PSoTD

I'm not going to claim to agree with the thresholds set in this article - I think they are too high - but I think it is instructive about what the real battle for removing the estate tax is about for Bush and the Senate Republicans... From NPR:

A critical point that the pro-repeal movement obscures is that the one and only issue dividing us is the magnitude of the estate tax cut for the very wealthiest estates, not whether it should be cut at all. Those of us who oppose full repeal are for sensible reform.

We are committed to promoting the aspiration of Americans to build wealth that they can leave to their children and grandchildren. Sensible reform would ensure that married couples -- without the need for estate tax planning -- could leave $5 million to their heirs tax-free. For couples whose estate consists primarily of a farm or family-owned business, the tax-free legacy would rise to $8 million.

Put another way, those of us who support sensible reform propose that about 99.5% of all American families pay not a single penny in taxes on what they leave to their heirs. Not a penny. Zippo. Nothing. The overwhelming number of Democrats who oppose complete repeal would be willing to pass this type of reform today. This would create certainty and put the entire estate tax controversy behind us.

The fact that the White House does not leap to embrace a plan that is more fiscally-responsible and protects estates of up to $5 million per couple makes transparent that the entire fight against "death taxes" is a ruse. It is solely a fight for a massive tax break for the wealthiest one-half of one percent of estates. The cost to the rest of us: over $400 billion in the first ten years. (And yes, that is $400 billion with a "B.")

Repeal of the estate tax would provide $13 billion dollars in tax breaks to the around 750 wealthiest estates in 2011 alone. Imagine a civilization that brings 750 of its richest families into a room so that they can divvy up $13 billion among themselves (about $17 million a piece). And this at a time when we are in serious debt, at war with terrorists and facing a poverty rate of over 30% among our minority children.

Great piece of writing from The New Standard:

The estate tax, in many respects, will never directly impact the average American. The tax currently applies to the richest one percent of deceased people, with inheritable estates worth over $1.5 million. Though critics denounce the seemingly high maximum payment rate of 47 percent, the liberal think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that after complex deductions and loopholes, this levy skims on average less than 20 percent off taxable estates.

Anti-tax conservatives are hoping to bring those figures down to zero, mobilizing public support through well-funded media campaigns that vilify the so-called "death tax" as morally unjust. Progressive groups, meanwhile, are scrambling to convince policymakers and their constituents that any rollback of the tax would only enable the richest families to horde more of the country’s wealth.

But nobody talks about the other side of the equation - if you gut the government's funding from this, what happens to government?

Under a full repeal, the federal government would hemorrhage approximately $1 trillion in the first decade, according to analysts at the progressive Tax Policy Center, which calculated both the direct revenue loss and the accumulated federal debt interest.

The estate tax acts as a mechanism to divert some of the wealth at the top of the income scale away from heirs and toward the needy.

Short of total abolition, anti-tax legislators are aiming to permanently gut the estate tax code. Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) has reportedly pitched a reform proposal on Capitol Hill to lower the rate to 15 percent and exempt all individual estates worth up to $3.5 million, or $7 million combined for couples. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found that if enacted, Sen. Kyl’s proposal would sap from federal coffers roughly $770 billion, including debt interest, from 2012 to 2021.

Phrases of value:

"It’s not a tax on death. It’s a tax on the transfer of enormous amounts of wealth," said Anna Oman, a spokesperson for the Washington, DC-based public interest group OMB Watch, which leads Americans for a Fair Estate Tax, a national coalition of nonprofit groups.

Chuck Collins, co-founder of United for a Fair Economy (UFE), which advocates on issues of wage and income inequality, commented that by progressively taxing those who have amassed the most wealth in life, "we recycle some of that wealth, so that others can have the same opportunity."

Progressives should strongly heed the words of Ian Shapiro if they expect to retain the estate tax:

Ian Shapiro, a professor of political science at Yale University who recently co-authored a book on the politics behind the estate tax, observed that conservatives have controlled the debate by "shifting the [public’s] focus from the ultra-rich to the working rich, and emphasizing … hard work and the American Dream."

Meanwhile, argued Shapiro, liberals have failed to respond with an equally strong message undercutting the concept of inherited wealth. "The Democrats never got the focus off the people who make the money and [onto] the people who get the money," he said.

The focus shouldn't be on the dead. The focus should be on who gets the money - because that's the people who are lobbying for the abolition of the estate tax. The dead don't care.

Seriously. If Estate Tax impacts a family farm, it's much more likely due to lack of preparation on the farmer's part than impact of the tax...

One variation or another of the estate tax repeal legislation now wending its way through Congress has popped up and been shot down any number of times in recent years.

The ongoing efforts are always couched in terminology implying a primary, noble goal of preventing thousands of family farms from being lost to the tax collector.

Stories are legion of grieving widows and sons/daughters forced to sell off farms that had been in their families for generations in order to pay the burdensome estate tax. The chambers of Congress have echoed with impassioned speeches bemoaning these tragic episodes — which the media have further perpetuated.

Thing is, nobody seems able to substantiate that there is today a significant problem of farms being lost because of the tax. Says Neil Harl, Iowa State University ag economist and an expert in estate tax planning for farmers: “This is a myth that has been well-spun.”

