NOVEMBER 16, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

RIGHT-WING PBS CHIEF BROKE LAW REPEATEDLY

Kenneth Tomlinson, who stepped down as head of PBS, was found to have repeatedly broken federal law in his efforts to turn PBS into a version of FOX News. That's according to a report by the PBS inspector general. It's not enough that right-wingers already own almost all the media in this country. They put "journalists" like Armstrong Williams on the payroll. They have propagandists like Judith Miller masquerading as reporters. They blow hot air all over the AM airwaves with people like Limbaugh and Hannity. They have the repulsive Bill O'Reilly on television advocating a terrorist attack on San Francisco (when he's not sexually harassing women or writing porn). This story by Stephen Labaton is at www.nytimes.com:

Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.

A scathing report by the corporation's inspector general described a dysfunctional organization that violated the Public Broadcasting Act, which created the corporation and was written to insulate programming decisions from politics.

BUSH TACTICS OF SMEAR AND FEAR

With his approval ratings melting down and scandals exploding like Fourth of July fireworks, George W. Bush and his attack dogs are trying to change the focus. The disaster in Iraq isn't Bush's fault, you see. Poor George was misled by faulty intelligence and,besides, those nasty Democrats saw the same intelligence and voted for the war. So there! The truth is that the Democrats didn't see the same intelligence that Bush saw. The intelligence Bush provided to Congress conveniently left out facts that didn't support the administration case. To demonstrate how little credibility Bush has, just remember how Bush claimed Saddam Hussein wouldn't allow U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq. That is demonstrably false. In this article Robert Parry looks at the real history, not the Bush version. This is at www.consortiumnews.com:

At Consortiumnews.com, we questioned Bush’s claims about Iraq’s WMD in 2002 as well as the wishful thinking underlying his invasion strategy in 2003. [See, for instance, “Misleading the Nation to War” and “Bay of Pigs Meets Black Hawk Down.”]

But we also have noted that perhaps the strongest evidence of Bush’s proclivity to lie about Iraq came after the invasion, when he began falsifying the record – rewriting history – with claims that Saddam Hussein had barred U.N. weapons inspectors from entering Iraq. Hussein’s “defiance” supposedly left Bush no choice but to invade.

So, while it may be impossible to divine whether Bush really believed that Hussein had WMD stockpiles, it is undeniable that Bush knew that his assertion about Hussein barring U.N. inspectors was false. The inspectors returned to Iraq in November 2002 and remained until they were forced out by Bush in March 2003 to let the invasion proceed.

BUSH'S TAX CUTS HAVEN'T PRODUCED BETTER ECONOMY

One of the great myths right-wingers parroted after Ronald Reagan's administration was what a rousing success Reagan's tax cuts for the rich were. The economy just bopped along, according to them. In reality, the economy didn't produce much at all in really good jobs, but we did get huge deficits. Right-wingers promised the apocalypse when Bill Clinton wanted to raise taxes on the wealthy, and we had an economy so successful we were creating budget surpluses. Along came George W. Bush and more tax cuts for the rich and we have mountainous deficits, lousy jobs, stagnant wages, and red ink as far as the eye can see. In this column Molly Ivins talks about the right-wing love affair with tax cuts for the rich. The column is at www.alternet.org:

Lee Price of the Economic Policy Institute points out: "The fact that all major economic indicators are higher today than in early 2001 does not mean the tax cuts have been beneficial. Since the Great Depression, the resilient U.S. economy has always had gains over such four-year periods. The appropriate question to ask is: How well has the economy performed compared to similar periods in the past? If the last four years of tax cuts had worked as promised, the economy should have done better than in previous cycles, when taxes were either not cut or cut much less." We all down for that?

Unfortunately, the EPI concludes, "By virtually every measure, the economy has performed worse in this business cycle than was typical of past ones, including that of the 1990s, which saw major tax increases."

NOVEMBER 15, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

ARNIE'S TRAVELING COMPANIONS

After getting drubbed in last week's election, Governor Groper is in China to supposedly open up Chinese markets for California goods. It's interesting, though, to look at the people accompanying Arnie to China, the usual coterie of high bucks contributors to his campaigns. Right-wingers, who love power and graft, don't have a problem with this, of course, but the rest of us should. This article by Jamie Court is at www.latimes.com:

GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger is making a high-profile trade trip to China this week. It's supposed to benefit you and me by opening up Chinese markets for California goods. But the guest list is a dead giveaway: Of the 80 businessmen, government officials and others accompanying the governor, about two dozen are big-bucks Schwarzenegger supporters who have together contributed more than $2.5 million to his campaign committees.

REPUBS STIFF 9/11 GROUND ZERO WORKERS

The Republican led Congress is stripping $125 million that had been promised to ground zero workers in New York on 9/11. We know that the EPA, under Christine Todd Whitman, lied about the contaminants in the area of the downed World Trade Center. Many of the firemen and others who responded on 9/11 and the days after are suffering ill health from exposure to toxic substances. Bush liked to use firemen as props for his photo-op when he broke out the bullhorn, but we have other priorities now--things like tax cuts for the rich. This article by Devlin Barrett is at news.yahoo.com:

Congressional budget negotiators have decided to take back $125 million in Sept. 11 aid from New York, which had fought to keep the money to treat sick and injured ground zero workers, lawmakers said Tuesday.

New York officials had sought for months to hold onto the funding, originally meant to cover increased worker compensation costs stemming from the 2001 terror attacks.

But a massive labor and health spending bill moving fitfully through House-Senate negotiations would take back that funding, lawmakers said.

BUSH IS REWRITING HISTORY

In two recent speeches George W. Bush has charged that his critics are "rewriting history." Bush's insinuation is that members of Congress voted for the war based on the same intelligence that he, Bush, saw, and that now those same Democrats are charging the administration with misleading Congress and the American people. But the evidence shows that Bush did not share the same intelligence he saw with members of Congress. The administration left out intelligence that didn't support its case. He also doesn't mention that the rush to war was just prior to midterm elections when the issue wouldn't get the attention it properly deserved. This column by E. J. Dionne is at www.workingforchange.com:

The bad faith of Bush's current argument is staggering. He wants to say that the “more than a hundred Democrats in the House and Senate” who “voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power” thereby gave up their right to question his use of intelligence forever after. But he does not want to acknowledge that he forced the war vote to take place under circumstances that guaranteed the minimum amount of reflection and debate, and that opened anyone who dared question his policies to charges, right before an election, that they were soft on Saddam.

By linking the war on terror to a partisan war against Democrats, Bush undercut his capacity to lead the nation in this fight. And by resorting to partisan attacks again last week, Bush only reminded us of the shameful circumstances in which the whole thing started.

NOVEMBER 14, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

PRESIDENT CARTER ON THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Former President Jimmy Carter is a honorable man, and I think his presidency has often been unfairly maligned. President Carter endeavored to expand human rights; George W. Bush is taking away rights. President Carter respected the environment; George W. Bush thinks the environment is something to be exploited by big corporations. President Carter sought peace by peaceful means; George W. Bush is the world's preeminent bully and has killed thousands of innocent civilians. This article by President Carter is at www.commondreams.org:

Instead of our tradition of espousing peace as a national priority unless our security is directly threatened, we have proclaimed a policy of "preemptive war," an unabridged right to attack other nations unilaterally to change an unsavory regime or for other purposes. When there are serious differences with other nations, we brand them as international pariahs and refuse to permit direct discussions to resolve disputes.

Regardless of the costs, there are determined efforts by top U.S. leaders to exert American imperial dominance throughout the world.

These revolutionary policies have been orchestrated by those who believe that our nation's tremendous power and influence should not be internationally constrained. Even with our troops involved in combat and America facing the threat of additional terrorist attacks, our declaration of "You are either with us or against us!" has replaced the forming of alliances based on a clear comprehension of mutual interests, including the threat of terrorism.

BUSH IS LYING AGAIN

The Bush administration is busily trying to trash anti-war critics by claiming that Democrats who question the war are "rewriting history" or are "irresponsible." The Bushies are in a particular snit about charges they misled the nation into war. I believe the evidence is clear and without doubt that Bush misled the country into war. That is a lot of what is driving the Valerie Plame leak scandal. Bush and company wanted to push the idea that Saddam Hussein was building a nuclear weapon. They claimed that Hussein was trying to buy yellowcake from Niger for making that weapon. Joseph Wilson found no evidence supporting that claim. That threw a serious monkey wrench into Bush's war plans. To get revenge against Ambassador Wilson, they outed his wife as a CIA agent. We also have the Downing Street Memos showing that the administration was "fixing" intelligence. We have the record of PNAC, closely associated with Bush, beating the drum for war years before 9/11. In this column David Corn looks at Bush's Veterans Day speech and the lies therein. The column is at www.commondreams.org. Bush said:

Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went to war. These critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs.

