Magpie

Saturday, October 1

What speaks louder than words?

Why no words, of course!

| | Posted by Magpie at 7:10 PM | Get permalink

No comment.

From an article about the return of the paramilitary Minuteman Project patrols to the Mexican border:

Heather Evans, a 25-year-old Los Angeles microbiologist, was initially uneasy about joining the patrols which she'd seen on a television news report. But when she drove three hours to the border one July weekend, her fears quickly evaporated.

"I told my family it was like an armed picnic on the border,'' said Evans, who is considering whether to buy a gun for future visits.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:06 PM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

Well, maybe not shiny enough to see from the backyard, but definitely shiny enough for the Cassini spacecraft to capture this excellent image. May we present Saturn's weird little moon, Hyperion — probably one of the oldest objects in the Solar System. It reminds us of what you'd get if you crossed a wasp nest with a kitchen sponge.

Saturn's moon Hyperion

Hyperion as captured by the Cassini spacecraft's narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 62,000 km/38,500 mi.
[Image: Nasa/JPL/Space Science Institute]

Images of Hyperion taken on Sept. 26 show a surface dotted with craters and modified by some process, not yet understood, to create a strange, "spongy" appearance, unlike the surface of any other Saturn moon.

A false-color image of Hyperion reveals crisp details and variations in color across the strange surface that might represent differences in the composition of materials. Hyperion has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color.

Scientists are extremely curious to learn what the dark material is that fills many craters on this moon. Features within the dark terrain, including a 200-meter-wide (650-feet) impact crater surrounded by rays and numerous bright-rimmed craters, indicate that the dark material may be only tens of meters thick with brighter material beneath.

Besides its close encounter with Hyperion, the Cassini probe also did a fly-by of Tethys, gathering some fascinating pictures that you can view here.

Via BBC and NASA.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:18 AM | Get permalink

More on Oregon's 'Death with Dignity' law.

As we noted the other day, The US Supreme Court has decided to hear a challenge to an Oregon law that allows terminally ill patients to choose a phyisican-assisted death via an overdose of medication. Oregon is the only state in the US to have such a law.

This week's edition of the PBS program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly has an excellent background piece on the legal and ethical issues surrounding the law.

[Reporter Tim] O'BRIEN: Conservatives in Congress had long opposed the Oregon law, among them, John Ashcroft, then a senator from Missouri. When Ashcroft later became Attorney General, he formally challenged the law, arguing it conflicted with the Federal Controlled Substances Act that dangerous drugs like Seconal may only be used for a "legitimate medical purpose," and suicide, concluded Ashcroft, "is not a legitimate medical purpose."

Hardy Myers is the Attorney General of Oregon:

HARDY MYERS (Attorney General, Oregon): I think the respect for states' rights kind of is stronger or weaker depending upon whether the action the state is taking is one the particular administration in question likes.

O'BRIEN: Ashcroft expressly reversed the policy of the previous administration and his predecessor, Attorney General Janet Reno. Reno had said, "There is no evidence Congress ... intended to displace the states as the primary regulators of the medical profession."

Mr. MYERS: We've got a straightforward effort to regulate the doctor-patient relationship at the most intimate level because of the intention of the use of the drugs. Now that is bringing the federal government into the very -- the most foundational level of the practice of medicine.

You can either go here to find out when the show runs on your local station or you can read the transcript here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:56 AM | Get permalink

Paul Krugman's new column.

It's a doozy.

And you might be able to find and read the column yourself [despite it being behind the NY Times subscription firewall] by doing a Google Groups search on: Krugman "The way it is".

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:46 AM | Get permalink

No comment needed.

From a story on Dubya's Saturday radio address:

President Bush said Saturday he is encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces, touting progress on a key measure for when U.S. troops can come home.

The upbeat remarks in Bush's weekly radio address came two days after the top commander in Iraq said only one Iraqi battalion is ready to fight without U.S. support.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:45 AM | Get permalink

Why did US consumer spending drop in August?

Over at Wampum, MB finds the Dubya administration's fingerprints all over the media's standard interpretation of the August data. You know: the one that says the drop was Katrina's fault?

That's just more White House spin, and MB shows why. Go read her.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:26 AM | Get permalink

Sorry, wrong number.

While wrong numbers are usually just another of life's low-level annoyances, things change when it's the FBI wiretapping your phone by mistake.

A report from the US Justice Department's inspector general reveals that the FBI has amassed over 38 thousand hours of untranslated phone calls that it's obtained using roving wiretap warrants allowed under the Patriot Act. Those hours include a certain amount of 'collections of materials from the wrong sources due to technical problems' — that's FBI-speak for recordings made while monitoring an incorrect phone number. The feds either can't — or won't — say how what percentage of the total is made up of these mistakes.

The FBI could not say Friday whether people are notified that their conversations were mistakenly intercepted or whether wrongly tapped telephone numbers were deleted from bureau records.

Privacy activists said the FBI's explanation of the mistaken wiretaps was unacceptably vague, and that in an era of cell phones and computers it is easier than ever for the government to access communications from innocent third parties.

"What do you mean you are intercepting the wrong subject? How often does it occur? How long does it go on for?" said James Dempsey, executive director of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:13 AM | Get permalink

Mash-up fun.

Smokey Robinson vs the La's: 'She Tracks My Tears. [MP3 player req'd]

Via The Anti-Hit List.

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:38 AM | Get permalink

Friday, September 30

Bits & pieces, the sequel.

Still more stuff that's caught our interest today:

Inter Press Service reports on the two-sided treatment of undocumented workers by the US Homeland Security Department. On one hand, the DHS is starting deportation proceedings against undocumented hurricane survivors after they show up at aid centers — despite earlier promises by the DHS and other US authorities not to do this. On the other, DHS is looking the other way when Gulf coast employers hire undocumented workers.
Ever want to make grilled cheese sandwiches using a clothes iron?

Johnny Depp irons himself a pile o' sammiches in the 1995 film Benny & Joon.
No problem — all you need is the right setting. Here's how to do it.
The Poison Kitchen finally figured out why a rather paranoid Peggy Noonan column about base closings seemed so familiar.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:07 PM | Get permalink

The Governator goes on a veto rampage.

While most of the national coverage has focused on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriages, the Governator didn't stop there.

He vetoed a bill that would have raised the pay of California's minimum-wage workers by a dollar an hour over the next two years. This would have brought the minimum up to $7.75. The Governator says he objected to a clause in the bill that would have provided for the minimum wage to be adjusted each year to compensate for inflation, but critics say he was just making a payoff to corporate contributors who opposed the bill.
Toeing the Dubya administration line, Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to allow consumers to buy prescription drugs from pharmacies in Canada, the UK, and Ireland. According to the Governator, those foreign drugs might not be safe. Yeah, right.
He also vetoed a bill that would have imposed stiff fines on employers that pay different wages to equally qualified employees.

Given that the Governator's approval rating is down to 33 percent, he's undoubtedly trying to firm up his core support for next year's elections, hoping that gay men, lesbians, minimum-wage workers, and victims of employment discrimination don't remember these vetoes.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:59 AM | Get permalink

The most expensive tarps in town.

We're talking about the blue tarps that contractors hired by FEMA are installing on hurricane-damaged roofs all over the Gulf coast. According to Knight Ridder, the feds are paying 10 times the usual going rate for putting up each each tarp. That's an average of US$ 2480 per roof, for less than two hours of work. Not only that, but the feds are supplying the blue tarps to contractors for free!

