Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Iraq Election Follow-up: Yes, there was much cheerleading… But, for perspective, let’s recall the headlines of 37 ½ and 20+ years ago.
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote :Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per cent because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less than in the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome surprise.
The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per cent.
Captured documents and interrogations indicated in the last week a serious concern among Vietcong leaders that a major effort would be required to render the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from the reports from Saigon. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/82602711.html?did=82602711&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Sep+ 4%2C+1967&author=By+PETER+GROSE+Special+to+The+New+York+Times&desc=U.S.+ENCOURAGED+BY+VIETNA M+VOTE
Then, there was El Salvador, 1984. Similar announcements of success, of people’s willingness to brave terrorists (then called left-wing guerillas). Then it turned out that the percentages were wildly inflated, the U.S. supported death squads continued their campaign, the results were meaningless.
Robert Fisk’s take:
Now it is all very well for the American media that they came to vote for democracy. They probably did. But they also came because they think and believe and are convinced of the fact that by voting that they'll have a free country without an occupation force. If they are denied this, if they feel they are betrayed that their vote is worth nothing, of course a different question arises. What will they think of democracy and will they join the insurgency? The Kurds, of course, voted for their own autonomy and they are the most pro-American of all Iraqis and in a sense, you see, although they voted in the Iraqi election, they were in a sense trying to continue to vote themselves out of Iraq. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1516244
Refections: Such positive images, voices. “Resounding Success’ was said by Negroponte and others. When someone like Robert Siegel of NPR asks a direct question, “How will this appease the opposition or help with security,” there is no answer other than ‘oh, it was so wonderful to see people lining up to vote…’ Now that the initial glow has been registered, other voices are noting that initial claims of 70% were reduced to 60% or lower, and somce turnout in the secure Kurdish north was 60%, the country-wide rate had to be far short of that, since Sunni participation has been estimated at somewhere between 2 and 20%. In other words, no one knows, spin rules.
Bob Herbert salutes the "uncommonly brave" but "woefully uninformed" electorate, "much of which was voting blind ... half or more of those who went to the polls believed they were voting for a president.” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/opinion/31herbert.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Sunday’s attack numbers have been adjusted, now admitted that there were 260, a record, while voting percentages continue to come down. But as expectations were of total chaos, the casualty count -- 45 dead, about 100 wounded- is deemed acceptable. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52500-2005Jan31.html
Coalition of the Shrinking: Juan Cole
Whether the Bush administration can take a hint and begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq when a new, sovereign parliament is seated, the coalition of the willing is not willing to overstay its welcome. Hungary has already decamped, and Holland, the Ukraine, Poland and others are drawing down their troops or leaving altogether. www.juancole.com
Missing Money: Hello, Mr. Bremer…
The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found. The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.
The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_funds_1&printer=1
Postscript: WMD
In what may be a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials familiar with the document said.The report marks the first time the CIA has officially disavowed its prewar judgments and is one in a series of updated assessments the agency is producing as part of an effort to correct its record on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, officials said. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cia1feb01,1,6296401,print.story
Republicans Celebrate their contributions to African Americans Really. They produced a calendar that celebrates 150 years of Republican efforts to advance rights. Lo, most of what they cite took place in the years after the civil war. And, there’s no mention of how well this “history” fits with their efforts to stop African Americans from voting in the last elections or having the IRS investigate the NAACP.
Republican Noise Machine: Another contributor.
And I was missing Pravda…
Have you been wondering about some of those press conferences where questions are either softballs or are basically praise of Bush? Media Matters looks at one source, “Talon News”.
Talon News, a conservative company whose Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon is well-known for asking loaded pro-Republican questions at White House press briefings, appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet.