This is not the full and accurate explanation of the controversy at hand. The issue of whether the Bush administration misled the nation in the run-up to the war has two components. The first is the production of the intelligence related to WMDs and the supposed al Qaeda-Sadam connection. The second is how the Bush crowd represented the intelligence to the public when trying to make the case for war. As for the first, the Senate intelligence committee report did say the committee had found no evidence of political pressure. But Democratic members of the committee and others challenged this finding. Several committee Democrats pointed to a CIA independent review on the prewar intelligence, conducted by a panel led by Richard Kerr, former deputy director of the CIA . . .

THE DAYS OF WHINE AND ROSES

It's semi-entertaining to read the right-wing letters to the editor of The Fresno Bee after the trouncing their boy Arnold took last week. We hear that the unions "bought" the election. Never mind all the corporate money Arnie used to get the propositions on the ballot and to air the multitude of ads on TV. We hear the propositions described as "common sense"; common sense if you believe in a dictator maybe. We've also got sackcloth and ashes over the failure of proposition 73, which would have eroded freedom of choice. Proponents of minor girls having to give parental notification don't consider that many of these pregnancies are thanks to a parent or stepparent or male relative. We've seen an avalanche of disasters, our lives getting progressively worse thanks to conservatives, so I glad Californians woke up last week.

DOUG THOMPSON ON BUSH'S VETERANS DAY SPEECH

The vitriolic speech George W. Bush gave on Veterans Day was a classless act by a man without class. A man who started an unnecessary war used the occasion of Veterans Day to slam his critics, not acknowledging the sacrifice made by so many in the military under false pretenses. Doug Thompson says it pretty well in this column at www.smirkingchimp.com:

He has, without blinking an eye, sent more than 2,000 American military men and women, along with countless thousands of Iraqi civilians, to their deaths in a senseless invasion based on manufactured "evidence" and outright lies.

Then he has the gall to stand up on the day we set aside to honor those who served and continue to promote his lies and call those who see the truth traitors who aid the enemy.

Sorry George. Your lies don't play here or with the majority of American citizens. It is you who has sold out your country, who is a traitor and who has committed treason against your office, your country and humanity.

God may one day forgive you for your sins but I cannot. Neither can the wives, husbands, parents and relatives of those you sent to die in your dirty little war. Neither can memories of those who served, those we honored on Veterans Day and those whose memory you so callously dishonored with your propagandist pap.

NOVEMBER 13, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

PETULANT BUSH MAKES FOOL OF HIMSELF

I don't consider George W. Bush to be my president. He got into office the first time by stealing the election. He probably stole the 2004 election as well. But if I did consider him my president I would be mortified for my country. The man's constant display of snottiness and arrogance and just plain bad manners is appalling. George wasn't happy about staying up past his bedtime on his recent trip to South America. Then he didn't want to attend all the meetings the next day because he had already spent too much time at the state dinner the previous evening. This item comes from www.ostroyreport.blogspot.com:

Poor President Bush. Over the weekend he was an American fish out of water trapped in an Argentinean nightmare. During the first-leg of his four-day Latin America trip for a trade summit with Western Hemisphere leaders, Bush, normally fed by 7 and in his Doctor Dentons by 9pm and in dreamland shortly thereafter, was at the mercy of his foreign hosts who kept him out till--get this--12:40am Saturday. As is the culture in Latin America and Europe, for example, dinner isn't typically served until at least 10pm. To say Bush was a bit miffed would be an understatement. As such, his aides announced that he'd of course be attending the next day's session, but would miss the scheduled two-hour lunch with these same leaders because of "time served" the night before. An early exit was planned to get Bush on Air Force One by 4:05 to get to his next destination, Brazil.

RIGHT-WING PORN WRITERS

For all the talk of "family values" and the rest of their psuedo-religious schmaltz, prominent Republicans love to write porn. Lynne Cheney, Dick's wife, wrote a torrid lesbian love novel. Newt Gingrich wrote a sleazy novel. The newly-indicted Lewis Libby wrote a thoroughly disgusting novel about a young girl being raped by a bear. Bill O'Reilly, that friend of San Francisco terrorism, wrote a putrid novel about young girls on crack giving oral sex to their provider. The list is extensive. This article by David Rossie is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Consider the GOP gallery of purple prose purveyors:

William Safire, Newt Gingrich, Lynne Cheney, G. Gordon Liddy, William Buckley and Kenneth Starr. And let's not forget Bill O'Reilly, whose unwanted phone sex messages to a female colleague cost him a bundle in an out-of-court settlement.

Some might argue that it is unfair to include Starr in that crowd, but not if they read the pious pornographer's report of his investigation of the Clintons' involvement in Whitewater and Just Plain Bill's sordid romp with Monica Lewinsky and sundry others. According to Lauren Collins, writing in The New Yorker, in 1998 the Starr Report was nominated for consideration in the bad fictional sex writing contest that Britain's Literary Review holds each year.

RESULTS OF RIGHT-WING WAR ON GOVERNMENT

Ronald Reagan once observed that government was the problem and not the solution, conveniently forgetting that government helped out his own family during the Great Depression. Right-wingers have consistently demonized government, saying that government can't do anything right, and once they are in power right-wingers make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. The United States had its greatest prosperity and progress in the years following World War II until the Nixon presidency. Since that time we have seen more right-wing control and influence of the government, and the standard of living for most Americans has declined. This article by Robert Steinback is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

It has been 25 years since Ronald Reagan declared war on the federal government, and five since President Bush and the extremist neo-conservatives took power intending to finish the job.

Is America better off? Are you?

The ranks of the poor are growing. Good jobs are fleeing overseas. Real wages have stagnated, personal debt is climbing and bankruptcies are soaring. Millions more Americans -- children in particular -- are without health coverage. Public schools are gasping for air. The rich are vastly richer -- but sharply higher fuel, tuition, insurance, health care and housing costs, to name just a few, have crippled middle-class progress.

The federal budget -- finally balanced just a few years ago -- is hemorrhaging red ink by the trillions, a burden we've callously dumped on our grandchildren.

NOVEMBER 12, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

BUSH REPEATING THE SAME OLD LIES

In his asinine Veterans Day speech George W. Bush attacked critics of his bloody war and claimed that members of Congress who voted for the war had the same intelligence as the administration. That's an outright lie. The intelligence Bush gave to Congress was misleading, inaccurate, or outright false. This item comes from www.thinkprogress.org:

In his speech today, President Bush claimed that members of Congress who voted for the 2002 Iraq war resolution “had access to the same intelligence” as his administration. This is patently false.

Nevermind that much of the intelligence offered to the public and to Congress was inaccurate and misleading, or that according to the Downing Street memo and other documents, such intelligence was likely intentionally “fixed.” It is simply not true to state that Congress received the “same intelligence” as the White House:

FACT — Dissent From White House Claims on Iraq Nuclear Program Consistently Withheld from Congress:

[S]everal Congressional and intelligence officials with access to the 15 assessments [of intel suggesting aluminum tubes showed Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program] said not one of them informed senior policy makers of the Energy Department’s dissent. They described a series of reports, some with ominous titles, that failed to convey either the existence or the substance of the intensifying debate.” [NYT, 10/3/04]

FAILURE OF U.S. ECONOMIC PLANNING

For years now we've heard the virtues of free trade expounded by the political and financial elites. Globalization is a great thing, we're told. There are those vast untapped markets out there and globalization means prosperity for everyone. Well, not quite. We've seen countless jobs exported to other countries and the U.S. standard of living continues to fall as we lose our manufacturing capacity. Service sector jobs don't pay good wages. We have record balance of trade deficits. Other countries, such as India and China, are beginning to develop highly-skilled and highly-educated work forces. In this interview Clyde Prestowitz talks about the cloud hanging over the U.S. economy. The interview is at www.motherjones.com:

Over the last 30 or 40 years we also began to create a global economy. That meant this mass market suddenly became available to other countries. The unique economy of scale that was available only to American producers was available to producers in other countries. And there’s nothing wrong with that; it certain served US consumers. But unless US producers were going to get the same kind of open markets abroad that the foreigners were getting here, then over a period of time there was going to be a disadvantage. In fact, foreign markets weren’t nearly as open as US markets, and to some extent the advantages of economies of scale shifted. If you were a Japanese producer you now had access to the Japanese market and the US market. But US producers didn’t have the same kind of access to the Japanese market. The rest of the world, particularly Asia, developed a growth strategy based on high investment, which requires high saving, and excess production, which meant export-led growth. So while the US was building a consumption machine—via, for example, home equity loans, credit card solicitations, and numerous tax incentives to consume—the rest of the world, particularly Asia, was building a production machine.

