JANUARY 14, 2005
IS BILL SAFIRE ON BUSH PAYROLL TOO?
New York Times columnist Bill Safire made the rather astounding statement in his column that the GOP restrains taxes at home, but increases social spending. Mr. Safire is oblivious to the facts. This commentary is at mediamatters.org:
In the wake of reports that President Bush is proposing a 2006 budget that slashes or freezes domestic spending, New York Times op-ed columnist William Safire wrote in his January 12 column -- in which he touted "the growing strength of national character" in America -- that the present-day Republican Party "is characterized by a mission to defeat terror while exporting freedom abroad, and a policy to restrain taxes while increasing social spending at home."
But, as Robert Pear reported in a January 9 New York Times article, the leader of the party that purportedly embraces a policy of "increasing social spending at home" is expected to propose cuts to numerous entitlement programs -- such as Social Security, Medicare, veterans' disability compensation, and Medicaid -- as well as cuts or freezes to other social programs, such as housing, scientific, and health programs.
REMINDERS OF HARRY MUDD
In the original Star Trek series there was an episode featuring a ne'er-do-well named Harry Mudd. Mudd had assumed leadership of a planet populated by androids who were happy to do any and everything Harry Mudd wanted. But it seemed there were ulterior motives to the largesse of the androids. They wanted to take control of the whole galaxy by "helping" humans and controlling them. Captain Kirk devised a plan to wrest control of his people and his ship from the androids and in a memorable scene he told the head android that Harry Mudd lied about everything. Then to confuse the androids Kirk brought out the Liar's Paradox. "Remember," Kirk said, "everything Harry tells you is a lie." Mudd then told the android, "I am lying." Mudd was telling the truth, but he couldn't tell the truth because everything he said was a lie. That so describes George W. Bush, who is in full lie mode now on Social Security. This story by Joyce Marcel is at www.commndreams.org:
Our Liar-in-Chief, the one who most notably brought us invisible Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, who recently claimed to have a sparkling clean bill of health as the press buzzed about his new defibrillator, who claimed he was a "uniter instead of a divider" and a "compassionate conservative" and then bombed innocent Iraqis while half of the world took to the streets against him, is at it again.
Now he's saying that Social Security - a truly compassionate government program, the only one currently running a surplus, the one that helps the elderly, the widowed and the infirm to survive in a cold, cruel world, the fund that Bush's own government reports will be healthy for the next 40 or 50 years, (the fund that many presidents and Congress have dipped into to cover their overspending) - is bankrupt.
It's a bald-faced lie, of course. But Karl Rove has taught George W. Bush that if you say something over and over and over again, people will start believing that it is true.
NATURAL DISASTERS BAD, WARS NOT SO BAD
It's commendable that Americans and others around the world have sent aid to the victims of the South Asia tsunami. But you have to wonder why Americans in particular are not so concerned about the victims of our unnecessary war in Iraq. This is an interesting commentary by Lucinda Marshall at www.commondreams.org:
More profoundly, what about the impact on people's lives? We are rushing to send water and medical supplies, food and clothing to the victims of the Tsunami. But in Iraq, we have deliberately destroyed the water and electrical systems and made little effort to repair and replace them. The result is an extreme shortage of potable water and not enough power for such things as refrigerating food. We have bombed hospitals and cut off medical supplies, gasoline is scarce and expensive. People are without homes, jobs or schools. And as is always the case, civilians, most of them women and children, bear the brunt of this collateral damage.
GREAT QUOTE FROM BARTCOP
"If Bush takes the oath of office with his hand on a Bible
and is not struck by lightning, that's proof there is no God."
--Maha,
BAKER TALKS ABOUT SUSPICIONS OF "IMPERIAL DESIGNS"
James Baker, former Secretary of State under the rule of Bush I, helped Junior get into the White House back in 2000. Now Mr. Baker is having reservations about the U.S. occupation in Iraq, saying that a prolonged occupation might stir suspicions of "imperial designs." Who could possibly think that? It's interesting that two of Pappy Bush's major advisers, Baker and Brent Scowcroft, have come out with criticisms of the U.S. misadventure in Iraq. This story is linked at www.sfgate.com:
Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, an architect of the U.S. war with Iraq in 1991, is advising the Bush administration to consider a phased withdrawal of some of the 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
Otherwise, Baker says, the United States risks being suspected of having an "imperial design" in the region.
IRAQ TRANSFORMED INTO TERRORIST MAGNET
We kept hearing before the attack on Iraq that Iraq was a haven for terrorists. It turns out that was wrong. However, thanks to George W. Bush and his war Iraq has now become a terrorist magnet. In the "chaos of war" terrorists find a perfect opportunity. This story by Dana Priest is at www.washingtonpost.com:
Iraq has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for the next generation of "professionalized" terrorists, according to a report released yesterday by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank.
Iraq provides terrorists with "a training ground, a recruitment ground, the opportunity for enhancing technical skills," said David B. Low, the national intelligence officer for transnational threats. "There is even, under the best scenario, over time, the likelihood that some of the jihadists who are not killed there will, in a sense, go home, wherever home is, and will therefore disperse to various other countries."
Thursday, January 13, 2005
JANUARY 13, 2005
THE DISGUSTING WEALTH DISPARITY IN THE UNITED STATES
If you bring up the issue of wealth disparity in the United States, conservatives dismiss you with a shriek of "class warfare" or "envy" or some other condescending response. But there is something very wrong in a system where a very few have so much, and there is so much misery among the rest of the population. I don't think the rich are more honest, virtuous, harder working, or smarter than anyone else. They are, if anything, more ruthless, and sometimes they're just lucky. Katrina vanden Huevel writes about the great divide at www.thenation.com:
On January 20, hundreds of Republicans will descend on Washington, DC, wearing furs, boots and Stetsons, and partying like the Hollywood stars (they love to loathe) at festivities that will cost some $40 million to host--or $25 million more than the first pledge of US assistance to victims of the tsunami. These high-end Bush donors will be paying to play in our nation's capital.
Their high-flying parties come after a holiday season of little sacrifice for those in the top one percent. At a time when growing numbers of Americans cannot afford essentials like rent, health care and retirement security, the Bentley car dealership in Bethesda, Maryland, registered a 700 percent increase in sales last year. (One popular seller this season is the new Continental GT, which goes for $165K.)
BUSH PRESSURES CONGRESS ON TORTURE RESTRICTIONS
When I hear anyone talk about what a "moral" man George W. Bush is I have to stifle a gag reflex. A moral man doesn't launch unjustified wars that kill and disfigure thousands. A moral man doesn't resort to torture. Far from feeling any remorse over the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the Bush administration keeps pushing the envelope on torture. This story by Douglas Jehl and David Johnston shows how the Bush administration twisted arms in Congress so they could keep torturing. The story is at www.nytimes.com:
At the urging of the White House, Congressional leaders scrapped a legislative measure last month that would have imposed new restrictions on the use of extreme interrogation measures by American intelligence officers, Congressional officials say.
The defeat of the proposal affects one of the most obscure arenas of the war on terrorism, involving the Central Intelligence Agency's secret detention and interrogation of top terror leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and about three dozen other senior members of Al Qaeda and its offshoots.
GOOD ADVICE FROM TED KENNEDY
The way to defeat Republicans isn't to become Republicans. That's the message from Senator Edward Kennedy. It's something many of those on the left have been saying for some time. Republican Lite isn't the answer. This story by Adam Nagourney is also at www.nytimes.com:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy warned Democrats on Wednesday not to become "Republican clones" in response to the party's setbacks in November, declaring that President Bush's victory was narrow and did not provide him with the mandate the White House has claimed.
GET YOUR INSURANCE CANCELLED IF YOU'RE POLITICALLY ACTIVE
You get the feeling the First Amendment is just a few words on paper, especially when it comes to the right of free speech. In the Bush era you can lose your job or get arrested or even lose your insurance if you're exercising your right of free speech. This story deals with a lady who had her fire insurance policy cancelled by the Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. because she's politically active. This story by Norma Love is at www.commondreams.org:
Helen Johnston is an 80-year-old retired pediatrician who hardly considers herself much of a risk for being sued.
That's not how her insurance company sees it, however.
Johnston is losing extra coverage she bought years ago while she still practiced medicine - not because she's a retired doctor, but because she is active in Francestown politics.
The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. sent her a letter last month notifying her it is not renewing her $1 million umbrella policy next month because of "the political positions the insured holds."
BUSH BELIEVES IN ACCOUNTABILITY FOR OTHER PEOPLE
George W. Bush opened his obscene mouth to comment about the firings at CBS over the so-called "memogate" story, but Mr. Bush hasn't held the bunglers, liars, and incompetents in his administration accountable for anything. This column by Richard Cohen is at www.washingtonpost.com:
It took no less a sage than President Bush to put the firing of four high-level CBS News employees in perspective: "CBS said they would act. They did. And I hope their actions are such that this doesn't happen again." This from the man who fired not a single person in his entire administration for getting nearly everything wrong about Iraq and taking the nation to war for reasons that did not exist or were downright specious. Lucky for Bush he's only the president of the United States and not the head of CBS.
THE DISGUSTING WEALTH DISPARITY IN THE UNITED STATES
If you bring up the issue of wealth disparity in the United States, conservatives dismiss you with a shriek of "class warfare" or "envy" or some other condescending response. But there is something very wrong in a system where a very few have so much, and there is so much misery among the rest of the population. I don't think the rich are more honest, virtuous, harder working, or smarter than anyone else. They are, if anything, more ruthless, and sometimes they're just lucky. Katrina vanden Huevel writes about the great divide at www.thenation.com:
On January 20, hundreds of Republicans will descend on Washington, DC, wearing furs, boots and Stetsons, and partying like the Hollywood stars (they love to loathe) at festivities that will cost some $40 million to host--or $25 million more than the first pledge of US assistance to victims of the tsunami. These high-end Bush donors will be paying to play in our nation's capital.
Their high-flying parties come after a holiday season of little sacrifice for those in the top one percent. At a time when growing numbers of Americans cannot afford essentials like rent, health care and retirement security, the Bentley car dealership in Bethesda, Maryland, registered a 700 percent increase in sales last year. (One popular seller this season is the new Continental GT, which goes for $165K.)
BUSH PRESSURES CONGRESS ON TORTURE RESTRICTIONS
When I hear anyone talk about what a "moral" man George W. Bush is I have to stifle a gag reflex. A moral man doesn't launch unjustified wars that kill and disfigure thousands. A moral man doesn't resort to torture. Far from feeling any remorse over the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the Bush administration keeps pushing the envelope on torture. This story by Douglas Jehl and David Johnston shows how the Bush administration twisted arms in Congress so they could keep torturing. The story is at www.nytimes.com:
At the urging of the White House, Congressional leaders scrapped a legislative measure last month that would have imposed new restrictions on the use of extreme interrogation measures by American intelligence officers, Congressional officials say.
The defeat of the proposal affects one of the most obscure arenas of the war on terrorism, involving the Central Intelligence Agency's secret detention and interrogation of top terror leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and about three dozen other senior members of Al Qaeda and its offshoots.
GOOD ADVICE FROM TED KENNEDY
The way to defeat Republicans isn't to become Republicans. That's the message from Senator Edward Kennedy. It's something many of those on the left have been saying for some time. Republican Lite isn't the answer. This story by Adam Nagourney is also at www.nytimes.com:
Senator Edward M. Kennedy warned Democrats on Wednesday not to become "Republican clones" in response to the party's setbacks in November, declaring that President Bush's victory was narrow and did not provide him with the mandate the White House has claimed.
GET YOUR INSURANCE CANCELLED IF YOU'RE POLITICALLY ACTIVE
You get the feeling the First Amendment is just a few words on paper, especially when it comes to the right of free speech. In the Bush era you can lose your job or get arrested or even lose your insurance if you're exercising your right of free speech. This story deals with a lady who had her fire insurance policy cancelled by the Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. because she's politically active. This story by Norma Love is at www.commondreams.org:
Helen Johnston is an 80-year-old retired pediatrician who hardly considers herself much of a risk for being sued.
That's not how her insurance company sees it, however.
Johnston is losing extra coverage she bought years ago while she still practiced medicine - not because she's a retired doctor, but because she is active in Francestown politics.
The Providence Mutual Fire Insurance Co. sent her a letter last month notifying her it is not renewing her $1 million umbrella policy next month because of "the political positions the insured holds."
BUSH BELIEVES IN ACCOUNTABILITY FOR OTHER PEOPLE
George W. Bush opened his obscene mouth to comment about the firings at CBS over the so-called "memogate" story, but Mr. Bush hasn't held the bunglers, liars, and incompetents in his administration accountable for anything. This column by Richard Cohen is at www.washingtonpost.com:
It took no less a sage than President Bush to put the firing of four high-level CBS News employees in perspective: "CBS said they would act. They did. And I hope their actions are such that this doesn't happen again." This from the man who fired not a single person in his entire administration for getting nearly everything wrong about Iraq and taking the nation to war for reasons that did not exist or were downright specious. Lucky for Bush he's only the president of the United States and not the head of CBS.
Wednesday, January 12, 2005
JANUARY 12, 2005
IS THE "MAESTRO" LOSING HIS TOUCH?
Once terrific journalist turned celebrity-kisser Bob Woodward wrote a book calling Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan "The Maestro." Greenspan has been like the financial oracle. When he speaks markets listen. But it seems Mr. Greenspan may have compromised principle for politics. This article by Dan Ackman is at www.forbes.com:
Alan Greenspan, that Matador of the Money Supply, the esteemed Impresario of Interest Rates, has suffered precious few slings or arrows over his many years as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Even the White House has had to offer its critiques off the record for fear of roiling the markets or upsetting the chairman's Elvis-in-Vegas-like following. So when the chief economist of one of the world's most prestigious banks calls Greenspan a bum, that's a big deal.
BUSH AND CRONIES ARE "FRIGHTENED LITTLE MEN"
On January 20 George W. Bush will be administered the oath of office. He will solemnly swear to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution of the United States. He took that same oath in 2001, and he and his administration have systematically violated the oath ever since. When you sanction torture, when you sanction indefinite detentions and deny prisoners access to attorneys, and when you suppress free speech you're not defending the Constitution. Erik Mink writes about the Bushies at www.stltoday.com:
Weakness is exactly the point. For all their bullying assertions of power and moral superiority, these are frightened little men who lack faith in the elemental principles of the most noble and heroic nation in human history. They're afraid that American ideals are too weak to prevail against the ruthless rage of terrorists, afraid that the rule of law is inferior to the rule of violence and intimidation.
In this, they are terribly terribly wrong.
