Prometheus 6

Retired Officers Raise Questions on Crime Data
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM

More than a hundred retired New York Police Department captains and higher-ranking officers said in a survey that the intense pressure to produce annual crime reductions led some supervisors and precinct commanders to manipulate crime statistics, according to two criminologists studying the department.

The retired members of the force reported that they were aware over the years of instances of “ethically inappropriate” changes to complaints of crimes in the seven categories measured by the department’s signature CompStat program, according to a summary of the results of the survey and interviews with the researchers who conducted it.

The totals for those seven so-called major index crimes are provided to the F.B.I., whose reports on crime trends have been used by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to favorably compare New York to other cities and to portray it as a profoundly safer place, an assessment that the summary does not contradict.

In interviews with the criminologists, other retired senior officers cited examples of what the researchers believe was a periodic practice among some precinct commanders and supervisors: checking eBay, other Web sites, catalogs or other sources to find prices for items that had been reported stolen that were lower than the value provided by the crime victim. They would then use the lower values to reduce reported grand larcenies — felony thefts valued at more than $1,000, which are recorded as index crimes under CompStat — to misdemeanors, which are not, the researchers said.

Others also said that precinct commanders or aides they dispatched sometimes went to crime scenes to persuade victims not to file complaints or to urge them to change their accounts in ways that could result in the downgrading of offenses to lesser crimes, the researchers said.

“Those people in the CompStat era felt enormous pressure to downgrade index crime, which determines the crime rate, and at the same time they felt less pressure to maintain the integrity of the crime statistics,” said John A. Eterno, one of the researchers and a former New York City police captain.

Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included
By Katie Drummond
February 5, 2010  | 9:42 am

The Pentagon’s mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military’s advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.

As part of its budget for the next year, Darpa is investing $6 million into a project called BioDesign, with the goal of eliminating “the randomness of natural evolutionary advancement.” The plan would assemble the latest bio-tech knowledge to come up with living, breathing creatures that are genetically engineered to “produce the intended biological effect.” Darpa wants the organisms to be fortified with molecules that bolster cell resistance to death, so that the lab-monsters can “ultimately be programmed to live indefinitely.”

Of course, Darpa’s got to prevent the super-species from being swayed to do enemy work — so they’ll encode loyalty right into DNA, by developing genetically programmed locks to create “tamper proof” cells. Plus, the synthetic organism will be traceable, using some kind of DNA manipulation, “similar to a serial number on a handgun.” And if that doesn’t work, don’t worry. In case Darpa’s plan somehow goes horribly awry, they’re also tossing in a last-resort, genetically-coded kill switch:

Develop strategies to create a synthetic organism “self-destruct” option to be implemented upon nefarious removal of organism.

The project comes as Darpa also plans to throw $20 million into a new synthetic biology program, and $7.5 million into “increasing by several decades the speed with which we sequence, analyze and functionally edit cellular genomes.”

Or do they just have more material to work with?

Doubts cast on whether '04 Chicago police shooting of girl, suspect was justified
Agency that reviews police shootings says it doesn't track the number of police shootings the agency had ruled unjustified in the past several years
By Lauren Rozyla, Morgan McDevitt and Sam Roe, Chicago Tribune
January 25, 2010

On a summer night in 2004, two Chicago police officers chased an alleged gunman up to the front door of a West Side two-flat.

There, according to the officers, the suspect tried to get inside the building by ramming his shoulder against the door while simultaneously turning and pointing a pistol at them.

One of the officers took cover behind a tree, then stepped out and opened fire. Moments later, police learned they had seriously injured the man as well as a 13-year-old girl hiding in the building's vestibule with several other bystanders.

Although police did not find a gun on the man or near the two-flat, law enforcement officials cleared the two officers of wrongdoing just 10 hours after the shooting.

Based largely on the officers' statements, the suspect, Seneca Smith, was arrested and eventually convicted of attempted murder of a police officer. Smith, now 30, faces up to 80 years in prison.

But an investigation by the Tribune in conjunction with journalism students from Columbia College Chicago casts doubts on the officers' version of events.

For example, one officer who chased Smith testified that he clearly saw Smith point a gun at his partner from the front door of the two-flat, in the 5300 block of West Congress Parkway. The officer testified which hand held the gun and how Smith was positioned.

