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
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
MEDIA:
Outfoxed: Virtually no media coverage of the Sunday event. The Wall Street Journal’s take on the “liberals fighting back”:
During presidential election years, conservative politicians have often attacked the media for their liberal bias. But during this year's campaign, liberals are fighting back with what they see as a powerful issue -- the alleged conservative slant of the Fox News Channel, a unit of the media conglomerate News Corp. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109027556196467837,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature
Talking Points: The White House and/or affiliated ideologues put out the message of the day (or week) and it’s repeated, with little variation, first by a slew of ‘talking heads’ in the media, then by ‘ordinary citizens’. Jon Stewart does a fine job explaining. Best with audio or video, via the link, but here’s the transcript.
Jon Stewart: "It’s not easy keeping up with current events. As soon as you catch up, more happens. That’s where conventional wisdom fits in.
Conventional wisdom is the agreed upon understanding of an event or person:
John Kerry is a flip flopper.
George Bush has sincere heartland values and is stupid.
What matters is not that the designation be true just that it be agreed upon by the media so that no further thought has to be put into it.
So how is conventional wisdom arrived at?
For instance, let’s take the example of the addition of John Edwards to the Democratic ticket. I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t know what it means. Here’s how I will:
CNN: "This is 28 pages from the Republican National Committee. It says, ‘Who is Edwards? It starts off by saying a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal.’ We also saw from the Bush-Cheney camp they released talking points to their supporters."
Jon Stewart: "Talking points. That’s how we learn things. But how will I absorb a talking point like ‘Edwards and Kerry are out of the mainstream’ unless I get it jack hammered into my skull? That’s where television lends a hand."
Fox News: "He stands way out of the main stream."CNN – Terry Holt, Spokesman for Bush Camp: "…way out of the main stream."CNN – Communication Director, Bush-Cheney: "He stands so far out of the main stream."CNN – Lynn Cheney: "He’s so out of the main stream." CNN - Terry Holt: "They’re out of the main stream." CNN – Frank Donatelli, GOP Strategist: "…well out of the main stream.
Jon Stewart: I’m getting a feeling. I think, I think they’re out of the main stream. But, what if I wonder why?
CNN – Frank Donatelli: "…two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate." CNN – Crossfire: "…two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate." MSNBC – Ed Gillespie: "…the most liberal rated senator in the US Senate." Hardball – Lynn Cheney: "…the most liberal senator of the Senate." Fox News: "…who was rated as the number 1 liberal in the US Senate." Fox News – Elizabeth Dole: "…the number 1 most liberal senator in the US Senate."
Jon Stewart: Wow! Those guys are liberals!! In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re the first and fourth most liberal in the whole Senate. Wow! And while we don’t have any idea what that means and where those rankings come from and how they were arrived at or whether it’s even true, I don’t like the sounds of it. And it’s certainly not something for the media to question. As a matter of fact, I would imagine people like that, liberal and out of the main stream, hang out in some pretty extreme places.
ABC – This Week – Lindsey Graham: "…talking about the hatefest." CNN: "…Hollywood hatefest." Fox News: "…last Thursday night’s hatefest." Pat Boone: "…Radio City Music Hall hatefest…"
Jon Stewart: "Yeah. See, out of the main stream, liberals, and hatefest. Keeping up with current events is easier than you thing. Talking points – they’re true because they’re said a lot."
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_07_18_the_daily_
show_does_a_great_bit_re_talking_points.asp
British Chastise Fox News
The British Government's Office of Communications (Ofcom) – the official regulator of the UK's communications industries - recently chastised Fox News and found it in violation of various regulations in that country aimed at preventing the media from deliberately spreading misinformation. Ofcom found that Fox News anchor John Gibson made "false statements by undermining facts." Its report stated, "Fox News was unable to provide any substantial evidence to support the overall allegation that the BBC management had lied and the BBC had an anti-American obsession. http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228#7
Letter to ‘the editor’ Sent to Eric Alterman (What Liberal Media?); Well-said.
Sarah Jefferies, Copperas Cove TX
Dr. A~My husband, who until his recent retirement was a First Sergeant in a Division Cavalry unit who got that all-expenses-paid trip to Iraq last year, refuses to forgive those in Congress of either party for their avowal that if they'd known then what they know now....like you said in your "Nation" column today...they wouldn't have authorized the invasion. Well, whoop-de-doo.
The First Sergeant says that if HE could tell from here that the case for invasion was mostly fabricated, THEY certainly should have been able to tell that from the freakin' Capitol.
And I guess that pretty much sums up the problem many of us are having with our government right now---nobody will take responsibility for anything, everything is someone else's fault, and if you don't like it, you can go f**k yourself.
Some country we've got here, huh? http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Allawi as murderer?
Still no coverage in the U.S., basically just the Washington Times, the Moonie paper. Do we have a responsible press- checking it out before reporting- or an intimidated press? At least they could post, “Some say that new PM Allawi…” Compare with the Australian press, which has helped generate an investigation by the Iraqi Human Rights Minister. At least “ABC Online” has noted it. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1156598.htm
Election Surprise?: Russian troops to Iraq (or Afghanistan) Not the surprise we anticipate / fear, but it would be noteworthy. Stratfor reports that Russia is giving very serious (implicitly likely) consideration to sending a hefty number to bail us out.
Russia, reports Stratfor, is seriously considering sending up to 40,000 troops to Iraq. If so, this has the potential to seriously affect the ongoing situation in Iraq and the campaign at home. Putin is reported to be asking the Generals to draw up a plan. Significant boost for Bush, and frees up some of our troops to either come home or go elsewhere. http://www.stratfor.com/coms2/page_home
Casualties Increasing. A rare media report from the Globe’s Brian Bender
Nearly as many US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq in the first half of July as in all of June, even as Iraqi insurgents seem to have shifted focus from attacking US targets to aiming instead at Iraqi security forces and government officials.
The relatively high rate of US military casualties has dimmed hope that the handover of power to the Iraqi government would help stabilize the country and reduce pressure on US soldiers.
