Three months after the tsunami hit Aceh, the New York Times reported that "almost nothing seems to have been done to begin repairs and rebuilding". The dispatch could have come from Iraq, where, as the Los Angeles Times has reported, all Bechtel's allegedly rebuilt water plants have started to break down, one more in a litany of reconstruction screw-ups. It could have come from Afghanistan, where President Karzai blasted "corrupt, wasteful and unaccountable" foreign contractors for "squandering the precious resources that Afghanistan received in aid".

But if the reconstruction industry is stunningly inept at rebuilding, that may be because rebuilding is not its purpose. According to Guttal: "It's not reconstruction at all - it's about reshaping everything." The stories of corruption and incompetence mask this deeper scandal: the rise of a predatory form of disaster capitalism that uses the desperation created by catastrophe to engage in radical social and economic engineering. On this front, the reconstruction industry works so efficiently that the privatisations and land grabs are usually locked in before local people know what hit them. Herman Kumara, of the National Fisheries Solidarity Movement in Negombo, Sri Lanka, sent an email to colleagues around the world warning that Sri Lanka is facing "a second tsunami of corporate globalisation and militarisation ... We see this as a plan... to hand over the sea and the coast to foreign corporations ... with military assistance from the US marines."

In 1975, General Pinochet says, "Well, geez, I'm a military dictator, what do I do now? I don't know anything about running this economy." And someone says, "General Pinochet, there are 10 economists here at Catholic University." All 10 were educated at the University of Chicago under Dr. Milton Friedman, eight of them Chileans, two of them Americans. They've got some ideas. They not only privatized Chile, but on November 4, 1980, the same day that President Reagan won election as President, they privatized Social Security. Now they've had over a dozen years of experience at this thing. The average Chilean will have over $1 million in their retirement account when they retire.

[...]

The economies in Latin and South America are taking off like a rocket involving 375 million people. This will be one of the economic miracles of the world, all based on privatization. And, here's the linkage. Freedom is the mainspring of economic progress. Private property is the prerequisite to economic freedom. The whole world is privatizing. ~ By E. Barry Asmus, Ph.D., Sr. Policy Advisor, National Center for Policy Analysis (July, 1997)

November 14, 1997, from Riggs Chairman, Joseph Albritton, after a visit with Pinochet at the Lo Curo Military Club in Santiago:

Dear General Pinochet:

I am pleased to report the business relationship between Riggs and the Chilean Military is prospering. I am also grateful for our thriving personal friendship, which you have demonstrated through your gracious hospitality and stalwart support of the Riggs. …You have rid Chile from the threat of totalitarian government and an archaic economic system based on state-owned property and centralized planning. We in the United States and the rest of the western hemisphere owe you a tremendous debt of gratitude and I am confident your legacy will have been to provide a more prosperous and safer world for your children and grandchildren. …Warmest personal regards

October 31, 1997, Allbritton's wife Barbara, wrote a similar thank you letter:

My dear General Pinochet:

It was a great pleasure and honor to be with you on Wednesday at tea at the Military Club. You were so very gracious to allow us this time with you and I was extremely pleased to have this appointment to meet and be with your son Marco Antonio. …The elegant lapis lazuli box you so kindly gave to me shall be used and displayed with a great deal of pride and pleasure. It shall be a reminder of this special time we spent with you during our trip to Santiago.

With appreciation and respect for you and all you have done for our world.

Pinochet was not the only Chilean general to receive such sweet, flowery letters. General Ricardo Izurieta, as an attaché at the Chilean embassy in Washington and then as Pinochet's successor as commander-in-chief, also received them. In the mid 1990's, the Senate report shows, Izurieta played the role of an intermediary between Pinochet and Riggs officials. In November, 1995, for example, Uzurieta relayed an invitation to Allbritton to come to Vina Del Mar and attend the Horse Derby there with General Pinochet. After he became commander-in-chief Izurieta forcefully played a role in obtaining Pinochet's release from London. But just before Pinochet's return to Chile, Izurieta met with a Riggs delegation, led by Chairman Allbritton, and showed them extensive hospitality. Soon, Allbritton would write yet another glowing note: "Where do I begin to thank you? You graced our suite with the sweet smell of beautiful flowers and Chilean wine. You gave us your time on the very eve of the General's return."

The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered.
(via Knight Ridder)

President Bush and his wife, Laura, will travel to Springfield Tuesday for the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, the White House confirmed Friday.

The president and first lady will tour the museum, and Bush will speak at the dedication ceremony at 11 a.m., a White House spokesman said.

Following Friday's announcement, at the request of the Secret Service, city crews began removing streetlights, traffic signals and trees near Union Square Park, site of the dedication ceremony. The poles and trees could obstruct the view of government snipers who will be protecting the president, city spokesman Ernie Slottag explained.

The Secret Service has designated one security checkpoint, at Fifth and Mason streets, for everyone attending the dedication ceremony, Davlin said.

A three-by-three-square-block area between Mason, Washington, Fourth and Seventh streets will be cordoned off, and only people with general-admission tickets or credentials will be allowed to enter.

Every person attending the ceremony will have to pass through a metal detector.

Backpacks, chairs, umbrellas, strollers, food, beverages and other items are banned at the ceremony. The complete list of banned items is printed on the backs of the tickets.

The emerging Bush-Senate Republican strategy is to entice Democrats into the debate by first focusing on shoring up the system and then selling the private accounts as the smartest way to ease the pain of benefit cuts.
(via WaPo)

We ought to be letting the Dems know that the first and only thing on the table should be the Preznit publicly retracting his statements that the Trust Fund is just IOU's.

"Americans have long been in denial that there is a movement in the U.S. that seeks to impose a Christian theocratic government; that there is a movement that is effectively using the tools of constitutional democracy, (also known as elections) to end constitutional democracy as we know it; that this movement is growing in number and power. It can't happen here, we reassure ourselves. Americans won't let it happen. But in fact, we are closer now than we have ever been, to "it" happening here.

But I have good news. The darkness of denial, and the business-as-usual view that has enshrouded the entire political spectrum; the darkness of a blind-eye turned towards the looming threat of the end of the American experiment; the darkness, the darkness... is lifting.

The Lights are Coming on in America

And one very bright light has just clicked on. An editorial in today's New York Times suggests that those of us who have been sounding the alarm about this were not alarmist. The danger is real, and the time for action is now."

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ – to have dominion in the civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. But it is dominion that we are after. Not just a voice. It is dominion we are afier. Not just influence. It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time. It is dominion we are after.

World conquest. That's what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish. We must win the world with the power of the Gospel. And we must never settle for anything less. If Jesus Christ is indeed Lord, as the Bible says, and if our commission is to bring the land into subjection to His Lordship, as the Bible says, then all our activities, all our witnessing, all our preaching, all our craftsmanship, all our stewardship, and all our political action will aim at nothing short of that sacred purpose. Thus, Christian politics has as its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ. It is to reinstitute the authority of God’s Word as supreme over all judgments, over all legislation, over all declarations, constitutions, and confederations. True Christian political action seeks to rein the passions of men and curb the pattern of digression under God’s rule. Fortunately, because of the theocratic orientation of our founding fathers, our nation has virtually all the apparatus extant to implement such a reclamation. Unfortunately, the enemies of the Gospel have hand-in-hand eroded the strength of those godly foundations. Thus, we stand at the crossroads.

