3/29 - Bruce Bartlett
- Solar Eclipse. NASA has information on the March 29 solar eclipse on-line here.
- The Word: Merrier. Bigamy and polygamy are against the law in all states, though it is a felony in some states and a misdemeanor in others. According to Richard A. Posner & Katharine B. Silbaugh's A Guide to America's Sex Laws, bigamy and polygamy were originally made into criminal offenses for religious reasons and to protect innocent third parties from con men.
Some have challenged anti-polygamy laws on religious grounds, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah has criticized such laws as infringing on religious freedoms (on-line here). However, the United States Supreme Court has rejected such religious challenges in the past, and did so in a 1946 decision (on-line here).
- Better Know a District. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-California) is on-line here.
3/28 - Former FEMA Director Michael Brown
- Stephen Jr. The San Francisco Zoo has released more than 78 eagles in central and southern California as part of its breeding and release program, which helps the state's bald eagle population grow. Information on the program is on-line here.
- The Word: Marketing. St. Paul human rights director Tyrone Terrill reportedly suggested recently that a sign saying "Happy Easter," a toy rabbit and eggs be removed from a display in the lobby of the City Council offices. Under Supreme Court precedent, public schools and settings can set up holiday displays involving religion, so long as the displays do not make it appear that the government was endorsing a religious belief or "making adherence to a religion relevant in any way to a person's standing in the political community" (1989 case on-line here). Simple signs saying "Happy Easter" should be fine.
- School Vouchers. School voucher programs have grown in recent years as a way to help students who are either low-income or at low-performing schools are given state or private funds to subsidize their transfer to private schools or to supplement their public education. Proponents say that vouchers give poor students the same choices that wealthier students always had, and that the resulting competition will force moribund schools to improve. Critics say that vouchers simply undermine already-troubled public schools and are de facto ways of funding religious institutions that are most equipped to accept students with vouchers.
Milwaukee and Cleveland have run voucher programs for several years, and Cleveland's program was upheld as constitutional by the United States Supreme Court in June 2002. The federal government also recently began the first federally-funded school voucher program in the District of Columbia. Under the DC Choice Incentive program (on-line here), 1,366 scholarships were awarded to students from lower-income families to attend private schools in the 2004-05 school year.
Some polls have shown growing support for vouchers, especially among minorities, though Michigan and California voters did reject referenda allowing for vouchers 3-1 in November 2000.
- Gay Adoption. Measures are pending in several states to limit homosexuals from adopting children; USA Today recently reported that there are efforts in at least 16 states (article on-line here). The law on gay or lesbian individuals or couples adopting differs by state. Florida, for example, has barred such adoptions since 1977, and its law (Fl. Stat. 63.042(3)) has survived several court challenges.
- Hurricane Katrina. Investigations continue into the government response to Hurricane Katrina. As part of an ongoing Senate investigation, former FEMA director Michael Brown testified on February 10, criticizing the Bush administration for focusing too much on terrorism and for ignoring initial reports about flooding and levee breaks on August 29, the day that Katrina hit landfall. A partial transcript of the hearing is on-line here.
A House special committee issued its final report on February 15 (on-line here) in which it concluded that Katrina was a "national failure" that was in part due to a failing "at every level – individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental." Among other things, the report concluded that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Ray Nagin delayed ordered a mandatory evacuation after receiving adequate warning before landfall, that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff should have taken more actions prior to landfall, and that President George W. Bush did not receive adequate advice and counsel.
The White House released on February 23 its own report reviewing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and made recommendations for the future (on-line here). The report included 17 lessons learned, 125 specific recommendations, and 11 critical actions to be completed before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, including steps to improve communication among various agencies. According to the report, "the response to Hurricane Katrina fell far short of the seamless, coordinated effort that had been envisioned by President Bush when he ordered the creation of a National Response Plan in February 2003."
3/27 - Sen. Gary Hart
- Immigration Reform Protests. Thousands of people have protested against proposed legislation that would make living in the United States illegally into a criminal felony (doing so is now a violation of civil immigration law subject to deportation, not jail time) and could subject priests and social workers to jail time for assisting illegal immigrants. The House of Representatives voted in favor of a border-security bill with such provisions (H.R. 4437) on December 16 (239 for and 182 against), though the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended on March 27 passing alternative legislation that would ultimately grant citizenship to many current illegal immigrants and would create a guest-worker program.
