israel making threats again

If the U.N. Security Council is incapable of taking action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself, Israel's defense minister said on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was asked whether Israel was ready to use military action if the Security Council proved unable to act against what Israel and the West believe is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program.

"My answer to this question is that the state of Israel has the right give all the security that is needed to the people in Israel. We have to defend ourselves," Mofaz told Reuters after a meeting with his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.

--source

i think i posted a while back about israel gearing up to hit iran, and that plans were in the oven for a strike on iran's nuclear facilities.

talk about provocation.

from the GOOD NEWS file

NEWFANE, Vt. -- In five Vermont communities, a centuries-old tradition of residents gathering in town halls to conduct local business became a vehicle to send a message to Washington: Impeach the president.

An impeachment article, approved by a paper ballot 121-29 in Newfane Tuesday, calls on Vermont's lone member of the U.S. House, independent Rep. Bernie Sanders, to file articles of impeachment against President Bush, alleging he misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.

At least four other Vermont towns, spurred by publicity about Newfane's resolution, endorsed similar resolutions during Tuesday's meetings: Brookfield, Dummerston, Marlboro and Putney.

--source

what a great site

in keeping tabs on 2008:

http://www.mydd.com/ewire

california republicans caught defrauding the government

The California Republican Party has suspended its fee-based voter registration program while prosecutors in San Bernardino and Orange counties investigate possible registration fraud connected to private firms hired by the party, GOP officials said.

The suspension came after election officials in the two counties discovered thousands of flawed registration forms and received complaints from residents who said they had been improperly registered as Republicans.

--source

seems the name sproul is connected here too. from dailykos:

Searching for information on the voter registration fraud stories breaking tonight in Nevada and Oregon, I kept coming across the same name: Nathan Sproul of Sproul & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona.

Nathan Sproul is the former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of the Arizona Christian Coalition (ah, the irony... a Christian).

Sproul is connected with the Republican National Committee-funded voter registration organization, Voter Outreach, Inc., a group that used paid registrars to register voters in a number of states including Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and perhaps more, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine and Missouri. (Others states pending, particularly swing states.) Sproul's organization also recruited registrars by fraudulently telling recruits that they would be working for America Votes, a legitimate nonpartisan GOTV operation!

HYPOCRISY ALERT

The White House rejected as provocative Iran's statement's that the United States could feel "harm and pain" if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran's nuclear research.

--source

when bolton warned iran of painful consequences if they didn't bend down in homage to the fuhrer

god these people (sic) make me sick.

one has to wonder why bush is of the status of a saint

if you can't wear t-shirts emblazoned with pictures of the monkey with floppy ears, or speak about him in terms of his nazi-ness in class, without retribution.... these are things that are done in countries with dictators in charge.

Teacher who compared Bush and Hitler put on leave

BUSH TO CONGRESS: DON'T YOU DARE INVESTIGATE ME

The Post goes inside with and Knight Ridder highlights the Republican-controlled Senate intel committee voting down a proposed investigation of the warrantless spying.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

The Journal does the budget numbers and concludes that U.S. spending for the Iraq war is still heading north and currently running $5.9 billion per month. The administration has requested $117.6 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq for this fiscal year, 18 percent more than last year. It's all done outside the normal budget and in "emergency" appropriations.

Quote of the Day

"The current militarization of many of the nation's intelligence functions and responsibilities will be viewed as a major mistake in the very near future,"
--John O. Brennan, a 25-year C.I.A. officer who headed the National Counterterrorism Center (before retiring last year)

attribution

the encroachment of the military industratial complex is growing rapidly. eisenhower must be turning in his grave.

in fact, the WP and LAT has been covering the same program for years.

Letter Of The Day

If the information published in a Feb. 26 article is correct, then Waterloo Principal Mary Meier has some serious apologizing to do to the students suspended from her school for distributing a flier that she evidently took personal offense to ("Students Suspended for Inappropriate Fliers").

