Why is TimesSelect ending?
Since we launched TimesSelect in 2005, the online landscape has altered significantly. Readers increasingly find news through search, as well as through social networks, blogs, and other online sources. In light of this shift, we believe offering unfettered access to New York Times reporting and analysis best serves the interest of our readers, our brand, and the long-term vitality of our journalism.

We encourage everyone to read our news and opinion – as well as share it, link to it and comment on it. Our highest priority is to increase the reach and impact of our journalism online. The Times’s Op-Ed and news columns are now available free of charge, along with Times File and News Tracker. In addition, The New York Times online Archive is now free back to 1987 for all of our readers.

And just in time too!  Since I have gotten back into writing again (as seems to happen every fall), I was finding myself frustrated with the NYT’s "paywall" between me and my favorite columnists like Paul Krugman.  I had gone as far as considering coughing up money for access.  So imagine my surprise when this morning I woke up an an early Christmas present from the folks at the New York Times. 

Even better than access to the opinion columns, which tended to show up almost in their entirety on blogs or journals around the Innerwebs, the New York Times is making it’s online archives available.  This gives us access to news back to 1981.  For example, if you wondered what GWB was doing back in August of 1989 you can find out that he was in Maine playing golf with his dad watching his presidential father refuse to answer reporters questions about an economic aid package for Poland.

The President was asked about Poland as he played golf with his son, George W. Bush, at the Cape Arundel Golf Club on a beautiful, breezy afternoon. ”No comment,” said the President, who is usually willing to chat to reporters about his game but not about foreign affairs. Asked how his vacation was going, he replied, ”Now we’re talking.” Bush ‘Would Encourage’ Polish Shift, Aide Says

I foresee the use of the NYT archive as an excellent way to settle arguements, much like the original purpose of the Guiness Book of World Records.

To laugh at the ridiculousness, to scream at the outrageous or to… Well fox went to new lows in their analysis of Petraeus’ testimony last week.  When our friends at Media Matters let us know that they had 7 to 1 analysts in favor of escalation, it was hard to believe, even for FOX!  22 minutes supporting the escalation and only 3 and half against it.  They went to such great lengths, they even cut away to Ann Coulter when Democrats questioned Petraeus!

Blackwater License Being Revoked in Iraq (From AP Report)

Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf said eight civilians were killed and 13 were wounded when contractors believed to be working for Blackwater USA opened fire in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of western Baghdad.

“We have canceled the license of Blackwater and prevented them from working all over Iraqi territory. We will also refer those involved to Iraqi judicial authorities,”

Khalaf said. The spokesman said witness reports pointed to Blackwater involvement but said the shooting was still under investigation. It was not immediately clear if the measure against Blackwater was intended to be temporary or permanent.

Blackwater, based in Moyock, N.C., provides security for many U.S. civilian operations in the country. The secretive company, run by a former Navy SEAL, has an estimated 1,000 employees in Iraq and at least $800 million in government contracts. It is one of the most high-profile security firms in Iraq, with its fleet of “Little Bird” helicopters and armed door gunners swarming Baghdad and beyond.

From Rod Liddle’s review:

Blackwater is a private company that does the dirty work for America in various wars, both covert and those we know about all too well. It began only 10 years ago as a sort of cheerful paintball and shooting range in the Great Dismal Swamp of North Carolina, but these days it has some 20,000 mercenaries on its books (the “whores of war”), not to mention a whole bunch of quasi-military aircraft, a military base, lots and lots of guns and connections with precisely the right people.

I doubt this will change any US Government contracts, but I hope it may help shed some more light on the actions of private security contractors operating in Iraq.  When a private contractor kills an Iraqi civilian, it is the US soldiers who will bear the brunt of any retaliation.

Greenspan attacks Bush on economy. The former chairman of the US Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan has said President George W Bush pays too little attention to financial discipline. In a book to be published next week, Mr Greenspan says Mr Bush ignored his advice to veto "out-of-control" bills that sent the US deeper into deficit. And Mr Bush’s Republicans deserved to lose control of Congress in last year’s elections, he charges.

