-
The Washington Post reports the Senate rejects surveillance amendment and preserves telecom immunity. “The Senate voted today to preserve retroactive immunity from lawsuits for telecommunications companies that cooperated with a government eavesdropping program, decisively rejecting an amendment that would have stripped the provision from a bill… Senators voted 67 to 31 to shelve the amendment offered by Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Russell Feingold (D-Wis.)… The vote represented a victory for the Bush administration and a number of telecommunications companies — including AT&T and Sprint Nextel — that face dozens of lawsuits from customers seeking billions of dollars in damages… Immunity from such lawsuits must also be approved by the House, which does not provide such protection in its version of the bill.” -
The Los Angeles Times reports Nearly 50,000 votes won’t count in Los Angeles. “An estimated 49,500 votes were cast incorrectly in Los Angeles County by nonpartisan voters in the presidential primaries and cannot be counted because the voters’ intentions are unclear, acting Registrar Dean Logan said Monday. The mismarked ballots were the result of a confusing ballot design and poor education of poll workers and the public, Logan said… Logan released a report of the Feb. 5 voting based on a manual survey of nonpartisan ballots cast in 1% of the county’s precincts. It found that 26% tried to vote in one of the two party primaries but neglected to mark a party bubble on the ballot.”
-
The Guardian reports Boeing engineer and Pentagon analyst charged with spying for the Chinese.
Dongfan Chung, the former Boeing engineer, was charged with supplying the Chinese with secrets relating to the space shuttle and other Nasa programmes…
Born in China, he became a US citizen and worked at Boeing until 2002, before returning as a contractor. He had security clearance to work on secret projects, but the FBI alleges that he gave China secrets from Boeing relating to the shuttle, the C-17 military transport aircraft and a rocket system.
The indictment alleges that Chung’s Chinese handlers began sending him “tasking” letters in 1979, when he worked for Rockwell International, a firm later taken over by Boeing. He gave China details of the B-1 bomber designed by Rockwell…
In the second case, Gregg Bergersen, 51, a Pentagon weapons systems analyst, was charged with selling secret information to a furniture businessman in New Orleans called Tai Kuo. The salesman, a naturalised US citizen originally from Taiwan, aged 58, was arrested in New Orleans along with another immigrant from China, Yu Xin Kang, 33.
Kuo stands accused of passing on the information received from Bergersen to the Chinese, while Kang is said to have acted as conduit between Kuo and China. The transmitted data is alleged to include details of all sales of military technology and weaponry by the US to Taiwan over the next five years.
-
The International Herald Tribune reports Spain gets women’s measurements down. A yearlong government-sponsored study “used laser beams to measure more than 10,000 women aged from 12 to 70,
claims that 4 out of 10 have trouble finding clothes that fit them, mainly because sizes are inconsistent from one outlet to another and because what is on the racks is too small… The study says Spanish women fall into three categories: ‘cylinders,’ whose chest, waist and hips are more or less the same size; ‘hourglasses,’ with smaller waists; and ‘bells,’ or pear-shapes, whose hips are wider than their chests and waists. Many who start out life as cylinders or hourglasses end up as bells, it says… Armed with the new data, the government hopes to overhaul the sizing system used by the Spanish fashion industry for 35 years and eliminate the skinny stereotype that it says encourages eating disorders.” Bernat Soria, the health minister, plans “to do a similar survey of men – assuming the Socialist government wins the March 9 general election – and to propose that the European Union adopt a common standard.”
Feb 12 2008
Four at Four
Feb 12 2008
Time to DEMAND Accountability
As Congress voted to grant telecoms immunity, I ask myself… what does this mean, in the larger sense?
That means if you have power and money and lobbyists, you are above the law.
That means that America is a place where the rule of law does not apply to the President or his advisors. It is a place where the Attorney General of the United States says he will not enforce Congressional subpoenas. Because the President of the United States says he doesn’t have to obey the law. Actually, he can make shit up on the fly.
