Pravda Anyone?

So, how badly are things going in Iraq? Well... how about this badly?

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press

By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi
November 30, 2005

WASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is taking place even as U.S. officials are pledging to promote democratic principles, political transparency and freedom of speech in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption.

So let me get this straight, while we are busy supposedly setting an example how a free society functions, we are using Arabic Armstrong Williams and Judy Millers to show your average guy how great things are? Pretty classy if you can get away with it.

Look at some of the headlines from around the US and the world on it:

From the Guardian In Britain: Pentagon pays Iraqi papers to print its 'good news' stories

From Xinhua in China: US troops pay Iraqi newspapers for image burnishing coverage

From Iran: U.S. paying Iraqi press to run favorable stories

From Seattle: U.S. military secretly pays Iraqi newspapers for running stories trumpeting U.S. mission

So much that "winning the hearts and minds" trick. Somehow I don't think today's glossy plan will put much of a dent in this story.

The sad thing is, I understand that disinformation activities are as old as war itself and that doesn't bother me too much. What does bother me is how poorly we are doing it and how hypocritical it is. Look, if you are going to do something like this, fine. But don't do such a poor job that we hear things like:

One senior military official who spent this year in Iraq said it was the strong pro-U.S. message in some news stories in Baghdad that first made him suspect that the American military was planting articles.

"Stuff would show up in the Iraqi press, and I would ask, 'Where the hell did that come from?' It was clearly not something that indigenous Iraqi press would have conceived of on their own," the official said.

Anyways, who do you think we've found to handle our good news?

Some of the newspapers, such as Al Mutamar, a Baghdad-based daily run by associates of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi, ran the articles as news stories, indistinguishable from other news reports. Before the war, Chalabi was the Iraqi exile favored by senior Pentagon officials to lead post-Hussein Iraq.

Just what is that crook not involved with in Iraq? More importantly, has he done anything right for anyone except himself?

The Long Silence

Yes, I was gone a long time today. Sorry about that. But I was constructing a new career with someone I met at the Flu conference in San Fran a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure yet that this thing will fly, but we put some pretty nice feathers into the wings of the bird that will, hopefully, take flight after the first of the new year. Melanie is working on a new career and paycheck and it looks like this one will work out. After the last five years, you'll excuse me if I hedge my bet.

I can't tell you much about it yet, but, as we prepare for rollout, I'll have some interesting links for you into a rich network of open source web resources for disaster planning and recovery (Katrina could happen anywhere on the East Coast and tornados are becoming more numerous in the Midwest.) I'll have more to say as we move through December. I'm really excited about this possibility and all of the meetings have been very positive so far. I have a lot of experience with the way that things can fall apart at the last minute, so I'm not putting all my eggs in one basket, but this is the most interesting basket I've run into so far.

Ice storms are a virtual certainty in my part of the world this winter (in the Northern Hemisphere.) Disaster planning in this part of the world can mean weeks of power out with no heat or stove. Plan accordingly.

That said, I'm four feet over my blogging chair in the air, hoping that I've found my perfect job. There is celebration going on at Harmony Hall. And exhaustion, I'm early for bed tonight.

No food posts tonight, I think. Your blogger is going to kick off her heels (ugh) and hang up her power suit and head for bed. Today's meeting was at the very staid Cosmos Club, one of the avenues of power in DC and I'm a tad short of breath from hanging out in such august company. The air up there is really thin. And I need to take off this power suit and turn back into the blogger in her jammies that I was before. That will need a night of sleep. This blouse needs a trip to the dry cleaners before it can be worn again, I sweated through the pits, and the suit could probably use a cleaning. I can't remember the last time I could afford a dry cleaner.

Things are looking both up and out,

Melanie

Start the Shredder; Save Alito

Alito called in 1985 for Justice Department to mitigate 'Roe'

11/30/2005

WASHINGTON (AP) — As a Reagan administration lawyer in 1985, Samuel Alito made clear his hope that the Supreme Court would one day overturn a landmark ruling that established abortion rights.
But Alito, now a Supreme Court nominee, argued against an all-out assault on the Roe v. Wade ruling, fearing such an assault would fail. Instead, he recommended a policy of "mitigating its effects" by trying to persuade justices to accept state regulations on abortions.

While working as an assistant to the solicitor general, Alito called for the office, which represents the federal government before the Supreme Court, to help defend provisions of the Pennsylvania Abortion Control Act. Some of the act's provisions had been overturned by a panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the case American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists v. Thornburgh.

Alito wrote in the memo, released by the National Archives on Wednesday, that "no one seriously believes that the court is about to overrule Roe v. Wade."

But, he said, "By taking these cases, the court may be signaling an inclination to cut back. What can be made of this opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade and, in the meantime, of mitigating its effects?"

....

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the memo "stunning."

"These latest revelations cast serious doubt on whether Judge Alito can be at all objective on the right to privacy and a woman's right to choose," Schumer said.

White House spokesman Steve Schmidt called Schumer's criticism "unfair."

"Judge Alito should be evaluated on his 15 years of jurisprudence as a federal judge where he has authored hundreds of opinions," Schmidt said. "On some of those cases, he has upheld abortion rights. In other cases he has not. To leap to conclusions and try to infer future decisions from 20-year-old memos borders on the silly."

It's silly only if it contradicts that carefully crafted image of moderation you are trying to sell. How many more "smoking guns" do we need before the Dems and anyone interested in protecting a right to privacy/choose stand up against this guy?

OK, here's the plan...

Bush Again Rejects Calls for a Withdrawal Timetable in Iraq

By CHRISTINE HAUSER

President Bush today laid out what he called a strategy for victory in Iraq, saying that American troops will not be withdrawn in response to "artificial timetables set by politicians in Washington" but will remain deployed there until Iraqi forces can effectively take over.

Mr. Bush's address at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., broadly repeated the aims of the Iraq war as set out in 2003. But in the speech, the first of four he plans to give before the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq, he appeared to be refashioning the scenarios for the role of American troops as they hand over more responsibility to Iraqis in the war against the insurgency. The ability of Iraqi forces to take over their own security has become a key issue in recent debate in Washington over the length of the American mission.

Mr. Bush said that Iraqi troop training was a central pillar of his administration's strategy, and that now was the time for the American public to be aware of its goals. During his speech, Mr. Bush referred to a document that had been released earlier this morning on the White House Web site called the "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq."

The 35-page document emphasizes that the Iraq war will not be won on a timetable, and it also notes the broader consequences of a failed effort in Iraq. Tribal and sectarian chaos would result and Middle East reformers would no longer trust American assurances of support for democracy and human rights, according to the document. The White House had said that the strategy to be outlined today by Mr. Bush was not new, but that it had never been assembled into a single unclassified document like the one issued today.

And as it has many times in the past, the administration cast the war in Iraq as part of the frontline of the war on terror and on terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to the document's overview of the American strategy.

Mr. Bush's speech today was meant to rally the troops and the American public as the war in Iraq approaches its third anniversary, in March. More than 2,000 American troops have been killed since the hostilities started.

Mr. Bush said he would settle for nothing less than complete victory, while trying to define what that would mean in a country where the insurgency has sowed mayhem with suicide attackers, roadside and car bombs, and assassinations.

While acknowledging that the American public at this time wanted troops to both win in Iraq and to return home as soon as possible. Mr. Bush stressed that victory would not be defined in the conventional way, as with the surrender of Japan in World War Two.

"In Iraq there will not be a signing ceremony on the deck of a battleship," Mr. Bush said. "Victory will come when the terrorists and Saddamists can no longer threaten Iraq's democracy. When the Iraqi security forces can provide for the safety of their own citizens. And when Iraq is not a safe haven for terrorists to plot new attacks on our nation."Mr. Bush said that the American military was training Iraqi forces to increasingly take over responsibility for their own security, that more military bases were being handed over to the Iraqis, and that there was an Iraqi navy force at the port in Basra.

But there did seem, at least from one of his remarks, to be the possibility that some form of dependence on the American military would remain. While the strategy was intended to prepare Iraqis to take the lead in the fight, they would be doing so without "major" foreign assistance, he said.

As more cities were delivered to Iraqi control, Mr. Bush said, American forces would concentrate on training the Iraqis and "hunting down" what he called high value targets, a reference to the Al Qaeda leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"When our mission of defeating the terrorists in Iraq is complete, our troops will return home to a proud nation," he said. "This is a goal our Iraqi allies share. We will stay as long as necessary to complete the mission."

Nothing much new here as far as I can tell.

Open Thread

I'll be away in meetings the rest of the day. Guest posters, you have carte blanche.

What's on YOUR minds today?

The No Plan Plan

.A Shot at Justice

By DIRK OLIN
Published: November 30, 2005

PRESIDENT Bush's recently proposed $7.1 billion plan for pandemic flu protection is admirably ambitious. It is also remarkably self-defeating in two vital areas: manufacturer liability and victim compensation.

Announcing his proposal at the National Institutes of Health on Nov. 1, the president invoked one of his favorite political demons: "In the past three decades," he said, "the number of vaccine manufacturers in America has plummeted, as the industry has been flooded with lawsuits." So the president's proposal contemplates a ban on lawsuits against vaccine makers, unless plaintiffs can prove willful misconduct. It also provides scant means of redress for the few patients who will inevitably be injured by adverse reactions. And it places legal oversight in the hands of two cabinet secretaries.

But lawsuits are not the reason so few vaccine makers are in business today. Moreover, the existing system for adjudicating vaccine claims is actually working pretty well.

To be sure, vaccine production has a checkered legal history. In 1955, one of the companies that made Jonas Salk's new polio vaccine failed to completely inactivate the embedded virus. A couple of hundred children were permanently paralyzed by inoculation side effects, and a handful died. A jury subsequently found the manufacturer not negligent, but financially liable, thereby casting a pall of uncertainty over vaccine production.

Congress made things worse during the swine flu scare in the mid-1970's. Responding to liability concerns among manufacturers, it declared that any suits would have to be brought against the federal government. When thousands of vaccine recipients suffered nerve and muscle damage, they were able to prevail against the government under a fairly simple liability standard. As a result, pharmaceutical companies feared future exposure to lawsuits under the lower threshold.

But Congress dissipated the legal fog in the 1980's after a wave of claims alleged injury from diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccinations. The 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act created a no-fault system that provides relatively generous payments to victims of specific inoculations recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Special masters at the Court of Federal Claims constitute a vaccine court. The system provides both relief for victims and greater certainty for pharmaceutical companies. (Although claimants are supposed to be able to opt out and bring a suit in state court, such cases face high hurdles - witness the lack of success to date by one group of plaintiffs who claim that inoculations have caused autism.)

Last year, Congress extended the compensation program to include flu shots. But even before that, influenza inoculations did not constitute a trial lawyer boondoggle. A study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in October found a total of 10 reported cases of flu vaccine litigation during the past 20 years. One case resulted in a $1.9 million award for damages, while the rest were settled for much smaller amounts.

The president is correct that vaccine production in America is anemic. But the main cause is a low profit margin born of high fixed costs and an undependable market, not legal exposure.

Big PHarma's profits are obscene. The want to make Viagra, not vaccines.

The Road to Nowhere

Bush releases Iraq 'victory strategy'

By MARTIN WALKER
UPI Editor
November 30, 2005

Victory in Iraq is a vital U.S. interest, says a new policy document, "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," published Wednesday by the White House.

But while it rejects proposals for a timetable for withdrawal, it holds out the prospect of early U.S. troop reductions, even while the United States remains committed to the stabilization and democratization of Iraq in the longer term.

"With resolve, victory will be achieved, although not by a date certain," the document says. "No war has ever been won on a timetable and neither will this one.

"But lack of a timetable does not mean our posture in Iraq (both military and civilian) will remain static over time. As conditions change, our posture will change," it says. "We expect, but cannot guarantee, that our force posture will change over the next year, as the political process advances and Iraqi security forces grow and gain experience.

"While our military presence may become less visible, it will remain lethal and decisive, able to confront the enemy wherever it may organize," the document says. "Our mission in Iraq is to win the war. Our troops will return home when that mission is complete."

Victory in Iraq is defined in three stages. In the short term, the document claims, "Iraq is making steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions, and standing up security forces."

In the medium term, "Iraq is in the lead defeating terrorists and providing its own security, with a fully constitutional government in place, and on its way to achieving its economic potential."

In the longer term, the strategy aims at building an Iraq that is "peaceful, united, stable, and secure, well integrated into the international community, and a full partner in the global war on terrorism."

If anyone here has sat through "focus groups" or "strategic planning seminars" at work, then this document should look very familiar. It's got a lot of platitudes and statements that sound great, but lack any concrete ideas as to how to get there.

Quite frankly, the entire thing is insulting. This is the list you come up with before you destroy a nation, not some 3 years afterwards when you political bacon has hit the fire. Absolutely pathetic. Here's one point the summarizes what a disaster this plan is:

The economic track involves setting the foundation for a sound and self-sustaining economy by helping the Iraqi government to restore Iraq's infrastructure to meet increasing demand and the needs of a growing economy and to reform Iraq's economy, which in the past has been shaped by war, dictatorship, and sanctions, so that it can be self-sustaining in the future. This means building the capacity of Iraqi institutions to maintain infrastructure, rejoin the international economic community, and improve the general welfare of all Iraqis.

Excuse me but isn't that what the #$@$%! have we been doing with the $300 gazillion spent over there so far? Oh wait, it's unpatriotic to wonder where my tax dollars are going if it's the military. God forbid that another Truman would stand up and hold hearing on corrpution and kickbacks during a time of war (though you'd think if we could do it in the 1940's and still defeat the Axis, we could do it now).

Yet, the media can still find people on the street, and in the blogsphere, who wonder why anyone would dare call Iraq a disaster.

Retro

A Princeton alum,hilzoy at Obsidian Wings has some thoughtful commentary on Judge Alito and the Concerned Alumni of Princeton:

The fact that Samuel Alito was a member of the Concerned Alumni of Princeton, and cited that fact on his 1985 job application, has been in the news recently; and it occurred to me that since I was a Princeton undergraduate (class of '81) while CAP was active, I might be able to provide some useful background on this one.

CAP is generally described as 'a conservative group'. But this is as misleading as calling the John Birch Society a 'conservative group' would be. There are lots of conservatives who are thoughtful and intelligent, and who have real intellectual integrity. Conservatives like this did not tend to join CAP. CAP was dedicated to finding outrages that it took to be caused by the horrible fact that women and minorities were being admitted to Princeton. The need to find outrages generally came first; any encounter with facts came later. For this reason, CAP tended to attract not conservatives per se, but the sort of conservative who is forever getting deeply hysterical about some perceived threat to a supposed previous golden age, who sees such threats everywhere, and who is willing to completely distort the truth in order to feed his (and it generally was 'his') obsessions.

(I mean: just ask yourself: what sort of person would devote time and energy to a group focussed entirely on combatting trends at his undergraduate institution, trends that the actual undergraduates of the time had no problem with? We used to wonder: don't these people have lives?)

CAP did a number of things to combat Princeton's slide into mediocrity and decadence, otherwise known as its decision to admit women and more than a token number of minorities. It published a magazine, Prospect, devoted to lurid stories about all that decadence and mediocrity and outraged editorials calling for a return to the halcyon days of the 1950s. These stories had the same relation to reality as the views of those fundamentalists who imagine that a life without Christ is necessarily composed of mindless and sordid sexual episodes, punctuated by periods in which one drugs oneself into a stupor, carried out in an attempt to avoid having to recognize one's own appalling inner emptiness: they were just plain false, and reveal more about the person who believes them than anything else. We used to read stories in Prospect aloud to one another for laughs. (CAP was very well funded, and copies of Prospect were everywhere.)

Attention Senate Judiciary Committee: you might have some interesting questions for the nominee.

The Other Pandemic

This article is in this morning's Benton County (AR) Daily Record. Tomorrow is World AIDS Day and I could find nothing in the national papers.

Avian influenza has killed fewer than 70 people so far. AIDS has already killed millions.

Local HIV clinic struggles to treat patients in three counties

By Eleanor Evans Staff Writer [email protected]

Posted on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

FAYETTEVILLE — While some will gather Thursday to commemorate the 18 th annual World AIDS Day, many more will go through the day without paying a second thought to the life-threatening disease.

The Washington County HIV Clinic, however, will continue to provide care and support to 522 individuals living with HIV and AIDS in Benton, Washington and Madison counties.

Of those 522 individuals, © live in Benton County and there may be more who haven’t been diagnosed, said clinic nurse Debi Zimmerman. "People aren’t getting tested anymore," Zimmerman said. "They don’t know they have it. They end up in a hospital on a ventilator, almost dead because they have AIDS and sometimes (HIV-related) hepatitis."

Zimmerman said the awareness of HIV/AIDS has dramatically decreased over the years "because everybody thinks that it’s cured."

Although dramatic strides have been taken in controlling the disease and the current forms of combination drug therapy used to prevent HIV from developing into AIDS, also known as "the cocktail," have proven successful in decreasing the mortality rates of HIV and AIDS patients, it is not a cure. "Everybody thinks that it’s cured," Zimmerman said. "People are doing a lot better, and living a lot longer if they take the cocktail."

But the cocktail isn’t the ultimate solution because the medications used to suppress the HIV virus have toxicities that cause new medical problems and patients can still have low counts of T-cells necessary for a healthy immune system. "Just because their viral load is low or undetectable doesn’t mean their T-cells are high," Zimmerman said. "If they take (the cocktail) right, usually the viral load will be undetectable in three months. T-cells don’t go up that fast."

According to September 2004 statistics from the clinic, 80 percent of its patients were male, and 91 percent of patients were caucasian or Native American, with four percent hispanic and three percent African American. Over the past five years, the clinic has averaged 31 new patients each year.

Zimmerman said the disease is not specific to a person of any gender, race or sexual orientation. "We have pregnant women showing up positive," Zimmerman said. Fortunately, with early treatment, the virus may be prevented from passing on to the child.

The Washington County HIV Clinic was opened in 1992 upon the creation of a Health Advisory Panel organized to study the problem of HIV in Washington County. At the time, the clinic was funded by a number of community sources, including Northwest Medical Center, Ozark Guidance and Washington Regional Medical Center.

But now, the clinic only receives funds from Washington County, Washington Regional Medical Center and Northwest Medical Center. As a result, the clinic’s initial aim to provide education on HIV and AIDS to the community has dwindled. "We had an educator and a social worker" when the clinic opened, Zimmerman said. "Now we have neither."

The clinic has presented proposals to a number of local and global organizations and has sought federal funds. However, the clinic has been informed by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration that a federal grant may not be possible because of the area’s population, and a general lack of funds.

New Media

Abortion case tests parental notice requirements
Ruling to determine if law can be challenged before it takes effect

By MICHAEL DOYLE
BEE WASHINGTON BUREAU
Last Updated: November 29, 2005, 04:19:34 AM PST

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court returns to the abortion debate for the first time in five years on Wednesday, and the timing couldn't be more apt.

On Capitol Hill and across carefully targeted airwaves, abortion rights and anti-abortion forces are battling over a precious court vacancy. Even without that political fight, today's constitutional dispute would rivet attention on the future of parental notification requirements.

But with Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat in the balance, the stakes in the case known as Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of New England seem immeasurably higher.

"This is an important case regardless," American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman Lorraine Kenny said Monday. "The questions have very large ramifications."

The hour-long oral arguments Wednesday morning also will put fledgling Chief Justice John Roberts on stage. Like federal appellate judge Samuel Alito, nominated to replace O'Connor, Roberts deeply worries abortion-rights supporters. Roberts' questions, in tone and substance, could end up revealing more than the cautious responses he offered to abortion-related questions during his Senate confirmation hearing in September.

In a sign of the case's unusually high visibility, the court has agreed to let C-SPAN radio carry a delayed transmission of the oral arguments. The station's Web site, www.c-span.org, will have more information.

Ayotte will not directly call into question the abortion right first identified in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Instead, it will shape what kind of restrictions states can place on that right. It also could shape whether future abortion laws can be challenged before, or only after, they have taken effect.

The Best Press Money Can Buy

U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
# Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice.

By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.

Many of the articles are presented in the Iraqi press as unbiased news accounts written and reported by independent journalists. The stories trumpet the work of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce insurgents and tout U.S.-led efforts to rebuild the country.

Though the articles are basically factual, they present only one side of events and omit information that might reflect poorly on the U.S. or Iraqi governments, officials said. Records and interviews indicate that the U.S. has paid Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of such articles, with headlines such as "Iraqis Insist on Living Despite Terrorism," since the effort began this year.

The operation is designed to mask any connection with the U.S. military. The Pentagon has a contract with a small Washington-based firm called Lincoln Group, which helps translate and place the stories. The Lincoln Group's Iraqi staff, or its subcontractors, sometimes pose as freelance reporters or advertising executives when they deliver the stories to Baghdad media outlets.

The military's effort to disseminate propaganda in the Iraqi media is taking place even as U.S. officials are pledging to promote democratic principles, political transparency and freedom of speech in a country emerging from decades of dictatorship and corruption.

It comes as the State Department is training Iraqi reporters in basic journalism skills and Western media ethics, including one workshop titled "The Role of Press in a Democratic Society." Standards vary widely at Iraqi newspapers, many of which are shoestring operations.

Underscoring the importance U.S. officials place on development of a Western-style media, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday cited the proliferation of news organizations in Iraq as one of the country's great successes since the ouster of President Saddam Hussein. The hundreds of newspapers, television stations and other "free media" offer a "relief valve" for the Iraqi public to debate the issues of their burgeoning democracy, Rumsfeld said.

The military's information operations campaign has sparked a backlash among some senior military officers in Iraq and at the Pentagon who argue that attempts to subvert the news media could destroy the U.S. military's credibility in other nations and with the American public.

"Here we are trying to create the principles of democracy in Iraq. Every speech we give in that country is about democracy. And we're breaking all the first principles of democracy when we're doing it," said a senior Pentagon official who opposes the practice of planting stories in the Iraqi media.

The arrangement with Lincoln Group is evidence of how far the Pentagon has moved to blur the traditional boundaries between military public affairs — the dissemination of factual information to the media — and psychological and information operations, which use propaganda and sometimes misleading information to advance the objectives of a military campaign.

If the admin will buy reporters here, I imagine there work is fairly unfettered in Iraq.

An Eye For What?

U.S. Debate on Pullout Resonates As Troops Engage Sunnis in Talks

By Ellen Knickmeyer, Jonathan Finer and Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 30, 2005; Page A01

RAMADI, Iraq, Nov. 29 -- Outside Ramadi's city auditorium, the mortar rounds fell, two, then three, each rattling the concrete walls slightly. Inside, locked in an intense debate about what it would take for American troops in Iraq to withdraw, none of the camouflaged Marines or robed Sunni Arab tribal leaders even flinched.

"We all want the withdrawal," Nasir Abdul Karim, leader of Anbar province's Albu Rahad tribe, told scores of the armed Marines and Sunni sheiks, clerical leaders and other elders at the gathering Monday in Ramadi, 60 miles west of Baghdad. "We all believe it is an illegitimate occupation, and it is a legitimate resistance."

"We're committed to withdrawing," responded Brig. Gen. James L. Williams of the 2nd Marine Division, "as soon as we have strong units" in the Iraqi army to replace U.S.-led forces. "I understand the resistance," Williams added, commenting later that he was referring to the peaceful opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq. "But you must understand we're military people. People who are shot at will shoot back.

As I understand it, we, um, shot at them first.

The NYT somehow manages to avoid noticing that. So did the Wapo and the LAT.

Funny, they get all kinky now about the Geneva conventions, which we've been managing to avoid for a few years and our newspapers have been managing to avoid all together.

Bubble, Bubble, Pop

I was wondering about this topic a few mornings ago while driving to work... when was the last time that the President spoke to a crowd of regular people? Granted, I'm not to most conscious person at 5:45 AM (just ask my wife), but as NPR goes down the list of events, it struck me as odd that he's always at some sort of military function or base.

Now, disregarding the blatant symbolism or overcompensation, am I the only person troubled by this? Last time I checked, Bush received more than just military votes even though most of his campaign trips were so tightly scripted that no one could hiccup out of cue. Likewise, when he did his big Social Security tour, he had people with or posing as Secret Service agents kicking out anyone who might disagree with him on any policy issue or could cause a disruption.

Luckily, I'm not the only one who has noticed this. In fact, Dan Froomkin goes into much more detail on it than I could have. For instance:

Tomorrow, Bush gives a speech on the war on terror -- at the United States Naval Academy. Then he attends a reception for Republican party donors.

Today, he visits a U.S. Border Patrol office, then attends a Republican fundraising lunch.

Yesterday, he spoke at an Air Force base and a Republican fundraiser.

Before leaving the country on his recent trip to Asia, Bush made one last speech -- at an Air Force base in Alaska. A few days before that, he spoke at an Army depot in Pennsylvania. When he delivered a speech on Nov. 1 about bird flu, it was to an audience of National Institutes of Health employees.

The best chance ordinary citizens have had in ages to be anywhere near the president comes Thursday at 5 p.m., when the Bushes participate in the Pageant of Peace tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse. But it won't exactly be a policy speech -- and anyway, tickets to that event were distributed three weeks ago.

There is a lot more to chew on in there, especially given the polarizing nature of this Presidency and its determination to hide everything it can from the public. I hope that as people get more and more ticked off at what's going on in DC, that we can expect some more accountability from the White House and for them to deal with regular people more.

Yes, I know there are security concerns, but doesn't it seem like the terrorism boggeyman gets trotted out everytime the citizens demand to know what's going on? Even Reagan and Clinton Administrations during their lowest periods never gave the impression that they had to go to such lengths to protect their boss. And that, more than anything else, is a sign of weakness.

This is very good

STEAK DIANNE

Serves 4

1 lb. breakfast steaks or beef tenderloin, cut into 8 thin slices
2 tbsp. butter

Cook thin steaks in 2 tablespoons butter in skillet over medium heat to desired doneness, turning once. These cook quickly, they may be done in an electric skillet or chafing dish at the table.

SAUCE:

1/4 c. butter
1/2 c. fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 tbsp. green onions, minced
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/4 tsp. thyme
1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 tbsp. lime juice
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. minced fresh parsley

Cook and stir together all ingredients, except parsley, until mushrooms are tender. Add parsley. Set aside. Reheat and pour over steaks just before serving. Serves 4.

Stick with History

Steak au Poivre

This dish is a classic in France and always wonderful with a frisée salad, french fries, and a bottle of red wine. For sear-roasting steak, a cast-iron pan works best.

click to enlarge

Serves four.

4 New York strip or sirloin steaks (6 to 8 oz. each), 3/4 inch thick, patted dry

Salt

3 Tbs. coarsely ground black peppercorns

Olive oil for the pan

1 cup red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir)

4 to 6 Tbs. butter, sliced

Heat the oven to 500°F. Sprinkle the steaks with salt on both sides, and then press the ground peppercorns into the steaks on both sides. Set a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat and add just enough olive oil to make a light film. When the oil is very hot, add the steaks, cooking until nicely browned on one side, about 3 min. (If the pan is small, work in batches.) Flip the meat over and put the skillet in the oven. For medium-rare steaks, roast for 3 min. for 6-oz. steaks; 4 min. for 8-oz. steaks. Check for doneness with the tip of a knife or by pressing with your fingertips, keeping in mind that the steaks will cook a bit more as they sit. Transfer the steaks to a warm plate and tent with foil.

With a spoon, remove any fat from the skillet. Put the skillet back on the burner and heat to medium high. Add the wine and cook until it's reduced to 1/4 cup, about 7 min., scraping up the browned bits with a wooden spoon. Whisk in the butter a slice at a time, whisking until completely melted. Taste and adjust the seasonings, drizzle the sauce over the steaks, and serve immediately with more sauce on the side.

This is a wonderful treatment for the classic steak. Crushed multicolor peppercorns work nicely, as well.

War is Peace

Rice defends prisoner tactics

By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
11/29/2005 6:57 AM

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday defended the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects as part of an unprecedented war to prevent massive attacks on civilians.

In an interview with USA TODAY, Rice neither confirmed nor disavowed the existence of secret CIA prisons abroad that The Washington Post reported this month. She said the Bush administration's policy of making arrests before crimes are committed benefits other nations as well as the United States.

"We have never fought a war like this before where ... you can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them," she said. "Because if they commit the crime, thousands of innocent people die."

The European Union is investigating the prisons. Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattino said Monday that any EU member that operated one of the prisons could be ousted from the 25-member organization.

Ok, I realize that Condi and company assume that most Americans spent their civics classes more concerned about the cute blonde on the front row than their rights, but lets remind them about one or two nagging details from the Constitution.

Article 1 Section 9:

Clause 3: No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

Now I realize that this Article deals with Congress and not the Executive Branch, but the same rules hold true for Executive Orders and actions despite what Dick, Rummy, and the rest of the Fun Bunch think.

In other words, you can't change a person for a crime they haven't done nor can you keep them in jail forever. Period.

And here's the kicker... they know it, otherwise would they have finally charged Padilla with a crime if they thought the SCOTUS would back them up?

What will we tell our kids?

Where the Wild Things Are

I'm moving into recipe mode after a very heavy day at the blogoffice. There is a lot going on behind the scenes, including a possible job for yours truly, the meeting is tomorrow. The good duds are out and pressed.

While all of that is going on, the blog continues to function and tonight I'm moving to one of my favorite foods, Minnesota Wild Rice. This is good.

Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup
Cook 1 cup wild rice according to package directions. Set aside.

In a soup pot, over medium-high heat, melt 3 Tablespoons butter. Add 1 celery stalk, cleaned and finely chopped, 1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped, 1/3 pound porcini mushrooms, chopped and 1/3 pound button mushrooms, finely chopped. Saut�, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft.

Add the cooked rice, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 4 cups vegetable broth, 2 Tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped and freshly ground black pepper. Reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 20 � 30 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup heavy cream, and taste for additional seasoning.

