At least tens of thousands of veterans with non-critical medical issues could suffer delayed or even denied care in coming years to enable
President Bush to meet his promise of cutting the deficit in half — if the White House is serious about its proposed budget…
… In fact, the proposed cuts are so draconian that it seems to some that the White House is simply making them up to make its long-term deficit figures look better. More realistic numbers, however, would raise doubts as to whether Bush can keep his promise to wrestle the deficit under control by the time he leaves office.
Do we even have to think about whether BushCo is serious about screwing the veterans? Hopefully, the politicians who want to get re-elected will push back on this.
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial foundation has raised nearly enough money to break ground on a National Mall tribute to the slain civil rights leader that is expected to be finished for the 40th anniversary of King’s 1968 assassination.
Joining 10 other monuments on the Mall in Washington, the memorial would sit near war memorials and tributes to presidents Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington and Franklin Roosevelt. King’s memorial would be the first not dedicated to a president or a military veteran and the first honoring an African American.
Fundraisers have been held across the country for the $100 million monument of granite and flowing water, which is meant recall the images of mountains and streams King used in his 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Here is a good place to plug Carnacki’s excellent diary about the recent discovery of photo negatives from the civil rights fight. The pictures are amazing.
SEATTLE – Octavia E. Butler, considered the first black woman to gain national prominence as a science fiction writer, has died, a close friend said Sunday. She was 58.
….
Jane Jewell, executive director of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, said Butler was one of the first black women to explore the genre and the most prominent. But Butler would have been a major writer of science fiction regardless of race or gender, she said.
FWIW, I just want to say that I highly recommend Octavia Butler’s work. She was, indeed, a great science fiction writer, but she was one of those whom I enthusiastically recommend even to people who don’t generally like science fiction.
Her work is generally quite dark, but almost always with hopeful and human overtones. Her major focus was on the adaptability of people and human community in the face of extremely hard and frightening circumstances.
This is truly sad news. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite writers. One of the authors whom I would buy any new book immediately, including her latest The Fledgling, which was excellent.
Ms. Butler used SF masterfully to examine race, difference, religion, and gender.
Effa Manley became the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame when the former Newark Eagles co-owner was among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen Monday by a special committee.
“This is a historic day at the Hall of Fame,” shrine president Dale Petroskey said. “I hoped that someday there would be a woman in the Hall. It’s a pretty proud moment.”…
… “She did a lot for the Newark community. She was just a well-rounded influential person,” Irvin said. “She tried to organize the owners to build their own parks and have a balanced schedule and to really improve the lot of the Negro League players.”
Manley was white, but married a black man and passed as a black woman, said Larry Lester, a baseball author and member of the voting committee.
“She campaigned to get as much money as possible for these ballplayers, and rightfully so,” Lester said.
Manley used baseball to advance civil rights causes with events such as an Anti-Lynching Day at the ballpark. She died in 1981 at age 84.
I admit it, I love the Baseball Hall of Fame…especially the bracelet Lou Gehrig had made for his wife from his championship pins and medals. Anybody else seen that?
I saw an example this morning of the effect blogs are having on newspapers.
I quit getting my hometown paper delivered over a year ago because I was so disgusted with its conservative slant on things – especially the editorials. But I do go check in daily on-line because I need to keep up on local news.
Today they had 2 of their regular articles about local stories that allowed “comments” just like a scoop blog.
At least it was on cable. There was also a judiciary committee hearing at the same time, part 2 of the domestic spying. Only Pacifica Radio carried it live. Only 8 of the 18 senators even showed up. I woke up too late to hear it, but think that I heard that Feinstein didn’t even show up.
DOJ doesn’t want Ashcroft or Comey to testify now . . .
This is shamefull. In the hearing I saw, one of the Republican senators was softballing some tech questions to Hayden. He justified the lack of tech awareness as a normal preference but I think it’s important enough in these times that all elected officials have at least a basic understanding.