In fact, say a growing number of opponents of repeal, under current, more generous tax rules, only a handful of the very largest farming operations would conceivably be subject to estate taxes, and anyone in that category would have made adequate provisions through insurance and other measures to cover any tax liability.

A recent Congressional Budget Office study reported that since Congress has more than doubled the threshold at which the tax applies, the number of farms on which estate tax was owed when the owners died fell by 82 percent since 2000, to just 300 farms. Maybe.

All but a handful (less than 30) had enough liquid assets to pay the taxes owed, the CBO said, and if all the facts were known, the number might actually be zero.

How’s that for irony: A tax repeal measure being promoted because of a supposed threat to family farms, when in fact few, if any, farmers are affected?

Supporting the estate tax:

Defending the estate tax

In response to the July 27 editorial "Estate tax / A levy worth keeping," I could not agree more that the estate tax should not be repealed. In addition to affecting only a very small minority of families, several other facts should be known.

First, the estate tax is essentially a "voluntary" tax. Families that actually pay an estate tax do so because the decedent(s) did not do the requisite planning to minimize or to avoid the tax. Congress, through the Internal Revenue Code, already provides numerous legal techniques to minimize or to avoid the tax -- if the individual or couple takes the time and effort to do the planning.

Second, with the implementation of intermediate tax planning, in married couples each person can take advantage of the already large estate tax exemption.

Third, repeal of the estate tax could trigger increased income taxes due to changes in the income tax basis rules following an individual's death.

Additionally, in more than 22 years of tax and estate planning practice, I have never been involved with an estate which has lost a family business or a family farm because of the estate tax.

Jeffrey P. Molever, Plymouth.

Hopefully, all the Democrats and liberals and progressives attention in August and September are not completely absorbed by Roberts, because this is a major piece of bad business pending...

Senate puts off vote on estate tax repeal till September

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said that because of a bottleneck in the Senate, a vote on legislation calling for permanent repeal of the estate tax will not be held before Congress leaves for its August break. The House passed the bill in April, but the matter was held up in the Senate by members concerned about the impact on the federal budget.

Frist said he will call for a vote on the bill as soon as the Senate resumes operations in early September.

At last count, there were 58 votes in favor of repeal, two shy of the number needed for passage. This prompted Sen. John Kyl (R-Arizona) to propose a compromise plan to reduce the estate tax from the current level of 47 percent to 15 percent. The Kyl plan also would raise the estate tax exemption, now set at $1.5 million for an individual and $3 million for a couple, to $8 million or $10 million.

For those that use it, opinions please.

For me, it seems like the last few weeks it has been slow or gagging on showing emails, but it may be a temporary thing.

Here's a couple other opinions about it:

Why People Switch
Google's new personalized home page

If the Bolton recess appointment turns out to be true, then it's pretty obvious: Bush is afraid of losing the nomination in the U.S. Senate. And W stands for Weak, because Bush's popularity with Americans at this point, and his continuing scandals, are scaring him from a showdown on Bolton.

The nude protest is still in use. Here's a few applications of recent as example:

PETA activist turns heads in Bangor

An activist for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chickened out on Thursday by not appearing nude at West Market Square, as the organization had advertised.

Tsk, tsk. False advertising.

Nude cyclists expose lack of bike lanes

Some bicyclists in North Portland were so upset about the St. Johns Bridge rehab that they protested by pedaling across the bridge — in the buff.

Major says no to nude protest against Arroyo

A central Philippine mayor has refused to grant a permit to a nude protest during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's annual address to Congress next week, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Nude protestor released

A naked anti-pullout protester detained near the Knesset two weeks ago has been released from a mental institute after the regional psychiatric committee ruled the nude protest does not constitute grounds for forced hospitalisation.

One thing seems certain about a naked protest - the protesters will get news coverage for their lack of coverage.

They get themselves, rather than their issues, talked about at the Capitol...

SALEM, Ore. — A Portland Muslim leader is asking a pesticide-industry lobbyist to retract a statement in which she warned that Senate Democrats had declared "jihad" against Republicans over an environmental dispute.

Shahriar Ahmed, president of the Bilal Mosque in Beaverton, said use of the term in an e-mail dealing with a controversy over a pesticide-use reporting program perpetuates negative stereotypes about Muslims.

"The term 'jihad' here was used intentionally to aggravate the situation," Ahmed said during a news conference yesterday.

The word has been used by Muslim extremists to describe holy war, but Ahmed said mainstream Muslims use the Arabic word to describe a person's internal struggle to do good.

Ahmed went to the Capitol to criticize an e-mail sent by lobbyist Paulette Pyle of the pesticide-user group Oregonians for Food and Shelter.

In a July 15 e-mail to about 500 farmers and foresters, Pyle warned that "the Senate Democrats have declared 'JIHAD' against the Republicans because they are opposed to [Pesticide Use Reporting System] funding."

Pyle said she meant nothing derogatory about Muslims and only used the term in an e-mail to members and supporters of the pesticide group as a way to highlight the issue.

"When I wrote that e-mail, it was like, 'I've got to say something to get your attention,' " she said, referring to farmers who she said were busy with harvest.

Courtney Campbell, chair of the philosophy department at Oregon State University, said many Muslims would be offended by how the word is used in Pyle's e-mail because it has a deep meaning in their religion.

Oh my God. Mention Howard Fineman in a blog entry, and look what happens...

