Women are dum

Why are people so dumb? And I'm not talking about women, I'm talking about Harvard president Lawrence Summers. It's the year 2005 and he's the president of Harvard. Why would he be a complete idiot and publicly state that women are inferior to men in the sciences -- and this reason could be genetic?

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/31/MNG02B326R1.DTL

Freedom

.

Women with their faces wrapped
Hide within a world trapped
And dominated by the masters
Wailing o’er their sons’ disasters
Can you put the past behind you
Will you break the chains that bind you
Free your body, free your mind.

From You Gotta Stand For Somethin'
A Song Blog by Patrick Anderson

Michelle Malkin asks: "Will American feminists be celebrating these amazing images and this historic day? The silence is deafening."

Freedom Amid the Chaos

An amazing thing has happened in Iraq. Given the opportunity to grab their freedom, Iraqis have not only taken it, but they've done so amid the expolsions and homicidal efforts of a viscious terrorist insurgency. When the smoke clears we'll know the score, but there are indications that the turnout was astounding--somewhere between 57 and 72%. U.S. presidential election turnouts have exceeded 60% only twice since 1968, and no one had to dodge bullets, mortars, roadside bombs, and maniacs strapped with explosives. There are reports of thousands of people walking over 13 miles to a polling place just to cast their vote. (How many of us would walk more than two or three blocks to vote if there wasn't a good parking space?)

The whole scenario is stunning, and it answers once and for all the question: "Do they really want their freedom?" It gives enormous meaning to the lives and deaths of thousands of Iraqis and over 1400 American soldiers who have paid the ultimate price in the name of liberty. This war is a horrible mess, but there's no turning back now. We've got to finish the mission.

Planes are crashin’, lights are flashin’
People dyin’, children cryin’
Heroes charging through the smoke
God in heaven we invoke
Soldiers screamin’ ‘cross the desert
Facing dangers, freeing strangers
Do they even want the freedom?

How to keep it, how to use it
Why it matters, why you choose it
Are we even right to give it
Can they ever hope to live it
Sons and daughters packed in boxes
Save us from our paradoxes
Who will bless your sacrifice?

From You Gotta Stand for Somethin'

Hip Hop gettin locked up

All of the hip hop sites are reporting that Irv Gotti, head of record label The Inc. (formerly Murder Inc.), and his brother turned themselves into the Feds today. Seems that the record company may have been established with drug money and that they continue to have links to major players in NY's narcotics scene. If you don't know The Inc. is home to Ashanti and Ja Rule. This rumors have been going around for a couple of years now and the Feds have been investigating them for a long time.

Well, innocent until proven guilty!!!

It's just sad to see another gifted young brother go down because of an (alleged) inability to relinquish ties to the streets.

80 billion vs. 1.5 billion

Two interesting news articles today:

1. The Gates Foundation is doubling its donations to Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations. With 1.5 billion dollars, "more than 42 million children had been vaccinated against hepatitis B, that more than 670,000 premature deaths had been prevented from 2001 through 2003 and that 991 million syringes had been used to improve vaccine safety, since they could only be used once."

Wow! Amazing what 1.5 billion dollars can do!

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/national/25gates.html

2. On another note, the Bush administration is requesting 80 billion dollars to continue fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=703&e=1&u=/ap/20050125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_spending

-Jean Chen

even bush supporters are sad on innauguration day

why is it that even those who support bush; in this case, young students, can't get to the event on time because of the nefarious homeland security. exactly who are we protecting the president and all his fine men from ? last week's 11 oclock news advised that a group of teenagers who had each spent $700 to travel to d.c. to see the prez get sworn in were frisked, searched and delayed to the extent that they could not watch the main event.
the good news is that if more supporters of bush get peeved with him and join in concert with other red staters, then ahoy maties, we may have turnaround time. let those who agreed with his policy help shine the light on his contradictions, because they certainly are not inviting any liberal type to the front of the class for show and tell.
so speak up now, loud and proud if you are a bush supporter and he is letting even YOU down.!~

But Leave God Out of This

I'm in full support of our military tracking down and exterminating bonafide threats to American freedom, wherever they may be. And I even find justification in defending the fundamental human rights of the defenseless. But I cannot abide the rationalization that "We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom," a quote from the President Bush's inauguration speech. Is Bush implying that God calls us to kill our enemies? That's no less ludicrous than Islamic fundamentalists claiming homicide bombers will be greeted in heaven by 72 virgins. Why can't we leave God out of this? I don't think he's taking sides, and I really don't think He gives a damn who occupies the Promised Land.

