Which Is The Bigger Risk To Health Care Information: The Government Or Microsoft

Microsoft to Buy Health Information Search Engine

I trust Gates and Ballmer about as much as I trust a cobra coiled to strike. Microsoft, under Gates' and Ballmer's leadership, has had a propensity for eating everything in its path to becoming one of the largest and most avaricious corporate entities in the world. Microsoft has a reputation for not dealing with its "partners," competitors or consumers with anything less than a venomous disregard for anyone other than Microsoft. The number of law suits against Microsoft seems uncountable. I cannot recall the last time I read a news report that did not have something in it about Microsoft being embroiled in yet another lawsuit or controversy.

Then, again, Microsoft has a reputation for putting out buggy software that they release and then patch... and patch... and patch... and patch. The security risks that have been inherent in Microsoft operating managers (I won't call anything Windows an operating system), the Office Suite of applications, and the attitude of abusing others at Microsoft presents a pattern of information put at risk through the inherent problems at/with Microsoft. So, when we hear that Microsoft is venturing forth to claim dominance in the world of health care information management, we should all be running for cover and asking a lot of questions about where, how, when and what Microsoft is going to be doing.

In all fairness, I cannot say that Microsoft will be any worse at managing health care information than any other corporation, or even the federal and state governments that continually have data breaches and IT security issues. But in this day and age of reliance on technology over human intellect and hands-on action, it gives us cause to pause and consider the ramifications, consequences and inherent problems.

Microsoft’s drive into the health care market is just getting under way, but the company signaled yesterday that one important ingredient in its plan will be a specialized search engine tailored to deliver useful medical information to consumers.

Microsoft is buying Medstory Inc., a small start-up in Foster City, Calif. Its search software applies artificial intelligence techniques to medical and health information in medical journals, government documents and on the Internet.

The terms of the Medstory acquisition were not disclosed.

The Medstory purchase, said Peter Neupert, vice president for health strategy at Microsoft, was a first step in a broader company strategy to assemble technologies that would “improve the consumer experience in health care.”

“Clearly,” Mr. Neupert said, “search is a critical part of that better end-to-end experience for consumers.”

The acquisition follows Microsoft’s purchase last year of Azyxxi, a clinical health care software system that retrieves and quickly displays patient information from many sources, including scanned documents, X-rays, M.R.I. scans and ultrasound images.

The Microsoft move comes at a time of increased investment in online health ventures, rising traffic at consumer health sites on the Web and profits at the most popular sites. Last month, a venture firm headed by Stephen M. Case, the former chief executive of America Online, introduced an ambitious new consumer health site, RevolutionHealth.com.

WebMD, the leading health-related site, last week reported strong quarterly profit of $8.9 million on revenue of $80.6 million, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations. The stock price of WebMD — an Internet pioneer in health information that struggled for years — has surged in the last year.

In health-related search, Healthline Networks, a start-up in San Francisco, reports rising traffic on its Web site and a growing string of deals to provide the search engine for sites of other companies, including Merck and PacifiCare. At Google, Adam Bosworth, a vice president for engineering, is leading the effort to develop a health-information offering.

These companies and others are seeking ways to build businesses on the Internet that profit from what is called consumer-driven health care. The notion is that shifts in demographics, economics, technology and policy will inevitably mean that individuals will want to, and be forced to, make more health care decisions themselves.

Aging baby boomers, accustomed to personal choice and to technology, tend to want a say in their treatment decisions. And the Internet is already an important source of health information. Eight million people in the United States go online for health information every day, according to a study last year by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit group.

Financially, the pressure by Medicare and private health insurers to hold down costs and shift more of the burden to individuals, analysts say, will force people to make more health care spending choices.

In Medstory, Microsoft is acquiring “some of the best deep technology” in the emerging field of medical search, said Esther Dyson, an industry analyst who is also an investor in Medstory. That technology, Ms. Dyson said, is “not so much a search engine, but an ontology engine,” with a capability to find and identify concepts in health and not just sort through words and Web links.

The longer-range goal, Mr. Neupert said, is to link personal information like age, sex, drug regimens, family history and even genetic markers to search. The ideal is that search results are tailored individually, identifying treatments, drug interactions and medical journal articles of interest.

Evidence That Our Immigration Policy Has Been Munged For A Long Time

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply

One of the contentions held by many who are greatly concerned about our immigration issues is that many immigrants--legally here or not--have not assimilated into our society with an eye toward "being American." My Uncle Harry, who is a second-generation American with Croation-Serbian ancestry, rails against those immigrants that come to America and do not learn English or adapt to American cultural norms. He points out that everyone that came to America in his generation worked hard at learning English, supported the nation by paying a fair share of taxes, and acculturated to American norms as a demonstration of their commitment to their new "adopted country."

While Harry, and others, have a valid point about a lot of immigrants to our nation since the early 1960s, especially those coming from Latin-American origins who come here and refuse to become citizens because they desire to keep their native identity. It is somewhat disingenuous to come to a nation for reasons of seeking prosperity and economic opportunity and then entrench one's self in an anti-American view of the world. I have encountered many Domincans, Cubanos, Ecuadorans, Guatemalans, Haitians, Venezuelans and Panamanians in the US who hold these views. But I have also met at least an equal number of immigrants from the same places of origin that embrace America as their new home with a love for the US as their new nation who encounter one obstacle after another in their efforts toward embracing their new home.

One of those obstacles is the ability to enroll and participate in community-based classes in English. The tradition of offering English classes to immigrant populations began with groups like Hull House run by cultural heroes like Jane Addams. The notion of giving newcomers a helping hand up and out of the poverty that often accompanies the process of immigrating to the US began in the late 1800s when people like Addams recognized the imbalance and injustice that confronted these immigrants in terms of finding work for a fair wage, expression of culture, assimilation into a new culture without losing one's own ethnic identity, exploitation by big business and those seeking a way around the ethical standards of good business.

Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our stances and understanding of the entire process of immigration--legally sought or not. Perhaps we need to re-evaluate our own efforts at welcoming those that do come to our nation seeking justice in both political and economic senses of the word. Perhaps we need to remember our own historical roots and the obstacles our own families faced to embrace our country, and the reason those obstacles existed. Perhaps we need to remember that without the classes in English and the helping hand offered by groups like Hull House and the social workers that brought about changes in New York, and the public health campaigns brought about as a result, none of us would be eating clean food, drinking healthy water, immunized against major diseases, less exposed to tuberculosis and cholera, and not enjoying one of the better standards of living in the world.

Demand for English Lessons Outstrips Supply

Two weeks after she moved here from her native Brazil, Maria de Oliveira signed up for free English classes at a squat storefront in this working-class suburb, figuring that with an associate’s degree and three years as an administrative assistant, she could find a good job in America so long as she spoke the language.

The woman who runs the classes at Mount Vernon’s Workforce and Career Preparation Center added Ms. Oliveira’s name to her pink binder, at the bottom of a 90-person waiting list that stretched across seven pages. That was in October. Ms. Oliveira, 26, finally got a seat in the class on Jan. 16.

“I keep wondering how much more I’d know if I hadn’t had to wait so long,” she said in Portuguese.

As immigrants increasingly settle away from large urban centers — New York’s suburbs have had a net gain of 225,000 since 2000, compared with 44,000 in the city — many are waiting months or even years to get into government-financed English classes, which are often overcrowded and lack textbooks.

A survey last year by the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials found that in 12 states, 60 percent of the free English programs had waiting lists, ranging from a few months in Colorado and Nevada to as long as two years in New Mexico and Massachusetts, where the statewide list has about 16,000 names.

The United States Department of Education counted 1.2 million adults enrolled in public English programs in 2005 — about 1 in 10 of the 10.3 million foreign-born residents 16 and older who speak English “less than very well,” or not at all, according to census figures from the same year. Federal money for such classes is matched at varying rates from state to state, leaving an uneven patchwork of programs that advocates say nowhere meets the need.

“We have a lot of folks who need these services and who go unserved,” said Claudia Merkel-Keller of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, noting that her state has waiting lists in every county, “from beginner all the way through proficient level.” New Jersey, like New York and many other states, does not keep statewide figures on how many people are on waiting lists.

Luis Sanchez, 47, a Peruvian truck driver for a beer distributor in New Brunswick, has been in this country 10 years — and on the waiting list for English classes in Perth Amboy five months. “You live from day to day, waiting to get the call that you can come to class,” Mr. Sanchez said in Spanish, explaining that he knew a little English but wanted to improve his writing skills so he could apply for better jobs. “I keep on waiting.”

Mr. Sanchez is unlikely to get the call soon: Perth Amboy’s Adult Education Center recently discovered that it was operating in the red and canceled 9 of its 11 evening classes in English as a second language, including all at beginner and intermediate levels. In Orange County, N.Y., where the immigrant population doubled in the past 16 years, the Board of Cooperative Education Services’ adult education program has stopped advertising for fear its already overflowing beginner classes will be overwhelmed.

In Framingham, Mass., 20 miles west of Boston, hundreds of people used to spend the night in line to register for English as a second language, so the program now selects students by picking handwritten names from a big plastic box.