The calls to Washington Journal have been fun to watch evolve. Many republicans are renouncing their affiliation and a staggering number of bipartisan calls to clean house are heard. The next election could very well be the new faces of tomorrow
Still mopping up the backlog of science, health, and environmental news from the last few days…
A new study details the link between rheumatoid arthritis and lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system); the effect is not between the drugs used to treat RA and cancer, but between the prolonged severe inflammation associated with severe cases of RA. Meanwhile, another study has identified how gold treatments work – used for RA and diseases like lupus for over 75 years. Gold (and also platinum) interact with key immune proteins, rendering them inactive.
Mangrove plants, whose finger-like roots are known to protect coastal wetlands against the ocean and as important fish habitats, cover less than 0.1 percent of the global land surface yet account for a tenth of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) that flows from land to the ocean. Researchers suggest that the plants are one of the main sources of dissolved organic matter in the ocean. They note that the organic matter that is dissolved in the world oceans contains a similar amount of carbon as is stored in the skies as atmospheric carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. Dissolved organic matter is an important player in the global carbon cycle that regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate, so preserving the mangrove forests is essential to avoid disrupting this link between the land and ocean ecologies.
What does J. Craig Venter, the man who mapped the human genome, have in common with Def Leppard? Here’s your hint:
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Everybody needs a main attraction
I got what everybody needs
Satisfaction guaranteed
Everybody wants a piece of the action
Yes, you guessed right, Mr. Venter is getting into the cornstalks to ethanol business. He also wants to modify bacteria to produce hydrogen as well. Using $15 billion from a Mexican investor, Venter has joined with some Nobel-Prize winners to form Synthetic Genomics, Inc. in Rockville, MD. Venter predicts “Genomics is going to do for the energy and chemical field what it did in the early 1990s for medical biotechnology.”
New research suggests that the “Little Ice Age” – roughly from 1500 to 1800 – may have been a consequence of the Black Plague that killed 1/3 of Europe’s population. Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This appears to support the hypothesis of William Ruddiman who has suggested that the decimation of Native American populations after the arrival of the Conquistadors and the drop in European population due to plagues before the fall of Rome likewise led to agricultural collapse and reversion to forests, also contributing to periods of global cooling – and that humans may have been influencing the climate since the invention of agriculture.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) plans to introduce legislation this week requiring nuclear facilities to notify state and local officials of unintended or accidental radioactive leaks — or face possible loss of their operating licenses. This follows on the heels of repeated leaks of radiation from Exelon Corp. facilities near Chicago, and lax federal oversight.
A draft of the next influential UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will tell politicians that scientists are now unable to place a reliable upper limit on how quickly the atmosphere will warm as carbon dioxide levels increase. The report draws together research over the past five years and will be presented to national governments in April and made public next year. It raises the possibility of the Earth’s temperature rising well above the ceiling quoted in earlier accounts. More information here.
From the Guardian and NY Times, via Grist: A Nigerian court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to ante up $1.5 billion in damages to communities in the Niger Delta, citing oil spills that polluted regional rivers, spoiled crops, and poisoned fish. The Friday ruling is a major victory for the region’s Ijaw people, who have struggled for over a decade to get compensation for environmental damages. Shell says it will appeal. The court ruling comes during an upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta, where local communities live in squalor despite the region’s oil riches. The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta kidnapped several employees of a U.S. oil industry subcontractor nine days ago and demanded that foreign oil firms leave the region. The group’s attacks over the past two months have shut down almost a fifth of the country’s oil production.
The remains of a beaver-like fossil dating to the Jurassic period have been discovered in China. It dates back to 164 million years ago, a time when mammals were thought to be primitive creatures confined to land. But this animal was adapted to life in water, meaning scientists may now have to rethink their theories. The creature had fur, a broad scaly tail, and webbed feet for swimming. It was about the size of a small female platypus and had seal-like teeth for eating fish. Castorocauda lutrasimilis resembled a modern-day beaver, but belonged to a group that became extinct long before rodents appeared.
The health benefits of chocolate continue to be reported. Here’s the latest study, with the delightful [if misleading] headline “Eating chocolate may halve risk of dying.” [Does that mean a 50% chance of immortality and on a high-chocolate diet? Sign me up!]
