Monday, January 31, 2005
The GOP and Social Security
Daily Kos has "[t]he GOP's 103-page playbook for destroying social security." Worth a visit and a download.
Daily Kos has "[t]he GOP's 103-page playbook for destroying social security." Worth a visit and a download.
Saturday, January 29, 2005
The Liberal Media?
From Salon.com. Brian Williams, the new NBC anchor on the liberal media.
From Salon.com. Brian Williams, the new NBC anchor on the liberal media.
"'WILLIAMS: Oh, often, often, and I'm one of the few in a very select group that Rush has allowed on when I've called in from the car. I do listen to Rush. I listen to it from a radio in my office or depending on my day, if I'm in the car, I will listen to Rush and he will tell you I've been listening for years. I think it's my duty to listen to Rush. I think Rush has actually yet to get the credit he is due because his audience for so many years felt they were in the wilderness of this country. No one was talking to them. They would look at mainstream media and they'd hear sentences like the following: Conservative firebrand Newt Gingrich today accused Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy…This was from the C-SPAN transcript. So much for the liberal media when the anchor of one of the three networks is a Rush fan. ABC News pays Michael Savage, the well known right wing radio nut.
'Well, what's wrong with that sentence? My friend Brit Hume -- we covered the White House together, always would call reporters on this. Where's the appellation for Ted Kennedy in that sentence, you members of the perhaps unintentionally liberal media? Why aren't you calling Kennedy something if you're going to label Newt Gingrich a conservative firebrand? That's what Rush did. Rush said to millions of Americans, you have a home. Come with me. For three hours a day you can listen and hear the likeminded calling in from across the country and I'll read to you things perhaps you didn't see that are out there. I think Rush gave birth to the Fox news channel. I think Rush helped to give birth to a movement. I think he played his part in the contract with America. So I hope he gets his due as a broadcaster.'"
"tolerance and diversity"
This just in. According to James Dobson of Focus on the Family, "'tolerance and diversity'" "are almost always buzzwords for homosexual advocacy" and thus should be rejected. Dobson calls the Sponge Bob video advocating "tolerance and diversity" nothing more than "homosexual propaganda," which of course according to Dobson is bad. Almost in the same sentence he says it's parents's duty to "train up" youngsters in some sort of warped world view that he espouses in which bad is good and war is peace, etc. He cites some biblical passage that the role of parents or schools isn't to teach such silly ideas as "tolerance and diverstiy" but rather to rear them "in the fear and admonition of the Lord"--no propaganda there at all. Dobson even has the gall to write that his concern over the Sponge Bob video arose because, "What is vitally important, however, are the children of this country and the effort being made to manipulate them for political purposes." Yeah, that's why the good Dr. Dobson waited until the Bush inaugural to express his concern about the Sponge Bob video.
This just in. According to James Dobson of Focus on the Family, "'tolerance and diversity'" "are almost always buzzwords for homosexual advocacy" and thus should be rejected. Dobson calls the Sponge Bob video advocating "tolerance and diversity" nothing more than "homosexual propaganda," which of course according to Dobson is bad. Almost in the same sentence he says it's parents's duty to "train up" youngsters in some sort of warped world view that he espouses in which bad is good and war is peace, etc. He cites some biblical passage that the role of parents or schools isn't to teach such silly ideas as "tolerance and diverstiy" but rather to rear them "in the fear and admonition of the Lord"--no propaganda there at all. Dobson even has the gall to write that his concern over the Sponge Bob video arose because, "What is vitally important, however, are the children of this country and the effort being made to manipulate them for political purposes." Yeah, that's why the good Dr. Dobson waited until the Bush inaugural to express his concern about the Sponge Bob video.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
George Bush's America
Record Homeless. Among the nice little tidbits found in New York Newsday's story about the recent NY subway fire is this cheery little bit,
Record Homeless. Among the nice little tidbits found in New York Newsday's story about the recent NY subway fire is this cheery little bit,
"The total shelter population right now is at the highest points since the Great Depression," said Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at the Coalition for the Homeless.Of the 36,000 plus homeless in New York "only" 8, 805 were single. That's a lot of families living in homeless shelters. Think about these figures in light of New York City's Housing Authority announcing that Georgie & the Radical Republicans will "provide $50 million less than what the agency needs to provide rent vouchers for low-income residents this year." According to the NYT that means 6,000 fewer housing vouchers. That means at least 6,000 people on the streets. And it's just not New York City that's suffering from Georgie's reforms to Section 8, cities and counties across the country are facing funding shortfalls and will most likely have to turn folks out.
