THUNK! DART, Meet MUBLCOM [1]: "NASA’s DART satellite may have bumped into the MUBLCOM satellite during a proximity operation:

NASA’s DART rendezvous satellite may have come in physical contact with its target spacecraft during its April 15 mission, which ended early when DART ran out of fuel, prime contractor Orbital Sciences Corp. said April 21. In a conference call on Orbital Sciences’ first-quarter earnings, company President J.R. Thompson said the DART, or Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology, satellite may have come much closer than 100 meters—as originally estimated—to its target, the MUBLCOM satellite.

[snip]

‘There is some data to suggest that indeed it got a lot closer [than 100 meters], and perhaps even touched the target,’ Thompson said. ‘All other DART systems performed as expected.’

I guess my paper—Autonomous Proximity Operations: A Coming Collison in Orbit—was a little too literal."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Rest in Peace: The Dearly Beloved and Respected PBS: "Twenty-five years ago the U.S. government and Mobil Oil strongly pressured PBS to pull a documentary film about the public execution (or slaughter, as it turned out) of a young princess in Saudi Arabia. The British government also weighed in.

PBS refused to give way. The film aired--and what a buzz it created!

Those days are over. PBS can no longer resist political pressure. This year alone there have been two known shameful instances of caving in to sectarian or political demands--and who knows how much self-censorship.

The first involved a Children’s Television series dedicated to introducing children to variants of loving family life in America. A segment involving a lesbian couple and their children in Vermont was squashed. About the same time there was a brouhaha over whether Sponge Bob Square Pants, a great children’s favorite, was promoting homosexuality!

Later a Frontline human interest piece on U.S. soldiers in Iraq, in itself a bit of political pandering to make up for the program’s earlier airing of strongly critical items, had to warn viewers of foul language to come. Frontline also had to provide local stations with a cleaned up version for watchers unable to face the truth of how their kids actually talk.

As a New York Times critic observed in reviewing the rebroadcast of ‘Death of a Princess,’ PBS has been ‘emasculated’ by pressure from Christian fundamentalists and conservatives."

(Via WhirledView.)

The Fourth Customer: "Douglas Frantz of the Los Angeles Times reports that a shipment of components for advanced centrifuges, bound for Libya, may have been diverted to an unknown country:

Critical components and specialized tools destined for Libya’s nuclear weapons program disappeared before arrival in 2003 and international investigators now suspect that they were diverted to another country, according to court records and investigators.

Efforts to find the missing equipment have led to dead ends, raising what investigators said was the strong likelihood that the sophisticated material was sold to an unidentified customer by members of the international smuggling ring that had been supplying nuclear technology and weapons designs to Libya.

This got a big splashy headline, but the Los Angeles Times is about a year behind of ACW’s own Paul Kerr"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

MISSILE MEN NEED WORK: "What's with General Lance Lord looking for 'alternative uses' for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles? Has 'the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War have actually increased the importance of our Minuteman III ICBM,' as he says? Or is the general just looking for something to keep his 9,000 misileers busy? The answer from Slate's Fred Kaplan: # 2."

(Via Defense Tech.)

Secrecy News for 04/22/05: "Tensions within the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) over how to address the continuing controversy regarding CIA prisoner detention and interrogation policies became manifest this week as the Committee leaders brought their dispute to the Senate floor.

Their contrasting views reflect fundamentally distinct conceptions of the role of intelligence oversight. SSCI Vice Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) filed a 'sense of the Senate' amendment stating that the SSCI 'should conduct an investigation into ... all matters relating to the ... detention, interrogation, or rendition of prisoners for intelligence purposes.'"

...

In response to the Rockefeller amendment, Sen. Roberts then filed his own amendment. "My amendment actually expresses support for our Armed Forces and intelligence officers, rather than calling into question their actions, while they are on the front lines in the war on terror," Sen. Roberts said.

(Via Secrecy News.)

