JUNE 30, 2005
THE IRAQ QUAGMIRE
When George W. Bush talks about training Iraqis to take over military duties in Iraq it reminds me of the "Vietnamization" policies of Richard M. Nixon. We were going to let the South Vietnamese take over and try to extricate ourselves from the nightmare of Vietnam. We know what happened. After all the death, after all the wounded, after all the division in this country, SouthVietnam still fell to the Communists. Total incompetence and lack of scruples got us into Iraq. Staying there doesn't accomplish anything but getting more innocent people slaughtered. Bob Herbert writes about the war and the incompetent leadership of the Bush administration in this column at www.nytimes.com:
The Bush crowd bristles at the use of the "Q-word" - quagmire - to describe American involvement in Iraq. But with our soldiers fighting and dying with no end in sight, who can deny that Mr. Bush has gotten us into "a situation from which extrication is very difficult," which is a standard definition of quagmire?
More than 1,730 American troops have already died in Iraq. Some were little more than children when they signed up for the armed forces, like Ramona Valdez, who grew up in the Bronx and was just 17 when she joined the Marines. She was one of six service members, including four women, who were killed when a suicide bomber struck their convoy in Falluja last week.
TORTURING CHILDREN
I wonder how many of those "pro life" types would object to the torture of children at Guantanamo. They haven't raised much fuss about the slaughter of children in Iraq and Afghanistan, so they probably don't care about torture either. But the rest of us, who really do value life, should care. How much lower can the Bush administration sink than to torture children? This story by Arlie Hochschild is at www.iht.com:
Juvenile detainees in American facilities like Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Base have been subject to the same mistreatment as adults. The International Red Cross, Amnesty International and the Pentagon itself have gathered substantial testimony of torture of children, bolstered by accounts from soldiers who witnessed or participated in the abuse.
According to Amnesty International, Muhammad Ismail Agha, 13, was arrested in Afghanistan in late 2002 and detained without charge or trial for over a year, first at Bagram and then at Guantánamo. He was held in solitary confinement and subjected to sleep deprivation.
IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY NOW
The evidence is clear and we know the disastrous results of the lies by George W. Bush and Richard Cheney that got us into an unnecessary war in Iraq. There are too many dead, too many maimed, too many lives destroyed for Bush and Cheney to escape accountability. I believe they should not only be impeached and removed from office, but tried before an international tribunal for war crimes. This story about a new Zogby poll shows the eroding support for Bush and the momentum building for impeachment. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country.
THE FORGOTTEN WAR IN COLOMBIA
While the nightmares in Iraq and Afghanistan continue there is another war going on, largely under the radar, in Colombia. The U.S. has backed a repressive regime there supposedly to stop the flow of drugs. It's another of those ends justify the means approaches, it appears. Colombia, like another U.S. ally in Uzbekistan, has a horrible human rights record. This story by Geov Parrish is at www.commondreams.org:
Amidst the disaster that is Iraq, the Pentagon has been fighting a smaller but no less ugly war. Next week, Congress will decide whether to continue sending military aid to Colombia, a country with one of the worst human rights records in the western hemisphere.
The focus of the aid is Plan Colombia, a five-year-old plan that has poured billions of U.S. dollars into drug crop fumigation and military aid. The plan expires this year, and needs Congressional approval to continue. It's a rare opportunity to impact U.S. warmaking -- yet, in part because of the subsequent, problematic invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, there has been virtually no U.S. media attention on what our tax dollars are assisting in Colombia.
One of the most troubling incidents there happened in February, when eight members of the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó were massacred, including four children. One of the victims was community leader and founder Luis Eduardo Guerra. Evidence points to the Colombian army as the authors of this crime.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
JUNE 29, 2005
PAT CONROY ON CONSERVATIVES
I just read Pat Conroy's terrific novel Beach Music and I came upon this quote about conservatives: "'I would be a conservative if I'd never met any,' I said. 'They're selfish, mean-spirited, egocentric, reactionary, and boring.'"
PERLE ADMITS IRAQ WAR WAS ILLEGAL
Richard Perle, one of the prime architects of the war against Iraq, admitted that under international law the war is illegal. Then he has the audacity to talk about doing the "moral" thing. This article by Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
BUSH'S SPEECH MORE OF THE SAME OLD LIES
I didn't watch the speech, but from the clips I've heard I know I didn't miss anything. It's more of the same rhetoric trying to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks on 9/11, which is an outright lie, more stuff about "staying the course," and "completing the mission." He didn't mention his little stunt on the aircraft carrier where a banner said "mission accomplished." It seems to me that when you're already in a hole you don't keep digging. This editorial at www.latimes.com takes a look at Bush's dissembling:
President Bush's pep talk to the nation Tuesday night was a major disappointment. He again rewrote history by lumping together the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the need for war in Iraq, when, in fact, Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. Bush spoke of "difficult and dangerous" work in Iraq that produces "images of violence and bloodshed," but he glossed over the reality of how bad the situation is. He offered no benchmarks to measure the war's progress, falling back on exhortations to "complete the mission" with a goal of withdrawing troops "as soon as possible."
IS IT PEAK OIL TIME IN SAUDI ARABIA?
"Peak oil" is the term that means oil becomes more expensive to extract than it's worth. One leading analyst thinks Saudi Arabia may be at that point and it's significant because Saudi Arabia is the world's leading oil producer. There are no known reserves to compensate for what we don't get from Saudi Arabia. I believe the United States should launch a project similar to the moon landing project to find alternative energy sources. That's not only because oil will not be there in the next few decades, but because hydrocarbons are having a drastic effect on the global ecology. This article by Michael T. Klare is at www.dawn.com:
FOR those oil enthusiasts who believe that petroleum will remain abundant for decades to come — among them, American president, vice-president and their many friends in the oil industry — any talk of an imminent “peak” in global oil production and an ensuing decline can be easily countered with a simple mantra: “Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia.”
Not only will the Saudis pump extra oil now to alleviate global shortages, as is claimed, but they will keep pumping more in the years ahead to quench our insatiable thirst for energy. And when the kingdom’s existing fields run dry, lo, it will begin pumping from other fields that are just waiting to be exploited. This is the basis for the administration’s contention that we can continue to increase our yearly consumption of oil, rather than conserve what’s left and begin the transition to a post-petroleum economy.
PAT CONROY ON CONSERVATIVES
I just read Pat Conroy's terrific novel Beach Music and I came upon this quote about conservatives: "'I would be a conservative if I'd never met any,' I said. 'They're selfish, mean-spirited, egocentric, reactionary, and boring.'"
PERLE ADMITS IRAQ WAR WAS ILLEGAL
Richard Perle, one of the prime architects of the war against Iraq, admitted that under international law the war is illegal. Then he has the audacity to talk about doing the "moral" thing. This article by Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."
President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
BUSH'S SPEECH MORE OF THE SAME OLD LIES
I didn't watch the speech, but from the clips I've heard I know I didn't miss anything. It's more of the same rhetoric trying to link Saddam Hussein to the attacks on 9/11, which is an outright lie, more stuff about "staying the course," and "completing the mission." He didn't mention his little stunt on the aircraft carrier where a banner said "mission accomplished." It seems to me that when you're already in a hole you don't keep digging. This editorial at www.latimes.com takes a look at Bush's dissembling:
President Bush's pep talk to the nation Tuesday night was a major disappointment. He again rewrote history by lumping together the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the need for war in Iraq, when, in fact, Saddam Hussein's Iraq had no connection to Al Qaeda. Bush spoke of "difficult and dangerous" work in Iraq that produces "images of violence and bloodshed," but he glossed over the reality of how bad the situation is. He offered no benchmarks to measure the war's progress, falling back on exhortations to "complete the mission" with a goal of withdrawing troops "as soon as possible."
IS IT PEAK OIL TIME IN SAUDI ARABIA?
"Peak oil" is the term that means oil becomes more expensive to extract than it's worth. One leading analyst thinks Saudi Arabia may be at that point and it's significant because Saudi Arabia is the world's leading oil producer. There are no known reserves to compensate for what we don't get from Saudi Arabia. I believe the United States should launch a project similar to the moon landing project to find alternative energy sources. That's not only because oil will not be there in the next few decades, but because hydrocarbons are having a drastic effect on the global ecology. This article by Michael T. Klare is at www.dawn.com:
FOR those oil enthusiasts who believe that petroleum will remain abundant for decades to come — among them, American president, vice-president and their many friends in the oil industry — any talk of an imminent “peak” in global oil production and an ensuing decline can be easily countered with a simple mantra: “Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia.”
Not only will the Saudis pump extra oil now to alleviate global shortages, as is claimed, but they will keep pumping more in the years ahead to quench our insatiable thirst for energy. And when the kingdom’s existing fields run dry, lo, it will begin pumping from other fields that are just waiting to be exploited. This is the basis for the administration’s contention that we can continue to increase our yearly consumption of oil, rather than conserve what’s left and begin the transition to a post-petroleum economy.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
JUNE 28, 2005
HARD TO BELIEVE WE'RE NOT THE GOOD GUYS
You wonder why Americans are not revulsed by reports of Americans torturing alleged terror suspects or, some cases, murdering them. You wonder why Americans are not aghast at atrocities committed by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe it's the old belief that we're the good guys and the ends justify the means. I guess I believe in a higher standard. I believe the United States should be the shining city on the hill, not just the illusion of it. This article talks about the U.S. use of napalm in Iraq. It's a weapon that universally reviled, but nothing is out of bounds for the Bush gang. The article by Mike Whitney is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Two weeks ago the UK Independent ran an article which confirmed that the US had "lied to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq". (6-17-05) Since then, not one American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American "free press" is yoked to the center of power in Washington. As we've seen with the treatment of the Downing Street memo, (which was reluctantly reported 5 weeks after it appeared in the British press) the air-tight American media ignores any story that doesn't embrace their collective support for the war. The prospect that the US military is using "universally reviled" weapons runs counter to the media-generated narrative that the war was motivated by humanitarian concerns (to topple a brutal dictator) as well as to eliminate the elusive WMDs. We can now say with certainty that the only WMDs in Iraq were those that were introduced by foreign invaders from the US who used them to incinerate the indigenous people who dared to resist.
THE RIGHT WING ATTACK ON HILLARY CLINTON
I don't really know why the right wing has had such a fixation on the Clintons. Bill and Hillary Clinton aren't even liberals by any true definition. As talk show host Mike Malloy has said, Bill Clinton is the best Republican president we've ever had Now there is a new hatchet job about Hillary Clinton. I have to think right-wingers get terrified at the thought of an independent, smart, and powerful woman. Maybe she's a threat to their masculinity somehow. Richard Cohen writes about the new screed by a guy named Edward Klein in this column at www.washingtonpost.com:
The reviews are convincing. Klein has gone so far over the top that I, an acquaintance of lo these many years, am astonished. He is, after all, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine and, by credential, a member of the august establishment press. He was also an editor at Newsweek, which is owned by the aforementioned Washington Post, so the magazine is next door to Pravda in the fantasy neighborhood where good right-wingers live. All this leads me to conclude -- Ed, you sly devil, you -- that Klein set out to expose the right wing for the gullible nincompoops they are. He has succeeded, and vast riches await him.
THE VERY SLEAZY KARL ROVE
About two weeks ago the FOX animated show "American Dad" had Karl Rove as a character in its episode. In the show Rove was dressed in a robe similar to what a friar would wear, but evil emanated from him. At one point he couldn't enter a church because he was too evil. Rove is George W. Bush's chief political strategist, a man evidently totally lacking in principle. Winning is more important than the country and more important than what is moral. Rove demonstrated his sleaziness again in falsely attacking liberals as being soft on terrorism. As E.J. Dionne notes, this is an old Republican tactic dating back to the era of Joseph McCarthy. This column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
That's how guilt by association works. Make a charge and then -- once your attack is out there -- pretend that your words have been misinterpreted. Split your opponents. Put them on the defensive. Force them to say things like: "No, we're not soft on terrorism," or, "I'm not that kind of liberal." Once this happens, the attacker has already won.
Respectable opinion treats Rove's speech as just another partisan flap. It's much more. It's the reincarnation of a style of politics that turns political opponents into traitors or dupes who are soft on the nation's enemies. Welcome back to the '50s.
GHOULISH BUSH ADMINISTRATION USES 9/11 VICTIMS
Politics may have always been tinged with a certain amount of cynicism, but it's hard to believe anything is more cynical than using the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for political gain. It's right out of the Adolf Hitler playbook. Bush and his minions have consistently trotted out the 9/11 tragedy to justify almost any vile thing they want to do, whether it be attacking Iraq, or throwing innocent people into jail and torturing them, or shredding civil liberties here at home. This item comes from americablog.blogspot.com:
No, President Bush, we haven't forgotten. Your attack dog Karl Rove came to New York City and the sacred ground of 9-11 and made a nasty, partisan political speech and he used that national tragedy to do it. Rove very directly made a comparison between conservatives and liberals, but put that aside. Whether you believe Bush was using Rove to attack a small group of Americans he thinks are misguided or the 50 million Americans who didn't vote for him or the vast majority of Americans who now realize he lied about Iraq, using the dead of 9-11 to try and beef up your poll numbers is reprehensible and wrong.
No one should use the dead of 9-11 to try and further their partisan political agenda. Whomever Bush wants to pretend that screed was directed at, he used the innocent victims of 9-11 to do it.
HARD TO BELIEVE WE'RE NOT THE GOOD GUYS
You wonder why Americans are not revulsed by reports of Americans torturing alleged terror suspects or, some cases, murdering them. You wonder why Americans are not aghast at atrocities committed by the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe it's the old belief that we're the good guys and the ends justify the means. I guess I believe in a higher standard. I believe the United States should be the shining city on the hill, not just the illusion of it. This article talks about the U.S. use of napalm in Iraq. It's a weapon that universally reviled, but nothing is out of bounds for the Bush gang. The article by Mike Whitney is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Two weeks ago the UK Independent ran an article which confirmed that the US had "lied to Britain over the use of napalm in Iraq". (6-17-05) Since then, not one American newspaper or TV station has picked up the story even though the Pentagon has verified the claims. This is the extent to which the American "free press" is yoked to the center of power in Washington. As we've seen with the treatment of the Downing Street memo, (which was reluctantly reported 5 weeks after it appeared in the British press) the air-tight American media ignores any story that doesn't embrace their collective support for the war. The prospect that the US military is using "universally reviled" weapons runs counter to the media-generated narrative that the war was motivated by humanitarian concerns (to topple a brutal dictator) as well as to eliminate the elusive WMDs. We can now say with certainty that the only WMDs in Iraq were those that were introduced by foreign invaders from the US who used them to incinerate the indigenous people who dared to resist.
THE RIGHT WING ATTACK ON HILLARY CLINTON
I don't really know why the right wing has had such a fixation on the Clintons. Bill and Hillary Clinton aren't even liberals by any true definition. As talk show host Mike Malloy has said, Bill Clinton is the best Republican president we've ever had Now there is a new hatchet job about Hillary Clinton. I have to think right-wingers get terrified at the thought of an independent, smart, and powerful woman. Maybe she's a threat to their masculinity somehow. Richard Cohen writes about the new screed by a guy named Edward Klein in this column at www.washingtonpost.com:
The reviews are convincing. Klein has gone so far over the top that I, an acquaintance of lo these many years, am astonished. He is, after all, a former editor of the New York Times Magazine and, by credential, a member of the august establishment press. He was also an editor at Newsweek, which is owned by the aforementioned Washington Post, so the magazine is next door to Pravda in the fantasy neighborhood where good right-wingers live. All this leads me to conclude -- Ed, you sly devil, you -- that Klein set out to expose the right wing for the gullible nincompoops they are. He has succeeded, and vast riches await him.