A very expensive tarp

Construction crews working with TJC Defense, out of Alabama, install a blue tarp on a home in Kenner, Louisiana.
[Photo: Ian McVea/Fort Worth Star-Telegram]
Estimates are that 300,000 houses on the Gulf coast suffered roof damage. If the feds decide to put blue tarps on even half of them, it'll cost a few hundred million dollars — most of which didn't need to be spent.

Steve Manser, president of Simon Roofing and Sheet Metal of Youngstown, Ohio, which was awarded an initial $10 million contract to begin "Operation Blue Roof" in New Orleans, acknowledged that the price his company is charging to install blue tarps could pay for shingling an entire roof.

To be fair, Manser also told Knight Ridder that there were unusually high costs associated with getting work crews and supplies into the disaster area. [Although we have to wonder how high the company's labor costs are given that Dubya waived the Davis-Bacon act requirement that federal contractors have to pay workers the prevailing wage in an area.] That claim was disputed by a an Austin, Texas roofing estimator, who said that his company charged about $300 to put up a typical 2000 square foot tarp.

Via Knight Ridder Washington Bureau.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:32 AM | Get permalink

Are we scared yet?

The UN's newly appointed coordinator of the world body's efforts to fight avian flu in southeast Asia warns that an influenze epidemic could kill 150 million people worldwide.

[Dr David Nabarro] said the number of deaths from any future influenza pandemic would depend on where it started, how quickly it was discovered and the kind of response they got from governments.

"The range of deaths could be anything between 5m and 150m," said Dr Nabarro.

"I believe that the work we're doing over the next few months will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 or in the direction of five.

"So our effectiveness will be directly measured in lives saved and the consequences for the world."

Via BBC.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:28 AM | Get permalink

'Don't ask, don't tell' doesn't apply to Iraq.

While the US military still holds publicly that lesbian and gay servicmembers are a 'threat to unit cohesion' and can't be allowed to serve, they're so much of a threat that they can't be sent of to Iraq. The New York Blade reports that lesbians and gay men serving in the Army Reserves and National Guard are routinely put on active duty after they reveal their sexual orientation to their commanders — despite the Army's well-known 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy. The existence of this practice has been confirmed by a spokesperson for an Army command that deploys troops.

The spokesperson, Kim Waldron, a civilian who works for the U.S. Army Forces Command at Fort McPherson, Ga., said the active duty deployment of Reservists and National Guard troops who say they are gay, or who are accused of being gay, takes place under a Forces Command or "FORSCOM" regulation issued in 1999.

Waldron said the regulation is aimed at preventing Reservists and National Guard members from using their sexual orientation — or from pretending to be gay — to escape combat.

"The bottom line is some people are using sexual orientation to avoid deployment," Waldron said. "So in this case, with the Reserve and Guard forces, if a soldier 'tells,' they still have to go to war and the homosexual issue is postponed until they return to the U.S. and the unit is demobilized...."

The 1999 FORSCOM regulation was turned up by researchers for the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military at the University of California at Santa Barbara, while they were assisting assisting the ABC television program Nightline with research on gays in the military.

Aaron Belkin, executive director of the CSSMM, said he was "astonished" that a military spokesperson has confirmed that military commanders routinely deploy service members thought to be gay into active duty assignments.

"The Pentagon has consistently denied that, when mobilization requires bolstering troop strength, it sends gays to fight despite the existence of a gay ban," Belkin said.

The CSSMM and gay rights groups have asserted for years that gay service members whose sexual orientation becomes known are often retained during wartime, only to be discharged after they return home.

Figures from the US Defense Department confirm this view: Discharges for being gay/lesbian rose each year from 1993, peaking at 1227 in 2001. Since US troops were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq, discharges have fallen dramatically, with only 653 lesbian and gay men being discharged from the armed services during 2004.

So while lesbians and gay men who come out aren't good enough to serve during times of peace, they're perfectly good cannon fodder.

Via Dangermuffin.

More: You can read the CSSMM press release on finding the 1999 FORSCOM regulation here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:19 AM | Get permalink

Visions of Science.

That's the name of a photographic competition sponsored annually in the UK by Novartis Pharmaceuticals and the Daily Telegraph. Thousands of images are examined by a panel of scientists, photographers, and photo editor, with an eye toward finding an 'attention-grabbing image that gives new insight into the world of science and the workings of nature.'

The 2005 winners have just been announced, and there are some real stunners, including the overall competition winner below.

Salt and Pepper

Salt and Pepper
[Image: David McCarthy]

This image of a whole peppercorn with a grain of sea salt offers a close-up glimpse of the structure of simple everyday products we use on our food.

FEI XL 20 scanning electron microscope at 5 kV. Coloured using Adobe Photoshop

Go here to see all of the 2005 winners and runners-up.

The main web page for the competition is here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:06 AM | Get permalink

Now that the US has a new chief justice.

Ted Rall tells us how John Roberts will vote!

How will Roberts vote?

[Cartoon: © 2005 Ted Rall]
You can see the rest of Rall's cartoon here. And Rall's website is full of more of his political cartoons.

Via Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

Meanwhile, back at FEMA.

It's business as usual.

After Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, the Federal Emergency Management Agency signed contracts for more than $2 billion in temporary housing, including more than 120,000 trailers and mobile homes. But the agency has placed just 109 Louisiana families in those homes.

Don't hold your breath if you're one of the people waiting for those homes.

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Bits & pieces.

More stuff that we've been looking at:

Looking for a recipe for disaster? Maybe you should try Katrina à la Bush? Here's all you need:

1 - Great American City
1 - Category-4 Hurricane
1 - President on vacation
1 - Grover Norquist bathtub

The rest of the instructions are here.

And in case you don't have a hurricane handy, tropical storm experts assure us that there's at least one more category 4 storm in store before the hurricane season ends. [Thanks, Grow-a-Brain!]
Cunning Realist points out the moving goalposts for any withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.
Knight Ridder's senior military correspondent, Joseph Galloway, comments on this week's conviction of Pfc. Lynndie for her role in the Abu Ghraib tortures:

There have been 17 separate investigations of Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and other prisoner abuse scandals. All have gone straight to the bottom of every case. All have consistently claimed that no one higher up the chain of command, including the civilian leadership in the Pentagon, bears any responsibility for any of this.

Hogwash. BS. Nonsense.

If the lowest private fails, then others have failed in training, leading and directing that private. The chain runs from sergeant to lieutenant to captain to lieutenant colonel to colonel to one, two, three and four stars, on to the longest serving, most arrogant secretary of defense in our history, Donald H. Rumsfeld, and beyond him to the commander in chief, President Bush.
Over at Panda's Thumb, Prof. Steve Steve confounds Intelligent Design advocates with his discovery of the fossil-fossils of De-Na-Zin.
Saudi blogger The Religious Policeman apologizes for that fact that he isn't really one of the religious policemen. By way of apology, he takes readers on a guided tour of the website for Saudi Arabia's official religious police.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, September 29

Play that crazy shamisen!

DJ Kentaro vs Shinichi Kinoshita!. [Windows Media Player req'd]

Kentaro vs Kinoshita!

We'd heard crosses between traditional Japanese music and US pop music before, so this video didn't take us totally unawares. Even so, this pairing of a DJ with a shamisen player still left us with our jaw hanging — especially because both are so good at what they do.

Absolutely amazing.

Does anyone know of a higher quality version of this video?