Fifty years ago, 306 civilians took the oath July 11 at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver to become the first Air Force Academy cadets.

With all the MSM jumping on the Blog Express - NY Times, MSNBC, Craig Crawford, etc., it's time to wonder what "journalists" will become "journabloggers" in short order... and perhaps time to cringe about it. Blogging may not have the "coolness" factor it once was gloried with, but consider some of the "journalists" that currently are not really bloggers that might join our ranks someday...

Howard Fineman
Candy Crowley
Connie Chung
Almost everyone at Fox News

Now that's a start of a pretty discouraging list. Who else might be on the "Cringeworthy Blogger List"?

Vocation Vacation temporarily plunks you into fantasy career

... So he took a vacation. Not to relax, but to work at a TV production company in New York. Chao is one of a growing number of the curious who have signed up with Vocation Vacations (www.vocationvacations.com), a Portland, Ore.-based company that lets people "test drive their dream job," founder Brian Kurth said.

Vacationers can choose from a variety of jobs - from winemaker to dog trainer to wedding planner. Kurth's company has pioneered the concept and, though some holidays seem a little unrealistic (play director or golf instructor), the firm has signed up dozens of "mentors" in a variety of fields who are willing to open their business to interested novices.

Brent Wasser, cheese maker for Sprout Creek Farm in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., says having extra hands can mean extra work for him - sanitation is critical in the food industry, he says - but it can spread the word about his cheese (www.sproutcreekfarm.org) as well.

"I think it's a great thing to be able to attract people from other parts of the country," he said. "When they go back, they might talk about the product."

The goal is to let people see if their dream job is all they've built it up to be in their minds. Although, in some cases, like golfing with PGA pro Brian Henninger, the itinerary Kurth has created is simply meant to be a unique vacation, nothing more.

For Chao, the cost was $1,100 for the two-day experience, plus airfare and lodging.

"I'm paying to work, which is kind of unusual," he said with a chuckle.

Maybe pretending to be a gold pro is a vacation. But a wedding planner? Cheese making?

Bad, bad trend. How long until people pay to do call center work? Data entry? Sewing? P.T. Barnum, come on down and take your place.

Scotty was shocked. Shocked!

Q Scott, last night on the Tonight Show, Jay Leno, who apparently is subbing for Johnnie, displayed a video of the President at the Capitol yesterday. In that video, the President walking away from the press lifts his hand and raises a finger. Mr. Leno interpreted it as, shall we say, a finger of hostility. Each of our fingers has a special purpose and meaning in life. (Laughter.) Can you tell us what finger it was he held up?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ken, I'm not even going to dignify that with much of a response. But if someone is misportraying something, that's unfortunate.

Q Well, it was not a finger of hostility?

MR. McCLELLAN: Ken, I was there with him, and I'm just not going to -- I'm not going to dignify that with a response. I mean, I haven't seen the video that you're talking about, but I know the way the President acts. And if someone is misportraying it, that's unfortunate.

He's touring in Alaska now. Apparently it is a bit controversial - his views on the Iraq War aren't popular with everyone...

The lyrics of his latest album, "The Revolution Starts ... Now," focus on his opposition to the Iraq War. They range from the fiery "Rich Man's War" to a playful love song to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, "Condi, Condi."

The announcement that he would appear at the Southeast Alaska State Fair made statewide headlines in June, when a Haines resident responded by placing a full-page ad in the Chilkat Valley News protesting his upcoming show. The ad complained about his left-leaning lyrics and compared Earle to a Nazi.

Now that's a switch. Btw...

Billboard Magazine said his newest CD "will be viewed as the essential political statement of 2004."

Doesn't quite sound like Nazism, does it...

A few other posts about it:

Auctions for Change
left to chance
Barbarian Blog

I was unpleasantly surprised this morning to find Political Animal's Kevin Drum in a defensive crouch, trying to reassure his "moderate" readers that he is a "fair and balanced" commentator.

First, a mind-numbing endorsement of the latest BushCo mendacities in Iraq followed by a tail-between-the-legs defense of his perfectly accurate-the-first-time assessment of Bush Senate henchman Pat Robert's motivations in convening Senate intelligence hearings.

Bush's politically-motivated seat-of-the-pants antics in Iraq deserve no compliments. Last month, they say a timetable for pullout helps the insurgents ... now with the polls sucking worse than ever, they wanna give a timetable. A hard rap on the knuckles would be far more appropriate than "kudos". And Pat Roberts has proven time and again that he quite obviously IS no more that a partisan hack. You weren't wrong, Kevin!

The "Be Balanced" ploy is a sucker game that lefties have been falling for too long. I thought we were past that. It's okay to believe your own eyes! Quit kowtowing!

Trying to be one of the kool kids ain't cool. I'm putting Political Animal on a three day banishment from my reading list.

WXPN is at it again - this time asking for people's top 10 albums of all time to compile their playback list. Always a fun exercise.

Cool! XPN has a blog! (Nice find, Uncle Horn Head)

Something for fun for the end of the week...

Don't even reference me, unless, of course, I make your list. Just hyperlink 10 blogs that you wish blogrolled your blog. This of this like Amazon's Wish List, except it's blog links and nobody can buy you them. Okay, it's nothing like Amazon. I'm just easily confused.

