HoustonChronicle.com - Texas high school graduation rate worst in nation

"Houston, we have a problem!" (So much for the touted Texas miracle!)

"For the second straight year, Texas has the lowest percentage of high school graduates in the nation, according to a U.S. Census Bureau study released Tuesday.
Seventy-seven percent of Texans age 25 and older had a high school degree in 2003, the same percentage as a decade earlier, when Texas ranked 39th in the country. So while other states have seen their graduation rates improve -- a record 85 percent of Americans have high school degrees -- Texas is treading water. "

HoustonChronicle.com - 3 terrorism suspects to be judged by tribunal

"Scott Silliman, a retired Air Force legal officer directing Duke Law School's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security, said the high court decision raised the possibility that the justices might eventually extend federal court jurisdiction to include review of the outcomes of military tribunals held outside the United States, such as the one planned for the three Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
'We are on the cusp of the Supreme Court potentially challenging the cornerstone of the Bush administration's military tribunals,' Silliman said.
When he created military tribunals Nov. 13, 2001, Bush specifically ruled out any federal court review of their actions outside the United States. "

In effect, we are on the cusp of the US Supreme Court upholding the US Constitution. Shouldn't this be a relief that everyone has access to a fair trial in the US?

New York Daily News - Jack Mathews: Hide this, Bill O'Reilly

This from cursor.

I'm wondering if Bill O'Reilly's negative publicity isn't ultimately good for business?

"In an April 27 radio debate with a Canadian journalist, you threatened to lead a boycott of Canadian goods if Canada didn't deport two American military deserters, saying that a previous O'Reilly-led boycott of French goods cost that country billions in lost export business. You cited the Paris Business Review as your source for those losses.
In fact, Media Matters found no evidence that a Paris Business Review even exists, and France's export business with the U.S. actually increased during the run-up to the Iraq war."

IHT: A Bubba Bush ad uses Hitler

"The advertisement ends with upbeat music and the written message: 'This is not a time for pessimism and rage.'"


One really typical Bubba tactic is to:

1) Do something really horrible (like lie to the country, say "f*** you", do an advertisement with Hitler)

2) Label the response to these horrible things as "anger"

We know that the Bubba administration is accustomed to this tactic. We also know that the media are used to running with it unquestioningly. The thing that we don't know yet is: will the American people continue to be stupid enough to put up with it?

I'm betting that they won't. Maybe I'm just an idealist, but I'm betting that the good people of the US of A are going to wake up and smell the Halliburton roast.

IHT| Chirac says Bush 'went too far' in saying EU should admit Turkey

"French President Jacques Chirac said Monday that President Bush went ‘‘too far’’ by saying the European Union should admit Turkey, and he added that Bush commenting on Turkish-EU relations was like a French leader commenting on U.S.-Mexican ties.

‘‘If President Bush really said that in the way that I read, then not only did he go too far, but he went into territory that isn’t his,’’ Chirac said.

‘‘It’s a bit like if I told the United States how they should manage their relations with Mexico.’"

Jacques, you've been reading my blog!

Washington Times : Bush campaign ad features Hitler

"President Bush's campaign Web site was featuring an advertisement casting Senator John Kerry and his allies as a 'coalition of the wild-eyed,' blending clips of former Vice President Al Gore, former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, filmmaker Michael Moore, and Sen. John Kerry shouting about Bush. Interspersed are images of a shouting Hitler, the New York Times reported Saturday. The result appears to liken Gore and Dean to Hitler."

I checked out the video on the Bush site and I have to admit that I can't make heads or tails of it. There are some videos of Gore and Dean and Michael Moore and Kerry making speeches. And then there are some segments that the Bush video says come from "Move On", which is against Bush but not necessarily for Kerry.