DuPont has allocated nearly 10 percent of its $1.3 billion research budget to extracting ingredients from carbohydrates rather than from hydrocarbons, looking forward to the day when it will have to rely on renewable sources rather than petrochemicals for its feedstock for chemical production.
Maybe it was a protest State and local wildlife experts are trying to figure out what led more than a thousand flounder, spot and pin fish to beach themselves at the Marine Corps’ New River air base — and then swim away. They believe it may be related to a popular phenomenon known in coastal Alabama as “jubilee.” The fish surfaced in shallow water Friday morning. They were lethargic, but alive. “It’s kind of strange,” said Mike Sanderford, New River Riverkeeper. “It’s a bunch of fish up here, but they’re not dead. They’re almost docile.” When he arrived, Sanderford said, the fish were lying in shallow water and allowed him to touch them before they swam away. Representatives of the Division of Water Quality, N.C. Marine Fisheries and N.C. Marine Patrol checked on the fish along the air station’s shoreline Friday morning. One expert estimated about 1,000 to 1,500 were crowded in the waterline. But by afternoon, they were gone. The timing matched another oddity: the water’s oxygen level, which veered from one extreme to the other.
The NY Times delivers a pointed rebuke to the administration – Leave the National Parks alone: The Interior Department has extended the period in which the public may comment on the National Park Service’s controversial plan to rewrite the management policies for the national parks. But the extension was unnecessary, just as the rewrite itself is unnecessary. The public has already spoken and so have its elected representatives. Their central message is that the administrations proposed revisions will serve no one, least of all the parks, and that the Interior Department would be well advised to abandon the effort.Full editorial here
Looking more likely that the terrorists’ linchpin will be the knockout for Bu$hco and GOP. Only GOPs can keep us safe. Dems are weak. Well, it’s a rock and a hard place, painted into a corner for Dubya.
Why? Expectations for the hearings on the Hill demanding a 45-day review to reverse the deal. Recall Dubya saying nothing to worry about, ‘port security is the Coast Guard responsibility’?
[t]he memo vindicated lawmakers’ opposition to the deal. “We need to know why Homeland Security objected and then backed off their objection, given this devastating report,” Mr Schumer said.
The memo said intelligence gaps included questions about the “security environment” at all of DP World’s terminal operations, and the backgrounds of all DP World personnel.emphasis mine
[..]
Someone wanted this deal. Snow, is that you? Rummy, no you weren’t in the loop?
[E]arlier, lawyers for P&O said it was not correct that the deal would automatically be blocked in the US if a fresh review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (Cfius) still had security concerns. “There is at present no legal mechanism by which the transaction can be blocked other than by order of the president,” said Martin Moore. Rather, he said, such an outcome would raise “a range” of possibilities – with divestment of the US assets being a “last resort”.emphasis mine
[..]
There we have it. Hog tied. Even if after the review CFIUS still had security concerns?
So it’s not just about losing jobs. A nix, and our bankers will foreclose, bringing us to our knees. Everyone will have to fall in line as Dubya works his way out of this corner. Anyway, he’s yet to veto anything.
And the “we fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them here” meme has come home to roost.
And now Negroponte is calling Chavez’s arms purchases from Russia an unfair burden on Venezuela’s people.
I think the people might disagree with him in light of the threat coming from the U.S.
I see Chavez as attempting to protect his country from a preemptive strike from the U.S.
Where else would he purchase his defensive weapons from?
Can these guys, (like GWB) not hear themselves when they speak? Negroponte went on to say the Ven people weren’t ignorant of the govt wasting money on extravagant policy while the people are mired in poverty and need. All this while justifying hundreds of billions in defense spending…d’oh!
Guardian, (UK) is reporting that accused of anti-semitism, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone’s 4 week suspension has been stayed by the courts allowing him to remain in office while he fights the suspension.