Media Matters for America recently highlighted three Gannon articles that were little more than reprints of Republican and Bush administration releases; Media Matters has also noted Gannon's role as White House press secretary Scott McClellan's lifeline and Talon editor in chief Bobby Eberle's partisan political activities. A more in-depth look at Talon, Gannon, and Eberle casts additional doubt on Talon's claim to be a media outlet and raises questions about whether Gannon should be a credentialed member of the White House press corps. http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280006
Health: Avian Flu Update Concern remains
After smoldering through the summer and fall, avian flu has erupted again in Southeast Asia with 12 confirmed deaths since late December, the latest a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who died Sunday.Thailand has reported widespread outbreaks among farm poultry, and Vietnam, where all the fatalities have occurred in the last month, now counts bird or human infections in nearly half of its provinces.The growing number of cases suggests that the virus may be mutating into a form that is more easily transmitted to and among humans, increasing the possibility of a pandemic."The situation in Southeast Asia right now is the most significant setup for a very serious public health crisis that I've seen in my 30 years in this business," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "We're sitting on a time bomb." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-birdflu1feb01,1,7462351,print.story
Media: Death Benefits: NPR gave the Administration a favorable report. Congress had been pushing to raise the amount bestowed on families that lost a member in Iraq. Now that the Administration has made a proposal to raise that figure to $100,000 which the Senate committee thinks too low, the NPR lead was that “Congress is rallying behind the Administration’s proposal.”
Gonzales: As it moves to the Senate floor, it’s timely to
1) praise the Committee’s Democrats who all rejected Gonzales
2) out of Massachusetts residents should pressure their senators to do the same
3) To recall- and tell those senators- that in 1993, Senate Democrats opposed the confirmation of Zoe Baird, President Clinton's choice to be the nation's top law enforcement officer, because of her hiring of undocumented immigrants in violation of the law. We should note that Gonzales’ role in sanctioning/pushing torture, helping Bush evade his DUI, answering zip in his testimony, etc.
Planning your trip to the Rockies? Don’t wait too long…
When he turned Mt. Rushmore into his granite canvas, sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote that the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln would remain visible, Lord willing, "until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away."Borglum's vision endures in the Black Hills of South Dakota about 130 miles from here, but for nearly a month every year, it may soon become harder to see the famous faces through the man-made haze generated by the addition of 50,000 gas wells in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.It is just one of several ways in which the largest expansion of natural gas drilling approved by the federal government is expected to degrade air quality in the region that today has the clearest skies in the lower 48 states.The federal Bureau of Land Management, under pressure from the White House to fast-track energy production, approved the drilling plan two years ago without incorporating any requirements to reduce the resulting air pollution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-westair29jan29,1,959337,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Social Security:
A new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the Social Security system gives it a little more breathing room. It says it will be 2020, rather than 2018, before the yearly take is in the red, that more money is paid out than comes in. Of course by then they’ll be a massive surplus, allowing us to go to 2052 before the surplus is exhausted. This can’t be good news for the Bush Administration, as it takes more steam out of the “urgent” case they’re trying to make. http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2883053
Republicans Fulminate Stated by Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, an unofficial Republican organ. Another statement of determination to silence voices of opposition, to halt questioning of our Leader.
Senate Democrats have enough votes to block major Bush initiatives like Social Security reform and to reject Bush appointees, including Supreme Court nominees. They may be suicidal, but they could undermine the president's entire second term agenda. At his news conference last week, Bush reacted calmly to their vitriolic attacks, suggesting only a few Democrats are involved. Stronger countermeasures will be needed, including an unequivocal White House response to obstructionism, curbs on filibusters, and a clear delineation of what's permissible and what's out of bounds in dissent on Iraq. Too much is at stake to wait for another Democratic defeat in 2006. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/192gglig.asp
Bunker Busters Budgeted Rummy is looking to revive the funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent a memo last month to then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham saying next year's budget should include funds to resume study of building an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon designed to destroy hardened underground targets.
An Energy Department official said yesterday that $10.3 million to restart that study is expected to be included in the Bush administration's budget, which is to be released next week. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52564-2005Jan31.html
-R
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote :Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror Peter Grose, Special to the New York Times (9/4/1967: p. 2)
United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting.
According to reports from Saigon, 83 per cent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong.
The size of the popular vote and the inability of the Vietcong to destroy the election machinery were the two salient facts in a preliminary assessment of the nation election based on the incomplete returns reaching here.
Before the results of the presidential election started to come in, the American officials warned that the turnout might be less than 80 per cent because the polling place would be open for two or three hours less than in the election a year ago. The turnout of 83 per cent was a welcome surprise.
The turnout in the 1964 United States Presidential election was 62 per cent.
