Prometheus 6

Showtime for Wayans: Oakland council moves forward with studio plan
Four-month agreement on development at former Oakland Army Base
By Cecily Burt, STAFF WRITER
Article Launched: 07/18/2007 02:44:29 AM PDT

OAKLAND - It's showtime for the Wayans Brothers, and Oakland couldn't be more ready. The Oakland City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to spend the next four months working with the Wayans development group, pinning its hopes that the partnership will produce a world-class movie studio and arts, entertainment and retail destination spread over 62 acres at the former Army base in West Oakland, and finally give Oakland the cache and recognition it so desires.

Ian McInery, the operational services manager for Pendle council, defended the decision to discipline Mr Carter. He said: "We have made it clear to staff that they are not allowed to put stickers or flags on bin wagons or wear clothing which shows support for a particular team, group or country....

Mr Carter still wears a bandana but one that bears the image of a skull and crossbones.

Binman's St George bandana 'is racist'
By Nigel Bunyan
Last Updated: 12:41am BST 21/07/2007

A black dustman has been banned from wearing a St George's Cross bandana because council officials say it could be regarded as racist.

Matthew Carter, 35, who was born in Barbados, used the headgear to keep his dreadlocks out of the way while he was on his rounds in Burnley, Lancs. He had done so for seven months before his photograph appeared in a local newspaper. A number of local people complained, and his superiors called him.

Between November 2003 and July 2004, Eagle made 379 flights as part of the subcontract, charging some $13.3 million — an amount that included $1.1 million in overcharges. It is not clear whether KBR knew of the overcharging scheme, but the papers say that Mr. Smoot and an Eagle subordinate delivered nearly $34,000 in gratuities to KBR employees “to obtain or reward favorable treatment” in connection with the contract.

Bribery Network to Bloat War Costs Is Alleged
By JAMES GLANZ

Federal investigators have uncovered what they describe as a sweeping network of kickbacks, bribes and fraud involving at least eight employees and subcontractors of KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary, in a scheme to inflate charges for flying freight into Iraq in support of the war, according to court papers unsealed yesterday.

This week, Kennedy reacted to Bush's progress report on Iraq by saying in a statement, "It's wrong to keep pouring more and more lives into the endless black hole of a failed policy. It's time to say 'enough.'"

When Kennedy and the Democrats say the same thing about defense earmarks, arms proliferation, and lives lost in black holes outside of Iraq, we will know the swamp is truly being drained.

Earmarking the war machine
By Derrick Z. Jackson | July 21, 2007

ONCE AGAIN, the railing of Senate Democrats did not matter on Iraq.

Set your digital recorder for Book TV .

Saturday at 11:30 AM, and Sunday at 10:00 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: The State of African American Literacy Author: J.C. Watts, Jr.

Saturday at 12:00 PM, and Sunday at 10:30 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: A History of America Authors: Walter Mosley; Howard Zinn

Saturday at 1:30 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: Memoir and Remembrances Authors: Dominic Carter; June Cross; Elizabeth Nunez; Charles Rangel; Yvonne Thornton; Gregory Williams

Saturday at 3:00 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: Writing from an International Perspective Authors: Dale Butler; Yvette Christianse; Felicia Luna Lemus; Leslie Musoko; Judy Powell; Marie Umeh

Saturday at 4:30 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: Politics of African American Identity Authors: Gloria Browne-Marshall; Carol Lee; Paul Robeson, Jr.; Anthony Samad; W.D. Wright

Saturday at 6:00 PM, and Sunday at 11:45 PM 2007 Harlem Book Fair: From Black Power to Hip Hop - The Evolution of Grassroots Political Thought Authors: Herb Boyd; Yvonne Bynoe; Thulani Davis; Peniel Joseph; Tony Rose

Wait until yu read about him in the August issue of Harpers. As a resident of NYC at the time, I can vouch for the article.

Obama described the community as a place where a child's destiny could be "determined before he takes his first step" and one where a little girl's future can be "confined to the neighborhood she was born into." It sounded like the Washington in which Grimes labored.

True, Grimes's foe was slavery. More than a century later, Obama's is urban poverty.

But Obama's description of poverty -- poverty "so difficult to escape; it's isolating and it's everywhere" -- sounds like slavery to me.

Abolitionists, Then and Now
By Colbert I. King
Saturday, July 21, 2007; A13

Washington, D.C., is one of those places where the sweep of centuries can be compressed into a single day. Wednesday provided an example. Two events came together with a commonality easily overlooked in a city eternally restless for breaking news: the commemoration downtown of D.C. abolitionist Leonard A. Grimes and the unveiling of Sen. Barack Obama's urban policy agenda across town in Southeast.