Here are my ten (for today):

Daily Reads and Traffic Champs To Boot:

Daily Kos
Eschaton
Wonkette

Daily Reads and I Just Plain Like 'Em:

Granny Insanity
Just A Bump in the Beltway
Lawyers, Guns and Money
Majikthise
Pharyngula
Roger Ailes
The Heretik

And for the heck of it, add any of your ten that may be missing to your own blogroll...

Great for Ireland.

But America's governments are pathetic on this issue.

All school buses to be fitted with seat belts

PARENTS have welcomed a €25 million Government investment that will ensure all children travelling on school buses will be belted into their own seats by the end of next year.

Education Minster Mary Hanafin and Minister of State Síle de Valera made the announcement yesterday as investigations continued into the school bus crash which killed five girls near Navan, Co Meath, in May.

Under plans approved by Cabinet, 130 large buses and 250 private mini-buses will be added to the school bus fleet by December 2006.

The Government also gave the go-ahead for the fitting of lap belts to all school bus seats, beginning on the 560 Bus Éireann vehicles which make up around one-fifth of the school bus fleet from September. The aim is to have all the remaining 2,300 private buses fitted with belts by the end of next year.

Now check out America's school bus seat belt situations:

New Hampshire: Parents should push for proper seat belts on buses, official says

Missouri: Safety belt law ignored on school buses

Massachusetts: Seat belt legislation takes back seat

Is it really going to take some sort of massive horrendous school bus accident to require the nation's kids have a minimum safety restraint system on school buses? Is that the best we can expect from our government?

Consider, if you will, the testicles of an elephant...

And more about it here.

Yeah - welcome to The Big Valley.

Robert Scoble, the well-known Microsoft blogger, says the blogging world is maturing. In the early days of blogging, getting linked from the so-called A Listers was a big deal and could drive a lot of traffic. But now there are so many blogs vying for attention that the big blogs no longer have the impact they once did...

I have a question about it at Unpaid Punditry Corps.

(And Cernig has a great response...)

I don't think it is Bush's job to hook up corporations to religious charities.

President Bush said Monday that he will hold a White House summit next spring to encourage corporations and foundations to give more money to churches and religious charities.

Pushing charitable giving in general? Great. Pushing a specific cause? Fine. But I have a BIG problem with the President using his office to promote corporate giving specifically to religious organizations - an organizational type. And so should every non-faith oriented charitable organization in the country - because Bush is getting involved in changing the funding environment in a way that can't be healthy for them.

I currently have 290 blog feeds in my Bloglines set up. I try to keep current on the postings as well, and one of the things that comes from viewing so many is how similar the post subjects are from blog to blog.

I know, no shit, we're liberal and progressive bloggers supporting similar ideas and appalled by similar activities and statements. Still... it's a big world out there, and I'm sure I could use 290 blogs to cover more of the content waterfront, especially since time is a treasured commodity.

I wish there were a tool that could take two blogs, compare links and text for a given time period, and tell me the "commonality quotient" between the two blogs. How similar is the blogging of Malkin(s)Watch and Rebel Dad? (I already know, not very, but it serves as the example) Who pretty much covers the same stories as Atrios or Wampum or Blue Oregon?

If we all had this tool, we might use it to help us shop for blogfeeds - and some bloggers might use them to intentionally reorient their blogging so that it didn't seem as much like echo.

I'm not arguing that such a tool should be used to determine what people read, or what people write, as a general rule. But I think individuals would find the tool useful for their own editorial decisionmaking.

Just an idea - one that sounds like a natural for Technorati.

TV Guide Gets More Stories, Fewer Listings

TV Guide is slashing the circulation it guarantees advertisers by about two-thirds and relaunching itself as a large format magazine with far fewer TV listings and more emphasis on lifestyle and entertainment, the magazine announced Tuesday.

The radical changes to TV Guide come as it struggles to remain relevant in an age where many TV viewers get their listings from on-screen guides provided by their cable companies or online.

And now, time for a little story from my life. I'm sure it's going to make me sound relatively... ancient.

When I was a kid growing up in Indiana, I had a TV Guide route. That's right - a TV Guide route. There was a time when TV Guide was not delivered by mail, and not many stores carried it - it was delivered by delivery kids. This was the late 1960s, and TV Guide sold for 15 cents each per week - of which I would get to keep 4 cents. I would receive the TV Guides on Thursday sometime, and I would ride my bike and deliver the Guides on Friday afternoon/evening, and in some cases on Saturday morning. Once a month I would ride my bike for collections, and then mail the money - the actual money, not a check - to TV Guide's publisher with my invoice.

I had the route for about a year, and at first I found it exciting, but by the end I was sick of it. My route consisted of only 15-20 customers at any one time, and they were spread out through my large neighborhood, so deliveries took over an hour each week. That wasn't so bad, but collections were a pain - I always had to go back to a few houses several times. Before we moved, I gave my route to another kid in the neighborhood.

I still have a couple of old 1969 TV Guides that were part of my delivery that never were delivered for whatever reason. They were put in a box of stuff, we moved and they remained in that box until the early 1980s when my parents' house was sold and the "kids' possessions" were dispersed to us. Looking at it - the descriptions of the shows, the cheesy interview articles, the review by Cleveland Amory - is like stepping back into time.

