DECEMBER 12, 2004
CENSORSHIP IN THE U.S.A.
It seems almost unbelievable that books banned in totalitarian countries can't get published in the United States, but that's what is happening in the Bush regime. This story is in The Seattle Times:
In an apparent reversal of decades of U.S. practice, recent federal Office of Foreign Assets Control regulations bar American companies from publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval.
The restriction, condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment, means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes cannot be published freely in the United States.
RISK IS NOW DUMPED ONTO THE WORKING POOR
In laissez-faire America it's not big business and the wealthy who are the "risk takers," Rush Limbaugh notwithstanding, it's the working poor. Being a member of the working poor is like standing on the deck of a ship on a stormy sea. You're constantly lurching from one crisis to the next. We can do better. This story is at www.latimes.com:
Indeed, today's working poor are experiencing an extreme version of the economic turbulence that is rocking families across the income spectrum. And the cause, no matter people's means, is the same: a quarter-century-long shift of economic risk by business and government onto working families.
Protections that Americans, especially poor ones, once relied on to buffer them from economic setbacks - affordable housing, stable jobs with good benefits, union membership and the backstop of cash welfare - have shriveled or been eliminated. These losses have been only partially offset by an expansion of programs such as the earned-income tax credit for the working poor and publicly provided healthcare.
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS?
I heard great things about the book What's the Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank, and I agree. I haven't finished the book yet, but I've found it extremely enlightening so far. It's the supreme irony that a state like Kansas that was once a bastion of progressive thought has turned into a diehard "red" state. The question that keeps occurring to me is: how do you reason with people who have turned off the rational parts of their brains? Frank talks frequently of people who vote against their own self-interests for some often ill-defined and vague reason. They see the economic devastation from Republican policies, for example, but they vote Republican anyway.
Part of it is that the Republican sound machine has managed to demonize the word "liberal." Many of the people who vote for Republicans think all liberals are intellectual snobs who drive European cars, drink lattes, eat imported cheeses, and look down their noses at common folk. I'm a liberal who makes less than $30,000 a year, drives an old car, who does like gourmet coffee (forgive me), and likes books. It seems to me that working class people should pull together the way we did back in the Depression era. We owe it to ourselves, to our children and grandchildren, and the rest of the world. People who vote Republican in the belief they're voting for "moral values" are in reality voting for corporate greed.
Frank points out that despite all the hot air Republicans have not done anything about the hot button social issues they blather about. They haven't outlawed abortion, they haven't outlawed affirmative action, and all the rest. The minute those issues disappear people might be likely to look at economic issues and environmental issues and when that happens Republicans are doomed.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
DECEMBER 11, 2004
GOVERNMENT'S IDIOTIC TREATMENT OF SHIRIN EBADI
Shirin Ebadi is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a Muslim, and Iranian. Our government in its stupid narrow-mindedness is preventing her from publishing her memoirs in the United States because of a law preventing "trading with the enemy." As Ellen Goodman points out in this column, we should be pleased to publish Shirin Ebadi because she represents all the values we're supposed to hold dear. This column is at www.workingforchange.com:
Let's take the bungled case of Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize. This Iranian dissident is being prevented from publishing her memoirs in the United States because of regulations that prohibit "trading with the enemy."
YOU GOTTA LOVE BIG BUSINESS (NOT!)
Colgate-Palmolive has announced thousands of job cuts, but has found money to compensate their top executives for things like pet sitters. It reminds me of a job I had with a commuter airline a few years ago. Most of us were making around $8.00 an hour. The company announced that they had to control costs and froze the salaries of people who had been working there for years. Not long after that the CEO arranged for a $2.6 million bonus for himself, saying he had done a "credible job." The Colgate-Palmolive outrage is documented at www.wlns.com:
Even as Colgate-Palmolive announces job cuts, the consumer products maker has disclosed that many executives are given allowances to spend on anything from pet sitters to running shoes.
The plan, called "Above and Beyond," is detailed in the company's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The program has been in place since 1986 and covers 800 executives. Under the plan, executives and officers can ask for reimbursement for exercise equipment, instructional videos, grooming and boarding services for pets and veterinarian fees and visits.
WHAT KERIK NOMINATION SAYS ABOUT BUSH
It was only a week ago or so that George W. Bush announced that former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik would head the Department of Homeland Security. Now Mr. Kerik has withdrawn his name from consideration as some rather unflattering facts about him came to light. He made millions from a company that sold stun guns, for instance, which would seem to be conflict of interest for someone working in the police department. This raises some questions about Mr. Bush and his administration. Did they vet this guy? How did they miss what so many reporters were able to find? Are they that grossly incompetent, or did they just not care? This item is at hoffmania.typepad.com. The quotation is from Newsweek:
Kerik, who recently made millions in the private sector, once filed for personal bankruptcy as a New York cop. And just five years ago he was in financial trouble over a condominium he owned in New Jersey. More serious trouble than anyone realized: NEWSWEEK has discovered that a New Jersey judge in 1998 had issued an arrest warrant as part of a convoluted series of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on his condo. The magazine faxed documents, including the arrest warrant, over to the White House around 6:00 p.m. Friday, asking for comment. Neither Kerik nor the White House had any immediate response. At 8:30 p.m., Kerik had submitted his letter to the president.
BEWARE OF RELIGIOUS PROPHETS
This story about a fundamentalist sect of Mormons reminds me of Jehovah's Witnesses. I got acquainted with the Witnesses back in the late 1960s because a family member was a Witness. About that time the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society published a book with a biblical chronology claiming that six thousand years of human existence would end in 1975. Using a variety of scriptures as an argument, the implication was that Armageddon would end the present world before or in 1975 and usher in a New World Order under Jehovah. Millions of Jehovah's Witnesses altered their marriage, career, and other plans based on the belief the present world wouldn't last much longer. It seems similar to the story of the fundamentalist Mormons mentioned in this article. The article is at news.independent.co.uk:
If the 9,000 members of a polygamous Mormon sect in south-west Utah felt comfortable borrowing from their local bank like there was no tomorrow, it was because, in their minds, that was precisely the case. The world, they had been told, was coming to an end.
GOVERNMENT'S IDIOTIC TREATMENT OF SHIRIN EBADI
Shirin Ebadi is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, a Muslim, and Iranian. Our government in its stupid narrow-mindedness is preventing her from publishing her memoirs in the United States because of a law preventing "trading with the enemy." As Ellen Goodman points out in this column, we should be pleased to publish Shirin Ebadi because she represents all the values we're supposed to hold dear. This column is at www.workingforchange.com:
Let's take the bungled case of Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize. This Iranian dissident is being prevented from publishing her memoirs in the United States because of regulations that prohibit "trading with the enemy."
YOU GOTTA LOVE BIG BUSINESS (NOT!)
Colgate-Palmolive has announced thousands of job cuts, but has found money to compensate their top executives for things like pet sitters. It reminds me of a job I had with a commuter airline a few years ago. Most of us were making around $8.00 an hour. The company announced that they had to control costs and froze the salaries of people who had been working there for years. Not long after that the CEO arranged for a $2.6 million bonus for himself, saying he had done a "credible job." The Colgate-Palmolive outrage is documented at www.wlns.com:
Even as Colgate-Palmolive announces job cuts, the consumer products maker has disclosed that many executives are given allowances to spend on anything from pet sitters to running shoes.
The plan, called "Above and Beyond," is detailed in the company's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The program has been in place since 1986 and covers 800 executives. Under the plan, executives and officers can ask for reimbursement for exercise equipment, instructional videos, grooming and boarding services for pets and veterinarian fees and visits.
WHAT KERIK NOMINATION SAYS ABOUT BUSH
It was only a week ago or so that George W. Bush announced that former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik would head the Department of Homeland Security. Now Mr. Kerik has withdrawn his name from consideration as some rather unflattering facts about him came to light. He made millions from a company that sold stun guns, for instance, which would seem to be conflict of interest for someone working in the police department. This raises some questions about Mr. Bush and his administration. Did they vet this guy? How did they miss what so many reporters were able to find? Are they that grossly incompetent, or did they just not care? This item is at hoffmania.typepad.com. The quotation is from Newsweek:
Kerik, who recently made millions in the private sector, once filed for personal bankruptcy as a New York cop. And just five years ago he was in financial trouble over a condominium he owned in New Jersey. More serious trouble than anyone realized: NEWSWEEK has discovered that a New Jersey judge in 1998 had issued an arrest warrant as part of a convoluted series of lawsuits relating to unpaid bills on his condo. The magazine faxed documents, including the arrest warrant, over to the White House around 6:00 p.m. Friday, asking for comment. Neither Kerik nor the White House had any immediate response. At 8:30 p.m., Kerik had submitted his letter to the president.
BEWARE OF RELIGIOUS PROPHETS
This story about a fundamentalist sect of Mormons reminds me of Jehovah's Witnesses. I got acquainted with the Witnesses back in the late 1960s because a family member was a Witness. About that time the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society published a book with a biblical chronology claiming that six thousand years of human existence would end in 1975. Using a variety of scriptures as an argument, the implication was that Armageddon would end the present world before or in 1975 and usher in a New World Order under Jehovah. Millions of Jehovah's Witnesses altered their marriage, career, and other plans based on the belief the present world wouldn't last much longer. It seems similar to the story of the fundamentalist Mormons mentioned in this article. The article is at news.independent.co.uk:
If the 9,000 members of a polygamous Mormon sect in south-west Utah felt comfortable borrowing from their local bank like there was no tomorrow, it was because, in their minds, that was precisely the case. The world, they had been told, was coming to an end.
Friday, December 10, 2004
DECEMBER 10, 2004
GLOBAL WARMING NEEDS ACTION NOW
We have to get past the propaganda of the free market crowd, especially the oil companies, and treat global warming as a threat to all life on earth. That's what it is. Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall has an editorial at www.latimes.com:
Scientists tell us that global warming is an omnipresent reality, that in this century it will change the lives of all of us and alter our relationship to the physical world. Only a comprehensive, global strategy will enable humanity to gradually cope with its implications.
Robust, immediate action is needed. Forget wrangling about ratification of the modest Kyoto treaty. Instead, the 20 industrialized countries (let's call them the Power Bloc) that produce most of the world's destructive carbon dioxide emissions must join together to take action.
BUSH WANTS TO DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY
I thought it was interesting that George W. Bush said he wouldn't raise payroll taxes to pay for his attack on Social Security. He used the word "problem." If politicians like Bush would leave Social Security alone, there wouldn't be a problem. The system would be solvent for decades. As Paul Krugman recently pointed out, the Bushies want to create a "problem" where one doesn't exist and then offer their "solution," which just happens to benefit big business interests. This article is at www.nytimes.com:
President Bush on Thursday flatly rejected the possibility of raising payroll taxes to pay for an overhaul of Social Security, a project that is likely to cost trillions of dollars over the next several decades.
"We will not raise payroll taxes to solve this problem," Mr. Bush told reporters after meeting with trustees of the Social Security system.
CONSERVATIVES LOVE SEMANTICS
If you talk about democracy in the United States some conservative will pipe up somberly and tell you we're a Republic. Right-wingers rail against "political correctness." They also tend to see discrimination against them everywhere. The latest accusation of discrimination relates to university professors, who conservatives claim are overwhelmingly Democrats (except for those good folks in the business schools). Mr. Anti-Choice had one of those semantic letters in The Fresno Bee today talking about how he defines himself as a "classical" liberal as opposed to us modern liberals, who he calls "socialists." This is an interesting column by Jonathan Chait at www.latimes.com:
A few weeks ago, a pair of studies found that Democrats vastly outnumbered Republicans among professors at leading universities. Conservatives gleefully seized upon this to once again flagellate academia for its liberal bias.
Am I the only person who fails to understand why conservatives see this finding as vindication? After all, these studies show that some of the best-educated, most-informed people in the country overwhelmingly reject the GOP. Why is this seen as an indictment of academia, rather than as an indictment of the Republican Party?
PAUL KRUGMAN'S STRONG CASE AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION
The plan George W. Bush is pushing to "privatize" Social Security is a terrible idea that will greatly expand the national debt, pay handsomely to brokers, put anyone who "invests" at risk of losing their retirement, and just one more attack on the social safety net that made the middle class possible in the United States. Paul Krugman presents some strong arguments against the Bush plan in his column at www.nytimes.com:
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government, already deep in deficit, would have to borrow to make up the shortfall.
This would sharply increase the government's debt. Never mind, privatization advocates say: in the long run, they claim, people would make so much on personal accounts that the government could save money by cutting retirees' benefits. Financial markets won't believe this claim, as I'll explain in a minute, but let's temporarily grant the point.
GLOBAL WARMING NEEDS ACTION NOW
We have to get past the propaganda of the free market crowd, especially the oil companies, and treat global warming as a threat to all life on earth. That's what it is. Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall has an editorial at www.latimes.com:
Scientists tell us that global warming is an omnipresent reality, that in this century it will change the lives of all of us and alter our relationship to the physical world. Only a comprehensive, global strategy will enable humanity to gradually cope with its implications.
Robust, immediate action is needed. Forget wrangling about ratification of the modest Kyoto treaty. Instead, the 20 industrialized countries (let's call them the Power Bloc) that produce most of the world's destructive carbon dioxide emissions must join together to take action.
BUSH WANTS TO DESTROY SOCIAL SECURITY
I thought it was interesting that George W. Bush said he wouldn't raise payroll taxes to pay for his attack on Social Security. He used the word "problem." If politicians like Bush would leave Social Security alone, there wouldn't be a problem. The system would be solvent for decades. As Paul Krugman recently pointed out, the Bushies want to create a "problem" where one doesn't exist and then offer their "solution," which just happens to benefit big business interests. This article is at www.nytimes.com:
President Bush on Thursday flatly rejected the possibility of raising payroll taxes to pay for an overhaul of Social Security, a project that is likely to cost trillions of dollars over the next several decades.
"We will not raise payroll taxes to solve this problem," Mr. Bush told reporters after meeting with trustees of the Social Security system.
