December 2003 Archives

As a year concludes, it's customary for people to look back and review what happened. So I thought it appropriate to chronicle Resonance's 2003 highlights.

Back on January 1, 2003, Resonance looked like this. It remained in this void, formless, yet error-free state for four months.

On April 23, Blogger Resonance was born with little fanfare. Initially it had no blogroll, no comments, and no readers. But over time it cultivated a small, confused audience. By late summer, literally dozens of Internet users had locked their browsers in on Resonance.

On September 29, the present Movable Type Resonance was launched. Three days later the site officially went public by hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Since then search engines have kicked in and site traffic has increased every month. Thanks to everyone who's deliberately stopped by this year.

As we peer into the uncharted expanse of 2004, Resonance stands posed to make some sort of statement in the new year. Stay tuned to find out what kind of statement that is.

Kos points out that the Bush campaign is spending like the Bush administration. They've already burned $15 million without any primary opponent.

Proof that things could be worse here.

Someone at Reuters put together the "10 Most Painful TV Events of 2003."

The sad thing is that you put together a list of T.V.'s 2003 "highlights," the two lists might resemble one another.

Per Drudge comes this New Year's Eve advisory from Rep. Christopher Shays, who apparently isn't out to make friends with the tourism industry:

Republican Rep. Christopher Shays, however, said people ought to avoid places like Times Square, calling it irresponsible for officials to make people think they don't need to take precautions.

"Secretary Ridge says just do what you normally do," Shays said. "If normally you go to Times Square, I wouldn't do what you normally do. I wouldn't go into places when you're packed and where if there was panic, a lot of injuries would take place."

Steve Spurrier quits:

Coach Steve Spurrier and the Washington Redskins worked out the final details of his resignation this afternoon -- after a few hours of confusion in which Spurrier was unaware that he had quit his own job.

Spurrier's resignation was worked out by agent Jimmy Sexton while the coach played golf, presumably in Florida. Spurrier, who had hired Sexton on Monday, was initially unable to reach the agent today because of cell phone troubles on the golf course. That led Spurrier to deny that he had quit after the team had announced his departure in a news release.

The Post identifies Dennis Green, Tom Coughlin, and Jimmy Johnson as potential replacements.

Don't post pictures of yourself breaking the law:

It wasn't the fact that Melissa J. Harrington appeared naked on the Internet that got her in trouble with police. It was where she got naked.

The 21-year-old Web designer was busted for violating Lincoln's public nudity ordinance by posting pictures on her Web site that apparently showed her naked in a downtown bar.

Looks like the University of Tennessee isn't the only institution that's had them:

A former University of South Carolina president was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for scheming to get visas under false names and launder drug money.

James Holderman, 68, of Charleston, South Carolina, will face three years' probation and community service after completing his sentence. U.S. District Judge Paul Huck denied him bond and sent him straight to prison.
. . .
Holderman's 13 years at the university ended in a financial scandal in 1990. He was convicted of state charges in that matter and subsequent federal bankruptcy fraud charges.

. . . up at Up for Anything.

Many of you probably learned about this yesterday, but I want to include it for the historical record:

"FBI Urges Police to Watch for People Carrying Almanacs"

The FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that the popular reference books covering everything from abbreviations to weather trends could be used for terrorist planning.

In a bulletin sent Christmas Eve to about 18,000 police organizations, the FBI said terrorists may use almanacs "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning."

It urged officers to watch during searches, traffic stops and other investigations for anyone carrying almanacs, especially if the books are annotated in suspicious ways.

"The practice of researching potential targets is consistent with known methods of al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations that seek to maximize the likelihood of operational success through careful planning," the FBI wrote.

The FBI noted that use of almanacs or maps may be innocent, "the product of legitimate recreational or commercial activities." But it warned that when combined with suspicious behavior -- such as apparent surveillance -- a person with an almanac "may point to possible terrorist planning."

"While we doubt that our editorial content would be of particular interest to people who would wish to do us harm, we will certainly cooperate to the fullest with national authorities at any level they deem appropriate," [Old Farmers Almanac] publisher John Pierce said.

Last month, a defendant pleaded guilty to possessing "a sodium-cyanide bomb capable of killing thousands, more than a hundred explosives, half a million rounds of ammunition," and dozens of other illegal weapons. Terrorism expert Daniel Levitas described the nab "at the very top of all domestic terrorist arrests in the past 20 years in terms of the lethality of the arsenal."

Funny that in this era of flashing color-coded alerts and endless government press conferences, I hadn't heard of this case. Or is it?

[O]utside Tyler, Texas, the case is almost unknown. In the past nine months, there have been two government press releases and a handful of local stories, but no press conference and no coverage in the national newspapers.

Levitas understates the obvious:

"Excuse me, a chemical weapon was found in the home state of George Bush," says Levitas. "I'm not saying the Justice Department deliberately decided to downplay the story because they thought it might be embarrassing to the US government if weapons of mass destruction were found in America before they were found in Iraq. But I am saying it was a mistake not to give this higher profile."

Here's another one for those who verify every published letter:

Dear Knoxville News Sentinel,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I didn't make a stop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this Christmas. President Bush has been very naughty. He better start being nice or he will soon have all his toys taken away.

Sincerely,

Santa Claus
North Pole

According to Iraqi Interim Governing Council member Iyad Alawi, Saddam Hussein's trial probably won't be a public affair.

There's a lot going on behind closed doors these days--both here and abroad. Seems people have quite a bit to hide.

Earlier, South Knox Bubba documented astroturf in the Knoxville News Sentinel. It appears the stuff is spouting up all over the place. Soon we'll have more of it standing than trees.

I watched Michael Jackson's interview on "60 Minutes" last night. I'm not all caught up in the media craze surrounding the criminal charges against him, but he's a rather entertaining spectacle to watch.

Much of the negative reaction to the interview centers on his comments about bringing children into the bedroom. But I also found this comment a bit disturbing:

When I see children, I see the face of God. That's why I love them so much. That's what I see.

I missed this story earlier, but before Christmas President Bush signed a Patriot-like act which enlarged the FBI's power to dig through financial records. The act expands the definition of a covered "financial institution" to include "stockbrokers, car dealerships, casinos, credit card companies, insurance agencies, jewelers, airlines, the U.S. Post Office, and any other business 'whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters.'"

Worse yet:

While broadening the definition of "financial institution," the Bush administration is ramping up provisions within the 2001 USA Patriot Act, which granted the FBI the authority to obtain client records from banks by merely requesting the records in a "National Security Letter." To get the records, the FBI doesn't have to appear before a judge, nor demonstrate "probable cause" - reason to believe that the targeted client is involved in criminal or terrorist activity. Moreover, the National Security Letters are attached with a gag order, preventing any financial institution from informing its clients that their records have been surrendered to the FBI. If a financial institution breaches the gag order, it faces criminal penalties. And finally, the FBI will no longer be required to report to Congress how often they have used the National Security Letters.

A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing - on a Saturday - as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago - on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shuttng down the federal government the following Monday.

By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.

Joshua Marshall:

Is it really reasonable to expect that the values which undergird liberal democracy in America will be effectively spread abroad by the most illiberal people in America? It's a good question. Think about it.

It's conceivable that this administration could accomplish the latter. I'm not holding my breath for the former.

One of the things you quickly discover when weblog surfing is that subject matter varies widely.

Oops:

Tony Blair was at the centre of an embarrassing row last night after the most senior US official in Baghdad bluntly rejected the Prime Minister's assertion that secret weapons laboratories had been discovered in Iraq.

In a Christmas message to British troops, Blair claimed there was 'massive evidence of a huge system of clandestine laboratories'. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had unearthed compelling evidence that showed Saddam Hussein had attempted to 'conceal weapons', the Prime Minister said. But in an interview yesterday, Paul Bremer, the Bush administration's top official in Baghdad, flatly dismissed the claim as untrue - without realising its source was Blair.

It was, he suggested, a 'red herring', probably put about by someone opposed to military action in Iraq who wanted to undermine the coalition.

'I don't know where those words come from but that is not what [ISG chief] David Kay has said,' he told ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme. 'It sounds like a bit of a red herring to me.'

And here in North America, Canada isn't jumping on board with the U.S. claim that the mad cow came from Canada.

It does seem a little odd how quickly the government came out with that explanation, given how little it seemed to know about other details surrounding the incident.

A pricey URL:

One more sign the technology sector is rebounding: An Internet domain name is again commanding seven figures.

Last week, a Florida man sold men.com for $1.3 million, a healthy profit over the $15,000 he paid for it in 1997.

I've posted some biographical information here.

With all the talk of global warming, this seems counter-intuitive. But according to a recent Guardian piece, some researchers claim the earth has received a declining amount of sunlight the past few decades:

Records show that over the past 50 years the average amount of sunlight reaching the ground has gone down by almost 3% a decade. It's too small an effect to see with the naked eye, but it has implications for everything from climate change to solar power and even the future sustainability of plant photosynthesis.
. . .
[T]he scientific record now shows several other research papers published during the 1990s on the subject, all finding that light levels were falling significantly. Among them they reported that sunshine in Ireland was on the wane, that both the Arctic and the Antarctic were getting darker and that light in Japan, the supposed land of the rising sun, was actually falling. Most startling of all was the discovery that levels of solar radiation reaching parts of the former Soviet Union had gone down almost 20% between 1960 and 1987.

To "cloud" the picture even further (so to speak), one study suggests the global dimming trend may have reversed--or at least leveled off--during the 1990s.

I'm not sure how much to make of this theory, but it's an interesting claim.

Initial disaster casualty figures often vary widely. The New York Times cites an Iranian official placing the death toll from the earthquake that leveled Bam at 5,000-6,000+; meanwhile, Reuters estimates it at over 20,000.

By any measure, it's devastating. Notably, however, in terms of strength the Iranian earthquake was roughly the same magnitude as one which hit California earlier this week, killing only three. I understand the latter hit a largely rural area, so the situations aren't exactly parallel. But I think the comparison does illustrate the gap in technology and housing standards between wealthy and poor nations. American homes made of wood, brick, steel, and concrete may or may not withstand stress. Clearly Iranian homes of mud and brick don't.

For all the fuss about evil government regulations, they do serve a useful purpose.

I'm still trying to sort through the story behind the six canceled Air France flights. The perceived risk was purportedly specific enough for authorities to hone in on these flights, yet publicly no would-be suspects have been apprehended:

French security officials said Thursday that they had found no terrorist links among the people booked for the six Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles that were canceled on Wednesday as a result of warnings from American officials.

But American government officials said the United States was still investigating people who had reserved seats on the planes but never showed up for the flights.

Administration officials said potential attackers might have been tipped off by news reports earlier in the week that included vague references to American concerns about France.

But they would not say whether any of the no-shows were on a list of suspected terrorists that Americans supplied the French this week. Agence France-Presse, the French news agency, quoted an antiterrorist investigator as saying that one person on the American list was a Tunisian passenger with a pilot's license and possible links to Al Qaeda. But the news agency said the man was in Tunis, not France, at the time of the flights. The French air and border police would not comment.

The American secret service has, for the moment, the free access to the computer files of the European airline companies. Name, addresses, telephone number, addresses courriel, number of credit card, preferences food, medical information, hiring of vehicles, people accompanying the passenger during his last voyages, etc, nothing does not escape the American authorities. March 5, 2003, a provisional agreement, signed by the European Commission, but "attentatoire with the life deprived" according to the national Commission of data processing and freedoms, had constrained the companies to deliver their files. With defect, they risk a fine of 6 000 dollars per passenger and the loss of the rights of landing.

A new agreement - which must still be approved by the European Parliament - was reached in December. It envisages to limit to 35 the number of personal information transmitted by passenger, excluding for example the legal history. But the data-processing filters could be installed only in the current of the year 2004.

Moreover, U.S. officials said intelligence indicators suggest that al Qaeda might have set other terrorist operations in motion that do not involve aviation and are not centered in California. As on other occasions when terrorist fears are heightened, U.S. officials said their main concern is that al Qaeda might use a chemical or biological weapon, or a radiological "dirty" bomb.

"Our fear is that other things are going on" that have nothing to do with jetliner flights in or out of U.S. airports, said one U.S. official briefed on high-level intelligence. "The concern is that there still could be a lot of activity that was underway."

