U.S. Income Gap Widening

In 2000, the top 1 percent of American taxpayers had $862,700 each after taxes, on average, more than triple the $286,300 they had, adjusted for inflation, in 1979.

The bottom 40 percent in 2000 had $21,118 each, up 13 percent from their $18,695 average in 1979.

Mr. Shapiro also analyzed the budget office data in tandem with a recently updated study on income by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization in Cambridge, Mass. The bureau study found that in 2000, the top 1 percent income group had the largest share of before-tax income for any year since 1929.

Mr. Shapiro said that findings from both studies suggested that in 2000, the top 1 percent had the largest share of the nation's total after-tax income since at least 1936 and probably since 1929. Mr. Shapiro emphasized that his combined analysis accounted for the fact that his study used after-tax incomes while the bureau's study used pretax incomes.

Both low- and middle-income people shared in the boom of the 1990's, while in the 1980's the bottom fifth experienced a decline in after-tax income, according to the budget office data analyzed by Mr. Shapiro and Robert Greenstein, director for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The middle fifth had an average after-tax income of $41,900 in 2000, a rise of 15 percent both since 1979 and 1997, indicating a long period of no real economic gains for this group.

"You do have gains across the spectrum from 1997 to 2000," Mr. Shapiro said, "but they are much more dramatic at the top."

The center's analysis said the highest income Americans had grown richer from 1979 to 2000 both from gains in income because of economic prosperity and from tax cuts. Huge gains in executive pay were a significant factor, Mr. Shapiro said.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Bushism of the Day

"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves."—Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Who's Poor? Don't Ask the Census Bureau

The National Academy of Sciences has estimated what the Orshansky measure would look like today if it were updated for changes in consumption patterns, and found the threshold could be as much as 45 percent higher, implying higher poverty rates.

Second, the current measure leaves out some sources of income and some expenditures that weren't relevant when it was devised. The Census Bureau counts the value of cash transfers, like welfare payments, but it ignores the value of food stamps and health benefits, as well as newer tax credits that can significantly add to the income of low-end working families. Not only would taking these additions into consideration bring down the poverty rate figure, it would also provide a real measure of the effects of these antipoverty programs.

On the other side of the ledger, the current method also ignores important costs to low-income families. For example, these days many more women with young children participate in the labor force, yet the money they spend on child care is not factored into the poverty calculation.

If the Census Bureau's poverty findings were simply an accounting tool, these failures might not be important to anyone but economists and demographers. But the official figure plays an important role in determining eligibility for the federal and state safety nets: if we're not getting the measurement right, we're not providing services to the right people.

There is a better way, but of course it's a political hot potato. Census Bureau analysts have been working on alternative measures that take into account the changes in family life over the past four decades. The one I consider most reliable, because it factors in child-care costs for working parents, has shown poverty rates that average about 3 percent above the official figure, implying that there may be 9 million more Americans whose incomes are inadequate for their basic needs.

Of course, no administration would want to adopt such a measure on its watch.
Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

The Failure to Find Iraqi Weapons

Even the best intelligence can turn out to be mistaken, and the likelihood that this was the case in Iraq shows why pre-emptive war is so ill conceived as a foundation for security policy.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

A Hummerdinger of a Tax Loophole?

"Thanks to the Bush administration's recent economic stimulus package, small businesses and the self-employed are eligible to deduct the entire purchase cost of new equipment up to $100,000 the year of the purchase." But these provisions are supposed to help farmers and small-business owners buy equipment to transport merchandise and haul stuff. No matter. "The Hummer H2 qualifies for this IRS Sec. 179 deduction by its gross vehicle weight of over 6,000 lbs. Cars and medium sized SUV's don't qualify for this deduction," Thorpe writes. "If you are seriously considering acquisition of a new vehicle, step up to the vehicle that can take you where you want to be, financially and otherwise."

So is this pitch working? Oh, yes. Since the letter went out in August, Thorpe estimated his Anchorage dealership, the only one in the state, has sold an additional 35 Hummers at $62,000 each. That's pumping serious money into the local economy, a most substantial stimulus indeed.

Thorpe said he sold perhaps "nine in one month to doctors" who bought them pretty much for the tax benefits. Local buzz is that they're mostly leaving them in the garage, or their wives are driving them around. Lawyers and small-business owners have snapped up the cars -- which get a whopping 10 miles per gallon -- and, given Alaska's rough winters and formidable terrain, no doubt will make great use of them this winter.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Friedman Attacks Bush for Not Connecting the Dots

When it comes to the police and military sides of the war on terrorism, the Bushies behave like Viking warriors. But when it comes to the political and economic sacrifices and strategies that are also required to fight this war successfully, they are cowardly wimps. That is why our war on terrorism is so one-dimensional and Pentagon-centric. It's more like a hobby — something we do only until it runs into the Bush re-election agenda.

If only the Bush team connected the dots, it would see what a nutty war on terrorism it is fighting, explains Mr. Prestowitz. Here, he says, is the Bush war on terrorism: Preach free trade, but don't deliver on it, so Pakistani farmers become more impoverished. Then ask Congress to give a tax break for any American who wants to buy a gas-guzzling Humvee for business use and also ask Congress to resist any efforts to make Detroit increase gasoline mileage in new cars. All this means more U.S. oil imports from Saudi Arabia.

So then the Saudis have more dollars to give to their Wahhabi fundamentalist evangelists, who spend it by building religious schools in Pakistan. The Pakistani farmer we've put out of business with our farm subsidies then sends his sons to the Wahhabi school because it is tuition-free and offers a hot lunch. His sons grow up getting only a Koranic education, so they are totally unprepared for modernity, but they are taught one thing: that America is the source of all their troubles. One of the farmer's sons joins Al Qaeda and is killed in Afghanistan by U.S. Special Forces, and we think we're winning the war on terrorism.

Fat chance.

EL - This is the frustrating thing about Friedman, he is very smart and sees the big picture and then he advocates some naive policy like putting Bush in charge of converting the Middle East to democracy.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Smart Campaign

Dean had a short political ad on MSNBC's Hardball which did their post debate analysis.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

UN staff prepare to leave Iraq

UN staff are preparing to pull out of Baghdad in the wake of new deadly attacks.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell has set a six-month deadline for an Iraqi constitution, to be followed next year by a new government.

Strikes on US occupying forces mounted, inflicting a growing toll on Iraqi civilians, while pro-US Iraq paid its final respects to its first assassinated official, from the Iraqi Governing Council.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

How to ruin a great army? See Donald Rumsfeld

It took the better part of 20 years to rebuild the Army from the wreckage of Vietnam. With the hard work of a generation of young officers, blooded in Vietnam and determined that the mistake would never be repeated, a new Army rose Phoenix-like from the ashes of the old, now perhaps the finest Army in history.

In just over two years, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and his civilian aides have done just about everything they could to destroy that Army.

How do you break an army?

-You can work it to death. Under Rumsfeld, by next spring 30 of the Army's 33 combat brigades will either be in Iraq or on their way home from Iraq.

-You can neglect its training and education. With an operations tempo this high, there's little time for units to do much more than repair their equipment and send their soldiers home on leave with long-neglected families before it's time to deploy again.

-You can politicize the Army promotion system for three- and four-star generals. Where once the Army would send up its nominee for a vacant billet, now it must send up two or three candidates who must run the gantlet of personal interviews in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Not just Rumsfeld, but all of his civilian experts who never wore a uniform.

-You can decide that you've discovered a newer, cheaper way of fighting and winning America's wars. Rumsfeld and company have embraced, on the basis of a fleeting success in Afghanistan and a flawed success in Iraq, a theory that all that's needed to win our wars is air power and small bands of Special Operations troops. Stealth bombers and snake-eaters.

Another defense secretary who could not admit he'd erred was Robert Strange McNamara, who, like Rumsfeld, was recruited from corporate America. By the time he did, it was too late.

ABOUT THE WRITER Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young."

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

U.S. Poverty Rate Up, Income Down for Second Straight Year

Nearly 1.7 million people fell into poverty last year, ticking the official poverty rate up to 12.1 percent from the 2001 rate of 11.7 percent, the second straight year that poverty has increased in the United States, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today.

Nationally, median household money income fell 1.1 percent -- or by $500 -- between 2001 and 2002, to $42,409 from $42,900. After-tax income fell a slightly smaller 0.8 percent.

Since cash incomes peaked in 1999 at $43,915, household money income has dropped $1,506.

The poverty rate has risen from a trough of 11.3 percent in 2000 to the 2002 rate of 12.1 percent. In 2001 and 2002, 3 million Americans slipped beneath the official poverty line, which, for an individual under 65 is $9,359 a year and for a family of four is $18,244. By the end of last year, 34.6 million Americans lived in poverty. Among those, 12.1 million are children, up from 11.7 million in 2001.

EL -- So the average American makes $1500 less under Bush. Is the average American paying attention?

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

The Latest Dem Debate

Salon -- Democratic rivals target Bush -- and Dean


Washington Post - Newcomer Clark Avoids Serious Gaffes; Dean Withstands Sharper Challenges

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Powell and Rice Stumbling 'Explanations'

Joe Conason's Journal

The 2001 videotape of Colin Powell's remarks about Saddam's lack of weapons of mass destruction is damning. So why isn't it getting more airtime?

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

More Doubts About E-Voting

The American vote-count is controlled by three major corporate players - Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia - with a fourth, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), coming on strong. These companies - all of them hardwired into the Bushist Party power grid - have been given billions of dollars by the Bush Regime to complete a sweeping computerization of voting machines nationwide by the 2004 election. These glitch-riddled systems - many using "touch-screen" technology that leaves no paper trail at all - are almost laughably open to manipulation, according to corporate whistleblowers and computer scientists at Stanford, John Hopkins, Rice, and other universities.

The technology had a trial run in the 2002 mid-term elections. In Georgia, serviced by new Diebold systems, a popular Democratic governor and senator were both unseated in what the media called "amazing" upsets, with results showing vote swings of up to 16 percent from the last pre-ballot polls. In computerized Minnesota, former vice president Walter Mondale - a replacement for popular incumbent Paul Wellstone, who died in a plane crash days before the vote - was also defeated in a large last-second vote swing. Convenient "glitches" in Florida saw an untold number of votes intended for the Democratic candidate registering instead for Governor Jeb "L'il Brother" Bush. A Florida Democrat who lost a similarly "glitched" local election went to court to have the computers examined - but the case was thrown out by a judge who ruled that the innards of America's voting machines are the "trade secrets" of the private companies who make them.

The mad rush to install unverifiable computer voting is driven by the Help America Vote Act, signed by Bush last year. The chief lobbying group pushing for HAVA was a consortium of arms dealers - those disinterested corporate citizens - including Northop-Grumman and Lockheed-Martin. The bill also mandates that all states adopt the computerized "ineligible voter purge" system which Jeb used to eliminate 91,000 ***eligible*** black voters from the Florida rolls in 2000. The Republican-run private company that accomplished this electoral miracle, ChoicePoint, is bagging the lion's share of the new Bush-ordered purge contracts.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

The Bush Economy - Falling Down

Salon -- We were both professionals. Now I'm sweeping up popcorn, my husband is selling motorcycles, and our house is on the block. There are a lot of us these days.

Gary Permalink on 9/26/2003

Coming Soon -- "The Oh Really Factor"

The folks at FAIR have put together a volume on Bill O’Reilly’s countless misstatements and distortions called "The Oh Really Factor," which I read last night. Wonderful ammo for your arguments with Fox fans, and for that matter, a wonderful present to give to the O’Reilly fan in your family. Some excerpts:

O'REILLY: Commenting on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that forcing students to say the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional: "The reason they're even sitting there is because they were appointed by liberal politicians. Conservative politicians would never appoint the pinheads sitting on the Ninth Circuit" (3/4/03).

OH REALLY: The opinion in the Pledge of Allegiance case was drafted by Judge Alfred T. Goodwin, who was appointed by Richard Nixon.

* * *

O'REILLY: Explaining free speech rights to a high school student, who backed the establishment of a Satanic club at school: "They don't have any First Amendment rights. As soon as they walk in the door . . . Yes, they don't have any. Joe, do you realize that, as soon as you walk in the San Mateo High School door, you don't have any rights, that you have to do what the teachers tell you to do?" (10/2/02)

OH REALLY: "It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech . . . at the schoolhouse gates" (U.S. Supreme Court, Tinker v. Des Moines, 1969).

For the record, O'Reilly already knows this. When a high school student was suspended by his school for putting up pro-war flyers, he sued the school and won. O'Reilly had him on the show to cheer his legal victory: "A federal judge has ruled the school violated the boy's freedom of speech rights. The school administrators were ordered by the judge to undergo constitutional rights training, and the school board has been ordered to pay Aaron and his parents $3,000" (11/30/01). Maybe O'Reilly could get some of the same training.

* * *

O'REILLY: "The Founders were not concerned with the minority rights, they were concerned with everybody's rights."

OH REALLY: "All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and to violate which would be oppression" (Thomas Jefferson, "First Inaugural Address," March 4, 1801).

EL -- An entire book of these is too much, or not enough. He is full of BS on every show and you can do a chapter a week.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

BuzzFlash Interviews Author of 'The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception'

All American presidents have lied, but George W. Bush has relentlessly abused the truth. In this scathing indictment of the president and his inner circle, David Corn, the Washington editor of The Nation, reveals and examines the deceptions at the heart of the Bush presidency. In a stunning work of journalism, he details and substantiates the many times the Bush administration has knowingly and intentionally misled the American public to advance its own interests and agenda, including:

* Brazenly mischaracterizing intelligence and resorting to deceptive arguments to whip up public support for war with Iraq
* Misrepresenting the provisions and effects of the president’s supersized tax cuts
* Offering misleading explanations— instead of telling the full truth — about the 9/11 attacks
* Lying about connections to corporate crooks
* Presenting deceptive and disingenuous claims to sell controversial policies on the environment, stem cell research, missile defense, Social Security, white-collar crime, abortion, energy, and other crucial issues
* Running a truth-defying, down-and-dirty campaign during the 2000 presidential contest and recount drama

The Lies of George W. Bush is not a partisan whine—it is instead a carefully constructed, fact-based account that clearly denotes how Bush has relied on deception—from the campaign trail to the Oval Office—to win political and policy battles. With wit and style, Corn explains how Bush has managed to get away with it and explores the dangerous consequences of such presidential deceit in a perilous age.

"I’m not a Democratic strategist. I am an independent journalist. My views are known. I believe that if you tell the truth, the things that I want to see happen in the world are more likely to happen. Having a commitment to -- better yet, having a reputation for -- telling the truth so you can't be attacked by books such as mine can only help your side politically."

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Clark Supporters Splitting

Daily Kos -- Any marketing expert will tell you the best form of marketing is word-of-mouth. The movie industry, despite its million dollar marketing budgets, is wholly dependent on that word of mouth. It can make or break any movie.

Each one of those Dean supporters is a walking billboard for Dean, evangelizing to his/her friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, people they meet at parties, or farmers markets, or wherever. Given the choice between that hard-core supporter and $58 (or whatever the average donation may be), I'd take the evangelizing supporter in a heartbeat.

The Clark campaign had that with the Draft movement. Yet they aligned themselves with the wrong draft group (at the end of the day, the story notes that the DraftClark2004 people only had a mailing list of 200 people, compared to 40,000 collected by Hlinko), and then they set out to dismantle the very netroots operation that helped create the impetus for the Clark candidacy.

I've got nothing against Clark. I was an early supporter, and I've seen nothing to change my mind about his fitness to be an effective nominee and president.

But I've got everything against his organization. If nothing else, why would they so visibly piss off their online supporters? Now, like spurned lovers, they are working hard to undermine the Clark candidacy, talking to the press (the Boston Globe is also on the story) and creating discord within the ranks. And the Clark campaign is fueling this hostility by systematically dismantling the sites that collectively formed the backbone of the Draft movement's effective netroots effort, dissing the people that built them, and even sending daily talking points to Clark-friendly sites, trying to impose some sort of message discipline (which is the antithesis of a true netroots operation).

Does that mean the Clark candidacy is doomed? I wouldn't say that. The Fabianis and Lehanes are real pros and can be effective (though they failed misrably with Gore and Davis). But it's not a candidacy that can get me excited the way I would've been had the Clark camp build a Dean-like campaign structure.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

THE BIG LIE

Both Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's closest adviser, made clear before September 11 2001 that Saddam Hussein was no threat - to America, Europe or the Middle East.

In Cairo, on February 24 2001, Powell said: "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

This is the very opposite of what Bush and Blair said in public.

Powell even boasted that it was the US policy of "containment" that had effectively disarmed the Iraqi dictator - again the very opposite of what Blair said time and again. On May 15 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had not been able to "build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years". America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box".

Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenceless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of the country," she said. "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

In April last year, Condoleezza Rice described September 11 2001 as an "enormous opportunity" and said America "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities."

Taking over Iraq, the world's second biggest oil producer, was the first such opportunity.

At 2.40pm on September 11, according to confidential notes taken by his aides, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary, said he wanted to "hit" Iraq - even though not a shred of evidence existed that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with the attacks on New York and Washington. "Go massive," the notes quote Rumsfeld as saying. "Sweep it all up. Things related and not." Iraq was given a brief reprieve when it was decided instead to attack Afghanistan. This was the "softest option" and easiest to explain to the American people - even though not a single September 11 hijacker came from Afghanistan. In the meantime, securing the "big prize", Iraq, became an obsession in both Washington and London.

An Office of Special Plans was hurriedly set up in the Pentagon for the sole purpose of converting "loose" or unsubstantiated intelligence into US policy. This was a source from which Downing Street received much of the "evidence" of weapons of mass destruction we now know to be phoney.

CONTRARY to Blair's denials at the time, the decision to attack Iraq was set in motion on September 17 2001, just six days after the attacks on New York and Washington.

On that day, Bush signed a top- secret directive, ordering the Pentagon to begin planning "military options" for an invasion of Iraq. In July 2002, Condoleezza Rice told another Bush official who had voiced doubts about invading Iraq: "A decision has been made. Don't waste your breath."

EL - I saw an interview of Rice's she gave right after this came out. There was a lot of voice stress. I wanted to tell her, just tell the truth girl. Let it out.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Fourth Special Session Coming Up?

"Just like on any conference bill, we will enter into the negotiations and discuss what map we think can be produced that garners the support of both the House and the Senate," said Senate redistricting sponsor Sen. Todd Staples, R-Palestine.

But House redistricting sponsor Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said a tough road lies ahead that could last the rest of this special session and possibly prompt a fourth on the issue.

The House map is designed to replace a 17-15 Democratic majority in the state's congressional delegation with a 21-11 Republican majority. The Senate plan guarantees a Republican gain of three seats with three others possible.

King indicated that may not be good enough.

"My objective all along has been to see if we can pick up five or six seats," King said. "I want to make sure President Bush has a Republican majority and doesn't have (U.S. House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi as the speaker of the House."

EL - Despite a GOP majority, most voters are against redistricting. Over 90% of the public comments have been against this pure partisanship plan. The current districts were drawn by a Republican Attorney General and two out of three of the judges were Republican. Republicans like King are driving this plan under the direction of DeLay to get rid of Anglo Democrat office holders.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

NO WMDs - 1,400 troops, five months, interviews with Iraqi officials shows no WMDs

President Bush's Inspectors Find No Weapons to Support his Claims about Imminent Threat

A desperate five-month search by a team of 1,400 U. S. investigators reportedly has failed to find any new physical evidence of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, despite President Bush's continuing insistence the weapons not only existed but posed an imminent threat to the United States.

The failure of the U. S. team, led by Bush appointee David Kay, seriously undermines the integrity of the President's assertion two days prior to the war: "Intelligence gathered...leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

Bush's bold declaration, according to a subsequent review, was based on old and faulty intelligence data. Former CIA official Richard Kerr, who helped with the review, said Bush's assessment ignored "caveats and disagreements" in the data and relied "heavily on evidence that was at least five years old." Even the Pentagon's intelligence agency had warned in a classified September 2002 report that "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons."

Bush continued to claim otherwise, saying inaccurately in May, "We found the weapons of mass destruction" and predicting "we'll find more weapons as time goes on." The widespread search he initiated, however, now has turned up not a single weapon of mass destruction.

EL- David Kay will likely issue some caveats about dual-use facilties, just waiting for sanctions to end. All modern countries have institutions that could be used to make biological and chemical weapons. David Kay was also one of the "crazies" gung-ho leading the charge for war so if he can't find them...

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Jimmy Breslin -- They Lied and Many Soldiers Died

NYNewsday.com -- George Bush told lies and they died.

First, your government lied to ensure Bush's re-election. Who votes against a president in time of war? And even better, you get oil with the winning election.

So Bush lied to you. Not misstatements. Lies. He and his people threw away their honor and consciences to lie to the people they had sworn to protect.

The lies of Washington put young men from Seymour, Tenn., and Maspeth, Queens and Palos Hills, Ill., into boxes. And that, dear reader, is quite a lie.

At the start, Bush claimed that Iraq had poison gas and was making nuclear weapons. Soon, they will poison us all and blow us up. His proof was documents forged by elementary-school pupils. Still, Bush used it in his State of the Union speech. Condoleezza Rice said it was only 23 words in a speech. What are you so concerned about?

The 23 words were only about nuclear bombs.

Look now at the lie that George Bush carries into the United Nations today:

We went into Iraq because they were part of the World Trade Center attack.

That's what they told you, and Americans, who honor their government, believed what their government told them. And so did all those young people as they were about to put up their lives in the desert.

On Oct. 14, 2002, Bush said, "This is a man [Saddam] that we know has had connections with al-Qaida. This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al-Qaida as a forward army."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, on Sept. 26, 2002, "Yes, there is a linkage between al-Qaida and Iraq."

Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said on Sept. 25, 2002, "There have been contacts between senior Iraqi officials and members of al-Qaida going back for actually quite a long time."

...So the three now say that they never said that Hussein was involved in the World Trade Center attack. Look up what we said. We never said it.

Of course they did. Anybody who thinks they didn't is a poor fool. Take a half-word out of a sentence, replace it with a smug smile or chin motion and the meaning is there. Saddam was in on the Trade Center with bin Laden. Of course Bush and his people said it. Then go to the whip, go to the truth.

Only the strong memory is an opponent, and there are few of them. Otherwise, the only thing that can remind people and maybe even inflame them are these dead bodies coming back from Iraq to Heber, Calif. They arrive here in silence. We have no idea of how many wounded are in government hospitals with no arms or legs. You never hear Bush talking about them. He often acts as if subjects like this have nothing to do with him.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

The Other Side Promo

Do you believe in John Ashcroft, George Bush, Rick Perry, Karl Rove, and Santa Claus? Of course not.

Do you believe the media is liberal while at the same time believing in pigs flying or July snowstorms in Houston?

If you answered no to these questions then you are already smarter than your local Rush Limbaugh listener and more qualified to be governor than Arnold Schwarzenegger!

And now there's a radio show for your intelligence.

