I can't help but be suspicious.

I mean, come on. After wasting most of the '90s on a blowjob, the media finds a reason to spend most of a full news day talking about Deep Throat. Oh, wait, not THAT Deep Throat, but this one. The timing couldn't be better for the worst President in the history of this country.

Jump the crack and I'll 'splain why.

Remember how much you hated - or loved - report card time. Well, it’s report card time for federal agencies. George Bush has sent out the quarterly report cards for federal agencies. It works pretty much the way it does for school, but with some differences – differences that affect you and me.

Instead of being rated on how well a student does in reading, federal agencies get rated for how well they are doing in selling off, er, privatizing jobs, er, competitive sourcing. I’m not sure that there is agreement that this is something to be encouraged.

Today is Memorial Day, so most bloggers reading this will be blogging on their own dime, so to speak. You are using your own time, own equipment, and own software. Blogging at work is different, though. You may not think so, but your employer sure does. At work you are using the time, equipment, software your employer pays for – all of which your employer will see as $$$. Your employer can (and legally can) see this as theft.

After the last few weeks with the filibuster fight, carnage in Iraq, Bolton nomination, and BushCo ad nauseum, I'm in serious need of some entertainment.

My pick this week? The Story of the Weeping Camel.

What films/concerts/plays are you catching this weekend?

UPDATE: What films are you recommending for the Unbossed Virtual Film Festival? Pick your category and provide a link to the film's website or online review. Thanks to Shirah for the great idea!

What will you be doing this Memorial Day? Have you including in your plans taking back the flag? Or at least starting to think about it? Batting the idea around?

I hope you do.

You see, the Right has long condemned liberals for being anti-patriotic. The heart of this is wrapped around the flag. For many of us liberals to farther left, the flag is tainted with the sort of mindless jingoism that has us in the mess we’re in right now. So it is hard to salute the flag, display the flag, or do anything that even touches on patriotism. I include myself among this group.

This weekend we honor the dead, particularly those who have died in war. We are now, and have been for too many years, in a time of war. As casualties mount on all sides, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep perspective and not become overwhelmed -- one hundred; one thousand; one hundred thousand dead -- my mind cannot or will not understand these numbers.

I can only comprehend one.

Shoppers strolling through San Diego’s upscale Fashion Valley Shopping Center don’t know, never were told, or even don’t care, but a worker died there when the mall was remodeled a few years ago. Every day, we shop, work, travel at places overlooking the fact that workers died or were injured creating them. Yes, there is blood on our buildings, blood on our streets. And it is still there, much as we would like to wash it away.

Some of the more vociferous discussions of late on democratic principles, reproductive freedom, and political strategy, to name a few, seem to stem more from an inability to use exact language when stating one's point. Thoughts meander. Passion replaces precision. Opinions become fact. Stridency overrules reason.

In the best traditions of Socrates, Shakespeare, and Twain, what words would you like to see banished to the nether regions of linguistic pergatory?

Framing.
Irregardless.
Gannon/Guckert-[anything].

Despite what you may or may not like about the filibuster compromise brokered by a faction of Senators (no, I won't call 'em moderates because Lieberman and Dewine don't deserve the distinction), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist painted himself into a political PR corner. Whether that beating will effect his position today and future political fortunes remains to be seen.

It’s not just about Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles. Latinos are the largest racial / ethnic demographic group after whites. States with high percentage Latino populations include California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. These states hold roughly 67% of the electoral votes needed to win the presidency. However, there are only about 7 million registered Latino voters in the United States. This is less than half of those who are eligible to vote.

I thought now might be a good time to check in on the war -- not the terror one, the drug one. You all remember that one, right? Good ol' Reagan declared it a couple of decades ago. His wife, Nancy, came up with a catchy slogan -- "Just Say No!" -- and we were off.

Oh, the Republicans had high hopes for the drug war. All kinds of bad stuff was going to be stopped. It would be good for the children. It would send a message or set an example or some such.

