Flexible Reality
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Hillary Clinton Gets Convention Speaking Slot
Thu Jul 15, 2004 07:39 PM ET
CHARLESTON, West Va. (Reuters) - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was given a speaking slot at this month's Democratic National Convention in Boston, after party leaders initially denied the former first lady a place in the spotlight, officials said on Thursday.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, who will be officially named party nominee at the July 26-29 gathering, delivered the speaking invitation personally after phoning Clinton on Thursday, a source familiar with the situation said.
"He called her. He reached out to her. He asked her to speak and introduce her husband on Monday night, and she accepted," the source said.
Clinton, a powerful New York Democrat seen by many as a possible future presidential candidate, will introduce her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on the convention's opening night on July 26, officials said.
Kerry is waging a close election-year battle against Republican President Bush.
When her name did not appear among individual speakers on the convention program, some Democrats openly expressed disappointment.
"I myself think that Sen. Clinton would be a magnificent addition to any agenda, talking about American values and the Democratic point of view," House of Representatives Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said earlier on Thursday.
Kerry spokeswoman Allison Dobson, traveling with the presumptive Democratic nominee in West Virginia, acknowledged that Clinton had been put on the convention schedule but could not confirm the phone call from Kerry. "We're thrilled to have her," Dobson said.
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Don't Like the Data in a Government Publication?
GOVERNMENT – DATA QUALITY REPORT, HEAL THYSELF:Center for American Progress Report: July 14th, 2004
According to a new study by OMB Watch, a recent report by the Office of Management and Budget about challenges to the quality of data in government reports was riddled with errors.
Some mistakes were factual: For example, while OMB claims that agencies only had 35 information quality challenges last year, the actual number is 98 – "nearly triple the number in the report." And although the OMB report claims "most" information quality challenges "that were denied were appealed," in reality, only 28 percent of denied challenges were appealed -- clearly not "most."
Some mistakes were misleading: critics feared information quality challenges would be dominated by interested industries. OMB accurately points out that a wide range of stakeholders have filed information quality challenges. What they failed to disclose, however, was that "72 percent of the challenges - nearly three-quarters - were from industry."
Note: The Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by Federal Agencies by the Office of Management and Budget are progressive, and meaningful. One of the key elements is objectivity of data, which the OMB defined thusly:
"Objectivity" involves two distinct elements, presentation and substance.
"Objectivity" includes whether disseminated information is being presented in an accurate, clear, complete, and unbiased manner. This involves whether the information is presented within a proper context. Sometimes, in disseminating certain types of information to the public, other information must also be disseminated in order to ensure an accurate, clear, complete, and unbiased presentation. Also, the agency needs to identify the sources of the disseminated information (to the extent possible, consistent with confidentiality protections) and, in a scientific or statistical context, the supporting data and models, so that the public can assess for itself whether there may be some reason to question the objectivity of the sources. Where appropriate, supporting data should have full, accurate, transparent documentation, and error sources affecting data quality should be identified and disclosed to users.
In addition, "objectivity" involves a focus on ensuring accurate, reliable, and unbiased information. In a scientific or statistical context, the original or supporting data shall be generated, and the analytical results shall be developed, using sound statistical and research methods.
If the results have been subject to formal, independent, external peer review, the information can generally be considered of acceptable objectivity.
In those situations involving influential scientific or statistical information, the results must be capable of being substantially reproduced, if the original or supporting data are independently analyzed using the same models. Reproducibility does not mean that the original or supporting data have to be capable of being replicated through new experiments, samples or tests.
Making the data and models publicly available will assist in determining whether analytical results are capable of being substantially reproduced. However, these guidelines do not alter the otherwise applicable standards and procedures for determining when and how information is disclosed. Thus, the objectivity standard does not override other compelling interests, such as privacy, trade secret, and other confidentiality protections.And here is where the slippery slope toward biased data finds it's justification
...now all that we need is for journalists, pundits, and authors en masse to incorporate the principle and practice of this concept in their works! Failing this inclusion we can easily end up with subjective data points that have no independent validity in fact or reality as discernable by a neutral party, and objective truth degrades into opinions which have much less value in guiding decisions and actions.
