The Nation: Watch For Misdirection in Bush's State of The Union

This president has used his yearly speeches to misstate intelligence data in order to deceive the Congress and the American people about supposed threats to national security, as Bush did in his 2003 address. And he has repeatedly used State of the Union addresses to foster the false impression that misnamed programs -- such as the so-called "Patriot" and "No Child Left Behind" acts -- are actually designed to protect and serve the American people. Tonight, the president will deliver the second State of the Union address of a second term gone awry.

The Nation magazine has the remainder of the story.

Slate: What's Wrong With the President's State of The Union Address

Slate magazine has an interesting take on the ritual State of the Union Speech.

Sweeping Anti-abortion Laws Proposed

Legislators in at least five states are proposing bold anti-abortion measures as the Bush administration reshapes the U.S. Supreme Court. With the goal of challenging the Roe vs. Wade ruling that ensured a woman's right to an abortion, lawmakers in Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Dakota and Tennessee propose banning all abortions except when the woman's life is in danger, Stateline.org reported. If enacted, legal experts said the laws would be the first absolute abortion bans since the landmark 1973 ruling.

Alito Sworn In As Newest Supreme Court Justice

Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice on Tuesday after being confirmed by the Senate in one of the most partisan victories in modern history.

Alito was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts in a private ceremony at the Supreme Court building across from the Capitol at about 12:40 p.m. eastern standard time.

State of the Union: Bush Scaling Down his Agenda

George W. Bush will give his fifth annual State of the Union message tonight. Independent voters have been leaving the president and this will probably his most important audience. Many Americans including these independents feel the nation was heading in the right direction with poll numbers well below 50 percent

Recently the White House has telegraphed the major elements of this year's speech: an initiative to make healthcare more affordable, ideas to reduce US dependence on foreign energy, a call to extend tax cuts. The defining issues of Mr. Bush's presidency - the Iraq war and larger war on terror - will also occupy center stage.

With the presiden'ts support waning, he is forced to scale down his agenda. The Christian Science Monitor has the story.

Coretta Scott King Wife of Civil Rights Leader Dies

Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband's assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.

The rest of the Washington Post story.

Black History Museum to Be Built in D.C.

February is Black History Month and it is therefore appropriate that here on the eve of the month comes the announcement of the Black History Museum in Washington D.C.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture will be built on the National Mall near the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian Institution said Monday.

The National Mall features monuments to presidents and several museums that are part of the Smithsonian.

Here is the story on the museum.

State of The Union Speech 2006 Seen as Crucial for Bush

tomorrow's State of the Union Speech by president George Bush is critical, experts say, as Bush tries to bolster his own popularity as poll numbers continue to drop. The president will try to boost the fortunes of a Republican Party tainted by scandal, grappling with soaring budget deficits and consumed by the war in Iraq.

A preview of the importance of the speech here.

Sen. Obama Criticizes Filibuster Tactic

I am going to inject my personal observations with regards to this story. I don't know what the national Democratic Party or the Democratic senators sitting on the the judiciary committee are thinking with regards to the filibuster issue on the Alito nomination. I must congratulate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill for the courage to step forward and be the voice of reason.

The AP story says Senator Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., predicted on Sunday that an effort to try to block a final vote on Alito would fail on Monday. That would clear the way for Senate approval Tuesday of the federal appeals court judge picked to succeed the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Democrats fear he would shift the court rightward on abortion rights, affirmative action, the death penalty and other issues.

"We need to recognize, because Judge Alito will be confirmed, that, if we're going to oppose a nominee that we've got to persuade the American people that, in fact, their values are at stake," Obama said.

The shortcomings of the Democratic party in recent years is that they have decided to simply speak to the rank and file and have forsaken simple persuasion.

Good job Senator!

Democrats in 2 Southern States Push Bills on Bible Study

Democrats in Georgia and Alabama, borrowing an idea usually advanced by conservative Republicans, are promoting Bible classes in the public schools. Their Republican opponents are in turn denouncing them as "pharisees," a favorite term of liberals for politicians who exploit religion.

Democrats in both states have introduced bills authorizing school districts to teach courses modeled after a new textbook, "The Bible and Its Influence." It was produced by the nonpartisan, ecumenical Bible Literacy Project and provides an assessment of the Bible's impact on history, literature and art that is academic and detached, if largely laudatory.

The Democrats who introduced the bills said they hoped to compete with Republicans for conservative Christian voters. "Rather than sitting back on our heels and then being knocked in our face, we are going to respond in a thoughtful way," said Kasim Reed, a Georgia state senator from Atlanta and one of the sponsors of the bill. "We are not going to give away the South anymore because we are unwilling to talk about our faith."

