Prometheus 6

The DNI itself has voiced doubts about the efficiency and effectiveness of outsourcing. In a public report released last fall, the agency said the intelligence community increasingly "finds itself in competition with its contractors for our own employees." Faced with arbitrary staffing limits and uncertain funding, the report said, intelligence agencies are forced "to use contractors for work that may be borderline 'inherently governmental'" -- meaning the agencies have no clear idea about what work should remain exclusively inside the government versus work that can be done by civilians working for private firms. The DNI also found that "those same contractors recruit our own employees, already cleared and trained at government expense, and then 'lease' them back to us at considerably greater expense."

The corporate takeover of U.S. intelligence
The U.S. government now outsources a vast portion of its spying operations to private firms -- with zero public accountability.
By Tim Shorrock

Jun. 01, 2007 | More than five years into the global "war on terror," spying has become one of the fastest-growing private industries in the United States. The federal government relies more than ever on outsourcing for some of its most sensitive work, though it has kept details about its use of private contractors a closely guarded secret. Intelligence experts, and even the government itself, have warned of a critical lack of oversight for the booming intelligence business.

Steve Gilliard passed away.

This "Inside The WSJ Editorial Page" stuff is precious. This is on drug legalization, and you'll note they didn't let the brother in this time.

You have to watch this. I swear, they cut the camera just when things were getting interesting.

Think again.

Mrs. Merkel’s environmental minister, Sigmar Gabriel, warned that Mr. Bush’s plan might prove to be a “Trojan horse,” impeding her efforts to reach an agreement on an ambitious plan to decrease emissions, while defusing criticism that the United States is a hurdle to the broader climate effort....

Critics also contend that Mr. Bush’s proposal to seek a global deal by the end of 2008 would undermine the role of the United Nations as the main forum for climate negotiations, including the talks that led to the Kyoto Protocol, which required participating industrialized nations to reduce emissions. Convening the largest emitters in the United States would create a parallel round of talks, they said.

Bush hasn't changed a policy since 2001. Not one (Iraq doesn't count because that was taken away from him). His administration has altered scientific reports to the point of falsification and insisted they were objective. There is absolutely no reason to believe him sincere at any point prior to the actual manifestation of his promises.

"Some states are benefiting from both cheap electricity while polluting the planet and make all the rest of us suffer the consequences of global warming," said Frank O'Donnell, director of the Washington environmental group Clean Air Watch. "I don't think that's fair at all."

Blame coal: Texas leads carbon emissions
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others — and it's not always the ones you might expect.

The Associated Press analyzed state-by-state emissions of carbon dioxide from 2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows startling differences in states' contribution to climate change.

The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.

Being misunderstood.—When one is misunderstood as a whole, it is impossible to remove completely a single misunderstanding. One has to realize this lest one waste superfluous energy on one's defense.

Friedrich Nietzsche
Mixed Opinions and Maxims
#346

"In general, it doesn't appear that the current data reveal nationwide trends," said Gonzales, who did not disclose specific numbers from the report. "Rather, they show local increases in certain communities. Each community is facing different circumstances, and in many places violent crime continues to decrease."

Violent Crime Up For Second Year
Some Point to Cuts in Federal Funding
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 2, 2007; Page A01

The number of violent crimes in the United States rose for a second straight year in 2006, marking the first sustained increase in homicides, robberies and other serious offenses since the early 1990s, according to an FBI report to be released Monday.

Obama Web Site Seeks to Rally The Faithful
By Politics
Saturday, June 2, 2007; A05

Although Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is a Christian, he "embodies the basic ideals and values of most Hindus," said Prianka S., a Hindu from Chicago.

Obama's "love for Israel" is "evident not just in his work, but also in his heart," said Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), an Orthodox Jew.

Obama "represents true faith," said the Rev. Bertha Perkins, a Baptist minister in New Hampshire.

Those are among the gushing testimonials to Obama on his "People of Faith for Barack" Web site (http://faith.barackobama.com ), which officially launches today.

