Speak Truth to Power

Religious Left Struggles to Find Unifying Message
By NEELA BANERJEE

WASHINGTON, May 18 — They had come to All Souls Unitarian Church, 1,200 of them from 39 states, to wrest the mantle of moral authority from conservative Christians, and they were finally planning how to take their message to those in power.

After rousing speeches on Wednesday by liberal religious leaders like Rabbi Michael Lerner of the magazine Tikkun and Sister Joan Chittister, a Benedictine nun, participants in the new Network of Spiritual Progressives split into small groups to prepare for meetings with members of Congress on Thursday.

Yet at a session on ethical behavior, including sexual behavior, the 50 or so activists talked little about what to tell Congress about abortion or same-sex marriage. Instead, the Rev. Ama Zenya of First Congregational Church in Oakland, Calif., urged them to talk to one another about their spiritual values and "to practice fully our authentic being."

Kimberly Crichton, a Washington lawyer and Quaker, grew impatient. "I think we would be more effective if we focused on specific legislation," Ms. Crichton said. "Are we going to discuss specific policies?"

Ms. Zenya replied: "What we envisioned this time is saying we are a religious voice. More relationship-building, consciousness-raising."

The man in the pew in front of Ms. Crichton translated: "The answer is, no."

This is mostly bullshit. There is broad agreement on policies and values on the religious left. What Banerjee doesn't tell you is that the reason the religious left is marginalized is because we are ignored by the MSM. If there is a bit of religious news to cover, who do the reporters call? The same tired voices: Jerry Fallwell, Pat Robertson and Bob Bennett. You don't see Michael Lerner, Joan Chittester or Jim Wallis on the cable shows. If you can't get the megaphone, you can't influence the agenda.

Foul Language

Senate Votes English as 'National Language'
Bill Keeps in Place Multilingual Laws

By Jonathan Weisman and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 19, 2006; A01

After an emotional debate fraught with symbolism, the Senate yesterday voted to make English the "national language" of the United States, declaring that no one has a right to federal communications or services in a language other than English except for those already guaranteed by law.

The measure, approved 63 to 34, directs the government to "preserve and enhance" the role of English, without altering current laws that require some government documents and services be provided in other languages. Opponents, however, said it could negate executive orders, regulations, civil service guidances and other multilingual ordinances not officially sanctioned by acts of Congress.

That vote, considered a defeat for immigration-rights advocates, was followed last night by an important victory: By 58 to 35, the Senate killed an amendment that would have blocked eventual citizenship for future immigrants who arrive under a temporary work permit. Democrats and Republicans agreed that the amendment would have destroyed the fragile, bipartisan coalition backing the Senate bill.

The time and money being wasted by this political bullshit is yours and mine, boys and girls.

Pennies From Heaven

Vote in House Seeks to Erase Oil Windfall
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

WASHINGTON, May 18 — In an attempt to revoke billions of dollars worth of government incentives to oil and gas producers, the House on Thursday approved a measure that would pressure companies to renegotiate more than 1,000 leases for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

The measure, approved 252 to 165 over the objections of many Republican leaders, is intended to prevent companies from avoiding at least $7 billion in payments to the government over the next five years for oil and gas they produce in publicly owned waters.

Scores of Republicans, already under fire from voters about gasoline prices, sided with Democrats on the issue. Eighty-five Republicans voted to attach the provision to the Interior Department's annual spending bill. The measure would require adoption by the Senate, which is less reflexively supportive of the energy industry than the House, and will almost certainly provoke intense opposition from oil and gas producers.

In a raucous debate on the House floor before the vote, Democrats argued that energy companies were shortchanging taxpayers at the same time that soaring prices for crude oil and natural gas had pushed industry profits to record highs.

"Oil companies want to play Uncle Sam for Uncle Sucker," said Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who co-sponsored the amendment with Representative Maurice D. Hinchey, Democrat of New York. "Today, we must put an end to these senseless giveaways."

Republican leaders, who had hoped to avoid a vote on the issue, agreed that companies should not be getting lucrative incentives in times of high prices. But they insisted that the government had no right to reopen valid leases that it signed years ago with offshore drillers.

"These leases were valid legal contracts signed between the government and these companies in good faith," said Representative Mike Simpson, Republican of Idaho. "The Congress and the government should keep their word when they sign a contract."

In a separate defeat for energy companies, the House voted 279 to 141 to reject a provision that would lift a 25-year ban on oil drilling in coastal areas outside the western Gulf of Mexico.

Lawmakers also voted 217 to 203 to continue the prohibition on drilling just for natural gas.

The lopsided vote to rescind royalty incentives, which surprised many of the proposal's own sponsors, came three months after The New York Times disclosed that companies drilling in publicly-owned waters of the Gulf of Mexico were set to escape royalties on about $65 billion worth of oil and gas over the next five years.

The windfall stemmed in large part from a major error in about 1,000 leases that the Clinton administration signed with energy companies in 1998 and 1999.

To encourage drilling and exploration in water thousands of feet deep, the government offered to let companies avoid the standard royalties, usually 12 percent or 16 percent of sales, for large quantities of the oil and gas they produced.

But the incentives, which have been expanded in recent years by the Bush administration and by Congress, were supposed to stop as soon as prices for oil climbed above $34 a barrel and prices for natural gas climbed above $4 per thousand cubic feet.

For reasons that are now being investigated, the Interior Department omitted the restriction in 1,000 leases it signed in 1998 and 1999. In addition, the Bush administration offered extra "royalty relief" to companies that drilled very deep wells in very shallow water.

The lost royalties are just beginning to hit the government's bottom line.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, estimated in March that the royalty incentives could cost the government $20 billion over the next 25 years.

While the budget deficit gets passed on to our children's children's children. Anybody smell a corporatist agenda here?

The Rich Are Different

Parks Official Is Blamed In Snyder Tree Cutting
Redskins Owner Wanted Better River View

By Tim Craig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 19, 2006; Page A01

A high-ranking National Park Service official improperly helped Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder broker a deal to cut down more than 130 trees on a hillside between his Potomac estate and the C&O; Canal, according to a report by the Interior Department inspector general's office.

The 2004 decision should have been left to park biologists and horticulturists, who had advised against the deal on federally protected land, and should have been opened to public debate, the report says. After an eight-month investigation, the office concluded that P. Daniel Smith, then special assistant to the director of the Park Service, intervened to help clear Snyder's view of the Potomac River.

The report does not accuse Snyder of doing anything improper when he got permission to clear 50,000 square feet of mature trees and replace them with saplings. But it does suggest that he had access to top Park Service officials that other citizens might not have had.

Smith pressured lower-level officials to approve a deal that disregarded federal environmental laws, harmed the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park and left the agency vulnerable to charges of favoritism, according to the unsigned report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.

Smith -- now superintendent of Colonial National Historical Park, which includes Historic Jamestowne and Yorktown Battlefield -- said in an interview that he received a letter of reprimand last month for "overstepping his discretion" but did "nothing tawdry."

"It was a legitimate request by a landowner who had a legitimate issue with the Park Service," Smith said.

Snyder issued a brief comment through a spokesman yesterday, saying he and his representatives "negotiated a fair written agreement with the National Park Service. They didn't put pressure on anyone."

Leaving aside the issue that none of us would have the wherewithall to live in this part of Potomac, do you really think any of us would have been able to cut a like deal with the Park Service? Come on.

Mixed News

The Weapon Iran May Not Want to Use
Withholding Oil Exports Could Wreak the Most Havoc at Home

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 19, 2006; Page D01

In 1967, after Israel trounced its Arab neighbors in the Six-Day War, five oil-producing Arab countries used what they called the "oil weapon" and cut off supplies to the United States and its European allies. But the weapon turned out to be a dud. The United States increased its production by a million barrels a day, and more modest boosts by three other oil-producing nations defused the crisis.

Now, as the U.N. Security Council ponders sanctions or other tough measures to punish Iran for developing technology could be used for making nuclear weapons, Iran's president and interior minister have threatened to deploy the oil weapon -- and people are taking it seriously.

Oil traders and others are worried. Many believe that Iran's oil weapon could prove more useful than any nuclear weapon it might develop. Using a nuclear weapon would assure Iran's destruction. Using the oil weapon, by trimming exports to jack up oil prices and holding the world economy hostage, could bring influence, concessions and, if handled adroitly, tens of billions of dollars in extra revenue without any direct military conflict.

European diplomats, eager to avoid testing Iran's willingness to resort to that weapon, have been crafting a package of incentives rather than punishments to convince Iran to give up its uranium enrichment program.

But sources said that senior policymakers within the Bush administration and their French and British counterparts have come to the conclusion that Iran would continue to sell oil abroad even in the face of heightened economic and diplomatic pressure from Western powers. Administration officials have considered and discounted the possibility that Iran would shut in oil supplies, robbing world markets of much-needed crude.

Experts on Iran point to a number of reasons it might be reluctant to cut oil exports. Oil accounts for 85 percent of Iran's exports, according to an International Monetary Fund report issued last month. Revenue from those exports makes up 65 percent of government income. And Iran uses a good chunk of that money to raise public-sector wages and to subsidize its own gasoline prices, one way to keep domestic discontent in check when unemployment is running at more than 12 percent and inflation at 13 percent.

Be grateful that this is a difficult decision for Iran to make. We'd already be paying $6.00 a gallon for gas otherwise.

Eyes That Only See No Evil

Judge dismisses rendition lawsuit against CIA

Private interests must give way to national security, federal judge says
Associated Press
Updated: 8:47 p.m. ET May 18, 2006

Ellis said he was satisfied after receiving a secret written briefing from the director of central intelligence that allowing al-Masri’s lawsuit to proceed would harm national security.

“In the present circumstances, al-Masri’s private interests must give way to the national interest in preserving state secrets,” Ellis wrote.

Al-Masri’s lawsuit named former CIA Director George Tenet and three private companies that allegedly helped transport al-Masri from country to country.

The lawsuit says al-Masri was initially held for almost a month in Macedonia before being taken to a secret CIA prison in Kabul, Afghanistan, known as “the salt pit.”

Suit alleges mistaken identity
Al-Masri said the CIA knew shortly after his arrival in Kabul that he was a victim of mistaken identity. He further alleges that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice knew by early May 2004 that al-Masri was mistakenly detained but that he was still not released until May 28.

Ben Wizner, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing al-Masri, said he expects to file an appeal.

“We expect we will continue this fight in the courts,” Wizner said.

He said it is absurd to think al-Masri’s lawsuit would expose state secrets because many of the details of al-Masri’s detention have been made public and confirmed by government sources in newspaper reports.

“There isn’t really any dispute about what happened,” Wizner said.

‘Blank check’ for the CIA?
Judge Ellis’ ruling “confers a blank check on the CIA to shield even the most outrageous conduct from judicial review,” Wizner said.

Ellis did not describe what information he received that convinced him a lawsuit would expose state secrets and harm national security.

But he said he received a briefing labeled “JUDGE’S EYES ONLY” and that “it is enough to note here that al-Masri’s publicly available complaint alleges a clandestine intelligence program.” Ellis added that “any admission or denial of these allegations by defendants in this case would reveal the means and methods employed pursuant to this clandestine program and such a revelation would present a grave risk of injury to national security.”

Ellis, at the end of his ruling, writes that “putting aside all the legal issues, if al-Masri’s allegations are true or substantially true, then all fair-minded people ... must also agree that al-Masri has suffered injuries as the result of our country’s mistake and deserves a remedy.”

But Ellis said that remedy must come from Congress or the executive branch, not the judiciary.

Wizner said the Bush administration has not yet offered any financial settlement.

A Justice Department spokesman said the judge’s ruling is under review and declined comment.

Pork Fat Rules

This is the most authentic choucroute garni recipe I've ever found. Once you have had this, there is literally no going back; you will spend the rest of your life looking for the perfect choucroute. This effects some of us the way that barbecue effects others. This is a fabulous main course for a crowd of meat eaters. It needs nothing more than some crusty dark bread and coarse grained mustard. I'm not much of a beer drinker, but a Belgian Alembic like Chimay would go well with this.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

2 pounds fresh or jarred sauerkraut
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, or duck, chicken, or goose fat
1/4 pound pancetta or bacon, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
3 medium yellow onions, peeled and sliced
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1 1/2 teaspoons black peppercorns
8 juniper berries, lightly crushed
1 head garlic, split in half crosswise
2 ham hocks, scored, about a pound
1 cup chicken stock, or canned low-sodium chicken broth
2 bottles dark or amber beer, such as Abita Amber or Anchor Steam
1 pound garlic sausage, kielbasa, or knockwurst
1 pound bratwurst or veal sausage
1 1/2 pounds small red new potatoes, halved if large
Creole, whole-grain, or Dijon mustard, for serving

Preheat the oven to 3250 degrees F.

Place the sauerkraut in a colander and rinse briefly to remove some of the salt from the brine; don't rinse it too much, or you will lose a lot of the flavor. (Alternatively, if the sauerkraut is not excessively salty, use as is.) Press to release most of the excess liquid and set aside. In a large nonreactive skillet, melt 3 tablespoons of the butter over medium-low heat and add the pancetta. Cook for 5 minutes; don't let the pancetta brown, just render the fat. Add the onions and continue to cook until they are soft but not browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the bacon-onion mixture to a 3 1/2 or 4-quart non-reactive casserole or ovenproof Dutch oven. Add the drained sauerkraut and toss to combine. Using a small piece of cheesecloth, make a bouquet garni with the thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, juniper berries, and garlic and place in the baking dish. Add the ham hocks, chicken stock, and beer and stir to combine. Cover the casserole and bake, undisturbed, for 2 hours.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over high heat and brown the sausages on both sides. Set aside.

Place the new potatoes in a saucepan and add water to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook until the potatoes are just tender, about 15 minutes. (This will depend on the size of your potatoes.) Drain and set aside.

When the sauerkraut and ham hocks have baked for 2 hours and the hocks are tender, remove the casserole from the oven. Place the sausages and potatoes on top of the sauerkraut. If the liquid has reduced to less than 2/3, add a bit more water. Cover the casserole and return it to the oven. Cook for about 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are very tender and the sausages are heated through. Remove the casserole from the oven and discard the bouquet garni. Serve immediately, with each person receiving some of each of the sausages, part of a hock, some potatoes, and sauerkraut. Pass the mustard at the table.

This is the quintessential cuisine of Alsace and it is simply so good, so satisfying, that your family and friends will be amazed that such simple ingredients can create such a soulful dish. It's also easy, beginning cooks, if time consuming. Follow the recipe and you can't screw this up. The prep time is about 30 minutes, the passive cooking time is a couple of hours.

One caution: you really do need to really de-brine the sauerkraut in the first step. Commercial sauerkrauts contain so much preservative that you will get off flavors if you don't soak them out before cooking. They are okay for a steam table quick hit on your hot dog, but long cooking really brings out the ickies.

This is one of those dishes that is so good that you won't want to stop eating. If you have German or Alsatian genes in your pool, it will be irresistible.

As a cook and hostess, there is a moment I treasure when I know I've done my best and it is very good. The dining room falls silent and all you can hear are the sounds of utensils scraping against plates. That's when I know I've succeeded as a cook.

Making Stock

I have a request from a reader who wants to make the French Onion Soup recipe for instructions for making beef and veal stocks. All stocks start the same way: bones with meat on them and whatever vegetables you've got in the house. You can buy soup bones (beef, veal, chicken, turkey, fish) at the butchers and they are cheap. If you have the money for more meat, get the stewing stuff, it is real cheap. In a stock pot, brown your meat in a little fat and then add water. Braise the meat until it is falling off the bones. Add the veggies you have in the house and a bayleaf or two. Celery, onions and carrots are the Holy Trinity of aromatic vegetables for making stock.

Here is a link to the Ultimate Stock website with recipes for every kind of stock under the sun.

Site News

Today was light because I didn't sleep hardly at all last night and couldn't rub two brain cells together today and my arms are hurting something fierce. I'll have some new recipes for you tonight, however. I've been trying some new things.

The Squeeze

Rents a Key Driver of Inflation
Housing increases account for nearly half the rise in the core consumer price index.
By Lisa Girion and Annette Haddad, Times Staff Writers
May 18, 2006

Like an uninvited drunken uncle, higher consumer inflation crashed the economy's growth party Wednesday. But it wasn't just higher energy prices that caused concern.

Rising rents and higher prices for a wide variety of consumer goods, including prescription drugs, swimsuits and school books, were key factors behind a higher-than-expected 0.6% increase in consumer prices in April.

The inflation news, reported by the Labor Department, sparked a stock market sell-off amid fears that it would lead to higher interest rates and an economic slowdown.

Higher rents in particular were worrisome, accounting for nearly half the surprisingly high 0.3% increase in the core consumer price index, which excludes energy and food costs. Rents have been increasing as many people are priced out of the sky-high home purchase market.

Scott Sanders was among many Southland residents facing soaring rents. He was paying $1,550 in monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in a trendy West Los Angeles neighborhood near the Grove shopping center. But it was too good to last.

One by one, the building's apartments were getting face-lifts — followed by substantial rent increases. Sanders figured his rent would nearly double when the renovation effort got to his door. So he got out.

"I could see the writing on the wall," said Sanders, a liquor license consultant who is now renting part of a large home from a friend.

"It was either move now or move later."

Many of these rent increases and other higher prices could stick around because they aren't dependent on energy and don't necessarily respond to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, economists said.

The spread of price hikes to nonenergy areas "suggests that inflation is now a greater risk for the economy," said Lynn Reaser, an economist for Bank of America in Boston.

More pain for the working class. Wages ain't going up.

Oversight

Lawmakers Reexamine Hayden
CIA Pick's Involvement in Wiretap Program Raises Questions

By Dafna Linzer and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 18, 2006; A05

In hearings today on President Bush's choice to head the CIA, senators will face an array of questions, loose ends and seeming contradictions about the administration's domestic surveillance techniques. The first mystery they must unravel, however, is the nominee himself, Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who pitched the eavesdropping program after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and has become its most forceful defender.

When Hayden took over the National Security Agency in 1999, he did something many intelligence chiefs would consider unthinkable: He invited groups of journalists to his home at Fort Meade to discuss Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Serving California wine by his living room fireplace, the 61-year-old Pittsburgh native told his guests that he and the NSA were dedicated to protecting Americans' privacy.

Hayden's message and independence made him a favorite on Capitol Hill, where he was viewed as a champion of national security, privacy rights and press freedoms. But recent revelations about the nature of Hayden's highly classified world -- in the Air Force, at the NSA and most recently in the office of the director of national intelligence -- are forcing lawmakers to reexamine a man many of them have known for years.

Their questions are driven largely by what appear to be inconsistencies between the scale of the surveillance program and administration assertions about its limits. In what the White House describes as an effort to thwart potential terrorists, NSA analysts have secretly eavesdropped on overseas calls and intercepted e-mails of thousands of Americans without seeking warrants, and have gathered phone records for perhaps millions of residents.

At each phase of the program, from its inception to its disclosure, Hayden has been at the center of what the president later termed a "terrorist surveillance program." When asked in December to explain the origins of the NSA effort, Bush said Hayden had suggested it immediately after Sept. 11 as a way to "connect the dots" to potential al-Qaeda cells operating in the country.

"He came forward with this program," Bush said. "In other words, it wasn't designed in the White House; it was designed where you expect it to be designed, in the NSA."

Bush and Hayden have defended the program as legal -- the White House has said eavesdropping involved only international communications by people with known links to al-Qaeda and its allies -- and said the attorney general reauthorizes it every 90 days. But twice since its inception, the program was stopped after the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and a senior Justice Department lawyer raised concerns about its legality.

An internal Justice Department investigation tried to determine whether lawyers who authorized the program may have acted improperly. But Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales suggested yesterday that secrecy concerns shut down the inquiry. The department's Office of Professional Responsibility notified lawmakers last week that it was forced to end its investigation because the office was denied security clearances to access information on the NSA program. Gonzales defended that decision yesterday and suggested that the probe was unnecessary because Justice issued a legal analysis supporting the effort.

"It's a very important program to the United States, and so certain decisions are made in terms of . . . how much information should be shared throughout the federal government," Gonzales told reporters at a news conference. "We don't want to be talking so much about the program that we compromise the effectiveness." Gonzales declined to discuss who denied security clearances to OPR investigators or whether he was consulted on the issue.

Eight senators and House members were aware of the program before it was publicly disclosed last December. But they were not allowed to discuss it with anyone, including their colleagues on the intelligence committees, and it is unclear whether they knew of the legal questions being raised internally.

Yesterday, ahead of Hayden's hearing, the White House briefed additional lawmakers on the program. But much of what they have learned about it has been from news reports, leading them to complain that Hayden, Bush and others have been unwilling to share even basic information so Congress can carry out its oversight role.

"What do I know, I'm just on the intelligence committee," Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is fond of saying, ruefully noting that most of what he knows about the surveillance program has come from newspapers.

I'm listening to the Hayden confirmation hearings as I type this. This guy is such a skillful smoke-blower that I wonder how much less we are going to know when the hearings are over. The level of jargon and bullshit is so high that I'm struggling to keep my eyes from glazing over.

Catching It In The Wallet

Consumer Price Report Shows Signs of Inflation

By Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; 1:12 PM

Inflation picked up in April as consumers paid higher prices for gasoline, housing, clothing, medical care and other items, the government reported today.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index, a widely followed inflation gauge, rose 0.6 percent last month, the biggest increase in three months, largely reflecting a 3.9 percent jump in energy prices.

But prices of many other goods and services rose as well. The core-CPI, which excludes food and energy was up 0.3 percent, same as in March, reflecting higher prices for items such as air travel, used cars and electricity.

Stock prices fell sharply after the report fanned investors' concerns that businesses are passing more of their climbing costs to consumers and that the Federal Reserve will have to keep raising interest rates to prevent inflation from taking off.

"It's a real inflation scare in the market," said David Shulman, a visiting scholar at the UCLA Anderson Forecast. "The Fed may see a slowing economy coming from a weakness in housing construction, combined with rising inflation. It could smell like a stagflation. . . . Interest rates could be [headed] much higher than what was thought a few days ago."

The Fed raised its benchmark short-term interest rate last week and indicated it had not decided whether it would likely bump the rate up again at its next policymaking meeting in June. Higher interest rates tamp down inflation by dampening consumer and business spending.

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told Congress in April that the central bank might leave rates unchanged at some point, even if there remained a risk of higher inflation. Analysts took that as a strong hint of a likely pause in June after two years of rate hikes.

But the April CPI report may make another rate hike more likely, particularly if the government reports similar inflation figures for May, analysts said today.

Stocks Skid On Inflation Worries
Consumer Prices Jump On Higher Gas, Clothing And Medical Costs

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2006

Consumer prices — propelled by higher gasoline, clothing and medical care costs — jumped sharply in April, stoking inflation fears and sending stocks tumbling.

It has been a tough day on Wall Street, with the Dow Industrials Average posting a triple-digit point decline. The other major averages are down more than one percent.

It was last week that investors were thinking the Dow might hit a new all-time high. Since then, it has suffered two triple-digit point declines, and that was before today's sell-off.

The 0.6 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index, the government's most closely watched inflation barometer, was the largest in three months, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. The rise came after a strong 0.4 percent advance in March.

Excluding energy and food products, which can swing widely from month to month, "core" prices went up by 0.3 percent in April for the second month in a row. The Federal Reserve and economists closely look at this core inflation reading to get a better sense of how other prices are acting.

The sizable increase in core prices especially fanned fears that rising energy costs may be starting to breed a broader bout of inflation throughout the economy.

"The needle is moving in the direction of higher inflation," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. "This is not good news and suggests more companies are passing along their higher costs to consumers."

The latest readings on inflation were slightly worse than economists were expecting. Before the release of the report, they were forecasting a 0.5 percent increase in overall consumer prices and a 0.2 percent rise in core prices.

So far this year, consumer prices are rising at an annual rate of 5.1 percent, much faster than the 3.4 percent increase registered for all of 2005. Core prices are advancing at a brisk 3 percent pace, compared with a more moderate 2.2 percent rise for last year.

Energy prices are now being factored into all commodities. This is going to hit us all in the pocketbook.

Rummy Broke It

U.S. reserves nearly 'broken,' says chief
Iraq, Afghan conflicts sap military resources
Reuters
Updated: 8:28 a.m. ET Jan. 6, 2005

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Reserve, tapped heavily to provide soldiers for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is “degenerating into a ‘broken’ force” due to dysfunctional military policies, the Army Reserve’s chief said in a memo made public Wednesday.

“I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern,” Lt. Gen. James Helmly said in a Dec. 20 memo to Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker.

The Army Reserve is a force of 200,000 part-time soldiers who opted not to sign up for the active-duty Army but can be mobilized from their civilian lives in times of national need. About 52,000 Army Reserve soldiers are on active duty, with 17,000 in Iraq and 2,000 in Afghanistan, the Army said.

The Army Reserve has provided many military police, civil affairs soldiers, medics and truck drivers for the wars.

“While ability to meet the current demands associated with OIF (Operational Iraqi Freedom) and OEF (Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan) is of great importance, the Army Reserve is additionally in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements including those in named OPLANS (operational plans) and CONUS (continental United States) emergencies, and is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken’ force,” Helmly wrote.

Helmly said military leaders had rebuffed his proposals for change. The memo’s purpose was to inform Schoomaker of the Army Reserve’s “inability — under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilization, training and reserve component manpower management — to meet mission requirements” for the two wars, Helmly wrote.

'Dysfunctional practices’
In his eight-page memo, first disclosed by the Baltimore Sun, Helmly titled one section “US Army Reserve Readiness Discussion, Past Dysfunctional Practices/Policies.”

The Pentagon, maintaining higher-than-expected troop levels after failing to anticipate that a bloody guerrilla war would follow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003, has relied heavily on Army Reserve and Army National Guard soldiers. These part-time troops comprise about 40 percent of the U.S. force in Iraq.

Some reservists and families have complained about frequent and lengthy tours in war zones, inferior equipment and scant notice before being pressed into service.

Helmly’s remarks gave fuel to critics of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who argue that his policies and his resistance to a large increase in the active-duty Army are harming the all-volunteer military.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island called the memo ”deeply disturbing,” adding: “By consistently underestimating the number of troops necessary for the successful occupation of Iraq, the administration has placed a tremendous burden on the Army Reserve and created this crisis.”

Volunteer versus mercenary
Helmly referred to “potential ‘sociological’ damage” to the all-volunteer military by paying inducements of $1,000 extra per month to reservists who volunteer to remobilize.

“We must consider the point at which we confuse ’volunteer to become an American Soldier’ with ' mercenary,”’ Helmly said.

Happy hurricane season, everybody!

Which Side Are You On?

U.S. Secretly Backing Warlords in Somalia

By Emily Wax and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; A01

More than a decade after U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia following a disastrous military intervention, officials of Somalia's interim government and some U.S. analysts of Africa policy say the United States has returned to the African country, secretly supporting secular warlords who have been waging fierce battles against Islamic groups for control of the capital, Mogadishu.

The latest clashes, last week and over the weekend, were some of the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the American intervention in 1994, and left 150 dead and hundreds more wounded. Leaders of the interim government blamed U.S. support of the militias for provoking the clashes.

U.S. officials have declined to directly address on the record the question of backing Somali warlords, who have styled themselves as a counterterrorism coalition in an open bid for American support. Speaking to reporters recently, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the United States would "work with responsible individuals . . . in fighting terror. It's a real concern of ours -- terror taking root in the Horn of Africa. We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created. Our interest is purely in seeing Somalia achieve a better day."

U.S. officials have long feared that Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991, is a desirable place for al-Qaeda members to hide and plan attacks. The country is strategically located on the Horn of Africa, which is only a boat ride away from Yemen and a longtime gateway to Africa from the Middle East. No visas are needed to enter Somalia, there is no police force and no effective central authority.

The country has a weak transitional government operating largely out of neighboring Kenya and the southern city of Baidoa. Most of Somalia is in anarchy, ruled by a patchwork of competing warlords; the capital is too unsafe for even Somalia's acting prime minister to visit.

Leaders of the transitional government said they have warned U.S. officials that working with the warlords is shortsighted and dangerous.

"We would prefer that the U.S. work with the transitional government and not with criminals," the prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, said in an interview. "This is a dangerous game. Somalia is not a stable place and we want the U.S. in Somalia. But in a more constructive way. Clearly we have a common objective to stabilize Somalia, but the U.S. is using the wrong channels."

Many of the warlords have their own agendas, Somali officials said, and some reportedly fought against the United States in 1993 during street battles that culminated in an attack that downed two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters and left 18 Army Rangers dead.

"The U.S. government funded the warlords in the recent battle in Mogadishu, there is no doubt about that," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari told journalists by telephone from Baidoa. "This cooperation . . . only fuels further civil war."

U.S. officials have refused repeated requests to provide details about the nature and extent of their support for the coalition of warlords, which calls itself the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism in what some Somalis say is a marketing ploy to get U.S. support.

But some U.S. officials, who declined to be identified by name because of the sensitivity of the issue, have said they are generally talking to these leaders to prevent people with suspected ties to al-Qaeda from being given safe haven in the lawless country.

Actual US policy, as opposed to Bush rhetoric, makes the words "freedom" and "democracy" sound like obscenities.

The Public Mood

Confidence In GOP Is At New Low in Poll
Democrats Favored To Address Issues

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 17, 2006; Page A01

Public confidence in GOP governance has plunged to the lowest levels of the Bush presidency, with Americans saying by wide margins that they now trust Democrats more than Republicans to deal with Iraq, the economy, immigration and other issues, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll that underscores the GOP's fragile grip on power six months before the midterm elections.

Dissatisfaction with the administration's policies in Iraq has overwhelmed other issues as the source of problems for President Bush and the Republicans. The survey suggests that pessimism about the direction of the country -- 69 percent said the nation is now off track -- and disaffection with Republicans have dramatically improved Democrats' chances to make gains in November.

Democrats are now favored to handle all 10 issues measured in the Post-ABC News poll. The survey shows a majority of the public, 56 percent, saying they would prefer to see Democrats in control of Congress after the elections.

The poll offers two cautions for the Democrats, however. One is a growing disaffection with incumbents generally. When asked whether they were inclined to reelect their current representative to Congress or look around for someone new, 55 percent said they were open to someone else, the highest since just before Republicans captured control of Congress in 1994. That suggests that some Democratic incumbents could feel the voters' wrath, although as the party in power Republicans have more at risk.

The second warning for Democrats is that their improved prospects for November appear driven primarily by dissatisfaction with Republicans rather than by positive impressions of their own party. Congressional Democrats are rating only slightly more favorably than congressional Republicans, and 52 percent of those surveyed said the Democrats have not offered a sharp contrast to Bush and the Republicans.

Only a third wants the GOP to remain in the majority in Congress. Nearly three times as many Americans say they will use the elections to express opposition to the president (30 percent) than to show support for him (12 percent).

The poll data is here. This is Karl Rove's "sour mood." American's are not happy and are not sure what their options are.

Posted by Melanie at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

Cooking the Living Tradition

What I like to eat:

SOUVLAKI - GREEK KEBAB

2 lbs. boneless leg of lamb, cut in 1 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 c. olive oil
4 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. white wine
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp. oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
6 sm. onions, peeled & cut in half
3 firm tomatoes, quartered
2 green peppers, cut in 1 1/2 inch sq.

Put lamb cubes in a bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice and wine, pour over meat. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano, garlic; add bay leaf. Put onions and tomatoes on top of meat, cover with a plate and weigh down. Place in refrigerator and marinate overnight. Let meat come to room temperature. Thread meat on oiled skewers, alternating with pieces of pepper, tomato and onion. Broil over hot charcoal for about 10 to 12 minutes or to taste, turn to brown on all sides and baste occasionally. Serves 4 to 5.

Serve the kabobs in pita bread with "tzaziki", which is pretty much good on everything short of shaving cream.

Supporting the Locals

I love good French Onion Soup. It's sort of a party in a bowl and you have permission to play with your food. The key problem is "good." I have had more than my share of mediocre. If you want really good French Onion Soup, you have to make it yourself.

2 1/2 pounds yellow onions, halved, and sliced 1/4-inch thick (8 cups)
1/4 pound unsalted butter
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup medium-dry sherry
1/2 cup brandy or Cognac
1 1/2 cups good dry white wine
4 cups beef stock
4 cups veal stock
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
8 oz. finely grated Emmenthaler cheese
Four thick slices of baguette
Freshly grated Parmesan

In a large stockpot on medium-high heat, saute the onions with the butter and bay leaf for 20 minutes, until the onions turn a rich golden brown color. Deglaze the pan with the sherry and brandy and simmer uncovered for 5 minutes. Add the white wine and simmer uncovered for 15 more minutes.

Add the beef and veal stocks plus salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf, taste for salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into narrow bowls and top with the baguette slice and the cheeses. Place in an oven broiler (500 degrees) until cheese melts and just begins to brown. Serve, warning your guests that the bowls are very hot.

I'll eat this any time of the year, but I have to admit that it is particularly yummy if you've been out in the snow and cold all day. After a day of clearing the driveway or sidewalks, this is the anti-freeze that restores me to happiness and health. Particularly with a reuben sandwich served on the side. Anthony's Restaurant, around the corner from me, makes a pastrami Reuben which is spectacular. This is your basic Greek pizza and burger joint, like the one on the old Saturday Night Live, and once you figure out what they are good at, they are very consistent. The pizza is a greasy mess, but the sandwiches and salads are glorious and cheap. The tzatziki is at least as good as mine and the gyro is superb.

The place is a local institution. The local Democratic Party had their post-election gathering there after the primary a week ago. This is where the cops and local clergy eat, which means good food cheap. The owners also support every civic organization and sports team in town, and I support that. I like the fact that I can go in for take-out and Anthony,Ted and Faye always recognize me and ask how I'm doing. Those are the little touches which mean "community." I like doing business with the locals instead of the giant chains.

Instant Party

With a quick trip to the deli and this recipe as a shopping list, you'll have party food assembled in no time. Going to a pot luck? This will make you friends. Add a basket of fresh, thinly sliced baguette and a dish of herbed mayonaisse and you have nearly a complete meal.

Last Minute Antipasto Platter
For 12

6 ounces "baby" or fresh mozzarella
1/4 pound prosciutto, thinly sliced
1/4 pound mortadella, thinly sliced
1/4 pound cappicolla, thinly sliced
1 (5 to 6-ounce) piece of asiago or aged provolone cheese
1 small stick soppressata (dried Italian sausage)
1 small stick pepperoni
4 ounces (1 small jar) marinated artichoke hearts
1/4 pound oil-dried black olives or similar olives
4 ounces (1 small jar) pepperoncini peppers, thinly sliced
6 ounces or 2 pieces whole roasted red peppers, juillienned
1 bunch fresh basil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 seedless cucumber, thinly sliced

Use a separate cutting board for prepping and place a nice wooden board for the display in front of you. Unwrap all the meats and cheeses and lay them out next to your display board.

Place the baby mozzarella in a small dish and set on 1 corner of the board.

Roll the prosciutto like a burrito, fold the mortadella in half 2 or 3 times, and wrap the cappicolla into a horn shape and place it creatively on the cutting board. (There is no set way to roll the meats, just go with the way the meat is cut).

Slice a bit of each cheese, the soppressata, and pepperoni and place on board in between folded meats. Scatter board with artichoke hearts, olives, pepperoncinis, and roasted red peppers. Have knives handy.

To finish, take a few basil leaves sliced chiffonade-style and mix with the minced garlic and olive oil. Drizzle over the entire board. Garnish with whole basil leaves and serve with cucumber slices as an alternative to crackers tiled in a bowl on the side of the platter. Offer salt and pepper.

That didn't take long

Our friends at Think Progress have the first of many a verbal gaffe from El Presidente's new spinner. Oh and it's a winner too.

SNOW: Having said that, I don’t want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program, the alleged program, the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny.

….

QUESTION: What are your personal goals? What do you hope to achieve here? Will you continue to televise these briefings? And would you put into English the phrase (OFF-MIKE) the tarbaby?

SNOW: Well, I believe hug the tarbaby, we could trace that back to American lore.

Oye vey. Well, so much for the "big tent" theory of the Republican Party... let's see, we've managed to irritate both immigrants and blacks in less than 24 hours. Honestly, outside of a Pat Buchanan speech, I think that's a GOP record for allienating almost all the non-Whites in the country.

As TP notes, and my wife would be happy to vouch for, many people have been severly reprimanded or even fired for idiotic statements like that, even if it wasn't meant in a racist way. Laura had to attend too many hours of "sensitivity training" even though she and many of her other co-workers had nothing to do with that statement.

Snow should already know that. If he doesn't, he's a bigger dunce than his boss or he's being dishonest. Yeah, the phrase can be traced back in American history and Literature, so can Minstrel Shows too but we aren't going hear any of the major networks rolling out a new, prime time version of one with actors in blackface. Remeber the controversy with Ted Danson appeared in blackface at that dinner with Whoopie?

So when will the "grownups" bring "honor and integrity" to the White House and send Tony to some of those classes? Of course, from the White House's perspective, the good part is that we haven't even mentioned all of the lies and dodges from the press conference...

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch...

Venezuela Weighs Selling U.S. Jets to Iran

By FABIOLA SANCHEZ
The Associated Press
Tuesday, May 16, 2006

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuela's military is considering selling its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to another country, possibly Iran, in response to a U.S. ban on arms sales to President Hugo Chavez's government, an official said Tuesday.

Gen. Alberto Muller, a senior adviser to Chavez, told The Associated Press he had recommended to the defense minister that Venezuela consider selling the 21 jets to another country.

Muller said he thought it was worthwhile to consider "the feasibility of a negotiation with Iran for the sale of those planes."

Even before the United States announced the ban on arms sales Monday, Washington had stopped selling Venezuela sensitive upgrades for the F-16s.

