Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Bankruptcy: Joe Biden joins Lieberman as ‘toast’. They voted (for cloture) to smooth the way for the awful bill and both are now are out of the presidential ‘sweepstakes’. The scorecard: those to curse-
Democrats
Biden-DE; Byrd-WV; Carper-DE; Conrad-ND; Johnson-SD; Kohl-WI; Landrieu-LA; Lieberman-CT; Lincoln-AR; Nelson-FL; Nelson-NE; Pryor-AR; Salazr-CO; Stabenow-MI
"Moderate" Republicans
Allen-VA; Chafee-RI; Collins-ME; Hagel-NE; McCain-AZ; Snowe-ME; Specter-PA; Voinovich-OH
Stabenow, the Michigan social worker, Tim Johnson, Byrd…$ over party discipline, $ over caring about vulnerable people.
Bolton: Not everyone is thrilled with his nomination. Even Chuck Hagel, conservative Republican, noted that his nomination is a bad fit- “To go up there and kick the U.N. around doesn’t get the job done.” As of now, there aren’t enough misgiving to torpedo his nomination. International upset only solidifies the choice, as for many on the Right what’s bad for “Old Europe” is good for the U.S.
Fred Kaplan summarizes how Bolton has done the dirty work before, sabotaging arms control as the arms control guy.
During the first term, Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control—a revealing position, since no other official in government was more hostile than Bolton to the very idea of arms control. A former director of the Project for a New American Century—the neocon movement of the '90s from which nearly all of Bush's national security team sprang—Bolton opposed not only the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (de rigueur for any Bush appointee), but also the international bioweapons conference, the ban on chemical weapons, the nuclear test ban; any accord that limited anything the United States might someday want to do. At State, Bolton's main job was to serve as Vice President Dick Cheney's agent at Foggy Bottom, monitoring, opposing, and, to the extent possible, thwarting from within the moderating influence of Secretary Colin Powell and his crew of pin-striped diplomats. He was particularly active in sabotaging Powell's efforts to open up nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114455/
Unsettling News #1: Guns for Possible terrorists The right to bear arms applies to all. Seems that 47 out of 58 people on the “terrorist watch lists” who sought to buy guns over a nine month period were approved.
Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.
People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap. http://nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?pagewanted=all&ei=5094&en=8df93e46cb9fdf0e&hp&ex=1110258000&partner=homepage
Unsettling #2: Terrorists infiltrating?
U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts.
So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel8mar08,0,431533.story?coll=la-home-headlines
On second thought, the majority of the news is “unsettling”...such as:
Guantanamo Intimidation: Odious
Defense lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, say the military has been working to undermine the inmates' trust in them.
In one case, a lawyer said, a military interrogator recently told a detainee that he should not trust his lawyers because they are Jews.
The lawyer, Thomas Wilner of Washington, who helped bring a successful suit in the Supreme Court against the government on behalf of 12 Kuwaitis, said he was angered that the military had tried to turn his client against him.
"The government should not be trying to come between these people and their lawyers," Mr. Wilner said in an interview. "And I'm especially offended that they tried to use the fact that I'm Jewish to do it."
Another lawyer, Marc Falkoff of New York, whose firm represents several Yemenis at Guantánamo, said some of his clients had told him that a person who said he was a lawyer and had civilian clothes had conferred several times with some detainees. That person, Mr. Falkoff said his clients had told him, later appeared at the detention center in uniform, leading the inmates to distrust anyone claiming to be a lawyer and acting in their interest. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Social Security: Big $ for Propagandizing Never underestimate the power of such campaigns
The Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican political advocacy group, began a $2 million campaign of television commercials on Monday, rolling out a minutelong advertisement supporting President Bush's Social Security plan.
The commercial, which will run on national cable channels for three weeks, opens with a scene of a fog-shrouded iceberg as an announcer intones, "Some people say Social Security is not in trouble, just like some thought the Titanic was unsinkable."
It goes on to cite Social Security statistics, including a warning that "if nothing is done, it will go bankrupt," before advocating personal investment accounts and other elements of Mr. Bush's plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08lobby.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Other proposals. Not really. They’re all meant to raid Social Security and not “reform” it. They cut benefits and set up private accounts.
A pair of Senate Republicans offered separate plans Monday to overhaul Social Security, trying to turn President George W. Bush's ideas into legislation that might be able to pass a recalcitrant Congress.
They join the crop of several Social Security ideas.
Democrats and their allies continue to pound away at the Bush plan, which would allow individuals to funnel some Social Security payroll deductions into personal investment accounts. Democrats say personal accounts would tie benefit levels to fluctuations in the stock market, introducing risk.http://www.freep.com/news/nw/social8e_20050308.htm
Cheney as point person. He did such a good job with his lies about bin Laden and Saddam being buddies…
Vice President Dick Cheney has been President George W. Bush's go-to guy on national security. Now Bush is counting on Cheney to do the same on Social Security.