President George W. Bush has pushed since January 2004 for a temporary worker program that would allow illegal aliens currently in the United States to pay a fee and become legally eligible for jobs which U.S. employers cannot fill with U.S. workers. Such temporary workers would be able to stay in the United States for three years and would have to return to their home countries afterwards, but would get legal protections while in the United States, Bush said.
Bush, who praised the House measure back in December (statement on-line here) even though it did not provide for a guest-worker program, said on March 27 that he opposed amnesty for illegal immigrants and that immigration reform needed to secure the border, improve enforcement, and create a guest-worker program (transcript on-line here).
Various surveys have estimated that the number of illegal immigrants grew dramatically over the 1990s. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated in 2003 that there were 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States in January 2000, almost doubling since 1990 (on-line as a PDF here). A more recent study by the Pew Hispanic Center (on-line as a PDF here) estimated that there were 10.3 million illegal aliens in the United States in March 2004.
- Laura Bush. A recent report on First Lady Laura Bush's exercise regime is on-line here.
- The Word: Tense. Time magazine's March 27 article, "Was It Worth It?," is on-line here. A Gallup poll taken from March 10 to 12 found that 60 percent of those polled believed that it was not worth going to war in Iraq, that 37 percent believed that it was, and that 3 percent had no opinion (information on-line here; the graph below is based on Gallup polls.
- Abramoff. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pled guilty on January 3 to charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting fraud, and tax evasion (release on-line at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/January/06_crm_002.html). As part of his plea agreement, Abramoff agreed to cooperate with an ongoing criminal investigation, which could help lead to charges against others.
- Threat Down: Drug Dealers! Packaging! Jane Goodall! Dolphin Sex! Jesus! Primate researcher Jane Goodall was one of hundreds of researchers to sign a March 20 letter opposing a recent Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to take grizzly bears in the Yellowstone area off the threatened species list. Such bears currently are classified as "threatened" throughout most of the lower 48 states and would remain as "threatened" in such other areas. According to the Fish and Wildlife Service's November 17, 2005 proposal (on-line here), "[r]obust population growth, coupled with State and Federal cooperation to manage mortality and habitat, widespread public support for grizzly bear recovery, and the development of adequate regulatory mechanisms, has brought the Yellowstone grizzly bear population to the point where making a change to its status is appropriate."
Abdul Rahman, an Afghan man who faced the death penalty in Afghanistan for converting from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago, was released from prison on March 27. Many leaders had expressed outrage over the case, though many Muslim clerics reportedly supported the case. President George W. Bush said on March 22 that the United States would use its influence in Afghanistan to "remind them that there are universal values" and said that it was "deeply troubling that a country we helped liberate would hold a person to account because they chose a particular religion over another" (transcript on-line here).
3/23 - John Kasich
- Home, Hearth, Heart & Heartland: A Return to Traditional Values.
- Reference to Press Conference. Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas pressed President George W. Bush on why the United States went to war in Iraq in a March 21 press conference (on-line here), as Stephen referenced in his interview with Dan Senor.
- Stephen's Sound Advice: How to Raise a Hero.
3/22 - Dan Senor
- Better Know a District. Rep. Brad Sherman is on-line here.
Regarding the Earned Income Tax Credit, it is an antipoverty program that provides about $30 billion in tax credits each year by helping low-income taxpayers reduce the amount of taxes owed and by offsetting the cost of their Social Security taxes. In 1998, the Clinton administration's Council of Economic Advisers called the EITC "one of our most successful programs for fighting poverty and encouraging work" and reported that the EITC lifted an estimated 4.3 million individuals (including 2.2 million children) out of poverty in 1997. However, the program has suffered both from eligible people not participating in the program and from people erroneously claiming the credit. For more, go here.
- The Word: I am the Great and Powerful Oz. The Miami-Dade County School Board has accepted 26 resignations and fired six teachers in a scandal involving former teacher William McCoggle, whose company Moving On Toward Education and Training reportedly offered fake continuing-education classes for teachers. McCoggle pled guilty to fraud last year. A Miami-Dade County grand jury report about McCoggle is on-line here.
- Reference to Press Conference. Longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas pressed President George W. Bush on why the United States went to war in Iraq in a March 21 press conference (on-line here), as Stephen referenced in his interview with Dan Senor.