The U.S. Constitution makes the right of the punished students very clear. If as Meier states the fliers contained no threats, then "inappropriate," as judged by Meier, is no justification for violating those rights. What kind of an example is Meier setting in a public educational institution when students can be seriously rebuked for disagreeing with a political position taken by a governmental entity?

"Inappropriate" ideas may fly in the face of Meier's personal definition of political correctness or perhaps the Waterloo school board's philosophies, but they are not illegal. Meier's actions may well be.
— Travis Gregory, Ames.

attribution

the numbers

The latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll, conducted Feb 28 to March 1, finds the Democrats holding a substantial lead over the Republicans as the party more registered voters currently support in this fall's elections for Congress. More than half of registered voters (53%) favor the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House in their district; only 39% favor the Republican.


--gallup

our next president?

from the ny daily news:

America's mayor is America's hottest politician, according to a new poll.
Rudy Giuliani topped Quinnipiac University's national "Thermometer" survey of 1,900 voters, far outpacing Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), who came in eighth.

New York's feisty former mayor also wiped the floor with President Bush and Vice President Cheney, who are so unpopular these days they didn't even make the top 10.

"The first Thermometer of American Leaders is a cold shower for President Bush, Vice President Cheney - and for Sen. Clinton," said Quinnipiac pollster Peter Brown.

FARPOINT.FACTOID

A front-page piece in USAT tallies 2,154 flights on corporate jets taken by "members of Congress" and "aides to President Bush's re-election campaign." As has been mentioned before, these folks get a fairly reasonable deal; they have to pay the equivalent of first class. The most generous provider of trips: U.S. tobacco.

Quote of the Day

"It came from a need to destroy al-Qaeda, which we thought the Marines might have been able to do," said one tribal chief. "We were wrong, since these armed men became stronger and raped other cities."

--source

like all things repuke, it'll backfire

the new law in SD that bans abortion and will take effect in july is actually making pro-choice groups giddy. as noted in the LAT:

If abortion-rights groups play it right, said one such advocate, "this might be the best thing that ever happened to the pro-choice movement."

Joke Of The Day

Iraq is "going very, very well, from everything you look at,"
--Gen. Peter Pace
--source

do you see what's wrong with this picture

the picture has been scribbed from the larimar county GOP's website. hm, could they be feeling the heat of lawlessness?

http://www.larimergop.org/photos/LincolnDay/LD2/LD2006.html

plus, they took down any photo that had a marine in it. and maybe you'll notice something else. NO BLACKS. NO HISPANICS. NO CHINESE. NO JAPANESE.. what a klansman's dream.

crackpot of the day

Merrill Keiser, Jr., is a trucker by trade, and he's hoping his next journey takes him all the way to Washington. His goal is a seat in the US Senate, but first he has to make it through the primary that will determine which Ohio Democrat will be the November ballot.

The Fremont man is causing some controversy with one of his beliefs. He tells News 11 homosexuality should be a felony, punishable by death. "Just like we have laws against murder, we have laws against stealing, we have laws against taking drugs -- we should have laws against immoral conduct," Keiser says.

--source

they're all corrupt sons of bitches if ya ask me

"Gov. Jeb Bush's office is refusing to release documents or answer questions about a $400,000 tax credit awarded to MZM Inc., whose former chief executive pleaded guilty last week to bribery and illegal campaign contributions."
--source

like i say, all things repuke backfire

and on the parental notification idea that repukes think will stem abortions? ha, look at this:

in Tennessee, for example, the abortion rate went up after the law went into effect. One reason—parents often push their pregnant daughters to get abortions.

also from today's papers

FARPOINT.FACTOID

from today's papers:

Compounding the (mental health) problem is the exodus of educated Iraqis since 2003, which has left a total of 75 psychiatrists—including zero child psychiatrists—in the entire country.

dubai congroversy

is being headed by yale grads.

one outta figure out where are all the yale grads from bush's age.

no wonder bush looked into his eyes and saw his soul

from today's papers:

Ramzan Kadyrov, 29, (the newly appointed prime minister) the son of an assassinated Chechen president, has been accused of corruption, torture, and ordering kidnappings. Vladimir Putin awarded him the Hero of Russia medal in 2004.

no iraq war in 2008?

just in time for elections. kinda makes ya wonder if the war was even anything more than a political ploy to extract revenge on saddam.