JOHN TIERNEY: GLOBALIZATION SHILL

I haven't read John Tierney's columns in The New York Times, but it doesn't sound like I've missed much. Tierney is of one of the elites trumpeting the wonders of globalization and taking shots at leaders such as Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who is not properly on board. Tierney's evidently likes to cite the accomplishments of Chile, once under the brutal regime of Augusto Pinochet, and Pinochet's aggressive pro-market approach to government. In this column Amitabh Pal analyzes Tierney's analysis. The column is at www.progressive.org:

Tierney paints a study in contrast between Venezuela and Chile, writing that in Venezuela, “poverty rate has risen above 50 percent,” allegedly due to Hugo Chavez’s failed policies, while “the poverty rate has declined sharply in Chile, to about 20 percent,” supposedly due to its adoption of free-market principles.

But as Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic Policy Research points out, Venezuela’s poverty rate is not quite an indictment of Hugo Chavez’s statist approach. “From 1970-1998 per capita income in Venezuela fell by 35 percent,” Weisbrot writes. “Since the present government took office, per capita income growth is about flat, and will likely be positive at year's end.”

Weisbrot also points out that rapid growth (17.8 percent) over 2004 will quite likely produce very different poverty rates in the near future, and that “there has been a significant improvement in the lives of the poor—the majority of Venezuelans—in terms of access to health care and other services, as well as subsidized food.”

NOVEMBER 11, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

O'REILLY FAVORS TERRORISM AGAINST SAN FRANCISCO

Right-wing moron Bill O'Reilly didn't like the way San Francisco voted this past Tuesday when voters supported banning guns, so O'Reilly said he didn't care if terrorists blew up the Coit Tower. What a disgraceful example of a human being this guy is. This story by Joe Garofoli is at www.sfgate.com:

Conservative talk-show host Bill O'Reilly is ready to scratch San Francisco off the map of the United States. Gone. Coit Tower? Terrorists can blow it up, and the rest of the country shouldn't care.

The Fox News talk-show host and one-man conservative media juggernaut has concluded that the United States and San Francisco just don't go together anymore. Voting to oppose military recruitment in public schools and to ban handgun ownership, as San Franciscans did Tuesday, means the city should be cut off from federal dollars. And then some.

THE INCREDIBLY BAD PRESCRIPTION DRUG PLAN

The new prescription drug plan rammed through by the Republicans is a disaster for people who need the coverage. It seems good at first. But at a certain point it doesn't cover any drug costs. Then after a person pays thousands in out of pocket expenses the coverage kicks in again. It's designed to hammer people who have to buy a lot of prescription drugs. Paul Krugman writes about it in this column linked at www.topplebush.com:

Once you recognize that the drug benefit is a purely political exercise that wasn't supposed to serve its ostensible purpose, the absurdities in the program make sense. For example, the bill offers generous coverage to people with low drug costs, who have the least need for help, so lots of people will get small checks in the mail and think they're being treated well.

Meanwhile, the people who are actually likely to need a lot of help paying their drug expenses were deliberately offered a very poor benefit. According to a report issued along with the final version of the bill, people are prohibited from buying supplemental insurance to cover the doughnut hole to keep beneficiaries from becoming "insensitive to costs" - that is, buying too much medicine because they don't pay the price.

MR. ANTI-CHOICE STRIKES AGAIN

The guy I called Mr. Anti-Choice wrote another letter to The Fresno Bee. This time he was extolling the virtues of Bush's new Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Alito. According to Mr. A-C, we've been on a moral slide since the Roe v. Wade decision. He calls the decision "bad law." I would point out that most of that 40 year span has been under Republican administrations, none of whom made a serious effort to overturn Roe. Why not? Most Americans believe in freedom of choice and overturning Roe will set off a political firestorm. It could very well spell the end of the Republican party as a viable force for decades. Mr. A-C is undyingly faithful to a church with pedophile priests and to an administration that tortures and murders people. That's what I call a "moral slide."

BUSH IS DESTROYING THE MILITARY

George W. Bush loves his photo-ops with the military. We all remember the stunt of landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and unctuously proclaiming that major combat operations in Iraq were over. How many thousand maimed and destroyed bodies was that ago? The Bush administration thought they could win the war in Iraq with minimal troop support, minimal supply support, and with no exit plan. Now we have a bloody nightmare with no end in sight and members of the military and National Guard are conscripted to do tour after tour. Bob Herbert writes about the strain on the military in this column at www.topplebush.com:

But the problems of the military go far beyond the casualty figures coming out of the war zone. The Army, for example, has been stretched so taut since the Sept. 11 attacks, especially by the fiasco in Iraq, that it's become like a rubber band that may snap at any moment.

President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld convinced themselves that they could win the war in Iraq on the cheap. They never sent enough troops to do the job. Now the burden of trying to fight a long and bitter war with too few troops is taking a terrible toll on the men and women in uniform.

Last December, the top general in the Army Reserve warned that his organization was "rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force" because of the Pentagon's "dysfunctional" policies and demands placed on the Reserve by the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

NOVEMBER 10, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

BUSH'S NEFARIOUS FINANCES

The GOP was gung ho about investigating Bill Clinton for the Whitewater land deal in which he lost money. You wonder why they're not as enthused about investigating George W. Bush's dealings with the Texas Rangers baseball club. Bush invested around $600,000 and walked off with $14 million. Part of the road to riches involved the use of eminent domain to grab up land to build the new baseball stadium for the Rangers. This article by the Pensito Review is at www.pensitoreview.com:

Last week we reported that when he was an owner of the Texas Rangers George W. Bush used eminent domain to seize private property in Arlington, Texas, in order to build a baseball stadium. Less than ten years later, when he was governor of Texas, Bush sold his interest in the Rangers and profited over $14 million.

Since then, we have learned that there is much more to this story. First, it appears that Mr. Bush evaded paying sufficient taxes on the sale. Second - and, more significantly - he appears to have illegally used political influence as governor of Texas to increase the value of his share - actions that mirror the activities of an Illinois governor who was convicted of income tax fraud for influencing public policy that benefited his holdings in a race track .

WHEN THE WAR BECOMES LOCAL

This is a piece by Jimmy Breslin, who I believe has retired. I miss his commentaries, but I appreciate the ones he still writes. He talks about New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bloomberg claiming that the Iraq war isn't local. Breslin points out that when any local kid dies in the war it becomes local. This column is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

If the kid who gets killed is local, then - the war is local.

This war continues without an official protest that would call out the will of the people of the City of New York and might count in a nation that by now realizes it has been the victim of a president who is a fake and a fraud and a shill and a sham and now is going around with the blind staggers.

Only the other night, in a television appearance with the opponent, Ferrer, Bloomberg was asked about withdrawing troops from Iraq and - heavens! - you can't do that. Why, that would mean that New York's fallen military would have died in vain. And why you could never say that about the three or four who would be killed on the day after that, and tomorrow and tomorrow.

THE BARBARISM IN FALLUJA

I think of a quote from Nobel Laureate Albert Camus that says something to the effect, "I would like to love my country, and also love what is right." I believe in the United States that is represented in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. What is stated in those documents represents the highest ideals and aspirations, not only of Americans, but of the human race. It is heartbreaking and enraging to realize the crimes the Bush administration, in our name, committed against the people of Falluja. The U.S. military cut off food and water, which is a war crime. Our forces bombed the city constantly. We used the vile substance known as white phosphorus. We killed countless women and children. This story by Mike Marqusee is at www.guardian.co.uk:

One year ago this week, US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."

The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population". Two-thirds of the city's 300,000 residents fled, many to squatters' camps without basic facilities.