Muller said officials have been considering options for replacing the F-16s for some time. He said the military was considering Russian Su-35 jet fighters, "which is the best jet fighter there is in the world right now."

......

The State Department, in announcing the ban on arms sales Monday, said the measure was taken in response to a lack of support by Chavez's government for counterterrorism efforts.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack cited Venezuela's close relations with Iran and Cuba, both of which the U.S. deems state sponsors of terrorism, and expressed concerns about alleged ties between Venezuela and leftist Colombian rebels _ a suspicion Chavez has repeatedly dismissed as baseless.

The Foreign Ministry said the U.S. move was aimed at weakening Chavez's government in preparation for an attack.

"These despicable accusations are based on a futile campaign to discredit and isolate Venezuela, to destabilize its democratic government and prepare the political conditions for an attack," the ministry said.

State Department figures show Venezuelan purchases of U.S. defense equipment in 2005 came to $33.9 million, of which $30.5 million was for C-130 cargo plane spare parts.

Perhaps we should be a bit more careful with our ultimatums for now? It's not like we don't have enough problems do deal with around the world without inviting another one. Besides, do we really want to give Chavez any more air time than he really deserves, simply because the President is upset that his attempted coup didn't remove him years ago?

Granted, Chavez is probably blowing smoke about selling the planes to Iran, but would he even consider doing so if the bulk of our military wasn't tied up in Iraq? And what does that say about his desire to be a major player in the region as his nation continues to reap the benefits of high oil prices?

Fairy Tales

Bush, His Critics Overreach on Immigration

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Tue May 16, 4:18 AM ET

WASHINGTON -President Bush took credit for a boost in border security that was largely the work of Congress, and boasted about illegal aliens caught on his watch even though those numbers have fallen for much of his presidency.

Bush's TV address Monday night laid out an immigration policy in broad stokes that obscured the fine print of his record and plans on the subject.

Indeed, all sides in the fast-unfolding election-year debate have overreached in "exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain," as a scolding president put it. Bush, of course, is among those hoping that debate will deliver political dividends.

He asserted in his speech that "we have apprehended and sent home about 6 million people entering America illegally" over five years. Indeed, deportations rose sharply.

But overall apprehensions fell for three straight years before rising in 2004 to 1.1 million, still well below the 1.6 million caught in the last year of the Clinton administration, 2000, and in several years before that.

Parts of Bush's speech will be chewed over in debates over semantics, including what to make of his denial that the U.S. is militarizing the Mexican border. He is proposing to send 6,000 National Guard troops there; they will be armed but not dispatched to arrest illegal immigrants, still the job of the Border Patrol.

Bush's rationale for sending the guard is that the U.S. is not fully in control of its borders, a point no one seriously disputes. In stating that challenge and asking for more money to deal with it, however, he did not acknowledge any lapses on his part.

"Since I became president, we have increased funding for border security by 66 percent, and expanded the Border Patrol from about 9,000 to 12,000 agents," he declared.

Along the way, the financial needs of that expansion have collided with other priorities, the
Iraq war prominently among them. And several attempts in Congress to enlarge the patrol even more have run into resistance either from the White House or GOP leaders.

Last year, for example, Bush's budget proposal to Congress would have provided enough money only to pay for about 200 new border agents. This despite a 2004 law that required the addition of 2,000 agents a year.

And this month, the White House was standing firm against lawmakers who wanted to divert more money to border protection and hurricane relief from a $67.6 billion White House request for Iraq and Afghanistan military operations.

This is lying at a pathological level.

Mind Control

As he does so often, WaPo's Gene Robinson reads my mind:

Nation of Fear

By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, May 16, 2006; A17

There's little comfort in the latest polls on the revelation that the National Security Agency, on orders from George W. Bush, is compiling a permanent record of Americans' telephone calls. True, the new surveys by Newsweek and USA Today-Gallup are more encouraging than the Post-ABC News poll last week in which 63 percent said sure, no problem, go ahead and rummage through my life. But even the new polls say that four out of every 10 citizens are ready to surrender privacy and due process without so much as a whimper of protest.

That is just stunning. What the hell is going on?

After all, this is a nation that has always balked at the idea of any kind of national identification card, which other countries don't mind at all. This is a nation that refuses to require meaningful controls on firearms, accepting more than 30,000 deaths a year as the price we have to pay for privacy and freedom. You'd think news that the government is keeping track of all of our phone conversations would spark thundering outrage from sea to shining sea.

But it hasn't, and I think the reason is that the normally sunny, optimistic American mood has been adulterated by alien emotions that we don't handle very well -- fear, insecurity, resentment. It's as if the whole nation needs to be on Xanax. Or already is.

In the past I've noted how Bush regularly stokes and exploits our fears to get Americans to accept the previously unacceptable -- not just intrusive domestic surveillance but also secret CIA prisons, abandonment of due process for terrorism suspects and mistreatment of detainees that international accords describe as torture. The most tragic example, of course, is how he planted and fertilized the idea that the war in Iraq had something to do with Sept. 11, which it did not.

But while Bush takes every advantage of this sour and apprehensive mood, he didn't conjure it out of thin air. And sometimes it spins out of his control -- as evidenced by the immigration debate, in which he is having to scramble to keep the House Republican leadership, running scared in an election year, from insisting on a program of mass deportation that would resemble a latter-day Trail of Tears. The acceptance of domestic electronic surveillance and the fear of an influx of undocumented immigrants seem like disparate issues, but I believe they have the same origin -- a kind of generalized anxiety that stems in part from the Sept. 11 attacks but that has other components as well.

If a psychiatrist were to put the nation on the couch, the shrink's notes would read something like this: "Patient feels vulnerable to attack; cannot remember having experienced similar feeling before. Patient accustomed to being in control; now feels buffeted by outside forces beyond grasp. Patient believes livelihood and prosperity being usurped by others (repeatedly mentions China). Patient seeks scapegoats for personal failings (immigrants, Muslims, civil libertarians). Patient is by far most powerful nation in world, yet feels powerless. Patient is full of unfocused anger."

It's shameful to watch Bush and his minions take advantage of these acute symptoms. And if the immigration issue didn't threaten to disrupt so many people's lives, it would be amusing to witness Bush's attempts to calm the irrational fears he has so often encouraged. It's at least somewhat comforting, in a way, to know that with the president's approval ratings so low and Congress in a state of dysfunction, we may be entering a phase of one-party gridlock in which nothing much gets done -- which means there's a chance that things might not get much worse.

I have to admit that I hardly recognize this country in which I have lived for more than a half of a century. It feels like we have lost our collective mind. This isn't a liberal/conservative thing, it's a mental health thing.

Another Health Threat

Rising Diabetes Threat Meets a Falling Budget

By IAN URBINA

In Worcester, Mass., scientists are boxing up their test tubes at a shuttered laboratory where just two years ago they isolated a chemical that triggers diabetes.

In Oklahoma City, health workers faced with soaring rates of Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, question whether they can afford to continue to offer classes where diabetics learn how to avoid foot amputations.

In Columbia, S.C., diabetes educators say they need more money to expand a program that uses the pulpit in black churches to preach the importance of a healthy diet and exercise.

Across the country, health care officials who rely on federal money to help stem the growing epidemic of Type 2 diabetes say they have become increasingly frustrated and alarmed.

Diabetes is the only major disease with a death rate that is still rising — up 22 percent since 1990 — and it has emerged as the leading cause of kidney failure, blindness and nontraumatic amputation.

But public health experts say federal spending on the disease has historically fallen short of what is needed. And now the government has cut diabetes funds in the budgets for this year and next, despite the explosive growth of a disease that now figures in the deaths of 225,000 Americans each year.

"Diabetes is clearly one of the most important threats facing us," said Dr. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, "and its funding is decades behind other diseases."

Until this year, federal health spending had risen steadily for more than 20 years, fueling expanded efforts against many diseases, including diabetes. But the experts say the commitment to Type 2 diabetes never kept pace with the spread of the disease.

The number of Type 2 diabetics in the United States has doubled in the past two decades, to an estimated 20 million, when undiagnosed cases are included, making the disease the country's fastest-growing public health problem. Epidemiologists predict that one in three American children born in 2000 will join the ranks of those afflicted with Type 2.

This year, the federal government is spending $1.1 billion to study diabetes, less than a quarter of what is spent to study cancer. The government spends 10 times more per patient on cancer research, and the death rate for that disease, unlike that for diabetes, has begun to fall.

Epidemiologists say the disparity is partly explained by lingering but outdated perceptions of diabetes as a slow-moving condition that preys on the old and obese, not more recent views of it as an expanding danger that is striking people at earlier ages.

Spokesmen for the federal health and budget agencies declined to comment for this article on their spending decisions. But some budget analysts said that diabetes activists have not properly credited tens of millions of dollars that the federal government spends annually to stem obesity, a leading cause of Type 2 diabetes.

Here's another way in which our public health system is falling apart. I've lost count of the number of people I know diagnosed with diabetes in the last ten years. It's a pernicious disease which robs people over time, rather than creating an accute threat to life as cancer does. This article is another one of those "he said, she said" NYT pieces which means that finding the facts is a job. Bottom line, diabetes is increasing and spending is not. Feeling safer?

Excess of Faith

House Injects Prayer Into Defense Bill

By Alan Cooperman and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 12, 2006

a hat tip to bluenc for this link

The House passed a $513 billion defense authorization bill yesterday that includes language intended to allow chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus at public military ceremonies, undercutting new Air Force and Navy guidelines on religion.

The bill, which passed by a vote of 396 to 31, also contains significant adjustments to the Pentagon's original request, mainly by shifting hundreds of millions of dollars toward military personnel -- in the form of troop increases, protective gear and health-care benefits -- and away from new weapons systems. The measure includes $50 billion for next year's cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We're not a rubber stamp," House Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.) told reporters.

Before the bill reached the House floor, Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee added the provision on military chaplains. It says each chaplain "shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain's own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible."

Air Force and Navy rules issued in recent months allow chaplains to pray as they wish in voluntary worship services. But the rules call for nonsectarian prayers, or a moment of silence, at public meetings or ceremonies, especially when attendance is mandatory for service members of all faiths.

Focus on the Family, the Christian Coalition and other evangelical Christian groups have lobbied vigorously against the Air Force and Navy rules, urging President Bush to issue an executive order guaranteeing the right of chaplains to pray in the name of Jesus under any circumstances. Because the White House has not acted, sympathetic members of Congress stepped in.

"We felt there needed to be a clarification" of the rules "because there is political correctness creeping into the chaplains corps," said Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-N.C.). "I don't understand anyone being opposed to a chaplain having the freedom to pray to God in the way his conscience calls him to pray."

Among the provision's opponents is the chief of Navy chaplains, Rear Adm. Louis V. Iasiello, a Roman Catholic priest.

"The language ignores and negates the primary duties of the chaplain to support the religious needs of the entire crew" and "will, in the end, marginalize chaplains and degrade their use and effectiveness," Iasiello wrote in a letter to a committee member.

The National Conference on Ministry to the Armed Forces, a private association of religious groups that provide more than 70 percent of U.S. chaplains, also objected to the language. "Chaplains represent their faith communities and we endorse them to represent that faith community with integrity and loyalty to that tradition, not to the dictates of their individual conscience," the association's executive committee wrote.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called the language "divisive." Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) offered an amendment to add that chaplains should show "sensitivity, respect and tolerance for all faiths," but it was defeated on a party-line vote in committee, and the Rules Committee did not allow floor debate on the chaplaincy provision.

After all of this time, I thought that good old Walter Jones had gained some sense since he had called for a timetable to get out of Iraq. It's nice to know that a good nut won't let me down... and he still hasn't made up for "freedom fries".

I wonder if anyone has bothered to point out to him that there are many non-Christians or (more importantly) non practicing Christians that are involved with the military. If you are going to tie the hands of the chaplains, than what is the point of having them there if the soldiers do not feel comfortable going to them for their spiritual well being? I hope most of the members of the Amry ignore this silliness and go back to taking care of the troops, many of whom badly need their services.

On the Grill

This recipe makes a ton of sauce and it will keep for a week in the fridge, serve the left overs with steak or roast beef. This is outstandingly good. It's grill season, time to soak your skewers. Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a first course.

Grilled Shrimp Cocktail with Horseradish Cream Dipping Sauce

1 1/2 pounds jumbo shrimp, about 20 shrimp, deveined, peel in tact
1 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1/2 cup panko
1/2 cup prepared horseradish
1/2 cup half-and-half or light cream
1/2 teaspoon salt, eyeball it
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper sauce or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons chopped parsley, for garnish
4 leaves Romaine hearts

Preheat a grill pan over medium high heat.

Loosen shells of shrimp and butterfly them cutting down the devein line of the back of the shrimp. Toss shrimp with 1 teaspoon coarse salt. Combine melted butter with lemon juice and zest. Using a pastry brush, cover shrimps with lemon butter and set on hot grill. Grill shrimp 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until pink and firm.

In a bowl, combine panko, horseradish, cream and salt. Let the cream soak into the bread crumbs 2 minutes. Loosen bread crumbs with a fork. Stir in cayenne sauce or cayenne and combine with sour cream. Spoon equal amounts of sauce into ramekins on individual plates or a dip bowl in the center or 1 large platter.

Arrange 5 grilled shrimp down the center of 1 leaf of romaine lettuce. Serve shrimp with seafood forks alongside dipping sauce.

This makes a first course that will have your guests convinced that you are a culinary genius. I like to serve this on the spine of a romaine leaf, the presentation looks so, um, disarming. Use three instead of 5 shrimp for a first course.

Entree and Appitizer

Emeril is using one of my favorite sauces, tapenade, on his show tonight, but I do this a little differently than he does. Here's my version.

Tapenade of Black Olives, Capers and Parsley over Grilled Lamb Chops
Serves Six

3 teaspoons anchovy paste
1 cup pitted black olives
1/2 cup capers, drained and rinsed
1 cup fresh parsley leaves, plus more for garnish
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1 lemon, halved
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup olive oil, plus more for marinating lamb
12 lamb chops

For tapenade:
Add anchovy paste, olives, capers, parsley, and basil to the bowl of a food processor. Squeeze the juice of the lemon halves into processor, then add the lemon halves to the processor. Season with salt and pepper and pulse to combine. With the motor running, add the olive oil in a slow stream and continue blending until emulsified. Set aside.

For lamb chops:
Marinate in the juice of two lemons, salt, pepper and olive oil for at least 30 minutes at room temperature before cooking. When the grill is ready, cook over high heat for three minutes on a side for medium rare. Remove from the heat and let rest before preparing the plates. Top with the tapenade.

I like orzo in browned butter sauce on the side with this. A salad of baby spinach with feta and pine nuts topped with a Greek dressing makes a lovely first course.

½ t Dry Mustard
½ t Salt
1 ea Large Egg
1 ¼ c Salad Oil
1 T White Vinegar
2 T Lemon Juice
6 ea Cloves Garlic, finely minced
1 t Dried Oregano
½ t Worcestershire sauce
1 ds Pepper (to taste)

In a small but deep bowl, mix mustard, salt, egg and vinegar. Add oil one drop at a time, beating constantly, until about one-third of the oil have been added. (Once the mixture begins to thicken, oil can be added several drops at a time). Slowly beat in remaining oil and lemon juice. Stir in minced garlic, oregano, worcestershire sauce. Add pepper. Refrigerate mixture. Makes about 1 1/4 cups.

It's really easy to make this in a blender or food processor.

Decisions, Decisions

This is a dilemma: do I act the good citizen and watch (retch) Bush's immigration speech, most of which has already been leaked, or Emeril, who is cooking Italian tonight, my favorite stuff? This is a head-scratcher.

Oops!

Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You're Calling

May 15, 2006 10:33 AM
Brian Ross and Richard Esposito

A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

"It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick," the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.

One former official was asked to sign a document stating he was not a confidential source for New York Times reporter James Risen.

The sad thing is, the comments are scarier than the news. Of course the government is spying on the journalists, that's not the shocking part. The vitriol aimed at the reports is what is so shocking... it looks like every one of the 29% that still supports the President logged on to this site. Apparently, the 1st Amendment is dead and no one in the Bush Administration needs to be held accountable. What has happened to this nation that so many people would throw away such a prescious right so quickly?

I bet Nixon is having a fun time watching this unfold and really wishes he had not taped his conversations. So what other records are lurking out there to be discovered?

Story Lurking?

Vaughn Ververs writes at Public Eye, the CBS News blog:

Web Report Of Rove Troubles Raises Rash Of Speculation

Has Karl Rove been indicted? That was the big rumor sweeping the Web over the weekend, courtesy of a report on the liberal Web site Truthout.org. On Saturday, Jason Leopold reported on the site that President Bush’s political architect had been informed of a pending indictment:

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent more than half a day Friday at the offices of Patton Boggs, the law firm representing Karl Rove.

During the course of that meeting, Fitzgerald served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case, and instructed one of the attorneys to tell Rove that he has 24 business hours to get his affairs in order, high level sources with direct knowledge of the meeting said Saturday morning.

The day before, Leopold reported that Rove had informed President Bush and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten he would be indicted and would leave his White House post immediately once it was announced. The basis for these reports? “Sources,” of course.

Had either of these stories appeared on the front page of The New York Times, or in Newsweek magazine, we would be in the throes of a media feeding frenzy. The Sunday Show slates would have been hurriedly rearranged to capitalize on this new “bombshell” and America would have woken up this morning to watch Rove make the quick walk-and-duck from his front door to his waiting car. But so far, Leopold’s story stands alone.

It’s not to say the report wasn’t noticed. At the conservative National Review, Byron York noted that the story was being checked out by other reporters who had not been able to substantiate it. York also reported that Rove’s spokesperson was denying the story. At CBS News, e-mails were sent out by correspondents reporting absolute denials of the story by named principles. And questions about Leopold’s past circulated on the Web.

Adding to the intrigue are comments suggesting he will reveal the names of his sources if the story does not turn out to be accurate. It’s something that has the blogosphere buzzing, but has yet to be verified independently. Presumably, we’ll know soon whether there is anything to this story. The fact nobody in the MSM has been able to verify it suggests the story is not accurate in some respects.

This is a curious story in so many ways. If it is true, why would Rove’s spokesperson issue such a strong denial? It would appear pretty silly to deny one day what is going to happen the next. Would Leopold really reveal the names of his sources should the story turn out incorrect? What is really the difference between the use of anonymous sources in this instance and the many un-named sources we see in the MSM? And just consider the possibility that Leopold’s story could turn out to be accurate. What would that mean to the world of journalism?

I didnot run with this story over the weekend because I generally don't print stories that don't have confirming details elsewhere in the media. If Leopold is correct, the news will, of course, rock the political world.

Away They Go

Bye Bye, Body Man

Ken Herman writes for Cox News Service: "Add the president's 'body man' to the list of close aides leaving the building.

"After more than four years as President Bush's personal aide, Austinite Blake Gottesman will leave next month to head to Harvard Business School -- one of Bush's alma maters -- in the fall.

"Gottesman's official title is 'special assistant to the president and personal aide.' The more commonly used body man moniker derives from the fact that his job is to stick as closely as possible to the president.

"Since March 2002, he's spent about as much time with Bush as anybody on the staff....."He dog-sits Barney. He carries the hand cleanser. He keeps track of the president's schedule. And he has traveled the world with Bush."

Herman also describes Gottesman's propensity for practical jokes -- and wonders how exactly Gottesman got into Harvard Business School without an undergraduate degree.

Yes, that is unusual, but it happens. I did it. That's right: I have two master's and no bachelor's.

No Rest for the Weary

Many Forced to Retire Early
Despite the increasing financial pressure to stay employed, nearly half of U.S. workers leave before they plan to, a survey indicates.
By Jonathan Peterson, Times Staff Writer
May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON — American workers, who face growing financial pressure to stay in the workforce, are far more likely to be forced into an early retirement than many expect, according to a study being released today.

Four out of 10 retired workers left their jobs sooner than they had planned, usually because of health problems or the loss of employment, according to the report by McKinsey & Co., which was based on a national survey of 3,086 people.

The survey also found that 45% of people who are currently employed planned to keep working past age 65. But among the retirees polled, only 13% said they had done so.

The findings raise fresh concerns about Americans' ability to afford a comfortable retirement. With more companies abandoning or freezing their pensions, many people say they plan to work longer to build up their nest eggs.

The reality "is quite sobering," said David Hunt, a senior partner at McKinsey. "Our research clearly shows that many people — and more than a few public policymakers — who are betting on simply working longer to compensate for a lack of current savings are setting themselves up for a rude awakening and a significantly poorer standard of living in retirement than they had expected."

Ask Rolf Marsh. The computer programmer was 60 when he got a surprise tap on the shoulder from IBM Corp.

Marsh had planned to work five more years to qualify for higher pension payments, then retire to enjoy a new phase of life, including visits to friends in Britain and other travels with his wife.

"I guess I was blind to the handwriting on the wall," said Marsh, who lives near Spokane, Wash. "I didn't think it was going to happen."

Now 63, Marsh has been frustrated in his attempts to prolong his career. "I looked for work when I first got out — basically, there's very little up here in Spokane — and the jobs I applied for I didn't get. My feeling was it was because of age."

Marsh estimates that his pension is less than half what it would have been had he remained longer in the job. To boost his income, he signed up for Social Security earlier than planned, further scaling down his retirement pay. Eventually, he and his wife took in an elderly boarder for whom his wife cares to make ends meet. "It's been difficult," he said.

The McKinsey survey included retirees, for which it had a 3.2-percentage-point margin of error, and people who are not retired, for which the margin of error was 2.4 percentage points. It was conducted in March and April among people 40 to 75 years old.

Among those who retired earlier than they expected, 47% cited health reasons and 44% pointed to job loss. The remaining 9% said they had to care for an ailing family member.

Workers with less than $50,000 in assets were most likely to be forced out of their careers because of health problems. Those who had more than $1 million pointed to job loss as the greatest reason for retiring.

I don't know about you, but I'll be working until I'm toes up. Don't have a choice.

Selling It

A Little Too Cozy

By Al Kamen
Monday, May 15, 2006; A15

We were so looking forward to attending the Energy Department's Office of Environmental Management's "2nd annual EM Transportation Best Practices Workshop and Training" at the lovely Hotel Boulderado, in Boulder, Colo.

The first one, in Phoenix in 2005, was said to be a great time for the 150 local and state officials, Energy Department staff and hazardous materials transporters to talk about risks, trends and regulations.

A one-page flier on a special Web site this year invited companies to "secure a corporate sponsorship and realize profitable relationships with influential decision-makers at this exclusive industry event."

The gathering "offers your company the outstanding opportunity to enhance your visibility to the true decision-makers who drive the hazardous materials transportation industry." Yes, indeed, "your target audience can also become your captive audience," the Web site gushed, especially if you fork over $2,000 to pay for the welcome reception, or a continental breakfast, lunch or a coffee break.

It's unclear who came up with the bright idea to charge companies for a chance to cozy up to regulators -- and save lobbying fees by skipping the middleman.

But at some point top agency officials got wind of the plan. "Once departmental leadership learned about the implications contained in the flier, they canceled the conference," said spokesman Craig Stevens . The department's "door is always open to anyone free of charge."

The Web site disappeared. The fliers flew away. And anyone who had paid for the conference received a refund, we were told. It's unclear if the event will be rescheduled.

We know what we are; we're just haggling over the price.

Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Conservative Christians Warn Republicans Against Inaction

By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: May 15, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 13 — Some of President Bush's most influential conservative Christian allies are becoming openly critical of the White House and Republicans in Congress, warning that they will withhold their support in the midterm elections unless Congress does more to oppose same-sex marriage, obscenity and abortion.

"There is a growing feeling among conservatives that the only way to cure the problem is for Republicans to lose the Congressional elections this fall," said Richard Viguerie, a conservative direct-mail pioneer.

Mr. Viguerie also cited dissatisfaction with government spending, the war in Iraq and the immigration-policy debate, which Mr. Bush is scheduled to address in a televised speech on Monday night.

"I can't tell you how much anger there is at the Republican leadership," Mr. Viguerie said. "I have never seen anything like it."

In the last several weeks, Dr. James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and one of the most influential Christian conservatives, has publicly accused Republican leaders of betraying the social conservatives who helped elect them in 2004. He has also warned in private meetings with about a dozen of the top Republicans in Washington that he may turn critic this fall unless the party delivers on conservative goals.

And at a meeting in Northern Virginia this weekend of the Council for National Policy, an alliance of the most prominent Christian conservatives, several participants said sentiment toward the White House and Republicans in Congress had deteriorated sharply since the 2004 elections.

It's an interesting political moment, but these folks are going to vote Repub, perhaps with little enthusiasm, but, as a life-long liberal, I can tell you that holding your nose and pulling the lever is hardly a rare experience.

Eeek! A BlogMeme

the reveres challenge me to come up with my ten favorite birds. Pardon me while my nails dry. I'm a birder and this is not hard.

the little green heron

the ivory billed woodpecker, every birders delight

The common loon whose song graces the woods of northern Minnesota and Ontario. The reveres and I are common loons.

The Ruby Throated Hummingbird whom I feed in my back yard and lands on my fingers. The most fearless avian.

Cooper's Hawk, I find the raptors extremely beautiful.

The north American Osprey is a mighty fisher and fantastic to watch.

Seeing the red-wing black bird in the field always lifts my spirits. They are beautiful and strong enough to throw hawks out of their feeding grounds. I like feisty.

Cardinals are beautiful, mate for life, and have a wonderful song that wakes me up in the morning. What's not to like.

Robins are first up in the morning and have a loud and liquid song. There are some mornings that I want to throw a shoe at them.

I would like to ask the reveres to pause and ask how far into this they want to get. I'm a pelagic birder and go on expeditions in far seas to observe rare birds I can beat the ducks' tail off you and Lindsay.

I can also suggest what a captive hummer will do to you. You won't like it.

The reveres remind me that I need to tag another blogger. Oh, Susie? Your turn.

Soooeey!

In Kentucky Hills, a Homeland Security Bonanza
By ERIC LIPTON

WASHINGTON, May 13 — The Department of Homeland Security has invested tens of millions of dollars and countless hours of labor over the last four years on a seemingly simple task: creating a tamperproof identification card for airport, rail and maritime workers.

Yet nearly two years past a planned deadline, production of the card, known as the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, has yet to begin.

Instead, the road to delivering this critical antiterrorism tool has taken detours to locations, companies and groups often linked to Representative Harold Rogers, a Kentucky Republican who is the powerful chairman of the House subcommittee that controls the Homeland Security budget.

It is a route that has benefited Mr. Rogers, creating jobs in his home district and profits for companies that are donors to his political causes. The congressman has also taken 11 trips — including six to Hawaii — on the tab of an organization that until this week was to profit from a no-bid contract Mr. Rogers helped arrange. Work has even been set aside for a tiny start-up company in Kentucky that employs John Rogers, the congressman's son.

"Something stinks in Corbin," said Jay M. Meier, senior securities analyst at MJSK Equity Research in Minneapolis, which follows the identification card industry, referring to the Kentucky community of 8,000 that has perhaps benefited the most from Mr. Rogers's interventions. "And it is the sickest example of what is wrong with our homeland security agenda that I can find."

Who knew how many opportunities for pork and self-aggranizement there were in the Homeland Security agenda? This guy is really good at it.

Elsewhere

Florida politics is sui generis. I found this editorial in today's Orlando Sentinal:

The deft art of being a politician
Published May 14, 2006

In case you missed it, both of our senators expressed outrage over the revelation that the government appears to be tracking the calls of regular old Americans like you and me. Bill Nelson was outraged that this was happening. Mel Martinez was outraged that you found out.

It's going to be funny to watch the top Republican brass stump for Katherine Harris this season, now that she's the presumptive front-runner in the U.S. Senate race. How sincerely, after all, will guys like Jeb Bush be able to tout her -- when just last week he declared: "I just don't believe she can win."?

Then again, at least Bush was decisive. Check out this statement that Harris' own campaign sent out from Martinez: "I wish her well. And I will be endorsing her -- if I have not already done so. I think I already have, but I will be, I am sure, campaigning with her."

Justice Quashed

U.S. moves in secret to quash suit against AT&T;

Privacy group says firm gave records to surveillance program

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, May 13, 2006

The Bush administration is filing secret arguments with a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against AT&T; over its alleged participation in the government's electronic surveillance program, a privacy-rights group said Friday.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the suit in a San Francisco federal court in January, said Justice Department lawyers had notified it that the motion to dismiss and accompanying sworn statements were being filed under seal. Only an edited version will be made public.

The administration said last month that it would assert the "military and state secrets privilege'' and argue that allowing the case to proceed would jeopardize national security. Filing the arguments under seal is common in such cases and has been permitted by federal courts.

"We will be forced to argue against a secret brief that we will never see in total,'' said Kevin Bankston, a lawyer with the foundation.

The suit, filed on behalf of AT&T; customers, accuses the company of giving the National Security Agency access to its voice and data network and records of customers' calls and e-mails without a search warrant or any evidence of wrongdoing. The suit seeks an order halting the company's actions and damages for all affected customers.

President Bush has said that shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he authorized the National Security Agency to intercept phone calls and e-mails between U.S. residents and terror suspects abroad without court approval. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 required the government to obtain a warrant from a court in secret session for such surveillance, but Bush maintains he has the constitutional authority to override the law.

The lawsuit says AT&T; has allowed the federal agency to sift electronically through all its messages. On Thursday, USA Today reported that AT&T;, Verizon and Bell South had turned over domestic telephone records to the National Security Agency.

Emphasis mine. Bush's "national security" (s)quashes the law.

More Orwell

Fired Officer Believed CIA Lied to Congress
Friends Say McCarthy Learned of Denials About Detainees' Treatment

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 14, 2006; A01

A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere.

But another CIA officer -- the agency's deputy inspector general, who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood, according to people familiar with her account. It came during the discussion of legislation that would constrain the CIA's interrogations.

That CIA officer was Mary O. McCarthy, 61, who was fired on April 20 for allegedly sharing classified information with journalists, including Washington Post journalist Dana Priest. A CIA employee of two decades, McCarthy became convinced that "CIA people had lied" in that briefing, as one of her friends said later, not only because the agency had conducted abusive interrogations but also because its policies authorized treatment that she considered cruel, inhumane or degrading.

Whether McCarthy's conviction that the CIA was hiding unpleasant truths provoked her to leak sensitive information is known only to her and the journalists she is alleged to have spoken with last year. But the picture of her that emerges from interviews with more than a dozen former colleagues is of an independent-minded analyst who became convinced that on multiple occasions the agency had not given accurate or complete information to its congressional overseers.

McCarthy was not an ideologue, her friends say, but at some point fell into a camp of CIA officers who felt that the Bush administration's venture into Iraq had dangerously diverted U.S. counterterrorism policy. After seeing -- in e-mails, cable traffic, interview transcripts and field reports -- some of the secret fruits of the Iraq intervention, McCarthy became disenchanted, three of her friends say.

In addition to CIA misrepresentations at the session last summer, McCarthy told the friends, a senior agency official failed to provide a full account of the CIA's detainee-treatment policy at a closed hearing of the House intelligence committee in February 2005, under questioning by Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the senior Democrat.

McCarthy also told others she was offended that the CIA's general counsel had worked to secure a secret Justice Department opinion in 2004 authorizing the agency's creation of "ghost detainees" -- prisoners removed from Iraq for secret interrogations without notice to the International Committee of the Red Cross -- because the Geneva Conventions prohibit such practices.

Almost all of McCarthy's friends and colleagues interviewed for this report agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity because her case still could be referred for prosecution and because much of her work involved highly classified information.

As a former director of intelligence programs in the Clinton administration's National Security Council, McCarthy was entrusted with deep secrets regarding the nation's covert actions overseas. She was a contributor in 2004 to the presidential campaign of Democratic Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), and a former colleague of two Clinton aides -- Richard A. Clarke and Rand Beers -- who had publicly assailed what they considered President Bush's misguided focus on Iraq.

By many accounts, those traits helped fit McCarthy precisely into the current White House's model of a disloyal intelligence officer: She dissented from Bush administration policy, and she let others know.

When did opposition come to equal treason? What strange world have we entered?

Embassy Roof

Despite Political Pressure to Scale Back, Logistics Are Pinning Down U.S. in Iraq

By DAVID S. CLOUD and THOM SHANKER
Published: May 14, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 13 — Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld regularly says he wants major troop withdrawals from Iraq, if possible this year. But he rarely mentions the daunting challenges beyond the volatile security situation that are preventing a rapid withdrawal.

Discussions of when, how fast and how far to draw down American troops in Iraq will no doubt be influenced by the domestic political mood, with Congressional elections approaching in November. Yet those pushing for significant withdrawals will run into an undeniable law of military operations: the American combat troops who remain in Iraq, and the growing number of Iraqi security forces, will still require substantial numbers of supporting American forces to remain, too, to supply food, fuel and ammunition and otherwise support combat operations.

As the Bush administration considers how and when to draw down the nearly 133,000 American troops still in Iraq, those logistical factors, among many other pressures and counterpressures, will weigh heavily toward keeping a sizable force there, delivering supplies, gathering and analyzing intelligence and providing air support to Iraqi security forces.

President Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld have always insisted that decisions on withdrawals will be based on the security situation in Iraq and the readiness of the new Iraqi Army, and that they will be made only after recommendations from senior commanders, including General George W. Casey Jr., the top commander in Iraq, and General John P. Abizaid, the overall American commander in the region.

Senior officers are aware of the growing political pressure on the Bush administration to carry out withdrawals. Many are sympathetic with the goal, worried that the demands of keeping many more than 100,000 troops in Iraq for several more years could do long-term harm to the military and holding out hope that a permanent Iraqi government would do much to stabilize the country.

But despite the political pressures, and despite the argument by senior officials like Mr. Rumsfeld and General Abizaid that a large American presence may actually be fueling the insurgency, commanders are discussing whether the volatile security situation would allow any significant withdrawals at all in the short term, according to interviews with Pentagon officials and officers in Iraq in recent weeks.

Indeed, a trend of American troops pulling back to their bases and letting Iraqi troops take the lead has had to be scaled back, and the Americans have had to resume more active operations to help stop the widespread sectarian violence that has killed hundreds of Iraqi civilians in the past few months, a senior officer said. At the same time, attacks on American troops in March and April were at their highest point since last fall.

"General Casey is feeling the pressure. He knows how hard this is on the Army, but he's getting pulled in two directions," said a general who recently served in Iraq. Like some other officers and officials interviewed for this article, he was granted anonymity because he said he had been ordered not to discuss troop levels. Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, a British Royal Marine and the deputy ground commander in Iraq, said that insurgents have increased their attacks in an attempt to disrupt formation of a permanent Iraqi government for fear it could attract widespread support among Iraqis.

"We are about to enter a phase here which is likely to be decisive in terms of the political transformation of this country," he told Pentagon reporters in a video briefing from Iraq on Friday. "The opposition knows this just as well as we do."

Juan Cole remarks:

So in 5 years the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish battalions will like each other more than they do now? Will be more willing to fight against armed groups from their own ethnicities?

We are still being lied to. There is no path out of Iraq. Period.

Nation at War

BACK FROM IRAQ

Sunday, May 14, 2006; A01

Bad stuff happened in Iraq, stuff Adam Reuter doesn't want to talk about. Not with his friends, not with the line cooks in the burger joint where he worked when he first came home or the tenants in the apartment complex he manages now.

He doesn't even want to talk about it with his wife, who worried because he was jumping out of bed in the middle of the night.

But when he agrees to talk about the war -- really talk about it -- he goes right to how the insurgent crumpled after he pulled the trigger. How later, during the firefight, he ended up just a few feet from the corpse. Bullets buzzed by, and he was supposed to keep an eye on the alley, but he couldn't help but glance over.

"He just lay there," Reuter remembers. His eyes and mouth open. His whiskers a few days old. The bullet had gone in his neck cleanly, just to the right of his Adam's apple, but had come out ugly from the back of his head. He was maybe 25, a little older than Reuter. And his blood was pooling, thick and almost black in the darkness.

How can you describe what that was like? Who would understand it?

Nobody. So Reuter keeps his mouth shut. His army uniform is packed in a box in the garage. He hasn't looked at it in months. Instead, he kisses his baby boy every night. He gets on with his life, because that's what everyone else is doing.

At home in Newnan, Ga., there is no war.

"It doesn't cross their minds," Reuter said. "To them, everything is fine."

* * *

After three years, there are at least 550,000 veterans of the Iraq war. The Washington Post interviewed 100 of them -- many of whom were still in the service, others who weren't -- to hear about what their war was like and how the transition home has been.

Their answers were as varied as their experiences. But a constant theme through the interviews was that the American public is largely unaffected by the war, and, despite round-the-clock television and Internet exposure, doesn't understand what it's like.

You can't understand unless you were there .

It's a timeless refrain sounded by generation after generation of soldiers returning from combat. But what sets Iraq war veterans apart is not just the kind of war they are fighting but the mood of the country they are coming home to. It is not a United States unified behind the war effort, such as in World War II. There's no rationing, no sacrifice, no Rosie the Riveter urging, "We Can Do it!" Nor is it the country that protested Vietnam and derided many vets as baby killers.

The United States that Iraq veterans are returning to is relatively indifferent, many said. One that without fear of a draft seems more interested in the progression of "American Idol" than the bombings in Baghdad. Sure, there are the homecoming parades, the yellow-ribbon bumper stickers, the pats on the back -- they continue as troops arrive back home.

But for many vets, those moments of gratitude were short-lived or limited to close friends and family. Soon they were joined by bitter impressions of a society that seems to forget that it is living through the country's largest combat operation in more than 30 years.

When Army Reserve Warrant Officer Mark Rollings got home to Wylie, Tex., he didn't expect anyone to treat him any differently because he was a vet. But he couldn't help but notice that the only one to say anything about the newly installed Purple Heart license plate on his Chevy Blazer was the kid who changed his oil at the Wal-Mart.