The rest of the New York Times story.

Republicans in the House of Representatives Need a New Leader and a New Image

The former majority leader, Tom DeLay, stepped down after he was indicted in a Texas fundraising case and linked to crooked lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

So where is the GOP seeking this fresh face and new start? With two lawmakers - Roy Blunt of Missouri and John Boehner of Ohio - who have cozy relations with lobbyists and a penchant for accepting perks from corporate friends.

A third candidate for majority leader, John Shadegg of Arizona, is less enmeshed with the lobbying establishment and high-powered fundraising. That's one reason he's given virtually no chance of winning. Politicians who don't raise big money and spread it around to colleagues don't often find themselves in line to be congressional leaders.

We don't presume to tell House Republicans which of their colleagues to pick when they vote next Thursday, but the public has a big stake in the outcome. The majority leader, second only to the House speaker on the leadership ladder, has a key role in setting Congress' agenda. DeLay, for example, was the driving force behind the impeachment of President Clinton.

The leadership race demonstrates how Congress' corrupt culture extends beyond DeLay and Abramoff.

The rest of the article.

Leading Publication Shut Down In China

BEIJING, Jan. 24 -- China's ruling Communist Party on Tuesday suspended one of the premier publications in Chinese journalism, escalating a campaign to rein in the state media, part of the government's toughest crackdown on freedom of expression here in more than a decade.

The decision to shut down Freezing Point, a four-page weekly feature section of the state-run China Youth Daily that often tested the censors and challenged the party line, came less than a month after the authorities replaced the top editors of another daring newspaper, the Beijing News.

More.

Los Angeles' Villaraigosa to Give Dems State of Union Response

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will give the Spanish-language response to President Bush's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Democratic congressional leaders announced.

Villaraigosa has been seen as a rising Democratic star since his election in May as the first Hispanic in 133 years to lead Los Angeles, the country's second-largest city. He will deliver his remarks from his Los Angeles office, said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

"Mayor Villaraigosa is working hard to increase economic opportunity and provide affordable and quality education for the people of Los Angeles," Reid and Pelosi said in a joint statement Wednesday. "As the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in more than a century, we are proud to have his diverse voice within the party."

More.

The Life of a Human Smuggler

By Richard Marosi
LA Times Staff Writer

January 25, 2006

TIJUANA — The Mexican gang of human smugglers, hiding behind the wobbly fence of a drab town house, prepare the car for the latest run across the border.

Two young men wipe down the dusty windshield and check the brake lights while three migrants wait silently inside the house.

Finally, the driver arrives, an American who puffs nervously on a cheap cigarette and calls himself Trent. Accompanying Trent is Felix, the heavyset smuggling boss.

"Venganse!" — "Let's get going!" — a gang member yells. One by one, the migrants get in the trunk, twisting to fit inside. The one woman hesitates. She crosses herself. She steps in.

Curled beside one another, the migrants look up at the gang member.

"It won't be long, 20 minutes," he promises. "Don't move," he adds, slamming the lid shut. Within minutes, Trent drives the car into a sea of traffic inching toward the row of U.S. inspection booths at the border.

Here is the rest of the story.

A Chzech Toke on Freedom

By Jeffrey Fleishman
LA Times Staff Writer

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The man with the dancing eyebrows and the blurry tattoo stands in the chilled night and opens the barred gate to his apartment. A dog sleeps on the bed; a snapping turtle floats inside a glass coffee table. A fan hums and a hot light glows in the bathroom, where 11 marijuana plants ripple like a tiny field against the porcelain.

Sit, says J.X. Dolezal, a kind of Czech version of the late Hunter S. Thompson who has written the books "How to Take Drugs" and "Stoned County." He opens a box. There's a sprinkle across paper, a nimble roll of the fingers, a lick, a match strike, a curl of smoke — and a smile.

"Do you mind?" says Dolezal, his face slightly obscured as he exhales. "Excuse me if I don't offer you any. This marijuana's often too strong for my visitors. I had to resuscitate one guy for almost an hour once. You know, a higher percentage of people here grow their own marijuana than probably anywhere. It's typically Czech: a do-it-yourself nation."

The Czechs do like their weed. A 2005 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that 22% of Czechs between 16 and 34 had smoked marijuana at least once during the previous year, the highest percentage in the European Union. The nation's cannabis culture is imbued with the whimsical ethos of the hippie movement: guys growing dope in fields, on balconies and in bathrooms, and sharing with friends.

The rest of the story is here.

Minutemen Not Welcome in Orange County Parade

By Jennifer Delson
Times Staff Writer

The Minuteman Project citizen patrol, known for its skirmishes over illegal immigration, is now in a skirmish over a Laguna Beach parade.

