LEAD STORY: The (UK) Guardian: Wingnuts’ Ultimate Fate…To Be Eaten By Liberals?

It’s happened once before! Now, it all becomes clearer to El Somnambulo. Vegetarianism is but a sinister plot by the wingnuts to prevent a repeat of what happened to their predecessors, the Neanderthals: 

One of science’s most puzzling mysteries – the disappearance of the Neanderthals – may have been solved. Modern humans ate them, says a leading fossil expert.

The controversial suggestion follows publication of a study in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences about a Neanderthal jawbone apparently butchered by modern humans. Now the leader of the research team says he believes the flesh had been eaten by humans, while its teeth may have been used to make a necklace.

Just think what this could mean. In one swell foop, you could significantly decrease both food production costs and cow flatulence while, at the same time,  you revitalize the necklace industry! Talk about your green jobs!

Some scientists disagree with this theory. But even under the alternate theories, you can see the potential seeds of destruction being sown for today’s Neanderthal class:

Some researchers believe Neanderthals may have failed to compete effectively with Homo sapiens for resources, or were more susceptible to the impact of climate change. (If you don’t believe in it, you can’t adapt to it.) But others believe our interactions were violent and terminal for the Neanderthals. 

Contrary to what one might expect, and despite the military deferments that Cheney and his ilk received, ‘bulo has been told by a reliable, sharp-toothed source, that Neanderthal tastes more like venison than chicken. 

“Neanderthal: The OTHER (guaranteed All-) White Meat”.

Adapt or perish, suckers!

And, THAT, senors y senoritas, is why the Beast Who Slumbers does the ‘Sunday Papers’ blog. (A tip of El Somnambulo’s blood-flecked napkin to AmericaBlog for this story.)

Washington Post: Gay Marriage Conservative Litmus Test for Supreme Court Nominee

They’ve either given up on abortion or decided that they’ve weakened Roe v Wade sufficiently, but they’ve got a new boogeyman.

They seem especially terrified of Elena Kagan, all the more reason she’s ‘bulo’s preferred choice.

The (UK)  Guardian: Parliament Scandal Threatens All 3 Major British Parties

The Beast Who Slumbers wonders why this isn’t a bigger story across the pond. Could it be that our 4th Estate has been as complacent in ignoring rampant congressional corruption as it has in ignoring the ‘Torture/Cheney/Iraq’ link that has finally come to light? At least the British press doesn’t try to deflect the light from the real scandal onto some manufactured ‘scandal’ fresh from Newt’s lab. Really, just how pathetic IS the American press? America tortured to try to establish a phony link between Hussein and al-Qaida? Newt says it’s Pelosi’s fault, let’s check on that, he’s never steered us wrong before. But that’s another ‘bulo rant for another ‘bulo day.

The big story in Great Britain is that, all three major political parties are caught up in a scandal where a large number of the MP’s were basically stealing public funds to do things like, oh, put extravagant additions on their houses. Not just one or two. Dozens and dozens of them. From one of those ‘discretionary’ funds that just prove too tempting to (Caution: Redundancy Ahead) corrupt lawmakers.

The difference between this scandal and previous British government scandals is that every major party was involved.  A voter revolt is brewing, and it’s fascinating. And, if you just can’t get enough of the sheer greed involved, here’s another excellent take from The (UK) Independent.

Boston Globe: Outstanding Students in US Schools Denied College Chance Due to Immigrant Status

Stories like this explain why the easy bumper-sticker talk that passes for political discourse does not suffice to untangle knotty problems.

Every year as many as 65,000 undocumented students like him graduate from high school nationwide, including hundreds in Massachusetts, according to the National Immigration Law Center in Washington. Ten states, including California and Texas, allow students to pay resident tuition and continue their studies, while several states actively prohibit it, including South Carolina. Private colleges set their own rules; some grant students private scholarships, and others do not.

Massachusetts rejected legislation that would have allowed students to pay resident rates in 2006. The nonresident costs here are double the resident rate, as high as $21,729 a year at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Advocates of stricter immigration controls say the students should not take spaces away from US citizens or legal residents. They say resident tuition is a privilege that should be for US citizens or legal residents only. 

Advocates for immigrants say that children should not be punished for their parents’ actions and that states could benefit by enrolling students who could not otherwise afford college. Massachusetts advocates say state revenues would increase $2.5 million a year if students could pay resident tuition.

What do YOU think?

Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago Priests Defend Obama on Eve of Notre Dame Speech

The Beast Who Slumbers never thought he’d be in the position of defending Notre Dame, aka Notre Lame. Especially since he found out that Vince Meconi went there. But he congratulates them for standing firm in the wake of so much opporition from the Catholic Church, and for inviting Obama to speak. You really have to wonder about a Church that makes one issue so pre-eminent that it can ignore all the good works Obama has done, especially in the Chicago community.

Fortunately, many of the priests with whom Obama has worked over the years have come to his defense.  Not that they should have to.

You can link from the above article to more coverage of Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.

And, Meconi, you’ve gotten your first and last Somnambulo Shillelagh Salute to your fading football factory…

McClatchy Papers: It’s Gonna Be a Rethug Bloodbath in the Florida Senate Race

El Somnambulo wouldn’t be totally shocked if Crist ends up as the Democratic candidate in this race. This is gonna be fun:

TALLAHASSEE — A Republican backlash is brewing against the state and national party as they anoint Gov. Charlie Crist’s U.S. Senate campaign — thereby dissing that of his rival, former state House Speaker Marco Rubio.

From South Florida to Tampa Bay, a few county Republican parties are discussing or passing resolutions telling the state party to butt out of the Senate race or any other primary.

If the state party presses forward, Crist’s election could be rockier than expected and his hand-picked Republican Party of Florida chairman, Jim Greer, could find it tougher to hold on to power.

”I like Jim Greer, but the ball is in his court. He needs to level the playing field,” said Palm Beach County Republican chairman Sid Dinerstein.

”If he doesn’t level the playing field,” Dinerstein said, “we have a serious problem in the Republican Party of Florida and we’ll have to straighten it out at our July meeting. The press might want to be there for that.”

Hillsborough County’s Republican Party passed a resolution Thursday demanding that the state party remain neutral. Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Pasco and Hernando counties might follow suit.

The wave of resolutions was fueled by reports that Greer was talking with GOP higher-ups about whether to invoke party ”Rule 11” to expressly endorse Crist.

Come to think of it, isn’t this just like Markell-Carney? Somehow, ‘bulo doubts that the Florida Rethugs will settle this with a Kumbaya moment.

