Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Rove: Still unclear what’s possible. Perhaps perjury is the most to expect, as it remains unclear whether Rove knew V. Plame was undercover. But, the Administration should be the target, not ‘merely’ Bush’s Brain.
The Times termed it “often hostile” questioning, the WaPost referred to the "most aggressive questioning a White House briefing in recent memory". Scott McClellan could only repeat, "No one wants to get to the bottom of it more than the president of the United States," and "I think the way to be most helpful is to not get into commenting on it while it is an ongoing investigation."
It was very different in the past. Samples:
QUESTION: Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove . . . Did Karl Rove tell that . . .
McCLELLAN: I haven't heard that. That's just totally ridiculous. But we've already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it's totally ridiculous.
QUESTION: But did Karl Rove do it?
McCLELLAN: I said, it's totally ridiculous.
Scott McClellan Press Briefing September 16, 2003
QUESTION: Has the President either asked Karl Rove to assure him that he had nothing to do with this; or did Karl Rove go to the President to assure him that he . . .
McCLELLAN: I don't think he needs that. I think I've spoken clearly to this publicly . . . I've just said there's no truth to it.
QUESTION: Yes, but I'm just wondering if there was a conversation between Karl Rove and the President, or if he just talked to you, and you're here at this . . .
McCLELLAN: He wasn't involved. The President knows he wasn't involved.
QUESTION: How does he know that?
McCLELLAN: The President knows.
Scott McClellan Press Gaggle September 29, 2003
QUESTION: Weeks ago, when you were first asked whether Mr. Rove had the conversation with Robert Novak that produced the column, you dismissed it as ridiculous. And I wanted just to make sure, at that time, had you talked to Karl?
McCLELLAN: I've made it very clear, from the beginning, that it is totally ridiculous. I've known Karl for a long time, and I didn't even need to go ask Karl, because I know the kind of person that he is, and he is someone that is committed to the highest standards of conduct.
QUESTION: Can you say for the record whether Mr. Rove possessed the information about Mr. Wilson's wife, but merely did not talk to anybody about it?
McCLELLAN: I don't know whether or not -- I mean, I'm sure he probably saw the same media reports everybody else in this room has.
QUESTION: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, did you ever have this information?
McCLELLAN: We're going down a lot of different roads here. I've made it very clear that he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was.
Scott McClellan Press Briefing September 29, 2003
Full text of this week’s McClellan’s press briefings at: http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/briefing-711/
The Nation’s David Corn, amongst others, had this figured out 2 years ago:
The Wilson smear was a thuggish act. Bush and his crew abused and misused intelligence to make their case for war. Now there is evidence Bushies used classified information and put the nation's counter-proliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is a sign that with this gang politics trumps national security. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823
Bush not talking
"President Bush, at an Oval Office photo opportunity Tuesday, was asked directly whether he would fire Rove — in keeping with a pledge in June, 2004, to dismiss any leakers in the case. The president did not respond." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation_14;_ylt=AoX9PxHjle3Ykxqrs4KQ.ktZJ_wA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
RNC Response: Ken Mehlman, the Chair, is the name attached to an embarrassing list of old Republican charges / positions re the Plame – Wilson- Niger episode. The basic statement:
It's disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far-left, Moveon wing of the party. The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks."
http://www.rnc.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=5619
The apparent RNC point people for defending Rove are relative lightweights- Sens. Cornyn and Coleman, Rep. Peter King.
And we haven’t even gotten to the Watergate question of ‘What did the President know, and when did he know it?
Democrats’ Response: Why go after Rove? Just ask the above question. Rove may be Bush’s Brain, but he’s not the prez. It wouldn’t be shocking to learn that Bush hardly knew him, as per his extinguished relationship w/ ‘Kenny Boy’ Lay.
"The president should immediately suspend Karl Rove's security clearances and shut him down by shutting him out of classified meetings or discussions," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (news, bio, voting record), a New Jersey Democrat.
"It is time for the President to keep his word. Karl Rove should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York. Several other Democrats have also called on Rove to explain his role or resign.
Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat and the ranking minority member of the House Government Reform Committee, called for a congressional hearing to hear testimony from Rove, who is widely seen as the architect of Bush's election victories. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/bush_leak_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AgJtHHLRYGf3McokhjTqlIYb.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
More lawlessness:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) has been acting increasingly entitled, if not bizarre. The latest involved a Chicago drug case. Note: Chicago is not in Wisconsin.
