Trading Places
No one ever listens to me. I have been bellyaching about the US trade deficit for two years.
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE – June 20, 2005 -- News of a record $195.1 billion trade deficit for the United States in the first quarter has re-ignited worries that the economy cannot sustain the growing level of global debt and prompted renewed debate over the cause of the problem. … "Clearly the current account deficit can't go on like this forever," said Daniel Griswold, director of the Cato Institute's center for trade policy studies, a conservative research group… (Full Story)
At this pace the United States' current account deficit could reach $780 billion this year, a sharp increase from last year's record of $617 billion.
No, it can’t go on forever. Sooner or later the country on the receiving end of all this trade, China, is going to be so awash in US dollars that it will either have to start dumping them, resulting in a dollar collapse, or start buying stuff with them.
But, selling dollars is risky business. The minute China starts selling dollars the bottom will fall out of the dollar leaving China holding billions of devalued bucks. They’re no fools, so the Chinese have opted for Plan B – buy America.
SHANGHAI, Thursday, June 23 - One of China's largest state-controlled oil companies made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid Thursday for Unocal, signaling the first big takeover battle by a Chinese company for an American corporation…. The bold bid, by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, may be a watershed in Chinese corporate behavior, and it demonstrates the increasing influence on Asia of Wall Street's bare-knuckled takeover tactics. (Full Story)
On Tuesday, a consortium led by top Chinese appliance maker Haier Group placed a $1.28 billion bid for struggling, Iowa-based Maytag Corp. And just last month, Lenovo Group Ltd., China's largest computer maker, completed its $1.25 billion purchase of International Business Machine Corp.'s (IBM) personal computer business.
The last two administrations, Clinton first, then Bush II, got us into this mess by pushing trade deals they claimed would create a level playing field for world trade. That’s what they said. What they actually negotiated, if I can use the word in this matter, is an trade environment in which industries in developed countries were left with a Dobson’s choice; ditch a century’s worth of progressive labor and environmental rules to compete with third world nations, or move their operations offshore.
Some domestic companies just went belly up. Others fired their US workers and moved to cheaper and environmentally lenient countries, like India and China. The same goods US workers once produced here got made by cheap labor and shipped back here where eager US consumers snapped them up. “I don’t know how they can sell this so cheap,” shoppers squealed as they filled their carts at Target and Wal-Mart.
And a good thing the stuff is cheap, since those shoppers had to get new jobs after their old ones making that stuff were shipped over seas. Now they make an average of $10,000 less than they used to. So those cheap, quality Chinese goods were a godsend, right?
Apparently. We keep buying them. And so the trade deficit with “Communist” China balloons. And now the rush is on to buy American. Well sorta. The US has become China’s Wal-Mart – tons of quality assets at dirt-cheap prices.
Here’s something to think about. China only has a handful of nuclear weapons and has had no interest in engaging in a ruinous arms race with the US. Ever wonder why? Because, there’s no need to defend against a country that will eventually just become a wholly owned subsidiary.
Lenin predicted all this:
“When we hang the capitalists, they will sell us the rope.”
Sleaze Is As Sleaze Does
I had Jack Abramoff pegged for a mega-sleazebag almost four years ago. I stumbled across him while research I was doing at the time on Enron. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay’s name popped up the first day I sorted through Enron’s smoking debris. There they were, the gruesome-twosome, Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay, like two horse flies circling a pile of manure. (My full 2002 report is online here.)
Anyway, yesterday the Senate held hearings to determine if Abramoff was the latest white man to screw American Indians. It seems Jack opened his own lucrative trading post on the Indian reservations. What was he selling? Not smallpox-infested blankets, the Indians are onto that old trick. Abramoff’s stock-in-trade was influence, specifically his influence with the powerful House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay.
The Indians wanted Jack to smooth the way for Indian gambling operations, (which Indians ironically refer to as the White Buffalo, for all the white folk who now leave their pelts at reservation casinos.)
But it turns out Abramoff was pocketing most of the Indians wampum for himself and laundering the rest through a shell company to pay for overseas junkets for his pal Tom.
Just how sleazy is Abramoff? Try this on for size:
Exhibit 31 read into the record at yesterday’s hearing was an e-mail from Abramoff to his rabbi:
"I hate to ask you for your help with something so silly but I've been nominated for membership in the Cosmos Club, which is a very distinguished club in Washington, DC, comprised of Nobel Prize winners, etc.," Abramoff wrote. "Problem for me is that most prospective members have received awards and I have received none. I was wondering if you thought it possible that I could put that I have received an award from Toward Tradition with a sufficiently academic title, perhaps something like Scholar of Talmudic Studies? … Indeed, it would be even better if it were possible that I received these in years past, if you know what I mean." (Full Story)
How needy is that? How sleazy is that?