3/21 - Steve Kroft
- World Baseball Classic. Japan won the World Baseball Classic, the first international baseball tournament including Major League Baseball players, on March 20, defeating Cuba 10-6. The United States lost in the second round to Mexico.
- The Word: Eat It. U.S. Department of Agriculture officials announced on March 13 that a cow from an Alabama farm had tested positive for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, otherwise known as mad cow disease) (release on-line here). Updates on the situation are on-line here.
The Alabama cow marks the third case in the United States to be identified. The first was identified in late 2003 in a non-ambulatory dairy cow in Washington State. Since June 2004, more than 600,000 cattle have been tested as part of a surveillance program focusing on the highest-risk cattle populations; the second and third cases were identified as part of this process. The USDA has information on the testing program on-line here.
BSE is a progressive neurological disorder of cattle that results from infection by an unknown transmissible agent. Many governments took action to control BSE once it was recognized as a disease in cattle in the late 1980s, but its link to a fatal neurological disease in humans in 1996 led to massive governmental action in the United Kingdom and in Europe, with great cost to the cattle industries there.
BSE was first recognized and defined as a fatal neurological disease in the United Kingdom in November 1986. Epidemiological studies have identified the vehicle of infection to be meat-and-bone meal (MBM) incorporated as a protein source in feedstuffs, possibly originating with the use of sheep contaminated with scarpie, a common disease, and then amplified through the use of recycled cattle tissues. The United Kingdom banned feeding such ruminant-based protein back to ruminants in July 1988 and implemented a compulsory slaughter policy for confirmed cases of BSE in August 1988, but such measures were not completely effective because some cattle feedstuffs had been contaminated during production.
By May 2000, 61 people in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France had died of a human illness, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is believed to be linked to BSE, though there is no direct evidence of such a link. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease was first identified in March 1996 and is seen as a new variant of the Gerstmann-Strdussler syndrome, a very rare genetic disorder.
3/20 - Connie Chung
- Concerns of Civil War. Three years after the United States began military operations in Iraq on March 19, 2003, many are concerned about whether continuing violence in Iraq indicates that the country is in or is heading towards civil war. Such concerns have increased following the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a major Shiite holy shrine also known as the Askariya Shrine, which was followed by attacks on other mosques, protests and violence.
Regarding the anniversary itself, President George W. Bush said on March 19 (on-line here) that "on this third anniversary, the beginning of the liberation of Iraq, I think all Americans should offer thanks to the men and women who wear the uniform, and their families who support them. We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq. And a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure, and will help lay the foundation of peace for generations to come."
- The Word: Stop It. Regarding the renewal of the Patriot Act, President George W. Bush signed into law on March 9 a law that re-authorized some provisions of the Patriot Act so that they would be in effect through the end of 2009 (remarks on-line here). The Patriot Act, which as enacted less than two months after the September 11, 2001 attacks, strengthened the federal government's powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to conduct surveillance and to allow for more sharing of information developed through investigations.
- Movies that are Destroying America. Stephen discusses The Libertine, She's the Man, Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, and V for Vendetta, which earned about $25 million in its opening weekend March 17-19.
- Jessica Simpson. Singer Jessica Simpson went to Capitol Hill on March 16 as part of a delegation promoting Operation Smile, a non-profit group that provides reconstructive surgery to children with facial deformities (press release on-line here). She reportedly declined attending a Republican Party fundraiser and an opportunity to meet President George W. Bush.
3/16 - Frank Vincent
- Commander Coconut. The March 10 column mentioning Stephen's ears ("When I watch the Colbert Report, I can't help it -- I just stare at his ears") is on-line here.
- The Word: Sweet Dreams. Recent news articles have highlighted strange behaviors resulting from the use of the drug Ambien, which is for use in short-term treatment of insomnia. The warning label for Ambien (on-line here) does not that a "variety of abnormal thinking and behavior changes have been reported to occur in association with the use of sedative/ hypnotics."
- Better Know a Protectorate. Virgin Islands Delegate to the Congress Donna Christensen is on-line here.
3/15 - Al Franken
- Reference to Yale Comment. Stephen's reference to a letter commenting "are you retarded?" is to a letter that a Yale school official reportedly sent to two Yale alumni who had criticized the presence at Yale of the Taliban's former press spokesman, Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi. A transcript of the March 14, 2006 episode of Scarborough Country addressing this subject is on-line here. Yale has said that Rahmatullah was approved by the U.S. government for an educational visa and has been allowed to take courses for college credit but has not been admitted as an undergraduate (on-line here). A February 26 New York Times magazine cover article on Rahmatullah is on-line here.
