July 2006 Archives

TBogg pointed out the brouhaha about BabyTalk magazine putting a woman's breast (in profile) with a baby attached on the cover. A woman nursing on a baby magazine...imagine that?

But here's why I'll never move to Texas:

One mother who didn't like the cover explains she was concerned about her 13-year-old son seeing it. "I shredded it," said Gayle Ash, of Belton, Texas, in a telephone interview. "A breast is a breast it's a sexual thing. He didn't need to see that." It's the same reason that Ash, 41, who nursed all three of her children, is cautious about breast-feeding in public a subject of enormous debate among women, which has even spawned a new term: "lactivists," meaning those who advocate for a woman's right to nurse wherever she needs to. "I'm totally supportive of it I just don't like the flashing," she says. "I don't want my son or husband to accidentally see a breast they didn't want to see."

I'm glad that stupidity isn't painful, because this woman would have to be medicated 24/7.

Since when did a 13-year old boy ever see a breast they didn't want to see, except maybe his mother's? :-)

Please get this sign taken down. NOW:

before one more person makes a joke about shitting the bed or crapping their pants.

Love,
YatPundit
ED '80

Laura Bush's Tips To Beat The Heat

OK, so what if the USMC are on MySpace:

Military mess

How sorry and desperate is this?” Marines trolling for recruits on MySpace. The Marine Corps MySpace profile is reaching out to its target audience with streaming video of recruits in boot camp and Marines storming beaches. (AP): (quote cut)

Obviously they need to try any and all tactics to get the warm bodies into uniform. After all, other branches of the military have resorted to lowering standards and recruiting people with antisocial personality disorder, autism, as well as welcoming in folks convicted of aggravated assault, robbery, vehicular manslaughter, receiving stolen property and making terrorist threats.

[via Pandagon]

And while I think it's madness to enlist in the Army or Marines until we can get rid of BushCo and find an exit strategy, it's important to let the military make their case.  Unless we are all ready to start moving to the Israeli military model (compulsory military service for all adults), our armed forces should be left to take their shot in terms of recruiting.  At the rate the disrespectful piece of shit living at 1600 Pensylvania Avenue is wasting our military, our national defense is in serious trouble.  Let's not forget the National Guard, which has a lot more duties than getting killed in Iraq (like making sure my neighborhood didn't get looted last year).  If the Marines can make the case for enlistment via MySpace, my hat's off to them.

so, a second jury has acquitted this poor woman. Clearly her mental health history prior to killing her children indicated that she's is extremely ill:

Defense attorneys presented much of the same evidence as in the first trial, including half a dozen psychiatrists who testified that Yates was so psychotic that she didn't know her actions were wrong. They said that in her delusional mind, she thought killing the youngsters was right.

Some testified about her two hospitalizations after suicide attempts in 1999, not long after her fourth child was born. At the time, the family lived in a converted bus. Dr. Eileen Starbranch, a psychiatrist, again testified about how she warned Yates and her husband not to have more children because her postpartum psychosis would probably return.

Yates' stayed in a mental hospital for about two weeks in April and 10 days in May 2001. Psychiatrists testified that she was catatonic and wouldn't eat and that her postpartum condition from Mary's birth in November worsened after her father died in March.

What concerns me hers is how Rusty Yates, the father of the children, has gotten such a pass from everyone. Here's a guy who had his family living in trailers and finally a renovated school bus. He got his wife pregnant a fifth time in 2000, after two suicide attempts and a diagnosis of postpartum psychosis. He left his children in the care of a clinical psychotic while he went off and did his own thing. If ever there was a candidate for a vasectomy it's this guy. I've always thought that "Law & Order" stretched things a bit far when they'd arrest someone for muder and argue "reckless endagerment," but here's an excellent real-life case of it.

So, now what becomes of Yates? Hopefully she'll become the clinical study subject I advocated she be back in 2001. It serves no greater good to simply lock this woman up for the rest of her life. She's clearly ill and won't get better.

I would like to see her moved to a facility where serious research on postpartum depression and psychosis is being conducted. She should be analyzed, poked, prodded, all but dissected, to find out what made her get the way she is. I don't know if she'll ever be able to be properly interviewed about her pregnancies and children, but perhaps that can happen as well. I don't see any of that happening while she's in an Texas state institution, however. Hopefully Texas will recognize the potential for greater good here and get her to where proper research and study takes place.

(x-posted to my kos diary)

(note: I'm cross-posting this to my DailyKos diary, so I'm back-tracking a bit in the story...)

A story in the Times-Picayune today focuses on the discussion surrounding the potential sale of land in Kenner owned by the Jefferson Parish School Board to Holy Cross School, the Catholic school for boys (grades 5-12) located in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The school was badly damaged by the storm, and students completed the 2005-06 school year in portable classroom buildings on the campus.

Holy Cross is seeking to leave the 9th Ward. Their board's first overture was to the State of Louisiana, making an offer for the former site of John F. Kennedy High School, a public school located in the city close to Lake Pontchartrain. When that deal fell through (there were issues concerning disposal of hazardous waste on the site), Holy Cross began pursuing a two-track course. The first possible site is that of the former Redeemer-Seton High School, combined with the buildings of St. Frances Cabrini parish. The Archdiocese of New Orleans owns the property, making this sale a private transaction. The second possible location is Kenner tract. Because it's public land, the JP School Board would have to approve the sale, and the members aren't all convinced it's a good idea.

The quest of Holy Cross School to find a new location presents an excellent overview of the status of education, public and private, in metro New Orleans since the storm. Immediately after Katrina, the Orleans Parish Public School system simply ceased to exist. It had no money, no students, and no employees, as most of the city evacuated and had not returned. Almost a year later, the school system exists only as a handful of charter schools operating in Algiers, the New Orleans neighborhood located on the west bank of the Mississippi. The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) has control of most of the public education assets in the city. There is little hope for returning the city's school system to its pre-storm structure, and that's not a bad thing--the OPSS was an unmitigated disaster. What made it so easy for BESE to take over city assets was legislation passed in 2005 enabling the state to take over schools that were performing so badly that there was little hope of improving them while under local control. Public education in the city will continue in populated neighborhoods using the charter-school model.

One of the things that makes education in New Orleans complicated is that Catholic schools in the area are not merely a private option to residents. Catholic schools are an entire parallel school system, and one of the primary contributing factors in the de facto segregation of education in the city. Prior to the storm, there over 120 elementary schools and over 20 high schools in the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. This extensive system enabled white-flight suburbanites as well as whites remaining in the city to avoid sending their kids to school with black children. In spite of the tribulations involved with restoring public education, Catholic schools were back in session in the city in January of 2006.

This is why Holy Cross School is worthy of note. That the school's board of directors is abandoning the 9th Ward is no surprise--the campus took a terrible hit from the storm, and the neighborhood still looks like a war zone. Moving to the Redeemer-Seton site in Gentilly is attractive to the school because it's still in New Orleans, and acquiring the property from the Archdiocese will be easier than deaing with government entities. The site will require a lot of work, however, since it was flooded with over twelve feet of water from the London Avenue Canal.