It looks like Casino Jack may be heading for a cell at Camp Beefcake. The same goes for his Texas buddy, former bug killer, Tom DeLay. DeLay is currently under criminal investigation in Texas for violated that state’s laws against taking campaign money from corporations.
Memo to Red State Voters:
So, how do you like your values-loving candidates so far?
Bush Sees Glowing Promise in Nuclear Power
I am not a purest on nuclear energy. I don’t see it as either a panacea or an exercise in collective suicide. Having said that, do I want a nuclear power plant downwind from my tomato garden? No way Jose.
But George Bush does. He sees a new generation of nuclear power plants as an easy way to supply energy-hungry Americans with their juice.
“The president visited Calvert Cliffs to tout nuclear energy as a replacement for fossil fuels. Calvert Cliffs, which produces enough megawatts per hour to meet about one-third of Maryland's energy needs, is a possible site for the first new nuclear energy reactor to be built in the United States in 30 years. "There is a growing consensus that more nuclear power will lead to a cleaner, safer nation," Bush said. "It is time for this country to start building nuclear power plants again." (Full Story)
I am not going to get into the various pros and cons of nuclear power. Here’s all I want to say about this matter.
Until the nation figure out what to do with the waste these things produce, existing waste and future waste, not another nuclear plant should be approved. Period. You don’t build new homes until the slot have a sewer hookups. That’s the least we can demand for new nuclear power plants. No permanent and safe waste disposal, no nukes.
A Burning Issue ?
Wouldn’t it be nice if our elected representatives jumped on real issues, like affordable heath care or the federal deficit, like they jumped yesterday to pass a law against burning an American flag?
“A constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to ban flag burning passed the House yesterday, and congressional leaders said it has a strong chance to clear the Senate for the first time, sending it to the states for ratification.” (Full Story)
What nonsense. Any one who voted for this meaningless piece of legislation should be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail. And if we could still do such things -- (those were the days!) -- there would Democrats on that rail this time. 77 Democrats voted for it. Yeah, seventy-friggin-seven Democrats!
Amazing. As though they don’t have real things to do. What’s next, a law against farting in public? It would make about as much sense.
Speaking of Quisling Democrats
The Senate yesterday rejected a measure calling for mandatory limits on emissions linked to global warming, siding with the Bush administration's position that the restrictions would cost jobs, drive industry overseas and run up consumers' energy bills…. Eleven Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure…” (Full Story)
How about we get together and warm those 11 Democrat’s little worlds?
Friday, June 24, 2005
Thursday, June 23, 2005
June 2. 2005
June 22, 2005
The wrong person apologized yesterday.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) yesterday offered a tearful apology on the Senate floor for comparing the alleged abuse of prisoners by American troops to techniques used by the Nazis, the Soviets and the Khmer Rouge, as he sought to quell a frenzy of Republican-led criticism…Durbin, the Democratic whip, acknowledged that "more than most people, a senator lives by his words" but that "occasionally words will fail us and occasionally we will fail words." Choking up, he said: "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies." (Full Story)
Durbin was not wrong. Not wrong in what he said. Not wrong in saying it. And the only person who has crossed the line, is George W. Bush - and we've heard no apologies from him.
Let’s review.
Durbin, quoting from an FBI memo, described how some detainees at Gitmo were chained naked, hand and foot to a concrete floor and left that way for up to 18 hours a day where they inevitably urinated and defecated on themselves.
Durbin observed, correctly, that if someone read that account not knowing anything more, they would assume the people doing this to prisoners were Nazis or one of the other despicable regimes of history.
Durbin was immediately flamed by the White House and Republicans in Congress. How dare he compare the behavior of US soldiers to that of Nazis?
Okay, let’s give the devil his due. The US does not systematically execute prisoners; at least not as a matter of course. We don’t perform medical experiments on them. We don’t rape them. That’s the kind of stuff the Nazi’s, Soviets and Pol Pot did. We don’t do that stuff – yet.
But let me tell you why Durbin was right to make the comparison. And to make my point I am going to use the same argument conservatives use to justify their war on drugs.
If Marijuana is a gateway drug, I ask conservatives, what’s chaining a person naked to a cement floor and letting them sit in their own waste all day? A taste of torture? A snort of the abuse? Where do you go from there? A few lines of water-boardering? From there it’s a short step to electric shock (after all, they’re already wet.)
It's the perverbial slippery slope. And we're on it.
