Tuesday, January 18, 2005
MLK: 2 notes
Never since his assassination in 1968 have I felt the absence of Martin Luther King more acutely. Where are today's voices of moral outrage? Where is the leadership willing to stand up and say: Enough! We've sullied ourselves enough. –Bob Herbert, NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/opinion/17herbert.html?oref=login&oref=login&hp
Amen. But, we can’t wait for the “leadership.” We have to speak to those values and morality.
And:
Dr. King would be appalled by the secular culture, the attacks on Christmas, the demonizing of Christianity. By the way, where's the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and other pinheads when Martin Luther King's picture is displayed on public property? He openly advocated the philosophy of Jesus and proudly declared himself a Christian. What say you, ACLU?- Bill O’Reilly http://mediamatters.org/items/200501180001
Bill was picked by Media Matters for America as the “#1 Liar of 2004.” My favorite is his recurring comment, “Those of us who have seen combat…” No, he wasn’t ever in the armed forces. But, he was briefly a “journalist” in Latin America!
Iran et al: Commando Raids now, covert operations elsewhere…soon. Seymour Hersh’s account
This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”
The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact
Pentagon doesn’t contest Hersh re Iran
The Pentagon is criticizing an article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that says the United States has been carrying out reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify nuclear, chemical and missile sites for possible airstrikes as soon as this summer.
But the Pentagon's response Monday did not specifically address Hersh's contention that the United States has been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran since at least last summer" to identify and isolate at least three dozen targets in Iran "that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids." http://edition.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/17/hersh.iran/
Alabama judges, Clarence Thomas and God:
Many stood and applauded former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore as he walked to the stage to administer the oath to Parker. Moore's action was ceremonial, since (Thomas) Parker took his formal oath of office Thursday before U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in Washington. Parker said Thomas told him a judge should be evaluated by whether he faithfully upholds his oath to God, not to the people, to the state or to the Constitution. http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/110578420462860.xml?birminghamnews?nstate
There have been several reports that Bush wants Thomas to be the next Chief Justice.
Social Security: Bush targets a few:
Bush's hardball first-term tactics on tax cuts and Medicare left resentment among the remaining Democratic lawmakers who otherwise might have been receptive to his ideas. Democrats have responded that Bush is manufacturing a crisis where none exists. But lobbyists point to a handful of potential Democratic compromisers who have not ruled out private accounts, including Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/16/MNGVQAR7131.DTL
Good old Joe!
Politicizing the SSA:
Over the objections of many of its own employees, the Social Security Administration is gearing up for a major effort to publicize the financial problems of Social Security and to convince the public that private accounts are needed as part of any solution.
The agency's plans are set forth in internal documents, including a "tactical plan" for communications and marketing of the idea that Social Security faces dire financial problems requiring immediate action.
Social Security officials say the agency is carrying out its mission to educate the public, including more than 47 million beneficiaries, and to support President Bush's agenda. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/politics/16benefit.html?ei=5090&en=f330c326dbefd633&ex=1263531600&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
NYTimes mag: Roger Lowenstein article. Essentially, ‘there is no crisis.’
Social Security's key long-range projection is that, over 75 years, it will come up short by an average of 1.89 percent of payroll. Though deficits would still loom beyond 2080, the problem could be fixed until then by an immediate tax increase of 1.89 percent, or a benefit cut of roughly 13 percent. (Democrats tend to favor a combination.) But this all assumes that the middle projection is right. And several underlying assumptions of that middle projection tend to exaggerate the potential deficit. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/magazine/16SOCIAL.html?oref=login
CBS Fact Checks re SS: Doing better on this than on wmd…
President Bush made several factual errors Tuesday about Social Security's long-term financing problems at a photo op event designed to educate the public about the retirement system. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/archivedStory.asp?archive=true&dist=ArchiveSplash&siteid=mktw&guid=%7B6D56656B%2DD357%2D4082%2DBD70%2D35F6E6D0AA71%7D&returnURL=%2Fnews%2Fstory%2Easp%3Fguid%3D%7B6D56656B%2DD357%2D4082%2DBD70%2D35F6E6D0AA71%7D%26siteid%3Dmktw%26dist%3D%26archive%3Dtrue%26param%3Darchive%26garden%3D%26minisite%3D
What the Public Believes re SS Some work to do…
Those surveyed gave Bush negative marks -- 38 percent approval vs. 55 percent disapproval -- for his handling of the Social Security issue, and three in five said the system will not have enough money to pay benefits by the time they retire. But by 54 percent to 41 percent, the public supported a plan that would include a reduction in the rate of growth of guaranteed benefits and private savings accounts financed with a portion of payroll taxes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16073-2005Jan17.html
Disability to take a Hit Are we surprised? (No)
Disability benefits may not be safe from the across-the-board cuts that are likely in President Bush's proposal to allow personal investment accounts in the Social Security program.
