Friday, March 11, 2005
Al-Qaeda: The Threat that Isn’t (?)
Long exaggerated as a threat- but, useful for immobilizing the citizenry- it’s a sign of rationality, perhaps, that a report emerges questioning al-Qaeda’s capacity to inflict damage on the U.S.
A secret FBI report obtained by ABC News concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaeda wants to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear.
"Al-Qa'ida leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question," the report reads. (All spellings are as rendered in the original report.) "However, their capability to do so is unclear, particularly in regard to 'spectacular' operations. We believe al-Qa'ida's capability to launch attacks within the United States is dependent on its ability to infiltrate and maintain operatives in the United States."
And for all the worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none.
The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US," seemingly contradicting the "sleeper cell" description prosecutors assigned to seven men in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2002.
Overblown Sleeper Cell Threat?
"Limited reporting since March indicates al-Qa'ida has sought to recruit and train individuals to conduct attacks in the United States, but is inconclusive as to whether they have succeeded in placing operatives in this country," the report reads. "US Government efforts to date also have not revealed evidence of concealed cells or networks acting in the homeland as sleepers."
It also differs from testimony given by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who warned in the past that several sleeper cells were probably in place. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=566425&page=1
Social Security: New angle to persuade us? Courtesy of a U. of Buffalo economist
Policymakers and citizens pondering the merits of Social Security reform should consider new evidence showing that "social security" adversely affects decisions to marry and have children.
A new University at Buffalo study, examining the experience of 57 countries over a 32-year period, concludes that in the U.S. and other countries where social security is instituted as a defined-benefits, pay-as-you-go system, marriage and fertility rates fell sharply over time -- partly as a result of social security itself.
Those declines were not found in countries utilizing government-managed personal savings accounts or privatized pension funds as a basis of their social security system. http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=71830009
Democrats still firm, with only, perhaps, two considering supporting the Bush “plan
In the Post survey of the one independent and 44 Democratic senators, only two -- Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) -- did not criticize Bush's plan and said they will consider it once he provides more details. Two other Democrats -- Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii -- did not close the door to considering individual accounts, with Sarbanes saying he objects to such surveys. However, Sarbanes and Inouye cited a March 3 letter to Bush as representing their feelings about his plan.
The letter, signed by 41 Democrats and independent Sen. James M. Jeffords (Vt.), said the Bush plan is "unacceptable." It called on the president to "unambiguously announce that you reject privatized accounts funded with Social Security dollars. . . ." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25304-2005Mar10.html
The Race Card: Bush in Louisville With polls showing only 37% approving of Bush’s policy, they’re trying everything.
Oh, I know they say certain people aren't capable of investing, you know, the investor class. It kind of sounds like to me, you know, a certain race of people living in a certain area. I believe everybody's got the capability of being in the investor class. I believe everybody should be allowed to watch their own assets grow, not just a few people."
Labor Watch: Unpaid trucking, part of the Walmartization of work
Safety and labor groups urged Congress on Tuesday to reject a proposal supported by retailers and other industries that would extend truckers' work days by giving them unpaid time off during the day.
A planned amendment to the six-year highway and transit bill to be considered by the House of Representatives on Wednesday would permit companies to schedule their drivers over a 16-hour period each day, adding two unpaid hours to the 14 hours now paid. Maximum driving time would remain at 11 hours.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/09/news/economy/truckers.reut/index.htm
Weekly Frank Rich: Looking back on 9/11 and our culture
Even as we're constantly told we're in a war for "freedom" abroad, freedom in our culture at home has been under attack ever since.
More on new movie The Aristocrats and more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/arts/13Rich.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=print&position=
Rich, a former op.ed. writer is returning to that page, after 2 years in the Arts section.
Belated Inquiry re Salvadoran massacre. Of interest to us old timers…
The Organization of American States will reopen an investigation this week into the massacre of hundreds of peasants in 1981 at El Mozote, El Salvador, based on new forensic evidence found by anthropologists at the site, according to lawyers involved in the case.
More than 800 unarmed peasants were killed in December 1981 by soldiers from the Salvadoran Armed Forces at El Mozote, a village in the mountains of the Morazán region, near the country's southern border. The soldiers, from a battalion trained and equipped by the United States, accused the peasants of sympathizing with guerrillas. The O.A.S. is looking into whether the Salvadoran government approved the killings.
The decision to revisit one of the most gruesome events of the country's 12-year conflict will come as unwelcome news to the Salvadoran government, which has never conducted an independent and impartial investigation of its own.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/international/americas/08salvador.html?pagewanted=print&position=
More on detainees and international law
Top military intelligence officials at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Keeping such "ghost" detainees is a violation of international law.
Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was second in command of the intelligence gathering effort at Abu Ghraib while the abuse was occurring, told military investigators that "other government agencies" and a secretive elite task force "routinely brought in detainees for a short period of time" and that the detainees were held without an internment number, and their names were kept off the books.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25239-2005Mar10.html
-R
Long exaggerated as a threat- but, useful for immobilizing the citizenry- it’s a sign of rationality, perhaps, that a report emerges questioning al-Qaeda’s capacity to inflict damage on the U.S.
A secret FBI report obtained by ABC News concludes that while there is no doubt al Qaeda wants to hit the United States, its capability to do so is unclear.
"Al-Qa'ida leadership's intention to attack the United States is not in question," the report reads. (All spellings are as rendered in the original report.) "However, their capability to do so is unclear, particularly in regard to 'spectacular' operations. We believe al-Qa'ida's capability to launch attacks within the United States is dependent on its ability to infiltrate and maintain operatives in the United States."
And for all the worry about Osama bin Laden's sleeper cells or agents in the United States, a secret FBI assessment concludes it knows of none.
The 32-page assessment says flatly, "To date, we have not identified any true 'sleeper' agents in the US," seemingly contradicting the "sleeper cell" description prosecutors assigned to seven men in Lackawanna, N.Y., in 2002.
Overblown Sleeper Cell Threat?
"Limited reporting since March indicates al-Qa'ida has sought to recruit and train individuals to conduct attacks in the United States, but is inconclusive as to whether they have succeeded in placing operatives in this country," the report reads. "US Government efforts to date also have not revealed evidence of concealed cells or networks acting in the homeland as sleepers."
It also differs from testimony given by FBI Director Robert Mueller, who warned in the past that several sleeper cells were probably in place. http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=566425&page=1
Social Security: New angle to persuade us? Courtesy of a U. of Buffalo economist
Policymakers and citizens pondering the merits of Social Security reform should consider new evidence showing that "social security" adversely affects decisions to marry and have children.
