Friday, January 28, 2005
The Right: Ignorant and Aggressive I know that’s not news, but I got a fresh dose of it this week listening to right wing callers to Air America Radio. Virtually all of these callers had woefully little info at their disposal, but used repetition and bullying in an effort to trap the host. It provided a striking contrast-- Progressive-liberal callers to Right wing hosts are much better informed, not so aggressive… and, unfortunately, rare…
I continue to plug Air America, with the possible weekday exception to the mediocre- yet very popular in the Heartland- Ed Schultz. Accessed via AM radio or streaming… Great for morale.
Air America’s lineup: http://www.wkoxam.com/personalities.html
Another “journalist” on the take from the Right There are more…
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36545-2005Jan25?language=printer
Journalism Lives! Lies are labeled…bad math…. Better, still…
Sen. Wayne Allard told a town meeting in Greeley that the Social Security system could face a $28 trillion debt. Congressional reports don't concur.
Advocates of radical reform are making up their own math in their campaign to partly privatize Social Security. There's a storm ahead, but not the iceberg President Bush's advisers claim.
Even Rep. Bill Thomas, Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, called Bush's plan "a dead horse" and said Congress should take a broader look at the issues facing an aging nation.
Given these facts, voters should question comments made recently by Wayne Allard, Colorado's senior U.S. senator. Allard hasn't formally endorsed Bush's plan, but at a Jan. 12 town meeting in Greeley, he was asked about the issue. Allard said that in 2018, Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it will collect in payroll taxes. According to the Greeley Tribune, Allard said that "there are no reserves in Social Security because what is there is automatically transferred into the general fund, leaving a debt of $28 trillion." He went on to say, "The money is spent. I don't believe we'll be able to raise the funds to pay it back." http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~417~2671567,00.html
Giving Credit where…
(1) …to those that summoned up the “courage” to vote against that profoundly incompetent, chronic liar who also happens to be Afro-American. Historical context: Though a small number, it’s the highest percentage of nay votes for any Attorney General nomination.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.John Kerry, D-Mass.Carl Levin, D-Mich.James Jeffords, I-Vt.Jack Reed, D-R.I.Mark Dayton, D-Minn.Daniel Akaka, D-HawaiiEvan Bayh, D-Ind.Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.Tom Harkin, D-IowaRichard Durbin, D-Ill.
(2) Kennedy calls for Beginning to Remove Troops from Iraq The first senator to do so...http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=2&u=/nm/20050128/pl_nm/iraq_kennedy_dc
(3) Meanwhile, more talk of pulling troops out post-election- both D.C. chatter and now Bush noting in his Times interview that we’d leave “if asked,” i.e., if we tell them to ask.
But asked if, as a matter of principle, the United States would pull out of Iraq at the request of a new government, he said: "Absolutely. This is a sovereign government. They're on their feet." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/politics/28prexy.html?hp&ex=1106974800&en=3fb476e5ad0cd03a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Jomentum: More from Lieberman
One of the great strengths that Condoleezza Rice will bring to the office of Secretary of State is that the world knows that she has the President’s trust and confidence and I respect the right of any of my colleagues to reach a different decision today and to oppose this nomination. But I hope and believe that the Senate today, across partisan lines, will resoundingly endorse this nomination and send the message to friend and foe alike that while we have our disagreements, ultimately what unites us around this very qualified nominee in this hour of war is much greater than what divides. us.http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=230882
Democrats Coordinating?
Senate Democrats yesterday unveiled plans to push for expanded healthcare and education programs, higher troop levels, and better benefits for veterans, as they use a retooled and coordinated communications strategy to push their priorities and gird for fierce fights against major initiatives on President Bush's agenda.
Democratic leaders said they will focus on bills they believe have the backing of a majority of Americans. Their list of priorities also includes better equipment for troops in combat, allowing lower-priced prescription drugs to enter the United States from Canada, and an end to tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/01/25/senate_democrats_coordinate_message_attack_on_bush/
Bush Stumped: Detached from his Mike Gerson rhetoric, Bush was unable to comment on a specific case where he could stand up for freedom and liberty.
President Bush was stumped yesterday when he was asked at his news conference about the plight of a Jordanian man who faces a two-year prison term for slander after giving a lecture last month calling for a boycott of American goods and companies. "I'm unaware of the case," he said.
The circumstances are somewhat murky, but in many ways the case signifies the difficult choices and trade-offs inherent in Bush's call in his inaugural address for the right to dissent and protest around the world.
Jordan is a close U.S. ally, ruled by a monarch, whose support has been critical in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the war in Iraq, despite growing resentment among Jordanian citizens over these policies. Ali Hattar, the man charged with slander, is vehemently opposed to Jordan's 1994 establishment of relations with Israel, which he has demanded be reversed. Hattar is not a democracy activist, nor would he be considered an appealing figure by many Americans, but he has been charged under a type of vague law frequently used to suppress dissent across the Middle East. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39783-2005Jan26?language=printer
Love That Privatization: The Chile Example: Oft-cited by Bush et al, it’s been a disaster…
Nearly 25 years ago, Chile embarked on a sweeping experiment that has since been emulated, in one way or another, in a score of other countries. Rather than finance pensions through a system to which workers, employers and the government all contributed, millions of people began to pay 10 percent of their salaries to private investment accounts that they controlled.
Under the Chilean program - which President Bush has cited as a model for his plans to overhaul Social Security - the promise was that such investments, by helping to spur economic growth and generating higher returns, would deliver monthly pension benefits larger than what the traditional system could offer.
But now that the first generation of workers to depend on the new system is beginning to retire, Chileans are finding that it is falling far short of what was originally advertised under the authoritarian government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
For all the program's success in economic terms, the government continues to direct billions of dollars to a safety net for those whose contributions were not large enough to ensure even a minimum pension approaching $140 a month. Many others - because they earned much of their income in the underground economy, are self-employed, or work only seasonally - remain outside the system altogether. Combined, those groups constitute roughly half the Chilean labor force. Only half of workers are captured by the system.
Even many middle-class workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts - burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as a third of their original investment - are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/business/worldbusiness/27pension.html?position=&ei=5094&en=82af08c4c479186f&hp=&ex=1106888400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
Bushie PR Expenses Up We knew this…
The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.
The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton (news - web sites) between 1997 and 2000. The analysis did not examine what the Clinton administration spent during its first term.