Applying a label such as Liberal or Conservative to opinions, decisions, and rulings by an Administration Agency is no where near as potentially destructive to reasoned enquiry as would Government agencies failure to adhere to the principle and practice of providing objective data in their reports.
Revisionist-In-Chief
Center for American Progress: July 14th, 2004
In an attempt to re-write his own administration's history, President Bush yesterday insisted the war in Iraq was justified, even as evidence emerges that his two central justifications – WMD and an Iraq-al Qaeda link – were false. Bush insisted on a Saddam-al Qaeda link in his speech only 24 hours after the New York Times reported the 9/11 Commission is likely to produce a unanimous report that "largely dismisses White House theories both about a close working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda." It also comes as well-documented evidence shows the White House was warned its WMD case for war was weak, yet ignored intelligence to pursue a pre-determined ideological agenda.
THE CHANGING RATIONALE: Bush claimed the war was justified because Iraq had the "capability of producing weapons of mass murder." This echoed his 2004 State of the Union claim that Iraq had "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." Both statements are clear departures from the far more stark ("mushroom cloud") and definitive ("no doubt Saddam Hussein now has WMD") language the President used to scare Americans before the war.
ARE WE SAFER? Even while acknowledging the failure to find the WMD the administration said made Iraq an imminent threat, Bush claimed the war in Iraq made America safer. His statement stood in stark contrast to a report from the U.S. Army War College calling the Iraq war "unnecessary" and a "detour" that has diverted attention and resources from the threat posed by Al Qaeda. Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke was more blunt: he said the focus on Iraq "delivered to al Qaeda the greatest recruitment propaganda imaginable." A report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies similarly concluded that "In counter-terrorism terms, the intervention has arguably focused the energies and resources of al-Qaeda and its followers."
THE WHITE HOUSE'S REVISIONIST HISTORIAN: President Bush has chastised "revisionist historians" on Iraq, yet even now he continues to perpetuate myths. He claims he has a record of "working with friends and allies and international institutions." But only last year, he disparaged the United Nations and was unable to build a real international coalition to confront Iraq in an effective way. He also alienated allies by terminating negotiations on the Kyoto and Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaties, brushing off key international AIDS conferences and working on behalf of the tobacco industry to undermine international efforts to reduce smoking. And unilateralism has its costs: the war will have cost U.S. taxpayers more than $150 billion by this fall.
REFUSING TO CONFRONT TERRORISTS: Bush touted his record "confront[ing] terrorists," yet offered no explanation why, in 2002, he transferred troops hunting Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda in Afghanistan and moved them to Iraq. With only 14,000 troops in Afghanistan (as opposed to almost 140,000 in Iraq), the administration last week acknowledged that bin Laden and his chief lieutenants continue to operate along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, and "are directing al Qaeda effort to launch an attack in the United States sometime this year." Similarly, while Bush was bragging about his terrorism record, he offered no explanation as to why "the Bush administration had several chances to wipe out" top terrorist target Abu Musab Zarqawi, "but never pulled the trigger." After repeatedly refusing to hit Zarqawi, the White House "set its course for war with Iraq." As former Bush counterterrorism adviser Roger Cressey said, "People were more obsessed with developing the coalition to overthrow Saddam than to execute the president's policy of preemption against terrorists." In all, at least 20 of the FBI's 22 most wanted terrorists are still at large.
