Bury Me Broken

Sunday Evening Round Up

As I send prayers and positive vibrations for the outcome of Hurricane Katrina, here is what I am persuing:

• Boston Globe editorial says Rove has been a dirty trickster for 35 years so the Valerie Plame scandal as Rove helping Bush Iraq policy is probably "far darker."

  Rove's record has been consistent. Over 35 years, he has been a master of dirty tricks, divisiveness, innuendo, manipulation, character assassination, and
  roiling partisanship.
  
  He started early. In 1970, when he was 19 and active as
  a college Republican -- though he didn't graduate from college -- Rove pretended to volunteer for a Democratic candidate in Illinois, stole some campaign stationery, and used it to disrupt a campaign event. Later, in Texas, he gave testimony in court that was embarrassing to an opponent of one of Rove's clients, even though it was not true, according to the book ''Bush's Brain," by two veteran Texas newsmen, James Moore and Wayne Slater.




• Baltimore Sun article says "Heads of black education group at odds":

  The nation's largest organization of minority teachers and school administrators is mired in financial disarray and at risk of going under, according to a recent letter from the group's president faulting its executive director for the crisis and seeking his resignation.
  
  In the past year, however, the organization has come under scrutiny for its relationships with education vendors that sponsor its events, including several companies under federal investigation for allegedly taking advantage of a multibillion-dollar school technology program, with the help of NABSE. Some of the deals with vendors have involved Andre J. Hornsby, who led the group between 2001 and 2003 and resigned in May as superintendent of the Prince George's County schools amid a separate federal investigation into his dealings with an education software company that employed his girlfriend.
  
  NABSE has been told it is not a target of any investigations.



• Kansas church protests the war at soldiers' funerals in Tennessee:

  Most of those who came didn't know the two fallen soldiers personally. Some came for their own loved ones fighting in Iraq. Others heard about a religious group from Kansas who had announced plans to protest at the funerals.
  The Kansans, including children and teenagers, came to promote their beliefs that U.S. soldiers are killed because they defend a country that supports homosexuality. Holding signs proclaiming that "God blew up the troops," the demonstrators were cordoned off by yellow tape near the funeral sites and were watched closely by local law enforcement.



• Terry Neal, in "Military's Recruiting Troubles Extend to Affluent War Supporters", examines military recruitment efforts aimed toward upper middle class "influencers" or parents who support the war but wouldn't send their children:

  This raises all sorts of complicated socioeconomic questions, such as whether the rich expect others to fight their wars for them. Or, asked another way, are they more likely to support the war in Iraq because their families are less likely to carry part of the burden?



• Hurricane Katrina and economic impact, "Analysts See Katrina as 'perfect Storm' for Already High Energy Prices."

posted by niteskolar @ 7:38 PM