THE VERY SLEAZY KARL ROVE
About two weeks ago the FOX animated show "American Dad" had Karl Rove as a character in its episode. In the show Rove was dressed in a robe similar to what a friar would wear, but evil emanated from him. At one point he couldn't enter a church because he was too evil. Rove is George W. Bush's chief political strategist, a man evidently totally lacking in principle. Winning is more important than the country and more important than what is moral. Rove demonstrated his sleaziness again in falsely attacking liberals as being soft on terrorism. As E.J. Dionne notes, this is an old Republican tactic dating back to the era of Joseph McCarthy. This column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
That's how guilt by association works. Make a charge and then -- once your attack is out there -- pretend that your words have been misinterpreted. Split your opponents. Put them on the defensive. Force them to say things like: "No, we're not soft on terrorism," or, "I'm not that kind of liberal." Once this happens, the attacker has already won.
Respectable opinion treats Rove's speech as just another partisan flap. It's much more. It's the reincarnation of a style of politics that turns political opponents into traitors or dupes who are soft on the nation's enemies. Welcome back to the '50s.
GHOULISH BUSH ADMINISTRATION USES 9/11 VICTIMS
Politics may have always been tinged with a certain amount of cynicism, but it's hard to believe anything is more cynical than using the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for political gain. It's right out of the Adolf Hitler playbook. Bush and his minions have consistently trotted out the 9/11 tragedy to justify almost any vile thing they want to do, whether it be attacking Iraq, or throwing innocent people into jail and torturing them, or shredding civil liberties here at home. This item comes from americablog.blogspot.com:
No, President Bush, we haven't forgotten. Your attack dog Karl Rove came to New York City and the sacred ground of 9-11 and made a nasty, partisan political speech and he used that national tragedy to do it. Rove very directly made a comparison between conservatives and liberals, but put that aside. Whether you believe Bush was using Rove to attack a small group of Americans he thinks are misguided or the 50 million Americans who didn't vote for him or the vast majority of Americans who now realize he lied about Iraq, using the dead of 9-11 to try and beef up your poll numbers is reprehensible and wrong.
No one should use the dead of 9-11 to try and further their partisan political agenda. Whomever Bush wants to pretend that screed was directed at, he used the innocent victims of 9-11 to do it.
Monday, June 27, 2005
JUNE 27, 2005
ATTACK ON PBS IS JUST PART OF A PATTERN
The only way Republicans have been successful over the past two decades is by the masterful use of propaganda. Any objective look at the policies of Republicans show that they benefit a tiny minority of corporate interests, the upper income brackets, and the military-industrial complex. Their policies are not even favorable to members of the Christian right, although Republicans will throw them an occasional bone or two to get their support. The Bush administration has pushed the envelope on propaganda, even putting so-called "journalists" on the payroll. Now they're taking it a step further in trying to convert PBS and NPR to propaganda engines of the right. Frank Rich writes about it at www.nytimes.com:
The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the "journalism" of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.
TOP 100 EXECUTIVES DID VERY WELL
We live in a country where the federal minimum wage hasn't been increased in years, where wages are stagnant for most of us, and where poverty has been on the increase, but you'll be happy to know the median income for the 100 top-paid executives was $5.25 million in 2004. It warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it, that these are the people getting the big Bush tax cuts. This story by Terence O'Hara is at www.washingtonpost.com:
It pays, more than ever, to be at the top.
The median total compensation for the 100 highest-paid executives in The Washington Post's annual survey of executive pay was $5.25 million in 2004, up slightly from $5.13 million the year before.
THE IRAQ WAR IS CREATING A GREAT DIVIDE
George W. Bush billed himself as "a uniter, not a divider," but he has succeeded in dividing the country more than any president since Richard Nixon in the last years of the Vietnam war. Nixon talked about the "silent majority," implying that demonstrators in the streets were just a minority. As it turned out, the majority of the country turned against the Vietnam war. Even though we now have an all volunteer army, you can see the insidious effects of an army based mostly on a poverty draft. Rich kids aren't in the military. Now the military is having an even more difficult time recruiting because the truth about Iraq is becoming plain to see. Dick Cheney claimed the insurgency was in its "last throes," but Donald Rumsfeld then said it may take twelve years to defeat the insurgency. The Bush administration has no idea of how to get out of this war. They just want more death and destruction. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
The all-volunteer Army is not working. The problem with such an Army is that there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate.
The all-volunteer Army is fine in peacetime, and in military routs like the first gulf war. But when the troops are locked in a prolonged war that yields high casualties, and they look over their shoulders to see if reinforcements are coming from the general population, they find -as they're finding now - that no one is there.
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DETAINED FOR THE FLIMSIEST OF REASONS
In the land of Bush you can be arrested and detained indefinitely if you have literature on flying or you like videotaping boats out in the harbor. The excuse of "fighting terrorism" is being used carte blanche by the government to flagrantly violate the civil liberties of people, making a mockery of the Bill of Rights. This story by Shannon McCaffrey talks about a new ACLU report detailing abuses by the U.S. Justice Department. The story is at www.commondreams.org:
The Justice Department imprisoned dozens of Muslim men for months in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks based on secret evidence and often flimsy links to terrorism, two civil liberties groups charge in a new report to be made public on Monday.
The report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch accuses the Justice Department of plunging at least 70 men "into a Kafkaesque world of indefinite detention."
Four of the 70 have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism and three are awaiting trial, and the report said 13 of the men have received apologies from the government.
In one case, a 68-year-old physician and U.S. citizen was hauled away in handcuffs after his suspicious neighbors broke into his apartment and discovered literature on flying. Another man, also a U.S. citizen, was locked up after his wife was seen videotaping boats on Chesapeake Bay by other drivers who thought she might be scouting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as a target.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN?
The Christian right's latest attempts to teach creationism in schools is an idea called "intelligent design." The argument is an old one--that life is just too complex to have evolved on its own. But "intelligent design" doesn't explain much of nature or much of the design failures of the human body, such as the blind spot we all have or our propensity for back trouble. David Barash writes about it at www.latimes.com:
But, in fact, the living world is shot through with imperfection. Unless one wants to attribute either incompetence or sheer malevolence to such a designer, this imperfection — the manifold design flaws of life — points incontrovertibly to a natural, rather than a divine, process, one in which living things were not created de novo, but evolved. Consider the human body. Ask yourself, if you were designing the optimum exit for a fetus, would you engineer a route that passes through the narrow confines of the pelvic bones? Add to this the tragic reality that childbirth is not only painful in our species but downright dangerous and sometimes lethal, owing to a baby's head being too large for the mother's birth canal.
ATTACK ON PBS IS JUST PART OF A PATTERN
The only way Republicans have been successful over the past two decades is by the masterful use of propaganda. Any objective look at the policies of Republicans show that they benefit a tiny minority of corporate interests, the upper income brackets, and the military-industrial complex. Their policies are not even favorable to members of the Christian right, although Republicans will throw them an occasional bone or two to get their support. The Bush administration has pushed the envelope on propaganda, even putting so-called "journalists" on the payroll. Now they're taking it a step further in trying to convert PBS and NPR to propaganda engines of the right. Frank Rich writes about it at www.nytimes.com:
The intent is not to kill off PBS and NPR but to castrate them by quietly annexing their news and public affairs operations to the larger state propaganda machine that the Bush White House has been steadily constructing at taxpayers' expense. If you liked the fake government news videos that ended up on local stations - or thrilled to the "journalism" of Armstrong Williams and other columnists who were covertly paid to promote administration policies - you'll love the brave new world this crowd envisions for public TV and radio.
TOP 100 EXECUTIVES DID VERY WELL
We live in a country where the federal minimum wage hasn't been increased in years, where wages are stagnant for most of us, and where poverty has been on the increase, but you'll be happy to know the median income for the 100 top-paid executives was $5.25 million in 2004. It warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it, that these are the people getting the big Bush tax cuts. This story by Terence O'Hara is at www.washingtonpost.com:
It pays, more than ever, to be at the top.
The median total compensation for the 100 highest-paid executives in The Washington Post's annual survey of executive pay was $5.25 million in 2004, up slightly from $5.13 million the year before.
THE IRAQ WAR IS CREATING A GREAT DIVIDE
George W. Bush billed himself as "a uniter, not a divider," but he has succeeded in dividing the country more than any president since Richard Nixon in the last years of the Vietnam war. Nixon talked about the "silent majority," implying that demonstrators in the streets were just a minority. As it turned out, the majority of the country turned against the Vietnam war. Even though we now have an all volunteer army, you can see the insidious effects of an army based mostly on a poverty draft. Rich kids aren't in the military. Now the military is having an even more difficult time recruiting because the truth about Iraq is becoming plain to see. Dick Cheney claimed the insurgency was in its "last throes," but Donald Rumsfeld then said it may take twelve years to defeat the insurgency. The Bush administration has no idea of how to get out of this war. They just want more death and destruction. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
The all-volunteer Army is not working. The problem with such an Army is that there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate.
The all-volunteer Army is fine in peacetime, and in military routs like the first gulf war. But when the troops are locked in a prolonged war that yields high casualties, and they look over their shoulders to see if reinforcements are coming from the general population, they find -as they're finding now - that no one is there.
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DETAINED FOR THE FLIMSIEST OF REASONS
In the land of Bush you can be arrested and detained indefinitely if you have literature on flying or you like videotaping boats out in the harbor. The excuse of "fighting terrorism" is being used carte blanche by the government to flagrantly violate the civil liberties of people, making a mockery of the Bill of Rights. This story by Shannon McCaffrey talks about a new ACLU report detailing abuses by the U.S. Justice Department. The story is at www.commondreams.org:
The Justice Department imprisoned dozens of Muslim men for months in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks based on secret evidence and often flimsy links to terrorism, two civil liberties groups charge in a new report to be made public on Monday.
The report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch accuses the Justice Department of plunging at least 70 men "into a Kafkaesque world of indefinite detention."
Four of the 70 have been convicted of crimes related to terrorism and three are awaiting trial, and the report said 13 of the men have received apologies from the government.
In one case, a 68-year-old physician and U.S. citizen was hauled away in handcuffs after his suspicious neighbors broke into his apartment and discovered literature on flying. Another man, also a U.S. citizen, was locked up after his wife was seen videotaping boats on Chesapeake Bay by other drivers who thought she might be scouting the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as a target.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN?
The Christian right's latest attempts to teach creationism in schools is an idea called "intelligent design." The argument is an old one--that life is just too complex to have evolved on its own. But "intelligent design" doesn't explain much of nature or much of the design failures of the human body, such as the blind spot we all have or our propensity for back trouble. David Barash writes about it at www.latimes.com:
But, in fact, the living world is shot through with imperfection. Unless one wants to attribute either incompetence or sheer malevolence to such a designer, this imperfection — the manifold design flaws of life — points incontrovertibly to a natural, rather than a divine, process, one in which living things were not created de novo, but evolved. Consider the human body. Ask yourself, if you were designing the optimum exit for a fetus, would you engineer a route that passes through the narrow confines of the pelvic bones? Add to this the tragic reality that childbirth is not only painful in our species but downright dangerous and sometimes lethal, owing to a baby's head being too large for the mother's birth canal.
Sunday, June 26, 2005
JUNE 26, 2005
ABOUT THOSE PRIVATIZED ACCOUNTS BUSH WANTS
The recent shafting of United Airlines employees should be a warning about the dangers and the major pitfalls of relying on private sector pension plans to "save" Social Security. Without any apparent conscience or integrity, United wants to dump its pension plans onto the federal government (the taxpayers) and reduce the pensions of United employees. The House of Representatives sent a strong rebuke to United. This item comes from blog.dccc.org:
"United Airlines is the poster child for what's wrong with the private pension system in this country. United did not exhaust all alternatives to dumping its pension plans, and the result was a strong rebuke from Congress today," said Miller. "United owes better treatment to its employees and retirees, who have dedicated their lives to the company."
United's agreements with the PBGC – if they are allowed to stand – would transfer $6.6 billion in unfunded pension liabilities onto the federal government, the largest corporate pension plan failure in U.S. history. Miller has warned that other companies may look to the United situation to see if they, too, can cut costs by dumping their pension plans, raising the specter of a taxpayer bailout of the PBGC, which is already running a $23.3 billion deficit.
WAR IN IRAQ "UNWINNABLE"
This editorial in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer calls the war in Iraq unwinnable, and I agree. George W. Bush thought he would conquer Iraq, impose a fake "democracy" there, and establish U.S. hegemony in the Middle East for decades to come. He didn't count on the Iraqis resisting an occupation. When people are willing to commit suicide to kill as many Americans as possible, you have to find ways of dealing with the problem without exclusive dependence on the military. This editorial is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
The Bush administration is revving up its media manipulation machinery with a new push on "winning" in Iraq. In the latest sales pitch for why we are there, President Bush says, in effect, that Americans are fortunate to have drawn terrorists into a fight on somebody else's soil.
His neocon policy advisers have been wrong about almost everything else in Iraq. They foisted this war on the United States and the world with patently false assertions not just about weapons of mass destruction. The increasingly famous Downing Street memo only hints at the scope of mass deception. The neocons also spread absolute fantasies about how we would be greeted in Iraq, how many troops would be needed to establish security and how much time, money and blood would be spent in an occupation.
ANOTHER STUPID REPUBLICAN ATTACK ON SOCIAL SECURITY
The latest incarnation of Republicans designs to destroy Social Security involves using the surpluses currently in the Social Security trust fund to create private accounts. Those surpluses are needed to secure the system for when Baby Boomers begin retiring in large numbers in the next few years. The Republican plan would mean less in Social Security benefits for retirees and would swell the federal deficit. This commentary is at www.boston.com:
REPUBLICANS IN Congress are getting desperate as their plans to privatize Social Security unravel from a dearth of public support. Their latest proposal would set up limited private accounts that would not generate much income for future retirees but would increase the budget deficit and threaten the solvency of the Social Security system.
The plans, unveiled by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and a group of GOP House members, would divert surpluses in the Social Security trust fund to private accounts. The trust fund last year got about $145 billion more in tax revenue than it paid out in benefits, but those surpluses will vanish in 12 years with an onslaught of baby boomer retirements. Then the trust fund will go into deficit. The surpluses are now invested in government bonds that can help pay for future retiree benefits
ABOUT THOSE PRIVATIZED ACCOUNTS BUSH WANTS
The recent shafting of United Airlines employees should be a warning about the dangers and the major pitfalls of relying on private sector pension plans to "save" Social Security. Without any apparent conscience or integrity, United wants to dump its pension plans onto the federal government (the taxpayers) and reduce the pensions of United employees. The House of Representatives sent a strong rebuke to United. This item comes from blog.dccc.org:
"United Airlines is the poster child for what's wrong with the private pension system in this country. United did not exhaust all alternatives to dumping its pension plans, and the result was a strong rebuke from Congress today," said Miller. "United owes better treatment to its employees and retirees, who have dedicated their lives to the company."
United's agreements with the PBGC – if they are allowed to stand – would transfer $6.6 billion in unfunded pension liabilities onto the federal government, the largest corporate pension plan failure in U.S. history. Miller has warned that other companies may look to the United situation to see if they, too, can cut costs by dumping their pension plans, raising the specter of a taxpayer bailout of the PBGC, which is already running a $23.3 billion deficit.
WAR IN IRAQ "UNWINNABLE"
This editorial in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer calls the war in Iraq unwinnable, and I agree. George W. Bush thought he would conquer Iraq, impose a fake "democracy" there, and establish U.S. hegemony in the Middle East for decades to come. He didn't count on the Iraqis resisting an occupation. When people are willing to commit suicide to kill as many Americans as possible, you have to find ways of dealing with the problem without exclusive dependence on the military. This editorial is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
The Bush administration is revving up its media manipulation machinery with a new push on "winning" in Iraq. In the latest sales pitch for why we are there, President Bush says, in effect, that Americans are fortunate to have drawn terrorists into a fight on somebody else's soil.
His neocon policy advisers have been wrong about almost everything else in Iraq. They foisted this war on the United States and the world with patently false assertions not just about weapons of mass destruction. The increasingly famous Downing Street memo only hints at the scope of mass deception. The neocons also spread absolute fantasies about how we would be greeted in Iraq, how many troops would be needed to establish security and how much time, money and blood would be spent in an occupation.