If you had a hard time relating to the Reason for the Season this week, perhaps you should spend some time in the slammer:

Gov. Jeb Bush told nearly 800 prisoners Wednesday that religion can help lead them to a better life as he dedicated the nation's first faith-based prison � an institution officials hope will lead to fewer repeat offenders.
. . .
"You don't have to be here, you've chosen to be here. It's no different, from what I've been told, from the other correction facilities. You still have to work, you still have to follow the rules, but you've committed yourself to a higher authority," Bush said.
. . .
While religious activities are available seven days a week, participation is voluntary. Prisoners must stay out of trouble for at least a year to transfer to Lawtey and they will transferred out if they have discipline problems.
. . .
During the dedication ceremony, many of the prisoners jumped to their feet, smiled brightly and clapped in rhythm as a gospel singer sang "His Eye is on the Sparrow." Some shouted "Sing it!" and "Amen!"

Later, Bush told the inmates "I can't think of a better place to reflect on the awesome love of our lord Jesus than to be here at Lawtey Correctional. God bless you."

Via TalkLeft.

Happy holidays to all.

Luke 2: 1-20 (N.I.V.):

The Birth of Jesus

1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

3 And everyone went to his own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.

5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.

6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,

7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,

18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.

19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

They probably don't get into the holiday spirit much, anyway:

Alarming messages published on known al Qaeda Web sites are claiming the terror network is about to launch its biggest strikes ever - and are warning Muslims to leave the cities of New York, Washington and Los Angeles.
. . .
[Counterterrorism expert Rita] Katz said a posting two weeks ago quoted an al Qaeda spokesman identified as Abu Issam al-Yamani as saying, "The next al Qaeda attacks will be most violent and will target the U.S." and urged Muslims "to leave the country if they don't wish to die as a result of a Jihadist operation."

A second message was posted on the same Web site last Thursday, from a group calling itself the Islamic Bayan Movement.

"Our Muslim brothers in America, this is our final warning. We ask you, as fast as you can, to leave the following cities immediately: Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles," the message said.

"Good times" not necessarily here to stay:

America's factories saw orders for big-ticket goods drop by 3.1 percent in November, the largest decline in more than a year, raising new questions about how firm a grip manufacturers have on their own fragile recovery.

The drop reported by the Commerce Department Wednesday in orders for "durable goods" costly manufactured items expected to last at least three years came after a brisk 4 percent advance in October and a solid 2.2 percent increase in September.

The 3.1 percent decrease was the first decline since August and the largest since September 2002, when durable-goods orders plunged by 6 percent.

The performance in November was considerably weaker than economists were expecting. They were forecasting a 0.6 percent rise. The weakness was broadbased, with cars, communications equipment, computers and machinery among the categories showing a drop in orders last month.

Via Drudge, this story says the USDA isn't being forthcoming with its mad cow testing:

Although the United States Department of Agriculture insisted the U.S. beef supply is safe Tuesday after announcing the first documented case of mad cow disease in the United States, the agency for six months repeatedly refused to release its tests for mad cow to United Press International.

The USDA claims to have tested approximately 20,000 cows for the disease in 2002 and 2003, but has been unable to provide any documentation in support of this to UPI, which first requested the information in July.

In addition, former USDA veterinarians tell UPI they have long suspected the disease was in U.S herds and there are probably additional infected animals.
. . .
USDA officials told UPI as recently as Dec. 17 the agency still is searching for documentation of its mad cow testing results from 2002 and 2003.

UPI initially requested the documents on July 10, and the agency sent a response letter dated July 24, saying it had launched a search for any documents pertaining to mad cow tests from 2002 and 2003.

"If any documents exist, they will be forwarded," USDA official Michael Marquis wrote in the letter.

Despite this and a 30-day limit under the Freedom of Information Act on responding to such a request, the USDA never sent any corresponding documents. The agency's FOI office also did not return several calls from UPI placed over a series of months.

Perhaps Americans have something common with Saddam Hussein:

British officials are circulating a story that Saddam Hussein may have been hoodwinked into believing that Iraq really did possess weapons of mass destruction.

The theory, which is doing the rounds in the upper reaches of Whitehall, is the result of an attempt to find what one official source called a "logical reason" why no chemical and biological weapons had been found in Iraq.

According to the theory, Saddam and his senior advisers and commanders were told by lower-ranking Iraqi officers that his forces were equipped with usable chemical and biological weapons.

The officers did not want to tell their superiors that the weapons were either destroyed or no longer usable.

Then there's also this:

Hans Blix, the former US weapons inspector in Iraq, said yesterday that most experts on Iraq now believed Saddam almost certainly destroyed his weapons of mass destruction after the first Gulf War in 1991.

"I think the vast majority of people are feeling there is very little likelihood that they [the Iraqis] had anything, and the biggest chance is that they destroyed them in 1991," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

To date, I haven't gotten very caught up in Rush Limbaugh's ongoing ordeal. After all, drug addiction is a personal, not political problem.

But now Rush is attempting to politicize his problems:

My friends, it is, and has been, obvious to me for the longest time that all these leaks were an attempt to try me in the court of public opinion. The Democrats in this country still cannot defeat me in the arena of political ideas, and so now they are trying to do so in the court of public opinion and the legal system. I guess it's payback time. And since I'm not running for office, can't get to me that way. They're going to seek the occasion of this event in my life to see, to find out if they can do any damage. And that's as much as I want to say... No, that's not as much as I want to say; that's as much as I'm going to say about it at the moment.

The hypocrisy of this is rich. Rush's they're-after-me-because-I'm-x claim follows the same logic as those who break out the race card in court. And we all know how well that's usually accepted on the right.

Rush broke the law and now he's trying to blame his problems on everyone else. That's Republican "personal responsibility" for you.

Many Tennesseans have experience distinguishing hues of orange. For instance, observing when the scoreboard doesn't match the uniforms, or whatnot.

It looks like government folks are also becoming experts in sorting out shades of orange. From this Daily Kos thread come these nuggets:

"True Orange":

Officials at all levels said the threat this time around seems more serious than previous alerts.

One senior Pentagon official described the terrorism threat level as "true orange," noting that some previous orange designations had been viewed with skepticism.

New York has been on orange alert since the color-coded system was set up shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When asked if the beefed-up police presence in the city amounted to "Orange Plus," Kelly replied, "You might say that."

Resonance has learned that Atlanta authorities will soon issue their own alert level gradation. Beginning December 28, Atlanta will be under a "Big Orange" threat advisory. Vacationers from Clemson University are urged to travel with extreme caution and to avoid the Georgia Dome at all costs.

If, like me, gift giving isn't your thing, perhaps you can take some solace in reading of bombs like this:

"Man Says He Gave Wife Toilet Seat as Gift"

Gary and Karri Clark haven't forgotten their second Christmas together. He knew she wanted bathroom accessories, so he wrapped up a couple of gifts and waited.

The toilet seat and towel rack didn't go over too well.

"Here I thought I was doing good," he recalled with a laugh. "It was something she can always use, day after day. It's the gift that keeps on giving."
. . .
Karri Clark admits she wanted a new toilet seat a decade ago because there was a crack in the old one. She just didn't think she'd get one gift wrapped.

"I could not believe it," she said. "What man gives you a toilet seat for Christmas? A fricking toilet seat, and it wasn't even that expensive."

There haven't been many of them recently. But Joe Lockhart thinks the fact that Rush Limbaugh has turned his guns on the senator is an indication things are "going well."

Reports indicate that al-Qaeda continues to be interested in striking by air:

The United States has credible information, including some that prompted this week's rise in the national terror threat level, that al-Qaida continues to study potential weaknesses in America's revamped aviation security net looking for ways to strike again through the air, U.S. officials familiar with recent intelligence say.
. . .
"The information clearly shows they care about getting ahold of airplanes with large fuel supplies in areas with lots of people, and to do it in a way that comes in below our radar screen," said one senior U.S. official with access to intelligence, speaking only on condition of anonymity.
. . .
"You would think there are a lot of softer targets out there that wouldn't take as much work," said Douglas Laird, a former Northwest Airlines security chief who now advises clients on aviation security. "What baffles me is I just don't know what they (al-Qaida) would do to make it happen now."

But Laird said an aviation attack continues to have appeal to the terrorist mind. "The airlines are always going to be a good avenue because it strikes the fear of God in the public to have an airliner sabotaged. It generates lots of coverage," he said.

U.S. officials said debriefings of terrorists show al-Qaida continues to value an attack via aviation because its leaders believe such an attack would have both dramatic effects on America's economic superiority and because it would strike at an important symbol of Western freedom.

Joshua Marshall doesn't see anything to the Saddam capture rumors.

Apparently money can't solve all one's problems:

An attorney for Rush Limbaugh charged Monday that the conservative talk show host was being blackmailed by the Florida couple whose allegations triggered an ongoing investigation into his purchases of painkillers.

During a hearing over whether prosecutors should have access to Limbaugh's medical records, attorney Roy Black said Limbaugh paid "extreme amounts of money" to Wilma Cline, his former housekeeper, and her husband, first for pills and then for extortion. Black alleged that the Clines had threatened to go public with information about Limbaugh's drug use unless they received $4 million.
. . .
Sources have told CNN that the investigation into Limbaugh's drug use began in February when Cline, who once worked as a housekeeper at his home in West Palm Beach, went to authorities.

The Clines later went public with their charges in the National Enquirer, alleging that Limbaugh's representative had paid them hush money. Sources said the couple was paid a six-figure sum for their story.

Caught a short interview with investment guru Jim Rogers on CNBC last night. He made several interesting observations:

• China is going to be the economic story of the 21st cenutry.


• In the Middle East, Rogers is bullish on Iran. He believes its young, democratic-minded population will propel the nation upward.


• The Saudi Arabian regime will fall apart in the next several years--perhaps within a year or two


• Currently, Canada presents better investment opportunities than the United States.


• Financial industry stocks are overvalued--best to get out or short these companies.

I don't know how, but I missed this story until today:

Joe Namath's interview on ESPN was cut short when the Hall of Fame quarterback gave curious answers to Suzy Kolber's questions.

Namath was at the Patriots-Jets game Saturday night as the Jets celebrated their 40th anniversary team. Asked by Kolber, ESPN's sideline reporter, about what the team's struggles meant to him, Namath replied:

"I want to kiss you," as he leaned toward her.

He added that he believed the team would come back next season with Chad Pennington available to play quarterback all year. But those at ESPN had heard enough.

"Based on Joe's response to the second question, we concluded the interview expeditiously," the network said in a statement Sunday. "While Joe made some relevant football points, had we known what was to come, of course, we would not have conducted the interview."

Kolber responded to Namath's comments by saying "Thanks, Joe. A huge compliment."

Namath capped off the interview by repeating: "I want to kiss you." before Kolber turned things back over to the announcers in the booth.

I wonder: if I happen to be roaming the sidelines some game and Lisa Guerrero decides to interview me--if I tell her I want to kiss her, do you think she'll be game?

I caught a few minutes of one of the local news broadcasts and they had a bug in the corner of the screen informing us that East Tennessee is under an orange terrorism alert.

Thanks guys. If I see al Qaeda milling around a West Knoxville Wal-Mart or Weigel's, I'll be sure to drop a tip.

This exchange on "Hardball between Chris Matthews and Peggy Noonan was one of the funnier things I have recently seen on talking head T.V. Matthews attempts to pin Noonan down on Saddam's supposed involvement in 9/11. As you see, he didn't get very far:

Much of the debate on the Iraq war has focused, naturally, on Iraq. But Iraq's strategic proximity to a al Qaeda-threatened Saudi Arabian government should not be underestimated when assessing American Mid-East policy.

They're something, aren't they?

Many people have become addicted to Resonance.

[Where "many people" = me].

NBC has been toting the upcoming reality series "The Apprentice." Other than what's implied in the commercials and their website plug, I'm not sure how it actually plays out. But it appears Donald Trump is prominently featured:

During the first season of "The Apprentice," legendary business tycoon Donald Trump will serve as the "master" and his business empire, The Trump Organization, will be the hub of the competition.
. . .
Candidates not completing the job assignment successfully will meet face to face with Trump after each round of competition, enduring a grueling interview session with Trump and some of his key executives. Each week Trump will fire one candidate from the contest. In the season�s final episode, one promising and ambitious person will emerge supreme and will win the chance for the dream job of a lifetime with the Trump Organization.

More evidence that one of our "partners" in the "war on terror" has had a nice side business going on:

"Inquiry Suggests Pakistanis Sold Nuclear Secrets"

A lengthy investigation of the father of Pakistan's atomic bomb, Abdul Qadeer Khan, by American and European intelligence agencies and international nuclear inspectors has forced Pakistani officials to question his aides and openly confront evidence that the country was the source of crucial technology to enrich uranium for Iran, North Korea and possibly other nations.