Preparation Time:15 minutes / Cooking Time: 45 - 55 minutes
Serves: 6
recipe found at the fabulous (but very light on soup recipes) Break Eggs where they recommend using sliced shiitake mushrooms. The Soup Lady prefers chopped porcinis in this soup.

Melanie uses your standard button mushrooms from the grocery, and they work very well.

A Brush with Sanity

This is breaking and there isn't any detail yet.

Governor Grants Clemency to Man Set to Become 1,000th Prisoner Executed

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 29, 2005

Filed at 4:55 p.m. ET

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Gov. Mark R. Warner granted clemency Tuesday to a convicted killer who would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Robin Lovitt's sentence was commuted to life in prison.

Lovitt was set to be executed by injection Wednesday night for stabbing a man to death with a pair of scissors during a pool-hall robbery in 1998.

This is a huge deal. Virginia has always looked like the rest of the south with regard to its support for the death penalty. Warner is widely regarded to have presidential aspirations (we could do worse, he's a technocrat and policy wonk not unlike the Big Dog.) and the country, as a whole, still favors the death penalty. This is taking a principaled stand.

For the record, I oppose the death penalty, always have. It is the one sanction that can't be undone if wrongly decided.

UPDATE: Here is the governor's rational:

RICHMOND, Nov. 29 -- Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) issued his first-ever grant of clemency in a death-penalty case Tuesday to convicted murderer Robin Lovitt, sparing his life a day before his scheduled execution.

In a statement issued Tuesday evening, Warner said the destruction by an Arlington clerk of DNA evidence that might have cleared Lovitt on appeal convinced him that Lovitt should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole, rather than be executed. Lovitt would have been the 1,000th person executed in the United States since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

"In this case, the actions of an agent of the Commonwealth, in a manner contrary to the express direction of the law, comes at the expense of a defendant facing society's most severe and final sanction," Warner said in the statement. "The Commonwealth must ensure that every time this ultimate sanction is carried out, it is done fairly."

Lovitt, 41, was convicted and sentenced to death in the November 1998 stabbing of Clayton Dicks, 45, during a robbery at Champion Billiards Sports Cafe, a 24-hour pool hall in Arlington.

During a 1999 trial, prosecutors said that Lovitt, who had worked at pool hall as a cook, went there to steal money. They said that Lovitt was confronted by Dicks and that he grabbed a pair of scissors from the bar and stabbed Dicks six times.

Lovitt has maintained his innocence. He admits he was at the pool hall the night of the killing but says he was in the bathroom while Dicks fought with another man. He said he emerged to find that Dicks had been stabbed, grabbed the cash box and fled

His lawyers have argued that DNA tests using the latest technology -- now impossible because evidence, including the scissors, were discarded -- might have exonerated their client. Early forensic tests involving DNA were inconclusive.

Screw the Poor

As the Winter Looms

Published: November 29, 2005

Members of Congress left Washington before Thanksgiving and don't plan to return until mid-December. They took off without approving any money to help poor Americans pay their heating bills this winter. They failed to pass the bill that included $2 billion in home heating subsidies that they had agreed to allocate as long ago as last spring. They also failed to come up with the additional $3 billion that is needed to cover the big price jumps in various fuels since Hurricane Katrina.

On four separate occasions, a majority of senators voted in favor of more money for heating subsidies, but under the budget rules, passage required a supermajority, which could not be mustered. The House managed to ignore the issue almost entirely, except to "add" an extra billion dollars for heating subsidies to one bill by cutting a billion from other programs that help the poor. The intended recipients of federal heating subsidies include millions of low-income Americans who are old and disabled, as well as poor families with children. It is widely known that people who cannot afford heat often make trade-offs that risk their health or safety: deciding between heating or eating, between heat or medicine, between turning on the heat or resorting to oven flames or dangerous kerosene heaters.

President Bush punted on his opportunity to emphasize the need for more heating subsidies when he neglected to ask for the money in his latest hurricane-related emergency spending request. Congressional leaders have also failed to stress the issue, even as they have vowed to move heaven and earth to pass more tax cuts for investors - at a cost that far exceeds the cost of adequate heating aid.

This is the height of cruelty.

Finding a Clue

President was detached during Iraq postwar planning, Wilkerson says

Tuesday, November 29, 2005; Posted: 11:57 a.m. EST (16:57 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff says President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of post-war planning, allowing underlings to exploit Bush's detachment and make bad decisions.

In an Associated Press interview Monday, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees after Sept. 11 arose from a coterie of White House and Pentagon aides who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful," and that the Geneva Conventions were irrelevant.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. Wilkerson said that Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

Wilkerson suggested his former boss may agree with him that Bush was too hands-off about Iraq.

"What he seems to be saying to me now is the president failed to discipline the process the way he should have and that the president is ultimately responsible for this whole mess," Wilkerson said.

He said Powell now generally believes it was a good idea to remove Saddam Hussein from power, but may not agree with either the timing or execution of the war. Wilkerson said Powell may have had doubts about the extent of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein but was convinced by then-CIA Director George Tenet and others that the intelligence girding the push toward war was sound.

Powell was widely regarded as a dove to Cheney's and Rumsfeld's hawks, but he made a forceful case for war before the United Nations Security Council in February, 2003, a month before the invasion. At one point, he said Saddam possessed mobile labs to make weapons of mass destruction that were never found.
Cheney may have deliberately ignored contrary intelligence

Wilkerson criticized the CIA and other agencies for allowing mishandled and bogus information to underpin that speech and the whole administration case for war.

He said he has almost, but not quite, concluded that Cheney and others in the administration deliberately ignored evidence of bad intelligence and looked only at what supported their case for war.

Mr. Wilkerson, the rest of us have read the Project for a New American Century, haven't you?

Suffering

Howie, you might want to ask your news department why this story has fallen off the A section of the WaPo. FEMA is utterly incompetent, as is the SBA and why isn't anyone raising hell about it?

Slow-Motion Disaster

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, November 29, 2005; 8:21 AM

For once, I don't think I can blame the media.

Journalists keep writing stories about how awful things are in New Orleans. Time did a cover story last week: "It's Worse Than You Think." And yet three months after Katrina struck, the administration hasn't done much, Congress seems distracted by other issues, and there seems to be no sense of national urgency about the slow destruction of a major American city.

Is this inevitable, given today's MTV attention spans? What about all the lofty rhetoric, the presidential visits, the media hand-wringing amid the devastation of the hurricane and flooding? People are no longer drowning, but what remains of the city is slowly being strangled. Isn't that as big a story as when the levees broke?

Here is some of what I've been reading: Some 250,000 devastated businesses have applied to SBA loans; only a couple hundred have been approved. Isn't that as lackadaisical a response as FEMA's? If these businesses can't get short-term loans, they're going to close up, and there go the jobs that might enable more folks to return.

Some 284,000 homes were destroyed by the hurricane. Some people got flood-insurance payments, while others in the same neighborhood were denied. Major portions of the area have no power, and the local electric utility is bankrupt. The health care system has been crippled, with only two hospitals partially reopened. The first regular public school reopened only yesterday. Some banks can't decide whether to rebuild. Companies like UPS and Burger King have jobs available, but few takers because there is no housing. Much of the $62 billion okayed by Congress remains unspent.

Meanwhile, FEMA's brilliant plan was to kick out most of the 150,000 evacuees still living in hotel rooms, as of this week. After a huge uproar in the affected states, the deadline was pushed back to Jan. 7. But what happens then? FEMA has even tried to block cities like Houston from signing apartment leases for the displaced.

Donna Brazile, a Nawlins native, says in Time she's worried about "Katrina Fatigue."

As I say, many journalists have remained on the case. But the disaster's aftermath is hardly getting the kind of constant coverage that Tom DeLay's indictment or Harriet Miers' nomination or the Valerie Plame investigation commanded. The hurricane hit in late August, but hundreds of thousands are still suffering, and it's entirely possible that much of the city will never be rebuilt and many of its residents will never come home. Isn't that as important as anything else going on in this country right now?

Enough, Already

Tropical Storm Epsilon caps a record breaking hurricane season.

Didn't I say something just the other day about more and stronger hurricanes?

Throw Him Back

Alito's memos favor authorities
1986-87 records of advice to IRS, FBI

By David G. Savage
Published November 29, 2005

WASHINGTON // As a lawyer in the Reagan administration, Samuel A. Alito Jr. advised the FBI that it had broad power to investigate government employees as security threats, even if they had no involvement in national security matters.

In another memo, he told the Internal Revenue Service that its lawyers may secretly record conversations with taxpayers, despite an American Bar Association opinion barring lawyers from secretly recording any conversation.

In both instances, Alito - now an appellate court judge and a Supreme Court nominee - interpreted the law in a way that gave more leeway to federal authorities.

The memos were among 470 pages of files released yesterday from Alito's service as a deputy attorney general at the Justice Department in 1986 and 1987. He provided legal advice to the attorney general's office, the White House and other federal agencies.

An FBI lawyer sought Alito's advice after lower courts had ruled in two cases that the government had violated the free-speech rights of workers by investigating them. The first case involved two lawyers at the Education Department, the second a librarian who had joined the Young Socialist Alliance.

Alito discounted both lower-court decisions. "We do not believe that the FBI is required to alter its practices based on what we regard as ... the erroneous interpretation of the applicable legal authorities," he wrote in a 29-page memo on Sept. 9, 1986.

He cited a 1947 order issued by President Harry S. Truman that gave the government broad power to check on the loyalty of its employees and to root out communists and subversives. "The plain language of that order clearly states that all federal employees fall within its ambit," Alito wrote.

While Truman's order focused on threats to national security, officials could get around that limitation by focusing on the "critically sensitive" duties of federal employees, he wrote.

"We conclude, therefore, that under the executive order ... a position may be related to the 'national security' even if it does not involve the protection of the United States from internal subversion or foreign aggression," he wrote.

The more I find out about this character, the scarier he seems. This news, combined with learning about his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton point to a judge with really retro views of the direction society should be taking. He's not leadership material.

Suspicion

Go Ahead, Call In Sick -- It Prevents 'Presenteeism'
By Molly Selvin, Times Staff Writer

Employers have long worried about workers who call in sick so they can surf or watch TV. Now some experts say companies should pay attention to the flip side of that problem: employees who show up feverish and sneezing.

They even have a word for this behavior, which can hurt productivity just as absenteeism does: "presenteeism."

Though the worry isn't new, it has gained momentum with fears of a bird-flu pandemic. Should the disease mutate into a strain that passes from person to person, public health officials say, it could thrive in offices.

"I wish employers would make it possible for sick employees to stay home," said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, public health director for Los Angeles County. "Certainly from a public health standpoint that makes sense."

Yeah, right, many workers say. In the real world, calling in sick is often not an option.

"We're in an environment where they just need the bodies to keep things going," said Candace Greene, 35, who oversees substitute teachers for the Los Angeles Unified School District. And if you do take a sick day, "you pay for it in attitude when you come back the next day."

Even highly paid employees may not get any slack, precisely because they are highly paid, said Dana Cephas, a Los Angeles labor and employment lawyer.

"A partner can't call a client and say, 'I can't get what you want today, because my key attorney is sick,' " he said. "Employers say, 'We're paying you $100,000 or $200,000 — you don't get sick.' "

But many workers cannot afford to call in sick. The federal Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 42% of all workers in private industry are not entitled to sick time.

Even if they do have paid leave, low-wage workers may not want to take it. Cephas said his father, a janitor, never took a sick day — because he was paid for his unused leave at the end of the year and "we needed the money."

Recent surveys suggest many employees feel the same. Ninety percent of workers polled last year by LifeCare, a Connecticut firm that provides counseling and information services to employees, said they had come to work sick.

Most said they showed up because they felt it was "too risky to be absent" or worried they would fall behind in their job, according to the study.

Another recent survey found that employers are increasingly aware of the problem. CCH Inc., the Illinois-based human resources information firm that conducted the poll, said 48% of employers last summer said presenteeism was a problem in their companies — up from 39% in 2004.

But some employers fear that workers will slack off if it's too easy to stay home.

"We don't want you to come to work when you're sick," said Carol Dyer, human resources director of West Los Angeles-based Public Communications Services, an 80-person company that installs and maintains telephones in prisons.

"But, on the other hand, we expect you to come to work. If it's a mild cold — well, it's like, tough it out."

Employers may be encouraging presenteeism by cutting back on sick pay.

Although exact figures are unavailable, some human resources experts believe companies are reducing the number of sick days they provide, with five a year becoming more common. Moreover, a growing number of employers block workers from accumulating unused sick days from one year to the next.

This may explain rising presenteeism rates because a bad cold combined with a child's bout of bronchitis can quickly drain an employee's sick-leave account, said CCH analyst Tulay Turan.

"If you have five days of sick leave and on the sixth day disciplinary action is taken, people don't want to take that chance," she said.

But many employers are beginning to recognize that they must find ways to make sure workers not only come to work when they're well but also stay home when they're sick.

"There are two different kinds of employees — some people take advantage every time they're sick. There are others who come in and infect the whole place," said Marilyn Sherman, human resources director for Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.

"We encourage people to get the flu shot — and to stay home if they get it," she said.

It's a funny thing, the way our society offers "benefits" on the job. There is a cultural bias in favor of seeing every worker as a slacker who is looking for a way to rip the employer off.

In the event of a pandemic, our cultural biases are going to work against us.

Council of War

Ex-Powell Aide Criticizes Bush on Iraq

By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 29, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff says President Bush was "too aloof, too distant from the details" of post-war planning, allowing underlings to exploit Bush's detachment and make bad decisions.

In an Associated Press interview Monday, former Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson also said that wrongheaded ideas for the handling of foreign detainees after Sept. 11 arose from a coterie of White House and Pentagon aides who argued that "the president of the United States is all-powerful," and that the Geneva Conventions were irrelevant.

Wilkerson blamed Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and like-minded aides. Wilkerson said that Cheney must have sincerely believed that Iraq could be a spawning ground for new terror assaults, because "otherwise I have to declare him a moron, an idiot or a nefarious bastard."

....

On the question of detainees picked up in Afghanistan and other fronts on the war on terror, Wilkerson said Bush heard two sides of an impassioned argument within his administration. Abuse of prisoners, and even the deaths of some who had been interrogated in Afghanistan and elsewhere, have bruised the U.S. image abroad and undermined fragile support for the Iraq war that followed.

Cheney's office, Rumsfeld aides and others argued "that the president of the United States is all-powerful, that as commander in chief the president of the United States can do anything he damn well pleases," Wilkerson said.

On the other side were Powell, others at the State Department and top military brass, and occasionally then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Wilkerson said.

Powell raised frequent and loud objections, his former aide said, once yelling into a telephone at Rumsfeld: "Donald, don't you understand what you are doing to our image?"

The entire thing is quiote damming. This is coming from a very well respected Washington insider and it feels like he's softened his true opinions about what took place.

The sad thing is that in many ways it confirms many of our worst case fears about how this administration deals with problems. Apparently, they've mistaken this nation for a monarchy or dictatorship than a republic. Of course, considering how they came to power, is that any shock?

Pulling Back from Oz

What's the Plan?

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, November 28, 2005; 4:39 PM

President Bush does have a plan for withdrawing troops in Iraq -- and pretty much everyone agrees with it, the White House insisted yesterday.

It's just that they won't say exactly what that plan is.

The White House's latest positioning on this issue came in response to an op-ed in The Washington Post on Saturday by Sen. Joseph R. Biden , the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, headlined "Time for An Iraq Timetable."

Biden wrote: "The president must set a schedule for getting Iraqi forces trained to the point that they can act on their own or take the lead with U.S. help."

His proposal: "Over the next six months, we must forge a sustainable political compromise between Iraqi factions, strengthen the Iraqi government and bolster reconstruction efforts, and accelerate the training of Iraqi forces."

And he concluded: "If the administration shows it has a blueprint for protecting our fundamental security interests in Iraq, Americans will support it."

The White House's new rapid-response team quickly fired out a press release in which Scott McClellan asserted that "There is a strong consensus building in Washington in favor of President Bush's strategy for victory in Iraq."

In fact, McClellan insisted that Biden had just "described a plan remarkably similar to the Administration's plan to fight and win the war on terror."

But the White House press release neglected to even address Biden's central point about timetables and provided no new details, not to mention a blueprint. Up until now, the president hasn't done much more than repeat: " As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down ."

Um, Dan, he doesn't really know why he got us into Iraq in the first place and he doesn't have a clue about how he is going to get us out. We are going to hear nothing new on Wednesday, count on that. This administration is so shuttered to reality that you can't really expect much beyond "Gee, Toto, I guess we aren't in Kansas anymore."

Missing the Point

Sunnis Accuse Iraqi Military of Kidnappings and Slayings

By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: November 29, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 28 - As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

Some of the young men have turned up alive in prison. In a secret bunker discovered earlier this month in an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad, American and Iraqi officials acknowledged that some of the mostly Sunni inmates appeared to have been tortured.

Bayan Jabr, the interior minister, and other government officials denied any government involvement, saying the killings were carried out by men driving stolen police cars and wearing police and army uniforms purchased at local markets. "Impossible! Impossible!" Mr. Jabr said. "That is totally wrong; it's only rumors; it is nonsense."

Many of the claims of killings and abductions have been substantiated by at least one human rights organization working here - which asked not to be identified because of safety concerns - and documented by Sunni leaders working in their communities.

American officials, who are overseeing the training of the Iraqi Army and the police, acknowledge that police officers and Iraqi soldiers, and the militias with which they are associated, may indeed be carrying out killings and abductions in Sunni communities, without direct American knowledge.

But they also say it is difficult, in an already murky guerrilla war, to determine exactly who is responsible. The American officials insisted on anonymity because they were working closely with the Iraqi government and did not want to criticize it publicly.

The widespread conviction among Sunnis that the Shiite-led government is bent on waging a campaign of terror against them is sending waves of fear through the community, just as Iraqi and American officials are trying to coax the Sunnis to take part in nationwide elections on Dec. 15.

Sunnis believe that the security forces are carrying out sectarian reprisals, in part to combat the insurgency, but also in revenge for years of repression at the hands of Saddam Hussein's government.

Ayad Allawi, a prominent Iraqi politician who is close to the Sunni community, charged in an interview published Sunday in The London Observer that the Iraqi government - and the Ministry of Interior in particular - was condoning torture and running death squads.

The allegations raise the possibility of the war being fought here by a set of far messier rules, as the Americans push more responsibility for fighting it onto the Iraqis. One worry, expressed repeatedly by Americans and Iraqis here, is that an abrupt pullout of American troops could clear the way for a sectarian war.

Memo to Dexter Filkins: can you say "civil war?" No, I thought you couldn't, nor can you see what is going on under your own nose.

American reporters in Iraq are so beholden to the interpreters and factions in their Green Zone hotels that they don't have a clue about what is really going on. The also have no background in the history and culture of the country so they can't see what is clear to someone like a scholar of the area who would know and they are too stupid to ask.

"Too stupid to ask" characterizes this entire misadventure.

The Place in History

Here is the Sy Hersh's New Yorker piece which made such a splash over the weekend. I didn't go after it sooner because I don't think it moves the ball forward. But what Sy does do is predict that we are going to hear nothing new in Bush's Annapolis speech tomorrow and I think that's correct. With the Bushies, don't listen to what they say, watch what they do. Bush is going to start moving out of Iraq before the 2006 mid-term election. The rhetoric won't matter. Stay the course and all of that crap won't matter a bit if his ass is burning up.

The lame duck presidency is going to show us how much W cares about the party, the GOP, and whether he intends to move that ball down the road or if only his narrow, personal interests matter. I'm guessing that the party is going to run away from him and his narcissism, but I've been wrong before.

I can't see any congresscritter campaigning with him next year. He's unpopular.

Some of us voters figured out that he was an idiot back in 2000. Glad to see the rest of you figure it out.

A Trip to the Countryside

This is one of those hug-yourself-it's-so-good dishes that's easy-simple-last-minute good for company if you already have some gnocchi in the house. The recipe:

Great gnocchi are light and tender, and creating the best gnocchi in this recipe can be accomplished by draining the spinach well to remove excess liquid. The Gorgonzola sauce is delicious but rich, so a little goes a long way.

:Serves 4

Since Gorgonzola cheese is salty, be careful when adding salt to the sauce.

Gnocchi:
1 1/2 Pounds Baking Potatoes
1/2 Pound Fresh Spinach
1 Large egg
Salt
1 Cup All-purpose Flour (Plus A Little More For Shaping)

Gorgonzola Sauce:
6 oz. Gorgonzola Cheese
1 Cup (8 oz) Whole Milk
Salt & Pepper
Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese To Serve

To prepare the gnocchi, bake the potatoes in an oven at 350 degrees F. until fork tender. Cool to room temperature, then peel, and pass through a potato ricer or food mill. Wash and dry the spinach, and remove any thick stems. Steam, or microwave until tender. Finely chop, or pulse in a food processor. Place the spinach in a sieve over a bowl in the sink, and let sit 30 minute to remove excess liquid. In a large bowl, or on a clean counter or bread board, mound the potatoes and spinach, and mix. Make a little depression in the center, and then add the egg, seasonings and cup of flour. Mix together well. On a lightly floured surface, take a large handfull of the dough, and roll into a 1 1/2 inch roll with your hands. Cut the roll into 1 inch pieces, and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Continue shaping the dough in this manner, and then refrigerate for up to 6 hours before using. It's traditional to dimple each gnocchi on the sides with your thumb and forefinger before you set them out to rest.

To prepare the sauce, heat the milk over low heat until simmering. Cut the gorgonzola cheese into 1 inch pieces, and add to the hot milk. Continue to cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the cheese has melted, and the sauce is thick. Season with salt and pepper. I add a couple tablespoons of butter to the mix, just to add to the calorie and cholesterol and flavor count. This isn't something you are going to eat everyday. I live on raw foods in between my occasional bouts of these special days menus.

To cook the gnocchi, drop into lightly salted water and remove as soon as they float to the top, about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain them all and return to the now empty pot. Add the sauce, and stir carefully to coat well. Serve, topped with the parmesan cheese. Finely chopped parsley sprinkled over the top and around the edge of each plating makes a nice impression.

Good gnocchi require a knack and they take practice to keep as airy and light as possible. Hint: you need enough flour to bind them so they won't break up on cooking, but too much flour makes them heavy. This takes a little practice.

If you are desiring to serve this for dinner and don't have a lot of time, you can make the gnocchi the day before and refrigerate them in zip-lock bags. They will be a little drier and tougher than if you'd made them right before cooking, but they'll still be better than anything you'll find at the supermarket or most restaurants. Once you've made them a couple of times, you'll be a whiz at knocking them out when the baked potatoes have cooled enough to handle. Here is a baked potato secret: pierce the potatoes and start them in the microwave on high. Two russets will need about 15 minutes, and then finish them in a preheated oven or toaster oven for another 15. This cuts the cooking time in half and will give you a floury finished potato rather than the kind of steamed product you get if you try to cook them in the microwave alone. If, like me, you love a big, stuffed baked potato as a main course for dinner, this is the fastest way to get there.

For this recipe, rather than waiting for the potatoes to cool enough to peel them, hold the hot potato in a towel or hot pad, halve them and scoop out the interior into a bowl. The potatoes will cool faster in a bowl than they will in the jacket.

It's real important to get all of the moisture out of the spinach after it has been steamed: use a salad spinner to speed up the process.

The gorgonzola sauce loves nuts if you want to sprinkle finely chopped walnuts or pine nuts over the dish before you serve it.

For a lovely presentation, sprinkle finely chopped parsley (very fine) over the top of the plate and in a circle around the edge of the plate.

Serve this with a salad of wild Italian field greens tossed with fresh pear slices, rosemary and lemon vinaigrette and serve with a cherry tomato bruschetta.

The down side of this menu is that everyone will be so busy eating that they won't talk. I'm a cook who likes to entertain and I recognize the moment when the meal is being appreciated. Talking ceases and all you can hear is the sound of silver against the tablewear. It is actually a satisfying moment. When silence happens in the middle of a meal, it means that it is either awful or wonderful, so there is a caution.

For New Year's Day Dinner

I've been a little heavy in the carnivore department lately, so here is something scrumptious for the ovo-lacto vegetarians (and everybody else who loves comfort food, which this is.)

Pasta al Forno Bianco

This serves 4-6.

3 Cups Béchamel Sauce

6 Tablespoons Of Butter
2/3 Cup All-Purpose Flour
3 Cups Milk
Salt
White Pepper
Nutmeg

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat. Once it is completely melted and bubbling, add the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon. Cook for a minute or two until the flour just begins to take on some color. Slowly start adding the milk, whisking continuously to prevent lumps from forming.

Continue to simmer until the sauce begins to thicken, stirring often. Season with a pinch of salt, white pepper and nutmeg.

Set aside until you are ready to use, by pouring the sauce into a glass bowl and covering with a buttered sheet of plastic wrap.

1 Pound Rigatoni or Penne Pasta
1 Small Head Of Broccoli, Washed, And Floret's Cut Into Bite Sized pieces
1 Cup Grated Swiss Cheese
1 Cup Grated Gruyere Cheese (Or Other Tasty Cheese Of Choice)

Topping:

3 oz. Parmesan, Freshly Grated
1/2 Cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Blanch the broccoli until tender crisp. Drain well. Heat the béchamel over low heat, and add the swiss and gruyere cheeses. Stir until the cheeses have completely melted. Cook the pasta for three minutes less than the package recommendations. Drain the pasta, and add to the sauce, mixing well. Fold in the diced ham, and broccoli, and place in an ovenproof dish large enough to hold the pasta mixture. Mix the breadcrumbs with the parmesan and the oil, and sprinkle it over the pasta. Bake in a preheated 400 degree F. oven until bubbly. Let sit 5 minutes and serve.

Carnivores who can't forego the meat: add a 1/4 pound of thinly juilliened pancetta or prosciutto just before topping with the breadcrumbs, parmesan and oil.

I love serving hearty, simply foods like this for New Years Day dinner. I'd like a pinot grigio with this, along with Tuscan bread, and a traditional bagna cauda as a first course.

Real Italian granitas are hard to find in this country outside of New York, Boston or San Francisco, but a light Italian ice would conclude this meal on a light note.

Something Different

Beef sate is one of the lightest, tastiest appetizers you can pass with drinks or place at the heart of an appetizer spread. I've been known to make a meal of it with a big bowl of tom kha gai, some jasmine rice and a bowl of cucumber salad. Sate takes a little work to make, but the results are extremely rewarding. In fact, you could make a nice thai buffet with those ingredients if you add a pad thai with shrimp! If you want to go that route, make sure you can supply the appropriate thai condiments, chili sauces, fish sauce and the like.

Thais typically eat with western table implements, so don't feel like you have to supply chopsticks.

Part 1 - Peanut Sauce

Ingredients

5 to 6 dried Thai chiles
3 shallots finely chopped
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons light brown sugar or to taste
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon fish sauce (nam pla) or soy sauce or to taste (there is no substitute for nam pla)
2/3 cup chunky peanut butter

Instructions

1. Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles and discard. Finely grind the chiles in a spice grinder.
2. Add the shallots, ginger, and garlic to a mortar. Grind with the pestle until smooth. (A mini food processor can be used but be careful not to over process or the mixture will become watery.)
3. Add 2 tablespoons of the peanut oil to a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shallot mixture and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened and starting to color, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and add the cumin and coriander and ground chile. Sauté until aromatic, 3 to 4 minutes, adding more oil if necessary.
4. Reduce the heat to low and add the coconut milk, broth, brown sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. Stir well to mix with seasonings. Stir in the peanut butter. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes. Taste and add more sugar or fish sauce if needed.

Part 2 - The Beef Saté

Ingredients

Peanut Sauce (see above)
2 pounds beef flank steak, pork loin, or boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (I prefer top sirloin for the beef version)

Marinade

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, toasted
6cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tablespoon tamarind paste or lime juice
1 teaspoon ground coriander
3 tablespoons peanut oil

Instructions

Prepare the Peanut Sauce one or two days ahead and refrigerate. Slice the beef across the grain into about 1/8-inch-thick strips.

Prepare the marinade: Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well to dissolve the sugar.

Submerge the beef in the marinade and stir well to coat. Let the meat marinate for 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Meanwhile, soak the bamboo skewers in water for at least 30 minutes (this will keep them from burning during cooking).

Prepare the skewers: Thread 1 or more pieces of beef, depending on the size of the piece, on each skewer. Lay them flat on a tray and pour any remaining marinade over them.

Preheat the broiler or grill to medium. Grill skewers 1 to 2 minutes per side until cooked through. Serve immediately with warmed peanut sauce for dipping.

Serve these on torn lettuce, garnished with fresh cilantro and sliced limes. Offer toast points on the side to soak up additional peanut sauce and to make little cucumber sandwiches with the cucumber salad and peanut sauce.

The "New New Thing" in Professional Crime

This little gem was just referenced on Slashdot.

I think you folks may take this as a benchmark. And as an independent confirmation of what the Information Security people have been warning about for the last couple of years now.

To wit: The "old school" recreational blackhats and the "joyrider" virus writers and the compulsive teenagers are not the major threat anymore. They are yesterday's headlines. We can look back to those days with the sort of wistful nostalgia that people are apt to feel for a simpler and less hazardous time.

Professional crime is on the Internet, and it's there to stay. And it's not in the game for chump change. This is now, according to some sources, bigger than the drugs trade.

The story is from Reuters.

Cybercrime yields more cash than drugs: expert

By Souhail Karam
RIYADH (Reuters) - Global cybercrime generated a higher turnover than drug trafficking in 2004 and is set to grow even further with the wider use of technology in developing countries, a top expert said on Monday.

No country is immune from cybercrime, which includes corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy, said Valerie McNiven, who advises the U.S. Treasury on cybercrime.

"Last year was the first year that proceeds from cybercrime were greater than proceeds from the sale of illegal drugs, and that was, I believe, over $105 billion," McNiven told Reuters.

"Cybercrime is moving at such a high speed that law enforcement cannot catch up with it."