“With the lottery, everyone has the same chance,” said Christine Taylor Tibor, director of Framingham’s Adult E.S.L. Plus program. “Unfortunately, you might have to enter the lottery several times before you get in.”

Census figures show that in the United States there were 32.6 million foreign-born residents 18 years or older in 2005, up about 18 percent from the 27.5 million counted in 2000 (and nearly twice the 17.1 million in 1990). Federal spending on adult education, about $580 million last year, has increased 23 percent since 2000 and more than tripled since 1990; some 45 percent of the money is devoted to English.

Even Conservative "Red State" Indiana Hates NCLB

Indiana House: No Child Left Behind Goes Too Far

As a result of subscribing to about twenty different news outlets via e-mail, I get all kinds of reports. It just so happens that this one demonstrates the contempt with which even conservative "red states" like Indiana has for the NCLB.

The House voted 56-40 today to pass a bill barring the federal No Child Left Behind educational standards from being used as a basis for accrediting schools or hiring teachers in Indiana.

Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, told her colleagues that two schools in her district were deemed failing schools because of issues involving special education students, even though the schools had otherwise met educational standards.

Rep. Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, said that while many people share concerns that the federal act had gone too far, House Bill 1389 might also go too far. He said the state Department of Education was concerned that the bill could cost the state millions in federal education funds.

Welch, though, argued that school accreditation and hiring practices should be a decision for the Indiana legislature, not the federal government. And she said it had not been proven to her that the bill would cost Indiana federal funds. If it did, she promised her colleagues, she would kill the bill.
The issue now moves to the Senate for debate.

In addition, CATO Institute has been reviewing the NCLB dilemmas and have concluded that NCLB is less than workable, and probably not worth renewing even if it is improved.


Commission Reviews No Child Left Behind

"A private bipartisan commission yesterday said Congress, as it renews the No Child Left Behind law, should move toward national education standards and tests that states could voluntarily adopt," according to The Washington Times. The commission "suggests that a national panel be created to come up with national standards and tests for reading, math and science. The proposal recommends the standards be voluntary for states. States could opt instead to alter their existing standards or do nothing, but the government would examine these states, compare their standards with the national ones, and make the results public, the report says."

Reacting to the commission's findings, Neal McCluskey, policy analyst at the Center for Educational Freedom and author of the forthcoming book Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education, says, "No top-down standards and accountability scheme can withstand the dumbing-down forces of politics. The teachers unions, administrators associations, and numerous other interest groups whose members would be held to high standards will exercise their outsized political power to ensure that standards stay low, while parents and students %u2013 who have no rich, full-time lobbyists will lose yet again.

"The only way to create real accountability is to give parents the ability to take their children, and the money attached to them, out of schools that are failing them and put them into schools that work, including private schools. Only then will schools and districts have to improve their product rather than their ability to manipulate government if they want to stay in business. Unfortunately, the commission chose to ignore real parental choice and to stick with top-down methods."

Do You Really Trust DHS, TSA & The Bush Administration?

Lawmaker Probes TSA Website Gaffe

The Bush administration has been asking us to trust them because they know what they are doing. Yet, time after time, we see flawed intelligence reports, failed data security measures, lack of due process, and an overall disregard for our privacy and our civil liberties.

Here, once again, we see that these folks cannot really protect us because they do not understand the depth of measures it takes to assure that all that is necessary to be done is being done. These slip-shod efforts at collecting data and causing breaches that leave everyone of us exposed to financial and privacy risks are fast becoming the typical Bush administration approach.

So, can you really trust the president when he says, "Trust me..."????

A powerful congressional committee is investigating a Transportation Security Administration website that promised to help air travelers caught up in terrorist watch lists, after a Wired News blog revealed that the site was potentially exposing user's personal information to eavesdroppers.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform asked the TSA on Friday to turn over documents related to the Traveler Verification Identity Program website to determine how the site was designed, and whether government security and privacy regulations were violated.

That site was intended to allow domestic airline travelers whose names are similar to entries on the government's No Fly List and other watchlists to submit a complaint online, instead of calling TSA and requesting a form be sent to them by mail.

However, the site was full of misspellings and nonsensical directions, and asked travelers to provide sensitive personal information on an unencrypted page. Travelers in an airport using a wireless connection would be at risk of having their personal information stolen and used to commit identity fraud.

Additionally, the site, which was entered from a link on the TSA's main website, was hosted on the website of Desyne.com, a web design company that has a P.O. Box as its contact information -- adding to the impression it was not a legitimate government site.

Committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) told TSA in his letter (.pdf) that the "overall appearance of the site was so poor that web experts first assumed it was a so-called 'phishing' site, a site internet hackers had created to look like a TSA website page."

Waxman also asked the agency to turn over by March 9 documents regarding Desyne, communications about security with that company, and the period of time that the site was running without encryption.

Despite appearances, TSA spokesman Christopher White assured Wired News last week that the site was not part of a phishing attack.

"We take IT responsibilities seriously. There was never a vulnerability; just a small glitch," White said.

The Traveler Verification Identity Program site was taken down last Friday. It was replaced this week by a completely different webpage offering the same service, but now called the Travel Redress Inquiry Program, or TRIP.

Like its flawed predecessor, the TRIP site is aimed at helping innocent travelers prone to being snared by government watchlists, which have swelled to more than 100,000 names post 9/11. The watchlists' size and lack of details have led to repeated hassles for people with common names, including senators, government employees with security clearances, and at least one nun.

Homeland Security officials hope the new system will reduce travel delays for those travelers by creating a "white list" of cleared individuals that will accompany the watchlists distributed to airlines and border security employees.

The new site eliminates all 15 problems pointed out by the Wired News blog 27bStroke6 last week, following a tip from Christopher Soghoian, a security researcher under investigation by the TSA for creating a website that makes it easy to print fake boarding passes that fool screeners.

The new TRIP site, however, is not without privacy issues. It places a tracking cookie labeled "Forsee Loyalty" in browsers of people using an Apple computer. Government websites are not supposed to use such cookies unless there is a good reason, and the head of the agency signs off on their use.

27bStroke6 also discovered that the main TSA website was setting two cookies, including one from a web marketing company with an expiration date 10 years in the future. The TSA quietly replaced those cookies with a new batch that expires as soon as the browser is closed.

More Bad News On Education

A few posts ago I wrote about the problems with the NCLB and its requirement to use standardized testing as the primary--and often the only--measure of success in our schools. While standardized tests do have a place in education, they are not so reliable a measure that we can afford to rely upon them as the primary measurement of school and/or student success, and certainly not as the sole measurement of either.

One of the problems with the NCLB approach is that far too many schools are emphasizing these standardized tests that many teachers are teaching specifically to these tests. That is an erroneous educational approach that produces artificially high test scores because students learn rote memorization approaches toward the specific goal of passing these tests rather than internalizing principles of problem solving and reasoning that allows them to use these skills and base knowledges to
ate, and from various sections of the education profession, come together to establish standards that meet the needs of our students, our communities, our states and our nation. Dictating standards from a small group of offices from Washington, DC is not a reasoned approach that our forefathers and founders would likely to find reasonable or prudent.

So far, our educational approach under Washington's leadership is a failure. NCLB is effective in raising test scores, but is a failure from the point of view of teaching our students what is essential beyond passing the test, and is a failure from the point of view of sound educational policy in a free society.

Additionally, our approach to testing leaves a lot to be desired. I have been present during the administration of ISTEP, MCAS and other "achievement" testing. One of the first things that is errant with our testing approach is the environment in which we administer these tests. There is an awful lot of informality to the testing environment. In one school in Massachusetts, I saw students bringing cell phones, food, sodas, makeup, drawing materials and other things into the testing rooms. Among some of the Spanish-speaking students there was a lot of talking back and forth in Spanish, and any disciplinary approach effected by the proctor to cease the talking was countermanded and undermined by the two vice principals who did not want to be bothered with so many disciplinary issues.

In fact, the pressure to pass tests is so high we have an epidemic of cheating and unethical efforts to pass the test no matter what the consequences. In my own life I have learned that a test is only as good as its original design, which incorporates the biases of the test designer, and only as good as its inherent intent. Testing is more useful and productive as a diagnostic tool to assess student progress so that effective direction of the curriculum can be implemented. Using a test for anything other than an assessment diagnostic is a ludicrous approach to education. Additionally, the testing is not usually designed to consider the curriculum taught in the local schools. Some schools place academic emphasis on certain disciplines rather than others. For instance, the academic approach and curriculum employed at a vocational-technical school is certainly different than that employed by a school that emphasizes college preparation. Even in a single school, especially at the secondary level, there are often different tracks for students. A business track student is not going to have the same curriculum as a college prep track. A school that emphasizes science, as do many magnet schools, is not going to achieve the same testing results for verbal sections of a standardized test as would a school that emphasizes the humanities. Certainly many of our charter schools and magnet schools that focus the curriculum around specific disciplines and studies, can't be expected to take a test battery that is not focused on their specific approach.