But it's non-nuclear Iraq that's the central front in the "war on terror" and poses the greatest danger to the U.S., right?

"We Got Him: Kurds Say They Caught Saddam"

The Western media in Baghdad were electrified by the Iranian agency's revelation, but as reports of the arrest built, they relied almost exclusively on accounts from US military and intelligence organisations, starting with the words of the US-appointed administrator of Iraq, Paul Bremer: "Ladies and gentlemen: we got 'im".
. . .
Little attention was paid to a line in Pentagon briefings that some of the Kurdish militia might have been in on what was described as a "joint operation"; or to a statement by Ahmed Chalabi, head of the Iraq National Congress, which said that Qusrat and his PUK forces had provided vital information and more.

I link; you decide. There's certainly a lot of smoke here, though.

• Want to buy elections today and have your kids pay for them tomorrow? Sign on with the Republicard and spend like there's no tomorrow!

• "Democrats Declare Nader Enemy Combatant."

• Google fun.

Merry Christmas:

The United States raised its terror threat level from yellow (elevated) to orange (high) on Sunday, citing a "substantial increase" in intelligence pointing to threats during the holidays season that are "perhaps greater now than at any point" since 9/11.

Are you Ready?

More reporting suggesting the capture of Saddam Hussein wasn't what it was made out to be:

Saddam Hussein was captured by US troops only after he had been taken prisoner by Kurdish forces, drugged and abandoned ready for American soldiers to recover him, a British tabloid newspaper has reported.

Saddam came into the hands of the Kurdish Patriotic Front after being betrayed to the group by a member of the al-Jabour tribe, whose daughter had been raped by Saddam's son Uday, leading to a blood feud, reported the Sunday Express, which quoted an unnamed senior British military intelligence officer.

The newspaper said the full story of events leading up to the ousted Iraqi president's capture on December 13 near his hometown of Tikrit in northern Iraq, "exposes the version peddled by American spin doctors as incomplete".

A former Iraqi intelligence officer, whom the Express did not name, told the paper that Saddam was held prisoner by a leader of the Kurdish Patriotic Front, which fought alongside US forces during the Iraq war, until he negotiated a deal.

The deal apparently involved the group gaining political advantage in the region.

An unnamed Western intelligence source in the Middle East told the Express: "Saddam was not captured as a result of any American or British intelligence. We knew that someone would eventually take their revenge, it was just a matter of time."

UPDATE: Scotland's Sunday Herald has a much more detailed account.

At this point, I'm not sure what happened. But I have plenty of reasons to be skeptical of accepting the government account at face value.

Despite the best efforts of John Ashcroft, juries continue to issue fewer death penalty sentences:

For the fourth straight year, the number of death sentences handed out by the nation's juries has declined -- a fact that opponents and reformers say indicates increasing public awareness of problems with the American system of capital punishment.

In its year-end report, the Death Penalty Information Center projects approximately 138 death sentences for 2003, 20 below last year and less than half the number recorded annually during much of the 1990s.

"I think there's no doubt whatsoever that everyone is taking a hard second look," said Eric Freedman, a law professor at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., who has been active in the movement for capital punishment reform. "Even those people who support the idea of the death penalty are convinced now that our existing system is in need of significant reforms if it is to survive."

Via TalkLeft.

The snow flurries have been flying fast and furious today in the Tennessee Valley. And although none of it has accumulated on nearby roads thus far, it has prompted a series of weather-related closings.

The following will be closed/canceled until conditions improve:

Joe Horn's Sportsmanship Symposium

"Successful Strategies for Government Contract Bidding" by Halliburton Government Affairs Executive Charles Dominy

Bill O'Reilly Center for First Amendment Studies

Saddam Hussein's Rat Hole Remodeling Workshop

Paris Hilton's Cattle Husbandry Seminar

"Doctor Shopping for Dummies" by Rush Limbaugh

John Kerry Credit Counseling Center

Representative Henry Waxman recently announced (pdf file) the unveiling of Internet tip lines for Iraq contracting abuses, intelligence failures, and other issues. Tip line contact information is currently available here.

I'd like to note that Internet whistleblowers are similarly welcome here. Anyone wanting to go public with a bona fide account of waste, mismanagement, or corruption is encouraged to do so here with a Resonance exclusive story. Simply e-mail me at weblog -at- brianarner -dot- com.

Uh oh:

In a surprise setback for the recording industry, a U.S. appeals court said Friday its methods for tracking down those who copy its music over the Internet are not authorized by law.
. . .
[I]n a strongly worded ruling, the appeals court sided with Verizon, saying a 1998 copyright law does not give copyright holders the ability to subpoena customer names from Internet providers without filing a formal lawsuit.

More indications that the Bush administration is monkeying around with government web sites:

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, administration Web sites have been scrubbed for anything vaguely sensitive, and passwords are now required to access even much unclassified information. Though it is not clear whether the White House is directing the changes, several agencies have been following a similar pattern. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and USAID have removed or revised fact sheets on condoms, excising information about their effectiveness in disease prevention, and promoting abstinence instead. The National Cancer Institute, meanwhile, scrapped claims on its Web site that there was no association between abortion and breast cancer. And the Justice Department recently redacted criticism of the department in a consultant's report that had been posted on its Web site.

I'm thinking the latter.

Who knows how accurate this comparison is, but according to this test, I'm like:

John Adams

You are right more often than not, but can be irritating enough about it that people will tune you out even when they shouldn't. You enter a room more concerned that everyone acknowledge that you're right than that everyone like you. You tend to make few friends, but those you do make are closer than family.

Via Voluntarily in China.

Pot fingers kettle.

Ha Ha. Bill O'Reilly--who I've long thought would make a good dictator--goes off the deep end after Drudge exposed that sales of Who's Looking Out for You trail those of a "smear merchant":

Responding to an exclusive yearender DRUDGE dispatch, which presented NIELSEN's Top 20 BOOKSCAN list of 2003 sales, O'Reilly called the DRUDGE REPORT a "threat to democracy."

"I mean you can't believe a word Matt Drudge says," O'Reilly told the cameras. "Now you've got the Matt Drudges of the world and these other people, Michael Moore and all of these crazies, all right, no responsibility... that is a threat to democracy, I think." O'Reilly warned: "They'll just spin it and twist it and take it out of proportion every which way."

Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!

Via Say Uncle.

I'll be away from the computer for much of the day, so probably no updates until late afternoon/evening.

Interesting interview with Arlie Hochschild on why blue-collar males support Bush.

People have criticized Dean, with some justification, for floating 9/11 theories he hears "other people" talking about. Yet they themselves seemingly have no problem passing on unconfirmed, bogus tales of Al Qaeda/Iraq connections.

What's the difference?

Kevin at Lean Left has a good post asking if Defense Secretary Rumsfeld should be considered an unindicted co-conspirator for Saddam's use of banned weapons. Evidence suggests Rumsfeld was at least complicit in Iraq's use of chemical weapons against Iran, and he may have indirectly provided assistance to the dictator.

Of course this won't happen because the U.S. government runs the show. But wouldn't it be funny if there was some sort of full disclosure law which require government officials to reveal their past dealings in televised appearances?

You know how financial analysts on T.V. are supposed to reveal if they have any interest in a company when they recommend its stock? It would be classic if every time Rumsfeld talked about how evil Saddam was, he had to disclose his Reagan-era dealings in Baghdad:

"Saddam's evil regime, which this government supported in the mid-80's, murdered thousands of innocent people."

"Senate Deal Unlocks 50 Nominees"

The Bush administration made several key concessions that led to Senate confirmation of more than 50 stalled executive nominations before Congress adjourned last week.

Several sources said that as part of the complex negotiations, President Bush has agreed to nominate a pro-consumer member to a powerful energy board.

That move came at the urging of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

In addition, the administration agreed to shield federal air traffic employees from outsourcing.

Sydney Olympic 49kg tae kwon do gold medalist Lauren Burns returned home to find many items, including her medal, stolen:

Burns yesterday made an emotional plea to the burglars to return her most treasured possession, which had been hidden in a sunglasses case.

"Please, have the courage to give it back to me," she said. "Please, don't throw it away. Find a way to return it. I don't care about the other things. It's priceless to me but it's of no value to anyone else."

The medal is engraved with details of Burns' achievement and police believe this would make it almost impossible to sell.

Normally, after a week or so, article links at the New York Times website migrate behind an archive wall, and you have to pay to access them.

Thomas at Newsrack Blog, who just returned from a hiatus, points to this handy New York Times link generator, which is supposed to provide links that remain good after the free-access period expires.

Just heard an interesting fact illustrating the growth in health care costs: elderly Americans now spend a higher percentage of their income on health care than they did before Medicare was enacted.

Below a few commenters had a little fun with the BCS system, given that the No. 1 ranked team has been omitted from the championship game.

I've got another analogy: this year's BCS system worked out about as well as the electoral college did in 2000.

South Knox Bubba offers a view commonly held by those who don't care for President Bush--that he isn't too bright.

I don't know how "smart" Bush is. Perhaps he does all right when he's in the Oval Office hashing out issues with advisers. But when he's publicly speaking on complex matters, he rarely seems to have a commanding grasp on an issue.

This is painfully demonstrated in presidential press conferences, when Bush is forced to abandon the safety of the teleprompter and think on his feet. The press likes to hype these events up, because that's where they appear most important. But does anyone ever gain any policy insights listening to Bush speak?

The conference held Monday was unenlightening as usual. For some reason, Bush felt the need to spend 70% of the conference establishing that Saddam Hussein is a bad guy. But reporters did manage to get a few other things in. Here's one of them:

Q In that case, sir, can I follow up on something unrelated? (Laughter.) Tom Ridge recently seemed to discuss something you had talked about pre-9/11, and that is finding a way to legalize some of the illegal immigrants in this country. Could you clarify your policy, what it is, short of blanket amnesty?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I have constantly said that we need to have a immigration policy that helps match any willing employer with any willing employee. It makes sense that that policy go forward. And we're in the process of working that through now so I can make a recommendation to the Congress.

Let me also clarify something. This administration is firmly against blanket amnesty.

But more importantly, the immigration issue has been on the radar screen for a long time. And supposedly it became a priority after 9/11. Here we are over two years later and this is all Bush has to say for it? What is this policy that Bush wants to go forward--matching willing employees with willing employers? Is that something like what we have now? People sneaking in from Mexico to work? And how long is this process of working it through going to take? His answer didn't clarify anything.

It's a good thing Bush has all his talk radio and Fox News Channel agents to promote his agenda. Because if he had to explain and sell his policies to the public himself, he wouldn't get very far.

On his presidential exploratory website, Ralph Nader has a poorly-written questionnaire ostensibly intended to help him decide if he should be a candidate. I don't think an unscientific online poll is a very good tool to measure support for that.

Nader has been involved in many good causes during his time, but siphoning off Florida votes from Gore in 2000 hasn't scored him points with a lot of progressives.

Carnival of the Vanities #65 is at Drumwaster's Rants!

Bonfire of the Vanities #24 is at Wizbang!

I missed this outrage until Oliver Willis brought it to my attention:

"Lingerie-Free Lingerie Bowl Planned"

The Lingerie Bowl, the controversial pay-per-view Super Bowl half-time program, won't have its model/players on the field wearing lingerie, the show promoter said Tuesday, but denied he was pressured to do so by its sponsor, Dodge.
. . .
Mitch Mortaza, president of Horizon Productions Inc., said despite the name of the show and promotional photos showing players clad in lingerie with numbers stitched into bras, the plans have always been for players to wear slightly different outfits. The women players -- seven on each side -- will wear short shorts instead of panties and a sports bras decorated with lace, rather than lingerie tops. They'll also wear shoulderpads, helmets and other protective equipment not shown in promotional photos.

A disturbing tale, a wrong which money damages seem inadequate in making right:

A man who spent seven years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of raping a girl at a Bronx daycare center won a $5 million settlement from the city, his lawyer announced yesterday.
. . .
The man, Alberto Ramos, 40, said that while in prison he endured beatings, was sodomized and tried to commit suicide several times. His conviction was overturned in 1992 when a judge found that the prosecutor had withheld evidence that could have resulted in an acquittal.
. . .
Mr. Ramos was one of five men convicted of sexually abusing children at three city-run day care centers in the Bronx during the mid-1980's. All of the convictions have since been reversed.
. . .
The evidence uncovered during the civil lawsuit was "astounding," Mr. Rudin [Ramos' attorney] said.

