Friday, November 19, 2004
Oddly, there seems to be more anger and disenfranchisement in the enfranchised. I don't think I've ever seen a time when the party that controlled the Senate, the House, the White House and the Supreme Court was so out of sorts about how little respect they get. At a certain point you want to say, "OK, Goliath. Stop pretending.- Jon Stewart
Health Care / Tax “Reform”, Bush Style The formula: More tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, more people without health insurance.
The Bush administration is eyeing an overhaul of the tax code that would drastically cut, if not eliminate, taxes on savings and investment, but it is unlikely to try to replace the existing tax code with a single flat income tax rate or a national sales tax, according to several sources familiar with ongoing tax deliberations.
Instead the administration plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth, according to several people who are advising the White House or are familiar with the deliberations.
The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58554-2004Nov17.html
Frank Rich on the Saving Private Ryan flap: Sunday’s upcoming NYTimes column
For anyone who doubts that we are entering a new era, let's flash back just a few years. "Saving Private Ryan," with its "CSI"-style disembowelments and expletives undeleted, was nationally broadcast by ABC on Veteran's Day in both 2001 and 2002 without incident, and despite the protests of family-values groups. What has changed between then and now? A government with the zeal to control both information and culture has received what it calls a mandate. Media owners who once might have thought that complaints by the American Family Association about a movie like "Saving Private Ryan" would go nowhere are keenly aware that the administration wants to reward its base. Merely the threat that the F.C.C. might punish a TV station or a network is all that's needed to push them onto the slippery slope of self-censorship before anyone in Washington even bothers to act. This is McCarthyism, "moral values" style.
What makes the "Ryan" case both chilling and a harbinger of what's to come is that it isn't about Janet Jackson and sex but about the presentation of war at a time when we are fighting one. That some of the companies whose stations refused to broadcast "Saving Private Ryan" also own major American newspapers in cities as various as Providence and Atlanta leaves you wondering what other kind of self-censorship will be practiced next. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/arts/21rich.html?oref=login&8hpib=&pagewanted=print&position
Iran: Deja vu all over again? Not only Yogi Berra is wondering: So, Iran has wmd”? The Europeans prefer diplomacy, but we’re not signing off.
Before you get too nervous, Iran is not Iraq: it is stronger economically and militarily, probably too strong for the Bushies who, like Senior and Reagan, prefer much weaker victims, and there are no available troops. But, then, our Rulers are not exactly rational.
An Iranian opposition group says it has new evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert Defense Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to United Nations inspectors.
The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended purely for civilian purposes. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/international/middleeast/17iran.html?oref=login
Mending Fences
If our government had been infiltrated by a team of Chinese, Japanese and radical Islamic individuals, they couldn’t do a better job of sabotaging this country. At minimum, the next 4 years should further strengthen China and Europe while our economic strength and reputation ebb further and we become more militarized, messianic and dumbed-down.
A sign of the times: unlike in the past, Old Europe is not bowing down to the Administration. Case in point, Chirac:
French President Jacques Chirac has said in a newspaper interview that Britain has gained nothing from its support for the United States-led invasion of Iraq.
Chirac said he had urged Britain before the invasion to press U.S. President George W. Bush to revive the Middle East peace process in return for London's support.
"Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see much in return," Chirac was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Times. "I am not sure that it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041116/325/f6onu.html
Republican Ethics: DeLay Protected [The basic AP report]
Moving to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Republicans want to change party rules to ensure that DeLay retains his post if a Texas grand jury indicts him as it did with three of his political associates.
The House Republican Conference, composed of all GOP members in the chamber, was to vote Wednesday to modify a requirement that would force DeLay to step aside if charged with a felony requiring at least a two-year prison term.
Party rules require leaders to relinquish their posts after a felony indictment, but the change would eliminate the requirement for non-federal indictments.
Electoral Fraud
A research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities
associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded
130,000 - 260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in
Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods. Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance -- the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team, led by Professor Michael Hout, will formally disclose results of the study at the press conference.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041118/sfth040_1.html
Progressive Talk Radio Progressing
Air America, the fledgling progressive talk-radio network, says it's here to stay and "very encouraged" by the response it's gotten so far.
"In terms of affiliates, we are today where we thought we would be at the beginning of our third year," says President Jon Sinton of the network that started in March and is heard here on WLIB (1190 AM).
While Air America suffered the embarrassing loss of its Los Angeles and Chicago affiliates, he notes that it added Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, San Diego and other major cities and now has 39 outlets.
Sinton also says advertising is "well ahead of projections."
Air America, which in most cities doesn't have as powerful a signal as its talk competitors, is a middle-of-the-pack station in most ratings. In New York this summer, it averaged 1.6% of its target 25- to 54-year-old audience.
While talk stations traditionally build an audience slowly, Sinton says the network has found "a real hunger out there for a [nonconservative] voice on the radio." http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/v-pfriendly/story/253554p-216960c.html
Lieberman: Moving Further “Right” The Hartford Courant reports on his vying for a job in the Bush Administration.
Joe Lieberman respects the presidency and likes being wooed. And so, he said Tuesday, he's not ruling out a Bush Cabinet appointment. "I am a traditionalist," the Connecticut Democratic senator said. "If the president ever calls, you'd have to consider it. But I am very happy to be in the Senate."http://www.ctnow.com/news/nationworld/hc-joecabinet1117.artnov17,1,7736977.story?coll=hc-headlines-nationworld
Russia to Send Troops to Iraq? Recurring story.
Russia has agreed to send a small number of troops to Iraq to protect oil wells and support the U.S.-led military campaign there, an aide in the Bush administration has said. The Russian Kommersant-Vlast magazine spoke with the aide on conditions of anonymity, and he said that he had heard the information at a recent meeting in the White House. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/11/17/iraq.shtml
Loyalty, Ideology Trumps Competence. Just thought I’d underscore the sum result of the Bush appointments and the cleansing of the CIA. I never thought I’d be worried about career “spooks” at the Agency, but they’re being driven out so that only Right-wing Republican “information” will be “provided” to Bush.
It’s time for the CIA guys to either stay and fight or leave and speak out. And, scoundrel Robert Novak’s column reminds us that John McCain is no progressive.
McCain told Goss the CIA is ''a dysfunctional organization. It has to be cleaned out.'' That is, the CIA does not perform its missions. McCain told Goss that as director, he must get rid of the old boys and bring in a new team at Langley. Moreover, McCain told me this week, ''with CIA leaks intended to harm the re-election campaign of the president of the United States, it is not only dysfunctional but a rogue organization.'' http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak18.html
Abuses by Homeland Security. Daniel Zwerdling (NPR) on immigrants being held in New Jersey, awaiting deportation, and receiving no redress through the U.S. legal system. This is a terrific two-parter that you access here http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=17-Nov-2004&prgId=2 or read, below.