Now, if you’ll excuse ‘bulo, he has some leftovers from last night’s dinner he’d like to finish…

Some things El Somnambulo just cannot make up.

At a time when newspapers are at death’s door, the Philadelphia Inquirer has hired Bush’s point man on torture to write a monthly column.

Philly Daily News’ Attytood columnist Will Bunch is not too thrilled with the move.

The Inquirer thus handed Yoo a loud megaphone on what was once a hallowed piece of real estate in American journalism — to write on the very subjects that have now led Justice Department investigators to reportedly recommend disbarment proceedings against Yoo and has led international prosecutors as well as millions of politically engaged Americans to consider the Episcopal Academy graduate worthy of charging with war crimes.

It was Yoo’s immoral guidance that aided the United States in sanctioning the torture practice known as waterboarding — used in the Spanish Inquisition, by despots such as Pol Pot and by Chinese Communists in the Korean War to obtain false confessions from Americans — as well as slamming detainees into walls, part of a harsh  interrogation regime that has been linked to the deaths of at least a dozen U.S, detainees and possibly more.

Here is the full defense by Philadelphia Inquirer Editorial Page Editor Harold Jackson:

John Yoo has written freelance commentaries for The Inquirer since 2005, however he entered into a contract to write a monthly column in late 2008. I won’t discuss the compensation of anyone who writes for us. Of course, we know more about Mr. Yoo’s actions in the Justice Department now than we did at the time we contracted him. But we did not blindly enter into our agreement. He’s a Philadelphian, and very knowledgeable about the legal subjects he discusses in his commentaries. Our readers have been able to get directly from Mr. Yoo his thoughts on a number of subjects concerning law and the courts, including measures taken by the White House post-9/11. That has promoted further discourse, which is the objective of newspaper commentary.

Does this mean that the Inquirer will next hire Marion Barry to get his thoughts on “bitch(es) set(ting him) up”? This is plumb loco. The Inky already has Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum writing a regular column at $1750 a pop, according to Bunch.

So, The Beast Who Slumbers proposes this solution. Instead of hemorrhaging reporters left and right, how about the Inky drop both Santorum and Yoo and spend the money they save to do real investigative reporting…like following up on the links between Yoo and torture.

LEAD ARTICLE: Washington Post- Smithfield vs. Mexico…The Dark Side of Agribusiness

Come to think of it, is there a bright side to agribusiness? While there may not be a proven link between Smithfield and the swine flu outbreak, Steve Fanairu paints an excellent portrait of how Smithfield runs roughshod over scores of people and endangers their health in the very area the swine flu originated:

LA GLORIA, Mexico — For years, farmers in the communities that dot this arid valley complained about the effects of the industrial pig farms that had multiplied near their fields.

The overpowering stench gave them headaches and drove them from their homes. Packs of wild dogs feasted on discarded pig carcasses and occasionally turned on their children and pets. There were fears that vast lagoons of excrement from more than 1 million hogs might seep into their groundwater.

La Gloria, in the southeastern state of Veracruz, has been at the center of the flu crisis since late March, when a mysterious respiratory illness infected 616 residents, or more than 28 percent of the population. Among them was a 5-year-old boy identified as one of the first confirmed cases of the new virus. The remainder of the cases now appear to have been seasonal flu, according to state health officials.

With the crisis playing out, local residents and officials appear to be increasingly focused on the area’s relationship with Smithfield, which operates in Mexico under its subsidiary, Granjas Carroll de Mexico. The conglomerate, which had $11.4 billion in sales last year, has made the Perote Valley a cog in its global expansion, an aggressive strategy that has frequently put the company at odds with the local population.

In 2007, hundreds of protesters blocked a federal highway in an effort to halt construction of a pig farm near La Gloria. Mexican officials say the company responded by pressing criminal charges against five residents who were perceived as leading the demonstration, including a 66-year-old farmer who was forced to sell his corn crop to defend himself. Smithfield has denied any involvement. The case is still pending.

Bertha Crisostomo, an elected La Gloria official who was also charged — Perote’s mayor posted her bail — said she believes that Smithfield has targeted residents who object to the company’s expansion because of health and environmental concerns. Crisostomo said she supports local investment, but added: “Our health is not up for negotiation.”

“The only good thing Granjas Carroll has going right now is really good lawyers — legal representatives who can tie up the people,” said Fidel Herrera Beltrán, the Veracruz governor, during an interview in Jalapa, the state capital. 

‘Bulo could quote the whole damn thing. Read about the inhumane slaughtering techniques that Smithfield uses (vertical integration) and how the waste is ‘disposed of’ and you will be rethinking what you serve your guests for Christmas and Easter. Which is precisely why you should read it.

NYTimes: Drafted at 19, Opposing H. S. Military Recruitment at 61

Tamar Lewin creates an inspirational and moving profile of Vietnam Veteran Miles Woolley, a high school drafting teacher in Miami, who leads the opposition to on-campus military recruiting and Junior ROTC at his school. 

El Somnambulo cannot even begin to express how much respect and admiration he has for Woolley. He is not even going to bother to excerpt because Woolley and so many others like him deserve to be heard in their entirety. All ‘bulo asks is that you please read this.

The (UK) Independent: Pentagon Covering Up Bombing Deaths in Afghanistan?

Patrick Cockburn provides first-hand, (i. e.) real,  reporting from perhaps the most dangerous trouble spot on earth. It’s both an alarming and well-balanced story on the delicate and treacherous situation going on there. And it also lays pretty effective waste to Pentagon denials that U. S. bombing runs did not kill civilians there:

I was sympathetic to Mr Sidiqi’s difficulties in moving around the country except by plane, because I faced the same problem. I had gone to Herat because last Monday US aircraft had attacked several villages in the Bala Baluk district of Farah province, which is immediately to the south of Herat. The local governor and surviving villagers said that more than 120 civilians had been killed. The US military denied that anything like that number had died and, if they had, it was the Taliban who had done it by hurling grenades into houses.

I did not meet survivors but I did talk to a reliable witness, a radio reporter called Farooq Faizy, who had gone to Bala Baluk soon after the attack happened. He said that police and soldiers nearby were frightened of the Taliban and told him it was too dangerous to go on, but he spoke to some village elders, telling them: “Talk to us and we will tell the world.” He says he was none too sure who was in control of the three villages – Gerani, Gangabad and Khoujaha – that had been hit and he was careful about what he said. But he did take some 70 or 80 photographs and they bore out the villagers’ story: there were craters everywhere; the villages had been plastered with bombs; bodies had been torn to shreds by the blasts; there were mass graves; there were no signs of damage from bullets, rockets or grenades.

