Deja vu vu vu...

Just in case anyone happened to miss this headline in the March 21st Flashback Friday:

ARNETT OF CNN GETS AN APOLOGY
Boston Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, the Senate GOP whip, apologized yesterday for calling a Cable News Network reporter, Peter Arnett, a sympathizer to Baghdad and for repeating a rumor that his wife's family had ties to the Viet Cong while Arnett reported the war in Vietnam. Simpson's views were contained in a letter to The New York Times, printed in yesterday's editions. While Simpson said he regretted "any hurt, pain or anguish" he had caused the Arnett...

This is getting all too weird....

An unexpected postmortem

It appears that only through her death did Rachel Corrie achieve what she sought in the last weeks of her life. Allison Kaplan Sommer of An Unsealed Room, a freelance journalist (and real life friend) blogging from Tel Aviv reports this breaking news,

The Hebrew-language website Ynet quotes a senior IDF official as saying that the army is officially abandoning the tactic of bulldozing houses in Gaza because the army "has come to the conclusion that the damage to Israel's image internationally is greater than its effectiveness" as a terror-fighting tool.

The Israeli Right is outraged, the Left hopeful. What a joy it would be to see the violence on all sides ratchet down a notch (or 3 or 4.)

UAPOAs (Un-American Parents of Autistics) are in good company

In Maine news this morning:

On a related note, its important to remember that the Bush Administration and Republican Congressional lackeys have left the families of those potentially killed by the smallpox vaccine high and dry: By Executive Order last fall, Bush exempted manufacturers of smallpox and anthrax vaccines from product liability lawsuits, but never established a program to compensate individuals and families of those injured or killed by the vaccines, such as the NVICP. The now infamous S15 was slated to address this issue, but the Administration drew up a bill which was stingy at best, and has attracted the wrath of such saintly-sounding organizations as the American Nurses Association and the Uniformed Firefighter's Association. I'm sure though, knowing this Administration, that it won't be long before nurses and firefighter's are on Ashcroft's list of un-American Americans.

Whack one mole, up pops another

Last week it was the Senate; this week the House wants in on the action. Seriously, give Republicans on the Hill a good old fashion, media-hyped, populace-distracting war, and they'll gleefully take it as an opportunity to stomp all over the most vulnerable in our society, children with disabilities.

This week, IDEA 97 is up for re-authorization. IDEA is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a reworking of the 1975 federal legislation which, in response to a Supreme Court decision at the time, guaranteed disabled children a "free, appropriate public education" (FAPE). Prior to the law, states could determine their responsibilities to educate special needs children, and many decided that either "warehousing" children in overcrowded special education classrooms or not admitting the child to public schools if they were deemed too disruptive or even "troubling" to other children, were acceptable policies. IDEA mandated states provide special needs children with a real education, and retooling over the past 25 years required that it be in the least restrictive environment. For my autistic son, who enters kindergarten in the fall, that will mean he will be part of a regular classroom, but with the assistance of a specially-trained aide just for him (a "one-on-one").

Like most federal legislation, fitting policy to real life situations is never perfect, and so adjustments have been made to fine tune the original bill. Under IDEA 97, parents were made partners in determining their children's needs, versus previous incarnations where they essentially had little input and were merely presented the final plan for their children's education by the "professionals" (school administrators, teachers, school psychologists, etc.) There are still areas which need to be strengthened, and the mandates need to be fully funded to the levels targeted by the original law. Unfortunately, Federalist politicians, many of whom disliked IDEA's intrusion upon states' rights territory, will take any retooling of IDEA as an opportunity to weaken the protection afforded by the law.

Last week, H.R. 1350, "Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act", the key House bill for IDEA reauthorization, emerged from the Subcommittee on Education and Reform of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. According to the full Committee's press release,

[t]he Improving Education Results for Children with Disabilities Act (H.R. 1350) calls for reforms to strengthen accountability and results for students, reduce the IDEA paperwork burden for teachers, provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve early intervention strategies, reduce the number of children who are wrongly placed in special education classes, reduce litigation and restore trust between parents and school districts, and align IDEA with the bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act signed by President Bush in January 2002. NCLB requires federally-funded schools to be accountable for providing a quality education to all students, including students with special needs.

Parents groups and disability advocates tell a different story. An action alert by the highly respected Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF) outlined a number of serious flaws in the legislation. They include:

1) The elimination of short-term objectives:

"Revisiting an issue lost in IDEA 1997, the school boards are resurrecting their desire to eliminate short-term objectives from the IEP process. The given rational is that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) makes short term objectives unnecessary. There is nothing in NCLB that provides for measurements of progress toward IEP annual goals. Short-term objectives provide parents with useful information about the student's progress on important academic and non-academic goals. Without them, there is no reporting mechanism concerning progress."

2) Moving to a three-year, versus annual, IEP schedule:

"In the name of "paperwork reduction," the bill proposes a three-year rather than an annual IEP. While this is an optional choice for parents, many parents will either be confused by it or feel coerced to accept this option. We believe that an annual IEP is necessary to review the child's progress and to make necessary modifications. If parents are pressured to accept a three-year IEP, parental participation and the school's accountability to parents will decrease. This proposal purports to "streamline" the annual review, but given the cursory nature of most IEP reviews currently, the proposal panders to "paperwork" complaints with no benefit, and a likely detriment to children."

3) Dilution of current funding:

"The bill establishes a system of pre-special education interventions to be paid for by the already woefully in adequate IDEA funds. And nothing in the bill precludes schools from keeping children in a pre-referral category indefinitely, whereas those with disabilities should receive the full protections of IDEA as soon as possible. So as it is presented in the bill, the pre-referral program diverts already scarce funds away from IDEA-eligible students."

4) Discipline provisions which can strip children of their right to an education:

After a bloody fight in 1997 and a long negotiated compromise, the school boards and their allies are resurrecting proposals that failed in 1997. Instead of the compromise that unilateral action and alternative placements can only occur in the most serious situations (weapons and drugs), the House proposal would allow school district personnel to remove a disabled child from his or her current placement for the violation of ANY school rule so long as the same duration of discipline would apply to non-disabled students. To add insult to injury, this removal could take place EVEN IF the behavior was a manifestation of the child's disability. So according to the House proposal, a child with Tourette Syndrome could be removed for swearing. The bill would punish children for behavior that they cannot control, a repudiation of everything that the IDEA and the ADA stand for. Any pretense of concern for the children is unmasked by the removal of the requirement to develop positive behavior support plans.

[Editorial note] This last provision is particularly troubling, and I believe is at the heart of what many of the bill's proponents are attempting to achieve. NCLB requires that 95% of a school's student body participate in the standardized testing to be used to measure improvement. The law allows for 5% to be excluded, whether due to severity of disability, language barriers, truancy, etc. Students with special needs may be tested through "alternative assessment", but those measurements much be laid out in advance and meet with bureaucratic approval. Nationwide, approximately 15% of the schoolage population is receiving special education services. Another smaller but still significant portion are enrolled in bilingual education. There are parents who are philosophically opposed to standardized tests. There are kids who are sick or on vacation on the day of the test. All of these groups generally add up to more than 5% of a school population, and its that "overflow" percentage that I'm sure must make school administrators faced with the consequences of NCLB terrified. Predicting any eight-year old's performance on a standardized on any given day is almost no better than rolling the dice: Add in factors such as ADD or autism or lack of language comprehension, and the uncertainty increases exponentially. Thus, as a school administrator, having the option of erasing that ambiguity by getting rid of the potential problem students, particularly if there are no messy repercussions to fear.

HR 1350 has been put on a fast track with inadequate time for parents and advocates to make their concerns heard. It was submitted to the House Education and Workforce Committee, with markup scheduled for this week, after which it will be voted on by the Committee and then sent to the House floor.

Call the committee members listed below using toll-free Congressional switchboard at 1-800-839-5276. Urge them to delay action on H.R. 1350. Ask them not to rush to action on the bill before obtaining the counsel and support of the families and advocates of the more than six million special needs children who rely on IDEA. Explain to them that provisions in the bill radically alter how IDEA works, and that the outcome of any IDEA action should strengthen the educational services and supports available to special needs children rather than weaken them, as does this bill. Help them to understand that the procedural safeguards currently in place under IDEA are there to help ensure that children get services and the due process protections: This bill undermines those protections under the guise of "streamlining" processes and eliminating paperwork.

Republicans
John A. Boehner, Ohio, (Chairman)
Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin (Vice Chairman)
Cass Ballenger, North Carolina
Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Howard "Buck" McKeon, California
Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Sam Johnson, Texas
James C. Greenwood, Pennsylvania
Charlie Norwood, Georgia
Fred Upton, Michigan
Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
Jim DeMint, South Carolina
Johnny Isakson,
Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
Patrick J. Tiberi, Ohio
Ric Keller, Florida
Tom Osborne, Nebraska
Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Thomas Cole, Oklahoma
Jon C. Porter, Nevada
John R.Carter, Texas
Marilyn N. Musgrave, Colorado
Marsha Blackburn, Tennessee
Phil Gingrey, Georgia
Max Burns, Georgia

Democrats
George Miller, California (Ranking Minority Member)
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan
Major R. Owens, New York
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey
Lynn C. Woolsey, California
Rubén Hinojosa, Texas
Carolyn McCarthy, New York
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts
Ron Kind, Wisconsin
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio
Judy Biggert, Illinois
Georgia David Wu, Oregon
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey
Susan Davis, California
Betty McCollum, Minnesota
Danny Davis, Illinois
Ed Case, Hawaii
Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona
Denise L. Majette, Georgia
John Kline, Minnesota
Chris Van Hollen, Maryland
Timothy J. Ryan, Ohio
Timothy H. Bishop, New York

In closing, I'd like to include a few especially poignant paragraphs from the appeal at PetitionsOnline on the subject of HR 1350:

As it stands, parents of special needs children struggle daily to raise their children. We are more hardworking than the average parent. We work with our children to get them to sit, stand, walk, sign, talk, point, read, write, jump, button a shirt, tie a shoe lace, even to say "mommy" or give a kiss. The simplest things to typical children are triumphs for ours and are sometimes only achieved after several years. We shed many tears for our children coping with large amounts of stress. Yet, we are expected to live typical lives too. We work, we have family obligations beyond our special children, we pay our bills, and we pay our taxes. In addition, we fight our school districts.

We fight for eligibility, we fight for classification, we fight for assessments, and we fight for placements. IDEA was a law meant to protect our children.

The ideaology of the HR 1350 was to reduce paperwork, increase accountability, and foster collaborative relationships between local school districts and parents of special needs students.

The results is converse. These changes reduce accountability and therefore will lead to greater tensions between districts and parents. We fight long and hard already based on the current IDEA and these changes won't alleviate our difficulties but rather will add to them.

Old friends rediscovered

You know the 'Net is constantly metamorphosing when you re-establish relationships with friends from earlier manifestations of the medium. Back in the mid-'90s, Joel Gazis-Sax spent much of his time, along with my partner and I, on sci.anthropology, beating down the Bell-Curve lunacy and other similar twisting of logic. He's now got a poliblog, Pax Nortona where he continues to show us the importance of a beautiful, but critical, mind and other similarly useful discourses.

test

[update: Saturday evening. After 2 days of non-working blog and non-responsive Blogger/Blogspot, things began to post again. Thank you, Jim C, for shaking up the gods, or Gluskabe at least.]

Flashback Friday for March 28th, 1991

BUSH, CHENEY REBUT GENERAL ON CEASE-FIRE
Michael Kranish, Boston Globe
March 28, 1991

WASHINGTON -- The White House yesterday contradicted its commander in the Gulf War, Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who told a television interviewer that he had recommended against a cease-fire with Iraq.

"I have full confidence in Gen. Schwarzkopf, but all I know is that there was total agreement in terms of when this war should end," Bush said yesterday.

Schwarzkopf, in an interview broadcast last night on public television, said he had recommended that the war continue but was...

ECONOMISTS SEE ANEMIC UPTURN AFTER RECESSION
Jonathan Peterson, Los Angeles Times
March 28, 1991

Consumer spending-for homes, cars, refrigerators and everything else-propels two-thirds of the U.S. economy. But consumers do not appear ready for much of a shopping spree, even if the recession ends soon. By some measures, personal income has been falling since late 1989 relative to inflation, reflecting meager wage gains, higher taxes and rising unemployment.

Sound grim? Economics hasn't been dubbed the dismal ...

IRAQI KURDS REPORT SEIZING BASE, CAMP REFUGEES FLEEING SOUTH RIOT OVER FOOD
Associated Press
March 28, 1991

ZAKHO, Iraq -- Kurdish rebels said yesterday that they had seized a government-held air base and camp in northern Iraq, but reported signs that Saddam Hussein's forces were preparing for an assault on a key city held by the insurgents.

A statement from the Kurdistan Democratic Party said the Iraqi army was massing forces in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit to launch an attack on the northern oil city of Kirkuk, which was seized by the insurgents.

HOUSE SEEKS MORE US JOBLESS AID
Boston Globe
March 28, 1991

The House yesterday approved a measure that would allow the state to capture about $17 million more from the federal government to pay those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits but have not been able to find new work.

Because of the state's growing unemployment rate and the inability of those who are jobless to find work, the state and federal government are expected to extend from 30 to 39 the number of weeks for which unemployed Massachusetts residents will receive benefits...

CHANGES ARE URGED IN ENERGY POLICY
Larry Tye, Boston Globe
March 28, 1991

Officials at the Department of Energy and in Congress warned yesterday that without decisive action, America's dangerous reliance on imported oil will jump another 20 points -- to 65 percent -- by the year 2010.

That ominous possibility, and oil's central role in the US decision to go to war in the Persian Gulf, ensure that the energy debate about to begin in Washington will be the most hotly contested and closely watched since Jimmy Carter was president. But there still is no...

GNP DROP IN 4TH QUARTER REVISED TO 1.6%
Glenn Somerville, Reuters
March 28, 1991

Strong exports softened the slide into recession late last year, but the economy still shrank at a revised 1.6 percent rate in the fourth quarter, the government said yesterday.

The contraction was less than a previous estimate of 2.0 percent, the Commerce Department said in its final report on gross national product in the fourth quarter. GNP measures the nation's total output of goods and services. Economists said the latest revision suggested that exports could help the flagging...

CHINA HAS NO REGRETS OVER NOT SUPPORTING GULF WAR, QUIA SAYS
The foreign minister says the conflict cannot be a precedent for settling international issues with force
David Holley, Los Angeles Times
March 28, 1991

When asked whether China would abide by missile-technology control rules, worked out at a recent meeting of 15 nations in Tokyo, [Qian Qichen] said that because China did not join the meeting or the agreement that came out of it, Beijing is not bound by the restrictions. Qian said that China is a relatively small weapons exporter, and he called on large ...

BUSH SAYS IRAQI LEADER UNLIKELY TO KEEP POWER
Michael Kranish, Boston Globe
March 28, 1991

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday that he does not expect to change his policy against aiding the Iraqi rebels, despite concerns that the policy was helping Saddam Hussein. He said he believed that the Iraqi leader's survival in power is "unlikely."

Bush came close to ruling out a policy change that would help the rebels: shooting down Iraqi helicopters used to quell the rebellion.

The president was asked if he would agree to a formal cease-fire resolution even if...

MARKET DECIDING WHICH END OF THE BULL IT IS
Robert Lenzner, Boston Globe
March 28, 1991

NEW YORK -- The cocky confidence that has pervaded Wall Street since the outbreak of the Gulf War has been taking some nasty jolts lately.

Yet, each time the market retreats from unexpected developments, sentiment bounces back with resilience, indicating that most investors believe the recession will be over sooner or later.

"There are early signs of a recovery falling into place," says Richard Hoey, chief economist at Barclays de Zoete Wedd, a global investment firm...

INFORMATION PLEAS ABOUT WAR VICTIMS STRAIN OFFICE RED CROSS:
Cover-up rumors and bribery attempts are hampering the Glendale office's efforts to process inquiries.
Phil Sneiderman, Los Angeles Times
March 28, 1991

While seeking information on the whereabouts of more than 1,000 Persian Gulf War prisoners and civilians, staff members have had to fend off bribery attempts, dispel rumors that they are hiding a list of Iraqi POWs held by the allies and deny the authenticity of such a "prisoner list" stolen from the Glendale office...

FLOOD OF REFUGEES BURDENS U.S. FORCES: THOUSANDS OF HUNGRY IRAQIS FLEE FIGHTING
R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post
March 28, 1991

One month after halting the war against Iraq, U.S. military personnel in southern Iraq and Kuwait find their daily routine increasingly dominated by the task of providing food, water and medicine for a surging population of refugees, with no clear end in sight, according to defense and military officials

The bitter fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has caused thousands of Iraqis from cities and towns north of the temporary cease-fire line at the...

JOBS SLUMP COULD OUTLIVE RECESSION
Julia Lawlor, USA Today
March 28, 1991

Dan Lacey blames current job losses on the corporate restructuring that began in the early '80s, when companies began eliminating layers of management to cut costs. The recession simply increased the restructuring, which took off in late '89, he says. ``These companies are getting rid of people permanently. This is forever.''

Okay, so just change a few little words...