Retirement and disability benefits are calculated using the same formula, so if future promised retirement benefits are cut, then disability benefits also would be reduced -- unless the program is somehow separated.
This raises big questions about how investment accounts would be structured for the disabled, especially if they are injured at a young age or are dependent on a parent. Disabled beneficiaries typically work less and need benefits sooner, so the accounts would not provide enough income to them. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/01/18/cuts_in_disability_benefits_seen_in_social_security_plan?mode=PF
Richard Cohen (1): I’m not even that much of a fan, but he has two goodies. Most of us missed this one last week re Security.
In one of those itsy-bitsy items you're likely to miss, the New York Times reported last week that, since 1998, the military has discharged 20 service personnel who spoke or had studied Arabic, six from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. They all had, in some way, been caught being gay. Try translating that into common sense.
This country, this government, this Congress and social conservatives in states both blue and red have so much invested in anti-gay policies that they will, if need be, jeopardize national security. It does not matter that Arabic interpreters are badly needed in Iraq, where they could save lives. What matters more -- what is downright paramount -- is that no gays get into the military or, if they do, that they stay deep in the closet, where, of course, they are smugly felt to belong. This is national policy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16721-2005Jan17.html
Richard Cohen (2) on CBS and Bush Administration
The capitulation to Bush and the GOP is nearly complete. After the firings, the White House voiced its approval. So did Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who, keeping a firm grip on his emotions, did not suggest President Bush take note and do some firings himself. All over this great country, wherever right-wing pundits pund and bloggers blog, a chorus of gleeful approval was raised to the heavens. But in praising accountability, they were unaccountably silent about -- and here let me quote from the CBS report about what went wrong -- the "myopic zeal" of administration figures who got everything wrong, still do and have never been called to account for it. They had everything wrong but the target. It wasn't Iraq that was the pushover; it was CBS. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5311-2005Jan12?language=printer
Frank Rich asks: re Armstrong Williams
Or is Mr. Williams merely the first one of his ilk to be exposed? Every time this administration puts out fiction through the news media - the "Rambo" exploits of Jessica Lynch, the initial cover-up of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire - it's assumed that a credulous and excessively deferential press was duped. But might there be more paid agents at loose in the media machine? In response to questions at the White House, Mr. McClellan has said that he is "not aware" of any other such case and that he hasn't "heard" whether the administration's senior staff knew of the Williams contract - nondenial denials with miles of wiggle room. Mr. Williams, meanwhile, has told both James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times and David Corn of The Nation that he has "no doubt" that there are "others" like him being paid for purveying administration propaganda and that "this happens all the time." So far he is refusing to name names - a vow of omertà all too reminiscent of that taken by the low-level operatives first apprehended in that "third-rate burglary" during the Nixon administration.
If CNN, just under new management, wants to make amends for the sins of "Crossfire," it might dispatch some real reporters to find out just which "others" Mr. Williams is talking about and to follow his money all the way back to its source. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/arts/16rich.html?oref=login&8hpib=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Iraq War May Incite Terror, CIA Study Says: Goodie from last Friday
Think tank sees a breeding ground for militants. It says the risk of a germ attack is rising.
The war in Iraq is creating a training and recruitment ground for a new generation of "professionalized" Islamic terrorists, and the risk of a terrorist attack involving a germ weapon is steadily growing, an in-house CIA think tank said in a report released Thursday. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel14jan14,1,4774116.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
-R
Never since his assassination in 1968 have I felt the absence of Martin Luther King more acutely. Where are today's voices of moral outrage? Where is the leadership willing to stand up and say: Enough! We've sullied ourselves enough. –Bob Herbert, NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/17/opinion/17herbert.html?oref=login&oref=login&hp
Amen. But, we can’t wait for the “leadership.” We have to speak to those values and morality.
