Prometheus 6

...officials at the Education Department may have known about the conflicts and ignored them.

Putting More Profit Before Education

The United States Department of Education has been rightfully drawn (but not yet quartered) in Congress for failing to prevent the kickbacks, payoffs and self-dealing recently uncovered in the student loan business. Now it turns out that the department also mismanaged the federal Reading First initiative, the cornerstone of the No Child Left Behind Act, which requires states to improve reading instruction in exchange for federal education dollars.

Companies that have lost workers in Iraq were generally unresponsive to questions about the numbers of deaths and the circumstances that led to casualties. None acknowledged that they had seen an increase this year.

But a spokesman for American International Group, the insurance company that covers about 80 percent of the contractor work force in Iraq, said it had seen a sharp increase in death and injury claims in recent months. The Labor Department records show that in addition to the 146 dead in the first three months this year, another 3,430 contractors filed claims for wounds or injuries suffered in Iraq, also a quarterly record. The number of casualties, though, may be much higher because the government’s statistical database is not complete.

This is compared to 252 military deaths and 7793 Iraqi deaths in the same timeframe.

Contractor Deaths in Iraq Soar to Record
By JOHN M. BRODER and JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON, May 18 — Casualties among private contractors in Iraq have soared to record levels this year, setting a pace that seems certain to turn 2007 into the bloodiest year yet for the civilians who work alongside the American military in the war zone, according to new government numbers.

They were part of a swelling number of Haitians abandoning their country this year, apparently disillusioned with the slow pace of change coming from Haiti’s year-old government.

I wouldn't blame the year-old government.

But with patrols along the Florida coastline making it increasingly difficult to land there, desperate Haitians are “island hopping,” as the United States Coast Guard calls it

I wonder if it's more difficult for Cubans too.

New Routes and New Risk, as More Haitians Flee
By MARC LACEY

PROVIDENCIALES, Turks and Caicos, May 16 — There is no conceivable way to get from this island to Miami by bus. But the traffickers who ply Haiti’s northern coastline in search of those willing to risk their bleak lives for better ones abroad tell some tall tales to fill their rickety boats.

They describe this island chain, 150 miles off Haiti’s northern coast, as being an easy hop to Miami, the ultimate goal of most migrating Haitians. Sometimes they tell migrants from Haiti’s interior that the United States is a bus ride away as they talk of the big paychecks and full stomachs that await them.

The reality is different, of course, as was made clear when an overloaded Haitian sloop capsized off the coast of Turks and Caicos recently. As many as 90 migrants may have died in that episode, which passengers on the vessel blamed on the aggressive tactics of the local police.

The more of these White House psychodramas we get to witness, the more obvious it is that Mr. Bush’s warm embrace is really a payoff to yes-men who didn’t challenge his orders or question ideology-driven policies.

Their Master’s Voice

In March 2004, the acting attorney general distrusted Alberto Gonzales so much that he wouldn’t meet with him at the White House without a witness. Eight months later, President Bush promoted Mr. Gonzales from White House counsel to attorney general, the top law enforcement job in the land. The president is still standing by his man, ignoring Mr. Gonzales’s efforts to mislead Congress, his disregard for the Constitution and his gross neglect of even basic bureaucratic duties.

This is a fucking first.

Jackson's mother, Amanda, tells KLBJ that her son was given in-school suspension for violating a portion of the district's dress code prohibiting hair styles that are "disruptive". She says her son has had other run-ins with the school's principal.

Look at the boy's "disruptive" haircut. And think back to Shaquanda Cotton's case.

7th Grader back in class at Bailey Middle School after suspension over haircut
NAACP launches investigation
5/15/2007
590 KLBJ-AM

7th grader Derek Jackson says he is back in his normal classes today following his placement in in-school-suspension for having a haircut that was too short; something the school says was both a violation of the school dress-code and a distraction.

Derek's mother, Amanda, says she met with Bailey Middle School Principal Dr. Julia Fletcher, and Dr. Fletcher told her that the issue was "not worth the fight".

Leaders of Austin's NAACP are convinced the suspension of Derek Jackson is racially motivated. Nelson Linder with the NAACP says there's no other reason he can think of why a 7th grader would get in-school suspension for having hair that's too short.

Currently, Mutterperl faces only charges of child endangerment, burglary and unlawful imprisonment in the May 13 attack on Xochil Garcia....

"There's no witness that this guy grabbed the girl, except what the girl said," [his lawyer] told The Post. "The girl was not injured. Now this big guy was grabbing her. I can see that she doesn't have a scratch on her, if this guy is really after her."