Via MetaFilter.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:13 PM | Get permalink

Supremes to rule on Oregon's 'death with dignity' law.

The US Supreme Court says it will hear a challenge to an Oregon law that allows terminally ill people to chose a physician-assisted death via a lethal dose of medication. 288 people have chosen this path since the law went into effect in 1997. While Dubya's administration and right-to-life groups have attacked the law, it's popular with Oregonians, who have twice rejected attempts to repeal the 'death with dignity' law at the ballot box,

Dubya's administration has gone to court to have the Oregon law invalidated, arguing that hastening death is an improper use of medication in violation of federal drug laws.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case on October 5.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:47 AM | Get permalink

'A long parade of disturbing incidents.'

The Reuters news agency has made an official complaint about the US military's conduct toward journalists in Iraq. In a letter sent to Senate Armed Forces Committee chair John Warner, Reuters complained about 'a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained and or illegally abused by US forces in Iraq.' The news agency charged that the Pentagon has refused to act to safeguard journalists, and that this failure is affecting the ability of the press to cover the Iraq war.

According to the press freedom group Reporters without Borders, 68 reporters and media workers have lost their lives in Iraq since the US-led invasion began in March 2003.

US forces have admitted killing three Reuters journalists, most recently Iraqi soundman Walid Khaled, who was shot by troops on 28 August while on assignment in Baghdad.

According to the US military, the soldiers' actions had been justified.

The news agency also believes a US sniper was responsible for the death of a fourth Reuters journalist in Ramadi, west of the Iraqi capital, last year.

The US military has repeatedly refused calls to carry out an independent inquiry into the deaths of the Reuters' journalists, handing over responsibility for investigations to the military units involved, who subsequently exonerated their soldiers, the agency said.

Via Agence France-Presse.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:33 AM | Get permalink

No comment.

Right-wing talk host and culture warrior Bill Bennett, from an exchange with a caller on his daily radio program on Wednesday, Sept. 28:

But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Via Media Matters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:05 AM | Get permalink

More press briefing follies.

It was more major-league tap dancing from Scott McClellan at Wednesday's White House press briefing, as Helen Thomas (we believe) tried to get a straight answer about Dubya's position on torture.

[For those of you with a limited tolerance for evasion, stetching the truth, and outright lies, we've posted a condensed version of the exchange at the bottom of the post.]

Q The papers have been satiated in the last few days, again with another round of our abuse of prisoners and detainees and torture. Has the President ever issued a directive to all military prisons under our control that they should not torture and they should abide by the Geneva Accord?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes. Yes. In fact, we did that quite some time ago.

Q There is an actual directive?

MR. McCLELLAN: If people are involved in wrongdoing, they're going to be held to account. And that's exactly what -- that's exactly what this administration has done.

Q I asked you if the President has issued any executive order against torture.

MR. McCLELLAN: The President made it very clear that we do not torture and we do not condone torture. And if people --

Q But we do.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and if people break the law, they are brought to account. And that's exactly what we've done in the instances that you're referring to.

Q Why don't they know it, then? I mean, why has there been this continued abuse?

MR. McCLELLAN: They do know it. And the Secretary of Defense and military leaders have taken steps to prevent such horrible atrocities from happening again.

Q But not if it goes beyond sergeant. Why is that?

MR. McCLELLAN: You might want to talk to the Department of Defense, because they can brief you --

Q No, I think this is something at the presidential level.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, but I think it's important --

Q It has to do something with our reputation.

MR. McCLELLAN: I think it's important for the American people to know the facts. And if you look at the facts, people have been brought to justice that are involved in wrongdoing. And any allegation of wrongdoing is taken very seriously by this administration. We have an outstanding military; 99.9 percent of the men and women in uniform do an outstanding job and represent the American people in the best possible way. They uphold our standards and our values.

Q Do you have any papers showing the President has issued a directive against torture?

MR. McCLELLAN: We've actually put out paper previously about the directives that he's made --

Q An actual order?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and he has publicly stated it very clearly to everyone in his administration and to the American people.

Q Then why is it still going on?

Magpie's Condensed Version

Q Has the President ever issued a directive to all military prisons under our control that they should not torture and they should abide by the Geneva Accord?

MR. McCLELLAN: Nope.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:12 AM | Get permalink

No comment.

From this article on the future of New Orleans:

It will be years before New Orleans regains the half-million population it had before Hurricane Katrina, and the population might never again be predominantly black, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said Wednesday during a visit to Houston.

"Whether we like it or not, New Orleans is not going to be 500,000 people for a long time," he said. "New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again."

He said he isn't sure that the Ninth Ward, a predominantly black and poor neighborhood devastated by flooding, should be rebuilt at all. If it is, the new construction should be designed to withstand disaster, he said.

Via Houston Chronicle.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 AM | Get permalink

Words are failing us here.

We've tried to a neat little introduction for this post at LabKat, but she doesn't tell the kind of story that lends itself to neat little intros.

Like LabKat, we did our time in the journalistic trenches. Her post has brought back a lot of old memories about what being a reporter is really like for most of the people who wear the hat.

Go read what she has to say.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, September 28

Those new draconian Aussie terror laws.

They may be getting even more draconian, and allow police to detain terror suspects without charge for up to three months:

Under the new powers agreed by the heads of government this week, police will be able to impose "control orders" — including house arrest, electronic tagging or mechanisms such as apprehended violence orders that prevent a terrorist suspect going to certain places or talking to certain people — for up to 12 months.

They will also be able to use preventive detention on people they suspect may be about to commit a terrorist act, holding them in custody for up to 14 days.

[Australian attorney-general Philip] Ruddock told reporters in Hobart yesterday: "Those measures were thought to be important in the UK, so important that they are talking about extending the period under which people can be detained for up to three months. If the circumstances change you obviously have to look at what's required."

What do you bet that the circumstances change?

Via Sydney Morning Herald.

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:10 PM | Get permalink

No comment needed.

From cartoonist Mike Luckovich:

Brain dead

[Cartoon: © 2005 Mike Luckovich/Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
You can see more of Luckovich's political cartoons here.

Via Association of American Editorial Cartoonists.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:01 PM | Get permalink

How many banned books have you read?

In honor of Banned Books Week in the US, we're joining other bloggers in posting the American Library Association's list of the 100 most challenged books between 1990 and 2000. These are the ones that would-be censors try to have pulled from libraries and reading lists.

We've marked the banned books that we've read in bold. Which of your favorites are on this list?