For example, Web sites used by fraudsters for "phishing" -- the practice of tricking computer users into revealing their bank details and other personal data -- only stayed on the Internet for a maximum of 48 hours, she said.

Asked if there was evidence of links between the funding of terrorism and cybercrime, McNiven said: "There is evidence of links between them. But what's more important is our refusal or failure to create secure systems, we can do it but it's an issue of costs."

McNiven, a former e-finance and e-security specialist for the World Bank, was speaking in Riyadh on the sidelines of a conference on information security in the banking sector.

Developing countries which lack the virtual financial systems available elsewhere are easier prey for cybercrime perpetrators, who are often idle youths looking for quick gain.

"When you have identity thefts or corruption and manipulation of information there (developing countries), it becomes almost more important because ... their systems start getting compromised from the get-go," she said.

"Another area that begins to expand is human trafficking and pornography because both of these become so much available once you have a communication ability," McNiven said.

On a happier note - that business about phishing websites only being up for a maximum of 48 hours also has something to do with the attitude that banks have towards them - one of naked loathing and detestation. I have personally seen the CISO of the bank I work for get as angry as I have ever seen a bank officer get, speaking about phishing fraud. It is quite easy for banks to get these sites shut down extremely quickly, and some of them make a point of doing so in as close to an automated fashion as possible.

In a properly set up operation, reports come in from potential victims to "[email protected]", and this account feeds directly into either a specialized services vendor the bank has contracted with, or to a team within the bank itself. Either way, the ISP who owns the IP address used by the phishing website is quickly contacted, and a complaint lodged.

The ISP only needs to do the quickest of investigations - merely to load the suspect URL into a web browser. Given a damning verdict, they close down the offending account with a light laugh. They have much to gain by such an action, and very little to lose. Once the offending site is gone, so is any potential problem with the complaining bank. And the crooks running the phishing site are in a poor position to complain, themselves, that they were wrongly done by.

These crooks may be in a high-gains business. But they have very, very few friends right now.

The Coming Mine Field

Bush Is Urged to Explain War Plan
# Republican senators say Congress and the public should be kept abreast of his Iraq strategy, while Democrats call for a withdrawal timetable.

By Alan C. Miller, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — Amid declining public support for the war in Iraq, two prominent Republican senators urged President Bush on Sunday to be more forthcoming about the increasingly costly and uncertain effort to defeat the insurgency and establish a self-sufficient democracy.

"We want to hear from the administration," said Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. "We want more co-option of the Congress by the administration so that we're on the same wavelength."

Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said Bush should provide a detailed status report to the American public.

"It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public" and emphasize that "we've got to stay firm for the next six months," Warner said.

The lawmakers made their comments on television talk shows almost two weeks after the Senate overwhelmingly passed a Republican-sponsored resolution calling upon the Bush administration to turn over more control of Iraq to the Iraqis and to provide quarterly reports to Congress on the progress that was being made toward withdrawing U.S. forces.

Bush is scheduled to make a major speech Wednesday during which he is expected to trumpet the readiness of Iraqi troops to assume greater responsibility for the country's security. He will do so as a consensus appears to be emerging in Washington about the need to gradually pull out large numbers of U.S. forces over the next two years.

Democratic senators, meanwhile, said the administration's mishandling of the war made it imperative that it commit to a specific timetable for troop withdrawals or risk leaving behind chaos.

"We have a six-month window here to get it right," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, referring to the way the war was being conducted. "But I have to admit that I think its chances are not a lot better than 50-50, and it requires a real change in course" by Bush.

Biden appeared with Warner on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who joined Lugar on "Fox News Sunday," said if the Iraqis thought the U.S. was there "as long as we're needed, that is such an open-ended statement on our part that it takes pressure off them to make the compromises that are necessary to make those changes in the [Iraqi] constitution. That's what we need to do: Put some pressure on them to make the political decisions that are so essential to becoming a nation."

Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.), the first senator to call for a scheduled pullout, said on ABC's "This Week" that "we should have a public timetable to show the Iraqi people, the American people and the world that we're not trying to have a permanent occupation of Iraq."

Let me tell you what you are going to hear out of Bush on Wednesday at his Naval Academy speech:

As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down. But we'll stay the course.

Bush is too damn stubborn to begin withdrawing troops anytime soon; that would be admitting he's wrong, but, politically, he has to. He's wrecked this country militarily for a decade. So, we're going to be getting a lot of rhetoric out of the White House in the coming months about how successful the Iraqis are as cover for the fact that he will be rotating troops out. He's partially correct, the Iraqi insurgency is ever more successful as they learn how inept our strategy (non-existent) and tactics (stupid) are. And the Iraq civil war we are probably precipitating will probably successful, too. Why is it again that the Repubs are seen as good on national security?

Public Conversation

The University of Toronto's Joint Centre on Bioethics released an important report on bioethics and pandemic influenza yesterday and I quoted and linked to The Toronto Star story about it this morning. Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press's redoubtable med-sci reporter, has a much more thorough (and pretty long) story today and I want to quote a bit and give you the link to the whole thing. I think this is a very important discussion that we all need to have. An outbreak of pandemic flu in the next few years would occur in an environment where medical resources to meet it would be scarce. Hard choices would have to be made if the flu were severe. Read Branswell and think and talk about it.

Public debate needed on pandemic ethics
By HELEN BRANSWELL

TORONTO (CP) - It's time to engage the public in open and frank debate over the excruciating choices a flu pandemic could force governments and health-care delivery systems the world over to have to make, a new report suggests.

Governments need to throw open discussions already well underway to determine who gets first crack at eventual vaccine and who won't get limited antiviral drugs, so the public can be assured those decisions are being based on an ethical foundation that reflects shared values, the authors suggest.

Such deliberations should address what societies can reasonably ask of health-care workers, who could be risking their own lives during a pandemic, and what protections societies are willing to offer them in return, notes the report, written by ethicists from the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics.

"The time to figure out what roles, responsibilities and expectations are going to be is now. Not when the emergency rooms are starting to fill up. Not when we're trying to deal with intense numbers of very sick individuals," one of the authors, Dr. Ross Upshur, said in an interview.

But one of Canada's leading infectious diseases experts warned it is easier to call for such deliberations than to actually have them.

Planners in the health-care arena shudder at the thought of having to decide what to do when they've run out of life-saving mechanical ventilators and a gravely ill 15-year-old comes through the emergency department door, Dr. Allison McGeer admitted.

Do they take the oldest person on a ventilator in the hospital off it? Do they call around to other hospitals to see if someone older still can be removed from a ventilator across town?

"I think, at least among health-care workers, to even have the discussion somehow creates a sense of playing God," she said.

That last quote is the reason we need to begin this discussion. In a sense, our society has given itself the ability to play God by the way we allow health care to be apportioned (and insurance offered.) But that happens more or less behind the scenes. If severe pandemic flu arrives, these decisions are going to be big and ugly and made in doctors' offices, hospital rooms and in hospital ethics committees.

No Protection of Privacy

This is simply insane! You would think, in an industry that depends on trust that your personal information is protected, the credit card companies would be going out of their way to support stronger bills.

Identity-Theft Bills Stall in Congress

By CHRISTOPHER CONKEY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 26, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Despite a rash of highly publicized security lapses this year that had consumer advocates and business lobbyists clamoring for legislation, Congress is finding it difficult to agree on ways reduce identity theft and to protect the privacy of consumers.

Consumer groups are pushing for credit protections that financial institutions oppose. Small banks are arguing with larger ones about who picks up the "reissuing costs" when credit or debit cards must be replaced. And everyone with a stake in the issue is debating the "notification trigger," specifying what breaches require alerting customers.

The discord has derailed the prospect of legislation this year, and without some consensus, the outlook remains dim for next year as well.

This new reality is far removed from how things looked in February, when data broker ChoicePoint Inc. disclosed it had mistakenly sold sensitive information on 145,000 people to criminals posing as legitimate businessmen. The disclosure, required by a 2003 California law, set off a wave of corporate confessions. Embattled chief executive officers were called to testify before irate lawmakers in a series of televised hearings that thrust identity theft -- a crime that affects more than 4% of the adult population every year and costs businesses nearly $50 billion annually -- into the national consciousness.

A flurry of bills was introduced, and six different committees seized on proposed solutions. Among them were the Senate Banking and House Energy and Commerce committees, run by influential Republicans who co-founded the bipartisan Congressional Privacy Caucus.

Then, in June, word came that hackers had "infiltrated" payments processor CardSystems Solutions Inc., compromising the security of 40 million credit-card accounts. The enormity of the breach sent shock waves through the financial industry and seemed to ensure a quick federal response. Speaking later that month, Sen. Arlen Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, declared: "We're not really dealing with a highly controversial subject where there are going to be significant differences of opinion."

But while everyone agreed that consumers need to know when a security breach puts them at risk for identity theft, writing the new law has proven difficult.

Many privacy advocates, casting a suspicious eye on companies that fail to secure personal information, want legislative language in federal legislation similar to the seminal California law that requires disclosure of security lapses regardless of the potential for harm. Businesses say that poses too big a cost burden for them and say notification should be limited to breaches that threaten a "significant risk" of identity theft.

Companies say notification is expensive -- and so is replacing debit and credit cards. America's Community Bankers, a trade association representing community banks, told a House panel this month that legislation should require those responsible for a data breach to pick up the tab for notifying customers and reissuing cards. It figured that reissuing debit or credit cards can cost as much as $15 each.

The best part? Since the government has allowed the major credit cards to continue to merge together and your information to be bought and sold by almost anyone, your private infomration is more unsafe than ever.

I would think that $15 a card and some extra computer security would be a small price to pay for peace of mind.

Granting Cert

Pride Goeth Before the Court

By Al Kamen
Monday, November 28, 2005; A19

Liberals went into high whine mode when the Supreme Court agreed to hear Republican George W. Bush 's appeal in the 2000 Florida vote dispute. They said the high court lacked grounds to agree to hear the case.

But, as it turns out, it had ample grounds, more grounds than anyone knew. Traditionally, the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case to resolve different lower court rulings, if it is of great importance or if there's an important constitutional question involved.

However, as the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist noted, granting certiorari is really a "subjective decision," or as the late Justice John Marshall Harlan said, "a matter of feel."

Justice Antonin Scalia cited a heretofore unknown but important criterion: national pride.

Scalia unveiled the new criterion at a supposedly off-the-record chat last week at Time Warner headquarters with Time Inc. Editor in Chief Norman Pearlstine and Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons and numerous journalists.

On the 5 to 4 ruling in Bush v. Gore that made Bush president, New York Daily News columnist Lloyd Grove reports that Scalia said: "What did you expect us to do? Turn the case down because it wasn't important enough? Or give the Florida Supreme Court another couple of weeks in which the United States could look ridiculous?"

Ah, yes, the old appearance-of-ridiculousness standard.

The Color of the Lie

The masking of a true conservative
Alito will have no shame exhuming his `buried' ideology

Derrick Z. Jackson, New York Times News Service
Published November 28, 2005

Pride must go before he falls. This is why Samuel Alito Jr. hopped to liberal burrows on Capitol Hill to proclaim the burial of his conservative ideology. In his 1985 application to a senior post in the Reagan administration, Alito wrote:

"I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government argued that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."

"I am and always have been a conservative and an adherent to the same philosophical views that I believe are central to this administration." He said, "I believe very strongly in limited government" and "the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values."

"In college, I developed a deep interest in constitutional law, motivated in large part by disagreement with Warren Court decisions."

The Warren Court of 1953-69 happened to be the one that expanded civil rights protections for millions of Americans frozen out of the Constitution until the 20th Century. The revelation of the memo forced Alito bizarrely to ask liberal senators not to interpret strictly his strict interpretations.

Recently, Alito visited the pro-choice senator from California, Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein said Alito told her, "I'm not an advocate; I don't give heed to my personal views." The whipping boy of the right, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), said Alito told him that the 1985 memo is just an old job application and that the nominee said he is "wiser" and has "a better grasp of understanding constitutional rights and liberties."

This genuflection seemed to dampen outright outrage.

Feinstein, the only woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said after her meeting that she thought Alito's response was "very sincere" and "absolutely truthful." Moderate pro-choice Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine said after her meeting with Alito that the nominee claimed "an enormous respect for precedent," the buzz phrase for the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision upholding abortion rights nationwide.

But Snowe also said she had not made up her mind because Alito "didn't repudiate what he said" in 1985.

And the right wing is still cheering. "This man is a conservative. He's been a conservative all his life," Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia said after his meeting with Alito.

It is instructive to note that in 1998, when Chambliss was a member of the House, he voted to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions. In November of 2002, Chambliss, then the chairman of a House anti-terrorism panel, said the best way to combat terrorism was to have a Georgia sheriff "arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line."

Chambliss said he was only joking, but the crowd he spoke to laughed with him. His support of Alito makes that 1985 memo all the more serious for the nomination hearings. Alito's pride in trying to turn back the clock fit right in with the Reagan White House, which boasted even louder about it.

Mainstream? Maybe in 1963.

Preparation, Not Panic

Disconnect the panic button
# A little fear can be a useful thing, but the way we constantly hype our trepidations is just plain scary.

By Mick Farren, MICK FARREN is a Los Angeles writer, musician and playwright. His latest novel is "Kindling" (Tor Books, 2004).

FEAR IS the great tool of mass manipulation. It sells everything from insurance to deodorant and builds audience ratings for cable news. Historically it was used to promote a catalog of wars and ideologies, and it has been responsible for witch burnings and a spectrum of racism.

In 20th century America, orchestrated fear fueled McCarthyism, underpinned the Cold War and created the apocalyptic balancing act of Mutually Assured Destruction. In the 21st century, it has come close to defining us. The millennium was ushered in by the panic of Y2K. With 9/11, it advanced to color-coded terror, and it is now bedeviled by seemingly escalating climatic disasters, maybe because of a damaged global weather system.

In the last month or so we have seen a terror alert on the New York City subway and the president delivering a call to arms (or at least to federal spending) to save us from avian flu. Soothsaying security specialists on cable news decided that the hotel bombings in Jordan could be part of a pattern that would culminate in an attack on LAX. The Army Corps of Engineers may not have the Louisiana levees ready for next year's hurricane season. And Pat Robertson, in a much-replayed TV sermon, warned Dover, Pa., that it may be smitten by God for voting out an anti-evolution school board.

Does this overview demonstrate that maybe the panic button has been pushed a tad too frequently of late? As the debate comes to a boil over whether the White House cried nuclear-wolf over WMD in Iraq, it must at least invite consideration that recklessly generated alarms not only come back to bite the alarmist, but they help to create a population that, for its own protection, ignores all warnings until too late.

We all remember the first of the famous lines from Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 inaugural address — "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" — but the qualifier, in which he defined mass fear as — "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance" — is rarely recalled.

I'm in a field called "risk communication." The job of a good risk communicator is to clearly articulate all of the possibilities that a given risk may generate and weight them according to the best information on probability we have. The job of the press is to sell advertising. You get more eyeballs in front of your newsreaders' bobbleheads if you hype the story.

As I have been telling you for over a year, my job is to help you assess the risks of pandemic influenza and make good decisions about how to prepare, rather than to panic. I note that the US news media aren't telling you anything about preparation, nor are they giving you complete information on the risks of pandemic flu. The upshot is that those of your friends and relations who have heard about panflu have thrown up their hands, decided that it is all hype and are in complete denial.

How do you help them get past their denial and fear of "radical discontinuity?" By calmly sharing with them the full range of possibilities and well informed opinion on the subject by responsible scientists and teachers. The Flu Wiki can be very helpful to you in this regard. Many of the contributors are scientists and practitioners who know what they are talking about. Dr. Grattan Woodson has contributed a very fine two-page summary about pandemic influenza that you can print out and hand to those in your circle who are Internet averse. He has also written an exhaustive 37 page overview (with David Jodrey) for those who thirst for more information.

Every time I go to the Wiki, I am literally stunned by the generosity of those who have contributed and spent a great deal of their valuable time to craft worthwhile articles, as well as those who are formatting geniuses in PHP and go over the contributions to clean them up. It's a remarkable community.

That Strapping Economy, Take III

Merck, Under Pressure, Will Cut Jobs and Close Plants

By ALEX BERENSON and VIKAS BAJAJ
Published: November 28, 2005

Merck, under pressure from investors and analysts to reduce costs, said today it would cut 7,000 jobs in the next three years and close five manufacturing plants. The company also hinted at further restructuring.

In a much anticipated announcement, Richard T. Clark, who became Merck's chief executive in May and promised investors big changes, said the company would streamline its operations, particularly how it makes and distributes its drugs and vaccines. Mr. Clark also said the company was looking at changes to its research and development and marketing and sales activities and would discuss them in more detail at Merck's annual meeting with analysts on Dec. 15.

The company says the actions it announced today, which include an 11 percent reduction in its global staff of 62,000 by the end of 2008, would save it $3.5 billion to $4 billion before taxes in the next five years. In addition to closing five of its 31 drug-making plants, Merck, which is based in Whitehouse, N.J., will also shut down a basic research site and two pre-clinical development sites.

All told, the restructuring itself will cost the company $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion by the end of 2008. Merck projected that its earnings would range between $1.98 a share and $2.12 a share in 2006, compared to $2.04 a share to $2.10 a share this year.

Mr. Clark, who has spent his career at Merck and is known as a cost cutter, had already been quietly trimming the company's work force. In the third quarter, the company said it spent $80 million on "ongoing global position eliminations."

I wonder if this will have a reduction in the cost and an improvement in the quality of their drugs... or does Wall Street and the investor class really care about little details like that?

Career Track

Gimme an Rx! Cheerleaders Pep Up Drug Sales

By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: November 28, 2005

As an ambitious college student, Cassie Napier had all the right moves - flips, tumbles, an ever-flashing America's sweetheart smile - to prepare for her job after graduation. She became a drug saleswoman.

At game time, Onya cheers on the Washington Redskins. But she saves some of her energy for her job in pharmaceutical sales. Drug companies have found that former cheerleaders like Penny Otwell are good at persuading doctors.

Ms. Napier, 26, was a star cheerleader on the national-champion University of Kentucky squad, which has been a springboard for many careers in pharmaceutical sales. She now plies doctors' offices selling the antacid Prevacid for TAP Pharmaceutical Products.

Ms. Napier says the skills she honed performing for thousands of fans helped land her job. "I would think, essentially, that cheerleaders make good sales people," she said.

Anyone who has seen the parade of sales representatives through a doctor's waiting room has probably noticed that they are frequently female and invariably good looking. Less recognized is the fact that a good many are recruited from the cheerleading ranks.

Known for their athleticism, postage-stamp skirts and persuasive enthusiasm, cheerleaders have many qualities the drug industry looks for in its sales force. Some keep their pompoms active, like Onya, a sculptured former college cheerleader. On Sundays she works the sidelines for the Washington Redskins. But weekdays find her urging gynecologists to prescribe a treatment for vaginal yeast infection.

Some industry critics view wholesomely sexy drug representatives as a variation on the seductive inducements like dinners, golf outings and speaking fees that pharmaceutical companies have dangled to sway doctors to their brands.

But now that federal crackdowns and the industry's self-policing have curtailed those gifts, simple one-on-one human rapport, with all its potentially uncomfortable consequences, has become more important. And in a crowded field of 90,000 drug representatives, where individual clients wield vast prescription-writing influence over patients' medication, who better than cheerleaders to sway the hearts of the nation's doctors, still mostly men.

"There's a saying that you'll never meet an ugly drug rep," said Dr. Thomas Carli of the University of Michigan. He led efforts to limit access to the representatives who once trolled hospital hallways. But Dr. Carli, who notes that even male drug representatives are athletic and handsome, predicts that the drug industry, whose image has suffered from safety problems and aggressive marketing tactics, will soon come to realize that "the days of this sexual marketing are really quite limited."

But many cheerleaders, and their proponents, say they bring attributes besides good looks to the job - so much so that their success has led to a recruiting pipeline that fuels the country's pharmaceutical sales force. T. Lynn Williamson, Ms. Napier's cheering adviser at Kentucky, says he regularly gets calls from recruiters looking for talent, mainly from pharmaceutical companies. "They watch to see who's graduating," he said.

"They don't ask what the major is," Mr. Williamson said. Proven cheerleading skills suffice. "Exaggerated motions, exaggerated smiles, exaggerated enthusiasm - they learn those things, and they can get people to do what they want."

Approximately two dozen Kentucky cheerleaders, mostly women but a few men, have become drug reps in recent years.

There are so many different threads of commentary that I could type here that I hardly know where to start. Instead, I'll just let you start your own in comments.

The Morality of Pandemic Flu

Thanks to reader Sal for sending this important article.

The flu as ethical dilemma

Nov. 28, 2005. 06:35 AM

As you read the latest news about sick and dying chickens or ducks around the globe, you might ask yourself questions like these:

In the event a bird-flu pandemic hits the human population, should we force doctors and nurses to stand on the front lines and fight the disease, or let them seek safer ground?

Who should we treat with available medicines and who should do without?

Who should we quarantine, ban, turn away or jail?

Who should we save and who let die?

A global flu outbreak — avian or otherwise — would not only stretch the world's health-care apparatus past all normal limits, most experts concede, but it would test our ethical frameworks to their very core.

And yet as the word pandemic becomes part of our daily discourse, we are watching, waiting and worrying in a near ethical vacuum, says a group of medical ethicists from the University of Toronto.

Even as we feverishly prepare medical and public health strategies to combat an outbreak, ethical questions that could help structure optimal responses, and create a public willingness to accept them, have yet to be discussed, let alone answered, says a report from U of T's Joint Centre for Bioethics.

That might begin to change with last week's release of the group's 26-page "Ethical Considerations in Preparedness Planning for Pandemic Influenza," which is meant to inform discussions on such outbreaks both here and around the world.

"It's not going to be the individual ... technical (public health) decisions that are going to hold our society together in the face of an immense struggle with an influenza pandemic," says Dr. Peter Singer, a U of T bioethicist and one of the report's key authors.

"It's going to be a shared set of values, a shared ethical framework that's going to be the glue that will hold together societies struggling with enormously difficult choices."

Singer points to Toronto's harrowing experience with severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003 as an example of where the lack of ethical underpinnings to the overall response lead to the greatest public and professional dissatisfaction.

"In the first week or so, everything was technical, people were making decisions about masks and drugs and stuff like that," he says. These technical concerns, however, soon gave way to pressing ethical worries.

"By week two of SARS, it started to have more and more to do with ethics," he says. "Should that public official have identified that person on the train who may have had SARS was just one ... example."

With its SARS experience, Singer says, Ontario has taken a global lead in formulating ethical plans and responses to pandemics — something the World Health Organization just this month directed all countries and jurisdictions to consider.

The report generally refrains from offering hard and fast answers to inevitable pandemic dilemmas, preferring instead to provide a broad set of guidelines with which governments, public health officials, medical associations and citizens might formulate ethical rules.

But it does identify four key ethical issues that must be addressed in any pandemic planning exercise and lays out some of the major arguments likely to arise under each category.

The key categories include:

#
The duty of health workers to provide care in the face of a lethal infectious disease.

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The extent to which normal rights and liberties of a population can be suspended.

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The allocation of scarce medical supplies and hospital space.

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The global implications of such things as international travel advisories.

In each of these instances, the report's main goal is to guide serious conversations among stakeholder groups.

"On the duty to care issue, for example, we're recommending that organizations like nurses associations, medical associations and hospitals get absolutely clear on what the minimum expectations are," says report author Dr. Ross Upshur, director of primary care research at Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre.

"But we have neither the authority nor the capacity to make strict normative recommendations for what individual health-care providers should do. We're trying to promote discussion."

I'm trying to promote that discussion. If pandemic happens, it will present us with public ethical dilemmas on a level we have rarely seen before.

Multiculteralism at the Table

Here is Tyler Cowen's DC DC ethnic dining guide. I'm posting this for the locals but also for economists who have a take on his theories of globalization. This overview is terrific, by the way, though I'm a critic of Tyler's economic take on globalization.

A note for economists: opening a restaurant, in any culture, is about the most minimal economic entrepreneurial activity a person can do. With the exception of the big, fine dining places, restaurants make a couple of percent, at best, over costs. Costs can be cut by employing a lot of family at below prevailing wages, but this is a marginal economic business for more than 90% of the people who open a restaurant. Most will close in the first year, few will survive for ten years. Anybody who knows restaurants knows this. Thought you'd want to know.

Grilling Away

Who knew that the Weber kettle people had a chain of restaurants around Chicago? I'll add this to my foody list of places to visit.

Here is the menu home page. If you live in Chicagoland or will be there soon, I'd appreciate a review.

Finger Food for Hanukah

I love the cheese versions of these:

Sambusak Sephardic Pastries - dairy, meat

"Sambusak are the most popular Syrian-Sephardic pastries, and are eaten
throughout the year. Cheese is the traditional filling for Hanukkah,
meat for the Sabbath. This recipe makes a lot of pastries, but they
freeze perfectly, so you can enjoy sambusak at any time.

"If you are making cheese sambusak, use butter in the filling because
these pastries will be eaten at a dairy meal. If you make meat sambusak,
you must make the pastry with margarine, according to dietary laws."
Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr.

Dough

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
1/2 cup cold water
½ cup sesame seeds

Cheese Filling

1-1/2 pounds Muenster cheese, grated
3 lightly beaten eggs
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups sesame seeds

Meat Filling

1 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound chopped kosher shoulder beef
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup pine nuts

To make the pastry, first combine the flour and salt. Using an electric
mixer, cream the butter or margarine and gradually blend in the flour
mixture. Add the water. Knead until a ball forms. Let the dough rest as
you prepare one of the fillings.

To make the cheese filling, mix all ingredients together well.

To make the meat filling, saute the onion in oil until soft and
translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped meat and brown it,
breaking it up with a wooden spoon, about 20 minutes. Let meat cool,
then add the spices and pine nuts. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Spread the 1/2 cup of sesame seeds on a large plate. Break off walnut
size pieces of dough. Shape each into a ball and dip it lightly on one
side into the sesame seeds, then roll it, seed side down, into a 3-inch
round.

Place a teaspoon of filling in the center of the round. Fold it over to
make a half-moon and crimp the edges together tightly so that filling
will not burst through. (Sambusak can be frozen at this point. Place
them in a single layer on a tray lined with wax paper and freeze them.
Place frozen sambusak in double plastic bags and return them to the
freezer.

To bake frozen pastries, place them on ungreased baking sheets and bake
for 20 minutes in a 400 degree F. oven, or until golden.) Place pastries
on ungreased baking sheets and bake them for 15 to 20 minutes, or until
golden.

Yield: about 60 pastries

Festival of Lights

I'm mindful of the fact that Christmas isn't the only winter holiday in the offing. I love Hanukah, too, and have been experimenting with potato pancake recipes this year (I eat them all year long...) I found this recipe, it's a little different, but it's pareve (for those of you who need to think about kashrut) and very tasty. It means you can have some turkey bacon or chicken sausage with it

Yes, I keep a lit menorah on my mantel over Hanukah. It's worth remembering, once in a while, that the way I frame the human longing for the transcendent is not the only way it is done. And the Hanukah story is a compelling human story. The link will take you there and to other links to a number of Hanukah traditions popular in the west. Hanukah coincides with Christmas this year, so remember your Jewish friends by sending a Hanukah card with your other holiday cards.

I've been doing some messing around with Sephardic Hanukah recipes this year, so some of them might show up here, as well, as we approach the holidays. The Moroccan Jews have some really interesting food ideas, but some of the ingredients are a little hard to find.

Latkes: Famous Funky Electric "Oy Vey, These Are Good!" - pareve

1 medium to large-sized sweet potato, scrubbed
1 small white baking potato, peeled, or two red russet potatoes
(prefered), scrubbed as well
1-2 green onions
1/2 cup grated apple, red (make sure the skins were still on when you
grated them)
1 large egg
whatever else on the spice rack looks good
Pecans, chopped (optional)

Coarsely grate all the potatoes using a cheese grater. Make the white
potato slightly finer than the sweet potato. Finely chop the green onions, using only the dark green part at the top. Remember you're using apple and sweet potatoes, so less is probably more when it comes to the onions. These are basically just for color.

Now, mix up the apple, onion, and potatoes and spread on a clean cloth . Fold the cloth up and twist it so the water comes out. (Do all of this quickly because the white potato and the apple will turn brown after about 15 minutes.)

Mix, mix, mix. Using a really big bowl, mix the ingredients with the egg and maybe some flour or Matzoh meal . We chose cornmeal. Using a big spoon, drop Tbsps of latke batter onto a skillet of oil over medium heat. Use the back of the spoon to press lightly on the latke to flatten it. (Some people prefer their latkes to be perfectly round. We prefer them to be free-form and unique.) You may want to coat the spoon in flour before you do this.

Cook the latke for about 4 minutes, turn it, cook for another 2 minutes or so.
This is really important because you want the latke to be soft and sweet
inside but a little crunchy on the outside. When it looks as though it might be in danger of being burned, that's when you take it out. Drain it on a paper towel and serve with apple butter and sour cream.
They're actually really good with softened cream cheese as well.

This recipe was adapted from a recipe for salmon patties, so if you
substitute salmon for the sweet potato and add more onion, you've
got Funky Electric Salmon Patties,

Hanukah is all about the cooking oil, so buy a good quality Extra Virgin Olive oil that's pressed to be a saute oil, rather than a salad oil. If you prefer something lighter, canola is a good choice.

Christmas Dinner

I went through a period of many years where making sauerbraten with roesti potatoes and red cabbage was the Christmas day dinner of choice. I remember spending Christmas afternoon one year on the search for the onion I'd forgotten to buy the day before (learning experience: 7-11 doesn't carry produce.) My ex and I ended up at a Iranian kabob place in the next suburb over from us. He went in and tried to buy an onion. The host laughed when he heard the situation. He gave my ex the onion and extracted a promise that he'd bring me back to eat dinner. We did go for dinner in January.