DoD News: Defense Department Briefing:
"Q: Larry, could you tell us about the Americans on the helicopter, who they worked for, and whether the Pentagon had anything to do with employing those people on the helicopter. I understand they -- did they work for Blackwater or --

MR. DIRITA: It's my understanding that that company has put out a statement to that effect. We're still learning some details. There's going to be an investigation by the Iraqi civil authorities -- civil aviation authorities that we will -- that the Multinational Force will assist with. I'm not particularly -- I think the number was something on the order of six, but I would be careful with those reports just because I think they'll go in and investigate and learn more in the immediate future, and then learn as far as causes in the longer-term future. But there will be an investigation by Iraqi civil authorities, and we'll assist in that investigation. And there's no early indications as to what happened; how it crashed. Q: Well, because I understand the U.S. military is saying probably an RPG. And the Bulgarian Defense minister is saying a missile, of course which could be anything. MR. DIRITA: Apparently, the Bulgarian minister of Defense -- Ministry of Defense has made a comment to that effect. I'm not aware that we -- we have not made any official assessments on that, and I don't believe that there's been any official statements to that effect coming out of the theater from U.S. military. Q: But by a missile, it could mean anything from an RPG to an actual missile. MR. DIRITA: I wouldn't want to speculate. I know - apparently the Iraqi -- the Bulgarian Defense Ministry has made a comment to the effect that they believed it was shot down. But I think we just don't know that and we're not in a position to make an independent assessment of that yet, nor are Iraqi civil authorities, as I understand it. Q: Larry, can you sort out this discrepancy in figures that the Iraqi government is saying more than 50 people were found in the Tigris River, and most of the people we've talked to have numbers that are quite different from that, if any at all. What happened, and why there's such a difference in the numbers?

MR. DIRITA: First of all, why there's a difference is -- I can't say why there's a difference, but I can say that those kinds of differences aren't surprising. People are gathering their own information. We now have an Iraqi government that has its own sources of information, that has its own ability to develop understanding of things that happen. "

(Via GlobalSecurity.org.)

DeLay's Grab for NASA: "Who's in charge of the US space program? There's the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, for one, and of course the President--and also Tom DeLay.

The scandal-scented Republican House majority leader has invaded NASA, grabbing its biggest outpost and taking a rather personal interest in the agency's budget. He has established himself as the go-to guy on Capitol Hill regarding NASA. And given the way Washington works, this means he can influence how the agency carves up its $16 billion pie and how it resolves critical policy debates--matters of keen interest to aerospace and military contractors, who often look to make contributions to friendly or feared legislators. Fans of NASA might cheer DeLay's involvement. 'It's always to the benefit of the agency to have someone in the leadership interested in the agency's budget,' says Wesley Huntress Jr., an associate administrator of NASA in the 1990s. 'And Tom DeLay is very interested in NASA.' But anyone concerned about good government and effective and appropriate budgeting decisions ought to fret about The Hammer's sway over NASA. 'With NASA changing its spending priorities to support President Bush's vision for space exploration that will return humans to the moon and take them to Mars, there will be plenty of money going to start-up companies with no record of producing hardware, and there will be no way to measure results,' says John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org. 'DeLay, if he wants, will be in charge of a free-for-all, with money flowing everywhere--mainly flying in the direction he directs.' NASA, then, is another potential source of money and power for DeLay--if he survives his ethics troubles."

(Via GlobalSecurity.org.)

Salon.com News | Bolton finds U.N. nomination in jeopardy: "Withdraw or be pushed out by the White House. Survive the test of his professional life. Suffer a rejection by the Senate. That's about what it comes down to for John R. Bolton, President Bush's besieged nominee to be U.N. ambassador.

Bolton could weather the indignity of further investigation into his personal and professional behavior and win confirmation by the Senate next month. He also could find his nomination scuttled. Or he could pull the plug before a scheduled May 12 vote by a Senate committee.

Only a week ago, Bolton seemed assured of moving on to New York to be the ambassador who works toward Bush's wishes for major changes at the United Nations. His new assignment, however, was thrown into jeopardy last week when moderate Republican senators said new allegations about Bolton gave them cause to reconsider whether he was the right person for the job.

''This nomination is not doomed, but it's on life support and the plug may well be pulled any day,' said Allan J. Lichtman, a political history professor at American University."

(Via Salon.)

Rice on North Korea: It's All Good: "all is well now, according to Rice:

We have a much better situation with North Korea now where we are, even though the North Koreans continue to develop, apparently, their capability and continue to try to remind the world of that, they are now in a six-party framework in which they have to face not just the United States but also the Russians, the Japanese, the Chinese and the South Koreans.

Do we need to get into how silly this is?

