Sunday, November 28, 2004
Offstage, beforehand, Rove and Bush had had their library tours. According to two eyewitnesses, Rove had shown keen interest in everything he saw, and asked questions, including about costs, obviously thinking about a future George W Bush library and legacy. "You're not such a scary guy," joked his guide. "Yes, I am," Rove replied. Walking away, he muttered deliberately and loudly: "I change constitutions, I put churches in schools ..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1358966,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: More talk of postponing the elections. Why? Security. People are getting killed in the previously secure Green Zone [in Baghdad]. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?oref=login
Call-ups of Vets Continue- WWII and Korean vets, beware…
A 53-year-old Vietnam veteran from western Pennsylvania has been called up for active service with the U.S. military in the Iraq war, The Tribune Review of Greensburg, Pennsylvania reported on Wednesday.
Paul Dunlap, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, will join an armored division next month as a telecommunications specialist in Kuwait, and expects to be there for at least a year, the newspaper reported.
Dunlap, who has not been in combat since serving as a 19-year-old Marine in Vietnam, could not be reached for comment. He will leave behind his wife Mary, four children and three grandchildren.
"I don't think any of them want me to go," Dunlap told the paper. "I'm thinking it's a long time since I've been in war." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1895&e=2&u=/nm/20041124/us_nm/iraq_usa_old_dc
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania (York):
In 1992, Tonya Stewart left the Army after serving 13 years in uniform, believing her service to her country was over.
Now, 12 years later, she's been recalled to active duty.
"I leave for an 18-month tour of duty in two weeks," the 43-year-old Hellam Township resident said. "And that's about all I really know."
Stewart, visiting her sister's family for Thanksgiving dinner along with her boyfriend and 9-year-old daughter, said she had received letters and phone calls from the military since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 warning her that she may be recalled. http://ydr.com/story/war/50585/
China, from Japan’s viewpoint. They too are concerned about China’s economic power, in this case the plight of Japanese specialty steel producers. For those with a sense of history, rivalry about raw / industrial materials was the precipitant for the war with Japan, 1941-45.
Think Japan's manufacturers are all rejoicing at China's hypergrowth?
Speak to executives at Daido Steel Co. The mood is a little more somber.
In October, the Nagoya-based maker of special steel products was forced to cut output of some products used in casting molds for auto and electronics parts due to a shortage of rare metals essential to its manufacturing lines.
Be assured, Daido's procurers are fighting tooth and nail for raw materials.
But rare metals are hard to come by, due mainly to huge demand from Chinese factories. Global prices have soared since the latter half of last year.
On five separate occasions this year, the Japanese government has been forced to dip into its own reserves of nickel, manganese and other rare metals to meet the shortfall in the international market.
China may be booming, but it is also burning-burning resources, that is, and at a prodigious rate. In so doing, prices of key manufacturing materials, steel and crude oil among them, have risen to record levels. http://www.asahi.com/english/business/TKY200411230110.html
Economics: Concern re the Dollar. If there is a consensus, it’s that trouble is ‘not quite here yet, but is around the corner.’
Investors and market analysts are increasingly worried that the last big source of support for the American dollar - heavy buying by foreign central banks - is fading.
The anxiety was on full display Friday, when the dollar abruptly slid to a record low against the euro after a report suggesting that the Chinese central bank might start to reduce its holdings in the American currency.
America's current account deficit, the broadest measure of its indebtedness to other countries, is on track to exceed $600 billion next year, about 6 percent of its gross domestic product. The United States needs to attract about $2 billion a day to keep its spending at current levels. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/business/27dollar.html?oref=login
Social Security Privatization: Moving Ahead? The MBA President’s solution? Do more borrowing. Sorry, kids.
The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts.
