Later On

But will it be accomplished? The story:

New Jersey residents may soon have an easy way to track state spending.

Lawmakers this week will discuss creating an online database of state contracts, loans and other expenditures. The site would provide a range of detailed information, including contract terms and which account is supplying the funds.

In addition, the site can’t be hidden. A link to it must be "prominently displayed" on the state’s home page, according to a bill sponsored by Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee chairwoman Barbara Buono.

The bill requires the site to be up and running by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

The measure will be discussed Thursday in the Senate State Government Committee.

"I think people have a right to know how and to whom state grants and contracts are awarded," said Buono, D-Edison.

Buono noted that the federal government has a similar site, and the Obama Administration launched recovery.gov to let users track spending of the $787 billion stimulus plan.

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You may recall that Nevada voters recently had a chance to legalize the sale of cannabis (with lots of provisos: state stores, adults only, strict prohibitions against smoking in public, etc.), and now the California Assembly, desperate to raise state revenues, have a measure to consider. From the LA Times:

Reporting from Sacramento — Could Cannabis sativa be a salvation for California’s fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke?

An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.

Buoyed by the widely held belief that cannabis is California’s biggest cash crop, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano contends it is time to reap some state revenue from that harvest while putting a damper on drug use by teens, cutting police costs and even helping Mother Nature.

“I know the jokes are going to be coming, but this is not a frivolous issue,” said Ammiano, a Democrat elected in November after more than a dozen years as a San Francisco supervisor. “California always takes the lead — on gay marriage, the sanctuary movement, medical marijuana.”

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This editor looks pretty cool.

For some reason, conservatives strongly oppose letting the public know the comparative effectiveness of various medical treatments. I suppose conservatives greatly respect ignorance (cf. Sarah Palin), though business in general seems to prefer uninformed customers. (See this post by Marion Nestle.) Here’s the story in the LA Times, and here are a couple of snippets:

The comparative-effectiveness issue was supposed to help lay the groundwork for the broader reform effort. But it became a lightning rod for conservative commentators who labeled it a step toward socialized medicine, a line of attack that has doomed every health overhaul effort since World War II.

Rush Limbaugh joined the fray. So did an Iowa advocacy group that targeted Capitol Hill with a fierce e-mail campaign. The conservative Washington Times suggested that what Obama wanted to do might lead to Nazi-style euthanasia, and the paper posted a photo of Adolf Hitler next to an editorial denouncing the bill.

And:

Many healthcare authorities and policymakers have agreed for years that a better system for tracking how well drugs, medical devices and surgical procedures work could improve the care Americans receive and ultimately save billions of dollars.

Almost from the start, the initiative proved explosive, although the battle was at first fought largely out of public view.

Pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers, long wary of the implications of comparative effectiveness, pounced on a suggestion in a report accompanying the legislation that the research could help eliminate costly treatments.

And:

Republicans on Capitol Hill, working to discredit the stimulus package, began labeling the comparative-effectiveness research as a step toward "government-run healthcare."

The cause was picked up by conservative commentators, including Betsy McCaughey, who rose to prominence 15 years ago with a controversial — and later discredited — magazine article attacking the Clinton administration’s healthcare proposal.

On Feb. 9, McCaughey published an op-ed commentary for Bloomberg warning that the legislation would allow Washington to "monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost-effective."

Within hours, Limbaugh was attacking.

By the next morning, Fox News touted the discovery of a "secret" in the legislation that could lead to "healthcare rationing for seniors."

An email from the Marijuana Policy Project:

Although Washington, D.C., passed a ballot initiative to allow medical marijuana use in 1998, with an overwhelming 69% of the vote, Congress has thwarted the will of D.C. voters and prevented the law from taking effect.

In fact, originally — until a court intervened — Congress even tried to stop the vote from being counted! 

Would you please take a minute to ask Congress to stop overriding the will of D.C. voters, and let D.C.’s medical marijuana law go into effect? MPP’s online action center makes it easy.

Even the sponsor of the original federal law, former Congressman Bob Barr (R-Ga.), has called for the repeal of the very law he authored a decade ago, saying, “Continuing to have the federal government run roughshod over the states, even if the citizens of a state decide they wish to legalize medicinal marijuana, for example, is wrong.”

