Prometheus 6

You know...the one from November...

Fox News Poll: Majority Of Americans Would Vote To Defund Escalation
By Eric Kleefeld

Here are some numbers to consider for Dems who fear getting attacked for cutting off funding for the "surge": A new poll finds that an astonishing 54% of Americans would vote to cut off funding for escalation if they were in Congress. What's more, the new poll was done by Fox News.

On discourse with our recent influx of new readers

Here’s the valued Pandagon Guest:

Guest: The Lord Jesus loves [Pandagon blogger different from the one who wrote the post to which the Guest is responding] purely and deeply and will therefore send you to an eternity of torment unless you love him back. I will pray for you.

How does G00fu5 respond?

G00fu5: Come, let us reason together. Surely if we engage in a Wimbledon-like exchange of several hundred sequential one-line posts alternating between earnestness and insult that displaces all discussion by any other commenters of the actual post to which we are responding, we can come to some sort of productive agreement, if only through repetitive motion injury.

The need to cut them fools mike when their time has expired.

That or everyone's standards will be dragged down to the "least comedy nominator."

All students, no matter where they live, should have to show proficiency in certain skills and knowledge. The reason no such test exists has more to with politics than with education.

Cheating on Tests
Geography should not determine standards of learning.
Thursday, February 15, 2007; A26

EDUCATORS who are successful in turning around troubled schools say the first step is collecting reliable data. A true measure of performance is the only way to identify problems and map improvement. Yet, five years into the No Child Left Behind Act and its mandate for accountability, too many states are still gaming the system by administering weak tests. They boast about high scores, but their claims are as phony as the performance of their students.

You know about the Presidential $1 Coin series? Well, there's a First Spouse program.

The United States is honoring our Nation’s First Spouses by issuing one-half ounce $10 gold coins featuring their images, in the order that they served as first spouse, beginning in 2007 with Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, (Thomas Jefferson's Liberty) and Dolley Madison. The obverse of these coins will feature portraits of the Nation’s First Spouses, their names, the dates and order of their term as first spouse, as well as the year of minting or issuance, "In God We Trust" and "Liberty." The United States Mint will mint and issue First Spouse Gold Coins on the same schedule as the Presidential $1 Coins issued honoring the Presidents. Each coin will have a unique reverse design featuring an image emblematic of that spouse’s life and work, as well as "The United States of America," "E Pluribus Unum," "$10," "1/2 oz." and ".9999 Fine Gold."

This means that if Sen. Clinton manages to ascend to the office of President, both she and Bill will have a coin in both series.

Artrell Dickerson, a victim of police brutality

A young man named Artrell Dickerson was killed by a Detroit police officer this Monday while he was attending a friends funeral. The Dickerson family released a statement describing the incident,

“Monday afternoon a crowd of people were gathered outside of Cantrell’s funeral home after the emotional and somewhat disruptive funeral of a young man who was killed February 5th outside a bar on 8 mile in Detroit. The police arrive after having been called to calm the unrest. In the midst of the excitement a young man is killed. He is shot once in the back by a single officer as he runs away from the scene. When he is down he is shot as many as five more times. This young man was Artrell Dickerson. These are the facts.” (read entire “Statement on behalf of Dickerson family” here).

Ignorant jocks need to stop the foolishness
By Jeff Pearlman
Special to Page 2

In response to the shocking, troubling, earth-rattling news that the National Basketball Association – our National Basketball Association – once housed one of those (lock the barn!) gay folk, commissioner David Stern said it best. "We have a very diverse league. The question at the NBA is always 'Have you got game?' That's it, end of inquiry."

Stern's comments were expressed in proper sentences.

Stern's comments were phrased somewhat eloquently.

Stern's comments were encapsulated in fewer than 25 words.

Stern's comments were, well, inane.

I have been a sportswriter for nearly 13 years. I have been in clubhouses and training rooms, baseball stadiums and horse barns. I've watched Barry Zito surf, Cord McCoy lasso a cow, Troy Aikman spit into a cup, J.D. Drew praise Jesus and Gary Sheffield praise money. I've chronicled what it's like to win, what it's like to lose, what it's like to love a teammate and what it's like to hate one. I've seen envy and elation, hunger and disinterest, excruciating pain and unrivaled pride.

Here is what I can say, with 100 percent certainty: Most jocks don't like, to use the popular word of choice from the locker rooms, the "fa----s."

I know ... I know. Watch my language. But let's be honest. That's what they are to the majority of professional athletes: Not gays. Not homosexuals.

F------ fa----s, often.