The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/politics/28secure.html?oref=login
Republicans Look Ahead
Mr. Mehlman acknowledged that maintaining that grass-roots enthusiasm will be a major challenge as Republicans look ahead to the midterm elections in 2006 and the presidential race in 2008. "How do we keep folks motivated?" he said. "Look, is the 2006 election a challenge? Absolutely. Historically, it's a difficult election for the president's party" in the sixth year of his term. But he insisted that Mr. Bush's agenda for tort reform, tax simplification and the partial privatization of Social Security will attract even more voters to the Republican Party, which already controls the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate and a majority of the governorships, including in the four most-populated states. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20041124-120639-3098r
What's Happening, Britain:
Blair Impeachment: At least they use the word.
Harold Pinter and author Iain Banks are to join MPs at Westminster to call for Tony Blair's impeachment over Iraq.
Twenty-three members have signed a Commons motion calling for the prime minister to be thrown from office.
They say he misled Parliament over the case for invading Iraq and want a probe by MPs to examine his conduct in relation to the war.
But the impeachment bid is widely expected to fail and probably will not even be debated in the Commons. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4037375.stm
British Thwart Terrorism: Phony News Item? This was a one day lead item, then it disappeared. Now, doubt is expressed- out of the spotlight- that a plot ever existed.
Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, has denied media reports that the security services foiled a plot by al-Qa'ida to fly planes into the skyscrapers at London's Canary Wharf.
The reports by the Daily Mail and ITV News came on the eve of the Queen's Speech on Tuesday and were seen as an attempt by the Government to justify the "safety and security" measures dominating its legislative programme.
In a pre-recorded interview for Channel 4's Morgan & Platell programme tonight, Mr Hain said: "If there was a specific threat to Canary Wharf or anywhere else, we would have said so ... That leak, if it was a leak, did not come from a government minister or as far as I know a government source."
Asked if there have been any specific threats against Britain since the 11 September terror attacks, he said: "I don't know of a specific threat. But what I do know is that the intelligence services ... have constant intelligence on al-Qa'ida-type cells in Britain." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=587261
Democrats’ Pulse. At least Pelosi steps up, now and then.
The AP reported that Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refused to allow a pro forma vote to fix the Republican's income tax snooping provision. In reality, Pelosi is keeping the issue alive for a couple more weeks. Her money quote:
The assault on taxpayer privacy was not a simple mistake, and Democrats will not let Republicans sweep it under the rug. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TAX_RETURN_DISCLOSURE?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Judicial Fights: Republicans Prepare
Senate Republicans, boldly confident after their Nov. 2 electoral success, are preparing to end months of frustrating delays over President Bush's judicial picks by hitting Democrats with Republican's ultimate legislative weapon.But the Republican threat to neuter long-cherished filibuster rules by steamrolling Democrats is risky — so potentially destructive that Capitol Hill calls it the "nuclear option." Democratic retaliation would be swift and long-lasting, raising the prospect of escalating clashes in a body that prides itself on gentility and cool judgment.Even so, Republican leaders are signaling their intent to go nuclear in word and deed."We're going to use every tool we possibly can," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who also unveiled a kinder, gentler phrase for the potential rules change: the "constitutional option.""Republicans are loaded for bear, spoiling for a confrontation with Senate Democrats on judicial appointments," said Norm Ornstein, an expert on Congress for the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. "For a lot of conservatives, this has really become an issue that leaves them passionate."Democrats, with a new leader after the election defeat of Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., have yet to form a filibuster strategy for the 109th Congress, which convenes in January. But early indications show continued passion for blocking nominees considered too conservative, including Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041128/NEWS/411280356/1002/NEWS01
Plame Investigation: We await. Apparently, the issue remains whether the Bushies leaked Plame’s identity before or after the Novak article. If the latter, then it goes away, if the former, then there’s a case…for treason. At least, it’s still happening…
A federal prosecutor investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative has directed considerable effort at learning how widely the operative's identity was disseminated to reporters before it was published last year by columnist Robert D. Novak, according to people with knowledge of the case.
Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is trying to pinpoint precisely when and from whom several journalists learned that Joseph C. Wilson IV, an outspoken critic of the administration, was sent on an Iraq-related intelligence mission after a recommendation by his wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA employee. Plame's name first appeared in a July 14, 2003, column by Novak. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13258-2004Nov25.html
-R
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1358966,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: More talk of postponing the elections. Why? Security. People are getting killed in the previously secure Green Zone [in Baghdad]. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html?oref=login
Call-ups of Vets Continue- WWII and Korean vets, beware…
A 53-year-old Vietnam veteran from western Pennsylvania has been called up for active service with the U.S. military in the Iraq war, The Tribune Review of Greensburg, Pennsylvania reported on Wednesday.
