Friday, October 15, 2004
Debate Follow-Up
* A debate focused on domestic issues, yet ignoring the environment and energy policy?
* Karen Hughes spins that not only did Bush win, but that “Kerry looked angry.” Laughable
* “Marygate”: Kerry’s mentioning Cheney’s daughter Mary being lesbian was seized on by Right-wingers as not only a screw-up, but a “tawdry” move by Kerry. Dick and Lynne Cheney went over-the-top in talking of their daughter being “outed.” Huh? She’s been open for years, open about her “life partner” Heather [they attended the convention together], she was gay liaison at Coors (past job), etc. Truly bizarre / pathetic. This sanctimony comes from the crowd that claim Kerry will take Bibles away from West Virginians, that orchestrated vicious lies about Kerry’s war record and McCain’s morals, that asserted that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, etc. Yet, it got headlines; none for Bush’s denying he said that he ‘wasn’t concerned’ about Osama in March, 2002, despite the confirming video.
* Moderator Bob Schieffer introduced the Social Security question by saying “We all know Social Security is running out of money.” No, Bob, we don’t.
James K Galbraith reminds him:
Social Security is not running out of money. Here are the facts.
1. Social Security is part of the government. It cannot run out of money unless the whole government also runs out of money. And the government of the United States cannot run out of money. That is not my opinion, it's an economic fact.
2. Social Security is an entitlement. Not even Congress can easily interfere with its payments. Congress would have to vote to default on the bonds Social Security holds for benefits to fail over the next 40 years. It would have made more sense for Schieffer to say, "We all know that the Pentagon is running out of money" –
Kerry's answer on Social Security wasn't pandering. He said that we can keep the system we have. He said we must not privatize it -- "an invitation to disaster." He said our priority should be to create jobs, the best way to pay for the system. And he said that we can well afford to wait until later to see if some minor changes would be wise. Kerry was right on all of these facts. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/14/social_security/print.html
Fraud Follow-up: Oregon I didn’t focus on Oregon last time, so in fairness…
Oregon's attorney general opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that Democratic voter registration forms were destroyed or discarded by a political consulting firm working for the Republican National Committee.The allegations involve a voter registration drive conducted by Sproul & Associates, a Phoenix-based consulting organization that was hired by the RNC earlier this year and is headed up by the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee, Nathan Sproul. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sproul14oct14,1,3532412.story
And, right here in New Hampshire…breaking news…in effect, the guy [Jim Tobin] who is being indicted for past election fraud is in charge of the GOP effect now. And, federal prosecutors have slowed the progress [“depositions and discovery”] of the investigation …hmmm, wonder why…?
Federal prosecutors yesterday called a halt just 20 minutes before Democrats were to question a Republican official under oath over the identity of a Bush-Cheney official allegedly implicated in an illegal phone-jamming operation.
Computerized telephone calls jammed five Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks, plus a sixth run by Manchester firefighters, for about an hour and a half during the 2002 election.
The U.S. Justice Department will ask a judge as soon as today to stay depositions that Democrats had scheduled yesterday and today in their civil lawsuit against the GOP in connection with the scheme launched in the 2002 New Hampshire election. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=45614
Krugman on the Fraud:
Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon…
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?oref=login&hp
And, what’s to come? They’re doing plenty, but one suspects that more is to come, as the Cheney-Rove crowd has made it clear they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the presidency.
Swift Boat Duplicity. In short, swift boat Righties went back to Vietnam to find “evidence” to support their Brief, but found that villagers there only confirmed that Kerry had told the truth. But, they went ahead with their lies anyway.
Will there be banner headlines? Will the cable networks offer 60 minutes to make up for the freebie they gave Bush? Will George Soros buy 90 minutes for Kerry- to show the ‘Going Upriver…’ movie, or 90 minutes of anti-Sinclair propaganda?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=166434
Seymour Hersh on U.S. Democracy: I include as it’s an elaboration of his appearance on the Daily Show.
The past two years will "go down as one of the classic sort of failures" in history, said the man who has been called the "greatest muckraker of all time" and (paradoxically) the "enfant terrible of journalism for more than 30 years." While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"
"That fragility clearly unnerves him. Hersh summarizes his mission as "to hold the people in public office to the highest possible standard of decency and of honesty…to tolerate anything less, even in the name of national security, is wrong." He tries his best. More than any other U.S. journalist alive today, he embodies the statement that "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government," a belief defined by the conservationist Edward Abbey…." http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170
Global Warming: Warning Signs: One example:
Climate scientists say they have identified a dozen weak links around the world, regions where global warming could bring about the sudden, catastrophic collapse of vital ecosystems. The consequences will be felt far and wide.
The North Atlantic current is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, of which the Gulf Stream is the precursor. It works like a conveyer belt. Surface water in the North Atlantic is first cooled by westerly winds from North America, making the water more dense and salty so it sinks to the ocean floor before moving toward the equator. Driven by winds and replacing the cold water moving south, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico moves upward into the Atlantic. The effect of the current on climate is dramatic. It brings to Europe the equivalent of 100,000 large power stations' worth of free heating, propping up temperatures by in excess of 10 degrees Celsius in some parts.
Global warming could change all that, though not very quickly. Computer models predict that as global warming increases, so will rainfall in the North Atlantic. Gradually, the heavier rains will dilute the sea water and make it less likely to sink, a process that could bring the whole conveyer to a gradual halt. "It won't happen in a matter of weeks, like in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' but it could happen over a few decades," ...http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/14/global_warming/print.html
Corporate Bonanza: Edmund Andrews’ article in the Times was succinct:
It was the biggest free-for-all in corporate lobbying in nearly 20 years, and its final product was a tax bill with giveaways for almost every business. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/business/13corptax.html?th
What’s Happening, Iraq: Despite all the security in the Green Zone, including two body searches for all who enter, there were bombings there on Thursday. NPR’s On Point interviewed journalists who discussed the steadily deteriorating security and specifically WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi’s well-circulated email to colleagues. http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2004/10/20041014_b_main.asp
Insurgents penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe Thursday, killing five people, including four Americans, in the first bombings inside the compound housing the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters.
A top Iraqi official said the attacks appeared to have been suicide bombings.
Witnesses said two men, each carrying a backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each other for nearly half an hour -- one of them appearing to reassure his more nervous colleague. One of them then left and soon after an explosion was heard. Then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb moments later, which ripped through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at the time.
The attack was a bold assault on the heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a serious setback to the Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109775183177245238,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
And, our Friends, the Saudis, aren’t happy
Seventeen months into a shadowy terror campaign that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis express less anger at the insurgents than at the United States for its invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they say touched off the attacks inside the kingdom. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/international/middleeast/14saudi.html?ex=1098812058&ei=1&en=d9a3f9260b642bce
-R
* A debate focused on domestic issues, yet ignoring the environment and energy policy?