YOU WONDER ABOUT BUSH'S LEGACY
Toward the end of his presidency you kept hearing about how President Clinton was concerned about his legacy. I wonder if George W. Bush even thinks about it. Maybe he thinks he'll be raptured into heaven and his legacy will be a moot point. I believe history will take a dim view of the Bush presidency, from the sleazy way it came into power, the consistent assault on the poor and working class, failure to protect the environment, and killing thousands of innocent people in unnecessary wars. That's not to mention trashing the Constitution. Harold Meyerson writes about the fabricated crises that have become emblematic of the Bush presidency in this article at www.washingtonpost.com:
Some presidents make the history books by managing crises. Lincoln had Fort Sumter, Roosevelt had the Depression and Pearl Harbor, and Kennedy had the missiles in Cuba. George W. Bush, of course, had Sept. 11, and for a while thereafter -- through the overthrow of the Taliban -- he earned his page in history, too.
But when historians look back at the Bush presidency, they're more likely to note that what sets Bush apart is not the crises he managed but the crises he fabricated. The fabricated crisis is the hallmark of the Bush presidency. To attain goals that he had set for himself before he took office -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the privatization of Social Security -- he concocted crises where there were none.
SOME EDUCATED PEOPLE AREN'T VERY WELL EDUCATED
I remember reading a story a guy who had a PhD. His field of expertise was poultry science. According to the story, he didn't know much else, but just looking at his degree you'd be impressed at how "educated" he was. The same is true of many people now. They appear educated on the surface, but they aren't very informed about anything outside their professions. This is an interesting commentary at www.badattitudes.com:
Many thinkers of the 1920s and 1930s were struck by the incongruity between our advanced technology and the general backwardness of our religious, social and economic beliefs. To update the problem, how could a computer engineer possibly believe in the Apocalypse?
Pretty easily, if the engineer knows virtually nothing about literature, sociology, psychology and history.
REPUBLICAN PARTY ON VERGE OF EXTINCTION
This story at first seems like fantasy. The right-wingers who control the Republican Party seem to have everything they want. They have all three branches of government. They got their war in Iraq. They're putting out all kinds of bombast about the "persecution" of Christians and trying to tear down the wall of separation between church and state. But you have to remember the old proverb that "pride goeth before a fall." David W. Orr presents a case for why the Republican Party is on the cusp of extinction. It can't happen fast enough. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Following the election of 2004, much has been made of the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, even its possible end. But it has escaped the notice of our blow-dry television pundits and political observers alike that the Republican Party, in the full blush of triumph in control of all the branches of government and large sections of the media, stands on the edge of certain extinction. The reasons grow daily more evident. Over the past three decades, the moderate, business-oriented party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower was captured by its extreme right-wing thereby becoming a party dominated by ideologues, increasingly divorced from unmovable facts. But no organization, political party, or nation can long survive by ignoring realities of ecology, social justice, law, economics, and true security. Sooner or later, it will step off the proverbial curb into onrushing traffic of events, forces, and trends that it refused to see.
IS THE "MAESTRO" LOSING HIS TOUCH?
Once terrific journalist turned celebrity-kisser Bob Woodward wrote a book calling Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan "The Maestro." Greenspan has been like the financial oracle. When he speaks markets listen. But it seems Mr. Greenspan may have compromised principle for politics. This article by Dan Ackman is at www.forbes.com:
Alan Greenspan, that Matador of the Money Supply, the esteemed Impresario of Interest Rates, has suffered precious few slings or arrows over his many years as chairman of the Federal Reserve. Even the White House has had to offer its critiques off the record for fear of roiling the markets or upsetting the chairman's Elvis-in-Vegas-like following. So when the chief economist of one of the world's most prestigious banks calls Greenspan a bum, that's a big deal.
BUSH AND CRONIES ARE "FRIGHTENED LITTLE MEN"
On January 20 George W. Bush will be administered the oath of office. He will solemnly swear to "preserve, protect, and defend" the Constitution of the United States. He took that same oath in 2001, and he and his administration have systematically violated the oath ever since. When you sanction torture, when you sanction indefinite detentions and deny prisoners access to attorneys, and when you suppress free speech you're not defending the Constitution. Erik Mink writes about the Bushies at www.stltoday.com:
Weakness is exactly the point. For all their bullying assertions of power and moral superiority, these are frightened little men who lack faith in the elemental principles of the most noble and heroic nation in human history. They're afraid that American ideals are too weak to prevail against the ruthless rage of terrorists, afraid that the rule of law is inferior to the rule of violence and intimidation.
In this, they are terribly terribly wrong.
YOU WONDER ABOUT BUSH'S LEGACY
Toward the end of his presidency you kept hearing about how President Clinton was concerned about his legacy. I wonder if George W. Bush even thinks about it. Maybe he thinks he'll be raptured into heaven and his legacy will be a moot point. I believe history will take a dim view of the Bush presidency, from the sleazy way it came into power, the consistent assault on the poor and working class, failure to protect the environment, and killing thousands of innocent people in unnecessary wars. That's not to mention trashing the Constitution. Harold Meyerson writes about the fabricated crises that have become emblematic of the Bush presidency in this article at www.washingtonpost.com:
Some presidents make the history books by managing crises. Lincoln had Fort Sumter, Roosevelt had the Depression and Pearl Harbor, and Kennedy had the missiles in Cuba. George W. Bush, of course, had Sept. 11, and for a while thereafter -- through the overthrow of the Taliban -- he earned his page in history, too.
But when historians look back at the Bush presidency, they're more likely to note that what sets Bush apart is not the crises he managed but the crises he fabricated. The fabricated crisis is the hallmark of the Bush presidency. To attain goals that he had set for himself before he took office -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the privatization of Social Security -- he concocted crises where there were none.
SOME EDUCATED PEOPLE AREN'T VERY WELL EDUCATED
I remember reading a story a guy who had a PhD. His field of expertise was poultry science. According to the story, he didn't know much else, but just looking at his degree you'd be impressed at how "educated" he was. The same is true of many people now. They appear educated on the surface, but they aren't very informed about anything outside their professions. This is an interesting commentary at www.badattitudes.com:
Many thinkers of the 1920s and 1930s were struck by the incongruity between our advanced technology and the general backwardness of our religious, social and economic beliefs. To update the problem, how could a computer engineer possibly believe in the Apocalypse?
Pretty easily, if the engineer knows virtually nothing about literature, sociology, psychology and history.
REPUBLICAN PARTY ON VERGE OF EXTINCTION
This story at first seems like fantasy. The right-wingers who control the Republican Party seem to have everything they want. They have all three branches of government. They got their war in Iraq. They're putting out all kinds of bombast about the "persecution" of Christians and trying to tear down the wall of separation between church and state. But you have to remember the old proverb that "pride goeth before a fall." David W. Orr presents a case for why the Republican Party is on the cusp of extinction. It can't happen fast enough. This story is at www.commondreams.org:
Following the election of 2004, much has been made of the weaknesses of the Democratic Party, even its possible end. But it has escaped the notice of our blow-dry television pundits and political observers alike that the Republican Party, in the full blush of triumph in control of all the branches of government and large sections of the media, stands on the edge of certain extinction. The reasons grow daily more evident. Over the past three decades, the moderate, business-oriented party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower was captured by its extreme right-wing thereby becoming a party dominated by ideologues, increasingly divorced from unmovable facts. But no organization, political party, or nation can long survive by ignoring realities of ecology, social justice, law, economics, and true security. Sooner or later, it will step off the proverbial curb into onrushing traffic of events, forces, and trends that it refused to see.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
JANUARY 11, 2005
THE FOX NETWORK'S MIND-BOGGLING HYPOCRISY
I find some of the antics of players in the NFL to be annoying, even though I really like football. All the dancing, strutting, and taunting are a turnoff. I wasn't watching when Minnesota Vikings receiver Randy Moss faked mooning the crowd. I just heard the Fox announcer, Joe Buck, go ballistic and bellow about it being a "disgusting" act by Moss. From the photo I've seen, it's no worse than the typical NFL macho display. What is even more amazing is that the Fox Network, the network that always panders to the lowest common denominator, would take a holier-than-thou stance in the Moss matter. This is an interesting commentary by Dave Zirin linked www.commondreams.org:
The "Decency Department" is mum of course about the endless wave of television commercials during NFL games that make Moss' touchdown tushie dance look like a trip to Sesame Street. Announcers fret about Moss's influence on young people yet say nothing about the ideas pounded into kids' heads by NFL sponsors--that the key to sex is driving the right truck, drinking the right beer, eating the right nacho chip, taking the right erection pill and of course having the money to afford it all. In this context, the criticisms of Moss are like a Greek Chorus led by Caligula.
STEVE FORBES THE WHINER
Steve Forbes, the very rich guy who inherited a magazine and ran for president, may look even more like a geek than Bill Gates. At least Bill Gates created something that has been useful to many people in the world. Mr. Forbes was a champion of the regressive 'flat tax" that would have lowered taxes for rich guys like him and clobbered everyone else. In true conservative fashion, Mr. Forbes is a whiner. Poor conservatives are just barely surviving in this world dominated by the "liberal media" and the "liberal academics" and all the rest. Never mind that right-wingers control almost every institution of government and that life has slid rapidly downhill under their control. Harley Sorsenson has a commentary about Forbes at www.sfgate.com:
Shortly after the Nov. 2 election, our hero sent out a fund-raising letter under the Heritage Foundation letterhead. In it, Forbes indicated that the national battle for right and might could be lost if the Right's control is limited to merely the two houses of Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court and most of the nation's disposable dollars. In true conservative fashion, the multimillionaire who has everything wants more.
A NOVEL APPROACH TO HOMELESSNESS
Since the Reagan years it seems there has been vast population of homeless. Many of those homeless are military veterans. What is the best way to handle this problem? This article is about an interesting approach taken by an organization called Pathways, which sees providing a home as itself being therapeutic. The article by Douglas McGray at www.motherjones.com:
When Andre hears something that strikes him as crazy, he’ll lean in, almost uncomfortably close, cock his head to the side, and fix his one good eye on you, bugging it a bit for dramatic effect. Sarah Stanton is getting one of these looks right now, as she and Andre sit side by side on a low brick wall, outside one of Washington, D.C.’s busy soup kitchens. Stanton has just finished telling him that her Pathways program, brand new to the city, offers apartments to homeless people -- right away and with virtually no conditions. After a long silence, Andre grins. “Can you get me a mansion?”
BUSH'S SOCIAL SECURITY PLAN A HUGE BOONDOGGLE
In his column Paul Krugman talks about the Bush plan to "privatize" Social Security. One of the claims Bush and company make is that Social Security has to be "reformed" because of the approaching retirement of Baby Boomers. Krugman points out that under the Bush plan the Baby Boomers will be long gone before any real change to the system occurs. And the costs associated with Bush's plan are astronomical. Why "reform" a program that has worked so well? This column is at www.nytimes.com:
The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away, because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomers' retirement.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
THE FOX NETWORK'S MIND-BOGGLING HYPOCRISY
I find some of the antics of players in the NFL to be annoying, even though I really like football. All the dancing, strutting, and taunting are a turnoff. I wasn't watching when Minnesota Vikings receiver Randy Moss faked mooning the crowd. I just heard the Fox announcer, Joe Buck, go ballistic and bellow about it being a "disgusting" act by Moss. From the photo I've seen, it's no worse than the typical NFL macho display. What is even more amazing is that the Fox Network, the network that always panders to the lowest common denominator, would take a holier-than-thou stance in the Moss matter. This is an interesting commentary by Dave Zirin linked www.commondreams.org:
The "Decency Department" is mum of course about the endless wave of television commercials during NFL games that make Moss' touchdown tushie dance look like a trip to Sesame Street. Announcers fret about Moss's influence on young people yet say nothing about the ideas pounded into kids' heads by NFL sponsors--that the key to sex is driving the right truck, drinking the right beer, eating the right nacho chip, taking the right erection pill and of course having the money to afford it all. In this context, the criticisms of Moss are like a Greek Chorus led by Caligula.
STEVE FORBES THE WHINER
Steve Forbes, the very rich guy who inherited a magazine and ran for president, may look even more like a geek than Bill Gates. At least Bill Gates created something that has been useful to many people in the world. Mr. Forbes was a champion of the regressive 'flat tax" that would have lowered taxes for rich guys like him and clobbered everyone else. In true conservative fashion, Mr. Forbes is a whiner. Poor conservatives are just barely surviving in this world dominated by the "liberal media" and the "liberal academics" and all the rest. Never mind that right-wingers control almost every institution of government and that life has slid rapidly downhill under their control. Harley Sorsenson has a commentary about Forbes at www.sfgate.com:
Shortly after the Nov. 2 election, our hero sent out a fund-raising letter under the Heritage Foundation letterhead. In it, Forbes indicated that the national battle for right and might could be lost if the Right's control is limited to merely the two houses of Congress, the presidency, the Supreme Court and most of the nation's disposable dollars. In true conservative fashion, the multimillionaire who has everything wants more.
A NOVEL APPROACH TO HOMELESSNESS
Since the Reagan years it seems there has been vast population of homeless. Many of those homeless are military veterans. What is the best way to handle this problem? This article is about an interesting approach taken by an organization called Pathways, which sees providing a home as itself being therapeutic. The article by Douglas McGray at www.motherjones.com:
When Andre hears something that strikes him as crazy, he’ll lean in, almost uncomfortably close, cock his head to the side, and fix his one good eye on you, bugging it a bit for dramatic effect. Sarah Stanton is getting one of these looks right now, as she and Andre sit side by side on a low brick wall, outside one of Washington, D.C.’s busy soup kitchens. Stanton has just finished telling him that her Pathways program, brand new to the city, offers apartments to homeless people -- right away and with virtually no conditions. After a long silence, Andre grins. “Can you get me a mansion?”
BUSH'S SOCIAL SECURITY PLAN A HUGE BOONDOGGLE
In his column Paul Krugman talks about the Bush plan to "privatize" Social Security. One of the claims Bush and company make is that Social Security has to be "reformed" because of the approaching retirement of Baby Boomers. Krugman points out that under the Bush plan the Baby Boomers will be long gone before any real change to the system occurs. And the costs associated with Bush's plan are astronomical. Why "reform" a program that has worked so well? This column is at www.nytimes.com:
The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away, because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomers' retirement.
The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even with the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved.
Monday, January 10, 2005
JANUARY 10, 2005
THE GROPER'S LOUSY RECORD ON WORKERS' RIGHTS
You hear that Governor Groper has a 65% approval rating in California. I wonder if that approval rating would be as favorable if many people knew about his consistent and despicable attacks on workers' rights. One of the latest and most egregious attacks is an attempt to take away lunch breaks. This commentary by Josh Benson is at www.sfgate.com:
Schwarzenegger's proposed rule and his bogus justifications for it are part of a larger tactic of decrying California's business climate to justify limiting labor rights -- rights already eviscerated by 30 years of Republican policies. In following these footsteps, Schwarzenegger has returned to true GOP form. Earlier this year, he led the effort to roll back health care for employees. He also vetoed a much-needed increase in the minimum wage and supported Proposition 65, which curtailed the right to bring public interest lawsuits.