NOVEMBER 9, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

THE REPUBLICAN SPIN ON THE ELECTION

For the most part Republicans took a drubbing in the off year elections yesterday, but they claim it has nothing do with disaffection with George W. Bush. It's probably coincidence that Bush has lousy poll numbers, that his integrity is being questioned, that the economy is staggering along, that we're mired in bloody Iraq, and that Republicans lost all across the nation. This story by Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey is at www.msnbc.msn.com:

The day after the election, White House aides said Kilgore’s defeat had no connection with national politics. “I don’t think any thorough analysis of the election results will show that the elections were decided on anything other than local and state issues and the candidates and their agendas,” press secretary Scott McClellan said on Wednesday. But that begs the question: why did the president travel to Richmond at all on Monday?

Another line of attack is to suggest that Kaine wasn’t really a Democrat. “In Virginia, for instance, you had a candidate, Democratic candidate for governor who ran on a conservative platform,” McClellan explained, “a platform that was very much out of line with the Democratic National Party.” That may be true. But that’s also what the Democrats said about Bush as he ran for the presidency in 2000. Besides, it’s politically irrelevant. The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, is conservative by many Democratic standards--but he’s still a thorn in the side of the administration.

REPUBLICANS ARE CALLOUS AND CORRUPT

Roman Emperors like Nero and Caligula would probably feel at home in today's Republican party. It's a party dedicated to bankrupting the government by slashing taxes for the rich and slashing programs for the poor and the middle class because of all those nasty deficits that result. In effect, Republicans say you really don't count in this country unless you have a big bank account. It doesn't matter that you work hard, obey the law, and try to live up to what is moral and right. You don't deserve better because you aren't rich. This story by Joe Conason is at www.workingforchange.com:

Unmoved by the plight of the poor -- who are growing poorer and hungrier, according to the latest government data -- Congressional leaders last week decided that the best way to pare spending is to reduce the number of families that qualify for food stamps. A bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee on Oct. 28 would make roughly 300,000 Americans ineligible to receive food stamps and cut the program by about $850 million over the next five years.

The fiscal impact of all those cuts will be negligible, especially compared with the subsidies that these same Christian gentlemen insist on providing to energy, agribusiness and other major interests. But these gratuitous acts of unkindness will surely harm the unfortunate children who have less to eat as a result.

By lovely coincidence, the Department of Agriculture released a report the same day showing that the number of people who went hungry last year increased by more than half a million. If anything, those statistics suggest that Congress should be expanding rather than diminishing the food-stamp program. The spectacle of Dennis Hastert, the extra-portly House Speaker, and his well-nourished caucus taking food away from the poor while bragging about their budgetary prowess is beyond disgusting.

WAS WHITE PHOSPHORUS USED IN FALLUJAH?

An Italian documentary provides evidence that the U.S. used white phosphorus in the battle of Fallujah last year. White phosphorus is horrific. When it gets onto the skin it burns and burns, melting skin all the way to the bone. The Italian documentary shows pictures of civilians apparently burned by white phosphorus attacks. This stuff shouldn't be used against any targets, military or civilian. This story by Andrew Buncombe is linked at www.commondreams.org:

A leading campaign group has demanded an urgent inquiry into a report that US troops indiscriminately used a controversial incendiary weapon during the battle for Fallujah. Photographic evidence gathered from the aftermath of the battle suggests that women and children were killed by horrific burns caused by the white phosphorus shells dropped by US forces.

The Pentagon has always admitted it used phosphorus during last year's assault on the city, which US commanders said was an insurgent stronghold. But they claimed they used the brightly burning shells "very sparingly" and only to illuminate combat areas.

But the documentary Fallujah: the Hidden Massacre, broadcast yesterday by the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, suggested the shells were commonly used and killed an unspecified number of civilians. Photographs obtained by RAI from the Studies Centre of Human Rights in Fallujah, show the bodies of dozens of Fallujah residents whose skin has been dissolved or caramelised by the effects of the phosphorus shells. The use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets is banned by treaty.

NOVEMBER 8, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

THE BLACK CLOUD FOLLOWING BUSH

The Bush administration has been so corrupt and done so many things wrong it amazes me it took so long for the public to turn against it. Now Bush has dug himself quite a hole, and there's no escaping. The rest of the world already disdained Bush, and now he's not popular here at home either. But the incompetence of the Bush administration has a real cost in human lives. Thousands are dead or maimed thanks to these power-hungry fools. Bob Herbert writes about the awful reality that is the Iraq war in this column linked at www.topplebush.com:

The ominous news of the president's plummeting approval ratings followed him like a dark cloud. A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Mr. Bush has never been less popular with the public. On nearly every important measure of character and performance, he was given lower marks than ever before. For the first time, according to the poll, a majority of Americans even questioned the president's integrity. And fully 55 percent of respondents to a new USA Today/CNN/Gallup poll said they believe the Bush administration has been a failure.

The fact that Mr. Bush is struggling in his own political purgatory (for the sin of incompetence) is bad news for the soldiers in Iraq, where the suffering and dying continues unabated. The administration that was so anxious to throw scores of thousands of healthy young Americans into the flames of war now has no idea how to get them out.

Troops are being sent into Iraq for two, three, even four combat tours by an administration in which clowns like Scooter Libby and Karl Rove were playing games with the identity of a C.I.A. agent, and the vice president has been obsessed with his twisted protect-the-torturers campaign.

A GOVERNMENT THIS BAD

A New York Times editorial states that the rest of the world can't handle a government this bad. I agree to that point. Then the Times editorialist posits some suggestions for turning things around, such as keeping Dick Cheney busy with meaningless state functions like attending funerals. The best thing the Bush administration could do for this country and the rest of the world is resign enmasse. This editorial is at www.nytimes.com:

After President Bush's disastrous visit to Latin America, it's unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can't afford an American government this bad for that long.

WAL-MART AND PUBLIC SUBSIDIES

Wal-Mart tries to destroy unions, pays its employees lousy wages, breaks labor law on a regular basis, and destroys small business almost everywhere it goes. Now we learn that Wal-Mart is only too glad to stand at the trough and collect taxpayer subsidies. Everyone should stop buying at Wal-Mart. This story by Greg LeRoy is at www.alternet.org:

The phenomenal growth of the world's largest corporation has been supported by taxpayers in many states through economic development subsidies. A Wal-Mart official once stated that the company seeks subsidies in about a third of its stores, suggesting that more than 1,100 of its U.S. stores are subsidized. A national survey by Good Jobs First in 2004 looked at 160 stores and all of the company's distribution centers -- and found that more than 90 percent of them have been subsidized. Altogether, 244 subsidized facilities in 35 states received taxpayer deals of more than $1 billion.

The economic impact of these subsidies on small businesses is given a human face in one powerful segment of Robert Greenwald's new documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price." The sweetheart deals given to two Wal-Mart Supercenters in Hamilton, Missouri undermined Red Esry's four family-owned grocery stores. Esry watched his sales plunge as soon as the Supercenters opened -- he couldn't compete with Wal-Mart's prices and lost almost half of his business virtually overnight.

NOVEMBER 7, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

TERMINATE THE GROPER'S INITIATIVES

November 8 is the special election that Governor Groper wanted to get some pet right-wing initiatives on the ballot. So far the polls show he will lose, and let's hope that comes to pass. Arnold has attacked working class people since he participated in the coup that got him into the Governor's mansion. He attacked former Governor Gray Davis for fund raising, but has raised even more money from corporate interests than Davis did. He once, although denying it, had presidential aspirations. Let's terminate the Groper's political rise tomorrow. This story by John M. Broder is at www.nytimes.com:

A startling change has come over California's larger-than-life governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, as voters prepare to head to the polls on Tuesday for an unpopular statewide election. His television advertisements have taken on an uncharacteristic tone of humility. And ordinary people, no longer awed by his Olympian persona, are openly challenging him in public.

The four ballot measures Mr. Schwarzenegger supports are trailing in the polls, and his re-election prospects next year appear, for now, to be dimming. His approval ratings are in a tailspin, and his stage presence has been drained of much of its bombast and bluster.

