The WP does front a big story on U.S. air strikes in Iraq killing many civilians in the Anbar province. And inside, the WP reports that U.S. air strikes have overall increased five-fold in the past few months-which might be evidence that Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article was on target.
from today's papers
Gay and lesbian couples are asking for equal rights granted by state-recognized marriage. Certain heterosexuals oppose granting gay couples the privilege of marriage partly because they think it would unravel their revered institution of marriage.attribution
The reluctance to change is usually driven by the unknown. Maybe the heterosexual couples are afraid a homosexual marriage institution would have a lower divorce rate, a higher marriage percentage, less spousal-abuse cases, less child neglect and, heaven forbid, the children of homosexual marriage would grow up to be well adjusted, successful adults and possibly heterosexual.
Change is never easy, even in Iowa.
-Craig Seymour, Ames.
The WP fronts its latest poll that shows a jump in President Bush's approval ratings to 47 percent, an increase in 8 percentage points since November. USAT, on the other hand, goes inside with its own poll, taken in almost the exact same days, that says Bush's approval rating is 41 percent. The polls agree that 52 percent of the population does not believe the Iraq war is worth fighting or that troops should have been sent in the first place. The USAT poll also reveals that 55 percent of the population sees the war in Iraq as separate from the war on terrorism.
Two Des Moines children were sexually abused over the weekend by a man wanted by police since October for violation of the Iowa Sex Offender Registry law, authorities reported.--source
A parent contacted police Saturday accusing James Alex Conway, 35, of molesting two boys ages 7 and 10.
"He was baby-sitting at the time," Sgt. Todd Dykstra said of Conway, who had been living at the house where the alleged incident occurred.
...
Critics of the sex offender residency restriction say it does nothing to restrict where child molesters can go, and point out that most abuse occurs when an offender lives in the same home as a child.
The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (U.S.A. Patriot Act)is set to expire on Dec. 31.
This cleverly crafted acronym implies that anyone opposed to the provisions of the act is unpatriotic. While one may argue that they have not personally noticed any loss of freedoms during the past four years from this hastily drafted legislation, that does not make it good legislation. Many of the provisions go too far and give government too much authority, authority that is not necessary for domestic security.
Let's hope Congress, in its haste to get home by Christmas, does not simply continue the provisions in the first legislation. There is nothing patriotic about the Patriot Act.
-Rod Braun, Pella.
More than 500,000 bankruptcy cases were filed in the two weeks before the law took effect, compared with a normal weekly volume of 30,000 to 35,000. So far this year more than 2 million cases have been filed, 49% more than the same period last year and eclipsing all previous records.
The NYT reports that the wealthiest Americans are not the most generous in terms of the proportion of their investment assets they give to charity. A "pioneering study of federal tax data" shows that working-age people earning $50,000 to $100,000 are two to six times more generous than those earning more than $10 million.
--FROM TODAY'S PAPERS
and there was a segment on morgan freeman.
now he's an actor who would draw me to the movies, and i don't think i've seen 3 movies in the last 20 years.
he had a line toward the very end of the piece: how do you be good to life.
you live it. i said that very same thing years ago on christopher street when i was doing my junga jim psycho babbles under the headphones walking the streets of new york city.
you live it. as true then as it is now.
Even I could write a better column about health care than David Yepsen offered us on Dec 11.
Yepsen erected a straw man called "socialized medicine," then began stabbing it with his ink pen. The result was merely confusing because no one is proposing socialized medicine — where all doctors work for the government — as a solution to runaway health-care expenses.
I would begin my column by typing "Google.com" into my computer. There I could quickly find the 2004 Harvard study that found we could all save money by booting the thousands of tangled health-insurance plans we now endure and adopting a single plan that covers us all. That takes government action, to be sure, but it is not socialized medicine. And it has nothing to do with Italy or FEMA or any of the other inkblots that bled from Yepsen's straw man.
—Jerry Depew, Laurens.
attribution
Oh, quit playing that violin already.
According to the IRS, the top 1 percent had incomes of at least $295,000 per year, while those of us in the bottom 50 percent had incomes that did not exceed $30,000 per year to spend on rent, food, transportation, etc.
Considering the rich are getting President Bush's tax-cut windfall while funding for student loans and public assistance is being slashed and kids from "the bottom half" are fighting an ill-planned pre-emptive war, the last thing the superproducers deserve is our thanks.
—Michael Nottingham, Coralville.
A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee.--source
The NYT says inside that Democrat and Republican senators have agreed on a measure that would require the White House to give Congress regular, classified updates about the U.S.'s secret prisons abroad. The House hasn't considered similar legislation, so, of course, nothing might come of this.
and even the quote is a fine piece of work. WOW. i'm in heaven.