As you surely know by now, I do love ethnic food. Probably the first foreign cuisine (outside of take-out Chinese) I experienced was German. I studied German in high school and belonged to the German Club, which took an excursion each year where we hosted the Spanish Club at the one German restaurant in Minneapolis (now long gone, sadly.) Spurred by the food I fell in love with, I've been experimenting with German cuisine ever since.

Sauerbraten

Approximately 4 pounds rump or boneless bottom round roast
2 onions, sliced
8 peppercorns
4 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 cup white distilled vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup water, boiling
10 gingersnap cookies, crushed
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1. Place a boneless rump roast in a deep ceramic or glass bowl. Add thinly sliced onions, peppercorns, whole cloves, and bay leaf. Pour vinegar, water, and cider vinegar over the meat; chill, covered, for 4 days. Turn the meat twice each day.
2. Remove the meat from the marinade, pat dry, and strain the marinade into a bowl. Reserve the onions and 1 cup of the marinade.
3. In a kettle over medium-high heat, brown the roast on all sides in oil. Sprinkle with salt and pour boiling water around the meat. Sprinkle in crushed gingersnap cookies, and simmer covered for 1-1/2 hours. Turn often.
4. Add the reserved marinade and cook the roast for 2 hours, or until tender. Remove the meat; keep warm. Strain the cooking juices into a large saucepan.
5. In a small bowl, mix sour cream with flour. Stir into the cooking juices and cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened and smooth. Slice the meat and add to the hot gravy.

Makes 8 servings.

ROSTI (SWISS FRIED POTATOES)

2 lbs. potatoes
3 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk

It is important that the potatoes be cooked at least 1 day before hand. They must be pressed together in the pan like a round loaf and covered with a soup bowl or a tightly fitting lid. Rosti must not be stirred, otherwise they will not form a crust. Boil the unpeeled potatoes until semi-tender the day before preparation. Peel and grate.

Heat butter in skillet. Add potatoes and sprinkle with salt. Using a spatula, press into a round loaf. Sprinkle with milk and cover tightly. Reduce heat as soon as potatoes begin to sizzle. Fry very slowly for another 30 minutes. During this time, a brown crust will form. Cover pan with a hot platter and flip the Rosti onto it.

Rotkohl mit Apfel und Speck (Red Cabbage with apples and bacon)

Can be made day before and reheated. 1/2 c. red wine vinegar 1 tbsp. sugar Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste 1/4 lb. lean bacon, thickly sliced 3 med. cooking apple 1 lg. onion, thinly sliced 1/2 c. dry red wine 1/4 c. chopped fresh parsley

Cut the cabbage into quarters; remove the core from each piece and cut the cabbage on a vegetable slicing machine or with a large chef's knife into the tiniest possible shred. Pile them into a bowl.

Heat the vinegar and when it is hot, pour it over the cabbage and toss the cabbage lightly - it will barely coat it. Add the sugar, salt, and pepper and toss again. Set the cabbage aside for 15 minutes.

Set the oven at 350 degrees. Cut the bacon into 1-inch pieces. In a large skillet render the bacon until it is golden brown, then transfer bacon to paper toweling to drain. Add a few spoonfuls of the bacon fat to a 3-4 quart casserole (large enough to hold the cabbage and apples). Swirl the dish all around so the bottom and sides are coated with fat.

Peel, core and thickly slice the apples. Add the cabbage to the dish, layering it with the apples, onion and bacon pieces. Pour the red wine in at the top, cover the casserole with a tight fitting lid and transfer it to the oven.

Let the cabbage cook, stirring occasionally, for 1/1 4 to 1 1/2 hours or until it is quite tender but still has some crunch. Add more salt and pepper if necessary; stir in the parsley and transfer the cabbage to a warm covered dish. Serve at once. Serves 8.

This sauerbraten recipe is also excellent in the crock pot, and that is my preferred way of cooking it, although I've reproduced the classic recipe here. You are going to need to taste as you go to make sure that the sauce has the right combination of wine/vinegar/ginger for you.

The King of Beef Roast Sides

Growing up, a standing rib roast of beef was a rare treat, but one of the most treasured. My mother had cultivated a couple of superb butchers who knew how to trim it just the way she wanted it and loosen the ribs and chine so that she could remove them herself after cooking without needing a cleaver. Mom always served the beef (medium rare) with traditional yorkshire puddings. Once you've had them, you'll never want a beef roast without them.

This recipe serves them stuffed with thinly sliced roast, but the Brits eat them as a side covered with winey au jus (the way I prefer) or even with jam as a sweet.

Mini roast beef and Yorkshire puddings

Makes 24 puddings

Preparation time less than 30 mins

Cooking time 10 to 30 mins

ngredients
joint of beef, roasted to taste
6 cup muffin tray
beef fat
6 eggs
1 egg white
450g/½lb self-raising flour
290ml/½ pint of milk

Method
1. Preheat beef fat in the muffin trays, at 220C/425F/Gas7 until piping hot.
2. In a bowl whisk together the flour, egg yolks and milk
3. When mixed, add the egg white (adding the egg white when mixed will guarantee that your Yorkshire puddings will always be extra light and fluffy)
4. Cook in oven at 200C/400F/Gas6 for about 10 minutes, or until the Yorkshire puddings are risen and golden brown.
5. Thinly slice the beef (cooked to taste) and fold into the centre of the Yorkshire puddings.
6. Add a dollop of fresh, creamed horseradish. Finish off with drizzle of red wine jus and a sprig of continental fresh parsley.

NB - the red wine jus is simply made by mixing a little red wine with the seasoned juices from the beef.

You'll need enough rendered beef fat from the roast to line each muffic cup to a depth of an eigth inch. These will cook while the beef is resting before you are ready to carve it. The serving suggestion, while not the way I ate it growing up, is delicious. The puddings should come out of the oven just as the beef is ready to slice and plate. They need to be served immediately. Traditionally, the Brits serve fresh, shelled boiled green peas with this combination.

In some places in the UK, the pudding is served as a first course, but most places serve as a side dish to the beef, and as a sop for the beef juices on your plate.

If the scary price of a standing rib roast and fear of ruining that expensive meat keep you from trying to cook one, be not afraid. It isn't hard to make a great one. To make it really easy, use my favorite, the roemertopf which will guarantee you a juicy, flavorfull roast.

Monday and Tuesday school lunches (we carried ours) after a Sunday rib roast dinner were something to look forward to. I was always dieting in high school (yes, mom still made our lunches in high school) so, rather than sandwiches, mom would thread strips of medium rare roast onto toothpicks and put them into (the then brand new) Ziplock bags. With an orange and some Jello (I still love lime) that was a pretty nice lunch.

You might find this difficult to believe, but I rarely eat meat anymore, as much as I love beef. Advancing age means I have to keep an eye on my cholesterol. But when I do eat meat, I make a production out of it.

If you live alone or are just two, you can ask the butcher to cut you a two or three rib roast. That'll give you enough for dinner plus a little bit of leftovers (2 days of lunch), just make sure it is from the loin end.

I grew up within sniffing distance of the stockyards in South St. Paul and the local beef was among the best in the US. The supermarket beef I can find around here can't hold a candle to it.

Making things worse

The income gap grows

The spread between the rich and the rest has been growing for decades. Current policies will only make it worse.
By Robert H. Frank
Posted on Sun, Nov. 27, 2005

Although income inequality has increased sharply in recent decades, it has always been greater here than in other industrial democracies. Can a case be made for it? Many have described inequality as the price we must pay to achieve high rates of economic growth.

The evidence, however, suggests otherwise. As economists Alberto Alesina and Dani Rodrik have found, for example, growth rates across countries are negatively related to the share of national income going to top earners.

Others have portrayed inequality as a necessary condition for socioeconomic mobility, arguing that people who are willing to work hard and play by the rules face a better chance of making it to the top here than in any other country. But here, too, the evidence suggests otherwise. Even as economic inequality has been rising, social mobility has been declining. According to sociologist David Wright, the probability that a child born to parents in the third quartile of the income distribution would move up into the top quartile was only half as large in 1998 as in 1973. Economist Thomas Hertz has found that children whose parents are in the bottom fifth of the income distribution have only a 7.3 percent chance of making it into the top fifth. In contrast, children born in the top fifth have a 42.3 percent chance of remaining there. Contrary to popular impressions, socioeconomic mobility is now lower in the United Stated than in most other industrialized countries.

Although the market forces that have been producing higher inequality show no signs of abating, Republicans in Congress are now calling for an additional $70 billion in tax cuts aimed largely at high-income families, arguing that because the most prosperous Americans have worked hard, they are entitled to keep a greater portion of their pretax incomes. But tens of millions of less prosperous Americans have worked hard, too. And in winner-take-all markets, examples abound in which some earn thousands of times more than others just as talented and hardworking.

The economist Herbert Stein once said, if something cannot go on forever, it won't. History has repeatedly demonstrated that societies can tolerate income inequality only up to a point, beyond which they rapidly disintegrate. Numerous governments in Latin America have been overthrown largely because of social unrest rooted in income inequality. And in a survey of more than a quarter of a million randomly selected individuals worldwide, economist Robert MacCulloch found that people in countries with high income inequality were much more likely to voice support for violent revolution.

Major social upheavals are sometimes preceded by years or even decades of rising levels of social unrest. If such unrest is currently building in the United States, it remains well-hidden. But as recent experience has made clear, social upheavals often occur with virtually no warning. Almost no one predicted the fall of the Eastern European governments in 1989. Because revolutions almost always entail important elements of social contagion, even small changes can launch political prairie fires once a tipping point is reached.

Who says the economy is doing well? They conveniently only measure those items that show the rich getting richer...at our expense.

Disintegration

Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader

· Allawi in damning indictment of new regime
· Bush prepares way for US troop pull-out

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday November 27, 2005

Observer

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime.

'People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse,' Ayad Allawi told The Observer. 'It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things.'

In a damning and wide-ranging indictment of Iraq's escalating human rights catastrophe, Allawi accused fellow Shias in the government of being responsible for death squads and secret torture centres. The brutality of elements in the new security forces rivals that of Saddam's secret police, he said.

Allawi, who was a strong ally of the US-led coalition forces and was prime minister until this April, made his remarks as further hints emerged yesterday that President George Bush is planning to withdraw up to 40,000 US troops from the country next year, when Iraqi forces will be capable of taking over.

Allawi's bleak assessment is likely to undermine any attempt to suggest that conditions in Iraq are markedly improving.

'We are hearing about secret police, secret bunkers where people are being interrogated,' he added. 'A lot of Iraqis are being tortured or killed in the course of interrogations. We are even witnessing Sharia courts based on Islamic law that are trying people and executing them.'

He said that immediate action was needed to dismantle militias that continue to operate with impunity. If nothing is done, 'the disease infecting [the Ministry of the Interior] will become contagious and spread to all ministries and structures of Iraq's government', he said.

In a chilling warning to the West over the danger of leaving behind a disintegrating Iraq, Allawi added: 'Iraq is the centrepiece of this region. If things go wrong, neither Europe nor the US will be safe.'

His uncompromising comments came on the eve of Saddam's latest court appearance on charges of crimes against humanity. They seem certain to fuel the growing sense of crisis over Iraq, both in the country itself and in the US, where political support for the occupation continues to plummet.

Some of us knew this was going to be a disaster well before we began bombing.

What was not a lie?

Dishonest, Reprehensible, Corrupt ...

By Frank Rich
The New York Times
Sunday 27 November 2005

The more we learn about the road to Iraq, the more we realize that it's a losing game to ask what lies the White House told along the way. A simpler question might be: What was not a lie? The situation recalls Mary McCarthy's explanation to Dick Cavett about why she thought Lillian Hellman was a dishonest writer: "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.' "

If Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney believe they were truthful in the run-up to the war, it's easy for them to make their case. Instead of falsely claiming that they've been exonerated by two commissions that looked into prewar intelligence - neither of which addressed possible White House misuse and mischaracterization of that intelligence - they should just release the rest of the President's Daily Briefs and other prewar documents that are now trickling out. Instead, incriminatingly enough, they are fighting the release of any such information, including unclassified documents found in post-invasion Iraq requested from the Pentagon by the pro-war, neocon Weekly Standard. As Scott Shane reported in The New York Times last month, Vietnam documents are now off limits, too: the National Security Agency won't make public a 2001 historical report on how American officials distorted intelligence in 1964 about the Gulf of Tonkin incident for fear it might "prompt uncomfortable comparisons" between the games White Houses played then and now to gin up wars.

Sooner or later - probably sooner, given the accelerating pace of recent revelations - this embarrassing information will leak out anyway. But the administration's deliberate efforts to suppress or ignore intelligence that contradicted its Iraq crusade are only part of the prewar story. There were other shadowy stations on the disinformation assembly line. Among them were the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, a two-man Pentagon operation specifically created to cherry-pick intelligence for Mr. Cheney's apocalyptic Iraqi scenarios, and the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), in which Karl Rove, Karen Hughes and the Cheney hands Lewis Libby and Mary Matalin, among others, plotted to mainline this propaganda into the veins of the press and public. These murky aspects of the narrative - like the role played by a private P.R. contractor, the Rendon Group, examined by James Bamford in the current Rolling Stone - have yet to be recounted in full.

No debate about the past, of course, can undo the mess that the administration made in Iraq. But the past remains important because it is a road map to both the present and the future. Leaders who dissembled then are still doing so. Indeed, they do so even in the same speeches in which they vehemently deny having misled us then - witness Mr. Bush's false claims about what prewar intelligence was seen by Congress and Mr. Cheney's effort last Monday to again conflate the terrorists of 9/11 with those "making a stand in Iraq." (Maj. Gen. Douglas Lute, director of operations for Centcom, says the Iraqi insurgency is 90 percent homegrown.) These days Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney routinely exaggerate the readiness of Iraqi troops, much as they once inflated Saddam's W.M.D.'s.

The bigger they lie the harder they fall.

And They're Off!

Weekend's Sales Rush Largely Bypasses Smaller Stores

By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 27, 2005

As the nation's retail executives began poring over - and in some cases, despairing over - sales receipts from the holiday weekend, one pattern was hard to miss: consumers mobbed discount chains, with their $487 laptops and 5 a.m. openings, but largely shopped right past smaller stores at the mall.

The figures, analysts said, could indicate a tough season ahead for specialty clothing retailers like the Gap and Aeropostale and even deeper discounts for shoppers as the chains scramble to build momentum in the crucial period leading up to Christmas.

"The specialty guys just got outgunned this time around," said John D. Morris, a retail analyst at Harris Nesbitt.

ShopperTrak, which measures purchases at 45,000 mall-based merchants, found that sales for the day after Thanksgiving fell 0.9 percent from last year, to $8.01 billion.

The drop contrasted sharply with rosy reports from discount chains with locations outside the malls. Wal-Mart reported that a record 10 million shoppers had walked through its doors before noon Friday. In a prerecorded phone call over the weekend, the discount giant said that Friday sales had "exceeded plans" and that consumers continued to shop after deep discounts ended at noon.

One possible explanation for the in-the-mall, outside-the-mall disparity: discount chains, led by Wal-Mart, blitzed consumers with advertising before Thanksgiving, opened their stores earlier than last year and offered the most buzzed-about discounts, like a $188 dollar 15-inch flat-panel television set (at Circuit City) and a $77 digital camera (at Staples.)

I haven't checked in with the family to see how their opening weekend went. I'll make that call later today. I never go shopping during this weekend, I'm a practitioner of "buy nothing" weekend.

Coarsening the Culture

This article is a mess and I'm surprised that it got by the minimal levels demanded by NYT editors, but there is some mother wit in it if you can stand to read through the initial disaster.

Kids Gone Wild

By JUDITH WARNER

Parenting today is also largely about training children to compete - in school and on the soccer field - and the kinds of attributes they need to be competitive are precisely those that help break down society's civility.

Parents who want their children to succeed more than anything, Dr. Kindlon said, teach them to value and prioritize achievement above all else - including other people.

"We're insane about achievement," he said. "Schoolwork is up 50 percent since 1981, and we're so obsessed with our kids getting into the right school, getting the right grades, we let a lot of things slide. Kids don't do chores at home anymore because there isn't time."

And other adults, even those who should have authority, are afraid to get involved. "Nobody feels entitled to discipline other people's kids anymore," Dr. Kindlon said. "They don't feel they have the right if they see a kid doing something wrong to step in."

Educators feel helpless, too: Nearly 8 in 10 teachers, according to the 2004 Public Agenda report, said their students were quick to remind them that they had rights or that their parents could sue if they were too harshly disciplined. More than half said they ended up being soft on discipline "because they can't count on parents or schools to support them."

And that, Dr. Rosenfeld said, strikes at the heart of the problem. "Parents are out of control," he said. "We always want to blame the kids, but if there's something wrong with their incivility, it's the way their parents model for them."

There's also the chance, said Wendy Mogel, a clinical psychologist whose 2001 book, "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee," has earned her a cult following, that when children are rude, obnoxious and outrageously behaved, they're trying to tell parents something - something they've got to shout in order for them to hear.

"These kids are so extremely stressed from the academic load they're carrying and how cloistered they are and how they have to live under the watchful eye of their parents," Dr. Mogel said. "They have no kid space."

Paradoxically, she said, parental over-involvement in their children's lives today often hides a very basic kind of indifference to their children's real need, simply to be kids. "There are all these blurry boundaries," she said. "They need to do fifth-grade-level math in third grade and have every pleasure and indulgence of adulthood in childhood and they act like kids and we get mad."

If stress and strain, self-centeredness and competition are the pathogens underlying the rash of rudeness perceived to be endemic among children in America today, then the cure, some experts said, has to be systemic and not topical. Stop blaming the children, they said. Stop focusing on the surface level of behavior and start curing instead the social, educational and parental ills that feed it.

This may mean less "quality" time with children and more time getting them to do things they don't want to do, like sitting for meals, making polite conversation and - Madonna was right - picking their clothes up off the floor.

This is the reason I got out of teaching.

Domestic Spying

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
Fears of Post-9/11 Terrorism Spur Proposals for New Powers

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005; Page A06

The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.

The moves have taken place on several fronts. The White House is considering expanding the power of a little-known Pentagon agency called the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, which was created three years ago. The proposal, made by a presidential commission, would transform CIFA from an office that coordinates Pentagon security efforts -- including protecting military facilities from attack -- to one that also has authority to investigate crimes within the United States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic espionage.

The Pentagon has pushed legislation on Capitol Hill that would create an intelligence exception to the Privacy Act, allowing the FBI and others to share information gathered about U.S. citizens with the Pentagon, CIA and other intelligence agencies, as long as the data is deemed to be related to foreign intelligence. Backers say the measure is needed to strengthen investigations into terrorism or weapons of mass destruction.

The proposals, and other Pentagon steps aimed at improving its ability to analyze counterterrorism intelligence collected inside the United States, have drawn complaints from civil liberties advocates and a few members of Congress, who say the Defense Department's push into domestic collection is proceeding with little scrutiny by the Congress or the public.

"We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a recent interview.

Wyden has since persuaded lawmakers to change the legislation, attached to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill, to address some of his concerns, but he still believes hearings should be held. Among the changes was the elimination of a provision to let Defense Intelligence Agency officers hide the fact that they work for the government when they approach people who are possible sources of intelligence in the United States.

If this doesn't scare the crap out of you, you aren't paying attention.

Global Roiling

While the scientific jury is still out, there is much to consider here, given the numbers of lives and value of property involved.

The Gathering Winds
A Rise in Deadly Storms Since '95 Has Researchers Worried About the Future

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005; A16

Until recently, a rough consensus in the small world of tropical cyclone specialists had held that there was no evidence of unnatural hurricane trends over the 20th century. Hurricane activity over the Atlantic has fluctuated naturally over decades going back as far as 1900, and it was unlikely that global warming could be having a significant impact, many researchers said.

But a pair of scientific papers published this year detected an unexpected spike in storm intensity over the past several decades, suggesting that global warming might already be having an effect. The research set off a passionate and sometimes personal debate in the small community of storm scientists.

"In the sense of the history of scientific ideas, we're either in the middle of a paradigm shift or a false paradigm shift," said Hugh Willoughby, the former director of hurricane research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The situation would be deliciously ambiguous if there were not thousands of lives and billions of dollars on the table."

Besides adding weight to the argument that global warming could be having catastrophic effects, the findings spell more trouble for U.S. coastal areas vulnerable to fierce storms, where the population is rising fast. The risks are being borne by all U.S. taxpayers. Already, the federal government has been asked repeatedly for hurricane relief money.

"We have to decide as a society whether that's a problem," Pielke said. "Obviously, the benefits of living near the coast outweigh the costs because people are doing it. The question is: In the face of inevitable property damage and loss of life, how well do we prepare?

"Either way," he noted, "we are going to see many more years of intense hurricanes. Scientists on both sides agree on that."

The difference between the two scientific views is whether hurricane activity will simply fluctuate over time, as it apparently has done in the past, or whether global warming will inexorably ramp up the damage.

The opening skirmish in the debate began when Kerry Emanuel, a well-known researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, changed his mind. In July, he withdrew from a paper reflecting the consensus view that there was little evidence of a significant connection in the historical record. In an e-mail, he wrote to a co-author that "the problem for me is that I cannot sign on to a paper which makes statements I no longer believe are true."

"I see a large global warming signal in hurricanes," he wrote.

The next month, he published a paper in Nature considering 50 years of storm data and stating that indeed, hurricanes in the Atlantic and North Pacific were becoming more powerful. By a special measure of hurricane power he had defined for other research, they had roughly doubled in power over 30 years. Significantly, the increase tracked with the rise in sea surface temperatures.

There was more to come. In September, a group of scientists led by Peter Webster at Georgia Tech found that, worldwide, the number of the strongest hurricanes -- categories 4 and 5 -- has nearly doubled over the past 35 years. The authors aligned the finding with global warming and a rise in sea surface temperatures.

"Our work is consistent with the concept that there is a relationship between increasing sea surface temperature and hurricane intensity," Webster said at the time.

But he also noted that the findings did not perfectly fit with global warming. "It's difficult to explain," he said, why, when sea surface temperatures were rising the most in the past decade, the number of hurricanes and their longevity decreased.

Even with such cautions, however, reaction to the papers was immediate and powerful.

Honor, Duty, Country

Fair Use means that I can't quote this entire story, but you should read the whole thing. I find it interesting that only the LAT picked this up today.

A Journey That Ended in Anguish
# Col. Ted Westhusing, a military ethicist who volunteered to go to Iraq, was upset by what he saw. His apparent suicide raises questions.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head.

The Army would conclude that he committed suicide with his service pistol. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.

The Army closed its case. But the questions surrounding Westhusing's death continue.

Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.

So it was only natural that Westhusing acted when he learned of possible corruption by U.S. contractors in Iraq. A few weeks before he died, Westhusing received an anonymous complaint that a private security company he oversaw had cheated the U.S. government and committed human rights violations. Westhusing confronted the contractor and reported the concerns to superiors, who launched an investigation.

In e-mails to his family, Westhusing seemed especially upset by one conclusion he had reached: that traditional military values such as duty, honor and country had been replaced by profit motives in Iraq, where the U.S. had come to rely heavily on contractors for jobs once done by the military.

His death stunned all who knew him. Colleagues and commanders wondered whether they had missed signs of depression. He had been losing weight and not sleeping well. But only a day before his death, Westhusing won praise from a senior officer for his progress in training Iraqi police.

His friends and family struggle with the idea that Westhusing could have killed himself. He was a loving father and husband and a devout Catholic. He was an extraordinary intellect and had mastered ancient Greek and Italian. He had less than a month before his return home. It seemed impossible that anything could crush the spirit of a man with such a powerful sense of right and wrong.

On the Internet and in conversations with one another, Westhusing's family and friends have questioned the military investigation.

A note found in his trailer seemed to offer clues. Written in what the Army determined was his handwriting, the colonel appeared to be struggling with a final question.

How is honor possible in a war like the one in Iraq?

How is honor possible in war which violates the Geneva conventions?

Bill of Rights on the Trash Heap

In Terror Cases, Administration Sets Own Rules

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: November 27, 2005

When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales announced last week that Jose Padilla would be transferred to the federal justice system from military detention, he said almost nothing about the standards the administration used in deciding whether to charge terrorism suspects like Mr. Padilla with crimes or to hold them in military facilities as enemy combatants. Skip to next paragraph Multimedia Graphic Six High-Profile Terrorism Cases Six High-Profile Terrorism Cases

"We take each individual, each case, case by case," Mr. Gonzales said.

The upshot of that approach, underscored by the decision in Mr. Padilla's case, is that no one outside the administration knows just how the determination is made whether to handle a terror suspect as an enemy combatant or as a common criminal, to hold him indefinitely without charges in a military facility or to charge him in court.

Indeed, citing the need to combat terrorism, the administration has argued, with varying degrees of success, that judges should have essentially no role in reviewing its decisions. The change in Mr. Padilla's status, just days before the government's legal papers were due in his appeal to the Supreme Court, suggested to many legal observers that the administration wanted to keep the court out of the case.

"The position of the executive branch," said Eric M. Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University who has consulted with lawyers for several detainees, "is that it can be judge, jury and executioner."

The government says a secret and unilateral decision-making process is necessary because of the nature of the evidence it deals with. Officials described the approach as a practical one that weighs a mix of often-sensitive factors.

"Much thought goes into how and why various tools are used in these often complicated cases," Tasia Scolinos, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said on Friday. "The important thing is for someone not to come away thinking this whole process is arbitrary, which it is not."

Among the factors the government considers, Ms. Scolinos said, are "national security interests, the need to gather intelligence and the best and quickest way to obtain it, the concern about protecting intelligence sources and methods and ongoing information gathering, the ability to use information as evidence in a criminal proceeding, the circumstances of the manner in which the individual was detained, the applicable criminal charges, and classified-evidence issues."

Lawyers for people in terrorism investigations say a list of factors to be considered cannot substitute for bright-line standards announced in advance.

The courts have given the executive branch substantial but not total deference, often holding that the president has the authority to designate enemy combatants but allowing those detained to challenge the factual basis for the administration's determinations. Some courts have suggested that a detainee's citizenship, the place he was captured and whether he was fighting American troops should play a role in how aggressively the courts review enemy-combatant designations.

The current administration thinks our constitution isn't robust enough to try such people under ordinary circumstances and want for itself truly regal powers. These people scare the crap out of me. Nixon was never able to arrogate such power to himself.

Real Food

Any native Norleanean will tell you that you need quatre epices with this, but the rest of the recipe is pretty accurate, according to the lady who taught me to cook Nawrleans.

Boudin Blanc"

Boudin blanc (or "white boudin") is a Cajun sausage stuffed
with pork and rice. It's one of those food products that originated in
frugality; the rice was meant to stretch the meat. Now, it's a unique
and delicious treat all its own.

3 pounds boneless pork butt or shoulder, in large chunks
1 pound pork liver
3 cups raw long grain rice
4 medium yellow onions, quartered
2 bunches green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, finely minced
4 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons white pepper

Place the pork and pork liver in separate saucepans, cover with water,
then bring to a boil. Reduce heat, skim and simmer until tender, about 1
hour. Cook the rice.

Remove the cooked pork and liver and let cool. Discard the liver stock.
Reserve 1 pint of the pork stock and discard the rest. Put the pork,
liver and onions through a meat grinder with a medium disc, or grind it
coarse in a food processor. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and mix
in the green onions, garlic, parsley, salt, peppers and cooked rice.
Adjust seasonings.

For traditional boudin, stuff into sausage casings. Boudin links are
generally about a foot long. You can also serve it out of the casing as
a rice dressing.

To heat and serve boudin, place in a 350 oven for 10-15 minutes, until
the boudin is heated through and the skin is crackly. Serve hot, with
crackers and beer.

Here's a version without the liver:

1-1/2 yards small sausage casing
1 pound lean, fresh pork
1 pound fresh pork fat
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup finely chopped onion
5 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion tops
1/3 cup water (approximately)
1 pound white poultry meat (leftover is fine)
3 cups cooked, long grain white rice
1/2 teaspoon sage
4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon ground thyme
1/8 teaspoon mace
Tiny pinch (1/16 teaspoon) allspice
1/4 cup water, more if necessary


Cut the pork and fat into small pieces and put them into a heavy, 5-6
quart saucepan along with the cream, onion, parsley, garlic, green onion
tops and seasonings. Add about 1/3 cup water. Cook over high heat until
the mixture begins to boil. Quickly reduce the heat to low, and cook for
about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat.

Cut up the poultry meat and add it to the contents of the saucepan, along
with the cooked rice. Mix thoroughly, drain in a colander and let cool
for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the sausage casings into 20-inch
lengths, then stuff using the coarse blade of a meat grinder.

To cook, place the boudin in a medium heavy skillet or sauté pan.
Curl it around to fit. Turn the heat to low, add about 1/4 cup water
and cook very slowly over low heat for about 20 minutes, until piping
hot. Turn the boudin over several times and stir frequently, scraping
the bottom of the skillet to prevent sticking.

Add a few tablespoons of water, if necessary. As the casing breaks open,
move the torn pieces to the side of the pan. To serve, spoon the
semi-liquid mixture onto heated plates. Allow about 1/2 pound boudin per
person.

Eat cheap and eat well, I always say. Serve this with dirty rice and a salad of wild field greens dressed with spicy cilantro vinagraitte. Pass some goat cheese and thinly slice baguette before dinner with a grind of fresh pepper on each round. Your guests will think that you are some kind of genius. For a slighly less formal dinner when you and the guests are all in the kitchen, knocking backsides and trying to stay out of each other's cooking pot, just put out a plate of goat cheese and Triskets. They will stay in the kitchen until the meal is well and truly finished. All the chefs I know can't turn away goat cheese and triskets. Yes, corporate american intrudes into our America, but it tastes pretty damn good. And that is the snare.

Posted by Melanie at 11:36 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Other White Pasta

Risotto is the king of starches in Northern Italy, and prepared correctly, it deserves the crown. Thankfully, you can buy good arborio rice in even small town these days. Here is how to prepare it correctly and serve it proudly. This is not your mother's Uncle Ben's.

