Friday, July 25, 2003
7/25
There is a long history of imperial powers, gloating over victories, becoming over-extended and overconfident, as their citizens begin to get uneasy because their day-to-day fundamental needs are being sacrificed for military glory while their young are sent to die in wars. The uneasiness grows and grows, and the citizenry gather in resistance in larger and larger numbers, and become too much to control, and one day the top-heavy empire falls over .- Howard Zinn, ZNet
9/11 Report: What Did it Say?
Different reporters, different emphases. Hardly surprising. So, it’s a battle of the framing. Major media and Republicans seemed to push the failures of the FBI-CIA coordination. The opposition either asked ‘What about the Saudis?, as the major excising was about the Saudi connection, or cited the fact that the report acknowledged that there was and is no connection between Saddam and al-Qaida. Seems like the Saudi omission is the potentially bigger payoff, and it’s what interests sleuth Michael Moore as well. BTW: Hardly anyone focused on the obvious: that the FBI/CIA may not have coordinated well, but there was plenty of information out there, beginning with the often-referenced statement by Sandy Berger to Condi as he exited with the Clinton Administration: ‘You will be spending more time on terrorism than any other issue.’ But, actually doing so was not in the Right’s game plan...
Speaking of Condi, U.S. News and World Report (Paul Bedard) is speaking to scuttlebutt of "insiders"- that Condi will be next to take "responsibility" and submit her resignation. A bit hard to believe, based on her status in the Administration and rumored future (candidate for Governor or replacement for Colin Powell as Secretary of State).
Coverage Snapshot: A couple of sources let me know of a coverage ‘moment’ today. When the 9/11 Report broke, NPR and the cable news stations all were on it. But, when Rummy and Bremer opened a news conference on whether to release the pictures of the dead Hussein brothers, the cable networks shifted, never to return. NPR stayed with the 9/11 story. Nice example of how the major attention shifted from tracking the elusive bin Laden and al-Qaida to the unnecessary war. This time, at least, NPR got it right.
What’s Happening: Iraq: Three more American soldiers died, five in two days. [At its height, 16 or 17 Americans were dying each day in Vietnam.] There is an almost desperate quality to the political-military figures predicting that this is a blip, that casualties will be fading shortly, in part due to the killing of the Sons. But, the desperation seeps through, including the scouting around- mostly futilely- for foreign troops to share the losses and cover our lack of available soldiers. The attacks have escalated to the area of Mosul, beyond where they had previously been confined, to Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit. And, there were many quotes over the last few days from Iraqis that speak to the "broad" base of the insurgency, that it is not confined to "Saddam’s cronies" and thus will have staying power.
The Kristols: Eric Alterman’s Altercation at msnbc.com had a striking observation. William Kristol of the Weekly Standard blasted Gephardt for focusing on the "16 words". His key sentences
There are plenty of legitimate grounds to criticize the Bush administration's foreign policy. But the American people, whatever their doubts about aspects of Bush's foreign policy, know that Bush is serious about fighting terrorists and terrorist states that mean America harm. About Bush's Democratic critics, they know no such thing.
This is a familiar right-wing attack, but those of us over a certain age or keyed into history will cringe when Alterman digs out the sentences that Kristol’s father, Irving Kristol, used in his Commentary magazine in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy period: "For there is one thing that the American people know about Senator McCarthy; he, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesman for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing."
Alterman goes on to say:
This is truly amazing. It explicitly links the Neocons’ exploitation of the threat of terrorism to that no-good drunken bum, Joe McCarthy, and his use of the charge of "Commie" to ruin lives on a whim through a deliberately stoked mass hysteria. I think there is a great deal of this going on right now, but even I would have been reluctant to go so far. But there it is. The charge worked for McCarthy — at least for a while — and Kristol now seems certain it will work for his team as well. Just one question: Have they no shame? At long last, have they no sense of decency left? Well done.
Environment: Flashback to 1976? The tried and true method for burying an issue is to "study" it. So, it’s hardly surprising that the Bush Administration announced today "the final details of a 10 year plan to study global climate change to determine whether greenhouse gases and other human generated pollutants have contributed to an unnatural warming of Earth’s atmosphere."[Washington Post, Guy Gugliotta] Philip Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust offered the expectable- "More research is always welcome, but the goal here is just to delay doing anything about the problem."
FCC: "Led" by the unlikely populist William Safire of the Times, the bi-partisan movement has slowed the rush to media gigantism. Viacom, Disney, Murdoch and G.E. have been stalled in their devouring of each and every independent station. The House of Representatives action, countering FCC thrusts and raising the possibility of Michael Powell’s resignation, may prompt a Bush veto, which is threatened.
Gallup Poll: Study; Then, we’ll discuss... [And, I'm afraid, struggle. Sorry for the lay-out; beyond my control]
REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS IN
CURRENT ABILITY TO DEAL WITH SELECTED ISSUES
2003 Jul 18-20
(sorted by Republican "advantage")
Republicans
Democrats
Repub-
lican
Advantage
%
%
%
Terrorism
55
29
+26
The situation with Iraq
51
36
+15
Foreign affairs
46
41
+5
Education
37
49
-12
The federal budget deficit
37
50
-13
The economy
36
53
-17
Unemployment
35
54
-19
Prescription drugs for older Americans
31
53
-22
+
Advantage indicates Republican lead
Advantage indicates Democratic lead
(One) Answer: What matters is that since January, there has been some shifting, with the Democrats gaining in several areas, the largest being the economy. What remains rather perturbing is that despite the complications and incompetence demonstrated in Iraq... but that too is changing.
