Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Immigration Protests: In the tradition, via historian Nelson Lichtenstein
These May Day demonstrations and boycotts return the American protest tradition to its turn-of-the-20th-century ethnic proletarian origins—a time when, in the United States as well as in much of Europe, the quest for citizenship and equal rights was inherent in the fight for higher wages, stronger unions, and more political power for the working class.
Because today's marches are on a workday, they recall the mass strikes and marches that turned workers out of factories that convulsed America in the decades after the great railway strike of 1877, the first national work stoppage in the United States. Asserting their citizenship against the autocracy embodied by the big railroad corporations, the Irish and Germans of Baltimore and Pittsburgh burned roundhouses and fought off state militia in a revolt that frightened both the rail barons and the federal government. http://www.slate.com/id/2140846/
What’s Happening, Bolivia: Nationalizing. Notable even if your reserves [of natural gas] don’t crack the world’s top 20.
Bolivian President Evo Morales seized control of the country's natural gas industry Monday, sending soldiers to occupy fields that he contends private companies have plundered for years.
Morales said that unless foreign energy firms agreed to give Bolivia's state oil company oversight of production and a majority of their revenue generated in Bolivia, the government would evict them from the fields.
"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales said during a televised speech from a gas field near the country's southern border. "The looting by foreign companies has ended."
Morales's announcement was expected, but his deployment of troops to gas fields was a strong statement in a region where governments are moving to block outside influence, particularly from the United States, and exert more control over the energy industry. Venezuela recently voided drilling contracts with private companies at 32 oil fields, demanding new contracts that give the state oil company a 60 percent stake. Ecuador is finalizing a law that could limit excessive profits by foreign crude producers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100583_pf.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Taliban Thrive Not new, as such reports are now overly familiar. Perhaps, attaining front page status is what’s most striking. The lasting image: The Taliban are "walking in the villages openly with their weapons, and sitting under the trees eating mulberries."
Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.
Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.
"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere," a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=0692a5a972d58a3a&hp=&ex=1146628800&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
What’s Happening, Iraq: Sunni Soldier Graduation Upset They got posted to a Shiite area, which can be more than upsetting; it could be a death sentence.
The graduation of nearly 1,000 new Iraqi army soldiers in restive Anbar province took a disorderly turn Sunday when dozens of the men declared that they would refuse to serve outside their home areas, according to U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.
The graduation ceremony at Camp Habbaniyah, a base about 45 miles west of Baghdad, had been going well. The 978 soldiers, most of them Sunni Muslims, had just finished nearly five weeks of military training and were parading before a review stand to the sounds of martial music. They took an oath of service while U.S. and Iraqi officials delivered speeches hailing the event as an important step toward the formation of a national army.
Then some soldiers started tearing their clothes off to demonstrate their rage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100854_pf.html
What’s Happening, Drug Policy- Mexico Legalization
Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that would legalize the use of nearly every drug and narcotic sold by the same Mexican cartels he's vowed to fight during his five years in office, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The list of illegal drugs approved for personal consumption by Mexico's Congress last week is enough to make one dizzy — or worse.
Cocaine. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana. PCP. Opium. Synthetic opiates. Mescaline. Peyote. Psilocybin mushrooms. Amphetamines. Methamphetamines.
And the per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus.
The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-legalize3may03,0,5421561,print.story
What’s Happening, Environment: Final(?) Confirmation of Global Warming- Bush retrogrades lose their last grounds for doubt.
A scientific panel convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that the Earth's surface and its upper atmosphere have been warming as a result of climate change at least partly caused by human activity.
Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA's climate-data center, said the findings resolve a "nagging issue" between climate-change experts and their skeptics. Because of poor data analysis and errors in some satellite data, he said, earlier measurements had shown the Earth was warming but the atmosphere wasn't. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114662116494242246.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
What’s Happening, Health Care You don’t expect good news, no? Two reports on our failed system:
In mid-2004, more than 1,500 Kaiser Permanente patients awaiting kidney transplants in Northern California got form letters that forced them to change the course of their treatment.
Kaiser would no longer pay for transplants at outside hospitals, even established programs with thousands of successes. Instead, adult patients would be transferred to a new transplant center run by Kaiser itself — the first ever opened by the nation's largest HMO.