Mr Livingstone, who was suspended after the government body ruled that he had brought his office into disrepute by comparing a Jewish Evening Standard reporter to a concentration camp guard, said earlier this morning that he would take the case to the appeal court and “most probably” the Lords, even if it cost him “hundreds of thousands of pounds”. He added that he had no intention of apologising for his remarks.
“For far too long the accusation of anti-semitism has been used against anybody who is critical of the policies of the Israeli government,” Mr Livingstone said in a statement delivered at City Hall today.
[..]He denied that his comments were influenced by alcohol: if he had been drinking, he said, it would have been much stronger.
There is a double standard that is allowed to cover up improper behavior and all of it has little to do with religion. There were millions of ‘others’ lost and the pain complicated in supposedly innocent humor. Would that same penalty be applied to one who was accusing a Polish reporter of the same behavior at the same publication?
IRS Investigation Finds Charities Engaged in Political Activity During 2004 Election
The Internal Revenue Service has released the results of an investigation of political activity by tax-exempt organizations during the 2004 election campaign which finds that nearly three-quarters of the eighty-two groups it examined engaged in some level of prohibited political activity during the election cycle.
According to the IRS, most of the prohibited activity involved isolated occurrences such as religious leaders using the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate; charities, including churches, disseminating printed materials encouraging members and others to vote for particular candidates; preferential treatment accorded to certain candidates by permitting them to speak at functions; and one-time cash contributions made to a candidate’s political campaign. Nevertheless, the agency has proposed revoking the tax-exempt status of three organizations it would not identify, other than to say they were not churches.
“We’ve seen a staggering increase in money flowing into campaigns,” said IRS commissioner Mark W. Everson in an interview with the New York Times, “and the question is whether all this money is encroaching upon and polluting the charitable sector.”
Almost half of the groups examined by the IRS are churches, the Times reports, and of the forty-seven complaints against churches under investigation, thirty-seven were found to have merit. Churches played a pivotal role in the 2004 elections, with the Republican Party, in particular, harnessing their influence in local communities to register, educate, and deliver voters. Both major political parties plan to cultivate the participation of churches in future elections.
The agency has released a fact sheet with detailed examples of the types of activities it investigated during the 2004 election cycle to help charities better understand what constitutes prohibited political intervention and stay in compliance with federal tax law.
Advocates for nonprofit groups praised the IRS report. “They’re getting information out early this year, before we get into the heat of an election year,” said Liz Towne, director of advocacy programs for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Justice, which has urged the agency to provide better guidance. “By releasing data on their findings, they’re moving toward more transparency.”
“IRS Releases New Guidance and Results of Political Intervention Examinations.” Internal Revenue Service Press Release 2/24/06.
Strom, Stephanie. “I.R.S. Finds Sharp Increase in Illegal Political Activity.” New York Times 2/25/06.
Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Secondary Subject(s): Public Affairs
Location(s): National, United States
Today’s release of the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index seems to have caught Wall Street by surprise. The report:
The Conference Board, a New York-based private research group, said Tuesday its consumer confidence index fell to 101.7, down from a revised 106.8 in January. The drop stalled a rebound in the index that began in November following the Gulf Coast hurricanes. Analysts had expected a reading of 104.0 in February.
(snip)
The component of the consumer confidence index that assesses views of current economic conditions rose to 129.3 from 128.8. But another component that measures consumers’ outlook over the next six months, the Expectations Index, fell to 83.3 from 92.1 in January.
Excluding the two months following Hurricane Katrina, the Expectations Index in February was at its lowest level since March 2003, when it was 61.4. Franco warned that if expectations continue to lose ground, the outlook for the remainder of the year could deteriorate.
It always mystifies me when the consumer confidence numbers take anybody by surprise. They move almost perfectly against the price of gasoline. Gas cheap, confidence strong. Gas expensive, confidence weak.
Wall Street isn’t too happy about the report; the stock market is down about 0.75% at 1:30 Eastern.
I can’t remember which one it was but a comedian summed up consumer confidence best….”Hey, I’m going to go buy something….naw,..<kicks at the dirt>..I’d probably just f*ck it up if I tried.”