CONSERVATIVES LOVE SEMANTICS
If you talk about democracy in the United States some conservative will pipe up somberly and tell you we're a Republic. Right-wingers rail against "political correctness." They also tend to see discrimination against them everywhere. The latest accusation of discrimination relates to university professors, who conservatives claim are overwhelmingly Democrats (except for those good folks in the business schools). Mr. Anti-Choice had one of those semantic letters in The Fresno Bee today talking about how he defines himself as a "classical" liberal as opposed to us modern liberals, who he calls "socialists." This is an interesting column by Jonathan Chait at www.latimes.com:
A few weeks ago, a pair of studies found that Democrats vastly outnumbered Republicans among professors at leading universities. Conservatives gleefully seized upon this to once again flagellate academia for its liberal bias.
Am I the only person who fails to understand why conservatives see this finding as vindication? After all, these studies show that some of the best-educated, most-informed people in the country overwhelmingly reject the GOP. Why is this seen as an indictment of academia, rather than as an indictment of the Republican Party?
PAUL KRUGMAN'S STRONG CASE AGAINST SOCIAL SECURITY PRIVATIZATION
The plan George W. Bush is pushing to "privatize" Social Security is a terrible idea that will greatly expand the national debt, pay handsomely to brokers, put anyone who "invests" at risk of losing their retirement, and just one more attack on the social safety net that made the middle class possible in the United States. Paul Krugman presents some strong arguments against the Bush plan in his column at www.nytimes.com:
Privatization would begin by diverting payroll taxes, which pay for current Social Security benefits, into personal investment accounts. The government, already deep in deficit, would have to borrow to make up the shortfall.
This would sharply increase the government's debt. Never mind, privatization advocates say: in the long run, they claim, people would make so much on personal accounts that the government could save money by cutting retirees' benefits. Financial markets won't believe this claim, as I'll explain in a minute, but let's temporarily grant the point.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
DECEMBER 9, 2004
DISTURBING PARALLELS WITH HITLER'S GERMANY
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently made the astounding claim that we are a Christian nation. You would think a learned man like Justice Scalia would bother to read some real history. He went on to claim that Nazi Germany arose because of Europe's secular ways. Never mind that Nazism was infused with symbols of Christianity. Maureen Farrell has an article linked at www.smirkingchmp.com:
If photographic evidence of the Third Reich's Christian leanings were not enough, Hitler's own speeches and writings prove, at the very least, that he presented many of the same faith-based arguments heard in America today. Religion in the schools? Hitler was for it. Intellectuals who practiced "anti-Christian, smug individualism"? According to Hitler, their days were numbered. Divine Providence's role in shaping Germany's ultimate victory? Who could argue? In other words, there is enough historical evidence to color Scalia deluded.
MAUREEN DOWD ON RUMSFELD IN KUWAIT
Bartcop likes to call Maureen Dowd the lady who hates everybody, but she is writing some of the hardest-hitting and insightful pieces about the incompetence and lies of the Bush administration. In today's column she takes on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the lying and incompetent guy who can't explain why there aren't enough troops or supplies for the people trapped in the insurgent war in Iraq. This column is at www.nytimes.com:
Hoooo-rah! Rummy finally got called on the carpet.
Not by the president, of course, but by troops fighting in Iraq. Some of them are finally fed up enough to rumble about his back-door draft and failure to provide them with the proper armor for their Humvees, leaving them scrambling to improvise with what they call "hillbilly armor."
UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS UP AGAIN
The bad economic news just keeps coming. According to this story, the initial filings for unemployment were up again. Just think about the millions of people who aren't even counted in the official unemployment statistics. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless pay grew unexpectedly last week to 357,000, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, but an official said an increase in the week after a public holiday was typical.
BUSH SHOULD HAVE TO PROVE GOD SPEAKS TO HIM
You read stories constantly of some fruitcake committing an atrocity and claiming that God told them to do it. Throw scalding water on a child (God told them to do it). Bomb an abortion clinic. They heard the voice of the Almighty. George W.Bush has made the astonishing claim that God told him to attack Iraq. I would like to have some proof. Other people who commit atrocities after God "told" them to wound up in jail. This is an interesting commentary at english.daralhayat.com:
Nevertheless, I am tempted to record some of the stances, which the reader might have missed or even heard but forgotten such as President Bush's words in the summer of last year, to Mahmoud Abbas who was the Palestinian Prime Minister at the time. "God told me to strike at Al Qaeda, and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike Saddam, which I did." My opinion, and I hereby apologize for repeating it, is that the man who speaks to God is a believer, whereas the man, who claims that God is speaking to him, is a lunatic.
DISTURBING PARALLELS WITH HITLER'S GERMANY
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently made the astounding claim that we are a Christian nation. You would think a learned man like Justice Scalia would bother to read some real history. He went on to claim that Nazi Germany arose because of Europe's secular ways. Never mind that Nazism was infused with symbols of Christianity. Maureen Farrell has an article linked at www.smirkingchmp.com:
If photographic evidence of the Third Reich's Christian leanings were not enough, Hitler's own speeches and writings prove, at the very least, that he presented many of the same faith-based arguments heard in America today. Religion in the schools? Hitler was for it. Intellectuals who practiced "anti-Christian, smug individualism"? According to Hitler, their days were numbered. Divine Providence's role in shaping Germany's ultimate victory? Who could argue? In other words, there is enough historical evidence to color Scalia deluded.
MAUREEN DOWD ON RUMSFELD IN KUWAIT
Bartcop likes to call Maureen Dowd the lady who hates everybody, but she is writing some of the hardest-hitting and insightful pieces about the incompetence and lies of the Bush administration. In today's column she takes on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the lying and incompetent guy who can't explain why there aren't enough troops or supplies for the people trapped in the insurgent war in Iraq. This column is at www.nytimes.com:
Hoooo-rah! Rummy finally got called on the carpet.
Not by the president, of course, but by troops fighting in Iraq. Some of them are finally fed up enough to rumble about his back-door draft and failure to provide them with the proper armor for their Humvees, leaving them scrambling to improvise with what they call "hillbilly armor."
UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS UP AGAIN
The bad economic news just keeps coming. According to this story, the initial filings for unemployment were up again. Just think about the millions of people who aren't even counted in the official unemployment statistics. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless pay grew unexpectedly last week to 357,000, Labor Department data showed on Thursday, but an official said an increase in the week after a public holiday was typical.
BUSH SHOULD HAVE TO PROVE GOD SPEAKS TO HIM
You read stories constantly of some fruitcake committing an atrocity and claiming that God told them to do it. Throw scalding water on a child (God told them to do it). Bomb an abortion clinic. They heard the voice of the Almighty. George W.Bush has made the astonishing claim that God told him to attack Iraq. I would like to have some proof. Other people who commit atrocities after God "told" them to wound up in jail. This is an interesting commentary at english.daralhayat.com:
Nevertheless, I am tempted to record some of the stances, which the reader might have missed or even heard but forgotten such as President Bush's words in the summer of last year, to Mahmoud Abbas who was the Palestinian Prime Minister at the time. "God told me to strike at Al Qaeda, and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike Saddam, which I did." My opinion, and I hereby apologize for repeating it, is that the man who speaks to God is a believer, whereas the man, who claims that God is speaking to him, is a lunatic.
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
DECEMBER 8, 2004
LET THE POETS SPEAK
In this article Ernest Partridge writes a passionate denunciation of George W. Bush, a man not worthy to be President of the United States. Bush reminds you of the words from the Bhagavad- Gita, "I am become death, a destroyer of worlds." This article is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
An incurious, narcissistic psychopath sits in the Oval Office - an office he did not legitimately win four years ago - an office that he may have seized last month through massive, many-faceted electoral manipulation and fraud.
Forty million of our citizens are without health insurance, one out of six American children live in poverty, uncounted millions are out of work as still more jobs are exported overseas. The median family income declines as the nation's wealth continues to "percolate up" from the pockets of the needy and the productive middle class to the wealthy.
THE GROPER IS NO FRIEND OF WORKING PEOPLE
Despite trying to cultivate a "moderate" image, California's Groper governor is just another Republican tool of big business. A few months ago he vetoed a law that would have increased California's dismal minimum wage. Now he's leading the charge against nurses' unions. This story is at biz.yahoo.com:
In early November, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to roll back key provisions of the California law requiring safe RN hospital staffing. His edict was made at the specific request of the state's multi-billion dollar healthcare industry which is among the special interests that have contributed more than $26 million to the governor in his first year. The California Healthcare Association, whose members are major donors to Schwarzenegger, thanked him for the attempted rollback by paying for the ads praising it.
JOBS ARE GOING, GOING, GONE
You remember all those right-wingers who foamed at the mouth about "socialized medicine" when President Clinton proposed a national health care system? We were told we had the "best medicine in the world" and so on. Never mind that millions of our fellow citizens had no health care at all. Now it seems that rising health care costs are having a direct impact on hiring, or lack of hiring. This story is at money.cnn.com:
Hit by rising health care and energy costs, employers announced more than 100,000 job cuts in November, capping the first three-month stretch above that level since early 2002, an outplacement firm said Tuesday.
TROOPS ASK RUMSFELD SOME TOUGH QUESTIONS
During a trip to Kuwait Donald Rumsfeld got asked some questions by the troops that our major media and politicians should be asking a lot more loudly. The troops wanted to know why they aren't provided the supplies they need. I think an even more important question is why are they there in the first place? This story is at www.latimes.com:
During a brief visit to a makeshift camp in the Kuwait desert today, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was peppered with questions by anxious troops awaiting deployment to Iraq who wanted to know why some soldiers were still being sent into the violent country with insufficient protection against the deadly insurgency.
In the middle of the "town hall" meeting with troops at Camp Buehring, one of the many U.S. bases scattered throughout the tiny nation, one soldier asked Rumsfeld why some troops were forced to rummage through local landfills to search for scraps of armor to attach to their vehicles.
LET THE POETS SPEAK
In this article Ernest Partridge writes a passionate denunciation of George W. Bush, a man not worthy to be President of the United States. Bush reminds you of the words from the Bhagavad- Gita, "I am become death, a destroyer of worlds." This article is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
An incurious, narcissistic psychopath sits in the Oval Office - an office he did not legitimately win four years ago - an office that he may have seized last month through massive, many-faceted electoral manipulation and fraud.
Forty million of our citizens are without health insurance, one out of six American children live in poverty, uncounted millions are out of work as still more jobs are exported overseas. The median family income declines as the nation's wealth continues to "percolate up" from the pockets of the needy and the productive middle class to the wealthy.
THE GROPER IS NO FRIEND OF WORKING PEOPLE
Despite trying to cultivate a "moderate" image, California's Groper governor is just another Republican tool of big business. A few months ago he vetoed a law that would have increased California's dismal minimum wage. Now he's leading the charge against nurses' unions. This story is at biz.yahoo.com:
In early November, Gov. Schwarzenegger issued an executive order to roll back key provisions of the California law requiring safe RN hospital staffing. His edict was made at the specific request of the state's multi-billion dollar healthcare industry which is among the special interests that have contributed more than $26 million to the governor in his first year. The California Healthcare Association, whose members are major donors to Schwarzenegger, thanked him for the attempted rollback by paying for the ads praising it.
JOBS ARE GOING, GOING, GONE
You remember all those right-wingers who foamed at the mouth about "socialized medicine" when President Clinton proposed a national health care system? We were told we had the "best medicine in the world" and so on. Never mind that millions of our fellow citizens had no health care at all. Now it seems that rising health care costs are having a direct impact on hiring, or lack of hiring. This story is at money.cnn.com:
Hit by rising health care and energy costs, employers announced more than 100,000 job cuts in November, capping the first three-month stretch above that level since early 2002, an outplacement firm said Tuesday.
TROOPS ASK RUMSFELD SOME TOUGH QUESTIONS
During a trip to Kuwait Donald Rumsfeld got asked some questions by the troops that our major media and politicians should be asking a lot more loudly. The troops wanted to know why they aren't provided the supplies they need. I think an even more important question is why are they there in the first place? This story is at www.latimes.com:
During a brief visit to a makeshift camp in the Kuwait desert today, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was peppered with questions by anxious troops awaiting deployment to Iraq who wanted to know why some soldiers were still being sent into the violent country with insufficient protection against the deadly insurgency.
In the middle of the "town hall" meeting with troops at Camp Buehring, one of the many U.S. bases scattered throughout the tiny nation, one soldier asked Rumsfeld why some troops were forced to rummage through local landfills to search for scraps of armor to attach to their vehicles.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
DECEMBER 7, 2004
DAY OF INFAMY
This is the anniversary of the date President Franklin D. Roosevelt called, "a day that will live in infamy." We were attacked at Pearl Harbor by forces of the Japanese Empire without warning. The "Greatest Generation" then fought a war against the Axis Powers that was long, dreadful, bloody, but ultimately victorious. That war at least had some justification. There was honor in fighting the Nazis and the Axis Powers. Where is the justification or the honor in killing innocent Iraqis and citizens of Afghanistan?
DOROTHY SHOULD BE GLAD SHE'S NOT IN KANSAS
I remember in The Wizard of Oz that Dorothy looked around Oz in wonder and exclaimed, "We're not in Kansas anymore." She wouldn't recognize Kansas now. The "red" state of Kansas has a flourishing porn industry. This story is at www.latimes.com:
Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again.
Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie. Near the Love Sling of Ecstasy, a wife confers with her husband by cellphone as she studies a tidy display of vibrators, hundreds of them, in every size and color.
THINGS DETERIORATING IN IRAQ
I don't know how much longer we'll continue to hear rosy scenarios about Iraq from the Bush administration, but we're a long way from "freedom being on the march" and the other catch phrases we get from George W. Bush. Violence and disorder continue to escalate. This story by Douglas Jehl is at www.nytimes.com:
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials.
The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq.