At issue is the 40th annual Patriots Day parade, a homespun event put on by a nonprofit group in Laguna.

The Minuteman Project applied this month to participate in the March 4 event through downtown Laguna but was rejected by parade organizers, who cited the 25-year-old parade bylaws that say, "No religious or political entries shall be permitted."

The Minuteman entry "is obviously a political entry," said Charles J. Quilter II, vice president of the Patriots Day Parade Assn. "This isn't that kind of event. It's got Brownies and Boy Scouts and Friends of the Library."

Click here for the rest of the story from the LA Times.

US Supreme Court Opens Campaign Law to Challenges

By Linda Greenhouse
NY Times

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 - The Supreme Court, ruling on Monday in an important campaign finance case, opened the door to a new round of legal challenges to the limits Congress placed four years ago on election advertisements paid for by corporations and broadcast during the weeks before federal elections.

The court's opinion was surprising, coming only six days after the argument. It was unsigned, barely two pages long and unanimous.

It may, however, have considerable impact, given that two years ago the court itself appeared to foreclose further challenges to the "electioneering communications" part of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. The court upheld the law, usually called McCain-Feingold after its Senate sponsors, in a 5-to-4 decision that considered multiple free-speech challenges to the statute "on its face" rather than in particular applications.

The court ruled on Monday that both the government and a special three-judge Federal District Court here had misinterpreted its earlier decision as foreclosing future challenges to the advertising restrictions as they applied to particular advertisements or corporate sponsors.

More at the NY Times.

Poll: Public Uneasy With GOP Leadership

By WILL LESTER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Dissatisfied with the nation's direction, Americans are leaning toward wanting a change in which political party leads Congress — preferring that Democrats take control, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Democrats are favored over Republicans 49 percent to 36 percent.

The polling came as disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to tax evasion, fraud and corruption charges and agreed to aid a federal investigation of members of Congress and other government officials.

President Bush's job approval remains low — 40 percent in the AP-Ipsos poll, with only one-third saying the country is headed in the right direction. Bush also remains low on his handling of Iraq, where violence against Iraqis and U.S. troops has been surging.

"I just don't like the direction our country is going in," said Steve Brown, a political independent from Olympia, Wash. "I think a balance of power would be beneficial right now."

Republicans are watching the situation unfold with some nervousness.

The rest of the story.

Republicans Worried About Party Faithful

Cisneros Home Town Paper Agrees: Independent Counsel Excessive

The San Antonio Express News has also taken the position that the Cisneros probe was a waste of money and time.

Independent counsel David Barrett's absurdly long investigation into matters that started with Henry Cisneros' payments to a lover came to an end with the release of a final report Thursday.

Barrett should have thrown in the towel several years and millions of dollars earlier. In all, he spent more than 10 years and $22 million on the case, as the Express-News reported.

Barrett's parting shot includes acerbic complaints that high-ranking officials in the IRS and the Department of Justice — during the Clinton administration — thwarted his probe and mishandled evidence that suggested Cisneros underreported taxable income in the early 1990s.

Read on.

Cisneros Investigation Officially Over, I Think

The New York Times agrees with most people that the 10-year, 21 million dollar investigation of Henry Cisneros was a disappointed excess in abuse of power and not by Cisneros or the Clintons but the independent counsel.

The checkered history of independent counsel investigations of high-profile officials ended with a 746-page thud yesterday. After 10 years, some $21 million and a great deal of cheerleading from the Republican majority in the House, the investigation of Henry Cisneros, the former housing secretary, is finally over.

Mr. Cisneros admitted long, long ago to lying about payments to a former mistress when he accepted a cabinet post in the Clinton administration. He paid a $10,000 fine after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor more than six years ago. But critics accused the Clinton administration of a cover-up and demanded an independent search for the truth. Reasonable people differed on whether that was necessary, but no one expected a grinding, decade-long quest to find a bigger, more interesting crime.

Here is the rest of theNY Times editorial.

Lawmakers May Have To Pay For Their Own Travel

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), seeking to distance his party from the lobbying scandal that has enveloped Congress, on Tuesday proposed putting an end to one of the most popular perks on Capitol Hill — travel paid for by private groups.

He also wants to double the amount of time that a former lawmaker or senior staffer must wait before lobbying Congress, and put strict limits on gifts that lawmakers may accept.

If the proposals became law, they would significantly change the way business is done on Capitol Hill. Senate Republicans on Tuesday announced their own emerging package of lobbying and ethics reforms that included a travel ban.

"I know that fact-finding trips are important," Hastert said. But such travel, which sometimes takes lawmakers to luxurious resorts and exotic locales, "has been abused by some, and I believe we need to put an end to it," he said.