June was substantially less violent for US and coalition troops than the two preceding months, fueling hopes that US casualties were on the downswing. However, military officials and defense specialists are increasingly concerned that the guerrilla war could last for years and the number of dead could climb into the thousands.
Since the June 28 handover of power, the 160,000 coalition forces have averaged more than two deaths a day, among the highest rate of losses since the war began 15 months ago. By Saturday, 36 US soldiers had died this month, compared with 42 last month, according to a Globe analysis of official statistics. http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/07/19/us_casualty_rate_high_since_handover?mode=PF
Douglas Feith, Undersecretary Uncovered
Media starting to (finally) write about this fellow, the Undersecretary of Defense for Planning. Feith was key in the disinformation campaign to get us to invade Iraq, but his motivation is allegedly for aiding right-wing Israelis. Excerpts from the UPI guest editorial by Greg Guma:
In the 1990s, Feith churned out anti-Arab diatribes in Israeli newspapers, Bamford reveals. In those articles, he urged Israel to establish more settlements and end the Oslo peace process. When George H.W. Bush was president, he organized a group to denounce the elder Bush for his "mistreatment of Israel . . ." Once back in government, Feith created an Office of Strategic Influence after 9/11. Senior officials have called it a disinformation factory . . .
According to Woodward, Secretary of State Colin Powell felt that Feith was running a "Gestapo office" determined to find a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. It was so effective, notes Woodward, that even generals were intimidated.
In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clark, who coordinated counterintelligence for both the Clinton and Bush administrations, mentions Feith in a post-war context. When Bush's assertions about an al-Qaida-Saddam link began to unravel in 2003, Feith promised a congressional committee that he would prove it. Instead, he sent a highly classified memo that added little.
More important, writes Clark, is the fact that someone leaked the memo to a neoconservative magazine, "which promptly printed the secret information. Neoconservative commentators then pointed to the illegally leaked document as conclusive proof of the al-Qaida-Iraq nexus." It was a typical move, sidestepping officials to publicly reinforce a misconception.
But if you really want to understand Feith's role, the basics are provided in "A Pretext for War," James Bamford's look at the abuse of U.S. intelligence agencies both before and after 9/11. Bamford argues that Feith and Perle developed their blueprint for the Iraq operation while working for pro-Israeli think tanks.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040716-104354-4970r
Richard Ben Cramer on Israel. Important book from a versatile observer. It’s been in the media for more than a month; didn’t want it to escape un-posted.
"How Israel Lost" is a mournful, passionate, hilarious lament for the endangered soul of a nation he loves. In a style that slips from the wisecracking cadences of a Miami Beach hondler to the dispassionate observations of a veteran journalist to the moral outrage of a world-weary humanist, Cramer argues that in the 20-plus years since he originally lived there, the Jewish state has suffered a cataclysmic sea-change, a blow to its spirit all the more tragic for being self-inflicted.
The cause of Israel's malaise, Cramer writes, is very simple: Its 37-year occupation of Palestinian land. The occupation, Cramer argues, is a gross and continuing injustice that has coarsened Israel's moral fiber, corrupted her politics and economy, and split Israeli Jews into bitterly opposed, self-interested tribes who have lost all sense of allegiance to anything beyond their own needs. The occupation has also had a deadly effect on Palestinians, stomping out the last embers of hope and creating a generation of sad, hardened children who know Israelis only as soldiers with guns.
"[T]here are no lives in Israel or Palestine that have not been heated or hardened," Cramer writes. "On the Palestinian side, there are so many lives and dreams on hold ('We are under occupation -- what can we do?') that the conflict has more or less replaced life -- or cooked it to a standstill. The only consolation is that everything can be (and is) blamed on Israel. Among the Jews, the effects are harder to pinpoint -- and, to me, more insidious -- because the whole point of Israel was to create a place where Jews could live the best life -- and liveliest -- according to their values." http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/07/19/ben_cramer/print.html
The Economy: The Wealthier are Doing Better. Surprise!
Still another piece of ‘evidence’ as to the 23 year trend. This was front page WSJ, and on NPR’s On Point.
Joshua Berry and Ricky Williams, both Houstonians, have seen two very different economic recoveries.
Mr. Berry, an entrepreneur, has profited handsomely from the stock market, in the real-estate boom and by selling a business. Mr. Williams, an airline baggage handler, has been waiting since 2001 for a pay raise.
With the U.S. economy expanding and the labor market improving, it isn't clear how well the Democrats' message of a divided America will resonate with voters this fall. But many economists believe the economic recovery has indeed taken two tracks, exemplified by the experiences of these two Texas residents.
Upper-income families, who pay the most in taxes and reaped the largest gains from the tax cuts President Bush championed, drove a surge of consumer spending a year ago that helped to rev up the recovery. Wealthier households also have been big beneficiaries of the stronger stock market, higher corporate profits, bigger dividend payments and the boom in housing. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109027263697767730,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Sandy Berger Messes Up:
Nothing like handing a distraction to the Right Wing. Former Clinton National Security Adviser Berger sloppily took notes and documents related to the threat of a 1999 Millenium terrorist attack from a ‘secure reading room.’ While it’s not clear if these documents were originals or copies and awfully difficult to figure out any damage inflicted, it’s a technical violation of rules, and if the documents are originals, possibly a breaking of the law. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And, obviously, this is much worse than starting a war and killing over 12,000 or outing a CIA agent.
Some Republicans are naturally accusing him of giving these documents to Kerry, seeking to show that Kerry's people are "sloppy" with highly classified materials in the war on terrorism. So, how could Kerry be trusted with the responsibility of protecting the American people in the future? A no brainer!
Linda Ronstadt: It Doesn’t Matter Any More
She always traveled to the beat of a Different Drum, but this time stayed too long on the Dark End of the Street. The coverage has not been complimentary. So, Hasten Down the Wind, Linda.
The AP report:
Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino.
Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush.
”Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air…
" In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the show, Ronstadt said "I keep hoping that if I'm annoying enough to them, they won't hire me back."
