Post article on Abramoff is excellent: a comprehensive overview-
for anyone who has yet to tune in- catch up before the trial begins
The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff: "A friend of two decades, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), defended Abramoff: 'I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that happened every day in Washington and are not bribes.'"
"We weren't outside the box," the former Preston Gates colleague said. "We were outside the universe."

Portrait of a Fraudster-
its shaping up to be an exciting start to the year, with Abramoff trail on Florida Fraud beginning potentially on Jan. 9, unless he pleads.
The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff: "Justice Department prosecutors are pressing him and his lawyers to settle fraud and bribery allegations by the end of this week, sources knowledgeable about the case said. "
Abramoff, now 47, had mammoth ambitions. He sought to build the biggest lobbying portfolio in town. He opened two restaurants close to the Capitol. He bought a fleet of casino boats. He produced two Hollywood movies. He leased four arena and stadium skyboxes and dreamed of owning a pro sports team. He was a generous patron in his Orthodox Jewish community, starting a boys' religious school in Maryland.

For a time, all things seemed possible. Abramoff's brash style often clashed with culturally conservative Washington, but many people were drawn to his moxie and his money. He collected unprecedented sums -- tens of millions of dollars -- from casino-rich Indian tribes. Lawmakers and their aides packed his restaurants and skyboxes and jetted off with him on golf trips to Scotland and the Pacific island of Saipan.

Abramoff offered jobs and other favors to well-placed congressional staffers and executive branch officials. He pushed his own associates for government positions, from which they, too, could help him.

He was a man of contradictions. He presented himself as deeply religious, yet his e-mails show that he blatantly deceived Indian tribes and did business with people linked to the underworld. He had genuine inside connections but also puffed himself up with phony claims about his access.

Abramoff's lobbying team was made up of Republicans and a few Democrats, most of whom he had wined and dined when they were aides to powerful members of Congress. They signed on for the camaraderie, the paycheck, the excitement.

"Everybody lost their minds," recalled a former congressional staffer who lobbied with Abramoff at Preston Gates. "Jack was cutting deals all over town. Staffers lost their loyalty to members -- they were loyal to money."

A senior Preston Gates partner warned him to slow down or he would be "dead, disgraced or in jail." Those within Abramoff's circle also saw the danger signs. Their boss had become increasingly frenzied about money and flouted the rules. "I'm sensing shadiness. I'll stop asking," one associate, Todd Boulanger, e-mailed a colleague.

more domestic spying
History News Network: "Grant Goodman: Complains Homeland Security opened his mail
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (12-20-05)
retired Kansas University professor says the federal government has been poking into the mail he receives from abroad.

Grant Goodman on Monday showed the Journal-World a recent letter he had received from a friend in the Philippines; it apparently had been opened, then re-closed with green tape bearing the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a message that it had been opened �by Border Protection.�

�Very uneasy. And very surprised,� Goodman, 81, a KU professor emeritus of history, said of his reaction to the federal snooping. �I never expected to see that.�"

Harbinger of Nascent Men's Movement?
they sure did not have much to say when women were being discriminated against excluding them outright or limithing their attendance with quotas at law and medical schools; or when jobs could be limited to help wanted: Male, or when it was OK to pay women less for the same job. Now, when women are given equal opportunities and come out ahead, they want to style themselves as victims.
so Boo Hoo Hoo.
(I'm planning alonger comentary on this in the near future)
Local News for Keene, NH and the Monadnock Region of NH: "CONCORD � A commission that believes courts and schools must do more to help men and boys says its first priority is getting more financial support for its work.
The N.H. Commission on the Status of Men, set up by the Legislature in 2002, says its ability to do its job �is considerably compromised by lack of funding.� A report the commission issued last month calls for state funding to hire an executive director and give him or her support staff and an office.
An earlier committee that set up the commission concluded that men and boys in New Hampshire need help and support in areas including education, health and family courts."

