Thursday, November 20, 2003
The Elite’s Thievery:
I’ve mentioned a bit about my work with Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE), (www.fairnessintaxes.org). We’re looking at the Massachusetts budgetary mess, urging restoration of a fair tax program so as to end this budget “crisis”, a situation created by tax giveaways in years past. We speak to the larger picture, of the ongoing thievery by elements of the very rich and their corporations, the plundering of the country’s public sector and the rewarding of everything “private.” Indeed, the central thread of Bush Administration policies is that all policies seek to transfer wealth to the Administration's wealthy patrons.
So, it’s reassuring when someone speaks to this overarching issue, as Dick Meyer does at cbs.com.
The emerging accounts of thievery in the world of mutual funds confirm, for me at least, something I have suspected since the go-go 1980s -- the existence of an economic predator class.
I believe there is now a professional, well-trained elite, supported by large institutions, that is adept and willing to use corrupt practices to accumulate wealth. Despite assurances from game-theorists and anthropologists that the criminal cadre in the species remains a constant percentage over time, I believe today's mainstream, sanitized, and institutionally sanctioned financial crime rackets are being run by a new breed of crook. There have always been scandals and crooks in the history of American money, but our predator class is a distinct creation of the late 20th century.
I believe there is no way the counter-class made up of regulators, watchdogs and do-gooders and hack columnists can match wits with the predator class. Today's piles of money are so huge, great fortunes can be amassed by swiping the tiniest of slices in the wiliest of ways long before picked pockets are discovered.
I also believe that my darling baby-boom generation and our successors in gens x and y, reared in raised consciousness, righteousness and me-first, are probably to blame.
The docket of this still running corporate crime spree has grown far too long to be dismissed as either a passing fluke, a few bad eggs or as regularly scheduled financial event. It is a more permanent condition of commercial culture. And it is barely scorned.
It is partly, of course, simple Wall Street and boardroom greed, a cousin to the greed and gargantuan rewards in entertainment and sports. It is partly the degradation of professional standards, of the concept of the fiduciary, akin to the same market-driven devolution in divergent fields such as medical care, Hollywood, publishing and, yes, journalism.
My guess is that financial historians will start the clock in this epoch with the big merger scandals of the 1980's -- Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and scads of lesser cads. Next came the long running, now forgotten, S&L scandals. Then a lull (maybe), punctuated by the pretty picture of the tech boom. That delusional portrait was been redrawn when we learned of the rigged IPO's, insider trading, completely corrupt "analysis" practices at the Wall Street giants and old-fashioned flimflam.
Coveting the vast instant riches of the techno-boomers and baby billionaires was way more than many titans of less glamorous industries could bear and in virtually all companies executive salaries soared beyond all proportions of the post-war era. And in many of those executive suites, greed morphed into felony -- Tyco, Enron, Rite-Aid, Adelphia, Global Crossing, WorldCom, ImClone, Lucent, KMart, MicroStrategy, Qwest Communications. And then scandals at the supposed auditors, like Arthur Andersen, insulted the injury.
As the market turned down, the corporate crime spree didn't wane as some theorists said it should. Hot stocks, IPO's, M&A were no longer where the Willy Suttons with MBAs, Turnbull & Asser shirts and Patek Philipe watches saw the money. They saw it in those huge piles of money accumulated by working people for savings and retirement -- corporate pension funds, public pension funds, 401(k)'s and mutual funds. Who would notice a few mil or bil siphoned off in arcane late-trading deals? They'll never know what hit them.
So, pension funds were raided, an entirely legal scandal. And now we're learning about the mutual fund grifting rampage that may affect Main Street as much as prior fiascos: Putnam, Alger Management, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Strong Capital Management, PBHG Funds, Bank One Corp., Alliance Capital, Janus Capital Group are some of the implicated names.
So now we'll be told that the market, smarter than any deliberately organized system, will correct this. After all, who would invest in a known corrupt game? No one, so the market will fix it. Plus, the regulators are on the case.
This time, I don't buy it. The predator class will not be exterminated by cease and desist orders, Senate hearings, independent boards of directors and the invisible hand. It's a culture. And essentially, it's our culture. http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5e871a3d04016217bfc96b8df7ccc4b1&lat=1069348275&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecommondreams%2eorg%2fviews03%2f1119%2d11%2ehtm
Medicare:
So what does one do now, as Congress moves toward passing the AARP-endorsed bill? One course of action is to go the web site below, and take action! There you’ll learn a bit about AARP president Bill Novelli, the “life-long Republican political operative” who “wrote the preface to Newt Gingrich’s book on health care.” http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/medicare/11_20_03.cfm
Typical Diplomatic Personnel Move
The Administration is changing its ambassador to Saudi Arabia. They’re nominating a Texas oil lobbyist to replace the oil industry lawyer who had been in the position. Charles Schumer, NY's senior senator, attacked the pick of James Oberwetter:
"It sort of says our entire relationship with Saudi Arabia is a three letter word: o-i-l. He has oil lobbying experience he doesn't have diplomatic experience. This should go to a top person in the State Department." http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/7303708.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Turkey Bombing Some predicted this, that if we brought a war to Iraq, we would spread the carnage to the environs. It was a good guess that al-Qaida wished to involve Turkey, and the country’s vehemence about aiding us in Iraq was not a good sign.
Anyway, Who did this? The Guardian reports:
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, the group which claimed responsibility for Sunday's synagogue bombing in Turkey, honours a former military commander of al-Qaida. The group's name is taken from a pseudonym of Mohammed Atef, aka Abu Hafs, who became a relative by marriage to Osama bin Laden before his death in a US missile strike almost exactly two years ago.
This is not the first time the name of Abu Hafs has surfaced in recent months. The same group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq in August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1087673,00.html
Commentary
Mediachannel.org correspondent in Istanbul Adam McConnel has a potent summary of his thoughts on the bombings:
Why is this happening? There is one and only one reason—Iraq. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw went on TV today and claimed that these attacks were a "continuation" of 11 September. That is a patent falsehood.
These horrible attacks, along with more violence in neighboring countries, are happening because of the disorder in Iraq Regional experts had repeatedly warned that this would be the result of the invasion. With Iraq now drifting into anarchy, it is easier for militants to operate there and carry out attacks in the region.