...the suspect allegedly told cops that "when he sees young girls, he has to go after them."

ALL EYES ARE ON 'KID-GRAB PERV'
By PATRICK GALLAHUE and ALEX GINSBERG

POLICING PROPOSAL IS INSANE: HIZZONER
By DAVID SEIFMAN

May 19, 2007 -- A section of the new immigration-reform package that forces undocumented workers to return home every two years is an unenforceable "fraud," Mayor Bloomberg contended yesterday.

But the mayor expressed support for other parts of the proposed Senate bill to remake the nation's immigration laws, including a provision that would make it harder for overseas relatives to join families here.

"Nobody in their right mind is going to leave. It's a fraud. It's a feel-good kind of law, but it's not practical," the mayor declared on his weekly WABC radio show.

"That system does not seem to be workable," said immigration lawyer Sarah Thomas Maldonado, of the firm of Jones Garneau in Scarsdale.

"It just seems like it would cause a lot more difficulties and would create a new class of undocumented workers."

No ethical person would admonish Jews to "forget the Holocaust." Indeed, recent decades have witnessed victims of that terrible era not only remembering, but also regaining paintings and financial assets seized by the Nazis -- and justifiably so.

Other victims of mass wrongs -- interned Japanese Americans, enslaved African Americans, and Armenians subjected to a genocide that may have later convinced Hitler of the feasibility of mass killings -- receive at least respectful consideration of their cases, even while responses to their claims have differed.

Yet in dialogues with Israelis, and some Americans, Palestinians are repeatedly admonished to "forget the past," that looking back is "not constructive" and "doesn't get us closer to a solution." Ironically, Palestinians live the consequences of the past every day -- whether as exiles from their homeland, or as members of an oppressed minority within Israel, or as subjects of a brutal and violent military occupation....

Unfortunately, remembering the Nazi Holocaust -- something morally incumbent on all of us -- has seemingly become entangled with, and even an instrument of, the amnesia some would force on Palestinians. Israel is enveloped in an aura of ethical propriety that makes it unseemly, even "anti-Semitic" to question its denial of Palestinian rights.

As Israeli journalist Amira Hass recently observed: "Turning the Holocaust into a political asset serves Israel primarily in its fight against the Palestinians. When the Holocaust is on one side of the scale, along with the guilty (and rightly so) conscience of the West, the dispossession of the Palestinian people from their homeland in 1948 is minimized and blurred."

What this demonstrates is that memory is not just an idle capacity. Rather, who can remember, and who can be made to forget, is, fundamentally, an expression of power.

For Palestinians, memory matters
It provides a blueprint for their future
George Bisharat
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Why do some people have the power to remember, while others are asked to forget? That question is especially poignant at this time of year, as we move from Holocaust Remembrance day in early spring to Monday's anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence on May 14, 1948.

In the months surrounding that date, Jewish forces expelled, or intimidated into flight, an estimated 750,000 Palestinians. A living, breathing, society that had existed in Palestine for centuries was smashed and fragmented, and a new society built on its ruins.

Ironically, when the initiative was put on the ballot, it was the proponents who continually pointed out its narrow scope. They reminded voters that the initiative banned only "preferential treatment" based on race and gender in public education, contracting and employment. This would eliminate quotas, they argued, but leave modest measures such as targeted outreach unaffected.

But once the measure passed, the arguments shifted. Suddenly, Prop. 209's backers began claiming that race could never be considered under any circumstances, and that public officials had to sit on their hands when it came to grappling with persistent racial inequality.

Fortunately, the courts are now stepping in to reassert Prop. 209's limits -- and to emphasize government's overriding constitutional duty to remedy segregation and discrimination.

State affirms that race is still a factor
Prop. 209 doesn't demand complete color blindness
Oren M. Sellstrom, Diana C. Tate
Sunday, May 13, 2007

Two recent court decisions about race and equal opportunity demonstrate an increasing recognition of what civil rights advocates have long known: Taking race into account is sometimes necessary to secure integration and equality.

The rulings come at a time of increasing public unease with the results of rigid "color-blindness." Many Californians are justifiably disturbed when they hear that UCLA's 2006 freshman class is just 2 percent African American, now that admissions officials no longer even consider race as one of many factors in choosing among qualified applicants. They question how we can keep California's economy strong when two-thirds of the minority-owned businesses that once competed for state transportation contracts have gone out of business since the state's minority business outreach program was abolished.

May this offering find you in good health and be of some small utility to you.