But the reward for coming out still should be measured carefully against the retribution, and given what we know about the hysterical reaction to Janet Jackson's exposed hooter, we should remember how mighty the retribution can be. America isn't as open-minded as it likes to think it is, and the first one out is the one who will pay full retail for his or her courage. 

Sorry, Mark: 'Coming out' won't be about 'cashing in'
Feb. 12, 2007
By Ray Ratto
CBS SportsLine.com Columnist

Mark Cuban...told the Fort Worth Star Telegram (well, not all of it, just Dwain Price) that being the first openly gay NBA player is actually the marketing opportunity of a lifetime..."That's what the American spirit is all about, going against the grain and standing up for who you are, even if it's not a popular position."...

There is a good deal of truth to what Cuban says, because the American spirit can be defined as a single individual fighting the good fight. And yes, Jackie Robinson is a hell of a good analogy, and so is Muhammad Ali.

But the American spirit is also very often punished cruelly and surely, only to be resurrected much later, often after the recipient is dead. Say, like Jack Johnson. And with all due respect to Cubes' marketing expertise, dead isn't a big seller except maybe to Doris Kearns Goodwin.

I'm linking to the Wall Street Journal's report. Well, that's also because my favored reading material tends to be boring...

Tim Hardaway was known for his candor as a member of the Miami Heat. Now he's taking the heat for that candor.

On a Miami radio show yesterday, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard asked Mr. Hardaway how he'd deal with a gay teammate -- a question sparked by last week's disclosure by retired player John Amaechi that he is gay. Mr. Hardaway said he wouldn't want a gay player on his team and would distance himself from such a player. Then he spoke his mind: "You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

During the 1920s, Colorado had the largest and most influential Knights of the Ku Klux Klan following of any other state west of the Mississippi River. In the 1924 elections, the Klan gained control not only of state government with the election of Governor Morley, but also of many local governments. Fremont County was one of those local governments with a dominating Klan presence, having a particularly large following of Klansmen and Klanswomen in Cañon City and Florence. As a result of this local Klan presence, the Local History Center of the Cañon City Public Library contains in its archives newspapers, photographs, oral histories, and other materials pertaining to the Klan in Fremont County.

The U.S. was at the bottom of the list in health and safety, mostly because of high rates of child mortality and accidental deaths. It was next to last in family and peer relationships and risk-taking behavior. The U.S. has the highest proportion of children living in single-family homes, which the study defined as an indicator for increased risk of poverty and poor health, though it "may seem unfair and insensitive," it says. The U.S., which ranked 17th in the percentage of children who live in relative poverty, was also close to last when it comes to children eating and talking frequently with their families.

...Some of the wealthier countries' lower rankings were a result of less spending on social programs and "dog-eat-dog" competition in jobs that led to adults spending less time with their children and heightened alienation among peers, one of the report's authors, Jonathan Bradshaw, said at a televised news conference in London.

U.S., Britain fare poorly in children survey
UNICEF ranks the well-being of youngsters in 21 developed countries.
By Maggie Farley
Times Staff Writer
February 15, 2007

UNITED NATIONS — The United States and Britain ranked as the worst places to be a child, according to a UNICEF study of more than 20 developed nations released Wednesday. The Netherlands was the best, it says, followed by Sweden and Denmark.

UNICEF's Innocenti Research Center in Italy ranked the countries in six categories: material well-being, health, education, relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's own sense of happiness.

Also amusing is the letter's assertion that "Democrats want to force us to focus on defending the surge." Now why on earth would Dems want Republicans to justify a policy that will directly impact tens of thousands of people and their families? How unreasonable!

Leaked Letter Reveals GOP Strategy: Talk About Anything But Escalation
By Greg Sargent

So this explains a lot. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office has obtained a letter that GOP Reps. John Shadegg and Peter Hoekstra sent out to House GOP colleagues about escalation. The letter gives GOP members pointers on how they should approach the battle over it on the House floor this week.

Bob Herbert has a really nice piece on Tavis Smiley behind the financial firewall at the NY Times.

[TS] For Tavis Smiley, Promises to Keep
By BOB HERBERT

The description in the ol' RSS reader said, "Mr. Smiley has quietly become one of the most effective black leaders in the nation," so I had to see what that was about.

Bush Declares Iran’s Arms Role in Iraq Is Certain
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and MARC SANTORA

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 — President Bush said Wednesday that he was certain that factions within the Iranian government had supplied Shiite militants in Iraq with deadly roadside bombs that had killed American troops. But he said he did not know whether Iran’s highest officials had directed the attacks.

Mr. Bush’s remarks amounted to his most specific accusation to date that Iran was undermining security in Iraq. They appeared to be part of a concerted effort by the White House to present a clearer, more direct case that Iran was supplying the potent weapons — and to push back against criticism that the intelligence used in reaching the conclusions was not credible.