A new University at Buffalo study, examining the experience of 57 countries over a 32-year period, concludes that in the U.S. and other countries where social security is instituted as a defined-benefits, pay-as-you-go system, marriage and fertility rates fell sharply over time -- partly as a result of social security itself.
Those declines were not found in countries utilizing government-managed personal savings accounts or privatized pension funds as a basis of their social security system. http://www.buffalo.edu/news/fast-execute.cgi/article-page.html?article=71830009
Democrats still firm, with only, perhaps, two considering supporting the Bush “plan
In the Post survey of the one independent and 44 Democratic senators, only two -- Ben Nelson (Neb.) and Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) -- did not criticize Bush's plan and said they will consider it once he provides more details. Two other Democrats -- Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland and Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii -- did not close the door to considering individual accounts, with Sarbanes saying he objects to such surveys. However, Sarbanes and Inouye cited a March 3 letter to Bush as representing their feelings about his plan.
The letter, signed by 41 Democrats and independent Sen. James M. Jeffords (Vt.), said the Bush plan is "unacceptable." It called on the president to "unambiguously announce that you reject privatized accounts funded with Social Security dollars. . . ." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25304-2005Mar10.html
The Race Card: Bush in Louisville With polls showing only 37% approving of Bush’s policy, they’re trying everything.
Oh, I know they say certain people aren't capable of investing, you know, the investor class. It kind of sounds like to me, you know, a certain race of people living in a certain area. I believe everybody's got the capability of being in the investor class. I believe everybody should be allowed to watch their own assets grow, not just a few people."
Labor Watch: Unpaid trucking, part of the Walmartization of work
Safety and labor groups urged Congress on Tuesday to reject a proposal supported by retailers and other industries that would extend truckers' work days by giving them unpaid time off during the day.
A planned amendment to the six-year highway and transit bill to be considered by the House of Representatives on Wednesday would permit companies to schedule their drivers over a 16-hour period each day, adding two unpaid hours to the 14 hours now paid. Maximum driving time would remain at 11 hours.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/09/news/economy/truckers.reut/index.htm
Weekly Frank Rich: Looking back on 9/11 and our culture
Even as we're constantly told we're in a war for "freedom" abroad, freedom in our culture at home has been under attack ever since.
More on new movie The Aristocrats and more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/13/arts/13Rich.html?8hpib=&pagewanted=print&position=
Rich, a former op.ed. writer is returning to that page, after 2 years in the Arts section.
Belated Inquiry re Salvadoran massacre. Of interest to us old timers…
The Organization of American States will reopen an investigation this week into the massacre of hundreds of peasants in 1981 at El Mozote, El Salvador, based on new forensic evidence found by anthropologists at the site, according to lawyers involved in the case.
More than 800 unarmed peasants were killed in December 1981 by soldiers from the Salvadoran Armed Forces at El Mozote, a village in the mountains of the Morazán region, near the country's southern border. The soldiers, from a battalion trained and equipped by the United States, accused the peasants of sympathizing with guerrillas. The O.A.S. is looking into whether the Salvadoran government approved the killings.
The decision to revisit one of the most gruesome events of the country's 12-year conflict will come as unwelcome news to the Salvadoran government, which has never conducted an independent and impartial investigation of its own.http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/international/americas/08salvador.html?pagewanted=print&position=
More on detainees and international law
Top military intelligence officials at the Abu Ghraib prison came to an agreement with the CIA to hide certain detainees at the facility without officially registering them, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Keeping such "ghost" detainees is a violation of international law.
Army Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, who was second in command of the intelligence gathering effort at Abu Ghraib while the abuse was occurring, told military investigators that "other government agencies" and a secretive elite task force "routinely brought in detainees for a short period of time" and that the detainees were held without an internment number, and their names were kept off the books.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25239-2005Mar10.html
-R
Thursday, March 10, 2005
Administration’s Next “Push”: While Bush and his opponents focus on Social Security…
The Bush administration is expected to launch a push for business-friendly regulation, possibly including streamlined and more flexible pollution standards, chemical-handling rules, and workers' medical-leave protections.
The stated aim is to improve the overall climate for U.S. manufacturing, a sector hammered by recession and overseas competition during much of President Bush's first term.
But Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a pro-consumer group that monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, called the effort a new assault on anticompetitive rules that amounts to rewarding Mr. Bush's political supporters in the business world. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111033197854474215,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
U.S. Withdraws (again) from International Tribunal We took the marbles and went home, after a ruling that the International Court of Justice had jurisdiction over allegations that foreign nationals jailed here have been illegally denied access to diplomats from their countries.
The Bush administration has decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said yesterday.
In a two-paragraph letter dated March 7, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States "hereby withdraws" from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The United States proposed the protocol in 1963 and ratified it -- along with the rest of the Vienna Convention -- in 1969.
The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed. abroad.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21981-2005Mar9.html
Journalists in Iraq: Follow-up. Even Berlusconi is [acting] furious
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said today the driver of the car in which an Italian agent was killed by US forces in Iraq last week had obeyed orders to stop.
Mr Berlusconi said the car, which was taking the freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad airport, pulled up immediately when American soldiers flashed a warning light at it.
The prime minister told the Italian senate that the intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who received a state funeral in Rome on Monday, had US military authorisation for his operation to secure the release of Ms Sgrena. http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1433938,00.html
Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias notes how few journalists have lodged protests over the deaths of 73 colleagues who’ve been killed in Iraq.
You have to wonder what Eason Jordan thinks about last Friday's attack on the car that took Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from her kidnapping ordeal to her close call at the Baghdad airport.
Jordan is the CNN news chief who in January made controversial remarks about U.S. troops targeting journalists, comments which led to his resigning "to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq."
Alarming indeed: at least 73 and counting.
Never mind that, according to David Gergen, the Harvard professor and former presidential adviser, who moderated the Davos panel on which Jordan made his statements, Jordan was merely refuting the idea that the dead journalists were actually "collateral damage."
In the rush to hang Jordan, the right — and their willing news twinkies in the media — seem totally unperturbed that the only place reporters feel halfway safe in Iraq is either embedded in the belly of the U.S. military beast or on a Baghdad hotel roof, shielded by satellite dishes. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1110235811810&call_pageid=970599119419
Administration Defeat: Clear Skies Travesty Thwarted
President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress today when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection.
The setback dealt a body blow to the administration's highly touted plan and handed a victory to environmental groups that viewed the "Clear Skies" bill as rolling back safeguards at the behest of industry interests.
Democrats, joined by Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.), said negotiations had been conducted in bad faith, that the initiative's pollution control targets were set too low, and that certain loopholes in the bill were irresponsible.