CHENEY'S CONVENIENT CASE OF AMNESIA: Cheney accused Capitol Hill critics of the war with having "a convenient case of campaign amnesia." But as this American Progress backgrounder shows, it was top administration officials who displayed amnesia in assessing the threat of Iraq. Cheney also claimed those that voted for the war but now oppose it were "looking at the same information [the White House] did and coming to the same conclusion." But as the New Republic pointed out, both Congress and the public were deliberately misled by the White House about that information. In 2002, Congress was given an analysis of the Iraq threat "that highlighted the Bush administration's claims and consigned skepticism to footnotes" – a departure from previous, more objective CIA reports. Similarly, Knight-Ridder reports that the White House-approved public version of the "intelligence community's key prewar assessment of Iraq's illicit arms programs was stripped of dissenting opinions, warnings of insufficient information and doubts about deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's intentions."
Outfoxed at Fox Network
Fox AttacksCenter for American Progress Report: July 14th, 2004
With the much-anticipated premiere of the movie "Outfoxed" set for tonight in New York City, Fox News went on the attack, trying to intimidate other media outlets into not covering the story. Instead of responding to the well-documented charges made in "Outfoxed," Fox claimed the whistleblowers featured in the film were only "low-level" employees, even though at least one was a former West Coast anchorman for the network. As Outfoxed director Robert Greenwald said, "They're doing their standard technique, which is name-calling and bullying. Whether the [job] title was booker or staff booker in no way affects the fact that Fox is a partisan network. And what I've done in the film is objectively proven the case."
NEW STUDY - BRIT HUME IS A RIGHT-WING MOUTHPIECE: A new report by the nonpartisan Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) found a serious conservative bias in Brit Hume's "Special Report" program on Fox. In a 25-week study, FAIR found "57 percent of Special Report's one-on-one guests were ideological conservatives, 12 percent were centrists and 11 percent were progressives." Additionally, Special Report "rarely features women or non-white guests in these prominent newsmaker interview spots." For more, see Hume pushing the Bush administration's WMD myths, and spinning for the Bush campaign.
RIGHT-WING MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER ADMITS FOX'S BIAS: Facing overwhelming evidence of Fox News's conservative bias, at least one conservative operation was forced to admit the obvious. Rich Noyes, of the right-wing Media Research Center, acknowledged Fox's "commentary tends to move toward the right."
FOX SAYS CASUALTIES 'NOT RELEVANT' TO WAR CONSIDERATIONS: According to the conservative Washington Times, in downplaying Fox News memos instructing reporters not to dwell on Iraq casualties, Fox's top news executive John Moody claimed "casualties are part of war" in Iraq and "should not be described as relevant to 'the political question...should we be there?" With more than 900 American soldiers killed in Iraq, polls show increasing casualties are causing more Americans to question Bush administration policy – a question apparently not allowed on Fox News.
MORE PROOF FOX FLACKS BUSH MYTHS: Fox News has been a major media force in parroting various unsubstantiated claims to buttress the Bush White House. On tax cuts, for instance, Fox News anchor Brian Wilson claimed on 3/5/04 that Americans were "seeing the benefits of [the Bush] tax cuts that's in the system," even though Fox News's own poll from a few months earlier showed 61 percent of Americans believed the tax cuts had not helped them.
On energy policy, despite the White House meeting with Enron CEO Ken Lay during the energy crisis, Fox anchor Brit Hume said on 1/16/02 that Enron "is not a scandal about the Bush energy policy." Even though as a presidential candidate Bush said he was planning to propose private school vouchers (and has since reiterated that position), Fox correspondent Jim Angle claimed on 1/15/01 that calling it a pro-voucher plan "is a mischaracterization, obviously, of his education plan." At a time when Fox's own polls showed 69 percent of Americans thought the economy under Bush was either "fair" or "poor" and an NBC poll showed 62 percent of Americans believed the Bush tax cuts did nothing or hurt the economy, Fox correspondent Carl Cameron said on 1/18/02 that "polls show that the public prefers the Republican economic approach over that of Democrats."
And despite burgeoning violence in Iraq, Fox News Sunday host Tony Snow claimed Bush's Iraq policy "has created peaceful conditions in more than 90 percent of Iraq" – a fact he offered no documentation to support. See a backgrounder for more Fox distortions.
