Alan K. Henderson's Weblog

We support the president in the course he has followed so far – working with Congress, working with the United Nations, insisting on strong and unfettered inspections. We need allies today in 2003, just as much as we needed them in Desert Storm and just as we needed them on D-Day in 1944, when American soldiers, including my father, fought to vanquish the Nazi threat.

We must convince the world that Saddam Hussein is not America's problem alone - he's the world's problem. We urge President Bush to stay this course, for we are far stronger when we stand with other nations than when we stand alone.

Today, the economy is limping along. Some say it's a recovery, but there's no recovery in our states and cities. There's no recovery in our rural communities. There's no recovery for working Americans and for those searching for jobs to feed and clothe their families. After gaining 22 million jobs in eight years, we've now lost 2 million jobs in the last two years since President Bush took office - 100,000 lost last month alone.

Two years ago, the federal budget was in surplus. Now, this administration's policies will produce massive deficits of over a trillion dollars over the next decade.

We're being forced to cut vital services from police to fire to health care...

Our plan provides over 100 billion dollars in tax relief and investments, right now: Tax relief for middle class and working families - immediately.

Incentives for businesses to invest and create jobs - this year.

Substantial help for cities and states like yours and mine - now.

Extended unemployment benefits - without delay for nearly a million American workers who have already exhausted their benefits.

It will create huge, permanent deficits that will raise interest rates...

...stifle growth...

We believe every American should get a tax cut.

Under the president's proposal to eliminate taxes on stock dividends, the top 1 percent - that's people who earn over $300,000 - would get more tax relief than the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined.

Last year Congress authorized $2.5 billion in vital new resources to protect our citizens - for equipment for firefighters and police, to protect ports, to guard against bioterrorism, to secure nuclear power plants and more. It's hard to believe, but President Bush actually refused to release the money. Republicans now say we can't afford it.

In my state we have raised test scores, cut class sizes, trained teachers, launched innovative reading programs, offered college scholarships even as the federal government cut its aid to deserving students. Democrats worked with President Bush to pass a law that demands more of our students and invests more in our schools. But his budget fails to give communities the help they need to meet these new, high standards. We say we want to leave no child behind, but our schools need more than kind words about education from Washington, D.C.; we need a real partnership to renew our schools.

Too many seniors can't afford the remarkable new drugs that can save their lives - some are skimping on food to pay for needed medication.

Democrats will insist on a Medicare prescription drug benefit for all seniors. President Bush says he supports a prescription drug benefit. But let's read the fine print: his plan only helps seniors who leave traditional Medicare.

Our parents shouldn't be forced to give up their doctor or join an HMO to get the medicine they need.

And instead of opening up the Alaskan wilderness to oil drilling, we should be committed to a national policy to reduce our dependence on oil by promoting American technology and sustainability.

[Democrats] will work to create jobs...

We will fight to protect a woman's right to choose...

...we will fight for affirmative action, equal opportunity and diversity in our schools and our workplaces.

Above all, we will demand that this government advance our common purpose and not pander to narrow special interests.

This is not an easy time. But I often think about my grandfather, arriving by steamship 100 years ago. He had no family here; he spoke no English.

I can only imagine how he must have felt as he looked out at his new country. There are millions of families like mine, people whose ancestors dreamed the American Dream and worked hard to make it come true. They transformed adversity into opportunity.

To lift the standards of our public schools, we achieved historic education reform – which must now be carried out in every school and in every classroom, so that every child in America can read and learn and succeed in life.

To protect our country, we reorganized our government and created the Department of Homeland Security, which is mobilizing against the threats of a new era.

To bring our economy out of recession, we delivered the largest tax relief in a generation.

To insist on integrity in American business we passed tough reforms, and we are holding corporate criminals to account.

You, the Congress, have already passed all these reductions [reductions set for 2004 and 2006, marriage penalty, child credit], and promised them for future years. If this tax relief is good for Americans three, or five, or seven years from now, it is even better for Americans today.