NPR is by no means the only media company discovering that Bush administration officials are routinely ignoring or rejecting Freedom of Information Act requests. The nonpartisan Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has found that officials across the government routinely refuse to release documents, often on the grounds that it would interfere with "national security."
"This is by far the worst time that journalists have had (using FOIA) in more than 30 years," says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4175948
Journalist in Iraq: A Testimonial. The Real Thing from Knight-Ridder reporter Hannah Allam
Baghdad has never been tougher for journalists. Treacherous roads and kidnapping squads restrict travel. "Embedding" with the military or going with Iraqi government officials is the safest way to leave the capital. Our ability to uncover and tell the truth about Iraq - good and bad - has suffered terribly.
At least 36 journalists have been killed covering this war. Everyone seems to know someone who's been taken hostage. We share our nightmares of terrorists cutting off our heads. Word of new abductions brings guilty relief: Thank God it wasn't me. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10206725.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Wal-Mart on Frontline: If you missed it, keep on alert. It was almost humorous to hear correspondent Hedrick Smith comment on our one-sided trading with China- ‘So, the United States is like a third-world country!’
"Wal-Mart," Gereffi continues, "has life-or-death decision over [almost] all the consumer goods industries that exist in the United States, because it is the number one supplier-retailer of most of our consumer goods -- not just clothes, shoes, toys, but home appliances, electronic products, sporting goods, bicycles, groceries, food."
At first blush, this seems a stark assertion. It comes as a shock because this isn't the way most of us think the global economy works. We don't imagine that retail chains are deciding whether goods should be produced in the U.S., China, Mexico or Bangladesh…
Case in point: Bill Nichol, CEO of Kentucky Derby Hosiery, a sock manufacturer that has supplied Wal-Mart for 40 years. He credits Wal-Mart with forcing his company to be more disciplined and efficient, but he adds: "Their message to us, surprisingly, is, 'There's a broad market out there. If you want to focus on the lowest-cost part of the market, it's obvious that you can't do that in the United States'." So half of Nichol's 1,500 U.S. employees will soon be out of work and he'll have to open plants in China and other low-cost countries to hang onto his Wal-Mart account.
We heard that story again and again from American manufacturers in sectors as diverse as electronics, apparel, bicycles, furniture, and textiles. They expressed private dismay at the relentless pressure from the likes of Wal-Mart and Target to cut costs to the bone in America and then, when that did not satisfy the mass retailers, more pressure to move production to China or elsewhere offshore. But most did not dare to go on camera and tell their story publicly for fear of jeopardizing their remaining sales to Wal-Mart. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/
Related: China Courting the World
"For a few years ahead, it will still be the United States as No. 1, but soon it will be China," Mr. Long, the son of a Thai businessman, confidently predicted as he showed off the stone, tiles and willow trees imported from China to decorate the courtyard at the Sirindhorn Chinese Language and Culture Center, which opened a year ago.
The center is part of China's expanding presence across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where Beijing is making a big push to market itself and its language, similar to the way the United States promoted its culture and values during the cold war. It is not a hard sell, particularly to young Asians eager to cement cultural bonds as China deepens its economic and political interests in the region. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/international/asia/18asia.html?oref=login&oref=login&hp
Lawfuits and Wal-Mart …especially for educators up north…
Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest retailer, but also a magnet for employee complaints about off-the-clock work. It faces lawsuits in more than 30 states.
Wal-Mart says its deep pockets have made it an attractive target. Plaintiffs' lawyers counter that off-the-clock work is endemic at Wal-Mart because of the company's emphasis on keeping its costs low. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/business/19walmart.html?pagewanted=all
Pro-Life vs Anti-Abortion. Clarity on Now With Bill Moyers: Sister Joan Chittister
But I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed and why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is. http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript346_full.html
-R
Health Care / Tax “Reform”, Bush Style The formula: More tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, more people without health insurance.
The Bush administration is eyeing an overhaul of the tax code that would drastically cut, if not eliminate, taxes on savings and investment, but it is unlikely to try to replace the existing tax code with a single flat income tax rate or a national sales tax, according to several sources familiar with ongoing tax deliberations.
Instead the administration plans to push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth, according to several people who are advising the White House or are familiar with the deliberations.
The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance, the advisers said. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58554-2004Nov17.html
Frank Rich on the Saving Private Ryan flap: Sunday’s upcoming NYTimes column
For anyone who doubts that we are entering a new era, let's flash back just a few years. "Saving Private Ryan," with its "CSI"-style disembowelments and expletives undeleted, was nationally broadcast by ABC on Veteran's Day in both 2001 and 2002 without incident, and despite the protests of family-values groups. What has changed between then and now? A government with the zeal to control both information and culture has received what it calls a mandate. Media owners who once might have thought that complaints by the American Family Association about a movie like "Saving Private Ryan" would go nowhere are keenly aware that the administration wants to reward its base. Merely the threat that the F.C.C. might punish a TV station or a network is all that's needed to push them onto the slippery slope of self-censorship before anyone in Washington even bothers to act. This is McCarthyism, "moral values" style.
What makes the "Ryan" case both chilling and a harbinger of what's to come is that it isn't about Janet Jackson and sex but about the presentation of war at a time when we are fighting one. That some of the companies whose stations refused to broadcast "Saving Private Ryan" also own major American newspapers in cities as various as Providence and Atlanta leaves you wondering what other kind of self-censorship will be practiced next. If these media outlets are afraid to show a graphic Hollywood treatment of a 60-year-old war starring the beloved Tom Hanks because the feds might fine them, toy with their licenses or deny them permission to expand their empires, might they defensively soften their news divisions' efforts to present the graphic truth of an ongoing war? http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/21/arts/21rich.html?oref=login&8hpib=&pagewanted=print&position
Iran: Deja vu all over again? Not only Yogi Berra is wondering: So, Iran has wmd”? The Europeans prefer diplomacy, but we’re not signing off.
Before you get too nervous, Iran is not Iraq: it is stronger economically and militarily, probably too strong for the Bushies who, like Senior and Reagan, prefer much weaker victims, and there are no available troops. But, then, our Rulers are not exactly rational.
An Iranian opposition group says it has new evidence that Iran is producing enriched uranium at a covert Defense Ministry facility in Tehran that has not been disclosed to United Nations inspectors.
The group, the National Council for Resistance in Iran, is planning to announce its finding in Paris on Wednesday. The group says that inspection of the site would demonstrate that Iran is secretly trying to produce nuclear weapons even while promising to freeze a critical part of its declared nuclear program, which it maintains is intended purely for civilian purposes. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/international/middleeast/17iran.html?oref=login
Mending Fences
If our government had been infiltrated by a team of Chinese, Japanese and radical Islamic individuals, they couldn’t do a better job of sabotaging this country. At minimum, the next 4 years should further strengthen China and Europe while our economic strength and reputation ebb further and we become more militarized, messianic and dumbed-down.