Thank you, Mr. Straw for being so disingenuous. Now I would like you to look into the faces of the relatives of those who were killed or maimed in Saturday's and today's explosions and explain to them why these types of events were not happening before Iraq was invaded.
One thing that these blasts drive home is that the Saturday attacks were not aimed just at Jews — they were aimed at all of Turkey and the Western community in general. Life goes on as normal in Istanbul and will go on as normal. As I walked to my wife's office to send this email, I saw kids playing football in school yards and people going about their lives. This city has just survived 15 years of undeclared civil war and it will survive this. The blood of those who die in the meantime is, in my opinion, not just on the hands of those who commit such despicable acts, but also on the hands of thosewho made it possible: Bush, Cheney, Blair, Straw, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. http://64.224.42.246/weblog/dannylog.cfm
Liberal Radio: Progress reportThe previous company ran into trouble, so a slowed time-line. According to yahoo.com,
...a group headed by a former adviser to the Democratic National Committee has taken over the effort to create a liberal radio network to compete with conservative talk radio.
Mark Walsh, who's also a former America Online executive, said his investors' group bought the proposed network from the venture capitalists who started AnShell Media L.L.C. in February. The purchase price was not announced.
At the time, Sheldon and Anita Drobny said they had lined up $10 million and hoped to be on the air by this fall. But the Drobnys never hired any talent, purchased any stations or signed any distribution contracts. Walsh, who once served as the DNC's chief technology adviser, said Tuesday that he expects to be broadcasting by early next year.
Liberal comedian and author Al Franken said he was encouraged by the sale to Walsh's group and that he was talking with Walsh about developing a show. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031120/ap_on_re_us/brf_radio_politics_1
So, was the invasion illegal. Yes, says Richard Perle?
Yup. Perle decided the time was ripe for this admission. So, let’s see, we started an illegal war pretending that we were seeking threatening weapons (of “mass destruction”) though the hyped danger had no connection to the terrorist threat. And, 50% still support this Group? From Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4801223-103550,00.html
Dean’s words on regulation
No revolutionary, candidate Dean seeks “re-regulation” of U.S. businesses- utilities, large media companies, etc. part of a new social contract for the 21st century” to restore public trust in corporations, national leaders and U.S. military might. Dean blamed President Bush for eroding the public’s faith in these institutions…From the Washington Post (Jim VandeHei)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59183-2003Nov18?language=printer
Business Section talk:
The major periodicals all had notes to this effect, that the dollar’s fall to a record low against the euro was evidence of “sharply weaker capital flows”, which leads to renewed fears that the U.S. deficit will have trouble being funded. As the Financial Times(Jennifer Hughes, Jenny Wiggins) noted
'The September data is the strongest evidence to date that the record US current account deficit has become too large to finance through the net foreign investment into US securities, and is thus contributing to the long-term decline in the US dollar,' said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at the Bank of New York." Jennifer Hughes in London and Jenny Wiggins in New York http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069131973719&p=1012571727088
A Poll from Scotland (James Lyons)
The US President was branded a threat to world peace by 60%,
37% said Mr Bush was “stupid”
33% called him “incoherent”.
Only a minority saw positive characteristics in Mr Bush, with just 7% regarding him as a good world leader, 6% as articulate and 10% as intelligent.
A slim majority opposed the visit by 26% to 21%, although half did not care.
53% to 41% support the antiwar demonstrations in Britain
(http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2181946)
-R
I’ve mentioned a bit about my work with Fairness in Taxes for Everyone (FITE), (www.fairnessintaxes.org). We’re looking at the Massachusetts budgetary mess, urging restoration of a fair tax program so as to end this budget “crisis”, a situation created by tax giveaways in years past. We speak to the larger picture, of the ongoing thievery by elements of the very rich and their corporations, the plundering of the country’s public sector and the rewarding of everything “private.” Indeed, the central thread of Bush Administration policies is that all policies seek to transfer wealth to the Administration's wealthy patrons.
So, it’s reassuring when someone speaks to this overarching issue, as Dick Meyer does at cbs.com.
The emerging accounts of thievery in the world of mutual funds confirm, for me at least, something I have suspected since the go-go 1980s -- the existence of an economic predator class.
I believe there is now a professional, well-trained elite, supported by large institutions, that is adept and willing to use corrupt practices to accumulate wealth. Despite assurances from game-theorists and anthropologists that the criminal cadre in the species remains a constant percentage over time, I believe today's mainstream, sanitized, and institutionally sanctioned financial crime rackets are being run by a new breed of crook. There have always been scandals and crooks in the history of American money, but our predator class is a distinct creation of the late 20th century.
I believe there is no way the counter-class made up of regulators, watchdogs and do-gooders and hack columnists can match wits with the predator class. Today's piles of money are so huge, great fortunes can be amassed by swiping the tiniest of slices in the wiliest of ways long before picked pockets are discovered.
I also believe that my darling baby-boom generation and our successors in gens x and y, reared in raised consciousness, righteousness and me-first, are probably to blame.
The docket of this still running corporate crime spree has grown far too long to be dismissed as either a passing fluke, a few bad eggs or as regularly scheduled financial event. It is a more permanent condition of commercial culture. And it is barely scorned.
It is partly, of course, simple Wall Street and boardroom greed, a cousin to the greed and gargantuan rewards in entertainment and sports. It is partly the degradation of professional standards, of the concept of the fiduciary, akin to the same market-driven devolution in divergent fields such as medical care, Hollywood, publishing and, yes, journalism.
My guess is that financial historians will start the clock in this epoch with the big merger scandals of the 1980's -- Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken and scads of lesser cads. Next came the long running, now forgotten, S&L scandals. Then a lull (maybe), punctuated by the pretty picture of the tech boom. That delusional portrait was been redrawn when we learned of the rigged IPO's, insider trading, completely corrupt "analysis" practices at the Wall Street giants and old-fashioned flimflam.
Coveting the vast instant riches of the techno-boomers and baby billionaires was way more than many titans of less glamorous industries could bear and in virtually all companies executive salaries soared beyond all proportions of the post-war era. And in many of those executive suites, greed morphed into felony -- Tyco, Enron, Rite-Aid, Adelphia, Global Crossing, WorldCom, ImClone, Lucent, KMart, MicroStrategy, Qwest Communications. And then scandals at the supposed auditors, like Arthur Andersen, insulted the injury.
