Friday, October 15, 2004
Debate Follow-Up
* A debate focused on domestic issues, yet ignoring the environment and energy policy?
* Karen Hughes spins that not only did Bush win, but that “Kerry looked angry.” Laughable
* “Marygate”: Kerry’s mentioning Cheney’s daughter Mary being lesbian was seized on by Right-wingers as not only a screw-up, but a “tawdry” move by Kerry. Dick and Lynne Cheney went over-the-top in talking of their daughter being “outed.” Huh? She’s been open for years, open about her “life partner” Heather [they attended the convention together], she was gay liaison at Coors (past job), etc. Truly bizarre / pathetic. This sanctimony comes from the crowd that claim Kerry will take Bibles away from West Virginians, that orchestrated vicious lies about Kerry’s war record and McCain’s morals, that asserted that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, etc. Yet, it got headlines; none for Bush’s denying he said that he ‘wasn’t concerned’ about Osama in March, 2002, despite the confirming video.
* Moderator Bob Schieffer introduced the Social Security question by saying “We all know Social Security is running out of money.” No, Bob, we don’t.
James K Galbraith reminds him:
Social Security is not running out of money. Here are the facts.
1. Social Security is part of the government. It cannot run out of money unless the whole government also runs out of money. And the government of the United States cannot run out of money. That is not my opinion, it's an economic fact.
2. Social Security is an entitlement. Not even Congress can easily interfere with its payments. Congress would have to vote to default on the bonds Social Security holds for benefits to fail over the next 40 years. It would have made more sense for Schieffer to say, "We all know that the Pentagon is running out of money" –
Kerry's answer on Social Security wasn't pandering. He said that we can keep the system we have. He said we must not privatize it -- "an invitation to disaster." He said our priority should be to create jobs, the best way to pay for the system. And he said that we can well afford to wait until later to see if some minor changes would be wise. Kerry was right on all of these facts. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/14/social_security/print.html
Fraud Follow-up: Oregon I didn’t focus on Oregon last time, so in fairness…
Oregon's attorney general opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that Democratic voter registration forms were destroyed or discarded by a political consulting firm working for the Republican National Committee.The allegations involve a voter registration drive conducted by Sproul & Associates, a Phoenix-based consulting organization that was hired by the RNC earlier this year and is headed up by the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee, Nathan Sproul. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sproul14oct14,1,3532412.story
And, right here in New Hampshire…breaking news…in effect, the guy [Jim Tobin] who is being indicted for past election fraud is in charge of the GOP effect now. And, federal prosecutors have slowed the progress [“depositions and discovery”] of the investigation …hmmm, wonder why…?
Federal prosecutors yesterday called a halt just 20 minutes before Democrats were to question a Republican official under oath over the identity of a Bush-Cheney official allegedly implicated in an illegal phone-jamming operation.
Computerized telephone calls jammed five Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks, plus a sixth run by Manchester firefighters, for about an hour and a half during the 2002 election.
The U.S. Justice Department will ask a judge as soon as today to stay depositions that Democrats had scheduled yesterday and today in their civil lawsuit against the GOP in connection with the scheme launched in the 2002 New Hampshire election. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=45614
Krugman on the Fraud:
Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon…
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?oref=login&hp
And, what’s to come? They’re doing plenty, but one suspects that more is to come, as the Cheney-Rove crowd has made it clear they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the presidency.
Swift Boat Duplicity. In short, swift boat Righties went back to Vietnam to find “evidence” to support their Brief, but found that villagers there only confirmed that Kerry had told the truth. But, they went ahead with their lies anyway.
Will there be banner headlines? Will the cable networks offer 60 minutes to make up for the freebie they gave Bush? Will George Soros buy 90 minutes for Kerry- to show the ‘Going Upriver…’ movie, or 90 minutes of anti-Sinclair propaganda?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=166434
Seymour Hersh on U.S. Democracy: I include as it’s an elaboration of his appearance on the Daily Show.
The past two years will "go down as one of the classic sort of failures" in history, said the man who has been called the "greatest muckraker of all time" and (paradoxically) the "enfant terrible of journalism for more than 30 years." While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"
"That fragility clearly unnerves him. Hersh summarizes his mission as "to hold the people in public office to the highest possible standard of decency and of honesty…to tolerate anything less, even in the name of national security, is wrong." He tries his best. More than any other U.S. journalist alive today, he embodies the statement that "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government," a belief defined by the conservationist Edward Abbey…." http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170
Global Warming: Warning Signs: One example:
Climate scientists say they have identified a dozen weak links around the world, regions where global warming could bring about the sudden, catastrophic collapse of vital ecosystems. The consequences will be felt far and wide.