Tune in this THURSDAY night for the cure as The Other Side will be on 90.1 KPFT in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston and www.kpft.org on the world wide web.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Dean Meetup Day Next Wednesday - RSVPs Needed

Dean2004 Meetup 7 PM Wednesday - RSVP

Come on, there isn't an Anyone But Bush Meetup and Dean is the most independent. He depends on volunteers, not big money interests.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Some Bush Speech - UN Is Considering Withdrawing From Iraq

Bush Fails to Gain Pledges on Troops or Funds for Iraq
National Guard, Reserve May Plug Holes

Compounding the pressure, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is considering ordering the total withdrawal of U.N. personnel from Iraq, a step recommended by his top political and security advisers after two bombing attacks against the world body in Baghdad over the past month, according to U.N. and U.S. officials. A U.N. pullout would seriously undercut efforts to assign the United Nations a broader role in overseeing Iraq's political transition.

Today, as leaders from Pakistan and Turkey raised fresh concerns about supplying soldiers, senior administration officials sought to reduce expectations for foreign help and an imminent Security Council resolution.

Here is An Annotated Refutation of President George W. Bush’s September 23 Address Before the United Nations

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Contributors to Dean Campaign

BGM writes:
“I am short on funds, but contributed $100 because the Dean campaign will succeed only if ALL of us individuals give what we can. If you look at the graphs/stats on all candidates' contributions... Howard Dean is THE ONLY CANDIDATE who has 51% or more of his contributions from individuals under $200… The FACT that Howard Dean is supported by more of us small contributors than large ones means that he is beholden to US, not the special interests. And it is certain that this will be the only way for us to Take Back Our Country.”

Dave Wilcher writes:
“I've donated not because I can afford it; I feel I can't afford not to. I'm disabled, and on S.S. disability. I'm on Medicare, AND covered by my wife's employer's plan. And between us, we pay as much for health care each month as we do for our mortgage. Luckily, I have a great family that helps us out. So we're not in too bad a shape financially. But I'm concerned about the millions of my American brothers and sisters who don't have ANY health insurance. And NO JOB. And don't have a family that is able to help them. What has the current president done for them? Nothing. Actually, he's done something TO them - made their situation worse. I believe President Dean can fix these problems. I think he can get Americans back to work, and get all Americans health coverage.”

Scott from MD writes:
“Why am I contributing? Because we need to take our country back. Pure and Simple. And Governor Howard Dean can help us to achieve this goal. And...whether we like it or not, achieving this goal is going to take a lot of money. That's how democracy in America works. I am willing to contribute and contribute some more. It's too important not to.”

Contribute now.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

A New Regime at the White House - GOP Takes Over 'West Wing'

When President Josiah Bartlet learned that his daughter Zoey had been kidnapped by terrorists, he temporarily stepped down rather than risk letting his personal anguish sway his judgment as commander in chief.

And that typically noble decision was his last.

The vice presidency is vacant (because of a sex scandal), and next in line is the speaker of the House, Glenallen Walken (John Goodman), who barrels into the Oval Office like a right-wing Lyndon B. Johnson, barking orders and slapping down equivocators.

He gives the F.B.I. one more day to find the kidnappers before ordering a retaliatory strike. "But if Zoey Bartlet turns up dead," he says, "I'm going to blow up something. God only knows what happens next."

As Walken, Mr. Goodman sheds all his usual bonhomie and lets the Bartlet loyalists know who is boss the way Johnson was wont to: he makes the press secretary, C. J. Cregg, come in close to straighten his tie while he questions her loyalty. His supercilious congressional aides do not bother to cloak their contempt for their Democratic hosts. Meanwhile the president and first lady are huddled refugees in a guest suite of their own White House, waiting for a whisper of hope, like ordinary distraught parents.

Walken is a hawk and an unrefined bully. (He has a small, yapping dog that sits on antique silk armchairs and has to be walked by senior aides.) But as a commander in chief, he is also decisive, strong-willed and surprisingly good at news conferences. When asked by a reporter if he regrets his predecessor's secret order to assassinate a Qumari terrorist leader, Walken retorts, "My regret is that we only got to kill the bastard once."

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Congress Grills and Roasts Rumsfeld on Iraq

A Senate hearing yesterday with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld turned into a grueling clash lasting nearly six hours as Democrats voiced growing concern about the course of U.S. policy in Iraq and Republicans sought to underscore the postwar progress so far.

In a sign of mounting partisan fighting over Iraq, triggered by President Bush's $87 billion emergency supplemental request, Democratic senators declared the recovery effort so far a political failure and accused the administration of having misled the country into an exceedingly costly mess.

One senior Republican senator, reflecting rising anxiety even among party loyalists, told Rumsfeld bluntly that the administration must outline a clear plan for stabilizing Iraq and provide the public with regular updates on how the plan is proceeding.

In a speech at the Heritage Foundation, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) accused Democrats of ignoring the grave terrorist threat facing the United States.

"Democrats want to return to the weak and indecisive foreign policy of the Cold War," he said.

EL - Can someone remind bugman we won the cold war.

Meanwhile, the top U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, made his third Capitol Hill appearance in three days, testifying before the Foreign Relations and House Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee.

Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), the ranking Democrat, accused Bremer of "stiffing" the panel by refusing to provide a five-year cost estimate.

"I resent that," Bremer responded.

"I do, too," Obey shot back.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Do-Not-Call List On Hold

A federal district court has ruled that federal regulators overstepped their authority in establishing a national do-not-call registry, a decision that would appear to block the registry — containing 48 million phone numbers — from taking effect on Oct. 1. Under federal rules, telemarketers could be heavily fined for calling those numbers.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

OPEC Cuts Its Oil Output by 3.5 Percent

The cut startled the market, where oil futures jumped more than $1 a barrel. OPEC defended its decision as an effort to keep prices from plunging when demand slackens early next year. White House spokesman Scott McClellan, with President Bush in New York, would not comment directly on OPEC's decision but said the economy depends on stable oil supplies and prices.

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Arianna Huffington Clear Winner Of California Debate

Leading the charge against the former Mr. Universe was independent commentator Arianna Huffington, who is far behind in polls ahead of the Oct. 7 vote and has little to lose.

When Schwarzenegger attempted to interrupt her at one point, she said: "This is the way you treat women, we know that."

It was perhaps the sharpest dagger of the evening, because of allegations that Schwarzenegger's past statements and behavior reveal a sexist attitude. The actor fares much better with men than women in polls.

Given a chance to respond, the action star said: "I would just like to say that I just realized I have a perfect part for you in 'Terminator 4."'

Huffington later said the actor was alluding to an interview about 'Terminator 3' in which he expressed pleasure in shoving a woman's face into a toilet bowl on film.

"That was such a clear unambiguous indication of what he thinks of women," Huffington said after the debate. "I found that so offensive to the women of California."

Gary Permalink on 9/25/2003

Press and GOP Ignore GOP Candidate Cheating and Oral Sex Stories

When it's a Democratic President they impeach.

How do we know they are ignoring this? Because they are following up on Arnold's groping in the Premiere article but ignore the "When It's Eating It's Not Cheating" story.

Or here where they admit they have read the story, don't release details, and say they oppose Arnold for other "Family Value" reasons.

It is not that this is relevent to his qualifications, but if he was a Democrat the press and GOP would have made it the top story, the top smear, and said it made him unqualified.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Israeli Pilots Refusing To Fly "illegal and immoral" Palestinian Attacks

A group of 27 active reserve duty pilots and retired pilots have sent a letter to Air Force
Chief, Major General Dan Halutz, declaring that they refuse to participate in operations against
Palestinians in the territories.

We, veteran pilots and active pilots alike, who have served
and who continue to serve the state of Israel for many weeks
every year, are opposed to carrying out illegal and
immoral attack orders, of the type carried out by Israel in
the territories," the group wrote. "We, who have been
educated to love the state of Israel and to contribute to the Zionist endeavour, refuse to
take part in Air Force attacks in civilian population centers."

The group was referring to Israel's policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militants in
the territories. Dozens of civilians have been killed in these strikes, which began a few
months after the intifada erupted in late September 2000.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Finally PBS Has A Real Liberal On -- Code Pink Makes Perle See Red

RICHARD PERLE: What you just heard is a tirade against American companies in the left-wing tradition that she represents. Her characterization of the situation in Iraq is not at all borne out by many conversations I've had with Iraqis, including members of the governing council she's been referring to.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, I challenge to you go there with me, Mr. Perle, because I was there in July, I was there in August, I don't stay in the presidential palace, I don't go around with bodyguards and helicopters and sniffing dogs like Paul Bremer and Colin Powell. I challenge to you go with me, without any bodyguards and let's walk around the streets of the cities of Iraq and see what it looks like six months after the U.S. occupation.

RICHARD PERLE: With all due respect, your sojourns in the cities of Iraq are hardly the appropriate measure of how well we have done in restoring electricity and getting water back on track. I don't think --

MEDEA BENJAMIN: You know better sitting in Washington, D.C.?

PBS transcript. Cursor provided this and some other links today.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Our So-called Liberal Media - Washington Post Examples

On February 7, two days after Colin Powell's much-lauded presentation before the United Nations Security Council, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus described how foreign government officials, terrorism experts and members of Congress disputed a key claim: the supposed link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Despite the article's relevance, the Post buried it in journalistic no man's land--page A21--where it had little effect. An article a week later by Pincus and military correspondent Dana Priest, "Bin Laden-Hussein Link Hazy," got a similar A20 placement.

On March 16 another Pincus article, "U.S. Lacks Specifics on Banned Arms," explained that US intelligence agencies believed the Bush Administration had exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam's purported stocks of WMD. Its placement: A17. Two days later, Pincus and White House correspondent Dana Milbank wrote a strenuous indictment of the Administration's rationales for war: "As the Bush Administration prepares to attack Iraq this week, it is doing so on the basis of a number of allegations against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that have been challenged--and in some cases disproved--by the United Nations, European governments and even U.S. intelligence reports." That one managed to vault only up to A13.

It wasn't until May 29, almost a month after Bush declared an end to major combat operations, that Pincus, along with co-writer Karen DeYoung, broke onto the front page with a story headlined "U.S. Hedges on Finding Iraqi Weapons; Officials Cite the Possibilities of Long or Fruitless Search for Banned Arms." At that point, with guerrilla attacks rising, postwar planning in disarray and the weapons highlighted by the Bush Administration nowhere to be found, experts and politicians on Pincus's intelligence beat--and, more important, his own editors--began to stir.

...

The newfound intensity of the press brings to mind, Pincus says, something Gene McCarthy told him years ago. "The press is a bunch of blackbirds," McCarthy mused. "All are on a wire and one will go to another wire and when that bird doesn't get electrocuted, all the birds will go to that other wire." After more than sixteen months of too many free passes for the President, it was about time the press blackbirds--led by reporters like Pincus, Priest and Milbank--pounced on sixteen words and wouldn't let go.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Open Investment Policy Looks Like 'World Occupation' to Iraq Merchants

Shortly after filing this story the writer died of a heart attack in Baghdad.

The good die young while naive idiots are still around: Friedman gets one critical call after another when appearing on NPR's 'Talk of the Nation' (audio).

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

ACLU Finally Taking Action Against Opposition Free Speech Zones

Bush has perfected his illegal tactics of allowing supporters to carry signs and demonstrate for TV crews while opponents are forced to "free speech" zones that can be blocks away.

This entire country is a free speech zone. Let's take it back.

ACLU lawsuit against discrimination in "free speech" zones.

Other ACLU actions:

Urge your Senators to fix the problems with the PATRIOT Act, not give the government even more invasive and intrusive police powers.

Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Senators.


Your elected representatives in Congress need to hear that you support proper checks and balances, not unlimited government surveillance.

Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Members of Congress.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Bush UN Speech Fact-Checked By Journalist

The regime of Saddam Hussein," he claimed, "cultivated ties to terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It used those weapons in acts of mass murder." This is a slippery rendition of what's known. Hussein may have "cultivated" contacts with terrorists, but the Bush administration has yet to demonstrate he had developed any operational ties to al Qaeda. And built WMDs? Certainly, he did so in the past--before UN inspectors in the mid-1990s reported that they had destroyed most of his WMDs. But there's no undeniable proof he was manufacturing WMDs more recently. In fact, a classified Defense Intelligence Agency analysis produced in October 2002 noted that there was no reliable evidence that Hussein was making chemical weapons.

With a pricetag approaching $200 billion and an American public that is becoming restless about the occupation (and its cost), Bush needs assistance from the UN and the allies. He's just not willing to tell the truth to get it.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Calling Texas Leaders

Please call Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst now and oppose this unprecedented redistricting power grab:

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
512-463-0001

Please let us know you've made this call at

http://www.moveon.org/callmadetx.html

If Lt. Governor Dewhurst's number is busy, you can call the Governor at

Governor Rick Perry
512-463-2000

Tell them they should abandon their attack on rural Texans and minority voters. Tell them to quit wasting tax dollars on partisan gamesmanship and start focusing on Texas schools, health care, and high insurance rates.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

British TV Runs Proof of WMD Lies

AUSTRALIAN investigative journalist John Pilger says he has evidence the war against Iraq was based on a lie that could cost George W. Bush and Tony Blair their jobs and bring Prime Minister John Howard down with them.

A television report by Pilger aired on British screens overnight said US Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice confirmed in early 2001 that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been disarmed and was no threat.

But after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11 that year, Pilger claimed Rice said the US "must move to take advantage of these new opportunities" to attack Iraq and claim control of its oil.

Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

In his report, Pilger interviews Ray McGovern, a former senior CIA officer and friend of Bush's father and ex-president, George Bush senior.

McGovern told Pilger that going to war because of weapons of mass destruction "was 95 per cent charade."

Pilger also claims that six hours after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he wanted to "hit" Iraq and allegedly said "Go Massive ... Sweep it all up. Things related and not."

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Audience Unmoved During Bush's Address at the U.N.

A president who has led his forces to victory, ostensibly on behalf of the United Nations, would in theory deserve a hero's welcome. But that was not what President Bush encountered in an icy chamber here today, almost five months after he declared an end to major hostilities in Iraq.

If anything, they appeared more skeptical than ever of Mr. Bush's assertions, including his promise to "reveal the full extent" of illegal weapons programs he says exist in Iraq, and unforthcoming, at least for now, in their response to his appeal for help with the Iraq occupation and reconstruction.

President Jacques Chirac of France, appearing shortly after Mr. Bush at the General Assembly, was no less apologetic opposing the war than Mr. Bush had been in urging it. He called the divisions over the war one of the gravest threats to multilateral institutions like the United Nations in modern times.

A rainstorm lashed the United Nations buildings this morning, while inside another illustration of the tempests over the war emerged in the address by Secretary General Kofi Annan, who deplored the administration doctrine of pre-emptive action epitomized by the Iraqi war.

As if in counterpoint, Mr. Bush defiantly repeated the doctrine, saying that "nations of the world must have the wisdom and the will to stop grave threats before they arrive."

EL - Kofi or some prominent foreign leader should make a short simple address to the American people how this administration violated the laws of the United Nations, an organization the United States founded, to wage this war. The regulations Bush claims we were upholding were in fact "held" by the Security Council. "Being held" by the Security Council says that no country may take action because the Security Council is legally responsible to take action. The SC was taking action, just not the action the "crazies" wanted.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Debunking All-Wing Lies About Clinton and Paula Jones

Things aren't going well for Bush so the nut-cases are talking about Clinton again. But the defenders are leaving out a couple of facts too. Pretty soon they will all be talking about the lies about Gore lying again as well. Political Stratagy.org picked up this from Bob Beckel.

Sean Hannity Defends Bush Citing Paula Jones

To site Paula Jones as a victim of Bill Clinton and proof that Clinton is completely immoral is not only absurd it is a flat out lie.

THE FACTS

-Cliff Jackson, a former Fulbright Scholar, was a friend of Clinton's when they both were in England.

-Returning to Arkansas with political ambitions, Clinton became Governor, and Jackson became a bitter Clinton hater and small time lawyer.

-Clinton is elected President in 1992 and Jackson begins a sleazy campaign against the Clintons, which became known as the Arkansas Project [funds primarily by...Richard Mellon Scaife].

-Jackson recruits two Clinton hating state troopers, Larry Patterson and Rodger Perry, to tell sex stories about the Clintons and promised them $1 million each from a book advance and royalties. They signed the deal.

-David Brock, (El - now newest NYTimes columnist, liberal media indeed!), former writer for the right wing rag the American Spectator {again partially funded by Scaife} was contacted by Jackson, and leaked the story about how Clinton, while he was governor, revealed himself to a poor little public employee named Paula Jones.

In December 1993 Brock writes a Jones story for the Spectator entitled His Cheatin' Heart. Brock admits being paid by Peter Smith, Newt Gingrich's finance chairman to write sex stories about Clinton during the '92 presidential campaign.

-Peter Smith, who is Newt's man on the Arkansas Project, pays both troopers Paterson and Perry $6500 each and Cliff Jackson $5000. Jackson calls a press conference in Washington on Feb. 11, 1994 and introduced the troopers, Brock, and Paula Jones. Jones told her story including, when prompted by Jackson, that Clinton pulled down his pants and ask her for sex.

-A legal case, Jones v Clinton, paid for by the right wing follows.

-When the Jones v Clinton case heard witnesses, Arkansas Supervisor of troopers, Buddy Young, testified that neither Patterson nor Perry knew anything about Clinton's sex life. Further he said Patterson was a sex fanatic and Perry used State telephones to call his various girlfriends running up several hundred dollars in long distance charges.

-On April first 1994, Federal Judge Susan Wright dismissed Jones case against Bill Clinton as totally without merit.

EL - I have to interject here. Although all of this was true, Jones lawyers appealed and Clinton paid $870,000 to settle out of court just before his impeachment trial.

Jones went on to 'pose' for magazines your kids shouldn't read. (EL - It appears her two groups of lawyers got over 82% of the money. She owed more in taxes then she received and she went to Penthouse to keep her house.)

Those are the facts. They are all a matter of public record yet the right wing continues to say it was true, showing no respect for the rule of law. But when the right refuses to accept the rule of law over and over they become a law onto themselves, and I can tell you from personal experience that there are lots of wing nuts out there that want an excuse to take the law into their own hands.

El I have to call out liberals as well as conservatives, for leaving out significant parts of any story. Clinton settled out of court, very probably for political considerations and not based on the facts, but I'm sure people need to remember that he did settle.

You want a tiny peek at her, don't you?

- Taking the law into their own hands writ large scale, the new Bush neo-con doctrine of pre-pre-emption war.

Gary Permalink on 9/24/2003

Spammers Shrivel Up

Internet con artists peddling penis enlargement pills through the torrents of email spam that flood computers across the world are suddenly running scared.

According to a US report, the assets of C.P.Direct, one of the biggest internet spam operators, have been seized and will be distributed to victims.

C.P.Direct is reported to have fleeced at least $US74 million from the gullible seeking larger penises, bigger breasts and hairier heads.

According to a report on MSNBC.com, the US internet news portal, Arizona's Attorney-General has ordered seizure of the firm's assets, including 13 luxury homes and property valued at $US20 million, a fleet of expensive cars, and tens of millions of dollars in cash.

Documents showed that 90per cent of $74 million taken over two years came from sales of a penis-enlargement pill called Longitude.

Users were warned to stop taking Longitude after reaching nine inches in length - "to avoid discomforting sexual partners." In fact the pills appear to have been mainly chalk with some sugar.

Other products advertised by C.PO.Direct included Full and Firm, claimed to be "an implant in a bottle" that would increase breast size, Follicure to grow hair and Stature, a pill claimed to increase the height of its users by up to eight centimetres.

Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

Clark - DLC Dream Stealth Republican Candidate? Or The Real Deal?

Dean's website's reach of 235 per million is dwarfed by Clark's combined reach of 645 per million. (EL- I would think people visit both - making it 323 to 235.)

Clark probably shines like a god to the DLC-- those centrist democrats we on the further edges of the left consider to be republicans in Democrats clothing. Is Clark much different than Georgia's Zell Miller and Louisiana's John Breaux? They are both democrats, but more often, they vote with the republicans than with the democrats.

Clark is off to an amazing start, and it will be wonderful if he is the real thing-- a progressive democrat who is not owned by corporations or the military.

But we don't know that yet. He has to prove himself. Hiding behind vague statements will not do it. One of the reasons Dean has been in the lead is because he regularly communicates his ideas-- putting out press releases and annoncements to his supporters on an almost daily basis. This has given people the chance to get to know who he is, what his positions are. Wesley Clark has to do the same thing and he has to do it in a hurry, since he's so late getting started. As we get to know Clark we'll find out whether he's the real deal-- a solid Democrat or another republican in Democrat's clothing.

Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

More "Crazies" - the Democrats

EL - Crazies - that word is in the air. I have take to calling the neo-cons in the administration "crazies" after finding out Republicans called them that in Bush the first's reign. Now Mortman has a long column about how the common the word is right now in politics.

Forget all the crazy talk about the invisible primary or the money primary. Just stick with the crazy talk. It’s the crazy primary. Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

Dean Invokes Boston Tea Party, Rips 'King' George

Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean invoked Boston's revolutionary legacy on Tuesday as he urged Americans to dump their latter-day "king" -- George W. Bush -- whom he accused of threatening democracy and caring only for the very rich.

In a speech to thousands of supporters, Dean said next year's election was about protecting American democracy from "a narrow band of right-wing ideologues" who were trampling the U.S. Constitution.

"This democracy and the flag of the United States do not belong to Rush Limbaugh, and Jerry Falwell, and Tom DeLay, and John Ashcroft, and Dick Cheney," Dean said as he listed prominent conservatives. "This flag and this country belong to us and we want our country back."

The former Vermont governor accused Bush and his allies of subverting the democratic process in California -- where Republicans have forced a recall vote on Gov. Gray Davis -- and of damaging America's reputation around the world by mishandling the war against Iraq and of ignoring middle class Americans by giving tax cuts to the rich.

Dean drew parallels between his own grass-roots campaign for the White House and the Boston Tea Party, a protest against British tax policies 230 years ago that sowed the seeds of the American Revolutionary war.

He said that like King George III, the British monarch against whom American colonists rebelled, Bush had "forgotten his own people" and was listening only to special interests.

"George Bush doesn't represent us, he represents a small handful of people who have been taking from America and we want a president who will give back to America," Dean said to cheers from the crowd.

Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

'Coupling' Too Spicy For Some U.S. Stations

The US version of BBC sitcom 'Coupling has been banned by two local stations because of its sexual content. The stations are in South Bend, Indiana and Salt Lake City, Utah and are affiliated with NBC.

NBC has remade the cult hit British comedy, about six friends, with the first episode to be shown on Thursday.

EL - the very brief previews I have seen of the American show seemed weak. NBC looks like it has generic California actors and you need good strong actors with distinct personalities and good chemistry to recreate my favorite British comedy. I really think an all black cast may have been better

Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

Bush Seeking Support For North Korea Blockade

Prime Minister John Howard last night revealed he had discussed with United States President George Bush the possibility of Australia taking part in a US-led interception fleet.

EL - Any takers that political brain Rove is not part of the team deciding when to do this?

Gary Permalink on 9/23/2003

Bumpy Ride Ahead - Mother Jones Blogs Iraq

Daily Mojo -- Two sentences separated by a mere four decades (Ron Hutcheson, Knight-Ridder, Some See Troubling Parallels Between Iraq and Vietnam):

"'If we quit Vietnam,' President Lyndon Johnson warned, 'tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week we'll have to fight in San Francisco.'

