April 30, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


STEPHEN COLBERT LAMPOONS BUSH

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert spoke at the White House Correspondent Dinner and blasted Bush, via comedy, for the multitude of lies and incompetence we've seen during the past five years. Bush and wife Laura reportedly weren't amused. Maybe they can get a sense of how the rest of us feel. This story is at www.editorandpublisher.com:

A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

BUSH DOESN'T GET CHECKS AND BALANCES

The Founding Fathers deliberately designed a government of checks and balances because they feared the autocratic power of an unchecked executive. George W. Bush has chosen to ignore at least 750 laws because he claims that the "powers of his office" allow him to do so. Tell me why this is not impeachable. This article by Charlie Savage is at www.boston.com:

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ''whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

SLAVERY IN AMERICA IN 2006

This article is about the 40th anniversary of Senator Robert Kennedy's walk with disenfranchised farm workers in Delano, California, right here in the Central Valley. It's also about the terrible wages and working conditions for tomato pickers in Florida. The workers pick tomatoes for big corporations like McDonald's and Chipotle Mexican Grill. Pay for the tomato workers hasn't increased in decades. Some workers are, in effect, slaves of labor contractors. This article by Todd Howland is at www.commondreams.org:

But forty years later, pay and conditions have not improved for farmworkers. The struggle for dignity and rights for farmworkers still continues, and groups like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) have picked up the torch. A farmworker picking tomatoes in Immokalee earns only 40-45 cents for each 32 pound bucket he or she picks, a rate that has remained stagnant for almost 30 years. This translates to a 65% real wage decrease due to inflation. In order to bring home $50 a worker must pick nearly two tons of tomatoes. The average farmworker income, $7500, is well below the federal poverty line. In Immokalee, Florida, farmworkers are forced to live in decrepit living quarters with floors completely covered with mattresses, paying as much as $160 a week for the privilege to live as CIW leader, and winner of the 2003 RFK Human Rights Award, Lucas Benitez put it, “like sardines.”

Since 1997, thanks largely to investigations by the CIW, the FBI and US Justice Department have prosecuted six slavery cases in Florida’s produce fields in recent years—freeing over 1,000 workers held against their will.

April 29, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BIG OIL'S OBSCENE PROFITS

George W. Bush says he doesn't see any indication of price gouging by the big oil companies as we see gas prices climb and climb. I paid $3.19 a gallon for regular today. We hear all the excuses. We can't build new refineries because of those darned environmentalists! Gas taxes increase the costs! The profit margins aren't really all that good! This article by Daniel Gross is at www.slate.com:

Ordinarily, earnings announcements are an occasion for shameless executive preening. Exceeding analysts' estimates, by even the slimmest margin, is cause for chest-thumping, back-patting, and high-fiving. Good results are touted as evidence of the management team's brilliant strategy, flawless execution, and unwavering commitment. Any negatives, if not ignored entirely, are generally chalked up to things beyond human control.

But not this week in the oil industry. On successive days, the three largest U.S. oil companies, ConocoPhillips (Wednesday), ExxonMobil (Thursday), and Chevron (Friday), have reported huge, blowout quarters. Among them, the trio earned a stunning $15 billion in the first quarter alone. But rather than blare the news, the firms have tried to soft-pedal their record earnings. After all, the timing is less than optimal. Congressmen in Washington are stumbling over themselves trying to do something—anything, by gosh!—about higher gas prices: calling for windfall profit taxes, proclaiming war on price-gouging, and foolishly proposing a $100 tax rebate to help with gas payments. (In other words, taxpayers would borrow money from foreigners like the Saudis in order to send $100 checks to Americans so they can buy more gas from foreigners like the Saudis.)

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BUSH'S NICKNAMES

The media have tried to portray George W. Bush as an ordinary Joe. He's the guy you'd allegedly want to have a beer with. Part of the false charm conveyed by Bush is his proclivity for nicknames. He called Russian Premier Putin "Pootie-Poot." He called former FEMA head Michael Brown "Brownie" and the prince of political darkness, Karl Rove, got dubbed "Turd Blossom." This article by a psychiatrist looks at the dominion implied by someone bestowing nicknames on others. It's another example of Bush's arrogance and sense of superiority. The article by Ronald Pies is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Such naming rituals go back at least as far as the Hebrew Bible or Tanach, usually called The Old Testament. A change in name, in this ancient biblical context, usually signifies a change in spiritual status or moral character. In the Book of Genesis, we find that after Jacob wrestles with an "angel" or divine messenger, his name is changed to Israel--variously translated as "one who struggles with God" or "turns the head of God." Notably, it is God who changes Jacob's name, as is the case with Abram (re-named Abraham) and Sarai (re-named Sarah). There is a message in this: changing someone's name is a sign of dominion over that individual. Our children do not name us (though they may use unkind nicknames behind our backs)--we name them. The knight does not "dub" the King, Sir So-and-So--it is the king's dominion that allows him to christen the knight.

The rabbis of the Talmudic era were aware that, when mortals misuse such powers, the results can often be destructive. These sages were especially disturbed by the use of derogatory nicknames. The Talmud tells us, "All who descend to Gehenna [Hell] will come [back] up, except three...one who sleeps with a married woman; one who shames his friend in public; and one who calls his friend by a cruel nickname." [Bava Mezia 58b]. Any child who has come home from school in tears, having been taunted with a nickname like "Fatso" or "Butthead", understands the destructive power of such nicknames.

April 28, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BUSH AND BIG OIL

George W. Bush is displaying his incredible arrogance and lack of concern with ordinary Americans once again. As gas prices climb through the roof, Bush says he doesn't support a windfall profits tax on the big oil companies. This is at a time when oil company profits are setting records. He also continues to lie and claim that we have a strong economy. It's not that strong from where I sit. This article by Jennifer Loven is at news.yahoo.com:

Bush's remarks suggested the former Texas oilman is unlikely to take harsh action against oil companies despite public anger about the rising cost of fuel. Gasoline is averaging $2.92 a gallon across the country, up 69 cents from a year ago, according to AAA's daily fuel gauge report.

With politicians concerned the issue could tilt what are expected to be close midterm elections this fall, the president and many in Congress have been rushing to offer solutions, most of which would offer little immediate relief.

BUSH'S AMAZING ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRISY

Everything that sounds progressive from the Bush administration is just the opposite. "The Healthy Forests Initiative" was anything but. "The Clear Skies Initiative" tells polluters to continue to pollute. "No Child Left Behind" does exactly that. Now with soaring gas prices Bush talks about the need to conserve. This column by Mark Morford is linked at www.commondreams.org:

Bush is, after all, a failed oilman. He has done all he can to ensure we will be dependent on the black death for the next two decades, minimum, which is, not surprisingly, the average remaining life span of his favoritest CEO cronies in the oil business. Serve the masters first, the Saudi sheiks second, the American people about, oh, 157th. It is the BushCo way.

No matter. Up in Napa, the president talked about connecting with nature, about getting his heart rate up by getting out there and challenging himself against the rugged terrain. Nature, of course, was unimpressed, sort of neutral on the whole thing, Bush just another animal scratching tracks on her incredibly resilient skin. Nature has a Zen-like quality about such things -- or perhaps more like Vishnu-Brahma-Shiva, creator and preserver and destroyer, watching it all, shrugging, sighing, taking the long view. If nature could talk, she would tell Bush he will be worm food very soon, and by the way, the worms are furious. She would then go back to watching the baby giraffes play in Africa.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND INEFFECTIVE

George W. Bush has used the terrorist attacks on 9/11 to justify almost everything his vile administration wants to do. Among the worst things Bush has done has been to trample civil liberties. Bush claims he needs vastly expanded powers to fight the "war on terror." Never mind that no Americans were involved in the attacks on 9/11. Never mind that the hijackers were all in the country legally. Never mind that Bush had numerous warnings, but failed to act. Jim Hightower has a good column linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Ironically, this Bush push to place himself above the law is centered on a failed program. The agents who are having to sift through piles of our calls and emails say that nearly all of the sifting is worthless, finding fewer than 10 citizens a year who even warrant further checking. In fact, the Bushites can point to only two "successes." They brag that the spying uncovered a plot to detonate fertilizer bombs in London -- but British officials deny that NSA spying helped uncover the plot. Their other "success" is ludicrous -- they claim to have found a guy who was going to cut down the Brooklyn Bridge. His weapon? A blowtorch. In response to Bush's illegal spying, Congress has been almost comical. After huffing and puffing about doing a deep investigation into the criminality of the program, Senate Republicans abruptly cancelled their plans for public hearings and ran to the White House waving surrender hankies. Last month, they announced that they had negotiated with Cheney, who graciously gave the Senate a grand oversight role. What did they get, specifically? A new subcommittee. TAH-DAH! Now seven senators will be allowed an occasional peek at whatever documents the White House is willing to send to them. In turn, Congress will sanction Bush's secret spying on Americans, letting him snoop on someone for 45 days without having to bother getting a warrant from that pesky FISA court. You can just hear Cheney guffawing back in his cave. Bush's assertion of extraordinary authority has nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with his and Cheney's mad intent to enthrone the American presidency with "plenary" power -- i.e., unqualified, absolute power.