- Donor 401. A February 27 Washington Post article about sperm banks and about a group of 11 women who were impregnated using sperm from the same donor, "Donor 401," and who keep in touch is on-line here. According to the Washington Post article, Donor 401 probably lives around Washington DC, is tall, is of German heritage, has a master's degree, and is athletic. The Fairfax Cryobank, which Donor 401 used, is on-line here.
- The Word: None of the Above. The College Board recently announced that a technical processing matter resulted in about 4,000 students receiving lower scores on the October 2005 SAT Reasoning Test than they should have received. About 495,000 students took this test. A release on this is on-line here.
3/14 - Keith Olbermann
- New York Photos. The New York Press Photographers Association's 2006 contest winners are on-line here.
- The Word: Scapegoat. Former Enron top executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are standing trial on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy (Lay indictment release on-line here and Skilling indictment release on-line here). Former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, who pled guilty to conspiracy charges in January 2004 (release on-line here), has testified that Lay had been aware of Enron's financial problems when he made statements in the summer of 2001 that Enron was in good financial health.
- Was it Really That Bad? The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January 2006 that 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers in 2005 were union members and that union membership rates had declined from 20.1 percent in 1983, the first year for which it had comparable data (release on-line here.
Regarding child labor, many children between the ages of 10 and 15 years old were employed around 1900. States began outlawing child labor in the early 1900s, and the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which became law in 1938, established a minimum age of 16 years under most conditions. The Department of Labor has information about child labor on-line here.
3/13 - Christopher Buckley
- Election 2008. Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reportedly finished first in an informal straw poll taken at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference from March 9 to 12, taking about 37 percent of the first-place votes. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney finished second with 14 percent and Sen. George Allen of Virginia finished third; Senator John McCain had asked delegates to vote for President George W. Bush as a sign of support instead of voting for him, and Bush tied with Allen for third. An article on this is on-line here.
- 60 Minutes Segment. CBS's 60 Minutes aired a segment on the science of sexual orientation on March 12 (article on-line here). The article cited studies that found that a first-born son has about a 2 percent chance of being gay and the likelihood increases for subsequent sons for each older brother (though odds would still be low overall); this observation was first noted in a study conducted by Ray Blanchard, a psychologist at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto. CBS called this "one of the most solid findings in this field, demonstrated in study after study."
Scientists, doctors and psychologists once saw homosexuality as a disease, but now some scientists are trying to prove that sexual orientation has biological explanations such as genetics, brain differences, or neurochemistry. The debate as to whether sexual orientation is a choice or is biologically determined became an issue in the second presidential debate (on-line here), when Sen. John Kerry said that he believed sexual orientation was not a choice. For more on this topic, go here.
- The Word: Sidney Poitier. The sixth season of the Sopranos premiered on March 12. HBO has information about the show on-line here.
- Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger. The robot pack mule has been developed by Boston Dynamics, which has information on the project on-line here. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has information on its 2006 inductees, who were honored in a March 13 ceremony, on-line here. The Illinois-based Gateway Grizzlies team has added a new concession item to its stadium, what it calls "Baseball's Best Burger," which uses a Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut instead of a bread-based bun (release on-line here. Oral Roberts University's Golden Eagles basketball team is participating in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's tournament for the first time in 22 years.
- Al Jaffee. Mad magazine cartoonist Al Jaffee, who created the magazine's fold-in feature, celebrated his 75th birthday on March 13. Wikipedia has information about Jaffee on-line here.
3/9 - Lorraine Bracco
- Port Controversy. Controversy has surrounded a recent acquisition by a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Ports World, of a firm that operates several ports in the United States, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which is a British firm. Following a March 8 vote by a House committee against the deal, Dubai Ports World announced on March 9 that it would transfer the leases to manage some U.S. terminals to an unnamed U.S. company.
President George W. Bush had defended the port deal, saying in a February 21 appearance (on-line here), saying that the deal would not affect port security and that he would veto any legislation that blocked the deal. Many Republicans and Democrats, however, had criticized the deal as possibly weakening national security.
