To extend housing boom, a push for minority buyers
“One bank, in an unprecedented move, committed more than $35 billion, along with a package of mortgages with low and no down payments. The AFL-CIO pledged an additional $750 million of its pension funds toward investing in affordable housing. And HUD is planning for $235 million more in programs to counsel first-time homebuyers and help them with down payments. Overall, homeownership is at 68 percent, near a record level. But the rate for minorities is significantly lower: 49.5 percent…Even blacks comfortably in the middle class - those with incomes above $60,000 - were more likely to be rejected for a home loan than a white family making under $40,000.” The reason why is very interesting. It has more to do with consumer expectations, than actual banking practices.

Wow! Amazing!
"Functional" kidneys grown from stem cells. "US scientists claim to have grown functional kidneys using stem cells taken from cloned cow embryos. Robert Lanza of biotech company Advanced Cell Technology told New Scientist that his team, working in collaboration with a group at Harvard University, coaxed the stem cells into becoming kidney cells, and then "grew" them on a kidney-shaped scaffold. The two-inch-long mini-kidneys were then transplanted back into genetically identical cows, where they started making urine."

Mickey Kaus makes a very good point, about a Washington Post article, regarding the budget: "Don't House conservatives like Tom DeLay have a point when they suggest that Bush would be smarter to submit a balanced budget for next year? He's only $80 billion or so away right now. Of course Congress won't actually pass a balanced budget, nor should it, necessarily. But submitting one would not only neutralize the "deficit" issue (a political advantage), but it would add to the pressure to hold down spending -- a substantive advantage, since holding down spending was the ultimate virtue of the Bush tax cut.
This would be a brilliant poltical move. Especially if he demanded that waste and pork barrel spending is cut, not programs. What rational person would believe Congress, that in a $2 trillion budget, there is not a way to find $80 billion in waste?

Bush plays numbers game
Michael Eric Dyson writes articles that are full of nothing. I have yet to read one article written by him that offers any insight at all. In his lates article he conveniently forgets that the Constitution determines how often Census info is collected.
"Just what are the census figures Bush wants to hide, and why does he want to keep them private? The numbers at stake are from the 2000 census. The Census Bureau surveyed 314,000 households and concluded that 12.5 million people had been missed by the regular count. Or, they had been counted twice. You guessed it: Those who were missed were overwhelmingly poor and members of minority groups. Those who were counted twice were largely white homeowners....The Bush administration has sought to use the raw head count of the initial census, instead of the adjusted figures" I guess Mr Dyson has forgotten that the census is required by the Constitution to be done every 10 years. Not updated annually. But that would not be cynical and racist would it?

Cal Ulmann of Where Hip Hop and Libertarianism Meet, suggested I look at this article in The NY Times: If Tried, Real Integration Easily Proves Its Worth. I read the article and became furious. This is some of the most racist crap I have ever read. I will post my response when I calm down. But this is what Cal said "I think it is pretty racist of the New York Times to think that all black people need to be "helped" by being sent to "white" schools."

black spending

"Have a vision. Be demanding." ~ Colin Powell

Americans Better Off in Bush 'Recession' than Clinton 'Boom'
NewsMax.com points out what kausfiles.com has to say about a NY Times poll:
The poll shows that Americans are in better financial shape now during the so-called "Bush recession" than they were during the "Clinton boom" of the mid-1990's. According to Mickey Kaus, who took a close look at the Times data and noticed a few important developments the paper decided to overlook in its own report. Writing in Slate.com, Kaus notes:
"Perhaps most significant, (there's) a sharp decrease (66 percent to 55 percent) since last March in those who say it is 'very' or 'somewhat' hard for them to keep up with their bills - and a big increase (33 percent to 45 percent) in the fraction who say it is 'somewhat' or 'very' easy to keep up with their bills."
Both numbers were an improvement over the same poll taken in during the Clinton "boom" year 1995, Kaus observed, saying, "This could be considered hard evidence that the recession really has already ended."

Harvard recruits Prominent black scholar
“In the latest phase of an escalating recruitment war for major black scholars among the nation's top universities, Harvard University's embattled Afro-American studies department has raided a star from the University of Chicago. Michael C. Dawson, director of the U. of C.'s Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture and until last fall chairman of the school's political science department, has accepted a dual appointment at Harvard as professor of government and Afro-American studies, effective in July, the Tribune has learned.”

Black ministers start schools to fill in gaps
A St Louis church has helped create a private school that is actually free- no tuition! When I read this article, I was extremely excited to see people acting in a way that solves real problems. Community based solutions are available; people just need to take control of their education. The church in the black community is usually one of the wealthiest institutions in a community. I think that the Catholic school system is a good example of what can be done.
“At wits' end over the slow pace of school reform and the widening gap in educational achievement between cities and suburbs, African-American parents in major urban areas are turning to what has long been the institutional cornerstone of inner-city communities - the churches - as their last, best hope for change.”
"Our philosophy is very simple," says Tim Daniels, executive director of the academies. "If our kids can't read or understand math at their grade level, that's what they do, even if it's for six or seven hours a day, so they can get up to grade level. Anything else you try - special programs, computers labs - aren't going to work if the kids can't read to begin with."
In addition to the 450 pupils currently enrolled at the two schools, there is a considerable waiting list.

Here is another thing the church can do to improve public schools:
"In Memphis, a politically powerful 200-member bloc of clergy known as Ministers Aligned and Committed to Excellence (MACE) is speeding the pace of change in a district where 64 of the 215 schools are officially "failing." Each ministerial member has adopted a school with which he or she shares church resources."