The Kenner location is attractive to Holy Cross because Jefferson Parish is where the students are. The City of Kenner has already passed a resolution welcoming the school. There's only one boys Catholic high school in Jefferson Parish, Archbishop Rummel High in Metairie. Relocating the school to Kenner would essentially be a continuation of the white-flight that began in the 1960s, accelerated by the storm.

Not everyone in Jefferson Parish shares Kenner's excitement over Holy Cross, particularly the Jefferson Parish School Board. Studies indicate that the parish's population will grow to between 425K-451K, which is a serious increase over the Census Bureau's 411K guesstimate. An additional 40K residents means between potentially 7K-8K new public school students. Several of the board's members are concerned about from where the money to expand their schools to accomodate new students will come, and are hesitant to sell valuable property to a private entity. There is a bit of classic Jefferson Parish political squabbling at work here as well--the board members against or on the fence about the Holy Cross sale are from the west bank; Kenner is on the east bank.

The future of education in metro New Orleans is critical to the rebuilding of the city. Any New Orleans family that had children in Orleans Parish public schools prior to the storm has little to no motivation to return home. Parents would be doing their families such a huge disservice to pull them out of schools that are by far leaps and bounds better than anything in New Orleans. It's going to take several years to determine whether or not the charter schools on the west bank will be a success. That leaves Catholic schools and suburban public schools to carry the bulk of the burden of educating the metro area's children. Both systems must be nurtured and funded to keep the city alive.

I'll have to ask my friend Jerry if he wants to volunteer one of his nine kids as a suicide bomber. He'll still have the other eight, after all:

Dietl on Muslim "fanatics" fighting a "God war": "When you have eight children, you can let two of 'em go get blown up because you always got six more"

Summary: On Imus in the Morning, Richard "Bo" Dietl decried the "influxitation [sic] of the Muslim Empire that's taking over Europe," suggested the United States should "make a parking lot out of Damascus," and claimed that "every Muslim family is told to have six to eight children." Dietl added that Muslim fanatics are willing to "let two of them go get blown up because you always got six more."

what a douchebag

if you see things changing a bit here, don't panic--I'm working on the layout for the site. Comments and suggestions are, of course, appreciated.

Interesting article from Laborde in this month's New Orleans Magazine. We lost a lot because of the storm, and this is his top list. I'll leave you to look back at the article itself for his comments and reasoning:

7. New Orleans Centre.
6. Dixie Beer.
5. Harrison Avenue.
4. Streetcars.
3. Charity Hospital.
2. Downtown Bay St. Louis.
1. West End/Bucktown.

I'm in agreement with Laborde on items 2 through 6, but I have problems with his reasoning on 1 and 7.

New Orleans Centre (#7): That shopping center was dead long before the storm. The only active part of the mall was the food court, which serviced the medical district, city hall, Entergy, and the buildings on Poydras across the street. The mall lost one of its main anchors (Lord & Taylor) years ago, and the smaller shops were folding up regularly.

West End/Bucktown (#1): Methinks Errol has fallen into a time warp. Katrina didn't destroy Bruning's, Hurricane Georges did in 1998. Sure, they moved into the building in front of the original restaurant after the storm, but Laborde's wistful memories of sipping a beer and watching the fish in the lake were gone years ago.

I've got a real problem with a writer who purports to be an "expert" on New Orleans who makes such glaring errors.

No established pol wants to take on William Jefferson (D-LA), he of the $90K in his freezer. Jefferson who is currently under investigation by the FBI, vehemently denies all accusations of wrongdoing and firmly refuses to step aside, even though he's been removed from a key committee position by the Dem caucus.

The Times-Picayune has suggested two possibilities why candidates are reluctant to challenge Jefferson, even though the national party clearly views him as damaged goods: Money and community status.

Money is a serious factor for any challenger to Jefferson. He only has $325K in his warchest, but raising even that amount in post-K New Orleans will be tough. The RCCC probably won't touch declared GOP candidate Joe Lavigne, given the troubled incumbents they have to defend, so even he will have fundraising problems. He's got $200K, but serious name recognition issues. Not to mention he's a white Republican in New Orleans.

Community status is also significant. Second only to the late Ernest N. "Dutch" Morial, Jefferson's position in the black community is huge. His influence on the local political scene is larger than life. While it was easy for Leader Pelosi to throw him under a bus to further the cause of returning the House to Democratic control in the fall, it's not so simple back home.

Da Paper understates Jefferson's influence in the community, though. It's not just that he's an icon. His longevity has enabled him to place friends and family in influential positions across the political landscape. All federal appointees from Louisiana during the Clinton years owe their positions in part to Jefferson. For example, Jefferson got his law partner Eddie Jordan appointed as US Attorney, which enabled Jordan to run for Orleans Parish District Attorney, his current gig. Jefferson clan members are so entrenched in local government that a candidate would challenge the patriarch at her peril.

Should Jefferson step aside, the list of challengers is extensive. The one person who could gear up quickly for a short-notice campaign is City Councilman Oliver Thomas, but he's always expressed much more interest in being Mayor. Of course, nobody's ever thought of LA-02 as an open seat, so Thomas may surprise everyone. Congress is the best path for a black career politician in New Orleans, because there are no term limits. It's all but impossible for a black politician from the city to successfully run statewide. Running in LA-02 is essentially the same as running citywide, so it's either Congress or the bench.

There are three weeks to go before qualifying for the Nov. 7th primary. It's unlikely that the DoJ will move on Jefferson in that timeframe, so it remains to be seen if a Democrat will step up to challenge him.

The nurses charged with murder in the Memorial Hospital case have gotten themselves some smart attorneys. They're obviously not going to let the prosecution be the only ones with their side in Da Paper:

Katrina nurses called victims of justice 'Their performance has always been exemplary' Sunday, July 23, 2006 By Jeffrey Meitrodt

Every Thanksgiving, Cheri Landry gets a card from Marian Busse, who can never get through the holiday season without remembering the nurse who helped save her son's life in 1990.

"At Thanksgiving, our family is always together, and I am always thankful that we are six people and not five people," said Busse, whose son Laurence was given a 3 percent chance of surviving the burns that covered his body after a fiery car accident on St. Charles Avenue. "Without her, I am not sure we could have survived as a family. I know my son would not have survived had she not paid such good attention to him."

Such testimonials about Landry and Lori Budo, her co-worker at Memorial Medical Center, are flowing in the wake of their arrest on second-degree murder allegations related to the post-Katrina deaths of four patients at the hospital.

The article is more than just the stories of would-be character witnesses, it goes after the Attorney General's case as well:

Attorney General Charles Foti has accused the nurses and Dr. Anna Pou, a surgeon at Memorial, of deliberately administering lethal doses of medicine to four elderly patients in the hospital's acute care unit after Katrina hit last August.

"This is a homicide; it is not euthanasia," Foti said Tuesday at a Baton Rouge news conference announcing the arrests.

Former patients and co-workers said they can't reconcile the accusations with the extraordinary work they've witnessed since Landry and Budo went to work at the hospital more than 20 years ago.

Moreover, one of the city's leading heart specialists said investigators have grossly mischaracterized the physical evidence. Foti's investigators suggest their case for murder hinges on the presence in the autopsied corpses of morphine, a powerful painkiller, and Versed, a sedative commonly used during surgery.