- The Word: D.I.Y. Regarding Iran, a new report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (on-line here) finds that Iran has increased its nuclear fuel enrichment activities and not provided sufficient explanations, though the report did not conclude that the program could be used to create nuclear weapons. The United States and European countries have called for possible action by the United Nations Security Council in response to Iran's recent resumption of nuclear activities.
- Better Know a District. Rep. Linda Sanchez is on-line here.
The "No Child Left Behind" Act, the Bush administration's main piece of education legislation, tied federal funding to accountability systems by which schools could be evaluated. If schools show poor performance on test scores and do not improve, parents have options to move their students to other schools or receive supplemental educational services. Democrats such as Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) helped pass the Act, which was signed into law on January 8, 2002, but have criticized the Bush administration for not providing the maximum amount of funding contemplated by the Act.
3/8 - James Webb
- Search for Heir. The New York Times reported on March 7 that Sir Benjamin Slade, the current owner of Maunsel House, a 13th-century manor home on a 1,500-acre estate, is seeking an heir in America to take on the financial and other responsibilities of the house (article on-line here). Maunsel House itself is used as setting for weddings and parties and is on-line here.
- Enron Trial. Former Enron top executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling are standing trial on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy (Lay indictment release on-line here and Skilling indictment release on-line here). Former Enron Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow, who pled guilty to conspiracy charges in January 2004 (release on-line here), has testified that Lay had been aware of Enron's financial problems when he made statements in the summer of 2001 that Enron was in good financial health. Another former executive, Kevin P. Hannon, recently testified that Skilling's "they're on to us" comment from a May 2001 meeting may have been sarcastic.
- The Word: Monopoly. AT&T Inc., which itself is the result of a merger between SBC Communications and the former AT&T in 2005, announced on March 5 an agreement to merge with BellSouth Corporation. The two companies already jointly own Cingular Wireless. A press release on the merger is on-line here. Exxon and Mobil merged in 1999, with Mobil becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of Exxon Corporation and with Exxon changing its name to ExxonMobil.
- Stephen's Sound Advice: Civil War. Concerns about whether violence in Iraq would lead to civil war have been raised following the February 22 bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, a major Shiite holy shrine also known as the Askariya Shrine, which was followed by attacks on other mosques, protests and violence. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on March 7 (transcript on-line here) that he did not believe that Iraq was currently in a civil war and that Iraqi leaders were controlling the situation via steps such as a curfew. "It has been and remains a time of testing for the Iraqi people, but the Iraqis are meeting that test thus far successfully, I would say, and defying the seeming rush to -- by some here and abroad -- to proclaim exactly what the terrorists seek, namely a civil war," Rumsfeld said.
- James Webb. Webb is on-line here.
3/7 - Norman Ornstein
- Search for Heir. The New York Times reported on March 7 that Sir Benjamin Slade, the current owner of Maunsel House, a 13th-century manor home on a 1,500-acre estate, is seeking an heir in America to take on the financial and other responsibilities of the house (article on-line here). Maunsel House itself is used as setting for weddings and parties and is on-line here.
- The Word: The Long War. Some have noted the government's use of the phrase "the long war" to describe the conflicts that the United States currently faces. The Department of Defense said in its recent quadrennial defense review (on-line here) that the United States was now in the fifth years of a "long war" in which the "crucial battlegrounds" were Iraq and Afghanistan but which would require U.S. involvement "in many locations simultaneously and for some years to come." "The enemies in this war are not traditional conventional military forces but rather dispersed, global terrorist networks that exploit Islam to advance radical political aims."
Back in July 2005, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld referred to the "global struggle against the enemies of freedom, the enemies of civilization" in a July 22 speech (on-line here) and General Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a July 26 speech that he had objected to the use of the phrase "war on terror."
Administration spokesmen discussed the phrase further in a July 26 briefing (on-line here), in which they reiterated the appropriateness of the "global war on terror" phrase while acknowledging some limitations. Defense Department spokesman Larry Di Rita said that "we are indeed in a global war on terror" but noted that more than military activity was needed. Lieutenant General James T. Conway said that the phrase "'global war on terrorism' translates pretty well into the various languages. So I think that continues to make it a part of the discussion." At the same time, he noted that terrorism was "a tactic and it's not a tangible with which you engage. Global, I think, is appropriate, both in terms of the nature of the threat and in terms of the nature of the number of countries that are engaged. So I think that part of [the phrase] certainly needs to stand."