Those numbers will drop further with the port debacle.
The third order indicates to me that Libby is going to lose his request for being provided with the Presidential Daily Briefings, and even the documents he will receive will be for a much shorter time period than he had requested.
Essentially, the Judge says he believes Libby’s memory defense requires only a description of the subject matter of the daily briefings and documents attached to them, not the entire documents. He also says the relevant time period is not the year of briefings Libby had asked for but only three short time intervals: (1) when he spoke to Miller, Cooper and Russert, (2) when he was interviewed by FBI investigators and (3) when he testified before the grand jury.
The judge suggests that two days leeway on each side of (2) and (3) should suffice. {snip}
Bottom line: Libby is going to get a fraction of what he wanted, if that.
This judge is going to keep the trial to the issue of whether Libby lied, and not let him go off on a fishing expedition into who else may have leaked the information on Valerie Plame.
If this is any indication at all of Judge Walton’s criminal court temperament, Scooter Libby is going to be tried on the narrow framework of his indictment without much embellishment. And that is not good news for Team Libby.
It’s early to speculate on this just yet, because this is simply an information-gathering exercise from the judge. But in my experience, judges know just how heavy the case load is for most prosecutors (and Fitz’s briefcase is crammed especially full between this investigation and his duties in Chicago), and they don’t hand out homework assignments without a good reason behind them. Meaning, if I were Scooter, I wouldn’t hold my breath on getting those PDBs. {snip}
. . . there is still the journalist card to play, but if the PDB perspective is any indication — and that’s a stretch, considering I haven’t seen enough of this judge to say one way or the other — but if it is an indication of judicial temperament, Judge Walton doesn’t seem to be the sort of judge that puts up with a whole lot of extraneous crap in his courtroom. That would include subpoenas for journalists that have no relationship to the charges, in my mind — we’ll see . . .
WASHINGTON (SFGate/AP) – 16 minutes ago — A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region’s rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment.
“If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country … this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world,” Negroponte said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.
for this excellent diary by storiesinamerica. Go check it out.
Again? Or not?: AP/Yahoo
Do we even have to think about whether BushCo is serious about screwing the veterans? Hopefully, the politicians who want to get re-elected will push back on this.
Full Article
Here is a good place to plug Carnacki’s excellent diary about the recent discovery of photo negatives from the civil rights fight. The pictures are amazing.
A Civil Rights era treasure trove discovered
That is an amazing diary.
In my email this morning:
Science Fiction Author Octavia Butler Dies (MSNBC)
FWIW, I just want to say that I highly recommend Octavia Butler’s work. She was, indeed, a great science fiction writer, but she was one of those whom I enthusiastically recommend even to people who don’t generally like science fiction.
Her work is generally quite dark, but almost always with hopeful and human overtones. Her major focus was on the adaptability of people and human community in the face of extremely hard and frightening circumstances.
This is truly sad news. Octavia Butler is one of my favorite writers. One of the authors whom I would buy any new book immediately, including her latest The Fledgling, which was excellent.
Ms. Butler used SF masterfully to examine race, difference, religion, and gender.
She will be sadly missed.
Into the Baseball Hall of Fame: AP/Yahoo
I admit it, I love the Baseball Hall of Fame…especially the bracelet Lou Gehrig had made for his wife from his championship pins and medals. Anybody else seen that?
I need to go to Coopserstown and see that. Lou Gehrig is my favorite all-time Yankee. With stats like this, what can you say?
1930- 41 HR’s 174 RBI BA:.379
1931- 46 HR’s 184 RBI BA:.341
I took the boys 4 or 5 years ago, and it was great. And Cooperstown itself is pretty cool too.
Yeah, but they ‘passed’ on Buck O’Neil…kinda sad, given his long time work and association with K.C.’s Negro Leagues Museum.
Peace
I saw an example this morning of the effect blogs are having on newspapers.
I quit getting my hometown paper delivered over a year ago because I was so disgusted with its conservative slant on things – especially the editorials. But I do go check in daily on-line because I need to keep up on local news.