The top-spending agency during the past four years, at $94 million, was the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The biggest federal public relations contractor in that period was Ketchum, with $97 million. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=710&ncid=703&e=5&u=/usatoday/20050127/pl_usatoday/reportprspendingdoubledunderbush
A Response:
In response to continued revelations of government-funded "journalism" -- ranging from the purported video news releases put out by the drug czar's office and the Department of Health and Human Services to the recently uncovered payments to columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher,who flacked administration programs -- Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will introduce a bill, The Stop Government Propaganda Act, in the Senate next week."It's just not enough to say, 'Please don't do it anymore,'" Alex Formuzis, Lautenberg's spokesman, told E&P. "Legislation sometimes is required and we believe it is in this case."The Stop Government Propaganda Act states, "Funds appropriated to an Executive branch agency may not be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States unless authorized by law.""It's time for Congress to shut down the Administration's propaganda mill," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It has no place in the United States Government." The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.). http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000778976
RESOURCES/TREASURES:
(1) More from Sy Hersh…on the torturers
Words mean nothing -- nothing to George Bush. They are just utterances. They have no meaning. Bush can say again and again, “well, we don't do torture.” We know what happened. We know about Abu Ghraib. We know, we see anecdotally. We all understand in some profound way because so much has come out in the last few weeks, the I.C.R.C. The ACLU put out more papers, this is not an isolated incident what’s happened with the seven kids and the horrible photographs, Lynndie England. That's into the not the issue is. They're fall guys. Of course, they did wrong. But you know, when we send kids to fight, one of the things that we do when we send our children to war is the officers become in loco parentis. That means their job in the military is to protect these kids, not only from getting bullets and being blown up, but also there is nothing as stupid as a 20 or 22-year-old kid with a weapon in a war zone. Protect them from themselves.
The spectacle of these people doing those antics night after night, for three and a half months only stopped when one of their own soldiers turned them in tells you all you need to know, how many officers knew. I can just give you a timeline that will tell you all you need to know. Abu Ghraib was reported in January of 2004 this year. In May, I and CBS earlier also wrote an awful lot about what was going on there. At that point, between January and May, our government did nothing. Although Rumsfeld later acknowledged that he was briefed by the middle of January on it and told the President. In those three-and-a-half months before it became public, was there any systematic effort to do anything other than to prosecute seven “bad seeds”, enlisted kids, reservists from West Virginia and the unit they were in, by the way, Military Police. The answer is, Ha! They were basically a bunch of kids who were taught on traffic control, sent to Iraq, put in charge of a prison. They knew nothing. It doesn't excuse them from doing dumb things. But there is another framework. We're not seeing it. They’ve gotten away with it.
AND, the world is tiring of us
Europe is not going to tolerate us much longer. The rage there is enormous. I'm talking about our old-fashioned allies -- it's going to be an awful lot of dancing on our graves as the dollar goes bad and everybody stops buying our bonds, our credit -- our -- we're spending $2 billion a day to float the debt, and one of these days, the Japanese and the Russians, everybody is going to start buying oil in Euros instead of dollars. We're going to see enormous panic here." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204
(2) Gore Vidal: on the Inaugural words:
Well, I hardly know where to end, much less begin. There's not a word of truth in anything that he said. Our founding fathers did not set us on a course to liberate all the world from tyranny. Jefferson just said, “all men are created equal, and should be,” etc, but it was not the task of the United States to “go abroad to slay dragons,” as John Quincy Adams so wisely put it; because if the United States does go abroad to slay dragons in the name of freedom, liberty, and so on, she could become “dictatress of the world,” but in the process “she would lose her soul.” That is what we -- the lesson we should be learning now, instead of this declaration of war against the entire globe. He doesn't define what tyranny is. I’d say what we have now in the United States is working up a nice tyrannical persona for itself and for us. As we lose liberties he’s, I guess, handing them out to other countries which have not asked for them, particularly; and what he says -- The reaction in Europe-–and I know we mustn’t mention them because they're immoral and they have all those different kinds of cheese–but, simultaneously, they're much better educated than we are, and they're richer. Get that out there: The Europeans per capita are richer than the Americans, per capita. And by the time this administration is finished, there won't be any money left of any kind, starting with poor social security, which will be privatized, so that is the last gold rush for (as they say) men with an eye for opportunity.
No, I would have to parse this thing line by line and have it in front of me. It goes in one ear and out the other as lies often do, particularly rhetorical lies that have been thought up by second-rate advertising men, which are the authors of this speech. It is the most un-American speech I’ve ever heard a chief executive give to the United States; and thanks at least to television, we were given every inaugural from Franklin Roosevelt on (and it's quite interesting to see who said what), and only one was as gruesome and as off-key as this, and that guy is Harry S. Truman, who’s being made into a hero because he fits into the imperial mode. He starts out his inaugural -- we're on top of the world we’re the richest country, the most powerful militarily, and what does he do? Within three lines Harry Truman is starting the Cold War, which the Russians were not starting. They thought they could live in peace because of their agreement at Yalta with his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, whose unfortunate death gave us Harry Truman and gave us the Cold War, which is now metastasized into a general war against any nation that this president of ours, if he is -- was elected, wants to commit us to, and we -- preemptive wars. That’s just never existed in our history, that a president – “Well, I think I'm going to take on Costa Rica. There may be some terrorists down there one day. Oh, they aren't there yet, but they're planning for it. And they’ve got bicarbonate of soda. Once you have that, you know, you can build all sorts of biochemical weapons.” This is just blather. Blather.
And that an American audience would sit there beside the capitol or reverently in front of their TV screens and watch this and not see the absurdity of what was being said -- absolute proof of a couple of things that I have felt, and most of us who are at all thoughtful feel: We’ve got the worst educational system of any first world country. We are shameful when we go abroad, because we know nothing. Just to watch the destruction of the archaeologists’ work at Babylon. Babylon is a center of our culture. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows what it is, except it's a wicked city that the lord destroyed. Well, it was the center of our civilization, the center of mathematics, of writing, of everything. And apparently our troops were allowed to go in and smash everything to bits. Why did they do it? Was it because they are mean bad boys and girls? No. They're totally uneducated. And their officers are sometimes mean and bad, and allow them to have a romp, as they also had in the prisons, none of which we heard about in the last election. We were too busy with homosexual marriage and abortion, two really riveting subjects. War and peace, of course, are not worth talking about. And civilization, God forbid that we ever commit ourselves to that. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1458238
-R
I continue to plug Air America, with the possible weekday exception to the mediocre- yet very popular in the Heartland- Ed Schultz. Accessed via AM radio or streaming… Great for morale.
Air America’s lineup: http://www.wkoxam.com/personalities.html
Another “journalist” on the take from the Right There are more…
In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.
"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."
But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.
"Did I violate journalistic ethics by not disclosing it?" Gallagher said yesterday. "I don't know. You tell me." She said she would have "been happy to tell anyone who called me" about the contract but that "frankly, it never occurred to me" to disclose it.
Later in the day, Gallagher filed a column in which she said that "I should have disclosed a government contract when I later wrote about the Bush marriage initiative. I would have, if I had remembered it. My apologies to my readers." http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A36545-2005Jan25?language=printer
Journalism Lives! Lies are labeled…bad math…. Better, still…
Sen. Wayne Allard told a town meeting in Greeley that the Social Security system could face a $28 trillion debt. Congressional reports don't concur.
Advocates of radical reform are making up their own math in their campaign to partly privatize Social Security. There's a storm ahead, but not the iceberg President Bush's advisers claim.
Even Rep. Bill Thomas, Republican chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, called Bush's plan "a dead horse" and said Congress should take a broader look at the issues facing an aging nation.