Tuesday, July 13, 2004
Marriage
From Eschaton Blog
Posted by Athenae
From The Note, we get some quality love from Teresa Heinz ...
Teresa Heinz Kerry explained of her husband's vice presidential pick, "John Edwards is beautiful and my husband is very smart." Heinz Kerry also effusively praised Elizabeth Edwards, saying, "She is the supreme, wise, motherly woman and wife."
Turning her attention to the opposing political team, the potential first lady exclaimed, "Bullies attack and leaders inspire." Heinz Kerry continued, "We need, above all, a president who is not fazed by complexity. A president who likes to read. A president who loves history. A president who is rightly proud of the sacrifice of our ancestors."
A relaxed and seemingly at ease candidate riffed, "I don't know what to think. The other night in New York, Teresa saw Paul Newman and turned to me and said, "I don't care what anybody says, he's the sexiest man alive." And, tonight, she's calling John Edwards beautiful. I'm in trouble."
I know I've said this before, but if we truly are electing people based on who you want to have a beer with, the last guy I want to have a beer with is the jerk who treats his wife like dirt, condescends to her in public, or complains about her in front of me. The married people I have beer with on a regular basis have (from what I can tell) healthy, adult marriages based on like and mutual respect, and nothing warms me up to somebody faster than that person praising their spouse.
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Remember Dialup BBS Systems? Making a Comeback of Sorts???
Dial-Up BBS GuideQuick Listing
The following is a quick one-page listing of all the Dial-Up BBS systems listed here at The US & Canada Dial-Up BBS Guide. If you are a Dial-Up BBS Sysop and wish to have your BBS added, please click here.
If you are a Telnet BBS sysop or a Telnet/Dial-up hybrid Sysop and wish to have your BBS added, please click here. NOTE - we are still in BETA test mode. We will add more dial-up BBS systems to this list as we find them, and will have a searchable list similar to that at the Telnet BBS Guide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BBS Corner's
US & Canada Dial-Up BBS Guide
July-September 2004
------------------------------------------------
Copyright by The BBS Corner & Diamond Mine Online
Fredericksburg, VA USA
Web: http://www.dmine.com/dialbbs
E-mail: dialbbs1@dmine.com
THIS IS A FREE LIST
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THIS LIST EVERYWHERE YOU SEE FIT!
Note - This is a BETA TEST. The full system will be online
in August 2004.
===========================================================================
WHERE TO FIND THE BBS CORNER DIAL-UP BBS GUIDE:
WEB:
http://www.dmine.com/dialbbs
EMAIL:
E-mail inquiries or submissions: dialbbs1@dmine.com
NOTE:
All Dial-Up BBS system listed are checked and verified
no later than every 3 months. If a BBS is down for more than 30 days,
it will be removed from the list.
If you find a BBS no longer in operation, please send an E-mail
to the address listed above.