In an extraordinary move, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee privately demanded last month that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago change its decision in a narcotics case because he didn't believe a drug courier got a harsh enough prison term.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), in a five-page letter dated June 23 to Chief Judge Joel Flaum, asserted that a June 16 decision by a three-judge appeals court panel was wrong.
He demanded "a prompt response" as to what steps Flaum would take "to rectify the panel's actions" in a case where a drug courier in a Chicago police corruption case received a 97-month prison sentence instead of the at least 120 months required by a drug-conspiracy statute. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0507100352jul10,1,5787813.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Texas: Felony charges for local Republicans? From the New Statesman:
"State District Judge Bob Perkins today said he believes two officials with Texans for a Republican Majority should stand trial on felony charges of money laundering." http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/07/13trmpac_me.html
Zell Miller as thief The Macon Telegraph reports that Miller stole $80K upon leaving office as governor, that he pocketed funds earmarked for entertainment et al at the Governor’s mansion and took the remainder as “unused leave.’ Miller’s defense: ‘No one said I couldn’t.’: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/opinion/12088562.htm
London: Terrorists recruited: The Times of London reports on a British government dossier that was leaked to them that notes that many young Brits are turning to terrorism, that they "perceive a 'double standard’ in the foreign policy of western governments, in particular Britain and the US."
AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal.
A network of “extremist recruiters” is circulating on campuses targeting people with “technical and professional qualifications”, particularly engineering and IT degrees.
Yesterday it emerged that last week’s London bombings were a sophisticated attack with all the devices detonating on the Underground within 50 seconds of each other. The police believe those behind the outrage may be home-grown British terrorists with no criminal backgrounds and possessing technical expertise.
A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier — Young Muslims and Extremism — prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police chief, revealed separately last night that up to 3,000 British-born or British-based people had passed through Osama Bin Laden’s training camps.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-20749-1688872-20749,00.html
The long-developing and now burgeoning Moslem presence in western Europe Excellent Wall Street Journal series
Europe is undergoing a massive population shift -- some say the largest in more than a millennium -- as Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa cross the Mediterranean in search of work and a better life. The Muslim population of Europe is increasing dramatically; in countries like France, it is already about six million, or 10% of the total, and could easily double in percentage terms in the coming 20 years.
Declining birthrates mean that Europe needs these immigrants to stay vibrant. And indeed, many of them have integrated successfully, gaining education, wealth and prestige. Yet across the continent, some of Europe's Muslims are drifting off into separate troubled societies. In some European cities, nearly half of Muslim youths drop out of high school and unemployment rates are high. Racism is on the rise, helping to drive Muslims back into their communities. The situation was crystallized in a report last year by the French domestic intelligence agency, which surveyed 630 communities with a heavy concentration of Muslim migrants. Half of them, the report said, are "ghettoized" along religious lines. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112103551842081687,00.html
Oh, Rail Transit? Sure!
The Senate is having second thoughts about cutting mass-transit security funding after last week's London bombings.
As lawmakers began debate yesterday on $31 billion in 2006 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the terrorist attacks Thursday on three crowded subway trains and a double-decker bus provided a stark backdrop to complaints from urban lawmakers that mass transit gets short shrift in funding compared with air travel.
Last month, the Senate Appropriations Committee cut mass-transit security funding for the coming year by $50 million from this year's $150 million level. The spending bill's Republican authors said they won't object to adding more to secure rail and bus systems, but they cautioned that even with the extra money it could be a while before the effects are seen. That's because the government has been slow in releasing grants authorized for the current fiscal year -- while billions in other security funds remain untapped. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101364_pf.html
Bush Bump: Slight, predictable, temporary:
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. July 7-10, 2005
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?" If "Depends": "Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"
Approve: 47% (42% last month)
Disapprove: 46% (49%)
Unsure: 7% (10%) http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Tax Receipts Up: Happy talk re Deficit Shrinking:
We’ll hear about this for the balance of the year. Some reality to it, short-term, as corporate tax numbers are up, as corporate income is up. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/business/13deficit.html
Anticipating what’s to come, Paul Krugman issued a warning in his last column. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/opinion/11krugman.html?