A sign of the times: unlike in the past, Old Europe is not bowing down to the Administration. Case in point, Chirac:
French President Jacques Chirac has said in a newspaper interview that Britain has gained nothing from its support for the United States-led invasion of Iraq.
Chirac said he had urged Britain before the invasion to press U.S. President George W. Bush to revive the Middle East peace process in return for London's support.
"Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see much in return," Chirac was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Times. "I am not sure that it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically." http://uk.news.yahoo.com/041116/325/f6onu.html
Republican Ethics: DeLay Protected [The basic AP report]
Moving to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, House Republicans want to change party rules to ensure that DeLay retains his post if a Texas grand jury indicts him as it did with three of his political associates.
The House Republican Conference, composed of all GOP members in the chamber, was to vote Wednesday to modify a requirement that would force DeLay to step aside if charged with a felony requiring at least a two-year prison term.
Party rules require leaders to relinquish their posts after a felony indictment, but the change would eliminate the requirement for non-federal indictments.
Electoral Fraud
A research team at UC Berkeley will report that irregularities
associated with electronic voting machines may have awarded
130,000 - 260,000 or more excess votes to President George W. Bush in
Florida in the 2004 presidential election. The study shows an unexplained discrepancy between votes for President Bush in counties where electronic voting machines were used versus counties using traditional voting methods. Discrepancies this large or larger rarely arise by chance -- the probability is less than 0.1 percent. The research team, led by Professor Michael Hout, will formally disclose results of the study at the press conference.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041118/sfth040_1.html
Progressive Talk Radio Progressing
Air America, the fledgling progressive talk-radio network, says it's here to stay and "very encouraged" by the response it's gotten so far.
"In terms of affiliates, we are today where we thought we would be at the beginning of our third year," says President Jon Sinton of the network that started in March and is heard here on WLIB (1190 AM).
While Air America suffered the embarrassing loss of its Los Angeles and Chicago affiliates, he notes that it added Boston, Philadelphia, Miami, San Diego and other major cities and now has 39 outlets.
Sinton also says advertising is "well ahead of projections."
Air America, which in most cities doesn't have as powerful a signal as its talk competitors, is a middle-of-the-pack station in most ratings. In New York this summer, it averaged 1.6% of its target 25- to 54-year-old audience.
While talk stations traditionally build an audience slowly, Sinton says the network has found "a real hunger out there for a [nonconservative] voice on the radio." http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/ent_radio/v-pfriendly/story/253554p-216960c.html
Lieberman: Moving Further “Right” The Hartford Courant reports on his vying for a job in the Bush Administration.
Joe Lieberman respects the presidency and likes being wooed. And so, he said Tuesday, he's not ruling out a Bush Cabinet appointment. "I am a traditionalist," the Connecticut Democratic senator said. "If the president ever calls, you'd have to consider it. But I am very happy to be in the Senate."http://www.ctnow.com/news/nationworld/hc-joecabinet1117.artnov17,1,7736977.story?coll=hc-headlines-nationworld
Russia to Send Troops to Iraq? Recurring story.
Russia has agreed to send a small number of troops to Iraq to protect oil wells and support the U.S.-led military campaign there, an aide in the Bush administration has said. The Russian Kommersant-Vlast magazine spoke with the aide on conditions of anonymity, and he said that he had heard the information at a recent meeting in the White House. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/11/17/iraq.shtml
Loyalty, Ideology Trumps Competence. Just thought I’d underscore the sum result of the Bush appointments and the cleansing of the CIA. I never thought I’d be worried about career “spooks” at the Agency, but they’re being driven out so that only Right-wing Republican “information” will be “provided” to Bush.
It’s time for the CIA guys to either stay and fight or leave and speak out. And, scoundrel Robert Novak’s column reminds us that John McCain is no progressive.
McCain told Goss the CIA is ''a dysfunctional organization. It has to be cleaned out.'' That is, the CIA does not perform its missions. McCain told Goss that as director, he must get rid of the old boys and bring in a new team at Langley. Moreover, McCain told me this week, ''with CIA leaks intended to harm the re-election campaign of the president of the United States, it is not only dysfunctional but a rogue organization.'' http://www.suntimes.com/output/novak/cst-edt-novak18.html
Abuses by Homeland Security. Daniel Zwerdling (NPR) on immigrants being held in New Jersey, awaiting deportation, and receiving no redress through the U.S. legal system. This is a terrific two-parter that you access here http://www.npr.org/rundowns/rundown.php?prgDate=17-Nov-2004&prgId=2 or read, below.
NPR is by no means the only media company discovering that Bush administration officials are routinely ignoring or rejecting Freedom of Information Act requests. The nonpartisan Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has found that officials across the government routinely refuse to release documents, often on the grounds that it would interfere with "national security."
"This is by far the worst time that journalists have had (using FOIA) in more than 30 years," says Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4175948
Journalist in Iraq: A Testimonial. The Real Thing from Knight-Ridder reporter Hannah Allam
Baghdad has never been tougher for journalists. Treacherous roads and kidnapping squads restrict travel. "Embedding" with the military or going with Iraqi government officials is the safest way to leave the capital. Our ability to uncover and tell the truth about Iraq - good and bad - has suffered terribly.
At least 36 journalists have been killed covering this war. Everyone seems to know someone who's been taken hostage. We share our nightmares of terrorists cutting off our heads. Word of new abductions brings guilty relief: Thank God it wasn't me. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10206725.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Wal-Mart on Frontline: If you missed it, keep on alert. It was almost humorous to hear correspondent Hedrick Smith comment on our one-sided trading with China- ‘So, the United States is like a third-world country!’
"Wal-Mart," Gereffi continues, "has life-or-death decision over [almost] all the consumer goods industries that exist in the United States, because it is the number one supplier-retailer of most of our consumer goods -- not just clothes, shoes, toys, but home appliances, electronic products, sporting goods, bicycles, groceries, food."
At first blush, this seems a stark assertion. It comes as a shock because this isn't the way most of us think the global economy works. We don't imagine that retail chains are deciding whether goods should be produced in the U.S., China, Mexico or Bangladesh…
Case in point: Bill Nichol, CEO of Kentucky Derby Hosiery, a sock manufacturer that has supplied Wal-Mart for 40 years. He credits Wal-Mart with forcing his company to be more disciplined and efficient, but he adds: "Their message to us, surprisingly, is, 'There's a broad market out there. If you want to focus on the lowest-cost part of the market, it's obvious that you can't do that in the United States'." So half of Nichol's 1,500 U.S. employees will soon be out of work and he'll have to open plants in China and other low-cost countries to hang onto his Wal-Mart account.