And:
Dr. King would be appalled by the secular culture, the attacks on Christmas, the demonizing of Christianity. By the way, where's the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union] and other pinheads when Martin Luther King's picture is displayed on public property? He openly advocated the philosophy of Jesus and proudly declared himself a Christian. What say you, ACLU?- Bill O’Reilly http://mediamatters.org/items/200501180001
Bill was picked by Media Matters for America as the “#1 Liar of 2004.” My favorite is his recurring comment, “Those of us who have seen combat…” No, he wasn’t ever in the armed forces. But, he was briefly a “journalist” in Latin America!
Iran et al: Commando Raids now, covert operations elsewhere…soon. Seymour Hersh’s account
This is a war against terrorism, and Iraq is just one campaign. The Bush Administration is looking at this as a huge war zone,” the former high-level intelligence official told me. “Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign. We’ve declared war and the bad guys, wherever they are, are the enemy. This is the last hurrah—we’ve got four years, and want to come out of this saying we won the war on terrorism.”
The war on terrorism would be expanded, and effectively placed under the Pentagon’s control. The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
The Administration has been conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran at least since last summer. Much of the focus is on the accumulation of intelligence and targeting information on Iranian nuclear, chemical, and missile sites, both declared and suspected. The goal is to identify and isolate three dozen, and perhaps more, such targets that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact
Pentagon doesn’t contest Hersh re Iran
The Pentagon is criticizing an article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that says the United States has been carrying out reconnaissance missions in Iran to identify nuclear, chemical and missile sites for possible airstrikes as soon as this summer.
But the Pentagon's response Monday did not specifically address Hersh's contention that the United States has been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran since at least last summer" to identify and isolate at least three dozen targets in Iran "that could be destroyed by precision strikes and short-term commando raids." http://edition.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/17/hersh.iran/
Alabama judges, Clarence Thomas and God:
Many stood and applauded former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore as he walked to the stage to administer the oath to Parker. Moore's action was ceremonial, since (Thomas) Parker took his formal oath of office Thursday before U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in Washington. Parker said Thomas told him a judge should be evaluated by whether he faithfully upholds his oath to God, not to the people, to the state or to the Constitution. http://www.al.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news/110578420462860.xml?birminghamnews?nstate
There have been several reports that Bush wants Thomas to be the next Chief Justice.
Social Security: Bush targets a few:
Bush's hardball first-term tactics on tax cuts and Medicare left resentment among the remaining Democratic lawmakers who otherwise might have been receptive to his ideas. Democrats have responded that Bush is manufacturing a crisis where none exists. But lobbyists point to a handful of potential Democratic compromisers who have not ruled out private accounts, including Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., and Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/16/MNGVQAR7131.DTL
Good old Joe!
Politicizing the SSA:
Over the objections of many of its own employees, the Social Security Administration is gearing up for a major effort to publicize the financial problems of Social Security and to convince the public that private accounts are needed as part of any solution.
The agency's plans are set forth in internal documents, including a "tactical plan" for communications and marketing of the idea that Social Security faces dire financial problems requiring immediate action.
Social Security officials say the agency is carrying out its mission to educate the public, including more than 47 million beneficiaries, and to support President Bush's agenda. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/politics/16benefit.html?ei=5090&en=f330c326dbefd633&ex=1263531600&partner=rssuserland&pagewanted=print&position=
NYTimes mag: Roger Lowenstein article. Essentially, ‘there is no crisis.’
Social Security's key long-range projection is that, over 75 years, it will come up short by an average of 1.89 percent of payroll. Though deficits would still loom beyond 2080, the problem could be fixed until then by an immediate tax increase of 1.89 percent, or a benefit cut of roughly 13 percent. (Democrats tend to favor a combination.) But this all assumes that the middle projection is right. And several underlying assumptions of that middle projection tend to exaggerate the potential deficit. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/magazine/16SOCIAL.html?oref=login
CBS Fact Checks re SS: Doing better on this than on wmd…
President Bush made several factual errors Tuesday about Social Security's long-term financing problems at a photo op event designed to educate the public about the retirement system. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/archivedStory.asp?archive=true&dist=ArchiveSplash&siteid=mktw&guid=%7B6D56656B%2DD357%2D4082%2DBD70%2D35F6E6D0AA71%7D&returnURL=%2Fnews%2Fstory%2Easp%3Fguid%3D%7B6D56656B%2DD357%2D4082%2DBD70%2D35F6E6D0AA71%7D%26siteid%3Dmktw%26dist%3D%26archive%3Dtrue%26param%3Darchive%26garden%3D%26minisite%3D
What the Public Believes re SS Some work to do…
Those surveyed gave Bush negative marks -- 38 percent approval vs. 55 percent disapproval -- for his handling of the Social Security issue, and three in five said the system will not have enough money to pay benefits by the time they retire. But by 54 percent to 41 percent, the public supported a plan that would include a reduction in the rate of growth of guaranteed benefits and private savings accounts financed with a portion of payroll taxes. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16073-2005Jan17.html
Disability to take a Hit Are we surprised? (No)
Disability benefits may not be safe from the across-the-board cuts that are likely in President Bush's proposal to allow personal investment accounts in the Social Security program.