BIG TAXPAYER BAILOUT OF BANKS AIRLINES FEARED:
Finance Concern is growing on Capitol Hill that a costly Bush proposal to replenish the bank deposit insurance fund airline aid is really a bailout in disguise.
James Risen, Los Angeles Times
March 28, 1991

Bush Administration officials deny, however, that their plan for the insurance fund airlines represents a bailout. In fact, Treasury Secretary Nicholas F. Brady said this week that the banking airline industry will not need such a government effort, because banks airlines have much greater capital reserves than the savings and loan industry ever had. Banking Airline executives also heatedly deny that there are any parallels between ...

Alas, an Indian

With so much of my energy focused on the Frist/Gregg NVICP legislation, I seem to have put my advocacy for American Indian issues on the back burner. Fortunately, the always sensitive and insightful Barry, at the incomparable Alas, A Blog is on a roll of his own with these fine posts (here, here and here) and even today's cartoon.

[Note: It was yesterday's cartoon - I'm losing track of time again...]

On the home front...

In case you were distracted, here's a reminder that on Tuesday, the Senate resumed "consideration of S. Con. Res. 23, setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2004 and including the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal year 2003 and for fiscal years 2005 through 2013." In the course of that debate, here are the amendments the Senate rejected:

By 46 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 81), Daschle (for Lincoln) Amendment No. 324, to allow full access to Tricare for National Guard and Reserve personnel and their families on a continual basis, offset with reductions to the tax cut.

By 46 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 82), Baucus Amendment No. 348, to ensure that a prescription drug benefit is available to all Medicare beneficiaries on an equal basis, including those who choose to remain in the current fee-for-service program.

By 43 yeas to 56 nays (Vote No. 83), Conrad Amendment 411, in the nature of a substitute.

By 46 yeas to 52 nays (Vote No. 84), Byrd Amendment No. 412, to foster greater debate in the Senate and to prevent further increases in the deficit by striking the reconciliation instructions to the Committee on Finance.

By 48 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 85), Kennedy Amendment No. 315, to ensure that the budget includes funds to extend temporary unemployment compensation benefits, provides benefits to the million long-term unemployed Americans, and provides benefits to part-time and low-wage workers.

By 48 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 86), Dodd Amendment No. 415, to increase funding for after-school programs to the levels promised by the No Child Left Behind Act to serve 1.6 million more children in FY 2004 and to increase funding for Head Start to serve 80 percent of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds and increase the number of infants and toddlers served and for deficit reduction.

By 48 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 87), Daschle Amendment No. 361, to fulfill the U.S. commitment to provide health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives.

By 47 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 88), Leahy Amendment No. 318, to increase the level of funding in fiscal year 2004 for first responders by $3,000,000,000 (to a total of $6,500,000,000) to support their efforts to protect homeland security and prevent and respond to acts of terrorism, and to reduce tax reductions for taxpayers with annual incomes greater than $300,000, and provide an additional $3,000,000,000 for deficit reduction.

By 49 yeas to 49 nays (Vote No. 89), Harkin Amendment No. 396, to help rural health care providers and hospitals receive a fair reimbursement for services under Medicare by reducing tax cuts to the wealthiest income brackets.

By 49 yeas to 50 nays (Vote No. 90), Bingaman Amendment No. 417, to increase Mandatory Child Care Spending by $4.6 billion over five years and $9.1 billion over ten years by reducing the tax cut.

By 48 yeas to 50 nays (Vote No. 91), Dodd Amendment No. 419, to increase the budget authority for Federal ``FIRE Act'' grants and to express the sense of the Senate that from the total funding provided for Federal ``FIRE Act'' grants, not less than $1,000,000,000 per year will be used for grants to local governments to hire additional firefighters and not less than $750,000,000 per year for the purchase of firefighting equipment and training, and to provide for a reduction in the deficit.

By 49 yeas to 50 nays (Vote No. 92), Clinton Amendment No. 418, to raise the caps and provide direct first responder funding to localities and for high threat areas through the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness in 2003 and 2004, to restore funding for the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Act (''Byrne Grant'' program) and the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant Program, and to reduce the D293deficit, by reducing the size of newly proposed tax cuts.

Addendum: I was so shocked to see so many of these worthy amendments go down on obvious party-line votes, that I went back to Monday's details as well. More depressing votes. The defeat of the Mikulski Amendment is a particularly hard blow for the families of autistic children, as so many necessary expenses are not covered by private insurance.

Rejected:

By 45 yeas to 54 nays (Vote No. 65), Schumer Amendment No. 299, to provide immediate assistance to meet pressing homeland security needs by providing funding in 2003 for first responders, port security, bioterrorism preparedness and prevention, border security and transit security, the FBI; to restore the elimination of funding of the COPS program, firefighter equipment grants, Byrne Grants and Local Law enforcement grants; to provide a sustained commitment of resources for homeland security needs without reducing funding to other key domestic law enforcement and public safety priorities; and to reduce the deficit.

By 46 yeas to 53 nays (Vote No. 68), Lautenberg Amendment No. 300, to restore national security funding.

By 22 yeas to 77 nays (Vote No. 69), Hollings Amendment No. 265, to eliminate tax cuts.

By 47 yeas to 52 nays (Vote No. 70) Conrad Amendment No. 376, to provide full funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) part B grants over ten years by reducing tax breaks for the wealthiest taxpayers.

By 45 yeas to 54 nays (Vote No. 72), Mikulski Amendment No. 349, to revise the resolution to accommodate in reconciliation legislation a partially refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 for eligible expenses for individuals with long-term or chronic care needs or their family caregivers who pay these expenses; in which ``eligible expenses'' shall include prescription drugs, medical bills, durable medical equipment, home health care, custodial care, respite care, adult day care, transportation to chronic care or medical facilities, specialized therapy (including occupational therapy, physical therapy, or rehabilitational therapy), other specialized services for children (including day care for children with special needs), and other long term care related expenses as defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services; and in which ``individuals with long term or chronic care needs'' shall mean individuals with multiple chronic conditions, individuals unable to perform activities of daily living, individuals with severe cognitive impairment, individuals with complex medical conditions, and other individuals with similar levels of disability or need for care.

By 48 yeas to 52 nays (Vote No. 73), Clinton Amendment No. 381, to raise the 2003 caps by $3.5 billion for homeland security funding through a Domestic Defense Fund at the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Domestic Preparedness in FY 2003 and to reduce the size of newly proposed tax cuts in the amount of $7 billion to pay for this amendment and for the cost of previously passed homeland security funding.

By 49 yeas to 51 nays (Vote No. 74), Dorgan Amendment No. 385, to increase FY 2004 funding for the discretionary programs of the Department of Veterans Affairs by $1,019,000,000, so it matches the level proposed by a coalition of veterans groups in the Independent Budget; to decrease the deficit by a similar amount; and to use the unreconciled tax cut to pay for it.

Harkin Amendment No. 386 (to Amendment No. 339), to reduce the reconciliation instruction by $375 billion, reduce the size of tax cuts allowed by $980 billion and to reduce deficits by $1.1 Trillion. (By 58 yeas to 42 nays (Vote No. 75), Senate tabled the Amendment.)

By 38 yeas to 62 nays (Vote No. 76), Breaux Modified Amendment No. 339, to reduce tax cuts to $350 billion.

By 48 yeas to 52 nays (Vote No. 78), Biden Modified Amendment No. 278, to make available funds for the COPS program.

Update on IOLTA

Back in January, legal expert Dwight Meredith of PLA keyed us all in on the goings on with Interest On Lawyer Trust Accounts (IOLTA) and the outrageous Washington Legal Foundation.

The good new is that the Supremes upheld IOLTA programs today. I'm sure Dwight will have the whole scoop soon.

Smokescreen or Sure Thing?

But during the Homeland Security debate last November, Republicans swore up and down that the real threat to drug research and development was lawsuits and trial lawyers. Now we're told a different "truth", right out of Lilly CEO Sidney Taurel's mouth:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Eli Lilly and Co.'s chief executive Tuesday warned that weakening patent protections or imposing government price controls in the United States could lead to "a death spiral" in the pharmaceutical industry's ability to develop new medicines.

No where in the article does Taurel even mention drug liability lawsuits as inhibiting the company in its pursuit of new drugs. To be honest, I'm not really shocked. In a Senate HELP hearing on smallpox vaccination plans in January, Kim Bush, head of Baxter Healthcare's Vaccines Division, while giving a small nod to "predatory lawsuits", testified that "rising development costs, downward pricing pressure and high costs of regulatory approval and compliance" were the main reasons pharmaceutical companies were either closing down vaccine manufacturing, or avoiding getting into the business of even non-childhood (AIDS, smallpox, anthrax, etc.) vaccines altogether.

So if Taurel and other pharmaceuticals really don't really see drug lawsuits as a big concern, why is Senator Doctor Bill Frist so incredibly gung-ho about pushing his pet vaccine injury compensation legislation? Or is Taurel so sure that Frist is going to cover his back that he doesn't even lose sleep over it any more?

Homo heidelbergensis rosa?

During my first couple of years as an archaeology graduate student, I worked on mostly Euro-American early industrial sites: Shipyards, grist mills, ironworks, and a brief stint at Harper's Ferry. Definitely male-centric stuff. But then again, like many archaeologists, I had been programmed to believed that all archaeology (and history for that matter) was not engendered at all, because didn't men actually do everything of note and worth anyway?

Then I read Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkey's groundbreaking 1991 work, Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory and the focus of my research, and in turn, the path of life, changed considerably. Whole spheres of human work, play and interaction, which I had previously taken for granted were cast in a whole new shade of...pink.

This epiphany was only reinforced by the recent discovery in Spain of a 350,000-year-old pink stone axe:

Handaxes of this type are usually used for butchering animal carcasses for their meat. But the researchers claim the striking colour is crucial to its importance.

"It's a very special colour," said Juan Luis Arsuaga, director of the Atapuerca excavation. "They would have needed to search it out. I think this colour had some significance for [these humans]," he added.

Now, if you're familiar with the post-Processualist theoretical framework of engenderment, you'll think that, given the author's description of the tool being used for meat processing, a traditionally female engendered activity, the manufacturer of that tool, most likely the tools owner, would be a woman. And looking at the color, is there any doubt whatsoever? I'm mean, really.

In all seriousness, it still is a challenge, given the mainstream media attempts to water-down scientific discoveries for mass consumption, to look at such material through anything but antiquated theoretical glasses. But its so much more interesting to toss aside those shades, or to don rose-colored ones instead, when reading up on recent archaeological discoveries.

[Note: If you happen to be interested in engendered pre-Contact North American archaeology, here's the perfect volume: It even contains a chapter on women and wampum production.]

Cut to the chase

A blogging friend suggested I post a summary and instructions. If you want more background on the subject, read the post below.

Senator Bill Frist, with the help of Judd Gregg (R-NH), is resubmitting the Eli Lilly Thimerosal provison, with additional devastating changes to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Markup is scheduled for today. Frist thinks he may have the votes.

Call these committee members using toll-free Congressional switchboard at 1-800-839-5276:
Gregg, Judd (R - NH)
Frist, William (R - TN)
Enzi, Mike (R - WY)
Alexander, Lamar (R-TN)
Bond, Christopher (R - MO)
DeWine, Mike (R - OH)
Roberts, Pat (R - KS)
Sessions, Jeff (R - AL)
Ensign, John (R - NV)
Graham, Lindsey - (R - SC)
Warner, John (R - VA)

Ranking Members
Kennedy, Edward (D-MA)
Edwards, John (D - NC)
Dodd, Christopher (D - CT)
Harkin, Tom (D - IA)
Mikulski, Barbara (D - MD)
Jeffords, James (I - VT)
Bingaman, Jeff (D - NM)
Murray, Patty (D - WA)
Reed, Jack (D - RI)
Clinton, Hillary (D - NY)

A plea for action...

As I suggested two weeks ago, the latest move by Senator Frist to push through legislation indemnifying Eli Lilly and other pharmaceutical campaign contributors might in all actuality be worse than the provision tacked onto the Homeland Security Legislation last fall, but removed in January, at the behest of my own Maine Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Well, it is in fact worse. Much worse.

The language tacked onto the Homeland Security Bill originated from Senator Frist's earlier failed attempt to modify the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: That last-minute provision asserted that the mercury-based vaccine preservative Thimerosal, which had been concluded to be an adulterant by various courts, was instead a vaccine ingredient, and thus all potential injuries sustained by mercury in vaccines had to first go through the NVICP. The problem with this was that vaccine law crafted in the mid-1980s which established the NVICP was not clear as to whether claims which were no longer able to be submitted to the Vaccine Court, due to a three year statute of limitations, could then be addressed in civil court. This was particularly relevant, as the "lag-time" between first symptoms and diagnosis of many neurological disorders, including autism, PDD and ADD/ADHD is more than three years. So families were concerned, particularly as new studies might come out implicating mercury in neurological conditions, that they would be closed out of both the Vaccine as well as civil courts.

Some background on the NVICP is important here. The legislation originally crafted was a joint effort between families, legislators, health officials and vaccine manufacturers. The goal was to provide for compensation for injuries while attempting to provide liability insurance for producers. The original intent was to make redress as easy as possible, much easier than going through the regular court system. Since it has always been difficult to prove without doubt a correlation between any drug or chemical and a human reaction, the NVICP was set up thusly: If your child is healthy before the shot, and not healthy afterwards, unless a piano dropped upon your child at the time s/he was getting the shot, the assumption is that the injury was caused by the vaccine. Period. Please sign for your compensation on the dotted line. The program was funded by a 75 cent surcharge on every dose of inoculant sold, and by last year, had racked up billions in the "Trust Fund".

The problem was, the Vaccine Court was not acting as Congress had intended, and parents started complaining. And legislators, such as Dan Burton, whose grandson was purportedly vaccine-injured, began to listen. And act, drafting legislation which would address the concerns of families, including lengthening of the statute of limitations to 6 years (with an additional "grandfathering in" of earlier claims), paying for attorney fees on an ongoing basis, and expanding the Vaccine Injury Table. The legislation also continued to allow families who were not happy with their claim's outcome to pursue redress in state civil courts.

Then Senator Frist came along. In April 2002, the doctor-Senator submitted his own bill to "reform" the NVICP. This legislation first off further protected vaccine "component" producers, even those who did not make childhood vaccines themselves (remember, the NVICP was established to protect manufacturers of childhood immunizations and prevent them from stopping production.) The company which benefited the most from this provision was Eli Lilly, which had coincidentally contributed heavily to Frist's Senate campaigns.

But Frist obviously had another agenda: For one, rather than expand the Injury Table, Frist wanted to restrict it by excluding all claimants whose injury may be in any way also related to a genetic condition. For example, a child who has a cousin who is allergic to eggs, and then experiences an injurious reaction to an egg-based vaccine might be excluded, as allergies are often inherited. Arguably, this could be used to exclude just about anyone, as we come to learn more and more about genetics. Second, although Frist agreed to extend the statute of limitations to six years, he did not want to allow older children who, because of his Thimerosal provision, were now forced to file claims to the Vaccine Court. In addition, the legislation would clarify the earlier law, and prohibit families from suing in civil court if they had not filed a claim in a "timely fashion", meaning within the six years. The families who previously didn't qualify for the Vaccine Court due to Thimerosal not being a "vaccine" were now forced into that court, and shut out at the same time. In addition, they would no longer had access to civil court.

But what would motivate Frist to be so cruel? His cat-killing history aside, he is still a doctor, and supposedly sympathetic to the injured and ill. I suspect that his motivations on vaccine liability legislation correlate to those on medical malpractice tort reform. Its not the injured who are the targets: They are just collateral damage. The real target is Democratic campaign funding, and a big chunk of that comes from trial lawyers. Limit attorney fees, either by capping payouts or by restricting who can actually file. Thirty million children were injected with dangerous amounts of Thimerosal from 1990 onward alone. Even if only a small fraction of those children file claims, there are attorney fees to be paid by the NVICP. If those children's claims are accepted, but then later denied by the court, they can still be pursued in civil court, and may be deemed valid by a jury. More, and possibly larger, attorney fees.

But secondly, I think Senator Frist's final provision of his bill, now resurrected in its entirety in S15, tells of an additional motive.

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Advisory Commission on Childhood Vaccines shall report to the Secretary regarding the status of the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund, and shall make recommendations to the Secretary regarding the allocation of funds from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund.

The Republicans want to raid the billions in the Trust Fund. But if you allow thousands of new claims, the fund will dry up.

Senator Frist submitted his legislation three times last year, and each time it failed. He then had the Eli Lilly provision tacked onto the HLS bill in the middle of the night. After it was revoked, and Republicans gained a slight majority in the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Frist again, this time through the committee's chair, Judd Gregg, attempted to include it in unrelated Homeland Security legislation. As of last week, advocacy groups thought they had Frist's word to withdraw it.

However, it is back! Senator Gregg is purportedly submitting Frist's original legislation to the committee today for markup. Frist says he may have the votes, and the nation is distracted by war. Please, call and fax the following Senators and ask that they not agree to this horrible legislation which will essentially gut the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, not only for children with mercury-induced neurological disorders, but possibly for ANY vaccine-injured child (and there have in fact been thousands of claims previously settled.)

If you think this doesn't affect you, even if you don't have a vaccine-injured child, you're mistaken. The Fund was established to help pay for the expense of caring for injured children: If the money doesn't come from the manufactures, either through the fund or civil lawsuits, it comes from other programs, such as schools, healthcare, or job training. And then Frist and the Republicans get to raid the Trust Fund for their pet projects, like marriage promotion, or private school vouchers.