While I am not totally opposed to standardized testing, I am opposed to the way it is being implemented, especially as a tool to cut funding and segregate children and teens into those that can and those that cannot, which is nothing less than dividing them into those that have and those that have not.


Test Scores at Odds With Rising High School Grades

High school seniors are performing worse overall on some national tests than they did in the previous decade, even though they are receiving significantly higher grades and taking what seem to be more rigorous courses, according to government data released yesterday.

The mismatch between stronger transcripts and weak test scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the nation's report card, resonated in the Washington area and elsewhere. Some seized upon the findings as evidence of grade inflation and the dumbing-down of courses. The findings also prompted renewed calls for tough national standards and the expansion of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

"We have our work cut out for us," Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said in a statement. "If, in fact, our high school students are taking more challenging courses and earning higher grades, we should be seeing greater gains in test scores."

About 35 percent of 12th-graders tested in 2005 scored proficient or better in reading -- the lowest percentage since the test was launched in 1992, the new data showed. And less than a quarter of seniors scored at least proficient on a new version of the math test; officials called those results disappointing but said they could not be compared to past scores. In addition, a previous report found that 18 percent of seniors in 2005 scored at least proficient in science, down from 21 percent in 1996.

At the same time, the average high school grade-point average rose from 2.68 in 1990 (about a B-minus) to 2.98 in 2005 (about a B), according to a study of transcripts from graduating seniors. The study also found that the percentage of graduating seniors who completed a standard or mid-level course of study rose from 35 to 58 percent in that time; meanwhile, the percentage who took the highest-level curriculum doubled, to 10 percent.

"The core problem is that course titles don't really signal what is taught in the course and grades don't signal what a kid has learned," said Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, a D.C.-based nonprofit group that supports No Child Left Behind. She added hyperbolically, "What we're going to end up with is the high school valedictorian who can't write three paragraphs."

Some experts say these educational mirages, which obscure low student achievement with inflated grades and tough-sounding class titles, disproportionately harm poor and minority students.

A Bad Report Card

The news from American high schools is not good. The most recent test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as the national report card, finds that American 12th graders are actually performing worse in reading than 12th graders did in 1992, when a comparable exam was given. In addition, 12th-grade performance in reading has been distressingly flat since 2002, even though the states were supposed to be improving the quality of teaching to comply with the No Child Left Behind education act.

The new scores, based on tests given in 2005, show that only about 35 percent of 12th graders are proficient in reading. Simply put, this means that a majority of the country’s 12th graders have trouble understanding what they read fully enough to make inferences, draw conclusions and see connections between what they read and their own experiences. The math scores were even worse, with only 23 percent of 12th graders performing at or above the proficient level.

Marginal literacy and minimal math skills might have been adequate for the industrial age. But these scores mean that many of today’s high school seniors will be locked out of the information economy, where a college degree is the basic price of admission and the ability to read, write and reason is essential for success.

Congress, which is preparing to reauthorize both the No Child Left Behind Act and the Higher Education Act, needs to take a hard look at these scores and move forcefully to demand far-reaching structural changes.

It should start by getting the board that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress testing to create rigorous national standards for crucial subjects. It should also require the states to raise the bar for teacher qualifications and end the odious practice of supplying the neediest students with the least qualified teachers. This process would also include requiring teachers colleges, which get federal aid, to turn out higher quality graduates and to supply many more teachers in vital areas like math and science. If there’s any doubt about why these reforms are needed, all Congress has to do is read the latest national report card.

Fairfax Schools Could Lose Millions for Defying 'No Child'

The U.S. Education Department threatened yesterday to withhold more than $17 million from Fairfax County schools if the system continues to defy a federal mandate to give reading tests to thousands of immigrant children.

Other Virginia school systems would also be in jeopardy if they refuse to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act, and the state could lose $2 million in administrative funds.

The possible loss of millions of dollars raises the stakes in a months-long standoff between the federal government and a growing group of Virginia educators over the best way to test immigrant students learning English.

The dispute started last summer when federal officials rejected the test Virginia uses to measure the progress of many immigrant children. The exam shows how well students learn to read, write and speak English. But it doesn't, as the No Child law requires, test students on their understanding of grade-level reading material, which can include comprehension and such concepts as similes and metaphors.

The Fairfax County School Board passed a resolution last month to defy the mandate, saying it is unfair to give such an exam to students just beginning to grasp the nuances of English. School boards in Arlington County, the city of Fairfax and Harrisonburg passed similar measures. The rebellion appears to be intensifying, with Loudoun County school officials also considering such a step.

"The resolutions say we will do the fair and right thing," said Allen C. Griffith, vice chairman of the Fairfax City School Board. But he said the threat of sanctions means that school systems will have to make difficult decisions.

The Education Department has "got the hammer, and they've got the big stick," Griffith said. "I suppose they can force these districts to bend to their will. . . . But how have the children gained anything?"

Chad Colby, an Education Department spokesman, said that under the No Child law, systems must show that all students, including children learning English, are making academic progress. He said the federal government needs to know that the funds it distributes are being used wisely.

"If you don't assess students, you don't know which students need the most help and how to direct those resources," Colby said. "Prior to No Child Left Behind, we spent . . . and there was no accountability."

The rift in Virginia mirrors a nationwide debate over how to ensure that English-language learners, a fast-growing population in schools, are making progress. When the Education Department rejected Virginia's test, it also found problems with the way 17 other states test English-language learners. Testing programs in Maryland and the District have withstood federal scrutiny.

Federal education officials note that students who are in the country less than a year are exempt from the reading test. Other language learners are allowed accommodations, such as more time or use of a bilingual dictionary.

Virginia educators, who say it takes far longer than a year for most children to comprehend grade-level reading work, had asked for permission to use the old test this spring and develop an alternative for next year. That request was denied.

Of the approximately 10,200 Virginia students affected by the testing dispute, about 4,000 are in Fairfax. Thousands more immigrant students who have made enough progress take the same reading tests as their native-speaking peers.

But in a meeting yesterday with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Billy K. Cannaday Jr., U.S. officials indicated that there probably will be a third alternative for Virginia schools. Federal officials said they expect to approve a state request to use a portfolio of a student's work over time instead of a test.

Fairfax County School Board member Stuart D. Gibson (Hunter Mill) yesterday said he does not think there is enough time to train teachers on the portfolio assessment and to collect assignments that show a student has mastered the material before the spring testing season.

Affirmation: Student Attitudes & World Views Suck

Study: College Students More Narcissistic - Study Asserts Narcissists Lack Emotional Warmth

Yesterday I wrote about how petty the pretty people can be, citing the sorority at DePauw University and my experiences at St. Louis University that illustrates the elitism, self-interest and lack of compassion that seems to be permeating our society, especially among those lucky enough to go to college or graduate school. Now comes an entire study that cites an epidemic of narcissism.

Today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than their predecessors, according to a comprehensive new study by five psychologists who worry that the trend could be harmful to personal relationships and American society.

"We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back," said the study's lead author, Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University. "Kids are self-centered enough already."

Twenge and her colleagues, in findings to be presented at a workshop Tuesday in San Diego on the generation gap, examined the responses of 16,475 college students nationwide who completed an evaluation called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory between 1982 and 2006.

The standardized inventory, known as the NPI, asks for responses to such statements as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to."

The researchers describe their study as the largest ever of its type and say students' NPI scores have risen steadily since the current test was introduced in 1982. By 2006, they said, two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, 30 percent more than in 1982.

Narcissism can have benefits, said study co-author W. Keith Campbell of the University of Georgia, suggesting it could be useful in meeting new people "or auditioning on 'American Idol."'

"Unfortunately, narcissism can also have very negative consequences for society, including the breakdown of close relationships with others," he said.

The study asserts that narcissists "are more likely to have romantic relationships that are short-lived, at risk for infidelity, lack emotional warmth, and to exhibit game-playing, dishonesty, and over-controlling and violent behaviors."

Twenge, the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before," said narcissists tend to lack empathy, react aggressively to criticism and favor self-promotion over helping others.

The researchers traced the phenomenon back to what they called the "self-esteem movement" that emerged in the 1980s, asserting that the effort to build self-confidence had gone too far.

As an example, Twenge cited a song commonly sung to the tune of "Frere Jacques" in preschool: "I am special, I am special. Look at me."

"Current technology fuels the increase in narcissism," Twenge said. "By its very name, MySpace encourages attention-seeking, as does YouTube."

Some analysts have commended today's young people for increased commitment to volunteer work. But Twenge viewed even this phenomenon skeptically, noting that many high schools require community service and many youths feel pressure to list such endeavors on college applications.

Campbell said the narcissism upsurge seemed so pronounced that he was unsure if there were obvious remedies.

"Permissiveness seems to be a component," he said. "A potential antidote would be more authoritative parenting. Less indulgence might be called for."

The new report follows a study released by UCLA last month which found that nearly three-quarters of the freshmen it surveyed thought it was important to be "very well-off financially." That compared with 62.5 percent who said the same in 1980 and 42 percent in 1966.

Yet students, while acknowledging some legitimacy to such findings, don't necessarily accept negative generalizations about their generation.