ANOTHER STUPID REPUBLICAN ATTACK ON SOCIAL SECURITY
The latest incarnation of Republicans designs to destroy Social Security involves using the surpluses currently in the Social Security trust fund to create private accounts. Those surpluses are needed to secure the system for when Baby Boomers begin retiring in large numbers in the next few years. The Republican plan would mean less in Social Security benefits for retirees and would swell the federal deficit. This commentary is at www.boston.com:
REPUBLICANS IN Congress are getting desperate as their plans to privatize Social Security unravel from a dearth of public support. Their latest proposal would set up limited private accounts that would not generate much income for future retirees but would increase the budget deficit and threaten the solvency of the Social Security system.
The plans, unveiled by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina and a group of GOP House members, would divert surpluses in the Social Security trust fund to private accounts. The trust fund last year got about $145 billion more in tax revenue than it paid out in benefits, but those surpluses will vanish in 12 years with an onslaught of baby boomer retirements. Then the trust fund will go into deficit. The surpluses are now invested in government bonds that can help pay for future retiree benefits
Saturday, June 25, 2005
JUNE 25, 2005
ROVE TALKS BIG, BUT BUSH HAS GOTTEN NO RESULTS
Karl Rove blustered a few days ago that right-wingers stood tall against terrorism after the attacks on 9/11, but said liberals were essentially wimps. Let's look at the results, shall we? Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is still on the loose. He was close to be captured at Tora Bora except for the incompetence of the Bush regime. There are been very few convictions related to terrorism, but the U.S. has shamefully imprisoned and tortured people who were innocent. We've attacked a country that had no connection to terrorism and murdered thousands of innocent people. Incidents of terrorism have increased since the much-vaunted "war on terror" was launched. There is a good summary in this item at www.americanprogressaction.org:
Whenever the president’s domestic agenda hits rock bottom—like clockwork—right-wingers trot out the 9/11 card to distract people from wildly unpopular policy decisions. On Wednesday, the president’s chief political architect, Karl Rove, claimed: “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” We’ll never know his exact motives, but perhaps the president’s self-described “Turd Blossom” was projecting the administration’s own need for counseling to make up for its complete lack of success in fighting terrorism.
BUSH IS EITHER DELUSIONAL OR A LIAR
If George W. Bush and his miserable administration were tried before a jury of their peers on Iraq, the evidence would demand a verdict of "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" on all counts. Yet Bush keeps claiming that things are just going swimmingly in Iraq, including in his latest weekly radio address. Former Carter adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has a different take in this article at www.sfgate.com:
In the Democratic radio response, Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser in the Carter administration, alleged that the war has been conducted with "tactical and strategic incompetence."
"Two years later, America finds itself more isolated than ever before, the object of unprecedented international mistrust," Brzezinski said. "As a result, we are not as safe as we should be here at home."
He said the war has turned Iraq into a training ground for terrorists and noted that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has not been captured. "The violence in Iraq continues at increasing rates and American casualties continue to mount," Brzezinski said.
THE RIGHT WING'S FILTHY USE OF RELIGION
I'm weary of right-wing "Christians" claiming they're persecuted in the United States. Let them read some history about real persecution and it becomes obvious they haven't had it too bad. In fact, they are the ones doing the persecuting. They are the ones trying to ram their version of "truth" down the throats of everyone else. In this column E. J. Dionne talks about the travails of Congressman David Obey in addressing the persecution by right-wing Christians at the Air Force Academy. This column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Obey rose to his feet and demanded that Hostettler's last words be stricken from the record, which they eventually were. "If Jesus is watching what's happening on the floor of the House of Representatives, with people behaving in such a blasphemous fashion," Obey said this week, "well, I am reminded of that passage, 'Jesus wept.' " Obey said that when he first came to Congress, "there would have been universal condemnation of Hostettler by both parties." In this case, Obey said he was approached afterward by a single sympathetic Republican. Obey was comforted that Jewish House members "appreciated that a Christian would speak out."
OUR PRIORITIES ARE OUT OF WHACK
President Dwight Eisenhower once observed that military spending was the most wasteful spending of all because it took away things like housing, education, health care, and decent lives for the American people. He warned about the military-industrial complex. When you look at the situation in Iraq you grieve for the U.S. military personnel who have been killed or maimed, you grieve for the innocent Iraqis killed and wounded, and you grieve for the kind of society we could have in the United States if our priorities made sense. Charles Reese has some thoughts at www.antiwar.com:
I cannot think of any instance in which the federal government has been willing to spend $1 billion a week and 1,700 lives just to improve conditions in any one of the 50 states. Yet that is exactly what it is doing in Iraq, presumably for no other reason than to bring the blessings of liberty to a people we have bombed, starved, impoverished and vilified for 14 years.
Naturally, the democracy bit is a fallback excuse after the original justification for launching a preemptive war was proven false. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no nuclear program. There were no ties to al-Qaeda. There was no threat to the United States, imminent or otherwise.
ROVE TALKS BIG, BUT BUSH HAS GOTTEN NO RESULTS
Karl Rove blustered a few days ago that right-wingers stood tall against terrorism after the attacks on 9/11, but said liberals were essentially wimps. Let's look at the results, shall we? Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, is still on the loose. He was close to be captured at Tora Bora except for the incompetence of the Bush regime. There are been very few convictions related to terrorism, but the U.S. has shamefully imprisoned and tortured people who were innocent. We've attacked a country that had no connection to terrorism and murdered thousands of innocent people. Incidents of terrorism have increased since the much-vaunted "war on terror" was launched. There is a good summary in this item at www.americanprogressaction.org:
Whenever the president’s domestic agenda hits rock bottom—like clockwork—right-wingers trot out the 9/11 card to distract people from wildly unpopular policy decisions. On Wednesday, the president’s chief political architect, Karl Rove, claimed: “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.” We’ll never know his exact motives, but perhaps the president’s self-described “Turd Blossom” was projecting the administration’s own need for counseling to make up for its complete lack of success in fighting terrorism.
BUSH IS EITHER DELUSIONAL OR A LIAR
If George W. Bush and his miserable administration were tried before a jury of their peers on Iraq, the evidence would demand a verdict of "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!" on all counts. Yet Bush keeps claiming that things are just going swimmingly in Iraq, including in his latest weekly radio address. Former Carter adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has a different take in this article at www.sfgate.com:
In the Democratic radio response, Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser in the Carter administration, alleged that the war has been conducted with "tactical and strategic incompetence."
"Two years later, America finds itself more isolated than ever before, the object of unprecedented international mistrust," Brzezinski said. "As a result, we are not as safe as we should be here at home."
He said the war has turned Iraq into a training ground for terrorists and noted that Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, has not been captured. "The violence in Iraq continues at increasing rates and American casualties continue to mount," Brzezinski said.
THE RIGHT WING'S FILTHY USE OF RELIGION
I'm weary of right-wing "Christians" claiming they're persecuted in the United States. Let them read some history about real persecution and it becomes obvious they haven't had it too bad. In fact, they are the ones doing the persecuting. They are the ones trying to ram their version of "truth" down the throats of everyone else. In this column E. J. Dionne talks about the travails of Congressman David Obey in addressing the persecution by right-wing Christians at the Air Force Academy. This column is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Obey rose to his feet and demanded that Hostettler's last words be stricken from the record, which they eventually were. "If Jesus is watching what's happening on the floor of the House of Representatives, with people behaving in such a blasphemous fashion," Obey said this week, "well, I am reminded of that passage, 'Jesus wept.' " Obey said that when he first came to Congress, "there would have been universal condemnation of Hostettler by both parties." In this case, Obey said he was approached afterward by a single sympathetic Republican. Obey was comforted that Jewish House members "appreciated that a Christian would speak out."
OUR PRIORITIES ARE OUT OF WHACK
President Dwight Eisenhower once observed that military spending was the most wasteful spending of all because it took away things like housing, education, health care, and decent lives for the American people. He warned about the military-industrial complex. When you look at the situation in Iraq you grieve for the U.S. military personnel who have been killed or maimed, you grieve for the innocent Iraqis killed and wounded, and you grieve for the kind of society we could have in the United States if our priorities made sense. Charles Reese has some thoughts at www.antiwar.com:
I cannot think of any instance in which the federal government has been willing to spend $1 billion a week and 1,700 lives just to improve conditions in any one of the 50 states. Yet that is exactly what it is doing in Iraq, presumably for no other reason than to bring the blessings of liberty to a people we have bombed, starved, impoverished and vilified for 14 years.
Naturally, the democracy bit is a fallback excuse after the original justification for launching a preemptive war was proven false. There were no weapons of mass destruction. There was no nuclear program. There were no ties to al-Qaeda. There was no threat to the United States, imminent or otherwise.
Friday, June 24, 2005
JUNE 24, 2005
BUSH'S ABUSE OF POWER
It's too bad we can't vet the personalities of people running for president. One of the qualities we should screen for is bullying. George W. Bush has demonstrated throughout his life that he is a classic bully, and a bully is the wrong personality type to have in the White House. We don't need a bully having the reins to the most powerful military in the world or the most powerful nuclear arsenal. We certainly don't need a bully who is under the delusion that God talks to him. In this column Paul Krugman examines Bush's most blatant bullying in the war in Iraq. The column is at www.nytimes.com:
We need to deprive these people of their ability to mislead and intimidate. And the best way to do that is to make it clear that the people who led us to war on false pretenses have no credibility, and no right to lecture the rest of us about patriotism.
The good news is that the public seems ready to hear that message - readier than the media are to deliver it. Major media organizations still act as if only a small, left-wing fringe believes that we were misled into war, but that "fringe" now comprises much if not most of the population.
MORE EXAMPLES OF BUSH BULLYING
I don't know if people feel compelled to laugh at George W. Bush's "humor," which is often cutting and disrespectful to the people around him. Here is an example of Bush making light of people with better educational credentials. This item is at www.brendan-nyhan.com:
Fred Becker of Wonkette notes George W. Bush lording his office over Samuel W. Bodman, his PhD-holding Secretary of Energy, yesterday:
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate the Secretary of Energy joining me today. He's a good man, he knows a lot about the subject, you'll be pleased to hear. I was teasing him -- he taught at MIT, and -- do you have a PhD?
SECRETARY BODMAN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, a PhD. (Laughter.) Now I want you to pay careful attention to this -- he's the PhD, and I'm the C student, but notice who is the advisor and who is the President.
BUSH THINKS ABOUT BUSH
George W. Bush is the man mostly responsible for the horror that has been unleashed in Iraq. A few days ago he tried to make himself seem caring and compassionate when he said he thinks about Iraq everyday. Big of you, George. Why don't you admit your culpability for this disaster and resign? Bob Parry has a good column at www.consortiumnews.com:
Arguably the success of al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks could be blamed on Bush’s negligence in ignoring blunt warnings from the CIA, including the Aug. 6, 2001, briefing paper entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the U.S.” Instead of responding aggressively - or “shaking the trees” of the federal bureaucracy, as counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke said - Bush stayed on a month-long vacation, went fishing, cleared brush at his ranch and studied the ethics of stem-cell research.
Then, on Sept. 11, Bush sat frozen for seven minutes in a second-grade Florida classroom after White House chief of staff Andrew Card whispered in his ear, “the nation is under attack.” When Bush finally got up and left, he rushed to Air Force One and flew westward to greater safety in Louisiana and then Nebraska.
KARL ROVE IS A SCUMBAG
In a speech a few days ago Karl Rove, chief manipulator of George W. Bush, made a speech implying that liberals didn't want to fight back against Osama bin Laden. I'm really weary of Bush and his cronies playing the 9/11 card. No one is a patriot, according to them, unless you sign on to this asinine "war on terror." If you care about international law, if you care about the Geneva conventions, if you care about the Bill of Rights, you're suddenly not "patriotic." Rove is now taking a deserved pounding. This article by Peter Daou is linked at americablog.blogspot.com:
I'm devoting much of today's report to Karl Rove's vile comments denigrating half of the American public. My office overlooks Ground Zero, and I'm looking at the gaping footprint as I write this. My wife and I were in New York that day, on our way to the WTC for a morning meeting. A chance phone call dragged on a few minutes too long and most likely saved our lives. I lost friends in the towers, and when I walk past the site, as I do almost every evening, the pain is as real as it was on September 11th, 2001.
I spent my youth in Beirut during the height of Lebanon's civil war, and I fought the Syrian presence in Lebanon long before the "Cedar Revolution." I watched young boys give their lives and mothers cradle their dying children in blood-soaked arms. I've seen more bloodshed, war, and violence, and shot more guns than most of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists combined. I wouldn't presume to question the strength or dignity of a stranger, and I pity those who blithely push the right=strong, left=weak rhetoric. It says far more about their inadequacies than it does about the target of their scorn. Today, Karl Rove took that rhetoric to a new, filthy low.
BUSH'S ABUSE OF POWER
It's too bad we can't vet the personalities of people running for president. One of the qualities we should screen for is bullying. George W. Bush has demonstrated throughout his life that he is a classic bully, and a bully is the wrong personality type to have in the White House. We don't need a bully having the reins to the most powerful military in the world or the most powerful nuclear arsenal. We certainly don't need a bully who is under the delusion that God talks to him. In this column Paul Krugman examines Bush's most blatant bullying in the war in Iraq. The column is at www.nytimes.com:
We need to deprive these people of their ability to mislead and intimidate. And the best way to do that is to make it clear that the people who led us to war on false pretenses have no credibility, and no right to lecture the rest of us about patriotism.
The good news is that the public seems ready to hear that message - readier than the media are to deliver it. Major media organizations still act as if only a small, left-wing fringe believes that we were misled into war, but that "fringe" now comprises much if not most of the population.
MORE EXAMPLES OF BUSH BULLYING
I don't know if people feel compelled to laugh at George W. Bush's "humor," which is often cutting and disrespectful to the people around him. Here is an example of Bush making light of people with better educational credentials. This item is at www.brendan-nyhan.com:
Fred Becker of Wonkette notes George W. Bush lording his office over Samuel W. Bodman, his PhD-holding Secretary of Energy, yesterday:
THE PRESIDENT: I appreciate the Secretary of Energy joining me today. He's a good man, he knows a lot about the subject, you'll be pleased to hear. I was teasing him -- he taught at MIT, and -- do you have a PhD?
SECRETARY BODMAN: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, a PhD. (Laughter.) Now I want you to pay careful attention to this -- he's the PhD, and I'm the C student, but notice who is the advisor and who is the President.
BUSH THINKS ABOUT BUSH
George W. Bush is the man mostly responsible for the horror that has been unleashed in Iraq. A few days ago he tried to make himself seem caring and compassionate when he said he thinks about Iraq everyday. Big of you, George. Why don't you admit your culpability for this disaster and resign? Bob Parry has a good column at www.consortiumnews.com:
Arguably the success of al-Qaeda’s Sept. 11 attacks could be blamed on Bush’s negligence in ignoring blunt warnings from the CIA, including the Aug. 6, 2001, briefing paper entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the U.S.” Instead of responding aggressively - or “shaking the trees” of the federal bureaucracy, as counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke said - Bush stayed on a month-long vacation, went fishing, cleared brush at his ranch and studied the ethics of stem-cell research.
Then, on Sept. 11, Bush sat frozen for seven minutes in a second-grade Florida classroom after White House chief of staff Andrew Card whispered in his ear, “the nation is under attack.” When Bush finally got up and left, he rushed to Air Force One and flew westward to greater safety in Louisiana and then Nebraska.
KARL ROVE IS A SCUMBAG
In a speech a few days ago Karl Rove, chief manipulator of George W. Bush, made a speech implying that liberals didn't want to fight back against Osama bin Laden. I'm really weary of Bush and his cronies playing the 9/11 card. No one is a patriot, according to them, unless you sign on to this asinine "war on terror." If you care about international law, if you care about the Geneva conventions, if you care about the Bill of Rights, you're suddenly not "patriotic." Rove is now taking a deserved pounding. This article by Peter Daou is linked at americablog.blogspot.com:
I'm devoting much of today's report to Karl Rove's vile comments denigrating half of the American public. My office overlooks Ground Zero, and I'm looking at the gaping footprint as I write this. My wife and I were in New York that day, on our way to the WTC for a morning meeting. A chance phone call dragged on a few minutes too long and most likely saved our lives. I lost friends in the towers, and when I walk past the site, as I do almost every evening, the pain is as real as it was on September 11th, 2001.