We should also strengthen the economy by treating investors equally in our tax laws. It's fair to tax a company's profits. It is not fair to again tax the shareholder on the same profits. To boost investor confidence, and to help the nearly 10 million seniors who receive dividend income, I ask you to end the unfair double taxation of dividends.

Lower taxes and greater investment will help this economy expand. More jobs mean more taxpayers, and higher revenues to our government.

A growing economy and a focus on essential priorities will also be crucial to the future of Social Security. As we continue to work together to keep Social Security sound and reliable, we must offer younger workers a chance to invest in retirement accounts that they will control and they will own.

Our second goal is high quality, affordable health care for all Americans.The American system of medicine is a model of skill and innovation, with a pace of discovery that is adding good years to our lives. Yet for many people, medical care costs too much – and many have no coverage at all. These problems will not be solved with a nationalized health care system that dictates coverage and rations care.

Instead of bureaucrats and trial lawyers and HMOs, we must put doctors and nurses and patients back in charge of American medicine.

Health care reform must begin with Medicare; Medicare is the binding commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by giving seniors access to preventive medicine and new drugs that are transforming health care in America. Seniors happy with the current Medicare system should be able to keep their coverage just the way it is. And just like you – the members of Congress, and your staffs, and other federal employees – all seniors should have the choice of a health care plan that provides prescription drugs.

To improve our health care system, we must address one of the prime causes of higher cost, the constant threat that physicians and hospitals will be unfairly sued. Because of excessive litigation, everybody pays more for health care, and many parts of America are losing fine doctors. No one has ever been healed by a frivolous lawsuit. I urge the Congress to pass medical liability reform.

Our third goal is to promote energy independence for our country, while dramatically improving the environment. I have sent you a comprehensive energy plan to promote energy efficiency and conservation, to develop cleaner technology, and to produce more energy at home. I have sent you Clear Skies legislation that mandates a 70-percent cut in air pollution from power plants over the next 15 years.

I have sent you a Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the catastrophic fires that devastate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of treasured forest.

Tonight I'm proposing $1.2 billion in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean, hydrogen-powered automobiles. A single chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates energy, which can be used to power a car - producing only water, not exhaust fumes. With a new national commitment, our scientists and engineers will overcome obstacles to taking these cars from laboratory to showroom, so that the first car driven by a child born today could be powered by hydrogen, and pollution-free.

Americans are doing the work of compassion every day - visiting prisoners, providing shelter for battered women...

I urge you to pass both my faith-based initiative...

...and the Citizen Service Act, to encourage acts of compassion...

Last year, I called on my fellow citizens to participate in the USA Freedom Corps, which is enlisting tens of thousands of new volunteers across America.

I propose a $450-million initiative to bring mentors to more than a million disadvantaged junior high students and children of prisoners. Government will support the training and recruiting of mentors; yet it is the men and women of America who will fill the need.

The American flag stands for more than our power and our interests. Our founders dedicated this country to the cause of human dignity, the rights of every person, and the possibilities of every life. This conviction leads us into the world to help the afflicted, and defend the peace, and confound the designs of evil men.

In Afghanistan, we helped liberate an oppressed people. And we will continue helping them secure their country, rebuild their society, and educate all their children - boys and girls.

In the Middle East, we will continue to seek peace between a secure Israel and a democratic Palestine.

To date, we've arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of al Qaeda. They include a man who directed logistics and funding for the September the 11th attacks; the chief of al Qaeda operations in the Persian Gulf, who planned the bombings of our embassies in East Africa and the USS Cole; an al Qaeda operations chief from Southeast Asia; a former director of al Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan; a key al Qaeda operative in Europe; a major al Qaeda leader in Yemen. All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let's put it this way - they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies. We are working closely with other nations to prevent further attacks. America and coalition countries have uncovered and stopped terrorist conspiracies targeting the American embassy in Yemen, the American embassy in Singapore, a Saudi military base, ships in the Straits of Hormuz and the Straits the Gibraltar. We've broken al Qaeda cells in Hamburg, Milan, Madrid, London, Paris, as well as, Buffalo, New York.