Knowing she always had a Heart Like A Wheel and wanting to make his points, Michael Moore sent a letter of complaint to the Aladdin head. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=93
Think I’ll re-visit her mid 70’s albums…
ELECTION:
Former (Republican) Environmental Chief Castigates Administration:
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's record on Monday, calling it a ``polluter protection'' policy. Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 - part of the Nixon and Ford administrations - said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4328886,00.html
Polls: As many of us say, it shouldn’t be this close.
Minnesota: Kerry 45%, Bush 44%, Nader 2% (Minnesota Public Radio)
Florida: Bush 48%, Kerry 46% (Strategic Vision)
North Carolina: Bush 49%, Kerry 44% (News and Observer)
New York: Kerry 51%, Bush 29% (Sienna Research)
Marist College Poll. "Kerry has the support of 45% of the national electorate compared with 44% for Bush. Ralph Nader receives 2%, and 9% are undecided. In the 17 battleground states, Kerry receives the support of 47% of registered voters and Bush receives 42%
Rasmussen Presidential Tracking [Nat’l] has Bush leading Kerry, 47% to 45%.
Arizona: Kerry 42%, Bush 41%
-R
Outfoxed: Virtually no media coverage of the Sunday event. The Wall Street Journal’s take on the “liberals fighting back”:
During presidential election years, conservative politicians have often attacked the media for their liberal bias. But during this year's campaign, liberals are fighting back with what they see as a powerful issue -- the alleged conservative slant of the Fox News Channel, a unit of the media conglomerate News Corp. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB109027556196467837,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature
Talking Points: The White House and/or affiliated ideologues put out the message of the day (or week) and it’s repeated, with little variation, first by a slew of ‘talking heads’ in the media, then by ‘ordinary citizens’. Jon Stewart does a fine job explaining. Best with audio or video, via the link, but here’s the transcript.
Jon Stewart: "It’s not easy keeping up with current events. As soon as you catch up, more happens. That’s where conventional wisdom fits in.
Conventional wisdom is the agreed upon understanding of an event or person:
John Kerry is a flip flopper.
George Bush has sincere heartland values and is stupid.
What matters is not that the designation be true just that it be agreed upon by the media so that no further thought has to be put into it.
So how is conventional wisdom arrived at?
For instance, let’s take the example of the addition of John Edwards to the Democratic ticket. I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t know what it means. Here’s how I will:
CNN: "This is 28 pages from the Republican National Committee. It says, ‘Who is Edwards? It starts off by saying a disingenuous, unaccomplished liberal.’ We also saw from the Bush-Cheney camp they released talking points to their supporters."
Jon Stewart: "Talking points. That’s how we learn things. But how will I absorb a talking point like ‘Edwards and Kerry are out of the mainstream’ unless I get it jack hammered into my skull? That’s where television lends a hand."
Fox News: "He stands way out of the main stream."CNN – Terry Holt, Spokesman for Bush Camp: "…way out of the main stream."CNN – Communication Director, Bush-Cheney: "He stands so far out of the main stream."CNN – Lynn Cheney: "He’s so out of the main stream." CNN - Terry Holt: "They’re out of the main stream." CNN – Frank Donatelli, GOP Strategist: "…well out of the main stream.
Jon Stewart: I’m getting a feeling. I think, I think they’re out of the main stream. But, what if I wonder why?
CNN – Frank Donatelli: "…two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate." CNN – Crossfire: "…two of the foremost liberal senators of the US Senate." MSNBC – Ed Gillespie: "…the most liberal rated senator in the US Senate." Hardball – Lynn Cheney: "…the most liberal senator of the Senate." Fox News: "…who was rated as the number 1 liberal in the US Senate." Fox News – Elizabeth Dole: "…the number 1 most liberal senator in the US Senate."
Jon Stewart: Wow! Those guys are liberals!! In fact, if I didn’t know better, I’d say they’re the first and fourth most liberal in the whole Senate. Wow! And while we don’t have any idea what that means and where those rankings come from and how they were arrived at or whether it’s even true, I don’t like the sounds of it. And it’s certainly not something for the media to question. As a matter of fact, I would imagine people like that, liberal and out of the main stream, hang out in some pretty extreme places.
ABC – This Week – Lindsey Graham: "…talking about the hatefest." CNN: "…Hollywood hatefest." Fox News: "…last Thursday night’s hatefest." Pat Boone: "…Radio City Music Hall hatefest…"
Jon Stewart: "Yeah. See, out of the main stream, liberals, and hatefest. Keeping up with current events is easier than you thing. Talking points – they’re true because they’re said a lot."
http://www.moveleft.com/moveleft_essay_2004_07_18_the_daily_
show_does_a_great_bit_re_talking_points.asp
British Chastise Fox News
The British Government's Office of Communications (Ofcom) – the official regulator of the UK's communications industries - recently chastised Fox News and found it in violation of various regulations in that country aimed at preventing the media from deliberately spreading misinformation. Ofcom found that Fox News anchor John Gibson made "false statements by undermining facts." Its report stated, "Fox News was unable to provide any substantial evidence to support the overall allegation that the BBC management had lied and the BBC had an anti-American obsession. http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228#7
Letter to ‘the editor’ Sent to Eric Alterman (What Liberal Media?); Well-said.
Sarah Jefferies, Copperas Cove TX
Dr. A~My husband, who until his recent retirement was a First Sergeant in a Division Cavalry unit who got that all-expenses-paid trip to Iraq last year, refuses to forgive those in Congress of either party for their avowal that if they'd known then what they know now....like you said in your "Nation" column today...they wouldn't have authorized the invasion. Well, whoop-de-doo.
The First Sergeant says that if HE could tell from here that the case for invasion was mostly fabricated, THEY certainly should have been able to tell that from the freakin' Capitol.
And I guess that pretty much sums up the problem many of us are having with our government right now---nobody will take responsibility for anything, everything is someone else's fault, and if you don't like it, you can go f**k yourself.
Some country we've got here, huh? http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Allawi as murderer?