Lisa English has a great suggestion: If your budget is tight, take advantage of the toll-free Congressional switchboard at 1-800-839-5276. You pay for the service with your tax dollars...you might as well take advantage.

Protecting the oil fields...

But from whom?

I really don't exactly what to make of these breaking events:

U.S. commanders now consider the Rumeila oil fields ''unsafe,'' cancel a press trip
By Patrick Mcdowell, Associated Press, 3/24/2003 04:20
KUWAIT CITY (AP) U.S. and British officials made an abrupt about-face Monday in their evaluation of Iraq's most productive oil field, saying that the region which had previously been secured by their troops was now considered ''unsafe.''

The U.S. military canceled a press trip to the south Rumeila oil fields, where journalists were to see the burning oil wells and learn about plans to extinguish the flames and restore production.

''The Rumeila oil fields are unsafe. The trip is canceled,'' Marine Capt. Danny Chung told reporters in Kuwait. He gave no details, but there have been media reports of Iraqi attacks on the field.

A press trip to the southern city of Umm Qasr, where there was sporadic fighting days after the allies took control, also was canceled.

On Friday, senior officers said U.S. and British troops had captured many key facilities in Iraq's southern oil fields. American units advancing west of the southern city of Basra had secured the Rumeila field, which has a daily output of 1.3 billion barrels.

Adm. Michael Boyce, chief of the British defense staff, told a news conference on Friday that ''all the key components of the southern oil fields are now safe.''

Then when I pulled up the Washington Post this morning, I was greeted with a photo of soldiers guarding burning oil wells. And then later this morning, Reuters reported that Kuwaiti firefighters had extinguished the one of seven oil wells in Rumeila sabotaged by retreating Iraqis.

When I went to NOAA's Operational Significant Event Imagery (OSEI) website, I found updated images of the Rumeila fires. At least, NOAA seemed to indicate they were newly updated, as their upload date was today. When I pulled up the new pic in Photoshop to lighten it, it appeared to be identical to last Friday's satellite image. The smoke plumes from the fires appeared identical, even though Iraq has been experiencing severe weather, including gale force winds, for the past day. Then I zoomed in on the date, and yes, it was in fact a republishing of the earlier picture.

The only newly updated picture I could find which documented any change was dated March 22, and was in a slightly different format. It was captioned, "Strong northeast winds are blowing smoke from oil fields in southeast Iraq..." In the 48 hours since the previous photos, the fires appear either larger or more widespread.

On the news that the oil fields were not entirely secure, oil futures rose almost a full dollar today. One can only imagine what might happen to prices should more wells be sabotaged. But then, such an event would have to be reported. By journalists, escorted to the fields, one presumes.

Aaron Brown, Rumsfeld's Press Secretary

I saw this last night, and have been waiting, rather impatiently, for the transcript. All I can say, once again, is "what liberal media?"

BROWN:..Hafez Al-Miraz is the Washington bureau -- Washington -- chief Washington correspondent for Al Jazeera. And he joins us now. Good to see you, good evening.

HAFEZ AL-MIRAZ, AL JAZEERA CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Good evening.

BROWN: Look, I'll play this as directly as I can. Explain to me the rationale that your network had for displaying what can only be described as the most gruesome of pictures across the Arab world?

AL-MIRAZ: Thank you for the opportunity. I would like just to explain, first of all, that Al Jazeera, as you know, an independent news media. We're not taking sides in that conflict or in any other conflict. We are reporting the news. And we are putting out footage that we feel it is newsworthy sometimes for our own audience. This is an Arabic language news network. We don't broadcast in English or at least not yet.

The Al Jazeera for the last three days have been putting out footages of bodies of Iraqi dead Iraqis. They were both armies or civilians. And today, the -- we found that there are footages, or we have a chance to put out footages, although it was shot by the Iraqi TV or part of it by Iraqi TV, of the other side of the war. Also the -- that the human suffering on the American level, on the American side.

Some of the footages for your case or my case may be -- would be controversial. Do you need to put that much of the footage or the close-up? And it is a debate, even in our newsroom for a while. People who feel that it is the reality of war. And you cannot have just war as video games and just the very sensitized image of the war. But the main point...

BROWN: Mr. Al-Miraz.

AL-MIRAZ: ...is the footage of people who are dead and bodies were put to Al Jazeera for the last two days of Iraqis. Today it was put on for American victims. It is very -- it's a tragedy. It is very painful and emotional issue.

BROWN: All right, sir...

AL-MIRAZ: ...on both sides.

BROWN: ...respectfully, I understand that. And I, believe me, would be the first to argue and have many times in my professional life, that we are not in the business of sanitizing war or anything else. But is not -- is there not a line between sanitizing the news and simply putting something on TV because it is gruesome. You can show the horror or war without zooming in on the most gruesome -- I mean, I don't -- I'm reluctant to even describe...

AL-MIRAZ: Yes.

BROWN: ...what that 6.5 minutes looked like, because honestly, sir, it is vile.

AL-MIRAZ: And that's what happened. Al Jazeera, when we got the chance to edit these tapes, first it was rushed and put out as is or mostly as is. And I agree with you. Some of it is really terrible and horrible. Unfortunately, some European networks, including Sky News, that is also the owners of Sky News are the owners of other U.S. networks, put the pictures as is. And maybe they did not edit out, but Al Jazeera did edit out after that the pictures. And we made sure that it doesn't show a description of faces or anything like that. That happened on -- later on.

Also, we honor the request by the Pentagon to give them some time, not to play the footage -- not to play the video for the POWs until they identify them and notify the families. That happens around 12:00 noon today. And the -- my headquarters did really respond to that request for humanitarian consideration. And we honor this as of 12:00 noon, until like 8:00 p.m. today, Al Jazeera did not put any of these footages or the POWs, while other networks in Europe, including U.S. allies like Spain state TV, Portugal, Belgium, others. They did put it out.

[Brown and Al-Miraz prattle briefly]

AL-MIRAZ: To explain to you what happen. So 12:00 noon Al Jazeera did abide by that until the people in the Pentagon notified the families. And unfortunately, half an hour after that, 12:30, I was watching CNN and I found one of your reporters in the Pentagon reading names of three POWs. And this is CNN in English for American families, while Al Jazeera would not reach any American or English speaker audience in the U.S. And this is what we're talking about.

BROWN: Sir, are you saying that this happened on CNN...

AL-MIRAZ: Yes, sir.

BROWN: ...excuse me, let me finish the sentence. I wasn't quite done. On CNN International or CNN domestic.

AL-MIRAZ: CNN domestic, sir.

BROWN: Because as you know, excuse me, as you know, there's a very different audience and a very different issue there.

AL-MIRAZ: As -- we're talking about CNN domestic, CNN America. We're talking about 12:30. And the Pentagon did investigate that and talk to the reporter who did that. And to -- just to add to that also, look today at "The Washington Post" front page.

BROWN: Okay, that...

AL-MIRAZ: "The Washington Post" front page has an Iraqi POW. I don't think that this is -- two wrongs don't make a right. I agree with you.

BROWN: Stop.

[Update: I trimmed the rest of the interview, as it was just too long, and Kieran Healy has it in it's entirety as well.]

Speaking of being online in Iraq...

Salam Pax is safe and blogging again.

Goggole and Blogger even set up a mirror for him.

Re-wiring Iraq

My partner, who operates an ICANN-accredited registry (as well as having been intimately involved with the .biz set up and .us and .org reassignments), has started looking into getting the .iq CCTLD up and running again. He's set up a very basic page (no, he's not an html expert by any stretch of the imagination) documenting the current status. If you're a techie and interested in helping, you can visit the site here.

Also, feel free to remind him about his seventh wedding anniversary coming up later this week. He never seems to remember on his own.

Landmark civil rights case before the Supremes

Yes, there is news, very important, even history-making news, outside of Bush's war.

This for one:

High Court Looking At Gay Rights Case: Privacy sought for same-sex couples
Los Angeles Times
March 24, 2003

Washington - The gay equal rights movement, which has been growing in strength, faces a crucial test in the Supreme Court this week.

The court has never said gays and lesbians are entitled to equal rights, and it has upheld laws branding them as criminals for having sex.

In a 1986 opinion, the court described abhorrence of homosexuality as time-honored and traditional. It would "cast aside millennia of moral teaching" to say sex between gay men "is somehow protected as a fundamental right," then-Chief Justice Warren E. Burger said in the case of Bowers v. Hardwick.

Now the court is being asked to cast aside Burger's view as bigoted and archaic.

Gay civil rights leaders say public opinion regarding homosexuality has changed dramatically since 1986. These days the "real social and legal deviants" are not gay people but "homosexual sodomy laws" that remain on the books in 13 states, says the Human Rights Campaign, which calls itself America's largest gay and lesbian group.

On Wednesday, the court will hear a Texas case that asks the justices not just to throw out the prosecution of two men who were arrested for having sex in the Houston home of one of the men, but to declare that the Constitution gives same-sex couples the same rights to privacy and equality as heterosexuals.

Such a statement would be a milestone on the road to full equality, rights lawyers say.

"This is the most important gay rights case in a generation," said Ruth E. Harlow, legal director for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund. "We believe America has moved beyond these [antisodomy] laws. And we're hoping the court will say all adults have the same right to privacy, and you can't have a different rule for gay people."

In the 21st century, I can't even comprehend how this isn't a slam-dunk. But then, I never thought that we'd actually be once again concerned about the internment of American citizens based on national origin.

The Rehnquist Court has failed on so many things. Let's hope they break with that tradition in this case.

'It's more than exciting, Christiane'

My friend in Israel, knowing me so well, sent me the link to this Ha'aretz piece this morning:

Most TV correspondents reporting from Iraq are attached to combat units and adopt the military viewpoint, so who is giving us the other side of the war?
By Orna Coussin

Gregg Gursky, a cameraman for the American Fox news network, was arrested last Friday and handcuffed. The security people forcibly took away his camera, and removed the videotape. It didn't happen in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, but in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States. The cameraman had only filmed members of the Virginia State Police arresting a man "of Iranian descent," as they put it, who was driving a commercial vehicle on the main highway.

The Pentagon military police, who wanted to prevent the broadcasting of the pictures - claiming that the United States is in a state of emergency - returned the videotape to the managers of the popular news network only the next day, after intense negotiations between the sides. "A worrisome development tonight," reported presenter Brit Hume, referring to the incident on his program Special Report. "A development that apparently reflects the restrictive information policies of the Defense Department."

Media critics in the American press point out, however, that restriction of information is in any case characteristic of television coverage of the attack on Iraq. Blatant government censorship, of the type exercised by the Pentagon, is only a small and marginal part of the story.

The article continues, shifting to the coverage coming out of Iraq from so-called "embedded" reporters, and the external and self-censorship which is now the norm for war coverage. The article, however, is a must-read for insight such as this:

In an article on the Poynter Web site by journalist Keith Woods, he points out that in recent days many correspondents have been using, with quotation marks and without any critical approach, the names and labels given by the army to attacks - "smart" bombs instead of laser- or computer-guided bombs, "marginal damage" instead of "wounded and dead civilians," and "decapitation" instead of "assassination" or "murder," and names of operations such as "Iraqi freedom." Chris Hedges suggests that American journalists get a copy of "Politics and the English Language," written by George Orwell in 1946 (it can be printed out in its entirety from the Internet), which describes the power of language to cause moral destruction, especially in time of war.

As suggested above, you can read Orwell's essay here. I humbly admit I am too often guilty of this:

Words like phenomenon, element, individual (as noun), objective, categorical, effective, virtual, basic, primary, promote, constitute, exhibit, exploit, utilize, eliminate, liquidate , are used to dress up a simple statement and give an aire of scientific impartiality to biased judgements.

But then, as a reluctant post-Modernist, I recognize that even science is never unbiased.

First questions, now detentions

In Oklahoma

In Pennsylvania

In Michigan

A mutiny at Langley?

I can't even begin to list all the ways I find this divulgence troubling:

C.I.A. Aides Feel Pressure in Preparing Iraqi Reports
By JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, March 22 — The recent disclosure that reports claiming Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger were based partly on forged documents has renewed complaints among analysts at the C.I.A. about the way intelligence related to Iraq has been handled, several intelligence officials said.

Analysts at the agency said they had felt pressured to make their intelligence reports on Iraq conform to Bush administration policies.

For months, a few C.I.A. analysts have privately expressed concerns to colleagues and Congressional officials that they have faced pressure in writing intelligence reports to emphasize links between Saddam Hussein's government and Al Qaeda.

I wrote my undergraduate honors thesis on CIA involvement in the early years of the Vietnam War, when there was similar pressure to fit the "evidence" to the desired policy outcome. When the intelligence gathering arms of government are manufacturing information, not obtaining it, one can only imagine the realm of possible negative outcomes. Hopefully, with the flares the traditionally reticent Agency is sending up, we can only hope for nothing worse than a few red faces.

No retreat on peace

Visit Bring Them Home Now

Media Losses

Is the media now condoning discriminatory profiling?

Anyone else find this headline (and the intro to the story itself) disquieting?

FBI looking for Iraqi-Americans

By DONNA TOMMELLEO, Associated Press Writer
March 22, 2003

HARTFORD -- Teams of federal agents and police are canvassing Connecticut residents of Iraqi descent as part of a nationwide anti-terrorism effort.

The citizens are asked if they know of any possible threats against Americans and whether they know of any Iraqis in this country who are victims of hate crimes, FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull said Friday.

"It’s a very low-key thing," Bull told The Associated Press. "It’s not a roundup. Our No. 1 mission is to prevent any further terrorist attacks. It’s pretty much that broad. We’re concerned about the big picture here."

Questioning foreign nationals visiting or living in the US may be reasonable, but this story appears to indicate that American citizens are being singled out for interrogation, based upon national origin. According to the Department of Justice's own website, such actions

may be violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. They may also be violations of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. That law prohibits discrimination because of national origin, race, color, religion, or sex by a police department that gets federal funds through the U.S. Department of Justice. They may also violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by law enforcement agencies that receive any federal financial assistance, including asset forfeiture property.

The FBI doesn't seem to be able to make a coherent argument regarding just exactly their goal in this mission. Protecting "Americans" against terrorism? Protecting Americans against hate crimes? Insinuating that victims of hate-crimes are more likely to resort to terrorism?

At the very least, the New Britain Herald needs to understand its complicity in rationalizing such questionable law enforcement tactics. Its own caption writers set the standard; if we react with indifference, the terrorists have already won.

More oil wells on fire?

If you look at the maps frame by frame at Weather.com, it appears that, as of this afternoon, there may be more oil well fires in northern Iraq, near Kirkuk.

Sean-Paul at the Agonist has heard similar news from a source.

[Update: There's a whole slew of satellite photos over at NOAA, with more added all the time. Just started to work through them and a number definitely appear to indicate heavy black smoke in areas around oil fields.]

Prices jump. What a surprise.

I'm sure the Bushistas are hoping no one will notice.

Consumer Prices Reach a Two-Year High: Consumer Prices Jump 0.6 Percent in February, the Biggest Rise in Two Years

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON March 21 —
Consumer prices shot up by 0.6 percent in February, the largest rise in two years. The prices of gasoline and other energy products soared as the United States headed into a war with Iraq.

The latest reading on the Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation measure, showed prices in February rising twice as fast as January's 0.3 percent advance, the Labor Department reported Friday.

Yes, I predicted it would happen. I'd much prefer I'd been wrong.

Round II: A possible victory?

The Schafer Autism Report, an (almost) daily newsletter, announced this morning that Majority Leader Frist was requesting that Judd Gregg, the sponsor of S15, a recently submitted bill on the President's BioShield initiative and smallpox vaccine compensation, strip the bill of its unrelated provisions on changes to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). That provision as included the notorious "Eli Lilly" thimerosal-liability protection.

The news has not been formally announced by Senator Frist on his website. One can only hope he keeps to his word, even in the midst of the smokescreen war has provided legislators who push an otherwise unacceptable agenda.

Flashback Friday

I started this morning's weekly trek into the archives believing that, most likely, I would have to abandon this week's installment. With war currently taking up most of the headlines, I couldn't imagine there'd be much to compare. Surprising, although I kept it shorter than usual and limited my scope to just the Globe and Post, I still found these vaguely familiar stories:

LETTER FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
H.D.S. Greenway, Boston Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

KUWAIT CITY -- No memorial or monument to war's destruction could be more impressive than the burning Kuwaiti oil fields that still rage out of control in the desert south of here. Nothing in photographs or on television prepares one for the roar, the stink, the heat and the billowing flames that rise howling in ever-changing shapes a hundred feet in the air. It is as if the very fiends of hell have been let loose. The sky drizzles oil from clouds almost too thick to breathe...

NOMINATION OF RYSKAMP SEEMS INCREASINGLY IN DOUBT
Sharon LaFraniere, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 21, 1991

Federal appeals court nominee Kenneth L. Ryskamp faced intensified criticism yesterday over his handling of a suit alleging excessive use of force by police, while indications grew that the Senate Judiciary Committee is closely divided over whether to confirm him. Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said during a committee hearing that he was "dumbfounded" by Ryskamp's explanation of comments he made from the bench in a case alleging that the West Palm Beach, Fla....

MASS. EXPECTED TO EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Bruce D. Butterfield, Boston Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

Citing a worsening jobless rate, Massachusetts officials yesterday said they expect to begin paying extra unemployment benefits by April 1 to as many as 60,000 laid-off workers who have exhausted claims and still have no jobs.