Enron Accountant cops plea in grand-daddy of all Frauds: ury selection starts Jan. 17- stay tuned
Ex-Enron Accountant Strikes Plea Deal - Los Angeles Times: "Less than three weeks before he was to face a jury alongside Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on charges including conspiracy and fraud, the company's former top accountant, Richard Causey, is switching sides.

Causey was set this afternoon to plead guilty to one or more crimes stemming from the scandal-ridden company's crash more than four years ago and help the government pursue convictions against his former bosses, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the discussions."
Causey faces more than 30 counts of conspiracy, fraud, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering. Many of those overlap with the 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, lying to auditors and insider trading pending against Skilling. The pair are accused of conspiring with others to fool investors into believing a wobbly Enron was healthy in the years leading to its December 2001 crash.

Some of Causey's charges also overlap with the seven fraud and conspiracy counts pending against Lay, in which the former chairman is accused of perpetuating the ruse after Skilling's abrupt resignation in August 2001.

Skilling and Lay maintain that they neither committed nor knew of any crimes at Enron, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Causey, 45, could be more damaging to Lay and Skilling than former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in January 2004. Unlike his former peer, Causey didn't skim millions of dollars for himself from shady deals.

Also, Lay has repeatedly pointed to Fastow as the crook who abused his trust, highlighting the former finance chief's admitted skullduggery.

"There is some safety in numbers from the government's perspective. It's not just Andy Fastow now, it's another senior official. That takes some of the pressure and burden off of Fastow," said Kirby Behre, a former federal prosecutor. "They might make an effective one-two punch in terms of government witnesses."

Senator Stevens cynical ploy to open ANWR had real effects on real families.

Berkshire Eagle Online - Editorials: "If low-income families across the Berkshires, Massachusetts and New England run short of money to pay their heating bills this winter, they can blame Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and his fellow cynics among the Republican leadership in Washington. When legislation opening the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling went down to a well-earned defeat in the Senate it took an attached plank calling for $2 billion in extra heating aid for the poor this winter with it, delivering a pre-Christmas blow to this who are already struggling to pay their inflated oil bills.
Decimating the ANWR for a few months of oil has long been a pet project for oil industry crony Mr. Stevens. When it appeared he once again didn't have the votes, he conspired with the Senate GOP leadership to add the provision calling for the $2 billion in heating aid to the larger bill containing the ANWR measure, obviously an attempt in the words of Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, to 'buy votes for drilling.'
Senator Stevens' attempt to blackmail his colleagues into voting for Arctic drilling failed, as the Pentagon spending bill could not overcome a filibuster unless the ANWR provision was dropped from it. In an apparent exercise in spite, the Senate leadership not only dropped ANWR it dropped the attempted sweeteners, which besides heating aid also included some homeland security funding and additional relief to Gulf Coast hurricane victims. Senator Stevens didn't get his way, and the poor in the Northeast will suffer for it.
According



to the Energy Information Administration, home heating oil costs will go up 21 percent this season, a major hit for low income families. The extra $2 billion, roughly $46 million of which would have gone to Massachusetts, if not more, was desi"

Alaska Gas LIne- 2
if Tussing thinks this is not profitable, then it really is a problem.
see his full report as the ISER page
JuneauEmpire.com: Opinion: Alaska editorial: Heed expert - all-Alaska gas pipeline line is bad idea 12/27/05: "'LNG from Alaska North Slope gas is almost certain to be an incurably high-cost competitor in both domestic and East Asian ports,' said Arlon Tussing, one of the leading experts on Alaska oil and gas economics."

Alaska Gas: I have been following the prgress of efforts to get Alaska gas to market, for the last 25 years. for those of you 'outside' the natural gas is stranded on the north slope, held hostage by Big Oil, which has refused to sell, deal, or build a pipeline. Murkowski came into office three years ago saying it was a number one priority get a gasline built. Everyone in alaska, from Murkowski to environmentalists supports some sort of gas line,
but the alaska gasline port authority supports an all alaska effort to build a line parrallel to the pipeline, ending at an LNG plant in Valdez, to ship the gas to the west coast.
The ins and outs of this story are covered here-
but the latest thing is the opinion of Arlon Tussing, the dean of economists- he now says that LNG will not be competitive- uh-oh.

