3.31.2004 "Four justices who joined the Michigan Supreme Court since 1997 form a solid, conservative majority, a Free Press analysis of cases decided in 2002-03 shows." BY DAWSON BELL The Detroit Free Press Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.31.2004 "Anonymity Is Not the Same as True Privacy" Partial birth records withheld. Findlaw.com Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.31.2004 "a woman's photo journal of some of her recent bike rides through Chernobyl. " Pointer from Aaron.
3.31.2004 The "Juicy Bits" of Clarke's book by Julia Turner - Slate
3.31.2004 Medicare sham, a view from the left. Patrick Martin - World Socialist Web Site Pointer from Google News.
3.30.2004 "The Republican National Committee is pressing the Federal Election Commission ("FEC") to issue new rules that would cripple groups that dare to communicate with the public in any way critical of President Bush or members of Congress." via Moveon.org - Pointer from The Daily Kos
3.30.2004 Catch this guest blog by Arianna Huffington on The Daily Kos.
3.30.2004 "In other words, the hearing had all the trappings of a perfect, election-year GOP stunt. But then things got a little more complicated. Committee Democrats, such as Richard Durbin of Illinois, noted that Republicans had voted down a Senate amendment increasing veterans' health spending the previous night. "Giving a veteran a flag is not a substitute for giving our vets the quality health care they were promised," Durbin said, causing brows to furrow under those VFW caps." Michael Crowley - The New Republic online Pointer from Atrios
3.30.2004 "Detroit's terror trial Fed missteps jeopardize terror case Federal review finds government ignored own rules, withheld more than 100 documents from defense" Detroit News Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.30.2004 Instant Runoff Voting is Superior to Electoral College Pointer from Progress.org
3.30.2004 Kos wants us to send money to Jane Mitakides. Could make a difference in Ohio.
3.30.2004 Paul Krugman with a killer John Dean quote. New York Times. Pointer from the Carpetbagger report.
3.30.2004 The full Russert/Clarke transcript from Sunday, March 28, 2004. Washington Post. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.29.2004 The Hart-Rudman Report - Compare and contrast.
3.29.2004 Free speech on government property. Eugene Volokh, 3/29/2004 07:16:48 AM
3.29.2004 The scary side of Richard Clarke "Clarke Is Right" by Rich Lowry - National Review Online. Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 Buckyballs cause brain damage - oh God, what next? "Health Concerns in Nanotechnology" By BARNABY J. FEDER - NYTimes.com Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 We don't need no stinking warrants. Associated Press via HoustonChronicle.com Pointer from Aaron.
3.28.2004 "Terrorists Don't Need States" Fareed Zakaria - Newsweek Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.28.2004 The New Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card: A Very Flawed Program Families U.S.A. Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 "George Bush tends to make decisions on the basis of hunch and intuition, and then pulls together groups that confirm his decisions," said Paul Light, director of the Center for Public Service at the Brookings Institution, a center-left research center. "The only people who are invited to be on the team are people who agree with him." ..."I'm confident in my management style. I'm a delegator because I trust the people I've asked to join the team," he said in a television interview late last year. "I'm willing to delegate. That makes it easier to be president." By Ron Hutcheson - Knight Ridder Newspapers The Seattle Times Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 "Ashcroft is urged to probe Medicare cost "... "Foster said he was prepared to resign in protest but did not do so after talking with a Department of Health and Human Services attorney who told him that Scully's actions were within his authority as Medicare administrator." By Tony Pugh -Knight Ridder The Mercury News Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 "A study by Families USA found that retail prices of many of the most widely used drugs have increased 15 to 23 percent since the Medicare law was signed, just as the program prepares to roll out drug discount cards that are expected to save seniors 10 to 15 percent on the cost of their prescriptions." Wasingtonpost.com Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 "Editorial: Throw out this Medicare sham" Press & Sun-Bulletin Pointer from Google News.
3.28.2004 "A costly, drug-induced miscalculation" David Reinhard - The Oregonian Pointer from Google News.
3.27.2004 Last night, Al Franken reminded Jon Stewart of his essay "Operation Ignore" from "Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them". And Here it is. I love the internet.
3.27.2004 Paul Krugman on Medicare.
3.27.2004 "Bush officials have claimed that their al Qaeda strategy took eight months to develop because it was significantly more aggressive and sweeping than the tactics employed by the previous administration." . . . "In fact, according to the details that emerged this week, most of the strategies approved by high-level Bush officials on Sept. 4 and Sept. 10, 2001, were nearly identical in thrust to the policies pursued by the Clinton team." By Dana Milbank and Dan Eggen Washington Post Pointer from Google News.
3.27.2004 "Rice revises statement in private session on 9/11" BY KENNETH R. BAZINET AND THOMAS M. DEFRANK - New York Daily News via The Kansas City Star Pointer from Google News.