It's hard to figure out what's going on with Foti in this case. As Criminal Sheriff, he's never been directly involved in pro-life issues, so his opinions on these haven't been all that visible. There's more to this than meets the eye, to be sure, but it's so difficult to see what. The religious forces in the state will want to characterize any euthanasia case as homicide to shut down any legitimization of the concept. Then there's the business of health care. Memorial's pending sale to Ochsner Healthcare might be moving management to throw the doc and these two nurses under a bus.

It's disappointing to read an article such as this, because it indicates how little the truth can have to do with a criminal case in our judicial system.

2004's Katherine Harris is biting the dust:

The votes don't add up

Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, accused of suppressing votes during the 2004 election, faces daunting polls of his own in his race for governor.

By Walter Shapiro

July 24, 2006 | COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The devastating poll results for Republican Ken Blackwell in Sunday's Columbus Dispatch -- showing him 20 points behind his Democratic rival in his bid to become the most conservative big-state governor in modern times -- would try the faith of any candidate. Instead, Blackwell spoke passionately for more than a half-hour Sunday morning to the congregation at the Pentecostal Potter's House Church of God as he testified to his Christian faith and to his belief in a thin permeable membrane separating pulpit and politics.

I'm always amazed when reporters write about Republicans and race:

Not too long ago, Republicans had a dream of confounding the racial contours of American politics by electing conservative African-Americans as the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania (former pro football great Lynn Swann, also trailing by double digits in most polls). Prejudice appears to have little to do with Blackwell's political problems, since as he proudly notes he soundly defeated his white primary challenger, Attorney General Jim Petro. Asked about Blackwell in an interview earlier this month, GOP national chairman Ken Mehlman said, "Voters want change in that state ... and Ken Blackwell, through his biography, his record of accomplishment and his platform, radiates change."

Blackwell did beat Petro fairly handily, 56%-44%, but the OH primary had low turnout and the high-profile preachers such as Rod Parsley threw their support behind Blackwell as payback for putting all the voting machines in precincts where Parsley's congregants live rather than where the black folks live. Not to mention the fact that Blackwell is still the state's chief election official, so he essentially counted his own ballots.

General elections tend to be quite different from closed party primaries, however. More voters than the church-going faithful will be out in November, and the polls are reflecting this. For all the GOP machine might protest that their party is colorblind, there's always a racial undercurrent, a segment of voters who are "under the radar." They'll never admit to rejecting a candidate because of his race, but they still vote color.

I would love to believe that OH voters are smart enough to see that the GOP has become totally corrupt in their state, and that Blackwell is one of the poster children for what is wrong with elections in this country, but Occam's Razor applies here as well. The simple explanation here is that conservative white voters don't vote for the Eebil Coloreds. It happened here in Louisiana, in the Blanco-Jindal race. Kathy Blanco would be considered a DINO by most liberal Democrats, with a platform that wasn't all that different from her opponent. Bobby Jindal is a Republican darling, but his Indian (as in the country) heritage and dark skin made him just another Colored Guy in the minds of the average redneck.

Given the lack of outrage in OH over the extensive suppression of black voting that Blackwell led in 2004, the notion that race and prejudice aren't factors in that state is a no-sell. Parsley and the other revs have carried Blackwell as far as they can. Their arrogance that they control the process will be their downfall, as the bigots in their congregations reject their advice and vote for the white guy.

When I saw this posted by The General, at first I thought it was something he cooked up on his own. Or maybe got from Rude. Then I clicked through and saw that it was really a site.

Oh my.

This is a long rant, which includes a youtube clip of the Dixie Chicks on Letterman (worth the clicky if you haven't seen this) singing "Not Ready To Make Nice," along with the song's lyrics. Digby's thoughts on the song are simple:

Amen.

Did they think we were going to take their shit forever?

Don't lose your nerve Democrats. I know you hate to be "unseemly" and loathe the idea that anyone will think you are "unreasonable." I understand that having Rush say you are in thrall to the lunatic left fringe brings on a 60's flashback that leaves you dripping in a cold sweat. But get a grip on your subconscious fear of being a feeling and breathing human being and recognize that this is a good and necessary thing for your country. (You might even come to "kinda like it" like those Dixie Chicks have.) You don't have to be neutered farm animals anymore. If you're ready to take it to them we're here to get your backs.

F'sure, as we say in New Orleans. But I'd like to carry it a step further and encourage Democrats to not only stand up to the likes of the Vulgar Pigboy, but also to the "lunatic left fringe" themselves. You know, the ones who really don't care whether or not Dems screw it all up this November. They are as much a threat to a change in control of Congress in November as the Vulgar Pigbly, O'Really, Coulter, and all the other Republican surrogates out there. Stopping these madmen is important, and don't let anyone tell you that it's OK to have more years of total Republican control of our government. It's time we all feel like we "kinda like it," like the Chicks.

yeah, I know that posting about the Vulgar Pigboy these days is like shooting fish in a barrel, but James Wolcott has such a great way with words. Here he's commenting on Rush's recent on-air shout-outs to Debbie Schlussel and Pam from Atlas Shrugged:

I'm not going to link to either one of these Hooters honeys, but I can't help fretting that Rush's paying on-air tribute in rapid succession to Pam and Deb indicates that he may be bringing his Viagra-fueled boners into the studio, and letting them cloud his judgment with a eyelid-flickering bliss often associated with the Romantic poets, or porn junkies at the peak moment of personal transport. I just hope he doesn't start lusting after the Anchoress from his lower forty, if you know what I mean--it would be just too too defiling.

now, I know many will consider that a Pigboy erection is really past the bounds of TMI, but it's all just too funny to me...

Is Margaret Spellings really this dumb, or just lazy?

You're Doing a Heckuva Job, Maggie

Showing up this past Tuesday to pitch a $100 million school voucher program to Congress that would allow students in underachieving public schools to transfer their bodies - and taxpayer-provided $4,000 per pupil - to private schools, Spellings admitted she hadn't read a report issued by her own department the previous Friday that found little difference between student performance in public versus private schools.

[via Daily Kos]

I'm always amazed at the level of inepitude in this administration. I know it's hard to get the "best and the brightest" into government service, given the confirmation process, etc., but one should be able to find people who just aren't complete morons.

Which, of course, begs the question, is Margaret Spellings a moron?  Most likely she's intelligent and, like most conservatives, could care less about public education in general and the Dept. of Education specifically.  Republicans have hated this department since its inception.  It's possible there's a plan here--to marginalize the DoEd through ineptitude.

This moron has obviously never been to Tipitina's:

Beck: different races "afraid to hang out with each other ... because we're afraid ... somebody's gonna sic the NAACP on us"

On the July 21 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, CNN host Glenn Beck claimed that one reason different races are "afraid to hang out with each other" is that "we're afraid ... somebody's gonna sic the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] on us, or somebody's gonna sic an attorney on us." Beck added that "African-Americans are just ... as uncomfortable speaking in a room full of white people as I am speaking in a room full of black people." He concluded by stating that "what I say is not racist," but conceded that "I don't know what would be perceived as racist."