"'We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today,' Bush said in his televised speech Sept. 7, 'so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities.'"

In the media and in Congress, voices that were previously missing in action are finally being raised. Though no one would admit it, this is, of course, poll driven. It's proof that, for the first time, many in the mainstream are sensing what has been evident for a long time to some of us - that under all the macho posturing and "discipline" of this administration lies a weakness and vulnerability, now evidently beginning to be noticeable to all. Not long after the Afghan war, New Yorker Reporter Seymour Hersh commented that the first mainstream Democrat of stature to grab the antiwar banner would take the presidency. Imagine if one of them had paid the slightest attention. Howard Dean, who doesn't even fit the category, has made the point nonetheless.

And of course, some voices have been there all the time. Generally ignored until recently by the mainstream, Senator Robert Byrd, for whom the nakedness of the emperor has long seemed self-evident, continues to speak simple sense in his Senate speeches ("Remember that that $87 billion is just for 2004 alone. Does anyone really believe that it will be the last request for Iraq?"). He is now calling for a genuine debate on the path we've embarked upon and the "quagmire" we find ourselves in:


"I urge my colleagues to think long and hard about the growing quagmire in Iraq. I urge members of the President's own party to warn him about the quicksand he asks America to wade in. We need a long and thorough debate about the future of this country. We need a serious discussion about the kind of America we will leave to our children."

This week Teddy Kennedy denounced the war as a "fraud," concocted in Crawford, Texas, and Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Vietnam veteran, and the strongest Democratic supporter of the invasion of Iraq, claimed the president "misled" him, and called for the firing of his full "defense leadership team"

Gary Permalink on 9/22/2003

More Rumsfeld Poetry

That's Life - taken from actual briefings:

On NATO
You may think it's something
I ought to know,
But I happen not to.
That's life.
(July 9, 2003)

On Reporters
If you do something,
Somebody's not going
To agree with it.
That's life.
(Feb. 19, 2003)

On the Budget
If you do anything,
Someone's not going
To like it and
That's life.
(May 7, 2002)

On Leaks
Look bumpy? Sure.
But you pick up
And go on.
That's life.
(May 17, 2002)

On Democracy
People elected
Those people to office.
That's what they think, and
That's life.
(Feb. 20, 2003)

On People
They're going to have
Some impact on
What happens in that country
And that's not wrong.
That's life.
(Nov. 16, 2001)

On Criticism
It makes it complicated.
Sometimes, it makes
It difficult.
That's life.
(Sept. 11, 2003)

Gary Permalink on 9/22/2003

Clark's New Patriotism

On a campus where students march and chant in lines, not in puppet-brandishing crowds, Clark declares that dissenters are the true patriots: "Patriotism doesn't consist of following orders—not when you're not in the chain of command. For the American people, for citizens in a democracy, patriotism's highest calling isn't simply following what the administration says. It's not blind obedience. It's not unquestioned adherence. The highest form of patriotism is asking questions. Because democracies run on dialogue. Democracies run on discussion. No administration has the right to tell Americans that to dissent is disloyal, and to disagree is unpatriotic. …

"We need a new spirit, a new kind of, a new American patriotism in this country. … [T]his new spirit of patriotism should be dedicated to the protection of our rights and liberties. … In times of war or peace, democracy requires dialogue, disagreement, and the courage to speak out. And those who do it should not be condemned but be praised."

No other Democratic candidate, not even John Kerry, could stand in front of two 75 mm howitzers on the quad of a nearly all-male military college and defend the antiwar left without looking faintly ridiculous. Wesley Clark is Howard Dean with flags.

Gary Permalink on 9/22/2003

The Dean Grassroots Campaign

Bottom-Up Strategy May Turn Politics Upside Down

Thousands of Dean supporters -- many of whom profess never to have been active before -- have taken to the streets on their own initiative to pass out Dean fliers at urban fairs and farmers markets, donate blood and clean up beaches in his name, and raise millions of dollars for the former Vermont governor at house parties.

Although few of these volunteers have ever spoken to anyone from the national headquarters, Dean, once among the least known of the Democratic presidential field, now appears to many to be among the best organized as he leads the pack in fundraising and surges ahead in polls.

Trippi said that as balloting draws nearer, the campaign will dispatch "SWAT teams" into some states to organize volunteers. The campaign now lays out more specific goals and objectives on the Web site -- but largely leaves it up to the volunteers on how to achieve them. "In the next ten days of September, we're asking every Dean supporter to do at least one thing to increase the visibility of the grassroots in your community," the site advises, as part of its "September to Remember" promotion.

An outside look at the history of the Dean campaign.

When I ask Dean about Clark, his response is characteristically two-fold. He praises him with sincere fervor: “I know Wes Clark, he’s a very good human being, and he’s got an enormous amount of integrity.” At the same time, on the subject of Clark entering the race, he shows more than a glint of steel. “It’s going to be very hard to start late,” he says, “and think you’re going to do well in Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s going to be incredibly hard. I mean, we’ve already got 39,000 people working for us all around the country . . . I really do believe — and I think about this — I want to get this nomination, and if I don’t . . . these kids are not transferrable. I can’t just go out and say, ‘Okay, so I didn’t win the nomination, so go ahead and vote for the Democrats.’ They’re not going to suddenly just go away. That’s not gonna happen.”

Our new local Meetup:

Dean Meetup

Where: Top China Buffet, 3630 Spencer @ Burke, Pasadena
When: Wednesday, October 1, 2003, 7:00 P.M.
Why: Because we need to take this country back!
Meetup Host: Janette Sexton, 281-479-0934 or JSexton19@aol.com
RSVP: http://dean2004.meetup.com

Gary Permalink on 9/22/2003

Clark Tops Democrats, Ties Bush In Poll

Clark First Democrat to Beat Bush In Match-Up

Clark, who has yet to detail the agenda he will run on, bested Bush 49 to 46 percent in the poll, which is within the survey's margin of error. The poll was conducted Sept. 19-21, right after Clark launched his campaign in Little Rock.

A newcomer to politics, Clark was greeted with a week's worth of free national media exposure, which rival campaigns attributed for his dramatic rise in the polls

Kerry and Lieberman ran even with Bush in a head-to-head race, and Dean and Gephardt trailed the president by a few points. More broadly, the poll found Bush's popularity eroding.

His approval rating was 50 percent, the lowest of his presidency; 47 percent disapproved of job he is doing. More than half of respondents said they disagree with Bush on issues they care most about.

While polls offer only a snapshot of feelings at a given moment, this one reinforced a growing belief among Democrats that Bush is beatable, especially if the economy and the situation in Iraq do not improve in the months ahead.

Gary Permalink on 9/22/2003

The ROADwomen Speech - A History of the 'Crazies'

This speech is so good and informative to people on the history of those Bush 1 himself called "crazies" it deserves a seperate listing.

Some months back, I was debating a rightwing host on his nationally syndicated radio show. We were arguing mainly about Iraq and its comparisons to Vietnam, about which these days there are even more similarities. Toward the end, I quoted from some of the PNAC doctrines -- about starting wars pre-emptively, breaking treaties, keeping other countries and organizations down so as to remain the top boss, imitating permanent war and so on; there was a long silence and I heard him gulp. Clearly, he wasn't fully aware of some of this information. Finally, he said, "If you can prove what you're telling me, and get that out there to the American people, you might well deny George Bush a second term."

Whattya say? Let's do it.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

What the Monkeys Can Teach Humans About Making America Fairer

The capuchin monkey study, published last week in Nature, has generated a lot of interest for a scant three-page report buried in the journal's letters section. There is, certainly, a risk of reading too much into the feeding habits of 10 research monkeys. But in a week when fairness was so evidently on the ropes — from the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancún, which poor nations walked out of in frustration, to the latest issue of Forbes, reporting that the richest 400 Americans are worth $955 billion — the capuchin monkeys offered a glimmer of hope from the primate gene pool.

The study's implication that we are, to some extent, hard-wired for fairness speaks with special force to the legal system. American law has undergone a transformation in recent years, led by conservative Supreme Court justices and scholars, away from a focus on broad principles of fairness and toward a willingness to subject people to treatment that might be unjust, on the grounds that it is legal. The monkey study suggests, however, that fairness might be more than a currently unfashionable legal concept. It may be integral to who we are.

Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal, researchers at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, chose capuchin monkeys because capuchins are among the few primates — along with men and chimpanzees — that hunt cooperatively. Team hunting has evolutionary advantages, allowing a species to capture prey, like squirrels, it otherwise could not. In many monkey societies the dominant male eats what he wants, and the others fight over the scraps. But in societies like those of capuchins — and humans — in which hunting is done cooperatively, food is more equitably distributed.

The reason for the sharing is obvious. Cooperative primates will be reluctant to engage in a group hunt if they cannot be assured that their reward will be properly related to their efforts. The capuchin monkeys in the study did not care merely about rules: it was not enough that they were given a cucumber slice when that was what they expected. They also wanted the rule that was applied to them to be, in a larger sense, fair.

In Stanley Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," an ape-man throws a bone he has just used as a weapon into the air and it is transformed into a spaceship. The discovery of weapons was certainly, as the movie indicates, one of our key evolutionary moments. But the capuchin monkey study is a welcome reminder that the first time an ape-man angrily picked up his food allotment and threw it into the air because it was unjust was no less pivotal to the emergence of what it means to be human.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

A Heartening Visit to Texas, Home of the Original Bush Whoppers

BuzzFlash/Scoop Guest Column By Bernard Weiner about visiting Houston -- The Democrats I met here on my brief, three-day stay are quite aware of the forces they're up against. They realize things have changed muchly since the heady days when Democrat Ann Richards -- she of the brilliant fresh mouth -- was governor. The Democrats now definitely are in the minority, and are treated roughly by their Republican opponents.

But the glorious thing is that the Dems, including those I ran into, are still kicking and fighting -- with fellow Texans Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower as wonderful role models -- even though it's often a losing battle. They're battling on issues ranging from the Iraq war to school textbooks (denuded of references to geologic evolution: "millions of years ago" becomes "many years ago"), from redistricting proposals to pollution-control. I stand in admiration and awe for their courage and tenacity.

Though a good many in the packed ROADwomen audience had heard of the neo-conservative movement and PNAC, many had not -- and, besides, I was filling in a lot of the blanks by quoting directly from PNAC documents. [To read the full speech, click here: Speech to ROADwomen

The audience seemed to be truly interested in the heavy material I was laying on them -- as well as in the final, more hopeful part of my talk, about the things we all could do to ensure Bush's defeat in 2004 -- and the Q&A session that followed was filled with intelligent queries and commentary. I left heartened by the possibility that even in Texas, Bush was vulnerable. (At dinner later, I was told about the Republican couple at a recent precinct polling place who announced out of the blue as they were exiting that they had voted for the GOP presidential candidate for the past 21 years but would not be voting for Bush in 2004.)

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

American Democratic Politics - A London View

The sigh of relief from the Democratic party leadership on hearing of Clark's decision was less about how much they liked him and more to do with how much they loathe the other nine candidates in the race. As recently as early summer, the party hierarchy had written off the next election as a dead loss and were thinking ahead to Hillary in 2008.

In this judgment they have been overly hasty and out of touch with their base. Between them, the nine candidates - ranging from the conservative Joseph Lieberman to the radical Al Sharpton - were doing a relatively good job galvanising the party's supporters and reaching out to new ones.

The party bigwigs' attempts to dismiss the frontrunner Howard Dean have done little to stem his growing support among activists or his ability to raise money. While the Democratic leadership has been telling everyone who will listen that he cannot win, Dean has been drawing crowds of thousands and making the cover of Time and Newsweek. Dean has been cast as beyond the pale largely because of his opposition to the war and his pledge to reverse Bush's latest tax cuts. The problem for the party's leaders is that most Democratic voters agree with him on those points, and an increasing number of independents do too. Moreover, Dean is pro-gun, pro-death penalty and fiscally conservative. "I don't mind being characterised as a 'liberal'," he said in February. "I just don't happen to think it's true."

Clark is probably no worse and may even be somewhat better than the other leading candidates. His entry to the race should be welcomed for the simple reason that it gives Democrats more choice at a time when they are so angry they would embrace anyone who they thought could take the White House.

EL - The first few days have not been good for the Clark campaign. Flip-flops on big issues and a confession that except for liking Clinton he has always voted Republican, and in fact tried to join the Bush team, has lost him Democratic support.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

The Fight for the Democratic Party

Democratics Want To Vote Their Passions - And Win

Predicting electability, of course, is tricky; sometimes when Democrats thought they were voting their heads, they were still badly beaten in the general election. Former Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts captured the 1988 Democratic nomination as a moderate, nonideological technocrat — not a man who stirred his party's passions, but one who seemed, to many Democrats, decent, competent, electable. He lost 40 states that fall. Other traits matter in a candidate, beside his profile and message; sheer passion and political talent can go a long way.

Moreover, there is a fundamental divide in politics now over how best to win the presidency — by galvanizing the base, or by reaching out to swing voters, which generally means a more centrist message.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Dean-Gephardt Now In Hard Battle In Iowa

A non-partisan Zogby International poll of union members in Iowa indicates they favor Dean over Gephardt, 24 percent to 20 percent. The poll, conducted Sept. 8-9, put Dean's lead among all likely voters at 23 percent, with Gephardt following at 17 percent, Kerry running third at 11 percent and no one else in double digits.

But another poll has some good news for Gephardt. Harstad Strategic Research, a Democratic polling firm, surveyed people who had attended caucuses between 1984 and 2000 and found that Gephardt led the pack among those voters with 25 percent, with Dean and Kerry tied at 15 percent and Lieberman at 11 percent.

The Dean defense -- "What Dick is not telling people is that Vermont has Little Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws, a minimum wage of $7 an hour, and it's not a right-to-work state," Dean said. "Also, I have a 100 percent [AFL-CIO] record. My position on trade has changed because WTO and NAFTA aren't working. It is a siphon for the trade jobs. When I wasn't running for president, I wasn't spending time in the Midwest."

"Frankly, I've done a lot more for health care than Dick Gephardt has ever thought of doing," Dean said. "Dick is a wonderful person. But Congress has produced virtually nothing on health care."

On Social Security, Dean acknowledges that he has said in the past that he might consider increasing the retirement age, but has now come to the firm conclusion that raising the age is not necessary to shore up the system.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Problems With Patriot Act

What You Read And What You Say Can Result In Visits By the FBI

The FBI has followed up on thousands of “tips” since the attacks of 9/11. In June, Atlanta bookstore employee Marc Schultz found himself visited by FBI agents after someone spotted him reading an article titled “Weapons of Mass Stupidity” at a local coffee shop.

In late April, two teen-age students in Oakland, California, got an unwelcome, real-life lesson in civics. During a heated class discussion at Oakland High School about politics and President Bush, the boys made comments the exact nature of which are in dispute, but which their teacher believed constituted a threat toward the president. The teacher went to the FBI.

Secret Service agents showed up at the high school the next day to interview the boys, both 16. The school principal sat in for an hour and a half as agents interviewed each student individually, without their parents’ knowledge or consent. “He asked us questions like was I a good shooter ... was I a good sniper ... am I good dealing with guns, and what are my thoughts on the president,” one of the boys told San Francisco Bayview. “I was very scared. I was crying because of what they said to us.

The FBI contacted the San Francisco Independent Media Center after 9/11, according to Ian MacKenzie, a volunteer at the center, to investigate what they said was a posting threatening the president. Agents wanted user logs for the group’s Web site, “which we don’t have,” MacKenzie says, “so we couldn’t give to them.” He says federal agents have contacted Indymedia centers around the country in efforts to discover the identities of specific online posters. “What it tells me,” he says, “is that they keep track of us, and that they watch independent media centers.”

Is MacKenzie paranoid? Maybe not. In March, San Francisco police told the San Francisco Chronicle that they routinely monitored the center’s Web site, and infiltrated demonstrations announced on the site. San Francisco police also said they routinely videotape large demonstrations.

Ignoring a city prohibition against the collection of First Amendment-related intelligence, the Denver Police developed files on 208 organizations and 3,200 individuals. The department appears to have continued its surveillance until the fall of 2002, despite the ACLU lawsuit. Monitored groups included the American Friends Service Committee (a pacifist Quaker group), Amnesty International and many others with no history of criminal activity. Documents obtained by the ACLU describe how police intercepted e-mails, recorded the license plate numbers of vehicles at demonstrations, and infiltrated advocacy group meetings.

Ashcroft’s Justice Department also advises police officers in at least some states to gather information on “enemies in our own backyard.” In a police training manual titled “A Police Response to Terrorism in the Heartland: Integrating Law Enforcement Intelligence and Community Policing” officers are encouraged to investigate members of the “Green Movement”—defined as “environmental activism that is aimed at political and social reform with the explicit attempt to develop environmental-friendly policy, law and behavior.”

In February, Newsweek reported that the FBI plans to set investigative and wiretap goals based on demographic information, including the number of mosques in an area. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, or Patriot II, which Congress will take up in the coming months, would also eliminate municipal agreements that limit investigations and intrusive monitoring. “This is not simply a random circumstance,” says the ACLU’s Yohnka, “but appears to be part of a larger, broader pattern coming out of Washington, D.C.”

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Kerry, with own campaign falling apart, accuses Dean campaign of imploding

Problems for John Kerry - In what may signal the beginning of a campaign implosion, Chris Lehane, who served as Mr. Kerry's communications director, resigned last week. A Zogby poll in New Hampshire illustrates Mr. Kerry's problem. By late August, Mr. Kerry's 13-point February advantage (26-13) over Mr. Dean had turned into a 21-point deficit (38-17). The political strategists are busy devising scenarios about how an increasingly desperate Mr. Kerry could get his hands on his wife's $550 million Heinz-ketchup inheritance.

Imploding -- Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts today sharply criticized one of the other leading Democrats running for president, Howard Dean, asserting that some of his recent pronouncements show that his "bubble's bursting a bit."

Mr. Dean's campaign manager, Joe Trippi, seemed mildly amused by the interview.

"I guess we're just on his mind a lot," Mr. Trippi said, pointing to another episode, the recent debate in Baltimore, when a microphone picked up Mr. Kerry muttering, "Dean. Dean. Dean. Dean. Dean."

In the WCBS interview, Mr. Kerry implied that many of Dr. Dean's views would cost him his standing in the polls. "Dean's been imploding," he said.


Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Gen. Clark Would be Republican If Rove Had Returned His Calls!

Leading in a National Poll, Doubts About His Democratic Ties

After Al Qaeda attacked America, retired Gen. Wes Clark thought the Bush administration would invite him to join its team. After all, he’d been NATO commander, he knew how to build military coalitions and the investment firm he now worked for had strong Bush ties. But when GOP friends inquired, they were told: forget it.

WORD WAS THAT Karl Rove, the president’s political mastermind, had blocked the idea. Clark was furious. Last January, at a conference in Switzerland, he happened to chat with two prominent Republicans, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and Marc Holtzman, now president of the University of Denver. “I would have been a Republican,” Clark told them, “if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls.” Soon thereafter, in fact, Clark quit his day job and began seriously planning to enter the presidential race—as a Democrat.

Entering with a tremendous media splash, “the general” seized the lead in the Democratic race. Among likely voters, Clark led with 14 percent, followed by Dean with 12, Sen. Joe Lieberman with 12, Sen. John Kerry with 10 and Rep. Dick Gephardt with 8. A candidate called “don’t know” still led with 19 percent. (And if Al Gore and Hillary Clinton are added to the mix, they demolish the field.) The poll is notable for three reasons. It shows that Clark starts with the star power and on-paper credentials to be credible; he diminishes the entire field in equal proportion; and Democrats, yearning for a winner (and suddenly confident of their chances of beating President Bush), still haven’t found their shining knight. “He hurts all of us a bit, at least for now,” said Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi. “Where it goes from here? Who knows? A lot will depend on the general himself.”

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Republicans don't trust people

Several states with Republican legislatures have quietly announced that they won't hold primaries this year in their states. Instead, the delegates are to be chosen by party leaders. Now the official reasoning behind this is that it will save these states much needed money, but the real reason is to subvert democracy. Primaries tend to attract attention, and motivate party members. With no serious Republican Primary expected in 2004, a primary would mainly only help the democrats fire up their base. So, they (conservatives) have deemed it unnecessary for their constituents to have a voice in their party's nominee.

EL - The GOP always fail to mention it was a Republican Attorney General and two Republican judges, (one Democratic), who drew up the current Texas Representative map. It was drawn to ensure a GOP majority but then those pesky voters, while voting mostly Republican, decided they would keep their Democratic representatives. All the new GOP plans fix that, they redistrict Anglo Democrats out of their districts.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

In latest tweak at Bush, Dean has formed a group of 'Texas Rangers'

Becoming a Ranger for President Bush means raising at least $200,000 for his reelection, but former Vermont governor Howard Dean's presidential campaign has formed a group of "Texas Rangers," who need only comfortable shoes and a weekend to spare.

In his latest effort to tweak Bush for his prodigious fundraising even as he out-raises everyone in the Democratic field, Dean is flying at least 495 Lone Star State supporters to Iowa and New Hampshire later this month and is calling them "Texas Rangers."

EL - the host of the Pasadena Texas Dean Meetup will be a Texas Ranger in Manchester, New Hampshire on Sept. 27th. Go Janette, rope and hogtie a few more votes!


Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

History Of Texas Redistricting

Since the lines were redrawn in 2001, Democrats call the re-redistricting effort a "power grab," setting a precedent for legislatures to redraw districts whenever the urge strikes — rather than in conjunction with the U.S. census every 10 years.

Though past legislatures have tweaked maps, sometimes for political reasons but usually under court pressure, critics say Texas congressional districts never have been redrawn to this extent twice after a census.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

Old Hitler Article Stirs Debate

Wired News - (thanks to Clif) -- A fawning 1938 article by Homes & Gardens magazine about Hitler's Bavarian mountain retreat remains widely available on the Web, even after the discoverer and original poster of the article took it off his site when the magazine demanded its removal.

The article depicts Hitler in glowing terms, such as the "Squire of Wachenfeld," and extols him as a talented architect, decorator and raconteur who "delights in the society of brilliant foreigners, especially painters, singers, and musicians."

"We hear a lot about how the British upper and upper-middle classes felt that 'That Hitler chap had some very good ideas' ... but it's only when you see it in this almost comically fawning form that you realise how someone who can seem utterly abhorrent with hindsight can appeal to people at the time."

EL - There were similar fawning article about Saddam from conservative publications.

Gary Permalink on 9/21/2003

'The Crazies Are Back'

Bush Sr.’s CIA Briefer Discusses How Wolfowitz & Allies Falsely Led the U.S. To War

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Ray McGovern and David MacMichael, two former CIA analysts with the agency for more than a quarter of a century. (transcript and audio).

AMY GOODMAN: And you worked directly under George Bush?

RAY MCGOVERN: I did when he was director for CIA and later I saw him every other morning for a couple of years in the 80’s when he was Vice President.

AMY GOODMAN: Doing what?

RAY MCGOVERN: I was one of the briefers who prepared the President’s daily brief and delivered it and briefed people one on one with the senior officials downtown.

AMY GOODMAN:Now one of the things we are talking about a lot and seeing a lot is that the same people that were there during the Reagan-Bush years and even before, the Wolfowitzes the Rumsfelds, Cheneys were there then. What was George Bush’s view of these people then?