It's a poorly-aimed smear, so stupid that there's nothing to understand, other than pointless name-calling. For example, where is the "coalition of the wild-eyed"? Certainly not Gore and Kerry, and certainly not with Michael Moore, that's not a coalition. And then to intersperse Gore and Dean images with Hitler because of "Move On", which is non-affiliated.

If there is anything at all to pull out of this bubbalogic, it's that Bubba is indeed a great uniter: he has united everyone against him. That the "coalition of the mobilized" and Bubba Bush has mobilized them very well. And since Bush has used up all of his "get-out-of-doggy-do-free" cards with the nation, he won't be able to smear his way through this time.

I've blogged before that incumbent presidents have never resorted to such desperate smear tactics before, and it's still pretty early in the season. Things are going to get worse.

Rocky Mountain News: Bush Presses for Turkey's Admission to EU

"[Pres.] Bush also held up Turkey as a model for the Middle East as he met earlier in the day in Ankara with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

'I appreciate so very much the example your country has set on how to be a Muslim country and at the same time a country which embraces democracy and rule of law and freedom,' Bush said.

There was no mention here of the Turkish parliament's rejection last year of a U.S. request to let American troops use Turkish bases as a staging point to invade Iraq from the north. Instead, Bush emphasized his support for Turkey's bid for admission to the European Union.

'I believe you ought to be given a date by the EU for your eventual acceptance into the EU,' he said."

Does Bubba Bush really believe that his remarks have any weight in the EU? It's very much like a shyster trying to sell the Eiffel Tower to a wealthy tourist. Not that the Turks don't know that.

Or, should we read this differently? If Bush pushes EU acceptance of Turkey, it probably lessens the chances of such a thing happening. Then Bush would be able to hold onto Turkey, the outsider, as an ally. That seems much more plausible.

After all, Bush has burned Bridges with Spain, Poland, even Italy with his selling of the Iraq war on false pretenses. He needs to find a new batch of oversea suckers.

UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE | Roger Ebert on F9/11

"Moore's real test will come on the issue of accuracy. He can say whatever he likes about Bush, as long as his facts are straight. Having seen the film twice, I saw nothing that raised a flag for me, and I haven't heard of any major inaccuracies. When Moore was questioned about his claim that Bush unwisely lingered for six or seven minutes in that Florida classroom after learning of the World Trade attacks, Moore was able to reply with: a video of Bush doing exactly that.

I agree with Moore that the presidency of George W. Bush has been a disaster for America. In writing that, I expect to get the usual complaints that movie critics should keep their political opinions to themselves. But opinions are my stock in trade, and is it not more honest to declare my politics than to conceal them? I agree with Moore, and because I do, I hope 'Fahrenheit 9/11' proves to be as accurate as it seems."

Among other things in this article, Roger Ebert points out the Bubba in the logic of Move Forward, Uhmerica.

Michael Moore.com : Mike's Message : Messages

This is funny!

"I'd go on O'Reilly but, like a coward, he walked out on a screening we invited him to (with Al Franken just a few rows away!). I personally caught him sneaking out. Embarrassed, he tried to change the subject. He said, 'When are you coming on my show?' and I said, 'Turn around and watch the rest of the movie and I will come on your show.' He walked out. Fair and balanced."

The New York Times: Reader's Returns on Farenheit 9/11

I'm not sure how to categorize a Texan who reads the New York Times, much less one that sends it movie reviews. If you can believe it, this would seem to reflect the turning of the screw.

"Reviewer: rogertx
'Fahrenheit' is my first experience with a Michael Moore movie, but you can bet your sweet bippy I'll be out to see 'Bowling for Columbine' as soon as I finish writing my opinion of 'Fahrenheit'.

In a phrase, RIGHT ON, MICHAEL! I'm one of those 'old' Viet Nam vets who learned too late that my generation of believers had been hoodwinked by General Westmoreland, LBJ, and Richard Nixon. I went to 'Nam with all of the best intentions, but came home with far more questions that I did answers.