Risotto RulesRisotto Rules
Rice is the Key

I don't think you can say you've really experienced great Italian food until you've had the chance to set your sights on, and touch your tongue to, a great risotto.

Make no bones about it. I'm a single-minded, dedicated, devoted, follower, maker and eater of risotto. Among the rice dishes in my repertoire, risotto rules. Gumbo's great, and I've had some perfectly delicious paellas. And obviously there's an entire encyclopedia about the rice cooking of Asia which is really a whole 'nother rice world. But in my book, the height of rice cooking is risotto.

What's Risotto Anyways?

Risotto is the rice dish of northern Italy. In the north of Italy, up around the Piedmont, Milan, Lombardy, and the area of Venice, rice rules the day.

Rice came to Italy sometime in the 10th century, probably brought to Sicily by Arab conquerors. The north of Italy took to rice farming four to five hundred years later, in an era when plague and famine were making simple survival difficult. The area has remained the premier rice growing and rice eating areas of Italy to this day. In the same way that people in the rest of Italy put plates of piping hot pasta on the table at every main meal, so too do northerners resort to rice.

And more often than not, rice in northern Italy means risotto.

Premise: Risotto is to rice what pasta is to wheat.

An incredibly delicious, relatively simple way to take the natural goodness of the grain to truly great heights by making it the vehicle for all sorts of exceptional ingredients. The result is a dish with a rare combination of grandeur and down to earth goodness that few others can match.

Like pasta, risotto can be made from start to finish in under thirty minutes. Both pasta and risotto are well suited to all sorts of occasions, from fancy meal to simply cleaning out whatever happens to be left over in the refrigerator. Like pasta, risotto is great comfort food. A hot, creamy bowl of risotto is a great way to get through a cold winter night. Like pasta, it can be made with or without meat. They're both great with cheese. And like pasta, risotto seems right to be eaten often. Once you get going on it, you may not get to eat it often enough. I know I don't.

In the north of Italy, up around the Piedmont, Milan, Lombardy, and the area of Venice, rice rules the day.
I would be remiss though, if I didn't set the record straight up front and tell you that making risotto is a little more difficult than making pasta. Not too difficult. But not quite as simple as spaghetti with bottled sauce. Still, once you learn the basic technique for making risotto, you can use it to make dozens of different risottos.

Making great risotto requires attention to both process and content. To help you get at the glories of great risotto, I tried to put down my version of the rules of great risotto making. Like Dorothy on her way to Oz, if you follow the yellow brick road of Risotto Rules, you'll find a healthy ration of risotto recipes that will lead you to a wealth of really optimal eating experiences.

Preview: Risotto Making at a Glance

The process for making all risottos (I ought really to say "risotti," which would be the accurate Italian plural, and would make my Daniela Gobetti my Italian teacher smile)...so the process for making all risotti is essentially the same. Ready?

Here's an overview of a basic risotto recipe just to set the table in your mind:

Start by setting your broth on the burner to heat up. While it's warming, start sautéing a bit of chopped onion and/or garlic (you choose) in a little butter and/or olive oil(again you can decide). When the onion is soft, add the rice. Start stirring. sauté for a few minutes til the rice is well coated with the oil/butter.

Now you're ready to start adding liquid. Many people choose to begin with a glass of wine (in the pot, not in the hand), after which comes the broth. The key to adding the broth is to add a little at a time. And to keep stirring while the rice absorbs it. When it's absorbed, add a little more. Stir. Stir. Add a little more. Stir, stop, stir. Add a little more. Stir, stop, stir. The dish is done about eighteen or so minutes later when the rice is al dente (cooked through, but still a bit firm in the middle). Quickly add your cheese or other ingredients. Stir well. Serve. Eat it while it's hot.

If you're in a hurry, that's enough info to get you going. If you're up for a more in depth look into the pot of risotto making, read on.

Rule #1: Use Italian Rice!!!!

The rice is the key. Simple and straight, if you want to make a great - or even just a good - risotto - you've got to get the right rice. There's no way around it. It's critical. And it's got to be Italian.

I'm not being ethnocentric here. It's just that contrary to the faulty advice you come across in the occasional odd food column, other rices won't make risotto. If you make risotto with non-Italian rice, it may taste good but it won't be risotto. To quote Corby Kummer, writing in The Atlantic, "If you try to make risotto with long-grain rice you will get pilaf, even if you keep stirring and add the broth only as it is absorbed."

You don't need to be an agronomist to tell that Italian rice is different from what you're used to. Italian rice is unlike any other rice I've ever seen or eaten. Pour a little into the palm of your hand; pleasantly plump, oval shaped, white grains. Much fatter than the thin long-grained rice which is what most of us grew up on.

If you look closely, you'll find the biggest part of each grain is nearly transparent, almost opalescent, with that same kind of polished, smooth surface that I remember from when I was a kid, playing with tiny well worn grains of sand on the beach. Inside each grain, you can see a spot of white, la perla ("the pearl"). The pearl at the center is actually less developed starch. The translucent outer part of the grain is the hard, dense starch which bonds so creamily with the broth while the risotto is cooking. The high level of starch (amylopectin) in the grain is what gives Italian rice it's amazing ability to absorb a lot of liquid, yet at the same time retain its integrity - each grain stays independent, yet clings closely, creamily, to its neighbor. No other rice I know of is able to pull off this seemingly contradictory feat. (Spanish rice from Valencia is the closest, but still, it doesn't cook up quite the same.)

Risotto Still Life

Paint a picture of the finished dish:

Round glass bowl with a mound of steaming, stunning , softly gilded, richly creamy, savory rice; each grain still distinct, yet each consciously clinging to its neighbor. The hot risotto is graced with a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese and a generous twist of coarsely ground black pepper. To the left, green salad dressed with great olive oil and aged red wine vinegar. To the right, a good loaf of Farm Bread (preferably warmed to fight the winter chill). So, eat already! When you bite into a forkful of risotto you'll find a complimentary contrast between the overall creaminess of the dish and the al dente firmness that remains in the heart of each grain of rice. I don't know if I'm quite making my feelings clear here. There is nothing like eating a great risotto for dinner! I love this dish!

Rule # 2: Buy - or Make - Better Broth

It's the broth which is going to be the main liquid you add to the pot. And because the broth is what the rice is "drinking" it only makes sense to feed your rice a healthy, flavorful diet. Better in, better out. So start with a good broth. Homemade is great if you've got the time. If you don't, we'll sell you our homemade chicken broth, or ham stock. And Monahan's in Kerrytown has excellent fish stock for sale.

In all you'll need roughly about three times as much broth by volume as you use dry rice. I find that a quart and a quarter to a quart and a half is about right for a half pound of rice, making two very generous main dish portions, or four to six first course servings.

Shopping for Other Ingredients

There's really three key ingredients to making a great risotto: the rice, the broth, and, much more often than not, cheese.
There's really three key ingredients to making a great risotto: the rice, the broth, and, much more often than not, cheese. And all risotto starts with some onion and either butter or olive oil. Beyond that there's not much to limit what else you can put in. I've yet to find anything reasonable that couldn't be added to a good risotto. Vegetables of any sort, most any cheese, olives, meat, fish, chicken. Vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, cream, herbs, nuts, olives, seafood, saffron, spices.

From my experience though, additional risotto ingredients seem to work well in pairs, threesomes at best. More than four is a crowd that fogs up the flavor of the finished dish. So buy the best, but don't try to fit everything you ever liked to eat into a single potful. (Just make another risotto.)

I ought to mention the wine here. After the rice has been sautéed, most risotto recipes call for the first addition to the pan to be a half a glass of white wine. The wine adds a bit of depth, a touch of extra character, to the finished dish. But I've certainly made perfectly delicious risotto without the wine, so I'll leave the call to you. As always, the better the wine, the better the risotto. Usually though, you'll find yourself using a glass of the open bottle in the refrigerator, or a bit of whatever you're drinking before dinner.

If I had to pick just one recipe, I think my favorite risotto would be one with wild mushrooms and Fontina val D'Aosta cheese. Others on my top ten would be gorgonzola and walnuts; goat cheese and arugula; salmon and saffron; roasted red peppers and pine nuts. Last month I made a great risotto with cape scallops, radicchio and a bit of Olio Agrumato (an incredible oil of lemons and olives.)

Once you've done your shopping you're ready to start preparing the dish.

Impregnate the Rice/Start the Cooking

Start with a wide, heavy pot. You want the rice to have room to roam while the risotto is cooking. Non-stick pots can help keep your rice from sticking, though you'll still have a lot of stirring to do.

Heat a little olive oil and/or butter in the pot. You can use either or both - each has its advocates. I usually use olive oil, but many believe that butter makes better risotto; others advocate using a little of each.

When the oil is hot, sauté a little chopped onion. sauté til it's soft and golden. Add the rice. Don't rinse the rice. Just pour it right out of the bag. A hefty handful, per person, which translates into about 4 ounces (by weight) per person for a generous main dish serving, about 2 ounces per person for a first course. Me, I always like to have a little leftover, so I add an extra shake from the rice bag to the pot.

Stir to coat the rice with oil and sauté it for a couple of minutes. Look into the pot and you'll see a melange of soft golden onion pieces and hard white rice grains. In a couple of minutes, the rice should be hot, glistening with a thin coat of oil or butter. This stage of the cooking - the tostatura - is an important part of what makes risotto so different from most rice cooking we're used to. It serves a pair of purposes. First it seals the rice's high natural starch content into the grain. Secondly it introduces the flavor of the oil and onion into the rice.

In her classic cookbook, "Italian Food," Elizabeth David says to stir the rice in the oil and butter til "it is well impregnated." I love that line! "Impregnate" the rice, and eighteen or so stirring minutes later it's given birth to a creamy, comforting bowl of finished risotto.

Rule #3: Add the Broth Slowly (and keep it hot)

After the rice has been "impregnated," it's time to start adding the broth. You want the broth to be hotter than the rice, so that when you add it to the pot it doesn't cool down the rice, (which would detract from the quality of your risotto) so be sure to bring it to a boil.

Now, before you start adding broth, repeat after me. "Add the broth slowly." "I will not dump all the broth into the pot at one time." You may want to. But you won't. I'm sure it will cross your mind, as it used to do mine, to just dump the liquid in the pot in one fell swoop, and get it over with. But fight the temptation. Your risotto won't be the same.

Now, before you start adding broth, repeat after me. "Add the broth slowly." "I will not dump all the broth into the pot at one time."
So, remember, add the broth slowly. Let's say a two ounce ladelful at a time. Enough so that the rice stays wet, surrounded by small rivulets of boiling broth, but never so much that it runs the risk of drowning. You don't want to see "large bodies of water" in the pot. Just small rivers running 'round the rice as it simmers. When the rice has absorbed all the liquid from the last ladelful, add another one. Keep stirring. Keep going.

Rule # 4: Keep the Rice Pot Hot.

How hot is hot enough? When you add the first bit of liquid it should literally go up in smoke. Well, let's say steam. When the liquid hits the pan you want to hear a swish, a swoosh. A puff of steam ought to go up from the pan. No puff? Then the pan isn't hot enough. (If you're doing all this for the first time, then test the heat by dropping a spoonful of broth in the pot first to "test the waters." Not hot enough, increase your heat a bit, then try again in a minute.)

When you add the liquid you'll see the rice grains start juking and jumping; like little Mexican jumping beans in the broth. If the rice isn't jitterbugging, then you need more heat.

On the other hand, having your pot too hot isn't any good either. If the rice is sticking almost instantly to the bottom of the pot no matter how much you stir, it's too hot. Turn it down.

Rule # 5: Stir, stir, stir/Stir it Up

So, as you've gathered by now, there is a fair amount of stirring involved in making a good risotto. Once you get the hang of this thing, you don't really don't have to stir every single second that the pot is on the stove. How much do you stir? Enough so that the rice doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan and that the liquid and rice stay evenly distributed. In my experience there's plenty of time between stirs to insert a bit of simple salad making; tear the lettuce, stir, slice some cucumber, stir, toss on a few olives, stir. You get the idea.

What do you stir with? I stir with a wooden spoon. (Elizabeth David recommends using a wooden fork as an even gentler implement.) Stir gently. You don't want to pound your rice down to puree. So go easy on it - you're not beating egg whites here. Just soft, leisurely, steady stirring.

For some reason, my mind keeps coming back to the stirring. There's something about it, something, subtly, well, stirring.

Partly, the stirring kind of strikes me as un-American - I guess it's because it seemingly defies the myth of progress. There's no way to "stir better," or "faster," and certainly no way to effectively eliminate it. Well, I take that back. You can eliminate the stirring. This is a free country. Like I keep telling the staff at the Deli, "you can do whatever you want. There's just consequences." And in this case, the consequences are that you'll be eating inferior risotto.

Maybe what we need in this country is more stirring; more people stirring the pot of life smoothly and gently and steadily onward, stopping long enough to appreciate the aromas rising from the pot, rather than heaving the whole thing up against the proverbial wall in fits of blame and frustration. You can't rush a good risotto, nor can you rush life. You just keep stirring. After a while, good things happen.

Rule # 6: Adding the Other Ingredients

As a general rule, ingredients from which you are mainly looking for a contribution of flavor - as opposed to appearance - can be added early on. Chopped fennel, celery, shallots or carrots might go in in the initial sautéing with the onion. Other ingredients can be added to (or, blanched in) the broth as it heats, to add their flavor there - mushrooms or asparagus for example.

On the other hand, ingredients which you want to be clearly identifiable and distinguishable when the risotto comes to the table are best added near the end, so that they aren't broken to bits by the stirring, or overcooked in the pot. Salmon, chicken, arugola come to mind as ingredients I'd add as the risotto reached the end of the cooking process. Cheese should also be added at the end of the very end of the cooking process.

Reaching the Finish

One of the things I've come to like most about making risotto is watching the grains of rice "grow up" before my eyes. It's like watching the entire growing cycle in twenty minutes. The rice starts as a few handfuls of dry, hard, white grains, then slowly begins to plump as it absorbs the broth. Like fruit ripening on the tree it gets softer, bigger and "juicier" as it moves closer and closer to the reaching the peak of perfection. You've hit the right degree of ripeness when you bite into the rice grain and you hit an ideal balance of soft creamy exterior with slightly firm, just slightly chewy center. You're looking for the same kind of "al dente" texture you want in perfectly cooked pasta.

Depending on the variety of Italian rice you use, the level of heat and the age of the rice, that could be somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes - the only way to know for sure is to start tasting a grain or two at about the fifteen minute mark. Just before the rice is done, add any final ingredients: cheese, fish, whatever. Stir well (of course.)
One of the things I've come to like most about making risotto is watching the grains of rice "grow up" before my eyes.

A Trio of Tips on Finishing Your Risotto

When the risotto seems done and ready to remove from the stove, add one last ladelful of broth. This gives the risotto something to "sip on" as it sits in the bowl for a minute or two before you eat, leaves it with a fine creamy texture, and keeps it from getting too dry.

In addition you may want to add a spoonful of butter at the last minute. This is known in Italian as the "mantecatura." As the butter melts it coats each grain of rice, yielding a richer, creamier risotto.

Finally, some folks recommend that you let the risotto rest for just a minute or two between its departure from the stove and the actual eating in order to let the flavors meld fully. But don't wait too long. This isn't a dish you can prepare in advance and then have sitting around. It's meant to be eaten right after it's cooked. Risotto rules the roost best when it's still steaming hot from the stove.

Pass the Parmigiano Reggiano

I don't think I've made more than a few risotti without grating on some Parmigiano Reggiano before I bring it to the table. (Actually we eat on the floor, not the table, but you get the idea.) There's something about the sweet, subtle nuttiness of the cheese that makes it the ideal end to risotto preparation. It's like breaking the champagne bottle on the bow of a new ship - cheers! It's ready to make the voyage to the table.

Standard Italian cooking wisdom dictates that parmesan not be added to risotto made with fish or seafood. Usually I add it anyways. But you can make that call for yourself.

(As always, I'd rather use a tiny amount of great Parmigiano than a whole handful of that green can stuff. Of course my particular preference for Parmigiano is enhanced because once I've got it out on the counter, I can sneak a sliver or two to tide me over while the risotto is cooking. If you're looking for a less costly alternative to top your risotto off with, try a bit of Swiss Sbrinz. More buttery, not quite as nutty, it's still a great grating cheese.)

Try it at Least Twice

When I'm trying to get one of my friends to try making risotto for the first time, I always ask them to promise to make it twice. The first time I figure, they don't really know what they're doing, and they're natural nervousness, combined with the fact they (like me) didn't grow up with risotto, make it not unlikely that their first effort is going to be less than memorable. I know mine was. But the second time with a bit of experience and half an idea of what the stuff is supposed to look like, I figure they're likely to start finding out what I learned a while back. That risotto is one of the great rice dishes, one of the great dishes period, that the world has yet to invent. Invent your own. Eat risotto tonight.

Cold Weather Cooking

This is the time of year I love risotto most. When it's way too cold for comfort outside. When I really, really need a bowl of something very warm and very warming and comforting and ... something to help get me through til the spring. Risotto's great to eat the rest of the year too, but there's something about knowing I'm making risotto for dinner in winter that helps get me through some otherwise dismal days. Risotto rules!

Risotto is one of Italy's great dishes but it is virtually unknown in the US. This is a sorrow. It's not hard to cook, needing less care than many of the dishes I post here and more satisfying and interesting than most of them. A lemon risotto with dirty rice would be about perfect after the excess of the last few days. Use filtered water and you'll have a clearer product. Saffron is dear in cost, but, oh, what a lovely, tasty dish to serve next to your shrimp scampi or boudin blanc.

Yum.

Which Children Left Beind?

Think CA is the only place in education trouble? When was the last time you read your state's education goals? Do you really think they don't look like this? You must have an interesting dream life:

California's going to get a shocking education
By Patrick M. Callan, PATRICK M. CALLAN is president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education based in San Jose. Website: www.highereducation.org.

IF THERE'S STILL anyone who thinks that education levels and income in California will continue their steady rise, they may be in for a shock. If current education policies continue unchanged, the California workforce of 2020 is going to be less educated than today's, according to a recent report released by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and the state's per-capita income will drop more substantially than elsewhere in the country.

The transformation will occur as baby boomers, the most highly educated generation in U.S. history, retire. Across the country they will be replaced by a growing population of young workers from the nation's least-educated minority groups. The share of the workforce that is college educated will shrink accordingly, losing the U.S. much of its advantage in the global marketplace.

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The problem is national, but in California it will be particularly severe. Consider some of our report's findings: The Latino population, by far the least educated of any of the state's large minority groups, is expanding dramatically. By 2020, Latinos will make up as large a share of the state's working-age population (people 25 to 64 years old) as whites — about 38% Latino and 39% white. This is a seismic shift; in 1990, only 22% of working-age adults were Latino and 61% were white. And the gap in education between Latinos and whites in California will turn the demographic shift into a statewide economic decline.

Just look at the numbers. Among California's current working-age population, 46% of whites have a college degree, while 12% of Latinos do, according to census data. At the other end of the education spectrum, more than half of working-age Latinos do not have even a high school diploma, compared to 8% of whites.

Yet the state is making only limited progress with its current students. Over the last decade, California has managed to raise the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds who have high school diplomas, and the percentage of those enrolled in college. But of those who do enroll in college or post-high school certificate programs, the percentage of those actually completing the programs is very low compared to other states. And on every one of these measures, the gaps between young Latinos, on the one hand, and young whites, blacks and Asian Americans remain large.

To some extent, the problem may be one of inadequate preparation in California's schools. Among the measures we follow at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, one is particularly telling. We track the percentage of low-income eighth-graders in each state who score at or above "proficient" on the national assessment exam in math. Among the top states, an average 23% of low-income students are this well-prepared for higher education. California is only at 9%.

But preparation is not the whole story. The expense of higher education can also be prohibitive. California provides more low-cost college options than most states and has recently increased its investment in need-based financial aid. But for the poorest 40% of California families, the cost each year of sending a child to community college still amounts to more than a third of the average family income. The cost of sending a child to a public four-year college, even after figuring in financial aid, amounts to nearly half of such a family's income.

If California does nothing more to raise the education level of its residents, and particularly of its largest, fastest-growing and least-educated minority group, it can expect to lose economic ground against the world and other states. For the sake of all, California's continuing educational disparities must be confronted and removed.

As California goes, so goes the nation. It is all there in a nutshell.

Tired of Turkey?

This is Texas chili--no beans. I learned to make this in Texas.

1/3 cup corn oil -- (approximately)
6 pounds beef chuck -- in 1/2-inch cubes
1 cup minced onion
1/3 cup minced garlic
3 cups beef broth -- (approximately)
3 cups flat beer
1 1/2 cups water
1/4 cup high-quality chili powder -- or to taste
6 pounds tomatoes -- (three 2 lb. cans) drained and chopped
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh oregano
3 tablespoons cumin seed
salt -- to taste
cayenne pepper -- to taste
masa harina or cornmeal -- if needed

1. In a large heavy skillet over moderately high heat, warm 3 tablespoons
of the oil. Brown beef in batches, adding more oil as necessary and
transferring meat with a slotted spoon to a large stockpot when well browned. Do not
crowd skillet.

2. Reduce heat to moderately low. Add onion and garlic and saute until
softened (about 10 minutes). Add to stockpot along with broth, beer, the water,
chili powder, tomato, tomato paste, and oregano.

3. In a small skillet over low heat, toast cumin seed until fragrant; do
not allow to burn. Grind in an electric minichopper or with a mortar and
pestle. Add to stockpot.

4. Over high heat bring mixture to a simmer. Add salt, cayenne, and more
chili powder to taste. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, partially
covered, until beef is tender (about 1-1/2 hours). Check occasionally and add
more broth if mixture seems dry. If chili is too thin when meat is tender, stir
in up to 2 tablespoons masa harina. Cook an additional 5 minutes to thicken.
Serve chili hot.

This recipe is a shade tame for me so I add chopped dried chilis (a lot, I like my chili 5-alarm hot) or fresh scotch bonnets when I can find them. Warning: when working with chilis, wear gloves. Do not let your gloved hands get near your face. Getting significant scoville units of capsaicin into your eye or nasal or oral mucosa is real, real painful. I did this by accident when working with Thai chilis for the first time at home and brushed by my eye with an ungloved hand. I was wearing contact lenses at the time and didn't have a hand clean for removing the lens before rinsing my eye with copious amounts of saline. It was ugly and that eye stayed bright red for days.

What's Before Dinner?

This is delicious as part of a fruit, veggies and cheese appetizer spread.

BAKED BRIE WITH FRUIT

1 pkg. refrigerator crescent rolls
1 (8 oz.) Brie cheese
1 egg, beaten
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Heat oven 375 degrees.

Two rectangles of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press 8x5, slam down the dough. Wrap the cheese ball in the dough. Brush with egg. Sprinkle with nuts. Bake at 375, 12-15 minutes. Let stand 2-5 minutes before serving. Serve with apple slices and pear slices.

Risky Business

Pension Officers Putting Billions Into Hedge Funds

By RIVA D. ATLAS
and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: November 27, 2005

Faced with growing numbers of retirees, pension plans are pouring billions into hedge funds, the secretive and lightly regulated investment partnerships that once managed money only for wealthy investors.

The plans and other large institutions are expected to invest as much as $300 billion in hedge funds by 2008, up from just $5 billion a decade ago, according to a study by the Bank of New York and Casey, Quirk & Associates, a consulting firm. Pension funds account for roughly 40 percent of all institutional money. This month, the investment council that oversees the New Jersey state employees pension fund said it would put some of its money into hedge funds for the first time, investing $600 million over the next several months.

While most pension plans have modest stakes in hedge funds, others have invested more than 20 percent of their assets. Weyerhaeuser, the paper company, has 39 percent of its pension fund's assets in hedge funds. In Congress, there has been a push for amendments that would make it easier for hedge funds to manage even more pension money, without having to comply with the federal law that governs company pensions.

Pension officials who have been shaken by market downturns and persistent deficits are attracted by hedge funds' promise of richer, or more consistent, returns. But the trend has caused some consultants and academics to voice cautions. They question whether hedge funds, with risks that are hard to measure, are appropriate for pension funds, whose sole purpose, by law, is to pay out predetermined benefits to retired workers.

Those benefits are considered so crucial that they are guaranteed: corporate pension failures are covered by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, a federal agency, while pension failures by state and local governments are covered by taxpayers. Given that the benefits are paid out on a set schedule, critics wonder whether it makes sense to rely on investments whose returns are hard to predict, managed by private partnerships that disclose little about their operations and charge some of the highest fees on Wall Street.

"It's very inappropriate when the company is offering a pension plan that is guaranteed by the federal government," said Zvi Bodie, a professor of finance and economics at Boston University who writes and lectures on sophisticated investment techniques and is enthusiastic about hedge funds in other contexts.

Hedge funds make large, sophisticated investments based on the premise that by swimming outside the currents of the markets, often betting against conventional wisdom, they can outperform other investments. Hedge funds became famous in the 1990's, when managers like Michael Steinhardt and George Soros made huge swashbuckling bets that sometimes produced returns of 30 percent or more.

More recently, hedge funds have made headlines when they ran into trouble: Long-Term Capital Management, a hedge fund whose principals included two Nobel Prize-winning economists, nearly collapsed in 1998; and this summer, Bayou Group, a $450 million hedge fund based in Connecticut, shut down after most of its money disappeared. Its two officers have pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Hedge funds are meant to be only for wealthy, sophisticated investors so regulators have not monitored them as they have stocks or mutual funds, although there have been calls for increased regulation.

The news of splashy gains and scandals may not paint an accurate picture of a business that in many ways has become more conservative as a result of the flood of pension fund money. To attract that money, many hedge fund managers emphasize stability.

Among pension fund managers, however, "the whole mentality has changed," said Jane Buchan, chief executive of Pacific Alternative Asset Management, which manages $7.5 billion in funds that invest in hedge funds, primarily for large pension funds. "They are saying, we need returns and we will be aggressive about getting them. They just don't want any downturns."

This is completely inappropriate and Congress should act to change the law so that guaranteed pension funds cannot invest in hedge funds. Hedge funds are only for those with high risk tolerance and pension funds are not among them.

They're Ba-ack

Is there are trip to New York City in your future. Bring your bug spray!

Just Try to Sleep Tight. The Bedbugs Are Back.

By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: November 27, 2005

They're the scourge of hobo encampments and hot-sheet motels. To impressionable children everywhere, they're a snippet of nursery rhyme, an abstract foe lurking beneath the covers that emerges when mommy shuts the door at night.

But bedbugs on Park Avenue? Ask the horrified matron who recently found her duplex teeming with the blood-sucking beasts. Or the tenants of a co-op on Riverside Drive who spent $200,000 earlier this month to purge their building of the pesky little thugs. The Helmsley Park Lane was sued two years ago by a welt-covered guest who blamed the hotel for harboring the critters. The suit was quietly settled last year.

And bedbugs, stealthy and fast-moving nocturnal creatures that were all but eradicated by DDT after World War II, have recently been found in hospital maternity wards, private schools and even a plastic surgeon's waiting room.

Bedbugs are back and spreading through New York City like a swarm of locusts on a lush field of wheat.

Infestations have been reported sporadically across the United States over the past few years. But in New York, bedbugs have gained a foothold all across the city.

"It's becoming an epidemic," said Jeffrey Eisenberg, the owner of Pest Away Exterminating, an Upper West Side business that receives about 125 bedbug calls a week, compared with just a handful five years ago. "People are being tortured, and so am I. I spend half my day talking to hysterical people about bedbugs."

Last year the city logged 377 bedbug violations, up from just 2 in 2002 and 16 in 2003. Since July, there have been 449. "Its definitely a fast-emerging problem," said Carol Abrams, spokeswoman for the city housing agency.

In the bedbug resurgence, entomologists and exterminators blame increased immigration from the developing world, the advent of cheap international travel and the recent banning of powerful pesticides. Other culprits include the recycled mattress industry and those thrifty New Yorkers who revel in the discovery of a free sofa on the sidewalk.

And that new mattress delivered from a reputable department store, which kindly hauled away your old one? It may have spent all day in a truck wedged against an old mattress collected from a customer with a bedbug problem.

Once introduced into a home, bedbugs can crawl into adjoining apartments or hitch a ride to another part of town in the cuff of a pant leg.

"Anyone who stays in a hotel, rich or poor, can bring them home in a suitcase," said Richard Kourbage, whose company, Kingsway Exterminating in Brooklyn, does about a dozen bedbug jobs a day. "Some of the best hotels in New York have them."

Unlike mice and roaches, which are abetted by filthy surroundings, bedbugs do just fine in a well-scrubbed home, although bedroom clutter gives them more places to hide and breed. When engorged with blood, they grow slightly plumper than the O on this page, although the nymphs, which appear almost translucent before their first meal, are not much bigger than the period at the end of this sentence.

And contrary to popular perceptions, they don't dwell just in mattresses and box springs: any wall or floor crack the thickness of a playing card can accommodate a bedbug. Although some people try to treat the problem themselves, most people hire exterminators, at a cost of $300 per room.

Sausage Making

Privatizing the American West

Published: November 26, 2005

While lawmakers are in recess, it is worth reflecting on one particular part of the mess they have left behind. Last week, a budget bill scraped through the House, 217 to 215. Democrats and moderate Republicans had already stripped a provision to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But the House bill left intact an evil trap to be sprung on the American public: Richard Pombo's plan to put a few hundred million acres of publicly owned land up for sale in the American West.

Mr. Pombo, Republican of California, is head of the House Resources Committee and has long been determined to privatize as much of the West as he can lay his hands on. His bill would allow the holders of mining claims to buy the land outright instead of leasing it - a substantial revision of the current practice. He argues that his proposal would merely adjust laws and affect only about 360,000 acres where mining claims are currently being developed or explored.

