---

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Pentagon Says Bush Records of Service Were Destroyed. Military records that could help establish President Bush's whereabouts during his disputed service in the Texas Air National Guard have been inadvertently destroyed. By By RALPH BLUMENTHAL. [The New York Times > Campaigns] "Inadvertently." 10:43:52 PM  Permalink  comment []

Bush gets huffy over Kenny Boy. Georgie is having a bad week: US President George W.... [Daily Kos] Be sure to check out The Smoking Gun, which has reprints of a bunch of letters between W and Kenny Boy Lay. 1:43:07 PM  Permalink  comment []

I'm so jaded. I am so jaded by the depths to which the Bush White House has sunk that I couldn't even summon up any outrage when I read that they have tried to coerce the Pakistanis into capturing big name al-Qaeda leaders during the Democratic National Convention. I suppose people ought to know that this is going on. Here's the gist of it: A third source, an official who works under ISI's director, Lieutenant General Ehsan ul-Haq, informed tnr that the Pakistanis "have been told at every level that apprehension or killing of HVTs before [the] election is [an] absolute must." What's more, this source claims that Bush administration officials have told their Pakistani counterparts they have a date in mind for announcing this achievement: "The last ten days of July deadline has been given repeatedly by visitors to Islamabad and during [ul-Haq's] meetings in Washington." Says McCormack: "I'm aware of no such comment." But according to this ISI official, a White House aide told ul-Haq last spring that "it would be best if the arrest or killing of [any] HVT were announced on twenty-six, twenty-seven, or twenty-eight July"--the first three days of the Democratic National Convention in Boston. [rc3.org Daily] 12:22:55 PM  Permalink  comment []

Emptiness is that what Baby God's Eye is fighting for Scientific American has a new article on the Voynich Manuscript, a 230-page document composed in a very strange script with a strange history. The article makes a good case for the manuscript being a hoax, and provides a plausible way the script could have been created to closely mimic some features of natural languages. Good reading, though it's too short. 11:31:19 AM  Permalink  comment []

[Interesting] Only 38 percent of American men read a book last year. [Globe and Mail] [Fark] 9:31:46 AM  Permalink  comment []

The New Cosby Kids. Bill Cosby has been attacking the youthful black poor, but it's time to pick a new pariah group for the 21st century. [The New York Times > Most E-mailed Articles] 8:49:28 AM  Permalink  comment []

A Tale of Two Drug Wars Debra Saunders -- no liberal she -- rails against our war on some drugs in this morning's Chronicle. But really, as she says, it's more than a war on some drugs. It's a war on some drug users. Not suprisingly, whites, especially upper class whites like Rush Limbaugh or Dick Cheney's doctor who break drug laws find much different treatment at the hands of the court than poor blacks. The result is a system that is geared toward jailing minorities in order to protect the precious white children of privileged white adults.  So, even though white and black Americans use drugs in comparable numbers, their conviction rates are not comparable. According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, whites make up 75 percent of the U.S. population, but only a quarter of the federal drug defendants in 2001. Blacks comprise 12 percent of the general population, but 30 percent of federal drug defendants.  "Instead of being treated with compassion, their lives and families are destroyed," noted Monica Pratt of Families Against Mandatory Minimums. "There shouldn't be such a disparity in a system that prides itself on equal justice for all under the law."  Gary Malakoff gets a second chance. Clarence Aaron spends the rest of his life in jail. That's not justice. 8:45:27 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.