Captured documents and interrogations indicated in the last week a serious concern among Vietcong leaders that a major effort would be required to render the election meaningless. This effort has not succeeded, judging from the reports from Saigon. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/82602711.html?did=82602711&FMT=ABS&FMTS=AI&date=Sep+ 4%2C+1967&author=By+PETER+GROSE+Special+to+The+New+York+Times&desc=U.S.+ENCOURAGED+BY+VIETNA M+VOTE
Then, there was El Salvador, 1984. Similar announcements of success, of people’s willingness to brave terrorists (then called left-wing guerillas). Then it turned out that the percentages were wildly inflated, the U.S. supported death squads continued their campaign, the results were meaningless.
Robert Fisk’s take:
Now it is all very well for the American media that they came to vote for democracy. They probably did. But they also came because they think and believe and are convinced of the fact that by voting that they'll have a free country without an occupation force. If they are denied this, if they feel they are betrayed that their vote is worth nothing, of course a different question arises. What will they think of democracy and will they join the insurgency? The Kurds, of course, voted for their own autonomy and they are the most pro-American of all Iraqis and in a sense, you see, although they voted in the Iraqi election, they were in a sense trying to continue to vote themselves out of Iraq. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/31/1516244
Refections: Such positive images, voices. “Resounding Success’ was said by Negroponte and others. When someone like Robert Siegel of NPR asks a direct question, “How will this appease the opposition or help with security,” there is no answer other than ‘oh, it was so wonderful to see people lining up to vote…’ Now that the initial glow has been registered, other voices are noting that initial claims of 70% were reduced to 60% or lower, and somce turnout in the secure Kurdish north was 60%, the country-wide rate had to be far short of that, since Sunni participation has been estimated at somewhere between 2 and 20%. In other words, no one knows, spin rules.
Bob Herbert salutes the "uncommonly brave" but "woefully uninformed" electorate, "much of which was voting blind ... half or more of those who went to the polls believed they were voting for a president.” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/opinion/31herbert.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fOp%2dEd%2fColumnists&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Sunday’s attack numbers have been adjusted, now admitted that there were 260, a record, while voting percentages continue to come down. But as expectations were of total chaos, the casualty count -- 45 dead, about 100 wounded- is deemed acceptable. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52500-2005Jan31.html
Coalition of the Shrinking: Juan Cole
Whether the Bush administration can take a hint and begin withdrawing its troops from Iraq when a new, sovereign parliament is seated, the coalition of the willing is not willing to overstay its welcome. Hungary has already decamped, and Holland, the Ukraine, Poland and others are drawing down their troops or leaving altogether. www.juancole.com
Missing Money: Hello, Mr. Bremer…
The U.S. occupation authority in Iraq was unable to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to government ministries, which lacked financial controls, security, communications and adequate staff, an inspector general has found. The U.S. officials relied on Iraqi audit agencies to account for the funds but those offices were not even functioning when the funds were transferred between October 2003 and June 2004, according to an audit by a special U.S. inspector general.
The findings were released Sunday by Stuart Bowen Jr., special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. Bowen issued several reports on the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), the U.S. occupation government that ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&u=/ap/20050130/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_funds_1&printer=1
Postscript: WMD
In what may be a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials familiar with the document said.The report marks the first time the CIA has officially disavowed its prewar judgments and is one in a series of updated assessments the agency is producing as part of an effort to correct its record on Iraq's alleged weapons programs, officials said. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cia1feb01,1,6296401,print.story
Republicans Celebrate their contributions to African Americans Really. They produced a calendar that celebrates 150 years of Republican efforts to advance rights. Lo, most of what they cite took place in the years after the civil war. And, there’s no mention of how well this “history” fits with their efforts to stop African Americans from voting in the last elections or having the IRS investigate the NAACP.
Republican Noise Machine: Another contributor.
And I was missing Pravda…
Have you been wondering about some of those press conferences where questions are either softballs or are basically praise of Bush? Media Matters looks at one source, “Talon News”.
Talon News, a conservative company whose Washington bureau chief and White House correspondent Jeff Gannon is well-known for asking loaded pro-Republican questions at White House press briefings, appears to be more a political organization than a media outlet.
