Saturday, November 01, 2003
The hallmark of the Bush foreign policy has been a naive radicalism married to an operational incompetence. A small clique with a preconceived blueprint took advantage of a national emergency and a callow president, blowing a containable threat into war while dismissing more ominous menaces. These people are out to remake the world, with little sense of risk, proportion or history. -Robert Kuttner, American Prospect, Nov. ‘03
Lies, yes, …and Diversion:
The Culture has now normalized the assertion that the Administration chronically misrepresents, distorts, selectively cites and lies. Well, at least ½ of the country buys this. Less focused on is the fact that the Cheney-Rove Group are masters at diversion- getting us to focus on an issue of their choosing while they cause notable damage elsewhere.
The example of this “success” is Iraq. To get us to not focus on the causes of terrorism and the states that are the real threats, they selected Iraq. As a long demonized ruler, Saddam was an easy target. All they had to do was to repeat their lies with regularity and enough of the press and the public bought in that Iraq was a growing threat, not a contained, weakened, isolated state.
Meanwhile, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, bona fide threats to security, were described either as problems that could be deferred or were sold to us as allies. Saudi Arabia housed (and funded) far more terrorists than ever passed through Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea build and trade missiles and nuclear technology. And, Pakistan’s secret service had long played footsie with bin Laden.
Similarly, diversion works on the domestic side. Talk of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge simplified their assault on the environment as being primarily confined to that location; when that effort was parried, we sighed relief, but more damaging assaults and give-aways to industry continued elsewhere.
Naturally the media- and this blog- have been caught focusing on Iraq. We all have focused on those lies, and, naturally those deaths. It’s understandable- we need to contain our anxiety and we respond to what the media has focused on, and deaths and destruction are a grabber! But, we must also look and work elsewhere. This time…
Economic News:
‘Good news’ was the news this week, that the economy is growing at a breathless pace. The bare bones story has some truth: there is a modest ‘recovery’ that has been underway and “growth” was manifestly strong this quarter, and it assuredly boosts Bush’s re-election chances. Yet, it is, of course, at least partly spin. A closer look reveals:
(1) Most of the bump for the “third quarter” came during the first 2 months. Consumer spending actually fell in September, and personal savings fell to its lowest point in 2 years. And, most importantly, more jobs were lost and the long-term unemployed numbers continued to grow.
(2) Unemployment: A regular feature the past many weeks has been the following wording: The total number of Americans filing initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 last week from a revised 391,000 the previous week, the government said on Thursday, in a sign of a convalescing U.S. job market.(forbes.com) In other words, each week the number of unemployed is low-balled, providing optimism that the numbers are falling. Then, during the week that figure is revised upward and so the following week the new figure is “lower” than the preceding. Then, that figure is ‘revised upward’. Sometimes the spinning is this elementary. It’s so common that no one has mentioned it in mainstream media until Paul Krugman noted it, though parenthetically, in his Friday column.
(3) The regular thievery by financial folk is not limited to Enrons, the schemes not limited to Bush’s financial past. Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE) noted the following in its weekly newsletter.
We haven’t mentioned so far the other side of the tax issue: they not only avoid paying their fair share of taxes; they invent complicated schemes to transfer money from the retirement savings of hard working people into their own pockets. That’s what Enron did, and that’s what the latest mutual fund scandal is all about. It’s too complex to explain here, but you can read about it in Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com:/print/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2002. It calculates that the "timing" scheme could reduce returns by almost 20%.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the CEOs expressed shock - even though they knew about the schemes since 2000 and made money from them. (WSJ: 10/29/03) Remember that most of these schemes are never discovered, mostly because the rich quash enforcement efforts. The same folks who express "shock" are generally the ones who oppose increased enforcement efforts that would prevent these schemes.
The damage to people’s lives is huge, but these scandals rarely get the media coverage they deserve.
More from FITE can be found at www.fairnessintaxes.org. [Self-disclosure: I'm a co-founder (with Chuck Palson) of FITE.]
(4) What’s Happening in the States? Not good. For most, if not all, this is the second or third year of massive cuts and, in some, tax increases. We know of the ongoing pain in Massachusetts, now rarely written about. A textbook case of sorts is Alabama, where the Republican Governor tried to push through tax increases so as to save vital services. Beaten badly (2:1), the results now are clear. What’s needed is also evident.