Under the extended benefit plan, workers will be eligible for from nine to 13 weeks of additional checks after their normal unemployment insurance runs out, state officials said.

"This is certainly going to be a help to many people," Wallace Graham...

WHITE HOUSE ASKED IRS TO GO AFTER THE LITTLE GUY
Jim Luther, Associated Press
March 21, 1991

WASHINGTON -- IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr. yesterday said he rejected as "no-good tax policy" a recent White House budget office proposal to step up audits of lower-income taxpayers and relax pressure on big corporations.

"I said we will not do it," Goldberg told the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. He said he made clear the Internal Revenue Service policy has been to "go after the big guys who are not paying their share...

DEMOCRATS PLAN BUDGET UNLIKE BUSH'S: EDUCATION, HEALTH AND SCIENCE RESEARCH WOULD GET MORE MONEY
John E. Yang, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 21, 1991

House Democrats plan to draft a fiscal 1992 spending plan that would boost funding for education, health and science research programs well over President Bush's requests, according to a House Budget Committee document. The lawmakers also plan to reject Bush's calls to turn over as much as $15 billion in programs to the states and to link federal school lunch and student aid benefits to recipients' incomes, the paper said. While the spending plan would not call for any new...

US TO REVIEW ITS POLICY ON MINORITY SCHOLARSHIPS
John W. Mashek, Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander yesterday announced a six-month study of policies on scholarships for minorities. He said the policy permitting the scholarships will remain in effect in the meantime.

Alexander, who has been in office for less than a week, said he and Michael Williams, an assistant secretary in charge of civil rights enforcement, would direct the survey. Alexander made the announcement shortly before he and Williams testified before a House Government...

THE 'RIGHT' PRICE FOR OIL
Hobart Rowen
March 21, 1991

We fought a successful war with Iraq to prevent Saddam Hussein from acquiring all of Kuwait's oil -- and possibly Saudi Arabia's too -- and then dictating to the rest of the world what the price would be. Now with the war won, a new cottage industry has sprung up: trying to convince the public that there is a "right" price for oil, something substantially more than the market says it's worth. The oil supply/price facts are simple: The world is in the middle of an oil glut...

HUB JOBS PROGRAM FOR YOUTHS IS CUT
Steve Marantz, Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

WHEN MAYOR FLYNN asks Boston's business leaders to hire teen-agers this summer he had best not mention his abortive Youth Outreach Program.

The five-year-old $145,000-a-year program, which provided 80 jobs to teen-agers from 10 different neighborhoods, is being cut from the next budget. Under the program, teen-agers were trained as peer leaders in violence prevention and health education. The cut comes even as Flynn touts the youth-support components of his Safe Neighborhoods Plan to...

REREADING THE ECONOMIC TEA LEAVES INTERMEDIATE GROWTH TO DEFINE 1990S
Rudolph A. Pyatt Jr.
Washington Post
March 21, 1991

With the relatively quick end to the Persian Gulf crisis, a good many optimists are counting on euphoria to boost consumer confidence and catapult the economy out of recession. It's going to take a lot more than flag-waving, however, to get the economy moving forward again. When it does, economic growth in the Washington area, at least, is unlikely to be as robust as in the booming 1980s. Most projections now point to moderate growth in the 1990s, but much slower than in the previous...

BUSH'S NEW BID TO CUT CAPITAL GAINS TAX APPEARS TO FIZZLE
Michael Kranish, Boston Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's latest push for a capital gains tax cut, launched with fanfare during his State of the Union address, appears to be fizzling because Democrats opposed to the reduction have refused to name anyone to a bipartisan commission that was supposed to study the proposal.

The White House has blamed the Democrats, but some critics said the problem lies with the Bush administration for failing to push harder for the measure at a time when the president's...

ARNETT OF CNN GETS AN APOLOGY
Boston Globe Staff
March 21, 1991

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Alan Simpson of Wyoming, the Senate GOP whip, apologized yesterday for calling a Cable News Network reporter, Peter Arnett, a sympathizer to Baghdad and for repeating a rumor that his wife's family had ties to the Viet Cong while Arnett reported the war in Vietnam. Simpson's views were contained in a letter to The New York Times, printed in yesterday's editions. While Simpson said he regretted "any hurt, pain or anguish" he had caused the Arnett...

DOW RISES 4 ON BARGAIN-HUNTING: GASOLINE PRICES UP SHARPLY ON FEARS OF A SUMMER SHORTAGE
Reuters
March 21, 1991

Blue-chip stocks rebounded today to post a slim gain after a rout the previous session, while gasoline prices soared amid concern that motorists may face a shortage going into the summer driving season. Bonds also rebounded, while the dollar closed mostly lower against leading currencies.The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 4.21 points at 2872.03. Volume on the New York Stock Exchange was heavy at 197 million shares...

GEORGE BUSH IS NO FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT
Washington Post
March 21, 1991

Charles Krauthammer's encomium to President Bush's leadership in getting the United States into the Gulf war is based on the suggestion of historical analogies that are, to say the least, flat wrong. His thesis is that President Bush achieved "a remarkable feat of domestic diplomacy" by getting public support for his policy of war despite his well-known inability to rally an audience with a speech...

More oil wells aflame

Buried deep within this morning's Washington Post update on events in Iraq was this small paragraph:

Iraqi troops set fire to 30 of the hundreds of oil wells in the region, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said. Iraq has 1,685 oil wells and exported 2 million barrels daily before the war.

In its 3am report on the subject, CNN claimed that 15 wells were on fire, and provided a nice graphic, which I brightened up a bit for a better view of the smoke plumes.

To be honest, I'm very suspicious of any government reports of oil well fires: Not because I don't believe Hussein has ordered them torched, as I think from a strategic point of view, it would be of his benefit to do so (see this excellent analysis on the subject from The DailyKos) but because I wonder if we'll actually be provided an accurate accounting of the extent of the damage. at least for now. Most analysts have hedged their bets of an economic on US forces successfully seizing Iraqi oil wells and securing the refineries before their destruction by the Iraqi military. One of the purported early goals of the invasion, as put forth by military planners, was to secure the wells as soon as possible. 36 hours into the war, and that goal does not yet appear to have been achieved. Yesterday, oil futures fluxuated wildly over the reports of 3 to 4 fires; one can only imagine the chaos if hundreds, as in the first Gulf War, end up in flames.

So long, Salam. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Glenn Reynolds. Professor. Lawyer. Hypocrite.

For months, Reynolds extolled the bravery, virtue and honesty of Baghdad blogger, Salam Pax of WhereIsRaed? In December, when Salam went offline briefly, Reynolds even declared,

"Salam the Baghdad blogger is missing in action. I'm kind of worried about him."

In January, another link and commentary: "Interesting observations on "war tourism," NGOs, and nuclear threats, from Baghdad blogger Salam Pax."

And even three weeks ago, he praised Salam's photos of Iraq. And surmised that Salam's reports on government sabotage of oil wells buttressed news reports on the subject.

Yes, it seems Salam could do no wrong.

Salam was the darling of the warbloggers, if for no other reason than his very existence in Baghdad and his anti-Saddam stance. What Reynolds and his ilk seemed to have forgotten is there's a general consensus amongst those opposed to a US war that Saddam's a very bad guy. However, such a fact doesn't justify bombing the Iraqi people back to the stone age. Last week, the warbloggers found out that Salam also holds this view, and isn't at all keen on the Bush Administration's plans for his homeland. In fact, he definitively went off the rez and none of them were pleased. But did Reynolds have the chutzpa to come out and discuss Salam's "rant"?

No. Not a peep. That is until yesterday, when Reynolds' posts this underhanded quip:

SOME READERS DOUBT HIS AUTHENTICITY, others swear he's genuine (and, of course, there's no certainty either way) but Salam Pax is still blogging from Baghdad.

UPDATE: Boy, there are still lots of strong opinions. Personally, I hope that Salam is what he claims to be, and that he comes through this okay. But given the limits on Iraqi internet access -- especially in light of reports like this one -- his posting is, well, extraordinary. There are lots of explanations for that, and only some of them involve him being a propaganda tool. But some of them do involve him being a propaganda tool. Not that you shouldn't read his blog, or enjoy it. Just treat it like any other news source, and don't assume that it has to be true because it's a blog and it's written in first-person.

And this followup this morning:

SALAM PAX UPDATE: Will Femia has a fairly lengthy piece on Salam and his weblog, saying that Peter Arnett, etc., are being scooped, and out-written.

Meanwhile, Paul Boutin thinks that he's "probably" for real, and has done some digging. Jason Kottke has more, too.

These are very interesting posts, but the question isn't so much is Salam real, or in Baghdad. It's whether he's really an ordinary Iraqi as he claims, or something else (conceivably, on either side). And that's much harder to know. That's the issue with intelligence -- facts are easier to figure out than motivations, but motivations usually matter as much as discernable facts.

The unbelievable hypocrisy of all this is the obvious back-door attempt to discredit Salam's objections to the war by questioning his position, either physical, as in is he even in Iraq, or his political position, perhaps even as an agent of Saddam's propaganda machine. And Reynolds, the consummate lawyer, of course covers his backside, providing a forum for the rumors, while attempting to distance himself from them. And what loyalty, eh?

As the war turns hot, the metamorphosis of Reynolds into much of what the rest of the non-Western world despises about Americans is almost complete. Sad. I bet he was once a rather decent human being.

Nightmare scenario #1 may be unfolding

This is bad news for Bush, the economy and consumers. Good news for the nearly bankrupt Boots and Coots.

Ever since war became a certainty late last week, oil prices futures have lost almost 25% of their value, as the price of benchmark Brent dropped to $25.50, down from its 10 year high of $39.90 two weeks ago. Investors were betting on a short, "clean" victory, and were showing their confidence that US forces would be able to prevent Iraqis from setting their oil fields on fire. Then the news came out of Kuwait less than an hour ago:

U.S. Says Iraq May Have Set Fire to Oil Wells

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday the United States had indications Iraq may have set fire to three or four oil wells in the south of the country.

"I have seen indications and reports that the Iraqi regime may have set fire to as many as three or four of the oil wells in the south," Rumsfeld told reporters.

Rumsfeld, who said the U.S. military was trying to get more information on this, appealed to Iraqis not to burn the riches of their country. "It is a crime for that regime to be destroying the riches of the Iraqi people."

Rumsfeld was speaking just hours after President Bush unleashed a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein with dawn air strikes on Baghdad.

Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed earlier denied the reports the oil wells were on fire near the southern Iraqi city.

Kuwait television also reported that several oil wells near Basra had been set alight by Iraqi troops, while Iranian media have reported U.S. jets bombing these oilfields. The U.S. Fox News television network also reported the fires.

"This report that was given to you is a film from the American gangs and is misleading and prejudiced," Rasheed told Reuters in a statement from his Baghdad office.

The reports from Iran and Kuwait, which have both waged war against Iraq, were not independently confirmed by Reuters.

Iraqi state-run media has made no mention of any oil well fires in Basra.

A U.S. official said earlier this month that Iraq had placed explosives at the Kirkuk oilfields in northern Iraq to prevent them being taken over in the event of a U.S. invasion.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham (news - web sites) said in a statement on Thursday: "At this time, we do not know the extent of the damage to Iraqi wells or how many wells are currently affected by the regime's orders."

The oilfields of southern Iraq pump about half of the country's 2.5 million barrel per day output, which ranks it as the seventh largest oil exporter.

The southern region also holds most of Iraq's untapped reserves, which rank second in the world to Saudi Arabia.

Economic analysts have warned (and I've repeated their mantra) that if war in Iraq leads to fires in the oil fields, prices could double or even triple to upwards of $80/barrel.

The markets have certainly been quick to react:

Oil rises on Iraq fires reports

Pentagon officials say two wells are burning near Kuwait, causing futures to reverse decline
March 20, 2003: 11:47 AM EST

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices turned higher Thursday amid reports about whether any Iraq oil fields were ablaze.

I won't post the actual figures, as they've risen three times since I started this post. I'll update, though, at the end of the trading day today.

[Update: The Washington Post reports that prices have been fluctuating dramatically, up early this afternoon, then dropping a $1 by the close of futures' trading. The Post speculates this is due to reports that "only" a few fields are aflame.

Related note: Steve Soto thinks that its a scam: either the fields are not actually on fire, or that US planes set them on fire during bombing raids.]

Worried

So much for stereotypes, neh? Rant and rally in my own mind as I may against Sharon and his policies, my friend is in Tel Aviv right now, and I'm worried about her. Sealed room or no. But it must be about 5am there now, and hopefully she'll be posting soon, letting us all know she and her family are okay.

Ugh, I hate this war already. And I especially hate that I have to hate it for personal reasons.

Around the web in...I don't know, its been five hours since I started this....

There's just so much to read in poliblogtopia (yes, skippy, I've morphed your phrase to mine). One would think that we're already at Red Alert (TM) and not able to go outside without being shot.

Lisa at Ruminate This has a list of the Coalition of the Petrified & Paid-Off as well as links to UN Human Rights Commission, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, so you can get a clearer picture of our motley crew.

Jim C. and George W. Bush have one thing in common. Hop on over to the Rittenhouse Review to find out just what it is.

Dave over at See the Forest has been Googling (like KGO told him to do) and found out what the war is really about? Well, maybe...kinda...sorta?

Charles at Through the Looking Glass takes a good hard look at the French position on Iraq... and since we also read Le Monde regularly, we knew the answer already...

The Watch has been hijacked by comments aficionado MacDiva, and she's got some good stuff, particularly on renegade tobacco farmer cum tractor, Dwight Watson. I miss Natalie, but understand she needs to recharge. Kudos for MacDiva and Mary for holding down the fort.

Ashcroft's America, part XXIV

Another story on NPR (this overheard while constructing Nutella sandwiches this morning) warned of a stunning new policy adopted by the INS this week. NPR's website described the segment thusly:

NPR's Greg Allen reports on recent changes in the U.S. immigration policy that could land more asylum seekers in American jails. The new policy targets asylum seekers from countries where the United States says al Qaeda is active -- including Iraq and more than 30 other nations and territories. They will be held for the duration of an impending war with Iraq. Refugee advocates say the new rules could keep some asylum seekers behind bars indefinitely.(emphasis mine)

The abstract belies the gravity of the changes, and their probable repercussions. Currently, individuals seeking political asylum, after initial registration and interviewing, are allowed to await the INS decision regarding their application unrestricted within the community. The new policy would incarcerate all individuals, men, women and children, for the length of time it takes to adjudicate their claim, as well as any appeals. This could take months, even years.

People who seek asylum in the US generally do so because the have reason. They've been tortured, raped, watched family members murdered, fear for their own lives. While the Department of Homeland Security claims the new policy is to prevent Iraqi sympathizers from infiltrating and launching terrorist attacks, the changes effect refugees from 32 countries other than Iraq, including many with situations as, if not more brutal than those in Iraq, such as Somalia, Eritrea and the West Bank and Gaza, all of the countries with large Muslim populations.

The Washington Post this morning offered more details:

Immigrant advocacy groups criticized the temporary policy announced Monday night by the Homeland Security Department under which newly arriving applicants for asylum from 33 nations where terrorists or their sympathizers have operated will be jailed until their cases are adjudicated. The policy also includes newly arriving asylum seekers from the West Bank and Gaza.

"Operation Liberty Shield denies liberty to the victims of human rights abuse who come to our country seeking freedom," William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.

U.S. officials said that about 600 people seek asylum from the 33 nations in question each year, and about 60 percent of them are from Iraq.

Yesterday, immigration officials who had received advice from government lawyers said that only asylum seekers from those lands whose visas are found to be phony would be jailed. But Homeland Security Department officials later confirmed that all asylum applicants who arrive at ports of entry from those places would be detained. The policy does not apply to asylum seekers already in the country.

Now its becoming clear why Coble hasn't lost his chairmanship of the committee overseeing Homeland Security. Is this the beginning of the justification for a new round of wartime internment camps?

File under "Oops"?

While making lamb curry last night, I heard a surprising story on All Thing's Considered; unfortunately, there's no transcript, but the Washington Post, and nearly every other paper, also ran with the story.

In Major Case, U.S. Alleges Tobacco Firms' Conspiracy
By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 19, 2003

Government lawyers, arguing that the nation's major cigarette companies set out in 1953 on a criminal conspiracy to defraud consumers about the risks of smoking, are seeking $289 billion in "ill-gotten gains" from the companies as a mammoth case against nine tobacco companies heads to trial in federal court here next year.

But the companies already have persuaded U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler to dismiss two of the government's three claims against them. The companies also are countering by filing thousands of pages of motions that would eviscerate the charge that the companies have conspired to run a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations enterprise for a half-century.

The disparate strategies, outlined for the first time in the four-year-old case in comprehensive filings to the judge this month, are part of both sides' efforts to set the tone of one of the largest government cases against an industry.

The sweeping nature of the government's case, coupled with the huge dollar figure of potential damages, indicates the government may be staking out a tougher position in the case than had been thought, some tobacco-control advocates said yesterday.

The case was filed in 1999 during the Clinton administration. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft indicated shortly after taking office that the case might be dropped, and the industry's donations to the campaign of President Bush sparked concern by tobacco-control advocates that the new administration might not pursue the case vigorously.

"This shows they're serious about the case, but to what extent are they going to be immune from pressure to settle the case too soon, for too little?" asked Cheryl Healton, president of the American Legacy Foundation, a Washington-based anti-smoking group. "That's the billion-dollar question."

