Tuesday, October 06, 2009
max-cleland-i-cried-uncontrollably-for-2-1-2-years
Max Cleland: 'I Cried Uncontrollably for 2 1/2 Years'
Politics Daily
10/6/09
In a phone interview on Monday, former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland was upbeat – "What's goin' on, kid?'' – and quick to laugh. But after losing his U.S. Senate seat to an opponent who ran post-9/11 TV ads that showed the decorated Vietnam vet alongside Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Cleland fell into a depression he was afraid he might not pull out of. It was public service, he says, that had given his life shape and meaning after he left three limbs on a battlefield in Khe Sanh. But without that role, the old darkness came back. Along with his job and his bearings, he lost his relationship with his fiancée. "That's emotionally and physically over,'' he told me. "That's gone.'' And for a time, he was once again a patient at Walter Reed, where he'd first been put back together nearly four decades earlier – and was now surrounded by vets from Iraq and Afghanistan: "I cried uncontrollably for 2 ½ years.''
In his new memoir, "Heart of a Patriot: How I found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove," written with Ben Raines, Cleland describes his journey to hell and back, twice, this last time because "Karl Rove managed to take away our service,'' he says, referring to himself and his friend and fellow veteran John Kerry. Visually, the 2002 ad for his Republican opponent, Saxby Chambliss, suggested that Cleland was in league with terrorists, while the voice-over announced that he'd voted against the Homeland Security legislation he had actually co-sponsored...
Solve the budget crisis by legalizing marijuana?
We tax alcohol and cigarettes. But for marijuana, we let the sellers keep all the profit.
When I read that San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had arrested (at taxpayer expense) some people who were making $100,000 a week from their marijuana dispensary, I thought, why is the government paying instead of profiting from this?
Much marijuana ado about nothing
By Arthur Salm, SDNN
October 5, 2009
The marijuana is distributed to members of a cooperative of medical patients who have received doctor's authorization to use the drug to treat their illnesses, such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Unlike several other states which permit marijuana sales to patients, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them.
...Some of the local establishments that have been authorized to dispense marijuana for medical reasons may have been dispensing marijuana to individuals who may have partaken of the substance for non-medical reasons. Worse, the establishments may have dispensed the aforementioned substance with full knowledge, or at least, a pretty damn good idea that their customers intended to go straight home and crank up “Dark Side of the Moon,” and don’t even pretend that you don’t know what I mean.
In response, more than a dozen clinics in San Diego County were shut down last month. San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declared that “These so-called businesses are not legal. They appear to be run by drug dealers who see an opening in the market and a way to make a fast buck.”
She could well be right about that, because that’s pretty much what drug dealers, whether standing on the street corner or paying rent on a storefront, do: see an opening in the market as a way to make a fast buck...
Now the San Diego City Council has decided to — you’ll never guess — actually, you probably will — create a task force to study the medical marijuana problem; appointments to the 11-member task force recommended by Council President Ben Hueso is listed as ITEM-125 on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting. And, to be fair, the medical marijuana problem is, in fact, complicated. The city has no real guidelines, for example, so the joints can open just about anywhere that’s zoned commercial. Nobody even seems to be quite sure of how many there are in the county. And - can just about anybody run them? Can just about anybody get a prescription? Is it better to use one rolling paper, or two? Is the scene with the apes at the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey” supposed to have really happened, or is it allegory?
But the real problem lies in the premise: that what we are dealing with is some kind of special, deadly serious issue, when it most certainly is not. Marijuana is simply not very harmful, and everyone with a lick of sense knows it. Of course it can be abused, but so can dark-chocolate nonpareils, which is why my mother makes sure there’s only a small handful of them in her apothecary jar when I come to visit.
All of the complications, headaches and frustration we’re grappling with right now spring from nearly a century of American society’s ground-level, fundamental bungling . Cannabis was demonized for a goulash of reasons we won’t rehash here, but not one of them passes the Martian test: Could you explain this to a Martian and not sound like an idiot?
Human: “Okay, well, we allow people to ingest liquids that alter consciousness. The negative short-term effects can be disorientation, nausea, and, if too much is ingested, death. Long-term effects can include chemical dependence, organ damage, and death. Adults are allowed to drink it, but its sale is regulated; special licenses must be obtained, one for selling it in sealed bottles and cans, another for ingestion on the premises. It is heavily taxed. Leaders of countries traditionally drink a nominal amount in each other’s presence, for broadcast around the world.”
Martian: “Is the same true for inhaling marijuana smoke that likewise, if in a different fashion, alters human consciousness, but to which not a single death has ever been attributed, and to which some medical benefit has been ascertained?”...
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-05/news/arthur-salm-much-marijuana-ado-about-nothing#ixzz0TB44xi8o
When I read that San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis had arrested (at taxpayer expense) some people who were making $100,000 a week from their marijuana dispensary, I thought, why is the government paying instead of profiting from this?
Much marijuana ado about nothing
By Arthur Salm, SDNN
October 5, 2009
The marijuana is distributed to members of a cooperative of medical patients who have received doctor's authorization to use the drug to treat their illnesses, such as AIDS and multiple sclerosis. Unlike several other states which permit marijuana sales to patients, Washington requires patients to grow marijuana themselves or designate a caregiver to grow it for them.
...Some of the local establishments that have been authorized to dispense marijuana for medical reasons may have been dispensing marijuana to individuals who may have partaken of the substance for non-medical reasons. Worse, the establishments may have dispensed the aforementioned substance with full knowledge, or at least, a pretty damn good idea that their customers intended to go straight home and crank up “Dark Side of the Moon,” and don’t even pretend that you don’t know what I mean.
In response, more than a dozen clinics in San Diego County were shut down last month. San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis declared that “These so-called businesses are not legal. They appear to be run by drug dealers who see an opening in the market and a way to make a fast buck.”
She could well be right about that, because that’s pretty much what drug dealers, whether standing on the street corner or paying rent on a storefront, do: see an opening in the market as a way to make a fast buck...
Now the San Diego City Council has decided to — you’ll never guess — actually, you probably will — create a task force to study the medical marijuana problem; appointments to the 11-member task force recommended by Council President Ben Hueso is listed as ITEM-125 on the agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting. And, to be fair, the medical marijuana problem is, in fact, complicated. The city has no real guidelines, for example, so the joints can open just about anywhere that’s zoned commercial. Nobody even seems to be quite sure of how many there are in the county. And - can just about anybody run them? Can just about anybody get a prescription? Is it better to use one rolling paper, or two? Is the scene with the apes at the beginning of “2001: A Space Odyssey” supposed to have really happened, or is it allegory?
But the real problem lies in the premise: that what we are dealing with is some kind of special, deadly serious issue, when it most certainly is not. Marijuana is simply not very harmful, and everyone with a lick of sense knows it. Of course it can be abused, but so can dark-chocolate nonpareils, which is why my mother makes sure there’s only a small handful of them in her apothecary jar when I come to visit.
All of the complications, headaches and frustration we’re grappling with right now spring from nearly a century of American society’s ground-level, fundamental bungling . Cannabis was demonized for a goulash of reasons we won’t rehash here, but not one of them passes the Martian test: Could you explain this to a Martian and not sound like an idiot?
Human: “Okay, well, we allow people to ingest liquids that alter consciousness. The negative short-term effects can be disorientation, nausea, and, if too much is ingested, death. Long-term effects can include chemical dependence, organ damage, and death. Adults are allowed to drink it, but its sale is regulated; special licenses must be obtained, one for selling it in sealed bottles and cans, another for ingestion on the premises. It is heavily taxed. Leaders of countries traditionally drink a nominal amount in each other’s presence, for broadcast around the world.”
Martian: “Is the same true for inhaling marijuana smoke that likewise, if in a different fashion, alters human consciousness, but to which not a single death has ever been attributed, and to which some medical benefit has been ascertained?”...
Read more: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-10-05/news/arthur-salm-much-marijuana-ado-about-nothing#ixzz0TB44xi8o
Thursday, October 01, 2009
It seems that Scientologists take themselves very seriously
Social Movements, The Case of Scientology and It's Internet ...
The Church of Scientology holds that a fraction of its scriptures are only to be viewed .... I feel obliged to point out that critics have accused Scientology of cynically ..... Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. ..... In 1953, Hubbard instituted the religion of Scientology, possibly for financial reasons ...
lermanet.com/reference/socialmovement.htm
CONNECTION BETWEEN SAGE PUBLICATIONS AND SCIENTOLOGY
http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm
[This site is related to the Scientology-supported campaign against "religious intolerance".]
A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects.
Chris Bader Alfred Demaris
09/01/96
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Since the 1960s every decade has experienced a great cult scare. From the Manson family to the Moonies, the Waco sect to the Jonestown massacre, the activities of cults prompt great public concern. Interest groups such as the American Family Foundation and the Cult Awareness Network devote their resources to monitoring the activities of deviant religious groups. The media continually warn of the dangers of cultic brainwashing strategies and the FBI continues to monitor closely religious groups they perceive to be potential dangers. Despite the great public and governmental attention afforded to cults and sects, however, researchers still know relatively little about why individuals join such groups.