FOR ROVE, ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SCANDAL

For years and years Karl Rove got away with smearing political opponents and pulling all kinds of dirty tricks that no one could effectively pin on him. But Karl overreached with the Valerie Plame leak. And now he is implicated in yet another scandal involving the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Right-winger Kenneth Tomlinson resigned as head of PBS after trying to turn PBS into another version of FOX News. Tomlinson and Rove have been chummy for years, so you have to wonder if Rove was up his old tricks in trying to destroy PBS. This story by Andrew Gumbel and Andrew Buncombe is at news.independent.co.uk:

Karl Rove, still under investigation for his alleged role in leaking the identity of an undercover CIA agent, faced possible implication in further scandal yesterday after the resignation of an ally accused of misusing public broadcasting funds for partisan political purposes.

Kenneth Tomlinson, a friend of the powerful presidential adviser for a decade, was forced to resign on Thursday as chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), where he set out to correct what he saw as liberal media bias. An internal report found he had overreached in those ambitions.

A REAL LIFE VICTIM OF FBI SURVELLIANCE

Doug Thompson writes for the online publication Capitol Hill Blue. He recently learned that he was one of those people on whom the FBI has been collecting information under provisions of the PATRIOT Act. The law gives the FBI the authority to collect and share data about people not even suspected of wrongdoing. Almost anyone can become a "person of interest." Mr. Thompson was spotted taking photos. This article is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

According to a printout from a computer controlled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice, I am an enemy of the state.

The printout, shown to me recently by a friend who works for Justice, identifies me by a long, multi-digit number, lists my date of birth, place of birth, social security number and contains more than 100 pages documenting what the Bureau and the Bush Administration consider to be my threats to the security of the United States of America.

It lists where I sent to school, the name and address of the first wife that I had been told was dead but who is alive and well and living in Montana, background information on my current wife and details on my service to my country that I haven't even revealed to my wife or my family.

NOVEMBER 6, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

FBI'S INVASIVE "NATIONAL SECURITY LETTERS"

The FBI is using a provision from the PATRIOT ACT that allows them to snoop on Americans on the slightest pretext. They're allowed to gather and store private information without authorization from any court. That information can be shared throughout the government and even with private entities. This just screams "unconstitutional" to me. It's the kind of thing totalitarian governments do. This story by Barton Gellman is at www.washingtonpost.com:

The FBI now issues more than 30,000 national security letters a year, according to government sources, a hundredfold increase over historic norms. The letters -- one of which can be used to sweep up the records of many people -- are extending the bureau's reach as never before into the telephone calls, correspondence and financial lives of ordinary Americans.

Issued by FBI field supervisors, national security letters do not need the imprimatur of a prosecutor, grand jury or judge. They receive no review after the fact by the Justice Department or Congress. The executive branch maintains only statistics, which are incomplete and confined to classified reports. The Bush administration defeated legislation and a lawsuit to require a public accounting, and has offered no example in which the use of a national security letter helped disrupt a terrorist plot.

7 MILLION MORE HUNGRY UNDER BUSH

When the government starts spouting statistics about GDP or job growth maybe they should start adding statistics about the number of poor and hungry in the United States. In this, the richest country the world, where billionaires frolic, seven million more people joined the ranks of the hungry the last five years. Bush and company can find money for their unjustified wars, giving no-bid contracts to corrupt companies, and tax cuts to their rich buddies, but they allow people to go hungry. This story from Brandeis University is at www.sciencedaily.com:

Hunger in American households has risen by 43 percent over the last five years, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data released today. The analysis, completed by the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, shows that more than 7 million people have joined the ranks of the hungry since 1999.

The USDA report, Household Food Security in the United States, 2004, says that 38.2 million Americans live in households that suffer directly from hunger and food insecurity, including nearly 14 million children. That figure is up from 31 million Americans in 1999.

"This is an unexpected and even stunning outcome," noted center director Dr. J. Larry Brown, a leading scholarly authority on domestic hunger. "This chronic level of hunger so long after the recession ended means that it is a man-made problem. Congress and the White House urgently need to address growing income inequality and the weakening of the safety net in order to get this epidemic under control." According to the Center on Hunger and Poverty, food insecurity increased by nearly a million households from 2003 to 2004. Rates of hunger increased in almost every single category of household during the same time, with single mothers and those living in or near poverty continuing to suffer from severely high rates of both food insecurity and hunger.

MISUSING THE WORD "LIBERAL"

A few weeks ago in the place where I work the discussion turned to talk radio. But people were only talking about right-wing radio in the mode of Limbaugh and Hannity. I thought it would be a good idea to suggest Randi Rhodes, the firebrand host on Air America, who is far more truthful and more entertaining than any right-wingers. One woman pipes up, "No, I don't like liberals." Since this is a job where no one makes any money, the very epitome of what is wrong with right-wing governance, it makes me wonder if people understand that liberals are responsible for things like the eight-hour day, the 40-hour week, getting paid for overtime, health insurance, paid vacations, health and safety protections, and laws against discrimination. Right-wingers are trying to take all of those things away. It's a little like the techniques used in Brave New World to make babies dislike books. Make them associate something unpleasant with books and they'll dislike books. Right-wingers have done that to liberals for years. In this column Leonard Pitts Jr. talks about the trashing of liberals. The column is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Actually, my aim is to critique what passes for political discourse in this country, particularly insofar as it involves what the first President Bush used to call "the L word."

That was 15 or more years ago. I'd argue that in the intervening years, the L-word has become the new N-word. No, I don't mean that those who use it are bigots, but rather, that it has come to be used in much the way racial epithets are used, connoting not a political philosophy but a state of inherent defect so obvious as to require no further explanation.

What else was meant when talk-show host Michael Savage named his book "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder"?

NOVEMBER 4, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

BUSH, HOWARD UNIVERSITY, AND JIM CROW

It was supposed to be another of those classic Bush photo-ops. He would go to Howard University, which is predominantly African-American, and be seen fraternizing with the students long enough to get on camera. But things, as they often do with the Bush crowd, went awry. Students were blocked off from the cafeteria because George and Pickles were eating. Then students were told they had to go to a back entrance, which brings back vivid memories of the Jim Crow era. This occurred when civil rights icon Rosa Parks was being laid to rest. This story by Courtland Milloy is at www.washingtonpost.com:

All he had to do was drop in on Soul Food Thursday, be seen sharing a wing and some collard greens with students -- and score one for the GOP.

But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go. Never mind that a student meal plan at Howard can cost as much as $2,500 a semester.

"COMPASSIONATE" CONSERVATISM SAME OLD CRUELTY

The very core belief of right-wingers is ME, ME, ME, and what's best for ME, ME, ME. Back when he was campaigning George W. Bush came along and tried to paste the label "compassionate" on conservatism. But there's nothing compassionate about it. It's about power and money and greed and exploiting the weakest among us. It's about abolishing civil liberties, racism, sexism, white male hierarchy, and giving everything to the very rich. This article by Cathleen Falsani looks at the conservatism practiced by the evil people in power now. The article is at www.suntimes.com:

Mired in political corruption of one variety or another, hamstrung (economically and spiritually) by an unjust war, and publicly shamed by the most despicable display of institutionalized racism since the slave era, as demonstrated in the unforgivably inept early response to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration has lost whatever moral voice it might have had.

And this week, as Republican leaders try to force a monstrous $50 billion budget cut designed allegedly to offset the mounting costs (currently in excess of $62 billion) of hurricane-related aid through Congress, it is clear that its moral compass also has been lost.

The proposed budget cuts, part of the so-called "budget reconciliation," would have devastating effects on the poorest, most vulnerable Americans, while allowing tax relief for the rich.

BUSH TAX PLAN GETS CHILLY RECEPTION

Republicans have consistently moved to "simplify" the tax code. What they're really trying to do is move toward a flat tax, which clobbers poor and middle class people. The fairest tax ever devised is the progressive tax, which taxes people according to their ability to pay. Under Republican plans people who earn income from dividends, interest, and other income they don't work for get enormous breaks. Those of us who work for our money get virtually no breaks at all. This story by Joel Havemann is at www.latimes.com:

The loss of the deduction for state and local taxes would hit particularly hard in California, a high-tax state.

"It's not fair to pile a bigger tax load on the backs of middle-class homeowners in the San Fernando Valley in order to preserve tax breaks President Bush has given to the wealthiest Americans," Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) said in a statement.

The exclusion of employer health benefits from taxable income would be limited to the average employer cost — now about $5,000 for an individual policy and $11,500 for a family. For the first time, the exclusion would be available to those who buy their own insurance.