* Karen Hughes spins that not only did Bush win, but that “Kerry looked angry.” Laughable
* “Marygate”: Kerry’s mentioning Cheney’s daughter Mary being lesbian was seized on by Right-wingers as not only a screw-up, but a “tawdry” move by Kerry. Dick and Lynne Cheney went over-the-top in talking of their daughter being “outed.” Huh? She’s been open for years, open about her “life partner” Heather [they attended the convention together], she was gay liaison at Coors (past job), etc. Truly bizarre / pathetic. This sanctimony comes from the crowd that claim Kerry will take Bibles away from West Virginians, that orchestrated vicious lies about Kerry’s war record and McCain’s morals, that asserted that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster, etc. Yet, it got headlines; none for Bush’s denying he said that he ‘wasn’t concerned’ about Osama in March, 2002, despite the confirming video.
* Moderator Bob Schieffer introduced the Social Security question by saying “We all know Social Security is running out of money.” No, Bob, we don’t.
James K Galbraith reminds him:
Social Security is not running out of money. Here are the facts.
1. Social Security is part of the government. It cannot run out of money unless the whole government also runs out of money. And the government of the United States cannot run out of money. That is not my opinion, it's an economic fact.
2. Social Security is an entitlement. Not even Congress can easily interfere with its payments. Congress would have to vote to default on the bonds Social Security holds for benefits to fail over the next 40 years. It would have made more sense for Schieffer to say, "We all know that the Pentagon is running out of money" –
Kerry's answer on Social Security wasn't pandering. He said that we can keep the system we have. He said we must not privatize it -- "an invitation to disaster." He said our priority should be to create jobs, the best way to pay for the system. And he said that we can well afford to wait until later to see if some minor changes would be wise. Kerry was right on all of these facts. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/10/14/social_security/print.html
Fraud Follow-up: Oregon I didn’t focus on Oregon last time, so in fairness…
Oregon's attorney general opened a criminal investigation Wednesday into allegations that Democratic voter registration forms were destroyed or discarded by a political consulting firm working for the Republican National Committee.The allegations involve a voter registration drive conducted by Sproul & Associates, a Phoenix-based consulting organization that was hired by the RNC earlier this year and is headed up by the former executive director of the Arizona Republican Committee, Nathan Sproul. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-sproul14oct14,1,3532412.story
And, right here in New Hampshire…breaking news…in effect, the guy [Jim Tobin] who is being indicted for past election fraud is in charge of the GOP effect now. And, federal prosecutors have slowed the progress [“depositions and discovery”] of the investigation …hmmm, wonder why…?
Federal prosecutors yesterday called a halt just 20 minutes before Democrats were to question a Republican official under oath over the identity of a Bush-Cheney official allegedly implicated in an illegal phone-jamming operation.
Computerized telephone calls jammed five Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks, plus a sixth run by Manchester firefighters, for about an hour and a half during the 2002 election.
The U.S. Justice Department will ask a judge as soon as today to stay depositions that Democrats had scheduled yesterday and today in their civil lawsuit against the GOP in connection with the scheme launched in the 2002 New Hampshire election. http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=45614
Krugman on the Fraud:
Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations.
The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon…
The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?oref=login&hp
And, what’s to come? They’re doing plenty, but one suspects that more is to come, as the Cheney-Rove crowd has made it clear they’ll do whatever it takes to keep the presidency.
Swift Boat Duplicity. In short, swift boat Righties went back to Vietnam to find “evidence” to support their Brief, but found that villagers there only confirmed that Kerry had told the truth. But, they went ahead with their lies anyway.
Will there be banner headlines? Will the cable networks offer 60 minutes to make up for the freebie they gave Bush? Will George Soros buy 90 minutes for Kerry- to show the ‘Going Upriver…’ movie, or 90 minutes of anti-Sinclair propaganda?
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/print?id=166434
Seymour Hersh on U.S. Democracy: I include as it’s an elaboration of his appearance on the Daily Show.
The past two years will "go down as one of the classic sort of failures" in history, said the man who has been called the "greatest muckraker of all time" and (paradoxically) the "enfant terrible of journalism for more than 30 years." While Hersh blamed the White House and the Pentagon for the Iraq quagmire and America's besmirched world image, he was stymied by how it all happened. "How could eight or nine neoconservatives come and take charge of this government?" he asked. "They overran the bureaucracy, they overran the Congress, they overran the press, and they overran the military! So you say to yourself, How fragile is this democracy?"
"That fragility clearly unnerves him. Hersh summarizes his mission as "to hold the people in public office to the highest possible standard of decency and of honesty…to tolerate anything less, even in the name of national security, is wrong." He tries his best. More than any other U.S. journalist alive today, he embodies the statement that "a patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government," a belief defined by the conservationist Edward Abbey…." http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events/replay.html?event_id=170
Global Warming: Warning Signs: One example:
Climate scientists say they have identified a dozen weak links around the world, regions where global warming could bring about the sudden, catastrophic collapse of vital ecosystems. The consequences will be felt far and wide.
The North Atlantic current is one of the strongest ocean currents in the world, of which the Gulf Stream is the precursor. It works like a conveyer belt. Surface water in the North Atlantic is first cooled by westerly winds from North America, making the water more dense and salty so it sinks to the ocean floor before moving toward the equator. Driven by winds and replacing the cold water moving south, warm water from the Gulf of Mexico moves upward into the Atlantic. The effect of the current on climate is dramatic. It brings to Europe the equivalent of 100,000 large power stations' worth of free heating, propping up temperatures by in excess of 10 degrees Celsius in some parts.
Global warming could change all that, though not very quickly. Computer models predict that as global warming increases, so will rainfall in the North Atlantic. Gradually, the heavier rains will dilute the sea water and make it less likely to sink, a process that could bring the whole conveyer to a gradual halt. "It won't happen in a matter of weeks, like in the movie 'The Day After Tomorrow,' but it could happen over a few decades," ...http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/10/14/global_warming/print.html
Corporate Bonanza: Edmund Andrews’ article in the Times was succinct:
It was the biggest free-for-all in corporate lobbying in nearly 20 years, and its final product was a tax bill with giveaways for almost every business. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/business/13corptax.html?th
What’s Happening, Iraq: Despite all the security in the Green Zone, including two body searches for all who enter, there were bombings there on Thursday. NPR’s On Point interviewed journalists who discussed the steadily deteriorating security and specifically WSJ reporter Farnaz Fassihi’s well-circulated email to colleagues. http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2004/10/20041014_b_main.asp
Insurgents penetrated Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone and detonated explosives at a market and a popular cafe Thursday, killing five people, including four Americans, in the first bombings inside the compound housing the U.S. and Iraqi government headquarters.
