One Nation Under Investigation

One Nation Under Investigation, emphasis added

.... "Hubble bites the dust in NASA budget plan"

:=):=) :=) :=) :=) :=) :=) :=) :=) )=: )=: )=: )=: )=: )=: )=: )=: )=:

3.31.05 "Will the GOP need life support? -- A prominent conservative blogger says Republican leaders have abandoned the traditional principles of small government and federalism -- and warns they may soon come to regret it." By Glenn Harlan Reynolds, Salon 3.31.05 "New Order of Catholic Priests Is Forming to Fight Abortions" Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog quotes the law:

To be tax-exempt as an organization described in IRC Section 501(c)(3) of the Code, an organization ... may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates.

3.30.05 Statement of Purpose of the Council for Secular Humanism, via James Wolcott.

3.30.05 John C. Danforth, a former United States senator from Missouri, resigned in January as United States ambassador to the United Nations. He is an Episcopal minister. Via the New York Times

The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.
When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another.

3.30.05 Digby quotes: "If students only have one thing to consider, one option, that's really more brainwashing," said Duckett, who sent her children to Christian schools because of her frustration. Students should be exposed to the Big Bang, evolution, intelligent design "and, beyond that, any other belief that a kid in class has. It should all be okay."

Half the people in this country are below average.

3.30.05 "Suit by Detainee on Transfer to Syria Finds Support in Jet's Log" By SCOTT SHANE, The New York Times

3.29.05 "Targeted by Conservatives for Teaching Philosophy -- (Florida) House bill aimed to restrain academic scholars with legal threats" by Jacqueline Marcus

And I thought that Billmon was overwrought -- "Scenes From the Cultural Revolution"

3.29.05 "Culture of Each Life" Ann Quindlen gets it right.

3.28.05 "Agency's Web Site Out of Sync With Bush Plan" DAVID E. ROSENBAUM / New York Times

As President Bush and his allies travel the country to promote his Social Security plan, they say individual investment accounts are a no-brainer, bound to result in more money at retirement than workers could expect from Social Security.
But someone at the Social Security Administration did not get the word.
...
In the middle of the page at www.ssa.gov., toward the top, are "Questions about." From the drop-down menu, viewers can choose "Taxes and Social Security" and go to Question 18.

It is now question 16: The following was copied from the government site:

Why can't I invest my Social Security taxes into an IRA plan?
Question
... I think I could do better if you let me invest the Social Security I pay into an Individual Retirement Plan (IRA) or some other investment plan. What do you think?
Answer
Maybe you could, but then again, maybe your investments wouldn't work out. Remember these facts:
-Your Social Security taxes pay for potential disability and survivors benefits as well as for retirement benefits;
-Social Security incorporates social goals - such as giving more protection to families and to low income workers - that are not part of private pension plans; and
-Social Security benefits are adjusted yearly for increases in the cost-of-living - a feature not present in many private plans.

3.27.05 No More Mister Nice Blog "So, Priests for Life? The group that says the Terri Schiavo case "must mark the beginning of a new era of civil disobedience and conscientious objection, with simultaneous, determined efforts to curb the authority of the courts and restore government to the people through their elected representatives"?
For what it's worth, one of the members is Father Paul Scalia -- son of Antonin.
More on the organization here."

3.27.05 "Texas Official Admits Missteps That Helped Railroads in Suits" By WALT BOGDANICH, The New York Times

Mr. Crow: "The 100 or so affidavits you've given in the last 11 years, each of those specifically implied that federal funds were actually spent at a specific D.O.T. crossing number, right, sir?"
Mr. Kosmak: "Yes."
Mr. Crow: "When in fact there was neither personal knowledge on your part or on the part of, or any documents to actually substantiate that, right, sir?"
Mr. Kosmak: "That's correct."

3.27.05 "Device lets you out-Fox your TV" By Emily Fredrix, The Associated Press via Drudge

3.26.05 Pentagon Will Not Try 17 G.I.'s Implicated in Prisoners' Deaths By DOUGLAS JEHL, The New York Times

In one of the three cases in which no charges are to be filed, the commanders determined the death to be "a result of a series of lawful applications of force." In the second, the commanders decided not to prosecute because of a lack of evidence. In the third, they determined the soldier involved had not been well informed of the rules of engagement.
...
The Army said one of the three deaths for which soldiers would not be prosecuted was that of a former Iraqi lieutenant colonel determined by investigators to have died of "blunt force injuries and asphyxia" at an American Forward Operating Base in Al Asad, Iraq, in January 2004.
...
A senior Army legal official acknowledged that the Iraqi colonel had at one point been lifted to his feet by a baton held to his throat, and that that action had caused a throat injury that contributed to his death

3.25.05 "Army Documents Shed Light on CIA 'Ghosting' -- Systematic Concealment Of Detainees Is Found" By Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writer

3.25.05 "The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has warned former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle that it may sue him for his role in the alleged looting of Hollinger International Inc., the Chicago-based media company once controlled by Richard Perle." The Globe and Mail

Mr. Perle said he never profited from the Hollinger deals that investigators have scrutinized.
"I didn't benefit from any of the transactions that they looked at," Mr. Perle said.

The SEC should google "Trireme" "It all makes Whitewater seem like a quaint, third rate Ozarkian nothing, doesn't it?" Laura Rozen, November, 2003

3.5.05 Carpetbagger

There are some terrific analyses available of yesterday's Trustees' report on Social Security, but I wanted to bring attention to something more mundane: the press conference held to release the report. As it happens, two of the five trustees weren't there, in large part because their conclusions were different from the administration's line.
...
"The financial outlook for Social Security has improved marginally since 2000," wrote Saving and Palmer. "In sharp contrast, Medicare's financial outlook has deteriorated dramatically over the past five years and is now much worse that Social Security's."