============================================================================
# = BBS is also available via Telnet. Please see the Telnet BBS Guide.
============================================================================
Modem BBS Name City ST Software Telnet
206-244-2661 Top Hat Seattle WA Maximus #
206-386-4199 Seattle Community Seattle WA Unix #
206-783-7979 Waka Waka Seattle WA Searchlight
207-784-2130 Kobayashi Alternative Auburn ME CNET Pro #
212-647-8660 NY Webb, Inc. New York NY Worldgroup #
212-956-8076 Double Helix New York NY PCBoard
214-333-5385 Discovery Dallas TX Telegard
216-382-7040 WaZaBoo! Cleveland OH Other
219-873-1949 Mike's Host Mode BBS Michigan City IN Other
253-841-7734 My Desk Puyallup WA EleBBS #
281-980-9671 COMM Port OS/2 Sugar Land TX Maximus #
301-797-3792 Harvester Baltimore Hagerstown MD Maximus
301-949-5764 Idea Link Kensington MD PCBoard
302-478-1572 Loonie Bin Wilmington DE Worldgroup #
302-762-2003 Delaware Online! Wilmington DE TSX #
303-665-6091 King's Market BBS Louisville CO TBBS
309-828-4147 Desktop Micros Bloomington IL Wildcat #
310-370-4113 Long Island RB Los Angeles CA Spitfire
310-523-3345 Inner Circle Los Angeles CA Worldgroup #
314-588-0780 Fire Escape's BBS St. Louis MO Wildcat #
314-845-7937 Party Line St. Louis MO TBBS
317-415-0602 Haven BBS Indianapolis IN Citadel #
317-974-3013 Cosmic Concourse Indianapolis IN Worldgroup #
337-232-4155 Positronium Lafayette LA Wildcat
352-245-3670 Sherwood Forest Summerfield FL Maximus
360-493-0798 Le Maison de Metal Lacey WA Spitfire
401-463-8886 Ministry of Knowledge Crankston RI Unix #
402-551-7979 Buzz's Bar & Grill Omaha NE WWIV
403-288-8208 Mike's Madhouse Calgary AB Mystic #
410-256-3631 Modem Doctor BBS Baltimore MD RBBS
414-355-8163 Inner Circle Milwaukee WI EleBBS #
416-650-5411 Ability Online Support Toronto ON PCBoard #
416-698-6573 Bayman BBS Toronto ON Wildcat #
434-392-7670 Moonstar BBS Farmville VA Worldgroup
480-827-2706 Twilight Zone Tempe AZ Other
502-875-8938 Capitol City Online Frankfort KY GT-2000
503-325-2905 Village Astoria OR Other
503-325-2905 Vacuum Tube Astoria OR Other
503-695-3250 RAIN Corbett OR Wildcat
504-486-7249 New Orleans PC Club New Orleans LA Maximus
504-897-6006 Sursum Corda! BBS New Orleans LA Maximus #
504-897-6614 Digital Cottage New Orleans LA Maximus
514-327-3881 Car Enterprise Montreal QC CarBBS #
514-364-2937 Juxtaposition BBS Lasalle QC Maximus #
515-225-8496 Buffalo Creek's BBS W.Des Moines IA Spitfire
516-393-7500 Point Blank BBS Melville NY Worldgroup #
518-877-6289 518 BBS Albany NY Synchronet #
530-534-5329 TDEC West BBS Oroville CA TriBBS
559-582-4747 Midnight Hour Hanford CA Falken #
561-753-6456 Lil Red's Forest BBS W. Palm Beach FL Wildcat
563-359-1971 Safe BBS Bettendorf IA Wildcat
570-992-8745 Prophecy BBS Effort PA Virtual BBS#
602-272-8403 Sweet Shoppe BBS Phoenix AZ RemoteAccess
603-668-2983 Everybaudy's Online Manchester NH Worldgroup #
603-838-6455 TAO BBS Lisbon NH PCBoard
604-266-5271 BandMaster Vancouver BC Maximus
604-532-4367 Milky Way Langley BC Ezycom #
604-538-7084 Basic'ly Computers White Rock BC Maximus
608-267-7551 WI-Lakes BBS Madison WI PCBoard
608-755-1147 Castle Rock BBS Janesville WI Worldgroup #
613-392-8896 Lion's Den Trenton ON Synchronet #
613-475-4668 Wolf's Den Brighton ON MAXsBBS
613-549-5599 Pause-Cafe Kingston ON Maximus #
614-840-0714 TCL BBS Columbus OH Wildcat #
614-841-0688 Empire's Lair Powell OH Wildcat