'Fahrenheit' has the same effect on me. I learned much that I'd never thought much of before about how we got into Iraq. Oh yeah, I'd heard the stories of Bush family involvement with the Saudis, and indeed the most poignant words in the movie (not withstanding the tearful, emotional words of the mother who lost her son in Iraq) was W's exclamation of 'after all, they even tried to kill my father'. Telling, isn't it!

You HAVE to see 'Fahrenheit', even if you're on the Bush ship, which many of us Texans are NOT! It'll cause you to laugh, to cry, to want to console others around you, and you'll get downright PI**ED at what you see and hear.

Parts of it are gory, especially the treatment of our soldiers' bodies who were hung from a bridge. Not nice to see, but maybe we need the wakeup call.

I applaud Moore for producing this work. From one fed up Texan: 'Keep 'em coming, Michael....and Godspeed!"

The New York Times | The President: Amid Protests, Bush Sees Thaw in Europe

"Mr. Bush said that [the Irish Prime Minister] Mr. Ahern had questioned him in a meeting on Saturday morning about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the American treatment of other prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, as did President Mary McAleese of Ireland in her own meeting with Mr. Bush.

'I told them both I was sick with what happened inside that prison,' Mr. Bush said, referring to Abu Ghraib in Baghdad, where Americans abused Iraqi prisoners. 'The actions of those troops did not reflect what we think. And it did harm.'"

Oh yeah? These acts of torture were not condoned, even requested, by the White House? D'ya buy into that one, Bubba?

Reuters.com | CIA Halts Use of Harsh Interrogation Ploys- Report

"The CIA has stopped using interrogation techniques such as 'stress positions,' sleep deprivation and denial of pain medication while the Bush administration reviews their legality, The Washington Post said Sunday.

'The whole thing's been stopped until we can sort out whether we are sure we are on legal ground,' the Post quoted a former senior CIA official as saying.

The newspaper said the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques have been used in questioning al Qaeda leaders. The suspension applies to CIA detention facilities around the world."

It seems surprising, and not very believable, to see the CIA talk about "legality" in its actions, as if the CIA could really give a hoot about legality. Furthermore, the report mentions that the "techniques" were "White House approved", which is definitely pointing fingers.

So much for the suprises. Now for the unsurprising, but nonetheless important, questions: 1) Over and above "legal", is torture ethical? 2) Is it efficient? 3) Hasn't the image of the USA in the world been seriously eroded, even from its current low point, by the torture scandal? 4) What would we say about our soldiers and political leaders being captured and tortured?

If you want to know from whence came these "enhanced techniques", this clue is in the article:

"According to the newspaper, the enhanced interrogation techniques were approved by lawyers from the Justice Department and National Security Council in 2002 and required permission from the CIA director for use."

Thank you Bubba Rice and Bubba Ashcroft!

The New York Times | No Security in Homeland

"Lenders have aggressively encouraged home buyers to stretch in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. In the new world of flexible mortgage lending, it is possible to buy a $600,000 house with no down payment, and to pay only interest and nothing on the principal for years.

'The financing has changed everything,' said Humid Karat, a manager of Tarbell Realty's office in Anaheim. 'Ten years ago, if I offered to buy your house with a 100 percent loan, you would have called it 'creative financing' and thought I was crooked. Today, everybody wants a 100 percent loan.'"

Watch out for those interest-rate hikes!

HoustonChronicle.com | Supreme Court: Cheney records can stay secret

"The Sierra Club had asked Scalia to stay out of the case, because the justice flew with Cheney to hunt in Louisiana in January, weeks after the high court agreed to hear the administration's appeal. Many Democrats and dozens of newspapers also called for his recusal.

Scalia, a Reagan administration appointee and close friend of the vice president, had said the duck hunting trip was acceptable socializing that wouldn't cloud his judgment. 'If it is reasonable to think that a Supreme Court justice can be bought so cheap, the nation is in deeper trouble than I had imagined,' he wrote in an unusual 21-page memo announcing his decision to stay on the case. "

I think that Bubba Scalia has hit the nail on the head.