But a visit to the crime scene shows it would have been impossible for the officer to see Smith from where he explicitly and repeatedly testified he was standing. The side of the two-flat would have blocked his view.

Court and police records reveal other examples of evidence contradicting police statements. Despite officers' testimony about being shot at, police didn't find a gun on Smith after he was shot. And the bystanders in the vestibule — seven teenage girls and young women — later said they never saw Smith with a gun.

They also contended in a lawsuit that police held them against their will and pressured them to say Smith had a gun. "They treated us like criminals," said Carrie Warfield, now 26.

A Black Immigrant’s Experience with Coming to Terms with Race Relations in America
Posted By The Editors | February 2nd, 2010
By Nicole Y. Dennis

I’ve come to believe that many black immigrants coming to the United States don’t really factor the existence of racism into their plan of achieving the American Dream. I think many immigrants overlook it, often seeking success with a tunnel vision. I speak from experience. That’s what I did.

There were times during my first years in America when I was a target of racism. But I never realized it until years later when I would mention the experiences to African-American friends and they would gasp, “No they didn’t!” In those moments I realized that I had been naïve about race relations in this country.

I am aware you would like me to link or display some story or other that presents a positive image of some particular person. I am not going to do it, ever.

Here's the problem. We're public policy discussion site, and we focus on now. You, on the other hand, send me links to years old articles...and to Mr. Jackson in particular if that's your real name, I'm not publishing novels in my comments. And what the fuck makes you think I have Ishmael Reed's contact info because I linked an op-ed he wrote?

At least Ms. McCarthy tried emailing me first. She only went back to last summer...and that's still too old. I only go back that far when I have a point to make.

I know you read here so here's the deal: if I know you personally, you can send me shit out of the blue. If I recognize you as a participant here you can assume I know you personally and send me shit out of the blue. You two, and everyone that wants me to link some site or article to help establish someone's online reputation...I don't know you. At all. And I will not link anything you try to send me. If you register for the purpose of dropping those links in the comments, I will delete them, suspend your account and you will find yourself unable to register here ever again. I can give you a reference from several folks I've already done that to.

This is not a commercial site, and I'm not supporting your commercial endeavors.

I don't think so. I think it's the standard operating procedure, proceeding to operate in the standard way.

Dodd Denounces Pace of Banking Overhaul
By SEWELL CHAN

WASHINGTON — Executives at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase expressed misgivings on Thursday about the Obama administration’s new proposals to restrict the size and risk-taking of the country’s largest financial institutions.

Their comments, before the Senate Banking Committee, appeared to further complicate the challenge facing the panel’s chairman, Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut. For months, Mr. Dodd has been leading closed-door negotiations over a bill to overhaul the nation’s financial regulations, and on Thursday he expressed dismay at how long the process was taking.

“The fact is, I am frustrated, and so are the American people,” Mr. Dodd said at the start of the hearing, adding that few of the rules of Wall Street had changed, nearly two years after the collapse of Bear Stearns at the inception of the financial crisis.

Mr. Dodd said the White House was “on the right track” with its new ideas but warned of difficulty ahead.

“The refusal of large financial firms to work constructively with Congress on this effort borders on insulting to the American people, who have lost so much in this crisis,” he said.

He added that the financial services industry had sent “an army of lobbyists whose only mission is to kill the common-sense financial reforms the public demands.”

I don't think he's sure either. Must be frustrating than a mug...

The trouble, however, is that it’s apparently hard for many people to tell the difference between cynical posturing and serious economic argument. And that is having tragic consequences.

For the fact is that thanks to deficit hysteria, Washington now has its priorities all wrong: all the talk is about how to shave a few billion dollars off government spending, while there’s hardly any willingness to tackle mass unemployment. Policy is headed in the wrong direction — and millions of Americans will pay the price.

Fiscal Scare Tactics
By PAUL KRUGMAN

These days it’s hard to pick up a newspaper or turn on a news program without encountering stern warnings about the federal budget deficit. The deficit threatens economic recovery, we’re told; it puts American economic stability at risk; it will undermine our influence in the world. These claims generally aren’t stated as opinions, as views held by some analysts but disputed by others. Instead, they’re reported as if they were facts, plain and simple.