"For having a global war on terrorism," he said, "everything looks like business as usual to me."

The job of the military is to kill people and blow things up. If the people of the military come home changed by that, is it surprising?

Cilantro Aioli

This is amazing with fish prepared virtually any way at all. I love it with sauteed scallops. It will also make the most astonishing shrimp salad you have ever eaten.

6 egg yolks
2 teapoon Dijon mustard
salt and black pepper to taste
1 1/2 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 cup loosely packed cilantro
1/2 cup light olive oil combined with 1 cup regular olive oil
1 tablespoon hot water

Place the egg yolks, mustard, salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Process until the leaves are finely chopped. With the processor still running, slowly add the oil. The mixture should have the consistency of mayonnaise. Add the hot water, blend, and transfer to a glass container. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

This is easy, a matter of minutes in the food processor.

Serve this with sauteed scallops which have been finished with a white wine reduction and rice on the side. I like lightly steamed baby carrots served with a little melted butter and brown sugar on the side.

Alternatively, make a shrimp salad with the aioli (this makes LOTS of aioli.) Freshen regular size pita breads in the microwave, cut in half, line with red leaf lettuce and fill with the salad mixture. This will make one of your more successful picnic lunches paired with grapes and some mild cheese like Bon Bel or Bel Paesa.

Once you've acquired the taste for fresh mayo, you'll never settle for the stuff in a jar from the grocery. You can use all kinds of herbs and spices (and flavored mustards and vinegars) to develop an entire palette of mayonaisses that will go far beyond the sandwich board and the holy trinity of tuna/chicken/egg salads.

Lefteovers kept carefully covered in a glass jar with a good lid in the fridge will last safely for at least a week.

For shrimp salad

1 pound peeled and deveined cooked shrimp
1 large rib celery, finely sliced
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup cilantro aioli
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the shrimp into quarters, combine with the rest of the ingredients and adjust seasoning. This can be served as a salad on a bed of leaf lettuce and sliced tomato, topped with a dusting of paprika and chopped chives or in a sandwich, as above.

Sweet Start

This is a substantial first course which would be a perfect foil for a second course of poached or braised fish or chicken. It is also different, and the blending of flavors is unusual and very pleasing.

Sweet Potato and Andouille Soup
For 4-6

3 tablespoons peanut oil
1 1/4 pounds sweet potatoes
1/2 pound bulk andouille sausage, crumbled, or pulsed in food processor if link sausage
1 cup julienned onions
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 quart chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat the sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon of the oil and place in a small baking dish. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast the sweet potatoes for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until the potatoes are fully roasted and fork tender. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin from the potatoes. Reserve the sweet potato flesh until ready to use.

Heat a 1 gallon stockpot over medium-high heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the andouille to the pot and saute until most of the fat has rendered and the meat is well caramelized, stirring constantly, 5 to 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the andouille and drain on a paper-lined plate. Set aside until ready to use. Add the onions and saute until softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic to the pot and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add the cayenne pepper and chicken stock to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer.

Add the roasted sweet potatoes to the soup and stir to blend. Simmer for 10 minutes, then blend with an immersion blender or in batches in a bar blender until smooth. Return the soup to the pot, if necessary, and stir in the heavy cream. Season with the salt and if necessary more pepper. Garnish with the cooked andouille, chopped chives and tarragon and serve.

Bird Flu Concern

You all asked me to tell you when it was time to get serious about stockpiling food and water in the face of possible supply chain breakdowns in the face of a possible flu pandemic. Well, if you haven't started yet, it is time. Remember, buy what you eat and eat what you buy. Don't experiment with a whole new diet now, get the things that you know that you and your family enjoy. Word is just coming out of Indonesia, which where the flu pot has been simmering for months, of a possible cluster of new cases, possibly two generations. I'll put up a link when I find a story that's corroborated.

All of the information you need to prepare for a possible pandemic is at The Flu Wiki, including lists of preparations to make and links to food calculators to determine how much food and water you will need. There is also a discussion forum so that you can talk with others about what they are doing.

Orwell Lives

Cheney Pushed U.S. to Widen Eavesdropping
By SCOTT SHANE and ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, May 13 — In the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, Vice President Dick Cheney and his top legal adviser argued that the National Security Agency should intercept purely domestic telephone calls and e-mail messages without warrants in the hunt for terrorists, according to two senior intelligence officials.

But N.S.A. lawyers, trained in the agency's strict rules against domestic spying and reluctant to approve any eavesdropping without warrants, insisted that it should be limited to communications into and out of the country, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss the debate inside the Bush administration late in 2001.

The N.S.A.'s position ultimately prevailed. But just how Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the agency at the time, designed the program, persuaded wary N.S.A. officers to accept it and sold the White House on its limits is not yet fully clear.

As the program's overseer and chief salesman, General Hayden is certain to face questions about his role when he appears at a Senate hearing next week on his nomination as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Criticism of the surveillance program, which some lawmakers say is illegal, flared again this week with the disclosure that the N.S.A. had collected the phone records of millions of Americans in an effort to track terror suspects.

By several accounts, including those of the two officials, General Hayden, a 61-year-old Air Force officer who left the agency last year to become principal deputy director of national intelligence, was the man in the middle as President Bush demanded that intelligence agencies act urgently to stop future attacks.

On one side was a strong-willed vice president and his longtime legal adviser, David S. Addington, who believed that the Constitution permitted spy agencies to take sweeping measures to defend the country. Later, Mr. Cheney would personally arrange tightly controlled briefings on the program for select members of Congress.

On the other side were some lawyers and officials at the largest American intelligence agency, which was battered by eavesdropping scandals in the 1970's and has since wielded its powerful technology with extreme care to avoid accusations of spying on Americans.

As in other areas of intelligence collection, including interrogation methods for terror suspects, Mr. Cheney and Mr. Addington took an aggressive view of what was permissible under the Constitution, the two intelligence officials said.

If people suspected of links to Al Qaeda made calls inside the United States, the vice president and Mr. Addington thought eavesdropping without warrants "could be done and should be done," one of them said.

He added: "That's not what the N.S.A. lawyers think."

The other official said there was "a very healthy debate" over the issue. The vice president's staff was "pushing and pushing, and it was up to the N.S.A. lawyers to draw a line and say absolutely not."

Cheney's been pushing the "unitary executive" and virtually imperial power for the executive since the Ford administration. He has no apparent grasp of the concept of "balance of powers," must have flunked high school civics.

Avian Flu Update

This NYT story is an excellent summary of how things stand today with avian influenza as primarily a disease in birds. It's quite long so I'm only going to quote a bit of the beginning, but, if you are interested, this is worth a complete read.

Avian Flu Wanes in Asian Nations It First Hit Hard
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Even as it crops up in the far corners of Europe and Africa, the virulent bird flu that raised fears of a human pandemic has been largely snuffed out in the parts of Southeast Asia where it claimed its first and most numerous victims.

Health officials are pleased and excited. "In Thailand and Vietnam, we've had the most fabulous success stories," said Dr. David Nabarro, chief pandemic flu coordinator for the United Nations.

Vietnam, which has had almost half of the human cases of A(H5N1) flu in the world, has not seen a single case in humans or a single outbreak in poultry this year. Thailand, the second-hardest-hit nation until Indonesia recently passed it, has not had a human case in nearly a year or one in poultry in six months.

Encouraging signs have also come from China, though they are harder to interpret.

These are the second positive signals that officials have seen recently in their struggle to prevent avian flu from igniting a human pandemic. Confounding expectations, birds making the spring migration north from Africa have not carried the virus into Europe.

Dr. Nabarro and other officials warn that it would be highly premature to declare any sort of victory. The virus has moved rapidly across continents and is still rampaging in Myanmar, Indonesia and other countries nearby. It could still hitchhike back in the illegal trade in chicks, fighting cocks or tropical pets, or in migrating birds.

But this sudden success in the former epicenter of the epidemic is proof that aggressive measures like killing infected chickens, inoculating healthy ones, protecting domestic flocks and educating farmers can work, even in very poor countries.

Dr. Nabarro said he was "cautious in interpreting these shifts in patterns" because too little is known about how the disease spreads.

Dr. Nabarro's last point can't be repeated too often: there is so much that we don't know that drawing any conclusions from this news summary would be completely premature and, probably, wrong.

Truthiness

Newsweek Poll: Americans Wary of NSA Spying
Bush’s approval ratings hit new lows as controversy rages.

By David Jefferson
Updated: 11:59 a.m. ET May 13, 2006

May 13, 2006 - Has the Bush administration gone too far in expanding the powers of the President to fight terrorism? Yes, say a majority of Americans, following this week’s revelation that the National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone records of U.S. citizens since the September 11 terrorist attacks. According to the latest NEWSWEEK poll, 53 percent of Americans think the NSA’s surveillance program “goes too far in invading people’s privacy,” while 41 percent see it as a necessary tool to combat terrorism.

President Bush tried to reassure the public this week that its privacy is “fiercely protected,” and that “we’re not mining or trolling through the personal lives of innocent Americans.” Nonetheless, Americans think the White House has overstepped its bounds: 57 percent said that in light of the NSA data-mining news and other executive actions, the Bush-Cheney Administration has “gone too far in expanding presidential power.” That compares to 38 percent who think the Administration’s actions are appropriate.

There’s more bad news for the White House in the NEWSWEEK poll: President Bush’s approval rating has dropped to the lowest in his presidency. At 35 percent, his rating is one point below the 36 percent he received in Newsweek’s polls in March and November, 2005.

He has this little "why should we believe a word out of his mouth" problem.

WaPo Fluffers

The WaPo ed board never installs its dentures when it takes on the Bush White House. Today it gums the widening inequality gap.

Down Is Up
The White House taxes reality.

Saturday, May 13, 2006; A16

THE BUSH administration occasionally dips a toe into the inequality debate. In March Treasury Secretary John W. Snow described inequality as "the new sort of battle line in the political arena," but he has since gone silent on the subject. Now Edward P.

Lazear, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, has addressed inequality in a May 8 Wall Street Journal op-ed column, co-authored with Katherine Baicker, a fellow council member. The article contains the following assertion: "The president's tax cuts have made the tax code more progressive, which also narrows the difference in take-home earnings."

This really is a jaw-dropper. Calculations by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center clearly show that the Bush tax cuts have expanded inequality, not narrowed it. People in the bottom fifth of the income spectrum have enjoyed a 0.4 percent increase in their after-tax income thanks to the tax cuts, but people in the top fifth have enjoyed a 3.8 percent increase. For the richest households, the gains have been still larger: The top 1 percent got a 5 percent raise courtesy of the tax cuts, and the top 0.1 percent got 5.9 percent. There's no ambiguity about it: The tax cuts widened the gap in take-home earnings.

The Lazear-Baicker article did acknowledge that high school dropouts have made no gains since 1980: Their wages fell by 3 percent. It might also have mentioned that this wasn't true only of high school dropouts: Wages for those in the bottom half of the income spectrum have fallen after adjustment for inflation. The failure of economic growth to generate gains for half of society is a serious worry. The administration needs to come at it with more serious analysis.

C'mon, Posties. Serious analysis? Out of this White House? Do you really think they are going to do anything other than lie? Give me a freakin' break.

Swirling

Rove Informs White House He Will Be Indicted

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Friday 12 May 2006

Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him, according to sources.

Details of Rove's discussions with the president and Bolten have spread through the corridors of the White House where low-level staffers and senior officials were trying to determine how the indictment would impact an administration that has been mired in a number of high-profile political scandals for nearly a year, said a half-dozen White House aides and two senior officials who work at the Republican National Committee.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources confirmed Rove's indictment is imminent. These individuals requested anonymity saying they were not authorized to speak publicly about Rove's situation. A spokesman in the White House press office said they would not comment on "wildly speculative rumors."

Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, did not return a call for comment Friday.

Rove's announcement to President Bush and Bolten comes more than a month after he alerted the new chief of staff to a meeting his attorney had with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in which Fitzgerald told Luskin that his case against Rove would soon be coming to a close and that he was leaning toward charging Rove with perjury, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators, according to sources close to the investigation.

A few weeks after he spoke with Fitzgerald, Luskin arranged for Rove to return to the grand jury for a fifth time to testify in hopes of fending off an indictment related to Rove's role in the CIA leak, sources said.

That meeting was followed almost immediately by an announcement by newly-appointed White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten of changes in the responsibilities of some White House officials, including Rove, who was stripped of his policy duties and would no longer hold the title of deputy White House chief of staff.

We'll see.

The Fourth Amendment

This is going to be the major story next week, bolstered by congressional hearings and testimony that privacy violations by the NSA under Michael Hayden were much greater than previously known. Congress Daily (sub. req.) reported on Friday that former staffer Russell Tice is readying testimony for the Armed Services Committee next week. Here is the round up of where we are now from the NYT (WaPo is off line this morning.)

Bush Is Pressed Over New Report on Surveillance
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, May 11 — Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike demanded answers from the Bush administration on Thursday about a report that the National Security Agency had collected records of millions of domestic phone calls, even as President Bush assured Americans that their privacy is "fiercely protected."

"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Mr. Bush said before leaving for a commencement address in Mississippi. "Our efforts are focused on links to Al Qaeda and their known affiliates."

The president sought to defuse a tempest on Capitol Hill over an article in USA Today reporting that AT&T;, Verizon and BellSouth had turned over tens of millions of customer phone records to the N.S.A. since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But Mr. Bush's remarks appeared to do little to mollify members of Congress, as several leading lawmakers said they wanted to hear directly from administration officials and telecommunication executives.

The report rekindled the controversy about domestic spying.

Several lawmakers predicted the new disclosures would complicate confirmation hearings next week for Gen. Michael V. Hayden, formerly the head of the N.S.A., as the president's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency.

One senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak publicly about the classified program, confirmed that the N.S.A. had access to records of most telephone calls in the United States. But the official said the call records were used for the limited purpose of tracing regular contacts of "known bad guys."

"To perform such traces," the official said, "you'd have to have all the calls or most of them. But you wouldn't be interested in the vast majority of them."

The New York Times first reported in December that the president had authorized the N.S.A. to conduct eavesdropping without warrants.

The Times also reported in December that the agency had gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to get access to records of vast amounts of domestic and international phone calls and e-mail messages.

The agency analyzes communications patterns, the report said, and looks for evidence of terrorist activity at home and abroad.

The USA Today article on Thursday went further, saying that the N.S.A. had created an enormous database of all calls made by customers of the three phone companies in an effort to compile a log of "every call ever made" within this country. The report said one large phone company, Qwest, had refused to cooperate with the N.S.A. because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants.

I'm still fighting some sort of bug so posting will probably be light today.

Southern Kaleeforneea

I kid thee not, these are some of the best Tamales ever constructed by the mind of man. For vegetarians, leave out the pork and substitute pitted fruits and olive (this works, I made these once in the kitchen of a Mexican resaurateur for a buffet which included vegan John Cage and they went over very well. John stayed late and that means the food was good.) These are some work, but, oh, the noises you will hear at the dinner table.

Pork-And-Raisin Tamales
Manuel's, Santa Cruz, California

Pork Filling

3 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut in 1-inch chunks
8 large or 10 medium ancho chiles, enough to make 3/4 cup purée
2/3 cup (5 ounces) lard
1 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon ground red chile
1 cup raisins, to be used at assembly stage.

It's best to cook the pork a day ahead because of the time involved. In a large saucepan, cover meat with water and simmer, covered, until very tender, about an hour. While meat is cooking, tear dried chiles into flat pieces and toast on an ungreased comal or heavy skillet over medium heat, pressing with a spatula until they crackle and change color, about 30 seconds per side. Do not let burn. Remove from skillet, cover with hot water, and let rehydrate for 30 minutes. Remove cores and stems and run pulp through a blender or mash in a molcajete. Set aside.

Remove saucepan with pork from heat and let cool. Skim off fat and reserve for making masa. Remove meat from broth (reserving liquid for making masa) and either chop finely with a knife or shred using 2 forks. Set aside.

Heat lard in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add chile purée, salt, cumin, garlic powder, pepper, and ground chile. Fry for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add meat and cook for about 5 more minutes, adding some of the reserved broth if mixture starts to stick to pan. Taste and add more spices if necessary (the seasoning should be robust because some of the flavor will leach into the masa when the tamales are steamed). Refrigerate.

Masa

2 cups (1 pound) chilled vegetable shortening or lard
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons ground red chile
6 cups (3 pounds) dried masa harina for tamales
scant 4 cups warm broth reserved from pork (supplement with warm water if needed)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
reserved fat from cooking pork
salt to taste
1 or more packages dried corn shucks.

Using an electric mixer, beat shortening with baking powder and ground chile for at least a minute. Mix masa with broth, then beat it into the shortening in at least 3 batches. For a richer flavor, spoon in up to 1/4 cup of reserved fat. Taste and add up to 1 tablespoon salt, beating thoroughly.

Make into tamales, using only about 1 tablespoon of masa and 1 tablespoon of meat for each one—these tamales are pequeños. Place 3 raisins in each tamale before folding into the dry corn shucks and rolling like egg rolls into the husks, turning the ends in about a third of the way through rolling up the long side. Steam until husk comes away cleanly from masa, about 1 hour. Makes 6 dozen small tamales. Served with salsa and guac, and sour cream if you have it, this is heaven on corn shuck.

In south Texas towns, there is a tamale lady who comes around every day, rather like the hot smoke cookers who haunt the streets of DC at lunchtime every day. But the tamale lady has a much better product to sell and these will be cheap in the streets of south Texas. And I'm jealous.

Could Be Breakfast, Could Be Lunch

As you know, I love spinach and puff pastry and this marries the two in the way that you can make a first course or a batch of hors d'ouvres. This will make glad the plates of your friends.

1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach
1/4-pound firm feta cheese, coarsely crumbled
2 cloves garlic, pressed
About 20 grinds black pepper
Small dash nutmeg
Flour, for dusting
1 (10 by 9.5-inch) piece of packaged puff pastry

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Thaw frozen spinach in microwave according to package directions or by running under warm water. Drain spinach, squeezing the excess liquid from it. In a bowl, mix the spinach, feta, garlic, pepper, and nutmeg together.

Flour a clean, dry countertop or other flat working surface. Lay out the puff pasty on the floured surface. Flour the top of the dough. Roll out the puff pastry until it is half as thick (about 1/8-inch) and about 24 by 12 inches. Trim edges to size if necessary. Cut into 3-inch strips crosswise and lengthwise, making 32 (3-inch) squares. Make sure the squares are well floured then stack them in a little pile.

Fill a little dish with some room temperature water. Imagine each square you work with is separated in half by a diagonal. Place a couple teaspoons of filling in the top half. Dip a finger into the water and moisten the edges of the top half with water. Fold the bottom half to meet the edges of the top half. Use a fork to seal the edges.

Place finished pockets on a nonstick baking sheet and bake about 15 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Serve warm.

Follow the instructions and the puff paste will remain puffy and you will make your friends insane. This is so good that it hurts.

Crunch Things

I swear, you will never be able to eat another Tostito ever again. Once you've had the real article, you are ruined for the packaged stuff.

Lime Tortilla Chips

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
2 teaspoons kosher salt
10 fresh corn tortillas, cut into quarters
2 quarts peanut oil

In a small mixing bowl, combine the lime juice and salt. One at a time, dip the chips into the mixture and arrange on a cooling rack set inside a sheet pan. Allow to dry for 1 hour or until there are no visible signs of moisture on the chips.

Place the oil into a 5-quart pot or Dutch oven and heat to 365 to 375 degrees F. Gently lower the chips, 5 to 6 at a time, into the oil and fry for 20 to 30 seconds. Using a slotted spoon or spider, remove the chips to a paper towel lined sheet pan. Allow to cool 3 to 4 minutes before serving. The chips come out when they float to the top. When you move them to the drying rack, hit them with a pinch of Kosher salt once once again.

If you prefer plain tortilla chips simply stack the fresh tortillas, cut into quarters and fry according to the instructions above, the cooking time will be 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. As soon as the edges start to brown, take 'em out of the oil and drain.

This is so easy that you'll quickly figure out what you are missing in the cost-benefit analysis.

Cost of Living

Basics, Not Luxuries, Blamed for High Debt

By Kirstin Downey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 12, 2006; D01

Why are Americans so deeply in debt? It's not because they are using credit cards to buy plasma TVs and premium coffee drinks at Starbucks. The real culprits, according to a new analysis, are the rising costs of housing, health care and education.

The debt of the typical American family earning about $45,000 a year rose 33.1 percent from 2001 to 2004, after adjusting for inflation, according to a study based on data compiled from the Federal Reserve Board's most recent Survey of Consumer Finances. The Fed report, released in February, gave raw numbers on debt levels. The new study analyzed the data more closely to determine the sources of debt. It was conducted by the Center for American Progress, a Washington think tank that describes itself as progressive and is run by former Clinton White House chief of staff John D. Podesta.

Real wages, after adjusting for inflation, have been flat since 2001, according to the study, while the cost of big-ticket items for which families pay the most rose. In the past five years, the costs of medical care, housing, food, cars and household operations rose 11.2 percent, the study said. Many families are trying to make up the difference by borrowing, according to Christian E. Weller, author of the report and a senior economist at the center.

"Very little can be explained by frivolous consumer spending," Weller said. His views were echoed in a news conference by Elizabeth Warren, a law professor at Harvard University who analyzed the sources of debt that emerge in bankruptcy filings and reviewed the results of Weller's study.

"The average American family is walking a high wire and hoping there won't be a high wind," Warren said.

Housing debt has climbed notably because home prices have risen and people have borrowed against the equity in their homes. From 1989 to 2004, for example, the median mortgage debt more than doubled, from $46,900 to $96,000.

Education debt, meanwhile, rose 127 percent between 1992 and 2004, from $3,427 to $7,800. Health-care costs rose, too, because insurance has become more costly and employers are shifting more of the expense to workers.

But the share of income that is going to credit cards has been relatively stable for the past decade, falling from 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent from 1989 to 2004, according to the study, except in the relatively small number of households with significant credit card debt.

I don't know how anybody affords college any more.

Public Health Has The Flu

Flu Vaccine Priorities Test Pandemic Planning

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 12, 2006; A10

On the Titanic, it was women and children first. During a syphilis outbreak in World War II, soldiers with the best chance of recovery were the ones to get precious doses of penicillin.

In the event of a global flu pandemic, federal officials have said they intend to give vaccine first to health-care workers, followed by the oldest, sickest patients, a policy aimed at saving the most lives. But one of the government's top medical ethicists is challenging that approach, arguing it is more appropriate to give young adults priority because they are at higher risk of dying in a flu pandemic and still have many productive years left.

"Most people have the intuition to say, 'Give it to my 19-year-old. I got to 65; I've lived a good life,'" said Ezekiel Emanuel, head of the bioethics department at the National Institutes of Health. "We are not interested in purely the number of lives [saved], but also life-years."

As the government prepares for a potential pandemic influenza outbreak, one of the thorniest questions to arise is who should be first in line for limited supplies of antiviral medicine and vaccine.

Experts fear that the avian influenza that has raged through birds in Asia could trigger a pandemic if it gains the ability to move easily from human to human, with the potential to kill 210,000 to 1.9 million Americans. So far the H5N1 bird flu has infected only about 200 people, who had close contact with infected birds. (A pandemic would be caused by a flu strain distinct from those that cause seasonal outbreaks, and the annual flu vaccine would not protect against it.)

There is no debate that vaccine makers and medical personnel should be first to be immunized, because they will then be able to save many more lives. But deciding who follows is not an easy call, said Jon Abramson, chair of pediatrics at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and chair of one of two federal advisory panels that helped develop the current policy.

Some panel members argued that children should be the top priority, he said. "If you save a child who is 2, you've potentially saved 80 quality years," he explained. "If you save a 65-year-old, you may have only saved 15 years of quality life."

Already federal agencies are sparring over who is "critical," posing no-win dilemmas such as: air traffic controllers or border patrol officers? Meanwhile, state leaders and private corporations are scrambling to build their own stockpiles of antiviral medication, fearful the federal government will not deliver.

These are thorny questions but it is best to have this discussion now. That having been said, lets remember that there is no vaccine right now and that we wouldn't need to have this discussion if we had a robust vaccine industry capable of turning out sufficient doses for every one. This is just one sign of the way our public health infrastructure has been hollowed out in the last 5 decades.

The Civic Minded 5

Here is something funny to start your day with. It's a good thing my students are covering Nietzsche in their Philosopher's Fair next week. This comes from boingboing .

German 'Robin Hoods' give poor a taste of the high life

ALLAN HALL
Tue 9 May 2006

A GANG of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, who dress as superheroes and steal expensive food from exclusive restaurants and delicatessens to give to the poor, are being hunted by police in the German city of Hamburg.

The gang members seemingly take delight in injecting humour into their raids, which rely on sheer numbers and the confusion caused by their presence. After they plundered Kobe beef fillets, champagne and smoked salmon from a gourmet store on the exclusive Elbastrasse, they presented the cashier with a bouquet of flowers before making their getaway.

The latest robbery is part of a pattern over the past several months, suggesting that the thieves deliberately set out to highlight what they perceive as the inequality inherent in German society.

However, the authorities do not agree. Bodo Franz, a police spokesman, said: "They get off feeling they are just like Robin Hood. There are about 30 in the group. But whatever their motives, they are thieves, plain and simple."

Carsten Sievers, the manager of a luxury supermarket in the wealthy Blankenese area of Hamburg, recently watched the robbers run off with trolleys full of expensive foodstuffs, including Kobe beef which, at more than £100 a pound, is always on their illicit shopping list.

In another recent swoop, the gang emptied a groaning buffet table in a top restaurant into sacks, while one of their number held up a sign saying. "The fat years are over" - the title of a hit film currently doing the rounds in Germany.

In internet statements, the gang have made a point of saying their booty is distributed to Hartz IV recipients - the poorest of Germany's long-term unemployed. The benefit is named after the disgraced Volkswagen personnel director Peter Hartz who, before he lost his job with the car-maker in a prostitutes-and-bribes scandal, devised the new means-testing which is loathed and derided by society's most economically challenged.

When the gang robbed the gourmet store in April - triggering a massive police investigation that cost £20,000 in taxpayers' money without an arrest being made - they left a note behind saying: "Without the abilities of the superheroes to help them, it would be impossible for ordinary people to survive in the city of the millionaires."

Ok, they probably aren't as colorful as these guys , but this article really reminds me of the strange and quirky movie Cecil B. Demented , though I hope there is a happier ending here.

I have nothing to say....

Privacy A Concern, but So Are Leaks

By Susan Jones
CNSNews.com Senior Editor
May 12, 2006

Americans should be more worried about who's leaking sensitive national security information than they should be about the National Security Agency monitoring records of telephone calls, some Republicans are saying.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday said the NSA's telephone-call data mining program is "legal and lawful -- privacy is protected," he said.

"If al Qaeda is involved, we're going after them, and we're going after them aggressively," Frist said in an interview with Fox News's Neil Kavuto.

Sen Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) rejected the uproar provoked by the USA Today report. "This is nuts," he was quoted as saying on Thursday. "We are in a war, and we've got to collect intelligence on enemy, and you can't tell the enemy in advance how you're going to do it."

President Bush, defending his efforts to keep America safe, walked up to the microphones on Thursday and told the nation, "Every time sensitive intelligence is leaked, it hurts our ability to defeat this enemy. Our most important job is to protect the American people from another attack, and we will do so within the laws of our country."

The president insisted that the NSA is not "mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans. Our efforts are focused on links to al-Qaeda and their known affiliates. So far we've been very successful in preventing another attack on our soil," he added.

Talk about a Freudian slip.. the first time I read this, I though Bush had said "....attack on our soul," which I wouldn't put past him. Still, the jokes write themselves with these quotes, all of which need to be displayed in huge print on all of the campaign literature this year.

It is interesting to note that by Bush's definition, Bill Clinton was a great President and he is a complete screw up. It looks like only 29% who disagree with that.

Caring for

Army Acts to Curb Abuses of Injured Recruits
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: May 12, 2006

LAWTON, Okla. — The Army has shaken up a program to heal recruits injured in basic training after soldiers and their parents said troops hurt at Fort Sill were punished with physical abuse and medical neglect. Skip to next paragraph

Pfc. Mathew Scarano, left, who died, and his mother, Christen.
Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Pfc. Richard Thurman and his mother, Patricia deVarennes.

The program, which treated more than 1,100 injured soldiers last year at five posts, normally returns three-fourths of its patients to active duty, according to Army statistics. But at Fort Sill, recruits said, injuries were often subject to derision, ignored or improperly treated.

Two soldiers in the program have died since 2004, one or possibly both of accidental overdoses of prescription drugs. The latest death, in March, remains under investigation, the Army said.

"I am an inmate," one soldier, Pfc. Mathew Scarano of Eureka, Calif., wrote in a letter home in January two months before he died. "I sometimes ask those friends of mine with jailhouse tattoos if they'd rather be back in jail, or here. So far, they are unanimous — jail."

Commanders acknowledge problems with the Physical Training and Rehabilitation Program, and they have ordered changes here at the Field Artillery Center and at the other training centers. For the first time, as a result of the Fort Sill problems, a medical professional is to head each program.

A civilian spokesman at the fort, Jon Long, said an investigation had substantiated "misbehavior" by a drill sergeant who, soldiers say, kicked a trainee with stitches in his knee. Mr. Long said the sergeant had been suspended and reassigned, along with another drill sergeant who, soldiers complained, had repeatedly awakened injured trainees throughout the night for uniform changes and formations.

The events, after a drill sergeant's bribery scandal last year and a drug sting that ensnared 12 soldiers, have thrown a cloud over Fort Sill, one of the centers for nine weeks of basic training where volunteers first report on the way to Iraq or elsewhere. G.I.'s who fall prey to sprains and fractures and cannot complete the often grueling passage to "warrior" are sent to the Physical Training and Rehabilitation Program, where a motto reads "Heal and Ship."

Soldiers' blogs reflect dissatisfaction at some of the other programs, too, but Lt. Col. Michael Russell, command psychologist at the Training and Doctrine Command in Fort Monroe, Va., who was involved in the new therapy, said just Fort Sill had had a fatality or major complaints. The other sites are Fort Benning, Ga.; Fort Jackson, S.C.; Fort Knox, Ky.; and Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

"Of course, we take anything like that very seriously," Colonel Russell said. "We're going to put medical people in charge." At Fort Sill, an artillery captain has been in charge.

The Army now limits treatments to six months, with evaluations after three months and then monthly.

In interviews, soldiers and parents said injured troops regularly suffered punitive treatment as malingerers, although many had joined specifically to serve in Iraq.

A trainee with a broken finger who was described by fellow soldiers as frustrated by indifferent treatment, slashed himself with a razor, smeared himself with feces and walked around naked, the Army confirmed. Regarded as faking illness, he was returned to his unit to finish training.

Soldiers in the 40-member unit said their injuries often went unattended in stays that exceeded six months and worsened while they waited to see specialists in short supply because of medical needs in Iraq.

"I don't want to say cruel and unusual punishment, but that's what it was," said Tom Nugent of Candor, N.Y., near Ithaca. His son Pvt. Justin Nugent has had two operations since a shoulder "popped out" after push-ups in July.

This is how we treat the "friendlies." Imagine how we treat the "ragheads."

The Other Penicillin

For fighting off colds, I'm big on chicken soup. Hey, it can't hurt and you get lunch out of it. Greek egg lemon soup is my favorite, but for serious colds, you have to turn up the heat. That means Chinese Hot and Sour Soup. It's a little work to assemble the ingredients (but I now have them all in my pantry, dried mushrooms keep forever) but you are good to go once you have them all on hand. This comes together in under a half hour. For 4-6

4 dried Chinese black mushrooms
4 dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup dried Chinese lily buds (flowers optional)
5 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon soy sauce
8 ounces fresh firm tofu, cut into thin strips
4 ounces bamboo shoots, cut into thin strips
2 baby bok choy thinly sliced
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 (4-ounce) boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into thin strips (slightly freeze first)
1 tablespoon arrowroot mixed with 2 tablespoons stock to form paste
1 tablespoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cracked white pepper
2 thinly slivered scallions (green and white parts)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

Soak mushrooms and lily flowers in boiling hot water for 20 minutes. Drain, strain through cheesecloth and reserve soaking liquid. Chop the mushrooms.

In a large pot, combine soaking liquid and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and season with soy sauce. Simmer 5 minutes, add tofu, exotic mushrooms and bok choy. Slowly add egg to soup, stirring gently. Then add pork or chicken. Cover and cook about 5 minutes on simmer.

Stir a little of the hot stock into arrowroot paste and add this mixture to the soup. Cook another 2 minutes.

Stir in sesame oil, vinegar and white pepper. Adjust the seasoning. Sprinkle with scallions and cilantro, serve immediately

Chicken Dinner

This is a recipe which just begs for the grill. Once we get through the current round of storms, I'm planning to get mine out and use it to make this on the weekend, with grilled veggies and a lemon juice reduction. If you don't love goat cheese, this may not appeal to you. But the combination of chevre and chicken with lots of herbs is plenty beguiling if we are willing to be a little experimental. This is toothsome served with couscous and the aforementioned grilled veggies. I'm going to check the Farmer's Market this Saturday to see if I can pick up some fresh chevre from one of the local artisanal cheesemakers. Oh, chevre's great on Triscuits, by the way, with a glass of wine before dinner.

The nicoise olives really make this dish and it is worth making the effort to find them. They are tiny and I can buy them in small (and pricey) jars in the gourmet shops here. The link will take you to a mail order source.

I had them for the first time in Provence. The wine bars have little bowls of them all over the place and they are addictive. And I look for excuses to use them in cooking. Pitted, they are dynamite with capers in a spaghetti carbonara.

Grilled Chicken and Chevre with Herbs
Serves 4

8 ounces soft goat cheese
1/4 cup chopped nicoise olives
1 red pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 tablespoon fresh finely chopped thyme
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 large boneless chicken breast, pounded very thin
2 tablespoons olive oil

Preheat your grill. Mix together the goat cheese, olives, red pepper and thyme in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper to taste. Lay each breast out and fill with the cheese mixture. Brush the breasts with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste, secure with toothpicks. Grill for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.

CILANTRO SAUCE

1/4 cup red onion, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup spinach leaves
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
2 teaspoons honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper

In a blender, combine the onion and lime juice and blend until smooth. While the blender is running, add the oil slowly until emulsified. Add the spinach and cilantro and blend until smooth. Add the honey and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve at room temperature as a dipping or drizzling sauce with the chicken.

Weather Report

I just checked the weather radar and we have the first serious squall line of the spring forming off to the west. I've got some recipes I want to put up tonight, but if nothing happens, you'll know that Dominion Power has melted down once again and that I'm out of electricity. There are severe storms to the immediate south and the situation looks fairly nasty here.

Stay the Wrong Course

Bush Blames Polls on 'Battle Fatigue'

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, May 11, 2006; 12:57 PM

President Bush yesterday blamed his dismal job-approval ratings not on anything he's done wrong, but on a nationwide case of "battle fatigue" over the war in Iraq, the standoff with Iran and high gas prices.

Bush said he "understands" why Americans are feeling pessimistic about the future -- but he urged them to be patient and said the growing public disapproval over his policies isn't changing his mind about anything.

"My job is to make decisions based on what I think is right," he told reporters from seven Florida newspapers yesterday during a roundtable interview.

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the functional definition of madness. The rest of us are more than competent to see that the disconnected fratboy is an idiot.

Bush the Petulant Frat Boy

Killing the CIA

By Sidney Blumenthal

In Goss, Bush found the perfect hatchet man to take vengeance on a despised agency. Now Goss is gone, scandal looms -- and the CIA is ruined.

President Bush has nominated Gen. Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency and currently Negroponte's deputy, as the new CIA director. He has distinguished himself as a loyalist to the administration by using his uniform as a shield against the heat generated by the revelation of illegal domestic surveillance by the NSA.

Regardless of anodyne assurances offered in his forthcoming congressional testimony, Hayden will preside over the liquidation of the CIA as it has been known. The George H.W. Bush CIA headquarters building in Langley will of course remain standing. But the agency will be chipped apart, some of its key parts absorbed by other agencies, with the Pentagon emerging as the ultimate winner.

The militarization of intelligence under Bush is likely to guarantee military solutions above other options. Uniformed officers trained to identity military threats and trends will take over economic and political intelligence for which they are untrained and often incapable, and their priorities will skew analysis. But the bias toward the military option will be one that the military in the end will dislike. It will find itself increasingly bearing the brunt of foreign policy and stretched beyond endurance. The vicious cycle leads to a downward spiral. And Hayden's story will be like a dull shadow of Powell's -- a tale of a "good soldier" who salutes, gets promoted, is used and abused, and is finally discarded.

No president has ever before ruined an agency at the heart of national security out of pique and vengeance. The manipulation of intelligence by political leadership demands ever tightened control. But political purges provide only temporary relief from the widening crisis of policy failure.

I have this sneaking suspicion that the Agency isn't going to go quietly. Read this whole essay of Sidney's, he really does connect all the dots.

Domestic Spying's Price

NSA Call-Tracking Program Sparks Alarm
Bush Insists That Citizens' Privacy is 'Fiercely Protected'

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 11, 2006; 12:39 PM

President Bush, responding to a newspaper report on a previously undisclosed program to track the phone call patterns of millions of Americans, insisted today that U.S. intelligence activities he has authorized are lawful and aimed strictly at the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In a hastily arranged appearance in response to a story in today's editions of USA Today, Bush also denied that the government listens to Americans' phone calls without court approval and maintained that citizens' privacy "is fiercely protected in all our activities."

"We are not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of Americans," Bush said. "Our efforts are focused on links to al-Qaeda and their known affiliates."

After his brief statement at the White House, Bush left the room without taking any questions from reporters.