We heard that story again and again from American manufacturers in sectors as diverse as electronics, apparel, bicycles, furniture, and textiles. They expressed private dismay at the relentless pressure from the likes of Wal-Mart and Target to cut costs to the bone in America and then, when that did not satisfy the mass retailers, more pressure to move production to China or elsewhere offshore. But most did not dare to go on camera and tell their story publicly for fear of jeopardizing their remaining sales to Wal-Mart. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/
Related: China Courting the World
"For a few years ahead, it will still be the United States as No. 1, but soon it will be China," Mr. Long, the son of a Thai businessman, confidently predicted as he showed off the stone, tiles and willow trees imported from China to decorate the courtyard at the Sirindhorn Chinese Language and Culture Center, which opened a year ago.
The center is part of China's expanding presence across Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where Beijing is making a big push to market itself and its language, similar to the way the United States promoted its culture and values during the cold war. It is not a hard sell, particularly to young Asians eager to cement cultural bonds as China deepens its economic and political interests in the region. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/international/asia/18asia.html?oref=login&oref=login&hp
Lawfuits and Wal-Mart …especially for educators up north…
Wal-Mart is not only the world's largest retailer, but also a magnet for employee complaints about off-the-clock work. It faces lawsuits in more than 30 states.
Wal-Mart says its deep pockets have made it an attractive target. Plaintiffs' lawyers counter that off-the-clock work is endemic at Wal-Mart because of the company's emphasis on keeping its costs low. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/business/19walmart.html?pagewanted=all
Pro-Life vs Anti-Abortion. Clarity on Now With Bill Moyers: Sister Joan Chittister
But I do not believe that just because you're opposed to abortion that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking. If all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed and why would I think that you don't? Because you don't want any tax money to go there. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is. http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript346_full.html
-R
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Condi and Powell:
Condoleezza Rice, who was named as Colin L. Powell's replacement today, has forged an extraordinarily close relationship with President Bush. But, paradoxically, many experts consider her one of the weakest national security advisers in recent history in terms of managing interagency conflicts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54261-2004Nov16.html
The Washington Post misses the point(s)- that it makes sense- it’s no paradox- that Condi was weak- and incompetent- AND was close to Bush. It does leave out that she was- and is- a consummate liar, a requirement to work for inveterate liar Bush. As we know, Condi continues to say that al-Qaeda and Saddam had a close tie. Will the Democrats bring that up as well as her being AWOL on so much before and after 9/11?
Powell’s exit deserves no tears. He was the one person who could have stopped the Iraq war, but instead he allowed himself to be used for ‘respectability’, and his UN speech was a pack of lies that sold the invasion. Shame. The public’s generosity is done. Let’s not forget:
"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources."
Hadley: All you need to know about the new National Security head:
Mr. Hadley wrote an opinion piece for USA Today in June 2004 arguing that the administration had been right before the war to link Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, a claim largely rejected by the commission studying the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Perhaps most significantly, he led the National Security Council's planning for postwar Iraq, which has turned out to be deadlier and far more difficult than anticipated. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/politics/17hadley.html?oref=login
Peter Principle: The maddening lack of accountability of the ruling group is followed by promotions for some. Bush will have only staunch loyalists in his coterie. Robert Scheer summarizes, "The screwballs who brought us the Iraq War are failing upward."
"...incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In fact, despite calls for their resignations -- from the former head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, among others -- the neocon gang is thriving. They have not been held responsible for the "16 words" about yellowcake, the rise and fall of Ahmad Chalabi, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the post-invasion looting of Iraq's munitions stores and the disastrous elimination of the Iraqi armed forces.
"As of today, the neocons on Zinni's list of losers -- Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; National Security Council staffer Elliott Abrams; Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- are all still employed even as Bush's new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, is eviscerating the CIA's leadership." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer16nov16,1,375135.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Backdoor Draft, Ongoing:Potent front page article, for those who don’t get the Times.
The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000 former soldiers it has ordered back to military work, complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops.
Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan now, after they thought they were through with life on active duty.
They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up.
In the last few months, the Army has sent notices to more than 4,000 former soldiers informing them that they must return to active duty, but more than 1,800 of them have already requested exemptions or delays, many of which are still being considered.
And, of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 had not shown up. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/national/16reserves.html?ei=5094&en=016cae9e46c75da0&hp=&ex=1100667600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
Elliot Spitzer: Clear thinking for the Democrats:
But, even as Republicans invoke pleasant-sounding slogans at every turn, they pursue policies that undermine the values they claim to represent. Take the following three recent scandals: conflicts of interest among Wall Street analysts, who duped small investors with tainted research; predatory lending, which imposed illegal and unconscionable mortgages on homeowners; and illegal practices of mutual-fund traders, who skimmed billions from people saving for their kids' college tuitions and their own retirements. In each of these situations, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans not only impeded the investigations but actually proposed legislation that would preempt the ability of state regulators to combat the problems.
With our values and policies, Democrats have been on the right track for a long time. We champion the ideals held most dear by working families, but we simply didn't articulate campaign issues in the context of those ideals. Instead, we let the Republicans employ wedge issues like gay marriage that diverted attention from their failed domestic policies.
We can't repeat these mistakes in 2008. Starting today, our party must focus on all the difficulties that working people face--from financial scams to job security to health insurance, from day care for our kids to nursing homes for our parents, from the price of gas to the increasing cost of college tuition, from the safety and security of our neighborhoods to the health of the environment. We must address these issues not as antiseptic policy points but as elements of a living mosaic that, together, form a society that rewards hard work and integrity. Our policies and plans will gain traction with the public when we frame them as a reflection of the core values we believe in. https://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20041122&s=spitzer112204
Fallujah. Senseless. Meanwhile, the national insurgency continues elsewhere. And Margaret Hassan’s execution…awful.
Outside Falluja, the insurgency rages on, amid intelligence reports that the battle has become a big recruiting draw for young Arab men in mosques from Syria to Saudi Arabia. American commanders acknowledge that hundreds of fighters and their commanders, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network has carried out many of the kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, slipped away before the offensive.
American commanders say they expected that the fight for Falluja, coinciding with the end of the holy month of Ramadan, would set off a surge in violence across the country. But the scope and size of the attacks in Mosul last Thursday stunned American officers who were scrambling Sunday to regain the initiative. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/international/middleeast/16iraq.html?hp&ex=1100667600&en=eb73c1bf609b3331&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Repubs Move to Protect DeLay: They can anticipate…
House Republicans were contemplating changing their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today.