As we fight this war, we will remember where it began – here, in our own country.

We've...posted more than 50,000 newly-trained federal screeners in airports...

And this year, for the first time, we are beginning to field a defense to protect this nation against ballistic missiles.

I ask you tonight to add to our future security with a major research and production effort to guard our people against bioterrorism, called Project Bioshield. The budget I send you will propose almost $6 billion to quickly make available effective vaccines and treatments against agents like anthrax, botulinum toxin, Ebola, and plague. We must assume that our enemies would use these diseases as weapons, and we must act before the dangers are upon us.

Since September the 11th, our intelligence and law enforcement agencies have worked more closely than ever to track and disrupt the terrorists. The FBI is improving its ability to analyze intelligence, and is transforming itself to meet new threats. Tonight, I am instructing the leaders of the FBI, the CIA, the Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge and analyze all threat information in a single location. Our government must have the very best information possible, and we will use it to make sure the right people are in the right places to protect all our citizens.

Today, the gravest danger in the war on terror, the gravest danger facing America and the world, is outlaw regimes that seek and possess nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. These regimes could use such weapons for blackmail, terror, and mass murder. They could also give or sell those weapons to terrorist allies, who would use them without the least hesitation.

This threat is new; America's duty is familiar. Throughout the 20th century, small groups of men seized control of great nations, built armies and arsenals, and set out to dominate the weak and intimidate the world. In each case, their ambitions of cruelty and murder had no limit. In each case, the ambitions of Hitlerism, militarism, and communism were defeated by the will of free peoples, by the strength of great alliances, and by the might of the United States of America.

Different threats require different strategies. In Iran, we continue to see a government that represses its people, pursues weapons of mass destruction, and supports terror. We also see Iranian citizens risking intimidation and death as they speak out for liberty and human rights and democracy. Iranians, like all people, have a right to choose their own government and determine their own destiny - and the United States supports their aspirations to live in freedom.

On the Korean Peninsula, an oppressive regime rules a people living in fear and starvation.

Throughout the 1990s, the United States relied on a negotiated framework to keep North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons.

We now know that that regime was deceiving the world, and developing those weapons all along.

America is working with the countries of the region - South Korea, Japan, China, and Russia - to find a peaceful solution, and to show the North Korean government that nuclear weapons will bring only isolation, economic stagnation, and continued hardship.

Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, even while inspectors were in his country. Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons – not economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not even cruise missile strikes on his military facilities.

Almost three months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam Hussein his final chance to disarm. He has shown instead utter contempt for the United Nations, and for the opinion of the world.

The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax...[and] that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin...Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent....[and] that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them - despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them. From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs...designed to produce germ warfare agents...Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses. Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United Nations. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview. Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say. Intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who cooperate with U.N. inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.

The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages - leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained - by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape.

And tonight I have a message for the brave and oppressed people of Iraq: Your enemy is not surrounding your country – your enemy is ruling your country. And the day he and his regime are removed from power will be the day of your liberation.

The United States will ask the U.N. Security Council to convene on February the 5th to consider the facts of Iraq's ongoing defiance of the world. Secretary of State Powell will present information and intelligence about Iraqi's legal – Iraq's illegal weapons programs, its attempt to hide those weapons from inspectors, and its links to terrorist groups. We will consult. But let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.

The actual words used by Robin Page when opening the speech for which he was arrested were: "In case any of you are of a fragile disposition and easily offended, please go for a walk round the lake and come back when I have finished. If there is a black, vegetarian, Muslim, asylum-seeking, one-legged, lesbian lorry-driver present, then you may be offended at what I am going to say, as I want the same rights that you have got already". These are the only words the Police were interested in.

Yes - a point that needs to be made to both right and left-wingers is that "what they do to the people you don't like today they'll do to the people you do like tomorrow."