Didn't really want to write about this.

2nd Blogger Resigns From Edwards Team

A second controversial blogger resigned yesterday from John Edwards's presidential campaign, a day after Amanda Marcotte quit amid criticism that her writings were anti-Catholic.

Melissa McEwan wrote that she made the decision, with the campaign's "reluctant support, because my remaining the focus of sustained ideological attacks was inevitably making me a liability to the campaign, and making me increasingly uncomfortable with my and my family's level of exposure."

I've seen some of the mail Ms. Marcotte got, and the troll are still infesting Pandagon. Ms. McEwan didn't share. What they underwent is familiar to me...not being targeting in the mainstream media but the snarling of the piranha when they think they smell blood in the water.

War supporters are talking so much shit they use toilet paper for napkins. So much shit their tongues are brown. So much shit you can smell their breath over HDTV.

Rep. Jim Saxton, how bad is it in Iraq?

To blacks like Stanley Crouch and others he is not quite black enough to be real: "When black Americans refer to Obama as one of us, I do not know what they mean."

Who are these "others"? Stanley Crouch , Alan Keyes and Debra Dickerson. Anyone else?

Anyone?

Then stop playing like this is a theme anywhere but in your fervent little media imaginations.

The invisible man rises again
By Stephen Smith  |  February 14, 2007

ALTHOUGH SEPARATED by more than 50 years, and the success of the civil rights movement, politician Barak Obama and Ralph Ellison's existential hero of the "Invisible Man" have something in common.

Even many antiwar liberals believe that a quick pullout would cause a bloodbath. Some favor withdrawal anyway, to cut our own losses. Others demur out of geostrategic concerns, a feeling of moral obligation to the Iraqis, or the simple fear that Democrats will be blamed for the ensuing chaos.

But if it was foolish to accept the best-case assumptions that led us to invade Iraq, it’s also foolish not to question the worst-case assumptions that undergird arguments for staying.

Apocalypse Not
Much of Washington assumes that leaving Iraq will lead to a bigger bloodbath. It’s time to question that assumption.
By Robert Dreyfuss

The Bush administration famously based its argument for invading Iraq on best-case assumptions: that we would be greeted as liberators; that a capable democratic government would quickly emerge; that our military presence would be modest and temporary; and that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for everything. All these assumptions, of course, turned out to be wrong.

How is this

WHEN MY SISTER arrived from New York over the holidays, she plopped a hand-tooled leather satchel on my piano bench and said, "See the beautiful bag I manifested for myself?" Gorgeous, indeed. But manifested?..."Manifesting," for those outside the self-help loop, is the big buzzword from "The Secret," a new DVD with a tie-in book featuring the ancient idea of having it all without trying very hard. If "The Secret" had a plot, it might go something like "Tony Robbins uncovers the Judas Gospel and learns to use the Force."

The DVD is screened regularly at gatherings of the energy-healer crowd. The video opens with a "Da Vinci Code"-style shot: A man in a ragged tunic makes off with a hot papyrus. A voice-over assures us that an ancient secret, hidden from most of mankind, is about to be revealed. (Insert little conspiracy montage: A medieval priestly type privately unrolls the secret scroll; men in suits scheme in a smoke-filled boardroom.) Then motivational speakers take turns elaborating on this idea: If you want something, think of it with loving and positive feelings and it will "manifest." The concept apparently stems from the work of Esther Hicks, a famous channeler.

I never would have heard of "The Secret" if it weren't for my sister, the sort of person who has a spirit guide and professes to "massage energy." (Friends say the wrong sister moved to California.) But apparently it has found major cultural traction. It was featured on "Oprah" last week. The book is No. 4 on The Times' nonfiction bestseller list and No. 2 on Amazon (with the audio CD set No. 3). At my local Barnes & Noble, it was sold out.

...different from this?

The white parents, an Indian baby and the new £3bn fertility tourism
Ashling O’Connor in Bombay

Wendy Duncan and her husband Brian are white. Nineteen months ago, the Lincolnshire housewife gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, Indian daughter.

Freya, brown-skinned and dark-eyed, is not a medical miracle after a long and fruitless quest through IVF and adoption, but the product of a booming industry in India that is offering embryos for adoption.

The comments at the blog are kinda buggy. Science being as competitive as every other profession, I suspect anyone that can seriously critique the article is writing their own.