[via Media Matters for America]

this is so wrong on so many levels:

Ken Blackwell's minority outreach

Another post in the "Ken Blackwell is a vile individual" series:

How about this flyer, which went out residents in Cleveland's East Side suburbs (which has a high minority population). It's a not so subtle message that black folks should be worried about the prospect of Democratic candidate Ted Strickland winning the race for governor.

 

[via Pandagon]

 

 

George Harrison Sings the Pirate Song

Really.

(via pharyngula)

...because they want to remember the sacrifices of their young men. There's no glorifying the deeds of the government, but there are prayers and remembrances. Some in the US mock the French for "always surrendering," so it should logically follow that those who feel that way wouldn't mind when people honor men who defend their homes:

Legislator wants Rebels on memorial

BATON ROUGE -- Campus memorials honoring Louisiana State University students killed in wars should include the names of soldiers who fought and died for the Confederacy, a northern Louisiana lawmaker said Thursday.

Sen. Robert Barham, R-Oak Ridge, said the names of 18 "brave young Southern soldiers (who) made the ultimate sacrifice for their cause" should be added to a plaque on the school's Memorial Tower or the War Memorial on the Baton Rouge campus.

In a letter to the LSU Board of Supervisors, the board that sets policy for all of the LSU campuses, Barham asks that the 18 men who left the military academy that was LSU's forerunner to join the Confederate army be honored with their names engraved on a plaque in the tower or the War Memorial Plaza front of the tower. The military academy closed its doors at the start of the Civil War.

I'll say this for Sen. Barnham, he's an equal-opportunity bomb-thrower, not simply a "south-never-dies" type:

Barham recently created a small furor when he passed a nonbinding Senate resolution calling on the board to name a building on the campus after Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, the founding president of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, LSU's precursor at Pineville.

Sherman? Sherman? Talk about arouse the ire of the Confederate forces. Still, many Confederate officers are still honored in the north for their service to the Union prior to the war, so vice-versa should be acceptable.

But that's a general, and you can argue that Sherman had more control over his actions. These 18 men killed while fighting for the Confederacy were defending their homes. That's honorable behavior.

Fair is fair. After all, folks often call for Judge Charles Elloie in New Orleans to be tossed off the bench. Elloie's known for reducing bonds on suspects, only to have them commit more crimes while on bail, and most recently, his unnecessary trip to Jaimaca for a bar association seminar.

Looks like someone should be asking some serious questions about Martha Sassone as well:

Rapper's reprieve mystifies top cop

On June 5, as a Gretna police officer was driving Corey "C-Murder" Miller to jail for violating the rules of his house arrest, Police Chief Arthur Lawson said his officer got a phone call from the judge in Miller's murder case ordering that the rapper be returned home.

While 24th Judicial District Court Judge Martha Sassone had the authority to intervene, it was an unusual action by a judge, the police chief said. In the more than six years that the Gretna Police Department has run the home-incarceration program in Jefferson Parish, "that certainly was a first for us," he said Thursday.

Why is Sassone giving a suspected murderer special privileges? Inquiring minds want to know.

Crooks and Liars recounts an interesting exchange in a debate over pension plan reform. George Miller (D-CA) has the floor:

George Miller (D-CA): It’s a devastating picture when you meet your constituents who have lost their retirement, who have lost big chunks of their retirement and they come and talk to you at the shopping center, they talk to you in the grocery store, they talk to you in a town hall and they tell you what it means to their plans.

We were all stunned as a nation when pensioners got their plans wiped out and devastated by Enron. We called those people criminals. Here we call them legislators. Because people are getting — people are going to get a devastating hit on their pensions, and we’re going to say it’s the law. There we said it was a crime. We said it was a crime.

At this point, Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) tries to interrupt Miller, then asks that the "gentleman's words be taken down." This is the procedure used in the House by a member who finds something another member says offensive and wants the House to officially take notice of it:

Rep. McKeon: Mr. speaker. The Speaker Pro Tempore: The gentleman from California. Rep. McKeon: I would like to ask that the Gentleman’s words be taken down. The Speaker Pro Tempore: Could the gentleman describe which words he is referring to? Rep. McKeon: I would like to know for sure if he was calling us Criminals. The Speaker Pro Tempore: That reference of legislators and Criminals was made too far back in the debate to be a timely request.

Now, when Jean Schmidt (R- JesusLand OH) called Rep. Murtha a "coward," the Dems did the same thing, they asked that Schmidt's "words be taken down." The Speaker Pro Tempore at the time delayed on that long enough for Schmidt to return to the well and retract her statement. No harm, no foul.

This exchange is significantly different. Notice how the Republican leadership doesn't want any debate on whether or not Republican CongressCritters are "criminals," because that is surely where this would lead if an attempt to sanction Miller went forward.

this is bound to start up the euthanasia debate again:

3 arrested in New Orleans hospital deaths

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A doctor and two nurses were arrested overnight in connection with patient deaths at a New Orleans hospital in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana attorney general's office said Tuesday.

"We're not calling this euthanasia. We're not calling this mercy killings. This is second-degree murder," said Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles C. Foti.

Well, we can't rule out the possibility that they're just psychos, but that three people were involved does make that seem less likely. Foti's conservative enough to be outraged by medical professionals playing god, so his constituency will approve of the arrests.

It will be interesting to hear the other side of the story, and there most certainly has to be one.

Karen Hughes wanted her legacy to be the queen mum who whispered behind the throne to the boy king his instructions.  History will more likely write her up as merely a pathological liar.

First time for everything

In an interview with Salon in 2003 -- which is to say, sometime after George W. Bush called Adam Clymer a "major league asshole" and vowed to "fuck Saddam" but before Bush said that Hezbollah needs to "stop doing this shit" -- Tucker Carlson said that Karen Hughes once told him that "she'd never heard Bush use a profanity ever."

[via Salon: War Room]

I agree with Avarosis, this is just weird:

Bush gives female German Chancellor uninvited neck massage at summit by John in DC - 7/18/2006 12:06:00 AM

At first I thought this was just weird. Then I looked at the photos and the video. The chancellor looks rather surprised at someone suddenly touching her neck from behind. This is sexual harassment in any other workplace, isn't it? And it's rather inappropriate behavior for any man, let alone the president of the United States at a summit with foreign leaders.

Go to Americablog to see the pics--this one is amazing. John thinks he's just a cad. I can't help but wonder if he's hitting the bottle...

couldn't happen to a nicer crackwhore...

On the July 14 edition of MSNBC's Countdown, host Keith Olbermann reported that right-wing pundit "Ann Coulter has been knocked off the pages of one of the heartland's better newspapers because of complaints by conservatives," who "felt their views were being misrepresented." Olbermann interviewed Doug Neumann, the opinion page editor of The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, about the newspaper's decision to discontinue publishing Coulter's syndicated column. Olbermann said, "History tells us ... that political lightning rods are rarely vanquished by their foes, but usually instead by their friends," adding that the Shreveport Times in Louisiana has asked its readers if it too "should drop the Coultergeist column and replace her with another conservative writer."

I've alerted a lot of my friends in Shreveport to the situation, so they've all written personal letters to the editor there.