Reuters | Pilot in Canada deaths opts out of court-martial

"Schmidt, 38, faced a dereliction of duty charge for dropping a 500-pound bomb on Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry unit on April 17, 2002, near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan.

He and flight leader Maj. Harry Umbach, flying in separate F-16s at night, mistook a night anti-tank exercise by the unit for enemy fire.

Despite radioed instructions to hold fire, Schmidt told flight controllers he was 'rolling in, in self defense' and let fly with the bomb.

Four Canadians died and eight were wounded in the incident that strained U.S.-Canadian relations.

Schmidt and Umbach apologized for the accident, but blamed it on the 'fog of war' and the Air Force's practice of giving pilots amphetamines to stay alert."

Not much accountability under these circumstances.

Torture Policy (cont'd) (washingtonpost.com)

The Wash Post tells Rummy, in an open letter, to stop being such a Bubba. The letter is short and sweet, definitely worth the read, and found via /cursor.

"The damage caused by the prisoner abuse cases is already enormous, and it is not over. We believe there is a way to mitigate and eventually overcome the debacle, but it is not by asking newspapers to go mute. What is needed is a full and independent investigation of the matter, including the decisions made by Mr. Rumsfeld and other senior officials, and a forthright and unambiguous commitment by President Bush to strictly observe U.S. and international law in the future. That pledge should be accompanied by a return to the public disclosure of U.S. interrogation policies. If U.S. soldiers, Iraqi citizens and foreign leaders can see for themselves that American doctrine excludes illegal abuse, then the dangers Mr. Rumsfeld cited will be greatly lessened."

The New York Times | Michael Moore Is Ready for His Close-Up

These are the words of a NY Times editorialist:

"After a year spent covering the federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks, I was recently allowed to attend a Hollywood screening. Based on that single viewing, and after separating out what is clearly presented as Mr. Moore's opinion from what is stated as fact, it seems safe to say that central assertions of fact in 'Fahrenheit 9/11' are supported by the public record (indeed, many of them will be familiar to those who have closely followed Mr. Bush's political career)."

Now who would give a sideways glance to this editorialist?

The New York Times | Senate Backs Ban on Photos of G.I. Coffins

"The Bush administration's policy of barring news photographs of the flag-covered coffins of service members killed in Iraq won the backing of the Republican-controlled Senate on Monday, when lawmakers defeated a Democratic measure to instruct the Pentagon to allow pictures.

The 54-to-39 vote came after little formal debate, with 7 Democrats joining 47 Republicans to defeat the provision. "

We're on a very slippery slope here.

Reminds me of the old cold-war joke: Q: What's the difference between TASS and the US media? A: The Russians know that they are
being lied to.

Now how does the White House justify this act of censure?

"President Bush has insisted that the policy banning the photography protects the privacy of the families of the dead, a view reiterated by lawmakers who opposed the measure."

At least one Republican bothered to point out the Bubba in Bush's logic.

"These caskets that arrive at Dover are not named; we just see them," said Mr. McCain, a former Navy pilot who was a prisoner of war for five years in Vietnam. He added, "I think we ought to know the casualties of war."

At which point we can ask just why McCain has been stumping for Bubba Bush in the first place.

Reuters.com | Iraq's Allawi Welcomes U.S. Strike That Killed 22

This is another case of when the headline gives you a completely different picture than the article. The headline suggests that the US strike was against insurgents, the article suggests just the contrary.

"Iraq's prime minister on Sunday defended a U.S. air strike that killed 22 people in Falluja, but Iraqi officers in the town said the dead included women and children rather than foreign Muslim militants.

'We know that a house which had been used by terrorists had been hit. We welcome this hit on terrorists anywhere in Iraq,' interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi told a news conference.