Two British papers, the Sunday Telegraph and the Sunday Mirror, report that the U.S. and Britain are planning to pull all their troops out of Iraq by the spring of 2007. No American paper picks up the story, which is based on quotes from unnamed sources in the British defense ministry.

Details of Some Guantanamo Hearings

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/guantanamo_detainees_names_4

Quote of the WeeQ

regarding this (mis)administration's penchant for serious journalists.

"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."

--washington post

HEADLINE OF THE DAY

Priests Purify Shrine After Bush Visit

--source

it's not what you think.

Letter Of The Year

by all counts, this one's the winner.

After two months and thousands of prescriptions having been filled under the Medicare Part D plans, pharmacists have yet to see one truly discounted prescription offered to a senior citizen.

When I say a truly discounted prescription, I mean the final price that the senior citizen is charged against the program’s $2,250 maximum allowance.

Every single prescription that we are filling is at 100 percent of the drug manufacturers’ cost to any pharmacy. The total prescription price that is being charged to that maximum benefit is not discounted to the senior citizen in any way.

For the past two years, there were discounted manufacturer programs that took $100 prescriptions and had patients pay only a fraction of that price. The manufacturer, through the program, rebated money back to cover the total cost.

I am sure that rebated money is still flowing back to all the insurance companies that have a Medicare D drug program. But it appears that any and all of those millions of dollars of rebate money are stopping at the insurance company.

With every dollar that is coming off the $2,250 cap in benefits, the share that is coming from the insurance plan is 0 percent. They may be receiving that same $20, $30, $50 or $100 rebate, but they are charging against the senior citizens’ benefits at 100 percent.

There is no transparency as to how much money is being rebated back to private insurance companies through these programs, and that is an outrage.

We are seeing patients pay full price for prescriptions that we know, based on the previous manufacturer discount programs, cost the insurance company only a fraction of that amount. Seniors may be seeing lower prescription prices, but that is all coming out of reduced profit margins that the insurance plan allows the pharmacy.

We have seen manufacturers raise the wholesale cost of drugs 5 to 8 percent since Jan. 1. The drug companies are winners because they continue to raise prices to cover the amount of rebate they are giving.

The insurance company wins because they have all those new premium payers and this new huge pool of rebate money.

The senior citizen pays an additional premium to get the crumbs that are left over. If the plan is to buy the drugs for less money, then the plan’s clients — seniors — should be getting that reduced price.

Somebody needs to start asking why they are not, and just where all
this rebate money is going.

— Mark Richards, Richards Pharmacy, Des Moines.

attribution

Letter Of The Year

by all counts, this one's the winner.

After two months and thousands of prescriptions having been filled under the Medicare Part D plans, pharmacists have yet to see one truly discounted prescription offered to a senior citizen.

When I say a truly discounted prescription, I mean the final price that the senior citizen is charged against the program’s $2,250 maximum allowance.

Every single prescription that we are filling is at 100 percent of the drug manufacturers’ cost to any pharmacy. The total prescription price that is being charged to that maximum benefit is not discounted to the senior citizen in any way.

For the past two years, there were discounted manufacturer programs that took $100 prescriptions and had patients pay only a fraction of that price. The manufacturer, through the program, rebated money back to cover the total cost.

I am sure that rebated money is still flowing back to all the insurance companies that have a Medicare D drug program. But it appears that any and all of those millions of dollars of rebate money are stopping at the insurance company.

With every dollar that is coming off the $2,250 cap in benefits, the share that is coming from the insurance plan is 0 percent. They may be receiving that same $20, $30, $50 or $100 rebate, but they are charging against the senior citizens’ benefits at 100 percent.

There is no transparency as to how much money is being rebated back to private insurance companies through these programs, and that is an outrage.

We are seeing patients pay full price for prescriptions that we know, based on the previous manufacturer discount programs, cost the insurance company only a fraction of that amount. Seniors may be seeing lower prescription prices, but that is all coming out of reduced profit margins that the insurance plan allows the pharmacy.