April 27, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BUSH'S RED HERRING

A few years ago California went through the miserable experience of rolling electrical blackouts. Right-wing pundits were quick to put the blame on environmentalists. Environmentalists, they said, wouldn't allow the construction of new power plants. It turned out it wasn't environmentalists who were responsible, but the crooks at Enron who jobbed the electrical market. Now we have George W. Bush and right-wing pundits blaming environmentalists for soaring gas prices. It's the same old lie all over again. This article by Frank O'Donnell is at www.alternet.org:

Bush says:

There has not been a new refinery built in America in 30 years.

The reality is:

In declaring that part of the problem is that we haven't built new refineries in the U.S. in decades, the president is being simply disingenuous. As he well knows from his days in the business, the big oil companies decided for economic reasons that it was more cost-effective to expand existing refineries than build new ones. In fact, they have managed those expansions to avoid a gasoline glut that could lead to lower prices.

MILLIONS OF US WITHOUT HEALTH CARE

Our health care system is a debacle. Most of us depend on getting health care coverage through our jobs. But if you lose your job you also lose your health care unless you can afford to pay into COBRA, which is horrendously expensive. I was downsized for the second time in four years and I'm now one of those millions without health care. Health care is not a privilege; it's a right. If right-wingers want to fulminate about "socialized medicine," so be it. This article by Theresa Agovino is at www.lasvegassun.com:

The percentage of working-age Americans with moderate to middle incomes who lacked health insurance for at least part of the year rose to 41 percent in 2005, a dramatic increase from the 28 percent in 2001 without coverage, a study released on Wednesday found.

Moreover, more than half of the uninsured adults said they were having problems paying their medical bills or had incurred debt to cover their expenses, according to a report by the Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private, health care policy foundation. The study of 4,350 adults also found that people without insurance were more likely to forgo recommended health screenings such as mammograms than those with coverage, and were less likely to have a regular doctor than their insured counterparts.

APPALLING STORIES OF FEMALE IMMIGRANTS

This story talks about the dangers faced by women who seek to illegally immigrate to the United States from Central America or Mexico. According to this story, there is a 99% chance a woman will be raped. Women take birth control pills in advance to avoid getting pregnant as the result of rape. It's absolutely despicable that we have a global economic system that forces anyone to go through these horrors to try for a better life. This story from the Associated Press is at www.nytimes.com:

The increase in women migrants comes as beefed-up border security has funneled migrants through one of the world's most forbidding deserts, and as smugglers adopt increasingly violent tactics.

Some cross with their children. Others leave them behind with relatives. Pregnant women, like Maria Perez, the 18-year-old who gave birth this week, walk for days through the desert in the hope that their children will have a better life as U.S. citizens.

Rape has become so prevalent that many women take birth control pills or shots before setting out to ensure they won't get pregnant. Some consider rape ''the price you pay for crossing the border,'' said Teresa Rodriguez, regional director of the U.N. Development Fund for Women.

April 25, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH

IMPEACH CHENEY


IN TEMP WORLD

Today I got to visit another insurance company. This one is a third party administrator. One thing I've learned in recent weeks is that insurance companies love paper. You have brochures and forms inside brochures and forms.

It's ironic that I don't have health insurance, but I'm helping send out information about health insurance to people who have it through their jobs.

Today the boss lady was miffed that corners on this mass of paper got bent when I tried to get it into an envelope that was a little small. It was a little like trying to get into shoes that are a size too small. We know that the fate of western civilization depends on pristine corners.

Anyone who wants to tell me what a swell economic system we have should have to work as a temp for a just a little while. Try doing these incredibly boring, soul-destroying jobs for no money and then tell me how wonderful our system is.

THEY'RE TIRED OF HEARING BUSH CALLED A LIAR

Today's right-wing screed in The Fresno Bee was about the writer being tired of hearing George W. Bush called a liar. The writer talked about being "nauseous." My response: tough.

Their guy stole the presidential election in 2000. He campaigned as a moderate and has governed as a reactionary. Everything about Bush screams "liar."

What's worse, Bush has the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands. He was willing to do anything to carry out his his vendetta against Saddam Hussein, including killing thousands of civilians in Iraq, getting thousands of U.S. military killed, and looting our treasury. To me, that's far more reason for nausea.

SHREDDING THE SOCIAL CONTRACT

Since the New Deal there has been a social contract in effect between Americans and the government. There has also been a social contract between working people and corporations, mostly in the form of pensions. With right-wing ideology on the march, we're seeing more of a predatory system developing. The government doesn't want to fund social programs and corporations don't want to pay decent wages or fund pension plans. This is Social Darwinism in action. This article by Beth Shulman is at www.tompaine.com:

General Motors’ announcement that it would no longer provide traditional pensions to its employees hired after 2001 was stunning because of its size. Yet GM is hardly alone in trying to pare down or eliminate conventional pensions. Every day, from healthy companies like Verizon to bankrupt firms like Delphi, there seems to be a new announcement. United Airlines, Bethlehem Steel, Motorola, Lockheed Martin, IBM, Hewlett Packard, along with many other pillars of our economy, have frozen their pension plans, insisting they cannot afford to keep their promises.

The impact of simply wiping out traditional pensions resonates far beyond corporate boardrooms and company shareholders. It’s a unilateral move to cut out a main clause of our social contract, the model that a majority of Americans and their families have relied on for nearly three quarters of a century.

Are we really ready as a society to declare the end of retirement as we know it? In order to retire, must employees now bear all the costs and take all the risks? And at the very least, shouldn’t we have a serious, national conversation before we simply accept a major shift that will have such a significant impact on our economy and the quality of life in our country for generations to come?

April 24, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


GOOD QUESTIONS


This commentary asks some good questions of George W. Bush. I've often wondered if Bush has any remorse whatever for the death and destruction he has caused in Iraq. I've wondered if he has any feelings at all for the deaths and maimings of so many members of the U.S. military. I've wondered if he thinks about the long-term consequences of attacking Iraq, that he has recruited generations of people who hate the United States. This article by John Brown is at www.commondreams.org:

Mr. President: Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night? Do you? Do you ever wake up sleepless in the middle of the night?

What have you done in Iraq? Do you ever realize, in the middle of the night, what you've done? Do you?

1. You've caused over 2,370 American soldiers to die in an impoverished land that never attacked us. Was that the right answer to 9/11 or the "threat" from Iraq? Do you ever ask yourself that question?

2. Because of your Iraq invasion, thousands of U.S. enlisted personnel are maimed, physically and mentally, for life. What can you tell these victims of your war? That you're honored by their duty towards you, our "mission-accomplished" commander-in-chief?

3. Your decision to go to war has led to the death of tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Do you have any remorse for this, Mr. President? Or was it that, for you, Iraqis only really deserved to serve as props in "shock and awe" -- your name for your made-for-TV porno/violence program at the beginning of the war, produced and distributed directly into our living rooms by the mainstream media? (Thank you, Fox News.)

PERPETUAL WAR

The war drums are beating again. The Bush administration has been making threatening noises about attacking Iran, including using tactical nuclear weapons. Bush has already launched two wars, and war seems to be to his liking. In this article Arthur Schlesinger Jr. talks about the dangers of "preventive war." The concept flies in the face of American history. The only problem I have with this essay is the reference to Bush as "humane" man. I don't think Bush is the least bit humane. This article is at www.washingtonpost.com:

The Hundred Days is indelibly associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the Thousand Days with John F. Kennedy. But as of this week, a thousand days remain of President Bush's last term -- days filled with ominous preparations for and dark rumors of a preventive war against Iran.

The issue of preventive war as a presidential prerogative is hardly new. In February 1848 Rep. Abraham Lincoln explained his opposition to the Mexican War: "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.' "

April 23, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE BUSH TRAIN WRECK

Reality is coming home in Bush world. The administration is making personnel changes, which are akin to putting a Band-Aid on a gaping head wound. Scott McClellan is gone as the presidential spokesliar. Karl Rove has had his duties changed. This administration is the worst combination of arrogance, incompetence, and corruption. It's like the levees breaking in New Orleans. You can only plug so many holes. This article by Mike Carlton is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:

SYDNEY, NSW, is a long way from Washington DC but, even at this distance, it is clear that the Bush Administration is falling to pieces.

In recent weeks, scanning the political coverage in the mainstream US media and sampling the blogs has been to watch a flood tide ebbing to reveal a rotting, skeletal hulk. It is the George W. Bush ship of fools, stuck in the mud for the world to see in all its mendacity, its incompetence, its faith-based stupidity.

It is possible, at this late stage, that even Bush himself has begun to realise something is wrong. That oddly simian face is ashen, the eyes leaden. The voice is shrill and its tone defensive…

THEY JUST CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES

The Bush administration has talked a good game about national security, but it seems they just can't help themselves when it comes to leaks, especially if the leaks further their agenda or damage political opponents. We see the most dramatic evidence of that with the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame to retaliate against her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. Lots of major administration figures are implicated in that leak, most notably I. Lewis Libby and Karl Rove. Even Bush himself has been implicated. Now we learn that Condoleezza Rice is allegedly a part of the Leak Club. This article by Matthew Barakat is at www.makethemaccountable.com:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice leaked national defense information to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence, the lobbyist's lawyer said Friday.