I suspected that the US military’s claim that the Taliban had run through the village hurling grenades, supposedly because they had not been paid their cut of profits from the opium poppy crop, was just a delaying tactic. Usually the US military delays admission of guilt until a story has gone cold and the media is no longer interested. “First say ‘no story’,” runs an old PR adage, “and then say ‘old story’.” By the end of the week the US was admitting that the grenade-throwing Taliban story was “thinly sourced”.

This is reporting that matters. The Beast Who Slumbers suspects that, had reporters not largely devolved into press release stenographers, newspapers would not be on the critical list.

The (UK) Guardian: British Parliament-Even More Corrupt than Congress?

8-Ball sez, “Signs Point to Yes”. Especially because the money they are channelling for (a) their own use and (b)to avoid capital payments taxes through byzantine skulduggery, are public funds. This article makes the case that Parliament, as currently constituted, is hopelessly corrupt.

It’s as if every British MP was Vince Fumo. Crikey.

Asia Times: What’s REALLY Going on in Pakistan, and Why It’s REALLY Important that You Know

This kind of analysis, which impacts each and every one of us, is simply not being provided by the American press. Pepe Escobar reports on the coming battleground in South Asia, and why American forces will almost inevitably be front and center. And it’s scary:

Balochistan is totally under the radar of Western corporate media. But not the Pentagon’s. An immense desert comprising almost 48% of Pakistan’s area, rich in uranium and copper, potentially very rich in oil, and producing more than one-third of Pakistan’s natural gas, it accounts for less than 4% of Pakistan’s 173 million citizens. Balochs are the majority, followed by Pashtuns. Quetta, the provincial capital, is considered Taliban Central by the Pentagon, which for all its high-tech wizardry mysteriously has not been able to locate Quetta resident “The Shadow”, historic Taliban emir Mullah Omar himself. 

Strategically, Balochistan is mouth-watering: east of Iran, south of Afghanistan, and boasting three Arabian sea ports, including Gwadar, practically at the mouth of the Strait of Hormuz. 

Gwadar – a port built by China – is the absolute key. It is the essential node in the crucial, ongoing, and still virtual Pipelineistan war between IPI and TAPI. IPI is the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, also known as the “peace pipeline”, which is planned to cross from Iranian to Pakistani Balochistan – an anathema to Washington. TAPI is the perennially troubled, US-backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, which is planned to cross western Afghanistan via Herat and branch out to Kandahar and Gwadar. 

Washington’s dream scenario is Gwadar as the new Dubai – while China would need Gwadar as a port and also as a base for pumping gas via a long pipeline to China. One way or another, it will all depend on local grievances being taken very seriously. Islamabad pays a pittance in royalties for the Balochis, and development aid is negligible; Balochistan is treated as a backwater. Gwadar as the new Dubai would not necessarily mean local Balochis benefiting from the boom; in many cases they could even be stripped of their local land. 

LA Times: Big Oil Sops Up Hundreds of Millions from California Fund Meant for ‘Mom and Pop’ Service Stations

No use even asking the question. Yes, they have no shame. Corporate lobbying by Exxon Mobil and the other fat cats has turned a California program designed to help mom and pop service stations clean up leaking storage tanks into yet another windfall for these pigs.

Knowing the players in Delaware, DNREC would do well to make sure that nothing like this has been going on here since Delaware has a pretty effective Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) program. Not that it would shock anyone anymore.

Finally, people have asked El Somnambulo, why so many stories from the foreign press. ‘Bulo tries to bring top-caliber journalism and stories DL readers would actually want to read to this weekly project.  Infamous bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks. “Because that’s where the money is.”

Same goes for ‘bulo though, sadly, without the dinero.

It really doesn’t get any classier than this.  Reading submissions from outstanding young reporters vying for the Livingston Prize convinced Quindlen that new voices needed to be heard:

The last bit of evidence arrived in the form of three binders of news clippings. Because all the submissions for the Livingston Awards have to come from reporters under the age of 35, looking at the dates of birth on the entry forms for the finalists was like a stroll through my own past.

This young man was born the year I graduated from college, that young woman just about the time I became a reporter at The New York Times, this one when I was covering city hall, that one when I was writing my first column.

Needless to say, this made me feel really old.

But my second response to reading over the stories was delight. They were so thoroughly reported, so well written. Whether local, national or international news, they were just what journalism ought to be. The next time anyone insists the business won’t survive I may bash him with one of these binders, which are heavy with hope for the future.

They also made me think again about my own future. These clippings thoroughly ratified a decision I began to make a year or so ago, that has led me here, to my last LAST WORD column for NEWSWEEK.

It’s a shame that someone as acutely perceptive as Quindlen recognizes the problem that far less acute pundits dismiss (yes, David Broder, ‘bulo means you) as jealousy or something.

It’s particularly glaring when this generational stall happens in the news business, which constantly remakes itself in the image and likeness of the world. And it is egregious when it happens in the small subset of the pundit class, which is supposed to take the nation’s temperature. It’s undeniable: America’s opinionators are too white and too gray. They do not reflect our diversity of ethnicity and race, gender and generation. They do not reflect the diversity of opinion, either, mainly because most are part of an echo chamber of received wisdom that takes place at restaurant tables in New York and Washington. 

With the kind of talented reporters that Quindlen cites, journalism will survive and even flourish with or without newspapers. Or newsmagazines. The news deliverers are here. The new delivery system(s) will inevitably follow. People will read good work. Like Quindlen’s.

LEAD STORY-McClatchy Papers: U. S. Refugee Allies Face Deportation Due to Bush Administration Inertia

Another serious mess left by the serial incompetents of the Bush Administration, this time featuring the sinister Michael Chertoff.

WASHINGTON — Forced to flee his homeland because he supported America’s ideals, Tsegu Bahta thought he’d be embraced by the country he emulated and respected.

Instead, the U.S. has branded him a terrorist.

Bahta is among at least 6,000 immigrants who’ve tried to find refuge in the U.S. only to be told that they don’t qualify because the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 laws label members of armed groups terrorists, even if they supported pro-democracy efforts and opposed despots and dictators. Others who gave money to terrorists under threat of death are considered terrorist sympathizers.

As a result, a wide range of immigrants, from Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government despite death threats to child soldiers who fled their African countries so they’d no longer be forced to kill, are trapped in legal limbo.