We have seen manufacturers raise the wholesale cost of drugs 5 to 8 percent since Jan. 1. The drug companies are winners because they continue to raise prices to cover the amount of rebate they are giving.

The insurance company wins because they have all those new premium payers and this new huge pool of rebate money.

The senior citizen pays an additional premium to get the crumbs that are left over. If the plan is to buy the drugs for less money, then the plan’s clients — seniors — should be getting that reduced price.

Somebody needs to start asking why they are not, and just where all
this rebate money is going.

— Mark Richards, Richards Pharmacy, Des Moines.

attribution

Story of the Day

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060305/OPINION01/603050319/1035/OPINION

on gitmo:

Hegland pored over the court files of 132 detainees. She then spent Christmas vacation with her family in Ames, studying the redacted transcripts of another 314 cases that had been heard by military tribunals.

The files show most of the detainees were not captured in Afghanistan, and most are not accused of any hostile acts. They are accused of "associating" with terrorists, often based on implausible accusations from fellow inmates or on admissions of having done things such as sleeping in a Taliban house or seeing Osama bin Ladin on television.

Some of the prisoners were captured by Pakistani or Afghan warlords, who were paid large bounties for each "terrorist" turned over. Attorney Thomas Wilner, writing in the Los Angeles Times, described one of his clients as a young Kuwaiti who was teaching in Pakistan. He and four other Kuwaitis were invited to dinner by a Pakistani tribal leader, then sold into captivity.

being republican means being above the law

or so it would seem with this round of republican klansmen:

from josh marshall:

Doesn't this break military regulations and probably several laws?

A few weeks ago we discussed the fact that the RNC was apparently working with the White House to send active duty members of the military in uniform to speak on behalf of the president's policies at Republican political events. That's against the law and military regulations. And for good reason since that's a could ride to making the military -- or factions or individuals in the military -- tools of one or the other political party.

Now we seem to have an example in practice.

This is exactly what appears to have happened yesterday at a political event with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO). This article in the Fort Collins Coloradoan shows a picture of Musgrave doing just that with the caption: "Marilyn Musgrave introduces Marine Sergeant Brandon Forsyth on Friday during the Larimer County GOP Lincoln Day Dinner."

A look at the picture shows pretty clearly that Forsyth was in uniform. Yet those regs linked above say clearly that military personnel can attend partisan events only as spectators and not in uniform. What am I missing?

welfare for the rich

what else would you call it?

President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday.
--source

welfare for the rich

what else would you call it?

President Bush's budget would increase the federal deficit by $35 billion this year and by more than $1.2 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Friday.
--source

and speaking of which....

also from that same page:

Which political daughter gave a recent interview to a sports Web site that had to be chopped to ribbons because of her repeated hostile references to her famous father, who, she said, never came to her events when she was growing up?

gah, who would that possibly be?

"condi, stop smokin that crack"

that should make Quote of the Day, but the whole article is worth reading. excerpted:

"People say, 'She's so successful' and 'Look at her position as a black woman.' She is a black woman who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and said that she never experienced a day of racism in her life," Lee tells the April issue of Stuff magazine.

"Condi, stop smoking that crack!"

"I know you love your Ferragamo shoes, but come on. While people were drowning in New Orleans, she was going up and down Madison Ave. buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to see 'Spamalot.'"

Quote of the Day

"They can't have it both ways," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). "It would be like Consumer Reports investing trust fund money in Chrysler and then promoting Chrysler cars. You can't claim to be a disinterested advocate if you're peddling insurance to make a profit and pay your overhead."
--attribution

Quote of the Day

"They can't have it both ways," said Rep. Pete Stark (D-Fremont). "It would be like Consumer Reports investing trust fund money in Chrysler and then promoting Chrysler cars. You can't claim to be a disinterested advocate if you're peddling insurance to make a profit and pay your overhead."
--attribution

FARPOINT.FACTOID

One Sunday afternoon I forced myself, with stopwatch in hand, to keep track for one hour the advertising interruptions. I counted 21 minutes and eight breaks to sell something.
--SOURCE

ask and ye shall be answered

from a letter to the editor in the des moines register:

"What has come about in a civilized society?" asks Rep. Danny Carroll, R-Grinnell ("House Committee Endorses Death Penalty Bill," Nov. 24).