The North Atlantic current is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, of which the Gulf Stream is the precursor. It works like a conveyer belt. Surface water in the North Atlantic is first cooled by westerly winds from North America, making the water more dense and salty so it sinks to the ocean floor before moving toward the equator. Driven by winds and replacing the cold water moving south, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico moves upward into the Atlantic. The effect of the current on climate is dramatic. It brings to Europe the equivalent of 100,000 large power stations' worth of free heating, propping up temperatures by in excess of 10 degrees Celsius in some parts.
Global warming could change all that, though not very quickly. Computer models predict that as global warming increases, so will rainfall in the North Atlantic. Gradually, the heavier rains will dilute the sea water and make it less likely to sink, a process that could bring the whole conveyer to a gradual halt. "It won't happen in a matter of weeks, like in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' but it could happen over a few decades," ...http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/14/global_warming/print.html
Corporate Bonanza: Edmund Andrews’ article in the Times was succinct:
It was the biggest free-for-all in corporate lobbying in nearly 20 years, and its final product was a tax bill with giveaways for almost every business. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/business/13corptax.html?th
What’s Happening, Iraq: Despite all the security in the Green Zone, including two body searches for all who enter, there were bombings there on Thursday. NPR’s On Point interviewed journalists who discussed the steadily deteriorating security and specifically WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi’s well-circulated email to colleagues. http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2004/10/20041014_b_main.asp
Insurgents penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe Thursday, killing five people, including four Americans, in the first bombings inside the compound housing the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters.
A top Iraqi official said the attacks appeared to have been suicide bombings.
Witnesses said two men, each carrying a backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each other for nearly half an hour -- one of them appearing to reassure his more nervous colleague. One of them then left and soon after an explosion was heard. Then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb moments later, which ripped through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at the time.
The attack was a bold assault on the heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a serious setback to the Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109775183177245238,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
And, our Friends, the Saudis, aren’t happy
Seventeen months into a shadowy terror campaign that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis express less anger at the insurgents than at the United States for its invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they say touched off the attacks inside the kingdom. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/international/middleeast/14saudi.html?ex=1098812058&ei=1&en=d9a3f9260b642bce
-R
* A debate focused on domestic issues, yet ignoring the environment and energy policy?
* Karen Hughes spins that not only did Bush win, but that “Kerry looked angry.” Laughable
* “Marygate”: Kerry’s mentioning Cheney’s daughter Mary being lesbian was seized on by Right-wingers as not only a screw-up, but a “tawdry” move by Kerry. Dick and Lynne Cheney went over-the-top in talking of their daughter being “outed.” Huh? She’s been open for years, open about her “life partner” Heather [they attended the convention together], she was gay liaison at Coors (past job), etc. Truly bizarre / pathetic. This sanctimony comes from the crowd that claim Kerry will take Bibles away from West Virginians, that orchestrated vicious lies about Kerry’s war record and McCain’s morals, that asserted that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, etc. Yet, it got headlines; none for Bush’s denying he said that he ‘wasn’t concerned’ about Osama in March, 2002, despite the confirming video.
* Moderator Bob Schieffer introduced the Social Security question by saying “We all know Social Security is running out of money.” No, Bob, we don’t.
James K Galbraith reminds him:
Social Security is not running out of money. Here are the facts.
1. Social Security is part of the government. It cannot run out of money unless the whole government also runs out of money. And the government of the United States cannot run out of money. That is not my opinion, it's an economic fact.
2. Social Security is an entitlement. Not even Congress can easily interfere with its payments. Congress would have to vote to default on the bonds Social Security holds for benefits to fail over the next 40 years. It would have made more sense for Schieffer to say, "We all know that the Pentagon is running out of money" –
Kerry's answer on Social Security wasn't pandering. He said that we can keep the system we have. He said we must not privatize it -- "an invitation to disaster." He said our priority should be to create jobs, the best way to pay for the system. And he said that we can well afford to wait until later to see if some minor changes would be wise. Kerry was right on all of these facts. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/14/social_security/print.html
Fraud Follow-up: Oregon I didn’t focus on Oregon last time, so in fairness…
Oregon's attorney general opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that Democratic voter registration forms were destroyed or discarded by a political consulting firm working for the Republican National Committee.The allegations involve a voter registration drive conducted by Sproul & Associates, a Phoenix-based consulting organization that was hired by the RNC earlier this year and is headed up by the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee, Nathan Sproul. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sproul14oct14,1,3532412.story
And, right here in New Hampshire…breaking news…in effect, the guy [Jim Tobin] who is being indicted for past election fraud is in charge of the GOP effect now. And, federal prosecutors have slowed the progress [“depositions and discovery”] of the investigation …hmmm, wonder why…?