THE UGLY FACE OF CONSERVATISM
Greed, hypocrisy, bullying, all hallmarks of modern conservatism. This article is by a 21-year-old, who already has an amazing grasp of what conservatism represents. The article by M. Junaid Alam is at www.altpr.org:
Right-wing ideology is mostly a game of smoke and mirrors. Outside the narrow segment of the very wealthy, it achieves its appeal by cleverly capitalizing upon the inchoate prejudices, suspicions, fears, and insecurities prevalent among the public. The method is simple but effective: for any given problem, introduce a few crucial codewords and phrases that both eject said problem’s real dimensions and inject as many emotionally-loaded, jingoistic, and anxiety-inducing intimations as possible. These Trojan horses, once inserted into public discourse, arouse the appropriate psychological insecurities and pre-existing prejudices, and soon come to reshape the framework of public discourse itself. The trick is to recognize this game from the outset – and to reject and dismantle the imposed framework - instead of hopelessly banging on the walls from inside the asylum.
BUSH IS NO INTELLECTUAL
I guess I have a prejudice. I like smart people. I like people who can create or appreciate art, music, and literature. It's just another reason not to like George W. Bush, whose major intellectual interest seems to be working out. This story by Elisabeth Bumiller is at www.nytimes.com:
Mr. Bush never lingers at much of anything, but he really doesn't linger in museums and at historical sites. On Tuesday in Quebec, the president spent only 30 minutes at the National Archives of Canada, where he efficiently gazed at portraits of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
DAY OF INFAMY
This is the anniversary of the date President Franklin D. Roosevelt called, "a day that will live in infamy." We were attacked at Pearl Harbor by forces of the Japanese Empire without warning. The "Greatest Generation" then fought a war against the Axis Powers that was long, dreadful, bloody, but ultimately victorious. That war at least had some justification. There was honor in fighting the Nazis and the Axis Powers. Where is the justification or the honor in killing innocent Iraqis and citizens of Afghanistan?
DOROTHY SHOULD BE GLAD SHE'S NOT IN KANSAS
I remember in The Wizard of Oz that Dorothy looked around Oz in wonder and exclaimed, "We're not in Kansas anymore." She wouldn't recognize Kansas now. The "red" state of Kansas has a flourishing porn industry. This story is at www.latimes.com:
Outside, the prairie lies dark and still. In the windowless gray building by the Interstate 70 offramp, a clerk with a tired face rings up sex toys. "Need batteries for that?" she asks politely, again and again.
Two women in prim business suits gawk at a shelf of raunchy gag gifts, giggling. A truck driver searches thousands of DVDs for a pornographic movie. Near the Love Sling of Ecstasy, a wife confers with her husband by cellphone as she studies a tidy display of vibrators, hundreds of them, in every size and color.
THINGS DETERIORATING IN IRAQ
I don't know how much longer we'll continue to hear rosy scenarios about Iraq from the Bush administration, but we're a long way from "freedom being on the march" and the other catch phrases we get from George W. Bush. Violence and disorder continue to escalate. This story by Douglas Jehl is at www.nytimes.com:
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to government officials.
The cable, sent late last month as the officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said. They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq.
THE UGLY FACE OF CONSERVATISM
Greed, hypocrisy, bullying, all hallmarks of modern conservatism. This article is by a 21-year-old, who already has an amazing grasp of what conservatism represents. The article by M. Junaid Alam is at www.altpr.org:
Right-wing ideology is mostly a game of smoke and mirrors. Outside the narrow segment of the very wealthy, it achieves its appeal by cleverly capitalizing upon the inchoate prejudices, suspicions, fears, and insecurities prevalent among the public. The method is simple but effective: for any given problem, introduce a few crucial codewords and phrases that both eject said problem’s real dimensions and inject as many emotionally-loaded, jingoistic, and anxiety-inducing intimations as possible. These Trojan horses, once inserted into public discourse, arouse the appropriate psychological insecurities and pre-existing prejudices, and soon come to reshape the framework of public discourse itself. The trick is to recognize this game from the outset – and to reject and dismantle the imposed framework - instead of hopelessly banging on the walls from inside the asylum.
BUSH IS NO INTELLECTUAL
I guess I have a prejudice. I like smart people. I like people who can create or appreciate art, music, and literature. It's just another reason not to like George W. Bush, whose major intellectual interest seems to be working out. This story by Elisabeth Bumiller is at www.nytimes.com:
Mr. Bush never lingers at much of anything, but he really doesn't linger in museums and at historical sites. On Tuesday in Quebec, the president spent only 30 minutes at the National Archives of Canada, where he efficiently gazed at portraits of Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Monday, December 06, 2004
DECEMBER 6, 2004
THE DISGUSTING TELEVISION MEDIA
Dan Rather will depart in a few months. Tom Brokaw has already left and is being replaced by Brian Williams. NBC is telling us that Brian Williams understands the "Nascar" nation and they're telling us, in effect, they will pander to the "red" states. Even if one accepts the vote tallies from November 2, almost half of the country voted for John Kerry, so where does NBC get off skewing its focus totally to the Bush crowd? Frank Rich has a commentary at www.nytimes.com:
Though it may come as news to those running NBC, we actually live in a red-and-blue-state country, in a world that increasingly hates all our states without regard to our provincial obsession with their hues. Nonetheless, Mr. Williams, who officially took over as anchor on Dec. 2, is seeking a very specific mandate. "The New York-Washington axis can be a journalist's worst enemy," he told Mr. Johnson, promising to spend his nights in the field in "Dayton and Toledo and Cincinnati and Denver and the middle of Kansas." (So much for San Francisco - or Baghdad.)
REPUBLICAN VOTERS: WHAT MORAL VALUES?
Gay rights, abortion, Hollywood, you know all those moral lapses that caused voters to raise "moral values" to the top of the flag pole and vote for George W. Bush. How about an unjust war, how about torture, how about economic injustice? Aren't those even more significant moral values? Chris Floyd looks reality in the face in the article linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Of course, the phrase "moral values" is just one more example of the Idiotspeak used by journalists, pollsters, advertisers and political hacks to debase the language and reduce reality to a few malleable chunks of, well, Crawford cowflop. In the degraded, aggressively ignorant context of the last election, there were apparently no moral concerns whatsoever attached to such issues as war, economic justice, capital punishment, national security, corporate crime, stewardship of the planet, upholding the Constitution or caring for the sick, elderly and poor.
THE CREEPS AT KMJ RADIO
KMJ radio, Fresno's version of Nazi Central, apparently called for the burning of ACLU offices. They got around this by claiming it was in "jest." It was a little like the kind of "joking" done by Rush Limbaugh when he called Chelsea Clinton a dog a few years back. This is from a good letter to The Fresno Bee. The letter can be found at www.fresnobee.com:
KMJ Radio, that bastion of intellectual enlightenment, has just called for the offices of the American Civil Liberties Union to be burned to the ground. They say it was a "joke," but they stand behind it.
THEY DON'T NEED NO STINKING ETHICS!
The revolving door between government and private industry got some grease from the so-called Office of Government Ethics. Top officials of the Bush administration who just left can now get cushy jobs as lobbyists in private industry. Just follow the trail of sleaze. This article is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The timing was perfect: On Nov. 23 -- exactly three weeks after the election and as a flurry of top Bush administration officials announced their departures -- the Office of Government Ethics declared that it was relaxing prohibitions on lobbying by former Cabinet secretaries and other top officials.
Until now, senior officials at Cabinet departments and agencies had not been allowed to lobby former colleagues for a full year after leaving office -- a rule designed to prevent an obvious conflict of interest. But, in a notice in the Federal Register, the ethics office issued a new rule invoking its power to declare that "a former senior employee who served in a 'parent' department or agency is not barred . . . from making communications to or appearances before any employee of any designated component of that parent."
WHERE ARE THE "PRO-LIFERS"?
Members of the Bush cult like to describe themselves as "pro life," although the evidence is strongly to the contrary. This story reveals that unless the world's richest countries honor their past pledges of assistance an estimated 45 million children will die. I wonder how many "pro life" types will make an issue of this. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Unless the world's wealthiest countries comply with their past pledges, some 45 million children in the worlds poor countries will die needlessly over the next decade, according a new report released Monday by British-based development group, Oxfam.
Despite the fact that Group of Seven (G7) countries Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States, and Canada are richer than they have ever been, they are spending only half as much in real terms in development assistance as they did in 1960, according to the report, "Paying the Price."
ECONOMIC WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE RIGHT HERE
You think about the groundhog lodged down in his hole and emerging to see his shadow. That describes the American people as our economic well-being is being destroyed right before us. We lie back in our little holes and emerge to see our shadows and go scurrying back inside instead of emerging and demanding to know what's happening. This is a good article by Wendell Berry at www.oriononline.org:
Such damage is justified by its corporate perpetrators and their political abettors in the name of the "free market" and "free enterprise," but this is a freedom that makes greed the dominant economic virtue, and it destroys the freedom of other people along with their communities and livelihoods. There are such things as economic weapons of massive destruction. We have allowed them to be used against us, not just by public submission and regulatory malfeasance, but also by public subsidies, incentives, and sufferances impossible to justify.
THE DISGUSTING TELEVISION MEDIA
Dan Rather will depart in a few months. Tom Brokaw has already left and is being replaced by Brian Williams. NBC is telling us that Brian Williams understands the "Nascar" nation and they're telling us, in effect, they will pander to the "red" states. Even if one accepts the vote tallies from November 2, almost half of the country voted for John Kerry, so where does NBC get off skewing its focus totally to the Bush crowd? Frank Rich has a commentary at www.nytimes.com:
Though it may come as news to those running NBC, we actually live in a red-and-blue-state country, in a world that increasingly hates all our states without regard to our provincial obsession with their hues. Nonetheless, Mr. Williams, who officially took over as anchor on Dec. 2, is seeking a very specific mandate. "The New York-Washington axis can be a journalist's worst enemy," he told Mr. Johnson, promising to spend his nights in the field in "Dayton and Toledo and Cincinnati and Denver and the middle of Kansas." (So much for San Francisco - or Baghdad.)
REPUBLICAN VOTERS: WHAT MORAL VALUES?
Gay rights, abortion, Hollywood, you know all those moral lapses that caused voters to raise "moral values" to the top of the flag pole and vote for George W. Bush. How about an unjust war, how about torture, how about economic injustice? Aren't those even more significant moral values? Chris Floyd looks reality in the face in the article linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Of course, the phrase "moral values" is just one more example of the Idiotspeak used by journalists, pollsters, advertisers and political hacks to debase the language and reduce reality to a few malleable chunks of, well, Crawford cowflop. In the degraded, aggressively ignorant context of the last election, there were apparently no moral concerns whatsoever attached to such issues as war, economic justice, capital punishment, national security, corporate crime, stewardship of the planet, upholding the Constitution or caring for the sick, elderly and poor.
THE CREEPS AT KMJ RADIO
KMJ radio, Fresno's version of Nazi Central, apparently called for the burning of ACLU offices. They got around this by claiming it was in "jest." It was a little like the kind of "joking" done by Rush Limbaugh when he called Chelsea Clinton a dog a few years back. This is from a good letter to The Fresno Bee. The letter can be found at www.fresnobee.com:
KMJ Radio, that bastion of intellectual enlightenment, has just called for the offices of the American Civil Liberties Union to be burned to the ground. They say it was a "joke," but they stand behind it.
THEY DON'T NEED NO STINKING ETHICS!
The revolving door between government and private industry got some grease from the so-called Office of Government Ethics. Top officials of the Bush administration who just left can now get cushy jobs as lobbyists in private industry. Just follow the trail of sleaze. This article is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The timing was perfect: On Nov. 23 -- exactly three weeks after the election and as a flurry of top Bush administration officials announced their departures -- the Office of Government Ethics declared that it was relaxing prohibitions on lobbying by former Cabinet secretaries and other top officials.
Until now, senior officials at Cabinet departments and agencies had not been allowed to lobby former colleagues for a full year after leaving office -- a rule designed to prevent an obvious conflict of interest. But, in a notice in the Federal Register, the ethics office issued a new rule invoking its power to declare that "a former senior employee who served in a 'parent' department or agency is not barred . . . from making communications to or appearances before any employee of any designated component of that parent."
WHERE ARE THE "PRO-LIFERS"?
Members of the Bush cult like to describe themselves as "pro life," although the evidence is strongly to the contrary. This story reveals that unless the world's richest countries honor their past pledges of assistance an estimated 45 million children will die. I wonder how many "pro life" types will make an issue of this. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Unless the world's wealthiest countries comply with their past pledges, some 45 million children in the worlds poor countries will die needlessly over the next decade, according a new report released Monday by British-based development group, Oxfam.
Despite the fact that Group of Seven (G7) countries Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States, and Canada are richer than they have ever been, they are spending only half as much in real terms in development assistance as they did in 1960, according to the report, "Paying the Price."
ECONOMIC WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ARE RIGHT HERE
You think about the groundhog lodged down in his hole and emerging to see his shadow. That describes the American people as our economic well-being is being destroyed right before us. We lie back in our little holes and emerge to see our shadows and go scurrying back inside instead of emerging and demanding to know what's happening. This is a good article by Wendell Berry at www.oriononline.org:
Such damage is justified by its corporate perpetrators and their political abettors in the name of the "free market" and "free enterprise," but this is a freedom that makes greed the dominant economic virtue, and it destroys the freedom of other people along with their communities and livelihoods. There are such things as economic weapons of massive destruction. We have allowed them to be used against us, not just by public submission and regulatory malfeasance, but also by public subsidies, incentives, and sufferances impossible to justify.
Sunday, December 05, 2004
DECEMBER 5, 2004
ARE HIGH BOOK PRICES AND LOW EDUCATION RELATED?
Like the author, I used to buy a lot more books. But book prices have exploded in recent years. Even buying a paperback is a major investment. You have to think about the World War II era when publishers released thousands upon thousands of low-cost paperbacks so the troops would have reading material. Lower-priced books would be a great investment in our society. This editorial is at www.latimes.com:
The other day I was in Barnes & Noble and an ugly fact came home to me. I can't afford to buy books anymore. I used to pick up a book every week or two and was never without a paperback book stuck in my back pocket. Now buying a book is a major purchase.