1. Scary Stories (Series) by Alvin Schwartz
2. Daddy's Roommate by Michael Willhoite
3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
7. Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
9. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
10. Alice (Series) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
11. Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman
12. My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier
13. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
14. The Giver by Lois Lowry
15. It's Perfectly Normal by Robie Harris
16. Goosebumps (Series) by R.L. Stine
17. A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
19. Sex by Madonna
20. Earth's Children (Series) by Jean M. Auel
21. The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L?Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
24. Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
25. In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard
27. The Witches by Roald Dahl
28. The New Joy of Gay Sex by Charles Silverstein
29. Anastasia Krupnik (Series) by Lois Lowry
30. The Goats by Brock Cole
31. Kaffir Boy by Mark Mathabane
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
33. Killing Mr. Griffin by Lois Duncan
34. Halloween ABC by Eve Merriam
35. We All Fall Down by Robert Cormier
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
37. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
38. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
40. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Girls: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Daughters by Lynda Madaras
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
43. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
44. The Pigman by Paul Zindel
45. Bumps in the Night by Harry Allard
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
48. Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
49. The Boy Who Lost His Face by Louis Sachar
50. Cross Your Fingers, Spit in Your Hat by Alvin Schwartz
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
52. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
53. Sleeping Beauty Trilogy by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
54. Asking About Sex and Growing Up by Joanna Cole
55. Cujo by Stephen King
56. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
57. The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powell
58. Boys and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
59. Ordinary People by Judith Guest
60. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
61. What's Happening to my Body? Book for Boys: A Growing-Up Guide for Parents & Sons by Lynda Madaras
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
63. Crazy Lady by Jane Conly
64. Athletic Shorts by Chris Crutcher
65. Fade by Robert Cormier
66. Guess What? by Mem Fox
67. The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende
68. The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline Cooney
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
72. Women on Top: How Real Life Has Changed Women's Fantasies by Nancy Friday
73. Curses, Hexes and Spells by Daniel Cohen
74. Jack by A.M. Homes
75. Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya
76. Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle
77. Carrie by Stephen King
78. Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
79. On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer
80. Arizona Kid by Ron Koertge
81. Family Secrets by Norma Klein
82. Mommy Laid An Egg by Babette Cole
83. The Dead Zone by Stephen King
84. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
85. Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
86. Always Running by Luis Rodriguez
87. Private Parts by Howard Stern
88. Where's Waldo? by Martin Hanford
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
91. Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
92. Running Loose by Chris Crutcher
93. Sex Education by Jenny Davis
94. The Drowning of Stephen Jones by Bette Greene
95. Girls and Sex by Wardell Pomeroy
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
97. View from the Cherry Tree by Willo Davis Roberts
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
99. The Terrorist by Caroline Cooney
100. Jump Ship to Freedom by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier

The ALA has posted much more info on challenged and banned books here, including a list of the 10 most challenged books of 2004.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:38 AM | Get permalink

Bye-bye, icecap!

Earlier this month, we posted about the rapid disappearance of arctic sea ice, and how that shrinkage may have reached a point of no return. At that time, scientists were warning that this September could see the lowest ice extent ever recorded.

Well, it happened.

New data released today by the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows that shows that arctic sea ice is at its lowest summer extent in recent history, continuing a 'stunning reduction' in the amount of sea ice observed during the last four Septembers. According to NSIDC scientists, the Arctic Ocean will probably be ice-free by the end of the century if the current rate of decline continues.

2002?05 sea ice extent

These maps show the difference between "normal" sea ice extent (long-term mean), and the year indicated. The long-term average minimum extent contour (1979-2000) is in magenta. Blue indicates areas where extent is more than the long-term mean; red shows areas where extent is less than the long-term mean. The 2005 map shows a marked reduction over the past four years, all of which were also below average.
[Images: National Snow and Ice Data Center, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder]

With four consecutive years of low summer ice extent, confidence is strengthening that a long-term decline is underway. Walt Meier of NSIDC said, "Having four years in a row with such low ice extents has never been seen before in the satellite record. It clearly indicates a downward trend, not just a short-term anomaly...."

Florence Fetterer, of NSIDC, explained how the situation has changed. "Even if sea ice retreated a lot one summer, it would make a comeback the following winter, when temperatures fall well below freezing," she said. "But in the winter of 2004-2005, sea ice didn't approach the previous wintertime level." This lack of recovery means that the sea ice is not building back up after a summer of melting — leaving it even more susceptible to warmer summer temperatures.

The BBC has a less-technical article on the new sea ice data here.

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:39 AM | Get permalink

It's so rare that our morning starts out with good news.

But it sure did today: US House majority leader Tom DeLay has been indicted on one charge of criminal conspiracy. The indictment may force DeLay to step down from his leadership position in the House, at least temporarily.

Although details aren't yet available, the indictment almost certainly concerns DeLay's role in soliciting allegedly illegal corporate donations for a Texas political action committee that helped cement GOP control of the state's delegation in the House of Representatives in the 2002 elections.

Two DeLay associates were also indicted today.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:53 AM | Get permalink

Bits & pieces.

Some of the stories that have caught our interest in the early morning hours:

Asia Times reports on how a call center in India is fielding inquiries from survivors of Hurricane Rita in Texas. The operators in Gujarat are providing Texans with information about safer locations and relief operations.

The paper also reports that India-based call centers handled most of the calls from people in London and the rest of the UK after the terror attacks this past July.
In the Washington Post, Dana Milbank has a wonderfully catty account of former FEMA director Michael Brown's testimony before the GOP panel looking into the Katrina fiasco.

Brown displayed the command of facts that made him famous over the past month. He did not know how much FEMA had spent on communications, guessing, "a boatload of money." He had to ask members of his entourage how many MREs were in a trailer load. "I don't have a clue how many [people] were truly in the Superdome," he volunteered at one point. Asked whether he is still a federal employee, Brown said: "You know, I don't know." (He is.)
Irish brewer Guinness will be offering a new version of its famous stout in Irish pubs for the next six months. The new brew is called, imaginatively, Brew 39. Like the world needs any flavor of Guinness Stout but the original. [Irish Independent]

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:09 AM | Get permalink

Remember this guy?

He's Josh Rushing, the Marine Corps press officer who sparred with Aljazeera reporters in Control Room, Jehane Noujaim's film about how the world perceived the US-led invastion of Iraq.

[Photo: Magnolia Pictures]
Rushing's interaction with Aljazeera's journalists has led his career in an interesting direction: He's left his job with the Marine Corps to join the new Aljazeera English-language news service, slated to start broadcasting to the US next year. Rushing will be working out of Aljazeera's Washington bureau.

Rushing says he looked into the accusations about Al Jazeera distorting the news, and found nothing to stop him from joining. "I'm not condoning everything they do but the Arab media is a key part of national security and how to deal with Arab world. The network has long been the only one in the region with a point-counterpoint approach, where many others are 'point-point-point.' Al Jazeera, for example regularly has Israeli spokespeople on." Rushing says the State Department and Pentagon have both shown interest in working with the new network.

Rushing thinks part of his mission is to educate the American public on the reality of war. "War in America has its own branding — it's the American flag, it's that Lee Greenwood song, it's a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square. But Americans need to be aware of the consequences."

Via Time.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:04 AM | Get permalink

One of the real lessons of Katrina and Rita.

In today's Washington Post, Manuel Roig-Franzia has a vivid story about how hurricanes Katrina and Rita have caused the wholesale destruction of cities, towns, and settlements in Louisiana's bayou and marsh country. After flying over a 200-mile stretch of the state, from Houma to Lake Charles, Roig-Franzia was struck by how little sign of human settlement remains.

On the ground, the scene is a still life. Most of the bayou towns are empty -- even repair crews cannot get in. And in the places where people have managed to cajole or sneak or power their way in, the plastering that Rita administered is so complete that there is seldom anything to do but stand in awe. They would clean up if there were something there to clean up. But there isn't.

"It's hard to believe what water can do," Jerry Melancon said, standing on the empty ground where his dream pad used to be in Pecan Island, below the expanse of White Lake. "Unbelievable."

It's the following paragraph, though, that seems to be the heart of the story:

Looking down from above, it's clear what functions in Louisiana and what doesn't. The places where the marsh -- run through with brilliant patches of orange amid seas of browns and green -- was allowed to thrive without development are vibrant. The marsh wears a storm well, wrapping water around it like a shawl, guzzling the excess. But the places where people pushed themselves into the marsh -- where houses and businesses sprouted in place of marsh grass and lilies -- are apocalyptic, smashed and eerie zones where the few things left standing are in tatters.