ANOTHER RIGHT-WING NITWIT LETTER TO THE EDITOR
If it weren't so enraging, it would be almost entertaining to read some of the letters to the editor in The Fresno Bee. I'm convinced The Bee has possibly the most right-wing letters page of any major newspaper in the country. In any event, this is a letter absolving George W. Bush of any responsibility for the lousy economy in the United States, and also for the war in Iraq. This writer hearkens back to the Vietnam era to put blame on Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for Vietnam. As I recall, most conservatives of that era wanted even more action in Vietnam than was provided by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
This letter reminds me of what occurred during the Reagan administration. None of the lousy fiscal policy was Reagan's fault either. Why is it, then, with Republican administrations like Reagan and Bush that fiscal policy suddenly goes so totally out of whack? With Republicans at the helm, Congress just suddenly loses its collective mind, I suppose. If the President has no responsibility for anything, why even have the office at all? This gem is at www.fresnobee.com:
Presidents do not run up deficits, Congresses do. On income tax refunds, if Mr. A pays $100,000 in income tax, and Mr. B pays $1,000 in income tax, Mr. A will get a larger refund. Mr. C, who paid no income tax, will get no refund.
LONG TERM UNEMPLOYMENT AT RECORD HIGH
Our right-wing commentator from the story above would undoubtedly say that people being unemployed is their own fault. Or running out of unemployment benefits is their fault, or not having adequate savings is their own fault, and so on. Callousness is just part of being a conservative, I guess. We're all subject to all kinds of things we can't control. If I had godlike powers, there wouldn't be wars, disease, hunger, or killer tsunamis. The fact is that much of the misery in the lives of people is a direct result of government and corporate policies that wash over us without any control by us. This story about long-term unemployment shows the direct result of government and economic policy in this country. The story by John Leland is at www.nytimes.com:
Even as overall unemployment dropped last year, the share of unemployed workers who have been jobless for more than six months - the point at which most state benefits run out - has remained historically high. As of November, about 1.8 million, or one in five, unemployed workers were jobless for more than six months, compared with 1.1 million when the recession officially ended in November 2001.
Since the start of the recession in March 2001, the average length of unemployment has risen to 20 weeks from 13.
NOW YOU GET HATE MAIL FOR BELIEVING IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS
This article is by the acclaimed mystery writer Sara Peretsky. She talks about her grandmother coming to the United States and being inspired by the sight of the Statue of Liberty, and then she talks about the increasing repression in this country, which contradicts everything the Statue of Liberty stands for. What struck me was her mention of her new novel, which deals with the McCarthy era and the current era under the Patriot Act, and how she has gotten hate mail. If you stand for the Bill of Rights these days you get hate mail. This article is from www.veteransforcommonsense.org:
I recently completed a speaking tour in Europe in connection with my novel Blacklist, which is set partly in the McCarthy era and partly in the world of the Patriot Act. The book has generated hate mail from people who accuse me of hating America and loving terrorists. When I walked into the US consulate in Hamburg and saw a sketch of the statue on the wall, I thought of my grandmother and wept.
THE DEATH JUST GOES ON IN IRAQ
George W. Bush, even against all the evidence, still maintains that Iraq is well on its way to democracy. The elections scheduled for January 30 are still on, but most of the country is too torn by violence to make voting safe. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
The reality, of course, is that this war is like all wars - fearsomely brutal and tragic. The administration was jolted into the realization of just how badly the war was going by the brazen suicide bombing just a few days before Christmas inside a mess tent of a large and supposedly heavily fortified military base in Mosul. Fourteen American soldiers and four American contractors were among the dead.
THE GROPER'S LOUSY RECORD ON WORKERS' RIGHTS
You hear that Governor Groper has a 65% approval rating in California. I wonder if that approval rating would be as favorable if many people knew about his consistent and despicable attacks on workers' rights. One of the latest and most egregious attacks is an attempt to take away lunch breaks. This commentary by Josh Benson is at www.sfgate.com:
Schwarzenegger's proposed rule and his bogus justifications for it are part of a larger tactic of decrying California's business climate to justify limiting labor rights -- rights already eviscerated by 30 years of Republican policies. In following these footsteps, Schwarzenegger has returned to true GOP form. Earlier this year, he led the effort to roll back health care for employees. He also vetoed a much-needed increase in the minimum wage and supported Proposition 65, which curtailed the right to bring public interest lawsuits.
ANOTHER RIGHT-WING NITWIT LETTER TO THE EDITOR
If it weren't so enraging, it would be almost entertaining to read some of the letters to the editor in The Fresno Bee. I'm convinced The Bee has possibly the most right-wing letters page of any major newspaper in the country. In any event, this is a letter absolving George W. Bush of any responsibility for the lousy economy in the United States, and also for the war in Iraq. This writer hearkens back to the Vietnam era to put blame on Presidents Kennedy and Johnson for Vietnam. As I recall, most conservatives of that era wanted even more action in Vietnam than was provided by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
This letter reminds me of what occurred during the Reagan administration. None of the lousy fiscal policy was Reagan's fault either. Why is it, then, with Republican administrations like Reagan and Bush that fiscal policy suddenly goes so totally out of whack? With Republicans at the helm, Congress just suddenly loses its collective mind, I suppose. If the President has no responsibility for anything, why even have the office at all? This gem is at www.fresnobee.com:
Presidents do not run up deficits, Congresses do. On income tax refunds, if Mr. A pays $100,000 in income tax, and Mr. B pays $1,000 in income tax, Mr. A will get a larger refund. Mr. C, who paid no income tax, will get no refund.
LONG TERM UNEMPLOYMENT AT RECORD HIGH
Our right-wing commentator from the story above would undoubtedly say that people being unemployed is their own fault. Or running out of unemployment benefits is their fault, or not having adequate savings is their own fault, and so on. Callousness is just part of being a conservative, I guess. We're all subject to all kinds of things we can't control. If I had godlike powers, there wouldn't be wars, disease, hunger, or killer tsunamis. The fact is that much of the misery in the lives of people is a direct result of government and corporate policies that wash over us without any control by us. This story about long-term unemployment shows the direct result of government and economic policy in this country. The story by John Leland is at www.nytimes.com:
Even as overall unemployment dropped last year, the share of unemployed workers who have been jobless for more than six months - the point at which most state benefits run out - has remained historically high. As of November, about 1.8 million, or one in five, unemployed workers were jobless for more than six months, compared with 1.1 million when the recession officially ended in November 2001.
Since the start of the recession in March 2001, the average length of unemployment has risen to 20 weeks from 13.
NOW YOU GET HATE MAIL FOR BELIEVING IN THE BILL OF RIGHTS
This article is by the acclaimed mystery writer Sara Peretsky. She talks about her grandmother coming to the United States and being inspired by the sight of the Statue of Liberty, and then she talks about the increasing repression in this country, which contradicts everything the Statue of Liberty stands for. What struck me was her mention of her new novel, which deals with the McCarthy era and the current era under the Patriot Act, and how she has gotten hate mail. If you stand for the Bill of Rights these days you get hate mail. This article is from www.veteransforcommonsense.org:
I recently completed a speaking tour in Europe in connection with my novel Blacklist, which is set partly in the McCarthy era and partly in the world of the Patriot Act. The book has generated hate mail from people who accuse me of hating America and loving terrorists. When I walked into the US consulate in Hamburg and saw a sketch of the statue on the wall, I thought of my grandmother and wept.
THE DEATH JUST GOES ON IN IRAQ
George W. Bush, even against all the evidence, still maintains that Iraq is well on its way to democracy. The elections scheduled for January 30 are still on, but most of the country is too torn by violence to make voting safe. Bob Herbert writes about it in his column at www.nytimes.com:
The reality, of course, is that this war is like all wars - fearsomely brutal and tragic. The administration was jolted into the realization of just how badly the war was going by the brazen suicide bombing just a few days before Christmas inside a mess tent of a large and supposedly heavily fortified military base in Mosul. Fourteen American soldiers and four American contractors were among the dead.
Sunday, January 09, 2005
JANUARY 9, 2005
UNDER BUSH WE'RE BECOMING A THIRD WORLD NATION
In the new budget proposals by George W. Bush there's lots of money for the military (although not the soldiers), but not much money for little things like housing for the poor. It seems that the United States is increasingly becoming a garrison state. We have a military with impressive technology designed to kill people, but behind that wall we have lots of hungry people, homeless people, and desperate people. I think the United States is capable of better things than this. This story is from www.nytimes.com:
In his budget request to Congress, President Bush will try to impose firm, enforceable limits on the growth of federal benefit programs, and the chairmen of the Senate and House Budget Committees say they strongly supported that effort.
Administration officials and Congressional aides said Mr. Bush would also seek cuts in housing assistance for low-income families, freezes or slight increases in most domestic programs, and larger increases for domestic security. The spending plan for 2006, like the appropriations enacted for this year, would give priority to military operations and domestic security over social welfare programs.
MORE "COLLATERAL DAMAGE" IN IRAQ
It's one thing to make a mistake. It's another to make mistakes that kill innocent people, which seems to happen over and over again in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both of these wars were unnecessary. Even though some people have justified the attack on Afghanistan as a legitimate strike against terrorists, I believe we could have pursued Osama bin Laden in a way that wouldn't have murdered thousands of innocent people. Iraq was just a big lie from the very beginning. This story about the death of even more innocents is from english.aljazeera.net:
The US military said it dropped a 500lb laser-guided bomb on a house, mistaking it for a nearby suspected hideout of fighters. It said five people were killed.
An official from a joint US-Iraqi security centre for the Salahuddin province put the toll at 13, including four women and three children. He said the dead were all from the same family.
Reuters pictures showed a house in the village of Aaytha, southeast of the northern city of Mosul, reduced to rubble.
A LOOK AT BUSH'S VALUES
If you're really moral, honest, decent, and have "values" it shouldn't be just a show. It should be evidenced in your life. No matter how much right-wingers want to portray George W. Bush as a man with "moral values" his actions contradict that view. This article by GENE VITAMANTI comes from www.nctimes.com:
Did President Bush lie when he declared that there should be reforms in corporate accountability? Did he mean it at the time but buckled under pressure from his major donors? Is this just another example of favoring the powerful and the wealthy over the little guy, as he has already demonstrated with his tax cuts for the wealthy? Is deliberately misleading by innuendo and implication, as he did in pushing us into the Iraqi war, the same as a lie?
It seems to me that ethically and morally the president should represent all of the people equally and not just the rich and powerful; but many of his actions over the last four years belie this concept.
RELIGION IS JUST FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS
If you watch many sports events, you'll hear a lot of talk about God. It was God's will that the running back score that touchdown or that the home team win this game. It was God's will that this person die of cancer, or that person die in an automobile accident, or that person survive an airplane crash. It's all supposed to be part of some greater purpose we just don't understand. I don't understand barbarity and cruelty and slaughter, and I have a hard time believing a loving God would allow those things. This commentary comes from Muriel Gray at www.sundayherald.com:
Curiously, all the post-tsunami talk about how a loving God could deal such a cruel blow seems particularly cockeyed. The debate, all over the press and internet, seems to rest on the testing of faith of those peculiar people who believe in a God sufficiently hands-on to respond to their personal prayers about doing well in a job interview, while at the same time being seen as responsible for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people.
UNDER BUSH WE'RE BECOMING A THIRD WORLD NATION
In the new budget proposals by George W. Bush there's lots of money for the military (although not the soldiers), but not much money for little things like housing for the poor. It seems that the United States is increasingly becoming a garrison state. We have a military with impressive technology designed to kill people, but behind that wall we have lots of hungry people, homeless people, and desperate people. I think the United States is capable of better things than this. This story is from www.nytimes.com:
In his budget request to Congress, President Bush will try to impose firm, enforceable limits on the growth of federal benefit programs, and the chairmen of the Senate and House Budget Committees say they strongly supported that effort.
Administration officials and Congressional aides said Mr. Bush would also seek cuts in housing assistance for low-income families, freezes or slight increases in most domestic programs, and larger increases for domestic security. The spending plan for 2006, like the appropriations enacted for this year, would give priority to military operations and domestic security over social welfare programs.
MORE "COLLATERAL DAMAGE" IN IRAQ
It's one thing to make a mistake. It's another to make mistakes that kill innocent people, which seems to happen over and over again in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both of these wars were unnecessary. Even though some people have justified the attack on Afghanistan as a legitimate strike against terrorists, I believe we could have pursued Osama bin Laden in a way that wouldn't have murdered thousands of innocent people. Iraq was just a big lie from the very beginning. This story about the death of even more innocents is from english.aljazeera.net:
The US military said it dropped a 500lb laser-guided bomb on a house, mistaking it for a nearby suspected hideout of fighters. It said five people were killed.
An official from a joint US-Iraqi security centre for the Salahuddin province put the toll at 13, including four women and three children. He said the dead were all from the same family.
Reuters pictures showed a house in the village of Aaytha, southeast of the northern city of Mosul, reduced to rubble.
A LOOK AT BUSH'S VALUES
If you're really moral, honest, decent, and have "values" it shouldn't be just a show. It should be evidenced in your life. No matter how much right-wingers want to portray George W. Bush as a man with "moral values" his actions contradict that view. This article by GENE VITAMANTI comes from www.nctimes.com:
Did President Bush lie when he declared that there should be reforms in corporate accountability? Did he mean it at the time but buckled under pressure from his major donors? Is this just another example of favoring the powerful and the wealthy over the little guy, as he has already demonstrated with his tax cuts for the wealthy? Is deliberately misleading by innuendo and implication, as he did in pushing us into the Iraqi war, the same as a lie?
It seems to me that ethically and morally the president should represent all of the people equally and not just the rich and powerful; but many of his actions over the last four years belie this concept.
RELIGION IS JUST FULL OF CONTRADICTIONS
If you watch many sports events, you'll hear a lot of talk about God. It was God's will that the running back score that touchdown or that the home team win this game. It was God's will that this person die of cancer, or that person die in an automobile accident, or that person survive an airplane crash. It's all supposed to be part of some greater purpose we just don't understand. I don't understand barbarity and cruelty and slaughter, and I have a hard time believing a loving God would allow those things. This commentary comes from Muriel Gray at www.sundayherald.com:
Curiously, all the post-tsunami talk about how a loving God could deal such a cruel blow seems particularly cockeyed. The debate, all over the press and internet, seems to rest on the testing of faith of those peculiar people who believe in a God sufficiently hands-on to respond to their personal prayers about doing well in a job interview, while at the same time being seen as responsible for slaughtering hundreds of thousands of people.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
JANUARY 8, 2005
CONSERVATISM IS ROTTEN FOR MOST OF US
There is no reason--not even a moral reason--for most of us to vote for right-wing politicians. Even as they try to cloak themselves in righteousness, right-wing politicians are busy propping up dictators, making the rich richer, taking everything they can from poor and working people, and showing an utter contempt for our planet. This article by Gerald Plessner is at www.makethemaccountble.com:
What is so wonderful about conservative political ideals? I have spent the last two years, on and off, thinking about that question.