The budget cuts that went through in Alabama last month (September) were just the beginning. Next year is going to really show what's what. Almost 6,000 teachers will be getting the axe, with projected class sizes heading for more than 40 kids per.
I. The State Trooper force will be chopped, and the troopers will be restricted to about 50 miles of driving per day, according to one source in Alabama.
II. Thousands of criminals will be released, and the courts and municipal police will be cut drastically.
III. And so it goes. By this time next year, Joe Average Alabaman will really be seeing what his NO vote meant. And so will the rest of the country. Holding Alabama up as an example of what excessive tax cutting can do will make a great illustration for any Democrat who advocates more Federal revenues.
Neither Joe Average Alabaman nor Joe Average American will see these results if Democrats don't loudly highlight them. The secret of the Republicans long-term success is that the Democrats have run away from the fight instead of making it clear just what are the consequences of the "cut taxes cut taxes cut taxes" strategy. For Democrats to win on this issue they have to make it clear to people just what it is they are giving up if they continue to hold on to their Bush tax cuts.
http://interestingtimes.blogspot.com/2003_10_26_interestingtimes_archive.html#106753849630133106
Paul Krugman asks, (and we need to answer…)
…Why is the public so easily manipulated? One answer is the supineness of much of the press, radio and television…. But that just pushes the question back a step. What is it about today’s right that lets it bully the press so easily, that creates such an effective machine of propaganda, intimidation, and base mobilization? (www.nybooks.com/articles/16790)
Environment: As per my comments earlier in this blog, the following is typical.
The Bush Administration will apparently allow oil and gas drilling on Utah lands once reviewed for possible wilderness protection. Critics are outraged. Sen. Joe Lieberman said, “we are now beginning to see the fallout from the closed-door deals that the Bush administration negotiated this spring…just so its supporters could pump a few weeks’ supply of oil and gas.
In a lease sale next month, the Bureau of Land Management will auction rights to drill for oil and gas on more than 17,000 acres, mostly in the Book Cliffs region of eastern Utah, that a review under the Clinton administration had determined could warrant wilderness designation. http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/2599179/detail.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Same Old.
Saturday’s NY Times front-paged (Don Van Natta Jr. and Desmond Butler) the flow of militants into Iraq. Across Europe and the Middle East, young militant Muslim men are answering a call issued by Osama bin Laden and other extremists, and leaving home to join the fight against the American-led occupation in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials based in six countries. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/international/middleeast/01RECR.html?hp
Additionally, a rash of executions of former members of Saddam’s government, and this dispatch from Alex Berenson and Susan Sachs: Guerrillas and American troops battled for hours here on Friday in an intense firefight after a demonstration in support of Saddam Hussein turned violent. In Baghdad, rumors of terrorist attacks this weekend roiled the city. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/international/middleeast/01IRAQ.html
The Center for Public Integrity summarized the state of business in Iraq, focusing on the boom times for U.S. Contractors. More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician over the last dozen years, the Center found.
Kellogg, Brown & Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton—which Vice President Dick Cheney led prior to being chosen as Bush's running mate in August 2000—was the top recipient of federal contracts for the two countries, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to the company. http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/
Public Opinion in Iraq:
Iraqis See Israel as Culprit in Bombings was the headline of an LA Times piece (Alissa Rubin).
As the bombing disaster early this week is cemented into people's consciousness, three emotions dominate: anger, ambivalence about the U.S. role in Iraq and a desire to lay blame at the door of adversaries rather than fellow Muslims.
"I am sure that the people who did this are enemies of Iraq, not the enemies of the Americans," Dunya Khalil Ismail, a 28-year-old college lecturer, said as she left work Wednesday. "Whether it was the Israelis or the Americans themselves, they are aiming at us.
"It started with the war, and this is just another stage," she said. "I don't know what can be done. The Americans have everything in their hands."
Ismail is one of many people here — rich and poor, religious and secular — who see Israel as being behind the suicide bombings Monday at the International Committee of the Red Cross and three police stations, which killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 200. It might be an idea that seems farfetched to many Americans, but seen through Iraqi eyes, it has a kind of logic. http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fg-iraq30oct30,0,7350796,print.story
“Mission Accomplished” Commentators have cited this fib by Bush as particularly galling; some even speculate that this could be the lie that sinks him! So, his lying about who put up the sign (duh, this administration is obsessive as to stagecraft) is more graspable than the lies about waging an unnecessary war based on deception that result in hundreds of American deaths and thousands of Iraqi deaths.
