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Miscellaneous Good News, March 16-31, 2003
[Commentary] ©2003 Phil Hyde, The Timesizing Wire, Box 622, Cambridge MA 02140 USA (617) 623-8080

3/29/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -

  1. 3/29   A presidential candidate - Antiwar stance buoys Howard Dean in Iowa - Dean calls himself a candidate who is 'not a long shot anymore' - A man making the most of this moment alone on Iowa's stage, by Adam Nagourney, NYT, B12.

  2. [and contrarian views are not only growing on the Democrat side -]
    3/31   G.O.P. moderates show signs of strength, by David Firestone, NYT, A10.
    [including anti-taxcut Sen. Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island and Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.

  3. 3/30   The [loyal] opposition - Thousands join in Boston to demand end of war -
    'This is not the United States I want to be associated with'     , by Fox Butterfield, NYT, B14.
    [specifically -]
    3/30   25,000 rally, march in city against war -
    'We’re here today to remind our country that...war is a failure for the human race'    , Brian Corr of Peace Action, Boston Globe, B4.
    [further -]
    3/30   In New York and New Jersey, hundreds join in as antwar protests continue, by Susan Saulny, NYT, B14.
    [further -]
    3/30   Decades later, 60s icons still live by their [antiwar] message, by James Barron, NYT, B15.
    [further -]
    3/31 The correspondent - Peter Arnett tells Iraqi state TV allied war plan "has failed, by Jim Rutenberg, NYT, B2.
    ...because of Iraqi resistance."
    [So what's the big deal? Everybody's saying that the quickie warplan based on shockanaw has flopped because of Iraqi resistance, Doonesbury, for instance, see 3/29-31/2003 #6 or thereabouts.]
    ..\..A correspondent based in Baghdad for NBC News and National Geographic Explorer told Iraqi state TV yesterday that his reporting about Iraqi civilian casualties "helps those who oppose the war."...
    [Another no brainer. But now NBC has yanked him. How's that for the "freedom" of speech that we're supposedly fighting a pre-emptive war for?]
    [further -]
    3/29 Antiwar effort emphasizes civility over confrontation...in a switch of tactics, by Zernike & Murphy, NYT, B1.
    [farther -]
    3/29   Thousands across Mideast protest... - Even in Tehran, protesters denounce attack on Iraq, by Neil MacFarquhar, NYT, B12.
    [further -]
    3/30   France sends mixed signals - and a clear message, by Elaine Sciolino, NYT, 4:6
    ...When [Pres. Jacques] Chirac visited Algeria early this month...Pres. Abdelaziz Bouteflika announced that his guest deserved..\..the Nobel Peace Prize...for opposing the war with Iraq....
    3/30   French rallies against war shift focus to Israel, by Elain Sciolino, NYT, B14.
    [Those nasty nasty French, right? Wrong, they're not the only ones -]
    3/31   The Secretary of State - As Palestinian violence subsides, Israel must stop building settlements [in the occupied territories], Powell says - A blunt message to supporters of Israel gets a mixed review, by Steven Weisman, NYT, B11.
    [And how about dismantling, and not just "stop building"? And why not "as Israeli settlement building continues, the USA must stop subsidizing Israel to the tune of $3.5 billion in 'foreign aid' every year - $9 billion this year?! And why not go with the French shift in focus to Israel? That's where the 1B people in the Arab world are focused. Cheney and Bush want to justify their beating up an Arab nation the USA itself used to supply with weapons (vs. Iran) for violating UN rules while its client-state Israel has been violating UN rules for decades. And on and on and on it goes, fueled by the $3½ billion American taxpayers are forced to hand over to Israel in our largest annual "foreign aid" allocation by the Israel lobby, this year to be raised to $9 billion. So, naturally, Israel thinks it's on the right track and every single day we get a headline like this -]
    3/30   Palestinian killed by Israeli troops, Reuters via NYT, A6.
    [Have Israelis ever heard of Gandhi and his stunningly successful and finite non-violent methods? In fact, have they ever heard of the Holocaust, when they themselves were subjected to intense oppression from another religious, or irreligious, group? Sharon and his administration, just like Bush and his administration, are an appalling disgrace to their respective religions. But this page is supposed to be good news.]

