Letter Never Sent

NY Times: Lawmakers Want Cabinet Post for an Intelligence Director:

The leaders stopped short of endorsing one of the most contentious ideas for intelligence change being widely debated in Washington — the creation of an additional domestic intelligence agency like the British MI-5 — even as they recognized the F.B.I.’s weaknesses in conducting domestic counterterrorism operations. But they said they were open to further study of such proposals.

The idea of creating an American version of MI-5 has gained support as the Bush administration, Congress and outside experts have all tried to grapple with the difficulties of tracking terrorists once they are inside the United States. Widespread criticism of the F.B.I.’s performance before Sept. 11 raised questions about whether counterterrorism operations should be stripped from the bureau and turned over to an independent agency. Still, deep concerns over civil liberties and other constitutional issues have made both the administration and Congress reluctant to endorse the idea.

The proposal to create a director of national intelligence closely mirrors legislation introduced last summer by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California. Ms. Feinstein said in June that a director of national intelligence was necessary to “coordinate our intelligence and antiterrorism efforts” and to make certain that “the sort of communication problems that prevented the various elements of our intelligence community from working together effectively before Sept. 11 never happen again.”

Old South Goes With the Wind: Entrepreneur and His Workers Reflect Region’s Racial Transformation

Indians now own 60 of the 208 Dairy Queens in Georgia. Half of Riz’s workforce is Indian. “Forget the white kids with the studs in the tongue,” Riz says. “Indians are gonna work for you. At the beginning, they work for minimum wage. Then little raise, little raise, slowly, slowly. Everyone live together; they are saving money, six people in household working, they bank 80 percent of their money and use 20 percent for expenses. They don’t drink, no clubs, no fancy clothes. Suddenly, they have $60,000 in the bank. Then they will buy the Subway or the Blimpie.”

But Riz worries about the second generation. No vision. Where’s the next young entrepreneur ready to climb out of the low-wage landscape? “These people just want to be the Riz,” says Riz with concern. “You can’t copy the Riz. You must build your own entity. The second generation wants the short cut.”

For example:

Violence Against Police Hits 4-Year High — Using Fear to Militarize the Police and Designate American People as the Enemy. Here’s the truth in their own words, “Fewer police are being killed in the line of duty than there were 30 years ago,” Floyd said. “We’ve got more police on the street than we’ve ever had.

C’mon America, I know we can do better than that. But seriously, what they don’t mention in that headline, irresponsibly I think as Infowars points out, is that many of these cops died in automobile accidents.

Via Infowars.com CNN: Check yourself out at Home Depot:

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — The Home Depot’s do-it-yourself clientele can now do it themselves at the checkout counter as part of a technology upgrade the company promises will make for shorter lines and faster service. …

The technology also could help Home Depot with a proposal it announced earlier this year to shift more employees from full-time to part-time status, Lewis said.

Four self-service checkout terminals are being set up in about 800 city locations to replace two or three employee-operated stations. The company also is buying performance software to assess cashiers’ skills.

Sixty percent of Home Depot staff are full-time. The other 40 percent are part-time.

Company spokesman Don Harrison said the retailer’s move to self-checkout is not an attempt to cut staff.

“Nobody is losing a job or being displaced as a result of this,” he said. “We can always use help back in the aisles waiting on customers. Will it mean a shift toward more part-time work? I don’t know.”

At one Atlanta Home Depot store, restaurant manager Mike Clark, 35, used the self-checkout to buy a snow shovel and a rake in less than three minutes.

“I look at it like you are getting four machines for the price of one employee,” Clark said. “It’s very efficient.”

Part-time work is good for corporations, no benefits to pay for. And shoot, in most of my many part-time jobs I was forced to work nearly 40 hours a week. The only difference is I didn’t get health or retirement benefits and my hours could be cut if they didn’t need as many people. Most people who work part-time have either another full or part-time job.