Bush Asked to Reconsider Safety Nominee
By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON, May 17 — Senate Democrats urged President Bush on Thursday to withdraw his nomination of a top lobbyist from the National Association of Manufacturers to lead the Consumer Product Safety Commission, saying the candidate was unqualified and the appointment posed insurmountable conflicts of interest.

In its day, Independence served working-class and professional blacks who were turned away by white-owned banks. Whether they came in jingling paper bags or neatly stuffed envelopes, their deposits were accepted and loans were made, oftentimes without significant credit history or collateral....

Several supporters of Fitzgerald and his early vision of the bank expressed dismay at regulators' willingness to allow Bender to take control of the bank.

"There are only a limited number of African American institutions in the country, and this is one of them, in what has to be considered a premier marketplace," said William Michael Cunningham, head of Creative Investment Research of Minneapolis and an expert in minority financial institutions.

Takeover Completed At Historic Black Bank
Board Members Replaced After Years of Turmoil
By Anita Huslin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 18, 2007; D01

From the day it opened in July 1968, just months after the riots, D.C.'s Independence Federal Savings Bank began breaking the pattern of redlining that had kept so many African Americans from buying homes, starting businesses and financing their children's college educations.

William Fitzgerald III, a former drywall contractor and real estate broker who founded the bank, presided as it grew into an important black institution. Eventually, it was tarnished by board and family infighting, declining revenue and scandal. But today, at the annual shareholders meeting, a new era begins. Another Washington developer is taking over, with an agenda he said the bank had lost sight of: profitability.

Over the past five years, Morton A. Bender has tied up the board in multimillion-dollar lawsuits that allege mismanagement and wrongdoing. In recent months, six board members -- including two of Fitzgerald's heirs who fought Bender's efforts -- have resigned, sold off their stock and been effectively muted by the lawsuits. Last month, the federal agency that regulates thrifts approved Bender's request to acquire 51 percent of the company's stock. And today, five men and one woman whom Bender recommended are slated to become directors, effectively giving him control of the board.

No-Confidence Vote Sought on Gonzales
By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, May 18, 2007; Page A03

Two leading Senate Democrats called for a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday as political pressure for his resignation intensified in the wake of revelations about the plan to dismiss U.S. attorneys and Gonzales's role in a 2004 government crisis.

60 Die in Iraq; Study Warns Of Collapse
British Center Finds Country Close to Being a 'Failed State'

By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, May 18, 2007; A14

BAGHDAD, May 17 -- More than 60 people were killed and dozens wounded in mortar strikes, drive-by shootings, roadside explosions, suicide bombings and other violent attacks in Iraq on Thursday, as a new study warned that the country was close to becoming a "failed state."

"They're all out with their radios," Jeffries said, "and they're just hip-hopping all over the street....

Bob Kohler, 80, a gay rights advocate who has lived in the West Village for 60 years, said the discrimination young people face in the West Village is no different from decades ago when gays could not hold hands in public. He said his neighbors simply "don't want black faces on Christopher Street."

A new generation in the West Village
For decades, this neighborhood has welcomed gays of all backgrounds, but now old-timers are finding young people from the hip-hop era too disruptive. The kids say this is the only place they can be themselves
By Erika Hayasaki
Times Staff Writer
May 18, 2007

Iraqis oil traders, on the other hand, tell me they think they know exactly where the stolen oil is going — the militias appropriate it to arm and feed the rank and file.

Who Is Stealing Iraq's Oil?
By Robert Baer

It took quite a while, but it appears that the Bush Administration has finally gotten around to acknowledging that Iraq has an oil problem. The Government Accountability Office is about to release a report that estimates 100,000 to 300,000 barrels of oil goes missing every month. According to the New York Times, the GAO will not offer a conclusion about what specifically is happening to the missing oil, other than it is probably lost to corruption, smuggling or just bad accounting.

The dilemma is particularly pointed for black elected officials such as Ford, who are faced with a field that includes three candidates -- Edwards, Clinton and Obama -- with strong claims on African American voters.

"Strong claims," huh?

Can Old Loyalties Trump Racial Solidarity?
Top 3 Democrats Tied Strongly to Black Voters
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 18, 2007; A12

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Displayed prominently on the wall of state Sen. Robert Ford's legislative office is a picture of Hillary Rodham Clinton delivering a speech for her husband's 1992 presidential campaign. It became an image that Ford could not shake as every major 2008 Democratic presidential candidate came calling in search of his endorsement.