You may be asking El Somnambulo why he is placing the blame on the Bush Administration when Obama is the President and the laws were passed by Congress. Here’s why:

“After 9/11, everything switched to ‘We assume you’re a terrorist,'” said Ragland, a Washington attorney who now represents several of the immigrants.

The Bush administration vowed to fix the problem more than a year ago after Congress got word that an Iraqi interpreter who worked for the U.S. military had been told he couldn’t get a green card.

At the time, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff agreed that the Iraqi deserved permanent residency and pledged to review the thousands of pending cases.

“We’re out of ‘Alice in Wonderland’,” he said.

To ensure that the situation was remedied, Congress passed a new law giving the DHS and the State Department broader discretion to grant individuals waivers from the terrorist definition. The law included exemptions for 10 groups, including an organization that opposed Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Immigrants who were forced to support terrorist organizations, such as child soldiers, also were expected to receive help.

The procedures for granting thousands of waivers were never put into place, however. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pro-democracy groups whose members should be eligible for asylum were left off the list.

You see, if you wanted to have procedures put in place swiftly in the Bush Administration, they had to be procedures despoiling the environment, compromising food safety, or making the workplace more dangerous. So, once again, it’s the Obama Administration to the rescue:

Refugee advocates are holding out hope that the Obama administration will take notice and overhaul the handling of the cases.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has ordered a broad review of all department policies, including the asylum rules, said agency spokesman Matt Chandler, who added that the DHS would institute changes “where possible and appropriate.”

“The Department of Homeland Security is committed to the dual goals of protecting the security of the United States while providing deserving applicants who pose no security threat the opportunity to seek and obtain immigration status,” he said.

Marisa Taylor consistently does some of the best reporting in America. Click on and read the article, and give the McClatchy folks some journalistic props. They deserve them.

New York Times: Father of ‘Kemp-Roth’ Tax Cuts Dead

While people will no doubt think of the late Jack Kemp as a social moderate in the Party of Intolerance, Kemp, more than anyone, fathered the ‘tax cuts at all costs’ movement:

Mr. Kemp, having embraced a supply-side economic theory, told the House that year that the nation suffered under a “tax code that rewards consumption, leisure, debt and borrowing, and punishes savings, investment, work and production.”

Ronald Reagan adopted the issue as a central one in his 1980 presidential campaign, and in 1981 he won passage of a 23 percent cut over three years. The legislation was known as Kemp-Roth, named for Mr. Kemp and William V. Roth Jr., the Delaware Republican and his Senate co-sponsor.

Many may have already forgotten that Kemp was also Bob Dole’s running-mate on the Electile Dysfunction ticket in 1996.

Chicago Tribune: Obama Supreme Court Choice to Have Chicago Ties?

The Trib identifies and profiles the rumored names with Chicago and, mostly, University of Chicago, ties:

Ever since Barack Obama’s election as president, there has been anticipation among scholars at the University of Chicago‘s Law School that one of their own could be headed to the U.S. Supreme Court bench in the next few years.

That anticipation was heightened late last week with news that Obama, who taught constitutional law at the school from 1992 to 2004, soon will be making his first Supreme Court pick.

Almost every short list of possible nominees to succeed Justice David Souter includes three individuals with strong ties to the Hyde Park law school: U.S. Appeals Court Judge Diane Wood, Obama regulatory czar Cass Sunstein and U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan.

Even if Obama does not pick one of the past or present faculty members this year, feelings run strong on campus that he will before he leaves the White House.

The Beast Who Slumbers wants a reliable vote who is young enough to be on the Court for some time. Obama must pick people who will outlast, at least, Kennedy, Scalia and Thomas. The thumbnail profiles are interesting and, after reading them, you may well have your personal favorite. For now, ‘bulo leans towards Elena Kagan b/c she’s brilliant and only 48.

Boston Globe: University of Pennsylvania Inspiration for Urban Renewal?

Not being the egghead type, the Beast Who Slumbers was unaware of the proactive role that Penn had played in revitalizing West Philly. Harvard is now looking at Penn as a model as Ve*ri*tas U looks to remake Allston:

Penn never pretended to be performing public service. Its massive investments in the community, school officials said, were designed to improve the university. It stopped making excuses, fronted the money for projects large and small through good and recessionary times, and got the job done.

At the same time it began making risky forays into real estate, Penn started a public elementary and middle school to attract families and stabilize the neighborhood. It planted thousands of spruce and silver maples along barren sidewalks. It gave faculty and staff cash incentives to buy homes there, and some of its top administrators moved in.

Even now, construction continues, just as it did during the downturn in 2001 and 2002.

“This is not altruism or noblesse oblige,” Penn president Amy Gutmann said in a recent interview. “It’s the right thing to do because it can make us stronger as well as our community stronger.”

While Penn built up the neighborhood to improve the college, Allston residents hope that Harvard’s push to expand its own footprint will lead to improvements in the neighborhood. Allston does not come close to approaching the level of deterioration that plagued West Philadelphia, but the historically blue-collar neighborhood, where Harvard owns more than 350 acres, is pocked with university-owned lots and storefronts that have sat vacant for years.

Tracy Jan‘s article raises excellent questions about the missions of universities and cites some of the inherent skepticism in doing something like this. ‘Bulo sees the arguments on both sides and he finds them quite worthy of discussion. So, come back and discuss.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Guess Who’s the Leading Global Champion for Organic Farming??

Here’s a hint from the early ’80’s, from a famous toast, no less: “Drink Up, Chuck & Di” (say it 3 times fast, ‘bulo dares you).

That’s right, the man with bigger ears than Spock or even Mike Castle has done something good, and he’s been doing it for a long time:

But here’s something you probably don’t know about HRH Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales: For almost a quarter-century, he has been a prescient champion of organic gardening, a famous, if lonely, voice in a wilderness once considered the preserve of wackos and hippies.

At long last, the gardener formally known as Prince is alone no more. Organic gardening is coming into its own.

The number of U.S. households using only all-natural or organic fertilizer, insect controls, and weed controls increased from about five million in 2004 to 12 million last year, according to the National Gardening Association’s lawn and garden survey, done by Harris Interactive.

Most of the nation’s 100 million gardening households still use conventional methods such as synthetic chemical fertilizer, pesticide, and insecticide, but the organic component is growing rapidly. And at least some of the credit goes to Charles, who has gardened organically at Highgrove House, the 21-room (plus nursery wing) Gloucestershire estate he shared first with Princess Diana and now shares with Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

This is a really cool article. Once you’re done reading it, pour yourself a favorite libation, raise your chalice skyward, and say…”L’Chayyim.”