Yet they aren’t facts. Many economists take a much calmer view of budget deficits than anything you’ll see on TV. Nor do investors seem unduly concerned: U.S. government bonds continue to find ready buyers, even at historically low interest rates. The long-run budget outlook is problematic, but short-term deficits aren’t — and even the long-term outlook is much less frightening than the public is being led to believe.

So why the sudden ubiquity of deficit scare stories? It isn’t being driven by any actual news. It has been obvious for at least a year that the U.S. government would face an extended period of large deficits, and projections of those deficits haven’t changed much since last summer. Yet the drumbeat of dire fiscal warnings has grown vastly louder.

To me — and I’m not alone in this — the sudden outbreak of deficit hysteria brings back memories of the groupthink that took hold during the run-up to the Iraq war. Now, as then, dubious allegations, not backed by hard evidence, are being reported as if they have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt. Now, as then, much of the political and media establishments have bought into the notion that we must take drastic action quickly, even though there hasn’t been any new information to justify this sudden urgency. Now, as then, those who challenge the prevailing narrative, no matter how strong their case and no matter how solid their background, are being marginalized.

And fear-mongering on the deficit may end up doing as much harm as the fear-mongering on weapons of mass destruction.

What Price Politics?

A binge of special interest money seems inevitable unless Congress acts quickly — before this year’s election — to repair the damage from the Supreme Court ruling that ended restraints on campaign spending by corporations and unions.

In its overreach, the court’s majority hobbled lawmakers by giving what amounted to constitutional sanction to unlimited corporate and union campaign contributions. But legitimate antidotes are already in the works. Congress should focus on the most feasible proposals....For now, measures requiring transparency, shareholder participation and the like are a good start. Congress should swiftly approve them.

The Supreme Court's decision to remove all restrictions on corporate political spending has engendered the most cohesive national response seen since the 2008 national election. Yes, there are those that take the bizarre position that they "don't buy the idea that limiting corruption is a state interest sufficiently compelling to overcome the First Amendment interest in free speech". But most people were stunned, and the reaction from even media that would itself be freed by this decision ranged from Ruth Marcus' takedown of the hypocrisy of the decision to the Boston Globe's simple Corporations Are Not People. While a recent Gallup poll found public support for campaign finance law treating corporate donations the same as individuals' donations, 61% of Americans think the government should be able to limit the amount of money individuals can contribute to candidates and 76% think it should be able to limit the amount corporations or unions can give.

[P6: Here's your bipartisan issue, Mr. President.]

It is remarkable that the Supreme Court decided entities defined by state law have national citizenship rights equal to the people referred to in "We The People." The decision is wrong and unpopular. People are already struggling to come up with ways to reduce the impact of this. And many think the Supreme Court, as arbiter of the Constitution, has left no recourse for those who disagree. Fortunately, because they are making the same epistemological error the Supreme Court's majority did, those people are wrong.

The error that made this an issue is an uncritical interpretation of the word "person" in the phrase "legal person." By considering corporations to be "persons" independent of the qualifier "legal", not to mention independently of the reality underlying the term, one opens the discussion to irrelevancies such as "A large corporation, just like an individual, has many diverse interests. A corporation may want to support a particular candidate, but they may be concerned just as you say about what their shareholders are going to think about that. They may be concerned that the shareholders would rather they spend their money doing something else. The idea that corporations are different than individuals in that respect, I just don't think holds up, " advanced by Justice Roberts, and "Most corporations are indistinguishable from the individual who owns them, the local hairdresser, the new auto dealer -- dealer who has just lost his dealership and -- and who wants to oppose whatever Congressman he thinks was responsible for this happening or whatever Congressman won't try to patch it up by -- by getting the auto company to undo it. There is no distinction between the individual interest and the corporate interest. And that is true for the vast majority of corporations," advanced by Justice Scalia. There are answers to these claims...in the first case, a diversity of interests is not the distinction between a person and a legal person. A person physically exists...a legal person is a useful fiction. In the second case, the idea that a corporation is indistinguishable from the individual that owns it, contradicts the physical fact that the IRS treats them separately all the time, and in any event that individual already has constitutionally protected rights of free speech and to petition the government and so do not need it a second time.