One thing that has come about is Representative Carroll's call for Iowans to resume the practice of capital punishment. This is an appeal, not to civilization, but to barbarity.

— D.A. Smith, Grinnell.

mason city email addys

this is for my reference later. shouldn't be of any use to those outside of north iowa.

Mayor Roger Bang:

mayor@masoncity.net.

Councilman Max Weaver:

atlargea@masoncity.net.

Councilman Scott Torn- quist:

atlargeb@masoncity.net.

Councilman Jeff Marsters:

wardone@masoncity.net.

Councilman Al Zook:

wardtwo@masoncity.net.

Councilman Don Nelson:

wardthree@masoncity.net.

Councilman John Jaszewski:

wardfour@masoncity.net.

McGarvey's e-mail address is: pmcgarvey@masoncity.net.

from our local newspaper board

that's run by fascist pigs.

Do You Suffer From Bush Derangement Syndrome?

Created by Erik Axelson

If you think you might have Bush Derangement Syndrome, or BDS, just take this simple self-administered test:

1. Do you interject non sequiters about President Bush, Vice President Cheney or Karl Rove into ordinary conversations without warning?

2. Is the Kerry-Edwards sticker still affixed to your car?

3. Did you replace a faded Kerry-Edwards sticker or an Al Gore/2000 sticker with a new one?

4. Did you vote twice in the 2004 election, once from your primary residence and once from your country home?

5. In the past 60 days, have you engaged in one or more heated arguments about the War against Islamist terror?
a. Once (1 point)
b. Twice (2 points)
c. Three times (3 points)
d. More than three times (5 points)

6. Have you found yourself yelling at members of the Bush administration when they appear on your television?

7. Have you found yourself yelling at Chris Matthews, Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer or other network anchors for not being tough enough on Bush?

8. Have you marched with Cindy Sheehan or with Code Pink?

9. Did you send a political donation to Paul Hackett in his campaign for a special election to the U.S. House, even though you don't live in Ohio?

10. Have you demonstrated your "support for the troops" by pushing for the Murtha Amendment, which would have authorized an immediate withdrawl from Iraq?

11. Do you secretly welcome hearing bad news from Iraq because you assume it will hurt President Bush's standing in opinion polls?

12. Are you disappointed there have not been any further terrorist attacks since 9/11?

13. Do you still think the discredited memos typed on Microsoft Word broadcast by CBS's "60 Minutes" were legitimate historical documents from 1972 proving George W. Bush shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard?

14. Do you believe that Karl Rove actually produced and leaked these documents to discredit Dan Rather?

15. Do you obsessively try to figure out how a "war for oil" has resulted in much higher oil and gasoline prices?

16. Do you support Harry Belafonte's judgement, stated at an anti-American rally in dictator Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, that George W. Bush is a bigger terrorist than Osama Bin Laden ("if Bin Laden actually did that which he is accused of doing")?

17. Do you, like the New York Times editorial page, frequently try to reconcile the fact that the crime rate has gone down at the same time the prison population has increased?

18. Does President Bush's religiosity drive you bonkers?

19. Do you object to President Bush's support of tuition tax credits and vouchers so that poor families can send their children to private schools? Give yourself 2 points if you believe this AND send your own kids to private schools.

20. Do you find that you are avoiding friends who do not share your vitriolic disdain for President Bush?

21. In your computer dating profile do you feature your loathing for Bush and the Republican Party and warn that you will not date Republicans or Bush supporters?

22. Are you convinced that Scooter Libby outed Valery Plame on orders from Dick Cheney and Karl Rove?

23. Do you support the immediate impeachment of President Bush?

24. Do you think that the United Nations should supervise future U.S. elections?

25. Do you wonder how it is possible for the U.S. economy to grow so strongly in the past 3 years while Bush has cut income and business taxes?