Today they had 2 of their regular articles about local stories that allowed “comments” just like a scoop blog.
Cool!!
Negroponte, Hayden and others are in a hearing live on C-Span.
Why isn’t this live on any of the MSM newsertainment channels?
At least it was on cable. There was also a judiciary committee hearing at the same time, part 2 of the domestic spying. Only Pacifica Radio carried it live. Only 8 of the 18 senators even showed up. I woke up too late to hear it, but think that I heard that Feinstein didn’t even show up.
DOJ doesn’t want Ashcroft or Comey to testify now . . .
This is shamefull. In the hearing I saw, one of the Republican senators was softballing some tech questions to Hayden. He justified the lack of tech awareness as a normal preference but I think it’s important enough in these times that all elected officials have at least a basic understanding.
The calls to Washington Journal have been fun to watch evolve. Many republicans are renouncing their affiliation and a staggering number of bipartisan calls to clean house are heard. The next election could very well be the new faces of tomorrow
Still mopping up the backlog of science, health, and environmental news from the last few days…
A new study details the link between rheumatoid arthritis and lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system); the effect is not between the drugs used to treat RA and cancer, but between the prolonged severe inflammation associated with severe cases of RA. Meanwhile, another study has identified how gold treatments work – used for RA and diseases like lupus for over 75 years. Gold (and also platinum) interact with key immune proteins, rendering them inactive.
Mangrove plants, whose finger-like roots are known to protect coastal wetlands against the ocean and as important fish habitats, cover less than 0.1 percent of the global land surface yet account for a tenth of the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) that flows from land to the ocean. Researchers suggest that the plants are one of the main sources of dissolved organic matter in the ocean. They note that the organic matter that is dissolved in the world oceans contains a similar amount of carbon as is stored in the skies as atmospheric carbon dioxide, an important greenhouse gas. Dissolved organic matter is an important player in the global carbon cycle that regulates atmospheric carbon dioxide and climate, so preserving the mangrove forests is essential to avoid disrupting this link between the land and ocean ecologies.
New research suggests that the “Little Ice Age” – roughly from 1500 to 1800 – may have been a consequence of the Black Plague that killed 1/3 of Europe’s population. Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This appears to support the hypothesis of William Ruddiman who has suggested that the decimation of Native American populations after the arrival of the Conquistadors and the drop in European population due to plagues before the fall of Rome likewise led to agricultural collapse and reversion to forests, also contributing to periods of global cooling – and that humans may have been influencing the climate since the invention of agriculture.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) plans to introduce legislation this week requiring nuclear facilities to notify state and local officials of unintended or accidental radioactive leaks — or face possible loss of their operating licenses. This follows on the heels of repeated leaks of radiation from Exelon Corp. facilities near Chicago, and lax federal oversight.
A draft of the next influential UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report will tell politicians that scientists are now unable to place a reliable upper limit on how quickly the atmosphere will warm as carbon dioxide levels increase. The report draws together research over the past five years and will be presented to national governments in April and made public next year. It raises the possibility of the Earth’s temperature rising well above the ceiling quoted in earlier accounts. More information here.
From the Guardian and NY Times, via Grist: A Nigerian court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to ante up $1.5 billion in damages to communities in the Niger Delta, citing oil spills that polluted regional rivers, spoiled crops, and poisoned fish. The Friday ruling is a major victory for the region’s Ijaw people, who have struggled for over a decade to get compensation for environmental damages. Shell says it will appeal. The court ruling comes during an upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta, where local communities live in squalor despite the region’s oil riches. The militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta kidnapped several employees of a U.S. oil industry subcontractor nine days ago and demanded that foreign oil firms leave the region. The group’s attacks over the past two months have shut down almost a fifth of the country’s oil production.
The remains of a beaver-like fossil dating to the Jurassic period have been discovered in China. It dates back to 164 million years ago, a time when mammals were thought to be primitive creatures confined to land. But this animal was adapted to life in water, meaning scientists may now have to rethink their theories. The creature had fur, a broad scaly tail, and webbed feet for swimming. It was about the size of a small female platypus and had seal-like teeth for eating fish. Castorocauda lutrasimilis resembled a modern-day beaver, but belonged to a group that became extinct long before rodents appeared.