• Agreed Framework: Frozen plutonium program
• Now: Unfrozen plutonium program

Thank heavens the Bush administration is around to save us all from serious diplomacy, as well as rampant buggery."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Christian Science Monitor Blog | Notebook: Iraq Archive March, 2005: "As an American journalist here, I have been through many checkpoints and have come close to being shot at several times myself. I look vaguely Middle Eastern, which perhaps makes my checkpoint experience a little closer to that of the typical Iraqi. Here's what it's like.

You're driving along and you see a couple of soldiers standing by the side of the road - but that's a pretty ubiquitous sight in Baghdad, so you don't think anything of it. Next thing you know, soldiers are screaming at you, pointing their rifles and swiveling tank guns in your direction, and you didn't even know it was a checkpoint.

If it's confusing for me - and I'm an American - what is it like for Iraqis who don't speak English?"

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

Danon Gale becomes the new Rosa Parks: "Many minority rights activists hail Danon Gale, the man who was mercilessly assaulted by the Police using stun-guns after being falsely accused of not paying for a plate of salad at Chuck and Cheese in Aurora, Colorado, as the new Rosa Parks.

According to corroborated eyewitness reports the police officers badly beat Mr. Gale, 29, and shoved him into a pizza oven before tasering him in the chest while his children, aged three and seven, watched in horror. The police violence started after Mr. Gale refused to bow to police demands to step out of the restaurant after the manager of the restaurant falsely accused him of not paying for a plate of salad. Many witnesses to the incident claim that they saw a member of the staff take the receipt from Mr. Gale. But the staff member late claimed that Mr. Gale had not produced a receipt.

When Mr. Gale decided to stand his ground, the manager called in the police. According to the witnesses, the police only listened to the manager and tried provoked Mr. Gale by shouting racist slurs at him. But when Mr. Gale ignored the provocations, they tried to forcibly evict him from the premises. When Mr. Gale resisted, he was badly beaten, thrown onto the lap of woman sitting nearby, and tasered in front of his frightened children before being dragged away leaving the children alone in the restaurant, witnesses report. The restaurant was packed with children when the incident took place."

(Via PressEsc.)

PressEsc - Iran captures three CIA agents: "Iranian police have captured three CIA operatives in the Iranian border town of Zaheda, unconfirmed reports coming out of Iran said. But officials in both Iran and US remain tight-lipped about the incident.

Eyewitnesses in Zaheda, the capital of Sistan & Balochestan province just 20km from the Afghan border, report that the police raided an abandoned hut about 5km away from the town centre after receiving a tip-off from a group of Baluchi tribesman. Two of the men were described as Caucasian and the other of African origin.

According to sources within the Iranian police, the three operatives were interrogated at an undisclosed location in Zaheda before being transferred to Iran. It is alleged that the three agents entered Iran from Afghanistan to lay the groundwork for the planned US invasion of Iran in June."

(Via /. Seriously. )

'Just World News' by Helena Cobban: Iraq: parliamentarian humiliated by US soldiers: "This, from AP's Thomas Wagner a couple of hourse ago:

in the National Assembly, lawmaker Fattah al-Sheik stood and cried as he described being stopped at a checkpoint on the way to work Tuesday. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck.

'What happened to me represents an insult to the whole National Assembly that was elected by the Iraqi people. This shows that the democracy we are enjoying is fake,' al-Sheik said. 'Through such incidents, the U.S. Army tries to show that it is the real controlling power in the country, not the new Iraqi government.'"

...

"So if an out-of-control soldier on a checkpoint treats an elected Iraqi lawmaker this way, how do you think they treat the rest of the Iraqi people?"

(Via 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban.)

'Just World News' by Helena Cobban: Iraq: parliamentarian humiliated by US soldiers: "This, from AP's Thomas Wagner a couple of hourse ago:

in the National Assembly, lawmaker Fattah al-Sheik stood and cried as he described being stopped at a checkpoint on the way to work Tuesday. He claimed an American soldier kicked his car, mocked the legislature, handcuffed him and held him by the neck.

'What happened to me represents an insult to the whole National Assembly that was elected by the Iraqi people. This shows that the democracy we are enjoying is fake,' al-Sheik said. 'Through such incidents, the U.S. Army tries to show that it is the real controlling power in the country, not the new Iraqi government.'"

...

"So if an out-of-control soldier on a checkpoint treats an elected Iraqi lawmaker this way, how do you think they treat the rest of the Iraqi people?"

(Via 'Just World News' by Helena Cobban.)