26. When you are planning a vacation, do you avoid going to red states?

27. Did you make jokes about Dick Cheney’s quail-shooting incident, such as saying that it was really a warning to Scooter Libby or that Bush should have been in his friend Harry’s place?

28. Are you still trying to figure out how Karl Rove and Mr. Diebold rigged the election in Ohio, giving Bush the victory in that crucial state by 119,000 votes?

Now to score yourself, just award one point for each "yes" answer. Make sure you correctly calibrate your response to the sliding scale responses for questions 5 and 19.

Here's how you rate on the Bush Derangement Syndrome scale:

• 0-5 points Pretty normal; just another mildly partisan Democrat
• 6-10 points In the orange zone; ask a friend to monitor your outbursts
• 11-15 points Could be trouble; might want to consider voluntarily not watching TV
• 16-20 points Go immediately to your psychiatric practioner
• 21-34 points You have full-bore BDS; check in NOW to St. Elizabeth's Hospital

With prompt treatment BDS can be abated, though full cures are rare. Early detection and treatment are vital to recovering your faculties.

--source

pakistan needs osam alive to get American money?

cbs news just reported that without osama, we wouldn't need pakistan.

reminds me of when pakistan was so close to nabing him

either he's lunar, or we're being sold a can of tuna

from voice of america:

The American commander of coalition forces in Iraq says the crisis caused by the bombing of a Shi'ite mosque in Samara 10 days ago has passed, and that the violent reaction to the bombing was not as extensive as some reports indicated.

General Casey was concise in his assessment of the current security situation in Iraq.

"I do believe that the crisis part of this has passed," he said.

attribution

i wonder what he's going to say next week.

duke cunningham

he's being faced with taking $2Mil in bribes.
and only $1Mil in evading taxes.

did he pay tax on a million dollars worth of bribes?

forgive the formatting

ecto is being a bitch with her formatting today. actually, it's a bug in the system, and as soon as there is a fix, we'll be one of the first to have it. so please forgive some of the formatting errors you may notice in some of the poists. it seems that whenever there's an insert of a url, or boldinng attribute, things get moved to other lines. as i said, as soon as there's an update, we'll have it installed.

headline of the day

XCLUSIVE: FBI WHISTLEBLOWER SIBEL EDMONDS IS READY TO TALK!

--source

one can only hope this is a joke

Press reports from India following a meeting between President Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggest the US is considering outsourcing some HIV/AIDS care to that country.

--source

given my propensity toward indian tele-support-persons, i don't think this will be a good thing. but then given the bushites way of handling matters, i know it will not be a good thing.

why don't they just use GMAIL???

from the journal's washington wire:

Among other woes at Homeland Security, the inspector general's office says it can't widely distribute electronic announcements of new watchdog reports. A spokeswoman explains the department lacks capacity to create a mass email list, and "We don't have a fix at this point."

it just astounds me the utter lack of simple intellect of some of these people.

gitmo is bushites' play pen

and it just rips the very fabric of American compassion. also from today's papers:

The WP reefers lawyers for a Gitmo detainee telling a judge that the force-feeding of their client amounts to abuse under the McCain anti-torture amendment. What's particularly interesting is the administration's response: They argued that Gitmo detainees have no real right to invoke the McCain amendment . That's because the much-less-noticed Graham-Levin amendment says detainees aren't allowed to go to the courts in the first place. As one human-rights lawyer put it,

"The law says you can't torture detainees at Guantanamo, but it also says you can't enforce that law in the courts."

they're breaking the law AGAIN

also from today's papers:

the (indian nuke) agreement with India "marked a significant break from decades of U.S. nuclear policy." That's because under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the U.S. and other nuke-holding countries are supposed to give nuclear know-how and fuel only to countries that sign on the treaty and promise to skip making weapons. Indiahasn't exactly done either. Slate's Fred Kaplanr ecently detailedhow the coming dealviolates the NNT, U.S. law, and may be unwise to boot.

as one analyst told the NYT: it's Santa Clause negoitating