This lack of cumulative knowledge about cults and sect affiliation stems from the absence of a testable theory of religious membership. Psychiatrists have tended to examine cult and sect affiliation from a victimization perspective, assuming that cult leaders somehow overcame an individual's free will. Sociological studies have rejected the brainwashing model, focusing instead on the interactions between potential and established cult members. Nevertheless, the absence of a coherent frame work and confusion about terms has hampered such studies.
A potential answer to the lack of a theoretical framework lies with the Stark-Bainbridge theory of religion. In what is certainly the most ambitious attempt at religious theorizing to date, Stark and Bainbridge attempt to explain everything from the nature of God to the process of secularization, using clearly defined terms and carefully outlined propositions. Given the potential importance of the Stark-Bainbridge theory, sociologists need to meet Stark and Bainbridge's challenge to test it (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 13). In this paper we will test Stark and Bainbridge's propositions about one area of particular interest to sociologists, psychiatrists, and the general public - conversion to sects and cults.
Aldrich, J. H. and F. D. Nelson. 1984. Linear probability, logit, and probit models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Damrell, J. 1977. Seeking spiritual meaning: The world of Vedanta. Sociological Observations, no. 2. Beverly Hills: Sage.
DeMaris, A. 1992. Logit modeling: Practical applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Two More Scientology Front Groups:
CBAA & SAGE, Pimping "The Way to Happiness"
The Set A Good Example (S.A.G.E) Contest is an annual competition running between August of the current year and May of the following year. EXAMPLE: August 1, this year through May 31 next year.
CBAA = Concerned Businessmen's [sic] Association of America -- yet another front group used as a foot-in-the-door to pimp LRH's "The Way to Happiness" to school kids...Welcome to CBAA: Concerned Businessmen's Association of America
SAGE = Set A Good Example (campaign) -- appears to be most active out of Reno, NV. A front group to get TWTH happiness materials into schools with $5000 "contests".
Definitely targeting kids: Old SAGE Club website
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
http://www.lermanet.com/frontgroups.html
SAGE - Set A Good Example contest was crafted specifically to target children, sponsored by scientology's CONCERNED BUSINESSMEN OF AMERICAN -
CONCERNED BUSINESSMENS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA - "CBAA" - sponsors writing
contests and other programs in schools, and try to get students
involved in LRH beliefs. Hands out Way To Happiness (By LRH) to
community groups, police, prisons and other groups. Purpose, to
promote LRH and CoS and get name recognition for LRH
Runs "Children's "Set A Good Example" Campaign AKA SAGE to lure children into considering L Ron Hubbard as a reliable source
� 2001 Concerned Businessmen's Association of America. All rights reserved. ABLE�, Aplied Scholastics�, Narconon� and Criminon� are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark and service mark owned by The Way To Happiness International and is used with its permission.
COMPUTER ETHICS INSTITUTE - (CEI) - Used by the church of sci in
their attempt to gain control over what can and cannot be put over
the Internet. Freedom
Is there a connection here?
ACT! Leadership at Sage
Scottsdale Office
8800 N. Gainey Center Drive
Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Office: 480-368-3700
ACT! by Sage Solutions System Requirements
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
aCt! by Sage Solutions. ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2009 (11.0) Minimum System Requirements. 25 “Core Server Installation” of Server 2008 is not supported. ...
www.sagesoftware.co
The SAGE Collections is a web-based service that will offer ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
Education and Psychology SAGE Full-Text Collections now available. Thousand Oaks, California, and London, United Kingdom, June 16, 2004 – SAGE ...
www.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/.../EducPsychPressRelease.pdf - Similar -
Sage Salon, Thousand Oaks CA 91362 -- MerchantCircle.com
MerchantCircle.com -- Sage Salon of 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand ... the 138 members in the Thousand Oaks area, who are controling their web presence ...
www.merchantcircle.com/business/Sage.Salon.805-497-1393 - Cached - Similar -
#
SAGE Reference Online
SAGE Publications Contact Information: 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 ... For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically ...
www.sage-ereference.com/public/privacy.php - Cached - Similar -
#
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Neuendorf, K. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sage Periodicals Press | Thousand Oaks, CA | Company Profile ...
Goliath's Sage Periodicals Press Company Profile provides detailed company information on Sage Periodicals Press located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
goliath.ecnext.com/.../product-compint-0000710044-page.html - Cached - Similar -
#
Charisma and the Iron Cage: Rationalization, Science and ...
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press . Sundby-Sorenson, M. (1998) "Danish Members' Perceptions of the Founder of the Church of Scientology", in E. Barker and ...
scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/1/111 - Similar -
WSB CV
2000 "Religious Ethnography on the World Wide Web, " In Religion and the Internet, ..... 2003 Encyclopedia of Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage: "Family, ... Witnesses": "Kwanzaa": "Scientology": "Seventh Day Adventist Church" ...
mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/data/wsbcv.htm - Cached - Similar -
#
View International Cultic Studies Association's e-Library Member ...
The Church of Scientology is the subject of the largest number of such assaults. ...... London and Thousand Oaks (California): Sage Publications. ...
www.icsahome.com/logon/elibdocview.asp?
Sage Salon in Thousand Oaks, CA - Best of the Web Local
BOTW Local provides details for Sage Salon at 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. Find information including: phone number (805) 497-1393, ...
local.botw.org/California/Thousand_Oaks/Sage.../13056017.html - Similar -
#
Clear Body Clear Mind :: Locations :: Mode - scn :: State - california
Church of Scientology of Thousand Oaks C/O 21010 Devonshire St. Chatsworth, CA 91311. Tel: 888-288-8559. Fax: 818-772-7943. CHICO Church of Scientology of ...
www.clearbodyclearmind.com/locations.php?mode=scn... - Cached - Similar -
#
Sherman Oaks Mission, Church of Scientology
The web log of the Scientology Mission in Sherman Oaks, California (USA) Includes updated schedule of events, testimonials and brief descriptions of ...
www.missionofshermanoaks.blogspot.com/ - Cached - Similar -
#
San Antonio Public Library /All Locations
What is scientology? / compiled by staff of the church of Scientology International ; based on the w Central Library, Thousand Oaks, PRINTED MATL, 1998 ...
sapl.sat.lib.tx.us:90/kids/0/search/c299...1.../browse - Cached - Similar -
#
Advertisement
Welcome to the official site for the Church of Scientology Mission of Sherman Oaks. Today we are speaking to Shiri Lonstein about Scientology and its ...
www.scientology-shermanoaks.org/ - Cached - Similar -
# [PDF]
o
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
authority to compromise claims against the Church of Scientology Flag Ship Service ..... Thousand Oaks, CA 91361. RSN-Attvs for Ansel Slome ...
www.lermanet.com/fraud/Scn_Slatkin_CoS_Et-Al_Settlement.pdf -
#
Editorial Assistant, Books job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Editorial Assistant, Books at Sage in Thousand Oaks ... efficiency and cost targets Joe Rosen Sage Solutions 805 3rd Ave 28th Floor . ...
www.simplyhired.com/job-id/.../editorial-assistant-jobs/ - Cached - Similar -
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Online Publishing Manager job in Thousand Oaks | Simply Hired
View job summary for Online Publishing Manager at Sage in Thousand Oaks, ... Who do I Know at Sage Solutions Group - by LinkedIn; Research Salary - at ...
www.simplyhired.com/job-id/.../online-publishing-jobs/ - Cached - Similar -
Show more results from www.simplyhired.com
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Sage solutions jobs - HTML Jobs
Sep 11, Senior Financial Analyst, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. effectively deal with ambiguity and derive solutions. . High level of initiative and ...
htmljobs.jobamatic.com/a/jobs/find-jobs/q-Sage+Solutions - Cached - Similar -
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Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA | Indeed.com
Job search for Sage Publications Jobs in Thousand Oaks, CA at indeed.com. one ... Senior Microsoft Consultant / Engineer. CPI Solutions - Camarillo, CA ...
www.indeed.com/q-Sage-Publications-l-Thousand-Oaks,-CA-jobs.html -
NETSCAPE TARGETS INTRANET MARKET
Edupage, 8 September 1996. Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0208.html
...Netscape's new AppFoundry offers a collection of canned applications
developed by other companies for Netscape's intranet software suite.
"We see AppFoundry being the first jumpstart kit for intranet
development," says Netscape's director of server product marketing.
AppFoundry software includes a job-listing program from Austin Hayne
Corp., and software for managing sales and marketing data from Sage
Solutions, Inc., as well as basic development tools from Next Inc. and
Borland International Inc. "Most of these applications would be
considered examples to work from," says a Gartner Group analyst. "No
one gives away the store." Still, "This helps solve the chicken-and-egg
problem cropping up as companies build intranets -- that they need
applications and tools to make them useful," notes a Yankee Group
analyst. (Investor's Business Daily 9 Sep 96 A6)...