In 2007, MPP worked with Congressman Barr to try to remove this provision so D.C.’s medical marijuana law could go into effect. But at the time, Democrats in Congress didn’t want to force the issue with then-President Bush, who they knew would use such an opportunity to stoke the flames of the culture war. However, now that we have a president in the White House who has already signaled support for medical marijuana access, this is the best opportunity we’ve ever had to repeal this terrible provision.

Please take a minute right now to tell Congress to stop thwarting the will of D.C. voters.

And one proposed change looks quite good: Kathleen Merrigan for Deputy Secretary of Agriculture. Read this report for more details, including the uncomfortable information that Vilsack seems to be looking at a lobbyist to run the Food Safety and Inspection Service, a very bad idea indeed. But he does seem to be taking steps to bring DoA into line with the 21st century by trying to stamp out the institutionalized discrimination against women and minorities that’s endemic in the Department.

Thanks to the reader who sent me this link:

Download Squad has the story and the link. Using the Explorer, I found this fascinating story about the star-nose mole, a creature that had a bit part in City of Ember, though I see that the movie got it wrong on several counts. Here’s a photo, from this article about 25 odd animals.

From the Center for American Progress in an email:

Nearly two million unintended pregnancies and 800,000 abortions have been prevented — and billions of dollars have been saved — through increased federal funding for family planning, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute. Using statistical projections, the report determines that the abortion rate would be two-thirds higher overall, and twice as high among poor women, without the current family planning funding allotted under Title X. Adam Sonfield, a Guttmacher policy expert said, "Family planning should be noncontroversial. In this economic climate, it’s so important in terms of ability to get an education, to stay in the work force." The Guttmacher Institute, which is "generally respected even by experts and activists who don’t share its advocacy of abortion rights," determines that for every tax dollar spent on family planning funding, the average taxpayer saves $4. Last month, House Democrats lost a battle to include increased family planning funds in the recovery bill. Undeterred, they are working with President Obama on "broader legislation…to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies," likely by increasing Title X funding . Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), who is leading the charge to expand Title X, calls this report evidence that family planning funding can "not only save taxpayers money, but also promote public health."

Who knew? Good reference article.

Floris Elite is an excellent shaving soap, and I love the fragrance. Maybe someday I’ll get a bottle of Floris Elite aftershave. It produced a fine lather with the Rooney Style 3, Size 1 Super. The Fat Boy with a Swedish Gillette blade provided a very smooth shave indeed, and I really like the Paul Sebastian aftershave. All in all, a great start for Shrove Tuesday. But no, I’m not having pancakes for breakfast.

From Business Week:

Like the other 149 passengers on US Airways’ Flight 1549, all of whom survived a harrowing landing in New York’s Hudson River, Baltimore attorney James J. Hanks Jr. was amazed by the pilot’s deft response to losing power in both engines. But Hanks, a partner at law firm Venable LLP, was also impressed with the velvet-rope care US Airways employees provided following the forced landing—from the dry clothes, warm meals, and free hotel room they had waiting for him onshore to their efforts to replace all of his lost possessions, down to his BlackBerry. "I felt completely comfortable in their hands," says Hanks.

For a company that’s not known for its customer service—the Tempe (Ariz.) carrier has perennially finished near the bottom of customer service rankings—US Airways’ handling of the near-disaster has cast a halo around its brand. It provided passengers with everything from flights for loved ones to daily calls from counselors. Crisis-management experts say the carrier’s "Miracle on the Hudson" follow-up will stand as a case study in how to treat customers after a crisis. "The airmanship was spectacular, but US Airways did an outstanding job of helping the passengers with their emotional reentry as well," says airline consultant Robert W. Mann Jr.

Like all carriers, US Airways has a playbook for such incidents. It stages "dry run" emergency exercises at least three times a year at each airport it serves and has a far-flung network of gate agents, reservation clerks, and other employees who double as "Care Team" members who are dispatched to emergencies at a moment’s notice. When news broke of the water landing, US Airways activated a special 800 number for families to call and dispatched more than 100 employees on a Boeing 757 from headquarters. Scott Stewart, managing director for corporate finance, was armed with a bag of emergency cash for passengers and credit cards for employees to buy any medicines, toiletries, or personal items that passengers needed.