A top Iraqi official said the attacks appeared to have been suicide bombings.
Witnesses said two men, each carrying a backpack but not required ID badges, entered the Green Zone Cafe full of Americans and other patrons at around lunchtime, drank tea and talked to each other for nearly half an hour -- one of them appearing to reassure his more nervous colleague. One of them then left and soon after an explosion was heard. Then the man who remained in the cafe detonated his bomb moments later, which ripped through the building, said an Iraqi vendor who was in the cafe at the time.
The attack was a bold assault on the heart of the U.S.-Iraqi leadership of the country and a serious setback to the Bush administration's campaign to pacify postwar Iraq. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109775183177245238,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
And, our Friends, the Saudis, aren’t happy
Seventeen months into a shadowy terror campaign that has killed more than 100 people, numerous Saudis express less anger at the insurgents than at the United States for its invasion of Iraq, the signal event that they say touched off the attacks inside the kingdom. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/14/international/middleeast/14saudi.html?ex=1098812058&ei=1&en=d9a3f9260b642bce
-R
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Last Debate:
Kerry avoided winner lines, opted not to bury Bush re lies and similar. Instead, he merely repeated his tried and trues. Yet, he was clearly, again, the better debater, and won by any objective standard; but he lost his last chance to make the case. Since so many criticisms were not made in previous months, it’s unclear who is telling the “truth”. So, when Kerry rightfully jabs Bush for VA cuts, Bush says he’s increased funding. How is the watcher/listener to know? That said, the debate was a wash, or, best case, COULD add a tad more momentum to Kerry. Schieffer, Bush, Sr’s golfing partner, didn’t help.
Put differently, I wonder how it affected folks like these in a swing state, West Virginia:
A lifelong Democrat who voted Republican for the first time in 2000, Mr. Fink said, he plans to vote for Mr. Bush again in large part because the president opposes gun control.
"I think the Democrats are out of touch," he said as he strolled in a gun store near Beckley recently. "There's no doubt in my mind that Kerry would ban every gun he could."
Church groups have also become active for Mr. Bush. In recent weeks, ministers have begun urging parishioners to vote for the "moral candidate," which Democrats consider veiled references to Mr. Bush.
Republican mailings have accused liberals of wanting to ban the Bible. And fliers distributed in church parking lots say Mr. Kerry favors "anti-Christian, anti-God, antifamily" judges, same-sex marriage and abortion.
Mr. Kerry says that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but that states should be allowed to decide their rules.
The attacks have clearly affected people like Bill Poston, 47, a printer here. Mr. Poston is upset about the Iraq war and says many of Mr. Bush's domestic policies have been failures. He even likes what Mr. Kerry says about health care. But he is upset about the possibility of same-sex marriage and is convinced that Mr. Bush will be a "more moral leader." "My minister thinks Bush is a very moral person," Mr. Poston said. "He believes he is being led by God." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/politics/campaign/13state.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Initial call: Major media: Kerry win; CBS/ABC other polls on internet: Kerry by wide margin
Corporate Thievery: Take the Money and…
Big companies long lobbied for a tax cut on their overseas profit as a way to spur U.S. job growth. But now that it has been granted, much of the windfall won't go toward hiring but for such uses as strengthening balance sheets, buying back shares and making acquisitions.
The one-year break, included in a sweeping tax bill that cleared the Senate and went to the president this week, will allow hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas profit to be brought home by dozens of U.S. companies at a steeply reduced tax rate. By some estimates, U.S. companies have parked as much as $500 billion in profit abroad to avoid taxes back home. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109763358839943873,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Exxon Lobbies for Bush: Hardly surprising…
According to a story reported by the Dow Jones Newswire, Exxon is mailing its 34,000 employees with election materials and helpful voter guides which -- surprise! --give the Republican Party gold star ratings for spurning global warming regulation, supporting drilling for oil in the Arctic wildlife refuge, and letting oil refineries release more pollution by weakening the Clean Air Act.
Exxon is informing not only its employees but also retirees and contractors how they should vote in upcoming presidential and congressional races across the US. http://www.greenpeace.org/features/details?item_id=608937
Election Fraud: Cruising the local papers one finds reports or comments as to ongoing fraud. But, the suspicion is that it’s happening wherever the Republicans can execute. And, that’s not counting the multiple (legal) efforts to suppress the Democratic vote. A typical letter:
"A week ago Friday, the State of Fla. knocked-off 12,000 new registered voters. Then on Monday last, another 2000 new registrants at Fla. Memorial College in Miami were knocked out, because the lists were photocopied and not the originals. FMC is a Black college.
"Then last week was the scandal on new registrations being discarded, regarding checking the box if one is a citizen, though each swears to it, when registering. In Miami-Dade and possibly Broward and some others, they will accept these new voters, but in others, "NO".
From today’s Washington Post:
Nearly a dozen African American ministers and civil rights leaders walked into the Duval County election office here, television cameras in tow, with a list of questions: How come there were not more early voting sites closer to black neighborhoods? How come so many blacks were not being allowed to redo incomplete voter registrations? Who was deciding all this?
Standing across the office counter under a banner that read "Partners in Democracy" was the man who made those decisions, election chief Dick Carlberg. Visibly angry, the Republican explained why he decided the way he had: "We call it the law."
Black leaders said the scene at the supervisor's office last week was reminiscent of a blocked schoolhouse door at the height of desegregation. They charge that GOP officials are deliberately using the law to keep black people off the rolls and hinder them from voting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28107-2004Oct12?language=printer
Florida-ish Fraud…in Nevada: At least NPR has now covered it. DA’s office “taking a look at it,” Those Democrats who had registered or re-registered now have to assume their registrations have been ripped up and must check it out. Really!
Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats. http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=2421595&ClientType=Printable
…And, in South Dakota…
Bill Janklow's commenting on the resignation of six people connected with the state Republican Party over absentee ballot applications.The former governor and congressman says the national GOP is encouraging campaign workers to cheat. He says his ire is directed at the Republican Party's Victory operation, which helps register people and get them to the polls.Janklow says his problem with the organization goes back to 2002 when he was a candidate for the US House.Jason Glodt with the Republican Party says the absentee ballot problem was an honest mistake and has been handled, and that cheating won't be allowed. http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=22,35248
And, more aggressive measures in Ohio:
Thieves shattered a side window overnight at Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo, stealing computers with sensitive campaign information and triggering concern of the local party's ability to deliver crucial votes on Nov. 2.
Among the data on the stolen computer of the party's office manager were: e-mails discussing campaign strategy, candidates' schedules, financial information, and phone numbers of party members, candidates, donors, and volunteers.
Also taken were computers belonging to Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak and to a Texas attorney working with the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign to ensure election security.