Bloggity roundup on Werkheiser announcement, fun fundraising facts: "

DISTRICT 42:
First quarter fundraising for Greg Werkheiser: $100,137.72
First quarter fundraising for Dave Albo: $10,550
Ratio of blowout: 10 to 1
Average Werkheiser contribution: $246.64
Average Albo contribution: $1,055
Ratio of big-money to grassroots: 4.2 to 1
Percentage of Albo contributions from corporations: 83%
Percentage of Werkheiser contributions from corporations: 1%
Cash on Hand, Werkheiser: $86,507.38
Cash on Hand, Albo:

Winner: Werkheiser

Kenton also covers Greg Werkheiser's announcement speech on Saturday, with some great photos of the event."

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)

Who's funding Tom DeLay's legal team?: "Tom DeLay has got a fancy legal team to get him out of admitting responsibility for his unethical actions. Here is a list of companies who have been supporting Tom DeLay's unethical behavior by contributing to that team:

...

Anheuser-Busch Company $250

...

Bell South $3,500
Coors Brewing Company $500

...

Vote with your wallet."

(Via Martini Republic.)

victims' rights: "Congratulations, Mr. Rudolph, on escaping the penalty you and your allies so ardently pursue for others.   You kind loves to talk about meting out justice, but never want to see it applied in your own case.  That's because you lack the courage of your convictions.  Make no mistake:  Your lack of conviction or bravery makes you a laughingstock to the country.  Except for a few morons who've been taken in by corrupt opportunists like Randall Terry, people see you for what you are:  a sick little man who uses the cloak of religion to exercise his hatred.

If the afterlife is anything like what is described in church, rest assured that your seat in Hell is waiting for you.  It will not be far from the adulterer Mr. Terry's, nor of any of the others who use religion as a mask for hatred.   Politicians like Tom DeLay who take bribes, then use the 'life' movement to try to distract the public, will also be nearby.   In fact, Hell may resemble a DeLay fundraiser lasting throughout all Eternity, with the hookers always just out of reach and the hot tub set to that special 'Extra High' setting.

You're an attractive man, Mr. Rudolph = even a pretty one.  Who knows what lies within your psyche to make you hate gay people so, despite the fact that your own brother is gay.  It would certainly appear that you have been playing out your sexual insecurities, as well as other severe inadequacies, in a violent and public way.   Your prison sentence will give you a long, long time to explore your own homosexual tendencies.   Enjoy it if you can, because that hot tub is warmed up and ready for your sorry ass."

(Via Night Light.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Be all that you can be?: "Thanks to the Anthrax vaccine the Army forced on him Jason Cordova is a disabled veteran, but that has not stopped the Army from calling him back into active duty in Iraq! Note the response of a staffer from Senator Arlen Specter's office that Cordova should just 'take three Cipro pills and show up for the physical' since that is all she had to do when Capitol Hill had the anthrax 'scare.'"

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Bovard vs. Bush in Virginia: "Last minute event entry for this weekend in Virginia. The great Jim Bovard will be on a panel discussing 'Has George Bush Made Americans More Secure, or Less Free?"

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Propagandus Interrupti: "One nice thing about the timing of the announcement of the new pope: it disrupted the cable 'news' networks' planned day-long devotions to 'remembering Oklahoma City ten years later.' The day before, as I recall, was the twelfth anniversary of the Waco atrocity, but I don't recall the media getting nostalgiac over that. 'Remembering Oklahoma City' helps condition minds to believe that terrorists abound in America, but that a strong federal police force (aka 'Homeland Security') will protect against such threats. 'Remembering Waco' would remind us that a strong federal police force IS the terrorist threat!"

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Downplaying Darfur: "In his Sunday New York Times column, Nick Kristof rightfully chastised President Bush for devoting less attention to Sudan's Darfur region--where the government-backed Janjaweed militia has killed 300,000 native Darfurians--than MTV. In fact, most of the press coverage has been equally sparse, and inexcusably underplayed.