Other responders arrived with suitcases full of …

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From the Marijuana Policy Project via email:

This morning, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced groundbreaking legislation that would remove state-level penalties for responsible marijuana use in California. The bill, A.B. 390, would not only allow personal use and cultivation of marijuana but would also set up a legal system to tax and regulate it similarly to alcohol.

Using MPP’s online action center, writing your state representatives is easy. Just visit the site, enter your contact information, and send your e-mails to your state assembly member and state senator. You can use one of our pre-written messages, or you can write your own.

Just last week, the legislature approved a budget that significantly increases taxes for almost every Californian and makes deep cuts across many vital services. With the state’s imperiled economy, the need to end the costly and ineffective policy of arresting marijuana users and to instead begin taxing California’s largest cash crop is extraordinarily obvious.

This is the first time that legislation calling for marijuana regulation and taxation has been introduced in California’s state capitol. Don’t miss this opportunity to be a part of California history by supporting A.B. 390!

You can read more about this bill on our blog. Please forward this alert to as many like-minded Californians as you can so that they too can take action. Thank you for supporting MPP and sensible marijuana policy in California.

Very easy shelving to make, install, and remove. Take a look.

When the press becomes sycophants. Disgusting.

Very bad:

The Los Angeles Times — February 20, 2009:

The Pentagon has concluded that the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay meets the standards for humane treatment of detainees established in the Geneva Convention accords…

The administration official said the report’s primary conclusions supported the Department of Defense’s long-standing contention that Guantanamo was in compliance with the global convention, including Article 3, which requires the humane treatment of prisoners taken in unconventional armed conflicts, such as the war on terrorism.

“The bottom line is that the report found that Guantanamo is in compliance with the Geneva conventions, which we have maintained for several years. So the report essentially validated our procedures and processes,” the official said.

The Guardian, today:

Revealed: full horror of Gitmo inmate’s beatings

Binyam Mohamed will return to Britain suffering from a huge range of injuries after being beaten by US guards right up to the point of his departure from Guantánamo Bay [on Saturday], according to the first detailed accounts of his treatment inside the camp.

Mohamed will arrive back tomorrow in the UK, where he was a British resident between 1984 and 2002. During medical examinations last week, doctors discovered injuries and ailments resulting from apparently brutal treatment in detention.

Mohamed was found to be suffering from bruising, organ damage, stomach complaints, malnutrition, sores to feet and hands, severe damage to ligaments as well as profound emotional and psychological problems which have been exacerbated by the refusal of Guantánamo’s guards to give him counseling.

Mohamed’s British lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, said his client had been beaten “dozens” of times inside the notorious US camp in Cuba with the most recent abuse occurring during recent weeks. He said: “He has a list of physical ailments that cover two sheets of A4 paper. What Binyam has been through should have been left behind in the middle ages.”

[U.S. Army] Lieutenant colonel Yvonne Bradley, Mohamed’s US military attorney, added: “He has been severely beaten. Sometimes I don’t like to think about it because my country is behind all this.” . . .

For reasons that human rights groups and detainees’ lawyers immediately pointed out, this self-exonerating Pentagon report, from the start, was suspect in the extreme.  But a sign of how broken our discourse is and how in love with ourselves we continue to be is that, on the question of current Guantanamo conditions, the conclusions of the United States Pentagon released this week were treated not only as credible, but authoritative. If the DOD — which has long overseen Guantanamo and continues to do so — says that everything is great there, well, that’s the end of that.  What else is there to know?

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Via Political Animal: Be sure to read the post at the link, particularly Greg Sargent’s addendum.

Via Cool Tools, which has a good rundown on the strengths of the site. Take a look at BoardGameGeek.com. It has tons of information on board games, including faded favorites such as Teeko, Kensington, and others. Good info. For example, I had no idea that Teeko had been solved. (Regular Teeko: draw with best play; Advanced Teeko: first player wins with best play. Solution was by brute force.)

Heather Harvey lists them:

When you eat organic foods, you provide your body with vitamins, minerals, filtered water, and much more. These provide us with vital foundations for health. Most food sold in stores is grown with pesticides or other toxins. These chemicals have been proven to adversely affect health. In some cases they cause death. They also pollute the Earth and have been associated with mass animal deaths [1-4]. Your choices make a huge difference in the quality of your life. What you eat builds and maintains your body. Also, supporting organics supports a healthy Earth. You help to improve the quality of water, soil, and air. Animals, plants, birds, worms, and other living beings also benefit when you choose organic foods.