3.24.05 THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

... killing prisoners of war, presumably in the act of torture, is an inexcusable outrage. The fact that Congress has just shrugged this off, and no senior official or officer has been fired, is a travesty. This administration is for "ownership" of everything except responsibility.
...
President Bush just appointed Karen Hughes, his former media adviser, to head up yet another U.S. campaign to improve America's image in the Arab world. I have a suggestion: Just find out who were the cabinet, C.I.A. and military officers on whose watch these 26 homicides occurred and fire them. That will do more to improve America's image in the Arab-Muslim world than any ad campaign, which will be useless if this sort of prisoner abuse is shrugged off.

3.24.05 Andrew Sullivan "Conservatism is a philosophy without a party in America any more. It has been hijacked by zealots and statists." (see wiktionary)

3.24.05 "DeLay, Deny and Demagogue" By MAUREEN DOWD

Mr. DeLay made his personal stake clear at a conference last Friday organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. He said that God had brought Terri Schiavo's struggle to the forefront "to help elevate the visibility of what's going on in America." He defined that as "attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others."
So it's not about her crisis at all. It's about his crisis.

3.24.05 "Social Security: Now Healthier Than Ever!"

3.24.05 Carpetbagger "Why the investigation of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church matters"

A few blogs noted yesterday that the IRS has launched an investigation of a Miami church for illegally helping John Kerry's campaign last year. I think this is significant, but for a different reason than most.
...
There's a piece of legislation sponsored by Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) that would change federal tax law to allow churches to campaign on behalf of candidates. Right now, it's a bill the religious right and other far-right conservatives are ready to fight for. In the past, Dems have rejected the bill and fought to protect existing law.
But keep an eye on what happens as a result of the investigation into the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church. If Dems start to believe that their churches are coming under fire for helping Dem candidates before elections, support for Jones' bill could become bi-partisan pretty quickly. And if it does, there could be sweeping consequences on both sides – as evangelical churches on one side and African-American churches on the other side take on unprecedented roles in American political campaigns.
Something to keep an eye on.

3.24.05 Carpetbagger "McCain is letting the ethically-challenged off the hook"

The DCCC's Jesse Lee raised an excellent point yesterday about John McCain's interest in the ever-escalating Jack Abramoff scandal. Namely, that McCain will pursue the matter, but only insomuch as it lets Republican lawmakers off the hook.
Senate Indian Affairs Chairman John McCain is walking a tightrope. He has promised an aggressive investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, but insists he will not target other lawmakers linked to Abramoff, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

3.24.05 "Federalism Has a Right to Life, Too" By CHARLES FRIED, The New York Times

3.23.05 A federal lawsuit filed by several Navy SEALs and the wife of a special forces member claims The Associated Press violated copyright and privacy laws and endangered the servicemen's lives by publishing photographs of them with Iraqi prisoners.

3.23.05 "Administration kept mum about unapproved modified corn sold" By Seth Borenstein, Knight Ridder Newspapers, via Yahoo! "The federal government kept it secret for three months that genetically modified corn seed was sold accidentally to some U.S. farms for four years and may have gotten into the American food supply" ... ""They have both a moral and legal obligation to reveal violations," Krimsky said. "This is a government that's operating in a stealth manner that wants to keep bad news from the public."

3.22.05 "New EPA Mercury Rule Omits Conflicting Data" By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer

When the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a rule last week to limit mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, officials emphasized that the controls could not be more aggressive because the cost to industry already far exceeded the public health payoff.
What they did not reveal is that a Harvard University study paid for by the EPA, co-authored by an EPA scientist and peer-reviewed by two other EPA scientists had reached the opposite conclusion.
That analysis estimated health benefits 100 times as great as the EPA did, but top agency officials ordered the finding stripped from public documents, said a staff member who helped develop the rule. ... "Are you saving the industry a billion dollars but taking away $10 billion worth of benefits for the general public?" Amar asked.

3.22.05 Regarding Shiavo: Dalia Lithwick, Slate via Memeorandum:

"The rule of law requires that we look skeptically at legislation aimed at mucking around with just one life to the exclusion of any and all similarly situated individuals.
...
You can put aside the doctrine of federalism for Terri Schiavo, and the principles of separation of powers, and comity, and of deference to finality and the rule of law. But you'd want to be certain, on the day you do so, that what you're sacrificing them for (is) some concrete legal value that matters a whole lot more. Subordinating a centuries-old culture of law to an amorphous, legally meaningless "culture of life," is not a decision to be taken over a weekend.
...the state court judge in this case requires constant police protection: The standard-bearers of the "culture of life" keep threatening to kill him.

Rep. Barney Frank:

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a liberal who spoke strongly against the legislation Sunday night, said Democrats should cite it in next year's elections as an example of congressional Republicans having too much power driven by hard-right ideology. "The American people have a distrust of excessive zeal, and some of the Republican leaders' determination to impose their religious views borders on fanaticism," he said. "They're playing God."

The Rev. John Paris, professor of bioethics, Salon

This is Holy Week, this is when the Catholic community is saying, "We understand that life is not an absolute good and death is not an absolute defeat." The whole story of Easter is about the triumph of eternal life over death. Catholics have never believed that biological life is an end in and of itself. We've been created as a gift from God and are ultimately destined to go back to God. And we've been destined in this life to be involved in relationships. And when the capacity for that life is exhausted, there is no obligation to make officious efforts to sustain it

See also: "quorum? as rude pundit noted, the "unanimous" senate vote last night approving the terri schiavo bill was cast when exactly three senators were in the room." Rubber Hose via Atrios

AMERICABLOG via DAOU Schiavo hypocrisy: List of things Bush failed to rush home to deal with

"Bush role in Schiavo case bothers Right" JESSE J. HOLLAND" Associated Press

3.22.05 David Brooks has had enough: "Masters of Sleaze" By DAVID BROOKS via Memeorandum

Down in the depths of the netherworld, where Tammany Hall grafters and Chicago ward heelers gather amid spittoons and brass railings, a reverential silence now spreads across the communion. The sleazemasters of old look back into the land of the mortals and they see greatness in the form of Jack Abramoff.

