Thursday, July 22, 2004
"Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilisation."
"Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected."- the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201, 3/7/04 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040317/325/eotq9.html
9/11 Commission Report: No surprises; For now, suffice to say that everyone’s spinning the ‘bi-partisan’ report that has effectively protected Bush. We shouldn’t forget that at every juncture, the Administration opposed, delayed, restricted, blocked, rushed the Commission.
Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry’s) Shows His Respect (for Bush):
Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream co-founder Ben Cohen on his Pants on Fire Tour, in which volunteers drive around the country toting a 12-foot-tall effigy of President Bush with flames shooting out of the bottom of his "Mission Accomplished" flight suit: "In a polite society, you don't go up to a person and look at them in the face and say, 'You're a liar.' We think it's a lot more dignified and there's a lot more decorum to say, 'Excuse me sir, your pants are getting a little warm, don't you think?' Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Pants%20on%20Fire
G.W. Pinocchio: Cubans Blast Bush
Cubans blasted President Bush on Saturday after he accused Fidel Castro of turning the island into a major spot for sex tourism and child prostitution.
"I've never heard anything as pig-filthy as that," said Marta Rojas, a celebrated Cuban author. "The nose of Pinocchio" - as some Cubans call Bush - "is so long, it can't get any longer." http://www.omaha.com/toolbox/story_printer.php?u_id=1151235&u_brow=Internet+Explorer&u_ver=5
Berger: (continued) And, if he knew since last Fall that he was ‘under investigation’, then why did he join the Kerry campaign team? Oy vey.
President Bush on Wednesday described the federal inquiry into Clinton White House national security adviser Sandy Berger's mishandling of classified documents as "a very serious matter."
Meanwhile, the FBI did not consider the incident to be a major threat to national security, a government official said.
Also Wednesday, the House Government Reform Committee announced it would launch a separate investigation into the matter. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-07-21-bush-berger_x.htm
So reassuring that he finds this to be serious.
Health Care: Another recommendation: Wall Street Journal (Sarah Lueck)
In a sign of rising anxiety about health-care costs, a nonpartisan coalition of companies, unions, consumer groups and political leaders called for establishing an independent board to help bring the growth of medical spending in the U.S. to the rate of economic growth in the next five years.
Under the coalition's vision, such a board would be overseen by Congress and include members from the public and private sectors.
It would set limits for reimbursement rates paid to physicians and hospitals for a set package of core medical benefits and restrict increases in insurance premiums. Quality and technology improvements should be made to further reduce costs, the report said.
The recommendation was one of several in a report from the National Coalition on Health Care that calls for a sweeping overhaul of the health-care system.
U.S. spending on health care has been growing faster than the overall economy. This year, it will account for an estimated 15.5% of the nation's gross domestic product, compared with 13.3% in 2000, according to government data.
The report is unlikely to result in any changes anytime soon. There is little appetite in Congress to take on a task so enormous and controversial -- passing the Medicare drug benefit alone last year turned out to be a bruising battle. Still, the report is an attempt to frame a national debate on health care at a critical time. And the fact that such a broad coalition is backing major change -- its honorary co-chairmen are former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford -- indicates deepening concern over the impact of health costs among its nearly 100 members, which include large companies, health-care provider groups, insurers and pension funds.
The coalition recommended that all Americans get health insurance within a few years of legislation being enacted, without saying exactly how coverage should be expanded. About 82 million people spent some portion of 2002 and last year without coverage, and the report cites a "sense of foreboding" among millions of insured Americans about the security of their own coverage.
The report's recommendations are far more aggressive than the health proposals from President Bush or his challenger, Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), neither of which would provide universal coverage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109036512290769165,00.html?mod=world_news_whats_news
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With at least 20 roadside bombs each day, the troops are sticking closer to the base.
After more than a year of fighting, U.S. troops have stopped patrolling large swaths of Iraq's restive Anbar province, according to the top American military intelligence officer in the area.
Most U.S. Army officers interviewed this week said the patrols in and around the province's capital, Ramadi - home to many Iraqi military and intelligence officers under Saddam Hussein - have stopped largely because the soldiers and commanders there were tired of being shot at by insurgents who've refused to back down under heavy American military pressure.