STOP GIVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO RELIGION
I have to admit to mixed feelings on this story. I like preserving history and historical buildings. But I strongly oppose giving taxpayer dollars to religious organizations. So I tend to side with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This story is at www.washingtonpost.com:
A watchdog group filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday to try to block taxpayer-funded renovations of historic churches in California and to derail one of the most controversial elements of President Bush's effort to support religious charities.
The suit by Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenges the constitutionality of the California Missions Preservation Act, which Bush signed into law on Tuesday. It provides $10 million to restore 21 architecturally and historically significant churches, 19 of which have active Roman Catholic congregations.
EVEN PUTIN CALLS U.S. POLICY "DICTATORIAL"
Russian president Vladmir Putin knows about dictators from personal experience. Now even Putin is calling the U.S. foreign policy "dictatorial." This story is at news.yahoo.com:
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and said mounting violence could derail progress toward bringing peace and democracy to Iraq .
ECONOMIC JUSTICE IS A MORAL VALUE
It's interesting that in two of the "red" states voters overwhelmingly voted for an increase in the minimum wage. It's disgraceful in the richest country the earth has ever known that we have so many people living in poverty, the majority of those people working full time. Economic justice is an issue that Democrats can use to win back the country. Republicans don't believe anyone but the very wealthy really count. This story is at www.thenation.com:
But isn't it a moral issue when more than 36 million Americans live in poverty and more than 40 million people in the wealthiest county in the world lack health insurance? Many major religious denominations support raising the minimum wage. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops says that Catholic social teaching regards work as a reflection of our human dignity, and that receiving poverty wages is an affront to individual self-respect.
CONUMDRUM FOR CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS
As we learn more details of George W. Bush's plan to "privatize" Social Security, conservative Christians might want to take note. Under Bush's plan, they might be forced to invest in companies that profit from things they find objectionable, such as stem cell research or sell pornography. This article by Dean Baker is at www.cepr.net:
However, the problem with an index fund is that it includes companies that profit on investments that some may view as immoral. For example, a broad index fund would include companies that profit from selling weapons to repressive dictators. It would also include companies that adopt anti-labor policies in the United States and even violate U.S. labor laws. A broad index fund would also include companies that sell pornography, conduct stem cell research, and perform abortions.
BUSH DOWNPLAYS THOMPSON'S WARNINGS
Before the terrorist attacks on September 11 George W. Bush and his administration consistently ignored warnings of an impending attack. It seems to be a pattern. Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson warned that imported food from the Middle East could be subject to a terrorist attack, and Bush characteristically ignores the warning. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
President Bush played down on Saturday a stark warning from his resigning health chief that the nation's food supply is largely unprotected from terror attack.
ARE HIGH BOOK PRICES AND LOW EDUCATION RELATED?
Like the author, I used to buy a lot more books. But book prices have exploded in recent years. Even buying a paperback is a major investment. You have to think about the World War II era when publishers released thousands upon thousands of low-cost paperbacks so the troops would have reading material. Lower-priced books would be a great investment in our society. This editorial is at www.latimes.com:
The other day I was in Barnes & Noble and an ugly fact came home to me. I can't afford to buy books anymore. I used to pick up a book every week or two and was never without a paperback book stuck in my back pocket. Now buying a book is a major purchase.
STOP GIVING TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO RELIGION
I have to admit to mixed feelings on this story. I like preserving history and historical buildings. But I strongly oppose giving taxpayer dollars to religious organizations. So I tend to side with Americans United for Separation of Church and State. This story is at www.washingtonpost.com:
A watchdog group filed a lawsuit in federal court yesterday to try to block taxpayer-funded renovations of historic churches in California and to derail one of the most controversial elements of President Bush's effort to support religious charities.
The suit by Americans United for Separation of Church and State challenges the constitutionality of the California Missions Preservation Act, which Bush signed into law on Tuesday. It provides $10 million to restore 21 architecturally and historically significant churches, 19 of which have active Roman Catholic congregations.
EVEN PUTIN CALLS U.S. POLICY "DICTATORIAL"
Russian president Vladmir Putin knows about dictators from personal experience. Now even Putin is calling the U.S. foreign policy "dictatorial." This story is at news.yahoo.com:
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States on Friday of pursuing a dictatorial foreign policy and said mounting violence could derail progress toward bringing peace and democracy to Iraq .
ECONOMIC JUSTICE IS A MORAL VALUE
It's interesting that in two of the "red" states voters overwhelmingly voted for an increase in the minimum wage. It's disgraceful in the richest country the earth has ever known that we have so many people living in poverty, the majority of those people working full time. Economic justice is an issue that Democrats can use to win back the country. Republicans don't believe anyone but the very wealthy really count. This story is at www.thenation.com:
But isn't it a moral issue when more than 36 million Americans live in poverty and more than 40 million people in the wealthiest county in the world lack health insurance? Many major religious denominations support raising the minimum wage. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops says that Catholic social teaching regards work as a reflection of our human dignity, and that receiving poverty wages is an affront to individual self-respect.
CONUMDRUM FOR CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIANS
As we learn more details of George W. Bush's plan to "privatize" Social Security, conservative Christians might want to take note. Under Bush's plan, they might be forced to invest in companies that profit from things they find objectionable, such as stem cell research or sell pornography. This article by Dean Baker is at www.cepr.net:
However, the problem with an index fund is that it includes companies that profit on investments that some may view as immoral. For example, a broad index fund would include companies that profit from selling weapons to repressive dictators. It would also include companies that adopt anti-labor policies in the United States and even violate U.S. labor laws. A broad index fund would also include companies that sell pornography, conduct stem cell research, and perform abortions.
BUSH DOWNPLAYS THOMPSON'S WARNINGS
Before the terrorist attacks on September 11 George W. Bush and his administration consistently ignored warnings of an impending attack. It seems to be a pattern. Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson warned that imported food from the Middle East could be subject to a terrorist attack, and Bush characteristically ignores the warning. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
President Bush played down on Saturday a stark warning from his resigning health chief that the nation's food supply is largely unprotected from terror attack.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
DECEMBER 4, 2004
NOVEMBER JOBS WERE DOWN
You can get just a wee bit cynical about any economic forecasts from the Bush administration. We hear rosy projections, but when the real numbers come in we find out things aren't so rosy. November job figures were--surprise!--less than were forecasted. This story is at www.nytimes.com:
The economy added 112,000 payroll jobs in November, far fewer than the month before and not enough to keep up with average increases in the adult population, the Labor Department reported on Friday.
The gain was well below Wall Street forecasts, and employment in manufacturing was flat for the third consecutive month.
The modest pace of job creation, along with a small decline in the number of hours worked, reinforced the image of an economy that is expanding more slowly and in which companies remain skittish about hiring more people.
GOVERNMENT SAYS TORTURE IS OKAY
If it weren't for computers and jet airplanes and the Internet, you'd almost swear we were in a time warp and back in the 13th century. Our government, supposedly based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation and other great documents, now says that evidence gained by torture is all right to use as evidence. We're on a very dangerous slippery slope when we use any justification for human rights abuses to fight the "war on terror." This story is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government says.
Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.
WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO TEST YOU FOR MENTAL ILLNESS?
George W. Bush and his cronies want to control everything. There's an Orwellian piece of legislation called the New Freedom Initiative that would allow the government to test everyone in the country for "mental illness." I have to wonder: just what constitutes mental illness? If you don't like Bush and his policies, does that make you mentally ill? If you reject religion in favor of science, are you mentally ill? If you object to torturing people or waging war against countries that didn't attack us, are you mentally ill? This is dangerous, dangerous stuff. This article is also linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
As with most of the legislation proposed by the current White House, the New Freedom Initiative looks and sounds good on the outside, but tucked away into the recesses and convolutions of legislative language is a proposal to screen every American, including you, for mental illness. This screening is not elective, and it circumvents the long-cherished notion of parental consent before a medical or psychological test can be carried out: of course, it starts with school children…
ZINN: DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE EVANGELICALS
One of the best history books I've ever read is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. You learn things that you were never taught in school. In this article Mr. Zinn points out that, in reality, George W. Bush won this election with only about 30% of the eligible voters. The vast majority of eligible voters didn't vote at all. A 30% slice is not a "mandate." He also points out that the Christian evangelicals credited with putting Bush over the top shouldn't dictate our course now. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
And let's not worry about offending that 22 percent of the country (we don't know the exact number but it is certainly a minority) who are religious and political fundamentalists, who invoke God in the service of mass murder and imperial conquest, who ignore the Biblical injunctions to love one's neighbor, to beat swords into plowshares, to care for the poor and downtrodden.
Most Americans do not want war.
NOVEMBER JOBS WERE DOWN
You can get just a wee bit cynical about any economic forecasts from the Bush administration. We hear rosy projections, but when the real numbers come in we find out things aren't so rosy. November job figures were--surprise!--less than were forecasted. This story is at www.nytimes.com:
The economy added 112,000 payroll jobs in November, far fewer than the month before and not enough to keep up with average increases in the adult population, the Labor Department reported on Friday.
The gain was well below Wall Street forecasts, and employment in manufacturing was flat for the third consecutive month.
The modest pace of job creation, along with a small decline in the number of hours worked, reinforced the image of an economy that is expanding more slowly and in which companies remain skittish about hiring more people.
GOVERNMENT SAYS TORTURE IS OKAY
If it weren't for computers and jet airplanes and the Internet, you'd almost swear we were in a time warp and back in the 13th century. Our government, supposedly based on the principles of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation and other great documents, now says that evidence gained by torture is all right to use as evidence. We're on a very dangerous slippery slope when we use any justification for human rights abuses to fight the "war on terror." This story is linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
Evidence gained by torture can be used by the U.S. military in deciding whether to imprison a foreigner indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant, the government says.
Statements produced under torture have been inadmissible in U.S. courts for about 70 years. But the U.S. military panels reviewing the detention of 550 foreigners as enemy combatants at the U.S. naval base in Cuba are allowed to use such evidence, Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Brian Boyle acknowledged at a U.S. District Court hearing Thursday.
WANT THE GOVERNMENT TO TEST YOU FOR MENTAL ILLNESS?
George W. Bush and his cronies want to control everything. There's an Orwellian piece of legislation called the New Freedom Initiative that would allow the government to test everyone in the country for "mental illness." I have to wonder: just what constitutes mental illness? If you don't like Bush and his policies, does that make you mentally ill? If you reject religion in favor of science, are you mentally ill? If you object to torturing people or waging war against countries that didn't attack us, are you mentally ill? This is dangerous, dangerous stuff. This article is also linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
As with most of the legislation proposed by the current White House, the New Freedom Initiative looks and sounds good on the outside, but tucked away into the recesses and convolutions of legislative language is a proposal to screen every American, including you, for mental illness. This screening is not elective, and it circumvents the long-cherished notion of parental consent before a medical or psychological test can be carried out: of course, it starts with school children…
ZINN: DON'T WORRY ABOUT THE EVANGELICALS
One of the best history books I've ever read is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States. You learn things that you were never taught in school. In this article Mr. Zinn points out that, in reality, George W. Bush won this election with only about 30% of the eligible voters. The vast majority of eligible voters didn't vote at all. A 30% slice is not a "mandate." He also points out that the Christian evangelicals credited with putting Bush over the top shouldn't dictate our course now. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
And let's not worry about offending that 22 percent of the country (we don't know the exact number but it is certainly a minority) who are religious and political fundamentalists, who invoke God in the service of mass murder and imperial conquest, who ignore the Biblical injunctions to love one's neighbor, to beat swords into plowshares, to care for the poor and downtrodden.
Most Americans do not want war.
Friday, December 03, 2004
DECEMBER 3, 2004
LEAVE SOCIAL SECURITY ALONE
We've heard a barrage of propaganda from the Right about the imminent bankruptcy of Social Security. The guy I call Party Hack was once on a local radio station and called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," which is not even an accurate depiction of Ponzi schemes, much less the truth about Social Security. Social Security is a viable system with impressively low administrative costs that has worked for generations of Americans. All the right-wing propaganda is really intended to let the Wall Street greedheads get their dirty mitts into Social Security. Dean Baker has a story linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
In the wake of his election victory , President Bush said that cutting Social Security will be at the top of his second-term agenda. He supports a proposal from his Social Security commission that hits workers with large cuts in their Social Security benefits…
Why would anyone want to change a system that works so well? The main reason is that President Bush and the financial industry have managed to convince people that Social Security is on the edge of bankruptcy. Millions of younger workers, and even many older workers, now believe that they will never see their Social Security checks.
Of course, President Bush has never felt constrained by the truth…
CONSERVATIVES AREN'T INDIVIDUALISTS AT ALL
You've seen the photo ops of George W. Bush out "chopping brush" on his "ranch." Before that, we got images of Ronald Reagan topped by his cowboy hat riding a horse or chopping wood on his "ranch" in California. Rugged individualism, the kind you read about in Ayn Rand, is the Republican myth. The truth is that most Republicans run with the herd. They love conformity. People who are different, whether by race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation scare Republicans. This is a piece centered around the theme of a play called "Rhinoceros" and how the Republican crowd runs merrily snorting along. The article is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Mostly the rhinos are practical, artless animals in a rush to do necessary and useful things, all of which involve money. Or as Ionesco put it: "...a prisoner of necessity, who cannot understand that a thing might perhaps be without usefulness; nor does he understand that, at bottom, it is the useful that may be a useless and back-breaking burden. If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art. And a country where art is not understood is a country of slaves and robots...."
NEW HOMELAND SECURITY NOMINEE TYPICALLY INCOMPETENT
Tom Ridge is leaving the Department of Homeland Security and George W. Bush is nominating a former New York City Police Commissioner to fill the spot. Kerik apparently meets the major Bush criteria--he's incompetent and he's corrupt. This article by Ellis Henican is at www.newsday.com:
Campaign bodyguard to Rudy Giuliani.
Errand boy for the Saudi royal family.