City child abuse investigators said that they had referred the Ramos case to the Bronx district attorney's office for prosecution even though they believed that Mr. Ramos was innocent and that the child's story was false.

Day care center officials said the child had a history of sexual behavior in the classroom. They testified that they not only told the trial prosecutor about evidence favoring Mr. Ramos but had also informed other prosecutors before Mr. Ramos was arrested. No prosecutor disclosed the information to the defense.

Yesterday's lessons should be applied today. And the area most ripe for prosecutorial abuse today--with all its hype and secrecy--is terrorism. Case in point:

Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen being held incommunicado as an enemy combatant, can meet with a lawyer once the government decides it would not hamper his interrogation, Justice Department officials said on Tuesday.

Senior department officials said "dirty bomb" suspect Padilla, a U.S. citizen held without access to a lawyer for more than 18 months, may eventually meet with an attorney. Lawyers for Padilla have been arguing for access to him and the case is pending before a U.S. appeals court in New York.

"Once the intelligence collection efforts are judged not to be hampered or jeopardized by access to counsel, then there's no objection to access to counsel," one of the officials said.

We don't have any reason to doubt the DOJ's judgment, do we?

Countless media hours will be spent hashing out what kind of trial Saddam Hussein should receive. Who will conduct it? What will the rules be? And on and on.

Don't get me wrong--those are important issues, particularly for those responsible for running the trial. But as a practical matter, we already know what the trial is going to show--the only issue is what punishment Saddam will receive.

You know, if we put as much effort into discussing our own rights as we spend debating Saddam's legal standing, we wouldn't have things like the Patriot Act hanging over our heads.

Drugs may be seeping in from Mexico as fast as ever, but narcotics agents have scored an important victory in the war against vibrators:

A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an "antiquated place'' with more than its share of "prudes.''

Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.

Webb, a saleswoman for Passion Parties of Brisbane, faces a year in jail and a $4,000 fine if convicted.

Via Atrios.

Prescription drugs might not be the only medical supplies Americans seek north of the border:

Canada is one of just three countries equipped to survive a global outbreak of killer influenza, top American flu experts say.

They say the U.S., Hong Kong and most other nations would be devastated by a pandemic like the Spanish Flu, which killed an estimated 40 million people in 1918. In recent years, small outbreaks of new flu strains have provoked fears of a new pandemic.

"Only very few places in the world -- maybe Canada, maybe Ontario, maybe the Netherlands, maybe Britain -- will be able to handle it," said Dr. Robert Webster, a virology professor at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
. . .
"Obviously, Ontario is the only place in the world at the moment with that capacity because of the fact they're dishing out so many doses of flu [vaccine] during an average season."

Many American states have already run short of vaccine, and flu shots can be expensive, a potential barrier for many people.

It was a long and successful campaign (hey, I didn't finish in last place), but Resonance apparently came up short in its bid for a 2003 Weblog Award. There's a rumor going around that Diebold tallied the votes. But I've magnanimously decided not to challenge the results in court.

Congratulations to Busy Mom Blog for being voted best Flappy Bird.

It took less than one day for the fertile grounds of speculation--talk radio--to come up with alternative theories on Saddam's capture. One of them is that Saddam was being held by a third party--perhaps in the spider hole--prior to being turned over to U.S. custody. Someone may have caught him earlier and made a deal to turn him over.

I have no idea what actually happened leading up to the capture--only the people directly involved do. But you may recall this curious story I linked to a week ago (via BuzzFlash):

"LaHood: Hussein's Capture Imminent"

U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood held his thumb and forefinger slightly apart and said, "We're this close" to catching Saddam Hussein.

Once that's accomplished, Iraqi resistance will fall apart, said the five-term Republican congressman from Peoria who serves on the House Intelligence Committee.

A member of The Pantagraph editorial board -- not really expecting an answer -- asked LaHood for more details, saying, "Do you know something we don't?"

"Yes I do," replied LaHood.

God reveals his will to David Frum on Mount Sinai:

For now, let�s say that while the President�s opponents have made much sport of the idea that God called George Bush to the presidency, it�s becoming increasingy [sic] difficult to doubt that God wants President Bush re-elected.

Iraq's Ambassador Representative to the U.S. Rend Al-Rehim--who, incidentally, hasn't actually lived in Iraq since 1978--was on CNN's "Late Edition" yesterday and gave this indication of her relative standing on the totem pole:

BLITZER: When were you personally informed what was going on [Saddam's capture]?

AL-RAHIM: 6:00 a.m. this morning.

BLITZER: Who called you?

AL-RAHIM: I got a call from my mother in Beirut, who said that she has been sitting by the phone for three hours, waiting to call me. And soon after that, I started getting calls from Baghdad, as well, and from around the U.S., people -- Iraqis mostly -- calling to congratulate.

An autonomous Iraqi government is just around the corner.

In an effort to marginalize opponents of the Iraq war, many hawks have attempted to make the war a referendum on Saddam Hussein. That is, they've attempted to frame the debate in such a way that one's position on the war translates into one's position on Saddam: if you oppose the war, you're in favor of Saddam ruling Iraq; if you support the war, you're anti-Saddam.

Predictably, many have been using yesterday's capture of Saddam Hussein as another opportunity to pull out the pro-dictator card. Even Senator Lieberman got in on the action:

This news also makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a more dangerous place.

The issue has been whether cost of conquering Iraq (both in American lives and money) is worth the benefits to America. Thus far the costs have been evident, while the benefits haven't been.

Let's take this logic to its natural conclusion. Earlier this year David Wallechinsky had a feature in Parade magazine listing "The 10 Worst Living Dictators":

1. Kim Jong Il�North Korea (Age 61, in power since 1994)
2. King Fahd & Crown Prince Abdullah�Saudi Arabia (Ages 80 & 79, inpower since 1982 & 1995, respectively)
3. Saddam Hussein�Iraq (Age 65, in power since 1979)
4. Charles Taylor�Liberia (Age 55, in power since 1977)
5. Than Shwe�Burma (Age 70, in power since 1992)
6. Teodoro Obiang Nguema�Equatorial Guinea (Age 60, in power since 1979)
7. Saparmurad Niyazov�Turkmenistan (Age 62, in power since 1990)
8. Muammar al-Qaddafi�Libya (Age 60, in power since 1969)
9. Fidel Castro�Cuba (Age 76, in power since 1959)
10. Alexander Lukashenko�Belarus (Age 48, in power since 1994)

Message to hawks: just because a person isn't in favor of marching around the globe invading countries doesn't mean that he or she supports the conduct of their tyrants.

"Saddam's Capture May Aid Bin Laden Search":

"This is obviously good news for the people of Iraq who suffered for so long under Saddam's tyrannical regime and it is a warning to all the other outlaws who are at large like bin Laden, Mullah Omar and (renegade warlord) Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who hopefully sooner or later will be brought to justice," Omar Samad, a spokesman for the Afghan Foreign Ministry, told The Associated Press.

Will Saddam reveal secrets?

The official is doubtful that the U.S. will get a significant amount of intelligence from Saddam�s interrogations. "I would be surprised if he gave any info," he said.

When asked "How are you?" said the official, Saddam responded, "I am sad because my people are in bondage." When offered a glass of water by his interrogators, Saddam replied, "If I drink water I will have to go to the bathroom and how can I use the bathroom when my people are in bondage?"

The bad Redskins season reached a new low with the 27-0 home loss to Dallas. I'm not the only one wondering if the $5 million/year Spurrier experiment investment is paying off:

Spurrier came into the NFL with the reputation of being an "offensive genius" in college, yet the Redskins (5-9) entered ranked 22nd in offense and this was their worst performance yet.

By the way, whoever had this guy on their fantasy team probably wishes they didn't:

PASSING ATT YDS INT TDS
T Hasselbeck 6-26 56 4 0

That's one of the lines I recall seeing.

Okay, so that doesn't work quite as well as Chunnel. But planning is in the works for another big dig:

Plans for a rail tunnel between Africa and Europe have taken a step forward with the agreement by Spain and Morocco on a programme of engineering tests. Machines could be digging under the Strait of Gibraltar in five years.

The Spanish transport ministry said �27m (�19m) would be invested over the next three years in a geological survey of the rocks between Punta Paloma, on the south-western coast of Spain near Tarifa, and Punta Malabata, near the Moroccan city of Tangier.

A decision whether to start digging will be made in 2008.

The tunnel would be 24 miles long, of which 17 miles would lie under the fast-moving waters of the strait.

Some government officials and and other leaders experience a taste of their own medicine:

Officials who attended a world Internet and technology summit in Switzerland last week were unknowingly bugged, said researchers who attended the forum.

Badges assigned to attendees of the World Summit on the Information Society were affixed with radio-frequency identification chips (RFIDs), said Alberto Escudero-Pascual, Stephane Koch and George Danezis in a report issued after the conference ended Friday in Geneva. The badges were handed out to more than 50 prime ministers, presidents and other high-level officials from 174 countries, including the United States.
. . .
RFID chips track a person's movement in "real time." U.S. groups have called for a voluntary moratorium on using the chips in consumer items until the technology and its effects on privacy and civil liberties are addressed.

Guess what goes around, comes around. I don't know if in this instance any kind of individual data was actually collected. But if the attendees were unaware of the chips, this kind of episode should make them more sensitive to privacy concerns.

Via Slashdot.

"Saddam Hussein Captured"

Saddam Hussein, Iraq's deposed leader, was last night found by US forces at the bottom of a hole near his home town of Tikrit, it was announced today.

Without a shot being fired, members of the US army's 4th infantry division and special forces closed in at 8.30pm yesterday local time (1730 GMT) on a small walled farming compound 10 miles south of the city where they discovered the hiding place.

Video footage of Saddam's medical inspection after he was pulled from the hole showed a dishevelled figure with unkempt dark hair and a thick beard that had become grey.

The drama continues.

All is not quiet on that other front:

Attacks in Afghanistan have begun to emulate those in Iraq: suicide bombings, which are not a traditional Afghan approach; similar types of explosive devices set off by remote control; missile attacks from longer range; and the targeting of foreign aid organisations and the UN.
. . .
One of the most worrying developments has been the systematic killing of aid workers, now totalling 15. Colonel Mike Griffiths, the commander of the British troops in Afghanistan, told The Independent: "There is no doubt. There are now indications of methodology transfer from Iraq. Some of the things we have seen in Iraq, we are beginning to see here."

Eighteen months after the fall of their Islamist regime, the Taliban and their al-Qa'ida allies are resurgent, while the forces of the Kabul government are in retreat in large swaths of the south and east. The deputy governor of Zabul admits most of his province is now in Taliban hands, officials report that the situation is much the same in neighbouring Oruzgan, while about half the territory in Kandahar has slipped out of government control. In the dusty town of Spin Boldak close to the border with Pakistan in the east, where the Taliban was born, black and green flags celebrate its rebirth.

American forces in Afghanistan and the multinational International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) have come under fire more times in the past three months than the previous 15. This year, 25 American and Isaf soldiers have been killed and 28 injured. The number of Afghans, allied and enemy, killed, according to the US military, is "several thousand". More than 400 Taliban fighters were said to have been killed in September.

"It's not working," he said, referring to the rising number of Taliban attacks that have killed 300 Afghans, including 100 policemen and 13 aid workers, this year. "It's working against them."

I hope the foreign troops are comfy in Kabul.

Apparently Strom may not have been as committed a segregationist as one might assume:

A 78-year-old retired schoolteacher is coming forward after years of silence to claim she is the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, her attorney said Saturday.

Essie Mae Washington-Williams, who lives in Los Angeles, had long been rumored to be the daughter of the one-time segregationist, who died June 26 at the age of 100. She is coming forward now at the urging and encouragement of her children, attorney Frank K. Wheaton said.
. . .
Williams claims Thurmond fathered her long before his political career started, when he was a 22-year-old living in his parents' home in Edgefield, S.C. Her mother, then 16, had been working as a maid in the Thurmonds' home.

If challenged by the Thurmond family, Williams is ready to submit to DNA tests, Wheaton said.

Williams said she has documents to validate her claim, including cashier's check stubs, mementos from Thurmond and a letter from an intermediary who delivered money from the senator. She provided the Post with a copy of a 1998 Thurmond letter thanking her "for the nice Father's Day note you sent me."

I wasn't there, but South Knox Bubba was and files a report.

You listen to some of the rah rah Wall Street talking heads and you'd think we're on the verge of an unprecedented employment boom. Stephen Roach isn't convinced:

The spin-meisters are hard at work proclaiming the long awaited healing of the US labor market. Jobs have now been up for four months in a row, and many of the so-called leading indicators of future employment growth -- jobless claims, work schedules, and purchasing managers� hiring intentions -- are flashing green. And so the verdict has been rendered: At long last, the great American hiring machine is finally shifting gears -- marking a critical turning point for the US economy on the road to sustainable recovery.