Attack Of The Pretty Petty People

Sorority Evictions Raise Issue of Looks and Bias

We are fast becoming a nation that thrives on its history and penchants for prejudices and judgments of others. We not only have a legacy of institutional prejudices implemented by our immigration and segregation policies and practices, we are raising our children to recognize that influence peddling and elitism is the bottom line for success. Of course, this is the wrong lesson to teach our future generations because our own history proves that it doesn't work.

This approach to life is the epitome of the conservative, GOP and Christian Right agendas. The entire idea creates an "us versus them" mentality and places the competition for wealth, power and influence over caring for others, having compassion for all of humanity, and offering others a way out of their plight. The Christian Right is entrenched in the idea that only they have the answers to life's problems and only their understanding of our relationship with our creator is valid. But there is an old joke that has St. Peter walking a new arrival to heaven through a neighborhood where he cautions that arrival to be quiet... because a certain segment of our society believes that they are in heaven alone.

But we are ignoring the lessons of Christ. Whether anyone worships Jesus Christ or not, there are some valid lessons from the gospels that are universal and true in every circumstance. Faith, hope and charity are the spiritual essentials of life. Compassion for others, even the least among us, is an essential component of finding peace and fulfillment in our lives. Hording wealth and influence peddling are not the keys to greatness or happiness. Worshiping the almighty bottom line dollar is not an effective strategy for living a valued life.

But we see our prejudices and elitism emerging in our colleges more often than not. When I attended St. Louis University in my attempt to attain a MSW/MPH degree, I ran into law school, med school, business school and other students that were chasing the almighty buck and elitism as if they were what was offered on the altar of life. I never finished that degree program, partly because I ran out of money, but mostly because I did not have the will to face the inhumane attitudes and behaviors being bred at that university... especially since it claimed a Catholic identity and denied Christ in almost everything it did.

So when I read this article about sorority sisters being evicted from the sorority house and bounced out of the "club," I wondered whether those of us with any sense of spirituality and love for all of God's creation really had any claim to the love that we claim as a birthright. I was also disgusted that such an attitude could exist within any of our educational institutions, meaning the school and the sorority. The truth of the matter is that this sorority should be banned from all campuses until such time as it changes its prejudicial ways... or we should allow it to exist, clearly labeled as a clear-cut example of what we do not want our progeny to become.

When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.”

Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication to recruitment. They judged 23 of the women insufficiently committed and later told them to vacate the sorority house.

The 23 members included every woman who was overweight. They also included the only black, Korean and Vietnamese members. The dozen students allowed to stay were slender and popular with fraternity men — conventionally pretty women the sorority hoped could attract new recruits. Six of the 12 were so infuriated they quit.

“Virtually everyone who didn’t fit a certain sorority member archetype was told to leave,” said Kate Holloway, a senior who withdrew from the chapter during its reorganization.

“I sensed the disrespect with which this was to be carried out and got fed up,” Ms. Holloway added. “I didn’t have room in my life for these women to come in and tell my sisters of three years that they weren’t needed.”

Ms. Holloway is not the only angry one. The reorganization has left a messy aftermath of recrimination and tears on this rural campus of 2,400 students, 50 miles southwest of Indianapolis.

The mass eviction battered the self-esteem of many of the former sorority members, and some withdrew from classes in depression. There have been student protests, outraged letters from alumni and parents, and a faculty petition calling the sorority’s action unethical.

DePauw’s president, Robert G. Bottoms, issued a two-page letter of reprimand to the sorority. In an interview in his office, Dr. Bottoms said he had been stunned by the sorority’s insensitivity.

“I had no hint they were going to disrupt the chapter with a membership reduction of this proportion in the middle of the year,” he said. “It’s been very upsetting.”

The president of Delta Zeta, which has its headquarters in Oxford, Ohio, and its other national officers declined to be interviewed. Responding by e-mail to questions, Cynthia Winslow Menges, the executive director, said the sorority had not evicted the 23 women, even though the national officers sent those women form letters that said: “The membership review team has recommended you for alumna status. Chapter members receiving alumnae status should plan to relocate from the chapter house no later than Jan. 29, 2007.”

Ms. Menges asserted that the women themselves had, in effect, made their own decisions to leave by demonstrating a lack of commitment to meet recruitment goals. The sorority paid each woman who left $300 to cover the difference between sorority and campus housing.

The sorority “is saddened that the isolated incident at DePauw has been mischaracterized,” Ms. Menges wrote. Asked for clarification, the sorority’s public relations representative e-mailed a statement saying its actions were aimed at the “enrichment of student life at DePauw.”

This is not the first time that the DePauw chapter of Delta Zeta has stirred controversy. In 1982, it attracted national attention when a black student was not allowed to join, provoking accusations of racial discrimination.

Earlier this month, an Alabama lawyer and several other DePauw alumni who graduated in 1970 described in a letter to The DePauw, the student newspaper, how Delta Zeta’s national leadership had tried unsuccessfully to block a young woman with a black father and a white mother from joining its DePauw chapter in 1967.

Despite those incidents, the chapter appears to have been home to a diverse community over the years, partly because it has attracted brainy women, including many science and math majors, as well as talented disabled women, without focusing as exclusively as some sororities on potential recruits’ sex appeal, former sorority members said.

“I had a sister I could go to a bar with if I had boy problems,” said Erin Swisshelm, a junior biochemistry major who withdrew from the sorority in October. “I had a sister I could talk about religion with. I had a sister I could be nerdy about science with. That’s why I liked Delta Zeta, because I had all these amazing women around me.”

But over the years DePauw students had attached a negative stereotype to the chapter, as evidenced by the survey that Pam Propsom, a psychology professor, conducts each year in her class. That image had hurt recruitment, and the national officers had repeatedly warned the chapter that unless its membership increased, the chapter could close.

At the start of the fall term the national office was especially determined to raise recruitment because 2009 is the 100th anniversary of the DePauw chapter’s founding. In September, Ms. Menges and Kathi Heatherly, a national vice president of the sorority, visited the chapter to announce a reorganization plan they said would include an interview with each woman about her commitment. The women were urged to look their best for the interviews.

The tone left four women so unsettled that they withdrew from the chapter almost immediately.

Some Follow Up On A Couple Of Posts: Data Breaches & Iran's Misbehaviors

Massachusetts Bill Wants Stores To Pay More In Data Breaches

Being a Massachusetts native, I am proud to say, despite the dysfunction of the Massachusetts General Court and the biases that some judges seated on the Massachusetts bench seem to have, the laws in Massachusetts are far more protective of consumer rights, tenant rights and civil liberties. In fact, MGL 93A allows a consumer to seek triple damages from a retailer (or any commercial entity) found guilty of violating a consumer's rights. The retail industry is also required to provide vigilant updating of their UPC/SKU codes and prices or face a $500 fine for each item that rings up with the wrong price (usually one that benefits the retailer) than what is advertised or marked on the counter where the item is stocked. That last little law is why most retailers, especially the grocery stores, offer the customer the item free if an over price rings up at the register, and the lesser price if a lower price rings up. Even in terms of tenant-landlord laws, there are a lot of protections for tenants, even if the judges do not often allow tenants such rights if they do not have a lawyer present.

So, after writing a worrisome post about data breaches and IT security issues, I stumbled upon this report:

Businesses would have to reimburse banks for costs stemming from data security breaches, under a Massachusetts bill that could be mimicked by other states and in Congress.

In what appears to be the first stab at such an approach, the proposal would require any "commercial entity" that handles personal financial data to foot the bill for various banking costs caused by hacks or other intrusions into their systems. The bill, which does not yet have a public hearing date set, is being put forward by Boston-based Rep. Michael Costello, a Democrat in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

The costs would include any fees associated with canceling or reissuing credit cards, opening and closing bank accounts, and restoring customers' account balances after fraudulent transactions. The bill defines "commercial entity" as including everything from corporations to governmental agencies to associations, whether for-profit or not-for-profit.

The bill's backers say their goal is to urge any business or organization that handles sensitive personal information--whether they be retailer TJ Maxx, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or the American Red Cross--to place more stringent security controls on their systems.

"Anything that places an incentive on commercial entities to keep that information as secure as possible is a good thing," said Adam Martignetti, Costello's chief of staff. "If that incentive happens to be financial, which it is in the case of our legislation, then perhaps the commercial entities will follow through and will take extra precautionary measures to make sure the information is not lost."

After stumbling upon this little gem, I also stumbled upon a report, thanks to a fellow blogger (Winter Patriot), that outlines that much of the intelligence offered by the US authorities on the nuclear program in Iran. Given our previous experience with intelligence run afoul of reality in regard to weapons of mass destruction before our invasion of Iraq, we have to ask if we are being fed another line of bovine fecal material from the Bush gang of fascist thugs in pursuit of yet another application of the Bush Doctrine. Add to this the fact that NONE of the allegations about the higher levels of Iranian government officials being involved in supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons has any real evidence demonstrating Iran's direct involvement or collusion (c.f. Jon Stewart's "Mess O' Potamia: Iran aired on 02-25-07) and that the Bush administration, including President Bush himself, is busy spinning "hints" that they actually know something. Unfortunately, in order to get such reports, we have to seek it from the foreign press because the MSM in our nation is a bit slow on the uptake.

