Prometheus 6

Ghetto kids can't afford to get high on prescription drugs. Cocaine is much cheaper.

The Florida report analyzed 168,900 deaths statewide. Cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines caused 989 deaths, it found, while legal opioids — strong painkillers in brand-name drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin — caused 2,328.

Drugs with benzodiazepine, mainly depressants like Valium and Xanax, led to 743 deaths. Alcohol was the most commonly occurring drug, appearing in the bodies of 4,179 of the dead and judged the cause of death of 466 — fewer than cocaine (843) but more than methamphetamine (25) and marijuana (0).

Zero deaths from marijuana. Imagine that... 

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
By DAMIEN CAVE

MIAMI — From “Scarface” to “Miami Vice,” Florida’s drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit.

An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined.

Nice discussion of Obama's and McCain's disparate economics positions. What struck me, and made me snatch up the clip for posting, was that the next President will appoint four governors of the Federal Reserve Bank in 2009 and the Chairman in 2010.

That's in addition to 3-4 Supreme Court judges.

It's seriously no time to be fucking around with McCain, people...

Bilateral negotiations began in March over two U.S.-drafted accords: a status-of-forces agreement, or SOFA, governing legal protections and responsibilities of U.S. troops, and a "strategic framework" of the overall U.S.-Iraq political and military relationship. Iraq has rejected allowing unilateral U.S. authority to conduct military operations and control nearly 60 bases, and to arrest and detain Iraqi citizens. Other provisions would have given the United States control over Iraqi airspace and borders and granted immunity to U.S. troops and civilian security contractors from Iraqi laws and prosecution.

and

Salah al-Obaidi, Sadr's chief spokesman, said the order was essentially a full-scale reorganization of the Mahdi Army, transforming it from a militia into a permanent peaceful organization with a small armed wing of several hundred or so members. He said the cease-fire for the rest of the movement would remain in force.

The new group, Sadr's statement said, would operate in "total secrecy" and attack only American forces. "The resistance will be restricted to a group authorized by a written letter from us soon," it said. "Arms will be restricted to them and they may only point them towards the occupier."

Key Iraqi Leaders Deliver Setbacks to U.S.
Premier Rejects Terms of Proposed Pacts; Cleric Reactivates Militia
By Amit R. Paley and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 14, 2008; A01

BAGHDAD, June 13 -- The Bush administration's Iraq policy suffered two major setbacks Friday when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki publicly rejected key U.S. terms for an ongoing military presence and anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called for a new militia offensive against U.S. forces.

During a visit to Jordan, Maliki said negotiations over initial U.S. proposals for bilateral political and military agreements had "reached a dead end." While he said talks would continue, his comments fueled doubts that the pacts could be reached this year, before the Dec. 31 expiration of a United Nations mandate sanctioning the U.S. role in Iraq.

"Four-dollar-a-gallon of gasoline only reflects $100 oil because the refiners' margins are squeezed," he said. "At $300, you have $12 a gallon of gasoline and riots in Newark, Los Angeles, Harlem, Oakland, Cleveland, Detroit, Dallas."

This unnamed oil speculator is wrong. Not about $12/gallon gasoline at $300/barrel oil. He's not even wrong about the riots.

He's wrong about where the riots will take place. I guess "riot" automatically invokes majority Black neighborhoods in this unnamed oil speculator's mind (he said "Harlem," not "New York"). Meanwhile it's rural American that's suffering most...in the cities we got public transportation, for the most part.

How Iran Has Bush Over a Barrel
By Robert Baer

If wasn't clear before it should be now: the Bush Administration can't afford to attack Iran. With gas already at $4 a gallon and rising almost every day, Iran figuratively and literally has the United States over a barrel. As much as the Administration is tempted, it is not about to test Iran's promise to "explode" the Middle East if it is attacked.

Europe was looking to restore its culture, not replace it. 

Bush Calls for a Unity of Purpose
West Urged to Promote 'Free, Prosperous' Societies in Mideast
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 14, 2008; A11

PARIS, June 13 -- President Bush declared here Friday that Western nations must lift up the Middle East in the same way that the United States helped war-ruined Europe rebuild after World War II.