To see how this all connects to Tom Delay, look at the flow chart HERE

3.22.05 "Negroponte's Time In Honduras at Issue" By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Staff Writer

"U.S. "intelligence collection and reporting requirements on human rights abuses [in Honduras] were subordinated to higher priorities," the CIA working group reported, according to a summary released to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2001, before confirmation hearings on Negroponte's nomination to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

3.21.05 Tough questions ducked: "Transcript of Representative Cynthia McKinney's Exchange with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers, and Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Tina Jonas, March 11th, 2005

3.21.05 "Maggots: Coming to a Hospital Near You" Yahoo!

3.21.05 "Another 'lucky' break for Halliburton" Carpetbagger

3.21.05 Matthew Yglesias

"they had Marina Ottaway on. She, unlike pretty much everyone else one ever hears talking on this subject, did an admirable job of raising the elephant in the corner of American Iraq policy, the fact that near as anybody can tell the administration is still trying to finagle some kind of permanent military basing agreement in Iraq. That the administration has managed to hew consistently to this agenda without ever stating that this is one of their major policy goals is astounding, and that the American media is consistently unwilling to discuss the point is appalling. What's even more astounding about it is that one regularly hears and reads in expert commentary that we ought to "make clear" that this isn't what we're doing.

3.21.05 "Wal-Mart Buys "Get Out of Jail" Card" Nathan Newman

Prosecutors announced they were dropping all criminal charges against Wal-Mart for its use of contractors employing undocumented workers in exchange for paying an $11 million fine, a hefty sounding amount but a pittance for a company with $288.2 billion in sales last year. Let's put it this way-- this is an equivalent financial hit to an average person making $50,000 per year being hit with a $1.90 fine for illegal activity.
The double standard for corporate crime is astounding-- we destroy the lives of young people for minor drug crimes, but corporate executives can break the law and steal pay from their workers, and all they get it a financial slap on the wrist

. 3.21.05 " Guantanamo abuse 'videotaped'" By John Sheed, The Australian

3.21.05 Terri Schiavo: "Trial by Legislation" Attorney Andrew Cohen analyzes legal issues for CBS News and CBSNews.com.

QUESTION: What does that concept do the regular give and take between the court systems, the idea of comity and cooperation between judges?
ANSWER: It destroys it. But that's the whole point of this Congressional action. Not liking a particular result in a case that has been litigated fully and completely by a court with competent jurisdiction, Congress now has said that the game must be re-done with new rules that heavily favor one side over the other. The implications of this move are astonishing. Just think about it. Anytime Congress doesn't like the result in a particular case, it could swoop in and call a "do-over," which is essentially what this legislation represents. And this from a Congress that has for a decade or so tried to keep all sorts of citizens-- including disabled employees-- out of federal court. If this law is declared valid, no decision in any state court in the country will be immune from Congressional second-guessing. It would throw out of whack the entire concept of separation of powers. The constitutional law expert Tribe calls it "trial by legislation" and he is right.
... Look, there is no other way to put it: this is the most blatant and egregious power-grab by one branch over another in my lifetime.

Digby paints the whole picture:

By now most people who read liberal blogs are aware that George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday.

More: the attack on Medicaid funding, tort "reform", malpractice "reform", bankruptcy "reform"

3.21.05 Rendition "Jet's travels cloaked in mystery -- Red Sox partner's plane hits spots U.S. sent terror suspects" By John Crewdson and Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune correspondents via Digby

Kos is working on this But does he have this? "Richard Kaylor, manager of Richmor Aviation, said the FBI was first alerted to the Schenectady flight school after a Richmor business card was discovered in Murad and Yousef's Manila apartment.

3.21.05 "Social Security as Dramamine" By DANIEL GROSS, The New York Times

Volatility - the degree to which the value of an asset deviates above or below the general tren hiid - is a concept with which investors are familiar. Some stocks can prove more risky - or more rewarding - than others because they rise or fall by a greater degree than the market as a whole, while others tend to track the overall market's performance closely. But the concept of volatility is less well understood when it comes to income. As we learn more about income volatility in the information age, some scholars say, Social Security - an insurance program designed for the industrial age - may be even more essential.

3.20.05 Ali vs. Rumsfeld: "Accountabililty, American style" By NAT HENTOFF, The Decatur Daily Democrat

Google News links today for "Ali vs. Rumsfeld" (4) -- Terri Schiavo, (12,800 in .31 seconds)

3.20.05 "President Bush is changing his schedule to return to the White House on Sunday to be in place to sign emergency legislation that would shift the case of a brain-damaged Florida woman to federal courts, the White House said Saturday." ABC

Atrios "George Bush signed the law which allows the hospitals to make this decision:

A patient's inability to pay for medical care combined with a prognosis that renders further care futile are two reasons a hospital might suggest cutting off life support, the chief medical officer at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital said Monday.
Dr. David Pate's comments came as the family of Spiro Nikolouzos fights to keep St. Luke's from turning off the ventilator and artificial feedings keeping the 68-year-old grandfather alive.

See also Billmon: "All Patients on Life Support Are Equal Some Are Less Equal Than Others"

3.20.05 "My Bias for Mainstream News" By Dana Milbank, The Washington Post via Memeorandum

Would liberals really favor the absence of a press that calls into questions the Bush administration's claims about Iraq's weapons and ties to al Qaeda? Would conservatives really favor the absence of a press that brought the Clinton scandals to light?

Digby says:

That Milbank continues to see these things as being equivalent is the problem.
The Clinton scandals were contrived political character assassination that were investigated to the tune of 70 million dollars by numerous Republican congressional committees and Republican special prosecutors and WERE PROVED TO BE WITHOUT MERIT!!! The mainstream press were not muckrakers, they were willing whores and shills for a partisan agenda. They obsessed over a decades old land deal, the firing of some employees in the travel office, some bozo in the basement reading FBI files and Clinton's sex life among many other trivial charges. None of them came to anything. These facts are clear. If there is any doubt in anyone's mind that the right wing was willing to do anything to cripple Clinton's presidency one need only remember that they IMPEACHED him over a consensual extra-marital affair that he lied about in a trumped up sexual harrassment case that was thrown out of court.

