This blog's favorite artist has put up a store where you can purchase some of her wonderful artwork. So please, please, please stop by Erica's shop and buy as much magnificent stuff as possible.

An evening full of costumes and cops

t was the kind of night when Jesus and Superman were arrested for having liquor on the street.

Actually, there were three Supermen, all from out of town, so perhaps they didn't hear that city ordinance bans open intoxicants, even on State Street over Halloween weekend. And Jesus worried aloud to police that his credit card was "maxed out," and thus he would be unable to pay the bail required for out-of-state transgressors before release.

State Street sidewalks were swarming by 8 p.m. Saturday. By 9 p.m., Madison police reported 63 arrests, primarily citations for breaking city laws regarding open intoxicants, spokeswoman Emily Samson said.

The atmosphere was still festive early in the evening. Despite Saturday's much cooler weather - starting at around 50, but quickly dropping - compared to the 70s on Friday night, many of the costumed were scantily clad.

I put a cool image that was created using POV-Ray on the The Snooty Life. Check it out I'm going to try to create my own images using povray soon.

The so-called "falling paper" problem has long intrigued scientists. James C. Maxwell pondered the tumbling motions of playing cards in 1853. Why don't flat things fall straight down? Pieces of paper fall down, then rise into the air, then glide along, then again rise... It occurs in a seemingly chaotic manner. Now researchers at Cornell University have solved the falling paper problem by calculating the motions of a scientific journal page in flight and there were a few surprises." There's also a story in the Cornell Sun.

And for today's halloween the Ghost Head nebula:

Optical trap dates Egyptian water
Laser-based magneto-optical trap dates 500 000 year old Egyptian groundwater

How ridiculus is this:

Florida struggles to replace ballots

For once there was cross-party unity in this fractious election campaign.

But neither party was happy about it.

The Democrats and the Republicans were working together at the elections warehouse here in Broward County, frantically stuffing envelopes, sending absentee ballots to their supporters.

"It's a little unusual," admitted a frazzled election official, "but we need the help."

Broward County's elections supervisor, Brenda Snipes, admitted earlier this week that tens of thousands of absentee ballots had not reached the people who had requested them.

And the county had to enlist partisan political activists in a last-minute mailing campaign.

The lovely Erica has created a site for all her fantastic art work and you can find it here. Please stop by and check it out.

Ok this is just wierd:

Teeth affect memory: study

WHEN your dentist pulls an aching tooth they could be yanking out some of your memory at the same time, according to a new Swedish study to be presented in Stockholm tomorrow.

"Teeth appear to be of the utmost importance to our memories," Jan Bergdahl, an associate psychology professor at the Umeaa University in northern Sweden, a dentist and one of the authors of the study, said today.
For the study, which is part of a broader memory study called Betulastudien, researchers followed 1962 people aged 35 to 90 starting in 1988, comparing the memories of those who still had teeth and those who had pulled all their teeth and were using dentures.

"When people have no teeth their memories are clearly worse than when they have teeth," Mr Bergdahl said.

Erica's lovely arm

Bush Administration Attempts To Overturn Decades of Legal Precedence & Block Voting Rights Lawsuits From Voters Bush administration lawyers are now attempting to overturn decades of legal precedence by claiming that under the Help America Vote Act only Attorney General John Ashcroft -- and not individual voters - have a right to ask federal courts to enforce voting rights. [includes rush transcript]

Battle Grounded In Facts

With presidential elections a mere five days away, campaigns are pulling out all the stops this weekend in crucial battleground states. Citizens have been barraged by a confusing array of ads, polls and speeches. American Progress has created two maps that give you the facts on the cost of war and the environment in all 50 states. Here's a look at what's really been going on in key states on the economy, war in Iraq, health care and the environment over the past four years:

OHIO

IRAQ: Cost of the war in Iraq for Ohio taxpayers so far: $5.7 billion.

JOBS: The Bush administration projected 151,000 new jobs would be created in Ohio. As of September 2004, the economy had actually lost 18,200 jobs, a 169,200 job shortfall.

ENVIRONMENT: According to EPA consultants, "fine particle pollution from power plants shortens the lives of 1,743 Ohioans each year. Ohioans have the fourth highest risk in the country of dying from power plant pollution." The administration, however, has acted in the interests of power plants, ending legal action to force compliance with clean air standards and rolling back clean air standards for the oldest, dirtiest power plants.

POVERTY: More Ohioans slipped into poverty last year. According to the Columbus Dispatch, "about one in six children and nearly one in three households in Ohio headed by women were in poverty in 2003, both increases from the previous year." Cleveland was ranked the number one poorest city in the nation, with 31.3 percent of citizens living under the poverty line.

HEALTH CARE: The Ohio State Medical Association reports the number of uninsured Ohioans grew to more than 1.3 million in 2003.

TAXES: According to Citizens for Tax Justice, "between 2001 and 2006, Ohio taxpayers will receive $35.6 billion in tax cuts – but will face $145.7 billion in added federal debt, for a net added burden of $110.1 billion." And by 2006, 5 million Ohio taxpayers – 89 percent of all state residents – will receive less than $100 in tax cuts.

EDUCATION: A report commissioned by the Ohio Department of Education found President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act was underfunded for the Buckeye State. It costs Ohio "$1.4 billion more annually than it gets from the federal government for public education," leaving the cash-strapped state to make up the difference.

PENNSYLVANIA

IRAQ: The Bush administration has spent $6.3 billion of Pennsylvania taxpayers' money on the war in Iraq.

ECONOMY: In 2003, The Bush administration projected 142,800 new jobs in Pennsylvania. As of September 2004, the economy had actually created 37,100 new jobs, a 105,700 job shortfall. The state has been hit especially hard in the manufacturing sector, where Pennsylvania has shed 154,600 jobs, a decline of more than 18 percent. Average wages have also fallen. The state's job creation performance is the fourth worst since World War II.

POVERTY: Poverty in Pennsylvania increased substantially in the last year, especially for children. The share of children in poverty has jumped by a third (from 11.6 to 15.5 percent) from 2000 to 2003. The share of adults in poverty increased from 8.6 to 10.5 percent during the same period.

HEALTH CARE: "The growth among those without health insurance is increasing faster in Pennsylvania than it is nationally. According to recent U. S. Census figures, the percentage of people without health insurance coverage in Pennsylvania has grown from 10.3% in 2001-2002 to 11.4% in 2002-2003."

EDUCATION: Due to changes in the No Child Left Behind funding formula, Pennsylvania authorities "estimate that 507 of our 576 districts and charter schools will lose a portion of their Title I [Education] funding" in 2005. Pennsylvania authorities worry they will "lose an additional $9 million in other NCLB programs such as Reading First, Education Technology, Even Start, and Comprehensive School Reform." In May, "Superintendents from 171 school districts in 19 Western Pennsylvania counties…added a loud chorus to the protests against" the act. The school leaders "signed a position paper that they say addresses 'critical flaws' in the controversial federal education law, signed by President Bush in 2002."

FLORIDA

IRAQ: The cost of the war in Iraq for Florida taxpayers so far: $7.8 billion.

JOBS: Between June 2003 and September 2004, the Bush administration projected 327,900 new jobs in Florida. As of September 2004, the economy had created only 181,300 jobs, a 146,600 job shortfall.

ECONOMY: According to Citizens for Tax Justice, between 2001 and 2006, Florida taxpayers will receive $69.1 billion in tax cuts – but will face $216.6 billion in added federal debt because of the administration's inattention to the deficit. By 2006, 87 percent of all Floridians will receive less than $100 in tax cuts as a result of the latest Bush tax schemes.

VETERANS: There are 1.9 million veterans living in Florida. The National Priorities Project, however, reports the White House budget proposal underfunds Florida's veterans' health care facilities by at least $191.4 million.

POVERTY: Florida's poverty level is higher than the national average, with 12.7 percent of Floridians living in poverty. The situation is even worse for kids: 19.2 percent of Florida's children live below the poverty threshold.

HEALTH CARE: The State of Working Florida reports, in 2003, 18.2 percemt of Florida residents had no health insurance, "over 2.5% higher than the national average." The state was even worse in providing coverage to children – 14.5 percent have no coverage, tying Florida for fifth worst in the nation. The state's budget problems have been exacerbated by White House policies; Bush's 2005 budget proposed a 3 percent decrease in federal grants to states at the same time federal tax cuts meant a $16 billion decrease in state tax revenues.

Today's painting... I'm almost out of pictures.

Ok this is really fucked up.

Army Won't Give Soldier Paralyzed by Anthrax Vaccine Medical Discharge

A local soldier says he is a living example of why troops should not be forced to take the anthrax vaccination. Aaron Haycraft was paralyzed after getting the vaccine nearly two year ago.

Earlier this month NBC 15 News introduced you to Aaron Haycraft. The a former triathlete, mechanic and part-time college student is now confined to a wheelchair after his Kentucky Air National Guard unit was activated 19 months ago. The 23-year-old Daphne man says the military forced him to take an anthrax shot when he received orders to go to Iraq. Haycraft says he has seen dozens of Air Force personnel just like him who had allergic reactions to the vaccine.

"If they could allergy test everyone in the military to see if the shot is going to make them sick it would save a lot of people's lives," said Haycraft.

Isn't this cute?

I think this is pretty cool. Of course one day, after furthur modifications, the cats will take over.

Genetically Modified Cats for Sale

A California biotechnology company has started taking orders for a hypoallergenic cat for pet lovers prone to allergies.

The genetically engineered feline, which is expected to be available from 2007, is the first in a planned series of lifestyle pets, Los Angeles-based Allerca said in a press release.

Allerca hopes to attract customers among the millions of people worldwide who suffer from cat allergies.

Sunspots hit new highs
Analysis of carbon-14 in tree rings sheds news light on the Sun

WAL-MART – COMPANY OPPOSES HEALTH INSURANCE FOR WORKERS: Vice President Cheney's favorite company, Wal-Mart, is pulling out all the stops to block Proposition 72 on the California ballot, "a measure that will require employers to provide basic health insurance to workers." Besides spending $500,000 to aid opponents of the measure, AP reports that Wal-Mart is breaking a tradition of trying to stay out of politics by spending more than $2.4 million on California races this fall – "well beyond any previous sum the company has spent here in one year." Wal-Mart's big funding to block Proposition 72 came just one day after TV ads cited a study from a University of California research group estimating "California taxpayers spend $32 million a year providing health care to Wal-Mart workers."

MEDIA – U.S. GETS LOW MARKS FOR FREEDOM: Reporters Without Borders, a group that evaluates freedom of the press throughout the world, ranked the United States "22nd alongside Belgium and behind countries including Bosnia, France and Trinidad and Tobago on a media freedom index released this week." The report cited "violations of source confidentiality, persistent problems in granting press visas and the arrest of several journalists during anti-Bush demonstrations." Iraq ranked 148th and was described by the group as "the most deadly place on Earth for journalists in recent years."

MEDIA – RIGHT-WING ECHO CHAMBER 101: Even since the story broke three days ago that the administration failed to secure 380 tons of powerful explosives in Iraq, President Bush and his surrogates have been unable to stem the political damage. Enter the right-wing spin machine. This morning, the headline on the Drudge Report blares in 36-point font: Russia tied to Iraq's missing arms; Pentagon: Weaponry relocated before war. Drudge links to a story in the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Washington Times written by Bill Gertz. In that story, Gertz reports John A. Shaw, the deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology, "believes the Russian troops, working with Iraqi intelligence, 'almost certainly' removed the high-explosive material that went missing." On Fox and Friends this morning Fox News jumped all over the Russian rumors. Drudge, Gertz and Fox wildly distort the story – but unless you read the Financial Times, you might not realize it. Drudge's headline notwithstanding, "the Pentagon distanced itself from [Shaw's] remarks." Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita – who has enthusiastically embraced any theory that would exculpate the administration – when asked about Shaw's comments said, "I am unaware of any particular information on that point." Drudge and Gertz fail to mention that Shaw "has not provided evidence for his claims." Russia, through its U.S. embassy, "rejected the claims as 'nonsense', saying there were no Russian military in the country at the time."

Today's piece.

While I was driving today these are some of the stories I heard that I wanted to share.

INTERESTING:
Ancient, Tiny Humans Shed Fresh Light on Evolution
Bones found on the Indonesian island of Flores reveal a new species of human, a find that could rewrite the history of human evolution. About three feet tall when fully grown, Homo floresiensis lived as recently as 13,000 years ago.

APPALLING:
Hispanic Voter Registrations Challenged in Georgia
Listen
All Things Considered, October 27, 2004 · Three white residents in rural Georgia have challenged most Hispanic voter registrations in their precinct, charging they are fraudulent. Most of those challenged have already proven their legal status as voters, but one wants a public hearing. NPR's Pam Fessler reports.

SO LETS ABOLISH THIS ARCHAIC PASTTIME ALREADY:
Debating the Merits of the Electoral College
October 27, 2004 · The 2000 presidential election revived a long-standing debate over the Electoral College. As the nation braces for the possibility of another disputed election, experts disagree about the merits of the constitutional process behind the vote. Web Extra: Electoral College Facts and Map

AND THERE'S A LUNAR ECLIPSE TONIGHT...
... I DRIVE A LOT...