In thousands of pages of documents filed in recent months, federal lawyers trace the beginning of the alleged conspiracy to a closed-door meeting in New York's Plaza Hotel in late 1953.

Five big cigarette companies and a public relations firm sat down to devise a fraudulent scheme "to preserve and enhance the tobacco industry's profits by maximizing the number of smokers . . . and to avoid adverse liability judgments" linked to smoking-related diseases, the government charges.

Beginning with a full-page ad in 448 newspapers titled "Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers," the industry lied about the damages of smoking and about tests that claimed to prove them, Justice Department lawyers wrote in their filings. That campaign has continued until today, the charge says, particularly with attempts to attract teenage smokers.

What was particularly interesting was ATC's analysis that the only reason the suit, which AG Ashcroft early in his tenure deemed "weak" and threatened to settle out of court, or drop altogether, went forward was that Ashcroft was too busy after September 11th. Seems that in his fervor to rewrite the Constitution, Ashcroft forgot about pandering to Republican campaign contributors.

Should we expect to see Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds executives driving their Mercedes tractors onto the Mall next?

Burton/Pallone Bill submitted

An example of vaccine-injury legislation intended to help children and their families, not corporate campaign contributors:

Full Moon Rising

Crabby and Loved by Some Many is in week 39 of her pregnancy...having been there five times before (including 8 months ago), I completely empathize. In a welcome distraction from the drums of war, visit her and wish her good birthing.

A protest of pictures

This is my almost-eight-month-old, Keziah Lily, also known in our household as Kezzie. This evening, millions of mothers in Iraq will put their babies like Kezzie to bed, not knowing if they will survive the night.

It may be somewhat of a silent protest, but I urge anyone with a webpage or blog, anyone who is firmly against the terror this Administration is about to unleash upon the children of Iraq, to put up photos of your most beloved children, whether they be your own sons or daughters, your nieces, nephews, grandchildren or those of your close friends.

Do it today. Before nightfall. Before Bush uses the media to inform us all that he has already ordered the bombs to fall like rain on Baghdad.

[Gregory at Planet Swank has heeded the call! You can see his beautiful girls here. Thanks, Gregory.]

Maybe I'm now obsolete.

A new website has debuted: FactsForMedia.

Go there. Get the facts. Then slap Frist's greedy heart-surgeon hands.

Shocking!

No, not the story: That's now old news. The real surprise is the even-handed, non-judgmental, maybe, some might argue, anti-Republican spin in this week's TIME coverage of the resurrection of Senator Frist's "Save Eli Lilly" provision, this time slipped onto Judd Gregg's Bioshield legislation.

I still have yet to figure out what bioterroism has to do with the NVICP, which specifically covers only complications from childhood immunizations: Smallpox and anthrax were specifically excluded by Executive Order last fall. But I'm sure, that Doctor Senator Frist, in his penultimate wisdom, and not due at all to the megabucks he's received in vaccine manufacturers' campaign contributions, will soon tell me.

Law in Orwellian America

A tidbit from the coverage of Robert Blake's preliminary hearing in the case involving his murdered wife, this concerning evidence against his accused co-conspirator, Blake's handyman-bodyguard, Earle Caldwell:

The conspiracy case against Caldwell was minimal, a crumpled shopping list of items found in his van which included the phrase "get blank gun ready" and listed items such as duct tape, shovels and a sledge and two e-mail messages to a girlfriend suggesting something was going to happen "that could send me far away."

A computer expert said Caldwell's computers showed he searched Web sites on the subject of silencers. An expert testified that no silencer was used on the gun that killed Bakley.

Caldwell's lawyer suggested he was looking up the 1966 Dean Martin movie "The Silencers."

Does this make anyone else, in John Ashcroft's new Patriot Act I and II America, think twice when Googling?

Breaking my silence...

Like most American Indians, I tend to sympathize with the plight of the Palestinian people, particularly since the American government, and population at large, seems so ambivalent about the hundreds of civilians killed in the past two years. Palestinians civilians, that is; Many tears have been shed for Israeli victims, and rightfully so. But I am part of the minority which see the actions of the IDF sometimes more befitting of a terrorist organization than a righteous nation's security force.

However, as I have a good friend who lives in Israel and is probably one of the few people in the world who actually consistently reads my blog, I have refrained from criticism. I'm sure she hears it enough everyday. But reading of the 23-year old Oregonian woman who was apparently purposely run over by a bulldozer while standing in front of a Palestinian home just sickened me, particularly this paragraph:

"Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," Schnabel said. "She waved for the bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled, 'Stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her."

It was a house, damn it. This woman was killed over a power play regarding a house.

I suspect that Rachel will get little sympathy from our own government, which is currently warning its citizens who have travelled to Baghdad to try and prevent widespread indiscriminate killing of civilians, not to expect they'll be spared if they get in the way. With post-9/11 anti-Arab sentiment still simmering in Congress, I don't imagine we'll hear much more than admonition for human rights activists such as Rachel Corrie from our legislators; in fact, I suspect there will be more outrage among liberal Israelis than the American Right. And the Left, cowed by the successful campaign to equate any and all criticism of Sharon and the Israeli military with anti-Semitism, will remain pitifully silent.

There will be plenty of shame to go around before this young woman is even buried. In fact, there was more than enough, on both sides of the globe, before that bulldozer was even fired up.

Two more reports of economic woe...

The first one, I expected would start to happen last month; guess it takes more time than I anticipated for escalating energy costs to work their way through the food chain.

Producer Prices Pushed Up by Energy Costs
Fri March 14, 2003 08:59 AM ET
By Anna Willard
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prices paid to U.S. producers climbed more than expected in February, pushed up by soaring fuel costs, the government said on Friday in a report showing little sign of inflation outside the energy sector.

Overall producer prices climbed 1.0 percent, the Labor Department said, higher than analyst forecasts for a 0.7 percent rise. The number followed a 1.6 percent increase the previous month.

But stripping out volatile food and energy costs, prices dropped 0.5 percent, pulled down by falling car, truck and computer prices. Analysts were expecting the so-called core inflation to be unchanged.

"No price increases means no inflation and clearly this is a no-inflation report when excluding food and energy," said Timothy Ghriskey, money manager with Ghriskey Capital Partners LLC.

The costs of finished energy goods surged 7.4 percent, the largest increase since October 1990. Energy prices have risen in recent months on geopolitical tensions surrounding the oil-rich Middle East.

Gasoline prices rose to $1.61 a gallon from $1.47 in February. The price of finished foods posted a 0.6 percent increase.

The second report is no surprise as well, except maybe to Bushistas, who think they have us so transfixed by impending war that we wouldn't know confidence if it hit us over the head with a 2x4:

U Mich: Consumer Sentiment at Decade Low
Friday, March 14, 2003

NEW YORK — Looming war in Iraq and rising layoffs battered U.S. consumer sentiment to its lowest level in more than a decade in early March as widespread economic gloom shows few signs of lifting any time soon.

The steady erosion of confidence is hurting consumer spending, which drives two-thirds of the U.S. economy and is needed to fuel a robust recovery.

The University of Michigan's preliminary March index of consumer sentiment fell for a third straight month, to 75.0, its lowest since October 1992, from 79.9 in February, market sources told Reuters Friday. That was below expectations for a dip to 77.6.

"The spending numbers have been disappointing recently and many of the same factors that are affecting confidence are also affecting spending," said Henry Willmore, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Capital.

The good news is oil prices fell $2... the bad news is because traders are betting war will begin within days.

Flashback Friday

This week, I expanded my scope to include the week leading up to March 14, 1991, as I found in previous segments, I was missing quite a few relevant headlines.

VETO HINTED ON ALASKAN WILDLIFE REFUGE
March 13, 1991
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- President Bush may veto energy legislation that fails to open an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas exploration, Energy Secretary James Watkins told Congress yesterday.

Drilling the refuge is essential to the administration's energy plan, Watkins said.

Watkins testified before the Senate Energy Committee, which is considering whether to allow oil companies to develop a coastal stretch of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the Arctic Ocean next to the Canadian...

MITTERRAND AND BUSH TO NURTURE RAPPORT: PRESIDENTS MEET TODAY IN MARTINIQUE
William Drozdiak, Washington Post Foreign Service
March 14, 1991

When George Bush invited Francois Mitterrand to stay overnight at his Kennebunkport vacation home early in his presidency, the friendly gesture was intended to establish a close bond with the man Bush has described to aides as the world leader with the best grasp of historyAs so often happens in the fitful alliance between Paris and Washington, the stay generated some awkward friction, according to Mitterrand's aides.

THE SCHOOL BUDGET CRISIS FINALLY HITS HOME
March 13, 1991
Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Staff

The massive rally on Saturday to protest the budget cuts for the Boston public schools would have been hard to predict just two months ago. Barbara Essaibi was at a parent meeting at Boston Tech. The school has about 2,500 students. About 12 parents showed up.

"We were going over lists of things that are mundane to most people," said Essaibi, who has children at Tech, Latin Academy and the Tynan. "We were talking about things like the heating system, reading scores, absentee...

RECESSION TALES: COULD THERE BE A DOUBLE DIP?
March 12, 1991.
David Warsh, Globe Staff

What a relief! The stock market indicates that the recession is nearly over. Now business folk can confidently set their sails for another four- or five-year leg of expansion, before battening down again.

Or can they?

Maybe. Maybe not. In the past few days attention among the gloomier forecasters has shifted to the possibility that the next recession may not be so far off -- perhaps no farther than 1993.

BANK PROFITS FELL 31% IN US
Boston Globe
March 14, 1991

PLAGUED WITH A MASS of souring loans, commercial bank profits fell 31 percent in the final quarter of last year to $1.39 billion, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said. The drop from $2.01 billion in the fourth quarter of 1989 was the fourth consecutive quarterly decline in bank profits and reflected the industry's struggle in a recessionary economy, FDIC Chairman L. William Seidman said. But for all of last year, banks' income managed to rise 6.5 percent to $16.63 billion from...

FOOD PROGRAM CUTS THOUSANDS IN AREA: MOTHERS, CHILDREN CAUGHT IN SQUEEZE
Brooke A. Masters, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 12, 1991

Higher food prices and rising need have forced governments in the Washington area to stop providing food to thousands of undernourished children and mothers.In Maryland, 9,300 women and children -- 15 percent of the 63,000 who were on the program -- will be cut off from getting free milk, cheese, eggs, juice and peanut butter each month because the nutrition program's federal funding has not kept pace with food prices and demand.Similar cuts were made in Virginia last spring...

WITHOUT SADDAM HUSSEIN
Washington Post
March 12, 1991

NO SINGLE lapse of policy by the United States before the Gulf war may have been as costly morally and politically as the failure to complain long and loud about Iraq's use of poison gas against its rebellious Kurds. The lapse allowed Saddam Hussein and others to imagine that, in American eyes, just about any Iraqi misconduct might be condoned. This alone is reason for the caution just issued by Secretary of State James Baker. Without saying what the United States might do, he warned Iraq...

STUDY SAYS ECONOMIC REBOUND MAY ELUDE STATE UNTIL BUDGET STABILIZES
March 14, 1991
Scot Lehigh, GLOBE STAFF

Failure to get the state's fiscal house in order could delay an economic recovery in Massachusetts for at least a year and possibly longer, according to a study.

"The major concern . . . is that the opportunity for economic revival not be squandered by failure to restore the state's finances, particularly its operational budget, to stability and order," according to the study, conducted by the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs...

COMBATIVE WILSON ADOPTS ANTI-TAX, ANTI-WASTE STANCE: CALIFORNIA IS FACING $8.5 BILLION DEFICIT
Jay Mathews, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 14, 1991

California Gov. Pete Wilson (R), faced with an $8.5 billion deficit that threatens his political future, has begun to assert his anti-tax, anti-waste image in a series of surprise attacks on the state's powerful teachers association and the federal governmentWilson has publicly assaulted a California Teachers Association (CTA) advertising campaign against education budget cuts as "repugnant" and said "they are exploiting children to advance a blatantly political ...

BUSH WARNS IRAN NOT TO TAKE IRAQI LAND
March 14, 1991.
Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

OTTAWA -- President Bush yesterday issued a strong warning to Iran not to try to seize Iraqi territory, but he said later he had no evidence that Tehran had plans to invade its neighbor.

Bush, asked about unconfirmed reports of a possible Iranian venture into Iraq, said, "That would be the worst thing they could do." Iran has urged Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein, to resign and reportedly is supporting rebel groups in southern Iraq.

DISABILITY REPORT BLASTS SOCIETY, HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
March 14, 1991
Dolores Kong, Globe Staff

Many of the disabilities suffered by 35 million Americans could be avoided with better public health services and a society more willing to support preventative programs.

That is the conclusion of a report released yesterday that criticized society, the health-care system and the federal government.

SEN. BYRD SEEKS $650M FOR TURKEY
March 12, 1991
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, is seeking to add $650 million for Turkey to emergency spending legislation to pay the costs of the Persian Gulf War, congressional sources said yesterday. Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, sent a letter to President Bush and called him over the weekend asking support for the additional aid in an amount identical to that added in the House last week for Israel, another US ally.

MISSILES QUAYLE SAYS GULF WAR BOOSTS SDI PROSPECTS
March 11, 1991.
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dan Quayle said yesterday that the Gulf War has given new momentum to the strategic defense initiative, or SDI, which may require altering the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviets.

"The Patriot missile has proven that a bullet can hit a bullet. It has proven that defenses are, in fact, important," Quayle said on CBS-TV's "Face the Nation."

The superpowers may have to modify the ABM treaty to deploy a defense system capable of...

ECONOMY MAY HURT BUSH IN N.H.
March 10, 1991.
Michael Kranish, Globe Staff

CONCORD, N.H. -- Perhaps nowhere is the postwar euphoria about President Bush higher than in New Hampshire. Nonetheless, if you ask Republican state chairwoman Rhona Charbonneau whether the state's economy is better off now than when Bush took office, she replies with a simple "no."

Her answer acknowledges just how much the economy has slumped since Bush became president. Indeed, the unemployment rate in New Hampshire was a lowest- in-the-nation 2.2 percent when Bush took office...

HOUSE DEMOCRATS TRY TO FOCUS ON POSTWAR ERA'S DOMESTIC ILLS
March 10, 1991.
Associated Press

LEESBURG, Va. -- Democratic members of the House concluded a two-day weekend retreat yesterday in the Virginia countryside, where they tried to figure out how to deal with President Bush's popularity.

While the House Democrats assured each other yesterday that their votes against Bush's war authority two months ago were defensible, a series of speakers, including Mayor Flynn of Boston, told them the recession, unemployment and domestic problems will soon become the top issues for Democrats...

FCC POSTPONES VOTE ON RULES GOVERNING TV SYNDICATION: DELAY SEEN AS A TEMPORARY VICTORY FOR NETWORKS
Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 14, 1991

The nation's television networks scored a temporary victory yesterday in their fight to enter the huge TV syndication business after the Federal Communications Commission postponed a crucial vote on the matter at the urging of the Justice DepartmentThe commission had been ready to adopt new rules today that would have run counter to the Bush administration's views on the issue. A 3 to 2 majority on the FCC favors limiting the networks' ability to enter the $5 billion market...

HOSPITALS CAN'T WORK ON AN ALLOWANCE
March 14, 1991

It is distressing that The Post has endorsed the Bush Administration's plan to pay hospitals prospectively for capital expenses related to treating Medicare beneficiaries {"Too Many Hospitals," editorial, Feb. 28}. The administration's plan is nothing more than a riverboat gamble. Next year it would redistribute among hospitals more than $6 billion in Medicare funds using an untested system that would not save the taxpayer one penny. The plan could, however, adversely....

STORMY WEATHER
MARY MCGRORY, Washington Post
March 14, 1991

Large problems and small bedevil the Democrats. They are fairly resigned to the idea that the 1992 presidential election was decided during Operation Desert Storm, and they realize they may not get the sand out of their shoes until Thanksgiving, if then. That's the biggest problem, of course, particularly for members who voted against the president when he asked their permission to go to war...

Adding two and two...

More bad economic news:

Retail Sales Fall 1.6% in February
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- War worries and snow storms kept shoppers away from the stores, driving down sales at the nations' retailers by 1.6 percent in February. The worst showing in 15 months was another ominous sign for the sputtering economy.

The drop in sales reported by the Commerce Department Thursday marked a big pullback by consumers from January, when sales rose by a modest 0.3 percent. The weakness in February was widespread, with losses reported for automobile dealers, electronics and appliance stores, apparel shops and other merchants. Building and garden supply stores posted a record drop in sales.

Can I state right now, right here, for the record, that there are times when financial writers just don't take things all the way through. Alright, so a section of the country got hit by a snowstorm. Big deal, its February, and we're all used to snow and ice. Besides, we all knew it was coming and stocked up on canned goods, plastic sheeting and duct tape. Oh, wrong emergency, same month. And war worries? How long are they going to continue to flog that horse?

Funny how AP doesn't connect the above story with others hot off the wires, such as this:

Crude oil prices climb as supply drops
Bloomberg News
Posted March 13, 2003
NEW YORK -- Crude oil futures closed at a 12-year high for the third time in two weeks after an Energy Department report showed an unexpected decline in U.S. inventories.

And this:

Gas prices above $2 across state

Posted on Wed, Mar. 12, 2003
By David Whelan
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

The Bay Area just broke a record. But you can be sure that nobody is handing out trophies or uncorking champagne.