My 2 Cents:
The Democrats in 2004
I was talking with a friend about the Congressional elections (2002), and the Presidential election in 2004. He is a die hard Democrat. With glee he stated that Bush would not be re-elected, and that Enron was going to damage him. I thought about it, for one second.
Then I asked who did he think could really beat Bush. Remember incumbents are hard to beat, even Carter barely lost with a bad economy and international disgrace.
Bush 41 was probably the worst campaigner in history.
I also have a theory that members of Congress cannot get elected President, only Governors. Congress votes on too many things, and people vote for different reasons on a bill. A person can support the main idea of a bill, but be against the amendments attached to it. These things allow for a Congressional voting record to easily be used by an opponent. A Governor also has to show a better ability to create consensus, than a Senator does. A senator basically just has to "not mess up too badly", to get reelected. Who remembers what they voted for 5 years ago?
The problem with the Democratic Party is that they have no Governors. I looked at the list of all 19 Democratic governors, to see what they have. Gray Davis was their best hope. But I can just see the ads that would be run against him. (The screen completely dark. people talking. "Its only 7 dear", "what will we do for the rest of the evening?” Voiceover: Do you want Davis to do to America, what he did for California? )
Since they have no viable Governors, lets look at the other possible candidates.
V.Pres Gore? Will everyone that voted for him last time, vote for him again? Will he get more votes than he got last time? Doubtful. Even most Democrats do not believe he could. History is on Gore’s side, in the two previous close elections the loser did come back to win the next time.
Sen. Kerry? A very wealthy, liberal Massachusetts Senator? Serving in Vietnam will not overcome his negatives.
Sen. Daschle? Napoleon complex and all. Could you see him standing next to Bush, looking up. Explaining why we don’t need tax cuts.
Sen. Edwards of NC, they feel he is their best shot. Maybe so. I just don’t feel he will be able to prove himself in a national campaign.
Sen. Clinton? Could actually win the nomination, because it is front loaded now, but would get trounced in the General election. I can just see the picture of her and Arafat being shown by the media. By then Arafat may be long gone. Her husband, Bill, would love the media spotlight, and sooner or later embarrass her.
Sharpton? Lets not forget the damage he will do. He is not a party man like Jackson. The Dems will be trying to revive Jackson, just to counter Sharpton. Eventually nothing productive will be done. I would pay money to see the debate where he confronts the other candidates by demanding an affirmative response on reparations, and strong affirmative action laws.
What will their platform be?
Undo the tax cuts? Fix Social Security without any privatization and without raising taxes? Re-reform welfare? Everything that Dems want to do would require large spending. They will not be able to use the deficit against Bush while also proposing more spending. (e.g. Mondale, Dukakis) Does anyone honestly think a Democratic Senate and House would balance the budget?

Enron. Why Enron will come back to bite the Dems worse. The Republican base does not really have a problem with their candidates accepting money from businesses, the Dem base does. When the reality that all of them have accepted money comes to light; Congress as a whole will turn off people. When you look at the other issues that could motivate people, it is easier to see how Republicans will be more motivated to vote to protect their tax cut, than Dem will be to support the status quo.

This is politics, and many things can happen in two years, just look at the last 6 months.
A real scandal, high loss of life and lack of clarity in the war, a long lasting economic downturn could all change the dynamics of Presidential politics almost overnight.

My shallow thought for the day:
The Bush Doctrine! Wouldn’t it be cool to have a doctrine with your name on it? (The Monroe Doctrine; The Powell Doctrine) The second best thing for a politician is to have a –nomics on their name (e.g. Reaganomics). Think about it, there is no Clintonomics? Or the Clinton Doctrine?

Jesse Jackson and Enron- Who says money cant but love?
In an exclusive interview with CNSNews.com, Jesse Jackson admitted that he has been a recipient of Enron Corporation contributions.
We also learn that he prayed with former Enron CEO Ken Lay. Jesse then compared Lay to Job.

Al Gore’s next chapter
He is still their best candidate. How can they argue that Bush stole the election, and also say that because Gore lost he should not run again?
Al Gore is set to return to politics with the creation of a new political action committee that will possibly be his ticket to the 2004 presidential election.

WHAT RECESSION?
"Gross domestic product increased 0.2 percent in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department said...Even though the economy has been in recession since March, the downturn has been unusually mild by historical standards. The only negative quarter for GDP occurred in the third quarter, when it contracted 1.3 percent."

Muslim Woman Sues over Drivers License
Ridiculous. The whole point behind having an ID is to be able to identify the holder. She could always choose to abide by the laws of many Islamic countries, and not drive at all. Driving is a priviledge, not a right. You can assume she also will not show her face to an officer if pulled over.
"A 34-year-old woman , with the ACLU, is suing the state for suspending her Florida drivers license after she refused to have her photo taken without an Islamic veil. Only her emerald-green eyes and mascara showed through her veil."

Good Powell, Bad Powell
The truth behind the Powell play. Michael Ledeen, on National Review Online, states what I have been assuming regarding Colin Powell. He states that it is basically a “good cop, bad cop” routine used by the Bush administration. “It's surprising, really, that nobody's noticed the brilliant bit of political misdirection flowing almost daily from the Bush administration on the subject of the Great War Against Terrorism. Powell is used to give a softer edge to the Bush policies, especially to foreign governments and the press.

Blacks’ skin color still complex issue
This article seems to be an attempt to prove that the skin color issue is still actually an issue. It starts by quoting two young African-American females that both state it is no longer an issue. That is not good enough for the writer of this article.
"But the European standard of beauty - keen features, light skin, and straight hair - continues to dominate popular music videos, television shows and movies." Last time I looked at models it was hard to tell if they were light skinned blacks or very dark whites. The features that are popular now are thick lips and darker skin tone. Within the African-American community it is common to hear people say “light skinned is out”. Dark and beautiful has never been so popular. There is no animosity, or inferior traits associated with skin tone. At least this has been my experience as a light skinned person.

This is the part of the article that I found puzzling. "According to a 1991 study conducted by M. Hughes and B.R. Hertel, the income gap between light-skinned Blacks and dark-skinned Blacks is the same as the income gap between blacks and whites.
And a 1990 study by V.M. Keith and C. Herring showed that more light-skinned blacks hold white-collar, professional jobs than darker-skinned people. Those jobs are generally higher paying and require a certain level of education."
Don’t they answer their own concern? It is education level that explains the difference, not skin tone.

Osama said what?
Clarence Page has a great article on Osama’s use of the word ‘abid’ in his last video. The significance is that ‘abid’ is a racial slur in the Arab world for blacks. Basically the equivalent of the “N-word” in America.

If You Insist.
Maybe when these guys stop viewing being a martyr as an honor, then there will be peace.
The Jerusalem Post notes, Nobel Peace laureate Yasser Arafat had given a speech in Ramallah in which he called for "millions of martyrs" to march on Jerusalem and said: "Please God, give me the honor of being one of holy Jerusalem's martyrs."
That is not what I would say if my home was surrounded by Israeli tanks.

Best Nickname : Yasser "Million Martyr March" Arafat, by way of Best of the Web.

The market works, it just has to be allowed to work. Every company that has Andersen as their auditor/consultant is under pressure to verify their numbers. Their stockholders are nervouse and are wanting accountability.
Delta may oust Andersen as auditor
"Delta Air Lines, struggling with whether to end its longtime ties to Arthur Andersen LLP, the big accounting firm embroiled in the Enron Corp. scandal, has begun a search for a new independent auditor"

Leading By Example!
While I don't agree with her decision to raise taxes, at least she is making a statement.
"Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin continued Monday to lay the groundwork for a property tax increase by slashing her own salary and recalling city cars and cellphones." The best part is that she admits it is "largely symbolic". It is so refreshing to hear any honesty from politicians.