The rules change, which some leaders said is likely to be adopted Wednesday, comes as House Republicans return to Washington indebted to DeLay for the enhanced majority they won in this month's elections. DeLay led an aggressive redistricting effort in Texas last year that resulted in five Democratic House members retiring or losing reelection. It also triggered the grand jury inquiry into fundraising efforts related to the state legislature's redistricting actions.
House Republicans recognize that DeLay fought fiercely to widen their majority, and they are eager to protect him from an Austin-based investigation they view as baseless and partisan, said Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), the GOP's chief deputy whip. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54572-2004Nov16?language=printer
-R
Condoleezza Rice, who was named as Colin L. Powell's replacement today, has forged an extraordinarily close relationship with President Bush. But, paradoxically, many experts consider her one of the weakest national security advisers in recent history in terms of managing interagency conflicts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54261-2004Nov16.html
The Washington Post misses the point(s)- that it makes sense- it’s no paradox- that Condi was weak- and incompetent- AND was close to Bush. It does leave out that she was- and is- a consummate liar, a requirement to work for inveterate liar Bush. As we know, Condi continues to say that al-Qaeda and Saddam had a close tie. Will the Democrats bring that up as well as her being AWOL on so much before and after 9/11?
Powell’s exit deserves no tears. He was the one person who could have stopped the Iraq war, but instead he allowed himself to be used for ‘respectability’, and his UN speech was a pack of lies that sold the invasion. Shame. The public’s generosity is done. Let’s not forget:
"My colleagues, every statement I make today is backed up by sources, solid sources. These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence. I will cite some examples, and these are from human sources."
Hadley: All you need to know about the new National Security head:
Mr. Hadley wrote an opinion piece for USA Today in June 2004 arguing that the administration had been right before the war to link Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq, a claim largely rejected by the commission studying the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Perhaps most significantly, he led the National Security Council's planning for postwar Iraq, which has turned out to be deadlier and far more difficult than anticipated. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/politics/17hadley.html?oref=login
Peter Principle: The maddening lack of accountability of the ruling group is followed by promotions for some. Bush will have only staunch loyalists in his coterie. Robert Scheer summarizes, "The screwballs who brought us the Iraq War are failing upward."
"...incompetence begat by ideological blindness has been rewarded. The neoconservatives who created the ongoing Iraq mess have more than survived the failure of their impossibly rosy scenarios for a peaceful and democratic Iraq under U.S. rule. In fact, despite calls for their resignations -- from the former head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen. Anthony Zinni, among others -- the neocon gang is thriving. They have not been held responsible for the "16 words" about yellowcake, the rise and fall of Ahmad Chalabi, the Abu Ghraib scandal, the post-invasion looting of Iraq's munitions stores and the disastrous elimination of the Iraqi armed forces.
"As of today, the neocons on Zinni's list of losers -- Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz; the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby; National Security Council staffer Elliott Abrams; Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld -- are all still employed even as Bush's new director of central intelligence, Porter J. Goss, is eviscerating the CIA's leadership." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-scheer16nov16,1,375135.column?coll=la-news-comment-opinions
Backdoor Draft, Ongoing:Potent front page article, for those who don’t get the Times.
The Army has encountered resistance from more than 2,000 former soldiers it has ordered back to military work, complicating its efforts to fill gaps in the regular troops.
Many of these former soldiers - some of whom say they have not trained, held a gun, worn a uniform or even gone for a jog in years - object to being sent to Iraq and Afghanistan now, after they thought they were through with life on active duty.
They are seeking exemptions, filing court cases or simply failing to report for duty, moves that will be watched closely by approximately 110,000 other members of the Individual Ready Reserve, a corps of soldiers who are no longer on active duty but still are eligible for call-up.
In the last few months, the Army has sent notices to more than 4,000 former soldiers informing them that they must return to active duty, but more than 1,800 of them have already requested exemptions or delays, many of which are still being considered.
And, of about 2,500 who were due to arrive on military bases for refresher training by Nov. 7, 733 had not shown up. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/national/16reserves.html?ei=5094&en=016cae9e46c75da0&hp=&ex=1100667600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
Elliot Spitzer: Clear thinking for the Democrats:
But, even as Republicans invoke pleasant-sounding slogans at every turn, they pursue policies that undermine the values they claim to represent. Take the following three recent scandals: conflicts of interest among Wall Street analysts, who duped small investors with tainted research; predatory lending, which imposed illegal and unconscionable mortgages on homeowners; and illegal practices of mutual-fund traders, who skimmed billions from people saving for their kids' college tuitions and their own retirements. In each of these situations, the Bush administration and congressional Republicans not only impeded the investigations but actually proposed legislation that would preempt the ability of state regulators to combat the problems.
With our values and policies, Democrats have been on the right track for a long time. We champion the ideals held most dear by working families, but we simply didn't articulate campaign issues in the context of those ideals. Instead, we let the Republicans employ wedge issues like gay marriage that diverted attention from their failed domestic policies.
We can't repeat these mistakes in 2008. Starting today, our party must focus on all the difficulties that working people face--from financial scams to job security to health insurance, from day care for our kids to nursing homes for our parents, from the price of gas to the increasing cost of college tuition, from the safety and security of our neighborhoods to the health of the environment. We must address these issues not as antiseptic policy points but as elements of a living mosaic that, together, form a society that rewards hard work and integrity. Our policies and plans will gain traction with the public when we frame them as a reflection of the core values we believe in. https://ssl.tnr.com/p/docsub.mhtml?i=20041122&s=spitzer112204
Fallujah. Senseless. Meanwhile, the national insurgency continues elsewhere. And Margaret Hassan’s execution…awful.
Outside Falluja, the insurgency rages on, amid intelligence reports that the battle has become a big recruiting draw for young Arab men in mosques from Syria to Saudi Arabia. American commanders acknowledge that hundreds of fighters and their commanders, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whose network has carried out many of the kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, slipped away before the offensive.
American commanders say they expected that the fight for Falluja, coinciding with the end of the holy month of Ramadan, would set off a surge in violence across the country. But the scope and size of the attacks in Mosul last Thursday stunned American officers who were scrambling Sunday to regain the initiative. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/international/middleeast/16iraq.html?hp&ex=1100667600&en=eb73c1bf609b3331&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Repubs Move to Protect DeLay: They can anticipate…
House Republicans were contemplating changing their rules in order to allow members indicted by state prosecutors to remain in a leadership post, a move designed to benefit Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) in case he is charged by a Texas grand jury that has indicted three of his political associates, GOP leaders said today.
The rules change, which some leaders said is likely to be adopted Wednesday, comes as House Republicans return to Washington indebted to DeLay for the enhanced majority they won in this month's elections. DeLay led an aggressive redistricting effort in Texas last year that resulted in five Democratic House members retiring or losing reelection. It also triggered the grand jury inquiry into fundraising efforts related to the state legislature's redistricting actions.