The thefts have prompted the Kerry/Edwards campaign and Democrats in Washington to offer help and have left local officials fretting about the crime's impact on the upcoming election, in which Ohio plays a high-profile role.
"This puts us behind the eight ball," party spokesman Jerry Chabler said. "This can affect our entire get-out-the-vote operation." http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004410130378
I’ll skip the horror stories out of Oregon and just note the company doing voter registration in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that treats potential Republicans and Democrats rather contrastingly.
Bragg feels her employers were misleading the public, even if it's not illegal. Employees were to approach One Stop customers and ask if they favor George Bush or John Kerry for president. If Bush was their answer, they were then to inquire if the person was registered to vote and offer them a voter registration card. If the person supported Democrat Kerry, they were only to say thank you and give them a registration card only if asked.
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-womenlit/2004/0201.html
And, Republicans are pretending to be part of a liberal voter registration group and then secretly destroying voter registration cards for anyone who registers as a Democrat. And, a key person in this Fraud: Nathan Sproul. From the Net:
Searching for information on the voter registration fraud stories breaking tonight in Nevada and Oregon, I kept coming across the same name: Nathan Sproul of Sproul & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona.
Nathan Sproul is the former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of the Arizona Christian Coalition (ah, the irony... a Christian).
Sproul is connected with the Republican National Committee-funded voter registration organization, Voter Outreach, Inc., a group that used paid registrars to register voters in a number of states including Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and perhaps more, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine and Missouri. (Others states pending, particularly swing states.) Sproul's organization also recruited registrars by fraudulently telling recruits that they would be working for America Votes, a legitimate nonpartisan GOTV operation! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/32821/029
October Surprise?:
Rove confessed to some on the way- perhaps the Sinclair ad is one of them. But the Chinese, hopefully, don’t have one of their own, that they’re just being “ready”.
Chinese Communist Party chief and President Hu Jintao has urged the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for a military struggle, but stopped short of singling out rival Taiwan as the target.
Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to attack if the democratic island of 23 million people declares independence.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6373566
Global warming:
An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming.
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1324276,00.html
That Anti-Kerry “movie”: Action re Sinclair
Call Sinclair's affiliates. Click here for a list of phone numbers for Sinclair stations. Call them to let them know what you think about their decision to air untrue smears about John Kerry just before Election Day.
Some examples of affiliates, randomly selected:
WLFLRaleigh-Durham(919) 872-9535
WRDCRaleigh-Durham(919) 878-6198
WGGBSpringfield(413) 733-4040 http://www.democrats.org/sinclair/index.html#states
Josh Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.org is urging people to contact Sinclair advertisers, a significantly more effective approach than going through the FCC or FEC. And, he notes "I'm already getting reports from the field that many Sinclair advertisers are starting to communicate their concern to Sinclair."
Sylvan Learning Center has pulled their advertising from Sinclair Broadcasting stations.
What’s Happening, Iraq: missing nuclear material. Still another reminder of the security failures in the failed Occupation
Sites in Iraq that contain equipment and material helpful for making nuclear weapons have apparently disappeared without a trace.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs also have been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20041011/wl_nm/iraq_un_nuclear_dc
And, 6 Americans died today
Polls: Still Even. Highlight: Ohio looking better, but it’s only October...
Iowa: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (ARG)
Iowa: Bush 47, Kerry 45 (Chicago Tribune)
Iowa: Kerry 50, Bush 46 (Rasmussen)
Wisconsin: Kerry 47, Bush 43 (Chicago Tribune)
Ohio: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Chicago Tribune)
Minnesota: Kerry 48, Bush 43 (Star Tribune)
Minnesota: Kerry 45, Bush 43 (Chicago Tribune)
-R
Kerry avoided winner lines, opted not to bury Bush re lies and similar. Instead, he merely repeated his tried and trues. Yet, he was clearly, again, the better debater, and won by any objective standard; but he lost his last chance to make the case. Since so many criticisms were not made in previous months, it’s unclear who is telling the “truth”. So, when Kerry rightfully jabs Bush for VA cuts, Bush says he’s increased funding. How is the watcher/listener to know? That said, the debate was a wash, or, best case, COULD add a tad more momentum to Kerry. Schieffer, Bush, Sr’s golfing partner, didn’t help.
Put differently, I wonder how it affected folks like these in a swing state, West Virginia:
A lifelong Democrat who voted Republican for the first time in 2000, Mr. Fink said, he plans to vote for Mr. Bush again in large part because the president opposes gun control.
"I think the Democrats are out of touch," he said as he strolled in a gun store near Beckley recently. "There's no doubt in my mind that Kerry would ban every gun he could."
Church groups have also become active for Mr. Bush. In recent weeks, ministers have begun urging parishioners to vote for the "moral candidate," which Democrats consider veiled references to Mr. Bush.
Republican mailings have accused liberals of wanting to ban the Bible. And fliers distributed in church parking lots say Mr. Kerry favors "anti-Christian, anti-God, antifamily" judges, same-sex marriage and abortion.
Mr. Kerry says that marriage should be between a man and a woman, but that states should be allowed to decide their rules.
The attacks have clearly affected people like Bill Poston, 47, a printer here. Mr. Poston is upset about the Iraq war and says many of Mr. Bush's domestic policies have been failures. He even likes what Mr. Kerry says about health care. But he is upset about the possibility of same-sex marriage and is convinced that Mr. Bush will be a "more moral leader." "My minister thinks Bush is a very moral person," Mr. Poston said. "He believes he is being led by God." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/13/politics/campaign/13state.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Initial call: Major media: Kerry win; CBS/ABC other polls on internet: Kerry by wide margin
Corporate Thievery: Take the Money and…
Big companies long lobbied for a tax cut on their overseas profit as a way to spur U.S. job growth. But now that it has been granted, much of the windfall won't go toward hiring but for such uses as strengthening balance sheets, buying back shares and making acquisitions.
The one-year break, included in a sweeping tax bill that cleared the Senate and went to the president this week, will allow hundreds of billions of dollars in overseas profit to be brought home by dozens of U.S. companies at a steeply reduced tax rate. By some estimates, U.S. companies have parked as much as $500 billion in profit abroad to avoid taxes back home. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109763358839943873,00.html?mod=home%5Fpage%5Fone%5Fus
Exxon Lobbies for Bush: Hardly surprising…
According to a story reported by the Dow Jones Newswire, Exxon is mailing its 34,000 employees with election materials and helpful voter guides which -- surprise! --give the Republican Party gold star ratings for spurning global warming regulation, supporting drilling for oil in the Arctic wildlife refuge, and letting oil refineries release more pollution by weakening the Clean Air Act.