Every year, trade organizations, think tanks and other groups spend millions of dollars funding trips — whether they be one-day workshops in congressional districts or weeklong travel abroad.

The story.

Obama Backs Clinton's Criticism of GOP

The AP reports that Sen. Barack Obama and other black Democrats are defending Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's description of the House of Representatives as a "plantation." Today the presnt day First lady, Laura Bush says that the former First lady, Clinton's remark was "ridiculous."

Senator Clinton, a potential presidential candidate for 2008, did not retreat from the "plantation" remark, telling reporters the term accurately describes the "top-down" way the GOP runs Congress.

Obama said Wednesday he felt her choice of words referred to a "consolidation of power" in Washington that squeezes out the voters.

The Illinois senator told a tv reporter he believed that Clinton was merely expressing concern that special interests play such a large role in writing legislation that "the ordinary voter and even members of Congress who aren't in the majority party don't have much input."

"There's been a consolidation of power by the Republican Congress and this White House in which, if you are the ordinary voter, you don't have access," Obama said. "That should be a source of concern for all of us."

The story.

Democrats Assail Republican 'Culture of Corruption'

Congressional Democrats today laid out a plan to change what they called a Republican "culture of corruption" in Washington, trying to secure a political advantage even as they wrestle with ethics charges against their own lawmakers.

Democratic leaders from the House and Senate endorsed a set of proposals that closely mirror Republican plans unveiled this week to tighten regulations on lobbyists in the wake of the Jack Abramoff political corruption scandal. But in a sign that an ethical "arms race" may be developing, the Democratic plans go further than the Republicans' proposals.

Rather than limiting the value of a gift to $20, as House Republicans are considering, the Democrats would prohibit all gifts from lobbyists. And the Democrats take direct aim at some of the legislative practices that have taken root in the last 10 years of Republican rule in Congress. They vowed to end the K Street Project, under which Republicans in Congress pressure lobbying organizations to hire only Republican staff and contribute only to Republican candidates.

The Washington Post story.

Let's Accept the Fault Line Between Faith and Science

Edward O. Wilson lays out an opinion piece regarding the perennial culture war between science and fundamentalist Christianity.

He notes that the the debate about evolution seems insoluble. The reason, he argues, is because it is insoluble.

China Beat Columbus To America, Maybe

Look closely at this map. You may be looking at a Chinese map showing America. The Chinese map however pre-dates Columbus' discovery of America.

The story that follows talks about the history and intrigue about the map and the ongoing debate over who discovered America.

In Asia, English is Useful but Mandarin is Rising

A second story on the rise of China and the Mandarin language.

The Next Big Must Learn Language: Chinese

The number of students learning Chinese is tiny compared with how many study Spanish or French. But one report shows that precollegiate enrollment nearly quadrupled between 1992 and 2002.

The story.

States Take On Border Issues

In the first six months of last year, states considered about 300 immigration-related bills and passed 36 of them, the National Conference of State Legislatures said. States increasing are passing immigration-related bills because they sense Congress will not act fast enough.

The Los Angeles Times has a good story regarding how states are addressing this issue.

Martin Luther King: "I Have A Dream"

Martin Luther King was the moral conscience of our country at a time when some still failed to follow the fundamental principles of basic human dignity contained in our constitution and that we claimed to live by.

Click here to listen to his "I Have A Dream" speech.

The speech was given on August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The speech is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The next year, King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Still Seeking a Fair Vote

By Nick Kotz

Forty-one years ago, on Jan. 15, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson placed a phone call to congratulate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his 36th birthday -- but mainly to strategize about how they could win a monumental victory for equal rights. King was in Selma, Ala., where he had just launched a dramatic campaign to show how African Americans in the Deep South were being denied the right to vote. He had chosen Selma because of that city's notorious success in blocking its black residents from the polls. Those who dared to attempt to register risked their lives. They endured bloody beatings, lost their jobs, saw their homes and churches bombed. Some were brutally murdered.

"There is not going to be anything, Doctor, as effective as all [black citizens] voting," the president told King in that birthday call. "That will give you a message that all the eloquence in the world won't bring, because the candidate or elected official will be coming to you then, instead of you calling him."

"You're exactly right about that," King replied. "It is so important to get Negroes registered to vote in large numbers. It would be this coalition of the Negro vote and the moderate white vote that would really make the New South."

After a brilliant political campaign orchestrated by the president and the preacher, Congress passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law swept away the most brazen tactics used to keep minorities from the polls. Millions of black citizens surged onto voter registration rolls throughout the South. The ballot power of those new voters -- combined with the 1964 Civil Rights Act's prohibition against segregation and employment discrimination -- ushered in the hopeful beginnings of the kind of New South that King and Johnson had envisioned.

