Sunday, December 14, 2003
The Flu , Privatization and Political Will: Each time there is a new “flu outbreak” we learn of a shortage of vaccine. We don’t tend to focus on how it is primarily lower income and elderly who comprise the 36,000 that die each year from the flu. That’s extraordinary. I knew our public health system was woefully inadequate, but this hammers it home. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/flufacts.htm
Medicare Follow-up: Action:
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published a thorough critique of the AARP's assertions http://www.centeronbudget.org/12-11-03health.htm.
And, there’s an effort to pass legislation to alter the damage to Medicare. One such is S. 1992, the "Defense of Medicare and Real Prescription Drug Benefit Act,'' introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy with a companion bill introduced by Rep. John Dingell in the House. The bill would amend the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to eliminate privatization of the Medicare program, to improve the Medicare prescription drug benefit, to repeal health savings accounts, and for other purposes; referred to the Committee on Finance.
Chile Follow-up: Some of us older folk remember well the disappearance of Charles Horman, the freelancer-political cartoonist who disappeared in Chile the day of the Pinochet coup on September 11, 1973. Horman’s fate was the subject of the Gosta-Gavras film Missing.
Well, finally, we have confirmation of our suspicions. We already knew that the dictatorship had Horman killed. Now there’s confirmation that a CIA agent was present when Horman was interrogated and the order given to kill him. A retired Chilean air force interrogator, Rafael Agustin Gonzalez Verdugo, the confirming source, was himself indicted. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/7488950.htm
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Saddam’s Capture:
We’ve grown so accustomed to bin Laden and Saddam evading capture, and so propagandized to believe that he was a threat that it became an over-the-top Sunday story; felt rather weird to me.
As we’ve known, Saddam had not been a threat since 1991. And, there’s just as much chance that more opposition to the Occupation by the Shiites and Sunnis will surface, now that opponents of the Occupation are sure Saddam cannot return to power. From past experience, we also know that movements don’t necessary cease when a leader is captured or is killed…witness the Chechen fighting continuing after the resistance leader Dzokhar Dudayev was killed.
Now, we have to wonder what’s next. Do we need to re-demonize Iran and Syria? Do we allow a trial where Saddam could remind us of the long friendship with the U.S.? Will claims be made that he confessed to maintaining a stockpile of WMD and that he and Mohamed Atta were good buddies?
In the meantime, we can treasure Joe Lieberman’s comments. Lieberman rushed to announce that Saddam should be executed and added, "This news makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a much more dangerous place." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=11&u=/nm/20031214/pl_nm/iraq_usa_politics_dc_2.
Iraqi army with “Resignations”
The BBC reported that
The U.S. has suffered a setback in its plan to create a new Iraqi army, with hundreds of soldiers having resigned.
Pentagon officials say the army's first 700-man battalion lost 300 troops who were within weeks of being deployed. The soldiers reportedly complained over low salaries and threats by insurgents, and refused to obey orders.
The BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says the resignations will make for red faces as the US plans to build a force of 40,000 by next October.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3310809.stm
“Resigned”? We call these desertions, no?
More Censoring re Casualties:
The Governing Council has followed U.S. instructions to keep civilian casualties quiet. From the Times Argus (Vermont)
Iraqi Health Ministry officials ordered a halt to a count of civilian casualties from the war and told workers not to release figures already compiled, the head of the ministry's statistics department told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The health minister, Dr. Khodeir Abbas, denied that he or the U.S.-led occupation authority had anything to do with the order, and said he didn't even know about the survey of deaths, which number in the thousands.
Dr. Nagham Mohsen, the head of the ministry's statistics department, said the order came from the ministry's director of planning, Dr. Nazar Shabandar, who told her it was on behalf of Abbas. She said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which oversees the ministry, didn't like the idea of the count either.
http://timesargus.nybor.com/Story/75852.html
And, there’s the Incompetence:
As the NY Times reports (David Sanger, Douglas Jehl), the White House was sending James Baker around to get agreement to write off Iraqi debts while the Pentagon was reminding France-Germany-Russia that they get zip of the Reconstruction booty because they opposed the invasion.
President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon said it was excluding those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.
White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon's directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/international/middleeast/11PREX.html
Bush on Halliburton:
Karl Rove and company had Bush read a statement re Halliburton’s overcharging, that if found guilty, they’ll be forced to pay up. ("I appreciate the Pentagon looking out after the taxpayers' money.”)
Yet, we should know that last week a directive from Wolfowitz basically instructed the newly developed inspector general’s office in Iraq not to request such information- no audits, subpoenas re “sensitive operation” plans, nationally security matters, etc. In other words, Quiet!
Dean: Newsweek finds him solidifying his lead.
Dean 24 (16)- ( ) indicates last poll
Don't Know 14 (21)
Clark 12 (15)
Lieberman 12 (8)
Gephardt 10 (9)
Sharpton 5 (4)
Kerry 5 (7)
Edwards 5 (6)
Braun 3 (7)
Newsweek’s poll found Bush 6-7 points ahead of Dean or Clark.