1. You Are What You Eat

In 1826, Anthelme Brillat-Savarin originated the ever-famous "You are what you eat" in his book Meditations on Transcendent Gastronomy. We have heard this truism throughout our lives. Have you considered the depths of its wisdom? Eat an apple, and you eat life: vitamins, minerals, water, and more. Eat pesticide residue, and you fill your body with poisons [5, 6]. These toxins accumulate in your muscle and fat tissues. Some of them are nearly impossible to ever remove from your body. Mothers who breast-feed children illustrate an example of these danger potentials, because poisons are passed to the baby. The Journal for Pesticide Reform reports that "pesticides such as chlordane, heptachlor, DDT, DDE and other organohalogen compounds do not biodegrade in the environment. Instead they bioconcentrate and are stored in the fat of human beings, who feed at the top of the food chain." Also, a 1999 Consumers Union report determined that "pesticide residues found in foods children eat every day often exceed safe levels" [7].

Organic foods are grown with no poisons. They are natural foods that have been grown with more conscious care for the health of the soil, the plants, and the people who will eat them. Over 100 studies have found that the nutritional quality of organic foods far surpasses that of conventional produce [8-10]. Why take a chance and risk exposing yourself, your children, or your friends to chemicals that could destroy their health? Why make this even a negotiable point for yourself? Choose organic, choose natural, and you choose health.

2. Food is your best medicine.

In the 5th century BC, Hippocrates taught that "let food be your medicine and medicine be your food." He was highly respected during his lifetime, and he has been famous ever since. His words have stood the test of time and remain deep wisdoms that we can live by. All medical doctors to this day recite the Hippocratic Oath. In this vow, doctors promise to try never to harm their patient and also to work for their patient’s highest good.

We can all make similar choices. We can all seek to bring about our highest good. We can all seek not to harm ourselves. We can live by that oath and also by Hippocrates’ other famous teaching: Food is your Best Medicine. If this is true, then it makes sense that we should choose foods that are known to bring us health, energy, and peace of mind. Scientists have proven in many studies that organic food choices have far superior nutritional quality than conventional food choices [8-10]. Also, they have proven that foods grown with pesticides are definitely linked with diseases and deaths for humans and animals [11-13].
With all that in mind, the choice seems clear: Choose Organic.

3. …

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From the NY Times:

Biotechnology companies are keeping university scientists from fully researching the effectiveness and environmental impact of the industry’s genetically modified crops, according to an unusual complaint issued by a group of those scientists.

“No truly independent research can be legally conducted on many critical questions,” the scientists wrote in a statement submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The E.P.A. is seeking public comments for scientific meetings it will hold next week on biotech crops.

The statement will probably give support to critics of biotech crops, like environmental groups, who have long complained that the crops have not been studied thoroughly enough and could have unintended health and environmental consequences.

The researchers, 26 corn-insect specialists, withheld their names because they feared being cut off from research by the companies. But several of them agreed in interviews to have their names used.

The problem, the scientists say, is that farmers and other buyers of genetically engineered seeds have to sign an agreement meant to ensure that growers honor company patent rights and environmental regulations. But the agreements also prohibit growing the crops for research purposes.

So while university scientists can freely buy pesticides or conventional seeds for their research, they cannot do that with genetically engineered seeds. Instead, they must seek permission from the seed companies. And sometimes that permission is denied or the company insists on reviewing any findings before they can be published, they say.

Such agreements have long been a problem, the scientists said, but they are going public now because frustration has been building.

“If a company can control the research that appears in the public domain, they can reduce the potential negatives that can come out of any research,” said Ken Ostlie, an entomologist at the University of Minnesota, who was one of the scientists who had signed the statement.

What is striking is that the scientists issuing the protest, who are mainly from land-grant universities with big agricultural programs, say they are not opposed to the technology. Rather, they say, the industry’s chokehold on research means that they cannot supply some information to farmers about how best to grow the crops. And, they say, the data being provided to government regulators is being “unduly limited.” …

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