Summary of FBI interview of
detainee at Guantanamo Bay 08/23/02
Notes: "When NAME REDACTED was turned over to US authorities, he was beaten by the US military forces. He was taken by helicopter to an unknown location where he was beaten. While his eyes were covered, he was kicked in the stomach and back by several individuals. He noted American English accents. After being moved to an unknown facility in Bagram, his head was placed against the cement floor and his head was kicked. As a result of other beatings… REDACTED received a broken shoulder. During one evening REDACTED was left outside of the facility where he was being held. The ground was wet and it was snowing. He was wearing only pants and a ragged shirt. As a result of being out in the cold, he became unconscious. . . . . When he was moved to Kandahar, he was not beaten as frequently and severely… the soldiers wore tan and brown camouflage uniforms, with US flags on their arms." (More FBI Memos)
If you think about all this for a moment with the partisan side of your brain turned off, you can see that all Durbin was trying to do was what any responsible parent of a teen would do after finding meth in their daughter’s purse. He was trying to warn that we are playing with fire.
But, instead of listening up, his colleagues got all defensive, ganged up and beat the crap out of him. They kept it up until he agreed to say, “it ain’t so.”
Well it is so, and Durbin should not have caved. But clearly these patients remain in deep denial and not quite ready to admit they’re becoming hooked on the stuff -- far from it. Nightly now we hear Neocons and their supporters on talk shows actually justifying the rough treatment of POWs, treatment that just a generation ago would have had American civilians reaching for the air sickness bag.
But suddenly brutal humiliation of POWs in our care has become “necessary.”
I don’t quite understand why. Torture wasn’t necessary 60 years ago when literally all-western civilization was threatened by German fascism. Torture wasn’t necessary during the Cold War, when the former Soviet Union had both the weapons and inclination to fricassee everyone west of Poland.
But today, when a few thousand certifiably crazy radical Muslims go on a murderous rampage, the fate of the nation suddenly hinges on be able to “rough up” – (AKA, torture)– prisoners. I don’t get it. (Could it be that torture has replaced good intelligence gathering?)
When Durbin made his original remarks he was, in effect, launching an intervention. Anyone who has ever been involved with a drug or alcohol-dependent person knows the signs, and they are all here, here.
First they lie. “I don’t do it.”
Confronted with the evidence the response becomes, “Okay, but I only tried it a couple of times.” Then, when caught again, “What’s the big deal? Everyone does it.”
Then, when it gets personal they try to separate what they do from what they are. “It’s just a thing I do. It does not define who I am,” and “Just because I do it does not make me a bad person.”
Finally, this – “Okay, okay. I do it. But I can stop anytime I want.”
Maybe what Durbin should have suggested is a Twelve Step Program for the administration’s Neocons, to slowly wean them off this self-destructive behavior. The trouble is, from the reaction he got to his remarks, it’s clear they are ready for the cure – they just have not hit bottom yet.
The trouble is if we wait until they do hit bottom, they take the rest of us down with them.
What will it take before someone like Durbin can try again? Will it take an indictment form the World Court, seeking extradition of US officials to join the likes of Serbian butcher Molosevic in The Hague? What will it take before we say, basta! Enough! Will it take more pictures like this:
It’s not like the administration doesn’t know what it’s doing is wrong, and have since the beginning. Trying to hide evidence of a crime is the strongest evidence that a perp knows the difference between right and wrong.
Washington, July 2004 -- The federal government's secrecy watchdog has asked the Pentagon to explain why parts of a memo about the interrogation of terror detainees were classified, even though they discussed the political fall-out if the use of certain techniques became public. The memo, declassified and released last month, is the report of a working group on interrogation techniques established in January 2003 by the Defense Department's general counsel. The relevant passage -- marked "secret" … is part of a discussion of the consequences for criminal and military prosecutions of detainees and others if the public became aware of the use of so-called "coercive interrogation techniques."
It reads: "Consideration must be given to the public's reaction to methods of interrogation that may affect the military commission process. The more coercive the method, the greater the likelihood that the method will be met with significant domestic and international resistance." (Full Story)
Maybe the answer can be found in the parents of the men and women now serving in the armed forces. A little parental guidance might be needed to balance the gung-ho propaganda they get from their commanders.
Maybe parents might want to read some of the FBI memos that document how some US troops are treating prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo. Then, let them visualize their lovely son or daughter chaining another human, naked, to a cold cement floor for a day. Imagine their darling daughter watching, even laughing, as the prisoner soils himself, then sits in it. Visualize their child, the fruit of their loins, the A-student, the Homecoming King or Queen, holding a thrashing prisoner’s head underwater, repeatedly; their son, the freckle-faced former neighborhood paperboy, mocking and humiliating a terrified naked prisoner.
Then maybe if those moms and dads wrote to their kids and said;
Dearest Son (Daughter,)
We hear and see many disturbing things on the news about how some US troops are mistreating the prisoners in their care. Please assure us you are not among the soldiers guilty of such un-American, unholy behavior. Because, it would surely break our hearts if you were.
Love,
Mom, Dad (& Sparky!)
The wrong person apologized yesterday.
