Prometheus 6

An armed security staff should be an option for colleges and universities.

Besides, isn't Iran on Asia? Russia? North Korea? Viet Nam?

China?

Although students were warned that they couldn't threaten anyone in their writings, Lee said he assumed those parameters were removed when the teacher told the class to take 30 minutes and write whatever came to mind -- without worrying about censorship.

"She told us to exaggerate our feelings," Lee said, standing outside his home in northwest suburban Cary. "So I did."

Exaggeration or not, the school principal contacted Cary police, who arrested Lee, an A-student and athlete, while he walked to school on Tuesday. He was charged with two counts of disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor that carries up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine.

Essay just a story, teen says
Cary-Grove senior fights for right to go back to school; Marines revoke his enlistment
By Carolyn Starks, Tribune staff reporter; Tribune staff reporter Liam Ford contributed to this report
April 28, 2007

Like many misunderstood writers, a Cary-Grove High School senior arrested for turning in a provocative class essay offered an "author's note" Friday by way of explanation.

In it, Allen Lee said his reference to "shooting everyone" and "having sex with the dead bodies" was not a personal statement but words a character in a story might say, which explained why the sentence was in quotations.

“The principals feel they don’t have to deal with the education councils,” said James Dandridge, the council president of District 18 in Brooklyn. “It’s like: ‘Who are you? You can’t hire or fire me. You have no pull.’ ”

A Lack of Interest (and Candidates) in New System’s School Parent Councils
By JULIE BOSMAN

The stage was set for the candidates’ forum. Andrew Baumann, one of nine candidates on the ballot for a school parent council in southwest Queens, was the first person to arrive.

And he was alone.

“Not a single person,” Mr. Baumann said disgustedly of the recent nonevent in Community School District 27. “One candidate showed up. Me.”

Elections begin on Monday for the 34 parent councils that replaced New York City’s community school boards when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg won control of the school system in 2002.

Plunking down traumatized people from the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans on a farm in the middle of nowhere may sound like the premise for a reality television show or, as Mr. Carmichael said, “an African-American version of ‘Green Acres,’ ” the television series in which Eva Gabor resisted going rustic. The village residents, in fact, while grateful for the generosity, suggest that the situation is odd, and sometimes uncomfortable.

Describing his thoughts when he arrived, [Allen C. Wyman] said: “Man, we’re in the country. That’s not going to last long. The whole kind of plantation vibe was going through people’s heads.”

Urban to Core, Storm Evacuees Give Farm a Try
By LESLIE EATON

SIMMESPORT, La. — Faced with the televised devastation of New Orleans and the despair of Hurricane Katrina victims, many people have sent them charitable checks.

Frank Stronach bought them a $2.4 million farm.

Based on data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community's National Counterterrorism Center, the report says there were 14,338 terrorist attacks last year, up 29 percent from 11,111 attacks in 2005.

Forty-five percent of the attacks were in Iraq.

Terror attacks up 29%, report says
By Warren P. Strobel and Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.

The annual report's release comes amid a bitter feud between the White House and Congress over funding for U.S. troops in Iraq and a deadline favored by Democrats to begin a U.S. troop withdrawal.

That said...

UPDATED: Rush Limbaugh has angered many black employees over this parody song called "Barack the Magic Negro" This isn't the first or the last time that Limbaugh will go after Obama's race:

I've been told that they have held meetings internally to deal with a ground swell of anger at Rush because of this.

UPDATE: I've anonymously confirmed that stations around the country who carry the show are having concerns expressed by listeners and even their own workers of color about the Obama parody, and the ensuing controversy in the media, and that respective managements are considering ways to address the matter with as little Imus-like backlash as possible,..This is starting to boil over…

A caller noticed there was a disclaimer added to the station she listens to and asks Rush why.

Experts may have found what's bugging the bees
A fungus that hit hives in Europe and Asia may be partly to blame for wiping out colonies across the U.S.
By Jia-Rui Chong and Thomas H. Maugh II
Times Staff Writers
April 26, 2007

A fungus that caused widespread loss of bee colonies in Europe and Asia may be playing a crucial role in the mysterious phenomenon known as Colony Collapse Disorder that is wiping out bees across the United States, UC San Francisco researchers said Wednesday.

