Anna Nicole Smith gets boost from Bush

Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith has an unusual ally in the Supreme Court fight over her late husband’s fortune: the Bush administration.

CIA’s Inspector General Reviewing Detainee Trips to Foreign Countries

Human rights groups object to CIA sweeping up suspects and sending them to home or other countries for interrogations.

Schwarzenegger’s name erased from Austrian stadium

Officials in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hometown of Graz quietly and under cover of darkness removed giant metal letters spelling out his name on a soccer stadium.

Schwarzenegger’s name erased from Austrian stadium

Officials in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s hometown of Graz quietly and under cover of darkness removed giant metal letters spelling out his name on a soccer stadium.

Rejected charter school groups dig in

Three very different San Jose charter school applications rejected by separate school boards this year may soon receive second looks as organizers regroup and decide how far to go to gain approval.

Grassley Pleased With Whistleblower’s Return to NIH

Iowa Republican championed Jonathan Fishbein’s case when he was fired for questioning federal AIDS research.

U.S. Sanctions Nine Firms for Selling Arms to Iran

Six Chinese, two Indian, one Austrian firm will not be allowed to do business with or in the United States.

Specter Wants Domestic Spying Hearings Next Month

Senate judiciary chairman not satisfied after meeting with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about top-secret surveillance program.

Pa. High Court Takes Case on Government Pay Raises

Repeal of law that gave raises to judges, lawmakers and executive branch officials earns challenge from those who say raise couldn’t be taken back.

Tenn. Lawmaker Takes on Local Newspaper

State Sen. Jeff Miller has called on businesses to pull advertisements from a local Tennessee newspaper that published a story about the senator’s relationship with a woman as he was awaiting divorce from his wife.

Contractors Are Warned: Cuts Coming for Weapons

As the Pentagon’s budget faces tightening, it is redefining the strategic threats facing the U.S. and looking at weapons that are more high-tech, flexible and innovative.

Scientists Try to Resolve Nuclear Problem With an Old Technology Made New Again

The Energy Department is exploring an ambitious, if uncertain, plan to reprocess waste from power plants.

‘Birthright citizenship’ debate set to begin

A plan to change federal policy and deny citizenship to babies born to illegal immigrants on U.S. soil is sure to resurface — kindling a bitter debate btween conservatives and advocacy groups backing the provisions of the 14th Amendment.

The Unions’ Dilemma–and Ours

Once upon a time, unions fought against Big Business to stop abuses against workers, improve working conditions, and gain a larger share of business profits (in the form of higher wages and benefits) for the laborers that produced them.

Times have changed.

With private-sector union membership declining drastically, overall union membership is increasingly driven by public-employee unions. In 1953, the peak year for private-sector union participation, there were over 15 million union workers in the private sector, and less than 800 thousand union workers in the public sector. Today, with overall union participation rates at their lowest levels since World War II, the number of private-sector and public-sector union members is roughly even, at a bit over 8 million each. Unions have largely abandoned private-sector organizing [PDF] in favor of the dedicated base of public-sector employees, where the task is easier and where special-interest lobbying and politics so much more effective–and rewarding.

With private-sector unions under continuing pressure from globalization and the relentless ongoing shift away from a purely labor-based industrial American economy to a mobile and information-based world economy, the overall trend is towards an overwhelming public-sector domination by unions. More and more, unions are becoming the voice not of the American worker, but of the American bureaucratic rank-and-file. And the voices of the unions are increasingly aimed at guaranteeing that these bureaucracies enjoys wages and benefits far above and beyond those received by the people who pay for the public sector, a problem that is only likely to get worse.

More and more, the idea that unions are representing the “little guy” against Big Business is becoming a hollow joke. More and more, “union” means representing government employees directly against the government, and indirectly against the taxpayers. We saw this illustrated very well last week in the New York transit strike.

At what point will the unions and their lobbyists become the government, for most practical purposes and at all levels? And with unions more and more representing employees in areas exempt from any meaningful competition or market discipline, how long before it’s the unions versus everyone else?

Bush hopes for better 2006

President Bush, bruised by months of setbacks, enters the new year hoping for progress on Iraq and on Capitol Hill.

Universal Health Insurance

I’m finally getting around to mentioning this Harris poll, which finds that 75% favor universal health insurance, compared with 17% who oppose it.

It seems to me that the system of employer-based health insurance is in decline, with its costs being a competitive disadvantage to those employers who have it. Here in Massachusetts, outgoing governor and future GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been involved in the issue, so its likely to be a subject in 2008 among both parties.

Why is it so hard give people what they want?

Condoleezza Rice’s star rising

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has become the most popular member of the Bush administration, even as Americans have growing about the war in Iraq.

X-Mas Open Thread

Because there’s no point trying to be serious.

Mike Kasperzak

The Mountain View councilman got the new year off to a rocky start for fellow Councilman Matt Perry, who was in line to be named vice mayor.

Mike Kasperzak

The Mountain View councilman got the new year off to a rocky start for fellow Councilman Matt Perry, who was in line to be named vice mayor.

Dutch Struggle to Prevent Terror and Protect Rights

Investigators are grappling with how to stop what appear to be terrorist plots that are still being planned.

Plane Crashes Into Caspian; 23 Are Killed

An Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft crashed along the coast of the Caspian Sea shortly after taking off in foul weather.

Football The Way I Like It: Smart Football

When I was going to

Seneca Valley High School
, in Maryland (suburban Washington), I
often went to the football games, but to encourage my friends in the
band. The games themselves were pretty boring to me. Same deal with
the powerful Redskins of the era. And until I came to Austin, I only
got interested in occasional playoffs.

When I moved to Austin, I discovered a largely different kind of football.
Smart football. Both the coaches and the players are alot smarter
than they were back in Maryland. Back in my high school, there was
just one, lonely, smart football player; otherwise it was classic
jocks vs. geeks. Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, that makes all
the difference. The play is much more interesting, because it’s more
thoughful, and they put more passion into it. Plus, it makes for
more wins, and let’s face it, a winning football team is more fun than
a losing one.

That’s how I became a Texas Longhorn fan. Of course, there are other
schools like that: Berkeley, Stanford, UW, etc. Plus, others when
they have smart coaches. Even the University of Maryland is like that
at the moment due to a new, smart coach who understands about smart
football.

Right now, the place where the Profesora teaches is also fortunate
to have a coach with a smart football style. His first year was
uneven, because he had to get the idea of thinking across, but
last year they made it to the third playoff game in the NCAA-1A
tournament. Watching was lots of fun, because everybody was in it.
It hardly seemed like the same game as they played the first time
I went to one of their games, the year before the new coach.

I only find NFL games interesting if there’s something of that element
on at least one side.

Defense Sec. Rumsfeld Visits Troops in Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, serving Christmas Eve dinner to U.S. soldiers, told the troops they will persevere and win the war in Iraq.

FBI Monitored Without Warrants

U.S. News and World Report published an article Friday saying that the FBI monitored mosques, homes and businesses for radiation without warrants, following the president’s recent admission of warrantless surveillance by the National Security Agency.

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