What was so wonderful about the first third of the Twentieth Century that we should revisit the pain of the Great Depression, the racial hatred and discrimination of Jim Crow or the lack of the medical advancements that save lives today? Should we return to the limited opportunities for women or the neglect of the aged, poor or disabled that was so much more prevalent then?
What did conservative principles do to rid us of such problems? Did conservatives initiate Social Security, the G.I. Bill of Rights or the Voting Rights Acts? Did they bring us the Internet or enact laws that help deserving young people of all backgrounds go to pre-school or college?
REPORTING UNPLEASANT TRUTHS IS NOT LIBERAL BIAS
This editorial reminded me a little of the book What's the Matter With Kansas? The author pointed out that conservatives like to see themselves as persecuted. There's always some liberal plot to get them, or to gut "family values," or whatever. In this past year the whining of right-wingers reached its usual crescendo because so much unpleasantness came out about the Bush administration. Is reporting legitimate news stories liberal bias, or just the press doing its job? This editorial is at www.campaigndesk.org:
Honest conservatives, meanwhile, should consider a pair of New Year's resolutions: first, recognize that challenging political power and holding it to account is the legitimate role of the press in a democracy, not some liberal plot. Second, swear off defining any story that is uncomfortable to you as an example of liberal bias. Such a tactic probably won't work in the long run, anyway. As somebody once noted, facts are stubborn things.
SENATOR FEINGOLD GOES TO ALABAMA
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold took a vacation in Alabama and saw the struggles of working people in Alabama up close. It's not just Alabama, of course. Working people all across the United States are struggling thanks to this rotten administration. This article is at www.salon.com (after the commercial):
The people of Alabama appear to be among the most generous and most unsung philanthropists in this country. What they give is unimaginable to many others and they give it time and again: They regularly give their turn at the American dream to someone else. And they give it simply because they're asked. So many people in Greenville don't seem to have basic healthcare coverage or promising job opportunities. Meanwhile, their children volunteer to risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can only be humbled by their sacrifice.
But because I am a lawmaker and a student of history, I also know who has been asking them to give so much. And I can only wonder how many more generations of central Alabamians will say yes when the increasingly powerful Republican Party asks them to be concerned about homosexuality but not about the security of their own health, about abortion but not about the economic futures of their own children. As my wife and I drove through Greenville that night, I thought how fundamentally unfair this all is in order to support an increasingly radical conservative movement.
BORROWING DIPPED IN NOVEMBER
Americans didn't borrow as much on their credit cards in November, according to this story. I can think of a number of reasons why. If you don't have job security, you aren't likely to want to increase your debt. If your income isn't keeping pace with prices, you cut back on your spending, including using credit. Credit card companies have become greedy and predatory and maybe more people are getting turned off on credit cards. This story is from the Associated Press:
Keeping a watchful eye on their debt, consumers cut back on their borrowing in November by the largest amount on record, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.
Consumer credit dropped by $8.7 billion in November from the previous month, marking the largest over-the-month decrease since the Fed began keeping records in 1943. The cutback represented a 5 percent decline at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
TANK CARS ON TRAINS ARE MAJOR HAZARD
This story caught my eye because Fresno is crisscrossed by railroad tracks and freight trains come roaring through Fresno constantly. I had never thought much about the danger presented by the cargo in tank cars, but the accident in South Carolina where chlorine gas was released and killed eight people highlights the hazard. Just remember that George W. Bush wants nuclear waste to be carried by trains to Nevada. If chlorine gas is deadly, nuclear waste is far worse. This story By WALT BOGDANICH and CHRISTOPHER DREW is from www.nytimes.com:
On Thursday, a derailment in South Carolina caused a catastrophic release of chlorine: 8 people died, 58 were hospitalized and hundreds more sought treatment. Thousands of people within a mile of the accident were driven from their homes.
CONSERVATISM IS ROTTEN FOR MOST OF US
There is no reason--not even a moral reason--for most of us to vote for right-wing politicians. Even as they try to cloak themselves in righteousness, right-wing politicians are busy propping up dictators, making the rich richer, taking everything they can from poor and working people, and showing an utter contempt for our planet. This article by Gerald Plessner is at www.makethemaccountble.com:
What is so wonderful about conservative political ideals? I have spent the last two years, on and off, thinking about that question.
What was so wonderful about the first third of the Twentieth Century that we should revisit the pain of the Great Depression, the racial hatred and discrimination of Jim Crow or the lack of the medical advancements that save lives today? Should we return to the limited opportunities for women or the neglect of the aged, poor or disabled that was so much more prevalent then?
What did conservative principles do to rid us of such problems? Did conservatives initiate Social Security, the G.I. Bill of Rights or the Voting Rights Acts? Did they bring us the Internet or enact laws that help deserving young people of all backgrounds go to pre-school or college?
REPORTING UNPLEASANT TRUTHS IS NOT LIBERAL BIAS
This editorial reminded me a little of the book What's the Matter With Kansas? The author pointed out that conservatives like to see themselves as persecuted. There's always some liberal plot to get them, or to gut "family values," or whatever. In this past year the whining of right-wingers reached its usual crescendo because so much unpleasantness came out about the Bush administration. Is reporting legitimate news stories liberal bias, or just the press doing its job? This editorial is at www.campaigndesk.org:
Honest conservatives, meanwhile, should consider a pair of New Year's resolutions: first, recognize that challenging political power and holding it to account is the legitimate role of the press in a democracy, not some liberal plot. Second, swear off defining any story that is uncomfortable to you as an example of liberal bias. Such a tactic probably won't work in the long run, anyway. As somebody once noted, facts are stubborn things.
SENATOR FEINGOLD GOES TO ALABAMA
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold took a vacation in Alabama and saw the struggles of working people in Alabama up close. It's not just Alabama, of course. Working people all across the United States are struggling thanks to this rotten administration. This article is at www.salon.com (after the commercial):
The people of Alabama appear to be among the most generous and most unsung philanthropists in this country. What they give is unimaginable to many others and they give it time and again: They regularly give their turn at the American dream to someone else. And they give it simply because they're asked. So many people in Greenville don't seem to have basic healthcare coverage or promising job opportunities. Meanwhile, their children volunteer to risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can only be humbled by their sacrifice.
But because I am a lawmaker and a student of history, I also know who has been asking them to give so much. And I can only wonder how many more generations of central Alabamians will say yes when the increasingly powerful Republican Party asks them to be concerned about homosexuality but not about the security of their own health, about abortion but not about the economic futures of their own children. As my wife and I drove through Greenville that night, I thought how fundamentally unfair this all is in order to support an increasingly radical conservative movement.
BORROWING DIPPED IN NOVEMBER
Americans didn't borrow as much on their credit cards in November, according to this story. I can think of a number of reasons why. If you don't have job security, you aren't likely to want to increase your debt. If your income isn't keeping pace with prices, you cut back on your spending, including using credit. Credit card companies have become greedy and predatory and maybe more people are getting turned off on credit cards. This story is from the Associated Press:
Keeping a watchful eye on their debt, consumers cut back on their borrowing in November by the largest amount on record, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.
Consumer credit dropped by $8.7 billion in November from the previous month, marking the largest over-the-month decrease since the Fed began keeping records in 1943. The cutback represented a 5 percent decline at a seasonally adjusted annual rate.
TANK CARS ON TRAINS ARE MAJOR HAZARD
This story caught my eye because Fresno is crisscrossed by railroad tracks and freight trains come roaring through Fresno constantly. I had never thought much about the danger presented by the cargo in tank cars, but the accident in South Carolina where chlorine gas was released and killed eight people highlights the hazard. Just remember that George W. Bush wants nuclear waste to be carried by trains to Nevada. If chlorine gas is deadly, nuclear waste is far worse. This story By WALT BOGDANICH and CHRISTOPHER DREW is from www.nytimes.com:
On Thursday, a derailment in South Carolina caused a catastrophic release of chlorine: 8 people died, 58 were hospitalized and hundreds more sought treatment. Thousands of people within a mile of the accident were driven from their homes.
Friday, January 07, 2005
JANUARY 7, 2005
SCOWCROFT SEES DIRE RESULTS FROM IRAQ ELECTION
Brent Scowcroft is the former National Security Adviser to George H. W. Bush, and Scowcroft thinks the upcoming "elections" in Iraq may increase the chance of civil war. This story is from www.latimes.com:
The election scheduled for later this month in Iraq could further inflame the country's conflict and increase the risk of civil war, Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser to President Bush's father, said at a forum Thursday.
Rather than leading toward stability, Scowcroft said he feared the election would further alienate Iraq's Sunni Muslim population and "has a great potential for deepening the conflict."
KRUGMAN: BUSH ADMINISTRATION LIKE A BAD NOVEL
In my bad novel, a famous moralist who demanded national outrage over an affair and writes best-selling books about virtue will turn out to be hiding an expensive gambling habit. A talk radio host who advocates harsh penalties for drug violators will turn out to be hiding his own drug addiction.
In my bad novel, crusaders for moral values will be driven by strange obsessions. One senator's diatribe against gay marriage will link it to "man on dog" sex. Another will rant about the dangers of lesbians in high school bathrooms.
CAT KILLER FRIST DOES A PHOTO-OP
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was doing a photo-op in Sri Lanka in an area devastated by the recent tsunami. Was Frist concerned about the dead, missing, and injured people? No, he was concerned about the photographer getting a good shot of the damage for his photo-op. This quote comes from politicalwire.com:
"Get some devastation in the back."
-- Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), quoted by the AP, to a staff photographer taking a picture of him before leaving tsunami-stricken southern Sri Lanka.
NO WAY GONZALES SHOULD BE ATTORNEY GENERAL
I heard a little of the confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales broadcast on the Pacifica Network. There was Senator Orrin Hatch virtually gushing over Gonzales. You halfway expected Hatch to vault from his chair and kneel to kiss Gonzales's ring. The paper trail for Gonzales is clear. He argued for torture. He, in effect, gave George Bush carte blanche to do whatever Bush wants to elicit confessions or information from "terrorists." This is not the country I and millions of others believe in. We're descending to the level of the people who are our enemies. This column by Bob Herbert is at www.nytimes.com:
The administration that thumbed its nose at the Geneva Conventions seems equally dismissive of such grand American values as honor, justice, integrity, due process and the truth. So there was Alberto Gonzales, counselor to the president and enabler in chief of the pro-torture lobby, interviewing on Capitol Hill yesterday for the post of attorney general, which just happens to be the highest law enforcement office in the land.
Mr. Gonzales shouldn't be allowed anywhere near that office. His judgments regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners rounded up in Iraq and the so-called war on terror have been both unsound and shameful. Some of the practices that evolved from his judgments were appalling, gruesome, medieval.
SCOWCROFT SEES DIRE RESULTS FROM IRAQ ELECTION
Brent Scowcroft is the former National Security Adviser to George H. W. Bush, and Scowcroft thinks the upcoming "elections" in Iraq may increase the chance of civil war. This story is from www.latimes.com:
The election scheduled for later this month in Iraq could further inflame the country's conflict and increase the risk of civil war, Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser to President Bush's father, said at a forum Thursday.
Rather than leading toward stability, Scowcroft said he feared the election would further alienate Iraq's Sunni Muslim population and "has a great potential for deepening the conflict."
KRUGMAN: BUSH ADMINISTRATION LIKE A BAD NOVEL
In my bad novel, a famous moralist who demanded national outrage over an affair and writes best-selling books about virtue will turn out to be hiding an expensive gambling habit. A talk radio host who advocates harsh penalties for drug violators will turn out to be hiding his own drug addiction.
In my bad novel, crusaders for moral values will be driven by strange obsessions. One senator's diatribe against gay marriage will link it to "man on dog" sex. Another will rant about the dangers of lesbians in high school bathrooms.
CAT KILLER FRIST DOES A PHOTO-OP
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was doing a photo-op in Sri Lanka in an area devastated by the recent tsunami. Was Frist concerned about the dead, missing, and injured people? No, he was concerned about the photographer getting a good shot of the damage for his photo-op. This quote comes from politicalwire.com:
"Get some devastation in the back."
-- Sen. Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), quoted by the AP, to a staff photographer taking a picture of him before leaving tsunami-stricken southern Sri Lanka.
NO WAY GONZALES SHOULD BE ATTORNEY GENERAL
I heard a little of the confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales broadcast on the Pacifica Network. There was Senator Orrin Hatch virtually gushing over Gonzales. You halfway expected Hatch to vault from his chair and kneel to kiss Gonzales's ring. The paper trail for Gonzales is clear. He argued for torture. He, in effect, gave George Bush carte blanche to do whatever Bush wants to elicit confessions or information from "terrorists." This is not the country I and millions of others believe in. We're descending to the level of the people who are our enemies. This column by Bob Herbert is at www.nytimes.com:
The administration that thumbed its nose at the Geneva Conventions seems equally dismissive of such grand American values as honor, justice, integrity, due process and the truth. So there was Alberto Gonzales, counselor to the president and enabler in chief of the pro-torture lobby, interviewing on Capitol Hill yesterday for the post of attorney general, which just happens to be the highest law enforcement office in the land.
Mr. Gonzales shouldn't be allowed anywhere near that office. His judgments regarding the detention and treatment of prisoners rounded up in Iraq and the so-called war on terror have been both unsound and shameful. Some of the practices that evolved from his judgments were appalling, gruesome, medieval.
Thursday, January 06, 2005
JANUARY 6, 2005
LET'S REMEMBER THE OTHER AMERICA
John F. Kennedy was a president who read books, and he was a president who cared about the poor in this country. One of the books most influential in shaping JFK's thinking was Michael Harrington's The Other America. Being elderly in the U.S. back then was almost an automatic sentence to poverty. Things changed thanks to JFK, Lyndon Johnson, and Social Security. George W. Bush wants to take us back to the "good old days." This article by Harold Meyerson is at www.washingtonpost.com:
We have come so far in such a short time that's it's hard for people who aren't seniors to imagine an America in which old age was all but synonymous with desperation. In 2003 just 10.2 percent of Americans aged 65 or older lived in poverty -- a figure two points lower than the national poverty rate of 12.4 percent. Once the age group with the highest rate of poverty, seniors have become the age group with the lowest rate.
SHOUT OUT TO BARBARA BOXER
I think California Senator Barbara Boxer deserves a word of thanks for standing up against the certification of the electoral vote for George W. Bush. Some might say it was a futile gesture since the votes were certified anyway. But I think standing up for what is right is always the thing to do. One just wishes Senator Boxer had some more people in the Senate with the guts and the integrity to do what she did.