See also the Daily Howler

But how many people “on the left” believe that Bush “knew of 9/11 in advance?” Is it anything like 75 percent, the number Milbank has just cited in discussing those disinformed Bush supporters? And how many people on the left actually believe, as a matter of fact, that Bush was coached during that debate? In these cases, Milbank cites no polling data, because there is no poll on the face of the earth which would produce anything like the type of equivalence he so slavishly seeks here.

Milbank says:

Ultimately, it's not good for anybody, even partisans, to get into a postmodern morass where there are no such things as facts, only competing perceptions of reality. ...
Stephen Hayes of the conservative Weekly Standard protested in a November article that during the campaign, "journalists at the New York Times and the Washington Post and the television networks saw themselves not as conveyors of facts but as truth-squadders, toiling away on the gray margins of the political debate." These journalists, he continued, "fancy themselves thinkers, not mere scribes. They go to work every day to tell us not what the Bush administration has said, but what it has left unsaid."
Imagine that! An independent press looking for the truth rather than serving as stenographers for the powerful. It's a quaint tradition Americans would be wise not to abandon.

Digby says:

As it stands, we have a Republican alternate version of reality and a mainstream press that is apparently impotent to take it on with any real zeal. I don't know what else to do but create our own discourse that hopefully provides the flaccid media with another point of view that they can then flog with equal fervor. I hope that our discourse is more honest and more true, but I cannot guarantee it. All I know is that we have to pull on the other end of the ideological rope or we are all going to be dragged off the cliff together.

3.20.05 "U.S. Misled Allies About Nuclear Export" By Dafna Linzer, Washington Post Staff Writer, via Yahoo!

3.19.05 "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold via Ed Kilgore, Talking Points Memo

3.18.05 "ACLU and Human Rights First Sue Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Over U.S. Torture Policies" Human Rights First
What did Rumsfeld know and when did he know it? ACLU

3.18.05 " Secret US plans for Iraq's oil" By Greg Palast, BBC

3.18.05 "Possible Mercury, Autism Connection Found in Study" By Thomas H. Maugh, LA Times Staff Writer

Texas researchers have found a possible link between autism and mercury in the air and water. Studying individual school districts in Texas, the epidemiologists found that those districts with the highest levels of mercury in the environment also had the highest rates of special education students and autism diagnoses.

3.18.05 "Inquiry Begins Into Validity of Data About Yucca Mountain" By Ralph Vartabedian, LA Times Staff Writer, via Yahoo!

Two federal agencies launched investigations Wednesday into evidence that government scientists had submitted phony data to help prove that a proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain in Nevada would be safe
...
Loux said that if the water penetration study was falsified, he was concerned about the validity of other research into possible volcanism and earthquakes that could affect the site.

3.18.05 "One step closer to going nuclear" Carpetbagger

If you're just joining us, Myers is a pretty obvious choice for Dem opposition. He's an anti-environmental activist who's lobbied for the same ranching, mining and timber interests that would have cases before him on the 9th Circuit. He's never been a judge, never even participated in a jury trial, and received a poor rating from the ABA. The guy once said environmental regulations were akin to King George's tyranny over the American colonies. Indeed, Myers has made it clear that he's already made up his mind on federal protection of the environment – and he's against it.

3.18.04 Billmon -- MUCH MORE

Scenes From the Cultural Revolution

    The Left has taken over academe. We want it back.

    Mike Rosen, Rocky Mountain News columnist
    CU is Worth Fighting For
    March 4, 2005

    In this great Cultural Revolution, the phenomenon 
    of our schools being dominated by bourgeois intellectuals
    must be completely changed.

    Central Committee of the
    Communist Party of China
    Resolutions of the Eleventh Plenum
    August 1966

3.18.05 "The Washington Establishment Fails Logic 101" Arianna

But the White House continues to razzle-dazzle the Beltway with its command of the Undistributed Middle: The president invaded Iraq. There have been no terrorist attacks in America since 9/11. Therefore, the invasion of Iraq has made us safer--and lit the torch of freedom throughout the Arab world.
In any freshman course in logic, this reasoning would collapse, shot full of holes. In Washington, it's become the conventional wisdom.

3.18.05 "In Blow to Bush, Senators Reject Cuts to Medicaid" By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG, The New York Times

3.18.05 "Mr. Magoo goes to the World Bank" By Michael Lind, Salon

Even the greatest statesman makes some mistakes. But Wolfowitz is perfectly incompetent. He is the Mozart of ineptitude, the Einstein of incapacity. To be sure, he has his virtues, the foremost of which is consistency. He has been consistently wrong about foreign policy for 30 years.

3.18.05 "FDA Expects to Ease Plan B Availability" By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Staff Writer

Clinton and several other senators said the agency's protracted struggle with the Plan B proposal has raised increasingly sharp questions about whether the FDA remains a science-based organization. "I am hopeful that we will reverse what appears to be a dangerous slide into political opinion rather than scientific evidence," Clinton said.

3.18.05 "Arctic drilling doesn't belong in the budget bill" Portland Press Herald

There are still opportunities to stop the drilling provision from getting through. The Senate budget resolution hasn't yet passed and the House version does not contain a provision for drilling.

3.17.05 Starve the Fox

3.17.05 "Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq" By Griff Witte, Washington Post Staff Writer

Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who made a summary of the fuel audit public, called on President Bush to release audits for the other nine sections of Halliburton's no-bid contract.
"[T]he Administration has withheld these audits from Congress for months, and Halliburton has repaid nothing under this contract," they wrote. "We would like to know when and how you plan to recover the overcharges from Halliburton and restore them to U.S. taxpayers and the Iraqi people."

3.17.05 "DeLay Defends Trip and Vote, Attacks Critics -- GOP Leader Offers To See Ethics Panel" By Mike Allen and James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post Staff Writers

3.17.05 "I would highly recommend that everyone read Chris Hayes' fascinating article about a budding young conservative talking head called "The Message Machine." It's creepy and fascinating." Digby via Daou

3.16.05 "Nino Scalia, by Grace of God Justice and Lord" Brad DeLong

See Also: "Justice Scalia's blooper" and "atheists need not apply" By Don Herzog, Left2right

3.16.05 "Fraud Verdict Is Ominous for Toppled CEOs -- Ex-WorldCom chief Ebbers is convicted of a huge accounting scam, though he professed ignorance. Such a claim may not help others." By Walter Hamilton, Lisa Girion and Thomas S. Mulligan, LA Times Staff Writers

"When you start a company and you bring it up from nothing, it's hard to convince a jury that you are just too stupid to know what's going on," said Daniel J. Callahan, a veteran litigator. "This see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, speak-no-evil policy just doesn't fly."