But the bill is so vaguely drawn that at least 6 million acres of public land, and possibly as much as 350 million acres, could wind up in the hands of private buyers. These buyers need to express only the intent to develop a mineral claim without any need to demonstrate commercial mining potential. Once the land is bought, it can be developed as the owners see fit. This is a blatant fraud on the American people, expressed in bland legislative legalese. The question is, Who is going to stop it?

The bill has to clear a few more hurdles before becoming the law of the land - a House-Senate conference committee and final votes in the House and the Senate. In the best of all possible worlds, the House negotiators would reject the worst aspects of the Senate bill, which authorizes drilling in the Arctic refuge, and the Senate negotiators would reject the worst aspects of the House version, including Mr. Pombo's outrageous raid on the public lands.

This is not the long shot it might have seemed as recently as a week ago. Americans have come to understand that America can't drill its way out of dependency on Middle Eastern oil, and that ravaging the Arctic is no substitute for sound energy policy. They also understand that Mr. Pombo's sleight of hand is little more than legislative robbery.

Why don't the fucking Repubs just sell off the entire damn country and get it over with?

Preznit Giv Me Turkee

Holiday turns grim in Iraq: Bombs kill 36
Suicide attack hits children receiving toys

NANCY A. YOUSSEF
KNIGHT RIDDER

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The third Thanksgiving Day since U.S. troops entered Iraq was a grim one Thursday: # Bombers killed at least 36 people in two different Iraqi cities. In one of the attacks, a suicide bomber targeted a crowd of children who were receiving toys from U.S. soldiers. # U.S. officials announced the deaths of six more U.S. troops. # No American dignitaries made surprise trips to dine with American soldiers, as they have on previous holidays. # And the Iraqi government's top spokesman said violence would only increase until the Dec. 15 elections for a new National Assembly.

The first attack came in Mahmudiyah, in an area called the "triangle of death," as U.S. civil affairs specialists were inspecting the Mahmudiyah Hospital at around 10:30 a.m. in preparation for making improvements, said Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a military spokesman.

Civil affairs soldiers often bring toys for children when meeting with the community, Johnson said. As the soldiers stood outside the main entrance and began handing the toys out to children who had gathered around them, a suicide bomber approached the hospital and blew himself up.

At least 33 people died in that attack, including four children and two women, a military official in Mahmudiyah said. Another 23 people were injured, the official said.

It appears to me that Preznit Giv Me Turkee has lost interest in his little war. He couldn't detail one official to eat dinner with the troops? I guess that tactic got old.

Running Away

This is all political, not military. The US, with all of its superior technical resources, cannot contain the "insurgency." The locals won't be able to, either, unless the insurgency wants to melt back into the countryside. This is cut and run. The political reality is that this fucked up war is unpopular and the GOP is trying to get away from it before the midterm elections next year.

U.S. Starts Laying Groundwork for Significant Troop Pullout From Iraq
By Paul Richter and Tyler Marshall, Times Staff Writers

WASHINGTON — Even as debate over the Iraq war continues to rage, signs are emerging of a convergence of opinion on how the Bush administration might begin to exit the conflict.

In a departure from previous statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week that the training of Iraqi soldiers had advanced so far that the current number of U.S. troops in the country probably would not be needed much longer.

President Bush will give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., in which aides say he is expected to herald the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the key condition for pulling out U.S. forces.

The administration's pivot on the issue comes as the White House is seeking to relieve enormous pressure by war opponents. The camp includes liberals, moderates and old-line conservatives who are uneasy with the costly and uncertain nation-building effort.

It also follows agreement this week among Iraqi politicians that the U.S. troop presence ought to decrease. Meeting in Cairo, representatives of the three major ethnic and religious groups called for a U.S. withdrawal and recognized Iraqis' "legitimate right of resistance" to foreign occupation. In private conversations, Iraqi officials discussed a possible two-year withdrawal period, analysts said.

The developments seemed to lay the groundwork for potentially large withdrawals in 2006 and 2007, consistent with scenarios outlined by Pentagon planners. The approach also tracks the thinking of some centrist Democrats, such as Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the senior representative of his party on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Some analysts say the emerging consensus might have less to do with conditions in Iraq than the deployment's long-term strain on the U.S. military. And major questions about the readiness of Iraq's fledgling security forces remain, posing risks for any strategy that calls for an accelerated American withdrawal.

As recently as late September, senior U.S. military commanders said during a congressional hearing that just one Iraqi battalion, about 700 soldiers, was considered capable of undertaking combat operations fully independent of U.S. support. Administration officials now dismiss that measure of readiness, saying more Iraqi units are able to conduct advanced operations each day.

A former top Pentagon official who served during Bush's first term said he believed there was a "growing consensus" on withdrawing about 40,000 troops before next year's congressional election. That would be followed by further substantial pullouts in 2007 if it became clear that Iraqi forces could contain the insurgency.

"You've got the convergence of domestic pressures, Iraqi pressures and Pentagon [withdrawal] plans that have been in the works for a while," said the former official, who requested anonymity. "This is serious."

A senior U.S. official said that in signaling hopes for a large drawdown next year, Rice was only "stating the obvious" this week.

"It looks like things are headed in the right direction to enable that to happen in 2006," said the official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

But he said those hopes could be derailed if there were setbacks. Among the upcoming markers is the Dec. 15 election for a permanent Iraqi government. Officials have said that violence is likely to increase before the vote. More than 100 U.S. troops have died in the month since the death toll reached 2,000.

Dawn

Even Supporters Doubt President as Issues Pile Up

By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: November 26, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 22 - Leesa Martin never considered President Bush a great leader, but she voted for him a year ago because she admired how he handled the terrorist attacks of 2001.

Selena Smith, an advertising agency director in Atlanta. "The war is more important to me now. What’s the plan? Give us something to hang our teeth on," she said.
Kevin Fitzsimons for The New York Times

"I don’t know if it’s any one thing as much as it is everything. It’s kind of snowballed," said Leesa Martin, a market researcher in Columbus, Ohio.

Then came the past summer, when the death toll from the war in Iraq hit this state particularly hard: 16 marines from the same battalion killed in one week. She thought the federal government should have acted faster to help after Hurricane Katrina. She was baffled by the president's nomination of Harriet E. Miers, a woman she considered unqualified for the Supreme Court, and disappointed when he did not nominate another woman after Ms. Miers withdrew.

And she remains unsettled by questions about whether the White House leaked the name of a C.I.A. agent whose husband had accused the president of misleading the country about the intelligence that led to the war.

"I don't know if it's any one thing as much as it is everything," said Ms. Martin, 49, eating lunch at the North Market, on the edge of downtown Columbus. "It's kind of snowballed."

Her concerns were echoed in more than 75 interviews here and across the country this week, helping to explain the slide in the president's approval and trustworthiness ratings in recent polls.

Many people who voted for Mr. Bush a year ago had trouble pinning their current discontent on any one thing. Many mentioned the hurricane and the indictment of a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, which some said raised doubts about the president's candor and his judgment. But there was a sense that something had veered off course in the last few months, and the war was the one constant. Over and over, even some of Mr. Bush's supporters raised comparisons with Vietnam.

"We keep hearing about suicide bombers and casualties and never hear about any progress being made," said Dave Panici, 45, a railroad conductor from Bradley, Ill. "I don't see an end to it; it just seems relentless. I feel like our country is just staying afloat, just treading water instead of swimming toward somewhere."

Mr. Panici voted for President Bush in 2004, calling it "a vote for security." "Now that a year has passed, I haven't seen any improvement in Iraq," he said. "I don't feel that the world is a safer place."

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll in mid-November found that 37 percent of Americans approved of Mr. Bush, the lowest approval rating the poll had recorded in his presidency. That was down from 55 percent a year ago and from a high of 90 percent shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.

An Associated Press/Ipsos poll earlier in the month found the same 37 percent approval rating and recorded the president's lowest levels regarding integrity and honesty: 42 percent of Americans found him honest, compared with 53 percent at the beginning of this year.

Several of those interviewed said that in the last year they had come to believe that Mr. Bush had not been fully honest about the intelligence that led to the war, which he said showed solid evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"I think people put their faith in Bush, hoping he would do the right thing," said Stacey Rosen, 38, a stay-at-home mother in Boca Raton, Fla., who said she voted for Mr. Bush but was "totally disappointed" in him now. "Everybody cannot believe that there hasn't been one shred of evidence of W.M.D. I think it goes to show how they tell us what they want to tell us."

Watching people wake up isn't all that pleasant.

Screwing Up

Same Insurance Claims, Different Results in La. Town

By Dean Starkman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 26, 2005; Page A01

Silvia I. Cosenza, who lived in Gretna, La., until Hurricane Katrina roared through, says she's been caught in an insurance nightmare: Her flood claim denied because an insurance adjuster ruled that her neighborhood was not flooded.

That came as a surprise to Melmary Matheny, who lives across the street and has already received partial payment on her flood claim and has been told to expect another check soon.

What's the difference? Beyond the fact that different insurance companies handled the claims, neither knows.

"For sure, she flooded as much as we did," Matheny said. "Our whole entire neighborhood flooded."

As the insurance industry grapples with its largest-ever loss and a record number of individual claims -- 1.6 million from Katrina, another 1 million from hurricanes Rita and Wilma -- policyholders are learning that the opportunity to get their lives back in order often depends on which company is processing the claim. In many cases, homeowners living in areas that were equally flooded have had drastically different experiences.

Particularly puzzling to some homeowners is that all flood claims are ultimately paid by the federal government's National Flood Insurance Program, which is operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Insurance companies merely administer the program as contractors, selling flood policies and processing claims for a fee. The government -- which hired 95 firms as flood program contractors -- sets the rules and is responsible for paying the claims.

"It's the same money," said Andreas Anderson, who owns two houses in New Orleans's Lakeview neighborhood and is still waiting for an answer from Allstate Corp. on whether his claim will be approved. He said the water in the neighborhood got so high a car floated into one of his houses.

Blaine Lecesne, a law professor who lives in Lake Terrace, an adjoining neighborhood that was also severely flooded, said representatives of State Farm Insurance Co. investigated his claim in a 30-minute telephone interview and sent a $250,000 check to his temporary home in Houston two days later, on Oct. 3.

The widely disparate treatment encountered by those and other Louisiana homeowners is a reminder of the secrecy that shrouds claim-handling in the $1.3 trillion insurance industry. Insurance companies, which are regulated by the states, are not required to disclose their claims practices, including how quickly claims are processed, how many are denied and for what reasons.

To speed the processing of hurricane-related flood claims, FEMA in late September relaxed its reporting guidelines and authorized contractors to perform investigations over the phone for claims in heavily flooded areas. The agency is using aerial photography and its own data on water depths to determine whether damage is so extensive that on-site visits can be waived. FEMA has also suspended its requirement that policyholders submit sworn "proof of loss" statements; instead, where the policyholder agrees, the agency will rely on an adjuster's report.

The private insurers aren't doing a whole lot better job than FEMA. No one seems to have their disaster planning/recovery chops together.

Go to War, Young Man, and Come Home a Basket Case

Report yourself to the Army with mental distress and your Army career just went up in smoke. Look at my last quoted graph of this important NYT story carefully.

The Struggle to Gauge a War's Psychological Cost

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: November 26, 2005

It was hardly a traditional therapist's office. The mortar fire was relentless, head-splitting, so close that it raised layers of rubble high off the floor of the bombed-out room. Since returning home to Madison, Wis., after a tour in Iraq, Abbie Pickett has struggled with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Abbie Pickett, of the Wisconsin National Guard, served as a medic. Stationed near Tikrit, Iraq, she treated heavy combat casualties in October 2003.

Capt. William Nash, a Navy psychiatrist, sat on an overturned box of ready-made meals for the troops. He was in Iraq to try to short-circuit combat stress on the spot, before it became disabling, as part of the military's most determined effort yet to bring therapy to the front lines.

His clients, about a dozen young men desperate for help after weeks of living and fighting in Falluja, sat opposite him and told their stories.

One had been spattered with his best friend's blood and blamed himself for the death.

Another was also filled with guilt. He had hesitated while scouting an alley and had seen the man in front of him shot to death.

"They were so young," Captain Nash recalled.

At first, when they talked, he simply listened. Then he did his job, telling them that soldiers always blame themselves when someone is killed, in any war, always.

Grief, he told them, can make us forget how random war is, how much we have done to protect those we are fighting with.

"You try to help them tell a coherent story about what is happening, to make sense of it, so they feel less guilt and shame over protecting others, which is so common," said Captain Nash, who counseled the marines last November as part of the military's increased efforts to defuse psychological troubles.

He added, "You have to help them reconstruct the things they used to believe in that don't make sense anymore, like the basic goodness of humanity."

Military psychiatry has always been close to a contradiction in terms. Psychiatry aims to keep people sane; service in wartime makes demands that seem insane.

This war in particular presents profound mental stresses: unknown and often unseen enemies, suicide bombers, a hostile land with virtually no safe zone, no real front or rear. A 360-degree war, some call it, an asymmetrical battle space that threatens to injure troops' minds as well as their bodies.

But just how deep those mental wounds are, and how many will be disabled by them, are matters of controversy. Some experts suspect that the legacy of Iraq could echo that of Vietnam, when almost a third of returning military personnel reported significant, often chronic, psychological problems.

Others say the mental casualties will be much lower, given the resilience of today's troops and the sophistication of the military's psychological corps, which place therapists like Captain Nash into combat zones.

The numbers so far tell a mixed story. The suicide rate among soldiers was high in 2003 but fell significantly in 2004, according to two Army surveys among more than 2,000 soldiers and mental health support providers in Iraq. Morale rose in the same period, but 54 percent of the troops say morale is low or very low, the report found.

A continuing study of combat units that served in Iraq has found that about 17 percent of the personnel have shown serious symptoms of depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder - characterized by intrusive thoughts, sleep loss and hyper-alertness, among other symptoms - in the first few months after returning from Iraq, a higher rate than in Afghanistan but thought to be lower than after Vietnam.

In interviews, many members of the armed services and psychologists who had completed extended tours in Iraq said they had battled feelings of profound grief, anger and moral ambiguity about the effect of their presence on Iraqi civilians.

And at bases back home, there have been violent outbursts among those who have completed tours. A marine from Camp Pendleton, Calif., has been convicted of murdering his girlfriend. And three members of a special forces unit based at Fort Carson, in Colorado Springs, have committed suicide.

Yet for returning service members, experts say, the question of whether their difficulties are ultimately diagnosed as mental illness may depend not only on the mental health services available, but also on the politics of military psychiatry itself, the definition of what a normal reaction to combat is and the story the nation tells itself about the purpose and value of soldiers' service.

War is going to make fucked up human beings. That is its nature. If we are surprised by this, we don't understand the nature of either war or human beings. Killing people is an unnatural act, which is why we prosecute it when people do it on our soil. Expecting people to be trained to kill violates every principle of our brain chemistry. I fully accept that there may be times when it is necessary (and I don't believe that Iraq was one of those times) but don't expect the soldiers to come back undamaged. War creates monsters and one should never wage a war if we aren't willing to live with the creation of monsters. That's the nature of war.

Read the whole article and then set with it a bit because there is a lot of subtext in the story which will only come out when you've let it live in you a bit.

Ask yourself some questions: could I be that, could I do that? What would I become if I did?

Those are worthwhile questions.

The US needs to be asking itself the question "who do we want to be?" Right now, I'm not liking the answers I'm hearing.

Minnesota Oddment

Tom and Jerry batter is sold in the grocery stores around Christmas in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. It's a potent drink, a hot one, which I Iove on cold nights decorating the house for the holidays (but don't be surprised if it looks a little cock-eyed in the morning if you have more than one.) I'm including the entire comments thread from DrinkStreet, because it does sound gross if you've never had it before. In reality, a Tom and Jerry is a drink for the cold climes of the upper midwest and still the one I favor when the weather is damp and cold. Make the batter in a blender, separating the egg and beating the eggwhites first.

To assemble the drink in a mug, start with the hot water, add the liquor and put the batter on top. Then stir, just a little.

1/2 ounce Dark Rum
1 dash Brandy
1 whole Egg White
1 whole Egg Yolk
1 teaspoon Sugar
Beat the sugar into the egg yolk, add the rum and incorporate the egg white. Transfer into a coffee mug and fill with boiling water. Add the brandy and garnish with grated nutmeg.

When I lived in Minnesota, Tom and Jerry parties around the holidays were common in my neighborhoods during the holidays (I lived all over the state and around the Twin Cities.) I don't know if that custom still prevails.

Panda News

Since there are never enough panda stories on a Friday evening.

Births of Pandas in Captivity Hit Record Number in China

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, November 25, 2005; Page A23

CHENGDU, China -- Chinese scientists have logged a record number of giant panda births in captivity this year through improved artificial insemination techniques and better understanding of how the reclusive but universally appealing creature lives and mates.

The result of hard science by no-nonsense researchers, the increased birthrate is good news for the many children and soft-hearted adults around the world who delight in the sight of pandas, with their distinctive black and white fur, sitting back and tranquilly munching on bamboo leaves.

The pandas slouching about their compound here at the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Research Base in central China's Sichuan province did not seem particularly moved by their species' accomplishment. But at least 19 pandas were born -- and have survived -- this season in a pair of Chinese research facilities, officials said, the highest number since scientists here and abroad began trying to foster reproduction of the endangered animal through artificial insemination about 40 years ago.

Several more were born in research centers and zoos in other countries, including twin cubs born Aug. 23 in the Adventure World Park Zoo in western Japan's Wakayama prefecture, of which only the female lived, and Tai Shan, a male cub who was born at Washington's National Zoo on July 9 and is reported to be thriving. In all, up to 25 giant pandas were born and survived in captivity around the world during this summer's birthing season, according to the State Forestry Administration and Chinese specialists.

A survey last year by the State Forestry Administration showed that the number of giant pandas living in the wild has also risen, to an estimated 1,590, up from 1,110 in the 1980s. Most roam the isolated hills of China's Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, eating bamboo and staying as far as they can from human beings. The population has grown over the last several years, scientists said, because the government has turned large parts of the panda's habitat into reserves where logging and farming are forbidden.

This marks a turnaround from the years when China's ever-expanding human population intruded on the hillsides where giant pandas live and breed, turning them into an endangered species. The panda, whose markings and chubby contours seem to invite cuddling, in fact is easily distressed by contact with human beings, research has shown, and it seems to thrive best when left alone among the bamboo stands of central China's misty mountains.

It's nice to see science used in a positive manner. I am always amazed at all of the good things humans can do if we put our mind and talents to it. If you had predicted this type of improvement 20 years ago, you might have been laughed at. It's good to see the experts wrong in a positive way.

Now I just can't wait until my kids are old enough to see them live in Washington instead of on web-cam.

Lighten Up

Through the years, I've done a lot of kitchen messing around to try to find ways to cut the fat in the foods I love. I don't remember how I came up with this, but it works nicely as a replacement for whipped cream on pies or strawberry shortcakes and the like. This makes enough to cover two desserts if you are generous, four if you are being more restrained.

I have an old Melitta filter holder that I use for this, but anything which will hold up a coffee filter will work.

Turn one 8 oz. cup of plain, non-fat yoghurt into a coffee filter in some sort of holder that will keep it from flattening out. Place the vent of the holder over a jar or bottle, cover the yoghurt holder with plastic wrap and put the works into the fridge over night. In the morning, in the bottom of the filter you will have a much sweeter, denser cream which nicely takes the place of whipped cream on pies or shortcakes. Add about a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract or the scrapings from the interior of one vanilla pod and mix well before serving. That's it and it gives you a fat-free but delicious replacement for whipped cream. After eating this replacement for 20 years, whipped cream now tastes unbearably oleagenous to me.

Add the shed liquid from the yoghurt to your morning protein shake or save it for the stock pot, it is protein rich.

Health Care Northways

Canada struggles with health care
Prime minister faces no-confidence vote

By Paul Webster Special for
USA TODAY

TORONTO — Maria DiDanieli says her 2-year-old daughter Emily's left eye was swollen to the size of a golf ball after six hours of waiting to see an emergency-room physician at Oakville-Trafalgar Hospital near Toronto last June.

DiDanieli says she warned the receptionist at the emergency desk that one of Emily's playmates with similar symptoms had mysteriously died two days earlier. Even that didn't seem to speed things up.

Speaking at a meeting this week of Toronto-area physicians who claim emergency patients are dying because of cuts to Canada's government-funded national health system, DiDanieli said she was at her wits' end by the time a specialist arrived. She had waited a total of seven hours. “Emily finally got antibiotics, and she got better in a few days,” she said. “But I haven't forgotten the agony of waiting.”

Prime Minister Paul Martin and his Liberal Party face a no-confidence vote Monday, in part because of the health care issue. If Martin's government falls, there will be a new election this winter.

A national opinion poll released last week by Ipsos Public Affairs Research indicates Canadians consider the government-funded health care system their No. 1 concern. In addition, Canada's three opposition parties say Martin no longer has the moral authority to lead the nation because of a corruption scandal. An initial investigative report absolved Martin of wrongdoing but accused senior Liberal members of taking kickbacks and misspending tens of millions of dollars in public funds under a previous Liberal government.

Martin's government survived a no-confidence vote in June with the support of the New Democratic Party. That support waned when the Liberals refused last week to cooperate with the New Democratic Party's demand for a ban on private health care.

The private system is forbidden by Canadian law but increasingly popular among the wealthy. The public health care system is struggling after a decade of cost-cutting under Martin, the Liberals' finance minister until shortly before he became prime minister a year ago.

Last year, Martin's Liberals launched a plan to pump an additional $35 billion over the next decade into the public health system, which costs $22 billion annually.

Despite this commitment, there has been little progress, according to the Wait Times Alliance, a coalition of Canadian physicians. The coalition says the lack of funding has resulted in too few doctors and hospital beds — the source of the long waits.

Conservative Party leaders including Steven Fletcher, the party's official health critic, say medical wait times have doubled since the Liberals took power in 1993. “This government and this prime minister have done nothing to fix the wait-time crisis they've caused,” Fletcher says.

Before we allow conservatives to frame this as a critique of the Canadian system down here below the 49th parallel, let me ask this: what have your wait times looked like with your "private physician?" I have to wait three months for a physical, my orthopod takes six weeks to see, and I book the ob-gyn six months in advance. Oh, right, the Canadian system is SO fucked up. And it costs about a third of ours.

This is Martin's second no confidence vote in less than a year. I'd say there are some issues here, not the least of which is the soiled reputation of the Liberal party becaue of the Gomery scandal, Canadians prefer that their corruption be a little better hidden than we do down here. They are really nicer people.

Respect for the dead and the dying

Stifling Criticism Does Nothing to Help Soldiers

By Michael Kinsley

We are now very close to that point of general agreement in the Iraq war. Do you believe that if Misters Bush, Cheney and company could turn back the clock, they would do this again? And now, thanks to Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, it is permissible to say, or at least to ask, "Why not just get out now?"

There are arguments against this - some good, some bad - but the worst is the one delivered by Mr. Cheney and others with their withering scorn. It is the argument that it is wrong to tell American soldiers risking their lives in a foreign desert that they are fighting for a mistake.

One strength of this argument is that it doesn't require defending the war itself. The logic applies equally whether the war is justified or not. Another strength is that the argument is true, in a way; it is a terrible thing to tell someone he or she is risking death in a mistaken cause. But it is more terrible actually to die in that mistaken cause.

The longer the war goes on, the more Americans and "allies" and Iraqis will die. That is not a slam-dunk argument for ending this foreign entanglement. But it is worth keeping in mind while you try to decide whether American credibility or Iraqi prosperity or Middle East stability can justify the cost in blood and treasure. And don't forget to factor in the likelihood that the war will actually produce these fine things.

The last man or woman to die in any war almost surely dies in vain: The outcome has been determined, if not certified. And he or she might die happier thinking that death came in a noble cause that will not be abandoned. But if it is not a noble cause, he or she might prefer not to die at all. Stifling criticism that might shorten the war is no favor to American soldiers. They can live without that kind of "respect."

OK, it's Kinsley. But he makes some good points.

The Cracks Begin to Show

War's strain wearing on Army troops, tools
Recruitment is down; equipment taking a beating

By Dave Moniz, Matt Kelley and Steven Komarow
USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Drawing lessons from his own career, Col. Mat Moten tells his students at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., they could one day have a duty just as important as fighting terrorism: helping rebuild an Army fractured and exhausted by a long and unpopular war.

For Moten, it's a familiar story, one he first heard as a West Point cadet in 1978. Then, the all-volunteer Army was struggling after Vietnam. “It's not a cheery message,” Moten says.

It's a message also echoed last week by Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat and 37-year veteran of the Marine Corps, as he called for troops to start leaving Iraq immediately.

“The future of our military is at risk,” Murtha said. “Our military and their families are stretched thin. Many say that the Army is broken. Some of our troops are on their third deployment. Recruitment is down, even as our military has lowered its standards.”

Although there's no agreed-upon standard to determine the war's overall effect on the military, even those who disagree with Murtha about an immediate withdrawal, including senators such as Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John McCain, R-Ariz., agree that the strains on a force fighting two wars at once are obvious.

A series of Pentagon and congressional reports show the bill for worn-out equipment is climbing, recruiting is suffering and stress has become a serious occupational hazard for U.S. troops.

Despite the problems, the Army isn't about to break, says retired general John Keane, the Army's vice chief of staff during the Iraq invasion. Morale remains high, and the part-time forces in the National Guard and Army Reserve have a “remarkable” commitment.

The war in Iraq is taking the biggest toll on military equipment since the Vietnam War, after which the Pentagon retooled its arsenal during the massive military buildup of the 1980s.

Fixing and replacing Army equipment alone could run from $60 billion to $100 billion, according to retired general Paul Kern, a senior consultant to the Cohen Group and the just-retired head of Army Materiel Command. The total cost for wear-and-tear on U.S. equipment is unclear because it is not known how long American troops will be needed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The part-time military has its own equipment problems caused by missions in Iraq and commitments at home. A recent Government Accountability Office report said more than 101,000 pieces of National Guard equipment, including items such as trucks, radios and night vision devices, have been sent overseas, mostly for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's left the Guard short of equipment it needs to respond more quickly to natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

The Guard's top general, Lt. Gen. Steven Blum, told USA TODAY in September that a shortage of communications gear hampered the hurricane recovery effort.

“We were underequipped,” Blum said. “We don't need tanks and attack helicopters and artillery, but we must have state-of-the-art radios.”
....
Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., said last week that the United States went into Iraq with too few troops and doesn't have sufficient forces to maintain current levels.

“We are grinding down our force structure to the point where we have no force structure,” Hagel said.

The Army is keeping most of its soldiers from retiring or leaving for civilian jobs. It has had to increase its bonuses to keep some highly skilled soldiers — truck drivers, military police, bomb disposal troops — from leaving. The war has made special operations troops so attractive to private contractors that the Pentagon is offering unprecedented bonuses of up to $150,000 to keep some enlisted commandos in the ranks.

“We're holding our breath in hopes we can steer through this,” says Col. Lance Betros, head of West Point's history department.

A crucial question is the commitment of units anticipating their third tours in Iraq. That, Betros says, is when the Vietnam-era Army began to fall apart.

The wars are taking a toll on military families, too: According to Army figures, divorce among officers jumped by 78% in 2004, though the numbers fell back in fiscal 2005. Divorces among enlisted soldiers increased by 28% in 2004 and have stayed at about the same level this year.

Army units are failing to meet Pentagon guidelines to spend two years at home for every year overseas. When the Army's 101st Airborne Division returned to Iraq this year, it was after an 18-month rest. The 3rd Infantry Division, which is also on its second tour, had a 15-month break.

Recruiting is at a crisis level for the Army. The active-duty Army and the part-time Army National Guard and Army Reserve all missed their 2005 recruiting goals by 8% to 20%. The three fell short by a combined 24,000 enlistees.

The Army met its recruiting goals in October, the first month of the 2006 fiscal year, but 12% of its recruits scored in the lowest category on military entrance tests on science, math and word knowledge, The Sun of Baltimore reported this month. That was triple the number — 4% — that the Army expects in 2006.

Why is CNN going wall to wall with this this local drowning story in Wisconsin.? There IS other news to report.

Eating the Seed Corn

Replant the American Dream

By David Ignatius

Friday, November 25, 2005; Page A37

When I began traveling as a foreign correspondent 25 years ago, I thought I understood what the face of evil looked like. There were governments that used torture against their enemies; they might call it "enhanced interrogation" or some other euphemism, but it was torture, and you just hoped, as an American, that you were never unlucky enough to be their prisoner. There were governments that "disappeared" people -- snatched them off the street and put them without charges in secret prisons where nobody could find them. There were countries that threatened journalists with physical harm.

As an American in those days, I felt that I traveled with a kind of white flag. We were different. The world knew it. We might have allies in the Middle East or Latin America who used such horrifying methods. But these were techniques that Americans would never, ever use -- or even joke about. That was our seed corn -- the fact that we were different.

The United States must begin to replenish this stock of support for America in the world. I would love to see the Bush administration take the lead, but its officials seem not to understand the problem. Even if they turned course, much of the world wouldn't believe them. Sadly, when President Bush eloquently evokes our values, the world seems to tune out. So this task falls instead to the American public. It's a job that involves traveling, sharing, living our values, encouraging our children to learn foreign languages and work and study abroad. In short, it means giving something back to the world.

We must stop behaving as if we are in a permanent state of war, in which any practice is justified by the exigencies of the moment. That's my biggest problem with Vice President Cheney's anything-goes jeremiads against terrorism. They suggest we will always be at war, and so it doesn't matter what the world thinks of our behavior. That's a dangerously mistaken view. We are in a long war but not an endless one, and we need to begin rebuilding the bridges to normal life.

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving each year, the Wall Street Journal republishes twin editorials that evoke America's special gifts: "The Desolate Wilderness" and "And the Fair Land." They describe the pilgrims' fears as they departed Europe in 1620, and the measureless bounty they and their descendants found in the new land. The spirit we celebrate on Thanksgiving Day is our most powerful national asset. We need to put America's riches back on the table and share them with the world, humbly and gratefully.