"The rise of free and prosperous societies in the broader Middle East is essential to peace in the 21st century, just as the rise of a free and prosperous Europe was essential to peace in the 20th century," Bush said, addressing an audience gathered for the 60th anniversary of the U.S. reconstruction initiative known as the Marshall Plan. "Europe and America must stand with reformers, democratic leaders and millions of ordinary people across the Middle East who seek a future of hope, liberty and peace."

“Americans work the longest hours of any people in the industrialized world,” the senator said. “We even surpassed Japan.”

But despite all that hard work — despite explosive improvements in technology and increased worker productivity — the middle class is struggling, losing ground and there’s a very real possibility that the next generation of workers will have a lower standard of living than today’s.

The letters to Senator Sanders offer a glimpse into the real lives of ordinary people in an economic environment that was sculpted to favor the very rich.

Letters From Vermont
By BOB HERBERT

Despite the focus on the housing crisis, gasoline prices and the economy in general, the press has not done a good job capturing the intense economic anxiety — and even dread, in some cases — that has gripped tens of millions of working Americans, including many who consider themselves solidly middle class.

Working families are not just changing their travel plans and tightening up on purchases at the mall. There is real fear and a great deal of suffering out there.

What good is increasing the oil supply above your refining capacity?

Plan Would Lift Saudi Oil Output to Highest Ever
By JAD MOUAWAD

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is planning to increase its output next month by about a half-million barrels a day, according to analysts and oil traders who have been briefed by Saudi officials.

The increase could bring Saudi output to a production level of 10 million barrels a day, which, if sustained, would be the kingdom’s highest ever. The move was seen as a sign that the Saudis are becoming increasingly nervous about both the political and economic effect of high oil prices. In recent weeks, soaring fuel costs have incited demonstrations and protests from Italy to Indonesia.

We like to think all citizens of the United States of America are guaranteed certain civil and human rights. Unfortunately, that guarantee is subject to the vagaries of human judgment. At times of national crisis this nation has always reduced the protections we are "guaranteed" by law. In fact Justice Scalia has said in wartime, "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum. I won't let it go beyond the constitutional minimum."

It is expected. There is historical precedent for it. Unfortunately, in every case the historic precedent has been that the impositions were deemed unnecessary and, in most cases, unconstitutional after the fact. The first such case was the Alien and Sedition Acts which passed in 1798. The threat was a French-backed navy of privateers operating in the area around the West Indies which was threatening the expanding U.S. merchant shipping force. The Act allowed the President to order

Jury Acquits R. Kelly of All Counts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:28 p.m. ET

CHICAGO (AP) -- R. Kelly was acquitted of all charges Friday after less than a day of deliberations in his child pornography trial, ending a six-year ordeal for the R&B superstar.

Kelly dabbed his face with a handkerchief and hugged each of his four attorneys after the verdict -- not guilty on all 14 counts -- was read. The Grammy award-winning singer had faced 15 years in prison if convicted.

Minutes later, surrounded by bodyguards, he left the courthouse without comment. Dozens of fans screamed and cheered as he climbed into a waiting SUV.

Prosecutors had argued that a video tape mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 showed Kelly engaged in graphic sex acts with a girl as young as 13 at the time. Both Kelly, 41, and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were the ones on the tape. Neither testified during the trial.

This vouchers for private schools crap is more to subsidize the private schools than to educate the kids.

1,900 Scholarships
Del. Norton moves to take a valued educational option from the poor.
Thursday, June 12, 2008; A22

DEL. ELEANOR Holmes Norton's campaign against school vouchers in the District has hit a new low. While proclaiming a desire to protect children, she is seeking to eliminate a program that benefits them and that is valued by their parents. Her actions make it all the more urgent for Mayor Adrian M. Fenty to convince Congress that the educational interests of children are more important than party ideology. Failure to do so would imperil not just the 1,900 children in the scholarship program but the essence of school reform in the District.