Asked if they would "definitely" or "probably" vote for the Democrat or the Republican in next year's fall congressional election, 48% said the Democrat would get their support, compared to 40% who said they would vote for the Republican. While 3% said they plan on supporting a third-party candidate, 9% said they were unsure.--source
from today's papers
USAT takes a brief look at the companies that have been assigned the $300 million project. One of them is named the now-often-cited Lincoln Group, which started two years ago and had "no experience in public relations, advertising or other media work." One of the group's founders is a 30-year-old guy who's been active in the Republican Party. Meanwhile, during the bidding process, one of the companies asked the Pentagon if the military will "protect them from U.S. and foreign media inquiries."
today's jus been one thing after another.
woke up at 5 to the humidifier off. and the nightlight out. strange. they're all plugged into this surge protector and it was like ... real wet down there. i immediately saw that there was a problem with the humidifier. just bought the thing and have been raving about it to almost everybody who would listen and read. anyway, um, it didnt take long before i knew ihad a problem that would require me getting shoes on and going down into the basement, amidst morw cobwwebs than the house on 1313 mockingbird lane.
so after flipping the circuit breaker, to both of the breakers for the living room (thank GOD i knew something about electricity), i realized i had to cut the mac off ... oh well. i could have had a fire. and i can't think of any reason i DIDNT have a fire. this house would have gone up in a second. shit. i really really need to take better care of these kinds of things. i'm kinda worried about all the cables i got going into this wall-socket. i thinki'm ok tho. i reallydont run taht much. tv, and the computer. and now that i have the lcd's., it should be less. anyway, um, i need to get on over the bathroom. i had to stick 3 suppositories up there and i'm starting to feel the rush. it normally will get right down to the very end, and then bug the hell outta me with this constant feeling of having to go.
like i said, its only half way thru the day. what was your morning like?
Sunday, at Wal-Mart, I saw a person try to put an item in their jacket. At first I thought this person was a jerk. I was buying and they were stealing. I paid for my purchase without notifying anyone.attribution
But after I returned home, I became convinced that it was OK to steal. Perhaps this person lost their job due to the cascading effects of the superstore's dominance of other businesses. Perhaps this person has a minimum-wage, part-time job without health care. In any case, the Walton family certainly has enough money to cover the loss.
When I compare the theft of a $15 item to the grand larceny by corporate America, which ran Enron into the ground, which reaps record oil profits, which passes out cash to God knows who in Iraq, and which occupies the seats of government and takes bribes, I now see the act of stealing a small gift for a poor child as heroic.
I dare say that the treatment by Wal-Mart and the police of this person would be harsher than for those who do not steal their millions in the bright fluorescent light of a store.
-Greg Wilcox, Des Moines.
Is Iowa 41st in the nation in the amount it pays the football coaches at its state universities? Why not?attribution
-Anne Crane,
Des Moines.
I am sickened that our government would kidnap, questionably interrogate, and hold an innocent German man, Khaled Masri, in a manner reminiscent of Stalinist Russia ("Pressured to Stop al-Qaida, CIA Makes Mistakes," Dec. 5). That is not consistent with our nation's ideals.
-James Blackburn, Des Moines
The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested
three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files,
the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday. The
Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest
and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act. ACLU legal
director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task
Force wastes resources generating files on “nonviolent protest.” “These
documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen
peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked
‘counterterrorism,’” he said. “This kind of surveillance of First Amendment
activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to
speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI
file.”
In response to your Dec. 5 headline, "Pressured to Stop Al-Qaida, CIA Makes Mistakes," I suggest that kidnapping and torturing someone should be described as crimes, not "mistakes."
—B.R. Douglas, Des Moines.
We need to put a stronger emphasis on these subjects, and the first step is to find highly qualified and dedicated teachers instead of relying solely on them to fill coaching positions.
—Erin Linn, West Des Moines.
This is a typical fundamentalist reaction. Take the extreme, dehumanize the outsider and produce hatredfrom The Rev. Denny Coon, Des Moines.
Why do we need a victory plan for Iraq when Bush declared "mission accomplished" two and a half years ago?
—Norene Kelly, Johnston.
attribution
ABC News reported last night that just last month the U.S. moved the 11 top al-Qaida suspects held secretly in Europe to somewhere in North Africa.
wanna bet that the bushevics were kicked out of those countries?
The former 9/11 commissioners, who are—really, honest—closing shop after this report, graded the administration's efforts on various homeland security fronts. In about half the categories, the administration was hit with a "D," "F," or "incomplete." "None of this is rocket science," said one Republican member of the commission. "None of it is in the 'too hard' category." The one area that got as high as an A-minus: the administration's work against "terrorist financing."
President Bush has unveiled his “National Strategy For Victory In Iraq.” I am tempted to ask, shouldn’t he have had a strategy for victory before he started his war? He’s almost three years late.
But he did have a Plan A, it just didn’t work out so well. Remember Plan A? It was something about 30,000 troops, about throwing flowers, being greeted as liberators and being carried through the streets to George W. Bush Square.