We have to wonder whether this 'message' of the two storms will have much effect on the way that rebuilding [and further development] in the region is carried out.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:03 AM | Get permalink

Uh-oh.

It looks like Twisty Faster's obstreperal lobe may be in danger of popping again. Leastwise, something's gonna pop if those laces give way.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 AM | Get permalink

Ooooooh, shiny!

The first-ever photos of a live giant squid. Japanese scientists were able to take more than 500 pictures of the squid as it attacked a baited hook and then made its escape, minus one of its tentacles. The tentacle was retrieved for study.

Giant squid attacks! For real.

A live giant squid (Architeuthis) measuring roughly 25 feet (8 meters) long attacks a baited fishing line off the Ogasawara Islands.
[Photo: T. Kubodera and K. Mori]

[Squid expert Martin Collins of the British Antarctic Survey] is especially interested in clues the images might provide to the way giant squid swim and hunt in the deep ocean.

"Seeing the animals on film gives you a tremendous insight into how they live down there," he said. "It shows they are pretty active animals, and that answers a big question that's been out there for some time."

Collins says there were two competing schools of thought among giant squid experts.

"One was the idea that [giant squid] were fairly inactive and just drifted around, dangling their tentacles below them like fishing lures to catch what came by," he said.

"The other theory was that they were actually quite active. This new evidence supports this, suggesting they are active predators which can move reasonably quickly."

"The efforts the squid went to untangle itself [from the baited fishing line] also shows they are capable of quite strong and rapid movement," he added.

You can read more details of how Japanese scientists located the squid, and what new information researchers are gleaning from the photos here. There are more photos of this and other giant squids here.

Via National Geographic News.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

The feds screw up the ~~Katrina~~ Rita relief effort.

It seems to be the same old story as residents of SE Texas wait for federal aid to reach them.

In nearby Port Arthur, Mayor Oscar Ortiz also expressed frustration with FEMA's response in his city, which was severely damaged but largely empty after at least 95 percent of its residents evacuated.

Rita left behind upended trees and snapped power lines on nearly every Port Arthur street. Virtually the only movement Monday came from emergency crews, a handful of military personnel and energy trucks repairing lines.

But Ortiz said he had seen only three FEMA officials on the ground as of Monday afternoon. "They are supposedly bringing us some diesel, but I haven't seen it yet," he said. "We are relying on some of the refineries in town to keep us on the road.

"The (FEMA) director is a very nice person," Ortiz added, "but that is not what we need now. We need someone who is going to do what they say they are going to do."

The mayor said there were not enough supplies for residents who remained in the city during the storm and the few who had slipped back in since it passed. In addition, there were 700 to 800 emergency personnel in the area, as well as about 700 energy workers who needed supplies.

Andre Wimer, city manager of Nederland said he was tired of getting the run-around from federal officials.

"We spend the day faxing and talking, and we don't get any feedback," Wimer said.

"I realize that there is a significant logistics issue, and I appreciate that. But there is a significant amount of equipment and manpower sitting at (local FEMA headquarters), and for whatever reason, it has not been released," Wimer said.

Via Houston Chronicle.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, September 27

Another time, another hurricane ...

... and a completely different president.

In September of 1965, New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Betsy. The hurricane brought wind gusts of up to 165 miles per hour and, as with hurricane Katrina, the levees failed to hold and much of New Orleans was flooded. About 250,000 people were driven from their homes in what was the worst disaster to hit the city since the turn of the 20th century.

The day after Betsy's landfall, President Lyndon Johnson got a phone call from Russell Long, one of Louisiana's US senators. Long suggested that it would helpful to New Orleans — and a good idea for LBJ politically — if the president were to visit the city. Within hours, LBJ was on his way to New Orleans. David Remnick takes up the story from there:

Even at the airport, Johnson began to get a sense of the damage wrought by Betsy. "Parts of the roofing of the terminal were torn away and several of the large windows were broken," the diary reads. "The members of the Presidential party had seen from the air a preview of the city — water over 3/4 of the city up to the eaves of the homes, etc." At the urging of the mayor of New Orleans — a diminutive conservative Democrat named Victor Hugo Schiro, whom Johnson referred to as "Little Mayor" — the President decided to tour the flooded areas. His motorcade stopped on a bridge spanning the Industrial Canal, in the eastern part of the city, and from there the Presidential party saw whole neighborhoods engulfed by floods. They could see, according to the diary, that "people were walking along the bridge where they had disembarked from the boats that had brought them to dry land. Many of them were carrying the barest of their possessions and many of them had been sitting on top of their houses waiting for rescue squads to retrieve the families and carry them to dry land." Johnson talked with a seventy-four-year-old black man named William Marshall and asked about what had happened and how he was getting along. As the conversation ended, Marshall said, "God bless you, Mr. President. God ever bless you."

In the Ninth Ward, Johnson visited the George Washington Elementary School, on St. Claude Avenue, which was being used as a shelter. "Most of the people inside and outside of the building were Negro," the diary reads. "At first, they did not believe that it was actually the President." Johnson entered the crowded shelter in near-total darkness; there were only a couple of flashlights to lead the way.

"This is your President!" Johnson announced. "I'm here to help you!"

The diary describes the shelter as a "mass of human suffering," with people calling out for help "in terribly emotional wails from voices of all ages. . . . It was a most pitiful sight of human and material destruction." According to an article by the historian Edward F. Haas, published fifteen years ago in the Gulf Coast Historical Review, Johnson was deeply moved as people approached and asked him for food and water; one woman asked Johnson for a boat so that she could look for her two sons, who had been lost in the flood.

"Little Mayor, this is horrible," Johnson said to Schiro. "I've never seen anything like this in my life." Johnson assured Schiro that the resources of the federal government were at his disposal and that "all red tape [will] be cut."

The President flew back to Washington and the next day sent Schiro a sixteen-page telegram outlining plans for aid and the revival of New Orleans. "Please know," Johnson wrote, "that my thoughts and prayers are with you and the thousands of Louisiana citizens who have suffered so heavily."

Quite a difference from the current occupant of the White House, who was afraid to visit the disaster area for days after Katrina hit. And who, even then, was willing to appear only in intensely stage-managed events.

That description of LBJ's trip to New Orleans comes from the beginning of David Remnick's excellent piece in the current New Yorker. Remnick segues from Betsy to the present day, and looks at how different people in New Orleans reacted to the disaster. It should go right to the top of your must-read list.

| | Posted by Magpie at 6:54 PM | Get permalink

Wanna know why the levees failed in New Orleans?

Then check out David Sirota's article about how the GOP's budget-cutting mania made it just a matter of time until New Orleans fell victim to a major hurricane.

Despite what right-wingers are saying, environmentalists didn't cause the disaster. Instead, it 's Dubya and the right-wing Republican Congress who share the blame. They started turning their budget axe on the Army Corps of Engineers and its projects in the New Orleans area all the way back in the prez's first budget in 2001 — and their penny-wise, pound-foolish fiscal policies led to the Gulf Coast disaster that the nation is dealing today.

The Washington Times headline on January 20, 2004, told it all: "Bush Wants Tax Cuts to Stay." The article reported that even with a war, record budget deficits and dangerously crumbling infrastructure, the president would make a new, $1 trillion tax cut plan the centerpiece of his State of the Union address.