  4. 3/29   Q&A - Healthcare for the poorest as a central human right, by Dr. Paul Farmer of Harvard & Haiti in dialogue with Patricia Cohen, NYT, A11.
    [We'd say, most central, the right to a range of market-demanded working hours to support yourself, and then,
    the right to healthcare for all, not just the poorest.]

  5. 3/30   When wealth doesn't win, by Vivian Marino, NYT, 3:8.
    So what if the economy and stock market are still weak? Some 84% of adults surveyed in January said that doing work they loved was more important than making money, and 88% said they valued health and a happy home life above wealth. The survey, of 3,315 adults, was conducted by Family Circle magazine; the results were announced in its April 15 issue, which went on sale last week.

  6. 3/29   Donors add watchdog role to relations with charities - New scrutiny on the spending of gift money, by Stephanie Strom, NYT, A8.

  7. 3/29   Schwab's top two executives decline bonuses for 2002, Reuters via NYT, C4.
    ...for the second consecutive year. The founder and chairman, Charles Schwab, and David Pottruck, the CEO, each earned $883,334 in salary last year, with no bonus.... The pair also canceled all stock-option grants for the last 3 years, forgoing 5.4m underlying shares....
    [Journal version -]
    3/31   Schwab CEOs decline bonuses, give up options, by Craig & Sapsford, WSJ, C4.
    [contrast -]
    3/31   Sprint raised pay of its 2 top executives, by Shawn Young, WSJ, B5.
    ...a big increase in salary and bonus last year as the telecom company wrestled with declining market share, a stumbling stock price and a crisis that is forcing the executives' departure.... [Note the cap on executive pay in the proposed GOP aid package to airlines -]
    3/31   Republicans propose $2.8B in airline aid - Carriers would be required to limit executives' pay or pay more for insurance, by Murray & McKinnon & Harris, WSJ, A12.
    [- limit to ??]
    [We call this the "Great Leak Upwards," and it is the most serious and market-starving problem in ours and the global economy today. It's unapproachable in monetary terms but quite approachable in terms of the concentration of skills and worktime.]

  8. 3/31   Burdened by Bronx hospital's "efficiencies," doctors-in-training organize union drive - Residents and interns say they pay a price for a medical center's success, by Richard Perez-Pena, NYT, A11.
    ...Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx...staff cuts.... "To have to answer the phones, to have to draw the bloods, to have to wheel the patients to X-ray ourselves, that is not the best use of our time and our resources," said Dr. Stephen Cia, a 3rd-year resident in internal medicine..\..
    the union, the Committee of Interns and Residents....

  9. 3/30   U.S. 'do not call' list to start this summer, by Vivian Marino, NYT, 3:8.
    Tired of telemarketers? Starting this summer, consumers will be able to sign up for a national do-not-call list to block many of those unsolicited sales calls. On July 1, the Federal Trade Commission will start a website offering free registration for the list.... The FTC will also begin an 8-week rollout of a toll-free telephone number that consumers can call to add their names. The phone number, which will operate initially on the West Coast, is expected to be available nationwide by the end of August....

  10. 3/29   Argentina will end freeze on bank savings accounts - Depositors to get 80% of their money, in cash and bonds, by Tony Smith, NYT, C3.
    [Who gets the rest?]

  11. 3/30   Mexico indicts former chief of secret police, by Tim Weiner, NYT, A3.
    ...Luis de la Barreda Moreno, the chief of the once-feared Federal Security Directorate from 1970 to 1977. At least 275 people, perhaps twice that number, disappeared during the dirty war, and Mr. de la Barreda is the first secret police official to be charged with murder from crimes committed during that period....
    [A glimmer of justice at last.]

3/28/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -
  1. Lawmakers shrink Bush faith initiative, AP via Boston Globe, A2, flagged by Kate Jurow.
    WASHINGTON - Unable to pass even a watered-down version of the pResident's faith-based initiative, congressional sponsors said yesterday they would remove all efforts to open government programs to churches and other religious groups from the bill....
    [Maybe the unseparation of Church and State pauses for a moment. But we need to be strengthening the separation, not weakening it, and then we need to be building on that stronger separation to separate State and Market, politics and economics, meaning we need to restore and sensitize our socioeconomy's feedback system by getting all money OUT of politics.]

  2. Noisy protests in Spain, NYT, B13.
    The lights in Madrid and in Barcelona went off [last] night and the kitchenware came out, as thousands of people responding to a call for an antiwar blackout [and hubbub] banged pots and pans together in a noisy protest against the war in Iraq....
    [Now if we could only see some coverage of the protests in Britain, besides that one cabinet minister (Robin Cook) who resigned (see 3/18/1003 #1 below)!]