Federal prosecutors yesterday called a halt just 20 minutes before Democrats were to question a Republican official under oath over the identity of a Bush-Cheney official allegedly implicated in an illegal phone-jamming operation.
Computerized telephone calls jammed five Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks, plus a sixth run by Manchester firefighters, for about an hour and a half during the 2002 election.
The U.S. Justice Department will ask a judge as soon as today to stay depositions that Democrats had scheduled yesterday and today in their civil lawsuit against the GOP in connection with the scheme launched in the 2002 New Hampshire election. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=45614
Krugman on the Fraud:
Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon…
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?oref=login&hp
And, what’s to come? They’re doing plenty, but one suspects that more is to come, as the Cheney-Rove crowd has made it clear they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the presidency.
Swift Boat Duplicity. In short, swift boat Righties went back to Vietnam to find “evidence” to support their Brief, but found that villagers there only confirmed that Kerry had told the truth. But, they went ahead with their lies anyway.
Will there be banner headlines? Will the cable networks offer 60 minutes to make up for the freebie they gave Bush? Will George Soros buy 90 minutes for Kerry- to show the ‘Going Upriver…’ movie, or 90 minutes of anti-Sinclair propaganda?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=166434
Seymour Hersh on U.S. Democracy: I include as it’s an elaboration of his appearance on the Daily Show.
The past two years will "go down as one of the classic sort of failures" in history, said the man who has been called the "greatest muckraker of all time" and (paradoxically) the "enfant terrible of journalism for more than 30 years." While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"
"That fragility clearly unnerves him. Hersh summarizes his mission as "to hold the people in public office to the highest possible standard of decency and of honesty…to tolerate anything less, even in the name of national security, is wrong." He tries his best. More than any other U.S. journalist alive today, he embodies the statement that "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government," a belief defined by the conservationist Edward Abbey…." http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170
Global Warming: Warning Signs: One example:
Climate scientists say they have identified a dozen weak links around the world, regions where global warming could bring about the sudden, catastrophic collapse of vital ecosystems. The consequences will be felt far and wide.
The North Atlantic current is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, of which the Gulf Stream is the precursor. It works like a conveyer belt. Surface water in the North Atlantic is first cooled by westerly winds from North America, making the water more dense and salty so it sinks to the ocean floor before moving toward the equator. Driven by winds and replacing the cold water moving south, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico moves upward into the Atlantic. The effect of the current on climate is dramatic. It brings to Europe the equivalent of 100,000 large power stations' worth of free heating, propping up temperatures by in excess of 10 degrees Celsius in some parts.
Global warming could change all that, though not very quickly. Computer models predict that as global warming increases, so will rainfall in the North Atlantic. Gradually, the heavier rains will dilute the sea water and make it less likely to sink, a process that could bring the whole conveyer to a gradual halt. "It won't happen in a matter of weeks, like in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' but it could happen over a few decades," ...http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/14/global_warming/print.html
Corporate Bonanza: Edmund Andrews’ article in the Times was succinct:
It was the biggest free-for-all in corporate lobbying in nearly 20 years, and its final product was a tax bill with giveaways for almost every business. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/business/13corptax.html?th
What’s Happening, Iraq: Despite all the security in the Green Zone, including two body searches for all who enter, there were bombings there on Thursday. NPR’s On Point interviewed journalists who discussed the steadily deteriorating security and specifically WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi’s well-circulated email to colleagues. http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2004/10/20041014_b_main.asp
Insurgents penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe Thursday, killing five people, including four Americans, in the first bombings inside the compound housing the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters.
A top Iraqi official said the attacks appeared to have been suicide bombings.
Witnesses said two men, each carrying a backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each other for nearly half an hour -- one of them appearing to reassure his more nervous colleague. One of them then left and soon after an explosion was heard. Then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb moments later, which ripped through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at the time.
The attack was a bold assault on the heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a serious setback to the Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109775183177245238,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
And, our Friends, the Saudis, aren’t happy
Seventeen months into a shadowy terror campaign that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis express less anger at the insurgents than at the United States for its invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they say touched off the attacks inside the kingdom. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/international/middleeast/14saudi.html?ex=1098812058&ei=1&en=d9a3f9260b642bce
-R