As the market turned down, the corporate crime spree didn't wane as some theorists said it should. Hot stocks, IPO's, M&A were no longer where the Willy Suttons with MBAs, Turnbull & Asser shirts and Patek Philipe watches saw the money. They saw it in those huge piles of money accumulated by working people for savings and retirement -- corporate pension funds, public pension funds, 401(k)'s and mutual funds. Who would notice a few mil or bil siphoned off in arcane late-trading deals? They'll never know what hit them.
So, pension funds were raided, an entirely legal scandal. And now we're learning about the mutual fund grifting rampage that may affect Main Street as much as prior fiascos: Putnam, Alger Management, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Strong Capital Management, PBHG Funds, Bank One Corp., Alliance Capital, Janus Capital Group are some of the implicated names.
So now we'll be told that the market, smarter than any deliberately organized system, will correct this. After all, who would invest in a known corrupt game? No one, so the market will fix it. Plus, the regulators are on the case.
This time, I don't buy it. The predator class will not be exterminated by cease and desist orders, Senate hearings, independent boards of directors and the invisible hand. It's a culture. And essentially, it's our culture. http://64.4.16.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=5e871a3d04016217bfc96b8df7ccc4b1&lat=1069348275&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecommondreams%2eorg%2fviews03%2f1119%2d11%2ehtm
Medicare:
So what does one do now, as Congress moves toward passing the AARP-endorsed bill? One course of action is to go the web site below, and take action! There you’ll learn a bit about AARP president Bill Novelli, the “life-long Republican political operative” who “wrote the preface to Newt Gingrich’s book on health care.” http://www.ourfuture.org/issues_and_campaigns/medicare/11_20_03.cfm
Typical Diplomatic Personnel Move
The Administration is changing its ambassador to Saudi Arabia. They’re nominating a Texas oil lobbyist to replace the oil industry lawyer who had been in the position. Charles Schumer, NY's senior senator, attacked the pick of James Oberwetter:
"It sort of says our entire relationship with Saudi Arabia is a three letter word: o-i-l. He has oil lobbying experience he doesn't have diplomatic experience. This should go to a top person in the State Department." http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/7303708.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Turkey Bombing Some predicted this, that if we brought a war to Iraq, we would spread the carnage to the environs. It was a good guess that al-Qaida wished to involve Turkey, and the country’s vehemence about aiding us in Iraq was not a good sign.
Anyway, Who did this? The Guardian reports:
The Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, the group which claimed responsibility for Sunday's synagogue bombing in Turkey, honours a former military commander of al-Qaida. The group's name is taken from a pseudonym of Mohammed Atef, aka Abu Hafs, who became a relative by marriage to Osama bin Laden before his death in a US missile strike almost exactly two years ago.
This is not the first time the name of Abu Hafs has surfaced in recent months. The same group claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the UN headquarters in Iraq in August.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/turkey/story/0,12700,1087673,00.html
Commentary
Mediachannel.org correspondent in Istanbul Adam McConnel has a potent summary of his thoughts on the bombings:
Why is this happening? There is one and only one reason—Iraq. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw went on TV today and claimed that these attacks were a "continuation" of 11 September. That is a patent falsehood.
These horrible attacks, along with more violence in neighboring countries, are happening because of the disorder in Iraq Regional experts had repeatedly warned that this would be the result of the invasion. With Iraq now drifting into anarchy, it is easier for militants to operate there and carry out attacks in the region.
Thank you, Mr. Straw for being so disingenuous. Now I would like you to look into the faces of the relatives of those who were killed or maimed in Saturday's and today's explosions and explain to them why these types of events were not happening before Iraq was invaded.
One thing that these blasts drive home is that the Saturday attacks were not aimed just at Jews — they were aimed at all of Turkey and the Western community in general. Life goes on as normal in Istanbul and will go on as normal. As I walked to my wife's office to send this email, I saw kids playing football in school yards and people going about their lives. This city has just survived 15 years of undeclared civil war and it will survive this. The blood of those who die in the meantime is, in my opinion, not just on the hands of those who commit such despicable acts, but also on the hands of thosewho made it possible: Bush, Cheney, Blair, Straw, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. http://64.224.42.246/weblog/dannylog.cfm
Liberal Radio: Progress reportThe previous company ran into trouble, so a slowed time-line. According to yahoo.com,
...a group headed by a former adviser to the Democratic National Committee has taken over the effort to create a liberal radio network to compete with conservative talk radio.
Mark Walsh, who's also a former America Online executive, said his investors' group bought the proposed network from the venture capitalists who started AnShell Media L.L.C. in February. The purchase price was not announced.
At the time, Sheldon and Anita Drobny said they had lined up $10 million and hoped to be on the air by this fall. But the Drobnys never hired any talent, purchased any stations or signed any distribution contracts. Walsh, who once served as the DNC's chief technology adviser, said Tuesday that he expects to be broadcasting by early next year.
Liberal comedian and author Al Franken said he was encouraged by the sale to Walsh's group and that he was talking with Walsh about developing a show. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20031120/ap_on_re_us/brf_radio_politics_1
So, was the invasion illegal. Yes, says Richard Perle?
Yup. Perle decided the time was ripe for this admission. So, let’s see, we started an illegal war pretending that we were seeking threatening weapons (of “mass destruction”) though the hyped danger had no connection to the terrorist threat. And, 50% still support this Group? From Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4801223-103550,00.html
Dean’s words on regulation
No revolutionary, candidate Dean seeks “re-regulation” of U.S. businesses- utilities, large media companies, etc. part of a new social contract for the 21st century” to restore public trust in corporations, national leaders and U.S. military might. Dean blamed President Bush for eroding the public’s faith in these institutions…From the Washington Post (Jim VandeHei)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A59183-2003Nov18?language=printer
Business Section talk:
The major periodicals all had notes to this effect, that the dollar’s fall to a record low against the euro was evidence of “sharply weaker capital flows”, which leads to renewed fears that the U.S. deficit will have trouble being funded. As the Financial Times(Jennifer Hughes, Jenny Wiggins) noted
'The September data is the strongest evidence to date that the record US current account deficit has become too large to finance through the net foreign investment into US securities, and is thus contributing to the long-term decline in the US dollar,' said Michael Woolfolk, senior currency strategist at the Bank of New York." Jennifer Hughes in London and Jenny Wiggins in New York http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1069131973719&p=1012571727088
A Poll from Scotland (James Lyons)
The US President was branded a threat to world peace by 60%,
37% said Mr Bush was “stupid”
33% called him “incoherent”.