Asked for comment, officials from the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines in Ramadi - which makes up about one-fifth of the forces there - provided a 21-year-old corporal, who confirmed that the Marines have discontinued patrols, but said it was because of the hand-over of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government.
While American officials in Ramadi wouldn't provide exact figures for the change in numbers of patrols, there's obviously been a significant drop.
After losing dozens of men to a "voiceless, faceless mass of people" with no clear leadership or political aim other than killing American soldiers, the U.S. military has had to re-evaluate the situation, said Army Maj. Thomas Neemeyer, the head American intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, the main military force in the Ramadi area and from there to Fallujah.
"They cannot militarily overwhelm us, but we cannot deliver a knockout blow, either," he said. "It creates a form of stalemate." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9200682.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Upping the Ante in Afghanistan:
Ongoing reports / rumors of escalation
A recent report by US think-tank Strategic Forecasting suggested that since "sovereignty" had now been transferred to Iraq, the United States would give its full attention to the problem of al-Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas. Already this year, at the instigation of Washington, the Pakistani army has launched two military offensives into South Waziristan to track down foreign elements, with marginal success. All signs now point to another offensive, but this time Islamabad and Washington have agreed that US troops stationed across the border in Afghanistan will take an active part in the action on Pakistani soil, rather than wait for suspects to be flushed out into their waiting arms. Similarly, Pakistani troops will be able to engage in hot-pursuit operations into Afghan territory. http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG21Df02.html
One sign of such activity
Some 200,000 Afghan refugees have been living in the remote border areas of Pakistan, in poor and insecure conditions. In the past few weeks, as the Pakistani operations in the tribal area of South Waziristan have risen in strength and, according to some reports, prompted a matching increase in militant resistance, 25,000 people have poured back into Afghanistan, refugee officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/international/asia/21afgh.html
Republican Disappointment w/ Bush:
Still another expression of it, in the Wall Street Journal (Jackie Calmes)
Republicans who criticize Mr. Bush's lack of a clear domestic agenda won't do so for the record. But Doug Bandow, a scholar with the libertarian Cato Institute, which until the past year was often in sync with the administration, says, "It strikes me that what he's proved in governing is he doesn't really have a domestic agenda" amid the post-9/11 distractions of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Bandow, among other supporters of partial privatization, is somewhat skeptical that Mr. Bush will propose to overhaul Social Security, or, if he does, that he will follow through in a second term. In his first, Mr. Bush named a commission to recommend changes, but it reached no consensus. The White House shelved the issue.
Meanwhile, deficits have risen, the stock market fell, a mutual-fund industry that would be central to a private-accounts plan has become embroiled in scandal and Congress is more polarized then ever -- all of which significantly lessen the odds for success in overhauling the nation's most venerable program.
Nonetheless, at the White House, Mr. Bartlett says a Social Security proposal is "sure" to be high on Mr. Bush's list: "We think we proved in 2000, not only could you touch the third rail, you could ride it all the way to victory." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109037348984269399,00.html?mod=world_news_whats_news
Pete Peterson Warns of Fiscal Crisis. The former Nixon Commerce Secretary and respected fiscal conservative had urged Bush to use the inherited (from Clinton) surplus to “fix Medicare and Social Security.” Bush folk had replied that ‘tax cuts come first.’ The rest is history. A review essay by Farhad Manjoo.
As he describes in his brilliant new book, "Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It," he has offered the same practical advice for decades -- Reform long-term entitlements! -- to presidents and lawmakers of both parties. His words have gone almost universally unheeded.
The Democrats he encounters either refuse to believe that there's a problem with Social Security and Medicare, or they insist that it's a problem we can solve with a few small, painless tax increases and other legislative tweaks. Republicans concede there might be a problem, but they're not too concerned about it; for them, the government's inability to fund two massive social programs fits well with a small-government, libertarian ethos.