U.N. Team Still Looking for Iraq's Arsenal
Though Work Is Seen as Irrelevant, Security Council Can't Agree to End It
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 2, 2007; A01

UNITED NATIONS -- More than four years after the fall of Baghdad, the United Nations is spending millions of dollars in Iraqi oil money to continue the hunt for Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Every weekday, at a secure commercial office building on Manhattan's East Side, a team of 20 U.N. experts on chemical and biological weapons pores over satellite images of former Iraqi weapons sites. They scour the international news media for stories on Hussein's deadly arsenal. They consult foreign intelligence agencies on the status of Iraqi weapons. And they maintain a cadre of about 300 weapons experts from 50 countries and prepare them for inspections in Iraq -- inspections they will almost certainly never conduct, in search of weapons that few believe exist.

I have to read the study. Just not today.

“It demonstrates that people can be trained not to rely on racially biased cues in deciding to pull the trigger,” Ms. Lieberman said of the new study. But the findings, she added, “should compel departments with histories of shooting unarmed black men to undertake a re-examination of their firearms training.”...

The findings...[offer] little solace to the relatives of Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo and other minority victims of police gunfire in New York City...

Study Finds Police Training Plays Key Role in Shootings
By BENEDICT CAREY

In making snap decisions about whether to shoot a potentially armed suspect, police officers are far less influenced by racial bias than students or community members forced to make the same decision, a large study has found.

The study, which was based on video simulations of armed and unarmed confrontations, found that racial stereotypes influenced the reaction times of both officers and civilians, but swayed the ultimate decision to fire only in civilian participants.

“You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say, ‘Let’s go and bomb Iran,’ ” Dr. ElBaradei said. “I wake up every morning and see 100 Iraqis, innocent civilians, are dying.”...

Dr. ElBaradei told the BBC that one could not “bomb knowledge.” Asked who the “new crazies” were, he said, “Those who have extreme views and say the only solution is to impose our will by force.”...

[S]everal Western European officials echoed his concern, and said privately that they were worried that Mr. Cheney’s “red line” — the point at which he believed Iran was on the brink of acquiring a nuclear weapon and a military strike was necessary — may be coming soon. “We fully believe that Foggy Bottom is committed to the diplomatic track,” one European official said Wednesday, referring the State Department. “But there’s some concern about the vice president’s office.”

As an aside, not knowing "Foggy Bottom" is a "metanym" for the State Department, I thought it some British nickname for Bush.

Rice Plays Down Hawkish Talk About Iran
By HELENE COOPER

MADRID, June 1 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Friday to minimize any sense of division within the Bush administration over Iran after the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency delivered a pointed warning against what he called the “new crazies” pushing for military action against Tehran.

While putting the station's shows on YouTube is an excellent idea, YouTube still lacks anything near the reach of over-the-air broadcasts. But the use of the site to avoid censorship is growing, and it's not hard to imagine a day in the near future when the site (or sites like it) becomes as essential as local TV stations.

Ummmmm...okay. Maybe a little political. It's another one that targets your mirror cells.

Venezuela's counter-revolution won't be televised... but it will be on YouTube
By Nate Anderson | Published: June 01, 2007 - 10:55AM CT

When YouTube CEO Chad Hurley told a Congressional committee that his company "advances democracy," perhaps this was the sort of thing he had in mind.

40% efficient solar cells to be used for solar electricity

Scientists from Spectrolab, Inc., a subsidiary of Boeing, have recently published their research on the fabrication of solar cells that surpass the 40% efficiency milestone—the highest efficiency achieved for any photovoltaic device. Their results appear in a recent edition of Applied Physics Letters.

Most conventional solar cells used in today’s applications, such as for supplemental power for homes and buildings, are one-sun, single-junction silicon cells that use only the light intensity that the sun produces naturally, and have optimal efficiency for a relatively narrow range of photon energies.