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) yesterday offered a tearful apology on the Senate floor for comparing the alleged abuse of prisoners by American troops to techniques used by the Nazis, the Soviets and the Khmer Rouge, as he sought to quell a frenzy of Republican-led criticism…Durbin, the Democratic whip, acknowledged that "more than most people, a senator lives by his words" but that "occasionally words will fail us and occasionally we will fail words." Choking up, he said: "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line. To them, I extend my heartfelt apologies." (Full Story)
Durbin was not wrong. Not wrong in what he said. Not wrong in saying it. And the only person who has crossed the line, is George W. Bush - and we've heard no apologies from him.
Let’s review.
Durbin, quoting from an FBI memo, described how some detainees at Gitmo were chained naked, hand and foot to a concrete floor and left that way for up to 18 hours a day where they inevitably urinated and defecated on themselves.
Durbin observed, correctly, that if someone read that account not knowing anything more, they would assume the people doing this to prisoners were Nazis or one of the other despicable regimes of history.
Durbin was immediately flamed by the White House and Republicans in Congress. How dare he compare the behavior of US soldiers to that of Nazis?
Okay, let’s give the devil his due. The US does not systematically execute prisoners; at least not as a matter of course. We don’t perform medical experiments on them. We don’t rape them. That’s the kind of stuff the Nazi’s, Soviets and Pol Pot did. We don’t do that stuff – yet.
But let me tell you why Durbin was right to make the comparison. And to make my point I am going to use the same argument conservatives use to justify their war on drugs.
If Marijuana is a gateway drug, I ask conservatives, what’s chaining a person naked to a cement floor and letting them sit in their own waste all day? A taste of torture? A snort of the abuse? Where do you go from there? A few lines of water-boardering? From there it’s a short step to electric shock (after all, they’re already wet.)
It's the perverbial slippery slope. And we're on it.
Summary of FBI interview of
detainee at Guantanamo Bay 08/23/02
Notes: "When NAME REDACTED was turned over to US authorities, he was beaten by the US military forces. He was taken by helicopter to an unknown location where he was beaten. While his eyes were covered, he was kicked in the stomach and back by several individuals. He noted American English accents. After being moved to an unknown facility in Bagram, his head was placed against the cement floor and his head was kicked. As a result of other beatings… REDACTED received a broken shoulder. During one evening REDACTED was left outside of the facility where he was being held. The ground was wet and it was snowing. He was wearing only pants and a ragged shirt. As a result of being out in the cold, he became unconscious. . . . . When he was moved to Kandahar, he was not beaten as frequently and severely… the soldiers wore tan and brown camouflage uniforms, with US flags on their arms." (More FBI Memos)
If you think about all this for a moment with the partisan side of your brain turned off, you can see that all Durbin was trying to do was what any responsible parent of a teen would do after finding meth in their daughter’s purse. He was trying to warn that we are playing with fire.
But, instead of listening up, his colleagues got all defensive, ganged up and beat the crap out of him. They kept it up until he agreed to say, “it ain’t so.”
Well it is so, and Durbin should not have caved. But clearly these patients remain in deep denial and not quite ready to admit they’re becoming hooked on the stuff -- far from it. Nightly now we hear Neocons and their supporters on talk shows actually justifying the rough treatment of POWs, treatment that just a generation ago would have had American civilians reaching for the air sickness bag.
But suddenly brutal humiliation of POWs in our care has become “necessary.”
I don’t quite understand why. Torture wasn’t necessary 60 years ago when literally all-western civilization was threatened by German fascism. Torture wasn’t necessary during the Cold War, when the former Soviet Union had both the weapons and inclination to fricassee everyone west of Poland.
But today, when a few thousand certifiably crazy radical Muslims go on a murderous rampage, the fate of the nation suddenly hinges on be able to “rough up” – (AKA, torture)– prisoners. I don’t get it. (Could it be that torture has replaced good intelligence gathering?)
When Durbin made his original remarks he was, in effect, launching an intervention. Anyone who has ever been involved with a drug or alcohol-dependent person knows the signs, and they are all here, here.
First they lie. “I don’t do it.”
Confronted with the evidence the response becomes, “Okay, but I only tried it a couple of times.” Then, when caught again, “What’s the big deal? Everyone does it.”
Then, when it gets personal they try to separate what they do from what they are. “It’s just a thing I do. It does not define who I am,” and “Just because I do it does not make me a bad person.”
Finally, this – “Okay, okay. I do it. But I can stop anytime I want.”
Maybe what Durbin should have suggested is a Twelve Step Program for the administration’s Neocons, to slowly wean them off this self-destructive behavior. The trouble is, from the reaction he got to his remarks, it’s clear they are ready for the cure – they just have not hit bottom yet.
The trouble is if we wait until they do hit bottom, they take the rest of us down with them.