3.27.2004 "Clarke's complaint resonates with some other former administration officials." By Glenn Kessler - Washington Post Pointer from Google News.
3.27.2004 "Abortion records protected by court. Appeals panel rules for hospital" "But the bottom line for the court was that the government was unable to show that its need for these records at trial outweighed the potential cost to patients' privacy and the hospital's goodwill." Matt O'Connor and Jeremy Manier - Chicago Tribune Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.27.3004 "Quote Abusers Anonymous" A plea for better reporting by Geneva Overholser - Poynteronline Pointer from Eric Alterman
3.27.2004 "House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) joined Frist in calling for declassifying Clarke's 2002 testimony before the joint intelligence committee. Normally a committee would send testimony to the CIA (news
3.27.2004 My birthday is coming up. Here is my wish list.
3.27.2004 "The GOopers Circular Firing Squad is now in session." by Deep Dark from The Daily Kos
3.26.2004 "The Federal Budget: The Difference between What We Are Told and What We Can See" -
Congressman Bobby Scott's budget charts.
3.26.2004 "As she prepares to leave her job at the end of the year, Ms. Rice, the president's national security adviser, now finds herself at the center of a political storm, furiously defending both the White House and her own reputation." Emphasis added.
ELISABETH BUMILLER and PHILIP SHENON New York Times. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.26.2004 "Among the most serious discrepancies in Rice's claims to emerge this week is about a briefing on terrorism Bush received on Aug. 6, 2001.
3.26.2004 "Disclosure game works both ways" "Release Robert Novak and five other capital reporters of any obligation to withhold the names of the "two senior administration officials" who told them that Valerie Plame was a CIA operative, in what appeared to be an attempt to punish Plame's husband, retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV, for debunking the president's Nigerian yellow-cake claim."
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD Pointer from Google News.
3.26.2004 'In announcing late Thursday that Rice would go before the panel again but only in private and not under oath, the White House acted on a day when some Republicans said that President George W. Bush was being undercut by the perception that a senior White House official would not cooperate with the panel." Emphasis added. The Detroit News Pointer from Google News.
3.26.2004 "Clarke is angry -- with plenty of reason"
BY TRUDY RUBIN - The Miami Herald Pointer from Google News.
3.26.2004 "Trust Clarke: He's right about Bush" "More than two years after the worst terrorist attack in history, the President still does not understand the threat we confront, say security experts" IVO DAALDER and JAMES LINDSAY - The Globe and Mail Pointer from Google News.
3.25.2004 "He (Richard Clarke) was in every meeting that was held on terrorism," Ms. Rice said. "All the deputies' meetings, the principals' meeting that was held and so forth, the early meetings after Sept. 11." New York Times Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.25.2004 "On May 5, (2001) the White House announced that rather than adopt Hart-Rudman, it was forming its own committee on terrorism headed by Vice President Cheney. That group never met." Molly Ivins - Working for Change. Pointer from Google News.
3.24.2004 Center for American Progress regarding Administration's rep(lies) to Richard Clark's book. Pointer from Mark Kleiman
3.24.2004 Scalia and "The Wrong Ticket to Ride"
By IAN AYRES and BARRY NALEBUFF - New York Times. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.23.2004 "Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented?" Check out this August 4th, 2002 article by Michael Elliott - Time.
Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.23.2004 Paul Krugman on Clarke
3.23.2004 "3 Federal Judges Are Sued over Ethics'' ANNE GEARAN - WashingtonPost.com ...More Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.22.2004 "The Socratic Shrink . . . A controversial new talk therapy, philosophical counseling takes the premise that many of our problems stem from uncertainties about the meaning of life and from faulty logic." (and ethics) DANIEL DUANE - The New York Times Pointer from Leonard.
3.22.2004 "The Supreme Court Confronts the Alien Tort Claims Act:
Should the Court Gut the Law, as the Administration Suggests?" Anthony J. Sebok - FindLaw.com Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.22.2004 9/11: Internal Government Documents Show How the Bush Administration Reduced Counterterrorism
Center for American Progress Pointer from The Daily Kos
3.22.2004 "Were Bush to propose publicly that Congress immunize HMOs from suits for withholding care, there would surely be a firestorm of public anger. But his administration is on the verge of achieving the same result from the Supreme Court, almost without notice, veiled by the arcane language of the law." M.Gregg Bloche -
LATimes.com
Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.22.2004 Poor Skilling's lawyers should give him interest from his IOLTA account. Houston Cronicle.com Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.22.2004 Gay GOP Group Wants Web Site Data Restored Stephen Barr - Washington Post "Bloch said he is "personally committed to enforcing nondiscrimination in the federal workplace," but he added, "What is not well settled is whether enforcement based on personal characteristics rather than specific conduct is authorized." "
Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.22.2004 "Medicare is lowering its drug payments to oncologists, who say the change will hurt service and could drive some patients away." COLLEEN JENKINS - Saint Petersburg Times Pointer from Google News.