KTUU.com | Channel 2 News is Alaska's News Source: "Anchorage, Alaska - Many hoped that 2005 was to be, at long last, the year of the natural gas pipeline. But Gov. Frank Murkowski did not deliver on his pledge for a special session of the Legislature to consider a gas line contract. And 10 days ago, the governor put his negotiations with North Slope producers on hold for the holidays. In the end, more questions have been raised about the gas line in 2005 than have been answered. "

year of corruption, or year of the clean-up?
When the Cutting Is Corrupted: "With indicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff reportedly ready to cooperate with prosecutors and his partner, Michael Scanlon, already singing, 2006 is expected to be the year of congressional scandals.
Lord knows, a housecleaning in the Capitol is definitely in order. But the Abramoff scandal is just part of the corruption of our political system. There is another level of special-interest influence that cannot be handled by prosecutors: Only the voters can render a judgment on a politics of favoritism that has created a new Gilded Age. It's clear that the national government has placed itself squarely on the side of the wealthy, the privileged and the connected."

White House Announces Hanukkah to be Moved to October
(save your outrage until you read the whole piece:
Watley Review: Hanukkah Moving to October: "In response to a petition from conservative Christians, the Bush Administration has announced that the president will sign an executive order designating a yet unnamed series of dates in early October as the officially recognized days of Hanukkah in the United States.
'The shifting dates of this popular holiday have always been confusing to the average American,' said White House spokesperson Scott McClellan. 'Now, the President certainly has nothing against the Jewish calendar. But this year, apparently, Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas. Many of our nation's leading ministries feel this is inappropriate, and the President agrees.' "

Christmas is taking over the world, past as well as present, an object lesson in how these ideas, cultural constructs, are disseminated, perpetuated, transmitted and transmuted.
STURBRIDGE, Mass. -- Historical fact: In the 1830s, many rural New Englanders followed a religion so strait-laced that they did not celebrate Christmas.
Accordingly, at Old Sturbridge Village -- an outdoor museum where an 1830s town has been re-created down to the cider mill and the Gloucester Old Spots pigs -- they used to ignore the holiday as well.
Used to. Until, in the past few years, attendance started to slip.
"How many times can you tell the story, 'They didn't celebrate it'?" asked Susanna Bonta, a museum spokeswoman.

Living-History Museums Struggle to Draw Visitors: "Now, in December the village gets a makeover that might make a Puritan -- or a historian -- blanch. There is a Christmas tree (not popularized in the United States until the 1840s), a visit from Santa Claus (who didn't take his current form until after 1850) and a series of nighttime tours showing the village lit by (electric) candlelight. These are times for creative thinking at the country's 'living history' parks, where officials worry that their old formula of restored buildings, costumed interpreters and anvil-banging demonstrations is losing its tourist appeal."

abramoff plea deal? could trigger massive implosion of the Republican's political universe
Lobbyist Is Said to Discuss Plea and Testimony - New York Times: "Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say."

Respond to the phony war with real deeds, please,
The Debate - Taking on the Week's Big Issue: "Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York offered this stinging rebuke of the so-called War on Christmas: 'Is this another war we fight for reasons that do not exist?' He added, 'If you wanted to protect the message of Christmas, come to the floor with real bills with substance. Where is your bill to house the homeless? Where is your bill to feed the needy? Where is your bill to clothe the naked? Where is your bill to protect senior citizens who will not be able to heat their homes this winter? Where is the substance?'"

another republican mired in fraud and corruption:
Ghosts of a Shuttered College Follow Weld - New York Times: "But in his first weeks at the for-profit school, Mr. Urquilla says, he found employees falsifying student attendance records, instructors helping students to cheat and recruiters arranging federal loans for students who could not read.
Mr. Urquilla said he was fired after he complained to superiors. Months later, William F. Weld, then Decker's chief executive officer, who is now seeking the Republican nomination for governor of New York, signed a severance agreement with Mr. Urquilla. Its terms required him to keep quiet about the school, which offered courses in carpentry, electrical work and other trades, but he considers the agreement breached.
Mr. Urquilla, along with several other former Decker officials, have come forward to describe practices during Mr. Weld's 10-month tenure as chief executive that they say they considered improper and possibly illegal. The school closed in October."