3.16.05 "Hefley joins Dems on ethics" By Alexander Bolton and Patrick O'Connor, The Hill via Memeorandum

Shays said that he did not think it was appropriate to dismiss Hefley as chairman at the end of the last Congress and that he was concerned that replacing Reps. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) with Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Tom Cole (R-Okla.), both of whom have given money to DeLay’s legal defense fund, would send voters the wrong message.

3.16.05 "New mercury rules not good enough for Michigan, critics say" By Sarah Kellogg, MLive.com

3.15.05 "Dems play hardball with House ethics" Carpetbagger

"House Dems, particularly those trying to serve on the House Ethics Committee, have come to realize something important: there's no point in having the committee do any work at all if it's going to operate under fraudulent rules. They've intentionally brought on gridlock, which given the circumstances, is exactly what's warranted."

3.15.05 " Bias does not mean telling the facts, my dear wingnuts, and sometimes facts weigh more towards one side. Bias means not giving each side a fair hearing and not letting them give their explanations for why what happened happened and so on. Bias means weighing the same facts differently depending on whom they affect. But bias does not mean pretending that someone who is awful isn't, just because the other guy isn't quite as awful." Echidne of the Snakes

3.15.05 "A PRINCIPLED CASE FOR OBSTRUCTION. -- Blocking Move" by Jonathan Chait, The New Republic online

Out of the mouths of babes came a pair of remarkably succinct statements about what is at stake as the Bush administration sets about privatizing Social Security: Should Social Security remain in something like its present form, as a social guarantee to retirees, widows, and disabled workers? Or should it be dismantled and replaced with a system in which everybody takes care of themselves?
...
The only way to make sense of Bush's behavior is to understand that his professed concern for Social Security's solvency is a pretext. He wants to use this moment of maximal Republican power to put his ideological imprint on any change to the system. From a fiscal standpoint, repairing Social Security now as opposed to five or ten years from now makes almost no difference. The true basis for Bush's urgency is that Republicans may not control Washington in five or ten years. For ideological conservatives, this is a pressing reason to act now. For the rest of us, it isn't.

3.15.05 Paul Krugman

But in his latest radio address, Mr. Bush - correctly, this time - attributed the $600 billion figure to a "Democrat leader." He was referring to Senator Joseph Lieberman, who, for some reason, repeated the party line - the Republican party line - the previous Sunday.
...
My guess is that Mr. Lieberman thought he was being centrist and bipartisan, reaching out to Republicans by showing that he shares their concerns. At a time when the Democrats can say, without exaggeration, that their opponents are making a dishonest case for policies that will increase the risks facing families, Mr. Lieberman gave the administration cover by endorsing its fake numbers.
As it happens, Mr. Lieberman stated clearly what was wrong with the bankruptcy bill: "It failed to close troubling loopholes that protect wealthy debtors, and yet it deals harshly with average Americans facing unforeseen medical expenses or a sudden military deployment," making it unfair to "working Americans who find themselves in dire financial straits through no fault of their own." A stand against the bill would have merged populism with patriotism, highlighting Democrats' differences with Republicans' vision of America.

3.14.05 "What does it mean, though, to neither want to establish a religious nor a secular state in Iraq? One or the other will be established, I would think. I'm rooting for the secular solution because it allows the religious people to live a religious life whereas the reverse would not allow the secular people to live a secular life.
As an aside, I'm slightly annoyed by the term "secular" in this context. To want a secular state doesn't mean that one is an atheist. I want all states to be secular and I'm a goddess! "Secular" means something more here than purely earthly matters; it means a state which is inclusive of people with various faiths and sensitive to human rights." Echidne of the Snakes Via Daou

3.14.05 "A Bankrupt 'Reform'" By David S. Broder, The New York Times

When it comes to blatant hypocrisy, nothing beats the Senate record on the just-passed bankruptcy bill.
This "reform," which parades as an effort to stop folks from spending lavishly and then stiffing creditors by filing for bankruptcy protection, is a perfect illustration of how the political money system tilts the law against average Americans.

3.14.05 "Looting at Iraq Weapons Plants After Invasion: NYT" Reuters

The facilities, cited by the Bush administration as a reason for invading Iraq, were left largely unguarded by troops in the months after Baghdad fell. Senior U.N. agency officials confirmed that satellite images confirmed that some of the sites said to have been looted did appear to be totally or partially stripped, the Times report said.

3.13.05 "Marines driven out of UAW lot -- The union says Marines in foreign cars, displaying Bush stickers unwelcome." By Eric Mayne / The Detroit News

3.13.05 "Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged Television News" By DAVID BARSTOW and ROBIN STEIN, The New York Times

Last month, in its most recent finding, the G.A.O. said federal agencies may not produce prepackaged news reports "that conceal or do not clearly identify for the television viewing audience that the agency was the source of those materials." It is not certain, though, whether the office's pronouncements will have much practical effect. Although a few federal agencies have stopped making television news segments, others continue. And on Friday, the Justice Department and the Office of Management and Budget circulated a memorandum instructing all executive branch agencies to ignore the G.A.O. findings. The memorandum said the G.A.O. failed to distinguish between covert propaganda and "purely informational" news segments made by the government. Such informational segments are legal, the memorandum said, whether or not an agency's role in producing them is disclosed to viewers.
...
the Bush administration spent $254 million in its first term on public relations contracts, nearly double what the last Clinton administration spent.
...
Several major television networks play crucial intermediary roles in the business. Fox, for example, has an arrangement with Medialink to distribute video news releases to 130 affiliates through its video feed service, Fox News Edge. CNN distributes releases to 750 stations in the United States and Canada through a similar feed service, CNN Newsource. Associated Press Television News does the same thing worldwide with its Global Video Wire.