RAY MCGOVERN: Well, you know it’s really interesting. When we saw these people coming back in town, all of us said who were around in those days said, "oh my god, ‘the crazies’ are back" – ‘the crazies’ – that’s how we referred to these people.

AMY GOODMAN: Did George Bush refer to them that way?

RAY MCGOVERN: That’s the way everyone referred to them.

Gary Permalink on 9/20/2003

Americans are finally awakening to the stupid and craven things being done in the name of protecting us

Mother Jones blog on U.S. media catching on to the lies.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

About Two Weeks of Late Night Political Humor

"Because of the hurricane the Bush administration sent home all non-essential government employees. Like his economic team, CIA fact checkers, his environmental advisers ... all the non-essentials." —Jay Leno

"Retired four-star General and former NATO Commander Wesley Clark threw his beret into the ring today appearing in Little Rock, Arkansas to declare himself a candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. The announcement brings to ten the number of Democrats running for president that most Americans can't name." —Jon Stewart

"On the East coast, [more than] 100,000 people are getting ready to flee Hurricane Isabel. And thanks to President Bush's economic plan, many places have already gotten a head start boarding up their businesses." —Jon Stewart

"The election is now put off until March, but recall supporters say they are going to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to get involved. And if the U.S. Supreme Court gets involved, you know what that means — the next Governor of California: George W. Bush." —Jay Leno

"Secretary of State Colin Powell said he cannot speed things up in Iraq, Powell says Iraq is not ready for self government at the moment it cannot be trusted to run a fair democratic election by itself, apparently neither can California." —Jay Leno

"The circus doesn't stop. A federal appeals court has postponed the recall election. How stupid are we? Even our recalls get recalled." —Jay Leno

"There are reports now that retired Army General Wesley Clark may enter the presidential race... which could be a big problem for President Bush. I mean Clark is a Rhodes Scholar, first in his class at West Point, and he owns his own flight suit." —Jay Leno

"Voters in Alabama rejected a 1.2 billion dollar tax increase. The governor said if it isn't approved, schools will go bankrupt, the police force will be cut by one third and thousands of inmates will be released early. So, it will be just like California, but with less teeth." —Jay Leno

"Al Jazeera aired a new tape of Osama bin Laden. It was the usual stuff, he called Bush evil, the Great Satan, called him a war monger. Basically, the same thing you heard at last night's Democratic debate." —Jay Leno

"Last night's Democratic debate was on the Fox News Channel. It was on Fox and it was sponsored by the Black Congressional Caucus. And it was on Fox. So, I guess my point is that's like the plantation sponsoring some kind of planting festival. I'm not sure what Fox's angle is, but I'm pretty sure it's evil." —Jon Stewart

"President Bush, to help stabilize the situation in Iraq, is asking for $80 billion dollars. I'm wondering, why is he asking us? That's like one Republican fundraiser." —David Letterman

"The U.S. Mint is printing $20 dollar bills in peach. I think this is a fantastic idea. The government is hoping this will distract us from the fact that we have fewer of them." —David Letterman

"President Bush is asking Congress for $80 billion dollars to re-build Iraq. And when you make out that check, remember there are two L's in Halliburton." —David Letterman

"President Bush said he needs that $80 to re-build Iraq's infrastructure, to re-build Iraq's economy and to re-build Iraq's electrical grid. And if it works in Iraq, he's going to try it in this country." —David Letterman

"Britney Spears preceded the president there at the big NFL kickoff show and her costume was a salute to the president's educational proposals. It's true, every time she turned around you could see a child's left behind." —Bill Maher

"The United Nations says it needs more time to consider our generous offer to let them clean up our mess in Iraq. While they're thinking about that, President Bush has asked the Salvation Army if they would at least consider picking up Afghanistan if we hauled it to the curb." —Bill Maher

"Last night, we had the first gubernatorial debate. Some people are criticizing Schwarzenegger for not going. They say Arnold goes around telling people he cares, everything is going to be great, forget about everything he did in the '70s. Hey, it worked for George Bush." —Jay Leno

Compiled by Daniel Kurtzman for about.com.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

U.S. Asks 3 Nations to Bolster Iraq Force

The United States has asked Turkey, Pakistan and South Korea to send up to 40,000 troops total to Iraq.

The Bush administration's request for troops is aimed at relieving the burden of the 140,000 American troops spearheading the occupation force in a country where U.S.-led forces are coming under frequent attack.

Others have rejected U.S. approaches, such as Brazil. India, for example, has armed forces of over 1.3 million, and had been expected to be a major contributor.

Other nations - from supporters of the Iraq war such as Australia and Spain to opponents like Canada and Germany - have ruled out adding to the peacekeeping force.

Turkey is keen to improve relations with Washington and to ensure stability in its southern neighbor. Turkish officials say Ankara is considering a U.S. request for 10,000 to 20,000 troops.

Another Muslim nation, Pakistan, is also debating a request from the United States and Britain for a division of 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers, officials in Islamabad said.

South Korea is studying a request that would be its biggest overseas deployment since the Vietnam war, during which it sent 320,000 troops to help the United States. U.S. officials have cited the Polish-led division of 9,500 troops in south-central Iraq as an example for the size of a South Korean contribution, officials in Seoul said.

Britain announced last week it is sending an extra 1,200 troops to reinforce its 7,400-strong contingent. Italy, with almost 3,000 troops in Iraq, and Spain, with 1,300, said they were not considering sending more.

Lithuania has 90 troops in Iraq and may send 50 more. Albania is unlikely to be able to do more than maintain the 70 soldiers it has there already. Romania, which has 600 troops in Iraq, may send 50 more.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Colombia Conflict Drawing In More Children

Human Rights Watch reports that 11,000 underage combatants -- as young as 12 -- are fighting for rival militias in the civil war.

Locked in a decades-old conflict that claims nearly 4,000 lives a year, Colombia is the third-largest recipient of aid from the United States.

EL - rumors say that Columbia was to receive at least a brigade of U.S. troops but too many were needed for Iraq.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Another Lie Exposed -- No Smallpox Found In Iraq

Top U.S. scientists assigned to the weapons hunt in Iraq found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime was making or stockpiling smallpox, according to senior American military officers involved in the search.

Smallpox fears were part of the case President George W. Bush's administration used to build support for invading Iraq, and they were raised again as recently as last weekend by Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

No Evidence Of Iraq-Al Qaeda connection

Christian Science Monitor -- Agence-France Presse reports that earlier this month, the counter-espionage service of US ally Spain told a Spanish parliamentary committee there is no link between Hussein and Al Qaeda.

The Spanish report follows similar reports from British, French, and Russian intelligence that found no evidence of a link between the two. And a classified US national intelligence report leaked earlier this summer to The Washington Post also called into question the existence of any ties.

Robert Scheer of the Los Angeles Times writes that almost all these "allegations," such as the connection between bin Laden lieutenant Abu Musab Zarqawi and Iraq, are typical of the way the Bush administration has dealt with Iraq and Al Qaeda from the beginning; "Say what you want people to believe for the front page and on TV, then whisper a halfhearted correction or apology that slips under the radar."

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Shocking Loss For Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair has suffered a stinging electoral defeat at the first popular vote since a British weapons expert took his own life and the government tumbled into crisis over war on Iraq.

The north London seat of Brent East, whose member of parliament Paul Daisley died earlier this year, should have been iron-clad for Blair's Labour Party, which has held it for years.

But in a stunning reverse, the count in the early hours of Friday morning showed victory for Liberal Democrat Sarah Teather. Crucially, Britain's third party opposed the Iraq war.

Mary Farrell, a pensioner, told Reuters: "We voted Labour and we put in Tony Blair and nobody likes what is happening now. We are disgusted and fed up. We want to send him a message and the only way to do that is to vote for someone else."

Bernie Paul, 58, who is unemployed, said he voted for the Liberal Democrats. "I can't stand Blair. He is a puppet to the American President," he said.

Blair, once seen as his party's greatest asset, was barely mentioned by the Labour campaign.

His one consolation was that the main opposition Conservatives finished a poor third.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Iraq: The New War

The irony, nearly six months after the US launched this war, is that while Saddam Hussein has been unseated, the threat that Iraq posed to the Gulf has not been removed.

Indeed, it may be that the United States, with its overwhelming military power, has succeeded only in transforming an eventual and speculative threat into a concrete and immediate one. Now the Bush administration finds itself trying to perform the tightrope walk of building a stable and friendly government beneath the shadow of escalating violence and a growing and inevitable nationalism—and it does so in the face of an impatient and bewildered public and an approaching election campaign.

The administration began its Iraq venture with an air of absolute determination, taking a kind of grim pride in defying the United Nations and "doing what is right." America, and Iraq, will need a different kind of determination now—and a new-found honesty to go with it.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

THE ABRIDGED 9/11 TIMELINE

Unabridged sections are also on the site and the complete timeline is soon to be a book.

Unanswered questions indeed. Why were the 100 U.S. planes always on alert in the Clinton administration reduced to 14? Why is it unbelievable that the second airliner hit the Tower, and the third the Pentagon and they were not quite in position to shoot the fourth down? NORAD appears to give numerous conflicting lies for actions that day.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Can You Hear Me Now, Mr. Bremer?

This administration has now set up two wireless phone networks in Iraq. Neither can connect to the other or to the Iraqi land phone system. In addition, not mentioned in this article, neither is the standard in that part of the world.

Incompetent = Bush.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Texas Senate panel OKs redistricting map

A Senate committee on Friday approved a congressional redistricting map, setting the stage for a showdown between Republicans and Democrats next week on the Senate floor.

The Senate Jurisprudence Committee approved the map on a 4-3 vote along party lines. The committee chairman had estimated it could give Republicans between 18 or 19 seats in the congressional delegation that is now ruled 17-15 by Democrats.

The vote in committee came after Democrats voiced their opposition to the plan.

"The redrawing of congressional district lines, in spite of overwhelming public opposition, amounts to the commission (of) an enormous abuse of the public trust," said Sen. Mario Gallegos, D-Houston. He said 90 percent of the people that testified at redistricting hearings around the state had opposed the redrawing of the district lines.

The bill's passage could set up a battle between the Texas House because it keeps Lubbock and Midland counties in the same district. The House approved a map this week that puts Lubbock and Midland in separate districts.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Administration Charging Wounded GI's For Hospital Meals

How low will they go?

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

The Emerging Democratic Majority Is Dreamy Over Clark

After you get below Donkey Rising's take on Clark and Edwards he does a good summary of Democracy Corps polling data that shows Bush is in deep trouble.

It’s been remarked that Bush’s poll ratings in most respects seem to be returning to about what they were prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That’s true and in some cases they’re actually worse. The public is now 10 points less likely to think Bush is honest and trustworthy; 7 points less likely to think he is moderate, not extreme, 6 points less likely to think he is for working and middle class families and 5 points less likely to think he "cares about people like you". In addition, the public is 12 points more likely to think he has a go-it-alone policy that hurts our relations with our allies.

...The conclusion is inescapable. Much of the Bush’s political capital from 9/11 has been dissipated. More than anyone would have thought a year ago, the 2004 election seems likely to be fought on the actual merits and demerits of the entire Bush presidency, not just the two months after 9/11. And, in DR’s opinion, that’s pretty bad–extremely bad–news for Bush.

Earlier this week was his worry about drinking the Dean kool-aid.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Doonesbury

Blacked out boobs and soccer chicks.

After last week's Dean flash mob this week an Arnold interview.

FYI - Flash mobs were semi-predicted by science fiction writer Larry Niven. He had them occuring with the invention of transporter booths.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

GOP senators put 'Texas 11' on probation

HoustonChronicle.com -- Democrats charge racism, say fines weren't legal in the first place.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

'We are facing death in Iraq for no reason'

Serving US soldier calls for the end of occupation based on lies

So what is our purpose here? Was this invasion because of weapons of mass destruction, as we have so often heard? If so, where are they? Did we invade to dispose of a leader and his regime because they were closely associated with Osama bin Laden? If so, where is the proof?

Or is it that our incursion is about our own economic advantage? Iraq's oil can be refined at the lowest cost of any in the world. This looks like a modern-day crusade not to free an oppressed people or to rid the world of a demonic dictator relentless in his pursuit of conquest and domination, but a crusade to control another nation's natural resource. Oil - at least to me - seems to be the reason for our presence.

There is only one truth, and it is that Americans are dying. There are an estimated 10 to 14 attacks every day on our servicemen and women in Iraq. As the body count continues to grow, it would appear that there is no immediate end in sight.

I once believed that I was serving for a cause - "to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States". Now I no longer believe that; I have lost my conviction, as well as my determination. I can no longer justify my service on the basis of what I believe to be half-truths and bold lies.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Dean-a-Palooza

The Nation -- has an article about the insanity on the campaign trail.

"Governor!" I said. "You talk in your speech about investing in small businesses, and creating Sallie Mae-type loans to help them out..."

"That's right," he said.

"But how do Sallie Mae loans help small businesses fight off the Cargills and the Wal-Marts of the world? Isn't the problem of small businesses rooted in their inability to compete economically with massive companies? Isn't this more of a fundamental problem in our economy that will take more than a few loan programs to fix?"

Dean paused, then nodded. "Well," he said, "there's not a whole lot the federal government can do about that."

What the hell kind of answer is that? I thought. I was about to press the matter, when suddenly Miami Herald reporter Peter Wallsten pushed me aside and lunged at the candidate.

"Governor, getting back to substance," he said. "Is it true that you paint your own house?"

I turned to Wallsten in shock. Getting back to substance? Fuck you! I thought.

Dean laughed. "Um, yes, it is," he said.

"Why do you paint your own house?" Wallsten asked.

Dean shrugged. "To save money, I suppose," he said. "I'm kind of a tightwad."

A dozen hands at once scrambled to write the word "tightwad."

"Do you paint the inside, or the outside?" said Wilgoren, jumping in.

"Um, both," Dean said.

"Do you use a brush, or a..."

She made a gesture. "Or a roller?" Wallsten helped out.

"Uh, again, both," Dean said.

Suddenly I heard the voice of Colapinto yelling out behind me. "Governor!" he said. "Did you bring your harmonica on this trip?"

Most of the reports filed during the trip focused on the size of the crowds, the amount of money Dean has raised, the "feel of a general election campaign" surrounding his appearances and the sudden departure of his legendary "brusque, angry tone," which incidentally I never saw in the first place. A great many of the conversations among reporters on the plane centered around whether or not Dean had a chance to beat Bush, and these speculations--called horse-racing in the business--dominated the narratives of most of the articles, many of which wondered aloud whether Dean was "too far left" or would "moderate" his rhetoric in time for the real race.

When I asked the reporters on the plane what the value of this kind of reporting was, I got an interesting answer. No fewer than four journalists replied to the effect that unless the electability issue was addressed, "someone like Kucinich" might get the nomination.

I was never much impressed by the "Howard Dean problem." To me personally, the whole issue seems ridiculous: I would vote for Count Dracula over George Bush.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Sen. Kennedy Says Case for War Built on Fraud

Common Dreams -- In an interview with The Associated Press, Kennedy also said the Bush administration has failed to account for nearly half of the $4 billion the war is costing each month. He said he believes much of the unaccounted-for money is being used to bribe foreign leaders to send in troops.

He called the Bush administration's current Iraq policy "adrift."

The White House declined to comment Thursday.

The Massachusetts Democrat also expressed doubts about how serious a threat Saddam Hussein posed to the United States in its battle against terrorism. He said administration officials relied on "distortion, misrepresentation, a selection of intelligence" to justify their case for war.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Gephardt campaign launches Web site criticizing Howard Dean

TRIBnet --

Not content to limit his criticism of Dean to campaign speeches, the Missouri congressman has launched a Web site - Deanfacts.com - that details the former Vermont governor's eight-year-old comments about raising the Social Security retirement age and overhauling the Medicare program as well as his recent remarks about the issues.

EL - Dean will swamp the other candidates on the money side this quarter (more than double the next highest candidate can be expected) and the other candidates have declared it is open season on him.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Genetic Basis to Fairness, Study Hints

There is a gene for Democrats a study involving monkeys hints. Don't know what reptile crept into the gene pool to explain the Republicans.

Two researchers at Emory University, Dr. Sarah F. Brosnan and Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal, report today in the journal Nature that they taught female capuchin monkeys to trade pebbles for pieces of food. The capuchins were caged in pairs, so that each member of a pair could see the other. If one monkey got a grape in return for her pebble but the other only a less desired piece of cucumber, the shortchanged monkey would often refuse to hand over the pebble in exchange or might decline to eat the cucumber — both very unusual behaviors.

These refusals were often accompanied by emphatic body language, like dashing the pebble or the cucumber on the floor, Dr. Brosnan said. The expressions of exasperation were twice as common if the monkey offered a cucumber saw her companion being given a grape without even having to hand over a pebble.

The behavior suggests that the monkeys have a sense of fair treatment and respond negatively when their expectations are violated, the researchers say.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

It's Official Now, Friedman is an Idiot

I have been considering Friedman's declaration of war on France for a couple days. I can't come to any other conclusion but that he is an idiot.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Where Have All The Primaries Gone?

Commonweal Institute has a section of their newsletter on GOP efforts to cancel primaries.

They view it as providing free publicity to Democrats.

"The situation is still evolving, but Republican primaries have already been canceled in Utah, Kansas, and Colorado, and there are similar efforts afoot in South Carolina, Missouri, and Michigan.

"Most directly, by not having to compete in the primaries, President Bush would be able to save all his money (likely to top $200 million) for the general election campaign - and a good chunk of this money could presumably be used to support rightist candidates in state races. More broadly, the anti-primary campaign fits into a larger pattern of hard-right conservatives undercutting democratic procedures, a pattern that includes the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the shenanigans in Florida in 2000, the bought-and-paid-for California recall election, and the various state efforts at inter-census redistricting. In each case, conservatives have placed lower priority on giving full expression to the will of the people than on gaining and holding political power.

"A candidate winning a party's nomination without going through this gauntlet would be winning in the same way as Saddam Hussein carrying 99.9 percent of the Iraqi vote in 2000."

There is talk in Austin of canceling or postponing the Texas primary now scheduled for March 2nd.

An excuse is that with the illegal redistricting effort underway they would not have candidates ready for the new US Representative seats. Unspoken is that Dean appears to be leading in Texas and it would be more unwanted publicity if he or any other anti-war candidate wins in Bush's home state.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Steel Tariffs Appear to Have Backfired on Bush

Playing politics with trade has backfired on Bush. Steel tariffs cost more jobs than they saved, have hurt him politically.

A study backed by steel-using companies concluded that by the end of last year, higher steel prices had cost the country about 200,000 manufacturing jobs, many of which went to China. Small machine-tool and metal stamping shops say they have been decimated by steel costs that rose in some cases by as much as 30 percent.

Investments that flooded into the protected steel industry over the past 18 months brought idled steel mills back on line and kept teetering mills from shutting down, said Peter Morici, a University of Maryland business professor hired by the steel producers. That resurrected 16,000 steel jobs, and more than 30,000 jobs when steel suppliers are included.

The tariffs failed to give Bush the allegiance of the United Steelworkers of America, the industry's largest union and one the White House had hoped to win over. In August, the union endorsed Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.) for president and issued a statement saying any of the Democratic candidates would offer better than "the reactionary policies of the current administration."

Perhaps worse for Bush, the tariffs alienated thousands of small businessmen who run steel-consuming companies. "He didn't win the steelworkers over, and he sure as hell didn't win the users over, and there are a hell of lot more of us," said Jim Zawacki, chief executive of G.R. Spring & Stamping, Inc., a small manufacturer in Grand Rapids, Mich. "A lot of people feel burned," said Mike Lynch, vice president of government affairs at Illinois Tool Works, a large machine tool company outside Chicago.

Political divisions over the tariffs remain fierce, even within the GOP. Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who talked to Bush about the issue this week, contends the tariffs "are saving thousand of jobs in the steel industry, and you had a steel industry headed for more bankruptcies."

Sen. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), however, insists the tariffs have "shifted more steel-consuming jobs overseas than exist in the steel-producing industry in the United States," causing thousands of layoffs and closing the doors of hundreds of small businesses that supply automakers in Tennessee, a state that Bush won by just 4 percentage points and is counting on for his reelection.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Clark 'Probably' Would Have Backed War

Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark said today that he "probably" would have voted for the congressional resolution last fall authorizing war, as he charged out into the presidential campaign field with vague plans to fix the economy and the situation in Iraq.

Clark did not offer any new ideas or solutions for Iraq that other candidates have not already proposed.

He said he "probably" voted for Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and backed Ronald Reagan.

"This is an administration which has moved in a way we have not seen any administration since Nixon to abuse executive authority to scheme, manipulate, intimidate and maneuver," Clark said.

EL - his statements just before the war and after the war started indicate as I said earlier that he did not oppose the war, just the incompetence of this administration. He knocks down Lieberman and Kerry and perhaps Gephardt but I don't think he is one of the top three candidates.

Gary Permalink on 9/19/2003

Krugman on Calpundit

I miss Reagan. I never thought I'd say that, but....

Reagan lied a little bit, and his policies were often crazy, but they wouldn't do 2 -1 = 4. They'd say, if we have our tax cut we'll have this wonderful supply side thing and the economy will boom and it will pay for itself, which was a crazy theory, but it wasn't a blatant lie about the actual content of the policy.

Bush says, I've got a tax cut that's aimed at working people, ordinary working people, and then you just take a look at it and discover that most of it's coming from elimination of the estate tax and a cut in the top bracket, so it's heavily tilted toward just a handful of people at the top. It's just a flat lie about what the tax cut is.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

The DNC is Finally 'Kicking Ass'

Kicking Ass, the daily blog of the DNC.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Lots of Semi-Naked Cheesecake

Unablogger is a different kind of blogger. And no, he still hasn't dedicated one of the semi-naked pictures to me. Warning - contents pretty close to nudity.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus

Al Franken and Don Simpson (11 parts on BuzzFlash.)

EL - Reminds me of the seventies semi-underground cartoons. Asks what if Jesus had been a Republican?

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Freeway Blogging 2

"Dear America, Thanks for all the money, sorry about your kids. -- Halliburton Oil"

"Nobody Died when Clinton Lied"

From a site that "pays tribute to the "guerillas" responsible for this covert truth campaign."

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Some Newspapers Calling Cheney on Lies

It's past time the principals behind this mismanaged war were called to account for their deliberate misstatements.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

They Wouldn't Say It About A Republican

Natasha catches CNN dissing a Democrat and makes suggestions for equal time.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

US, UK exaggerated war evidence: Hans Blix

Former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix says the US-led war on Iraq was not justified and that Washington and London had "over-interpreted" information from their intelligence services.

Dr Blix was interviewed on BBC radio's "Today" program, whose reporter Andrew Gilligan broadcast allegations on May 29 that Prime Minister Tony Blair's government had "sexed up" the case for war.

When asked if the March 20 invasion that led to the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime was justified, Dr Blix said "No, I don't think so".

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

The True Believer - Rush Is Still An Idiot

Coming back from a trip I decided to see what entertaining stuff Rush Limbaugh had to say. In our area you can get Rush on two stations, one a few seconds behind the other in case you missed something.