  3. France plans TV network, in 'battle of footage', by Gauthier-Villars & Carreyrou, WSJ, A11.
    PARIS - As the war it opposed is beamed around the globe on US, British and Arabic TV, France wants to make sure its own perspective on world affairs gets an airing in the future....
    [More power to them!]

  4. Bushes on trial? Belgium is sweating out its own war-crimes law, by Dan Bilefsky, WSJ, A11.
    BRUSSELS - It is 2004, and the first President Bush is in a Belgian court for alleged war crimes committed during the 1991 Gulf War. Back in Washington, his son worries he may be next.... This...prospect has entered the broad realm of the possible, thanks to a Belgian law that gives that nation's courts the authority to try anyone for alleged crimes against humanity committed anywhere....
    [Excellent. Now if we could get that kind of gumption at the U.N. level - with a little more intelligence on the part of the UK, Spain and Australia - we could reign in extremists like Jesus-freaky Bush Jr and his grasping oil junta.]

  5. Japan's joblessness falls, but worries remain, Dow Jones via WSJ, A11.
    TOKYO - Japan's jobless rate showed a substantial improvement in February, falling to 5.2% from a record-tying 5.5% a month earlier, the government said....
    ["Good, but" - temporary we're sure, or possibly just a function of the govt's getting as good at fiddling their figures, as we are.]
    [Followup]
    Japan: Job growth, by Ken Belson, NYT, W1.
    ...In February...the economy added 100,000 jobs...even though wages and consumer spending continued to fall.

3/27/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope - 3/26/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -
  1. Senate votes to reduce Bush's tax cut plan, by David Rosenbaum, NYT, front page.
    [and]
    How the pResident's $726B plan was cut in half, by David Firestone, NYT, A12.

  2. In God we trust ... Canadians aren't so sure, by Clifford Krauss, NYT, A4.
    [no wonder, with the hypocritical example that 'born-again' American warhawks are setting, not to mention the widespread Roman Catholic child abuse cases]
    ...Many churches in Canada are losing members and regular attendance is plummeting. [photo caption]
    ['Course, that could just be lengthening working hours.]
    ..."America is a very religious, almost puritanical country,"..\..the French Canadian writer Yann Martel...told Publishers Weekly last year. "In Canada, secularism is triumphant, and to talk noncynically, nonironically about religion is strange."... Mr. Martel's comments have been much quoted of late as a sign that in at least one vital respect, Canadian and American societies are moving in opposite directions despite their common language and geographical proximity....
    [But then, Canada always had to move in a lot of opposite directions just to stay free. After all, it was started by United Empire Loyalists, i.e., refugees from the American Rebellion, oops, Revolution.]

3/25/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -
  1. World media turn wary eye on U.S. - Foreign reporters' accounts of war in Iraq underscore international skepticism - Skeptical coverage by non-U.S. media, including the BBC, is front and center, by Charles Goldsmith, WSJ, A12.
    [And even in the U.S. -]
    Reporting reflects anxiety - The mood seems to change overnight - After an opening glow, skepticism has returned to war reporting, by David Carr, NYT, B1.
    [Here's hopin'.]

  2. [And on what the media calls the "Arab street" - kindof a racist expression since it doesn't seem to exist for any other linguistic group -]
    Al-Jazeera launches a site in English, by Josef Federman, WSJ, A12.
    ...The site (english.aljazeera.net) has promised to offer a different perspective than those of Western media and has stuck to its word \since it\ went live early yesterday....
    [and on the same page -]
    Arab League seeks U.N. session to stop Iraq war, WSJ news roundup, A12.

  3. Data expert is cautious about misuse of information, by Steve Lohr, NYT, C6.
    As the [US] government gears up its domestic security program, the CEO of a venture capital [VC] firm founded by the CIA[!] warned [yester]day of the danger of amassing a large, unified database that would be available to government investigators - as some technology executives have advocated.
    "I think it's very dangerous to give the government total access," said Gilman Louie, CEO of In-Q-Tel, a VC fund established by the CIA in 1999....
    [Fine and dandy, Gilman, but if it's a choice between some completely unaccountable private firm "amassing" that "large unified database" and a government investigative agency amassing it, which we have hopes of making accountable as soon as we can get rid of information-blocking Bush, Cheney & Co., we'd frankly prefer the government. This whole warning could just be CIA territoriality too, the same as it was in 1967 when the agency blocked an implementation of Bucky Fuller's World Game at Expo 67 in Montreal on the grounds that it was too dangerous to have so much info accessibility in one spot (that was not under their thumb). One would think the Web renders all such fears - and jealousies - moot.]