So, in a way, I guess itis a smidge sad that TV Guide is changing, but I understand completely, since I've not subscribed to their publication, or purchased it, as an adult. That market of the 1960s doesn't exist in a profitable manner for them now, and won't in the current format, so change is required.

I'd rather listen to Scott McClellan than Joe Stinkin' Theismann!

Michaels, Theismann team for 'MNF'
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN cable network said Tuesday that the duo of Al Michaels and Joe Theismann will be its "Monday Night Football" broadcast team in 2006.

Soj is right. 100 people dead in London is a tragedy, no doubt.

4 million dead in the Congo due to civil war and epidemic is a crime of humanity.

Where's the focus?

Maybe the U.S. News Media ought to go study it.

Brazil's aggressive media is playing a starring role in a worsening bribery scandal, breaking dozens of stories during the last two months and triggering high-profile resignations.

But some people fear Brazil's risk-taking media may lose credibility if it makes mistakes in reporting on corruption charges against the center-left government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

...

But reporting errors in Brazil have not generated outcries like the ones in the United States following recent lapses at CBS News, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times. As a result, reporters here may have more leeway when chasing stories. At the same time, a fractious Congress and president's office offer a Pandora's box of leaks.

"A vibrant press (in Brazil), which might pass on a few tips to colleagues in North America, is breaking story after story," International Herald Tribune columnist Roger Cohen wrote this month.

"At a time when ... there's a very disciplined administration here (in the U.S.) and it's been hard to break stories I was just impressed by the way they (Brazilian journalists) were getting some very good material," Cohen said in a telephone interview.

Start the Rio Intern Program!

Nudist Demonstrators Have Dhlakama's Support

Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's former rebel movement Renamo, has now elevated marching naked through the streets to the status of a human right.

Commenting on last Wednesday's scenes, in which about 90 Renamo members and supporters marched naked in the northern town of Mocimboa da Praia, Dhlakama told reporters they were merely exercising their constitutional rights.

And here I thought being naked was a Creator-given privilege (and choice of Creator is your privilege as well).

I posted this last week at The Unpaid Punditry Corps. It's still timely this week, so now I'm posting here.

This post is about blogging. Summer blogging.

I’ve been building web sites for over 10 years, and keeping track of site traffic during the same time period. Over that time, I’ve learned a few things about web sites in general, and political sites in specific:

Web Site Traffic Goes Down in Summer, with RELATIVELY VERY FEW notable exceptions. There are seasonal exceptions - I’m sure waterslide attraction web sites see an increase in traffic during the summer.

But seasonal exceptions are a small minority and obvious.

Web site traffic goes down for lots of reasons during the Northern Hemispheric summer. College and high school kids are out of school for the season and spend less time in pursuit of sites on the web. People go on vacation. They spend time at the pool and the golf course and barbecues that run late into the night.

People spend summer living the life they spent the fall, winter and spring working towards. There are less eyeballs, and less time spent by those eyeballs, during the summer on the Web. And so… web site traffic diminishes... almost everywhere.

Bloggers, those of us that use statcounter and sitemeter and any other “traffic analysis” software, tend to look at our traffic. Who has visited our site? Any new links to our site? What blog posts are popular? Hey, we’re human, we want some sort of validation for the blogging effort we make, just as anyone else does in their personal endeavors.

Summer traffic numbers can be somewhat... wilting for bloggers. Traffic goes down for many, and may seem less constant as well. It can make bloggers question the point of blogging, if nobody is reading their blog. And a lot of bloggers will quit. It happens all the time, but I’d be willing to bet that the retirement of blogs peaks during summer. Bloggers have lives to live too. If the readership isn’t rewarding, it can be quite an easy decision.

The big bloggers see the same trends. The web site traffic at Eschaton in June 2005 was approximately half of his traffic in October of 2004. His traffic in July, at this point, appears to be on its way to being less than June. The percentages are even more of a drop off for Instapundit. It happens to everybody.

So… if you like blogging, don’t let your summer numbers worry you. Blog a little less, live a little more, but don’t let the drop off in traffic depress you from blogging. September and October are right around the corner, and like the swallows of Capistrano, the eyeballs will be back.

Ricky Williams apologizes for abrupt retirement

Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams has apologized for his abrupt retirement before the 2004 season.

"There were things about life that I wanted to explore outside of football and I had never had the chance," Williams told a news conference at training camp in Davie, Florida on Monday.

"I realize by making that decision, I affected the team in a negative way and upset a lot of fans. I'm very regretful that people were hurt in the process.

"I do realize that to a lot of people it comes off as being very selfish," Williams added. "So I do offer an apology to all the people who were negatively impacted."

Zzzzzzzzzz. I hope this guy averages 1.2 yards per rush this season and the Dolphins come in last. Sooner or later, sports teams have to act a little smarter. This guy burned their fans, their ex-coach, etc. Why trust him?

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is August 1st - 7th and celebrates the signing of the Innocenti Declaration on the Protection, Promotion and Support of Breastfeeding. It is celebrated in 120 countries on varied dates.

This year's WBW aims to:

Draw attention to the value of continuing to breastfeed children to 2 years or beyond.

Raise awareness of the risks and costs of introducing other foods and drinks to breastfed babies before 6 months, thereby strengthening support for 6 months exclusive breastfeeding.

Up-date information and ideas about the kinds of other foods and drinks needed by older breastfed babies and young children after 6 months.