He was going on about a great guy who described today's mindless liberals well. He didn't know much about him but apparently he had received some notes.

And then he started quoting from The True Believer.

I started laughing out loud.

The writer of The True Believer, Eric Hoffer, was a great man. He was a longshoreman philosopher who wrote about the mindset of fascists and extreme conservatives. He was not describing liberals. As a good union man he would wrongly be called a bleeding-heart liberal by Rush.

He was against Stalinists but he was also against Catholics. He was against mass movements based on hatred and fear and irrational appeals to join in some great crusade. In The True Believer he described the appeal of prejudicial beliefs constantly reinforced in making weak people feel strong.

Here are some Eric quotes from Positive Atheism's site.

Take away hatred from some people, and you have men without faith.

You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

Among other things Eric Hoffer also said it is in the best interest of governments to have citizens that are less well educated. The less well informed are citizens, the less likely they are to hold government accountable for serious mistakes because they aren't aware of what's happening.

Ask the next Rush Limbaugh ditto-head you see if he is a true believer. "Damn straight," he'll reply.

Then tell him that Rush, in his interpretation of Hoffer, said true believers were compensating for a lack of manhood.

You might want to duck.

True Believer - Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements on Amazon. I agree with Rush it is still relevant today, just almost totally opposite of why he thinks it.

(EL- minor edits.)

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

No Child Left Behind was based on a Texas Scam

George W. Bush is a little feistier than most carnival barkers ("Dead or alive," "Bring 'em on," etc.), but his promises are not much different—just catchy bait for the pigeons in the front rows.

There was a "poor, mostly minority high school of 1,650 students had a freshman class of 1,000 that dwindled to fewer than 300 students by senior year. And yet—and this is the miracle—not one dropout to report."

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

The Angry Left

Perhaps I'm being slow on the uptake, but I've noticed that the Right has found a way to try to diminish left-of-center partisans. In recent weeks, conservative commentators have branded the Bush opposition "The Angry Left," which apparently is not meant as a compliment.

El - my response - Damn Right I'm Angry, I want an America I can believe in again. Also, these phrases are picked, tested and then distributed by the well-organized right media machine.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

FAIR Questions Clark Anti-War Label

Record Shows Clark Cheered Iraq War as "Right Call"

Clark made bold predictions about the effect the war would have on the region: "Many Gulf states will hustle to praise their liberation from a sense of insecurity they were previously loath even to express. Egypt and Saudi Arabia will move slightly but perceptibly towards Western standards of human rights." George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair "should be proud of their resolve in the face of so much doubt," Clark explained. "Their opponents, those who questioned the necessity or wisdom of the operation, are temporarily silent, but probably unconvinced." The way Clark speaks of the "opponents" having been silenced is instructive, since he presumably does not include himself-- obviously not "temporarily silent"-- in that category.

While political reporters might welcome Clark's entry into the campaign, to label a candidate with such views "anti-war" is to render the term meaningless.

EL - It is clear that Clark did not oppose this war, he simply questions the administration's competence in running it. Damn impossible not to question that.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Annotating Recent Dubya Speech

Tom Paine has been Deconstructing George.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Cheney 'dissembles' about taxes, deficits and more

Why I keep Spinsanity on my list despite his sometimes gratuitous balancing attacks on the left.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

"Revenge Attacks" Threaten US Troops

The commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq said in an interview published Wednesday that U.S. forces, already under pressure from a guerrilla-style resistance, now face revenge attacks from ordinary Iraqis angered by the occupation.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Clark - Too Late?

"The problem you have getting in this late is you have no field troops, you have no ground operation," said Bill Dal Col, who ran Steve Forbes's campaign for the Republican nomination in 1996 and 2000. "Without the troops, it doesn't matter how good your logistics and planning are."

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Bush Finally Disavows Saddam - 9/11 Link

Reasserts untrue al Qaeda link.

President Bush said there has been no evidence that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, disavowing a link that had been hinted at previously by his administration.

"No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th," the president said yesterday after a meeting at the White House with lawmakers.

Bush, while seeing no link between Hussein and the attacks, said yesterday that Iraq was linked to Osama bin Laden's terror organization. "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al Qaeda ties," he said.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Democratic Hawk Urges Firing of Bush Iraq Aides

Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a decorated Vietnam veteran, said that he had been misled into voting for the war by incorrect information from top administration officials and that the president had also been misled.

"You can't fire the president unless you're in California," Mr. Murtha said. "But somebody recommended this policy to him, and he took the recommendation. Somebody has to be held responsible, and he's got to make the decision who it was."

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Clark Too Weird To Be President?

I talked with people who worked with him, some of them very closely, asking over and over again a variation of the same question: Is Wesley Clark too weird for prime time?

Something about Clark makes people bristle. He is undoubtedly brilliant -- a Rhodes scholar and first in his class at West Point. He is a fine athlete and a Vietnam combat veteran who was decorated for bravery. He won the respect, even the awe, of his colleagues, but too much of the time he did not win their friendship.

The rap on Clark is that he lacks precisely those qualities that define a politician, particularly warmth and affability.

Even his most steadfast champion in the army, Gen. John Shalikashvili, recognized that Clark was too brash, too cocky, too driven, too self-absorbed, too hard on subordinates, too dismissive of critics and criticism -- but also too brilliant and talented to be overlooked. Shali promoted him.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Almost No Foreign Money and only 40,000 Iraqi Troops to Help Next Year

The new goal is 27 battalions organized in three divisions within 12 months, twice as fast as in initial plans. The projected total of 40,000 is less than one-10th of the former Iraqi armed forces.

El -- You do know don't you that all the experts said the former Iraqi Army of 400,000 was needed to keep order and the Rumsfeld ignored this? Also, we did not save any money by this - we are paying former Iraqi troops anyway to try to keep order, instead of paying them to keep order we nearly every soldier a pension so they don't have to loot to feed their families.

The United States is pushing hard to raise as much as $10 billion for Iraq at a donors' conference in Madrid next month.

But the European Union, which accounts for 20 percent of the world's wealth, has offered only $250 million, European and American officials say, adding that the United States may get no more than $1 billion at the conference.

EL - this is the alliance of the coalition donors which is as powerful the alliance as the coalition troops. We contribute $100 billion a year, they chip in one or two billion. Some international support..

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Late Night Guru Art Bell Returns

I just listen for the bumper music!

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

Isabel Will Hit As Category 2

Dropping from the extremely dangerous category 5 earlier.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

How Can You Spend 9 Months And Not Have A Map?

Now that both chambers have quorums, the Democrats are watching Republicans fight among themselves.

"How can you go nine months and spend $5 million and not have a (GOP) map?" said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, of the state's GOP leadership.

Although the West Texas standoff is getting the most attention, there are crucial differences between the House map and a proposal that a Senate committee could take up today.

The House map splits Waco, which is unacceptable to Sen. Kip Averitt, R-McGregor. And northern Central Texas, which includes Williamson County, changes, in part, because the House's Midland district sprawls into the Hill Country.

The House map also pits 14 incumbents against one another, while the proposed Senate map has only one head-to-head contest.

Austin Senate still disagreeing about fines, mail, and parking spaces.

"Let's be reasonable. Let's get on with business. Otherwise, let's get it on."

Although subdued Tuesday, the Senate Democrats, outnumbered 19-12, still do not plan to go quietly. They have promised to use every available tool — including filibusters — to block redistricting.

Still to be resolved are the sanctions levied by the Republicans against the Democrats, including $57,000-per-Democrat fines and loss of privileges, including Capitol parking.

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

The Other Side

Do you believe that there was a link between Bin Laden and Hussein?

Do you believe that the rich are overtaxed in America?

Do you believe that George Bush is the second coming of the Messiah?

If you answered yes to these questions, you're an idiot and thus a perfect candidate for a lobotomy.

If you answered no to these questions, now there is a talk radio program that appreciates your intelligence.

Tune in this THURSDAY night to the The Other Side, aggressively progressive talk radio with a satirical edge. The show airs on 90.1 KPFT in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston and www.kpft.org on the worldwide web this THURSDAY night at 11:00 p.m.!

Gary Permalink on 9/18/2003

More jobs lost, unemployment rate goes down as people quit looking

Although the nation's unemployment rate dipped to 6.1 percent in August, businesses slashed 93,000 jobs, marking the seventh month in a row that the economy lost jobs.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan and his Federal Open Market Committee colleagues — the group that sets interest rate policy in the United States — kept the federal funds rate at 1 percent, a 45 year low.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Thieves in High Places - Part 1 of 9

Where's Tom Paine when we need him? Right here -- wearing a cowboy hat, roaring out of Bush's own state, making all kinds of Common Sense, and pointing the way out of our national embarrassment of a government occupied by thieves and lunatics. Halliburton and John Ashcroft will hate this book, which is why you'll love it. Don't just read it -- take Hightower's message to heart, take action on it, and take your country back!"
-- Michael Moore

Working For Change which has parts 1-4 up now.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

The GOP’s Texas Power Grab

One of the major goals of the “southern strategy” pioneered by the Republican Party during the 1968 presidential campaign of Richard Nixon was to taint the Democratic Party as the party of “nigger lovers.” More specifically, the GOP understood they could use race as an issue to wedge whites away from a Democratic Party that increasingly seemed to have enlisted in the civil rights movement.

The Texas GOP is seeking to redraw the state’s congressional electoral map to cram the state’s minorities into a few, already Democratic districts. Democrats argue the plan violates the Voting Rights Act by concentrating black and Latino voters into fewer districts, creating a majority of largely white congressional districts more likely to vote Republican.

If DeLay has his way, Republicans increasingly will be white suburbanites and urban minorities will be Democrats. When partisan politics becomes electoral apartheid, that’s southern strategy for the 21st century.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Colin Powell and 'The Power of Audacity'

To be an honest, objective and fair-minded reporter of the Bush Administration's policies requires pointing out repeatedly and without sentimentality that just about all the men and women responsible for the conduct of this nation's foreign (and many of its domestic) affairs are entirely without personal honor when it comes to the affairs of state. This simply isn't done in respectable journalism, and the Bush people understand that. Arthur Miller, speaking at a Nation Institute dinner last year, termed the willingness to use this kind of knowledge "the power of audacity."

Powell employed all kinds of weasel words in his UN address that should have set off alarm bells in any first-year journalism student. Over and over, Cranberg notes, he attributed his charges to the likes of "human sources," "an eyewitness," "detainees," "an Al Qaeda source," "a senior defector," "intelligence sources." At a meeting at the Waldorf Astoria just before his talk, reported by the Guardian, Powell complained to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw that the claims coming out of the Pentagon--particularly those made by Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz--could not be substantiated (Straw denies that the meeting took place). Powell allegedly told the Foreign Secretary that he had just about "moved in" with his intelligence staff to prepare for his speech but had left his briefings "apprehensive," fearing that the evidence might "explode in their faces." A U.S. News & World Report story describes the Secretary of State throwing the documents in the air and declaring, "I'm not reading this. This is bullshit!"

It's quite a trick: Lie to the American people and then fall back on the fact that they bought the lies to demonstrate that truth really doesn't matter anyway. It is in this and only this Alice-in-Wonderland universe that a dishonest propagandist like Colin Powell may be considered an "internationalist," a "moderate" and, sadly, a "man of honor."

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

A Little Carville and Greenberg at breakfast

Carville -- "There is a common belief that the president is at least as strong, probably stronger politically than he was pre-September 11. That is a myth. The president today is weaker politically than he was before September 11."

Greenberg -- "I also believe the Republicans will not look at these numbers and respond aimlessly as they have on Iraq and the economy. ... I think they will use whatever hot-button, red-meat issues they can...to hold onto power...
48 percent of the American people, almost half the country, say the president of the United States is in over his head, the exact wording of the poll. It has gone up."

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Wesley Clark - will he outflank the field?

"This is going to come down to a two-man race, Dean and the anti-Dean," says political analyst Charlie Cook. "Someone has to be the anti-Dean.... [and] Clark because of his late start would at least have an excuse why he might not do well in Iowa and New Hampshire."

EL - In order, Clark harms Kerry - military hero, Lieberman - moderate/conservative favorite, Dean - outsider, Edwards - attractive Southern new voice, and Gephardt - moderate. It is still very good for the Democratic party having a military expert running. Just as it is good that Kucinach, Sharpton and Braun are in the race even if they don't have a chance of winning a campaign against GW. The Democratic party is the party of the people who are well-represented in these candidates.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

President Bush Shortchanges His Big AIDS Program

The law that Bush signed authorized $3 billion a year, but President Bush has requested only $2 billion in his 2004 budget. The president's push for $1 billion less than authorized by Congress (and promoted by the President himself) blocks 1 million people from treatment and nearly 2.5 million new HIV infections that could be avoided.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Britain, US postpone WMD report for lack of evidence

Liberal critics had hinted that US President George Bush would try to use it as his "September surprise"; a report by the Iraq Survey Group which would prove that Saddam Hussein really did have weapons of mass destruction. But now the Sunday Times of London, and other publications, say that the report has been delayed "indefinitely" because the group was unable to get any evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Judith Miller Is At it Again

Notorious patsy for neocons receives Syria WMD warning from untrustworthy source. Why does she keep getting page one for these handjobs?

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Did Rove Blow a Spook's Cover?

More speculation on Rove breaking the law in Slate.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Steal This Message

Even if Edwards is going nowhere other Democrats should steal his message.

The key passage in Edwards' speech assailed Republican tax policies:

"President Bush has a war on work. You see it in everything he does. He wants to eliminate every penny of tax on wealth, and shift the whole burden to people who work for a living. So people won't pay any taxes at all when they make money from selling stocks, when they get big dividends every year, or when they inherit a massive estate. … It's wrong to tax millionaires less for playing the market than we tax soldiers for keeping America safe."

The reason this message cuts into Bush's base of support is that socially conservative blue-collar workers don't vote Republican out of libertarian principle. They don't believe in the free market or in rewarding risk. They believe in the work ethic. Bush wins their votes by equating the free market with the work ethic. Show them where the free market betrays the work ethic, and they'll vote for the candidate of the work ethic against the candidate of the free market.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Scott Ritter Interview

This is not a war in Iraq that we had to fight, it was very much an
elective war, a war that the president elected to fight, and he did so
under false pretense. He told the American public that we were
threatened by weapons of mass destruction, this threat has yet to
materialize. It appears that his administration exaggerated the case for
war and now that we have troops deployed in harm's way, we can't just
simply cut and run.

We've gone into Iraq and we stumbled, we stubbed our toe. We're not
going anywhere else. It's a disaster. The neo-conservative vision of the
Project of the New American Century is fluttering away. The Bush
administration has to go back, hat in hand, to the United Nations to beg
for help. But the tragedy is, this is something that anybody who had
subjected their vision to a fair and open debate would have ascertained
for themselves.

Between the lines audio.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Majority Opposes Oil Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

New Zogby Poll Reveals Two-thirds see drilling proposals as payback for oil industry's campaign contributions

Also Overwhelming Majority Says Oil Companies Should Be Liable for Cleaning Up Contaminated Water Supplies - Proposal to Waive Liability for MTBE Cleanup Costs Not Supported Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

White House's Cynical Iraq Ploy: 'Misspeak' First, 'Correct' It Later

The pattern is clear: Say what you want people to believe for the front page and on TV, then whisper a halfhearted correction or apology that slips under the radar. It is really quite ingenious in its cynical effectiveness, and Wolfowitz's latest performance is a classic example — even his correction needs correcting.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

Led by Dean, the Democrats Attack

Blood in the Water

To a greater extent than any other candidate, Dean has recognized that what Democrats want in 2004 is a Bush-bashing populist.

No candidate will overtake Dean merely by pointing out his inconsistencies. His supporters are not blind to their man's weaknesses; rather, they are awed by his strengths: a willingness to blister Bush, and a campaign that seems fluid and flexible on the surface but that is in fact exceptionally disciplined, with plenty of money and even more momentum. If Dean is to be displaced, it will be by a candidate who does a better job of convincing grassroots Democrats he or she will give Bush no quarter and, when the opportunity comes, deliver the knockout blow.

More than anything else, two words--"can win"--set the standard for a Democratic base. Stung by the tepid campaigns mounted by their party in 2000 and 2002, activists started looking for a candidate who was ready to fight in 2004, and Howard Dean made himself that candidate. Critics keep trying to say he has peaked too soon, but so far he's gone from strength to strength. And that ability to keep coming out on top has given him a mystique that seems to matter more to a lot of Democrats than ideological consistency. At the late-August Communications Workers of America convention in Chicago, Dean drew the sort of thunderous applause usually reserved for endorsed candidates. "I know we disagree with Dean on some things, but you just get a sense that this guy has a plan to win the nomination and beat Bush," said a top CWA official. "And, when you get down to it, beating Bush is what this is all about."

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

MSNBC DemoDerby




Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

The race is on - Seeking the "Un-Dean"

CLARK HAS A lot of appeal, and potential, but his main attraction to party insiders and former Clintonistas — many of whom are joining up with the general — is that they see him as the man, perhaps the only man, to block Dean’s surge to the precipice of locking up the nomination. Party leaders — if there is such a thing — view Dean as a disaster waiting to happen in a race with President George W. Bush.

Even before Dean locked up the insurgent’s role, and turned it into an Internet-driven anti-war money machine, Democratic wise guys had pushed Sen. John Kerry forward as a consensus favorite to challenge Bush. But Kerry’s campaign has foundered, in part because of his vote in favor of the Iraq war (which most grassroots Democrats opposed) and because he has encountered the putative frontrunner’s problem of trying to be all things to all voters.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

The Latest Bush Gang Whoppers

Is there some deadline approaching, after which Bush administration officials have to engage in honest debate? It seems as if there has been a rash of misleading, deceptive, and disingenuous remarks coming from on high in recent days. The gang at "Capital Games" has been working overtime to keep up with the truth-bending of the president, the vice president, the defense secretary, and the deputy defense secretary.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

GOP Worrying

GOP Lawmakers Don't Want Voters' Blame for Economy

Republicans are acutely aware of what happened to Bush's father, the president who won the Persian Gulf War only to lose his reelection bid to Bill Clinton as the economy sagged. They find it frustrating that some economic indicators have improved recently without an accompanying uptick in new jobs.

"It's not panic yet, but it's just short of that," said Thomas E. Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "It's a concern that real conditions on the ground, both in the economy and in Iraq, have raised serious questions about the performance of the Bush administration and the Republican majority."

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chairman Rep. Robert T. Matsui (Calif.) said voter unrest over the economy is proving a boon for his party and could have "profound" implications for the upcoming election.

"We're getting more and more candidates interested in running against Republican incumbents," Matsui said.

Gary Permalink on 9/16/2003

We Evil Reptilian Kitten-Eaters From Another Planet!

The increasingly bitter tone of the Ontario campaign took a surreal turn Friday when a press release from the Tory election machine labelled Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty a pet-eating alien.

"Dalton McGuinty," the statement said. "He's an evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet."

Mr. McGuinty smiled broadly when asked to confirm or deny that he eats small pets and comes from outer space.

"I love kittens, and I like puppies too," he said.

EL - And I love little kids and babies!

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Whitmire gives TX Senate a quorum for third special session

The Democrats remained angry that sanctions adopted by the Republican senators remained in place as the session began. Those sanctions included $57,000 in fines, denial of certain privileges and the removal of their parking spaces.

Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, one of the boycotters, parked her vehicle in her space near the East Wing of the Capitol because she broke her shoulder ice skating.

Later a notice appeared on her car warning that it would be towed: "This vehicle is in violation of a motion duly adopted by the Texas Senate under rule 5.04 on August 15th. If not removed immediately, appropriate measures will be taken."

Meanwhile, League of United Latin American Citizens President Hector Flores and Texas NAACP President Gary Bledsoe announced they will sue to halt the implementation of any redistricting plan adopted by the Legislature.

"I don't think there is any question that what they will proposed will violate the Voting Rights Act," Bledsoe said.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Dean T-Shirts

A meeting of the minds, you need Dean stuff.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

WTO Looks For Way Forward After Cancun Collapse

World Trade Organization leaders, crippled by two major defeats in four years, are searching for a way to win back the trust of poor nations and cobble together a global trade treaty that will shape the world's economy for years to come.

Developing countries say they won't take any more bullying from the rich, and want a deal that will help even the poorest. The demands came amid the surprise collapse of crucial trade negotiations in this Mexican resort. Just as ministers were digging in for an extra day of talks, the meeting's chairman, Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, suddenly called off negotiations, saying there wasn't enough agreement to move forward

Developing nations - some triumphantly - leaked the news to journalists in the hallways of Cancun's convention centre, even as U.S. trade officials gave a news conference explaining how negotiators were trying to move forward.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Edwards To Announce Candidacy On Daily Show

Before making a formal declaration of his presidential candidacy Tuesday in his boyhood home of Robbins, U.S. Sen. John Edwards plans to share the news Monday night on Comedy Central.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

As I Predicted, California Recall Election Postponed

A federal appeals court postponed the Oct. 7 recall election Monday in a decision that threw what has already been a chaotic campaign into utter turmoil.

In what was the last of about a dozen legal challenges to the attempt to unseat Gov. Gray Davis, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Monday it is unacceptable that six counties would be using outdated punch-card ballots, the type that sparked the "hanging chads" litigation in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Independents For Howard Dean

Deanindependents.org - I attended the September meetup for the first time and was struck by the wide variety of political groups represented. Of course, there were the staunch Democrats but they almost seemed to be a minority.

The man on my left was in his late 30s and voted for Perot in '92 and '96. I gathered that it was Dean's fiscal conservatism and history of balanced budgets that appealed to him.

The couple seated in front of me came across as die-hard Republicans who, in turns out, were not as die-hard as they thought. Both were supporters of the war in Iraq but had been shaken by the dishonesty (their word) about the existence of WMD. They trusted the President when he argued that Iraq was an imminent threat, but yet I got the impression that there was no way they were voting for Bush again.

The seat to my right was empty, but two seats over was an obvious Green party supporter. I don't mean 'visually' obvious, but she made it clear by the questions she asked that environmental issues were important to her.

Myself? I was a McCain supporter in 2000 who has voted Republican for years. However, after McCain was ambushed in the South Carolina primaries with those despicable phone calls about his wife & kids, I could not bring myself to vote for Bush. As a Texas resident, I safely filed a protest vote for Nader.

More here.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

NO WMD's, Paperwork Errors -- In Foreign Press - Has been Mostly Ignored In America

Saddam didn't lie; there are no WMDs, UN inspectors say

The UN's senior weapons inspectors now say they believe Saddam Hussein was telling the truth when he claimed he had no weapons of mass destruction.

In addition, the Iraqi nuclear program was in such a shambles it was unlikely to be able to produce atomic weapons any time soon.

If it isn't in the New York Times or The Washington Post, Meet the Press can't use it against Cheney. Tim doesn't watch CNN which had the interview with Hans Blix.


Oops, a week ago CBS had a very similar story. I had also noticed a mention in the LA Times that didn't seem to get publicity. Same facts - there were no weapons, a different angle.

U.N. inspectors found Iraq's nuclear program in disarray and unlikely to be able to support an active effort to build weapons, the atomic agency chief said in a confidential report obtained Monday by The Associated Press.

Former weapons inspectors now say, five months after the U.S. invasion, that what the U.S. alleged were "unaccountable" stockpiles may have been no more than paperwork glitches left behind when Iraq destroyed banned chemical and biological weapons years ago.