3/24/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -
  1. [Mike Moore does it again! -]
    Minus a few allusions to war, it was Oscars as usual, by Matthew Gilbert, BG, C13.
    ..."Bowling for Columbine" documentary winner Michael Moore led his fellow nominees onstage to announce, "We are against this war, Mr. Bush.  Shame on you."...
    [Apparently prior to that, he'd made reference to the fiction-nonfiction switcheroo of the moment we live in, with a seemingly fictional election yielding a fictional president who proposes a fictional budget and starts a fictional war. Surely a time when "truth is stranger than fiction."   Also -]
    Real world plays role onstage and off, by Carol Beggy, Boston Globe, C13.
    LOS ANGELES - ...At last night's Academy Awards ceremony...filmmaker Michael Moore, after winning the award for best documentary feature, knew what he wanted to say. To a backstage question from a reporter about why he used his 45-second acceptance speech to voice protest against the war in Iraq and pResident Bush, Moore said simply: "I'm an American." After noting that he was booed onstage toward the end of his speech, the maker of "Bowling for Columbine" said: "That's not what I saw. I saw the entire place stand up and applaud a film." He continued about the "lesson we taught the children of Columbine this week.... that violence is an acceptable way to settle a conflict."...
    WGBH producer Mark Samuels...said in an interview that Moore's speech "electrified the room" and turned the mood "from subdued to something more electrifying."...
    [Compare -]
    'Chicago' taps its way to a six-Oscar victory, by Ty Burr, BG, C1.
    [Frank Rich comments on timeliness of movie "Chicago" -]
    They both reached for the gun - In Oscar week, [movie character] Billy Flynn goes to war - 'Chicago’s' con man and the pResident are right in step, by Frank Rich, 3/23/2003 NYT, 2:1.
    To see why "Chicago" became the move of the year when America sleepwalked into war, you do not have to believe it is the best picture of 2002...nor...that musical comedy is making a comeback.... All you have to do is watch a single scene...a press conference in 1920s Chicago [in which] a star defense attorney, Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) wants to browbeat...reporters into believing that his client, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) did not murder her lover when in fact she did. "Now remember," Billy coaches Roxie, "we can only sell them one idea at a time." The idea: Roxie acted in self-defense. "We both reached for the gun," Roxie sings to the reporters, who obediently turn her lie into a rousing chorus, repeating it over and over in a production number that portrays them as marionettes, bowing and scraping to the tug of Billy's strings and spin.
    For history's sake, this spectacle should be paired on the DVD with George W. Bush's fateful White House press conference of March 6.... This was the pResident's first prime-time faceoff with reporters since a month after 9/11 and certain to be his last in what remained of peacetime. The former Andover cheerleader had failed to convince America's friends to come aboard. The economy was tanking. But the journalists at hand were so limply deferential to the pResident's boilerplate script that the subsequent, good-natured "Saturday Night Live" parody couldn't match the gallows humor of the actual event.
    One reporter, April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks, asked, "Mr. President, as the nation is at odds over war, how is your faith guiding you?" - a God-given cue for Mr. Bush to once more cloak his moral arrogance in the verbal vestments of humble religiousity. "My faith sustains me because I pray daily," came the pResident's reply. "I pray for peace, April, I pray for peace."
    Far be it for Ms. Ryan to ask a followup question about why virtually every religious denomination in the country, including Mr. Bush's own, opposes the war. She might as well have been Mary Sunshine (Christine Baranski), the sob-sister reporter in "Chicago" who tosses Roxie an image-burnishing softball at her press conference by asking, "Do you have any advice for young girls seeking to avoid a life of jazz and drink?"
    At Mr. Bush's sedated show, there were no raised voices, not [even] a single query about homeland security or Osama bin Laden.... And like their "Chicago" counterparts, the Washington press corps were more than willing to buy fictions if instructed to do so by the puppeteer. "Eight times [Mr. Bush] interchanged the war on Iraq with the attacks of 9/11/01," wrote the New York Observer, "and eight times he was unchallenged." The unproven but constantly reiterated White House claim of a Qaeda-Saddam Hussein connection has now become a settled fact, not to be questioned at a press conference any more than any "Chicago" reporter challenges the mythical pregnancy Billy Flynn flogs in his propaganda campaign to save Roxie Hart. The movie's press conference ends with Billy Flynn's message spreading from the servile reporters' lips directly to the next morning's paper: "THEY BOTH REACHED FOR THE GUN".... At Mr. Bush's press conference under the guise of "news," CNN flashed the White House's chosen messages in repetitive rotatino on the bottom of the screen while the event was still going on - "People of good will are hoping for peace" and "'My job is to protect America.'"....