The 9-9 vote in the Senate committee followed weeks of postponements and months of anticipation, alternately marked by low-ball tactics and high drama. While neither side said the bill was doomed, the groups remained far apart on many issues, and future negotiations appeared to be jeopardized by mistrust and radical differences of opinion.
Republican House Budget: Priorities are crystal clear
Domestic programs, excluding benefits, would be cut by 0.8 percent. Such programs range from national parks to food safety protection, but final decisions on exactly where the cuts will fall will be made in later bills.
Defense spending would grow by 4.8 percent while spending on domestic security programs would grow by 2.3 percent. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20348-2005Mar9.html
And, we’re supposed to celebrate that the Republican Right wants to cut back on proposed tax cuts. The extended tax breaks would be on capital gains and dividends… of course. Praise the Moderate Republicans!
President Bush's plan to extend his tax cuts over the next five years ran into resistance in the Senate on Wednesday as Republican leaders offered a budget for 2006 that would undo more than a fourth of the cuts that Mr. Bush has requested.
Uneasy about the potential impact on the ballooning federal deficit, the Senate Republicans called for $70.2 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, as opposed to the estimated $100 billion the White House is seeking. It does not specify which cuts will be extended or which taxes might be restored, but Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who is chairman of the Budget Committee, said his intent was to extend reductions on capital gains and dividend taxes, which are set to expire in 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/politics/10budget.html?hp&ex=1110517200&en=41cfa2a15543254a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Texas Budget Junior may be gone, but they know the script: Tax Cuts for the Very Wealthy!
Texas families earning less than $100,000 a year would pay about $1.1 billion more a year in state taxes, while higher-income residents would see a tax cut of $437 million under a House bill designed to cut school property taxes, a report said Tuesday. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3075797
USANext Smear: Fighting Back
Remember USANext's smear job on AARP -- the internet-only ad that tried to marginalize the AARP out of the Social Security debate by suggesting that the group has something against American soldiers but loves gay marriage? Rick Raymen and Steve Hansen haven't forgotten. They're the Oregon couple shown kissing in the USANext ad. Today in Washington, they filed a $25 million lawsuit against USANext.
"Our privacy and personal integrity were violated when our wedding photo was stolen and used to portray us as treasonous, unpatriotic, and a threat to American troops," Raymen said in a statement released to the press today. "We have been harassed and humiliated by this hateful ad campaign and by the bigotry and anger it has generated against us nationwide." http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/03/09/usanext/index.html
India and Venezuela Oil Deal Chavez cruises for Axis of Evil status, as he forges what might be called a new nonaligned movement. Venezuela has the capacity to produce more oil than Iraq if provided with an infusion of capital [as from India], China is brokering deals with Venezuela, and Fidel is a friend. If this were 1973, Kissinger wouldn’t be hesitating to ‘do an Allende’.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on Tuesday said it was likely to get 49 per cent equity in an oil bloc in Venezuela and was negotiating commercial terms of the project.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha said the public sector unit would be entering the retail LPG market from the fiscal 2005-06.
"We can get 49 per cent of the share in the Venezuela oil bloc for which the MoU was signed last week," he said on the sidelines of Tata Steel organized 'Global Compact' Regional Conclave in Jamshedpur.
Raha said the commercial terms were being negotiated but did not give any time frame for starting drilling there. ONGC signed the MoU last week when Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was on a visit to India. http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/08ongc1.htm
Arnold on the Defensive The honeymoon’s over; the future’s unclear. Bless those CNA nurses whose activism is model, legendary.
Everywhere Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger goes these days there's a crowd. But they're not looking for his autograph…
The core group consists of nurses upset about Schwarzenegger's attempt to scale back hospital staffing requirements and firefighters worried about pensions. They're getting support from out-of-state colleagues, who turned up at Schwarzenegger's East Coast events this week and heckled him fiercely.
"Screw Arnold!" protesters shouted from the street as the governor dined with donors Monday at the tony 21 Club in Manhattan.
Schwarzenegger had ducked into the establishment through a service entrance to escape about 100 demonstrators; New York Gov. George Pataki had gone in the front door. But there was no sanctuary for Schwarzenegger inside.
A Santa Clara firefighter had flown in for the appearance at his own expense, put on a coat and tie and reserved a table for dinner. He walked up to the reception on another floor and confronted Schwarzenegger about his plans to cut costs by converting the state retirement system to a 401(k)-style plan. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold9mar09,0,1251147,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
-R
The Bush administration is expected to launch a push for business-friendly regulation, possibly including streamlined and more flexible pollution standards, chemical-handling rules, and workers' medical-leave protections.
The stated aim is to improve the overall climate for U.S. manufacturing, a sector hammered by recession and overseas competition during much of President Bush's first term.
But Gary Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a pro-consumer group that monitors the White House Office of Management and Budget, called the effort a new assault on anticompetitive rules that amounts to rewarding Mr. Bush's political supporters in the business world. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB111033197854474215,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
U.S. Withdraws (again) from International Tribunal We took the marbles and went home, after a ruling that the International Court of Justice had jurisdiction over allegations that foreign nationals jailed here have been illegally denied access to diplomats from their countries.
The Bush administration has decided to pull out of an international agreement that opponents of the death penalty have used to fight the sentences of foreigners on death row in the United States, officials said yesterday.
In a two-paragraph letter dated March 7, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice informed U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that the United States "hereby withdraws" from the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. The United States proposed the protocol in 1963 and ratified it -- along with the rest of the Vienna Convention -- in 1969.
The protocol requires signatories to let the International Court of Justice (ICJ) make the final decision when their citizens say they have been illegally denied the right to see a home-country diplomat when jailed. abroad.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21981-2005Mar9.html
Journalists in Iraq: Follow-up. Even Berlusconi is [acting] furious
The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, said today the driver of the car in which an Italian agent was killed by US forces in Iraq last week had obeyed orders to stop.
Mr Berlusconi said the car, which was taking the freed Italian hostage Giuliana Sgrena to Baghdad airport, pulled up immediately when American soldiers flashed a warning light at it.
The prime minister told the Italian senate that the intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who received a state funeral in Rome on Monday, had US military authorisation for his operation to secure the release of Ms Sgrena. http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1433938,00.html
Toronto Star columnist Antonia Zerbisias notes how few journalists have lodged protests over the deaths of 73 colleagues who’ve been killed in Iraq.
You have to wonder what Eason Jordan thinks about last Friday's attack on the car that took Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from her kidnapping ordeal to her close call at the Baghdad airport.