The Spectrolab group experimented with concentrator multijunction solar cells that use high intensities of sunlight, the equivalent of 100s of suns, concentrated by lenses or mirrors. Significantly, the multijunction cells can also use the broad range of wavelengths in sunlight much more efficiently than single-junction cells.

Criminalizing the Classroom
The Overpolicing of New York City Public Schools

Every day, more than 93,000 New York City school children must pass through a gauntlet of metal detectors, bag searches and pat downs administered by police personnel who are inadequately trained, insufficiently supervised and often belligerent, aggressive and disrespectful. This burden weighs most heavily on the city's most vulnerable children, who are disproportionately poor, Black and Latino.

A groundbreaking new report by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union, Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools, documents the excesses of the policing operation in New York City's public schools and the penalties that students have paid as a result of those operations.

Laying the responsibility squarely at the feet of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the NYCLU and the ACLU Racial Justice Project report offer realistic recommendations for reform.

Not quite gratuitously, actually. First of all, here are the previous case.

We yield the floor to Bob Herbert

Again, Bob Herbert

They are all on the same topic, the regular...standardized, in fact...abuse of minority students by the NYPD. They live behind the financial firewall at the NY Times but are too damn important to stay back there.

At the end of this one, he reveals his source, which I was not aware of.

A groundbreaking new report by the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union, Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools, documents the excesses of the policing operation in New York City's public schools and the penalties that students have paid as a result of those operations.

So I'm posting them until I get a complaint. And I'm also going to lift all the links on the NYCLU's announcement page because I want to make this as easy for you to be up on as possible.

Poisonous Police Behavior
By BOB HERBERT

You most likely have no idea of the abusive treatment that students and teachers at many of New York City’s public schools are enduring at the hands of overly aggressive police officers and security aides assigned to the schools.

Students are being belittled, shouted at, cursed at, intrusively searched and improperly touched by cops and security aides who answer to the Police Department, not school authorities. In many cases, the students are roughed up, handcuffed, arrested and taken off to jail for behavior that does not even begin to approach the criminal. Teachers and administrators who have attempted to intervene on the behalf of students have themselves been abused, and in some cases arrested.

This poisonous police behavior is an extension into the schools of the humiliating treatment cops have long been doling out to youngsters — especially those who are black or Latino — on the city’s streets.

Social sciences types can use the creation of the Latino construct to teach how race is a social construct.

'Some other race?'
Louis Freedberg
Monday, June 2, 2003 [P6: Yes, 2003.]

Begin with the basics. Forty-seven percent of us are white, 32 percent are Hispanic, 12 percent are Asian and 7 percent are black. Hispanics make up California's largest minority group.

… On the 2000 U.S. Census, 40 percent of Hispanics classified themselves as "white," according to a new report by the Public Policy Institute of California (check it out on www.ppic.org). Another 51 percent said they belonged to "some other racial group."

… The Census first asks us to indicate whether we're "Spanish/Hispanic/Latino." No matter if you're an astronaut born in Spain, a third-generation Mexican American neurosurgeon or a farmworker from Guatemala who came here last week, you can check that box.

I swear, the immigration debate tempts me to read right wing sites. The head explosions make such pretty patterns on the wall.

That Wall Street Journal video was hilarious partly because they were trying so hard to look spontaneous (they didn't let the brother sit at the table, but at least they let him speak).

But the funniest reaction so far has been from Linda Chavez

Latino Fear and Loathing

Some people just don't like Mexicans — or anyone else from south of the border. They think Latinos are freeloaders and welfare cheats who are too lazy to learn English. They think Latinos have too many babies, and that Latino kids will dumb down our schools. They think Latinos are dirty, diseased, indolent and more prone to criminal behavior. They think Latinos are just too different from us ever to become real Americans.

...who is getting a taste of the rhetoric she has aimed at Black folks, like, forever. And she's catching it from the very people for whom she attacked Black folks. And I'm gonna show you what I'm talking about but I want to personally pour a little salt in her wounds first.