The two plans would also treat investment income differently. Under Plan A, dividends would not be taxed, 75% of capital gains would be excluded from taxes, and all interest payments would be taxed at regular rates. Under Plan B, all three would be subject to a flat rate of 15%.

NOVEMBER 3, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

BUSH'S ALITO PLOY

George W. Bush has used lies, distractions, terror alerts, and any other issue to divide Americans any time his political fortunes go south. The latest example of the Bush strategy is nominating an extremist like Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. Bush knows the Alito nomination will please the nutcases on the religious right, but it will alienate most of the rest of the country. Bush also makes a big splash about his "plan" to deal with avian flu, asking for billions more and not saying where the billions will come from. This article by Bart Whiteman is at www.commondreams.org:

It is beyond despicable that the leader of a free democracy who has brazenly decided to preach the virtues of this type of government to the rest of the planet should be willing to sacrifice his own country to try save his own skin. Real democracy implies a form of selflessness that places the common good over the personal good. There is nothing approaching a milligram of the common good in the Alito appointment. Samuel Alito may be a nice guy, but putting his name forward was done purely to pacify the Religious Right insurgency who were threatening to take their big fat ball and go home, leaving George with an approval rating in the single digits. Harriet Miers didn’t last a month before she had to fall on her sword to save George from this fate.

MICHAEL BROWN: BUSH ADMINISTRATION PROTOTYPE

The former head of FEMA, Michael Brown, was once head of an Arabian horse association and in Bush world that qualified him to head FEMA, an agency that must react to life and death crises. We saw the dismal results when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and FEMA was dreadfully incompetent. We've since learned that Mr. Brown was concerned with his dinner rather than dealing with Katrina issues. Now we learn that he was also concerned about his wardrobe. Wonder if he and Condi Rice, the shoe shopper, have a kinship? This article by the Associated Press is at www.sfgate.com:

Newly-released e-mails show former FEMA director Michael Brown discussing his wardrobe during the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina.

A House panel has released 23 pages of internal e-mail offering additional evidence of a confused and distracted government response to Katrina, particularly from Brown, the former head of Federal Emergency Management Agency, at critical moments after the storm hit.

ANOTHER OMINOUS POLL FOR BUSH

A new Washington Post-ABC poll shows Bush's favorability ratings dropping again. More and more Americans are questioning his integrity. He never had any integrity, but it's only now that Americans seem to be realizing that. Now we learn that the Republican-controlled Senate approved cuts to spending for Medicare, mostly impacting poor people once again. How does it feel to be living in a Third World country? This story by Richard Morin and Dan Balz is at www.washingtonpost.com:

For the first time in his presidency, a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

On virtually every key measure of presidential character and performance, the new survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.

NOVEMBER 2, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

DIVIDING THE COUNTRY 101

Despite his famous appearance in Fahrenheit 9/11 reading a book to elementary school kids, it's hard to imagine George W. Bush as a teacher. But a look at his administration could be a course in Dividing the Country 101. Old "Your with us or against us" has used a variety of strategies to keep Americans on edge, distracted, or at each other's throats. The latest arrogant in your face nomination of Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court is just another textbook example of Bush's in-your-face arrogance, no matter how much damage it does to the country. E. J. Dionne writes about it in this column at www.washingtonpost.com:

Bush and his disciples would like everyone to assume that Libby was some kind of lone operator who, for this one time in his life, abandoned his usual caution. They pray that Libby will be the only official facing legal charges and that political interest in the case will dissipate.

You can tell the president worries that this won't work, because yesterday he did what he usually does when he's in trouble: He sought to divide the country and set up a bruising ideological fight. He did so by nominating a staunchly conservative judge to the Supreme Court.

Judge Samuel Alito is a red flag for liberals and red meat for Bush's socially conservative base. Alito has a long paper trail as a 15-year veteran of a court of appeals and a strong right-wing reputation. This guarantees a huge battle that will serve the president even if Alito's nomination fails: Anything that "unites the base" and distracts attention from the Fitzgerald investigation is good news for Bush.

CIVIL WAR INSIDE WHITE HOUSE

It's really surreal that some people describe George W. Bush as a "Godly" man. This coke-snorting, alcoholic, bag of wind who skipped out on his National Guard Service, left various business investors high and dry, presided over a record number of executions in Texas, stole possibly two presidential elections, smeared far more honorable men, lied the country into a war, shafts the poor and middle class every chance he gets, and peppers his vocabulary with the "f" word doesn't strike me as "Godly." This column by Doug Thompson at www.capitolhillblue.com looks at the nasty infighting going on inside the White House as Bush rambles, stares off into space, and screams at his aides:

An uncivil war rages inside the walls of the West Wing of the White House, a bitter, acrimonious war driven by a failed agenda, destroyed credibility, dwindling public support and a President who lapses into Alzheimer-like periods of incoherent babbling.

On one side are the dwindling numbers of die-hard loyalists to President George W. Bush, those who support his actions and decisions without question and remain committed to both Bush and scandal-scarred political advisor Karl Rove.

On the other side are the increasing numbers of those who say Rove must go and who worry about the President's declining mental state and his ability to restore credibility with Congress, our foreign allies and the American people.

DON'T BE BORN POOR IN AMERICA

You know, lots of us should have planned better. We had the temerity to be born to parents who weren't affluent. We just didn't have the foresight of those industrious special people who are rich. In George W. Bush's America Congress is nickel and diming the poor, which has a devastating impact on them and their children, for "savings" that don't amount to much while they continue shoveling money at the rich. It's beyond disgusting. This commentary by Joe Conason is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Indeed, this newfound concern for tight budgetary control seems more like an excuse to inflict pain on those who cannot defend themselves. Meanwhile, the urge to reward those who already have too much continues, unbounded by any fiscal worries.

Unmoved by the plight of the poor--who are growing poorer and hungrier, according to the latest government data--Congressional leaders last week decided that the best way to pare spending is to reduce the number of families that qualify for food stamps. A bill passed by the House Agriculture Committee on Oct. 28 would make roughly 300,000 Americans ineligible to receive food stamps and cut the program by about $850 million over the next five years.

NOVEMBER 1, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

George W. Bush today was outlining his "plan" to address the issue of bird flu. It's interesting to me that Bush is afraid of the virus mutating. Mutation is an integral part of natural selection, and I didn't think Bush and his gang believed in evolution. But talk of viruses makes an interesting metaphor for the endemic corruption in the Bush administration. It's like corruption spreads from official to official and then to the media and to the people who blindly follow the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The lies about Iraq certainly spread virus-like and grew into a disease that has resulted in thousands upon thousands of unnecessary deaths. Bob Herbert writes about the corrupt Bush gang in this column linked at www.topplebush.com:

The art of Bush-speak is to achieve the effect of a lie without actually getting caught in a lie. That's what administration officials did when they deliberately fostered the impression that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda and thus was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. This is an insidious way of governing, and the opposite of what the United States should be about.

It should tell you something that the administration's resident sleazemeister, Karl Rove, who is up to his ears in this mess but has managed so far to escape indictment, continues to be viewed not as an embarrassment, but as President Bush's most important and absolutely indispensable asset.

MORE REPUBLICAN TAX "REFORM"

A presidential advisory panel is getting set to recommend tax "reforms" that they claim will be make filing taxes simpler. It seems every time Republicans "reform" tax codes, though, middle class people wind up paying more of the bill and the rich pay less. Among the proposed "reforms" would be eliminating the mortgage interest deduction. Who suffers more from that, the middle class or the rich? This story by MARY DALRYMPLE is at news.yahoo.com:

Under the plan, most deductions, credits and other tax breaks would be eliminated along with much of the paperwork and equations that baffle taxpayers under a drastically simplified income tax.

But many, including the nine members of the presidential commission, have said key recommendations will be unpopular.

"The effort to reform the tax code is noble in its purpose, but it requires political willpower," the group said Tuesday in a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow. "Many stand waiting to defend their breaks, deductions and loopholes, and to defeat our efforts."

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

A year ago George W. Bush was telling us that being president was "hard work." His political operatives were busily smearing John Kerry, claiming that Kerry's very real war record wasn't legitimate. What would have happened if Patrick Fitzgerald had been able to indict Lewis Libby a year ago? What would have happened if the Downing Street Memos were common knowledge then? October surprises and cover-ups have been hallmarks of the Republican party. Richard Nixon got away with it, Ronald Reagan got elected in 1980, and George W. Bush squeaked out a victory last year. This column by Thomas Oliphant is at www.commondreams.org:

Obstruction of justice is an elegant legal term for a felony that prosecutors take personally. Fitzgerald noted that the victims of this crime are not just the people who work under the protective shield of anonymity in the world of intelligence, but all of us who are injured when our system is prevented from working.