3.22.2004 "Whatever critics may say about AARP's many commercial enterprises in marketing insurance and other products to seniors, the ethic of the organization remains one of a social-service agency. It has a lot riding on what happens when seniors actually reach for the benefits that this bill is supposed to provide." DAVID S. BRODER - The Miami Herald
Pointer from Google News.
3.21.2004 "Res ipsa loquitur, baby. Why should the justice who put Dick Cheney in the White House stop helping him now? It's the logrolling, stupid!" Maureen Dowd - The New York Times. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.21.2004 Medicare "The Bush administration walked - and may have crossed - a fine ethical line deciding how much information lawmakers should have in their debate on the bill last fall." Ellen Beck - The Washington Times Pointer from Google News.
3.21.2004 Medicare - Scully "the lawmakers cited a provision in an appropriations measure that bars using federal money to pay the salary of any employee who "prohibits or prevents, or threatens to prohibit or prevent" another employee from communicating with Congress. SHERYL GAY STOLBERG - New York Times Pointer from Google News.
3.21.2004 Medicare - Scully was excused from Federal ethics law. Kate Scannell- Alameda Times-Star Pointer from Google News.
3.20.2004 "The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages." Eric Rosenberg-Hearst Newspapers- San Francisco Chronical. Pointer from Mark Kleiman
3.20.2004 "There is a long-standing rule that deliberative materials remain nonpublic," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said. "That's an essential tool for the executive branch to be able to do its business." Vicki Kemper- LATimes.com Pointer from Google News.
3.19.2004 Guantanamo military lawyers take aim at the system. Intel Dump Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.19.2004 Sierra Club's response to Scalia's refusal to recuse.. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.19.2004 "To be sure, there could be political consequences from disclosure of the fact (if it be so) that the Vice President favored business interests, and especially a sector of business with which he was formerly connected. But political consequences are not my concern." Scalia quoted by Dahlia Lithwick of Slate. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.19.2004 Scalia/Cheney A picture of the plane. New York Times. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.19.2004 "Discussing the energy task force case, Scalia stressed that Cheney was involved only in his official role as head of that group. Nothing the court says on the legal issues "will have any bearing upon the reputation and integrity of Richard Cheney," he said." How does he know? Boston Globe Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.18.2004 Republic rumblings about Medicare. The Hill. Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.17.04 "To reiterate a point made earlier, CAPPS II is not necessarily a decrease in privacy. Rather, it requires trade-offs in different types of privacy. It substitutes one privacy intrusion (into electronic data) for another privacy intrusion (the physical intrusiveness of body searches at airports)." Paul Rosensweig, Heritage Foundation. Pointer from Google News.
3.15.2004 Florida could be the next Florida. New York Times. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.13.2004 A very long, but fascinating, article regarding the 9/11 civil suits. New York Times Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.13.2004 Ted Kennedy attacks appointment of Pryor from a different angle. Law.com Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.13.2004 "A federal judge on Friday ordered the University of Michigan Health System to produce patients' abortion records, with personal information removed, for possible evidence in a lawsuit challenging the Partial-Birth Abortion Act." Detroit Free Press. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.13.2004 Twilight of the Neocons,
Richard Perle has begun to panic.
By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke. The Washington Monthly Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.13.2004 FBI wants more control over the net. Washington Post. Pointer from Google News.
3.11.2004 "Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates withheld" Pointer from Joshua Micah Marshall
3.9.2004 Karl Rove's Plame Game testimony The Carpetbagger Report
3.7.2004 Ashcroft funds under scrutiny. Washington Post Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.5.2004 The history of the non-reporting of the Scalia-Kansas trip. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.4.2004 Janet Rehnquist Resigns. CBSNEWS.com This is a must read.
3.2.2004 "Cover charges: The mystery of Martha's crimes" by Jacob Sullum for The Washington Post. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.2.2004 A powerful speech by Senator Patrick Leahy regarding the Bush recess appointments of Pickering and Pryor. Pointer from Howard Bashman
3.1.2004 Catholic Group Must Provide Birth Control Pointer from Howard Bashman
HOME -- January, 2004 -- February, 2004 -- March, 2004 -- April, 2004 -- May, 2004 -- June, 2004 -- July, 2004
gentle.reader@att.net
Rice had said on May 12, 2002, that the briefing was produced because Bush had asked about dangers of al Qaeda attacking the United States. But at the commission hearing, Ben-Veniste said that the CIA informed the 9/11 panel last week that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA. " By Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writers Pointer from Google News.