Given these facts, voters should question comments made recently by Wayne Allard, Colorado's senior U.S. senator. Allard hasn't formally endorsed Bush's plan, but at a Jan. 12 town meeting in Greeley, he was asked about the issue. Allard said that in 2018, Social Security is projected to start paying out more in benefits than it will collect in payroll taxes. According to the Greeley Tribune, Allard said that "there are no reserves in Social Security because what is there is automatically transferred into the general fund, leaving a debt of $28 trillion." He went on to say, "The money is spent. I don't believe we'll be able to raise the funds to pay it back." http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~417~2671567,00.html
Giving Credit where…
(1) …to those that summoned up the “courage” to vote against that profoundly incompetent, chronic liar who also happens to be Afro-American. Historical context: Though a small number, it’s the highest percentage of nay votes for any Attorney General nomination.
Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.John Kerry, D-Mass.Carl Levin, D-Mich.James Jeffords, I-Vt.Jack Reed, D-R.I.Mark Dayton, D-Minn.Daniel Akaka, D-HawaiiEvan Bayh, D-Ind.Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.Tom Harkin, D-IowaRichard Durbin, D-Ill.
(2) Kennedy calls for Beginning to Remove Troops from Iraq The first senator to do so...http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=2&u=/nm/20050128/pl_nm/iraq_kennedy_dc
(3) Meanwhile, more talk of pulling troops out post-election- both D.C. chatter and now Bush noting in his Times interview that we’d leave “if asked,” i.e., if we tell them to ask.
But asked if, as a matter of principle, the United States would pull out of Iraq at the request of a new government, he said: "Absolutely. This is a sovereign government. They're on their feet." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/28/politics/28prexy.html?hp&ex=1106974800&en=3fb476e5ad0cd03a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Jomentum: More from Lieberman
One of the great strengths that Condoleezza Rice will bring to the office of Secretary of State is that the world knows that she has the President’s trust and confidence and I respect the right of any of my colleagues to reach a different decision today and to oppose this nomination. But I hope and believe that the Senate today, across partisan lines, will resoundingly endorse this nomination and send the message to friend and foe alike that while we have our disagreements, ultimately what unites us around this very qualified nominee in this hour of war is much greater than what divides. us.http://lieberman.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=230882
Democrats Coordinating?
Senate Democrats yesterday unveiled plans to push for expanded healthcare and education programs, higher troop levels, and better benefits for veterans, as they use a retooled and coordinated communications strategy to push their priorities and gird for fierce fights against major initiatives on President Bush's agenda.
Democratic leaders said they will focus on bills they believe have the backing of a majority of Americans. Their list of priorities also includes better equipment for troops in combat, allowing lower-priced prescription drugs to enter the United States from Canada, and an end to tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/01/25/senate_democrats_coordinate_message_attack_on_bush/
Bush Stumped: Detached from his Mike Gerson rhetoric, Bush was unable to comment on a specific case where he could stand up for freedom and liberty.
President Bush was stumped yesterday when he was asked at his news conference about the plight of a Jordanian man who faces a two-year prison term for slander after giving a lecture last month calling for a boycott of American goods and companies. "I'm unaware of the case," he said.
The circumstances are somewhat murky, but in many ways the case signifies the difficult choices and trade-offs inherent in Bush's call in his inaugural address for the right to dissent and protest around the world.
Jordan is a close U.S. ally, ruled by a monarch, whose support has been critical in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the war in Iraq, despite growing resentment among Jordanian citizens over these policies. Ali Hattar, the man charged with slander, is vehemently opposed to Jordan's 1994 establishment of relations with Israel, which he has demanded be reversed. Hattar is not a democracy activist, nor would he be considered an appealing figure by many Americans, but he has been charged under a type of vague law frequently used to suppress dissent across the Middle East. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A39783-2005Jan26?language=printer
Love That Privatization: The Chile Example: Oft-cited by Bush et al, it’s been a disaster…
Nearly 25 years ago, Chile embarked on a sweeping experiment that has since been emulated, in one way or another, in a score of other countries. Rather than finance pensions through a system to which workers, employers and the government all contributed, millions of people began to pay 10 percent of their salaries to private investment accounts that they controlled.
Under the Chilean program - which President Bush has cited as a model for his plans to overhaul Social Security - the promise was that such investments, by helping to spur economic growth and generating higher returns, would deliver monthly pension benefits larger than what the traditional system could offer.
But now that the first generation of workers to depend on the new system is beginning to retire, Chileans are finding that it is falling far short of what was originally advertised under the authoritarian government of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
For all the program's success in economic terms, the government continues to direct billions of dollars to a safety net for those whose contributions were not large enough to ensure even a minimum pension approaching $140 a month. Many others - because they earned much of their income in the underground economy, are self-employed, or work only seasonally - remain outside the system altogether. Combined, those groups constitute roughly half the Chilean labor force. Only half of workers are captured by the system.
Even many middle-class workers who contributed regularly are finding that their private accounts - burdened with hidden fees that may have soaked up as much as a third of their original investment - are failing to deliver as much in benefits as they would have received if they had stayed in the old system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/27/business/worldbusiness/27pension.html?position=&ei=5094&en=82af08c4c479186f&hp=&ex=1106888400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
Bushie PR Expenses Up We knew this…
The Bush administration has more than doubled its spending on outside contracts with public relations firms during the past four years, according to an analysis of federal procurement data by congressional Democrats.
The administration spent at least $88 million in fiscal 2004 on contracts with major public relations firms, the analysis found, compared with $37 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. In all, the administration spent $250 million on public relations contracts during its first term, compared with $128 million spent for President Clinton (news - web sites) between 1997 and 2000. The analysis did not examine what the Clinton administration spent during its first term.
The top-spending agency during the past four years, at $94 million, was the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The biggest federal public relations contractor in that period was Ketchum, with $97 million. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=710&ncid=703&e=5&u=/usatoday/20050127/pl_usatoday/reportprspendingdoubledunderbush
A Response:
In response to continued revelations of government-funded "journalism" -- ranging from the purported video news releases put out by the drug czar's office and the Department of Health and Human Services to the recently uncovered payments to columnists Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher,who flacked administration programs -- Sens. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) will introduce a bill, The Stop Government Propaganda Act, in the Senate next week."It's just not enough to say, 'Please don't do it anymore,'" Alex Formuzis, Lautenberg's spokesman, told E&P. "Legislation sometimes is required and we believe it is in this case."The Stop Government Propaganda Act states, "Funds appropriated to an Executive branch agency may not be used for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States unless authorized by law.""It's time for Congress to shut down the Administration's propaganda mill," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It has no place in the United States Government." The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Jon Corzine (D-N.J.). http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000778976
RESOURCES/TREASURES:
(1) More from Sy Hersh…on the torturers
Words mean nothing -- nothing to George Bush. They are just utterances. They have no meaning. Bush can say again and again, “well, we don't do torture.” We know what happened. We know about Abu Ghraib. We know, we see anecdotally. We all understand in some profound way because so much has come out in the last few weeks, the I.C.R.C. The ACLU put out more papers, this is not an isolated incident what’s happened with the seven kids and the horrible photographs, Lynndie England. That's into the not the issue is. They're fall guys. Of course, they did wrong. But you know, when we send kids to fight, one of the things that we do when we send our children to war is the officers become in loco parentis. That means their job in the military is to protect these kids, not only from getting bullets and being blown up, but also there is nothing as stupid as a 20 or 22-year-old kid with a weapon in a war zone. Protect them from themselves.