Share ideas for making complementary feeding easier, healthier and a time for learning and love.

When we had our first baby, my wife got a LOT of useful information and help from La Leche League. If you're expecting, particularly for the first time, their site is worth checking out.

Roberts was asked by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) what he would do if the law required a ruling that his church considers immoral. Roberts is a devout Catholic and is married to an ardent pro-life activist. The Catholic Church considers abortion to be a sin, and various church leaders have stated that government officials supporting abortion should be denied religious rites such as communion. (Pope Benedict XVI is often cited as holding this strict view of the merging of a person's faith and public duties).

Renowned for his unflappable style in oral argument, Roberts appeared nonplused and, according to sources in the meeting, answered after a long pause that he would probably have to recuse himself

I'm giving John Roberts the benefit of the doubt but this has to be a concern. I credit him greatly for giving an honest answer to Durbin but clearly his first responsibility cannot be to the Pope.

The question of recusal raised with Durbin reflects a serious and important debate occurring within the Catholic community, in which I also was raised. It is the classic Sir Thomas More conflict of trying to serve both God and king. However, these are questions not just for a nominee to ponder but for senators.

None of this means that Roberts is unfit due to his faith. But in the end, the Senate is left a question that seems to grow each day: Who is John Roberts?

I'm still a vote to confirm, but I'd like to hear more.

Coming August 31, 2005.

If you're getting out of there, get out now before the getting gets bad... From Yahoo!

Washington area temperatures may be sizzling, but the once-torrid real estate market seems to be cooling off as houses stay on the market longer and the number of homes for sale rises.

Home sales tend to slow in the summer, but the number of houses for sale in the Washington area has climbed by 50 percent in recent months. The available inventory has risen to about 35,300 homes, up from an average of about 23,000 in the past three years, according to Metropolitan Regional Information Systems Inc., which runs the local multiple-listing service.

Here's the money quote - and try to remember, they're using this information while trying to put a positive spin on the leak in the bubble:

"The market has slowed for sure, especially at the high end," said Wes Foster, chairman of Long & Foster Real Estate Inc.

Foster said the market is returning to "normalcy" after a frenzied era of multiple contracts, bidding wars and desperate buyers waiving their right to property inspections or appraisals.

"It's very healthy," he said. "It worried the pure hell out of me the numbers we were seeing. I remember Boston in 1982 to 1989, when [prices] went up 25 percent a year for six years, and then in one year [they] fell 87 percent. The ride up for everybody selling was wonderful but the ride down was awful. . . . It was very painful and I don't want to see that here."

Foster said the recent manic market has been fueled by what he called "crazy fools running around buying houses as investments," with "bad loans, interest-free loans."

87%? That's a crash.

I really wonder if Long & Foster actually told these buyers that they were crazy fools with bad loans - or if the selling message was just a bit more positive...

Not Bush. The first name. Since Bush's election in 2000, here's the ranking of the popularity of the name "George" as a first name for male births by year from the Social Security Administration:

1999 - 123
2000 - 130
2001 - 129
2002 - 131
2003 - 138
2004 - 148

I sure as hell know I wouldn't give my boy the name of George - and that is because of Bush.

I found this encouraging... From Gallup:

Increased Support for Smoking Bans in Public Places But still widespread opposition to complete ban

Gallup's latest annual poll on the public's consumption habits finds a significant increase in support over the past two years for banning smoking in hotels and motels, the workplace, and restaurants. The groups showing the greatest movement toward banning smoking are Republicans, frequent churchgoers, and nonsmokers — though even smokers are becoming more willing to ban smoking in restaurants.

This showed up today:

Hi there,

Below I've included the official press release for CBS's hot new show, ROCK STAR: INXS. Thought the users of your blog might be interested in learning more about the show.

Thanks!

Nick Lezin

Nick is really reaching to include PSoTD on their media list. Wonder where he culled my email address?

And sorry, won't be watching this.

From Editor and Publisher:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, responding to a strong charge in a column by Frank Rich in The New York Times’ today, said there was nothing improper about waiting 12 hours to “preserve all materials” after being informed by the Justice Department in 2003 that it was launching an investigation into the disclosure of Valerie Plame’s status as a CIA agent.

Gonzales told Bob Schieffer on the CBS show “Face the Nation” that he had been given permission by the Justice Department to hold off overnight if he saw fit, which he did. But he did tell one man that night: Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

The White House did not immediately respond to questions Sunday about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation, the Associated Press reported after Gonzales' revelation.

BTW, I don't think Alberto Gonzalez should expect a Supreme Court nomination anytime during the remainder of his life. This just doesn't pass the smell test.

In Philly, Labor Day Weekend.

Looks interesting and fun, considering attending. Hopefully I can steal ideas for PSoTDcon* in Harrisburg 2006!

*looking into Dennys for this event.

Like carnivorous caterpillars.

Learn from this poor man's end - don't do any of the things he did.

Cobra Bites Man's Testicles

A Fulani herdsman who allegedly stole two sheep from the pen of a farmer at Mmofrabesu near Tease in the Afram Plains in the Eastern Region was bitten to death by a cobra while hiding in the bush after he saw the owner of the sheep approaching him.