500,000 More Poll Workers Needed For Election
USA Today is reporting the country has about 500,000 fewer poll workers than needed for next week's elections. The federal Election Assistance Commission has estimated that 2 million poll workers are needed to run a smooth national election but the country is not near meeting that goal. For poll workers this election may be like no other. Record number of new voters have registered. Many areas are using touch-screen voting machines for the first time. And the major parties have announced plans to send thousands of monitors to polling places with the explicit purpose of challenging the eligibility of voters. In Ohio, Republicans are paying 3,600 monitors to do this in particularly in Democratic, urban neighborhoods.

BBC: GOP Preparing To Challenge Florida Voters
Meanwhile the BBC and investigative reporter Greg Palast reported last night that it had obtained a secret document within the Republican party in Florida that contained nearly 1,900 names and addresses of voters in Jacksonville from areas that are predominantly black and Democratic. An elections supervisor in Tallahassee told the BBC, "The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day."

Powell's China Comments Anger Taiwanese

Secretary of State Colin Powell has angered Taiwanese officials and lawmakers by making unusually strong comments denying that the island is an independent nation and suggesting Taiwan should unify with China.

Washington usually avoids weighing in on the touchy split, which arose when Mao Zedong's communist army won control of the Chinese mainland in 1949 and anti-communist forces took refuge on Taiwan.

But Powell waded into the unification question Monday in interviews with CNN and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television during a one-day visit to China.

Swift and Steady Sabotage

Last week, the Washington Post reported thirty-four Superfund projects in 19 states will go unfunded this year. The Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that Superfund, which is the government's toxic waste cleanup program, is now nearly bankrupt. Why are these crucial sites being neglected? Carol Browner, the administrator of the EPA from 1993-2001, explains, "Because the fees that are used to pay for these cleanups are no longer being collected." In a sop to the oil industry, the Bush administration ended the tax on corporate polluters that funded the program by refusing to ask Congress to reinstate the fee oil and chemical companies paid that generated the money for cleanups. This is part of an overall pattern of a swift and steady sabotage of environmental safeguards.

THE ENVIRONMENT AT A GLANCE: A new study by Knight Ridder, for example, found that the steady improvement in air and water quality of the past three decades "has stalled or gone in reverse in several areas" since January 2001. Specifically, Superfund cleanups of toxic waste fell by 52 percent; fish-consumption warnings for rivers doubled; the number of beach closings rose 26 percent; civil citations issued to polluters fell 57 percent; asthma attacks increased by 6 percent; and there were "record-low" additions to national parks, wilderness, wildlife refuges and the endangered species list. (For a look at how your state stacks up with health, safety and the environment, check out American Progress's new interactive map.)

LETTING THE INMATES RUN THE ASYLUM: The Washington Post reports that the chemical industry has given $2 million to the EPA for a study supposedly "exploring the impact of pesticides and household chemicals on young children." (For those of you keeping track, the American Chemistry Council is the same group that fought against the finding that wood treated with arsenic shouldn't be used in playground equipment.) The EPA already has a $572 million research budget; no word on why the agency needed to take money from the chemical industry to conduct an independent study. The EPA admits the money means "We will seek their opinions." Carol Henry, a vice president at the American Chemistry Council, also acknowledges the association has set up a board of hand-picked academics and industry officials to be a "resource to investigators," adding, "We'll give them our guidance." (The administration has a track record of allowing corporations to call the regulatory shots; check out this comprehensive report about the special interest takeover.)

DRILLING AWAY THE WILDERNESS: President Bush has claimed, "I guess you'd say I'm a good steward of the land." Not really. According to the Los Angeles Times, environmentally damaging policies put in place by Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton take away the safeguards which for decades have protected potential wilderness areas. Even more egregious, the administration claimed that the Department of the Interior "is barred – forever – from identifying and protecting wild land the way it has for nearly 30 years." In effect, "The administration is giving industry virtual carte blanche to look for oil and gas wherever it wants outside of existing parks and wilderness areas." The Washington Post points out that President Bush has "approved about 70 percent more drilling permits on public lands during the first three years of his administration" than the three preceding years. And, writes the New Yorker, "By stripping away restrictions on the use of federal lands, often through little-advertised rule changes, the Administration has potentially opened up sixty million acres, an area larger than Indiana and Iowa combined, to logging, mining, and oil exploration."

GLOBAL WARMING: A top NASA climate expert yesterday joined a long line of scientists in criticizing the Bush administration for its disregard of science. Dr. James E. Hansen, who has twice briefed Vice President Dick Cheney's task force on global warming, charged, "In my more than three decades in government, I have never seen anything approaching the degree to which information flow from scientists to the public has been screened and controlled as it is now." Hansen also "said the administration wants to hear only scientific results that 'fit predetermined, inflexible positions.'" Specifically, he charged the White House edited reports that outline the potential dangers of global warming to make the problem appear less serious. "This process is in direct opposition to the most fundamental precepts of science," he said. "This," he warned, "is a recipe for environmental disaster."

This is a nice one too.

Look at what you women make us do:

Buddhist monks fall for beer girls

Two Buddhist monks abandoned their vows after they fell in love with a pair of teenage girls who sold beer across from their temple in central Cambodia, a newspaper reported Monday.

The Scalia/Thomas Majority

Chief Justice William Rehnquist underwent surgery yesterday related to "a recent diagnosis of thyroid cancer." Rehnquist's serious condition – even as he is expected to return to the bench on Monday – "gave fresh prominence to the future of the Supreme Court." Bush has said publicly that the Supreme Court justices he admires are arch conservatives Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. If re-elected, it is possible Bush could get three or more appointments, "enough to forge a new majority that would turn the extreme Scalia-Thomas worldview into the law of the land." The result: "Abortion might be a crime in most states. Gay people could be thrown in prison for having sex in their homes. States might be free to become mini-theocracies, endorsing Christianity and using tax money to help spread the gospel. The Constitution might no longer protect inmates from being brutalized by prison guards. Family and medical leave and environmental protections could disappear."

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD OVERTURN ROE V. WADE: In the second presidential debate Bush was asked, given the opportunity, who he would appoint to the Supreme Court. Bush responded that he wouldn't pick a judge who supported "the Dred Scott case, which is where judges, years ago, said that the Constitution allowed slavery because of personal property rights." Why would President Bush reference Dred Scott v. Sandford, which hasn't been good law since the end of the Civil War? Because "to the Christian right, 'Dred Scott' turns out to be a code word for 'Roe v. Wade.'" Dred Scott has been compared to Roe v. Wade by prominent conservatives such as George Will, Peggy Noonan and Michael Novak. By referencing Dred Scott, Bush made it clear that "he would never, ever appoint a Supreme Court justice who condoned Roe." If Roe v. Wade is overturned, "there's a good chance that 30 states, home to more than 70 million women, will outlaw abortions within a year; some states may take only weeks." (For more on Bush's misuse of the Dred Scott decision read this new column from American Progress).

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD CRIMINALIZE PRIVATE SEXUAL CONDUCT: If Scalia and Thomas controlled the Court, "states could once again criminalize private, consensual conduct between adults, and could prevent local governments from enacting even the most basic anti-discrimination protections for gay men and lesbians." Last year, when the Court ruled that the police violated a gay man's right to liberty when they raided his home and arrested him for having sex there, Scalia and Thomas sided with the police.

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD END FAMILY AND MEDICAL LEAVE: The Family and Medical Leave Act "guarantees most workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a loved one." Last year, the Court upheld the law, but Scalia and Thomas voted to strike it down, arguing that Congress exceeded its power in passing the law.

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD ALLOW STATE-SPONSORED RELIGION: Justice Thomas has suggested that "despite many Supreme Court rulings to the contrary...the First Amendment prohibition on establishing a religion may not apply to the states." If that view prevailed, "states could adopt particular religions and use tax money to proselytize for them."

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD LEGALIZE SEX DISCRIMINATION: If Scalia and Thomas were in charge, "public universities, such as the Virginia Military Institute, would be able to discriminate against women in admissions." Also, federal law "could no longer be used to protect students from sexual harassment or other types of discrimination at the hands of other students."

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD LEGALIZE BRUTALITY AGAINST PRISONERS: A recent case considered a Louisiana inmate who "was shackled and then punched and kicked by two prison guards while a supervisor looked on." The beating left the inmate "with a swollen face, loosened teeth and a cracked dental plate." The Court ruled that the inmate's treatment violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Scalia and Thomas dissented, arguing "the Eighth Amendment was not violated by the 'insignificant' harm the inmate suffered."

A SCALIA/THOMAS MAJORITY WOULD GUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS: A Scalia/Thomas majority would make short work of the law that protects our air, water and land. Scalia and Thomas, for example, voted to strip the EPA "of the authority to prevent damaging air pollution by industries when state agencies improperly fail to do so." Already, federal judges appointed by Bush "were less sympathetic to environmentalists' pleadings than those appointed by previous Republican presidents... ruling in favor of environmental challenges 17 percent of the time."

I think this is the best painting that Erica has done yet. It's fantastic.

Jimmy Carter: Bush Exploited 9/11
And in an interview with the Guardian of London, former president Jimmy Carter has accused President Bush of exploiting 9/11 and abandoning efforts to control the spread of nuclear weapons. Carter also criticized the media for its handling of the Bush administration. He said, "The press have been cowed, because they didn't want to be unpatriotic. There has been a lack of inquisitive journalism. In fact, it's hard to think of a major medium in the United States that has been objective and fair and balanced, and critical when criticism was deserved."

Ok this is just really wierd and crazy. I don't know how they can get away with this:


Free dental care becomes big attraction at carnival

Downwind from the cotton candy, the caramel apples and the deep-fried Oreos, carnival worker Robert Weaver stepped into a mobile dentist's office on the state fair midway to pay the price for his love of sweets: three pulled teeth.

For carnies such as Weaver, who runs a saltwater taffy concession, the long hours, low pay and sugary temptations of the carnival life can produce a mouthful of misery. ...

"These carnies, they don't come till it starts hurting," Shirlowe Powell said. "Really, the sad story is that their teeth have been bad for so long, about the only thing you can do most of the time is extract them."

Frightens with Wolves

With the presidential election just eight days away, the truth has finally emerged: if John Kerry becomes president you will be eaten by wolves. The script of Bush's new television ad, read as a pack of wolves lurks ominously through a forest, accuses Kerry of voting to slash intelligence spending. While the ad is good theater, the charges in it are misleading and inaccurate.

FACT – THE VOTE OCCURRED SEVEN YEARS BEFORE 9/11: The advertisement says that John Kerry's vote came "after the first terrorist attack on America" implying that it occurred after 9/11. In fact, the vote in question occurred in 1994. In the years immediately prior to 9/11, John Kerry consistently supported increases in intelligence spending.

FACT – GOSS VOTED TO DRAMATICALLY REDUCE INTELLIGENCE PERSONNEL: The central message of the advertisement is that because Kerry supported reductions in intelligence resources in the mid-1990s, he can't be trusted to be in charge today. But in 1995, Porter Goss "sponsored legislation that would have cut intelligence personnel by 20 percent." That didn't stop President Bush from appointing Goss this year to head the Central Intelligence Agency. In contrast, Kerry's proposal would have amounted to just a 3.7 percent reduction in intelligence funding.

FACT – KERRY'S PROPOSAL WAS PART OF AN EFFORT TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT: It's not surprising Bush would criticize Kerry's 1994 proposal – it was an effort to reduce the deficit, which is something Bush doesn't understand. Bush has turned a $236 billion surplus into a more than $400 billion deficit. The national debt – which Bush said he would "pay down to a historically low level" – now exceeds $7.4 trillion, an all-time high. For more of Bush's broken promises, check out this document from the American Progress Action Fund.

SCARE TACTIC HYPOCRISY: While his campaign runs advertisements featuring menacing wolves, Vice President Cheney has recently accused the Kerry campaign of trying to "scare people" by talking about Bush's public plan to begin privatizing Social Security. Let's review some of what Cheney has said recently on the campaign trail. Cheney on Sept. 8: "if we make the wrong choice [on Nov. 2] then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating." Cheney last Tuesday: "The biggest threat we face now as a nation is the possibility of terrorists' ending up in the middle of one of our cities with...biological agents or a nuclear weapon or a chemical weapon of some kind...able to threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans.'' Cheney on Saturday: "if John Kerry had been in charge, maybe the Soviet Union would still be in business."

Erica's painting of the day... her leg.

More stuff about Uganda:

Child soldiers, sex slaves, and cannibalism at gunpoint: Uganda's North

War, cannibalism, sex slavery and massacres were supposed to have been consigned to Uganda's past. The country has been touted as one of Africa's success stories, combating Aids and bringing relative prosperity to Kampala. But away from the capital, a horrific civil war is claiming the lives of tens of thousands of children, the United Nations warned yesterday.

"Northern Uganda [is] the biggest neglected humanitarian crisis in the world," said Jan Egelund, the UN's under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs. "The situation is a moral outrage."

Few people outside Uganda know that in the north the government is fighting a fanatical and murderous cult - the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) - whose fighting force is made up in large part of abducted children.

Considering these guys are fighting the war in Chechnya I don't think this is a good thing.

Russian army 'riddled with sadists'

Russia's once mighty armed forces are a haven for sadists, with senior soldiers subjecting their junior colleagues to vicious beatings, torture, sexual violence and death threats, a report said yesterday.

After three years of research and more than 100 interviews with victims, Human Rights Watch, based in New York, said the problem of violent initiation ceremonies - known as dedovshchina or "rule of the grandfathers" - had reached horrific levels and was sapping morale and undermining combat readiness.