AmSpec Blog:

Apparently if you are Michelle Obama it is okay to say "baby's daddy," but not "baby daddy," and Fox News cannot say either. Got it.

Good. Although if you're too stupid to know a noun phrase is different from the adjective + noun, you should turn in your writing credentials. And if you insist they are you just increase the stupidity of your readers. Which may be right in line with your plans.

In October 2006, the suit states, Grant and some co-workers were in the lounge of the hotel they stayed at while working at Memphis Motor Speedway when official Bud Moore came out of his room wearing only a towel and calling out, ?Mo, do you want to see my (penis)?? The suit goes on to state Moore then opened his towel and ducked behind a trash can, while other male officials laughed....

When she complained to NASCAR officials, Grant told USA TODAY, "I was basically told to deal with it because the men that I was working with, a lot of them were military men and I needed to learn how to act like they act if I wanted to be successful.

Former official sues NASCAR over harassment claims
By Rachel Shuster, USA TODAY

See that title up there?

David Brooks wrote that about Obama. Talk about projection...

Writing on Obama's education platform, Mr. Brooks strikes a pose you will become more familiar with as any Republican or Conservative that dares promote McCain and the Republican agenda must strike: McCain saying nothing is better than all those confusing policy options Obama is considering.

Obama endorses many good ideas and is more specific than the McCain campaign, which hasn’t even reported for duty on education. But his education remarks give the impression of a candidate who wants to be for big change without actually incurring the political costs inherent in that enterprise.

Now even Brooks has to admit there's a basic agreement on the importance of fixing public education among liberals and progressives. He just has to spin it as badly as he can. For instance:

U.S. Adoption System Seen Failing Kids From Minorities
By REUTERS
Filed at 5:33 a.m. ET

ATLANTA (Reuters) - When Theresa Alden adopted two black boys from an agency in Philadelphia, she changed her lifestyle for them and they changed her outlook on race.

Alden, who is 50 and white, started attending a black church near her home in Lancaster, established a network of black friends and acquaintances, began listening to more black music and buying children's books by black authors.

"My boys will be in a minority here. How do you face the issues that go along with that?" she said when asked about her attempts to give them role models and points of reference.

Alden's children, Gavin and Graem, are two of around 140,000 adopted in the United States each year. Of those, around 20,000 are adopted by adults of a different race.

And by the way, the continued talk of "Mrs. Clinton's rival" does NOT settle my doubts about Mrs. Clinton's ongoing intent here.

Side note: as an ex-photography fiend, the photograph accompanying the article is well chosen. It's looks like a bunch of folks interviewing Mrs. Clinton's mammaries.

Critics and News Executives Split Over Sexism in Clinton Coverage
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JULIE BOSMAN

Angered by what they consider sexist news coverage of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, many women and erstwhile Clinton supporters are proposing boycotts of the cable networks, putting up videos on a “Media Hall of Shame,” starting a national conversation about sexism and pushing Mrs. Clinton’s rival, Senator Barack Obama, to address the matter.

But many in the news media — with a few exceptions, including Katie Couric, the anchor of the “CBS Evening News” — see little need for reconsidering their coverage or changing their approach going forward. Rather, they say, as the Clinton campaign fell behind, it exploited a few glaring examples of sexist coverage to whip up a backlash and to try to create momentum for Mrs. Clinton.

Phil Griffin, senior vice president of NBC News and the executive in charge of MSNBC, a particular target of criticism, said that although a few mistakes had been made, that they had been corrected quickly and that the network’s overall coverage was fair.

“I get it, that in this 24-hour media world, you’ve got to be on your game and there’s very little room for mistakes,” Mr. Griffin said. “But the Clinton campaign saw an opportunity to use it for their advantage. They were trying to rally a certain demographic, and women were behind it.”

Despite the upward trend, there are still just eight survey countries where majorities now have a favorable view of the United States: Britain, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Tanzania.

In fact, in one-third of the survey countries, more respondents see the United States more as an enemy than as a partner. This view is especially strong in Turkey, a NATO ally, and in Pakistan, a partner in Washington’s efforts to fight terrorism.