Jordan is the CNN news chief who in January made controversial remarks about U.S. troops targeting journalists, comments which led to his resigning "to prevent CNN from being unfairly tarnished by the controversy over conflicting accounts of my recent remarks regarding the alarming number of journalists killed in Iraq."
Alarming indeed: at least 73 and counting.
Never mind that, according to David Gergen, the Harvard professor and former presidential adviser, who moderated the Davos panel on which Jordan made his statements, Jordan was merely refuting the idea that the dead journalists were actually "collateral damage."
In the rush to hang Jordan, the right — and their willing news twinkies in the media — seem totally unperturbed that the only place reporters feel halfway safe in Iraq is either embedded in the belly of the U.S. military beast or on a Baghdad hotel roof, shielded by satellite dishes. http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_PrintFriendly&c=Article&cid=1110235811810&call_pageid=970599119419
Administration Defeat: Clear Skies Travesty Thwarted
President Bush's bid to rewrite the nation's air pollution laws ground to a halt in Congress today when Republicans were unable to overcome objections in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the bill would weaken central pillars of environmental protection.
The setback dealt a body blow to the administration's highly touted plan and handed a victory to environmental groups that viewed the "Clear Skies" bill as rolling back safeguards at the behest of industry interests.
Democrats, joined by Sen. James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.), said negotiations had been conducted in bad faith, that the initiative's pollution control targets were set too low, and that certain loopholes in the bill were irresponsible.
The 9-9 vote in the Senate committee followed weeks of postponements and months of anticipation, alternately marked by low-ball tactics and high drama. While neither side said the bill was doomed, the groups remained far apart on many issues, and future negotiations appeared to be jeopardized by mistrust and radical differences of opinion.
Republican House Budget: Priorities are crystal clear
Domestic programs, excluding benefits, would be cut by 0.8 percent. Such programs range from national parks to food safety protection, but final decisions on exactly where the cuts will fall will be made in later bills.
Defense spending would grow by 4.8 percent while spending on domestic security programs would grow by 2.3 percent. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20348-2005Mar9.html
And, we’re supposed to celebrate that the Republican Right wants to cut back on proposed tax cuts. The extended tax breaks would be on capital gains and dividends… of course. Praise the Moderate Republicans!
President Bush's plan to extend his tax cuts over the next five years ran into resistance in the Senate on Wednesday as Republican leaders offered a budget for 2006 that would undo more than a fourth of the cuts that Mr. Bush has requested.
Uneasy about the potential impact on the ballooning federal deficit, the Senate Republicans called for $70.2 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, as opposed to the estimated $100 billion the White House is seeking. It does not specify which cuts will be extended or which taxes might be restored, but Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican who is chairman of the Budget Committee, said his intent was to extend reductions on capital gains and dividend taxes, which are set to expire in 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/10/politics/10budget.html?hp&ex=1110517200&en=41cfa2a15543254a&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Texas Budget Junior may be gone, but they know the script: Tax Cuts for the Very Wealthy!
Texas families earning less than $100,000 a year would pay about $1.1 billion more a year in state taxes, while higher-income residents would see a tax cut of $437 million under a House bill designed to cut school property taxes, a report said Tuesday. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topstory/3075797
USANext Smear: Fighting Back
Remember USANext's smear job on AARP -- the internet-only ad that tried to marginalize the AARP out of the Social Security debate by suggesting that the group has something against American soldiers but loves gay marriage? Rick Raymen and Steve Hansen haven't forgotten. They're the Oregon couple shown kissing in the USANext ad. Today in Washington, they filed a $25 million lawsuit against USANext.
"Our privacy and personal integrity were violated when our wedding photo was stolen and used to portray us as treasonous, unpatriotic, and a threat to American troops," Raymen said in a statement released to the press today. "We have been harassed and humiliated by this hateful ad campaign and by the bigotry and anger it has generated against us nationwide." http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/archive.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/03/09/usanext/index.html
India and Venezuela Oil Deal Chavez cruises for Axis of Evil status, as he forges what might be called a new nonaligned movement. Venezuela has the capacity to produce more oil than Iraq if provided with an infusion of capital [as from India], China is brokering deals with Venezuela, and Fidel is a friend. If this were 1973, Kissinger wouldn’t be hesitating to ‘do an Allende’.
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on Tuesday said it was likely to get 49 per cent equity in an oil bloc in Venezuela and was negotiating commercial terms of the project.
ONGC Chairman and Managing Director Subir Raha said the public sector unit would be entering the retail LPG market from the fiscal 2005-06.
"We can get 49 per cent of the share in the Venezuela oil bloc for which the MoU was signed last week," he said on the sidelines of Tata Steel organized 'Global Compact' Regional Conclave in Jamshedpur.
Raha said the commercial terms were being negotiated but did not give any time frame for starting drilling there. ONGC signed the MoU last week when Venezuela President Hugo Chavez was on a visit to India. http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/mar/08ongc1.htm
Arnold on the Defensive The honeymoon’s over; the future’s unclear. Bless those CNA nurses whose activism is model, legendary.
Everywhere Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger goes these days there's a crowd. But they're not looking for his autograph…
The core group consists of nurses upset about Schwarzenegger's attempt to scale back hospital staffing requirements and firefighters worried about pensions. They're getting support from out-of-state colleagues, who turned up at Schwarzenegger's East Coast events this week and heckled him fiercely.
"Screw Arnold!" protesters shouted from the street as the governor dined with donors Monday at the tony 21 Club in Manhattan.
Schwarzenegger had ducked into the establishment through a service entrance to escape about 100 demonstrators; New York Gov. George Pataki had gone in the front door. But there was no sanctuary for Schwarzenegger inside.
A Santa Clara firefighter had flown in for the appearance at his own expense, put on a coat and tie and reserved a table for dinner. He walked up to the reception on another floor and confronted Schwarzenegger about his plans to cut costs by converting the state retirement system to a 401(k)-style plan. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold9mar09,0,1251147,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines
-R
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Bankruptcy: Joe Biden joins Lieberman as ‘toast’. They voted (for cloture) to smooth the way for the awful bill and both are now are out of the presidential ‘sweepstakes’. The scorecard: those to curse-
Democrats
Biden-DE; Byrd-WV; Carper-DE; Conrad-ND; Johnson-SD; Kohl-WI; Landrieu-LA; Lieberman-CT; Lincoln-AR; Nelson-FL; Nelson-NE; Pryor-AR; Salazr-CO; Stabenow-MI
"Moderate" Republicans
Allen-VA; Chafee-RI; Collins-ME; Hagel-NE; McCain-AZ; Snowe-ME; Specter-PA; Voinovich-OH
Stabenow, the Michigan social worker, Tim Johnson, Byrd…$ over party discipline, $ over caring about vulnerable people.