Single Payer Universal Health Care: Interest? Massachusetts bill hearing, July 20
A push for universal health coverage is being rekindled in some states by the soaring cost of health care and the lack of political support in Washington for federal changes.
Advocates of a single-payer system — where the government would collect taxes and cover everyone, similar to programs in Canada and across Europe — have introduced bills in at least 18 state legislatures. Some are symbolic gestures, but heated debate is taking place in California and Vermont.
In Ohio, doctors, union officials and religious leaders are gathering signatures to get a single-payer health system placed on a ballot next year.
"The level of misery with private insurers is rising, and that's why we're seeing this increased activity," said Larry Levitt, vice president of the California-based Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzes health care issues. "But whether one state can succeed, I don't know."
"There's no other solution out there," said David Pavlick, a member of the United Auto Workers in Cleveland, which has endorsed the Ohio campaign. "The system we have now is immoral, it's foundering and it's on its last legs."…
In any event, voters are still leery. A Kaiser Foundation poll released earlier this year found that 55 percent of Americans opposed a single-payer health system. Thirty-seven percent favored it.
Knowing that, some states are taking incremental approaches.
Maine started enrolling people this year in a state-private program that offers affordable health coverage to small businesses and families. The goal is to bring coverage to the 130,000 Mainers who lack it by 2009.
"It's really going to the states to push health care reform along," said Janne Hellgren, coordinator for a universal health care movement in Massachusetts. "Washington just isn't willing to change the status quo." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050710/ap_on_he_me/health_care_push&printer=1;_ylt=AuWTEfga4UgXLZMyNxxKXU5a24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Living with ‘oil shocks’ ‘Peak Oil’? Who cares?!
The Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the Iranian revolution in 1978-79 exposed America's vulnerability to powerful forces outside its control, forces that sent fuel prices to record levels, prompted anger over gas lines and led to bookend recessions that defined a decade of economic turmoil.
By 1980, the energy crisis and the inflation it spawned had left Americans in a vindictive mood, contributing to the re-election defeat of President Jimmy Carter, who had promised to wage the "moral equivalent of war" against dependence on foreign oil.
But the latest escalation in oil prices - to as much as $60 today from less than $30 a barrel a little more than two years ago - has produced a much more limited response. Energy legislation that President Bush is pressing Congress to pass this summer would bring little relief. And while Americans say in polls that they are deeply disturbed by high gasoline prices and looking for someone to blame, most people continue to drive just as avidly as before; purchases of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles have slowed but there has been no significant shift to more fuel-efficient cars.
Furthermore, gasoline consumption has continued to rise, up 1 percent in May compared with the same month last year.
James R. Schlesinger, whom President Carter selected as the first energy secretary, in 1977, said in a recent interview that the country's basic energy approach can best be summed up this way: "We have only two modes - complacency and panic." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/worldbusiness/12oil.ready.html?
Part-time Job Openings
The Army National Guard, a cornerstone of the U.S. force in Iraq, missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, military officials said Monday.
The Army Guard was seeking 5,032 new soldiers in June but signed up only 4,337, a 14 percent shortfall, according to statistics released Monday by the Pentagon. It is more than 10,000 soldiers behind its year-to-date goal of almost 45,000 recruits, and has missed its recruiting target during at least 17 of the last 18 months. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_recruits&printer=1;_ylt=Ap.3CO33HPzWyNZvQqUjtGiWwvIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
H. Clinton. Write-ups in the NY Times both Tuesday and Wednesday. The former:
Previewing the themes for her re-election drive next year, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is opening an effort emphasizing her role on defense and other areas that Republicans have long used to their advantage.
On a Web site that is to go into operation on Wednesday, Hillary for Senate (www.hillaryclinton.com), Mrs. Clinton's re-election campaign, also highlights her goal of reducing abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies, even as it casts her as a champion of abortion rights.
All in all, Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, appeared to be continuing her drive to reach beyond the traditional liberal Democrats who make up her base. Mrs. Clinton also offered a much broader political and policy portfolio than the one she presented during her first campaign for public office in 2000.