US History Encyclopedia: Scientology
...As noted, there are elements of Eastern religions evident in Scientology,[127] in particular the concepts of karma, as present in Hinduism and in Jainism, and dharma.[130][131] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Hubbard tried to connect Scientology with Taoism and Buddhism.[132] Scientology has been said to share features with Gnosticism as well.[133]
[134] Karen Christensen, David Levinson (2003): Encyclopedia of Community, SAGE, p. 1210: "Scientology shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism."
Shade, Leslie Regan
1996 “Is there free speech on the net? Censorship in the global information infrastructure.” In Rob Shields, ed., Cultures of Internet, pp. 11–32. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Anonymous hacks Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account
Veep candidate's email bared by Wikileaks
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Members of Anonymous - that sprawling group of online rabble-rousers best known for taking on the Church of Scientology - have apparently hacked into a Yahoo! email account belonging to Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
According to the bulletproof truth seekers at Wikileaks, "activists loosely affiliated" with Anonymous somehow gained access to the account at around midnight Eastern on Tuesday. Screenshots of emails purportedly lifted from this account - which carries the address "gov.palin@yahoo.com" - were then passed to Wikileaks, and Wikileaks shared the stash with world+dog.
One of the screens shows an email from Amy McCorkell, a member of Governor Palin's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and according to Wired.com, McCorkell has confirmed the note's authenticity. Other screens show the account's inbox and contact list as well as an email from Palin to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell...
Just three days ago, the Anchorage Daily News questioned whether Palin should be conducting state business from a personal online email account. Earlier this year, Palin's office refused to release hundreds of emails as part of a public records request, citing "exemptions for deliberative process, executive privilege, attorney/client privilege, privacy, and personnel," and some suspect that Palin is using her Yahoo! account to hide info she doesn't want exposed. According to documents that were made public, Palin does indeed use the account for state business...
I can't find any connection to:
SagePoint Financial
Company Description
Hoover's coverage by Ryan Caione
SagePoint Financial was formed as AIG Financial Advisors in 2005 from the combination of three of the broker-dealer subsidiaries of insurance...
Headquarters:
2800 N. Central Ave., Ste. 2100
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1072
The Church of Scientology holds that a fraction of its scriptures are only to be viewed .... I feel obliged to point out that critics have accused Scientology of cynically ..... Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. ..... In 1953, Hubbard instituted the religion of Scientology, possibly for financial reasons ...
lermanet.com/reference/socialmovement.htm
CONNECTION BETWEEN SAGE PUBLICATIONS AND SCIENTOLOGY
http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/joining.htm
[This site is related to the Scientology-supported campaign against "religious intolerance".]
A test of the Stark-Bainbridge theory of affiliation with cults and sects.
Chris Bader Alfred Demaris
09/01/96
The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
Since the 1960s every decade has experienced a great cult scare. From the Manson family to the Moonies, the Waco sect to the Jonestown massacre, the activities of cults prompt great public concern. Interest groups such as the American Family Foundation and the Cult Awareness Network devote their resources to monitoring the activities of deviant religious groups. The media continually warn of the dangers of cultic brainwashing strategies and the FBI continues to monitor closely religious groups they perceive to be potential dangers. Despite the great public and governmental attention afforded to cults and sects, however, researchers still know relatively little about why individuals join such groups.
This lack of cumulative knowledge about cults and sect affiliation stems from the absence of a testable theory of religious membership. Psychiatrists have tended to examine cult and sect affiliation from a victimization perspective, assuming that cult leaders somehow overcame an individual's free will. Sociological studies have rejected the brainwashing model, focusing instead on the interactions between potential and established cult members. Nevertheless, the absence of a coherent frame work and confusion about terms has hampered such studies.
A potential answer to the lack of a theoretical framework lies with the Stark-Bainbridge theory of religion. In what is certainly the most ambitious attempt at religious theorizing to date, Stark and Bainbridge attempt to explain everything from the nature of God to the process of secularization, using clearly defined terms and carefully outlined propositions. Given the potential importance of the Stark-Bainbridge theory, sociologists need to meet Stark and Bainbridge's challenge to test it (Stark and Bainbridge 1987: 13). In this paper we will test Stark and Bainbridge's propositions about one area of particular interest to sociologists, psychiatrists, and the general public - conversion to sects and cults.
Aldrich, J. H. and F. D. Nelson. 1984. Linear probability, logit, and probit models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Damrell, J. 1977. Seeking spiritual meaning: The world of Vedanta. Sociological Observations, no. 2. Beverly Hills: Sage.
DeMaris, A. 1992. Logit modeling: Practical applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
Two More Scientology Front Groups:
CBAA & SAGE, Pimping "The Way to Happiness"
The Set A Good Example (S.A.G.E) Contest is an annual competition running between August of the current year and May of the following year. EXAMPLE: August 1, this year through May 31 next year.
CBAA = Concerned Businessmen's [sic] Association of America -- yet another front group used as a foot-in-the-door to pimp LRH's "The Way to Happiness" to school kids...Welcome to CBAA: Concerned Businessmen's Association of America
SAGE = Set A Good Example (campaign) -- appears to be most active out of Reno, NV. A front group to get TWTH happiness materials into schools with $5000 "contests".
Definitely targeting kids: Old SAGE Club website
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
Every person on this list of SAGE founders is a Scientologist (except perhaps Robert Ayash, whose wife Barbara IS a Scientologist).
http://www.lermanet.com/frontgroups.html
SAGE - Set A Good Example contest was crafted specifically to target children, sponsored by scientology's CONCERNED BUSINESSMEN OF AMERICAN -
CONCERNED BUSINESSMENS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA - "CBAA" - sponsors writing
contests and other programs in schools, and try to get students
involved in LRH beliefs. Hands out Way To Happiness (By LRH) to
community groups, police, prisons and other groups. Purpose, to
promote LRH and CoS and get name recognition for LRH
Runs "Children's "Set A Good Example" Campaign AKA SAGE to lure children into considering L Ron Hubbard as a reliable source
� 2001 Concerned Businessmen's Association of America. All rights reserved. ABLE�, Aplied Scholastics�, Narconon� and Criminon� are trademarks and service marks owned by Association for Better Living and Education International and are used with its permission. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS is a trademark and service mark owned by The Way To Happiness International and is used with its permission.
COMPUTER ETHICS INSTITUTE - (CEI) - Used by the church of sci in
their attempt to gain control over what can and cannot be put over
the Internet. Freedom
Is there a connection here?
ACT! Leadership at Sage
Scottsdale Office
8800 N. Gainey Center Drive
Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85258
Office: 480-368-3700
ACT! by Sage Solutions System Requirements
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
aCt! by Sage Solutions. ACT! by Sage Premium for Web 2009 (11.0) Minimum System Requirements. 25 “Core Server Installation” of Server 2008 is not supported. ...
www.sagesoftware.co
The SAGE Collections is a web-based service that will offer ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View
Education and Psychology SAGE Full-Text Collections now available. Thousand Oaks, California, and London, United Kingdom, June 16, 2004 – SAGE ...
www.sagepub.com/repository/binaries/.../EducPsychPressRelease.pdf - Similar -
Sage Salon, Thousand Oaks CA 91362 -- MerchantCircle.com
MerchantCircle.com -- Sage Salon of 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd, Thousand ... the 138 members in the Thousand Oaks area, who are controling their web presence ...
www.merchantcircle.com/business/Sage.Salon.805-497-1393 - Cached - Similar -
#
SAGE Reference Online
SAGE Publications Contact Information: 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, CA 91320 ... For each visitor to our Web page, our Web server automatically ...
www.sage-ereference.com/public/privacy.php - Cached - Similar -
#
Krippendorff, K. (1980). Content Analysis: An Introduction to its Methodology. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Neuendorf, K. (2002). The Content Analysis Guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Sage Periodicals Press | Thousand Oaks, CA | Company Profile ...
Goliath's Sage Periodicals Press Company Profile provides detailed company information on Sage Periodicals Press located in Thousand Oaks, CA.
goliath.ecnext.com/.../product-compint-0000710044-page.html - Cached - Similar -
#
Charisma and the Iron Cage: Rationalization, Science and ...
Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press . Sundby-Sorenson, M. (1998) "Danish Members' Perceptions of the Founder of the Church of Scientology", in E. Barker and ...
scp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/51/1/111 - Similar -
WSB CV
2000 "Religious Ethnography on the World Wide Web, " In Religion and the Internet, ..... 2003 Encyclopedia of Community, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage: "Family, ... Witnesses": "Kwanzaa": "Scientology": "Seventh Day Adventist Church" ...
mysite.verizon.net/wsbainbridge/data/wsbcv.htm - Cached - Similar -
#
View International Cultic Studies Association's e-Library Member ...
The Church of Scientology is the subject of the largest number of such assaults. ...... London and Thousand Oaks (California): Sage Publications. ...
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Sage Salon in Thousand Oaks, CA - Best of the Web Local
BOTW Local provides details for Sage Salon at 2243 E Thousand Oaks Blvd in Thousand Oaks, CA 91362. Find information including: phone number (805) 497-1393, ...