Still no coverage in the U.S., basically just the Washington Times, the Moonie paper. Do we have a responsible press- checking it out before reporting- or an intimidated press? At least they could post, “Some say that new PM Allawi…” Compare with the Australian press, which has helped generate an investigation by the Iraqi Human Rights Minister. At least “ABC Online” has noted it. http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200407/s1156598.htm
Election Surprise?: Russian troops to Iraq (or Afghanistan) Not the surprise we anticipate / fear, but it would be noteworthy. Stratfor reports that Russia is giving very serious (implicitly likely) consideration to sending a hefty number to bail us out.
Russia, reports Stratfor, is seriously considering sending up to 40,000 troops to Iraq. If so, this has the potential to seriously affect the ongoing situation in Iraq and the campaign at home. Putin is reported to be asking the Generals to draw up a plan. Significant boost for Bush, and frees up some of our troops to either come home or go elsewhere. http://www.stratfor.com/coms2/page_home
Casualties Increasing. A rare media report from the Globe’s Brian Bender
Nearly as many US soldiers lost their lives in Iraq in the first half of July as in all of June, even as Iraqi insurgents seem to have shifted focus from attacking US targets to aiming instead at Iraqi security forces and government officials.
The relatively high rate of US military casualties has dimmed hope that the handover of power to the Iraqi government would help stabilize the country and reduce pressure on US soldiers.
June was substantially less violent for US and coalition troops than the two preceding months, fueling hopes that US casualties were on the downswing. However, military officials and defense specialists are increasingly concerned that the guerrilla war could last for years and the number of dead could climb into the thousands.
Since the June 28 handover of power, the 160,000 coalition forces have averaged more than two deaths a day, among the highest rate of losses since the war began 15 months ago. By Saturday, 36 US soldiers had died this month, compared with 42 last month, according to a Globe analysis of official statistics. http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/07/19/us_casualty_rate_high_since_handover?mode=PF
Douglas Feith, Undersecretary Uncovered
Media starting to (finally) write about this fellow, the Undersecretary of Defense for Planning. Feith was key in the disinformation campaign to get us to invade Iraq, but his motivation is allegedly for aiding right-wing Israelis. Excerpts from the UPI guest editorial by Greg Guma:
In the 1990s, Feith churned out anti-Arab diatribes in Israeli newspapers, Bamford reveals. In those articles, he urged Israel to establish more settlements and end the Oslo peace process. When George H.W. Bush was president, he organized a group to denounce the elder Bush for his "mistreatment of Israel . . ." Once back in government, Feith created an Office of Strategic Influence after 9/11. Senior officials have called it a disinformation factory . . .
According to Woodward, Secretary of State Colin Powell felt that Feith was running a "Gestapo office" determined to find a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. It was so effective, notes Woodward, that even generals were intimidated.
In "Against All Enemies," Richard Clark, who coordinated counterintelligence for both the Clinton and Bush administrations, mentions Feith in a post-war context. When Bush's assertions about an al-Qaida-Saddam link began to unravel in 2003, Feith promised a congressional committee that he would prove it. Instead, he sent a highly classified memo that added little.
More important, writes Clark, is the fact that someone leaked the memo to a neoconservative magazine, "which promptly printed the secret information. Neoconservative commentators then pointed to the illegally leaked document as conclusive proof of the al-Qaida-Iraq nexus." It was a typical move, sidestepping officials to publicly reinforce a misconception.
But if you really want to understand Feith's role, the basics are provided in "A Pretext for War," James Bamford's look at the abuse of U.S. intelligence agencies both before and after 9/11. Bamford argues that Feith and Perle developed their blueprint for the Iraq operation while working for pro-Israeli think tanks.
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20040716-104354-4970r
Richard Ben Cramer on Israel. Important book from a versatile observer. It’s been in the media for more than a month; didn’t want it to escape un-posted.
"How Israel Lost" is a mournful, passionate, hilarious lament for the endangered soul of a nation he loves. In a style that slips from the wisecracking cadences of a Miami Beach hondler to the dispassionate observations of a veteran journalist to the moral outrage of a world-weary humanist, Cramer argues that in the 20-plus years since he originally lived there, the Jewish state has suffered a cataclysmic sea-change, a blow to its spirit all the more tragic for being self-inflicted.
The cause of Israel's malaise, Cramer writes, is very simple: Its 37-year occupation of Palestinian land. The occupation, Cramer argues, is a gross and continuing injustice that has coarsened Israel's moral fiber, corrupted her politics and economy, and split Israeli Jews into bitterly opposed, self-interested tribes who have lost all sense of allegiance to anything beyond their own needs. The occupation has also had a deadly effect on Palestinians, stomping out the last embers of hope and creating a generation of sad, hardened children who know Israelis only as soldiers with guns.
"[T]here are no lives in Israel or Palestine that have not been heated or hardened," Cramer writes. "On the Palestinian side, there are so many lives and dreams on hold ('We are under occupation -- what can we do?') that the conflict has more or less replaced life -- or cooked it to a standstill. The only consolation is that everything can be (and is) blamed on Israel. Among the Jews, the effects are harder to pinpoint -- and, to me, more insidious -- because the whole point of Israel was to create a place where Jews could live the best life -- and liveliest -- according to their values." http://www.salon.com/books/int/2004/07/19/ben_cramer/print.html
The Economy: The Wealthier are Doing Better. Surprise!
Still another piece of ‘evidence’ as to the 23 year trend. This was front page WSJ, and on NPR’s On Point.
Joshua Berry and Ricky Williams, both Houstonians, have seen two very different economic recoveries.
Mr. Berry, an entrepreneur, has profited handsomely from the stock market, in the real-estate boom and by selling a business. Mr. Williams, an airline baggage handler, has been waiting since 2001 for a pay raise.
With the U.S. economy expanding and the labor market improving, it isn't clear how well the Democrats' message of a divided America will resonate with voters this fall. But many economists believe the economic recovery has indeed taken two tracks, exemplified by the experiences of these two Texas residents.