Earlier, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said the panel will demand answers from America's leading telephone companies on the reported National Security Agency program to collect information on millions of calls.

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) vowed to haul the companies before his committee in response to the USA Today report that says the NSA has been secretly using data provided by AT&T;, Verizon and BellSouth to build a massive database of foreign and domestic phone calls. The program was launched shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the aim of analyzing calling patterns to detect terrorist activity, the paper reported. The effort does not involve recording or eavesdropping on phone conversations, it said.

The report drew alarmed reactions from congressional Democrats, who accused the Bush administration of violating Americans' civil liberties in its zeal to combat international terrorism. Another secret NSA program -- involving eavesdropping without warrants on calls between people in the United States and suspected terrorists abroad -- sparked strong controversy when it was revealed late last year. President Bush confirmed the eavesdropping program, insisting that it targeted only international calls and was vital to U.S. efforts to ferret out terrorist plots.

Specter told a Judiciary Committee executive meeting today that in addition to hearings on the eavesdropping program, "the committee will have an additional hearing" on the reported phone call database.

"We will be calling upon AT&T;, Verizon, and BellSouth as well as others to see some of the underlying facts," he said. "When we can't find out from the Department of Justice or other administration officials, we're going to call on those telephone companies to provide information to try to figure out exactly what is going on."

Specter said that testimony from telephone company executives was a key element in committee hearings that led to the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The act, known as FISA, regulates domestic eavesdropping on the communications of foreign agents.

Does anyone still think that any word out of Bush's mouth can be believed? Arlen Specter doesn't think so.

Michael Hayden's courtesy calls to senators have been cancelled for today and I'm hearing rumors that next week's confirmation hearings are being pushed back. This one is in trouble.

Along Life's Way

Havens for hard-ups
Nonjudgmental services can be crucial for the chronically homeless.
May 11, 2006

WHY IS IT THAT SOME homeless people get off the streets within a few weeks while others remain there year after senseless year? The disheartening answer is that the majority of the chronically homeless are mentally ill, addicted to drugs or both. And too often they refuse help because service providers demand that they first agree to follow rules requiring them to remain sober, take medication or attend prayer services.

Lamp Community in downtown Los Angeles has a different idea. Clean, bright and worlds away from the chaos of skid row outside its front door, the center is one of only two "safe haven" shelters in the region to target the chronically homeless who are mentally ill. It's a place short on rules and long on services. Residents come and go as they please, taking or leaving the generous supply of mental health and substance abuse programs on site. They can stay for 10 days or 10 years, though the goal is to coax them into permanent housing as soon as possible.

Sounds like a soft-touch approach, but the community's morning meetings tell a different story. Earlier this week at 9 a.m. sharp, 15 residents sat in a circle and talked house business, making communal decisions with the efficiency of a well-trained sales team. One needed help getting a new state ID card. Another wanted to know where the house's community barbecue would be held later in the week. The group agreed to put off a vote on a rule about nightly curfews until more residents could weigh in. A vote? Community BBQs? These are people who just weeks ago lived in bedlam and slept under freeways.

"Safe havens" cost about $20,000 a year per resident, paid for by local, state and federal tax dollars, along with some private foundation money. That may sound like a lot, but consider that the average long-term homeless person costs local taxpayers an estimated $40,000 a year in services.

And the two local "safe havens" — Lamp Community and Ocean Park Community Center in Santa Monica — report that about two-thirds of their residents successfully move on to permanent housing.

Some people believe that the chronically homeless are treatment-resistant bums who relish the "freedom" of living as they want. The reality is that treatment centers may too often resist them.

There is a boatload of wisdom in this little editorial. When people need help, they need help, not parsing of their motives. One of the things that this country does poorly is imputing motives to those whose actions they don't understand. It is possible ('way to possible, in this reporter's experience) to simply have a run of bad luck and hard times which have nothing to do with your work ethic, moral beliefs or anything else. Circumstances aren't a reflection of who you are. Shit happens, regardless of how good a person you are.

The Breakdown

Bush, GOP Congress Losing Core Supporters
Conservatives Point to Spending, Immigration

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 11, 2006; A01

Disaffection over spending and immigration have caused conservatives to take flight from President Bush and the Republican Congress at a rapid pace in recent weeks, sending Bush's approval ratings to record lows and presenting a new threat to the GOP's 12-year reign on Capitol Hill, according to White House officials, lawmakers and new polling data.

Bush and Congress have suffered a decline in support from almost every part of the conservative coalition over the past year, a trend that has accelerated with alarming implications for Bush's governing strategy.

The Gallup polling organization recorded a 13-percentage-point drop in Republican support for Bush in the past couple of weeks. These usually reliable voters are telling pollsters and lawmakers they are fed up with what they see as out-of-control spending by Washington and, more generally, an abandonment of core conservative principles.

There are also significant pockets of conservatives turning on Bush and Congress over their failure to tighten immigration laws, restrict same-sex marriage, and put an end to the Iraq war and the rash of political scandals, according to lawmakers and pollsters.

Bush won two presidential elections by pursuing a political and governing model that was predicated on winning and sustaining the loyal backing of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives. The strategy was based on the belief that conservatives, who are often more politically active than the general public, could be inspired to vote in larger numbers and would serve as a reliable foundation for his presidency. The theory, as explained by Bush strategists, is that the president would enjoy a floor below which his support would never fall.

It is now apparent that this floor has weakened dramatically -- and collapsed in places.

"A lot of us have been like Paul Revere and sounding the alarm for three or four years," said Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). "Conservatives forgave Bush and Congress for our past mistakes because the war on terrorism was so important . . . but now there is a great deal of unhappiness. What you are going to increasingly see is a divided Republican Party."

Michael Franc, a top official at the Heritage Foundation, said his organization hosted 600 of its top conservative donors last week and heard more widespread complaining about Republicans than at any other point in the past 12 years. "It begins with spending, extends through immigration and results in a sense that we have Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee for the two parties," Franc said.

All of the conventional wisdom is on display here. VandeHei and Baker have been getting plenty of A1 real estate for years by toeing the CW mold. What they can't tell you is that it is abandonment by moderates and independents (which don't exist to the WaPo) which is dooming the GOP. If it doesn't fit into the Red/Blue frame, it doesn't exist to the WaPo.

He knows when you've been bad or good...

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

By Leslie Cauley
5/11/2006

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T;, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

For the customers of these companies, it means that the government has detailed records of calls they made — across town or across the country — to family members, co-workers, business contacts and others.

The three telecommunications companies are working under contract with the NSA, which launched the program in 2001 shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the sources said. The program is aimed at identifying and tracking suspected terrorists, they said.

The sources would talk only under a guarantee of anonymity because the NSA program is secret.

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated Monday by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic call-tracking program. Hayden declined to comment about the program.

The NSA's domestic program, as described by sources, is far more expansive than what the White House has acknowledged. Last year, Bush said he had authorized the NSA to eavesdrop — without warrants — on international calls and international e-mails of people suspected of having links to terrorists when one party to the communication is in the USA. Warrants have also not been used in the NSA's efforts to create a national call database.

In defending the previously disclosed program, Bush insisted that the NSA was focused exclusively on international calls. "In other words," Bush explained, "one end of the communication must be outside the United States."

As a result, domestic call records — those of calls that originate and terminate within U.S. borders — were believed to be private.

Sources, however, say that is not the case. With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

Of course they are doing this... many of the higher ups worked for Nixon who would have loved to been able to do this. There is no Constitution, there is simply their will and divine right to do whatever they want.

Democrats need to stand up NOW and LOUDLY on this issue and make it a central part of 2006. Ed Earle in Appalachia may not understand many complex issues, but he sure as heck doesn't want the government listening on his phone calls. So anyone who care about Liberty needs to contact their Senators and Reps (even if they are cursed with Dole and Burr as their Senators) and make sure they understand this isn't a partisan issue but it's a national security issue.

You are innocent until proven guilty, not guilty until we can fix the facts or avoid the courts. 9/11 didn't change that.

Home, Sweet Home

By Karen Turni Bazile
St. Bernard/Plaquemines bureau

The Story of Stone Soup

Once upon a time, somewhere in post-war Eastern Europe, there was a great famine in which people jealously hoarded whatever food they could find, hiding it even from their friends and neighbors. One day a wandering soldier came into a village and began asking questions as if he planned to stay for the night.

"There's not a bite to eat in the whole province," he was told. "Better keep moving on."

"Oh, I have everything I need," he said. "In fact, I was thinking of making some stone soup to share with all of you." He pulled an iron cauldron from his wagon, filled it with water, and built a fire under it. Then, with great ceremony, he drew an ordinary-looking stone from a velvet bag and dropped it into the water.

By now, hearing the rumor of food, most of the villagers had come to the square or watched from their windows. As the soldier sniffed the "broth" and licked his lips in anticipation, hunger began to overcome their skepticism.

"Ahh," the soldier said to himself rather loudly, "I do like a tasty stone soup. Of course, stone soup with cabbage -- that's hard to beat."

Soon a villager approached hesitantly, holding a cabbage he'd retrieved from its hiding place, and added it to the pot. "Capital!" cried the soldier. "You know, I once had stone soup with cabbage and a bit of salt beef as well, and it was fit for a king."

The village butcher managed to find some salt beef . . . and so it went, through potatoes, onions, carrots, mushrooms, and so on, until there was indeed a delicious meal for all. The villagers offered the soldier a great deal of money for the magic stone, but he refused to sell and traveled on the next day. The moral is that by working together, with everyone contributing what they can, a greater good is achieved.

Can we be the magic stone?

Conservative Hate

From an ultraconservative editorial columnist:

Why I can't stand Bush
Sunday, May 07, 2006

I often hear from readers who wonder why I so thoroughly dislike George W. Bush. .... But to return to the subject of the president: Before George W. came along, conservatives were on the winning side of every major issue. We were the ones who disdained the Beltway class, who pushed for smaller, more responsible government. Remember term limits? The balanced-budget amendment? In the Clinton era, the GOP promised such reforms.

But then George W. took over. We've got term limits, all right. Only now we call them "indictments." As for Bush's promise to give us the balanced-budget amendment, that was about as valid as his promise not to get into a war without an exit strategy -- or any of his other promises.

You can call it lying, or you can call it spin. Whatever you call it, there is not a single person in the administration who would endorse in 2006 what Bush himself endorsed in 2000.

But to call Bush a traitor to his political philosophy is to imply that he had one. He didn't. You can read through Bush's various speeches over the years without coming up with the slightest hint of a coherent system of thought. In this, he's the opposite of Reagan. Though Reagan was the one who had the movie career, Bush is the actor. He's simply reading lines put before him by Karl Rove et al.

Seen from this angle, Bush can be placed in his proper category. It's a category that includes all the offspring of famous people who drift effortlessly into the family line of work. How often have you heard some movie star whose father was a movie star brag that he made it on his own? Dad didn't help at all -- except of course for the name, the contacts, the house in Holly wood, the money, the car and all the other advantages not available to some young actor from Dubu que who comes to Hollywood with stars in his eyes.

Bush is, in other words, the political equivalent of Lloyd Bridges' kids, Henry Fonda's kids and so on (with the important exception that some of these kids can really perform their jobs quite well). That's all there is to the Bush presidency, I'm afraid, and it's not much.

For a short while in the begin ning he seemed to know what he was doing, but then so did Gary Lewis, to name another movie star's kid. After the Beatles came to America, the son of comedian Jerry Lewis, like just about every other kid in America, decided he wanted to be a rock star. Unlike every other kid in America, Gary Lewis had the contacts to put together a simulacrum of a rock band and have his efforts recorded and televised. He actually put out a couple of catchy tunes before fad ing into well-deserved obscurity.

That's George W. to a T, an entertainer past his prime. Only his fellow entertainers -- Rush Limbaugh et al. -- still pretend he knows what he's doing. Traditional conservatives, such as the columnist Joe Sobran, are even more ap palled by Bush than I am.

It's conservatives like this who are now driving the president's poll numbers.

"This is CNN"

A Liberal Dose documents CNN's further slide into Don Imus territory with the hiring of Glenn Beck. I haven't seen it yet, but this is something which appears to be as compelling as a car wreck: you know it is awful but you just can't look away.

Knowing When to Leave

J. Michael Luttig Resigns From Appeals Court

By Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 10, 2006; 1:15 PM

Appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a leading conservative jurist and a short-list Bush administration candidate for the Supreme Court, announced today that he is resigning from the bench to serve as senior vice president and general counsel of the Boeing Co.

Luttig, who sits on the Richmond-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, wrote the most important appellate decision yet in support of the Bush administration's powers to detain individuals without recourse to ordinary legal protections. But he had a significant falling-out with the Justice Department late last year when he protested, in a follow-up opinion, what he suggested was the administration's inappropriate manipulation of the legal system in order to avoid a further Supreme Court test of the president's wartime authority.

His public thrashing of the Justice Department was known to have been deeply upsetting to political appointees in the department.

In a letter to President Bush, Luttig said that while he has "loved every single aspect" of his 15 years on the appeals court, the Boeing opportunity presented itself a few weeks ago. "I am convinced," he added, that this is the right decision for me at this time, and most importantly, for my family. . . . This is especially so, as I am sure you can understand, given that" he has two children approaching college age.

Federal appeals court judges earn $171,800 per year and generally must avoid any lucrative outside activity. Vice presidents and general counsels for huge corporations may earn anywhere from a quarter million dollars to several million, including various non-salary forms of compensation.

In a telephone interview today, Luttig said his criticism of the administration "had nothing whatsoever to do with this decision, which is more far-reaching than any particular case."

"I've been on the bench 15 years," he said. "No one can or should plan their life with regard to a potential Supreme Court appointment."

I'm sure that Judge Luttig was also aware of the fact that his decision in US v. Padilla has scotched any chance he ever had for a SCOTUS appointment, so he might as well cash out now.

USA! USA!

The WaPo's Al Kamen does an excellent job of digging up hypocrisy in the Federal City. Here's today's installment:

OPM -- Mugged by China

Last year, for Public Service Recognition Week, the Office of Personnel Management handed out coffee mugs with the OPM seal and the mantra "Working for America" emblazoned on it. But the mugs were made in China.

This year, OPM gave away plastic non-spill coffee mugs -- "Made in America." There were also leather memo-pad holders and very sharp dark-blue tote bags, both with "Working for America" on them (the totes have the OPM seal). Those were made in -- you guessed it -- China.

Disposable People

Teenage Prisoners Describe Hurricane Horrors

By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: May 10, 2006

NEW ORLEANS, May 9 — More than 100 teenagers held in detention during Hurricane Katrina endured horrific conditions in the storm's aftermath, including standing for hours in filthy floodwater, having nothing to eat and drink for three to five days, and being forced to consume the waters as a result, according to a report released here Tuesday.

The report was prepared by the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana, a group that has long advocated changes in the state's troubled juvenile system. It was based on interviews with more than 60 teenagers held at the Orleans Parish Prison during the storm, as well as with prison staff members.

Youths who were interviewed described water rising in their darkened cells and a scramble onto top bunks to avoid it. They also said that when they were finally rescued — in some cases, after several days — they experienced dizziness and dehydration because of lack of food. One reported being "roped together" with plastic handcuffs as he and others were led out through neck-high water.

"There was food floating in the water and we tried to catch it and eat it; that's how hungry we were," said one 15-year-old identified as E. F. in the report.

T. G., 16, said, "Kids were going crazy, shaking their cells for food and water."

Another youth, R. S., 16, said: "We went five days without eating. Kids were passing out in their cells."

Among the many wrenching stories of evacuation after Hurricane Katrina, including the chaotic removal of more than 7,000 prisoners from the Orleans Parish Prison, that of the teenagers ranks as one of the more disturbing — an anarchic portrait of about 150 youthful inmates fending for themselves in dire conditions.

The prison was under the supervision of Marlin Gusman, the Orleans Parish criminal sheriff, who, through a spokeswoman, declined to respond to the report. The authors of the report said city and parish officials should have ordered the prison to be evacuated but lacked a formal plan to do so.

The report described what happened after the storm as symptomatic of a juvenile justice system recognized as one of the country's worst, an outpost of a sprawling prison empire where more people were locked up, per capita, than in any other state.

Only a week ago, a federal judge in Baton Rouge released the juvenile system from Justice Department control, six years after Louisiana was ordered to make changes and after numerous investigations and lawsuits. Several youth prisons in the state had achieved infamy as places of routine beatings and systematic deprivation, and federal authorities concluded that conditions were unconstitutional.

One of the things I hear over and over again is that the prisons department is the state agency which is not showing up for disaster planning and simulations meetings. Stories like this will be the result. We have the largest percentage of our population incarcerated of any western democracy and we treat them like throw away people.

The Next Wave

Of U.S. Children Under 5, Nearly Half Are Minorities
Hispanic Growth Fuels Rise, Census Says

By D'Vera Cohn and Tara Bahrampour
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 10, 2006; A01

Nearly half of the nation's children under 5 are racial or ethnic minorities, and the percentage is increasing mainly because the Hispanic population is growing so rapidly, according to a census report released today.

Hispanics are the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority group. They accounted for 49 percent of the country's growth from 2004 to 2005, the report shows. And the increase in young children is largely a Hispanic story, driving 70 percent of the growth in children younger than 5. Forty-five percent of U.S. children younger than 5 are minorities.

The new numbers offer a preview of demographic shifts to come, with broad implications for the nation's schools, workforce and Social Security.

One in three Americans is now a member of a minority group, a share that is bound to rise, because the non-Hispanic white population is older and growing much more slowly. The country already is engaged in a national debate about how government should respond to growing immigration, legal and illegal.

In some parts of the country, the transformation is more visible than in others. Large swaths of the upper Midwest are still mainly non-Hispanic white. But minorities are a majority of children younger than 5 in the Washington area, according to previously released census numbers. That is also true in Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and other high-immigration regions.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, predicted that the United States will have "a multicultural population that will probably be more tolerant, accommodating to other races and more able to succeed in a global economy."

There could be increased competition for money and power, he added: "The older, predominantly white baby-boom generations will need to accommodate younger, multiethnic young adults and child populations in civic life, political decisions and sharing of government resources" in places such as the Washington suburbs.

In some suburban communities, government officials face a cultural generation gap as they weigh demands from older white residents for senior citizen centers, transportation and other aid against requests from younger, mainly minority residents for translation assistance, preschools and other services.

Experts say immigrant families are becoming more concerned with the quality of their children's early education, aware that it can affect their future academic success. That is one reason there is a waiting list at the Child and Family Network Centers, a preschool in Alexandria.

The centers, which also operate a preschool in Arlington, provide free and subsidized preschools for about 200 children from low-income families. They serve many immigrants, including those who don't qualify for other programs. The waiting list is 150 children long. Eight out 10 speak English as a second language, and 70 percent are Latino.

These are the facts, ideology isn't going to change them. Yes, this is going to change our future. How, I can't predict. But I'm not afraid of it.

Btw, in every wave of immigration which has preceded it, by the third generation, the children have been "English Only" speakers.

Green Day Cooking

Here's a spring first course that will make your guests positvely mad. I wish that I had learned this a decade ago.

Asparagus Soup With Basil Cream (for 6)

3 lbs. asparagus, ends and tips cut off and reserved separately and stalks cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces.
2 ½ cups water
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 ½ Tbs. butter
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

For the basil cream:
½ cup heavy cream
1 ½ cups packed fresh basil leaves
½ tsp. salt

In a small saucepan simmer reserved asparagus ends in water, covered, 15 minutes. Remove and discard asparagus ends with a slotted spoon and bring water to a boil. Add reserved asparagus tips and cook, uncovered, over high heat till crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Transfer asparagus tips only (save the cooking liquid) to a bowl of ice water for 2-3 minutes, then drain well.

In a heavy 4-qt. saucepan cook onions in butter with salt and pepper to taste over medium heat, stirring, till pale golden. Add asparagus stalk pieces, broth, and reserved cooking liquid and simmer, covered, 15 minutes, or until asparagus pieces are tender.

While soup simmers:

In a small saucepan, bring cream to a boil and stir in basil and salt. Cook mixture over high heat, stirring, till basil is wilted, 5-10 seconds. Puree mixture in a blender or food processor, then return mixture to the saucepan and keep warm.

Puree soup in a clean blender or processor in small batches and return to 4-qt. saucepan, thinning with water if desired. Season soup with salt and pepper and heat over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, till heated through.

Divide soup among 6 bowls and add asparagus tips, arranging them decoratively. Drizzle basil cream over each serving. Makes 7 cups.

This is a startlingly good, fresh tasting dish with which to start a brunch or luncheon. I don't know how else to say this but it tastes "green," like spring itself. Serve it with bruschetta on the side and enjoy the next sunny day. These are the flavors of bright sunshine and should be served al fresco, if possible.

The State of the Union

"Poll Gives Bush Worst Marks Yet on Major Issues"

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
Published: May 10, 2006

Americans have a bleaker view of the country's direction than at any time in more than two decades, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Sharp disapproval of President Bush's handling of gasoline prices has combined with intensified unhappiness about Iraq to create a grim political environment for the White House and Congressional Mr. Bush's approval ratings for his management of foreign policy, Iraq and the economy have fallen to the lowest levels of his presidency. He drew poor marks on the issues that have been at the top of the national agenda in recent months, in particular immigration and gasoline prices.

Just 13 percent approved of Mr. Bush's handling of rising gasoline prices. About a quarter said they approved of his handling of immigration, as Congressional Republicans try to come up with a compromise for handling the influx of illegal immigrants into the country.

The poll showed a further decline in support for the Iraq war, the issue that has most eaten into Mr. Bush's public support. The percentage of respondents who said going to war in Iraq was the correct decision slipped to a new low of 39 percent, down from 47 percent in January. Two-thirds said they had little or no confidence that Mr. Bush could successfully end the war.

The poll comes six months before Election Day and well before Labor Day, when Congressional campaigns will be fully engaged. Mr. Bush has shaken up his staff in an effort to improve his political fortunes, and White House aides said they were confident that events in Iraq were improving and that the political effects of high gasoline prices could fade by the election.

Nevertheless, the Times/CBS News poll contained few if any bright notes for Mr. Bush or Congress.

Damn straight, we feel bleak. Republicans have been deserting the base like rats who don't like swimming for quite a while. Both liberals and conservatives are regarding this as the worst presidency in history. Bleak doesn't hardly touch that. The poll doesn't ask a total disgust question. That would be closer to the way I'm hearing people feeling, outside of the die-hard base.

The Food of Love

I watched Emeril make this tonight and assembled a shopping list for tomorrow. I figure I can freeze this down in individal servings for later. I watch a lot of cooking TV, but there is very little of it which gets my pen out to start taking notes. This does.

Potatoes a la Boulangere

10 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 cups thinly sliced onions
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
5 pounds red bliss potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced into 1/8-inch rounds
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 1/2 cups chicken stock, or canned low sodium chicken broth

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Set a large skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of butter to the pan. Once the butter has melted, saute the onions in the pan, stirring often until the onions are caramelized, about 30 minutes. Season the onions with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Set the onions aside to cool. Using the same skillet, melt another 2 tablespoons of butter over medium high heat, and saute about 1/4 of the potatoes until they are lightly caramelized, about 5 minutes. Season the potatoes with 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper. Set the potatoes aside to cool while you continue to cook the remaining potatoes. Repeat this process with the remaining butter, potatoes, salt, and pepper. Once all of the potatoes have been cooked and cooled, place 1/4 of them in a slightly overlapping single layer into a 9 by 13-inch casserole pan. Sprinkle a third of the caramelized onions over the potatoes, and sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of the chopped thyme. Place another layer of the potatoes on top of the onions, another third of the onions, and another teaspoon of the thyme. Repeat this process with the remaining potatoes, onions, and thyme, finishing with a top layer of potatoes.

Pour the chicken stock over the potatoes and place the casserole in the oven. Bake the casserole for 25 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and continue to cook the casserole until the potatoes are golden brown, about 30 minutes more.

Remove the casserole from the oven, and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

This got my salivary glands working and ready to try it.

Kissed with Brine

I've been on a seafood kick lately. I can get pretty passionate about shellfish and I'm very glad to live someplace where I can get good stuff fresh and relatively affordably. DC's Eastern Market is a metropolitan treasure. This recipe is so easy and so fast that it is great for a weeknight. This will serve four but is easy to halve.

I like this with bay scallops, but if they are out of season or unavailable, use sea scallops. Depending on size, slice them on the horizontal into halves or thirds.

Sauteed Scallops with Pasta and Herbs

2/3 cup chicken stock
2 bunches parsley, stems picked
1/4 cup white wine
1 pound bay scallops
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh mild herbs (basil, chervil, tarragon, parsley)
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
8 ounces fresh angel hair pasta, cooked, shocked and tossed in olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
Edible flowers

In a sauce pan, bring the chicken stock up to a boil. Remove from the heat. Pour into a blender along with the parsley and white wine. Puree until smooth. Season with salt and pepper. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. In a saute pan, heat the olive oil. When the oil is hot, saute the scallops for 1 minutes on each side. (The scallops should be developing barely a golden brown sear on each side-**the oil must be almost smoking.) Remove from the pan. In a mixing bowl, whisk the herbs and extra-virgin olive oil together. Add the garlic. Toss the pasta with the dressing. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the coulis in the center of the plate. Mound the pasta salad in the center of the sauce. Arrange the scallops around the salad. Garnish with the cheese, parsley and edible flowers.

This makes a lovely presentation and needs nothing more than a basket of good bread with a bottle of herbed olive oil in which to dip it. I like a pinot gris with this.

Partisan Favoratism

Senator demands resignation of Housing Secretary after 'don't like Bush' dispute

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday May 9, 2006

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) called on President Bush to ask for the immediate resignation of the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Alphonso Jackson if a report about government contracts being awarded based on the contractor's opinion of President Bush are accurate, RAW STORY has learned.

In addition, Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Barney Frank (D-MA) have also called for a full investigation. Their release follows.

The article that reported the Secretary’s comments below can be found here.

After discussing the huge strides the agency has made in doing business with minority-owned companies, Jackson relayed a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'

"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'

"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

“If Secretary Jackson really said this, then President Bush should ask for his resignation. Government contracts must be based on merit, not on political favoritism,” Lautenberg said in a release.

Like this is a shock. Halliburton? Brown and Root?

Good News

Whoo-hoo! I just got an email from my favorite breakfast place (and it is just across the street.) Free Wi-fi for paying customers! Let the breakfast blogging begin!

Hot Air on Education

Half of Teachers Quit in 5 Years
Working Conditions, Low Salaries Cited

By Lisa Lambert
Reuters
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; A07

Jessica Jentis fit the profile of a typical American teacher: She was white, held a master's degree and quit 2 1/2 years after starting her career.

According to a new study from the National Education Association, a teachers union, half of new U.S. teachers are likely to quit within the first five years because of poor working conditions and low salaries.

Jentis, now a stay-at-home mother of three, says that she could not make enough money teaching in Manhattan to pay for her student loans and that dealing with the school bureaucracy was too difficult.

"The kids were wonderful to be with, but the stress of everything that went with it and the low pay did not make it hard to leave," she said. "It's sad because you see a lot of the teachers that are young and gung-ho are ready to leave."

The proportion of new teachers who leave the profession has hovered around 50 percent for decades, said Barry A. Farber, a professor of education and psychology at Columbia University in New York.

The study, which the association released last week ahead of its annual salute to teachers today, also found that the average teacher is a married, 43-year-old white woman who is religious.

Teachers are more educated than ever before, with the proportion of those holding master's degrees increasing to 50 percent from 23 percent since the early 1960s.

Only 6 percent of teachers are African American, and 5 percent are Hispanic, Asian or come from other ethnic groups. Men represent barely a quarter of teachers, which the association says is the lowest level in four decades.

"We must face the fact that although our current teachers are the most educated and most experienced ever, there are still too many teachers leaving the profession too early, not enough people becoming teachers and not enough diversity in the profession," NEA President Reg Weaver said in a statement.

Because of the high dropout rate of younger teachers, there will be plenty of job openings for teachers over the next 10 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

We don't really take education seriously in this country. Any other industry which had this kind of recruitment and retention rate would go on the warpath to fix the problem. Attrition like this has its own costs and is an enormous waste of money. This is all caused by short-sightedness by local school districts. It's as if they are willing to say that teaching isn't important enough that experience might be useful.

The Times, They are A-Changin'

Music: Sounding Off on Bush

May 15, 2006 issue - Mr. President, how do you sleep at night while the rest of us cry?" asks Pink on her new album, "I'm Not Dead." George W. Bush has yet to answer the pop star's question, but he may as well brace himself: Pink's acoustic number is part of an anti-establishment avalanche in music, and this time it's personal. The protest songs of the Vietnam era railed against the war and The Man, but the new wave of dissent is aimed directly at Bush. On his new album, Neil Young sings, "Let's impeach the president, for hijacking our religion and using it to get elected/Dividing our country into colors, and still leaving black people neglected." Songs on upcoming CDs by Merle Haggard, Dashboard Confessional and Paul Simon deal more blows against the war and Bush. Even The Boss's new CD, featuring Springsteen's own renditions of protest songs by Pete Seeger, is clearly more than an ode to the folk hero; it's an arrow aimed directly at the White House. "This whole idea that we have to temper our moral outrage over what's going on here and in Iraq is ridiculous," says Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder. On the band's single "Worldwide Suicide," off its new CD, he sings, "Medals on a wooden mantel, next to a handsome face/That the president took for granted, writing checks that others pay." "I am a citizen who cares about what happens to this country," says Vedder, "and right now things are really bad."

When the Dixie Chicks spoke out against Bush onstage three years ago, they were all but dropped from country-music radio. But with the president's approval ratings at a record low, criticizing Bush or op-posing the war in song isn't quite as risky. "There's a greater political intensity now than there's been in years," says Danny Goldberg, a music-industry veteran who's now vice chairman of Air America Radio. "These artists are expressing what a lot of the country is feeling—a growing disenchantment with the way this government is doing things."

Musical ire against the White House has been growing since the invasion of Iraq. Eminem blasted Bush on the eve of the last election in the single "Mosh" ("Strap him with an AK-47, let him go fight his own war"); the punk trio Green Day's 2005 multiplatinum CD "American Idiot" told stories of people ruined by the current administration's social policies, and even Madonna recently got in on the act. During a dance set in the DJ tent of the Coachella music festival, the diva changed the lyrics in her song "I Love New York": "Just go to Texas," she sang, "and suck George Bush's d---." Not all protest songs are eloquent.

Looking for Anyone

Recruiting Abuses Mount as Army Struggles to Meet Goals

BY MICHELLE ROBERTS
May 7, 2006
The Oregonian

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Jared Guinther is 18. Tall and lanky, he will graduate from high school in June. Girls think he's cute, until they try to talk to him and he stammers or just stands there -- silent.

Diagnosed with autism at age 3, Jared is polite but won't talk to people unless they address him first. It's hard for him to make friends. He lives in his own private world.

Jared didn't know there was a war raging in Iraq until his parents told him last fall -- shortly after a military recruiter stopped him outside a Portland strip mall and complimented his black Converse All-Stars.

"When Jared first started talking about joining the Army, I thought, `Well, that isn't going to happen,"' said Paul Guinther, Jared's father. "I told my wife not to worry about it. They're not going to take anybody in the service who's autistic."

But they did. Last month, Jared came home with papers showing that he had not only enlisted, but signed up for the Army's most dangerous job: cavalry scout. He is scheduled to leave for basic training Aug. 16.

Officials are now investigating whether recruiters at the U.S. Army Recruiting Station in southeast Portland improperly concealed Jared's disability, which should have made him ineligible for service.

What happened to Jared is a growing national problem as the military faces increasing pressure to hit recruiting targets during an unpopular war.

Tracking by the Pentagon shows that complaints about recruiting improprieties are on pace to again reach record highs set in 2003 and 2004. Both the active Army and Reserve missed recruiting targets last year, and reports of recruiting abuses continue from across the country.

A family in Ohio reported that its mentally ill son was signed up, despite rules banning such enlistments and the fact that records about his illness were readily available.

In Houston, a recruiter warned a potential enlistee that if he backed out of a meeting he'd be arrested.

And in Colorado, a high school student working undercover told recruiters he'd dropped out and had a drug problem. The recruiter told the boy to fake a diploma and buy a product to help him beat a drug test.

Violations such as these forced the Army to halt recruiting for a day last May so recruiters could be retrained and reminded of the job's ethical requirements.

The Portland Army Recruiting Battalion Headquarters opened its investigation into Jared's case last week after his parents called The Oregonian and the newspaper began asking questions about his enlistment.

Maj. Curt Steinagel, commander of the Military Entrance Processing Station in Portland, said the papers filled out by Jared's recruiters contained no indication of his disability. Steinagel acknowledged that the current climate is tough on recruiters.

"I can't speak for Army," he said, "but it's no secret that recruiters stretch and bend the rules because of all the pressure they're under. The problem exists, and we all know it exists."

If we were serious about both supporting our troops in battle and in winning the various wars that are being fought right now, you would think the Secretary of Defense would want the best of the best of the best, SIR! instead of any Tom, Dick, or Harry that you can trick onto the front lines.

Of course there is pressure on the recruiters, and it's not made any easier on the kids since the recruiters have access to their information thanks to No Child Left Behind. We have military recruiters at my school almost every day and they are willing to take anyone who signs up, no matter how unqualified they are. How many more stories do we need like this of abuses before the warhawks either go about getting enough troops or abandon this pretense of wanting to win the wars?

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

U.S. Newborn-Survival Rate Ranks
Near Last in Industrialized Nations
Associated Press
May 9, 2006 11:03 a.m.

CHICAGO -- Despite its superpower status, the U.S. survival rate for newborn babies ranks near the bottom among 33 industrialized countries, better only than Latvia.

The U.S. is tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia with a death rate of nearly five per 1,000 babies, according to a new report. Latvia's rate is six per 1,000.

"We are the wealthiest country in the world, but there are still pockets of our population who are not getting the health care they need," said Mary Beth Powers, a reproductive health adviser for the U.S.-based Save the Children, which compiled the rankings based on health data from countries and agencies world-wide.

The U.S. ranking is driven partly by racial and income disparities. Among U.S. blacks, there are nine deaths per 1,000 live births, closer to rates in developing nations than to those in the industrialized world.

"Every time I see these kinds of statistics, I'm always amazed to see where the United States is because we are a country that prides itself on having such advanced medical care and developing new technology ... and new approaches to treating illness. But at the same time not everybody has access to those new technologies," said Dr. Mark Schuster, a Rand Co. researcher and pediatrician at the University of California, Los Angeles.

British health sturdier than Americans'
Study finds curious inequity: All things being equal, Yanks fall apart much faster

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHICAGO

White, middle-aged Americans - even those who are rich - are far less healthy than their peers in England, according to stunning new research that erases misconceptions and has experts scratching their heads.

Americans had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, strokes, lung disease and cancer - findings that held true no matter what income or education level.

Those dismal results are despite the fact that U.S. spending on health care is double what England spends per citizen.

"Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?" asks Dr. Michael Marmot, a co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at University College London in England.

The study, based on government statistics in both countries, adds context to the already-known fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet trails in rankings of life expectancy.

The United States spends about $5,200 a person on health care. England spends about half that in adjusted dollars.

Aren't you glad to know that you are spending more for higher infant mortality and and worse health? When are Americans going to wake up to the fact that our system is completely broken?

Creative Tension

Experts See a Strategy Behind CIA Shuffle
General May Help Intelligence Chief Rein In Rumsfeld and His Military Spy Plans

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 9, 2006; Page A09

Gen. Michael V. Hayden isn't the first active-duty military officer tapped to lead the CIA -- he is in fact the fifth -- but many intelligence experts and officers have bemoaned the idea of a general leading the agency at a time when the Pentagon is expanding its ability to engage in global spying and man-hunting, traditional realms of the CIA.

Despite such qualms, intelligence specialists say Hayden's appointment may turn out to be a clever move by intelligence czar John D. Negroponte to help him assert authority over Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his burgeoning intelligence bureaucracy. Negroponte, who by law oversees all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, has expressed frustration that he has not made more progress in managing the agencies under the Defense Department's jurisdiction.

Negroponte was mindful of the issue yesterday as Hayden was officially nominated. "To those who raise a question about the fact that Mike Hayden wears the uniform," Negroponte said in announcing his nomination, "I think they can also be assured that Mike Hayden is a very, very independent-minded person, blunt-spoken. . . . I don't think [he] will have any difficulty whatsoever staking out positions that are independent."

The intelligence overhaul that installed Negroponte as the first director of national intelligence also assigned the CIA the role of managing all "human intelligence" -- or spying -- including the collection done by the Defense Department, which many experts believe is trying to break out on its own in this arena.

This is the same argument made yesterday by Steve Clemmons. I accepted that Steve might be right, but the same folks he talks to are talking to Dana Priest, so there may be something to it.

Finger Food

This is a surprising recipe I got from a Jewish cookbook. It is also an excellent first course and a wonderful use of fresh spring grub.

* Large bunch of parsley
* Small bunch of spring onions (scallion) bulbs
* 4 ripe avocados
* 1 tbsp lemon juice
* 4 hard-boiled eggs, halved
* 1 tsp salt
* 10 grinds of black pepper
* 1 rounded tbsp mayonnaise

Chop the parsley and the spring onions finely in the food processor. Add the peeled, stoned and roughly cubed avocados and the lemon juice, then add the hard-boiled eggs, salt, and pepper. Pulse until the hard-boiled eggs are finely chopped. Turn into a bowl and add enough of the mayonnaise to bind the mixture into a pate. Taste and re-season if necessary. Pile into a shallow bowl and chill until required. Serve with scoop crisps or spread on fingers of challah.

This is much more interesting than 9/10ths of the guac recipes I try and is surprisingly good on nothing more than toasts. This goes into the late afternoon tea hall of fame. Great finger sandwiches are made of this, who am I to disagree.... Dress them with a drizzle of oil and lemon juice and chow down.