Forget the lessons we learned from the alcohol prohibition -- that it raised crime, enriched gangs, increased alcoholism, and led to corruption at all levels of government -- evidence doesn't matter in the face of a utopian ideal coupled with steely resolve and a lot of brute force to back it up.

We kilt blog because we can. What's on your mind?

I recently discovered Vote, Run, Lead, a nonpartisan organization working to energize young women in the political process as activists and potential candidates.

Why is this initiative so necessary? Consider the facts:

Out of 180 countries, only 11 are led by women.

The US ranks 57th in the world in terms of women's political leadership, behind Slovakia and Burundi.

Of the 12,000 people who have served in Congress since its founding, only 223 have been women.

Over 15 million women between the ages of 18-34 did not vote in the 2000 presidential election.

No women of color have ever been elected as a governor of a US state.

Besides some excellent features, training programs, and online tools on their website, check out the cool state-by-state map of women's political history in the US.

This all sounds like a great way to inspire women's political activism but...

(With apologies to Publius Vergilius Maro for cribbing the opening line of his Aeneid for this post's title.)

Either Roman or Spartan mothers (depending upon which version of the probably apocryphal story you're following) used to tell their sons going off to war, "Come back with your shield or on it." That's the kind of day the preznit's spokes-hamster had this Tuesday, when apparently the White House Press Corpse woke up and remembered everything they'd ever learned in J-school. And Scotty had been doing such a good job of training those bad habits out of them!

Let's get right to the highlights:

Subtitle: Outing the Hypocrites

I have a friend whose subspeciality is going to conferences on globalization. There is always a pro-globalization speaker who is a chaired, tenured professor of economics. There seems to be an unlimited number of them willing to sing the praises of globalization. They talk about winners and losers, gains and losses, and creative destruction. They say it is inevitable, and we oppose these inevitable market forces at our peril. The market gives us the best of all possible worlds.

A pregnant student who was banned from graduation at her Roman Catholic high school announced her own name and walked across the stage anyway at the close of the program.
[...]
But her mother and aunt were escorted out of the church by police after Cosby headed back to her seat.

"I can't believe something like this is happening in 2005," said her mother, Sheila Cosby. "My daughter has been through a lot and I am proud of her. She deserved to walk, and she did."
[...]
The father of Cosby's child, also a senior at the school, was allowed to participate in graduation.

Consider this an open thread to shout out the latest outrages.

or em dash's adventures with TSA and the dreaded blue rubber glove.

It all started innocently enough. Talking to the Ethiopian taxi driver about the recent elections and unrest in Addis Ababa on my way to the airport. He spoke excitedly about his homeland's political awakening and the flourishing free press which spurred voter turnout. We talked of the global power struggle between the former Soviet Union and the United States and its effect on the African continent. All in a 35-minute cab ride.

Thanks to my new compatriot, I arrived at the airport with a little over an hour to spare before my flight. Aw, cool. I have time to get some coffee and one of those yummy pumpkin scones with cream cheese icing I've become a total and complete consumer whore to.

Little did I know what awaited me beyond the e-ticket kiosk.

Or $0.245 to be exact. That's the wage gap between women and men, per dollar earned, according to the last U.S. census. But that's just one dimension of the gender gap. How do we compare to other developed counties in these areas? Well, the World Economic Forum can tell us.

It has just released the "first ever" survey of the gender gap in the developed world, based on five critical areas identified in UNIFEM's (United Nations Development Fund for Women) findings of global patterns of gender inequality. Those patterns are:

1) economic participation – equal remuneration for equal work;
2) economic opportunity – access to the labour market that is not restricted to low-paid, unskilled jobs;
3) political empowerment – representation of women in decision-making structures;
4) educational attainment – access to education;
5) health and well-being – access to reproductive healthcare.

They surveyed 58 countries, the 30 members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and 28 other emerging markets. So how do we stack up?

