Thursday, September 30, 2004
Post Debate:
Republican Preparation: They were ready:
The Bush campaign has set up a network of Web sites to carry instant analysis of tonight's debate.
The "Debate Feed" will provide the GOP spin in real time to as many as 5,000 conservative Web outlets, according to Wired News. "Our rapid response effort is based on the premise that no attack or no misstatement will go unchallenged," Michael Turk, director of the Internet campaign, told the Web site. A "war room" is outfitted with 15 computers and two TVs, monitored by two dozen staffers, ready to send out a Republican response or comment, Wired added.
The Kerry campaign is not so well organized. It has e-mailed supporters who work with local newspapers and media, telling them the Kerry campaign will provide a response after the debate, Wired reported. http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=23326967&brk=1
The Debate:
for now:
* Educated us would say that Kerry was more presidential, more articulate, less weird. Bush sighed, looked annoyed, even tired.
* But, Kerry ran from chances to call Bush a chronic misleader or worse. He was too polite and didn’t grab the many opportunities to deal with the $87billion vote and his shifting position, and he allowed Bush to impugn his patriotism and judgment re the ‘wrong war at wrong time’ repetitive comment. Finally at 10:07 he said that Bush again ‘slipped by’ the question. And, at 10:14, re Bush’s rigidity, though not using that line. [And good on nukes.]
* How it plays with the average voter, the uncommitted is what matters. Bush repeated well, attacked well (though he sighed) and while not presidential did his ‘protect the American people’ thing which has played well with that population.
* One conclusion could be that it’s a draw, and it protects Bush’s lead; the other way to look at it is that a draw helps Kerry as Bush has a ceiling and people want to see if they trust Kerry enough so as to vote for him…instead of sitting it out. In sum, I think Kerry will gain a point or two and Bush will stay the same. Then, the question is whether Kerry can develop momentum. And the spinning…we’re about to find out. Hopefully many of us have answered poll questions and/or called talk radio, etc.
What’s Happening, Iraq: The deterioration is so profound that I’m at a loss for something ‘new’ to say. Needless to say, it will worsen over the next 33 days, but Cheney will hold firm so Bush will spout the optimism. What then? As noted previously, they’re considering increasing the bombing and even ground attacks post-election, but by then…?
Negotiating with Terrorists: Confusing.
So much for not negotiating with terrorists.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he was ready to open up contact with captors of a British hostage in Iraq shown on video begging Blair to save his life. holding several Brits hostage. Italy paid $1 million to release two captive women. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040929/ts_nm/iraq_dc
In fact, those weaklings, the French, don’t negotiate with terrorists.
Return to 1798?
What could I be referring to? The Alien and Sedition Acts, obviously. It came to mind when hearing the latest ‘aid and comfort’ reference from the Bushies, this time from Ken Mehlman,
"President Bush's campaign manager yesterday accused Sen. John Kerry's campaign of parroting the rhetoric of terrorists, signaling a new level of aggressiveness in advance of tomorrow's presidential debate. 'The enemy listens,' Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman told reporters on a conference call. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm
Bye, Bye, CBS:
They were golden back when Walter was the host, a plethora of quality journalists gave thoughtful reports / analysis. Now, the Viacom entity is muffled. The canceling of the wmd report is only one sign. And, as Sumner Redstone told the Asian Wall Street Journal,
"From a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on . . . from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."
We’ll see about reverberations.
Oh, yes that program we won’t see (until maybe after the election)
That strange explanation raises the question of whether the right-wing government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had helped manufacture evidence that his ally, Bush, could use to persuade Americans to support an invasion. Burba passed on the documents to the U.S. embassy in Rome at the instruction of her editor at Panorama, a news magazine owned by Berlusconi. An alternative theory, floated in corners of the conspiracy-minded European press, is that Martino was working for the antiwar French, who hoped to discredit the Bush administration by getting American officials to swallow obviously forged documents.
Whatever the case, the CBS producers apparently decided to concentrate on what could be nailed down: the Bush administration had, either intentionally or with breathtaking credulity, relied on patently false intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq.
"Two years ago, Americans heard some frightening words from President Bush and his closest advisers," Bradley said in his introduction of the now-shelved report. "Saddam Hussein, they said, could soon have a nuclear bomb. Of course, we now know that wasn't true." Not only did Saddam not have a nuclear program, Bradley said, but "he hadn't for more than ten years. How could the Bush administration be so wrong about something so important?"
The answer, Bradley was to have told viewers, "has a lot to do with a single piece of evidence: A set of documents that appear to prove Saddam was secretly buying uranium ore."
In his closing, Bradley explains how fiercely the White House fought his report. Administration officials and Republicans in Congress turned down "60 Minutes'" requests for interview. So did former Rep. Porter Goss, the Florida Republican whom Bush has appointed as the new director of the CIA.
"60 Minutes" defied the White House to produce this report. But it could not survive the network's cowardice -- cowardice born of self-inflicted wounds. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/29/cbs_wmd/print.html
Big Media Refuse Fahrenheit Advertising From the LA Weekly
ON ANY GIVEN DAY, the major TV networks rarely demonstrate good judgment, much less morality, when it comes to accepting a litany of nauseating advertisements. Hemorrhoid creams. Vaginal ointments. Erectile dysfunction. Army recruiting ads that portray war as a gee-whiz video game. KFC’s claim that fried chicken is the new health food. And, lest we forget, Bud Light’s farting horse during the Super Bowl.
But ads for the October 5 release of the new Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD?
Now that makes Big Media gag.
L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks’ news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why.
“They said explicitly they were reluctant because of the closeness of the release to the election. All three networks said no,” one Sony insider explains. “It was certainly a judgment that Sony disagrees with and is in the process of protesting.” http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/45/deadline-finke.php
Repression? Not hysteria; just looking for signs as to what is replacing our democracy.
An Army Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of the United States' prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It would be the first such disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam War.
The essay that sparked the military investigation is titled "Why We Cannot Win" and was posted Sept. 20 on the conservative antiwar Web site LewRockwell.com. Written by Al Lorentz, a non-commissioned officer from Texas with nearly 20 years in the Army who is serving in Iraq, the essay offers a bleak assessment of America's chances for success in Iraq. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/29/military_justice/index_np.html
Repression, II Eric Boehlert for Salon
By adopting divisive rhetoric suggesting terrorists are working to elect John Kerry, Republican leaders are posing a challenge not only for the Democratic presidential candidate but also for the press. For the first time in decades journalists find themselves reporting on a kind of public character assassination that's reminiscent of McCarthyism, according to several distinguished journalists and historians.
The former Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., gave his name to an "ism" by accusing people in the federal government of being communists -- without any evidence. CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow helped expose his methods in an hour-long documentary. McCarthy's inquisition collapsed when he attacked the U.S. Army and President Eisenhower.
