:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Friday, September 10, 2004 ::

HoustonChronicle.com - Mentally ill inmate denied water, nearly dies:

"A mentally ill Dallas County jail inmate was cut off from drinking water for nearly two weeks and denied psychiatric medication for almost two months, according to an internal investigation. He nearly died."

Prison abuse is certainly more common than we like to believe

:: Jim Nichols 9/10/2004 07:15:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Study: Bush Judges Most Conservative on Rights:

"A study of thousands of federal court cases has found that judges appointed by President Bush are the most conservative on record in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/10/2004 07:11:00 PM [+] ::
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Article: Global suicide toll exceeds war and murder?| New Scientist:

"Suicide kills more people each year than road traffic accidents in most European countries, the World Health Organization is warning. And globally, suicide takes more lives than murder and war put together,"

:: Jim Nichols 9/10/2004 07:06:00 PM [+] ::
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The Washington Monthly:

"George Bush is not responsible for the recession that began in 2001. What he is responsible for is the fact that our recovery from that recession has been the worst in the last 30 years."

:: Jim Nichols 9/10/2004 06:36:00 PM [+] ::
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Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog: Gaming War in the Context of Everything Else:

"The terrorist attacks of 9/11 gave us a glimpse of what 'asymmetrical warfare' in the 20th century is going to be all about. It won't just be some other great power or some regional rogue keeping America from accessing some future battlespace they hope to own, because frankly, there ain't no such thing as a conventional battlespace anywhere in the world that our military force cannot access. Asymmetrical warfare in the future is going to feel more like you're trying to play football while the other guy has decided to play soccer. In other words, you won't be playing the same game, with the same rules, or even the same scorekeeping.

Great power war effectively died with the realization of mutual assured destruction thanks to nukes. Meanwhile, classic state-on-state war is going the route of the dinosaur: basically no one engages in it anymore. What's left is plenty of violence within states and non-state actors looking to hijack societies from globalization's creeping embrace so they can disconnect those societies from the global grid and have their way with the captive population. Increasingly, the most motivated non-state actors will employ terrorism to scare off advanced states from caring about those societies they seek to hijack from history. That's basically the al?Qaeda's game, and if it reminds you of a similar movement of a century earlier (Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks), then you were paying attention in history class. "

I'm reading this guys new book called The Pentagon's New Map: War and peace in the twenty-first century....

:: Jim Nichols 9/09/2004 09:54:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Health Care Premiums Jump 11.2 Percent:

"Health care costs continued to surge this year as family premiums in employer-sponsored plans jumped 11.2 percent, the fourth year of double-digit growth, according to a new study. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/09/2004 09:32:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - U.S. Hid Dozens of Iraqi Prisoners, Investigators Say:

"The United States may have kept up to 100 'ghost detainees' in Iraq off the books and concealed from Red Cross observers, a far higher number than previously reported, an Army general told Congress on Thursday. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/09/2004 09:30:00 PM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Powell: Sudan Abuses Qualify As Genocide:

"The Bush administration for the first time on Thursday called attacks in Sudan's Darfur region by government-backed Arab militia against black Africans 'genocide.' "

If its genocide you should commit troops... yes? no? maybe?

:: Jim Nichols 9/09/2004 09:25:00 PM [+] ::
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Excite News:

"For about $10 million, city officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot."

:: Jim Nichols 9/09/2004 01:56:00 AM [+] ::
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BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | N Korea warns of arms race:

"North Korea has said the admission by South Korea that its scientists secretly enriched uranium in 2000 threatened a new nuclear arms race. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 11:05:00 PM [+] ::
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Boston.com / News / Nation / Bush fell short on duty at Guard:

"Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation"

But nobody cares...

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 10:51:00 PM [+] ::
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Salary squeeze threatens middle America | csmonitor.com:

"recent Census data confirm that the median household income - a level where half of US households earn more and half less - has fallen by $1,500 between 2000 and 2003."

The middle class thats big enough to fit in your front pocket....

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 10:46:00 PM [+] ::
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Aid agencies say they may pull out of Iraq:

"The remaining international aid agencies in Iraq are considering pulling out of the country after the kidnapping of four humanitarian workers"

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 10:41:00 PM [+] ::
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | UK sets Iran deadline to end nuclear bomb work:

"The British government yesterday set a November ultimatum for Iran to suspend all activities linked to production of a nuclear bomb - a deadline that effectively marks the failure of more than a year of negotiations between Tehran and the European troika of Britain, France and Germany. "

Is Blaire pulling a Bush? Bush pulling some strings? Or is it just more talk?

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 10:36:00 PM [+] ::
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USATODAY.com - Fewer foreigners enrolling in grad school:

"U.S. graduate schools this year saw a 28% decline in applications from international students and an 18% drop in admissions, a finding that some experts say threatens higher education's ability to maintain its reputation for offering high-quality programs."

I think this is a sample of the world we will inherit from Bush II. A less globalized world, which is a far more dangerous world.

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 10:30:00 PM [+] ::
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Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania... The only states that matter??The Senate Dominoes Are Again Teetering:

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 08:18:00 PM [+] ::
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Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004:

"The biweekly Zogby poll of 16 battleground states taken Aug 30 to Sept 3 has now been released."