Energetic exploiter of Sept. 11th tragedy.
Tough-talking publicity-hound vowing to bring law and order to Iraq - then hightailing it out of there after a disastrous 14 weeks, leaving the place far less safe than he found it.
Oh, the bullet points on Bernie Kerik's real-life resume just go on and on. But is this really the guy we want standing between us and the terrorists?
George W. Bush apparently thinks so.
RETAILERS REPORT LOUSY NOVEMBER SALES
Something that seems to escape right-wingers is if most of us don't have money, there won't be spending at places like Wal-Mart and K-Mart and other major retailers. Keep salaries low, export jobs, give tax cuts to the very wealthy but don't do anything for the middle class and working class, and this is what you get. It's a downward spiral. This story is at www.latimes.com:
The nation's major retail chains today reported mostly disappointing sales results for November despite price-slashing promotions during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The weaker than expected results afflicted a wide variety of retailers — from discount giant Wal-Mart to high-end Nordstrom — and raised concerns about the prospects for the remainder of the holiday shopping season. Some analysts lowered their sales forecasts as a result of the November figures.
THE GROPER'S RICH BENEFACTORS
I think of Watergate figure Deep Throat's advice to "follow the money." If you see who contributes to a politician, that tells you a great deal. It will interesting to see just what benefits the Groper can bring to this guy named William Armsted Robinson. Robinson created the DHL Courier Service and has become the Groper's biggest donor. The story is at www.cnn.com:
William Armsted Robinson, founder of the DHL courier service, has quietly become a top donor of Gov. Armold Schwarzenegger, forming a triumvirate with real estate developer Alex Spanos and Spanish-language TV executive Jerry Perenchio.
While his counterparts are well-known and well-established in California -- Spanos owns the San Diego Chargers, Perenchio heads Univision -- the 65-year-old Robinson is not. He's an elusive recluse who has spent the last decade mostly sequestered in Idaho, where he has two homes.
LEGAL LOAN SHARKING
Credit card companies have become nothing but legal loan sharks. They have big bucks, they make big campaign contributions, and they get compliant politicians to make laws favorable to them and that clobber consumers. These are big names, names like Citibank, MBNA, and Capital One. Some people are paying outrageous rates such as 25-30% when the banks have enjoyed historically low interest rates. This story is at bernie.house.gov:
At a time when interest rates have been historically low, credit card issuers made a record breaking $30 billion in profits last year by charging usurious interest rates and sky-high fees. Millions of financially strapped credit card holders are now being forced to pay 15 percent to 30 percent interest rates and hundreds of dollars a year on late fees and other add-ons. Like the loan sharks of old, credit card companies lie, deceive and destroy lives in the process.
LEAVE SOCIAL SECURITY ALONE
We've heard a barrage of propaganda from the Right about the imminent bankruptcy of Social Security. The guy I call Party Hack was once on a local radio station and called Social Security a "Ponzi scheme," which is not even an accurate depiction of Ponzi schemes, much less the truth about Social Security. Social Security is a viable system with impressively low administrative costs that has worked for generations of Americans. All the right-wing propaganda is really intended to let the Wall Street greedheads get their dirty mitts into Social Security. Dean Baker has a story linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:
In the wake of his election victory , President Bush said that cutting Social Security will be at the top of his second-term agenda. He supports a proposal from his Social Security commission that hits workers with large cuts in their Social Security benefits…
Why would anyone want to change a system that works so well? The main reason is that President Bush and the financial industry have managed to convince people that Social Security is on the edge of bankruptcy. Millions of younger workers, and even many older workers, now believe that they will never see their Social Security checks.
Of course, President Bush has never felt constrained by the truth…
CONSERVATIVES AREN'T INDIVIDUALISTS AT ALL
You've seen the photo ops of George W. Bush out "chopping brush" on his "ranch." Before that, we got images of Ronald Reagan topped by his cowboy hat riding a horse or chopping wood on his "ranch" in California. Rugged individualism, the kind you read about in Ayn Rand, is the Republican myth. The truth is that most Republicans run with the herd. They love conformity. People who are different, whether by race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation scare Republicans. This is a piece centered around the theme of a play called "Rhinoceros" and how the Republican crowd runs merrily snorting along. The article is at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Mostly the rhinos are practical, artless animals in a rush to do necessary and useful things, all of which involve money. Or as Ionesco put it: "...a prisoner of necessity, who cannot understand that a thing might perhaps be without usefulness; nor does he understand that, at bottom, it is the useful that may be a useless and back-breaking burden. If one does not understand the usefulness of the useless and the uselessness of the useful, one cannot understand art. And a country where art is not understood is a country of slaves and robots...."
NEW HOMELAND SECURITY NOMINEE TYPICALLY INCOMPETENT
Tom Ridge is leaving the Department of Homeland Security and George W. Bush is nominating a former New York City Police Commissioner to fill the spot. Kerik apparently meets the major Bush criteria--he's incompetent and he's corrupt. This article by Ellis Henican is at www.newsday.com:
Campaign bodyguard to Rudy Giuliani.
Errand boy for the Saudi royal family.
Energetic exploiter of Sept. 11th tragedy.
Tough-talking publicity-hound vowing to bring law and order to Iraq - then hightailing it out of there after a disastrous 14 weeks, leaving the place far less safe than he found it.
Oh, the bullet points on Bernie Kerik's real-life resume just go on and on. But is this really the guy we want standing between us and the terrorists?
George W. Bush apparently thinks so.
RETAILERS REPORT LOUSY NOVEMBER SALES
Something that seems to escape right-wingers is if most of us don't have money, there won't be spending at places like Wal-Mart and K-Mart and other major retailers. Keep salaries low, export jobs, give tax cuts to the very wealthy but don't do anything for the middle class and working class, and this is what you get. It's a downward spiral. This story is at www.latimes.com:
The nation's major retail chains today reported mostly disappointing sales results for November despite price-slashing promotions during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
The weaker than expected results afflicted a wide variety of retailers — from discount giant Wal-Mart to high-end Nordstrom — and raised concerns about the prospects for the remainder of the holiday shopping season. Some analysts lowered their sales forecasts as a result of the November figures.
THE GROPER'S RICH BENEFACTORS
I think of Watergate figure Deep Throat's advice to "follow the money." If you see who contributes to a politician, that tells you a great deal. It will interesting to see just what benefits the Groper can bring to this guy named William Armsted Robinson. Robinson created the DHL Courier Service and has become the Groper's biggest donor. The story is at www.cnn.com:
William Armsted Robinson, founder of the DHL courier service, has quietly become a top donor of Gov. Armold Schwarzenegger, forming a triumvirate with real estate developer Alex Spanos and Spanish-language TV executive Jerry Perenchio.
While his counterparts are well-known and well-established in California -- Spanos owns the San Diego Chargers, Perenchio heads Univision -- the 65-year-old Robinson is not. He's an elusive recluse who has spent the last decade mostly sequestered in Idaho, where he has two homes.
LEGAL LOAN SHARKING
Credit card companies have become nothing but legal loan sharks. They have big bucks, they make big campaign contributions, and they get compliant politicians to make laws favorable to them and that clobber consumers. These are big names, names like Citibank, MBNA, and Capital One. Some people are paying outrageous rates such as 25-30% when the banks have enjoyed historically low interest rates. This story is at bernie.house.gov:
At a time when interest rates have been historically low, credit card issuers made a record breaking $30 billion in profits last year by charging usurious interest rates and sky-high fees. Millions of financially strapped credit card holders are now being forced to pay 15 percent to 30 percent interest rates and hundreds of dollars a year on late fees and other add-ons. Like the loan sharks of old, credit card companies lie, deceive and destroy lives in the process.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
DECEMBER 2, 2004
ANOTHER BAD "REFORM"
A few years ago we got term limits in California. Like so many "reform" ideas, this one is bad. It has made the California legislature worse. This editorial is at www.latimes.com:
Legislators now spend more time raising campaign money from special interests, the opposite of what term-limit supporters predicted. With only six years to serve in the Assembly and eight in the Senate, they devote ever more time to plotting their next political moves. They see no political benefit in learning the ins and outs of complicated state policy and trying to formulate long-term solutions to critical problems. Committees aren't doing their job of weeding out lousy legislation because members don't want to offend colleagues or special interests by voting against their bills.
U.S. USING NAPALM IN IRAQ
Vietnam and Iraq are two different wars in two different eras, but many of the parallels are disturbing. Reports from Iraq indicate that the U.S. has used napalm against Iraqis, even though napalm is banned by the United Nations. This story by Mike Whitney is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The United States is using napalm in Fallujah. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting. On Nov. 28 The Daily Mirror's political editor, Paul Gilfeather filed a report stating: "US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah. News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world."
SECRET PENTAGON REPORT SAYS BUSH'S WAR A MAJOR FAILURE
A secret Pentagon report has some dire conclusions about George W. Bush's "war on terror." The report has not received the attention it merits in the major media. It reminds me of a letter I saw in The Fresno Bee today claiming that Bush has freed millions and is bringing democracy to the oppressed. No, he's not. He's bringing death and destruction to innocent people. He's uniting Muslims around the world against the United States, making heroes of the people who were previously on the fringe of the Muslim world. The idea that we can bring western style democracy to the Islamic world is pure hubris. Democracy is something people have to want for themselves and create for themselves, not something imposed by someone else. Sidney Blumenthal has a good article about the Pentagon report (once you get past the commercial) at www.salon.com:
"There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies -- except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends. (Original emphasis.)" Rhetoric about freedom is received as "no more than self-serving hypocrisy," daily highlighted by the U.S. occupation in Iraq. "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies." The "dramatic narrative since 9/11" of the "war on terrorism," Bush's grand justification, his story line connecting all the dots from the World Trade Center to Baghdad, has "borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars." As a result, jihadists have been able to transform themselves from marginal figures in the Muslim world into defenders against invasion and attack with a growing following of millions.
ANOTHER BAD "REFORM"
A few years ago we got term limits in California. Like so many "reform" ideas, this one is bad. It has made the California legislature worse. This editorial is at www.latimes.com:
Legislators now spend more time raising campaign money from special interests, the opposite of what term-limit supporters predicted. With only six years to serve in the Assembly and eight in the Senate, they devote ever more time to plotting their next political moves. They see no political benefit in learning the ins and outs of complicated state policy and trying to formulate long-term solutions to critical problems. Committees aren't doing their job of weeding out lousy legislation because members don't want to offend colleagues or special interests by voting against their bills.
U.S. USING NAPALM IN IRAQ
Vietnam and Iraq are two different wars in two different eras, but many of the parallels are disturbing. Reports from Iraq indicate that the U.S. has used napalm against Iraqis, even though napalm is banned by the United Nations. This story by Mike Whitney is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
The United States is using napalm in Fallujah. So far, the military has denied the allegations, but the proof is mounting. On Nov. 28 The Daily Mirror's political editor, Paul Gilfeather filed a report stating: "US troops are secretly using outlawed napalm gas to wipe out remaining insurgents in and around Fallujah. News that President George W. Bush has sanctioned the use of napalm, a deadly cocktail of polystyrene and jet fuel banned by the United Nations in 1980, will stun governments around the world."
SECRET PENTAGON REPORT SAYS BUSH'S WAR A MAJOR FAILURE
A secret Pentagon report has some dire conclusions about George W. Bush's "war on terror." The report has not received the attention it merits in the major media. It reminds me of a letter I saw in The Fresno Bee today claiming that Bush has freed millions and is bringing democracy to the oppressed. No, he's not. He's bringing death and destruction to innocent people. He's uniting Muslims around the world against the United States, making heroes of the people who were previously on the fringe of the Muslim world. The idea that we can bring western style democracy to the Islamic world is pure hubris. Democracy is something people have to want for themselves and create for themselves, not something imposed by someone else. Sidney Blumenthal has a good article about the Pentagon report (once you get past the commercial) at www.salon.com:
"There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-U.S. groundswell among Muslim societies -- except to be liberated perhaps from what they see as apostate tyrannies that the U.S. so determinedly promotes and defends. (Original emphasis.)" Rhetoric about freedom is received as "no more than self-serving hypocrisy," daily highlighted by the U.S. occupation in Iraq. "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies." The "dramatic narrative since 9/11" of the "war on terrorism," Bush's grand justification, his story line connecting all the dots from the World Trade Center to Baghdad, has "borne out the entire radical Islamist bill of particulars." As a result, jihadists have been able to transform themselves from marginal figures in the Muslim world into defenders against invasion and attack with a growing following of millions.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
DECEMBER 1, 2004
OLD NORTH AMERICA DOESN'T LIKE BUSH EITHER
A few days ago the guy I call Party Hack used that cloying phrase "old Europe" to describe the European countries such as France and Germany who don't support George W. Bush's campaign of death and destruction. Canadians aren't too thrilled with Bush either. I wonder if Canadians and Americans who oppose Bush are "old North Americans." This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Protest organizers are pulling out all the stops as they try to gather crowds in time for a visit to Canada by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Mr. Bush comes Tuesday to a nation where many people are deeply unhappy about his policies. He can expect major protests in Ottawa and reportedly cancelled plans to address Parliament because of the likelihood of being heckled.
WHY ARE REPUBS SO AFRAID OF SCIENCE?
Fright is about the only thing I see when Republicans deal with scientific issues. Real scientific research debunks some of their most cherished notions, such as the infallible Bible, or that global warming is a myth. In this story it's revealed the Republican controlled Congress has cut funding for scientific research and technology. The story is at www.nytimes.com:
Congress has cut the budget for the National Science Foundation, an engine for research in science and technology, just two years after endorsing a plan to double the amount given to the agency.
Supporters of scientific research, in government and at universities, noted that the cut came as lawmakers earmarked more money for local projects like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DOWN AGAIN
Consumer confidence fell for the fourth consecutive month. With the incompetence in the Bush administration causing massive federal deficits, massive trade deficits, and a falling dollar, I wonder why there isn't good consumer confidence. Go figure. This story is at www.usatoday.com:
Consumer confidence fell for the fourth consecutive month in November to the lowest level since April, as Americans expressed worries about business expansion and the job market, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
The report was released shortly after the government announced that the economy grew at a slightly faster 3.9% annual pace than previously estimated in the July-September quarter, buoyed by strong consumer and business spending and low inflation.