Civility replaced official repression and terrorism. Hundreds of blacks won public office at all levels, including in Congress, where Artur Davis, a Harvard-educated lawyer, now represents the Alabama district that includes Selma. A growing black and Hispanic middle class has prospered in the South and Southwest.

But despite the enormous gains, old problems persist. The winds of Hurricane Katrina blew away the veil shielding complacent eyes from the desperate poverty of the blacks in New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward. And a Texas congressional redistricting dispute now before the Supreme Court has cast a spotlight on the lengths to which politicians will go for narrow partisan advantage -- even disenfranchising minority voters.

Masterminding the controversial redistricting plan approved in 2003, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay shuffled thousands of African American and Hispanic voters between Texas congressional districts like pawns on a chessboard. With mathematical efficiency, DeLay redrew voting district boundaries to ensure that Republicans would gain five additional House seats. His goal: to further cement his own power and Republican control of the House of Representatives.

In Dallas and Austin, Republicans won new congressional seats after the DeLay map broke up large concentrations of urban black and Hispanic Democratic voters, then scattered them thinly throughout other Republican-dominated districts -- many extending into rural areas far from the voters' homes. These maneuvers violated standard redistricting principles, such as trying to maintain geographically compact districts and respecting county and city boundaries.

Gerrymandering for partisan advantage is almost as old as the nation itself. But the Voting Rights Act, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, forbids state and local governments from creating districts that clearly reduce the ability of minority voters to elect "candidates of their choice." Civil rights organizations that have appealed the Texas redistricting contend that it violates the 1965 law, stripping away the ability of tens of thousands of minority voters to elect candidates of their choice.

A large majority of black and Hispanic voters regularly favor Democratic candidates. Therefore, Republican politicians, particularly in Southern and Southwestern states, have used redistricting to break the minorities' power to help elect Democrats. Democrats, in turn, have sought to manipulate the minority voter pool to elect as many from their party as possible -- both minority and white candidates. Caught in this crossfire, black and Hispanic Democrats at times have made tacit "devil's bargains" with their Republican foes, in which they ensure at least some victories for themselves in districts with heavy minority populations. These "pragmatic" Democrats also ensure Republican victories in heavily white districts.

The Supreme Court has the opportunity to reaffirm and clarify the central purposes of the Voting Rights Act. And Congress can and should honor King's memory by renewing important parts of the voting rights law that otherwise will expire next year, thus advancing his ideal of a more representative democracy.

Chile Elects First Woman President

Alright Americans of these United States do you feel a little embarrassed that the United States has not been able to achieve what a male dominated South American country was able to achieve by the election of Michelle Bachelet.

Michelle Bachelet, a physician who was elected Sunday as president of Chile is an agnostic, and guitar-strumming child of the 60's who spent part of her childhood in the United States.

Perhaps this is an omen of things to come.

The story.

My Lai Massacre Savior Dies - US Hero And Moral Example

"These people were looking at me for help and there was no way I could turn my back on them,"

Thompson,1998 AP interview.

We lost an American hero earlier this month. Sad thing is, in life Hugh Thompson never was quite recognized as a hero. Rather he was scorned by some of the same people he served with.

Hugh Thompson, was an Army helicopter pilot who, with his two younger crew mates, was on a mission to draw enemy fire over the Vietnamese village of My Lai in March, 1968.

Hovering over a paddy field, they watched a platoon of American soldiers led by Lt. William Calley, deliberately shoot unarmed Vietnamese civilians, mainly women and children, cowering in muddy ditches. Thompson landed his craft and appealed to the soldiers, and to Calley, to stop the killings.

Here is the full story that is worth reading.

This good soul will not be forgotten. His heroism is a shining example of the rare individual who does the right thing despite the pressures that are placed upon them. More and more people quietly honor Mr. Thompson for his courageous actions back in 1968.

This author wanted to honor his memory with a brief mention on this new journal and encourage younger Americans to learn about a good spirit that in difficult times made so many of us proud.

Cesca: Bush's Secret Smear Campaign Against Murtha And Other Servicemen

Isn't it awesome that Republican Party operatives can get away with smearing the patriotism and service records of one combat veteran after another, all the while painting themselves as the more patriotic, pro-military faction? It's the perfect illustration of how the Bush/Cheney/Rove era has fostered an atmosphere of non-reality-based deception and propaganda.

Politics over all else.

This weekend, the swift-boating of John Murtha's service record began in an article which questions, amongst other things, Murtha's Purple Heart commendations. I would link to the ridiculous GOP propaganda "news" source which posted the first volley, but refuse to dignify their legitimacy. The same goes for the popular right-wing blog that dittos these claims. Suffice to say, the article fits perfectly into the template used against other combat veterans who at one time opposed the president and his policies.