Paul Dunlap, a sergeant in the Army National Guard, will join an armored division next month as a telecommunications specialist in Kuwait, and expects to be there for at least a year, the newspaper reported.
Dunlap, who has not been in combat since serving as a 19-year-old Marine in Vietnam, could not be reached for comment. He will leave behind his wife Mary, four children and three grandchildren.
"I don't think any of them want me to go," Dunlap told the paper. "I'm thinking it's a long time since I've been in war." http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1895&e=2&u=/nm/20041124/us_nm/iraq_usa_old_dc
Elsewhere in Pennsylvania (York):
In 1992, Tonya Stewart left the Army after serving 13 years in uniform, believing her service to her country was over.
Now, 12 years later, she's been recalled to active duty.
"I leave for an 18-month tour of duty in two weeks," the 43-year-old Hellam Township resident said. "And that's about all I really know."
Stewart, visiting her sister's family for Thanksgiving dinner along with her boyfriend and 9-year-old daughter, said she had received letters and phone calls from the military since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 warning her that she may be recalled. http://ydr.com/story/war/50585/
China, from Japan’s viewpoint. They too are concerned about China’s economic power, in this case the plight of Japanese specialty steel producers. For those with a sense of history, rivalry about raw / industrial materials was the precipitant for the war with Japan, 1941-45.
Think Japan's manufacturers are all rejoicing at China's hypergrowth?
Speak to executives at Daido Steel Co. The mood is a little more somber.
In October, the Nagoya-based maker of special steel products was forced to cut output of some products used in casting molds for auto and electronics parts due to a shortage of rare metals essential to its manufacturing lines.
Be assured, Daido's procurers are fighting tooth and nail for raw materials.
But rare metals are hard to come by, due mainly to huge demand from Chinese factories. Global prices have soared since the latter half of last year.
On five separate occasions this year, the Japanese government has been forced to dip into its own reserves of nickel, manganese and other rare metals to meet the shortfall in the international market.
China may be booming, but it is also burning-burning resources, that is, and at a prodigious rate. In so doing, prices of key manufacturing materials, steel and crude oil among them, have risen to record levels. http://www.asahi.com/english/business/TKY200411230110.html
Economics: Concern re the Dollar. If there is a consensus, it’s that trouble is ‘not quite here yet, but is around the corner.’
Investors and market analysts are increasingly worried that the last big source of support for the American dollar - heavy buying by foreign central banks - is fading.
The anxiety was on full display Friday, when the dollar abruptly slid to a record low against the euro after a report suggesting that the Chinese central bank might start to reduce its holdings in the American currency.
America's current account deficit, the broadest measure of its indebtedness to other countries, is on track to exceed $600 billion next year, about 6 percent of its gross domestic product. The United States needs to attract about $2 billion a day to keep its spending at current levels. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/27/business/27dollar.html?oref=login
Social Security Privatization: Moving Ahead? The MBA President’s solution? Do more borrowing. Sorry, kids.
The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts.
The White House says it has made no decisions about how to pay for establishing the accounts, and among Republicans on Capitol Hill there are divergent opinions about how much borrowing would be prudent at a time when the government is running large budget deficits. Many Democrats say that the costs associated with setting up personal accounts just make Social Security's financial problems worse, and that the United States can scarcely afford to add to its rapidly growing national debt. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/politics/28secure.html?oref=login
Republicans Look Ahead
Mr. Mehlman acknowledged that maintaining that grass-roots enthusiasm will be a major challenge as Republicans look ahead to the midterm elections in 2006 and the presidential race in 2008. "How do we keep folks motivated?" he said. "Look, is the 2006 election a challenge? Absolutely. Historically, it's a difficult election for the president's party" in the sixth year of his term. But he insisted that Mr. Bush's agenda for tort reform, tax simplification and the partial privatization of Social Security will attract even more voters to the Republican Party, which already controls the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate and a majority of the governorships, including in the four most-populated states. http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20041124-120639-3098r
What's Happening, Britain:
Blair Impeachment: At least they use the word.