Yield: 8 servings as a starter, 12 as a dip

Serve this at a party with toasted herb bread and they will disappear so fast that your head will spin.

F*cking Us Over

Via Susie:

Vaccine makers helped write Frist-backed shield law
E-mails reveal private meetings

By BILL THEOBALD
Tennessean Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Vaccine industry officials helped shape legislation behind the scenes that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist secretly amended into a bill to shield them from lawsuits, according to e-mails obtained by a public advocacy group.

E-mails and documents written by a trade group for the vaccine-makers show the organization met privately with Frist's staff and the White House about measures that would give the industry protection from lawsuits filed by people hurt by the vaccines.

The communications were made public in a report released this week by the group Public Citizen. Its study follows a February story in The Tennessean that Frist, along with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., ordered the vaccine liability language inserted in a defense spending bill in December without debate and in violation of usual Senate practice.

The group, called the Biotechnology Industry Organization, wanted such language in the bill, the e-mails reflect.

"At Senator Frist's staff's request, this morning, BIO (Tom and I) participated in a meeting with three other industry representatives (Sanofi and an outside counsel who works for both Pfizer and Roche, I believe), administration staff (HHS, DoJ and WH Leg Affairs), and Liz Hall to further discuss liability," BIO official Dave Boyer wrote in a November e-mail obtained by Public Citizen.

In a written statement, Frist spokeswoman Amy Call stated that the senator had promised publicly to include the vaccine liability protection in the defense spending bill. She did not address the issue of the influence of industry lobbyists.

The statement points out that the Public Citizen board includes prominent trial lawyers and liberals. "Trial lawyers oppose these provisions because it will strip them of the ability to line their pockets at the expense of the American public," Call said.

Frist and the White House reached out to the industry, according to the communications cited by Public Citizen, and Boyer, chief lobbyist for the industry group, was asked to provide an analysis of draft legislation.

The group asked that the legislation make clear that a vaccine maker could only be successfully sued if "willful misconduct" on its part were proved. The law includes that standard and says a company is protected from claims of negligence or recklessness.

The analysis, which Public Citizen quoted from, included BIO's concerns that the draft bill would have still allowed people hurt by vaccines to get jury trials.

"The lack of any restriction on jury trial is problematic," the analysis said. "Where injured parties have no other avenue for relief, juries are likely to find ways to award damages."

In another e-mail, Boyer described a meeting in which a deputy of Bush strategist Karl Rove said it was "important to the President that a bill move this year," and said "they had invited industry to discuss what they understood to be a few key remaining points" of contention.

"The intimacy of this, we think, is quite unusual," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, about the relationship between the organization's lobbyists, Frist and the Bush administration. "We think it is an interesting case study of how the inside operation works in Washington."

"Interesting?" Jesus H. Christ, this is the government and industry in bed with each other when we have a possible pandemic on the line and no vaccine in the pipeline. How much outrage is it going to take to get the Democratic party moved from its somnolent splendor?

Welcome to the Sandbox

Excuse me? I'd like to see Condi Rice's negotiating and diplomatic credentials. It doesn't appear that she is a serious practioner of the art.

Bush Dismisses Iranian Leader's Overture

By Maggie Farley and Paul Richter, Times Staff Writers
7:59 PM PDT, May 8, 2006

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent an unexpected letter to President Bush on Monday, in what was seen as an overture for direct talks about his nation's nuclear program, but U.S. officials dismissed the missive as an 11th-hour ploy to forestall punitive action by the United Nations.

The letter is thought to be the first direct communication between the two countries' leaders since Iranian militants overthrew the Shah and took Americans hostage at the U.S. Embassy in 1979. Diplomats hoped the letter signaled a new willingness on Iran's part to address the standoff over its enrichment of uranium, which the Islamic republic says is for peaceful energy purposes, but which much of the West suspects is a cover for building nuclear weapons.

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Associated Press that the letter did not contain serious proposals on the disputed nuclear program, but covered history, philosophy and religion over 17 or 18 pages.

The missive, passed on to the White House by the Swiss Embassy in Tehran because the U.S. has no presence there, also contained a long litany of grievances and a demand to be treated as an international power, said U.S. officials.

"This letter isn't it. This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort," Rice said. "It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way."

President Bush, traveling to Florida, was briefed on the letter's contents. "It does not appear to do anything to address the nuclear concerns" of the international community, White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, in Turkey, told The Associated Press his country preferred "to solve the issue by diplomatic means."

As Rice prepared to meet counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union on Monday night about how to deal with Iran's refusal to stop its nuclear activities, U.S. officials said they didn't even want to talk about talking to Iran.

This failed academic doesn't seem to have heard of the "walk in the woods strategy", which means she's an ahistorical idiot. The people running our country are possessed of a kindergarten level understanding of the world's stage.

Mothers' Day Art

Here is another way to treat mom on Sunday. Not being a mom myself, I can only say that I prefer this one. For four, since Mom has a husband and kids and whatnot.

1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons fresh coarsely ground black pepper
4 (6-ounce, 3/4-inch thick) tenderloin steaks
1 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons Cognac
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2/3 cup half-and-half or light cream
3 tablespoons brined green peppercorns (drained)

Rub salt and ground black pepper over both sides of the steak.

Heat a dry saute pan over high heat. When pan becomes very hot add butter, let melt, then add steaks. Turn steaks only once, and cook to desired degree of doneness (approximately 3 minutes per side for medium-rare, depending on exact thickness.)

Add the Cognac to the pan, let sit for 5 seconds, and then light a match to it. Flame should burn out after approximately 10 seconds. (If flame continues to burn, put it out by placing a lid on the pan).

Remove steak from pan, leaving the drippings in the pan, and reserve on a warm plate and cover with aluminum foil.

Reduce heat to low and slowly stir Dijon and half-and-half into the drippings. Add peppercorns. Stir and simmer for a couple of minutes until sauce becomes thick. Place steaks on warmed serving plates. Pour sauce over steak.

I defy anyone to hate this.

Ahhhh!

Since Mother's Day morning is coming, here is the recipe for eggs turned wonderful.

Hot buttered English muffins, Canadian-style bacon, and poached eggs are topped by a heavenly drizzle of hollandaise sauce.

Wonderful for Easter, Mother's Day, or anytime you want to treat yourself to the best brunch in the world! Serve with roasted potatoes for mopping up the extra egg yolk and hollandaise. If you prefer, you can substitute ham for the Canadian bacon in this recipe."
* 4 egg yolks
* 3 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 pinch ground white pepper
* 1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
* 1 tablespoon water
* 1 cup butter, melted
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 eggs
* 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
* 8 strips Canadian-style bacon
* 4 English muffins, split
* 2 tablespoons butter, softened

DIRECTIONS:

1. To Make Hollandaise: Fill the bottom of a double boiler part-way with water. Make sure that water does not touch the top pan. Bring water to a gentle simmer. In the top of the double boiler, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice, white pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and 1 tablespoon water
.
2. Add the melted butter to egg yolk mixture 1 or 2 tablespoons at a time while whisking yolks constantly. If hollandaise begins to get too thick, add a teaspoon or two of hot water. Continue whisking until all butter is incorporated. Whisk in salt, then remove from heat. Place a lid on pan to keep sauce warm.

3. Preheat oven on broiler setting. To Poach Eggs: Fill a large saucepan with 3 inches of water. Bring water to a gentle simmer, then add vinegar. Carefully break eggs into simmering water, and allow to cook for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes. Yolks should still be soft in center. Remove eggs from water with a slotted spoon and set on a warm plate

4. While eggs are poaching, brown the bacon in a medium skillet over medium-high heat and toast the English muffins on a baking sheet under the broiler.

5. Spread toasted muffins with softened butter, and top each one with a slice of bacon, followed by one poached egg. Place 2 muffins on each plate and drizzle with hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle with chopped chives and serve immediately.

Mmm hmm.

1/2 cup non-fat powdered milk
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon shortening
1 cup hot water
1 envelope dry yeast
1/8 teaspoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water
2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Non-stick vegetable spray
Special equipment: electric griddle, 3-inch metal rings, see Cook's Note*

In a bowl combine the powdered milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, shortening, and hot water, stir until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Let cool. In a separate bowl combine the yeast and 1/8 teaspoon of sugar in 1/3 cup of warm water and rest until yeast has dissolved. Add this to the dry milk mixture. Add the sifted flour and beat thoroughly with wooden spoon. Cover the bowl and let it rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

Preheat the griddle to 300 degrees F.

Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt to mixture and beat thoroughly. Place metal rings onto the griddle and coat lightly with vegetable spray. Using #20 ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops into each ring and cover with a pot lid or cookie sheet and cook for 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the lid and flip rings using tongs. Cover with the lid and cook for another 5 to 6 minutes or until golden brown. Place on a cooling rack, remove rings and cool. Split with fork and serve.

*Cook's Note: Small tuna cans with tops and bottoms removed work well for metal rings.

And finish the dish with

HASH BROWN POTATOES

SERVES 4

Hash brown potatoes vary greatly depending on the region. Some places, they are cubed raw potatoes, fried. Some people use leftover potatoes. Where I grew up, they were raw grated potatoes, fried. That's what I love because the outside gets so crunchy. These are so quick and easy, and much better than the frozen varieties. Serve them for breakfast or as a side dish with dinner.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 pound potatoes, about 2 large
* 2 tablespoons oil, such as canola
* 2 tablespoons butter
* Salt and pepper to taste

Scrub the potatoes. They do not need to be peeled. Grate with a shred-size grater. Heat a 12-inch skillet, preferably nonstick, over medium-high heat. Add the oil and butter. When hot, add the potatoes and push down with a spatula to spread evenly in the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle the top with salt and pepper. Fry until the bottom is browned and crispy, about 5 minutes. Do not try to flip until it is browned, or the potatoes might stick. Flip the potatoes, in sections if necessary, and fry another 5 minutes, or until browned and crispy on the other side. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 200° F oven.

One Thousand and One Arabian Nights

Rice Dismisses Iranian President's Letter to Bush

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 8, 2006
ssociated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed a letter that Iran's president sent to President Bush on Monday, saying the first direct communication from an Iranian leader in 27 years does not help resolve the standoff over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

Iran's top nuclear negotiator called the surprise letter a new ''diplomatic opening'' between the two countries, but Rice said it was not.

''This letter is not the place that one would find an opening to engage on the nuclear issue or anything of the sort,'' the top U.S. diplomat said in an interview with The Associated Press. ''It isn't addressing the issues that we're dealing with in a concrete way.''

Rice said the letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was 17 or 18 pages long and covered history, philosophy and religion.

Rice's comments were the most detailed response from the United States to the letter, the first from an Iranian head of state to an American president since the 1979 hostage crisis at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Um, Condi, how would you ever know a major diplomatic intitative, since you have never made one?

The lightweights in the Bush Administration continue to press ahead. Whatever that means in an administration of idiots who don't know much and yet somehow seem to be proud of it. Bush caught a little perch and thinks that is significant enough to tell the national German network.

Are you tired of the idiots yet? Does Bush know anybody who isn't? My slate is blank.

Ahmandenijad appears to be looking for grownups who actually know how to conduct negtiotians. Since Bush doesn't, we are in unfamiliar territory.

Basic Food

You are likely to find a menu item similar to this from any kitchen around the mediterranean basin. Know what to call it and you can order it anywhere on your next trip abroad. I remember ordering this in Marsailles when I was just too tired to remember what the regional specialties were and I needed some food quickly. Sometimes you just have to go with the comfort food.

Thin Pasta with Mushrooms: Pasta alla Chitarra con Fungi

1 pound chitarra pasta (substitute with spaghetti)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 cups diced porcini mushrooms
6 ounces heavy cream
1 tablespoon truffle paste
Salt and pepper
Parmesan, grated

Cook chitarra pasta or spaghetti according to package directions. Do not rinse pasta with cold water.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil, and add the crushed garlic. Heat the garlic in the oil for a few seconds to infuse the flavor of the garlic in the oil. Remove the garlic, and set aside.

Add the porcini mushrooms to the skillet, and cook for approximately 5 minutes, or until tender. Add the heavy cream, truffle paste, pepper, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the cooked pasta to the skillet and mix all ingredients together.

To serve, plate pasta, and sprinkle with grated Parmesan.

If you can get the truffle paste, tip the waitron handily. You will go to bed tired on this part of your trip, but you won't go to bed hungry.

Serve this at home and your friends will wonder what else you know that they don't know.

Down, Down, Down

Gallup: Bush's Approval Rating Hits Record Low of 31%, Disapproval at 65%

By E&P; Staff

Published: May 08, 2006 3:00 PM ET

NEW YORK The latest USA Today/Gallup poll finds that President George W. Bush's job approval rating has slipped to a record low of 31%. His disapproval rating also reached a record high at 65%.

The poll of 1,013 adults found that Americans no longer believe the President to be an effective manager, and Bush's slipping numbers are increasingly being fueled by erosion of support among his conservative base. The poll found that 52% of conservatives and 68% of Republicans approved of the job Bush is doing. Both are record lows among those groups.

Moderates gave him an approval rating of 28%, liberals of 7%.

According to Gallup, only four presidents have scored lower approval ratings since the Gallup Poll began regularly measuring it in the mid-1940s: Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and the first George Bush. When Nixon, Carter and the elder Bush sank below 35%, they never again registered above 40%.

More TV News

Bush Polls + Fox News = Lower Ratings?

Some recent ratings news last week no doubt gladdened the hearts of Fox News Channel haters. First, Nielsen Media Research reported that Fox News’ overall prime-time lineup dropped 17% last month compared with a year ago (MSNBC grew 16% during the same period, while CNN plummeted by 38%).

Oreilly_2 Late last week, a reliable television industry website, Tvnewser.com, reported that in April, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly had his worst month in nearly five years among viewers aged 25- to 54, the most coveted audience in TV news.

Although the network still churns out ratings light-years ahead of competitors’ and O’Reilly remains cable news’ No. 1 host, Fox News’ explosive growth appears to be, like the president’s 90% approval rating in the days following Sept. 11, a relic from the first Bush term.

That’s the elephant in the room, of course — the broadly assumed, and occasionally documented, affinity between Fox News and the current administration (Vice President Dick Cheney’s office prepared a hotel checklist, recently posted on thesmokinggun.com, that ordered “all televisions tuned to Fox News” during Cheney visits). Could it be mere coincidence that O’Reilly, populist scourge of both Clintons and countless left-wing causes, is seeing his still-formidable nightly audience of 2.1 million or so start to shrink in tandem with the Bush/GOP’s rapidly fading grip on the electorate?

O’Reilly’s thoroughly delighted rivals think not.

Olbermann “When the stock market was through the roof in the ’90s, people used to sit around and watch CNBC and slap high fives and say, ‘I made another hundred bucks today!,’” said MSNBC host and longtime O’Reilly foe Keith Olbermann, adding that CNBC’s ratings quickly went south when the tech bubble burst.

“I think the same psychology applies to Fox. They’ll always have their hard-core audience that wants to hear, ’Everything’s great! ([Bush is]) doing a great job'.” But less partisan viewers are drifting away, Olbermann argued.

Jonathan Klein, president of CNN/US, agrees. “Maybe this is part of the deal with the devil you make when a supposed news network allies itself so closely with one point- of- view,” he said.

I don't care what the reason is, but anything that's bad for Faux is good in my book.

Pssst....

Here is a great article on flu preparations in King County of Washington state.

If you want to cut to the wonk, here is the plan itself.

Given that King County is getting all of $2 million, once, from the Feds for these efforts, in a world where spending $330 million per day in Iraq is considered far more important, other municipalities and county governments might want ot crib these notes.

Just sayin'...

ABC's "Fatal Contact"

Here are my thoughts on the audio conference in which I participated earlier today. The panel was sponsored by the Trust for America's Health and the participants were CIDRAP's Michael Osterholm, Andrew Pavia, who is current president of the Infectious Disease Society of American and a member of the medical faculty at the University of Utah and author John Barry.

As you would probably suspect, given the state of viral science right now, there was no new information that those who read this site regularly wouldn't know about. Probably the most interesting discussion happened when I asked Osterholm a question about risk communication and public cynicism. This set off a strong critique of media coverage of public health in general and pandemic influenza in particular among the panelists. The vacuum created by this poor coverage allows things like this silly movie to take up space in the public's imagination. Osterholm was particularly critical of the "he said, she said" character of the coverage, setting it up as a conflict between the scientific specialists and the sceptics (Siegal, Orent et al) rather than covering the potential effects of pandemic infectious disease.

John Barry offered the most stinging critique of the movie, as he was the only one who had seen one of the nearly final cuts. It is extremely sensationalistic. ABC claims that he was a "consultant" on the project. He said that his involvement was limited to one conference call with the principles. If good risk communication means transmitting the full range of scenarios in a risky situation, this movie comes down on the "we're all going to die" screamed at the top of the lungs end of the spectrum. I see no point in wasting my time with it.

Talking Points for Desperation

The USDA on Iraq: Everything's Coming Up Rosy

By Al Kamen
Monday, May 8, 2006; Page A17

Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration "talking points" -- saying things such as "President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq" -- in every speech they give for the department.

"The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq," the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began.

The e-mail, sent to about 60 undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and other political appointees, was also sent to "a few people to whom it should not have gone," said the department's communications director, Terri Teuber . The career people, we are assured, are not being asked to spread the great news on Iraq in their talks to food stamp recipients, disadvantaged farmers, enviros or other folks.

The e-mail provided language "being used by Secretary [Michael O.] Johanns and deputy secretary [Charles F.] Conner in all of their remarks and is being sent to you for inclusion in your speeches."

Another attachment "contains specific examples of GWOT messages within agriculture speeches. Please use these message points as often as possible and send Harry Phillips , USDA's director of speechwriting, a weekly email summarizing the event, date and location of each speech incorporating the attached language. Your responses will be included in a weekly account sent to the White House."

This scoreboard, of course, will ensure you give it your best shot.

Now, you might still be scratching your heads, trying to figure out how this is going to work when people expect a talk about agriculture issues. Not to worry. The attachments -- which can be viewed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/fedpage -- show how easy it is to work a little Iraq happy talk into just about anything.

There's a sample introduction: "Several topics I'd like to talk about today -- Farm Bill, trade with Japan, WTO, avian flu . . . but before I do, let me touch on a subject people always ask about . . . progress in Iraq." See? Smooth as silk.

So then you talk about how "we are helping the Iraqi people build a lasting democracy that is peaceful and prosperous." If it looks like the audience is with you, try to slip in the old Iraq/al-Qaeda/terrorism link and say Americans are helping build a country "that will never again be a safe haven for terrorists."

Loop suggestion: With the polls showing that only about 40 percent of those surveyed actually still buy the linkage thing, you may want to use some discretion here lest you lose the audience.

The e-mail shows how to weave in a comment that times are tough for Iraqi farmers. "But revitalization is underway. President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq structured on three tracks -- political, economic and security."

And we wonder why the voters are cynical?

Beyond the Figureheads

Bush's Appointees Not As Diverse as Clinton's

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 8, 2006; A17

President Bush's crop of political appointees includes fewer women and minorities than did President Bill Clinton's at comparable points in their presidencies, according to a new report by House Democrats.

Women made up about 37 percent of the 2,786 political appointees in the Bush administration in 2005, compared with about 47 percent in the Clinton administration in 1997, according to the report and supplemental data released last week by the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee. Similarly, about 13 percent of Bush administration appointees last year were racial minorities, compared with 24 percent in the fifth year of Clinton's presidency, the report found.

The 13-page report, compiled using data from the Office of Personnel Management, says the number of women and minority appointees increased during the first five years after Clinton took office and has declined during Bush's tenure.

What the report does not mention, however, is that Bush has established a record of diversity in his Cabinet. Bush's Cabinet, which includes the vice president and the heads of 15 executive departments, currently has two Hispanics, two African Americans and two Asian Americans. Three departments -- State, Education and Labor -- are headed by women, and a fourth, Interior, has an acting secretary who is a woman.

Before Bush took office, no minority had occupied any of the four highest-profile Cabinet positions -- attorney general and the secretaries of the Defense, State and Treasury departments. Now, Alberto R. Gonzales, a Hispanic, is attorney general. Condoleezza Rice is the first African American woman to be secretary of state; her predecessor, Colin L. Powell, was the first African American named to that post.

Is it really much of a surprise that a white guy Repub is going to surround himself with others just like him? Cabinet secretaries have symbolic value, you learn more about the nominator by going deeper into the ranks of appointees.

Avian Influenza and the ABC Movie

I just got off a conference call sponsored by the Trust for America’s Health with Mike Osterholm, Andy Pavia and John Berry to provide context to the media for the movie tomorrow night. I’ll have more to say about this later once I’ve digested it.

News and Notes, Theological and Otherwise

It's finally raining. We've had an unusually dry winter and spring and are starting the growing season with a significant deficit, so the rain is welcome tonight. The weather service says we have more chances for rain later in the week, and this allergy sufferer is looking forward to awaking in the morning without the screaming sinuses, scratchy throat and the usual sequelae of the spring allergy season. I went out for a walk this afternoon to see the upside: everything is in bloom and this is the most beautiful part of the year in the Mid-Atlantic. We're past cherry blossom time now, but everything else, from azeleas to apple blossoms, are in full riot mode. Some years we get this little pause between winter and full-on summer hot muggies where the weather is temperate during the beauty season, and we got it this year. I needed a jacket for my walk today, but I was in shorts (and a little chilly) earlier this week. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts. May can already be fairly brutally hot here, but this week looks like it is going to be a gift and I want to accept it, gratefully.

I've got a few observations on "The Da Vinci Code." I can't imagine why the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury choose to get worked up about this. I read it a couple of years ago when a girlfriend passed me a copy. It is a crummy novelization of a piece of bad history that I read when it came out 25 years ago. Ho hum. I can't imagine the screenplay will be better than the book and I would not pay money to see Tom Cruise chew the scenery. The ecclesiastics should have given this a yawn instead of a rant. What was weird was seeing two Christian theologians who occupy theologically different planets go off on the same piece of really shitty writing. Most movies made from great books are lousy movies. Movies made from lousy books are outside of my experience.

I imagine the filmmakers are trying to play up the "controversial" part of the story to try to inflate the crowds. What they don't know is that this is a replay of
the Albegensian heresy, which has been kicking around since at least as early as the fourth Century, CE. There really is nothing new under the sun and Dan Brown has been able to figure out how to cash in on it, big time. It's still a shitty book, and the editor has nothing to be proud of, either. There are major copy edit mistakes and that tells me "rush job."

Don't spend your money on the book or the movie. Go buy a cookbook full of spring recipes and cook something wonderful for your family and friends, instead. That's an act of worship, and an honest one, too. The New Vegetarian Epicure is out and that's where I'm starting. Helloooo, Barnes and Noble.

Dinner in the Queen City

I've been thinking about New Orleans all day today, probably as a result of Howie Kurtz's long and depressing editorial in today's WaPo. It made me wonder if I'll ever have the chance to visit there (I may be there on business later this summer, but that's still up in the air) and sample the legendary cuisine. Many years ago, an ex-boyfriend spent several orchestra tours in NOLA--he was a foodie and was in heaven--and brought me home cookbooks from all the legendary restaurants. I got out the Antoine's cookbook today, just to look at it and remember some of the fabulous meals I've gotten from that cookbook. This recipe has fallen off the restaurant's menu because the glass covers are too fragile and break within the first couple of uses. I dunno, I think I would have found another solution because this food is just too good. You can use ramekins or little pyrex bowls to accomplish the same effect. This is rich to the point of decadence, but, ya know, ya gotta do that once in a while. Mother's Day is coming.

Champignons Sous Cloche (Mushrooms in a Bell)

1 1/2 sticks butter
12-15 large mushrooms sliced (cepes work well)
2 1/2 cups milk
1/4 cup flour
3 oz. dry sherry
Salt and pepper to taste
4 oz. foie gras sliced
4 slices toast trimmed

1. In a large skillet over medium heat bring one stick of the butter to a bubble and add the.mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms become tender.

2. Meanwhile make a thin bechamel. In a.saucepan heat the milk until warm but not steaming. In another saucepan heat the remaining half-stick of butter until it bubbles. Sprinkle in the flour and stir in thoroughly. Don't let this near-roux brown at all. When the flour is completely blended whisk in the milk slowly and bring to a boil whisking constantly until a thick sauce forms.

3. Add the sherry to the mushrooms and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and stir in the bechamel. Add salt and pepper to taste and.cook over very low heat until the sauce penetrates the mushrooms.

4. In a separate pan sear the foie gras slices.

5. Place a slice of foie gras atop the slices of toast on plates. Pour about a cup of the mushroom mixture over the toast and cover with a glass bell. Serve hot removing the glass bell in front of the guest.

Serves four.

I get my foie gras at Trader Joe's, but this is still a "pay day" recipe.

C-Span is Must-See TV

Key Republican Airs Concerns on C.I.A. Pick
By BRIAN KNOWLTON International Herald Tribune

WASHINGTON, May 7 — The man widely expected to be President George W. Bush's choice to lead the C.I.A. encountered surprisingly strong bipartisan opposition today, with the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee bluntly calling him "the wrong man at the wrong place at the wrong time."

Democratic lawmakers joined the committee chairman, Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, in raising objections to having a military man, Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force, placed atop the civilian Central Intelligence Agency, particularly amid an intense turf battle for intelligence budgets and influence among the C.I.A., the Pentagon and the office of the national intelligence director.

General Hayden is now deputy director of national intelligence.

"We should not have a military person leading a civilian agency at this time," Mr. Hoekstra told Fox-TV.

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic House leader, agreed.

"There's a power struggle going on between the Department of Defense and the entire rest of the intelligence community," she said, "so I don't see how you have a four-star general heading up the C.I.A." She said that she had "serious concerns" about General Hayden, at least in this position.

One Republican senator, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he believed that even were General Hayden to resign his military commission, serious conflicts would remain.

"I think the fact that he is part of the military today would be the major problem," Mr. Chambliss said on ABC-TV. "Now, just resigning commission and moving on, putting on a striped suit, a pinstriped suit versus an air force uniform, I don't think makes much difference."

This is another pass the popcorn moment: Bushco is going to have a truly awful summer. Both parties want to use these hearings to get up an investigation of the domestic wiretapping program, which Hayden heads. Between the Repub's under subpeona, indictment or already serving time for corruption, the seamy underbelly of Beltway Repubs are going to be on display all summer.

The Giant

Wachovia Close to Deal to Acquire Golden West
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

Wachovia Corp. was near a deal late today to acquire Golden West Financial Corporation, one of the last major independent banks on the West coast, for about $26 billion in cash and stock, people involved in the negotiations said.

The transaction is expected to be announced Monday, these people said, barring a last-minute snag. Wachovia's board approved the deal this afternoon, while taking a break from the Wachovia Championship PGA golf tournament being held at the Quail Hollow Club near its headquarters in Charlotte, N.C. Golden West's board was to meet tonight, these people said.

The deal would give Wachovia, the nation's fourth-largest bank, behind Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, an important foothold in California and along the West coast, a market that is growing rapidly because the major population influx. Wachovia, which has grown through a string of mergers itself — it combined with First Union in 2001 and bought SouthTrust Corporation in 2004 — has most of its business along the east coast and in the south.

Before deciding to pursue Golden West, Wachovia had eyed MBNA, the large credit card company, but that business was sold last year to Bank of America.

An acquisition of Golden West would also bolster Wachovia's market share in mortgage lending, one of Golden West's biggest businesses.

My God, this is the bank that ate the world. They are now my bank, as they ate the previous two banks I banked with. And we all know how well all of that consolidation has worked out for competition in, say, the cable, oil and telecom industries. Watch for restrictions of services and higher fees.

Good Reading

I know I play fast and loose with "Fair Use" all the time, but Jared Bernstein's editorial in the LAT today is something you just have to read. He riffs on the disparity between GDP growth and falling wages by spinning a "beautiful chick walks into a private eye's office" yarn that's a delight to read. Do all of those EPI guys have such great senses of humor?

Fundraiser in Chief

Gore Displays a Midas Touch

White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten recently said the Bush administration is trying to get back its "mojo." The man President Bush defeated in 2000 has already found his -- at least when it comes to raising money.

Former vice president Al Gore sent an e-mail to Democratic donors recently to "commemorate" the final 1,000 days of the Bush administration.

"I am here to tell you that we simply cannot afford to wait 1,000 days to put the brakes on the Bush agenda," wrote Gore, adding that "the level of cynicism and crass political calculation . . . is truly breathtaking."

The goal of the appeal was to collect $150,000 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- or $10,000 for each of the 15 seats the party needs to regain the House majority in November. Aides at the committee said the e-mail -- the first Gore had done on behalf of House Democrats this cycle -- brought in more than $200,000.

"He is the most successful signature on an e-mail that we have ever had," said DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.). Emanuel added that Gore, who many think still has presidential ambitions, has agreed to campaign for House candidates this fall as long as they favor measures to curtail global warming, long his pet issue.

Yes, there is a draft Gore movement a-borning and I welcome it. He's the one Dem kicking around these days with real gravitas and with Green cred.

Deconstruction

Violence in Iraq Shifts to Civilians
In Baghdad alone, nearly 4,000 deaths were recorded in the first three months of 2006, mostly from a rise in execution-style killings.
By Louise Roug, Times Staff Writer
9:49 PM PDT, May 6, 2006

BAGHDAD — More Iraqi civilians were killed in Baghdad during the first three months of this year than at any time since the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime — at least 3,800, most of them found hog-tied and shot execution-style.

Others were strangled, electrocuted, stabbed, garroted or hanged. Some died in bombings. Many bore signs of torture such as bruises, drill holes, burn marks, gouged eyes or severed limbs.

Every day, about 40 bodies arrive at the central Baghdad morgue, an official said. The numbers demonstrate a shift in the nature of the violence, which increasingly has targeted both sides of the country's Sunni-Shiite sectarian divide.

In the previous three years, the killings were more random, impersonal. Violence came mostly in the form of bombs wielded by the Sunni Arab-led insurgency that primarily targeted the coalition forces and the Shiite majority: balls of fire and shrapnel tearing through the bodies of those riding the wrong bus, shopping at the wrong market or standing in the wrong line.

Now the killings are systematic, personal. Masked gunmen storm into homes, and the victims — the majority of them Sunnis — are never again seen alive.

Such killings now claim nine times more lives than car bombings, according to figures provided by a high-ranking U.S. military official, who released them only on the condition of anonymity.

Statistics obtained at the Baghdad morgue showed a steady increase in the number of shooting deaths and other types of targeted killings over the last year, with a stunning surge in March, after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, one of the holiest Shiite Muslim shrines in the country.

The morgue logs every autopsied body, cataloging each with a folder and pictures. Two officials at the morgue, the director and the head of statistics, provided the numbers and descriptions for this report.

On a recent day, coffins were stacked against the wall outside the morgue, waiting to be filled. Every half hour or so, police officers arrived, unloading bodies from their pickup trucks. Each time, crowds of people rushed forward to see whether their missing relatives were among them.

But even the grim morgue statistics — 3,472 violent deaths in Baghdad from January through March — do not present the full picture of the violence in the capital.

That number does not include those killed in bombings or during gunfights between insurgents and security forces because they are generally are not brought in for autopsy at the central morgue. At least 351 civilians were killed in bombings across the capital during the first three months of the year, according to calculations based on daily reports by hospital and police officials.

Those reports, considered conservative, did not include slain Iraqi security forces, Iraqis killed by U.S. or Iraqi forces, and Iraqis killed outside the capital.

Obtaining accurate numbers from the Health Ministry or the 18 major hospitals serving Baghdad proved difficult, because officials at all tiers of government routinely inflate or deflate numbers to suit political purposes.

Civil war? It's already here.

Spook Minders

Exit of C.I.A. Chief Viewed as Move to Recast Agency

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: May 7, 2006

WASHINGTON, May 6 — The choice of Gen. Michael V. Hayden of the Air Force as the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency is only a first step in a planned overhaul to permanently change the mission and functions of the legendary spy agency, intelligence officials said Saturday.

Porter J. Goss, who was forced to resign Friday, was seen as an obstacle to an effort by John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, to focus the agency on its core mission of fighting terrorism and stealing secrets abroad. General Hayden, who will be nominated to the post on Monday, is currently Mr. Negroponte's deputy, and he is regarded as an enthusiastic champion of the agency's adoption of that narrower role.

A senior intelligence official said that General Hayden, in a recent presentation to the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, had sharply criticized Mr. Goss for resisting the transformation. Mr. Goss was seen as trying to protect the C.I.A.'s longtime role as the government's premier center for intelligence analysis, but under General Hayden, much of that function would probably move elsewhere.

"There will be a serious change to the structure of the agency," one intelligence official said. That person and others from intelligence agencies and the Bush administration were granted anonymity for this article because they are not allowed to speak publicly about intelligence matters.

Even as it turns its focus to intelligence collection, through the spying operations overseas that are run by the C.I.A.'s new national clandestine service, the C.I.A. faces a challenge from the Defense Department, which is expanding its own spying operations abroad.

General Hayden has spent his career in the military, but his relationship with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has never been close. A Bush administration official said on Saturday that General Hayden was selected, in part, because he had demonstrated an ability to set aside a parochial military mind-set and look at the broader picture.

Mr. Negroponte himself has had a difficult year trying to bring the Pentagon's vast intelligence operations under his control. Historically, the Pentagon has controlled more than 80 percent of the nation's intelligence budget.

Maybe, Mark, but officials in DC don't announce things like this and clear out their desks on the same day unless something else is afoot.

Behind the Goss toss
W's 'alarmed' panel sealed top spy's fate

BY RICHARD SISK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - A little-known White House advisory board convinced a reluctant President Bush to launch yet another high-profile shakeup of the nation's intelligence community and can CIA Director Porter Goss, sources said yesterday.

Bush had already gotten an earful from Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte on the shortcomings of Goss, but the final push came from the "very alarmed" President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, intelligence and Congressional sources said.

Alarms were set off at the advisory board by a widening FBI sex and cronyism investigation that's targeted Kyle (Dusty) Foggo, the No.3 official at the CIA, and also touched on Goss himself.

The 16-member bipartisan board, now headed by former Goldman Sachs executive Stephen Friedman, has the mandate to conduct periodic assessments on "the quality, quantity and adequacy of intelligence collection."

The board, which includes longtime Bush confidant and former Commerce Secretary Don Evans, joined in the growing chorus inside and outside the CIA calling for Goss' ouster, persuading Bush to act, sources said.

The result was the awkward Oval Office announcement Friday at which neither Goss nor Bush gave a specific reason for Goss' return to Florida. Goss told CNN yesterday his resignation was "just one of those mysteries."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perrino said a "collective agreement" led to the decision to find a new CIA director, but "reports that the President had lost confidence in Porter Goss are categorically untrue."

Bush was expected to name a new spy chief, possibly as early as tomorrow, with Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, Negroponte's top deputy, and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend heading up a short list.

But the spillover from the continuing FBI investigation, coupled with a parallel probe by the CIA's inspector general, could impact on what were already expected to be difficult Senate confirmation hearings for the new director.

Hayden isn't going to get a free pass and the hearings are likely to be ugly.

Comfort Food

This is a delicious crock pot recipe for chicken soup with wild rice, which is my absolute favorite comfort food. This one is easy, but will need time in the crock pot to work. Assemble it the night before, load the crock and put it in the fridge. Put it in the crock pot just before you leave for work in the morning and you'll come home to wonderful smells and fresh soup when you return. On a Monday night, when you know you have the day from hell in front of you in the morning, toss this together and come home Tuesday night to something which will make you glad to slip your shoes off and fill a bowl.

The bruschetta below will go with this to make it the ultimate comfort food meal.

2/3 cup uncooked wild rice, rinsed, drained
1 chopped medium yellow or white onion
45 ounces canned low sodium chicken broth (about 4 twelve ounce cans)
2 medium carrots, peeled, thinly sliced
2 ribs of celery, thinly sliced, including the leaves
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
2 bay leaves
1/3 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/8 teaspoon pepper
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cubed in a half inch dice
1 cup fresh brocolli flowerettes
1 commercial bag of spinach, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped parsley
Salt to taste

Directions:

Combine all ingredients except parsely, spinach and broccoli in a crockpot. Stir to combine. Cover; cook on low for 8-9 hours. 15 minutes before serving, stir in parsley, spinach and broccoli and remove the bay leaves. Heat on high for 15 minutes or until vegetables are heated. Adjust seasoning and add salt if needed.

This recipe for Chicken Wild Rice Soup serves/makes 8. Freeze down the extra in single portion containers, and you have lunch in the office on Wednesday.

Add one egg beaten with a teaspoon of lemon juice in each serving and you have Greek Egg Lemon soup, my favorite cold and flu cure with a Minnesota twist.

Pick up a gyro at the local deli to round this out (or make your own) and you'll have a lunch which is the envy of the break room. You will need Tzatziki with you in a separate container. Here's the recipe:

1/2 English (seedless) cucumber, not peeled, seeded and finely chopped plus a few thin slices
1/1-2 teaspoons salt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or dill plus additional sprigs
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions
Spoon yogurt into sieve lined with cheesecloth or coffee filter set over bowl; cover and refrigerate overnight. Transfer drained yogurt to medium bowl and discard liquid. You can easily do this in an old-fashioned Melitta coffee filter holder lined with a filter. Just cover the top with plastic wrap so the yoghurt doesn't pick up any "off" flavors from the fridge.

Meanwhile, in colander set over a bowl, toss chopped cucumber with 1 teaspoon salt. Let drain at least 1 hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours. In batches, wrap chopped cucumber in kitchen towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Pat dry with paper towels, then add to bowl with yogurt.