I am adding this courtesy of Nina, who writes:
This is the BEST analysis I've seen of the constitutional crisis we find ourselves in, with a president claiming literally unlimited power, including the power to break laws he and his advisors consider outdated, on the basis of the need to protect us from a nebulous enemy. It should be required reading: the author is a lawyer specializing in first amendment cases, he writes clear, carefully reasoned, eloquent prose. Reminds me of Jonathan Schell's old Fate of the Earth stuff. Also read his post from yesterday. My new top favorite site.

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Bush's unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.: "Underlying all of the excesses and abuses of executive power claimed by the Bush Administration is a theory of absolute, unchecked power vested in the Presidency which literally could not be any more at odds with the central, founding principles of this country."

Corruption: business as Usual in Congress' management of DC, by fiat.
"The "favor for a favor" culture that grips Capitol Hill made Cunningham's D.C. earmark possible. Truth is, beneath all of the high-profile partisan wrangling that goes on in Congress, the glue holding Capitol Hill together is behind-the-scenes mutual back-scratching."

Congressional earmarks are no secret. They're found in the District's and most federal appropriations bills. Most have stories behind them -- many banal but others strictly opportunistic and benefiting narrow interests. Rep. Tom Davis knows that, too.


From the Hill, Lessons in High-Stepping Hypocrisy: "Weiss said they learned that the owners of the stalls at the fish wharf were Maryland and Virginia residents who paid no D.C. taxes and were charged little rent for their leased space (about $50 to $100 a month, according to a former city official), and that they were grossing millions annually. He said they also learned that the lease on the Washington Marina was held by a family that had operated the business since 1951.
Given the deterioration of the two facilities and the lack of owner-initiated improvements at that prime location, Weiss and Monteilh decided to put the Washington Marina space up for competitive bidding. The existing owner could compete, of course, but would not be guaranteed to win. They also initiated discussions with the fish wharf occupants whose leases had expired. Weiss and Monteilh proposed to put them on a one-year lease, during which time the city would work with them to remodel while seeking more local and minority businesses to participate in the fish business.
And with that, up popped the devil and the District's introduction to Congress's special way of doing business in and with the nation's capital. Without asking, city officials found an extra $3 million in federal funds tucked into the D.C. fiscal 1999 appropriation. The money was a special congressional earmark to spruce up the Washington Marina and the Maine Avenue Fish Wharf. It came with a catch, however.
The $3 million could not be spent by the District on upgrading the marina and fish market areas, the law said, 'unless the District executes a 30-year lease with the existing lessees of the marina.' Thus endeth the notion of putting prime waterfront property out for competitive bids. It was stopped dead in its tracks by the hand of Congress. The message could not h"

They bomb mangers, don't they?
Wonkette gets A++ for war on x-mas coverage
Wonkette - war on christmas: "If people really want to have an actual War on Christmas, let's dispense with the nativity stunts -- let's get an arena filled with actual lions up and running and get down to it. But be careful what you wish for: if the President was to learn of a mysterious trio of swarthy gentlemen smuggling goods to a newly born child who's destined to grow up to be the leader of a Middle East insurgency, he'd have Colin Powell up at the United Nations portentiously waving around a vial of frankincense. "

corporations corrupt? who knew?
Survey: Executives are corrupt / Fresh scandals fuel increasing disfavor with corporations: "More than ever, Americans do not trust business or the people who run it.
Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets. "