Interactive Publishing: A Simpler Origin for Life

Yes, we're doing it again: posting an advance version of an article and soliciting your comments and questions here in the blog, to help shape what appears in the print magazine. This time it is a piece on the origin of life by Robert Shapiro of New York University. I have asked other origin-of-life researchers for their comments and counter-arguments for posting in the blog, and I will add links to those later postings here, so this one can serve as your one-stop shop for the topic. Or keep checking SciAm's blog home page. Now read on about the topic...

By not engaging in the debate, Bush sends the signal that it does not matter to him what Congress says in a nonbinding resolution

Bush Stays Out of Fight, Opts for Lighter Fare
Congress Grapples With War Resolution
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; A06

While the House of Representatives debated weighty matters of war and peace yesterday, President Bush headed to the YMCA.

In a brightly lighted basement gym, he visited children bending paperclips into different shapes and urged Americans to volunteer as mentors. He talked not of armies in Iraq but of "armies of compassion" at home. Even the kids seemed confused. One asked why he came. "I came to see you," the president responded. As the cameras clicked away, a 7-year-old boy made peace signs. "Put your hands down," Bush chided playfully.

Rice's report was right about one thing: It's almost impossible to make sense of the city's scattershot approach to the gang problem. The city disburses $82 million to 23 agencies, according to the report, but their work is disjointed, with little communication among them and almost no way to measure their success.

Ganging up on gangs
The Bratton-Villaraigosa plan is the most tangible of the recent anti-gang proposals. Much more is needed.
February 13, 2007

PLANS TO COMBAT Southern California's infamous gang culture and violence have been popping up lately faster than snails after a rain.

I linked the page where you can read or download the report. 

'No Child' Commission Presents Ambitious Plan
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2007; A03

A commission proposed a wide-reaching expansion of the No Child Left Behind law yesterday that would for the first time require schools to ensure that all seniors are proficient in reading and math and hold schools accountable for raising test scores in science by 2014.

The 230-page bipartisan report, perhaps the most detailed blueprint sent to Congress thus far as it considers renewal of the federal education law, also proposes sanctions for teachers with poorly performing students and the creation of new national standards and tests.

It's no breakthrough, it's a bribe to please, please don't do anything for a couple of months.

And it didn't have to be the case. 

NEWS ANALYSIS
N. Korea nuclear pact marks major shift for Bush
The administration accepts a deal similar to one it rejected in 2002.
By Paul Richter
Times Staff Writer
February 14, 2007

WASHINGTON — The tentative international nuclear agreement with North Korea marks a fundamental shift in direction for the Bush administration, which for years had sternly demanded that the country's leadership abandon its nuclear program before receiving any rewards.

In his first term, President Bush rejected Clinton administration attempts to win North Korean cooperation with aid, and declared that only after "complete, verified, irreversible dismantlement" of its nuclear program could the autocratic regime in Pyongyang, the capital, receive American help.

But as the White House held fast to its hard-line approach, Kim Jong Il's rickety government built an estimated eight to 10 bombs, experimented with missile launches, conducted a nuclear test, and seemed poised to continue the buildup with impunity.

Blackprof.com

2)  The symbolism of Obama announcing his candidacy in Lincoln’s birthplace was lost on historian Dr. Lerone Bennett (also at the State of the Black Union meeting), whose book Forced into Glory:  Abraham lincoln’s white dream (2000), critiques the idea  of President Lincoln as the “Great Emancipator.” He contended that Lincoln would have been appalled at the thought of Obama or any other black man running for president.

Dr. Bennett didn't miss the symbolism. It just doesn't work on folks in full possession of the facts. 

Rachel's Tavern

Ok, this message is for my fellow white people.  This makes us look really bad.  I know people want to argue about how they didn’t mean to offend, and the people in the costumes are really nice people, etc, etc. 

But this needs to stop and if you don’t think racist ramifications of it are enough of a reason to stop then maybe we can agree that it is at the very least bad public relations.  It is bad for the party goers, bad for the schools/bars, bad for the fraternities/sororities, and quite frankly bad for white Americans in general.  I don’t know if people realize this, but this is making international news.  Britain, France, Australia, Canada, and I’m sure a few other places that I didn’t check.  In fact, if you did a search on Google news for “blackface” a few months ago, you would have been lucky to get one page of results.  My most recent search as of 2/12/07 1:50 PM EST indicates that using a “sort by relevance” search there were 15 pages of stories on blackface; using a “sort by date” search there were 72 pages of stories.  Keep in mind we are talking about pages here, not stories.  Each page caries roughly 10 stories.

A New Hampshire reporter asked Mr. Obama whether he regretted the remark, made at a rally on Sunday that “we ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.”

“Even as I said it,” Mr. Obama said Monday, “I realized I had misspoken.”

What was the misstatement?

“we ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged, and to which we now have spent $400 billion and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted.”