Dean Statement on Race:
The web site The Black Commentator notes Dean’s speech, calling it historic. Excerpts. Full, text at links, below
Howard Dean has taken history in his hands by hitching his ascendant campaign to a straightforward, anti-corporate message that does not pander to white racism. He presents whites in the South and elsewhere with the only principled choice they should be offered: to vote their interests, or vote for their bosses' interests…
"To distract people from their real agenda, they [the Republicans] run elections based on race, dividing us, instead of uniting us. The December 7 speech is a clear and definitive break from the lethal grip of the Democratic Leadership Council, the southern-born, corporate-mouthpiece faction of the party…
Where does this leave Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich? Exactly as they are, preaching the same social democratic, anti-racist, pro-peace message as before, for as long as their energies can sustain them. Dean's political leap would not have been possible in the absence of Sharpton's energetic Black candidacy and Kucinich's principled, progressive white voice from the Left. At this historic juncture they dare not go anywhere. Dean has picked up the torch that Sharpton and Kucinich have been carrying and they must stay in the race to make sure he doesn't set it down
http://www.blackcommentator.com/ or http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002565.html
Bush Biography:
If you made it this far, you get to sample (or ignore) the White House web site. The contents would be high comedy if 50% of the nation didn’t believe the fictions that lie within. [For example, contrary to what’s below, Bush was a passive, junior partner with the Texas Ranger baseball team.
After a campaign in which he outlined sweeping proposals to reform America's public schools, transform our national defense, provide tax relief, modernize Social Security and Medicare, and encourage faith-based and community organizations to work with government to help Americans in need. President Bush served for six years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control.
President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and he grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1968, then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. After graduating, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he assembled the group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.
He served as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers until he was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive four-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998, with 68.6 percent of the vote.
Since taking office, President Bush has signed into law bold initiatives… http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
-R
Medicare Follow-up: Action:
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has published a thorough critique of the AARP's assertions http://www.centeronbudget.org/12-11-03health.htm.
And, there’s an effort to pass legislation to alter the damage to Medicare. One such is S. 1992, the "Defense of Medicare and Real Prescription Drug Benefit Act,'' introduced by Sen. Ted Kennedy with a companion bill introduced by Rep. John Dingell in the House. The bill would amend the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 to eliminate privatization of the Medicare program, to improve the Medicare prescription drug benefit, to repeal health savings accounts, and for other purposes; referred to the Committee on Finance.
Chile Follow-up: Some of us older folk remember well the disappearance of Charles Horman, the freelancer-political cartoonist who disappeared in Chile the day of the Pinochet coup on September 11, 1973. Horman’s fate was the subject of the Gosta-Gavras film Missing.
Well, finally, we have confirmation of our suspicions. We already knew that the dictatorship had Horman killed. Now there’s confirmation that a CIA agent was present when Horman was interrogated and the order given to kill him. A retired Chilean air force interrogator, Rafael Agustin Gonzalez Verdugo, the confirming source, was himself indicted. http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/7488950.htm
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Saddam’s Capture:
We’ve grown so accustomed to bin Laden and Saddam evading capture, and so propagandized to believe that he was a threat that it became an over-the-top Sunday story; felt rather weird to me.
As we’ve known, Saddam had not been a threat since 1991. And, there’s just as much chance that more opposition to the Occupation by the Shiites and Sunnis will surface, now that opponents of the Occupation are sure Saddam cannot return to power. From past experience, we also know that movements don’t necessary cease when a leader is captured or is killed…witness the Chechen fighting continuing after the resistance leader Dzokhar Dudayev was killed.
Now, we have to wonder what’s next. Do we need to re-demonize Iran and Syria? Do we allow a trial where Saddam could remind us of the long friendship with the U.S.? Will claims be made that he confessed to maintaining a stockpile of WMD and that he and Mohamed Atta were good buddies?
In the meantime, we can treasure Joe Lieberman’s comments. Lieberman rushed to announce that Saddam should be executed and added, "This news makes clear the choice the Democrats face next year. If Howard Dean had his way, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today, not in prison, and the world would be a much more dangerous place." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=11&u=/nm/20031214/pl_nm/iraq_usa_politics_dc_2.
Iraqi army with “Resignations”
The BBC reported that
The U.S. has suffered a setback in its plan to create a new Iraqi army, with hundreds of soldiers having resigned.
Pentagon officials say the army's first 700-man battalion lost 300 troops who were within weeks of being deployed. The soldiers reportedly complained over low salaries and threats by insurgents, and refused to obey orders.
The BBC's Nick Childs at the Pentagon says the resignations will make for red faces as the US plans to build a force of 40,000 by next October.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3310809.stm
“Resigned”? We call these desertions, no?