615-320-1820 S&H TSX-BBS Nashville TN Other
615-889-3611 Blue Moon BBS Hermitage TN Other
616-392-8175 West Michigan Online Holland MI Worldgroup #
616-588-3336 Cyberspace BBS Grand Rapids MI Worldgroup #
619-448-6470 Shakey Jake's Santee CA Wildcat #
620-231-4190 Family Entertainment Pittsburg KS TWGS #
626-296-1169 EOLOnline Pasadena CA Worldgroup #
626-355-5347 Mysteria Tujunga CA BBS #
636-282-4505 Nightowl.net St. Louis MO Wildcat
661-296-8234 Computer Simplistics Santa Clarita CA Worldgroup #
703-242-4482 OS/2 Shareware BBS Fairfax VA Maximus #
703-818-8904 Colossus Centreville VA WWIV #
704-434-8904 Northern Alliance BBS Shelby NC Wildcat
704-588-2669 WinBBS Pine Harbor NC Maximus
705-327-7629 Encode Online Orillia ON PCBoard
708-863-1766 Snuggler's Cove BBS Cicero IL Worldgroup #
714-562-7290 Magic Fun House BBS La Mirada CA Worldgroup #
714-903-9920 Abyss Westminster CA WWIV #
715-735-0201 WebCentral Marinette WI Worldgroup
716-483-2851 Modem Madness Jamestown NY Worldgroup #
717-838-8539 TANSTAAFL BBS Palmyra PA Maximus
718-692-2498 MoonDog Brooklyn NY PCBoard #
719-522-1488 Goblin's Reach Colo Springs CO Wildcat
732-316-9584 Compunet South Amboy NJ Wildcat #
734-761-3000 GREX Ann Arbor MI Unix #
760-254-3012 Mars Station BBS Barstow CA Wildcat
770-214-8300 Spilman Resources Carrollton GA Wildcat #
770-788-6492 Bozax Covington GA Wildcat #
773-631-3467 Emergency BBS Chicago IL Worldgroup
775-355-0897 Black Door Sparks NV Wildcat
780-439-8364 Xanadu Edmonton AB Roboboard F#
781-843-1013 UWUA Local 369 Weymouth MA Wildcat #
785-478-4101 The Night Sky Topeka KS PCBoard
785-478-4101 Night Sky Topeka KS PCBoard
802-885-6386 Vested Tyme Dataline Springfield VT Virtual Adv#
812-232-4089 Hometown.Net Terre Haute IN Worldgroup #
812-951-2866 Wayne's World New Albany IN Wildcat
815-633-2880 R World BBS Rockford IL Worldgroup #
815-727-6072 Shareware Library Joliet IL Telegard
816-461-6969 Home BBS/ISP Independence MO Worldgroup #
818-368-3337 Earthquake City BBS Granada Hill CA Wildcat
847-836-8087 Fox River Net Cartersville IL Wildcat #
856-933-7096 Christian Fellowship Mt. Ephriam NJ PCBoard #
860-738-7176 Planet Maca's Opus Winsted CT Synchronet #
860-741-5129 Legal Publications Enfield CT Wildcat
901-327-2500 Crystal Clear Ideas Memphis TN Wildcat #
901-458-9001 Linden Room BBS Memphis TN Wildcat #
905-432-7667 Twilight Zone Oshawa ON Renegade
905-840-0592 HomeWard Bound Brampton ON Spitfire #
908-253-6300 Mind Pulse Online Somerville NJ Worldgroup #
916-366-3216 Coconut Telegraph Sacramento CA Wildcat #
918-827-2638 Mike's Morbid Humor Mounds OK Mystic
937-235-5843 J&J's BBS Huber Height OH Wildcat
937-279-0136 My Crazy World BBS Dayton OH Wildcat
940-565-9165 Mezzanine Denton TX Hermes II #
954-484-5020 Puget Systems Sunrise FL Spitfire
972-276-6721 Mars Den BBS Garland TX Wildcat
972-329-0781 Prison Board Mesquite TX Wildcat #
972-496-0650 FamilyNet HQ BBS Sachse TX BBBS #
972-562-8064 Collin County Station McKinney TX Synchronet #
973-917-5544 Jungle Online Rockaway NJ Worldgroup #
Total systems listed: 126
<------------------------------------->
Monday, July 12, 2004
"In short, at a time when the use of rival "experts" has become a primary political strategy on scientific issues, reporters rarely seem to bother investigating who these experts actually are or to question their authority. There are many reasons for our current epidemic of politicized science, but one is that the media doesn't seem to care."