The spectacle of these people doing those antics night after night, for three and a half months only stopped when one of their own soldiers turned them in tells you all you need to know, how many officers knew. I can just give you a timeline that will tell you all you need to know. Abu Ghraib was reported in January of 2004 this year. In May, I and CBS earlier also wrote an awful lot about what was going on there. At that point, between January and May, our government did nothing. Although Rumsfeld later acknowledged that he was briefed by the middle of January on it and told the President. In those three-and-a-half months before it became public, was there any systematic effort to do anything other than to prosecute seven “bad seeds”, enlisted kids, reservists from West Virginia and the unit they were in, by the way, Military Police. The answer is, Ha! They were basically a bunch of kids who were taught on traffic control, sent to Iraq, put in charge of a prison. They knew nothing. It doesn't excuse them from doing dumb things. But there is another framework. We're not seeing it. They’ve gotten away with it.
AND, the world is tiring of us
Europe is not going to tolerate us much longer. The rage there is enormous. I'm talking about our old-fashioned allies -- it's going to be an awful lot of dancing on our graves as the dollar goes bad and everybody stops buying our bonds, our credit -- our -- we're spending $2 billion a day to float the debt, and one of these days, the Japanese and the Russians, everybody is going to start buying oil in Euros instead of dollars. We're going to see enormous panic here." http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/26/1450204
(2) Gore Vidal: on the Inaugural words:
Well, I hardly know where to end, much less begin. There's not a word of truth in anything that he said. Our founding fathers did not set us on a course to liberate all the world from tyranny. Jefferson just said, “all men are created equal, and should be,” etc, but it was not the task of the United States to “go abroad to slay dragons,” as John Quincy Adams so wisely put it; because if the United States does go abroad to slay dragons in the name of freedom, liberty, and so on, she could become “dictatress of the world,” but in the process “she would lose her soul.” That is what we -- the lesson we should be learning now, instead of this declaration of war against the entire globe. He doesn't define what tyranny is. I’d say what we have now in the United States is working up a nice tyrannical persona for itself and for us. As we lose liberties he’s, I guess, handing them out to other countries which have not asked for them, particularly; and what he says -- The reaction in Europe-–and I know we mustn’t mention them because they're immoral and they have all those different kinds of cheese–but, simultaneously, they're much better educated than we are, and they're richer. Get that out there: The Europeans per capita are richer than the Americans, per capita. And by the time this administration is finished, there won't be any money left of any kind, starting with poor social security, which will be privatized, so that is the last gold rush for (as they say) men with an eye for opportunity.
No, I would have to parse this thing line by line and have it in front of me. It goes in one ear and out the other as lies often do, particularly rhetorical lies that have been thought up by second-rate advertising men, which are the authors of this speech. It is the most un-American speech I’ve ever heard a chief executive give to the United States; and thanks at least to television, we were given every inaugural from Franklin Roosevelt on (and it's quite interesting to see who said what), and only one was as gruesome and as off-key as this, and that guy is Harry S. Truman, who’s being made into a hero because he fits into the imperial mode. He starts out his inaugural -- we're on top of the world we’re the richest country, the most powerful militarily, and what does he do? Within three lines Harry Truman is starting the Cold War, which the Russians were not starting. They thought they could live in peace because of their agreement at Yalta with his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, whose unfortunate death gave us Harry Truman and gave us the Cold War, which is now metastasized into a general war against any nation that this president of ours, if he is -- was elected, wants to commit us to, and we -- preemptive wars. That’s just never existed in our history, that a president – “Well, I think I'm going to take on Costa Rica. There may be some terrorists down there one day. Oh, they aren't there yet, but they're planning for it. And they’ve got bicarbonate of soda. Once you have that, you know, you can build all sorts of biochemical weapons.” This is just blather. Blather.
And that an American audience would sit there beside the capitol or reverently in front of their TV screens and watch this and not see the absurdity of what was being said -- absolute proof of a couple of things that I have felt, and most of us who are at all thoughtful feel: We’ve got the worst educational system of any first world country. We are shameful when we go abroad, because we know nothing. Just to watch the destruction of the archaeologists’ work at Babylon. Babylon is a center of our culture. Nobody knows that. Nobody knows what it is, except it's a wicked city that the lord destroyed. Well, it was the center of our civilization, the center of mathematics, of writing, of everything. And apparently our troops were allowed to go in and smash everything to bits. Why did they do it? Was it because they are mean bad boys and girls? No. They're totally uneducated. And their officers are sometimes mean and bad, and allow them to have a romp, as they also had in the prisons, none of which we heard about in the last election. We were too busy with homosexual marriage and abortion, two really riveting subjects. War and peace, of course, are not worth talking about. And civilization, God forbid that we ever commit ourselves to that. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1458238
-R
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
How Can I Be Effective? An old colleague asked me that question today, adding that she didn’t want to fund the Democratic Party. As we only had a few moments, I summarized: Indeed, don’t give it to the DNC; instead, help build the opposition infrastructure, noting three obvious candidates- The Center for American Progress, the ‘non-partisan educational and research institute’ (i.e. liberal think tank), the media watchdog Media Matters for America, and Air America Radio. I urged her to listen, read and support all three and to tell others of their existence and importance.
I know I’ve mentioned this and posted their addresses, but, once again,
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/c.biJRJ8OVF/b.8473/
http://mediamatters.org/
http://www.airamericaradio.com/
Mark Dayton and Lies “I don't like impugning anyone's integrity, but I really don't like being lied to."- Sen. Mark Dayton, re Condi. He then noted that Administration principals "get away with lying -- lying to Congress, lying to committees, lying to the American people. It's wrong, it's immoral, it's un-American, and it has to stop.”
Evan Bayh, Indiana centrist, and possible 2008 candidate, joined the fiery Dayton [D-Minnesota], as well as Kennedy, Byrd, Jack Reed (R.I.) and Barbara Boxer in condemning Rice. Hillary Clinton, who has already moved right (she wasn’t a liberal to begin with, has been consistently pro- Iraq invasion, and yesterday retreated from her pro-choice position, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/nyregion/25clinton.html?oref=login&oref=login has been quiet.
Meanwhile… Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Ken Salazar of Colorado announced their support of Ms. Rice, praising her qualifications. Indeed, Mr. Lieberman urged the Senate to "resoundingly endorse" her nomination. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25cnd-dipl.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=e387a25c4d489501&hp&ex=1106715600&partner=homepage
Boxer also was superb on CNN; Maybe the gentlemanly ways of many Democrats are finally giving way. Maybe now they will stop pretending that the Republicans are not malevolent. Hopefully they will be draw a line more often, and will be mobilized by this from Sy Hersh’s New Yorker article, … quoting a “high level intelligence officer”
Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador? We founded them and we financed them. The objective now is to recruit locals in any area we want. And we aren’t going to tell Congress about it. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact
In turn, Virginia Republican Senator George Allen said these Democratic should "be careful" when criticizing Rice for making false statements about the war in Iraq lest they "diminish Dr. Rice's credibility in capitals around the world." Allen added that Rice's "detractors can do a great disservice to this country, a great disservice by playing too hard a partisan game."