Researchers have been struggling for months to explain the disorder, and the new findings provide the first solid evidence pointing to a potential cause.

But the results are "highly preliminary" and are from only a few hives from Le Grand in Merced County, UCSF biochemist Joe DeRisi said. "We don't want to give anybody the impression that this thing has been solved."

The audit found more problems with the way the election was administered -- some optical scan ballots were scanned twice while others weren't scanned at all. This kind of problem isn't new to Cuyahoga. Two audit reports on last year's May primary in the county revealed severe data tracking problems by the election staff. And two Cuyahoga election workers were convicted in January of tampering with a recount in the 2004 presidential election by cherry-picking precincts for recount that they knew would match the election results. They were concerned they'd have to work overtime if the recount didn't match the results.

All of these issues led to the resignation of Election Director Michael Vu and the four members of Cuyahoga's board of elections. Vu's problems in Ohio haven't affected his job prospects, however. He was recently hired as assistant registrar of voters in San Diego.

Ohio Audit Says Diebold Vote Database May Have Been Corrupted

Problems found in an audit of Diebold tabulation records from an Ohio November 2006 election raise questions about whether the database got corrupted during the tabulation of election results, says a report released today (pdf).

Ah, the joys of anonymous comments.

So I post about the pro-life bomber in Austin, right? And I check the anonymous comments and see someone with an appreciation for murder dropped by.

Who cares about a babykilling abortion mill anyway?

On April 27th, 2007 Rev Spitz (not verified) says:

Grow up. Do you think anyone actually cares that a babykilling abortion mill is blown up? You don't seem to concerned about the babies that are being murdered at the babykilling Austin Women's Health Center.

I've edited out the boy's web site URL. No linky-love for terrorists...no networking with those who would murder those who everyone agrees is alive.

"Any time you have a self-appointed colonel or a self-appointed major and they've got weapons and explosives, it is a recipe for tragedy," Cavanaugh said.

Cavanaugh is a master of understatement.

Militia raid targets weapons
Explosives, ammo found; 6 men arrested
Friday, April 27, 2007
CAROL ROBINSON, KENT FAULK and VAL WALTON
News staff writers

Simultaneous raids carried out in four Alabama counties Thursday turned up truckloads of explosives and weapons, including 130 grenades, an improvised rocket launcher and 2,500 rounds of ammunition belonging to the small, but mightily armed, Alabama Free Militia.

Six alleged members of the Free Militia also were arrested by federal authorities and are being held without bond.

Baghdad Burning

I remember Baghdad before the war- one could live anywhere. We didn't know what our neighbors were- we didn't care. No one asked about religion or sect. No one bothered with what was considered a trivial topic: are you Sunni or Shia? You only asked something like that if you were uncouth and backward. Our lives revolve around it now. Our existence depends on hiding it or highlighting it- depending on the group of masked men who stop you or raid your home in the middle of the night.

On a personal note, we've finally decided to leave. I guess I've known we would be leaving for a while now. We discussed it as a family dozens of times. At first, someone would suggest it tentatively because, it was just a preposterous idea- leaving ones home and extended family- leaving ones country- and to what? To where?

Student writes essay, arrested by police
By Jeff Long and Carolyn Starks
Tribune staff reporters
April 26, 2007

High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct.

"I understand what happened recently at Virginia Tech," said the teen's father, Albert Lee, referring to last week's massacre of 32 students by gunman Seung-Hui Cho. "I understand the situation."

But he added: "I don't see how somebody can get charged by writing in their homework. The teacher asked them to express themselves, and he followed instructions."

The most interesting thing about is was that it was formatted for YouTube.

I'm going to delete my recording of it now...

Come on, you know that's funny.

Might as well be honest about it...

He made the Star Spngled Banner sound good. THAT is some deep shit.

Thanks.

And Texas again. Makes perfect sense.

