he Bush administration has pulled another thread from the intricate legal tapestry shielding the national forests from excessive logging. On Tuesday, it announced that the Tongass National Forest in Alaska would be denied protections provided by the so-called roadless rule, a federal regulation prohibiting the building of roads
NPR’s Allison Keyes talks to Mae Miller. Now 60, Miller recounts her story of working as a slave on a plantation near Gillsburg, Miss. She says her family was held there until about 1960 — almost a century after Congress abolished slavery in 1865.
LOS ANGELES—Fox executives Monday unveiled their latest reality-TV venture, Appointed By America, a new series in which contestants vie for the top spot in Iraq’s post-war government.
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| Above: Some of the Appointed By America hopefuls vying for the presidency of Iraq. |
“Get ready, America, because you’re about to choose the man—or woman—who will lead Iraq into an exciting democratic future,” said Fox reality-programming chief Mike Darnell, introducing the show at a press conference. “Will it be Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the exiled Iraqi National Congress? Or General Tommy Franks, commander of the allied forces? Or maybe Roshumba Williams, the Macon, GA, waitress with big dreams and an even bigger voice? Tune in Tuesdays at 9 to see.”
Describing the new show as “American Idol meets the reconstruction of Afghanistan,” Darnell said Appointed By America will feature contestants squaring off in a variety of challenges, including a democracy quiz, a talent competition, and nation-building activities that will demonstrate their ability to lead a bombed-out, war-ravaged Mideast country.
A panel of celebrity judges will help eliminate two contestants each week, leaving one lucky winner the undisputed leader of Iraq at the end of the season. Viewers can participate by casting phone-in votes, although Darnell noted that voting is restricted to calls originating from within the continental U.S.
U.S. General Jay Garner (Ret.) will host the show under the auspices of the Pentagon. The three celebrity judges, Darnell said, will be choreographer and former Chrysalis recording artist Toni Basil, internationally renowned hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, and television star Kevin Sorbo.
“They really get into it,” Darnell said. “Just wait until you see the fur fly between Sassoon and Basil.”
WASHINGTON, DC
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
By BRENT STAPLES
hite descendants of Senator Strom Thurmond are frantic about the revelation that he fathered the child of a black maid who worked in the family household in South Carolina during the 1920’s. The black daughter, a retired teacher named Essie Mae Washington-Williams, denied the relationship and met secretly with her father for more than 60 years. Her children encouraged her to go public after Mr. Thurmond died last summer at the age of 100.
A white Thurmond niece spoke for many in the family when she described the revelation as “a blight” on the family. White Thurmonds who share this sentiment should get over their misplaced shame
Harry in his best form pulls off a good one..…streamed using RealAudio
The year in Rebuke…December 21st (entire program)
James Hill for The New York Times
David Douglas Duncan with his dog Yo-Yo, at home in the south of France.
By ALAN RIDING
ASTELLARAS, France
Bush’s Faith-Based National Parks
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
The view from the south rim of the Grand Canyon,
smogged up as it is these days, still retains the power to prompt
even the most secular of visitors into transcendentalist reveries
as they cast theirs eyes toward Shiva’s Temple and Wotan’s Throne.
Now tourists at the federal park in northern Arizona will be
greeted with scriptural passages affixed to park signs to help
interpret the religious experience of gazing into God’s mighty
chasm.
This autumn Donald Murphy, deputy director
of the National Park Service, ordered three bronze plaques featuring
quotes from Psalms 68:4, 66:4 and 104:24 placed on viewing platforms
on the south rim of the Canyon. The plaques were made and donated
by the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Phoenix, who live in
a convent called Cannan in the Desert. The convent was founded
in 1963 by Mother Basilea, who visited the Sinai where said said
she conversed with the Supreme Diety about the moral decline
of the western world.
The nuns’ website warns that “avalanche
of moral decay is upon us… our society is disintegrating.”
As evidence, the nuns point to the removal of Judge Roy Moore’s
monument to the 10 Commandments in the lobby of the Alabama Supreme
Court and to the appearance of the Dalai Lama at the National Cathedral-
“another illustration of how God’s commandments are pushed aside, step
by step. May Jesus help us and guard our hearts!”
(Read the article)
ByPaul Festa Staff Writer, CNET News.com
http://news.com.com/2100-7355-5119440.html
Story last modified December 10, 2003, 2:53 PM PST
Microsoft on Tuesday said it was looking into reports of a potential bug in its Web browser that could help malicious hackers design convincing Web site spoofs.
The bug, according to security alerts by a bug hunter and a Danish security company, Secunia, could let hackers use a technique to display a false Web address on a fake site.
Savvy Web surfers often figure out the ruse from irregularities in the Web address. But in the method described by Secunia, IE could allow the address bar for the spoofed eBay site, for example, to read “ebay.com.”
“Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer,” the company said in a statement. “We have not been made aware of any active exploits of the reported vulnerabilities or customer impact at this time, but we are aggressively investigating the public reports.”
Secunia credited the bug to “Zap the Dingbat,” who posted an alert to the Bugtraq security mailing list. That alert links to a demonstration of the exploit, and says Microsoft was informed of the bug Tuesday.
As the legal protections for journalists’ sources begin to crumble, there’s fallout across the political spectrum, from the Wen Ho Lee case to the Valerie Plame affair.
by Joe Conason
Privilege and venality
Buried in yesterday’s New York Times was a story that suggests the journalistic privilege protecting sources is crumbling — under the weight, in part, of that newspaper’s slanted reporting about nuclear scientist and alleged “Chinese spy” Wen Ho Lee. Under orders from a federal judge, Times reporters Jeff Gerth (of Whitewater notoriety) and James Risen were scheduled to give depositions on Thursday in Lee’s privacy lawsuit against the U.S. government. According to the Times, both reporters had said previously that they “might not” obey the judge’s instructions to reveal the sources that had provided information about Lee.