As I say, there are answers but undoing this corporate coup doesn't require them, or an amendment to the Constitution. It requires clarification of the law. Because what most distinguishes persons from legal persons is that persons are physical, while legal persons were created by humans through legislative and legal action. If you search for a person you can generally find him; search for a legal person and you can only find what it owns.

Since a legal person only exists as defined in law, there is no legal barrier to Congress clarifying that definition. I would suggest something along the lines of:

For purposes of federal law, a legal person is a contract between persons to act as an economic unit. This economic unit has the legal right to enter into contracts as though it were a single human entity. Contracts joined by a legal person shall be enforceable under the law, under the same terms as for any single human entity.  Legal persons shall be deemed to possess such other legal rights as may be necessary to insure it may execute those contracts it undertakes.

Other legal rights may be granted to classes of legal persons or legal persons as a class, which rights shall not be interpreted such that they supersede, impede or obstruct the constitutional rights of citizens and legal residents of the United States of America, its territories, and possessions.

This would actually remove the question entirely from the Court's purview without invalidating a single law or contract, and the only economic impact it would have is on the purchase of politicians...something most of us would agree would be a good thing.

Furthermore, it strikes me that anyone who thinks Precious is "realistic" has deeply racist assumptions about Black folk.

Just sayin'...

This use of movies and books to cast collective shame upon an entire community doesn’t happen with works about white dysfunctional families. It wasn’t done, for instance, with “Requiem for a Dream,” starring the great Ellen Burstyn, about a white family dealing with drug addiction, or with “The Kiss,” a memoir about incest — in that case, a relationship between a white father and his adult daughter.

Fade to White
By ISHMAEL REED

Oakland, Calif.

JUDGING from the mail I’ve received, the conversations I’ve had and all that I’ve read, the responses to “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” fall largely along racial lines.

Among black men and women, there is widespread revulsion and anger over the Oscar-nominated film about an illiterate, obese black teenager who has two children by her father. The author Jill Nelson wrote: “I don’t eat at the table of self-hatred, inferiority or victimization. I haven’t bought into notions of rampant black pathology or embraced the overwrought, dishonest and black-people-hating pseudo-analysis too often passing as post-racial cold hard truths.” One black radio broadcaster said that he felt under psychological assault for two hours. So did I.

The blacks who are enraged by “Precious” have probably figured out that this film wasn’t meant for them. It was the enthusiastic response from white audiences and critics that culminated in the film being nominated for six Oscars by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an outfit whose 43 governors are all white and whose membership in terms of diversity is about 40 years behind Mississippi. In fact, the director, Lee Daniels, said that the honor would bring even more “middle-class white Americans” to his film.

Is the enthusiasm of such white audiences and awards committees based on their being comfortable with the stereotypes shown? Barbara Bush, the former first lady, not only hosted a screening of “Precious” but also wrote about it in Newsweek, saying: “There are kids like Precious everywhere. Each day we walk by them: young boys and girls whose home lives are dark secrets.” Oprah Winfrey, whose endorsement assisted the movie’s distribution and its acceptance among her white fanbase, said, “None of us who sees the movie can now walk through the world and allow the Preciouses of the world to be invisible.”

...it is no longer clear that Senate leaders could muster even 51 votes to make fast-tracked changes to the Senate-passed health bill, let alone the 60 votes it would take to approve a revised measure under the normal rules.

I still think the whole problem here was caused by Democrats surendering their power in the Senate.

Obama Maps a Way Forward for a Health Overhaul
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — Speaking to enthusiastic supporters at a fund-raiser here, President Obama on Thursday evening presented his clearest plan yet to move forward with comprehensive health care legislation, saying that he wanted to meet with Democrats, Republicans and independent experts, lay out the facts for the American people and then, he said, “I think that we have got to move forward on a vote.”

Mr. Obama said he would first work with Congress to enact a jobs package that would encourage new hiring, which he said was “the thing that is most urgent right now, in the minds of Americans all across the country.” But he also said that he would take the time to refute false statements and misunderstandings about the health care legislation and to hear alternate ideas from Republicans.

After “several weeks” of work, he said, he would be prepared to live with whatever decision is made by Congress, but he also warned that voters, too, would be watching and would decide at the polls in November whether lawmakers had made the right choice.