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Clear Body Clear Mind :: Locations :: Mode - scn :: State - california
Church of Scientology of Thousand Oaks C/O 21010 Devonshire St. Chatsworth, CA 91311. Tel: 888-288-8559. Fax: 818-772-7943. CHICO Church of Scientology of ...
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NETSCAPE TARGETS INTRANET MARKET
Edupage, 8 September 1996. Edupage, a summary of news about information
technology, is provided three times a week as a service by Educom,
a Washington, D.C.-based consortium of leading colleges and universities
seeking to transform education through the use of information technology.
http://www.xent.com/FoRK-archive/fall96/0208.html
...Netscape's new AppFoundry offers a collection of canned applications
developed by other companies for Netscape's intranet software suite.
"We see AppFoundry being the first jumpstart kit for intranet
development," says Netscape's director of server product marketing.
AppFoundry software includes a job-listing program from Austin Hayne
Corp., and software for managing sales and marketing data from Sage
Solutions, Inc., as well as basic development tools from Next Inc. and
Borland International Inc. "Most of these applications would be
considered examples to work from," says a Gartner Group analyst. "No
one gives away the store." Still, "This helps solve the chicken-and-egg
problem cropping up as companies build intranets -- that they need
applications and tools to make them useful," notes a Yankee Group
analyst. (Investor's Business Daily 9 Sep 96 A6)...
US History Encyclopedia: Scientology
...As noted, there are elements of Eastern religions evident in Scientology,[127] in particular the concepts of karma, as present in Hinduism and in Jainism, and dharma.[130][131] In addition to the links to Hindu texts, Hubbard tried to connect Scientology with Taoism and Buddhism.[132] Scientology has been said to share features with Gnosticism as well.[133]
[134] Karen Christensen, David Levinson (2003): Encyclopedia of Community, SAGE, p. 1210: "Scientology shows affinities with Buddhism and a remarkable similarity to first-century Gnosticism."
Shade, Leslie Regan
1996 “Is there free speech on the net? Censorship in the global information infrastructure.” In Rob Shields, ed., Cultures of Internet, pp. 11–32. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Anonymous hacks Sarah Palin's Yahoo! account
Veep candidate's email bared by Wikileaks
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
Members of Anonymous - that sprawling group of online rabble-rousers best known for taking on the Church of Scientology - have apparently hacked into a Yahoo! email account belonging to Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
According to the bulletproof truth seekers at Wikileaks, "activists loosely affiliated" with Anonymous somehow gained access to the account at around midnight Eastern on Tuesday. Screenshots of emails purportedly lifted from this account - which carries the address "gov.palin@yahoo.com" - were then passed to Wikileaks, and Wikileaks shared the stash with world+dog.
One of the screens shows an email from Amy McCorkell, a member of Governor Palin's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and according to Wired.com, McCorkell has confirmed the note's authenticity. Other screens show the account's inbox and contact list as well as an email from Palin to Alaska Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell...
Just three days ago, the Anchorage Daily News questioned whether Palin should be conducting state business from a personal online email account. Earlier this year, Palin's office refused to release hundreds of emails as part of a public records request, citing "exemptions for deliberative process, executive privilege, attorney/client privilege, privacy, and personnel," and some suspect that Palin is using her Yahoo! account to hide info she doesn't want exposed. According to documents that were made public, Palin does indeed use the account for state business...
I can't find any connection to:
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Company Description
Hoover's coverage by Ryan Caione
SagePoint Financial was formed as AIG Financial Advisors in 2005 from the combination of three of the broker-dealer subsidiaries of insurance...
Headquarters:
2800 N. Central Ave., Ste. 2100
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1072
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Pundit Robert Novak, outer of Valerie Plame, dies
Robert D. Novak, 1931-2009
Combative Writer Broke High-Stakes Scoops
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
...David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union lobbying organization, said Mr. Novak helped transform supply-side economics from a fringe idea into a tenet of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy. Keene called Mr. Novak "a giant of the profession" who "gave respectability and visibility to conservative ideas and positions in the 1970s, when they were mostly dismissed." ...
Combative Writer Broke High-Stakes Scoops
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
...David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union lobbying organization, said Mr. Novak helped transform supply-side economics from a fringe idea into a tenet of President Ronald Reagan's economic policy. Keene called Mr. Novak "a giant of the profession" who "gave respectability and visibility to conservative ideas and positions in the 1970s, when they were mostly dismissed." ...
CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation
CIA Used Gun, Drill in Interrogation
IG Report Describes Tactics Against Alleged Cole Mastermind
By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 22, 2009
CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to try to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information, according to a long-concealed agency report due to be made public next week, former and current U.S. officials who have read the document said Friday.
The tactics -- which one official described Friday as a threatened execution -- were used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the CIA's inspector general's report on the agency's interrogation program. Nashiri, who was captured in November 2002 and held for four years in one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, ultimately became one of three al-Qaeda chieftains subjected to a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
The report also says that a mock execution was staged in a room next to one terrorism suspect, according to Newsweek magazine, citing two sources for its information. The magazine was the first to publish details from the report, which it did on its Web site late Friday.
A federal judge in New York has ordered a redacted version of the classified IG report to be publicly released Monday, in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Since June, lawyers for the Justice Department and the CIA have been scrutinizing the document to determine how much of it can be made public. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been weighing the report's findings as part of a broader probe into the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods...
IG Report Describes Tactics Against Alleged Cole Mastermind
By Joby Warrick and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, August 22, 2009
CIA interrogators used a handgun and an electric drill to try to frighten a captured al-Qaeda commander into giving up information, according to a long-concealed agency report due to be made public next week, former and current U.S. officials who have read the document said Friday.
The tactics -- which one official described Friday as a threatened execution -- were used on Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, according to the CIA's inspector general's report on the agency's interrogation program. Nashiri, who was captured in November 2002 and held for four years in one of the CIA's "black site" prisons, ultimately became one of three al-Qaeda chieftains subjected to a form of simulated drowning known as waterboarding.
The report also says that a mock execution was staged in a room next to one terrorism suspect, according to Newsweek magazine, citing two sources for its information. The magazine was the first to publish details from the report, which it did on its Web site late Friday.
A federal judge in New York has ordered a redacted version of the classified IG report to be publicly released Monday, in response to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union. Since June, lawyers for the Justice Department and the CIA have been scrutinizing the document to determine how much of it can be made public. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been weighing the report's findings as part of a broader probe into the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods...
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Free speech: journalists in Viet Nam arrested for criticising China
Vietnam to Its Journalists: Don't Tread on China
By Martha Ann Overland
Sep. 05, 2009
Hanoi is stepping up pressure on its critics, detaining one Vietnamese journalist and two Vietnamese bloggers this past week after they wrote provocative reports...
The latest arrest took place early morning on Sept. 3 when police detained blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, at her home in the coastal city of Nha Trang. Quynh's mother said that plainclothes police had been watching the house for several months, ever since her daughter had started criticizing Vietnam for giving China the green light to mine its vast stores of bauxite...
"The warrant said my daughter was arrested under Article 258 of the Criminal Code for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the state's interests," said an emotional Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, Quynh's mother.
"They searched her house until 3:30 that morning and then put her in a van that disappeared into the quiet of the night." The family has not heard from her since...
CHINA ARRESTS BLOGGER DURING OLYMPICS
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested
by John Kennedy
Apr 24, 2008
Global Voices Advocacy--Defending Free Speech Online
...Nguyen Van Hai, a prominent citizen reporter there who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, was arrested this past week as he led efforts to organize local bloggers to follow the torch's passing.
By Martha Ann Overland
Sep. 05, 2009
Hanoi is stepping up pressure on its critics, detaining one Vietnamese journalist and two Vietnamese bloggers this past week after they wrote provocative reports...
The latest arrest took place early morning on Sept. 3 when police detained blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 30, at her home in the coastal city of Nha Trang. Quynh's mother said that plainclothes police had been watching the house for several months, ever since her daughter had started criticizing Vietnam for giving China the green light to mine its vast stores of bauxite...
"The warrant said my daughter was arrested under Article 258 of the Criminal Code for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the state's interests," said an emotional Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan, Quynh's mother.
"They searched her house until 3:30 that morning and then put her in a van that disappeared into the quiet of the night." The family has not heard from her since...
CHINA ARRESTS BLOGGER DURING OLYMPICS
Vietnam: Blogger Dieu Cay arrested
by John Kennedy
Apr 24, 2008
Global Voices Advocacy--Defending Free Speech Online
...Nguyen Van Hai, a prominent citizen reporter there who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, was arrested this past week as he led efforts to organize local bloggers to follow the torch's passing.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Who are the people who don't want Cheney investigated? The same ones who impeached Bill Clinton?