The funny thing is that Congress barely flinches. Robert Wexler gets 16 signatures for impeachment and he makes a big deal about the AG’s statement and sends a letter to Conyers… a moment of relief that something big and right will happen. That someone in our government will force accountability. But I can’t stop the bad thoughts… that this is nothing more than another ploy to seduce us. Just an inexpensive trick to keep us on the hook. I checked Wexler’s list. 17 names as Congress votes to give telecom immunity. Funny too. All the big names voted against it. And n00bs like McCaskill and Webb voted for it. For all the hoopla, Clinton didn’t vote. Cowardice.
And Webb handing Bush a victory??? Congressional Dems give Bush a victory after Bush and Mukasey demean Congress and its role by refusing to comply/enforce subpoenas.
And you hand Bush a victory here??? Is anybody else thinking this is fucking crazy? 67 to 31 they voted. It doesn’t make any sense to me.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
I WANT ACCOUNTABILITY. I WANT THE CONSTITUTION ENFORCED.
Where are Obama and Clinton? Where are their outraged voices? Where are their calls for accountability?
There are no Republicans or Democrats. I’m telling you. There are politicians who have divvied up the audience. And they play to each segment. Including the Evangelicals, who also got screwed by Bush.
Wake-the-fuck-up. We are the consumers driving and creating the economy. How do we influence it to hurt these bastards?
How do we reach out to others who are ready to face reality: citizens have NO representation in Washington.
i don’t want anymore nice words, small gestures, and bullshit results.
Feb 12 2008
Blue Cross wants to end doctor-patient confidentiality
( – promoted by undercovercalico)
Make no mistake. One of the central issues in this election is reforming a healthcare system that is designed to generate large profits for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies. Blue Cross just provided more ammunition for why the parasitic insurance industry must be dismantled and destroyed, not given a seat at the table.
Blue Cross of California is asking physicians to violate confidentiality and report pre-existing conditions that new members may have omitted so their insurance coverage can be cancelled.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Citing an effort to hold down costs, health insurance giant Blue Cross wants doctors in California to report conditions it could use to cancel new patients’ medical coverage, it was reported Tuesday.
The state’s largest for-profit health insurer is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose “material medical history,” the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.
– Source
Blue Cross claims that they are entitled to know all pre-existing conditions so they can “cherry pick” and “lemon drop.”
WellPoint Inc., the Indianapolis-based company that operates Blue Cross of California, said it was sending out the letters in an effort to keep costs at a minimum.
“Enrolling an applicant who did not disclose their true condition (and the condition is chronic or acute), will quickly drive increased utilization of services, which drives up costs for all members,” WellPoint spokeswoman Shannon Troughton said in an e-mail to the newspaper.
Companies like WellPoint exist to maximize profit of their corporation, not the health of its “members” (the people who pay large premiums so they can be assured of access to medical care).
Physicians understand that providing optimal medical care requires patients being willing to disclose their medical history and current concerns to their medical providers. Now the doctor-patient relationship has a third member, the health insurance provider, who would rather see the patient die than pay out large sums to treat life-threatening illnesses.
Doctors were unhappy about the letter, warning that some patients might hide any medical history that could affect their prospects of receiving health insurance.
“We’re outraged that they are asking doctors to violate the sacred trust of patients to rat them out for medical information that patients would expect their doctors to handle with the utmost secrecy and confidentiality,” said Dr. Richard Frankenstein, president of the California Medical Association.
Stuck in the middle are too many people afraid to disclose information that might cause them to be denied health insurance or be denied coverage for chronic conditions that require care.
Here is a copy of the letter Blue Cross of California sent out to physicians in its network who provide care to its 3 million individual policy holders. Note that they emphasize that any health discrepancy on the application form can be used to drop coverage at any time during the first two years of coverage. If you disclosed that you have been treated for hypertension or were evaluated by a cardiologist or previously had a cancer, Blue Cross would have not have issued you a private coverage (outside of group coverage by an employer). If you did not disclose every detail of your history, the company can deny you coverage, even for conditions that have nothing to do with your previous history.
Blue Cross is one of several California insurers that have come under fire for issuing policies without checking applications and then canceling coverage after individuals incur major medical costs. The practice of canceling coverage, known in the industry as rescission, is under scrutiny by state regulators, lawmakers and the courts.