Harold Pinter and author Iain Banks are to join MPs at Westminster to call for Tony Blair's impeachment over Iraq.
Twenty-three members have signed a Commons motion calling for the prime minister to be thrown from office.
They say he misled Parliament over the case for invading Iraq and want a probe by MPs to examine his conduct in relation to the war.
But the impeachment bid is widely expected to fail and probably will not even be debated in the Commons. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4037375.stm
British Thwart Terrorism: Phony News Item? This was a one day lead item, then it disappeared. Now, doubt is expressed- out of the spotlight- that a plot ever existed.
Peter Hain, the Leader of the Commons, has denied media reports that the security services foiled a plot by al-Qa'ida to fly planes into the skyscrapers at London's Canary Wharf.
The reports by the Daily Mail and ITV News came on the eve of the Queen's Speech on Tuesday and were seen as an attempt by the Government to justify the "safety and security" measures dominating its legislative programme.
In a pre-recorded interview for Channel 4's Morgan & Platell programme tonight, Mr Hain said: "If there was a specific threat to Canary Wharf or anywhere else, we would have said so ... That leak, if it was a leak, did not come from a government minister or as far as I know a government source."
Asked if there have been any specific threats against Britain since the 11 September terror attacks, he said: "I don't know of a specific threat. But what I do know is that the intelligence services ... have constant intelligence on al-Qa'ida-type cells in Britain." http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=587261
Democrats’ Pulse. At least Pelosi steps up, now and then.
The AP reported that Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi refused to allow a pro forma vote to fix the Republican's income tax snooping provision. In reality, Pelosi is keeping the issue alive for a couple more weeks. Her money quote:
The assault on taxpayer privacy was not a simple mistake, and Democrats will not let Republicans sweep it under the rug. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TAX_RETURN_DISCLOSURE?SITE=1010WINS&SECTION=POLITICS&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Judicial Fights: Republicans Prepare
Senate Republicans, boldly confident after their Nov. 2 electoral success, are preparing to end months of frustrating delays over President Bush's judicial picks by hitting Democrats with Republican's ultimate legislative weapon.But the Republican threat to neuter long-cherished filibuster rules by steamrolling Democrats is risky — so potentially destructive that Capitol Hill calls it the "nuclear option." Democratic retaliation would be swift and long-lasting, raising the prospect of escalating clashes in a body that prides itself on gentility and cool judgment.Even so, Republican leaders are signaling their intent to go nuclear in word and deed."We're going to use every tool we possibly can," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., who also unveiled a kinder, gentler phrase for the potential rules change: the "constitutional option.""Republicans are loaded for bear, spoiling for a confrontation with Senate Democrats on judicial appointments," said Norm Ornstein, an expert on Congress for the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. "For a lot of conservatives, this has really become an issue that leaves them passionate."Democrats, with a new leader after the election defeat of Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., have yet to form a filibuster strategy for the 109th Congress, which convenes in January. But early indications show continued passion for blocking nominees considered too conservative, including Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen.
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041128/NEWS/411280356/1002/NEWS01
Plame Investigation: We await. Apparently, the issue remains whether the Bushies leaked Plame’s identity before or after the Novak article. If the latter, then it goes away, if the former, then there’s a case…for treason. At least, it’s still happening…
A federal prosecutor investigating whether administration officials illegally leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative has directed considerable effort at learning how widely the operative's identity was disseminated to reporters before it was published last year by columnist Robert D. Novak, according to people with knowledge of the case.
Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is trying to pinpoint precisely when and from whom several journalists learned that Joseph C. Wilson IV, an outspoken critic of the administration, was sent on an Iraq-related intelligence mission after a recommendation by his wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA employee. Plame's name first appeared in a July 14, 2003, column by Novak. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13258-2004Nov25.html
-R