Cheney, who helped Bush sell his case for the war in Iraq and took the lead in formulating an energy policy, will make 10 to 15 trips across the nation over the next six weeks to try to rally support for the president's Social Security plan, administration officials said…
Cheney ``is easily the most effective surrogate spokesman for the president's policy proposals or political aims besides the president himself,'' said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, ``He is very good at explaining complex issues, dissecting them, in question-and-answer format.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.ASU3WsGtKk&refer=top_world_news
DeLay in Trouble? Finally- (potentially) good news
Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Lebanon Numbers aren’t everything, but for balance, it’s good to note the monster turnout to laud Syria.
Around half a million pro-Syria demonstrators took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut today to protest at foreign meddling in the country's politics and to counter weeks of anti-Syrian rallies.
Scores of vehicles converged on the city for the demonstration organised by Hizbullah, the Shia group backed by Iran and Syria. Loudspeakers blared rousing songs of resistance, organisers handed out Lebanese flags and black-clad Hizbullah guards lined the perimeter of the central square and took position on rooftops. Speakers on a platform led chants of "Beirut is free! America get out!"
Participants stressed the foreign influence they referred to was from America, France and other countries, not Syria, whose input they considered a welcome help…
Yesterday, in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syrian furore, more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" thronged central Beirut. The demonstrators waved the Lebanese flag and thundered, "Syria out!" http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1433038,00.html
What’s Happening, Iran: Indecisive Intelligence But we know that doesn’t stop this gang
A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work.
The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which Mr. Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/international/09weapons.html?th
Regime Change in Iran, Syria, Egypt? The Weekly Standard’s Reuel Marc Gerecht makes a recommendation. [The Weekly Standard is an influential, conservative screed.]
And the crucial question for the United States is whether the Bush administration will realize that the most consequential regimes in place--Hosni Mubarak's in Egypt, the Saudi dynasty in Arabia, the military junta in Algeria, and the theocracy in Iran--probably won't evolve without some internal violence. The Bush administration ought to be prepared to encourage or coerce these regimes into changing sooner, not later. What the United States should fear most is not rapid change--the specter of the fallen shah of Iran will surely rise in many minds--but the agonizing, dogged resistance of dictatorship. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/325hudmg.asp
Bill Moyers on the Environment…and Activism I’ll skip the environmental horrors…
There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges.
The news is not good these days. But as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. The will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. We must match the science of human health to what the ancient Israelites called hochma—the science of the heart, the capacity to see and feel and then to act as if the future depended on us.
Believe me, it does. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852
-R
Democrats
Biden-DE; Byrd-WV; Carper-DE; Conrad-ND; Johnson-SD; Kohl-WI; Landrieu-LA; Lieberman-CT; Lincoln-AR; Nelson-FL; Nelson-NE; Pryor-AR; Salazr-CO; Stabenow-MI
"Moderate" Republicans
Allen-VA; Chafee-RI; Collins-ME; Hagel-NE; McCain-AZ; Snowe-ME; Specter-PA; Voinovich-OH
Stabenow, the Michigan social worker, Tim Johnson, Byrd…$ over party discipline, $ over caring about vulnerable people.
Bolton: Not everyone is thrilled with his nomination. Even Chuck Hagel, conservative Republican, noted that his nomination is a bad fit- “To go up there and kick the U.N. around doesn’t get the job done.” As of now, there aren’t enough misgiving to torpedo his nomination. International upset only solidifies the choice, as for many on the Right what’s bad for “Old Europe” is good for the U.S.
Fred Kaplan summarizes how Bolton has done the dirty work before, sabotaging arms control as the arms control guy.
During the first term, Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control—a revealing position, since no other official in government was more hostile than Bolton to the very idea of arms control. A former director of the Project for a New American Century—the neocon movement of the '90s from which nearly all of Bush's national security team sprang—Bolton opposed not only the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (de rigueur for any Bush appointee), but also the international bioweapons conference, the ban on chemical weapons, the nuclear test ban; any accord that limited anything the United States might someday want to do. At State, Bolton's main job was to serve as Vice President Dick Cheney's agent at Foggy Bottom, monitoring, opposing, and, to the extent possible, thwarting from within the moderating influence of Secretary Colin Powell and his crew of pin-striped diplomats. He was particularly active in sabotaging Powell's efforts to open up nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114455/
Unsettling News #1: Guns for Possible terrorists The right to bear arms applies to all. Seems that 47 out of 58 people on the “terrorist watch lists” who sought to buy guns over a nine month period were approved.
Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.
People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap. http://nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?pagewanted=all&ei=5094&en=8df93e46cb9fdf0e&hp&ex=1110258000&partner=homepage
Unsettling #2: Terrorists infiltrating?
U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts.
So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel8mar08,0,431533.story?coll=la-home-headlines
On second thought, the majority of the news is “unsettling”...such as:
Guantanamo Intimidation: Odious
Defense lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, say the military has been working to undermine the inmates' trust in them.