Exxon is informing not only its employees but also retirees and contractors how they should vote in upcoming presidential and congressional races across the US. http://www.greenpeace.org/features/details?item_id=608937
Election Fraud: Cruising the local papers one finds reports or comments as to ongoing fraud. But, the suspicion is that it’s happening wherever the Republicans can execute. And, that’s not counting the multiple (legal) efforts to suppress the Democratic vote. A typical letter:
"A week ago Friday, the State of Fla. knocked-off 12,000 new registered voters. Then on Monday last, another 2000 new registrants at Fla. Memorial College in Miami were knocked out, because the lists were photocopied and not the originals. FMC is a Black college.
"Then last week was the scandal on new registrations being discarded, regarding checking the box if one is a citizen, though each swears to it, when registering. In Miami-Dade and possibly Broward and some others, they will accept these new voters, but in others, "NO".
From today’s Washington Post:
Nearly a dozen African American ministers and civil rights leaders walked into the Duval County election office here, television cameras in tow, with a list of questions: How come there were not more early voting sites closer to black neighborhoods? How come so many blacks were not being allowed to redo incomplete voter registrations? Who was deciding all this?
Standing across the office counter under a banner that read "Partners in Democracy" was the man who made those decisions, election chief Dick Carlberg. Visibly angry, the Republican explained why he decided the way he had: "We call it the law."
Black leaders said the scene at the supervisor's office last week was reminiscent of a blocked schoolhouse door at the height of desegregation. They charge that GOP officials are deliberately using the law to keep black people off the rolls and hinder them from voting. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28107-2004Oct12?language=printer
Florida-ish Fraud…in Nevada: At least NPR has now covered it. DA’s office “taking a look at it,” Those Democrats who had registered or re-registered now have to assume their registrations have been ripped up and must check it out. Really!
Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats. http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=2421595&ClientType=Printable
…And, in South Dakota…
Bill Janklow's commenting on the resignation of six people connected with the state Republican Party over absentee ballot applications.The former governor and congressman says the national GOP is encouraging campaign workers to cheat. He says his ire is directed at the Republican Party's Victory operation, which helps register people and get them to the polls.Janklow says his problem with the organization goes back to 2002 when he was a candidate for the US House.Jason Glodt with the Republican Party says the absentee ballot problem was an honest mistake and has been handled, and that cheating won't be allowed. http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail2817.cfm?Id=22,35248
And, more aggressive measures in Ohio:
Thieves shattered a side window overnight at Lucas County Democratic headquarters in Toledo, stealing computers with sensitive campaign information and triggering concern of the local party's ability to deliver crucial votes on Nov. 2.
Among the data on the stolen computer of the party's office manager were: e-mails discussing campaign strategy, candidates' schedules, financial information, and phone numbers of party members, candidates, donors, and volunteers.
Also taken were computers belonging to Lucas County Commissioner Tina Skeldon Wozniak and to a Texas attorney working with the Kerry/Edwards presidential campaign to ensure election security.
The thefts have prompted the Kerry/Edwards campaign and Democrats in Washington to offer help and have left local officials fretting about the crime's impact on the upcoming election, in which Ohio plays a high-profile role.
"This puts us behind the eight ball," party spokesman Jerry Chabler said. "This can affect our entire get-out-the-vote operation." http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2004410130378
I’ll skip the horror stories out of Oregon and just note the company doing voter registration in Pennsylvania and West Virginia that treats potential Republicans and Democrats rather contrastingly.
Bragg feels her employers were misleading the public, even if it's not illegal. Employees were to approach One Stop customers and ask if they favor George Bush or John Kerry for president. If Bush was their answer, they were then to inquire if the person was registered to vote and offer them a voter registration card. If the person supported Democrat Kerry, they were only to say thank you and give them a registration card only if asked.
http://www.nifl.gov/nifl-womenlit/2004/0201.html
And, Republicans are pretending to be part of a liberal voter registration group and then secretly destroying voter registration cards for anyone who registers as a Democrat. And, a key person in this Fraud: Nathan Sproul. From the Net:
Searching for information on the voter registration fraud stories breaking tonight in Nevada and Oregon, I kept coming across the same name: Nathan Sproul of Sproul & Associates in Phoenix, Arizona.
Nathan Sproul is the former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of the Arizona Christian Coalition (ah, the irony... a Christian).
Sproul is connected with the Republican National Committee-funded voter registration organization, Voter Outreach, Inc., a group that used paid registrars to register voters in a number of states including Nevada, Oregon, Arizona and perhaps more, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maine and Missouri. (Others states pending, particularly swing states.) Sproul's organization also recruited registrars by fraudulently telling recruits that they would be working for America Votes, a legitimate nonpartisan GOTV operation! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/10/13/32821/029
October Surprise?:
Rove confessed to some on the way- perhaps the Sinclair ad is one of them. But the Chinese, hopefully, don’t have one of their own, that they’re just being “ready”.
Chinese Communist Party chief and President Hu Jintao has urged the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare for a military struggle, but stopped short of singling out rival Taiwan as the target.
Many security analysts see the Taiwan Strait as the most dangerous flashpoint in Asia. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to attack if the democratic island of 23 million people declares independence.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6373566
Global warming:
An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming.
Scientists are baffled why the quantity of the main greenhouse gas has leapt in a two-year period and are concerned that the Earth's natural systems are no longer able to absorb as much as in the past. http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1324276,00.html
That Anti-Kerry “movie”: Action re Sinclair
Call Sinclair's affiliates. Click here for a list of phone numbers for Sinclair stations. Call them to let them know what you think about their decision to air untrue smears about John Kerry just before Election Day.
Some examples of affiliates, randomly selected:
WLFLRaleigh-Durham(919) 872-9535
WRDCRaleigh-Durham(919) 878-6198
WGGBSpringfield(413) 733-4040 http://www.democrats.org/sinclair/index.html#states
Josh Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.org is urging people to contact Sinclair advertisers, a significantly more effective approach than going through the FCC or FEC. And, he notes "I'm already getting reports from the field that many Sinclair advertisers are starting to communicate their concern to Sinclair."
Sylvan Learning Center has pulled their advertising from Sinclair Broadcasting stations.
What’s Happening, Iraq: missing nuclear material. Still another reminder of the security failures in the failed Occupation
Sites in Iraq that contain equipment and material helpful for making nuclear weapons have apparently disappeared without a trace.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs also have been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20041011/wl_nm/iraq_un_nuclear_dc
And, 6 Americans died today
Polls: Still Even. Highlight: Ohio looking better, but it’s only October...
Iowa: Kerry 47, Bush 47 (ARG)
Iowa: Bush 47, Kerry 45 (Chicago Tribune)
Iowa: Kerry 50, Bush 46 (Rasmussen)
Wisconsin: Kerry 47, Bush 43 (Chicago Tribune)
Ohio: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Chicago Tribune)
Minnesota: Kerry 48, Bush 43 (Star Tribune)
Minnesota: Kerry 45, Bush 43 (Chicago Tribune)
-R
Monday, October 11, 2004
"I don't see how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty, if you change your mind because of politics." -Bush
News item: ‘U.S. attacks to retake “insurgent” territory will be postponed until after the Election’.