...a candidate only needs to get the support of a small, elite group of citizens to win. [...] Even with all their media support, industrial backing, and national exposure, liberal humanists can be defeated by a handful of well organized, well informed, dedicated individuals. But we'll need to mobilize that handful. ~ The Changing of the Guard page 146 (page 176 online).

The Bad Magician reaps a whirlwind and flies, digitzed, into the air. Imagining an ear he enters along the inner fold. He grabs hold of Senator Frist's hammer, sings into the stirrup, sounds the anvil. It is the sound of cats being murdered, a tympanic symphony of wails and cries. Tap your toes, Bill. Tap your toes and boogie woogie: wag your whiskers full of woe.

The Bad Magician remembers the nails from Golgotha: they were in a box of notions. A lattice is constructed thereof, and nerves grow upon it, fast and hard in the Senator's hollow. His mind, a piece of string, articulates a bird and is torn to shreds. His soul jumps. He lands in the Ocean of Being.

Bill, face down, opens his mouth on the bank of a musical shore, a dead fish among the singing children. Jesus escapes from the mouth, disguised as a Calico. The doctor's hands grab at air and splinter into broken claws. The armies of the tide are crabs. Cats gather on the sea wall. The Eternal War ends.

The Senator awakes. His hands are bloody. He stares at nothing, the way cats sometimes do.

The Family Research Council, a Christian conservative advocacy group, has organized an April 24 telecast, "Justice Sunday," which includes prominent conservative Christians speaking by simulcast to churches, Web sites and Christian broadcast networks. Under the heading "The filibuster against people of faith" a flier for the telecast reads, "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias, and it is now being used against people of faith."

Dr. Frist will join the telecast through a four-minute videotape, his spokesman said yesterday. Its organizers hope to enlist the grass-roots support of conservative Christians for an imminent Senate battle over Republican proposals to change Senate rules that have enabled the Democratic minority to filibuster, blocking Senate votes on 10 of Mr. Bush's appeals court nominees.
(via Times)

House Democrats have decided to quit emphasizing that they will not negotiate changes to Social Security until President Bush drops his idea for private accounts. The switch in strategy comes after Democrats learned from focus groups that people frown on the lawmakers for being obstinate.

"People feel like it doesn't show a good-faith effort," said a top House aide, who like several others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the internal data. "It makes us seem like we're 'typical politicians.'"
(via AP)

President George W. Bush encouraged lawmakers to come forward with ideas for restructuring Social Security, urging Democrats and Republicans to end partisan attacks and agree on solutions.

``If I have anything to do with it, there will be political amnesty for people bringing good ideas forward,'' Bush said in a speech at Lakeland Community College in Kirtland, Ohio. ``Now's not the time to play political gotcha.''
(Bloomberg)

Starbucks moves to automated espresso machines that tamp and pour espresso shots on their own, leaving the Starbucks barista to just push a button and steam some milk. Lara Wyss, a spokeswoman for Starbucks, said an automatic machine would soon be in each of the company's 6,800 American stores.
(via Times)

President __________[1] declared a state of emergency in the capital city of __________ [2] and dissolved the Supreme Court, saying the unpopular judges were the cause of __________ [3] in _________ [4]. __________ [1] said he was using the powers granted him by the constitution to dismiss the justices. In explaining their dismissal, he said opposition to their appointments was causing the protests.

A state of emergency placed the military in charge of public order and suspended individual rights, including the right to free expression and public assembly.

The court crisis was set in motion ... when the former justices sided with opposition politicians in a failed effort to impeach __________ [1] on corruption charges. __________ [1] then assembled a bloc of 52 lawmakers in the 100-seat congress, which voted in December to remove the judges. Legal experts said the vote ran contrary to __________ [5] constitution.
(via AP)

The Food and Drug Administration has ordered drug giants Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC to immediately pull a television ad for impotence drug Levitra, saying that the commercial does not adequately state the drug's potential side effects and that it cannot substantiate claims that it is superior to competitors such as Viagra or that it improves female satisfaction during sexual activity.

The 15-second ad, called "My Man," which includes the tag line, "Levitra: When it counts," features an actress asking, "In the mood for something different?" She goes on to say Levitra is "the best way to experience that difference."

The drugmakers responsible for Levitra will comply with the FDA's order, said Michael Fleming, Glaxo spokesman.

Fleming said the commercial in question is called a "reminder ad" and does not include the listing of potential side effects that the longer, 45-second version does. The ad was produced by the Quantum Group.

The FDA said reminder ads can only call attention to a drug, not say how to use the drug or how well it might work.

"The totality of the TV ad also represents or suggests that Levitra will provide a satisfying sexual experience from the female partner's perspective," the agency wrote.

Welcome another Florida blogger -- Julien's List -- to the blogroll. Who knew there were so many women bloggers?

Here's what's happening in The Liberal Coalition:

All Facts and Opinions is back on-line after a short interruption.
archy covers the bunker mentality.
Bark Bark Woof Woof sees deeper meaning in a radio station format change in Miami.
blogamy tells of a murder of a reporter.
moi at bloggg joins an autism blog ring.
Chris reviews Velvet Revolver.
Collective Sigh is pissed at the Missouri state legislature.
The Farmer at Corrente finds a historical precedent to government "redesign."
NTodd is the podcaster...or is that NToddcaster?
Echidne mulls on the role of women as targets of the right wing.
edwardpig considers the Independent Home.
First Draft on the president actually speaking to reporters.
The Fulcrum mines the field of mines.
The Gamer's Nook picks up the story of soldiers getting the shaft in Florida.
Happy Furry Puppy Story looks at the bankruptcy bill through the eyes of Gordon Gecko.
Iddybud reports on John Edwards' visit to Harvard.
In Search of Telford has good and bad news about bio-fuels.
The Invisible Library reflects on the passing of the pope.
Did you know there was an oil spill in Alaska? Left is Right did.
Make Me A Commentator invokes the Bard to describe two scandals.
Mercury X23 is back... or he was for a little while.
Michael needs some new meds. *ouch*
Pen-Elayne notes the little flu virus oops.
Rivka at Respectful of Otters welcomes the latest new otter. Congratulations Mom and Alexandra! Rick has his lastest gig schedule.
Rook's Rant (a fellow Practical Press writer) admires Kevin Drum's coffee choice.
rubber hose takes a longer look at a David Brooks column.
Scrutiny Hooligans on the new leader at PBS.
Sooner Thought reports on a union filing suit against Wal-Mart.
Speedkill takes on the AFA.
Steve Gilliard predicts the future for Bernie Kerick.
T-Rex presents evidence that the Republicans hate veterans.
Trish has a look at people other than pharmacists who invoke the "conscience clause."
Wanda has found a Social Security plan she can support.
WTF Is It Now reports that Scalia got asked The Question.
The Yellow Doggerel Democrat chuckles over the Unitarian Jihad.

After mounting criticism that the White House has been shattering presidential precedents, wrapping Bush in a bubble and possibly even violating free-speech rights by keeping dissenters out of Bush's so-called public events, the Bush team is trying something new today.