The snake saw Sulley Mahmoud, the headsman's manhood dangling while he was squatting naked near an anthill pretending to nature's call to dodge Opanin Nti Mensah, 70, the owner of the sheep. Known also as Sidikou Gyaale, Mahmoud who was bitten at the testicles died while being conveyed to the Donkorkrom Presbyterian Hospital for medial attention. This was after he had confessed to Opanin Mensah who is also a farmer that he stole the sheep from his pen.

A source told the Spectator that Opanin Mensah, who rears cows and sheep on his farm had been a victim of thieves in the last five months, but he was helpless because of his old age. It was alleged that he frequently accused his family members of conniving with other people in the area to steal his animals. The source said Opanin Mensah after rained curses on the unknown thieves and prayed that they should be punished. The source said that in the evening of June 10, this year, Mahmoud allegedly stole the sheep from Opanin Mensah's pen and tied the animals on his bicycle. While riding on the bicycle with the animals, he saw Opanin Mensah, who was then on his way back from the farm, approaching him. Sensing danger, Mahmoud quickly released the sheep from the bicycle, entered the bush, removed his trousers and squatted near an anthill pretending to be attending to nature's call, allegedly to divert attention of Opanin Mensah from him. Unknown to him, a cobra which was lying in the shrub, close to where he was squatting drew closer, and bit his manhood. Mahmoud's cry for help attracted the attention of Opanin Mensah who came to his rescue and with the help of a group of farmers who were on their way to a nearby village, managed to kill the snake. The source said Mahmoud then in pains, begged for forgiveness from Opanin Mensah for the theft and pleaded that they save his life by taking him to the hospital. He unfortunately died while being sent to the Donkorkrom hospital.

"Mistakenly shot dead."

Tragic.

Special Sessions are way too common for state legislatures anymore. Nothing "special" about them. The term should be changed to "extra".

There's already been 19 of them this year around the country.

And lots more are being discussed.

Check out Whitehouse.gov today if you have the stomach. Check out how important their third story down is...

Tee Ball Discussed on Ask the White House

Of course! There's no mention of recent terrorism, nothing about recent developments in Iraq...

but Tee Ball!

Which, in a way, defines this President to a tee. He's not a baseball player. He's not a softball player. He's a Tee Ball player. In sports, as in the Presidency, you can't surprise him with the type of pitch, or location of pitch, or speed of pitch, because he'll just swing and miss.

Just put it on the tee, however, and he's a playa!

2000 - 200? - George W. Bush, The Tee Ball Presidency.

Denmark and Canada are positioning claims over the Far North, including a tiny island little larger than a football field. Why?

Because with global warming, it may become much more important for shipping.

From Globe and Mail:

The government has hardened its claims over a portion of the Far North after Canada's defence minister quietly set foot this week on a tiny Arctic island that has become the object of an ownership dispute with Denmark.

Bill Graham took the extraordinary steps onto Hans Island on Wednesday in a symbolic move that helps to stake Canada's claim to the area when and if the dispute comes to a head. Military personnel landed on the island a week earlier, planted a Canadian flag and built an Inuit stone marker known as an inukshuk.

The island is little larger than a football field and is about an hour away from Canadian Forces Station Alert on the northern tip of Ellesmere Island. However, Mr. Graham's decision to visit is one of the first moves toward fulfilling the government's pledge to become more active in the North and thereby protect Canadian sovereignty.

The island is uninhabitable, but the onset of global warming could increase ship traffic in the area.

Thanks to the following bloggers for adding PSoTD to their blogrolls...

Bad Vernacular

Women's Autonomy and Sexual Sovereignty Movements

Much appreciated!

Back to hyping the blogrolls of blogs I've blogrolled. Here is TBogg's, and even though he chooses to ignore my rampant panderings for inclusion, he has a pretty damn good blogroll.

*The Nether-Count* --- 100 Monkeys Typing --- Ain't No Bad Dude --- Alas,a Blog --- Alicublog --- All-Baseball.com --- Altercation --- Americablog --- American Leftist --- Bad Attitudes --- Bad Things --- Bartcop --- The Blogging of the President --- Bloggy --- Body and Soul --- Brilliant At Breakfast --- The Bush Diaries --- BusyBusyBusy --- Byzantium's Shores --- Catalyst --- Catch --- Change For America --- Corrente --- Crooked Timber --- Crooks and Liars --- Cursor --- Daily Howler --- Daily Kos --- DC Media Girl --- Demagogue --- David Ehrenstein --- The Decembrist --- Democratic Underground --- Democratic Veteran --- The Department of Louise --- Elayne Riggs --- Eschaton (Atrios) --- Ezra Klein --- Failure Is Impossible --- Fantastic Planet --- Feministe --- Firedoglake --- First Draft --- Freewayblogger --- The Gropinator --- Hairy Fish Nuts --- Hammerdown --- Hullabaloo(Digby) --- I Am Eating My Husbands Soul --- Ignatz (Sam Heldman) --- I'm Not One To Blog --- Interesting Times --- James Wolcott --- Jesus' General --- Juan Cole --- Just A Bump In The Beltway --- Kicking Ass --- King of Zembla --- Lawyers Guns and Money --- Lean Left --- Left I On The News --- Liberal Oasis --- Majikthise --- Making Light (Nielsen Hayden) --- Mark Kleiman --- Martini Republic --- MaxSpeak --- Michael Berube --- Mouse Words --- MyDD --- Nathan Newman --- Needlenose --- Needles on the Beach --- The Next Left --- No More Mr. Nice Blog --- Norbizness --- Norwegianity --- Not Geniuses --- Oliver Willis --- One Good Move --- Opinions You Should Have --- Orcinus --- Pacific Views --- Pandagon --- Pharyngula --- PCBNN --- Political Animal(K.Drum) --- The Poorman --- Respectful of Otters --- Right Hand Thief --- Rising Hegemon --- Rittenhouse Review --- Roger Ailes --- Rox Populi --- RubberNun --- Ruminate This --- Sadly, No --- San Diego Soliloquies --- See The Forest --- Shakespeare's Sister --- Sisyphus Shrugged --- Skippy the Bush Kangaroo --- Slacktivist --- SlyBlog --- South Knox Bubba --- Southpaw --- SteveAudio --- Steve Gilliard --- Suburban Guerilla --- Sullywatch --- TalkLeft --- The American Street --- The Hamster --- The Left Coaster --- The Liquid List --- The Road To Surfdom --- The Sideshow --- The Smirking Chimp --- The Talking Dog --- The Talent Show --- Tom Tomorrow --- UggaBugga --- Wampum --- Very Very Happy --- Whiskey Bar --- Wonkette --- World O'Crap