I don�t buy it. As I read the US labor market, there is still compelling evidence of a fundamental breakdown in the time-honored relationship between aggregate demand and employment. While it seems that the worst of the layoff carnage is over in the aggregate -- at least for the time being -- this recovery bears no relationship whatsoever to the classic hiring-led upturns of the past.
. . .
There seems to be a real disconnect between the actual numbers on the hiring front and the impressions that have been formed in financial markets. Total nonfarm payrolls have expanded by only 328,000 workers over the August to November 2003 period -- an average of 82,000 per month. That�s far short of the pace of job creation that normally occurs at this stage in a business cycle recovery -- somewhere in the range of 250,000 to 300,000 per month. Yet many have been quick to interpret the recent modest pickup in hiring as a sign that Corporate America is finally breaking the shackles of risk aversion and emerging from the funk of recent years. The mix of recent hiring trends tells a very different picture. It turns out that fully 84% of the total increase in nonfarm payrolls over the August to November period is traceable to hiring in four segments of the labor market -- the temporary staffing industry, health, education, and government -- where combined jobs have increased by 68,000 per month. In other words, the bulk of the so-called hiring turnaround since August has been concentrated in either the contingent workforce (temps) or in those industry groupings that are least exposed to global competition. This hardly speaks of a US business sector that has consciously made an important transition from downsizing to expansion. It merely reflects the fact that scale is increasing in the most sheltered and least productive segments of the economy.

Those trends stand in sharp contrast to employment conditions in those segments of the economy that are most exposed to tough competitive pressures. Over the past four months, jobs have continued to decline in manufacturing, the information sector (i.e., telecom, publishing, data processing, and broadcasting), wholesale distribution, and finance and insurance. Moreover, at the same time, employment growth has been anemic in transportation and warehousing and in a broad array of professional and business services other than temps (i.e., legal, computer systems design, management consulting). Collectively, these �exposed� segments of the economy employ about 47 million workers, or 36% of the total nonfarm workforce. Over the August to November time period, jobs in this large collection of industries have contracted, on average, by 20,000 per month.
. . .
This jobless recovery has just celebrated its second anniversary. Never in the modern-day history of the US business cycle has there been such a profound shortfall of hiring. For months we�ve been hearing that�s about to change. The recent sharp acceleration in the US economy, in conjunction with a modest improvement on the overall hiring front in the past four months, have led most to believe that an old-fashioned hiring-led recovery is just around the corner. Don�t bet on it. The global labor arbitrage tells me there�s something new and big going on that will continue to defy the optimistic spin that is now being put on a still very sluggish American labor market.

Uh oh:

The strength of the Earth's magnetic field has decreased 10 percent over the past 150 years, raising the remote possibility that it may collapse and later reverse, flipping the planet's poles for the first time in nearly a million years, scientists said Thursday.

At that rate of decline, the field could vanish altogether in 1,500 to 2,000 years, said Jeremy Bloxham of Harvard University.

Hundreds of years could pass before a flip-flopped field returned to where it was 780,000 years ago. But scientists at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union cautioned that scenario is an unlikely one.

Good luck.

This story ran yesterday but is worth noting:

US plans to create a new Iraqi army have suffered a setback after hundreds of recruits resigned.

The army's first 700-man battalion lost 300 troops who were within weeks of being deployed, Pentagon officials say.

The battalion is the only one trained so far for what is eventually hoped to be a 40,000-strong force.

Funny I haven't heard much about this in the liberal, everything-is-crumbling-in-Iraq media.

Via a Daily Kos reader, here's an interesting political map which divides the U.S. into ten political regions.

I think this regional approach, with its detailed descriptions, is more illuminating than the typical blue/red state breakdown.

From the e-mail bag. Which of these shows doesn't fit in the list?

After a great week of profiles in the Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, and great interviews on ABC "World News Tonight," CNN's "Crossfire" and ESPN2's "Cold Pizza," Edwards' Sweeps Week continues Sunday on the top-rated television newsmagazine, "60 Minutes"!

Let's hope Edwards has saved his best stuff for "60 Minutes." Tune in on Sunday.

For whatever reason, I had been nearly uneffected by the weblog spamming . . . until today.

I'd like to thank the person from IP Address 62.213.67.122 for your many, many contributions.

Making lemonade from lemons, some of the comments are kind of amusing:

• Don't worry that other people don't know you; worry that you don't know other people.


• Be wiser than other people if you can; but do not tell them so.


• Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.


• Believing in God does not require believing in religion.


• There was no immunity to cuckoo ideas on Earth.


• All sentences that seem true should be questioned.


• A stopped car does not imply a dead driver.


• Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can.


• The public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius.


• Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped.


• Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right.


• Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.


• I do not fear computers. I fear lack of them.


• For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.


• Ain't no disgrace to be poor - but might as well be.


• It's not all lies - not all of it. That's the age-old dilemma.


• A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.


• The best solution against abortions is education, not snipers.


• [In] mourning, it is better to err on the side of grief than on the side of formality.


• People are exponentially funnier when they're in rant mode.


• An unimportant door is never locked.


• Buildings burn. People die. But real love is forever.


• The fear of death is the beginning of slavery.


• Underestimation is a two-way street.


• If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not understand, things are as they are.

There's buzz about an unelectable presidential candidate going around.

"Student finds largest known prime number":

More than 200,000 computers spent years looking for the largest known prime number. It turned up on Michigan State University graduate student Michael Shafer's off-the-shelf PC.

"It was just a matter of time," Shafer said.

The number is 6,320,430 digits long and would need 1,400 to 1,500 pages to write out. It is more than 2 million digits larger than the previous largest known prime number.

Oink.

If you're ever a guest in an O'Reillyesque forum--as undoubtedly many readers here will be--here are some pointers.

While at Blah3, go ahead and take a look at "Stranger's Law."

One obvious safeguard to help address concerns about the Diebold voting machines would be to add voter-verified printouts to the process. Apparently Diebold isn't too keen on the idea, unless it can make a hefty profit:

An e-mail found in a collection of files stolen from Diebold Elections Systems' internal database recommends charging Maryland "out the yin-yang" if the state requires Diebold to add paper printouts to the $73 million voting system it purchased.

The e-mail from "Ken," dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a (Baltimore) Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system:

"There is an important point that seems to be missed by all these articles: they already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."

"Ken" later clarifies that he meant "out the yin-yang," adding, "any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."

The e-mail has been cited by advocates of voter-verified receipts, who say estimates of the cost of adding printers -- as much as $20 million statewide -- have been bloated.
. . .
State Board of Elections Administrator Linda H. Lamone told The Gazette last month that Diebold had given a preliminary estimate of $1,000 to $1,200 per machine to add printouts, or up to $20 million for the state's more than 16,000 machines. She said last week that she could not recall whether she got the figure from Diebold or media reports.
. . .
The issue of voter-verified paper receipts continues to gain momentum nationally, with California's secretary of state announcing that all electronic voting machines there must include paper printouts by 2006. The cost cited by one of Diebold's competitors, according to news reports, was about $500 a machine.

Via Atrios.

Despite supposed signs of an economic recovery, it may continue to be a long, hard slog for those seeking jobs in the high tech sector, says one study:

A separate UCLA study of the Bay Area economy, released simultaneously with the statewide forecast, said that slow recovery will be especially pronounced in the nine-county region. "It will be years, not months, before the Bay Area's economy regains its luster," the report cautions.

The subdued outlook reflects UCLA's assessment of the national economy. The university's forecasters expect moderate growth over the next few years, but few new jobs, a dynamic they have dubbed "the Twilight Zone economy."

Although the nation's output of goods and services is growing -- it rose at a sizzling 8.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter -- greater production is not translating into many more jobs. "Humans don't seem to be making all this stuff," UCLA economists quip.

[T]he most important explanation for slow job growth involves changing patterns of corporate hiring, especially in technology, the sector that dominates the Bay Area economy.

Technology hardware and software companies are already experiencing a rebound in demand for their products. But when companies add to their workforces to meet rising demand, they often hire in India or China rather than California.

The restaurant industry has gone on a hiring spree over the last four months, suggesting that broader gains in the job market could be on the way.

Since the beginning of August, the restaurant business, which includes everything from McDonald's to corner bars to four-star restaurants, has accounted for 18 percent of the 300,000 jobs created in the nation.

Some economists say that an increase in low-wage jobs, which include most restaurant work, indicates that the job market over all will soon bounce back

Big Stupid Tommy has a "Festivus Edition" of the Volunteer Tailgate Party.

Speaking of which, there's been some discussion of Google Bombs, like this one.

Would this be a benign form of RTB search term rank manipulation?

A nice thought:

The Inuit people of Canada and Alaska are launching a human rights case against the Bush administration claiming they face extinction because of global warming.

By repudiating the Kyoto protocol and refusing to cut US carbon dioxide emissions, which make up 25% of the world's total, Washington is violating their human rights, the Inuit claim.

For their campaign they are inviting the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the Arctic circle to see the devastation being caused by global warming.
. . .
The Washington-based commission, which is the Americas' equivalent of the European court of human rights, will be asked to rule against the US government but has no power to enforce any action. However, the Inuit believe the publicity the case will provide, particularly with hearings in Washington, will embarrass George Bush's government and educate US public opinion about the consequences of profligate ways of living.

"Europeans understand this issue but in America the public know little or nothing and politicians are in denial," Mrs Watt-Cloutier said. "We are hunters and we are trained to go for the heart. The heart of the problem is in Washington."

If the Super Bowl, as usual, fails to live up to expectations, the evening need not be a total waste. For only $19.95 you can add scantily-clothed female players to your gridiron lineup during half time of the big game.

Nothing like some "good, clean fun."

Via Up For Anything, I took this presidential candidate selector test. The results are as follows:

1. Your ideal theoretical candidate. (100%)
2. Kucinich, Rep. Dennis, OH - Democrat (87%)
3. Dean, Gov. Howard, VT - Democrat (78%)
4. Edwards, Senator John, NC - Democrat (73%)
5. Clark, Retired General Wesley K., AR - Democrat (66%)
6. Gephardt, Rep. Dick, MO - Democrat (65%)
7. Kerry, Senator John, MA - Democrat (63%)
8. Sharpton, Reverend Al - Democrat (41%)
9. Lieberman, Senator Joe, CT - Democrat (39%)
10. Moseley-Braun, Former Senator Carol, IL - Democrat (31%)
11. LaRouche, Lyndon H. Jr. - Democrat (30%)
12. Libertarian Candidate (28%)
13. Bush, President George W. - Republican (14%)
14. Phillips, Howard - Constitution (3%)

Two candidates are clearly mislplaced here; I would vote for Senator Lieberman over Representatitve Kucinich. But apart from those two these results seem reasonably close.

Did you know the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has set up a website intended to prepare people for terrorist attacks at Ready.gov?

I didn't either.

Disturbing new allegations have surfaced regarding the 2003 Weblogs Awards election. According to reports, voters are experiencing confusion filling out their ballots, with some claiming they mistakenly voted for the wrong blog.

The controversy centers on the Flappy Bird portion of the ballot. When this section is viewed using Internet Explorer on some monitors, the punch holes buttons do not line up horizontally with the website names--a phenomenon reminiscent the infamous 2000 Florida butterfly ballot fiasco.

Two weblog candidates--Quibbles & Bits and Sebastian Holsclaw--which border Resonance, have apparently benefited from the ballot alignment problem. If you combine the misdirected votes from both those sites and add the votes to Resonance, it would currently be in first place.

The mess has prompted some voters to raise angry cries of disenfranchisement.

"I headed to the polls intending to vote for Resonance," said Margaret Hobbs, age 89, of Chicago. "But when I turned off my computer I had the sinking sensation I had voted for someone else. There was no way to go back and check."

"It's wrong," fumed Philadelphian Burt Moore. "Every vote should count."

"I want Resonance," cried Britney Ford, age 5, of Houston.

Analysis of early returns appeared to confirm the charges of voter confusion. University of Toronto election specialist Dr. Phil McGhee examined ballots from the Tennessee precinct and was surprised by his findings.

"I found an unusually high percentage of votes for Quibbles & Bits and Sebastian Holsclaw," said McGhee. "It just doesn't make sense given the high proportion of Rocky Top Brigade bloggers in the region. Something's up."