For today's event, the White House has eliminated any pretense that the events are open to the public, instead making it clear that the events are invitation-only.
(via Washington Post)

The White House is apparently now outsourcing ticket distribution for presidential events to the local Chamber of Commerce.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
US Constitution, Amendment 1

BLOOMBURG, Tex. In this rural East Texas town, where news spreads among the 375 residents through phone calls and gossip-gathering trips to the Shell Mart, Merry Stephens knew the rumors about her.

Stephens is a lesbian, the townsfolk whispered.

Though it was true, Stephens denied it for five years while she was the coach of a championship high school basketball team in Bloomburg, afraid the truth would cost her a job.

Last December, the board of the Bloomburg Independent School District, in a 4-3 vote, began proceedings to fire Stephens for what she said was homophobia veiled as unfounded allegations of insubordination. She was put on administrative leave.

The district will buy out the last two years of Stephens's contract, amounting to about $100,000, one of her lawyers said.

In 1999, Stephens, who grew up in a small town in Arkansas, started coaching at the Bloomburg Independent School District, which is only one building, kindergarten through 12th grade, and last year had 264 students.

In 2000, Stephens moved in with Sheila Dunlap, the school's bus driver and a teacher's aide. Dunlap, whose family has lived in Bloomburg for more than 100 years, had two children and was in the process of divorcing her husband of 25 years.

In the meantime, Stephens was building the high school girls basketball squad into one of the best teams in school history.

Last year, it won the area, district and regional championships, coming within one game of the state tournament, and was given a parade in town. Even then, there was talk that the school board was trying to fire Stephens.

Some parents of Stephens's players wanted her gone. Craig Hale, who owns an oil company, said he does not want a lesbian teaching his children and possibly influencing the way they think.

"I had nothing against her as a person," Hale said, but if he stood up for "one [Jew] lesbian" that would mean he was "for [Jews] them adopting kids, and my morals and the Bible doesn't allow that."
(via the look for actual news in the Sports section New York Times)

"28": And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

"29": And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

"30": And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

"31": And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
(Mark 12:28-21)

Stephens is happily out as a lesbian, even buying two stickers for her pickup truck. Two have rainbows, the traditional symbol of lesbian and gay pride. The other says: Focus on your own damn family.

"If I hollowed out the gavel, it'd make a bitchin' pipe. If I hollowed out the old book, I could use it as a stash."

"Labor and consumer lobbyists felt a chill in early March when Senate majority leader Tom Daschle announced his intention to get "a strong bankruptcy bill out of conference and on the President's desk within four weeks, so the bill can be signed before we go home for the Easter recess." Bankruptcy "reform" is of a different order from Enron fraud or loophole bookkeeping by Arthur Andersen, but it emanates from the same political sources and is, likewise, hideously one-sided in its impact on ordinary citizens. The legislation was written by major banks and the credit-card industry, wishing to tighten the screws on debt-soaked families. No one doubts this measure will make life even more miserable for the people maxed out on their credit cards and on the brink of Chapter 7. Daschle's statement meant the Democratic leader thinks it is now safe to enact the bankers' bill. Last year, a record 1,492,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy protection, but now the recession is over, isn't it? ...
In Congressional circles, a bill like this one is known as a "money vote," because it's an opportunity for good fundraising from monied interests (or, if you vote wrong, you face the risk of those interests financing your next opponent). For six years, the financial industry has lobbied intensively for this measure and both parties have milked it like a veritable cash cow. Contributions from finance companies and credit-card firms more than doubled during the last election cycle, passing $9 million. Commercial banks are the dominant credit-card issuers--led by Citibank, with $99.5 billion in credit-card debt--and this remains their most profitable line of business.
When George W. Bush took office, a bankruptcy bill was the first major legislation passed by the new Congress. Bill Clinton had vetoed a milder version, but in the new circumstances many former opponents scrambled aboard. Only sixteen Democratic senators voted against the bill, led by Paul Wellstone (the measure would have become law long ago, if not for Wellstone's guerrilla resistance). The "yea" votes included a couple of new faces much celebrated as "people" politicians and presidential possibles--Hillary Clinton and John Edwards. Two other potential candidates--Russ Feingold and John Kerry--voted against it.

Senator Daschle's solicitude for Citibank goes deeper than the money, though he gets money, too. Daschle treats the Wall Street behemoth like a hometown industry. Two decades ago, Citibank lobbyists persuaded South Dakota politicians to be the first state to repeal its anti-usury law--an obstacle to charging sky-high interest rates...
In legislative matters like bankruptcy, Daschle plays faithful facilitator for Citibank's interests, while graciously assuring liberal-labor groups he will help them get a floor vote on their amendments (which routinely lose). It is Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, however, who plays tough-cop enforcer for the industry (a role also shared by Senator Robert Torricelli). Delaware is home to six major credit-card operations, led by MBNA America, Chase and Bank of America. Altogether, they process indebtedness of $230 billion. Biden is their guy.

The industry's main argument for relief is that its reckless customers pile up impossible debts, then escape by gaming the bankruptcy system. No doubt this occurs, but the bank lobbyists grossly distort the stressed-out predicament of millions of ordinary working families, some of whom borrow on credit cards to pay the rent. Did the banks themselves have anything to do with fomenting the explosion of credit-card debt? Evidently not, according to Congress, because numerous amendments to impose some restraint and accountability on the lenders were rejected. In a classic twist, Democratic senators instead tossed a couple of bones to the discontented constituencies--one amendment that prevents Texas millionaires from shielding their Enron-size mansions under state homestead laws and another that bars abortion-clinic terrorists from escaping fines and lawsuits in bankruptcy court. Both are meritorious, of course, but neither speaks to the general pain this legislation will inflict on rank-and-file constituents."

In 2004, the average CEO of a major company received $9.84 million in total compensation, according to a study by compensation consultant Pearl Meyer & Partners for The New York Times. This represents a 12 percent increase in CEO pay over 2003. In contrast, the average worker’s pay increased just 3.6 percent in 2004.

"This could have and would have happened in any administration. The Secret Service have zero sense of humor when it comes to this thing, no matter which party has a man in the White House. Some might remember the time Bill Clinton came to the Taste of Chicago, and a women who yelled “You suck! I was there fault those boys died” was arrested by the Secret Service (for “disorderly conduct” as my memory serves).
That was an extreme example. This incident isn’t so far out of bounds. If my job is to protect someone’s life, and evaluate potential threats against them. And I learn that someone is displaying a painting showing a gun pointed at my protectee’s head, that is something I’m going to want to know more about.
Hell, if someone made a picture with a gun pointed at my head, I would probably consider that a threat against me, and I bet most people reading this would too. It’s not brain-dead to investigate something like that, it’s brain-dead to assume it’s not a big deal.
Free speech carries with it a responsibility. If you use it in a provocative and inflammatory manner that could reasonable create inferences of violent intent, expect to for their to be questions as to just what you meant. That doesn’t mean we live in a police state, it means we live in a state where the social contract is still in force".

Goldfish

"Goldfish, there are cheaper and better uses of taxpayer money for ruling out artists as enemies of the state than sending the Secret Service running around the country. How about a few well-placed phone calls, or the local cops? No, I think this is all about sending a message to the citizenry that we'd best watch what we say, as Ari Fleischer so memorably put it.