....Kaiser's massive rollout in Northern California endangered patients, forcing them into a fledgling program unprepared to handle the caseload, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation based on dozens of interviews, statistical analyses and confidential documents. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kaiser3may03,0,7436765,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
"At every point in the social hierarchy there is more illness in the United States than in England and the differences are really dramatic," said study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.
The upper crust in both countries was healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same country. But richer Americans' health status resembled the health of the low-income British.
Marmot offered yet another explanation for the gap: Americans' financial insecurity. Improvements in household income have eluded all but the top fifth of Americans since the mid-1970s. Meanwhile, English citizens saw their incomes improve, he said.
Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, said the stress of striving for the American dream may account for Americans' lousy health.
"The opportunity to go both up and down the socioeconomic scale in America may create stress," Blendon said. Americans don't have a reliable government safety net like the English enjoy, Blendon said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/02/sick.america.ap/index.html
Colbert: Follow-up to the Terrific Weekend performance
Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert's biting routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner won a rare silent protest from Bush aides and supporters Saturday when several independently left before he finished.
"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.
"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."
Colbert's routine was similar to what he does on his show, the Colbert Report, but much longer on the topic of Bush, suggesting that the president is out of touch with reality. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060501/1whwatch.htm
This morning, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer giggled and got all warm about the cutesy performance of Bush and the Twin look-alike imitator. Really funsy. Colbert was not mentioned.
I'm old enough to remember when Eartha Kitt told off Lady Byrd Johnson for her husband's policies in Vietnam at some innocent luncheon... the news media reported that, they didn't only report on the chicken salad sandwiches.
Yesterday the New York Times had no coverage of the event, except buried in its Washington section was a small, uninteresting blurb picked up from Reuters.
This morning, lo and behold, they have more... a fawning piece by someone named Elizabeth Bumiller called "At Award Correspondents' Dinner, A Set of Bush Twins Steal the Show."
Like Katie and Matt's briefer piece, this article too finds the President absolutely adorable. And makes the judgment call that the President's darling sense of humor is the true story of the event.
And the Colbert appearance -- which chilled the room, attacking journalists as well as Bush -- is literally not worth reporting. Back before blogs and C-Span, we wouldn't even know about it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/ignoring-colbert-part-tw_b_20130.html
Finally, the Wednesday NY Times acknowledges, in the entertainment section: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/arts/03colb.html?ei=5094&en=bbdf71b100b0926d&hp=&ex=1146628800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II&search=colbert
-R
These May Day demonstrations and boycotts return the American protest tradition to its turn-of-the-20th-century ethnic proletarian origins—a time when, in the United States as well as in much of Europe, the quest for citizenship and equal rights was inherent in the fight for higher wages, stronger unions, and more political power for the working class.
Because today's marches are on a workday, they recall the mass strikes and marches that turned workers out of factories that convulsed America in the decades after the great railway strike of 1877, the first national work stoppage in the United States. Asserting their citizenship against the autocracy embodied by the big railroad corporations, the Irish and Germans of Baltimore and Pittsburgh burned roundhouses and fought off state militia in a revolt that frightened both the rail barons and the federal government. http://www.slate.com/id/2140846/
What’s Happening, Bolivia: Nationalizing. Notable even if your reserves [of natural gas] don’t crack the world’s top 20.
Bolivian President Evo Morales seized control of the country's natural gas industry Monday, sending soldiers to occupy fields that he contends private companies have plundered for years.
Morales said that unless foreign energy firms agreed to give Bolivia's state oil company oversight of production and a majority of their revenue generated in Bolivia, the government would evict them from the fields.
"The time has come, the awaited day, a historic day in which Bolivia retakes absolute control of our natural resources," Morales said during a televised speech from a gas field near the country's southern border. "The looting by foreign companies has ended."
Morales's announcement was expected, but his deployment of troops to gas fields was a strong statement in a region where governments are moving to block outside influence, particularly from the United States, and exert more control over the energy industry. Venezuela recently voided drilling contracts with private companies at 32 oil fields, demanding new contracts that give the state oil company a 60 percent stake. Ecuador is finalizing a law that could limit excessive profits by foreign crude producers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100583_pf.html
What’s Happening, Afghanistan: Taliban Thrive Not new, as such reports are now overly familiar. Perhaps, attaining front page status is what’s most striking. The lasting image: The Taliban are "walking in the villages openly with their weapons, and sitting under the trees eating mulberries."