It was always a "fragile assumption" to expect Iraq to provide a highly detailed, fully consistent and well-documented account of all its weapons work, said U.S. defense analyst Carl Conetta. No military can do that, he wrote in a report recapping the Iraq inspections.

A U.S. audit last year, for example, found the Pentagon had lost track of more than 1 million chemical-biological protective suits, said Conetta, of the Project on Defense Alternatives, a private think tank.

In perhaps the most striking example, U.S. government auditors found in 1994 that almost three tons of plutonium, enough for hundreds of nuclear bombs, had "vanished" from U.S. stocks, because of discrepancies between "book inventory" and "physical inventory."

EL - The foreign and underground press has been saying that for a year. Are the American people finally going to hear it? Who is going to drumbeat it into them, which is the secret the GOP has learned? To break through the clutter of information you have to beat the story everyday.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

"We were used and manipulated" - UK Papers on Blair

Editorials - Did the prime minster lie to the public, or was he misled?

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Looks Like Pasadena Dean Meet-Up is ON.

Wednesday, Oct 1 @ 7:00PM

Meet Local Howard Dean Supporters and Take Back The Country!

AGENDA (NOT FINAL)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• How do we motivate people to get involved in Dean events and activities outside of meetup?
• Develop ways to connect with the local Democratic Party organization
• Discuss minority outreach, the next phase of the campaign

Top China Buffet (nominated by Janette)
3630 Spencer Highway @ Burke, Pasadena, TX 77504.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Gephardt - Moving Up, Facing FOX

Joe Klein thinks that Gephardt is like a turtle slowing gaining ground. I don't really like Klein but I agree with him that Gephardt learns what works and has some recent gains.

Gephardt did a very good job on Faux News who don't take kindly to his calling their president a miserable failure.

Both links from ABCNews Political Note.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Interesting Political Note

The media and Dean's opponents agree: if this latest wave of controversies don't slow Dean down, it is unlikely that anything can or will between now and January.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Global Warming Is Real - Just Visit Alaska

Skeptics of global warming should come to this Eskimo village on the Arctic Ocean, roughly 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It's hard to be complacent about climate change when you're in an area that normally is home to animals like polar bears and wolverines, but is now attracting robins.

A robin even built its nest in town this year (there is no word in the local Inupiat Eskimo language for robins). And last year a (presumably shivering) porcupine arrived.

The Okpilak River valley was historically too cold and dry for willows, and in the Inupiat language "Okpilak" means "river with no willows." Yet a warmer, wetter climate means that now it's crowded with willows.

In the past, I've been skeptical about costly steps (like those in the Kyoto accord) to confront climate change. But I'm changing my mind. The evidence, while still somewhat incomplete, is steadily mounting that our carbon emissions are causing an accelerating global warming that amounts to a major threat to the world in which we live.

Alaska has warmed by eight degrees, on average, in the winter, over the last three decades, according to meteorological records. The U.S. Arctic Research Commission says that today's Arctic temperatures are the highest in the last 400 years, and perhaps much longer.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Walter Cronkite - Latest Iraq Casualty: Our National Prestige

No matter how gloriously the President paints our Iraq invasion as a mission to save the world from terrorism, there is no disguising the fact that in our desperate bid for help, we are dining on a massive helping of crow.

We are in trouble, and the world knows it. We are going hat in hand as we seek means to cut our losses in the Iraq debacle. We are pleading for help now from those very same Security Council nations that we belittled before.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Soldiers and Families on the War

"Our loved ones have been sent to fight an immoral, unjust and reckless misadventure that has everything to do with securing oil markets and empire and nothing to do with the defense of this country or the Constitution. We are here to tell the uncomfortable truth about his war; we have suffered enough uncomfortable lies."


"They have spread our 44 soldiers out to replace an active unit who had over 50 and to replace a National Guard unit who has over 60 soldiers not only are we running 24 hour operations seven days a week for these two units but we have 4 of our soldiers on the redeployment side working validation for another unit! We are spread so thin and are working so hard these knocks on our morale are devastating."

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

The Washington Post does a light fact-checking on Cheney Interview

Administration officials said they think that any acknowledgment of a mistake only encourages critics, as when Bush included a suspect allegation in his State of the Union address that Hussein sought nuclear material in Africa -- despite CIA warnings not to cite the information. Cheney's vigorous defense of the administration's actions went beyond the current debate to Bush's record on jobs, tax cuts and the deficit.

Read the article for the few statements they noted.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Is Iran a New Countdown to Catastrophe?

A massively linked op-ed by the very liberal Justin Raimundo.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

The Economy Is Creeping Up, Not the Job Market. Huh?

Even an economy propped up by tax cuts, military spending and other one-time fixes is expanding lately at only a 4 percent annual rate. That is a lot by past standards, but not enough when productivity has been surging at a 4.4 percent annual rate for 18 months.

As a result, the nation's private-sector employers are behaving as if they were caught in a recession, which they very well may be if they continue to act this way. Unable to sell all they can produce, they have reduced by 1.1 percent the total number of hours worked since the start of the recovery in November 2001, and they have put a lid on raises for most of the nation's 108 million jobholders. Wages are rising, but hours are disappearing and the combination leaves weekly pay barely keeping up with inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Reposted - The Bush Resume

The Bush Résumé


PAST WORK EXPERIENCE

I ran for congress and lost.

I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.

I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. Biggest move: Traded Sammy Sosa to the Chicago White Sox.

With my father's help (and his name) was elected Governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR

I changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.

I set the record for most executions by any Governor in American history.

I became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT

I attacked and took over two countries.

I spent the U.S. surplus and bankrupted the treasury.

I shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.

I set all-time record for biggest drop in the history of the stock market.

I am the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner.

I am the first president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.

In the first year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history.

After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, I presided over the worst security failure in US history.

I set the record for most campaign fundraising trips by any president in US history.

In my first three years in office over 2.7 million Americans lost their job.

I cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.

I appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president in US history.

I set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.

I signed more laws and executive orders amending the Constitution than any president in US history.

I presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.

I cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.

I set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

I dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.

I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in US history.

Members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in US history.
(The 'poorest' multimillionaire, Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her).

I am the first president in US history to have all 50 states of the Union simultaneously fall into debt.

I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in the history of the world.

As president I ordered a US attack and military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the world community.

I created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.

I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. Even the total non-military, non-security related spending went up while I was cutting taxes for my friends.

I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.

I am the first president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.

I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in US history.

I rendered the entire United Nations irrelevant.

I withdrew from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.

I am the first president in US history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US elections).

I am the all-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.

My biggest lifetime campaign contributor, who is also one of my best friends, presided over one of the largest corporate bankruptcy frauds in world history (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation).

I spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in US history.

I am the first president to run and hide when the US came under attack (and then lied saying the enemy had the code to Air Force 1.)

I am the first US president to establish a secret shadow government.

I took the biggest world sympathy for the US after 911, and in less than a year made the US the most resented country in the world (possibly the biggest diplomatic failure in US and world history).

I, with a policy of first 'disengagement' and then my roadmap to peace created the most hostile Israeli-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.

I am the first US president in history to have a majority of the people of Europe (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and stability.

I am the first US president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the US than their immediate neighbor, North Korea.

I changed US policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I set all-time record for number of administration appointees who violated US law by not selling huge investments in corporations bidding for government contracts.

I failed to fulfill my pledge to get Osama Bin Laden 'dead or alive'.

I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the United States Capitol building. After 18 months I have no leads and zero suspects.

In the 18 months following the 911 attacks I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.

I removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.

In a little over two years I created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided the US has ever been since the civil war.

I entered office with the strongest economy in US history and in less than two years had every single economic category turned around headed down.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES

I have at least one conviction for driving under the influence in Maine (Texas driving record has been erased and is not available).

I was AWOL from National Guard and deserted the military during a time of war. (Nearly all of my military records seem to be missing).

I refused to take drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas have been spirited away to my fathers library, sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records of any SEC investigations into my insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All minutes of meetings for any public corporation I served on the board are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

Any records or minutes from meetings I (or my VP) attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

PERSONAL REFERENCES

For personal references, please speak to my dad or uncle James Baker (They can be reached in their offices at the Carlyle Group where they are helping to divide up the spoils of the US-Iraq war and plan for the next one.)

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Liberal Book Sales Surge

In a sales surge that surprised politicians and booksellers alike, five liberal books will be among The New York Times's top 15 hard-cover nonfiction bestsellers on today's list, mounting what some sales specialists see as a left-wing assault on the conservatives' decade-long hold on popular culture.

Until now, book publishing -- like talk radio and opinion magazines -- was dominated by right-wing political titles, including polemics by the leading radio and television pundits. The airwaves, bestseller lists, and the opinion press were widely viewed as links in a network that helped prompt investigations of President Clinton and assisted the elections of a Republican House, Senate, and presidency.

As of last May, the top 44 radio stations of 50,000 watts and above owned by the five largest ownership groups carried 312 hours of nationally syndicated conservative talk and five hours of nationally syndicated liberal talk, according to statistics quoted at a Senate hearing.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Quick Links

Common Dreams - By their attacks on Dean, "Senators Kerry and Lieberman and the House Democratic leadership have gone on record supporting the policies of the Bush Administration against the overwhelming majority of the American people."

Mother Jones Blog - As of a week or so ago, the Washington Post reported that, in addition to 1,500 casualties shipped out of Iraq, over 4,500 other soldiers have been flown out of the country with mental and physical ailments of various sorts.

Historian Paul Kennedy and other scholars have written about the slow motion collapses of militarily and economically overstretched empires. Some have said that Iraq is Vietnam on crack cocaine, so perhaps we're beginning to experience imperial overstretch in triple-time.

Newsday - To the winner may go the spoils of politics, but to the front-runner goes a different prize - a large bull's-eye on the back.

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean is learning this harsh lesson as he tries to maintain his newfound status as the candidate to beat. Dean's rise in the polls has gotten his opponents' attention, and they are taking aim and firing away.

The Mahablog - Howard Dean Rocks

The Zogby Poll has Dean ahead in Iowa.

Dean was the choice of 23 percent of voters surveyed, to 17 percent for Mr. Gephardt, 11 percent for Mr. Kerry, 6 percent for Mr. Edwards and 4 percent for Mr. Lieberman. (EL - I think that the recent strong attacks on Bush by Gephardt may have pushed him up.)

Gallup Poll - With Clark in he would be a major candidate but ranking 5th nationally.

The national poll, conducted Sept. 8-10, finds Gephardt in the lead with 16% support among registered Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, followed by former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (14%), Lieberman (13%), Senator John Kerry (12%), and Clark (10%).

In a poll two weeks ago, Lieberman received support from 23% of Democratic voters and led by 10 percentage points over his next closest rival. Clark received just 2% of the vote, suggesting that recent publicity about his pending announcement has boosted his name recognition and support.

EL - GOP and conservative leaning Gallup has lost some astuteness and objectivity on his polls in the last few years. He also leans his headlines and first paragraphs of his reports. His national polls are not restricted to the more probable primary voters which would push up Dean's numbers and drop Lieberman's. Gallup does have good analysis later down in the article which clearly suggests this.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Iowa Back to Dead Heat?

Dean and Gephardt each received 19 percent backing from the 400 registered voters surveyed, including likely Democratic caucus-goers surveyed, including 49 independent voters who are "very likely'' to attend. U.S. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was third at 10 percent. The poll, conducted by Davenport-based PMR between Aug. 26 and Sept. 6 and on Sept. 10, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percent.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Graham Struggling But Still In For Now

"Right now he's losing on all fronts," political science professor Sabato said. "He's not doing well in the presidential contest, he's reducing his chances to be picked for vice president and he's even hurt his chances for re-election to the Senate. It's a trifecta, but not the one he was hoping for."

No one gave Graham a chance 25 years ago either, when he wanted his party's nomination for governor.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

I Saw Cheney's Lies Sunday

Even Bush fan Tim Russert was going after him a little hard. Josh has more with some of the transcript. BuzzFlash is really incensed with the interview.



Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

CNN Top War Correspondent - The Press Muzzled Itself For Bush

USAToday -- CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."

As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Who Will Pay For Iraq? America's Kids and Grandkids.

When President Bush informed the nation last Sunday night that remaining in Iraq next year will cost another $87 billion, many of those who will actually pay that bill were unable to watch. They had already been put to bed by their parents.

Administration officials acknowledged the next day that every dollar of that cost will be borrowed, a loan that economists say will be repaid by the next generation of taxpayers and the generation after that. The $166 billion cost of the work so far in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has stunned many in Washington, will be added to what was already the largest budget deficit the nation has ever known.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Who Would You Rather See Hit The Beach?

Isabel on Thursday evening?

Or Julia any other evening?

Keeping up with my weekly quota of links to gratuitous nudity. This is the internet after all.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Howard Dean - Pincushion Time

The Ex-extemporaneous Howard Dean

Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, laughed off criticism by his competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination this week by saying that he felt like a pincushion. Then he quietly began making tiny alterations to his standard stump speech, measuring facts and assertions twice before speaking.

President Bush's tax cuts, denounced by Dr. Dean for months as "$3 trillion" or, sometimes, "$3 trillion, including interest," became a $2.4 trillion cut, plus $600 billion in interest, during a rally on Friday in Plymouth, N.H. The 91 percent of new mothers in Vermont who used to get home visits within two or three weeks now get visits "mostly in their homes, some in doctors' offices," within three or four. And when Dr. Dean told supporters at the Bektash Temple in Concord, N.H., on Friday that his campaign had 150,000 donors and the next-best number was 20,000, he slipped in a "that I know of," just in case.

The changes, perceptible perhaps only to the aides and reporters who trail him, show a subtle but significant shift for a candidate who sells himself as unscripted. After a week of accusations that he chooses terms carelessly or says different things at different times, Dr. Dean is now balancing his shoot-from-the-hip instinct with his place in a national spotlight where enemies and observers, armed with Internet research tools and digital video recorders, parse every word.

The attacks this week came from his rivals Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (who said Dr. Dean's comments on the Middle East abandoned 50 years of American foreign policy traditions toward Israel); Senator John Edwards of North Carolina (who took issue with his claim to be the only white politician talking to white audiences about race); and the Rev. Al Sharpton (who called on him to oppose Internet voting in Michigan because many African-Americans are on the short end of the digital divide). Even the Republican governor of New Hampshire chimed in, saying a Dean presidency would be bad for the local economy.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Long Krugman Essay On The Tax-Cut Con

Lead story in NYT Magazine: All politicians say they're for public education; almost all of them also say they support a strong national defense, maintaining Social Security and, if anything, expanding the coverage of Medicare. When the ''guy on the news'' asks whether we can afford a tax cut, he's asking whether, after yet another tax cut goes through, there will be enough money to pay for those things. And the answer is no.

But it's very difficult to get that answer across in modern American politics, which has been dominated for 25 years by a crusade against taxes.

I don't use the word ''crusade'' lightly. The advocates of tax cuts are relentless, even fanatical. An indication of the movement's fervor -- and of its political power -- came during the Iraq war. War is expensive and is almost always accompanied by tax increases. But not in 2003. ''Nothing is more important in the face of a war,'' declared Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, ''than cutting taxes.'' And sure enough, taxes were cut, not just in a time of war but also in the face of record budget deficits. Nor will it be easy to reverse those tax cuts: the tax-cut movement has convinced many Americans -- like Tinsley -- that everybody still pays far too much in taxes.

A result of the tax-cut crusade is that there is now a fundamental mismatch between the benefits Americans expect to receive from the government and the revenues government collect. This mismatch is already having profound effects at the state and local levels: teachers and policemen are being laid off and children are being denied health insurance.

Alan Auerbach, William Gale and Peter Orszag, fiscal experts at the Brookings Institution, have estimated the size of the ''fiscal gap'' -- the increase in revenues or reduction in spending that would be needed to make the nation's finances sustainable in the long run. If you define the long run as 75 years, this gap turns out to be 4.5 percent of G.D.P. Or to put it another way, the gap is equal to 30 percent of what the federal government spends on all domestic programs. Of that gap, about 60 percent is the result of the Bush tax cuts. We would have faced a serious fiscal problem even if those tax cuts had never happened. But we face a much nastier problem now that they are in place. And more broadly, the tax-cut crusade will make it very hard for any future politicians to raise taxes.

The astonishing political success of the antitax crusade has, more or less deliberately, set the United States up for a fiscal crisis. How we respond to that crisis will determine what kind of country we become.

If Grover Norquist is right -- and he has been right about a lot -- the coming crisis will allow conservatives to move the nation a long way back toward the kind of limited government we had before Franklin Roosevelt. Lack of revenue, he says, will make it possible for conservative politicians -- in the name of fiscal necessity -- to dismantle immensely popular government programs that would otherwise have been untouchable.

In Norquist's vision, America a couple of decades from now will be a place in which elderly people make up a disproportionate share of the poor, as they did before Social Security. It will also be a country in which even middle-class elderly Americans are, in many cases, unable to afford expensive medical procedures or prescription drugs and in which poor Americans generally go without even basic health care. And it may well be a place in which only those who can afford expensive private schools can give their children a decent education.

Read the complete article.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Part of Dean's Appeal - Simple Unslick Bluntness

Howard Dean and the power of TV ads

Political analysts credit Dean's simple and blunt TV ads with contributing to the buzz that built around his campaign early - combined with his innovative use of the Internet - which in turn has led many Democrats to open their checkbooks.

The Dean campaign is flush with cash, and set to break party fundraising records for the quarter that ends Sept. 30. That has meant more spending on more ads in more states.

In New Hampshire, where local boys Dean and Kerry are fighting for the mantle of "favorite son," Dean is also the front-runner with a double-digit lead in recent polls. One of Kerry's television ads, launched after Labor Day, uses shots from his recent campaign-announcement tour.

But New Hampshire political analysts question their effectiveness. Independent pollster Dick Bennett refers to Kerry's ads producing a "Castro effect" - speaking to big crowds, which tells TV viewers that he's speaking to someone else, not them. Mr. Bennett also critiques Gephardt's TV ads as being too "MTV-style" - quick cuts from scene to scene that don't allow the viewer to focus on the candidate.

"The easiest way to explain it is, the ads should work for older voters," says Bennett. "They need more time to connect."

In New Hampshire, the majority of primary voters are over 45, and so candidates need to focus on messages and a style that appeals to them, he says. The irony is that the slick, highly produced ads are more expensive, while the simple low-tech Dean ads - with the candidate just speaking into the camera - are cheaper.

Along with all his other early advantages, Dean is getting more bang for the buck.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Redistricting Up Again, Part of a Pattern Of GOP Abuse

Kissing, making up on agenda?

Not likely. As part of a hard scolding of John Whitmire for throwing in the towel, the chairman of the Harris County Democrats had this to say:

This plan is part and parcel of the most dangerous assault on our democratic form of government, perhaps in the history of the country: when Republicans disapprove of the choices voters make, they find some way to use (misuse) the power they do have to set aside the election results and impose their will, regardless of the votes of the electorate.

When they didn't like the result of the 1996 presidential election, they sought to overturn the voters' will be removing President Clinton from office through impeachment.

When they lost the popular vote in the presidential election of 2000, they sought to overturn the voters' choice by getting their judges to order that votes in Florida not be counted.

When the voters chose a governor in California they didn't like, they used their money to orchestrate a "recall" election designed to remove from office the person chosen by the people of California less than one year ago.

And when voters in five Republican congressional districts in Texas (designed by the Republican Attorney General, implemented by two Republican federal judges, at the invitation of Governor Perry himself, and approved by the Supreme Court of the United States) chose to be represented by their Democratic incumbents, rather than by the candidates Tom DeLay preferred, Republicans engaged in an unprecedented second redistricting in a decade, obliterating time-honored procedures (the 2/3rds rule) to achieve their anti-democratic result.

There's a clear pattern here! Republicans are taking away the most fundamental aspect of our democracy - respect for the choices of voters, rather than reliance on raw political power, as the driving force of government.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

Why are some Harris County precincts still not counted?
In the controversial passage of proposition 12 there is an odd little fact where no explanation has been provided yet. As of early Monday morning after the Saturday election 28 precincts from Harris county are still not counted.

Here is the Harris County results page and as of now our new electronic system is missing 28 precincts. These are the only precincts in the state not in as shown in the statewide count.

Interesting, Prop 12 passed because Latinos supported it according to the Burnt Orange Report looking at county votes. The anti-campaign missed a key group there.

A key finding in the Florida election was the extensive advertising the GOP did in Spanish in Latino communities and the total lack of Democratic advertising. I bet that is the case here.

Related stories on Proposition 12.

CSM - Texas vote tests a new tactic to curb jury awards - amend the state constitution.

The US General Accounting Office released a study last week finding that rising insurance costs for physicians are not causing widespread denial of care.

Moreover, even a cap on noneconomic damages doesn't mean insurance rates will stop rising, the study found. California, for instance, saw double-digit malpractice insurance-rate increases from 1999 to 2002, a year after the legislature capped noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases at $250,000. What finally brought relief was insurance reform and a rate rebate, says Deborah Hankinson, a former Texas Supreme Court justice and head of Save Texas Courts, which opposes the measure.

Houston Chronicle and Austin Statesman on reaction afterwards.

Gary Permalink on 9/15/2003

My Recommendations for Texas Amendments

Proposition 1: Vote yes. This allows the use of leftover funds for
veterans in nursing homes.

Proposition 2: Vote yes. Allows you two years to buy back your land if
it was taken away to pay property taxes.

Proposition 3: Vote no. Allows churches to not pay taxes on investment
property or unused property.

Proposition 4: Vote yes. To help pay for more parks.

Proposition 5: Vote no. To help schools by making trailers pay school
property taxes.

Proposition 6: Vote yes to allow seniors to convert a home equity loan
to a reverse mortgage loan.

Proposition 7: Vote yes to reduce the size of the jury to six people
for misdemeanor crimes in rural districts. This is done in urban
areas.

Proposition 8: Vote no so that if only one candidate is on the ballot,
you can still write someone in.

Proposition 9: Vote no to prevent political appointees from spending
the principal on the Permanent School Fund. This is a ploy to undo Texas
tradition to help balance the budget. They can't manage money, prevent
them from touching the principal.

Proposition 10: Vote yes to allow cities to donate used fire fighting
equipment to volunteer fire dept.s in small towns.

Proposition 11: Vote yes to allow Texans to build wine making
facilities where people can visit, taste, & buy wine.

Proposition 12: Vote no to prevent preset dollar amounts for lawsuits
claiming non-economic damages. Vote no to protect patient rights. Vote
no if you think life, pain, suffering, disfigurement or the loss of
organs may be worth more than $250,000.

Proposition 13: Vote yes to freeze county, city, or college districts
taxes for disabled and elderly citizens.

Proposition 14: Vote no to stop the Texas Dept. of Transportation from
borrowing money to pay for projects.

Proposition 15: Vote yes to maintain the pensions and healthcare of
retiring city or state employees (police, teachers, firemen, etc.)

Proposition 16: Vote no to prevent banks from targeting homeowners
with risky credit cards based on home equity.

Proposition 17: Vote yes to freeze the property taxes of disabled
citizens.