Election officials at Wizbang declined requests for interviews. But one source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they were aware of the display problem before the election. "Yeah, we know Internet Explorer sucks," he said. "But we simply didn't have the resources to produce a standardized ballot across all systems. The system isn't perfect."

Reaction was mixed at Resonance campaign headquarters. One angry staffer argued the situation could only be remedied with a re-vote using redesigned ballots. But officially the campaign sounded a more patient tone. "We are carefully monitoring the results and considering our options," said one campaign spokesperson. "And we have not ruled out any legal recourse. We want to make sure that every vote counts."

Voting for the Weblog Awards is scheduled to run through December 14.

Billmon has some great observations supplementing this Guardian piece.

Signal + Noise has the festivities. Plus a bunch of creepy insects.

Say Uncle posted on a revision to the official figures relating the start of the Bush recession. I thought it curious they are still revising data from three years ago. Then I read further:

Until now, statisticians at Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis believed the economy did not start shrinking until early 2001. But extensive revisions dating back to 1929, incorporating both improved statistics and changes to definitions, revealed a contraction in gross domestic product, or GDP, in the July-to-September quarter of 2000.

[Emphasis added]

Funny:

he Pentagon�s decision to formally bar companies from countries opposed to the Iraq war from bidding on 26 reconstruction contracts drew sharp criticism from some of those nations on Wednesday.

THE RULING BARS companies from U.S. allies such as France, Germany and Canada from bidding on those contracts - worth $18.6 billion - because their governments opposed the American-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein�s regime.
. . .
The directive from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, dated Friday and posted on a Pentagon web site Tuesday, limits bidders to firms from the United States, Iraq, their coalition partners and other countries which have sent troops to Iraq. It says restricting contract bids �is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States.�

This should make Iraqi reconstruction financing and debt forgiveness all the easier to sell in Europe.

It's tough singling out the worst programs, but in the sports category one of the leading contenders has to be those fictional "Match Up of the Millennium" productions ESPN broadcasts (e.g., 1977 Bucs v. 2001 Lions). I recommend you avoid watching them.

. . . up at Wizbang. You don't have to look far to find the worst of the worst.

Our principled leader takes a stand for democracy:

With visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at his side, President Bush sent a strong warning to Taiwan on Tuesday not to take any action toward independence that could cause new tensions with Beijing.

We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo," Bush said when asked about a planned March 20 vote in Taiwan on China. "And the comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally to change the status quo, which we oppose."

The planned March referendum, coupled with a changing international situation, has led Bush to speak in harsher tones to democratic Taiwan as he pursues a deeper relationship with authoritarian China, particularly on security issues.
. . .
The planned referendum would ask the people of Taiwan if the government should demand China's withdrawal of hundreds of missiles pointed at the island. U.S. officials believe the vote could push Taiwan closer to independence.

To some, it seemed incongruous for Bush to side with the unelected leaders of China instead of the elected leaders of Taiwan.

John Tkacik, an Asia expert at the Heritage Foundation, said it was inconsistent for Bush to deliver a pro-democracy foreign policy speech a month ago only to "tell people of Taiwan they can't elect a president who reflects their will."

John Ellis writes on Gore's endorsement of Dean in "Gore v. Clinton" (2008).

This is exactly the type of thing I was talking about. As Atrios correctly observes:

Anyone who thinks that Gore, or the DLC, or the DNC, or the Clinton Cabal, or whoever, is so organized and so powerful that they have control over events 4-5 years from now hasn't been paying too much attention.

I checked out the Resonance Ecosystem standings and see that a recent jump has vaulted this site into the ranks of the Adorable Little Rodents.

My assumption is that the inbound links from this URL and the previous address were combined during the recent data clean up (the other listing was deleted.)

Presumably this doesn't effect Resonance's eligibility in the Weblogs Awards. The campaign is starting to gain traction.

. . . they're trying to figure Americans out:

Pierre Bechard, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, said Millward Brown Goldfarb was paid $49,543 for the October report and focus groups. He said the findings will act as a base for the consulates to work to understand how much Americans understand about Canada and how they feel about their relationship with their northern neighbours.

Apparently, this report makes for some funny reading though:

Canadians should be careful not to appear "boastful" to Americans, who are insecure because of the war in Iraq and admit they are annoyed by northerners showing off the red maple leaf on their luggage when they travel, a recent federal report warns.
. . .
"Some participants expressed a certain amount of annoyance at what is perceived as a systematic attempt by Canadians to make the statement that they are not Americans by sporting the maple leaf," said the recently released report. "This underscores the American sensitivity at feeling rejected by the rest of the world. . . ."
. . .
The report says even Americans who blame the Bush administration to some extent for the country's poor relations with the world, do not seem to understand why friendly countries and neighbours such as Canada would want to distance themselves from Americans.

Howard Dean isn't the only Democratic candidate receiving endorsements:

A spokeswoman for Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, another early favorite of former President Clinton, took a lighter approach. In an email titled, "Yeah . . . but who is getting the Barkley endorsement?" An Edwards aide, Jennifer Palmieri, noted that basketball star Charles Barkley said in an interview with Jesse Ventura on MSNBC that the North Carolina Democrat is, so far, the only one to "float my boat."

More from the trial of charged cannibal Armin Meiwes:

Giving evidence in the trial of Armin Meiwes, the 42-year-old computer expert who killed and ate another man, federal investigator Wilfried Fehl yesterday said the gruesome case was not an isolated one.

His officers had discovered a flourishing cannibal scene in Germany, he said, involving middle-class professionals, as well as manual workers. "We are talking about dentists, teachers, cooks, government officials and handymen," he told the court, during the second day of Mr Meiwes' trial for murder.

He added: "These are people who come from the middle reaches of society."

As for Meiwes, he testified that he regrets not getting to know his victim better before stabbing and eating him. And e-mail evidence revealed that Meiwes admitted to a friend that he wanted to find another "victim" soon, because "flesh is everything."

If unnamed sources can be trusted, fundamentalist Christian Lieutenant General William "Jerry" Boykin is employing Israeli military "consultants" to help train U.S. special op forces how to fight Satanic Muslims.

Juan Cole calls this a boon for Al-Qaeda recruiting, just the kind of thing that helps us lose the "war on terror."

Everyone is weighing in with clever forecasts on what Gore's endorsement of Dean means in 2008, 2028, or whatever.

I could do the same and release some hot air here, because I don't know what it means either. But I think I'll pass.

Brad DeLong looks at the mathematics of genealogy.

Interesting research with a local angle:

FOR CENTURIES, experts have debated whether special varnishes or wood treatments were the secret to the instruments� rich resonance, which some consider superior to contemporary violins.

Now a tree-ring dating expert at the University of Tennessee and a climatologist at Columbia University offer a new theory � the wood developed special acoustic properties as it was growing because of an extended period of long winters and cool summers.

"It just amazed me that no one had thought of this before,� said Henri Grissino-Mayer. "The relationship between the violins, the trees that they were made from, the climate that existed when the trees grew and how it affected wood density to create a superior tonal quality."
. . .
Grissino-Mayer at Tennessee and Lloyd Burckle at Columbia suggest a �Little Ice Age� that gripped Europe from the mid-1400s until the mid-1800s slowed tree growth and yielded uncommonly dense Alpine spruce for Antonio Stradivari and other famous 17th-century Italian violinmakers.

The ice age reached its coldest point during a 70-year period from 1645 to 1715 known as the Maunder Minimum, which was named after the 19th-century solar astronomer, E.W. Maunder, who documented a lack of solar activity during the period.
. . .
Grissino-Mayer developed a 500-year chronology, from 1500 to the present, for 16 high-elevation forests of larch, spruce and pine in five countries from western France to southern Germany. He discovered an unprecedented period of slow growth from 1625 to 1720 characterized by compact, narrow tree rings.

"We would suggest that the narrow tree rings that identify the Maunder Minimum in Europe played a role in the enhanced sound quality of instruments produced by the Cremona (Italy) violinmakers,� Grissino-Mayer and Burckle write, noting that �narrow tree rings would not only strengthen the violin but would increase the wood�s density."

Merry Christmas:

Citing the improving economy, Republicans decided Monday against extending federal unemployment benefits before Congress leaves for the year. Democrats said it would mean a joyless Christmas for tens of thousands of jobless Americans.

"It's almost inconceivable to me that Republican leaders are poised to play the Grinch again," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California.

Democrats raised the benefits issue Monday in a vain effort to block a vote on a $373 billion spending bill for the 2004 budget year, the House's final major act before it ends this congressional session.

Federal unemployment benefits, which supplement state payments to the jobless, have been extended three times since March 2002. Without legislative action, they will be phased out beginning Dec. 21.

If constitutional protections fail, it's on us to explicitly state that we don't want politicians meddling with our bodies. Carl Hiaasen helps out by providing a sample model will:

I, _________________________ (fill in the blank), being of sound mind and body, unequivocally declare that in the event of a catastrophic injury, I do not wish to be kept alive indefinitely by artificial means.
. . .
Under no circumstances -- and I can't state this too strongly -- should my fate be put in the hands of peckerwood politicians who couldn't pass ninth-grade biology if their lives depended on it.
. . .
2. Under no circumstances shall the members of the Legislature enact a special law to keep me on life-support machinery. It is my wish that these boneheads mind their own damn business, and pay attention instead to the health, education and future of the millions of Floridians who aren't in a permanent coma.

3. Under no circumstances shall the governor of Florida butt into this case and order my doctors to put a feeding tube down my throat. I don't care how many fundamentalist votes he's trying to scrounge for his brother in 2004, it is my wish that he plays politics with someone else's life and leaves me to die in peace.

4. I couldn't care less if a hundred religious zealots send e-mails to legislators in which they pretend to care about me. I don't know these people, and I certainly haven't authorized them to preach and crusade on my behalf. They should mind their own business, too.

Via Notes from Atlanta.

Yet one more item on the holiday "to-do" list:

Japan's cosmetic surgeons are preparing for a holiday rush as patients seek temporary nips and tucks to greet the new year.

The country's largest clinics say they expect a surge in patients seeking minor procedures.

"We get a lot of patients toward the end of the year because people want to get rid of the things they don't like about their faces and feel refreshed before moving on to a new year," said Shin Saito, a spokesman for the nationwide chain Otsuka Academy of Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery. The benefits last for about six months.

Kerry queries:

"When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, `I'm against everything?' Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did."

Of course the White House language police had to respond with their humor:

The expletive drew a rebuke from White House, which suggested an apology might be in order.

"That's beneath John Kerry," the president's chief of staff, Andrew Card, said on CNN's "Late Edition."

"I'm very disappointed that he would use that kind of language," Card said. "I'm hoping that he's apologizing at least to himself, because that's not the John Kerry that I know."

Resonance is on the ballot in Wizbang's 2003 Weblog Awards for Best Flappy Bird, and the campaign has gotten off to a slow start. Consequently, to rev things up we are unveiling our ambitious blog platform. Here's where Resonance stands on the issues:

• Pro-Ornithology: Resonance is a big fan of birds. We can identify at least a handful of birds without referring to a bird guide.


• Strengthening Education: Resonance supports efforts to educate America's youngest and dumbest. Students are encouraged to come here and learn.


• Blogosphere Security: Resonance is in favor of a secure blogosphere, free from hacker attacks.


• No New Taxes: Resonance opposes the initiation of any new blog taxes.


• Term Limits: Resonance supports term limits. If voted best Flappy Bird, Resonance will not seek a second term next year.


• Freedom from Special Interests: Resonance has no Google Ads or tip jars. Remember, you get what you pay for.


• Fighting the War on Terror: Resonance doesn't blogroll any known Al Qaeda websites.


• Tort Reform: Resonance opposes the filing of frivolous lawsuits against bloggers.


• Pro-Environment: Resonance is an environmentally-friendly weblog. We encourage the use of green power to read this site.


• Privacy: Resonance is in favor of personal privacy. No e-mail addresses are collected and sold by the managers of this website. Resonance opposes the monitoring of this website by the Department of Justice.


• Supporting Our Troops: Resonance supports American troops. Resonance is open 24/7 for troops worldwide to read.


• Improving Blog Communities: Resonance endorses the formation of blog communities such as the Rocky Top Brigade.


• Facilitating Civil Discourse: Resonance has a people-powered comments feature which allows readers to calmly discuss issues with one another.


• In God We Trust: Resonance is a Christian weblog, in harmony with America's heritage. No Jews, Muslims, Atheists, or other ungodly here.


• Pro-Ten Commandments: Resonance supports the right of every American to post the ten commandments . . . in the church of his or her choice.