"You might argue that this is just another example of the general blurring between journalism and public relations in this country, and that the trend is nothing new, and you might be right. But the government has a special role and a special burden: it is not supposed to exploit its citizens by feeding them propaganda as news. Or so I think in my divine naivete." Echidne of the Snakes

3.12.05 DKEs vs Geeks: "High School Confidential" Digby

Hudson over at Daily Kos has posted a provocative piece about a Republican tactic he calls "fencing." He accurately describes this process of ritual humiliation that's become a standard part of the Republican playbook over the last few years, the purpose of which is to "fence off" voters from feeling comfortable identifying with the Democrats and candidates who are widely seen as socially marginalized objects of derision --- effeminate geeks. I suspect this tactic works particularly well with certain sub-sets of white males whose identity is wrapped up in machismo and high school jock style social hierarchies ---- and the women who buy into those simple heuristic methods of determining leadership capability.(Old Mudcat pretty much came right out and said it. "It's a macho thing.")

3.12.05 "Free Speech Impediment" By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet. A David E. Kelley script gets the loofa treatment.

3.12.05 "The Irony of Bush's Assault on ANWR" By Jim Hightower, AlterNet

3.12.05 "RUMSFELD'S NEW "PRE-EMPTIVE" MILITARY" Doug Ireland

3.12.05 "Congress May Cut Food Aid, Not Farm Aid" By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer via Yahoo!

3.11.05 "To the reformers, reform is not an end, it is a means to their pre-existing liberal goals." Well, yeah. -- In this Tech Central article, Ryan Sager claims that John McCain is making an end run around his own McCain-Feingold law with a 501 C(3).

3.11.05 Wholesale Rendition: DOUGLAS JEHL, The New York Times:

"The Pentagon is seeking to enlist help from the State Department and other agencies in a plan to cut by more than half the population at its detention facility in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in part by transferring hundreds of suspected terrorists to prisons in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Yemen, according to senior administration officials."

3.11.05 Oops! Bubble event gets out of hand: By Kos via Memeorandum

3.11.05 A cross-blogosphere coalition against the Bankruptcy Law

3.11.05 "Senate Votes to Forbid Drilling Filibuster" Associated Press, by Alan Fram via Lucianne

WASHINGTON - Democrats trying to head off the opening of an Alaskan wildlife refuge for oil exploration lost the year's first skirmish Thursday as the Senate Budget Committee voted to clear the way for drilling. By a 12-10 vote, the Republican-led panel voted to forbid Senate filibusters against legislation later this year allowing drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

3.11.05 "Vietnam Agent Orange Victims Slam U.S. Verdict" Reuters

The chemical companies argued they produced Agent Orange according to U.S. government specifications and there was no proven connection between Agent Orange and the health problems it is accused of causing.

3.11.05 "Levin unsatisfied by military's probes of prisoner abuse"

3.10.05 "Halliburton's Work in Iran" Carpetbagger

But NBC's point was to report on how Halliburton does this. As the company explains it, its work in Iran is run through "Halliburton Products and Services Limited," which isn't the Halliburton we all know and love, but rather, a subsidiary that exists outside the U.S. American companies are prohibited from doing business with Iran, but since this subsidiary is in the carefree Cayman Islands, everything's kosher. Or so they say.
An ongoing criminal investigation suggests otherwise. In order for Halliburton's work in Iran to be legal, its subsidiary has to be truly independent of the U.S. operation, and the subsidiary couldn't have been created simply to circumvent U.S. sanctions. There's reason to believe Cheney's former company has trouble with both.

Broken Promises: The Death of Deliberative Democracy
A Congressional Report on the Unprecedented Erosion of the
Democratic Process in the 108th Congress.

Compiled by the House Rules Committee Minority Office The Honorable Louise M. Slaughter, Ranking Member

3.10.05 "Pentagon Clears Senior Officials in Prison Abuse ... Testifying before the Senate committee, Church said that no detainees or former detainees were interviewed and that he did not speak to Paul Bremer, who served as the U.S. governor of Iraq at the time of the abuses." Vicki Allen, Reuters
"Vice-Adm. Church also confirmed the existence of so-called ghost detainees, a practice in which the CIA detains suspects without documenting them." Globe and Mail
"Top military intelligence officials at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Keeping such "ghost" detainees is a violation of international law." Josh White, Washington Post
"Just consider that it took more than a year after the military says it first learned of the nightmare at Abu Ghraib to issue the new rules. And don't ask what they are, because they're classified. The report spoke of the regulations approvingly. But its author, Vice Admiral Albert Church III, now director of the Navy staff, admitted yesterday that, well, he had not actually read them."
...
The Church report said that "none of the pictured abuses at Abu Ghraib bear any resemblance to approved policies at any level, in any theater." Admiral Church and his investigators must have missed the pictures of prisoners in hoods, forced into stress positions and threatened by dogs. All of those techniques were approved at one time or another by military officials, including Mr. Rumsfeld.
...
Congressional leaders could open a serious investigation, but have shown no interest, although they are issuing subpoenas on steroid use by baseball players.The New York Times

3.10.05 "U.S. Says It Has Withdrawn From World Judicial Body" By ADAM LIPTAK" The New York Times

The withdrawal followed a Feb. 28 memorandum from President Bush to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales directing state courts to abide by the decision of the tribunal, the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The decision required American courts to grant "review and reconsideration" to claims that the inmates' cases had been hurt by the failure of local authorities to allow them to contact consular officials.
...
The memorandum, issued in connection with a case the United States Supreme Court is scheduled to hear this month, puzzled state prosecutors, who said it seemed inconsistent with the administration's general hostility to international institutions and its support for the death penalty.
...
Before the administration's strategy came into focus, international law professors greeted the memorandum with amazement.
"This is a president who has been openly hostile to international law and international institutions knuckling under, and knuckling under where there are significant federalism concerns," Professor Spiro said.
As it turned out, Dean Koh said, the government had "an integrated strategy."
"Element 1," he continued, "was to take the bat out of the Supreme Court's hand."