David Broder and media culpability for Bush crimes
April 26, 2009
by Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com
I read David Broder's truly wretched screed yesterday -- in which he demands immunity for Bush officials from investigation and prosecution and attacks those who advocate accountability -- and decided that I wouldn't write about it until today because I didn't want it to infect my Saturday. For purposes of catharsis, I did immediately note on Twitter that Broder's article was "a tour de force of Beltway sickness - even for him" and that "the Washington press corps has exactly the 'dean' it deserves." Fortunately, Hilzoy, Scott Lemieux and Roger Ailes -- among others -- have now made most of the points quite conclusively that need to be made about the morally depraved joke that David Broder is, leaving just a couple of observations worth noting.
To justify the absolute immunity he wants for government lawbreakers, Broder describes the Bush era as "one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States." But that's easy to say now that the Bush presidency is over and the evidence of its criminality so undeniable. But Broder never said any such thing while it was all taking place, when it mattered. In fact, he did the opposite: he mocked those who tried to sound the alarm about how radical and "dark" the Bush presidency was and repeatedly defended what Bush officials were doing as perfectly normal, unalarming and well within the bounds of mainstream and legitimate policy.
As but one example, Broder -- in a September 15, 2006 Washington Post chat -- was asked by a reader about an Editorial in The New York Times which appeared that morning that warned of the grave dangers of abolishing habeas corpus and the protections of the Geneva Conventions, as the soon-to-be-enacted Military Commissions Act sought to do. In other words, back then, the Times Editorial Page was warning of exactly the policies -- "certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion" -- which Broder today, with Bush safely gone, cites as examples of our "darkest chapter." Yet here is what Broder was saying about these things when it mattered:
Kingston, Ontario: I'm rather surprised by your and your correspondents' calm tone of voice this morning. Unless the New York Times editorial page is wildly off-track, the U.S. is in the grip of a major constitutional crisis, with the government trying to set aside long established guarantees of legal behavior, both internally and in relation to international law. Where's the sense of urgency?
David S. Broder: Far be it from me to question the New York Times, but I'd like to assure you that Washington is calm and quiet this morning, and democracy still lives here. Editorial writers sometimes get carried away by their own rhetoric.
On other occasions, Broder mocked those who suggested there was anything extremist or radical about Bush's "counter-terrorism" policies; hailed "Bush's conviction that the quest for freedom is a universal truth"; proclaimed his confidence in Donald Rumsfeld's pre-war Iraq plans; and compared 2002 war opponents to "Jane Fonda in Hanoi or antiwar protesters marching under Viet Cong flags."
Just compare what Broder wrote about the Bush presidency on November 14, 2004, to what he wrote today:
11/14/2004:
Some of my colleagues in the pundit business have become unhinged by the election results. The always diverting Maureen Dowd of The New York Times wrote the other day that "the forces of darkness" are taking over the country . . . Bush won, but he will have to work within the system for whatever he gets. Checks and balances are still there. The nation does not face "another dark age," unless you consider politics with all its tradeoffs and bargaining a black art.
Today:
Obama, to his credit, has ended one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States.
What Broder states today as fact (that the Bush presidency is "one of the darkest chapters of American history") is almost verbatim that which, when it mattered, when it was happening, he vehemently and repeatedly denied -- and, of course, given that he works in the most accountability-free profession of all (establishment punditry), he does not even have the minimal honesty to acknowledge that. Like so many of his colleagues, Broder played a critical role in defending these crimes and insisting that they were not taking place.
This is a crucial and oft-overlooked fact in the debate over whether we should investigate and prosecute Bush crimes. The very same pundits and establishment journalists who today are demanding that we forget all about it, not look back, not hold anyone accountable, are the very same people who -- like Broder -- played key roles in hiding, enabling and defending these crimes. In light of that, what is less surprising than the fact that, almost unanimously, these very same people oppose any efforts to examine what happened and impose accountability? Back in January, I wrote the following about the virtual unanimity among establishment media figures against investigations and prosecutions:
Bush officials didn't commit these crimes by themselves. Virtually the entire Washington establishment supported or at least enabled most of it. . . . As confirmed accounts emerged years ago of chronic presidential lawbreaking, warrantless eavesdropping, systematic torture, rendition, "black site" prisons, corruption in every realm, and all sorts of other dark crimes, where were journalists and other opinion-making elites? Very few of them with any significant platform can point to anything they did or said to oppose or stop any of it -- and they know that.
Many of them, even when much of this became conclusively proven, were still explicitly praising Bush officials. Most of them supported the underlying enabling policies (Guantanamo and the permanent state of war in Iraq and "on terror"), and then cheered on laws -- the Military Commissions Act and the FISA Amendments Act -- designed to legalize these activities and retroactively immunize the lawbreakers and war criminals from prosecution.
So when these media and political elites are defending Bush officials, mitigating their crimes, and arguing that they shouldn't be held accountable, they're actually defending themselves. . . . They can't indict Bush officials for what they did because to do so would be to indict themselves. Bush officials need to be exonerated, or at least have their crimes forgotten (look to the future and ignore the past, they all chime in unison), so that their own involvement in it will also be cleansed and then forgotten.
Earlier this week, Paul Krugman made a similar point:
One addendum to today’s column: the truth, which I think everyone in the political/media establishments knows in their hearts, is that the nine months or so between the summer of 2002 and the beginning of the Iraq insurgency were a great national moral test — a test that most people in influential positions failed. . . . But for those who stayed “sensible” through the test, it’s a moment they’d like to see forgotten. That, I believe, is the real reason so many want to let torture and everything else go down the memory hole.
Imagine if a police officer were stationed in front of the hospital room of a key witness in a criminal trial, in order to protect the witness from attack, but instead, the officer fell asleep or wondered off to watch TV and, as a result, the defendant's associates were able to enter the room and murder the witness. Asking establishment journalists if they favor investigations and prosecutions of Bush crimes is like asking that police officer whether he favors an investigation and consequences for what happened or whether he instead prefers that the whole thing just be forgotten and everyone look instead to the future. People who bear culpability in the commission of destructive and criminal acts always oppose investigations and accountability -- i.e., what they'll call "looking backwards" or "retribution." They're the last people whose opinions we ought to be seeking on that question.
* * * * *
Directly contrary to the way the establishment media is describing these facts, polling data has consistently shown that large majorities of Americans favor investigations into Bush crimes and large percentages favor criminal prosecutions. Even with virtually the entire pundit class united in opposition, yet another poll on that question -- from The Washington Post/ABC News today -- finds that a majority (51-47%) answered "yes" when asked: "Do you think the Obama administration should or should not investigate whether any laws were broken in the way terrorism suspects were treated under the Bush administration?" It's amazing how much The Hard Left has grown.
* * * * *
More than anything else, Broder's column illustrates the Central Creed of Beltway Culture, which should be memorialized on plaques throughout that city:
When poor and ordinary Americans who commit crimes are prosecuted and imprisoned, that is Justice.
When the same thing is done to Washington elites, that is Ugly Retribution.
* * * * *
See also: this post from earlier today on Time Magazine's coverage of drug decriminalization in Portugal and this post on one of the most brazen acknowledgments yet that most establishment journalists operate with no standards.
UPDATE: For a perfect example of how etablishment journalists and pundits -- including our ostensibly "liberal" ones -- cheered on many of these crimes, see Digby.
Who are Broderian anti-investigation journalists really protecting?
Glenn Greenwald
Sept. 3, 2009
Salon.com
In one of the most drearily predictable media developments ever, David Broder today -- yet again -- joins in with an endless string of establishment pundits to demand that there be no investigations by the DOJ of war crimes and other felonies committed by the Bush administration. The one silver lining from all of this is that it has clarified a crucial political fact: most establishment "journalists" don't believe in the rule of law for political elites -- period. They believe high political officials should be able to break the law -- commit felonies -- and be immunized from legal consequences. To any reasonable observer, that is simply no longer in doubt. Opposition to investigations -- especially for the real culprits as opposed to low-level interrogators -- is as close to a unanimous media view as something can be (though the NYT Editorial Board today, standing virtually alone, calls for full criminal investigations, including of high-level Bush officials).
Broder claims he "agree[s] on the importance of accountability for illegal acts and for serious breaches of trust by government officials -- even at the highest levels." As examples of this "agreement," he cites this: "I had no problem with the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, and I called for Bill Clinton to resign when he lied to his Cabinet colleagues and to the country during the Monica Lewinsky scandal." But he then goes on to boast that he supported Ford's pardon of Nixon. He thought the prosecution of Lewis Libby was "silliness." He simply believes
that "the rule of law" is only for ordinary Americans, not for powerful political officials who commit felonies -- and in that, he's completely typical of the Beltway mindset. It's not an accident that he's the Dean of Washington Journalism; he is a perfect embodiment of that culture.
That media elites -- ostensibly devoted to accountability for the powerful -- fulfill the exact opposite role by demanding immunity for their lawbreaking is why elite lawlessness is so rampant. But that's well-established by now, so I want to focus on another point raised by this Broderian opposition: a completely self-serving falsehood that lies at the core of the debate over investigations. The standard claim made by investigation opponents in the media is that we all know that torture is abhorrent and that what was done is terribly wrong, but that prosecutions would just be too disruptive. Broder asks: "Ultimately, do we want to see Cheney, who backed these actions and still does, standing in the dock? . . . The cost to the country would simply be too great."