With 16 months to go before the 2006 election, the establishment of the site shows how aggressively Mrs. Clinton and her advisers plan to pursue her re-election effort…
On its Web site, the Clinton campaign places emphasis on the record Mrs. Clinton has amassed on national defense, pointing out, among other things, that she has visited troops abroad, as the first New York senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/politics/12hillary.html?pagewanted=print
What’s Happening, Iraq: Outspoken Army Blogger/emailer. There is a trail of emails from Leonard Clark prior to his being arrested by the military for blogging his criticisms and for describing the Iraq war as both unnecessary and illegal. He was a member of the 860th MP Company in the Arizona National Guard, which is currently stationed in the Baghdad area. Although his web site http://leonardclark.com/blog/ has been scrubbed since his arrest what remains of his correspondence can be found on others’ web sites.
Clark described himself thusly:
Leonard Clark (the damned liberal patrolling the mean streets of Iraq every day) :)
Inner City Public School Kinder Garten teacher
Resident of Glendale, Arizona
and Candidate for the United States Senate in Arizona against John Kyl
One such email began:
Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I remember sitting and watching the news show every Sunday morning in the States and becoming very emotional every time I saw the faces and names of soldiers who were killed over here in this disastrous fiasco called the Occupation of Iraq. I grew very angry at the terrorist who killed them but angrier at the maniac who put them there and caused their unnecessary deaths. I could not understand nor do I understand even now how an American leader can be so callous as to sacrifice American soldiers lives just so he won't have to be embarrassed or look bad politically. We are not over here propping up a corrupt government just for democracy the leadership has us here for 2 to 3 reasons :
1. For the U.S. to have an excuse just occupy a piece of territory in the Middle East as a future beach head against Iran
2. For the blood money of oil.
3. To prevent the embarrassment of the maniac (you know who) who would have to admit he made a mistake. http://spidel.net/PHP-Nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9
-R
The Times termed it “often hostile” questioning, the WaPost referred to the "most aggressive questioning a White House briefing in recent memory". Scott McClellan could only repeat, "No one wants to get to the bottom of it more than the president of the United States," and "I think the way to be most helpful is to not get into commenting on it while it is an ongoing investigation."
It was very different in the past. Samples:
QUESTION: Wilson now believes that the person who did this was Karl Rove . . . Did Karl Rove tell that . . .
McCLELLAN: I haven't heard that. That's just totally ridiculous. But we've already addressed this issue. If I could find out who anonymous people were, I would. I just said, it's totally ridiculous.
QUESTION: But did Karl Rove do it?
McCLELLAN: I said, it's totally ridiculous.
Scott McClellan Press Briefing September 16, 2003
QUESTION: Has the President either asked Karl Rove to assure him that he had nothing to do with this; or did Karl Rove go to the President to assure him that he . . .
McCLELLAN: I don't think he needs that. I think I've spoken clearly to this publicly . . . I've just said there's no truth to it.
QUESTION: Yes, but I'm just wondering if there was a conversation between Karl Rove and the President, or if he just talked to you, and you're here at this . . .
McCLELLAN: He wasn't involved. The President knows he wasn't involved.
QUESTION: How does he know that?
McCLELLAN: The President knows.
Scott McClellan Press Gaggle September 29, 2003
QUESTION: Weeks ago, when you were first asked whether Mr. Rove had the conversation with Robert Novak that produced the column, you dismissed it as ridiculous. And I wanted just to make sure, at that time, had you talked to Karl?
McCLELLAN: I've made it very clear, from the beginning, that it is totally ridiculous. I've known Karl for a long time, and I didn't even need to go ask Karl, because I know the kind of person that he is, and he is someone that is committed to the highest standards of conduct.
QUESTION: Can you say for the record whether Mr. Rove possessed the information about Mr. Wilson's wife, but merely did not talk to anybody about it?
McCLELLAN: I don't know whether or not -- I mean, I'm sure he probably saw the same media reports everybody else in this room has.
QUESTION: When you talked to Mr. Rove, did you discuss, did you ever have this information?
McCLELLAN: We're going down a lot of different roads here. I've made it very clear that he was not involved, that there's no truth to the suggestion that he was.