In the run up to the 2000 US presidential election there was a lot of media chatter about Bush being unqualified.  I remember people talking about how that wouldn’t be a problem because he would be surrounded by experts from the Reagan and Bush administrations.  He did have Cheney and Rumsfeld and Powell.  But, luckiest for the nation, he had Fed chairman Alan Greenspan.  Trying to ride herd on the wild wild west that is the US economy is hard work.  It requires a dispassionate genius to oversee fiscal policies that affect the entire world economy.

Fed chairmen are not elected.  They are appointed by the president and then vetted and confirmed by the Senate.  They have to be the best of the best.  They can’t afford to screw up and they generaly know what they are talking about. 

Alan Greenspan’s new book reveals that Bush chose to ignore the advice of the man who he himself reappointed.  Greenspan served as the Fed Chairman for 19 years.  He saw the nation through multiple recessionary periods and prevented inflationary problems.  One of the roles of the Fed chairman is to advice congress and the president.  Greenspan advised Bush, on more than one occasion, to veto spending initatives originating in the Republican congress prior to the 2006 election.

Quotes from the book about Bush and the Republican congress:

• "Little value was placed on rigorous economic policy debate or the weighing of long-term consequences," he says of the Bush administration.
• Republicans in Congress "swapped principle for power" and "ended up with neither".
• "They deserved to lose."

Greenspan stepped down from the Fed in 2006 and now works in the private sector and as an advisor to the British government.   This is brain drain of the worst sort for the US.

Congress is currently considering national legislation to improve the nutritional quality of foods and beverages in schools.  Please sign the petition below to ask your members of Congress to take junk food out of schools by requiring the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to update its nutrition standards for foods and beverages offered from vending machines, a la carte in the cafeteria, and in school stores on the whole campus throughout the school day. 

USDA’s current school nutrition standards were developed in the 1970’s and are no longer consistent with nutrition science or current concerns regarding children’s nutrition. For example, USDA does not consider candy bars, snack cakes or French fries to be junk foods in schools.

Please sign the petition to let your members of Congress know:

Yes! I want soda and junk food out of our nation’s schools.

The second point worthy of discussion is the act that Sen. Craig was accused of. He was caught in a men’s bathroom trying to solicit sex from another man. The man happened to be a police vice squad detective. Craig was entrapped, and sexual entrapment is a violation of fairness and an abuse of power.

This all brings me back to a conversation I had last weekend over dinner with friends.  With all the sex scandals and odd behavior coming out of congress lately I think there is only one solution to the problem.  The US Congress must implement a Congressional Mothers program.   Trying to separate right from wrong while juggling the interests of their big donors has created the cognitive equivalent to a denial of service attack on their poor little consciences.  Each politician and their entourage needs to be assigned a person to fulfill the role of the politician’s conscience.  In much the same way that the Secret Service protects the bodies of certain US politicians, the Congressional Mothers would protect the reputation and ‘soul’ of their charges.

 Most American’s who were in Scouts or just a public elementary classroom understands the concept of a Den Mother or Room Mother (are there Room Fathers now?).   These were the the kind of no nonsense American women that kept the peace and made sure that each kid in their care got at least one of the cupcakes or Rice Krispy treats that they had brought in to celebrate a holiday.  It’s become clear that many politicans have forgotten the basic rules they learned in kindergarten regarding sharing and not touching. 

With a Congressional Mother, selected from that politicians own district, sitting in on all meetings and sitting at the congressman’s side during voting sessions I would be able to go about my day  without worrying what kind of mischief my representative is getting up to in Washington.   I’d be fine with Congress Mom’s rotating their duty.  I’d love to see a vote on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage take place with a PFLAG mom sitting next to each elected official as he casts his or her vote.

How long would it take to get No Child Left Behind fully funded with a Congressional Mom from Watts or North Philadelphia staring down the budget committees?  If one of the moms from Military Families Speak Out moonlighted as a Congressional Mom do you think congress would keep rolling over for Bush?  I think if Pat Tillman’s mom was taking a turn we would see a lot more transparency in government. 

My mental image for one of these keepers of the national standards is my partner Brian’s mom, Dawn.  She is a smart, funny, and steady handed homemaker who raised three smart and talented sons on her husband’s factory by growing and canning a good portion of the food they ate every year.  She knows what it’s like to have her well first get polluted, and then essentially go dry due to chemical fertilizer run off from farms and suburban sprawl creeping inexorably closer to her rural village.  She is sweet and softspoken, but I doubt even her former Senator Rick Santorum could have handled voting to benefit his contributors instead of his constituents with her watching.