Patients in a raft of lawsuits accuse the insurers of canceling coverage over honest mistakes and minor inconsistencies on applications that they contend are purposely confusing. Victims of cancer and other serious medical problems often are unable to get new coverage once their insurance has been rescinded and they may go without treatment when they need it most. Suddenly swamped by medical debt, some people have lost homes and businesses.
– Source
This is a system that benefits no one but the insurance industry. People lucky enough to survive cancer have to spend the rest of their lives fighting insurance companies and trying to avoid bankruptcy. This is immoral. This is unconscionable.
Lynne Randolph, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Managed Health Care, said the agency would review the letter. Blue Cross is fighting a $1-million fine the department imposed in March over alleged systemic problems the agency identified in the way the company rescinds coverage.
A spokesman for state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said the Insurance Department had not received any complaints about Blue Cross’ letter. But because the medical association had sent a copy of its complaint to the department, the letter is “on our radar now,” spokesman Byron Tucker said.
The letter is “extremely troubling on several fronts,” Tucker said. “It really obliterates the line between underwriting and medical care. It is the insurer’s job to underwrite their policies, not the doctors’. Doctors deliver medical care. Their job is not to underwrite policies for insurers.”
– Source
Blue Cross has a history of rescinding coverage as a way drop coverage for people who have the audacity to incur high care costs during their first two years. Rather than change its ways when it got caught, it is looking for a new way to deny coverage.
Maybe health insurance companies like Blue Cross should be required to disclose all the executive compensation and stock options, bonuses given for auditors who deny coverage, and other overhead costs, which now typically account for at least 30 percent of every premium dollar collected. John Edwards was absolutely right. If we cap overhead at 15 percent and stop exclusions for pre-existing conditions, we would get a lot more bang for our health insurance buck.
Here is a comment to the abbreviated version of this story that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
Most of America still has no clue what hellthcare nightmares the privately insured, or in my case, unable to get insurance, I’m unmarried and work for a very small start up that cannot afford a health plan. And so far none of the private companies I’ve been referred to will accept me due to past conditions/prescriptions I was probably misdiagnosed on to begin with. I am at a loss as to what to do, probably have to give up my dream of starting a new company and just stay home and die slowly once something bad happens. And I’m a VFW. What a country.
Comment by Jeff R in Tx
Feb 12 2008
FISA Failings {updated}
I have to apologize to all the readers of this site.
A series of hugely important votes is occurring right now in the Senate, I just cannot bear to write about yet another capitulation to Bushco of our Constitutional rights and indeed, the very structure of our government…the former democracy that was The United States of America. As KagroX puts it: US Senate commits suicide on national television.
Sorry
Fortunately we have folks in the blogosphere that are made of sterner stuff than I. Like mcjoan and Kagro and Big Tent Democrat and the inestimable Glenn Greenwald
I’ll try to do better, the next time our country and all it stands for gets thrown under the bus by the Repubs and the Dems who love them.
{update} Fuck you, Jay Rockefeller
Feb 12 2008
Walking Backwards Into the Future
That was a motto of one of my teachers in life. One interpretation is respecting and acknowledging the past, as we push forward to create the new world that the future holds. And when possible, addressing and correcting it. As I have said many times, in different ways, the future depends on all of us silly humans finding a way to live together and work cooperatively to make a better world.
A step is being taken in that direction now.
It may seem small, in light of everything else we are going through, but I think it, and all efforts like it…. is vital to walking forward in the right way..
It is difficult to convey the deep emotion many Australians feel about the apology that is to be made to those indigenous Australians now known as the Stolen Generations, this Wednesday at 9am, as the first act of the newly elected Australian parliament. The national excitement around the event is palpable, with thousands heading to Canberra for it, and public screens being erected in most major cities for the live, national broadcast of the event.
Newly elected prime minister Kevin Rudd spent time last weekend with a Stolen Generation survivor, listening to her story. He has pointedly negotiated the wording of the apology with indigenous leaders
edit..