Iran Intelligence 'Incorrect'

Most US intelligence on Iran shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency has proved to be inaccurate and failed to lead to discoveries of a smoking gun inside the Islamic Republic, The Los Angeles Times reported on its website on Saturday.

Citing unnamed diplomats working in Vienna, the newspaper said the CIA and other Western intelligence services have been providing sensitive information to the IAEA since 2002.

But none of the tips about Iran's suspected secret weapons sites provided clear evidence that the Islamic Republic is developing a nuclear arms arsenal, the report said.

"Since 2002, pretty much all the intelligence that's come to us has proved to be wrong," the paper quotes a senior IAEA diplomat as saying.

Another official described the agency's intelligence stream as "very cold now" because "so little panned out," The Times reported.

US officials privately acknowledge that much of their evidence on Iran's nuclear programs remains ambiguous, fragmented and difficult to prove, the report said.

The IAEA has its own concerns about Iran.

In November 2005, UN inspectors discovered a 15-page document in Tehran that showed how to form highly enriched uranium into the configuration needed for the core of a nuclear bomb, The Times said.

Iran said the paper came from Pakistan, but has rebuffed IAEA requests to let inspectors take or copy it for further analysis.

However, diplomats working for the IAEA were less convinced in 2005 by documents recovered by US intelligence from a laptop computer apparently stolen from Iran, the paper said.

The Revolving Million-Dollar Door Open For Congress Critters & The Powerful

Ex-Lawmakers Find Work With Lobbyists

I have to get elected to congress. I do not have to do anything once in office. I won't have to watch how I spend my expense accounts and allowances. I will be able to take advantage of some of the best perks available to government employees, especially if I manage to get elected for 2 or more terms. My unethical inclinations can be fulfilled without too much worry about consequences or repercussions, provided I don't go overboard like Duke Cunningham, Tom DeLay or those congress folks that wrapped themselves up in the Abramoff scandals. And after I get tired of being a congressman, or after my constituents get tired of my antics, I can leave office and find a lucrative position lobbying for big oil companies, the pharmaceutical industry, the automotive or steel corporations, the airlines, or even a foreign country like Saudi Arabia, Israel, China or some other alien power that is seeking to play footsie with my former colleagues and smoking buddies.

Then I will not only have jumped onto the cash cow band wagon, but I won't even be subject to the same rules as an ordinary citizen. When I call a former colleague, instead of getting a staffer who's job it is to obstruct my access to the congress critter I am seeking to touch bases with, I will have a Rolodex filled with all their private access numbers... and my voice mail messages will get immediate attention and a convenient, polite and timely callback.

Steven Emerson identified this revolving door way back in the 1970s with a lot of high mucky-muck officials--congress critters, former members of the White House staff, former ambassadors, former agency heads and supervisors--getting jobs as soon as they left office working for the Saudis, the PLO, the Arab League, OPEC, or any number of businesses having large contracts in the Middle East. During the Clinton administration we saw that there were a lot of these same folks working the Chinese agenda. Also, we cannot forget the lobbyists working for the Israelis and Israeli businesses.

Hell, there is more backroom, cigar-smoking wheeling and dealing going on at our expense that there is no incentive for any congress critter to genuinely advocate--with full force, pressure and vigor--for any reform that would kill this cash cow. No wonder our nation is in such sorry shape: we're not running our own show.

The cozy relationships between lawmakers and lobbyists that embarrassed Congress and cost some lawmakers re-election haven't stopped the revolving door between Capitol Hill and the lobbying industry that seeks to influence legislation.

Five of the 39 ex-lawmakers rejected by voters three months ago landed jobs at firms that seek to influence Congress. The hires include two Republicans — Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania and Conrad Burns of Montana — who lost in part because of allegations of ethical lapses.

Federal law requires lawmakers to wait a year after leaving office to lobby Congress, but lets former Congress members advise lobbyists and clients. The Senate passed a bill that would extend that "cooling-off" period to two years and also ban ex-lawmakers from advising others during that time. The House of Representatives has not taken up that issue.

Weldon, a former member of the House Armed Services Committee, was named chief strategic officer this month by Defense Solutions, a defense contractor that consults and lobbies for other companies. One of the company's executives, in a previous job, benefited from federal funds secured by Weldon.

A series of FBI raids at the homes and offices of his lobbyist daughter and her business associates and clients became a major issue in Weldon's campaign. He has said he did not help her obtain contracts.

Burns was hired last month as a senior adviser by Gage LLC, a lobbying firm headed by his former chief of staff and whose clients benefited from funding Burns inserted into spending bills.

Burns lost his Senate seat after Democrat Jon Tester criticized his ties to Gage and lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was sentenced to prison last year for fraud. Burns received about $150,000 in donations from Abramoff and his associates and clients. Burns, who returned the money, has said he didn't help Abramoff.

REFERENCES:

Restrictions Are Ineffectual

List Of New Jobs Acquired By Former Congress Critters & Officials

Rep. Charles Bass, R-N.H., who I met when he was campaigning for an election, struck me as an inadequately prepared borderline ultra-conservative that lacked a full range of knowledge and expertise on a wide variety of subjects. Yet, he is now the president of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who struck me not only as an entrenched ultra-conservative ideologue, but also as an incompetent leader who did not understand his constituency is now an instructor at Miami University and Cedarville University, both in his home state.

It is no surprise that Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. is now a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative Christian think tank in Washington. But I have to ask what Santorum knows about ethics or Christianity because he showed that he had no knowledge of either while he held office.

While I do not want to prevent anyone from making a living, I think there needs to be a mandatory 1 year cooling off period prohibiting any lobbying or influence peddling by a former elected or appointed official after they leave office.

Data Security Woes: Governmental, Retail & Corporate

Think Your Social Security Number Is Secure? Think Again

The VA has had two major breaches of data security. Several states have had issues with their BMV databases and security. Colleges and universities have had issues as well. The telecommunications industry--especially Comcast, AT&T, Verizon--are releasing financial records and ISP data without warrants, probable cause of due process. The courts are leaning toward considering identity theft, identity security and breaches of identifying data involving the government as being safe from redress (two recent cases dismissed action against the government for unauthorized data release and/or breaches). Major retail corporations, like TMX, the parent corporation for T.J. Max and other retail outlets, are denying responsibility for the financial fallout for data breaches involving credit card and identifying info.

The US government is collecting data from hundreds of databases--including credit reports, flight itineraries, major purchases, bank transactions--that are at least 20% inaccurate, which causes an exponential effect on the inaccuracies and usefulness of the data. The National Centers for collecting data by the NSA and DHS are still not fully functional or compatible with all the network and platform requirements from 16 to 25 different networks.

Now comes reports that many of our social security numbers are posted on the Internet, openly available to those among us that are prone toward fraud, theft, identity assumption and maladaptive behaviors.

All this and our governments--state and federal--are hesitating to act decisively to provide for redress, prevention and protection. Can anyone really tell us why things have gotten so far out of hand and our legislators, as well as our major law enforcement agencies, have failed to act prudently?

Another problem is that there is an effort by not only the three major credit bureaus but many other "entrepreneurs" to make a profit by marketing ineffective measures to monitor, repair and "prevent" identity theft, database breaches, network hacking and poor IT security measures. It has become a major source of revenue for banks, credit bureaus and a litany of software and network solutions... none of which have proven effective even in a majority of cases.

Then again, there are congress critters seeking to propose bills to hold retailers and corporations accountable for data breaches that result in financial harm to consumers, but the GOP members want to put language in the bill that states if a retailer or corporation spends a certain amount per annum they will be exempt from the consequences. There is only one problem with that GOP proposal: spending a lot of money doesn't necessarily mean that they are following IT security protocols, that the end-users of the technology (i.e. accountants, clerks, cashiers, collectors) are trained properly on preventative measure, that the appropriate software and hardware have been installed, or that there has been proper maintenance, monitoring or installation of the same.

My mother has the best solution: she maintains such a poor credit history and standing that no one wants to steal her financial data, and her health is so bad from all the years she has spent smoking excessively, no one would want to even look at x-rays of her lungs, never mind steal all of her medical records.

It should come as little surprise that Social Security numbers are posted on the Internet. But, says Betty Ostergren, a former insurance claims supervisor in suburban Richmond, Va., who has spent years trolling for them, “people are always astounded” to learn that theirs is one of them.

Mrs. Ostergren, 57, has made a name for herself as a gadfly as she took on a lonely and sometimes frustrating mission to draw attention to the situation. With addresses, dates of birth and maiden names often associated with Social Security numbers, she said, they are a gift to data thieves.

But in the last few weeks, Mrs. Ostergren’s Web site, The Virginia Watchdog — with the help of lobbying from an unexpected ally, America’s farm bureaus — is having an effect.

