Prometheus 6

Untraceable e-mails spread Obama rumor
By: Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin
October 12, 2007 05:00 PM EST

When Fox News aired a report in January claiming that Sen. Barack Obama had been educated at a radical Muslim madrassa, his campaign beat the story back — hard — with the candidate himself going on television to call it “ludicrous” and a “smear.”

And his aggressive defense worked, or so it seemed at the time: The notion that Obama has secret Muslim roots faded from the mainstream media, and even from most conservative blogs and magazines.

But rather than vanish, the whispered smear campaign appears to have gone underground, and in its purest form: Obama himself, according to a pair of widely circulated anonymous e-mails, is a Muslim.

Ovulatory cycle effects on tip earnings by lap dancers: economic evidence for human estrus?☆
Geoffrey Miller, Joshua M. Tybur, Brent D. Jordan
Received 16 April 2007; accepted 26 June 2007. published online 28 September 2007.

Abstract

Lawyer Represents Unborn Embryo in Federal Court Tuesday
By Kristen Philipkoski

Martin Palmer's client

A Maryland lawyer has filed a lawsuit representing Mary Scott Doe, an unborn embryo, against Robert Klein, chairman of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state-run $3 billion stem cell research funding agency.

Martin Palmer, a trial lawyer in Hagerstown, Maryland, and founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Preborn Children (NAAPC, get it? The website goes to a placeholder as of Friday afternoon), has also represented several men in paternal rights cases involving unborn embryos.

Blackwater and me: A love story it ain't
By Robert Bateman
October 12, 2007

I know something about Blackwater USA. This opinion is both intellectually driven as well as moderately emotional. You see, during my own yearlong tour in Iraq, the bad boys of Blackwater twice came closer to killing me than did any of the insurgents or Al Qaeda types. That sort of thing sticks with you. One story will suffice to make my point.

Huckabee Says U.S. Education is Too Much About the Left Brain

Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, told Newsweek that “the biggest single mistake we’ve made in the last generation” is having created an education system that focuses too much on developing the logical, left side of the brain.

“When you do that, it’s like having a computer that has a wonderful database and no operating system,” the Republican said in a wide-ranging interview with the news magazine.

Mr. Huckabee said that arts and music education, in particular, should receive greater focus in the United States.

He also said he believes that part of the reason so many students are dropping out of school before they can graduate and move on to college is that they are simply bored in the classroom.

I wasn't going to post this, I swear 

Dead Reverend's Rubber Fetish
Autopsy: Pastor found in wet suits after autoerotic mishap

OCTOBER 8--An Alabama minister who died in June of "accidental mechanical asphyxia" was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report. Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge's death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery's Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge's two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister's rubber briefs. Aldridge served as the church's pastor for 16 years. Immediately following his death, church officials issued a press release asking community members to "please refrain from speculation" about what led to Aldridge's demise, adding that, "we will begin the healing process under the strong arm of our Savior, Jesus Christ." (5 pages)

You gotta click that what police discovered link...

I was prepared to ignore that story until I ran across this.

The Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence

These guys define the Singularity as the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence.

A future that contains smarter-than-human minds is genuinely different in a way that goes beyond the usual visions of a future filled with bigger and better gadgets. Vernor Vinge originally coined the term "Singularity" in observing that, just as our model of physics breaks down when it tries to model the singularity at the center of a black hole, our model of the world breaks down when it tries to model a future that contains entities smarter than human.

His only goal is to help this office, like any office at the agency, do its vital work even better,” said Paul Gimigliano, the spokesman.

Watchdog of C.I.A. Is Subject of C.I.A. Inquiry
By MARK MAZZETTI and SCOTT SHANE

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, has ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency’s inspector general, whose aggressive investigations of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation programs and other matters have created resentment among agency operatives.

A small team working for General Hayden is looking into the conduct of the agency’s watchdog office, which is led by Inspector General John L. Helgerson. Current and former government officials said the review had caused anxiety and anger in Mr. Helgerson’s office and aroused concern on Capitol Hill that it posed a conflict of interest.

