Morning copy 9.12.2005

The drive for a memorial for Flight 93, LINK.

What is the lead/lede story for today? Senate to start Roberts' hearings, in the Washington Post.

Both sides look to make gains in the kabuki dance, SF Gate.

BUT, in the Post there is an article on George W. Bush confronting racism and poverty. Or, poverty and racism. And, poverty or racism...

In today's Washington Post:

"He didn't receive many of these concerns as some kind of 'race' issue," said C. Jay Matthews, a Cleveland minister who attended the meeting. "There was a feeling that maybe what we have been doing up to now to fight poverty maybe hasn't been effective and we need to move toward long-term solutions."

But some skeptics fear these reassuring words are a disguise for pursuing long-held conservative goals that are viewed with hostility by many black leaders. Congressional Republicans, for example, have voiced opposition to federal programs that set aside government contracts for minorities. And Bush has already moved to suspend the law requiring federal contractors to pay workers the average wage in the region, holding down salaries for many minority laborers.

In the New York Times:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the administration's most prominent African-American, weighed in, too. "Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race," Ms. Rice said, en route to her native Alabama to attend a church service.

OK, very nice to say. And Ken Mehlman will tell you that progress is down the road. Karl Rove wants African-Americans to vote for Republicans.

But a certain set of people were left unattended before, during and after Katrina. They were the elderly, the sick, the poor... and many were black. The administration often has left that same set unattended. Administration policy focuses on a different set, for the favor of that set. That set is white and affluent. There must be some basis for this. Perhaps its economics.

Economics that favor the affluent, who tend to resemble Bush, at the expense of the poor -- some of them are minorities. The cause may not be racism, but the effect is.

There are some signs of progress in New Orleans, Los Angeles Times.

The White House hints as a reconstruction czar, Guardian. Shoes plunging to the ground!

eBay will invest in the Internet phone industray, New York Times.

I can't believe I am going to write this, but: does this merger make sense in terms of synergies, or is it expanding the brand into new territory that may be risky? A lot of mergers do not work, and it is often because of over-expansion.

U.S. foreign policy under threat from Katrina, Slate.

The Iraqi constitution remains just a draft, Reuters.