Building on a winter campaign of suicide bombings and assassinations and the knowledge that American troops are leaving, the Taliban appear to be moving their insurgency into a new phase, flooding the rural areas of southern Afghanistan with weapons and men.
Each spring with the arrival of warmer weather, the fighting season here starts up, but the scale of the militants' presence and their sheer brazenness have alarmed Afghans and foreign officials far more than in previous years.
"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are everywhere," a shopkeeper, Haji Saifullah, told the commander of American forces in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, as the general strolled through the bazaar of this town to talk to people. "It is all right in the city, but if you go outside the city, they are everywhere, and the people have to support them. They have no choice." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?_r=1&ei=5094&en=0692a5a972d58a3a&hp=&ex=1146628800&oref=slogin&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
What’s Happening, Iraq: Sunni Soldier Graduation Upset They got posted to a Shiite area, which can be more than upsetting; it could be a death sentence.
The graduation of nearly 1,000 new Iraqi army soldiers in restive Anbar province took a disorderly turn Sunday when dozens of the men declared that they would refuse to serve outside their home areas, according to U.S. and Iraqi military authorities.
The graduation ceremony at Camp Habbaniyah, a base about 45 miles west of Baghdad, had been going well. The 978 soldiers, most of them Sunni Muslims, had just finished nearly five weeks of military training and were parading before a review stand to the sounds of martial music. They took an oath of service while U.S. and Iraqi officials delivered speeches hailing the event as an important step toward the formation of a national army.
Then some soldiers started tearing their clothes off to demonstrate their rage. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/01/AR2006050100854_pf.html
What’s Happening, Drug Policy- Mexico Legalization
Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that would legalize the use of nearly every drug and narcotic sold by the same Mexican cartels he's vowed to fight during his five years in office, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The list of illegal drugs approved for personal consumption by Mexico's Congress last week is enough to make one dizzy — or worse.
Cocaine. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana. PCP. Opium. Synthetic opiates. Mescaline. Peyote. Psilocybin mushrooms. Amphetamines. Methamphetamines.
And the per-person amounts approved for possession by anyone 18 or older could easily turn any college party into an all-nighter: half a gram of coke, a couple of Ecstasy pills, several doses of LSD, a few marijuana joints, a spoonful of heroin, 5 grams of opium and more than 2 pounds of peyote, the hallucinogenic cactus.
The law would be among the most permissive in the world, putting Mexico in the company of the Netherlands. Critics, including U.S. drug policy officials, already are worrying that it will spur a domestic addiction problem and make Mexico a narco-tourism destination. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-legalize3may03,0,5421561,print.story
What’s Happening, Environment: Final(?) Confirmation of Global Warming- Bush retrogrades lose their last grounds for doubt.
A scientific panel convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has concluded that the Earth's surface and its upper atmosphere have been warming as a result of climate change at least partly caused by human activity.
Thomas Karl, director of the NOAA's climate-data center, said the findings resolve a "nagging issue" between climate-change experts and their skeptics. Because of poor data analysis and errors in some satellite data, he said, earlier measurements had shown the Earth was warming but the atmosphere wasn't. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114662116494242246.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
What’s Happening, Health Care You don’t expect good news, no? Two reports on our failed system:
In mid-2004, more than 1,500 Kaiser Permanente patients awaiting kidney transplants in Northern California got form letters that forced them to change the course of their treatment.
Kaiser would no longer pay for transplants at outside hospitals, even established programs with thousands of successes. Instead, adult patients would be transferred to a new transplant center run by Kaiser itself — the first ever opened by the nation's largest HMO.
....Kaiser's massive rollout in Northern California endangered patients, forcing them into a fledgling program unprepared to handle the caseload, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation based on dozens of interviews, statistical analyses and confidential documents. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-kaiser3may03,0,7436765,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines
"At every point in the social hierarchy there is more illness in the United States than in England and the differences are really dramatic," said study co-author Dr. Michael Marmot, an epidemiologist at University College London in England.