Bolton: Not everyone is thrilled with his nomination. Even Chuck Hagel, conservative Republican, noted that his nomination is a bad fit- “To go up there and kick the U.N. around doesn’t get the job done.” As of now, there aren’t enough misgiving to torpedo his nomination. International upset only solidifies the choice, as for many on the Right what’s bad for “Old Europe” is good for the U.S.
Fred Kaplan summarizes how Bolton has done the dirty work before, sabotaging arms control as the arms control guy.
During the first term, Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control—a revealing position, since no other official in government was more hostile than Bolton to the very idea of arms control. A former director of the Project for a New American Century—the neocon movement of the '90s from which nearly all of Bush's national security team sprang—Bolton opposed not only the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (de rigueur for any Bush appointee), but also the international bioweapons conference, the ban on chemical weapons, the nuclear test ban; any accord that limited anything the United States might someday want to do. At State, Bolton's main job was to serve as Vice President Dick Cheney's agent at Foggy Bottom, monitoring, opposing, and, to the extent possible, thwarting from within the moderating influence of Secretary Colin Powell and his crew of pin-striped diplomats. He was particularly active in sabotaging Powell's efforts to open up nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114455/
Unsettling News #1: Guns for Possible terrorists The right to bear arms applies to all. Seems that 47 out of 58 people on the “terrorist watch lists” who sought to buy guns over a nine month period were approved.
Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.
People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap. http://nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?pagewanted=all&ei=5094&en=8df93e46cb9fdf0e&hp&ex=1110258000&partner=homepage
Unsettling #2: Terrorists infiltrating?
U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts.
So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel8mar08,0,431533.story?coll=la-home-headlines
On second thought, the majority of the news is “unsettling”...such as:
Guantanamo Intimidation: Odious
Defense lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, say the military has been working to undermine the inmates' trust in them.
In one case, a lawyer said, a military interrogator recently told a detainee that he should not trust his lawyers because they are Jews.
The lawyer, Thomas Wilner of Washington, who helped bring a successful suit in the Supreme Court against the government on behalf of 12 Kuwaitis, said he was angered that the military had tried to turn his client against him.
"The government should not be trying to come between these people and their lawyers," Mr. Wilner said in an interview. "And I'm especially offended that they tried to use the fact that I'm Jewish to do it."
Another lawyer, Marc Falkoff of New York, whose firm represents several Yemenis at Guantánamo, said some of his clients had told him that a person who said he was a lawyer and had civilian clothes had conferred several times with some detainees. That person, Mr. Falkoff said his clients had told him, later appeared at the detention center in uniform, leading the inmates to distrust anyone claiming to be a lawyer and acting in their interest. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Social Security: Big $ for Propagandizing Never underestimate the power of such campaigns
The Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican political advocacy group, began a $2 million campaign of television commercials on Monday, rolling out a minutelong advertisement supporting President Bush's Social Security plan.
The commercial, which will run on national cable channels for three weeks, opens with a scene of a fog-shrouded iceberg as an announcer intones, "Some people say Social Security is not in trouble, just like some thought the Titanic was unsinkable."
It goes on to cite Social Security statistics, including a warning that "if nothing is done, it will go bankrupt," before advocating personal investment accounts and other elements of Mr. Bush's plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08lobby.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Other proposals. Not really. They’re all meant to raid Social Security and not “reform” it. They cut benefits and set up private accounts.
A pair of Senate Republicans offered separate plans Monday to overhaul Social Security, trying to turn President George W. Bush's ideas into legislation that might be able to pass a recalcitrant Congress.
They join the crop of several Social Security ideas.
Democrats and their allies continue to pound away at the Bush plan, which would allow individuals to funnel some Social Security payroll deductions into personal investment accounts. Democrats say personal accounts would tie benefit levels to fluctuations in the stock market, introducing risk.http://www.freep.com/news/nw/social8e_20050308.htm
Cheney as point person. He did such a good job with his lies about bin Laden and Saddam being buddies…
Vice President Dick Cheney has been President George W. Bush's go-to guy on national security. Now Bush is counting on Cheney to do the same on Social Security.
Cheney, who helped Bush sell his case for the war in Iraq and took the lead in formulating an energy policy, will make 10 to 15 trips across the nation over the next six weeks to try to rally support for the president's Social Security plan, administration officials said…
Cheney ``is easily the most effective surrogate spokesman for the president's policy proposals or political aims besides the president himself,'' said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, ``He is very good at explaining complex issues, dissecting them, in question-and-answer format.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.ASU3WsGtKk&refer=top_world_news
DeLay in Trouble? Finally- (potentially) good news
Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Lebanon Numbers aren’t everything, but for balance, it’s good to note the monster turnout to laud Syria.
Around half a million pro-Syria demonstrators took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut today to protest at foreign meddling in the country's politics and to counter weeks of anti-Syrian rallies.
Scores of vehicles converged on the city for the demonstration organised by Hizbullah, the Shia group backed by Iran and Syria. Loudspeakers blared rousing songs of resistance, organisers handed out Lebanese flags and black-clad Hizbullah guards lined the perimeter of the central square and took position on rooftops. Speakers on a platform led chants of "Beirut is free! America get out!"
Participants stressed the foreign influence they referred to was from America, France and other countries, not Syria, whose input they considered a welcome help…
Yesterday, in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syrian furore, more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" thronged central Beirut. The demonstrators waved the Lebanese flag and thundered, "Syria out!" http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1433038,00.html
What’s Happening, Iran: Indecisive Intelligence But we know that doesn’t stop this gang
A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work.
The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which Mr. Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/international/09weapons.html?th
Regime Change in Iran, Syria, Egypt? The Weekly Standard’s Reuel Marc Gerecht makes a recommendation. [The Weekly Standard is an influential, conservative screed.]
And the crucial question for the United States is whether the Bush administration will realize that the most consequential regimes in place--Hosni Mubarak's in Egypt, the Saudi dynasty in Arabia, the military junta in Algeria, and the theocracy in Iran--probably won't evolve without some internal violence. The Bush administration ought to be prepared to encourage or coerce these regimes into changing sooner, not later. What the United States should fear most is not rapid change--the specter of the fallen shah of Iran will surely rise in many minds--but the agonizing, dogged resistance of dictatorship. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/325hudmg.asp
Bill Moyers on the Environment…and Activism I’ll skip the environmental horrors…
There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges.
The news is not good these days. But as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. The will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. We must match the science of human health to what the ancient Israelites called hochma—the science of the heart, the capacity to see and feel and then to act as if the future depended on us.