Gas prices, which are already the highest in the country, have now reached their highest levels ever, according to the AAA, which has performed a monthly survey of pump prices since 1974. Almost every one of the 25 cities in Northern California that AAA tracks has broken its own personal best. Only Pleasanton and Eureka fell short, by two cents each.

And every city in Northern California broke or reached the $2 barrier. The previous records were mostly set during the summer of 2001 during the energy crisis.

Of course, natural gas prices have also gone through the roof. Add to that climbing unemployment figures.

When is the media going to start connecting the dots, and understand that American consumers have stopped buying cars and TVs and potting soil because with all the money they're now pouring into their furnaces, gas tanks and water heaters, they're tapped out? Even more so on what Unemployment doles out.

The war might not be about oil. But the recession, at least in part, already is.

Alterman really hits the big time...

Does it really get any better than a great plug in Indian Country Today?

Yellow journalism and the Red road

Posted: March 11, 2003 - 7:00am EST

Yellow journalism is back in full force in America. Originally coined to describe the coverage that helped promote the Spanish-American War of 1898, the term describes a type of journalism high on exaggeration and bias, purposely misguiding readers to achieve the financial and political purposes of particular publishers and editors.

During the turn of the 20th Century, it was driven by the competition between William Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. These days the yellow journalism comes primarily out of right-wing visions of an overwhelmingly world-dominant America - its national leadership and its "radia-tolahs" cry for war as their corporations capture market share.

Today, it is mostly electronic and it rides the airwaves and cables of America. Journalism is thus reduced to "talk" about the news. In the electronic fireplace that television and radio were supposed to become, we see mostly the representations of several dozen talking, and more often yelling, heads. Chickenhawks - pundits and policy-makers that never experienced combat - the vast majority jingoistic to a fault, cheer for the bombs to fly. The cry of "America: love it or leave it," and the straight-out willingness to insult the other side, are constant. From Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter to Rush Limbaugh to Shawn Hannity and Laura Ingraham, would-be GI Joe’s and Jane’s parade through the medium, clamoring for war as the only course of action for a determined America. Even though in these pages we have stated reasons for American Indians to participate in this war, the shrill bellicosity of many on the right is, nonetheless, disconcerting.

But the issue is about more than the likely war on Iraq. It’s about a way of looking for accurate, truthful information that goes beyond the America of right and wrong, where everything is to be understood in terms of good and evil, right to left, conservative to liberal, Republican to Democrat. This Ping-Pong sense of truth that permeates American media (and increasingly, consciousness), we believe, unnecessarily limits the range of intelligence available to the American public. In media these days, you are expected to be either one or the other; and more and more commentators line up with one side against the other, rather than look for more comprehensive approaches.

These days, the radical conservatives appear to be dominant. The use of anger, insult and sarcasm is a favored tactic. Rush Limbaugh calling Indians "savages," the way he insultingly uses the term, "squaw," for example, are indicative of the slandering of the most marginalized sectors of society, and seems to have become fashionable. Information is brazenly manipulated to suit point of view, while the political "troops" are encouraged to see it all as "ammunition." In Limbaugh’s case, it is meant to encourage the fight against what author Eric Alterman calls the "so-called liberal media." However, Limbaugh’s approach (along with his numerous ditto-head pundits) is so one-sided and propagandistic that it recalls the darker days of Russia and Germany. It is one thing to have a strong point of view, it is another thing to shove it down everyone’s throats as, "the American viewpoint." Some of these guys not only talk to God, but apparently He talks back to them. Of course, this is a God who talks to some and not to others. That’s the problem with apocalyptic thinking in public life. It is unwaveringly selective.

In his recent book, "What Liberal Media: The Truth about BIAS and the News," Author Alterman dissects what he calls the myth of the supposed anti-conservative bias of the mainstream media. Grounded in comprehensive research that examines the time slots held by pundits, Alterman’s book disproves the widespread perception drummed out to the public for the past decade, that the mainstream media slants the news toward liberal values. Alterman argues convincingly that there is an overwhelmingly radical conservative viewpoint in most media these days. So-called liberal journalists are in fact just that: liberal, which makes them moderates. The liberal media apparently not only seeks, consciously, a variety of perspectives in its programming; tripping backwards over itself, it is increasingly represented by commentators who are actually radical conservatives. By contrast, media outlets on the radical right are much more forthright in assuming that only their point of view is correct. Near to no liberal viewpoints are provided by that sector. The present-day bias, Alterman points out, exploding the purposely-created and propped-up myth, is actually on the conservative side.

(read the rest of the editorial here)

More on Lilly-gate Redux

Well, there were three vaccine-related stories in the past day. The big news, it seems, is that the CDC Director got her smallpox shot. Wow. Next, the IOM (Institutes of Medicine) released its third (or is it forth) in its series to try and convince The Public that vaccines don't cause every childhood ailment; this one was on SIDS. Funny, I was under the impression that SIDS was caused by stomach-sleeping and second-hand smoke. Wow, that's exactly what the CDC says as well. And just how much tax-payer money was spent to prove vaccines weren't the culprit? Can't wait to see what's on the IOM's menu next - perhaps vaccines don't have a link to thumb-sucking...or maybe left-handedness?

But I digress... The last vaccine-related news garnered one lone article, from Reuters:

The article closes with the traditional "there is no proven link between mercury and autism, blah, blah, blah." Of course, the CDC and IOM are spending time and money chasing their tail, so don't expect any further evidence from them anytime soon.

It's baaaack....

You'd think that the Administration and its Republican Congressional lackeys would have learned their lesson the first time around: Attaching an "Eli Lilly get-out-of-jail-free" card to purported "homeland security" legislation just doesn't fly, even with Americans continuously terrorized by their own government. Slipping in the amendment in the middle of the night was just icing on the cake.

But now the legislation is back. I'm sure like all Americans who maintain faith in their elected officials, any childhood vaccine legislation overtly benefiting a major campaign contributor will stand by itself, and not once again be attached to legislation deemed vital to national security. Guess again.

Yesterday, the Eli Lilly provision's original author, Sen. Bill Frist, passed the buck onto his colleague and long-time Bush ally, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH.) Senator Gregg also happens to be the new chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. In a press release yesterday, Sen. Gregg announced his introduction of S15, the Biodefense Improvement and Treatment for America Act, aka Bioshield, "a comprehensive piece of legislation that protects Americans from biological, chemical, nuclear, or radiological weapons attack."

Yes, we definitely must protect Citizen Eli Lilly from those toxic, hazardous, clearly radioactive....children.

The bill has three named components; the first, the "Bioshield", allows the government to buy improved vaccines, devices or drugs for smallpox, anthrax, and botulism toxin; the second, provides "compensation" for individuals injured by smallpox inoculation (although, in true Bushian form, limits payments to $262,000 in the event of death or permanent or total disability); and third, orders "improvements in the Vaccine Compensation Program making the program more responsive to children and families."

The details of that last component are not yet clear, as the text of the bill has yet to be released. However, Sen. Gregg himself stated that S15 was developed "working in close consultation with the White House, Majority Leader Bill Frist and others" (cough, pharmaceuticals, cough) and the last paragraph provides a small hint as to what we can soon expect. According to the release, the bill,

Improves immunization rates by increasing the distribution of vaccines and streamlines the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to better serve children and families impacted by vaccine-related injuries.

The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a national, non-profit, non-partisan educational clearinghouse on vaccine-related issues, sent out an action alert this morning. Although it also did not have the specific language as of yet, it warned,

"The current proposal will have the biggest impact on families who have pending lawsuits for Thimerosal related injuries. The new proposal will push all pending vaccine litigation into the compensation program. Only cases that were injured in the last six years will qualify. If your child's injury was longer than six years ago you will not be allowed to sue or file in the compensation program."

In February 2002, Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) and Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) introduced legislation, HR 3741, Vaccine Compensation Program Changes, which would extend the statute of limitations for filing a claim to the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program to six years. In addition, it would establish a two-year window to "grandfather in" claims made by families for children injured prior to the six-year limitation.

The original Frist Bill, S 2053, as I've mentioned previously, would go further. While it would increase the statute of limitations, an all around "good thing", it would conversely,

...further tightened the restrictions on the Vaccine Injury Table. Whereas the table originally did not disqualify a child from compensation if the child had an underlying genetic condition which may have contributed to the severity of the reaction, Frist's changes would make such a genetic problem a disqualifying factor. Thus, if a child showed a genetic predisposition of improperly metabolizing heavy metals, which some recent research indicates may be the case in some autistic children, even if the child was exposed to neurotoxic levels of ethylmercury in vaccines, that child's injury would be disqualified.

Once S15 is made available to the public, it will be clear whether the new Majority Leader's original language on the subject has been once more pilfered and recycled, again under the guise of "homeland security".

Is there no end to the lengths Republicans will go to in order to repay their campaign moneybags? Put on your boxing gloves. Its round two.

A welcome distraction

Ross at The Bloviator has a cure for our war-or-no-war-based inertia: Forgetaboutit for a while. Think about this instead:

Francophobe Housecleaning

Since the Republicans in Congress don't appear to have anything more useful to do, this is what they've been up to:

French Fries Get New Name in Congress
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press Writer

March 11 2003, 1:57 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- Show the flag and pass the ketchup was the order of the day in House cafeterias Tuesday. Lawmakers struck a lunchtime blow against the French and put "freedom fries" on the menu.

And for breakfast they'll now have "freedom toast."

The name changes follow similar actions by restaurants around the country protesting French opposition to the administration's Iraq war plans.

"Update. Now Serving in All House Office Buildings, 'Freedom Fries,'" read a sign that Republican Reps. Bob Ney of Ohio and Walter Jones of North Carolina placed at the register in the Longworth Office Building food court.

However, if Congress is getting rid of "All Things French", can we please start with these?

The quagmire of questionable tactics

Much of the commentary surrounding Talkleft's excellent coverage of the US abduction of the children, two boys, ages seven and nine, of purported Al Qaeda mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed revolved around the question of "how could America sink to such levels?" Although I too am incensed, and both my partner and I spent much of yesterday morning on the phone to or in the offices of our Senators and Congressmen, I know too well the history of US-American Indian relations to think that this is anything new.

I also know the tragic outcome of at least one similar incident, at a time where European Americans truly felt "terrorized" and were in a position where their very survival in New England was in doubt. While American History (TM) traditionally writes the story of Metacom's, or King Philip's War as one of treacherous Indians versus noble English colonials, we who are indigenous to this part of the country generally see it the other way around. To recap the story for those far removed from the first weeks of junior year US history, in 1675, Metacom, the Pokunoket chief also named "King Philip" by the English, led the larger federation of Wampanoags and allied Nipmucks in a fourteen month insurgency against English colonialism, a war which in comparison with subsequent ones, was the bloodiest in American history. Twenty-five English-American towns were abandoned or destroyed, thousands were killed or taken captive, and the region's 50,000 surviving colonial residents were remanded to coastal garrisons such as Boston and Portsmouth, as everything west of Concord was destroyed.

One of the ironies of the rebellion was how and why it spread to include all but a handful of New England tribes, including those not traditionally allied to one another. Metacom's official grievances are well documented, but it is also known that the suspicious death of his brother while dining with colonial leaders was a significant motivating factor, but one which did not influence Indians outside the immediate vicinity.

The actions of the American colonials changed all that. In Maine, the Saco band of Abenaki had succeeded in remaining neutral during the opening salvos of the war but joined full force when local colonial yahoos drowned the infant son of sachem Squando by tossing him into the Saco River to see if he could swim. Within months, there wasn't a colonial settlement north of Kittery. The white folk of Rhode Island, noting the strength and number of the Narragansetts who lived cautiously, but peacefully nearby, decided not to take any chances, and launched a "pre-emptive attack" on the mostly women- and children-populated villages, ever since known as the Great Swamp Massacre. In Western Massachusetts, despite some early victories, Metacom was having trouble due to the neutrality of local Agawams. The colonials solved that by taking their children as hostages as a precautionary move against an attack. The enraged Agawams extracted their revenge with the burning of Springfield, Hatfield and Northampton.

The Indians of New England eventually lost the war, although probably due more to circumstance and bad luck than by colonial American military prowess. The treachery displayed by the victors during and following the cessation of hostilities, including mass execution and selling entire bands into slavery, planted the seeds of two hundred years of American-Indian conflict. And the taking of Indian children hostage to forestall indigenous insurgency became commonplace. My own ancestor, along with her sister, the famous Pequaket doctor Molly Ockett, were kept as hostages in Boston for four years during the French and Indian Wars. In its desperation to combat the guerrilla tactics of its adversaries in the 1837 Seminole War, US officers ordered the taking of native women and children as hostages, publicly beating and humiliating them. The Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was set up solely for this purpose: Indian children were sent to Carlisle as hostages to insure that their parents would not continue armed resistance against the United States Army. Twenty-eight other schools such as Carlisle were established in the 1800s, and were not abolished until 1928, with the release of the Meriam Report, uncovering to the public the shocking conditions of Indian "boarding" schools.

Of course, by that point, Indians were no longer a military threat to US citizens and interests. Today, the threats purportedly come from swarthy peoples plotting away in far corners of the world. But with the ease of international travel, everyone is a "neighbor", whether friend or foe. It is not so far back in America's past that we see the folly of treating innocent children as enemy combatants. Thus, we should not be shocked at the current Administration's actions. Nor the reactions they may ignite.

Minister of Misinformation?

Ah ha! That's where the stories about the Iraqi-Niger nuclear documents and spying on UNSC members came from, and why the US media hasn't snapped them up: They must have known the stories were faked.

Secretive U.S. 'Information' Office Back
Mon Mar 10, 2:52 PM ET
By CONNIE CASS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A Cold War-era office with a shadowy name and a colorful history of exposing Soviet deceptions is back in business, this time watching Iraq.

The Counter-Disinformation/Misinformation Team's moniker is more impressive than its budget. It's a crew of two toiling in anonymity at the State Department, writing reports they are prohibited by law from disseminating to the U.S. public.

The operation has challenged some fantastic claims over the years — a U.S. military lab invented AIDS (news - web sites), rich Americans kidnapped foreign babies for their organs, the CIA (news - web sites) plotted to kill Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II.

Since the office reopened in October, it's been responding to Iraqi claims about America, which tend to be more plausible and sometimes remain in dispute.

In coordination with the CIA, FBI and others, the team helps U.S. embassies identify and rebut other nations' disinformation, most often fabrications about the United States planted in foreign newspapers or television shows and, these days, on the Internet.

It's part of a broader Bush administration project to shore up America's reputation when sentiment against a possible war with Iraq is running high overseas.

It's not the stuff of James Bond movies, but disinformation has long been a tool of the world's secret operatives, including America's.

Reports that a new Office of Strategic Influence might dabble in disinformation caused such an uproar this year that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered it closed, insisting the Pentagon doesn't spread lies.

Even so, in Afghanistan last year, the U.S. military dropped leaflets with a doctored photograph showing Osama bin Laden beardless in a Western-style suit. And some of the administration's claims about links between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida have been stretched.

Phew. Now I feel better about the Administration. And safer too.

Another milestone..

Me (out of the blue): Sam, how old are you?

Sam: I'm four.

This is the first time I've ever asked him that, and I was shocked to hear him answer. Shocked. I may recover sometime today.

Hopefully not too soon.

[Editor's note: Here's some background for this post for newer visitors]

Checking in on Cassandra...

Some time ago, I think it was Kevin Drum, aka CalPundit, who opined that internet pundits didn't feel the need to revisit their past punditry, and even come clean as to errors or misstatements. So after I spotted a news story on oil prices, I decided it was time to glean through the old archives and keep myself honest.

I first discussed the precipitous rise in energy prices back on January 28th; oil at that point was at $32.65/barrel, up from around $25/barrel three months earlier. I also quoted bit of economic analysis which estimated that "[i]f war pushed oil prices beyond $40 a barrel for any length of time, that could tip the nation back into recession." I agreed.

Then on February 13th, the price of oil was up to $35/barrel, and yet more economists were issuing dire warnings of double-dip recession (a la Bush I) should Saddam set his fields on fire. I opined that the SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve) might be Bush's escape hatch.

On February 25th, oil prices were still on the rise, hitting a 10 year record of $37/barrel. Gas prices also climbed that day - 39%. I worried a terrible fate might await the nice gas man.

As of today, prices slipped slightly to close at $37.65. And despite the Administration jabbering about the current situation being part of ongoing hostilities which did not end with the 1991 cease-fire, the war has yet to turn hot. So now the question is, will we see the dreaded $40/barrel mark before or after Bush invades.

On this, Cassandra cannot foretell. But at least she has no backtracking to do so far.

Feeling a bit vindicated..

For weeks now, I mentioned to a few friends and acquaintances my discomfort with former Vermont governor Howard Dean's remarks at the DNC winter meeting, specifically regarding "reaching out to folks who drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals." Most of my friends who are non-white also expressed unease, while many of my white friends, particularly Dean supporters, shrugged off the criticism, saying that I was missing the point. And since I am no fan of Dean due to his states' rightist view of tribal sovereignty, I conceded that maybe I was being overly sensitive. A friend observed, if Donna Brazile is fine with it, who am I to complain?

So this morning I was a bit surprised to read this in a Newsday feature on Gov. Dean:

But Bloomer said Dean, described by friend and foe as a supremely self-confident man, "takes his own counsel and sometimes above everybody else's. Sometimes when you are running a state or a nation you need to have divergent opinions discussed."