During the past 50 years, both sides have not only ignored the challenges ahead but have exacerbated them by more or less simultaneously approving giant tax cuts and spending increases. Thanks to their actions, we are all in profound trouble. As Peterson methodically lays out, when the tab comes due over the coming decades, Americans will face a grim choice: To pay for the retirement and skyrocketing healthcare costs of the baby boomers, taxes on future working Americans -- that is, on today's young people -- will need to be hiked substantially or benefits to the elderly will have to be drastically reduced. If no policy changes are made, in about 20 years or so "the whole dynamic spins out of control," Peterson says -- eventually, spending on Social Security and Medicare will consume such a huge percentage of national income that the nation's economy could "simply shatter." But we could be in trouble even before then: In a scenario that people like Robert Rubin, Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker and economists at the International Monetary Fund have recently been fretting about, our mountain of debt might soon lead foreigners to suddenly sour on the United States, causing the dollar to plunge, interest rates to spike, and global recession to follow. Volcker, the longtime chief of the Federal Reserve during the 1980s, tells Peterson that he sees a 75 percent chance of such a crisis occurring within five years. http://www.salon.com/books/review/2004/07/21/peterson/print.html
Principles: Bushies Block Tax Cut- Huh?
The White House helped to block a Republican-brokered deal on Wednesday to extend several middle-class tax cuts, fearful of a bill that could draw Democratic votes and dilute a Republican campaign theme, Republican negotiators said.
The impasse was the latest sign of deep rifts among Republicans about budget issues. House and Senate Republicans had badly wanted to pass a popular tax-cutting bill before the Democratic convention next week.
But in an improbable series of machinations, White House officials opposed the tentative deal worked out between House and Senate Republican leaders that would have extended the tax cuts for two years at a cost of about $80 billion.
That left Republicans conceding that the tax-cutting effort is over, at least until Congress returns from its recess in September. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/politics/22tax.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Ah, politics
Speaking of which, brace yourself for a shameless return of compassionate conservatism.
Here is a television image that organizers of the Republican National Convention are fantasizing about: Protesters clog the area around Madison Square Garden, inconveniencing commuters and being arrested. Cameras pan to Republican delegates feeding the homeless in the Bronx, packing up supplies for Iraqi schoolchildren, passing time with poor children in a Staten Island day camp.
Starting on Saturday, convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention. But the campaign - known as Compassion Across America - will continue at the Republican National Convention in New York in August.
"The central theme is to respond to the president's call to provide service in our own communities," said Brian Noyes, the director of delegate and caucus for the Republican convention. "We want to highlight that challenge."
In New York on Sunday, as Democratic delegates gather in Boston, Republican convention volunteers will staff the Lower East Side Food Pantry, and on Monday, the chairman of the New York State Republican Party, Sandy Treadwell, will join delegates on the Upper East Side to pack up supply kits for Iraqi schoolchildren. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/nyregion/22volunteers.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Polls:
*Missouri: Kerry 46%, Bush 44% (Kansas City Star)
*Florida: Kerry 46%, Bush 46% (Sayfie)
*National: Investors Business Daily: Kerry leading Bush 44% to 41%. In a three way race, Kerry leads 42% to 40%, with Nader getting 4%.
*National: Pew Research Center has a new poll showing Kerry leading Bush 46% to 44% with Nader at 3%.
*Rasmussen: Kerry now leads in our Electoral College projections 254 to 197. However, that lead is more fragile than it appears. If the Senator lost a single percentage point in just four states (Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Ohio), President Bush would hold the lead. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm
*Fox: Kerry 44%, Bush 43%, Nader 3%. [First time Fox had Kerry in the lead.]
*Arizona: Kerry 42%, Bush 41% (KAET-TV)
*North Carolina: Mason Dixon has Bush up 3, but Gallup has him up 56-41
Place Your Bets…
-R
"Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected."- the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the Madrid bombings that killed 201, 3/7/04 http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040317/325/eotq9.html
9/11 Commission Report: No surprises; For now, suffice to say that everyone’s spinning the ‘bi-partisan’ report that has effectively protected Bush. We shouldn’t forget that at every juncture, the Administration opposed, delayed, restricted, blocked, rushed the Commission.