Riggsveda"

Dear Doctor Frist, You recently implied it was possible to contract AIDS through tears and that simply touching another persons genitals could result in pregnancy. Is this true?

Signed, Young and Scared

Dear Young and Scared,
When I said that you could get AIDS from tears what I meant was that getting AIDS could make you cry. Also, you CAN get pregnant from simply touching another person's genitals, providing they're ejaculating and you're touching them with your cervix. I hope this clears things up for you. Remember also that whenever you masturbate, God kills a kitten.

Yours Truly,
Senate Majority Leader, Dr. Bill Frist

Dear Bishop, my girlfriend and I have an honest, loving relationship and have both agreed we want to wait until marriage to "do it." We like to go on long walks holding hands and kissing sometimes. When we're "in the mood" she'll let me masturbate her through her panties while she jerks me off until I ejaculate on her breasts and face (mouth closed, of course.) Could this be considered as "spilling my seed in vain"?

Yours Truly,
Wondering

Dear Wondering, Depends on what she looks like... (ha ha, just a little clerical humor there... )... [...read on freelovers]

[DELAY] We have a whole effort that started two years ago called the 21st Century Careers Initiative, which is an effort to use regulatory reform as redesigning government, and we will even get more aggressive in this part of our agenda this year and next.

Limiting the government in your life, regulatory, social issues and all that and shrinking the size of government or reprioritizing - or as I like to say it, 'redesigning' - government to reflect our [sic] values [sic] are very important.

Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Volume I Chapter VII
Means Used by the Nazi Conspiractors in Gaining Control of the German State (Part 8 of 55)

2. ACQUISITION OF TOTALITARIAN POLITICAL CONTROL

A. First Steps in Acquiring Control of State Machinery.

[...]

In September 1931, three officers of the Reichswehr were tried at Leipzig for high treason. At the request of Hans Frank, Hitler was invited to testify at this trial that the NSDAP was striving to attain its goal by purely legal means. He was asked: "How do you imagine the setting up of a Third Reich?" His reply was, "This term only describes the basis of the struggle but not the objective. We will enter the legal organizations and will make our Party a decisive factor in this way. But when we do possess constitutional rights then we will form the State in the manner which we consider to be the right one." The President then asked: "This too by constitutional means ?" Hitler replied: "Yes." (612-PS)

(c) The purpose of the Nazi conspirators in participating in elections and in the Reichstag was to undermine the parliamentary system of the Republic and to replace it with a dictatorship of their own. This the Nazi conspirators themselves made clear. Frick wrote in 1927:

[...] "Our participation in the parliament does not indicate a support, but rather an undermining of the parliamentarian system. It does not indicate that we renounce our anti-parliamentarian attitude, but that we are fighting the enemy with his own weapons and that we are fighting for our National Socialist goal from the parliamentary platform." (2742-PS)

On 30 April 1928, Goebbels wrote in his paper "Der Angriff";

"We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. We become members of the Reichstag in order to paralyze the Weimar sentiment with its own assistance. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and per diem for the this "blockade" (Barendienst), that is its own affair."

Later in the same article he continued:

"We do not come as friend nor even as neutrals. we come as enemies: As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come." (2500-PS)

In a pamphlet published in 1935, Goebbels said:

"When democracy granted democratic methods for us in the times of opposition, this was bound to happen in a democratic system. However, we National Socialists never asserted that we represented a democratic point of view, but we have declared openly that we used democratic methods only in order to gain the power and that, after assuming the power, we would deny to our adversaries without any consideration the means which were granted to us in the times of opposition. (2412-PS)

A leading Nazi writer on Constitutional Law, Ernst Rudolf Huber, later wrote of this period:

"The parliamentary battle of the NSDAP had the single purpose of destroying the parliamentary system from within through its own methods. It was necessary above all to make formal use of the possibilities of the party-state system but to refuse real cooperation and thereby to render the parliamentary system, which is by nature dependent upon the responsible cooperation of the opposition, incapable of action." (2633-PS)

[DELAY] I came here to limit government and reduce the size of government. And as important as those two are, what I find the most important is to redesign the government, now that we have the opportunity to do that. On the redesigning government part, it's been my own personal project to redesign government.
(Washington Times via Atrios)

[DELAY] We have a whole effort that started two years ago called the 21st Century Careers Initiative, which is an effort to use regulatory reform as redesigning government, and we will even get more aggressive in this part of our agenda this year and next.

Limiting the government in your life, regulatory, social issues and all that and shrinking the size of government or reprioritizing - or as I like to say it, 'redesigning' - government to reflect our [sic] values [sic] are very important.

[DELAY] The reason the judiciary has been able to impose a separation of church and state that's nowhere in the Constitution is that Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had judicial review is because Congress didn't stop them. The reason we had a right to privacy is because Congress didn't stop them.

How can Congress stop them?

[DELAY] There's all kinds of ways available ... [I]t's a slow, long-term process. I mean, we passed six bills out of the House limiting jurisdiction. We passed an amendment last September breaking up the Ninth Circuit. These are all things that have passed the House of Representatives.

Are you going to pursue impeaching judges?

[DELAY] I'm not going to answer that.

After his address, Bush answered questions and made these points:

_He has ordered a review of plans to tighten re-entry rules at the Mexican and Canadian borders. He said a requirement to show passports could "disrupt the honest flow of traffic." Bush said he first learned about the new rules by reading the newspaper and his first reaction was, "What's going on here?"

_The government has to judge the need to protect its citizens against the right of people to demand access to government documents. But he said the presumption ought to be that citizens should know as much as possible about government decision-making. Bush said he does not use e-mail because he wants to protect his privacy when communicating with his daughters and others.

_Said there is no inconsistency between his support of the death penalty and his espousal of "a culture of life," which he invoked in trying to get federal courts to intervene in the case of Terry Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who was at the center of a heated political, legal and medical battle. "The difference between the case of Terry Schiavo and the case of a convicted killer is the difference between guilt and innocence," he said.

…the value of assets held offshore lies in the range of $11 - $12 trillion. We consider this to be a conservative estimate. Welcome to the Taxjustice Network!

"After eight years of failed efforts by banks and credit card companies, the biggest overhaul of bankruptcy laws in a quarter-century has been catapulted toward enactment by a Republican majority buttressed by the fall elections...
President Bush has said he will sign the bill into law. It marks a second victory for Bush this year on pro-business legislation."

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, hoping to hold support among fellow Republicans, urged GOP senators Tuesday to blame Democrats if asked about his ethics controversy and accused the news media of twisting supportive comments so they sounded like criticism.

Officials said DeLay recommended that senators respond to questions by saying Democrats have no agenda other than partisanship, and are attacking him to prevent Republicans from accomplishing their legislative program. One Republican said the Texan referred to a "mammoth operation" funded by Democratic supporters and designed to destroy him as a symbol of the Republican majority. Associated Press

Dear George and Dick:

I apologize (not really, you don't deserve my apologies) for the familiarity, but I don't call the people responsible for my son's death: Mr, or Sir, nor do I have any respect for the offices that you have defiled. The only thing you both mean to me is pain and devastation. George and Dick, you are both shameful cowards who are sending our brave young people to die to make yourselves and your buddies unbelievably and fabulously wealthy. Neither of you have any idea of the true human, sorrowful cost of war nor do you care that you are ruining lives by the thousands and thousands. You both disgust me beyond belief. You are not, never have been, and never will be my President or Vice President.