In the late 19th century the theory that the Aborigines were an inferior race that was doomed to die out became accepted as fact. But such faux science was threatened by the increasing number of children of mixed descent who, unaware of their superior bloodlines, took on indigenous ways and values. To wash the blackness out, a prejudice was raised to the level of a supposedly compassionate act and became known as the policy of assimilation.
In its name it is officially estimated that, over the course of the last century, over a hundred thousand indigenous children were taken from their families and tribes – often forcibly – and raised in institutions and foster families where they would pointedly not be allowed their language or culture. These children were the Stolen Generations. How many lives – of both those taken and those left – were blighted and destroyed will never be known.
Walking backwards into the future, healing the past in order to create a new world where the wounds of the old do not fester. Good stuff, much needed. I wrote an essayabout my perception of history in regards to this issue. We cannot erase history and all the wrongs that have been done to our brothers and sisters, our fellow humans…our ancestors…but we can do what we can to acknowledge the wounds and wrongs and try our best to heal them.
Good on you, Australia. Good on you, Human Race, keep up the good work!!
Feb 12 2008
Pause in troop withdrawal; No time to pause in antiwar action
Lest we think that the Iraqization of the war is underway and that US trops will be coming home, this blunt reminder. AP reports:
FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – In a clear sign the drawdown of U.S. forces from Iraq will be suspended, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday he favors taking time this summer to assess security gains before more troops leave the country, an idea President Bush is expected to support.
It was Gates’ first public endorsement of a possible suspension, and it would seem to mark an end to the Pentagon chief’s previously stated hope that conditions in Iraq would permit American troops to withdraw in the second half of this year as rapidly as they are leaving now.
“A brief period of consolidation and evaluation probably does make sense,” Gates told reporters during a short stop at this U.S. base in southern Baghdad. He had just finished private meetings with Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and the No. 2 commander, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.
Gates did not say how long the pause might last, noting that it ultimately would be a decision for the president.
Friday is Iraq Moratorium #6, a loosely-knit nationwide effort that asks people to take some action, individually or in a group, on the third Friday of every month to call for an end to the war. Those actions range from simple gestures like wearing a black armband or button to participating in a large-scale protest.
Since the Moratorium began in September, more than 600 events have been listed with the group’s website, IraqMoratorium.org, which has a list of upcoming actions, and reports, photos and videos from previous month’s events. You’ll also find suggestions on things you can do by yourself.
What are you going to do?
Feb 12 2008
Connected Disconnects?
( – promoted by undercovercalico)
I started to write this awhile ago. I got halfway through my literary masterpiece of an introduction and my browser crashed, losing twenty minutes of a disconnected rambling attempt at connection framing that you’d probably be thankful you didn’t have to wade through scratching your head wondering what the hell I was trying to say. So instead I’ll try to be a little more focussed.
This essay is going to be very broad in some ways and very tightly focussed in other ways. It will be about many subjects, and at the same time about one subject. It’ll cover a lot of ground, but later I’ll quote extensively from one very wide ranging study that was conducted late last summer.
On The Bus’s Docudharma Mission Statement opens with:
Passion, politics, poetry, prose and ponies. Silliness, snark and a serious effort to frame the future. A river of words, thought, philosophy and action that nourishes and transforms the political cultural and social landscape through which it passes. That is the spirit behind this “place”.
In practice…write whatever the hell you want!
We get all of that in abundance here, as well as in the larger society that we all reflect.
Lacking concrete evidence to the contrary I think we’re all humans here, each of us a mass of conflicting contradictions, as is the larger society we’re all part of, although some of us I think might be reluctant to include some of the political leadership under the heading “human”. I’ll leave that one dangling there in case anyone else wants to pick up on it, and try to move on here, even though I’m not entirely sure where I’m going. But bear with me, if you will.
This mornings Docudharma front page encompasses Marks’s discussion of the Iraq Occupation and media coverage, Robyn’s wonderful poetry, news of the impending trial of Guantanamo Bay prisoners, GentillyGirl’s essay about New Orleans, Tom writing of veterans issues, East Timor, Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, Zwoof’s descriptions of life in China, tea, oranges, torture, doom, gloom, amnesia, metaphors and meta diaries, and even five thousand years of Persia. And by the time I get around to pushing the post button on this essay I’ll bet there’ll be a few more subjects out there.