J.C. Bans Dobson andhis group as anti-christian,(Morford gets an A++)
Jesus Bans "Christian" Group / Shocking announcement sends militant Focus on the Family organization into crazed tailspin: "In an astonishing but not completely unexpected announcement, Jesus H. Christ, vice president and CFO of All That Is Inc., appeared today on a large tortilla at a roadside taco stand in Zacatecas, Mexico, to announce that, effective immediately, the pseudo-Christian group Focus on the Family, led by Dr. James Dobson and best known for its blazing hatred of gays and its fear of glimpsing the human female nipple during nationally televised sporting events, is effectively banned from His Divine Beneficence. "

Conspiring Against Voter's Rights:
Modern day inversion of stuffing the ballot box; Soapy Smith and Bat Masterson would be proud.
The Keene Sentinel Local News for Keene, NH and the Monadnock Region of NH: "Hundreds of hang-up calls for nearly two hours on Nov. 5, 2002, overwhelmed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines in Claremont, Rochester, Nashua and Manchester and a ride-to-the-polls line run by Manchester�s firefighters union.
Tobin initially pleaded not guilty to four charges, one of conspiring against voters rights and three related to conspiring and aiding in making harassing and annoying telephone calls. The maximum penalty if convicted of all four counts was 19 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines."

Four members of Congress have put forward a proposal for changes to the House Procedures-
but try as I might, I could not find a press release, catchy title, anything wthat would promote those changes- whats gives- get with it guys!
Time for a House-Cleaning: "The place needs a good scrubbing, and that is what it would get if the leadership were somehow to embrace a set of rules changes put forward this week by several longtime members. But because the authors are Democrats -- and in some cases liberal as well -- the receptivity of the Republicans managing the House is not likely to be great.
The four members involved -- David Obey of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, David Price of North Carolina and Tom Allen of Maine -- held a news conference on Monday at the Center for American Progress to introduce their 14-point plan. It is strong medicine -- a stiff enough dose of salts that even a watered-down version would mark a major change in the ethical environment of Capitol Hill."

San Diego has no corner on corruption: "But $2.4 million? That means Cunningham will go down as the most corrupt member of Congress in the history of the institution. That's saying a lot.
It's tempting to look at a scandal like this as being about a flawed individual. But it's also about a flawed system. Those flaws go beyond the obvious, such as the corruptive influence of the rivers of money that flow through Washington, or the startling fact that one member of Congress, sitting on the right committee with the right amount of influence with the right government agency, can steer millions of dollars of taxpayers' money into the coffers of private firms -- firms that might reciprocate by showering a politician with favors such as expensive meals and gifts, resort vacations, unlimited use of a corporate jet or yacht, and so forth. "

Why Corruption is Epidemic in Washington:
John McCain was interviewed on Terri Gross the other day, and he said that Washington is in an epidemic of corruption because of the way legislation is being handled on the hill. its been open season on earmarks and line items being inserted in bills, that are then passed with no time for anyone to actually read them, not to mention no hearings . Its the Republican Way, although McCain stopped short of blaming the Republican leadership. However, as McCain pointed out, when it is possible for one powerful legislator to put in a specific line item in an appropriation bill, then it is open season for lobbyists who have the ear of these Congressmen and can sell access to their clients for a price. This is exactly the pattern we have seen with both the Abramoff Scandal, and the Cunningham corruption scandal.
Yet, no one wondered who was in charge when Don Young crafted that famous Christmas tree of a transportation bill which even embarrassed the Republicans. The truth is, that this is the governing policy and style of the Republican leadership: DeLay, Hassert, Frist, et al.
Can't bring myself to actually read Arianna, but here is what she has to say, courtesy of Howard Kurtz.
Media Notes Extra: "Arianna says the guilty plea of Duke Cunningham highlights 'the corrupting role that money continues to play in our politics, and the overly cozy relationship between those in power and those in the media whose job it is to cover them.
'I mean, where was the Washington press corps on this story?
'Here you have a Congressman making $158,000 a year, living (and partying with lobbyists) on a yacht docked at the Capital Yacht Club and driving a Rolls-Royce -- and not a single Washington journalist thought this worth looking into? If one of them had followed the spoils, it would have quickly led to a defense contractor buying the yacht, christened the 'Duke-Stir', while at the same time receiving massive government contracts authorized by the defense appropriations subcommittee Cunningham sat on.
'But, instead, the Beltway Gang turned a blind-eye -- so jaded and accepting of how the game is played in Washington that the corruption didn't even register."