And once again, just days after the speech, the White House on February 2 released a budget with another massive cut to infrastructure and public works projects — this time to the tune of $460 million. As the Denver Post later reported, "the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control project sought $100 million in U.S. aid to strengthen the levees holding back the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, but the Bush administration offered a paltry $16.5 million." The Chicago Tribune noted that the Army Corps of Engineers had also requested $27 million to pay for hurricane protection upgrades around Lake Pontchartrain?but the White House pared that back to $3.9 million. Meanwhile, budget cuts forced the corps to delay seven projects that included enlarging critical levees.

These latest cuts came just as the previous ones were starting to wreak havoc. Five days after Bush?s budget was released, the Times-Picayune reported that "the Army Corps of Engineers doesn?t have money to keep its dozen major flood-protection projects going" simultaneously.

More bad news arrived in the spring. Gaps in levees around Lake Pontchartrain, which were supposed to be filled by 2004, would not be filled because of budget shortfalls. Corps officials told the Times-Picayune in April "that the lack of money will leave gaps in the structure, weakening its effectiveness and pushing back its completion date." Worse, because budget cuts had been compounding for three years straight, "even after all the gaps are closed, the levee must settle for several more years until it reaches its final height." By June, the newspaper reported that "for the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area?s east bank hurricane levees."

Sirota's story contains much more than the excerpt above. Make sure to go ">over here and read the rest of it.

Via In These Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:15 PM | Get permalink

Dubya, environmentalist. [Part 2]

Earlier on today, we questioned the sincerity of Dubya's call for people in the US to conserve energy, given his administration's miserable record on the topic.

Obviously, the rumblings of derision on this issue have reached the White House, as press secretary Scott McClellan felt obliged to discuss the prez's conservation record in today's press gaggle:

MR. McCLELLAN: [...] And encouraging conservation has been something that this administration has always done. If you'll recall, back in 2001, we took a number of actions to promote energy conservation, including providing conservation grants to accelerate the development of fuel cells, to promote the advancement of -- to encourage the development of technologically advanced engines, to encourage development of hydrogen technology for cars and buildings of the future. And these were steps we took to really look at new ways to produce power and develop vehicles that will dramatically lower emissions and get more power out of fuel units.

And there are a number of steps we took back in the summer of 2001. I would encourage you to look back at those actions that we took. We also took actions at the White House to promote energy conservation and increase energy efficiency. There were actions we took when it came to turning off lights, turning off computers, increasing thermostats, and things of that nature. And that information is all available --

Q Back then?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, all available on our website. That's why I'm saying that -- what the President said yesterday really built upon the actions that we've already been taking.

So what are those conservation measures that the administration is so proud of? Go take a look.

And try not to laugh too loud, okay?

| | Posted by Magpie at 3:13 PM | Get permalink

No Flying Spaghetti Monster here, sadly.

But we can offer you the Intelligent Designer's Prayer:

Our Intelligent Designer,
Who art in the unspecified-good-place,
Unknown be Thy name.
Thy flagella spin, Thy mousetraps snap,
On Earth, as it is in the
Unspecified-good-place.
Give us each day our unchecked apologetic.
And forgive us our invidious comparisons,
As we smite those iniquitous Darwinists
With rhetoric.
And lead us not into encounters with people
Who ask us to state our theory,
But deliver us from biologists
Who know what we're up to.
For Thine is the irreducible complexity,
And the wiggly parts of bacterial bottoms,
And the inapplicable theorems,
Now and forever.

Amen.

Via The Panda's Thumb.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:35 PM | Get permalink

The anti-terror craziness isn't just a US thing.

Australia's government is suffering from the disease, too.

The right-wing government of Liberal party PM John Howard has enacted a draconian set of anti-terror laws. The new laws allow authorities to detain terror suspects for up to 48 hours without making any charge, and permit the use of electronic tracking devices to monitor 'terror suspects.'

Under the planned changes, existing sedition laws are to be replaced by a new law making it a crime to incite violence against the community or against Australian soldiers serving overseas or to support Australia's enemies....

Howard agreed to a demand by the states and territories for a review of the new laws, which have been condemned by civil rights activists, after five years and a sunset clause meaning that they would have to be reauthorized after 10 years....

Police would also have wider powers to stop and search people, and it would become a crime to leave any baggage unattended at an airport.

The law was adopted with the collusion of the Australian Labor Party — an opposition party that's becoming as hard to distinguish from the right-wing Liberals as it can be difficult to tell Democrats from Republicans in the US. Labor controls all of Australia's state goverments, which had to sign on to the anti-terror legislation to make it effective.

We were especially disturbed by Labor's acceptance of the 'sunset' clause for the anti-terror laws, given how ineffective a similar clause has been in reining back the USA Patriot Act.

Via Reuters.

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:17 PM | Get permalink

Where do your donations to the Red Cross go?

At least some of that money helps to pay the salaries of Red Cross lobbyists working in support of the US religious right. Or, at the very least, looking to the feds to help the organization out financial problems caused by Hurricane Katrina.

Check out the lead on this Washington Post story:

After weeks of prodding by Republican lawmakers and the American Red Cross, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said yesterday that it will use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have opened their doors to provide shelter, food and supplies to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

[Notice how the Post uses the word 'prodding' instead of calling the Red Cross' efforts what they were: Lobbying.]

Unitl now, religious organizations have not received federal funds for their charitable and relief work during disasters. But Red Cross officials have apparently worked hard to get FEMA to make a change for the Katrina relief effort, arguing that the scale of the disaster put an extraordinary financial burden on churches, synagogues, and mosques — and, not incidentally, the Red Cross. Others, however, don't buy this reasoning:

Civil liberties groups called the decision a violation of the traditional boundary between church and state, accusing FEMA of trying to restore its battered reputation by playing to religious conservatives.

"What really frosts me about all this is, here is an administration that didn't do its job and now is trying to dig itself out by making right-wing groups happy," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State....

"We've never complained about using a religious organization as a distribution point for food or clothing or anything else," Lynn said. But "direct cash reimbursements would be unprecedented."

The FEMA payments may put some houses of worship in a bind:

Some said they were eager to get the money and had begun tallying their costs, from electric bills to worn carpets. Others said they probably would not apply for the funds, fearing donations would dry up if the public came to believe they were receiving government handouts.

"Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer," said the Rev. Robert E. Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board. "We would never ask the government to pay for it."

Amen to that last.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:34 PM | Get permalink

Why fighting the censors matters.

In the current issue of The Book Standard, Young adult author Chris Crutcher has a few choice words for the self-appointed guardians of public morals:

The censorship business has become more contentious. Authors who tell tough stories in tough language push the idea of standing up against some power-freak authority, dare to portray a gay character in a positive light or write about issues that the censors wish didn't exist are vilified. The stories are called obscene, vulgar. Talk about it long enough and the word "evil" will pop up. And make no mistake about it: Ninety-plus percent of the time when I hear one of my books has been challenged or banned, and I chase down the source, the road leads to the entrance of a Christian church. There are Christians out there who don't believe in freedom; who don't believe we are better off bringing hard truths out into the open and discussing them, than pretending they don't exist. Toxic ideas poison the mind, they say. Can?t get 'em out.

And they believe they have the right?the duty?to "protect" everyone from them.