What will it take before someone like Durbin can try again? Will it take an indictment form the World Court, seeking extradition of US officials to join the likes of Serbian butcher Molosevic in The Hague? What will it take before we say, basta! Enough! Will it take more pictures like this:
It’s not like the administration doesn’t know what it’s doing is wrong, and have since the beginning. Trying to hide evidence of a crime is the strongest evidence that a perp knows the difference between right and wrong.
Washington, July 2004 -- The federal government's secrecy watchdog has asked the Pentagon to explain why parts of a memo about the interrogation of terror detainees were classified, even though they discussed the political fall-out if the use of certain techniques became public. The memo, declassified and released last month, is the report of a working group on interrogation techniques established in January 2003 by the Defense Department's general counsel. The relevant passage -- marked "secret" … is part of a discussion of the consequences for criminal and military prosecutions of detainees and others if the public became aware of the use of so-called "coercive interrogation techniques."
It reads: "Consideration must be given to the public's reaction to methods of interrogation that may affect the military commission process. The more coercive the method, the greater the likelihood that the method will be met with significant domestic and international resistance." (Full Story)
Maybe the answer can be found in the parents of the men and women now serving in the armed forces. A little parental guidance might be needed to balance the gung-ho propaganda they get from their commanders.
Maybe parents might want to read some of the FBI memos that document how some US troops are treating prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo. Then, let them visualize their lovely son or daughter chaining another human, naked, to a cold cement floor for a day. Imagine their darling daughter watching, even laughing, as the prisoner soils himself, then sits in it. Visualize their child, the fruit of their loins, the A-student, the Homecoming King or Queen, holding a thrashing prisoner’s head underwater, repeatedly; their son, the freckle-faced former neighborhood paperboy, mocking and humiliating a terrified naked prisoner.
Then maybe if those moms and dads wrote to their kids and said;
Dearest Son (Daughter,)
We hear and see many disturbing things on the news about how some US troops are mistreating the prisoners in their care. Please assure us you are not among the soldiers guilty of such un-American, unholy behavior. Because, it would surely break our hearts if you were.
Love,
Mom, Dad (& Sparky!)
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
June 21, 2005
une 21, 2005
Curiouser and Curiouser
Does it get any stranger than this? I hope not because 7 a.m. is just too early for an acid trip. But that’s how I felt this morning as my still groggy mind collided with headlines like these:
Bush Says Vietnam Must Respect Human Rights
WASHINGTON -- In a meeting that marks a decade of normalized relations, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is asking President Bush to help his nation join the World Trade Organization while Bush is raising concerns about human rights abuses. (Full Story)
So, let me try to get my brain around that one. Here’s the guy who runs a country ten thousands miles away, where just 35 years ago the government he was visiting yesterday was defoliating jungles, napalming civilians and even engineered the assassination of its president, having to sit there a listen to lectures on human rights from a the latest president of that country who is now running off-shore torture camps, killing civilians in another country thousands of miles away while restricting freedoms at home.
I got it. Makes perfect sense, is suppose, if you’re on the right drugs.
Next.....
Congressman Accuses Democrats of Anti-Christian Crusade
WASHINGTON -- Business on the floor of the House was halted for 45 minutes yesterday after Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.) accused Democrats of "denigrating and demonizing Christians," prompting a furious protest from across the aisle….The House was debating a Democratic amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill that would have required the Air Force Academy to develop a plan for preventing "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing." (Full Story)
If you doubt that reading the Bible too much can result in what I call a “non-surgical, Biblical-lobotomy,” look no further than John Hosteller. If stupid were music this guy would the Marine Marching Band. Example: He got busted last year for trying to sneak a loaded Glock 9mm semiautomatic onto a flight to Washington. No, he wasn't testing airport security. It was his gun. Apparently Jesus wants his disciples packing.
Anyway, after Hostettler's remarks set off a firestorm of protest from Democrats he stood and, the story continues,
“...read a sentence that had been written out for him in large block letters by a young Republican floor aide: "Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the last sentence I spoke."”
Block letters. Now you know why born-agains don't believe in evolution.
Next.....
Public Broadcasting Monitor Worked at Center Founded by Conservatives
WASHINGTON, June 20 - A researcher retained secretly by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to monitor the "Now" program with Bill Moyers for political objectivity last year, worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist, an official at the journalism center said on Monday. (Full Story)
Now that conservatives have effectively de-nutted the commercial media, the last remaining fly in the propaganda ointment is public broadcasting. So, like those mothers who drowned or smother their own kids, the administration plans deny PBS of federal money.
Someone sent me a proposal the other day suggesting that the best thing that could happen to PBS would be for some liberal, like George Soros and progressive non-profits to simply take over PBS and turn it into an instant, nationwide progressive network. It's an idea with merit. After all, the entire infrastructure is there and ready to go. And, now that this administration has loosened ownership rules to the point where they are meaningless, it would even be legal.