According to the American Journalism Review, last year the three major networks devoted five times as much coverage to Martha Stewart as to the genocide in Sudan. The world's worst humanitarian crisis prompted an abysmal 18 minutes of fame."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

Detainment: "This blog is a response to the detention of two 16-year-old girls in late March, 2005. They were taken from their families, had their possessions searched, jailed, and smeared in the media as 'terrorist' threats by some U.S. government officials. Meanwhile, other government officials said 'Nobody here believes they are wanna-be suicide bombers' and 'We're not spun up about this case.' They are being subjected to secret legal proceedings closed from the public and the media in which they do not have access to the evidence used against them. As with so many other of the 100,000 plus immigrants targeted through religious profiling in the past three years and the 1.5 million other immigrants who have been deported in the past 10 years, we are seeing lives, families, and decency being destroyed. "

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

The GOP's Favorite Democrat: "Essentially, Nelson is doing Frist's controversial bidding for him, at a time when conservative opposition to Frist's plan is rising--from a host of GOP moderates and from two influential right-wing groups, Gun Owners of America and the National Right to Work Committee. 'When Bill Clinton was president, we, effectively, in the Judiciary Committee blocked a number of his nominees,' John McCain told MSNBC. 'I say to my conservative friends, some day there will be a liberal Democrat president and a liberal Democrat Congress.' However, the support of one or two more centrist Democrats could resuscitate Frist's plan at the very moment it is dying.

Nelson argues that his party's well-organized resistance to the nuclear option puts red state Democrats in a tough spot. But there's a different between trying to reach consensus and giving the GOP whatever it wants. Just ask North Dakota's Kent Conrad, who recently said of the filibuster: 'when judges are way outside of the mainstream, I'm willing to do it.' If the president wants bipartisanship, says South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson, he could start by consulting with Democrats on his selections"

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

Detainment: "This blog is a response to the detention of two 16-year-old girls in late March, 2005. They were taken from their families, had their possessions searched, jailed, and smeared in the media as 'terrorist' threats by some U.S. government officials. Meanwhile, other government officials said 'Nobody here believes they are wanna-be suicide bombers' and 'We're not spun up about this case.' They are being subjected to secret legal proceedings closed from the public and the media in which they do not have access to the evidence used against them. As with so many other of the 100,000 plus immigrants targeted through religious profiling in the past three years and the 1.5 million other immigrants who have been deported in the past 10 years, we are seeing lives, families, and decency being destroyed. "

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)

What was George Bush thinking? Or was he?: "What was George Bush thinking when he agreed to nominate John Bolton to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the UN? Or was he?

It was clear from the start that Bolton’s Senate confirmation hearings would be contentious. This man’s a human lightening-rod –not only because of his hawkish political views but because of his pugnacious personality as well.

What I fail to understand is why this, or any administration, would want him to represent their interests at the UN. Although the media coverage thus far has focused on a man who abused his position to attempt to jeopardize the careers of several experienced intelligence analysts and career foreign policy specialists who did not work for him and had the temerity to question his poor judgment, there’s another – equally important question – that runs through these hearings. Namely, Bolton’s propensity to make up his own foreign policy when those of the administration don’t suit his ideological bent. This came out in Thursday’s testimony on North Korea - although the story of Bolton’s bizarre behavior had circulated throughout the foreign affairs community not long after the incident in question had occurred - when Bolton almost succeeded in torpedoing the six-party talks with North Korea. "

(Via WhirledView.)

Secrecy News for 04/18/05: "The President responded to questions about public access to government information, freedom of information policy including pending legislation to strengthen the FOIA, and related issues. See:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2005/04/wh041405.html

He pointed to the recent report of the Silberman-Robb WMD Commission, ninety percent of which was declassified, as an openness success story.

That report, he said, is 'an example... of how I hope that we're becoming balanced between that which the public ought to know and that which, if we were to expose, would jeopardize our capacity to do our job, which is to defend America.' Others dispute that assessment. The Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation filed a lawsuit this month arguing that the WMD Commission was and remains out of compliance with the disclosure requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (noted by Dan Froomkin in the Washington Post White House Briefing). See the Center's April 6 complaint here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/wmdfaca.pdf

(Via Secrecy News.)

State Dept. Terrorism Report Begone!: "Not really an arms control issue, but this is just f*cking ridiculous, if true.

Jonathan Landay writes:

WASHINGTON – The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government’s top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered. Several U.S. officials defended the abrupt decision, saying the methodology the National Counterterrorism Center used to generate statistics for the report may have been faulty, such as the inclusion of incidents that may not have been terrorism.

Last year, the number of incidents in 2003 was undercounted, forcing a revision of the report, ‘Patterns of Global Terrorism.’ But other current and former officials charged that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s office ordered ‘Patterns of Global Terrorism’ eliminated several weeks ago because the 2004 statistics raised disturbing questions about the Bush’s administration’s frequent claims of progress in the war against terrorism.