LAPD's vicious cycles
From the Christopher Commission to the May Day report.
October 11, 2007 

The life of the Los Angeles Police Department is seasonal: There is the period of stability that gives way to rising tension that erupts in calamity that is followed by self-evaluation that produces reform; reform fixes some problems and helps restore stability until new tensions produce new catastrophes. And so on. That has been the case at least since the late 1980s, when rising racial tensions crested in the beating of Rodney King, which gave us the Christopher Commission report and its landmark recommendations -- some of the most significant and lasting in the department's history. Then the riots of 1992 upended the LAPD again; the Webster report analyzed that event and produced another round of reform. The Rampart scandal of the mid-1990s started the cycle all over again.

So it can only be with a sense of weariness that any L.A. veteran pages through the LAPD's latest self-examination, this one of police actions during this year's May Day demonstration in MacArthur Park. Here again comes the LAPD to announce that it has looked hard at itself, identified its shortcomings and is, at last, prepared to improve.

"Of course, that also ties in with a racial aspect, because our society is such that minorities don't become elderly. The way that white people do. They die first," Tanner explained to those of us in the room.

"So anything that disproportionately impacts the elderly, has the opposite impact on minorities. Just, the math is such as that," he said, concluding, "The minorities in Georgia, statistically, slightly, are more likely to have ID."

Really.

It wasn't convincing when you tried it with Social Security.

But this is coming from the Chief of Civil Rights Division Voting Unit. So I think we should campaign against the Republican Voter ID laws by pointing out this testimony...that the Chief of Civil Rights Division Voting Unit has said they are reverse racism...discrimination against white people.

The weapons included a 9mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said. Prosecutors are reviewing her actions.

Pennsylvania Teen Held After Police Find Cache of Weapons

PHILADELPHIA -- A home-schooled teenager who felt bullied amassed a cache of guns, knives and hand grenades and tried to recruit another boy for a possible school attack, authorities said Thursday.

The 14-year-old was taken into custody after police searched his bedroom in a Philadelphia suburb Wednesday evening. He had talked about mounting a Columbine-type attack at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, authorities said.

The weapons included a 9mm assault rifle that the teenager's mother had recently bought for him, Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. said. Prosecutors are reviewing her actions.

Teen in Louisiana Case Is Back in Jail

JENA, La.-- A teenager at the center of a civil rights controversy is back in jail after a judge revoked his probation because of an old drug charge that had never been tried, his father said. Mychal Bell, who, with five other black teenagers, has been accused of beating a white classmate, had gone to court expecting another routine hearing, Marcus Jones said. "He's locked up again," Jones said. "No bail has been set."

In a town of 3000, a high school of no more than 400, the boy was a star athlete...it's not like they didn't know where to find him.

So why had the old drug charge ever been tried? Here's part of the reason.

A Pentagon report noted a 43 percent increase in 2005 in what it described as suspicious foreign contacts with U.S-based defense companies. Another report last year by U.S. intelligence officials found that a record 108 nations were trying to buy or otherwise obtain U.S. technology that is restricted for sale. It did not list which nations or specify whether some of them were U.S. allies.

Illegal Weapons Exports Up, US Says
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007

(10-11) 15:36 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Missile technology, fighter jet parts, night vision goggles and other U.S. wartime equipment increasingly are being illegally smuggled to potential adversaries, such as China and Iran, the federal government said Thursday.

You think maybe they don't want the locals to know they got nut-jobs on the force? 

NYPD Officer's Husband Pleads Guilty
Thursday, October 11, 2007

(10-11) 08:49 PDT New York (AP) --

A police officer's husband has admitted he shot another officer — a crime the gunman's wife is accused of trying to conceal.

Jose Rivera, 31, pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder Wednesday and received a 16-year sentence. He could have faced up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted of a first-degree attempted murder.

The victim, Officer Andrew Suarez, said he was "satisfied" with the agreement.

Rivera's wife, Officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, has been indicted on official misconduct and evidence-tampering charges in the Feb. 10 shooting. Melendez-Rivera has said she was unknowingly caught up in the crime.

See ya...

Responding to the newspaper report Friday, Bush defended the techniques used, saying, "This government does not torture people."

Asked about Bush's comments, Carter said, "That's not an accurate statement if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored -- certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

"But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don't violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don't violate them." 

Non-denial denial of note:

After reading a transcript of Carter's remarks, a senior White House official said, "Our position is clear. We don't torture."

The official said, "It's just sad to hear a former president speak like that." 