Right Wing Think Tanks are opposed to regulating a minium wage and certainly opposed to raising it. There are so many Right Wing Think Tanks and affiliates, it is impossible in anything less than book length, to be complete. This piece sets out some of their arguments and introduces a few think tanks and advocates that are taking this issue on. It also provides some information to consider when these arguments are raised.

Herewith the Douchebag of Liberty, yesterday on The Capital Gang:

HUNT: Bob, why would Senator Frist refuse an offer to break the deadlock?

NOVAK: Because the whole system (INAUDIBLE) you're not going to have -- like going to a concentration camp and picking out which people go to the death chamber. You're not going to let the Democrats do that, say, We're going to -- we're going to confirm this person, we're not going to confirm the other person. They're going to -- they're going to say that this is not the way we're going to do it. They've had all kinds of different offers of that kind.

(Emphasis mine.)

Mmmmmm.... fresh. And with any luck, at this very minute, I'm getting drunk off my butt and flirting with a little Seattle cutie.

Have at it, comrades! What's on your minds? I really do care, ya know.

In the wake of Hurricane Mitch in 1998, thousands of who lost their homes were resettled in the new urban area of Nueva Vida outside of Managua. In Nueva Vida, the local government can provide services amounting to only $2.30 per person each year, and the unemployment rate is around 80 percent. To feed their families, many women work in the sweatshops of Nicaragua’s free trade zones, where their long hours of work in cramped and unsanitary conditions are still insufficient to allow many of them to afford basics such as school fees for their children. In these bleak conditions, the members of the women’s sewing cooperative Maquiladora Mujeres have built a fair trade business that provides them with dignity, self-sufficiency, and a route out of poverty.

Several months ago, I wrote about the outpouring of charitable gifts received by humanitarian relief organizations in the wake of the December tsunami that killed 250,000 people and displaced five million and its effect on support for urgent global health needs elsewhere.

Later, I gave an update on progress and an explanation of the priorities, motives, and emotions of donors who contribute to disaster relief in contrast to giving charitable dollars for other pressing social concerns.

Several recent stories--that have yet to be covered in the US mainstream media--demand new scrunity over the distribution of relief funds and the responsibilities of nonprofit organizations to its donors.

The agreed rules for this particular meme: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

Here are mine for today, with the comments back (though they'll probably be short):

Not to shop at Mall*Wart, that is. Seems the boys from Bentonville are more than a little peeved at the prospect of not being able to build a new SuperDuperMegaGalactic Emporium o' Crap in Flagstaff, Arizona. Citizens there are considering Proposition 100, which would require a special-use permit for retail buildings bigger than 75,000 square feet--and would prohibit retail buildings larger than 125,000 square feet--in the city.

The citizens of Flagstaff are also more than a little peeved at some of the ads Wal-Mart is running in an attempt to head off the proposition. Why? Well, it might be that one of the ads sorta-kinda-almost-explicitly compares a zoning restriction on a ginormous corporate bad citizen (which already has a retail presence in Flagstaff, mind you) to the Holocaust.

Despite the bold noises coming out of his mouth, Senator Voinovich made a completely unprincipled stand public today:

A key U.S. Republican senator said on Thursday he would allow the nomination of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador to go to a full Senate vote despite declaring Bolton was the wrong man for the job.

I first started reading right wing studies, analyses, theory, interviews 15 years ago. I’ll never forget the moment. I was newly arrived in New Zealand, when a business professor told me he knew all about US labour law. He then began telling me things that, even with years of practice as a US labor lawyer, I had never heard of. I said, politely, where he had gotten his information, and he told me it was straight from the NZ Business Roundtable. And so it was, via the Chicago School of Economics disciples wish list for US labor law.

You have to read right-wing think pieces if you are going to be effective in taking these ideas on. This is a big job, and we need a lot more eyes right to keep up with them.

