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Sometimes it is said that the president is the only official in America that the whole nation elects. But this is wrong. In picking the president, we act through the filter of 51 separate elections in which presidential electors are appointed on a winner-take-all basis in all states but two, Maine and Nebraska, which each award two electors statewide and the others by congressional district. In this fragmented system, the goal of presidential candidates is not to win a majority vote in the nation but to stitch together enough states and districts to accumulate 270 presidential electors regardless of the national popular will.
In practice, this patchwork regime quickly reduces the competitive election to a small minority of states. Most Americans live in the 34 states where our Electoral College votes are safely taken for granted by one major party or the other. I live in Maryland, which is safely blue. My brother and older sister live in Virginia, safely red. My younger sister is in Washington, D.C., which is blue. I have family and close friends in New York (blue), Texas (red), Connecticut (blue), Mississippi (red), Massachusetts (blue), Utah (red), California (blue), Alaska (red), Hawaii (blue) and South Dakota (red). The dominant party wastes no money on seeking votes in these states and the weaker party considers it a lost cause and won’t spend a dime either.
The presidential campaign planes fly over all of us in red and blue America in search of “swing voters” in the dwindling set of “swing states.” Fully 99 percent of presidential campaign funding in the last two cycles went to move voters in a mere 16 states, and two-thirds of the money was poured into five states. The majority of Americans have become long-distance spectators to the exciting action in the battleground states where issues are debated and campaign ads air. We watch as the candidates, the campaign staff and the media bear down on Florida, Ohio, New Mexico and a handful of others states blessed with closely divided electorates. Voter turn-out in the general election sometimes approaches 70 percent in the swing states but hovers in the mid-50s in demoralized spectator states, driving our national turn-out rates down to among the lowest on earth.
Through the lens of political democracy and majority rule, this system is an accident waiting to happen again and again. The 2000 presidential election, a dramatic turning point in American history, propelled the national popular vote loser to the White House for the fourth time in our history. Vice President Al Gore, the winner of the national popular vote by more than 540,000 ballots, was denied office because his opponent tortured out of Florida’s contaminated electoral process a 527-vote victory and all of the state’s 25 electors. Florida’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, removed more than 17,000 voters from the rolls, falsely accusing them of being felons, and a 5-4 majority on the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that 175,000 “undercount” ballots not be counted at all. Partisan mischief and manipulation of the Electoral College—which one of my students called “the biggest party school in America”—made the South solid for George W. Bush and thwarted the national political will. The 537 votes in Florida’s dubious majority for Bush were worth far more than the 540,000-vote majority Gore assembled nationally.
Public opinion polls have long shown that upwards of 65 percent of Americans favor a direct national popular vote for president in which all of our votes count equally. The puzzle has been how to reconcile a national popular election with the antique mechanics of the Electoral College, which Thomas Jefferson called “the most dangerous blot on our Constitution.”
But now the state of Maryland has taken a bold and creative step to show how it can be done. On April 10, 2007, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law a plan to have Maryland enter and launch an interstate compact in which all member states agree to cast their Electoral College votes for the winner of the national popular vote. The agreement takes effect when it is enacted by a number of states representing a majority of electoral votes (270).
The National Popular Vote plan rests on the powers that states have to create interstate compacts and to appoint electors. Article II, Section I provides: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors…” This power has been deployed by legislatures in different ways. When the nation began, the legislatures mostly named Electors directly and they operated as a deliberative body and voted their consciences. In 1800, for example, Maryland saw seven of its electors vote for Adams and four for Jefferson. When states began in the last century to award their electors in winner-take-all fashion based on a statewide popular vote, smaller states complained that this newfangled “unit” bloc voting diluted the power of small states (and they were right). They sued. In the aptly named Delaware v. New York in 1966, the Supreme Court rejected this challenge and emphasized that the states’ power to award electors may be exercised in any manner they see fit. The power is “plenary.”
Thus, from California to New York, from Texas to Utah, our legislatures—led by the spectator states--can now unite to give America something we have promoted for the rest of the world but never achieved ourselves: a truly national election for president based on principles of majority rule, one person-one vote and all votes counting equally. Such an election will revitalize our democracy by emancipating and energizing tens of millions of currently superfluous voters. It will also provide a fitting end to the long assault on America’s democratic values that began with the toxic election of 2000.
Revised 3:10 p.m. for minor corrections.
Wrap...