LET'S DUMP THE GROPER
I have no affection for our "actor" turned Governor Groper. I think he's a typical Republican sleaze. He's all for big business and for sticking the shaft into the backs of working people. I'm glad to see that state treasurer Phil Angelides is starting a counterattack against the Groper. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
The state treasurer announced Tuesday the start of a statewide TV ad campaign criticizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for "breaking his promise" to voters not to spend more than the state takes in.
Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat, said Schwarzenegger's budget policies have put the state at risk by relying too much on borrowing and spending cuts to close an $8.1 billion budget gap.
Instead, Angelides proposed a mix of spending cuts with a tax increase on the state's highest earners to balance the books.
IT'S THAT SAME OLD REPUBLICAN MAGIC
David Copperfield or Harry Houdini would have nothing on the current crop of Republicans in making prosperity disappear (except for the very wealthy). Jobs just keep disappearing into the ether. This story is also at news.yahoo.com:
New claims for U.S. jobless pay surged unexpectedly last week to the highest level since late September, but analysts shrugged off the jump as a holiday blip and looked to Friday's payrolls report for a better look at the labor market.
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid rose 43,000 to 364,000 in the week ended Jan. 1, up from a revised 321,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said.
PINOCHET IS SOME MODEL
On occasion I've seen letters to the editor in The Fresno Bee extolling the virtues of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He was a dictator installed by a CIA coup in Chile, who murdered and tortured thousands of Chileans. He also created a privatized form of social security that right-wingers in this country think is a wonderful model. This story is from www.americanprogress.org:
It is telling that these privatization advocates embrace a reform carried out by one of the most morally bankrupt regimes – that of General Augusto Pinochet – in the history of the Western Hemisphere and ignore what preceded the Chilean privatization experience and made it possible.
To fully understand the Chilean experience and appreciate the origins of the social re-engineering being championed by the right-wing today, one must look further back than 1981 to another September 11 – September 11, 1973, the day on which the brutal, repressive, anti-democratic Pinochet regime sprang to life.
On that day, Chile's democratically-elected President Salvador Allende was violently overthrown by the Chilean military and replaced by Pinochet. To consolidate its power, the Pinochet regime set upon one of the most repressive sprees in the repression-filled history of the Western Hemisphere.
WATCH FOR THE TIDAL WAVES OF BUSH'S INCOMPETENCE
I once wrote a letter to the editor to The Fresno Bee criticizing George W. Bush's economic policies. A right-winger I call Mr. Sarcasm responded with a letter claiming that the bad economy was all the fault of 9/11 and Bill Clinton. Now, as Harry Truman said, the buck stops here. They can't blame Clinton and 9/11 forever. This commentary by C. Ford Runge is linked at www.commondreams.org:
As is increasingly apparent, 9/11 did not cause us to go to war in Iraq, nor did it precipitate the health care crisis, nor did it justify tax costs to the rich which ballooned the deficit and threaten the dollar. All of these were the consequence of the same incompetence visible before the terrible events of 9/11. But 9/11 emboldened the White House to imagine itself invulnerable to the facts, and the scandalous management failures now waiting to unfold.
LET'S REMEMBER THE OTHER AMERICA
John F. Kennedy was a president who read books, and he was a president who cared about the poor in this country. One of the books most influential in shaping JFK's thinking was Michael Harrington's The Other America. Being elderly in the U.S. back then was almost an automatic sentence to poverty. Things changed thanks to JFK, Lyndon Johnson, and Social Security. George W. Bush wants to take us back to the "good old days." This article by Harold Meyerson is at www.washingtonpost.com:
We have come so far in such a short time that's it's hard for people who aren't seniors to imagine an America in which old age was all but synonymous with desperation. In 2003 just 10.2 percent of Americans aged 65 or older lived in poverty -- a figure two points lower than the national poverty rate of 12.4 percent. Once the age group with the highest rate of poverty, seniors have become the age group with the lowest rate.
SHOUT OUT TO BARBARA BOXER
I think California Senator Barbara Boxer deserves a word of thanks for standing up against the certification of the electoral vote for George W. Bush. Some might say it was a futile gesture since the votes were certified anyway. But I think standing up for what is right is always the thing to do. One just wishes Senator Boxer had some more people in the Senate with the guts and the integrity to do what she did.
LET'S DUMP THE GROPER
I have no affection for our "actor" turned Governor Groper. I think he's a typical Republican sleaze. He's all for big business and for sticking the shaft into the backs of working people. I'm glad to see that state treasurer Phil Angelides is starting a counterattack against the Groper. This story is at news.yahoo.com:
The state treasurer announced Tuesday the start of a statewide TV ad campaign criticizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for "breaking his promise" to voters not to spend more than the state takes in.
Treasurer Phil Angelides, a Democrat, said Schwarzenegger's budget policies have put the state at risk by relying too much on borrowing and spending cuts to close an $8.1 billion budget gap.
Instead, Angelides proposed a mix of spending cuts with a tax increase on the state's highest earners to balance the books.
IT'S THAT SAME OLD REPUBLICAN MAGIC
David Copperfield or Harry Houdini would have nothing on the current crop of Republicans in making prosperity disappear (except for the very wealthy). Jobs just keep disappearing into the ether. This story is also at news.yahoo.com:
New claims for U.S. jobless pay surged unexpectedly last week to the highest level since late September, but analysts shrugged off the jump as a holiday blip and looked to Friday's payrolls report for a better look at the labor market.
The number of Americans filing first-time claims for state unemployment insurance aid rose 43,000 to 364,000 in the week ended Jan. 1, up from a revised 321,000 in the previous week, the Labor Department said.
PINOCHET IS SOME MODEL
On occasion I've seen letters to the editor in The Fresno Bee extolling the virtues of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. He was a dictator installed by a CIA coup in Chile, who murdered and tortured thousands of Chileans. He also created a privatized form of social security that right-wingers in this country think is a wonderful model. This story is from www.americanprogress.org:
It is telling that these privatization advocates embrace a reform carried out by one of the most morally bankrupt regimes – that of General Augusto Pinochet – in the history of the Western Hemisphere and ignore what preceded the Chilean privatization experience and made it possible.
To fully understand the Chilean experience and appreciate the origins of the social re-engineering being championed by the right-wing today, one must look further back than 1981 to another September 11 – September 11, 1973, the day on which the brutal, repressive, anti-democratic Pinochet regime sprang to life.
On that day, Chile's democratically-elected President Salvador Allende was violently overthrown by the Chilean military and replaced by Pinochet. To consolidate its power, the Pinochet regime set upon one of the most repressive sprees in the repression-filled history of the Western Hemisphere.
WATCH FOR THE TIDAL WAVES OF BUSH'S INCOMPETENCE
I once wrote a letter to the editor to The Fresno Bee criticizing George W. Bush's economic policies. A right-winger I call Mr. Sarcasm responded with a letter claiming that the bad economy was all the fault of 9/11 and Bill Clinton. Now, as Harry Truman said, the buck stops here. They can't blame Clinton and 9/11 forever. This commentary by C. Ford Runge is linked at www.commondreams.org:
As is increasingly apparent, 9/11 did not cause us to go to war in Iraq, nor did it precipitate the health care crisis, nor did it justify tax costs to the rich which ballooned the deficit and threaten the dollar. All of these were the consequence of the same incompetence visible before the terrible events of 9/11. But 9/11 emboldened the White House to imagine itself invulnerable to the facts, and the scandalous management failures now waiting to unfold.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
JANUARY 5, 2005
BUSH COMPASSION: LONG ON TALK, SHORT ON ACTION
For anyone who wants to see, George W. Bush's indifference to the disaster in South Asia reveals the real man. Put aside all the talk about speaking with God, about "compassionate conservatism," and all the rest. Mass death is like the daily sunrise to this guy. This article is an analysis of the "ruling class" reaction to Bush's indifference. The article by Patrick Martin is at www.wsws.org:
President Bush’s public appearance Monday to announce a fund-raising campaign for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami is the latest attempt by the White House to recover from a political debacle: its callous and dismissive response to the colossal tragedy in southern Asia that killed 150,000 people.
Flanked by George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, George W. Bush declared that the two former presidents would spearhead a nationwide appeal to raise private contributions for disaster relief. The unusual joint appearance of the president, his father and his Democratic predecessor-they last stood together just after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001-underscores the growing alarm in US ruling circles over Bush’s public display of indifference to the most extensive natural disaster of the past half century.
MICHAEL SAVAGE IS APTLY NAMED
Right-wing radio hatemonger Michael Wiener "Savage" was pontificating about the tsunami disaster not being a tragedy, it killing all those Muslims and all. I guess I'm coming to expect this kind of rhetoric from the right-wing extremists like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh. You would hope the majority of the American people will see these yahoos for what they are: cruel, despicable cretins. And remember they're the kind of people setting policy in this country right now. This story is at mediamatters.org:
During nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage's December 31 broadcast -- his first since the December 26 tsunami resulting from an earthquake in Southeast Asia -- Savage said that the tsunami was "not a tragedy" and that the United States should not be sending any aid to the affected countries because they are "hotbeds of radical Islam." Savage added: "We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this, as far as I'm concerned. ... I am sick of being bled to death by every damn incident on the earth."
Savage opened the program by saying that he needed some international aid because of rainy weather in San Francisco, the city from which he broadcasts his program. Savage also said that while he does not argue that "God struck" the people of Southeast Asia -- because he's "not a theologian" -- "[y]ou could argue, maybe this is God's hand, because some of their brethren struck Christian America."
BUSH ADMINISTRATION RIGHT OUT OF KAFKA AND ORWELL
I don't know if George W. Bush has ever heard of George Orwell or Franz Kafka, much less read their work, but his administration is like their worst visions come to life. Kafka wrote about the surreal world of a dispassionate bureaucracy and Orwell wrote about the revision of language to mean exactly the opposite of what it says. Richard Cohen writes about it in this article linked at www.commondreams.org:
The revelations coming out of Guantanamo are hideous. The ordinary abuse of prisoners, the madness instilled by gruesome incarcerations, the incessant lying of the authorities, plus the mock interrogations staged for the press, in which detainees and their interrogators share milkshakes — all this soils us as a nation. It's as if the government is ahistoric, unaware of how communists and fascists also strained language and ushered the world into torture chambers made pretty for the occasion. We now keep some pretty bad company.
The Bush administration has fused Orwell with Kafka in the same way someone fused the cry of an infant with that of a cat from the Meow Mix television commercial. The upshot is Gonzales, ticketed maybe for the Supreme Court because he winked at torture and yessed the president. He's Kafka's man, Orwell's boy and Bush's pussycat. Know him for his roar.
PLUTONIUM IS EXTREMELY NASTY STUFF
This article by Gregory Dicum talks about the nuclear legacy of the San Francisco Bay Area. I live 200 miles or so from San Francisco and I never realized how much nuclear technology was there. Keep in mind that George W. Bush wants to launch a whole new era of nuclear weapons technology and keep in mind the toxicity of plutonium. That alone should make us back away from nuclear weapons. This article is at www.sfgate.com:
Never occurring naturally, plutonium is the most irremediably threatening substance we have ever conjured. Not just extremely radioactive -- an invisible particle lodged in a lung or bone is likely to cause cancer -- plutonium catches fire if it is exposed to air, and it sticks to almost anything it touches, turning processing and handling equipment into dangerous waste as well. And it lies in shallow burials around the region, in the Bay's sediment and on the ocean floor, quietly putting us at risk.
BUSH COMPASSION: LONG ON TALK, SHORT ON ACTION
For anyone who wants to see, George W. Bush's indifference to the disaster in South Asia reveals the real man. Put aside all the talk about speaking with God, about "compassionate conservatism," and all the rest. Mass death is like the daily sunrise to this guy. This article is an analysis of the "ruling class" reaction to Bush's indifference. The article by Patrick Martin is at www.wsws.org:
President Bush’s public appearance Monday to announce a fund-raising campaign for the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami is the latest attempt by the White House to recover from a political debacle: its callous and dismissive response to the colossal tragedy in southern Asia that killed 150,000 people.
Flanked by George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, George W. Bush declared that the two former presidents would spearhead a nationwide appeal to raise private contributions for disaster relief. The unusual joint appearance of the president, his father and his Democratic predecessor-they last stood together just after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001-underscores the growing alarm in US ruling circles over Bush’s public display of indifference to the most extensive natural disaster of the past half century.
MICHAEL SAVAGE IS APTLY NAMED
Right-wing radio hatemonger Michael Wiener "Savage" was pontificating about the tsunami disaster not being a tragedy, it killing all those Muslims and all. I guess I'm coming to expect this kind of rhetoric from the right-wing extremists like Michael Savage and Rush Limbaugh. You would hope the majority of the American people will see these yahoos for what they are: cruel, despicable cretins. And remember they're the kind of people setting policy in this country right now. This story is at mediamatters.org:
During nationally syndicated radio host Michael Savage's December 31 broadcast -- his first since the December 26 tsunami resulting from an earthquake in Southeast Asia -- Savage said that the tsunami was "not a tragedy" and that the United States should not be sending any aid to the affected countries because they are "hotbeds of radical Islam." Savage added: "We shouldn't be spending a nickel on this, as far as I'm concerned. ... I am sick of being bled to death by every damn incident on the earth."
Savage opened the program by saying that he needed some international aid because of rainy weather in San Francisco, the city from which he broadcasts his program. Savage also said that while he does not argue that "God struck" the people of Southeast Asia -- because he's "not a theologian" -- "[y]ou could argue, maybe this is God's hand, because some of their brethren struck Christian America."
BUSH ADMINISTRATION RIGHT OUT OF KAFKA AND ORWELL
I don't know if George W. Bush has ever heard of George Orwell or Franz Kafka, much less read their work, but his administration is like their worst visions come to life. Kafka wrote about the surreal world of a dispassionate bureaucracy and Orwell wrote about the revision of language to mean exactly the opposite of what it says. Richard Cohen writes about it in this article linked at www.commondreams.org:
The revelations coming out of Guantanamo are hideous. The ordinary abuse of prisoners, the madness instilled by gruesome incarcerations, the incessant lying of the authorities, plus the mock interrogations staged for the press, in which detainees and their interrogators share milkshakes — all this soils us as a nation. It's as if the government is ahistoric, unaware of how communists and fascists also strained language and ushered the world into torture chambers made pretty for the occasion. We now keep some pretty bad company.
The Bush administration has fused Orwell with Kafka in the same way someone fused the cry of an infant with that of a cat from the Meow Mix television commercial. The upshot is Gonzales, ticketed maybe for the Supreme Court because he winked at torture and yessed the president. He's Kafka's man, Orwell's boy and Bush's pussycat. Know him for his roar.