More Censoring re Casualties:
The Governing Council has followed U.S. instructions to keep civilian casualties quiet. From the Times Argus (Vermont)
Iraqi Health Ministry officials ordered a halt to a count of civilian casualties from the war and told workers not to release figures already compiled, the head of the ministry's statistics department told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The health minister, Dr. Khodeir Abbas, denied that he or the U.S.-led occupation authority had anything to do with the order, and said he didn't even know about the survey of deaths, which number in the thousands.
Dr. Nagham Mohsen, the head of the ministry's statistics department, said the order came from the ministry's director of planning, Dr. Nazar Shabandar, who told her it was on behalf of Abbas. She said the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which oversees the ministry, didn't like the idea of the count either.
http://timesargus.nybor.com/Story/75852.html
And, there’s the Incompetence:
As the NY Times reports (David Sanger, Douglas Jehl), the White House was sending James Baker around to get agreement to write off Iraqi debts while the Pentagon was reminding France-Germany-Russia that they get zip of the Reconstruction booty because they opposed the invasion.
President Bush found himself in the awkward position on Wednesday of calling the leaders of France, Germany and Russia to ask them to forgive Iraq's debts, just a day after the Pentagon said it was excluding those countries and others from $18 billion in American-financed Iraqi reconstruction projects.
White House officials were fuming about the timing and the tone of the Pentagon's directive, even while conceding that they had approved the Pentagon policy of limiting contracts to 63 countries that have given the United States political or military aid in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/11/international/middleeast/11PREX.html
Bush on Halliburton:
Karl Rove and company had Bush read a statement re Halliburton’s overcharging, that if found guilty, they’ll be forced to pay up. ("I appreciate the Pentagon looking out after the taxpayers' money.”)
Yet, we should know that last week a directive from Wolfowitz basically instructed the newly developed inspector general’s office in Iraq not to request such information- no audits, subpoenas re “sensitive operation” plans, nationally security matters, etc. In other words, Quiet!
Dean: Newsweek finds him solidifying his lead.
Dean 24 (16)- ( ) indicates last poll
Don't Know 14 (21)
Clark 12 (15)
Lieberman 12 (8)
Gephardt 10 (9)
Sharpton 5 (4)
Kerry 5 (7)
Edwards 5 (6)
Braun 3 (7)
Newsweek’s poll found Bush 6-7 points ahead of Dean or Clark.
Dean Statement on Race:
The web site The Black Commentator notes Dean’s speech, calling it historic. Excerpts. Full, text at links, below
Howard Dean has taken history in his hands by hitching his ascendant campaign to a straightforward, anti-corporate message that does not pander to white racism. He presents whites in the South and elsewhere with the only principled choice they should be offered: to vote their interests, or vote for their bosses' interests…
"To distract people from their real agenda, they [the Republicans] run elections based on race, dividing us, instead of uniting us. The December 7 speech is a clear and definitive break from the lethal grip of the Democratic Leadership Council, the southern-born, corporate-mouthpiece faction of the party…
Where does this leave Al Sharpton and Dennis Kucinich? Exactly as they are, preaching the same social democratic, anti-racist, pro-peace message as before, for as long as their energies can sustain them. Dean's political leap would not have been possible in the absence of Sharpton's energetic Black candidacy and Kucinich's principled, progressive white voice from the Left. At this historic juncture they dare not go anywhere. Dean has picked up the torch that Sharpton and Kucinich have been carrying and they must stay in the race to make sure he doesn't set it down
http://www.blackcommentator.com/ or http://blog.deanforamerica.com/archives/002565.html
Bush Biography:
If you made it this far, you get to sample (or ignore) the White House web site. The contents would be high comedy if 50% of the nation didn’t believe the fictions that lie within. [For example, contrary to what’s below, Bush was a passive, junior partner with the Texas Ranger baseball team.
After a campaign in which he outlined sweeping proposals to reform America's public schools, transform our national defense, provide tax relief, modernize Social Security and Medicare, and encourage faith-based and community organizations to work with government to help Americans in need. President Bush served for six years as the 46th Governor of the State of Texas, where he earned a reputation as a compassionate conservative who shaped public policy based on the principles of limited government, personal responsibility, strong families, and local control.
President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and he grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas. He received a bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1968, then served as an F-102 fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard. President Bush received a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1975. After graduating, he moved back to Midland and began a career in the energy business. After working on his father's successful 1988 presidential campaign, he assembled the group of partners that purchased the Texas Rangers baseball franchise in 1989.
He served as managing general partner of the Texas Rangers until he was elected Governor on November 8, 1994, with 53.5 percent of the vote. He became the first Governor in Texas history to be elected to consecutive four-year terms when he was re-elected on November 3, 1998, with 68.6 percent of the vote.
Since taking office, President Bush has signed into law bold initiatives… http://www.whitehouse.gov/president/gwbbio.html
-R