Thanks,
I have to thank VodkaPundit , for mentioning this blog. I enjoy his unique sense of humor, and actually do read his blog regularly. ( I am not just saying that )

My Two Cents:
Dr King and Capitalism
An important area where Dr. ML King Jr had an impact was in the spreading of capitalism. It is true that he had strains of Marxism in his writings, and promoted socialist solutions to race and poverty. His impact on capitalism was inadvertent but vital.
The best argument that Marxist used against capitalism was how blacks were being treated in America. This is the picture that was used to promote Marxism to Third World countries. The civil rights movement removed that argument. It also gave America the moral authority to promote capitalism.
The timing of America's explosive economic growth since 1970 is not accidental. The market in America was finally released from the legal limitations of race. People were able to compete based on skills, not based solely on race. There are always people that act counter to their best economic interests, but what I am talking about are the legal obstacles. The potential was released when legal segregation was dismantled. When Dr. King led this country to honor its founding principles, by default it became a more capitalist country. People could no longer point to America and its minorities as an example of the negative effects of capitalism. The opposite is true today. Minorities from all over the world come to America to participate in an economic system that is uniquely inclusive.
Lets not forget who made that possible.

I am not a happy person right now.
The Lakers lost.
The Steelers lost, in a pathetic game. I don't mind losing, but at least make the other team beat you.
Bill Cowher is like Dan Reeves. A great regular season coach, but unable to win the big games.
They ran the ball every game this year, until the AFC Championship game. The two scoring drives, they ran the ball.
Hint- You run, you win. Kordell cannot carry a team, he can compliment a running game.

'GODFATHER' ARAFAT'S LIES ABOUT TERROR
BYE, BYE, BYE. Arafat is a goner. I do not understand what they think they will accomplish with these suicide bombings. He has backed America into a corner, but is underestimating the Bush administration. Bush is not seeking a Nobel Peace prize. Israel has no choice, but to show force.
"YASSER Arafat operates like the head of a Mafia crime family: He's sharp and quick to spot and seize opportunities, but lacks understanding of long-term development. That's the way a top U.S. official directly involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict describes the PLO chairman. What convinced Bush, according to Israeli sources, was the Karine-A affair, in which a ship loaded with 80 tons of Iranian arms was seized by Israeli commandos in the Red Sea...Then Israel provided the audio - months of intercepted conversations between Arafat and his aides discussing the $20 million arms deal with Iran."

AOL Time Warner
This is what is wrong with our legal system. Companies use lawsuits to hinder their competition, instead of innovation. Even if true, what are the damages? Netscape was declining when AOL purchased the company. AOL will have to explain why they chose the IE browser over their own Netscape, as the default browser for AOL members.
"AOL Time Warner announced that it was suing the software firm for the harm its anticompetitive behaviour inflicted on Netscape, a rival software company now owned by AOL. As well as claiming vast damages, AOL hopes to use the suit to slow Microsoft’s advance into new areas-such as music, video and messaging software-and to push its own software instead."

"In fact, if this year Congress would just hold spending growth level to the growth of inflation, there would be at least a $50 billion surplus.”

A Harvard Star in Black Studies Joins Princeton
Professor Appiah, an expert on African philosophy, is leaving Harvard. His reasons are personal and have nothing to do with the conflict between Dr. West and Harvard president Summers.

Captives and the Law
Anthony Lewis, in the NY Times says that Bush has “badly fumbled the question of justice for its captives.”
He argues that “America was the target of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Americans may understandably have stronger feelings against terrorists now. Britain, Spain and other European nations that have had much experience with terrorism do not feel so freshly vulnerable.” And we want to keep it that way, obviously their strategy does not work.
“Underneath, the prisoner issue touches a profound resentment abroad at what many see as an American tendency to lecture others about international standards while refusing to comply with those it urges.” We see a fundamental problem with governments that offer little personal or religious freedoms lecturing us. We do not want to submit to the European idea of a socialist world.
“Objections in Europe made it doubtful that we could win extradition orders for suspects arrested there.” Then keep them, that is fine, as long as they never get to America or near our Embassies. You can have them.
“The tribunal order has turned out to be an embarrassment for the administration. It has used civilian courts for the first terrorist prosecutions, undermining its argument that they could not be trusted for such cases.” This is pure arrogance. Last time I checked Bush is accountable to the American people, not European elitist. The common European seems to agree with America. They understand the futility of many of their governments efforts. Banning guns, cameras on every corner and crime continues to climb.
"Whatever the legal rights and wrongs," Philip Stephens of The Financial Times wrote, "the politics of Camp X-Ray are terrible. . . . As it confronts the authors of Sept. 11, the United States must demonstrate at every turn that it is on the side of civilized values." That is our problem. We are the ones sticking to the principles of right and wrong. Those ideas are irrelevant to these critics. Their opinions are holy writ, the fact that they are being ignored is a personal affront. They may actually be (gasp!) wrong.
Maybe if they spent more time worried about the rights of their tax paying citizens, instead of how America treats terrorists, they could lead by example.

President to Seek $48 Billion More for the Military If Mr. Bush gets his full request for $48 Billion from Congress, bringing the military budget to $379 billion after accounting for some bookkeeping changes, the Pentagon would still be getting less in inflation- adjusted terms than it was in 1985, which was considered the high point of President Reagan's buildup. In 2002 dollars, the 1985 budget of $286.8 billion would be $451.8 billion.

Poll: McCall, Cuomo Tied
State Comptroller H. Carl McCall has pulled into a dead heat with former U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo in the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, a statewide poll reported yesterday. The poll from the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute shows Cuomo and McCall each favored by 38 percent of Democratic voters.

Glenn Loury's About Face
Glenn Loury seems to have turned against conservatives. It is really hard to say he actually has changed sides, because there really are not any policies that he has changed. This appears to be a desperate attempt at being accepted by the civil rights establishment. He has changed the packaging, but not really the content of his beliefs. He comes across as a person that is still trying to find himself. “The private Loury is as hard to pin down as the public intellectual: an affluent homeowner in a largely white suburb who retains a deep respect for the Nation of Islam; a churchgoer who jogs while listening to gangsta rap on his Walkman.”
You are left with the impression that each book he writes may take him to a different place on the political spectrum.