Buhdy asked yesterday:
How do we prevent savagery from taking power again? How do we convince those who value civilization to come together and recognize savagery when we see it…too remain ever vigilant against it.
In other words, how do we join together to build a new form, one even more resistant to tyranny and savagery? Not just for our country, but for all of the humans on the planet?
We all try to find answers. We all try to make sense of the world. We all try in our own ways to help find a way out of the mess the world is quite obviously in.
But the world is always a mess. I think that’s one of the characteristics of the nature of life.
It’s messy. It sings, and dances, but it also farts and belches. It’s beautiful. But it stinks. It’s the medium we all live in and can’t live without, but it also kills.
Arrrggh. My head hurts already. How’s yours?
Sometimes I think we think we’re a select group. The only ones seriously considering these kinds of questions. Well, “seriously” is rather subjective. Seriously subjective.
But we’re not a select group, except insofar as we choose to come here and do what we do here. The whole society we live in grapples with these questions daily, and like us here everyone does it in their own way and from their own perspective. And there are others like us who try to pull all the disconnected connections together into a coherent picture.
Last August 2007, World Public Opinion dot Org conducted a very comprehensive study of virtually all public domain polls of American attitudes on foreign policy and the directions and consequences of America’s role in the world conducted in recent years, and surprising or not, their study does reveal a coherent, complex, and subtle order in the pattern of majority US opinion on the US role in the world.
There is connectedness in the disconnections apparently.
Help me find it.
The rest of this is quoted links with summaries from World Public Opinion dot Org’s “Comprehensive Analysis of Polls Reveals Americans’ Attitudes on US Role in the World”:
This digest also provides a kind of road map or framework for some of the digests of US opinion that have already been posted on WorldPublicOpinion.org dealing with numerous specific topics ranging from climate change to US relations with Russia.
Below is a summary of the main findings of the analysis with links to those sections of the digest where the poll findings are examined.
General International Engagement
A very strong majority supports US engagement in the world and rejects the idea that the US should take a more isolationist stance. However strong and growing majorities show dissatisfaction with key aspects of the current US role in the world and see it as destabilizing. A majority supports US military bases on the soil of traditional US allies, though support for US military presence in the Middle East has become quite soft.
A large majority is opposed to the way it perceives the US playing the role of hegemon or dominant world leader. Americans express surprisingly modest concern for preserving the US role as the sole superpower.
Multilateral Cooperation and International Institutions
A very strong majority favors a US role in the world that puts a greater emphasis on US participation in multilateral efforts to deal with international problems and on a cooperative approach wherein the US is quite attentive to the views of other countries, not just US interests. Very strong majorities favor the US working through international institutions (especially the United Nations) and support making international institutions more powerful. Strong majorities favor international law and strengthening international judicial institutions. Americans support US participation in collective security structures and are reluctant to use military force except as part of multilateral efforts. A large majority favors the US using multilateral approaches for dealing with terrorism, addressing international environmental issues, and giving aid for economic development.
Altruism, the Global Interest, and the National Interest
A large majority of Americans feel that US foreign policy should at times serve altruistic purposes independent of US national interests. Americans also feel that US foreign policy should be oriented to the global interest not just the national interest and are highly responsive to arguments that serving the global interest ultimately serves the national interest. Americans show substantial concern for global conditions in a wide range of areas.
Concerns US is Doing Disproportionate Amount Internationally
Support for US international engagement is dampened and obscured by widespread feelings that the US is doing more than its fair share in efforts to address international problems relative to other countries, and spending too much on international programs relative to domestic programs. However, in many cases this attitude seems to rest on substantial overestimations of the levels of US contributions relative to other countries and international spending as a portion of the federal budget. Asked to set their own preferred levels for foreign aid, most Americans usually set them higher than the actual levels.