How sweet that would be. Eat your heart out Limbaugh. Imagine the value of such a progressive, independent network the size of CNN as the 2008 general election approaches. (And yes, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, your jobs are safe. And under progressive ownership you might even get a livable wage out of the deal.)
Anyway, now that the Bushites have their own shill in charge of CPB/PBS it’s going to be downhill for PBS anyway.
Bill Moyers, you’re fired. Get your pinko, bleeding heart ass out of our studios. Call Armstrong Williams. Tell him we have a new job for him. Is that documentary, "From Crawford to Legend," ready to roll?
Next.....
Reporters Learn Today If They Are Going to Jail
NEW YORK Journalists Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller may find out as soon as this week whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear their appeal of a contempt ruling for refusing to disclose who leaked the identity of a CIA agent to them -- a decision that could send them to jail before the end of the month. (Full Story)
You might have forgotten the details of this little mess, so let me refresh. Neither Miller nor Cooper wrote stories blowing CIA agent Valerie Plame’s cover. But Conservative columnist Robert Novak did. His source, he said, was a highly placed government official.
Since blowing the cover of a CIA agent is illegal, a grand jury was empanelled and Miller and Cooper were called. The prosecutor wanted them to reveal source(s) they quoted in their follow up stories on the flap Novak started. They refused to squeal and now face prison for contempt of court.
Which begs the question --- why the hell isn’t Novak facing prison too? There can only be one explanation – he did spill the beans.
Which begs another question – why would serious news people, like CNN and the Chicago Sun Times would continue having anything to do with a quisling journalist the likes of Novak?
Miller and Cooper go to jail while Novak continues to hold court on CNN talk shows. Disgraceful CNN.
D-i-s-g-r-a-c-e-f-u-l.
Anyway, even as O.J. Simpson continues his search for the “real killer,” your government does the same in the Plame case.
Next.....
Iraq Strategy Will Work, Bush Tells Europeans
“WASHINGTON, June 20 - President Bush, opening a two-week effort to defend his Iraq policy, told visiting European leaders on Monday that his strategy for ending the insurgency and stabilizing the country "is going to work."”
I turn 60 this August and with age comes the burden of memory. I’ve been here before. I didn’t like it the last time and I don’t like it now. The last time I was here was nearly 40 years ago. The times were different but the words the same.
“We are making steady progress… we are dealing the enemy serious blows.. they can’t hold out forever… the Vietnamese army are making real progress and will soon be able to take over form US troops.. we can’t just cut and run.”
It was a lie then and it’s a lie now. All Bush is doing is what Johnson and Nixon did before him -- buying time with US and Iraqi blood, in the hope something -- anything -- good will develop that will get him out of this fix.
George, I have some reading for you. Not to worry. It’s short. You can read it on the toilet. Here’s what the last guy who ran a war like this had to say once he got a clue:
“One reason the Kennedy and Johnson administrations failed to take an orderly, rational approach to the basic questions underlying Vietnam was the staggering variety and complexity of other issues we faced. Simply put, we faced a blizzard of problems, there were only twenty-four hours in a day, and we often did not have time to think straight.”
Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect, 1995
Sound familiar, Gomer -- like another day in the Oval Office? So far you have gotten 1700 American kids killed over there. Will it take another 58,300 before you figure out it’s not worth it? Never was. Never will be.
Here's some more reading. If only Lyndon Johnson had followed his own rhetoric when he said this while running for President in 1964:
“We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
But he didn’t follow that advice, which is why the Vietnam Memorial Wall takes up so much real estate on the Mall. Had he taken that advice it would be a lot smaller and there'd be more room for your monument, George, the Iraq Memorial Wall Monument --- where a new generation of children who never met their father or mother can leave Teddy Bears, photos and tears.
Curiouser and Curiouser
Does it get any stranger than this? I hope not because 7 a.m. is just too early for an acid trip. But that’s how I felt this morning as my still groggy mind collided with headlines like these:
Bush Says Vietnam Must Respect Human Rights
WASHINGTON -- In a meeting that marks a decade of normalized relations, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is asking President Bush to help his nation join the World Trade Organization while Bush is raising concerns about human rights abuses. (Full Story)
So, let me try to get my brain around that one. Here’s the guy who runs a country ten thousands miles away, where just 35 years ago the government he was visiting yesterday was defoliating jungles, napalming civilians and even engineered the assassination of its president, having to sit there a listen to lectures on human rights from a the latest president of that country who is now running off-shore torture camps, killing civilians in another country thousands of miles away while restricting freedoms at home.
I got it. Makes perfect sense, is suppose, if you’re on the right drugs.
Next.....