As for your very true point about how odd it is that the police have spare time for this sort of thing, I suspect that they sometimes prefer the easy, safe, unimportant task to the difficult, dangerous and important one. In that they are only human, but it is a human tendency which should be fought against.

The smoking ordinance is the most restrictive in the Metroplex, also prohibiting smoking in hotels, city-owned facilities, private clubs with eating establishments, bowling alleys and bingo parlors.

But smokers can continue to light up in designated areas of stand-alone bars and billiard halls, as well as in outdoor patios, cigar bars and hotel rooms that are designated for smoking.

The ordinance will go into effect March 1.

The principal thrust of appellant's attack on the Texas statutes is that they improperly invade a right, said to be possessed by the pregnant woman, to choose to terminate her pregnancy. Appellant would discover this right in the concept of personal "liberty" embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause; or in personal, marital, familial, and sexual privacy said to be protected by the Bill of Rights or its penumbras, see Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972); id., at 460 (WHITE, J., concurring in result); or among those rights reserved to the people by the Ninth Amendment, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S., at 486 (Goldberg, J., concurring).

Mob: BURN THE BLASPHEMER!
Homer: But all I did was save a girl...Who says that's blasphemy?
Mob leader: The Bishop! And to question him is the same as questioning the infallible word of GOD!
Homer: Uh...who told you that?
Mob leader: Hmmm...now that you mention it, that decree was made by the bishop.
Homer: Didn't that make any of you a little suspicious about his motives?
Mob leader: Well now, that would be questioning the bishop, wouldn't it...
Mob: BURN THE BLASPHEMER!

The appellee and certain amici argue that the fetus is a "person" within the language and meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. In support of this, they outline at length and in detail the well-known facts of fetal development. If this suggestion of personhood is established, the appellant's case, of course, collapses, [410 U.S. 113, 157] for the fetus' right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. The appellant conceded as much on reargument. 51 On the other hand, the appellee conceded on reargument 52 that no case could be cited that holds that a fetus is a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Constitution does not define "person" in so many words. Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment contains three references to "person." The first, in defining "citizens," speaks of "persons born or naturalized in the United States."

The word also appears both in the Due Process Clause and in the Equal Protection Clause. "Person" is used in other places in the Constitution: in the listing of qualifications for Representatives and Senators, Art. I, 2, cl. 2, and 3, cl. 3; in the Apportionment Clause, Art. I, 2, cl. 3; 53 in the Migration and Importation provision, Art. I, 9, cl. 1; in the Emolument Clause, Art. I, 9, cl. 8; in the Electors provisions, Art. II, 1, cl. 2, and the superseded cl. 3; in the provision outlining qualifications for the office of President, Art. II, 1, cl. 5; in the Extradition provisions, Art. IV, 2, cl. 2, and the superseded Fugitive Slave Clause 3; and in the Fifth, Twelfth, and Twenty-second Amendments, as well as in 2 and 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. But in nearly all these instances, the use of the word is such that it has application only postnatally. None indicates, with any assurance, that it has any possible pre-natal application.

Texas urges that, apart from the Fourteenth Amendment, life begins at conception and is present throughout pregnancy, and that, therefore, the State has a compelling interest in protecting that life from and after conception. We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to the answer.

In areas other than criminal abortion, the law has been reluctant to endorse any theory that life, as we recognize it, begins before live birth or to accord legal rights to the unborn except in narrowly defined situations and except when the rights are contingent upon live birth. For example, the traditional rule of tort law denied recovery for prenatal injuries even though the child was born alive. That rule has been changed in almost every jurisdiction. In most States, recovery is said to be permitted only if the fetus was viable, or at least quick, when the injuries were sustained, though few [410 U.S. 113, 162] courts have squarely so held. In a recent development, generally opposed by the commentators, some States permit the parents of a stillborn child to maintain an action for wrongful death because of prenatal injuries. Such an action, however, would appear to be one to vindicate the parents' interest and is thus consistent with the view that the fetus, at most, represents only the potentiality of life. Similarly, unborn children have been recognized as acquiring rights or interests by way of inheritance or other devolution of property, and have been represented by guardians ad litem. Perfection of the interests involved, again, has generally been contingent upon live birth. In short, the unborn have never been recognized in the law as persons in the whole sense.