Prosecutors disputed the claim.

The allegations against Rice came as a federal judge granted a defense request to issue subpoenas sought by the defense for Rice and three other government officials in the trial of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. The two are former lobbyists with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee who are charged with receiving and disclosing national defense information.

Defense lawyers are asking a judge to dismiss the charges because, among other things, they believe it seeks to criminalize the type of backchannel exchanges between government officials, lobbyists and the press that are part and parcel of how Washington works…

April 21, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


SANCTIONING TORTURE

A practice I never heard of before the George W. Bush administration is "extraordinary rendition." It's a way of skirting around U.S. laws against torture. Instead, people are kidnapped, spirited away to regimes that have no objection to torture, and held there. This would be a crime against humanity even against legitimate suspects, but some of these people are innocent. Some people have disappeared entirely. This column by Bob Herbert is linked at www.topplebush.com:

In past years, stories about torture and "the disappeared" have been associated with sinister regimes in South and Central America. The attitude in the United States was that we were above such dirty business, that it was immoral and uncivilized, and we were better than that.

But times change, and we've lowered our moral standards several notches since then. Now people are disappearing at the hands of the U.S. government.

"Below the Radar: Secret Flights to Torture and 'Disappearance' " is the title of a recent Amnesty International report on the reprehensible practice of extraordinary rendition, a highly classified American program in which individuals are seized -- abducted -- without any semblance of due process and sent off to be interrogated by regimes that are known to engage in torture.

OIL COMPANY PROFITS

Gasoline prices in Fresno are soaring again. Prices for regular are back to the level they were after Hurricane Katrina. This would be a burden even if the price hikes were legitimate, but there is evidence the oil companies are deliberately raising prices to increase their already obscene profit margins. Never mind that they're destroying middle class and poor families. This story comes from www.consumerwatchdog.com:

Independent petroleum consultant Tim Hamilton analyzed gasoline price increases from January to April to find that:

* Increases in the "spot" market price of crude oil -- which is the highest price a major oil company would pay for crude oil -- accounted for only 12 cents per gallon. California's percentage sales tax increased fuel prices by another four cents per gallon. More than 40 cents of the 60-cent increase in gasoline prices over 3 1/2 months is attributable to increased refinery and marketing profit margins for the oil companies;

* Neither the MTBE phaseout nor the substitution of ethanol is a serious part of the increase. If the MTBE phaseout or ethanol blending specifically increased costs for oil companies in California, other states in the West using conventional unblended gasoline should be much less affected. Yet Washington State, which uses only conventional gasoline and has similar refinery capacity and crude oil sources, mirrored California's increase;

* The profit increase of 42 cents, on top of record profits last year, means California gasoline will cost consumers approximately $546 million more in April 2006 than in April of last year.

ACTIVE/NEGATIVE PRESIDENTS

Former White House counsel John Dean has an interesting article about the classes some presidential historians use to describe presidents. The worst class is the active/negative presidents. It's no surprise that George W. Bush belongs to that class. This article by John Dean is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

President George W. Bush's presidency is a disaster - one that's still unfolding. In a mid-2004 column, I argued that, at that point, Bush had already demonstrated that he possessed the least attractive and most troubling traits among those that political scientist James Dave Barber has cataloged in his study of Presidents' personality types.

Now, in early 2006, Bush has continued to sink lower in his public approval ratings, as the result of a series of events that have sapped the public of confidence in its President, and for which he is directly responsible. This Administration goes through scandals like a compulsive eater does candy bars; the wrapper is barely off one before we've moved on to another.

Currently, President Bush is busy reshuffling his staff to reinvigorate his presidency. But if Dr. Barber's work holds true for this president -- as it has for others - the hiring and firing of subordinates will not touch the core problems that have plagued Bush's tenure.

That is because the problems belong to the President - not his staff. And they are problems that go to character, not to strategy.

April 20, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


NO DOUBT -- WORST PRESIDENT EVER

I really didn't need a group of presidential historians to tell me the obvious, that George W. Bush is the worst president in our history. But historians do have a perspective that many of us don't have. They know far more about past presidents such as James Buchanan than I know, for instance. But the consequences of a really bad president are even worse now than in the time of James Buchanan. In a world bristling with nuclear weaponry, religious and sectarian divisions, economic injustice, and ecological calamity we need a brilliant president in touch with reality. George W. Bush is neither of those things. This article by Sean Wilentz is at www.rollingstone.com:

No previous president appears to have squandered the public's trust more than Bush has. In the 1840s, President James Polk gained a reputation for deviousness over his alleged manufacturing of the war with Mexico and his supposedly covert pro-slavery views. Abraham Lincoln, then an Illinois congressman, virtually labeled Polk a liar when he called him, from the floor of the House, "a bewildered, confounded and miserably perplexed man" and denounced the war as "from beginning to end, the sheerest deception." But the swift American victory in the war, Polk's decision to stick by his pledge to serve only one term and his sudden death shortly after leaving office spared him the ignominy over slavery that befell his successors in the 1850s. With more than two years to go in Bush's second term and no swift victory in sight, Bush's reputation will probably have no such reprieve.

IT'S ALWAYS CLINTON

One of my favorite scenes in the movie "Bull Durham" deals with a veteran pro baseball player played by Kevin Costner telling an up and coming pitcher that the pitcher needs to "learn his cliches." In essence, if you've heard one sports interview you've heard them all. It's pretty much the same with right wing letters to the editor. Any criticism of George W. Bush can be deflected by reverting back to Bill Clinton's fling with Monica. You know, Clinton lied, etc.

Today's conservative classic in The Fresno Bee asserts that letters critical of Bush, Cheney, and Torture Guy Alberto Gonzalez were "taken off the moveon.org website." The correspondent goes on to claim that no substantiation is provided for the lies of the Bushites.

Our writer has obviously heard of the Internet (the reference to moveon.org), but hasn't bothered to check out the mountain of evidence that Bush and company have lied about darned near everything. You could start with the books by former administration insiders Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke. You could check out the Downing Street Memos. You could follow the story of the Valerie Plame leak. But, of course, all of that is insignificant when compared to the story of Bill and Monica.

FASCISM IN AMERICA

Advocates of the "free market," who typically decry government regulation and oversight, never seem to notice that the "free market" really isn't all that free. A few big players always seem to wind up with the lion's share of the market. President Theodore Roosevelt talked about the "malefactors of great wealth" in his day. For a long time, government put a rein on big corporations and big money. But since the Reagan administration the reins have been loosened. It's disturbing to see an alliance between big business and the government. It means a concentration of wealth that endangers democracy, it means less consumer and worker protection regulation, and it means a government totally unresponsive to the needs of its citizens. This article by Gary Alan Scott is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:

The influence of Big Money on U.S. elections cannot be underestimated. (See, for example, Greg Palast’s “Jim Crow in Cyberspace” in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, the work on election fraud by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, and the recent articles by Warren Stewart “Do You Know How Your Vote Will be Counted?” and Fred Grimm “Election Official Hammered for Telling the Truth”. The problem with the role of money in a supposedly democratic country is not restricted to the many and all-too regular scandals—such as the Abramoff affair or the conviction of Randy “Duke” Cunningham—nor is the problem restricted to the corruption that has ensnared elected officials and exposed lobbyists as little more than bribes makers and bagmen. (See Geov Parrish, “That Old-Fashioned Corruption,” and Katrina vanden Heuvel’s, “Annals of Outrage I, II, and III) It is, rather, that money, as John McCain famously said, “is the mother’s milk of politics” (at least in the U.S. political system.) The need to raise money at every level, from city to state to federal offices, pollutes and perverts the democratic process.

April 19, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


ONE DISASTER AFTER ANOTHER

When you look back over the past five years you see just one Bush administration disaster after another. Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy have increased poverty rates and created record deficits. We are also at risk because of all the money we borrow from countries like China and Japan. Bush has ignored the reality of global climate change, possibly setting us back years in addressing a problem that is threatening all life on earth. Bush was totally irresponsible in failing to prevent the attacks on 9/11. Bush diverted resources that could have captured Osama bin Laden to attacking Iraq, a country that didn't threaten us. There are tremendous holes in our security, according to the report issued by the 9/11 Commission. This article by Robert Scheer is at www.commondreams.org:

Cozying up to the Shiite fundamentalists in Iraq is a bargain with the devil, born of weakness, the pattern for this president. To find another example, look no further than the source of Iran’s latest claimed breakthrough in the pursuit of weapons-grade uranium. Last week, Iran’s confrontational president disclosed that his regime is “presently conducting research” on P-2 centrifuge technology that would allow quicker uranium enrichment. Nuclear experts, according to the New York Times, fear this is a serious indication that Tehran, as long suspected, has obtained P-2 technology from Pakistan, thanks to the global black-market nukes operation run for years by Abdul Qadeer Khan, “the father” of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program. U.N. inspectors in Iran also found instructional bomb-making sketches thought to have been supplied by Khan, who is now under “a loose form of house arrest,” according to the Times.