100,000 Mideast illegals in U.S.
New U.S. Census Bureau statistics say there may be more than 100,000 illegal aliens of Mideast descent in the United States, a figure that is raising concern among some immigration and terrorism experts...the figure cited in its report does not include illegal immigrants from Pakistan, The Immigration and Naturalization Service previously estimated Pakistan had more than 40,000 illegals in the U.S. The figures for the Middle East also do not include North African countries such as Egypt and Algeria, which have sent a number of terrorists to the United States in the past," said the report. "Africa as a whole, including Sub-Saharan Africa, accounts for perhaps 243,000 illegals.

Sen. Daschle and Sen. Stabenow seems to think they can use "enron" to smear the tax cuts. This is so blatantly pandering, that it may create a blowback. It also smacks of desperation.

In an article about the future vitality of black newspapers, I found this nugget of truth. This old headline which ran around 1920, in The Chicago Defender, Lynching Must Be Stopped By A Shotgun.
Sounds like a good enough reason to support a literal interpretation of the Second Amendment to me.

The dangerous quest of Al Sharpton
How will the Democratic party become a centrist party, and appease Mr. Sharpton? He will run for the 2004 Democratic nomination. His main issue will be reparations for slavery.
“He materialises miraculously at the first whiff of racial trouble. He is an omnipresent figure on news broadcasts and talk shows."
Al sharpton is a creation of the liberal press, not a grassroots leader of African-Americans. If people would challenge him and Jackson, they would find out that their bark is worse than their bite.
"It is a safe bet that, given a choice between interviewing a serious black politician about local services in Atlanta and interviewing Mr Sharpton about reparations for slavery, the moguls of cable television will choose the showman every time... Al Sharpton's greatest strength is not his ability to lead his own people. It is his ability to reinforce the prejudices of the white majority”
Al Sharpton is fooling himself if he believes he will be able to do as well as Jackson did when he ran. These are very different times, and Al is not a likeable character. I have to admit it will be entertaining watching him onstage with Senators Kerry, Lieberman, and Daschle; seeing their reaction when he directly confronts them with the issue of reparations and affirmative-action.

Bush Budget Reaches Out to Black, Hispanic Colleges
Education Secretary Rod Paige announced that Bush's budget blueprint would include more than $350 million to strengthen historically black and Hispanic colleges and universities -- an increase of more than $12 million over current funding levels.
Bush has pledged to increase funding for these colleges and universities by 30 percent between 2001 and 2005.

'Activated' Asian terror web busted
More evidence that poverty does note create terrorist. Notice what this article says about the education level of those arrested in the Philippines.
"The arrest last week of 13 alleged Al Qaeda agents in Singapore, plus another two-dozen men in Malaysia and at least one in the Philippines, uncovers a large and relatively unknown network of terrorist sleeper cells in Southeast Asia...What's emerging from the available evidence is a portrait of Islamic militants who are remarkably similar to the Sept. 11 hijackers: middle class, well educated, trained in Afghanistan, and chillingly methodical in their plans to bomb multiple Western targets...The men who were arrested were middle-managers, electrical engineers, and entrepreneurs and most owned their own flats in government-constructed apartment buildings - the Singapore version of the American dream....The common denominator was neither poverty, nor lack of education. Instead, the arrested men shared a religious ideology that calls the United States an enemy of Islam and a belief that God would reward them for waging a global Jihad.

Arkansas Gov. Huckabee’s ‘Tax Me More Fund’ Spreads
"In a tactic to discredit Kansas Gov. Bill Graves' bid to raise taxes, some Kansas legislators have copied Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's famous "Tax Me More Fund."
Unlike Huckabee, however, who by executive order created a fund where "under-taxed" people can donate to the government, the conservative lawmakers in Kansas intend to introduce legislation creating their fund.
It’s always easier to spend other peoples money. This is a great idea, if we could only get Congress to take notice.

Fade to White
Skin bleaching is a popular treatment in Ghana and other West African countries.
Hydroquinone, the leading ingredient found in most modern skin-lightening products, was first tried in the 1930s by some African Americans who found they could use it to fade discoloration. The chemical works by hindering the creation of melanin, causing dark colors to fade as older cells are replaced by bleached ones. Thought by some scientists to be a possible carcinogen, the substance is also used in the development of photos.
This is what caught my attention:
What's ironic is that in Europe and the U.S., many lighter-skinned people intentionally tan to get a flawless, bronze complexion. On the shelves of our drugstores, we can find sunless tanning agents. Tanning salons can be found from 86th Street to the Village. And let's not forget the various cosmetics available in the form of powders and foundations that promise a healthy, golden glow.
If American culture is so oppressive then why is bleaching popular in Africa, but not among African-Americans?

More Enron:
The more it is looked at, the harder it gets to make a case that Republicans were in the pocket of Enron. Enron belonged to an organization called the Union of Concerned Scientists. This group supports the Kyoto Treaty, and opposes building a missile defense system. Enron wanted to trade pollution credits, which is what would have happened if the US adopted the Kyoto Treaty. It appears that the policies of the Bush administration were not changed by Enron's money.

DeWayne Wickham in USA Today states that: Black voters can help Democrats take back South.
''We've got a Southern strategy,'' Democratic adviser Carol Willis said at his party's just-completed winter meeting."
What is this new strategy? "We're going to make black folks a centerpiece of our Southern strategy.''
That sounds like the same old strategy of racial divisiveness.
The part that bothers me the most, is that Mr. Wickham has no problems assuming that all blacks will vote Democratic. He also does not give ONE reason why any black should vote Democratic.

Justice or revenge?
Either one sounds good to me. I have not been moved by these people screaming about how to treat the terrorist.
As a hostage in Beirut, Terry Waite was chained to a wall, beaten and denied all human rights. He was held captive by terrorists in Beirut from 1987 to 1991.Here he gives his thoughts on America's treatment of the al-Qaida detainees in Guantanamo Bay
"I can recognise the conditions that prisoners are being kept in at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay because I have been there...I was chained to a wall by my hands and feet; beaten on the soles of my feet with cable; denied all my human rights, and contact with my family for five years, and given no access to the outside world. Because I was kept in very similar conditions, I am appalled at the way we - countries that call ourselves civilised - are treating these captives. Is this justice or revenge?"
Talk about exaggeration. They are not being chained to walls, or beaten, those are not minor differences.
". I was always blindfolded, or had to wear a blindfold when someone came into the room. I never saw another human being."
These guys were temporarily blindfolded. They are allowed to practice their religion. There are signs that let them know the direction of Mecca.
"When it comes to trial, these men are entitled to basic defence rights and ought to be tried under the auspices of the UN."
That will teach them a lesson..LOL. The UN has such a great record
All of the articles I have read about how the US is acting in an immoral manner, none have had any first or second person facts to back up their allegations. They also accuse the US of violating International law, but never once state what law is being violated. If it’s so clear, then show me the exact law that is being violated.