The (UK) Independent: The ‘Nets About to Change Significantly for the Better…and Cooler!

The Beast Who Slumbers is sure that the Geeksters and gadgeteers among us will pooh-pooh this, but ‘bulo just can’t wait:

The biggest internet revolution for a generation will be unveiled this month with the launch of software that will understand questions and give specific, tailored answers in a way that the web has never managed before.

The new system, Wolfram Alpha (could this be the new nickname ‘bulo has been searching for?) , showcased at Harvard University in the US last week, takes the first step towards what many consider to be the internet’s Holy Grail – a global store of information that understands and responds to ordinary language in the same way a person does.

The real innovation, however, is in its ability to work things out “on the fly”, according to its British inventor, Dr Stephen Wolfram. If you ask it to compare the height of Mount Everest to the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, it will tell you. Or ask what the weather was like in London on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, it will cross-check and provide the answer. Ask it about D sharp major, it will play the scale. Type in “10 flips for four heads” and it will guess that you need to know the probability of coin-tossing. If you want to know when the next solar eclipse over Chicago is, or the exact current location of the International Space Station, it can work it out.

Dr Wolfram, an award-winning physicist who is based in America, added that the information is “curated”, meaning it is assessed first by experts. This means that the weaknesses of sites such as Wikipedia, where doubts are cast on the information because anyone can contribute, are taken out. It is based on his best-selling Mathematica software, a standard tool for scientists, engineers and academics for crunching complex maths.

Wow, as if ‘bulo isn’t spending enough time online…OK, naysayers, say your nays.

Be back next week, same ‘bulo time, same ‘bulo channel.

A torture related media observation/question from Eric Boehlert:

Does anybody else think it’s odd, albeit telling, that for chunks of the corporate press corps, the emphasis surrounding the release of the Bush era torture memos is now centered on the political problems they’ve created for the Obama administration–how the memos reflect poorly on the current White House—and not, y’know, what the memos say about the administration that actually okayed the law breaking in the first place?

Please note how the press has (surprise!) turned the torture memo story into a Beltway process one (i.e. the Obama White House is “creating confusion and political vulnerability”), and turned away from the larger issues at hand.

This is an interesting question, and goes to a fairly routine set of behavior that seems to want to find landmines for Democrats at the expense of looking at possible wrong-doing by Republicans. What do you think about this?

Ana Marie Cox wrote this as part of a Spring Cleaning series at the WaPo (institutions that could be thrown out):

It’s not that the reporters covering the president are bad at their jobs. Most are experienced journalists at the top of their game — and they’re wasted at the White House, where scoops are doled out, not uncovered. The day of a typical White House correspondent consists, literally, of waiting to be told things. Legitimate security concerns and a tightly scripted political world keep the presidential press corps physically corralled and informationally hostage.

She may have a serious point here. The very high value reporters that are assigned to the WH reflects a (perhaps) anachronistic prestige of covering the WH AND the need of news organizations to be seen as giving the WH very high profile coverage. The later being more of a ratings argument, I think.

What do you think? Is the WH Press Corps (as it is currently staffed) a tradition ready to be ditched?

LEAD STORY-The (UK) Independent: US Major Claims US Torture Has Caused More American Deaths than 9-11

Patrick Cockburn, winner of the 2009 Orwell Prize for Journalism, shows the counterproductivity of torture through the experienced lens of US Major Matthew Alexander. Alexander’s interrogation team located the hideout of al-Zarqawi without the use of torture.

The use of torture by the US has proved so counter-productive that it may have led to the death of as many US soldiers as civilians killed in 9/11, says the leader of a crack US interrogation team in Iraq.

“The reason why foreign fighters joined al-Qa’ida in Iraq was overwhelmingly because of abuses at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and not Islamic ideology,” says Major Matthew Alexander, who personally conducted 300 interrogations of prisoners in Iraq. It was the team led by Major Alexander [a named assumed for security reasons] that obtained the information that led to the US military being able to locate Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of al-Qa’ida in Iraq. Zarqawi was then killed by bombs dropped by two US aircraft on the farm where he was hiding outside Baghdad on 7 June 2006. Major Alexander said that he learnt where Zarqawi was during a six-hour interrogation of a prisoner with whom he established relations of trust.

This military interrogator needs to go on every talk show to tell the truth and cut through the Cheney BS that has been abetted by a press that now realizes its own complicity in all of this, and desperately wants to keep its failings hidden.

Los Angeles Times: Bush Administation Refused to Determine Efficacy of Waterboarding/Other Torture Techniques

Guess everybody who doesn’t read today’s lead story will have to take Dick Cheney’s word for it that torture works. Or not. LA Times’ Greg Miller provides another depressing, but essential, window into the most lawless Administration in American history:

The failure to conduct a comprehensive examination occurred despite calls to do so as early as 2003. That year, the agency’s inspector general circulated drafts of a report that raised deep concerns about waterboarding and other methods, and recommended a study by outside experts on whether they worked.

…”Nobody with expertise or experience in interrogation ever took a rigorous, systematic review of the various techniques — enhanced or otherwise — to see what resulted in the best information,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official involved in overseeing the interrogation program. 

As a result, there was never a determination of “what you could do without the use of enhanced techniques,” said the official, who like others described internal discussions on condition of anonymity.

The Defense Department, Justice Department and CIA “all insisted on sticking with their original policies and were not open to revisiting them, even as the damage of these policies became apparent,” said John B. Bellinger III, who was legal advisor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, referring to burgeoning international outrage.   

The limited resources spent examining whether the interrogation measures worked were in stark contrast to the energy the CIA devoted to collecting memos declaring the program legal.

Justice Department memos released this month show that the CIA repeatedly sought new opinions on the legality of depriving prisoners of sleep for up to seven days, throwing them against walls, forcing them into tiny boxes and subjecting them to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding.

New York Times: Ethically-Challenged House Heavyweight Feeling the Heat

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Defense Contractors) is going down, the only question is when. And he’s not getting any help from Obama:

While past presidents often courted Mr. Murtha with phone calls and private meetings, President Obama has extended to him no such courtesies. On a visit to the White House, the lawmaker told senior defense officials that it would be “foolish” and “ridiculous” to cancel all of a $13 billion contract to buy new presidential helicopters, as he later recounted to a defense industry newsletter. But Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has insisted on scrapping the deal as a symbol of waste.

And in a recent meeting with the secretary, Mr. Murtha pushed a plan to divide a $35 billion contract to build a new airborne refueling tanker between two rival contractors — a compromise that pleases both but would cost the government much more. Mr. Gates listened with little response, several people briefed on their conversation said, but he later dismissed it.