Device found at women's clinic was explosive, police say
By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

AUSTIN — A package left at a clinic that performs abortions contained an explosive device that investigators said Thursday could have been deadly.

The incident came just days after a national abortion group alerted providers around the country to an increased risk of violence.

The device, found in a duffle bag Wednesday, "was configured in such a way to cause serious bodily injury or death," said David Carter, assistant chief of the Austin Police Department.

The bomb, which was found in the parking lot of the Austin Women's Health Center, comes on the heels of last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling which banned a controversial type of abortion and was viewed as an anti-abortion victory.

I saw this headline

Prosecutors Say Corruption in Atlanta Police Dept. Is Widespread

...and said to myself, "Of course." You shoot an old lady, plant drugs on her and everyone backs you up for, what, over a year? Hell yeah there's a corruption problem. I'm surprised they weren't running around with shit-covered plungers.

The prosecutor's office is kinder than I, of course...though I guess I can see the reason for it.

Mr. Nahmias took a moment to dwell on what he said was the unusual nature of the officers’ offenses.

“The officers charged today were not corrupt in the sense that we have seen before,” he said. “They are not accused of seeking payoffs or trying to rob drug dealers or trying to protect gang members. Their goal was to arrest drug dealers and seize illegal drugs, and that’s what we want our police officers to do for our community.

“But these officers pursued that goal by corrupting the justice system, because when it was hard to do their job the way the Constitution requires, they let the ends justify their means.”

Mr. Nahmias said the statement in the plea agreement that officers cut corners in order to “be considered productive officers and to meet A.P.D.’s performance targets” reflected their perception of the department’s expectations.

Let the workers die before retirement.

Crippling Government From Within

One of the most zealous of the antiregulatory ideologues is Edwin Foulke, tapped by President Bush last year to run the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. As South Carolina’s Republican Party chairman and an anti-union stalwart, Mr. Foulke worked tirelessly to weaken the agency’s enforcement authority on workplace safety. Now that he is OSHA’s chief, he is moving even more aggressively away from regulations in favor of corporations’ pledges to police themselves.

The dangers of a do-next-to-nothing OSHA were described in searching detail by Stephen Labaton of The Times in a report focusing on a life-threatening lung disease suffered by workers at microwave popcorn factories who regularly inhale a butter-flavor additive, diacetyl. The problem first turned up seven years ago, with some workers needing lung transplants. Yet OSHA failed to mandate safety standards or step up plant inspections.

I think they're trying to get the whole damn agency to resign.

For lunch, instead of Luigi's, the Palm or several excellent Asian bistros near the current headquarters, there'll be only a McDonald's 3 1/2 blocks away and a Wendy's a block beyond that. For a change of pace, there's the upscale Chez Roi, also known as Roy Rogers, just four blocks away.

Some employees are disabled, opponents of the move note, and on dark winter evenings they would be especially vulnerable to criminals. The McDonald's parking lot, next door to the city's largest methadone clinic, was named in 2002 "as being one of the largest open-air drug markets in the region." "It is unclear whether this has improved," the employees said.

EEOC Is Moving On; Fast Food and a Dicey Neighborhood Await
By Al Kamen
Friday, April 27, 2007; A21

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is in an uproar over a decision by Chair Naomi C. Earp to move its 500-employee headquarters from fine offices in downtown to a "developing" -- but not quite arrived -- area in desolate Northeast near the old Woodie's warehouse on New York Avenue.

At a hostile meeting yesterday to quell a growing rebellion, Earp told several hundred employees -- and others viewing on closed-circuit television -- that "the determining factor is price" in her decision and that employees "should not overreact to concerns about safety."

You copy American tactics, you get American results.

The United States, which had accused Somalia's Islamic Courts movement of being hijacked by extremist ideologues, followed Ethiopia's invasion with airstrikes aimed at three suspects in the 1998 American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, along with certain Islamic Courts leaders accused of having terrorist ties.

Four months later, however, none of those targets has been killed or captured, and the U.S. airstrikes are confirmed to have killed only civilians, livestock and a smattering of Islamic fighters on the run who were never accused of any crime.