Sunday, January 23, 2005
$40 Million Inauguration
Nifty cartoon on the $40 inauguration via The Mobile Register. Who knew there were liberals in Alabama. So remember, support the troops, but only after you've had your fill of pricey wine and tastey finger foods and...
Nifty cartoon on the $40 inauguration via The Mobile Register. Who knew there were liberals in Alabama. So remember, support the troops, but only after you've had your fill of pricey wine and tastey finger foods and...
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Big Daddy's Man in Iraq
CNN.com reports,
CNN.com reports,
Iraq's interim defense minister said former Iraq exile leader Ahmed Chalabi will be arrested Saturday and handed over to Interpol to face bank fraud charges in Jordan.This is a guy Big Daddy Cheney thought was the next George Washington and who was paid millions of dollars by the U.S. government for "intelligence" about WMD.
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Dollar Falls, Gold Rises in Europe
As Washington enters lock down mode for Gerogie's coronation (but don't forget we're winning the war on terror), currency markets continue to express their views of four more years of Georgie and the Radical Republicans.
As Washington enters lock down mode for Gerogie's coronation (but don't forget we're winning the war on terror), currency markets continue to express their views of four more years of Georgie and the Radical Republicans.
Dollar Falls, Gold Rises in Europe: The U.S. dollar fell against other major currencies in European trading Wednesday. Gold prices rose.So much for Georgie's recently announced "strong dollar" policy. I guess Uncle Karl hasn't learned that the currency markets don't respond all that well to his kind of bullying. I can't wait to see how the currency markets respond to Georgie's Social Security "plan." My advice, start hoarding Euros.
The euro was quoted at $1.3037 in European trading, up from $1.3022 Tuesday. Later, in midday trading in New York, the euro fetched $1.3026.
Other dollar rates in Europe, compared to late Tuesday, included 102.41 Japanese yen, down from 102.63; 1.1818 Swiss francs, down from 1.1858; and 1.2269 Canadian dollars, up from 1.2200.
The British pound was quoted at $1.8759, up from $1.8665.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
A Televisual Fairyland
From the Guardian Unlimited
From the Guardian Unlimited
On Thursday, the fairy king of fairyland will be recrowned. He was elected on a platform suspended in midair by the power of imagination. He is the leader of a band of men who walk through ghostly realms unvisited by reality. And he remains the most powerful person on earth.The rest of the article on the pro-Republican bias in the U.S. media is less interesting and breaks no new ground. But the fact that one has to go overseas to read a real critique of the U.S. media is a bit unsettling. With four more years of Bush and his FCC things are unlikely to get any better.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Puff Up That Chest and Be Proud
The Guardian Unlimited reports that CACI International and Titan, two firms involved in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal "have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon." Well, you know now that the "ringleader" of the "abuse" has been convicted we can rest easy and return to business as usual. Never mind that the man who wrote the memos that helpd set up the environment for Abu Ghraib to happen is about to win Senate approval to be the next A.G. of the U.S. Never mind that the President who looked the other way and issued orders that allowed torture to be used is about to be sworn into his second term and feels that he has a free pass to press his agenda because he won fair and square.
The Guardian Unlimited reports that CACI International and Titan, two firms involved in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal "have been awarded valuable new contracts by the Pentagon." Well, you know now that the "ringleader" of the "abuse" has been convicted we can rest easy and return to business as usual. Never mind that the man who wrote the memos that helpd set up the environment for Abu Ghraib to happen is about to win Senate approval to be the next A.G. of the U.S. Never mind that the President who looked the other way and issued orders that allowed torture to be used is about to be sworn into his second term and feels that he has a free pass to press his agenda because he won fair and square.
"We had an accountability moment, and that's called the 2004 elections," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. "The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.This quote shows how shallow Georgie's understanding of democracy as a concept is. That his Pentagon is renewing contracts with firms directly linked to torture is another. Just so everyone is clear as to the professionalism and commitment to human rights of these two firms, this bit from the Guardian should make things clear:
CACI interrogators used dogs to scare prisoners, placed detainees in unauthorised 'stress positions' and encouraged soldiers to abuse prisoners. Titan employees, [. . .], hit detainees and stood by while soldiers physically abused prisoners.These are the people George Bush does business with. That's character. $174 million of your tax dollars are going to firms that torture people. But rest easy because Jesus is George Bush's favorite philosopher. Or mabye all that torture was just an example of the "unexpected" things that "happen" when "removing a dictator from power and trying to help achieve democracy." I guess the whole torture thing just kind of happened, despite all those memos. I guess all those WMDs just kinds of disappeared...kinda unexpected. What this crank finds unexpected is the idea that torturing people is part of "trying to achieve deomocracy."