The courts are far too easily politicized and is [sic] far too arbitrary to be trusted with such power.

Loyal Citizen Glorfindel gives us the heads up on some interesting things Boromir of Gondor had to say at the Council of Elrond:

He imprisoned Gandalf by putting him on top of Orthanc in the open instead of locking him in a cell. Sounds like first-rate idiocy to me.

OUR hands???

And what happens to people other than Sauron who come into contact with the Ring? Isildur got a back full of arrows from Orcs. Gollum KILLED HIS FRIEND to get the Ring. Bilbo went weird on his friends for a long time, and after seeing the Ring once again after having given up on it cold turkey, he turns on his nephew. And Frodo looks pretty sane now, but that Ring is yanking his brains as we speak; give him enough time and he'll turn into another Gollum. Do you expect things to go any differently if someone else - like YOU - tries to wield the Ring, you sorry...

Physically, the One Ring is nothing more than an engraved band of pure gold. What makes it "indestructible" is its special protective magic. Melkor enchanted Mount Orodruin to function as a forge to create indestructible armor; various distractions detailed in the Quenta Silmarillion prevented him from carrying out his plans. Sauron discovered Mount Doom's special properties, but he couldn't figure out how to enchant anything larger than a grape. So he made an "indestructible" ring with fantastic powers.

The Ring's protective magic can't function when it comes into contact with the source of that magic - the deeps of Mount Orodruin. When thrown into the volcano, the Ring will melt, and any wizard will tell you that magic can't adhere to a molten surface. The result is one big honkin' chain reaction of uncontrolled magical energy under Arda's crust. Gandalf the Grey estimates that the explosion could exceed that of 15 megatons of fireworks.

"Spoon."

Gnat had just wandered into the living room as I was relaxing in front of the fireplace. Her eyes had locked onto the sterling silver spoon I had just used to stir my coffee. She reached out her hand and repeated her command: "Spoon."

She didn't see me, or the chair, or the living room, or anything else in the world except the Bright Shiny Thing...

[much ado about prying Gnat's attention away from the spoon]

This was the first thing that popped into my mind when I read about Frodo's stopover in Lothlorien. He's volunteered for the task of delivering the Ring of Power to Mount Doom, but deep down he doesn't really want the responsibility. He tries to pass the buck to someone else, and of all people he picks the most powerful elf in all of Middle-earth. I can imagine Galadriel's first thoughts, the Bright Shiny Thing filling her universe and Frodo becoming hobbit dust if he changes his mind about the offer...

The Ring of Power has been discovered in the Shire. The Ring is currently in the possession of Frodo Baggins; his whereabouts is unknown, but he is rumored to be connected to a nighttime disturbance at Bree.

UPDATE: A council has been convened in Rivendell. Emperor Misha doesn't like some of what he's hearing.

UPDATE: Jay Manifold has some interesting technical information on the Ring.

UPDATE: Frodo avoids becoming hobbit dust.

Friday Recipe - Bacon and Mushrooms

You'll need:

One pound of bacon, chopped
Three pounds of Buckland mushrooms, chopped
One cup olive oil
Two cloves of garlic, diced
Two large wooden spoons
One medium-sized cauldron

Put the bacon in the cauldron. Fry bacon until it starts to ripple. Before it has a chance to get crispy, pour in the olive oil and garlic and stir. That bacon isn't quite done yet, so you want to simmer the concoction a while - about 15 minutes should do the trick. Pour in the mushrooms and stir-fry until the mushrooms are tender. Serves four elves, or three humans or dwarves, or two hobbits.