According to official figures 25 soldiers have died as a result of the rites presided over by older conscripts since the beginning of this year; 12 others have died from excess force used by their officers, while 109 have committed suicide. Independent analysts say the real figures are much higher, however, with many deaths being erroneously recorded as accidental or occurring outside military service.

A report by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland correlates voters' perceptions of world attitudes and events with their choice in candidates. It's an interesting read, and shows voters supporting Kerry as being more in tune with the events and world attitudes surrounding the war in Iraq.

A group of 44 soldiers in the new Iraqi army were ambushed and killed while they were unarmed and on their way home after graduating from training, U.S. military officials said today. The men had been shot at close range while they were lying on the ground, Iraqi police sources said. Four drivers also were killed.

FULL STORY

From Nanodot:

"University researchers are using self-assembly techniques and chip-related chemistry to develop a process for mass producing tiny crystals called quantum dots. Semiconductor nanocrystals promise a quantum leap over traditional optoelectronics due to their unique and size-tunable properties. Quantum dots measure a few nanometers in size and are already revolutionizing biological and environmental sensing due to their size-dependent luminescence. Other applications include telecommunications, photovoltaics, lasers and quantum computing. A research team at the University at Buffalo claims to have discovered a simple way to mass-produce quantum dots with extreme precision, in nearly any desirable size, using a technique based on self assembly and room-temperature chemistry. Researchers simplify quantum-dot manufacture"

Our next painting.

Some human beings alive today will live to the age of 150, a prominent researcher has claimed.

Steven Austad, of the University Of Texas Health Science Center, told BBC World Service's Discovery programme that life span for a human being may be much longer than most people have considered possible.

And he said that he was virtually certain some children alive now would live to the year 2150.

"The evolutionary picture of the human being is quite an interesting one, because what we've managed to do is create an environment for ourselves that is much safer than anything we've lived in before," he explained.

"So even in the absence of medical advances, with just evolutionary change, in the foreseeable future one would expect humans to age at a slower and slower and slower rate."

Read More

Silicon nanocrystals made easy
Plasma-based approach works for crystalline nanoparticles

A interesting piece from Slashdot:

Psychologists at the University of Bath have found that male researchers and programmers tend to have higher levels of estrogen, a hormone which promotes development of the right side of the brain (responsible for spatial and analytical skills). Increased estrogen was also linked to having longer index fingers and a decreased likelihood of having children. Men teaching mathematics and physics tended to have unusually long index fingers, while women in the social sciences tended to have more testosterone. The psychologists also found that male and female students with a smaller difference between their index and ring finger lengths tended to do better on their Java programming exams. The research leaves open the question of why women (who typically have more estrogen than men) aren't more prevalent in the science and technology fields.

I like this one a lot

3 Cheers for the Brits:

An alarming 76 per cent of employees are coming back to work drunk after taking a "liquid lunch", according to a new survey carried out by Peninsula employment law constancy. The results show that an increasing number of employees are consuming alcohol during their lunch break - a trend that could harm the reputation and productivity of a business.

Out of the 1342 employees polled, 68 per cent said they enjoyed alcoholic beverages during lunch, the same percentage of those polled who said they found it hard to relax after their break unless they'd had a tipple.

Peninsula is warning businesses of the detrimental effects that liquid lunches can have, especially when employees have to talk to important clients and customers. Penisula MD Peter Done said: "Liquid lunches are often associated with executives with their glass of red wine while discussing the future of their business in a conservative fashion. But in reality the idea of a liquid lunch could prove to be very damaging to businesses and potentially very dangerous, depending on the type of business that is in operation."

Even more worrying is that a third of respondents (33 per cent) claimed to enjoy a liquid lunch three times a week with 76 per cent feeling slightly drunk when returning to work. "A company’s policies must be stated to all employees to ensure that the rules are not broken when it comes to alcohol," Done concluded.

UN Warns of Crisis in Uganda
The United Nations warned yesterday that northern Uganda is suffering the most neglected humanitarian crisis in the world. The head of UN's humanitarian affairs estimated 20,000 children are caught up in a war and 1.6 million people have been displaced.

Report: 1.7 Million Veterans Without Health Coverage
A new report by the Physicians for a National Health Program has found nearly 1.7 million military veterans have no health insurance or access to government hospitals and clinics for veterans. The study reported the number of uninsured veterans jumped by 235,000 since 2000 and that veterans are losing their health insurance at a rate faster than the general population.

POLITICS – BUSH SUPPORTERS DIVORCED FROM REALITY: According to a new survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, Bush supporters have a skewed perception of reality. "Majorities of Bush supporters and Kerry supporters agree that if Iraq did not have WMD or was not providing support to al Qaeda, the US should not have gone to war with Iraq." How to reconcile this with the facts? For Bush supporters, it's easier to ignore them. Against all known intelligence, "large percentages of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the war, and that Iraq was providing substantial support to Al Qaeda." Both of these have been widely disproved: the Duelfer report found Iraq had no WMD nor even a weapons plan before the war, while the 9/11 Commission Report found there was no operational relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.

INTELLIGENCE – SHADED, IGNORED, SKEWED ANALYSIS: The Los Angeles Times reports, "A controversial intelligence unit set up in the Pentagon provided skewed prewar analysis to support Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein was an ally of Al Qaeda." A new investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee found, "The intelligence unit, run by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith, shaded analytic judgments, ignored contrary evidence and sidestepped the CIA to present dubious findings to senior officials at the White House."

CORRUPTION – MORE GOVERNMENT MONEY FOR HALLIBURTON: Yesterday, the Department of Energy "awarded a $235 million grant" to build a "clean" coal-fired power plant in the Orlando area. Here is a shocker: the consortium that will receive a nearly quarter-billion dollar grant includes Halliburton. The Southern company – which donated $284,610 to Bush's re-election campaign – is also in the consortium. League of Conservation Voters spokesman Ken Cook said, "With the election quickly approaching, today's announcement seems like an obvious attempt to use taxpayer dollars to advance the president's reelection campaign."

MEDIA – FOR THE WINGNUTS ON YOUR SHOPPING LIST: Looking for the latest in crackpot conspiracy theories? Thanks to the conservative Heritage Foundation, your search is over. The group is busily promoting a new book titled, "Libel: By New York Times," by Ed Pawlick, which claims that the New York Times is responsible for gay marriage in Massachusetts. (An ad for the book ominously warns: "New book exposes plan to impose 'marriage' in every state, including yours.") The book also accuses the New York Times of "poisoning America" and includes a glowing endorsement from Alan Keyes. The Heritage Foundation is offering lucky on-line subscribers free shipping if they order now.

A cool drawing by Erica.

Well thanks to Jess for this link to very important research.

COMING off the Pill can boost a woman’s sex drive — and increase the chances of orgasm.

Researchers found hormonal contraceptives like the Pill, patch and injections affected libidos. And quitting them can help women with a lack of sexual interest rekindle their desire.

Women were quizzed about their sex lives — including how often they bonked, their energy levels and how many orgasms they had.

The women in the US study had an average age of 32 and had taken contraceptives for at least six months. Four weeks after stopping contraception most had sex more often, more sexual energy — and orgasms. All showed an increase in testosterone levels.

Ashcroft's Partisan Assault

For more than 35 years – starting with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 – the Department of Justice has fought to protect the right of citizens to vote and have their vote counted. Then John Ashcroft became attorney general. Now, Ashcroft is marshalling the resources of the federal government in an attempt to prevent eligible, registered voters from having their votes counted. On Monday, the Justice Department filed an 11th-hour brief in Michigan district court opposing efforts by civil rights groups (including the Michigan National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) to ensure that registered voters who appear in the right city, township or village – but the wrong precinct – have their votes counted. (Read how to make sure your vote counts.)

PROVISIONAL BALLOTING EXPLAINED: In 2002, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) to address problems with the deeply flawed 2000 federal election. One central provision is the requirement to allow a voter who doesn't appear on the registration to cast a provisional ballot. Before casting a provisional ballot, voters must attest that they are eligible and appearing in the appropriate "jurisdiction." The provisional ballot is later reviewed by an election official to determine whether the vote should be counted.

JUDGE REJECTS ASHCROFT'S BOGUS ARGUMENT: In its brief, the Justice Department – arguing to restrict the use of provisional ballots – acknowledged the key to the case lies in the term "jurisdiction." The Department of Justice argued that "Congress did not define the term 'jurisdiction'" when it passed HAVA. Therefore, the term is defined by "the laws of each state." So, according to the Justice Department, if Michigan decides each precinct is a jurisdiction, that is permitted under the law. One problem: Congress made clear that HAVA should be consistent with the National Voter Registration Act, which defines a jurisdiction as a city or town. Yesterday, federal Judge David M. Lawson not only ruled against the Justice Department's position but said its brief added "nothing to the arguments."

ASHCROFT WON'T PROSECUTE VOTER DISCRIMINATION: Since Ashcroft has taken the helm, the Civil Rights Division "has all but stopped filing lawsuits against communities alleged to have engaged in discrimination against minority voters." In more than three years, the Justice Department "has filed just one contested racial vote-discrimination case, in rural Colorado, which it lost."

ASHCROFT MANIPULATES REDISTRICTING LAW: The Justice Department is also tasked with passing judgment "on legislative redistricting in areas that have a history of discrimination." With Ashcroft in charge, the department's "actions have consistently favored Republicans." For example, in Mississippi the Justice Department "stalled the redistricting process for so long that a pro-Republican redistricting plan went into effect by default." In Texas, Tom DeLay (R-TX) "engineered passage of a revised congressional redistricting plan through the state legislature, which may mean a shift of as many as seven seats from the Democrats to the Republicans." Career officials in the Justice Department "produced an internal legal opinion of seventy-three pages, with seventeen hundred and fifty pages of supporting documents, arguing that the plan should be rejected as a retrogression of minority rights." Ashcroft overruled the recommendation and the new districts are in place for the 2004 election.

ASHCROFT POLITICIZES THE HIRING OF CAREER ATTORNEYS: In the past, the program for hiring new attorneys was "run by mid-level career officials, who were known for their political independence." At the insistence of Ashcroft, the program "has been run by political appointees." The new hiring method "has already had an effect" – especially in politically sensitive cases such as those involving voting rights. One current employee told the New Yorker, "Soon, there won't be any difference between the career people and the political people. The front office is replicating itself. Everyone here will be on the same page."

The fantastic painting of the day.

U.S. Prepares Possible Military Draft of Health Workers
The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a military draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency. This according to the New York Times. The Times has obtained a secret report written this summer that described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care professionals. While the Secret Service is updating its plans for a specialized draft, the Bush administration continues to say there is no chance the draft will be reinstated. A Pentagon spokesperson said, "A return to the draft is unthinkable. There will be no draft." A recent article in The Wisconsin Medical Journal, published by the state medical society, quoted a senior physician in the Army National Guard, who said "It appears that a general draft is not likely to occur. A physician draft is the most likely conscription into the military in the near future."

ACLU: Millions May Be Blocked From Voting
On the election front, the American Civil Liberties Union yesterday issued a report predicting millions of eligible voters will be prevented from casting votes due to non-existent or flawed procedures used by state election officials to purge felons from voter rolls.

Nevada Judge Blocks New Voting Registrations
In Nevada, a state judge has rejected a request by the Democratic Party to reopen voter registration for voters who had their registration forms destroyed by a Republican-funded organization. Last week it was revealed that the GOP-funded company Voters Outreach of America had thrown out many registration forms signed by Democrats. The judge claimed agreeing to the Democrats request would open the floodgates to allow people not affected by the illegal action to register to vote.

GOP Attempts Last Minute Move of 63 Polling Places
And in Pennsylvania, Republican operatives attempted to confuse voters in Democratic-leaning areas of Philadelphia by submitting last-minute requests to the city to relocate 63 polling places. 53 of the cited polling places are located in areas predominently populated by African-Americans and Latinos. The city denied the requests.

EDUCATION – SKYROCKETING TUITION: A new survey by the College Board found, once again, that college tuition costs have skyrocketed. According to the study, "tuition at the nation's public universities rose an average of 10.5 percent this year, the second-largest increase in more than a decade." (The largest jump was last year, with a 13 percent hike.) Tuition at private universities and community colleges went up by 6 percent and 9 percent respectively, "in a year when inflation has been hovering at about 2.5 percent." The Center for American Progress is holding a forum today in St. Louis as part of its major education initiative that will ultimately provide a new plan for improving education and expanding access to college.

Oh, Canada?

For years, the Bush administration – at the behest of the pharmaceutical industry – has been blocking access to cheaper FDA-approved prescription drugs imported from Canada because it claimed they were not safe. But yesterday, in an abrupt about face, the administration announced the FDA is in "active negotiations" to obtain an extra 1.5 million doses of flu vaccine from a Canadian manufacturer. Acting FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford said "the FDA would inspect the Canadian facilities to see if they meet U.S. standards" and, if they meet those standards, it is possible the Canadian-made vaccine "would make it to American consumers this flu season." The FDA did not explain why, if the safety of Canadian-made vaccine could be established so quickly, it still hasn't figured out whether prescription drugs reimported from Canada are safe. (For the record, the FDA "can't name a single American who's been injured" from drugs purchased from a Canadian pharmacy.)