...

However, Falluja's police chief and a senior officer in the Falluja Brigade in charge of security in the fiercely anti-U.S. town denied that foreign fighters had operated from the house.

'We inspected the damage, we looked through the bodies of the women and children and elderly. This was a family,' Brigadier Nouri Aboud of the Falluja Brigade told Reuters.
'There is no sign of foreigners having lived in the house. Zarqawi and his men have no presence in Falluja.' "

The Globe and Mail | Household debt levels in Canada and the US at record highs

"Mr. Greenspan may be calm, but his British counterpart --Bank of England governor Mervyn King -- raised a yellow flag this week about the risk of high mortgage debt. 'When people take out very large mortgages ..... stretching themselves to the limit in the belief that house prices will always go up to bail them out -- that's a slightly risky assumption to make,' he said.

In his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate this week, however, Mr. Greenspan said he was 'not actually concerned at this point that we are looking at a real serious consumer debt problem,' because mortgages add an asset to consumer balance sheets and delinquency rates are low. The Fed chairman says debt levels should be less of an issue as the economy grows.

The fact remains, however, that U.S. household debt has risen twice as quickly as household income has over the past three years, while mortgage debt has soared by almost 50 per cent. That may have helped the U.S. economy through the recent downturn, but it still represents a very large bill that will have to be paid -- and the cost of paying it is going up."

The housing bubble mixed-in with consumer debt may be just a far-fetched worst-case meltdown disaster scenario at the moment. Then again, the same thing was said about those complaining of high P/E ratios before the dot-com meltdown.

Yahoo! News | FREE MARKET MAKES HEALTH CARE VERY EXPENSIVE INDEED

"The soaring cost of hospitals and medicines suggests that capitalism is sometimes at odds with the common good.
Not many of us have the nerve to say that aloud yet. It's heresy.

Besides, the last time any public figure made a serious effort to reform health care, the result was near excommunication. Hillary Clinton's complex system of rules and regulations was easily caricatured by opponents, and the blowback was enough to keep any self-respecting politician away from health care for years. But in the coming decade, the soaring cost will force Congress and state legislatures to confront the problem.
...
As more and more working Americans find themselves without health insurance, our faith in the ability of capitalism to provide a fundamental asset of American life is being sorely tested. Sometime in the next decade, we'll be forced to admit that government will have to step in and shore up the safety net by guaranteeing basic health care to all Americans. The old-time religion will have some new hymns. "

I've blogged repeatedly that the US private health care system is a menace to public health and to the economy. I've also written that Clinton's tentative public health care bill was visionary. We're seeing today that we needed to believe Clinton's vision 10 years ago.

The New York Times | 9/11 Panel Ask Cheney for Reports That Would Support Iraq-Qaeda Ties

"The leaders of the Sept. 11 commission called on Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday to turn over any intelligence reports that would support the White House's insistence that there was a close relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.
The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, and its vice chairman, Lee H. Hamilton, said they wanted to see any additional information in the administration's possession after Mr. Cheney, in a television interview on Thursday, was asked whether he knew things about Iraq's links to terrorists that the commission did not know.

'Probably,' Mr. Cheney replied."

Not a very gung-ho answer, Bubba Cheney. Is "probably" the reason that we went to war? And, BTW, "probably" is a strong downsizing from what Cheney said just recently, according to this REUTERS article.

Cheney Won't Back Down on Saddam-Qaeda Links -Aides

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, who took the lead in pushing the idea of long-standing links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, has no intention of backing down despite a finding to the contrary by the Sept. 11 commission, aides said on Wednesday.

Administration officials stood by Cheney, who critics accuse of using faulty intelligence about alleged weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi links to al Qaeda to push the nation to war.

A White House official said Cheney's assertion, which he repeated this week, that the ousted Iraqi leader had long-established ties to al Qaeda, were based on "facts."