Proposition 18: Vote no to prevent the legislature from automatically
declaring one candidate the winner if only one person "qualifies" to
be a candidate. This one is similar to Proposition 8.

Proposition 19: Vote no. This says in the future the legislature can't
create Rural Fire Prevention Districts (RFPD's) which have fewer
resources than Emergency Service Districts (ESD's). This is a crazy
amendment, we now have no RFPD's but this prevents some from being
created in the future. Vote no to remind the legislature we need a new
constitution so we don't have to vote for this minutia.

Proposition 20: Vote no. This is special interest loan money to
communities with military bases so they can attempt to bribe bases to
stay with civic improvements paid for by state loans. If the bases
close anyway they will have difficulty paying the money back.

Proposition 21: Vote yes to allow university professors to also be
paid to serve on the governing bodies of water districts. If you think
they should only draw one state salary vote no.

Proposition 22: Vote no. This would allow the appointment of temporary
replacements for any elected official who is called into military
service with no limitation on length of time. This is the third
anti-voter amendment the GOP is serving up.

Your opinion may vary.

Paperwork may be taken into the voting booth.

I am working this election and I can't give you opinions then..

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Prop 12 In Detail - Vote No

This is not a bill to limit punitive damages, this bill limits all
non-economic damages. Punitive damages in Texas were recently changed to
a maximum of triple other damages. This amendment will also
apply to non-medical cases after the first year.

If a child dies or a retired person or a person not working for any
reason dies there is no economic damage besides funeral costs. Life
is therefore given a maximum value of $250,000.

Permanent disfigurement is given a maximum value of $250,000 unless
you can produce evidence of economic harm.

Mistakenly removing an organ or limb - $250,000. Which reminds me of
the Dallas case last week where the doctors mistakenly removed a penis
from someone who went in for a bladder operation. Only if you use the
limb at work and can prove the loss will lead to lower pay is there
economic damage.

Pain and suffering are non-economic damages. The record pain and
suffering damages rewarded were in the Apollo 1 fire, trapped and
burning to death for over a minute. Permanent pain and intense pain
are given the same cap.

States that have limited non-economic damages in this way have not
seen malpractice insurance rates go down. To get malpractice rates to
go down you need to strengthen the procedures for removing incompetent
doctors and better regulation of insurance companies. Recently I read
that they finally suspended a Houston/Pasadena doctor's license under
a new get tough policy. This was after 78 cases were filed against
the doctor over 20 years. He is only "suspended" and will appeal.

Perversely, this $250,000 cap makes it better to kill someone than to
cripple someone where they will have ongoing medical costs.

This cap removes the bargaining and judgment that a jury normally goes
through and replaces it for all cases with the judgment of the idiots
in Austin extracting re-election money from groups. Note - after the
first year if groups organize and chip in they can persuade
legislators to raise or lower the cap. The amendment doesn't set a
cap - it allows the legislature to set a cap. The cap they have set
now is $250,000 per doctor or organization to a maximum of $750,000.

State Hospitals already have the $250,000 cap. Patients who have had
loved die because of possible negligence have found they cannot sue, no
lawyer will take their case. Under Prop 12, any large institution could not
be sued because they can drive up court costs so much a private attorney
cannot make money with the $250,000 cap.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

A profile of Boogie Man, the flakey Dem who caved

Whitmire goes through well-documented cycles where Boogie, his wild and crazy persona as a young party-prone lawmaker, comes clawing and kicking back through the statesman facade.

State Representative Garnet Coleman of Houston, one of the 51 legislators who fled to Oklahoma to short-circuit the regular session vote on redistricting, says Whitmire "stabbed his colleagues in the back."

"We would never have accomplished what we accomplished in Ardmore if we weren't committed to each other," says Coleman. "That was one of the most dishonorable things he could have done to his colleagues."

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Zogby - Dean is Right, Lieberman and Kerry Wrong

“Polling shows that while the American people support Israel, three-quarters want the Administration to be balanced and ‘steer a middle course’ in order to achieve peace. Our polling also shows that American Jews and Arab Americans also want evenhandedness. In this context, therefore, Dean is right and the pandering comments of Kerry and Lieberman are just plain wrong.”
Dr. James Zogby, President of the Arab American Institute and leading pollster.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Lieberman's Dangerous Game

I've now watched two Democratic debates in the last week, and one question sticks in my mind: Why is Joe Lieberman doing Karl Rove's work?

At the first debate last Thursday, Lieberman said, if Dean is elected, "The Bush recession will be followed by the Dean depression."

And at the debate this Tuesday, Lieberman went after Dean for being insufficiently ardent in his support for Israel.

A few days ago, Dean had the temerity to say that the United States should not take sides in the Middle East.

On the Iraq War, Israel and Palestine, trade, vouchers, and the crumbling wall between church and state, Lieberman fits more comfortably within the Republican Party. And he views it as his job to move the Democrats to the right along with him.

Karl Rove must have looked on at both debates with glee, cheering at every one of Lieberman's wild swings.

For if Dean eventually wins the nomination, all Rove needs to do is roll the tape of Lieberman attacking the Democratic nominee on these issues, and Rove and Bush will be well on their way to victory.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Gephardt Compares Dean to Gingrich - Dean Saddened

"I consider Dick Gephardt -- a man I campaigned for 16 years ago -- a friend of mine. But I am deeply saddened that he has chosen to resort to the politics of the past by engaging in name-calling, guilt by association and scare tactics.

"It is a sad day for Dick Gephardt when he compares ANY democratic candidate running for President to Newt Gingrich and his divisive policies. No Democrat in the presidential race bears any resemblance to Newt Gingrich on any major issue. And for Dick Gephardt to suggest otherwise is simply beyond the pale.

"It is the politics of the past, and attacks like these, that have caused so many people to opt out of the political process. My campaign is about bringing those people back in, by offering a positive vision of the future, real solutions to America's problems, and by restoring a politics of meaning and a sense of community in political discourse."

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Diebold Does It Again - Evote Tallies Show Up Online

Newsday.com - Gaffe Casts More Doubts on Electronic Voting

The strange case of an election tally that appears to have popped up on the Internet hours before polls closed is casting new doubts about the trustworthiness of electronic voting machines.

During San Luis Obispo County's March 2002 primary, absentee vote tallies were apparently sent to an Internet site operated by Diebold Election Systems Inc., the maker of the voting machines used in the election.

At least that's what timestamps on digital records showed.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Monster Hurricane Off East Coast

Given the divergence of the models at 120 hr...it is still to early
to even speculate which parts...if any...of eastern coast of the
United States may get affected by Isabel.

From a place for weather technobabel.

Computer model forecasts.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

All Three Parties Did Not Follow Roadmap

Why road map was left behind | csmonitor.com

"The level of compliance was minimal from the start. So was the level of American monitoring and determination to oblige the sides to comply," says Joseph Alpher, an independent Israeli strategic analyst. "Given the American sponsorship of the road map, I think that's the more cardinal sin."

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government didn't formally accept the plan. Israel instead accepted the "steps" outlined in the road map and then appended 14 reservations.

As the months went by, analysts say, neither side fully complied with the plan, meant to establish a Palestinian state by 2005: Both sides predicated progress on actions the other refused to take.

EL - This was Bush's Photo-Op For Peace plan. They spent more time building a wooden bridge and landscaping an area for the cameras then they did drawing up the so-called "roadmap."

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

National Debt Doesn't Matter Because We Owe It To Ouselves? Wrong.

38% of Treasury Notes Now held By Foreigners.

Foreigners May Not Have Liked the War, but They Financed It

All told, foreigners bought almost 80 percent of the net increase in Treasury and agency debt during the quarter.

EL - Of the remaining 62%, consider that the interests of the American people and institutions holding the debt may not be the same as the non-debtholders.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Surprising Hard Questions For Bush From Unlikely Source

If Iraqi institutions and people, after decades of brutal Baathist rule, are in far worse shape than we anticipated, how can we expeditiously turn control over to the Iraqis?

The war on terrorism, you said, "will require sacrifice?" Other than men and women in uniform, whom will you call on to make sacrifices?

Does the sanctity of the tax cuts and the reality of massive budget deficits crowd out even homeland security measures, such as protecting commercial airliners from shoulder-launched missiles?

David Kaye may discover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, not of the scope and lethality cited as the casus belli for the war; was this an intelligence failure or do you think some of those weapons are in others' hands?

A broad-based consensus concurs with Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel that the administration did a "miserable job" in postwar planning; will there be any personal responsibility?

Who gave more financial support to the 9/11 al Qaeda terrorists: the Iraqi ruling class under Saddam or the Saudi Arabian ruling class?

Al Hunt in the Wall Street Journal.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Amazing Gore Poll - If Running He'd Be In Dead Heat With Bush

For the first time since the 2000 elections, a major poll shows the country split evenly between former Vice President Al Gore and President Bush. The same poll also shows that half the voters in America have not forgotten the controversy of the 2000 election.

The results of the Sept. 5-9 Zogby poll show Bush with less than majority support and only with the narrowest of margins over Al Gore, 48 percent to 46 percent -- a difference that's within the poll's margin of error (3.2 percent). Moreover, Gore leads Bush among independent voters by 47 percent to 43 percent.

"More than two and a half years after the 2000 election and we are back where we started," said pollster John Zogby. "The country was evenly divided then and it is still evenly divided."

In the match-up against Bush, Gore received 77 percent support from Democrats, 47 percent from independents, and 10 percent from Republicans.

Perhaps the most intriguing result of the poll was the almost even split on a question never asked of voters before. The poll asked respondents whether they agree or disagree that Gore would have been elected president had all the votes been counted in Florida in 2000. Almost half, 46 percent , agreed, and 48 percent disagreed (again, within the margin of error). A large majority of Democrats (70 percent) and a majority of independents (50 percent) believe Gore would have won had the Supreme Court not intervened.

Asked whether the country would have been better or worse off under a Gore administration, a plurality of respondents (37 percent) gave the nod to a hypothetical Gore presidency. Only 33 percent said the country would have been worse off, and 21 percent said there would have been no difference. Both Democrats (64 percent) and independents (36 percent) feel Gore's leadership would have been better for America.

Asked if they feel that Gore should run in 2004, a majority of Democrats in (52 percent) said yes.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Judges May Delay Recall To Replace Punch Card Ballots

In what appears to be the last major legal challenge to the recall, the panel heard nearly two hours of arguments before taking the case under submission. The panel did not say when a ruling would be issued, but lawyers said outside court that they expect a decision early next week.

U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Harry Pregerson noted during the hearing that the California secretary of state had found the punch-card system unacceptable because of errors.

"So we have to accept the unacceptable, is that what you're saying?" Pregerson asked lawyers representing the state.

EL Prediction - A delay. Judges hate being told to accept something that the state acknowledges is wrong.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

The Bush Legacy - worldwide opinion of America as an unjust imperial power

In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force.

"A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed," said Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, expressing a view commonly heard in many countries. "They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."

In interviews by Times correspondents from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, one point emerged clearly: The war in Iraq has had a major impact on public opinion, which has moved generally from post-9/11 sympathy to post-Iraq antipathy, or at least to disappointment over what is seen as the sole superpower's inclination to act pre-emptively, without either persuasive reasons or United Nations approval.

To some degree, the resentment is centered on the person of President Bush, who is seen by many of those interviewed, at best, as an ineffective spokesman for American interests and, at worst, as a gunslinging cowboy knocking over international treaties and bent on controlling the world's oil, if not the entire world.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

Exploiting the Atrocity

Krugman -- In my first column after 9/11, I mentioned something everyone with contacts on Capitol Hill already knew: that just days after the event, the exploitation of the atrocity for partisan political gain had already begun.

In response, I received a torrent of outraged mail. At a time when the nation was shocked and terrified, the thought that our leaders might be that cynical was too much to bear. ``How can I say that to my young son?'' asked one furious e-mailer.

I wonder what that correspondent thinks now. Is the public - and the news media - finally prepared to cry foul when cynicism comes wrapped in the flag? America's political future may rest on the answer.

Mr. Bush's advisers were greedy; they saw 9/11 as an opportunity to get everything they wanted, from another round of tax cuts, to a major weakening of the Clean Air Act, to an invasion of Iraq. And so they wrapped as much as they could in the flag.

Now it has all gone wrong. The deficit is about to go above half a trillion dollars, the economy is still losing jobs, the triumph in Iraq has turned to dust and ashes, and Mr. Bush's poll numbers are at or below their pre-9/11 levels.

Nor can the members of this administration simply lose like gentlemen. For one thing, that's not how they operate. Furthermore, everything suggests that there are major scandals - involving energy policy, environmental policy, Iraq contracts and cooked intelligence - that would burst into the light of day if the current management lost its grip on power. So these people must win, at any cost.

The result, clearly, will be an ugly, bitter campaign - probably the nastiest of modern American history. Four months ago it seemed that the 2004 campaign would be all slow-mo films of Mr. Bush in his flight suit. But at this point, it's likely to be pictures of Howard Dean or Wesley Clark that morph into Saddam Hussein. And Donald Rumsfeld has already rolled out the stab-in-the-back argument: if you criticize the administration, you're lending aid and comfort to the enemy.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

87 Billion Apologies

If spinning involves an indifference to truth, what's going on here looks more like an actual preference for falsehood. The truth would be better politics, and the administration is fanning out to the talk shows to lie anyway.

Gary Permalink on 9/12/2003

What You Think You Know ABout 9/11, But Don't

An incomplete list from Slate.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Thom Hartman - The Pentagon's Gene Bomb

Three years ago, Wolfowitz, Kristol, and their colleagues suggested this is something the Pentagon should be thinking about. Not just germ warfare, but gene warfare.

And it's not limited just to warfare: Imagine how genetic terraforming could replace diplomacy, could even render the United Nations irrelevant if entire ethnic groups were wiped out or could be controlled by the threat of extinction. Or how it could change the face of politics if an organism got loose that killed off all the people of a particular minority who tend to vote for a particular political party.

Genetically targeted weapons could change world politics forever, according to PNAC.

"And," their report notes, "advanced forms of biological warfare that can 'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."

Given that Kristol, Wolfowitz, and their conservative PNAC associates like Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Eliot Abrams, Jeb Bush, and John Bolton have already brought us two of their early 1998 recommendations - the seizure of Iraq and a huge increase in defense spending - it's tempting to wonder if this is another of their other politically useful ideas being explored by the Pentagon.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Fear and Anxiety In Senate GOP

Robert Novak - Republicans on Capitol Hill were stunned last Saturday when the Zogby Poll reported that Bush's national approve-disapprove ratio has slipped into negative territory for the first time (with only 45 percent saying he is doing a good job). That couples with continued job losses across the country and the rising cost of Iraq, in blood and treasure. On top of that, GOP senators are depressed that Democrats are winning the judicial confirmation war. A worried freshman Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina puts all this together and calls it "the perfect storm."

In nearly half a century of Congress-watching, I frequently have observed senators of a president's own party head for the lifeboats when any storm -- perfect or not -- approaches. Today's Senate Republicans have not reached that point, but fear and anxiety among them is palpable.

Most of the danger is directed at the Defense Department's management of the Iraqi reconstruction. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, who has an excellent relationship with the president, is described by friends as feeling the Pentagon misled him. The committee's second ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel, feels even more strongly about it. So does Sen. John McCain, who had buried the hatchet with George W. Bush to vigorously support the Iraqi intervention.

Bush political adviser Karl Rove always has predicted a close presidential election for 2004, just as he did for 2000. Republican senators now realize Rove was not kidding, and they no longer laugh at Howard Dean challenging Bush for the presidency.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Molly Ivins - I Won't Just Get Over It

How dumb do they think we are? I am tired of being asked to swallow lies by this administration. For $87 billion bucks, the least we deserve is some candor.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Dean and Clark 2004

Repeat - Dean/Clark in 2004.

Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean has asked retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark to join his campaign, if the former NATO commander does not jump into the race himself next week, and the two men discussed the vice presidency at a weekend meeting in California, sources familiar with the discussions said.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Recent Slate - "Way too squirrelly for Karl Rove"

On Sept. 11, the president was handed a historic opportunity. He ignored it.

Remember? The French newspaper Le Monde, never one for trans-Atlantic sentimentalism, proclaimed, "We are all Americans." The band outside Buckingham Palace played "The Star-Spangled Banner" during a changing of the guard, as thousands of Londoners tearfully waved American flags. Most significant, the European leaders of NATO, for the first time in the organization's history, invoked Article 5 of its charter, calling on its 19 member-nations to treat the attack on America as an attack on them all—a particularly moving gesture, as Article 5 had been intended to guarantee American retaliation against an attack on Europe.

... By the summer of 2003, it could fairly be said that most of the world hated the United States, or at least feared the current U.S. government.


The Baltimore Debate

All the Democrats were strong, except Lieberman, but Dean was near perfect.

If the candidates had debated a year ago, Lieberman would have been the heir apparent, and Dean would have been the one fighting for attention. Dean would have done the attacking, and Lieberman would have shaken his head in disappointment at such demagoguery.

Slate also has Doonesbury on political flash mobs - But couldn't it be used for evil? No, it's way too squirrelly for Karl Rove.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Dean Meetup October 1, 7:00 P.M.

One of the next Dean 2004 Meetups will be in Pasadena if a few more people sign up.

Top China Buffet

3630 Spencer Highway @ Burke Pasadena, TX 77504
Phone: 281-944-6611
Hours: 11:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M.

Janette - Please bring your digital camera if you have one! Thanks.
Easter Lemming - Nice and has a separate room if needed but large room is quiet weekdays. Service is very good. Huge selection including a small sushi selection. Good hot tea and ice creams, buffet price is $6.99 if you come early to the meeting or stay late.

Top China Buffet is located in the Kroger Shopping Center opposite Kinko's. The restaurant is just west of the Spencer Highway and Burke intersection.

AGENDA (NOT FINAL)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• Develop support within the local party to win the caucuses.
• Discuss minority outreach, the next phase of the campaign.
• Working on local campaigns this November to build experience and networks.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Dean's army goes offline - AWM for Dean?

Computer geeks go offline to recruit seniors and minorities and the non-connected.

"In case you haven't noticed, we've entered the 'they're all white' phase of the campaign," Rick Klau, a software executive who runs a blog devoted to the Dean campaign, wrote in response to the Times story. Reporters are eager to find a new angle on Dean, Klau suggested, and "many of them are observing that many of the throngs showing up to hear Dean speak are Caucasian. Uh, ok. Point taken. But as everyone else points out, we've got some time before the primaries. If the articles were pointing out that the missing minorities were attending rallies by one of the other top-tier candidates, I'd be worried."

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the proprietor of the popular lefty blog Daily Kos and a consultant to the Dean campaign's Web efforts, says that even if Dean is failing to appeal to minorities now, they will come to him if he wins the nomination. Meanwhile, Moulitsas says, polls show that Dean is currently attracting a crowd that the Democratic Party has had trouble with in recent elections -- white males. This is partly because of Dean's use of the Web, Moulitsas says, but mainly because "he's a very aggressive candidate in his speaking style, and the anger. Nobody wants a president that's a wimp, and Dean sounds tough, he sounds like he's ready to kick some ass, and I think that really fires men up."

EL - I need a new poster - Angry White Males for Dean.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

BuzzFlash Interviews Krugman

Paul Krugman, economist professor and columnist at the New York Times - I think Clinton's successes will be overshadowed by the scale of the disaster that followed. Not that Clinton will be blamed. I think historians will say, "Gee, there was a sensible, basically well-intentioned government that dealt successfully with a bunch of crazies."

A lot of good things happened in the 1920s, although there were a couple of really bad presidents. But all of that now, in historical memory, is colored by the realization of what followed afterwards.

I think that with the looming disasters of the budget on foreign policy –- and the things that really scare me, which I know we're not going to get into but let's just mention the erosion of civil liberties at home -– I think that, in retrospect, this will be seen in terms of how did the country head over this cliff.

I hope I'm wrong. If there's regime change in 2004, and the new man actually manages to steer us away from the disasters I see in front of us, then we'll probably be talking a lot about the long boom that was begun during the Clinton years, and how it was resilient, even to an episode of incredibly bad management.

But I don't think that's the way it's going to play out, to be honest. Whatever happens in the election, I think that we've done an extraordinary amount of damage in the last three years.

EL - What you mean WE, Kemosabe? Bush and the GOP did it all without my help.

There is no economic policy. That's really important to say. The general modus operandi of the Bushies is that they don't make policies to deal with problems. They use problems to justify things they wanted to do anyway. So there is no policy to deal with the lack of jobs. There really isn't even a policy to deal with terrorism. It's all about how can we spin what's happening out there to do what we want to do.

Now if you ask what do the people who keep pushing for one tax cut after another want to accomplish, the answer is they are basically aiming to create a fiscal crisis which will provide the environment in which they can basically eliminate the welfare state.

I was very much part of that comfortable world where the working assumptions –- the pretense, if you like -– is that we're all men of good will, and it's all intelligent and that the issues are deep. And if there are divisions, it's because there are really two sides.

And then here I am in the middle of this, trying desperately to get a few more people to notice that we have wildly dishonest, irresponsible people making policy in the world's greatest nation. And currents of abuse are coming in the mail and over the e-mails, as we saw. There are many mornings when I wake up and say, "Why am I doing this? But you got to do it."

If you work for any Murdoch publication or network [Fox, etc.], or if you work for the Rev. Moon's empire [Wash. Times, etc.], you're really not a journalist in the way that we used to think. You're basically just part of a propaganda machine. And that's a pretty large segment of the media.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Spinsanity Insanity

Joe Conason is the most recent victim of Spinsanity's attempt to find things to crticize about liberals to maintain a reputation for evenhandedness. Spinsanity is normally doing a good job of ripping apart the spin and falsehoods conservatives put out and then feels like it must balance that by coming up with some attack on alleged spin by moderates and liberals. In nearly every case, to me it looks like comparing fleas to elephants. Your opinion may vary of course.

Joe writes: I respect Spinsanity enough to praise and cite it in "Big Lies." But this time they stretched to find enough "mistakes" in my book to cobble together an article.

Gary Permalink on 9/11/2003

Freeway Blogging

Scarlett Pimpernel saw more signs near Camp Pendleton in California.

"32,000 Dead and I'm still paying $2.29 for unleaded"

"Dulce et Decorum est por Halliburton Mori"

This goes with his "It's been 14 months since George Bush said the words 'Osama Bin Laden' in public... Have YOU Forgotten?" spotted previously.

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

Senate blocks new overtime pay rules

The Senate voted Wednesday to bar the Bush administration from issuing new overtime pay rules that Democrats and organized labor said would take money from the pockets of millions of workers.

The vote was 54-45, and left the fate of the controversial new regulations uncertain. The House blessed the administration's proposal earlier this year, and congressional negotiators will have to untangle the disagreement In addition, the White House has raised the possibility of a veto if Congress tries to block the rules.

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

Powell's case for Iraq war falls apart (was never there)

A Pulitzer prize winning journalist at AP finally, after six months, fact-checked Powell's speech to the UN.

EL -- Nada, zip, misleading, slanted, subject to several interpretations and bogus. I should point out these were my words. The reporter just points out the repeated facts that aren't so. There weren't any accurate facts.