Ben Cohen (of Ben & Jerry’s) Shows His Respect (for Bush):
Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream co-founder Ben Cohen on his Pants on Fire Tour, in which volunteers drive around the country toting a 12-foot-tall effigy of President Bush with flames shooting out of the bottom of his "Mission Accomplished" flight suit: "In a polite society, you don't go up to a person and look at them in the face and say, 'You're a liar.' We think it's a lot more dignified and there's a lot more decorum to say, 'Excuse me sir, your pants are getting a little warm, don't you think?' Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. Portraying flames shooting out of the pants of the president isn't disrespectful, Cohen argued.
"I believe that it's disrespectful of the president to essentially lead the country based on lies," he said. "If that happens, then I believe it's actually our patriotic duty to make people aware of it."
The PantsOnFire-Mobile will spend two weeks in Spokane before rolling off to Seattle. The tour began last November on Long Island, N.Y., and will continue until the Nov. 2 elections. It has already made stops in Florida, Texas, Arizona and Colorado. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Pants%20on%20Fire
G.W. Pinocchio: Cubans Blast Bush
Cubans blasted President Bush on Saturday after he accused Fidel Castro of turning the island into a major spot for sex tourism and child prostitution.
"I've never heard anything as pig-filthy as that," said Marta Rojas, a celebrated Cuban author. "The nose of Pinocchio" - as some Cubans call Bush - "is so long, it can't get any longer." http://www.omaha.com/toolbox/story_printer.php?u_id=1151235&u_brow=Internet+Explorer&u_ver=5
Berger: (continued) And, if he knew since last Fall that he was ‘under investigation’, then why did he join the Kerry campaign team? Oy vey.
President Bush on Wednesday described the federal inquiry into Clinton White House national security adviser Sandy Berger's mishandling of classified documents as "a very serious matter."
Meanwhile, the FBI did not consider the incident to be a major threat to national security, a government official said.
Also Wednesday, the House Government Reform Committee announced it would launch a separate investigation into the matter. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-07-21-bush-berger_x.htm
So reassuring that he finds this to be serious.
Health Care: Another recommendation: Wall Street Journal (Sarah Lueck)
In a sign of rising anxiety about health-care costs, a nonpartisan coalition of companies, unions, consumer groups and political leaders called for establishing an independent board to help bring the growth of medical spending in the U.S. to the rate of economic growth in the next five years.
Under the coalition's vision, such a board would be overseen by Congress and include members from the public and private sectors.
It would set limits for reimbursement rates paid to physicians and hospitals for a set package of core medical benefits and restrict increases in insurance premiums. Quality and technology improvements should be made to further reduce costs, the report said.
The recommendation was one of several in a report from the National Coalition on Health Care that calls for a sweeping overhaul of the health-care system.
U.S. spending on health care has been growing faster than the overall economy. This year, it will account for an estimated 15.5% of the nation's gross domestic product, compared with 13.3% in 2000, according to government data.
The report is unlikely to result in any changes anytime soon. There is little appetite in Congress to take on a task so enormous and controversial -- passing the Medicare drug benefit alone last year turned out to be a bruising battle. Still, the report is an attempt to frame a national debate on health care at a critical time. And the fact that such a broad coalition is backing major change -- its honorary co-chairmen are former Presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford -- indicates deepening concern over the impact of health costs among its nearly 100 members, which include large companies, health-care provider groups, insurers and pension funds.
The coalition recommended that all Americans get health insurance within a few years of legislation being enacted, without saying exactly how coverage should be expanded. About 82 million people spent some portion of 2002 and last year without coverage, and the report cites a "sense of foreboding" among millions of insured Americans about the security of their own coverage.
The report's recommendations are far more aggressive than the health proposals from President Bush or his challenger, Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.), neither of which would provide universal coverage.
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109036512290769165,00.html?mod=world_news_whats_news
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With at least 20 roadside bombs each day, the troops are sticking closer to the base.
After more than a year of fighting, U.S. troops have stopped patrolling large swaths of Iraq's restive Anbar province, according to the top American military intelligence officer in the area.