Believe me, it does. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852
-R
Democrats
Biden-DE; Byrd-WV; Carper-DE; Conrad-ND; Johnson-SD; Kohl-WI; Landrieu-LA; Lieberman-CT; Lincoln-AR; Nelson-FL; Nelson-NE; Pryor-AR; Salazr-CO; Stabenow-MI
"Moderate" Republicans
Allen-VA; Chafee-RI; Collins-ME; Hagel-NE; McCain-AZ; Snowe-ME; Specter-PA; Voinovich-OH
Stabenow, the Michigan social worker, Tim Johnson, Byrd…$ over party discipline, $ over caring about vulnerable people.
Bolton: Not everyone is thrilled with his nomination. Even Chuck Hagel, conservative Republican, noted that his nomination is a bad fit- “To go up there and kick the U.N. around doesn’t get the job done.” As of now, there aren’t enough misgiving to torpedo his nomination. International upset only solidifies the choice, as for many on the Right what’s bad for “Old Europe” is good for the U.S.
Fred Kaplan summarizes how Bolton has done the dirty work before, sabotaging arms control as the arms control guy.
During the first term, Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control—a revealing position, since no other official in government was more hostile than Bolton to the very idea of arms control. A former director of the Project for a New American Century—the neocon movement of the '90s from which nearly all of Bush's national security team sprang—Bolton opposed not only the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (de rigueur for any Bush appointee), but also the international bioweapons conference, the ban on chemical weapons, the nuclear test ban; any accord that limited anything the United States might someday want to do. At State, Bolton's main job was to serve as Vice President Dick Cheney's agent at Foggy Bottom, monitoring, opposing, and, to the extent possible, thwarting from within the moderating influence of Secretary Colin Powell and his crew of pin-striped diplomats. He was particularly active in sabotaging Powell's efforts to open up nuclear disarmament negotiations with North Korea. http://slate.msn.com/id/2114455/
Unsettling News #1: Guns for Possible terrorists The right to bear arms applies to all. Seems that 47 out of 58 people on the “terrorist watch lists” who sought to buy guns over a nine month period were approved.
Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.
People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap. http://nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?pagewanted=all&ei=5094&en=8df93e46cb9fdf0e&hp&ex=1110258000&partner=homepage
Unsettling #2: Terrorists infiltrating?
U.S. counterintelligence officials are increasingly concerned that Al Qaeda sympathizers or operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other U.S. agencies in an effort to spy on American counterterrorist efforts.
So far, about 40 Americans who sought positions at U.S. intelligence agencies have been red-flagged and turned away for possible ties to terrorist groups, the officials said. Several such applicants have been detected at the CIA. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel8mar08,0,431533.story?coll=la-home-headlines
On second thought, the majority of the news is “unsettling”...such as:
Guantanamo Intimidation: Odious
Defense lawyers for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, say the military has been working to undermine the inmates' trust in them.
In one case, a lawyer said, a military interrogator recently told a detainee that he should not trust his lawyers because they are Jews.
The lawyer, Thomas Wilner of Washington, who helped bring a successful suit in the Supreme Court against the government on behalf of 12 Kuwaitis, said he was angered that the military had tried to turn his client against him.
"The government should not be trying to come between these people and their lawyers," Mr. Wilner said in an interview. "And I'm especially offended that they tried to use the fact that I'm Jewish to do it."
Another lawyer, Marc Falkoff of New York, whose firm represents several Yemenis at Guantánamo, said some of his clients had told him that a person who said he was a lawyer and had civilian clothes had conferred several times with some detainees. That person, Mr. Falkoff said his clients had told him, later appeared at the detention center in uniform, leading the inmates to distrust anyone claiming to be a lawyer and acting in their interest. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08gitmo.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Social Security: Big $ for Propagandizing Never underestimate the power of such campaigns
The Progress for America Voter Fund, a Republican political advocacy group, began a $2 million campaign of television commercials on Monday, rolling out a minutelong advertisement supporting President Bush's Social Security plan.
The commercial, which will run on national cable channels for three weeks, opens with a scene of a fog-shrouded iceberg as an announcer intones, "Some people say Social Security is not in trouble, just like some thought the Titanic was unsinkable."
It goes on to cite Social Security statistics, including a warning that "if nothing is done, it will go bankrupt," before advocating personal investment accounts and other elements of Mr. Bush's plan. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/politics/08lobby.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Other proposals. Not really. They’re all meant to raid Social Security and not “reform” it. They cut benefits and set up private accounts.
A pair of Senate Republicans offered separate plans Monday to overhaul Social Security, trying to turn President George W. Bush's ideas into legislation that might be able to pass a recalcitrant Congress.
They join the crop of several Social Security ideas.
Democrats and their allies continue to pound away at the Bush plan, which would allow individuals to funnel some Social Security payroll deductions into personal investment accounts. Democrats say personal accounts would tie benefit levels to fluctuations in the stock market, introducing risk.http://www.freep.com/news/nw/social8e_20050308.htm
Cheney as point person. He did such a good job with his lies about bin Laden and Saddam being buddies…
Vice President Dick Cheney has been President George W. Bush's go-to guy on national security. Now Bush is counting on Cheney to do the same on Social Security.
Cheney, who helped Bush sell his case for the war in Iraq and took the lead in formulating an energy policy, will make 10 to 15 trips across the nation over the next six weeks to try to rally support for the president's Social Security plan, administration officials said…
Cheney ``is easily the most effective surrogate spokesman for the president's policy proposals or political aims besides the president himself,'' said Republican pollster Frank Luntz, ``He is very good at explaining complex issues, dissecting them, in question-and-answer format.'' http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a.ASU3WsGtKk&refer=top_world_news
DeLay in Trouble? Finally- (potentially) good news
Documents subpoenaed from an indicted fund-raiser for Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, suggest that Mr. DeLay was more actively involved than previously known in gathering corporate donations for a political committee that is the focus of a grand-jury investigation in Texas, his home state.
The documents, which were entered into evidence last week in a related civil trial in Austin, the state capital, suggest that Mr. DeLay personally forwarded at least one large corporate check to the committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he was in direct contact with lobbyists for some of the nation's largest companies on the committee's behalf. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/politics/09delay.html?pagewanted=print&position=
What’s Happening, Lebanon Numbers aren’t everything, but for balance, it’s good to note the monster turnout to laud Syria.
Around half a million pro-Syria demonstrators took to the streets of the Lebanese capital Beirut today to protest at foreign meddling in the country's politics and to counter weeks of anti-Syrian rallies.