I spent my youth in Beirut during the height of Lebanon's civil war, and I fought the Syrian presence in Lebanon long before the "Cedar Revolution." I watched young boys give their lives and mothers cradle their dying children in blood-soaked arms. I've seen more bloodshed, war, and violence, and shot more guns than most of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists combined. I wouldn't presume to question the strength or dignity of a stranger, and I pity those who blithely push the right=strong, left=weak rhetoric. It says far more about their inadequacies than it does about the target of their scorn. Today, Karl Rove took that rhetoric to a new, filthy low.
Thursday, June 23, 2005
JUNE 23, 2005
THE PENTAGON DEATH MACHINE
In Bushworld there is a need for warm bodies to fill the military ranks, so the Pentagon is compiling a data base on kids in school. They're keeping records on such things as Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, and what subjects the kids are studying. Is this beyond vile or what? This story by Jonathan Krim is linked at www.startribune.com:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Defense Department began working Wednesday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.
The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.
The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.
BODY COUNT REDUX
During the Vietnam war we heard often that there was light at the end of the tunnel. One of the ways we measured "success" in Vietnam was body counts. The incredible number of Vietnamese dead was supposed to reassure us that the war was almost over. We know how Vietnam turned out. Now, in an eerie parallel to Vietnam, we're hearing about body counts in Iraq. I think of the old song that says, "When will they ever learn?" This story by Sidney Blumenthal is at www.commondreams.org:
"They're starting to talk numbers again," Pat Lang remarked to me about the return of body counts. Lang is the former chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency for the Middle East, south Asia and counter-terrorism. "They were determined not to do that. But they can't provide a measurement to tell themselves they're doing well. As you know, it means nothing."
Lang, who served as an intelligence officer in Vietnam, observes: "For almost all of the war, Vietnam was a better situation than Iraq. During the conduct of the war the security situation was far better than this." The Iraqi elections are "irrelevant to the outcome of the war because the people who voted were the people who stood to gain".
Iran is the long-term winner. "Iran intends to pull the Shia state of Iraq into its orbit. You can be sure that Iranian revolutionary guards are honeycombed throughout Iraq's intelligence to make sure things don't get out of hand." About the "euphoria" after the election, especially echoed by the press corps, Lang simply says: "Laughable, comical, pathetic."
THE U.S. AS BANANA REPUBLIC
The levels of graft and corruption at all levels of government, mostly controlled by Republicans, makes me believe that the U.S. is becoming more like a banana republic every day. We start wars on phony pretexts so we can steal the natural resources of another country. We are the largest arms supplier in the world. We torture people who might have some remote connection to terrorism. We pass an amendment to the Constitution in the House of Representatives to make flag burning illegal. The federal government capriciously disregards the doctrine of states' rights on issues like medical marijuana when marijuana is prescribed for terminally ill patients. The Supreme Court rules that cities can steal land under the legal doctrine of eminent domain so that private developers can do their thing. This column by Molly Ivins turns the light on graft and corruption in Republican land. The column is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Seriously, this administration is starting to look like that old television show in which contestants lined up their shopping carts in a grocery store and, on the signal, began running around throwing every valuable item they could find in their carts. Whoever grabbed the most high-priced items won. The contestants here and now are corporations and lobbyists.
The amusing case of the congressman whose house was bought by the founder of a defense firm for $700,000 more than it was worth is being exceptionally well-reported by the congressman's hometown paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. You will not be amazed to learn the congressman in question (Randy Cunningham) oversees the committee that grants contracts to that very defense firm.
THE PENTAGON DEATH MACHINE
In Bushworld there is a need for warm bodies to fill the military ranks, so the Pentagon is compiling a data base on kids in school. They're keeping records on such things as Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, and what subjects the kids are studying. Is this beyond vile or what? This story by Jonathan Krim is linked at www.startribune.com:
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Defense Department began working Wednesday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.
The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.
The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.
BODY COUNT REDUX
During the Vietnam war we heard often that there was light at the end of the tunnel. One of the ways we measured "success" in Vietnam was body counts. The incredible number of Vietnamese dead was supposed to reassure us that the war was almost over. We know how Vietnam turned out. Now, in an eerie parallel to Vietnam, we're hearing about body counts in Iraq. I think of the old song that says, "When will they ever learn?" This story by Sidney Blumenthal is at www.commondreams.org:
"They're starting to talk numbers again," Pat Lang remarked to me about the return of body counts. Lang is the former chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency for the Middle East, south Asia and counter-terrorism. "They were determined not to do that. But they can't provide a measurement to tell themselves they're doing well. As you know, it means nothing."
Lang, who served as an intelligence officer in Vietnam, observes: "For almost all of the war, Vietnam was a better situation than Iraq. During the conduct of the war the security situation was far better than this." The Iraqi elections are "irrelevant to the outcome of the war because the people who voted were the people who stood to gain".
Iran is the long-term winner. "Iran intends to pull the Shia state of Iraq into its orbit. You can be sure that Iranian revolutionary guards are honeycombed throughout Iraq's intelligence to make sure things don't get out of hand." About the "euphoria" after the election, especially echoed by the press corps, Lang simply says: "Laughable, comical, pathetic."
THE U.S. AS BANANA REPUBLIC
The levels of graft and corruption at all levels of government, mostly controlled by Republicans, makes me believe that the U.S. is becoming more like a banana republic every day. We start wars on phony pretexts so we can steal the natural resources of another country. We are the largest arms supplier in the world. We torture people who might have some remote connection to terrorism. We pass an amendment to the Constitution in the House of Representatives to make flag burning illegal. The federal government capriciously disregards the doctrine of states' rights on issues like medical marijuana when marijuana is prescribed for terminally ill patients. The Supreme Court rules that cities can steal land under the legal doctrine of eminent domain so that private developers can do their thing. This column by Molly Ivins turns the light on graft and corruption in Republican land. The column is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Seriously, this administration is starting to look like that old television show in which contestants lined up their shopping carts in a grocery store and, on the signal, began running around throwing every valuable item they could find in their carts. Whoever grabbed the most high-priced items won. The contestants here and now are corporations and lobbyists.
The amusing case of the congressman whose house was bought by the founder of a defense firm for $700,000 more than it was worth is being exceptionally well-reported by the congressman's hometown paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune. You will not be amazed to learn the congressman in question (Randy Cunningham) oversees the committee that grants contracts to that very defense firm.
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
JUNE 22, 2005
IS THE HOUSING MARKET ABOUT TO BURST?
The U.S. economy would be in even more dire straits if the housing bubble of the last few years hadn't pumped billions of dollars into the economy. Low interest rates and rising housing values allowed people to refinance their homes, take the money, and spend it. That money has helped offset the lack of increase in wages. Unfortunately, not much of the housing money has gone into savings. If the housing bubble bursts, that source of spending in the economy will be gone. You don't have to be a pessimist to see our economy not doing very well. This article is at www.webindia123.com:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is warning the U.S. housing market is in danger of a serious disruption because some markets are ultra-pricey.
FDIC data indicate the nation's most overheated local housing markets now make up such a large share of the total U.S. market, a sharp fall in their values could stall or slow national economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
MORE ON THE DOWNING STREET MINUTES
We've heard all kinds of spin from George W. Bush and company about the reasons for invading Iraq. When no weapons of mass destruction were found, the war was suddenly justified because Iraq had ties to terrorists. When that proved false, we were giving the Iraqis democracy. Now there is a bloodbath in Iraq every day and democracy isn't to be found. We heard that the invasion was because the CIA provided Bush bad intelligence. The Downing Street Minutes (or Memos) prove that it was Bush and Cheney who were providing the bad intelligence, deliberately misrepresenting what we knew to suck us into this war. David Corn writes about it in this column at www.tompaine.com:
Nowadays, Bush-backers like to claim that Bush, Cheney and Co. were led astray by the CIA and its faulty intelligence. But the British memos demonstrate that Bush and Cheney were not duped; they were doing the duping. The Brits looked at the existing intelligence and concluded the material was inconclusive and that Iraq's WMD programs were not strong. Yet the Bush-Cheney administration told the American public the intelligence was rock-solid and that Iraq was crazy with active WMD programs, including a project to develop quickly nuclear weapons. The DSM and the other documents are the evidence that blows apart the bad-intelligence defense embraced by the Bush administration.
Moreover, these records also show Bush was fiddling with the truth when he claimed before the war that Hussein was in league with Al Qaeda. That was a crucial component of Bush's case for the invasion. The argument he made at the time was not that Hussein would be so stupid as to use a biological or chemical weapon against a U.S. target (and risk retaliation that would certainly annihilate his regime) but that Hussein would slip such a weapon to his pals in Al Qaeda. According to these memos, Bush was essentially making this up. Ricketts wrote, "US scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and Al Aaida [sic] is so far frankly unconvincing." Other Blair aides noted there was "no recent evidence" of a link between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden. And Jack Straw wrote to Blair, "there has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with [bin Laden] and Al Qaida. Objectively, the threat from Iraq has not worsened as a result of 11 September."
TIME FOR AN ECONOMY FOR THE MAJORITY OF US
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, advocating supply side economics, the promise was that the economy would boom, federal revenues would grow, and money would flow in a steady stream down to the rest of us. Just give those "achievers" with the big bucks tax breaks and we would go into the Promised Land. We got whopping deficits, stagnant wages, we went from the world's largest creditor nation to the biggest debtor, and we saw all kinds of programs for the middle class and the poor get slashed. Along came George W. Bush and we got Reagan II: the Disaster Continues. It's time for economic policy that benefits the majority of us, not just the favored few. Jared Bernstein writes about it in this article linked at www.prospect.org:
The subject of this theme surfaced in 2004 in a prize-winning series by Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Gosselin (http://www.latimes.com/business/specials/la-newdeal-cover.special). As stated in the introduction to the series, the piece questions “[w]hy so many families report being financially less secure even as the nation has grown more prosperous. The answer lies in a quarter-century-long shift of economic risks from the broad shoulders of business and government to the backs of working families. Safety nets that once protected Americans from economic turbulence -- safeguards like unemployment compensation and employer loyalty -- have eroded or vanished … . The result is a daunting "New Deal" for many working Americans -- one that compels them to cope, largely on their own, with financial forces far beyond their control.”
A HARD LOOK AT CAPITALISM
I'm not a fan of free market capitalism. Anyone who wants to argue about the benefits of the "free market" really argues for the benefit of an oligarchy. Prior to the New Deal in this country, there was a vast chasm between the very richest and everyone else. You had very little to look forward to if you were born poor. Free market capitalists will point to the success stories, but the rags to riches success stories are rarities. Most people never get rich. A far better model is one based on equality. It's one based on all people in society having the benefits of decent housing, health care, wages, education, and a clean environment. The recent defeats for the European Union show that Europeans are taking a hard look at the realities of capitalism. Jeremy Rifkin takes a look in this article at www.commondreams.org:
Today, while corporate profits are soaring around the world, 89 countries find themselves worse off economically than they were in the early 1990s. Capitalism promised that globalization would narrow the gap between rich and poor. Instead the divide has widened. The 356 richest families on the planet enjoy a combined wealth that now exceeds the annual income of 40% of the human race. Two-thirds of the world's population have never made a phone call and one-third have no access to electricity.
The champions of capitalism pledged to promote sustainable economic development; yet we continue to squander our remaining fossil-fuel reserves, spewing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, destroying the world's ecosystems and habitats, with the prospect of catastrophic climate change.
IS THE HOUSING MARKET ABOUT TO BURST?
The U.S. economy would be in even more dire straits if the housing bubble of the last few years hadn't pumped billions of dollars into the economy. Low interest rates and rising housing values allowed people to refinance their homes, take the money, and spend it. That money has helped offset the lack of increase in wages. Unfortunately, not much of the housing money has gone into savings. If the housing bubble bursts, that source of spending in the economy will be gone. You don't have to be a pessimist to see our economy not doing very well. This article is at www.webindia123.com:
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is warning the U.S. housing market is in danger of a serious disruption because some markets are ultra-pricey.
FDIC data indicate the nation's most overheated local housing markets now make up such a large share of the total U.S. market, a sharp fall in their values could stall or slow national economic growth, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
MORE ON THE DOWNING STREET MINUTES
We've heard all kinds of spin from George W. Bush and company about the reasons for invading Iraq. When no weapons of mass destruction were found, the war was suddenly justified because Iraq had ties to terrorists. When that proved false, we were giving the Iraqis democracy. Now there is a bloodbath in Iraq every day and democracy isn't to be found. We heard that the invasion was because the CIA provided Bush bad intelligence. The Downing Street Minutes (or Memos) prove that it was Bush and Cheney who were providing the bad intelligence, deliberately misrepresenting what we knew to suck us into this war. David Corn writes about it in this column at www.tompaine.com:
Nowadays, Bush-backers like to claim that Bush, Cheney and Co. were led astray by the CIA and its faulty intelligence. But the British memos demonstrate that Bush and Cheney were not duped; they were doing the duping. The Brits looked at the existing intelligence and concluded the material was inconclusive and that Iraq's WMD programs were not strong. Yet the Bush-Cheney administration told the American public the intelligence was rock-solid and that Iraq was crazy with active WMD programs, including a project to develop quickly nuclear weapons. The DSM and the other documents are the evidence that blows apart the bad-intelligence defense embraced by the Bush administration.
Moreover, these records also show Bush was fiddling with the truth when he claimed before the war that Hussein was in league with Al Qaeda. That was a crucial component of Bush's case for the invasion. The argument he made at the time was not that Hussein would be so stupid as to use a biological or chemical weapon against a U.S. target (and risk retaliation that would certainly annihilate his regime) but that Hussein would slip such a weapon to his pals in Al Qaeda. According to these memos, Bush was essentially making this up. Ricketts wrote, "US scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and Al Aaida [sic] is so far frankly unconvincing." Other Blair aides noted there was "no recent evidence" of a link between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden. And Jack Straw wrote to Blair, "there has been no credible evidence to link Iraq with [bin Laden] and Al Qaida. Objectively, the threat from Iraq has not worsened as a result of 11 September."
TIME FOR AN ECONOMY FOR THE MAJORITY OF US
When Ronald Reagan ran for president in 1980, advocating supply side economics, the promise was that the economy would boom, federal revenues would grow, and money would flow in a steady stream down to the rest of us. Just give those "achievers" with the big bucks tax breaks and we would go into the Promised Land. We got whopping deficits, stagnant wages, we went from the world's largest creditor nation to the biggest debtor, and we saw all kinds of programs for the middle class and the poor get slashed. Along came George W. Bush and we got Reagan II: the Disaster Continues. It's time for economic policy that benefits the majority of us, not just the favored few. Jared Bernstein writes about it in this article linked at www.prospect.org:
The subject of this theme surfaced in 2004 in a prize-winning series by Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Gosselin (http://www.latimes.com/business/specials/la-newdeal-cover.special). As stated in the introduction to the series, the piece questions “[w]hy so many families report being financially less secure even as the nation has grown more prosperous. The answer lies in a quarter-century-long shift of economic risks from the broad shoulders of business and government to the backs of working families. Safety nets that once protected Americans from economic turbulence -- safeguards like unemployment compensation and employer loyalty -- have eroded or vanished … . The result is a daunting "New Deal" for many working Americans -- one that compels them to cope, largely on their own, with financial forces far beyond their control.”