Our schools are filled with kids who have been treated badly all their lives. They don't tell anyone, because there is shame in being treated badly. Many — girls and boys — have been sexually mistreated. Still others struggle in fear with sexual identity. They respond with eating disorders, cutting, suicidal thought or action. I can't tell you how many letters I've received from kids who found a friend in one of my books, a character who speaks to them. And if I get those letters, think of the letters Walter Dean Myers, or Lois Lowry, or Judy Blume get, thanking us for letting them know, through literature, that they are not alone.

In light of all that, there's really only one thing to say to the censors. Shut up.

You can read Crutcher's full article here. His website is here.

Via Blog of a Bookslut.

| | Posted by Magpie at 1:04 PM | Get permalink

Dubya, environmentalist?

We see that Dubya wants people to conserve energy by driving less. And he wants the federal government to 'lead when it comes to conservation.'

Two other points I want to make is, one, we can all pitch in by using -- by being better conservers of energy. I mean, people just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption and that if they're able to maybe not drive when they -- on a trip that's not essential, that would [be] helpful. The federal government can help, and I've directed the federal agencies nationwide -- and here's some ways we can help. We can curtail nonessential travel. If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darn sure makes sense for federal employees. We can encourage employees to carpool or use mass transit. And we can shift peak electricity use to off-peak hours. There's ways for the federal government to lead when it comes to conservation.

No, the prez hasn't suddenly become an environmentalist — he's just hoping that if people drive less, the post-Katrina oil shortages will be less obvious and the increased gas prices will be not quite as painful — and that people won't point the finger of blame at him.

If Dubya was really concerned about conservation, his administration wouldn't have opposed increasing fuel efficiency for cars and SUVs almost since the day it took office. And it wouldn't be pushing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge instead of taking measures to reduce petroleum use. And it wouldn't be handing out billions of dollars of subsidies to oil and natural gas companies as it did in the energy bill passed by Congress earlier this year.

But we're not supposed to remember that any of that stuff happened, right?

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:19 PM | Get permalink

The White House might think the US economy is doing fine.

But that view isn't shared by the rest of the country.

Each month, the Conference Board puts out a set of figures on consumer and business confidence in the US economy. Those figures are widely looked to as an indication of where the economy is heading over the next few months.

The board's latest figures, for September, are not happy news. While both business indexes took substantial drops between August and September, the consumer index 'plummeted.' .' Consumer confidence is now at its lowest level in two years, dropping more than twice as fast as experts had predicted.

Just a response to Hurricane Katrina? Or a sign of bigger economic problems? Our money is on the latter.

Via Reuters.

More: In more bad economic news, new housing starts in the US dropped by 9.9 percent last month. This is the steepest drop since the beginning of 2005.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:02 PM | Get permalink

Just like a bad penny.

Ex-FEMA head Michael Brown keeps turning up this week, well after we'd have thought his resignation in disgrace after helping to bungle the Katrina relief effort would have taken him out of the news. At least for awhile, anyway.

Yesterday, we posted on how FEMA has hired Brown back as a consultant, so that he can analyze the very relief effort that he helped screw up so thoroughly. Today, we have Brown testifying in front of the House GOP's investigation into what went wrong after Katrina — you know, this is the probe that's so laden with problems that Democratic members of the House have refused to participate.

So who does Brown think was responsible for the incompetent response to Katrina? The governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Oreleans, of course. Definitely not FEMA. Or the prez.

The contempt that Dubya's administration has for the intelligence of the US public knows no bounds.

Via Boston Globe.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:49 AM | Get permalink

Déjà vu all over again, Gulf Coast style.

Since the first major hurricane hit the Gulf Coast, Dubya and members of his administration have talked a lot abouut how the feds have learned 'the lessons of Hurricane Katrina,' and how everything is different now. From the reports we're seeing on the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, the only lesson they learned appears to be to get the prez into the disaster area as quickly and often as possible — that way, public and press attention is drawn away from the fact that disaster 'relief' is proceeding in the same old incompetent and inadequate manner.

Via Sarah Posner at The Gadflyer, we have a couple of very familiar sounding news stories from the Hurricane Rita disaster area.

First, there's this one, about the situation in Jasper, Texas:

"We sustained hurricane winds of about 100 to 120 mph for about a nine-hour period, so we have thousands of trees down within our city," said Jasper Police Chief Todd Hunter, who paused during a hectic day to sound a shrill note of alarm. "Our city is without gas. We have no gas except to run emergency vehicles, This city is without food. There were some MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) brought in yesterday, but it was not enough.

"People are becoming desperate. They've been three days without water. They weren't prepared," he added. He asked people to call their state representatives and senators and "try to encourage them to get our food and get our water to us, because we're desperate and we need them now. People have been without all basic needs for days."

Denise Kelley, Jasper's acting city manager, warned the emergency cannot be quickly resolved.

"We are told it could be anywhere from one to two months before we get power again," said Kelley, speaking outside the city's Emergency Operations Center. [Lufkin Daily News]

And then this one here about FEMA's general sluggishness:

"Get us the fuel. Get us the water. Get us the food," said Port Arthur, Texas, Mayor Oscar Ortiz. "They (FEMA) promised they were going to bring me a truckload of fuel. They promised they were going to bring me a truckload of food. It hasn't happened yet." [USA Today]

So how many more hurricanes will people have to suffer through before Dubya's administration learns a lesson that doesn't have anything to do with handling its post-disaster PR better?

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:18 AM | Get permalink

Even we could have predicted this.

But not Dubya's administration or the congressional Republicans. Hell, they don't even want to acknowledge the problem now that it's staring them right in the face.

What are we talking about? The fact that the new bankruptcy law will make life miserable for survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The new law is much more restrictive than the current one, and it kicks in on October 17.

To understand what we mean, just put yourself in the place of a survivor for a moment: Your house is destroyed. Your job is gone. Your life is shattered. Federal aid helps you some in rebuilding, but you still have to take on a lot of debt to get things back in some sort of order. Your creditors start hounding you and you decide you need the protection of bankruptcy.

Don't hold your breath looking for relief, since the new bankruptcy law doesn't care why you went bankrupt. Just as the credit card companies on whose behest the new law was written don't care if you were pushed over the financial edge by long-term unemployment or a mountain of medical bills, they really don't care if you lost everything in a natural disaster.

So if you had a relatively high income before the hurricane hit, you can expect to be held in bankruptcy for several years longer than you would otherwise, so that you can use that high income to pay off your debts. Never mind that your highly paid job blew away with the wind. And you'll need to go through the mandatory credit counseling, too, even though a hurricane caused your financial problems, not bad management. Oh, and there's all those additional records the new law requires debtors to produce. Too bad they were destroyed by Katrina or Rita, isn't it?

Even worse, all of the effects of the new bankruptcy law will hit hurricane survivors long after the public stops paying attention to them. According to a study by University of Nevada professor Robert Lawless, the financial effects of a major hurricane don't peak until two or three years after the storm hit — after the infusion of federal disaster aid has dried up.

The obvious solution to the problem is to loosen the bankruptcy requirements for hurricane survivors and, in fact, US senator Russ Feingold has introduced a bill that would do just that. Under that bill, hurricane survivors could file for bankruptcy under the current, more relaxed law until October 2006, and they would be exempted from the credit counseling requirement.

Neither the White House or congressional Republicans are having any of this, though:

Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. of Wisconsin, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, rejected the notion of reopening the legislation, saying it already included provisions that would ensure that people left "down and out" by the storm would still be able to shed most of their debts. Lawmakers who lost the long fight over the law, he said, "ought to get over it," according to The Associated Press.