The upper crust in both countries was healthier than middle-class and low-income people in the same country. But richer Americans' health status resembled the health of the low-income British.
Marmot offered yet another explanation for the gap: Americans' financial insecurity. Improvements in household income have eluded all but the top fifth of Americans since the mid-1970s. Meanwhile, English citizens saw their incomes improve, he said.
Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, said the stress of striving for the American dream may account for Americans' lousy health.
"The opportunity to go both up and down the socioeconomic scale in America may create stress," Blendon said. Americans don't have a reliable government safety net like the English enjoy, Blendon said. http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/05/02/sick.america.ap/index.html
Colbert: Follow-up to the Terrific Weekend performance
Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert's biting routine at the White House Correspondents Association dinner won a rare silent protest from Bush aides and supporters Saturday when several independently left before he finished.
"Colbert crossed the line," said one top Bush aide, who rushed out of the hotel as soon as Colbert finished. Another said that the president was visibly angered by the sharp lines that kept coming.
"I've been there before, and I can see that he is [angry]," said a former top aide. "He's got that look that he's ready to blow."
Colbert's routine was similar to what he does on his show, the Colbert Report, but much longer on the topic of Bush, suggesting that the president is out of touch with reality. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060501/1whwatch.htm
This morning, Katie Couric and Matt Lauer giggled and got all warm about the cutesy performance of Bush and the Twin look-alike imitator. Really funsy. Colbert was not mentioned.
I'm old enough to remember when Eartha Kitt told off Lady Byrd Johnson for her husband's policies in Vietnam at some innocent luncheon... the news media reported that, they didn't only report on the chicken salad sandwiches.
Yesterday the New York Times had no coverage of the event, except buried in its Washington section was a small, uninteresting blurb picked up from Reuters.
This morning, lo and behold, they have more... a fawning piece by someone named Elizabeth Bumiller called "At Award Correspondents' Dinner, A Set of Bush Twins Steal the Show."
Like Katie and Matt's briefer piece, this article too finds the President absolutely adorable. And makes the judgment call that the President's darling sense of humor is the true story of the event.
And the Colbert appearance -- which chilled the room, attacking journalists as well as Bush -- is literally not worth reporting. Back before blogs and C-Span, we wouldn't even know about it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-durang/ignoring-colbert-part-tw_b_20130.html
Finally, the Wednesday NY Times acknowledges, in the entertainment section: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/03/arts/03colb.html?ei=5094&en=bbdf71b100b0926d&hp=&ex=1146628800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcIRXur61II&search=colbert
-R
Monday, May 01, 2006
We’re surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides-the president's side and the vice president's side. - Stephen Colbert
Prosecuting Reporters via the Espionage laws…so as to make them divulge their info re national security.
Earlier administrations have fired and prosecuted government officials who provided classified information to the press. They have also tried to force reporters to identify their sources.
But the Bush administration is exploring a more radical measure to protect information it says is vital to national security: the criminal prosecution of reporters under the espionage laws.
Such an approach would signal a thorough revision of the informal rules of engagement that have governed the relationship between the press and the government for many decades. Leaking in Washington is commonplace and typically entails tolerable risks for government officials and, at worst, the possibility of subpoenas to journalists seeking the identities of sources.
But the Bush administration is putting pressure on the press as never before, and it is operating in a judicial climate that seems increasingly receptive to constraints on journalists. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/washington/30leak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Biting satire, targeting our failed journalists and the Administration. NSA wiretaps, Fox News, Rumsfeld, Bush as The Decider, etc. Left ‘em laughing or squirming.
The video and transcript:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/29.html#a8104
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/30/1441/59811
More, below
Rush (Limbaugh) The drug addict copped a plea deal in Florida. His fame and money apparently enough to reduce his ‘doctor shopping’ for thousands of oxycontin to but one count and a probation of sorts.
Rush Limbaugh and prosecutors in the long-running painkiller fraud case against him have reached a deal calling for the only charge against the conservative commentator to be dropped if he continues treatment, his attorney said Friday.
Limbaugh was booked on a single charge that was filed Friday, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail. He left about an hour later, after Limbaugh was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Barbera said. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1903495
Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias. - Stephen Colbert
What’s Happening, Iran: Nothing. In sum: The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with Bush's public approval ratings. Pass it on.