Half a century ago, most of the press was slow to unravel McCarthy's vicious and reckless charges of treason, as reporters instead simply amplified them. "The press served as transmission belt for McCarthy's charges, making it more difficult for the truth to catch up," says Edwin Yoder, former editorial page editor of the Washington Star, once the major daily newspaper in the capital…
The accusations that the Kerry campaign is aiding terrorists and that terrorists would prefer that he be elected president hark back to the ugliest period of the early Cold War. "It's reminiscent of red-baiting," Yoder says. He notes one significant difference, however: "McCarthy specialized in wild accusations and character assassinations, but he didn't get involved with electoral politics. [What's happening] today is something of a novelty." http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/30/kerry_terrorism/print.html
Missile Defense: You can be sure Bush will claim this to be another success. Lying liars…
President Bush already has begun to claim fulfillment of a 2000 presidential campaign pledge -- and longtime Republican Party goal -- to build a nationwide missile defense.
But what the administration had hoped would be a triumphant achievement is clouded by doubts, even within the Pentagon, about whether a system that is on its way to costing more than $100 billion will work. Several key components have fallen years behind schedule and will not be available until later. Flight tests, plagued by delays, have yet to advance beyond elementary, highly scripted events.
The paucity of realistic test data has caused the Pentagon's chief weapons evaluator to conclude that he cannot offer a confident judgment about the system's viability. He estimated its likely effectiveness to be as low as 20 percent. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58080-2004Sep28?language=printer
Investing in War Maybe it’s not too late to cash in.
On Sept. 21, 2001, the American Stock Exchange created the Amex Defense Index, a measure of the stock prices of 15 corporations that together account for about 80 percent of procurement and research contracting by the Department of Defense. The index, of course, includes the five largest military contractors: Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
…With the Afghan war the arms index surged, gaining over 25 percent by April 2002. Then it slumped, along with the rest of the market. If you had invested $1,000 in a defense portfolio at the peak of the Taliban boomlet, by March 2003 you would have lost a third of your stake.
But then came Iraq. And it's been clover for contractors ever since. Total gains since March 2003 are above 80 percent. Even if you'd put your money in at the beginning, in September 2001, you'd be up over 50 percent. That isn't bad, considering.
This is no scandal, of course. War is naturally good for the arms business. The companies involved are public -- anyone can buy their stocks. Suppose that back in 2001 you'd had unlimited access to bank credit. And suppose you'd also had the certain knowledge that George W. Bush would take out Saddam Hussein, come what may. Well then you, too, could have made billions over the past three years. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/09/30/war_economy/print.html
AEI Moves Left? The End of the Unipolar Myth [Gautam Adhikari]
The American Enterprise has an unusual posting on its site, an essay that in part reminds us of how many are disenchanted with this Administration.
With American casualties in Iraq passing 1,000, and regions of the country descending into more destructive violence, the limits of U.S. military power are on display. The Bush administration's scramble to strike repeated compromises in Iraq, and its failure to achieve stability there, raise fundamental questions about the limits of American power.
Since the end of the cold war, the image of the United States as imperial hyperpower in a unipolar world has enjoyed wide currency. In fact, it's a myth that needs re-examination if we want to build a more realistic understanding of world power in a globalized era. There never was a unipolar world. The "unipolar moment" that commentators saw when the cold war ended was pretty much that--a hallucinatory moment in history. And describing the United States as the world's first "hyperpower" was little more than French hyperbole. These terms should be retired. Other possible descriptions such as "indispensable power" or "leader of the democratic world" might instead be re-examined to serve as credible definitions of America's status in the world today. There is a huge gap between America's military capacity and its actual ability to bend events according to its wish. America's installed capacity as the sole superpower at the end of the cold war was, and remains, beyond dispute. A $11 trillion economy that facilitates enormous technological prowess and a defense budget that exceeds the combined total of the next 25 powers should leave no doubt about the potential of the United States. http://www.aei.org/news/filter.all,newsID.21288/news_detail.asp
Follow-up: Congresswoman Seeks Re-Enlistment Probe (AP)
A Colorado congresswoman is seeking a congressional investigation into allegations that Iraqi war veterans near the end of their enlistments were given a choice between re-enlisting or being sent back to Iraq.
Democratic Rep. Diana Degette, in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked him Monday to look into whether the "White House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldier to re-enlist in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror."
Kerry Haters for Kerry. Not a misprint. It’s for Those Who dislike Kerry and loathe Bush:
For example, Thank you. I was going crazy here in Tennessee, thinking there was nobody else who wanted to support Kerry without buying into his pompous, "I'm a war hero" campaign. I can't believe the Democrats nominated such a turkey. But if you want to do something about health care ....-- JK, Dickson TN
More at http://www.kerryhatersforkerry.com/
Polls:
Michigan: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (Free Press - RV)
Michigan: Bush 50, Kerry 48 (Free Press - LV)
North Carolina: Bush 52, Kerry 43 (Mason-Dixon)
Virginia: Bush 49, Kerry 43 (Mason-Dixon)
Connecticut: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Quinnipiac
Pennsylvania Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Gallup)
Florida: Registered voters: Bush 49 Kerry 44; Likely voters: Bush 52, Kerry 43 (Gallup)
Ohio: Kerry 49-46 RV; Bush 49-47 LV (Gallup)
Ohio: Bush: 52% to 43% (Strategic Vision)
Ohio: Tie (Snell)
National:
Los Angeles Times: Bush leads 51% to 46%,
Harris Poll: Bush with a two-point lead over Kerry among likely voters, 48% to 46%.
-R
Republican Preparation: They were ready:
The Bush campaign has set up a network of Web sites to carry instant analysis of tonight's debate.
The "Debate Feed" will provide the GOP spin in real time to as many as 5,000 conservative Web outlets, according to Wired News. "Our rapid response effort is based on the premise that no attack or no misstatement will go unchallenged," Michael Turk, director of the Internet campaign, told the Web site. A "war room" is outfitted with 15 computers and two TVs, monitored by two dozen staffers, ready to send out a Republican response or comment, Wired added.
The Kerry campaign is not so well organized. It has e-mailed supporters who work with local newspapers and media, telling them the Kerry campaign will provide a response after the debate, Wired reported. http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=23326967&brk=1
The Debate:
for now:
* Educated us would say that Kerry was more presidential, more articulate, less weird. Bush sighed, looked annoyed, even tired.
* But, Kerry ran from chances to call Bush a chronic misleader or worse. He was too polite and didn’t grab the many opportunities to deal with the $87billion vote and his shifting position, and he allowed Bush to impugn his patriotism and judgment re the ‘wrong war at wrong time’ repetitive comment. Finally at 10:07 he said that Bush again ‘slipped by’ the question. And, at 10:14, re Bush’s rigidity, though not using that line. [And good on nukes.]
* How it plays with the average voter, the uncommitted is what matters. Bush repeated well, attacked well (though he sighed) and while not presidential did his ‘protect the American people’ thing which has played well with that population.
* One conclusion could be that it’s a draw, and it protects Bush’s lead; the other way to look at it is that a draw helps Kerry as Bush has a ceiling and people want to see if they trust Kerry enough so as to vote for him…instead of sitting it out. In sum, I think Kerry will gain a point or two and Bush will stay the same. Then, the question is whether Kerry can develop momentum. And the spinning…we’re about to find out. Hopefully many of us have answered poll questions and/or called talk radio, etc.