A White House spokesman, Trent Duffy, said the administration "doesn't see a lot of merit" in calls to delay the law's effective date but was considering making allowances for hurricane victims.

That's pretty damn compassionate conservatism, isn't it?

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:41 AM | Get permalink

It's the obligatory post ...

... for Serenity, the Joss Whedon sci-fi film based on his 2002?03 TV series Firefly.

Disclosure: Universal is trying to generate blog comment as part of its marketing campaign for the film and, like a ton of other bloggers, we got free tickets to a screening of Serenity before the film offically hits theaters later in the week. [Our first-ever perk for having a blog, by the way.]

On the bridge of Serenity

On the bridge of the Firefly-class freighter, Serenity.
So is Serenity any good?

Well, it's good enough to deserve a post here even if we'd had to pay to see it. [If you want to try to buy a good review from this magpie, you'll have to do way better than a free movie ticket.] We didn't find the film as intimate as the series, and there are some aspects of Serenity that were definitely calculated to appeal to that important 18-to-25 year male demographic. [You'll know them when you see them.] Nonetheless, the film is very good overall, if not the brilliant sci-fi epic hoped for by hardcore Firefly geeks.

If you haven't seen Firefly, don't worry ? familiarity with the TV series isn't needed to enjoy the film. Actually, if you have seen the series, there are a few things in the film that will probably piss you off. In either case, though, we definitely recommend catching Serenity when it opens in your town [which in the US is on Sept. 30] — especially if you see it at a matinee.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Monday, September 26

Guess who's back?

CBS reporter Gloria Borger says that FEMA has hired its former head, Michael Brown, as a consultant. What's his job, you ask? Evaluating FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina.

Via Raw Story.

| | Posted by Magpie at 5:52 PM | Get permalink

Meanwhile, back at the avian flu pandemic.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is warning that world governments are falling down on their commitment to fight the spread of avian flu in animals. While nations have pledged US$ 100 million to this effort, says the FAO, only US$ 16.5 million has actually been delivered.

UN health officials are particularly worried about the H5N1 flu strain. So far, there have been 120 reported human cases of the virus, and about half of those people have died. While human-to-human transmission of H5N1 is currently very difficult, the UN warns that the virus could mutate into a form that's transmitted more easily. If that happens, a global flu pandemic is the likely result, with all of the accompanying social and economic disruptions.

"Strong national veterinary services are essential to improve the early detection of avian influenza. The rapid exchange and analysis of virus samples require additional resources to immediately respond to avian influenza outbreaks," [FAO's Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech] added.

The circulation of so much influenza virus in animals in many countries in close proximity to humans remains a major risk factor that could trigger a pandemic, FAO warned. There is still a small window of opportunity before winter to reduce the levels of infection through vaccination of poultry, it added.

In countries like Viet Nam it is the only way that the can be dampened down in the short time available. It involves mass vaccination of poultry, especially in the smallholder sector where there is also close contact between poultry and humans.

Via UN News Service.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:49 AM | Get permalink

The Gulf Coast relief effort.

It's starting to look more and more like the reconstruction of Iraq. You remember: the effort supervised by the Coalition Provisional Authority that was characerized by no-bid contracts to US companies which then provided goods and services at inflated costs — if they actually bothered to do any work at all.

An examination of US$ 1.5 billion worth of contracts awarded by FEMA shows that more than 80 percent of these contracts were awarded without bidding or with limited competition. The door appears to be wide open for cronyism and sweetheart deals. And yes, Halliburton has gotten some of the work.

Already, questions have been raised about the political connections of two major contractors - the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton - that have been represented by the lobbyist Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former leader of FEMA....

Some industry and government officials questioned the costs of the debris-removal contracts, saying the Army Corps of Engineers had allowed a rate that was too high. And Congressional investigators are looking into the $568 million awarded to AshBritt, a Pompano Beach, Fla., company that was a client of the former lobbying firm of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

The investigators are asking how much money AshBritt will collect and, in turn, what it will pay subcontractors performing the work, said a House investigator who did not want her name used because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The contracts also show considerable price disparities: travel trailers costing $15,000 to $23,000, housing inspection services that documents suggest could cost $15 to $81 per home, and ferries and ships being used for temporary housing that cost $13 million to $70 million for six months.

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:42 AM | Get permalink

We wouldn't want to tie the US military's hands, would we?

The only hands that should be tied are those of the military's prisoners. Before they get stacked in a pile or beaten with baseball bats.

In the light of recent revelations that more widespread torture of Iraqi prisoners by US troops, US senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and John Warner [all Republicans, incidentally] are proposing an amendment to a defense bill that would require the US military to observe the Geneva Convention.

McCain noted too that he wanted prohibitions against torture underscored in the Army Field Manual, which he said "is the document that the Army goes by and the military goes by when in the process of interrogation and treatment of prisoners."

The White House has indicated that Dubya will probably veto any bill that contains the Geneva Convention amendment [Go down to the end of the story].

Big surprise, huh?

Via LA Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:26 AM | Get permalink

The Gulf Coast relief effort.

Already, questions have been raised about the political connections of two major contractors - the Shaw Group and Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton - that have been represented by the lobbyist Joe M. Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former leader of FEMA....

Some industry and government officials questioned the costs of the debris-removal contracts, saying the Army Corps of Engineers had allowed a rate that was too high. And Congressional investigators are looking into the $568 million awarded to AshBritt, a Pompano Beach, Fla., company that was a client of the former lobbying firm of Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

The investigators are asking how much money AshBritt will collect and, in turn, what it will pay subcontractors performing the work, said a House investigator who did not want her name used because she was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The contracts also show considerable price disparities: travel trailers costing $15,000 to $23,000, housing inspection services that documents suggest could cost $15 to $81 per home, and ferries and ships being used for temporary housing that cost $13 million to $70 million for six months.

Via NY Times.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 AM | Get permalink

Sunday, September 25

Oh, there was a pro-Iraq war rally in Washington, DC today.

Backers of Dubya's Iraq policies were able to muster 400 people for the demonstration. Organizers had hoped that as many as 20,000 people would show up.

Yesterday's antiwar demonstration, by contrast, was attended by at least 150,000 people.

Via AP.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:48 PM | Get permalink

Why have gas prices risen in the US?

The first two paragraphs of a Washington Post story on profits in the oil industry pretty much say it all:

When the average price of a gallon of regular gasoline peaked at $3.07 recently, it was partly because the nation's refineries were getting an estimated 99 cents on each gallon sold. That was more than three times the amount they earned a year ago when regular unleaded was selling for $1.87.

The companies that pump oil from the ground swept in an additional 47 cents on each gallon, a 46 percent jump over the same period. [Emphasis added]

The Post story is full of quotes from oil industry representatives and analysts, most of whom try to rationalize how such a dramatic increase in profits could occur over such a short time period.

But none of them address what we see as the most basic question: How could the cost of refining oil have possibly risen so much in one year that it justifies a 300 percent rise in the amount that refiners take in for each gallon sold? We're sure that the industry mouthpieces no doubt have a spreadsheet that 'explains' this rise. And we're just as sure that this spreadsheet could be submitted for any of the major prizes in fiction.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:36 PM | Get permalink

Whoever would have thought ...

That there could possibly be so many cover versions of that bit of insanity, They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha Haaa!.

Take him away, ha haaa!

Original US album cover, 1966.
If you go here, you can read an interview with Jerry Samuels, the recording engineer who wrote and recorded the original record back in the mid-1960s.

Via WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:12 PM | Get permalink