-Chris Mooney-
Machine at Work
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NY Times OpEd
Published: July 13, 2004
From a business point of view, Enron is a smoking ruin. But there's important evidence in the rubble.
If Enron hadn't collapsed, we might still have only circumstantial evidence that energy companies artificially drove up prices during California's electricity crisis. Because of that collapse, we have direct evidence in the form of the now-infamous Enron tapes — although the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Justice Department tried to prevent their release.
Now, e-mail and other Enron documents are revealing why Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, is one of the most powerful men in America.
A little background: at the Republican convention, most featured speakers will be social moderates like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A moderate facade is necessary to win elections in a generally tolerant nation. But real power in the party rests with hard-line social conservatives like Mr. DeLay, who, in the debate over gun control after the Columbine shootings, insisted that juvenile violence is the result of day care, birth control and the teaching of evolution.
Here's the puzzle: if Mr. DeLay's brand of conservatism is so unpopular that it must be kept in the closet during the convention, how can people like him really run the party?
In Mr. DeLay's case, a large part of the answer is his control over corporate cash. As far back as 1996, one analyst described Mr. DeLay as the "chief enforcer of company contributions to Republicans." Some of that cash has flowed through Americans for a Republican Majority, called Armpac, a political action committee Mr. DeLay founded in 1994. By dispensing that money to other legislators, he gains their allegiance; this, in turn, allows him to deliver favors to his corporate contributors. Four of the five Republicans on the House ethics committee, where a complaint has been filed against Mr. DeLay, are past recipients of Armpac money.
The complaint, filed by Representative Chris Bell of Texas, contends, among other things, that Mr. DeLay laundered illegal corporate contributions for use in Texas elections. And that's where Enron enters the picture.
In May 2001, according to yesterday's Washington Post, Enron lobbyists in Washington informed Ken Lay via e-mail that Mr. DeLay was seeking $100,000 in additional donations to his political action committee, with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas." The Post says it has "at least a dozen" documents showing that Mr. DeLay and his associates directed money from corporate donors and lobbyists to an effort to win control of the Texas Legislature so the Republican Party could redraw the state's political districts.
Enron, which helped launch Armpac, was happy to oblige, especially because Mr. DeLay was helping the firm's effort to secure energy deregulation legislation, even as its traders boasted to one another about how they were rigging California's deregulated market and stealing millions each day from "Grandma Millie."
The Texas redistricting, like many of Mr. DeLay's actions, broke all the usual rules of political fair play. But when you believe, as Mr. DeLay does, that God is using you to promote a "biblical worldview" in politics, the usual rules don't apply. And the redistricting worked — it is a major reason why anything short of a Democratic tidal wave in November is likely to leave the House in Republican hands.
There is, however, one problem: a 100-year-old Texas law bars corporate financing of State Legislature campaigns. An inquiry is under way, and Mr. DeLay has hired two criminal defense lawyers. Stay tuned.
But you shouldn't conclude that the system is working. Mr. DeLay's current predicament is an accident. The party machine that he has done so much to create has eliminated most of the checks and balances in our government. Again and again, Republicans in Congress have closed ranks to block or emasculate politically inconvenient investigations. If Enron hadn't collapsed, and if Texas didn't still have a campaign finance law that is a relic of its populist past, Mr. DeLay would be in no danger at all.
The larger picture is this: Mr. DeLay and his fellow hard-liners, whose values are far from the American mainstream, have forged an immensely effective alliance with corporate interests. And they may be just one election away from achieving a long-term lock on power.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Something else to worry about...