Media Matters for America recently highlighted three Gannon articles that were little more than reprints of Republican and Bush administration releases; Media Matters has also noted Gannon's role as White House press secretary Scott McClellan's lifeline and Talon editor in chief Bobby Eberle's partisan political activities. A more in-depth look at Talon, Gannon, and Eberle casts additional doubt on Talon's claim to be a media outlet and raises questions about whether Gannon should be a credentialed member of the White House press corps. http://mediamatters.org/items/200501280006
Health: Avian Flu Update Concern remains
After smoldering through the summer and fall, avian flu has erupted again in Southeast Asia with 12 confirmed deaths since late December, the latest a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl who died Sunday.Thailand has reported widespread outbreaks among farm poultry, and Vietnam, where all the fatalities have occurred in the last month, now counts bird or human infections in nearly half of its provinces.The growing number of cases suggests that the virus may be mutating into a form that is more easily transmitted to and among humans, increasing the possibility of a pandemic."The situation in Southeast Asia right now is the most significant setup for a very serious public health crisis that I've seen in my 30 years in this business," said Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "We're sitting on a time bomb." http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-birdflu1feb01,1,7462351,print.story
Media: Death Benefits: NPR gave the Administration a favorable report. Congress had been pushing to raise the amount bestowed on families that lost a member in Iraq. Now that the Administration has made a proposal to raise that figure to $100,000 which the Senate committee thinks too low, the NPR lead was that “Congress is rallying behind the Administration’s proposal.”
Gonzales: As it moves to the Senate floor, it’s timely to
1) praise the Committee’s Democrats who all rejected Gonzales
2) out of Massachusetts residents should pressure their senators to do the same
3) To recall- and tell those senators- that in 1993, Senate Democrats opposed the confirmation of Zoe Baird, President Clinton's choice to be the nation's top law enforcement officer, because of her hiring of undocumented immigrants in violation of the law. We should note that Gonzales’ role in sanctioning/pushing torture, helping Bush evade his DUI, answering zip in his testimony, etc.
Planning your trip to the Rockies? Don’t wait too long…
When he turned Mt. Rushmore into his granite canvas, sculptor Gutzon Borglum wrote that the faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln would remain visible, Lord willing, "until the wind and the rain alone shall wear them away."Borglum's vision endures in the Black Hills of South Dakota about 130 miles from here, but for nearly a month every year, it may soon become harder to see the famous faces through the man-made haze generated by the addition of 50,000 gas wells in northeastern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.It is just one of several ways in which the largest expansion of natural gas drilling approved by the federal government is expected to degrade air quality in the region that today has the clearest skies in the lower 48 states.The federal Bureau of Land Management, under pressure from the White House to fast-track energy production, approved the drilling plan two years ago without incorporating any requirements to reduce the resulting air pollution. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-westair29jan29,1,959337,print.story?coll=la-headlines-nation
Social Security:
A new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the Social Security system gives it a little more breathing room. It says it will be 2020, rather than 2018, before the yearly take is in the red, that more money is paid out than comes in. Of course by then they’ll be a massive surplus, allowing us to go to 2052 before the surplus is exhausted. This can’t be good news for the Bush Administration, as it takes more steam out of the “urgent” case they’re trying to make. http://www.kwwl.com/Global/story.asp?S=2883053
Republicans Fulminate Stated by Fred Barnes of The Weekly Standard, an unofficial Republican organ. Another statement of determination to silence voices of opposition, to halt questioning of our Leader.
Senate Democrats have enough votes to block major Bush initiatives like Social Security reform and to reject Bush appointees, including Supreme Court nominees. They may be suicidal, but they could undermine the president's entire second term agenda. At his news conference last week, Bush reacted calmly to their vitriolic attacks, suggesting only a few Democrats are involved. Stronger countermeasures will be needed, including an unequivocal White House response to obstructionism, curbs on filibusters, and a clear delineation of what's permissible and what's out of bounds in dissent on Iraq. Too much is at stake to wait for another Democratic defeat in 2006. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/192gglig.asp
Bunker Busters Budgeted Rummy is looking to revive the funding for the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent a memo last month to then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham saying next year's budget should include funds to resume study of building an earth-penetrating nuclear weapon designed to destroy hardened underground targets.
An Energy Department official said yesterday that $10.3 million to restart that study is expected to be included in the Bush administration's budget, which is to be released next week. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52564-2005Jan31.html
-R