This "war on christmas" bullshit has been baffeling the hell out of me....I mean, Christians, a persecuted minority? Is anyone keeping anyone from celebrating Christmas? Not the last time I attended an elementary school holiday pageant and listened to hark the herald angels and silent night So, I have been searching the web to see what the deal is, no one has really nailed the true nut-si-ness of the o'reilley and american family crowd,
but I give first prize here to Cynthia Tucker in the atlanta journal constitution
Happy go-out-and-trample-a-pagan day! | ajc.com: "Perhaps the oddest thing about this cultural imbroglio is the insistence by some Christian purists that stores � palaces of consumerism � should observe the season with declarations of 'Merry Christmas!' The weeks-long orgy of buying that begins around Thanksgiving and ends, mercifully, with the new year celebrates consumption, selfishness and excess � a time when Christians turn the other check. This is probably not what Jesus would do.
There is nothing in the Gospels about battling other parents for the last XBox 360 or knocking down other shoppers to get to discounted personal computers. There are no Christmas sales in the New Testament, nor is there instruction on returning the items you didn't like. There are no guidelines on the dubious practice of 're-gifting.' (If you look closely, however, you can probably find admonitions against cursing out the motorist who got to that one empty parking space before you.)
So what difference does it make if retailers refer to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or holidays? Merchants are not in the business of spiritual uplift. Those who are looking for that would do well to spend a little less time at the mall."

Reclaiming consumerism for Christ:
'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List: "Wildmon does not give retailers the same benefit of the doubt. This year, he has called for a consumer boycott of Target stores because the chain issued a holiday advertising circular that did not mention Christmas. Last year, he aimed a similar boycott at Macy's Inc., which averted a repeat this December by proclaiming 'Merry Christmas' in its advertising and in-store displays."

I thought I was confused about why on earth the christian right is suddeenly insisting that everyone celebrate christmas, but it turns out it is they who are confused: at least the National council of churches gets it right:
'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List: "Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths.'
That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. 'I think it's more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas cards,' said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman."

FEMA= RACISM from the Top Down
By Darwin Campbell
African American News&Issues: "For African Americans, FEMA�s work with Blacks amounts to a modern version of Abbott and Costello�s �Who�s on First.�
I have been to countless FEMA news briefings, received daily e-mails and ever changing messages and the only certain thing during this crisis is that you will get an e-mail or media directive pointing out the good work FEMA is doing or the money they are spending.
Much of the process appears to be officials meeting, standing around, discussing and trying to figure out, �Who�s on First, What�s on Second, I Don�t Know is on Third��
The whole time everybody is looking around trying to find anybody doing anything, but no one is doing nothing.
FEMA has no idea what it is doing and African Americans are the people suffering the most from this incompetence. The FEMA experience has been one great nightmare for African Americans. All of the hurdles, obstacles, changes and problems are doing nothing to repair the agency�s ragged image in the African American community. It is more obvious every day that there is a whole government agency using tax dollars and many people in those jobs know policy, but know little about the daily �hurt ships� and �hardships� and challenges going on daily in the lives of African Americans who lost everything in both storms.
None of the hurricane victims, especially African Americans, deserves to be treated the way they are being treated. We should not be troubled and still suffering the kind of anxiety we are hearing about and witnessing daily at hotels, motels and churches trying to help put lives back together.
Trying to get to FEMA, you get overcrowded phone lines, overworked computer networks and no definite answers. Now FEMA has the nerve to issue a December 1 deadline on hotel and motel payments and direct cities to move people into "

Months Late and Millions of Dollars Short: Racism issues in Katrina response FINALLY confronted by Congress. CNN.com - Victims: Racism was factor in slow Katrina response - Dec 6, 2005: "Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust."
Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was "one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies." Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter's forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.