This is what your irresponsible and reckless policies took from me: One year and four days ago my son, Casey Sheehan, was one of the consequences of your lies and betrayals. One of the tens of thousands that your arrogant, pre-emptive, imperialistic policies have killed. I don't know how any of you can sleep at night...I know I can't.

Why retain and promote those who have failed to make America more safe and secure? Donald Rumsfeld has been a disaster as Secretary of Defense. That's why over 800,000 people have signed our petition supporting my call for Rumsfeld's resignation. Yet the President stands stubbornly by him.

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has made repeated and serious miscalculations about the costs and risks America would face in Iraq. Yet now the Bush Administration wants us to believe he is the right person to lead the World Bank.
And now, the Bush administration wants to add John Bolton to that astonishing list.

I will keep you posted on our efforts to stop this nomination from advancing.

Sincerely,
John Kerry

P.S. I'm sharing this with you because I want you to know how hard we're working on this critical vote. But, I also want you to be prepared. Should the Bolton nomination make it through committee, we may have to wage a nationwide effort to defeat it on the floor of the Senate.

"There's a pattern here. As with Peak Oil, global warming, the real estate bubble, and the various US deficits, there's a general awareness of Trouble Coming and yet no sense of urgency or battle plan. It isn't that the media, the political class, and the media (sic) are paralyzed by fear or overwhelmed by alternative solutions, it's as if everyone is assuming that we can sleepwalk through the next crisis and muddle through as we always have with only minor hiccups, if any, in our lifestyles. As Stephen Roach and others have warned, the American consumer is now so indebted and lacking in savings that there's little cushion for the next reversal of fortune. Almost any soft landing could turn hard."

"A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth...
It has been very hard for Americans -- lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring -- to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleepwalking into the future. I call this coming time the Long Emergency."

"The relentless subdividing of land in the late twentieth century has destroyed the contiguity and integrity of the rural landscape in most places. The process of readjustment is apt to be disorderly and improvisational. Food production will necessarily be much more labor-intensive than it has been for decades. We can anticipate the re-formation of a native-born American farm-laboring class. It will be composed largely of the aforementioned economic losers who had to relinquish their grip on the American dream. These masses of disentitled people may enter into quasi-feudal social relations with those who own land in exchange for food and physical security. But their sense of grievance will remain fresh, and if mistreated they may simply seize that land."

As Negroponte prepares for his Senate confirmation hearing today for the new post of director of national intelligence, hundreds of previously secret cables and telegrams have become available that shed new light on the most controversial episode in his four-decade diplomatic career.
(via WaPo)

The day after the House voted to halt all aid to rebels fighting to overthrow the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, U.S. Ambassador to Honduras John D. Negroponte urged the president's national security adviser and the CIA director to hang tough.

The thrust of the envoy's "back channel" July 1983 message to the men running the contra war against Nicaragua was contained in a single cryptic sentence: "Hondurans believe special project is as important as ever."

"Special project" was code for the secret arming of contra rebels from bases in Honduras -- a cause championed by Negroponte...

The Congress... shall have the power to raise and support Armies.
(Article 1, section 8 via FindLaw

[Cardinal Bernard] Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in December 2002 after unsealed court records revealed he had moved predatory clergy among parishes for years without telling parents their children were at risk. He has apologized for his wrongdoing.
(via AP)

Spencer: Dr. Klinghoffer, since when am I "the left?" And when did I mention anything about communist regimes? You don't know a damn thing about me and I can't believe you'd make such bizarre generalizations about me based on so little evidence. I do assume you don't make historical arguments that have this little evidence behind them. Please address my arguments and cease making these sweeping and irresponsible generalizations about my supposed "leftist" tendencies.

Oh yeah. I forgot. It's this sort of junk that passes for reasoned argument in right-wing circles these days. I thought we were in the symposium portion of this website, not the rather irresponsible home page here that includes ad hominem attacks on liberals and leftists in every other story.

What Dr. Klinghoffer is trying to pass off as an argument is perfect evidence of the astonishing disconnect between the rhetoric that many conservatives use and the actual political reality in the United States that probably helps to explain the strange questions that started this forum. She can't believe that someone who was against this war isn't a "leftist" or even a "communist" or a "Saddam-lover" of some kind. That's where she and W go wrong. They can't seem to understand that there are perfectly reasonable people who are against this war on principle and have good arguments against it. In their minds this is impossible so we have to be appeasers and apologists of course. It certainly makes the world a simpler place if you can view your opponents that way, doesn't it? By the way, get off your high horse about how we've helped the women in Afghanistan. It appears that outside of Kabul, women are being treated just as they were before our invasion -- of course everything in Afghanistan outside of Kabul is essentially back to how it was before the invasion, except much more chaotic. Even in Kabul we have to guard President Karzai 24 hours per day to protect him from assassination.

I supported the invasion of Afghanistan but the short-attention-span folks that make up this administration long ago forgot about it as much of a priority. They left aid to Afghanistan out of the last budget after all. We really should be working a great deal more to secure Afghanistan than we are.

The same folks in Iraq who cheered us were the same people who also, I'm afraid to say, were demonstrating against us a couple of days later and, in some places, already demanding an end to our occupation. So much for that point of yours too.

You clearly should read more and get your news somewhere other than the Faux News Channel. That way you'd find out a lot of your statements aren't holding much water and that the world is an awfully messy place that isn't so easily reducible into the battle between "good" and "evil" and the "left" and the "right" as you try to make it. In short, the world isn't the simple morality cartoon that W and the boys are selling to the public on a daily basis even though it's apparent you work really hard to see it that way.

But one of the best ways to judge someone's moral and intellectual seriousness -- perhaps also their moral and intellectual caliber, but at least their seriousness -- is to see who they pick as their enemies, who they choose to pick fights with. Someone like David Horowitz is a great example of the effectiveness of this method -- a sorry sort of guy, bubbling on churning rapids of cash, constantly casting about for some new lefty freak to mount a new crusade against, all mixed-up with aggrieved passion and outrage. The whole enterprise is about as grave and righteous as tricking retarded grade-schoolers out of their lunch money.

What it comes down to is that we're up shit creek here on the planet Earth. We're wide open to asteroid hits, with the latest near-miss coming in October, when a city-sized one passed within a mere million miles of Earth, which is just four times the distance between the Earth and the moon. Then, too, it's only a matter of time before the constant shuffling of viral DNA results in a global pandemic. And 12/26 was a reminder that the planet itself is a jerry-rigged affair, likely to keep belching and lurching. Even leaving out global warming and the possibility of nuclear war, this is not a good situation, in case you hadn't noticed so far.

If there is a God, and He, She, or It had a message for us on 12/26, that message is: Get your act together, folks--your seismic detection systems, your first responders and global mobilization capacity--because no one, and I do mean no One, is coming to medi-vac us out of here. Barbara Ehrenreich demands an apology from God.