Novelist Mickey Spillane dies at 88

"The Register" is a site that deals primarily with IT and computer stuff; it's interesting to see a British take on the wiretap scandal:

Secret court secretly reviewing secret wiretaps White House gets custom legislation By Thomas C Greene in Washington Published Friday 14th July 2006 10:14 GMT

Washington Roundup Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Arlen Specter (Republican, Pennsylvania) has crafted proposed legislation, pre-approved by the White House, enabling the FISA star chamber court to rubber-stamp the NSA's massive, warrantless wiretap program, and decide that it is constitutional. Clearly, the Republicans don't want the Supremes to get their hands on this one, although it is hard to imagine them letting the FISA court have the last word.

(emphasis/snark theirs)

I encounter a number of Brits in my work, and I've yet to meet a subject of the Queen who supports our Iraq war, even the Labour supporters.

It's always good to see Republicans eat their own, since we Democrats do it to ourselves all too often:

Abramoff isn't running for anything; he's working with federal investigators while waiting for his prison term to begin. But Reed's opponent in Georgia, state Sen. Casey Cagle, is making Reed's close relationship with Abramoff an issue in the race, and news events are certainly helping his cause. On Wednesday, a Texas Indian tribe filed a lawsuit alleging that Abramoff, Reed and others engaged in acts of fraud and racketeering in trying to shut down their casino. And earlier today, GQ began distributing an advance look at a new report on the Reed-Abramoff relationship -- one that says that Reed expressed interest in an Abramoff scheme to profit from the deaths of members of African-American churches. ... But Abramoff didn't give up hope. Four months after pitching the plan to the Tiguas, Flynn says, Abramoff sent an e-mail to Reed in which he proposed something called the "Black Churches Insurance Program." The details of the program have been lost -- the document attached to Abramoff's e-mail to Reed has disappeared -- but Flynn figures it was pretty much the same deal as Abramoff had concocted for his tribal client. "Yeah," a former associate of Reed's tells Flynn, "it sounds like Jack approached Reed about mortgaging old black people."

This ties back directly to my discussion of voter rights yesterday. It is sometimes hard to motivate black voters when the candidates are two white guys, until one white guy (usually the Republican) does something stupid. If Reed emerges from the primary as the GOP nominee for GA Lt. Gov, he won't emerge unscathed. There's going to be blood all over him. Most of his Abramoff dealings and duplicity with respect to Christians will be ignored by die-hard wingnuts, but "mortgaging old black people" isn't going to play well in the black community, and that is the sort of ammo a Democrat can take to the streets with to mobilize support that might be a bit tepid otherwise.

KnowWar.com

that's what 2500+ dead Americans looks like.

Valerie Plame Wilson, Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Their Counsel to Hold News Conference Announcing Lawsuit against I. Lewis ''Scooter'' Libby, Vice-President Cheney and Karl Rove

oh, the discovery for this ought to be incredible...

via atrios

UPDATE: TPM Muckracker has details:

Because of the administration's "whispering campaign" against the Wilsons, they say that they've suffered "gross invasions of privacy," that they "fear of their safety and for the safety of their children," that Valerie Wilson's career was ended, and that both of them "have been impaired in pursuing professional opportunities."

this article details 8 causes of action. hot stuff...

UPDATE 2: The Wilsons have a website up about the suit and such...

John Murtha's office has released some interesting stats on the cost of the war:

(Washington D.C.)- We are spending $8 billion a month in Iraq. That equates to $2 billion a week, or $267 million a day, or $11 million an hour.

The following are some comparisons between what we are spending in Iraq as we "stay the course" indefinitely and what those funds could be used for instead.

NATIONAL SECURITY

$31.7 billion/yr Department of Homeland Security FY 07 budget

(4 months in Iraq)

$10 billion (1-time) Equipping commercial airliners with defenses against shoulder-fired

(5 weeks in Iraq) missiles

$8.6 billion/7 years Shortage of international aid needed to rebuild Afghanistan

(one month in Iraq)

$5.2 billion (1-time) Estimated need for capital improvements to secure public transportation

(3 weeks in Iraq) system (trains, subways, buses)

$1.5 billion/year Radiation detectors needed at all US ports (rejected due to cost)

(5 days in Iraq)

$1.4 billion/ year Double the COPS (community police grants) program

(5 days in Iraq)

$800 million/year Public transportation personnel training and technical support

(72 hours in Iraq)

$700 million/year 100% screening of all air cargo - rejected because of

(2 days in Iraq) cost (1/4 of domestic shipping and 1/2 of international shipping is done on passenger planes)

$350 million (1-time) Make emergency radio systems interoperable (5 years after 9/11, this

(1.2 days in Iraq) hasn't happened yet)

$500 million/year Double the firefighters’ grant program

(2 days in Iraq)

$94 million/year Restore cuts to cities hit on 9/11 in Homeland Security budget

(8-1/2 hours in Iraq)

The list goes on, into health Care, veterans benefits, environmental and infrastructure.

We're really pissing a lot of money away over there.

(via The Agonist)

And while on the subject of Murtha, here's a great summary article entitled "The Swift Boating of John Murtha."

georgia10 at dailykos reports this morning that the wingnuts in Georgia have been stopped in an attempt to suppress minority voting by requiring voters to show government-issued ID at the polls.

The issue of voting rights illustrates a huge difference between Republicans and Democrats. Since minority voters overwhelmingly vote Democrat when given the opportunity, many Republicans see denying those minorities the opportunity to vote as an valid and essential tactic.

Here in Louisiana, we usually welcome these assaults on democracy by Republicans, because they are more effective at getting out the minority vote than most efforts Democrats put forward. Take the 1986 senate race between Republican Henson Moore and Democrat John Breaux. It's understandably difficult for Dems to sell minority voters on the benefits of voting for our guy when his voting record is not all that different from that of the Republican.

Until the Republicans do something to totally differentiate themselves. In this case, the Repubs tried to do a "purge" of voter rolls that would have significantly reduced the number of black voters in the state. All of a sudden, black voters got interested in the two-white-boy race and turned out to elect Breaux.

The same tactic can be applied to races in states like Georgia--constantly remind minority voters that Democrats don't try to take away the right to vote.

Not a good thing:

Phishers are seeking to circumvent two-factor authentication schemes using man-in-the-middle attacks. Last October, US federal regulators urged banks to adopt two-factor authentication as a means to combat the growing problem of online account fraud.

Two-factor authentication involves the use of a password-generating device along with conventional passwords. That means a thief must know more than just a password to gain access to a user's account. Although the technology helps guard against fraud, a recent attack against Citibank shows the technique is far from foolproof.

A bogus security warning ostensibly from Citibank, and targeting customers of its Citibusiness service, urged prospective marks to visit a website and enter not only their account details and password (as with conventional phishing scams) but also the code generated by the customer's token. These authentication key codes change every minute or so.

Two-factor authentication has been around for a while now, but its use has usually been limited to VPN tunnels, corporate nets, etc. Giving consumers a number-generating "token" to authenticate access in addition to a password has been done in Europe and is growing in the US.

So, a bank or company requires you to use a password, for your security and theirs. They then give you a token and say "key in the number you see on here." Still, people get suckered by phishing sites. Social engineering is powerful, and the old Fox Mulder axiom "trust noone" is so appropos today.