“I’ve had conversations with Congressman Murtha,” Mr. Gates said in a briefing at the Pentagon this month. “I still believe that it is not the best deal for the taxpayer, to go with a split buy.”

The term ‘ethically-challenged’ doesn’t begin to describe the naked quid pro quos (no, not literally, as far as ‘bulo knows, although when there are corrupt congressmen and multibillion dollar contracts, can hot tubs be far behind?) he worked out with defense contractors to provide big bucks for his campaigns. This excellent piece by David D. Kirkpatrick deserves your attention.

Chicago Tribune: Blago Hired Haberdasher for $92K State Job

An unemployed haberdasher at that, but the haberdasher (some words ‘bulo just can’t get enough of…) who satisfied Blago’s taste for fine suits,  anywhere from $2K to 13K per.

Blagojevich became a well-known visitor to Oxxford beginning about 2000, when the then-congressman launched his run for governor.

Because Blagojevich promoted himself as a man of the people, aides worked hard to make sure the public didn’t learn about his taste for expensive clothing. Blagojevich would often dash into the seven-story factory building on Van Buren Street to examine swatches of fabric or get fitted, according to former aides who asked to not be identified.

Blago and Sarah Palin are the gifts that keep on giving. Memo to judges: If they promise not to leave the country, can they PLEASE have their own reality shows? The American people deserve these bread and circuses in such troubled times.

The (UK) Guardian: Police Bragged About Beating Protesters at G-20 Economic Summit

For those who think that the 60’s are over, and that hooliganism is confined to soccer stadiums:

A Scotland Yard officer boasted about “the unwashed getting a good kicking” at the G20 protests in a police blog entry posted a day after the death of Ian Tomlinson.

The Met said last night it was attempting to identify the author of the comments, which were left on the Policeman’s Blog site following the death of Mr Tomlinson, a newspaper vendor, on 1 April.

The latest inflammatory remarks from serving policemen over the treatment of G20 protesters surfaced after it emerged that PC Rob Ward, 27, had allegedly bragged on Facebook how he was going to “bash some long-haired hippies” at the G20 demonstrations. On Friday, Met commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson responded to rising anti-police sentiment following Mr Tomlinson’s death by announcing a new regime of “intrusive supervision” to root out rogue officers.

Meanwhile, the prospect of more Met officers facing criminal investigation for assaulting G20 protesters appears to be increasing, after lawyers revealed they had accumulated evidence indicating that more than 25 people may have sustained head injuries in the protests.

London law firm has collated material indicating that 14 protesters sustained wounds to the head caused directly by police violence. Another 15 cases are being examined in which people were punched or struck in the face by police riot shields or batons and suffered injury or trauma wounds.

While there was some glass broken, the G20 was a legitimate and largely peaceful protest. Too bad a police riot broke out.

The Times of London: Cyberspace to Experience Gridlock Starting…Next Year?

The Internet to become an ‘unreliable toy’? Spouses forced to talk to each other again? Say it ain’t so!

It will initially lead to computers being disrupted and going offline for several minutes at a time. From 2012, however, PCs and laptops are likely to operate at a much reduced speed, rendering the internet an “unreliable toy”.

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist, wrote the code that transformed a private computer network into the world wide web in 1989, the internet appeared to be a limitless resource. However, a report being compiled by Nemertes Research, a respected American think-tank, will warn that the web has reached a critical point and that even the recession has failed to stave off impending problems.

‘Bulo says, forget global warming, save the internets. Build more tubes if necessary! Come back, Senator Stevens, all is forgiven.

h/t Indiana’s Left in Aboite

LEAD STORY-The Times of London: British Scientists Use Stem Cells and Find Cure For Blindness

Wow. Good thing that Bush and the Wingnuts had such an abiding ‘respect’ for ‘human life’. Who ever would have wanted this to happen?

British scientists have developed the world’s first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years’ time.

The treatment will tackle age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness. It affects more than 500,000 Britons and the number is forecast to increase significantly as people live longer. The disease involves the loss of eye cells.

Under the new treatment, embryonic stem cells are transformed into replicas of the missing cells. They are then placed on an artificial membrane which is inserted in the back of the retina.

Tom Bremridge, chief executive of the Macular Disease Society, said: “This is a huge step forward for patients. We are extremely pleased that the big guns have become involved, because, once this treatment is validated, it will be made available to a huge volume of patients.”

Inspirational Verse from the Sunday Hymnal-“I was blind but, with the aid of stem cell research, now I see.”

New York Times: Expanded DNA Databases Violation of Privacy?

Is this an area where progressives and teabaggers can agree?

“DNA databases were built initially to deal with violent sexual crimes and homicides — a very limited number of crimes,” said Harry Levine, a professor of sociology at City University of New York who studies policing trends. “Over time more and more crimes of decreasing severity have been added to the database. Cops and prosecutors like it because it gives everybody more information and creates a new suspect pool.”

Courts have generally upheld laws authorizing compulsory collection of DNA from convicts and ex-convicts under supervised release, on the grounds that criminal acts diminish privacy rights.

DNA extraction upon arrest potentially erodes that argument, a recent Congressional study found. “Courts have not fully considered legal implications of recent extensions of DNA-collection to people whom the government has arrested but not tried or convicted,” the report said.

So, with some degree of hesitancy, ‘bulo invites teabaggers (…if their lips aren’t too tired from reading this, NOT teabagging, you people are so sick!) to share their perspective on this.  FWIW, The Beast Who Slumbers thinks that the government is going way too far.

The Sunday (UK) Independent: Obama Rejected Former CIA Directors’ Efforts to Stop Torture Memo Release

This may have been in an American newspaper somewhere, but the Beast Who Slumbers must have missed it. 

Four former CIA directors opposed the release of classified Bush-era interrogation memos, officials say, describing objections that went all the way to the White House and slowed disclosure of the records. Former CIA chiefs Michael Hayden, Porter Goss, George Tenet and John Deutch all called the White House in March warning that release of the so-called “torture memos” would compromise intelligence operations, current and former officials say.

This article is highly-recommended, so please read the entire thing.  Obama really stood his ground. And, what ultimately is ‘compromised’ here are the ‘reputations’ of the CIA chiefs and many others who secretly authorized and carried out government-sponsored torture. Truly one of the darkest chapters in American history.

Washington Post: Army Attracts Better Recruits, Thanks to Economic Downturn

No more spouse batterers or drug abusers in today’s Army.