But it's simply not true that these journalists vehemently objected to torture as abhorrent but now merely believe prosecutions are an over-reaction. The reality is that they did not object to the torture regime as it was implemented. They did the opposite: they mocked those who objected to it and who tried to stop it as overheated, hysterical, fringe leftists -- as Broder did in a November, 2004 Op-Ed, deriding as "unhinged" those who were arguing "that 'the forces of darkness' are taking over the country." Identically, here's what Broder said in an October, 2006 chat when a reader asked him about a New York Times Editorial sounding the alarm about the radicalism of the Bush administration:
Kingston, Ontario: I'm rather surprised by your and your correspondents' calm tone of voice this morning. Unless the New York Times editorial page is wildly off-track, the U.S. is in the grip of a major constitutional crisis, with the government trying to set aside long established guarantees of legal behavior, both internally and in relation to international law. Where's the sense of urgency?
David S. Broder: Far be it from me to question the New York Times, but I'd like to assure you that Washington is calm and quiet this morning, and democracy still lives here. Editorial writers sometimes get carried away by their own rhetoric.
That was typical of Beltway media behavior even as revelations of war crimes and high-level lawlesness proliferated: oh, calm down with your extremist, unhinged rhetoric. Broder boasts that he called for Clinton's resignation over a sex scandal and "had no problem with" Nixon's impeachment over what was, by comparsion to Bush scandals, a relatively minor infraction. As revelations of torture mounted, did he call for Bush's impeachment or even resignation? No. Like most of his colleagues in the media, he did the opposite: he dismissed objections to what was happening as hysterical and fringe and insisted that Serious and Good People were in charge.
This is a vital reason -- I'd say the central reason -- why people like David Broder and his media colleagues don't want investigations and prosecutions: because they were complicit in most of it, and such proceedings would implicate them as much as the criminals themselves. Think about it: what would happen if Dick Cheney were "in the dock," if high-level American officials were adjudicated in formal proceedings as war criminals and felons? The question would naturally arise: how was that allowed to happen? What did the American media do about it while it happened? What was the Dean of the Washington Press Corps saying and doing to stop it and to alert the citizenry as to what was going on? And the answer, of course, is: nothing. They supported the war criminals and mocked and demonized those who objected.
That's why so many media figures want to Look Forward and Not Backwards -- not only because they want to protect high-level political officials who committed felonies and thus preserve America's two-tiered justice system, but more so, because they know that "looking backwards" would reveal who and what they really are. People who engage in heinous acts always want everyone to look forward and not backwards, for reasons that are as obvious as they are ignoble. Tom Tomorrow captured this mentality perfectly in a cartoon this week (click to enlarge):
Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights issued a new report which finds that CIA doctors "came close to, and may even have committed, unlawful human experimentation" on detainees in U.S. custody, as "doctors actively monitored the CIA's interrogation techniques with a view to determining their effectiveness, using detainees as human subjects without their consent." Human experimentation on helpless detainees. Is it any wonder that the people who are responsible for that and helped to enable it -- critically including media stars who waved it all away -- don't want any light shined on what was done? If you were them, would you?
While all this was occurring, David Broder and most of his media colleagues not only failed to object, but were insisting that nothing extremist, radical or lawless was taking place. They demonized those who raised the alarm bells and tried to stop it. Their opposition to investigations is absolutely grounded in their rejection of the rule of law for political elites, but at least as much, it's a desperate effort to protect themselves and shield themselves from the accountability and shame they so intensely deserve.
UPDATE: Brad DeLong makes a very, very strong case that David Broder is -- how shall we say? -- not telling the truth in today's column when he claims he "had no problem" with the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
April 26, 2009
by Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com
I read David Broder's truly wretched screed yesterday -- in which he demands immunity for Bush officials from investigation and prosecution and attacks those who advocate accountability -- and decided that I wouldn't write about it until today because I didn't want it to infect my Saturday. For purposes of catharsis, I did immediately note on Twitter that Broder's article was "a tour de force of Beltway sickness - even for him" and that "the Washington press corps has exactly the 'dean' it deserves." Fortunately, Hilzoy, Scott Lemieux and Roger Ailes -- among others -- have now made most of the points quite conclusively that need to be made about the morally depraved joke that David Broder is, leaving just a couple of observations worth noting.
To justify the absolute immunity he wants for government lawbreakers, Broder describes the Bush era as "one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States." But that's easy to say now that the Bush presidency is over and the evidence of its criminality so undeniable. But Broder never said any such thing while it was all taking place, when it mattered. In fact, he did the opposite: he mocked those who tried to sound the alarm about how radical and "dark" the Bush presidency was and repeatedly defended what Bush officials were doing as perfectly normal, unalarming and well within the bounds of mainstream and legitimate policy.
As but one example, Broder -- in a September 15, 2006 Washington Post chat -- was asked by a reader about an Editorial in The New York Times which appeared that morning that warned of the grave dangers of abolishing habeas corpus and the protections of the Geneva Conventions, as the soon-to-be-enacted Military Commissions Act sought to do. In other words, back then, the Times Editorial Page was warning of exactly the policies -- "certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion" -- which Broder today, with Bush safely gone, cites as examples of our "darkest chapter." Yet here is what Broder was saying about these things when it mattered:
Kingston, Ontario: I'm rather surprised by your and your correspondents' calm tone of voice this morning. Unless the New York Times editorial page is wildly off-track, the U.S. is in the grip of a major constitutional crisis, with the government trying to set aside long established guarantees of legal behavior, both internally and in relation to international law. Where's the sense of urgency?
David S. Broder: Far be it from me to question the New York Times, but I'd like to assure you that Washington is calm and quiet this morning, and democracy still lives here. Editorial writers sometimes get carried away by their own rhetoric.
On other occasions, Broder mocked those who suggested there was anything extremist or radical about Bush's "counter-terrorism" policies; hailed "Bush's conviction that the quest for freedom is a universal truth"; proclaimed his confidence in Donald Rumsfeld's pre-war Iraq plans; and compared 2002 war opponents to "Jane Fonda in Hanoi or antiwar protesters marching under Viet Cong flags."
Just compare what Broder wrote about the Bush presidency on November 14, 2004, to what he wrote today:
11/14/2004:
Some of my colleagues in the pundit business have become unhinged by the election results. The always diverting Maureen Dowd of The New York Times wrote the other day that "the forces of darkness" are taking over the country . . . Bush won, but he will have to work within the system for whatever he gets. Checks and balances are still there. The nation does not face "another dark age," unless you consider politics with all its tradeoffs and bargaining a black art.
Today:
Obama, to his credit, has ended one of the darkest chapters of American history, when certain terrorist suspects were whisked off to secret prisons and subjected to waterboarding and other forms of painful coercion in hopes of extracting information about threats to the United States.
What Broder states today as fact (that the Bush presidency is "one of the darkest chapters of American history") is almost verbatim that which, when it mattered, when it was happening, he vehemently and repeatedly denied -- and, of course, given that he works in the most accountability-free profession of all (establishment punditry), he does not even have the minimal honesty to acknowledge that. Like so many of his colleagues, Broder played a critical role in defending these crimes and insisting that they were not taking place.
This is a crucial and oft-overlooked fact in the debate over whether we should investigate and prosecute Bush crimes. The very same pundits and establishment journalists who today are demanding that we forget all about it, not look back, not hold anyone accountable, are the very same people who -- like Broder -- played key roles in hiding, enabling and defending these crimes. In light of that, what is less surprising than the fact that, almost unanimously, these very same people oppose any efforts to examine what happened and impose accountability? Back in January, I wrote the following about the virtual unanimity among establishment media figures against investigations and prosecutions:
Bush officials didn't commit these crimes by themselves. Virtually the entire Washington establishment supported or at least enabled most of it. . . . As confirmed accounts emerged years ago of chronic presidential lawbreaking, warrantless eavesdropping, systematic torture, rendition, "black site" prisons, corruption in every realm, and all sorts of other dark crimes, where were journalists and other opinion-making elites? Very few of them with any significant platform can point to anything they did or said to oppose or stop any of it -- and they know that.
Many of them, even when much of this became conclusively proven, were still explicitly praising Bush officials. Most of them supported the underlying enabling policies (Guantanamo and the permanent state of war in Iraq and "on terror"), and then cheered on laws -- the Military Commissions Act and the FISA Amendments Act -- designed to legalize these activities and retroactively immunize the lawbreakers and war criminals from prosecution.
So when these media and political elites are defending Bush officials, mitigating their crimes, and arguing that they shouldn't be held accountable, they're actually defending themselves. . . . They can't indict Bush officials for what they did because to do so would be to indict themselves. Bush officials need to be exonerated, or at least have their crimes forgotten (look to the future and ignore the past, they all chime in unison), so that their own involvement in it will also be cleansed and then forgotten.