A HARD LOOK AT CAPITALISM
I'm not a fan of free market capitalism. Anyone who wants to argue about the benefits of the "free market" really argues for the benefit of an oligarchy. Prior to the New Deal in this country, there was a vast chasm between the very richest and everyone else. You had very little to look forward to if you were born poor. Free market capitalists will point to the success stories, but the rags to riches success stories are rarities. Most people never get rich. A far better model is one based on equality. It's one based on all people in society having the benefits of decent housing, health care, wages, education, and a clean environment. The recent defeats for the European Union show that Europeans are taking a hard look at the realities of capitalism. Jeremy Rifkin takes a look in this article at www.commondreams.org:
Today, while corporate profits are soaring around the world, 89 countries find themselves worse off economically than they were in the early 1990s. Capitalism promised that globalization would narrow the gap between rich and poor. Instead the divide has widened. The 356 richest families on the planet enjoy a combined wealth that now exceeds the annual income of 40% of the human race. Two-thirds of the world's population have never made a phone call and one-third have no access to electricity.
The champions of capitalism pledged to promote sustainable economic development; yet we continue to squander our remaining fossil-fuel reserves, spewing increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, destroying the world's ecosystems and habitats, with the prospect of catastrophic climate change.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
JUNE 21, 2005
CONGRESS QUESTIONING BUSH ON IRAQ
As we find ourselves in a deepening quagmire in Iraq with nothing but daily depressing news, even the Republican dominated Congress is beginning to question George W. Bush’s conduct of the war. But Congress should do more than set a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq, or questioning budget appropriations. Bush and senior members of his administration lied about this war from the very beginning. They should be impeached, removed from office, and then face the international justice system. This column by Thomas Oliphant is at www.boston.com:
Bush has not just had a run of lousy polling results on his presidency, leadership, credibility, and his handling of the war. The political byproducts of three years of propaganda contradicted by the hard news of ceaseless insurgency are now coming as well from a Republican Congress that is beginning to stir.
Earlier this month, with virtually no notice, the final version of the legislation sending another $85 billion to support the continued fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan contained an intriguing instruction to the administration to report on a list of ''measurable objectives" that would produce the beginning of US troop withdrawal if they are met.
The instruction was noteworthy because it came from a proposal by a Democrat, Jim Moran of Virginia, but made it into the final report by House and Senate negotiators because it attracted considerable Republican support and there would have been a stink had it been dropped.
LOTS OF SAUDIS FIGHTING IN IRAQ
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers on September 11 were from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been the world’s biggest source of funds for terrorism. A new study now shows that fifty-five percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia. But whom was Bush kissing and holding hands with? Answer: A prince from Saudi Arabia. This article by Lisa Myers is at www.msnbc.msn.com:
An NBC News analysis of hundreds of foreign fighters who died in Iraq over the last two years reveals that a majority came from the same country as most of the 9/11 hijackers — Saudi Arabia.
Among the suicide bombers was Ahmed al-Ghamdi, a one-time medical student and son of a Saudi diplomat. In December 2004, he climbed into a truck in Mosul and blew himself up.
On an Internet video, another Saudi says goodbye to his mother, then drives an ambulance full of explosives into a building.
THE GROPER’S SPECIAL INTERESTS
It’s entirely appropriate that Governor Groper’s poll numbers have sunk to thirty-one percent. He should never have been Governor in the first place. This rubber stamp governor for big business has consistently attacked working people in California and called unions “special interests.” Now we learn that the Groper took almost $70,000 from a nursing home owner who faces criminal neglect charges. Time for the Groper to go. This story by Dan Morain is at www.latimes.com:
A week after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned $10,000 to an Ohio contributor under federal fraud investigation, campaign finance reports show that the governor has accepted $67,300 from a La Cañada Flintridge nursing home operator whose company faces criminal elder-neglect charges.
Emmanuel I. Bernabe, who owns or has interests in 35 California nursing homes, was listed as one of 14 dinner chairmen at a Schwarzenegger fundraiser at the Century Plaza Hotel on March 16.
CONGRESS QUESTIONING BUSH ON IRAQ
As we find ourselves in a deepening quagmire in Iraq with nothing but daily depressing news, even the Republican dominated Congress is beginning to question George W. Bush’s conduct of the war. But Congress should do more than set a timeline for withdrawing from Iraq, or questioning budget appropriations. Bush and senior members of his administration lied about this war from the very beginning. They should be impeached, removed from office, and then face the international justice system. This column by Thomas Oliphant is at www.boston.com:
Bush has not just had a run of lousy polling results on his presidency, leadership, credibility, and his handling of the war. The political byproducts of three years of propaganda contradicted by the hard news of ceaseless insurgency are now coming as well from a Republican Congress that is beginning to stir.
Earlier this month, with virtually no notice, the final version of the legislation sending another $85 billion to support the continued fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan contained an intriguing instruction to the administration to report on a list of ''measurable objectives" that would produce the beginning of US troop withdrawal if they are met.
The instruction was noteworthy because it came from a proposal by a Democrat, Jim Moran of Virginia, but made it into the final report by House and Senate negotiators because it attracted considerable Republican support and there would have been a stink had it been dropped.
LOTS OF SAUDIS FIGHTING IN IRAQ
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers on September 11 were from Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has been the world’s biggest source of funds for terrorism. A new study now shows that fifty-five percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq come from Saudi Arabia. But whom was Bush kissing and holding hands with? Answer: A prince from Saudi Arabia. This article by Lisa Myers is at www.msnbc.msn.com:
An NBC News analysis of hundreds of foreign fighters who died in Iraq over the last two years reveals that a majority came from the same country as most of the 9/11 hijackers — Saudi Arabia.
Among the suicide bombers was Ahmed al-Ghamdi, a one-time medical student and son of a Saudi diplomat. In December 2004, he climbed into a truck in Mosul and blew himself up.
On an Internet video, another Saudi says goodbye to his mother, then drives an ambulance full of explosives into a building.
THE GROPER’S SPECIAL INTERESTS
It’s entirely appropriate that Governor Groper’s poll numbers have sunk to thirty-one percent. He should never have been Governor in the first place. This rubber stamp governor for big business has consistently attacked working people in California and called unions “special interests.” Now we learn that the Groper took almost $70,000 from a nursing home owner who faces criminal neglect charges. Time for the Groper to go. This story by Dan Morain is at www.latimes.com:
A week after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger returned $10,000 to an Ohio contributor under federal fraud investigation, campaign finance reports show that the governor has accepted $67,300 from a La Cañada Flintridge nursing home operator whose company faces criminal elder-neglect charges.
Emmanuel I. Bernabe, who owns or has interests in 35 California nursing homes, was listed as one of 14 dinner chairmen at a Schwarzenegger fundraiser at the Century Plaza Hotel on March 16.
Monday, June 20, 2005
JUNE 19, 2005
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS SHOULDN'T BE USED FOR CREDIT
We now learn there was a massive theft of forty million credit card numbers. This is on top of computers being hacked at ChoicePoint, a "data mining" company a few months ago. Identity theft is becoming a larger concern all the time. It's becoming apparent that the government and private corporations are not adept at protecting confidential information. And this raises additional concerns about the ridiculous National ID law that Congress has voted on. Yeah, put all our information into one data base where it can be used by God knows who when they hack the system. This story about the latest breach of security is by Carrie Kirby and Jenny Strasburg at www.sfgate.com:
Holders of more than 40 million credit cards are vulnerable to financial fraud because their credit card information was stolen from an Arizona company that processes transactions for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, it was disclosed Friday.
A computer hacker infiltrated the network of CardSystems Solutions Inc. in Tucson, apparently in late 2004, according to MasterCard. The credit card giant said it has given its member banks lists of card numbers involved in the theft so they can protect their customers.
SOCIAL SECURITY IS AN ESSENTIAL SAFETY NET
We've had ample demonstration of "compassionate conservatism." One of George W. Bush's major pushes the past few months has been to revamp Social Security. Just as he has done with everything else, Bush has lied about the state of Social Security, claiming it is in "crisis," claiming that the Social Security trust fund is just IOU's in a file cabinet, and suggesting that private accounts would, in essence, make us rich. He doesn't talk about the perils of private accounts, such as a stock market collapse or other disaster that would wipe out savings. This article by John Leland and Judi Wilgoren takes a look at Social Security. The article is at www.nytimes.com:
Some people, like Bill Post, who helped invent the Pop-Tart and saved dutifully, support Mr. Bush's proposals to create individual investment accounts within Social Security. "That's not a big risk," Mr. Post said, "that's a good opportunity."
But others, like James Townsend, who worked as a forklift operator, defend the traditional program. "If they hadn't had Social Security, I wouldn't have saved that money," he said. "If I'd had extra money, I'd have spent it. I wouldn't have anything at all."
Here as elsewhere, Social Security has paid back some more generously than others. Created to protect the most vulnerable, it redistributes money from rich people to poor people, and from men to women, who often have no pension or assets.
THE RIGHT WING ATTACK ON PBS
Right-wingers want fawning media everywhere and all the time. Perish the thought there might be legitimate dissenting opinion in our media. The right wing has long hated PBS and NPR because they provide at least some opinion that doesn't toe the right-wing line. Witness the ascendancy of a right-wing president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a guy named Kenneth Tomlinson. Tomlinson has been on a campaign to quash any opinion that isn't "politically correct." This story shows that Tomlinson has apparently colluded with the White House. The story by Stephen Labaton is at www.nytimes.com:
E-mail messages obtained by investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting show that its chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, extensively consulted a White House official shortly before she joined the corporation about creating an ombudsman's office to monitor the balance and objectivity of public television and radio programs
Mr. Tomlinson said in an interview three months ago that he did not think he had instructed a subordinate to send material on the ombudsman project to Mary C. Andrews at her White House office in her final days as director of global communications, a political appointment.
MAYBE THE TIDE IS TURNING
Since the stolen election of 2000 it has often seemed the American public has been sleepwalking. There were no major protests when the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush president. Bush's poll numbers were taking a major dive by September, 2001, and then along came the attacks on September 11. In the old rally around the flag spirit Bush's poll numbers shot up. He launched an attack on Afghanistan, spouted off lots of cowboy rhetoric, and started to push through the dream agenda of the far right, including the PATRIOT Act and massive tax cuts for the rich. The American public focused on terrorism. Then Bush and his gang went on a massive propaganda campaign to demonize Iraq, still slipping right-wing legislation through as the public obsessed over Saddam. Now that the truth about Iraq and the ghastly war we're stuck in has started to sink in maybe the public is paying attention at last. Katrina vanden Huevel writes about it in this article at www.commondreams.org:
You can feel it.
*Every day brings news of public opinion turning against the occupation--and the President's conduct of the war. Last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that for the first time since the war began, more than half of the public believes the US invasion has not made the US more secure; and nearly 40 percent described the situation there now as analagous to the Vietnam War. A new Gallup survey finds that almost 60 percent of Americans say the US should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, the largest number in that category ever. And for the first time, most Americans say they would be "upset" if President Bush sent more troops. Gallup also found that 56 percent now feel the war was "not worth it," and 73 percent consider the number of casualties unacceptable.
* Every day brings news of more Democrats coming forward, standing up and introducing "exit strategy" resolutions. (Though, as of yet, leadership isn't coming from the leadership.) Lynn Woolsey forced a Congressional vote on bipartisan legislation that would have asked Bush to submit a plan to Congress explaining the outlines of an exit strategy from Iraq. Senator Russell Feingold has introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on the Bush Administration to set specific goals for leaving Iraq.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS SHOULDN'T BE USED FOR CREDIT
We now learn there was a massive theft of forty million credit card numbers. This is on top of computers being hacked at ChoicePoint, a "data mining" company a few months ago. Identity theft is becoming a larger concern all the time. It's becoming apparent that the government and private corporations are not adept at protecting confidential information. And this raises additional concerns about the ridiculous National ID law that Congress has voted on. Yeah, put all our information into one data base where it can be used by God knows who when they hack the system. This story about the latest breach of security is by Carrie Kirby and Jenny Strasburg at www.sfgate.com:
Holders of more than 40 million credit cards are vulnerable to financial fraud because their credit card information was stolen from an Arizona company that processes transactions for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover, it was disclosed Friday.
A computer hacker infiltrated the network of CardSystems Solutions Inc. in Tucson, apparently in late 2004, according to MasterCard. The credit card giant said it has given its member banks lists of card numbers involved in the theft so they can protect their customers.
SOCIAL SECURITY IS AN ESSENTIAL SAFETY NET
We've had ample demonstration of "compassionate conservatism." One of George W. Bush's major pushes the past few months has been to revamp Social Security. Just as he has done with everything else, Bush has lied about the state of Social Security, claiming it is in "crisis," claiming that the Social Security trust fund is just IOU's in a file cabinet, and suggesting that private accounts would, in essence, make us rich. He doesn't talk about the perils of private accounts, such as a stock market collapse or other disaster that would wipe out savings. This article by John Leland and Judi Wilgoren takes a look at Social Security. The article is at www.nytimes.com:
Some people, like Bill Post, who helped invent the Pop-Tart and saved dutifully, support Mr. Bush's proposals to create individual investment accounts within Social Security. "That's not a big risk," Mr. Post said, "that's a good opportunity."
But others, like James Townsend, who worked as a forklift operator, defend the traditional program. "If they hadn't had Social Security, I wouldn't have saved that money," he said. "If I'd had extra money, I'd have spent it. I wouldn't have anything at all."
Here as elsewhere, Social Security has paid back some more generously than others. Created to protect the most vulnerable, it redistributes money from rich people to poor people, and from men to women, who often have no pension or assets.
THE RIGHT WING ATTACK ON PBS
Right-wingers want fawning media everywhere and all the time. Perish the thought there might be legitimate dissenting opinion in our media. The right wing has long hated PBS and NPR because they provide at least some opinion that doesn't toe the right-wing line. Witness the ascendancy of a right-wing president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a guy named Kenneth Tomlinson. Tomlinson has been on a campaign to quash any opinion that isn't "politically correct." This story shows that Tomlinson has apparently colluded with the White House. The story by Stephen Labaton is at www.nytimes.com:
E-mail messages obtained by investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting show that its chairman, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, extensively consulted a White House official shortly before she joined the corporation about creating an ombudsman's office to monitor the balance and objectivity of public television and radio programs
Mr. Tomlinson said in an interview three months ago that he did not think he had instructed a subordinate to send material on the ombudsman project to Mary C. Andrews at her White House office in her final days as director of global communications, a political appointment.
MAYBE THE TIDE IS TURNING
Since the stolen election of 2000 it has often seemed the American public has been sleepwalking. There were no major protests when the Supreme Court appointed George W. Bush president. Bush's poll numbers were taking a major dive by September, 2001, and then along came the attacks on September 11. In the old rally around the flag spirit Bush's poll numbers shot up. He launched an attack on Afghanistan, spouted off lots of cowboy rhetoric, and started to push through the dream agenda of the far right, including the PATRIOT Act and massive tax cuts for the rich. The American public focused on terrorism. Then Bush and his gang went on a massive propaganda campaign to demonize Iraq, still slipping right-wing legislation through as the public obsessed over Saddam. Now that the truth about Iraq and the ghastly war we're stuck in has started to sink in maybe the public is paying attention at last. Katrina vanden Huevel writes about it in this article at www.commondreams.org:
You can feel it.
*Every day brings news of public opinion turning against the occupation--and the President's conduct of the war. Last week, a Washington Post-ABC News poll showed that for the first time since the war began, more than half of the public believes the US invasion has not made the US more secure; and nearly 40 percent described the situation there now as analagous to the Vietnam War. A new Gallup survey finds that almost 60 percent of Americans say the US should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq, the largest number in that category ever. And for the first time, most Americans say they would be "upset" if President Bush sent more troops. Gallup also found that 56 percent now feel the war was "not worth it," and 73 percent consider the number of casualties unacceptable.
* Every day brings news of more Democrats coming forward, standing up and introducing "exit strategy" resolutions. (Though, as of yet, leadership isn't coming from the leadership.) Lynn Woolsey forced a Congressional vote on bipartisan legislation that would have asked Bush to submit a plan to Congress explaining the outlines of an exit strategy from Iraq. Senator Russell Feingold has introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on the Bush Administration to set specific goals for leaving Iraq.