And mama earth sends another little reminder… Strong earthquake rocks Tokyo region

Of course, the GOP response to such global knowledge is to tighten up Fortress America so that we can play with our toys right up until the end, when the good guys get raptured anyway, or at least when Bruce Willis saves the planet with good old American oil know-how, or something, so what’s to worry? We’re fighting over our toys while the playroom is gliding closer and closer to the edge of the falls.

If that thought doesn’t give you nightmares, give me two of what you’re taking before bedtime.

Second, it’s so good to see that GOPers are having second thoughts about killing the filibuster (called, in the usual kneeslapping apocalyptic parlance of the GOP the “nookyoolar option”) not because they’re sincerely worried about losing it (tho maybe some are, but most realize that if they take away they can also give back) but because it seems to be becoming a dead issue with nobody willing to push it. Thus, when the Dems use it, who can reasonably complain? And use it they must, what with so many of the Supremes that sing the right (left) notes having one foot on a banana peel and the other in, well, you know… McCain sees 'slippery slope' in filibuster ban

But, then, anything to keep the public’s eyes off of the fact that, as the good doctor says, if we don’t all learn to live together as brothers and sisters, we’ll all perish together as fools.

Oh, wait. It’s gonna be okay after all: U.N. nominee Bolton vows to 'work with all'

"Last year, too many people were denied their right to vote; too many who tried to vote were intimidated," Mr. Kerry said at an event sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts.
He cited examples of trickery. "Leaflets are handed out saying Democrats vote on Wednesday, Republicans vote on Tuesday," Mr. Kerry said. "People are told in telephone calls that if you've ever had a parking ticket, you're not allowed to vote."

"...it's disappointing that some Democrats are focused on rehashing baseless allegations more than five months after the election," said a committee spokeswoman, Tracey Schmitt."

Magroll the Gaviero - a personage of romantic ancestry with a poet's consciousness - scans the horizon from the mainmast. What his eyes discover - quicksand, the dense, dwarfed vegetation of malaria, immense salt marshes, obelisks and squared towers, a geometry of prisons, offices and slaughterhouses - is not so much a physical world as a moral landscape... the wondrous created in an abrupt shower of images that are gratuitous, meaningless, yet unexplainably spellbinding." ~ Octavio Paz

As the novellas move through time they have the cumlative effect of a single novel - one complicated by many stories and, within the stories, dreams, hallucinations and reflections, as Maqroll finds himself in every climate, in exotic places, amid characters of unpredictable, psychopathic violence... a fascinating and original work, rich in thought and action. ~ New York Times Book Review

...Maqroll is an adventurer, a wanderer, going from one shady occupation to another. ...one is reminded of Machado de Assis, Alejo Carpentier, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and perhaps Thomas Mann of Felix Krull ~ Los Angeles Times Book Review

Recall Joseph Conrad. And one can think of Maqroll himself not only as a Byronic figure but also as a male counterpart of isabel Allende's Eva Luna; both are spellbinding storytellers. ~ Boston Globe

Not every good story requires more than 500 interviews, conducted over 15 months, like reporter Walt Bogdanich's unimpeachable series on safety at railroad crossings that won a Pulitzer last week. But a component of all good reporting is an unrelenting thoroughness even under time constraints, and an element of all good management is a willingness to wait another day when time can't be stretched.
(via Times)

Former president Bill Clinton will spend at least two years in his new role as the top U.N. envoy promoting recovery in tsunami-hit countries and demanding accountability for the unprecedented billions of dollars donated by countries and individuals, his deputy said.
(via AP)

Allies and friends of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Tex.) have concluded that public attention to his ethics is unlikely to abate for months to come, and they plan to try to preserve his power by launching an aggressive media strategy and calling in favors from prominent conservative leaders, according to Republicans participating in the strategy sessions.

The Republicans said the strategy combines leaks from DeLay allies about questionable Democratic trips and financial matters; denunciations of unfavorable news stories as biased, orchestrated rehashes; and swift, organized responses to journalists' inquiries.

The resistance was launched two weeks ago when DeLay flew back to Washington from Texas during Easter recess to speak to a group of about 30 conservative leaders who had gathered in the conference room of the Family Research Council for a call to arms on his behalf.

[Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.) said:] "He is taking arrows for all of us, given the intentions of the other side," Cantor said.
(via Mike Allen in WaPo)

"'The other thing that people forget is that Carter has treated President Bush very badly. He has openly criticized the President in a manner that President Clinton has not,' says a Bush administration source."
(via American Spectator via Froomkin)

Eric Rudolph will be sentenced to four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole after entering a plea... As part of the plea agreement, Rudolph also told authorities where to find more than 250 pounds of dynamite and bomb components that he had secreted away while hiding ....

Rudolph, a high school dropout, was linked in news reports and by federal authorities with the Christian Identity movement...

Rudolph, 38, is charged with setting off a backpack bomb at Centennial Olympic Park during the Summer Games in July 1996, which killed spectator Alice Hawthorne and injured 111 other people. In 1997, he is alleged to have carried out two bombings in Atlanta -- one at a family-planning clinic and another at the Otherside Lounge, a nightspot frequented by lesbians.

Rudolph is also charged with setting off an explosion at an Alabama abortion clinic in 1998 that killed an off-duty police officer, Robert Sanderson, and seriously injured a nurse, Emily Lyons.

While hiding in the rugged Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina, Rudolph was believed by authorities to have received help from sympathizers who shared his far-right views, although no one has ever been charged with aiding him.

Vicki Saporta, president of the National Abortion Federation, urged federal authorities yesterday to continue their investigation of possible accomplices.

"We're obviously pleased that he's finally admitting responsibility for these crimes," Saporta said in an interview. "But we want law enforcement to continue to investigate these networks of extremists, because we doubt that he could have evaded capture for five years without help."
(via WaPo)

Conservative leaders meeting in Washington yesterday for a discussion of "Remedies to Judicial Tyranny" decided that Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, should be impeached, or worse.

Not to be outdone, lawyer-author Edwin Vieira told the gathering that Kennedy should be impeached because his philosophy, evidenced in his opinion striking down an anti-sodomy statute, "upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law."

Ominously, Vieira continued by saying his "bottom line" for dealing with the Supreme Court comes from Joseph Stalin. "He had a slogan, and it worked very well for him, whenever he ran into difficulty: 'no man, no problem,' " Vieira said.

The full Stalin quote, for those who don't recognize it, is "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem."

Presumably, Vieira had in mind something less extreme than Stalin did and was not actually advocating violence.

But then, these are scary times for the judiciary. An anti-judge furor may help confirm President Bush's judicial nominees, but it also has the potential to turn ugly.
(via Americablog in WaPo)

The Constitution has protected us well for more than two centuries. Now we need help from Congress to fully fund the Marshals Service's judicial security program and the off-site security enhancements judges need.
(Judge Jane Roth WaPo

The conference was organized during the height of the Schiavo controversy by a new group, the Judeo-Christian Council for Constitutional Restoration. This was no collection of fringe characters. The two-day program listed two House members; aides to two senators; representatives from the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America; conservative activists Alan Keyes and Morton C. Blackwell; the lawyer for Terri Schiavo's parents; Alabama's "Ten Commandments" judge, Roy Moore; and DeLay, who canceled to attend the pope's funeral.