Americans’ Assessments of World Public Opinion on the United States
Large majorities believe that the US is viewed negatively by people in other countries and see this as derived primarily from the current US foreign policy not American values. Most see goodwill towards the United States as important for US national security. Most Americans believe that people around the world are growing more afraid that the US will use force against them and that this diminishes US national security and increases the likelihood that countries will pursue WMDs.
Promoting Democracy and Human Rights
Americans have complex attitudes about the idea of promoting democracy. A majority thinks that promoting democracy should be a goal of US foreign policy. However there is a reluctance to make democracy promotion a central theme in US foreign policy and an opposition to using military force or the threat of military force to that end. At the same time Americans do feel a moral obligation to promote democracy and there is substantial support for cooperative methods for promoting democracy and for working through the United Nations. A modest majority favors promoting democracy in friendly authoritarian countries even if it may lead to unfriendly governments; large majorities do favor putting diplomatic and public pressure on governments to respect human rights.
Now I’m completely confused. A hundred billion stars in the galaxy with planets around who knows how many of them, and I had to pick this one? I haven’t got a clue where I was going with this essay called life that I started and don’t know how to finish.
Maybe some of you can remind me?
Feb 12 2008
A dose of fun and humor (minimum daily requirement)
Trivia question of the day. (answer below the fold) — Who was the only U.S. President born in Illinois — “the Land of Lincoln”?
Word of the day. (definition below the fold) — Quaff
Quote of the day. — “If you have the opportunity to make things better and do not do this..You are wasting your time on this earth.” Anonymous
Common misconception. — In the Gettysburg Address in 1863 Lincoln originated the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth” — A similiar phrase was written by John Wycliffe in 1382 about the Bible. In 1830 Daniel Webster wrote something very similar. Theodore Parder, a Boston minister in 1850 wrote something similar.
Useless information. — If you head directly south from Detroit Michigan the first foreign country you will enter is Canada.
Bad President/Bushisms. — “Too manyy good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN’s aren’t able to practice their love with women all across the country.” 09/6/2004
Ronald Reagan. Tampico, Illinois, 1911.
tr To drink(a beverage) heartily; qauffed the ale with gusto. —intr to drink a liquid heartily; quaffed from the spring. n A hearty draft of liquid.
quaffed, quaffing, quaffs, guaffer.
Feb 12 2008
A Not-a-Pony-Party Party
♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥
There will be no 9:00 a.m. Pony Party today 🙁
We’ll have to use this decidedly non-pony-party party to satisfy our morning open-thready tendencies.♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥
if you’ve never seen the movie ‘200 cigarettes’, go watch it to prepare for this 10 second clip…. 😉 ……
Much as we ALL love Martha Plimpton…no recs for the NON-pony party!!
~73v
Feb 12 2008
Docudharma Times Tuesday February 12
This is an Open Thread:
The grabbing hands
Grab all they can
All for themselves
After all
Is this justice?
US accused of using ‘kangaroo court’ to try men accused of role in September 11 attacks
By Andrew Gumbel
Tuesday, 12 February 2008The United States military announced yesterday that it was bringing death penalty charges against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other men suspected of orchestrating the September 11 attacks, and intended to try them under the Bush administration’s much-criticised military tribunal system, which is subject only to partial oversight by the civilian appeals system.
The decision to use Mohammed and the others as guinea-pigs in a constitutionally dubious legal proceeding is likely to trigger a firestorm of anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world and spark a fractious domestic debate in an already highly charged presidential election year.
Concerns were raised last night of political interference by the White House in the military’s decision to go to trial in the middle of an election campaign in which the Republican frontrunner, John McCain, has made the fight against al-Qa’ida central to his election bid.
USA
Seeking Unity, Obama Feels Pull of Racial Divide
WASHINGTON – It was November 2006 when Senator Barack Obama first gathered friends and advisers at a Washington law firm to brainstorm about what it would take for him to win the presidency.
Those who attended the meeting said the mix of excitement and trepidation at times felt asphyxiating, as the group weighed the challenges of such a long shot. Would Mr. Obama be able to raise enough money? What kind of toll would a campaign take on him and his family? What kind of organization could he build?Halfway into the session, Broderick Johnson, a Washington lawyer and informal adviser to Mr. Obama, spoke up. “What about race?” he asked.