With the flat side of a chef's knife, mash the garlic to a paste with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add garlic, chopped mint, oil, vinegar, and pepper to yogurt and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 or up to 4 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature, topped with cucumber slices and mint sprigs.

Yield: about 1-1/2 cups

This is so good that it is hard to remember to just not eat it right out of the bowl. Well, sometimes I do, with some baked pita chips on the side. But it is spectacular on a gyro with tomatoes and a little feta, or topping a bowl of soup. It'll keep about three days in the fridge.

Sauce for the Beef, Sauce for the Ham

I mention horseradish sauce often in the preparation of meat sandwiches and roasts but realize that you may not be able to find it in the prepared meat section of your grocery. Even if you can, the fresh version is so much better that it is worth making from scratch. It's easy and most produce sections now have fresh horseradish root.

1 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons finely grated peeled fresh horseradish (1 oz; use small teardrop-shaped holes of a box grater)
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp white vermouth

Every piece of horseradish is going to have a different amount of the hot/savory stuff that makes it interesting, so you are going to have to taste as you go and add more or less of it depending on the level of hot you want. Mix all of the ingredients, taste and adjust and then let stand at room temp for at least an hour for the flavors to develop. You can make this a couple of days ahead and refrigerate, covered, which I recommend. You will get the most accurate taste of the flavors that way.

This is also delicious with ham or pork chops. As a sandwich spread, it is beyond compare.

An Italian Base

This is a classic bruschetta treatment. I like them as part of a first course at dinner, but they also make excellent bases for more complex sandwiches at any time of the day. I'll have some suggestions below.

You'll need:

* 2 large heads garlic
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* A sprig of fresh thyme
* Thinly sliced toasted bread
* Grilled marinated eggplant or peppers, and sliced tomatoes (optional)

Wrap the heads of garlic in aluminum foil and roast them for 40 minutes. As soon as they have cooled enough to be handled, squeeze the pulp from the garlic cloves, and blend it with the olive oil.

Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl. Strip the leaves from the sprig of thyme and sprinkle them over the cream. Serve at once with thinly sliced toasted bread, and, if you choose, eggplant, grilled peppers, and tomatoes.

I know this sounds like a lot of garlic, but the character of garlic changes when it is roasted: it becomes sweeter and mild.

In addition to topping them with grilled vegetables (always a good idea) I like finely chopped prosciutto topped with thinly sliced parmeggiano-reggiano and a dollop of mayonaisse mixed with coarse French seeded mustard. You can do the same with thinly sliced rare roast beef topped with brie and mayonaisse mixed with fresh horseradish and halved cherry or grape tomatoes. These are all open face, of course, and eaten with a knife and fork. Deli slices of chicken or turkey (or leftovers, if you have them, the deli stuff is 'way too salty for me) can be thinly sliced, topped with an herb mayonaisse (tarragon is good) and a slice of emmental cheese and then melt the cheese under the broiler. The latter is so good that it makes a wonderful presentation for company as part of a soup and sandwich lunch.

For vegetarian friends, follow the same procedure above, but top with a marinated and grilled portobello mushroom slice. These 'shrooms can also be prepared very well on a stove top grill pan if you are barbecue grill-less. Use the tarragon mayonaisse with them. A little sprinkle of radish sprouts will top all of these bruschetti with a lovely, savory finish.

Middle Class Squeeze

Statistics Aside, Many Feel Pinch of Daily Costs

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

BRANDON, Fla., May 2 — As a rule, when Americans feel financially pinched, the causes are clear: high unemployment, soaring interest rates, depressed home values and a wilting stock market.

But many Americans now say they are feeling squeezed in the absence of these factors. Their concerns are instead centered on a combination of high gasoline prices, creeping insurance costs and the pressure of a large number of adjustable-rate mortgages, now jumping to market rates, that helped to fuel one of the largest housing booms in American history.

Though they may not fear for their jobs or worry about long-range financial health — national polls show a general satisfaction with the economy — their kitchen-counter economy is an increasing source of everyday anxiety.

In Brandon and other suburbs of Tampa, where gas prices are among the highest in the nation and home insurance rates have risen since last summer's hurricanes, residents say they have had all they can take.

"We're really worried about a lot of things," said Nancy Tuttle, co-owner of a vending machine business in the suburbs here. "The cost of gas, the cost of house insurance, the cost of medical insurance, it's just everything."

The increase in prices, particularly of gasoline, is taking a political toll on President Bush, even in a Republican area like these suburbs. A recent nationwide CBS News poll found that only 33 percent of those surveyed approved of Mr. Bush's job performance and that 74 percent disapproved of his handling of the gasoline issue.

"We went from totally believing in Bush to really having our doubts," said Wayne Toomey, who owns a house with Ms. Tuttle in the nearby suburb of Parrish. "It comes down to his lack of care about gas prices."

Ms. Tuttle, 51, and Mr. Toomey, 58, have each gotten smaller cars and have cut some household costs. "It's a total struggle," said Mr. Toomey, who owns the vending machine business with Ms. Tuttle. "You would have to have your head in the sand to think things are going well in the United States."

Middle class salaries have been stagnent for 20 years and we are definitely feeling the pinch. Americans generally vote their pocketbooks when the chips are down.

Switching Sides

The Great Republican Rebranding

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Saturday, May 6, 2006; A17

Sen. Rick Santorum wanted to talk.

His purpose, he said over breakfast earlier this week in the Senate dining room, was to "tell the other side of the story" about his record, which his foes use to cast him as -- these are his words -- "a mean-spirited, hard-right country club Republican."

Santorum wanted to describe the work he had done on "nontraditional Republican issues," including faith-based initiatives to help the poor, his work with Bono to expand funding to fight AIDS in Africa and his efforts to secure federal money for Pennsylvania's inner cities.

Poverty is a big deal to him, Santorum explained, because "if you want me to be honest, I'm a Catholic." He added: "How many times did the nuns beat into your brains: the poor, the poor, the poor, the poor?"

The poor, the poor, the poor, the poor are not typical words in a Republican's political litany, and that is the point. Santorum has been running behind for months in his reelection struggle against the popular Democratic state treasurer, Robert Casey Jr. If Santorum doesn't change his image, he loses.
....
"All politics is reaction," Randall Rothenberg wrote in his 1984 book, "The Neoliberals." Rothenberg was describing the response of Democrats traumatized by the rise of Reagan-style conservatism. Back then, it was Democrats struggling to reinvent themselves as entrepreneur-friendly folks (anybody remember those "Atari Democrats"?) moving beyond "the solutions of the 1930s."

The current reaction is not simply to President Bush's low poll numbers. It's also a response to the failure of conservative policies and to the declining appeal of conservative rhetoric. Conservatives are trying to save themselves by offering progressive-sounding criticisms of the status quo, much as liberals offered ersatz conservative critiques two decades ago.

If Rick Santorum wants you to look at his record in a way that makes him a paladin for the poor and if Dennis Hastert wants you to know that he's suspicious of the oil companies, the political weather is changing. When one side starts making the other side's argument, you don't need to be a pollster to know which belief system is in the ascendancy.

Overweening

There are days when I think that WaPo's Dana Milbank needs to spend an entire grading period in detention. Treating Patrick Kennedy's personal tragedy as somehow equivalent to the Porter Goss situation is simply silly. If the flaw of the DC press corps is self-importance, Milbank is the poster boy.

Spook Stories

The Fix-It Man Leaves, but The Agency's Cracks Remain

By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 6, 2006; A01

Porter J. Goss was brought into the CIA to quell what the White House viewed as a partisan insurgency against the administration and to re-energize a spy service that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks or accurately assess Iraq's weapons capability.

But as he walked out the glass doors of Langley headquarters yesterday, Goss left behind an agency that current and former intelligence officials say is weaker operationally, with a workforce demoralized by an exodus of senior officers and by uncertainty over its role in fighting terrorism and other intelligence priorities, said current and former intelligence officials.

In public, Goss once acknowledged being "amazed at the workload." Within headquarters, "he never bonded with the workforce," said John O. Brennan, a former senior CIA official and interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center until last July.

"Now there's a decline in morale, its capability has not been optimized and there's a hemorrhaging of very good officers," Brennan said. "Turf battles continue" with other parts of the recently reorganized U.S. intelligence community "because there's a lack of clarity and he had no vision or strategy about the CIA's future." Brennan added: "Porter's a dedicated public servant. He was ill-suited for the job."
....
Less than two months after Goss took over, the much-respected deputy director of operations, Stephen R. Kappes, and his deputy, Michael Sulick, resigned in protest over a demand by Goss's chief of staff, Patrick Murray, that Kappes fire Sulick for criticizing Murray.

Kappes "was the guy who a generation of us wanted to see as the DDO [operations chief]. Kappes's leaving was a painful thing," Berntsen said. "It made it difficult for [Goss] within the clandestine service. Unfortunately, this is something that dogged him during his tenure."

The confrontation between Murray and the agency's senior leadership continued throughout Goss's tenure, exacerbated by the fact that Goss effectively allowed Murray and other close aides to run the agency, in the view of some current and former intelligence officials. Many agency officials felt the aides showed disdain for officers who had spent their careers in public service.

Four former deputy directors of operations once tried to offer Goss advice about changing the clandestine service without setting off a rebellion, but Goss declined to speak to any of them, said former CIA officials who are aware of the communications. The perception that Goss was conducting a partisan witch hunt grew, too, as staffers asked about the party affiliation of officers who sent in cables or analyses on Iraq that contradicted the Defense Department's more optimistic scenarios.

"Unfortunately, Goss is going to be seen as the guy who oversaw the agency victimized by politics," said Tyler Drumheller, a former chief of the European division. "His tenure saw the greatest loss of operational experience" in the operations division since congressional hearings on CIA domestic spying plunged the agency into crisis, he said.

Though the agency has grown considerably in size and budget in the past four years -- the operations branch has reportedly grown in size by nearly 30 percent -- dozens of officers with more than a decade of field experience each, those who would have been tapped as new staff chiefs or division heads, chose to leave.

Pre-retirement classes, which serve as a transition out of the agency for active-duty officers, are bulging with agency employees.

While the stature and role of the CIA were greatly diminished under Goss during the congressionally ordered reorganization of the intelligence agencies, his counterpart at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, continued his aggressive efforts to develop a clandestine intelligence operation within his department. The Pentagon's human intelligence unit and its other clandestine military units are expanding in number and authority. Rumsfeld recently won the ability to sidestep U.S. ambassadors in certain circumstances when the Pentagon wants to send in clandestine teams to collect intelligence or undertake operations.

"Rumsfeld keeps pressing for autonomy for defense human intelligence and for SOF [Special Forces] operations," said retired Army Col. W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East affairs at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "CIA has lost the ability to control the [human intelligence] process in the community."

Now, "the real battle lies between" Negroponte and Rumsfeld, said retired Army Lt. Gen. Donald Kerrick, a former deputy national security adviser and once a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency. "Rumsfeld rules the roost now."

The last graph tells you everything you need to know. Rumsfeld has made the DoD completely ineffective and now seeks to do the same with the intelligence offices. Show me where the man has been anything other than a partisan fuck-up.

Negroponte is no joy boy, either, having presided over the Salvadoran death squads under Reagan. I hear, however, that he has at least a modicum of conscience and is is resisting Bush's drumbeat for war in Iran. Points for that.

UPDATE: LAT's Doyle McManus calls it as I see it:

Spy Czar, Rumsfeld in a Turf War
By Doyle McManus and Peter Spiegel, Times Staff Writers
May 6, 2006

WASHINGTON — After a little more than a year in his newly created job, John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence, has won an initial battle to establish authority over the vast U.S. intelligence community — Porter J. Goss, who resisted Negroponte's moves to limit the autonomy of the CIA, is gone.

But Negroponte faces a larger and much more difficult challenge: a struggle with Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's Department of Defense, which runs more than 80% of the nation's intelligence budget and is busy expanding its role even further.

Negroponte won this round. But it ain't over. I've heard Rummy described as the meanest son of a bitch who ever held office in Washington.

The South's Best Fried Chicken

I learned to make buttermilk marinated fried chicken a few years back and wish that I'd learned to make this a whole lot earlier. The enzymes in the buttermilk both tenderize the meat as well as seal the juices in. This is the best fried chicken I've ever eaten.

* 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces
* 2 cups buttermilk
* 1 cup dry potato flakes
* 1 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse chicken pieces and pat dry. In a shallow dish or bowl, pour buttermilk and add chicken pieces. Place in refrigerator and marinate chicken in buttermilk overnight.
2. When ready to prepare, mix potato flakes, flour, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Dredge marinated chicken in potato/flour mixture to coat.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil until hot. Fry chicken slowly over medium heat until golden brown and juices run clear.

You can, of course, use your favorite breading, but I like the way the potato flakes give the coating a kind of light, puffy texture.

The farmers' market opens tomorrow for the first time this season and I'm looking forward to heading there early. There won't be much produce yet, of course, but I'm looking for herb sets for my herb garden and bedding plants for the front of the house. It's also a great place to talk to neighbors and meet the vendors. There will be some artisanal cheeses and breads, as well, to tempt the palate. This is my favorite part of the summer. I start every Saturday morning walking around the market. Even if I don't see anything that tempts me, there are fresh cut flowers for the table cheaper than I can get them at the grocery.

Once the tomatoes and Silvery Queen 606 sweet corn come in after July 4, I have a deal with myself to eat them as often as possible. The strawberries should begin at the end of the month and peak in early June. I have a great low-fat recipe for shortcake for you when the time comes.

Long, Hot Summer

Conservatives Drive Bush's Approval Down

By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer Fri May 5, 10:54 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre.

Six months out, the intensity of opposition to Bush and Congress has risen sharply, along with the percentage of Americans who believe the nation is on the wrong track.

The AP-Ipsos poll also suggests that Democratic voters are far more motivated than Republicans. Elections in the middle of a president's term traditionally favor the party whose core supporters are the most energized.

This week's survey of 1,000 adults, including 865 registered voters, found:

• Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush's job performance, the lowest of his presidency. That compares with 36 percent approval in early April. Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.

• Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.

• A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That's the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.

• The souring of the nation's mood has accelerated the past three months, with the percentage of people describing the nation on the wrong track rising 12 points to a new high of 73 percent. Six of 10 conservatives say America is headed in the wrong direction.

Republican strategists said the party stands to lose control of Congress unless the environment changes unexpectedly.

"It's going to take some events of significance to turn this around," GOP pollster Whit Ayres said. "I don't think at this point you can talk your way back from those sorts of ratings."

With the ongoing fallout from the Abramoff/Cunningham/Foggo scandal and the Fitzgerald investigation, it is going to be an interesting summer.

CIA Shocker

The Incredible Shrinking CIA
Recent moves by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte have continued to chip away at the spy agency's role
By TIMOTHY J. BURGER

Posted Friday, May. 05, 2006

It's more than a bureaucratic battle. Ever since John Negroponte was appointed Director of National Intelligence a year ago and given the task of coordinating the nation's myriad spy agencies, he has been diluting the power and prestige of the best known of them all, the Central Intelligence Agency. From day one, he supplanted the CIA Director as the President's principal intelligence adviser, in charge of George W. Bush's daily briefing. Other changes followed, all originating in the law that created the DNI — and all traumatic for CIA fans. But now, in a little noticed move, Negroponte is signaling that he is moving still more responsibility from the CIA to his own office, including control over the analysis of terrorist groups and threats.

In a recent speech in San Antonio, Negroponte's top deputy, Michael Hayden,declared that an office largely under Negroponte's control — the National Counterterrorism Center, or NCTC — was now in charge of dictating the role other agencies will play in terror analysis. Using a sports metaphor, Hayden said too many agencies were in the analysis business and that the NCTC, like a team captain, " will make these calls for the entire IC [intelligence community]." This may seem like bureaucratic minutiae, but it reflects an important struggle over a key aspect of American intelligence. Even though some diminishment of the CIA was all but guaranteed by the passage of the DNI law 18 months ago, each new detail of the Negroponte's implementation has been watched for how much it may curtail the power of the once-supreme CIA.

In the speech, Hayden also said Negroponte's office would be in charge of "liaison" relationships with foreign intelligence services — long the treasured turf of the CIA — which have historically produced much of the most important intelligence, according to a former senior CIA official. Negroponte, Hayden said, "is aggressively overseeing our relationships with foreign intelligence services to help detect and prevent attacks against ourselves and our friends and allies.... As the head of our intelligence community, he routinely meets with foreign intelligence leaders, and he has visited many of our major allies" — an activity that comes easily to Negroponte as a career diplomat and ambassador.

CIA Director Porter Goss Resigns

By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- CIA Director Porter Goss resigned unexpectedly Friday, leaving behind a spy agency still battling to recover from the scars of intelligence failures before America's worst terrorist attack and faulty information that formed the U.S. rationale for invading Iraq.

It was the latest move in a second-term shake-up of President Bush's team.

Making the announcement from the Oval Office, Bush called Goss' tenure one of transition.

"He has led ably," Bush said, Goss at his side. "He has a five-year plan to increase the analysts and operatives."

The president did not name a successor.

The former congressman from Florida, head of the House Intelligence Committee and CIA agent had been at the helm of the agency only since September 2004.

He came under fire almost immediately, in part because he brought with him several top aides from Congress who were considered highly political for the CIA.

He had particularly poor relations with segments of the agency's powerful clandestine service. In a bleak assessment, California Rep. Jane Harman, the Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, recently said, "The CIA is in a free fall," noting that employees with a combined 300 years of experience have left or been pushed out.

I've been hearing that the career professionals have been in open revolt ever since Goss's appointment. Some of this is pushback from below.

And then there is the Duke Cunningham matter.

C- Augustus

Veto? Who Needs a Veto?

Published: May 5, 2006

One of the abiding curiosities of the Bush administration is that after more than five years in office, the president has yet to issue a veto. No one since Thomas Jefferson has stayed in the White House this long without rejecting a single act of Congress. Some people attribute this to the Republicans' control of the House and the Senate, and others to Mr. Bush's reluctance to expend political capital on anything but tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq. Now, thanks to a recent article in The Boston Globe, we have a better answer.

President Bush doesn't bother with vetoes; he simply declares his intention not to enforce anything he dislikes. Charlie Savage at The Globe reported recently that Mr. Bush had issued more than 750 "presidential signing statements" declaring he wouldn't do what the laws required. Perhaps the most infamous was the one in which he stated that he did not really feel bound by the Congressional ban on the torture of prisoners.

In this area, as in so many others, Mr. Bush has decided not to take the open, forthright constitutional path. He signed some of the laws in question with great fanfare, then quietly registered his intention to ignore them. He placed his imperial vision of the presidency over the will of America's elected lawmakers. And as usual, the Republican majority in Congress simply looked the other way.

Many of the signing statements reject efforts to curb Mr. Bush's out-of-control sense of his powers in combating terrorism. In March, after frequent pious declarations of his commitment to protecting civil liberties, Mr. Bush issued a signing statement that said he would not obey a new law requiring the Justice Department to report on how the F.B.I. is using the Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers if he decided that such reporting could impair national security or executive branch operations.

In another case, the president said he would not instruct the military to follow a law barring it from storing illegally obtained intelligence about Americans. Now we know, of course, that Mr. Bush had already authorized the National Security Agency, which is run by the Pentagon, to violate the law by eavesdropping on Americans' conversations and reading Americans' e-mail without getting warrants.

We know from this sort of bitter experience that the president is not simply expressing philosophical reservations about how a particular law may affect the war on terror. The signing statements are not even all about national security. Mr. Bush is not willing to enforce a law protecting employees of nuclear-related agencies if they report misdeeds to Congress. In another case, he said he would not turn over scientific information "uncensored and without delay" when Congress needed it. (Remember the altered environmental reports?)

Mr. Bush also demurred from following a law forbidding the Defense Department to censor the legal advice of military lawyers. (Remember the ones who objected to the torture-is-legal policy?) Instead, his signing statement said military lawyers are bound to agree with political appointees at the Justice Department and the Pentagon.

The founding fathers never conceived of anything like a signing statement. The idea was cooked up by Edwin Meese III, when he was the attorney general for Ronald Reagan, to expand presidential powers. He was helped by a young lawyer who was a true believer in the unitary presidency, a euphemism for an autocratic executive branch that ignores Congress and the courts. Unhappily, that lawyer, Samuel Alito Jr., is now on the Supreme Court.

Since the Reagan era, other presidents have issued signing statements to explain how they interpreted a law for the purpose of enforcing it, or to register narrow constitutional concerns. But none have done it as profligately as Mr. Bush. (His father issued about 232 in four years, and Bill Clinton 140 in eight years.) And none have used it so clearly to make the president the interpreter of a law's intent, instead of Congress, and the arbiter of constitutionality, instead of the courts.

Like many of Mr. Bush's other imperial excesses, this one serves no legitimate purpose. Congress is run by a solid and iron-fisted Republican majority. And there is actually a system for the president to object to a law: he vetoes it, and Congress then has a chance to override the veto with a two-thirds majority.

That process was good enough for 42 other presidents. But it has the disadvantage of leaving the chief executive bound by his oath of office to abide by the result. This president seems determined not to play by any rules other than the ones of his own making. And that includes the Constitution.

So, NYT, when are you going to call for the impeachment of this Constitution-violating president?

How Not To Do It

How Not to Fight Terrorism

By David Cole
Friday, May 5, 2006; Page A19

After four years, numerous appeals, millions of dollars, and a massive investment of government personnel and resources, the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui concluded Wednesday with a life sentence. Many have cited the case as an example of how difficult it is to try terrorists in civilian courts. In fact, it is an object lesson in how the government's overreaching has undermined our security.

Four years ago Moussaoui was on the verge of pleading guilty to offenses that would have resulted in a life sentence. But he was unwilling to accept the government's insistence that he admit to being the 20th hijacker of Sept. 11, 2001 -- an allegation the government has long since dropped.

For almost two years, the case was stalled as the government sought Moussaoui's execution while denying him access to witnesses in its control who had testimony establishing that he was not involved in the Sept. 11 plot at all. Due process has long required the government to turn over such "exculpatory" evidence, but the government, citing national security, refused to afford Moussaoui access to this evidence. In October 2003 the trial court offered a reasonable solution: Allow the trial to proceed but eliminate the death penalty, because that's what the government's exculpatory evidence related to. The government refused that solution and spent several more years trying Moussaoui. The case ended where it began -- with Moussaoui facing life in prison.

Meanwhile, at a secret CIA "black site" prison, the United States is holding the alleged mastermind of Sept. 11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed. And at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, it has Mohamed al-Qahtani, who the government now claims is the real would-be 20th hijacker. But the administration can't try either of these men, because any such proceeding would turn into a trial of the United States' own tactics in the war on terrorism. The CIA has reportedly water-boarded Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- a practice in which the suspect is made to fear that he is drowning in order to encourage him to talk. And Army logs report that interrogators threatened Qahtani with dogs, made him strip naked and wear women's underwear, put him on a leash and made him bark like a dog, injected him with intravenous fluids and barred him from the bathroom so that he urinated on himself. With these shortsighted and inhumane tactics, the administration essentially immunized the real culprits, so it was left seeking the execution of a man who was not involved in Sept. 11.

The Moussaoui case is emblematic of the administration's approach to fighting terrorism. It has repeatedly overreached and sought symbolic victories, adopting tactics that have undermined its ability to achieve real security while disregarding less flashy but more effective means of protecting us. In the early days after Sept. 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft sought to reassure us with repeated announcements of the detention of large numbers of "terror suspects" -- ultimately the government admitted to detaining 5,000 foreign nationals in the first two years after Sept. 11. Yet to this day not one of them stands convicted of a terrorist offense. Similarly, the administration launched a nationwide ethnic profiling campaign, calling in 8,000 young men for FBI interviews and 80,000 more for registration, fingerprinting and photographing by immigration authorities, simply because they came from Arab and Muslim countries. Not one of those 88,000 has been convicted of terrorism.

Bush administration refuses to talk directly with its main foes
By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Last month, the chief U.S. negotiator with North Korea wanted to meet privately with his North Korean counterpart, hoping he could persuade Pyongyang to return to talks on eliminating its nuclear weapons program.

But the meeting between U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and North Korean Vice Premier Kim Kye Gwan on the sidelines of a conference in Tokyo never took place.

Hill's superiors in Washington forbade him from talking directly to the North Koreans, said three U.S. officials, a conference participant and another knowledgeable expert. All requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Bush administration also is refusing to talk directly with Iran about its nuclear program, with Syria about Middle East security and the infiltration of terrorists into Iraq, and, like Europe, with the Palestinian government led by Hamas, which it considers a terrorist organization.

This approach to diplomacy is drawing criticism.

"I believe that diplomacy is not simply meant for our friends. It is meant for our enemies," said Richard Armitage, the deputy secretary of state in President Bush's first term. "In fact, our enemies need diplomatic engagement more.

"We ought to have sufficient self-confidence in the correctness of our policy and the ability of our diplomats."

Bush administration officials argue that direct two-way negotiations raise expectations that the United States will make concessions. They say multinational pressure is more effective. Aides to President Reagan made much the same argument in an effort to derail arms-control negotiations with the former Soviet Union.

"You don't want to do the expedient thing. You want to do the right thing, the thing that's effective," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

If these are the "grown-ups" we're in real trouble. These are the actions of people who want to have their own narrow way rather than understand that negotiations are *always* about compromise. Failure to play has worked out astoundingly well with North Korea, hasn't it?

Negotiation isn't about stamping your little foot and insisting on getting your way. Negotiation is always about a relationship. Bushco acts like a petulant child.

Run for the Roses

High on His Horse
Trainer Trombetta and Sweetnorthernsaint Draw Praise

By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Friday, May 5, 2006; E01

LOUISVILLE, May 4 -- The majority of trainers with horses in the Kentucky Derby arrive at the track early, take care of business and disappear after awhile, but Michael Trombetta always appears to be flitting around his end of Barn 42.

The Laurel Park-based trainer may have brought only two horses -- the young sprinter Fleet Valid and his Derby horse Sweetnorthernsaint -- from Maryland to Kentucky, but he can't seem to pull himself away from them.

"I've got nowhere to be," Trombetta said with a shrug. "I like hanging around the barn and the horses. I've grown up underneath these horses. I've learned to take care of two to 50. This is all I've ever known."

In his maiden Derby voyage, Trombetta, 39, has opened eyes with the quality of his horsemanship and, certainly, the quality of his horse. Sweetnorthernsaint heads into the race Saturday as one of the favorites, and the margins of victory in his races -- 9 1/4 lengths, 10 lengths, 7 3/4 lengths and 16 lengths in a disqualification -- seem to indicate this may be a super horse.

Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas, who has started 41 runners in the Derby and won four times, calls Sweetnorthernsaint one of the ones to beat. Kiaran McLaughlin and his brother, Neal, stabled next door on the shed row, are constantly admiring Trombetta and his work.

"He seems to be very hands-on," said Neal McLaughlin, who is helping prepare Jazil and Flashy Bull for the Derby. "He does the work himself. He feels the ankles, puts in the long hours."

Groom Gordon Turner worked for top trainer Scott Lake for several years until six months ago, when Trombetta hired him. Although Lake has won more races, 177, than any trainer in the country this year, Turner is far more impressed with Trombetta's patient preparation.

"He can be one of the great ones," said Turner, 38. "These big trainers like Todd Pletcher, Baffert, Lukas, they're going to be looking up at him.

"I've been knowing Mike since he started, since he was a groom. Mike was ready to rise to this occasion. He knew he could if he got the chance."

Turner, of Baltimore, has added a boisterous, outspoken personality to the Sweetnorthernsaint team. Trombetta, with his youthful looks and mop-top haircut, could be a member of a Beatles cover band. With his quiet nature, he certainly would have to play George.

"He has a very unique personality," said Trombetta's wife, Marie. "He's not super excitable. He enjoys the total aspect of what he does, and this is the cherry on top. And he thinks before he speaks. A lot of people say we're going to win, but he never does that."

Trombetta has exuded a quiet confidence about Sweetnorthernsaint's chances throughout the week. The horse, a dark gelding with a blaze of white the length of his nose, often has been lumped in with the runners expected to contest the pace, but Trombetta says Sweetnorthernsaint has led in most of his races only because he simply is so much faster than the opposition.

"When he was coming up through the ranks he was beating horses that aren't here," Trombetta said. "He's got an excellent kick in the last part. That's what's earned him favoritism here. His times are always very forward in the last part of the race."

That's all sweet an' all, but the Post has yet to back a winner.

I never bet on horses unless I'm in the park to look them over.

In A Dead Language

Memorial Cost at Ground Zero Nears $1 Billion
By CHARLES V. BAGLI and DAVID W. DUNLAP

The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.

Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — "beyond reason" in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back the design or even start over.

The foundation, which had planned to start construction in March, has already quietly broached the possibility with some victims' families of moving important parts of the memorial out of the twin towers' footprints to ground level.

Only two or three years ago, the problems faced by the memorial, the spiritual centerpiece of the site, would have been unimaginable. The underground complex, with its pools, waterfalls and galleries, was the product of a worldwide design competition that drew 5,201 entries and inspired tremendous public passion.

It was supposed to be immune to the controversies that had engulfed the commercial rebuilding at the site, with its completion assured by an outpouring of good will and open checkbooks. But fund-raising has lagged, with just $130 million raised from private contributions.

The new estimate, $972 million, would make this the most expensive memorial ever built in the United States. And that figure does not include the $80 million for a visitors' center paid for by New York State. It is likely to draw unfavorable comparisons to the $182 million National World War II Memorial in Washington, which opened in 2004; the $29 million Oklahoma City National Memorial, which opened in 2000; or the $7 million Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, which opened in 1982.

The original World Trade Center itself cost $1 billion in the 1970's, or about $3.7 billion in current dollars. Then again, everything at ground zero carries a big ticket, from the $478 million vehicle-screening center to the $2.2 billion PATH terminal.

The latest figure comes from a lengthy report by Bovis Lend Lease, the construction manager hired by the foundation to come up with a rigorous analysis of the projected costs based on forecasts of labor rates and market prices for steel and concrete, which have been rising rapidly in recent months.

The report includes expenses not previously enumerated, like $25 million in insurance and $22 million for museum exhibit design and construction, as well as a $22 million increase in the cost of the entry pavilion to the underground museum.

The foundation has started briefing officials at City Hall, in the office of Gov. George E. Pataki and at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the land. A person involved in meetings about the memorial provided The New York Times with a copy of a confidential foundation memorandum, dated May 2, that summarizes the Bovis findings.

Excuse me? This is nuts. We cannot provide adequate healthcare in this country and we're going to spend a billion on this? We have Katrina survivors still living in trailers and this is how we are going to apportion funds? Pardon me for asking, but how fucked up is that?

There are ways to memorialize the dead that don't take from the living and this ain't one of them. This is bone-shaking stupid.

Bushed Blogger

I'm bushed from trying to stay ahead of the news and stay on top of what's going on with avian influenza. A friend of mine said that he read a study someplace that says that multi-tasking makes you stupid, and I think that's what is going on here, in addition to the fact that I still don't have the posture chair put together and my shoulder hurts like hell. I'm taking the rest of the night off and watch me some Emeril and head for bed early. The directions for the posture chair have defeated my limited skills for dealing with spatially oriented instructions. Typical female. If they had just written a decent narrative I'd be sitting upright in an Alexander Technique posture. Sigh. What I need is a vacation. I'm working on it and hope to have some news soon.

Heart and Minds

Baghdad anger at Bush's undiplomatic palace

Daniel McGrory, Baghdad
May 04, 2006

THE question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build the biggest embassy on earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of airconditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafes, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects' claims that it will be visible from space and cover an area larger than Vatican City. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission, due to open in June next year, will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

The design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape.

Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget. In a week when Washington revealed a startling list of missed deadlines and overspending on building projects, Congress was told the bill for the embassy was $US592million ($772million).

The hubris of this is simply breathtaking.

Lime Kool Aid

Decoding the McCaffrey Memo
If this is the cost of victory in Iraq, is America willing to pay it?
By Fred Kaplan
Updated Wednesday, May 3, 2006, at 6:12 PM ET

Good news and bad news on the war in Iraq: The good news is that victory is possible, our troops are the best ever, the Iraqi army is getting bigger and better, and most Iraqi people want a pluralistic government. The bad news is that it will take 10 more years to accomplish these successes—at least three years just to get the Iraqi military into shape.

This is the prognosis of a private seven-page memo that retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey wrote to the heads of the social science department at West Point, where he now teaches international relations. He wrote the memo—which has started to circulate on the Internet—after a weeklong fact-finding tour of Iraq and Kuwait, where he talked with more than a dozen top generals and received two dozen briefings at all levels, from ambassadors and commanders to grunts.

McCaffrey has criticized the way the Bush administration has waged this war (last fall, he decried the Pentagon's "childish assumptions" of how many troops would be necessary), but he has not joined the ranks of retired generals calling for Rumsfeld's scalp. He supports the war and thinks our troops need to stay till the job's done, whatever the price.

The significance of this memo is that it reveals—from an optimistic but realistic insider's perspective—the magnitude of the price, and it's probably way higher than what the vast majority of Americans are willing to pay.

McCaffrey begins his memo with praise for how much progress has been made: "The morale, fighting effectiveness, and confidence of U.S. combat forces continue to be simply awe-inspiring. … They are the toughest soldiers we have ever fielded. … The Iraqi Army is real, growing, and willing to fight. … The Iraqi police are beginning to show marked improvement in capability." A few "are on a par with the best U.S. SWAT units."

Then comes the far more extensive downside.

The Iraqi army battalions, he writes, "are very badly equipped with only a few light vehicles [and] small arms. … They have almost no mortars, heavy machine guns, decent communications equipment, artillery, armor, or … air transport, helicopter, and strike support."

The bottom line: "We need at least two-to-five more years of U.S. partnership and combat backup to get the Iraqi Army ready to stand on its own." (Emphasis added.)

The political-administrative apparatus is in worse shape still: The "corruption and lack of capability of the ministries [of defense and interior] will require several years of patient coaching and officer education in values as well as the required competence." (Emphasis added.)

And this is nothing compared with problems in the police force. "The crux of the war hangs on the ability to create urban and rural local police with the ability to survive on the streets of this increasingly dangerous and lethal environment," McCaffrey writes. It is "a prerequisite to the Iraqis winning the counter-insurgency struggle they will face in the coming decade." And yet:

The police are heavily infiltrated by both [foreign jihadists] and Shia militias. They are incapable of confronting local armed groups. They inherited a culture of inaction, passivity, human rights abuses, and deep corruption. This will be a 10-year project requiring patience, significant resources, and an international public face. (Emphasis added.)

We also, he says, need to pour in a lot more money. The Iraqi army is underfunded by "an order of magnitude or more." As for civil reconstruction, "we will fail to achieve our politico-military objectives in the coming 24 months if we do not continue economic support on the order of $5-10 billion a year." (Meanwhile, only $1.6 billion remains in the pipeline from the $18 billion allocated three years ago, and White House officials have said that no more will be sent until Iraq is physically secure.)

Finally, there are the broader political worries. The "incompetence and corruption" of the various interim Iraqi governments resulted in a "total lack of trust among the families, the tribes, and the sectarian factions." The violence and chaos also produced a "brain drain" and, with it, "a loss of the potential leadership to solve the mess that is Iraq today." If the new prime minister, Jawad al-Maliki, doesn't form an inclusive government in his first 120 days in power, McCaffrey notes, "there will be a significant chance of the country breaking apart in warring factions," regardless of our efforts.

He concludes his memo by urging perseverance but conceding some doubt. He asks, "Do we have the political will, do we have the military power, will we spend the resources required to achieve our aims?"

McCaffery has drunk the Kool Aid. You can't win a Fourth Generation war using Second Generation strategy and the General Staff is out of tricks. I'm old enough to remember the helicopters lifting of the roof of the US embassy in Saigon. I hope that very expensive palace/embassy we've built in Baghdad has helipad.

Body Farm

Kaiser Put Kidney Patients at Risk
By opening its own transplant center in the Bay Area, the HMO harmed recipients' odds of obtaining organs, a Times probe finds.

By Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers
May 3, 2006

In mid-2004, more than 1,500 Kaiser Permanente patients awaiting kidney transplants in Northern California got form letters that forced them to change the course of their treatment.

Kaiser would no longer pay for transplants at outside hospitals, even established programs with thousands of successes. Instead, adult patients would be transferred to a new transplant center run by Kaiser itself — the first ever opened by the nation's largest HMO.

Within months after Kaiser's kidney program in San Francisco started up, its waiting list ranked among the longest in the country. No other center had ever put together such a list so fast.

The patients didn't know it, but their odds of getting a kidney had plummeted.

Kaiser's massive rollout in Northern California endangered patients, forcing them into a fledgling program unprepared to handle the caseload, according to a Times investigation based on statistical analyses, confidential documents and dozens of interviews.

Hundreds of patients were stuck in transplant limbo for months because Kaiser failed to properly handle paperwork. Meanwhile, doctors attempting to build a record of success shied away from riskier organs and patients, slowing the rate of transplants performed.

National transplant regulators apparently did not notice the program's failures, though some were obvious in the statistics the regulators themselves posted on the Internet.

In 2005, the program's first full year, Kaiser performed only 56 transplants, while twice that many people on the waiting list died, according to a Times analysis of national transplant statistics.

At transplant centers statewide, the pattern was the reverse: More than twice as many people received kidneys than died.

Kaiser is one of the primary HMOs in California and is making inroads elsewhere. This is a scandal.

Irony Abounds

Is it just me or does any one else find it ironic that CNN can go wall to wall about the "rule of law" about Zaccaria Moussaoi and "illegal immigrants" while completely ignoring the numerous and egregious violations of the Constitution commited by Bush and Co?