The grim irony in all this is that Pakistan never has been held accountable by the United States for Khan’s black-market nuclear proliferation racket, even though such a bold scheme could not have thrived without significant support from Pakistan’s powerful military leaders. Of course, Khan, who was pardoned by Pakistan’s military dictator, doesn’t have to worry that Bush is going to order the CIA to spirit him to Guantanamo Bay for some rough Dick Cheney-approved interrogations. Pakistan, like Saudi Arabia, is a tight ally of the White House, despite having previously supported Bin Laden’s old Afghan friends, the Taliban. Indeed, the Bush administration was so eager to secure the friendship of Pakistan after the Sept. 11 attacks, it perversely ended the boycott imposed on that country in response to its development of a nuclear weapon.

TAX SYSTEM RIGGED AGAINST LITTLE GUY

Right-wingers will practically froth at the mouth when you talk about the tax system. They'll parrot someone like Rush Limbaugh about "punishing the achievers." An "achiever" is someone with a big bank account, no matter how it was acquired. They'll tell us that the very rich pay most of the income taxes. They don't mention that the very rich also have most of the income. Another tidbit that gets left out is how much of the wealth of the very rich is exempted from taxation, leaving the burden to be dumped on the middle class and the poor. This article by Randolph T. Holhut is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Twenty-five years of tax cutting and jiggling the federal tax code is the reason why. The 70 percent of Americans with taxable income under $50,000 a year have been paying more and more in taxes while the top 0.4 percent, those earning more than $500,000 per year, are paying less and less.

It wasn't always this way.

When the federal income tax law was enacted in 1913, the tax rate was set at 1 percent for income up to $20,000 to 7 percent on income above $500,000. It exempted the first $3,000 of income for single wage earners, $4,000 for a married couple. In today's dollars, that $4,000 exemption would be worth $76,000. Only 1 percent of Americans made enough money in 1913 to pay taxes.

OUR DEFICITS ARE PERILOUS

It's hard to imagine that when Bill Clinton left office we had projected surpluses. Since George W. Bush came on the scene, those surpluses have evaporated and we've become the biggest debtor nation in the world. We're continuing to function on borrowed money. Even worse, much of the borrowed money comes from people who don't like the United States very much. This article by Stephen Pizzo is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Question: What part of the world hates America the most right now?

Answer: The Arab world. Duh.

And guess which nations have the biggest account balances? Middle East, Arab, oil producers. In 2002 those oil exporting nations had $400 billion in loose change rattling around in their account balance, account. In 2005 that had grown to $700 billion... almost as much as we will have to borrow this year. And with $70 a barrel oil, you can bet that by the end of this year those little buggers will have shoved a trillion extra bucks into their account, much of it compliments of America's drivers.

(Factoid: Americans are spending $212 million a day more for gas than they did last year. A DAY!)

April 18, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


MAJOR ASSAULTS ON PRIVACY


I think privacy is important. I don't believe my life or anyone's life should be an open book. The only time privacy should be ceded is when there is some probable cause that can result in a warrant. The Founding Fathers could not have foreseen electronic surveillance, identity theft, camera phones, red light cameras, and all the rest. But they were concerned enough even then to write the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids government snooping without warrants. AT & T, according to some, has been helping the government illegally spy on its customers. The merging of big government and big business is a very dangerous trend. This editorial comes from The New York Times at www.nytimes.com:

A former AT&T employee has come forward with documents suggesting that there may be a lot more domestic spying going on than President Bush has admitted. The AT&T documents suggest that telephone companies may be helping the government engage in wholesale interception of telephone calls, e-mail messages and Web surfing. If AT&T is violating its customers' privacy rights, it should come clean, and stop immediately.

According to Mark Klein, a longtime AT&T technician who is now retired, AT&T maintained a room at its San Francisco Internet and telephone hub where its customers' data could be mined by keywords, e-mail addresses and other attributes. Mr. Klein says the National Security Agency was given access to the room and the data. He says other technicians have reported to him that similar rooms exist at other AT&T sites.

PEOPLE OF NON BELIEF

Recently, prominent fundamentalist Christians have made the insane argument that they're persecuted in the United States. This is in a country where 85% of the people claim a belief in Christianity. People of non-belief, atheists and agnostics, are far more discriminated against than anyone claiming to be Christian. When you look at world history and when you look at the current leadership in the United States, people like George W. Bush and Tom DeLay, how can you argue that an atheist or agnostic could be worse? This article by Robert Weitzel is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

A University of Minnesota study published in the April issue of the American Sociological Review found that atheists are America's most unaccepted minority, one that parents are least willing to allow their children to marry. A telephone survey of over 2000 households revealed that Americans ranked atheists last, after Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups, in "sharing their vision of American Society."

Penny Edgell, the study's lead researcher, said, "It seems most Americans believe that diversity is fine, so long as every one shares a common 'core' of values that make them trustworthy--and in America, that 'core' has historically been religious."

Recall that the core value shared by Bush, DeLay, and Frist is a religious one. Recall also their trustworthiness.

WEALTH = INFLUENCE

We live in a time when it takes millions of dollars to run for political office. That's true for Congressional races, for Senate races, and even for state and local offices in some cases. It's especially true for the presidency. There is compelling evidence that money buys access and subverts democracy. This article by Bradford Plumer is at www.motherjones.com:

How pronounced is inequality in America? Between 1979 and 2003, the income of the richest 1 percent of Americans more than doubled, the income of the middle 15 percent grew by only 15 percent, and the income of the poorest 20 percent barely budged, according to CBO data. By the late 1990s, the richest one percent of Americans households had a third of all wealth in the economy, and took in 60 percent of the country's income—a greater share than at any point since the Great Depression. Incomes in the United States are far more unequal than in other industrialized countries, while mobility, contrary to widespread myth, is hardly much better—if you are born poor in America, you are very likely to stay that way your entire life.

In politics, this all matters very much, as the APSA findings reveal. Larry Bartels of Princeton has studied the voting record of the Senate between 1989 and 1994—a time, note, when Democrats controlled Congress. He found that Senators were very responsive to the preferences of the upper third of the income spectrum, somewhat less attentive to the middle third, and completely ignored the policy preferences of the poorest third of Americans. In one striking example, Bartels discovered that Senators were only likely to vote for a minimum wage increase if and when their wealthier constituents favored it—the views of those directly affected by the hike had "no discernible impact."

April 17, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT CASH COW

Conservatives who have snarled about "big government" and welfare don't seem to get very agitated about the vast corruption in the defense industry. We saw ample evidence of that during the Reagan administration and we're seeing even more of it during the reign of King George. We've been sent into unnecessary wars, which are themselves a major benefit to defense contractors. We've seen billions wasted on "Star Wars." This story shows that defense contractors get rewarded even when projects are failures. This story by Charles R. Babcock is at www.washingtonpost.com:

In late February 2004, the Army announced that it was canceling plans to build a radar-evading helicopter called the Comanche, a project that was nearly three years behind schedule and more than $3.5 billion over budget. Those problems, however, didn't stop an Army panel a few weeks later from granting the Boeing Co.-Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. partnership running the program a $33.9 million "award fee" for their work on the helicopter, part of more than $200 million in such fees paid to the partnership over four years.

Award fees are meant in theory to motivate defense contractors with extra money for performance. But a recent Government Accountability Office study found that the fees are often paid regardless of whether a project is on schedule and within its budget.

TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH ARE KILLING THE ECONOMY

It's time for Americans to grow up on issues like taxes. We have to stop buying into fantasies peddled by right-wingers like George W. Bush, fantasies such as cutting taxes for the rich will produce paradise for the rest of us. We got our introduction to "trickle down" economics during the Reagan years. We got record deficits, but not much in the way of good jobs or benefits for the rest of us. We're getting the same old snake oil from Bush, and we're seeing the same dismal results. This article by Holly Sklar is at www.commondreams.org:

Tax cuts are boosting the superrich and sales of "giga-yachts" longer than football fields, but they aren't boosting the economy. The current economic recovery has had weaker growth in employment, wage and salary, gross domestic product, consumption and investment than the typical post-World War II recovery.

Taxes are our dues for democracy. Taxes are how we pool our money for public health and safety, infrastructure, research and services -- from the development of vaccines and the Internet to public schools and universities, transportation, courts, police, parks and safe drinking water.

Without fair and adequate taxes, we cannot repair the public infrastructure inherited from past generations or meet the challenge of global warming. We cannot invest in the research and education vital for future progress.

Tax forms should come with a warning: Tax cuts for the rich are hazardous to the nation's health, economy and security.

THE DRUG BUSINESS IN AFGHANISTAN

The Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says, "there's nothing new under the sun." It seems to be that way in Afghanistan, which has long been a major source of heroin. Farmers in Afghanistan grow opium poppies, which provide the raw material for heroin. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan hasn't slowed the heroin production. Major drug kingpins are doing just fine, according to this story. The story by Declan Walsh is at www.sfgate.com:

Another bumper drug harvest is expected in Afghanistan, and kingpins who control the $2.7 billion trade appear as untouchable as ever. Afghan poppy-eradication workers for DynCorp International, a Texas company that got a $174 million-a-year contract from the U.S. State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, are chopping down poppy crops. But targeting unarmed and penniless poppy farmers is easy; rounding up those at the pinnacle of the drug trade business is much harder.