CORPORATE CRIMES KILL MORE PEOPLE THAN TERRORISM
If we're going to have color coded alerts, maybe they should be for corporate crimes, not threats of terrorism. Corporations are literally getting away with murder. This story is at www.tompaine.com:
The Bush campaign was all about Fear, and Kerry's about Hope; vague psychological themes that have so effectively driven the debate over national security toward the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq that it would have sounded downright unpatriotic to interject that far more Americans have been killed and injured since 9/11 as a result of corporate crimes and misbehavior—workplace safety violations, product safety violations, environmental safety violations—than have been killed in the terrorist attacks and the Iraq war combined. For example, more than 5,500 workers were killed on the job due to traumatic injuries in 2002 (an average of 15 a day) and another 4.7 million suffered other serious injuries or illnesses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the AFL-CIO reports that deaths from occupational diseases claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year.
OLD NORTH AMERICA DOESN'T LIKE BUSH EITHER
A few days ago the guy I call Party Hack used that cloying phrase "old Europe" to describe the European countries such as France and Germany who don't support George W. Bush's campaign of death and destruction. Canadians aren't too thrilled with Bush either. I wonder if Canadians and Americans who oppose Bush are "old North Americans." This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Protest organizers are pulling out all the stops as they try to gather crowds in time for a visit to Canada by U.S. President George W. Bush.
Mr. Bush comes Tuesday to a nation where many people are deeply unhappy about his policies. He can expect major protests in Ottawa and reportedly cancelled plans to address Parliament because of the likelihood of being heckled.
WHY ARE REPUBS SO AFRAID OF SCIENCE?
Fright is about the only thing I see when Republicans deal with scientific issues. Real scientific research debunks some of their most cherished notions, such as the infallible Bible, or that global warming is a myth. In this story it's revealed the Republican controlled Congress has cut funding for scientific research and technology. The story is at www.nytimes.com:
Congress has cut the budget for the National Science Foundation, an engine for research in science and technology, just two years after endorsing a plan to double the amount given to the agency.
Supporters of scientific research, in government and at universities, noted that the cut came as lawmakers earmarked more money for local projects like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania.
CONSUMER CONFIDENCE DOWN AGAIN
Consumer confidence fell for the fourth consecutive month. With the incompetence in the Bush administration causing massive federal deficits, massive trade deficits, and a falling dollar, I wonder why there isn't good consumer confidence. Go figure. This story is at www.usatoday.com:
Consumer confidence fell for the fourth consecutive month in November to the lowest level since April, as Americans expressed worries about business expansion and the job market, the Conference Board said Tuesday.
The report was released shortly after the government announced that the economy grew at a slightly faster 3.9% annual pace than previously estimated in the July-September quarter, buoyed by strong consumer and business spending and low inflation.
CORPORATE CRIMES KILL MORE PEOPLE THAN TERRORISM
If we're going to have color coded alerts, maybe they should be for corporate crimes, not threats of terrorism. Corporations are literally getting away with murder. This story is at www.tompaine.com:
The Bush campaign was all about Fear, and Kerry's about Hope; vague psychological themes that have so effectively driven the debate over national security toward the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq that it would have sounded downright unpatriotic to interject that far more Americans have been killed and injured since 9/11 as a result of corporate crimes and misbehavior—workplace safety violations, product safety violations, environmental safety violations—than have been killed in the terrorist attacks and the Iraq war combined. For example, more than 5,500 workers were killed on the job due to traumatic injuries in 2002 (an average of 15 a day) and another 4.7 million suffered other serious injuries or illnesses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At the same time, the AFL-CIO reports that deaths from occupational diseases claim the lives of an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 workers each year.
Tuesday, November 30, 2004
NOVEMBER 30, 2004
TORTURE STILL CONTINUES IN CUBA
I object strenuously to torture. I think it's not only anti-American, but anti-human to torture people, no matter how you may feel about them. Our Constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment. While we've had the death penalty, we haven't sanctioned things like thumb screws or the rack. And psychological torture is no less cruel. This article is at www.nytimes.com:
The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.
DELUSIONAL CONSERVATIVES
Paul Craig Roberts is a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, and he calls the conservatives who blindly follow, almost worship, George W. Bush "delusional." This is an interesting commentary at www.lewrockwell.com:
Because of the triumph of delusional "new conservatives" and the demise of the liberal media, this war is different from the Vietnam war. As more Americans are killed and maimed in the pointless carnage, more Americans have a powerful emotional stake that the war not be lost and not be in vain. Trapped in violence and unable to admit mistake, a reckless administration will escalate.
The rapidly collapsing US dollar is hard evidence that the world sees the US as bankrupt. Flight from the dollar as the reserve currency will adversely impact American living standards, which are already falling as a result of job outsourcing and offshore production. The US cannot afford a costly and interminable war.
FALWELL'S LIES
Some of the people most responsible for hate rhetoric in the United States are religious leaders who call themselves Christians. Christian religious leaders, more than anyone, should exemplify the gentleness and compassion of Jesus Christ. Instead, we get hatred and bigotry from the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. This article shows Jerry Falwell lying about what he said after the terrorist attacks on September 11. The article is at www.mediamatters.org:
On the November 28 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, Reverend Jerry Falwell defended his September 13, 2001, remark that abortion rights advocates, feminists, and homosexuals, among others, were responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks, falsely claiming that when he assigned that blame, he had "likewise" held responsible "a sleeping church, a lethargic church." Falwell also falsely claimed that the divorce rate is lower among born-again Christians than it is among all other Americans.
NUREMBERG REDUX
It wasn't really that long ago that Germany was defeated in the Second World War and its leaders were tried for their heinous crimes against humanity. The war crimes trials at Nuremberg set a good precedent, I think, in establishing that all of have a level of responsibility in how we treat our fellow humans even in war time. There is news now that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other high officials in the Bush administration are being charged with war crimes in Germany. This story is at www.reuters.co.uk:
According to the group, German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.
Those to be named in the case to be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office include Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet and eight other officials.
The group is due to present details of its case at several news conferences on Tuesday, according to invitations faxed to media organisations.
TORTURE STILL CONTINUES IN CUBA
I object strenuously to torture. I think it's not only anti-American, but anti-human to torture people, no matter how you may feel about them. Our Constitution prohibits "cruel and unusual" punishment. While we've had the death penalty, we haven't sanctioned things like thumb screws or the rack. And psychological torture is no less cruel. This article is at www.nytimes.com:
The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.
DELUSIONAL CONSERVATIVES
Paul Craig Roberts is a former editor at The Wall Street Journal, and he calls the conservatives who blindly follow, almost worship, George W. Bush "delusional." This is an interesting commentary at www.lewrockwell.com:
Because of the triumph of delusional "new conservatives" and the demise of the liberal media, this war is different from the Vietnam war. As more Americans are killed and maimed in the pointless carnage, more Americans have a powerful emotional stake that the war not be lost and not be in vain. Trapped in violence and unable to admit mistake, a reckless administration will escalate.
The rapidly collapsing US dollar is hard evidence that the world sees the US as bankrupt. Flight from the dollar as the reserve currency will adversely impact American living standards, which are already falling as a result of job outsourcing and offshore production. The US cannot afford a costly and interminable war.
FALWELL'S LIES
Some of the people most responsible for hate rhetoric in the United States are religious leaders who call themselves Christians. Christian religious leaders, more than anyone, should exemplify the gentleness and compassion of Jesus Christ. Instead, we get hatred and bigotry from the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. This article shows Jerry Falwell lying about what he said after the terrorist attacks on September 11. The article is at www.mediamatters.org:
On the November 28 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, Reverend Jerry Falwell defended his September 13, 2001, remark that abortion rights advocates, feminists, and homosexuals, among others, were responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks, falsely claiming that when he assigned that blame, he had "likewise" held responsible "a sleeping church, a lethargic church." Falwell also falsely claimed that the divorce rate is lower among born-again Christians than it is among all other Americans.
NUREMBERG REDUX
It wasn't really that long ago that Germany was defeated in the Second World War and its leaders were tried for their heinous crimes against humanity. The war crimes trials at Nuremberg set a good precedent, I think, in establishing that all of have a level of responsibility in how we treat our fellow humans even in war time. There is news now that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA Director George Tenet, and other high officials in the Bush administration are being charged with war crimes in Germany. This story is at www.reuters.co.uk:
According to the group, German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.
Those to be named in the case to be filed at Germany's Federal Prosecutors Office include Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet and eight other officials.
The group is due to present details of its case at several news conferences on Tuesday, according to invitations faxed to media organisations.
Monday, November 29, 2004
NOVEMBER 29, 2004
WHEN BLACK IS WHITE
One of the most astonishing things about reactionary rhetoric is how reactionaries can take basic facts and manipulate them into something you can't recognize. They're trying to do it with global warming. They'll claim that global warming isn't really happening, or if it is happening it's really a good thing. This story is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Climate change is 'a myth', sea levels are not rising and Britain's chief scientist is 'an embarrassment' for believing catastrophe is inevitable. These are the controversial views of a new London-based think-tank that will publish a report tomorrow attacking the apocalyptic view that man-made greenhouse gases will destroy the planet.
The International Policy Network will publish its long-awaited study, claiming that the science warning of an environmental disaster caused by climate change is 'fatally flawed'. It will state that previous predictions of changes in sea level of a metre over the next 100 years were overestimates.
THINKING OF GUERNICA
In 1937 Hitler and Mussolini were making preparations for world war. The Spanish Civil War gave them an opportunity to test out their war machine, and part of their philosophy was "total war," which would consider civilians as combatants. Hitler's air force attacked the Basque village of Guernica, dropping an estimated 100,000 pounds of bombs and leveling the city. It has been compared to the recent U.S. attack against the Iraqi city of Fallujah. What strikes me is the "total war" philosophy. The terrorists who attacked on September 11 had no qualms about killing innocent civilians in their strike against the United States, and the Bush administration with its strategy of preemptive war has no problems with killing innocent civilians. This excerpt is from an article about the attack on Guernica and can be found at www.historylearningsite.co.uk:
In 1935, General Erich Luderndorff had published "The Total War" (Die Totale Krieg) in which he argued that modern war was all encompassing and that no-one could or should necessarily be spared by the military. He argued that civilians were combatants and should be treated accordingly. His ideas were backed up in Fascist Italy where General Giulio Douhet produced a pamphlet which stated that an army's advance might be suitably assisted by targeting civilians whose panic would severely hamper the ability of the enemy's army to mobilise itself. Such panic could be delivered by "air-delivered terror".
OUR MORAL VALUES
Right-wingers like to thump their chests proudly about their "moral values." Theirs are the moral values of the corporate balance sheet, the incredible rate of childhood poverty, the millions of people without health insurance, endless unnecessary wars, forcing a punitive religion on the rest of us and calling it Christianity, and the raping and pillaging of the planet. I don't think most people really share those "values." Here is a good piece talking about the values of progressives. The column is at www.berkeleydaily.org:
Beliefs in social and economic justice are moral values. Beliefs in equality and inclusion and compassion are moral values. Beliefs in honesty and integrity are moral values. A belief that each generation has a responsibility to leave a better world (environmentally, fiscally, educationally, socially) for their descendents is a moral value-in my view, it is the transcendant one.
THE FALLING DOLLAR IS BAD NEWS
I don't claim to be an economist, but instinctively I know that huge federal deficits and borrowing from foreign investors is a bad idea. Since George W. Bush was ushered into the White House, we've gone from an era of federal surpluses to massive deficits as far as the eye can see. Bush has worsened the problem with massive tax cuts for his rich friends even while we're spending billions on an unnecessary war in Iraq. As the old proverb says, you eventually reap what you sow. We're ready to reap big economic trouble. This is a commentary by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich at www.tompaine.com:
American exporters are cheering because a lower dollar makes everything they sell abroad cheaper. But it’s bad for the rest of us because as the dollar drops everything we buy from abroad -- including oil -- becomes that much more expensive. And these higher prices will ripple through the economy, threatening inflation and higher interest rates -- and, ultimately, reducing our living standards.
It’s one of the oldest of economic laws: When you’re living too high on the hog, eventually you’re gonna fall off and find yourself in pig slop.
ASSASSINATION STORY BEGINS TO UNRAVEL
You've heard the story. Our brave leader, George W. Bush, put his life in danger when he went to Colombia because some bad people wanted to assassinate him. Well, maybe not. From the beginning this story made me think of the claims that on 9/11 Air Force was targeted by terrorists. This story comes from the great state of Texas and is at www.chron.com:
Colombia's government on today backpedalled on a sensational claim made by the defense minister that Marxist rebels wanted to assassinate President Bush during a recent state visit.
WHEN BLACK IS WHITE
One of the most astonishing things about reactionary rhetoric is how reactionaries can take basic facts and manipulate them into something you can't recognize. They're trying to do it with global warming. They'll claim that global warming isn't really happening, or if it is happening it's really a good thing. This story is linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
Climate change is 'a myth', sea levels are not rising and Britain's chief scientist is 'an embarrassment' for believing catastrophe is inevitable. These are the controversial views of a new London-based think-tank that will publish a report tomorrow attacking the apocalyptic view that man-made greenhouse gases will destroy the planet.
The International Policy Network will publish its long-awaited study, claiming that the science warning of an environmental disaster caused by climate change is 'fatally flawed'. It will state that previous predictions of changes in sea level of a metre over the next 100 years were overestimates.