Now comes his “National Strategy For Victory In Iraq.” It has an impressive title, but it’s just for public relations and damage control. It’s another PR stunt for the TV cameras, like “Mission Accomplished.” These things never live up to their impressive titles.
This administration relies on a constant parade of PR stunts and lies to hide the fact that, behind the facade, a bunch of incompetents are running the show.
Here’s Bush’s real “Plan For Victory”: Distract and mislead the American public long enough to get Republicans re-elected next November.
--ALAN L. LIGHT, Iowa City
attribution
The LAT off-leads a deep look into the not-so-deep psyche of disgraced Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif. Cunningham came to Washington as a war hero, succeeding a predecessor who was plagued by scandal, and leaves in handcuffs. What's striking about him, the story says, is his brazenness: "Honest graft" has become the norm on Capitol Hill (as Michael Kinsley pointed out in his recent Slate column), but whereas other lawmakers bend the rules on the sly, Cunningham deposited checks for tens of thousands in bribes in his account at the congressional credit union, and partied on a defense contractor's yacht christened, in his honor, the "Duke-Stir." The paper speculates that some of his below-decks mischief may have gotten him in trouble with his wife, and that that in turn may have led to his sudden need for "the lavishly furnished mansion … to make things up."
one just has to wonder, with such brazenness, how nobody noticed until now this was all going on.
General Motors is going to lay off 30,000 employees. Last November, union members voted 60 percent Republican. Union members today enjoy the wages and benefits they receive but refuse to recognize that every labor-friendly bill passed in the last 80 years was done by the Democratic Party.attribution
All I can say is, "Merry Christmas. You guys got exactly what you wanted, and when your unemployment benefits run out, go to your Republican representative in Washington and see how much sympathy you receive."
-Steve Stanley, Earlham.
"We need everything you've got," Blanco is quoted in a memo as telling President Bush on Aug. 29, the day Katrina made landfall. But despite assurances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that 500 buses were "standing by," Blanco's aides were compelled to take action when the FEMA buses failed to materialize, documents show. "We need buses," Andy Kopplin, chief of staff to Blanco, said in an e-mail to Blanco staffers late on Aug. 30, the day after the storm hit. "Find buses that can go to NO [New Orleans] ASAP."--nytimes
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 - The prisoners were considered some of the most dangerous men among the hundreds of terror suspects locked behind the walls of a secretive and secure American military detention center in Bagram, Afghanistan.
Their escape, however, might as well have been a breakout from the county jail.
--nytimes
\
ok, um, i'm baffled. had more coffee and apple fritter. then did some pain pills. 8M3PP, which is my usual dose. only i'm sweating, and its 59 degrees in here. jus turned on the heat AT 59. go figure. i havent had any of the explorer hanging either. and everything's running. so you tell me....
Yesterday's employment report—more than 200,000 new jobs—gets an unusual amount of discussion. The LAT fronts a straight story looking at the economy's strengths. But the WSJ's front-pager reports that opinion polls show Bush getting little credit, a development that has frustrated the White House.source
and its showing hunter going up into some fleabag hotel.
shivers went through my body watching it. reminded me so much of the whore hotel, formerlly the Amsterdam. on lexington & 26th, kitty corner from the armory.
that period deserves not only its own chapter, but probably a couple of books.
Cambria County -- In the most current issue of The New Yorker magazine, one article alleges that many of our military's most senior generals are deeply frustrated by the happenings in Iraq, but won't go public for fear they may jeopardize their career. Congressman John Murtha says he knows about these fearssource
The WSJ's Washington Wire (following the Post) notes that the Office of Government Ethics, an executive branch office charged with "preventing conflicts of interest on the part of Government employees," has a position open: Its directorship. Must be a really tough gig though. They haven't found a taker for two years.
Cal Thomas ("Bush and Rove Finally Start Playing Hardball," Nov. 16) mistakenly attributes the administration's declining poll numbers to a lack of "offense." Thomas suggests that the Bush administration "play hardball with the left" to shape public opinion. I do not find the Bush administration lacking in offense, although I suspect I am using the word differently than Thomas.attribution
I am deeply offended that the administration misled the country into going to war against a nation that had nothing to do with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I am offended that oil company executives met with the vice president's staff to influence the nation's energy policy. I am offended that the Medicare prescription drug benefit law was written by the nation's pharmaceutical companies.
I am offended that tax cuts for the wealthy are more important to this administration than providing basic services to citizens and communities. It is the offensive actions of this administration that has led to declining poll numbers. It is unfortunate but not surprising that Thomas recommends a hardball strategy rather than dealing with the issues.
-Neal Westergaard, Des Moines.
Cal Thomas says, "Republicans too often compromise their ideals, hoping the Left will like them" (Nov. 20). Exactly which ideals is he talking about? Astronomical spending, ill-conceived military action, rampant cronyism, mixing church and state, lining the pockets of war profiteers, cutting food stamps for kids and elderly, or ineptitude during disaster?
-Norene Kelly, Johnston.