_______________________
"Wealth Of Others Helped To Shape Kerry's Life," –NY Times front page headline.
Is this Irony? Absurdity?
____________________
Oh, the low-level of this ‘contest’, the fate that lies ahead if Bush wins or the awful conditions Kerry will inherit seems to be responsible. Upcoming: It is unlikely, but one still hopes that Kerry will be more blunt re the destructiveness of this Administration. His campaign remains too gentlemanly.
Anyway:
The Sinclair “documentary”: The basics on the 90 minute Swift Boat ad: Up to 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group - many of them in swing states - will show a documentary highly critical of Senator John Kerry's antiwar activities 30 years ago within the next two weeks, Sinclair officials said yesterday. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/politics/campaign/11film.html?pagewanted=all
It is legal; it’s part of the Republicans doing all they can to win. Can’t blame them for that. Instead, there should be Democratic efforts to take back the media, to insist on equal time for Bush’s freebie hour last week on the cable networks and, most importantly, calling this Administration what it is.
Lies:
Just as Kerry won’t lay the “l” word, an ongoing limit of journalistic practice is that you can’t cite public figures for “lying.” Instead, euphemistic words or phrases are employed and we’re supposed to “know” what they mean. Last week’s NY Times article by ADAM NAGOURNEY and RICHARD W. STEVENSON is an example- In New Attacks, Bush Pushes Limit on the Facts
From the beginning of the year, the White House has charted new ground with the sweep of its negative campaigning, starting with an $80 million wave of attack advertisements directed at Senator John Kerry that began the moment he effectively won his party's nomination last spring.
But the scathing indictment that Mr. Bush offered of Mr. Kerry over the past two days - on the eve of the second presidential debate and with polls showing the race tightening - took these attacks to a blistering new level. In the process, several analysts say, Mr. Bush pushed the limits of subjective interpretation and offered exaggerated or what some Democrats said were distorted accounts of Mr. Kerry's positions on health care, tax cuts, the Iraq war and foreign policy. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/campaign/08campaign.html?oref=login&pagewanted=1
Bush II: (Pseudo-) Fascism?
At a high school reunion this weekend, an old friend whispered to me, “I can say this to you, right?…these Bush guys are fascists, they’re fascists!” Fair question, one that invites explication. Here’s a sampling of journalist David Neiwerts’ in-depth thoughts:
This is how pseudo-fascism works: It's not real fascism. A real fascist would speak explicitly of rounding up liberals and sending them off to concentration camps. Pseudo-fascists don't; they offer instead a pale imitation that only hints at such action. And then they claim it's just a joke.The real problem with this is that a lot of other movement conservatives say the same sort of thing -- and no one thinks for a moment they're joking. We've seen a lot of examples of an openly stated desire to do away with liberalism, particularly by accusing liberals of treason and equating them with "the enemy," in the past couple of years. This has been most notable in the field of conservative-movement book titles, ranging from Ann Coulter's Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism to Sean Hannity's Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism to Michael Savage's The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military. The crass intimidation inherent in these attacks cannot be clearer; and if you go to places like Savage's Web site, "Your Gear for Liberals to Fear" is only a click away. http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004_10_10_dneiwert_archive.html#109694976530359103
What’s Happening, Iraq:
We’ve lost Iraqi oil: Youssef Ibrahim, formerly of the Times and the Wall Street Journal
The costs and benefits of America's occupation of Iraq vary, according to proponents and opponents, except when it comes to oil exports. The U.S.-led invasion has resulted in the loss of an average of 2 million barrels a day of Iraqi oil from world markets. That is a significant number with huge consequences for economies around the globe. Instead of rosy promises by the neoconservatives of the Bush administration who pushed for the invasion — partly on the premise that they would turn it into America's private gasoline-pumping station — the contrary has occurred.
The world has lost Iraq's oil.
The impact is slowly taking its toll as the price of everything related to petroleum rises (from the food on the supermarket shelves to the gasoline in your car to the plastic chairs on your lawn).
The consequences have been evident in the past few months. Oil prices stand at 20-year-high records with no relief in sight. Indeed, should the ongoing disruption of Iraqi oil exports be compounded with an interruption of production elsewhere — Russia, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or any member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — we could be looking at prices far above $50 a barrel, perhaps $60 or more. Indeed, the sky is the limit. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=6359%20
U.S. Military on Oil Protection Duty
Michael Klare has a fine piece on how the military is increasingly engaged as a security force dispatched to protect our oil interests well beyond Iraq.
It has been argued that America's oil-protection role is a peculiar feature of the war in Iraq, where petroleum installations are strewn about and the national economy is largely dependent on oil revenues. But Iraq is hardly the only country where US troops are risking their lives on a daily basis to protect the flow of petroleum. In Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Georgia, US personnel are also spending their days and nights protecting pipelines and refineries, or supervising the local forces assigned to this mission. American sailors are now on oil-protection patrol in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the South China Sea, and along other sea routes that deliver oil to the United States and its allies. In fact, the US military is increasingly being converted into a global oil-protection service. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/FJ09Dj01.html
Iraq, Iraq, Iraq: The Election and the Rest of Foreign Policy:
There is such a circumscribed discussion of “foreign policy.” For example, although we all know that the “Middle East”- Israel and Palestine- remains a key to a peaceful “Middle East”, it isn’t addressed in these debates; foreign policy discussions seem to have ended with St. Louis. Peter Preston in the Guardian comments on the void:
Republican policy is an empty vessel drifting off Tel Aviv, and the Democratic alternative has just as little stored in its hold. (Indeed, on any historical test, the Democrats are less rather than more likely to stand up to an Israel going its own sweet way.)
Yet Kerry must know that the Arab world (and much of Europe) won't respond to his Iraq distress calls unless there's a decisive return to road-map action. He must know that even Blair and Bush are at loggerheads over Israel. He must realise that a fresh start here is the key to a fresh start in Baghdad. But he didn't mention it.
Nor, alas, did any of those long, fruitful weeks at foreign policy seminars yield the most minimal shift in perception. It is Bush who (quite rightly) seeks to set North Korea in its context, and Kerry who cranks up the threat. It is Bush who, bruised by Iraq, turns more warily and multilaterally towards Tehran, and Kerry who unleashes the rockets of empty rhetoric. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1324489,00.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Elections and Deals
Karzai, our Ricardo Montalban of Afghanistan, is benefiting from inveterate U.S. policy- buying off people with wads of cash. This time the warlords outside of Karzai’s base of Kabul are on the receiving end. Pepe Escobar of Asia Times reports:
Karzai may not be restricted to Kabul because he is making all sorts of deals with the warlords, with US backing: a UN source in Kabul confirmed to Asia Times Online that oilman Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, has personally "encouraged" several warlords to clear the way for Karzai. Deal-making of the suitcase-full-of-dollars kind is what Washington used to win the Afghan war in 2001 (usually the deals were with the wrong warlords, as in Tora Bora).