Mr. Obama still did not chart a specific legislative strategy for moving a bill through Congress.

Because Haitian officials are reasserting judicial control.

10 Americans in Haiti Are Charged With Abduction
By MARC LACEY

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Ten Americans who tried to take 33 Haitian children out of the country last week without the government’s consent have been charged with child abduction and criminal conspiracy, as Haitian officials sought to reassert judicial control after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

The Americans, most of them members of a Baptist congregation from Idaho, had said they intended to rescue Haitian children left parentless in the quake and take them to what they described as an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic. But they acknowledged failing to seek approval to remove the children from Haiti, and several of the children have at least one living parent.

The Americans will face a potentially extended legal proceeding in Haiti and could, if convicted, face prison terms of up to 15 years.

In a sign of the cloudy nature of the case, the prosecutor, Mazar Fortil, decided not to pursue what could have been the most serious charge against the group, that of trafficking. The charges will now be considered by an investigative judge, who has up to three months to decide whether to pursue the matter further.

The leader of the group, Laura Silsby, a businesswoman who describes herself as a missionary as well, has also come under scrutiny at home in Idaho, where employees complain of unpaid wages and the state has placed liens on her company bank account.

The lawyer for the group, Edwin Coq, said after a hearing on Thursday that 9 of his 10 clients were “completely innocent,” but that, apparently in a reference to Ms. Silsby, “If the judiciary were to keep one, it could be the leader of the group.”[P6: Damn! Not just under the bus, but in front of it in the express lane!]

Markets Fall Sharply Amid Fears on Debt and Jobs
By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ and JACK EWING

Just as America’s recession begins to ebb, trouble is brewing in Europe that may prolong a downturn on the Continent and ricochet through the global economy as it struggles toward a recovery.

A rout in stock markets that began in Europe spread to Wall Street on Thursday, amid fears that Europe may be the world’s next financial flashpoint. Pressure has been mounting across the Atlantic as Greece, Portugal and a handful of struggling countries that use the euro scramble to pay off mountains of debt accumulated from years of profligate spending.

The Dow Jones industrial average slid 2.61 percent, to 10,002.18 Thursday, after briefly falling below 10,000 for the first time since November, as American investors grew more uncertain about Europe’s economy. Stock markets across Europe slumped as much as 6 percent, and worries that the troubles might push even big European nations like Spain into a financial crisis drove the euro to $1.37, a seven-month low against the dollar.

“The question now is, how big is this fire going to be?” said Uri D. Landesman, head of global growth at ING. “What is panic, and what is legitimate? We don’t know at this point.”

Quick Response to Study of Abstinence Education
By TAMAR LEWIN

A study of middle-school students that found for the first time that abstinence-only education helped to delay their sexual initiation is already beginning to shake up the longstanding debate over how best to prevent teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“This is a rigorous study that means we can now say that it’s possible for an abstinence-only intervention to be effective,” Dr. John B. Jemmott III, the University of Pennsylvania professor who led the study, said Tuesday, hours after results of the study were released. “That’s important, because for some populations, abstinence is the only acceptable message.”

Sadly for some folks, like the executive director of the National Abstinence Education Association, Valerie Huber, this rigorous study STRONGLY implies the programs Ms. Huber would have funded are not effective. We have past documentation of the failure  of those plans, plus we have this case, in which the theory-based abstinence only plan

...centered on people with an average age of 12 and that unlike the federally supported abstinence programs now in use, did not advocate abstinence until marriage.

The classes also did not portray sex negatively or suggest that condoms are ineffective, and contained only medically accurate information. Dr. Jemmott’s abstinence-only course was designed for the research, and is not in current use in schools.

Now, if the programs Ms. Huber would advance consists of one class containing only medically accurate information, we can give it a shot. But under no circumstances should we see the crap Bush paid for ever again.

A Trial for City Police

Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have a right to brag about lower crime rates in the city. But they still have work to do when it comes to the behavior of some police officers.

The case of Michael Mineo, who says an officer jabbed him in the buttocks with his baton, is a warning about how easy it can be for a police force to slip back into old, dangerous patterns.