Afghanistan's top drug smugglers have been spectacularly successful at evading Western and Afghan law enforcement. Although Western drugs experts estimate there are several dozen major traffickers, just two have been arrested since the Western-funded war on drugs started four years ago -- Haji Baz Muhammad, who was extradited to the United States in October, and Bashir Noorzai, arrested on arrival in New York last April.

April 16, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


RAISING THE MINIMUM WAGE

Right-wingers will often cry crocodile tears over the horrible effects of raising the minimum wage. "It's a job killer," they'll wail, or they'll claim it just kills small business. The evidence is that raising the minimum wage is beneficial to the economy. That's not to mention the moral implications of the minimum wage. People who work full time should not live below the poverty line. When the federal minimum wage is adjusted for inflation, it's at a 50 year low. This article by Froma Harrop is at www.tompaine.com:

The cheap-labor people, led by chambers of commerce everywhere, never admit that their motive is to beat down the wages of their lowest-paid workers. Their voices drip with concern as they warn that any increase in the minimum will cost the jobs of the most vulnerable, especially black, workers.

Those arguments happen to not be true. Reputable economists say that a reasonable hike in the minimum wage does not seem to job losses: It may even make businesses healthier.

A recent study by the Fiscal Policy Institute in New York confirms this view. It found that small businesses actually grew faster in states that kept their minimum wages above the federal level. From 1998 to 2003, job growth for small businesses in states with higher minimum wages was 6.7 percent, versus 5.3 percent in states stuck at $5.15 an hour.

THEOCRACY IN AMERICA

If you want to talk dictators, can you think of anyone worse than religious zealots? In human history some of the most repressive rulers have been devotees of one religion or another. Many ancient peoples sacrificed people to their gods. Women have historically been repressed. People of the wrong color have been enslaved. People have been made to feel they're worthless because of some supposed sin committed against their deity. Progress has been hindered because of superstition. Since George W. Bush stole his way into the White House, we've seen the destructive effects of religious repression in the United States. Kevin Phillips writes about it in this article at www.thenation.com:

As several chapters in American Theocracy make clear, this kind of religious excess has been a problem--indeed, a repeating Achilles' heel--of leading powers from late-stage Rome (historian Gibbon thus explained Roman decline and fall) to the militant Catholicism of Habsburg Spain and most recently the evangelical and moral imperialist Britain that saw 1914 as something of an Armageddon against the German Kaiser's Antichrist and wound up in 1917-18 crusading in the Middle East to liberate Jerusalem. But although this facet of historical decline constitutes a major caution regarding the future of the United States, this essay will concentrate on the domestic political aspects--the theocratic tendencies in the GOP and the notable "religification" of American politics across a spectrum from life and death to science and medicine to climate change and biblical creationism.

AL QAEDA THREAT OVERBLOWN

From the rhetoric of Tony Blair and George W. Bush you'd think that Al Qaeda was the equivalent of the Martians in "The War of the Worlds." We've heard solemn declarations that we're in a world war, that the terrorists who attacked on 9/11 are determined to bring down Western civilization. The Al Qaeda band is essentially a group of outlaws who are religious fanatics. They should have been treated as criminals and not elevated to the level of a Hitler. This article by Tom Porteous is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

We now know that Al Qaeda had nothing to do with the London bombings in July 2005. This is the conclusion of the British government's official inquiry report leaked to the British press on April 9.

We now also know that the U.S. military is deliberately misleading Iraqis, Americans and the rest of the world about the extent of Al Qaeda's involvement in the Iraqi insurgency. This was reported in The Washington Post on April 10, on the basis of internal military documents seen by that newspaper.

What do these revelations tell us about the arguments of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Blair that in Al Qaeda the "Free World" faces a threat comparable to that of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, a world-wide terrorist network which seeks to build a radical Islamist empire over half the world?

That they are threadbare, to say the least. But also that they are cynical, misleading and self serving.

April 13, 2006

IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


RUDY IS NO HERO

I have to admit that for a while I thought former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani performed admirably after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. He was there bold and resilient while George W. Bush was headed west away from danger.

But a new documentary takes off Rudy's halo. He's a guy who lived openly in the mayor's mansion with his mistress, presided over a brutal and racist police department, and conducted a war on the homeless. This article by Patrick Healy is at www.nytimes.com:

Throughout the film, the Giuliani administration is rendered as a heartless and heavy-handed police state that mistreated minorities, the poor and sick, artists, people on welfare and victims of crime. The title, "Giuliani Time," is a phrase that Abner Louima initially said was uttered by a police officer involved in his beating and sodomizing in 1997 but which Mr. Louima later retracted.

The film also includes anti-Giuliani commentary by two onetime city officials with whom he clashed: William J. Bratton, the former police commissioner, and Rudy Crew, the former schools chancellor. At one point, Mr. Crew describes a voucher program supported by Mr. Giuliani as "racist" and "class biased."

GREAT ECONOMY? HA!

It's really nausea-inducing to hear George W. Bush and his supporters claim that we have a great economy. To add insult to injury, they claim our "great" economy is due to Bush's tax cuts for the rich. As one as who has been down-sized twice in four years, I'm seeing my standard of living sinking quickly, just like millions of other Americans. Millions more of are living in poverty thanks to the ruthless and greedy economic policies of this administration. This article by Ted Rall is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Current Republican Party talking points focus on three mantras. First, there are lots of new jobs. Second, unemployment is low. Third, more people own homes than ever before. And it's all thanks to George W. Bush's cuts in the income and estate taxes, which stimulated the economy by freeing up additional capital for investment in jobs and new ventures. Things couldn't be better, they claim, but the liberal media refuses to give Bush the credit that he's due.

The trouble for Republicans is that the American people believe they're still in a recession. A new poll by the American Research Group finds that a whopping 58 percent of voters disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy while only 36 percent approve. (The figures are virtually identical to those for his overall job approval rating, which lists 57 percent disapproval and 37 percent approval.)

April 12, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


ABSOLUTELY NO DEFENSE FOR BUSH

George W. Bush is the worst president in U.S. history and no one else is even close. It's astonishing that Bush has made a mess of so many things in five years. It's not just the incompetence; it's the absolute lack of honesty or ethics. This administration lies, steals, and smears to get its way. Bush's defenders can only hurl some charge against Bill Clinton. I didn't support several of Clinton's policies, such as NAFTA, but Clinton has more integrity in his little finger than Bush has in his whole family. This item comes from www.tahlequahdailypress.com:

The usual response from Bush fans, when asked such impertinent questions about their fearless leader, is to fire another accusatory salvo at his predecessor, whose peccadilloes are not only irrelevant to the situation at hand, but pale by comparison.

Bush’s “political missteps,” on the other hand, would fill several pages, even with small type. The senior citizens are having trouble with his Medicare program, and his fence-straddling on the immigration issue is ripping his own party apart. The cronies he empowered within FEMA dropped the ball in spectacular fashion when Hurricane Katrina roared through, and the fallout on that fiasco continues. The violence goes on unabated in Iraq, and Afghanistan is lurching toward a theocracy that Western states will ultimately find as unpalatable as Iran’s government. The national deficit has ballooned to incomprehensible levels, and the wages of the average Joe are stagnant. Philosophically, Americans are polarized, and not only do our fellow countrymen from the opposing party dislike us, but the rest of the world does, too.

WEAPONS LABS ALSO A LIE

After receiving information that Iraq did not have mobile weapons labs, George W. Bush publicly made that claim. It's yet another bald-faced lie. How many innocent people have died and will die because of this monster's lies? This story from Reuters is linked at www.commondreams.org:

The Bush administration publicly asserted that two trailers captured by U.S. troops in Iraq in May 2003 were mobile "biological laboratories" even after U.S. intelligence officials had evidence that it was not true, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

On May 29, 2003, President George W. Bush hailed the capture of the trailers, declaring "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

But a Pentagon-sponsored fact-finding mission had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons, the Post reported, citing government officials and weapons experts who participated in the secret mission or had direct knowledge of it.

The Post said the group's unanimous findings had been sent to the Pentagon in a field report, two days before the president's statement.

HE'S EVEN A LOUSY CEO

For people who bought into George Bush's image, there are two important facets. The first facet is that he is supposedly a Christian. The second facet is that he would run the government like a business as the first CEO President. He has been a disaster on both counts. Christians don't lie, don't enrich the very wealthy at the expense of everyone else, don't start wars that kill innocent people, and don't try to destroy their political opponents. As a CEO, Bush had a lousy business record before he became Governor of Texas. That pattern has persisted into the White House. This commentary by Bob Burnett is at www.commondreams.org:

Whether the President actually is a Christian is controversial. Where I live, we judge people by what they do, rather than what they say. Judged by this conduct, Bush certainly isn't like the Christians I know. Whether they are "big C," bible-thumping, go to church several times a week Christians, or "little C," go to church on Easter, and think "Jesus was a good guy" Christians, they all believe in ethics like telling the truth and, at least once in a while, admitting a mistake. But there are a bunch of American Christians that believe the end of the world is coming soon, right after Bill O'Reilly goes off the air. Apparently, they are the same Christians who have absolute confidence in Dubya; that chant, "He's doin' a heckuva job."