Congressman Accuses Democrats of Anti-Christian Crusade
WASHINGTON -- Business on the floor of the House was halted for 45 minutes yesterday after Rep. John N. Hostettler (R-Ind.) accused Democrats of "denigrating and demonizing Christians," prompting a furious protest from across the aisle….The House was debating a Democratic amendment to the annual defense appropriations bill that would have required the Air Force Academy to develop a plan for preventing "coercive and abusive religious proselytizing." (Full Story)
If you doubt that reading the Bible too much can result in what I call a “non-surgical, Biblical-lobotomy,” look no further than John Hosteller. If stupid were music this guy would the Marine Marching Band. Example: He got busted last year for trying to sneak a loaded Glock 9mm semiautomatic onto a flight to Washington. No, he wasn't testing airport security. It was his gun. Apparently Jesus wants his disciples packing.
Anyway, after Hostettler's remarks set off a firestorm of protest from Democrats he stood and, the story continues,
“...read a sentence that had been written out for him in large block letters by a young Republican floor aide: "Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the last sentence I spoke."”
Block letters. Now you know why born-agains don't believe in evolution.
Next.....
Public Broadcasting Monitor Worked at Center Founded by Conservatives
WASHINGTON, June 20 - A researcher retained secretly by the chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, to monitor the "Now" program with Bill Moyers for political objectivity last year, worked for 20 years at a journalism center founded by the American Conservative Union and a conservative columnist, an official at the journalism center said on Monday. (Full Story)
Now that conservatives have effectively de-nutted the commercial media, the last remaining fly in the propaganda ointment is public broadcasting. So, like those mothers who drowned or smother their own kids, the administration plans deny PBS of federal money.
Someone sent me a proposal the other day suggesting that the best thing that could happen to PBS would be for some liberal, like George Soros and progressive non-profits to simply take over PBS and turn it into an instant, nationwide progressive network. It's an idea with merit. After all, the entire infrastructure is there and ready to go. And, now that this administration has loosened ownership rules to the point where they are meaningless, it would even be legal.
How sweet that would be. Eat your heart out Limbaugh. Imagine the value of such a progressive, independent network the size of CNN as the 2008 general election approaches. (And yes, Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, your jobs are safe. And under progressive ownership you might even get a livable wage out of the deal.)
Anyway, now that the Bushites have their own shill in charge of CPB/PBS it’s going to be downhill for PBS anyway.
Bill Moyers, you’re fired. Get your pinko, bleeding heart ass out of our studios. Call Armstrong Williams. Tell him we have a new job for him. Is that documentary, "From Crawford to Legend," ready to roll?
Next.....
Reporters Learn Today If They Are Going to Jail
NEW YORK Journalists Matthew Cooper and Judith Miller may find out as soon as this week whether the U.S. Supreme Court will hear their appeal of a contempt ruling for refusing to disclose who leaked the identity of a CIA agent to them -- a decision that could send them to jail before the end of the month. (Full Story)
You might have forgotten the details of this little mess, so let me refresh. Neither Miller nor Cooper wrote stories blowing CIA agent Valerie Plame’s cover. But Conservative columnist Robert Novak did. His source, he said, was a highly placed government official.
Since blowing the cover of a CIA agent is illegal, a grand jury was empanelled and Miller and Cooper were called. The prosecutor wanted them to reveal source(s) they quoted in their follow up stories on the flap Novak started. They refused to squeal and now face prison for contempt of court.
Which begs the question --- why the hell isn’t Novak facing prison too? There can only be one explanation – he did spill the beans.
Which begs another question – why would serious news people, like CNN and the Chicago Sun Times would continue having anything to do with a quisling journalist the likes of Novak?
Miller and Cooper go to jail while Novak continues to hold court on CNN talk shows. Disgraceful CNN.
D-i-s-g-r-a-c-e-f-u-l.
Anyway, even as O.J. Simpson continues his search for the “real killer,” your government does the same in the Plame case.
Next.....
Iraq Strategy Will Work, Bush Tells Europeans
“WASHINGTON, June 20 - President Bush, opening a two-week effort to defend his Iraq policy, told visiting European leaders on Monday that his strategy for ending the insurgency and stabilizing the country "is going to work."”
I turn 60 this August and with age comes the burden of memory. I’ve been here before. I didn’t like it the last time and I don’t like it now. The last time I was here was nearly 40 years ago. The times were different but the words the same.
“We are making steady progress… we are dealing the enemy serious blows.. they can’t hold out forever… the Vietnamese army are making real progress and will soon be able to take over form US troops.. we can’t just cut and run.”
It was a lie then and it’s a lie now. All Bush is doing is what Johnson and Nixon did before him -- buying time with US and Iraqi blood, in the hope something -- anything -- good will develop that will get him out of this fix.