Gonzales Lies re Bush Avoiding Jury Duty. Why does it matter? Although it’s now clear that Gonzales was critical in putting the government on record as being pro-torture, that isn’t illegal; But, it is illegal to lie about Bush’s DUI arrest:
Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the mistreatment of prisoners. But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in 1996. The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for the dancer, about Gonzales's account. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857224/site/newsweek/
Perhaps you noted this article in the week after the 2000 election:
Travis County's lead prosecutor on the 1996 drunken-driving case in which Gov. George W. Bush was called as a potential juror now believes he was purposely misled by Bush and his attorney in an effort to avoid service.
Ken Oden, a Democrat who has been the Travis County attorney for 16 years, charged Saturday that Bush's failure to answer some of the questions on his jury questionnaire, coupled with his lawyer's efforts to get Bush excused because he might someday be called on to pardon the offender, was part of an effort to deceive prosecutors and others. http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/05/jury_duty/index.html
So, if there was any justice, Gonzales would have a shot at being the first Attorney General to be disbarred.
Environment: All isn’t lost…yet. We’ve got 10 years before it’s too late.
As chair of the G8, the Prime Minister should seek agreement to create a G8-Plus Climate Group to engage the US and major developing countries in action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a high-level taskforce established by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), the Centre for American Progress and the Australia Institute.In its report out tomorrow (Tuesday), the International Climate Change Taskforce concludes such a group would provide a way for G8 countries and other major economies - including India and China - to take action that would lead to large-scale reductions in emissions. The G8-Plus Climate Group would pursue partnerships to achieve immediate deployment of existing low-carbon energy technologies, including agreements to shift agricultural subsidies from food crops to biofuels and promote sales of highly efficient cars.The report also argues that all G8 countries should set a lead by adopting national targets to generate at least 25 per cent of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 and mandatory cap-and-trade schemes for emissions, like the EU scheme. In the US, this could happen through the Climate Stewardship Act, proposed by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, and could provide a path for US re-entry into a global climate change agreement after the Kyoto Protocol's first phase ends in 2012. http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/printer_17386.shtm
Armed Forces: Who’s Dying in Iraq?
USA Today, reports that the Air Force and Navy are having banner recruiting years while the Army and Marine Corps struggle, adds that "of the more than 1,350 U.S. deaths during the Iraq war, 41 have come from the Air Force and the Navy http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+Recruits+swamp+Navy%2C+Air+Force&expire=&urlID=12976878&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fwashington%2F2005-01-23-navy-air-recruits_x.htm&partnerID=
Deficit Games: We know that Social Security has been wrongly ‘reducing’ the yearly deficit, its surplus added each year to the yearly budget. [Not playing that game meant that there never was a Clinton surplus; instead his budget was merely balanced.] So, now the White House admits to a record $427 billion deficit, yet still claims it will cut the deficit in half by the time Bush exits. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25cnd-budg.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=5220775a97ac4547&hp&ex=1106715600&partner=homepage
January 24: Was it a Bad Day. Yes, on Monday we in Eastern Massachusetts were recovering from two feet or more of snow. But one chap believes that January 24 is the worst day of each year.
If you stumbled out of bed in the dark this morning, fell over the cat, found no milk in the fridge for your porridge, had a row with your partner, received a rude letter from the bank, got covered in snow at the bus stop and finally arrived at work in time to be made redundant, you will already know that today is the most depressing day of the year.
And if you want scientific proof, then Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University has it.
He settled on January 24 after using an elaborate formula expressing the delicate interplay of lousy weather, post-Christmas debt, time elapsed since yuletide indulgence, failed new year resolutions, motivation levels, and the desperate need to have something to look forward to. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1396977,00.html
-R
I know I’ve mentioned this and posted their addresses, but, once again,
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/c.biJRJ8OVF/b.8473/
http://mediamatters.org/
http://www.airamericaradio.com/
Mark Dayton and Lies “I don't like impugning anyone's integrity, but I really don't like being lied to."- Sen. Mark Dayton, re Condi. He then noted that Administration principals "get away with lying -- lying to Congress, lying to committees, lying to the American people. It's wrong, it's immoral, it's un-American, and it has to stop.”
Evan Bayh, Indiana centrist, and possible 2008 candidate, joined the fiery Dayton [D-Minnesota], as well as Kennedy, Byrd, Jack Reed (R.I.) and Barbara Boxer in condemning Rice. Hillary Clinton, who has already moved right (she wasn’t a liberal to begin with, has been consistently pro- Iraq invasion, and yesterday retreated from her pro-choice position, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/nyregion/25clinton.html?oref=login&oref=login has been quiet.
Meanwhile… Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut and Ken Salazar of Colorado announced their support of Ms. Rice, praising her qualifications. Indeed, Mr. Lieberman urged the Senate to "resoundingly endorse" her nomination. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25cnd-dipl.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=e387a25c4d489501&hp&ex=1106715600&partner=homepage
Boxer also was superb on CNN; Maybe the gentlemanly ways of many Democrats are finally giving way. Maybe now they will stop pretending that the Republicans are not malevolent. Hopefully they will be draw a line more often, and will be mobilized by this from Sy Hersh’s New Yorker article, … quoting a “high level intelligence officer”
Do you remember the right-wing execution squads in El Salvador? We founded them and we financed them. The objective now is to recruit locals in any area we want. And we aren’t going to tell Congress about it. http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050124fa_fact
In turn, Virginia Republican Senator George Allen said these Democratic should "be careful" when criticizing Rice for making false statements about the war in Iraq lest they "diminish Dr. Rice's credibility in capitals around the world." Allen added that Rice's "detractors can do a great disservice to this country, a great disservice by playing too hard a partisan game."
Gonzales Lies re Bush Avoiding Jury Duty. Why does it matter? Although it’s now clear that Gonzales was critical in putting the government on record as being pro-torture, that isn’t illegal; But, it is illegal to lie about Bush’s DUI arrest:
Senate Democrats put off a vote on White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be attorney general, complaining he had provided evasive answers to questions about torture and the mistreatment of prisoners. But Gonzales's most surprising answer may have come on a different subject: his role in helping President Bush escape jury duty in a drunken-driving case involving a dancer at an Austin strip club in 1996. The judge and other lawyers in the case last week disputed a written account of the matter provided by Gonzales to the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It's a complete misrepresentation," said David Wahlberg, lawyer for the dancer, about Gonzales's account. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6857224/site/newsweek/
Perhaps you noted this article in the week after the 2000 election:
Travis County's lead prosecutor on the 1996 drunken-driving case in which Gov. George W. Bush was called as a potential juror now believes he was purposely misled by Bush and his attorney in an effort to avoid service.
Ken Oden, a Democrat who has been the Travis County attorney for 16 years, charged Saturday that Bush's failure to answer some of the questions on his jury questionnaire, coupled with his lawyer's efforts to get Bush excused because he might someday be called on to pardon the offender, was part of an effort to deceive prosecutors and others. http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/11/05/jury_duty/index.html
So, if there was any justice, Gonzales would have a shot at being the first Attorney General to be disbarred.
Environment: All isn’t lost…yet. We’ve got 10 years before it’s too late.