The health benefits of chocolate continue to be reported. Here’s the latest study, with the delightful [if misleading] headline “Eating chocolate may halve risk of dying.” [Does that mean a 50% chance of immortality and on a high-chocolate diet? Sign me up!]
DuPont has allocated nearly 10 percent of its $1.3 billion research budget to extracting ingredients from carbohydrates rather than from hydrocarbons, looking forward to the day when it will have to rely on renewable sources rather than petrochemicals for its feedstock for chemical production.
Maybe it was a protest State and local wildlife experts are trying to figure out what led more than a thousand flounder, spot and pin fish to beach themselves at the Marine Corps’ New River air base — and then swim away. They believe it may be related to a popular phenomenon known in coastal Alabama as “jubilee.” The fish surfaced in shallow water Friday morning. They were lethargic, but alive. “It’s kind of strange,” said Mike Sanderford, New River Riverkeeper. “It’s a bunch of fish up here, but they’re not dead. They’re almost docile.” When he arrived, Sanderford said, the fish were lying in shallow water and allowed him to touch them before they swam away. Representatives of the Division of Water Quality, N.C. Marine Fisheries and N.C. Marine Patrol checked on the fish along the air station’s shoreline Friday morning. One expert estimated about 1,000 to 1,500 were crowded in the waterline. But by afternoon, they were gone. The timing matched another oddity: the water’s oxygen level, which veered from one extreme to the other.
The Independent on-line (UK) today lists six global hot spots that may flare up as water becomes scarce enough to go to war for, as the British announce planning for their army to intervene in such crises.
The NY Times delivers a pointed rebuke to the administration – Leave the National Parks alone: The Interior Department has extended the period in which the public may comment on the National Park Service’s controversial plan to rewrite the management policies for the national parks. But the extension was unnecessary, just as the rewrite itself is unnecessary. The public has already spoken and so have its elected representatives. Their central message is that the administrations proposed revisions will serve no one, least of all the parks, and that the Interior Department would be well advised to abandon the effort. Full editorial here
I knew I should be eating more chocolate…
Looking more likely that the terrorists’ linchpin will be the knockout for Bu$hco and GOP. Only GOPs can keep us safe. Dems are weak. Well, it’s a rock and a hard place, painted into a corner for Dubya.
Why? Expectations for the hearings on the Hill demanding a 45-day review to reverse the deal. Recall Dubya saying nothing to worry about, ‘port security is the Coast Guard responsibility’?
Now we find the FT, (UK) reporting “US Coast Guard warned on Dubai ports deal in a memo”
Someone wanted this deal. Snow, is that you? Rummy, no you weren’t in the loop?
In a related story, “London court urged to block port takeover” we find this gem;
There we have it. Hog tied. Even if after the review CFIUS still had security concerns?
So it’s not just about losing jobs. A nix, and our bankers will foreclose, bringing us to our knees. Everyone will have to fall in line as Dubya works his way out of this corner. Anyway, he’s yet to veto anything.
And the “we fight them over there so we won’t have to fight them here” meme has come home to roost.
Sen Inhofe is giving Negroponte a heart attack in all of his talk about ‘rare earth metals’. This is the story behind the story of the port deals.
And now Negroponte is calling Chavez’s arms purchases from Russia an unfair burden on Venezuela’s people.
I think the people might disagree with him in light of the threat coming from the U.S.
I see Chavez as attempting to protect his country from a preemptive strike from the U.S.
Where else would he purchase his defensive weapons from?
Can these guys, (like GWB) not hear themselves when they speak? Negroponte went on to say the Ven people weren’t ignorant of the govt wasting money on extravagant policy while the people are mired in poverty and need. All this while justifying hundreds of billions in defense spending…d’oh!