U.S. Latino Population Projected To Soar
Forecast Predicts Tripling by 2050
The number of Hispanics in the United States will triple by 2050 and represent nearly 30 percent of the population if current trends continue, according to a report released yesterday.The study by the nonpartisan, Washington-based Pew Research Center also found that nearly one in five Americans will be foreign-born in 2050, compared with about one in eight today. Asian Americans, representing 5 percent of the population today, are expected to boost their share to 9 percent.
Asia-Pacific
An invitation to the future
The apology to the Stolen Generations may not alter the lives of Aboriginal people. But it is a crucial step for all Australians
It is difficult to convey the deep emotion many Australians feel about the apology that is to be made to those indigenous Australians now known as the Stolen Generations, this Wednesday at 9am, as the first act of the newly elected Australian parliament. The national excitement around the event is palpable, with thousands heading to Canberra for it, and public screens being erected in most major cities for the live, national broadcast of the event.Newly elected prime minister Kevin Rudd spent time last weekend with a Stolen Generation survivor, listening to her story. He has pointedly negotiated the wording of the apology with indigenous leaders but not the leader of the Liberal party. If Rudd’s Labor government achieves nothing else, it deserves credit for this historic act which allows Australia to once more move forward.
Asia
The withdrawal of foreign troops would be a disaster for Afghanistan
International forces are needed to bring a stable and lasting peace, says Michael WilliamsThe situation in Afghanistan is less than optimal. But one cannot pretend that this is the sole result of western involvement in Afghanistan, remedied only by the immediate removal of all international forces, as Seumas Milne claims (The war that can bring neither peace nor freedom, February 5).
I have spent nearly two years working with various allies involved in Afghanistan as an independent academic. Milne writes that Nato is losing ground against the Taliban: “And while Nato claims that 70% of incidents took place in the southern Taliban heartland, the independent Senlis Council thinktank recently estimated that the Taliban now has a permanent presence in 54% of Afghanistan.”
‘Unforgivable rape’ angers Japan
Japan’s prime minister has described the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US marine as “unforgivable”.Marine Tyrone Hadnott, 38, is being questioned in relation to the alleged assault on the island of Okinawa.
He denies raping the girl in his car on Sunday night, but police say he has admitted forcing her to kiss him.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda condemned the alleged assault in parliament, complaining that this kind of grave incident had happened repeatedly.
Europe
Russia shuts university that displeased Putin
· St Petersburg buildings said to be a fire risk
· Closure a reprisal for fair elections project, say staff
The Kremlin was yesterday accused of mounting an unprecedented attack on academic freedom after one of Russia’s top universities was closed.The European University at St Petersburg (EUSP) has been forced to suspend its teaching after officials claimed that its historic buildings were “a fire risk”. On Friday a court ordered that all academic work cease, classrooms be sealed and the university’s library shut.
Academics at the EUSP said the move was politically motivated – and followed a row last year over a programme funded by the European commission to improve the monitoring of Russian elections. The university accepted a three-year, £500,000 EU grant to run a project advising Russia’s political parties on matters such as how to ensure elections are not rigged.
The Dutch restaurant that’s really a laboratory – and the diners are the guinea pigs
By Claire Soares in Wageningen
Tuesday, 12 February 2008“Watching what you eat” has taken on a whole new meaning at the Restaurant of the Future.
Although the university canteen in the Dutch town of Wageningen looks like an upmarket eatery – with its floor-to-ceiling windows, black marble worktops and minimalist fixtures and fittings – it is in fact a laboratory in disguise. Banks of hidden cameras zoom in on every morsel that enters diners’ mouths, invisible scales built into the floor weigh you as you pay for your meal, and beware of that comfy-looking chair which could be monitoring your heartbeat as you chew.
Africa
Kenya talks head to secret site
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) — Negotiators trying to resolve a political crisis in Kenya plan to move to an undisclosed location and make no public statements for the next few days, a senior aide to former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan told CNN on Monday.