Scores of vehicles converged on the city for the demonstration organised by Hizbullah, the Shia group backed by Iran and Syria. Loudspeakers blared rousing songs of resistance, organisers handed out Lebanese flags and black-clad Hizbullah guards lined the perimeter of the central square and took position on rooftops. Speakers on a platform led chants of "Beirut is free! America get out!"
Participants stressed the foreign influence they referred to was from America, France and other countries, not Syria, whose input they considered a welcome help…
Yesterday, in the biggest demonstration yet of anti-Syrian furore, more than 70,000 Lebanese shouting "Freedom! Sovereignty! Independence!" thronged central Beirut. The demonstrators waved the Lebanese flag and thundered, "Syria out!" http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,13031,1433038,00.html
What’s Happening, Iran: Indecisive Intelligence But we know that doesn’t stop this gang
A commission due to report to President Bush this month will describe American intelligence on Iran as inadequate to allow firm judgments about Iran's weapons programs, according to people who have been briefed on the panel's work.
The report comes as intelligence agencies prepare a new formal assessment on Iran, and follows a 14-month review by the panel, which Mr. Bush ordered last year to assess the quality of overall intelligence about the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/international/09weapons.html?th
Regime Change in Iran, Syria, Egypt? The Weekly Standard’s Reuel Marc Gerecht makes a recommendation. [The Weekly Standard is an influential, conservative screed.]
And the crucial question for the United States is whether the Bush administration will realize that the most consequential regimes in place--Hosni Mubarak's in Egypt, the Saudi dynasty in Arabia, the military junta in Algeria, and the theocracy in Iran--probably won't evolve without some internal violence. The Bush administration ought to be prepared to encourage or coerce these regimes into changing sooner, not later. What the United States should fear most is not rapid change--the specter of the fallen shah of Iran will surely rise in many minds--but the agonizing, dogged resistance of dictatorship. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/325hudmg.asp
Bill Moyers on the Environment…and Activism I’ll skip the environmental horrors…
There are times when what we journalists see and intend to write about dispassionately sends a shiver down the spine, shaking us from our neutrality. This has been happening to me frequently of late as one story after another drives home the fact that the delusional is no longer marginal but has come in from the fringe to influence the seats of power. We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. Theology asserts propositions that need not be proven true, while ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. The combination can make it impossible for a democracy to fashion real-world solutions to otherwise intractable challenges.
The news is not good these days. But as a journalist I know the news is never the end of the story. The news can be the truth that sets us free not only to feel but to fight for the future we want. The will to fight is the antidote to despair, the cure for cynicism, and the answer to those faces looking back at me from those photographs on my desk. We must match the science of human health to what the ancient Israelites called hochma—the science of the heart, the capacity to see and feel and then to act as if the future depended on us.
Believe me, it does. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/17852
-R
Monday, March 07, 2005
Bankruptcy (continued) The WaPost has a goodie on how credit card companies have drastically increased fees, over-limit penalties and interest rates. As a result, the indebted who make steady minimal payments find their “balance” growing significantly. One example: a woman with $1900 owed paid out $3500 over 6 years and wound up with a balance of $5500. Gads.
The Senate is to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would make it harder for individuals to wipe out debt through bankruptcy. The Senate last week voted down several amendments intended to curb excessive fees and other practices that critics of the industry say are abusive. House leaders say they will act soon after that, and President Bush has said he supports the bill.
Bankruptcy experts say that too often, by the time an individual has filed for bankruptcy or is hauled into court by creditors, he or she has repaid an amount equal to their original credit card debt plus double-digit interest, but still owes hundreds or thousands of dollars because of penalties. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10361-2005Mar5.html
Torture (continued) There’s no end to the articles- the gory details as to the Administration turning a “blind eye” to torture…or worse- giving the green light to it in the days immediately after 9/11, that the CIA, according to a ‘senior Administration official, has "gone to great lengths to ensure that [prisoners] were detained under humane conditions and not tortured." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06intel.html 60 Minutes covered it as well, but we await the Republicans investigating and reproving themselves.
Greenspan (continued) Perhaps it’s not coincidental that after some Democrats- led by Harry Reid- condemned the Fed chief a columnist [Ron Brownstein] similarly- fittingly- rakes him over the coals.
Is he kidding?
That's the only possible reaction to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's conclusion last week that the massive federal budget deficit accumulated under President Bush was "unsustainable." Declared Greenspan: "The principle that I think is involved here … [is] that you cannot continuously introduce legislation which tends to expand the budget deficit."
That would be an entirely reasonable — even urgent — warning from someone who didn't bear so much responsibility for the problem he's describing. Greenspan lamenting higher deficits is like New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner complaining about inflated baseball salaries. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outlook7mar07,1,1845729.column?coll=la-headlines-nation
While the National Guard is in Iraq…
Montana is at such high risk for a wildfire "blowup" this summer that Gov. Brian Schweitzer wants at least some of the 1,500 National Guard soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere to return home for the wildfire season.
The governor warned Friday the state is like a powder keg because of persistent drought, a shortage of mountain snow and forests full of dry timber.
"I know it's going to be a bad fire year," he said, adding he anticipates a repeat of the 1988 season when 4,122 fires charred 2.2 million acres in the Northern Rockies, including about 793,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park.
"Somebody's going to have a blowup," Schweitzer said in an interview. "Is it northern Idaho, is it eastern Washington or is it Montana?" http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/04/montana.governor.ap/
Love that UN: John Bolton, UN hater, US rep to the UN? The latest nominee. He’s got a long record condemning the UN. Makes sense to me! http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=390
Gannon: LA Times guest op. ed. John Aravosis, who’s been pushing this story on his americablog.com, addresses why the major media shy away from this story:
Sex, Lies and Spies: This Isn't News?
(1) Trepidation about gays, sex and power. In the age of wardrobe malfunctions, news organizations are extra cautious about covering anything involving s-e-x. And a gay angle only makes things more confusing. Would you be anti-gay or pro-gay if you wrote about an allegedly homophobic journalist who happened to be gay? Answer: Allegations of prostitution aren't just about someone's private life, they're about a crime that can lead to blackmail, especially if state secrets are involved. And in any case, your readers are adults — give them the facts and let them decide for themselves.
(2) Reverse liberal guilt. Too sensitive to right-wing accusations of being liberal, traditional media have overcompensated by becoming too timid in covering certain stories. They seem loath to aggressively report on scandals involving Republican politicians, in general, and this White House in particular.
(3) Blogophobia. Liberal bloggers scare the mainstream media. Media critics fret over our supposed lack of professional credentials, even though many of us are journalists. They doubt our facts but don't independently investigate the stories.