As chair of the G8, the Prime Minister should seek agreement to create a G8-Plus Climate Group to engage the US and major developing countries in action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a high-level taskforce established by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), the Centre for American Progress and the Australia Institute.In its report out tomorrow (Tuesday), the International Climate Change Taskforce concludes such a group would provide a way for G8 countries and other major economies - including India and China - to take action that would lead to large-scale reductions in emissions. The G8-Plus Climate Group would pursue partnerships to achieve immediate deployment of existing low-carbon energy technologies, including agreements to shift agricultural subsidies from food crops to biofuels and promote sales of highly efficient cars.The report also argues that all G8 countries should set a lead by adopting national targets to generate at least 25 per cent of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025 and mandatory cap-and-trade schemes for emissions, like the EU scheme. In the US, this could happen through the Climate Stewardship Act, proposed by Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman, and could provide a path for US re-entry into a global climate change agreement after the Kyoto Protocol's first phase ends in 2012. http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/printer_17386.shtm
Armed Forces: Who’s Dying in Iraq?
USA Today, reports that the Air Force and Navy are having banner recruiting years while the Army and Marine Corps struggle, adds that "of the more than 1,350 U.S. deaths during the Iraq war, 41 have come from the Air Force and the Navy http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATODAY.com+-+Recruits+swamp+Navy%2C+Air+Force&expire=&urlID=12976878&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fwashington%2F2005-01-23-navy-air-recruits_x.htm&partnerID=
Deficit Games: We know that Social Security has been wrongly ‘reducing’ the yearly deficit, its surplus added each year to the yearly budget. [Not playing that game meant that there never was a Clinton surplus; instead his budget was merely balanced.] So, now the White House admits to a record $427 billion deficit, yet still claims it will cut the deficit in half by the time Bush exits. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25cnd-budg.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5094&en=5220775a97ac4547&hp&ex=1106715600&partner=homepage
January 24: Was it a Bad Day. Yes, on Monday we in Eastern Massachusetts were recovering from two feet or more of snow. But one chap believes that January 24 is the worst day of each year.
If you stumbled out of bed in the dark this morning, fell over the cat, found no milk in the fridge for your porridge, had a row with your partner, received a rude letter from the bank, got covered in snow at the bus stop and finally arrived at work in time to be made redundant, you will already know that today is the most depressing day of the year.
And if you want scientific proof, then Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University has it.
He settled on January 24 after using an elaborate formula expressing the delicate interplay of lousy weather, post-Christmas debt, time elapsed since yuletide indulgence, failed new year resolutions, motivation levels, and the desperate need to have something to look forward to. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1396977,00.html
-R
Sunday, January 23, 2005
What’s Happening, Iraq: Veterans Organizing
Sean Huze enlisted in the Marine Corps right after the Sept. 11 attacks and was, in his own words, "red, white and blue all the way" when he deployed to Iraq 16 months later. Unquestioning in his support of the invasion, he grew irritated when his father, a former National Guardsman, expressed doubts about the war.
Today, all that has changed. Haunted by the civilian casualties he witnessed, Corporal Huze has become one of a small but increasing number of Iraq veterans who have formed or joined groups to oppose the war or to criticize the way it is being fought.
The two most visible organizations - Operation Truth, of which Corporal Huze is a member, and Iraq Veterans Against the War - were founded only last summer but are growing in membership and sophistication. The Internet has helped them spread their word and galvanize like-minded people in ways unimaginable to activist veterans of previous generations, who are also lending help. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/23vets.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Worsening Insurgency: Knight Ridder: Bad signs:
- U.S. military fatalities from hostile acts have risen from an average of about 17 per month just after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003, to an average of 82 per month.
- The average number of U.S. soldiers wounded by hostile acts per month has spiraled from 142 to 808 during the same period. Iraqi civilians have suffered even more deaths and injuries, although reliable statistics aren't available.
- Attacks on the U.S.-led coalition since November 2003, when statistics were first available, have risen from 735 a month to 2,400 in October. Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, the multinational forces' deputy operations director, told Knight Ridder on Friday that attacks were currently running at 75 a day, about 2,300 a month, well below a spike in November during the assault on Fallujah, but nearly as high as October's total.
- The average number of mass-casualty bombings has grown from zero in the first four months of the American occupation to an average of 13 per month.
- Electricity production has been below pre-war levels since October, largely because of sabotage by insurgents, with just 6.7 hours of power daily in Baghdad in early January, according to the State Department.
- Iraq is pumping about 500,000 barrels a day fewer than its pre-war peak of 2.5 million barrels per day as a result of attacks, according to the State Department. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10704306.htm
Pentagon Rules! And the intelligence czar?
The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29414-2005Jan22?language=printer
Frank Rich: Torture? What torture?
Since the election, some news operations, most conspicuously NBC, have seemed eager to rally around the winner and avoid discouraging words of any kind. A database search of network transcripts finds that NBC's various news operations, in conscious or unconscious emulation of Fox, dug deeper into the Prince Harry scandal than Specialist Graner's trial. "NBC Nightly News" was frequently turned over to a journalism-free "Road to the Inauguration" tour that allowed the new anchor to pose in a series of jus'-folks settings.
But not all explanations for the torture story's downsizing have to do with ideological positioning and craven branding at the networks. The role of pictures in TV news remains paramount, and there has been no fresh visual meat from the scene of the crime (or the others like it) in eight months. The advances in the story since then, many of which involve revelations of indisputably genuine Washington memos, are not telegenic. Meanwhile, the recycling of the original Abu Ghraib snapshots, complemented by the perp walks at Fort Hood, only hammers in the erroneous notion that the story ended there, with the uncovering of a few bad apples at the bottom of the Army's barrel. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/arts/23rich.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Conservative Disquiet: Some Repubs didn’t like Mike Gerson’s Inauguration speech
e.g. Peggy Noonan, the writer of Reagan’s “best” speeches:Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?
The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike.
Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing. Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth.
And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."
One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not. http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
Our Democrats: War Talk re Iran by Obama, Kerry, Dean. Oy vey
Recently, the Democratic Party's rising "progressive" star Barack Obama said he would favor "surgical" missile strikes against Iran.
As Obama told the Chicago Tribune on September 26, 2004, "[T]he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures [to stop its nuclear program], including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point ... if any, are we going to take military action?"
He added, "Launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in" given the ongoing war in Iraq. "On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse." Obama went on to argue that military strikes on Pakistan should not be ruled out if "violent Islamic extremists" were to "take over."
Senator John Kerry echoed this sentiment on May 29, 2004, when he told the Washington Post that the Bush Administration has not "been tough on the [Iran] issue which is the issue of nuclear weaponry, and again just like I said with North Korea, you have to keep your eye on the target."
Even DNC chair hopeful Howard Dean, allegedly the liberal arm of the Democratic Party, concurs Bush has not been tough enough on Iran. http://www.counterpunch.org/frank01202005.html
And then there’s Joe Biden: What to do with someone who unleashes terrific lines to roast Rice, yet then votes for her. [And recall- painfully- that he voted for Clarence Thomas.] Maybe he's an example of how Jon Stewart characterizes the Democrats, “A moment of resistance, a lifetime of capitulation.”