I think that note on the "longest and most notorious filibusters" is one of the classier euphemisms I've seen.

Obituary:
Gifted Poet Sekou Sundiata
(August 22, 1948 -- July 18, 2007)
by Louis Reyes Rivera

On Wednesday, July 18, 2007, at 5:47a.m. (ET), poet Sekou Sundiata passed away. A highly esteemed performing poet, Mr. Sundiata wrote for print, performance, music and theater. Born Robert Franklin Feaster in Harlem, on August 22, 1948, Sundiata came of age as an artist during the Black Arts/Black Aesthetic movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

This is exactly the kind of administration the impeachment provisions were written for.

Federal Hustings Administration

The politicizing of federal workplaces for partisan gain is a crime, but don’t tell that to the Bush administration appointees busy on their rounds as in-house promoters of Republican candidates.

“Our hard work is noticed,” e-mailed a pleased official of the nation’s anti-drug abuse agency after helping the White House bolster vulnerable G.O.P. members of Congress with district visits and federal grants from anti-drug officials in the months before the 2006 elections. The e-mailer apologized that leaders from the supposedly politics-free agency were dispatched to “god awful places” on the taxpayers’ tab, but took comfort in the word that, yes, Karl Rove, President Bush’s political guru, was pleased with the agency’s campaign to help more than a dozen shaky candidates.

It's hard to escape the conclusion that the water district's board is more concerned about illegal immigration than about human lives. Border security is a good thing, but crossing shouldn't be a death sentence. Even Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of El Cajon, who is no friend to illegal immigrants, is appalled by the drownings; last month he wrote a letter to water officials calling the deaths "a costly consequence to past indifference."

All-American deathtrap
Renovations to the All-American Canal will likely add to the deadly toll it takes on illegal immigrants.
July 21, 2007

IT'S HARD TO IMAGINE a less aptly named water project than the All American Canal in Imperial County. There's nothing American about watching people drown by the hundreds while doing next to nothing to save them, but that is precisely what managers of the canal have been doing for decades.

How to make Windows XP last for the next seven years
Vista, schmista. Follow our tips for keeping your XP setup humming happily for a long, long time
Preston Gralla and Dave Methvin 

July 18, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Windows Vista may be shiny and brand new, but as plenty of PC users will tell you, sometimes newer isn't better. Many PCs simply don't have the horsepower to run the new operating system, and even those that have the juice may get bogged down by processor-and RAM-hungry Vista.

If you've got Windows XP, worry not -- you can keep it running on your hardware for years to come. As with an old car, though, if you plan to keep XP around for a while, you're going to have to spend some time maintaining it. Think of us as your virtual mechanics. We'll give you tips, tweaks and tricks so that you'll be able to keep XP running smoothly, at top performance, for smooth operation and long life.

The Deeper Meaning in the Republican Sex Scandals
By Susie Bright, SusieBright.com. Posted July 19, 2007.

In 1981, as he lay dying, Lee Atwater (Karl Rove's mentor) confessed the GOP's "Southern Strategy" to win elections. Note the use of the second person narative:

...You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger."

[But] by 1968 you can't say 'nigger' -- that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like "forced busing," "states' rights," and all that stuff.

You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things ... and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

Isn't it funny how so many Social Conservatives rail against the very sins they commit? It's because they're trying to make up for their sins, balance the scales somehow.

Or they're trying to eliminate all that temptation. Get it out of their sight.

Too bad it doesn't work that way. The sin is within.

Although the Iraqi government has had little success in meeting 18 formal benchmarks designated by Congress, the Bush administration believes U.S. military forces have improved the security of Iraqi citizens and that additional progress will be evident by September.

U.S. military wants new date to assess buildup: November
By Julian E. Barnes and Paul Richter
Times Staff Writers
July 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration and U.S. military officials predicted Thursday that a key September report would show progress in Iraq, but that it would be November before they could judge the success of the troop buildup.

The comments — coming a day after congressional Democrats failed to force a change in the U.S. war strategy — were a new indication that the White House planned to seek still more time for its troop "surge" to stabilize the situation in Iraq.

"A U.S. attorney would not be permitted to bring contempt charges or convene a grand jury in an executive privilege case," said a senior official, who said his remarks reflect a consensus within the administration. "And a U.S. attorney wouldn't be permitted to argue against the reasoned legal opinion that the Justice Department provided. No one should expect that to happen."

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, added: "It has long been understood that, in circumstances like these, the constitutional prerogatives of the president would make it a futile and purely political act for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys."

What this means is, the only oversight power you have is the impeachment process. Because you know damn well the Supreme Court will back Bush's rejection of anything less. That's why he put Roberts and Alito there.