JUNE 20, 2005
BUSH IS A CONTROL FREAK
He doesn't worry himself much about combat casualties in Iraq or how he's destroying the economy here at home, but George W. Bush gets very concerned about loose ties or people touching the furniture in the White House. I've never understood why some people think this guy is likeable. He's a pompous, arrogant, stuffed shirt, and always has been. This article by Julie Mason is at www.chron.com:
President Bush likes to wax populist by calling the White House "the people's house," but his rules of decorum aren't what you would find in most people's homes.
Coming to office after the more casual Clinton administration, Bush imposed a strict dress code and standards of promptness for employees, visitors and even the rumpled press corps.
Bush once famously needled Adam Entous of Reuters for entering the Oval Office with a loosened tie.
"You look fine today, Adam. The tie," Bush told Entous, during a brief audience for reporters with the prime minister of the Netherlands.
RUSS BAKER: BUSH WANTED WAR NO MATTER WHAT
From what we know now, Saddam Hussein could have turned Iraq into a virtual paradise and George W. Bush would have found a reason to launch a war. We know that Bush was talking about invading Iraq even before he was appointed president. We know that PNAC, the group of highly-influential advisers around Bush, wanted to invade Iraq years ago. We know that there was talk of attacking Iraq within hours of the attacks on September 11. The Downing Street Memos only confirm what is a well-documented march to war. Russ Baker writes about it in this article at www.tompaine.com:
Yet there's evidence that Bush not only deliberately relied on false intelligence to justify an attack, but that he would have willingly used any excuse at all to invade Iraq. And that he was obsessed with the notion well before 9/11—indeed, even before he became president in early 2001.
In interviews I conducted last fall, a well-known journalist, biographer and Bush family friend who worked for a time with Bush on a ghostwritten memoir said that an Iraq war was always on Bush's brain.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said, 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He went on, 'If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.'"
IT'S EASY TO BE A HAWK WHEN YOU'RE NOT FIGHTING
I've always found it intriguing that so many of the macho, militaristic voices on the right belong to Chickenhawks. These are people who never served in the military and are not going to serve in the military. They're all for war as long as they or their kids aren't in harm's way. Think of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and the rest of this gruesome crew. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
You can still find plenty of folks arguing that we have to stay the course, or even raise the stakes by sending more troops to the war zone. But from the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely beyond military age themselves and were unwilling to send their own children off to fight.
It's easy to be macho when you have nothing at risk. The hawks want the war to be fought with other people's children, while their own children go safely off to college, or to the mall. The number of influential American officials who have children in uniform in Iraq is minuscule.
CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND THEIR ROTTEN POLITICIANS
There have been an avalanche of bad legislation from this Republican controlled Congress, but one of the absolute worst bills was "bankruptcy reform." It was a gift to the credit card companies and totally shafts consumers. MasterCard may have lost records on forty million customers. Thanks to the wonderful people in Congress, MasterCard may not be liable for much of anything, but can sock it to customers, even though customers are the victims. David Sirota writes about it at www.davidsirota.com:
Back in March, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) offered legislation to prevent credit card companies from taking advantage of you if your financial troubles are caused by identity theft. The measure was voted down, thanks to credit card industry-bought politicians. That means MasterCard can lose your information, and be responsible for your identity being stolen and finances ruined. And then - that's right - MasterCard can legally seize on the situation by charging you excessively high interest rates because your credit has been ruined by their negligence.
BUSH IS A CONTROL FREAK
He doesn't worry himself much about combat casualties in Iraq or how he's destroying the economy here at home, but George W. Bush gets very concerned about loose ties or people touching the furniture in the White House. I've never understood why some people think this guy is likeable. He's a pompous, arrogant, stuffed shirt, and always has been. This article by Julie Mason is at www.chron.com:
President Bush likes to wax populist by calling the White House "the people's house," but his rules of decorum aren't what you would find in most people's homes.
Coming to office after the more casual Clinton administration, Bush imposed a strict dress code and standards of promptness for employees, visitors and even the rumpled press corps.
Bush once famously needled Adam Entous of Reuters for entering the Oval Office with a loosened tie.
"You look fine today, Adam. The tie," Bush told Entous, during a brief audience for reporters with the prime minister of the Netherlands.
RUSS BAKER: BUSH WANTED WAR NO MATTER WHAT
From what we know now, Saddam Hussein could have turned Iraq into a virtual paradise and George W. Bush would have found a reason to launch a war. We know that Bush was talking about invading Iraq even before he was appointed president. We know that PNAC, the group of highly-influential advisers around Bush, wanted to invade Iraq years ago. We know that there was talk of attacking Iraq within hours of the attacks on September 11. The Downing Street Memos only confirm what is a well-documented march to war. Russ Baker writes about it in this article at www.tompaine.com:
Yet there's evidence that Bush not only deliberately relied on false intelligence to justify an attack, but that he would have willingly used any excuse at all to invade Iraq. And that he was obsessed with the notion well before 9/11—indeed, even before he became president in early 2001.
In interviews I conducted last fall, a well-known journalist, biographer and Bush family friend who worked for a time with Bush on a ghostwritten memoir said that an Iraq war was always on Bush's brain.
"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and Houston Chronicle journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said, 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He went on, 'If I have a chance to invade…, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.'"
IT'S EASY TO BE A HAWK WHEN YOU'RE NOT FIGHTING
I've always found it intriguing that so many of the macho, militaristic voices on the right belong to Chickenhawks. These are people who never served in the military and are not going to serve in the military. They're all for war as long as they or their kids aren't in harm's way. Think of Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and the rest of this gruesome crew. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
You can still find plenty of folks arguing that we have to stay the course, or even raise the stakes by sending more troops to the war zone. But from the very start of this war the loudest of the flag-waving hawks were those who were safely beyond military age themselves and were unwilling to send their own children off to fight.
It's easy to be macho when you have nothing at risk. The hawks want the war to be fought with other people's children, while their own children go safely off to college, or to the mall. The number of influential American officials who have children in uniform in Iraq is minuscule.
CREDIT CARD COMPANIES AND THEIR ROTTEN POLITICIANS
There have been an avalanche of bad legislation from this Republican controlled Congress, but one of the absolute worst bills was "bankruptcy reform." It was a gift to the credit card companies and totally shafts consumers. MasterCard may have lost records on forty million customers. Thanks to the wonderful people in Congress, MasterCard may not be liable for much of anything, but can sock it to customers, even though customers are the victims. David Sirota writes about it at www.davidsirota.com:
Back in March, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) offered legislation to prevent credit card companies from taking advantage of you if your financial troubles are caused by identity theft. The measure was voted down, thanks to credit card industry-bought politicians. That means MasterCard can lose your information, and be responsible for your identity being stolen and finances ruined. And then - that's right - MasterCard can legally seize on the situation by charging you excessively high interest rates because your credit has been ruined by their negligence.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
JUNE 18, 2005
DARTH CHENEY DELIBERATELY LIED ABOUT IRAQ
One of the major propaganda pieces the Bush administration used in the run up to the Iraq war was the claim that one of the 9/11 hijackers met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April, 2001. The Bush administration wanted to link the events of 9/11 to Iraq. Dick Cheney repeated this allegation, which he knew to be false. This item comes from thinkprogress.org:
One of the given rationales for attacking Iraq was that Saddam was linked to the 9-11 hijackers through a claim that Mohammad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2001 before the attacks. The supposed Prague meeting was advanced by former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, using evidence obtained from the Czech government. But according to the FBI, Atta was in Virginia Beach at the time. The Czech government later backed off its claims, but Vice President Cheney stuck to it. In December 2001, Cheney said:
“Well, what we now have that’s developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that-it’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.” [NBC, Meet the Press, 12/9/01]
THE TICKING HOUSING BOMB
If there's one group that benefits from free market capitalism more than any other, it's the shysters. There is always some get rich quick scheme or investment plan or some way of looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Bankers have become semi-shysters in their profligate lending practices. People have taken out millions upon millions of dollars in loans for homes that they can't afford. It's based on that sunny optimism that isn't grounded in pragmatism. We saw the same thing during the Reagan years. It didn't matter that we were running up mountainous debt because those tax cuts to the rich would generate so much revenue we'd be awash in tax receipts. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. This item about the dangerous housing bubble comes from www.newsforreal.com:
Today another cowboy is in the saddle and the game is once again afoot. Another prairie fire is about to be set. And here’s the match.
Over the next two years the contractual 5-year “adjustment” on those loans will be triggered. For the first five years borrowers were allowed to make artificially low monthly payments, allowing a lot of people who did not earn enough to afford a $400,000 home to qualify for a loan to buy one. Neither those borrowers or their lenders worried about what was going to happen in five years when their monthly payment jumped from $1500 a month to $2,500 a month. Maybe they would get a $250-a-week raise at work by then. Or, maybe they would sell the house for more. And, if they default, well, the house may be worth more by then to more than cover the lender. Lots of maybe's there that in the past would have had no place in the underwriting process -- and still shouldn't.
But there’s no maybe about this. This is a hard fact. In 2007 lenders will trigger ARM adjustments on more than $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of outstanding mortgage debt. That will add over $40 billion in additional monthly payments for those homeowner/borrowers. Yes, $40 billion more. Call me CRAZY, but that sure smells like smoke to me.
RARE BIRD SPOTTED IN CENTRAL VALLEY
A rare songbird was spotted right here in the Central Valley of California. The bird is called the least Bell's vireo and is described as small enough to fit in your fist. It's nice to have something good to report from the Central Valley. This story is at apnews.myway.com:
A chatty songbird thought to have disappeared from the Central Valley 60 years ago has been spotted nesting in a patch of restored habitat along the San Joaquin River.
The least Bell's vireo, a little gray songbird that fits in a closed fist, was once widespread in the Central Valley. It disappeared from the area as the riparian habitat it favors was ripped up to make way for development and agriculture. About 90 percent of the valley's historic riverside vegetation has been lost, said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bird was put on the federal endangered species list in 1986, when there were only about 300 pairs left in the low-lying shrubbery along creeks and streams in southern California.
U.S. USED NAPALM IN IRAQ
The U.S. may call the latest incarnation of napalm something else, but that's what it is. It brings back memories of the Vietnam war. Napalm is a jelly-like gasoline type weapon that burns and burns its victims. There's a famous photograph from Vietnam of a little girl running naked down a road, screaming in terror, because she has just been the victim of a napalm attack. It's unbelievable that the United States would use such a barbaric and cruel weapon. Apparently, the U.S. also lied to its British allies about using napalm. This story by Colin Brown is at www.commondreams.org:
American officials lied to British ministers over the use of "internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq.
Yesterday's disclosure led to calls by MPs for a full statement to the Commons and opened ministers to allegations that they held back the facts until after the general election.
Despite persistent rumors of injuries among Iraqis consistent with the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm, Adam Ingram, the Defense minister, assured Labour MPs in January that US forces had not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed MK77, in Iraq.
MORE PROOF BUSH WANTED WAR WITH IRAQ
George W. Bush, with a propaganda campaign orchestrated by the neocon hawks around him, put on a public face of wanting a diplomatic settlement with Iraq. It was mixed, of course, with the consistent lies about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, having intentions to construct nuclear weapons, and having ties to terrorist groups. It's evident from what we've learned that Bush never wanted a diplomatic solution with Iraq. He wanted a war all along. We know that from what White House insiders such as Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke have written. We know it from the plans laid out by the Project for a New American Century, a group highly influential with this administration, and now we know it from documents from Britain. It's astonishing to me that Articles of Impeachment are not being drawn up even as we speak. This article by Warren B. Strobel is at www.commondreams.org:
Highly classified documents leaked in Britain appear to provide new evidence that President Bush and his national security team decided to invade Iraq much earlier than they have acknowledged and marched to war without dwelling on the potential perils.
The half-dozen memos and option papers, written by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, buttress previous on-the-record accounts that portray Bush and his advisers as predisposed to oust Saddam Hussein when they took office - and determined to do it at all costs after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Blair is Bush's closest global partner, and the documents, startlingly frank at times, were never meant to become public.
DARTH CHENEY DELIBERATELY LIED ABOUT IRAQ
One of the major propaganda pieces the Bush administration used in the run up to the Iraq war was the claim that one of the 9/11 hijackers met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April, 2001. The Bush administration wanted to link the events of 9/11 to Iraq. Dick Cheney repeated this allegation, which he knew to be false. This item comes from thinkprogress.org:
One of the given rationales for attacking Iraq was that Saddam was linked to the 9-11 hijackers through a claim that Mohammad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2001 before the attacks. The supposed Prague meeting was advanced by former CIA Director Jim Woolsey, using evidence obtained from the Czech government. But according to the FBI, Atta was in Virginia Beach at the time. The Czech government later backed off its claims, but Vice President Cheney stuck to it. In December 2001, Cheney said:
“Well, what we now have that’s developed since you and I last talked, Tim, of course, was that report that-it’s been pretty well confirmed that he did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in Czechoslovakia last April, several months before the attack.” [NBC, Meet the Press, 12/9/01]
THE TICKING HOUSING BOMB
If there's one group that benefits from free market capitalism more than any other, it's the shysters. There is always some get rich quick scheme or investment plan or some way of looking at the world through rose colored glasses. Bankers have become semi-shysters in their profligate lending practices. People have taken out millions upon millions of dollars in loans for homes that they can't afford. It's based on that sunny optimism that isn't grounded in pragmatism. We saw the same thing during the Reagan years. It didn't matter that we were running up mountainous debt because those tax cuts to the rich would generate so much revenue we'd be awash in tax receipts. It was wrong then and it's wrong now. This item about the dangerous housing bubble comes from www.newsforreal.com:
Today another cowboy is in the saddle and the game is once again afoot. Another prairie fire is about to be set. And here’s the match.
Over the next two years the contractual 5-year “adjustment” on those loans will be triggered. For the first five years borrowers were allowed to make artificially low monthly payments, allowing a lot of people who did not earn enough to afford a $400,000 home to qualify for a loan to buy one. Neither those borrowers or their lenders worried about what was going to happen in five years when their monthly payment jumped from $1500 a month to $2,500 a month. Maybe they would get a $250-a-week raise at work by then. Or, maybe they would sell the house for more. And, if they default, well, the house may be worth more by then to more than cover the lender. Lots of maybe's there that in the past would have had no place in the underwriting process -- and still shouldn't.
But there’s no maybe about this. This is a hard fact. In 2007 lenders will trigger ARM adjustments on more than $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of outstanding mortgage debt. That will add over $40 billion in additional monthly payments for those homeowner/borrowers. Yes, $40 billion more. Call me CRAZY, but that sure smells like smoke to me.
RARE BIRD SPOTTED IN CENTRAL VALLEY
A rare songbird was spotted right here in the Central Valley of California. The bird is called the least Bell's vireo and is described as small enough to fit in your fist. It's nice to have something good to report from the Central Valley. This story is at apnews.myway.com:
A chatty songbird thought to have disappeared from the Central Valley 60 years ago has been spotted nesting in a patch of restored habitat along the San Joaquin River.
The least Bell's vireo, a little gray songbird that fits in a closed fist, was once widespread in the Central Valley. It disappeared from the area as the riparian habitat it favors was ripped up to make way for development and agriculture. About 90 percent of the valley's historic riverside vegetation has been lost, said Al Donner, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bird was put on the federal endangered species list in 1986, when there were only about 300 pairs left in the low-lying shrubbery along creeks and streams in southern California.
U.S. USED NAPALM IN IRAQ
The U.S. may call the latest incarnation of napalm something else, but that's what it is. It brings back memories of the Vietnam war. Napalm is a jelly-like gasoline type weapon that burns and burns its victims. There's a famous photograph from Vietnam of a little girl running naked down a road, screaming in terror, because she has just been the victim of a napalm attack. It's unbelievable that the United States would use such a barbaric and cruel weapon. Apparently, the U.S. also lied to its British allies about using napalm. This story by Colin Brown is at www.commondreams.org:
American officials lied to British ministers over the use of "internationally reviled" napalm-type firebombs in Iraq.