House Republicans recognize that DeLay fought fiercely to widen their majority, and they are eager to protect him from an Austin-based investigation they view as baseless and partisan, said Rep. Eric I. Cantor (R-Va.), the GOP's chief deputy whip. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54572-2004Nov16?language=printer
-R
Monday, November 15, 2004
The CIA Purge. With so many CIA regulars infuriated over the Iraq invasion intelligence flap, there’s much discontent as the Administration’s boy, Porter Goss, takes over. But since the cover story is that poor Bush was done in by the inept CIA analysis of intelligence, they claim that they need reliable (yes-)men at all levels. So, expect much more skewing of intelligence or whatever else is necessary. Hope to hear from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid on this one.
The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources."The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda." http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia1114,0,707331.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Electoral Cheating: The six prominent members of Congress who called for an investigation are Representatives Conyers (D-MI), Holt (D-NJ), Nadler (D-NY), Scott (D-VA), Watt (D-NC) and Wexler (D-FL). They have demanded that the U.S. General Accounting Office:
Circulating these past days has been an article that maintains that Kerry is more involved than has been previously thought.
As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who has been about the only mainstream journalist to actually follow up on the many serious problems with regard to the integrity of the election, has pointed out, a concession speech, in effect, means nothing. It is not legally binding.
So, if you were thinking like a Bush goon, you would expect that either Kerry would stand up to the mischief that went on, not conceding in the meantime, and so your booby trap would work perfectly, or that he would just give up and let it go, as wimpy Democrats are prone to do.
But John Kerry chose a smarter course. Ask yourself the question, what if John Kerry were to do both, concede publicly but, at the same time, look into every instance of mischief, and see if in fact the election was fair or fixed.
This would be a no lose situation for him. The booby trap set up for him would become irrelevant, as he would have done the right thing for the nation, not putting it into turmoil while its troops are in battle.
But at the same time, he is still just as free to look into any voting irregularities as he would have been had he not conceded. Even better, he could do it without the press going insane and the nation being kept on tension-creating edge. All of the lawyers he could have sent to look into things still could be sent to look into things, and if the election is truly called into question, he could then, with ample justification so as to make it legitimate, come out publicly and retract his concession. It is the prosecutor, also one of Kerry’s previous jobs, who knows well enough to thoroughly prepare and investigate his case be leveling charges. You may have a real hunch that someone is responsible for a murder, but until you believe you can win that case in court, you do not make the allegation. http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21election.htm
Conservative Dominance in the Senate: LA Times notes:
That changing of the guard is part of a broader trend emerging from the election that helps explain why the Senate — like the greater political landscape — has become so polarized. Many centrists are leaving Congress; unvarnished conservatives are arriving in their place.The retirement of Breaux and several other Southern Democrats depletes even further the dwindling ranks of lawmakers inclined to work across party lines. They are being replaced largely by a younger generation of Republicans, schooled in a more uncompromising form of conservatism. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate14nov14,0,1645680.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Replacing Gonzales is…Brett Kavenaugh…who is?
Bush’s alleged choice as White House counsel, Kavanaugh ‘rings no bells’, I’m sure, but he was a regular on Kenneth Starr's impeachment team and apparently wrote the portion of the Starr report that outlined Starr's reasons for Congress to impeach Clinton in 1998.
AARP: Mixed bag, as they plan to “oppose” the not-yet-detailed Bush plan, but they buy into the Bush language, no longer referring to such change as ‘privatization.’
Gearing up for battle over the future of Social Security, AARP, the influential lobby for older Americans, said Thursday that it opposed President Bush's plan to divert some payroll taxes into private retirement accounts. But it supports new incentives for private accounts that supplement Social Security.
Working closely with Congress and the White House, AARP helped shape legislation adding drug benefits to Medicare last year. Social Security is an even bigger issue, politically and financially, and lawmakers said Congress was unlikely to make major changes in Social Security over the organization's objections.
Marie F. Smith, president of the organization, said, "AARP adamantly opposes replacing any part of Social Security with individual accounts.'' But Ms. Smith added that the group supported incentives for people to establish personal retirement accounts in addition to Social Security.
John C. Rother, the organization's policy director, said, "We favor private accounts when they are in addition to Social Security, but not as a substitute.''
The fight over Social Security, pitting Mr. Bush's vision of an "ownership society" against the Democrats' determination to preserve a cornerstone of the New Deal, is reflected in a battle over the proper terminology.
The White House dislikes the word "privatization,'' which it sees as a misleading and imprecise way to describe Mr. Bush's ideas for Social Security. Democrats insist that the term is accurate.
E-mail messages circulated within AARP in recent weeks indicated that the group would avoid the word whenever possible.
One message, by an editor of an AARP magazine, says, "There is a new forbidden word at AARP: Social Security privatization.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/politics/12benefit.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Iraq: Fallujah victory, vs Spreading Violence. Depends on what newspaper you read. From the Independent (GB):
Violence erupts across Iraq and aid agencies warn of disaster as US declares battle of Fallujah is over
The United States and Iraq's interim government claimed yesterday that the battle for Fallujah was over, with 1,000 insurgents killed and the rebel stronghold effectively pacified after six days of fighting.
But even as the victory was being declared, wide-spread violence erupted throughout the rest of the country, with parts of Mosul passing into the hands of insurgents, forcing the American military to detach and rush part of its Fallujah force to the northern city. There was also street fighting in Baghdad, where mortar rounds were fired at the Green Zone, the heavily barricaded heart of US power in Iraq, and heavy fighting in the town of Yusufiyah, south of the capital. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582727
Fallujah Victory vs Spreading Violence, II- From Pepe Escobar:
Once again the US has been caught in a giant spider's web. Fallujah now is a network: it's Baghdad, Ramadi, Samarra, Latifiyah, Kirkuk, Mosul. Streets on fire, everywhere: Hundreds, thousands of Fallujahs - the Mesopotamian echo of a thousand Vietnams. The Iraqi resistance has even regained control of a few Baghdad neighborhoods.
Baghdad residents say there are practically no US troops around, even as regular explosions can be heard all over the city. Baghdad sources confirm to Asia Times Online that the mujahideen now control parts of the southern suburb of ad-Durha, as well as Hur Rajab, Abu Ghraib, al-Abidi, as-Suwayrah, Salman Bak, Latifiyah and Yusufiyah - all in the Greater Baghdad area. This would be the first time since the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, that the resistance has been able to control these neighborhoods. www.atimes.com
Casualties: Fuzzy math, again. CNN quoted the Department of Defense as reporting 31 US soldiers had died this week, but then, apparently, the internet struck. Antiwar.com posted that 55 Americans had died, and additional deaths were then cited by the DoD.