U.S. Mulling How to Delay Nov. Vote in Case of AttackSun Jul 11, 2004 02:56 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior House Democratic lawmaker was skeptical on Sunday of a Bush administration idea to obtain the authority to delay the November presidential election in case of an attack by al Qaeda,
U.S. counterterrorism officials are looking at an emergency proposal on the legal steps needed to postpone the presidential election in case of such an attack, Newsweek reported on Sunday.
"I think it's excessive based on what we know," said Rep. Jane Harman of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, in a interview on CNN's "Late Edition."
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned last week that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network want to attack within the United States to try to disrupt the election. Harman said Ridge's threat warning "was a bust" because it was based on old information.
Newsweek cited unnamed sources who told it that the Department of Homeland Security asked the Justice Department last week to review what legal steps would be needed to delay the vote if an attack occurred on the day before or on election day.
"Going to church no more makes you a christian than sleeping in your garage makes you a car." -- Garrison Keiler
Is Broadband Out of a Wall Socket the Next Big Thing?
By JAMES FALLOWS
NY Times
Published: July 11, 2004
I want to finish this column before a familiar mood has passed. That is the sense of wonder at seeing that a new form of technology actually works. Based on previous episodes, the mood will soon give way to jadedness. (The first time I used a digital camera, I was amazed that I could see the pictures immediately after I shot them. Within a few days, I had a list of ways the camera should be improved.) So, in this fleeting upbeat moment, here is a word of appreciation for an advance that already has me wondering how I lived without it.
It is known variously as B.P.L, for broadband over power lines, or as HomePlug. As a concept, it has been around for a long time. What is new in the last two years is a series of technical breakthroughs, mainly in chips designed by Intellon, a tiny company in Ocala, Fla. These chips have made power-line transmission fast enough, cheap enough and reliable enough to merit serious attention. A standards-setting group called the HomePlug alliance has also played an important role.
The idea behind this approach is that plain old electric wires can do double duty in carrying high-speed digital data, much the same way that cable, fiber-optic and D.S.L. networks do. The advantage is that the needed electric wires are already there, bringing power to nearly every house in the nation and almost every room in each house. So for a tiny fraction of the cost of building new connections, this approach could help solve the familiar "last mile" problem: how to bring Internet service from trunk lines to each school and household. It can immediately deal with the increasingly vexing "last hundred feet" problem: how to bring broadband service to every nook and cranny of a building.
Here's how it can work inside your house: First, you need a high-speed connection. For me, that's a Starpower cable modem. Then you need a router so your computers can share the connection. Routers have become cheap and very easy to set up. I have a model from Linksys that creates a WiFi zone for my house and costs $60; similar models go for less than $50 on eBay.
If I have a wireless network, why do I want anything else? Because my house has walls, and the walls (and floors) get in the way of the wireless signal, which is coming from the attic, where the cable happens to enter the house. So in half the rooms of the house - to say nothing of the back porch - I suffer the indignity of a weak or unusable WiFi signal. Until recently, my options were to endure this hardship stoically, to pay the cable company to drill new holes and move the cable modem to a central location, or to drape unsightly Ethernet cable down the staircase and through the house to hook up more computers. I toyed with the Ethernet cable option, but one glance from my wife at the garish neon-yellow coils convinced me that stoicism was the wiser course.
Now there is another option: a HomePlug network. I needed a "power-line bridge" to make the network available over the electrical lines in my house - mine was the Netgear XE102 and cost about $50; similar models come from Siemens, Asoka Belkin and other companies that meet the HomePlug standard. I connected it to the router and plugged it into an ordinary wall socket. Instantly, every other socket in the house, and on the porch, became a high-speed-connection site. If I plug another bridge into any other socket, I have the equivalent of an Ethernet port. If I plug in a device called a wireless access point, like a $60 model I got from Siemens, I have a new WiFi hot spot wherever I want it - until I decide to move it someplace else.
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