This is nothing new, Dave. The Ugly American wasn't invented by the Bush administration, but it might have been perfected by them.

...the wider tale

A New Orleans Bank Faces Mold, Ruins and Tough Choices

By GARY RIVLIN
Published: November 25, 2005

The visit was in part a field trip to inspect the moldy, stinking remains of bank branches hit hardest by flooding and looting. But mainly Mr. McDonald was on a scouting expedition. Here, in the predominantly black, eastern half of New Orleans, he was searching for signs of activity that might justify the reopening of some of Liberty's six closed New Orleans branches. The bank is operating only two of its eight New Orleans branches, both located in the western half of the city.

Mr. McDonald found little cause for optimism.

Nearly three months after the storm, reconstruction of the New Orleans economy is turning out to be slower and more complex than many people first thought. Basic services like electricity, water and sewer are still lacking in large swaths of the city, including the New Orleans East neighborhood, home to four of Liberty's eight New Orleans branches.

The New Orleans school district optimistically said it would open a small number of its schools by the start of November, but that deadline has passed without any action. Residents from low-lying areas await word on the city's plans for their neighborhoods. Meanwhile, toxic mold clings to everything it touches and permeates the air, sickening even occasional visitors.

Looted buildings have yet to be cleaned up and wrecked structures yet to be leveled because there are not enough workers to haul away the debris. And some businesses, including Liberty, are trapped in limbo as they try to negotiate settlements with insurance companies.

"Depending on the settlement, I'll clean up or I'll tear it down," Mr. McDonald said.

Liberty's slow progress returning to New Orleans, despite Mr. McDonald's best efforts, is the wider tale of the Crescent City. And just as Liberty is dependent on the local economy's rebirth, the city needs Liberty to write commercial loans and home mortgages to start the painstaking rebuilding progress. Mr. McDonald, who is chairman of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce and serves on the commission the mayor appointed to devise a rebuilding plan for the city, is never quite sure if he is helping his bank or his city, in large part because they are often one and the same.

"Anything we do to get people back in town helps my bank," he said. "Anything we can do to help New Orleans get back on its feet helps me." As Mr. McDonald drove the streets of the 7th Ward, a working-class community of bungalows where he grew up, he found only scant traces of life. There were almost no people on the streets for blocks on end, and virtually no cars traversed thoroughfares that would normally be crowded at midday. So instead he pointed at skeletons - businesses Liberty had helped to underwrite and that, since Katrina, have been boarded up, and homes the bank financed that are now sitting unoccupied.

"This here was my customer base, and it's just gone," he said. He shook his head, and his normally sleepy eyes bulged in disbelief. It is a phrase and look he would repeat a half-dozen times during a three-hour excursion, as if still trying to bend his brain around the immensity of it all.

Who will rebuild New Orleans for the working class?

Gulf Coast Crisis

I believe it was Faulkner who once claimed that the South, in this case we are talking about the Deep South, was the place the "time forgot." Sadly for the victims of Katrina, as Melanie pointed out earlier, everyone else has forgotten too.

In Miss., Time Now Stands Still
Recovery Is Stagnant In Post-Katrina Towns

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; Page A01

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. -- Three months ago, Katrina all but scoured this old beach town of 8,000 off the face of the Earth. To walk its streets today is to see acres of wreckage almost as untouched as the day the hurricane passed.

No new houses are framed out. No lots cleared. There is just devastation and a lingering stench and a tent city in which hundreds of residents huddle against the first chill of winter and wonder where they'll find the money to rebuild their lives.

Billy McDonald, the white-haired mayor whose house was reduced to a concrete slab by 55-foot-high waves, works out of a trailer. He doesn't expect the word "recovery" to roll off his lips for many months.

"Lots of folks don't have flood insurance; lots of folks don't have jobs; lots of folks don't have hope," McDonald said. "We're a hurting place."

This is the other land laid low by Katrina's fury. Like New Orleans to the west, hundreds of square miles of Mississippi coastland look little better than they did in early September, and many people here harbor anger that the federal government has fallen short and that the nation's attention has turned away. At least 200,000 Mississippians remain displaced, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is short at least 13,000 trailers to house them.

Fifty thousand homeowners lack federal flood insurance and cannot rebuild. The casinos, which employed 17,000 people, won't begin to reopen until next year, and the unemployment rate has quadrupled, now topping 23 percent in the coastal counties.

Half a dozen towns, Pass Christian among them, are borrowing millions of dollars to pay bills, and some officials are talking about surrendering charters and becoming wards of the state.

Remember that as all of this is happening to citizens that have no connections or help, Brownie has a new job that I promise pays more than you or I make. This is a great piece on what is going on right now and how one of the poorest states in the nation is trying to cope.

So are there any brave Democrats that want to tie together a Marshall Plan for the Gulf Coast (with transparent contracts) with a repeal of the Bush Tax Cuts? I think you could find a few good men to run on that in '06. Let's face it, this is what you get when you have a state government with no safety net, an incompetent group of hacks at the federal level, and the perfect storm.

A Peek into the Future

New Orleans Health Care Another Katrina Casualty
Loss of Hospitals And Professionals Slows Rebuilding

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005; Page A03

NEW ORLEANS -- Campaigning here in 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Sister Stanislaus, the revered nurse-administrator of Charity Hospital. Painting a dire portrait of a 1,800-bed facility teeming with 2,700 patients, the nun begged Roosevelt for money for a new public hospital. Three years later, thanks to $3.6 million from the federal government, Sister Stanislaus opened a new 20-story hospital, the most modern of its day.

It became one of the Unites States' most storied health care institutions, a place where Michael E. DeBakey -- pioneer of the first artificial heart -- trained, military surgeons learned how to treat gunshot wounds amid urban crime, and Mayor C. Ray Nagin, hip-hop star Master P and Democratic consultant Donna Brazile were born. But today, Charity is padlocked, another victim of Hurricane Katrina.

Some suggest the Charity complex -- including the main "Big Charity" hospital, its sister University Hospital, research labs and offices -- should be razed. Others demand it be rebuilt. And because any public hospital here -- new or old -- would be built with federal dollars, every U.S. taxpayer has financial a stake in the fight.

But the debate over Charity, once the linchpin in this city's health care system, has come to symbolize much more than a battle over a cherished relic. Providing medical care is one of the most daunting challenges for New Orleans as it rebuilds, and the choices made now will determine whether one of the nation's poorest cities can adequately care for its legions of uninsured.

Katrina damaged more than a dozen hospitals and uprooted thousands of private physicians. Now, nearly three months later, health care remains scarce. The last military medical unit in the city is gone, leaving only Touro and Children's hospitals partially reopened.

At the emergency room at Oschner Clinic Foundation in neighboring Jefferson Parish, visits are up 35 percent over this time a year ago, the number of uninsured patients has tripled and some wait as long as 10 hours for care, emergency chief Joseph Guarisco said.

But for most of the 25,000 clean-up workers -- many of them uninsured -- and an estimated 75,000 residents, health care is delivered in military tents that recently moved from a parking lot to the concrete floor of the convention center.

"Now my fear is the entire country will think it's appropriate to care for our patients in a tent," said Peter DeBlieux, director of resident training at Charity. "I don't think the rest of the country appreciates we are seeing people in a tent."

This portrait of healthcare in the Big Easy is a proxy for the rest of the recovery effort. It is also a stand-in for might happen in the event of a flu pandemic.

The hospital emergency departments will be lucky to have tents for triage in such an event.

Metrics

Iraq conflict still in early stages, report says

By Fiona Symon
Published: November 23 2005 10:50 | Last updated: November 23 2005 10:50

The war in Iraq is still in its early stages and US and British troops are likely to be bogged down in the conflict for decades, a report by the Oxford Research Group said on Wednesday.

The independent think tank’s report will make unwelcome reading for the British and US governments, both of which have indicated that they hope to begin reducing the number of troops in Iraq after the next Iraqi parliamentary elections in December.

Under growing pressure from domestic opponents of the war, both governments have suggested that the improved capabilities of the Iraqi security forces - now numbering 200,000 - may allow them to reduce their military commitment in Iraq next year.

Neither have not put forward any timetable for withdrawal, however, despite repeated calls for them to do so.

Condoleeza Rice, US secretary of state said this week she suspected US forces were “not going to be needed” in the same numbers “for all that much longer”.

But Tony Bair, UK prime minister, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that it was vital not to “back away” from Iraq before ensuring that the country’s democratic institutions were properly established.

“The terrorists and insurgents would take over unless the multinational force was there to safeguard the democratic process,’’ said Mr Blair.

Ensuring a friendly government in Baghdad is an essential part of US security policy, even if this requires a permanent US military presence, because long-term access to oil from the region is essential to the US, given its increasing dependence on imported oil, says the report.

If Iraq can no longer be controlled, and if Iran guards its independence, then the US risks finding its access to Gulf oil diminishing at precisely the same time as China seeks to make gains in the region.

The report by Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University provides a detailed month-by-month assessment of the developing insurgency for a year between May 2004 and April this year.

It points to the growing numbers of civilian casualties, as well as the failure to control the insurgency, even with the use of overwhelming firepower, as with the assault on Fallujah last November, and concludes that the war in Iraq has been a ‘gift’ for al-Qaeda.

And "mission accomplished" would be what, exactly?

Turning Tide

Debate over Iraq withdrawal could be key 2006 election issue

By Deirdre Shesgreen
POST-DISPATCH WASHINGTON BUREAU
11/24/2005

The passion that Murtha's proposal stoked is unlikely to cool soon. In fact, Murtha's proposal was just one in a series aimed at shifting direction in Iraq.

Among the others:

Democratic Rep. Ike Skelton of Lebanon, Mo., put forward a new formula in October for the drawdown of U.S. forces. Under his plan, for every three Iraqi security force brigades rated "fully capable," one American brigade would be redeployed.

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., laid out a plan this month for bringing 20,000 soldiers home after next month's elections in Iraq. It sets out benchmarks for further reductions and a transfer of power to Iraqis.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has urged a move in the other direction, calling for more soldiers in Iraq to stabilize that nation. McCain said in a speech this month, "Instead of drawing down, we should be ramping up, with more civil-military soldiers, translators and counterinsurgency operations teams."

This proposal got little attention when McCain made it. But it may well get a fuller airing now that Murtha has focused public attention on the issue. "He re-ignited the discussion," said Democratic Rep. Jerry Costello of Illinois.

In a speech Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., also called for a reduction in U.S. strength soon.

But he said, "At the same time, sufficient numbers of U.S. troops should be left in place to prevent Iraq from exploding into civil war, ethnic cleansing and a haven for terrorism. We must find the right balance."

Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., said, "The war is obviously going to continue being a priority, maybe the top priority."

No wonder. Constituents are clamoring for an exit plan, several lawmakers said. "What I am asked more than anything is, 'Is there a plan to withdraw?'" Costello said.

Maryland-based pollster Del Ali is conducting surveys in the politically important states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He said most voters want soldiers out of Iraq within a year.

"You're getting a stronger majority of people saying they want out within a year, and fewer and fewer saying, 'Stay until the job's done,'" he said.

Risk Communication

Let me make a few things plain: the experts I consult are deeply divided on the probability of a pandemic flu, but none of them think that the probability is zero. Some think it is highly likely in the next ten years, others think the possibility is remote. I think that the recent outbreaks of avian influenza in Southeast Asia deserve very careful monitoring, which they likely won't get. The surveillance networks in those countries are simply too weak.

SARS came out of the same part of th world and for the same reason.

If easily transmissable H2H flu breaks into the human population (and this will take a fairly substantial recombination/re-assortment of the current genome) we don't have a clue about what it will do. It is highly pathogenic in birds right now, causing a great deal of sickness and death in that population. Will it do the same in humans, as we think it has done in Asia? We don't know. The news media like to tout a 50% death rate in humans in Asia, but that's not good data. Chances are there are humans with asymptomatic (sub-clinical=no symptoms) cases in Asia, but we don't know about them because they aren't sick. We do know there are affected birds who also have no symptoms.

What is H5N1 going to do? We know that it is a highly pathogenetic strain (easy for birds to catch and it kills a lot of them) but what would this mean for a human to human transmissible form of this flu? We don't know.

What is prudent to do when we don't know? Be vigilant. By the time a pathogenic strain of human flu is detected and the news media get the word, it will be too late to protect yourself unless you have already done some preparation. Read the avian flu blogs, including but not limited to this one and Flu Wiki, but you won't miss much if you read those. Start building a disaster plan for your family. You should have done this already in the case of a household fire, but add to it, that thing you should have already written. We get hurricanes here, you in the west have earthquakes. How are you going to keep from getting separated from your kids? Have a plan, matches and candles.

Begin now building a stockpile of food and water that will keep you from having to do much commerce with the rest of the world (which might be shut down) for 6-8 weeks. In my part of the world, having a ten-day hurricane pantry is part of living. When Isabel went through two years ago, my power was up in 24 hours, but my near neighbors struggled for three weeks.

The words that went around the flu conference were "social distancing." If you don't want to be in the grocery with your neighbors and they don't want to see you there, what are you going to do? Have a plan or a supply of sugical garb. Have a stash of food and water, in case the supply line goes down. (If 30% of the electrical line workers are sick, how reliable do you think your power is going to be in a storm? A propane stove is cheap insurance, but only use it outside, the fumes are toxic. The propane is cheap, just don't store it in the house.)

Talk to the Mormons and the Seventh Day Adventists about storing food at home, they are pros at this and more than willing to come and talk to you about it. You might could get them to come and talk to your congregations!

How serious do I think this is? I defer to the experts who talk in statistics rather than the arithematic numbers most of us know. I've asked our resident mathematician to address the difference. The scientists range between batshit worried to utterly unconcerned. Me, I'm not stockpiling yet, but admit that it's a possibility. In the days to come, I'll bring you some of the scientist's voices and you are going to have to make up your own mind.

That is what is called "risk communication." I can bring you the range of possibilities, but you are going to have to decide what you are going to do.

Trusted Recipes

The Tried and True Classic

Turkey Mornay on Broccoli

Ingredients
1 package (10 ounce) frozen broccoli spears
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1 cup poultry broth
1/2 cup half and half (milk and cream)
1/2 cup dry white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups chopped or sliced turkey
1 cup chopped or sliced ham
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup ground nut meats

Instructions
Cook broccoli until barely tender; drain. Place in 1-1/2 quart baking dish; cover with turkey and ham.

To make mornay sauce, melt butter and stir in flour in saucepan; add broth and half and half and cook until thick and smooth, stirring constantly. Stir in wine, salt and pepper and Worcestershire. Pour over turkey and ham.

Mix Parmesan cheese, crumbs and ground nut meats and sprinkle over the top; bake in 350-degree F. oven until mixture bubbles. This Turkey Mornay is nice baked and served in individual baking dishes, as well.

If you were smart, you made poultry broth base from the giblets while the bird was cooking today, so you've got a couple of pastic containers of it in the freezer. This recipe is a classic for a reason: it is very good. Serve your turkey mornay with white rice and the leftover veggies from today. Drizzle a little lemon-butter sauce over the reheated asparagus, carrots or broccoli. Use an herb seasoning like Spike in place of salt, it will perk them right up. For the non-garlic crowd, a splash of balsamic vinaigar in the lemon butter is a nice hit of flavor. A "splash" in a sauce this small is about a quarter teaspoon, for those of you who measure.

Blegging

If you knew how many hours a day I spent deleting porn and trackback spam you'd be shocked. You'd probably also be shocked at how much money it costs me to do this: we'll be moving to a new platform soon and that costs money, but it will eliminate the spammers, at least for a while. The hosting service I use demands a payment from me before I can make Bump a live website. I can't make demands of you for reading it however.

Duncan Black makes a ton of money on a blogger website which costs him nothing. I'm not situated that way. I spend 12-20 hours a day, blogging for you, and I wonder if you could give something back. I'm one of the lunatics who has taken up blogging for a full-time profession. It seemed to me you wanted it.

Can you help a little this holiday season? If you can, the Paypal link up at the top right takes both checks and credit cards. My ads pay my hosting fees but not my groceries or my rent. I can really use whatever you can send. I haven't seen a doctor in more than five years (no insurance) and, at my age, that gets a little spooky. I realize that there are many demands on your resources at this time of the year, and that I can't offer you a deduction on your taxes (yet, I'm working on a 501(c)3 application right now under one of my other websites) right now. That will be repaired in coming months. Whatever you can do to make sure the lights stay turned on here this holiday season will be much appreciated.

The grant which has been paying my ISP charges runs out next month and I'd hate to have to go back to dial-up, with the volume of work I do, it would slow me down enormously.

Thanks for all you do and for your help.

Melanie

Giving Thanks

I've just returned from an incredible spread provided by my brother and his wife. Leigh knocked himself this year; his "big deal" holiday dinners are always excellent, but this was another level. I came home with a big bag of leftovers, and turkey and dressing and gravy are all better on the second day. I have a busy one tomorrow, so it is nice to have a fridge full of food that's ready to eat. I'm real glad the other guests cancelled. Leigh had a 19.5 pound turkey expecting a full house. Now, a lot of that is in my fridge and he's going to have some very lovely turkey and rice soup for his hardworking staff at their store as they begin the holiday shopping season, where everyone on staff will be knocking themselves out. If Leigh can get the holiday pictures we took today up on their site, I'll give him a link. You can meet Leigh and Anne and their hardworking staff here. I'll be meeting some of them the next time I'm in the store and at Thanksgiving dinner next year. If you live in the Baltimore-Washington region, take an excursion to Pasadena, Maryland, which you can easily combine with a lunch or dinner trip to Annapolis (which has some very interesting restaurants) just to take a look at the holiday windows of their store. Your children will love them (go after dark, when the lights are on.) Even if you aren't at all interested in the things they sell, go in and take a look at the displays, themed to different aspects of the winter holidays. They are great fun to see, and you can give whichever dog is on duty a friendly pat on the head. Sadie and Darby are both nutso golden retrievers and two of the most outgoing dogs I've ever met (and that's saying something about goldens, if you know the breed.) Hide your kleenex, the dogs will steal it.

We played with the very silly dogs, the even sillier new cat, Willy, and ate and ate and ate. It was a very cold, windy day here in the Mid-atlantic, so Anne and I eschewed a post-dinner walk with the dogs.

I've learned to avoid that miserable drive up I-95, which is a royal pain in the a** everywhere it exists on the East Coast by taking Amtrak. Leigh and Anne live near the station at BWI airport and the trip from DC to BWI takes less time than the cab ride to Union Station. The upshot is that I arrive at their house unfrazzled from a frightening drive, and arrive back home with warm feelings from the day rather than nightmares from the trip home, dodging the 18-wheelers going 90 miles an hour (that is not an exaggeration.) The traffic is now so bad in the region (and getting worse) that I use public transit everywhere it is available.

The Washington Beltway was a parking lot for much of the day yesterday because of a large truck fire. These kinds of things happen on a regular-enough basis for traffic in the entire area to be snarled for hours. I use surface streets in preference to the interstates because the surface streets at least move. And I use public transit whenever I can. Since my commute to work in the morning is down the stairs, a tank of gas lasts me a long time.

My brother and sister-in-law said the early part of this Christmas shopping season has started well for them, after several money losing years, and both of them have big improvements with their health this year, after many years of long, chronic and debilitating problems. I'm glad to see things going so well for them, at long last. Self-employed people in the retail trade work long hours for very little financial reward and they are no exception. I'm proud of the work they do and the amount of care they put into it. They don't have an internet mail order operation yet, but they are working on it. They are one of the premiere sellers of Yankee Candles in the nation, outpacing even Yankee's own stores. I have a housefull of them, I like good stinky things in my house. "Home for the Holidays" is the candle scent for December and it is my favorite, putting me in the mood for Christmas. With a fire in the fireplace, a couple of Yankee Candles scenting the house, I'm ready to start cooking. But first I need to order more wood.

This was a very good day, but the cats are very suspicious of the dogs they smell on my hands. Very suspicious.

I hope you all had a Thanksgiving holiday which was at least as good as mine. For the first time in 5 years, I'm looking forward to Christmas. I think I'm going to go snitch a piece of that turkey....

Thanksgiving Open Thread

I'm away for the rest of the day, celebrating the holiday with my family. I hope you are doing likewise. Step away from the computer and go eat something.

The guest posters will be around a bit, in between their own dinners, family and friends. I'll be back late tonight, but tomorrow will be taken up with job and press interviews (check the National Journal and USA Today the week of December 8.) The guest posters will be helping me fill in the news during a very busy weekend.

My thoughts and thanks go out to the guest posters and to you for another incredible year in the blogosphere. You, the readers and commentors, are what makes blogging worthwhile. Your thoughts on the day, or anything else, can go in comments below. This is an open thread.

Missing the Point

The Katrina Housing Debacle

Published: November 24, 2005

The Bush administration's mishandling of the Katrina housing crisis is shaping up as an epic policy failure. Nearly three months after more than half a million people were displaced by the hurricane, most are still at loose ends in provisional housing - many in isolated trailer parks. The government has no apparent plan for getting them settled in places where they might find jobs and schools.

The federal government has meanwhile been less than helpful to cities like Houston, which has worked feverishly to find housing for the tens of thousands of survivors who landed on its doorstep. Like other cities, Houston has been whiplashed by confusing federal directives. Recently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced that it would stop paying hotel bills on Dec. 1. Then it extended the deadline to Jan. 7 for those in the states with the highest concentrations of evacuees and to Dec. 15 for thousands of people in the other states.

The mayor of Houston, which has struggled to house about 80,000 evacuees, was rightly outraged by the first deadline. With about 19,000 people still in hotels and motels at the time of the first announcement, the city could not hope to meet the deadline. And FEMA had made the task of finding apartments all the more difficult by saying it wanted conditional leases that could be changed after three months. Landlords would understandably reject this option, given that many are already worried that they might not get paid for the evacuees they have already accepted as tenants.

No one city should have been asked to absorb so many displaced people. The administration could have easily avoided that by issuing Section 8 housing vouchers through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The survivors would have been filtered through HUD's extensive locator system, which has a track record of directing people to decent and affordable housing all over the country.

Bushco so hates government that it can't be bothered to notice what government appropriately does well. Calling the Bushies incompetant does them too much credit.

Who Pays for Predictable Disasters?

Hurricane helper
# FEMA's insurance policies promote repeated Katrina-style disasters.

By David Helvarg, president of the Blue Frontier Campaign (bluefront.org), and author of "Blue Frontier -- Dispatches from America's Ocean Wilderness" and "50 Ways to Save the Ocean."

THE FEDERAL Emergency Management Agency said last week that it has run out of money to pay insurance claims from this year's hurricanes. Not counting Wilma, the claims top $22 billion. So you'd think the troubled agency would be eager to reduce future disaster damage.

Apparently not. By cavalierly shoveling taxpayer money into insurance for development in high-risk coastal areas — areas the private insurance industry has long since abandoned — the agency is assuring that future hurricanes again do the sort of damage Katrina inflicted on the Gulf Coast. Meanwhile, FEMA's willingness to insure property in places that are hurricane magnets is driving a coastal development boom that is destroying the fragile dunes, wetlands and marshes that act as the nurseries, filters and storm barriers of our living seas.

In the 1980s, 17 of the nation's 20 fastest-growing counties were coastal. Towns such as Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., Dauphin Island and Gulfshores, Ala., and North Captiva, Fla., exploded with floating casinos, condos, stilt homes, beach mansions, marinas and shopping malls just waiting to be knocked down when hurricanes began increasing in intensity in the 1990s.

Dauphin Island, Ala., reminds me of Key West when I was a kid: a relaxed place without a lot of commercial distractions from the magic of its open sky and rainbow-streaked waters.

I first visited there five years ago to interview Dr. George Crozier, director of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Fourteen miles long by 1.5 miles at its widest, with about 2,000 winter residents and as many as 15,000 summer visitors, Dauphin Island has been repeatedly hit and reshaped by tropical hurricanes, including Frederick in 1979, Danny in 1997, George in 1998, Ivan in 2004 and Dennis, Katrina and Wilma in 2005.

From the water, the island's narrow west end looks like a forest of wooden stilts atop which several hundred houses have been temporarily secured. The storm-eroded sand has retreated under their pilings, and you could fish off the decks of many of them. After Hurricane George, FEMA spent millions of tax dollars to protect the single road to the area, but without requiring any additional public access to what's left of the beach.

In 2004, Hurricane Ivan delivered Dauphin a glancing blow, destroying 50 west-end homes and badly damaging another 100, leaving a rubble of wooden debris, grounded boats and two new ocean channels in its wake. Yet again, FEMA returned to help vacation-rental developers rebuild in harm's way.

On this visit to Dauphin, after Hurricane Katrina, there are more than 200 west-end homes destroyed (many of whose owners are collecting their FEMA insurance checks from last year), and also a new visitor to the area: the massive oil rig Ocean Warwick, grounded in the surf. Crozier and I pass through a police roadblock and hike down the beach amid an apocalyptic scene of broken and vanished stilt houses, downed power lines, flooded roads, buried cars and shallow quicksand. A $1.1-million protective sand berm built by FEMA after last year's hurricane has also vanished into the sea.

"The rush to rebuild is understandable. It's basic human sympathy," Crozier says, "but we have to build in a different way."

In 1968, FEMA, worried about the disaster risks faced by new beachfront residents, came up with a plan. If homeowners met certain basic safety standards in beachfront construction (like putting houses on stilts), they would qualify for a newly created National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA convinced Congress that this would reduce individual risk while shifting the burden of hurricane disaster relief onto policyholders. It would guarantee a large insurance pool by making the rates so inexpensive that lots of people would buy the policies.

This idea worked for a while — about as long as a historic lull in Atlantic hurricane activity persisted through the 1970s and 1980s. But since the early 1990s, this natural 25- to 30-year cycle has both intensified and — possibly — become supercharged by fossil fuel-fired climate disruption that's heated the world's oceans and raised sea levels more than a foot. As soon as hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, George, Fran, Floyd, Isabel, Charley, Frances, Ivan, Jeanne, Dennis, Katrina and Rita started coming ashore, the program turned into a money loser and the largest financial exposure the federal government now faces. FEMA had insured more than $763 billion worth of property against flooding, with more than half of that in the Gulf region (42% in low-lying, hurricane-prone Florida).

Until the government started selling flood insurance, it was almost impossible to insure coastal floodplain property against the inevitability of storm surge. As a result, most bankers refused to issue mortgages, so beachfront homeowners had to pay cash and tended not to build bigger than they could afford to lose. But once the feds started offering insurance, real estate developers found mortgage bankers more than willing to lend them money, setting off a tsunami of new coastal construction.

Federal flood insurance covers up to $250,000 for property damage to homes and $500,000 for businesses. Storm-battered beach communities are also eligible for low-interest small-business loans; federally funded reconstruction of highways, roads and bridges (like the $32-million causeway linking Dauphin Island to the mainland) and beach replenishment courtesy of the Army Corps of Engineers.

"The problem is the government won't operate like a business. It won't cancel policies or increase premiums when a house is destroyed like a real company would," complained Steve Ellis, a maritime specialist with the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Erosion and sea-level rise aren't even factored into their rates." Yet a report published by FEMA predicts that one out of four U.S. homes built within 500 feet of the ocean will be destroyed in the next 45 years by erosion and storm surge.

This is about risk. The folks who want to build on the beautiful Gulf coast are asking us to insure their investment. Is that right? There needs to be a national conversation about this. The same question could be asked about the barrier island developments along the entire East Coast, all of which are in the hurricane zone.

Selective Vision

Priests Citing New Problem in Gay Policy

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: November 24, 2005

A day after the disclosure of a new Vatican directive that deters most gay men from joining the priesthood, some priests say they are shocked by one easily overlooked clause. It says that spiritual directors and confessors in seminaries "have the duty to dissuade" any candidates "who show deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from joining the priesthood.

These priests said this would turn the confessional and spiritual counseling sessions, which seminarians previously regarded as private and supportive meetings, into a tool for weeding gay men out of seminaries.

"The relationship between a seminarian and his confessor or his spiritual director should not be about enforcing church documents, but to serve as spiritual guides," said the Rev. Michael Herman, a priest in the Archdiocese of Chicago who has recently publicly identified himself as gay in order to speak out against the Vatican's action.

"They've gone so far as to say your confessor's and spiritual adviser's role is to talk you out of" becoming a priest, Father Herman said.

His reaction to the document was echoed by other priests and Roman Catholic organizations, who said that the church's decree was discriminatory and hurtful to faithful chaste gay priests and would only exacerbate an already dire shortage of Catholic clergymen.

But that was only one reaction to a Vatican directive that church experts say is intentionally sprinkled with undefined terms and left open to interpretation.

Some priests and church officials welcomed the document as a corrective to what they call a gay subculture in some seminaries. Others said it merely restated an existing policy and would have far less impact than advocates of gay priests and their opponents have claimed.

"There is nothing in this document that would require a change in the current practice," said the Rev. James Bretzke, chairman of theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco.

Father Bretzke said it had long been true that some American bishops and superiors who lead religious orders would automatically disqualify candidates for the priesthood who claimed a gay orientation, while other bishops would consider them.

"Unless you get a critical mass of bishops and religious superiors who say, Now we can't admit any gay men, I don't think it's going to have any discernible effect," Father Bretzke said. "There are lots of excellent gay priests and seminarians, and we have a priest shortage. We're not exactly in a buyer's market here. If you're not going to ordain gay men, and not going to ordain married men, and not going to ordain women, well then who's left? It's not exactly a big pool."

Estimates of the percentage of priests who are gay have varied from as low as 10 percent to as high as 60 percent. The directive applies only to seminarians, not to priests.

I want to see strong and healthy faith communities, of whatever stripe, all over our country. This isn't the way you get there. I'm a graduate of an RC seminary. I'll guess that better than half of the ordination candidates were gay. If RC wants to turn itself into a tiny denomination, this is one of the ways you get there.

