Lake George Accident

Lake George Accident

The boat that capsized on Lake George (in the Adirondack region of NY State) today, drowning 21 elderly passengers, is here.

Playboy Features Political Bloggers

Playboy Features Political Bloggers

No sexy pictures - sorry! ;)

Judith Miller Updates

Judith Miller Updates

Jay Rosen on Judith Miller:
At the Huffington Post, Press Think's Jay Rosen says that "civil disobedience succeeds when there is clarity in purpose, cogency in argument, and transparency in action. None of which has been apparent in [NYT reporter Judith Miller's] decisons..."

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WHIG may see a RICO charge per Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (and WaPo).

At Talk Left:

[Newsweek's] Michael Isikoff reports that Joseph Tate, Libby's lawyer, says Libby did not speak to Novak. Also, the call between Libby and Miller in jail was a four-way conference call with both their lawyers on the call.

Kos talks about some questions asked and comments made by George Stephanopoulos on today's ABC This Week. A source close to this told Stephanopoulos this week that President Bush and Vice President Cheney were actually involved in some of these White House discussions related to the Plame case. Did Bush and/or Cheney play a direct role?

Arianna Huffington recommends the exchange of letters between Scooter Libby, Judith Miller, their lawyers and Patrick Fitzgerald, available on this New York Times site.

Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?

Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?

[Yale Global] Associate professor F. Gregory Gause III of the University of Vermont explores the question of "Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?"

Gause analyses available data on terror incidence and regime types and concludes that "the data available do not show a strong relationship between democracy and an absence of or a reduction in terrorism ... there is no relationship between the incidence of terrorism in a given country and the degree of freedom enjoyed by its citizens."

He also quotes numerous surveys and other evidence showing that Arabs favor democracy, but are cynical of American attempts to promote democracy in the Arab world (such as through the Iraq war). He concludes that American policy to push democratic reforms in the Arab world will probably result in Islamist-led governments that are critical of the United States, and "is unlikely to have much effect on anti-American terrorism emanating from there."

A better approach, he suggests, would be for Washington to "focus on pushing Arab governments to make political space for liberal, secular, leftist, nationalist and other non-Islamist parties to set down roots and mobilize voters." He also sees the US focus on elections as the centerpiece of its democracy promotion strategy as "troubling," along with the "unjustified" confidence that Washington has in its ability to predict, and even direct, the course of politics in other countries, noting that its "hubris should have been crushed in Iraq."

Full text available at Yale Global online.

Karen Armstrong on Myth

Karen Armstrong on Myth

There is an excerpt from Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth avialable at The Australian.

Poverty In the News

Poverty In the News

Clarence Page is glad to hear people jawboning about poverty again. He says,

"We who have succeeded in life need to be divinely dissatisfied with tax breaks and other government policies that widen our rich-poor divide to a canyon resembling that of a Third World country."

The Center For American Progress has a brief compilation of excerpts from the Opinion pages of American newspapers about the issue of Poverty.


Bill Stamps of the Long Beach Press-Telegram is convinced that of the hundreds of bodies found in the aftermath of the Katrina flood, not one was a rich person - white or black.


Star Tribune Washington Bureau Chief David Westphal has a feature about Poverty today which begins by reminding us that the "searing images of New Orleans residents who were stranded by floodwaters because they had no means to flee Hurricane Katrina exposed an abiding truth about poverty in America." Although the recent rise in poverty occurred on Bush's watch, it's unclear to Westphal how much responsibility Bush will bear.

Economists say poverty's resurgence was almost certain to follow the economic recession that began two months after Bush took office, just as poverty rates rose after the recessions of the early 1980s and early 1990s...Further, the U.S. poverty picture remains well below historic averages because of dramatic gains during the 1990s.

Newsday's Martin C. Evans continues the discussion about the hurricanes which have pushed the plight of the poor into the nation's consciousness.

The poor are far less likely to own their own home, have access to credit or have property insurance, [said Carla Prater, associate director of the Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center.] Tens of thousands of people in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Alabama have lost furniture, clothes, cars and other belongings, and will have to start over from nothing, she said...."They don't have savings in the bank to fall back on. They don't have money to stay in a motel or rent an apartment until they get a job, so they end up in a shelter," Prater said. "They don't have health care so their teeth don't look so good when they go to get a job. It goes on and on and on."..Many of the victims of Katrina and Rita had virtually nothing even before the storms.

An excerpt from a letter to the editor of the Binghamton, NY Press & Sun Bulletin by Endicott, NY citizen Anton Wolfe:

The poor are becoming stronger in number, but weaker in power. The rich are becoming smaller in number, but greater in power. The poor are taught division, racial tension, rivalry among themselves. The rich know only of unity in their struggle to maintain their wealth....Destitution and despair do not discriminate based on religion or color. The rich discriminate only by the monetary line. War always divides the common people, always benefits the rich, always takes its greatest toll on the poor......Fight not the war of the rich; rather, fight the war of the poor. Overcome all differences to find the common ground of having nothing...

Tom Ashcraft of the Charlotte Observer wonders why the poor are still with us and is suggesting that we abandon some of our old thinking and consider new solutions. He recommends socially engineering Welfare to reward those who respond to government's encouragement of work and marriage. He leans toward increased dependence upon churches, synagogues, charitable and nonprofit organizations, individuals and corporations as a "voluntary charity" alternative to welfare. [My comment: Slippery slope/slippery slope/slippery slope.]

In Pensacola, Florida, citizens will soon conduct workshops, discussion panels and brainstorming sessions focusing on three areas -- faith, family and finances -- to try to come up with their own solutions to massive racial disparities in poverty, education, health care and quality of life.

In an appeal for support for the United Way, UW/Rhode Island President and CEO Anthony Mainone says,

The cost of housing has already outstripped the income of many in our state. Add to that dramatic increases in heating and transportation costs and you have a storm that will force more and more families into shelters. And we don't have enough shelters to provide safe haven to all of those needing it..... for an increasing number of our people the rain is falling in buckets and the wind is blowing hard. There are people right here in Rhode Island who live Katrina everyday. Their hope dwindles the longer we wait. The need is urgent and the time is now. We must be their hope. The cost of heat and housing will be front and center on United Way of Rhode Island's agenda this year and for years to come..."