"Hell no!" another administration official said when asked if Cheney would retract his statements after the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks found no evidence that Iraq aided al Qaeda attempts to strike the United States.


So there you have it in the Bubba administration: one day it's "hell, no" and the next day it's "probably". That's bubbalogic!

So why doesn't the Bubba Administration just admit their error? Because they can't!. Again from the NY Times:

Advisers to the White House said Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney would continue to be aggressive in countering the commission's conclusions — or in the White House's official view, the misinterpretation by the news media of the commission's conclusions — because failing to do so would undermine their credibility and their rationale for taking the country to war.

The Victoria Advocate | Texas tops states in uninsured citizens

"Nearly 82 million people - one third of the U.S. population younger than 65 - lacked health insurance at some point over the past two years and most of those were uninsured for more than nine months, says a study by the private group Families USA.

The problem reaches deep into the middle-class, affects African-Americans and Hispanics disproportionately and is most pronounced among people younger than 25, according to the group's analysis of census data.

The study, which is being released today, found that 8.5 million Texas residents, or 43.4 percent of the non-elderly population, did not have health insurance - the highest rate in the country."


That's bad news, even worse that I thought. Lots of uninsured Bubbas with guns.

AFP : Annan says he opposes US bid for ICC immunity

"UN Secretary General Kofi Annan firmly opposed US efforts to extend immunity of US peacekeeping troops from prosecution for war crimes.

'As you know, for the past two years, I have spoken quite strongly against the exemption, and I think it would be unfortunate for one to press for such an exemption, given the prisoner abuse in Iraq,' Annan told reporters as he arrived at UN headquarters.

'I think in this circumstance it would be unwise to press for an exemption, and it would be even more unwise on the part of the Security Council to grant it,' he stressed."

Look out, Dick, Rummy and W!

HoustonChronicle.com - Analysis: 9/11 commission deals blow to president's justification for war

"Already in question, President Bush's justification for war in Iraq has suffered another major setback.

An independent commission threw cold water Wednesday on the administration's insistent claims of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. That comes on top of the administration's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Both ideas had been central ingredients of Bush's rationale for invading. "

The Houston Chronicle spells it out, but softly, 'cuz there are lots of Bubbas in the readership!

The New York Times | Prison Abuse: Rumsfeld Issued an Order to Hide Detainee in Iraq

"Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, acting at the request of George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, ordered military officials in Iraq last November to hold a man suspected of being a senior Iraqi terrorist at a high-level detention center there but not list him on the prison's rolls, senior Pentagon and intelligence officials said Wednesday.

This prisoner and other 'ghost detainees' were hidden largely to prevent the International Committee of the Red Cross from monitoring their treatment, and to avoid disclosing their location to an enemy, officials said."

Anyone Bubba who believes that the orders to torture prisoner's don't come straight from the top should consider this new bit of evidence to the contrary.

But wait, there's more, because the prison officials didn't want to hold on to these guys and kept pressing the Pentagon for orders:

At Camp Cropper, some prisoners had been held since June 2003 for nearly 23 hours a day in solitary confinement in small cells without sunlight, according to a report by the international Red Cross.

The suspected Ansar official was segregated from the other detainees and was not listed on the rolls. Under the order that had filtered down to General Sanchez, military police were not to disclose the detainee's whereabouts to the Red Cross pending further directives.

The prisoner fell into legal limbo as the military police pressed their superiors for guidance, which has still not formally come.

FT.com | Former US diplomats organise against Bush

"'Unique' was a word most often used among the former servants, who said that such an initiative in an election year was unknown in the six decades some of them had served.

'We are all career public servants,' explained William Harrop, former ambassador to Israel and several African countries who helped organize the initiative. 'Most of us are not comfortable about going partisan in a domestic arena. But we feel strongly that this must be stopped and the administration must be changed.'"

Simply astounding!