The ones I can't understand are the non-Christian, conservative Republicans who pledge allegiance to Bush as their CEO. I must be missing something, because I keep expecting them to have more sense.

April 11, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


MORE ON TEMP WORLD

Another miserable day in temp world. This time it was with a company called Inland Star. They're a big trucking company in Fresno and apparently planning to open some offices on the East Coast.

You have to check in at the "will call" office and get a visitor's badge. The security has to be fairly good because they apparently have explosive chemicals on the premises. I was told some chemicals they handle can't vary more than five degrees, or there will be an explosion.

In my short stay there I saw mostly orders for Sam's Club. The orders were for chemicals for swimming pools. I'm not sure what the great need is for swimming pool chemicals that can be toxic, but they apparently get shipped with regularity.

I learned about something called Chemtrec. It's an organization of chemists who advise fire departments and emergency personnel if there is a chemical spill. Isn't it nice to know that trucks and trains are carrying this deadly stuff?

It was another of those jobs where you're supposed to learn the job immediately. They have a series of screens that lead eventually to printing bills of lading, a "pick" sheet for the warehouse, and shipping labels.

It's what I would describe as an ugly office. Not a job I would recommend for anyone in temp world.

FITZGERALD: ADMINISTRATION SMEARING WILSON

The Bush administration has systematically smeared its critics, used bullying tactics, and outright lies to advance its agenda. We remember the "riot" in Florida during the disputed 2000 presidential election when several "rioters" turned out to be prominent Republicans. We remember the smearing of people like Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke when they revealed the administration's determination to launch a war against Iraq. We remember smears of Senator John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election when aspersions were cast on Kerry's Vietnam war service. And now the smearing of Ambassador Joe Wilson and the outing of his wife as a CIA operative is more proof of the administration's tactics. Bush and his operatives have engaged in loathsome behavior and they have endangered national security for their own purposes. This article by David E. Sanger and David Johnston is at www.nytimes.com:

Mr. Fitzgerald's filing talks not of an effort to level with Americans but of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." It concludes, "It is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish Wilson.' "

With more filings expected from Mr. Fitzgerald, the prosecutor's work has the potential to keep the focus on Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney at a time when the president is struggling with his lowest approval ratings since he took office.

HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE

After Richard Nixon resigned the presidency in 1974 the new president, Gerald Ford, issued a pardon for Nixon. Ford was held accountable in the 1976 presidential election when he lost to Jimmy Carter. But we've had a way since then of letting Republicans slide when they betray their public trust. The Reagan administration was not held to account for the Iran-Contra scandal. George H. W. Bush was able to pardon several criminals in his administration before they could be brought to justice. For the sake of history and decency we need to hold the current Bush administration and this Republican Congress accountable for countless crimes against the Constitution, the American people, and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. This item comes from digby at digbysblog.blogspot.com:

Get ready to hear a lot of this whining now that the Republicans may be at the end of their looting spree. They made their money, got their judges, their tax cuts and their wars. Now it's time to put the past behind us and make nice nice. We're supposed to end to all this nastiness and forgive and forget. For the good of the country, of course.

I have written this before, and I'm sure everyone is tired of reading it, but the Republicans must be held accountable for their actions or they will come back like the undead and do this again. We failed as a country to properly discipline this corrupt rogue faction when they tried this executive power grab in the 70's and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and others came back to try it again. We need to drive a figurative stake through the heart of this pernicious philosophy.

April 10, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE TREASON GENE

When you look at the rather sordid history of the Bush family in the 20th century and how they've made their millions by betraying the interests of Americans you almost have to wonder if there is a treason gene. Prescott Bush was a financier to Adolf Hitler. George H. W. Bush was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal, subverting the law and the Constitution. His sire, the current president, has admitted outing the name of a CIA operative and trashing the Bill of Rights. This commentary by Tony Hendra is at www.huffingtonpost.com:

Prescott Bush (Senator (R) Conn. 1952-1963)

Like many US and UK bankers, Prescott Sheldon Bush, patriarch of the Bush clan, and partner in Brown Brothers Harriman, self-described as 'the world's largest private bank', grew rich in the 1930s, profiteering from Hitler's rise. His closest contact inside the Nazi war-machine was one Fritz Thyssen director (and scion) of a coal-and-steel empire central to the rearmament of Germany.

WHAT'S THE STORY WITH JEFF GANNON?

Some time back we learned about a fake journalist inhabiting the White House press corps. The "journalist," a guy named Jeff Gannon, is a male escort, but he appeared to have a function at White House press conferences; namely, to throw softball questions favorable to the administration to Press Secretary Scott McClellan. Secret Service logs shows lots of visits by Jeff Gannon to the White House. It's interesting that this White House, which has so inflamed tensions against gay people, has allowed such access to Gannon. This story by Jeff Byrne is at www.rawstory.com:

In what is unlikely to stem the controversy surrounding disgraced White House correspondent James Guckert, the Secret Service has furnished logs of the writer’s access to the White House after requests by two Democratic congressmembers.

The documents, obtained by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) through a Freedom of Information Act request, reveal Guckert had remarkable access to the White House. Though he wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, the records show that he applied with his real name.

April 9, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


INCONVENIENT SCIENCE

Down through the ages science and religion have frequently clashed, and science invariably comes out on top. There was an episode of "Star Trek" where Mr. Spock spoke of trying to work with stone knives and bear skins. That's the crux of much religious belief. There was a mini-scandal in Waco, Texas, when a lecturer told an audience that the moon reflects light, but doesn't create light of its own. That offended some religious people, who chose to interpret Genesis 1:16 as saying that the moon is a light creator. This item comes from www.sploid.com:

Bill Nye, the harmless children's edu-tainer known as "The Science Guy," managed to offend a select group of idiot adults in Waco when he suggested that the moon does not emit light.

As even most elementary-school graduates know, the moon reflects the light of the sun but produces no light of its own.

But don't tell that to the good people of Waco, who were "visibly angered by what some perceived as irreverence," according to the Waco Tribune.

BUSH'S AVALANCHE OF LIES

As if telling "Scooter" Libby to leak Valerie Plame's name wasn't bad enough, we learn now that many senior administration officials didn't believe that Saddam Hussein was acquiring nuclear weapons. But Bush was hellbent on war and he had a media ready, willing, and able to cheerlead the war. Now we have tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed and maimed, we have thousands of U.S. military killed and maimed, and we have spent billions of dollars on this hideous war. The war profiteers have done nicely, though. This story by DAVID E. SANGER and DAVID BARSTOW is at www.nytimes.com:

President Bush's apparent order authorizing a senior White House official to reveal to a reporter previously classified intelligence about Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain uranium came as the information was already being discredited by several other officials in the administration, interviews and documents from the time show.

A review of the records and interviews conducted during and after the crucial period in June and July of 2003 also show that what the aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., said he was authorized to portray as a "key judgment" by intelligence officers had in fact been given much less prominence in the most important assessment of Iraq's weapons capability.

SCRAP THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE

Elites are often afraid of the "rabble," which is part of the reason the Founding Fathers created the Electoral College to elect the President of the United States. When we vote in a presidential election we're actually voting for "electors" who will then cast their votes in the Electoral College for president. The big problem with the Electoral College is that it allows the guy with less votes to win the election. We saw that occur in the 2000 presidential election, and we've been suffering the bad karma ever since. In this column Jonathan Chait talks about a way we can get around the very difficult process of amending the Constitution, and elect the president by popular vote the way we should. This column is at www.latimes.com:

IMAGINE THAT the Constitution devised by the founders decreed that the presidency went to the winner of the popular vote. Now imagine that some reformers came along and proposed to scrap the popular vote and replace it with a convoluted process involving an electoral college that, among other bizarre flaws, gave the citizens of some states far more voting power than others and allowed for the candidate who didn't get the most votes to win the presidency. Would anybody take them seriously? No, they'd be laughed out of the room.

With the passage of time, the loopiest ideas can obtain the veneer of plausibility, even wisdom. No sane person would choose the electoral college if we were devising the system from scratch today. The main reason we still have it is that we would need a constitutional amendment to elect our presidents by popular vote, and passing such an amendment would be nearly impossible.

April 8, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


AMY GOODMAN VS. KATIE COURIC

The corporate media were abuzz this week with the news that “Today Show” personality Katie Couric was shuffling over to CBS to anchor the “CBS Evening News.” Katie Couric has long been a bubbly, perky personality on “Today,” doing the kind of vapid, fawning interviews with celebrities and politicians that is supposed to pass for news, but is really more fit for tabloids. Amy Goodman, on the other hand, has hosted “Democracy Now,” which does stories of real import. Goodman gets nowhere near the attention of Couric, which shows just how debased television “news” has become. This story by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman is at www.commondreams.org :

We haven't done the poll, but our guess is that most Americans recognize the name Katie Couric.

And they wouldn't know Amy Goodman from a hole in the wall.

NBC Today Show co-anchor Katie Couric said this morning that she is leaving the show to become the anchor for the CBS Evening News.