Black Hawk Down
I have not seen the movie, but saw the documentary on The History Channel. It left me furious.
There are a few things that should be noted:
1) Who was in charge? The UN and US were used interchangeably. There was no separation in mission or command. The UN was running the show.

2) The actions taken show what happens when these people are seen as criminals that should be apprehended. The risk to the troops was secondary to the goal of arresting the target.

3) It was an exact opposite of what happened in Afghanistan.
Somalia- a) food aid; b) limited troops and equipment; c) Air space not secured; d) special ops attempt daytime raid; e) Then after failure navy ships were ordered into the area.

Afghanistan- a) Military buildup of region; b) Special ops night raids with air cover; c) Air space secured completely; d) limited ground troops for specific tasks; e) food aid

Clintonian Talking Points
It seems all of the Clinton defenders are trying to claim credit for winning in Afghanistan. They are arguing that the military that Clinton left Bush, and the laws that Clinton started to implement are what is winning this war.
They do not say, the military that Clinton "built". The reason why we cannot attack Iraq now, is supposedly because we do not have enough missiles to fight a war with.
The Special Ops troops are asking for $3 Billion dollars in immediate equipment expenditures. When they were being sent to Afghanistan, they were running short of supplies and equipment.
He left this military in declining condition, and decimated the intelligence community. Sorry guys, that dog don’t hunt.

Just A Thought
Socialism is multicultural slavery, or equal opportunity slavery

Ex-Agent Robert Baer
CIA field officer Robert Baer served on the front lines in the war against terrorism during the 1980s and 1990s. In his book, "See No Evil", Baer makes alarming charges about deficiencies in U.S. intelligence that he believes were precursors to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He says that, as the roots of terrorism were rapidly expanding, the CIA was inexplicably reducing its presence in the field. "We basically closed down," says Baer. "The CIA closed down in the '90s."
In an interview with abcnews.com, he made some of the following comments: “In the mid 1990s, the CIA underwent what we called an "agent scrub." That meant that we let go of approximately 60% of our human sources, perhaps more, which seriously damaged the CIA…I believe that President Clinton, of all the presidents I served under, was the least interested in intelligence.”

Here are some excerpts of the book:
When he returned to DC, he was confronted by the enemy of political statism : “I would see how committee hearings and press leaks can be almost as effective as suicide bombers in promoting narrow, parochial causes.“
While everyone seems to focus on Iraq, he convincingly points the finger at Iran.: “As I looked at the evidence in front of me, the conclusion was unavoidable: the Islamic Republic of Iran had declared a secret war against the US, and the US had chosen to ignore it. “
On September 11 he was in the process of writing his book, and was living in DC.: If Flight 93 had hit the White House he would have heard it, and if it had hit the Capital he would have felt the explosion. His comments are an indictment of our governments failure to protect its citizens at home. “For me, the irony of the situation was hard to miss. After two decades in some of earth's true hellholes, I had returned to the heart of the most powerful nation on earth, protected by a military force such as the world has never known, watched over by domestic and foreign security services that number in the hundreds of thousands. And what had saved the city I was living in? Not the CIA. Not the FBI. Not the air force or navy or marines or army. But the raw courage and determination of a fistful of average Americans."

"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
(Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech : December 10, 1964, Oslo, Norway)

Capitalism and Slavery
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day, when he said that capitalism made slavery economically beneficial to the slave owners. Basically because it was free labor.

This is an argument that I have heard often from African-Americans. There is an equating of capitalism with slavery, which then leads to the idea that the state must regulate capitalism in order for it to not be racist. ( I am constantly blown away by the fact that these same people do not usually equate Democrats with George Wallace.)
I argued that slavery is a socialist institution, that only the state could enforce. That the basis of capitalism is every "person" being able to freely participate in the system. Any restrictions on a persons ability to offer their skills to the open market is socialist, not capitalist. A person cannot be owned as property in a capitalist system. The state has to use force in order to classify a person as property.

I am doing some reading to get more info on this subject, so if anybody has any suggestions or comments, let me know.

Enron:
I do not believe it will be a poltical scandal for either party. I do feel it could cause problems with Social Security reform. I have seen many people talking about their pension funds losing money in Enron stocks. This could cause some people to feel more hesitant about change.

BBC News | AMERICAS | Prison camp pictures spark protests

ULA Uganda Libertarian Action - A.F.R.I.C.A. Africans For Regional Independent Contractual Associations: Ugandan Conference for Libertarian Development
This is an interesting website I came across. It is an organisation that attempts to apply libertarian (free-market) political ideas to solve many of the problems in Uganda.

STEELERS!!!!!!!!
I am one of those true fanatics.
My Steelers and Lakers, and i have been a fan. I was a fan when Bubby Brister was the Steelers QB.

Just had to say that..LOL

KEWL: Google has the last 20 years of usenet archives available.
If you are an information junkie like me, then this will be a great time waster.

I even found a post I made in 1995. It also has the first time Bin Laden , Microsoft, Bill Clinton are mentioned.

I did find it interesting when looking at the timeline, the explosion of technology and economic growth that began in 1982. I wonder if Reagan had anything to do with that?
It would be interesting to compare a timeline of NASDAQ and NYSE next to the usenet timeline.

I checked my stats today, which is something I do not do regularly because it has been futile.
I found out that Samizdata and Where HipHop & Libertarianism meet both had a link to this webpage.
I really want to thank both of them, and welcome anyone coming from those sites.

Those are both very, very good blogs, and I am not just saying that.
My original intention was to build a site modeled on Samizdata, by having multiple bloggers. So if anyone is interested in joining me here, just e-mail me.

Hanson has quickly become a must read for me, I love history and he does a great job of connecting it to current events. He does not disappoint with his latest article: Dying to Kill. He points out that suicide combatants are not new, and they can be defeated. The best correlation is between today’s terrorist and the Japanese Kamikazes of WWII.
“In 1945, the terror of suicide brought out the greater terror of the Western way of war. Grim Americans left Okinawa with a changed mentality about the nature of battle itself: From then on, the fanaticism of the human will to die would be repaid in kind by the greater fanaticism of the industrial and technological power to live.”