Pharma's Long Reach

Doctors Object to Gathering of Drug Data
By STEPHANIE SAUL

Although virtually unknown to consumers, the information has long been considered the most potent weapon in pharmaceutical sales — computerized dossiers showing which physicians are prescribing what drugs. Armed with such data, a drug sales representative can pressure a doctor to write more prescriptions for a name-brand medicine or fewer orders for a competitor's drug.

But now a rebellion is under way by some doctors, who consider the data-gathering an intrusion that feeds overzealous sales practices among the nation's estimated 90,000 drug company representatives. Public officials are also weighing in. A vote on a state bill to clamp down on the practice is scheduled for today in New Hampshire, and similar bills have been introduced in other states, including Arizona and West Virginia.

To appease the doctors and try to stave off the state restrictions, the American Medical Association will soon give individual physicians the choice of declaring their prescription records off limits to drug sales representatives. The new measure is viewed as a self-policing move that the drug industry and the A.M.A., which has lucrative contracts with data-mining companies, hope will keep states from banning sales of prescription data altogether.

If the A.M.A effort succeeds, "legislators will turn their attention elsewhere, and the industry can hang on to one of its most valuable data sources," according to an article this week in the industry trade magazine Pharmaceutical Executive, which was co-written by an A.M.A. official and an executive with the leading vendor of prescription data. Even many critics concede that patients' privacy is apparently not an issue, because the tracking systems identify only the prescribing doctors, not patients. But many doctors find the use of the data by sales representatives an intrusion into the way they practice medicine.

"These doctors were outraged that people came into their office and talked to them about how many times they prescribed a particular drug," said Dr. John C. Lewin, the chief executive of the state medical association in California, one of the states where complaints about the current system arose.
....
The leading compiler and vendor of prescription data is IMS Health, a publicly traded company based in Fairfield, Conn., that had revenue last year of $1.75 billion. IMS and its competitors gather the data through contracts with retail pharmacy chains and companies that manage drug plans for insurers, then sell it to pharmaceutical companies.

IMS and its competitors — the main ones are Verispan, Dendrite International and a Dutch company, Wolters Kluwer — also pay the A.M.A. for access to its repository of information on approximately one million doctors who are graduates of American medical schools, as well as foreign medical school graduates licensed in the United States.

The A.M.A., which calls this repository Masterfile, begins collecting the information when a doctor enters medical school. Over doctors' careers, additional material includes information on their board certifications, types of practice and disciplinary records. The Masterfile information is among data that companies like IMS use in developing physician profiles.

Think about this before you schedule your next doctor's appointment. Your doc may not be in the pocket of big pHarma, but she'll have had to bust her butt not to.

Tax Policy for Lunatics

To Earmarking Senators, Veto Seems to Spell Vote

By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A04

Senators keep stuffing new provisions into an emergency spending bill for Iraq and hurricane recovery, ignoring President Bush's veto threat to advance their priorities.

An amendment by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), approved 53 to 46 yesterday, would add $289 million to compensate recipients of an experimental flu vaccine, in the event of an adverse reaction. By 51 to 45, senators added $1 million for water monitoring in Hawaii, which was hit by a torrential rainstorm. On Tuesday, the Senate tossed in nearly $1.7 billion in additional flood-control money for the New Orleans area, without offsetting it with cuts to other programs, as Bush had urged.

Despite repeated efforts, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and other fiscal conservatives failed to strip out pet projects, including $6 million in aid for Hawaiian sugar interests and up to $500 million for a Northrop Grumman Corp. shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss., to compensate the company for hurricane-related losses that insurers have refused to pay.

At the bill's core is $72 billion in war-related funding and about $27 billion to aid Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana. But with November midterm elections approaching, senators showed little restraint on items that would prove popular with constituents or important interest groups.

For example, the legislation includes $4 billion in aid to farmers and ranchers to offset rising natural gas costs and provide new relief from drought, floods and wildfires. It contains nearly $800 million in additional highway and transit funding and $2.3 billion to prepare for a possible flu pandemic.

In a speech yesterday, Bush reiterated an earlier pledge to veto the legislation if it tops $94.5 billion. The Senate bill -- which totaled $106.5 billion when it reached the floor last week -- now adds up to nearly $109 billion. Final passage is expected today.

I'll guess that he'll skip the veto and just use "signing statements."

Tax Deal Sets Day of Reckoning
Tough Choice on Deficit in Store for President, Congress in 2011

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A04

With this week's hard-fought agreement on a $70 billion tax-cut extension, President Bush and congressional Republicans have effectively set a date for a fiscal day of reckoning for the next president and a future Congress: Jan. 1, 2011.

House and Senate negotiators reached agreement this week on legislation to extend the deep tax cuts on capital gains and dividends beyond their scheduled 2008 expiration date, through 2010. Final passage of the agreement must wait until Republican tax writers agree on a second tax bill that includes many of the tax breaks jettisoned from the measure on capital gains and dividends. If the deal wins congressional approval, every major tax cut passed in Bush's first term will be set to expire on the same day five years from now.

At that moment, politicians would face a choice: Either allow taxes to rise suddenly and sharply on everyone who pays income taxes, is married, has children, holds stocks and bonds, or expects a large inheritance, or impose mounting budget deficits on the government far into the future, according to projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

"It is now a decision-forcing event," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group. "This is a potential calamity that cannot happen. They are going to have to deal with it and face the consequences."

In a speech yesterday before the American Council of Engineering Companies, Bush hailed the agreement to extend his 2003 tax cuts on dividends and capital gains, and he implored Congress to make all his tax cuts permanent.

"If the people have their way who want this tax relief to expire, the American people will be hit with $2.4 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade," Bush said. "A tax increase would be disastrous for business, disastrous for families and disastrous for this economy."

See, you can have your cake and eat it, too, as long as you are more than willing to have somebody else (like our grandkids) pay for it.

These are the "grownups?" Puh-leeze.

Making the Liars "Tell"

House Lobbying Rules Call for More Disclosure

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A01

The House narrowly approved ethics legislation yesterday that would expand the amount of information that lobbyists must disclose about their interactions with lawmakers and would also rein in big-money political groups that spent heavily in the last presidential election.

By a vote of 217 to 213, the House agreed to require lobbyists to file quarterly instead of semiannual reports, to include in those reports donations they give to federal candidates and political action committees, and to make public gifts that they give to lawmakers or congressional aides.

In addition, spending bills would have to list any narrow-interest projects, called earmarks, that they contain, as well as the sponsors of those projects. Lawmakers have frequently been able to insert these projects in major spending bills anonymously, without offering any justification.

The House measure must be reconciled with a version of the bill that passed the Senate in March. Neither version is as tough on lobbyists and lawmakers as Republican leaders promised in January, after former GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe public officials in a major political corruption scandal.

The final version of the legislation will be a combination of statutory changes and changes in the rules governing House and Senate members, but not all the rules need apply to both chambers. Rules that govern the gifts and travel expenses that lobbyists are allowed to give to lawmakers can be different for the House and for the Senate. Each chamber is responsible for setting the rules for the conduct of its lawmakers and staff members.

"It's conceivable that there can be different rules in each chamber" as a result of the legislation, said Jo Maney, spokeswoman for the House Rules Committee. But she added that the goal of congressional leaders is to make restrictions on gifts and travel similar for both chambers.

Still, if rule changes remain different for each chamber in the final version that becomes law, said Donald Simon, a campaign-finance expert, "it's going to complicate life for lobbyists and probably cause some confusion."

The House bill, for example, would temporarily ban privately paid travel for lawmakers until new guidelines are in place. The Senate bill includes no such moratorium. Yet these disparate rules could be part of the package that is enacted.

The Senate-passed legislation would bar lobbyists from providing gifts, such as tickets to sports events, and meals to senators and their aides. The House bill does not contain such restrictions for House officials. Nonetheless, both provisions could be approved.

In contrast, the enhanced disclosure requirements that are part of both bills -- which are similar in many ways -- must be reconciled exactly before the bill can become law. Disclosure is a matter of statute rather than congressional rules.

After disclosure that Abramoff had influenced lawmakers and other officials with expensive meals, overseas trips and other favors, Republican leaders initially called for severe restrictions on meals and travel as a way to distance lawmakers from lobbyists and to shield themselves from voter anger.

Jeff, you've been covering Congress for too long. This bill does nothing to make abuses like Abramoff's out of line for the Members. This is a bandaid and you are too close to be able to tell that.

Real Life

I've just been through a day of horror with the new bird flu non-plan and dealing with the email. I'm going to take my troubled mind into bed after a long bubble bath. Guys in the audience probably won't understand it, but really hot water combined with suds is something of a turn on for the females in your immediate vicinity. Want more sex? Buy a better tub. It's that simple. Let her light some candles and pour a glass of wine while the bubbles build. Her back is as hurtin' as yours is. Heat in the tub and rub it and you have willingness.

A word to the wise.

Moving To Toronto

According to Gasbuddy.com, the cheapest gas in my neighborhood (loosely defined) is $2.989. It is a bit of a schlep and not on any of my normal routes (a big deal since I'm combining trips all the time now) so I'm paying a penny more at the independent place that's on the way to the grocery and the bank. Fortunately, my Beetle gets 30 in town, 40 on the highway and I don't use it for commuting. I've got excellent public transit literally on my doorstep if I need to get around town and I use the train for more distant commuting. Most of the area has average to very good public transit, so the pain isn't as bad here as it would be in the Midwest and Mountain West. Metro, the local subway, has begun opening an hour earlier than usual to serve the workaholics who need to be at their desks by 6 AM and the transit authority is running more group bus services from remote locations. I've been routinely using Metro for most of my downtown travel (jobs, hair appointments, shopping) for years because the parking situation is so horrible in downtown DC, it's both scarce and expensive. I'm doing a lot more walking, too.

One of the many things I find so attractive about the city of Toronto is the quality of the public transit. It's a good thing because gas has always been more expensive there than it is here. I just checked the postal code near pogge outside Toronto and gas in his neighborhood is $.93 CAN/liter, so Canadians are paying the rough equivalent of $3.23 USD per gallon. We'll be there in a few weeks.

I'll need to keep the car if I'm going to live near public transit so that I can get out to visit pogge, who is in the far eastern suburbs. My other good buddy, Fr. Judy, lives right downtown. We are both friends of The Sisterhood of St. John the Divine, the Anglican women's monastic community where we met in 2000 and it is close to the subway in North Toronto. In otherwords, in moving to Toronto, I won't have to change my lifestyle of choice very significantly. That's been a big factor in deciding to make this move.

"My Base"

Will White Evangelicals Desert the GOP?
So Far, This Most Republican of Groups is Staying Loyal

by Scott Keeter
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press
May 2, 2006

A new analysis by the Pew Research Center finds that while the president still has the support of a majority of white evangelical Protestants, significantly fewer of them now approve of his performance in office (55% approve, 38% disapprove) than was true at the start of his second term when 72% approved and only 22% disapproved.

Indeed, since he began his second term in office, Bush's approval rating has declined as much among white evangelicals as among the public as a whole. In addition, his personal ratings among evangelicals are also now more negative than ever before - 35% now have an unfavorable view of Bush, compared with 21% of registered evangelical voters in October 2004. Moreover, 45% of evangelicals agreed with the statement that "I am tired of all the problems associated with the Bush administration" - less than a majority but a sizable number nonetheless.

Yet there is little indication, as of now, that evangelicals are likely to abandon the Republican Party electorally. Pew's polling finds that the percentage of white evangelicals identifying as Republicans has actually increased slightly in 2006, and the number of these who say they intend to vote for Republican candidates this November is no lower now than it was at a comparable point in 2002, the last mid-term election.

The "Inside Baseball" Elites

The Party’s Over

It’s time to shut down the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Posted May 3, 2006

By Rem Rieder
Rem Rieder ([email protected]) is AJR's editor and senior vice president.

Steve Scully of C-SPAN, the incoming president of the White House Correspondents' Association, says he wants to make sure the group's annual dinner/celebrityfest doesn't become "too Hollywood."

"We don't want it to become an Oscar night," he told Editor & Publisher.

Well, guess what, Steve. It's a little late. That train left the station a long, long time ago.

This dinner has been an embarrassment for years. It's well past time to shut it down. It's a vivid symbol, like we need another one, of what's so very wrong with elite Washington journalism.

Years ago, the dinner was a low-key event where Washington journalists entertained their sources. The game changed in 1987 when the late Michael Kelly, then with the Baltimore Sun, snagged Iran/contra It Girl Fawn Hall as one of the Sun's guests.
....
Then-New York Times Washington Bureau Chief Michael Oreskes eloquently made the case for abolishing this abomination in 1999 when he decided the Times wouldn't participate in the dinner that year.

"The purpose of honoring good journalism with awards and raising money for scholarships has become lost in the circus," Oreskes said. "The association each year is seen around the country as host to a Bacchanalia that confirms everyone's worst sense of Washington. We should not be a part of this."

That year's star attraction was the late John F. Kennedy Jr., who was there as a journalist (he was running George magazine at the time). His date? Larry Flynt.

That's all you need to know.

That same year I asked Kelly – an extremely distinguished journalist – what he thought of the event he had unwittingly transformed with his Fawn Hall maneuver.

The problem, he replied, wasn't so much the dinner as the culture it mirrored. It was, he said, an "accurate reflection of Washington journalism," which he described as "smug and arrogant and self-important."

The WMD fiasco should have been a jolt to that smugness. And scrapping the White House Correspondents' Association dinner would be a small but symbolically significant step forward for Washington journalism.

I think that was the point that Stephen Colbert so eloquently demonstrated.

The Much Anticipated Plan

Pandemic Flu Plan Warns of Chaos

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 3, 2006

Filed at 1:39 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A flu pandemic would cause massive disruptions lasting for months, and cities, states and businesses must make plans now to keep functioning -- and not count on a federal rescue, the Bush administration said Wednesday.

''Our nation will face this global threat united in purpose and united in action in order to best protect our families, our communities, our nation and our world from the threat of pandemic influenza,'' President Bush said in a letter to Americans noting the release of an updated national pandemic response strategy.

Bush last fall proposed a $7.1 billion plan to prepare for the next worldwide outbreak of a super-strain of influenza. Wednesday's report updates that plan, an incremental step that basically outlines exactly which government agency is responsible for some 300 tasks, many already under way.

Even the most draconian steps, such as shutting down U.S. borders against outbreaks abroad, would almost certainly fail to keep a flu pandemic from spreading here, the report acknowledges -- and thus it outlines more limited travel restrictions that would be used instead.

Influenza pandemics strike every few decades when a never-before-seen strain arises. It's impossible to predict when the next will occur, although concern is rising that the Asian bird flu, called the H5N1 strain, might lead to one if it starts spreading easily from person to person.

The "plan" notes that business continuity and supply chain planning will be critical, but puts no one in charge of it. Other countries have been working on this for years.

Talking Madness Down

Over at The Gadflyer, Joshua Holland summerizes the anti-war talking points on Bush's ginned-up confrontation with Iran ("October Surprise 2006"):

# The administration may be ready to bomb Iran, but they won't sit down and talk to them.

# Iran hasn't violated any international law or treaty and the IAEA, while expressing concern over "unresolved issues" has accounted for all of Iran's uranium.

# Attacking Iran will be the death of Iran's reform movement and will cement the Mullahs' power, and the power of Iran's vocally anti-American and anti-Israeli president for a long time.

# If Iran were to acquire nukes, there'd be the same Mutually Assured Destruction that kept the U.S. and USSR from blowing up the planet in the Middle East. Desirable? No. But something we could live with.

And here's an important one that should work nicely this summer:

# Attacking Iran will cause gas prices to skyrocket.

That last point ought to be the kicker.

Self Delusion

FEMA job openings still unfilled
By JULIA MALONE
Cox News Service

WASHINGTON - With hurricane season less than a month away, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is still looking to fill dozens of positions, including the key job of regional director in Atlanta.

In all, 88 vacancies were listed as of the end of April, said House Government Reform Chairman Tom Davis in a letter expressing concerns about whether the much-criticized FEMA is ready for the storm season that starts June 1.

Considering that FEMA's Atlanta director has responsibility for Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky as well as Georgia, "it appears imperative that this position be filled" by next month, Davis wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department includes the federal emergency agency.

The Virginia Republican questioned whether FEMA had learned lessons from its faltering response to last year's Hurricane Katrina, whose debris is still strewn across the Gulf coast region.

Davis noted that important FEMA jobs, including the logistics division director, have just recently been advertised.

FEMA spokesman Aaron Walker said that the agency was moving to pick a permanent Region IV director in Atlanta "as soon as possible" after the application period ends May 25 and that the agency was on target to fill 95 percent of the agency's empty job slots by June 1.

The Atlanta position has been vacant for eight months because the former director, Ken Burris, was called to Washington to perform the job of operations director.

Bottom line: the Agency is in complete disarray. This doesn't bode well for the upcoming hurricane season. Forget about their ability to provide any help in the event of a pandemic. We're on our own, kids.

The Next Labor Movement

'The Power of Their Numbers'

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, May 3, 2006; A23

This morning, for the first time in two months, it will be a day with immigrants at the University of Miami. On Monday the university's janitors -- almost all of them immigrants, and the vast majority refugees from Fidel Castro's Cuba -- won a nine-week battle with the university and its janitorial contractor over their right to be represented by a union. Today they report back to work. When the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) set out to organize the janitors, it didn't anticipate its campaign would turn into the struggle it eventually became. "Given who the president of the university is," said Eliseo Medina, SEIU's executive vice president, "we actually expected this to go rather smoothly."

It seemed a reasonable expectation. The president of the University of Miami is Donna Shalala, secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration and a longtime proponent of greater equity for the poor. Nonetheless, when the strike began, it was hard to find Miamians much poorer than the university's janitors. Maritza Paz, who was admitted to the United States 13 years ago as a political refugee from Cuba, hired on at the university 11 years ago at $4.35 an hour. When the strike began, she had worked her way up to a sumptuous $6.70 hourly wage with no benefits, for which she cleaned 17 bathrooms and 20 offices every day.

But as weeks dragged into months, both the university and its contractor refused to deal with the union. Workers and students embarked on a hunger strike, and SEIU enlisted the help of its numerous Democratic allies. Behind the scenes, a number of Shalala's former Clinton administration colleagues worked to mediate a solution. A few weeks ago a Shalala-appointed commission recommended raising wages and establishing health benefits (recommendations that Shalala promptly enacted), but it did so without ever having met with any of the striking workers. Convinced that they still had no channel to talk to management, the workers stayed out. Medina embarked on a hunger strike that ended only Monday, when the university agreed to a procedure that enables the workers to get their union.
....
Even a sea change among immigrant workers doesn't necessarily mean that the dark days of American labor could be coming to an end. In the growing high-end, high-tech workforce, said union strategist Jim Grossfeld, who with pollster Celinda Lake has undertaken a study for the Center for American Progress of professional and technical employees, "many workers have a problem with the word 'union' and with the old economic rules." Nonetheless, he points out, in a time of rampant economic insecurity, such unions as the Communications Workers of America have even managed to organize techies.

But it's chiefly immigrant workers who are emerging from the shadows to lead the next generation's battles for economic equity. "Our victory," said Maritza Paz, speaking of her struggle in Miami but also about this transformative moment in American immigrant life, "shows workers they can overcome their fears. It has opened the doors."

Meyerson mostly gets it right, but he mis-characterizes the "high-end, high-tech" work force. These days that sector is battered and wages are stagnant or falling. That's ripe territory for union organizing. His larger point, that as the Latino immigrant workforce loses its fear of collective action they well might revitalize the labor movement, is spot on. UNITE-HERE is making a concerted effort to organize service sector employees in labor-intensive sectors like hospitality and textiles.

This will be the next time that the movement was invigorated by immigrants.

Complete Losers

Taliban Threat Is Said to Grow in Afghan South
By CARLOTTA GALL

TIRIN KOT, Afghanistan, April 27 — Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.

Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.

"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere," a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice."

The fact that American troops are pulling out of southern Afghanistan in the coming months, and handing matters over to NATO peacekeepers, who have repeatedly stated that they are not going to fight terrorists, has given a lift to the insurgents, and increased the fears of Afghans.

General Eikenberry appealed for patience and support. "There has not been enough attention paid to Uruzgan," he said in a speech to the elders of Uruzgan Province gathered at the governor's house in Tirin Kot, the provincial capital. "I think the leaders, the Afghan government and the international community recognize this. There is reform coming and this year you will see it."

The arrival of large numbers of Taliban in the villages, flush with money and weapons, has dealt a blow to public confidence in the Afghan government, already undermined by lack of tangible progress and frustration with corrupt and ineffective leaders.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history....

Hanging Judges

Acrimony Over Bush Judicial Nominations Resurfaces
Senate Democrats Threaten To Filibuster Conservative Duo

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 3, 2006; Page A05

After months of relative quiet, senators raised the prospect yesterday of a return to bitter battles and a possible filibuster over judicial nominations, as the White House urged confirmation of two conservative nominees who have sought approval for years.

Democratic leaders said they certainly would filibuster one of the nominees, Terrence W. Boyle, and might filibuster the second, Brett Kavanaugh, if Republicans refuse to call him back for a second hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The partisan rhetoric was the strongest signal yet that the Senate might revisit the brinkmanship that brought the chamber to the edge of crisis a year ago, when a bipartisan group of 14 members crafted a temporary cease-fire.

The "Gang of 14" pact cleared the path for confirmation of several appellate court nominees whom Democrats had filibustered in President Bush's first term, and it doomed the chances of a few others. It also narrowed the Democrats' tactical options for opposing Bush's two appointees to the Supreme Court last year. But the Kavanaugh and Boyle nominations may test its resiliency.

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush first nominated Boyle, a U.S. District judge in North Carolina, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit. Liberal groups vigorously opposed him -- as they do now -- saying his rulings have shown a disregard for minorities and disabled people. His nomination languished, and he was renominated in May 2001.

Last June, a month after the Gang of 14's breakthrough, the Judiciary Committee endorsed Boyle on a party-line vote, but the Senate has yet to give him a final vote. A recent report in Salon.com, describing Boyle's stock holdings in companies involved in lawsuits he was hearing, has given Democrats new ammunition.

"I can't imagine how President Bush could bring him to the Senate for confirmation," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters yesterday. If GOP leaders insist on a confirmation vote, he said, Democrats "without question" will launch a filibuster.

Controversial Bush judge broke ethics law

A Salon/CIR investigation reveals that Terrence Boyle, a key circuit court nominee touted by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, ruled in multiple cases involving corporations in which he held investments.

Editor's note: This report is part of an ongoing series by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting scrutinizing the records of Bush judicial nominees. Read the rest of the series here.

By Will Evans

May 1, 2006 | Starting in 2002, Terrence W. Boyle, a longtime federal district court judge in North Carolina, presided over a lawsuit against General Electric, in which the corporation stood accused of illegally denying disability benefits to a long-standing employee. Deep into the case, on Jan. 15, 2004, Judge Boyle bought stock in General Electric, according to a review of his financial filings. Two months later, he made his ruling: Boyle shot down the plaintiff's claims to long-term and pension disability benefits, granting him only a fraction of the money in short-term compensation for a debilitating mental condition.

Boyle, 60, a controversial Bush nominee strongly opposed by Democrats and liberals as a staunch foe of civil rights, is on the verge of joining one of the country's highest courts. An investigation by Salon and the Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed that Boyle apparently violated federal law prohibiting judicial conflicts of interest -- not only in the G.E. case, but in many instances since his nomination by President Bush five years ago.

Bush nominated Boyle in 2001 to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Va. Senate Democrats have blocked confirmation of the one-time Jesse Helms staffer, though his conflicts of interest on the bench have not come to light until now. Senate Republicans pushed Boyle through the Judiciary Committee last summer. Now, with the full-throated backing of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and the White House, Boyle appears to be headed for the final stage of the process -- a full Senate vote that could come soon and may reignite partisan warfare that in 2005 led to threats of a "nuclear option" to wipe out filibustering of judicial nominees. Frist reportedly aims to use a fight over Boyle and other controversial nominees to fire up conservative voters and help fill campaign coffers heading into congressional elections this November.

Early in his nomination process in 2001, Boyle wrote to the Senate Judiciary Committee in response to its routine questionnaire: "I will avoid any conflict of interest, potential conflict of interest, or appearance of conflict of interest. I am disqualified from presiding over, or being involved with, any litigation involving any party with whom I might have any financial interest."

At the very time Boyle typed up that pledge of integrity, however, he was in the middle of a case involving Quintiles Transnational, a pharmaceutical services company in which he reported stock holdings, and on whose behalf he had been issuing favorable rulings.

In fact, since his May 2001 nomination, Boyle has issued orders in at least nine cases that involved five different corporations in which he reported stock holdings, according to financial and court documents. In most of the cases, Boyle ruled in favor of the companies in which he had financial interests -- though his participation was a violation of the law regardless of how he ruled. Federal law and the official Code of Conduct for U.S. judges explicitly prohibit judges from sitting on such cases -- no matter how small their stock holdings -- in order to ensure public trust in the judicial system. From 1999 to 2004 (the years that Boyle's financial disclosure forms are currently available), he broke the rules in at least one case per year. Boyle presided as chief judge of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of North Carolina during those years.

"It's a pretty egregious example of a judge disregarding the brightest-line rule of judicial ethics," said Doug Kendall, executive director of Community Rights Counsel, a nonprofit public-interest law firm in Washington that works to expose ethical conflicts of judges.

Professor Leslie W. Abramson, a judicial ethics expert at the University of Louisville's law school who reviewed Boyle's record, said it shows at least a pattern of negligence, if not one "heading toward intentional disregard" of federal law. "Judge Boyle's conduct," Abramson said, "places his own and the judiciary's integrity and reputation at risk."

The pattern here is consistent with Bush's "unitary executive" theory: ethics and even competence are really no bar to a Bush appointment, as long as a nominee will swing their decisions toward corporate interests and away from the little guy. The federal judiciary has been swung so far away from the interests of the least powerful in the last five years that it will take at least a generation to undo the damage.

Fake Debate

Administration Is Singing More Than One Tune on Spanish Version of Anthem

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 3, 2006; Page A06

President Bush declared last week that the national anthem should be sung in English not Spanish, but he evidently never told his own government or campaign organizations.

The State Department posts four Spanish versions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on its Web site, and accounts from the 2000 election suggest that the song was at times performed in Spanish at Bush campaign events. Critics even turned up one reference to Bush himself singing the anthem in Spanish on the trail, but there was no confirmation.

The furor over a newly released Spanish version of the anthem has underscored once again the power of symbols in American politics. At a time when the immigration debate in Washington has divided Republicans on Capitol Hill, drawn hundreds of thousands of protesters into the streets and triggered a nationwide boycott, all sides are scrutinizing the words and records of the president and other politicians for signs of inconsistency.

Bush waded into the matter last week after British producer Adam Kidron issued " Nuestro Himno ." Responding to a reporter, Bush said: "I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English. And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."

But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice chose not to repeat his formulation Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." "I've heard the national anthem done in rap versions, country versions, classical versions," she said. "The individualization of the American national anthem is quite underway."

And there seems little evidence that the matter had concerned Bush before. The Center for American Progress, a liberal group run by Clinton chief of staff John D. Podesta, posted on its blog a reference to Bush singing the anthem in Spanish. In his book, "American Dynasty," Kevin Phillips wrote that Bush "would drop in at Hispanic festivals and parties, sometimes joining in singing 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in Spanish, sometimes partying with a 'Viva Bush' mariachi band flown in from Texas."

White House spokesmen and former campaign operatives said they could not recall whether that happened, though given the level of Bush's Spanish proficiency, they seemed dubious.

"Honestly, I don't remember him ever singing the national anthem in Spanish," said Leonard Rodriguez, who was national director of Hispanic Coalition for Bush/Cheney 2000. "I can't see any of his advisers recommending it." But he added: "They may have played it. That's certainly in the realm of possibility." And Rodriguez said he does not recall Bush ever objecting to it.

This is all pretty shameless pandering to the far-right base, the one which loves tests of patriotism. It would be interesting to find out how many of them actually know all the words to the first verse of the National Anthem.

Stephen Colbert And the Bump Community: A Letter of Encouragement

Dear Bump Readers,

As you can see, Melanie--the foundress of this site and a person who has done an heroic amount of heavy lifting over an extended period of time--is laboring under the strain of an immense and diverse assortment of responsibilities. From my perspective on the opposite coast of the country, I find it amazing that she's been able to be as consistent as she's been. I'm always marveling at how much energy Melanie is consistently able to summon up, delivering us important news articles even if they bring bad news and/or crappy journalism.

But life has a way of changing, and of telling us that things aren't quite the same. Life reveals to us the transitions we need to make, and the realities we need to face up to.

I don't know what Melanie's going to do, but it's clear that she's pondering these important life topics: transitions, new realities, and--with respect to Bump--how to keep this community going.

With this as prelude, I offer you the new reality I'm facing up to as a journalist and a Catholic Christian person who tries to bring the prophetic voice to bear in my own life and work: our comedians in the United States of America--particularly those on Comedy Central--are the last remaining national truthtellers we have.

Sure, Bill Moyers is a truthteller, and there are a few others in the journalistic realm who can join him, but let's be honest and politically realistic: Moyers was pushed out of NOW by the Powers That Be, and is nationally known more for his "Healing and the Mind" and "Joseph Campbell" PBS offerings than he is for his work as a political commentator and muckraking journalist. Moyers--a relentlessly courageous person of the highest integrity--has, by maintaining that very combination of courage and integrity, found himself marginalized in the larger media world.

That leaves Comedy Central personalities as the last bastions of hope in this country. I kid you not.

See, Jon Stewart developed such a winning formula a few years ago that politicians began to flock to the Daily Show to get noticed and create a "hip" image that will sell with younger and less traditional voters. More recently, aides and consultants to Republican pols, even crusty and very extreme ones, have convinced their Representatives and Senators to appear on the (Stephen) Colbert Report, for the very same reason: political marketing and the name (brand) recognition that is part of it.

Stewart and Colbert have generated considerable popularity with the younger demographic in America, but they've done so within a profession (comedic entertainment) where the goal is not to report on news, but to make fun of it. Given the utter lack of leadership and truthtelling from any and all corners in Washington (with the almost exclusively sole exception of Russ Feingold), what would have been unthinkable in the age of Scotty Reston, Uncle Walter and David Brinkley is entirely understandable today: comedians are our best hope in America these days.

Yes, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert--partly as a result of their gifts, partly as a result of journalism's failings, and partly as a result of the black hole in political leadership in contemporary America--are perfectly situated to be our national versions of the biblical prophets Jeremiah and Amos. They have the exposure and proximity to power, they have the talent that draws people to them, and they have the freedom that comes with being outside the political game. They can be themselves, which--even though they're entertainers--enables them to display authentic journalistic impulses and characteristics much more often than the pundits who are beholden to the corporations and big-money owners of consolidated media outlets who pay their salary... and don't want the boat rocked.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert aren't trying to follow in the footsteps of Sy Hersh or Edward R. Murrow, but in this increasingly upside-down world of ours, they're becoming the accidental prophets of our time.

If you might have doubted such a bold and far-reaching statement in the past, you might find it hard to carry those same doubts today.

If you follow politics and the media closely, and you feel horrible about the direction this country is taking along with Melanie and the rest of the Bump blogging community, chances are you know that:

A) the aforementioned Stephen Colbert was the main speaker at the White House Correspondents Dinner over the weekend in D.C., with President Bush on the dais, just 8-10 feet away from the host and star of Comedy Central's Colbert Report;

B) Colbert roasted the president and the press in a bold display that Jack Whelan, a blogger and fellow Seattle Catholic, called "Swiftian" (go to: afterthefuture.typepad.com );

and C) while President Bush's own stand-up routine (done with impersonator Steve Bridges) received major play from the mainstream media (MSM) in both textual and photographic forms, accounts of Colbert's routine were minimal to nonexistent.

If you didn't know this, you know it now. And as you begin to comprehend this series of realities, you don't need to go very far in connecting the dots: very simply, Steve Colbert got so painfully close to the searing truth of life in the Beltway (press and president alike) that the pols and journalists there were too uncomfortable, too scared, too embarrassed, and too angry to laugh. And the only way to reduce someone's visibility or publicity in contemporary America is not to criticize him (or her), but to act as though (s)he doesn't exist. The MSM is so clearly beholden to monied interests, so clearly emasculated and enslaved, that even on a subject as seemingly trivial and inconsequential as a standup routine at a supposedly fun dinner, it creates a silence that is undeniably deafening. If the President of the United States of America could be man enough to take a vigorous satirical treatment of his record with good humor; if the press was vigilant in fulfilling its public trust every working hour; and if the workings of our democracy were fundamentally healthy, there would be absolutely no reason for a room of pols and scribes to be so manifestly uncomfortable. Moreover, there would be no reason for the MSM to make Colbert's performance so conspicuous by its absence from the broadcasts and newspapers of the next news cycle.

So what does all this have to do with the Bump community? Let me tell you.

For one thing, this whole Colbert incident--which is overwhelmingly sad for me, given that journalism was my major and will always be something I care about deeply--shows that, once again, the seemingly inconsequential events in this country wind up being the kinds of occasions that, in this day and age, tell us more central truths about our country than the supposedly important events that take place in our lives.

Secondly, and even more importantly, the Colbert incident--which has ignited the blogosphere, this wondrous and democratic place to which Melanie Mattson has devoted so much of the last few years of her life--shows that while mainline/formal religious worship and expression have lost their zing, Americans are still willing to listen and remain open to the reception of big truths in the cultural realm. Pope Benedict XVI might have very little to say to Americans. Same for George Bush or Hillary Clinton in the political sphere. But in the cultural sphere, people of all leanings and persuasions have strong and robust opinions about Stephen Colbert and his performance at the Correspondents Dinner, not to mention the Colbert Report and Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Traditionally and historically, one might associate political courage with Hubert Humphrey's speech at the 1948 Democratic Convention, or Paul Wellstone's refusal to support the War in Iraq, or former Illinois Governor George Ryan, a scandal-plagued Republican who, awash in controversy and near the end of his disgraced tenure, somehow found enough of a moral light and inspiration to declare a moratorium on the death penalty a few years ago. Within longstanding frameworks and images, we might make linkages between those people and political courage.

But today, the term "political courage" is not being used in relationship to any politician. It's being used--with unusual and surprising depth of feeling--to express thankfulness to Stephen Colbert. (Just do a Google and browse a wide cross-section of the stories commenting on his performance from the weekend. It's really quite staggering to comprehend if you think about it...) Doesn't this say something about the brave new world we live in? The bad news is that newspeople have forfeited their sacred trust, and have left it to comedians to be our national truthtellers.

But the good news is that Americans are still hungering for meaning. The fact that it's in the cultural realm, and not the religious or political realm, is sad, but it's not the whole story, either. We can always make connections with other people and bring deeper levels of truth and meaning to them. And actually, when you think about it, the fact that people are still open to receiving truth in the cultural realm might mean that we have a BETTER chance of reaching people than we ever thought before. People might be more accessible and willing to listen than we ever previously considered... it's only the forums and venues for discussion that have changed.

So it all comes back to the beginning: where does this Bump community go, and how do we keep alive the vision Melanie has sustained for a long time in one particular form?

It's a discussion that demands a lot of depth, nuance and vision, but while that discussion develops, this one thing's for sure: we should be talking a lot more and having many more conversations on this site about the stuff of life. If Bump is to move forward in the future, more comments and daily interactions from readers are needed.

The seemingly inconsequential--as Stephen Colbert has reminded us this week--can actually be supremely consequential in the public arena. That news has a lot of sadness attached to it, but it also holds promise for us. Furthermore, it holds promise for this place called Bump, as it nears a point where, in the future, it will be reshaped in some way. Let's work to ensure that it will be reshaped in a way that makes it even more vibrant and empowering than the already-strong force it has been over the past few years. Let's enable Melanie's own prophetic voice to remain alive in a growing and ever-adapting Bump community.

Stephen Colbert would approve of such a progression.

Life and Short Subjects

The ISP has sucked for the last two days but seems to be be behaving better now. I, on the other hand, feel like hamburger. I've been blogging 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 2 and a half years. And I have a wiki to manage, as well as the little thing called life, and the DMV is beckoning to renew my license. I'm very tired.

I can't nor I do want to make this site alone. Participation on your part is actively requested.

How would you like to participate to keep this community active?

Kicked Up Apple Pie

Oy, she said, kicking her self in the head with the heel of her hand, why didn't I think of this? I was watching Emeril this evening, a show I find inspiring, and I watched him add a half cup of chopped pecans to his apple pie filling before he baked it. Genius, apple and pecan have a natural affinity for each other. I like sharp cheddar (really sharp) with my apple pie in preference to ice cream, so then he topped the whole pie with grated sharp cheddar and put it back in the oven. Genius. And then he served it with ice cream. Overkill.

It's a personal thing for me, but breakfast is always personal, the most personal meal of the day. Given my drothers, I like left over pie for breakfast. Other than granola, I have no interest in breakfast cereals. I do the hearty American egg, potatoes and meat thing about twice a year, but I've been known to eat Thai leftovers at 6 AM. All this is to say that I'm pretty unfussy about what I eat and when I eat it. Most people aren't and the food schedule I just laid out would horrify my mother. Steak for breakfast and a bagel for lunch? Fine with me.

This is a long way of saying it, but while there can be fairly broad consensus among foodies about what constitutes good eatin', we are all pretty idiosyncratic in some of our most important choices. For example: on the day after Thanksgiving, which is a set-piece meal that I like as much as anyone, I don't care about the football. But if I don't have a slice of leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast, I get cross.

Have you got some specialties of the house that you wouldn't necessarily serve to guests (you can use a pseudonym, the software allows it.)

Creative "Snow Days"

Latest Gas Price Victims: School Buses

POSTED: 5:08 pm EDT May 1, 2006
UPDATED: 5:51 pm EDT May 1, 2006

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Some school students in eastern Tennessee have been off since Thursday because officials say they can't afford the fuel to fill up their school buses.