Amy Goodman is the anchor of the award winning one-hour television and radio news program, Democracy Now.

THE WAL-MART MONSTER

I'm beginning to think that one thing that shows us who the bad guys are is who can hire big public relations firms. Public relations were born back around the beginning of the 20th century when muckraking journalists like Upton Sinclair and Ida Tarbell began exposing the sins of the big and powerful. The counterattack by the big and powerful was to to put out a positive message about their nefarious dealings. With the growth of big media and the access to the media by the big and powerful the influence of public relations has only grown. Wal-Mart has consistently destroyed small businesses, paid lousy wages to its employees, dumped health care costs for its employees onto taxpayers, and intimidated its vendors. But from the commercials you'd think Wal-Mart was like something out of Norman Rockwell. This editorial comes from The Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com :

Tired of being blamed for the destruction of small-town businesses, pilloried for underpaying workers, and run out of cities such as Inglewood when it tries to open urban stores, Wal-Mart, an erstwhile family business started by Sam Walton in 1962, has launched a campaign to convince mom-and-pop stores that it's their friend. Really.

Wal-Mart has pledged to donate $500,000 to local chambers of commerce in 10 urban "zones," the first in Chicago. The company has hired local minority firms to help build its new stores, and it says it also will offer bonus goodies for mom-and-pops, such as free in-store advertising, opportunities to become suppliers and advice from consultants on "how to thrive with a Wal-Mart in their community."

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION BENEFITS SOME

Republicans are the wedge issue party. Their strategy is to divide and conquer. Bamboozle people into voting against their own self interest by calling something “socialist” or hoodwink working people into hating unions or use code words like “big government” and some people fall into line like little lemmings. We've see wedge issues like flag burning, gay rights, school prayer, and abortion consistently employed by Republicans. Another potent wedge issue is race and ethnicity. We've seen welfare used as a hammer against African-Americans, for example, and now we're seeing illegal immigrants, mostly from Mexican, made the scapegoats for the current election season. As this article points out, a few simple steps by the government could address many of the problems with illegal immigration, but illegal immigrants are beneficial to many of the rich and powerful in this country. This article by Cynthia Tucker is at www.smirkingchimp.com

To understand the inherent and willful contradictions in the laws that govern workers and their legal status, consider this: The Social Security Administration is able to identify companies that routinely employ large numbers of workers using fake numbers. But by law, Social Security is forbidden from forwarding the names of those companies to Homeland Security. That law could be changed in a heartbeat, but Congress hasn't done it.

Congress could also appropriate money for a nationwide computer system that would allow all employers to get instant verification of a worker's Social Security number and then require all employers to use it. If Bloomingdale's can give me approval for a credit card in three minutes — while I'm still trying samples at the perfume counter — then the feds can create a system for instantaneous verification. Congress hasn't set aside money for that, either.

April 7, 2006

IMPEACH BUSH

IMPEACH CHENEY

BRAINWASHED AMERICAN WORKERS

I've never understood why so many working class people will vote for Republicans or voice antipathy toward unions. You'll hear working class people even rail against the progressive income tax, or suggest that a minimum wage is a bad thing. As this article points out, though, we get barraged with propaganda from a variety of right-wing sources, including the media and right-wing think tanks, that inculcates the belief that what is best for us is what is best for the very rich. This article by Don Monkerud is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Americans spout the anti-government beliefs fed to them by hundreds of think tanks supported by the richest of the rich, corporations seeking to avoid government regulation and taxes, churches seeking a return to the Dark Ages, and other right-wing forces that promote agendas to control the country. Every week they release hundreds of op-eds, reports, TV shows, commentaries and well-honed arguments to convince people to identify themselves as independent, laissez faire individualists who oppose any government program to regulate workers trading their time for a paycheck.

It's a wonder that American workers support the 18th century robber baron agenda of the Republican Party, a party that constantly votes against their interests: tax cuts for the rich; judges who support monopolies and almost always rule in favor of corporations; destruction of the environment; deregulation of rules that protect consumers and workers; support for an avaricious military-industrial-pharmaceutical complex; rampant business and Congressional corruption; and a Congress that refuses to raise the minimum wage, while raising its own pay seven times in eight years.

INTENTIONALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL

When you examine the horrid presidency of George W. Bush you have to ask the question, like this author, is Bush is deliberately pushing the envelope in an attempt to be impeached. The list of high crimes and misdemeanors is growing daily and getting more serious. Nothing could be more serious, of course, than lying the country into a war, but the assaults on civil liberties, deliberately outing a CIA agent, ignoring the impact of global climate change, wrecking the economy, and making us beholden to foreign investors such as the Chinese suggest a supreme arrogance or a desire to bring everything crashing down. This article by Cenk Uygur is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

My theory is that President Bush is trying to get impeached. He's tired and he just wants to go home. His bed in Crawford seems so enticing now. All this presidenting has worn him out.

After Katrina he hasn't even been able to take his signature five week vacations. So, he's subconsciously trying to get kicked out of school so he doesn't have to do the homework anymore.

Why else would you break so many laws?

Even if he thought he could get away with a couple of illegal or grossly incompetent acts -- with the Republican Guard protecting him at all times in Congress and a press that had slipped into a Fox induced coma -- he couldn't possibly think he could get away with all this.

April 06, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


ANOTHER BOMBSHELL SCANDAL

The outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name in a newspaper column by right-winger Robert Novak compromised an operation gathering intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. "Scooter" Libby has been indicted in connection with the leak, and it appears that Scooter got his authorization from George W. Bush. The outing of Valerie Plame's name was in retaliation for the outspokenness of Ambassador Joe Wilson, who said that administration claims that Iraq was purchasing yellowcake uranium in Niger were bogus. The list of major scandals in this administration is growing exponentially. It's time for Bush, Cheney, and this administration to be peacefully and lawfully removed from office. This article by the Associated Press is at www.nytimes.com:

President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney authorized Cheney's top aide to launch a counterattack of leaks against administration critics on Iraq by feeding intelligence information to reporters, according to court papers citing the aide's testimony in the CIA leak case.

In a court filing, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald stopped short of accusing Cheney of authorizing his chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, to leak the CIA identity of Valerie Plame.

But the prosecutor, detailing the evidence he has gathered, raised the possibility that the vice president was trying to use Plame's CIA employment to discredit her husband, administration critic Joseph Wilson. Cheney, according to an indictment against Libby, knew that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA as early as June 12, 2003, more than a month before that fact turned up in a column by Robert Novak.

RECORD INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS

The way the system is rigged these days insurance companies and credit card companies would probably make a profit during the Seven Plagues of Egypt. Despite disasters like Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies enjoyed record profits last year. We know that oil companies also have reaped record profits. Who's not getting ahead? The middle class and the working poor. This article by Peter G. Gosselin is at www.latimes.com:

The companies that provide Americans with their homeowners and auto insurance made a record $44.8-billion profit last year even after accounting for the claims of policyholders wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and the other big storms of 2005, according to the firms' filings with state regulators.

Top executives described the profit — an 18.7% increase over the previous year — as a fluke, the product of gains in other lines of insurance besides homeowners and a very good year for their investments.

April 04, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


AT ECONOMIC GROUND ZERO

It's really amazing that some media pundits trumpet the growth of the economy and are puzzled that most Americans don't believe the economy is doing well. Some pundits, such as George Will, even blame the media for the perception of a lousy economy, even though most of the media are fully on board with the Bush administration's claims that the economy is doing well. You wish these ivory tower elitists had to come down to where most of us reside to deal with the falling incomes, the rising health care costs, the soaring energy costs, and the unemployment rate that is far higher than stated in official statistics. This story by Janine Jackson is at www.fair.org:

The Bush administration made a concerted effort to trumpet a “booming” U.S. economy in early December, widely understood as an attempt to reverse what polls indicate to be the public’s largely negative views on the matter.

There are, of course, obvious reasons the majority of Americans dissent from the White House’s rosy presentation of the economy: Most American households are not, in fact, seeing their economic fortunes improve. GDP is up, but virtually all the growth has gone into corporate profits and the incomes of the highest economic brackets. Wages and incomes for average workers, adjusted for inflation, are down in recent years; the median income for non-elderly households is down 4.8 percent since 2000 (Economic Policy Institute, 8/31/05). The poverty rate is rising, as is the number of people in debt.

TOMATO PICKERS AND MCDONALD'S

Pressure from Florida tomato pickers on Taco Bell finally forced the company to pay more for tomatoes and give the farm workers a much deserved raise. Now similar pressure is being applied to McDonald's. Back in the 1950s Edward R. Murrow did a documentary called "Harvest of Shame" about the abysmal conditions endured by migrant farm workers. Things haven't changed much in the intervening decades. Instead of telling us about the "great" economy, why doesn't the media concentrate on people like migrant farm workers, ordinary people whose wages are getting slashed, and the very hard and rocky road most working people are facing these days? This article by Abid Aslam is at www.commondreams.org:

Florida tomato pickers converged on McDonald's Corp.'s flagship Chicago restaurant over the weekend to protest poor working conditions and wages they say have stagnated for 30 years.