-R
Lies, yes, …and Diversion:
The Culture has now normalized the assertion that the Administration chronically misrepresents, distorts, selectively cites and lies. Well, at least ½ of the country buys this. Less focused on is the fact that the Cheney-Rove Group are masters at diversion- getting us to focus on an issue of their choosing while they cause notable damage elsewhere.
The example of this “success” is Iraq. To get us to not focus on the causes of terrorism and the states that are the real threats, they selected Iraq. As a long demonized ruler, Saddam was an easy target. All they had to do was to repeat their lies with regularity and enough of the press and the public bought in that Iraq was a growing threat, not a contained, weakened, isolated state.
Meanwhile, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea, bona fide threats to security, were described either as problems that could be deferred or were sold to us as allies. Saudi Arabia housed (and funded) far more terrorists than ever passed through Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea build and trade missiles and nuclear technology. And, Pakistan’s secret service had long played footsie with bin Laden.
Similarly, diversion works on the domestic side. Talk of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge simplified their assault on the environment as being primarily confined to that location; when that effort was parried, we sighed relief, but more damaging assaults and give-aways to industry continued elsewhere.
Naturally the media- and this blog- have been caught focusing on Iraq. We all have focused on those lies, and, naturally those deaths. It’s understandable- we need to contain our anxiety and we respond to what the media has focused on, and deaths and destruction are a grabber! But, we must also look and work elsewhere. This time…
Economic News:
‘Good news’ was the news this week, that the economy is growing at a breathless pace. The bare bones story has some truth: there is a modest ‘recovery’ that has been underway and “growth” was manifestly strong this quarter, and it assuredly boosts Bush’s re-election chances. Yet, it is, of course, at least partly spin. A closer look reveals:
(1) Most of the bump for the “third quarter” came during the first 2 months. Consumer spending actually fell in September, and personal savings fell to its lowest point in 2 years. And, most importantly, more jobs were lost and the long-term unemployed numbers continued to grow.
(2) Unemployment: A regular feature the past many weeks has been the following wording: The total number of Americans filing initial jobless claims fell by 5,000 last week from a revised 391,000 the previous week, the government said on Thursday, in a sign of a convalescing U.S. job market.(forbes.com) In other words, each week the number of unemployed is low-balled, providing optimism that the numbers are falling. Then, during the week that figure is revised upward and so the following week the new figure is “lower” than the preceding. Then, that figure is ‘revised upward’. Sometimes the spinning is this elementary. It’s so common that no one has mentioned it in mainstream media until Paul Krugman noted it, though parenthetically, in his Friday column.
(3) The regular thievery by financial folk is not limited to Enrons, the schemes not limited to Bush’s financial past. Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE) noted the following in its weekly newsletter.
We haven’t mentioned so far the other side of the tax issue: they not only avoid paying their fair share of taxes; they invent complicated schemes to transfer money from the retirement savings of hard working people into their own pockets. That’s what Enron did, and that’s what the latest mutual fund scandal is all about. It’s too complex to explain here, but you can read about it in Business Week, http://www.businessweek.com:/print/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2002. It calculates that the "timing" scheme could reduce returns by almost 20%.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the CEOs expressed shock - even though they knew about the schemes since 2000 and made money from them. (WSJ: 10/29/03) Remember that most of these schemes are never discovered, mostly because the rich quash enforcement efforts. The same folks who express "shock" are generally the ones who oppose increased enforcement efforts that would prevent these schemes.
The damage to people’s lives is huge, but these scandals rarely get the media coverage they deserve.
More from FITE can be found at www.fairnessintaxes.org. [Self-disclosure: I'm a co-founder (with Chuck Palson) of FITE.]
(4) What’s Happening in the States? Not good. For most, if not all, this is the second or third year of massive cuts and, in some, tax increases. We know of the ongoing pain in Massachusetts, now rarely written about. A textbook case of sorts is Alabama, where the Republican Governor tried to push through tax increases so as to save vital services. Beaten badly (2:1), the results now are clear. What’s needed is also evident.
The budget cuts that went through in Alabama last month (September) were just the beginning. Next year is going to really show what's what. Almost 6,000 teachers will be getting the axe, with projected class sizes heading for more than 40 kids per.