Catching up on blogs, I came across an entry from tbogg on the All-Star game. He lists the lineup of the National League team from 1965:

sometimes the adage "they don't make 'em like they used to" is true.

So, Fort Collins, CO, will have just a Christmas tree this year as their public holiday display, even though a Jewish group wanted a Menorah. One city councilman is proud of his inclusiveness:

"I'm as inclusive as the next guy, but instead of knocking yourself out with being inclusive, we're just going to have a Christmas tree," Councilman Kurt Kastein said Wednesday.

Another says Christmas trees are OK because they're Pagan:

"The Christmas trees aren't a problem because they were originally pagan," said Councilman Ben Manvel. "If we allowed the menorah and a creche, then we'd end up with a parade of other religious symbols."

I didn't realize that the Pagan community in Ft. Collins was so influential that they've managed to block both Christian and Jewish public holiday displays. Somebody better alert Radical Cleric Dobson down in Colorado Springs and get the brownshirts marching.

via WitchVox...

Crooks and Liars simply refers to him now as "The Racist Sheriff"

OK, I'm at a loss for understanding why Planned Parenthood and NARAL would endorse Lieberman over Lamont. Lieberman, along with RI's Chaffee and ME's Collins and Snowe all claim to be "pro-choice," but their actions are tacitly anti-abortion. When Alito came up for confirmation, Lieberman joined the Republicans in voting "yes" on the cloture motion that ended debate. Later, all these senators voted "no" on Alito's confirmation.

Cloture motions require 60 votes. Confirmation requires 51 votes. Lieberman's "yes" vote to end a Democratic filibuster of Alito's nomination contributed to putting an anti-choice judge on the Supreme Court. Voting "no" on the confirmation itself was cosmetic, since the Republican majority had the 51 votes they needed to make Alito a Supreme.

Still, the two most-visible pro-choice activist groups in the country are supporting this man in his re-election bid. If Stevens or another justice in the "liberal" block of the Supremes dies or retires before either the Dems take back the Senate or a Dem president is inaugurated, the disrespectful piece of shit who lives in the White House will most certainly nominate another anti-choice judge.

I'm going to go open a bottle of wine to properly contemplate this...
*goes to kitchen*

OK, I see three reasons why pro-choice groups would endorse an openly anti-choice candidate:

1. They're fucking stupid. Let's face it, there's something to be said for Occam's Razor

2. There's some personal gain to be had by the top staffers of these two organizations to have the support of a three-term Senator. There's no doubt that a three-term incumbent senator has more favors and access at his disposal than a newbie. While Planned Parenthood actually does do something outside the beltway (in terms of their clinics and education programs), NARAL is strictly an inside-the-beltway lobbying organization. That means their staff, along with the DC folks of PP, all swim in the common sewer that is Washington politics. If they're typical of upwardly-mobile sewer-swimmers, the desire to look out for number one might have overtaken the desire to fight for women's rights.

3. A huge shift in strategy is taking place within the pro-choice movement in DC. There are those who feel that shifting the focus of the abortion debate from Washington to the states is more of a winner to the Dems than the status quo. Perhaps this is the establishment's (NARAL and PP) way of facilitating that strategy while maintaining their fundraising capability. They look like they're lending their support when what they're really doing is allowing Roe to be overturned by justices placed on the court by an anti-choice president and game-playing incumbents. Yeah, I know, this sounds like a "lone gunman theory...that's why option #1 above is there.

In any case, Jane Hamsher's delivered a huge dose of snark to PP today:

An Open Letter to Democrats From Planned Parenthood

...
We want you to know we have only begun to plumb the depths of what we’re willing to do to insure that the threats to choice in this country persist and the cash register keeps churning. Screw all the "little people" we have in clinics across the country whose lives are increasingly on the line as anti-choice nutjobs become emboldened by the actions of people like you — they just do not understand How Things Are Done.

The more I read, and the more it's associated with Lieberman's campaign, "fucking stupid" is winning as an explanation.

OK, I caught a bit of flack for poking fun at Ann Coulter's Adam's Apple, and was asked why whether or not she's transgendered matters.

I was looking up info on Congressman Rahm Emanuel, and came across this reference to Coulter in his Wikipedia entry:

"In her June 14, 2006 column, Ms. Coulter referred to Representative Emanuel as "Rahm 'Don't Touch My Tutu' Emanuel" behind whom Hillary Clinton was "hiding" after she "beat a hasty retreat on her chubby little legs." Ms. Coulter continues, "Yes, the Democrats' pit bull, Rahm Emanuel, is a former ballerina. And they wonder why the concerted effort of the MSM (as we call the mainstream media) and the Democratic Party can't lay a finger on me. A ballerina. Hey, if the padded, silky shoe fits ... "

Speech like this makes me wonder if Coulter doth protesteth too much on the subject of sexuality...

Several interesting pieces in the last couple of days on the minimum wage issue.

NPR's Morning Edition did a spot today. From the intro webpage:

Morning Edition, July 12, 2006   Republicans have used hot-button social issues like gay marriage for years as a tool to help energize turnout; some contend that the same-sex marriage issue on the Ohio 2004 ballot helped re-elect President Bush. Now Democrats are trying to take a page out of the GOP playbook by backing state ballot initiatives calling for a boost in the minimum wage.

Molly Ivins' column yesterday also addresses the minimum wage issue:

It seems to me that we've seen enough evidence over the years that the capitalist system is not going to be destroyed by an outside challenger like communism -- it will be destroyed by its own internal greed. Greed is the greatest danger as we develop an increasingly winner-take-all system. And voices like The Wall Street Journal's editorial page encourage this mentality by insisting that any form of regulation is bad. But for whom?

It is so discouraging to watch this country become less and less fair -- "justice for all" seems like an embarrassingly archaic tag. Republicans have rigged the "lottery of life" in this country in ways we don't even know about yet. The new bankruptcy law is unfair, and the new college loan rules are worse. The system has been stacked so that large corporations have an inside track over small businesses in getting government contracts. We won't see the full consequences of this mean and careless legislation for years, but it is starting to affect us already.

There will always be a certain cadre within the conservative ranks who, even when eating cat food because they can't afford anything better, will vote Republican because they will keep the Godless Homos from marrying. There are many, however, who are starting to realize just how much the Republican party is screwing them and their families.

good riddance:

Microsoft ends support for Windows 98

Microsoft is to end customer support for its Windows 98 and Millennium Edition operating systems from Tuesday as part of its product lifecycle policy.

IDC analysts estimate 70m users of Windows 98 alone will no longer be able to avail of telephone customer or technical support from Microsoft, and the firm will also cease providing security updates by Tuesday.

I was teaching a class in Nashua, NH, at the Tru64 Unix mother ship, back in 2001. I was using a Sony VAIO laptop that crashed four times one morning while just running powerpoint. One of the guys ran back to his desk, burned me a CD with a beta of XP on it, and I didn't look back. It's hard to believe that anyone is still running 98 or Me...*shivers*

...when I'd applaud Adam Carolla for something more serious than "Girls on Trampolines:"

ADAM CAROLLA: Ann Coulter, who was suppose to be on the show about an hour and a half ago, is now on the phone, as well. Ann?

ANN COULTER: Hello.

CAROLLA: Hi Ann. You’re late, babydoll.