See also The Washington Post

"It's encouraging that the president wants to comply with the ICJ judgment" in the Mexicans' case, said Frederic L. Kirgis, a professor of international law at Washington and Lee University. "But it's discouraging that it's now saying we're taking our marbles and going home."
...
The Texas attorney general's office, meanwhile, issued a statement Tuesday saying, "We respectfully believe" that the president's decision "exceeds constitutional bounds for federal authority."

3.10.05 "S. Korean Group Sponsored DeLay Trip -- Visits May Have Broken House Rules" By Mike Allen and R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post

3.10.05 "The enemy within -- How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UN" Sidney Blumenthal, The Guardian

3.10.05 "GOP BIll: Truckers to Work 16-Hour Days -- How many ways can the GOP screw workers?" Nathan Newman

3.10.05 "GOP v. Religious Voters on Global Warming" Nathan Newman, via Memeorandum

Okay, this gets interesting, as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), the umbrella organization of denominations representing 30 million evangelicals, are coming together to discuss a statement against global warming, on the same day that the GOP Senate Chair of the Environment Committee, James Inhofe, referred to the scientific consensus on global warming as "a hoax."
If progressives want to know where to engage conservative religious voters, the National Association of Evangelicals seems to be one place to start, as the organization is in the throes of a major internal discussion on the civic responsibility of religious voters. As I discussed in this post, the Association last fall came out with a general statement that included quite progressive stands on helping the poor, stating, that "God measures societies by how they treat the people at the bottom" and "We should try to persuade our leaders to change patterns of trade that harm the poor and to make the reduction of global poverty a central concern of American foreign policy."

3.10.05 "Bush-Backed Emissions Bill Fails to Reach Senate Floor" By MICHAEL JANOFSKY, The New York Times

But Senator James M. Jeffords, the Vermont independent who is the committee's ranking member, said that the Clear Skies bill "is no compromise; it's a giant step backward."
Mr. Jeffords, who joined seven Democrats and Senator Lincoln Chafee, Republican of Rhode Island, in opposing the bill, added, "This bill allows giant corporate utilities to avoid compliance and stops the enforcement of our existing clean air laws."

3.9.05 LiquidList "I started blogging because standing on the corner shouting at strangers was leading to a surprising legal backlog."

3.9.05 "The view must look nice from inside Bush's bubble" Carpetbagger

"I realize this starts to sound like a broken record after a while, but it continues to be a breathtaking exercise in stagecraft. Tickets are carefully distributed through Republicans, only Republicans are allowed in (even Dems with tickets are excluded), only ideologues can speak, when they speak they have to ask softball questions to the president, and before the president shows up, many participants have to go through a dress rehearsal the day before so the performance goes smoothly. It has all the spontaneity and integrity of a communist show trial.
Oh, just as a reminder, I thought I'd add that we're paying for all of these events.

3.8.05 "EPA, mercury, and a disturbing story that will surprise no one" Carpetbagger

Bush's EPA really has no shame. They wanted to make the White House plan appear to be environmentally friendly, and thus more appealing to lawmakers on the Hill, so they cooked the books, public health be damned. Now that the agency has been caught, it's only a matter of time – if recent history is any guide – before everyone involved in this mess is promoted.

3.9.05 ""Basically, we are at a crux, a crossroads right now," Heinz Kerry said. "It's no place for self-indulgence. It's no place for looking back. We must be totally committed to this journey ... to believe again, to hope again." Seattle Post Intelligencer

"We in the United States are not a banana republic," added Heinz Kerry. She argued that Democrats should insist on "accountability and transparency" in how votes are tabulated.

I have been reading the conservative blogs and can find no one willing to address this point. Do they think that hackers cut only one way? Hacking is a two edged sword.

3.8.05 "Report by House Democrats Alleges GOP Abuse of Power" By Mike Allen, Washington Post Staff Writer

3.8.05 See no Evil: "Gonzales Defends Transfer of Detainees" By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer via Daou

He also reiterated a statement he made during his January confirmation hearings that e-mailed reports by FBI field agents of abuse of detainees at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were "totally inconsistent" with what he saw during a visit there.

3.8.05 "Maximum Wages and Overriding State Laws" By Nathan Newman, via Daou

"The Santorum amendment to permanently prevent states from regulating wages for tipped workers just illustrates a breathtaking assault by today's conservatives, both in Congress and in the courts, on the ability of states to create higher labor standards, stronger consumer regulations or tougher anti-discrimination laws than the federal government. Forget any rhetoric about "states rights" or federalism, just think about this list:" HERE
...
For progressives, their version of federalism has been that the federal government creates a MINIMUM standard of labor, civil and consumer rights, with state and local governments free to enhance those standards to further protect working families. The progressive metaphor has been of states as "laboratories for democracy", where they have the opportunity to experiment and pioneer new policies that, if successful, are incorporated into a new round of enhanced federal minimum standards applicable to all states.
Conservative thinkers have come into power with the explicit goal of disabling state laboratories of democracy to benefit their corporate contributors and benefactors. The clearest goal is to kill existing progressive legislation, but the subtler goal is to hobble progressive experimentation and new ideas at the local level. If such ideas can never be tested at the state or city level, it will be that much harder to point to their success in selling the broader public on enacting them as national legislation.

3.8.05 "Blogged Down -- From our April issue: Pseudo-journalistic Web sites are another way conservatives get around 'the filter' of mainstream media. It’s a new medium, but, for the Republican Party, it’s an old story." By Garance Franke-Ruta, The American Prospect

3.8.05 "The Debt-Peonage Society" By PAUL KRUGMAN

Warren Buffett recently made headlines by saying America is more likely to turn into a "sharecroppers' society" than an "ownership society." But I think the right term is a "debt peonage" society - after the system, prevalent in the post-Civil War South, in which debtors were forced to work for their creditors. The bankruptcy bill won't get us back to those bad old days all by itself, but it's a significant step in that direction.

3.8.05 "Sen. John McCain pressed a cable company's case for pricing changes with regulators at the same time a tax-exempt group that he has worked with since its founding solicited $200,000 in contributions from the company." Drudge

3.8.05 "Terror Suspects Buying Firearms, U.S. Report Finds" By ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times.