Ethiopia Finds Itself Ensnared in Somalia
Some Observers See Similarities To U.S. in Iraq
By Stephanie McCrummen
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, April 27, 2007; A16

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Four months after Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi declared his own "war on terror" against an Islamic movement in Somalia, Ethiopia remains entangled in a situation that analysts and critics are comparing to the U.S. experience in Iraq.

Though Meles proclaimed his military mission accomplished in January, thousands of Ethiopian troops remain in the Somali capital, where they have used attack helicopters, tanks and other heavy weapons in a bloody campaign against insurgents that in recent weeks has killed more than 1,000 people, mostly civilians, and forced half of the city's population to flee.

Who decides which docments will or will not be released? Another Regents University graduate?

Justice Dept. Won't Release All Documents Lawmakers Seek
Friday, April 27, 2007; A21

After releasing nearly 6,000 pages of documents related to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, the Justice Department says it is drawing the line.

In a letter sent last night to the Senate and House Judiciary committees, Justice gave a list of 171 documents it is withholding from Congress because they involve "congressional and media inquiries" about the dismissals, seven of which occurred Dec. 7.

According to descriptions on the list, Justice will hold e-mails plotting media strategies, draft letters to Capitol Hill, various memoranda and "discussions" related to conversations between Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and lawmakers.

A failure in generalship would be pretty devastating if it suggested real failure by the senior military staff.

The need for intelligent, creative and courageous general officers is self-evident. An understanding of the larger aspects of war is essential to great generalship. However, a survey of Army three- and four-star generals shows that only 25 percent hold advanced degrees from civilian institutions in the social sciences or humanities. Counterinsurgency theory holds that proficiency in foreign languages is essential to success, yet only one in four of the Army's senior generals speaks another language. While the physical courage of America's generals is not in doubt, there is less certainty regarding their moral courage. In almost surreal language, professional military men blame their recent lack of candor on the intimidating management style of their civilian masters. Now that the public is immediately concerned with the crisis in Iraq, some of our generals are finding their voices. They may have waited too long.

Neither the executive branch nor the services themselves are likely to remedy the shortcomings in America's general officer corps. Indeed, the tendency of the executive branch to seek out mild-mannered team players to serve as senior generals is part of the problem. The services themselves are equally to blame. The system that produces our generals does little to reward creativity and moral courage. Officers rise to flag rank by following remarkably similar career patterns. Senior generals, both active and retired, are the most important figures in determining an officer's potential for flag rank. The views of subordinates and peers play no role in an officer's advancement; to move up he must only please his superiors. In a system in which senior officers select for promotion those like themselves, there are powerful incentives for conformity. It is unreasonable to expect that an officer who spends 25 years conforming to institutional expectations will emerge as an innovator in his late forties.

Though he dips as deeply into military as on can in such a short piece, the article seems to point out the failure of the political machinery that drives the war...all the solutions offer involve Congressional oversight. And since we've only had Congressional oversight for a couple of months, of course the war went to hell in a jet-powered handbasket.

Army Officer Accuses Generals of 'Intellectual and Moral Failures'
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; A04

An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and misled Congress about the situation there.

Tenet said that the description offered first to Woodward and then repeated by senior administration officials, including Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was "the most despicable thing that ever happened to me."

"You don't do this," Tenet said. "You don't throw somebody overboard just because it's a deflection. Is that honorable? It's not honorable to me."

Tenet said "the hardest part of all this has been just listening to this for almost three years. You listen to that and they never let it go. I mean, I became campaign talk. I was a talking point." He accused his former colleagues of being disingenuous and called on them to "just get up and tell the truth. Tell the American people what really happened."

Tenet Says He Was Made a Scapegoat Over Iraq War
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; A15

Former CIA director George J. Tenet bitterly complains in a forthcoming television interview that White House officials set him up as a scapegoat when they revealed that he had assured President Bush the intelligence on Iraq's suspected weapons arsenal was a "slam dunk."

Tenet, who was one of the longest-serving CIA directors in U.S. history, resigned abruptly in June 2004 after administration infighting over the flawed intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war.