Darfur: Protest, but no peace in the near-term:
Clutching signs that read "Never Again," thousands of protesters from across religious and political divides descended on the Mall yesterday along with celebrities and politicians to urge President Bush to take stronger measures to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region that the U.S. has labeled genocide.
They wore skullcaps, turbans, headscarves, yarmulkes, baseball hats and bandanas. There were pastors, rabbis, imams, youths from churches and youths from synagogues. They cried out phrases in Arabic and held signs in Hebrew. But on this day, they said, they didn't come out as Jews or Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, Republicans or Democrats. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043000183.html
[Also, an unknown- 300 – 350,000?- number protested the ongoing war in Iraq in NYC on Saturday. Unlike the Globe, the major media ignored it.]
Sudan's government offered Sunday to accept a potentially historic Darfur peace agreement, but two of Darfur's three main rebel groups raised last-minute objections that left the negotiations mired in confusion as a midnight deadline passed. Mediators agreed to extend the talks for 48 hours at the request of the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/world/africa/01sudan.html
When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday. -Stephen Colbert
South American Alliance:
Bolivia's new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday rejecting U.S.-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation.
Cuban authorities did not release copies of the so-called Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas signed by Bolivia's Evo Morales, so its contents were unclear.
Local media reported that it had the same language as the declaration signed last year by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, which contained much leftist rhetoric, and few specifics, but was followed by closer economic ties between the two vehemently anti-U.S. leaders. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114635989328639810.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction. – Stephen Colbert
Immigration: Administration overconfidence With the back-drop of immigrant groups split as to today’s walk-out and polls showing that the White House has been successful in getting Americans to “worry” about immigration…
President Bush's growing confidence that he will secure a victory on immigration runs in direct contrast to the House Republican leadership, which is prepared to block legislation that offers illegal immigrants a path to citizenship without sending them home.
Senate Democratic and Republican leaders are closing in on a bipartisan deal to secure the nation's borders, create a guest-worker program for foreign workers and offer citizenship to illegal immigrants who clear certain hurdles.
Assuming agreement is reached in the Senate, White House advisers said Bush believes that he can count on House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other leaders to rally skeptical House Republicans behind legislation. But the White House may be underestimating the degree of opposition from within his party, according to several GOP members and aides. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043000795_pf.html
I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq. -Stephen Colbert
Democrats’ strategy: Minimum wage to be highlighted
As Republicans resist efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, Democrats see the issue boosting party turnout in November's midterm elections -- and their chances of gaining seats in Congress.
Six states are expected to have a minimum-wage increase on their ballots this fall, and efforts are under way in at least three more states to collect enough signatures to place it on those ballots.
Among the six is Arizona where Democratic challenger Jim Pederson plans to use the issue to appeal to independents and moderate Republicans in his quest to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who hasn't taken a position on the wage increase. "We think voters understand that $5.15 an hour just isn't enough for folks to get along on," says Kevin Griffis, Mr. Pederson's spokesman.
It's a strategy stolen straight from Republicans, who for more than two decades have used ballot initiatives to create wedge issues and whip up excitement among core voters. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114644237570740071.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
-R
Prosecuting Reporters via the Espionage laws…so as to make them divulge their info re national security.
Earlier administrations have fired and prosecuted government officials who provided classified information to the press. They have also tried to force reporters to identify their sources.
But the Bush administration is exploring a more radical measure to protect information it says is vital to national security: the criminal prosecution of reporters under the espionage laws.
Such an approach would signal a thorough revision of the informal rules of engagement that have governed the relationship between the press and the government for many decades. Leaking in Washington is commonplace and typically entails tolerable risks for government officials and, at worst, the possibility of subpoenas to journalists seeking the identities of sources.
But the Bush administration is putting pressure on the press as never before, and it is operating in a judicial climate that seems increasingly receptive to constraints on journalists. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/washington/30leak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print
Colbert at the White House Correspondents Dinner. Biting satire, targeting our failed journalists and the Administration. NSA wiretaps, Fox News, Rumsfeld, Bush as The Decider, etc. Left ‘em laughing or squirming.
