U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons

The Bush administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk.

The government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release -- even to the detainees' own attorneys -- "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage." Terrorists could use the information to train in counter-interrogation techniques and foil government efforts to elicit information about their methods and plots, according to government documents submitted to U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton on Oct. 26.

Wow. In fact, I think they are going to outlaw the very existence of people who have been tortured (or not or who will ever know?) Their existence is a threat to national security. They can't be trusted. Hell, we had to torture them to get them to talk!

HRC

The Clinton Referendum

Comedy picket lines

Stewart and Colbert to Return Without Writers

This kind of disappoints me, but it will enable us to answer the question of how good these guys are without the writers...

Karama is a behatch

Circuit City Loss Widens; Shares Plunge on Forecast

Circuit City, which cut 10 percent of its U.S. workforce this year and hired people willing to work for less, is losing market share to larger rival Best Buy Co. Sales in stores open at least 12 months fell 5.6 percent in the third quarter.

Apparently they didn't realize that when people are going in to buy big ticket items (tvs, etc.) that they like to talk to someone knowledgeable rather than a high school kid.

'08 Roundup

Filibluster

Republicns break filibuster record only halfway through the term.

Why this isn't a major news story shows how lame the Dems have been.

FISA (telecom immunity) bill pulled

Dodd wins... for now.

Home of the free

Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry

Two other AT&T employees who worked on the proposal discounted his claims, saying in interviews that the project had simply sought to improve the N.S.A.’s internal communications systems and was never designed to allow the agency access to outside communications. Michael Coe, a company spokesman, said: “AT&T is fully committed to protecting our customers’ privacy. We do not comment on matters of national security.”

But lawyers for the plaintiffs say that if the suit were allowed to proceed, internal AT&T documents would verify the engineer’s account.

“What he saw,” said Bruce Afran, a New Jersey lawyer representing the plaintiffs along with Carl Mayer, “was decisive evidence that within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.”

FISA and all tha crap has never been about 9/11.

Breaking Ranks

Lieberman endorses McCain

I can't wait until Lieberman no longer caucuses with the Democrats.

Snow

Millions of Canadians digging out from major storm

Nearly 35 centimetres of snow had fallen on Ottawa by 10 p.m. Sunday, Environment Canada said, with 29 centimetres across the Ottawa River in Gatineau, Que. Rural areas southeast of Ottawa saw closer to 50 centimetres as the system headed north and east from the United States into Ontario and Quebec.

Thats almost 14 inches.

I need to buy this, or at least this.

Good thing I shoveled after the first 6 inches...

Tree me

World Bank Fund Will Pay to Leave Forests Standing

The World Bank will establish a fund to compensate developing nations to protect forests, with the hope that preserving forests will slow climate change. 'The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility signals that the world cares about the global value of forests and is ready to pay for it,” said Robert Zoellick, World Bank president. Deforestation is responsible for about one fifth of total carbon emissions, yet was overlooked by the Kyoto Protocol, reports an article from the Environment News Service. Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland along with the Nature Conservancy have committed to contributing to the fund. A report from the Center for International Forestry Research suggests that deforestation has complex causes that can vary from nation to nation, and offers recommendations for protecting neighboring communities that depend on forests for their livelihoods. Property rights to forests are often murky, analysts suggests, and care must be taken to monitor forests and related economic activity, while preventing funds from going to corrupt government officials who look the other way as logging or burning continues.

I like the idea in theory, but how it will operate is the big question. But who the heck do they pay?

Dodd to filibuster

The FISA bill

What I want to know is, why are the Republicans essentially filibustering everything - without actually doing the filibustering, and when now Dodd has to actually do it?

One of the reasons:

Drama Prairie Dog

Mental reserves

keep brain agile

“Something must account for the disjunction between the degree of brain damage and its outcome,” the Columbia scientists deduced. And that something, they and others suggest, is “cognitive reserve.”

Cognitive reserve, in this theory, refers to the brain’s ability to develop and maintain extra neurons and connections between them via axons and dendrites. Later in life, these connections may help compensate for the rise in dementia-related brain pathology that accompanies normal aging.

...

Cognitive reserve is greater in people who complete higher levels of education. The more intellectual challenges to the brain early in life, the more neurons and connections the brain is likely to develop and perhaps maintain into later years. Several studies of normal aging have found that higher levels of educational attainment were associated with slower cognitive and functional decline.

Dr. Scarmeas and Dr. Stern suggest that cognitive reserve probably reflects an interconnection between genetic intelligence and education, since more intelligent people are likely to complete higher levels of education.

But brain stimulation does not have to stop with the diploma. Better-educated people may go on to choose more intellectually demanding occupations and pursue brain-stimulating hobbies, resulting in a form of lifelong learning. In researching her book, Ms. Ramin said she found that novelty was crucial to providing stimulation for the aging brain.

...

Long-term studies in other countries, including Sweden and China, have also found that continued social interactions helped protect against dementia. The more extensive an older person’s social network, the better the brain is likely to work, the research suggests. Especially helpful are productive or mentally stimulating activities pursued with other people, like community gardening, taking classes, volunteering or participating in a play-reading group.

...

Exercise may help by improving blood flow (and hence oxygen and nutrients) to the brain, reducing the risk of ministrokes and clogged blood vessels, and stimulating growth factors that promote the formation of new neurons and neuronal connections.

Gene ID cards

In China

call me a fuddy-duddy, but i don't want one of those. what the hell is the purpose except for facilitating potential abuses of power?

Mind and matter

All maximum performances are actually pseudo-maximum performances

Snap, tell us how you really feel

Fox propoganda

How Fox News covers the NIE — or in this case, doesn’t

Praise Cats - Shined On Me

Subprime