Almost 4,000 youngsters have had a four-day break so the district can cut transportation spending.

Rhea County's situation may be the most extreme, said Mike Martin, executive director of the National Association for Pupil Transportation, based in Albany, N.Y. But diesel fuel that costs near $3 a gallon has created a "huge problem" for both public and private bus operators.

The state says it didn't authorize the school closings, but the superintendent said she was told she could use untapped snow days to meet fuel prices that have almost doubled over last year.

No other Tennessee systems have canceled classes in response to fuel costs.

Regular unleaded is $3.059, up two cents since the weekend, at the corner Exxon.

On What Planet?

Historians give President Bush a failing grade

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

May 2, 2006

ALBANY - If his presidency ended now, Republican George W. Bush would go down in history as a failure, according to a majority of college history and political science professors surveyed nationwide.

And, 67 percent of the 744 professors responding to the survey conducted by Siena College's Research Institute said they doubted Bush "has a realistic chance of improving his rating" during his remaining time in office.

The results of the survey were made public yesterday by the Albany-area institute.

"While time is needed to fairly and accurately gauge how well any president ranks with his predecessors, George W. Bush starts with a ranking that could hardly be lower," said Thomas Kelly, professor emeritus of American studies at Siena.

The Bush standing among the professors has, like his public opinion poll ratings, dropped dramatically since the days following Sept. 11, 2001, and the problems following the Iraq invasion.

In Siena's 2002 ranking of all the nation's 42 presidents, Bush came in mid-pack at No. 23, one spot behind his father.

"That was shortly after 9/11," said Douglas Lonnstrom, director of Siena's research institute. "Clearly, the professors do not think things have gone well for him in the past few years."

Of those professors responding to the survey in February, 58 percent said that if the Bush presidency were to end now it would be rated a failure while 24 percent said it would rate "below average." Two percent said it would rate as "great" while another 5 percent said "near great." Eleven percent said the Bush presidency would rate "average."

7 percent of college history and political science professors are delusional.

Site Issues

I'm having troubles with timeouts today (ISP problem, I think) and it is really slowing me down. Sorry that I'm not able to crank out the usual volume of work.

Navel Gazing

Most US young people can't find Iraq on map: study
Tue May 2, 2006 12:40 PM ET

By Deborah Zabarenko

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most American young people can't find Iraq on a map, even though U.S. troops have been there for more than three years, according to a new geographic literacy study released on Tuesday.

Fewer than 4 in 10 Americans aged 18-24 in a survey could place Iraq on an unlabeled map of the Middle East, a study conducted for National Geographic found. Only about one-quarter of respondents could find Iran and Israel on the same map.

Sixty-nine percent of young people picked out China on a map of Asia, but only about half could find India and Japan and only 12 percent correctly located Afghanistan.

"I'm not sure how important it is that young adults can find Afghanistan on a map. But ... that is symptomatic of the bigger issue, and that's (U.S. young adults) not having a sense that things around the world really matter that much," said John Fahey, president of the National Geographic Society.

The study results confirm Fahey's concern: 21 percent said it was "not too important" to know where countries in the news are located.

Half of respondents said it was "absolutely necessary" to know how to read a map, but a large percentage lacked basic practical map-reading skills.

For example, most young people were able to locate a port city on a fictitious map, but one-third would have gone in the wrong direction in the event of an evacuation.

In general, natural disasters appear to have a limited impact on young Americans' view of the world, the study found.

Only 35 percent identified Pakistan as the country hit by a catastrophic earthquake last October, killing over 70,000 people; 29 percent thought it happened in Sri Lanka.

Most respondents could find Louisiana and Mississippi, but still more than one-third failed to find those two states that were the subject of daily news coverage after the onslaught of hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year.

There were some positive signs: young people who go online for news and who use two or more different news sources show a greater knowledge of geography, the study found.

It's unsurprising that the better informed would be more aware of the world around them, however this is still pretty depressing. Americans are isolated and self-involved, and our self-centered media coverage encourages it.

Surprising Stat

Middle-Aged Americans Sicker Than British

By CARLA K. JOHNSON and MIKE STOBBE
Associated Press Writers

CHICAGO (AP) -- Middle-aged, white Americans are much sicker than their counterparts in England, startling new research shows, despite U.S. health care spending per person that is more than double what Britain spends.

A higher rate of Americans tested positive for diabetes and heart disease than the British. Americans also self-reported more diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, lung disease and cancer.

The gap between countries holds true for educated and uneducated, rich and poor.

"At every point in the social hierarchy there is more illness in the United States than in England and the differences are really dramatic," said study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.

The study, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, adds context to the already-known fact that the United States spends more on health care than any other industrialized nation, yet trails in rankings of life expectancy.

The United States spends about $5,200 (euro4,113) per person on health care while England spends about half that in adjusted dollars.

"Everybody should be discussing it: Why isn't the richest country in the world the healthiest country in the world?" Marmot said.

The researchers looked for answers in the data, which came from government-sponsored health surveys. The research was supported by grants from government agencies in both countries.

Smoking rates are about the same on both sides of the pond. Britons have a higher rate of heavy drinking, but a higher percentage of Americans are obese.

The researchers crunched numbers to create a hypothetical statistical world in which the English had Americans' lifestyle risk factors. In that model, in which the English were as fat as the Americans, the researchers found Americans still would be sicker.
....
Marmot offered an explanation for the gap: Americans' financial insecurity. Improvements in household income have eluded all but the top 20 percent of Americans since the mid-1970s. Meanwhile, the British saw their incomes improve, he said.

Robert Blendon, professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, said the stress of striving for the American dream may account for Americans' lousy health. He was not involved in the study.

"The opportunity to go both up and down the socioeconomic scale in America may create stress," Blendon said. Americans have more chances to both succeed and fail. They do not have a reliable government safety net like the English enjoy, Blendon said.

Britain's universal health-care system shouldn't get credit for better health, Marmot and Blendon agreed.

Both said it might explain better health for low-income citizens, but can't account for better health of Britain's more affluent residents.

Marmot cautioned against looking for explanations in the two countries' health-care systems.

"It's not just how we treat people when they get ill, but why they get ill in the first place," Marmot said.

So, being an American can actually make you sick.

What Ever Happened to the Bill of Rights?

FBI Sought Data on Thousands in '05

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; Page A04

The FBI sought personal information on thousands of Americans last year from banks, Internet service providers and other companies without having to seek approval from a court, according to new data released by the Justice Department.

In a report to the top leaders of both parties in the House, the department disclosed that the FBI had issued more than 9,200 "national security letters," or NSLs, seeking detailed information about more than 3,500 U.S. citizens or legal residents in 2005.

The report, released late Friday, represents the first official count of NSL use. It was required under legislation that extended the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law.

The count does not include other such letters that are issued by the FBI to obtain more limited subscriber information from companies, such as a person's name, address or other identifying data, according to the report. Sources have said that would include thousands of additional letters and may be the largest category of NSLs issued. The Washington Post reported in November that the FBI now issues more than 30,000 NSLs each year, including subscriber requests.

The Justice Department report also outlined a continued increase in the use of secret warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. The secret court that oversees the law approved a record 2,072 orders for clandestine searches or surveillance in 2005 -- an 18 percent increase from the year before.

The new statistics provide the latest measure of the government's rapidly expanding anti-terrorism activities, which include a wide range of secret warrants and powers aimed at monitoring suspicious behavior and preventing attacks.

Many of the tactics have come under criticism from civil liberties groups as intrusive and lacking in proper oversight. National security letters, for example, are a form of administrative subpoena that can be issued by scores of FBI managers around the country.

"This tells us why they didn't want to tell us in the past how many of these they were actually using," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union. "The idea that this kind of power resides in the hands of so many people at the FBI with no court oversight is very troubling."

The government previously has declined to reveal how many NSLs have been issued by the FBI and criticized the Post report as inaccurate. A Justice Department official said yesterday that the department would not comment on how many more NSLs have been issued for subscriber data only.

Buh-bye, Fourth Amendment. It was nice while it lasted.

Front Page News

Business Plan for a Pandemic?
Most Firms Haven't Prepared for Possibility Of a Global Outbreak

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; D01

More than half of U.S. companies think there will be a global flu epidemic in the next two years. Two-thirds think it will seriously disrupt their operations as well as foment social unrest. But two-thirds also say they aren't prepared. One-third of executives surveyed say nobody in their organization has been appointed to plan for a pandemic; another one-quarter couldn't or wouldn't answer the question.

"Corporations are looking at this like deer at headlights," said Tommy G. Thompson, who spent much of his last two years as secretary of health and human services sounding the pandemic alarm and is now doing the same as a private consultant. "They are very skittish. They don't know which way to go. They are hoping the car is not going to hit them."

Pandemic influenza is the latest imponderable facing U.S. business, a form of unwanted globalization that threatens the life and health of even the smallest companies in the most literal way.

Several surveys show that a small but growing number of corporations is convinced -- as many epidemiologists have been for a while -- that a global flu outbreak is inevitable. The uncertainty about whether it will be the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has spread from Asia into Europe, or some other strain is not stopping them from getting ready.

But how ready they are -- and the readiness of the business world as a whole -- is difficult to assess. The government does not require companies to have pandemic response plans, customers don't demand them, and many boards of directors doubt they are necessary.

Thompson, who heads the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions in Washington, estimates that only one in five U.S. companies "are in good position in terms of being able to react -- and even those are going to have to restructure and improve their plans."

In the past year, federal agencies, public health organizations and consulting firms have begun to provide guidance to businesses. One of the larger consultants is Singapore-based International SOS, which provides advice, clinical services and medical evacuations to about 1,000 large corporations and organizations.

In the past eight months, about 220 of its clients have sought help planning for a pandemic. For $5,000 a year, a company can get a 130-page guide, a weekly e-mail newsletter and a monthly Web-based seminar to provide updated epidemiological data and advice. At the high end, some corporations with unusual vulnerabilities, often because they have factories in Asia, are spending up to $40,000 a month for customized planning, said Tim Daniel, an International SOS executive.

"We are now seeing some organizations put together long-term budgets for pandemic planning -- line items for two or three years -- in seven figures per year," he said.

Current models, based on seasonal influenza and the three 20th-century flu pandemics, suggest that a new and highly contagious virus strain would spread across the United States in about five weeks. It would affect communities for six to eight weeks before receding. There would probably be at least two waves, separated by months.

In addition to asking your employer what their plan is, ask your town, township, city or county public health officer if they have a plan. You will probably be alarmed by what you learn.

Scenes of Reconstruction

This is going so well.

Iraqis Begin Duty With Refusal
Some Sunni Soldiers Say They Won't Serve Outside Home Areas

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; A13

BAGHDAD, May 1 -- The graduation of nearly 1,000 new Iraqi army soldiers in restive Anbar province took a disorderly turn Sunday when dozens of the men declared that they would refuse to serve outside their home areas, according to U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.

The graduation ceremony at Camp Habbaniyah, a base about 45 miles west of Baghdad, had been going well. The 978 soldiers, most of them Sunni Muslims, had just finished nearly five weeks of military training and were parading before a review stand to the sounds of martial music. They took an oath of service while U.S. and Iraqi officials delivered speeches hailing the event as an important step toward the formation of a national army.

Then some soldiers started tearing their clothes off to demonstrate their rage.

The protest was triggered by an announcement that the new soldiers, all residents of Anbar province -- widely considered the heartland of Iraq's Sunni Arab insurgent movement -- would be required to serve outside their home towns and outside the province as well.

Recruiting Sunnis into the army has been a key goal of U.S. policies to rebuild the Iraqi armed forces. Sunday's ceremony for the first group out of a total of 5,000 men recruited from Anbar represented major progress in that effort. But army commanders worry that if the men serve in their own home towns, they could be co-opted by insurgents.

While the fracas fell well short of outright mutiny -- there were no reported injuries, and the soldiers ate a meal in an orderly manner later that day -- a video clip of the graduation aired on the al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya television networks throughout Monday gave the impression of a near-riot.

The clip showed what appeared to be dozens of angry, shouting troops ripping off their uniforms and throwing them in the air or on the ground. Others shook their fists in the direction of the camera, as Iraqi officers, waving their arms, attempted to stop the tumult. In the background, most soldiers simply milled around, looking confused about what was taking place.

U.S. military authorities, who issued a statement on Sunday night that made no mention of the incident, gave a more subdued account of what happened.

"It was actually a very small number of graduates," said Lt. Col. Michael Negard, spokesman for the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which oversees the training of the Iraqi army and police forces. "It was a momentary but very brief display of displeasure. It was never out of control. It was over as quick as it started."

The incident appears to echo an event in April 2004 when a battalion of the Iraqi army was ordered to deploy to Fallujah to help U.S. Marines fighting there. The troops refused. During the following weeks, more than 15,000 other Iraqi soldiers and police officers deserted, forcing the training effort essentially to start over with new practices designed to increase the retention of recruits.

A Night in Seoul

Probably the most well-known Korean restaurant chain is Woo Lae Oak, which has a branch here. I've eaten in the smaller Korean places, the mom and pop spots, but WLO is Korean fine dining. The kitchen has gone through various manifestations and waxed and waned in quality, but the menu is classic Korean. With grilling weather on tap, here are a couple of Korean dishes you can easily make at home and amaze family and friends with your ethnic range. Interesting side notes: there is some anecdotal evidence that pickled cabbage, like kim chee and sauerkraut, may ward off avian influenza. You might want to bury a pickling jar in your side garden (the way it is traditionally prepared in Korea.)

Bul Go Gi is a traditional Korean beef barbecue, cooked on teppan grills at the table in Korean restaurants, rather the same way sukiyaki is prepared at the Japanese table. You can do it on the grill.

Ingredients:
1 lb. beef (sirloin or top round)
2 T. cold water
3 T. sugar
2 1/2 T. soy sauce
1 T. fresh minced garlic
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 T. sesame seed (toasted)
1 T. mirin (Asian rice wine)
2 stalks spring onions (cut into thin slices)
2 T. sesame oil

Directions:
Cut meat across the grain in very thin slices (this is easier if the meat is partially frozen). Place in a glass or plastic bowl. Mix in water, sugar, soy sauce, garlic, pepper, sesame seed and sherry with your hands till well blended. Press the meat down and cover. Refrigerate overnight and stir it two or 3 times while marinating.

Just before cooking, add spring onions and sesame oil & mix it.

Takes only a few minutes to cook either over barbecue grill or in a grill pan. If barbecuing, use a very narrow grill rack or a cake cooling rack on the grill so the meat won't fall through. If in a grill pan, cook over high heat for 2 minutes until browned on both sides.

Serve it with rice noodles and the Korean national condiment, kim chee. This takes about a week to make, so plan ahead. I've tried the same-day recipes and they just don't hold a candle. I've always got a pot of kim chee "cooking" in the fridge. I like it with scrambled eggs in the morning, but I'm one of those lunatics who eats hot sauce on their eggs and hash browns in the morning. Kim chi is a lot like sourdough starter, you can keep adding to it as you consume it, it just keeps going.

KIM CHI SLOW RECIPE

2 heads napa cabbage, quartered
1 c coarse salt
1/2 tsp cayenne

Layer the cabbage in a bowl, sprinkling with the salt and cayenne between each layer. Cover with a plate that fits inside the bowl and weight down with cans or jars. Refrigerate 1-2 days. Drain accumulated liquids from the cabbage, rinse well, pat dry and cut into 1-1/2" pieces.

Mix together:
1 head bok choy, cut into 1-1/2" pieces
6 minced cloves of garlic
8 scallions cut into 1-1/2" lengths and slivered
2 tbsp minced ginger root
3 fresh minced chiles
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce

Place a layer of cabbage at the bottom of a glass jar or casserole. Spread a layer of the above mixture over the cabbage and continue to layer until all ingredients are used. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for 5 days. Kim chi keeps well for at least 3 weeks becoming spicier each day.

Don't touch this for a week in the fridge, just keep it well covered and turn it over with a spoon once a day. Then it is ready to be served in a condiment ramekin on the side with your bul go gi or Korean ribs. If you like heat and savory, you'll like this.

Comfort Food

At the end of a long day, I usually hanker for comfort foods. One of my favorites among the long list of those is egg salad. This recipe is a wonderful variation on the traditional theme. Even if you *think* you don't like egg salad, try this recipe, a much more savory treatment than the bland versions I grew up with in the Midwest.

For egg salad:

8 large eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon, or to taste
2 teaspoons tarragon vinegar or white-wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon coarse Dijon mustard (I prefer Pommery, pricey but a crock will last you for years and it is good on everything. You haven't really had mustard until you've had Pommery.)

For sandwiches:

Mayonnaise for spreading on bread (optional)
12 slices seedless rye bread or 6 kaiser rolls (I want bread of substance for dinner)
3 cups tender pea shoots (3 oz) or shredded lettuce

Make egg salad:
Cover eggs with cold water by 1 inch in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and bring to a rolling boil, partially covered. Reduce heat to low and cook eggs, covered completely, 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat and let eggs stand in hot water, covered, 15 minutes. Transfer eggs with a slotted spoon to a bowl of ice and cold water and let stand 5 minutes (to cool). Peel eggs and finely chop.

Stir together eggs and remaining salad ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Stir lightly so you don't break up the eggs.

Make sandwiches:
Spread some mayonnaise (if using) on bread and make sandwiches with egg salad and pea shoots.

Cooks' note:
Egg salad can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered. In fact, it is better if the flavors have a few hours in the fridge to marry.

Makes 6 sandwiches.

You can make really superior finger sandwiches for a tea with this salad recipe. Substitute watercress, thinly sliced peeled cucumber or alfalfa sprouts for the pea shoots. Once again, Pepperidge Farm's Sandwich white with the crusts removed is the best US choice for finger sandwiches. Cut them in four long strips (traditional) or quarter diagonally for a tea tray.

Gruyere Fondue

Here's a very special Mother's Day brunch or dinner dish for the mother in your life, perhaps the one you are married to. I adore cheese fondue and this is the best recipe I've found so far. Serve it with cubes of french bread, blanched broccoli flowerettes, small cubes of ham, cooked shrimp and raw cruditees. No, you don't need a fondue set to make this (it helps the presentation) but you will need a casserole warmer with a candle to keep the sauce from cooling and changing consistency. Use a flame-proof serving dish.

3 cups light cream
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 stick plus 1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 chicken bouillon cubes
2 1/4 cups Gruyère cheese, grated
1 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
3/4 cup white wine (more or less depending on taste)

In a medium bowl, combine cream, flour, and Worcestershire sauce, and set aside.

In a large heavy saucepan, sauté onion in butter with bouillon cubes over high heat, stirring until cubes are completely dissolved.

Reduce heat to medium. Add cream mixture, whisking constantly until thickened.

Gradually add cheeses, and stir until melted and smooth. Mixture will become very thick.

Add wine a little at a time and mix well. Wine tends to thin out mixture, so add as much as needed to reach desired consistency and flavor.

Transfer the fondue to a heated fondue pot and keep warm over low heat.

It's Just Brunch

I've been on something of an asparagus tear lately because it is my favorite spring vegetable. This is an easy dish to make and makes a sophisticated presentation with a salad or a soup for brunch or dinner.

Mascarpone and Asparagus Plus Tart

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place in bottom and press all around sides of 10-inch tart pan with 1-inch high sides a 1 1/2-inch purchased pie crust

Bake crust until golden brown, about 12 minutes. Cool.

For tart filling, mix in medium bowl:
1 1/2 cups mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons finely chopped fresh tarragon
4 teaspoons prepared horseradish
4 teaspoons coarse-grained mustard
Salt
Pepper
1 pound asparagus, trimmed

Drop asparagus in large pan of salted boiling water. Cook 3 minutes; drain. Cool in bowl of ice water. Drain, then slice each spear into 4 or 5 pieces (about 2 inches each).

Toss asparagus in medium bowl with:
4 cups arugula
8 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into thin strips (or great use for leftover ham)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
Salt
Pepper

To assemble tart, spread filling evenly into cooled crust. Top with asparagus-ham-arugula mixture and serve. Garnish the top with a scattering of the finely chopped fresh tarragon.

This is great with soup like Manhattan Clam Chowder.

Crunchy Granola

I've been making my own granola for about 30 years. This is one of those great base recipes that you can mess with according to your mood. Makes about 6 servings

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup hazelnuts, halved
3/4 cup shredded sweet coconut
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup raisins
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine the oats, nuts, coconut, and brown sugar.
In a separate bowl, combine corn syrup, oil, and salt. Combine both mixtures and pour onto 2 sheet pans. Cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes to achieve an even color.

Remove from oven and transfer into a large bowl. Add raisins and cranberries and mix until evenly distributed.

This is so good that you'll never stand for store bought ever again.

The Rape and Pillage of Social Security - Round II...

Now we know why it took so long for the Social Security Administration to get out its latest annual report...

Given that three of the six members of the "Social Security trust fund trustees" are Bush cabinet appointees, that our side has shown consistently that Social Security is not suffering a financial crisis, and that the Social Security Administration (which make up the other three members) weren't allowed to review the "Social Security crisis" by itself....well, what more do you need to know?

Other than how much arm twisting it took to get this out in the W-preferred format.

This should be a lesson for anybody - The Sierra Club, NARAL, Chuck Schumer and Rahm Emanuel, Senator Reid, Represntative Pelosi...

It doesn't matter what you do to placate the waters. The Republicans have dynamite and they intend to get their fish out of the water by any means necessary, as many times as are necessary.

The Republicans...give them what they want and everybody gets hurt...

Employment Opportunity

Federal Government Recruiting Talent Ahead of 'Retirement Tsunami'

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 1, 2006; 1:45 PM

Uncle Sam still wants you -- now perhaps more than ever before.

The Office of Personnel Management launched a media campaign today to try to entice more talented people to work for the federal government. The reason: About 60 percent of the government's 1.8 million strong civilian workforce will be eligible to retire over the next 10 years. Experts think at least 40 percent of the workforce will take the plunge.

That could leave the federal bureaucracy short of talent and expertise as the government performs services as diverse as screening airline baggage, protecting wetlands and conducting medical research. The problem is especially acute at the highest levels of career civil servants, with 90 percent of the Senior Executive Service eligible for retirement during the next decade.

"We often call it the retirement 'tsunami,' " OPM Director Linda M. Springer said today during an address at the National Press Club. "It's a big number, and we've got to get ready for it. . . . We haven't done the job that we should in making government opportunities well known."

One way officials are getting ready is by running a series of four, 30-second television ads starting next week that feature current federal employees touting the work they do and the joys of federal service. The ads, which cost $100,000 to produce, will air for two weeks in the Flint and Saginaw region of Michigan and in the Greenville-Spartanburg area of South Carolina at a cost of $84,000.

OPM picked those regions, Springer said, because they have inexpensive advertising rates and are home to tens of thousands of college-age young people who are in the market for a job. But the ads soon will run in other areas as well.

Nobody else is hiring, so this may be the best opportunity around for this year's college grads.

Political Theater

Poll: Vast majority believes Iraq mission not accomplished
U.S. marks third anniversary since 'Mission Accomplished' speech

Monday, May 1, 2006; Posted: 12:03 p.m. EDT (16:03 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Three years after President Bush declared major combat over in Iraq, Americans have strong doubts that the United States will fulfill the promise of his "Mission Accomplished" backdrop, a poll released Monday found.

The CNN poll, conducted April 21-23 by Opinion Research Corporation, found that only 9 percent thought the U.S. mission in Iraq had been accomplished, while 40 percent believed it would be complete someday.

An additional 44 percent said the United States would never accomplish its goals in Iraq, where American troops are still battling insurgents three years after the invasion that toppled former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The poll had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
'Tough days ahead'

On Monday, Bush received a briefing from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who returned from surprise trips to Iraq last week. They were joined by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In statements after the meeting, Bush pointed to the formation of a new Iraqi government as "a turning point for the Iraqi citizens" and "a new chapter in our partnership," but emphasized that the Iraqis still face many challenges as they move toward democracy, a far cry from the triumphant tone the president struck three years ago. (Watch: President Bush says Iraq is entering "a new chapter" -- 3:15)

"There's going to be more tough days ahead. These secretaries know that. They're realistic people," Bush said. "But this government is more determined than ever to succeed, and we believe we've got partners to help the Iraqi people realize their dreams."
'Mission Accomplished'

Bush's May 1, 2003, victory speech aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln was a carefully managed piece of political theater, from his flight suit-clad arrival aboard an S-3 Viking antisubmarine jet to the "Mission Accomplished" banner that hung from the carrier's bridge.

"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed, and now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country," Bush said.

Bush had argued the invasion was necessary because Iraq had been concealing chemical and biological weapons, long-range missiles and a nuclear weapons program from U.N. inspectors and could have provided those weapons to terrorists.

All bullshit and most Americans know it.

Obligatory Self-Referential Post

Blog Readers Unmasked

By Zachary A. Goldfarb and Chris Cillizza
Monday, May 1, 2006; A04

Think the people who while away their hours reading and commenting on political blogs are slovenly twenty-somethings with nothing better to do?

Think again, said a survey last week by Blogads, a company that many leading political blogs have used for ad placements.

In an unscientific Web survey of 36,000 people, Blogads reported that political blog readers tend to be age 41 to 50, male (72 percent), and earn $60,000 to $90,000 per year. Two in five have college degrees, while just a tad less have graduate degrees.

"These are not people who are politically idealistic and born yesterday," said Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who runs the popular liberal site DailyKos.

"I think people want to dismiss blog readers as unemployed people in their basement. Apparently not," said Glenn Reynolds of the conservative blog InstaPundit.

Several major conservative blogs didn't take part in the survey, which was posted on 110 sites, and so the numbers were weighted in favor of Democrats.

Blogads President Henry Copeland said the findings represent "the choir" of political blog readers, the most interested and most engaged, "the political geeks who are arguing over the nuances at a press conference or the latest Hillary Clinton pronounciations."

He said Republican blog readers tend to be older, more often male, have higher incomes and less education than Democratic readers -- but only by small degrees.

The survey noted that political blog readers tend to read blogs for 10 hours per week, often for "news I can't find elsewhere."

"These are people who are presumably overworked and overstressed like the rest of us, only they find 10 hours a week to look at blogs. It's a mark of their alienation" from other forms of media, said Carol Darr, director of the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.

My experience: readers here are part of the demographic Copeland found. And you are a lot like me: fifty-ish, grad degrees, professional.

Ya Gotta Be Kidding

Sharp Reaction to G.O.P. Plan on Gas Rebate
By CARL HULSE and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON, April 30 — The Senate Republican plan to mail $100 checks to voters to ease the burden of high gasoline prices is eliciting more scorn than gratitude from the very people it was intended to help.

Aides for several Republican senators reported a surge of calls and e-mail messages from constituents ridiculing the rebate as a paltry and transparent effort to pander to voters before the midterm elections in November.

"The conservatives think it is socialist bunk, and the liberals think it is conservative trickery," said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, pointing out that the criticism was coming from across the ideological spectrum.

Angry constituents have asked, "Do you think we are prostitutes? Do you think you can buy us?" said another Republican senator's aide, who was granted anonymity to openly discuss the feedback because the senator had supported the plan.

Conservative talk radio hosts have been particularly vocal. "What kind of insult is this?" Rush Limbaugh asked on his radio program on Friday. "Instead of buying us off and treating us like we're a bunch of whores, just solve the problem." In commentary on Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume called the idea "silly."

The reaction comes as the rising price of gasoline has put the public in a volatile mood and as polls show that cynicism about Congress is at its highest level since 1994.

Still, Eric Ueland, chief of staff to Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee, the Republican leader, whose office played a main role in pulling the proposal together, said the rebate was an important short-term step in a broader array of measures that began with last year's energy bill. Constituents "believe government ought to step up to the plate rather than loll around in the dugout," Mr. Ueland wrote in an e-mail message on Sunday.

After members of Congress returned from the spring recess, when they got an earful about gas prices above $3 a gallon, they raced to propose solutions that might take effect before the elections. Democrats were pushing for a 60-day suspension of the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents a gallon, and the Senate Republican leadership settled on the rebate.

Those leaders and Finance Committee aides said many Republicans opposed the Democratic plan because they feared that oil companies, which pay the gas tax, would not pass savings on to the public, or that the laws of supply and demand would push the price up again.

There was also the probable opposition of House Republicans, who have been reluctant to jeopardize the flow of the gas tax revenue to the highway trust fund that underwrites road and bridge projects.

"Our folks thought it might amount to nothing for consumers," said one aide who was granted anonymity to discuss internal leadership deliberations.

What begins in tragedy can end in farce.

Flu Guesses

Speaker: Pandemic flu long overdue

By HINA ALAM The Lufkin Daily News

Monday, May 01, 2006

It's not a matter of if. It's a matter of when.

Those were the words of Dennis Perrotta, associate professor of Epidemiology and Biosecurity with the University of Texas School of Public Health, as he addressed the Angelina County Pandemic Influenza Task Force this past week in a workshop session held at Angelina College.

"We are long overdue for pandemic influenza. If history is a predictor of current events — and it usually is — it's going to happen," Perrotta said.

People who know, like scientists and officials at the Center for Disease Control, have been talking about the threat of pandemic influenza for 10 years now, he said.

"Now it's important to know because of the 100 or so (human) deaths of the 200 or so cases (of bird flu),” he said. “That's a lot of people dying. It's a striking number."

Throughout the ages, Perrotta said, influenza started in birds and ended in people. The virus right now is large in birds and has affected only a small number of people, he said. But once it mutates, developing the ability to spread from person to person, and if it still retains the 54 percent kill rate that it is showing now, he said, "that's a global pandemic."

Even if it has a kill rate of even 25 percent, that's a huge impact, he said.

A pandemic strain will cause severe disease in humans because the global human population will not have pre-existing immunity, and it will spread rapidly from human to human. The pandemic will move around the world in six to eight weeks, he said. Twenty to 30 percent will contract influenza during the first wave.

A global outbreak usually happens once every 11 years. "That's not exact science, but that is what history has shown. And it has been 40 years between our last one and now. That's why we're overdue."

Flu pandemics usually come in waves, Perrotta explained. The 1918 pandemic came in three waves over 17 weeks. And the second wave killed young people, he said.

Flu waves last two to 12 weeks. Waves fade and reoccur in one to three weeks. Secondary waves are usually the worst, he said.

Such a pandemic would usually be anticipated to start in the regular flu season, and by the end of it the virus would've changed. "These are ringing bells for the next flu season," he said.

However, the officials and doctors have not tracked flu "as well as we should."

Right now, Perrotta said, avian flu is increasing around the world. The death rate in people infected has been close to 50 percent.

The threat isn't the bird, he said. The threat is human. "More times humans get in touch with birds, more of a chance of human to human contact ... that genetic magic might happen."

And when that does happen, it would not just be a stress, strain and break of the healthcare system, but others too, like the mortuary and public safety system, he said. That is what officials need to be ready for, he said. Businesses, education, religious places and local governments will be affected.

To prepare for such an outbreak, the local government needs to participate and support planning and preparation activities; seek and incorporate citizen/organization input; exercise and adapt plans based on exercise results.

"It's not just an influenza issue," he told the fire department, police and religious leaders in the room. "It's injury, crowd control and other issues. Issues of disposition of dead bodies... religious issues — some religions have specific issues concerning disposition of the dead ... Close major mass gathering for weeks or months... It will be like tornadoes that are spawned from a hurricane — one disaster brings other related ones."

During such an outbreak, Perrotta said, medicines may or may not help. "Healthcare will be overwhelmed." The first vaccine will not be available for four to five months until after the pandemic arrives, and even then, it will be in limited quantity.

After the flu epidemic, there will another epidemic, Perrotta said. "The first epidemic will be illness. The second will be post-traumatic stress disorder." The second would come from losing loved ones and dealing with what has passed.

"A clinical picture of what the next flu outbreak will look like? Hard to say. I don't know if we can prevent this from happening — it's not easy to stop... We need to spend time preparing for it."

There is a bunch of what I consider the "conventional wisdom" in this story, much of which is conjectural. We don't know if a flu pandemic would come in waves. That's what happened in 1918 and we are making a bunch of assumptions based on that. They may not be true. The fact of the matter is that we have so little data about flu that almost everything there is to say about a pandemic influenza is a guess. Keep that in mind while you are deciding how best to prepare. The bare necessity in risk communication is to prepare for the worst, so we need to have an idea of what that is.

When Science Isn't Enough

Polygraph Results Often in Question
CIA, FBI Defend Test's Use in Probes

By Dan Eggen and Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, May 1, 2006; A01

The CIA, the FBI and other federal agencies are using polygraph machines more than ever to screen applicants and hunt for lawbreakers, even as scientists have become more certain that the equipment is ineffective in accurately detecting when people are lying.

Instead, many experts say, the real utility of the polygraph machine, or "lie detector," is that many of the tens of thousands of people who are subjected to it each year believe that it works -- and thus will frequently admit to things they might not otherwise acknowledge during an interview or interrogation.

Many researchers and defense attorneys say the technology is prone to a high number of false results that have stalled or derailed hundreds of careers and have prevented many qualified applicants from joining the fight against terrorism. At the FBI, for example, about 25 percent of applicants fail a polygraph exam each year, according to the bureau's security director.

The polygraph has emerged as a pivotal tool in the CIA's aggressive effort to identify suspected leakers after embarrassing disclosures about government anti-terrorism tactics. The agency fired a veteran officer, Mary O. McCarthy, on April 20, alleging that she had shared classified information and operational details with The Washington Post and other news organizations, a charge her lawyer disputes.

CIA officials have said that McCarthy failed more than one polygraph examination administered by the CIA, but the details surrounding those interviews remain unclear. Dozens of senior-level CIA officials have been subjected to polygraph tests as part of the inquiry, which is aimed at identifying employees who may have talked to reporters about classified programs, including providing information about the agency's network of secret prisons for terrorism suspects.

"The reason an officer at CIA was terminated was for having unauthorized contact with the media and the improper release of classified information," said Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman. "Don't think in terms of a failure of a polygraph being the reason for termination -- the polygraph is one tool in an investigative process."

In the popular mind, fueled by Hollywood representations, polygraphs are lie-detection machines that can peer inside people's heads to determine whether they are telling the truth.

The scientific reality is far different: The machines measure various physiological changes, including in blood pressure and heart rate, to determine when subjects are getting anxious, based on the idea that deception involves an element of anxiety. But because an emotion such as anxiety can be triggered by many factors other than lying, experts worry that the tests can overlook smooth-talking liars while pointing a finger at innocent people who just happen to be rattled.

In settings in which large numbers of employees are screened to determine whether they are spies, the polygraph produces results that are extremely problematic, according to a comprehensive 2002 review by a federal panel of distinguished scientists. The study found that if polygraphs were administered to a group of 10,000 people that included 10 spies, nearly 1,600 innocent people would fail the test -- and two of the spies would pass.

"Its accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies," the panel concluded.

Polygraph test results are also generally inadmissible in federal courts and in most state courts because of doubts about their reliability. Statements or admissions made by test subjects during a polygraph session, however, can often be used by prosecutors at trial, according to legal experts.

But even critics of the polygraph concede that it can help managers learn things about employees that would otherwise remain hidden. That aspect of polygraph testing lies at the heart of its continuing appeal, said Alan Zelicoff, a former scientist at Sandia National Laboratories who quit because he believed that polygraphs are unethical.

Let me see if I get this right: the Bushies are relying on a technology which only works once and a while and by accident? This sounds like something the anti-science crowd would appreciate.

Bullseye!

Krugman via truthout

The Crony Fairy

By Paul Krugman
The New York Times
Friday 28 April 2006

The U.S. government is being stalked by an invisible bandit, the Crony Fairy, who visits key agencies by dead of night, snatches away qualified people and replaces them with unqualified political appointees. There's no way to catch or stop the Crony Fairy, so our only hope is to change the agencies' names. That way she might get confused, and leave our government able to function.

That, at least, is how I interpret the report on responses to Hurricane Katrina that was just released by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

The report points out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency "had been operating at a more than 15 percent staff-vacancy rate for over a year before Katrina struck" - that means many of the people who knew what they were doing had left. And it adds that "FEMA's senior political appointees ... had little or no prior relevant emergency-management experience."

But the report says nothing about what caused the qualified people to leave and who appointed unqualified people to take their place. There's no hint that, say, President Bush might have had any role. So those political appointees must have been installed by the Crony Fairy.

Rather than trying to fix FEMA, the report calls for replacing it with a new organization, the National Preparedness and Response Agency. As far as I can tell, the new agency would have exactly the same responsibilities as FEMA. But "senior N.P.R.A. officials would be selected from the ranks of professionals with experience in crisis management." I guess it's impossible to select qualified people to run FEMA; if you try, the Crony Fairy will spirit them away and replace them with Michael Brown. But she might not know her way to N.P.R.A.

O.K., enough sarcasm. Let's talk about the history of FEMA.

In the early 1990's, FEMA's reputation was as bad as it is today. It was a dumping ground for political cronies, headed by a man whose only apparent qualification for the job was that he was a close friend of the first President Bush's chief of staff. FEMA's response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 perfectly foreshadowed Katrina: the agency took three days to arrive on the scene, and when it did, it proved utterly incompetent.

Many people thought that FEMA was a lost cause. But Bill Clinton proved them wrong. He appointed qualified people to lead the agency and gave them leeway to hire other qualified people, and within a year FEMA's morale and performance had soared. For the rest of the Clinton years, FEMA was among the most highly regarded agencies in the federal government.

What happened to that reputation? The answer, of course, is that the second President Bush returned to his father's practices. Once again, FEMA became a dumping ground for cronies, and many of the good people who had come in during the Clinton years left. It took only a few years to transform one of the best agencies in the U.S. government into what Senator Susan Collins calls "a shambles and beyond repair."

In other words, the Crony Fairy is named George W. Bush.

Krugman: he shoots, he scores!