One by one, states and counties have started removing images of documents that contain Social Security numbers, or they are blocking out the numbers. Four states, including New York, have removed links to images of public documents containing Social Security numbers.

Snohomish County, Wash., for example, said Wednesday that 61 types of documents, including tax liens and marriage certificates, would be blocked. (The documents are supposed to remain public at courthouses or state offices.)

On Wednesday, the Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, issued a legal opinion that county clerks could be committing a crime by revealing Social Security numbers on the Internet.

“I am almost in a celebratory mode,” said David Bloys, a retired private investigator in Shallowater, Tex., who also highlights the public records issue on his Web site, NewsforPublicOfficials.com.

For people wondering if they should be worried about the security of their own numbers, there is a new tool to help them.

TrustedID, a company that sells services to consumers to give them more control over who sees their credit reports, has compiled a database of compromised numbers that could already be traded or sold on the Internet.

It has created an online search tool, StolenIDSearch.com, where people can check at no cost to see if their number is one that is in a too-public domain.

Study On Privacy Protections Finds Citizens Distrust Security Agencies

The CIA, Homeland Security Department and National Security Agency are the least trusted federal agencies when it comes to protecting Americans' privacy, according to a new study by the Ponemon Institute.

The annual survey, which will be released Wednesday, asked more than 7,000 citizens whether they believe the government takes appropriate steps to safeguard personal information. Answers were mixed, but the overall trend suggested a decline in public trust since the think tank first studied the issue in 2004.

The NSA has suffered a substantial flogging by lawmakers and privacy advocates amid questions in the past year over its domestic spying in search of terrorists. It also was revealed recently that the CIA has been utilizing a special subpoena power of the 2001 anti-terrorism law known as the USA PATRIOT Act to comb bank and credit-card records.

Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, which were evaluated separately in the survey, have experienced their fair share of controversy over the mining of information from government and commercial databases and a program that screens travelers entering the United States.

After last year's massive breach of more than 27 million military personnel's data, furthermore, the Veterans Administration fell from a top-five ranking in 2006 to just outside the bottom five in the 2007 Ponemon study.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' office also was among the least trusted of the 74 federal entities included in the poll.

Is Bush Sure He Isn't Planning To Invade Iran?

Despite reassurance from President Bush that we are not targeting Iran for invasion, there seems to be a lot of pre-invasion indicators lining up.

Israel Seeks All Clear For Iran Air Strike

In this case it looks like we are already lining up a "new coalition" effort to tackle the problems we face when dealing with Iran. Given that Iran has refused to deal with the pressure from the US and the UN to cease and desist from developing further nuclear weapons capabilities and resources, the rhetoric in favor of an invasion seems to be mounting momentum and reaching a crescendo. But Israel, a nation that is as untrustworthy in its belligerent behaviors as any other nation in the Middle East, is actively seeking a go-ahead from the US to use Iraqi air space to conduct surgical strikes on Iranian nuclear development sites. And the US can sit back and blame Israel without too many repercussions, especially if the Israelis employ their usual military efficiency.

Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon.

A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.

"We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important," said the official, who asked not to be named.

"The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other."

As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing material which could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel's military establishment is moving on to a war footing, with preparations now well under way for the Jewish state to launch air strikes against Teheran if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis.

The pace of military planning in Israel has accelerated markedly since the start of this year after Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, provided a stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the current rate of progress being made on its uranium enrichment programme, could have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009.

But Israel is not alone in its pre-invasion momentum. The US--under the guise of legitimate leadership from Bush, Cheney and the leftovers from Rumsfeld--is actively ramping up the war of words between us and them.

US Steps Up Rhetoric Against Iran

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, has stepped up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme by renewing a warning that military action remains a possibility.

Mr Cheney, speaking to reporters in Australia, said that diplomacy was the preferred course, but that all options remained on the table.

He backed comments made by John McCain, the senator and presidential hopeful, who said that the only thing worse than military engagement with Teheran would be an Iran with nuclear weapons.

The United States, France and Britain have called for tougher UN Security Council sanctions on the Islamic Republic, while Germany, China and Russia have taken softer stances.

"It would be a serious mistake if a nation like Iran were to become a nuclear power," Mr Cheney said during a joint press conference with John Howard, the Australian prime minister.

"All options are still on the table."

Our forces are even gearing up for the possibilities of war that Cheney has assured the world remains on the table.

American Armada Prepares To Take On Iran

It is four and a half acres of American power in the middle of the Arabian Sea but the influence of USS Dwight D Eisenhower stretches for hundreds of miles.
American armada prepares to take on Iran

The aircraft carrier, backed by its sister vessel, a handful of destroyers and a shoal of support ships, has placed a maritime ring of steel around an increasingly unstable region.

While the Eisenhower is ostensibly assisting US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, it is the looming threat of Iran that increasingly occupies its attention.

Recent tensions between America and Iran over Teheran's attempts to develop a nuclear weapon have raised the prospect of its third regional war in a decade.

The addition of a second aircraft carrier to its strike groups has fuelled the belief that America is gearing up for a fight with Iran. Not since the Iraq war in 2003 has America amassed so much fire power around the Gulf.

As flagship of the Fifth Fleet, the Eisenhower welcomed the arrival of a second Nimitz class nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS John C. Stennis, and its accompanying destroyers on Tuesday.

But on top of all that, we seem to be losing our grip on the ground we have already covered and cleared in Iraq AND Afghanistan.

Almost five and a half years ago, America — united by the shock of 9/11 — understood exactly what it needed to do. It had to find, thwart and take down the command structure of Al Qaeda, which was responsible for the deaths of 3,000 innocent people on American soil. Despite years of costly warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq, America today is not significantly closer to that essential goal.

At a crucial moment, the Bush administration diverted America’s military strength, political attention and foreign aid dollars from a necessary, winnable war in Afghanistan to an unnecessary, and by now unwinnable, war in Iraq. Al Qaeda took full advantage of these blunders to survive and rebuild. Now it seems to be back in business.

As our colleagues Mark Mazzetti and David Rohde reported last week, American intelligence and counterterrorism officials believe that Al Qaeda has rebuilt its notorious training camps, this time in Pakistan’s loosely governed tribal regions near the Afghan border. Camp graduates are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq — and may well be plotting new terrorist strikes in the West.

The same officials point to more frequent and more current videos as evidence that Al Qaeda’s top leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri — once on the run for their lives and unable to maintain timely communications with their followers — now feel more secure. Al Qaeda is not as strong as it was when its Taliban allies ruled Afghanistan. But, the officials warn, it is getting there.

So, can we really be sure that President Bush and his gang of lying bastard fascist thugs isn't giving us the old run-around again when he says that we are not planning to invade Iran?

My real "big question" is, CAN WE DEAL WITH ANOTHER MAJOR BATTLE FRONT GIVEN OUR DIMINISHED MILITARY CAPABILITIES? I think not since the conference of US governors has identified that billions of dollars of National Guard equipment that was shipped off to Iraq and Afghanistan is not coming back (or coming back in an unusable condition) and is seriously undermining the readiness status of the National Guard for homeland defense, disaster response and federal activation.

Hooray For "60 Minutes"!!!

On Sunday, 25 February, 2007, CBS "60 Minutes" aired a segment on the almost 1400 or so active duty troops that have signed An Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq petition that speaks out against the combat occupation of Iraq.

The petition is not the important part of this story. The important part of the story is that in addition to veterans returning from Iraq speaking out against the way things are being done in Iraq, as well as almost 40 retired generals and field grade officers, almost 1400 active duty Army, National Guard and Reserve troops have joined their voices in opposition to the "war" in Iraq.

Americans in the military have been asked to make extraordinary sacrifices in recent years, particularly in Iraq, where the casualties are mounting, the tours are being extended, and some of them have had enough.

Correspondent Lara Logan heard dissension in the ranks from a large group of service members who are fed up and have decided to go public. They’re not going AWOL, they're not disobeying orders or even refusing to fight in Iraq. But they are doing something unthinkable to many in uniform: bypassing the chain of command to denounce a war they’re in the middle of fighting.

These troops are not cowards that are seeking to avoid duty in a combat area, nor are they standing on principle to avoid rotating back to the combat zones (like Ehren Watada), but are folks who are (or have) occupying boots on the ground in Iraq. In fact, three of the soldiers interviewed for this segment were already back in Iraq for a second or third rotation in the combat areas. It is not easy for any soldier, sailor, airman or marine to speak out about such things. It is atypical that they would do so via a petition that circumvents the usual chain of command channels, and they risk ostracization by their fellow soldiers, as well as career retaliation at some point in their military career. But they stood together with cause and principle to speak out against the way things are being done in Iraq, the way troops are being put in harm's way without justification, and the way our troops are being wounded, disabled or killed without justifiable cause.

"As a patriotic citizen who served two combat tours in Iraq, I just feel like this war, it's simply just not working out anymore, and soldiers are dying there everyday," says Specialist Kevin Torres.

Torres didn’t always feel that way—he enlisted in the Army right out of high school, after 9/11. He has twice served in Iraq, patrolling the mainly Kurdish north of the country, and carrying out combat patrols and goodwill missions.