The farm hands, members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, want a penny-per-pound pay raise from their employers, growers based in and around Immokalee, Florida. And they want Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's to finance the wage hike by paying more for their tomatoes. The company said it is studying the issue.

April 03, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


NEW MOVIE ABOUT 9/11

A new movie called "Flight 93" deals with the plane that was hijacked by terrorists on 9/11 and crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers and crew fought back. I saw the trailer on Saturday when I went to see another movie. Anyone who has ever flown can readily identify with the images. You see people moving through the airport towing their baggage. You hear the pilot telling the passengers that there will be a slight delay because of the heavy traffic that morning. You hear the pilot telling the flight attendants to prepare for takeoff. But you're all too aware that this flight and its passengers are doomed. I don't think I could handle this movie emotionally right now after losing my brother this past December. But I think it's an important statement about what happened on that terrible day. This article by Sean Smith and Jac Chebatoris is at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12112802/site/newsweek

If movie trailers are supposed to cause a reaction, the preview for "United 93" more than succeeds. Featuring no voice-over and no famous actors, it begins with images of a beautiful morning and passengers boarding an airplane. It takes you a minute to realize what the movie's even about. That's when a plane hits the World Trade Center. The effect is visceral. When the trailer played before "Inside Man" last week at the famed Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, audience members began calling out, "Too soon!" In New York City, where 9/11 remains an open wound, the response was even more dramatic. The AMC Loews theater on Manhattan's Upper West Side took the rare step of pulling the trailer from its screens after several complaints. "One lady was crying," says one of the theater's managers, Kevin Adjodha. "She was saying we shouldn't have [played the trailer]. That this was wrong ... I don't think people are ready for this."

THE FINANCIAL RATHOLE IN IRAQ

Billions of dollars have been poured down the rathole in Iraq. Billions of dollars are unaccounted for. Members of the military have dealt with insufficient supplies, no body armor, unarmored vehicles, lousy food, and other issues. Where is all the money going? One place it's going is to private contractors who fail to live up to their contractual agreements. This article by Ellen Knickmeyer is at www.washingtonpost.com:

A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says.

The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis.

IT'S ABOUT EXPLOITATION

People who want to justify illegal immigration often use the argument that illegal immigrants do work that Americans won't do. One way to cure that problem would be to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Many jobs that go begging go begging because they don't pay enough for Americans to live on. It's a disgrace that the federal minimum wage has been locked at $5.15 an hour for years. Contrary to the propaganda, it's not only students and kids who work for minimum wage. On the other hand, illegal aliens get exploited because they get paid substandard wages with no benefits, and they face the constant threat of being deported. This article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

The young black in Los Angeles and other cities that anti-illegal immigration opponents cite as proof that illegal immigration is ruinous for the economy and the urban poor may or may not have lost out in his job hunt to an illegal immigrant. But he also might have lost out in his job search because of discrimination, poor education, government budget slashes and the flight of manufacturers to other countries. That is no excuse not to ensure that American workers have the right to work in any and all industries. That would do much to calm the fury of many Americans who worry that illegal immigration sledgehammers at least some American workers. Congress and the Bush Administration must not ignore that worry.

April 02, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


MISSILE DEFENSE A MASSIVE BOONDOGGLE

The idea of a missile defense system that could intercept and destroy hostile missiles directed against the United States emerged somewhere from the consciousness of Ronald Reagan, and since then we've spent billions trying to make it work. The problem is that it just isn't feasible. The science shows it doesn't work, but science is never an obstacle to the Bush administration. They deny the science that supports the reality of global warming, they deny the science that supports evolutionary theory, and now they deny the science that doesn't fit with their idea of Star Wars. This story by William J. Broad is at www.nytimes.com:

A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.

The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his "great care" and "tremendous skill and patience."

MILITARIZING NATURE

The big thinkers in the Pentagon are working on an idea to make insects a weapon. They are also talking about sharks. If we could only concentrate on finding ways to work toward peace. Maybe the big thinkers should try that. This article by Lynda Hurst is at www.commondreams.org:

DARPA's current big idea is to implant tiny microsystems into insects at the pupa stage of their development, when they can be "integrated" into their internal organs.

A step or three later, they could be turned into miniature unmanned vehicles for use on military missions "requiring unobtrusive entry into areas inaccessible or hostile to humans." Osama Bin Laden's cave, say.

But first things first.

In its call for proposals from university researchers and private firms last month, DARPA said the immediate goal is "the controlled arrival of an insect within five metres of a specified target located 100 metres away. It must then remain stationary indefinitely, unless otherwise instructed ... to transmit data to sensors providing information about the local environment."

Dragonflies and moths are "of great interest," but "hopping and swimming insects could also meet final demonstration goals."

WAGES GOING DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

It takes an incredible amount of gall for George W. Bush and his supporters to claim there is a robust economy and that his tax cuts for the rich are working. They're working for the rich and no one else. I personally have been laid off twice during the Bush years. My income is well below what it would have been if I had stayed at the level I was at in 2000 and gotten normal raises. We're seeing health care and energy costs soar, so our standard of living is quickly sliding downhill. This story by Dave Zweifel is at www.commondreams.org:

You probably saw the story the other day that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that real wages in 2005 had dropped 0.9 percent from the year before.

That was big news because in 2004 overall real wages were flat. For the first time as long as wage records have been kept, American workers' income had not increased in two straight years.

There was other disturbing economic news that came at about the same time but didn't get as much publicity.

For instance, the Federal Reserve not so surprisingly found that "growing numbers of American households face mounting debt and financial instability."

April 01, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THOMAS JEFFERSON ON RELIGION

There are a few mantras you hear repeatedly from right-wingers. You hear about the "liberal media" or "political correctness" or the truly astonishing claim that we're a "Christian nation" and that the Founding Fathers based the Constitution on Judeo-Christian beliefs. Even though he wasn't a part of the Constitutional Convention, there was probably no more important Founding Father than Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson took a jaundiced eye toward the religious fundamentalists of his day. He was so skeptical of accounts of miracles in the Bible that he produced an edited Bible called "The Jefferson Bible." This item by Morbo is at www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com:

In a remarkable 1819 letter to William Short, Jefferson discoursed at length upon the dogma of conventional Christianity. In this letter, Jefferson lists specifically what he does not accept from that faith. He called these features "artificial systems, invented by ultra-Christian sects."

These include, in Jefferson's own words:

"The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity, original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders or Hierarchy, etc."

Yikes! Tom, there go the red states!

Jefferson was a fundamentalist Christian? Sure — he was just the type of fundamentalist Christian who rejects the immaculate conception, the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity.

MARCH OF THE CORPORATE GHOULS

In right-wing land privatization is the way to go. Privatize roads, privatize streets, privatize water, lakes, streams, air, mail delivery, forests, love, peace, happiness, and building nuclear weapons. Iraq has been a laboratory for right-wing ideas such as a flat tax as much as it has been a grab for oil and hegemony. And we can see the dismal results. Now we learn that even the function of nuclear weapons development is being turned over to private corporations. This article by Frida Berrigan is at www.commondreams.org:

"Privatization" has been in the news ever since George W. Bush became president. His administration has radically reduced the size of government, turning over to private companies critical governmental functions involving prisons, schools, water, welfare, Medicare, and utilities as well as war-fighting, and is always pushing for more of the same. Outside of Washington, the pitfalls of privatization are on permanent display in Iraq, where companies like Halliburton have reaped billions in contracts. Performing jobs once carried out by members of the military -- from base building and mail delivery to food service -- they have bilked the government while undermining the safety of American forces by providing substandard services and products. Halliburton has been joined by a cottage industry of military-support companies responsible for everything from transportation to interrogation. On the war front, private companies are ubiquitous, increasingly indispensable, and largely unregulated -- a lethal combination.

Now, the long arm of privatization is reaching deep into an almost unimaginable place at the heart of the national security apparatus --- the laboratory where scientists learned to harness the power of the atom more than 60 years ago and created weapons of apocalyptic proportions.

MIXED BAG ON IMMIGRATION REFORM

There are lots of reasons for legitimate immigration reform. One of the most important is to prevent the exploitation of poor people, mostly from Mexico. Some of the illegals pay people called "coyotes" thousands of dollars to cross the U.S.-Mexican border with dreams of finding streets of gold in the United States. Many illegals die or get sexually abused in their trek to the United States. When they get here they live in constant fear of deportation. Since they have no rights, they get paid substandard wages or live in substandard conditions. Yet the agricultural economy in California is very dependent on the labor provided by illegals. This is an interesting article that shows some of the major concerns about the current legislation in Congress. The article by David Streitfeld is at www.latimes.com:

These changes — which are also endorsed by organized labor, most Democrats and some Republicans — are described by supporters as benefiting just about everyone. The undocumented will no longer have to live in fear. Companies will get a more stable workforce. Society as a whole will be helped when the underground economy emerges into daylight. Tax revenue will rise.

Yet this prediction of good times all around rests on the most slender of assumptions, economists say.

It presumes that the flow of illegal immigrants will shrink from a torrent to a trickle, they say. It takes for granted that the government will have the resources to find the illegal workers who get through as well as the money and political will to enforce the laws that forbid their hiring.