What’s Happening, Iraq: The deterioration is so profound that I’m at a loss for something ‘new’ to say. Needless to say, it will worsen over the next 33 days, but Cheney will hold firm so Bush will spout the optimism. What then? As noted previously, they’re considering increasing the bombing and even ground attacks post-election, but by then…?
Negotiating with Terrorists: Confusing.
So much for not negotiating with terrorists.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he was ready to open up contact with captors of a British hostage in Iraq shown on video begging Blair to save his life. holding several Brits hostage. Italy paid $1 million to release two captive women. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=3&u=/nm/20040929/ts_nm/iraq_dc
In fact, those weaklings, the French, don’t negotiate with terrorists.
Return to 1798?
What could I be referring to? The Alien and Sedition Acts, obviously. It came to mind when hearing the latest ‘aid and comfort’ reference from the Bushies, this time from Ken Mehlman,
"President Bush's campaign manager yesterday accused Sen. John Kerry's campaign of parroting the rhetoric of terrorists, signaling a new level of aggressiveness in advance of tomorrow's presidential debate. 'The enemy listens,' Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman told reporters on a conference call. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Presidential_Tracking_Poll.htm
Bye, Bye, CBS:
They were golden back when Walter was the host, a plethora of quality journalists gave thoughtful reports / analysis. Now, the Viacom entity is muffled. The canceling of the wmd report is only one sign. And, as Sumner Redstone told the Asian Wall Street Journal,
"From a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on . . . from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company."
We’ll see about reverberations.
Oh, yes that program we won’t see (until maybe after the election)
That strange explanation raises the question of whether the right-wing government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had helped manufacture evidence that his ally, Bush, could use to persuade Americans to support an invasion. Burba passed on the documents to the U.S. embassy in Rome at the instruction of her editor at Panorama, a news magazine owned by Berlusconi. An alternative theory, floated in corners of the conspiracy-minded European press, is that Martino was working for the antiwar French, who hoped to discredit the Bush administration by getting American officials to swallow obviously forged documents.
Whatever the case, the CBS producers apparently decided to concentrate on what could be nailed down: the Bush administration had, either intentionally or with breathtaking credulity, relied on patently false intelligence to make the case for invading Iraq.
"Two years ago, Americans heard some frightening words from President Bush and his closest advisers," Bradley said in his introduction of the now-shelved report. "Saddam Hussein, they said, could soon have a nuclear bomb. Of course, we now know that wasn't true." Not only did Saddam not have a nuclear program, Bradley said, but "he hadn't for more than ten years. How could the Bush administration be so wrong about something so important?"
The answer, Bradley was to have told viewers, "has a lot to do with a single piece of evidence: A set of documents that appear to prove Saddam was secretly buying uranium ore."
In his closing, Bradley explains how fiercely the White House fought his report. Administration officials and Republicans in Congress turned down "60 Minutes'" requests for interview. So did former Rep. Porter Goss, the Florida Republican whom Bush has appointed as the new director of the CIA.
"60 Minutes" defied the White House to produce this report. But it could not survive the network's cowardice -- cowardice born of self-inflicted wounds. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/29/cbs_wmd/print.html
Big Media Refuse Fahrenheit Advertising From the LA Weekly
ON ANY GIVEN DAY, the major TV networks rarely demonstrate good judgment, much less morality, when it comes to accepting a litany of nauseating advertisements. Hemorrhoid creams. Vaginal ointments. Erectile dysfunction. Army recruiting ads that portray war as a gee-whiz video game. KFC’s claim that fried chicken is the new health food. And, lest we forget, Bud Light’s farting horse during the Super Bowl.
But ads for the October 5 release of the new Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD?
Now that makes Big Media gag.
L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks’ news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why.
“They said explicitly they were reluctant because of the closeness of the release to the election. All three networks said no,” one Sony insider explains. “It was certainly a judgment that Sony disagrees with and is in the process of protesting.” http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/45/deadline-finke.php
Repression? Not hysteria; just looking for signs as to what is replacing our democracy.
An Army Reserve staff sergeant who last week wrote a critical analysis of the United States' prospects in Iraq now faces possible disciplinary action for disloyalty and insubordination. If charges are bought and the officer is found guilty, he could face 20 years in prison. It would be the first such disloyalty prosecution since the Vietnam War.
The essay that sparked the military investigation is titled "Why We Cannot Win" and was posted Sept. 20 on the conservative antiwar Web site LewRockwell.com. Written by Al Lorentz, a non-commissioned officer from Texas with nearly 20 years in the Army who is serving in Iraq, the essay offers a bleak assessment of America's chances for success in Iraq. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/29/military_justice/index_np.html
Repression, II Eric Boehlert for Salon
By adopting divisive rhetoric suggesting terrorists are working to elect John Kerry, Republican leaders are posing a challenge not only for the Democratic presidential candidate but also for the press. For the first time in decades journalists find themselves reporting on a kind of public character assassination that's reminiscent of McCarthyism, according to several distinguished journalists and historians.
The former Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., gave his name to an "ism" by accusing people in the federal government of being communists -- without any evidence. CBS correspondent Edward R. Murrow helped expose his methods in an hour-long documentary. McCarthy's inquisition collapsed when he attacked the U.S. Army and President Eisenhower.
Half a century ago, most of the press was slow to unravel McCarthy's vicious and reckless charges of treason, as reporters instead simply amplified them. "The press served as transmission belt for McCarthy's charges, making it more difficult for the truth to catch up," says Edwin Yoder, former editorial page editor of the Washington Star, once the major daily newspaper in the capital…
The accusations that the Kerry campaign is aiding terrorists and that terrorists would prefer that he be elected president hark back to the ugliest period of the early Cold War. "It's reminiscent of red-baiting," Yoder says. He notes one significant difference, however: "McCarthy specialized in wild accusations and character assassinations, but he didn't get involved with electoral politics. [What's happening] today is something of a novelty." http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/30/kerry_terrorism/print.html
Missile Defense: You can be sure Bush will claim this to be another success. Lying liars…
President Bush already has begun to claim fulfillment of a 2000 presidential campaign pledge -- and longtime Republican Party goal -- to build a nationwide missile defense.
But what the administration had hoped would be a triumphant achievement is clouded by doubts, even within the Pentagon, about whether a system that is on its way to costing more than $100 billion will work. Several key components have fallen years behind schedule and will not be available until later. Flight tests, plagued by delays, have yet to advance beyond elementary, highly scripted events.
The paucity of realistic test data has caused the Pentagon's chief weapons evaluator to conclude that he cannot offer a confident judgment about the system's viability. He estimated its likely effectiveness to be as low as 20 percent. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58080-2004Sep28?language=printer
Investing in War Maybe it’s not too late to cash in.
On Sept. 21, 2001, the American Stock Exchange created the Amex Defense Index, a measure of the stock prices of 15 corporations that together account for about 80 percent of procurement and research contracting by the Department of Defense. The index, of course, includes the five largest military contractors: Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.