Most U.S. Army officers interviewed this week said the patrols in and around the province's capital, Ramadi - home to many Iraqi military and intelligence officers under Saddam Hussein - have stopped largely because the soldiers and commanders there were tired of being shot at by insurgents who've refused to back down under heavy American military pressure.
Asked for comment, officials from the 2nd Battalion 4th Marines in Ramadi - which makes up about one-fifth of the forces there - provided a 21-year-old corporal, who confirmed that the Marines have discontinued patrols, but said it was because of the hand-over of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government.
While American officials in Ramadi wouldn't provide exact figures for the change in numbers of patrols, there's obviously been a significant drop.
After losing dozens of men to a "voiceless, faceless mass of people" with no clear leadership or political aim other than killing American soldiers, the U.S. military has had to re-evaluate the situation, said Army Maj. Thomas Neemeyer, the head American intelligence officer for the 1st Brigade of the 1st Infantry Division, the main military force in the Ramadi area and from there to Fallujah.
"They cannot militarily overwhelm us, but we cannot deliver a knockout blow, either," he said. "It creates a form of stalemate." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9200682.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Upping the Ante in Afghanistan:
Ongoing reports / rumors of escalation
A recent report by US think-tank Strategic Forecasting suggested that since "sovereignty" had now been transferred to Iraq, the United States would give its full attention to the problem of al-Qaeda fugitives in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas. Already this year, at the instigation of Washington, the Pakistani army has launched two military offensives into South Waziristan to track down foreign elements, with marginal success. All signs now point to another offensive, but this time Islamabad and Washington have agreed that US troops stationed across the border in Afghanistan will take an active part in the action on Pakistani soil, rather than wait for suspects to be flushed out into their waiting arms. Similarly, Pakistani troops will be able to engage in hot-pursuit operations into Afghan territory. http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG21Df02.html
One sign of such activity
Some 200,000 Afghan refugees have been living in the remote border areas of Pakistan, in poor and insecure conditions. In the past few weeks, as the Pakistani operations in the tribal area of South Waziristan have risen in strength and, according to some reports, prompted a matching increase in militant resistance, 25,000 people have poured back into Afghanistan, refugee officials said. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/international/asia/21afgh.html
Republican Disappointment w/ Bush:
Still another expression of it, in the Wall Street Journal (Jackie Calmes)
Republicans who criticize Mr. Bush's lack of a clear domestic agenda won't do so for the record. But Doug Bandow, a scholar with the libertarian Cato Institute, which until the past year was often in sync with the administration, says, "It strikes me that what he's proved in governing is he doesn't really have a domestic agenda" amid the post-9/11 distractions of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Bandow, among other supporters of partial privatization, is somewhat skeptical that Mr. Bush will propose to overhaul Social Security, or, if he does, that he will follow through in a second term. In his first, Mr. Bush named a commission to recommend changes, but it reached no consensus. The White House shelved the issue.
Meanwhile, deficits have risen, the stock market fell, a mutual-fund industry that would be central to a private-accounts plan has become embroiled in scandal and Congress is more polarized then ever -- all of which significantly lessen the odds for success in overhauling the nation's most venerable program.
Nonetheless, at the White House, Mr. Bartlett says a Social Security proposal is "sure" to be high on Mr. Bush's list: "We think we proved in 2000, not only could you touch the third rail, you could ride it all the way to victory." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109037348984269399,00.html?mod=world_news_whats_news
Pete Peterson Warns of Fiscal Crisis. The former Nixon Commerce Secretary and respected fiscal conservative had urged Bush to use the inherited (from Clinton) surplus to “fix Medicare and Social Security.” Bush folk had replied that ‘tax cuts come first.’ The rest is history. A review essay by Farhad Manjoo.
As he describes in his brilliant new book, "Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It," he has offered the same practical advice for decades -- Reform long-term entitlements! -- to presidents and lawmakers of both parties. His words have gone almost universally unheeded.