CANADIANS CONTRADICT CRAWFORD'S CLAIM: Crawford tried to save face by telling American reporters that "purchases of foreign vaccine would likely be done on a government-to-government basis, with U.S. authorities taking direct possession of the additional supplies," but Canadian officials said that's not true. "Certainly not that I'm aware of," said Dr. David Butler-Jones, head of Canada's new Public Health Agency. "Given that the vaccine that is available is either in the private sector or already in the provinces' and territories' hands, largely, that would be kind of funny to buy that back. "

THE ADMINISTRATION WAS WARNED: The president continues to blame "a production flaw" for the vaccine shortage, but the Bush administration received warnings about the vaccination supply and could have taken steps to diminish the problem. After Chiron Corp. informed British and American officials on Sept. 13 that there were unresolved contamination problems at its Liverpool, England, plant, the British government responded by contacting other manufacturers and securing alternative supplies. The Bush administration, on the other hand, failed to act before all doses of the flu vaccine had been purchased. The administration had already ignored two GAO reports which warned of impending production shortfalls.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE? The secretary of Health and Human Services also announced yesterday that 2.6 million extra doses of the flu vaccine would be made available through Aventis Pasteur, the one company still approved by the FDA to sell flu vaccines this year. Even with these added doses, 40 percent of Americans who want the vaccine will have to go without the shot. And the new shipment also will arrive well "after the date the government recommends for vulnerable Americans to have had their shots," making it "unclear how helpful the extra vaccine doses will be." The new doses will not be available until January; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people be vaccinated in October or November.

HEALTH IS A CONGRESSIONAL PERK: There's one place in the United States. that isn't experiencing a flu vaccine shortage: Congress. "Directly contraven[ing] the instruction being given by the government's executive branch," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and the Capitol's attending physician are urging "all 535 lawmakers to get the vaccines even if they are young and healthy." Despite the shortage, many lawmakers were quick to comply, making sure to get their flu shots before they headed home to campaign this month. Those who haven't gotten their shots plan to, like Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT), who said in an interview yesterday: "I haven't done it yet, but I want to." All told, the congressional physician's office "has dispensed nearly 2,000 flu shots this fall, and doses remained available yesterday." E-mail your members of Congress to see whether they're bypassing the lines to get shots for themselves.

FLU SHORTAGE COULD AFFECT TROOP READINESS: AP reports, "At military bases already strained by the demands of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the men and women who defend the nation aren't being defended against the flu." Normally, "the Navy hospital at Camp Lejeune…would be getting 50,000 to 60,000 doses of flu vaccine." This year, however, the base has yet to receive a single dose. This is especially dangerous in a time of war: special operations Marines can be deployed at any time but will be vaccinated only after the Department of Defense decides how to dole out the military's supply. "If they get exposed to an area where the flu is epidemic, there is a readiness problem," said George Reynolds, director of community health at Lejeune's hospital.

Isn't she fantastic?

CARL CAMERON, GET YOUR RESUME READY: The Washington bureau chief of Sinclair Broadcast Group, Jon Lieberman, was fired yesterday after "accusing the media company of 'indefensible' conduct for planning to air a movie attacking Senator John F. Kerry's Vietnam record in the coming days." Lieberman – who also was the lead political reporter for the broadcast company – said he was compelled to speak out because ''I feel so strongly that our credibility is at issue here. . . . I feel our company is trying to sway this election."

Major League Deception

What was billed by his campaign as a "major policy address" by President Bush about foreign policy turned into a brutally dishonest partisan diatribe. On many occasions Bush "ignored elements of Mr. Kerry's record and stated positions in a way that paints an incomplete or distorted portrait of his approach." Bush also brazenly misled the American people about his own record on terrorism and Iraq.

BUSH DECEPTION #1 – TERRORISTS NOW OPERATE IN A LIMITED AREA: Bush said that the war in Iraq and other administration policies have worked "to shrink the area where the terrorists can operate freely, and that strategy has the terrorists on the run." The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, however, found the occupation of Iraq actually helped al Qaeda recruitment. In its annual report, the IISS said "the network has reconstituted itself after losing its Afghan base." It estimated al Qaeda today has "18,000 potential operatives and is present in more than 60 countries."

BUSH DECEPTION #2 – ASHCROFT'S COUNTERTERRORISM EFFORTS ARE EFFECTIVE: Bush bragged that "since September the 11th, law enforcement professionals have stopped terrorist activities" in eleven states, including New Jersey. It's unclear how the Justice Department has "stopped terrorist activities" because it hasn't convicted any terrorists. According to Georgetown Law professor David Cole, "On September 2 a federal judge in Detroit threw out the only jury conviction the Justice Department has obtained on a terrorism charge since 9/11... Until that reversal, the Detroit case had marked the only terrorist conviction obtained from the Justice Department's detention of more than 5,000 foreign nationals in antiterrorism sweeps since 9/11. So Ashcroft's record is 0 for 5,000."

BUSH DECEPTION #3 – 100,000 IRAQIS ARE TRAINED: Bush claimed, "more than 100,000 soldiers, police, and border guards are already trained, equipped, and bravely serving their country." Bush has repeatedly made that claim in campaign appearances during recent weeks. But, according to the Pentagon, "only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty now have undergone training."

BUSH DECEPTION #4 – HE NEVER WAVERS IN THE WAR ON TERRORISM: According to Bush, "winning the war on terror requires more than tough-sounding words repeated in the election season. America needs clear moral purpose and leaders who will not waver." But Bush himself has wavered on whether the war on terrorism can be won. On Aug. 30 he told NBC's Matt Lauer, "I don't think you can win it [the war on terrorism]... I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world. Let's put it that way."

BUSH DECEPTION #5 – HE NEVER WAVERS ON IRAQ: Bush accused Kerry of taking "almost every conceivable position in Iraq" and that such vacillation will "lead to a major defeat." An analysis by the Los Angeles Times illustrates that "Bush's statements on Iraq show that he also has sent differing...signals" on the justification for war in Iraq. For example, before the war, "the major chord was security and terrorism. Bush continually warned that Hussein could provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists." When it became clear Iraq did not possess WMD, "Bush increasingly has argued that building a democracy in Iraq would inspire democratic change across the region in a domino effect." Read the full article, complete with timeline.

BUSH DECEPTION #6 – KERRY OPPOSES ALL PREEMPTIVE ACTIONS: Yesterday, Bush said that "Senator Kerry's approach would permit a response only after America is hit." Kerry has specifically endorsed the use of preemptive force. During the first debate, Kerry said, "The president always has the right, and always has had the right, for preemptive strike...No president, through all of American history, has ever ceded, and nor would I, the right to preempt in any way necessary to protect the United States of America.

BUSH DECEPTION #7 – KERRY'S RECORD ON INTELLIGENCE FUNDING IS SHAMEFUL: Bush said that Kerry "has a record of trying to weaken American intelligence." His evidence is that Kerry "proposed a $6 billion cut in the nation's intelligence budget" in 1993. Kerry's proposal was part of a bipartisan effort to balance the budget. In fact, "Kerry's proposed intelligence cuts were smaller than those proposed in 1995 by Bush's choice to head the CIA, Porter J. Goss."

BUSH DECEPTION #8 – KERRY DOES NOT SUPPORT VITAL WEAPONS SYSTEMS: Bush accused Kerry of voting "against vital weapon systems during his entire career." The nonpartisan factcheck.org notes, the "Bush campaign bases its claim mainly on Kerry's votes against overall Pentagon money bills in 1990, 1995 and 1996, but these were not votes against specific weapons." Nevertheless, Kerry voted for Pentagon bills in 16 of the 19 years he's been in the Senate. Therefore, "even by the Bush campaign's twisted logic, Kerry should – on balance – be called a supporter of the "vital" weapons."

Todays painting via our favorite Erica.

So the annual popular science poll of the worst jobs in science is out. You can read it here. Highlights include Tampon Squeezer, Anal Wart Researcher, and Nurse.

Bush's Blame Game

The vaccine shortage this winter means tens of millions of Americans will have to forgo a flu shot, including millions of those who need it most – the elderly, small children and pregnant women. In Michigan, for example, there are 3.4 million people considered a priority for a flu shot, but only 2 million total doses available. It didn't have to be this way. The Bush administration received warnings about the vaccination supply problem and could have taken steps to avert or diminish the problem. It didn't. Instead of taking responsibility for the crisis that resulted, the Bush administration has tried to deflect blame with a series of false, misleading and hypocritical statements. (And, for good measure, it has blamed John Kerry).

BUSH WARNED ABOUT VACCINE SUPPLY PROBLEM IN 2001: In May 2001, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report concluding "a production delay or shortfall experienced by even one of the three remaining manufacturers can significantly impact overall vaccine availability." Specifically, the GAO expressed concern that, in the event of a shortage, "there is no mechanism currently in place to distribute flu vaccine to high-risk individuals before others." The report recommended robust cooperation between the federal government and the private sector to avoid future problems.

BUSH IGNORES THE PROBLEM 3+ YEARS: The GAO produced a follow-up report in September 2004, more than three years later. That report found "the number of producers remains limited, and the potential for manufacturing problems...is still present." Again, the GAO noted "there is no system in place to ensure that seniors and others at high risk for complications receive flu vaccinations first when vaccine is in short supply."

BUSH BLEW OPPORTUNITY TO SECURE ALTERNATIVE SUPPLIES: On Sept. 13, Chiron Corp. informed officials from the United States and England that there were unresolved contamination problems at its Liverpool, England, plant. The British government responded by contacting other manufacturers and securing alternative supplies. The Bush administration failed to act before all doses of the flu vaccine had been purchased.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION EXCUSE RINGS HOLLOW: FDA Acting Commissioner Lester M. Crawford suggests the United States could not find new supplies of the flu vaccine because they didn't know the Chiron plant would be closed until Oct. 5, by which time there was no more vaccine available. Crawford does not specifically deny, however, that the FDA knew there were unresolved contamination issues at the plant starting on Sept. 13.

BUSH WILL SAY ANYTHING TO AVOID RESPONSIBILITY: In an effort to avoid any responsibility for the problem, Bush said in the debate last Wednesday the United States had a flu vaccine shortage because "we relied upon a company out of England." But Chiron Corp. is a California company, subject to regulation by the U.S. government, which operates a factory in England. Bush also took credit for identifying the problem, saying "we took the right action and didn't allow contaminated medicine into our country." But it was the British government, not the Bush administration, that closed the factory and prevented the contaminated vaccines from entering the United States. The FDA inspected the plant in June 2003 and found contamination problems – but later announced that the problems had been fixed to its satisfaction.

HYPOCRITICAL RESPONSE – IMPORT VACCINES FROM CANADA: Asked about the vaccine shortage during the debate, Bush said "we're working with Canada to – hopefully they'll produce a – help us realize the vaccine necessary to make sure our citizens have got flu vaccinations." Apparently, Bush forgot that his administration has been working doggedly to prevent the reimportation of cheaper Canadian drugs at the behest of the pharmaceutical company, claiming they are unsafe. The next day, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson got back on message, saying "getting more vaccine from Canada is unlikely."

DESPERATE RESPONSE – BLAME KERRY: According to Bush campaign Chairman Ken Mehlman, the administration bears no responsibility for the flu vaccine shortage – it's all John Kerry's fault. According to Mehlman, John Kerry is responsible because he opposed a 2003 bill that would limit legal liability for drug manufacturers whose products injure patients. The bill never even came up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The painting of the day from Erica.

Increase in atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Measurements of increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are worrying climate scientists. Dr Craig Wallace from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research said "If it's the start of a real trend then this potentially is very serious indeed. The time for halting climate change actually went and passed in the late 1980s. What we can do now is hopefully slow down climate change, mitigate climate change by following the precedent set by the Kyoto Climate Agreement."

With the Russian Government giving the green light to the Kyoto Protocol, the treaty is set to become international law in 2005. The USA and Australia are the only two industrialised countries refusing to ratify the treaty which places quotas on carbon dioxide production, a major contributor to global warming.

[Melbourne Climate Change Features | The Discovery of Global Warming]

read more

Another fabulous painting by my favorite artist.

Physicists from Boston University have fabricated nanomechanical switches which promise significant advances in data storage densities (to much greater than 100GB/in²).

Appeals court strikes down law requiring doctors to dispense abortion information

An appeals court Wednesday struck down a 1997 abortion law that mandated what information doctors had to provide to potential patients. A three-judge panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the law, which never went into effect because of constitutional challenges, interfered with a woman's rights under Florida's constitution. The judges found that the "Women's Right to Know Act" would impose "significant obstacles and burdens upon the pregnant woman which improperly intrude upon the exercise of her choice between abortion and childbirth." The ruling upholds the findings of Palm Beach Circuit Judge Ronald Alvarez and follows the court's 1998 ruling that upheld an injunction against enforcing the law. Presidential Women's Center, a West Palm Beach abortion provider, sued the state to have the law overturned. "We are very happy. It was a great victory," said Mona Reis, director of the center. The law would have required physicians performing abortions to personally inform women about the age of their fetus and present them with a pamphlet suggesting alternatives to abortion. With Wednesday's decision, Reis said doctors would be able to continue advising their patients as they best see fit.

Read More

Bush Rejects U.N. Plan for Women
And the Bush administration has refused to join 85 heads of state and governments in signing a statement that endorsed a decade-old United Nations plan to ensure every woman's right to education, healthcare and choice about having children. This according to a report by the Associated Press. The Bush administration said it withheld its signature because the statement included a reference to "sexual rights."