Patrick Anderson

Overload

Everyday the news headlines always include a report on the latest round of violence in Iraq. Today it was, "Blast Near Iraqi Leader's Party Headquarters Wounds 10." At this point, everyday just sounds like the same old same old and I feel like I'm becoming desensitized to it all. Another five U.S. soldiers are killed. Yeah, so what else is new?

It's frustrating because I don't feel like I can do anything about it.

-Jean Chen

HAARP

Ok, maybe this is too much of a conspiracy theory, but a friend forwarded me a link which points to the following article. Apparently, the US government has some sort of weapon that can trigger earthquakes and floods. Sounds very James Bond to me, but the suggestion is that perhaps the Asian tsunami was an experiment that was unleashed by the US.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO201A.html

-Jean Chen

Mideast Tensions at Columbia University

There's an interesting piece in the New York Times talking about politics getting very personal:

"Every Monday and Friday until its work is done, a novel faculty panel will make itself available to hear narratives from students and faculty members in the hope of sorting out a virulent dispute that has rattled the university for months. If anything is clear in this very unclear quarrel, ostensibly over supposed intimidation of Jewish students by pro-Palestinian professors in the Middle East and Asian languages and cultures department, it is that it has already produced some unbecoming fallout."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/18/education/18columbia.html

-Jean Chen

Reducing Poverty

There's this article in the paper today reporting that the UN has a plan to drastically reduce extreme poverty.

"To fulfill this goal, industrialized nations would need to roughly double aid to poor countries from a quarter to a half of 1 percent of their national incomes.

"We're talking about rich countries committing 50 cents out of every $100 of income to help the poorest people in the world get a foothold on the ladder of development," said Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University, who was appointed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to lead the project in 2002."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/18/MNG49AS6N71.DTL

Wow! Who knew it could be that easy!

-Jean Chen

Leo's Plea

I was watching the Golden Globe Awards last night, and when Leonardo DiCaprio went onstage to accept an award, he made a plea to the audience to continue to donate money to the tsunami relief efforts. I think that's commendable, but it's a bit ironic because when he filmed "The Beach" in Thailand a few years ago, the movie producers pretty much destroyed the area they filmed in.

-Jean Chen

Do you like him?

Full of excitement and anticipation, I waited. Just as I had waited for the big Michael Jackson interview a while back, I waited to see and hear what President Bush would say in his interview with Barbara Walters. Would he hang himself as Michael had done?

As I watched, one thing became clear. No matter how disgusted, disappointed of disturbed I am by our current administration, Bush is likable.

He reminds me of the old, out of touch guys who I used to help as a bank teller my sophmore year in college. Sure they said things that made them look stupid and narrow- minded. But, you just wanted to hold their hand and explain to them how to balance a check book.

Still, it takes more than a warm fatherly quality and a great grin to run the country.

Not one damn dime

Bush and crew are getting ready for the gala affair- the innauguration of the president who wasn't really elected, again. The soiree is going to cost $40 million dollars. If people and their corporations have that kind of money, hey, why don't they give a little to people and places that really need it. Should I start the list? - schools, children, seniors, veterans, the sick, poor, infirmed, those of us lucky enough to be well but in need of social services for ourselves, neighbors, friends, families?

I received this email about 10 daze ago, but now it seems really relevant:

Not One Damn Dime Day

This was forwarded to me by someone I admire and respect
and I thought  it would be an easy way for us all to
make a statement about how we  feel about the state of
our nation and the world.

Inauguration Day, Thursday, January 20th, 2005 is "Not
One Damn Dime  Day" in America.
On "Not One Damn Dime Day" those who oppose what is
happening in our name in Iraq can speak up with a
24-hour national boycott of all  forms of consumer
spending.