This article was the inspiration for the newest category: WTF Was The Point?

People who lose weight may gain wealth

Overweight people who trim down substantially may improve both their health and their wealth, if new research is correct.

The study, based on 15 years' worth of data from a large U.S. survey, found that both weight and weight changes were related to people's net worth — their assets minus their debts.

In general, people with a normal body mass index (BMI) had the highest net worth, and heavy people who lost a significant amount of weight tended to see their wealth increase. Minor weight changes, on the other hand, showed little financial effect.

The pattern was not neat, however. In particular, obese black men had a greater net worth than slimmer black men, and overall, there was no clear association between BMI and wealth among African-American males.

In contrast, being thin helped white women's bottom lines the most, according to findings published online by the journal Economics and Human Biology. A white woman's net worth peaked when her BMI was just above the threshold for "normal," while that of white men and black women was greatest when their BMI was at the higher end of normal.

White women also lost the most in terms of absolute dollars as BMI increased.

Is there even a question who wanted this study done?

Here is my favorite part:

The reasons for the racial and gender discrepancy are not clear -- nor is there an easy explanation for the relationship between weight and wealth, according to study author Jay Zagorsky, a researcher at Ohio State University's Center for Human Resource Research in Columbus. A person's body size does not seem to affect measures of wealth like capital gains made from stocks, he told Reuters Health, and so it would appear that weight affects income specifically.

Wow. How much government money was wasted on this...

You know what would be a useful product?

A search engine that searched just through newspaper and magazine letters to the editor.

Snapshot of blogger and journalism attention paid to the Downing Street Memo in the Last 30 days:

On June 22, there were
8031 blogging posts on Technorati on the term
1950 news stories in Google news from the prior 30 days on the term

Today, on July 22, there are:
12570 blogging posts on Technorati on the term
967 news stories in Google news from the prior 30 days on the term

There are just so few real journalists out there digging for new details in this story. And that grossly impacts the number of stories, since the prominent "repeater class" of journalism has nothing to copy.

Wait until August 5. At this point, the "peak" of news coverage on the Downing Street Memo was on July 5. That dropoff is likely to be stupifying.

Is your blog receiving less traffic now? Don't despair.

The crazy gang at BushCo World O' Torture are preparing to roll out their latest innovation - The BushCo Iraqi Microwaver^TM. I bet the turkeys who worked up the Geneva Conventions never thought of that one!!

Scientists worried by riot control ray gun
Thursday July 21, 2:10 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists are questioning the safety of a Star Wars-style riot control ray gun due to be deployed in Iraq next year.

The Active Denial System weapon, classified as "less lethal" by the Pentagon, fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam at rioters to cause heating and intolerable pain in less than five seconds.

The idea is people caught in the beam will rapidly try to move out of it and therefore break up the crowd.

But New Scientist magazine reported on Wednesday that during tests carried out at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, participants playing the part of rioters were told to remove glasses and contact lenses to protect their eyes.

In another test they were also told to remove metal objects like coins from their clothing to avoid local hot spots developing on their skin.

"What happens if someone in a crowd is unable for whatever reason to move away from the beam," asked Neil Davison, coordinator of the non-lethal weapons research project at Britain's Bradford University.

"How do you ensure that the dose doesn't cross the threshold for permanent damage? Does the weapon cut out to prevent overexposure?," he added.

The magazine said a vehicle-mounted version of the weapon named Sheriff was scheduled for service in Iraq in 2006 and that U.S. Marines and police were both working on portable versions.

And the diagnosis is stated by one of their own leaders:

British Airways chairman Martin Broughton yesterday labelled the world's airline industry as "crazy" and lambasted governments for keeping ailing carriers afloat.

Yet in the United States, the government "continues to prop up the walking dead" through the use of the chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures, while the European commission "approves what looks to us like more state aid for Alitalia", Mr Broughton told shareholders at the annual meeting.

Is this what people mean when they talk about running government like a business - do they mean the airline business?

I did not know that Pillbugs were crustaceans. Here's more to know if you're curious.