A new means of propelling spacecraft being developed at the University of Washington could dramatically cut the time needed for astronauts to travel to and from Mars and could make humans a permanent fixture in space. In fact, with magnetized-beam plasma propulsion, or mag-beam, quick trips to distant parts of the solar system could become routine, said Robert Winglee, a UW Earth and space sciences professor who is leading the project.

Republicans Running Scared

As the election gets closer, the Republican Party has turned to voter suppression efforts to try to sway the election, by keeping voters "off of the rolls and away from the polls." (Paul Krugman has the latest rundown on Republican efforts to block the vote.) The Center for American Progress joined 23 concerned parties in a joint statement on how to protect the vote and uphold democracy in the upcoming election. Voters should not be intimidated by fears of a stolen election. If voters don't get out and vote, the election will not be stolen but given away. Instead, everyone should get out and vote, vote early, and – to be safe – bring an I.D. Also, any voter experiencing problems on Election Day should call the Election Protection hotline, at (866) OUR-VOTE.

SPROUL'S REGISTRATION MALFEASANCE: This week, explosive new evidence emerged of direct ties between the RNC and a Republican consulting firm being investigated by Oregon and Nevada for perpetrating widespread voter fraud. Sproul & Associates, paid $500,000 by the Republican National Committee, created a voter registration front group in several states. Some of the canvassers the company hired say they were told they wouldn't be paid for registering Democrats. Employees in the two western states have accused the firm of destroying, dumping or shredding the forms of Democrats who thought they were registered to vote. Also, an employee in West Virginia quit after she was told to only register individuals who would confirm they were planning to vote for President Bush. The head of Sproul & Associates, Nathan Sproul, has long ties to the GOP: he was the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee. Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA) have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to launch an immediate investigation on the federal level. (The New Yorker provides a look at how Ashcroft's Justice Department itself has politicized the voting process.)

OHIO'S VICTORY: U.S. District Judge James Carr ruled yesterday against Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's efforts to stop voters who show up at the wrong polling place from casting a provisional ballot, even if they are voting in the county in which they are registered. (A provisional ballot allows properly registered voters who don't show up on the registration rolls to still vote.) Carr ruled that voters in Ohio who show up at the wrong polling place on Election Day could still vote as long as they were voting in the county in which they were registered. According to Carr, "Lessened participation at the polls diminishes the vitality of our democracy."

CHECK THIS BOX IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR RIGHTS SUPPRESSED: Florida Secretary of State Glenda Hood – appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush in 2003 – recommended trashing any registration forms on which voters did not check a box at the top to indicate they were U.S. citizens, even though they had already signed an oath at the bottom of the form swearing that they were. Even after the problem was realized, election officials did not process some of the fixed forms in time. Other registrants weren't even told their forms were flawed. The San Francisco Chronicle reports, "labor unions and voting-rights groups sued to stop the disqualification of more than 10,000 incomplete registration forms in Florida, accusing the state of overly restrictive rules that disproportionately hurt minority voters." And according to a suit filed by People for the American Way, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the AFL-CIO, "more than a third of the incomplete forms in Broward and Miami-Dade counties came from African American registrants, even though African Americans make up only 17 percent of the electorate in Broward and 20 percent in Miami-Dade."

MISTAKES IN MILWAUKEE: Mayor Tom Barrett asked Milwaukee County to print 938,000 ballots to accommodate a possible flood of new voters in his city. (Wisconsin has same-day registration, so turnout is often unpredictable.) County Executive Scott Walker – a Republican – refused, telling the Associated Press that having extra ballots could cause "chaos" at understaffed polling places. He's only allowing the city about 10,000 more ballots than were printed for the last presidential election. People For The American Way has a petition you can sign to help get Milwaukee enough ballots.

Ok the last painting I put up was the unfinished version. Sorry. Here is the finished version.

The Disillusioned One by Ferdinand Hodler

So me and jess from Life or Something like it have created a new blog called The Snooty Life in order to help promote culture and the arts.

First miners used canaries to detect bad air. Now USA Today reports that municipalities monitor water quality by monitoring fish. The Bio-Sensor is a standard rack with eight 500 ml compartments, each containing a fish and a submerged sensor to detect a microvolt level bioelectric field. 'If at least six of the eight show signs of distress [typically due to a toxic condition], the Bio-Sensor sounds an alarm. It immediately saves a sample of the water (for more detailed analysis) while it notifies the humans in charge.

President Makes Promises He's Already Broken

To those listening closely last night, President Bush's rhetoric during the third and final presidential debate on domestic issues may have sounded eerily familiar. Indeed, the president trotted out many of the exact same promises and pledges he campaigned on four years ago. In 2000, Bush promised to pay down the deficit, provide tax relief for the middle class, make health insurance more affordable and practice fiscal responsibility. Since then, he has compiled a vast record of failure in each of those areas. Even more troubling than President Bush's misstatement about Osama bin Laden, his refusal to address the minimum wage and his obfuscations on the assault weapons ban was the portrait of a president making exactly the same promises he made to the American people four years ago – promises he's already broken.

BUSH PROMISE: MAKE HEALTH CARE MORE AFFORDABLE: In 2000, President Bush campaigned on the promise he would insure more Americans by "making health insurance affordable for hard-working, low-income families." Last night, he blamed "defensive medicine," "lawsuits" and "information technology" for his inability to deliver on that pledge and put forward some already discredited ideas to "control the costs in health care." But the president's record speaks for itself: since Bush took office, health insurance premiums have risen by an average rate of 12.5 percent per year and the "ranks of the uninsured" have swelled for three straight years. As for Bush's favorite scapegoats, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that even aggressive malpractice reform "would lower health care costs by only about 0.4 percent to 0.5 percent." The CBO "also says there is no way to gauge the cost of 'defensive medicine,' but that evidence it's a major factor in rising costs is 'weak or inconclusive.'"

BUSH PROMISE: FISCAL SANITY: In 2000, the Bush-Cheney campaign website said that to "restore confidence in government," President Bush would "attack pork-barrel spending." Last night, the president promised he would enforce "fiscal sanity in the halls of Congress." But that pledge is "hard to take" from a president who has failed to veto a single spending bill during his time in office and now seems ready to sign the "bloated corporate tax bill just passed by Congress." The new bill includes pork for "just about every special interest that retains a lobbyist in Washington."

BUSH PROMISE: TAX CUTS FOR MIDDLE CLASS: In 2000, President Bush said the "vast majority" of his tax cuts would "go to the bottom end of the [income] spectrum." Last night, Bush said, "Most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans." In between those two statements, the president has passed a series of tax cuts overwhelmingly skewed towards the upper class. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities figures show "The top 20 percent of earners received 69.8 percent of President Bush's tax cuts" and about one–third of the Bush tax cuts have gone to the top one percent of households. In addition, "the richest 1 percent are paying a lower share of federal taxes in 2004 than in 2000, while those in the middle are paying a greater share."

BUSH PROMISE: PAY DOWN DEFICIT: In 2000, President Bush boasted he would "pay the debt down to a historically low level." Last night, he promised to "reduce the deficit in half by five years." In between these two statements, President Bush has transformed a $5.6 trillion projected surplus into a $5.2 trillion projected deficit in just three years – the worst fiscal deterioration in at least the last half century. Total national debt now stands at $7,419,244,676,835.15. The president blames 9/11 and Iraq for the downturn, but the CBO estimates that Bush's fiscal policies, rather than external factors, "account for much of the reduction."

BUSH PROMISE: INCREASE PELL GRANTS: In 2000, President Bush campaigned on the promise he would "Fully fund the Pell grant program for first-year students by increasing the maximum grant amount…to $5,100." Last night the president said he would "continue to increase Pell grants." But budgets speak louder than words, and unfortunately, Bush's 2005 budget reneges on the promise he made in 2000, capping the maximum Pell Grant award at $4,050 for the third year in a row. The American Association of Community Colleges characterizes the Pell grant freeze as "'a severe blow' to students from low-income families at a time of declining state and local support for public higher education."

Dope will get you through times of no money better then money will get you through times of no dope.
-- Gilber Shelton

I like this one.

Ok so crazy new japanese pillow for the single gal. You can read about it here.

Well dispite the current state of disarray that the world is in. Scientists are hard at work making improvments in our lives, and I am proud to announce that one of the greatest advances in the history of science has taken place.

A brewmaster in Germany has invented a cylinder that fuses yeast to the sides, allowing the yeast to do its fermentation job faster. A process that normally takes 10 days now takes a few hours. Also, yeast that normally has to be changed out after three brews can now last up to six months to a year.

The Stem-Cell Debate

Actor Christopher Reeve died this week, leaving behind a legacy greater than his movie roles: since his life-altering accident in 1995, Reeve was a committed activist for the advancement of stem cell research. Many scientists believe stem-cell research could one day be used to treat spinal injuries as well as Alzheimer's, strokes, brain injuries, Parkinson's, diabetes and heart defects. Unfortunately, scientific advances have been stymied by the White House ban on federal funds for the development of new stem-cell lines for new research. Private companies and scientists abroad continue to make advances; bowing to pressure from the far-right, however, President Bush has limited federal funds to a handful of stem-cell lines created before August 2001. Public opinion is increasingly in favor of stem-cell research: a recent nationwide poll shows 53 percent of Americans support the science. And it's one issue many people across the ideological spectrum agree on. Sen. Orrin Hatch, the conservative lawmaker from Utah, has been a strong proponent for stem cell research, saying, "Being pro-life means helping the living." First Lady Nancy Reagan, Ron Reagan, and former Secretary of State Ed Schultz have also become staunch advocates in recent years.

NEW ADVANCES: A huge reason to fight for a broader stem cell policy: Scientists are continuously learning new ways these valuable cells can be used. The cells have long been valued for their potential to transform into any cells and tissue needed by the body. Just last week, however, scientists reported the discovery that the cells "also produce druglike compounds that can help ailing organs repair themselves." The scientists believe adult stem cells – which opponents to embryonic stem cell research favor using for research – would not able to produce these same chemicals. Other advances in only the past month show the versatile cells can be used as "biological pacemakers" and in fighting blindness.

LIMITED TO LINES THAT DON'T WORK: Scientists agree the stem cell lines currently available for federal funds, all of which were created before 2001, are tainted and inferior. These lines were developed using mouse cells, which means they are considered contaminated and will never be able to produce usable human therapies. In the past four years, technology has advanced and new lines developed by private companies have been grown without the use of mouse cells.

THE ETHICS TEST: Conservative Leon Kass, the chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, has defended banning the development of new stem cell lines created after August 2001, saying it "upholds important moral values." As Elizabeth Whelan of the American Council on Science and Health and Henry Miller of the Hoover Institution argue, "if it is morally acceptable to use cell lines from embryos created before that magical date, why is it not also right to create stem cell lines from the estimated half-million unused, unwanted fertility clinic embryos destined to be destroyed?" Embryonic stem cells are found in the center of a "blastocyst," a cluster of about 150 cells which forms a few days after the joining of a sperm and egg, and are no larger than the period at the end of this sentence. To obtain the cells, the blastocyst must be destroyed. Thousands of these blastocysts are currently destroyed anyway; about 400,000 have been created as part of in vitro fertilization. Once a couple becomes pregnant, extra embryonic cells currently are incinerated. Kass further buttresses his argument by proudly pointing out the flourishing research conducted by private companies, which do use embryos left over from in vitro fertilization.

NO FUNDING = NO REGULATION, NO SAY: Stem cell research in the private sector and abroad is charging on, full-speed ahead. One result of barring federal funds from being used to develop new stem cell lines for research is to take any government oversight out of the equation. Even Kass agrees on this point, writing, "it is a Pyrrhic victory to keep the federal government out of certain activities, if the price of such a stance means that worse practices are allowed to proceed without oversight or regulation in the private sector."

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This is a nice picture.

Congress Oks Doubling U.S. Troops In Colombia
Congress has approved doubling the number of US troops in Colombia to 800. The decision was included in this year's 5,000 page Pentagon authorization bill which was approved on Saturday. The bill also permits the Bush administration to increase the number of U.S. citizens working for private contractors in Columbia by one-third.

Senate Oks $137 Billion Corporate Tax Cut
The Senate yesterday approved a $137 billion corporate tax cut marking the biggest restructuring of the corporate tax code in two decades. One of the biggest winners is the tobacco industry which will receive a $10 billion buyout. Senator John McCain described the bill as a "disgrace" and a "complete sellout to the tobacco companies." Originally Congress planned to give the tobacco industry $10 billion in exchange for allowing the Food and Drug Agency to increase regulation of their products. But legislators removed the FDA provision while preserving the tax break. The Center for American Progress has detailed some of the special interests who will benefit from the tax cut. Corporations like Eli Lilly and Hewlett Packard will save nearly $28 billion on profits earned abroad; NASCAR track owners will save $101 million. Importers of Chinese ceiling fans stand to save $44 million. Cruise ship operators will see a $28 million savings. Fishing tackle box manufacturers will save $11 million with the biggest savings going to a company located in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district. And bow and arrow manufacturers will receive a $9 million tax break. And the 633-page bill includes hundreds of other business tax breaks.

This is really crazy. I mean what about the seperation between church and state. How about spending that money on actually helping people not just some superstition. I mean are we just supposed to pray for people instead of actually helping them or doing any real good.