Guardian, (UK) is reporting that accused of anti-semitism, the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone’s 4 week suspension has been stayed by the courts allowing him to remain in office while he fights the suspension.
Whether I agree with his statement or not, I have to appreciate his straight forward style. That’s what’s appealing about George Galloway to me.
A thin balance, free speech vs “Insensitivities”
This issue resonates in the environment of furor over publishing the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.
When the shoe is on the other foot?
A gotcha moment.
If there is another foot here, it isn’t Jews.
sensitivity?
As a jew with 3 strikes against me, It isn’t Jews.
There is a double standard that is allowed to cover up improper behavior and all of it has little to do with religion. There were millions of ‘others’ lost and the pain complicated in supposedly innocent humor. Would that same penalty be applied to one who was accusing a Polish reporter of the same behavior at the same publication?
IRS Investigation Finds Charities Engaged in Political Activity During 2004 Election
The Internal Revenue Service has released the results of an investigation of political activity by tax-exempt organizations during the 2004 election campaign which finds that nearly three-quarters of the eighty-two groups it examined engaged in some level of prohibited political activity during the election cycle.
According to the IRS, most of the prohibited activity involved isolated occurrences such as religious leaders using the pulpit to endorse or oppose a particular candidate; charities, including churches, disseminating printed materials encouraging members and others to vote for particular candidates; preferential treatment accorded to certain candidates by permitting them to speak at functions; and one-time cash contributions made to a candidate’s political campaign. Nevertheless, the agency has proposed revoking the tax-exempt status of three organizations it would not identify, other than to say they were not churches.
“We’ve seen a staggering increase in money flowing into campaigns,” said IRS commissioner Mark W. Everson in an interview with the New York Times, “and the question is whether all this money is encroaching upon and polluting the charitable sector.”
Almost half of the groups examined by the IRS are churches, the Times reports, and of the forty-seven complaints against churches under investigation, thirty-seven were found to have merit. Churches played a pivotal role in the 2004 elections, with the Republican Party, in particular, harnessing their influence in local communities to register, educate, and deliver voters. Both major political parties plan to cultivate the participation of churches in future elections.
The agency has released a fact sheet with detailed examples of the types of activities it investigated during the 2004 election cycle to help charities better understand what constitutes prohibited political intervention and stay in compliance with federal tax law.
Advocates for nonprofit groups praised the IRS report. “They’re getting information out early this year, before we get into the heat of an election year,” said Liz Towne, director of advocacy programs for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Justice, which has urged the agency to provide better guidance. “By releasing data on their findings, they’re moving toward more transparency.”
“IRS Releases New Guidance and Results of Political Intervention Examinations.” Internal Revenue Service Press Release 2/24/06.
Strom, Stephanie. “I.R.S. Finds Sharp Increase in Illegal Political Activity.” New York Times 2/25/06.
Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Secondary Subject(s): Public Affairs
Location(s): National, United States
Today’s release of the Conference Board’s consumer confidence index seems to have caught Wall Street by surprise. The report:
It always mystifies me when the consumer confidence numbers take anybody by surprise. They move almost perfectly against the price of gasoline. Gas cheap, confidence strong. Gas expensive, confidence weak.
Wall Street isn’t too happy about the report; the stock market is down about 0.75% at 1:30 Eastern.
I can’t remember which one it was but a comedian summed up consumer confidence best….”Hey, I’m going to go buy something….naw,..<kicks at the dirt>..I’d probably just f*ck it up if I tried.”
Those numbers will drop further with the port debacle.
did not get much from the judge in his discovery requests.
Jeralynn writes:
Reddhedd has more:
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WASHINGTON (SFGate/AP) – 16 minutes ago — A civil war in Iraq could lead to a broader conflict in the Middle East, pitting the region’s rival Islamic sects against each other, National Intelligence Director John Negroponte said in an unusually frank assessment.
The Negroponte File: Iran-Contra Covert Action“If chaos were to descend upon Iraq or the forces of democracy were to be defeated in that country … this would have implications for the rest of the Middle East region and, indeed, the world,” Negroponte said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on global threats.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
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