Three police officers are on trial now in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn after Mr. Mineo was arrested in a subway station in October 2008. The case stirs reminders of the horrendous treatment of Abner Louima, who in 1997 was sodomized with a stick by a police officer. The three officers are accused of failing to report the arrest correctly and warning Mr. Mineo not to go to the hospital or to police to complain.

The Symbolic Politics of the Republicans
State of the Union or Civil War?
By PAUL A. PASSAVANT

The significant symbolic politics of the Republican response to President Obama’s 2010 state of the union address (SOTU) escaped comment except by Stephen Colbert who got it right.  The Republican response was delivered by the newly inaugurated Republican governor for the state of Virginia, Bob McDonnell.  The commentators on Fox news walked their viewers through what they were about to see, explaining that last year, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal gave an unsuccessful response to an Obama speech.  Illustrating the superior Republican sensitivity to aesthetics, Fox blamed Jindal’s shortcomings not on the Republican message, but on the staging of his speech.  According to Fox, the problem with Jindal’s speech is that, from the viewer’s perspective, he looked like he had just walked out of a closet before speaking.  The staging for Bob McDonnell’s speech would be much improved, delivered from the Virginia state legislature.  Therefore, it would look almost exactly like an official SOTU, except it would not be delivered by the actual—Democratic—president, Barrack Obama.  Instead, it would be delivered by McDonnell.

McDonnell delivered his response in the Virginia state legislature (isn’t this a misuse of government property?).  The hall was stocked with people serving as props, or background, for McDonnell, making it seem like this pretend SOTU was actually being delivered in front of legislators, like the real one.  President Obama delivered the SOTU standing behind a lectern.  McDonnell gave his fake SOTU standing behind a lectern.  On the front of President Obama’s lectern is the presidential seal.  On the front of McDonnell’s was also a seal, though it was the state of Virginia’s if you actually looked closely.  Otherwise, it just looked like a seal similar to Obama’s.  On “applause lines,” members of Congress would stand up and applaud.  Likewise, the people helping to stage the fake SOTU would applaud at McDonnell’s applause lines (and, Fox provided close-ups of appropriately photogenic members of the audience at key moments).

Finally, and most disturbingly, is the significance of the venue for the Republican response to the SOTU—the legislature in Richmond, Virginia.  Richmond, of course, was the capital of the confederacy.  Although the significance of the locale was missed by the networks and the Democrats, it likely would not be missed by the core Republican constituency—southern whites.  For example, in 1980, Ronald Reagan chose to give his first major campaign speech as the Republican nominee in Philadelphia, Mississippi.  Philadelphia, Mississippi is where three civil rights workers had been murdered in 1964 (the inspiration for the movie “Mississippi Burning”).  In the speech, Reagan trumpeted his support for “states’ rights,” and advocated a return to “local control” in front of a cheering crowd that did not miss his message of support for the earlier—violent—efforts to fight integration and use any means—force, if necessary—to defend racial segregation.  This speech was in keeping with the Republican party’s “Southern Strategy,” devised by Nixon campaign strategist Kevin Phillips, to regain the White House by shifting the Republican base from the North to the South in order to capture whites disaffected from the Democratic party after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Likewise, the decision to stage the Republican response to President Obama’s SOTU in Richmond, Virginia’s state legislature—after months of tea-baggers openly carrying arms at rallies organized by Fox to oppose health care or to places where Obama was to deliver a speech—sends a message that core Republican constituencies will not mistake.  It is a message of Civil War.

At 12-14 years old, they have the sense of entitlement to stand up in an abstinence only class and say, "Yeah, I had sex."

Abstinence-only programs might work, study says
By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Sex education classes that focus on encouraging children to remain abstinent can persuade a significant proportion to delay sexual activity, researchers reported Monday in a landmark that could have major implications for U.S. efforts to protect young people against unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Only about a third of sixth- and seventh-graders who completed an abstinence-focused program started having sex within the next two years, researchers found. Nearly half of the students who attended other classes, including ones that combined information about abstinence and contraception, became sexually active.

The findings are the first clear evidence that an abstinence program could work.

Racial issues intensify Illinois gubernatorial primary
By Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 2, 2010; A03

CHIGAGO -- Here at Manny's legendary deli, where expansive pols have for decades stormed across the linoleum floor appealing for votes from the well-fed, Dan Hynes does not suit up as much of a dragon slayer.