He concludes the article with one of my favorite images, showing how the strength of America lies in ordinary people willing to defend their ordinary lifestyle. The mundane daily tasks that people perform in the corporate world are the same tasks that will destroy the enemy.
“…And it is not over yet. A roused and angry mind at Caltech or in Silicon Valley, with a wife, kids, dog, and house in the suburbs, can conjure up far more lethal weapons and strategies than can any madman from the Middle East.”

Albright faults Bush approach in Middle East
How do I know Clinton would not be able to lead an effective war against terrorism? Look at what his Secretary of State says: Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright charged last night during meetings in Toledo that the Bush administration employed a failed policy in its relationships with Israel and the Palestinian Authority during its first year in office that will result in more violence and death."I do think that they made a mistake in deliberately doing the opposite of what we had done in the Middle East, which is [for the Bush administration] to have a hands-off approach to it,"
This is ridiculous. The liberals scream that people on the right like to interfere in others affairs, but then they get mad when we chose not to interfere. Lets use her standard on her four years: I believe the peace process broke down while Clinton was directly involved with both parties. The Infitada was started under Clinton. Failure! She definitely should know failure having become so accustomed to producing it.

"Arafat is the leader of the Palestinian people. They are the ones that chose him. It is not up to us to choose the leader of the Palestinian people, and you have to deal with the people in power. You don't have a choice," she said. When was he elected?

"It doesn't prove anything by saying you are not going to talk to Arafat. I think you accomplish much more if you talk. It doesn't mean that you have to be pleasant. You can deliver a very tough message, but I think it is not useful not to have diplomatic exchanges." This was proven by how they dealt with the Taliban. All those diplomatic exchanges and tough messages accomplished nothing. She still does not see the utter folly in this idea. Tough talk without action is nothing! You just lose credibility, which was already in short supply in that administration.

"One of the things that is most difficult for me to see is how close we came to getting peace at Camp David. We worked on it until the very last minute. The real tragedy is that we were not able to get that agreement," Ms. Albright said. "And then the Bush administration decided it did not want to follow through in the way that we had done it." Because you failed!! You did not get an agreement. They seem to believe that close qualifies as success. They came “close” to getting Osama, “close” to getting a peace deal. That is called failure.

But the war probably should avoid the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, thought to be home to many terrorist training camps. Its proximity to Israel would cause far too many political complications, the diplomat said. Here is the core problem: Political complications take precedence over American safety. How can we ignore Lebanon?

A Chilling Effect on the Great Global Melt
Seems the earth is not in some great melt down called "global warming". The Antartic is actually reversing a 10,000 year old warming trend, and seems to be getting colder.

Eddie Long - Think Before You Speak
A minister who has built a ministry on wealth, and uses the very American medium of television, let his mouth get ahead of himself. He basically says that America was being punished on 9-11, because it did not restore Clinton after the adultery, but condemned him.
What? He did remain President. The impeachment articles were regarding "lying under oath", and Clinton never admitted to the sin. He also never asked the country for forgiveness. He used the IRS to audit his enemies, and discredited every woman that did not say something good about him.
Maybe if Monica was on her knees praying with Clinton (instead of...) , while he was talking to world leaders (Arafat), he would have actually dealt with terrorism.

Black Slavery is Alive in 2001
I ran across two very powerful articles, by the Boston Herald and Walter Williams, on the present day practice of slavery in the Sudan. There are an estimated 20,000 to more than 100,000, slaves in Sudan.
Both articles mention the work of two groups: Christian Solidarity International (CSI). CSI, and the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG), have a stopgap mission of buying, at a cost of $85 each, Christian African women and children whom Muslims capture and enslave. AASG's purchase emancipates them.
The UN is so disgusted by this organization buying the slaves freedom, that they have condemned it. "The practice of paying for the retrieval of enslaved women and children does not address the underlying causes of slavery - the civil war," says Carol Bellamy, executive director of UNICEF.The UN has offered no solutions to solving the Civil War, since military action is always wrong. I love the response from Charles Jacobs, president of the American Anti-Slavery Group,"By that logic, you don't fight to free political prisoners until every dictator becomes a democrat, you don't feed starving children until the `root causes' of famine are addressed,"
I was surprised to find out that chattel slavery was legal in Mauritania until 1980, yes, 1980!

DIG DEEPER: For more links and resources on this issue visit the web site http://www.endslaverynow.com/

Saudis May Seek U.S. Exit
We said we would leave after the Gulf War, it is past time to pack our bags and come home.

Bush, Labor Boost Arctic Oil Plan
An odd couple - Unions are supporting the plan to drill for oil in Alaska.

A reluctant empire stretches more
Out of control. I hope that we will come to our senses and reign in the military expansion in foreign countires. The military should primarily be for defense, not offense. An extended military empire is the one thing that could destroy this country.

Top Ten Fiscal Myths of Sens. Kennedy and Daschle

Kennedy to propose freezing tax cut for top bracket
Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy today will propose freezing the Bush administration's income tax cut for the wealthiest Americans and spending the money instead on health care and education. Two days after President Bush warned Congress not to repeal the tax cuts, Mr. Kennedy will call on lawmakers to halt the 2004 phase-in of tax relief for the highest income bracket, action he calculates would save the Treasury $350 billion over 10 years.
Notice that he wants the tax cuts frozen but does not propose any spending freezes. His concern is not with having a deficit, because he does not suggest that the “saved” money should be used to cover budgetary shortfalls.

The New Black Panther Party
When the New Black Panther Party was formed in Dallas in 1989, sampled that familiar name it led many to wonder whether it was a rebirth, a renewal, or a rip-off of a hallowed history.
This is an interview with Malik Zulu Shabazz, the national chairman of the New Black Panther Party, about the group's philosophy and some of the controversial statements and stands that the group has taken recently. Here are some of his responses:
"We have an economic program across the black nation called "Black Friday," which will go on a nationwide campaign to get black people and black consumers to buy black only every Friday, and to support black businesses in general." This is an idea I could support. It is self-reliant, and uses the capitalist system in a constructive manner.

"Any acts of terrorism can only be regarded as the terrorism that terrorism produced. The actions of the United States government and its support of Israel are the root cause of why people abroad have a deep hatred for America today and for why almighty God's wrath is on America today." Rhetoric, baseless rhetoric. The Middle Eastern terrorist is attacking America because of slavery in the past?? Funny I never heard Osama take up the African cause. Didn’t al-Qaeda kill hundreds of Africans in their bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? And our greatest evil is the support of Israel. Does he know that the US sells more military equipment to Arab nations than it does to Israel?