PLUTONIUM IS EXTREMELY NASTY STUFF
This article by Gregory Dicum talks about the nuclear legacy of the San Francisco Bay Area. I live 200 miles or so from San Francisco and I never realized how much nuclear technology was there. Keep in mind that George W. Bush wants to launch a whole new era of nuclear weapons technology and keep in mind the toxicity of plutonium. That alone should make us back away from nuclear weapons. This article is at www.sfgate.com:
Never occurring naturally, plutonium is the most irremediably threatening substance we have ever conjured. Not just extremely radioactive -- an invisible particle lodged in a lung or bone is likely to cause cancer -- plutonium catches fire if it is exposed to air, and it sticks to almost anything it touches, turning processing and handling equipment into dangerous waste as well. And it lies in shallow burials around the region, in the Bay's sediment and on the ocean floor, quietly putting us at risk.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
JANUARY 4, 2005
ANOTHER TRY TO RAISE CALIFORNIA MINIMUM WAGE
The richest people in this country have been riding a gravy train since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It's time the working class started to get some benefits. A few months ago our wonderful Governor Groper vetoed a bill that would raise California's miserable minimum wage. Now a Democrat in the Assembly is introducing a bill that would raise the minimum wage, and she is threatening to take the issue to a ballot initiative if the measure isn't passed. It's nice to see Democrats fighting for their constituents for once. This story by Jim Sanders is at www.sacbee.com:
A Bay Area lawmaker is launching new legislation to raise the state's minimum wage and considering a ballot initiative if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scuttles the proposal again.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, said her minimum-wage bill, AB 48, will be roughly similar in scope to a $1-per-hour increase that was vetoed by Schwarzenegger in September.
SO MUCH FOR THE POWER OF PRAYER
Any time there's a crisis or a disaster or a heart-rending tragedy you'll hear someone call for "our prayers." Claims have been made for the power of prayer to heal illness. Maybe it's time to put aside superstition and look reality squarely in the face. I have no doubt that there is much we can do as we grow as a species. But we need to realize we have to do this on our own. There's no Supreme Being who is going to come over the hill like rescuing calvary. This story deals with the belief that prayer boosted fertility in women. A new study refutes that belief. The story is at www.mercurynews.com:
Skeptics have called it the ``Miracle Study'' -- findings by scientists that simple prayers could dramatically boost fertility in women.
Published in a respected medical journal by a Capitola researcher, a department head at Columbia University and a Korean scientist also based at Columbia, it immediately attracted the attention of the news media, religious groups and couples desperately trying to conceive.
BUSH IS CREATING A PHONY SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS
FDR famously said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." George W. Bush has offered nothing but fear or deceit since he dishonestly got into the White House. As Paul Krugman points out, Bush lied about the budget surplus so he could ram through tax cuts for his rich friends. He lied about the danger presented by Saddam Hussein so he could launch an unjust and murderous war. The same tactics are being employed to destroy Social Security. Paul Krugman's column is at www.nytimes.com:
Today let's focus on one piece of those scare tactics: the claim that Social Security faces an imminent crisis.
That claim is simply false. Yet much of the press has reported the falsehood as a fact. For example, The Washington Post recently described 2018, when benefit payments are projected to exceed payroll tax revenues, as a "day of reckoning."
ANOTHER TRY TO RAISE CALIFORNIA MINIMUM WAGE
The richest people in this country have been riding a gravy train since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. It's time the working class started to get some benefits. A few months ago our wonderful Governor Groper vetoed a bill that would raise California's miserable minimum wage. Now a Democrat in the Assembly is introducing a bill that would raise the minimum wage, and she is threatening to take the issue to a ballot initiative if the measure isn't passed. It's nice to see Democrats fighting for their constituents for once. This story by Jim Sanders is at www.sacbee.com:
A Bay Area lawmaker is launching new legislation to raise the state's minimum wage and considering a ballot initiative if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger scuttles the proposal again.
Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, said her minimum-wage bill, AB 48, will be roughly similar in scope to a $1-per-hour increase that was vetoed by Schwarzenegger in September.
SO MUCH FOR THE POWER OF PRAYER
Any time there's a crisis or a disaster or a heart-rending tragedy you'll hear someone call for "our prayers." Claims have been made for the power of prayer to heal illness. Maybe it's time to put aside superstition and look reality squarely in the face. I have no doubt that there is much we can do as we grow as a species. But we need to realize we have to do this on our own. There's no Supreme Being who is going to come over the hill like rescuing calvary. This story deals with the belief that prayer boosted fertility in women. A new study refutes that belief. The story is at www.mercurynews.com:
Skeptics have called it the ``Miracle Study'' -- findings by scientists that simple prayers could dramatically boost fertility in women.
Published in a respected medical journal by a Capitola researcher, a department head at Columbia University and a Korean scientist also based at Columbia, it immediately attracted the attention of the news media, religious groups and couples desperately trying to conceive.
BUSH IS CREATING A PHONY SOCIAL SECURITY CRISIS
FDR famously said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." George W. Bush has offered nothing but fear or deceit since he dishonestly got into the White House. As Paul Krugman points out, Bush lied about the budget surplus so he could ram through tax cuts for his rich friends. He lied about the danger presented by Saddam Hussein so he could launch an unjust and murderous war. The same tactics are being employed to destroy Social Security. Paul Krugman's column is at www.nytimes.com:
Today let's focus on one piece of those scare tactics: the claim that Social Security faces an imminent crisis.
That claim is simply false. Yet much of the press has reported the falsehood as a fact. For example, The Washington Post recently described 2018, when benefit payments are projected to exceed payroll tax revenues, as a "day of reckoning."
Sunday, January 02, 2005
JANUARY 3, 2005
CRICHTON A SHILL FOR RIGHT-WING
I've enjoyed some of the stuff written by novelist Michael Crichton, but his newest novel is apparently just propaganda for the right-wing corporate interests who don't want to acknowledge the reality of global climate change. Such an acknowledgement will be a major blow to their bottom lines, and we certainly can't have that. This article by Wayne Madsen is from www.pittsburghlive.com:
Michael Crichton's new novel, "State of Fear," not only unfairly bashes the global environmental movement but represents yet another example of how multinational corporations and their political allies are invading the popular culture to advance fanatic and lunatic right-wing ideas and agendas.
The book demonizes scientists who argue that the world is heading toward cataclysmic weather change unless something is done about the spewing forth of greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere.
BUSH'S "FREEDOM" IS PRETTY LIMITED
George W. Bush likes to drop the word "freedom" into his speeches like people putting salt and pepper on their morning eggs. But Mr. Bush's idea of "freedom" is pretty much limited to the economic sphere. It's freedom for corporations to do whatever they will, free of regulation or decency, it's freedom to pay slave waves, it's freedom to rape the environment. This article by Caroline Arnold contrasts Bush's "freedom" with the vision of FDR. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
Conspicuously lacking in these "freedoms" is any concept of the common good. These "economic freedoms" are all about individual rights to make decisions about health, education, faith, politics, friends, spouses, careers, and money. Exemplars of infringements on personal choice include warning labels on cigarettes or foods, Affirmative Action laws, and universal health care.
Personal choice is not parsed by Bush nor his supporters to include the freedom to choose abortion, marijuana, stem-cell research, or same-sex marriage. They consider poverty a failure of personal choice -- "choosing" to drop out of school or get pregnant, or "choosing" to go into debt. To them, religion is also a matter of personal choice -- but woe unto those who object to "under God" in the Pledge, or to posting the Ten Commandments in courthouses.
VERY DISTURBING IF TRUE
A Canadian expert says that the U.S. State Department and the Navy had advance warning of the tsunami that devastated so many countries in South Asia. If true, it means that there may have been people who could have been saved. What are we coming to? This story is by Khalid Hasan at www.dailytimes.com:
Prof Chossudovsky writes that the US authorities had initially recorded 8.0 on the Richter scale. As confirmed by several reports, US scientists in Hawaii, had advanced knowledge regarding an impending catastrophe, but failed to contact their Asian counterparts. According to him, Charles McCreery of the Pacific Warning Centre in Hawaii confirmed that his team tried desperately to get in touch with his counterparts in Asia. According to McCreery, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s centre in Honolulu, the team did its utmost to contact the countries.
RIGHT WINGERS REALLY HATE TRASHY TV: WINK, WINK, NUDGE, NUDGE
If "moral values" were such an issue in voting for George W. Bush, you have to wonder why so many of the "red state" voters love trash TV. The number one trash TV network is Fox, owned by that exemplar of morality Rupert Murdoch. Fox has found ways to lower the bar over the years, but they may have topped themselves with a new show called "Who's Your Daddy?" Cynthia Tucker talks about it at www.workingforchange.com:
An enduring paradox of our times is that the very people who enjoy watching trashy television heap so much opprobrium on the machinery that produces it. Red-state America hates Hollywood, according to its self-appointed leaders. After national elections in which "moral values" supposedly trumped other concerns, Karl Rove summed up the results: "I think it's people who are concerned about the coarseness of our culture, about what they see on the television sets, what they see in the movies."
BUSH IS VIOLATING CONSTITUTIONAL WALL OF SEPARATION
The Founding Fathers of this country were intelligent enough to create a secular government, not one based on religion. George W. Bush, who kills and maims innocent Iraqis, professes to show his Christianity by shoveling our tax money to religious organizations. It's another backdoor way of trying to turn our country into a theocracy. This article is at news.yahoo.com:
"There clearly is a wave of new faith-based offices coming to states around the country, and I think some of them are likely to deal with it responsibly and others to deal with it as irresponsibly as the administration does," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
DISGUSTING TIME MAGAZINE PUFF PIECE ABOUT BUSH
I think I need some anti-nausea medicine after reading some quotes from Time Magazine's puff piece naming George W. Bush "Person of the Year." You would think Bush walked on water and raised the dead instead of being a hypocrite, a bully,a killer, a torturer, and a warmonger. Those are just minor details, I suppose. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
Tens of thousands dead in Iraq and more dying daily, ballooning government debt, billions in tax cuts for rich Americans, a harebrained scheme for Ballistic Missile Defense and no plan at all for Global Warming. The 5,000-word cover story is not concerned with any of this. It mentions the war and U.S. economic troubles only in passing focusing instead on how the man who holds the title "Leader of the Free World" bested John Kerry.
CRICHTON A SHILL FOR RIGHT-WING
I've enjoyed some of the stuff written by novelist Michael Crichton, but his newest novel is apparently just propaganda for the right-wing corporate interests who don't want to acknowledge the reality of global climate change. Such an acknowledgement will be a major blow to their bottom lines, and we certainly can't have that. This article by Wayne Madsen is from www.pittsburghlive.com:
Michael Crichton's new novel, "State of Fear," not only unfairly bashes the global environmental movement but represents yet another example of how multinational corporations and their political allies are invading the popular culture to advance fanatic and lunatic right-wing ideas and agendas.
The book demonizes scientists who argue that the world is heading toward cataclysmic weather change unless something is done about the spewing forth of greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere.
BUSH'S "FREEDOM" IS PRETTY LIMITED
George W. Bush likes to drop the word "freedom" into his speeches like people putting salt and pepper on their morning eggs. But Mr. Bush's idea of "freedom" is pretty much limited to the economic sphere. It's freedom for corporations to do whatever they will, free of regulation or decency, it's freedom to pay slave waves, it's freedom to rape the environment. This article by Caroline Arnold contrasts Bush's "freedom" with the vision of FDR. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
Conspicuously lacking in these "freedoms" is any concept of the common good. These "economic freedoms" are all about individual rights to make decisions about health, education, faith, politics, friends, spouses, careers, and money. Exemplars of infringements on personal choice include warning labels on cigarettes or foods, Affirmative Action laws, and universal health care.
Personal choice is not parsed by Bush nor his supporters to include the freedom to choose abortion, marijuana, stem-cell research, or same-sex marriage. They consider poverty a failure of personal choice -- "choosing" to drop out of school or get pregnant, or "choosing" to go into debt. To them, religion is also a matter of personal choice -- but woe unto those who object to "under God" in the Pledge, or to posting the Ten Commandments in courthouses.
VERY DISTURBING IF TRUE
A Canadian expert says that the U.S. State Department and the Navy had advance warning of the tsunami that devastated so many countries in South Asia. If true, it means that there may have been people who could have been saved. What are we coming to? This story is by Khalid Hasan at www.dailytimes.com:
Prof Chossudovsky writes that the US authorities had initially recorded 8.0 on the Richter scale. As confirmed by several reports, US scientists in Hawaii, had advanced knowledge regarding an impending catastrophe, but failed to contact their Asian counterparts. According to him, Charles McCreery of the Pacific Warning Centre in Hawaii confirmed that his team tried desperately to get in touch with his counterparts in Asia. According to McCreery, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s centre in Honolulu, the team did its utmost to contact the countries.
RIGHT WINGERS REALLY HATE TRASHY TV: WINK, WINK, NUDGE, NUDGE
If "moral values" were such an issue in voting for George W. Bush, you have to wonder why so many of the "red state" voters love trash TV. The number one trash TV network is Fox, owned by that exemplar of morality Rupert Murdoch. Fox has found ways to lower the bar over the years, but they may have topped themselves with a new show called "Who's Your Daddy?" Cynthia Tucker talks about it at www.workingforchange.com:
An enduring paradox of our times is that the very people who enjoy watching trashy television heap so much opprobrium on the machinery that produces it. Red-state America hates Hollywood, according to its self-appointed leaders. After national elections in which "moral values" supposedly trumped other concerns, Karl Rove summed up the results: "I think it's people who are concerned about the coarseness of our culture, about what they see on the television sets, what they see in the movies."
BUSH IS VIOLATING CONSTITUTIONAL WALL OF SEPARATION
The Founding Fathers of this country were intelligent enough to create a secular government, not one based on religion. George W. Bush, who kills and maims innocent Iraqis, professes to show his Christianity by shoveling our tax money to religious organizations. It's another backdoor way of trying to turn our country into a theocracy. This article is at news.yahoo.com:
"There clearly is a wave of new faith-based offices coming to states around the country, and I think some of them are likely to deal with it responsibly and others to deal with it as irresponsibly as the administration does," said the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
DISGUSTING TIME MAGAZINE PUFF PIECE ABOUT BUSH
I think I need some anti-nausea medicine after reading some quotes from Time Magazine's puff piece naming George W. Bush "Person of the Year." You would think Bush walked on water and raised the dead instead of being a hypocrite, a bully,a killer, a torturer, and a warmonger. Those are just minor details, I suppose. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
Tens of thousands dead in Iraq and more dying daily, ballooning government debt, billions in tax cuts for rich Americans, a harebrained scheme for Ballistic Missile Defense and no plan at all for Global Warming. The 5,000-word cover story is not concerned with any of this. It mentions the war and U.S. economic troubles only in passing focusing instead on how the man who holds the title "Leader of the Free World" bested John Kerry.