WebMD : Bilingualism May Keep the Mind Young

"Two languages may be better than one when it comes to keeping the mind young. A new study shows that being fluent in two languages may help prevent some of the effects of aging on brain function.

Researchers found that people who were bilingual most of their lives were better able to stay focused on a task amidst a rapidly changing environment compared with people who only spoke one language.

The ability to keep one's attention on a task is known as fluid intelligence, and it is one of the first aspects of brain function to deteriorate as people get older. "

The study is with folks who have been bi-lingual every day since they were 10 years old. Good news for my kids, but inconclusive for me since I only started my second language at around 30.

Wonder if this will start off a fad of "second language" in the states? Is this why hispanic and asiatic kids in the states are often treated as "wunderkind"?

The New York Times | Behind the Scenes, a Restless and Relentless Kerry

"And where former President Bill Clinton plays cards and President Bush turns to the treadmill, Senator Kerry strums his Spanish classical guitar in a kind of musical meditation. Lately, in the private front cabin of his campaign plane, he has been learning a new (old) song, 'This Land Is Your Land.'"

That Woody Guthrie song that we used to sing during the Painter family pow-wows. Wonder if I can get my brother-in-law to strum it for us at the next family get-together?

The New York Times | Commander Swift Objects

"But Swift has been energetic in his defense, to say the least. In January, he and his colleagues filed an incendiary friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in which, among other things, they compared their commander in chief, President Bush, to the villain of the American Revolution, King George III. In April, Swift went even further, suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Bush in federal court in Seattle on the grounds that their plan for a military tribunal for his client -- who has still not been charged or given a trial date -- violates the Constitution, federal law, the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

When Swift was first assigned to the defense team a little more than a year ago, not even someone who calls himself ''pretty anti-authoritarian for a military guy'' could have imagined this turn of events. ''Generally speaking,'' he said, ''if the United States is paying your salary, you're not supposed to sue them.'' "

One might wonder whether Swift watched or watches the TV series JAG. In any event, Our Man Swift, that I've blogged before, is a reminder that Americans who believe in the US Constitution are everywhere.

Rather than calling Swift "anti-authoritarian", how 'bout admitting that he takes his authority from "the top", from the "founding fathers". Like Archibald Cox, Swift is asking whether the US will be a country of "laws and not of men".

The New York Times | Study Finds Senior Exams Are Too Basic

"A study of high school graduation exams, rites of passage for more than half the nation's secondary school students, shows that they largely test material taught in the 9th and 10th grades. Such material, the study said, is often taught at the middle school level in other industrialized countries.

The study found that the tests measured very basic material and skills, insufficient for success in university courses or in jobs paying salaries higher than the poverty level, currently about $18,000 for a family of four."

At the moment in France, the seniors are doing their "bac philo" or their philosphy exams for the baccalaureat. It's a big deal, pretty tough, and has just about no analog in the states, where philosophy is a college option and far from common.

Here are some of the questions from the French 2000 philosophy exam:

Time allowed : 4 hours

The candidate will address one of the following subjects:

1st subject : Does art change our relation with reality?

2nd subject : Do the social sciences consider humans as predictable beings.

3rd subject : Using an orderly study, extract the philosophical interest from the following text:

The penchant of instinct is indeterminate. One sex is attracted to the other, thus this is the movement of nature. Choices, preferences, personal attachments are the outcome of enlightenment, prejudices, habit; it requires time and knowledge for us to be capable of love, we only love after having judged, we only prefer after having compared. These judgements are made without our awareness, but they are no less real. Real love, regardless of what is said, will always be honored by man: because, even though love's actions make us stray from our paths, even though love doesn't exclude ...

I stop here because it's getting difficult to translate. Anyway, you get the picture. 4 hours for a philosophy final. How does that stack up against senior exams in the US?

BBC News | "We've always been the best of friends, n'est-ce pas"?

"US President George W Bush has opened the annual Group of Eight (G8) summit, hailing the unanimous passing of a new UN resolution on Iraq hours earlier."