Media Matters for America charts the coverage of the Inauguration. They
inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on FOX*, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives. http://mediamatters.org/items/200501210001
Looking Back: Bush’s 4 Years
Poverty Rate2000: 11.3% or 31.6 million Americans2003: 12.5% or 35.9 million Americans
Stock marketDow Jones Industrial Average1/19/01: 10,587.591/19/05: 10,539.97
NASDAQ1/19/01: 2,770.381/19/05: 2,073.59
S&P 5001/19/01: 1,342.541/19/05: 1,184.63
Value of the Dollar1/19/01: 1 Dollar = 1.06 Euros1/19/05: 1 Dollar = 0.77 Euros
Budget2000 budget surplus $236.4 billion2004 budget deficit $412.6 billionThat's a shift of $649 billion and doesn't include the cost of the
Iraq war.
Cost of the war in Iraq$150.8 billion
American Casualties in IraqDeaths: 1,369Wounded: 10,252
The DebtEnd of 2000: $5.7 trillionToday: $7.6 trillionThat's a 4 year increase of 33%
http://numeralist.blogspot.com/2005/01/by-numbers-u.html
Air America radio thriving
But with an infusion of new financing and new management, the radio network has won high ratings in some of its local markets and has garnered the support of radio-industry giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. It has signed three-year contracts with its top two stars, Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, and raised an additional $19 million from private investors. People familiar with the situation say Air America is also finalizing a deal that would get it back on the air in Los Angeles via KXTA-AM, a Clear Channel sports station.
In fact, President Bush's victory might be the best thing that could have happened to the network. Just as Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio voices flourished during eight years of President Clinton, Air America's hosts now have an inviting target for the rest of the term.
"What happened on Nov. 2 may have been bad for America but it sure was good for Air America," says Rob Glaser, chairman of Air America. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB110616841893830479-IhjgYNklaB4nZ2uZHyIcaWIm4,00.html
The Economy: Fed Chair Alan Greenspan is now more critical of the Bush Economy. The Response from the Bushies? Talk about cutting deficits and look for a strong ally to replace Greenspan when he retires next January.
In private sessions, Mr. Greenspan may well be warning Mr. Bush in blunter terms. The Fed chairman meets regularly with Vice President Dick Cheney and periodically with Mr. Bush.
There is a rumor in Washington - thus far unconfirmed - that Mr. Greenspan warned the White House in mid-December that it would have to take more credible steps than it has so far to meet its goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.
If true, the unspoken but inescapable threat would be clear: if the Fed wasn't satisfied, Mr. Greenspan could signal his lack of confidence in Mr. Bush's fiscal plan. Investors would be shaken and Mr. Bush's credibility would be damaged.
What is certain is that the White House has started to signal tough cuts - trimming as much as $30 billion over six years at the Pentagon - and Mr. Bush has adjusted his rhetoric about the deficit.
Where administration officials routinely called the deficits "unwelcome but manageable," Mr. Bush and other top officials now describe deficit reduction as the cornerstone of their strategy for shoring up the foreign exchange value of the dollar. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/business/yourmoney/23view.html?pagewanted=print&position
Tax Cuts, Property Taxes. The Relationship
Homeowners' property taxes in the vast majority of Massachusetts cities and towns will continue their upward climb in 2005, with double-digit percentage hikes in Boston, Cambridge, Everett, and at least 40 other cities and towns, and smaller increases in Newton, Somerville, and Milton, a Globe review has found.
The median property tax bill for single-family homes across Massachusetts will be $3,166 in 2005, 9 percent more than last year and up 38 percent from the 2000 tax bills…
Romney said the budget plan he will unveil next week will raise state spending on cities and towns by $183 million, a 4.6 percent increase over this year's total and the largest boost since Massachusetts plunged into its state budget crisis four years ago. The additional state dollars should alleviate the pressure on local officials to raise property taxes. But the governor's $4.42 billion proposal is still less than the $4.48 billion the state funneled to cities and towns in fiscal year 2002, and healthcare and other local government costs have risen sharply since then.
According to a recent report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-funded nonprofit that monitors taxes and government spending, 163 communities sustained state aid cuts of 15 percent or more between 2001 and 2004.
''We have not made up the lost ground," said Geoff Beckwith of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which lobbies for cities and towns. ''And because of that, there has been a tax shift. There is a greater reliance on the property tax today to pay for local services than there was before the fiscal crisis." http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/23/most_cities_and_towns_see_property_tax_hike?mode=PF
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Sean Huze enlisted in the Marine Corps right after the Sept. 11 attacks and was, in his own words, "red, white and blue all the way" when he deployed to Iraq 16 months later. Unquestioning in his support of the invasion, he grew irritated when his father, a former National Guardsman, expressed doubts about the war.
Today, all that has changed. Haunted by the civilian casualties he witnessed, Corporal Huze has become one of a small but increasing number of Iraq veterans who have formed or joined groups to oppose the war or to criticize the way it is being fought.
The two most visible organizations - Operation Truth, of which Corporal Huze is a member, and Iraq Veterans Against the War - were founded only last summer but are growing in membership and sophistication. The Internet has helped them spread their word and galvanize like-minded people in ways unimaginable to activist veterans of previous generations, who are also lending help. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/23vets.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Worsening Insurgency: Knight Ridder: Bad signs:
- U.S. military fatalities from hostile acts have risen from an average of about 17 per month just after President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003, to an average of 82 per month.
- The average number of U.S. soldiers wounded by hostile acts per month has spiraled from 142 to 808 during the same period. Iraqi civilians have suffered even more deaths and injuries, although reliable statistics aren't available.
- Attacks on the U.S.-led coalition since November 2003, when statistics were first available, have risen from 735 a month to 2,400 in October. Air Force Brig. Gen. Erv Lessel, the multinational forces' deputy operations director, told Knight Ridder on Friday that attacks were currently running at 75 a day, about 2,300 a month, well below a spike in November during the assault on Fallujah, but nearly as high as October's total.
- The average number of mass-casualty bombings has grown from zero in the first four months of the American occupation to an average of 13 per month.
- Electricity production has been below pre-war levels since October, largely because of sabotage by insurgents, with just 6.7 hours of power daily in Baghdad in early January, according to the State Department.
- Iraq is pumping about 500,000 barrels a day fewer than its pre-war peak of 2.5 million barrels per day as a result of attacks, according to the State Department. http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/10704306.htm
Pentagon Rules! And the intelligence czar?
The Pentagon, expanding into the CIA's historic bailiwick, has created a new espionage arm and is reinterpreting U.S. law to give Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld broad authority over clandestine operations abroad, according to interviews with participants and documents obtained by The Washington Post.
The previously undisclosed organization, called the Strategic Support Branch, arose from Rumsfeld's written order to end his "near total dependence on CIA" for what is known as human intelligence. Designed to operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control, the Strategic Support Branch deploys small teams of case officers, linguists, interrogators and technical specialists alongside newly empowered special operations forces. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A29414-2005Jan22?language=printer
Frank Rich: Torture? What torture?
Since the election, some news operations, most conspicuously NBC, have seemed eager to rally around the winner and avoid discouraging words of any kind. A database search of network transcripts finds that NBC's various news operations, in conscious or unconscious emulation of Fox, dug deeper into the Prince Harry scandal than Specialist Graner's trial. "NBC Nightly News" was frequently turned over to a journalism-free "Road to the Inauguration" tour that allowed the new anchor to pose in a series of jus'-folks settings.