JANUARY 2, 2005
CALL IT THE WIMPY DOCTRINE
The cartoon character Wimpy used to say, "I'll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today." That sounds similar to the George W. Bush fiscal doctrine of borrow today and let future generations pay the bill. This article by Edmund S. Andrews is at www.nytimes.com:
GIVE President Bush credit for this much: his agenda for the year will force a national debate about the vexing financial problems that loom in the decades ahead.
In calling for an overhaul of Social Security, which faces a huge potential shortfall, Mr. Bush has chosen to address an issue that many politicians would like to postpone discussing for as long as possible.
THE SOCIAL DARWINISM AT THE HEART OF FREE MARKET ECONOMICS
This story is about an article released by the Ayn Rand Institute saying the U.S. should not help the victims of the tsunami in South Asia. It's the very heart of social Darwinism, the survival of the fittest doctrine that is the basis of free market economics. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
Here’s a story I thought was a hoax.
It came in by e-mail on Dec. 30 from the Ayn Rand Institute, and it had an Onion-type headline that read: “U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims.”
CONSERVATIVES TRYING TO CREATE GENERATIONAL CONFLICT
To hear right-wingers tell it, young people will be coerced into supporting the parasitic older people of the country by paying high taxes to support programs like Medicare and Social Security. Never mind that for generations younger people have supported these programs so that they too can benefit when they get older. Never mind that it's the right and just thing to do. Never mind that right-wingers don't apply the same standards to programs they love such as military spending. This article by Saul Friedman is also linked at www.commondreams.org:
But conservative critics of Medicare and Social Security seem to be doing their darnedest to manufacture conflict between the generations. Instead of celebrating that we're all living longer, Third Millennium, a group of fiscal right-wingers who cry wolf about the gray peril, would have us believe hordes of selfish aged are bankrupting the nation with their programs.
The group's president, Richard Thau, wrote opposing a prescription drug benefit because, he said, it would only add to the problem of impending bankruptcy. He figured Medicare will run a "cumulative" shortfall of $333 trillion and cost more than 8 percent of the gross domestic product in 2075. But older Americans are unconcerned, he asserted, because their kids and grandchildren will inherit the burden.
DO REPUBLICANS BELIEVE GOD CONDONES RAPE?
The evangelist faction of the Republican party has long been against any form of birth control except for abstinence. Apparently, that prohibition extends even to giving information to women who are rape victims. I've heard a good part of my life the explanation that events are "God's will." I wonder if they would tell me that a woman getting raped, conceiving, and giving birth as a result of rape is "God's will." It's not the kind of God I would worship. This item comes from www.pamspaulding.com:
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued its first-ever medical guidelines for treating sexual assault victims - without any mention of emergency contraception, the standard precaution against pregnancy after rape.
The omission of the so-called morning-after pill has frustrated and angered victims' advocates and medical professionals who have long worked to improve victims' care.
Gail Burns-Smith, one of several dozen experts who vetted the protocol during its three-year development by Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, said emergency contraception was included in an early draft, and she does not know of anyone who opposed it.
CALL IT THE WIMPY DOCTRINE
The cartoon character Wimpy used to say, "I'll gladly pay you tomorrow for a hamburger today." That sounds similar to the George W. Bush fiscal doctrine of borrow today and let future generations pay the bill. This article by Edmund S. Andrews is at www.nytimes.com:
GIVE President Bush credit for this much: his agenda for the year will force a national debate about the vexing financial problems that loom in the decades ahead.
In calling for an overhaul of Social Security, which faces a huge potential shortfall, Mr. Bush has chosen to address an issue that many politicians would like to postpone discussing for as long as possible.
THE SOCIAL DARWINISM AT THE HEART OF FREE MARKET ECONOMICS
This story is about an article released by the Ayn Rand Institute saying the U.S. should not help the victims of the tsunami in South Asia. It's the very heart of social Darwinism, the survival of the fittest doctrine that is the basis of free market economics. This article is at www.commondreams.org:
Here’s a story I thought was a hoax.
It came in by e-mail on Dec. 30 from the Ayn Rand Institute, and it had an Onion-type headline that read: “U.S. Should Not Help Tsunami Victims.”
CONSERVATIVES TRYING TO CREATE GENERATIONAL CONFLICT
To hear right-wingers tell it, young people will be coerced into supporting the parasitic older people of the country by paying high taxes to support programs like Medicare and Social Security. Never mind that for generations younger people have supported these programs so that they too can benefit when they get older. Never mind that it's the right and just thing to do. Never mind that right-wingers don't apply the same standards to programs they love such as military spending. This article by Saul Friedman is also linked at www.commondreams.org:
But conservative critics of Medicare and Social Security seem to be doing their darnedest to manufacture conflict between the generations. Instead of celebrating that we're all living longer, Third Millennium, a group of fiscal right-wingers who cry wolf about the gray peril, would have us believe hordes of selfish aged are bankrupting the nation with their programs.
The group's president, Richard Thau, wrote opposing a prescription drug benefit because, he said, it would only add to the problem of impending bankruptcy. He figured Medicare will run a "cumulative" shortfall of $333 trillion and cost more than 8 percent of the gross domestic product in 2075. But older Americans are unconcerned, he asserted, because their kids and grandchildren will inherit the burden.
DO REPUBLICANS BELIEVE GOD CONDONES RAPE?
The evangelist faction of the Republican party has long been against any form of birth control except for abstinence. Apparently, that prohibition extends even to giving information to women who are rape victims. I've heard a good part of my life the explanation that events are "God's will." I wonder if they would tell me that a woman getting raped, conceiving, and giving birth as a result of rape is "God's will." It's not the kind of God I would worship. This item comes from www.pamspaulding.com:
The U.S. Department of Justice has issued its first-ever medical guidelines for treating sexual assault victims - without any mention of emergency contraception, the standard precaution against pregnancy after rape.
The omission of the so-called morning-after pill has frustrated and angered victims' advocates and medical professionals who have long worked to improve victims' care.
Gail Burns-Smith, one of several dozen experts who vetted the protocol during its three-year development by Justice's Office on Violence Against Women, said emergency contraception was included in an early draft, and she does not know of anyone who opposed it.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
JANUARY 1, 2005
TELL ME WHY THIS IS A GOOD THING
You hear right-wing politicians like George W. Bush praising the benefits of the free market economy. But I have to wonder why it's so wonderful. Basic things like pensions and job security are evaporating. We're told we have to be in constant retraining mode to "compete." Meanwhile, the very richest people just get richer and richer while the rest of us scramble just to stay even. Here's a look at the Bush style economy in an article by Jonathan Krim and Griff Witte at www.washingtonpost.com:
"It's not clear how the work will change," said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania. "But any kind of security will go away."
Over the past two decades, companies have moved en masse away from traditional pensions in which employers pay the cost and employees get a set amount after retiring. Employer-based health care coverage has fallen as well, not just for workers in low-wage jobs, but increasingly for those in middle-class jobs. One analysis estimates that there were 5 million fewer jobs providing health insurance in 2004 than there were just three years earlier. Overall, nearly 1 in 5 full-time workers today goes without health insurance; among part-time workers, it's 1 in 4.
A TSUNAMI OF GREED, CORRUPTION, AND INDIFFERENCE
There was a point in our national history when George W. Bush would have been forced to resign in disgrace or would have been impeached. There are any number of scandals that should have driven Bush from office, but a compliant national media and an apathetic electorate just yawns as we slide over the abyss. This commentary is by Peter Schrag and linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
One of the blessings of having been around a long time is that in any dark moment of our national life you can usually think of another moment that, if you put your mind to it, seemed almost as dark or maybe darker: McCarthyism, Watergate, the disaster of Vietnam.
But never in the memory of the living generation have the errors, falsifications and unreason of policy come in such rapid and overwhelming succession that each buries its predecessor before it's even partially absorbed, much less understood.
WHO ARE THE "SPENDAHOLICS"?
I glanced at a letter to the editor from a right-winger that referred to Democrats as "spendaholics." The writer was speculating that opposition to Bush's Social Security "reform" was that money would be taken away from the "spendaholics" in Congress. Let's review, shall we. Under which administrations have the national deficits exploded? Reagan, Bush, and Bush, Republicans all. Who has controlled Congress since 1994? Republicans. You can see a pattern here. In this column Jonathan Chait talks about the weird combination of tax cuts and spending that goes with Republican style of governing. The column is at www.latimes.com:
Does cutting taxes force Congress to spend less money? So far under President Bush, the answer has been a resounding no. Now there's some evidence that Congress actually may be tightening the purse strings. Unfortunately, what it has done so far doesn't exactly prove the conservative case.
TELL ME WHY THIS IS A GOOD THING
You hear right-wing politicians like George W. Bush praising the benefits of the free market economy. But I have to wonder why it's so wonderful. Basic things like pensions and job security are evaporating. We're told we have to be in constant retraining mode to "compete." Meanwhile, the very richest people just get richer and richer while the rest of us scramble just to stay even. Here's a look at the Bush style economy in an article by Jonathan Krim and Griff Witte at www.washingtonpost.com:
"It's not clear how the work will change," said Peter Cappelli, a management professor at the Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania. "But any kind of security will go away."
Over the past two decades, companies have moved en masse away from traditional pensions in which employers pay the cost and employees get a set amount after retiring. Employer-based health care coverage has fallen as well, not just for workers in low-wage jobs, but increasingly for those in middle-class jobs. One analysis estimates that there were 5 million fewer jobs providing health insurance in 2004 than there were just three years earlier. Overall, nearly 1 in 5 full-time workers today goes without health insurance; among part-time workers, it's 1 in 4.
A TSUNAMI OF GREED, CORRUPTION, AND INDIFFERENCE
There was a point in our national history when George W. Bush would have been forced to resign in disgrace or would have been impeached. There are any number of scandals that should have driven Bush from office, but a compliant national media and an apathetic electorate just yawns as we slide over the abyss. This commentary is by Peter Schrag and linked at www.smirkingchimp.com:
One of the blessings of having been around a long time is that in any dark moment of our national life you can usually think of another moment that, if you put your mind to it, seemed almost as dark or maybe darker: McCarthyism, Watergate, the disaster of Vietnam.
But never in the memory of the living generation have the errors, falsifications and unreason of policy come in such rapid and overwhelming succession that each buries its predecessor before it's even partially absorbed, much less understood.
WHO ARE THE "SPENDAHOLICS"?
I glanced at a letter to the editor from a right-winger that referred to Democrats as "spendaholics." The writer was speculating that opposition to Bush's Social Security "reform" was that money would be taken away from the "spendaholics" in Congress. Let's review, shall we. Under which administrations have the national deficits exploded? Reagan, Bush, and Bush, Republicans all. Who has controlled Congress since 1994? Republicans. You can see a pattern here. In this column Jonathan Chait talks about the weird combination of tax cuts and spending that goes with Republican style of governing. The column is at www.latimes.com:
Does cutting taxes force Congress to spend less money? So far under President Bush, the answer has been a resounding no. Now there's some evidence that Congress actually may be tightening the purse strings. Unfortunately, what it has done so far doesn't exactly prove the conservative case.
Friday, December 31, 2004
DECEMBER 31, 2004
MAYBE THIS IS POETIC JUSTICE
Corporations love to support Republicans and George W. Bush. But it appears the bad karma may be catching up. Anti-Americanism is on the rise around the world, and it's beginning to hurt business. This story is from news.yahoo.com:
The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
SOME PEOPLE ARE TRULY DISGUSTING
After the death and devastation caused by the tsunamis, some tourists in Thailand apparently felt it was time to go on with tourism as usual. They donned bathing suits, broke out the beach towels, and basked in the sun, ignoring the sorrow all around them. There are times it's hard to be proud of being a member of the human race. This story is at www.nydailynews.com:
While volunteers struggled to collect bodies washing up on the once-pristine beaches of this upscale resort isle, ghoulish tourists rolled out their towels yesterday, doffed their bikini tops and vacationed like nothing had happened.
On Patong Beach and Kata Beach - where hundreds died or disappeared four days ago - the smell of suntan lotion wafted from the shore as a new influx of tourists determinedly ignored the carnage around them, frolicking in the surf or reading under umbrellas.
An indignant Russian who arrived at the Novotel Phuket Resort on the day after the tsunami loudly complained that there was no champagne reception.
CLARENCE THOMAS IS UNWORTHY TO BE ON SUPREME COURT
I never thought Clarence Thomas belonged on the Supreme Court. During his confirmation hearings it was disclosed that Thomas acted highly inappropriately with Anita Hill, but Anita Hill became the villain and Thomas complained about a "high tech lynching." The guy isn't intellectually or morally qualified to be on the Court. He has been nothing but a lapdog for Antonin Scalia since he was confirmed. Now comes the news that Justice Thomas has been offered and has accepted some pretty pricey gifts, some from people appearing before the Court. We know that both Thomas and Scalia were guilty of massive conflict of interest when they didn't recuse themselves in the Gore v. Bush decision in 2000, and the conflict of interest just goes on. These guys should be impeached. This story is at www.boston.com:
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts since joining the Supreme Court, from $1,200 worth of tires to valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative's education expenses.
The gifts included a Bible once owned by the 19th-century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000.
BRIEF YEAR IN REVIEW
The end of year media tradition is to do a year in review. I don't intend to get into the celebrity deaths and the other pablum the media dishes up. We know that democracy, justice, and decency took backward steps in 2004. George W. Bush probably got back into the White House by nefarious means. We know without a doubt there was no justification for the war against Iraq, but hundreds of thousands have died or been maimed. We know the earth's ecosystem is in jeopardy and it's time to acknowledge the reality of global climate change, and time to do something about it. We've seen the disturbing resurgence of religious fundamentalism in all the major religions. Religious fundamentalism with its uncompromising, superstitious, bigoted, and fanatical view of the world is a danger to all humanity. The human race has faced dark times before, so let us not yield to despair, but resolve to fight on the way great people in the past fought on and ultimately prevailed.
MAYBE THIS IS POETIC JUSTICE
Corporations love to support Republicans and George W. Bush. But it appears the bad karma may be catching up. Anti-Americanism is on the rise around the world, and it's beginning to hurt business. This story is from news.yahoo.com:
The Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas--according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc.
Brands closely identified with the U.S., such as Marlboro cigarettes, America Online (AOL), McDonald's, American Airlines, and Exxon-Mobil are particularly at risk. GMI, an independent market research company, conducted the survey in eight countries December 10-12 with consumers over the internet.
SOME PEOPLE ARE TRULY DISGUSTING
After the death and devastation caused by the tsunamis, some tourists in Thailand apparently felt it was time to go on with tourism as usual. They donned bathing suits, broke out the beach towels, and basked in the sun, ignoring the sorrow all around them. There are times it's hard to be proud of being a member of the human race. This story is at www.nydailynews.com:
While volunteers struggled to collect bodies washing up on the once-pristine beaches of this upscale resort isle, ghoulish tourists rolled out their towels yesterday, doffed their bikini tops and vacationed like nothing had happened.