Upper-income families, who pay the most in taxes and reaped the largest gains from the tax cuts President Bush championed, drove a surge of consumer spending a year ago that helped to rev up the recovery. Wealthier households also have been big beneficiaries of the stronger stock market, higher corporate profits, bigger dividend payments and the boom in housing. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109027263697767730,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Sandy Berger Messes Up:
Nothing like handing a distraction to the Right Wing. Former Clinton National Security Adviser Berger sloppily took notes and documents related to the threat of a 1999 Millenium terrorist attack from a ‘secure reading room.’ While it’s not clear if these documents were originals or copies and awfully difficult to figure out any damage inflicted, it’s a technical violation of rules, and if the documents are originals, possibly a breaking of the law. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And, obviously, this is much worse than starting a war and killing over 12,000 or outing a CIA agent.
Some Republicans are naturally accusing him of giving these documents to Kerry, seeking to show that Kerry's people are "sloppy" with highly classified materials in the war on terrorism. So, how could Kerry be trusted with the responsibility of protecting the American people in the future? A no brainer!
Linda Ronstadt: It Doesn’t Matter Any More
She always traveled to the beat of a Different Drum, but this time stayed too long on the Dark End of the Street. The coverage has not been complimentary. So, Hasten Down the Wind, Linda.
The AP report:
Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino.
Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush.
”Ronstadt's comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air…
" In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the show, Ronstadt said "I keep hoping that if I'm annoying enough to them, they won't hire me back."
Knowing she always had a Heart Like A Wheel and wanting to make his points, Michael Moore sent a letter of complaint to the Aladdin head. http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=93
Think I’ll re-visit her mid 70’s albums…
ELECTION:
Former (Republican) Environmental Chief Castigates Administration:
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's record on Monday, calling it a ``polluter protection'' policy. Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 - part of the Nixon and Ford administrations - said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry. http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4328886,00.html
Polls: As many of us say, it shouldn’t be this close.
Minnesota: Kerry 45%, Bush 44%, Nader 2% (Minnesota Public Radio)
Florida: Bush 48%, Kerry 46% (Strategic Vision)
North Carolina: Bush 49%, Kerry 44% (News and Observer)
New York: Kerry 51%, Bush 29% (Sienna Research)
Marist College Poll. "Kerry has the support of 45% of the national electorate compared with 44% for Bush. Ralph Nader receives 2%, and 9% are undecided. In the 17 battleground states, Kerry receives the support of 47% of registered voters and Bush receives 42%
Rasmussen Presidential Tracking [Nat’l] has Bush leading Kerry, 47% to 45%.
Arizona: Kerry 42%, Bush 41%
-R
Monday, July 19, 2004
"My dad thinks my mom's funny even though she's really not – Jenna Bush
Big Oil: Chuck Lewis
What more can be said? Maybe it’s just the extent of their power. Lewis appeared on Moyers’ NOW, describing the “seamless” connection between government and Big Oil. The Center for Public Integrity reports note, in part, that “U.S. oil and gas companies have at least 882 subsidiaries located in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and even the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Further, the investigation revealed that at least a half dozen U.S. oil and gas companies have actually re-incorporated in tax haven countries.”
There’ s much more at http://www.publicintegrity.com/oil/, including Big Oil in the Elections: (Sample: “Koch Industries could be the biggest oil company you have never heard of—unless, that is, you hang around the halls of government in Washington. Koch is the leading campaign contributor among oil and gas companies for the 2004 election cycle, giving $587,000 so far,”)
Mercatus:
Referenced on the pbs web site and on the Moyers program, this profile conveys their power. This must be countered!
In 2001, the new Bush White House sought suggestions for government regulations to kill or modify. A small think tank called the Mercatus Center named 44 it didn't like -- among them, rules governing energy-efficient air conditioners and renovations to electric-utility plants.
Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries -- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying heavyweights. A year later, the National Association of Manufacturers failed to persuade the administration to embrace even one item on its regulatory wish list. Now it's trying to copy Mercatus. "We said, 'Why were they more successful than we were?' " says Lawrence Fineran, the manufacturers' vice president for regulation…
Mercatus's rise owes much to the oil-and-gas company Koch Industries Inc., (pronounced "coke"), a privately owned company in Wichita, Kan., that contributes heavily to Republican causes and candidates. A Koch family foundation has given Mercatus and George Mason University a total of $14.4 million since 1998, according to public documents analyzed by the Public Education Center, a Washington group that tracks environmental issues….
Public Citizen, a consumer group founded by Ralph Nader, dismisses Mercatus as "a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and other corporate interests."… Mercatus's 29-person staff works from a warren of small offices decorated with Mexican folk-art paintings in George Mason's law school in Arlington, Va. The center spends about 9% of its $6.8 million budget on its in-house regulatory program. Much of the rest of the budget is devoted to seminars and outside research on economic issues including regulation. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108994396555065646,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The usual: The Opposition bombs the police; the U.S. bombs Fallujah.
A Thug, But He’s Our Thug In case you missed Friday’s story:
Allawi Accused of Murdering Prisoners :Paul McGeough, the chief correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald cited eyewitnesses who corroborated that Iyad Allawi personally executed several prisoners in late June.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death" . . . Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
Let’s remember that Allawi was a Baathist hit man in London, then broke with Saddam and organized terrorist operations against Saddam.Both Allawi and the American embassy deny the account. Interesting that the informants who bring us this story do not think of themselves as whistleblowers; they actually approve of summary executions. The Sydney Herald broke the story, foreign press followed, but the U.S. press has been hesitant, with the Washington Times being the first, and few covering it at all. The limited official reaction- a ‘non-denial denial’, some call it- from new ambassador John Negroponte:
"If we attempted to refute each [rumor], we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."
More War Crimes. Hesitated posting this…
Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.
Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called "war crimes". http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472
Bad Accounting Returns: Elizabeth Price of the Wall Street Journal takes us beyond our corrupt business practices at home.