THINKING OF GUERNICA
In 1937 Hitler and Mussolini were making preparations for world war. The Spanish Civil War gave them an opportunity to test out their war machine, and part of their philosophy was "total war," which would consider civilians as combatants. Hitler's air force attacked the Basque village of Guernica, dropping an estimated 100,000 pounds of bombs and leveling the city. It has been compared to the recent U.S. attack against the Iraqi city of Fallujah. What strikes me is the "total war" philosophy. The terrorists who attacked on September 11 had no qualms about killing innocent civilians in their strike against the United States, and the Bush administration with its strategy of preemptive war has no problems with killing innocent civilians. This excerpt is from an article about the attack on Guernica and can be found at www.historylearningsite.co.uk:
In 1935, General Erich Luderndorff had published "The Total War" (Die Totale Krieg) in which he argued that modern war was all encompassing and that no-one could or should necessarily be spared by the military. He argued that civilians were combatants and should be treated accordingly. His ideas were backed up in Fascist Italy where General Giulio Douhet produced a pamphlet which stated that an army's advance might be suitably assisted by targeting civilians whose panic would severely hamper the ability of the enemy's army to mobilise itself. Such panic could be delivered by "air-delivered terror".
OUR MORAL VALUES
Right-wingers like to thump their chests proudly about their "moral values." Theirs are the moral values of the corporate balance sheet, the incredible rate of childhood poverty, the millions of people without health insurance, endless unnecessary wars, forcing a punitive religion on the rest of us and calling it Christianity, and the raping and pillaging of the planet. I don't think most people really share those "values." Here is a good piece talking about the values of progressives. The column is at www.berkeleydaily.org:
Beliefs in social and economic justice are moral values. Beliefs in equality and inclusion and compassion are moral values. Beliefs in honesty and integrity are moral values. A belief that each generation has a responsibility to leave a better world (environmentally, fiscally, educationally, socially) for their descendents is a moral value-in my view, it is the transcendant one.
THE FALLING DOLLAR IS BAD NEWS
I don't claim to be an economist, but instinctively I know that huge federal deficits and borrowing from foreign investors is a bad idea. Since George W. Bush was ushered into the White House, we've gone from an era of federal surpluses to massive deficits as far as the eye can see. Bush has worsened the problem with massive tax cuts for his rich friends even while we're spending billions on an unnecessary war in Iraq. As the old proverb says, you eventually reap what you sow. We're ready to reap big economic trouble. This is a commentary by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich at www.tompaine.com:
American exporters are cheering because a lower dollar makes everything they sell abroad cheaper. But it’s bad for the rest of us because as the dollar drops everything we buy from abroad -- including oil -- becomes that much more expensive. And these higher prices will ripple through the economy, threatening inflation and higher interest rates -- and, ultimately, reducing our living standards.
It’s one of the oldest of economic laws: When you’re living too high on the hog, eventually you’re gonna fall off and find yourself in pig slop.
ASSASSINATION STORY BEGINS TO UNRAVEL
You've heard the story. Our brave leader, George W. Bush, put his life in danger when he went to Colombia because some bad people wanted to assassinate him. Well, maybe not. From the beginning this story made me think of the claims that on 9/11 Air Force was targeted by terrorists. This story comes from the great state of Texas and is at www.chron.com:
Colombia's government on today backpedalled on a sensational claim made by the defense minister that Marxist rebels wanted to assassinate President Bush during a recent state visit.
Sunday, November 28, 2004
A BARREL OF LIES FROM PARTY HACK
A local Republican operative I call Party Hack has a letter in The Fresno Bee claiming, among other things, that we failed to respond to terrorism in the 1990s and that led to the attack on September 11. As I recall, the people responsible for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993 were apprehended, prosecuted, and convicted. Richard Clarke, who advised both President Clinton and George W. Bush, published a memoir showing that it was Bush who didn't take terrorism seriously. Bush repeatedly ignored warnings of an impending terrorist attack. What is most galling about Party Hack's little tirade is the claim about Bush being tough on terrorism. Yeah, attacking a country that didn't attack us, killing innocent civilians, and letting the people responsible for attacking us get away really makes me feel more secure. Here's a sampling from this idiotic letter:
I sleep better at night knowing that we have a tough commander in chief, willing to ignore the soft underbelly of Old Europe and the weakness of America's liberals to stand up and enforce a simple doctrine. The world may never be completely safe ever again, but I guarantee you this, any attack on America or her interests will be met with "shock and awe."
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY IS CONSERVATIVE, POOR, AND DYSFUNCTIONAL
Party Hack made a big point of the high percentage of votes that went to Bush from the San Joaquin Valley. I don't think it's an accident that conservative areas such as the Valley tend to also have some of the worst living conditions, whether it be dirty air, dirty water, high unemployment, high childhood poverty, high rates of teenage pregnancy, or the production of methamphetamine drugs. Fresno has also been among the leaders in stolen cars. California Treasurer Phil Angelides had some observations about the Valley in this speech posted at www.treasurer.ca.gov:
We are gathered today at the center of the new global economy. Yet, if you travel 100 miles inland to the San Joaquin Valley, one in three children are in poverty. The unemployment rate is 5 percentage points higher than it is in any state in this nation. As we stand here today, the story of the Silicon Valley has not been the story of Compton and East Palo Alto and the San Joaquin Valley. We are in danger of becoming two societies and that, in the end, will tear at our social fabric and undermine our competitiveness in the global marketplace.
MORE ON THE RIGGED ELECTION
Online Journal ran a story a couple of days ago with allegations that the Bush campaign spent about $29 million in Enron and Saudi money to rig voting machines in various states around the country to swing the election to Bush. This story is a follow up. I wonder how long it will take the mainstream media to pay attention. The story is at www.onlinejournal.com:
Additional information on the buying of vote riggers with Saudi and former Enron funds has been obtained. The epicenter for the vote rigging operation is Dallas, Texas, and the operation may involve retired FBI agents who used a well-established "good ole boy" network to arrange for access to polling precincts by electronic voting machine technicians who took advantage of various November 2 security "lockdowns" to illegally alter the tabulation of votes in favor of Bush. Some of the retired agents may have used courtesy credentials issued upon retirement to fool unsuspecting polling place workers.
BUSH IS ALWAYS ON THE SIDE OF CRUELTY
I don't think my headline is overstating things. If it comes down to doing a progressive and compassionate thing, or doing something cruel and regressive, Bush seems to go for the cruel and regressive thing every time. This time it's failure to take action to ban landmines. Landmines have a nasty way of sticking around and hurting innocent civilians long after hostilities have ended. That's not to mention that they're cruel weapons to use even in war time. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
The United States, stung by insurgent attacks in Iraq, has urged the international community to consider banning all sales of antitank and other heavy landmines, but ruled out its participation in an international conference on mines designed to hurt primarily people.
NOBEL LAUREATE SARAMAGO BLASTS BUSH
Jose Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has some sharp observations about George W. Bush. This story is also at www.commondreams.org:
At an earlier speaking engagement in Bogotá, Colombia, Saramago called Bush "the biggest liar on the planet." He added that if the U.S. president ever decides to focus on the region, Latin America should tremble with fear. "I could say the same about Africa, but I don't want to create an international panic," he joked.
Turning his attention to the rest of the world, Saramago told his audience in Caracas that the United States will never leave Iraq, "because it needs to control the Middle East, the gateway to Asia. It already has military installations in Uzbekistan."
A local Republican operative I call Party Hack has a letter in The Fresno Bee claiming, among other things, that we failed to respond to terrorism in the 1990s and that led to the attack on September 11. As I recall, the people responsible for bombing the World Trade Center in 1993 were apprehended, prosecuted, and convicted. Richard Clarke, who advised both President Clinton and George W. Bush, published a memoir showing that it was Bush who didn't take terrorism seriously. Bush repeatedly ignored warnings of an impending terrorist attack. What is most galling about Party Hack's little tirade is the claim about Bush being tough on terrorism. Yeah, attacking a country that didn't attack us, killing innocent civilians, and letting the people responsible for attacking us get away really makes me feel more secure. Here's a sampling from this idiotic letter:
I sleep better at night knowing that we have a tough commander in chief, willing to ignore the soft underbelly of Old Europe and the weakness of America's liberals to stand up and enforce a simple doctrine. The world may never be completely safe ever again, but I guarantee you this, any attack on America or her interests will be met with "shock and awe."
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY IS CONSERVATIVE, POOR, AND DYSFUNCTIONAL
Party Hack made a big point of the high percentage of votes that went to Bush from the San Joaquin Valley. I don't think it's an accident that conservative areas such as the Valley tend to also have some of the worst living conditions, whether it be dirty air, dirty water, high unemployment, high childhood poverty, high rates of teenage pregnancy, or the production of methamphetamine drugs. Fresno has also been among the leaders in stolen cars. California Treasurer Phil Angelides had some observations about the Valley in this speech posted at www.treasurer.ca.gov:
We are gathered today at the center of the new global economy. Yet, if you travel 100 miles inland to the San Joaquin Valley, one in three children are in poverty. The unemployment rate is 5 percentage points higher than it is in any state in this nation. As we stand here today, the story of the Silicon Valley has not been the story of Compton and East Palo Alto and the San Joaquin Valley. We are in danger of becoming two societies and that, in the end, will tear at our social fabric and undermine our competitiveness in the global marketplace.
MORE ON THE RIGGED ELECTION
Online Journal ran a story a couple of days ago with allegations that the Bush campaign spent about $29 million in Enron and Saudi money to rig voting machines in various states around the country to swing the election to Bush. This story is a follow up. I wonder how long it will take the mainstream media to pay attention. The story is at www.onlinejournal.com:
Additional information on the buying of vote riggers with Saudi and former Enron funds has been obtained. The epicenter for the vote rigging operation is Dallas, Texas, and the operation may involve retired FBI agents who used a well-established "good ole boy" network to arrange for access to polling precincts by electronic voting machine technicians who took advantage of various November 2 security "lockdowns" to illegally alter the tabulation of votes in favor of Bush. Some of the retired agents may have used courtesy credentials issued upon retirement to fool unsuspecting polling place workers.
BUSH IS ALWAYS ON THE SIDE OF CRUELTY
I don't think my headline is overstating things. If it comes down to doing a progressive and compassionate thing, or doing something cruel and regressive, Bush seems to go for the cruel and regressive thing every time. This time it's failure to take action to ban landmines. Landmines have a nasty way of sticking around and hurting innocent civilians long after hostilities have ended. That's not to mention that they're cruel weapons to use even in war time. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
The United States, stung by insurgent attacks in Iraq, has urged the international community to consider banning all sales of antitank and other heavy landmines, but ruled out its participation in an international conference on mines designed to hurt primarily people.
NOBEL LAUREATE SARAMAGO BLASTS BUSH
Jose Saramago, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, has some sharp observations about George W. Bush. This story is also at www.commondreams.org:
At an earlier speaking engagement in Bogotá, Colombia, Saramago called Bush "the biggest liar on the planet." He added that if the U.S. president ever decides to focus on the region, Latin America should tremble with fear. "I could say the same about Africa, but I don't want to create an international panic," he joked.
Turning his attention to the rest of the world, Saramago told his audience in Caracas that the United States will never leave Iraq, "because it needs to control the Middle East, the gateway to Asia. It already has military installations in Uzbekistan."
Saturday, November 27, 2004
SHOULD U.S. BE IMMUNE FROM WAR CRIMES PROSECUTIONS?
The Republicans in Congress are blackmailing other countries into ignoring U.S. war crimes by threatening to cut U.S. foreign aid. If the U.S. is so righteous and good, we shouldn't be worried about war crimes prosecutions. I think this is more about people like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld than it is about troops on the ground. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S. personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.
WESTERN SUPERIORITY A MYTH
One of the frequent right-wing correspondents to The Fresno Bee likes to talk about "western civilization" and the dangers posed to it. Inherent as part of the idea of "western civilization" is the idea of western superiority. I thought this was an interesting essay about how western superiority is really a myth. The essay discusses the ideas in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The essay can be found at www.blucorncomics.com:
If we remember the first Thanksgiving at all, we picture the Pilgrims and Indians living in harmony. Of course, Europeans went on to slaughter the natives and conquer the land, but that's history for you. The Indians simply didn't have the right stuff to develop civilization.
In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, biologist Jared Diamond demolishes this facile argument. He shows how geographic and ecological differences, not talent or virtue, led the West to domination. Let's see how Diamond's theories apply to the Indians.
Diamond starts by noting the New World's paucity of big domestic mammals. Whereas Eurasia had 13 species, the Americas had only one-the llama, limited to the Andes. Animals such as the bison proved impossible to domesticate widely, as modern attempts have shown.
"W" IS FOR "WEENIE"
I think George W. Bush is a coward. He's a bully too, but bullies tend to show what cowards they are when the chips are down. We have many examples of the yellow streak parading down George's back: his failure to do his duty during his Air National Guard service, the fact he won't speak before any possibly hostile people outside the United States, and the careful stagecrafting in this country by segregating protesters in so-called "free speech" zones. This is about Bush's terror at the thought of speaking before an hostile parliament in Canada. The column by Slinger is at www.thestar.com:
What evidence is there of Dubya's weenieness, apart from him chickening out when it came to going up against the filthy Commies in the skies over the Rio Grande during the unpleasantness in Vietnam?
JEFFERSON DAVIS, STONEWALL JACKSON, ROBERT E. LEE WOULD FEEL AT HOME
In some "alternative history" novels we're presented with a scenario where the South won the Civil War. What was once fiction is distressingly looking more like fact. The South didn't win with guns and bullets, but they're winning with venality, hatred, and bigotry. This is an interesting analysis by David Podvin at www.makethemaccountable.com:
It took awhile, but the South has finally won the Civil War. One hundred thirty nine years after Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army, the Confederate philosophy reigns triumphant in the United States of America. The executive and legislative branches of the federal government are under the control of reactionary Southerners, and the judiciary is dominated by strict constructionists who embrace the Jim Crow view of states’ rights. Even those places in America that reject Southern-fried authoritarianism are currently under the dominion of the national Confederate ruling class.
The Republicans in Congress are blackmailing other countries into ignoring U.S. war crimes by threatening to cut U.S. foreign aid. If the U.S. is so righteous and good, we shouldn't be worried about war crimes prosecutions. I think this is more about people like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld than it is about troops on the ground. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S. personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.