One of the debates inside RC right now is about whether it should be a "big tent" church, or a smaller and purer one. It seems like the Vatican is headed in the latter direction.

While the Vatican is fixated on gay men, I don't notice it saying anything about polygamy and its priests in developing nations.

It seems to me that Rome might do better by joining with other denominations and faiths to start enquiring about what should be done about the shortage of trained, ordained parish/congregational leadership. The number of people willing to go into professional ministry shrinks every year. No denominational body has been willing to look at that. Maybe it is time.

Time for a Plan

As usual, Harold Meyerson hits the nail on the head.

Exit Strategy in Search of a Party

By Harold Meyerson

Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Page A19

George W. Bush has precious little to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and nothing whatever when it comes to his adversaries. Beset at every turn, the president and his men have been pining for some patsies, some loudmouth liberals, some effete elitists whom they can demonize in the best traditions of the party of Richard Nixon.

Instead, look who's come after them in the past half-year: Cindy Sheehan, whose down-the-line dovishness is more than offset by her standing as the mother of a soldier killed in Bush's war; Patrick Fitzgerald, the straight-arrow boy prosecutor out of New York's Irish working class; and now John Murtha, the toughest and most decorated Marine in the House, who represents a Pennsylvania district straight out of "The Deer Hunter."

Not a Michael Moore in the bunch. Nothing there for the Roves and the Reeds and the Swift Boat slanderers to work with.

Not for lack of trying. For the past two weeks, with his control of Congress in jeopardy, the president has been saying that those who question his manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the war are threatening our guys on the ground in Iraq. It's a time-honored tactic that goes back to Nixon: conflate criticism of the war with contempt for our troops and our nation.

Truth be told, Nixon had a lot to work with. The war in Vietnam was so bloody and unending, and the New Left so increasingly unhinged, that demonstrations turned violent and patriotism among many of the protesters seemed in short supply. The Yippies and the Panthers were all over the news. For an accomplished demagogue such as Nixon, who'd won his first elections by labeling his anticommunist liberal opponents as "commie symps," the rest was child's play. In short order he and his vice president were mushing together the measured antiwar sentiment of congressional Democrats with the boiling rage in the streets. Indeed, Nixon didn't so much argue the merits of staying the course in Vietnam -- nobody wanted to do that -- as inflame the sentiments of his "silent majority" against war protesters and the Democrats who opposed the war, too.

As political strategy, it was a smashing success, and the mere thought of it must today evoke a wrenching nostalgia in the political boiler room we call the White House. Where are the Yippies of yesteryear? Even as the American people turn decisively against the war in Iraq, war protests are few and well-behaved. Most congressional Democrats, and all their leaders, apparently have taken a vow of silence rather than offer an alternative plan for Iraq. And when one of them finally does pipe up, it's the unassailable Jack Murtha.
....
And so, on the most urgent question confronting America today, we have reached an absurd and exquisite equipoise. The Republicans cannot credibly defend the war; the Democrats cannot quite bring themselves to call for its end. And the war goes on.

The public is against the war, why can't the clueless Dems get behind the public. They'd own the issue if they did.

Turning Back the Clock

Alito's record has feminists ready for battle

By BOB EGELKO
San Francisco Chronicle
23-NOV-05

From abortion to sex discrimination to family leave, some of Samuel Alito's most important rulings during 15 years on the federal bench have involved issues related to women, and some of the strongest opposition to his Supreme Court nomination comes from women's-rights groups.

Alito's record on these issues is not uniformly conservative. He has voted to overturn some abortion restrictions, and he wrote a groundbreaking decision in 1993 that opened the door to political asylum for women fleeing persecution in their home countries.

But his opinions have more typically reached conclusions that dismayed feminist groups _ giving states more leeway to limit abortions, making it harder for discrimination plaintiffs to get to trial, and arguing for restraints on federal regulatory power, the cornerstone of civil-rights laws.

Alito's opponents say those decisions show that the judge maintains the attitudes he expressed as a government lawyer in a newly disclosed 1985 job-application letter, in which he described himself as a committed conservative who was proud of helping the Reagan administration argue against a constitutional right to abortion.

On women's issues, Alito's critics say, his record stands in marked contrast to the record of the justice he would replace, Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman ever appointed to the court.

"Justice O'Connor was the fifth vote in many 5-4 decisions that protected women's fundamental rights and freedoms," said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the nonprofit National Women's Law Center. "In nominating Judge Alito, President Bush has chosen someone who threatens the very existence of core legal rights that Americans, especially women, have relied on for decades."

"We are dismayed by Judge Alito's hostility to women's rights," said Susan Scanlan, chair of the National Council of Women's Organizations, which counts 200 feminist-oriented groups as members.

I had lunch today with someone who commented how much progress women have made in his lifetime. It seems that such progress is pretty fragile stuff with wingnuts like Alito a step away from the Supreme Court.

My Pet Goat

Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel

By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President's Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.

The September 21, 2001, briefing was prepared at the request of the president, who was eager in the days following the terrorist attacks to learn all that he could about any possible connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Much of the contents of the September 21 PDB were later incorporated, albeit in a slightly different form, into a lengthier CIA analysis examining not only Al Qaeda's contacts with Iraq, but also Iraq's support for international terrorism. Although the CIA found scant evidence of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda, the agency reported that it had long since established that Iraq had previously supported the notorious Abu Nidal terrorist organization, and had provided tens of millions of dollars and logistical support to Palestinian groups, including payments to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.

The highly classified CIA assessment was distributed to President Bush, Vice President Cheney, the president's national security adviser and deputy national security adviser, the secretaries and undersecretaries of State and Defense, and various other senior Bush administration policy makers, according to government records.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has asked the White House for the CIA assessment, the PDB of September 21, 2001, and dozens of other PDBs as part of the committee's ongoing investigation into whether the Bush administration misrepresented intelligence information in the run-up to war with Iraq. The Bush administration has refused to turn over these documents.

Indeed, the existence of the September 21 PDB was not disclosed to the Intelligence Committee until the summer of 2004, according to congressional sources. Both Republicans and Democrats requested then that it be turned over. The administration has refused to provide it, even on a classified basis, and won't say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.

On November 18, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said he planned to attach an amendment to the fiscal 2006 intelligence authorization bill that would require the Bush administration to give the Senate and House intelligence committees copies of PDBs for a three-year period. After Democrats and Republicans were unable to agree on language for the amendment, Kennedy said he would delay final action on the matter until Congress returns in December.

Some of us knew Bush was lying from the beginning. We're glad to have the rest of you on board now.

Leaving in Droves

Coalition Members Look for an Exit

By Al Kamen

Wednesday, November 23, 2005; Page A17

President Bush has vowed not to "cut and run" in Iraq until the mission is accomplished and the Iraqi army can stand up. No need to even discuss a large drawdown next year of the kind the weak-kneed Democrats are demanding.

But a number of countries in the 22,000-strong Coalition of the Willing appear ready to "snip-and-slide" out of Iraq in the next few months with more going by the end of next year, according to news reports from coalition member countries.

For example, European media last week were reporting that the British, with 8,500 troops in Iraq, by far the largest allied contingent, were completing exit plans for a phased withdrawal starting as early as the middle of 2006.

Prime Minister Tony Blair dutifully repeated the "job is done" mantra but said that "it's entirely reasonable to talk about the possibility of withdrawal of troops next year." (We knew Blair would drift off-message one of these days.) Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Vice President Adel Abdul Madi were in London saying a 2006 timetable sounds about right.

The South Koreans, who have the next-highest number of troops, 3,200, are clearly in drawdown mode. Bush administration officials seemed surprised last week when South Korea's defense minister announced 1,000 troops would be withdrawn soon, even though this was leaked by a "senior government official" to the Korea Times on Oct. 28. More withdrawals may come next year, the Yonhap News Agency reported Nov. 5, adding that President Roh Moo Hyun "has linked the troop contribution to Seoul's efforts to enlist Washington's help in dealing with North Korea."

The fourth-largest deployment, Italy's 3,000 troops, is starting to withdraw in groups of 300 likely in the first half of 2006, according to a Nov. 12 Associated Press report.

The Rzeczpospolita daily, citing army sources, reported that Poland, the fifth-largest coalition member, would cut its 1,500 troops by more than a third starting in February.

Ukraine's 900 troops, the sixth-largest group, could be leaving by the end of this year, according to a Nov. 10 Agence France-Presse report, though Estonia's reportedly keeping its 39-member contingent until the end of next year. Bulgaria, according to a report carried by the Bulgarian news agency BGNES, will be withdrawing about 400 to 450 troops after the Dec. 15 Iraqi elections.

Earlier this month the Australian, quoting the Yomiuri Shimbun, reported that the 500 noncombatant Japanese soldiers in southern Iraq could start leaving in May, which would clear the way for the departure of the Australian troops guarding them. The Australian reported that, with the training of two Iraqi army battalions due to be complete by May, Australia was considering a mid-2006 pullout for its 450-strong force in the Al Muthanna district.

Georgia, with about 850 troops in Iraq -- including 550 providing security for the U.N. mission in Baghdad -- is standing firm, and AFP reported Romania's 730 troops are also staying. Denmark has 530 troops near Basra under British command and, we were told yesterday, the Danes are "staying the course" through next year.

Finally, El Salvador, with 380 troops, is awaiting a decision by President Elias Antonio Saca about future deployments, La Prensa reported Nov. 18. That decision surely will have nothing to do with whether the Bush administration renews a grant of Temporary Protected Status for 250,000 Salvadorans working in this country who could otherwise be deported.

The remaining coalition members have barely more than 1,000 troops in Iraq total. So if news reports on the top dozen or so prove accurate, the 22,000 coalition forces could be reduced by 25 percent or more by the end of 2006. If the British draw down, it might be reduced by half or more.

The others seem to have figured out that "mission accomplished" is a pretty open-ended thing and they don't want to hang around to find out what it is. The US public seem to have figured that out, tool.

Do Something!

This is a follow-up to yesterday's NYT story. Larry Altman is an MD and should know better.

C.D.C. Proposes New Rules in Effort to Prevent Disease Outbreak

By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN
Published: November 23, 2005

Federal officials yesterday proposed the first significant changes in quarantine rules in 25 years in an effort to broaden the definition of reportable illnesses, to centralize their reporting to the federal government and to require the airline and shipping industries to keep passenger manifests electronically for 60 days.

The proposals would also clarify the appeals process for people subjected to quarantines to allow for administrative due process and give health officials explicit authority to offer vaccination, drugs and other appropriate means of prevention on a voluntary basis to those in quarantine.

The proposals could cost the beleaguered airline industry hundreds of millions of dollars, officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The officials are inviting public comment on the proposals, which are to be published in the Federal Register on Nov. 30, they told reporters in a telephone news conference.

The proposals are part of a broader Bush administration plan to improve the response to current and potential communicable disease threats that may arise anywhere in the world.

If adopted, the new regulations "will allow the C.D.C. to move more swiftly" when it needs to control outbreaks, said Dr. Martin Cetron, who directs the agency's division of global migration and quarantine.

The outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003 underscored how fast a disease could spread through the world and the need to modernize and strengthen quarantine measures by pointing out gaps in health workers' ability to respond quickly and effectively, Dr. Cetron said.

As the C.D.C. joined with cooperative airlines to meet flights and later collect information about passengers who had contact with others who developed SARS, the epidemiologists had to compile and process by hand data collected from flight manifests, customs declarations and other sources.

But manifests contained only the name and seat number; customs declarations were illegible, and when readable, the names did not match those on the manifests.

"The time required to track passengers was routinely longer than the incubation period," which was two to 10 days for SARS, Dr. Cetron said.

"That was really quite shocking," Dr. Cetron said.

One proposed change would require airline and ship manifests to be kept electronically for 60 days and made available to the C.D.C. within 12 hours when ill passengers arrive on international and domestic flights. The proposed changes include provisions for maintaining confidentiality and privacy of health information.

"When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."

This is a another panic reaction to pandemic flu (which is not here yet, and may never be.) One more time: flu sufferers are likely to be asymptomatic for 24-48 hours after infection and quarantine will never catch them or stop the spread of disease. Those who are actively sick will likely be too debilitated to do much traveling. Promulgating ridiculous regulations that don't match the facts hardly makes the government more credible.

Chavez & Oil

Venezuela gives US cheap oil deal

Officials from Venezuela and Massachusetts have signed a deal to provide cheap heating oil to low-income homes in the US state.

The fuel will be sold at about 40% below market prices to thousands of homes over the winter months.

Local congressman William Delahunt described the deal as "an expression of humanitarianism at its very best".

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is one of the Bush administration's biggest adversaries in Latin America.

He first announced his plan to provide cheap heating oil directly to lower-income Americans while visiting Cuba in August.

The deal involves shipping some 45m litres of heating oil from Venezuela to Massachusetts at a discounted rate via Citgo Petroleum, a US-based subsidiary of the Venezuelan state-owned oil company.

What does it say about a failed energy policy that we have to turn to foreign leaders to make sure that there is affordable fuel for our citizens? And what does it say about our standing in the world that an "enemy" can make such an offer?

Declaring Victory in Defeat

I don't normally go for editorials, but I think the title of this one from the Washington Post says it all.

Three Years Late

THREE AND A half years after his arrest, the government has finally brought criminal charges against Jose Padilla. It's about time. Ever since President Bush ordered Mr. Padilla yanked out of the criminal justice system, his case has represented needless and self-defeating excess in the legal war on terrorism. Restoring him from military custody to federal court, therefore, is a big step forward. Instead of holding an American citizen in a peculiar legal limbo, the government is again doing something it does every day: prosecuting an alleged bad guy for breaking the law.

The charges do not repeat the administration's initial allegation that the former Chicago gang member, who has been held since May 2002 as an enemy combatant, was an al Qaeda operative plotting a radiological "dirty bomb" attack in Washington. Nor does the government charge-- as it later alleged -- that Mr. Padilla was planning to blow up apartment buildings using natural gas. Because of Mr. Padilla's long detention and interrogation without access to his lawyers, proving any charges related to these underlying allegations -- even if they are true -- would probably require the use of evidence that any court would deem tainted. Instead, the Justice Department has charged him with supporting terrorism and more general participation in a conspiracy to kill and maim overseas -- charges that officials apparently believe that they can prove without reference to what Mr. Padilla has told his military interrogators. These charges are less spectacular, but they are still serious.

The rest of the editorial misses the boat. If the Bush Administration really believed that it had a case against Padilla, chances are they would have gone ahead with it right away. The public relations value of such a trail would have been tremendous especially if the government had a solid case against him.

Instead we have them running with their tails between their legs because SCOTUS, even as far to the right as it is, was going to hammer them on it.

More importantly, what recourse does Padilla have to get those 3 years back (remember, innocent until proven guilty)? I'm no lawyer but I would think that he has grounds for at least a lawsuit against the government but that can't make up for how he's been treated. And worse, what type of precedent is established if WE THE PEOPLE let the government get away with this action without some sort of punishment?

Plan Flu and Radical Silliness

This is desperately silly.

At Entry Points, on the Lookout for Symptoms

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: November 22, 2005

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21 - Expanding an old weapon in the struggle against infectious disease, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has opened 10 new quarantine stations at major ports of entry in the past 18 months and plans to add several more in the coming year.

Ellen DeMott, a public health officer, at work at the quarantine station at Kennedy Airport in New York.

The United States now has medical officers at 17 airports and at the busy border crossing in El Paso to screen people entering the country for communicable diseases. They are particularly alert for travelers showing symptoms of the deadly avian influenza virus that has spread across Asia and into Europe.

The avian flu strain, known as H5N1, has forced the slaughter of millions of chickens and other fowl and has caused 67 human deaths as of late last week, according to the World Health Organization. The virus, while affecting huge numbers of birds, is not yet efficiently transmitted among people. But medical authorities fear that the virus could mutate into a lethal human flu strain and touch off a global pandemic that could kill millions.

Dr. William R. Mac Kenzie, the medical officer at the C.D.C. quarantine station at Los Angeles International Airport, said things were quiet in his small office. He receives one or two reports a week from international airlines reporting passengers with flu-like symptoms. Those travelers are examined and asked about where they had traveled and whether they had contact with live birds.

No such cases have arisen, Dr. Mac Kenzie said, but if one did, the passenger would not be detained but referred to a local hospital. Because there are few cases of human-to-human infection, the remaining passengers on the aircraft would not be quarantined, he said.

What Dr. Mac Kenzie fails to tell the NYT is that it is likely that a H5N1 patient will be asymptomatic for the first 24-48 hours of her infection, all the while actively shedding infection. You can't quarantine people who don't look sick. This entire plan is a mistake. It'll just shed more disease rather than prevent it.

A Taxing Situation

Court rules state school finance system unconstitutional

By JANET ELLIOTT and CLAY ROBISON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
November 22, 2005

AUSTIN — The Texas Supreme Court today struck down a key part of the state's public school funding system and gave the Legislature until June 1 to correct the problem.

The ruling, which partly upholds and partly reverses a state district court decision issued last year, means Gov. Rick Perry will have to call still another special session of the Legislature to tackle the problem.

Most likely, the session will be held after the March party primaries, when he and many lawmakers will be on the ballot in contested elections.

Lawmakers failed to agree on a new funding plan during this year's regular session and two special sessions.

The high court held 7-1 that the $1.50 per $100 valuation cap on local school maintenance taxes amounts to an unconstitutional statewide property tax because many school districts are at or near the limit.

In the majority opinion, Justice Nathan Hecht noted that the Supreme Court, in a previous school finance case, ruled that an "ad valorem (property) tax is a state tax ...when the state so completely controls the levy, assessment and disbursement of revenue, either directly or indirectly, that the authority employed (by local districts) is without meaningful discretion."

The court noted findings by state District Judge John Dietz, after a trial in Austin last year, that districts statewide are spending more than 97 percent of the revenue that would be available if every district taxed at maximum rates, up from 83 percent in 1993-94.

It also noted that only about one-third of the districts with about a fifth of the student population exceed minimum accreditation standards, a marked declined from 2001, when more than 60 percent of districts exceeded the minimum standards.

The high court's ruling was less far-reaching that Dietz's decision. Dietz also had held the school funding system inadequate and cited a widening inequality between wealthy and poor districts.

The all-Republican Supreme Court instead said the school funding system does not yet violate the constitutional requirement that it provide for a "general diffusion of knowledge."

Dietz, a Democrat declared the school funding system unconstitutional in September 2004. He set an Oct. 1, 2005 deadline for the Legislature to change the law, but that deadline was stayed by the Supreme Court's consideration of the state's appeal.

Dietz ruled that the system is inadequate to meet the high standards that lawmakers have set for students. He cited evidence of a widening gap in educational achievement between "the haves and the have nots" and said Texas faces a bleak future if it fails to spend more on public education.

"Are we prepared for a future in Texas that is dismally poor, needy and ignorant?" asked Dietz in September 2004 when he announced his ruling. "The answer, 'I think not.'"

For the sake of my wife's home state, I would hope not, but I learned a long time ago to not underestimate the power of a politican to avoid a problem if their hide is on the line. The Chronicle has an excellent timeline on the case and the main points in it.

The problem isn't just money, though that's a great deal of it. Most states get their funding for their public schools from property taxes and the more valueable the land is, the more tax revenue they receive and, generally speaking, the better the school districts are.

There are a couple of states, most noteably Ohio, which have tried to deal with the inequity caused by the use of property taxes. Simply put, the rich counties have the better schools and get the better teachers and the poorer communities.... well.... you get the picture. One suggestion is that the revenue from the wealthier communities gets spread out by the state to improve conditions in the poorer communities (this idea is currently winging its way through the North Carolina courts right now). This type of program is often known as "Robin Hood" and here is a pretty good discussion from Ohio about what these plans are like.

Now I have no clue what the Gov. of Texas is going to do because if he wants those high standards, and for the sake of arguement we'll say he does, then he's got to cough up the money from somewhere. The court seems to have ruled that the property tax in this case is illegal because the funds are being controled by the state and not the local governments, so that option is out.

As to where Texas will find the money.... who knows.... . This also illustrates the problem that many states have with giving away huge tax breaks to companies that want to move into their states. Time and time again, studies are produced that show that these deals are not cost effective in the long term, but governors have a hard time explaining why they wouldn't give away the farm to get 300 manufacturing jobs in Iredell County. I hope that Texas has some of those type of deals that they can recind... otherwise it's going to be quite a bloodbath to unearth the money to keep their schools in business.

The Centerpiece

Is the turkey your responsibility this year? Is it your first time? Are you a little scared? Don't be. Cooks.com has the complete guide to fixing the bird.

I like the heritage birds, but they are a little gamey for those who aren't used to them and they do require extra care to keep from drying out. The directions on the link will work great for your basic Butterball. It takes very little care to turn out a perfect bird.

Update: He cooks extra to send me and his other guest home with plenty of leftovers. Turkey, dressing and gravy are better the second day, but the mashed potatoes are not as nice reheated. Never mind. They will all be gratefully consumed.

This might be the ultimate turkey sandwich:

Turkey Tarragon Pitas
(Serves 4)

1/2 cup lemon yogurt (See Tip 1)
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves, finely crushed (See Tip 2)
2 cups fully-cooked turkey breast, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (See Tip 3)
1/2 cup green grapes, sliced in half
4 mini (or 2 6-inch) whole-wheat pitas (See Tip 4)
4 pieces leaf lettuce (See Tip 5)

In medium bowl combine yogurt, mayonnaise and tarragon. Fold in turkey and grapes; cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour. Trim tops from mini pita pockets (or cut 6-inch pitas in half). Line inside of pitas with lettuce. Carefully fill pitas with turkey mixture.

Cook's Tips:

1. A possible use for any leftover lemon yogurt is to combine it with chopped apple, diced celery, raisins and chopped walnuts or any of your other favorite waldorf salad ingredients for a new twist on an old favorite recipe.

2. Most purchased, dried crushed tarragon leaves should be fine enough "as is" without further crushing.

3. Use white meat leftovers if you've prepared a whole turkey and not just the breast portion.

4. If you'd like to try this recipe, but don't have access to pita bread, you could serve the turkey mixture atop the lettuce on a plate with some of your leftover Thanksgiving rolls placed on the side. Substitute thin slice of thin baguettes, also. This will make elegant finger sandwiches which you can mix and match with other elegant, simple sandwiches. Buy a loaf of Pepperidge farm white Sandwich Bread, cut off the crusts. Fill two pieces with your sandwich filling and a bit of lettuce, in classic finger sandwich fashion. Divide the thing into quarters, cutting the bread on the diagonal, in an "x." Load a sandwich tray with vegetarian and meat-laden finger sandwiches and amaze the half-time crowd with your elegant presentation. The Brits call this high tea, and if you can find a high tea tower, so much the better. Traditionally, the plates of the tower contain sweet and savory bits. This one is savory.

5. If you don't have large pieces of leaf lettuce but do have pre-torn bagged lettuce, you can place this on the bottom half of your pita and then fill with the turkey mixture.

This is a nice light version of a turkey salad sandwich. You can serve it for the weekend football parties so that you aren't eating junk food only. I watch maybe one football game a year (the Redskins still stink) but I like low-fat nachos even for watching golf tournements. Yes, I'm a wonk who watches golf tournements.

Garnish the plates with chopped cilantro and lemon wedges. Yum.

Fact Checking Big Time

Cheney's Challenge

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, November 22, 2005; 1:33 PM

Recognizing that the White House's trash-talking of its opponents had gotten a bit out of hand, President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the past few days have publicly acknowledged that dissent over the war is not in itself unpatriotic and that the administration's newest nemesis, Congressman John Murtha, is no Michael Moore.

But that doesn't mean that they're backing off.

Cheney yesterday took point in the massive PR blitz aimed at salvaging the administration's reputation. He lashed out at the suggestion that "brave Americans were sent into battle for a deliberate falsehood," calling it "revisionism of the most corrupt and shameless variety" and saying that "it has no place anywhere in American politics."

But he was a bit late: Opinion polls show that fully 55 to 57 percent of Americans believe the Bush administration was intentionally misleading in the run up to war. That kind of mistrust is why the question of the administration's integrity has become absolutely central to modern American politics.

Rather than substantively address any of the allegations against the administration, however, Cheney used a handful of straw-man arguments and dubious assertions to make his point. And he took no questions.

How all this plays with the public will go a long way toward resolving two of Washington's most suspenseful cliffhangers: Can the Bush administration somehow turn things around? And will Cheney be the hero or the goat?

Wishful thinking. This is a bell that can't be unrung.

Froomkin truth-squad's Cheney's speech:

Cheney's speech was full of the rhetorical devices that White House speechwriters are fond of.

There was the straw-man argument:

Cheney: "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."

I haven't heard any war critics make that argument.

There were rhetorical questions:

Cheney: "In light of the commitments our country has made, and given the stated intentions of the enemy, those who advocate a sudden withdrawal from Iraq should answer a few simple questions: Would the United States and other free nations be better off, or worse off, with Zarqawi, bin Laden, and Zawahiri in control of Iraq? Would we be safer, or less safe, with Iraq ruled by men intent on the destruction of our country?"

Those questions presuppose that foreign terrorists, rather than Iraqis, would take over.

Howard Kurtz writes in his washingtonpost.com blog today about the "age-old device in politics, making a personal slam sound more high-minded by attributing it to someone else."

And Kurtz notes that in his remarks in Beijing on Sunday, "Bush used a version of the same technique: 'I heard somebody say, well, maybe so-and-so is not patriotic because they disagree with my position. I totally reject that thought.' Somebody? So-and-so? Who could he be referring to?"

The vice president did the same thing yesterday:

Cheney: "One might also argue that untruthful charges against the Commander-in-Chief have an insidious effect on the war effort itself. I'm unwilling to say that, only because I know the character of the United States Armed Forces -- men and women who are fighting the war on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and many other fronts."

Prince George

I generally don't take stories from Capitol Hill Blue because they have a hazy relationship with the truth in their news stories, but this is an op-ed and the writer is someone I respect.

Prince Dubya's flaws
By BONNIE ERBE
Nov 22, 2005, 06:44

In Prince Dubya's America, in is out, black is white, left is right, backward is forward, disaster is glory and glory disaster.

Not since he ascended to the throne has the Prince's looking-glass approach to politics been in sharper focus than during the past week. On two fronts, jingoism trumped true patriotism, lies trumped truth, excuses trumped apologies, bravado and swagger trumped reality.

The first front emanates from the Vice Prince. Vice Prince Cheney, no decorated combat veteran he, questioned and smeared the patriotism of fellow politicians who dared disagree with the administration's failing Iraq war. Last week he told a conservative policy group: "The suggestion that's been made by some U.S. senators that the president or any member of this administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence is one of the most dishonest and reprehensible charges ever aired in this city." For their work, the Vice Prince labeled those senators unpatriotic.

In Pre-Prince Dubya America, we believed the Constitution protected Americans' right to question why we sent troops to fight unjust wars. The Vice Prince tells us those days are gone. In Pre-Prince America, now-retired Marine colonels who once worked their way up from drill sergeants to decorated war heroes (to wit, the hawkish Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.) were taken more seriously than legacies who relied on connections to procure multiple service deferments and/or those who failed to complete National Guard stints. The Vice Prince tells us those days are gone.

There is, however, hope. Increasing public skepticism is forcing the Prince and his Vice Prince to reconsider. A new Gallup poll shows that the Prince's job approval rating at 37 percent and the Vice Prince's at 36 percent. In a surprising and rare show of intelligence, even this White House is beginning to face facts. The Prince took time from his jaunt through Asia to soften his attack on Iraq war critics, saying they have "every right to voice their dissent."

Then there's the second front, which emanates from the Prince's Supreme Pick. Judge Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court has run into more than a bit of trouble. That's because papers released last week show Alito boasting about his work to overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision that legalized abortion nationwide. In Prince Dubya's America, as we know, there are no litmus tests. Especially when they accurately tag a Supreme Pick on the wrong side of an issue. Still, White House handlers will stretch the truth till it screams to claim that their Supreme Court nominee has no preconceived position on abortion rights or Roe.

That explains why Alito told Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., last week that his earlier writings should be discounted to nothing. He tried to discredit his own 1985 job application for a position in the Reagan Justice Department in which he wrote he was especially proud of his work to overturn Roe. He wrote: "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion." Feinstein told reporters that Supreme Pick Alito explained away his folly because he was "an advocate seeking a job." What does that make him now?

I believe that "Orwellian" describes the Bush administration.

That Strapping Economy, Take II

Health Cost Inflation Slows for Third Straight Year

Employers are shifting more of the expense to consumers, survey finds

By Karen Pallarito
HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Health benefit costs rose just 6.1 percent in 2005, to an average of $7,089 per employee, as employers shifted more medical and dental plan expenses to their workers in the form of higher out-of-pocket costs, a new survey finds.

This year's increase, down from 7.5 percent last year, continues a three-year slowing in the annual rate of growth, according to the survey by Mercer Health & Benefits. Health inflation has cooled quite a bit since the turn of the century, when double-digit rates of increase were the norm. In 2002, health costs rose 14.7 percent.

Next year, employers expect an essentially flat rate of increase, at 6.7 percent, the survey revealed.

So how are employers taming health benefit costs? "It's a combination of aggressive cost shifting and other strategies that are starting to take hold, in particular, health management," said Blaine Bos, a Mercer consultant and one of the study's authors.

While employee contributions, as a percent of premium, were essentially unchanged, employers increased the out-of-pocket costs that consumers pay.

Eighty percent of PPO plans, for example, now require an in-network deductible, up from 73 percent last year. Among large employers -- those with 500 or more workers -- the median deductible rose to $300, from $250 in 2004. Among the largest employers -- those with 20,000 or more employees -- the use of "coinsurance" as a way of sharing the cost of a physician office visit jumped to 37 percent, up from 26 percent last year.

So not only does health care cost more, but the copay has increased too. Gee, what a shock eh? This is even true with families that work for "safe" organizations, like state governments. We had plans to celebrate the p