Slight and pale, and a bland campaigner by Chicago standards, the Democratic state comptroller can't seem to entice folks to look up from their bulky corned beef sandwiches. But outside the restaurant, in a nasty, personal and racially tense race, Hynes has managed to come within a hair of knocking off Gov. Pat Quinn in Tuesday's Illinois Democratic primary.

In the final days of the contest, the men, both of whom are white, have taken the fight to the African American community, sputtering charges and countercharges of race-baiting as they brawl over the words of a revered dead black mayor, and whether Hynes for years ignored criminal activity in a historically black cemetery....

Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores
By Garance Franke-Ruta

One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image. So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee that a new single-issue magazine has hit newsstands and convenience stores around the country. It claims to present "Sarah Palin: The Untold Story...in her own words!" -- and it was produced, according to its publisher, without her knowledge or participation.

Retailing for $8.99, the 100-page glossy magazine, titled "Sarah Palin: Faith, Family, Freedom," hit newsstands in mid-January and was jointly published by a fashion-publishing subsidiary of international marketing firm IMG and Imagine That Publishing. It will remain on sale through April 30.

Gilbert Wondracek, Thorsten Holz, Engin Kirda and Christopher Kruegel describe the principles of the test in full in "A Practical Attack to De-Anonymize Social Network Users". The paper also describes practical remedies for protecting against this kind of de-anonymisation attack, all of which are aimed at hampering history stealing.

Indiscrete web browsers assist de-anonymisation

A test on browser fingerprinting by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has shown how uniquely identifiable a user's browser is on the web. What that test is unable to do is to identify individual users. This, however, is the goal of an experiment by the International Secure Systems Lab (Isec Lab). Originally founded by the Vienna University of Technology (TUV), Isec Lab is now a collaborative venture between TUV, Eurécom and the University of California in Santa Barbara. The test makes use of Xing, a platform widely-used in Europe on which many millions of users have published profiles.

The test essentially exploits the fact that many Xing users are identifiable by their membership of various groups. According to Thorsten Holz, one of the researchers who designed the experiment, there are very few people on any social network who belong to exactly the same groups. A 'group fingerprint' could thus allow websites to identify previously anonymous visitors.

They're going to take the people's land, aren't they?

Publicly, the international organizations here emphasize at almost every turn that they are working under Mr. Préval’s direction. Privately, United Nations and American officials said they did not believe he was up to the task.

Because of concerns about the government’s history of corruption and inefficiency, only a fraction of the aid flowing into Haiti is permitted to pass through government channels.

In Quake’s Wake, Haiti Faces Leadership Void
By GINGER THOMPSON and MARC LACEY

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The journalists had assembled and the cameras were rolling. Seated at center stage were the American ambassador and the American general in charge of the United States troops deployed here.

At the back of the room, wearing blue jeans and a somber expression, stood President René Préval, half-listening to the updates on efforts to help Haiti recover from its devastating earthquake while scanning his cellphone for messages. Then he wandered away without a word.

That moment last Wednesday was revealing of the leadership crisis taking hold in Haiti as it faces the task of rebuilding almost every corner of Port-au-Prince, the capital.

Foreign nations have sent hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance, only to find the government too weak to harness it. Virtually every symbol of this country’s political system vanished into the rubble. The seat of government has been reduced to little more than a platform beneath a towering mango tree outside a police station near the airport.

Parliamentary elections have been indefinitely postponed. Radio programs have become soap boxes for opposition leaders to strike the government while it is down. A nation that had been looking forward to a rare, peaceful transfer of power is now experiencing familiar — albeit faint — rumblings of chaos and coups.

This is how the article ends.

Still, some parents in Haiti have openly said that they would consider parting with their children if it meant a better life elsewhere. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and while the country is in need of help many citizens have mixed feelings toward Christian groups and their activities in Haiti.

“Some parents I know have already given their children to foreigners,” Adonis Helman, 44, told The A.P. “I’ve been thinking how I will choose which one I may give — probably my youngest.”

This is how it starts.