SCIENCE – LIVIN' ON A PRAYER: The White House has an interesting new health care strategy for the poor: let them pray. The New York Times reported yesterday that since 2000, the Bush White House has spent $2.3 million on studies into whether intercessory prayer – the practice of having strangers pray for the sick – works to cure heart disease and cancer. Dr. Richard Nahin, a senior adviser at the National Institutes of Health, said it was a "public health imperative" to conduct the research, since there were so many poor Americans who didn't have access to decent health coverage. "It is a public health imperative to understand if this prayer offers them any benefit," Nahin said. No word on what would happen if people prayed for a decent health care system that provided universal coverage.

Risky Business

A series of new reports makes clear that the fundamental safety net that long helped protect America's families has deteriorated dramatically during the past 25 years. According to a new Los Angeles Times report, over the past twenty-five years income in the United States has increasingly been subject to "wild leaps and plunges," leading to American families having to absorb more financial risk. In the 1970s, the income of most families "bobbed up and down no more than about $6,500 a year." These days, that's more than doubled: after adjusting for inflation, American families are looking at fluctuations of as much as $13,500 in a year. "The more a family's income fluctuates, the greater the chance it will be caught in a downdraft when a crisis – such as a layoff, divorce or illness – strikes." And the very programs Americans have relied upon to buffer them from economic turmoil have been slashed or killed altogether: "stable jobs, widely available health coverage, guaranteed pensions, short unemployment spells, long-lasting unemployment benefits and well-funded job programs" have all been under siege or have vanished.

UNEMPLOYMENT BURDEN SHIFTED: Americans who lose their jobs are on their own. The LA Times reports that while in the mid-1970s, jobless workers could collect 15 months of unemployment, by last December, Congress pared the program back to just 6 months. What this means: "Of the 8 million people who were unemployed last month, only 2.9 million were collecting benefits."

HEALTH CARE BURDEN SHIFTED: The LA Times reports the burden of health coverage is also shifting onto working Americans. The percentage of employers providing health coverage has plunged since 1987, leaving nearly 18 million people who would have been covered in the past struggling to find coverage on their own. And employers are shifting an increasing amount of the burden onto workers who are still covered; according to a recent study released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, this trend is getting worse: over the past four years, employers have raised the health insurance premiums workers must pay by an average of 50 percent.

LOW WAGES EVEN LOWER: The minimum wage was created to make sure everyone who worked would make enough to live on. For much of the past century, the minimum wage was maintained at roughly half of the average hourly earnings in America. Today it is $5.15, only a third of average hourly earnings and the lowest level in 50 years. And according to a new study by the nonpartisan Working Poor Families Project, one out of every five U.S. jobs pays less than a poverty-level wage for a family of four. That means "39 million Americans, including 20 million children" barely have enough money to pay for basic necessities like housing, food and child care.

PENSIONS DISAPPEARING: More Americans are at risk of losing their pensions. The Washington Post reports that in today's economy, traditional pensions face extinction, as does the guarantee of security after retirement. Twenty-five years ago, more than 40 percent of the workforce was covered by traditional pensions; today, less than 20 percent is. Instead, more Americans rely on plans like the 401(k), in which employers kick in some funds – about half of what they spent in the past – and "employees alone bear the burden of ensuring that they have enough money to retire on."

UNDERFUNDED JOB TRAINING: Job training, a critical part of pulling Americans out of poverty, has been slashed. Twenty-five years ago, writes the LA Times, the federal government spent $27.3 billion on the federal job training program. Today, that's been cut by over 84 percent, to about $4.4 billion. And federal job training budgets have dropped $597 million since 2000, making it that much harder for Americans trapped in poverty to find work and get off government assistance.

Crazyness from Slashdot:

"The NYT [FRR: bugmenot]reporting on Congress' attempt to set national standards for issuing driver's licenses. The Secretary of Homeland Security could require licenses to contain fingerprints or retinal scans, and while states are not required to cooperate, if your license doesn't conform to federal standards, you can be denied "access to planes, trains and other modes of transportation." Additionally, the House version would require states to keep all license data in a linked database for quick access, and calls for "an integrated network of screening points that includes the nation's border security system, transportation system and critical infrastructure facilities." How is this functionally different from a national ID card?"

This is a self portrait of my favorite girl Erica.

Because today is a celebration of imperalism I thought it would be appropriate to to put a very good article about the use of force by America.

The Resort to Force by Noam Chomsky

As Colin Powell explained the National Security Strategy (NSS) of September 2002 to a hostile audience at the World Economic Forum, Washington has a "sovereign right to use force to defend ourselves" from nations that possess WMD and cooperate with terrorists, the official pretexts for invading Iraq. The collapse of the pretexts is well known, but there has been insufficient attention to its most important consequence: the NSS was effectively revised to lower the bars to aggression. The need to establish ties to terror was quietly dropped. More significant, Bush and colleagues declared the right to resort to force even if a country does not have WMD or even programs to develop them. It is sufficient that it have the "intent and ability" to do so. Just about every country has the ability, and intent is in the eye of the beholder. The official doctrine, then, is that anyone is subject to overwhelming attack. Colin Powell carried the revision even a step further. The president was right to attack Iraq because Saddam not only had "intent and capability" but had "actually used such horrible weapons against his enemies in Iran and against his own people" -- with continuing support from Powell and his associates, he failed to add, following the usual convention. Condoleezza Rice gave a similar version. With such reasoning as this, who is exempt from attack? Small wonder that, as one Reuters report put it, "if Iraqis ever see Saddam Hussein in the dock, they want his former American allies shackled beside him."

READ MORE

Fingerprint model makes an impression
Buckling instability in skin could explain where fingerprints come from

The Guardian is reporting that atmospheric CO2 concentrations have leapt by 4.5 ppm in the last two years. This raises the ugly possibility that the capacity of a large carbon sink (possibly the oceans) has been exceeded, and the worst-case scenario is that a tipping point has been reached and a runaway warming scenario is in progress. Quote from Dr. Piers Foster of Reading University: 'If this is a rate change, of course it will be very significant. It will be of enormous concern, because it will imply that all our global warming predictions for the next hundred years or so will have to be redone.

This one is really good too.

From Slashdot:

"A mathematician, a psychologist and an economist commissioned by British Gas have finally put into mathematical terms what we all knew: that things don't just go wrong, they do so at the most annoying moment.The formula, ((U+C+I) x (10-S))/20 x A x 1/(1-sin(F/10)), indicates that to beat Murphy's Law (a.k.a. Sod's Law) you need to change one of the parameter: U for urgency, C for complexity, I for importance, S for skill, F for frequency and A for aggravation. Or in the researchers' own words: "If you haven't got the skill to do something important, leave it alone. If something is urgent or complex, find a simple way to do it. If something going wrong will particularly aggravate you, make certain you know how to do it." Don't you like it when maths back up common sense ?"

The next picture by Erica.

At the presidential debates last night, two of the third party candidates, Michael Badnarik (Libertarian) and David Cobb (Green Party), were arrested after attempting to enter the debates to serve an Order to Show Cause to the Commision on Presidential Debates. That is all.

Links to additional coverage can be found at Google News.

And now for something completly different the drink of the week:

The Sedated Pirate.

Ingredients:

• 3 shots (1 1/2 oz) vodka
  
• 6 oz club soda
  
• 1 200 mg vicodin tablet
• 1/2 a lime
• 1 eye patch
• ice
  

optional garnish:

• 1 peg leg
  
• 1 hook claw

Todays painting by Erica.

Nanodevices target viruses
Physicists explore new methods for virus detection

More Tough Questions

Bush has been preparing for tonight's townhall-style debate for the entire campaign. At 19 "Ask President Bush" events, he has fielded probing questions from an audience which – his handlers insist – has not been prescreened. Some examples: "I was wondering if you would permit me the honor of giving our Commander-in-Chief a real Navy salute?" "I was just wondering what your favorite book is, because I'd like to read it?" "I was wondering if I could take a picture with you?" Tonight's questions, however, are more likely to focus on jobs, Iraq, healthcare, taxes and education. Here is your pre-debate primer on what Bush will say and what you should know.

FACT – BUSH'S JOBS RECORD IS AN EMBARRASSMENT: Bush will say "the economy is strong and getting stronger." But the economy added a paltry 96,000 jobs in September, once again failing even to keep up with population growth. Since the president took office in January 2001, the economy has shed about 585,000 jobs. President Bush is a lock to become the first president since Herbert Hoover to have a net loss of jobs over a four-year term.

FACT – THE DUELFER REPORT UNDERMINES A KEY RATIONALE FOR WAR: Bush will say that the recently released report by chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer bolstered his rationale for war. Yesterday, Bush said the Duelfer report proved Saddam Hussein "retained the knowledge, the materials, the means and the intent to produce weapons of mass destruction...and he could have passed that knowledge on to our terrorist enemies." That claim is highly misleading. The Duelfer report establishes that Saddam "did not produce or possess any weapons of mass destruction for more than a decade before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq last year." Moreover, Duelfer found "no evidence that Hussein had passed illicit weapons material to al Qaeda or other terrorist organizations, or had any intent to do so."

FACT – BUSH'S TAX CUTS WERE A MASSIVE GIVEAWAY TO THE RICH: Bush will say that his tax cuts "left more money in the hands of American workers so they could save, spend, invest, and help drive this economy forward." In fact, Bush's tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited the very wealthy. For example, Americans with incomes averaging $1.2 million per year have received a tax cut of $78,460. By contrast, households in the middle 20 percent, with incomes averaging $57,000 per year, have received an average cut of $1,090. One-third of all the benefits went to the top 1 percent of all earners. Meanwhile, "9.2 million working families in the United States – one out of every four – earn wages that are so low they are barely able to survive financially."

FACT – BUSH CREATED A $5.2 TRILLION TAX GAP: Bush will say, "it is the job of a President to confront problems, not pass them on to future Presidents and future generations." Yet, in four years, Bush "has turned a $5.6 trillion surplus into $5.2 trillion deficit." His tax cuts are a big part of the problem. For example, even as corporate profits have soared 40 percent over the last four years, tax revenue from corporations has decreased. For more on the deterioration of America's fiscal situation, read this report by America Progress's Scott Lilly, mentioned in today's New York Times.

FACT – TORT REFORM WILL NOT SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE HEALTH CARE COSTS: Bush will say that the way to make health care more affordable is "by doing something about these frivolous lawsuits that are running good doctors out of business and running your costs up." But the non-partisan CBO has found that even legislation dramatically limiting the ability of patients to recover damages when their doctor commits malpractice would lower heath costs by one-half of one percent.

FACT – BUSH LEFT THE FUNDING FOR HIS EDUCATION PROGRAM BEHIND: Bush will stress the success of the No Child Left Behind program. Keep this in mind: 1) Bush underfunded the program by $9.4 billion, 2) Due to funding shortages 11 states will get less federal education money this year than they did last year, and 3) Because the Bush administration has "failed to give adequate guidance to help states comply with the goals of NCLB," twenty-four states have still not completed plans to fully comply with the law.

The next painting by Erica. Isn't she such a fantastic artist?

It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when ever twelve minuts one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.
-- Rod Serling

If one studies too zealously, one easily loses his pants.
-A. Einstein

The $145 Billion Abomination

What started as a modest effort in Congress to replace a $5 billion-a-year export subsidy that the WTO ruled was illegal has turned into a $145 billion, 633-page corporate tax giveaway. Opportunistic members from both sides of the aisle united and cast aside fiscal responsibility to reward favored special interests and score political points in an election year. The bill still requires final passage by the House and Senate. The one potential bright spot was a bipartisan agreement to allow the FDA to regulate tobacco in exchange for a $10 billion buyout of tobacco farmers. But at the behest of tobacco companies, the provision allowing FDA regulation of their products was stripped out by Congressional negotiators. (The $10 billion buyout stayed in.) Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called the bill "a disgrace" and "a complete sellout to the tobacco companies." At the urging of corporate lobbyists, lawmakers inserted so many last-minute changes "it will take weeks if not months for even the most skilled tax experts to identify all the deals that took place." Here are some highlights:

$27.9 BILLION FOR CORPORATIONS THAT EARN PROFITS ABROAD: The bill would allow corporations that have accumulated billions in untaxed overseas profits to bring the money back to the United States at a fraction of the normal tax rate. Even Treasury Secretary John Snow admits the provision discriminates "against companies that don't have large overseas operations." It would be a $20 billion windfall for giant corporations like Hewlett-Packard and Eli-Lilly. A separate provision would change the way overseas profits are calculated – at a total cost of $7.9 billion – saving General Electric Co. alone hundreds of millions of dollars.

$101 MILLION FOR NASCAR: The bill makes technical changes in the tax treatment of grandstand facilities, which will be worth $101 million to race track owners struggling to make ends meet.

$44 MILLION FOR IMPORTERS OF CHINESE CEILING FANS: The bill suspends a 4.7 percent duty on ceiling fans through 2006, a provision that primarily benefits Home Depot. Lobbyists for Home Depot also had the provision inserted into the administration's energy bill, but that bill failed to clear Congress.

$28 MILLION FOR CRUISE SHIP OPERATORS: A provision in the bill would allow cruise ship operators to delay paying taxes for certain products. The delay is worth $15 million for Carnival Corp. and $8 to $10 million for Royal Caribbean.

$27 MILLION FOR HORSE AND DOG GAMBLERS: The bill exempts foreign gamblers from paying taxes up front on their winnings at horse and dog tracks.

$11 MILLION FOR FISHING TACKLE BOX MANUFACTURES: Excise taxes on tackle boxes would be reduced from 10 percent to 3 percent. One of the biggest beneficiaries would be Plano Molding Co. – which just happens to be headquartered in House Speaker Dennis Hastert's district.