The U.S. government spends more than $33 billion annually in its War on Drugs. Although drug prohibition is a federal policy that has been in effect for almost eighty years, the “war” was begun by Richard Nixon. It arrests around 1.5 million people annually to enforce drug prohibition. More than 318,000 people are currently behind bars for breaking U.S. drug laws. This is more than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain combined. 1.46 million black men out of a total voting population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote due to felony convictions. Thirteen percent of all adult black men--1.4 million--are disenfranchised, representing one-third of the total disenfranchised population and reflecting a rate of disenfranchisement that is seven times the national average. Election voting statistics offer an approximation of the political importance of black disenfranchisement: 1.4 million black men are disenfranchised compared to 4.6 million black men who voted in 1996. Due to harsh new sentencing guidelines, such as “three-strikes, you're out," a disproportionate number of young Black and Hispanic men are likely to be imprisoned for life under scenarios in which they are guilty of little more than a history of untreated addiction and several prior drug-related offenses. States will absorb the staggering cost of not only constructing additional prisons to accommodate increasing numbers of prisoners who will never be released but also warehousing them into old age. The U.S. nonviolent prisoner population is larger than the combined populations of Wyoming and Alaska.

"Weston, shot in the face, could not run. His was the first killing in a rampage that over 45 minutes would reach down into Maryland and leave two dead and four others wounded -- victims apparently chosen at random.
During the violent spasm, which shook the small towns in its path, the gunman stole a car and then hijacked an SUV and killed its driver, authorities said. He littered the streets of the Eastern Shore with bullets as he fired at passing vehicles, homes and dogs, they said."

"...on Wednesday, Norman failed to appear in Wicomico County Circuit Court, where he was due to answer handgun charges. A judge issued a $10,000 bench warrant for his arrest, Court Clerk Mark S. Bowen said."

Gov. Jeb Bush said Tuesday he intends to sign a bill that would allow people who feel threatened -- even on the street or at a baseball game -- to "meet force with force" and defend themselves without fear of prosecution.

The measure, the top priority of the National Rifle Association in Florida this year, passed the House 94-20 on Tuesday. It had already passed the Senate.

The legal counsel to Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) admitted yesterday that he was the author of a memo citing the political advantage to Republicans of intervening in the case of Terri Schiavo, the senator said in an interview last night. Washington Post

Friday, February 19, 1999 Published at 14:38 GMT
World: Europe
Vaitican confirms it has intervened on Pinochet's behalf

The Vatican has confirmed that it intervened on behalf of the detained former Chilean military ruler, Augusto Pinochet, over moves to extradite him to Spain.

A spokesman, Joaquin Navarro, said the Vatican made its appeal at the request of the Chilean government and that it was confidential.

On Thursday the British government disclosed it had received a written representation from a senior Vatican official about General Pinochet's arrest. One senior opposition politician, Lord Lamont, who is pressing for General Pinochet's release, said he thought Pope John Paul recognised -as he put it - the General's great contribution in protecting freedom during the Cold War. The eighty-three year old General Pinochet is waiting to hear whether his appeal against extradition, on charges of genocide, will be upheld.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

Archbishop: Jesuit Murder Case Is Closed

Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador recommended the Society of Jesus accept that there will not be a fresh investigation into the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter. “If the laws say that the case cannot now be reopened, then that must be respected,” Archbishop Saenz told reporters on April 9. “There are laws of the country that are made for everyone.... In order to impart justice, there must be equality” before the law, he added. Spokesmen for the Salvadoran attorney general have practically ruled out the possibility of reopening the murder inquiry, as requested in late March by the Society of Jesus, on the basis that a 10-year statute of limitations and a 7-year-old amnesty law apply to the case. The Society of Jesus, at the request of Jesuit-run Central American University in San Salvador, formally petitioned the authorities to investigate six former army officers and ex-President Alfredo Cristiani for their part in ordering the murders of the priests, all of whom were prominent members of the university.

Salvadoran Prelate Asks Pardon for U.S. Churchwomen’s Killers

Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle of San Salvador supported the request for the pardon of two ex-soldiers in jail for the 1980 killing of three U.S. nuns and a lay worker. “Let us show mercy and pity. They [the jailed soldiers] have shown repentance, and that is the correct conduct,” Archbishop Saenz told reporters after Easter Mass on April 23 in the capital. The two men were originally sentenced together with three other soldiers to 30 years’ imprisonment for the rapes and murders of the two Maryknoll sisters, Ita Ford and Maura Clark, an Ursuline sister, Dorothy Kazel and a lay missionary, Jean Donovan. Their three colleagues were released from jail two years ago under judicial procedures that allowed early releases for good behavior, but the two remained in jail because the judge ruled they had been involved in prison riots and therefore were disqualified.

(The Archbishop, Fernando Saenz Lacalle, is an Honorary Brigadier General of the Salvadoran Army. He has close ties to the Arena political party, the party that allegedly contracted Romero’s assassination 24 years ago. Arena’s candidate, by the way, won the Presidential election a week ago Sunday.)

The pope also has named Opus Dei bishops to head dioceses in Spain, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Austria. San Salvador Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle is an Opus Dei member who, according to the Opus Dei press center in Rome, also was a confessor to one of his predecessors, slain Archbishop Oscar A. Romero.

[...]

In 1998, the pope raised Opus Dei's University of the Holy Cross in Rome to the status of a pontifical university after just 14 academic years, a move widely seen as a sign of favor. It has rapidly established itself among the five other pontifical universities as a state-of-the-art facility and has grown to about 1,700 students at the undergraduate, master's and doctoral levels.

Some of the university's professors also serve as consultors to Vatican offices and have been called on to help address sensitive Church issues.

It's great to be back in West Virginia, as well. I'm struck by the -- every time I come here I'm struck by the beauty of this state. And of course, you put on a beautiful day, for which I'm grateful.

One of these days I'm going to bring my mountain bike. (Applause.) I love to exercise. I'm doing -- I'm doing it to make sure that I do the job you expect me to do, and I'm doing it to set an example, as well.

edit

Speaking about staying fit and healthy, that's what we need to make sure we do for our Social Security system, too. (Applause.) I'm here to remind the good folks of West Virginia that we have a problem and we have a duty to renew one of great -- America's great institutions, and that's the Social Security system.

I've now traveled to 20 states to talk about Social Security, 20 states in two months, all aimed at making sure that the American people understand the situation with Social Security. And more and more Americans understand there is a problem, and I hear from more and more Americans that they expect those of us who are honored to serve in Washington to fix the problem.

I have just come from the Bureau of Public Debt. I want to thank Van Zeck, Keith Rake, and Susan Chapman. Susan was the tour guide there at the Bureau of Public Debt. I went there because I'm trying to make a point about the Social Security trust. You see, a lot of people in America think there's a trust, in this sense -- that we take your money through payroll taxes and then we hold it for you, and then when you retire, we give it back to you. But that's not the way it works.

There is no "trust fund," just IOUs that I saw firsthand, that future generations will pay -- will pay for either in higher taxes, or reduced benefits, or cuts to other critical government programs.

The office here in Parkersburg stores those IOUs. They're stacked in a filing cabinet. Imagine -- the retirement security for future generations is sitting in a filing cabinet. It's time to strengthen and modernize Social Security for future generations with growing assets that you can control, that you call your own -- assets that the government cannot take away. (Applause.)