Escobar ads an election clarification:
Speaking of Tora Bora ... Democratic US Senator John Kerry has repeatedly charged that the Bush administration's tactic of outsourcing the battle of Tora Bora to locals, in December 2001, is the main reason bin Laden was not captured. Bush did not even try to answer the charge, either during the first presidential debate or in the campaign trail. This correspondent was in Tora Bora ( Taking a spin in Tora Bora , December 7, 2001). The battle was indeed outsourced, for the benefit of warlord Hazrat Ali. The B-52s were bombing the wrong mountains. And bin Laden was long gone, at least by four days, when the bombings intensified. Retired General Tommy Franks, then responsible for the Afghan war, still insists "he didn't know" whether bin Laden was in Tora Bora. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FJ09Ag03.html
Michael Powell shills.
Colin’s son, the FCC chair, performs the companion piece to Bush telling us in 9/01 that we should we patriotic by shopping.
The legendary consumer electronics salesman Crazy Eddie is no longer around. But the job of hawking televisions has been taken over in recent weeks by a new TV personality: Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Some of his critics are arguing that Mr. Powell and the F.C.C. have no place spending tax dollars promoting $2,000 consumer electronics devices.
The commission is taking the lead on a new consumer education campaign called "DTV - Get It!" But the commission is not just going to ask consumers to buy TV's: it has started a Web site, www.dtv.gov, that gives shopping and programming tips along with advice for setting up digital television.
"The F.C.C. wants to be a partner in helping consumers understand what it will actually take once they bring home their beautiful new high-definition sets to really get it online," Mr. Powell said in Washington on Oct. 1.
Three days later, he appeared on "Monday Night Football'' on ABC to promote the virtues of digital television to the technology's core audience: sports fans.
A spokeswoman for the F.C.C. defended Mr. Powell's push for digital television. But a nonprofit group called Commercial Alert sent a letter late last week to 160 members of Congress, urging them to withdraw financing from the campaign. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/technology/11fcc.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Florida: Activism, yes, and a multitude of challenges
But in Gadsden County, Florida's only county with a black majority, the largest percentage of presidential ballots were discarded four years ago. Nearly 2,000 ballots, an estimated 12% of the total, were tossed out. They were among tens of thousands of ballots from African Americans disqualified statewide in that election.Although they have no proof, many black residents believe partisan election officials and Republican Gov. Jeb Bush disqualified those votes to help his older brother win the presidency. And they have little confidence in new Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican gubernatorial appointee.
Yet
In Daytona Beach, activists are wrangling with county election officials over minority polling locations. On Thursday, the NAACP filed a federal voting rights lawsuit against Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is located, alleging that officials there had disenfranchised blacks by having only one early voting site in an area where few minority voters live.In a county the size of Rhode Island, the only voting site is in a predominantly white community, a location inaccessible by public transportation, 30 miles away from black neighborhoods. County elections officials said there wasn't time to open new polls. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blackvoters11oct11,1,4570735,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
-R
News item: ‘U.S. attacks to retake “insurgent” territory will be postponed until after the Election’.
_______________________
"Wealth Of Others Helped To Shape Kerry's Life," –NY Times front page headline.
Is this Irony? Absurdity?
____________________
Oh, the low-level of this ‘contest’, the fate that lies ahead if Bush wins or the awful conditions Kerry will inherit seems to be responsible. Upcoming: It is unlikely, but one still hopes that Kerry will be more blunt re the destructiveness of this Administration. His campaign remains too gentlemanly.
Anyway:
The Sinclair “documentary”: The basics on the 90 minute Swift Boat ad: Up to 62 television stations owned or managed by the Sinclair Broadcasting Group - many of them in swing states - will show a documentary highly critical of Senator John Kerry's antiwar activities 30 years ago within the next two weeks, Sinclair officials said yesterday. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/politics/campaign/11film.html?pagewanted=all
It is legal; it’s part of the Republicans doing all they can to win. Can’t blame them for that. Instead, there should be Democratic efforts to take back the media, to insist on equal time for Bush’s freebie hour last week on the cable networks and, most importantly, calling this Administration what it is.
Lies:
Just as Kerry won’t lay the “l” word, an ongoing limit of journalistic practice is that you can’t cite public figures for “lying.” Instead, euphemistic words or phrases are employed and we’re supposed to “know” what they mean. Last week’s NY Times article by ADAM NAGOURNEY and RICHARD W. STEVENSON is an example- In New Attacks, Bush Pushes Limit on the Facts
From the beginning of the year, the White House has charted new ground with the sweep of its negative campaigning, starting with an $80 million wave of attack advertisements directed at Senator John Kerry that began the moment he effectively won his party's nomination last spring.
But the scathing indictment that Mr. Bush offered of Mr. Kerry over the past two days - on the eve of the second presidential debate and with polls showing the race tightening - took these attacks to a blistering new level. In the process, several analysts say, Mr. Bush pushed the limits of subjective interpretation and offered exaggerated or what some Democrats said were distorted accounts of Mr. Kerry's positions on health care, tax cuts, the Iraq war and foreign policy. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/08/politics/campaign/08campaign.html?oref=login&pagewanted=1
Bush II: (Pseudo-) Fascism?
At a high school reunion this weekend, an old friend whispered to me, “I can say this to you, right?…these Bush guys are fascists, they’re fascists!” Fair question, one that invites explication. Here’s a sampling of journalist David Neiwerts’ in-depth thoughts:
This is how pseudo-fascism works: It's not real fascism. A real fascist would speak explicitly of rounding up liberals and sending them off to concentration camps. Pseudo-fascists don't; they offer instead a pale imitation that only hints at such action. And then they claim it's just a joke.The real problem with this is that a lot of other movement conservatives say the same sort of thing -- and no one thinks for a moment they're joking. We've seen a lot of examples of an openly stated desire to do away with liberalism, particularly by accusing liberals of treason and equating them with "the enemy," in the past couple of years. This has been most notable in the field of conservative-movement book titles, ranging from Ann Coulter's Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism to Sean Hannity's Deliver Us From Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism and Liberalism to Michael Savage's The Enemy Within: Saving America from the Liberal Assault on Our Schools, Faith, and Military. The crass intimidation inherent in these attacks cannot be clearer; and if you go to places like Savage's Web site, "Your Gear for Liberals to Fear" is only a click away. http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2004_10_10_dneiwert_archive.html#109694976530359103
What’s Happening, Iraq:
We’ve lost Iraqi oil: Youssef Ibrahim, formerly of the Times and the Wall Street Journal
The costs and benefits of America's occupation of Iraq vary, according to proponents and opponents, except when it comes to oil exports. The U.S.-led invasion has resulted in the loss of an average of 2 million barrels a day of Iraqi oil from world markets. That is a significant number with huge consequences for economies around the globe. Instead of rosy promises by the neoconservatives of the Bush administration who pushed for the invasion — partly on the premise that they would turn it into America's private gasoline-pumping station — the contrary has occurred.