"I joined because I just wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be a part of our generation's war," Torres says.

"You've been on two deployments and you didn't always feel this way. Was there a point at which, you know, something you experienced that made you think," Logan asks.

"Yeah. In January, we were doing routine presence patrol through the city of Hawija, and one of our trucks was hit by a roadside bomb, an IED, and it killed four of the soldiers out of the five that were in the truck. And during the recovery of the fallen soldiers all the debris outside of the truck. And we just had the truck was loaded with school supplies and soccer balls and crayons and notebooks and coloring books. We just wanna help. And it was just a really eye-opening and frustrating experience. Because we're still getting killed out there," he says.

It’s a sentiment echoed by all of the service members who are part of this protest.

Listening to Torres speak, I could hear how difficult it was for him to say these words. He was torn between his loyalty to God, country and right, and speaking the truth of matters in Iraq. He is speaking because our troops are not getting a fair shake from the Pentagon, the DOD or the White House. He is speaking out because his fellow soldiers are being killed and we have not given them proper armor, equipment or even a just cause for their sacrifices. Still, Torres and his fellow soldiers are there serving with honor, duty and good faith to their oaths of service.

Torres and others are clearly stating that the "stay the course" plan, with or without the planned surge, is not working and is not likely to work in the future... and the troops on the ground know it to be true. If Torres, et al, were a handful complaining about the conditions, we could chalk it up to soldiers' grumblings. But these troopers are not complaining for the sake of a grumble, which many people consider a soldier's right, but are speaking with authority and expertise: our plan for Iraq is not working and was poorly planned and executed from the onset.

"It's not about speaking out against the military or speaking out against the war. It's just, we're here four years down the line and there's not an end to it," Sgt. Evans, one of the dissenters, tells Logan.

"What are we trying to accomplish over there? I mean, what is what are we trying to do in Iraq?" another soldier, Sgt. Ronn Cantu asks.

What does he think?

"I don't even know anymore," he tells Logan.

"Well, what would you say to the people that say, 'Alright, it's clear that the war in Iraq is incredibly difficult and life is really tough both for Americans and for Iraqis, but pulling out's not the answer. It's only gonna get worse. There's gonna be all-out civil war,'" Logan asks.

"How does that become the default? Either someday, we have to leave. We can't stay in Iraq for the next thousand years," one soldier remarks.

Asked if there's a possibility that Iraq might be better off if American troops stay and finish the job, Cantu says, "But then our lives are hanging in the balance of a flip of a coin."

"That doesn't seem worth it to you? Those are not good odds?" Logan asks.

"Yes. I mean, we volunteered to make a difference, not just be part of an experiment," he replies.

The idea for this protest by active duty and reserve service members came from two enlisted men who served in the war: Marine Sgt. Liam Madden, who got to Iraq during the battle of Falluja, and his military commitment is up this winter, and Naval Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto, who serves on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which was deployed in the Gulf during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"I'm not anti-war. I'm not a pacifist. I'm not opposed to protecting our country and defending our principles. But at the same time, as citizens it's our obligation to have a questioning attitude, you know, about policy," Hutto says,

"Just because we volunteered for the military, doesn't mean we volunteered to put our lives in unnecessary harm, and to carry out missions that are illogical and immoral," Madden adds.

That last quote speaks volumes about what is, and has been, going on in Iraq. The troops in the boots--those pounding the sand, facing the heat, and suffering the sacrifices--are being asked to do things that are, for lack of a better term, un-American. These troops are telling us that we are not defending our nation, not liberating the oppressed, not standing up for liberty and justice. They are telling us that our own conduct in Iraq is questionable, not just in those cases of abuse (i.e. Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo), or of illegal and immoral assaults (i.e. the several cases of rape and murder that we are dealing with), but also in the everyday conduct of the missions.

"A senior officer in the Marine Corps said to me when I asked him about the Appeal, what was his opinion – and he served in both Iraq wars – he said, 'I have a hard enough time getting young men to put themselves in harm’s way, without having to have men in uniform tell them it’s not worth it,'" Logan remarks.

"We’re not telling young men and women that it’s not worth it, to serve their country. We’ve served our country. The men and women who have signed the appeal have served their country. So those, we’re not saying it’s not worth it. We’re saying that, if you have reservations about it to communicate it. That’s simply what it is," Hutto says.

In my experience, any member of the military that brings up issues is automatically labeled as a trouble maker, disloyal, disgruntled or otherwise unfit. It will not be a surprise if we see that those who signed this petition retaliated against by their commanders... but it will be in ways that offer plausible deniability. In fact, for those that are rotating back to combat, I wouldn't be too surprised if they get assigned the most hazardous and risky assignments. This is a risk they were willing to take to tell us that things stink in Iraq and the garbage needs to be taken out.

"There are gonna be a lot of people who don't like what you’re doing," Logan says.

"By volunteering we've done more than about 99 percent of the population. And anybody who joined after 9/11 when the country was at a state of war, it's my opinion that nobody has the right to question that soldier's patriotism, nobody," Cantu replies.

"There are going to be a lot of people listening to this who say that, 'You're a traitor. You're betraying your uniform. You don't deserve to wear it,'" says Logan.

"I hope there aren't people that think that," says Lt. Commander Mark Dearden.

For him, going public has been one of the hardest decisions of his life. He’s a combat surgeon who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom, returned for a second tour and now treats soldiers at a Naval hospital in California.

"The decision to come here for me personally was not an easy one. And I don't expect it was for anyone. Last night I was with my family in the park in our town and it hit me that 'At this very moment, while I'm standing here, people are fighting and people are dying.' I've seen it with my own eyes. And I can feel it in my chest," Dearden says.

Dearden acknowledges this is very hard for him and he also admits that it isn't so much a protest as a plea.

Here is an officer that just about tanked his Navy career, whether he can see that or not. No officer in the US Navy Medical Corps that voices such concerns is likely to make the next pay grade, never mind receiving fitness reports that support his or her retention in the service.

So it is a matter of principle and a courageous act to speak out and sign the Redress petition.

According to a recent Military Times survey, many in uniform feel the same way. The poll found that for the first time ever more US soldiers oppose the president’s handling of the war in Iraq than support it.

The Military Times is an independent military-focused media outlet. It does not have a particular political agenda, except perhaps to focus on those issues that concern the troops, the military leadership and the overall readiness of the military. This particular poll actually uses data collected in 2005 and reinforced by data collected in 2006.

Support for President Bush and for the war in Iraq has slipped significantly in the last year among members of the military’s professional core, according to the 2005 Military Times Poll.

Approval of the president’s Iraq policy fell 9 percentage points from 2004; a bare majority, 54 percent, now say they view his performance on Iraq as favorable. Support for his overall performance fell 11 points, to 60 percent, among active-duty readers
of the Military Times newspapers. Though support both for President Bush and for the war in Iraq remains significantly higher than in the public as a whole, the drop is likely to add further fuel to the heated debate over Iraq policy. In 2003 and 2004, supporters of the war in Iraq pointed to high approval ratings in the Military Times Poll as a signal that military members were behind President Bush’s the president’s policy.

The poll also found diminished optimism that U.S. goals in Iraq can be accomplished, and a somewhat smaller drop in support for the decision to go to war in 2003.

It is clear that the views offered by those that signed the Redress petition may also be shared by many other active duty troops who are reluctant to go on the record or express their views in a public forum. But why would such a dramatic shift in the views of our troops occur?

Still, critics claim the group is partisan, just out to boost Democrats who oppose the war.

"I'm certainly not liberal, and I doubt many of the members on this panel are liberal. It's not funded by any partisan organization. It's soldiers. It's service members. It's grass roots. It's us," says Lt. Kent Gneiting.

White House spokesman Tony Snow has dismissed the protesters as an insignificant minority. "It’s not unusual for soldiers in a time of war to have some misgivings. You have several hundred thousand who served in Iraq. You have reenlistment rates that have exceeded goals in all the military," he said.

Logan read to the group: "And then he goes on to say that it's unfortunate that people like you – and the quote is – are 'going to be able to get more press than the hundreds of thousands who have come back and said they are proud of their service.'"

Sgt. Cantu responds, "You got two right here who are gonna do multiple tours in Iraq and, you know, I'm reenlisting. I never said I wasn't proud of my service. I fit some of those statistics right there myself."

In a typical spin fashion, the White House unleashed its newest pet guard dog, Tony "Can't See The Truth Directly In Front Of His Eyes" Snow, to dismiss the courageous and risky act of going on the record against what is going on in Iraq. How can anyone with a lick of sense consider 1400 (and soon to be more) active duty troops as an "insignificant minority"? What kind of man uses statistics regarding enlistment to justify disrespecting the courage and principles of honest, loyal and dutiful soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines? Snow, and probably President Bush, seems to be able to dismiss anything that doesn't suit their entrenched views of the world, just like they dismissed the intelligence reports that didn't suit their desire to invade Iraq. It is not a matter of pride in service, it is a matter of principle and adhering to the oath or enlistment or commission.