I would add that the obstruction of justice alleged in this case kept us from knowing material things about our leaders at the moment we were deciding whether to keep them in office. In more common speech, obstruction of justice is a coverup, and the coverup worked -- just as the Watergate coverup in 1972 kept facts from the public that would have guaranteed Richard Nixon's defeat.

By the summer of last year, the indictment makes clear, Fitzgerald already had Libby on the hook. He had testified twice before the grand jury, claiming that his knowledge of Valerie Plame Wilson's classified CIA position and status as former ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife had come from reporters. Fitzgerald had already taken a statement from NBC's Washington bureau chief, Tim Russert, flatly contradicting Libby's entire story. Russert had made his statement under ground rules that kept Fitzgerald from asking for anything beyond Russert's end of a phone conversation with Libby, thus protecting what Libby said to him.

OCTOBER 31, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

PROSECUTING CRIMINALS ISN'T "CRIMINALIZING" POLITICS

Thanks to Republicans a new word has been added to our lexicon. We now hear the word "criminalizing." It sounds like it's turning some perfectly legitimate activity into something criminal. Unfortunately for Republicans, these are real crimes. Whether it's the Bug Man Tom DeLay laundering money in Texas, or Bill Frist wading neck deep in insider trading, or Lewis Libby participating in the leak of a CIA agent's name and lying about it, or George W. Bush lying us into a war against Iraq, it's a crime, and it's entirely proper to go after criminals. This article by Michael Conniff is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:

The poor babies. They want to cut taxes and we want to put them in jail. They want to keep the pork on the pan and we want to stick them on a Plamegate skewer. They want to break the laws of the land behind closed doors and we want string them up for a modified hangout in the light of day.

Never mind that the cons and neocons are in control of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of your federal government. It doesn’t matter, because they are still persecuted for their beliefs, like witches in Salem or Sunnis in Iraq. If they need a pacifier, they can always go to war and commit perjury later.

But our little babies do have their ways. They have a weapon of the massively destructive kind. Perhaps you’ve heard of this weapon-it’s called a fax machine, though not because of the facts. At the press of the button, the con guys/gals can fax the word out to everyone who counts on the con/neocon front. When that happens, everyone who is anyone on the right starts to talk and/or write about the conservative talking points explained in plain black-and-white on the fax machine. They use the talking points to reductio ad absurdum the most complicated of things so that anyone in a red state of mind can understand (a) why the conservatives are complaining now; and (b) who it is they should be blaming this time. George Orwell could make up a word for this robotronic response, but we can just call it concatenated for our purposes.

BUSH'S LOUSY "LEADERSHIP"

If you wanted to cite any accomplishments of the Bush administration, what could you name? Everything this administration has touched has gotten worse. Even when there is some supposed good news such as an increase in G.D.P. you're hit with the reality of a higher poverty rate and lower wages. Iraq is a war that should never have happened and now we're mired there. As killer hurricanes pound us one after another Bush takes no action on global warming. The ineptness and cronyism after Hurricane Katrina put the Bush administration's incompetence on vivid display for the entire world. In this column Paul Krugman takes a look at the myths that Bush and company have constructed about themselves. The column is linked at www.topplebush.com:

The point is that this administration's political triumphs have never been based on its real-world achievements, which are few and far between. The administration has, instead, built its power on myths: the myth of presidential leadership, the ugly myth that the administration is patriotic while its critics are not. Take away those myths, and the administration has nothing left.

Well, Katrina ended the leadership myth, which was already fading as the war dragged on. There was a time when a photo of Mr. Bush looking out the window of Air Force One on 9/11 became an iconic image of leadership. Now, a similar image of Mr. Bush looking out at a flooded New Orleans has become an iconic image of his lack of connection. Pundits may try to resurrect Mr. Bush's reputation, but his cult of personality is dead - and the inscription on the tombstone reads, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Meanwhile, the Plame inquiry, however it winds up, has ended the myth of the administration's monopoly on patriotism, which was also fading in the face of the war.

ALAN GREENSPAN, CORPORATE SERVANT

The Federal Reserve is not an elected body, but it has enormous impact on the lives of all Americans, particularly in a time when so many interest rates--and jobs--are tied to decisions made by the Federal Reserve. Bob Woodward has called Alan Greenspan "Maestro," but there might be other more appropriate, and less flattering, names for Mr. Greenspan based on his undying fealty to corporate interests and his contempt for ordinary Americans. In this commentary David Podvin takes a look at Mr. Greenspan. The column is at www.makethemaccountable.com:

For almost two decades, Alan Greenspan has exerted a profoundly negative influence on the American economy. As Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, it has been his job to regulate monetary policy in a way that helps the common citizen. Yet rather than fulfilling his responsibility, Mr. Greenspan has implemented policies that benefit multinational corporations while imperiling the long-term economic health of the United States.

In the fall of 2002, the chairman faced a fateful decision. The stock market had taken a terrible pounding, but was still dramatically overvalued on an historical basis. A continued decline would further depress the weakening economy just as George W. Bush was preparing to run for a second term. Greenspan could allow the stock market bubble to deflate fully, which would cause immediate pain but rid the financial system of speculative excess. Alternatively, he could lower interest rates and infuse the system with liquidity, thereby boosting the economy in time for the election. The second option would create temporary prosperity at the expense of generating massive new debt that would greatly damage America’s future.

OCTOBER 30, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

U.N. POVERTY EXPERT SHOCKED AT NEW ORLEANS POVERTY

A United Nations expert in human rights and poverty issues reportedly found conditions in New Orleans "shocking." He said if the United States wasn't the richest nation in the world the situation would justify international aid. What a fine commentary on what the United States has become, where many citizens live almost in a Third World status. This article by CHANTE DIONNE WARREN is at www.2theadvocate.com:

After listening to Hurricane Katrina victims and disaster relief workers for several hours Friday, as well as touring parts of New Orleans, United Nations expert on human rights Arjun K. Sengupta, called America's response to the disaster "shocking."

"Something went wrong and it appears to be a gross violation of human rights," said Sengupta, United Nations independent expert on human rights and extreme poverty.

He said the federal government has responded slowly and with poor communications to help some of its poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

THE SLEAZY BUSH ADMINISTRATION

New polls show that Americans rate the ethics of the Bush White House lower than those of the Clinton White House. We should remember that Clinton was under relentless attack from the right-wing media his entire eight years. Non-scandals were blown into scandals and a personal scandal became a national scandal because Republicans were determined to bring him down. Now we see the difference between faux scandals and the real thing. Lying us into war is a real scandal. Torturing people is a real scandal. Crony deals at taxpayer expense are real scandals. Failure to live up to the duties and responsibilities under the Constitution are real scandals. This story by Richard Morin and Claudia Deane is at www.washingtonpost.com:

A majority of Americans say the indictment of senior White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby signals broader ethical problems in the Bush administration, and nearly half say the overall level of honesty and ethics in the federal government has fallen since President Bush took office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.

The poll, conducted Friday night and yesterday, found that 55 percent of the public believes the Libby case indicates wider problems "with ethical wrongdoing" in the White House, while 41 percent believes it was an "isolated incident." And by a 3 to 1 ratio, 46 percent to 15 percent, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.

HANSON BELONGS IN A RUBBER ROOM

I've lost any respect I ever had for Victor Davis Hanson, the expert on the ancient Greeks who teaches at California State University Fresno. Hanson has morphed from an interesting commentator on the classics to a bigoted, war-mongering demon. He wrote a book a few years ago that essentially bashed Mexican immigrants. Then he moved into the inner circle of the Bush crime family, acting as the intellectual guru justifying an immoral war in Iraq. Now Hanson, who apparently learned nothing from Adolf Hitler, is urging a two-front war, saying that Bush should attack, well, almost everyone in the Middle East. James Wolcott has some thoughts on the war-mongering Hanson at www.jameswolcott.com:

In his latest flaming spear hurled from on high, Hanson says it's do or die time for Bush. Surrounded by evildoers and no-gooders, he must stand and fight. "He can choose either to be nicked and slowly bled to death in his second term, or to bare his fangs and like some cornered carnivore start slashing back."