"In truth, the land belongs to the African, who was pushed out of Palestine, Egypt and Northern Africa. For the current crisis, we stand with the Palestinians and affirm that the war on terrorism is a war against self-determination, Islamic self-determination, African self-determination, and a war against the darker peoples of the earth [to prevent them] from manifesting their right to self-determination, which is the right to rule and govern themselves." This exposes his hypocrisy. If the land belongs to the African, then the Palestinians are the first usurpers and destroyers of African self-determination. The issue for him is not about being African; it is about being a Muslim, which is why he can make such a self-contradicting statement

"The mistakes that they (the Taliban) made were being politically unsophisticated and being politically immature about their capacity to face off in battle with the United States of America." He does not consider their abuse of women, and the fact that the Taliban was an ethnic minority that ruled over the indigenous ethnic group by brutal force, as relevant mistakes? (The Taliban basically did the same thing in Afghanistan that the Europeans did in South Africa)
The killing of over 3,ooo civilians is “politically unsophisticated and…immature”, but not a mistake?
Maybe the chickens are coming home to roost for the Taliban, for their destruction of the Afghani society and culture. That would make America right, and Mr. Shabazz could never agree to that.

"We do not classify ourselves as Marxist or socialist, because we do not believe that black people should put themselves under the label of any white man. However we do believe that the capitalist economic system is a decadent economic system, which must be removed. It must be replaced by a system that will give to the masses according to their own needs." He again employs verbal gymnastics to hide the truth behind racial rhetoric. According to him Marxist and socialist are “white” labels and therefore he does not use them, but then he turns around and uses the “white” label capitalism. He also quotes, “a system that will give to the masses according to their own needs”, which is directly from Marxist writings. He uses the “white” definition, but not the “white” label that defines socialism.

Getting Over Oil
How dare you ask for proof!
“To environmentalists, the economic obstacles faced by new energy technologies are maddeningly unfair. The reason is that the costs of global warming—unlike costs such as labor, insurance and raw materials—are not included in the price of energy. In other words, the price of the kilowatt-hours that heat U.S. homes includes the power company’s cost of fighting lawsuits brought by environmental groups, but not the potentially enormous costs to society from climatic change. Economists, for their part, readily agree that this is a problem. Unfortunately, it is not clear what to do about it.”
It cannot be accounted for because it cannot be proven. This is the problem with global warming. If it was provable then the consequences could be run through actuarial tables and an educated guess could be made. This is unfair to the environmentalist; they do not feel they have to prove anything

UN Adopts Sanctions Against Taliban
A little too late to impose sanctions now. The brave UN , ahead of the curve again...LOL

Dems on economy: Same old, same old
Dashcle sounded off on the old theme of class warfare, and offered nothing that would actually stimulate the economy. What bothers me is that nobody is asking why the government has so much influence over the economy?
Daschle's plan would do nothing to jump-start the economy. Its major feature is a rebate of Social Security taxes for any new hires in the current year, coupled with a large investment tax credit that would expire at the end of this year. The flaw in the rebate is that it isn't much of an incentive to hire anybody - for that, a business must expect future profits - and quickly turns into a windfall reward for hiring that businesses would have done anyway.
In plain English- It is a gimmick

As religions collide, world needs dose of skepticism
As the various interpreters of God's will appear and crash airliners into buildings, or on the contrary assert that God frowns on people crashing airliners into buildings, or that God will help our blessed nation in its quest for Osama bin Laden, or that God will help Bin Laden to escape, one might ask again an epochal question: Huh?
Although I agree with the prior statement, the next one goes too far in discounting the value and validity of religion.
Even today in a relatively secular society like ours, it's rare to hear someone point out in the clearest way that systems of religious belief are more or less baldly arbitrary and obviously ridiculous.

Races as the Same Machine in Different Colors
In his new book "The Emperor's New Clothes: Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium" (Rutgers University Press), Dr. Joseph L. Graves Jr., a professor of evolutionary biology and African-American studies at Arizona State University, argues that races do not exist and that race is simply a social and political construct that the world would be better without.
Q. You're questioning the existence of racial categories like black and white?A. Biologically, yes. Only an incredibly small percentage of genes in human beings are involved in skin color. Possibly only six genes determine the color of a person's skin out of between 30,000 and 40,000.…A. Even though we are anatomically different from each other, there is no subspecies in our group. In fact, there are far more genetic differences within a population of humans than between them.These are mind blowing stats, it is amazing how we have made such a minor item into such a major obstacle.

PERU Push Property Rights (washingtonpost.com)
Hernando de Soto is an economist and author of "The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else" and founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy in Lima. He states that "Capitalism requires the bedrock of property and other legal institutions, yet most people outside the West have no solid property rights. This means they are excluded from capitalism, because without property no one can really be certain who owns what; addresses cannot be systematically verified, descriptions of assets are not standardized to facilitate transactions, people cannot be made accountable for their debts.
He argues that the US needs to focus more on the legal changes needed by countries that want to have free markets, and not just on the economic benefits.

A libertarian reads the paper... Bush vs. Daschle, I'll take Bush
President Bush: "I challenge their economics when they say raising taxes will help the country recover. Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes!"

Argentina to Devalue, Free Market Blamed
Someone cry for Argentina. The new leadership is going to lead that country down a path of greater turmoil and instability. The problem was not free-markets, but the lack of free markets. How can you have a free market when your currency has a set rate based on the US dollar? Until they have leadership bold enough to reshape the country into a capitalist country, they will continue to suffer.

The Clinton Legacy - Worse Than You Think
I am almost afraid to read anything else about how Clinton totally failed in regards to terrorism. I don’t blame Clinton solely for ignoring the growing threat of terrorism. The American people need to accept some blame; we wanted to believe what Clinton was telling us. We did not want to hear the bad news. We became his mistress, happy to hear him say those nice things, but always knowing that they held no real meaning. Clinton did not understand the role of the military, or the Presidents’ duty to protect the American people. Clintonites will blame everyone for attacking him, saying that his enemies distracted him. The truth will show that he was actually distracted by his own bloated self-image.

Bush Asked to Drop Disputed Appointee
If a Republican pulled the same stunt that “queen” Mary Berry is pulling, they would be branded a racist. She does not want a black conservative on the commission. A white conservative is someone they will approve, because they feel they can discredit a white appointee as a part of the extreme right. A black conservative will force them to either label him a sell-out or acknowledge that his ideas have merit.