More interesting than the specific problems faced by Gerth and Risen was the article’s summary of recent judicial attacks on source privilege. Aside from their potential ill effect on journalism generally, those decisions may have powerful implications for the case of CIA operative Valerie Plame, victim of anonymous Bush administration leaks.
Last August, in another case, federal appeals Judge Richard A. Posner “expressed skepticism about any special privilege for reporters.” In an opinion compelling reporters to turn over recordings of their interviews with a source, Posner went on to write: “We do not see why there needs to be special criteria merely because the possessor of the documents or other evidence sought is a journalist.” A Republican appointee, Posner happens to be one of the most influential conservatives on the federal bench. Another federal judge in Alabama recently ordered a Sports Illustrated reporter to name his source in a libel case involving alleged “sexual indiscretions” by a former college football coach.
9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean’s suggestion that the administration could have prevented the terror attacks may signal a new, aggressive approach.
Surprising, get-tough comments this week by the Republican chairman of the independent commission investigating 9/11, suggesting the World Trade Center terrorist attacks could have been prevented had it not been for administration failures, mark a significant change in the committee’s public persona. The comments by former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean could spell trouble for the Bush White House, which for the past two years has insisted it was powerless to stop the deadly al-Qaida strike. The commission, combing through millions of 9/11-related documents, has scheduled several public hearings for early next year that will put the White House’s claims to the test.
Kean made his remarks during an interview with CBS News, broadcast Wednesday evening. “As you read the [commission's] report, you’re going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn’t done and what should have been done,” he said. “This was not something that had to happen.”
Kean, known for his easygoing, bipartisan style, also raised the specter that the commission might place blame on specific administration officials, including perhaps those in the intelligence community who failed to connect the many clues that came before Sept. 11 hinting at a pending attack. “There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time, because they failed,” said Kean. “They simply failed.” Kean didn’t name the individuals in question.
“We welcome that admission, and it’s something we’ve wanted to hear for a long time,” says Lorie Van Auken, whose husband died in the attack on the World Trade Center. “That’s why we asked for an investigation, because nothing about the official story made sense.”
“It’s quite shocking to hear a Republican come out on a network broadcast and say the administration could have, and should have, prevented the attacks,” adds Kyle Hence, co-founder of 9/11 Citzens Watch, an advocacy group that monitors investigations into the terrorist attacks. “That’s a sea change for this commission.” (Perhaps it was too drastic of a change; appearing on ABC’s “Nightline” Thursday night, Kean moved to soften his comments, suggesting it’s early to determine if administration officials made any mistakes that led to 9/11.)
(Read the article)
By PAUL KRUGMAN
his is a very, very important part of history, and we’ve got to tell it right.” So says Thomas Kean, chairman of the independent commission investigating the 9/11 attacks. Mr. Kean promises major revelations in testimony next month: “This was not something that had to happen.” We’ll see: maybe those of us who expected the 9/11 commission to produce yet another whitewash were wrong. Meanwhile, one can only echo his sentiment: it’s important to tell our history right, not just about the events that led up to 9/11, but about the events that followed.
The capture of Saddam Hussein has produced a great outpouring of relief among both Iraqis and Americans. He’s no longer taunting us from hiding; he was a monster and deserves whatever fate awaits him. But we shouldn’t let war supporters use the occasion of Saddam’s capture to rewrite the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, to draw a veil over the way the nation was misled into war.
Even the Iraq war’s critics usually focus on the practical failures of the Bush administration’s policy, rather than its morality. After all, the war came at a heavy cost, even before the fighting began: to prepare for the Iraq campaign, the administration diverted resources away from Afghanistan before the job was done, giving Al Qaeda a chance to get away and the Taliban a chance to regroup.
And while the initial invasion went smoothly, since then almost everything in Iraq has gone badly. (Saddam’s capture would have been a smaller story if it had happened in the first flush of victory; instead, it was the first real piece of good news from Iraq in months.) The security situation remains terrible; the economy remains moribund; gasoline shortages and power outages continue.
Microsoft’s longstanding rivalry with RealNetworks finally turned ugly yesterday, when Real filed suit against Microsoft, accusing the company of illegally using its dominant Windows operating system to do to the emerging digital-media market what it did to the Web browser. In a 65-page complaint filed in federal court in San Jose, RealNetworks argues that Microsoft has damaged its business by bundling its Windows Media Player software with Windows and withholding interface information. “We believe that our business would be substantially larger today if Microsoft were playing by the rules,” RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser said during a press conference. “While we had hoped that Microsoft would stop using unlawful tactics after the government proved that Microsoft had abused its monopoly power, this has not happened.” Microsoft was clearly blindsided by the suit, but was quick to strike back. “It’s hard to reconcile Real’s own statements on its marketplace success with today’s lawsuit,” the company said in a statement. “Real claims to be the number one provider of digital media solutions, with massive distribution of its software and more than one million player downloads a week. Thus, this is a case where a leading firm is seeking to use the antitrust laws to protect and increase its marketplace share and to limit the competition it must face.”
Norwegian disco instructional video
Broadband strongly recommended!
Conservatives turning on themselves.
The Drudge Report yesterday reported that in an eat-their-young move, Bill O’Reilly attacked the right-wing’s own Matt Drudge, simply because he reported that O’Reilly’s book sales “lag far behind rivals Al Franken and Sen. Hillary Clinton.” O’Reilly responded to the report by saying “the Matt Drudges of the world and these other people, Michael Moore and all of these crazies, all right, no responsibility… that is a threat to democracy, I think.” O’Reilly, who regularly rails against crime and violence in society, said, “There is no other cure than to kill Matt Drudge.”
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