Global Image of U.S. Improves Slightly
By MEG BORTIN

PARIS — There is good news and bad news for President Bush as he pursues his valedictory tour of Europe this week, according to a new worldwide study by the Pew Global Attitudes Project. The image of the United States has improved slightly in many countries over the past year, the poll results show. But the new optimism appears to be driven largely by the fact that Mr. Bush will soon be leaving office.

Meanwhile, the survey showed that many across the globe blamed the United States at least in part for slumping economies and global warming.

“A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment,” Bill Shine, a Fox News senior vice president, said in a statement.

I'd say we'll know if it was an error by whether there's some improvement, but this IS the third strike, you know.

Fox Forced to Address Michelle Obama Headline
By Jim Rutenberg

For the third time in less than three weeks, Fox News Channel has had to acknowledge using poor judgment through inappropriate references to Senator Barack Obama.

The network has released a statement saying it should not have referred to Mr. Obama’s wife, Michelle, as “Obama’s Baby Mama,’’ as it did on Wednesday in an on-screen headline commonly called a “chyron.”

“A producer on the program exercised poor judgment in using this chyron during the segment,” Bill Shine, a Fox News senior vice president, said in a statement.

I should let you know that as this extended race baiting session progresses, I'm going to make an absolute point of pointing up effective rebuttals from white folks for three reasons:

1. The Redeemers would really like us to openly hate on white folks over this newly focused rhetoric. I would like to frustrate that aim...it ain't like it can help with the real issues we've already identified.
2. I would like to assure you that not all white folks have gone batshit crazy.
3. I would like to assure myself that not all white folks have gone batshit crazy.

I think Mr. Scalzi's essay here, pointed up by Karnythia at The Angry Black Woman, is a good place to start.

Fox News Would Like To Take a Moment To Remind You That the Obamas Are As Black As Satan’s Festering, Baby-Eating Soul
Published by John Scalzi at 11:22 am

Back in the day – you know, when presidential candidates were respectably white – news organizations called potential First Ladies “wives.” But now that black folks are running, we can get all funky fresh with the lingo, yo. So it’s basically fine for Fox News to use “Baby Mama” for Michelle Obama, slang that implies a married 44-year-old Princeton-educated lawyer is, to use an Urban Dictionary definition of the term, “some chick you knocked up on accident during a fling who you can’t stand but you have to tolerate cuz she got your baby now.” Because the Obamas are black! And the blacks, they’re all relaxed about that shit, yo. Word up. And anyway, as the caption clearly indicates, it’s not Fox News that’s calling Michelle Obama “Baby Mama,” it’s outraged liberals. Fox News is just telling you what those outraged liberals are saying. They didn’t want to use the term “Baby Mama.” But clearly they had no choice.

How many Black owned, operated or oriented blogs do you suppose are carrying ads for the McCain campaign? This one does.

And I should let it go at that, let you follow the link and draw your own conclusions. But...

A little over a week ago, some dipshit thought he was clever and rented space for an 'art show' titled "The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama." On the other side of the link is pictures from the Barack Obama side of the 'show.'

We did not see these pictures disseminated, even though the dick responsible set up phony web sites replete with lies about how he had previous shows, and they too were shut down.

Indeed, any “censorship” of that earlier work was fiction. So were the shows, and even the galleries themselves.

McCain Asks Supporters to Invade Liberal Blogs, But Few Respond
By Sarah Lai Stirland
June 10, 2008 | 12:22:39 AM

John McCain's longstanding political reputation is that of a political maverick, an unconventional Republican who is willing to lean across the party aisle to achieve a public policy goal.

It seems that his campaign team is trying to extend that approach online. The McCain campaign in late May launched a new blogger outreach section on its website that encourages supporters to lobby for their candidate across 94 blogs that range in political bent from far left to far right.

The campaign arms the blog-raiders with one of McCain's speeches on the need to transcend partisan politics to deal with the problems that the nation faces.