For many in uniform, there’s an unwritten code of honor that says no matter how tough your situation is or whatever your private doubts about the mission may be, you just never speak out publicly against it, and so for them what the service members of this campaign are doing is nothing short of a betrayal.

"That’s not something I would do personally," a specialist remarks.

Logan spoke with soldiers from the 1st Cavalry who are currently serving in Baghdad. They acknowledged that the servicemen and women who signed the petition have the right to do so – but that doesn’t mean they should.

"I think every American soldier throughout history has wanted combat to stop," a major remarked.

"As an American soldier I feel like we took an oath to obey the orders of our Commander in Chief and officers appointed over us," Army Spec. James Smauldon adds.

I am going to suggest that Specialist Smauldon needs to go back and read his oath because he is not only obligated to adhere to the orders above him, but his primary duty under that oath is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, with specific reference to defending it "against all enemies, foreign or domestic." Perhaps Spec. Smauldon fell asleep during that part of the lectures on Military Law that every enlisted person receives during boot camp.

Similarly, the training on military law received in boot camp covers the topic of lawful versus unlawful orders. Any order that contradicts, or is repugnant to, the Constitution is by its very nature is unlawful. The unlawful nature of orders to deploy to Iraq is why 1st Lt. Ehren Watada should have been able to bring that fact into evidence at his first trial, which ended up with a hung panel and a declared mistrial. So now he will face another court martial. Hopefully it will be with a different presiding military judge and the issue of lawful orders in an illegally executed invasion and occupation will be allowed as evidence. In case it is not, that will be the grounds for appeal to the SCOTUS.

"I know what I’m here fighting for, to give the Iraqi people some democracy and hope so I am 100 percent behind this mission. You don’t sign up to pick which war you go to," Army Capt. Lawrence Nunn replies.

What would Ronn Cantu say to that?

"We haven't said that we're not going to war. But the time this airs I'll be back in Iraq," he replies.

"We don't get to choose the mission. Our leadership gets to choose the mission. Congress gets to choose the mission. My Congressman is Lacy Clay. I would like to tell him as a constituent of his, "Is this really – is this it?" Staff Sgt. Matt Nuckolls says.

"What do you mean, is this it?" Logan asks.

Says Nuckolls, "Is the mission in Iraq really what you want us to be doing? And then he responds, yes. Okay, well we go back to Iraq and keep doing what we're doing."

"We volunteer to make a difference, not just throw our lives away," Cantu adds.

It says a lot when the troops--even an "insignificant minority" as it is viewed by the White House--feel that the missions in Iraq are not making a difference and that they perceive the entirety of affairs as throwing away lives.

What speaks volumes about these troops is that they have impeccable service records. These are not the "shitbirds" or shirkers that are speaking out. These are men and women with proven combat area experience and multiple tours of duty. These are not cowardly nay-sayers that are seeking to run away from the issues, concerns and problems. These are dedicated professional soldiers that know when the stink isn't right.

I would also point my readers to review the videos of veterans that have returned from Iraq and speaking out in videos like "The Ground Truth" or signing onto the Iraq Veterans Against The War movement, or the views expressed by Colonel Mary Ann Wright, or the accounts of combat experience in Iraq (and/or Afghanistan) by vets like Kelly Dougherty.

Profiteering Colleges Scrutinized

Profiteering Colleges

Since I have worked for two for-profit schools, each having some of the issues mentioned in this and previous editorials, I thought I would pass this along to my friends and colleagues with experience working in this field. The days spent complaining about students that were admitted without any hope of success, re-admitted after demonstrated inadequate social and academic preparation, problems with transportation, problems with child care services, and the like--all without any genuine effort to address these issues in a systemic manner--reminded me of how much stress and strain we experienced. Then, at least at some of these schools, there is the use of credit reporting services to hunt down students that had withdrawn or dropped out to solicit their re-enrollment only to incur greater debt and experience failure again. Add to that the practice of these schools of having faculty members call every student that misses even one class period to chase them down and assure that attendance policies are strictly adhered to so that even marginal students can be PUSHED through a program. Additionally, there were a number of students who were unable to be placed in internship or externship programs because of their lack of capacity, academic standing, clinical skill and ability or problems with their criminal records... all of which was known prior to completion of the full program.

The other feature of a vast majority of these for-profit colleges is the trend to offer programs that really do not generate employability, or at least employability at a livable wage. In the past many of these schools were involved in welding and other industrial skills. But as these skills became less in demand, many schools shifted to either automotive mechanics or computer technologies. While some of these schools offering computer technology curricula provided programs in networking or computer repair, these skills became in less demand and they shifted to Medical Assisting, Medical Office Administration, Massage Therapy or Pharmacy Technician programs. As the Medical Assisting job market is becoming flooded with graduates of a number of these schools--some better than others in terms of academic standards, but hardly any achieving any real claim for academic rigors--there has been a shift to Insurance Coding & Billing. Even the Medical Office Administration programs have been down-sized and re-focused on billing and coding. The Pharmacy Tech programs result in jobs that barely pay more than the newly implemented minimum wage allowances and, despite the demand, do not provide a return on investment given the amount of money charged for these programs. Not only that, but the hospital pharmacies and the larger pharmacy chains (i.e. Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid) prefer pharmacy technicians that undergo their own version of the training.

Above and beyond all of this is the fact that a large number of students completing these medical programs of study in many of these for-profit schools cannot pass the standard registration or certification exams to earn the required credentials to work in the field. More often than not, those that do take and pass these exams only sit for the lowest levels or "brands" of credentials.

Now I have worked at two of these types of colleges. At both of these institutions it was not the quality or effort of the faculty that was at fault, but the policies and practices of the corporations running the show. The teachers I worked with and supervised (at my second job with one of these schools) made every effort to provide quality instruction. The first institution like this I worked at had what I would consider a top-notch faculty that put the students and the professional requirements of the field in the forefront. Many faculty, in both places, would work with students for hours after classes were over. Efforts were made to assist students in every aspect of their lives, often requiring referrals for many problems and issues that arose during their tenure as students. Most, if not all, of the faculty would bend over backwards to assure that the quality of instruction provided everyday was of high caliber and presented in such a way as students understood the material and learned effectively... BUT THEIR EFFORTS WERE OFTEN UNDERMINED BY CORPORATE POLICIES, PRACTICES AND THE UNDYING FOCUS ON THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR. In fact, I would state that these corporate policies and practices sabotaged many of the efforts made by the faculty.

The tragedy of these schools do not end at the failure of many students, or the number of students that end up owing huge sums of money after completing the programs, or the number of students that cannot find employment after graduating, or the scandal of potential losses experienced by the US Department of Education financial aid programs. The real tragedy continues into the doctor's offices when even one un-accomplished student ends up working in a doctor's office, clinic or hospital. One such soul works for my own physician. She cannot take a blood pressure properly, cannot relate to patients effectively or professionally, and places the lives of patients--especially those with hypertension, risks of stroke or cardiac conditions--at extreme risk. But that is not the end of the tragedy. It continues in the form of higher costs for medical care, more manipulation of the health care system by insurance companies and unprofessional physicians (and they do exist), and the additional tax burdens we all bear because of the domino effect that results from these schools taking advantage. But that still doesn't end the tragedy because in the long run we still need qualified technicians, mechanics, medical assistants, billing and coding specialists, computer professionals and the like... and we may not get them because far too many of these schools are out for the quick buck rather than making a profit by producing a quality end-product... a fully qualified and expertly able graduate.

The Democratic leadership in Congress plans to make college affordability a central theme of this legislative session. The pending bills that would increase federal aid to low-income students and lower the costs of student loans are good, as far as they go. But Congress must do more to ensure that scarce federal aid dollars are legitimately spent and not gobbled up by for-profit diploma mills that bilk the government and students alike.

Legitimate, well-run commercial colleges provide a crucial service for poorly prepared students who do not qualify for admission to traditional colleges. But not all schools are up to the job. Some rake in state and federal aid by recruiting marginally literate students who have no hope of ever graduating. Students who exhaust their aid find themselves burdened with debt and no closer to the degrees or the better lives they had hoped for.

The full scope of the problem is not yet known. But Congress got a glimpse of it two years ago, when the Office of the Inspector General at the United States Education Department reported that nearly three-quarters of its investigations had focused on problems at profit-making schools.

These problems have been especially evident in the state of New York, which has the most generous need-based student aid program in the nation. Faced with documented cases of student exploitation, the State Board of Regents declared a temporary moratorium last year on the opening of any more for-profit colleges, then beefed up the regulations governing their operation.

The Regents have closed down one commercial college and sanctioned three others, which could be closed if they do not meet performance targets. They are now scrutinizing the University of Phoenix, the for-profit giant that has been trying for years to enter the lucrative New York market. At issue are questions about academic quality, graduation rates and a pending federal lawsuit that charges the university with fraudulently obtaining hundreds of millions of dollars in aid.

New York’s Board of Regents is right to keep a close eye on these schools. And as Congress prepares to reauthorize the Higher Education Act, it needs to take a harder look at for-profit colleges to make sure that students and the government are getting what they pay for.