During "Not One Damn Dime Day" please don't spend
money.  Not one damn dime for gasoline. Not one damn
dime for necessities or for impulse purchases. Not one
damn dime for anything for 24 hours.  The object is
simple. Remind the people in power that the war in
Iraq is immoral and illegal; that they are responsible
for starting it and that it is their responsibility to
stop it.

"Not One Damn Dime Day" is to remind them, too, that
they work for the people of the United States of
America, not for the international corporations and I
Street lobbyists who represent the corporations and
funnel cash into American politics.

There's no rally to attend. No marching to do. No left
or right wing agenda to rant about. On "Not One Damn
Dime Day" you take action by doing nothing. You open
your mouth by keeping your wallet closed.  For 24
hours, nothing gets spent, not one damn dime, to
remind our religious leaders and our politicians of
their moral responsibility to end the war in Iraq and
give America back to the people.

Until there is a way to systematically and frequently show our disdain for the way the president and his cohorts are handling this country and involvement in the world, let's participate in Not One Damn Dime day because without our hard earned money and a willingness to consume, there will be no money for the corporations to scratch the back and other parts of Mr. Bush and his administration.

Who's the biggest loser

I watched the Biggest Loser finale this week, and I felt like the biggest loser on the planet. OK, the people on this show got very healthy and slim, but the game show/survivor vibe of the show was really disturbing, and addictive, to watch. Did it make me feel better that I'm not obese, or did the sight of overweight people stabbing each other in the back for $250,000 really entertain me. I have no idea, but I'm glad the contestents are living a healthy lifestyle, but I pledge not to watch a single episode of The Biggest Loser 2. I hope.

Check out the site and see the Biggest Loser's new body.

-LaTasha

Wait, Why Are We In Iraq?

The search for Weapons of Mass Destruction is over and nothing has been found!!!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=544&ncid=718&e=10&u=/ap/20050113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq_weapons

So, uh, why did we go to war again?

-Jean Chen

CBS Fallout

So news of the CBS fallout is all over the news.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/11/business/media/11network.html

And while I understand that it's a major journalistic scandal, I can't help but feel like everyone is overreacting. Maybe part of me is so jaded that I have come to expect this kind of thing from mainstream news. And maybe part of me wonders, "What if CBS had misinformation about John Kerry?" How much would people be upset over this story?

Armstrong Williams was caught accepting money to push Bush administration policies and it's not hitting the headlines like CBS News.

-Jean Chen

Disenfranchised DC-folks Forced to Pay for Inaugural Security

So, catch this:

The people of Washington, DC, who overwhelmingly voted for Kerry, and who--because they are not a state--lack voting representation in Congress, are being forced to give up their security dollars for the Bush inauguration. Traditionally, the feds have paid for inaugural security, but the Bush Admin is giving DC the big middle finger. DC should give it right back and refuse to provide security.

Read more here:

(An excerpt)

Now this is some bullshit. Asking a bunch of black folks who didn't even vote for him to foot the bill.... The city should refuse to offer security.

U.S. Tells D.C. to Pay Inaugural Expenses

By Spencer S. Hsu

D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects.

Federal officials have told the District that it should cover the expenses by using some of the $240 million in federal homeland security grants it has received in the past three years -- money awarded to the city because it is among the places at highest risk of a terrorist attack.

But that grant money is earmarked for other security needs, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) said in a Dec. 27 letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. Williams's office released the letter yesterday.

Williams estimated that the city's costs for the inauguration will total $17.3 million, most of it related to security. City officials said they can use an unspent $5.4 million from an annual federal fund that reimburses the District for costs incurred because of its status as the capital. But that leaves $11.9 million not covered, they said.

"We want to make this the best possible event, but not at the expense of D.C. taxpayers and other homeland security priorities," said Gregory M. McCarthy, the mayor's deputy chief of staff. "This is the first time there hasn't been a direct appropriation for the inauguration."

The New Man at DoHS

His name is Michael Chertoff, and Elaine Cassell thinks he's a gremlin in the vein as John Ashcroft

This from her June 9th Op-Ed piece:

"But now I have a new gremlin to watch, someone who is as intent on undermining the law and Constitution as Ashcroft. I am referring to the man behind the criminal prosecution of terrorists, Michael Chertoff. Chertoff, former chief of the Justice Department's criminal division, and a scary looking guy if ever there was one, has been elevated to the level of Court of Appeals judge--the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, whose jurisdiction includes Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. What's so scary about Michael? Well, besides having no judicial experience and being a right-ring radical who does not believe in the Constitution and wants to rewrite federal law and rules of procedure on an ad hoc, case by case basis, as it suits him, nothing I guess.