In South Carolina, after using the line about the white guys with Confederate flags, Dean proudly asked his mostly black handlers how they liked it. He didn't seem to notice their apparent nervousness about it, and Dean liked it so much he used it again there and also in Washington at the Democratic National Committee meeting.

Now, I decided a while back that I wasn't going to use my blog as a forum for pushing an anti-Dean agenda, no matter what my personal feelings - I find that I now avoid otherwise perfectly good political sites which openly salivate over the governor's candidacy, and did not want the reverse to occur. But issues are another thing altogether, and I hope that Gov. Dean does take his southern African-American advisors' counsel and drop that line. If it gives this Northern Indian (albeit with a family history of being on the wrong end of a lynching rope) the willies, I can only imagine how others, who face the slings and arrows of neo-Confederate fervor, must feel.

Even some Republicans have noticed...

John Sununu, White House chief of staff in the first Bush administration, arrived with his son, John, the New Hampshire senator. He allowed as how, for him, Washington 2003 is simply "deja vu all over again -- the same issues, the same people." Still, he says, he returns a day a week "just to humor myself."

From the WP coverage of the Gridiron Dinner

Unemployment addendum: The spoils of near war

Earlier this week, February's unemployment numbers were released by the labor department, and despite the fact that I believe the there's something fishy about the purported percentage change (0.1%) versus the jobs lost (308,000), those numbers in and of themselves are chilling. But is the pending war in Iraq actually camouflaging the true picture of unemployment and poor economic performance? In recent months, over 177,000 reservists and National Guard troops have been called up, over half since mid-January: The vast majority of these "Weekend Warriors" have civilian sector jobs. Although employers are required to hold the deployed soldier's job for five years, they are not required to pay them, and are thus able to fill the position with a "temporary" worker. And in today's fragile economy, there's a good chance that replacement hails from the ranks of the unemployed "actively seeking" a job. Even by predicating that a third or more of reservists are students or not fully employed, the Administration managed to stealthily move upwards of an equal number workers off the unemployment rolls: And yet the economy still saw a many-fold loss in jobs in just one month.

The Labor Department attempted to temper the alarming news of the decrement in jobs by postulating the call-up had a correlating impact on position loss; but for that to be true, all reservist jobs would actually be expendable, and not necessary to be filled until the reservists' return. Since many reservists hail from the medical, public safety and law enforcement fields, that stipulation is downright silly.

Of course, if the Administration gets what it wants and the war in Iraq is over in a matter of weeks, not years, reservists will be returning to civilian life well before any economic recovery takes hold. Then the job domino effect starts, the results to be seen in a bump in the unemployment rate. Unless, of course, the BLS picks that time to once again fudge recalculate the numbers.

There are worse nightmares than W. at the controls...

The Horror of Blimps

[Warning: Do not read while drinking hot liquids...or anything else you don't want snarfed up into your nasal passages]

A challenger for Spector?

Due to my current party office, I have to check with the 4-zillion-plus page book outlining new campaign rules under McCain-Feingold before I sign up as GOTV Director, but otherwise, I'm game. My first suggestion: Appoint your finance director today. Every penny you earn from this day on is subject to FEC scrutiny, whether you're completely serious or not. And go get 'em, Jim.

More fudged unemployment numbers

So the new unemployment numbers came out this morning. The new rate, 5.8%, up 0.1% from January, didn't look all that bad, particularly in light of the news we heard earlier this week, news which apparently sent the market down over 100 points yesterday:

The Labor Department reported yesterday that new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week by 12,000 to 430,000, their highest level of the year. It marked the third week in a row that claims increased; analysts were expecting them to decrease.

Anyway, from this morning's BLS summary, we're told this:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: FEBRUARY 2003

Total nonfarm payroll employment fell by 308,000 in February, while the unemployment rate was about unchanged at 5.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Job losses were widespread, with retail trade and services posting especially large declines.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate was little changed in February, at 5.8 percent; the number of unemployed persons was 8.5 million. Since November 2001, the unemployment rate has ranged from 5.6 to 6.0 percent.

Now, compare that with January's summary:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JANUARY 2003

Payroll employment rose by 143,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 5.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Employment in retail trade and construction increased after seasonal adjustment, but most other major industries were little changed.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate fell to 5.7 percent in January; the number of unemployed persons was 8.3 million.

And just to show a trend, here's a few paragraphs from December's summary:

THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: DECEMBER 2002

Employment declined in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.0 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment fell by 101,000, following a decline of 88,000 (as revised) in November. In December, job losses continued in manufacturing; employment also fell in retail trade and transportation.

Unemployment (Household Survey Data)

The unemployment rate remained at 6.0 percent in December, and the number of unemployed persons was essentially flat, at 8.6 million.

Here's a better visual of the numbers:

	December 2002	January 2003	February 2003
unemployment rate	6.0	5.7	5.8
# of jobs lost/gained	-101,000	+143,000	-308,000
# of unemployed	8.6 million	8.3 million	8.5 million
marginally attached but not counted	1.4 million	1.6 million	1.6 million
discouraged unemployed	398,000	449,000	450,000

I wrote last month how the Administration had fudged the numbers by shifting 200,000 workers off the books. This month, it appears those workers are still included in the 1.6 million "marginally attached" to the workforce, but not counted. In addition, last month the BLS instituted other changes, described in the February 7, 2003 summary,

Revisions to Household Survey Data:

Several major changes affect the Current Population Survey (household) data being released today. These include the use of new population controls that reflect Census 2000 results and new information about net migration, the use of new questions about race and Hispanic ethnicity, the introduction of new industry and occupational classifications, improvements in seasonal adjustment procedures, and the annual update of seasonal adjustment factors. For all data series, these changes affect the comparability of the January 2003 estimates with those for earlier months.

Translation: We fudged the numbers.

If one looks at the table in this mornings BLS press release, there appears to be another accounting change: In the column which details the change from January to February, we're directed to footnote [2], which states,

[2] Household data for February 2003 are not directly comparable with data for January 2003 because of slightly different weighting procedures in the 2 months.

Translation: We fudged the numbers.

I still need to go back and look at the seasonal adjustments and the adults not included in the work force, as the latter has been increasing rather dramatically recently. The Administration is corrupt, but not completely stupid; there are many ways to fudge the numbers - no need to use the same hat-and-rabbit trick twice. I'll update later if I, or any of the other econoholics, find the smoking calculator.

Flashback Friday for March 7th, 1991 2003

CAN MILITARY SUCCESS HELP SPUR A RECOVERY? BUSH SHOULD TRY TO CASH IN ON POPULARITY TO REVIVE ECONOMY
The Los Angeles Times

Euphoria over the spectacular success of the American military in the Persian Gulf is raising great expectations that the war's end will be an elixir for the economy. The triumphant return of men and women to the home front is likely to unleash new pride and patriotism, but will that be enough to restore consumer confidence? There has been general consensus and ...

NO CHEMICAL ARMS FOUND ON BATTLEFIELDS
Rick Atkinson, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 7, 1991

Nearly a week after a cease-fire in the Persian Gulf War, U.S.military officers have virtually concluded that the most controversial weapon in Iraq's arsenal -- chemical agents -- never entered the combat theater. Since routing the Iraqi army last week, several hundred thousand allied troops have combed through bunkers, storage depots and other facilities in Kuwait and southeastern Iraq without finding a trace of nerve gas or other chemical weapons, Army and Marine officers said.

NATIONAL HEALTH INSURANCE PROPOSED: HOUSE DEMOCRATS, UNIONS URGE NEW TAXES ON BUSINESS AND WEALTHY
Spencer Rich, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 7, 1991

A national health insurance system, funded largely by new taxes on business and the wealthy, was proposed yesterday by a group of House Democrats, a cluster of citizen groups and 10 large unions."Everyone knows that our health care system is in a state of crisis -- health costs are spiraling while the uninsured population continues to grow," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.). The number of uninsured Americans is estimated at between 31 million and 37...

A NEW STRUGGLE OVER LEADERSHIP DIVIDES KUWAIT
Elizabeth Neuffer and Peter G. Gosselin, Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

KUWAIT CITY -- While residents of this emirate are still struggling with the aftermath of Iraq's destructive retreat, prominent Kuwaiti government and opposition leaders are locked in a battle over the shape of the nation that will emerge after the occupation.

Democracy activists stepped up their campaign for radical government reform yesterday. They called for the resignation of all government ministers who were in office when Iraq invaded, saying their gross miscalculations paved the...

VA. UNEMPLOYMENT RISES TO 5-YEAR HIGH: RATE UP ALMOST FULL POINT TO 5.8 PERCENT
Anne Swardson, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 7, 1991

Unemployment in Virginia shot up to a five-year high in January, rising nearly a full point to 5.8 percent in another piece of evidence that the recession is striking hard in the Old Dominion.The figures, issued by the Virginia Employment Commission, showed that the Northern Virginia economy is continuing to sink faster than that of the rest of the state. In the last year, nearly 14,000 jobs disappeared from the region, while payrolls expanded a bit in the state as a whole...

BUSH, LEADING THE CHEERS: ON THE HILL, THE DRUMBEAT OF VICTORY
Tom Shales, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 7, 1991

George Bush, all but drunk on popularity, got a rousing reception from a joint session of Congress for his speech on the subject of winning the Persian Gulf War last night. But the television spectacle had a distinct sour side, an aura of boastfulness and nationalistic bravado that seemed inappropriate and ungracious. It was as if Bush were trying to take all the fun out of having won the war.The point of the speech was basically to wallow and gloat about the defeat of Iraq and to expand...

GREENSPAN: PEACE TO AID ECONOMY: OTHER FACTORS HOBBLE RECOVERY, PANEL TOLD
Steven Mufson, Washington Post Staff Writer
March 7, 1991

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said yesterday that the end of the Persian Gulf War removed "a troublesome uncertainty" for the economy, but he warned that real estate problems and tight bank credit continue to "restrain" economic activity. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Greenspan said the defeat of Iraq "should provide some lift to consumer and business confidence."

RELIGION CHURCH LEADERS WHO OPPOSED WAR SAY THEY ALSO MOURN FOR IRAQIS
Richard Higgins, Boston Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

National and local church leaders who had opposed the Persian Gulf War now say that rather than rejoice in military victory, Americans should mourn for those killed and hurt, including Iraqi soldiers and civilians, and pray that the United States helps to build a just rather than a militarized peace.

"A lot of people seem disconnected from the emotional reality of the war . . . from the fact that the Iraqi people are human, just like us, and are struggling with their own problems and...

BUSH SAYS NOW IS THE TIME TO END ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT: ASSERTS WAR VICTORY AS 'TRANSFORMED' US
Stephen Kurkjian and John W. Mashek, Boston Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said last night that the time has come to put an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict and, to the thunderous cheers of a Congress once divided about going to war against Iraq, declared that the allied victory in the Persian Gulf had "transformed" the United States.

A week after US-led forces defeated Iraq in a quick and decisive victory, Bush told a joint session of Congress, "We must work to create new opportunities for peace and stability in the region...

VETO THREATENED ON KEY LABOR BILL WHITE HOUSE, UNIONS AT ODDS
John W. Mashek, Boston Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

WASHINGTON -- A potentially bitter confrontation between the White House and supporters of organized labor emerged yesterday as the administration vowed to veto legislation that would prevent companies from giving permanent jobs to strikebreakers.

Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin, who took office last month, told a House subcommittee that President Bush would veto the bill because he believes it would give unions too much power.

GORE SAYS SOME IN GOP SEEK POLITICAL VICTORIES FROM WAR
Michael K. Frisby, Boston Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Albert Gore Jr. of Tennessee became yesterday one of the first leading Democrats to publicly attack Republicans for seeking political gain from the war in the Persian Gulf.

Only days after the victory, Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas said Democrats would pay for their votes against the war, and the GOP House whip, Newt Gingrich of Georgia, said the party should enlist war veterans to run against Democrats who voted against authorizing force.

CRACKS WON'T HALT LIFTOFF, NASA SAYS
Associated Press
March 7, 1991

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA says it will launch Atlantis as planned April 4 despite tiny cracks in the shuttle's door hinges. Tests showed the two quarter-inch cracks on two of Atlantis' flapper door hinges pose no danger, a NASA spokeswoman, Lisa Malone, said yesterday. She said Atlantis' crew was consulted and approved of the go-ahead. The two flapper doors on the belly of the orbiter must close tightly once the big external fuel tank drops off shortly after liftoff...

DON'T IGNORE IRAQ'S KURDS: IT'S WRONG, AND IT'S SHORTSIGHTED POLICY
Washington Post
David A. Korn
March 7, 1991

While it basks in the afterglow of victory, the Bush administration is on the verge of committing a great injustice and -- worse still, some will say -- making a great political mistake. In its plans for the new order for the Middle East, it is deliberately ignoring Iraq's 3 million or so Kurds. The administration wants to bring down Saddam Hussein and see Iraq under democratic rule, but it doesn't want to deal with Iraq's Kurds, the element of that country's population...

WHAT DEMOCRATS NEED . . .
Michael Kinsley, UFS/The New Republic Inc.
March 7, 1991

Four years ago there was already politico gridlock in Iowa and New Hampshire. But the only leading Democrat even to hint he might run for president in 1992 is Ye Olde George McGovern. The widespread feeling is that President Bush's winning gamble on war has put him beyond all competition for 1992. One Democrat suggests cancelling the campaign and giving the money to the homeless...

And I couldn't resist...

DICK CHENEY DAN QUAYLE READ BUSH'S LIPS: NO NEW VICE PRESIDENT
John Aloysius Farrell, Boston Globe Staff
March 7, 1991

WASHINGTON -- On the final Friday of the Gulf War, as President Bush emerged from the Oval Office to reject Iraq's last-minute peace proposal, Dan Quayle was at his side.

Before stepping up to the Rose Garden microphones, Bush paused and showed the vice president exactly where to stand: slightly behind the president, at his right hand, where Quayle was sure to figure prominently in the work of the television and still photographers gathered before them...

Out of Tune Doctors?

From this morning's Schafer Autism Report:

Raining Pianos: A Short Course on Anecdotal Evidence
By Lenny Schafer

Patient: Doctor, my son has this terrible headache. He's dizzy and he's been fainting a lot. He says his arm is numb.

Dr. Steinway: What happened?

Patient: We were walking down the street and a piano fell on his head.

Dr. Steinway: Anything else happen at the time that might have caused this?

Patient: What do you mean, "anything else?" A PIANO FELL ON HIS HEAD!

Dr. Steinway: Perhaps, but that's only a temporal coincidence. Several studies done by eminent scientists have failed to find a connection between pianos and concussions. The cause could be any number of environmental factors. Kids get bumped by stuff all the time. Not all get concussions. Maybe your child has a genetically predisposed soft skull. Any family history of concussions?

Patient: But I was there! I saw it falling from the second story of a piano factory! I couldn't get him out of the way fast enough and he caught a piece of the candelabra. If it's not the piano, what else could it possibly be?

Dr. Steinway: Hysteria, guilt. What you're telling me is called "anecdotal evidence". Such evidence can be either evaluated for further research, or completely dismissed as useless without even looking at it, depending on the interests or bias of the researchers. The important thing is that it isn't pianos . . .hey wait, where are you going, we're not through. . .

Patient: I'm going to look for care somewhere else, and to see a lawyer to sue the piano company. . . and maybe even you.

Dr. Steinway: [to herself] Uh huh, lawyers. I thought someone might have put her up to this. Lawyers. . .taking advantage of ignorant hysterics looking for something to blame for their woes. . . The problem's not pianos, the problem is lack of tort reform. . .she wouldn't even let her kid have one of our complimentary "We're Silly for Eli Lilly" clinic balloons.

Senate Filibuster, the sequel?

Senator Harkin comes out against judicial nominee Jeffrey Sutton with both barrels blazing.

Harkin statement on the appointment of Jeff Sutton to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals

"In Mr. Sutton's universe, people with disabilities are not protected by the United States Constitution. On National Public Radio, Jeffrey Sutton told NPR listeners that "disability discrimination, in a constitutional sense, is really very difficult to show." It wasn't difficult to show for those of us here on the Hill during the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act. I was standing right here, and I can tell you that we in the Senate heard overwhelming evidence of discrimination from people with a wide variety of disabilities. Men and women who had been denied jobs, children turned away from movie theaters because they look different, and persons with mental disabilities who had been locked away in institutions for years. I don't know where Mr. Sutton's been, but from where I've been, I don't see how anyone can say that disability discrimination is something difficult to show.

"Jeffrey Sutton's legal world excludes an awful lot of people. In his advocacy before the United States Supreme Court he has argued positions that have severely limited civil rights in this country. Under Mr. Sutton's vision:

A woman who has been a state employee for 17 years isn't entitled to monetary compensation when the state demotes her after she is diagnosed with breast cancer. (Garrett)

Folks over 40 are out of luck if their state employer fires them because they are too old. (Kimel)

A person who is blind can be denied the opportunity to participate in a program offered by a state because he doesn't have a drivers' license, and one is required to prove residency. Never mind that the man doesn't drive, never has, it's still a valid rule even if it does impact him a little more than you and I. (Sandoval)

"The cases he has fought show Jeffrey Sutton has extremely limited views of Congress's ability to pass federal laws to protect our country's citizens. We would be in an even worse predicament if some of our federal courts hadn't disagreed with him. Imagine what would happen if he hadn't lost.