Scott McClellan Press Briefing September 29, 2003
Full text of this week’s McClellan’s press briefings at: http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/briefing-711/
The Nation’s David Corn, amongst others, had this figured out 2 years ago:
The Wilson smear was a thuggish act. Bush and his crew abused and misused intelligence to make their case for war. Now there is evidence Bushies used classified information and put the nation's counter-proliferation efforts at risk merely to settle a score. It is a sign that with this gang politics trumps national security. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=823
Bush not talking
"President Bush, at an Oval Office photo opportunity Tuesday, was asked directly whether he would fire Rove — in keeping with a pledge in June, 2004, to dismiss any leakers in the case. The president did not respond." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation_14;_ylt=AoX9PxHjle3Ykxqrs4KQ.ktZJ_wA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl
RNC Response: Ken Mehlman, the Chair, is the name attached to an embarrassing list of old Republican charges / positions re the Plame – Wilson- Niger episode. The basic statement:
It's disappointing that once again, so many Democrat leaders are taking their political cues from the far-left, Moveon wing of the party. The bottom line is Karl Rove was discouraging a reporter from writing a false story based on a false premise and the Democrats are engaging in blatant partisan political attacks."
http://www.rnc.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=5619
The apparent RNC point people for defending Rove are relative lightweights- Sens. Cornyn and Coleman, Rep. Peter King.
And we haven’t even gotten to the Watergate question of ‘What did the President know, and when did he know it?
Democrats’ Response: Why go after Rove? Just ask the above question. Rove may be Bush’s Brain, but he’s not the prez. It wouldn’t be shocking to learn that Bush hardly knew him, as per his extinguished relationship w/ ‘Kenny Boy’ Lay.
"The president should immediately suspend Karl Rove's security clearances and shut him down by shutting him out of classified meetings or discussions," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (news, bio, voting record), a New Jersey Democrat.
"It is time for the President to keep his word. Karl Rove should be fired and prosecuted to the full extent of the law," said Rep. Louise Slaughter of New York. Several other Democrats have also called on Rove to explain his role or resign.
Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), a California Democrat and the ranking minority member of the House Government Reform Committee, called for a congressional hearing to hear testimony from Rove, who is widely seen as the architect of Bush's election victories. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/bush_leak_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AgJtHHLRYGf3McokhjTqlIYb.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
More lawlessness:
House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) has been acting increasingly entitled, if not bizarre. The latest involved a Chicago drug case. Note: Chicago is not in Wisconsin.
In an extraordinary move, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee privately demanded last month that the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago change its decision in a narcotics case because he didn't believe a drug courier got a harsh enough prison term.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), in a five-page letter dated June 23 to Chief Judge Joel Flaum, asserted that a June 16 decision by a three-judge appeals court panel was wrong.
He demanded "a prompt response" as to what steps Flaum would take "to rectify the panel's actions" in a case where a drug courier in a Chicago police corruption case received a 97-month prison sentence instead of the at least 120 months required by a drug-conspiracy statute. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0507100352jul10,1,5787813.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Texas: Felony charges for local Republicans? From the New Statesman:
"State District Judge Bob Perkins today said he believes two officials with Texans for a Republican Majority should stand trial on felony charges of money laundering." http://www.statesman.com/metrostate/content/metro/stories/07/13trmpac_me.html
Zell Miller as thief The Macon Telegraph reports that Miller stole $80K upon leaving office as governor, that he pocketed funds earmarked for entertainment et al at the Governor’s mansion and took the remainder as “unused leave.’ Miller’s defense: ‘No one said I couldn’t.’: http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/opinion/12088562.htm
London: Terrorists recruited: The Times of London reports on a British government dossier that was leaked to them that notes that many young Brits are turning to terrorism, that they "perceive a 'double standard’ in the foreign policy of western governments, in particular Britain and the US."
AL-QAEDA is secretly recruiting affluent, middle-class Muslims in British universities and colleges to carry out terrorist attacks in this country, leaked Whitehall documents reveal.
A network of “extremist recruiters” is circulating on campuses targeting people with “technical and professional qualifications”, particularly engineering and IT degrees.
Yesterday it emerged that last week’s London bombings were a sophisticated attack with all the devices detonating on the Underground within 50 seconds of each other. The police believe those behind the outrage may be home-grown British terrorists with no criminal backgrounds and possessing technical expertise.
A joint Home Office and Foreign Office dossier — Young Muslims and Extremism — prepared for the prime minister last year, said Britain might now be harbouring thousands of Al-Qaeda sympathisers.
Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan police chief, revealed separately last night that up to 3,000 British-born or British-based people had passed through Osama Bin Laden’s training camps.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-20749-1688872-20749,00.html
The long-developing and now burgeoning Moslem presence in western Europe Excellent Wall Street Journal series
Europe is undergoing a massive population shift -- some say the largest in more than a millennium -- as Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa cross the Mediterranean in search of work and a better life. The Muslim population of Europe is increasing dramatically; in countries like France, it is already about six million, or 10% of the total, and could easily double in percentage terms in the coming 20 years.
Declining birthrates mean that Europe needs these immigrants to stay vibrant. And indeed, many of them have integrated successfully, gaining education, wealth and prestige. Yet across the continent, some of Europe's Muslims are drifting off into separate troubled societies. In some European cities, nearly half of Muslim youths drop out of high school and unemployment rates are high. Racism is on the rise, helping to drive Muslims back into their communities. The situation was crystallized in a report last year by the French domestic intelligence agency, which surveyed 630 communities with a heavy concentration of Muslim migrants. Half of them, the report said, are "ghettoized" along religious lines. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112103551842081687,00.html
Oh, Rail Transit? Sure!
The Senate is having second thoughts about cutting mass-transit security funding after last week's London bombings.
As lawmakers began debate yesterday on $31 billion in 2006 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the terrorist attacks Thursday on three crowded subway trains and a double-decker bus provided a stark backdrop to complaints from urban lawmakers that mass transit gets short shrift in funding compared with air travel.
Last month, the Senate Appropriations Committee cut mass-transit security funding for the coming year by $50 million from this year's $150 million level. The spending bill's Republican authors said they won't object to adding more to secure rail and bus systems, but they cautioned that even with the extra money it could be a while before the effects are seen. That's because the government has been slow in releasing grants authorized for the current fiscal year -- while billions in other security funds remain untapped. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101364_pf.html
Bush Bump: Slight, predictable, temporary:
The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. July 7-10, 2005
"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?" If "Depends": "Overall, do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"
Approve: 47% (42% last month)
Disapprove: 46% (49%)
Unsure: 7% (10%) http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm
Tax Receipts Up: Happy talk re Deficit Shrinking:
We’ll hear about this for the balance of the year. Some reality to it, short-term, as corporate tax numbers are up, as corporate income is up. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/business/13deficit.html
Anticipating what’s to come, Paul Krugman issued a warning in his last column. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/11/opinion/11krugman.html?
Single Payer Universal Health Care: Interest? Massachusetts bill hearing, July 20
A push for universal health coverage is being rekindled in some states by the soaring cost of health care and the lack of political support in Washington for federal changes.
Advocates of a single-payer system — where the government would collect taxes and cover everyone, similar to programs in Canada and across Europe — have introduced bills in at least 18 state legislatures. Some are symbolic gestures, but heated debate is taking place in California and Vermont.
In Ohio, doctors, union officials and religious leaders are gathering signatures to get a single-payer health system placed on a ballot next year.
"The level of misery with private insurers is rising, and that's why we're seeing this increased activity," said Larry Levitt, vice president of the California-based Kaiser Family Foundation, which analyzes health care issues. "But whether one state can succeed, I don't know."
"There's no other solution out there," said David Pavlick, a member of the United Auto Workers in Cleveland, which has endorsed the Ohio campaign. "The system we have now is immoral, it's foundering and it's on its last legs."…
In any event, voters are still leery. A Kaiser Foundation poll released earlier this year found that 55 percent of Americans opposed a single-payer health system. Thirty-seven percent favored it.
Knowing that, some states are taking incremental approaches.
Maine started enrolling people this year in a state-private program that offers affordable health coverage to small businesses and families. The goal is to bring coverage to the 130,000 Mainers who lack it by 2009.
"It's really going to the states to push health care reform along," said Janne Hellgren, coordinator for a universal health care movement in Massachusetts. "Washington just isn't willing to change the status quo." http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050710/ap_on_he_me/health_care_push&printer=1;_ylt=AuWTEfga4UgXLZMyNxxKXU5a24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Living with ‘oil shocks’ ‘Peak Oil’? Who cares?!
The Arab oil embargo of 1973 and the Iranian revolution in 1978-79 exposed America's vulnerability to powerful forces outside its control, forces that sent fuel prices to record levels, prompted anger over gas lines and led to bookend recessions that defined a decade of economic turmoil.