It starts in the first paragraph of Dennis Prager's latest in what appears to be a series of seriously misguided musings on what he's pleased to call "Judeo-Christian values," and goes downhill from there. Here's that first paragraph:

Ask believing Christians -- probably from as young as 8 years of age -- what their mission as Christians is, and it is overwhelmingly likely they will answer, "to bring people to Christ" or "spread the Gospel."

I guess by "believing Christians" Prager must mean only Christians of the fundagelical, born-again sort. Because I guarantee you that if you ask that question at a Catholic church or service, you will not get "to bring people to Christ" or "to spread the Gospel" as an answer. But, hey, Cath-a-licks ain't real Christians anyhow, right?

I recall a brouhaha in the Louisiana delegation at the 1984 Democratic convention that happened to be caught by the cameras of the network I was watching. The majority of Mondale delegates were attempting to steamroller through some procedural maneuver, the Hart delegates cried "Foul!", calling the tactics of the Mondale side "immoral." As the cameras zeroed in, what seemed to be a politician straight from Central Casting (subsequently identified as Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards) made a beeline for the camera and microphone.

"Immorality?" he bellowed. "What's all this talk about morality? This is a political convention!"

The two areas I've found most likely to spur sharp, even harsh, intramural debate among progressives/Democrats/leftists are the areas of tactics, and of the ethics of means and ends. This thoughtful post by Eugene at dKos, and the discussion that it initiated reflect both the seriousness of purpose and intensity of engagement these debates provoke. This may always have been so; in Rules for Radicals, these two topics are the ones on which Saul Alinsky felt it necessary to expound a set of the rules that give the book its name. I've reviewed Alinsky's Rules of Tactics previously, today I take a look at his rules of means and ends.

Alinsky was if nothing else, profoundly pragmatic. It should be no surprise then that his take on the ethics of means and ends should also be bluntly utilitarian, characterized by his jaundiced view of the conventional trappings of "morality." Saul Alinsky's rules of the ethics of means and ends, below the fold.

A labor piece a few days late for May Day, but the way things are around here, it's MayDay every day.

Unionization and collective bargaining are about power, and law plays a key role in allocating power between workers and employers. In fact, you can think of law as putting a heavy thumb on the scale. Each change in the law, no matter how subtle, tips the balance of power one way or the other. In fact, labor law is all about power and freedom for workers to exercise some control over their working lives. It is ultimately about what sort of society we want to live in and hand on to future generations.

OK, I lied. It's "beetles".

I'm not sure why this hasn't made headlines and been analyzed to death. That's the SCLM, for you. But a story that a Cornell entomologist has named three slime-mold beetles after the (fill in your own adjective) threesome seems ripe for deep analysis on unbossed. A bit from the story and link:

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are now species of slime-mold beetles -- but strictly in homage

The decision to name three slime-mold beetles after Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, however, didn't have anything to do with physical features, says Quentin Wheeler, a professor of entomology and of plant biology at Cornell for 24 years until last October, but to pay homage to the U.S. leaders. "We admire these leaders as fellow citizens who have the courage of their convictions and are willing to do the very difficult and unpopular work of living up to principles of freedom and democracy rather than accepting the expedient or popular," says Wheeler, who named the beetles and wrote the recently published monograph describing the new slime-mold beetle species while a professor at Cornell.

We have no science category up, so I am in a quandary exactly how to classify this. Maybe I should just go with general. I'm open to suggestions on that one as well.

Leave it to our friends at Focus on the Family to set the world right. [pun intended]

Apparently, in FotF’s fervent quest…

to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, and, specifically, to accomplish that objective by helping to preserve traditional values and the institution of the family.

...it has thrown down the hospitality gauntlet. Focus on the Family magazine published a list of etiquette rules so that fine pious ladies can transform their simple-minded, slack-jawed Neanderthal husbands into genteel Christian gentlemen that would make Emily Post misty-eyed with pride. 

Ladies, does your man have what it takes?