Still, the phrase "war on terror" has continued to be used. President George W. Bush notably used the terms "war on terror" in an August 3, 2005 speech (on-line here) shortly after the apparent shift in terminology was noted, and the 2006 quadrennial defense review does still refer to the "war on terror" as well as to the "long war."
- All You Need to Know. The United States Supreme Court recently upheld a federal law known as the Solomon Amendment, which generally denied federal funding to any institution of higher education that prohibits military recruiters from gaining as much access to campuses and students as nonmilitary recruiters (statute 10 USCA 983(b) on-line here). This law was enacted in response to some law schools which had begun restricting military recruiting to protest the government's policy on homosexuals in the military.
Some law schools had challenged the law as unconstitutional on the grounds that it violated their freedoms of speech and association. The Supreme Court held in its March 3 opinion (on-line here) that the law was constitutional because it did not unconstitutionally limit law schools' freedom of speech and because allowing the military to recruit on campus was not equivalent to compelling law schools to adopt the military's position. "As a general matter, the Solomon Amendment regulates conduct, not speech. It affects what law schools must DO – afford equal access to military recruiters – not what they may or may not SAY," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court.
The pediatrics study about the use of Channel One is on-line here. The authors noted that Channel One "offers the potential for positive effects" but recommends that media-literacy education be done in conjunction with the use of the service.
Wal-Mart announced on March 3 that it would begin carrying Plan B emergency contraception in all pharmacies beginning March 20. Wal-Mart noted that it was now required to sell the product in Illinois and Massachusetts and expected more states to make similar requirements in the coming months. "Because of this, and the fact that this is an FDA-approved product, we feel it is difficult to justify being the country's only major pharmacy chain not selling it," Wal-mart pharmacy executive Ron Chomiuk said in a statement (on-line here).
Debates over access to emergency contraception (EC) have become widespread and have focused in part on access in pharmacies. Some states (Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and South Dakota) have explicitly allowed pharmacists to refuse to fill such prescriptions, whereas one state (Illinois) has explicitly required pharmacies that carry birth control to carry EC. Massachusetts' pharmacy board reportedly ordered Wal-Mart on February 14, 2006 to carry EC in its pharmacies; Wal-Mart reportedly carried EC only in Illinois before the order.
Emergency-contraceptive pills (sometimes known as the "morning-after" pill, though they can be used for up to 72 hours after sex) contain stronger, concentrated doses of the hormones used in regular birth-control pills and prevent a pregnancy from developing; they are not the same as RU-486 (also known by its scientific name mifepristone), which terminates a pregnancy that has already begun. Emergency-contraceptive pills have been available in some parts of the world since the 1980s, but were not available in the United States until 1998, when the first pills were approved for the market.
- Lobbying Reform. In the wake of lobbyist Jack Abramoff's guilty plea on January 3, both parties have proposed reforms on lobbying rules and on legislative procedures.
Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Rep. David Drier (R-California) announced a reform plan on January 17 (transcript on-line here). They proposed: (1) a ban on privately-sponsored travel in the House of Representatives, (2) tighter gift rules to ban meals paid for by lobbyists, (3) an increase in the post-employment "cooling off period" in which Congressmen and senior staff cannot engage in lobbying from one year to two years, (4) elimination of congressional pensions for Congressmen who are convicted of felonies related to their duties, and (5) enhanced disclosure and transparency in lobbying. They also said they would address the issue of reforming earmarks, which target projects for specific districts.
Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi announced their reform plan on January 18 (release on-line here). Their proposal also includes a ban on travel and gifts as well as a two-year cooling off period. Their proposal also includes measures to enhance disclosure of special interest provisions before being voted upon, measures to require disclosure of when lawmakers are negotiating private-sector jobs, and measures to prevent politicians from pressuring lobbying firms regarding hiring decisions.
Abramoff pled guilty on January 3 to charges of conspiracy, aiding and abetting fraud, and tax evasion (release on-line at http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2006/January/06_crm_002.html). As part of his plea agreement, Abramoff agreed to cooperate with an ongoing criminal investigation, which could help lead to charges against others.
3/6 - Bob Schieffer
- Oscar Winners. The list of winners for the 2006 Academy Awards is on-line here.