Which of those explanations sounds more compelling to you?"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Bolton and BW Inspections: "ACT editor Miles Pomper has an article coming out later today which (I think) addresses this issue in a bit more depth, but I thought I’d pass along the following tidbit.

Biden stated during Bolton’s hearing last week that the text of Bolton’s famous Cuba/BW speech that has been the subject of some controversy originally ‘called for international observers of Cuba’s biological facilities.’

Of course, it would help if there were any such observers. But there aren’t because J-Bolt saved us all from global tyranny by putting the kibosh on the BWC verification protocol."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

"MATRIX" UNLOADED: "Score one for the good guys. A project to find enemies of the state in the credit card records, marriage licenses, and vehicle registration data of avergage citizens appears to be over. At one time, at least a dozen states had jacked into the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange, or MATRIX. Dozens more were considering participation in the four billion-record database. But then came the howls from privacy advocates. And the revelations that MATRIX's founder had been linked to Bahamian drug smugglers in the '80s. In the end, only Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio and Connecticut were left. And now that $12 million in federal grant money has run out, it seems unlikely that these states will continue with the project."

(Via Defense Tech.)

Hate speech at Stanford: "University of Michigan law professor Catharine MacKinnon, the surviving half of MacDworkin, gave a speech at Stanford University the other day about how every day is Sept. 11 for women in America (or should that be 'Amerika'?). Noting that 'the number of people who died at [the terrorists'] hands is the same as the number of women who die at men's hands--every year,' MacKinnon asserted, 'A kind of war is being fought, but there is no name for this war in which men are the aggressors and women the victims.'"

(Via Reason Online: Hit and Run.)

Liberty? What liberty? || kuro5hin.org: "America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of American freedom. In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty' -George W Bush

Just what liberties do we Americans have that other countries do not have?"

Hop the link to see the discussion & analysis

(Via k5.)

States hit back on school reform law | csmonitor.com: "Three years after the passage of President Bush's controversial education reform known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the law is facing its most significant challenges yet - and they're coming in the courts, state legislatures, and local education departments.

Connecticut has announced it's suing the US Department of Education, claiming the law mandates changes without giving the funding to carry them out. The education commissioner in Texas unilaterally decided Washington's requirements were flawed, and she simply disregarded part of them - a kind of civil disobedience."

(Via Christian Science Monitor.)

Boston.com / News / World / Officials proceed on debt relief: "Concluding two days of talks, finance officials from the leading economic powers pressed ahead yesterday with efforts to wipe out poor nations' debts and hoped to complete a deal later this year.

Officials insisted they were making progress. But international aid groups, disappointed by the failure to finalize an agreement over the weekend, accused the major industrialized countries of dragging their feet and said further delay could worsen the plight of the world's poorest people."

(Via The Boston Globe.)

AlterNet: Counting On Marla: "Marla's self-assigned mission in life was to help innocent people who are caught in the crossfire of armed conflict. So, perhaps it was fitting, in the brutally impersonal way of the universe, that Marla herself became an innocent victim of war. On Saturday, April 16, Marla was killed in a car bomb attack as her vehicle traveled along the road to the Baghdad airport. She was 28 years old.

Marla Ruzicka was a paradox. In some respects, she was the quintessential California girl -- so pretty, blond and lively she could be mistaken for a cheerleader. But behind that luminous smile was a person of remarkable strength who possessed a purple heart of courage."

(Via AlterNet.)

LewRockwell.com Blog: Max Boot's Definition of Hypocrisy: "Charles, it seems to be that when Boot complains that there are no 'street rallies that might spur Western governments into action,' he is saying that antiwar Americans are hypocritical because not only do they oppose U.S. warfare in Iraq, they're also not calling for U.S. intervention in Darfur.

This is interesting. For a while, the argument typically went something like this: 'Antiwar leftists oppose Bush's wars, but why didn't they oppose Clinton's?' This is a decent argument, although it applies in reverse to partisan supporters of Bush's wars, too."

(Via LewRockwell.com Blog.)

Fitch qualifies for R-Gov ballot; Kilgore believes primary is a coronation: "Warrenton Mayor George B. Fitch filed 16,092 signatures in support of his bid for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, securing a place on the ballot for the June 14th primary. He is the only candidate to challenge the presumed nominee, Jerry Kilgore.  (Note: RaisingKaine has a great post comparing Fitch's petition collection success to Kilgore's.)"

(Via Democracy for Virginia.)