Investigators also discovered systemic problems of management and training - including the fact that a third of CACI International's staff at Abu Ghraib had never received formal military interrogation training.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Banality of Evil
Discourse.net has a nice piece illustrating how craven and utterly low the Republicans have sunk. Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be A.G. is just the most visible example of this. So much for standing for principles. So much for having Jesus as your favorite philosopher. So much for the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Welcome to King George's world.
Discourse.net has a nice piece illustrating how craven and utterly low the Republicans have sunk. Alberto Gonzales's nomination to be A.G. is just the most visible example of this. So much for standing for principles. So much for having Jesus as your favorite philosopher. So much for the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence. Welcome to King George's world.
Monday, January 10, 2005
Just a Regular Guy
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Waiting for the Coup
Aljazeera.Net is running a story with the tag line: "General: US Army Reserve in trouble." According to Aljazeera, a report by the the Reserve's head Lt. General James Helmly conlcludes, "The US Army Reserve is degenerating into a broken force due to dysfunctional military policies." Helmly is quoted as writing, “I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern.” Helmly continued, warning of the "inability – under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilisation, training and reserve component manpower management – to meet mission requirements for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Sounds like four years of Georgie & Co. have managed to eviscerate nearly every part of the U.S. government. I'm sure the budget cuts that are looming will do little to help the Army Reserve. Based on the past performance of Bush and the Radical Republicans, it is unlikely that anything meaningful will be done to solve the very real problems we are facing. Things could get ugly once the Radical Republicans slash Social Security, fail to give the military the money it needs to support veterans, and continue to send them on fool's errands. Of course, we can expect Rove & Co. to lay the blame for all of it on Clinton or maybe even FDR--after all, according to Karl Rove's revisionist history, the New Deal was the begining of the end of America's "greatness."
Aljazeera.Net is running a story with the tag line: "General: US Army Reserve in trouble." According to Aljazeera, a report by the the Reserve's head Lt. General James Helmly conlcludes, "The US Army Reserve is degenerating into a broken force due to dysfunctional military policies." Helmly is quoted as writing, “I do not wish to sound alarmist. I do wish to send a clear, distinctive signal of deepening concern.” Helmly continued, warning of the "inability – under current policies, procedures and practices governing mobilisation, training and reserve component manpower management – to meet mission requirements for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Sounds like four years of Georgie & Co. have managed to eviscerate nearly every part of the U.S. government. I'm sure the budget cuts that are looming will do little to help the Army Reserve. Based on the past performance of Bush and the Radical Republicans, it is unlikely that anything meaningful will be done to solve the very real problems we are facing. Things could get ugly once the Radical Republicans slash Social Security, fail to give the military the money it needs to support veterans, and continue to send them on fool's errands. Of course, we can expect Rove & Co. to lay the blame for all of it on Clinton or maybe even FDR--after all, according to Karl Rove's revisionist history, the New Deal was the begining of the end of America's "greatness."
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
To Vote or Not to Vote....
Seems there is a little bit of confusion as to whether or not Iraq is "secure" enough to acutally hold anything that even resembles an election on Jan. 30th. Accordinng to The New York Times ,
Seems there is a little bit of confusion as to whether or not Iraq is "secure" enough to acutally hold anything that even resembles an election on Jan. 30th. Accordinng to The New York Times ,
The steady violence prompted Iraq's interim president, Ghazi al-Yawar, to urge the United Nations to look into whether Iraq should go ahead with the scheduled Jan. 30 elections.Al-Yawar was speaking after the assassination of Ali al-Haidari, the governor of Baghdad. Despite Al-Yawar's dim view of the security situation in Iraq, Scott McClellan was still insisting that "most of the country is in a secure enough environment to proceed with [. . .] elections." So it seems that the folks feeding McClellan his talking points are still living in a alternate universe where things in Iraq are going just swell. Al-Haidari's assassiantion is just the highest profile example of violence in Iraq this week and it's only Tuesday.
"Definitely the United Nations, as an independent umbrella of legitimacy, should really take the responsibility by seeing whether that is possible or not," Mr. al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab sheik, told Reuters in an interview.
"On a logical basis, there are signs that it will be a tough call to hold the election,'"