- The Word: Spoiler Alert! The top cars in Consumer Reports magazine's 10 automobile categories for 2006 are all Japanese models for the first time. The picks are on-line here.
- Threat Down: Cash! Curators! Idaho Lawmakers! Gay Penguins! Non-Blondes! The Internal Revenue Service said in February 2006 that its estimate of the "tax gap," which represents the difference between what taxpayers should have paid and what they actually paid on a timely basis, was $345 billion for the tax year 2001, of which $55 billion was recovered through enforcement activities and late payments, leaving a net tax gap of $290 billion for that year. According to the IRS, about half of this gap comes from individuals underreporting their income tax by understating their income, taking improper deductions, overstating business expenses, and erroneously claiming tax credits. According to the IRS, taxpayers paid about 80 to 85 percent of what was owed on time. IRS releases on the tax gap are on-line here and here.
According to the IRS's February 2006 release, President George W. Bush's FY 2007 budget proposal contains five measures to help narrow the gap, including authorizing new IRS enforcement activities. Stephen's own proposal invokes Revelation 13:16-18 (on-line here) and its statement that a "beast" with "two horns" would force all people to be given a "stamped image on their right hands or their foreheads."
The Detroit Institute of Arts reportedly is working to repair Helen Frankenthaler's 1963 painting, "The Bay," which was damaged when a 12-year-old buy put chewing gum on the canvas on February 24. The boy reportedly was on a school field trip and has been suspended.
Idaho State Senator Hal Bunderson has supported legislation that would allow Idaho-registered cars to use a license plate that would not have the "famous potatoes" slogan currently on license plates. According to the stated purpose of the legislation (on-line here), "Idaho's population has changed dramatically since the "Famous Potatoes" standard license plate was adopted in 1960 and has been included since. Other than as a consumer, most of Idaho's citizens have no affiliation with the potato segment of the agriculture industry."
Regarding gay adoption, measures are pending in several states to limit homosexuals from adopting children; USA Today recently reported that there are efforts in at least 16 states (article on-line here). The law on gay or lesbian individuals or couples adopting differs by state. Florida, for example, has barred such adoptions since 1977, and its law (Fl. Stat. 63.042(3)) has survived several court challenges.
Information about the book "And Tango Makes Three" is on-line here.
Stephen's reference to the extinction of the blonde gene stems from a March 5, 2006 New York Times article which primarily was about a study about how blond hair evolved (article on-line here). This article also mentioned an old study by the World Health Organization which found that natural blonds would likely be extinct within 200 years.
However, this WHO study does not actually exist - the New York Times, and then Stephen, appear to have fallen victim to an old hoax in this particular instance. Media reports appeared around 2002 about such a WHO study, and WHO responded by announcing (on-line here) that it had never conducted any research on the extinction of the naturally blonde hair gene and had never issued a report predicting the extinction of natural blondes within the next 200 years. "WHO has no knowledge of how these news reports originated but would like to stress that we have no opinion on the future existence of blondes," it said.
3/2 - Jeffrey Sachs
- Reference to Poll. Stephen referred to a new poll by the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, which found that roughly one in four Americans could name one of the five freedoms granted by the First Amendment (freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and to petition the government for redress of grievances) and found that Americans had greater familiarity with pop culture. A report on the survey is on-line here and a press release is on-line here.
- The Word: The Homo Sapien Agenda. German authorities announced on February 28 that avian influenza had been detected in a domestic cat that had been found dead on the northern island of Ruegen; authorities did not report evidence of an outbreak in domestic cats and have suggested that the cat may have been infected from eating an infected bird (WHO news release on-line here).
Health officials around the world have expressed concerns about possible outbreaks of avian influenza since 1997, when the first documented cases of human infection (including six deaths) from the HN51 strain were observed in Hong Kong and when Hong Kong's entire poultry population was destroyed within days to avert a possible pandemic. Outbreaks were first reported in southeastern Asia and have been reported in Russia, Kazakhstan and eastern Europe. Since 2004, there have been 174 reported cases of human infection of the HN51 strain in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, China, Iraq, and Turkey, including 94 deaths (WHO information on-line here).
Research on embryonic stem cells has been controversial in recent years, first because of their derivation from aborted fetuses, and then because of their connection with a particular kind of human, non-reproductive cloning. Stem cells in general are unspecialized cells that can self-renew indefinitely and that can develop into more mature cells with specialized functions, and embryonic stem (ES) cells are derived from an early-stage embryo.