Only a minority saw positive characteristics in Mr Bush, with just 7% regarding him as a good world leader, 6% as articulate and 10% as intelligent.
A slim majority opposed the visit by 26% to 21%, although half did not care.
53% to 41% support the antiwar demonstrations in Britain
(http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2181946)
-R
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Posing an interesting challenge to the Democrats running for president, Treasury Secretary John Snow last week dusted off yet another package of tax cuts for the you-know-who that President Bush would love to make part of his reelection year agenda. So many highest-income shelters to create, so little time.
Coming after a third round of goodies last spring and an autumn crammed with corporate scams (from the oil and gas boys to health insurance companies), the next round is designed to slip through the back door a virtual exclusion of investment income from taxation.
The rhetoric will be all about promoting saving, but the reality will be something quite different -- part of a careful rearrangement of the tax burden, as Senator John Edwards likes to say, away from wealth and onto ordinary income (the kind you work for).- Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe, 11/18
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/11/18/bush_readies_more_tax_breaks/
Medicare and AARP The Republican bill is awful. I’ll put aside recriminations about who helped this along in early stages (hint: same fellow who played ball with the Bushies on “Education Reform”). For now, let’s just focus on the destruction of Medicare that this bill would begin. They want to drain Medicare of healthier seniors, establish competition so as to encourage desertions to private plans, etc.
Consider:
Six million human lives times six. That’s how many members the “non-partisan” AARP has betrayed by backing the Bush-GOP prescription drug plan designed to help destabilize Medicare. Effectively, this is a drug pork bill that amounts to a $400 billion pass through from taxpayers to the US pharmaceutical industry, insurers and managed care operators. Employers will be provided with $70 billion in subsidies to jump start the program.
Earlier this year the AARP acknowledged how much damage the Bush-GOP drug plan would do to America's low income families and those living below the poverty line. But under intense political pressure from the White House and lobbyists the leaders of the organization flipped. http://www.bestoftheblogs.com/
A bit from E.J. Dionne:
The bipartisan proposal, crafted in cooperation with Sen. Ted Kennedy, was inadequate. Yet it was better than this bill. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly because it left the larger Medicare issues open for real debate later.
But House conservatives weren't willing to go that far. They want medical savings accounts, a tax cut for the wealthy in disguise, and they insisted on experiments with privatization.
But if privatization is such a good idea, why do the private insurance companies need such big subsidies to enter the Medicare market? The bill includes $12 billion for what Kennedy calls a "slush fund" to subsidize the private insurers. That's not capitalism or competition. It's corporate welfare. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54786-2003Nov17.html
And, let’s not forget:
"Critics say AARP, which formally unveiled its new headquarters building in downtown Washington last month, has softened its earlier militancy because it is preoccupied with its profit-making enterprises, including $100 million in earnings from the sale of insurance, mostly Medicare supplemental policies."
- Newsday, 10/21/2000
"AARP's receives more than $100 million in revenue from health insurers."
- Denver Post, 5/21/96
"Critics suggest that AARP's substantial profits from the sales of Medigap and other insurance policies, drug company advertising in its magazines, and investment schemes conflict with its interests on behalf of seniors...AARP President William Novelli acknowledged complaints from members that AARP has been too timid in the political battles to defend Medicare and Social Security. He conceded that AARP has pulled its punches since right-wing groups and members of Congress criticized it as too liberal."
- Newsday, 2/19/02
"AARP's pharmacy service is part of its insurance sales operation which generated $ 101 million in revenue last year - 17 percent of the organization's total budget."
- Capitol News Service, 8/15/02
"AARP receives millions of dollars from UnitedHealthcare, a national health insurance firm based in Minnesota."
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/24
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Lies, Reviewed/Revisited. Outstanding piece in the NY Review of Books. Thomas Powers makes the case that the role of intelligence is forever to be controlled by the integrity of the sitting president.
The problem is structural, not personal. Presidents can fire directors they don't like, and the CIA has no other customer. The big mistakes all come when presidents don't listen, or let it be known what they want to hear. The CIA is as serious, as prudent, as honest as the presidents for whom it works— never more. Directors deliver what is wanted, or depart.
He goes on to skewer Colin Powell, seizing on Powell’s February presentation to the UN.
Secretary of State Colin Powell's nose for deceit was sharper than the President's… “Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. My...purpose today," he said, "is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.... I cannot tell you everything that we know, but what I can share with you...is deeply troubling."
Then seizing on the Kay Report which had to admit that no weapons of mass destruction were found and that no wmd program existed prior to the invasion, Powers continues.
It is the first part of that sentence which answers the question whether Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States —no weapons found. The rest of the report is full of interesting detail about Iraqi science, industry, and technology but it contains not a single clear and unambiguous confirmation of any claim made by Colin Powell in his speech to the UN. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16813
(2) Supporting the Iraqi Resistance?
A BBC report notes that a group of Italian anti-war militants is raising funds to support the armed Iraqi resistance, the BBC has learned. The discovery comes as Italy mourns 19 men killed in a suicide attack in Iraq last week. The "Antiimperialista" organisation's internet campaign asks people to send "10 Euros to the Iraqi resistance." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3277029.stm
(3) The U.S. “Gets Tough” -Those were the words we heard in the past days, as we now drop 500 pound bombs, blow up buildings and drive our tanks through the streets so as to “intimidate” the insurgents. But the residents appeared to be at least a tad confused by the message the new tactic was delivering. .
”I don't see how this is going to work. People who really want to attack the Americans are not going to stop because a building has been destroyed," said one who declined to give his name.
More at www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=13&o=33494
(4) And, there are reports of our committing assassinations. Chalmers Johnson writes
As the Iraqi resistance expands and perfects its attacks, the American military, like so many occupying armies before it, is turning to methods of warfare long outlawed by civilized nations — assassinations and reprisals against civilians. . . . "The new Special Operations organization," according to reporters Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, "is designed to act with greater speed on intelligence tips about 'high-value targets' and not be contained within the borders where American conventional forces are operating in Iraq and Afghanistan." In other words, this death squad, composed of U.S. Army Special Forces troops, can run down its quarry in countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan but presumably also (if the occasion required it) in France, Germany, or even the United States itself.