Now I don't know about you, but I'm not comfortable with the idea of the Commander in Chief of the most powerful military in history baring his fangs and slashing like some demon possessed fresh from the Hellmouth. It's not really what the framers of democracy had in mind.

Like the neocons who think he's the hunkiest, Hanson urges Bush to broaden the war on terror and put a major hurting on Iran and Syria and any other tyranny in the region thwarting American aims. But he also wants Bush to fight a two-front war.

"George Bush also should begin addressing his most venomous critics at home, by condemning their current extremism. He must explain to the nation how a radical, vicious Left has more or less gotten a free pass in its rhetoric of hate, and has now passed the limits of accepted debate."

OCTOBER 29, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

"STRONG ECONOMY" STATISTICS ARE DECEIVING

We're seeing headlines about the strong growth of the U.S. economy in the last quarter, but incomes are still down and poverty is still up. The media should look at the lives of real people and make those statistics the real story. This commentary from the Economic Policy Institute is at www.epinet.org:

The number and share of persons in poverty also increased last year, from 12.5% to 12.7%, the fourth consecutive increase since poverty hit 11.3% in 2000 (the end of the last expansion). Since that year, 5.4 million more persons, including 1.4 million children, have been added to the poverty rolls.

The key factor behind the deterioration of real household income and increase in poverty is the prolonged labor market slump that began in 2001. Although the job market expanded consistently in 2004—the Census report shows the addition of 1.5 million workers in 2004 over 2003—this addition was not faster than the growth of total households and not enough to absorb the labor market slack left over from the longest jobless recovery on record. These conditions are constraining the bargaining power of many in the workforce, such that the benefits of overall growth are failing to reach working families.

The unbalanced nature of the economic recovery is also documented in the latest Census release. While the share of total national income flowing to the bottom 60% of households was essentially unchanged, the share going to the top 5% was up 0.4 percentage points, from 21.4% to 21.8%. As of 2004, the top fifth of households held 50.1% of all income, tied with 2001 for the highest share on record. Similarly, as shown in Figure 2, while the average real income of middle-income households fell slightly (down $300 or 0.7%—from $44,759 to $44,455), that of households in the top 5% grew by over $4,000 (+1.7%), from $260,045 to $264,387.

PAUL KRUGMAN ON THE NEW FED CHAIRMAN

Paul Krugman has a high opinion of the man designated to follow Alan Greenspan as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. It's an unexpectedly good nomination from George W. Bush. But Krugman points out that Ben Bernanke is inheriting an unenviable situation from Greenspan. The U.S. economy has moved the past few years thanks to money from Asia and the housing bubble. Both of those things are likely to end. We can only hope that Bernanke is the first step toward removing all the irresponsible and criminal people in the Bush regime. This column is at www.topplebush.com:

The fact is that the U.S. economy's growth over the past few years has depended on two unsustainable trends: a huge surge in house prices and a vast inflow of funds from Asia. Sooner or later, both trends will end, possibly abruptly.

It's true that Mr. Bernanke has given speeches suggesting both that a "global savings glut" will continue to provide the United States with lots of capital inflows, and that housing prices don't reflect a bubble. Well, soothing words are expected from a Fed chairman. He must know that he may be wrong.

If he is, the U.S. economy will find itself in need of the "Rooseveltian resolve" Mr. Bernanke advocated for Japan. We can safely predict that Mr. Bernanke will show that resolve. In fact, Bill Gross of the giant bond fund Pimco has already predicted that next year Mr. Bernanke will start cutting interest rates.

THE REAL CRIMES OF THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

During the Clinton administration everything got named with a "gate" suffix, no matter how trivial. There was Haircut-gate, Travel Office-gate, the Whitewater probe, and Monica Lewinsky. After all the sound and fury, though, not a single senior White House official was indicted. Bill Clinton ran an ethical administration. Contrast that with George W. Bush, the pompous, smirking, self-righteous hypocrite who sold himself as the exemplar of moral values. The indictment of Lewis Libby is just the beginning. Paul Begala comments in this item linked at www.huffingtonpost.com:

The Fitzgerald probe, it should be noted, is the first independent investigation into alleged wrongdoing in the Bush White House. And it has hit paydirt. Contrast that with the dry holes of Whitewater, Filegate, the billing records, Vince Foster's suicide, the cattle futures, the Buddhist temple, and all the rest. Good Lord, Congress even spent two years investigating Clinton's Christmas card list. Just to list the trumped-up Clinton "scandals" is to recall how trivial -- and yet how destructive -- they were. Innocent people were impoverished, reputations were damaged, careers derailed. But at least history can give the Clinton team a clean bill of ethical health. No White House was more thoroughly investigated -- and more thoroughly exonerated. But it's telling that the first time anyone had the courage to scratch the surface of Bush, Inc., he found corruption.

It is not boilerplate to state that those accused are entitled to the presumption of innocence. But that is a legal matter. As a matter of morality, the Bushies are already guilty. Guilty of smearing the Wilson family. Guilty of twisting intelligence. Guilty of lying about the role of White House aides in outing Mrs. Wilson. Guilty of sanctimony and hypocrisy and hubris. Most of all, they are guilty of misleading us into this God-awful war.

OCTOBER 28, 2005

IMPEACH BUSH

POLL SHOWS GOP WAY OUT OF STEP

Average Americans care about eradicating poverty, according to a new poll. They also think we should get out of Iraq and rebuild New Orleans. Let's hope this is a trend. This story by PETER PRENGAMAN is linked at www.sanluisobispo.com:

Eliminating poverty in America is more important than fighting terrorism, U.S. troops should be pulled out of Iraq, and money saved on war should be used to rebuild hurricane-scarred New Orleans, according to a national poll.

When asked, "What do you think should be the most important priority for the U.S.?" 58 percent of blacks chose "eliminating poverty" over "rebuilding our own cities," "fighting terrorism," and "establishing democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan," according to poll results released Thursday.

TERMINATE THE GROPER'S POLITICAL CAREER

Governor Groper got his special election and his pet propositions on the ballot, but they all appear to be in trouble as we approach the November 8 election. I believe this election is a commentary not only on these propositions, but on the political career of Governor Groper. It's time to send him back to making bad movies and get a governor who will represent all of us, not just the fat cats who back the Republican party. This story by Lynda Gledhill is at www.sfgate.com:

Support for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's special election ballot measures remains weak, with none of them enjoying majority support despite millions spent in advertising by the governor, according to a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.

With just over a week to go before the election, 81 percent of voters said they are interested in the election, according to the poll, but the governor continues to face significant opposition from Democrats and independents.

The coalition of labor unions and Democrats opposing the governor's initiatives, meanwhile, has made a substantial dent in support for Proposition 75, which would make it more difficult for public-sector unions to raise money for political purposes. Support has dropped 12 points since mid-September among likely voters, with an equal 46 percent saying they will vote for and against the measure.

THUMBS DOWN FOR BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT

We live in the land of polls these days. They sometimes are a good barometer of where we are. This poll shows Americans increasingly not happy with business or government. We know that the government is currently run by thugs, but they are certainly aided and abetted by big business. JFK, after getting double crossed by steel company executives, once said, "My father always told me businessmen were s.o.b.'s, but I never believe it until now." A lot Americans believe it now. Today, for example, I got a notice from Bank of America about an account I haven't used in a long time. They wanted to charge interest rates ranging from about 19%-22%. Why on earth would I want to use a credit card with rates like that? I closed it. I hope there is a big backlash against these scummy greedy people in the business world. This story by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press is at www.makethemaccountable.com:

Americans express increasingly negative views of a wide range major institutions, reflecting strong discontent with national conditions. Over the past year, ratings have tumbled for the federal government and Congress. And it is not just Washington institutions that are being viewed less positively. Favorable opinions of business corporations are at their lowest point in two decades. In the face of high energy prices, just 20% express positive opinions of oil companies.

Favorable ratings for the federal government in Washington have taken the hardest hit, falling from 59% last year to 45% currently. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted among 2,006 Americans from Oct. 12-24, finds that even positive views of the military, while very high, have slipped slightly (from 87% in March to 82%). Just two institutions are unscathed by public discontent. Ratings for the Supreme Court and the news media were unchanged compared to previous surveys.