Stem cell research is currently legal, and the political question regarding this research has focused on whether the federal government should fund the development of such cells. President George W. Bush decided on August 9, 2001 to allow federal funding for research on then-existing stem cell lines as long as the lines were derived from embryos that were already destroyed and that had not been created specifically for research. However, others, including Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), have criticized Bush's policy and called for more research (Frist remarks on-line here).
- The Da Colbert Code. Investigations continue into the government response to Hurricane Katrina. Most recently, news organizations have reported on video and transcripts of an August 28, 2005 videoconference in which President George W. Bush received warnings of Hurricane Katrina before it made landfall (article on-line here). The White House issued a March 2 release responding to the video, saying that the video had been available to the public for months and that it showed Bush being involved and responsive (release on-line here).
A House special committee issued its final report on February 15 (on-line here) in which it concluded that Katrina was a "national failure" that was in part due to a failing "at every level – individual, corporate, philanthropic, and governmental." Among other things, the report concluded that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Ray Nagin delayed ordered a mandatory evacuation after receiving adequate warning before landfall, that Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff should have taken more actions prior to landfall, and that President George W. Bush did not receive adequate advice and counsel.
The White House released on February 23 its own report reviewing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and made recommendations for the future (on-line here). The report included 17 lessons learned, 125 specific recommendations, and 11 critical actions to be completed before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, including steps to improve communication among various agencies. According to the report, "the response to Hurricane Katrina fell far short of the seamless, coordinated effort that had been envisioned by President Bush when he ordered the creation of a National Response Plan in February 2003."
- Reference to Malaria. President George W. Bush pledged in June 2005 to increase U.S. funding of anti-malaria programs by more than $1.2 billion over five years, and included $225 million in his proposed FY 2007 budget for this program. The FY 2007 budget includes $439.3 billion for the Department of Defense's base budget, which does not include additional expenses specifically for operations in Iraq and other aspects of the war on terror. The White House has information about the FY 2007 budget on-line here.
- Dungeons and Dragons. Stephen has written about his experiences playing Dungeons and Dragons (on-line here). The game, which celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2004, launched an on-line version (on-line here) this week.
3/1 - Arianna Huffington
- Duke Cunningham. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-California) pled guilty on November 28, 2005 to (1) conspiracy to commit bribery, honest services fraud and tax evasion and (2) tax evasion. Cunningham resigned from Congress later that day. According to a press release giving details about the charges (on-line here), Cunningham admitted receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes. The New York Times article that Stephen mentions – which did indeed misstate Stephen's ban on California's 50th District – is on-line here.
- Reference to Port Deal Controversy. Controversy has surrounded a recent acquisition by a company controlled by the United Arab Emirates, Dubai Ports World, of a firm that operates several ports in the United States, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co., which is a British firm. P&O shareholders approved the acquisition on February 13, and the acquisition was expected to be finalized in the next few weeks.
President George W. Bush defended the port deal in a February 21 appearance (on-line here), saying that the deal would not affect port security and that opposition was unfair to a country that had been an "ally in the war on terror."
Dubai Ports World is on-line here. P&O Ports, which manages ports in New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans, is on-line here.
- The Word: Faith. Leading conservative William F. Buckley wrote in a February 24 National Review article (on-line here) that "[o]ne can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed … Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough."
- Better Know a Founder. The Library of Congress has information about Ben Franklin on-line here.
- Huffington Post. Arianna Huffington's blog is on-line here.
2/28 - Brett O'Donnell
- The Word: Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler! New Orleans celebrated its 150th Mardi Gras, and the first since Hurricane Katrina, on February 28, 2006. According to U.S. Census data for New Orleans (on-line here), 28% of New Orleans' population in 1999 lived below the poverty line (compared to 19.6% throughout Louisiana and 12.4% nationwide).
- Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: Numbers. Words. H&R Block. A February 2006 Gallup poll (on-line here) found President George W. Bush's job approval to be 39%, a slight decline from prior polls and the lowest since November 2005. A graph showing Bush approval ratings over time is below:
H&R Block Inc. announced on February 23 that it was restating its results for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 and for part of fiscal year 2006 by about $32 million due principally to "errors in determining the company’s state effective income tax rate" (release on-line here).
- Liberty University Debate. Liberty University has information about its debate team on-line here.