This woman has lost almost everything because she tried to help the US after the invastion.  She worked to help the families of Iraqi civilians killed by coalition troops to receive compensation.  She currently lives in Damascus, Syria, but has applied to emigrate to the United States. 

Despite what she did for us, her application is on hold.

I know that General Patraeus and Ambassador Crocker testifying to the House and the Senate this week is big news.  I just really HATE the timing.  Bush and Co. used 9/11 to drum up support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.  Instead of focusing on the internal issues in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where most of the hijackers originated, they decided to invade one of the most secular nations in the middle east. 

I wish, on this one day each year, the news media would focus on what happened on 9/11, on who was involved in planning and executing the attacks, and on WHY the attackers were wling to die to harm the United States.  President Bush says it’s because they hate our freedoms.  He may be half right.  I don’t think it has anything to do with our freedoms (the ones that  were curtailed in the name of the War on Terror).  If they hate our freedoms, it is our belief that we are free to do whatever we want outside our borders.  Propping up a corrupt royal family in Saudi Arabia is not the way to win the hearts and minds of Muslims around the world.

Bin Laden makes a fairly valid point.  He is smart not to include threats against the US homeland like he has in earlier videos.  Sadly, but understandably, people still will react viscerally to the fact that it is him speaking and probably won’t take the time to actually look at that he is saying.

The point he makes that I, grudgingly,  have to agree with is that the USA has not been a shining example of democracy in action.  We really need to get our house in order before we try exporting democracy to any more countries.

<@je_fro> fox news isn’t really news
<@je_fro> it’s actually one of the largest trolling experiments ever conducted

The link above will let you give the quote an up or down vote.

Matthew Fredmonsky 6 hours ago

A Littering charge filed against a Kent resident for posting a sign reading "Impeach Bush" on public property was dismissed this morning in Portage County Municipal Court.

Kevin Egler, whose case has gained international attention, intends now to approach members of Kent City Council in an attempt to change the city ordinance used to cite him for littering.

A Kent police officer ticketed Egler July 25 for advertising on public property by posting the sign on a small patch of grass near Haymaker Parkway, Willow and East Main streets. The advertising charge was dropped in mid August and the new littering charge was filed late last month.

Egler and his attorney, Columbus free-speech advocate Bob Fitrakis, reached and signed an agreement Thursday morning with Kent Law Director Jim Silver, who was prosecuting the case. In exchange for dropping the charges, Egler agreed to recognize he can be cited or arrested for littering if he places any type of sign on property without obtaining permission from the property owner first.

Their coverage of the Baker/Hamilton Commision report was a good example of what news coverage should be. Yesterday’s coverage, instead, focused on the things the report says the univerist staff and police could have done better. Now, I am not saying I’m surprised that there were failings in their reactions that morning. The report goes on to say that even if they had reacted differently, it is unlikely that the whole incident could have been avoided in its entirely. I also think that it would be a horrible, horrible thing to believe that the release report yesterday was the first time the VA Tech administration, the campus police, and the governor’s office heard about those shortcomings.

What struck me as dangerous and poorly thought out was the constant reporting about the parents’ cries for firings of university officials. One victim’s mother urged the governor to “show some leadership” and fire Charles W. Steger, the university president. On NPR there was a father who seemed to have only read the negative parts of the report and came away with the impression that the university could have somehow avoided the whole violent episode.

I feel bad for the families who lost children and spouses that day. I feel bad for the whole campus. They have to find a way to get past the trauma they all experienced and live their lives knowing they could have been one of the victims. BUT, is firing a university president who has also survived this and gained valuable, irreplaceable hands on experience dealing with a crisis a logical move? No workshop or drill can compare with the educational elements that came with living through that day while in a position of responsibility. Steger has gained that experience and knowledge in the hardest way possible. University President Steger, hopefully, will never have to live through a day like that again. But if he does, he has insight and real world knowledge that his replacement cannot have. I commend Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for recognizing that firing staff now would not make the campus a better or safer place for students. Using Steger and other staff members as a scapegoat would not help things.

Resources:

• Full Report on Virginia State Website
• New York Times Topic page for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• NPR Day to Day coverage of VA Tech Report (Audio)