The world has lost Iraq's oil.
The impact is slowly taking its toll as the price of everything related to petroleum rises (from the food on the supermarket shelves to the gasoline in your car to the plastic chairs on your lawn).
The consequences have been evident in the past few months. Oil prices stand at 20-year-high records with no relief in sight. Indeed, should the ongoing disruption of Iraqi oil exports be compounded with an interruption of production elsewhere — Russia, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or any member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries — we could be looking at prices far above $50 a barrel, perhaps $60 or more. Indeed, the sky is the limit. http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=6359%20
U.S. Military on Oil Protection Duty
Michael Klare has a fine piece on how the military is increasingly engaged as a security force dispatched to protect our oil interests well beyond Iraq.
It has been argued that America's oil-protection role is a peculiar feature of the war in Iraq, where petroleum installations are strewn about and the national economy is largely dependent on oil revenues. But Iraq is hardly the only country where US troops are risking their lives on a daily basis to protect the flow of petroleum. In Colombia, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Georgia, US personnel are also spending their days and nights protecting pipelines and refineries, or supervising the local forces assigned to this mission. American sailors are now on oil-protection patrol in the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the South China Sea, and along other sea routes that deliver oil to the United States and its allies. In fact, the US military is increasingly being converted into a global oil-protection service. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/FJ09Dj01.html
Iraq, Iraq, Iraq: The Election and the Rest of Foreign Policy:
There is such a circumscribed discussion of “foreign policy.” For example, although we all know that the “Middle East”- Israel and Palestine- remains a key to a peaceful “Middle East”, it isn’t addressed in these debates; foreign policy discussions seem to have ended with St. Louis. Peter Preston in the Guardian comments on the void:
Republican policy is an empty vessel drifting off Tel Aviv, and the Democratic alternative has just as little stored in its hold. (Indeed, on any historical test, the Democrats are less rather than more likely to stand up to an Israel going its own sweet way.)
Yet Kerry must know that the Arab world (and much of Europe) won't respond to his Iraq distress calls unless there's a decisive return to road-map action. He must know that even Blair and Bush are at loggerheads over Israel. He must realise that a fresh start here is the key to a fresh start in Baghdad. But he didn't mention it.
Nor, alas, did any of those long, fruitful weeks at foreign policy seminars yield the most minimal shift in perception. It is Bush who (quite rightly) seeks to set North Korea in its context, and Kerry who cranks up the threat. It is Bush who, bruised by Iraq, turns more warily and multilaterally towards Tehran, and Kerry who unleashes the rockets of empty rhetoric. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/comment/story/0,14259,1324489,00.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Elections and Deals
Karzai, our Ricardo Montalban of Afghanistan, is benefiting from inveterate U.S. policy- buying off people with wads of cash. This time the warlords outside of Karzai’s base of Kabul are on the receiving end. Pepe Escobar of Asia Times reports:
Karzai may not be restricted to Kabul because he is making all sorts of deals with the warlords, with US backing: a UN source in Kabul confirmed to Asia Times Online that oilman Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador, has personally "encouraged" several warlords to clear the way for Karzai. Deal-making of the suitcase-full-of-dollars kind is what Washington used to win the Afghan war in 2001 (usually the deals were with the wrong warlords, as in Tora Bora).
Escobar ads an election clarification:
Speaking of Tora Bora ... Democratic US Senator John Kerry has repeatedly charged that the Bush administration's tactic of outsourcing the battle of Tora Bora to locals, in December 2001, is the main reason bin Laden was not captured. Bush did not even try to answer the charge, either during the first presidential debate or in the campaign trail. This correspondent was in Tora Bora ( Taking a spin in Tora Bora , December 7, 2001). The battle was indeed outsourced, for the benefit of warlord Hazrat Ali. The B-52s were bombing the wrong mountains. And bin Laden was long gone, at least by four days, when the bombings intensified. Retired General Tommy Franks, then responsible for the Afghan war, still insists "he didn't know" whether bin Laden was in Tora Bora. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FJ09Ag03.html
Michael Powell shills.
Colin’s son, the FCC chair, performs the companion piece to Bush telling us in 9/01 that we should we patriotic by shopping.
The legendary consumer electronics salesman Crazy Eddie is no longer around. But the job of hawking televisions has been taken over in recent weeks by a new TV personality: Michael K. Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Some of his critics are arguing that Mr. Powell and the F.C.C. have no place spending tax dollars promoting $2,000 consumer electronics devices.
The commission is taking the lead on a new consumer education campaign called "DTV - Get It!" But the commission is not just going to ask consumers to buy TV's: it has started a Web site, www.dtv.gov, that gives shopping and programming tips along with advice for setting up digital television.
"The F.C.C. wants to be a partner in helping consumers understand what it will actually take once they bring home their beautiful new high-definition sets to really get it online," Mr. Powell said in Washington on Oct. 1.
Three days later, he appeared on "Monday Night Football'' on ABC to promote the virtues of digital television to the technology's core audience: sports fans.
A spokeswoman for the F.C.C. defended Mr. Powell's push for digital television. But a nonprofit group called Commercial Alert sent a letter late last week to 160 members of Congress, urging them to withdraw financing from the campaign. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/11/technology/11fcc.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Florida: Activism, yes, and a multitude of challenges
But in Gadsden County, Florida's only county with a black majority, the largest percentage of presidential ballots were discarded four years ago. Nearly 2,000 ballots, an estimated 12% of the total, were tossed out. They were among tens of thousands of ballots from African Americans disqualified statewide in that election.Although they have no proof, many black residents believe partisan election officials and Republican Gov. Jeb Bush disqualified those votes to help his older brother win the presidency. And they have little confidence in new Secretary of State Glenda Hood, a Republican gubernatorial appointee.
Yet
In Daytona Beach, activists are wrangling with county election officials over minority polling locations. On Thursday, the NAACP filed a federal voting rights lawsuit against Volusia County, where Daytona Beach is located, alleging that officials there had disenfranchised blacks by having only one early voting site in an area where few minority voters live.In a county the size of Rhode Island, the only voting site is in a predominantly white community, a location inaccessible by public transportation, 30 miles away from black neighborhoods. County elections officials said there wasn't time to open new polls. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-blackvoters11oct11,1,4570735,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
-R