Earlier this week, Paul Krugman made a similar point:
One addendum to today’s column: the truth, which I think everyone in the political/media establishments knows in their hearts, is that the nine months or so between the summer of 2002 and the beginning of the Iraq insurgency were a great national moral test — a test that most people in influential positions failed. . . . But for those who stayed “sensible” through the test, it’s a moment they’d like to see forgotten. That, I believe, is the real reason so many want to let torture and everything else go down the memory hole.
Imagine if a police officer were stationed in front of the hospital room of a key witness in a criminal trial, in order to protect the witness from attack, but instead, the officer fell asleep or wondered off to watch TV and, as a result, the defendant's associates were able to enter the room and murder the witness. Asking establishment journalists if they favor investigations and prosecutions of Bush crimes is like asking that police officer whether he favors an investigation and consequences for what happened or whether he instead prefers that the whole thing just be forgotten and everyone look instead to the future. People who bear culpability in the commission of destructive and criminal acts always oppose investigations and accountability -- i.e., what they'll call "looking backwards" or "retribution." They're the last people whose opinions we ought to be seeking on that question.
* * * * *
Directly contrary to the way the establishment media is describing these facts, polling data has consistently shown that large majorities of Americans favor investigations into Bush crimes and large percentages favor criminal prosecutions. Even with virtually the entire pundit class united in opposition, yet another poll on that question -- from The Washington Post/ABC News today -- finds that a majority (51-47%) answered "yes" when asked: "Do you think the Obama administration should or should not investigate whether any laws were broken in the way terrorism suspects were treated under the Bush administration?" It's amazing how much The Hard Left has grown.
* * * * *
More than anything else, Broder's column illustrates the Central Creed of Beltway Culture, which should be memorialized on plaques throughout that city:
When poor and ordinary Americans who commit crimes are prosecuted and imprisoned, that is Justice.
When the same thing is done to Washington elites, that is Ugly Retribution.
* * * * *
See also: this post from earlier today on Time Magazine's coverage of drug decriminalization in Portugal and this post on one of the most brazen acknowledgments yet that most establishment journalists operate with no standards.
UPDATE: For a perfect example of how etablishment journalists and pundits -- including our ostensibly "liberal" ones -- cheered on many of these crimes, see Digby.
Who are Broderian anti-investigation journalists really protecting?
Glenn Greenwald
Sept. 3, 2009
Salon.com
In one of the most drearily predictable media developments ever, David Broder today -- yet again -- joins in with an endless string of establishment pundits to demand that there be no investigations by the DOJ of war crimes and other felonies committed by the Bush administration. The one silver lining from all of this is that it has clarified a crucial political fact: most establishment "journalists" don't believe in the rule of law for political elites -- period. They believe high political officials should be able to break the law -- commit felonies -- and be immunized from legal consequences. To any reasonable observer, that is simply no longer in doubt. Opposition to investigations -- especially for the real culprits as opposed to low-level interrogators -- is as close to a unanimous media view as something can be (though the NYT Editorial Board today, standing virtually alone, calls for full criminal investigations, including of high-level Bush officials).
Broder claims he "agree[s] on the importance of accountability for illegal acts and for serious breaches of trust by government officials -- even at the highest levels." As examples of this "agreement," he cites this: "I had no problem with the impeachment proceedings against Richard Nixon, and I called for Bill Clinton to resign when he lied to his Cabinet colleagues and to the country during the Monica Lewinsky scandal." But he then goes on to boast that he supported Ford's pardon of Nixon. He thought the prosecution of Lewis Libby was "silliness." He simply believes
that "the rule of law" is only for ordinary Americans, not for powerful political officials who commit felonies -- and in that, he's completely typical of the Beltway mindset. It's not an accident that he's the Dean of Washington Journalism; he is a perfect embodiment of that culture.
That media elites -- ostensibly devoted to accountability for the powerful -- fulfill the exact opposite role by demanding immunity for their lawbreaking is why elite lawlessness is so rampant. But that's well-established by now, so I want to focus on another point raised by this Broderian opposition: a completely self-serving falsehood that lies at the core of the debate over investigations. The standard claim made by investigation opponents in the media is that we all know that torture is abhorrent and that what was done is terribly wrong, but that prosecutions would just be too disruptive. Broder asks: "Ultimately, do we want to see Cheney, who backed these actions and still does, standing in the dock? . . . The cost to the country would simply be too great."
But it's simply not true that these journalists vehemently objected to torture as abhorrent but now merely believe prosecutions are an over-reaction. The reality is that they did not object to the torture regime as it was implemented. They did the opposite: they mocked those who objected to it and who tried to stop it as overheated, hysterical, fringe leftists -- as Broder did in a November, 2004 Op-Ed, deriding as "unhinged" those who were arguing "that 'the forces of darkness' are taking over the country." Identically, here's what Broder said in an October, 2006 chat when a reader asked him about a New York Times Editorial sounding the alarm about the radicalism of the Bush administration:
Kingston, Ontario: I'm rather surprised by your and your correspondents' calm tone of voice this morning. Unless the New York Times editorial page is wildly off-track, the U.S. is in the grip of a major constitutional crisis, with the government trying to set aside long established guarantees of legal behavior, both internally and in relation to international law. Where's the sense of urgency?
David S. Broder: Far be it from me to question the New York Times, but I'd like to assure you that Washington is calm and quiet this morning, and democracy still lives here. Editorial writers sometimes get carried away by their own rhetoric.
That was typical of Beltway media behavior even as revelations of war crimes and high-level lawlesness proliferated: oh, calm down with your extremist, unhinged rhetoric. Broder boasts that he called for Clinton's resignation over a sex scandal and "had no problem with" Nixon's impeachment over what was, by comparsion to Bush scandals, a relatively minor infraction. As revelations of torture mounted, did he call for Bush's impeachment or even resignation? No. Like most of his colleagues in the media, he did the opposite: he dismissed objections to what was happening as hysterical and fringe and insisted that Serious and Good People were in charge.
This is a vital reason -- I'd say the central reason -- why people like David Broder and his media colleagues don't want investigations and prosecutions: because they were complicit in most of it, and such proceedings would implicate them as much as the criminals themselves. Think about it: what would happen if Dick Cheney were "in the dock," if high-level American officials were adjudicated in formal proceedings as war criminals and felons? The question would naturally arise: how was that allowed to happen? What did the American media do about it while it happened? What was the Dean of the Washington Press Corps saying and doing to stop it and to alert the citizenry as to what was going on? And the answer, of course, is: nothing. They supported the war criminals and mocked and demonized those who objected.
That's why so many media figures want to Look Forward and Not Backwards -- not only because they want to protect high-level political officials who committed felonies and thus preserve America's two-tiered justice system, but more so, because they know that "looking backwards" would reveal who and what they really are. People who engage in heinous acts always want everyone to look forward and not backwards, for reasons that are as obvious as they are ignoble. Tom Tomorrow captured this mentality perfectly in a cartoon this week (click to enlarge):
Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights issued a new report which finds that CIA doctors "came close to, and may even have committed, unlawful human experimentation" on detainees in U.S. custody, as "doctors actively monitored the CIA's interrogation techniques with a view to determining their effectiveness, using detainees as human subjects without their consent." Human experimentation on helpless detainees. Is it any wonder that the people who are responsible for that and helped to enable it -- critically including media stars who waved it all away -- don't want any light shined on what was done? If you were them, would you?
While all this was occurring, David Broder and most of his media colleagues not only failed to object, but were insisting that nothing extremist, radical or lawless was taking place. They demonized those who raised the alarm bells and tried to stop it. Their opposition to investigations is absolutely grounded in their rejection of the rule of law for political elites, but at least as much, it's a desperate effort to protect themselves and shield themselves from the accountability and shame they so intensely deserve.
UPDATE: Brad DeLong makes a very, very strong case that David Broder is -- how shall we say? -- not telling the truth in today's column when he claims he "had no problem" with the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
How crazy is Richard Gage? Physics teachers, please tell us if Building 7 at the WTC fell at speed of free fall
Architect Richard Gage says there are some interesting anomalies about Building 7 at the World Trade Center.
I'm not an expert in these issues, but the Bush administration says Gage has made math mistakes.
Richard Gage says: WTC Building #7, a 47-story high-rise not hit by an airplane, exhibits all the characteristics of a classic controlled demolition with explosives: (and some non-standard characteristics)
1. Rapid onset of “collapse”
2. Sounds of explosions at ground floor - a full second prior to collapse
3. Symmetrical “collapse” – through the path of greatest resistance – at free-fall acceleration
4. Imploded, collapsing completely, and landed mostly in its own footprint
5. Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic dust clouds
6. Several tons of molten metal reported by numerous highly-qualified witnesses
7. Chemical signature of Thermite (high tech incendiary) found in solidified molten metal, and dust samples by physics professor Steven Jones, PhD.
8. FEMA finds rapid oxidation and intergranular melting on structural steel samples
9. Expert corroboration from the top European Controlled Demolition professional
10. Fore-knowledge of “collapse” by media, NYPD, FDNY
And exhibited none of the characteristics of destruction by fire, i.e.