But not all explanations for the torture story's downsizing have to do with ideological positioning and craven branding at the networks. The role of pictures in TV news remains paramount, and there has been no fresh visual meat from the scene of the crime (or the others like it) in eight months. The advances in the story since then, many of which involve revelations of indisputably genuine Washington memos, are not telegenic. Meanwhile, the recycling of the original Abu Ghraib snapshots, complemented by the perp walks at Fort Hood, only hammers in the erroneous notion that the story ended there, with the uncovering of a few bad apples at the bottom of the Army's barrel. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/arts/23rich.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Conservative Disquiet: Some Repubs didn’t like Mike Gerson’s Inauguration speech
e.g. Peggy Noonan, the writer of Reagan’s “best” speeches:Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?
The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike.
Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing. Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth.
And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom."
One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not. http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/
Our Democrats: War Talk re Iran by Obama, Kerry, Dean. Oy vey
Recently, the Democratic Party's rising "progressive" star Barack Obama said he would favor "surgical" missile strikes against Iran.
As Obama told the Chicago Tribune on September 26, 2004, "[T]he big question is going to be, if Iran is resistant to these pressures [to stop its nuclear program], including economic sanctions, which I hope will be imposed if they do not cooperate, at what point ... if any, are we going to take military action?"
He added, "Launching some missile strikes into Iran is not the optimal position for us to be in" given the ongoing war in Iraq. "On the other hand, having a radical Muslim theocracy in possession of nuclear weapons is worse." Obama went on to argue that military strikes on Pakistan should not be ruled out if "violent Islamic extremists" were to "take over."
Senator John Kerry echoed this sentiment on May 29, 2004, when he told the Washington Post that the Bush Administration has not "been tough on the [Iran] issue which is the issue of nuclear weaponry, and again just like I said with North Korea, you have to keep your eye on the target."
Even DNC chair hopeful Howard Dean, allegedly the liberal arm of the Democratic Party, concurs Bush has not been tough enough on Iran. http://www.counterpunch.org/frank01202005.html
And then there’s Joe Biden: What to do with someone who unleashes terrific lines to roast Rice, yet then votes for her. [And recall- painfully- that he voted for Clarence Thomas.] Maybe he's an example of how Jon Stewart characterizes the Democrats, “A moment of resistance, a lifetime of capitulation.”
Media Matters for America charts the coverage of the Inauguration. They
inventoried all guests who appeared on FOX News, CNN, and MSNBC during the channels' January 20 inauguration coverage. Between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, Republican and conservative guests and commentators outnumbered Democrats and progressives 19 to 7 on FOX*, 10 to 1 on CNN (not including a Republican-skewed panel featuring Ohio voters), and 13 to 2 on MSNBC. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives. Moreover, the rare Democrat or progressive guest usually appeared opposite conservatives, whereas most Republican and conservative guests and commentators appeared solo or alongside fellow conservatives. http://mediamatters.org/items/200501210001
Looking Back: Bush’s 4 Years
Poverty Rate2000: 11.3% or 31.6 million Americans2003: 12.5% or 35.9 million Americans
Stock marketDow Jones Industrial Average1/19/01: 10,587.591/19/05: 10,539.97
NASDAQ1/19/01: 2,770.381/19/05: 2,073.59
S&P 5001/19/01: 1,342.541/19/05: 1,184.63
Value of the Dollar1/19/01: 1 Dollar = 1.06 Euros1/19/05: 1 Dollar = 0.77 Euros
Budget2000 budget surplus $236.4 billion2004 budget deficit $412.6 billionThat's a shift of $649 billion and doesn't include the cost of the
Iraq war.
Cost of the war in Iraq$150.8 billion
American Casualties in IraqDeaths: 1,369Wounded: 10,252
The DebtEnd of 2000: $5.7 trillionToday: $7.6 trillionThat's a 4 year increase of 33%
http://numeralist.blogspot.com/2005/01/by-numbers-u.html
Air America radio thriving
But with an infusion of new financing and new management, the radio network has won high ratings in some of its local markets and has garnered the support of radio-industry giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. It has signed three-year contracts with its top two stars, Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, and raised an additional $19 million from private investors. People familiar with the situation say Air America is also finalizing a deal that would get it back on the air in Los Angeles via KXTA-AM, a Clear Channel sports station.
In fact, President Bush's victory might be the best thing that could have happened to the network. Just as Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio voices flourished during eight years of President Clinton, Air America's hosts now have an inviting target for the rest of the term.
"What happened on Nov. 2 may have been bad for America but it sure was good for Air America," says Rob Glaser, chairman of Air America. http://online.wsj.com/article_email/0,,SB110616841893830479-IhjgYNklaB4nZ2uZHyIcaWIm4,00.html
The Economy: Fed Chair Alan Greenspan is now more critical of the Bush Economy. The Response from the Bushies? Talk about cutting deficits and look for a strong ally to replace Greenspan when he retires next January.
In private sessions, Mr. Greenspan may well be warning Mr. Bush in blunter terms. The Fed chairman meets regularly with Vice President Dick Cheney and periodically with Mr. Bush.
There is a rumor in Washington - thus far unconfirmed - that Mr. Greenspan warned the White House in mid-December that it would have to take more credible steps than it has so far to meet its goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009.
If true, the unspoken but inescapable threat would be clear: if the Fed wasn't satisfied, Mr. Greenspan could signal his lack of confidence in Mr. Bush's fiscal plan. Investors would be shaken and Mr. Bush's credibility would be damaged.
What is certain is that the White House has started to signal tough cuts - trimming as much as $30 billion over six years at the Pentagon - and Mr. Bush has adjusted his rhetoric about the deficit.
Where administration officials routinely called the deficits "unwelcome but manageable," Mr. Bush and other top officials now describe deficit reduction as the cornerstone of their strategy for shoring up the foreign exchange value of the dollar. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/business/yourmoney/23view.html?pagewanted=print&position
Tax Cuts, Property Taxes. The Relationship
Homeowners' property taxes in the vast majority of Massachusetts cities and towns will continue their upward climb in 2005, with double-digit percentage hikes in Boston, Cambridge, Everett, and at least 40 other cities and towns, and smaller increases in Newton, Somerville, and Milton, a Globe review has found.
The median property tax bill for single-family homes across Massachusetts will be $3,166 in 2005, 9 percent more than last year and up 38 percent from the 2000 tax bills…
Romney said the budget plan he will unveil next week will raise state spending on cities and towns by $183 million, a 4.6 percent increase over this year's total and the largest boost since Massachusetts plunged into its state budget crisis four years ago. The additional state dollars should alleviate the pressure on local officials to raise property taxes. But the governor's $4.42 billion proposal is still less than the $4.48 billion the state funneled to cities and towns in fiscal year 2002, and healthcare and other local government costs have risen sharply since then.
According to a recent report by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-funded nonprofit that monitors taxes and government spending, 163 communities sustained state aid cuts of 15 percent or more between 2001 and 2004.
''We have not made up the lost ground," said Geoff Beckwith of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which lobbies for cities and towns. ''And because of that, there has been a tax shift. There is a greater reliance on the property tax today to pay for local services than there was before the fiscal crisis." http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/01/23/most_cities_and_towns_see_property_tax_hike?mode=PF
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