COULTER: Uh, somebody gave me the wrong number.

CAROLLA: Mmm… how did you get the right number? Just dialed randomly — eventually got to our show? (Laughter in background)

COULTER: Um, no. My publicist e-mailed it to me, I guess, after checking with you.

CAROLLA: Ahh, I see.

COULTER: But I am really tight on time right now because I already had a —

CAROLLA: Alright, well, get lost.

via Crooks and Liars, who have the audio clip...

I think I'll fly into PVD next trip up:

Big Dig collapse prompts renewed scrutiny

BOSTON - At least 12 tons of concrete collapsed onto a passing car in a Big Dig tunnel, fatally crushing a newlywed and prompting renewed scrutiny Tuesday of the costliest highway project in U.S. history. The state attorney general said he plans to treat the site as a crime scene that could lead to charges of negligent homicide.

and you gotta love Mitt Romney:

Gov. Mitt Romney said Tuesday he is taking legal action to oust the head of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, comparing the situation to the replacement of former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown after Hurricane Katrina.

"People should not have to drive through the Turnpike tunnels with their fingers crossed," Romney said. "Neither I nor anyone else could be or should be satisfied until we have new leadership at the Turnpike authority."

Typical pol, takes a death for them to notice a problem...

Amanda tries to equate Zidane's head-butt Sunday to personal experience:

I would add to Raza’s excellent observation that Materazzi employed the art of the practiced oppressive taunter, which is to create a aura of plausible deniability around himself while provoking his victim to react in a public way that’s sure to bring the criticism on the victim. I’m white and haven’t been on the receiving end of much racist taunting but I’ve been the victim of tons of sexual harassment in my time and 95% of it happens in just this fashion—the assailant creates a sense of privacy in some fashion, either by getting chummy or taking advantage of a situation where there’s either no witnesses or it’s so crowded that your reaction will disturb the peace, and then he drops the taunt, gropes or at worst rapes his victim. (The latter requiring quite a bit of privacy but when it’s accomplished, it’s done well so that the public will fold in around the rapist and say, “Well it’s just one person’s word against another.”) This privacy forces the hand of the victim so that their only defense is to try to escalate this fight to a public arena. The practiced harasser therefore sets up situations where the victim’s reaction will create more public outcry than the harassment—depending on the situation, the plausibility deniability set up by the harasser will allow the public to accuse the victim of overreacting, being mistaken about being harassed, or just outright lying.

Sorry, Materazzi didn't try to rape Zizou. He's a professional football player who is well-skilled in the art of taunting. He's a shit, but lumping him in with sexual harassers and rapists is going too far. I have no respect for him (or for the Azzuri in general), but this really is silly.

When all is said and done, Zidane will be remembered for all of his successes, not this failure. Materazzi will be remembered as a trash-talker, and it will end there.

in the midst of La Copa Mundial, I failed to mention this update on Holy Cross' quest to find a new home. We left off with the saga taking the HC board to the site of John F. Kennedy High School, now under state control because of the collapse of the Orleans Parish Public School System. That was a dead end for HC, however, because of hazmat issues and other political complications.

Holy Cross has found an easier route, however, by keeping it closer in the family, as it were:

The school, which briefly explored a Kenner site among several options for a new campus, has offered instead to buy the land and buildings of Redeemer-Seton High School and nearby St. Frances Cabrini Church and school in Gentilly and hopes to open the new academic year in August at the new location, officials on both sides of the transaction said.

Much less complicated than dealing with a public entity, buying the Redeemer and Cabrini property makes sense. Those buildings got hit hard from the London Avenue Canal flood. The Redeemer buildings got over 12' of water, and Cabrini church is a mess. HC could start with their portable facilities as they demolish and rebuild.

This would be a huge boost for Gentilly, to have two big schools (Brother Martin and HC) up and running.

Sheriff Jack Strain of St. Tammany is sounding more and more like Harry Lee of late. Of course, when a white law enforcement official starts talking about people with "chee wee haircuts," it didn't take long for the ACLU and the NAACP to get into the act, and rightfully so:

As a local NAACP branch called for a federal investigation into racial profiling allegations against him, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Jack Strain remained defiant Monday, saying critics have distorted his words in an act of "shameful political grandstanding."

The Covington branch of the NAACP said Strain's statement after a recent quadruple murder that he intends to target people with two distinctive hairstyles commonly worn by African-Americans is unconstitutional.

"His announced intention to stop anyone with dreadlocks or a 'chee wee' hairstyle is a clear-cut case of racial profiling that violates residents' civil rights," branch President Annie Spell said.

Truth be told, I don't think Strain's a racist. He's reacting to pressure, because so much of his constituency is racist.

AJ from AmericaBlog argues that Neoconservatism is Dead, but I disagree. Oh, sure, AJ's got it right that the neocons are a failure:

These problems did not occur in a vacuum: The Iraq war is the centerpiece of the neoconservative foreign policy movement, Afghanistan was put on the back burner because of its (perceived) lack of strategic import, Iran pushed ahead with its nuclear program in part because of U.S. refusals to engage in negotiations and in part because it knows many neocons want to head east from Iraq, and the U.S. has abandoned any constructive role with Israel and the Palestinians. Not to mention North Korea, with whom Bush flatly refuses bilateral negotiations as it launches test missiles towards the West Coast.

Just failure upon failure, not advancing American interests and certainly not promoting democracy. While Secretary Rice steers the ship of State back towards realism, neoconservatism is dying a slow (if generally unacknowledged) death.

This is quite accurate, but the movement is not dying. That's because these madmen still hold the reigns of power. Cheney and his ilk are still moving pieces around on the Risk board. They've claimed to make their own reality for years, and are still intent on destroying those who stand up to them, as is evidenced by the attacks on Rep. John Murtha.

No, the neocons are alive and kicking. Nobody outside the neocon movement (including more and more of the MSM) respect their views, but they're still in power. The neocons are a clear example of why the parliamentary framework the Republicans have attempted to erect in Washington is dangerous for the country and the world. With no oversight, no checks on power, these madmen still have the opportunity to "create reality" as they see it.

big surprise:

NEW YORK - The syndicator of Ann Coulter's newspaper columns rejected allegations that she had lifted material from other sources, saying a review of the work in question turned up nothing that merited concern.

"There are only so many ways you can rewrite a fact and minimal matching text is not plagiarism," Lee Salem, editor and president of Universal Press Syndicate, said Monday in a statement.

Crown's dismissals are no surprise--her books make lots of money. The UPS response is a bit more interesting, since it sounds like an episode of "Law and Order:"

"Universal Press Syndicate is confident in the ability of Ms. Coulter, an attorney and frequent media target, to know when to make attribution and when not to."

What's really scary is the photo was included with this article:

look at that adam's apple! scary...

There are truly times when the Democrats can simply be "Not Bush" and it's a winner. Foreign Policy is one of those:

US 'to make Russia nuclear offer'

The US is expected to make significant concessions to Russia over the storage of nuclear fuel in order to win backing for foreign policy, reports say.
...
On Monday, the Wall Street Journal claimed that the US would have to make a number of concessions because it "needs Russia more than Russia needs the US".