People with mental disabilities would still be locked up in institutions. According to Mr. Sutton, keeping people with disabilities in institutions isn't discrimination, even when those people are functionally able to live in the community. (Olmstead)

The parents of children entitled to mandatory health care services under the Medicaid Act wouldn't be able to do a thing about it if the state decided not to provide federally required health care services for those kids. (Westside Mothers)

"Make no mistake, this young man is a judicial activist. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is no place for an activist with his own ideological agenda. Especially when that agenda includes undermining the civil rights afforded our country's citizens. We have to be relatively sure that our judges can rule on the law as written. Since Mr. Sutton zealously harbors the opinion that Congress doesn't have the authority to write laws regulating civil rights in this country, I'm not inclined to believe that he will fairly rule on the law as written.

"We are talking about judicial appointments for life. There's no undoing this if we find out later we made a mistake. On this particular nomination, it's already pretty clear to me that a lifetime appointment would be a big mistake. Persons with disabilities, senior workers, persons of color, and our underprivileged children deserve better. President Bush can come up with another nominee that will do a better job of protecting these people's rights.

"I intend to vote "no" on Mr. Sutton's nomination, and I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. If they listen to what large numbers of people have to say about this nomination, they'll vote no. And if they don't, I think they will have a lot of explaining to do to the people back home, especially people with disabilities."

I wrote about this a month ago, but Harkin has hit all the points succinctly. Democrats and progressives filibustered against Estrada because they didn't know his positions on many important issues like those Senator Harkin mentioned. With Jeffrey Sutton, his position is clear. Neither the ADA or IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act which provides for the education of special needs children) are safe with this man on the federal bench. The Senate cannot believe its done its duty by blocking Estrada. Jeffrey Sutton is a white, affluent Ohio lawyer, and there can be no accusations, unfounded or otherwise, of racial bias by indignant Republicans.

On the other hand, Senators can expect to hear from me along with thousands of disabled individuals and families of special needs children should they shirk their Constitutional duty.

(Thanks to Daniel Davis for the email alert)

A real life friend joins the blogosphere

Meet my friend Allison. She's a former Jerusalem Post features writer and current freelance journalist living in Tel Aviv. More importantly to me, she's also a Wesleyan alum and mom of a 6 year old spectrum kid (who is doing so well, you would never know it.)

Everybody wave! Now if I could just convince our friend Emily to start blogging...

what's it all about?

skippy tells us it's not about the oil...

fred tells us its about ratings...or is it testosterone?

dave tells us what osama wants it to be about...

john tells us what the warbloggers think (wait, isn't that oxymoronic?) its all about..today, at least...

tom tells us what gene lyons thinks (and both tom and i agree) its all about...

jeanne tells us what it shouldn't and should be about...

zizka, sadly, isn't telling us anything, as he's back on hiatus (btdt)...(sigh)

and i will once again find the cap key when the baby awakes and i have two hands...okay, i'm just a skippy wannabe (or wanabi, as we say in indian-country)

Unclaimed Reward

In December, TomPaine.com, in an attempt to get to the bottom of one of last Fall's great legislative mysteries, put a little cash incentive behind its rhetoric:

Reward!
For Information Leading To The Identification Of The Eli Lilly Bandit

In November, as Congress finalized the legislation authorizing a new Department of Homeland Security, two paragraphs suddenly appeared in the bill giving drug maker Eli Lilly & Company something it desired: a shield from lawsuits by parents who claim the company's vaccines caused their children's autism.

The provision diverts those suits from state courts to a federal 'vaccine court' where damages are capped at $250,000 -- small compensation for a child's lifetime of medical care. And because any damages awarded by the vaccine court are paid by U.S. taxpayers, manufacturers are relieved of liability.

It's a sweet deal for Eli Lilly, a very special interest that, like most mega-donors, gets what it wants in Washington. Since 2000, the company has given $1.6 million to national parties and federal campaigns, 79 percent of it to Republicans.

Who inserted the provision? Reporters tried and failed to find out. Lilly's lobbyists (laughably) claim ignorance. No one on Capitol Hill is proud enough of his handiwork to claim it.

Democracy requires accountability, so TomPaine.com is offering a $10,000 reward to the first person who proves the identity of the Eli Lilly Bandit -- the member of Congress responsible for inserting the company's special provision. Mail submissions to PO Box 53303, Washington, D.C. 20009. The complete terms and conditions of this offer are posted at www.TomPaine.com.

Public officials who work secret deals like this are cowards. They subvert and dishonor a fundamental American principle -- open government accountable to the people.

Help us finger the Eli Lilly Bandit.

It also later included this addendum to its reward:

A CLARIFICATION: Lots of readers have contacted us to say, "Rep. Dick Armey admitted doing it!" We know that. It's easy for Dick Armey to say he did it -- he's a lame duck with no accountability. And indeed, Armey, as House Majority Leader, did ALLOW it to happen. But what TomPaine.com is looking for is THE PERSON WHO *ASKED* ARMEY to ALLOW it to happen. THAT is the person we want to finger.

According to UPI's Capitol Comments, TomPaine.com last Thursday donated the $10,000 to the Autism Society of America. Although various critics of TomPaine.com asserted that Dick Armey claimed responsibility for the provision, the organization rightfully demanded the original source, as Dick Armey's understanding of vaccine liability issues most likely couldn't fill a syringe. However, in recognizing Armey's part in the whole sordid affair, TomPaine.com made the donation to the ASA in the former House leader's name.

[Editor's note: I posted an analysis of the most likely suspects, as well as my own conclusion, way back here. I still think the hens will come back to roost when Senator Frist re-introduces the Lilly indemnification this spring.]

Its the Circle of Life...

Since many [Disney] evolutionists (a term which apparently Mr Bush does not attribute to himself) believe life began with a big bang of energy, we'll start with the allegations by the State of California of energy price gouging and other scurrilous behavior:

Bush Administration, energy companies and sealed documents. Does this ring a bell?

So how did Californians pay for those skyrocketing energy coats? Well apparently, they took out a lot of second mortgages or cashed out some equity. But Econoguru Greenspan says don't expect home refinancing boom to continue:

Hmmm...a decrease in consumer spending. But just last month we were told by the Commerce Department just how strong consumer spending was, particularly with those great end-of-the-year deals on computers and cars. Say it isn't so:

Also last month, the Federal Reserve reassured skittish Americans with tales of economic rebound, fuel by expanding automobile production: At factories, which account for most industrial output tracked by the Fed, production rose by a solid 0.5 percent in January, largely reflecting a boost in automobile production. That marked a big improvement over the 0.4 percent drop in factory output registered in December.

So now auto sales are down, and Detroit is threatening to curtail production. Fewer cars means less gas consumption, right? Well that's a good thing, as oil prices are heading up again:

Consumer advocates have alleged price gouging by energy companies. When does the circle of life turn into an never-ending death spiral? Or is that just the stock market again?

What was the real story here?

Not surprisingly, Fox and Rush aren't reporting this follow-up to the national right-wing roast of Maine educators (many of whom, it turns out, are National Guard or retired military.)

Guard blames national media for teacher flap
Associated Press
Tuesday, March 4, 2003

AUGUSTA — The flap about teachers in Maine schools making inappropriate remarks to children of military parents has been blown out of proportion, the head of the Maine Army National Guard said.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Tinkham said national media figures, including conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh and television commentator Bill O'Reilly, exaggerated the extent and nature of the problem. He also took issue with a newspaper editorial that criticized the Guard for not making public the details of the reported incidents.

"What has really stung us was the editorials, in particular the section that stated we are just now developing the facts. That's just not true. We can't let this stand," Tinkham said.

Maine education Commissioner J. Duke Albanese last week issued a memorandum to principals and superintendents around the state warning teachers to be careful in what they say about a looming war after reports that some teachers were making anti-war comments in the classroom.

At the time, the Guard said it had received a dozen reports about children of Guard troops in elementary and middle schools who said teachers and fellow students had criticized a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In case you have been able to avoid hearing the details of this story, here's a brief synopsis. On February 21, a Bangor television station aired a report that various Maine National Guard Family Assistance Centers received some 30 complaints from children of deployed soldiers concerning principals, teachers and guidance counselors purportedly harassing the student of deployed Guard members. Around 500 National Guard reservists in Maine had been called to active duty at this point. Surprisingly, on the same day, the Army Chaplain in charge of the Family Assistance Centers gave this interview to a Maine newspaper. There was no mention of the harassment in the article, which ran the next day. For the next five days, numerous stories ran in the Maine media concerning the pending deployment, and many soldiers, officers and administrators relayed their hopes and fears to Maine residents watching the events unfold; but none of them claimed their children had been verbally assaulted by educators.

A week went by before the original story was picked up. Not by local media, but the Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Then the Washington Times and World Net Daily. Not that their crack journalists had actually scooped the story: the highly prolific forums at FreeRepulbic were going ballistic over the report, with crackpots "patriots" wearing their fingers to the bone punching the numbers of Hannity and Limbaugh, tying up fax lines and swamping the email servers. Okay, not quite. But close.

Warbloggers leapt at the story. A few on the left countered (no pun, of course) the unsubstantiated claims. New reports from the National Guard and the Commissioner of Education explained that the number of incidence were a half-dozen or fewer, and were more often than not teasing on the playground or bus by another child. An insensitive administrator told a student that seeing a deployed parent off would result in an unexcused absence, and an aide had been assigned the anti-intervention position in a social studies debate. [Editorial note: These rate as harassment in a country where every day disabled school children are physically restrained, verbally assaulted and even arrested?]

Throughout this entire fiasco, a small nagging question pestered my already war/economy/parenting distracted mind; Was there something, someone, working behind the scene manipulating this story. Of course, I've been wearing my tinfoil beanie for weeks now, so such thoughts did not lead me to question my grasp on reality.

Teachers piling on the elementary-age children of Army medics and mechanics is not the only war news emanating from Maine recently. Last month, the Maine Senate was the first state legislative body to pass an anti-war resolution. The Maine House soon followed suit, but with a slightly different version, which required that the Senate revote on the slight changes. Bad weather and school vacations delayed the vote, which was finally scheduled for February 25th. The issue was highly contentious, especially for low-key Maine politics. An article discussing the pending vote opined:

But in a larger sense, getting the Senate and the House to agree on a joint resolution may have national significance. The Maine Legislature would then become the first in the nation to back an anti-war resolution in the Iraq crisis. The House of Representatives in Hawaii has passed a similar resolution, but the state Senate there has not done so.

Minutes before the fate of the resolution was to be decided, a democratic senator announced she had changed her vote. She claimed she made the decision, "after consulting with veterans' groups and family members." Of course, since the senator's father was a veteran of two wars, one would expect she would have received counsel from both groups prior to and following her first vote to calling upon a diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis. The senator's last minute switch all but guaranteed that the previously approved resolution would fail in the closely divided Senate, so the vote was postponed, and has yet to be rescheduled.

Was it coincidence that the national media finally began promoting a week-old unsubstantiated but red-meat story the day that an elected legislature was expected to openly slap the hands of the leader of the free world?

We report. You decide.

(Counterspin also followed up on his original report on this today.)

Here we go again

A new round of bait-and-switch has begun.

I noticed this AP story was picked up by some Canadian media outlets last week. Yesterday, CNN deemed it newsworthy.

Uncovering autism's mysteries: Is there more autism? Or just a new definition?

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) --Mention autism to parents, doctors and scientists these days, and among an earful of different theories will emerge a common nod of agreement: The perplexing condition is not nearly as rare as once was thought.

As recently as a decade ago it was estimated that only about 4 per 10,000 children were affected. Research now suggests the rate may be at least 10 times higher.

The numbers have fueled debates over whether there's been a true surge of cases and whether environment or genetics could be the cause. Some parents and research advocates blame vaccines despite recent evidence to the contrary.

But many mainstream scientists point to two much less worrisome explanations: The definition for autism has changed and schools now offer more educational services to autistic children.

In 1991, the U.S. Department of Education made autism a new, separate category for special education services offered at public schools. Those services tend to be broader and more intensive than for other disorders, including mental retardation. There's evidence that the 1991 change prompted what some call "diagnostic substitution," said Dr. Fred Volkmar, a Yale University autism researcher.

"Autism is kind of a fashionable diagnosis," Volkmar said. "Everybody's interested in getting better services."

Statistics seem to back up the theory. Department of Education figures show that the number of children getting services for mental retardation fell from 553,262 in 1991-92 to 532,362 in 1992-93. During those same years the number of children getting services for autism swelled from 5,415 to 15,580.

The change in school services and the definition, along with research showing that early intervention could help, raised awareness of the condition.

Well, let's take a second look at those numbers. The figures listed below are from the US Department of Education, Children 0 to 21 years old served in federally supported programs for the disabled, by type of disability: 1976–77 to 1996–97 (the numbers are in thousands)

So while the AP/CNN story was accurate in describing a one-year dip in the number of children labelled with mental retardation while at the same time there is an increase in autism diagnoses, it doesn't see if the trend continues into the next year. Surely it would take more than one school year for half a million children to be re-evaluated by developmental pediatricians, neurologists and psychiatrists. However, during the next school year, the number of children with mental retardation rebounds to 536,000, only two thousand less than two years previous, while autism cases in that same time have now grown to 24,000, from the 5,000 in '91-'92. In the years following the increase continues in both categories.

That is not to say that some children in the early 1990s had been classified as mentally retarded and then relabelled autistic when the new subgrouping was established by the Department of Education. It doesn't, however, explain the accelerating rates of autism diagnoses, nor does it account for the explosion of ASD among younger children, as if "relabelling" discounted an increase in autism, then we should see as many 40 year olds as 4 year olds. This is certainly not the case. As I've mentioned countless times before, the UC-Davis Study for the California Legislature (see sidebar) thoroughly addressed this issue in its findings, stating that re-diagnosis could not account for more than 20 percent of new autism cases in the years following the new criteria.

If you read the article, you'll see that it looks at other current "hot-button" autism topics. The cynic in me thinks that the media is now laying the groundwork for a resurrection of Majority Leader Bill Frist's payback to his largest campaign contributor, vaccine liability reform. I suspect that we'll see at least a few more of these "public interest" stories reasserting the "mainstream" belief that autism is genetic, never caused by mercury or MMR and in fact, not actually increasing in frequency. A three pronged approach, so to speak.

Is terrorism a new phenomenon in America?

And since I've gotten my Indian blood all roiled up already this Sunday morning, here's a piece which appeared in this morning's paper:

Fightin' words

So I was over at Oliver Willis' site yesterday, and was shocked, (shocked!) to read this:

February 28, 2003

Behold, The Money of The Danny

Lynched Niggers add Thomas, close in on Fiore

Never shy about trying to set a frenetic pace, Washington Lynched Niggers owner Dan Snyder hit the ground running on Friday, the first day of the free agent signing period.

Working quickly to shore up one of his team's most glaring deficiencies, the Lynched Niggers owner landed one of the premier veterans in the unrestricted class, with ESPN.com learning the team has reached a contract accord with star guard Randy Thomas.

The four-year veteran, who spent his entire previous career with the New York Jets, agreed to a blockbuster seven-year, $28 million contract which includes a $7 million signing bonus. The deal, negotiated by agent Jimmy Sexton, will be officially signed on Friday evening.

They also signed Dave Fiore (G) from the 49ers, and most intriguingly - Trung Candidate.

Looks like Regan Upshaw and Rocket Ismail are also on The Danny's wish list.

Makes ya feel like you've been punched in the stomach, doesn't it, to see such overt racist language used at such a "respectable" media outlet as ESPN? And that a blogger wouldn't think twice about using such a quote uncritically - what was he thinking?

Should we start a boycott of ESPN? I just Googled it, and the Washington Times, Houston Chronicle and Baltimore Sun all use the term.

Oh gee...I must have misread the word. It said "Redskins". What a relief! Call off the liberal masses with their torches and pitchforks. Its just a term which obviously "honors" American Indians. In fact, here's an excerpt from an op-ed by Linda Cypret-Kilbournem, an Anishinabek, on the subject of mascots:

"Redskins" means murdered, scalped and skinned Native Americans. This is the true meaning. When bounties were set upon Natives, they were murdered and then their bodies were skinned from the neck down and scalped. Using the word "redskin" is institutional racism. We understand that people did not intentionally use the word to cause hurt, but once you are told something like this is hurtful and you continue to use it, then it becomes racism.

There were bounties on the scalps of Maine Indians until 1888. Yes, Maine - not South Dakota or Arizona. And Vermont and Connecticut, late into the 1800s as well.

Its not just a word; its a call to murder, even a call for genocide. Great name for a sports team, eh? Don't suspect though that Oliver or many other fans, black or white, would be cheering the Lynched Niggers. Doesn't have quite the same ring.

[Update: I apologized to Oliver over on his site for singling him out, but still think the issue is a fair target. And the Creator forgive me if I ever feel compelled to use that horrific term again, even if to prove a point such as this. Its a downright, nasty, hurtful term.]

On January 20th, 2003, I first started the deja vu posts with this little brain teaser. Since then, I've been documenting weekly the parallel universes we have come to know as simply 41 and 43. If you've dropped in from Buzzflash (welcome!) and would like to see previous weeks, rather than hunt through the archives, I've compiled them below. Thanks for stopping by.

Friday, February 21, 1991
Friday, February 14, 1991
Friday, February 7, 1991
Friday, January 31, 1991