In 1870, US activist Julia Ward Howe issued a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” calling for disarmament and international women’s cooperation to promote peace. Howe was probably influenced by Anna Jarvis, who organized “Mothers’ Work Days” during the Civil War to improve sanitation for soldiers on both sides and, after the war ended, to promote reconciliation. Jarvis’s daughter, also named Anna Jarvis, later mounted a campaign for a national holiday honoring mothers, and Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation making Mother's Day official in 1914.

How to explain the continuing inability of Democratic Party leaders to present a clear and compelling vision as an opposition party? I firmly believe that many of the "Blue Dog"Democrats act on their real convictions (and are thus not real Democrats). How to explain the ineffectiveness of so many of the rest of the leadership ... could it be:

The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological state in which the victims of a kidnapping, or persons detained against their free will – prisoners – develop a relationship with their captor(s). This solidarity can sometimes become a real complicity, with prisoners actually helping the captors to achieve their goals or to escape police.

The syndrome develops out of the victim's attempts to relate to his or her captor or gain the kidnapper's sympathy.

While I recognize that you can't apply such a psychological diagnoses to a group, I think it is a handy way to describe the recent behavior of so many of the so-called "liberals" in Congress.

Well, sort of. He doesn't actually accuse the sanctimonious, holier-than-thou Senator from Utah of breaking the 9th Commandment in saying that the Democrats use of the filibuster to block judicial nominations is unprecedented, but he comes pretty darned close. Dean is of course referencing the 1968 nomination of Associate Justice Abe Fortas to become Chief Justice. Says Dean of Hatch, "he has either been grossly misinformed as to what occurred then, or is intentionally lying about it." How does Dean know this?

I should know: I was there when the history he is trying to rewrite was made. And not only does this very use of the filibuster have precedent, but that precedent was made by Republicans. I know this for a certainty based on information I received directly from the Senate Republican caucus at the time.

The agreed rules for this particular meme: Take out your iPod or other musical device. Put it in "random" mode. Hit "play." Write down the first ten tracks that come up--and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

Our patron saint, Shirley Chisholm, sez "What's on your mind, child?"

Gee, I wonder why our public debate isn't evolving. In 1925, Clarence Darrow represented a school teacher, John Scopes, in a criminal trial over Scopes' teaching of evolution. We're still having the argument only now, the creationists are showing some adaptable behavior and calling their theory "intelligent design." This, from the AP via Yahoo News:

"TOPEKA, Kan. - Eighty years after the first famed "Monkey Trial," a second one of sorts opened Thursday, giving critics of evolution a forum in which to attack the theory.

The last time I sat vigorously nodding in agreement with George Will was in a column penned for Newsweek over 20 years ago--a beautiful and passionate argument for saving the whales just because they are such magnificent creatures. But today he strikes a blow against what he calls "The Christian Complex", roundly criticizing Bush and Republicans for having "subcontracted governance to certain especially fervid religious supporters."

This is from Vicky Hosgrove. Vicky sits on the board of directors of California for Democracy, a group actively fighting Gov. Schwarzenegger's initiatives.

I’m not sure what discussion we want to keep going and I know without a doubt that there are many things to discuss that might seem more important than the war issue, but for me, I wouldn’t be here right now, doing this and supporting Dean and becoming a part of the Democratic Party if I hadn’t been woken up (is that how you say that?) by the threat of an Iraq war and occupation by the US.

It was only a matter of time. They keep cutting back on actual news coverage, devoting more and more time to talk about less and less. They fire Bob Edwards, and keep wingnuts like Juan Williams, Cokie Roberts, and Barbara Bradley Hagerty. But this is the living end.

I'll give Mr. Dvorkin his first point. Un-redacting a redacted document posted to NPR's website and then publishing it was a questionable move, especially when that document revealed the names of the personnel involved in the Calipari shooting, and details of policies and procedures for hostage incidents.