3.7.05 "The Bush administration is aggressively wielding a rarely used executive power known as the state-secrets privilege in an attempt to squash hard-hitting court challenges to its anti-terrorism campaign." By Andrew Zajac, Chicago Tribune via Doug Ireland

... a growing body of declassified documents suggests that in the past, at least, the privilege has been used to protect presidential power, not national secrets, according to Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive at George Washington University, which works to expand public access to government documents.
There's even fresh evidence that the case leading to the Supreme Court decision that enshrined the secrets privilege more than 50 years ago, may have been based more on concealing negligence than preserving national security.
In claiming the state-secrets privilege, "the government always overreaches," Blanton said. "It always misleads, and in some cases it lies, because it believes its authority is at stake."

3.6.05 "Someday, when crazy people aren't in charge, we will revisit the possible social security shortfall in 2042. Right now, we should just shut this bastard down. It's our best chance in decades to take the momentum away from these people and we should not flinch." Digby

3.6.05 "Rule Change Lets C.I.A. Freely Send Suspects Abroad to Jails" By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID JOHNSTON, The New York Times

The unusually expansive authority for the C.I.A. to operate independently was provided by the White House under a still-classified directive signed by President Bush within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the officials said.

3.6.05 The New Bankruptcy Law: Read and Weep

3.5.05 "UNITED NATIONS, March 4 - The United States bowed Friday to global opposition at a United Nations conference on women's equality and dropped its insistence on inserting an anti-abortion amendment into a document that was then adopted unanimously." Warren Hodge, The New York Times.

Adrienne Germain, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, applauded the American move but said the American proposals for economic empowerment of women and a ban on prostitution might cause new stresses between the United States and other countries. The United States is proposing the prostitution ban to curb sex tourism and trafficking in women. "Many countries believe that criminalizing prostitution can create new problems," Ms. Germain said. "The worry is that when it's criminal, it goes underground, and there's no health care, no protection against violence and no counseling for the prevention of H.I.V./AIDS."

3.5.05 "When Democrats Join the Dark Side" By Jonathan Chait / LAT via Memeorandum

Biden supports a bill in Congress that would make it harder for people to declare bankruptcy. This is one of those abysmal pieces of legislation that exists only because businesses with a vested interest in it have lobbied hard for its passage and that would have no chance of success if more than a tiny fraction of the public were aware of its existence.

3.5.05 " 'Blogger fear' in Apple leak case ... Three blogs which published sensitive information about upcoming Apple products could be made to disclose where the leaks came from." BBC News, via Drudge

3.5.05 "Bush has made spent fuel of Frist's 'nuclear option'" Dick Morris, The Hill, via Memeorandum

President Bush and Karl Rove probably figured that they did not want the power to appoint judges without opposition from the Senate Democrats. They realized that without the filibuster there was nothing to stop them from nominating judges who would cling to a hard right-wing agenda on Roe v. Wade and other issues, permanently alienating much of the country and driving a stake into GOP efforts to reach out to independents and women.

3.4.05 "Nuclear fashions for spring" Via Marcus

3.4.05 "The coming crackdown on blogging -- "Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over." By Declan McCullagh, CNETnews

3.4.05 There is a fascinating study of bloggers on the web this morning with beautiful charts.

"A time series chart further shows how quickly and strongly conservative bloggers responded to forged CBS documents. The conservative bloggers saw Dan Rather's report as an attempt by the left to discredit President Bush. They acted quickly to debunk the report, with the charge led by PowerLine and seconded by Wizbangblog and others. In contrast, the pick up among liberal bloggers occurred later, with lower volume. The most vocal left leaning bloggers on the subject were TalkLeft and AMERICAblog." (The chart is on page 12.)
The study was written by Lada Adamic and Natalie Glance.

3.4.05 "EPA fines Kauai Electric" EPA doing something right?

3.3.05 "New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said Wednesday that governors should be allowed to protect environmentally sensitive federal land in their states against oil and gas drilling." Newsday

3.3.05 "My fellow Texans keep on making the rest of us look like fools" Amanda at Pandagan

Anyway, Shackelford is bearing false witness to the press and to the Supreme Court when (s)he characterizes herself and her institute as pro-liberty and pro-religious freedom. In reality, the institute stands for curtailing First Amendment rights and pushing her faith on people who don't share it.

3.3.05 Bush and Social Security: "There is Plan and No Plan -- Cute trick." Atrios

3.3.05 "Court Considers Government Displays of Ten Commandments" By LINDA GREENHOUSE, The New York Times

In both the Texas case, Van Orden v. Perry, No. 03-1500, and the Kentucky case, McCreary County v. American Civil Liberties Union, No. 03-1693, the Bush administration argued on behalf of the displays.

3.3.05 "CIA Avoids Scrutiny of Detainee Treatment -- Afghan's Death Took Two Years to Come to Light; Agency Says Abuse Claims Are Probed Fully" By Dana Priest, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2576-2005Mar2.html

3.2.05 "Managing A Mideast Revolution" By David Ignatius, Washington Post.

3.2.05 "Death Row by the Numbers -- The Supreme Court invalidates capital punishment for juveniles." By Dahlia Lithwick

The problem begins with Stanford itself and Scalia's need to concede that the Eighth Amendment's definition of cruel and unusual must evolve past the standards of the Framers. That concession itself meant that some entity must pass judgment on what current standards are. Scalia was quick to hedge, emphasizing that "Eighth Amendment judgments should not be, or appear to be, merely the subjective views of individual Justices; judgment should be informed by objective factors to the maximum possible extent." But he leaves no doubt that courts must engage in this objective enterprise: The courts must evaluate that data and discern what the trends may be. Scalia was careful to warn the courts that to substitute the justices' own preferences for such empiricism would be to "replace judges of the law with a committee of philosopher-kings." But beyond engaging in some nose-counting that made sense to him and his colleagues in the majority, Scalia did little to dispel the notion that once you're in the nose-counting business, someone needs to hold the abacus.