"No one is going to tell me it wasn't a race issue," said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."

Quote of the Day:
Ads Portray Nominee as Protector of Christmas - New York Times: "'If they think that hitching Samuel Alito to Santa's sleigh is going to eliminate serious issues about his regard for the Constitution, I think they are mistaken,' Mr. Lynn said."
Barry Lynnon on efforts by conservative catholics and evangelicals to portry nominee as saviour of Christmas.

Christmas Celebration Declared Mandatory
yet another strange permutation of right wings endless efforts to portray themselves as victoms.
This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else - New York Times: "Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They're for it.
The American Family Association is leading a boycott of Target for not using the words 'Merry Christmas' in its advertising. (Target denies it has an anti-Merry-Christmas policy.) The Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart in part over the way its Web site treated searches for 'Christmas.' Bill O'Reilly, the Fox anchor who last year started a 'Christmas Under Siege' campaign, has a chart on his Web site of stores that use the phrase 'Happy Holidays,' along with a poll that asks, 'Will you shop at stores that do not say 'Merry Christmas'?'"

politics and corruption
Corruption and the politics of pay-to-play / Mantle of scandal worn by GOP was Dems' a decade ago: "Washington -- Republican leader Newt Gingrich helped the GOP recapture the House in 1994 by portraying Democrats as too corrupt to lead after a series of scandals that led to the resignation of some of the party's top leaders.
More than a decade later, the roles are reversed. As the party in power, Republicans now are under fire for ethical problems ranging from Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham pleading guilty last week to taking $2.4 million in bribes, to the mushrooming scandal involving GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment on charges of violating campaign finance laws. And Democrats hope to take advantage when voters go to the polls for the midterm elections next year.
But some say no matter who is caught in the criminal net, the corruption issues put a spotlight on the pervasive influence of money in politics. "

Flaunt What You've Got: "Flaunt What You've Got
D.C.'s New Gilded Age"
What's different about Washington in this latest Gilded Age is the amount of money sloshing around this city -- this region, actually -- and the ostentatious display thereof. Consider: The number of households in the Washington area with more than $1 million in investable assets (that is, not including real estate) grew 9.6 percent between 2003 and 2004 alone, according to the demographic research firm Claritas. By contrast, total households in the region rose just 2.5 percent.
And if you doubt that these folks are flaunting it, take a drive out along River Road into Maryland, or Georgetown Pike in Virginia, and look at the acres upon acres of elephantine monstrosities, turreted and Palladian windowed and mega-garaged. Or look at the magnificent quarter-mile arising in Chevy Chase, where Barneys, Jimmy Choo and Dior are replacing a dowdy suburban strip mall. Not exactly Sparta on the Potomac.

The result is a strange version of increasing income inequality, Washington-style: a growing gap between the haves and the have-powers. This doesn't excuse, but it may help explain, some of the capital's more repulsive recent episodes.

I can’t believe that the Washington Post allowed its writer to indulge in all of the stereotypical hyperbole about the frozen north, un- touched wilderness and pristine and frozen Arctic in the recent article about the northern gas line proposals.
The wilderness aspects may apply to the McKenzie River line, but is certainly not true of the Alaskan project. The Alaska gas line would parallel the Alaska Highway: To continue to pretend this is remote wilderness is naïve. Most projections have shown that it will not be nearly the large project that the original Alyeska oil pipeline was thirty years ago. The problem as Alaskans see it is that it won’t create enough jobs. Alaska now has the infrastructure as well as a larger population which it did not have back then. The oil pipeline took three years because they had to build the road.
Still, many in Alaska including Former Governor Walter Hickle and Fairbanks Borough Mayor Jim Whittaker favor an all Alaska route that would follow the oil pipeline to Valdez, where a liquefaction plant would transfer the product to tankers.
Why Murkowski continues his abysmally slow negotiations with big oil while ignoring the all Alaska route is the big mystery in Alaska right now. Many Alaskans believe that the big oil companies have no intention of building the gas line,: after all, they have had the opportunity to build a gas line for thirty years, but seem to prefer to use their money to construct gas projects in Indonesia and far eastern Russia.