In one case, a lawyer said, a military interrogator recently told a detainee that he should not trust his lawyers because they are Jews.
The lawyer, Thomas Wilner of Washington, who helped bring a successful suit in the Supreme Court against the government on behalf of 12 Kuwaitis, said he was angered that the military had tried to turn his client against him.
"The government should not be trying to come between these people and their lawyers," Mr. Wilner said in an interview. "And I'm especially offended that they tried to use the fact that I'm Jewish to do it."
Another lawyer, Marc Falkoff of New York, whose firm represents several Yemenis at Guantánamo, said some of his clients had told him that a person who said he was a lawyer and had civilian clothes had conferred several times with some detainees. That person, Mr. Falkoff said his clients had told him, later appeared at the detention center in uniform, leading the inmates to distrust anyone claiming to be a lawyer and acting in their interest. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Social Security: Big $ for Propagandizing Never underestimate the power of such campaigns
The Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican political advocacy group, began a $2 million campaign of television commercials on Monday, rolling out a minutelong advertisement supporting President Bush's Social Security plan.
The commercial, which will run on national cable channels for three weeks, opens with a scene of a fog-shrouded iceberg as an announcer intones, "Some people say Social Security is not in trouble, just like some thought the Titanic was unsinkable."
It goes on to cite Social Security statistics, including a warning that "if nothing is done, it will go bankrupt," before advocating personal investment accounts and other elements of Mr. Bush's plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08lobby.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Other proposals. Not really. They’re all meant to raid Social Security and not “reform” it. They cut benefits and set up private accounts.
A pair of Senate Republicans offered separate plans Monday to overhaul Social Security, trying to turn President George W. Bush's ideas into legislation that might be able to pass a recalcitrant Congress.
They join the crop of several Social Security ideas.
Democrats and their allies continue to pound away at the Bush plan, which would allow individuals to funnel some Social Security payroll deductions into personal investment accounts. Democrats say personal accounts would tie benefit levels to fluctuations in the stock market, introducing risk.http://www.freep.com/news/nw/social8e_20050308.htm
Cheney as point person. He did such a good job with his lies about bin Laden and Saddam being buddies…
Vice President Dick Cheney has been President George W. Bush's go-to guy on national security. Now Bush is counting on Cheney to do the same on Social Security.
Cheney, who helped Bush sell his case for the war in Iraq and took the lead in formulating an energy policy, will make 10 to 15 trips across the nation over the next six weeks to try to rally support for the president's Social Security plan, administration officials said…
Cheney ``is easily the most effective surrogate spokesman for the president's policy proposals or political aims besides the president himself,'' said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, ``He is very good at explaining complex issues, dissecting them, in question-and-answer format.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.ASU3WsGtKk&refer=top_world_news
DeLay in Trouble? Finally- (potentially) good news
Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Lebanon Numbers aren’t everything, but for balance, it’s good to note the monster turnout to laud Syria.
Around half a million pro-Syria demonstrators took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut today to protest at foreign meddling in the country's politics and to counter weeks of anti-Syrian rallies.
Scores of vehicles converged on the city for the demonstration organised by Hizbullah, the Shia group backed by Iran and Syria. Loudspeakers blared rousing songs of resistance, organisers handed out Lebanese flags and black-clad Hizbullah guards lined the perimeter of the central square and took position on rooftops. Speakers on a platform led chants of "Beirut is free! America get out!"
Participants stressed the foreign influence they referred to was from America, France and other countries, not Syria, whose input they considered a welcome help…
Yesterday, in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syrian furore, more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" thronged central Beirut. The demonstrators waved the Lebanese flag and thundered, "Syria out!" http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1433038,00.html
What’s Happening, Iran: Indecisive Intelligence But we know that doesn’t stop this gang
A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work.
The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which Mr. Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/international/09weapons.html?th
Regime Change in Iran, Syria, Egypt? The Weekly Standard’s Reuel Marc Gerecht makes a recommendation. [The Weekly Standard is an influential, conservative screed.]
And the crucial question for the United States is whether the Bush administration will realize that the most consequential regimes in place--Hosni Mubarak's in Egypt, the Saudi dynasty in Arabia, the military junta in Algeria, and the theocracy in Iran--probably won't evolve without some internal violence. The Bush administration ought to be prepared to encourage or coerce these regimes into changing sooner, not later. What the United States should fear most is not rapid change--the specter of the fallen shah of Iran will surely rise in many minds--but the agonizing, dogged resistance of dictatorship. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/325hudmg.asp
Bill Moyers on the Environment…and Activism I’ll skip the environmental horrors…
There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges.
The news is not good these days. But as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. The will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. We must match the science of human health to what the ancient Israelites called hochma—the science of the heart, the capacity to see and feel and then to act as if the future depended on us.
Believe me, it does. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852
-R