$9 MILLION FOR BOW AND ARROW MANUFACTURES: The bill eliminates taxes on "youth bows" that are not powerful enough to be used for hunting. It also reduces taxes for a device – called a broadhead – that is attached to the tips of arrows.

THE "REVENUE NEUTRAL" MYTH: The legislation is billed as revenue neutral because its proponents claim that tax cuts are off-set by closing other tax loopholes. But "the full costs have been glossed over and disguised by delaying the starting date of some provisions and scheduling others to end after several years." The Washington Post notes, "once Congress passes a tax break, lawmakers typically extend it when it comes up for renewal."

I have to thank Pika for this. It is Fuck the Vote we need to go out and prostitute ourselves to get those Kerry votes and I'm putting myself out there. I encourage people to put themselves out there too.

The Erica painting for the day. Sorry it is rotated 90 degrees. By the way it's the end of the world as I know it and I feel fine. Also Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

Cheney's Amusing Mistake....

Last night Cheney made a Mistake that caused an interesting chain of events. He said that people could get the truth about his ties with Halliburton at factcheck.COM instead of factchek.org! Factcheck.com is a website that sells encyclopedias, and they redirected people to GeorgeSorros.com. So, when everyone went to factcheck.com the first thing they saw was: WHY WE MUST NOT RE-ELECT PRESIDENT BUSH. George Sorros posted a correction to the mistake on his website that will lead people to factcheck.org, the latest edition is:
Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts
10.06.2004
Getting it wrong about combat pay, Halliburton, and FactCheck.org

Where factcheck.org criticizes Cheney's mistake.

Check it out for yourself...

ECONOMY – PROFESSORS SEND OPEN LETTER: One hundred sixty-nine tenured and emeriti business school professors from several of the nation's top universities have written an open letter documenting the drastic failure of President Bush's economic policies and asking for a "dramatic reorientation of fiscal policy, including substantial reversals" of tax policy. The letter, addressed to the president, begins, "Nearly every major economic indicator has deteriorated since you took office in January 2001… The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes – primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution – has not worked. The fiscal reversal that has taken place under your leadership is so extreme that it would have been unimaginable just a few years ago." Bush's second term economic proposals, the professors say, "only promise to exacerbate the crisis by further narrowing the federal revenue base." Click here for American Progress's analysis of the worst fiscal deterioration in the last half century.

ENVIRO – BUSH ADMINISTRATION ROLLS BACK RULES PROTECTING WILDLIFE: The Washington Post reports the Bush administration has "set aside Reagan-era rules aimed at protecting wildlife in national forests, rules that environmentalists had used to block logging projects in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere. Under a temporary regulation published last week, U.S. Forest Service managers reviewing road-building, logging or other proposals are allowed to waive the 22-year-old requirement that the forests maintain 'viable populations' of fish and wildlife. Instead of having to conduct population counts of representative species, for example, officials now can rely on 'best available science,' a less specific standard, to guide their decisions." In the past, the Bush administration has used the "best available science" to discount global warming, push ineffective abstinence-only education and justify harmful mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia, among other things.

Like Taking Coverage From a Baby

On Sept. 30, 2004, the deadline for Congress to act on preserving $1.1 billion in federal funds for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) – the program which focuses on insuring the kids of the working poor – was allowed to expire. The money was taken away from the states and returned to the U.S. Treasury. The White House could have stopped these funds from being taken from the states by requesting that Congress extend the time states had to use the funds in the 2005 budget. Over the objections of the National Governors Association and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, the administration decided not to ask for the extension. And according to the watchdog group Families USA, the White House actually "opposes bipartisan legislation that would give the states additional time to use the funds," and conservatives in Congress refused to schedule it for a vote.

$1.1 BILLION GOES A LONG, LONG WAY: According to Families USA, if President Bush hadn't allowed the deadline for states to use SCHIP funds to expire, 750,000 children could have been insured. For example, the state of Ohio would have enough to cover 11,400 kids; Florida could have insured 27,000 kids; and in the state of Texas, more than 44,000 children could have been insured.

KIDS STILL IN NEED: According to the most recent Census data, the number of children living in poverty increased dramatically last year. There were 12.9 million children living in poverty in 2003, 800,000 more than the year before. And that means more kids at risk of losing health insurance; the most recent data show 8.4 million American children remain uninsured.

SLASHING SCHIP: AP reports, "State budget pressures threaten to undo gains in health insurance coverage for children and the poor." State budgets face a projected shortfall of nearly $40 billion going into 2005; the administration's 2005 budget, however, proposed slashing state grants by 3.3 percent. To deal with the crippling budget strain, many states now are folding to pressure to slice health care for the poor. A new study by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation shows between April 2003 and July 2004, nearly half of the states in the U.S. took some measure to make it harder to sign up for or stay in SCHIP. And SCHIP enrollment fell for the first time in 2003, as states instituted "eligibility cuts, capped enrollment and raised premiums." Right now, 4 million children rely on SCHIP for health insurance.

MEDICAID IN TROUBLE: Children make up nearly half of the 52 million people who receive Medicaid. A separate Kaiser Family Foundation study shows every state in the nation is currently planning some measure to cut Medicaid in 2005, "including restricting eligibility and reducing benefits." The president has done little to help and, actually, has proposed making it worse. The state budget crunch has been exacerbated by the expiration of $20 billion in temporary fiscal relief, which was enacted in part to make up for federal tax cuts and the withering economy. (Ten billion dollars of that was directly for Medicaid.) In 2003, the president proposed "block granting" Medicaid, which would end the flexible funding. Without flexible funding, the recent surge in the uninsured would have been much larger; while 5 million more Americans were uninsured in 2003 than in 2000, almost 6 million more Americans were assisted by Medicaid during this period.

MEDICARE LEGISLATION MAKING THINGS WORSE: The Kaiser Family Foundation found state health programs face further strain by the financial burden generated by implementation of the White House Medicare prescription drug benefit. States are facing expensive new administration costs surrounding the new benefit. And three-fourths of all states are worried about a pricey provision that requires states to make payments to the federal government to finance the drug benefit, saying it will "more than offset any potential savings." Today, only three states have reported they have the money allocated to meet these challenges.

DOCTORS AGREE – ADMINISTRATION POLICIES HARM KIDS: Thirty-six leading American pediatricians – including well-known author T. Berry Brazelton and six past presidents of the American Academy of Pediatrics – released a joint statement this week "condemning President George W. Bush's neglect of child health concerns, as well as objecting to other administration policies that are harmful to the wellbeing of children." The statement charges, "The Bush administration's policies are moving us away from effective and longstanding federal commitments that improved the health of children, commitments proudly initiated and supported by previous Republican and Democratic presidents…If not reversed, these ill-advised tax and budget policies will erode decades of hard-won health gains for children, while still leaving unaddressed such critical problems."

Well I switched to a new comment system and unfortunatly it removed all the previous comments sorry about that, but I like this new comment system. I think it will lead to more comments by casual users.

I'm going to be showing a new picture by Erica everyday for a while. This one is nice.

Strong-force theorists scoop Nobel prize
Gross, Politzer and Wilczek share the physics prize for their work on quarks

Thanks to Jess for this story: Gentle boob rub aids girls So I herby volunteer myself to the fight against cancer. Any women who need help preventing breast cancer please contact me.

Cheney Debunkered

All eyes are on Cleveland, Ohio, tonight, when Vice President Dick Cheney will square off against Sen. John Edwards in the 2004 campaign's Vice Presidential debate. The Boston Globe this morning offers questions for the Vice President, saying, "Because of the widespread perception that the war in Iraq is at least as much Cheney's war as President Bush's, both debaters tonight must come to grips with Cheney's performance as the official who steered Bush toward the invasion of Iraq and infuriated intelligence professionals by ignoring assessments that did not suit his policy aims and spotlighting others that did." Paul Krugman of the New York Times agrees, saying Edwards should ask tough questions of the man who "played a central role in leading us to war on false pretenses." After the invasion, Cheney also took the lead in perpetuating the myth that al Qaeda was somehow tied to Saddam, a claim which he continues to make even thought it has been disproved by all known intelligence. For more on what Cheney will likely say and what you should know, read this American Progress debate backgrounder. Here's what to watch for:

KEY CHENEY CLAIM BLOWN APART: Vice President Cheney still asserts, "[Saddam] had a relationship with al Qaeda," in an ongoing attempt to plant "the idea that Hussein was allied with the group responsible for the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." As his primary evidence, the vice president repeatedly has said terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi was an associate of bin Laden and received safe haven from Hussein, stating that Zarqawi "is an al Qaeda associate who took refuge in Baghdad, found sanctuary and safe harbor there before we ever launched into Iraq." Today, a new CIA assessment — which Cheney himself requested months ago – blew apart this claim. The report stated, "there is no conclusive evidence that the regime harbored terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi." One U.S. official said, "The evidence is that Saddam never gave Zarqawi anything."

INTELLIGENCE DEBUNKS CHENEY: It's the latest in a long line of intelligence that shows Cheney's claim is false. Previously, the Sept. 11 Commission found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. CIA interrogators found "Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Saddam." The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track al Qaeda found "no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein."

RUMSFELD'S MOMENT OF TRUTH: Further damaging Cheney's unsupported claims of a link between Saddam and Osama, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told an audience yesterday at the Council on Foreign Relations that he knew of no "strong, hard evidence" linking Iraq and al Qaeda. Immediately after his candid comments to the group, however, Rumsfeld furiously backtracked and tried to get back on message, saying he'd been "misunderstood."

'WE NEVER HAD ENOUGH TROOPS ON THE GROUND': Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, the former U.S. official in charge of Iraq after the invasion, said yesterday that the U.S. effort in Iraq was handicapped from the beginning by a lack of adequate forces, flatly stating, "We never had enough troops on the ground." An insufficient number of U.S. troops to keep the peace early on "established an atmosphere of lawlessness," he said in a speech yesterday. The White House didn't adequately plan for the peace in Iraq, badly misjudging the situation and relying instead on falsely rosy predictions. A prime example: On 3/16/03, the week the invasion took place, Vice President Cheney said, "We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators" and "I think it will go relatively quickly... (in) weeks rather than months."

THE ULTIMATE FLIP-FLOP: The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports Cheney opposed invading Baghdad before he supported it. In 1991, then-Secretary of Defense Cheney cautioned against U.S. troops advancing into the city, "telling a Seattle audience that capturing Saddam wouldn't be worth additional U.S. casualties or the risk of getting 'bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.'" He added, "And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many." About 146 Americans died in the first Gulf War. This time, more than 1,000 U.S. troops have been killed in the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath.

IN BED WITH THE AXIS OF EVIL: In recent stump speeches, Cheney has tried to defend the invasion of Iraq by saying, "Iraq for years was listed by the U.S. State Department as a state sponsor of terror." What he doesn't say: Although the U.S. "concluded that Iraq, Libya and Iran supported terrorism and had imposed strict sanctions on them," during Cheney's tenure at Halliburton, he ignored that and "the company did business in all three countries." For example, with Cheney at the helm, Halliburton signed contracts with Iraq worth $73 million through two subsidiaries while that country was on the terrorism list. And Halliburton is being investigated for doing business while Cheney was CEO with Iran, a country also listed as a "state sponsor of terror" by the State Department. "The grand jury has subpoenaed various documents covering Halliburton's Iranian operations, a sign some evidence has surfaced indicating the company "knowingly violated" U.S. anti-terror sanctions.

CHENEY'S DAYS IN COURT: Cheney, under the guise of "legal reform," has attacked his rivals for being too cozy with lawyers. Watch those stones you're throwing from your glass house, Mr. Vice President. A watchdog site, HalliburtonWatch.org, has found that, with Cheney in charge, Halliburton filed 151 claims in 15 states around the nation, petitioning America's legal system an average of 30 times a year; most actions were filed against other corporations. (Halliburton currently is suing former employees who complained when the giant corporation sliced retiree health care benefits.)

IRAQ – POLAND MOVES TO PULL OUT: During last week's debate, President Bush attacked Senator Kerry for forgetting to mention Poland as a key member of the coalition fighting in Iraq. "My opponent says we didn't have any allies in this war," said Bush. "What's he say to Alexander Kwasniewski of Poland?" Kerry may not have to say anything, as Kwasniewski on Monday announced he was hopeful "that 2,500 troops serving in Iraq would be withdrawn next year." Kwasniewski, who set no specific date but said Poland hoped to "finish our mission at the end of 2005," was responding largely to domestic pressure. "More than 80 percent of the Polish public want the troops brought home as soon as possible." Another coalition member, Australia, may begin withdrawing its troops if an opposition party wins elections on Oct. 9.

Another fantastic painting by Erica.

Rationale for War Goes Down the Tubes

The central claim at the heart of the Bush administration's case for going to war was thoroughly discredited by the New York Times yesterday. Before the war, the Bush administration stated without doubt that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding a nuclear weapons program and, as proof, it pointed to the only physical evidence it could find: Iraq's attempt to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes. We now know, however, that the smoking gun was a fabrication. According to the New York Times, top U.S. nuclear weapons experts strongly contradicted the White House claim. The tubes, simply put, were the wrong kind for enriching uranium. Nonetheless, the White House ignored the experts and kept their views from the public. The result: "a largely one-sided presentation to the public that did not convey the depth of evidence and argument against" the apocalyptic claims.