And pundits dare to ask, "Why don't the congressional Democrats stand up?" The answer to this question is remarkably simple. If the patriotism and service records of Max Cleland and John Murtha are fair game, how can any non-veteran Democrats possibly stand up without suffering a far more brutal fate?

Meanwhile, the Republicans will continue to be labeled the party of patriotism, the military, and national security. For the life of me, I can't figure this one out.

They've completely bungled and botched the first large-scale war since Vietnam. They bungled, botched, and have since all but ignored the first major national disaster since 9/11. As a matter of course, they engage in covert plots to take down "unfriendlies" who have served meritoriously while very few of the GOP power players have ever served in a combat zone. They refuse to properly equip the soldiers serving in Iraq, leading to casualty figures close to -- if not beyond -- the 20,000 mark.

Furthermore, if it's not clear to you right now, it will be soon: they will scapegoat the military commanders and soldiers fighting the Iraq War just as shamelessly as they have the others. President Bush, via the calculated strategy of his Round Table, likes to say from the comfort of his bubble that he's leaving military decisions up to the commanders on the ground. Clearly and conveniently, this allows him to dodge accountability, which can easily be shifted to those soldiers. Abu Ghraib and Al-Qaqaa, for example -- both of which were blamed, not on policies of the administration, but on the soldiers on the ground.

Sure, the "all-new and all-responsible for 2006" George W. Bush will say publicly that he's responsible for the decision to go to war, but that's obviously where his responsibility ends. Everything that goes wrong and has gone wrong isn't truly his fault, of course. Even if he were to miraculously take a hit for a specific mistake, we all know from past experience that any admission by the president would be tempered and diluted with some sort of underground swift-boating of a political opponent.

Like John Murtha.

Republican operatives like to say that by criticizing the president and his policies, progressives and Democrats are denigrating the troops and undermining the war. But ask yourself, what undermines the war and the military more severely: dissecting the president, or literally dissecting combat soldiers and veterans? I would suggest that an administration which inadequately supplies soldiers currently in a war zone, and a party whose underground operatives routinely besmirch the records of combat veterans are, in fact, doing far more to damage the war effort and the military than any amount of negativity directed toward President Bush.

Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should be ashamed of what's being done to Murtha and others like him -- ordinary Republicans and military families especially, whose votes and support are being subverted by their leaders for heartless and immoral political points.

And those constituents who don't mind these kinds of tactics should be asked point-blank: is this how you prefer to debate Iraq? George W. Bush said in another staged and pre-screened town hall meeting last week that he welcomes a debate on the issues surrounding the war and his administration. But the swift-boating of John Murtha, preceded by the president's hilariously artificial town hall meeting, proves that Bush has no such intention. Instead, the party and movement of which he's the leader would rather assassinate the character of another decorated combat veteran.

The only thing more outrageous than the swift-boating of John Murtha is that "the party of patriotism, the military, and national security" continues to be taken seriously.

by Bob Cesca, Huffington Post

Virginia Governor Finds New Middle Ground in Death Penalty Debate

Vampire Seeks Job As Minnesota Governor

Minnesota voters, may have elected a former professional wrestler as their governor eight years ago, if one man, I mean self-proclaimed vampire has his way, Minnesota may have a more unique officeholder.

"Politics is a cut-throat business," said Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, who said he plans to announce his bid for governor Friday on the ticket of the Vampyres, Witches and Pagans Party.

"I'm a satanist who doesn't hate Jesus," Sharkey told Reuters. "I just hate God the Father."

However, he claims to respect all religions and if elected, will post "everything from the Ten Commandments to the Wicca Reed" in government buildings.

The story.

Sam Alito America And Ours

By Maggie Gallagher

The most moving part of Sam Alito's Senate testimony Monday was about his immigrant father: "He grew up in poverty. Although he graduated at the top of his high school class, he had no money for college. And he was set to work in a factory, but at the last minute, a kind person in the Trenton area arranged for him to receive a $50 scholarship." It was enough to buy tuition at a local college and "one used suit."

It was enough to change a man's life.

Sam Alito called his dad's story "typical." Sam Alito's America is a place full of opportunity, where human lives can be changed by "hard work and perseverance" but also by generosity, the "power of a small good deed."

By the time Alito got to Princeton in the late '60s, he saw another view of America. "I saw some very smart people and very privileged people behaving irresponsibly, and I couldn't help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on the campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community."

Thus was a conservative jurist born.