…With the Afghan war the arms index surged, gaining over 25 percent by April 2002. Then it slumped, along with the rest of the market. If you had invested $1,000 in a defense portfolio at the peak of the Taliban boomlet, by March 2003 you would have lost a third of your stake.
But then came Iraq. And it's been clover for contractors ever since. Total gains since March 2003 are above 80 percent. Even if you'd put your money in at the beginning, in September 2001, you'd be up over 50 percent. That isn't bad, considering.
This is no scandal, of course. War is naturally good for the arms business. The companies involved are public -- anyone can buy their stocks. Suppose that back in 2001 you'd had unlimited access to bank credit. And suppose you'd also had the certain knowledge that George W. Bush would take out Saddam Hussein, come what may. Well then you, too, could have made billions over the past three years. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/09/30/war_economy/print.html
AEI Moves Left? The End of the Unipolar Myth [Gautam Adhikari]
The American Enterprise has an unusual posting on its site, an essay that in part reminds us of how many are disenchanted with this Administration.
With American casualties in Iraq passing 1,000, and regions of the country descending into more destructive violence, the limits of U.S. military power are on display. The Bush administration's scramble to strike repeated compromises in Iraq, and its failure to achieve stability there, raise fundamental questions about the limits of American power.
Since the end of the cold war, the image of the United States as imperial hyperpower in a unipolar world has enjoyed wide currency. In fact, it's a myth that needs re-examination if we want to build a more realistic understanding of world power in a globalized era. There never was a unipolar world. The "unipolar moment" that commentators saw when the cold war ended was pretty much that--a hallucinatory moment in history. And describing the United States as the world's first "hyperpower" was little more than French hyperbole. These terms should be retired. Other possible descriptions such as "indispensable power" or "leader of the democratic world" might instead be re-examined to serve as credible definitions of America's status in the world today. There is a huge gap between America's military capacity and its actual ability to bend events according to its wish. America's installed capacity as the sole superpower at the end of the cold war was, and remains, beyond dispute. A $11 trillion economy that facilitates enormous technological prowess and a defense budget that exceeds the combined total of the next 25 powers should leave no doubt about the potential of the United States. http://www.aei.org/news/filter.all,newsID.21288/news_detail.asp
Follow-up: Congresswoman Seeks Re-Enlistment Probe (AP)
A Colorado congresswoman is seeking a congressional investigation into allegations that Iraqi war veterans near the end of their enlistments were given a choice between re-enlisting or being sent back to Iraq.
Democratic Rep. Diana Degette, in a letter to House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asked him Monday to look into whether the "White House or civilian Pentagon officials are pressuring the military to use coercive tactics to get soldier to re-enlist in order to maintain the force levels necessary to fight the war in Iraq and war on terror."
Kerry Haters for Kerry. Not a misprint. It’s for Those Who dislike Kerry and loathe Bush:
For example, Thank you. I was going crazy here in Tennessee, thinking there was nobody else who wanted to support Kerry without buying into his pompous, "I'm a war hero" campaign. I can't believe the Democrats nominated such a turkey. But if you want to do something about health care ....-- JK, Dickson TN
More at http://www.kerryhatersforkerry.com/
Polls:
Michigan: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (Free Press - RV)
Michigan: Bush 50, Kerry 48 (Free Press - LV)
North Carolina: Bush 52, Kerry 43 (Mason-Dixon)
Virginia: Bush 49, Kerry 43 (Mason-Dixon)
Connecticut: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Quinnipiac
Pennsylvania Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Gallup)
Florida: Registered voters: Bush 49 Kerry 44; Likely voters: Bush 52, Kerry 43 (Gallup)
Ohio: Kerry 49-46 RV; Bush 49-47 LV (Gallup)
Ohio: Bush: 52% to 43% (Strategic Vision)
Ohio: Tie (Snell)
National:
Los Angeles Times: Bush leads 51% to 46%,
Harris Poll: Bush with a two-point lead over Kerry among likely voters, 48% to 46%.
-R
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
[Dreaded?] Election Draws Near:
The struggle: coming to terms with a country that may elect a deceitful group that has so grievously harmed the country. And, democracy continues its retreat.
The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.
The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52800-2004Sep26.html
Jimmy Carter warned that Florida is no less corrupt than in 2000. Foreign observers agree.
Palm Beach isn't the only place in Florida where crazy things have happened. Officials up and down the state have behaved like drunks caught out on one bender too many. They have talked the talk of reform quite convincingly, and even lavished considerable expense on covering up their past lapses. But the bottom line is that the voting machines still don't work, political corruption and underhand campaign tactics remain rampant, and too many black and lower-income voters face daunting, often insurmountable obstacles in exercising their voting rights.
In a state that promises to be every bit as pivotal as it was last time, this is deeply worrying. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=566688
And in Ohio, folks there know that fraud isn’t limited to the Sunshine State.
Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some people's ability to vote Nov. 2. Blackwell's office has told county boards of elections to follow strictly two provisions in Ohio election law: • One requires Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper. • The other ordered boards to strictly interpret the rules regarding provisional ballots, the ones cast by voters who move before the election but are still registered in Ohio. The paper-stock issue is frustrating Montgomery County Board of Elections officials, who have a backlog of registrations to complete. If they get an Ohio voter registration card on paper thinner than required, they are mailing a new card out to the voter. But if they still have the backlog by the registration deadline, Oct. 4, voters will not have another chance to get their correct paperwork in, said Steve Harsman, deputy director of the Montgomery County board. In Montgomery County there is a backlog of around 4,000 registrations, Harsman said. A few hundred could be affected by this provision, he said.
www.kaytonforkerry.com via the Dayton daily news
Yet, most of the media keep pretending that Jeb is just another governor, that “It” can’t happen here…again.
And, of course: Dumbed Down Public + Republican repetition = Trouble
Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the Democratic nominee, the survey and interviews showed. Voters routinely describe Kerry as wishy-washy, as a flip-flopper and as a candidate they are not sure they can trust, almost as if they are reading from Bush campaign ad scripts. But Kerry's problems are also partly of his own making. Despite repeated efforts to flesh out his proposals on Iraq, terrorism and other issues, he has yet to break through to undecided voters as someone who has clear plans for fixing the country's biggest problems. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54435-2004Sep27?language=printer
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Handful of Terrorists: The Times and the Post make it clear:
Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks by insurgents have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north, according to comprehensive data compiled by a private security company with access to military intelligence reports and its own network of Iraqi informants.
The sweeping geographical reach of the attacks, from Nineveh and Salahuddin Provinces in the northwest to Babylon and Diyala in the center and Basra in the south, suggests a more widespread resistance than the isolated pockets described by Iraqi government officials. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/international/middleeast/29attacks.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position
A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.
While President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have delivered optimistic public appraisals, officials who fight the Iraqi insurgency and study it at the CIA and the State Department and within the Army officer corps believe the rebellion is deeper and more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged, officials say. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58183-2004Sep28.html
Cheney et al knew the invasion would be messy
The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday.