While shunning those with criminal backgrounds, the Army is also attracting better-educated recruits. It is on track this year to meet, for the first time since 2004, the Pentagon’s goal of ensuring that 90 percent of recruits have high school diplomas.

The developments mark a welcome turnaround for the Army, which has the military’s biggest annual recruiting quota and had in recent years issued more waivers for recruits with criminal records. That, coupled with unprecedented strains from repeated deployments, led some senior officers to voice concerns that wartime pressures threatened to break the all-volunteer force.

Now, though, rising unemployment, security gains in Iraq and other factors have helped make military service more attractive and have allowed recruiters to be more choosy, according to military officials and Pentagon data.

Dallas Morning News: Killer-Turned-Pastor Sparks Admiration and Outrage

This is a great Rorschach Test story. Brutal murderer at 18, released from prison at 25 due to overcrowded conditions in (where else?) Texas, and now enjoying a very successful career as a televangelist. If you know El Somnambulo, you know how distrustful ‘bulo is of all organized religion. So you can anticipate his likely reaction to the story. Yet, the reporting by Diane Jennings is so even-handed that even he cannot come to a definitive conclusion. 

Read it for yourself. The Beast Who Slumbers would love your reactions to this well-crafted story.

Chicago Sun-Times: Who’s Joining Blago in Costa Rica?

This list barely makes it to D-level celebritology, but there’s mucho trainwreck potential.  Sadly, there are no Hogans or Kardashians on it. Memo to producers: Add the horny Palin girl to the list as Blago’s love interest. ‘Bulo would watch.

Inspired by the last item, Nostrabulus ends this week’s edition with a bold prediction. So bold that it’s in boldface to make for easy e-clip ‘n save:

Historians will discover that Sarah Palin was the first and only person to run for Vice-President for the sole purpose of having her own reality show. The show was wildly successful and ran for eight years until Levi and Whatshername’s baby OD’d on crank that was just layin’ around in Levi’s meth lab. A film crew rushed back from the First Dude’s oil rig to document the entire tragic scene. 

LEAD STORY-New York Times: “States Shredding Social Safety Nets to Balance Budgets”

Maybe Pierre duPont should come on here to explain how raising taxes on the Silverspoonistas is engaging in ‘class warfare’, while cutting vital services to the most vulnerable is not:

Perhaps nowhere have the cuts been more disruptive than in Arizona, where more than 1,000 frail elderly people are struggling without home-care aides to help with bathing, housekeeping and trips to the doctor. Officials acknowledge that some are apt to become sicker or fall, ending up in nursing homes at a far higher cost.

Ohio and other states face large cutbacks in child welfare investigations, which may mean more injured children and more taken into foster care. Despite tax increases, California has ended dental coverage for adults on Medicaid, all but guaranteeing future medical problems.

“There’s no question that we’re getting short-term savings that will result in greater long-term human and financial costs,” said Linda J. Blessing, interim chief of the Arizona Department of Economic Security, expressing the concerns of officials and community agencies around the country. “There are no good options, just less bad options.”

Someone from the Governor’s office needs to explain why they have not yet chosen to take back a reasonable portion of the obscenely-large tax cuts that Delaware’s wealthiest got over the course of 20 years to pay for the budget shortfall. That, amigos, is class warfare, not to mention upper-class welfare.

Washington Post: “How the Stevens Prosecution Imploded”

Inexperience, thin staffing and bureaucratic infighting. Whodathunkit during the Bush Years?:

Former prosecutors, defense lawyers and onetime Justice Department officials also described more chronic liabilities in the department’s Public Integrity Section: Once the “A Team” for fighting corruption in state legislatures, judges’ chambers and Congress, the unit in recent years lost staffing, strong supervision, some of its varnish and its insulation from politics.

Houston Chronicle: “Texas Bill to Allow Arming on College Campuses Likely to Pass”

Even though the NRA has pretty much had its way on the arming of America, some locations have largely been sacrosanct, college campuses prominent among them. But Texas is likely to counter that trend.   

“State after state after state have said no to it … and this committee just chose to ignore them,” said Marsha McCartney, president of the North Texas Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “I’m not usually surprised about what goes on in Austin, but I am terribly disappointed.”

If the bill passes, Texas would join, wait for it…, Utah as the only states prohibiting public universities from establishing rules barring licensees from bringing handguns on campus. 

Los Angeles Times: Failure of a Federal Low-Income Housing Program

A cautionary tale and brilliant  reporting by the Times’ investigative team. 

Remember the $1 homes to enable homesteaders to actually build their lives? Well-intended but virtually unregulated by HUD:

… The program goes unmonitored. Cities are by law required to give HUD detailed accounts of who bought the homes and for how much. But in at least 31 cases, San Bernardino provided inaccurate information, incorrectly listing either the buyer or the sale price, the review found.

HUD officials said that because the Dollar Homes program was mandated by Congress, it does not receive the same type of attention and follow-up as programs created by HUD itself.

“You have to keep in mind that this program wasn’t created for success,” said Vance Morris, the director of HUD’s office of single-family asset management, which oversees the Dollar Homes program. “Sometimes you have programs created for success and others that were created to be compliant with the law. In this case, we are just complying with the law.“

Got that? Because HUD didn’t think of the program themselves, they’ve provided at best minimal oversight even though oversight was their responsibility. Of course, the Obama Administration is developing real rules for oversight, but not before many undeserving people got rich off the scheme. Read the whole damn thing. It’s good!

McClatchy Newspapers: Wind Turbines Offer Great US Job Growth Possibilities

It’s already started, it’s growing, and once a reasonable energy policy passes, it’ll be a windfall.

Paging Tommywonk…if he’s not too hung over from the Horse Flies concert last night.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Easter & the Obamas-A Window Into African-American Culture

Why their fashion, food and church choices really matter to the African-American Community:

Easter, the holiest of Christian holidays, often has churchgoers breaking out their finest. Not only has the day traditionally meant new clothes, but for African Americans, it historically also has offered a chance to claim dignity within their own communities during times when they weren’t respected by society at large.

That means the sartorial choices of America’s first hostess of color will not merely make a fashion statement. For many black people, her clothes will communicate something about cultural identity, too.

There is a stereotypical belief that African Americans elevate fashion, sometimes flamboyantly so, at the expense of everything else on Easter. But many black people say the excitement they are expressing reflects something different.

African American culture – with its lifelong existence as a historical afterthought – is now being thrust into the forefront of American living. With the Obamas as America’s most prominent family, generations-old traditions vital to African Americans – including Easter fashion – will be displayed on the global stage.