Lax accounting controls by the U.S.-led governing authority in Iraq made it impossible to say whether Iraq's oil wealth was properly used for development of the country, a United Nations oversight board said yesterday.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq -- following the release of an independent audit by KPMG International -- said Iraq's oil proceeds, frozen assets and transfers from the U.N. Oil for Food Program appear to have been "properly and transparently" accounted for in a trust fund set up for Iraq.
The U.N. watchdog for the $10 billion trust fund, the Development Fund for Iraq, said "controls were insufficient to provide reasonable assurance" that proceeds from petroleum sales from May 22, 2003, just after the war began, to Dec. 31, 2003, were spent "for the purposes intended." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108993745900465507,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Pepe Escobar: Iraq Today
The first two acts of former Central Intelligence Agency asset turned Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were to call a US air strike on an alleged safe house in Fallujah, and to sign a martial-law order to be imposed on an Arab "sovereign" state by a Western, Christian army. Saddam Hussein also imposed martial law on Iraq. Last year, the talk in Baghdad was that the Americans wanted an "American Saddam". Now they have one. ..
[The Iraqi} Patriot Act was appropriately announced to the Iraqi population by Bakhtyar Amin, the new minister of justice and human rights. Some Iraqis may welcome their Patriot Act because it supposedly tackles the security nightmare bequeathed by the Americans. People in Baghdad still remember Saddam Hussein's ultra-harsh security state: it was ugly, but there was plenty of security. But Baghdad sources tell Asia Times Online that many people are wondering whether the Patriot Act will be enough to save Allawi's Iraq. Much of the Sunni triangle - including the major cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra and Baqubah - is now controlled by the resistance. These cities are nothing less than autonomous republics. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG16Ak02.html
Iran:
The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, US media reports said. Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20040717/pl_afp/us_attacks_iran
Elections:
The Congressional Black Caucus and a few other legislators recently called for UN observers to verify our elections.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Jacksonville Democrat, was especially outspoken, noting. "I come from Florida, where you [the GOP leadership] and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world."
She was then censured by the House of Representatives.
Humor: Very needed in times like these. These links require sound.
http://www.ava.nu/thisland.htm
Mark Fiore has been a steady resource. A sample (and access to his archive) can be found here: http://sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/
Shrinking Coalition:
The ‘Coalition of the Willing’ started with 32 nations-- the vast majority, however, only provided moral support. Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and four more are in the process of leaving -- Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. A partial ‘make-up’ comes from several other nations that have pledged to increase their troop levels -- South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50417-2004Jul14.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Sudha Ramachandran for Asia Times on why the scheduled elections MUST happen. As Bush recites on the campaign trail, the Iraqis and Afghans “need to hear from America that they can count on the American people. You see, when we give our word, we keep our word.” Translated: ‘Keep your promise to these countries. Vote Bush’.
Why then the rush to hold presidential elections in October when the situation is not conducive for any election? The rush to hold the presidential elections in Afghanistan in October has to do with the fact that the United States goes to the polls in November. President George W Bush, who has nothing to hold up as achievements on the foreign-policy front, is hoping to present the Afghanistan election, the country's "return to democracy", as a major accomplishment of his administration. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FG17Ag01.html
Bush Military Record: Still Out there…
The Associated Press asked a federal judge yesterday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from the news service for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service during the Vietnam War, the AP said in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Those records came from federal clearinghouses. Texas law requires separate record keeping for state National Guard service, and those records should exist on microfilm in Austin, the AP said.
"A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for reelection as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service," the lawyers wrote. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/07/17/ap_seeks_order_to_release_bushs_military_record?mode=PF
Bush at Harvard: Fleshing out the record, so to speak…
The Harvard Crimson ran a piece highlighting the recollections of a former Business School prof.
Yoshihiro Tsurumi, an avowed opponent of Bush’s current views and policies who was a visiting associate professor of international business at HBS between 1972 and 1976, said Bush was among 85 students he taught one year in a required first-year course. In the class on “Environment Analysis for Management,” incorporating elements of macroeconomics, industrial policy and international business, Tsurumi said students discussed and debated case studies for 90 minutes several times a week.
Tsurumi—now a professor of international business at Baruch College in the City University of New York—said he remembers the future president as scoring in the bottom 10 percent of students in the class. Thirty years after teaching the class, Tsurumi said the twenty-something Bush’s statements and behavior—“always very shallow”—still stand out in his mind.” http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503181
Kerry Campaign prepares for election irregularities: Today’s NY Times:
Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him to monitor the election.
Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unusual step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.
Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19VOTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Bush Ad: Kerry is Anti-Parent:
Kerry’s “extreme voting record.”
When it comes to issues that affect our families, are John Kerry’s priorities the same as yours? Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions. Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the “morning-after” pill without parents’ knowledge. He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know.
John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?
Other:
Bush continues to make absurd claims.
So, for example, We’re going to continue to bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. See, it starts with understanding that we’re not spending the government's money, we’re spending your money. And we must be good stewards with your money in the nation’s capital. (Applause.)
Fiscal Discipline?
Bush Daughters: Ah, the timing. The Bush girls, known for ‘naughtiness’ (underage drinking) now are reported to be “applying to become a teacher in Harlem” and “working with AIDS victims in Africa.” (after November) What’s next: Junior will announce that in his second term he will push universal health care and fight polluters.
Polls: Kerry’s Month: Predictable
Wisconsin: Kerry 48%, Bush 42% (American Research Group)
Florida: Kerry 47% Bush 44% (American Research Group)
Minnesota: Kerry 49% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Wisconsin: Bush 48% Kerry 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Iowa: Kerry 50% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
According to Zogby: Since the Edwards announcement, Kerry has gained in Florida, Missouri, NH and Tennessee
-R
Big Oil: Chuck Lewis
What more can be said? Maybe it’s just the extent of their power. Lewis appeared on Moyers’ NOW, describing the “seamless” connection between government and Big Oil. The Center for Public Integrity reports note, in part, that “U.S. oil and gas companies have at least 882 subsidiaries located in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and even the tiny European principality of Liechtenstein, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. Further, the investigation revealed that at least a half dozen U.S. oil and gas companies have actually re-incorporated in tax haven countries.”