The contradictions inherent in this plan are striking and tell us a great deal about what it means to be the lone planetary superpower. Although the Bush administration has refused to join the new International Criminal Court because it allegedly threatened our sovereignty, we now openly say that nobody else's sovereignty means anything to us at all. Without debate or oversight by elected officials, we are seemingly adopting a militarized version of globalization — sending "terminator" squads wherever we want to whenever we care to — whose operations will inevitably change the nature of our world, no matter how any individual attack may sort itself out. . . . (http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1070
9/11: Another report of slow going. From Robert Cohen of the Newark Star Ledger,
Last week's deal with the White House to gain access to highly classified presidential intelligence documents removed one major hurdle for the national commission investigating the 9/11 terror attacks, but more obstacles remain.
Already delayed by disputes with the Bush administration over access to sensitive information, the panel is confronting the daunting task of meeting a May 27 deadline to complete its huge undertaking.
Among the potential challenges: Possible roadblocks to gaining access to analysts who prepared intelligence reports; a looming battle with the White House over what information may be released to the public, and the possibility that partisan politics could intrude on the panel's work. tinyurl.com/vi49
From those “independent” conservatives: Since he gave large sums to progressive causes, George Soros has been under fierce attack from wealthy conservatives. This one takes an additional ‘tact.’
The fiction which is interdependency has a prolocutor in the congregation of Moloch. His name is George Soros. No other single person represents the symbol and the substance of Globalism more than this Hungarian-born descendant of Shylock. He is the embodiment of the Merchant from Venice. His public reputation as an astute currency speculator is generous, while his skills as a manipulator and procurer of pain and suffering is shrouded in the footnotes of the financial journals. Claiming to be a philanthropist, his record is literally one of being a patron for indentured enslavement. http://gopusa.com/sartre/sartre_1117.shtml
Dean and inevitability. With the unions, the money, the verve, the organization…establishment Democrats are worried. Electability will be pushed as a central problem, though Dean has some good answers on this one, how he could energize the electorate, the party, House races, etc. From the Christian Science Monitor (Linda Feldmann)
...there is a growing sense of inevitability among many political observers that, barring some unforeseen event or revelation, Dr. Dean will win the Democratic nomination" and this prospect has "sent some party members into paroxysms of private hand-wringing. Not only do they see him losing badly to Bush, they also see Dean hurting Democratic candidates further down on the ticket - rippling into congressional races, and possibly even boosting Republican control of the 100-seat Senate close to the crucial threshold of 60 seats, which would make it filibuster
In a memo last month, two Portland-based GOP pollsters warned that "Howard Dean can win because he believes in what he is saying, because he can semi-legitimately spin his record as governor into one of fiscal conservatism, and because he comes across as if he actually cares about people."
For Republicans, the nightmare is that voters think Dean will be so easy to defeat, they don't turn out in large enough numbers. The Portland pollsters, Hans Kaiser and Bob Moore, have constructed a chart that shows how Dean can win next year - even without winning Florida.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1118/p01s03-uspo.html
Powell and AIDS: Since I ‘targeted’ Colin earlier, let me add this piece about his contribution to the fight against AIDS: From the Independent (Hugh Macleod)
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has made an admission reminiscent of Gladstone by revealing that he and his wife Alma help to educate girls in Washington about the virtues of sexual abstinence.
The Victorian-era British prime minister would scour the streets searching for prostitutes to rescue and rehabilitate. Meanwhile, Mr Powell has described in an interview how he and his wife warn girls about the dangers of Aids. "Abstinence is a good thing to teach young people before they're ready for the responsibilities of sexual activity," Mr Powell said. "Abstinence works. We know it works ... and it is a perfectly sensible strategy to take to young people."
Mr Powell was drawing on his personal experience as he defended plans to spend one third of the $15bn (£8.8bn) the US has pledged to the global fight against Aids on abstinence projects.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=464467
-R
Coming after a third round of goodies last spring and an autumn crammed with corporate scams (from the oil and gas boys to health insurance companies), the next round is designed to slip through the back door a virtual exclusion of investment income from taxation.
The rhetoric will be all about promoting saving, but the reality will be something quite different -- part of a careful rearrangement of the tax burden, as Senator John Edwards likes to say, away from wealth and onto ordinary income (the kind you work for).- Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe, 11/18
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/11/18/bush_readies_more_tax_breaks/
Medicare and AARP The Republican bill is awful. I’ll put aside recriminations about who helped this along in early stages (hint: same fellow who played ball with the Bushies on “Education Reform”). For now, let’s just focus on the destruction of Medicare that this bill would begin. They want to drain Medicare of healthier seniors, establish competition so as to encourage desertions to private plans, etc.
Consider:
Six million human lives times six. That’s how many members the “non-partisan” AARP has betrayed by backing the Bush-GOP prescription drug plan designed to help destabilize Medicare. Effectively, this is a drug pork bill that amounts to a $400 billion pass through from taxpayers to the US pharmaceutical industry, insurers and managed care operators. Employers will be provided with $70 billion in subsidies to jump start the program.
Earlier this year the AARP acknowledged how much damage the Bush-GOP drug plan would do to America's low income families and those living below the poverty line. But under intense political pressure from the White House and lobbyists the leaders of the organization flipped. http://www.bestoftheblogs.com/
A bit from E.J. Dionne:
The bipartisan proposal, crafted in cooperation with Sen. Ted Kennedy, was inadequate. Yet it was better than this bill. It passed the Senate overwhelmingly because it left the larger Medicare issues open for real debate later.
But House conservatives weren't willing to go that far. They want medical savings accounts, a tax cut for the wealthy in disguise, and they insisted on experiments with privatization.
But if privatization is such a good idea, why do the private insurance companies need such big subsidies to enter the Medicare market? The bill includes $12 billion for what Kennedy calls a "slush fund" to subsidize the private insurers. That's not capitalism or competition. It's corporate welfare. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54786-2003Nov17.html
And, let’s not forget:
"Critics say AARP, which formally unveiled its new headquarters building in downtown Washington last month, has softened its earlier militancy because it is preoccupied with its profit-making enterprises, including $100 million in earnings from the sale of insurance, mostly Medicare supplemental policies."
- Newsday, 10/21/2000
"AARP's receives more than $100 million in revenue from health insurers."