By the time Sam Alito got to Yale law school, something else had begun to change: the role of the university in creating class mobility. "Meritocracy" was originally used by Ivies as an excuse to erect barriers to academically gifted Jews. By the early '60s, elite colleges had sought to transform themselves into engines of meritocracy, places where intellectually gifted kids could be plucked from obscurity and launched toward achievement. Yale was a leader of that educational movement, says Jerome Karabel in a new book, "The Chosen."

Increasingly, however, the cherished ideal of education as an engine of class mobility is going head to head with the ideal of education as a meritocracy based on academic ability.

According to an essay in the current issue of Yale alumni magazine, only 3 percent of students at highly selective colleges come from families in the bottom economic quartile. Just 15 percent of Yale students now benefit from a new initiative designed to help students whose families earn less than $60,000 (or, a little above the U.S. household median). Meanwhile, two-thirds of all students who score at least 1300 on SATs come from the top quartile of family income, while just 3 percent come from the bottom quartile.

As America gets better at making sure nothing gets in the way of ability, a new fixed class of privilege may be emerging: a cognitive elite. Here's my theory: America's past success at creating a culture of opportunity (including women) means that America has gotten very good at identifying those with cognitive ability and funneling them toward elite institutions. There, they meet, marry each other and reproduce powerful social advantages for their children through at least three mechanism: genes, human capital and moral capital. Children born to, say, two Yale grads are more likely to be born with cognitive ability, and to have parents who can educate them informally and also encourage successful habits (from doing homework to intellectual curiosity).

Meanwhile, smart, disciplined, focused, poor 18-year-olds like Sam Alito's dad, whose lives can be transformed by $50 (or even full local college tuition), are still out there, but they are surely harder to find these days. The new barriers to success among poor children (fatherlessness, neighborhood chaos, poor schools, rampant substance abuse and a distracting sexual culture) are not the type that college admission officers can do much about.

Which is no excuse for the rest of us who live in Sam Alito's America to give up trying. I bet Alito's dad used to say, like mine did: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

(Readers may reach Maggie Gallagher at MaggieBox2004@yahoo.com.)

Alito Likely To Be Confirmed As Justice

The Washington Post story.

GOP Contest Guided By Lessons Of Battles Past

The Washington Post story.

Delay Participates in Meeting To Chose His Successor

The Dallas Morning News carries the story of a meeting of Texas GOP House members meeting in Dallas to help chose a successor to the fallen House Majority Leader.

Guess who participates with them? None other than the man who got this country in the corruption scandal -- Tom Delay.

My favorite line from the story comes from one of the congressmen at the meeting: "To find somebody who has no ties to K Street, who's never taken a dollar from anybody ... can we find anybody in our conference that's like that? Not likely."

Trying to find an honest man in Washington politics is getting tougher and tougher, isn't it boys!

Bill Day Cartoon: NSA

NSA Employee Reveals Himself As Whistleblower Who Reported "Illegal" Domestic Spying

Russell Tice, a longtime employee at the National Security Agency, has revealed himself to be the whistleblower the agency wants to keep quiet. Tice told the New York Times about abuses at the NSA and forced the President to reveal what many consider to be illegal activity.

I don't know about you guys but I have serious reservations about this administration's domestic spying program. The simple task of asking a court for permission, even if after the fact, seems to be a simple step, this administration avoids, that might protect us from government abuses.

President Bush has admitted that he gave orders that allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without the usual requisite warrants.

Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions.

I sure hope the feds leave Mr. Tice alone. The story seems to indicate they are already doing a number on him, questioning his mental stability. That sort of thing was common in the old Soviet Union and has no place in the USA.

Next thing we will hear is that an IRS audit in the works. Nothing surprises me anymore with this administration.

I applaud Mr. Tice for coming forward and hope improvements can be made. We will monitor how this government continues to treat Mr. Tice. I hope you do the same.

The full story from ABC News.

House Leaders Consider Prohibition On Lobby Paid Travel

House Republicans, seeking to recover their standing with voters in the wake of a lobbying scandal, are considering a total ban on privately funded congressional trips, the lawmaker leading the reform effort said Wednesday.

Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., said GOP leaders were "seriously considering" the need to eliminate all privately financed travel. "That would be a very strong statement. We want to be bold," said Dreier, chairman of the House Rules Committee.

The rest of the story.

Recall Petition Filed Against Louisiana Governor Blanco

Faulting governor Blanco for failing to adequately respond to hurricane Katrina a Louisiana woman has filed a petition to remove governor Blanco from her seat.

Iraq Veterans Return Home And Run For Office As Democrats

The Atlantic Monthly runs the story of the number of Iraq veterans who have returned home only to run for office as Democrats.

Gov. Mark Warner For President?