The lack of coverage plays into the hands of the White House. Mainstream media editors act as if our investigation of Guckert is about prurience and lacks merit. But there is more than enough evidence to make any reporter want to check out the possibilities of White House deception and media manipulation.
The Times' editors shouldn't allow themselves to think they are above the fray. In truth, they are failing to speak truth to power. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-tent6mar06,1,3028739,print.story?coll=la-util-op-ed
Taxes- What’s Next?: The slowing of the tax cutting is likely, but expecting just that is setting the bar awfully low. We need, of course, to RAISE revenue in view of all the budgetary / Medicare problems we face… by restoring higher taxes on the very wealthy.
To be sure, Bush and most congressional Republicans, especially in the House, remain committed to cutting taxes as a guiding principle. Some leaders are considering pushing this year to extend some of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, including those for capital gains, at the very least. But after cutting taxes aggressively over the past four years, a growing number say it would be unwise to reduce the amount of money the government is taking in at a time when bills for Medicare, Social Security and the Iraq war are piling up.
The shift is pragmatic, not philosophical, and reflects a trend playing out around the country. Many governors are facing large deficits and rising costs, especially for Medicaid, which provides medical coverage to low-income Americans. Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R), Bush's budget director in the first term, recently drew the wrath of conservatives by proposing a 29 percent increase in the state income tax rate on the richest residents. Republican governors in Colorado and Alabama have championed tax boosts as well.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12185-2005Mar6?language=printer
-R
The Senate is to vote as soon as this week on a bill that would make it harder for individuals to wipe out debt through bankruptcy. The Senate last week voted down several amendments intended to curb excessive fees and other practices that critics of the industry say are abusive. House leaders say they will act soon after that, and President Bush has said he supports the bill.
Bankruptcy experts say that too often, by the time an individual has filed for bankruptcy or is hauled into court by creditors, he or she has repaid an amount equal to their original credit card debt plus double-digit interest, but still owes hundreds or thousands of dollars because of penalties. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10361-2005Mar5.html
Torture (continued) There’s no end to the articles- the gory details as to the Administration turning a “blind eye” to torture…or worse- giving the green light to it in the days immediately after 9/11, that the CIA, according to a ‘senior Administration official, has "gone to great lengths to ensure that [prisoners] were detained under humane conditions and not tortured." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/politics/06intel.html 60 Minutes covered it as well, but we await the Republicans investigating and reproving themselves.
Greenspan (continued) Perhaps it’s not coincidental that after some Democrats- led by Harry Reid- condemned the Fed chief a columnist [Ron Brownstein] similarly- fittingly- rakes him over the coals.
Is he kidding?
That's the only possible reaction to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan's conclusion last week that the massive federal budget deficit accumulated under President Bush was "unsustainable." Declared Greenspan: "The principle that I think is involved here … [is] that you cannot continuously introduce legislation which tends to expand the budget deficit."
That would be an entirely reasonable — even urgent — warning from someone who didn't bear so much responsibility for the problem he's describing. Greenspan lamenting higher deficits is like New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner complaining about inflated baseball salaries. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-outlook7mar07,1,1845729.column?coll=la-headlines-nation
While the National Guard is in Iraq…
Montana is at such high risk for a wildfire "blowup" this summer that Gov. Brian Schweitzer wants at least some of the 1,500 National Guard soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere to return home for the wildfire season.
The governor warned Friday the state is like a powder keg because of persistent drought, a shortage of mountain snow and forests full of dry timber.
"I know it's going to be a bad fire year," he said, adding he anticipates a repeat of the 1988 season when 4,122 fires charred 2.2 million acres in the Northern Rockies, including about 793,000 acres in Yellowstone National Park.
"Somebody's going to have a blowup," Schweitzer said in an interview. "Is it northern Idaho, is it eastern Washington or is it Montana?" http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/04/montana.governor.ap/
Love that UN: John Bolton, UN hater, US rep to the UN? The latest nominee. He’s got a long record condemning the UN. Makes sense to me! http://thinkprogress.org/index.php?p=390
Gannon: LA Times guest op. ed. John Aravosis, who’s been pushing this story on his americablog.com, addresses why the major media shy away from this story:
Sex, Lies and Spies: This Isn't News?
(1) Trepidation about gays, sex and power. In the age of wardrobe malfunctions, news organizations are extra cautious about covering anything involving s-e-x. And a gay angle only makes things more confusing. Would you be anti-gay or pro-gay if you wrote about an allegedly homophobic journalist who happened to be gay? Answer: Allegations of prostitution aren't just about someone's private life, they're about a crime that can lead to blackmail, especially if state secrets are involved. And in any case, your readers are adults — give them the facts and let them decide for themselves.
(2) Reverse liberal guilt. Too sensitive to right-wing accusations of being liberal, traditional media have overcompensated by becoming too timid in covering certain stories. They seem loath to aggressively report on scandals involving Republican politicians, in general, and this White House in particular.
(3) Blogophobia. Liberal bloggers scare the mainstream media. Media critics fret over our supposed lack of professional credentials, even though many of us are journalists. They doubt our facts but don't independently investigate the stories.
The lack of coverage plays into the hands of the White House. Mainstream media editors act as if our investigation of Guckert is about prurience and lacks merit. But there is more than enough evidence to make any reporter want to check out the possibilities of White House deception and media manipulation.
The Times' editors shouldn't allow themselves to think they are above the fray. In truth, they are failing to speak truth to power. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-tent6mar06,1,3028739,print.story?coll=la-util-op-ed
Taxes- What’s Next?: The slowing of the tax cutting is likely, but expecting just that is setting the bar awfully low. We need, of course, to RAISE revenue in view of all the budgetary / Medicare problems we face… by restoring higher taxes on the very wealthy.
To be sure, Bush and most congressional Republicans, especially in the House, remain committed to cutting taxes as a guiding principle. Some leaders are considering pushing this year to extend some of the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, including those for capital gains, at the very least. But after cutting taxes aggressively over the past four years, a growing number say it would be unwise to reduce the amount of money the government is taking in at a time when bills for Medicare, Social Security and the Iraq war are piling up.
The shift is pragmatic, not philosophical, and reflects a trend playing out around the country. Many governors are facing large deficits and rising costs, especially for Medicaid, which provides medical coverage to low-income Americans. Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R), Bush's budget director in the first term, recently drew the wrath of conservatives by proposing a 29 percent increase in the state income tax rate on the richest residents. Republican governors in Colorado and Alabama have championed tax boosts as well.http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A12185-2005Mar6?language=printer
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