• Strengthening American Families: Resonance is a family-friendly website which features no pornographic images, online gambling, or inappropriate language. Granny and junior can join in the fun.


• Compassion: Resonance feels your pain when your computer screws up.


• Flag Friendly: No American flags have been burned during the making of this website.


• Pursuing the American Dream: Resonance welcomes new immigrants into the American melting pot.  Hola, readers.


• Soaring Over the Competition: Those competitor websites are miserable failures. This site is much better.


• Pro-Peace, Prosperity, Happiness, College Football Playoff, Christmas: For those things.


• Anti-Hunger, Cancer, Homeliness, Child Porn: Against those things.

Meteor Blades at Daily Kos examines the administration's possible agenda in announcing a plan for a renewed manned lunar spacecraft program.

This is proposal is worth watching very closely. For odds are it will be a veiled effort to further militarize space with more unproven defense industry boondoggles.

Slowly, but surely, English changes. And while for the most part my 15-year-old dictionary is perfectly useful, there are instances in which it simply doesn't cut it any more.

Languagehat (via Electrolite) says it's "e-mail," which, due to its meaning and pronunciation, is the form I prefer anyway. But I wonder which version will be king ten years from now.

The more the new Medicare bill gets dissected, the uglier the picture looks--except, of course, for the drug companies. Tully at Centerfield has the latest.

. . . in the Knoxville News Sentinel's latest RTB story:

"With the latest round of additions, I tallied up the RTB bloggers by political orientation. As I reported on my blog, by my count, we have 32 wingnuts (43.2 percent), only 19 moonbats (25.6 percent), and 23 people (34.2 percent) who either just don't care or have, like, an actual life and stuff to talk about.

"It looks like us moonbats are going to have to work that much harder to increase our signal to wingnut noise ratio, or maybe get a life."

Memo to FCC: We're juicing up the Resonance signal strength!

. . . at Wizbang's 2003 Weblog Awards.

There are a number of RTB blogs on the ballots, including five Flappy Birds! Divide and conquer? That's one way of attempting to defeat the RTB.

Vote early and often.

Senator Edwards takes fires the latest shot at Diebold:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on President Bush to return more than $100,000 donated to his campaign by a major manufacturer of voting machines, saying the relationship could damage confidence in elections.

Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, criticized the contributions by Walden O'Dell, head of Diebold Election Systems in a speech prepared for delivery Saturday to Florida Democrats at their annual meeting in Lake Buena Vista.

And he took a swipe at the touch screen voting machines made by Diebold, which some computer experts have questioned as lacking adequate security. Diebold officials have defended the security of their voting machines.

"We now have touch screen voting machines that some people think are just as bad as a butterfly ballot," Edwards said, referring to the confusing ballots that became notorious in the botched Florida election in 2000.

"What makes this worse is that one of George W. Bush's fund-raising Pioneers said he wanted to help Ohio 'deliver' its electoral votes to George Bush," Edwards said.

Edwards said that "people who make voting machines need to be real careful when they talk about delivering elections."

A couple weeks ago Say Uncle raised a question on whether driving was a "right" or a "privilege." A few days prior to that, the right/privilege distinction had been raised in my mind when I read this quote, courtesy of Condoleezza Rice:

The US National Security Adviser seemed confident that the Bush trip will go well and insisted that Bush and Blair still share the same vision. 'Look, we are realistic,' she said. 'We know that people will spend a lot of time reporting the protest. That is fine. Protests are a part of our democratic heritage and our democratic privilege.'

This may seem like semantical nitpicking, but there is a notable difference between a right and a privilege. Black's Law Dictionary defines the terms as follows:

RIGHT: "Rights are defined generally as 'powers of free action.' And the primal rights pertaining to men are enjoyed by human beings purely as such, being grounded in personality, and existing antecedently to their recognition by positive law."

PRIVILEGE: "A particular and peculiar benefit or advantage enjoyed by a person, company, or class, beyond the common advantages of other citizens. An exceptional or extraordinary power or exemption. A peculiar right, advantage, exemption, power, franchise, or immunity held by a person or class, not generally possessed by others."

The First Amendment clearly addresses the first question:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As for the second, courts also consider freedom to travel to be a right. However, the verdict appears to be mixed on whether the freedom to drive is a right or not. I'm frankly not sure how to categorize it.

It's important to be vigilant on how those in power attempt to define our rights. For, as Benjamin Franklin said, "It is the first responsibility of any citizen to question authority."

Anyone know what happened to Thomas at Newsrack Blog?

According to Site Meter, visits to this weblog during November increased 50% over the October total. Thanks to everyone who has been stopping by. And a special thanks to the folks here and here for making this growth rate possible. I sometimes feel for all the people who click on search results link with such high hopes . . . only to end up here. 8^)

Speaking of Google, not everyone is happy with the company these days:

Many businesses are angry that changes to the Google search engine have made it difficult for customers to find them.

For internet businesses - or any company trading online - it's vital that they can be found easily through web search engines.

The search engine operators want users to get the most accurate results, so websites must often comply with exacting rules.

But Google's changes have puzzled computer users - no-one can work out what they are or why they have been made.
. . .
"How it works is a bit of a mystery - it's like knowing what goes into a can of Coca-Cola," says Andrew Craig of Webuser Magazine.

"People are constantly trying to guess what's going on inside Google and trying to manipulate their sites so their ranking is as high as possible."

If you haven't seen it yet, " Twenty Most Annoying Conservatives of 2003" is a good read.

There's a lot of media buzz about President Bush's supposed upcoming announcement about another manned venture to the moon. Today's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" had a representative cable news segment with a couple interesting highlights:

KING: The administration review includes setting a target for retiring the shuttle fleet, a plan to phase out the International Space Station, picking a new space vehicle for manned flights, debating the costs and benefits of a permanent moon base, and developing a proposal for a mission to Mars.

NASA is urgently debating and refining proposals. And Vice President Cheney is consulting key members of Congress.

SEN. SAM BROWNBACK (R), KANSAS: Great countries need to have visions to pull them on forward.

KING: The last moon flight was 31 years ago, December 1972. Sources tell CNN, NASA's target for returning to the moon is about 15 years from now.

BROWNBACK: You've got the Chinese now going into space and saying that they're interested in going to the moon. We don't want them really to beat us to the moon. And, instead, we'd rather be there and be able to develop the resources, the areas, the sweet spots for observation.

NBC found more interesting downloads on a purported Al Qaeda website:

The tape appears to be real, because it was posted late Wednesday night on a known al-Qaida Web site � produced by a company that has made other bin Laden tapes.

The tape also contains what U.S. counterterror experts say may be never-before-broadcast video of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York�s World Trade Center shot from across the East River in Brooklyn. The FBI says it is familiar with the video, which was provided by a friendly bystander.

But that raises the question � how did a tape that was not widely circulated end up on a known al-Qaida site?

Someone should have ordered a happy meal:

A McDonald's customer who flew into a violent rage when she was denied mayonnaise on her cheeseburger was convicted Wednesday of felony assault for running over the restaurant's manager.

Waynetta Nolan, 37, faces up to 20 years in prison for hitting Sherry Allen Jenkins with her car, dragging the employee across the parking lot and breaking her pelvis.

In the middle of the lunchtime rush, the longtime McDonald's employee had briefly stepped into the drive-through lane to take down the disruptive customer's license plate number when Nolan's sedan lunged forward, witnesses said.

Witnesses said 43-year-old Jenkins screamed, "Stop! Please stop!" as she was thrown from the car hood, caught between the wheels and scraped along the pavement.
. . .
The incident began when an 18-year-old employee working at the drive-through window told Nolan mayonnaise was not an option on McDonald's cheeseburgers. When Nolan became angry, she was encouraged to pull her car around to the window counter and speak to the manager.

Witnesses said Nolan cursed and threw a cheeseburger back though the drive-through window.

When Jenkins offered a special-order cheeseburger with mayonnaise, witnesses said, Nolan complained her french fries had grown cold. After receiving new fries, she then demanded a new drink.

Unable to pacify the belligerent customer, Jenkins finally called police, who asked her to get the customer's license plate number.

After running over Jenkins, witnesses said, Nolan sped from the parking lot and drove into oncoming traffic on a one-way feeder road. She was arrested at her home after a man who saw the assault followed her and reported her plate to police.

. . . to a dial tone:

The internal [Republican party] conflict, fueled largely by recent passage of the $78 billion Iraq reconstruction effort and the $400 billion prescription-drug benefit for senior citizens that squeaked through the House on Nov. 22, came to a head last week when President Bush abruptly terminated a phone conversation with a Florida Republican who refused his plea to vote for the landmark bill.

Well-placed sources said Bush hung up on freshman Rep. Tom Feeney after Feeney said he couldn�t support the Medicare bill. The House passed it by only two votes after Hastert kept the roll-call vote open for an unprecedented stretch of nearly three hours in the middle of the night.

Feeney, a former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives whom many see as a rising star in the party, reportedly told Bush: "I came here to cut entitlements, not grow them."

Sources said Bush shot back, "Me too, pal," and hung up the phone.

Often it's difficult to understand a controversy until both sides of the story have been flushed out, but this sounds disturbing:

A seventh-grade social studies teacher in Presque Isle who said he was barred from teaching about non-Christian civilizations has sued his school district, claiming it violated his First Amendment right of free expression.

Gary Cole of Washburn, a teacher at Skyway Middle School, sued School Administrative District 1 in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Cole alleged that complaints by "a small group of fundamentalist Christian individuals" led to the creation of a curriculum "which never mentions religions other than Christianity and never teaches the history of civilizations other than Christian civilizations."
. . .
"How can you explain the evolution of democracy in the Western world without talking about ancient Greece? He can't talk about all the influences of the Indian, Japanese or Chinese cultures."

Superintendent Gehrig Johnson said on Tuesday that he had not seen the lawsuit, but he noted that the curriculum has been "developed by teachers across the district and adopted by the SAD 1 School Committee."

"Teachers are expected to follow the curriculum," he added.

Cole's lawsuit alleges that the curriculum infringes on "his students' First Amendment rights to the free flow of information within the classroom" and that it "constitutes an illegal establishment of religion in violation of the First Amendment."
. . .
Greif [Cole's attorney] said Cole wasn't trying to teach anything unusual or anything that wasn't being taught in most seventh grades across the state. His lawsuit seeks injunctive relief to allow him to teach "the history of the entire Eastern Hemisphere, as appropriate."

Patrick Phillips, deputy commissioner of the Maine Department of Education, declined to comment on the specifics of the case but said school boards set the curriculum for each district and Maine's Learning Results "allow districts some degree of flexibility."

Via The Right Christians.

Not only was Bush photographed with a decorative bird during his Thanksgiving photo op, but it was also a Halliburton turkey:

Holiday Turns Iraq into Test Kitchen

Here�s something for culinary conspiracy buffs to feast on: President Bush�s surprise Thanksgiving dinner in Baghdad was provided by Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a division of Halliburton, the Houston oil conglomerate once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Aside from doing infrastructure repairs in Iraq, KBR is also contracted to feed U.S. Army troops there, and on Thanksgiving that included the commander in chief.

Visitors to Iraq who have sampled KBR�s menu at the Baghdad airport base, where the president dined, give it a modified thumbs up.

�It was good,� said Larry Korb of the Center for American Progress, who ate at the airport a month ago. �I broke my plastic knife on the meat once, but the food was good.�

So good apparently that it�s been reported Air Force personnel in Iraq are sneaking into Army mess tents to dine on KBR meals. The Air Force does its own catering.

Somewhat overshadowed by Bush�s Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad was the arrival the next day of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Jack Reed (D-R.I.). News photos of the two separate visits couldn�t have provided a better contrast in gastro-political styles.

There was Bush dressed in an Army jacket serving GIs turkey with all the trimmings. Clinton showed up in a power pantsuit and toured U.S. military facilities carrying a styrofoam cup of coffee.

Bizarre, twisted, insert your own description:

In one of the most extraordinary trials in German criminal history, the self-confessed cannibal [Armin Meiwes] admitted that he had met a 43-year-old Berlin engineer, Bernd Brandes, after advertising on the internet, and had chopped him up and eaten him.
. . .
n March 2001 Meiwes advertised on the internet for a "young well-built man, who wanted to be eaten". Brandes replied.

On the evening of March 9, the two men went up to the bedroom in Meiwes' rambling timbered farmhouse. Mr Brandes swallowed 20 sleeping tablets and half a bottle of schnapps before Meiwes cut off Brandes' penis, with his agreement, and fried it for both of them to eat.