Teams representing President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga plan to move their discussions from a hotel in Nairobi to confer in private at a secret location, the aide said.The goal is to meet far from the media spotlight in hopes of reaching an agreement, the aide said. The negotiating teams plan to make no public statements for the next 48 to 72 hours, the aide said.
Chad’s Leader Survives, but Dissidents’ Peril Grows
NDJAMENA, Chad – Françoise Djiuiheïn responded with a start to each rap at the door, each passing car that lingered too long beyond the front gate of the safe house.
“All of us who are against this government are afraid now,” said Ms. Djiuiheïn, a teacher and a member of an opposition party here. “The government wants to eliminate all its enemies.”The crisis in Chad, which reached a climax last week as rebels nearly toppled the president, has largely been seen through the lens of its effect on the catastrophe in the Darfur region of neighboring Sudan.
Middle East
Hospital boss arrested over al-Qaeda attack by human boobytraps
Martin Fletcher in BaghdadThe acting director of a Baghdad psychiatric hospital has been arrested on suspicion of supplying al-Qaeda in Iraq with the mentally impaired women that it used to blow up two crowded animal markets in the city on February 1, killing about 100 people.
Iraqi security forces and US soldiers arrested the man at al-Rashad hospital in east Baghdad on Sunday. They then spent three hours searching his office and removing records.
Sources told The Times that the two women bombers had been treated at the hospital in the past.
Hamas leaders hiding from Israeli hits
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas leaders in Gaza turned off their cell phones, avoided public appearances and were sleeping in safe houses after Israel threatened Monday to assassinate those responsible for Palestinian rocket attacks on border towns.Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that Israel could bring down the Hamas regime and he ordered plans for a large ground invasion of Gaza. But he said troops would not move soon, all but admitting that Israel has no quick answer for the rocket barrages and leaving his threats as mostly verbal pressure on Hamas.
It was the first time a senior official hinted so strongly that Israel was prepared to overthrow Hamas if the Palestinians didn’t do it themselves.
Latin America
Petrobras’ global quest for power
MELGAR, COLOMBIA — For most of Latin America’s state oil companies, these are hardly halcyon days: Although high global prices have lifted revenue, crude oil production is either in decline or moving sideways.Then there’s Brazil’s go-go Petrobras.
The company has doubled its oil output over the last decade to 2.2 million barrels a day and joined the ranks of the world’s major producers. Petrobras’ deep-water discoveries off Brazil’s coast, such as the Tupi oil field announced in November, plus aggressive energy exploration around the world — from the U.S. Gulf Coast to West Africa, Turkey and here in Colombia — have captured investors’ attention.So what’s the secret behind its success? Analysts say the Brazilian government’s decision to open the company up to outside investors, to break its monopoly on the nation’s oil fields and to push the company to develop deep-water drilling technology were critical to its growth. But the company’s adventuresome spirit is also paying dividends.
Feb 12 2008
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
The muses are ancient. The inspirations for our stories were said to be born from them. Muses of song and dance, or poetry and prose, of comedy and tragedy, of the inward and the outward. In one version they are Calliope, Euterpe and Terpsichore, Erato and Clio, Thalia and Melpomene, Polyhymnia and Urania.
It has also been traditional to name a tenth muse. Plato declared Sappho to be the tenth muse, the muse of women poets. Others have been suggested throughout the centuries. I don’t have a name for one, but I do think there should be a muse for the graphical arts. And maybe there should be many more.
Please join us inside to celebrate our various muses…
I spent yesterday trying to recover. That included an inability to focus sufficiently to do any writing. So I dipped into the collecttion of odds and ends for this piece:
Art Link Purplegreengold
|
I know you have talent. What sometimes is forgotten is that being practical is a talent. I have a paucity for that sort of talent in many situations, though it turns out that I’m a pretty darn good cook. 🙂
Let your talent bloom. You can share it here. Encourage others to let it bloom inside them as well.
Won’t you share your words or art, your sounds or visions, your thoughts scientific or philosophic, the comedy or tragedy of your days, the stories of doing and making? And be excellent to one another!