I. The State Trooper force will be chopped, and the troopers will be restricted to about 50 miles of driving per day, according to one source in Alabama.
II. Thousands of criminals will be released, and the courts and municipal police will be cut drastically.
III. And so it goes. By this time next year, Joe Average Alabaman will really be seeing what his NO vote meant. And so will the rest of the country. Holding Alabama up as an example of what excessive tax cutting can do will make a great illustration for any Democrat who advocates more Federal revenues.
Neither Joe Average Alabaman nor Joe Average American will see these results if Democrats don't loudly highlight them. The secret of the Republicans long-term success is that the Democrats have run away from the fight instead of making it clear just what are the consequences of the "cut taxes cut taxes cut taxes" strategy. For Democrats to win on this issue they have to make it clear to people just what it is they are giving up if they continue to hold on to their Bush tax cuts.
http://interestingtimes.blogspot.com/2003_10_26_interestingtimes_archive.html#106753849630133106
Paul Krugman asks, (and we need to answer…)
…Why is the public so easily manipulated? One answer is the supineness of much of the press, radio and television…. But that just pushes the question back a step. What is it about today’s right that lets it bully the press so easily, that creates such an effective machine of propaganda, intimidation, and base mobilization? (www.nybooks.com/articles/16790)
Environment: As per my comments earlier in this blog, the following is typical.
The Bush Administration will apparently allow oil and gas drilling on Utah lands once reviewed for possible wilderness protection. Critics are outraged. Sen. Joe Lieberman said, “we are now beginning to see the fallout from the closed-door deals that the Bush administration negotiated this spring…just so its supporters could pump a few weeks’ supply of oil and gas.
In a lease sale next month, the Bureau of Land Management will auction rights to drill for oil and gas on more than 17,000 acres, mostly in the Book Cliffs region of eastern Utah, that a review under the Clinton administration had determined could warrant wilderness designation. http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/news/2599179/detail.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Same Old.
Saturday’s NY Times front-paged (Don Van Natta Jr. and Desmond Butler) the flow of militants into Iraq. Across Europe and the Middle East, young militant Muslim men are answering a call issued by Osama bin Laden and other extremists, and leaving home to join the fight against the American-led occupation in Iraq, according to senior counterterrorism officials based in six countries. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/international/middleeast/01RECR.html?hp
Additionally, a rash of executions of former members of Saddam’s government, and this dispatch from Alex Berenson and Susan Sachs: Guerrillas and American troops battled for hours here on Friday in an intense firefight after a demonstration in support of Saddam Hussein turned violent. In Baghdad, rumors of terrorist attacks this weekend roiled the city. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/01/international/middleeast/01IRAQ.html
The Center for Public Integrity summarized the state of business in Iraq, focusing on the boom times for U.S. Contractors. More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician over the last dozen years, the Center found.
Kellogg, Brown & Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton—which Vice President Dick Cheney led prior to being chosen as Bush's running mate in August 2000—was the top recipient of federal contracts for the two countries, with more than $2.3 billion awarded to the company. http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/
Public Opinion in Iraq:
Iraqis See Israel as Culprit in Bombings was the headline of an LA Times piece (Alissa Rubin).
As the bombing disaster early this week is cemented into people's consciousness, three emotions dominate: anger, ambivalence about the U.S. role in Iraq and a desire to lay blame at the door of adversaries rather than fellow Muslims.
"I am sure that the people who did this are enemies of Iraq, not the enemies of the Americans," Dunya Khalil Ismail, a 28-year-old college lecturer, said as she left work Wednesday. "Whether it was the Israelis or the Americans themselves, they are aiming at us.
"It started with the war, and this is just another stage," she said. "I don't know what can be done. The Americans have everything in their hands."
Ismail is one of many people here — rich and poor, religious and secular — who see Israel as being behind the suicide bombings Monday at the International Committee of the Red Cross and three police stations, which killed at least 35 people and wounded more than 200. It might be an idea that seems farfetched to many Americans, but seen through Iraqi eyes, it has a kind of logic. http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fg-iraq30oct30,0,7350796,print.story
“Mission Accomplished” Commentators have cited this fib by Bush as particularly galling; some even speculate that this could be the lie that sinks him! So, his lying about who put up the sign (duh, this administration is obsessive as to stagecraft) is more graspable than the lies about waging an unnecessary war based on deception that result in hundreds of American deaths and thousands of Iraqi deaths.
-R