By 1980, the energy crisis and the inflation it spawned had left Americans in a vindictive mood, contributing to the re-election defeat of President Jimmy Carter, who had promised to wage the "moral equivalent of war" against dependence on foreign oil.
But the latest escalation in oil prices - to as much as $60 today from less than $30 a barrel a little more than two years ago - has produced a much more limited response. Energy legislation that President Bush is pressing Congress to pass this summer would bring little relief. And while Americans say in polls that they are deeply disturbed by high gasoline prices and looking for someone to blame, most people continue to drive just as avidly as before; purchases of gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles have slowed but there has been no significant shift to more fuel-efficient cars.
Furthermore, gasoline consumption has continued to rise, up 1 percent in May compared with the same month last year.
James R. Schlesinger, whom President Carter selected as the first energy secretary, in 1977, said in a recent interview that the country's basic energy approach can best be summed up this way: "We have only two modes - complacency and panic." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/worldbusiness/12oil.ready.html?
Part-time Job Openings
The Army National Guard, a cornerstone of the U.S. force in Iraq, missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, military officials said Monday.
The Army Guard was seeking 5,032 new soldiers in June but signed up only 4,337, a 14 percent shortfall, according to statistics released Monday by the Pentagon. It is more than 10,000 soldiers behind its year-to-date goal of almost 45,000 recruits, and has missed its recruiting target during at least 17 of the last 18 months. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050712/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_recruits&printer=1;_ylt=Ap.3CO33HPzWyNZvQqUjtGiWwvIE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
H. Clinton. Write-ups in the NY Times both Tuesday and Wednesday. The former:
Previewing the themes for her re-election drive next year, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is opening an effort emphasizing her role on defense and other areas that Republicans have long used to their advantage.
On a Web site that is to go into operation on Wednesday, Hillary for Senate (www.hillaryclinton.com), Mrs. Clinton's re-election campaign, also highlights her goal of reducing abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies, even as it casts her as a champion of abortion rights.
All in all, Mrs. Clinton, the junior senator from New York, appeared to be continuing her drive to reach beyond the traditional liberal Democrats who make up her base. Mrs. Clinton also offered a much broader political and policy portfolio than the one she presented during her first campaign for public office in 2000.
With 16 months to go before the 2006 election, the establishment of the site shows how aggressively Mrs. Clinton and her advisers plan to pursue her re-election effort…
On its Web site, the Clinton campaign places emphasis on the record Mrs. Clinton has amassed on national defense, pointing out, among other things, that she has visited troops abroad, as the first New York senator to serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/politics/12hillary.html?pagewanted=print
What’s Happening, Iraq: Outspoken Army Blogger/emailer. There is a trail of emails from Leonard Clark prior to his being arrested by the military for blogging his criticisms and for describing the Iraq war as both unnecessary and illegal. He was a member of the 860th MP Company in the Arizona National Guard, which is currently stationed in the Baghdad area. Although his web site http://leonardclark.com/blog/ has been scrubbed since his arrest what remains of his correspondence can be found on others’ web sites.
Clark described himself thusly:
Leonard Clark (the damned liberal patrolling the mean streets of Iraq every day) :)
Inner City Public School Kinder Garten teacher
Resident of Glendale, Arizona
and Candidate for the United States Senate in Arizona against John Kyl
One such email began:
Thank you all for your kind words and encouragement. I remember sitting and watching the news show every Sunday morning in the States and becoming very emotional every time I saw the faces and names of soldiers who were killed over here in this disastrous fiasco called the Occupation of Iraq. I grew very angry at the terrorist who killed them but angrier at the maniac who put them there and caused their unnecessary deaths. I could not understand nor do I understand even now how an American leader can be so callous as to sacrifice American soldiers lives just so he won't have to be embarrassed or look bad politically. We are not over here propping up a corrupt government just for democracy the leadership has us here for 2 to 3 reasons :
1. For the U.S. to have an excuse just occupy a piece of territory in the Middle East as a future beach head against Iran
2. For the blood money of oil.
3. To prevent the embarrassment of the maniac (you know who) who would have to admit he made a mistake. http://spidel.net/PHP-Nuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=9
-R