Yesterday's disclosure led to calls by MPs for a full statement to the Commons and opened ministers to allegations that they held back the facts until after the general election.
Despite persistent rumors of injuries among Iraqis consistent with the use of incendiary weapons such as napalm, Adam Ingram, the Defense minister, assured Labour MPs in January that US forces had not used a new generation of incendiary weapons, codenamed MK77, in Iraq.
MORE PROOF BUSH WANTED WAR WITH IRAQ
George W. Bush, with a propaganda campaign orchestrated by the neocon hawks around him, put on a public face of wanting a diplomatic settlement with Iraq. It was mixed, of course, with the consistent lies about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction, having intentions to construct nuclear weapons, and having ties to terrorist groups. It's evident from what we've learned that Bush never wanted a diplomatic solution with Iraq. He wanted a war all along. We know that from what White House insiders such as Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke have written. We know it from the plans laid out by the Project for a New American Century, a group highly influential with this administration, and now we know it from documents from Britain. It's astonishing to me that Articles of Impeachment are not being drawn up even as we speak. This article by Warren B. Strobel is at www.commondreams.org:
Highly classified documents leaked in Britain appear to provide new evidence that President Bush and his national security team decided to invade Iraq much earlier than they have acknowledged and marched to war without dwelling on the potential perils.
The half-dozen memos and option papers, written by top aides to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, buttress previous on-the-record accounts that portray Bush and his advisers as predisposed to oust Saddam Hussein when they took office - and determined to do it at all costs after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Blair is Bush's closest global partner, and the documents, startlingly frank at times, were never meant to become public.
Friday, June 17, 2005
JUNE 17, 2005
IF YOU WORK, DON'T HAVE CHILDREN
That seems to be the message in the United States Many new parents learn that they face either no pay or possible job loss if they need time off for a new baby. So much for those vaunted "family values." This article by Debra L. Ness is at www.tompaine.com:
It’s a shock to many new parents and financially devastating to others. When it comes to pregnancy and childbirth, our nation has failed to adopt basic policies that support families. Although family-friendly policies are beginning to make it easier for a few lucky dads to take time off from work for a new baby, change has been painfully slow. In fact, roughly nine out of 10 private sector companies don’t have paid leave for new fathers.
Too many parents find themselves without pay— and often in danger of losing their jobs—if they want or need time away from work to care for a new baby. America ought to be a place where the birth or adoption of a child is a glorious event, rather than the beginning of a family’s economic ruin.
UH, ABOUT THAT STEAK OR HAMBURGER
In a few weeks we'll be celebrating July 4. It's one of the big barbecue holidays. People slap on the steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. I wonder how appetizing it would be if they realized what the cattle who provided the steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs ate. I wonder, too, how they would feel if they knew they may be ingesting the material that causes Mad Cow Disease and that in a few years their brains will be turned into sponges. The Bush administration has once again advanced the interest of big business at the expense of the consuming public. This article by Libby Quaid talks about enforcement of stricter standards in the slaughter of beef has been lax at best. The article is at news.yahoo.com:
American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease — a gap in the U.S. defense that the Bush administration promised to close nearly 18 months ago.
"Once the cameras were turned off and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual, no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste," said John Stauber, an activist and co-author of "Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?"
He contended, "The entire U.S. policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed."
RIGHT-WINGERS WERE DISGRACEFUL IN SCHIAVO CASE
Right-wing politicians constantly reach new lows, but it's difficult to imagine sinking much lower than the posturing during the tragic Terri Schiavo case. Senator Bill Frist was particularly disgusting, making a "diagnosis" from a video tape. How dare politicians interfere in the most intensely personal and private decisions people face. E. J. Dionne writes about the Schiavo case at www.washingtonpost.com:
The autopsy in the Terri Schiavo case provides a rare moment of political accountability. We should not "move on," as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist suggested. No, we cannot move on until those politicians who felt entitled to make up facts and toss around unwarranted conclusions about Schiavo's condition take responsibility for what they said -- and apologize.
Nothing in the autopsy report prevents those who opposed removing Schiavo's feeding tube from continuing to insist they were right. It's legitimate and honorable to argue on philosophical grounds that every medical decision in a tragic circumstance such as Schiavo's should be made on the side of keeping the sick person alive.
A BRAZEN CONFLICT OF INTEREST
It seems that several Senators personally benefited from the tax cuts pushed through by the Bush administration. Here's that name again: Bill Frist. Senator Frist profited handsomely from the cuts on taxes on dividends. How can we possibly have representative government when politicians can shape the law to personally benefit themselves? This article by Geoff Earle and Lauren Mercer is at www.thehill.com:
Several senators — millionaires, many of them — have reported earning substantial dividend income in 2004, benefiting greatly from President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, according to financial disclosure reports made available yesterday.
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reported earning $1 million to $5 million in income from the W.H. Frist 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, which has a capital value of between $5 million and $25 million. Another of Frist’s trusts, the William H. Frist GST Exempt 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, was valued between $1 million to $5 million.
IF YOU WORK, DON'T HAVE CHILDREN
That seems to be the message in the United States Many new parents learn that they face either no pay or possible job loss if they need time off for a new baby. So much for those vaunted "family values." This article by Debra L. Ness is at www.tompaine.com:
It’s a shock to many new parents and financially devastating to others. When it comes to pregnancy and childbirth, our nation has failed to adopt basic policies that support families. Although family-friendly policies are beginning to make it easier for a few lucky dads to take time off from work for a new baby, change has been painfully slow. In fact, roughly nine out of 10 private sector companies don’t have paid leave for new fathers.
Too many parents find themselves without pay— and often in danger of losing their jobs—if they want or need time away from work to care for a new baby. America ought to be a place where the birth or adoption of a child is a glorious event, rather than the beginning of a family’s economic ruin.
UH, ABOUT THAT STEAK OR HAMBURGER
In a few weeks we'll be celebrating July 4. It's one of the big barbecue holidays. People slap on the steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs. I wonder how appetizing it would be if they realized what the cattle who provided the steaks, hamburgers, and hot dogs ate. I wonder, too, how they would feel if they knew they may be ingesting the material that causes Mad Cow Disease and that in a few years their brains will be turned into sponges. The Bush administration has once again advanced the interest of big business at the expense of the consuming public. This article by Libby Quaid talks about enforcement of stricter standards in the slaughter of beef has been lax at best. The article is at news.yahoo.com:
American cattle are eating chicken litter, cattle blood and restaurant leftovers that could help transmit mad cow disease — a gap in the U.S. defense that the Bush administration promised to close nearly 18 months ago.
"Once the cameras were turned off and the media coverage dissipated, then it's been business as usual, no real reform, just keep feeding slaughterhouse waste," said John Stauber, an activist and co-author of "Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?"
He contended, "The entire U.S. policy is designed to protect the livestock industry's access to slaughterhouse waste as cheap feed."
RIGHT-WINGERS WERE DISGRACEFUL IN SCHIAVO CASE
Right-wing politicians constantly reach new lows, but it's difficult to imagine sinking much lower than the posturing during the tragic Terri Schiavo case. Senator Bill Frist was particularly disgusting, making a "diagnosis" from a video tape. How dare politicians interfere in the most intensely personal and private decisions people face. E. J. Dionne writes about the Schiavo case at www.washingtonpost.com:
The autopsy in the Terri Schiavo case provides a rare moment of political accountability. We should not "move on," as Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist suggested. No, we cannot move on until those politicians who felt entitled to make up facts and toss around unwarranted conclusions about Schiavo's condition take responsibility for what they said -- and apologize.
Nothing in the autopsy report prevents those who opposed removing Schiavo's feeding tube from continuing to insist they were right. It's legitimate and honorable to argue on philosophical grounds that every medical decision in a tragic circumstance such as Schiavo's should be made on the side of keeping the sick person alive.
A BRAZEN CONFLICT OF INTEREST
It seems that several Senators personally benefited from the tax cuts pushed through by the Bush administration. Here's that name again: Bill Frist. Senator Frist profited handsomely from the cuts on taxes on dividends. How can we possibly have representative government when politicians can shape the law to personally benefit themselves? This article by Geoff Earle and Lauren Mercer is at www.thehill.com:
Several senators — millionaires, many of them — have reported earning substantial dividend income in 2004, benefiting greatly from President Bush’s tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, according to financial disclosure reports made available yesterday.
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) reported earning $1 million to $5 million in income from the W.H. Frist 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, which has a capital value of between $5 million and $25 million. Another of Frist’s trusts, the William H. Frist GST Exempt 2000 Qualified Blind Trust, was valued between $1 million to $5 million.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
JUNE 16, 2005
DOWNING STREET MINUTES DEMAND IMPEACHMENT
George W. Bush and senior members of his administration have committed a list of impeachable offenses, but there is nothing more damning than lying this country into a war. The Downing Street Minutes record the whole sorry record of how the U.S. and British governments conspired to manufacture a case for war against Iraq, a country that didn't attack either the U.S. or Britain. Thousands of people have died unnecessarily, others have been tortured, many driven from their homes, countless others maimed for life. Iraq has become a transit point for hard drugs such as hashish and heroin from Afghanistan. It is now a magnet for terrorists and far more of a threat than when Saddam Hussein was in power. This article by David Swanson and Jonathan Schwarz is at www.baltimoresun.com:
SINCE ITS publication May 1 by The Sunday Times of London, the so-called Downing Street memo has dominated the media in Britain and on the Internet in the United States. The memo is the official minutes from a secret meeting about Iraq held by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his inner circle July 23, 2002.
The significance of the memo - and additional leaked British documents now surfacing in public view - can hardly be overstated. They conceivably could lead to impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
EVEN GREENSPAN SEES PROBLEMS WITH U.S. INEQUALITY
Even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed some concerns about the chasm now separating the very wealthy from the rest of us. This article tries to soften the issue of inequality by quoting Greenspan as saying we have the most successful economy in history. Conservatives like to point to rising home prices as "creating wealth," but many of us can't afford homes. It should also be noted that the housing bubble is another problem that should be of concern. This article by Peter Grier is at www.csmonitor.com:
The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself.
Is that a liberal's talking point? Sure. But it's also a line from the recent public testimony of a champion of the free market: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
THE TRAITAROUS MAJOR MEDIA IN THE U.S.
If you ever saw the old show "Get Smart" you might remember that one of the devices at CONTROL was the "cone of silence." In theory, you dropped the cone of silence and no one could hear you outside the cone. The major U.S. media such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have their own "cone of silence" when it comes to the crimes committed by the Bush administration. The major media can go into overdrive covering Michael Jackson or the runaway bride, but give scant attention to the Downing Street Minutes and other major scandals bubbling from the Bush administration. Noted journalist Greg Palast had some thoughts at www.gregpalast.com:
It's official: The Downing Street memos, a snooty New York Times "News Analysis" informs us, "are not the Dead Sea Scrolls." You are warned, Congressman, to ignore the clear evidence of official mendacity and bald-faced fibbing by our two nations' leaders because the cry for investigation came from the dark and dangerous world of "blogs" and "opponents" of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush.
DON'T YOU LOVE THOSE TAX-DODGING CORPORATIONS?
Radio host and author Thom Hartmann has written extensively about corporations and how they came to be viewed as "persons" under the law. That doesn't seem to apply, of course, when they commit crimes. No "person" gets sent to prison. It certainly doesn't apply to paying a fair share of income taxes. The share of income taxes paid by corporations has steadily fallen while the burden has been shifted mostly to middle and low income individuals. This article by Scott Klinger is at www.commondreams.org:
Large corporations are in full retreat from paying their fair share of taxes. In 2003, corporations paid just 7% of the cost of the US government, according to a study by Citizens for Tax Justice.
It wasn't always this way. At the end of the Second World War, a time when paying taxes was viewed as a patriotic duty, corporations paid half the cost of the federal government. Even as recently as the 1970s, corporate taxes accounted for 20% of federal treasury receipts.
This dramatic change has shifted the cost of paying for government to smaller businesses and individual taxpayers, while at the same time boosting corporate profits and their executive's pay.
In 2003, ten companies each reported more than $1 billion in profits to their shareholders, yet paid no federal corporate income tax. Collectively, these firms that have claimed the only way they can remain competitive is through tax breaks, earned $30 billion in profits and paid their CEOs $126 million in 2003. The average pay of the CEOs of the corporate Benedict Arnolds was $12.6 million, 51% higher than the pay of the average large-company CEO as reported by Business Week.
DOWNING STREET MINUTES DEMAND IMPEACHMENT
George W. Bush and senior members of his administration have committed a list of impeachable offenses, but there is nothing more damning than lying this country into a war. The Downing Street Minutes record the whole sorry record of how the U.S. and British governments conspired to manufacture a case for war against Iraq, a country that didn't attack either the U.S. or Britain. Thousands of people have died unnecessarily, others have been tortured, many driven from their homes, countless others maimed for life. Iraq has become a transit point for hard drugs such as hashish and heroin from Afghanistan. It is now a magnet for terrorists and far more of a threat than when Saddam Hussein was in power. This article by David Swanson and Jonathan Schwarz is at www.baltimoresun.com:
SINCE ITS publication May 1 by The Sunday Times of London, the so-called Downing Street memo has dominated the media in Britain and on the Internet in the United States. The memo is the official minutes from a secret meeting about Iraq held by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his inner circle July 23, 2002.
The significance of the memo - and additional leaked British documents now surfacing in public view - can hardly be overstated. They conceivably could lead to impeachment proceedings against President Bush.
EVEN GREENSPAN SEES PROBLEMS WITH U.S. INEQUALITY
Even Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has expressed some concerns about the chasm now separating the very wealthy from the rest of us. This article tries to soften the issue of inequality by quoting Greenspan as saying we have the most successful economy in history. Conservatives like to point to rising home prices as "creating wealth," but many of us can't afford homes. It should also be noted that the housing bubble is another problem that should be of concern. This article by Peter Grier is at www.csmonitor.com:
The income gap between the rich and the rest of the US population has become so wide, and is growing so fast, that it might eventually threaten the stability of democratic capitalism itself.
Is that a liberal's talking point? Sure. But it's also a line from the recent public testimony of a champion of the free market: Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
THE TRAITAROUS MAJOR MEDIA IN THE U.S.
If you ever saw the old show "Get Smart" you might remember that one of the devices at CONTROL was the "cone of silence." In theory, you dropped the cone of silence and no one could hear you outside the cone. The major U.S. media such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have their own "cone of silence" when it comes to the crimes committed by the Bush administration. The major media can go into overdrive covering Michael Jackson or the runaway bride, but give scant attention to the Downing Street Minutes and other major scandals bubbling from the Bush administration. Noted journalist Greg Palast had some thoughts at www.gregpalast.com:
It's official: The Downing Street memos, a snooty New York Times "News Analysis" informs us, "are not the Dead Sea Scrolls." You are warned, Congressman, to ignore the clear evidence of official mendacity and bald-faced fibbing by our two nations' leaders because the cry for investigation came from the dark and dangerous world of "blogs" and "opponents" of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush.
DON'T YOU LOVE THOSE TAX-DODGING CORPORATIONS?
Radio host and author Thom Hartmann has written extensively about corporations and how they came to be viewed as "persons" under the law. That doesn't seem to apply, of course, when they commit crimes. No "person" gets sent to prison. It certainly doesn't apply to paying a fair share of income taxes. The share of income taxes paid by corporations has steadily fallen while the burden has been shifted mostly to middle and low income individuals. This article by Scott Klinger is at www.commondreams.org:
Large corporations are in full retreat from paying their fair share of taxes. In 2003, corporations paid just 7% of the cost of the US government, according to a study by Citizens for Tax Justice.
It wasn't always this way. At the end of the Second World War, a time when paying taxes was viewed as a patriotic duty, corporations paid half the cost of the federal government. Even as recently as the 1970s, corporate taxes accounted for 20% of federal treasury receipts.
This dramatic change has shifted the cost of paying for government to smaller businesses and individual taxpayers, while at the same time boosting corporate profits and their executive's pay.