The Democrats he encounters either refuse to believe that there's a problem with Social Security and Medicare, or they insist that it's a problem we can solve with a few small, painless tax increases and other legislative tweaks. Republicans concede there might be a problem, but they're not too concerned about it; for them, the government's inability to fund two massive social programs fits well with a small-government, libertarian ethos.
During the past 50 years, both sides have not only ignored the challenges ahead but have exacerbated them by more or less simultaneously approving giant tax cuts and spending increases. Thanks to their actions, we are all in profound trouble. As Peterson methodically lays out, when the tab comes due over the coming decades, Americans will face a grim choice: To pay for the retirement and skyrocketing healthcare costs of the baby boomers, taxes on future working Americans -- that is, on today's young people -- will need to be hiked substantially or benefits to the elderly will have to be drastically reduced. If no policy changes are made, in about 20 years or so "the whole dynamic spins out of control," Peterson says -- eventually, spending on Social Security and Medicare will consume such a huge percentage of national income that the nation's economy could "simply shatter." But we could be in trouble even before then: In a scenario that people like Robert Rubin, Warren Buffett, Paul Volcker and economists at the International Monetary Fund have recently been fretting about, our mountain of debt might soon lead foreigners to suddenly sour on the United States, causing the dollar to plunge, interest rates to spike, and global recession to follow. Volcker, the longtime chief of the Federal Reserve during the 1980s, tells Peterson that he sees a 75 percent chance of such a crisis occurring within five years. http://www.salon.com/books/review/2004/07/21/peterson/print.html
Principles: Bushies Block Tax Cut- Huh?
The White House helped to block a Republican-brokered deal on Wednesday to extend several middle-class tax cuts, fearful of a bill that could draw Democratic votes and dilute a Republican campaign theme, Republican negotiators said.
The impasse was the latest sign of deep rifts among Republicans about budget issues. House and Senate Republicans had badly wanted to pass a popular tax-cutting bill before the Democratic convention next week.
But in an improbable series of machinations, White House officials opposed the tentative deal worked out between House and Senate Republican leaders that would have extended the tax cuts for two years at a cost of about $80 billion.
That left Republicans conceding that the tax-cutting effort is over, at least until Congress returns from its recess in September. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/politics/22tax.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Ah, politics
Speaking of which, brace yourself for a shameless return of compassionate conservatism.
Here is a television image that organizers of the Republican National Convention are fantasizing about: Protesters clog the area around Madison Square Garden, inconveniencing commuters and being arrested. Cameras pan to Republican delegates feeding the homeless in the Bronx, packing up supplies for Iraqi schoolchildren, passing time with poor children in a Staten Island day camp.
Starting on Saturday, convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention. But the campaign - known as Compassion Across America - will continue at the Republican National Convention in New York in August.
"The central theme is to respond to the president's call to provide service in our own communities," said Brian Noyes, the director of delegate and caucus for the Republican convention. "We want to highlight that challenge."
In New York on Sunday, as Democratic delegates gather in Boston, Republican convention volunteers will staff the Lower East Side Food Pantry, and on Monday, the chairman of the New York State Republican Party, Sandy Treadwell, will join delegates on the Upper East Side to pack up supply kits for Iraqi schoolchildren. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/nyregion/22volunteers.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Polls:
*Missouri: Kerry 46%, Bush 44% (Kansas City Star)
*Florida: Kerry 46%, Bush 46% (Sayfie)
*National: Investors Business Daily: Kerry leading Bush 44% to 41%. In a three way race, Kerry leads 42% to 40%, with Nader getting 4%.
*National: Pew Research Center has a new poll showing Kerry leading Bush 46% to 44% with Nader at 3%.
*Rasmussen: Kerry now leads in our Electoral College projections 254 to 197. However, that lead is more fragile than it appears. If the Senator lost a single percentage point in just four states (Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Ohio), President Bush would hold the lead. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm
*Fox: Kerry 44%, Bush 43%, Nader 3%. [First time Fox had Kerry in the lead.]
*Arizona: Kerry 42%, Bush 41% (KAET-TV)
*North Carolina: Mason Dixon has Bush up 3, but Gallup has him up 56-41
Place Your Bets…
-R