A good place to look for Chertoff's legal philosophy is in the prosecution of Zacarias Moussaoui , now taking place in the Eastern District of Virginia. Chertoff is not the prosecutor of course, Paul McNulty of the Eastern District is. But Chertoff is McNulty's boss and he is calling the shots. So Chertoff argued the government's case in the super secret hearing before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The government is trying to block trial judge Leonie Brinkema's ruling that Moussaoui and his lawyers have access to the government's star witnesses against him. The government has refused and appealed. Judge Brinkema, who still believes in the Constitution, rightly ruled that to deny Moussaoui that access is a blatant violation of the Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses."

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Finance Director Indicted

You never know if a story like this is the end or the beginning of an even bigger travesty. It'll be interesting to see how the Clinton Scandal Evasion Squad handles the mud from this story as reported by WNBC.com:

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Finance Director Indicted

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's former finance director has been indicted on charges of causing false campaign finance reports to be filed with the Federal Election Commission, the Justice Department said Friday.

The indictment of David Rosen, unsealed in Los Angeles, focuses on his fund-raising for an Aug. 12, 2000, gala for Clinton in Los Angeles. The New York Democrat was still first lady at the time.

While the event allegedly cost more than $1.2 million, the indictment said, Rosen reported contributions of about $400,000, knowing the figure to be false.

The indictment charged that Rosen provided some documents to the an FEC compliance officer but withheld the true costs of the event and provided false documents to substantiate the lower figure.

In one instance, Rosen obtained and delivered a fraudulent invoice stating the cost of a concert associated with the gala was $200,000 when he know that figure was false, according to the indictment. The actual cost of the concert was more than $600,000.

Each of the four counts of making a false statement carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines upon conviction.

Black Conservate Sucks at Bush's Teat

From the National Association of Black Journalists

NABJ Blasts Armstrong Williams-White House Deal
Calls on Papers to Drop Williams' Column

WASHINGTON - The National Association of Black Journalists calls on the White House to rebuke those in the Department of Education who used taxpayer dollars to pay off conservative commentator Armstrong Williams in an attempt to influence public opinion on administration policy.

Furthermore, NABJ is disappointed that Williams chose to accept a $240,000 payment from the administration to promote its education reform law on his TV show and in his newspaper column and not disclose that relationship to his viewers and readers, as reported by USA Today in story that ran Friday.

NABJ calls on all media outlets - radio, television and print - that feature Williams' show, use him as a TV commentator or run his syndicated column to drop him immediately.

"I thought we in the media were supposed to be watchdogs, not lapdogs," said NABJ Vice President- Print Bryan Monroe, an assistant vice president-news at Knight Ridder. "I thought we had an administration headed by a president who took an oath to uphold the First Amendment, not try to rent it."

According to the USA Today article, the Bush administration paid the conservative pundit to promote the No Child Left Behind law and wanted him to urge other black journalists to do the same.

"He's lost his credibility," said NABJ Vice President- Broadcast Barbara Ciara, managing editor-anchor at WTKR-TV in Norfolk. "He's tainted fruit. And he's unfairly indicted all commentators who have their own independent opinion, don't need a script from the administration and don't need to be paid off."

Armstrong is not a member of NABJ, but clearly would have benefited from being surrounded by journalists who have appropriate values and ethics.

"While it's clear that Williams is a talk radio commentator and has long since abandoned any pretense of being a journalist, his actions still taint those who share the values and ethics of journalism, no matter what color you are," added Monroe.

In 2004, NABJ president Herbert Lowe created an ethics committee, chaired by Maidstone Mulenga of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, to help articulate and codify ethical guidelines for our members. The committee's report should be released in the spring.

things that make you go hmm...

The US government is sending over 350 million in aid to tsunami victims, which is great. But we're spending one billion a week in Iraq.

Let's not forget what is happening in Iraq! Five more US troops were killed today and the governor of Baghdad was assasinated.