Carter says U.S. tortures prisoners

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Carter said Wednesday.

"I don't think it. I know it," Carter told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights," Carter said. "We've said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we've said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime to which they are accused."

Carter also said President Bush creates his own definition of human rights.

Watch Joe and you'll see how you can tell when a Conservative is up against a rhetorical wall. They use a tactic I first noticed when Mike Levitt appeared on Washington Journal to defend Bush's then-planned veto of the S-CHIP bill. Someone would call in and say, "There's proof Canada's single payer system delivers heath care at least as well as our American system." Levitt would say, "We believe the consumer makes the best decisions about their own health." Someone would call in and say, "That waiting time bugaboo is nonsense." Levitt would say, "We believe the consumer makes the best decisions about their own health."

What's happened here is we no longer need facts to justify our actions. All we need is faith that we are right. In a queer way, even the outcomes don't matter except as a test of faith.

Reverend Watkins falls back on faith pretty quickly. Listen for him to say, "I believe...". Then see how many actual, testable (nevermind tested) statements he makes from that point forward.

MUCH smoother than Jesse Lee.

In a random sample of 18 schools reviewed by the GAO, two lacked occupancy permits, and four lacked permits needed for buildings used for educational purposes. At least seven of the 18 schools were certified as child development centers but not as private schools. In one case, a school was operating in a space designed for a retail store, the report says....

Some schools told fund officials that they had certain amenities, such as a gymnasium or an auditorium; the report says they did not. Parents might have been misled when they reviewed the list of participating schools and their programs, the report says.

Voucher Program Puts D.C. Kids at Risk, Study Says
By Theola Labbé
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007; A01

A voucher program designed to send low-income children in the District to better-performing private schools has allowed some students to take classes in unsuitable learning environments and from teachers without bachelor's degrees, according to a government report.

The shortcomings are detailed in a draft prepared by the Government Accountability Office about the $12.9 million D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. The GAO said the program lacks financial controls and has failed to check whether the participating schools were accredited.

I read this headline

British Defense Chief Sees Success in Southern Iraq

and thought, "Yeah...you got out."

Captains, who are generally in their 20s or early 30s, usually have three to 10 years of Army experience and earn basic pay of $4,000 to $5,000 a month. The rank of captain is often a critical juncture in an officer's career, when most decide whether to leave the service or stay, often until retirement.

"It's a challenge because now we don't have the numbers that we need to fill all the billets," Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, commander of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center, said in an interview Tuesday. The U.S. troop increase in Iraq heightened the demand for officers, causing the Army's premier school for majors to fill only 800 of its 850 slots this year, a trend that could jeopardize the education of the officer corps if it continues, he said.

"You have a shortage of both majors and captains . . . because we have a larger number make the decision that they have served honorably, they have had one or two or three combat tours and have made the decision to go into civilian life," he said.

Army Offers Big Cash To Keep Key Officers
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 11, 2007; A01

The Army is offering cash bonuses of up to $35,000 to retain young officers serving in key specialties -- including military intelligence, infantry and aviation -- in an unprecedented bid to forestall a critical shortage of officer ranks that have been hit hard by frequent deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Army officials said that lengthy and repeated war-zone tours -- the top reason younger officers leave the service -- plus the need for thousands of new officers as the Army moves forward with expansion plans have contributed to a projected shortfall of about 3,000 captains and majors for every year through 2013.

The Marine proposal could also face resistance from the Air Force, whose current role in providing combat aircraft for Afghanistan could be squeezed if the overall mission was handed to the Marines. Unlike the Army, the Marines would bring a significant force of combat aircraft to that conflict....

Military officials say the Marine proposal is also an early indication of jockeying among the four armed services for a place in combat missions in years to come. “At the end of the day, this could be decided by parochialism, and making sure each service does not lose equity, as much as on how best to manage the risk of force levels for Iraq and Afghanistan,” said one Pentagon planner.

Tensions over how to divide future budgets have begun to resurface across the military because of apprehension that Congressional support for large increases in defense spending seen since the Sept. 11 attacks will diminish, leaving the services to compete for money.

Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From Iraq
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 — The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.

The idea by the Marine Corps commandant would effectively leave the Iraq war in the hands of the Army while giving the Marines a prominent new role in Afghanistan, under overall NATO command.