In 2003, ten companies each reported more than $1 billion in profits to their shareholders, yet paid no federal corporate income tax. Collectively, these firms that have claimed the only way they can remain competitive is through tax breaks, earned $30 billion in profits and paid their CEOs $126 million in 2003. The average pay of the CEOs of the corporate Benedict Arnolds was $12.6 million, 51% higher than the pay of the average large-company CEO as reported by Business Week.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
JUNE 15, 2005
WHO KNEW GITMO WAS A RESORT?
Mike Malloy has been playing a soundbite featuring Republican Representative Duncan Hunter talking about the meals supposedly served to the detainees at Guantanamo. He claims the prisoners there get things like lemon chicken, rice, and two kinds of fruit. Maybe he'll be telling us next about the free continental breakfasts and gourmet coffee. Who do these jackasses think they're fooling anyway?
BUSH WANTS TO KNOW WHAT WE READ
The invasive and unconstitutional Patriot Act received a blow from the House of Representatives, which voted to restrict access to library and reading records. George W. Bush has threatened a veto because we can't have privacy when there's a "war on terror." I'm reading Beach Music by Pat Conroy in case that helps. It's all very strange when you consider the level of Bush's reading, something along the lines of My Pet Goat. This story by Andrew Taylor is at news.yahoo.com:
In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.
The House voted 238-187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.
SOBERING STATISTICS ON MINIMUM WAGE
The loons who believe in the totally free market don't believe we should have things like the minimum wage. Supposedly, if you're a working person you can choose to work or not to work for poverty wages. The minimum wage has been one of the most decent and humane laws on the books. Leave it to Republicans, of course, to subvert the minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is virtually impossible to live on. This article shows how many people have fallen into poverty under the reign of George W. Bush, the number of raises Congressman have given themselves, and the total outrage of a miserly minimum wage. This article is at thinkprogress.org:
Morgan Spurlock is at it again. The man who exposed the unsavory side of fast food in the popular documentary Supersize Me takes on minimum wage in his new series “30 Days.” In the show, which launches tomorrow night on FX, Spurlock will submerge an average American in a completely different lifestyle for one month. (The Center For American Progress is holding an advance screening of the show in Washington, DC tonight.) For his first episode, Spurlock decided to explore exactly how hard it is to live on a minimum wage income for thirty days. He and his fiancee, Alex, moved to Columbus, OH and lived on $5.15 an hour for a month. They found out it’s pretty impossible. Here are the facts behind minimum wage in America:
THE GROPER MEETS SOME REAL CONSTITUENTS
California Governor Groper probably thought he would be making a triumphant return to his alma mater in Santa Monica. Instead, the Groper got a rude awakening about what most Californians think of his lousy policies. The Groper is calling for a special election this November to get some pet initiatives passed. The initiatives are mostly directed at people like teachers and firefighters. The Groper wants to blame their unions for California's budget woes. This article is at www.cnn.com:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to his alma mater turned into an exercise in perseverance when virtually his every word was accompanied by catcalls, howls and piercing whistles from the crowd.
Schwarzenegger's face appeared to redden during his 15-minute commencement address Tuesday to 600 graduates at Santa Monica College, but he ignored the shouting as he recalled his days as a student and, later, his work as a bodybuilder and actor.
WHO KNEW GITMO WAS A RESORT?
Mike Malloy has been playing a soundbite featuring Republican Representative Duncan Hunter talking about the meals supposedly served to the detainees at Guantanamo. He claims the prisoners there get things like lemon chicken, rice, and two kinds of fruit. Maybe he'll be telling us next about the free continental breakfasts and gourmet coffee. Who do these jackasses think they're fooling anyway?
BUSH WANTS TO KNOW WHAT WE READ
The invasive and unconstitutional Patriot Act received a blow from the House of Representatives, which voted to restrict access to library and reading records. George W. Bush has threatened a veto because we can't have privacy when there's a "war on terror." I'm reading Beach Music by Pat Conroy in case that helps. It's all very strange when you consider the level of Bush's reading, something along the lines of My Pet Goat. This story by Andrew Taylor is at news.yahoo.com:
In a slap at President Bush, lawmakers voted Wednesday to block the Justice Department and the FBI from using the Patriot Act to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.
The House voted 238-187 despite a veto threat from Bush to block the part of the anti-terrorism law that allows the government to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects.
SOBERING STATISTICS ON MINIMUM WAGE
The loons who believe in the totally free market don't believe we should have things like the minimum wage. Supposedly, if you're a working person you can choose to work or not to work for poverty wages. The minimum wage has been one of the most decent and humane laws on the books. Leave it to Republicans, of course, to subvert the minimum wage. The current federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour is virtually impossible to live on. This article shows how many people have fallen into poverty under the reign of George W. Bush, the number of raises Congressman have given themselves, and the total outrage of a miserly minimum wage. This article is at thinkprogress.org:
Morgan Spurlock is at it again. The man who exposed the unsavory side of fast food in the popular documentary Supersize Me takes on minimum wage in his new series “30 Days.” In the show, which launches tomorrow night on FX, Spurlock will submerge an average American in a completely different lifestyle for one month. (The Center For American Progress is holding an advance screening of the show in Washington, DC tonight.) For his first episode, Spurlock decided to explore exactly how hard it is to live on a minimum wage income for thirty days. He and his fiancee, Alex, moved to Columbus, OH and lived on $5.15 an hour for a month. They found out it’s pretty impossible. Here are the facts behind minimum wage in America:
THE GROPER MEETS SOME REAL CONSTITUENTS
California Governor Groper probably thought he would be making a triumphant return to his alma mater in Santa Monica. Instead, the Groper got a rude awakening about what most Californians think of his lousy policies. The Groper is calling for a special election this November to get some pet initiatives passed. The initiatives are mostly directed at people like teachers and firefighters. The Groper wants to blame their unions for California's budget woes. This article is at www.cnn.com:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to his alma mater turned into an exercise in perseverance when virtually his every word was accompanied by catcalls, howls and piercing whistles from the crowd.
Schwarzenegger's face appeared to redden during his 15-minute commencement address Tuesday to 600 graduates at Santa Monica College, but he ignored the shouting as he recalled his days as a student and, later, his work as a bodybuilder and actor.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
JUNE 14, 2005
STEALING CORNFLAKES MAKES YOU A TERRORIST
In the surreal universe of Bushworld there are terrorists everywhere. It reminds you of the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Communist witch hunt. People were hauled in to testify before Congress and rat out their friends as Communists. People who had done nothing wrong were blacklisted and couldn't make a living. The Bushies have taken it even beyond "Tailgunner Joe." They want our medical records, our reading records, to tap our phones, access to our Internet records, and on and on. This story shows just how ridiculous the sniffing out of terrorists has become. Some guys were put on a terrorism watch list for stealing cornflakes. The story by Jerry Markon is at www.washingtonpost.com:
More than a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI nabbed two Arab grocers loading boxes onto a tractor-trailer outside a drab gray apartment building here. The cargo: stolen Kellogg's cereal.
Agents did not charge the men that day, and set them free. But 16 months later, soon after hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI was back. This time, agents arrested the pair and a third Arab grocer. After they were grilled about the terrorist attacks, the men were charged and pleaded guilty -- to conspiracy to possess the pilfered cornflakes.
TEXAS MUST BE ONE WEIRD PLACE
Molly Ivins calls Texas Governor Rick Perry "Good Hair" Perry. I'll take her word for it. There are indications Governor Perry is gay, allegedly getting caught with another man in his bed, but the good Republican Governor recently called for all gays to leave the great state of Texas. "Good Hair" also doesn't put much stock in the doctrine of separating church and state. He actually signed legislation in a church. Maybe he thinks that will absolve him of all his sins. This story by Matt Curry is at hosted.ap.org (Richmond Times-Dispatch):
Even for Texas, the scene was remarkable: The governor, flanked by an out-of-state televangelist and religious right leaders, signing legislation in a church school gymnasium amid shouts of "amen" from backers who just as well could have been attending a revival.
It wasn't just the blatant blend of church and state that made the gathering in Fort Worth unusual. Advance publicity also attracted about 300 angry protesters - unheard of for the routine business of ceremonial bill signings.
HOWARD DEAN MERELY TOLD THE TRUTH
It's just amazing that the masters of hate speech on the right have the audacity to say that Howard Dean was guilty of hate speech when he said the Republican party was white and Christian (faux Christian, mind you). Then some Democrats reacted like a snail doused by salt and started melting away. This is one Democrat who wants someone to tell it like it is. The stakes are too high for our country and for our planet to let Republican bullies get away (literally) with murder. This column by Jon Carroll is at www.sfgate.com:
I believe the American people want a party that will express their displeasure at the elitist and corrupt Bush administration in strong and vigorous terms.
People should stop believing the bullfluff that Fox News represents some significant percentage of the populace. The latest Nielsen ratings show that the Fox News Channel has 1,758,000 viewers in prime time, with only 416,000 falling into the 25-54 demographic. This is in a nation of 300 million people. However much noise it makes and however much room it takes up in the brains of media people, Fox is a very small muffin in a very large bakery -- a small, wizened, bitter muffin. Ignore it; everyone else does.
FOR BUSH THE SWORD IS MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN
Excuse me, but I thought Jesus Christ was called "The Prince of Peace." Well-known "Christian" George W. Bush disregards the idea of peace as he markets weapons all around the world. This story by William D. Hartung and Frida Berrigan talks about the sales of arms has dramatically increased under the Bush administration. The article is linked at www.commondreams.org:
Despite President George W. Bush's vow to promote freedom and democracy around the world, U.S. arms sales policy is doing just the opposite.
Most major recipients of U.S. arms sales in the developing world are undemocratic, as defined by our own State Department. And U.S.-supplied weaponry is present in a majority of the world's active conflicts.
The Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations were no strangers to the policy of transferring U.S. arms to dictators, but this trend has intensified dramatically under the administration of George W. Bush.
Perhaps no single policy is more at odds with President Bush's pledge to "end tyranny in our world" than the United States' role as the world's leading arms-exporting nation. Although arms sales are often justified on the basis of their purported benefits, from securing access to overseas military facilities to rewarding coalition partners, these alleged benefits often come at a high price.
"CHRISTIAN FUNDIES": KKK WITHOUT THE SHEETS
Some on the Christian right are aggrieved (what else is new?) because the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups, has branded them as hate group just like the KKK. I mean just because they foam at the mouth about gays or abortion or Muslims or anyone who doesn't share their warped view of the Bible, does that make them a hate group? This item comes from americablog.blogspot.com:
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization historically devoted to fighting racial discrimination, has decided to brand the entire pro-family movement as "hate groups" and "extremists," like the Ku Klux Klan. Yet it seems odd to apply the label "extremist" to a majority of Americans, since their lengthy article (titled "Holy War") admits that in 2003 "opposition to gay marriage had climbed from 53 to 59%" and that a "majority of Americans, 55%, now characterized gay sex as a sin." Be assured that the Family Research Council will continue to stand, with a majority of Americans, where we have always stood--against violence toward homosexuals, but also against celebrating a behavior that is harmful to those who engage in it and to society as a whole.
STEALING CORNFLAKES MAKES YOU A TERRORIST
In the surreal universe of Bushworld there are terrorists everywhere. It reminds you of the days of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Communist witch hunt. People were hauled in to testify before Congress and rat out their friends as Communists. People who had done nothing wrong were blacklisted and couldn't make a living. The Bushies have taken it even beyond "Tailgunner Joe." They want our medical records, our reading records, to tap our phones, access to our Internet records, and on and on. This story shows just how ridiculous the sniffing out of terrorists has become. Some guys were put on a terrorism watch list for stealing cornflakes. The story by Jerry Markon is at www.washingtonpost.com:
More than a year before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI nabbed two Arab grocers loading boxes onto a tractor-trailer outside a drab gray apartment building here. The cargo: stolen Kellogg's cereal.
Agents did not charge the men that day, and set them free. But 16 months later, soon after hijacked planes had crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FBI was back. This time, agents arrested the pair and a third Arab grocer. After they were grilled about the terrorist attacks, the men were charged and pleaded guilty -- to conspiracy to possess the pilfered cornflakes.
TEXAS MUST BE ONE WEIRD PLACE
Molly Ivins calls Texas Governor Rick Perry "Good Hair" Perry. I'll take her word for it. There are indications Governor Perry is gay, allegedly getting caught with another man in his bed, but the good Republican Governor recently called for all gays to leave the great state of Texas. "Good Hair" also doesn't put much stock in the doctrine of separating church and state. He actually signed legislation in a church. Maybe he thinks that will absolve him of all his sins. This story by Matt Curry is at hosted.ap.org (Richmond Times-Dispatch):
Even for Texas, the scene was remarkable: The governor, flanked by an out-of-state televangelist and religious right leaders, signing legislation in a church school gymnasium amid shouts of "amen" from backers who just as well could have been attending a revival.
It wasn't just the blatant blend of church and state that made the gathering in Fort Worth unusual. Advance publicity also attracted about 300 angry protesters - unheard of for the routine business of ceremonial bill signings.
HOWARD DEAN MERELY TOLD THE TRUTH
It's just amazing that the masters of hate speech on the right have the audacity to say that Howard Dean was guilty of hate speech when he said the Republican party was white and Christian (faux Christian, mind you). Then some Democrats reacted like a snail doused by salt and started melting away. This is one Democrat who wants someone to tell it like it is. The stakes are too high for our country and for our planet to let Republican bullies get away (literally) with murder. This column by Jon Carroll is at www.sfgate.com:
I believe the American people want a party that will express their displeasure at the elitist and corrupt Bush administration in strong and vigorous terms.
People should stop believing the bullfluff that Fox News represents some significant percentage of the populace. The latest Nielsen ratings show that the Fox News Channel has 1,758,000 viewers in prime time, with only 416,000 falling into the 25-54 demographic. This is in a nation of 300 million people. However much noise it makes and however much room it takes up in the brains of media people, Fox is a very small muffin in a very large bakery -- a small, wizened, bitter muffin. Ignore it; everyone else does.
FOR BUSH THE SWORD IS MIGHTIER THAN THE PEN
Excuse me, but I thought Jesus Christ was called "The Prince of Peace." Well-known "Christian" George W. Bush disregards the idea of peace as he markets weapons all around the world. This story by William D. Hartung and Frida Berrigan talks about the sales of arms has dramatically increased under the Bush administration. The article is linked at www.commondreams.org:
Despite President George W. Bush's vow to promote freedom and democracy around the world, U.S. arms sales policy is doing just the opposite.
Most major recipients of U.S. arms sales in the developing world are undemocratic, as defined by our own State Department. And U.S.-supplied weaponry is present in a majority of the world's active conflicts.
The Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations were no strangers to the policy of transferring U.S. arms to dictators, but this trend has intensified dramatically under the administration of George W. Bush.
Perhaps no single policy is more at odds with President Bush's pledge to "end tyranny in our world" than the United States' role as the world's leading arms-exporting nation. Although arms sales are often justified on the basis of their purported benefits, from securing access to overseas military facilities to rewarding coalition partners, these alleged benefits often come at a high price.
"CHRISTIAN FUNDIES": KKK WITHOUT THE SHEETS
Some on the Christian right are aggrieved (what else is new?) because the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that monitors hate groups, has branded them as hate group just like the KKK. I mean just because they foam at the mouth about gays or abortion or Muslims or anyone who doesn't share their warped view of the Bible, does that make them a hate group? This item comes from americablog.blogspot.com:
Meanwhile, in the U.S., the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization historically devoted to fighting racial discrimination, has decided to brand the entire pro-family movement as "hate groups" and "extremists," like the Ku Klux Klan. Yet it seems odd to apply the label "extremist" to a majority of Americans, since their lengthy article (titled "Holy War") admits that in 2003 "opposition to gay marriage had climbed from 53 to 59%" and that a "majority of Americans, 55%, now characterized gay sex as a sin." Be assured that the Family Research Council will continue to stand, with a majority of Americans, where we have always stood--against violence toward homosexuals, but also against celebrating a behavior that is harmful to those who engage in it and to society as a whole.
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