VON HOFFMAN AWARD NOMINEE (for spectacularly bad predictions): "A new Power is rising. Against it the old allies and policies will not avail us at all...Its victory is at hand; and there will be rich reward for those that aided it." - Saruman the White.

My point being that, given the choices which Alan and the study seem to find important, "traditional values" seem to take a serious back seat if they get in the way of making money or getting what one wants.

I would, however, go one further and add another axis of orthodox (note the lowercase "o") versus heterodox faith. The determining factor being that without regard to which religion you practice, how closely to you adhere to the stated dogmas of that faith. The options being "as close as possible (no one is perfect you know)" and "a la cart? do I have to use the cart?" I think the pattern would hold - although not in all cases. There would, I suspect, generally be a following of "more free" with the other "more free" quadrants - the US would be in the a la cart line, and other secular and self-expression oriented cultures would as well. The former communist block countries would, along with politically oppressed or ethically repressed countries, find themselves in the orthodox section.

Long known as a vehement critic of Castro's communist regime in Cuba and of other leftist movements on Latin America, Reich was forced to step down from his temporary appointment as assistant secretary for Latin American affairs when that appointment expired last November.

As NewsMax.com reported, the Democrat-controlled Senate refused even to hold hearings on Reich's nomination, forcing President Bush to give the veteran anti-communist diplomat a temporary appointment, which ran out in November.

At the time, Reich's supporters expressed confidence that he would be renominated this month after the Senate reconvened under GOP control. But according to the Miami Herald, which described Reich as "a lightning rod for his conservative views," the administration chose to give him the new White House assignment rather than face a bitter confirmation battle in the Senate.

The Resources Committee has jurisdiction over a wide range of issues vitally important to private property rights and use of federal lands, including Interior Department agencies like the National Parks Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service, and legislation involving the Endangered Species Act, water, timber, mining and fisheries management.

Each year since 1997, the American Land Rights Association's League of Private Property Voters has posted its Congressional Vote Index [PDF file], a scorecard showing how every senator and representative voted on from eight to 12 key bills involving property rights, land use and environmental matters. Of the seven contenders for [the] post, Pombo is the only one to score a perfect 100 percent: Year after year, session after session, Pombo voted for property rights every time and never missed a roll call.

Pro-globalization Columbia economist Jagdish Bhagwati laments that his younger colleagues are spending so much of their time chasing after figures that are both so elusive and, he believes, so meaningless. "I'm more worried about poverty because that's really much more critical," Bhagwati says. And here the news may be good: By many accounts, even where inequality is increasing, poverty is on the decline. The 2002 UNDP Human Development report notes that the proportion of the world's people living in extreme poverty dropped from 29 percent in 1990 to 23 percent in 1999. Says Friedman, "If it's inequality you're worried about, the world is becoming a less good place. But if it's poverty you're worried about, while we still have a ways to go, the world is becoming a better place."

The nation's first sea water desalination plant built to serve as a primary source of drinking water is expected to begin providing water for residents here by the end of the month.

It is expected to reach full capacity by March, generating 25 million gallons a day of drinking water, officials say.

The plant, located at Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend power plant site on Tampa Bay, is a key part of the regional utility's plan to reduce wellfield pumping.

"I think if we went home and found out that there were families concerned about their kids going off to war, there would be more cautiousness and a more willingness to work with the international community than to say, 'Our way or the highway,'" he said.

The entire federal government - the Congress, the executive, the courts -

is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate.

That agenda includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to surrender control over their own lives.

It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich.

It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable.

And it includes secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine.

Above all, it means judges with a political agenda appointed for life.

If you like the Supreme Court that put George W. Bush in the White House,

you will swoon over what’s coming. And if you like God in government, get ready for the Rapture....

So it’s a heady time in Washington, a heady time for piety, profits and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money.

Don’t forget the money....Republicans out-raised Democrats by $184 million

and they came up with the big prize: monopoly control of the American government

and the power of the state to turn their radical ideology into the law of the land. Quite a bargain at any price.”