  2. Germany restricts game it says glorifies war, by Markoff & Landler, NYT, C4.
    [Does anyone doubt it?]
    ...This month, the German government listed a new game...Command & Conquer Generals..\..produced by Electronic Arts on an index of games the government considers violent. Such games may not be advertised or displayed on shelves in Germany, although they may be kept under store counters and sold to adults....
    [Any Americans wanna feel superior? We still restrict hard-liquor ads, "too" sexy pictures & lotsa other stuff.]

  3. New online guides [eg: Pick-a-Prof] allow college students to grade their professors, by Tamar Lewin, NYT, A9.
3/21/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of random intelligence/hope -
  1. Wave of protests, from Europe to New York...circles globe after first strike, by John Tagliabue, NYT, front page, B4.

  2. CEOs for peace, by Steve Bailey [617-929-2902 or bailey@globe.com], Boston Globe, C1, flagged by colleague Kate.
    ...Most US executives are keeping their mouths shut on Bush's invasion of Iraq.
    [See "U.S. business leaders keep debates private over the Iraq conflict" which is an embedded headline (the 9th) on 3/18/2003 #1.]
    ...Either through temperament or experience, [however, there are] exception[s]: [Compare this squib about another good guy -]
    Bids & offers -...Levitt's barbs, by Power with Faucon & Gauthier-Villars & Plitch, WSJ, C5.
    In his years as chairman of the SEC, Arthur Levitt's agenda was heavy on small-investor fairness. He is still making speeches about that issue.
    But his new issue is a topic that exploded after he left the SEC: cleaning up the boardroom. Instead of boardrooms functioning like fraternal organizations, "there has to be an atmosphere of constructive skepticism," he said in a speech to investor-relations professionals. One of his best one-liners lobbed yesterday: There's no room for a director "whose only qualification is that he sends his children to the same private school as the CEO...."

  3. [here's something that's long overdue -]
    Why Jews should oppose war on Iraq - The Jewish obligation in this hour, full-page ad by the *Shalom Center & Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities & *True Majority, NYT, A11.
    [Rabbi Arthur Waskow's Shalom Center is a big advocate of shorter working hours to give people more time to practice their religion, and indeed, his name is buried in the middle of the long small-print list of subscribers to this ad.]
    Jewish wisdom teaches: "Justice, justice shall you pursue. Seek just ends by just means." (Deut. 16:20 & Rashi.) Disarming a dangerous dictator is a just end. But is war the just means to that end? What in truth will this war do? War will - ...Psalm 34 teaches: "Seek peace and pursue it." Not only must we seek peace, but if it is running away we must chase after it.... The Jewish obligation is clear: Pursue justice, seek peace, and work unceasingly for Tikkun Olam - healing the planet.
    [There follows the list of names, we'd guess 100-150. The coupon requests donations made out to -]
    The Shalom Center
    6711 Lincoln Drive
    Philadelphia PA 19119....

  4. [and here's another miracle article in-that-it-appears in the WS Journal -]
    U.S.'s talk of a coalition courts overstatement, by Cooper & Maremont with Forelle, WSJ, A4.
    [no-o-o-o ki-i-i-idding!]

3/20/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence/hope -
  1. [2 UPsizings, totaling 400 +?? new jobs]
    1. Hwashin Co., NYT, C4.
      ...Gyeonbuk, South Korea, a maker of auto parts, plans to begin building a $70m factory in Greenville, Ala., in May. The plant is scheduled to open by March 2005 and employ 400 workers to supply parts to Hyundai Motor Co.'s first factory in the U.S.