I'm sorry that Laura is not traveling with me today. (Applause.) She's doing great. She and I will be taking off tomorrow morning to pay -- to pay our country's respects to a great world leader in His Holiness. He shows that one man can make an enormous difference. And I look forward to honoring the memory of Pope John Paul II. (Applause.) So she's packing her bags. (Laughter.)

I want to thank the President of West Virginia University at Parkersburg. Madam President, I'm sorry I missed your inauguration. (Laughter.) But thank you for serving. Dr. Marie Gnage is with us. I appreciate you letting us use this facility. (Applause.)

Before coming out here I had the honor of saying hello to a lot of folks who are involved with the community college system of West Virginia. I'm a strong believer in the community college system around our country, because I understand that the community college system is a -- provides a great opportunity for many of our young and for many of our workers to gain the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 21st century. The community college system provides a wonderful opportunity for states and communities to say to potential employers, we have got a fantastic asset in our midst to make sure that the workers can fill the jobs that you desire.

My great aunts and uncles actually remembered Gandhi's 1930 Dandi March, where Gandhi courted arrest by breaking the bizarre British law that said only the British could produce salt. With 78 fellow marchers, Gandhi, already in his 60s, walked for 23 days over 240 miles to pick up a lump of mud and salt on the Indian coast. Hundreds lined his path. Thousands made salt illegally all over the country. Within days, tens of thousands were in jail.

As political theater it was electric. Who could have thought a lump of salt could defy an empire?

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

[KEN] I still remember how much I disliked the studio sweetening by adding a fake laugh track and applause. I actually think it's an insult to the listener, especially since the mixing of the audience sounds is so unnatural and the fact that people are laughing hysterically at things that aren't funny without the benefit of nitrous oxide. The original title of the album was "Folk Songs to Bug the New Frontier" and it contained several direct references to President Kennedy. Following the assassination, Mark decided to re-do the album and rewrite some of the songs. It was at this point that Loudermilk bailed, so Mark produced the new session himself. As for the four guys, we were strictly performers and had almost no creative input to the overall concept.

KEN: The album was promoted to Republican organizations, Goldwater clubs and other groups such as "The Young Americans for Freedom."

[...]

KEN: I have played the album for very few people. I have had entire relationships, including marriage, where the other person has no idea of this part of my life.

Bug the liberals... Give this beautiful, multi color long play album to one of your liberal "friends."

Pokes fun at the foibles of the Left Wingers.

Cuba, Bobby, the Other Bobby, Stereos, The Doll House, Gold Reserve, Welfare State, Foreign Aid, National Debt, Managed News, Pinkos, A.D.A., Harvard, C.I.A.... ad infinitum.

It's all in the groove designed to keep you chuckling for hours.

"The presumption was that in many cases, intelligence derived in this manner would be more accurate than that obtained through traditional means (see Figure 1, from the original PAM web site). Initially the site was to be confined to political economic, civil and military futures of the key Middle Eastern countries of Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey, and the impact of U.S. involvement with each. A typical bet would involve issues such as whether the United States would pull its troops out of Saudi Arabia (Coy 2003), or whether the Egyptian currency was likely to fall by 20% by the end of the year. Assassinations, the most controversial feature of PAM and the most publicized, were not officially listed as a likely market."

"Thus, while it was a public relations disaster, some version of the program will likely be introduced on a restricted basis, perhaps along the lines suggested above, in an attempt to better tap the country's disperse knowledge base, human insight, and analytical expertise."

...I can't separate the good Church from the bad Church. It seems to me that all the Church's flaws -- all John Paul's flaws -- are rooted in virtues. That's what I wanted to write about, and that is where I'm stuck. It will take me awhile to work out exactly what I mean by that circle of sin and virtue.

In the meantime, I feel a bit trapped between the bizarre hagiography on CNN which is giving some of the most reactionary elements is the Church (as well as, bizarrely, some of the peculiar brand of Protestant that has been condemning Catholics to hell for generations) the opportunity to craft for public consumption a holy and uncriticizable version of Ronald Reagan, an infallible George Bush, and the understandable hostility coming from some on the left.

Why talk about the Encyclicals? Unlike some on the left, I've never bought the narrow, dismissive view of religion as some unbelievable fairy tale. Religious doctrine is philosophy, it's politics, it's literature, it's about the Meaning of Life. It's not about some bearded dude in the sky that can't exist because you've never seen him.

[...]

Most inane comment so far was Glenn Reynolds (shocking, I know) -- "Ordinary Poles 2, German intellectuals 0." Intellectuals. The swine. It happens that the Pope was an intellectual -- a professor of philosophy -- and Reynolds is a professor. One of these days I need to cook up a post to explain how in modern jingoist discourse, "intellectual" and "cultural elite" refer to the Jews. But that has nothing to do with Karol Wojtyla.

John Paul II spoke, if not always loudly, for economic justice and the needs of the poor. He was a courageous champion of freedom for those suffering under Soviet tyranny in Eastern Europe; less bold in condemning death squads and covert aggression in Central America. He opposed the death penalty and the War in Iraq. And he made a good faith effort (pun intended) to advance the church's painful reconcilation with its anti-Semitic past, despite considerable internal opposition.

On the other hand, John Paul II was a cipher, or worse, on most of what we here in the States would call the "social issues." His refusal to budge on Human Vitae -- the low point of the post-Vatican II reaction -- was particularly discouraging, as was his equally adamantine position on clerical celibacy. And of his attitude towards the gay and lesbian members of his human flock, there's little to say and less that's good.

Karol Jozef Wojtyla, RIP

I disagree with many of the political alliances the late Pope made, but I do believe he genuinely believed in respect for life.

I am terribly sorry that the leaders he made cause with did not follow him in that.

I hope his principles, if not his allegiances or his limitations, live beyond him.

He went where he believed he was to go in peace. So may we all.

"We don't hate the economic refugees that are coming here, but we hate the fact that our government is colluding against us with big business so that they can get rich off our backs...They (employers) don't pay health care, they don't pay any benefits to these people, so they wind up on our social services. Our safety net for vulnerable citizens is being used up. Is that right? That's crazy."

Somewhat shorter version: We don't hate these poor people, but they're making us poorer, and gummint and big bizness is to blame, so instead of blaming gummint and big bizness, we're going to blame "them." Bobo logic--gotta love it. Anybody know who's funding these people?

If President Bush's Social Security initiative is going to ring bells anywhere, it ought to be a hit with the Better Investment Group of Waco, which meets once a month at Uncle Dan's Rib House to discuss earnings growth over barbecue and beans.

The group, which calls itself the BIG club, is dedicated to the proposition that individual investors can and should profit handsomely from putting some of their savings into the stock market.

Of eight club members contacted last weekend, two expressed unqualified support for the president's personal account proposal.

The rest were opposed or uncertain ....

"Depending on how many people are attending that night and who they are, it'll be adopted," he said.

Club president Labens, a Waco City Council member and retired appliance store owner, said he could not support Bush's personal account proposal as long as the president refused to spell out the specifics, something the White House has preferred to leave to Congress.

"If I came to you and said, 'We're going to make you a millionaire, but we're not going to tell you how it's going to work,' how much credibility would I have?" Labens asked.
(via LA Times)