-R
There is a long history of imperial powers, gloating over victories, becoming over-extended and overconfident, as their citizens begin to get uneasy because their day-to-day fundamental needs are being sacrificed for military glory while their young are sent to die in wars. The uneasiness grows and grows, and the citizenry gather in resistance in larger and larger numbers, and become too much to control, and one day the top-heavy empire falls over .- Howard Zinn, ZNet
9/11 Report: What Did it Say?
Different reporters, different emphases. Hardly surprising. So, it’s a battle of the framing. Major media and Republicans seemed to push the failures of the FBI-CIA coordination. The opposition either asked ‘What about the Saudis?, as the major excising was about the Saudi connection, or cited the fact that the report acknowledged that there was and is no connection between Saddam and al-Qaida. Seems like the Saudi omission is the potentially bigger payoff, and it’s what interests sleuth Michael Moore as well. BTW: Hardly anyone focused on the obvious: that the FBI/CIA may not have coordinated well, but there was plenty of information out there, beginning with the often-referenced statement by Sandy Berger to Condi as he exited with the Clinton Administration: ‘You will be spending more time on terrorism than any other issue.’ But, actually doing so was not in the Right’s game plan...
Speaking of Condi, U.S. News and World Report (Paul Bedard) is speaking to scuttlebutt of "insiders"- that Condi will be next to take "responsibility" and submit her resignation. A bit hard to believe, based on her status in the Administration and rumored future (candidate for Governor or replacement for Colin Powell as Secretary of State).
Coverage Snapshot: A couple of sources let me know of a coverage ‘moment’ today. When the 9/11 Report broke, NPR and the cable news stations all were on it. But, when Rummy and Bremer opened a news conference on whether to release the pictures of the dead Hussein brothers, the cable networks shifted, never to return. NPR stayed with the 9/11 story. Nice example of how the major attention shifted from tracking the elusive bin Laden and al-Qaida to the unnecessary war. This time, at least, NPR got it right.
What’s Happening: Iraq: Three more American soldiers died, five in two days. [At its height, 16 or 17 Americans were dying each day in Vietnam.] There is an almost desperate quality to the political-military figures predicting that this is a blip, that casualties will be fading shortly, in part due to the killing of the Sons. But, the desperation seeps through, including the scouting around- mostly futilely- for foreign troops to share the losses and cover our lack of available soldiers. The attacks have escalated to the area of Mosul, beyond where they had previously been confined, to Baghdad, Fallujah and Tikrit. And, there were many quotes over the last few days from Iraqis that speak to the "broad" base of the insurgency, that it is not confined to "Saddam’s cronies" and thus will have staying power.
The Kristols: Eric Alterman’s Altercation at msnbc.com had a striking observation. William Kristol of the Weekly Standard blasted Gephardt for focusing on the "16 words". His key sentences
There are plenty of legitimate grounds to criticize the Bush administration's foreign policy. But the American people, whatever their doubts about aspects of Bush's foreign policy, know that Bush is serious about fighting terrorists and terrorist states that mean America harm. About Bush's Democratic critics, they know no such thing.
This is a familiar right-wing attack, but those of us over a certain age or keyed into history will cringe when Alterman digs out the sentences that Kristol’s father, Irving Kristol, used in his Commentary magazine in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy period: "For there is one thing that the American people know about Senator McCarthy; he, like them, is unequivocally anti-Communist. About the spokesman for American liberalism, they feel they know no such thing."
Alterman goes on to say:
This is truly amazing. It explicitly links the Neocons’ exploitation of the threat of terrorism to that no-good drunken bum, Joe McCarthy, and his use of the charge of "Commie" to ruin lives on a whim through a deliberately stoked mass hysteria. I think there is a great deal of this going on right now, but even I would have been reluctant to go so far. But there it is. The charge worked for McCarthy — at least for a while — and Kristol now seems certain it will work for his team as well. Just one question: Have they no shame? At long last, have they no sense of decency left? Well done.
Environment: Flashback to 1976? The tried and true method for burying an issue is to "study" it. So, it’s hardly surprising that the Bush Administration announced today "the final details of a 10 year plan to study global climate change to determine whether greenhouse gases and other human generated pollutants have contributed to an unnatural warming of Earth’s atmosphere."[Washington Post, Guy Gugliotta] Philip Clapp, the president of the National Environmental Trust offered the expectable- "More research is always welcome, but the goal here is just to delay doing anything about the problem."
FCC: "Led" by the unlikely populist William Safire of the Times, the bi-partisan movement has slowed the rush to media gigantism. Viacom, Disney, Murdoch and G.E. have been stalled in their devouring of each and every independent station. The House of Representatives action, countering FCC thrusts and raising the possibility of Michael Powell’s resignation, may prompt a Bush veto, which is threatened.
Gallup Poll: Study; Then, we’ll discuss... [And, I'm afraid, struggle. Sorry for the lay-out; beyond my control]
REPUBLICANS VS. DEMOCRATS IN
CURRENT ABILITY TO DEAL WITH SELECTED ISSUES
2003 Jul 18-20
(sorted by Republican "advantage")
Republicans
Democrats
Repub-
lican
Advantage
%
%
%
Terrorism
55
29
+26
The situation with Iraq
51
36
+15
Foreign affairs
46
41
+5
Education
37
49
-12
The federal budget deficit
37
50
-13
The economy
36
53
-17
Unemployment
35
54
-19
Prescription drugs for older Americans
31
53
-22
+
Advantage indicates Republican lead
Advantage indicates Democratic lead
(One) Answer: What matters is that since January, there has been some shifting, with the Democrats gaining in several areas, the largest being the economy. What remains rather perturbing is that despite the complications and incompetence demonstrated in Iraq... but that too is changing.
-R
