WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate finally will vote on a bill that would recognize an unborn child as a crime victim when he or she is injured or slain during the commission of a crime against a pregnant woman.

I'd like to see a fetus file a complaint. That would make my day. Other than that, this a shitty way to decide where life begins.

Unborn victims bill slated for Senate inaugural vote - (BP)

RSF says the Chinese government has shut down two blog hosting sites, for allowing bloggers to post articles critical of the government. At least 15,000 weblogs have been shut down as a result. [ed: Chinese political bloggers might like to investigate Invisiblog.com, an untraceable weblog publishing service]

vigilant.tv - China shuts down blogs

] CNSNews.com) - In a vote of 254-163, the House Thursday
] passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, a measure that
] would allow a defendant to be charged with two federal
] crimes when an unborn baby is injured or killed during an
] attack on the pregnant mother.

Sneaky way to decide on when life begins. Not good.

House Passes Unborn Victims of Violence Act -- 02/26/2004

Police and public health officials said they had received "a number of calls" so far from people who felt they might be affected by the recall of meat as well as from horrified members of the public.

mmm...Soylent Green.

Calgary Herald - canada.com network

The US House of Representatives just passed a law ("The Personal Responsibility in Food Consumption Act", but nicknamed the Cheeseburger law) that would protect companies that sell junk food (McDonalds, Burger King, and so on) from obesity lawsuits. A few of these lawsuits have been much in the news lately, using the much-derided argument that "the company made me eat it" through its marketing campaign and pricing policies. While judges have quickly thrown out the few such lawsuits that have come to them, the food companies and the beneficiaries of their campaign funds in the legislature rammed through the bill, supported by the White House. (It still has to pass the Senate, which is considered unlikely.)

Its odd that now that the smoking war is more or less settled, the fat police have picked up the torch. No one eats junk food because it is healthy. Fat food, cigarettes and drugs are all about a dopamine fix. The damage that occurs is largely the fault of the abuser.

Oligopoly Watch

WASHINGTON - March 10 - Last week, a television station purchased the names and addresses of more than 3,000 children, under the name of Ward Weaver, who has been charged with aggravated murder in the deaths of two Oregon City girls, Ashley Pond, 12 and Miranda Gaddis, 13. The TV news story points out the danger of allowing children’s personal information to be bought and sold.

TV Station Bought Personal Info of 3000 Kids in Name of Accused Child Killer

Gerrymandering, the practice of remapping political districts for partisan political gain, is becoming a serious problem. As described in Jeffrey Toobin’s excellent New Yorker article, The Great Election Grab, new computer software allows whatever party controls the state legislature to redraw districts so finely and accurately that of the 435 House seats, only about 30 are actually contested.

Gotta love "democracy" in action.

Gerrymandering: How Politicians Steal Votes and You Can Return Them (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)

"They are removing the church from religious practice, the skin from sadomasochism and the school from schoolchildren. And they may be pointing the way to the future of human interaction.

Each of the subjects of Ann Shin's smart, deadpan new documentary Almost Real are immersed in Internet-driven communities. Included are a monk who leads prayer groups on the Web, a student who works with online tutors, and whip-and-chain-crossed lovers who share abuse and affection via their computers."

Wired News: Living Life in Virtual Reality

"Imagine doing a Google search for a phone number, weather report or sports score. The results page would be filled with links to various sources of information. But what if someone typed in keywords and no results came back?

That's the scenario critics are painting of a new bill wending its way through Congress that would let certain companies own facts, and exact a fee to access them."

"The House Judiciary Committee approved the bill and the commerce committee is expected to review it on Thursday."

Wired News: Hands Off! That Fact Is Mine

] From a former professor:
]
] At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George
] Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him.
] In my class, he declared that "people are poor because
] they are lazy." He was opposed to labor unions, social
] security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public
] schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal
] Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission
] were unnecessary hindrances to "free market competition."
] To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was "socialism."
] Recently, President Bush's Federal Appeals Court Nominee,
] California's Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated
] the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that
] her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl
] Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain,
] Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying
] all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and
] economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate
] Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New
] Deal.

[ Yeah... as a Vanderbilt grad, i've had my own exposure to the "people are poor because they don't want to work hard". And as much as i try to be fair to people, it's usually the most intellectually lazy sons and daughters of priviledge that have this opinion. It's a bullshit argument from people who lack any perspective on what a normal human being is like. Bush is a rich kid. He's never been poor, and he's never been close enough to it to have a clue what it means. I don't think he's interested in discovering what it really means to be poor, or what it takes to help people. His policies are transparent, like every so-called fiscal conservative i've ever met. I'm convinced most fiscal conservatives are like most fundamentalist christians... going through the motions, preaching self righteously about beliefs and ideals they don't actually live by, when their true motivating factors are power and greed. You want to support a candidate because he'll hook you up with more money, and fuck the rest? Fine, say so outright. But i'm pretty sick of hearing the "i'm fiscally conservative, but socially liberal" line. Bullshit. 9 times out of 10 you're greedy and want more money... quit sugar coating it. Bush is bad for the average american. Period. -k]

The Bush Social Policy