The estimate came in two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council, an independent group that advises the director of central intelligence. The assessments predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/politics/28intel.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Powell Admits Iraqi Truths
Secretary of State Colin Powell sees the situation in Iraq "getting worse" as planned elections approach, and the top U.S. military commander for Iraq says he expects more violence ahead.Their comments yesterday came after a week in which President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi optimistically spoke about the situation despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of dozens of people in car bombings.In its latest report, the military said four Marines died Friday in separate incidents, adding to a toll that has topped 1,000 since the U.S.-led invasion.Powell said the insurgency is only becoming more violent as planned January elections near."It's getting worse," he said on ABC's "This Week." "They are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election. http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Sep/20040927News011.asp
Still More Confirmation that Saddam was no threat, had no “smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud”.
A new book, The Bomb in My Garden, a memoir written by “Saddam’s bomb-maker”, Mahdi Obeidi, details that Saddam not only had no nuke program after 1991, but that he could not have had one, as all the advanced technologies required could only be secured from foreign sources. In view of the embargo, the spy flights, the bombing, etc., it wasn’t gonna happen, and he made no concerted effort to attain... regardless of claims to the contrary by the Bushies.
Stunning (Tuesday) News Shorts:
*[Eric Lichtblau], NY Times: "More than 120,000 hours of terrorism-related recordings have not been translated by the F.B.I., and computer problems may have erased some Al Qaeda recordings."…. Unreal.
*The WaPost on strategic defense: "What the Bush administration had hoped would be a triumphant achievement is clouded by doubts, even within the Pentagon, about whether a missile defense system that is on its way to costing more than $100 billion will work. "
What’s Happening, Turkey: Just keeping tabs…
Four bombs that went off simultaneously in separate Turkish cities targeting British and US interests caused material damage and left one man slightly injured, Anatolia news agency reported.
Three branches of the British-based banking giant HSBC were targeted. The bank's Turkish headquarters -- as well as two synagogues and the British Consulate -- was hit in suicide bomb attacks last year in Istanbul that killed 61 people. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040928/1/3nf9r.html
What’s Happening, Korea: Postscript (to no policy)
Minister: N. Korea Has Nuclear Deterrent
North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia. Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula ``is snowballing,'' Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon provided details Monday of the nuclear deterrent that he said North Korea has developed for self-defense. He told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that Pyongyang had ``no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent'' because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to ``eliminate'' North Korea and make it ``a target of preemptive nuclear strikes.'' ``Our deterrent is, in all its intents and purposes, the self-defensive means to cope with the ever increasing U.S. nuclear threats and further, prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia,'' he told a news conference after his speech. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040928%2F0515512476.htm&sc=1104&flok=NW_5-L2&floc=NW_1-T
“Debate”- Again, there’s no reason for Kerry to avoid the truths. He’s gotta say the strong stuff in the first 20 minutes before the public starts tuning out. Perhaps Kerry could note the catastrophic intelligence failures, the lies that led to a catastrophic invasion, the federal offense of outing a CIA agent, the lies the budget team told to Congress about the Medicare bill’s cost…and that no one was held responsible.
-R
The struggle: coming to terms with a country that may elect a deceitful group that has so grievously harmed the country. And, democracy continues its retreat.
The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act's key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.
The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52800-2004Sep26.html
Jimmy Carter warned that Florida is no less corrupt than in 2000. Foreign observers agree.
Palm Beach isn't the only place in Florida where crazy things have happened. Officials up and down the state have behaved like drunks caught out on one bender too many. They have talked the talk of reform quite convincingly, and even lavished considerable expense on covering up their past lapses. But the bottom line is that the voting machines still don't work, political corruption and underhand campaign tactics remain rampant, and too many black and lower-income voters face daunting, often insurmountable obstacles in exercising their voting rights.
In a state that promises to be every bit as pivotal as it was last time, this is deeply worrying. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=566688
And in Ohio, folks there know that fraud isn’t limited to the Sunshine State.
Voters-rights advocates are criticizing two recent decisions by Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that they say will unfairly limit some people's ability to vote Nov. 2. Blackwell's office has told county boards of elections to follow strictly two provisions in Ohio election law: • One requires Ohio voter registration cards be printed on thick, 80-pound stock paper. • The other ordered boards to strictly interpret the rules regarding provisional ballots, the ones cast by voters who move before the election but are still registered in Ohio. The paper-stock issue is frustrating Montgomery County Board of Elections officials, who have a backlog of registrations to complete. If they get an Ohio voter registration card on paper thinner than required, they are mailing a new card out to the voter. But if they still have the backlog by the registration deadline, Oct. 4, voters will not have another chance to get their correct paperwork in, said Steve Harsman, deputy director of the Montgomery County board. In Montgomery County there is a backlog of around 4,000 registrations, Harsman said. A few hundred could be affected by this provision, he said.
www.kaytonforkerry.com via the Dayton daily news
Yet, most of the media keep pretending that Jeb is just another governor, that “It” can’t happen here…again.
And, of course: Dumbed Down Public + Republican repetition = Trouble
Bush's relentless attacks on Kerry have badly damaged the Democratic nominee, the survey and interviews showed. Voters routinely describe Kerry as wishy-washy, as a flip-flopper and as a candidate they are not sure they can trust, almost as if they are reading from Bush campaign ad scripts. But Kerry's problems are also partly of his own making. Despite repeated efforts to flesh out his proposals on Iraq, terrorism and other issues, he has yet to break through to undecided voters as someone who has clear plans for fixing the country's biggest problems. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54435-2004Sep27?language=printer
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Handful of Terrorists: The Times and the Post make it clear:
Over the past 30 days, more than 2,300 attacks by insurgents have been directed against civilians and military targets in Iraq, in a pattern that sprawls over nearly every major population center outside the Kurdish north, according to comprehensive data compiled by a private security company with access to military intelligence reports and its own network of Iraqi informants.
The sweeping geographical reach of the attacks, from Nineveh and Salahuddin Provinces in the northwest to Babylon and Diyala in the center and Basra in the south, suggests a more widespread resistance than the isolated pockets described by Iraqi government officials. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/international/middleeast/29attacks.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position
A growing number of career professionals within national security agencies believe that the situation in Iraq is much worse, and the path to success much more tenuous, than is being expressed in public by top Bush administration officials, according to former and current government officials and assessments over the past year by intelligence officials at the CIA and the departments of State and Defense.
While President Bush, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others have delivered optimistic public appraisals, officials who fight the Iraqi insurgency and study it at the CIA and the State Department and within the Army officer corps believe the rebellion is deeper and more widespread than is being publicly acknowledged, officials say. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58183-2004Sep28.html
Cheney et al knew the invasion would be messy
The same intelligence unit that produced a gloomy report in July about the prospect of growing instability in Iraq warned the Bush administration about the potential costly consequences of an American-led invasion two months before the war began, government officials said Monday.