    2. Family Dollar Stores Inc., Dow Jones via WSJ, A10.
      ...has revised its store-expansion plans for the fiscal year ending Aug. 30. It plans to open 475-500 stores and close 65 stores; it had planned to open 575 stores and close about 50 stores. The company...will open 60% of the stores slated for this year in urban markets.
      [Unspecified new jobs.]

  2. Quotation of the day, by Sgt. Ray Lane, NYT, A2.
    "Everyone's nervous - it's natural to be nervous. If you're not nervous you're a cowboy - and this is no time for cowboys."
    [Oh really? Then how come we've had comments from Bush administration spokesmen recently that maybe the perception of Bush as a cowboy (not to mention his cultivation of this image) is a plus after all.]

  3. Senator [Byrd] deplores attack on Iraq, NYT, A18.

  4. War poses risks for globalization trend, by David Wessel, WSJ, A2.
    [Curtains for that simplistic fad, which was largely a green light for American & other CEOs to loot the world.]

  5. United Nations - Critics say U.S. lacks legal basis for attack, by Felicity Barringer, NYT, A15.

  6. Turkey limits military help to U.S. on Iraq - Parliament likely to deny use of air bases and bar troops from passing through, by Frank Bruni, NYT, A12.

3/19/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of intelligence/hope -
  1. I want YOU to invade Iraq [over drawing of Osama pointing at viewer], ¼-page ad by public interest journal TomPaine.com -mon sense, NYT, A27.
    Go ahead. Saddam will quickly fall, but that won't make the world safer or more secure. Your bombs will send me a new generation of recruits and fuel their hatred and desire for revenge. So go ahead. Squander your wealth on war and occupation - America will be weaker for it. Divide your people, divide the world, isolate yourselves! Perfect! I thrive on chaos. I need an enemy. You give me both.
    [It's a perfect match! Apparently a lot of Americans need an enemy too. Bored? So much violence in TV, movies and computer games that a lot of Americans' threshold of being interested requires lots of violence and takin' people out? Big new hobby of much of American media and many bored and gullible Americans: reality explosions. (Note also the full-page ad by *Writers Against the War on p. A7 - compare 3/11/2003 #3 below.)]

  2. Chirac's view: 'A heavy responsibility', NYT, A12.
    PARIS...- Following is the text of a statement made today by President Jacques Chirac of France as translated and issued by Elysee Palace:
    "...True to the spirit of the United Nations Charter, which is our common law, France considers that recourse to force is the last resort, when all other options have been exhausted.
    France's position is shared by the great majority of the international community. The most recent debates have clearly shown that the Security Council was not prepared, under present circumstances, to approve a precipitate march to war.
    The United States has just issued an ultimatum to Iraq. Whether...it's a matter of the necessary disarmament of Iraq or of the desirable change of regime in that country, there is no justification for a unilateral decision to resort to war.
    Regardless of the forthcoming developments, this ultimatum is calling into question our idea of international relations. It affects the future of a people, the future of a region, world stability.... It is...a decision that jeopardizes future use of methods to resolve peacefully crises linked to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
    Iraq does not today present an immediate threat warranting an immediate war....

  3. [the I-word 'modest' Bush loves -]
    The perpendicular pronoun - The foreign policy of I, op ed by Maureen Dowd, NYT, A27.
    [the I-word this country has needed for months -]
    Vote to Impeach - Take back the Constitution, full-page ad by *VoteToImpeach.org, NYT, A23.
    [At laaaast!]
    ...Bush,...Cheney,...Rumsfeld, and...Ashcroft have...assum[ed] powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping the power of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States. They have: Articles of impeachment drafted by former Atty Gen. Ramsey Clark (and downloadable petitions) available at *VoteToImpeach.org
    [Petition reads -]
    I want my representative in the US House of Representatives to vote to impeach...Bush,...Cheney,...Rumsfeld, and...Ashcroft for high crimes and misdemeanors, and to have the case prosecuted and tried in the U.S. Senate....
    [What the GOP wanted to impeach Clinton for was trivial compared to what Bush & Cheney Inc. have been busy at.]

  4. The maverick - Lincoln Chafee's stand on Iraq makes him a lonesome dove as a GOP senator [from Rhode Island], by Don Aucoin, Boston Globe, D1.