1. Slow onset with large visible deformations
2. Asymmetrical collapse which follows the path of least resistance (laws of conservation of momentum would cause a falling, to the side most damaged by the fires)
3. Evidence of fire temperatures capable of softening steel
4. High-rise buildings with much larger, hotter, and longer lasting fires have never “collapsed”.
I'm not an expert in these issues, but the Bush administration says Gage has made math mistakes.
Richard Gage says: WTC Building #7, a 47-story high-rise not hit by an airplane, exhibits all the characteristics of a classic controlled demolition with explosives: (and some non-standard characteristics)
1. Rapid onset of “collapse”
2. Sounds of explosions at ground floor - a full second prior to collapse
3. Symmetrical “collapse” – through the path of greatest resistance – at free-fall acceleration
4. Imploded, collapsing completely, and landed mostly in its own footprint
5. Massive volume of expanding pyroclastic dust clouds
6. Several tons of molten metal reported by numerous highly-qualified witnesses
7. Chemical signature of Thermite (high tech incendiary) found in solidified molten metal, and dust samples by physics professor Steven Jones, PhD.
8. FEMA finds rapid oxidation and intergranular melting on structural steel samples
9. Expert corroboration from the top European Controlled Demolition professional
10. Fore-knowledge of “collapse” by media, NYPD, FDNY
And exhibited none of the characteristics of destruction by fire, i.e.
1. Slow onset with large visible deformations
2. Asymmetrical collapse which follows the path of least resistance (laws of conservation of momentum would cause a falling, to the side most damaged by the fires)
3. Evidence of fire temperatures capable of softening steel
4. High-rise buildings with much larger, hotter, and longer lasting fires have never “collapsed”.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, formerly known as the Gyre
Reporting From the Gyre
REBECCA TOLIN
August 13, 2009
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography are 11 days into an unprecedented "plastics watching" expedition in the North Pacific Gyre. They say there's a lot to see, and it's not pretty.
They are seeing tons of litter from North America and Asia -- including detergent bottles, milk crates, toothbrushes, bottles and buckets -- that have been sucked into the gyre's whirlpool.
"Last night we pulled out a large plastic tube with a whole accumulation of fish and crabs inside of it," said Ph.D. student Jesse Powell, who took a few minutes from his sampling duties to speak with me by satellite phone today from the research vessel New Horizon, which is currently in an area 1,500 miles from the San Diego coast.
The area is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, even though scientists say it’s more like a plastic stew. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation estimates the plastic-rich region is twice the size of the United States. The 28-member crew is sampling deeper than other oceanographic missions have to date, about 500 meters below the surface.
There’s also a whale watcher and bird observer on board, the latter looking at how the black-footed albatross and Cook’s petrel interact with manmade flotables. From other research, it’s known that mammals are mistaking plastics for food.
"The sea birds ingest a lot of plastic and you can find plastic throughout their gullet when they die on islands out in the Pacific," said Powell from the New Horizon. "So plastic floating in the ocean is a definitely a bad thing for larger animals in this area."
But the main focus of the mission -- dubbed the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition -- are smaller scraps not detectable by satellite, airplanes or sometimes even the naked eye. These micro-plastics, which are less than a couple millimeters long, could bind with pollutants like PCBs to create toxic pellets for fish, and possibly for people who eat them.
"We can we see lots of bits of plastics," said Powell from the New Horizon. "It kind of looks like plastic confetti."
Powell says he’s surprised by the volume of tiny plastics, which "photodegrade" into ever smaller pieces but never completely break down...
REBECCA TOLIN
August 13, 2009
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography are 11 days into an unprecedented "plastics watching" expedition in the North Pacific Gyre. They say there's a lot to see, and it's not pretty.
They are seeing tons of litter from North America and Asia -- including detergent bottles, milk crates, toothbrushes, bottles and buckets -- that have been sucked into the gyre's whirlpool.
"Last night we pulled out a large plastic tube with a whole accumulation of fish and crabs inside of it," said Ph.D. student Jesse Powell, who took a few minutes from his sampling duties to speak with me by satellite phone today from the research vessel New Horizon, which is currently in an area 1,500 miles from the San Diego coast.
The area is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, even though scientists say it’s more like a plastic stew. The Algalita Marine Research Foundation estimates the plastic-rich region is twice the size of the United States. The 28-member crew is sampling deeper than other oceanographic missions have to date, about 500 meters below the surface.
There’s also a whale watcher and bird observer on board, the latter looking at how the black-footed albatross and Cook’s petrel interact with manmade flotables. From other research, it’s known that mammals are mistaking plastics for food.
"The sea birds ingest a lot of plastic and you can find plastic throughout their gullet when they die on islands out in the Pacific," said Powell from the New Horizon. "So plastic floating in the ocean is a definitely a bad thing for larger animals in this area."
But the main focus of the mission -- dubbed the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition -- are smaller scraps not detectable by satellite, airplanes or sometimes even the naked eye. These micro-plastics, which are less than a couple millimeters long, could bind with pollutants like PCBs to create toxic pellets for fish, and possibly for people who eat them.
"We can we see lots of bits of plastics," said Powell from the New Horizon. "It kind of looks like plastic confetti."
Powell says he’s surprised by the volume of tiny plastics, which "photodegrade" into ever smaller pieces but never completely break down...
Keeping Health Reform Neutral on Abortion
Keeping Health Reform Neutral on Abortion
By STEVEN WALDMAN
AUGUST 13, 2009
Wall Street Journal
Lost in the vitriol about health care is a surprising development: pro-life and pro-choice leaders say they don't intend to use health reform to shift the balance of power in their direction. Many activists on both sides say any big changes to health care should maintain the status quo in the abortion stalemate.
Less surprisingly, while both sides agree on that goal, they look at the same words in the same bills and come to opposite conclusions about what they mean. For instance, the bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee declares, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed as preventing the public health insurance option from providing for or prohibiting coverage" for abortion in the "public option." Pro-choicers say that this neither-this-nor-that language is self-evidently neutral. Pro-life activists argue that since abortion "could" be covered, it will be covered.
My personal view: the legislation passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee does not mandate abortion coverage, as pro-life groups claim, but does leave open the possibility that the government might pay for abortion. Nor did the "neutral" amendment offered by pro-lifers didn't achieve neutrality, as it would potentially roll back abortion coverage in private insurance plans.
From Waldman's Blog:
Full text of the key amendments
Will health care reform cover abortion?
Health reform, abortion and rationing
Of course, it's easy for me to criticize everyone for not coming up with a neutral solution. It's always more fun to carp than be constructive. So here's my best effort on how to make health care reform neutral on abortion.
First, we need to recognize that part of the problem in being neutral is that health care reform would likely introduce some new features, so you really can't just freeze the status quo. Instead, you have to look at broad principles. In general, the federal government is currently prohibited from directly paying for abortion but allowed to indirectly support abortion.
Indirect support currently happens in a variety of ways. For instance, the federal government set up the Medicaid program, pays for much of it, and allows states to pay for abortions. The government provides support to hospitals, some of which perform abortions. The government gives money to family planning clinics for maternal health care, even though those clinics might also do abortions. In each case, the primary purpose of the spending is not to encourage abortion but, but government funds do support some institutions that also, with their own money, perform abortions. That's the status quo...
Bill Clinton says Republicans are promoting fear regarding universal health care
Bill Clinton: GOP promotes fear over health care
By DAN NEPHIN (AP)
August 13, 2009
PITTSBURGH — Republicans have turned to terrifying people in the debate over overhauling the health care system because the GOP has no political clout to fight it, former President Bill Clinton told a gathering of progressive bloggers on Thursday.
Clinton was president when the Democrats made their last major effort to change the health care system. The big difference now, Clinton said, is that Democrats have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate as well as control of the House.
The former president called "crazy" the charges that promoting living wills and other end-of-life planning is somehow promoting death.
Clinton spoke at the opening session of the Netroots Nation convention, a gathering of politically progressive bloggers and other online activists.
He urged the crowd to support President Barack Obama on health care reform, along with climate change legislation and other reforms.
"The president needs your help and the cause needs your help," Clinton said. "We have to preserve this progress majority now."
However, he advised them that change may not come as fast as they want and that they may have to accept smaller victories as they continue to work for their goals...
By DAN NEPHIN (AP)
August 13, 2009
PITTSBURGH — Republicans have turned to terrifying people in the debate over overhauling the health care system because the GOP has no political clout to fight it, former President Bill Clinton told a gathering of progressive bloggers on Thursday.
Clinton was president when the Democrats made their last major effort to change the health care system. The big difference now, Clinton said, is that Democrats have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate as well as control of the House.
The former president called "crazy" the charges that promoting living wills and other end-of-life planning is somehow promoting death.
Clinton spoke at the opening session of the Netroots Nation convention, a gathering of politically progressive bloggers and other online activists.
He urged the crowd to support President Barack Obama on health care reform, along with climate change legislation and other reforms.
"The president needs your help and the cause needs your help," Clinton said. "We have to preserve this progress majority now."
However, he advised them that change may not come as fast as they want and that they may have to accept smaller victories as they continue to work for their goals...
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