A 'Great Pipeline Race' in Canada: "Soaring energy prices and profits have revived plans for two massive pipelines -- the biggest private construction projects in North America -- to bring natural gas hundreds of miles south from the frozen Arctic Ocean, through vast untouched forests and under wild rivers, to the United States.
The plans would flood isolated areas of Alaska and Canada with thousands of construction workers, pump billions of dollars into poor native economies, and bring the roar of heavy cranes and bulldozers to pristine areas where it is now quiet enough to hear the hoots of snowy owls and the rustle of pine boughs"

Voting fraud sting
Election Fraud Is the Target of F.B.I. Sting - New York Times: "Thomas Esposito's campaign for the State Legislature in 2004 seemed to be following the usual pattern. Mr. Esposito, a former mayor of Logan, issued press releases, raised money and bought newspaper advertisements. Signs bearing his name popped up in yards around rural Logan County.
But less than a month before the May primary election, Mr. Esposito dropped out, citing an ailing mother-in-law. The real reason surfaced only later: the Federal Bureau of Investigation had planted Mr. Esposito among the field of candidates to help find evidence of vote-buying in southern West Virginia.
Federal prosecutors say the tactic worked."

Its always those on the take who accuse everyone else
The Duke of D.C., Unhorsed: "Consider this: When Duke Cunningham took to the House floor to denounce a past D.C. Council as crooked, he was at that very moment well into corruptly seeking and receiving bribes from two co-conspirators in return for being influenced in the performance of his official duties. His criminal acts are spelled out in the plea agreement Cunningham signed with federal prosecutors."

Wikipeida wars- II
the issue is the "accuracy" of wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia created and edited by users-
can it be accurate? is any encyclopedia accurate?
as wikipedia is created and re-created nearly daily, it seems to m that it reaches a fairly high degree of consensus
the comments here are interesting also.

Wikipedia and the nature of truth | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "You can argue that epistemological revisionism goes on all the time. As a kid, I remember thumbing through a 1920s encyclopedia when I found a discussion of different racial categories. Someone reading the entry decades later would have found the assertions in that article to be nonsensical, if not borderline racist. But when the book was published, the people who might have corrected the record had no power over the publishing company printing up the product line. With the Internet, anyone with an online connection can chime in. "

Wikipedia Wars-
for an idea of just how the editing process works- check out the edit wars page on the site itself
Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever"

Corruption: the big picture
from Michael kinsley, op-ed in the WP
Business As Usual: Corrupt: "By the 20th anniversary of their arrival, when an intellectually corrupt Supreme Court ruling gave them complete control of the government at last, the conservatives had lost any stomach for tearing it down. George W. Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' was more like an apology than an ideology. Meanwhile, Tom DeLay -- the real boss in Congress -- openly warned K Street that unless all the choice lobbying jobs went to Republicans, lobbyists could not expect to have any influence with the Republican Congress. This warning would be meaningless, of course, unless the opposite was also true: If you hire Republican lobbyists, you and they will have influence over Congress. And darned if DeLay didn't turn out to be exactly right about this."

More on the DeLay-Abramoff Protection Racket:
Lobbyist's Role in Hiring Aides Is Investigated - New York Times: "With a federal corruption case intensifying, prosecutors investigating Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, are examining whether he brokered lucrative jobs for Congressional aides at powerful lobbying firms in exchange for legislative favors, people involved in the case have said.
The attention paid to how the aides obtained jobs occurs as Mr. Abramoff is under mounting pressure to cooperate with prosecutors as they consider a case against lawmakers. Participants in the case, who insisted on anonymity because the investigation is secret, said he could try to reach a deal in the next six weeks."