THE TRUTH BEHIND THE ALUMINUM TUBES: The tubes were the wrong size – "too narrow, too heavy, too long" for a centrifuge. They had a special coating to protect them from the weather, which was "not consistent" with use in a centrifuge, as it could cause bad reactions with uranium. They were ill-suited for bomb making.

DISINGENUOUS RICE: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice hit the Sunday show circuit yesterday in an attempt to spin this latest evidence that the administration manipulated intelligence. Appearing on ABC News This Week, she said it was still unclear whether Iraq was using the tubes for a nuclear weapons program or for a conventional rocket program – ignoring the conclusion of the Senate intelligence committee, U.N. investigators and intelligence experts from the United States. "As I understand it, people are still debating this," she stated. David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said with the "overwhelming number of experts and the evidence" debunking this claim, Rice was "grasping at straws" to suggest this was still a debatable issue, adding, "I think she is being disingenuous and just departing from any effort to find the truth."

CONDI THEN AND NOW: In 2002, Rice charged the tubes were "only really suited for nuclear weapons programs," ominously adding, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." She also claimed in July 2003 that "the consensus view" in the intelligence community was that the tubes "were suitable for use in centrifuges to spin material for nuclear weapons." Yesterday, however, Rice admitted she in fact knew at the time that intelligence analysts were locked in intense debate over the issue.

CHENEY'S CHARGES: Appearing at various times on Meet the Press in the lead up to war, Vice President Cheney went even further, saying "he knew 'for sure' and 'in fact' and 'with absolute certainty'" that Hussein was buying the equipment to build a weapon. Cheney claimed: "He [Saddam] has reconstituted his nuclear program" – none of this was backed by the CIA report.

POWELL PUTS DOWN EXPERTS: In a 2003 speech to the U.N. Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell referenced the tubes, saying, "Other experts and the Iraqis themselves argue that they are really to produce the rocket bodies for a conventional weapon, a multiple rocket launcher." The New York Times points out, "Mr. Powell did not acknowledge that those 'other experts' included many of the nation's most authoritative nuclear experts, some of whom said in interviews that they were offended to find themselves now lumped in with a reviled government."

A lovely painting by Erica. 

Suppress the Vote

It has become clear that the Republican Party is attempting to suppress the vote of people in marginalized communities from Florida to Arizona. A Republican legislator in Michigan has said that they need to "suppress the Detroit vote"--the city of Detroit is over 80 percent people of color--while the head of (flawed) voting machine manafacturer Diebold has promised to deliver the swing state of Ohio to the Republicans.

In response, thousands of activists are traveling to swing states to help protect the hard-won right of marginalized communities to vote and human-rights NGO Global Exchange is sponsoring an international team of election observers.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party is conducting their own state by state campaign to keep third-party candidate Ralph Nader off the ballot.

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Well it's the weekend again. I love being able to sleep in a little bit it's so nice to just relax for a bit. I just wish I had someone to relax with. Things are going pretty good over here. I've just got a ton of work to do almost everyday and it is a little imposing. I do get a fall break pretty soon and I would like to go out and do something special during that time, but I just haven't figured out what I want to do.

Three Dozen Children Die in Baghdad Bombings
The attack came hours after a series of car bombs ripped through Baghdad killing over 40 people including three dozen children. The Los Angeles Times reports the children had flooded to the scene after the first car bombing went off near a ceremony marking the opening of a new sewage center. The children were reportedly picking through the debris, waving to television cameras and talking with the U.S. troops who were giving out candy. Then a second car bomb went off. Then a third. The attacks came just two days after the Iraqi school year had begun. The BBC reported that after the car bombings, U.S. forces came in by helicopter but cared for their own wounded soldiers before the Iraqi children. Thursday's bombing capped a deadly month for Iraqis. Agence France Press put the month's death toll at 585.

Florida Attempts To Prevent 17,000 New Voters From Voting
In other election news, the state of Florida is threatening to keep more than 17,000 newly registered voters from the voters rolls because their registration forms were incomplete. The nonpartisan America's Families United is attempting to contact the 17,000 people before Monday's registration deadlines. The group has sued Duval County to hand over a list of the disqualified voters.

Nebraska Police Reportedly Harassed ACLU Head
In Nebraska, the director of the state's American Civil Liberties Union has filed a complaint with the state police alleging that he was harassed by two troopers after he screened a film critical of the USA Patriot Act. After the screening of the film Unconstitutional one of the troopers approached Tim Butz and told him that he "shouldn't come out to these small towns and scare people and stir things up."

FBI Ordered To Release Full John Lennon FBI File
And a U.S. judge has ordered the FBI to hand over its secret files on singer John Lennon to Professor Jonathan Wiener who has been fighting for 21 years to obtain the documents. The government has argued that releasing the 10 pages of documents would pose a national security risk.

Ohio Secretary of State Called On To Resign
In elections news, two state senators from the battleground state of Ohio have called for the resignation of Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell. State Senator Teresa Fedor accused the Republican official of attempting to cook the vote. Up until Wednesday Blackwell had threatened not to accept voter registration forms that were not printed on paper with 80-pound card stock. The senators also accused Blackwell of misinforming ex-felons of their voting rights and of refusing to clarify how many voters have been purged from Ohio's voter registration rolls. Blackwell served as an electoral expert for Bush and Cheney during the 2000 recount in Florida.

Abstinence-Only Puts Ideology Over Science

The White House has consistently advocated and lavishly funded "abstinence only" sex education, gutting funding for programs which included information on other ways to avoid sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy. To support this position, the administration has distorted the scientific evidence about what works in sex education. Two new studies by Advocates for Youth (AFY) on the long-term impact of federally funded abstinence-only programs on teen sexual behavior confirm recent literature on the subject: the programs have no long-term effect on teens' intentions to have sex, but sour them on contraception, making it less likely they will take responsible measures to protect themselves if they do engage in intercourse.

ABSTINENCE-ONLY DOESN'T INCREASE ABSTINENCE: AFY's evaluation of eleven state abstinence-only programs, ten of which were funded federally, found there were "few short-term benefits and no lasting, positive impact." Overall, programs were moderately successful at improving participants' short-term attitudes towards abstinence but highly unlikely to positively affect participants' sexual behaviors. Five programs measured long-term impact on sexual behavior: "No evaluation demonstrated any impact on reducing teens' sexual behavior at follow-up, three to 17 months after the program ended."

ABSTINENCE-ONLY DISCOURAGES SAFE SEX: In at least two states, AFY Evaluators noted that abstinence-only programs' emphasis on the failure rates of contraception, including condoms, "left youth ambivalent, at best, about using them." The results are consistent with a Columbia University study by sociology chair Peter Bearman. Bearman's study, which tracked the sex lives of 12,000 adolescents between 12 and 18 years old over a five-year period, "found unsafe sex much greater among youth who'd signed pledges to abstain from sex" until marriage. The "virginity pledge" is a key component of many abstinence-only education programs.

ABSTINENCE-ONLY TEACHES BAD SCIENCE, MISINFORMS TEENS: In place of effective, disease-preventing safe-sex education, the administration wants to fund programs that denounce condom use, and mislead teens about the risks and effects of sexual intercourse. Much of the money proposed for the abstinence programs, Salon reports, "would be given in grants to Christian organizations such as Youth for Christ and to…school programs that teach kids that premarital sex leads to psychological maladies and that sex with condoms is a kind of viral Russian roulette." In Texas, where Bush pushed for an abstinence-based sexual education curriculum as governor, one textbook under review "advises that a good way a teen-ager can prevent a sexually transmitted disease is to get plenty of rest so he or she can have a clear head about sex and choose abstinence."

ABSTINENCE-ONLY HAS HAD NO IMPACT ON NATIONAL BEHAVIOR: There is no national data to suggest abstinence-only has had any positive effect on sexual attitudes or behaviors. From 1991 to 1997, sexual experience (the proportion of 9th through 12th graders reporting that they have ever had sexual intercourse) decreased significantly by 11 percent. But from 1999 to 2003, the period coinciding with the triumph of the abstinence-only agenda, changes in sexual experience leveled off.

BUSH PUTS ABSTINENCE-ONLY AHEAD OF DOMESTIC NEEDS: Despite its ineffectiveness, when it comes to abstinence education, "money seems to be no object. The administration's 2005 budget recommends $270 million for programs that try to dissuade teenagers from having sex," double the amount spent last year. Even as it guts proven HIV-prevention programs, the administration continues funneling money into abstinence-only programs proven to be, at best, grossly ineffective. Read this new American Progress column to see how HIV-prevention funding cuts have affected Washington, D.C.

The Great Debate

President Bush and Sen. John Kerry squared off in Miami last night for the first presidential debate. The result was a solid hit for Kerry. This morning's papers describe the scene: Bush is described as coming off as "petulant," "tight-mouthed," and "frustrated." Meanwhile, Kerry was "presidential," "in control," "serious and substantive." As the New York Times writes, "if the question was whether Senator John Kerry would appear presidential, whether he could present his positions clearly and succinctly and keep President Bush on the defensive when it came to the critical issue of Iraq, Mr. Kerry delivered the goods." The Boston Globe agreed, saying, "Last night, John Kerry won as clear a debate victory as we've seen since Ronald Reagan outdueled Jimmy Carter in 1980." And, the NYT writes, "Kerry's confident, calm manner may have paid off. CBS was one of several news organizations that conducted instant focus group surveys during the debate. A few minutes after the candidates finished their closing statements, CBS News said 51 percent of the 200 uncommitted sample voters thought that Mr. Kerry had a clear plan for Iraq. Only 38 percent thought the president did." Research by Democracy Corps details Kerry's "significant gains among likely voters who watched the debate," including major gains in "personal favorability, the security issues that dominated the debate, and key leadership attributes."

STICKING TO THE WRONG COURSE: Bush tried to assail Kerry's leadership last night, saying nine different times that Kerry's "mixed messages" and "mixed signals" mean he's not steadfast enough to lead. Bush, however, has confused bullheadedness with leadership. In Iraq, for example, he is clinging to the precept that staying the course is more important than being on the right course. Slate's William Saletin writes that Bush's stubbornness means a disconnect from the reality on the ground in Iraq: "Ignore the evidence that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs had deteriorated. Ignore the evidence that Saddam had no operational relationship with al-Qaida. Ignore the rising casualties. Ignore the hollowness and disintegration of the American-led 'coalition.'" Kerry last night said, "It's one thing to be certain. But you can be certain and wrong."

MISSTATING IRAQI SECURITY FORCES: Bush last night repeated his claim that we have 100,000 Iraqi security forces trained. It's not true. Last Monday, the Pentagon said that "only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty have now undergone training." According to Pentagon documents obtained by Reuters, of the 90,000 in the police force, "only 8,169 have received full training." "Many police lack equipment or vehicles. Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. official in charge of training, has been unable to fill his staff needs."

MISSTATING AL QAEDA CAPTURES: Last night, Bush repeated his oft-stated claim that three-quarters of known al Qaeda leadership has been captured. What this ignores: "al-Qaida is still considered a mortal danger in part because it refills its ranks and leadership."

MISSTATING THE RATIONALE FOR WAR IN IRAQ: Bush tried to rebut Kerry about the prewar need for more patience on Iraq, saying diplomacy wouldn't have persuaded Saddam to disarm. Writes the Boston Globe, "It was almost as though the president has forgotten that no stockpiles of forbidden weapons have been found in Iraq."

MISSTATING VOTER REGISTRATION SUCCESS IN AFGHANISTAN: Bush stated, "10 million people have registered to vote in Afghanistan." The problem: most sources agree there aren't even 10 million eligible voters in the country. Human Rights Watch this week released a report showing that figure included "multiple registrations of many voters. In a lengthy report, the respected organization also documented how human rights abuses are fueling a pervasive atmosphere of repression and fear in many parts of the country, with voters in those areas having little faith in the secrecy of the balloting and often facing threats and bribes from militia factions."

MISSTATING NORTH KOREA DIPLOMACY: Bush inexplicably claimed Kerry's proposal to have direct talks with North Korea would end the six-nation diplomacy that the administration has pursued over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, claiming it would also "drive away China, a key player in the negotiations." He was unable to explain this charge, however: "He never said why, and there are many examples in which the United States has negotiated with a nation in several different forums at the same time." In reality, "each of the other four countries in the talks has held direct talks with North Korea during the six-party process – and China has repeatedly asked the Bush administration to talk directly with North Korea."

MISSTATING BRINGING KHAN TO JUSTICE: Bush last night stated, "The A.Q. Khan network has been brought to justice," referring to the leader of a Pakistani nuclear smuggling ring. Not true. Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf. In fact, reports the Washington Post, "not a single person involved in his network has been prosecuted anywhere." Yesterday, the International Atomic Energy Agency complained Pakistan is blocking all access to Khan.

MISSTATING NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION EFFORTS: Last night, Bush said he'd increased spending by "about 35 percent" on nonproliferation efforts since he took office. The Washington Post points out that in his first budget, "he proposed a 13 percent cut – about $116 million – and much of the increases since then have been added by Congress."

WATCHING TELEVISION IS HARD WORK: The New York Times reports Bush was "unnerved" by Kerry's reference to his personal military service. "Mr. Kerry repeatedly referred to his first-hand experience sending men into battle in Vietnam," leading the president to repeat that "he understood that fighting was hard work and added, 'I see on the TV screens how hard it is.'"