Miami's policy ensures that individuals are permanently ostracized for past mistakes or criminal activity. As a result, some officers have been dismissed from the department. One officer, Viona Browne-Williams, a 21-year veteran, has been told that she will be fired if she doesn't separate from her husband, a convicted felon who served his sentence and was released in 2002.

A 'Scarlet Letter' approach to policing

After months of deliberation, each of the city’s nearly 1,400 principals had to choose a “school support organization.” These organizations will provide resources like teacher training and curriculum development, but do not have the power to supervise schools or fire principals. Principals had a choice from a menu of different school-support groups: They could choose to be an “empowerment school” organized in nontraditional ways, as 481 principals did....

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Klein said the new system would encourage “the transition of the principal as fundamentally an agent of bureaucracy in the school to the leader or the C.E.O of the school.”

Principals Act in Plan to Reduce Bureaucracy
By JULIE BOSMAN

More than a third of New York City’s public school principals embraced a challenge from Chancellor Joel I. Klein to free themselves as much as possible from outside oversight under a new reorganization and become full stewards of their individual schools, the city said yesterday.

But few took up the chancellor’s offer to work with a private nonprofit group. And a great majority chose to align themselves with veteran schools superintendents from the traditional schools bureaucracy.

The principals’ choices, revealed yesterday by the Department of Education, were required under the Bloomberg administration’s reorganization of the school system, which calls for the 10 regional superintendents’ offices that now supervise the schools to be abolished in September.

Under the Constitution, the president has the final authority in the executive branch to say what the law is.

The president's authority is about enforcince the law, not saying what the law is.

Caller ID
It's not whether the president called. It's what he did.
Friday, May 18, 2007; A22

IT DOESN'T much matter whether President Bush was the one who phoned Attorney General John D. Ashcroft's hospital room before the Wednesday Night Ambush in 2004. It matters enormously, however, whether the president was willing to have his White House aides try to strong-arm the gravely ill attorney general into overruling the Justice Department's legal views. It matters enormously whether the president, once that mission failed, was willing nonetheless to proceed with a program whose legality had been called into question by the Justice Department. That is why Mr. Bush's response to questions about the program yesterday was so inadequate.

Mr. Wolfowitz repeated the mistakes he had made at the Pentagon: adopting a single-minded position on certain matters, refusing to entertain alternative views, marginalizing dissenters.

A ‘Second Chance’ at Career Goes Sour
By STEVEN R. WEISMAN

WASHINGTON, May 17 — Paul D. Wolfowitz was ready to move on from the Pentagon in early 2005. He had been thwarted in his effort to become defense secretary or national security adviser. And the war in Iraq had deteriorated. So when the World Bank presidency came open, he jumped at the opportunity.

It offered him a “second chance” to redeem his reputation and realize his ambitions, says a friend who has known him for decades.

via the Washinton Post

All illegal immigrants who arrived before Jan. 1, 2007, could stay and work after paying a $1,500 fee, passing a criminal background check, and showing a strong work record.

They would also have to pay a fine of $5,000.

After eight years, they could apply for a green card.

A new visa category would be created for parents of U.S. citizens, allowing them to visit for up to 100 days per year.

A temporary-worker program would allow 400,000 immigrant workers to enter on two-year visas, after which they would have to return home for a year before reapplying. The visas could be renewed up to three times.

A new point system would add factors for green-card eligibility to lessen the "chain migration" of family members.

The Border Patrol and interior enforcement would be expanded, and a new security perimeter would be created. Such border enforcement provisions would have to be implemented before immigrant-rights measures take effect.

SOURCES: Office of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Congressional Quarterly

Wolfowitz to Resign From World Bank
By JEANNINE AVERSA AP Economics Writer
© 2007 The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will resign at the end of June, he and the bank said late Thursday, ending his long fight to survive pressure for his ouster over the generous compensation he arranged for his girlfriend.

His departure ends a two-year run at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start, given his previous role as a major architect of the Iraq war when he served as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.

"He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution and we accept that," the board said in its announcement of Wolfowitz's resignation.

Wolfowitz was all but forced out, however, by the finding of a special bank panel that he violated conflict-of-interest rules in his handling of the 2005 pay package of bank employee Shaha Riza.

When I said And don't get so damn excited over today's Ashcroft "revelation," I may have jumped the gun.

George Washington University Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley says that the latest NSA warrantless wiretapping revelations – wherein the administration knowingly broke the law and continued spying on American citizens after top DoJ officials refused to certify the legality of the program — make this a "clear impeachable offense."

Video at Crooks and Liars .