TheSaudiThreat: Riyadh is at the root of much evil.
Mr. Peters is a retired Army officer and writes in the WSJ online about Saudi Arabian involvement in terrorism worldwide. President Bush has reinvigorated America's strategic will and made a useful display of our might. But all of this administration's admirable successes to date fall short of addressing the obvious source of fundamentalist terrorism, subversion and hatred: Saudi Arabia. I fully agree with the following statement “ the U.S. must overcome its Cold War-era obsession with stability and open itself to the possibilities of creative instability in a world that still has far too many dictators and corrupt, oppressive regimes.
We cannot use “stability” as an excuse for ignoring the corrupt regimes, because we need the oil. This country must demand from our allies that they allow their citizens a set of basic human rights (religious freedom, freedom of speech, elected governments), and at least insist on a realistic timetable for implementation. This will give the US the moral authority to pressure these countries into changing.Parker’s solutions hopefully are being seriously considered by this administration.
...we must begin looking for other regional partners, from a liberated Iraq to a future Iran. Finally, we must be prepared to seize the Saudi oil fields and administer them for the greater good. Imagine if, instead of funding corruption and intolerance, those oil revenues built clinics, secular schools and sewage systems throughout the Middle East. Far from being indispensable to our security, the Saudis are a greater menace to it than any other state, including China. I am hopeful that this administration is putting pressure on the Saudi’s behind closed doors, and is waiting for the right time to publicly make demands from the Saudi Royalty. Creating new regional partners, like Indonesia, will allow the US to have its new allies put pressure on the Saudi’s. This will avoid the appearance of direct American intervention in regional issues.

Black Economists: 'Can't Let the President Off the Hook'
The worst part about this article is that it pretends to be about economics, but is actually just Democratic Party public relations.
''… the reality is that we would have been in trouble without Sept. 11,'' says William Spriggs, director of the National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality. ..But I think that we need to keep a perspective that the economy was slow before then. ''This is why I'm saying we can't let the president off the hook.'' He is partially correct, we can’t let former Pres. Clinton off the hook for this declining economy. It takes 9-12 months for economic policy to begin to have an effect on the economy. Bush had only been in office 8 months at the time of the 9-11 attacks. You do the math.

...before Sept. 11 the Black unemployment rate was at 8.7 percent. That's a full percentage point higher than it was the prior year. It is now at 9.6 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. ''It is very rare for the unemployment rate to jump by one full percentage point and come up. That's happened only like eight times in the last 30 years. So, these numbers were devastating, but it isn't all Sept. 11,'' Spriggs says. He calls the 1% jump in unemployment a “rare” event, but according to his own statement it has occurred approximately 1 out of every four years. If something occurs 25% of the time that is not a rare event.

"The National Bureau of Economic Research reported that the recession actually began in March, two months after Bush took office." Here is another misleading statement. It takes two consecutive quarters of declining GDP in order to officially be declared a recession. If they state that the recession began in March, then the first quarter of decline would have begun in January 2001. Bush was not President until the end of January 2001; the economy was still operating on Clintonian economics.

After Black Teenager Is Slain, Norway Peers Into a Mirror
European countries have not had to incorporate minorities into their society in large numbers. Now that it is beginning to happen, they are facing problems that America has already had to address.

Bush Targeted Osama before 9-11
The New York Times published a very long (6,000 words plus) and detailed narrative of America's failed antiterror policies, from 1993 to 2001. The Clinton administration was aware of the growing threat from al Qaeda, and took some steps to counter it, but was too distracted by the president's quest for a "legacy,"...to give the matter the kind of sustained attention it needed.
There is an interesting part in the article that shows President Bush was actually ahead of the curve, and was preparing to deal with Osama Bin Laden before 9-11. Administration officials say the president was concerned about the growing threat and frustrated by the halfhearted efforts to thwart Al Qaeda. In July, [Condoleezza] Rice said, Mr. Bush likened the response to the Qaeda threat to "swatting at flies." He said he wanted a plan to "bring this guy down."
As the Washington Post previously reported, Bush's national security advisers approved a $200 million anti-al Qaeda plan. But Bush was traveling on the day it was to have been presented to him--Sept. 10.
Too late to stop 9-11. But it does show an awareness and willingness to deal with the problem proactively by Bush. This is something Clinton was not willing to do after three bombings.
Clinton refused to be interviewed. If you ask him to be responsible and tell the truth, you discover that Clinton does know how to be quiet!

Japan Abandons Kyoto Protocol
They figured out what Bush said a long time ago, that it would be economic disaster to implement. Remember this treaty was created in Kyoto, Japan. Japan has effectively abandoned the Kyoto Protocol limiting greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released Sunday. Japanese industry groups have forced the government to drop mandatory restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto agreement, making it unlikely Tokyo will be able to meet its reduction targets, the Yomiuri newspaper said.

William Rasberry asks, Can Payroll Taxes Be Turned Into Wealth?
...the fact that the approach is loved by political conservatives, doesn't necessarily make privatization a bad idea, of course.
Former senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the commission co-chair, says he is puzzled that advocates for the poor have had so little to say about proposals for a thrift-savings component to Social Security. Federal workers contribute to a savings plan, and, as a result not only get retirement benefits but also can accumulate bequeathable wealth, he said. Social Security annuitants get only the direct benefits.
"Our object," he told me, "is to provide workers with a measure of wealth at the end of their working days. The 'magic' of compound interest would provide taxi drivers and doormen at least a third of a million dollars on retirement. A two-earner couple with average earnings could have up to a million."Poor and minority workers have a lower life expectancy, which means they tend to have fewer years of Social Security benefits. Two-thirds of African American men fail to survive past 60.
The middle class and the wealthy tend to provide for their retirement years by building wealth. The Social Security-dependent poor do it by providing for income -- which is what annuitized Social Security payments amount to.
So why, they ask, shouldn't low-income workers be given the opportunity to use some portion of their Social Security contributions for wealth accumulation?
Well, why not?
Again the NAACP, and the CBC are against this idea, and out of touch with most African-Americans.

Nas on The Conflict In Afghanistan
Nas expresses his opinions about the conflict in Afghanistan on "My Country."
"I think there's a lot of artists out there that are really here just to make you dance and really have no substance," he said. "And that's cool because they also inspire me and inspire people to have a good time. When you look at what happened with 9/11, those people who hijacked the plane and tried to destroy America, they probably figured that the whole world would be in turmoil by this time. But ... we're still on our feet, so the terrorists died for nothing. Of course that's gonna bleed into my music.

Rich Lowry on OPEC on National Review Online

NON-WAR ON TERROR By DICK MORRIS
More inside info on how Clinton did not see the terrorist threat as a serious threat. he talked tough and passed the buck.