In a flurry of weekend press releases, the Department of Defense named another 23 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. These deaths bring the total killed since Nov. 8 to 55. Such facts may conflict with "official numbers" released to the unquestioning media. However, in an apparent response to this article, the DoD is now reporting that 38 US troops have died in Fallujah. The discrepancy in numbers may stem from unreported deaths. We will only know after the troops' names are officially released.
The 50-plus killed this week is indicative of a growing insurgency likely to spread to previously peaceful cities. Over twenty of the deaths occurred in Baghdad, Mosul, Abu Gharb, and Babli province (just south of Baghdad). This indicates that the violence is only spreading. Although the military concedes that "winning" in Fallujah won't quell the insurgency, they continue to pursue policies that suppose there exists a static number of Iraqis willing to fight the occupation: if they could only kill them all, democracy and calm would flourish. Of course, it is more likely that these incursions will create more insurgency. http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/?articleid=3977
Civilian casualties, especially in Fallujah, remain unclear. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350926,00.html
Elections to be Delayed? Hardly surprising; Announcing them for January always was targeted at the U.S. electorate.
Iraq's deputy prime minister has indicated for the first time that the much-heralded elections due in January could be derailed by the country's violent insurgency.
Barham Salih said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1351481,00.html
Blair Replicates Bush Campaign: Love that 9/11
Tony Blair has decided to confront opponents of the Iraq war head on by placing the "war on terror" at the heart of Labour's campaign in the coming general election.
The Prime Minister has privately admitted that attempts to "move on" from Iraq are doomed to failure. He has ordered a new "twin-track" strategy for the election, expected this spring, based on the themes of "opportunity and security".
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=582748
Roe v Wade: Michael Kinsley
But has anybody read the 2004 Republican platform on abortion? It doesn't merely call for reversal of Roe v. Wade. It calls for "legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children," and for judges who believe likewise. If fetuses are "persons" under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees all persons "equal protection of the law," abortion will be illegal whether a state or Congress wants to legalize it or not. More than that: There could be no legal distinction between the rights of fetuses and the rights of human beings after birth. So, just for example, a woman who procured an abortion would have to be prosecuted as if she had hired a gunman to murder her child. The doctor would have to be treated like the gunman. If the state had a death penalty, it would have to apply to both. And the party that now controls all three branches of government says this is already the case. Legislation is only needed to "make it clear," and judges are needed who will enforce it.
But no "activism," please. The Republican Party can't stand that. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46798-2004Nov12?language=printer
Honoring Rush Limbaugh: Here’s your chance. Random, I know…
On Friday, November 19, the Claremont Institute will honor Rush Limbaugh with the Statesmanship Award at its annual Churchill Dinner in Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Mr. Limbaugh will be the main speaker for the evening. A reception is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and dinner will begin at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $250 each, or $500 for preferred seating. Tables of 10 are available for $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000. You may register online using this secure form or by calling Nancy Padilla at (909) 621-6825, x132. http://www.claremont.org/
[The mission of The Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.]
Arafat:
A thought. It’s at least discomforting to remember that Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s chilling to recall that Henry Kissinger did as well. Since our world feels so upside down, reality so twisted, maybe we should anticipate Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz and Towel Snapper #1 sharing a Nobel if there’s a next phase of “Middle East Peace?”
-R
The White House has ordered the new CIA director, Porter Goss, to purge the agency of officers believed to have been disloyal to President George W. Bush or of leaking damaging information to the media about the conduct of the Iraq war and the hunt for Osama bin Laden, according to knowledgeable sources."The agency is being purged on instructions from the White House," said a former senior CIA official who maintains close ties to both the agency and to the White House. "Goss was given instructions ... to get rid of those soft leakers and liberal Democrats. The CIA is looked on by the White House as a hotbed of liberals and people who have been obstructing the president's agenda." http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uscia1114,0,707331.story?coll=ny-top-headlines
Electoral Cheating: The six prominent members of Congress who called for an investigation are Representatives Conyers (D-MI), Holt (D-NJ), Nadler (D-NY), Scott (D-VA), Watt (D-NC) and Wexler (D-FL). They have demanded that the U.S. General Accounting Office:
Circulating these past days has been an article that maintains that Kerry is more involved than has been previously thought.
As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who has been about the only mainstream journalist to actually follow up on the many serious problems with regard to the integrity of the election, has pointed out, a concession speech, in effect, means nothing. It is not legally binding.
So, if you were thinking like a Bush goon, you would expect that either Kerry would stand up to the mischief that went on, not conceding in the meantime, and so your booby trap would work perfectly, or that he would just give up and let it go, as wimpy Democrats are prone to do.
But John Kerry chose a smarter course. Ask yourself the question, what if John Kerry were to do both, concede publicly but, at the same time, look into every instance of mischief, and see if in fact the election was fair or fixed.
This would be a no lose situation for him. The booby trap set up for him would become irrelevant, as he would have done the right thing for the nation, not putting it into turmoil while its troops are in battle.
But at the same time, he is still just as free to look into any voting irregularities as he would have been had he not conceded. Even better, he could do it without the press going insane and the nation being kept on tension-creating edge. All of the lawyers he could have sent to look into things still could be sent to look into things, and if the election is truly called into question, he could then, with ample justification so as to make it legitimate, come out publicly and retract his concession. It is the prosecutor, also one of Kerry’s previous jobs, who knows well enough to thoroughly prepare and investigate his case be leveling charges. You may have a real hunch that someone is responsible for a murder, but until you believe you can win that case in court, you do not make the allegation. http://www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21election.htm
Conservative Dominance in the Senate: LA Times notes:
That changing of the guard is part of a broader trend emerging from the election that helps explain why the Senate — like the greater political landscape — has become so polarized. Many centrists are leaving Congress; unvarnished conservatives are arriving in their place.The retirement of Breaux and several other Southern Democrats depletes even further the dwindling ranks of lawmakers inclined to work across party lines. They are being replaced largely by a younger generation of Republicans, schooled in a more uncompromising form of conservatism. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate14nov14,0,1645680.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Replacing Gonzales is…Brett Kavenaugh…who is?
Bush’s alleged choice as White House counsel, Kavanaugh ‘rings no bells’, I’m sure, but he was a regular on Kenneth Starr's impeachment team and apparently wrote the portion of the Starr report that outlined Starr's reasons for Congress to impeach Clinton in 1998.
AARP: Mixed bag, as they plan to “oppose” the not-yet-detailed Bush plan, but they buy into the Bush language, no longer referring to such change as ‘privatization.’