Retirement and disability benefits are calculated using the same formula, so if future promised retirement benefits are cut, then disability benefits also would be reduced -- unless the program is somehow separated.
This raises big questions about how investment accounts would be structured for the disabled, especially if they are injured at a young age or are dependent on a parent. Disabled beneficiaries typically work less and need benefits sooner, so the accounts would not provide enough income to them. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/01/18/cuts_in_disability_benefits_seen_in_social_security_plan?mode=PF
Richard Cohen (1): I’m not even that much of a fan, but he has two goodies. Most of us missed this one last week re Security.
In one of those itsy-bitsy items you're likely to miss, the New York Times reported last week that, since 1998, the military has discharged 20 service personnel who spoke or had studied Arabic, six from the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. They all had, in some way, been caught being gay. Try translating that into common sense.
This country, this government, this Congress and social conservatives in states both blue and red have so much invested in anti-gay policies that they will, if need be, jeopardize national security. It does not matter that Arabic interpreters are badly needed in Iraq, where they could save lives. What matters more -- what is downright paramount -- is that no gays get into the military or, if they do, that they stay deep in the closet, where, of course, they are smugly felt to belong. This is national policy. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16721-2005Jan17.html
Richard Cohen (2) on CBS and Bush Administration
The capitulation to Bush and the GOP is nearly complete. After the firings, the White House voiced its approval. So did Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie, who, keeping a firm grip on his emotions, did not suggest President Bush take note and do some firings himself. All over this great country, wherever right-wing pundits pund and bloggers blog, a chorus of gleeful approval was raised to the heavens. But in praising accountability, they were unaccountably silent about -- and here let me quote from the CBS report about what went wrong -- the "myopic zeal" of administration figures who got everything wrong, still do and have never been called to account for it. They had everything wrong but the target. It wasn't Iraq that was the pushover; it was CBS. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5311-2005Jan12?language=printer
Frank Rich asks: re Armstrong Williams
Or is Mr. Williams merely the first one of his ilk to be exposed? Every time this administration puts out fiction through the news media - the "Rambo" exploits of Jessica Lynch, the initial cover-up of Pat Tillman's death by friendly fire - it's assumed that a credulous and excessively deferential press was duped. But might there be more paid agents at loose in the media machine? In response to questions at the White House, Mr. McClellan has said that he is "not aware" of any other such case and that he hasn't "heard" whether the administration's senior staff knew of the Williams contract - nondenial denials with miles of wiggle room. Mr. Williams, meanwhile, has told both James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times and David Corn of The Nation that he has "no doubt" that there are "others" like him being paid for purveying administration propaganda and that "this happens all the time." So far he is refusing to name names - a vow of omertà all too reminiscent of that taken by the low-level operatives first apprehended in that "third-rate burglary" during the Nixon administration.
If CNN, just under new management, wants to make amends for the sins of "Crossfire," it might dispatch some real reporters to find out just which "others" Mr. Williams is talking about and to follow his money all the way back to its source. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/16/arts/16rich.html?oref=login&8hpib=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Iraq War May Incite Terror, CIA Study Says: Goodie from last Friday
Think tank sees a breeding ground for militants. It says the risk of a germ attack is rising.
The war in Iraq is creating a training and recruitment ground for a new generation of "professionalized" Islamic terrorists, and the risk of a terrorist attack involving a germ weapon is steadily growing, an in-house CIA think tank said in a report released Thursday. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-intel14jan14,1,4774116.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
-R