A very close friend who worked for Virginia governor Mark Warner has suggested that I assist in the effort to have Gov. Warner elected president. I am impressed with this Democrat who was able to maintain high popularity numbers in a southern conservatives state.

I would invite you to give Gov. Warner a look as he is a strong contender to Mrs. Clinton in the Democratic primary building up to the next national elections.

Here is the Washington Post story.

More And More Mexican Women Willing To Risk All To Enter US

The New York Times tells the heart-wrenching struggles of Mexican women who are willing to risk, safety, family and their homeland in search of a better life for their families by seeking employment in the United States.

Regardless of your position on immigration the NY Times story describes a growing choice of hardship and pain by some Mexican women who cross illegally in search of work.

Texas Court Of Criminal Appeals Turns Delay Down

The state's highest criminal court on Monday denied Rep. Tom DeLay's request for a dismissal of the money laundering charges against him.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the requests with no written order two days after he announced he was not seeking to return as House majority leader. DeLay previously was forced to relinquish the Republican leadership post on a temporary basis due to the indictment brought against him.

The Dallas Morning News features the AP story.

Bush Spokesman Goes Out on a Limb: He's for Mom

Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, is reported to have asked the president for guidence on the Texas governor's race. "I asked him for his guidance about what he wanted me to say about the Texas governor's race."

As everyone in Texas knows, Mr. McClellan's mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the state's comptroller, had announced that she would run as an independent in 2006 against the Republican incumbent, Gov. Rick Perry.

McCellan account of the president's response is as follows: "The president will support the Republican nominee, and I think it's pretty clear the Republican nominee will be his friend Rick Perry," Mr. McClellan said.

As for his mother, Mr. McClellan said, "My mother cares deeply about Texas, and she has my full support."

The story.

Miner Leaves An Hour By Hour Report Before He Died

The AP story of how one of the miners involved in the recent accident left an hour by hour report before he died.

Carlos Guerra: Seasoned Campaign Finance Reformer Views Latest D.C. Scandal

The commentary from Carlos Guerra of the San Antonio Express newspaper.

More And More Companies Failing To Honor Pensions

A sad but true story. The working people are paying a heavy price under the current economic circumstances. Companies in ailing industries like steel, airlines and auto parts are filing bankruptcy and turned over their ruined pension plans to the federal government.

The New York Time story.

Analysis: GOP Troubles Do Not End With DeLay

Republicans worried about their party's future have succeeded in pushing embattled former Majority Leader Tom DeLay off the stage. Even so, the Republicans' election-year troubles are far from over.

President Bush, the titular head of the GOP, is waging an unpopular war in Iraq and presiding over a nation with lingering economic anxieties. He suffers from approval ratings around 40 percent — near record lows for his presidency. Questionable stock transactions by the top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, are under investigation. A special prosecutor's probe continues into whether Bush administration officials outed a CIA operative in retribution for her husband's Iraq war criticism. A secret anti-terror program that Bush approved to eavesdrop on people inside the United States without warrants is raising concerns about overly broad presidential powers.

The rest of the AP story here.

Two Mid-Westerners Aim To Suceed DeLay

WASHINGTON - In a race framed by scandal, Republican Reps. Roy Blunt and John Boehner pledged action on a reform agenda Sunday as they launched competing campaigns to succeed Tom DeLay as House majority leader.

The rest of the AP story here.

GOP Struggling To Avoid Label of Party Of Corruption

Newsweek describes the efforts people in Washington are making to avoid the "corruption" label. But does the culture of corruption run too deep for them to stop. Will the mid-term elections force Republicans to run from the Delay related corruption trials?

Majority of Americans Want Court Permission Before Government Wiretapping

The Bush administration needs to listen more closely to their electorate who frowns on the government wiretapping without court approval. The Associated Press covers the story of the most recent poll in light of the recent news that the Bush administration was wiretapping Americans and others without court approval. The poll also showed that the public expects the government to obtain court approval even when the eavesdropping is done on suspected terrorists.

Click here.

QUIXOTE

As most of you know, I have for a year maintained "A Capitol Blog" as way to keep primarily South Texans aware of state and local issues coming from their state capitol and our larger community.

With the recent scandals and troubles in Washington I have found myself more and more wanting to post national stories on issues that affect the nation and the world. Because I realize that "A Capitol Blog" has the primary purpose of keeping my friends and neighbors informed on state and local issues and yet I continue to want to find an outlet for these national issues, I have created a new blog. The new site is called Quixote after one of my favorite characters in Miguel Cervantes' masterpiece Don Quixote.

I will still occasionally post national stories on "A Capitol Blog" but only when the story stands out in importance. Quixote will carry the national political and cultural stories that I am following.

If you are so inclined, I would invite you to join me in combing through the stories that affect our national community.