And, on that note, the Beast Who Slumbers wishes the happiest of Easters to everyone who is celebrating today.

LEAD STORY-BOSTON GLOBE: Bush Steered Investors Involuntarily into Risky Funds With Predictably Disastrous Results

There comes a point where you have you ask yourself, as Keith Olbermann has, whether the Bush Administration deliberately set out to destroy the country. There’s almost no other explanation for stories like this.

Shortly before the first signs of the stock market collapse, the Bush administration made a crucial decision that has propelled an estimated one to two million workers into stock-heavy retirement funds.

Many of the funds in which workers were automatically enrolled dropped more than 25 percent last year, while a more conservative investment strategy rejected by the Bush administration would have resulted in a gain of 4.7 percent.

The administration’s decisions came in response to a congressional mandate to encourage more workers to participate in company-sponsored retirement savings plans. The Bush administration came up with a rule that enabled businesses to automatically enroll their workers in tax-free 401(k) retirement plans.

If the workers failed to specify how they wanted their money invested, the company would be required by law to place their retirement money in investment funds that, for the most part, relied heavily on stocks. The administration specifically rejected calls for a more conservative investment option.

Read the entire excellent article by Michael Kranish, especially the response by the Bush Administration Undersecretary of Labor who concocted this monstrosity, and try not to let your blood boil.

BTW, a big El Somnambulo Tip of the Sombrero to the Boston Globe editors for not using the hed: NYTimes to Globe: Drop Dead. The Times, which owns the Globe, is using strongarm tactics to wring even more concessions from already tapped-out workers. 

Washington Post: Afghan Law Pits Tradition vs. Progress?

A nuanced article about the new law that appears to codify female subjugation to the husband. The law still sucks, but you’ll learn a lot about the societal/cultural pulls and tugs that led to it.

Miami Herald: The Pill Mills of Broward County

An incredible story by Scott Hiassen about so-called pain clinics dispensing millions of pills to people who drive to south Florida from all over the country. DEA officers can only watch in disbelief:

”Out of State Patients Welcome,” blares a recent ad for A1 Pain in Fort Lauderdale. ”No Wait for Walk-Ins,” another clinic’s ad says. One doctor offers a $25 gasoline coupon to the weary, pain-afflicted traveler.

And the travelers come — by the thousands, narcotics investigators say, from Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Massachusetts and other states. Prospective pill buyers sometimes camp outside clinics overnight, waiting for the doors to open, said Hollywood police Capt. Allen Siegel, director of a South Broward narcotics task force.

”Broward County has become the Colombia for pharmaceutically diverted drugs,” Siegel said. “We’re supplying everywhere.”

The number of pain clinics in South Florida has ballooned from 60 to 150 in just the past year, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates. Broward alone has 89 clinics, Siegel said.

Pain management with narcotics is recognized as a legitimate medical practice to quell chronic pain for those with injuries or conditions like arthritis. But investigators and health advocates say many of these clinics are merely pill mills where doctors feed narcotics to 65 patients a day or more.

”This medicine is about profit-making,” said Mark Trouville, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Miami office. “I hate to call them doctors. These people are just out to make money.”

A single physician can dispense hundreds of thousands of pills. In the last six months of 2008, Trouville said, just 45 South Florida doctors dispensed nearly nine million pills of oxycodone — a favorite among drug addicts and traffickers.

Experts blame these clinics for a startling rise in prescription-drug overdose deaths in Florida, including a 107 percent jump in oxycodone deaths in two years.

”The rate [of overdoses] is just incredible,” said George Hime, assistant director of toxicology for the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office. “It is the new epidemic of drug abuse.”

Yet, regulators and police can’t control the problem — handcuffed, they say, by tepid Florida laws that allow these clinics to open in-house pharmacies and sell drugs directly to clients walking in off the street, even from far-away states.

”We are source-supplying many other states. This is literally embarrassing,” Sgt. Lisa McElhaney of the Broward Sheriff’s Office told a recent meeting of a county drug task force. “The system has enabled this.”

This is about as much of an excerpt that ‘bulo can provide, considering fair use. The article is lengthy but will draw you in right away. Highly-recommended.

New York Times: Trying to Teach Empathy to Spoiled Rich Junior High Kids

The Beast Who Slumbers’ opinion? Without 6 years at a Quaker school already under their belts, it ain’t happenin’. Still the educators on this board might have a different opinion. Read the article, and share your opinions. ‘Bulo promises to be ‘nothing if not empathetic’. Warning: ‘Bulo did not attend Quaker school.

San Francisco Chronicle: Electric Car Industry Thrives in…India. Seriously.

While the bodacious Tata Nano (be honest, you wouldn’t have passed up such a cheap joke either) is  both the world’s cheapest car and a gas-guzzler :

…India’s other automotive innovation – the Reva-i – has quietly become the world’s best-selling electric car, with support from two Northern California firms.

The Maini Group, the Bangalore company that manufactures the car, used $20 million in seed money from three venture capital firms, including Menlo Park’s Draper Fisher Jurveston, and motor-control devices from Livermore’s Curtis Instruments to produce the nearly silent, plug-in vehicle.

“It was a collaborate effort,” said Chetan Maini, the company’s chief technology officer.

The Reva-i is not yet available in the United States. Like many European models, strict safety and testing regulations make the price of entering the U.S. market prohibitively expensive. But once it meets U.S. standards, it would cost much less than GM’s Volt, the highly anticipated electric-gas vehicle scheduled to hit showrooms next year at between $30,000 and $40,000, and the $57,400 Tesla Model S all electric four-door sedan expected to be ready by 2012.

The Banglalore company hopes its newest model, due in May, the L-ion, will pass U.S. regulations. “Our next-generation products might be able to fit that bill,” said Maini.

In the meantime, the Reva-i is being marketed mainly in Europe to affluent, environmentally conscious, urban drivers who commute to work and own a home. The car must be plugged in at the end of each day, making it a logistical hurdle for those without a house and garage.

 

Dallas Morning News: National Memory Champion Teaches You How To Find Your Car Keys Every Time!

He hails from Eulus, TX (or is that Euless? Or Useless? ‘Bulo’s already forgotten). He may be kind-of a jerk, but he has some real cool suggestions on improving your memory skills. And the article’s worth it just for the visual of the ‘nose on the stove’.   The Beast Who Slumbers may have a lousy memory, but he knows how to entice people to click on an article…unless Tom Waits’ name is involved.