Gearing up for battle over the future of Social Security, AARP, the influential lobby for older Americans, said Thursday that it opposed President Bush's plan to divert some payroll taxes into private retirement accounts. But it supports new incentives for private accounts that supplement Social Security.
Working closely with Congress and the White House, AARP helped shape legislation adding drug benefits to Medicare last year. Social Security is an even bigger issue, politically and financially, and lawmakers said Congress was unlikely to make major changes in Social Security over the organization's objections.
Marie F. Smith, president of the organization, said, "AARP adamantly opposes replacing any part of Social Security with individual accounts.'' But Ms. Smith added that the group supported incentives for people to establish personal retirement accounts in addition to Social Security.
John C. Rother, the organization's policy director, said, "We favor private accounts when they are in addition to Social Security, but not as a substitute.''
The fight over Social Security, pitting Mr. Bush's vision of an "ownership society" against the Democrats' determination to preserve a cornerstone of the New Deal, is reflected in a battle over the proper terminology.
The White House dislikes the word "privatization,'' which it sees as a misleading and imprecise way to describe Mr. Bush's ideas for Social Security. Democrats insist that the term is accurate.
E-mail messages circulated within AARP in recent weeks indicated that the group would avoid the word whenever possible.
One message, by an editor of an AARP magazine, says, "There is a new forbidden word at AARP: Social Security privatization.'' http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/politics/12benefit.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Iraq: Fallujah victory, vs Spreading Violence. Depends on what newspaper you read. From the Independent (GB):
Violence erupts across Iraq and aid agencies warn of disaster as US declares battle of Fallujah is over
The United States and Iraq's interim government claimed yesterday that the battle for Fallujah was over, with 1,000 insurgents killed and the rebel stronghold effectively pacified after six days of fighting.
But even as the victory was being declared, wide-spread violence erupted throughout the rest of the country, with parts of Mosul passing into the hands of insurgents, forcing the American military to detach and rush part of its Fallujah force to the northern city. There was also street fighting in Baghdad, where mortar rounds were fired at the Green Zone, the heavily barricaded heart of US power in Iraq, and heavy fighting in the town of Yusufiyah, south of the capital. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582727
Fallujah Victory vs Spreading Violence, II- From Pepe Escobar:
Once again the US has been caught in a giant spider's web. Fallujah now is a network: it's Baghdad, Ramadi, Samarra, Latifiyah, Kirkuk, Mosul. Streets on fire, everywhere: Hundreds, thousands of Fallujahs - the Mesopotamian echo of a thousand Vietnams. The Iraqi resistance has even regained control of a few Baghdad neighborhoods.
Baghdad residents say there are practically no US troops around, even as regular explosions can be heard all over the city. Baghdad sources confirm to Asia Times Online that the mujahideen now control parts of the southern suburb of ad-Durha, as well as Hur Rajab, Abu Ghraib, al-Abidi, as-Suwayrah, Salman Bak, Latifiyah and Yusufiyah - all in the Greater Baghdad area. This would be the first time since the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, that the resistance has been able to control these neighborhoods. www.atimes.com
Casualties: Fuzzy math, again. CNN quoted the Department of Defense as reporting 31 US soldiers had died this week, but then, apparently, the internet struck. Antiwar.com posted that 55 Americans had died, and additional deaths were then cited by the DoD.
In a flurry of weekend press releases, the Department of Defense named another 23 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. These deaths bring the total killed since Nov. 8 to 55. Such facts may conflict with "official numbers" released to the unquestioning media. However, in an apparent response to this article, the DoD is now reporting that 38 US troops have died in Fallujah. The discrepancy in numbers may stem from unreported deaths. We will only know after the troops' names are officially released.
The 50-plus killed this week is indicative of a growing insurgency likely to spread to previously peaceful cities. Over twenty of the deaths occurred in Baghdad, Mosul, Abu Gharb, and Babli province (just south of Baghdad). This indicates that the violence is only spreading. Although the military concedes that "winning" in Fallujah won't quell the insurgency, they continue to pursue policies that suppose there exists a static number of Iraqis willing to fight the occupation: if they could only kill them all, democracy and calm would flourish. Of course, it is more likely that these incursions will create more insurgency. http://www.antiwar.com/ewens/?articleid=3977
Civilian casualties, especially in Fallujah, remain unclear. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1350926,00.html
Elections to be Delayed? Hardly surprising; Announcing them for January always was targeted at the U.S. electorate.
Iraq's deputy prime minister has indicated for the first time that the much-heralded elections due in January could be derailed by the country's violent insurgency.
Barham Salih said the authorities were determined to hold the vote, but admitted they would have to assess the security situation nearer the time. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1351481,00.html
Blair Replicates Bush Campaign: Love that 9/11
Tony Blair has decided to confront opponents of the Iraq war head on by placing the "war on terror" at the heart of Labour's campaign in the coming general election.
The Prime Minister has privately admitted that attempts to "move on" from Iraq are doomed to failure. He has ordered a new "twin-track" strategy for the election, expected this spring, based on the themes of "opportunity and security".
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=582748
Roe v Wade: Michael Kinsley
But has anybody read the 2004 Republican platform on abortion? It doesn't merely call for reversal of Roe v. Wade. It calls for "legislation to make it clear that the 14th Amendment's protections apply to unborn children," and for judges who believe likewise. If fetuses are "persons" under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees all persons "equal protection of the law," abortion will be illegal whether a state or Congress wants to legalize it or not. More than that: There could be no legal distinction between the rights of fetuses and the rights of human beings after birth. So, just for example, a woman who procured an abortion would have to be prosecuted as if she had hired a gunman to murder her child. The doctor would have to be treated like the gunman. If the state had a death penalty, it would have to apply to both. And the party that now controls all three branches of government says this is already the case. Legislation is only needed to "make it clear," and judges are needed who will enforce it.
But no "activism," please. The Republican Party can't stand that. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A46798-2004Nov12?language=printer
Honoring Rush Limbaugh: Here’s your chance. Random, I know…
On Friday, November 19, the Claremont Institute will honor Rush Limbaugh with the Statesmanship Award at its annual Churchill Dinner in Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Mr. Limbaugh will be the main speaker for the evening. A reception is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. and dinner will begin at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $250 each, or $500 for preferred seating. Tables of 10 are available for $2,500, $5,000, or $10,000. You may register online using this secure form or by calling Nancy Padilla at (909) 621-6825, x132. http://www.claremont.org/
[The mission of The Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life.]
Arafat:
A thought. It’s at least discomforting to remember that Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize. It’s chilling to recall that Henry Kissinger did as well. Since our world feels so upside down, reality so twisted, maybe we should anticipate Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz and Towel Snapper #1 sharing a Nobel if there’s a next phase of “Middle East Peace?”
-R