According to the newspaper, as well as lifting a ban on storing spent nuclear fuel, the US was also offering to back Russia's membership of the World Trade Organisation and give Russian companies freer access to US markets.

The Bush Administration has held for years that they are the most able to defend the nation against terrorist threats. They've used the threat of a nuclear attack on the US as a monster-under-the-bed in several election cycles now. Bush's foreign policy, however, has been so bad that now he is forced to make deals with Russia that will increase the chances of nuclear material will fall into the hands of terrorists:

Talks, which are expected to take months, will focus on giving Russia a larger chunk of the multi-billion dollar nuclear-waste disposal industry.

At present, the US controls the nuclear fuel it produces, and retains that control even if it has sold it to another nation such as South Korea or Taiwan.

That means that even when the nuclear fuel is used up and needs to be disposed of, client nations of the US cannot transfer it to Russia because of the US ban in place.

The US has stopped Russia from handling its nuclear fuel because of concerns about security and the way in which Moscow provided technology to other nations including Iran.

A main concern is that the nuclear waste could be used to provide radioactive material for weapons.

We're not talking just about rogue scientists out of a Clancy novel here--the Russians have good relations with "Axis of Evil" country Iran that could lead to a major threat to US security.

Interesting piece on Morning Edition today on this district. NPR's lede for the story is that the Georgia 8th has become more Republican than Democrat of late, and can Marshall survive in that climate? Marshall's frustration with the leadership of both parties is typical of moderate Dems. Associating Marshall with Pelosi, Clinton, Kennedy, is a good strategy for Republicans, but they really don't have a lot to hang their hats on.

Marshall can keep his seat and still distance himself from the libruls by harping on the alternative. This is where Bush polling in the 30s and the DeLay crime spree that is the House leadership is useful. Forget that Marshall opposes a flag burning amendment, nobody in the GA-8 is going to burn a flag anyway. But they have an air force base to protect and people that need jobs and healthcare. They're paying high gas prices and are getting no relief on any front from the crooks.

Of course, NPR doesn't see it that way, they see a "vulnerable Democrat." puh-leez...

Interesting profile of the wingnut Alliance Defense Fund in WaPo:

Considering itself the antithesis of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Scottsdale-based organization has used money and moxie to become the leading player in a movement to tug the nation to the right by challenging decades of legal precedent. By stepping into the nation's most impassioned debates about religion in the public sphere, the group aims to bring law and society into alignment with conservative Christianity.

They're a bit more sinister than that, actually:

"They're not for some form of generic religious freedom. They're for Christian superiority, that Christians take over the courts," said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. "They are living in this fantasy world where the majority religion, Christianity, is claimed to be literally under attack."

fantasy world, indeed.

I'm growing weary of the outrage on part of both the media and fans of Italy over his head-butt of Materazzi. The Italian fans are acting like it was some isolated act of a heathen who has no business being on the pitch.

Seems that they forgot that their boy, DeRossi, received a three-match ban for clocking USA's Brian McBride in the mouth in the first round. So much for the poor, innocent Azzuri...

f'sure:

If he's in trouble, which he is right now, he's beset on all sides by ingrates and mountebanks. It must be difficult to remain biblical if you cast yourself as Job AND Jehovah.

Lieberman is a consummate wanker. Given that his CT seat is quite safe in the sense that it's highly unlikely that there would be a GOP victory if Ned Lamont gets the nomination, it's good to see him held accountable for his wankery. We have enough goofballs in vulnerable seats (e.g., Mary Landrieu) that we can't go after as hard.

and I'm glad she keeps an eye on Karl Rove. She's obviously got a stronger stomach than I do for the gig. House Republicans think they can scare bubba into believing that Wetbacks are going to take over his world, so we have to take draconian measures to do it. Ivins bitch-slaps that point nicely:

Bush was planning to take a stab at resolving the problem, particularly on the Mexican border, with a guest-worker program. But the House Republicans had a hissy fit, claimed it was an "amnesty program" and demanded harsher measures, militarization of the border, a big fence. Not gonna work, y'all. Build a 50-foot fence, and they'll build a 51-foot ladder. Hire Halliburton with a no-bid contract to build the fence, and it will hire illegal workers to do it.

That last part isn't all snark, mind you. Storm damage in metro New Orleans is being repaired by a huge influx of illegal immigrants who have been hired by both large- and small-scale general contractors. Immigration hysteria is a tough sell here, even among the staunchest Republicans, because the alternative is to continue to live in a FEMA-provided trailer while you try to get sheetrock hung on your walls by all-American workers.

This is just a hoot. That Coulter is a liar and a cheat is not a huge surprise, of course. I truly do feel for Barrie, though, having to read through her crap:

It didn't take long to find evidence of plagiarism, Barrie said. "After we found three in the book, we called it quits. I think we found four of her syndicated columns that had problems." But the task proved draining, he said -- on himself, not his technology. "After combing through Ann Coulter for a while, it doesn't take long before you want to call it quits. I want to prove the technology, but I don't want to make my eyes bleed."

Ann Coulter steals from other writers. What will we tell the children?

AmericaBlog today:

4. North Korea is NOT the issue Bush wants us debating as we enter the mid-term elections. Dems and Republicans can both agree, quite easily, that North Korea is a nasty, dangerous place. But what's more, Dems can quite easily charge the Republicans with ignoring the Korean threat all these years. So, I'm not convinced this issue is a winner for Bush, other than the fact it lets him rattle his saber, and we all know how much a boy loves to play with his saber.

The other three points he makes are excellent and worth a full read, but this one sums up the political situation. Since Bush governs by politics rather than reality, it's the most important. The only way we can increase our presence in NK while maintaining our current force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan (and those are important, remember, we can't cut-and-run), would be with a conscript army. So, either the CongressCritters have to go home and explain why Kim is swinging his manhood in our face, or they offer to do something about him. Neither is a winner for the Republicans. Opening up yet another war front is NOT what the average Republican/fundigelical voter wants to hear. They want to hear about things settling down.

There's no meme they can trot out about Dems on this issue--Bush has totally screwed this pooch on his own.

DownWithTyranny refers to the Dukestir as a "Republicrook."

I like that one...

Whenever I'm teaching a storage management class of some sort, I invariably crack a joke at the expense of DataBase Administrators (DBAs). It's usually a hit, too, since the storage admins often lock horns with the application guys. One of my pet theories about databases goes like this:

If Bill Gates really hates Larry Ellison of Oracle as much as the blogosphere, techno-geeks, and the popular media think, he should take a few billion from his personal fortune, buy Sybase, turn SQL Server into a truly competitive cross-platform product, then license it for ten bucks a server.

This usually gets not only a laugh, but a thoughtful "hmmmmmm" out of the class. Nobody really likes Oracle, after all. It's a monopoly that is exploiting its customer base.

Now there's a new player in the game, though:

MySQL gets cosy with Microsoft

Joins VSIP

MySQL, the open source database firm, is to receive Microsoft marketing support along with Visual Studio technical integration.

The company has paid $3,000 to become a member of Microsoft's Visual Studio Industry Partner (VSIP) program in a move that will help cement the database's use on Windows. MySQL joins more than 240 other ISVs also working with Microsoft.

Hmmmmm...in this case, Microsoft doesn't even have to buy th