What I find particularly interesting is the "unsaid" (non-dit) side of the UN resolution: that it is, in essence, precisely the resolution that was requested by France one year ago. How big a difference a year makes! And of course, best friends don't bring up nagging remarks like "I told you so."

The New York Times > Washington > Bush Didn't Order Any Breach of Torture Laws, Ashcroft Says

"[T]he memorandums, by their numbers and their arguments all aimed at justifying the use of torture and the inapplicability of international treaties like the Geneva Conventions, have produced expressions of outrage from international human rights groups and members of Congress, mostly Democrats.

Mr. Ashcroft, who seemed uncomfortable during the sometimes tough questioning, often responded by saying that the United States was at war and the critics often failed to take that into account. Mr. Kennedy told him curtly that he could not withhold the memorandums from Congress unless there was an invocation of executive privilege, something only the president himself can do.

Mr. Ashcroft replied that it was simply not good policy to openly debate what powers a president had in wartime."

The catch-phrase "I am not a crook" comes to mind.

The Globe and Mail | For-profit care more costly: study

"'With for-profit care, you end up paying with your money and your life,' said P. J. Devereaux, a researcher in the department of clinical biostatistics and epidemiology at Hamilton's McMaster University.
...
Over all, it found that hospital care costs 19 per cent more in for-profit hospitals than in not-for-profit ones.
...
Dr. Devereaux said earlier research conducted by his team demonstrates clearly that for-profit hospitals do not provide better care. An analysis of 38 million patient records in the U.S. showed that those treated in for-profit hospitals had a mortality rate that was 8 per cent higher than those treated in not-for-profit hospitals.
"

So to sum it up: for-profit hospitals are more expensive and have a higher mortality. So where is the miracle of free enterprise? Some things, like health care, should not be market-driven.

Reuters | World Tribute to Reagan

"America is mourning former President Ronald Reagan as preparations begin in Washington for the first presidential state funeral in 30 years for the man who won the Cold War and the hearts of countless Americans with his skills as the 'Great Communicator.'"

Since the New York Times can come clean, well maybe this former-Bubba can, too. Alright, alright, I voted for Reagan in 1980, first ever vote. It's idiocies like that haunt you for the rest of your life!

The New York Times | In Normandy, Bush Honors Veterans of D-Day

"As they addressed the veterans and their families, the presidents of France and the United States put aside their differecences.

'In the name of every French woman and French man, I would like to offer the eternal gratitude of our nation,' Mr. Chirac said on a stage facing the graves here.

France will 'never forget what it owes to America, its friend forever,' Mr. Chirac said.

Mr. Bush said that France was 'America's first friend in the world,' a reference to the assistance the colonial Americans received from France inthe Revolutionary War."

I have a brother-in-law who says the French have "forgotten" about the sacrifice made by Americans during D-Day (Jour J). If only he were over here in France, I think that he would be surprised by the amount of in-depth airplay that the Normandy invasion is given and the deep respect that is paid to the US and Allied veterans.

BBC NEWS | First gay marriage held in France

"Mr Mamere agreed to carry out the marriage of shopworker Bertrand Charpentier, 31, and male nurse Stephane Chapin, 34, because, he said, he wanted to fight all forms of discrimination, including homophobia."

Hooray for Noël Mamere who has brought this question to the forefront!

HoustonChronicle.com - News

""It will be a great party," White said in announcing the lineup at a City Hall news conference. "We will have a family-oriented event, with a headlining concert to celebrate what's good in America and what's good in Houston."

The Judds' Houston performance, celebrating their 20th anniversary, will be their only one this year. Since their string of hits in the 1980s made the Judds the most successful duo in country music history, mother Naomi has retired from regular touring, and daughter Wynonna has continued a successful solo career.
"

Now take a look at this family? Isn't this just what is so great about America, Bubba?