The Bush Administration's onslaught against safety net programs for the poor--whom are disproportionately children--is all too well known: $10 billion in cuts to Medicaid over four years, cutting and underfunding federal budgets for pass-through anti-poverty program state grants, threats to eliminate the Community Development Block Grant program, unfunded mandates such as No Child Left Behind which were touted to address achievement gaps for poor students, shifting program funds to unqualified faith-based organizations, and the privatization of education and social services to reward political allies in the corporate sector over the needs of citizens.

One aspect of the Social Security debate that has been completely under-reported in both the blogosphere and mainstream media is the potentially devastating effect the proposed changes to Social Security tax collections and distributions will have on poor children and the children of disabled or dead parents.

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) has just issued a comprehensive report on the failure to protect whistleblowers. Homeland and National Security Whistleblower Protections: The Unfinished Agenda April 28, 2005

The report describes a lockdown on information in the government today, a lockdown that is increasing and that endangers our national security and individual wellbeing. In addition, the POGO report analyzes existing legislation and the factors that have made it effective. Among these are judicial defiance of congressional intent, executive actions to remove employees from whistleblower protection coverage, and failures of those charged with protecting whistleblowers.

Cross-posted at Musing's musings.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia just released what may well prove to be one of the stupidest rulings ever handed down (sorry, PDF link) in First Amendment jurisprudence.

No, strike that. It may well be one of the stupidest rulings ever handed down, period. More on the flip-side.

A little taste of the way the Bush Administration and their network of Theocon Brownshirts (who else would have called the Secret Service) are using our government to harrass the opposition, from the The Progressive

McCarthyism Watch
Renee Jensen of Elkins, West Virginia, likes to express herself.

She has put up as many as a dozen signs in her yard over the past year, protesting the war in Iraq, Bush and Cheney, and the crackdown on civil liberties.

Some of her signs have said:

"Mr. Bush, You're Fired."

"Mr. Ashcroft, We Prefer Our America Remain the Home of the Free and the Brave."

"Mr. Cheney, What You Sow You Shall Reap. Those Who Destroy the Earth Will Be Destroyed."

keep going to see what happened next ...

Paul Krugman has been a clear and powerful voice for sanity, the very model of a public intellectual. Lately he has been focusing his attention on health care. In a recent column, A Private Obsession, he points out that “American health care is unique among advanced countries in its heavy reliance on the private sector. It's also uniquely inefficient. We spend far more per person on health care than any other country, yet many Americans lack health insurance and don't receive essential care.”

I lived in another country – New Zealand – at a time when its health care system was fully public. The difference is about more than decent and dignified health care coverage for every person, not that this is anything to sneeze at. So not in order of importance, here are some ways that the US differs from other countries that offer public coverage.

What is the cost of collecting information? College campuses, the U.S. Department of Education, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Eagle Forum, the Education Trust, the Free Congress Foundation, the American Council on Education, the State Higher Education Executive Officers, and the Liberty Coalition, among others are battling with this issue. And so is every college in the country. The battle is taking place in two forums. One is over a U.S. Department of Education proposal to create a comprehensive database that would include every college student. It is also proposing a K-12 data base, codenamed EDEN. The other is a rash of hacked college databases that has put at risk private information on hundreds of thousands of students, staff, donors, alumni, and others.

I don't know about you, but I've had it with the powers that be -- Church Leaders, Heads of State, Captains of Industry, Beautiful People -- they're all making me sick. We've all been doing our duty, paying attention, and where has it gotten us?

Pope-a-Palooza and the Circus of Life have left me feeling nothing but ill-will towards my fellow man. I'm traumatized by Michael Jackson's alleged crimes and face. Just hearing "corporate" or "CEO" makes me think of rapacious empires.

And don't even get me started on politics! Watching the sausage has become so horrifying that even the normally scrappy bloggers have become slightly unhinged by the stress. Even I myself, normally nothing if not full of sweetness and light as you know, found myself getting all "Give Me The Filibuster or Give Me Death" last week.

So I think it's time for a break. Forget the so-called important people. Avert your eyes from the horror of a world gone mad. Let's see what the regular folks are up to.