Brandes - by this stage bleeding heavily - then took a bath, while Meiwes read a Star Trek novel.

In the early hours of the morning, he finished off his victim by stabbing him in the neck with a large kitchen knife, kissing him first.

The cannibal then chopped Mr Brandes into pieces and put several bits of him in his freezer, next to a takeaway pizza, and buried the skull in his garden.

Over the next few weeks, he defrosted and cooked parts of Mr Brandes in olive oil and garlic, eventually consuming 20kg of human flesh before police finally turned up at his door.

The accused, however, has a unique defence: that his victim actually agreed to be killed and eaten.

Crucial to the case is a gruesome videotape made by Meiwes of the entire evening, during which Brandes apparently makes clear his consent.

Atrios links to this charming letter to the editor:

Executions Would Halt Killings

We can stop the murders of American soldiers in Iraq by those who seek revenge or to regain their power. Whenever there is an assassination or another atrocity we should proceed to the closest mosque and execute five of the first Muslims we encounter.

After all this is a "Holy War" and although such a procedure is not fair or just, it might end the horror.

Machiavelli was correct. In war it is more effective to be feared than loved and the end result would be a more equitable solution for both giving us a chance to build a better Iraq for the Iraqis.

- EMORY METZ WRIGHT JR., M.D.

At any rate, I've even heard this idiocy on national radio. The other night I caught a few minutes of Michael Savage. His message, as I understood it, is that if any Middle East nation fails to heed our terrorism policies, we should start leveling its cities, World War II-style.

The scary thing is that there are people who actually believe that such mass murder would make the world safer.

From WorldNetDaily, take it for what it's worth:

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will appeal his removal from office by next Wednesday, he said in an interview with WorldNetDaily.

President Bush spoke today while signing the so-called "Healthy Forest Restoration Act." Here's an excerpt (emphasis added). [Bush decoder: forest stewards=logging companies]:

This Act of Congress sets the right priorities for the management of our nation's forests, focusing on woodlands that are closest to communities and on places where the risk to wildlife and the environment is the greatest. It enforces high standards of stewardship so that we can ensure that we're returning our forests to more natural conditions and maintaining a full range of forest types. It enables collaboration between community groups and private stewardship organizations and all levels of government before projects are chosen. This law will not prevent every fire, but it is an important step forward, a vital step to make sure we do our duty to protect our nation's forests.

Let me guess--nothing enhances the beauty of pristine tundra quite like oil derricks, nor does anything add to the glow of a summer sunset glow quite like a billowing smokestack.

Josh Marshall has a copy of Terry McAuliffe's letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft requesting an investigation of the Rep. Nick Smith bribery allegations.

McAuliffe closes his letter with the following paragraph:

Mr. Attorney General, your repeated unwillingness to uphold the law is creating a wild west atmosphere in the Capitol where rules and regulations mean nothing. Republican officeholders feel free to openly and repeatedly break the law. It is disgraceful that you have allowed your inaction to foster this kind of atmosphere. I am asking once again, that you put upholding the law ahead of partisanship and investigate this matter.

More rumors on the tightening noose:

"LaHood: Hussein's Capture Imminent"

First there was Link/Site MeterGate, now I find I am joined with the forces of "abject failure."

Is Rocky Top Brigade membership worth its price?

Gold prices have been on the rise since 2001, and they are approaching levels not seen since 1996.

Will the run continue?

"As fewer and fewer people have confidence in paper as a store of value, the price of gold will continue to rise." -- Jerome F. Smith

Brad DeLong notes new variations in Wall Street Journal writer Carlos Tejada's columns on Bush's steel tariffs.

I don't remember hearing those claims either.

CJ at Up For Anything wonders what someone wrote in his comments.

Meanwhile, I'm curious why someone called "KolioBalkanski" posted a link to one of my posts in a message board thread titled "za moite priateli - Canadski patrioti."

Check out a bunch of blogs:

"Carnival of the Vanities #63"

"Bonfire of the Vanities #22"

"Bush To Do Everything in Secret"

"Bush Re-Election Campaign Creates Thousands of New Jobs"

Also from The Onion:

Senate Votes 64-36, Not Sure On What

WASHINGTON, DC�The U.S. Senate voted 64-38 in favor of S. 546 Monday, despite the lack of any awareness of the bill's contents. "Wait a minute�S. 546?" asked Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), hurriedly shuffling through a stack of papers after hearing of the bill's passage. "I tend to just vote with Maria Cantwell [(D-WA)], but apparently, she just voted with Thomas Carper [(D-DE)]. Does anybody know what's in S. 546?! Oh, geez." Conrad said he isn't certain, but that he might remember someone mentioning something about the Bend Pine Nursery Land Conveyance Act.

I never got involved in the BlogShares game. And now it appears I never will:

"BlogShares: Closed Down"

• The Dagley Dagley Daily


• Smijer


• Voluntarily in China [Interestingly, although Tennessee Ruck may be the most far-flung RTBer, it turns out that he and I share some mutual acquaintances. Sometimes it seems like a small world.]

Welcome.

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean isn't my first choice for the nomination. But one of the things I appreciate about him is how he doesn't shy away from tough questions. He, as much as any other politician out there, seems willing to candidly answer questions rather than drifting into focus-group-tested talking points.

Take, for example, this exchange during last night's "Hardball with Chris Matthews":

MATTHEWS: When you went in to the draft board that day, were you hoping to get deferred?

DEAN: I was not looking forward to going to Vietnam.

MATTHEWS: Were you hoping to be deferred?

DEAN: Yes.

MATTHEWS: Thank you very much.

Via Eugene Volokh comes this insightful commentary:

State Rep. Ron Forster, who shares with White a district that includes sections of north Whitfield and Murray counties, said he is "absolutely" in favor of passing a law saying local governments may display the commandments.

"The Constitution only says the government shall not sponsor a religion," Forster, R-Ringgold, said.

Asked about opponents' argument that atheists or those who practice other religions feel they will be discriminated against when they see the commandments in government buildings, he said it "carries no weight."

If a judge or public official doesn't believe in God, "then that person is more likely to be corrupt," Forster said.

No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this state.

That's all the police have to wait for you to answer your door before they break it down to execute a warrant, at least when they're searching for drugs:

His case gave the court the opportunity to clarify how long police must wait before breaking into a home to serve a warrant. The court ruled 9-0 that a 20 second delay was ample, because any longer would give drug suspects time to flush evidence down the toilet.
. . .
[Writing for the court, Justice David H. Souter said] while "this call is a close one, we think that after 15 or 20 seconds without a response, police could fairly suspect that cocaine would be gone if they were reticent any longer."

Police seeking a stolen piano may be able to spend more time to make sure they really need a battering ram.

At any rate, if the police come to your home searching for drugs, you better hope you're not stuck in the shower.

Organizers of the Democratic National Convention are trying to make next year's gathering a better T.V. event:

The idea is to inject life into the otherwise predictable proceedings with fresh camera angles that create the appearance of an interactive event.
. . .
In previous conventions, the stage has been built at a side or an end of the arena, with cameras mounted on platforms directly opposite. But cameras are mobile enough to be moved into position as necessary, as they are at sporting events, officials said.

Under the theater-in-the-round idea, the stage would be built in the area that's center court for the Celtics and center ice for the Bruins, in a setup similar to one used in wrestling events and some concerts at the FleetCenter.

By putting the presidential nominee and other dignitaries in the center of the building, with exuberant delegates fanned out in every direction, planners are hoping to create more compelling television broadcasts. They hope to reverse the recent drop-off in coverage of national political conventions.

"These conventions have evolved," said Rod O'Connor, chief executive of the Democratic National Convention Committee. "I'm not sure that we don't need to take a look at the design of the convention, to take a look at what can be done differently. . . . We want to push the envelope in going through the design process."

Here's another: instead of putting together a highly-scripted event which showcases every single Democratic interest group, how about simply lining up good speakers who offer compelling messages.

Or is that too old-fashioned now?

Here.

It's not just a U.S. corporate phenomenon:

Yukos, the Russian oil giant, owes the government unpaid taxes totalling 150bn roubles ($5.05bn), Interfax news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a letter from the tax ministry.

The agency quoted from the letter that was addressed to the prosecutor general's office. Interfax said the letter alleged that the company owed the amount in unpaid taxes but said the text had not made it clear whether Yukos had broken the law.

Both the tax ministry and the prosecutor general's office declined to comment.

Yukos has said it used tax minimisation arrangements legally to keep tax bills low.

If Bob Novak's Thanksgiving column on Rep. Nick Smith can be believed, someone should be in trouble:

Marc Miller, a Washington attorney who advises clients on ethics issues, told Chatterbox that what Novak described not only looked like "a slam-dunk violation of the bribery law" but probably also included "a smorgasbord of other criminal violations." Rep. Smith, Miller said, "should really be sharing the specifics with the Justice Department."

Who would have thought?

Pop princess Britney Spears, aided by a publicity blitzkrieg, steamrollered to number one on the music charts on Wednesday, while a new album by scandal-plagued Michael Jackson failed to make the Top 10, the Nielsen Soundscan sales tracking service said.
. . .
To promote the album, the 21-year-old Spears has seemed omnipresent recently, posing scantily clad for magazine covers, appearing in several television interviews and causing a major stir by kissing Madonna during the MTV Video Music Awards.

AGEING playboy Jack Nicholson wants to bed Britney Spears � but says he is �too old� for sex.

The 66-year-old actor believes a romp with the singer, 22 today, would be "life-altering."

Who's telling the truth?

U.S. commanders said Monday they had killed up to 54 insurgents in the fiercest battle since Saddam Hussein's government fell nearly eight months ago, but townspeople disputed that claim, saying only about nine Iraqis were killed in the battle Sunday, most of them noncombatants.

At any rate, this isn't good:

"All the people in town today are asking for revenge," said Majid Fadel al-Samarai, 50, an emergency-room worker at the Samarra General Hospital who said he counted nine dead people at the hospital on Sunday. "They want to kill the Americans like they killed our civilians. Give me a gun, and I will also fight."

Wizbang! is currently taking nominations for its 2003 Weblog Awards. Kevin established 19 categories for nominees.

This is an opportunity to show some Rocky Top Brigade love.

If recent bombings in Iraq are a sign of "desperation," then what are highly-coordinated attacks evidence of?

Senator Chuck Hagel, one of a handful of "moderate" Senate Republicans who doesn't reflexively accept everything Karl Rove and Paul Wolfowitz trots out, wrote a recent editorial explaining why he voted against the Medicare reform bill. Hagel restates several typical objections to the bill: it favors special interests, lack of cost controls, confusing provisions, it isn't tailored to fix today's problems.

But the thing about this piece that caught my attention as much as anything was the title: "This Measure Will Not Strengthen Medicare."

Nearly every time there's a movement to change some program, politicians start talking about strengthening it. What does that mean? Does it mean anything?

The dictionary defines strengthen simply as "to make stronger" and more broadly as increasing the "capacity for exertion or endurance." I think one might reasonably infer from this that when politicians talk about strengthening Medicare, they're generally talking about extending the life or usefulness of Medicare.

So what does that mean? Given the direction of health care costs, the only way to prolong the life of government programs is to pour a bunch more money into them, which is one thing this Medicare bill does.

So why don't politicians simply say the bill pours a lot more money into Medicare?

Clearly Republicans don't want to run around bragging to their base how much they increased Medicare spending, because some voters don't like that. Furthermore, this bill isn't all about more spending; it also includes some provisions to privatize Medicare.

So why don't the politicians talk about how the bill attempts to privatize Medicare? Because many voters are basically happy with Medicare and don't want Congress to radically change it.

Since none of the things this bill does makes everyone happy, politicians don't want to describe what the bill actually does because that will alienate voters. So instead they use a nebulous term like strengthen in the hope that voters will individually project whatever meaning he or she wants upon this term. That way, everyone is happy.

Anyone in favor of strengthening our military?

It's back to the drawing board for Karl Rove:

The Bush administration has decided to repeal its 20-month-old tariffs on imported steel to head off a trade war that would have included foreign retaliation against products from politically crucial states, administration and industry sources said yesterday.

The officials would not say when President Bush will announce the decision but said it is likely to be this week. The officials said they had to allow for the possibility that he would make some change in the plan, but a source close to the White House said it was "all but set in stone."
. . .
Bush advisers said they were aware the reversal could produce a backlash against him in several steel-producing states of the Rust Belt -- including Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. That arc of states has been hit severely by losses in manufacturing jobs and will be among the most closely contested in his reelection race.