There’ s much more at http://www.publicintegrity.com/oil/, including Big Oil in the Elections: (Sample: “Koch Industries could be the biggest oil company you have never heard of—unless, that is, you hang around the halls of government in Washington. Koch is the leading campaign contributor among oil and gas companies for the 2004 election cycle, giving $587,000 so far,”)
Mercatus:
Referenced on the pbs web site and on the Moyers program, this profile conveys their power. This must be countered!
In 2001, the new Bush White House sought suggestions for government regulations to kill or modify. A small think tank called the Mercatus Center named 44 it didn't like -- among them, rules governing energy-efficient air conditioners and renovations to electric-utility plants.
Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its "hit list" to eliminate or modify were Mercatus entries -- a record that flabbergasted Washington lobbying heavyweights. A year later, the National Association of Manufacturers failed to persuade the administration to embrace even one item on its regulatory wish list. Now it's trying to copy Mercatus. "We said, 'Why were they more successful than we were?' " says Lawrence Fineran, the manufacturers' vice president for regulation…
Mercatus's rise owes much to the oil-and-gas company Koch Industries Inc., (pronounced "coke"), a privately owned company in Wichita, Kan., that contributes heavily to Republican causes and candidates. A Koch family foundation has given Mercatus and George Mason University a total of $14.4 million since 1998, according to public documents analyzed by the Public Education Center, a Washington group that tracks environmental issues….
Public Citizen, a consumer group founded by Ralph Nader, dismisses Mercatus as "a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries and other corporate interests."… Mercatus's 29-person staff works from a warren of small offices decorated with Mexican folk-art paintings in George Mason's law school in Arlington, Va. The center spends about 9% of its $6.8 million budget on its in-house regulatory program. Much of the rest of the budget is devoted to seminars and outside research on economic issues including regulation. http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB108994396555065646,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: The usual: The Opposition bombs the police; the U.S. bombs Fallujah.
A Thug, But He’s Our Thug In case you missed Friday’s story:
Allawi Accused of Murdering Prisoners :Paul McGeough, the chief correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald cited eyewitnesses who corroborated that Iyad Allawi personally executed several prisoners in late June.
They say the prisoners - handcuffed and blindfolded - were lined up against a wall in a courtyard adjacent to the maximum-security cell block in which they were held at the Al-Amariyah security centre, in the city's south-western suburbs. They say Dr Allawi told onlookers the victims had each killed as many as 50 Iraqis and they "deserved worse than death" . . . Iraq's Interior Minister, Falah al-Naqib, is said to have looked on and congratulated him when the job was done. Mr al-Naqib's office has issued a verbal denial. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/16/1089694568757.html?oneclick=true
Let’s remember that Allawi was a Baathist hit man in London, then broke with Saddam and organized terrorist operations against Saddam.Both Allawi and the American embassy deny the account. Interesting that the informants who bring us this story do not think of themselves as whistleblowers; they actually approve of summary executions. The Sydney Herald broke the story, foreign press followed, but the U.S. press has been hesitant, with the Washington Times being the first, and few covering it at all. The limited official reaction- a ‘non-denial denial’, some call it- from new ambassador John Negroponte:
"If we attempted to refute each [rumor], we would have no time for other business. As far as this embassy's press office is concerned, this case is closed."
More War Crimes. Hesitated posting this…
Young male prisoners were filmed being sodomised by American soldiers at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, according to the journalist who first revealed the abuses there.
Seymour Hersh, who reported on the torture of the prisoners in New Yorker magazine in May, told an audience in San Francisco that "it's worse". But he added that he would reveal the extent of the abuses: "I'm not done reporting on all this," he told a meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union.
He said: "The boys were sodomised with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war."
He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called "war crimes". http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=541472
Bad Accounting Returns: Elizabeth Price of the Wall Street Journal takes us beyond our corrupt business practices at home.
Lax accounting controls by the U.S.-led governing authority in Iraq made it impossible to say whether Iraq's oil wealth was properly used for development of the country, a United Nations oversight board said yesterday.
The International Advisory and Monitoring Board on Iraq -- following the release of an independent audit by KPMG International -- said Iraq's oil proceeds, frozen assets and transfers from the U.N. Oil for Food Program appear to have been "properly and transparently" accounted for in a trust fund set up for Iraq.
The U.N. watchdog for the $10 billion trust fund, the Development Fund for Iraq, said "controls were insufficient to provide reasonable assurance" that proceeds from petroleum sales from May 22, 2003, just after the war began, to Dec. 31, 2003, were spent "for the purposes intended." http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108993745900465507,00.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
Pepe Escobar: Iraq Today
The first two acts of former Central Intelligence Agency asset turned Prime Minister Iyad Allawi were to call a US air strike on an alleged safe house in Fallujah, and to sign a martial-law order to be imposed on an Arab "sovereign" state by a Western, Christian army. Saddam Hussein also imposed martial law on Iraq. Last year, the talk in Baghdad was that the Americans wanted an "American Saddam". Now they have one. ..
[The Iraqi} Patriot Act was appropriately announced to the Iraqi population by Bakhtyar Amin, the new minister of justice and human rights. Some Iraqis may welcome their Patriot Act because it supposedly tackles the security nightmare bequeathed by the Americans. People in Baghdad still remember Saddam Hussein's ultra-harsh security state: it was ugly, but there was plenty of security. But Baghdad sources tell Asia Times Online that many people are wondering whether the Patriot Act will be enough to save Allawi's Iraq. Much of the Sunni triangle - including the major cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Samarra and Baqubah - is now controlled by the resistance. These cities are nothing less than autonomous republics. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FG16Ak02.html
Iran:
The September 11 commission's report, due out Thursday, says Iran may have facilitated the 2001 attacks on the United States by providing eight to 10 al-Qaeda hijackers with safe passage to and from training camps in Afghanistan, US media reports said. Time and Newsweek, in similar reports quoting congressional, commission and government sources, said Iran relaxed border controls and provided "clean" passports for the so-called "muscle hijackers" to transit Iran to and from Osama bin Laden's camps between October 2000 and February 2001. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1504&e=1&u=/afp/20040717/pl_afp/us_attacks_iran
Elections:
The Congressional Black Caucus and a few other legislators recently called for UN observers to verify our elections.