- Denver Post, 5/21/96
"Critics suggest that AARP's substantial profits from the sales of Medigap and other insurance policies, drug company advertising in its magazines, and investment schemes conflict with its interests on behalf of seniors...AARP President William Novelli acknowledged complaints from members that AARP has been too timid in the political battles to defend Medicare and Social Security. He conceded that AARP has pulled its punches since right-wing groups and members of Congress criticized it as too liberal."
- Newsday, 2/19/02
"AARP's pharmacy service is part of its insurance sales operation which generated $ 101 million in revenue last year - 17 percent of the organization's total budget."
- Capitol News Service, 8/15/02
"AARP receives millions of dollars from UnitedHealthcare, a national health insurance firm based in Minnesota."
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/24
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Lies, Reviewed/Revisited. Outstanding piece in the NY Review of Books. Thomas Powers makes the case that the role of intelligence is forever to be controlled by the integrity of the sitting president.
The problem is structural, not personal. Presidents can fire directors they don't like, and the CIA has no other customer. The big mistakes all come when presidents don't listen, or let it be known what they want to hear. The CIA is as serious, as prudent, as honest as the presidents for whom it works— never more. Directors deliver what is wanted, or depart.
He goes on to skewer Colin Powell, seizing on Powell’s February presentation to the UN.
Secretary of State Colin Powell's nose for deceit was sharper than the President's… “Every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we're giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. My...purpose today," he said, "is to provide you with additional information, to share with you what the United States knows about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.... I cannot tell you everything that we know, but what I can share with you...is deeply troubling."
Then seizing on the Kay Report which had to admit that no weapons of mass destruction were found and that no wmd program existed prior to the invasion, Powers continues.
It is the first part of that sentence which answers the question whether Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States —no weapons found. The rest of the report is full of interesting detail about Iraqi science, industry, and technology but it contains not a single clear and unambiguous confirmation of any claim made by Colin Powell in his speech to the UN. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/16813
(2) Supporting the Iraqi Resistance?
A BBC report notes that a group of Italian anti-war militants is raising funds to support the armed Iraqi resistance, the BBC has learned. The discovery comes as Italy mourns 19 men killed in a suicide attack in Iraq last week. The "Antiimperialista" organisation's internet campaign asks people to send "10 Euros to the Iraqi resistance." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3277029.stm
(3) The U.S. “Gets Tough” -Those were the words we heard in the past days, as we now drop 500 pound bombs, blow up buildings and drive our tanks through the streets so as to “intimidate” the insurgents. But the residents appeared to be at least a tad confused by the message the new tactic was delivering. .
”I don't see how this is going to work. People who really want to attack the Americans are not going to stop because a building has been destroyed," said one who declined to give his name.
More at www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?a=13&o=33494
(4) And, there are reports of our committing assassinations. Chalmers Johnson writes
As the Iraqi resistance expands and perfects its attacks, the American military, like so many occupying armies before it, is turning to methods of warfare long outlawed by civilized nations — assassinations and reprisals against civilians. . . . "The new Special Operations organization," according to reporters Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, "is designed to act with greater speed on intelligence tips about 'high-value targets' and not be contained within the borders where American conventional forces are operating in Iraq and Afghanistan." In other words, this death squad, composed of U.S. Army Special Forces troops, can run down its quarry in countries like Yemen, Saudi Arabia, or Pakistan but presumably also (if the occasion required it) in France, Germany, or even the United States itself.
The contradictions inherent in this plan are striking and tell us a great deal about what it means to be the lone planetary superpower. Although the Bush administration has refused to join the new International Criminal Court because it allegedly threatened our sovereignty, we now openly say that nobody else's sovereignty means anything to us at all. Without debate or oversight by elected officials, we are seemingly adopting a militarized version of globalization — sending "terminator" squads wherever we want to whenever we care to — whose operations will inevitably change the nature of our world, no matter how any individual attack may sort itself out. . . . (http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1070
9/11: Another report of slow going. From Robert Cohen of the Newark Star Ledger,
Last week's deal with the White House to gain access to highly classified presidential intelligence documents removed one major hurdle for the national commission investigating the 9/11 terror attacks, but more obstacles remain.
Already delayed by disputes with the Bush administration over access to sensitive information, the panel is confronting the daunting task of meeting a May 27 deadline to complete its huge undertaking.
Among the potential challenges: Possible roadblocks to gaining access to analysts who prepared intelligence reports; a looming battle with the White House over what information may be released to the public, and the possibility that partisan politics could intrude on the panel's work. tinyurl.com/vi49
From those “independent” conservatives: Since he gave large sums to progressive causes, George Soros has been under fierce attack from wealthy conservatives. This one takes an additional ‘tact.’
The fiction which is interdependency has a prolocutor in the congregation of Moloch. His name is George Soros. No other single person represents the symbol and the substance of Globalism more than this Hungarian-born descendant of Shylock. He is the embodiment of the Merchant from Venice. His public reputation as an astute currency speculator is generous, while his skills as a manipulator and procurer of pain and suffering is shrouded in the footnotes of the financial journals. Claiming to be a philanthropist, his record is literally one of being a patron for indentured enslavement. http://gopusa.com/sartre/sartre_1117.shtml
Dean and inevitability. With the unions, the money, the verve, the organization…establishment Democrats are worried. Electability will be pushed as a central problem, though Dean has some good answers on this one, how he could energize the electorate, the party, House races, etc. From the Christian Science Monitor (Linda Feldmann)
...there is a growing sense of inevitability among many political observers that, barring some unforeseen event or revelation, Dr. Dean will win the Democratic nomination" and this prospect has "sent some party members into paroxysms of private hand-wringing. Not only do they see him losing badly to Bush, they also see Dean hurting Democratic candidates further down on the ticket - rippling into congressional races, and possibly even boosting Republican control of the 100-seat Senate close to the crucial threshold of 60 seats, which would make it filibuster
In a memo last month, two Portland-based GOP pollsters warned that "Howard Dean can win because he believes in what he is saying, because he can semi-legitimately spin his record as governor into one of fiscal conservatism, and because he comes across as if he actually cares about people."