The video and transcript:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/04/29.html#a8104
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/30/1441/59811
More, below
Rush (Limbaugh) The drug addict copped a plea deal in Florida. His fame and money apparently enough to reduce his ‘doctor shopping’ for thousands of oxycontin to but one count and a probation of sorts.
Rush Limbaugh and prosecutors in the long-running painkiller fraud case against him have reached a deal calling for the only charge against the conservative commentator to be dropped if he continues treatment, his attorney said Friday.
Limbaugh was booked on a single charge that was filed Friday, said Teri Barbera, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County Jail. He left about an hour later, after Limbaugh was photographed and fingerprinted and he posted $3,000 bail, Barbera said. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1903495
Now, I know there are some polls out there saying this man has a 32% approval rating. But guys like us, we don't pay attention to the polls. We know that polls are just a collection of statistics that reflect what people are thinking in "reality." And reality has a well-known liberal bias. - Stephen Colbert
What’s Happening, Iran: Nothing. In sum: The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with Bush's public approval ratings. Pass it on.
Darfur: Protest, but no peace in the near-term:
Clutching signs that read "Never Again," thousands of protesters from across religious and political divides descended on the Mall yesterday along with celebrities and politicians to urge President Bush to take stronger measures to end the violence in Sudan's Darfur region that the U.S. has labeled genocide.
They wore skullcaps, turbans, headscarves, yarmulkes, baseball hats and bandanas. There were pastors, rabbis, imams, youths from churches and youths from synagogues. They cried out phrases in Arabic and held signs in Hebrew. But on this day, they said, they didn't come out as Jews or Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, Republicans or Democrats. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043000183.html
[Also, an unknown- 300 – 350,000?- number protested the ongoing war in Iraq in NYC on Saturday. Unlike the Globe, the major media ignored it.]
Sudan's government offered Sunday to accept a potentially historic Darfur peace agreement, but two of Darfur's three main rebel groups raised last-minute objections that left the negotiations mired in confusion as a midnight deadline passed. Mediators agreed to extend the talks for 48 hours at the request of the United States. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/world/africa/01sudan.html
When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday. -Stephen Colbert
South American Alliance:
Bolivia's new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday rejecting U.S.-backed free trade and promising a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation.
Cuban authorities did not release copies of the so-called Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas signed by Bolivia's Evo Morales, so its contents were unclear.
Local media reported that it had the same language as the declaration signed last year by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, which contained much leftist rhetoric, and few specifics, but was followed by closer economic ties between the two vehemently anti-U.S. leaders. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114635989328639810.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction. – Stephen Colbert
Immigration: Administration overconfidence With the back-drop of immigrant groups split as to today’s walk-out and polls showing that the White House has been successful in getting Americans to “worry” about immigration…
President Bush's growing confidence that he will secure a victory on immigration runs in direct contrast to the House Republican leadership, which is prepared to block legislation that offers illegal immigrants a path to citizenship without sending them home.
Senate Democratic and Republican leaders are closing in on a bipartisan deal to secure the nation's borders, create a guest-worker program for foreign workers and offer citizenship to illegal immigrants who clear certain hurdles.
Assuming agreement is reached in the Senate, White House advisers said Bush believes that he can count on House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and other leaders to rally skeptical House Republicans behind legislation. But the White House may be underestimating the degree of opposition from within his party, according to several GOP members and aides. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043000795_pf.html
I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq. -Stephen Colbert
Democrats’ strategy: Minimum wage to be highlighted
As Republicans resist efforts to raise the federal minimum wage, Democrats see the issue boosting party turnout in November's midterm elections -- and their chances of gaining seats in Congress.
Six states are expected to have a minimum-wage increase on their ballots this fall, and efforts are under way in at least three more states to collect enough signatures to place it on those ballots.
Among the six is Arizona where Democratic challenger Jim Pederson plans to use the issue to appeal to independents and moderate Republicans in his quest to unseat Republican Sen. Jon Kyl, who hasn't taken a position on the wage increase. "We think voters understand that $5.15 an hour just isn't enough for folks to get along on," says Kevin Griffis, Mr. Pederson's spokesman.
It's a strategy stolen straight from Republicans, who for more than two decades have used ballot initiatives to create wedge issues and whip up excitement among core voters. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114644237570740071.html?mod=politics_primary_hs
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