I NEVER read Hot Air, and will not force you to. So I'm stealing the video.

And yes it is funny. I want you to watch for the spook who sits by the door.

The other day I wrote

I finally figured out what's up with white folks being so accepting of racial slurs. They maintain the social hierarchy. Who gets to slur who, that's what we need to know. Your WASPs get to slur everyone, your immigrants that got slotted above Black folks had to accept the slurs on them but get a pat on the back for slurring Black folks. Black folks get to slur each other.

Political correctness screws all that up...how can the hoi polloi KNOW their position if they're not free to insult them?

Turns out I could have saved some time if I had looked through the ol' digital attic. I'd have found Social Consequences of Disparagement Humor-A Prejudiced Norm Theory. Check this.

I think this is an appropriate clip from "Bring The Pain."

I was looking for something else entirely...this was the very first sketch on the very first episode of HBO's "Chris Rock Show."

I've made my arrangement to go to Take Back America 2007. Basically, I decided I need a clearer view of how politics (specifically, as opposed to the pseudo game theory thing I treat it as) works on a national level.

You might want to look at the agenda page...I haven't fixated on any particular sessions so I'm open to suggestion.

It was only after the plaintiffs — half a dozen people who were unlawfully arrested or charged for panhandling or loitering — asked in December that the department be held in contempt that the Police Department “turned their behavior around,” Judge Scheindlin wrote.

(An original plaintiff in the case, a longtime panhandler named Eddie Wise, accepted a $100,000 settlement from the city last year, after repeated illegal arrests.)

Judge Criticizes Police Dept. for Illegal Loitering Arrests
By CARA BUCKLEY

A federal judge sharply criticized the New York Police Department yesterday for failing to follow repeated court orders by arresting hundreds of panhandlers and beggars, but still denied a request to hold the city in contempt of court.

The judge, Shira A. Scheindlin of United States District Court in Manhattan, admonished the department for continuing to enforce a law that was declared unconstitutional in 1992 — resulting in a court order to halt enforcement — and for ignoring a second order to stop enforcing the law in June 2005.

There's more on the other side of the link (it was a long speech).

Given such sweeping claims for power, it is hard to expect much respect for truth; or perhaps it should be "truth" -- in quotation marks -- for, when you can alter reality at will, why pay much attention to the idea of fidelity in describing it? What faith, after all, is owed to the bitch that is wholly in your power, a creature of your own creation?

Words in a Time of War
Taking the Measure of the First Rhetoric-Major President
By Mark Danner

[Note: This commencement address was given to graduates of the Department of Rhetoric at Zellerbach Hall, University of California, Berkeley, on May 10, 2007]

When my assistant greeted me, a number of weeks ago, with the news that I had been invited to deliver the commencement address to the Department of Rhetoric, I thought it was a bad joke. There is a sense, I'm afraid, that being invited to deliver The Speech to students of Rhetoric is akin to being asked out for a romantic evening by a porn star: Whatever prospect you might have of pleasure is inevitably dampened by performance anxiety -- the suspicion that your efforts, however enthusiastic, will inevitably be judged according to stern professional standards. A daunting prospect.

The only course, in both cases, is surely to plunge boldly ahead. And that means, first of all, saluting the family members gathered here, and in particular you, the parents.

Dear parents, I welcome you today to your moment of triumph. For if a higher education is about acquiring the skills and knowledge that allow one to comprehend and thereby get on in the world -- and I use "get on in the world" in the very broadest sense -- well then, oh esteemed parents, it is your children, not those boringly practical business majors and pre-meds your sanctimonious friends have sired, who have chosen with unerring grace and wisdom the course of study that will best guide them in this very strange polity of ours. For our age, ladies and gentlemen, is truly the Age of Rhetoric.

"We've been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty," says one U.S. military official involved in a review of the surge for Gen. Petraeus.