For Republicans, the nightmare is that voters think Dean will be so easy to defeat, they don't turn out in large enough numbers. The Portland pollsters, Hans Kaiser and Bob Moore, have constructed a chart that shows how Dean can win next year - even without winning Florida.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1118/p01s03-uspo.html
Powell and AIDS: Since I ‘targeted’ Colin earlier, let me add this piece about his contribution to the fight against AIDS: From the Independent (Hugh Macleod)
Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has made an admission reminiscent of Gladstone by revealing that he and his wife Alma help to educate girls in Washington about the virtues of sexual abstinence.
The Victorian-era British prime minister would scour the streets searching for prostitutes to rescue and rehabilitate. Meanwhile, Mr Powell has described in an interview how he and his wife warn girls about the dangers of Aids. "Abstinence is a good thing to teach young people before they're ready for the responsibilities of sexual activity," Mr Powell said. "Abstinence works. We know it works ... and it is a perfectly sensible strategy to take to young people."
Mr Powell was drawing on his personal experience as he defended plans to spend one third of the $15bn (£8.8bn) the US has pledged to the global fight against Aids on abstinence projects.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=464467
-R
Sunday, November 16, 2003
You have a war fought by the underclass, financed by the underclass and for the profit of the upperclass…I think Bush's going to lose [the election], unless he makes some radical change, which he's not going to do. -Seymour Hersh, at the Fletcher School, Tufts
More Abuses by the Ruling Class:
This past week we were provided with part 2 of the Globe’s two-part report on how scores of foundations whose tax returns show that officers and directors are themselves the principal beneficiaries of foundation assets that are intended for charitable causes. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/09/some_officers_of_charities_steer_assets_to_selves/.
It’s fitting then that we learn that House Majority leader Tom DeLay and Senate head Bill Frist have played fast and loose with charities as well. DeLay set up a charity for abused children which will divert some of the funds raised to the 2004 GOP convention.
... aides to Mr. DeLay... acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises... Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 which pushed campaign financelaws said that "They are using the idea of helping children as a blatant cover for financing activities in connection with a convention with huge unlimited, undisclosed, unregulated contributions.”http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/politics/14DELA.html
Surprise!: SEC Weak on Oversight
We knew that this era has not been kind to oversight/regulatory agencies. But, the NY Times thought it notable enough to give it front-page status. (Stephen Labaton)
The Securities and Exchange Commission failed for years to police the mutual fund industry effectively because it was captive to the industry when writing new regulations, was preoccupied by other problems on Wall Street and was severely short of staff and money, current and former officials say
"I believe this is the worst scandal we've seen in 50 years, and I can't say I saw it coming," said Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly eight years under the Clinton administration. "I probably worried about funds less than insider trading, accounting issues and fair disclosure to investors" by public companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/business/16FUND.html?hp
WMD/Terror: Who’s #1?: The backdrop: Bush visiting England this week; polls in Europe find that Europeans believe Israel and the U.S. are bigger threats to peace than North Korea, Iran, et al. And, we know that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Syria, etc. all were more involved in “international terrorism” than Iraq. Walter Pincus in Sunday’s Washington Post reminds us of this once again.
The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert.
Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, provided new details about the weapons search and Iraqi insurgency in a report released Friday. It was based on briefings over the past two weeks in Iraq from David Kay, the CIA representative who is directing the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq; L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator there; and military officials.
"No evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons of mass destruction or weapons to terrorists," Cordesman wrote of Kay's briefing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46460-2003Nov15.html
Ongoing Issue: Media Outlets Protest Treatment in Iraq
Editor and Publisher reports on the ongoing harassment of journalists in Iraq. [This does not address deaths of journalists who, some observers felt, were targeted early in the invasion.]
In two separate letters to the Pentagon, the press claims that U.S. troops are harassing journalists in Iraq and sometimes confiscating equipment, digital camera disks and videotapes.
The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) wrote a letter of protest to Larry Di Rita, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. Some soldiers' actions "appear intended to discourage journalists from covering the continued military action in Iraq," wrote APME President Stuart Wilk, also vice president/managing editor at The Dallas Morning News.
"These actions are unacceptable and contrary to the Pentagon's own guidelines distributed to troops in the field," Wilk wrote. The harassment has deprived "the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast stations and online news operations."
APME asked the Pentagon to immediately take steps to end confrontations between journalists and soldiers. http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=8248036&fb=Y&partnerID=60
Globalization: Credit the NY Times magazine with running an article on Lisa Fithian, activist against globalization (as we know it). Austin Bunn’s article reminds us the upcoming- and underpublicized- Miami talks and protests.
On a rain-soaked October night in Miami, the police have commandeered downtown. It is midnight, and patrol cars cordon off the streets of run-down delis and dollar stores. Dozens of black-clad officers maneuver and bullhorn in the distance, practicing their tactics. ''We're expecting about 70,000 to 100,000 protesters to come down here in November,'' says a beat cop, guarding a corner from his squad car. ''Our guys are doing exercises all around.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/magazine/16WTO.html
Frank Rich: Reagan and AIDS
Frank Rich’s Sunday column helps remind anyone who might be romanticizing the Reagan years that the Gipper and his policies were anything but warm and fuzzy.
Tonight is the night when Americans might have tuned into Part 1 of "The Reagans" on CBS. But the joke is on the whiners who forced the mini-series off the air. Just three weeks from tonight, HBO will present the first three-hour installment of Mike Nichols's film version of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep. (Part 2 is a week later.) This epic is, among other things, a searing indictment of how the Reagan administration's long silence stoked the plague of AIDS in the 1980's. If "Angels" reaches an audience typical for HBO hits, it could detonate a debate bloody enough to make the fight over "The Reagans" look like an exhibition bout. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/arts/16RICH.html
Different Gift Giving:
I’m not pushing “holiday gift-giving”, but an off-beat gift for a left-leaning, rabble-rouser type- or an open-minded conservative, or…- could be the new dvd Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. As the promo notes, ‘Uncovered…’ is a new documentary that explores the lies and exaggerations of the Bush White House as it marched to war, featuring interviews with key military and intelligence officers, embassy personnel, UN weapons inspectors, journalists, and others with direct, first-hand experience. http://www.truthuncovered.com/
John McCain, from his web-site
I’m not a fan, but think it important to keep track of his positions.