10 Americans Arrested in Haiti Await Charges
By DERRICK HENRY and JACK HEALY

Ten Americans arrested in Haiti for trying to take 33 children across the Dominican border without proper documentation were waiting to learn Monday whether they would face criminal charges of child trafficking and kidnapping.

Members of the group, Baptists from the United States, said they had been falsely accused of child abduction and insisted they were only trying to rescue orphans in the wake of the earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital on Jan. 12.

But some Haitian officials were quick to paint the Americans as kidnappers, illustrating how the case was becoming a lightning rod for fears that child traffickers or unscrupulous adoption agencies could try to take advantage of the chaos in Haiti.

The Haitian prime minister told Reuters that “we did not arrest Americans, we arrested kidnappers,” and he said the church members could face serious charges. But the Haitian justice minister and a lawyer for the Americans said there was also a possibility that the group could be returned to the United States.

Jorge Puello, a lawyer for the detained Americans in the Dominican Republic, said in an interview that his clients had not yet been charged with any crime and “are being falsely accused” of trying to traffic the children out of Haiti. Mr. Puello said that the Americans were being held in unsanitary conditions and had not eaten in two days, and that he was not allowed to see his clients when he tried to visit them a day earlier.

Not just once, either.

Justice Alito's candid response to Obama's rebuke
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, February 1, 2010; A17

The nation owes a substantial debt to Justice Samuel Alito for his display of unhappiness over President Obama's criticisms of the Supreme Court's recent legislation -- excuse me, decision -- opening our electoral system to a new torrent of corporate money.

Alito's inability to restrain himself during the State of the Union address brought to wide attention a truth that too many have tried to ignore: The Supreme Court is now dominated by a highly politicized conservative majority intent on working its will, even if that means ignoring precedents and the wishes of the elected branches of government.

Obama called the court on this, and Alito shook his head and apparently mouthed "not true." His was the honest reaction of a judicial activist who believes he has the obligation to impose his version of right reason on the rest of us.

The controversy also exposed the impressive capacity of the conservative judicial revolutionaries to live by double standards without apology.

Civil rights icon Joseph Lowery admitted to hospital
By Ty Tagami and Ernie Suggs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

12:07 a.m. Monday, February 1, 2010

Famed civil rights leader and Atlanta legend Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery has been admitted to a hospital intensive care unit, but friends say his condition is not serious.

Lowery, who last summer received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, was scheduled to attend an African American achievement award ceremony Saturday, but didn't make it, longtime friend and fellow civil rights leader Andrew Young told the AJC late Sunday.

"He was having shortness of breath, and he didn't come to the Trumpet Awards last night," Young said, adding that Lowery "has been in and out of the hospital before. I have not heard that it was serious. I think he was having some respiratory problems."

U.S. to Resume Airlift of Injured Haitians
By PETER BAKER and JOSEPH BERGER

With an estimated 200,000 people in Haiti dead and a similar number injured, the halt to the evacuations quickly evolved into a roiling controversy distracting from the enormous efforts made by the United States to help. Aid groups complained that the suspension was putting lives at risk, while officials from Florida to Washington provided conflicting explanations and disclaimed responsibility for the decision.

Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida wrote to the Obama administration last week warning that “Florida’s health care system is quickly reaching saturation” and requesting that the National Disaster Medical System be activated to help with the cost. The military suspended the flights, saying that Florida hospitals had stopped accepting patients.

But Mr. Crist adamantly denied that and, as Florida newspapers dubbed it the “airlift scandal,” said he never wanted to stop taking the injured; he only wanted more help.

U.S. Examines Whether Blackwater Tried Bribery
By MARK MAZZETTI and JAMES RISEN

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is investigating whether officials of Blackwater Worldwide tried to bribe Iraqi government officials in hopes of retaining the firm’s security work in Iraq after a deadly shooting episode in 2007, according to current and former government officials.

The officials said that the Justice Department’s fraud section opened the inquiry late last year to determine whether Blackwater employees violated a federal law banning American corporations from paying bribes to foreign officials.

The inquiry is the latest fallout from the shooting in Nisour Square in Baghdad, which left 17 Iraqis dead and stoked bitter resentment against the United States.

A federal judge in December dismissed criminal charges against five former Blackwater guards implicated in the episode, but Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. recently announced that the Obama administration would appeal that decision.