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings
White House Says Hill Can't Pursue Contempt Cases
By Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 20, 2007; A01

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

Digby is blogging at Salon for a while, and she has unknowingly joined the honesty doctrine campaign. She has brought to our attention another hatchet job on Sen. Obama by the Associated Press. And it's as bad as the last one.

The AP says Obama thinks genocide is no biggie

Philip Elliott and the headline writers at the Associated Press have done a real job on Barack Obama with this story, headlined "Obama: Don't Stay in Iraq Over Genocide." The article claims that Obama says that genocide isn't a "good enough reason," when in fact he simply makes the observation that we don't make military decisions on that basis or we would currently be in the Congo, Sudan and Darfur. Not quite the same thing.

Whatever else comes of it, it has forced some much needed discussion.

Barack Obama was right to say Wednesday that his early community organizing work shows that poverty "is not an issue I just discovered for the purposes of a campaign." For that matter, Hillary Clinton began her professional life laboring to eradicate child poverty.

The difference is that by harping on the issue, Edwards -- whatever his motivations -- has forced Democrats to abandon their fear of being seen as too focused on the needs of the poor and has thus opened political space for his rivals.

That was E.J. Dionne.

FEMA suppressed health warnings
Katrina victims tell a House committee that formaldehyde in their trailers made them sick. Documents show testing was discouraged.
By Claudia Lauer
Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — Top officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency knew about reports of possible health problems from formaldehyde in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina victims, according to documents released Thursday by a House committee.

The warnings from Gulf Coast field workers were brushed aside because "senior FEMA officials in Washington … didn't want the moral and legal responsibility to do what they knew had to be done," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, as he opened a hearing into the agency's response.

14,000 reasons to be skeptical
Corporate takeovers -- not a strong, stable economy -- are fueling Wall Street's latest bubble.
By Eric J. Weiner
ERIC J. WEINER is the author of "What Goes Up: The Uncensored History of Modern Wall Street as Told by the Bankers, CEOs, and Scoundrels Who Made it Happen."
July 20, 2007

THE DOW JONES industrial average closed above 14,000 for the first time Thursday, a historic, if puzzling, milestone.

Most finance experts agree that stock markets thrive during periods of steady economic growth and political stability. But today's economy hardly is clicking on all cylinders, and the geopolitical landscape has never seemed more perilous. So what's driving this market to such heights? In a word: takeovers.

Federal officials are normally granted immunity from being sued in an individual capacity as long as their actions fall within their customary duties in government.

Plame's civil suit dismissed
The former CIA operative sought to hold Cheney and others personally responsible for blowing her cover.
By Richard B. Schmitt
Times Staff Writer
July 20, 2007

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold Vice President Dick Cheney and others personally responsible for damages arising from the 2003 disclosure of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates ruled that the civil suit by Plame and her husband, former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, was preempted by laws that protect federal workers.

via dnA

By the magic of securitization, sow’s ears could become silk purses, or at least look like them....Those who made the mortgage loans — or who made junk-rated loans to leveraged buyout companies — found that they could securitize the loans and sell the highly rated securities for enough money to assure themselves a profit before any homeowners could default.

[TS] Market Shock: AAA Rating May Be Junk
By FLOYD NORRIS

The great stock market rally of 2002 through 2007 has been built on liquidity — and much of the liquidity has been based on financial engineering that allowed highly risky investments to be financed by investors who thought they were taking no risks.

They were wrong.

Now the question is whether the market can continue rising as investors learn that the financial innovations that helped to build the boom were constructed on sand.

The program I was watching on the Discover Channel ended and I began channel surfing and came across Bill O'Reilly who I never watch at all. I broke my rule because I recognized that Bill the Pontificator's guest was the Kansas City pundit, Br. Jason Whitlock. O'Reilly and Whitlock were discussing - surprise - Michael Vick and the meaning of his legal troubles etc. I started to continue my journey in television land when Whitlock cut loose with a fatuous assertion that actually startled me.

Whitlock asserted that the legal troubles of Michael Vick and "Pac Man" Jones are clear signs that African Americans need to address what hip-hop culture is doing to our community. Huh? Can somebody, somewhere tell me why Michael Vick's indictment on charges related to dog-fighting and "Pac Man" Jones' apparent proclivity for frequenting strip clubs and getting into beefs with the cops are problems that we, the African American community, need to address? When did Vick's and Jones' troubles become synonymous with either hip-hop culture or the black community?

You know what I think of Hot Ghetto Mess?

Nothing. I haven't watched BET intentionally in...I can't remember the last time I actually set the channel to BET. Can't get hyper.

Some folks can. And do. And no matter how it turns out, I am impressed .