How did I know back then it was bogus? Someone in the UK checked it more thoroughly only a few days after Powell gave it and before it was known there were no WMDs. I have that in my archives - your opportunity to use my search tool in the left corner. I had also been checking the claims made repeated by the administration and in all cases foreign and US underground sources had the facts the US mainstream media refused to look for. We were being systematically lied to.

AP does catch the Powell lie - "Powell's rendition of the third conversation made it more incriminating, by saying an officer ordered that the area be "cleared out." The voice on the tape didn't say that, but only that the area be "inspected," according to the official U.S. translation."

AP is at least going back, if much too late, and now finally fact-checking.

The magazine for editors and publishers spreads the word to the people who failed and permitted the lies to drag America into war.

"Last month, Charles J. Hanley, special correspondent for the Associated Press and winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 2000, wrote a devastating 2,500-word critique of claims made by Secretary of State Colin Powell in his influential Feb. 5 speech to the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In a column published this week, E&P Editor Greg Mitchell calls this speech the single most important moment in the march to war -- and charges that the media's unquestioning endorsement of Powell's assertions made invasion inevitable."

EL - I couldn't say it better. The American media did not do its job and thousands of people are dead and billions of dollars are wasted.

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

KPFT - The Other Side -- Thursday Night

Do you believe in John Ashcroft, George Bush, Rick Perry, Karl Rove, and Santa Claus? Of course not.

Do you believe the media is liberal while at the same time believing in pigs flying or July snowstorms in Houston?

If you answered no to these questions then you are already smarter than your local Rush Limbaugh listener and more qualified to be governor than Arnold Schwarzenegger!

And now there's a radio show for your intelligence.

Tune in this THURSDAY night for the cure as The Other Side will be on 90.1 KPFT in Houston, 89.5 in Galveston and www.kpft.org on the world wide web.

Remember this THURSDAY night at 11:00 p.m., we flood your brain with genuine liberal talk radio!

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

Latest Nude Protest

Place - Cancun Beach

Cause - WTO Meeting

Photo - small

Anti-globalization protesters stripped out of their clothes and spelled out the words ''No WTO'' with their naked bodies Monday, the first of several actions against the World Trade Organization meeting in this Caribbean resort.

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

Rumors have Been Around For Weeks That Karl Rove Could Be Busted

He has been suspected of being the "high white house official" who leaked to Novak and other reporters that ambassador Wilson's wife is a CIA operator specializing in finding weapons of mass destruction.

EL - Think about that for a minute.

To punish someone who disagreed with the president and reported the truth he was willing to break the law and out his spouse who was engaged in protecting American citizens.

I had heard rumors on blogs before and then someone gave the website on CSPAN and now I have been forwarded this twice.

This site I am not crazy about because it goes into the unrelated topic of Rove actually being German.

The first place I saw the story was probably here, which gives the setting where Wilson fingered Rove and hoped he was led from the White House in handcuffs.

Josh Marshall had already noted his belief that Wilson had a suspect in mind. But having someone in mind is one thing, and making what is virtually a public accusation of an aggravated felony is something else.

Josh at Talking Points Memo will have an interview with Wilson soon, unless Wilson takes a "walk in the woods." I think I may have read too many Le Carre novels.

Meanwhile TPM has a brief blog on Rumsfeld as German militarist. Sounds like he wants to avoid the Nazi label?

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

This War on Terrorism is Bogus

England has a cabinet minister (six months ago) asking the obvious questions and drawing the obvious conclusions.

We now know that a blueprint for the creation of a global Pax Americana was drawn up for Dick Cheney (now vice-president), Donald Rumsfeld (defense secretary), Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's deputy), Jeb Bush (George Bush's younger brother) and Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff). The document, entitled Rebuilding America's Defenses, was written in September 2000 by the neoconservative think tank, Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The plan shows Bush's cabinet intended to take military control of the Gulf region whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power. It says "while the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The PNAC blueprint supports an earlier document attributed to Wolfowitz and Libby which said the US must "discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role". It refers to key allies such as the UK as "the most effective and efficient means of exercising American global leadership". It describes peacekeeping missions as "demanding American political leadership rather than that of the UN."

It is known that at least 11 countries provided advance warning to the US of the 9/11 attacks. Two senior Mossad experts were sent to Washington in August 2001 to alert the CIA and FBI to a cell of 200 terrorists said to be preparing a big operation (Daily Telegraph, September 16 2001). The list they provided included the names of four of the 9/11 hijackers, none of whom was arrested.

It had been known as early as 1996 that there were plans to hit Washington targets with airplanes. Then in 1999 a US national intelligence council report noted that "al-Qaida suicide bombers could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House".

The first hijacking was suspected at not later than 8.20am, and the last hijacked aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania at 10.06am. Not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from the US Andrews Air Force base, just 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit the Pentagon at 9.38 am. Why not? There were standard FAA intercept procedures for hijacked aircraft before 9/11. Between September 2000 and June 2001 the US military launched fighter aircraft on 67 occasions to chase suspicious aircraft (AP, August 13 2002). It is a US legal requirement that once an aircraft has moved significantly off its flight plan, fighter planes are sent up to investigate.

Was this inaction simply the result of key people disregarding, or being ignorant of, the evidence? Or could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September 11? If so, why, and on whose authority? The former US federal crimes prosecutor, John Loftus, has said: "The information provided by European intelligence services prior to 9/11 was so extensive that it is no longer possible for either the CIA or FBI to assert a defense of incompetence."

Rumsfeld was so determined to obtain a rationale for an attack on Iraq that on 10 separate occasions he asked the CIA to find evidence linking Iraq to 9/11; the CIA repeatedly came back empty-handed (Time Magazine, May 13 2002).

Similar evidence exists in regard to Afghanistan. The BBC reported (September 18 2001) that Niaz Niak, a former Pakistan foreign secretary, was told by senior American officials at a meeting in Berlin in mid-July 2001 that "military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October".

Meacher Sparks Fury Over Claims on September 11 and Iraq War

EL - The US embassy did not dispute the facts but they branded him a conspiracy theorist and a leftie-greenie-wacko without serious credentials since he left Blair's cabinet all of six months ago..

David Aaronovitch disputes the Meecher facts and interpretation but is corrected in some reaction letters here,

Gary Permalink on 9/10/2003

"They All Ought To Be Fired"

Bookman, columnist at the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Who knew Iraq's oil industry was so decrepit? Who predicted guerrilla war? Who knew it would cost so much? Who knew that the Iraqi army, which we disbanded back in May, would have been so useful in keeping peace?

Well, a lot of people knew. The administration simply did not listen.

El - I knew, but I sometimes read my own blog. ;-)

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

New Airline Policy Will Kick Off One Person Per Plane

At least that is the way I interpret 1%.

Mainly people have been talking about what color sticker will they get. I used to get gold stars but I am probably a dangerous tutti-fruitti now.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

A Fun Rant and a Serious Question

Daily Kos picks up a fun libertarian rant against Bush and asks:

So, to libertarians, which is more harmful to your personal liberties? The Republicans who lie about their intentions and then trample on your civil liberties while growing the size of government, or Democrats? The choice is yours.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Britain Struggling To Send 3,000 More Troops

The call for more troops caught the armed forces cold with most rapid deployment forces on long-term leave after months in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Commanders could normally send paratroopers or Royal Marine commandos very swiftly to reinforce any operational deployment but a series of operations culminating in the Iraq war has meant they are not ready.

Not only have British soldiers fought gruelling campaigns in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four years, they have also had to cope with the foot and mouth crisis and the firemen's strikes.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Who Is Losing In the Bush Economy? Families with Kids.

The average two-income family earns far more today than did the single-breadwinner family of a generation ago. And yet, once they have paid the mortgage, the car payments, the taxes, the health insurance, and the day-care bills, today’s dual-income families have less discretionary income — and less money to put away for a rainy day — than the single-income family of a generation ago. And so the Two-Income Trap has been neatly sprung. Mothers now work two jobs, at home and at the office. And yet they have less cash on hand. Mom’s paycheck has been pumped directly into the basic costs of keeping the children in the middle class.

The families in the worst financial trouble are not the usual suspects. They are not the very young, tempted by the freedom of their first credit cards. They are not the elderly, trapped by failing bodies and declining savings accounts. And they are not a random assortment of Americans who lack the self-control to keep their spending in check. Rather, the people who consistently rank in the worst financial trouble are united by one surprising characteristic. They are parents with children at home. Having a child is now the single best predictor that a woman will end up in financial collapse.

Consider a few facts. Our study showed that married couples with children are more than twice as likely to file for bankruptcy as their childless counterparts. A divorced woman raising a youngster is nearly three times more likely to file for bankruptcy than her single friend who never had children.

If trends persist, more than 5 million families with children will file for bankruptcy by the end of this decade. That would mean that across the country nearly one of every seven families with children would have declared itself flat broke, losers in the great American economic game. If current trends persist, more than one of every six single mothers will go bankrupt by the end of the decade.

What is the solution?

There are changes that can happen — real changes, practical changes, meaningful changes. Changes that can be made in Congress, in state legislatures, in school boards, and in families.

The authors recommend a number of useful solutions to get families out of this trap, such as legally prohibiting credit card companies from charging grossly unfair interest rates and exposing banks that employ a loan-to-own strategy that steers minority customers to higher mortgage rates with an eye to future foreclosures.

EL - A very mixed bag of solutions and lots of room for argument about fixes. The biggest improvement would be to vote for candidates that support the working class, which is not clearly discussed in a somewhat GOP-leaning book.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Democratic Hopefuls Clash on Middle East, Iraq

As he did in last week's debate, Lieberman led the charge against Dean, attacking him for saying the United States should not take sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said the former Vermont governor would end more than five decades of U.S. support for Israel.

"Howard Dean's statements break a 50-year record in which presidents, Republican and Democrat, members of Congress of both parties, have supported our relationship with Israel based on shared values and common strategic interests," Lieberman said.

Dean said he recognized the special relationship between the United States and Israel but Washington needed to become a credible negotiator in the region.

"We need to be trusted by both sides," he said, adding that his position on Israel was no different than the one held by former President Bill Clinton . "Not right," Lieberman interrupted him.

"We do not gain strength as a negotiator if we compromise on support of Israel," said Lieberman, who is Jewish. Dean responded: "We need peace. It doesn't help, Joe, to demagogue this issue."

The debate, broadcast live nationally on Fox News cable channel, was interrupted five times by shouting protesters backing controversial perennial candidate Lyndon Larouche.

EL - Amazingly, out of ten positions I now agree with Larouche on three. This is only a money making venture for Larouche, he would be unable to take the oath of office as a convicted felon.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Al Sharpton Worries If Kucinich Is "Out On A Weekend Pass"

In the New York Metro.

Another person not taking his meds could be womanizer Dick Morris.

HERE'S what I see happening in the 2004 presidential race: Al Gore is watching President Bush. Hillary Clinton is watching Gore. Bush is watching Hillary and the Democrats are watching Dean.

The solution for Bush is to put terrorism back on the front burner by high profile and aggressive action against Iran and/or North Korea. It's not necessary to wag the dog, but Bush should wag his tongue and raise the profile of these two remaining threats to our security.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

GOP Admits - We Underestimated Dean, He'll Be Tough

Some Bush allies say he reminds them of another insurgent candidate who once bedeviled Bush: Arizona Sen. John McCain. His wins in Republican primary elections in New Hampshire and Michigan rattled Bush's 2000 campaign.

"There is something going on there, and I tell you, if we don't pay attention ... we're making a big mistake," says Tom Rath, a Republican strategist and Bush adviser in New Hampshire.

Interviews with 15 GOP leaders found consensus on one point: If Dean wins the first two contests, Iowa's caucuses Jan. 19 and New Hampshire's primary, he'll win the nomination.

El - Polls show him leading in both.

Few Republicans are cheering for Dean now. His fundraising — he collected $7.6 million in the second quarter of the year, outdoing his eight rivals — the appeal of his passionate attacks on Bush and his rise in the polls have revised their earlier opinions.

They say Dean seems to be the only candidate having fun on the campaign trail, a quality that voters find appealing.

Howard Kurtz covers this and more in Media Notes and includes Stephen Moore's interesting take on the Libertarian Dean - "'You folks at CATO,' he told us, 'should really like my views because I'm economically conservative and socially laissez-faire.' Then he continued: 'Believe me, I'm no big-government liberal. I believe in balanced budgets, markets, and deregulation. Look at my record in Vermont.' He was scathing in his indictment of the 'hyper-enthusiasm for taxes' among Democrats in Washington.

"He left -- and I will never forget the nearly hypnotic reaction. The charismatic doctor had made believers of several hardened cynics. Nearly everyone agreed that we had finally found a Democrat we could work with..."

"Howard Dean could be George W. Bush's worst nightmare."


Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Hans Blix - Saddam May Have Destroyed WMD's in 1991

More than four months after US President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq, former chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said facts presented by Iraq in the 12,000-page document may have been accurate.

"With this long period, I'm inclined to think that the Iraqi statement that they destroyed all the biological and chemical weapons, which they had in the summer of 1991 may well be the truth," Blix told CNN television.

The retired Swedish diplomat, who headed the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq, said his inspectors had worked in Iraq for three-and-a-half months in late 2002 and early 2003 and "did not find any smoking gun."

Blix said US and British experts had now been scouring Iraq for weapons of mass destruction for several months and had the opportunity to interrogate members of the Iraqi establishment in their custody.

"I cannot fail to notice that some of the things that they expected us to see that they have turned out not to be real weapons of mass destruction," said the former chief inspector.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Bush's Great Hope - India?

The Hindustan Times suggests India will be cautious and drive a hard bargain.

Some Indian officials say "that the U.S. has failed to put enough pressure on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism, and New Delhi should not send troops without making an explicit deal with Washington," the paper wrote.

But that might be a deal Washington would contemplate. Troops from Norway and Romania aren't going to solve Bush's Iraq problem. Troops from India might.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Krugman -- Other People's Sacrifice

"We cannot let past differences interfere with present duties."

[Bush spoke], in a way he hasn't before, about "sacrifice." Yet, as always, what he means by unity is that he should receive a blank check, and it turns out that what he means by sacrifice is sacrifice by other people.

It's now clear that the Iraq war was the mother of all bait-and-switch operations. Mr. Bush and his officials portrayed the invasion of Iraq as an urgent response to an imminent threat, and used war fever to win the midterm election. Then they insisted that the costs of occupation and reconstruction would be minimal, and used the initial glow of battlefield victory to push through yet another round of irresponsible tax cuts.

Now almost half the Army's combat strength is bogged down in a country that wasn't linked to Al Qaeda and apparently didn't have weapons of mass destruction, and Mr. Bush tells us that he needs another $87 billion, right away. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I (like many others) told you so.

The most important concession Mr. Bush should make isn't about money or control — it's about truth-telling. He squandered American credibility by selling a war of choice as a war of necessity; if he wants to get that credibility back, he has to start being candid.

Yet in the speech on Sunday he was still up to his usual tricks. Once again, he made a rhetorical link between the Iraq war and 9/11. This argument by innuendo reminds us why 69 percent of the public believes that Saddam was involved in 9/11, despite a complete absence of evidence. (There is, on the other hand, strong evidence of a Saudi link — but the administration's handling of that evidence borders on a cover-up.) And rather than acknowledge that the search for W.M.D. has come up empty, he declared that Saddam "possessed and used weapons of mass destruction" — 1991, 2003, what's the difference?

El - I started this digest to provide people with news and links they weren't getting from the American media of the Bush lies and deceptions. I celebrated this summer as the American media is now starting to take a closer look.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

HIGHTOWER: Posturing Bush Betrays Vets

Sometimes, political posturing reaches a level that makes me go from merely gritting my teeth... to wanting to puke.

That's precisely how I feel as I see the White House engaged in a vile, disgusting betrayal of America's military veterans. Yes, the very Bushites who constantly exhort you and me to "support our troops" and who crassly pose George W in front of the troops for his political gain – these duplicitous game-players are going all out to kill legislation that would give a simple measure of fairness to some 700,000 disabled and desperate veterans.

These are front-line, career soldiers who were injured in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and other wars. Yet, under an old law, these aging veterans are having their retirement pay docked for every dollar they get in disability benefits. In short, they are forced to pay for their own disabilities, which they incurred in military service to their country.

Bush himself promised in the 2000 campaign to rectify the unfairness, and he pledged just before being sworn in that "promises made to our veterans will be promises kept."

He lied. The White House now promises to veto the bill. Pentagon chief Donnie Rumsfeld even went to congress in July to tell lawmakers personally that Bush would slap the vets with the veto, declaring that the bill's five-billion-dollar-a-year cost would break the budget.

Let's not just puke - let's support the vets! Call: the White House comment line: 202-454-1111.

Also - Hightower on Prettying Up the Wal-mart Beast.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

U.S. Spy Agencies Warned of Iraq Resistance

As U.S. military casualties mount and resistance forces wage a campaign of targeted bombings in Iraq, some administration officials have begun to fault the CIA and other intelligence agencies for being overly optimistic and failing to anticipate such widespread and sustained opposition to a U.S. occupation. But several administration and congressional sources interviewed for this article said the opposite occurred. They said senior policymakers at the White House, Pentagon and elsewhere received classified analyses before the war warning about the dangers of the postwar period.

"Intelligence reports told them at some length about possibilities for unpleasantness," said a senior administration official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity. "The reports were written, but we don't know if they were read."

El - This war and the occupation was planned by a small group connected to Rumsfeld and Cheney who repeatedly and consistently ignored the experts.

On Feb. 26, the day Bush said in a speech that bringing democracy to Iraq would help democratize other Arab countries, the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research completed a classified analysis that dismissed the idea.

The State Department analysis reportedly stated that "liberal democracy would be difficult to achieve" in Iraq and that "electoral democracy, were it to emerge, could well be subject to exploitation by anti-American elements."

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

'I became the profane pervert Arab blogger'

How Salam Pax started blogging and the cat-and-mouse game with the iraqi internet police.

By the end of January war felt very close and the blog was being read by a huge number of people. There were big doubts that I was writing from Baghdad, the main argument being there was no way such a thing could stay under the radar for so long in a police state. I really have no idea how that happened. I have no idea whether they knew about it or not. I just felt that it was important that among all the weblogs about Iraq and the war there should be at least one Iraqi blog, one single voice: no matter how you view my politics, there was at least someone talking.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Texas Guts School, Library Tech Funds

The state has killed a program that put $1 billion worth of computers and high-tech equipment into Texas schools and libraries, leaving local officials scrambling for alternative funding.

Perry signed an executive order last month that transfers the daily administration of the TIF board to the Texas Workforce Commission. The last grants are expected to be paid out by March.

The TIF program has been collecting money since 1995 from a fee that Texas cellular phone users pay each month. The fund has allocated about $1.1 billion in grants to schools, libraries, community colleges, universities and health care facilities.

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Perry, said $250 million from TIF fees will also be used to help balance the state's budget.

EL - This money was from a tax that was to be used to upgrade schools and libraries, Perry is using the money to cover his budget shortfall.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Outlook Unclear on Prescription Drug Benefit

More than two months after the Senate and House passed comprehensive but different Medicare prescription drug bills, key lawmakers and well-connected lobbyists peg the chances for a successful compromise at only 50-50.

EL- This is a very bad plan that Bush is pushing to help his re-election. The only Democratic support it is getting is from those who figure that once it is in place the public will demand improvements.

"This bill is not really a great gift," Shane Creamer of Bluebell, Pa., said last week as he walked from a rally of several hundred AARP members to the Capitol Hill office of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

At the same time, Creamer said, a Medicare drug benefit is "a question of life and death." If the high cost of medications "doesn't kill you physically," he said, "it kills your standard of living."

Creamer's comments tracked the results of a recent public opinion poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. The survey found that while a majority of seniors wanted Congress to enact Medicare prescription drug coverage, three-quarters of seniors worried that even with such a benefit they would be left responsible for paying too much of their drug expenses.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Here We Go Again - Third Texas Redistricting Special Session

Republican Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday called a third special session of the Legislature to redraw Texas' congressional districts after the Democrats thwarted two previous attempts by fleeing the state.

Perry said the session would begin on Monday.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Administration - Ignore What You See, We Never Change Policies

"This is a continuation of what we have been doing," Bush press secretary Scott McClellan said from the podium.

"This isn't anything new; there's no big news story here," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld repeated.

"The president has said this from the very beginning," Secretary of State Colin L. Powell noted.

Long before the Iraq war, the Bush administration presented its foreign policy as unwavering on subjects ranging from Middle East involvement to the "One China" policy to arms pacts with Russia. But now, with a highly visible shift on the United Nations, the administration has to contend with more of a paper trail as it tries to argue that nothing has changed.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Administration: The Additional $87 Billion Is Still Short Of What Is Needed

The White House acknowledged Monday that it substantially underestimated the cost of rebuilding Iraq and that even the additional $87 billion it was seeking from a wary Congress would fall far short of what is needed for postwar reconstruction.

Administration officials said President Bush's emergency spending request — which would push the U.S. budget deficit above the half-trillion-dollar mark for the first time — still left a reconstruction funding gap of as much as $55 billion.

El - Haliburton's comment - "Bring'em on."

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Iraq Spending With Tax Cuts Is Unaffordable

"We can't do it all," said Lee Hamilton, director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a former Democratic member of the House. "From the president's speech, I haven't seen the hard recognition of the economic costs of this decision. I don't think he gave us a picture of how he intends to pay for his foreign policy."

Yet as the projected federal budget deficit for 2004 exceeds $500 billion, officials have not changed their assessments of the United States' fiscal health or the White House's economic plans. Just days before he disclosed his Iraq spending request Sunday, the president demanded that Congress pass hundreds of billions of dollars in additional tax cuts.

"The purpose . . . is to hold the president accountable for a failed policy, not to cut off funding," said an aide to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who will try to bar any of the money from being spent until the administration issues a detailed report on its long-term plans for Iraq.

Bush's $87 billion figure is the largest emergency spending request since the opening months of World War II, according to Pat Towell, a defense fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Gary Permalink on 9/09/2003

Shocking - Easter Lemming Liberal News Picked as Headline Feed

I was checking out Maciek's Mil-Sim site, feeling a little guilty that I got involved in politics and other things so I hadn't contributed much to his great Civ 3 massive scenario, and discovered on the right-hand side a display of the latest headlines from here.

Wow, now I really feel guilty and as soon as I can get less involved in politics and get a full-time job I have to get back with him in updating his World 2003 scenario.

World 2003 is a realistic strategy game which accurately simulates current political and military situation of the world. Here is the FAQ.

I also learned I need to not put html commands in the title of a post ;-).

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2003

DVD 'Unprecedented - The 2000 Presidential Election'



Have you seen the film, "Unprecedented"? It documents what happened in Florida when Bush and his cronies stole the 2000 election. It is powerful, compelling and infuriating. If you haven't seen it, you MUST.

A reminder from Ms. Sexton and Mr. Hayman.

Gary Permalink on 9/08/2003

Democratic field nervously eyes Clark

CNN -- Clark's background could prove to be an attractive alternative to Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War hero and favorite of many party leaders. Although Clark was raised in Arkansas, he was born in Chicago just like candidate Carol Moseley Braun. And even though Clark grew up a Baptist and converted to Catholicism, his father was Jewish like candidate Joe Lieberman.

The inevitable comparison for Clark is with former President Clinton, the Rhodes scholar who tra