One Person, One Vote, Really
Jamie Raskin
May 01, 2007
Jamie Raskin is a Maryland state senator and a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law. He introduced the legislation that made Maryland the first state to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.
Sometimes it is said that the president is the only official in America that the whole nation elects. But this is wrong. In picking the president, we act through the filter of 51 separate elections in which presidential electors are appointed on a winner-take-all basis in all states but two, Maine and Nebraska, which each award two electors statewide and the others by congressional district. In this fragmented system, the goal of presidential candidates is not to win a majority vote in the nation but to stitch together enough states and districts to accumulate 270 presidential electors regardless of the national popular will.
In practice, this patchwork regime quickly reduces the competitive election to a small minority of states. Most Americans live in the 34 states where our Electoral College votes are safely taken for granted by one major party or the other. I live in Maryland, which is safely blue. My brother and older sister live in Virginia, safely red. My younger sister is in Washington, D.C., which is blue. I have family and close friends in New York (blue), Texas (red), Connecticut (blue), Mississippi (red), Massachusetts (blue), Utah (red), California (blue), Alaska (red), Hawaii (blue) and South Dakota (red). The dominant party wastes no money on seeking votes in these states and the weaker party considers it a lost cause and won’t spend a dime either.
The presidential campaign planes fly over all of us in red and blue America in search of “swing voters” in the dwindling set of “swing states.” Fully 99 percent of presidential campaign funding in the last two cycles went to move voters in a mere 16 states, and two-thirds of the money was poured into five states. The majority of Americans have become long-distance spectators to the exciting action in the battleground states where issues are debated and campaign ads air. We watch as the candidates, the campaign staff and the media bear down on Florida, Ohio, New Mexico and a handful of others states blessed with closely divided electorates. Voter turn-out in the general election sometimes approaches 70 percent in the swing states but hovers in the mid-50s in demoralized spectator states, driving our national turn-out rates down to among the lowest on earth.
Through the lens of political democracy and majority rule, this system is an accident waiting to happen again and again. The 2000 presidential election, a dramatic turning point in American history, propelled the national popular vote loser to the White House for the fourth time in our history. Vice President Al Gore, the winner of the national popular vote by more than 540,000 ballots, was denied office because his opponent tortured out of Florida’s contaminated electoral process a 527-vote victory and all of the state’s 25 electors. Florida’s Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, removed more than 17,000 voters from the rolls, falsely accusing them of being felons, and a 5-4 majority on the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that 175,000 “undercount” ballots not be counted at all. Partisan mischief and manipulation of the Electoral College—which one of my students called “the biggest party school in America”—made the South solid for George W. Bush and thwarted the national political will. The 537 votes in Florida’s dubious majority for Bush were worth far more than the 540,000-vote majority Gore assembled nationally.
Public opinion polls have long shown that upwards of 65 percent of Americans favor a direct national popular vote for president in which all of our votes count equally. The puzzle has been how to reconcile a national popular election with the antique mechanics of the Electoral College, which Thomas Jefferson called “the most dangerous blot on our Constitution.”
But now the state of Maryland has taken a bold and creative step to show how it can be done. On April 10, 2007, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law a plan to have Maryland enter and launch an interstate compact in which all member states agree to cast their Electoral College votes for the winner of the national popular vote. The agreement takes effect when it is enacted by a number of states representing a majority of electoral votes (270).
The National Popular Vote plan rests on the powers that states have to create interstate compacts and to appoint electors. Article II, Section I provides: “Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors…” This power has been deployed by legislatures in different ways. When the nation began, the legislatures mostly named Electors directly and they operated as a deliberative body and voted their consciences. In 1800, for example, Maryland saw seven of its electors vote for Adams and four for Jefferson. When states began in the last century to award their electors in winner-take-all fashion based on a statewide popular vote, smaller states complained that this newfangled “unit” bloc voting diluted the power of small states (and they were right). They sued. In the aptly named Delaware v. New York in 1966, the Supreme Court rejected this challenge and emphasized that the states’ power to award electors may be exercised in any manner they see fit. The power is “plenary.”
Thus, from California to New York, from Texas to Utah, our legislatures—led by the spectator states--can now unite to give America something we have promoted for the rest of the world but never achieved ourselves: a truly national election for president based on principles of majority rule, one person-one vote and all votes counting equally. Such an election will revitalize our democracy by emancipating and energizing tens of millions of currently superfluous voters. It will also provide a fitting end to the long assault on America’s democratic values that began with the toxic election of 2000.
Revised 3:10 p.m. for minor corrections.
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