  5. [and some good economic news -]
    Germans balk at the price of economic change, by Richard Bernstein, NYT, A4.
    [And why not? The results in the nations who have implemented the economic changes that are being pushed on the Germans, e.g., US, Britain and Japan, are worse than the results Germany is getting and much worse than 35-hour workweek France is getting.]

  6. With little loans, Mexican women overcome, by Tim Weiner, NYT, A8.
    [Colleague Kate came up with the word for this positive economic strategy, "microloans," the specialty of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh (Muhammad Yunous?).]

  7. Web enthusiasts take up scam baiting, by Lynn Cowan, WSJ, B4B.
    ..."I get a great deal of fun out of it," said Lee Kennedy, a...scientist in Melbourne, Australia, whose *sweetchillisauce.com website features a collection of correspondence.... Mr. Kennedy, who spends about 1-3 hours a night corresponding with scam artists who think they're about to hook another victim, said he began posting his exchanges on the website in March 2002. Since then, he has posed as Sir Wilburforce Harrington-Smythe of Toffeynose Lane, who pesters a would-be scam artist for a recipe before dying midscam, and Kris Kringle, who puzzles over whether his elves can build the right type of computer disk out of recycled jam tins....

3/18/2003   headlines from heaven - alias glimmers of hope -
  1. Britain - In a new setback for Blair, a cabinet minister resigns, by Warren Hoge, NYT, A13.
    LONDON...- Robin Cook, a cabinet minister, quit today to protest Tony Blair's support for the use of force in Iraq, complicating the prime minister's position on the eve of a divisive parliamentary debate about the looming war.... The resignation of Mr. Cook, a former foreign minister, was the first high-ranking political casualty. Mr. Cook, the leader of the Commons, disclosed his decision in a letter made public shortly before Mr. Blair held an emergency cabinet meeting to plot strategy for gaining backing from the British public, which is skeptical over the decision today to end protracted diplomatic maneuvring and prepare for war....
    [See story on last US diplomat to resign in protest 3/12/2003 #1 (2nd subhead).]

  2. [The famed "Boston lawyer" finally does something constructive -]
    An open letter to president Bush from over 200 members of the Massachusetts legal community, half-page ad by Massachusetts Lawyers Alliance for World Security, Boston Globe, A32.
    ...Last fall you heeded the wise counsel you received from inside and outside your administration to avoid unilateral action on Iraq. We, the undersigned members of the Massachusetts legal community, are committed to the rule of law here and abroad.
    We harbor no illusions about Saddam Hussein.... We are united, however, in the firm conviction that a U.S. war now, without the full support of the Security Council of the United Nations, would assail our own fundamental principles and inflict a serious wound on the United Nations just as it reaches its greatest potential as a force for conflect resolution.
    We urge you to continue to support enhanced inspections and disarmament unless the Security Council deems them fruitless and authorizes armed intervention.
    [There follow 24 column inches of small-font names. Then -]
    This ad was organized by the Massachusetts Chapter of Lawyers Alliance for World Security (Mass/LAWS), a tax-exempt organization founded in 1981 to advance the cause of world security, with immediate priority toward eliminating weapons of mass destruction....
    MASS/LAWS
    181 Harvey St
    Cambridge, MA 02140...
    Email...   L.Molnar@verizon.net

  3. Republicans resigning themselves to defeat on drilling plan for Alaska wildlife refuge, by David Firestone, NYT, A23.
    [followup]
    Senate rejects drilling for oil in Alaska refuge - Narrow vote turns on issue of damage to environment, instead of national security, by John Fialka, 3/20/2003 WSJ, A2.
    [& the Times version -]
    Drilling in Alaska, a priority for Bush, fails in the Senate - A hard-fought battle..., by David Firestone, 3/20/2003 NYT, A25.
    ...The vote, 52 to 48....

  4. Thailand's economy expanded 5.2% last year, by Jenny Paris, DJ Newswires via WSJ, A14.

  5. [& 1 UPsizing]
    Mitsubishi to expand its Illinois assembly plant, AP via NYT, C4.
    Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois and executives from the Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced a $200m expansion yesterday of an automobile assembly plant in Normal, Ill. Company executives said the expansion, helped by $22m in state incentives, would add 300 jobs and increase production capacity to 300,000 cars a year from 240,000.
    ["$22m in state incentives"?? Sounds like this is partially makework....]
    The project is separate from a study of a plan to further expand Mitsubishi's North American production capacity and create 800 more jobs. A decision on that is expected by June....

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