When the United States announces a schedule for training and deploying Iraqi security officers, then announces the acceleration of that schedule, then accelerates it again, it sends a signal of desperation, not certitude. When in the course of days we increase by thousands our estimate of the numbers of Iraqis trained, it sounds like somebody is cooking the books. When we do this as our forces are coming under increasing attack, we suggest to friends and allies alike that our ultimate goal in Iraq is leaving as soon as possible – not meeting our strategic objective of building a free and democratic country in the heart of the Arab world. http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newscenter.ViewPressRelease&Content_id=1174
-R
More Abuses by the Ruling Class:
This past week we were provided with part 2 of the Globe’s two-part report on how scores of foundations whose tax returns show that officers and directors are themselves the principal beneficiaries of foundation assets that are intended for charitable causes. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/10/09/some_officers_of_charities_steer_assets_to_selves/.
It’s fitting then that we learn that House Majority leader Tom DeLay and Senate head Bill Frist have played fast and loose with charities as well. DeLay set up a charity for abused children which will divert some of the funds raised to the 2004 GOP convention.
... aides to Mr. DeLay... acknowledged that part of the money would go to pay for late-night convention parties, a luxury suite during President Bush's speech at Madison Square Garden and yacht cruises... Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21 which pushed campaign financelaws said that "They are using the idea of helping children as a blatant cover for financing activities in connection with a convention with huge unlimited, undisclosed, unregulated contributions.”http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/14/politics/14DELA.html
Surprise!: SEC Weak on Oversight
We knew that this era has not been kind to oversight/regulatory agencies. But, the NY Times thought it notable enough to give it front-page status. (Stephen Labaton)
The Securities and Exchange Commission failed for years to police the mutual fund industry effectively because it was captive to the industry when writing new regulations, was preoccupied by other problems on Wall Street and was severely short of staff and money, current and former officials say
"I believe this is the worst scandal we've seen in 50 years, and I can't say I saw it coming," said Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission for nearly eight years under the Clinton administration. "I probably worried about funds less than insider trading, accounting issues and fair disclosure to investors" by public companies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/business/16FUND.html?hp
WMD/Terror: Who’s #1?: The backdrop: Bush visiting England this week; polls in Europe find that Europeans believe Israel and the U.S. are bigger threats to peace than North Korea, Iran, et al. And, we know that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Iran, Syria, etc. all were more involved in “international terrorism” than Iraq. Walter Pincus in Sunday’s Washington Post reminds us of this once again.
The CIA's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has found no evidence that former president Saddam Hussein tried to transfer chemical or biological technology or weapons to terrorists, according to a military and intelligence expert.
Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, provided new details about the weapons search and Iraqi insurgency in a report released Friday. It was based on briefings over the past two weeks in Iraq from David Kay, the CIA representative who is directing the search for unconventional weapons in Iraq; L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator there; and military officials.
"No evidence of any Iraqi effort to transfer weapons of mass destruction or weapons to terrorists," Cordesman wrote of Kay's briefing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46460-2003Nov15.html
Ongoing Issue: Media Outlets Protest Treatment in Iraq
Editor and Publisher reports on the ongoing harassment of journalists in Iraq. [This does not address deaths of journalists who, some observers felt, were targeted early in the invasion.]
In two separate letters to the Pentagon, the press claims that U.S. troops are harassing journalists in Iraq and sometimes confiscating equipment, digital camera disks and videotapes.
The Associated Press Managing Editors (APME) wrote a letter of protest to Larry Di Rita, acting assistant secretary of defense for public affairs. Some soldiers' actions "appear intended to discourage journalists from covering the continued military action in Iraq," wrote APME President Stuart Wilk, also vice president/managing editor at The Dallas Morning News.
"These actions are unacceptable and contrary to the Pentagon's own guidelines distributed to troops in the field," Wilk wrote. The harassment has deprived "the American public of crucial images from Iraq in newspapers, broadcast stations and online news operations."
APME asked the Pentagon to immediately take steps to end confrontations between journalists and soldiers. http://editorandpublisher.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&expire=&urlID=8248036&fb=Y&partnerID=60
Globalization: Credit the NY Times magazine with running an article on Lisa Fithian, activist against globalization (as we know it). Austin Bunn’s article reminds us the upcoming- and underpublicized- Miami talks and protests.
On a rain-soaked October night in Miami, the police have commandeered downtown. It is midnight, and patrol cars cordon off the streets of run-down delis and dollar stores. Dozens of black-clad officers maneuver and bullhorn in the distance, practicing their tactics. ''We're expecting about 70,000 to 100,000 protesters to come down here in November,'' says a beat cop, guarding a corner from his squad car. ''Our guys are doing exercises all around.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/magazine/16WTO.html
Frank Rich: Reagan and AIDS
Frank Rich’s Sunday column helps remind anyone who might be romanticizing the Reagan years that the Gipper and his policies were anything but warm and fuzzy.
Tonight is the night when Americans might have tuned into Part 1 of "The Reagans" on CBS. But the joke is on the whiners who forced the mini-series off the air. Just three weeks from tonight, HBO will present the first three-hour installment of Mike Nichols's film version of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep. (Part 2 is a week later.) This epic is, among other things, a searing indictment of how the Reagan administration's long silence stoked the plague of AIDS in the 1980's. If "Angels" reaches an audience typical for HBO hits, it could detonate a debate bloody enough to make the fight over "The Reagans" look like an exhibition bout. http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/16/arts/16RICH.html
Different Gift Giving:
I’m not pushing “holiday gift-giving”, but an off-beat gift for a left-leaning, rabble-rouser type- or an open-minded conservative, or…- could be the new dvd Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War. As the promo notes, ‘Uncovered…’ is a new documentary that explores the lies and exaggerations of the Bush White House as it marched to war, featuring interviews with key military and intelligence officers, embassy personnel, UN weapons inspectors, journalists, and others with direct, first-hand experience. http://www.truthuncovered.com/
John McCain, from his web-site
I’m not a fan, but think it important to keep track of his positions.
When the United States announces a schedule for training and deploying Iraqi security officers, then announces the acceleration of that schedule, then accelerates it again, it sends a signal of desperation, not certitude. When in the course of days we increase by thousands our estimate of the numbers of Iraqis trained, it sounds like somebody is cooking the books. When we do this as our forces are coming under increasing attack, we suggest to friends and allies alike that our ultimate goal in Iraq is leaving as soon as possible – not meeting our strategic objective of building a free and democratic country in the heart of the Arab world. http://mccain.senate.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=Newscenter.ViewPressRelease&Content_id=1174
-R