Congresswoman Corrine Brown, Jacksonville Democrat, was especially outspoken, noting. "I come from Florida, where you [the GOP leadership] and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure that it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election when you stole the election, you came back here and said get over it. No we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world."
She was then censured by the House of Representatives.
Humor: Very needed in times like these. These links require sound.
http://www.ava.nu/thisland.htm
Mark Fiore has been a steady resource. A sample (and access to his archive) can be found here: http://sfgate.com/columnists/fiore/
Shrinking Coalition:
The ‘Coalition of the Willing’ started with 32 nations-- the vast majority, however, only provided moral support. Only the UK and Australia provided forces for the invasion.
But of those 32, four have already left. Spain, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic and four more are in the process of leaving -- Philippines, Thailand, Norway and New Zealand. A partial ‘make-up’ comes from several other nations that have pledged to increase their troop levels -- South Korea, Azerbaijan and Georgia. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50417-2004Jul14.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Sudha Ramachandran for Asia Times on why the scheduled elections MUST happen. As Bush recites on the campaign trail, the Iraqis and Afghans “need to hear from America that they can count on the American people. You see, when we give our word, we keep our word.” Translated: ‘Keep your promise to these countries. Vote Bush’.
Why then the rush to hold presidential elections in October when the situation is not conducive for any election? The rush to hold the presidential elections in Afghanistan in October has to do with the fact that the United States goes to the polls in November. President George W Bush, who has nothing to hold up as achievements on the foreign-policy front, is hoping to present the Afghanistan election, the country's "return to democracy", as a major accomplishment of his administration. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FG17Ag01.html
Bush Military Record: Still Out there…
The Associated Press asked a federal judge yesterday to order the Pentagon to quickly turn over a full copy of President Bush's military service record.
The White House has released partial documentation of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard but has not complied with a Freedom of Information Act request from the news service for any record archived at a state library records center in Texas, the AP said in a court filing.
Records released so far do not put to rest questions over whether Bush fulfilled his National Guard service during the Vietnam War, the AP said in papers filed in federal court in New York.
Those records came from federal clearinghouses. Texas law requires separate record keeping for state National Guard service, and those records should exist on microfilm in Austin, the AP said.
"A significant, ongoing controversy exists over the president's military service during the Vietnam War, specifically whether he performed his required service between May and October 1972," lawyers for the AP wrote.
There also are allegations that potentially embarrassing material was removed from Bush's military file in 1997, when he was running for reelection as Texas governor, the AP said.
"The public has an intense and legitimate interest in knowing the facts concerning the president's military service," the lawyers wrote. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/07/17/ap_seeks_order_to_release_bushs_military_record?mode=PF
Bush at Harvard: Fleshing out the record, so to speak…
The Harvard Crimson ran a piece highlighting the recollections of a former Business School prof.
Yoshihiro Tsurumi, an avowed opponent of Bush’s current views and policies who was a visiting associate professor of international business at HBS between 1972 and 1976, said Bush was among 85 students he taught one year in a required first-year course. In the class on “Environment Analysis for Management,” incorporating elements of macroeconomics, industrial policy and international business, Tsurumi said students discussed and debated case studies for 90 minutes several times a week.
Tsurumi—now a professor of international business at Baruch College in the City University of New York—said he remembers the future president as scoring in the bottom 10 percent of students in the class. Thirty years after teaching the class, Tsurumi said the twenty-something Bush’s statements and behavior—“always very shallow”—still stand out in his mind.” http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=503181
Kerry Campaign prepares for election irregularities: Today’s NY Times:
Mindful of the election problems in Florida four years ago, aides to Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, say his campaign is putting together a far more intricate set of legal safeguards than any presidential candidate before him to monitor the election.
Aides to Mr. Kerry say the campaign is taking the unusual step of setting up a nationwide legal network under its own umbrella, rather than relying, as in the past, on lawyers associated with state Democratic parties. The aides said they were recruiting people based on their skills as litigators and election lawyers, rather than rewarding political connections or big donors.
Lawyers for the campaign are gathering intelligence and preparing litigation over the ballot machines being used and the rules concerning how voters will be registered or their votes disqualified. In some cases, the lawyers are compiling dossiers on the people involved and their track records on enforcing voting rights. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/19/politics/campaign/19VOTE.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Bush Ad: Kerry is Anti-Parent:
Kerry’s “extreme voting record.”
When it comes to issues that affect our families, are John Kerry’s priorities the same as yours? Kerry voted against parental notification for teenage abortions. Kerry even voted to allow schools to hand out the “morning-after” pill without parents’ knowledge. He voted to take control away from parents by taking away their right to know.
John Kerry has his priorities. The question is, are they yours?
Other:
Bush continues to make absurd claims.
So, for example, We’re going to continue to bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C. See, it starts with understanding that we’re not spending the government's money, we’re spending your money. And we must be good stewards with your money in the nation’s capital. (Applause.)
Fiscal Discipline?
Bush Daughters: Ah, the timing. The Bush girls, known for ‘naughtiness’ (underage drinking) now are reported to be “applying to become a teacher in Harlem” and “working with AIDS victims in Africa.” (after November) What’s next: Junior will announce that in his second term he will push universal health care and fight polluters.
Polls: Kerry’s Month: Predictable
Wisconsin: Kerry 48%, Bush 42% (American Research Group)
Florida: Kerry 47% Bush 44% (American Research Group)
Minnesota: Kerry 49% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Wisconsin: Bush 48% Kerry 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
Iowa: Kerry 50% Bush 46% (Hubert Humphrey Institute)
According to Zogby: Since the Edwards announcement, Kerry has gained in Florida, Missouri, NH and Tennessee
-R