WESTERN SUPERIORITY A MYTH
One of the frequent right-wing correspondents to The Fresno Bee likes to talk about "western civilization" and the dangers posed to it. Inherent as part of the idea of "western civilization" is the idea of western superiority. I thought this was an interesting essay about how western superiority is really a myth. The essay discusses the ideas in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel. The essay can be found at www.blucorncomics.com:
If we remember the first Thanksgiving at all, we picture the Pilgrims and Indians living in harmony. Of course, Europeans went on to slaughter the natives and conquer the land, but that's history for you. The Indians simply didn't have the right stuff to develop civilization.
In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, biologist Jared Diamond demolishes this facile argument. He shows how geographic and ecological differences, not talent or virtue, led the West to domination. Let's see how Diamond's theories apply to the Indians.
Diamond starts by noting the New World's paucity of big domestic mammals. Whereas Eurasia had 13 species, the Americas had only one-the llama, limited to the Andes. Animals such as the bison proved impossible to domesticate widely, as modern attempts have shown.
"W" IS FOR "WEENIE"
I think George W. Bush is a coward. He's a bully too, but bullies tend to show what cowards they are when the chips are down. We have many examples of the yellow streak parading down George's back: his failure to do his duty during his Air National Guard service, the fact he won't speak before any possibly hostile people outside the United States, and the careful stagecrafting in this country by segregating protesters in so-called "free speech" zones. This is about Bush's terror at the thought of speaking before an hostile parliament in Canada. The column by Slinger is at www.thestar.com:
What evidence is there of Dubya's weenieness, apart from him chickening out when it came to going up against the filthy Commies in the skies over the Rio Grande during the unpleasantness in Vietnam?
JEFFERSON DAVIS, STONEWALL JACKSON, ROBERT E. LEE WOULD FEEL AT HOME
In some "alternative history" novels we're presented with a scenario where the South won the Civil War. What was once fiction is distressingly looking more like fact. The South didn't win with guns and bullets, but they're winning with venality, hatred, and bigotry. This is an interesting analysis by David Podvin at www.makethemaccountable.com:
It took awhile, but the South has finally won the Civil War. One hundred thirty nine years after Robert E. Lee surrendered to the Union Army, the Confederate philosophy reigns triumphant in the United States of America. The executive and legislative branches of the federal government are under the control of reactionary Southerners, and the judiciary is dominated by strict constructionists who embrace the Jim Crow view of states’ rights. Even those places in America that reject Southern-fried authoritarianism are currently under the dominion of the national Confederate ruling class.
Friday, November 26, 2004
UNARMED CIVILIANS KILLED IN FALLUJAH
I'm reminded of a line from the Al Pacino movie "And Justice for All." He said at one point about a grave injustice, "Don't you even care?" That's how I feel when I read about the atrocities committed by the United States in Iraq. We have been betraying everything we're supposed to stand for. We've tortured people at places like Abu Ghraib and in Cuba. We've slaughtered an estimated 100,000 innocent civilians in Iraq. We've killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan. This story talks about the atrocities in Fallujah. The story is at news.independent.co.uk:
Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.
They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said.
BUSH AND RUMSFELD CAN'T EVEN SIGN SYMPATHY LETTERS
This piece by Colonel David Hackworth says that sympathy letters sent to families of our military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't even signed by Bush and Rumsfeld. Instead, they're machine stamped. More of that compassionate conservatism in action. This column is at www.sftt.org:
And now, apparently, Rumsfeld’s obsession with machines and their efficiency has translated into his using one to replace his own John Hancock on KIA (killed in action) letters to parents and spouses. Two Pentagon-based colonels, who’ve both insisted on anonymity to protect their careers, have indignantly reported that the SecDef has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself.
PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY WILL CLOBBER WOMEN AND MINORITIES
At www.tompaine.com there is a link to a study of Bush's proposed changes to the Social Security system, which will mean no security for a large number of Americans. The whole "ownership society" concept favors people who already have the resources to invest in the stock market--and can afford to lose--and puts everyone else at a severe disadvantage. What Bush's plan will do is enrich the people who will rake in big bucks from broker fees. This item is at www.tompaine.com:
The president has said that privatizing Social Security is his priority for his second term, replacing the government system with private retirement savings accounts. (For more on this, visit The Institute For America's Future Social Security project ) But the costs to everyday Americans are huge: there's the management fees required for maintaining an account; the need to buy insurance to match the protection workers currently get under Social Security; and the costs of switching to an entirely new system. And the savings accounts would be tied to the stock market's performance-a risk for everyone. Even worse, women and minorities would lose twice, because they make less money to invest into retirement saving accounts. Economists at the Center For American Progress count the ways privatizing Social Security is a losing proposition. SEE THE REPORT
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY'S NEW RURAL UNDERCLASS
When you think of the San Joaquin Valley in California you have to think about migrant farm workers. Back in the 1930s John Steinbeck wrote about the Okie migrants in his great novel The Grapes of Wrath. Later, the Okies were largely replaced by Mexican migrants who moved back and forth between the United States and Mexico. Now the migrants are staying because, ironically, tighter border security has made it more difficult for them to return to Mexico. The former migrants are now creating a new rural underclass enmeshed in poverty. This excerpt is from an article by Maggie Jones at www.motherjones.com:
At 4:30 a.m. in a dusty farming town in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the lights are on in a one-room house no bigger than a garage. Inside, Isabel makes tortillas and beans for the workday ahead, while her husband, Vicente, puts on his farmworker’s uniform of long pants, long-sleeved shirt, work boots, and a baseball cap. Much of the town of Arvin is awake by now: The local panaderias -- Mexican bakeries -- open at 5 a.m., as do the small markets where farmworkers buy gas and pick up coffee before heading to the fields.
SO MANY FORGOTTEN LIVES
I like Bob Dylan, but I've never heard the song mentioned in this article, and I didn't know about the incident the song describes. It's about the killing of an African-American woman servant by a white punk. The white punk got six months in prison and, apparently, went on abusing African-American people in other ways as he got older. This article is also at www.motherjones.com:
Do you know the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"? Put it on now and listen to it, if you happen to have it on a CD or an album. If you don't, or you don't remember it, it's about a young society swell named William Zantzinger who, in 1963, killed a black serving woman named Hattie Carroll at a ball at a Baltimore hotel by striking her with a cane. Dylan was just 22 when he wrote it, and the lyrics show him at his high-energy, internal-rhyme-spinning peak:
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
It's a pity that people so traumatized by a promotional stunt on Monday Night Football aren't outraged by poverty in the United States, or exported jobs, or torture, or unnecessary wars. But they're just hyperventilating over the non-nudity of the promotional stunt where an actress drops a towel, shows a bare back (oh the horror!), and leaps into the arms of wide receiver Terrell Owens. Frank Rich has a good commentary at www.nytimes.com:
If we are to believe the outcry of the past two weeks, America's youth have been defiled en masse - again. This time the dirty deed was done by the actress Nicollette Sheridan, who dropped her towel in the cheesy promotional spot for the runaway hit "Desperate Housewives" that kicked off "Monday Night Football" on ABC. "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Michael Powell, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who increasingly fashions himself a commissar of all things cultural, from nipple rings to "Son of Flubber."
ALLEGATIONS BUSH CAMPAIGN PAID TO RIG ELECTION
I've been consistently amazed at the corruption of the Bush administration, thinking that surely this scandal or that scandal would bring them down, and the American people keep going merrily along supporting these thugs. I have to wonder if this story gets "legs," though, what the public reaction will be. There are allegations the Bush campaign paid operatives to rig the electronic voting machines used in so many places in the country. The story is at www.onlinejournal.com:
According to informed sources in Washington and Houston, the Bush campaign spent some $29 million to pay polling place operatives around the country to rig the election for Bush. The operatives were posing as Homeland Security and FBI agents but were actually technicians familiar with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad, Unilect, and Danaher Controls voting machines. These technicians reportedly hacked the systems to skew the results in favor of Bush.
The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program
I'm reminded of a line from the Al Pacino movie "And Justice for All." He said at one point about a grave injustice, "Don't you even care?" That's how I feel when I read about the atrocities committed by the United States in Iraq. We have been betraying everything we're supposed to stand for. We've tortured people at places like Abu Ghraib and in Cuba. We've slaughtered an estimated 100,000 innocent civilians in Iraq. We've killed innocent civilians in Afghanistan. This story talks about the atrocities in Fallujah. The story is at news.independent.co.uk:
Allegations of widespread abuse by US forces in Fallujah, including the killing of unarmed civilians and the targeting of a hospital in an attack, have been made by people who have escaped from the city.
They said, in interviews with The Independent, that as well as deaths from bombs and artillery shells, a large number of people including children were killed by American snipers. US forces refused repeated calls for medical aid for injured civilians, they said.
BUSH AND RUMSFELD CAN'T EVEN SIGN SYMPATHY LETTERS
This piece by Colonel David Hackworth says that sympathy letters sent to families of our military killed in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't even signed by Bush and Rumsfeld. Instead, they're machine stamped. More of that compassionate conservatism in action. This column is at www.sftt.org:
And now, apparently, Rumsfeld’s obsession with machines and their efficiency has translated into his using one to replace his own John Hancock on KIA (killed in action) letters to parents and spouses. Two Pentagon-based colonels, who’ve both insisted on anonymity to protect their careers, have indignantly reported that the SecDef has relinquished this sacred duty to a signature device rather than signing the sad documents himself.
PRIVATIZING SOCIAL SECURITY WILL CLOBBER WOMEN AND MINORITIES
At www.tompaine.com there is a link to a study of Bush's proposed changes to the Social Security system, which will mean no security for a large number of Americans. The whole "ownership society" concept favors people who already have the resources to invest in the stock market--and can afford to lose--and puts everyone else at a severe disadvantage. What Bush's plan will do is enrich the people who will rake in big bucks from broker fees. This item is at www.tompaine.com:
The president has said that privatizing Social Security is his priority for his second term, replacing the government system with private retirement savings accounts. (For more on this, visit The Institute For America's Future Social Security project ) But the costs to everyday Americans are huge: there's the management fees required for maintaining an account; the need to buy insurance to match the protection workers currently get under Social Security; and the costs of switching to an entirely new system. And the savings accounts would be tied to the stock market's performance-a risk for everyone. Even worse, women and minorities would lose twice, because they make less money to invest into retirement saving accounts. Economists at the Center For American Progress count the ways privatizing Social Security is a losing proposition. SEE THE REPORT
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY'S NEW RURAL UNDERCLASS
When you think of the San Joaquin Valley in California you have to think about migrant farm workers. Back in the 1930s John Steinbeck wrote about the Okie migrants in his great novel The Grapes of Wrath. Later, the Okies were largely replaced by Mexican migrants who moved back and forth between the United States and Mexico. Now the migrants are staying because, ironically, tighter border security has made it more difficult for them to return to Mexico. The former migrants are now creating a new rural underclass enmeshed in poverty. This excerpt is from an article by Maggie Jones at www.motherjones.com:
At 4:30 a.m. in a dusty farming town in California’s San Joaquin Valley, the lights are on in a one-room house no bigger than a garage. Inside, Isabel makes tortillas and beans for the workday ahead, while her husband, Vicente, puts on his farmworker’s uniform of long pants, long-sleeved shirt, work boots, and a baseball cap. Much of the town of Arvin is awake by now: The local panaderias -- Mexican bakeries -- open at 5 a.m., as do the small markets where farmworkers buy gas and pick up coffee before heading to the fields.
SO MANY FORGOTTEN LIVES
I like Bob Dylan, but I've never heard the song mentioned in this article, and I didn't know about the incident the song describes. It's about the killing of an African-American woman servant by a white punk. The white punk got six months in prison and, apparently, went on abusing African-American people in other ways as he got older. This article is also at www.motherjones.com:
Do you know the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll"? Put it on now and listen to it, if you happen to have it on a CD or an album. If you don't, or you don't remember it, it's about a young society swell named William Zantzinger who, in 1963, killed a black serving woman named Hattie Carroll at a ball at a Baltimore hotel by striking her with a cane. Dylan was just 22 when he wrote it, and the lyrics show him at his high-energy, internal-rhyme-spinning peak:
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
It's a pity that people so traumatized by a promotional stunt on Monday Night Football aren't outraged by poverty in the United States, or exported jobs, or torture, or unnecessary wars. But they're just hyperventilating over the non-nudity of the promotional stunt where an actress drops a towel, shows a bare back (oh the horror!), and leaps into the arms of wide receiver Terrell Owens. Frank Rich has a good commentary at www.nytimes.com:
If we are to believe the outcry of the past two weeks, America's youth have been defiled en masse - again. This time the dirty deed was done by the actress Nicollette Sheridan, who dropped her towel in the cheesy promotional spot for the runaway hit "Desperate Housewives" that kicked off "Monday Night Football" on ABC. "I wonder if Walt Disney would be proud," said Michael Powell, the Federal Communications Commission chairman who increasingly fashions himself a commissar of all things cultural, from nipple rings to "Son of Flubber."
ALLEGATIONS BUSH CAMPAIGN PAID TO RIG ELECTION
I've been consistently amazed at the corruption of the Bush administration, thinking that surely this scandal or that scandal would bring them down, and the American people keep going merrily along supporting these thugs. I have to wonder if this story gets "legs," though, what the public reaction will be. There are allegations the Bush campaign paid operatives to rig the electronic voting machines used in so many places in the country. The story is at www.onlinejournal.com:
According to informed sources in Washington and Houston, the Bush campaign spent some $29 million to pay polling place operatives around the country to rig the election for Bush. The operatives were posing as Homeland Security and FBI agents but were actually technicians familiar with Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S, Triad, Unilect, and Danaher Controls voting machines. These technicians reportedly hacked the systems to skew the results in favor of Bush.
The leak about the money and the rigged election apparently came from technicians who were promised to be paid a certain amount for their work but the Bush campaign interlocutors reneged and some of the technicians are revealing the nature of the vote rigging program
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