The estimate came in two classified reports prepared for President Bush in January 2003 by the National Intelligence Council, an independent group that advises the director of central intelligence. The assessments predicted that an American-led invasion of Iraq would increase support for political Islam and would result in a deeply divided Iraqi society prone to violent internal conflict. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/politics/28intel.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Powell Admits Iraqi Truths
Secretary of State Colin Powell sees the situation in Iraq "getting worse" as planned elections approach, and the top U.S. military commander for Iraq says he expects more violence ahead.Their comments yesterday came after a week in which President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi optimistically spoke about the situation despite the beheadings of two more Americans and the deaths of dozens of people in car bombings.In its latest report, the military said four Marines died Friday in separate incidents, adding to a toll that has topped 1,000 since the U.S.-led invasion.Powell said the insurgency is only becoming more violent as planned January elections near."It's getting worse," he said on ABC's "This Week." "They are determined to disrupt the election. They do not want the Iraqi people to vote for their own leaders in a free, democratic election. http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Sep/20040927News011.asp
Still More Confirmation that Saddam was no threat, had no “smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud”.
A new book, The Bomb in My Garden, a memoir written by “Saddam’s bomb-maker”, Mahdi Obeidi, details that Saddam not only had no nuke program after 1991, but that he could not have had one, as all the advanced technologies required could only be secured from foreign sources. In view of the embargo, the spy flights, the bombing, etc., it wasn’t gonna happen, and he made no concerted effort to attain... regardless of claims to the contrary by the Bushies.
Stunning (Tuesday) News Shorts:
*[Eric Lichtblau], NY Times: "More than 120,000 hours of terrorism-related recordings have not been translated by the F.B.I., and computer problems may have erased some Al Qaeda recordings."…. Unreal.
*The WaPost on strategic defense: "What the Bush administration had hoped would be a triumphant achievement is clouded by doubts, even within the Pentagon, about whether a missile defense system that is on its way to costing more than $100 billion will work. "
What’s Happening, Turkey: Just keeping tabs…
Four bombs that went off simultaneously in separate Turkish cities targeting British and US interests caused material damage and left one man slightly injured, Anatolia news agency reported.
Three branches of the British-based banking giant HSBC were targeted. The bank's Turkish headquarters -- as well as two synagogues and the British Consulate -- was hit in suicide bomb attacks last year in Istanbul that killed 61 people. http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040928/1/3nf9r.html
What’s Happening, Korea: Postscript (to no policy)
Minister: N. Korea Has Nuclear Deterrent
North Korea says it has turned the plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into nuclear weapons to serve as a deterrent against increasing U.S. nuclear threats and to prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia. Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula ``is snowballing,'' Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon provided details Monday of the nuclear deterrent that he said North Korea has developed for self-defense. He told the U.N. General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting that Pyongyang had ``no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent'' because of U.S. policies that he claimed were designed to ``eliminate'' North Korea and make it ``a target of preemptive nuclear strikes.'' ``Our deterrent is, in all its intents and purposes, the self-defensive means to cope with the ever increasing U.S. nuclear threats and further, prevent a nuclear war in northeast Asia,'' he told a news conference after his speech. http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20040928%2F0515512476.htm&sc=1104&flok=NW_5-L2&floc=NW_1-T
“Debate”- Again, there’s no reason for Kerry to avoid the truths. He’s gotta say the strong stuff in the first 20 minutes before the public starts tuning out. Perhaps Kerry could note the catastrophic intelligence failures, the lies that led to a catastrophic invasion, the federal offense of outing a CIA agent, the lies the budget team told to Congress about the Medicare bill’s cost…and that no one was held responsible.
-R
Monday, September 27, 2004
Is the World Safer?
(Paula) ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
(Pakistan’s Pres.) MUSHARRAF: No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Do you think that the war in Iraq has undermined the overall war on terror?MUSHARRAF: It has complicated it, certainly. I wouldn't say undermined. It has further complicated it. It has made the job more difficult.
-CNN, 9/24
CBS Packs It in: Journalism Resumes-perhaps- on November 3
CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.
The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.
The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.
CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.
"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html
The Piece:
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.
Although the edited piece never ended up identifying Martino by name, the story, narrated by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, asked tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek/
ACTION:
If you feel like impacting the media, contact:Mel Karmazin, President, CBS CorporationVIACOM/CBS Corporation1515 BroadwayNew York, New York 10036
Or email the execs [kee@cbsnews.com, kfa@cbsnews.com, smg@cbsnews.com, 60II@cbsnews.com, audsvcs@cbs.com]
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With reports of the deteriorating situation, it’s no surprise that the media aren’t able to do their job. One problem is that we’ll have less reporting of the deteriorating situation, which will be interpreted by some as a brightening picture. [Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
We at The Post, like most other foreign journalists here, have had to restrict our movements around Baghdad and the rest of the country because of the seucrity situation. I used to jump in a car and drive out to places like Fallujah and Baqubah to write about attacks, to get a sense of what was really happening on the ground. No longer. The roads are too dangerous, the threat of kidnapping too great. We spend a lot of time sitting in our hotels and relying on the reporting of our very brave Iraqi local staff. It's not great for us and it's not great for our readers, but it's the best we can do under the circumstances. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/world_rajiv092204.htm
The same author notes the situation; this type of dispatch / report is increasingly common…at last
Less than four months before planned national elections in Iraq, attacks against U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and private contractors number in the dozens each day and have spread to parts of the country that had been relatively peaceful, according to statistics compiled by a private security firm working for the U.S. government. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50259-2004Sep25.html
Casualties 5 Americans were killed on Saturday. And,
Coalition fatalities in Iraq: 1183U.S. military fatalities in Iraq: 1048Iraqi military fatalities: Several thousandIraqi civilian fatalities: At least 12,927
And :
Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be significantly higher.
During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed.
Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm
That Iraqi Security Force: Hardly trustworthy
The American military said Sunday that it had arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard, raising concerns about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/international/middleeast/27iraq.html?pagewanted=all
Allawi Tour Ends, thank goodness. Clever for the Bushies to think of bringing him over to campaign. That way. if you dare to accuse Bush of lying you’re not only attacking the C. in Chief, but also besmirching the “Prime Minister of an independent and free Iraq” and clearly are being non=supportive. Of course, Allawi, the former Saddam thug and CIA asset is not even an independent thug.
Josh Marshall hit the irony hard in noting Bush’s comment that "You can't lead this country" while undercutting a valued ally.”
Rumors of a coming attack on Kerry for war-profiteering in connection with a secret no-bid ketchup contract for the Heinz Corporation could not be confirmed as this story went to press. www.talkingpointsmemo.org
So-called “War on Terror”- the Failure: Nothing new here. LA Times:
Al Qaeda Seen as Wider Threat: The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected
Authorities have made little progress worldwide in defeating Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda despite thwarting attacks and arresting high-profile figures, according to interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials and outside experts.On the contrary, officials warn that the Bush administration's upbeat assessment of its successes is overly optimistic and masks its strategic failure to understand and combat Al Qaeda's evolution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaeda26sep26,1,7404747.story?coll=la-home-world
In Lieu of a Policy… Off the Coast of North Korea…
After 45 months of no policy, the Administration “acts.”
In the first step toward erecting a multibillion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091020/
Car Bombs in Foreign Countries. Good thing it ain’t happening here…yet.
A car bomb killed a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Damascus on Sunday, and Israeli security officials acknowledged that the Jewish state was involved. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109619415966628012,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
Syria Next? Long rumored, but the lack of troops means it would have to be covert.
Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. (Syria is regarded as a major route for jihadis entering Iraq, and Iran appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons.) Even hard-liners acknowledge that given the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, a U.S. attack on either country would be an unlikely last resort; covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6099353/site/newsweek
Welfare Reform: The Success (?) Seems like poverty is up…
Though the number of welfare recipients continues to decline, poverty rates -- particularly for single mothers and children -- have surged in recent years. Just last month, the government reported that the number of people on welfare had declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 compared with 2002, while the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million. Those divergent trends offer fresh ammunition to both sides in the debate over whether, eight years after the fact, welfare reform is working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49955-2004Sep25.html
Plight of the Working Poor: Fewer programs.
A Detroit News report that notes that “the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.”
The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year.
To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.
The affected programs — job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services — provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.
A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely.
The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts.
In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm
A Thinking Republican Deserts Bush
Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local/index.php?ntid=10685
Seattle Journalist Makes (Rare) Sense: A script for Kerry:
Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements-Walter Williams
During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period.
No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the administration's use of subterfuge.
The wanton level of deception became clear early on when the first tax cut was sold with the claim that those with the lowest earnings did better than the highest-income families. As data and analysis became available, however, it was clear that claim depended on statistical trickery. The biggest beneficiaries were the top 1 percent of the population, who received more than twice as much from the total amount of tax reductions as the bottom 60 percent.
Another example involves the Medicare bill. To pass the legislation, the administration promised reluctant conservatives that the legislation would cost less than $400 billion over 10 years. After enactment, the administration admitted that Medicare would cost $530 billion.
It also came out that the Medicare actuary, a career civil servant, had earlier projected the cost at around $550 billion. After Congress requested the actuary's numbers, the administration threatened to fire him if he turned over his projection. He did not.
Later the administration's threats that blocked the actuary were adjudged illegal. Yet the lawless behavior won the day, with the legislation acclaimed as a great triumph for the president. Deception became the administration's primary weapon.
The Bush administration's two most important policy thrusts -- the three tax cuts and the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq -- were sold with similar tactics, including the withholding of critical information needed by Congress and the public to make informed judgments.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192327_williams26.html
Then there’s the poll that finds 66% of respondents consider Bush an “optimist”.
Blair Holding On?
Tony Blair's allies will fight a rearguard action today to prevent Labour's annual conference from issuing an embarrassing call for British troops to pull out of Iraq.
As delegates pour into Brighton for the start of the conference this morning, they will come under pressure from party officials not to allow the Iraq conflict to deflect attention from Mr Blair's plans for the next five years of a Labour government. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=565791
-R
(Paula) ZAHN: Is the world a safer place because of the war in Iraq?
(Pakistan’s Pres.) MUSHARRAF: No. It's more dangerous. It's not safer, certainly not.
ZAHN: How so?
MUSHARRAF: Well, because it has aroused actions of the Muslims more. It's aroused certain sentiments of the Muslim world, and then the responses, the latest phenomena of explosives, more frequent for bombs and suicide bombings. This phenomenon is extremely dangerous.
ZAHN: Do you think that the war in Iraq has undermined the overall war on terror?MUSHARRAF: It has complicated it, certainly. I wouldn't say undermined. It has further complicated it. It has made the job more difficult.
-CNN, 9/24
CBS Packs It in: Journalism Resumes-perhaps- on November 3
CBS News said yesterday that it had postponed a "60 Minutes" segment that questioned Bush administration rationales for going to war in Iraq.
The announcement, in a statement by a spokeswoman, was issued four days after the network acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of documents it used to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.
The Iraq segment had been ready for broadcast on Sept. 8, CBS said, but was bumped at the last minute for the segment on Mr. Bush's National Guard service. The Guard segment was considered a highly competitive report, one that other journalists were pursuing.
CBS said last night that the report on the war would not run before Nov. 2.
"We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election," the spokeswoman, Kelli Edwards, said in a statement. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/25/politics/campaign/25cbs.html
The Piece:
A team of “60 Minutes” correspondents and consulting reporters spent more than six months investigating the Niger uranium documents fraud, CBS sources tell NEWSWEEK. The group landed the first ever on-camera interview with Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who first obtained the phony documents, as well as her elusive source, Rocco Martino, a mysterious Roman businessman with longstanding ties to European intelligence agencies.
Although the edited piece never ended up identifying Martino by name, the story, narrated by “60 Minutes” correspondent Ed Bradley, asked tough questions about how the White House came to embrace the fraudulent documents and why administration officials chose to include a 16-word reference to the questionable uranium purchase in President Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6073449/site/newsweek/
ACTION:
If you feel like impacting the media, contact:Mel Karmazin, President, CBS CorporationVIACOM/CBS Corporation1515 BroadwayNew York, New York 10036
Or email the execs [kee@cbsnews.com, kfa@cbsnews.com, smg@cbsnews.com, 60II@cbsnews.com, audsvcs@cbs.com]
What’s Happening, Iraq:
With reports of the deteriorating situation, it’s no surprise that the media aren’t able to do their job. One problem is that we’ll have less reporting of the deteriorating situation, which will be interpreted by some as a brightening picture. [Rajiv Chandrasekaran]
We at The Post, like most other foreign journalists here, have had to restrict our movements around Baghdad and the rest of the country because of the seucrity situation. I used to jump in a car and drive out to places like Fallujah and Baqubah to write about attacks, to get a sense of what was really happening on the ground. No longer. The roads are too dangerous, the threat of kidnapping too great. We spend a lot of time sitting in our hotels and relying on the reporting of our very brave Iraqi local staff. It's not great for us and it's not great for our readers, but it's the best we can do under the circumstances. http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/04/world_rajiv092204.htm
The same author notes the situation; this type of dispatch / report is increasingly common…at last
Less than four months before planned national elections in Iraq, attacks against U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and private contractors number in the dozens each day and have spread to parts of the country that had been relatively peaceful, according to statistics compiled by a private security firm working for the U.S. government. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50259-2004Sep25.html
Casualties 5 Americans were killed on Saturday. And,
Coalition fatalities in Iraq: 1183U.S. military fatalities in Iraq: 1048Iraqi military fatalities: Several thousandIraqi civilian fatalities: At least 12,927
And :
Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis - most of them civilians - as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry and obtained exclusively by Knight Ridder.
According to the ministry, the interim Iraqi government recorded 3,487 Iraqi deaths in 15 of the country's 18 provinces from April 5 - when the ministry began compiling the data - until Sept. 19. Of those, 328 were women and children. Another 13,720 Iraqis were injured, the ministry said.
While most of the dead are believed to be civilians, the data include an unknown number of police and Iraqi national guardsmen. Many Iraqi deaths, especially of insurgents, are never reported, so the actual number of Iraqis killed in fighting could be significantly higher.
During the same period, 432 American soldiers were killed.
Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of innocent civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9753603.htm
That Iraqi Security Force: Hardly trustworthy
The American military said Sunday that it had arrested a senior commander of the nascent Iraqi National Guard, raising concerns about the loyalty and reliability of the new security forces just months before general elections are scheduled across the embattled country. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/27/international/middleeast/27iraq.html?pagewanted=all
Allawi Tour Ends, thank goodness. Clever for the Bushies to think of bringing him over to campaign. That way. if you dare to accuse Bush of lying you’re not only attacking the C. in Chief, but also besmirching the “Prime Minister of an independent and free Iraq” and clearly are being non=supportive. Of course, Allawi, the former Saddam thug and CIA asset is not even an independent thug.
Josh Marshall hit the irony hard in noting Bush’s comment that "You can't lead this country" while undercutting a valued ally.”
Rumors of a coming attack on Kerry for war-profiteering in connection with a secret no-bid ketchup contract for the Heinz Corporation could not be confirmed as this story went to press. www.talkingpointsmemo.org
So-called “War on Terror”- the Failure: Nothing new here. LA Times:
Al Qaeda Seen as Wider Threat: The network has evolved into a looser, ideological movement that may no longer report to Bin Laden. Critics say the White House focus is misdirected
Authorities have made little progress worldwide in defeating Islamic extremists affiliated with Al Qaeda despite thwarting attacks and arresting high-profile figures, according to interviews with intelligence and law enforcement officials and outside experts.On the contrary, officials warn that the Bush administration's upbeat assessment of its successes is overly optimistic and masks its strategic failure to understand and combat Al Qaeda's evolution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-qaeda26sep26,1,7404747.story?coll=la-home-world
In Lieu of a Policy… Off the Coast of North Korea…
After 45 months of no policy, the Administration “acts.”
In the first step toward erecting a multibillion-dollar shield to protect the United States from foreign missiles, the U.S. Navy will begin deploying state-of-the-art destroyers to patrol the waters off North Korea as early as next week. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6091020/
Car Bombs in Foreign Countries. Good thing it ain’t happening here…yet.
A car bomb killed a leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Damascus on Sunday, and Israeli security officials acknowledged that the Jewish state was involved. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109619415966628012,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
Syria Next? Long rumored, but the lack of troops means it would have to be covert.
Deep in the Pentagon, admirals and generals are updating plans for possible U.S. military action in Syria and Iran. The Defense Department unit responsible for military planning for the two troublesome countries is "busier than ever," an administration official says. Some Bush advisers characterize the work as merely an effort to revise routine plans the Pentagon maintains for all contingencies in light of the Iraq war. More skittish bureaucrats say the updates are accompanied by a revived campaign by administration conservatives and neocons for more hard-line U.S. policies toward the countries. (Syria is regarded as a major route for jihadis entering Iraq, and Iran appears to be actively pursuing nuclear weapons.) Even hard-liners acknowledge that given the U.S. military commitment in Iraq, a U.S. attack on either country would be an unlikely last resort; covert action of some kind is the favored route for Washington hard-liners who want regime change in Damascus and Tehran. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6099353/site/newsweek
Welfare Reform: The Success (?) Seems like poverty is up…
Though the number of welfare recipients continues to decline, poverty rates -- particularly for single mothers and children -- have surged in recent years. Just last month, the government reported that the number of people on welfare had declined by 149,000 at the end of 2003 compared with 2002, while the number in poverty rose by 1.3 million. Those divergent trends offer fresh ammunition to both sides in the debate over whether, eight years after the fact, welfare reform is working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49955-2004Sep25.html
Plight of the Working Poor: Fewer programs.
A Detroit News report that notes that “the amount of money millions of Americans now pay for services ranging from child care to housing is greater than the amount they saved through the tax cuts.”
The Bush administration and Congress have scaled back programs that aid the poor to help pay for $600 billion in tax breaks that went primarily to those who earn more than $288,800 a year.
To offset the loss of the tax revenue, the administration has amassed record federal deficits and trimmed social spending.
The affected programs — job training, housing, higher education and an array of social services — provide safety nets for the poor. Many programs are critical elements in welfare-to-work initiatives and were already badly underfunded.
A six-month Detroit News investigation showed that as a result of the withering government assistance, working poor and destitute Americans are increasingly likely to be placed on waiting lists for help, receive reduced services, or be denied service entirely.
The News, after interviewing scores of people across the United States and examining thousands of pages of federal and state financial records, determined the loss of services cost many poor Americans more money than they saved from the tax cuts.
In many cases, the poorest lost services and got no tax cut at all. http://www.detnews.com/2004/specialreport/0409/26/a01-284666.htm
A Thinking Republican Deserts Bush
Russell Train is so disappointed in President Bush's environmental record that the staunch Republican, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's second leader 30 years ago, is casting his vote in November for Democrat John Kerry.Train, 84, EPA administrator under Presidents Nixon and Ford from 1973 to 77, was in Madison Tuesday in support of Environment2004, an organization trying to end what it calls the anti-environmental agenda of the Bush administration.A Washington insider for more than half a century, Train said the Bush administration's performance is a radical rollback of environmental rules to benefit special interests. http://www.madison.com/tct/mad/local/index.php?ntid=10685
Seattle Journalist Makes (Rare) Sense: A script for Kerry:
Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements-Walter Williams
During his first term, George W. Bush has inflicted more damage on the nation's people than any other president in the post-World War II era. Not only has the Bush administration failed, it has been far and away the most dangerous presidency in this period.
No other administration has seen itself above the law or so disregarded the Constitution by attacking the venerable institutions created to uphold democracy. In addition, the Bush presidency pushed through its policies by employing a calculated lawlessness that featured both deception and secrecy. A couple of examples help illustrate the administration's use of subterfuge.
The wanton level of deception became clear early on when the first tax cut was sold with the claim that those with the lowest earnings did better than the highest-income families. As data and analysis became available, however, it was clear that claim depended on statistical trickery. The biggest beneficiaries were the top 1 percent of the population, who received more than twice as much from the total amount of tax reductions as the bottom 60 percent.
Another example involves the Medicare bill. To pass the legislation, the administration promised reluctant conservatives that the legislation would cost less than $400 billion over 10 years. After enactment, the administration admitted that Medicare would cost $530 billion.
It also came out that the Medicare actuary, a career civil servant, had earlier projected the cost at around $550 billion. After Congress requested the actuary's numbers, the administration threatened to fire him if he turned over his projection. He did not.
Later the administration's threats that blocked the actuary were adjudged illegal. Yet the lawless behavior won the day, with the legislation acclaimed as a great triumph for the president. Deception became the administration's primary weapon.
The Bush administration's two most important policy thrusts -- the three tax cuts and the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq -- were sold with similar tactics, including the withholding of critical information needed by Congress and the public to make informed judgments.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/192327_williams26.html
Then there’s the poll that finds 66% of respondents consider Bush an “optimist”.
Blair Holding On?
Tony Blair's allies will fight a rearguard action today to prevent Labour's annual conference from issuing an embarrassing call for British troops to pull out of Iraq.
As delegates pour into Brighton for the start of the conference this morning, they will come under pressure from party officials not to allow the Iraq conflict to deflect attention from Mr Blair's plans for the next five years of a Labour government. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=565791
-R