Florida now tied. Tennessee flipped. Iowa now leaning Kerry. Minnesota now leaning Kerry. Pennsylvania now leaning Kerry. New Mexico back in Kerry territory.

:: Jim Nichols 9/08/2004 04:45:00 PM [+] ::
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Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal: A Weblog: A Few Quotes on the Administration's February Employment Forecast: "'What has gone wrong with the economy to leave us with an employment level 1.7 million below what you projected last February that it would be by now?' "

:: Jim Nichols 9/07/2004 09:49:00 PM [+] ::
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TAPPED: September 2004 Archives:

"ALABAMAS EVERYWHERE! I've long wondered why anyone would take seriously the notion that the country as a whole ought to adopt the low-tax, low-wage, no-union, no-regulation formula that's brought such a lack of economic success to the Deep South, but if I were to say that I'd be castigated as some kind of northeastern elitist, so I'll just quote son-of-the-south Ed Kilgore instead:
If you had to identify one simple reason for [the South's] grinding poverty, it was the perpetual delusion of southern political and business leaders that the region had to stay poor and dumb in order to attract the capital necessary to eventually climb out of the ditch. Like some of today's third world countries, the South, right up to the 1970s, was paralyzed by the idea that decent wages, unionization, protection of natural resources, business regulation, progressive taxes, and quality education were all impossible because they would 'price' the region out of opportunities for economic development. All of the South's social and economic weaknesses were perceived as essential to maintaining a 'good business climate.' And that benighted belief also helped perpetuate Jim Crow, since the ability to keep roughly a third of the region's population in semi-serfdom gave the South a cost advantage no other part of the country could ever meet.

Gradually, by the 1970s and 1980s, southern political leaders, and even many business leaders, woke up to the fact that deliberately maintaining a low standard of living wasn't worth the paltry payoff in low-wage textile jobs. And slowly but surely, a consensus developed that decent education and adequate public services were positive, not negative, factors in long-term economic development. The states that pursued this 'high road' strategy--especial"

:: Jim Nichols 9/07/2004 09:33:00 PM [+] ::
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Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004: "Bush and Kerry are now tied in Minnesota. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/07/2004 10:37:00 AM [+] ::
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Yahoo! News - Reclusive Russian May Have Made Maths Breakthrough:

"A reclusive Russian may have solved one of the world's toughest mathematics problems and stands to win $1 million -- but he doesn't appear to care. "

Its all about brilliant people...

:: Jim Nichols 9/07/2004 01:18:00 AM [+] ::
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Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican: "Day in the Life of Joe Middle-Class Republican"

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 09:14:00 PM [+] ::
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"What If Bush Wins" by a panel of 16 experts: "Predictions on the likely consequences of a second term for President Bush. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 08:40:00 PM [+] ::
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"The Left Learns from Goldwater" by Todd Gitlin:
If Bush wins....

"So, politics altogether will seem to be blocked. Dropouts will multiply. In this overheated atmosphere, I would not be surprised to see outbursts of political violence the likes of which we haven't seen since the Weather Underground of the 1970s. The commitment to marginality in much of the antiglobalization movement would take on a tang of negative logic. The master argument will sound like this: What else you got, you so-called practical types? "

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 08:35:00 PM [+] ::
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The New York Times > Education > Good Schools or Bad? Ratings Baffle Parents:

"Students are returning to classes across the nation amid a cacophony of contradictory messages about the quality of their education, as thousands of schools with vaunted reputations have been rated in recent weeks as low-performing under a federal law.
School ratings issued under the terms of the president's No Child Left Behind law have clashed with school report card systems administered by some states, leaving parents unsure which level of government to believe or whether to transfer their children, an option offered by the law."

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 08:28:00 PM [+] ::
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Prez track 2004:

"The Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll shows President George W. Bush with 48% of the vote and Senator John Kerry with 47%. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 08:24:00 PM [+] ::
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Industries & Communities - bizjournals.com:

"President Bush and Sen. John Kerry have starkly different views on how to solve what many consider a health care crisis. The state's voters also will be asked to decide on controversial Proposition 72, a referendum on legislation that would require midsize and large companies to provide health insurance for their workers. "

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 07:16:00 PM [+] ::
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My final thoughts regarding the republican convention... the Democrats did a lot of talking, and too much talking about John Kerry and his war record. The republicans on the other hand did a lot of fantasizing. The problem with the fantasizing was that many people aren't able to factually combat the fantasy world the republicans put up for that taking. The republicans have been office for four years and they spent the entire convention not talking about the success they've had in four years they talked about the successes they will have in the next four years. But shouldn't we judge you not on your possibility but your record?

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 07:00:00 PM [+] ::
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The hunt for slave outposts in the Amazon | csmonitor.com:

"According to the Brazilian government, as many as 40,000 slaves - the majority of them poor, uneducated, and unskilled - are currently laboring under brutal conditions. Many are lured to the rain forest by ranchers - with the false promise of princely wages - to clear the trees. Once here, they have neither the money nor the means to leave. As the coordinator of one of the government's seven Mobile Anti-Slavery Units, it is Silva's job is to set them free."

:: Jim Nichols 9/06/2004 06:54:00 PM [+] ::
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