On Patong Beach and Kata Beach - where hundreds died or disappeared four days ago - the smell of suntan lotion wafted from the shore as a new influx of tourists determinedly ignored the carnage around them, frolicking in the surf or reading under umbrellas.
An indignant Russian who arrived at the Novotel Phuket Resort on the day after the tsunami loudly complained that there was no champagne reception.
CLARENCE THOMAS IS UNWORTHY TO BE ON SUPREME COURT
I never thought Clarence Thomas belonged on the Supreme Court. During his confirmation hearings it was disclosed that Thomas acted highly inappropriately with Anita Hill, but Anita Hill became the villain and Thomas complained about a "high tech lynching." The guy isn't intellectually or morally qualified to be on the Court. He has been nothing but a lapdog for Antonin Scalia since he was confirmed. Now comes the news that Justice Thomas has been offered and has accepted some pretty pricey gifts, some from people appearing before the Court. We know that both Thomas and Scalia were guilty of massive conflict of interest when they didn't recuse themselves in the Gore v. Bush decision in 2000, and the conflict of interest just goes on. These guys should be impeached. This story is at www.boston.com:
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has accepted tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts since joining the Supreme Court, from $1,200 worth of tires to valuable historical items and a $5,000 personal check to help pay a relative's education expenses.
The gifts included a Bible once owned by the 19th-century author and abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass, which Thomas valued at $19,000, and a bust of President Lincoln valued at $15,000.
BRIEF YEAR IN REVIEW
The end of year media tradition is to do a year in review. I don't intend to get into the celebrity deaths and the other pablum the media dishes up. We know that democracy, justice, and decency took backward steps in 2004. George W. Bush probably got back into the White House by nefarious means. We know without a doubt there was no justification for the war against Iraq, but hundreds of thousands have died or been maimed. We know the earth's ecosystem is in jeopardy and it's time to acknowledge the reality of global climate change, and time to do something about it. We've seen the disturbing resurgence of religious fundamentalism in all the major religions. Religious fundamentalism with its uncompromising, superstitious, bigoted, and fanatical view of the world is a danger to all humanity. The human race has faced dark times before, so let us not yield to despair, but resolve to fight on the way great people in the past fought on and ultimately prevailed.
Thursday, December 30, 2004
DECEMBER 30, 2004
BUSH IS MISERLY IN GIVING AID TO TSUNAMI VICTIMS
George W. Bush and Colin Powell didn't like being described as "stingy" in their response to providing aid to the victims of the tsunami tragedy. But, as The New York Times points out, the initial pledge of $15 million was less than half of what is being spent on Bush's coronation on January 20. This editorial is at www.nytimes.com:
We beg to differ. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.
THE HYPROCRISY OF U.S. MEDIA
One article on the Internet described the escalating death figures from the tsunami as a kind of pornography. I don't know why over 100,000 deaths are more appalling than 50,000 deaths, or 50,000 deaths more appalling than 20,000 deaths. It isn't the numbers that should be important; it's an incredible tragedy regardless of the numbers. What is almost incomprehensible now is our inadequate way of dealing with disasters like this. We're in the 21st century. We should be so much farther along in our social evolution than we are. That, in part, is what this article is about. It talks about how the major media in the U.S. haven't been so quick to point out the death toll in Iraq. If numbers are as important as we've seen the past few days, then 100,000 innocents killed in Iraq should be important. This article is at www.commondreams. org:
The US corporate media has published Pentagon statements on civilian deaths in Iraq as unknown and dismissed the Lancet Medical Journal study. It seems US media concerns are for victims of natural disasters, while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate invasion of another country by the US, are better left unreported.
FINANCIAL MARKETS GLAD DISASTER HAPPENED IN POOR COUNTRIES
There are many things humans can't control. There are natural laws of physics, for instance. But markets are man-made. The markets have just kept rolling along, though, totally indifferent to the tragedy in the Indian Ocean. The writer of this article points out that because the tragedy occurred in poor countries the economic impact doesn't have much effect on the "markets." So they go merrily on. This article is also at www.commondreams.org:
Finally, the sad truth is that the affected countries aren't rich. They don't have a huge command over the world's economic resources. Even if everyone can see the human tragedy, financial markets can tell relatively quickly that, apart from those most directly affected, there is not going to be a major economic tragedy. It's almost as if investors have said: "Thank God it wasn't New York or London".
BUSH IS MISERLY IN GIVING AID TO TSUNAMI VICTIMS
George W. Bush and Colin Powell didn't like being described as "stingy" in their response to providing aid to the victims of the tsunami tragedy. But, as The New York Times points out, the initial pledge of $15 million was less than half of what is being spent on Bush's coronation on January 20. This editorial is at www.nytimes.com:
We beg to differ. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.
THE HYPROCRISY OF U.S. MEDIA
One article on the Internet described the escalating death figures from the tsunami as a kind of pornography. I don't know why over 100,000 deaths are more appalling than 50,000 deaths, or 50,000 deaths more appalling than 20,000 deaths. It isn't the numbers that should be important; it's an incredible tragedy regardless of the numbers. What is almost incomprehensible now is our inadequate way of dealing with disasters like this. We're in the 21st century. We should be so much farther along in our social evolution than we are. That, in part, is what this article is about. It talks about how the major media in the U.S. haven't been so quick to point out the death toll in Iraq. If numbers are as important as we've seen the past few days, then 100,000 innocents killed in Iraq should be important. This article is at www.commondreams. org:
The US corporate media has published Pentagon statements on civilian deaths in Iraq as unknown and dismissed the Lancet Medical Journal study. It seems US media concerns are for victims of natural disasters, while the man-made disasters, such as the deliberate invasion of another country by the US, are better left unreported.
FINANCIAL MARKETS GLAD DISASTER HAPPENED IN POOR COUNTRIES
There are many things humans can't control. There are natural laws of physics, for instance. But markets are man-made. The markets have just kept rolling along, though, totally indifferent to the tragedy in the Indian Ocean. The writer of this article points out that because the tragedy occurred in poor countries the economic impact doesn't have much effect on the "markets." So they go merrily on. This article is also at www.commondreams.org:
Finally, the sad truth is that the affected countries aren't rich. They don't have a huge command over the world's economic resources. Even if everyone can see the human tragedy, financial markets can tell relatively quickly that, apart from those most directly affected, there is not going to be a major economic tragedy. It's almost as if investors have said: "Thank God it wasn't New York or London".
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
DECEMBER 29, 2004
BUSH IS REALLY SOME CHRISTIAN
One of the worst humanitarian disasters in human history is unfolding in the Indian Ocean region as a result of the massive tsunami. Estimates indicate that as many as 50,000 (and counting) people may already be dead. Where is that great Christian, George W. Bush? He's "vacationing" on his "ranch," we're told, and the offers of aid to the people affected by this catastrophe are niggardly at best. This story is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The Bush administration more than doubled its financial commitment yesterday to provide relief to nations suffering from the Indian Ocean tsunami, amid complaints that the vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.
As the death toll surpassed 50,000 with no sign of abating, the U.S. Agency for International Development added $20 million to an earlier pledge of $15 million to provide relief, and the Pentagon dispatched an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in morning television appearances, chafed at a top U.N. aid official's comment on Monday that wealthy countries were being stingy with aid. "The United States is not stingy," Powell said on CNN.
INSURANCE COMPANIES NOT HIT HARD BY TSUNAMI
It just warms the cockles of your heart that global insurance companies aren't being hit hard by the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Somehow it strikes me as gauche to worry about paying insurance claims, or escaping paying insurance claims, when there is so much death and misery. This story is from seattletimes.nwsource.com:
Losses for the global insurance industry from the devastating earthquake and tsunami waves in Southeast Asia are likely to be sharply below claims from the hurricanes in Florida earlier this year, as the regions hit over the weekend are generally underinsured, analysts said yesterday.
SAN FRANCISCO COULD BE HIT BY TSUNAMI
As if there's not enough to worry about, now we learn that San Francisco could also be hit by a tsunami, and residents in parts of San Francisco would have just minutes to flee. Wouldn't developing a warning system for tsunamis be a better way to spend money than, say, Star Wars? This story is at www.sfgate.com:
California faces a serious threat from the sort of tsunami that devastated South Asia, a top state emergency official says, and residents on the west side of San Francisco could have only minutes to flee a potential disaster even though a new warning system will be installed by next month.
BUSH IS REALLY SOME CHRISTIAN
One of the worst humanitarian disasters in human history is unfolding in the Indian Ocean region as a result of the massive tsunami. Estimates indicate that as many as 50,000 (and counting) people may already be dead. Where is that great Christian, George W. Bush? He's "vacationing" on his "ranch," we're told, and the offers of aid to the people affected by this catastrophe are niggardly at best. This story is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The Bush administration more than doubled its financial commitment yesterday to provide relief to nations suffering from the Indian Ocean tsunami, amid complaints that the vacationing President Bush has been insensitive to a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions.
As the death toll surpassed 50,000 with no sign of abating, the U.S. Agency for International Development added $20 million to an earlier pledge of $15 million to provide relief, and the Pentagon dispatched an aircraft carrier and other military assets to the region. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in morning television appearances, chafed at a top U.N. aid official's comment on Monday that wealthy countries were being stingy with aid. "The United States is not stingy," Powell said on CNN.
INSURANCE COMPANIES NOT HIT HARD BY TSUNAMI
It just warms the cockles of your heart that global insurance companies aren't being hit hard by the devastating tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. Somehow it strikes me as gauche to worry about paying insurance claims, or escaping paying insurance claims, when there is so much death and misery. This story is from seattletimes.nwsource.com:
Losses for the global insurance industry from the devastating earthquake and tsunami waves in Southeast Asia are likely to be sharply below claims from the hurricanes in Florida earlier this year, as the regions hit over the weekend are generally underinsured, analysts said yesterday.
SAN FRANCISCO COULD BE HIT BY TSUNAMI
As if there's not enough to worry about, now we learn that San Francisco could also be hit by a tsunami, and residents in parts of San Francisco would have just minutes to flee. Wouldn't developing a warning system for tsunamis be a better way to spend money than, say, Star Wars? This story is at www.sfgate.com:
California faces a serious threat from the sort of tsunami that devastated South Asia, a top state emergency official says, and residents on the west side of San Francisco could have only minutes to flee a potential disaster even though a new warning system will be installed by next month.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
DECEMBER 28, 2004
WORD OF THE DAY: "RENDITION"
"Rendition" is the word being used to describe the transport of hooded and handcuffed prisoners from the United States for interrogation and detention in other countries. It's such a vague word, isn't it, when you consider the "interrogation" is probably torture. The story about another new low for the Bush administration is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The airplane is a Gulfstream V turbojet, the sort favored by CEOs and celebrities. But since 2001 it has been seen at military airports from Pakistan to Indonesia to Jordan, sometimes being boarded by hooded and handcuffed passengers.
The plane's owner of record, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc., lists directors and officers who appear to exist only on paper. And each one of those directors and officers has a recently issued Social Security number and an address consisting only of a post office box, according to an extensive search of state, federal and commercial records.
LIBRARIES CLOSE IN STEINBECK'S HOME TOWN
In the age of "no child left behind" centers of knowledge like universities and libraries are becoming more and more inaccessible for many of us. John Steinbeck is one of my favorite writers, one of the best American writers, and the libraries in his hometown of Salinas, California, are closing for lack of funding. The story by Rachel Konrad is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
Mary Jean Gamble organized the John Steinbeck historical archives, supervised the Steinbeck literature collection and ranks as an authority on Salinas history and genealogy.
After nearly 23 years with the Salinas Public Library, she may know more about the "Grapes of Wrath" or "Cannery Row" than anyone else in the author's hometown.
So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is closing its libraries in the spring?
"He'd obviously be upset. He knew that literature can lift and elevate the spirit and enable humans to rise above any situation," Gamble said. "He probably even read some of the great literature at the Salinas library."
CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA AGAINST LIBERAL EDUCATION
In this article Dr. Teresa Whitehurst talks about a conversation she overheard at a Starbucks between two college students. The two students were apparently going to a religious school and were horrified at the idea of getting exposed to "liberal" ideas. Exposure to such ideas, they feared, would cause them to lose their "values." It's almost surreal. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
I found it hard to concentrate after that, my mind returning again and again to one question: "What would happen to higher education in America if this fear of "too much education", and this presumption that liberal views are the devil's snare rather than the logical consequences of exposure to science, philosophy, literature and diversity, became widespread?"
WORD OF THE DAY: "RENDITION"
"Rendition" is the word being used to describe the transport of hooded and handcuffed prisoners from the United States for interrogation and detention in other countries. It's such a vague word, isn't it, when you consider the "interrogation" is probably torture. The story about another new low for the Bush administration is at www.washingtonpost.com:
The airplane is a Gulfstream V turbojet, the sort favored by CEOs and celebrities. But since 2001 it has been seen at military airports from Pakistan to Indonesia to Jordan, sometimes being boarded by hooded and handcuffed passengers.
The plane's owner of record, Premier Executive Transport Services Inc., lists directors and officers who appear to exist only on paper. And each one of those directors and officers has a recently issued Social Security number and an address consisting only of a post office box, according to an extensive search of state, federal and commercial records.
LIBRARIES CLOSE IN STEINBECK'S HOME TOWN
In the age of "no child left behind" centers of knowledge like universities and libraries are becoming more and more inaccessible for many of us. John Steinbeck is one of my favorite writers, one of the best American writers, and the libraries in his hometown of Salinas, California, are closing for lack of funding. The story by Rachel Konrad is at seattlepi.nwsource.com:
Mary Jean Gamble organized the John Steinbeck historical archives, supervised the Steinbeck literature collection and ranks as an authority on Salinas history and genealogy.
After nearly 23 years with the Salinas Public Library, she may know more about the "Grapes of Wrath" or "Cannery Row" than anyone else in the author's hometown.
So how would Steinbeck have reacted to the news that the cash-strapped city is closing its libraries in the spring?
"He'd obviously be upset. He knew that literature can lift and elevate the spirit and enable humans to rise above any situation," Gamble said. "He probably even read some of the great literature at the Salinas library."
CONSERVATIVE PROPAGANDA AGAINST LIBERAL EDUCATION
In this article Dr. Teresa Whitehurst talks about a conversation she overheard at a Starbucks between two college students. The two students were apparently going to a religious school and were horrified at the idea of getting exposed to "liberal" ideas. Exposure to such ideas, they feared, would cause them to lose their "values." It's almost surreal. The article is at www.commondreams.org:
I found it hard to concentrate after that, my mind returning again and again to one question: "What would happen to higher education in America if this fear of "too much education", and this presumption that liberal views are the devil's snare rather than the logical consequences of exposure to science, philosophy, literature and diversity, became widespread?"
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