George, I have some reading for you. Not to worry. It’s short. You can read it on the toilet. Here’s what the last guy who ran a war like this had to say once he got a clue:
“One reason the Kennedy and Johnson administrations failed to take an orderly, rational approach to the basic questions underlying Vietnam was the staggering variety and complexity of other issues we faced. Simply put, we faced a blizzard of problems, there were only twenty-four hours in a day, and we often did not have time to think straight.”
Robert S. McNamara, In Retrospect, 1995
Sound familiar, Gomer -- like another day in the Oval Office? So far you have gotten 1700 American kids killed over there. Will it take another 58,300 before you figure out it’s not worth it? Never was. Never will be.
Here's some more reading. If only Lyndon Johnson had followed his own rhetoric when he said this while running for President in 1964:
“We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.”
But he didn’t follow that advice, which is why the Vietnam Memorial Wall takes up so much real estate on the Mall. Had he taken that advice it would be a lot smaller and there'd be more room for your monument, George, the Iraq Memorial Wall Monument --- where a new generation of children who never met their father or mother can leave Teddy Bears, photos and tears.
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
June 20, 2005
Just Answer the Damn Question – OR ELSE
I know. It’s become a cliché for bloggers to rag on the mainstream media (MSM.) Like all such broad-brush criticisms the rap MSM is taking from those of us in the Peanut Gallery is partly fair, partly unfair and part cheap shots.
But the press, like any other profession, benefits from criticism. As a former member of the MSM I can tell you, good reporters and editors know when criticism is deserved, and they hate themselves when it happens.
The Washington press corps has been a special target of critical bloggers, this one included. And it’s been well-deserved criticism too. We have not missed the irony that reporters who are writing now how the CIA botched intelligence on WMD, are some of the same reporters who were like little kittens before the war, lapping up any bowl of warm milk the administration put out for them supporting those bogus WMD claims.
They even rolled over when President Bush unilaterally declared that he would no longer answer follow up questions at his news conferences. Imagine that. Reporters allowing the President of the United States, at a time of war, to answer the most important questions of our time with pre-cooked, pre-chewed, pre-focus-grouped, pabulum. Shocking, bordering on criminal, a dark moment in the history of a free press.
I suggested at the time that reporters in the White House Press Corps make a pact. If they were not allowed follow ups then the next journalist would agree to pick up right where the previous one left off -- re-ask the question, and keep doing so until the little bastard answers it in his own words – or stalks off the stage like the clueless, spoiled little would-be despot a growing number of voters is coming to understand he is.
The day I wrote that I got an email from the brother of ABC’s White House correspondent, Terry Moran, suggesting I might want to watch ABC news because Terry was cut of better clothe. Good advice and I pass it on to you, because he was right.
Last Friday at his daily briefing, White House press spokesman, Scott McClellan’s job was to try to spin new poll numbers. Bush is now at the lowest approval rating since his father was on his way out. The war in Iraq is wearing thin on voters. McClellan told White House reporters that the President was going to “bring sharper focus” to the war.
That was going to be it… a “sharper focus.” This from a man who has shown so little interest in the mess he unleashed that he has not attended a single one of the 1700 funerals for US soldiers killed in Iraq. Not one. Zip. Nada.
But now, his spokesman wanted to assure reporters, the Commander-in-Chief was ready to “sharply focus” on the war – and he thought he was going to get away with it, because he had so often before.
His statement raised more questions than it answered. Can we then assume then that, until now his focus on the war he started has been “fuzzy.”? What a comfort for the parents of those killed in Iraq to know their child died because their Commander-in-Chief had been unfocused. That he started a war, sent their kid over there and then focused on other things, like tax cuts for the rich, letting tobacco companies off the hook for killing millions, gutting Social Security, that kind of thing.
But I digress. Back to the White House press room. This particular day one reporter, ABC’s Terry Moran, wasn’t buying. He wanted a real answer to his question; “Are we defeating the insurgency in Iraq, as VP Cheney claimed last week, or not?”
Here’s the exchange:
Moran: Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its 'last throes'?
McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that's why we're doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward….
Moran: But the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.
Moran: But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?
McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.
Moran: Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.
Moran: What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?
McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of Special Forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.
Moran: Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.
McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.
Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?
McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve....(Pointing to a different reporter)
I reproduce this transcript because this is what I want to see every time this administration tries to use a press briefing or a news conference as a propaganda tool. It’s what they press is there to do.
Let’s let bygones be bygones. The press may be excused for trusting these guys early in their run. But how many times do you have allow yourself to be used to pass along lies to Americans before you start insisting on more information? I mean there is not a real reporter left in Washington who does not now know for a fact that this administration lies like rug. They lie, lie, obfuscate, lie, obfuscate, dissemble, lie, distort, lie, dither, lie, confuse, lie, lie and, when all else fails, lie again.
A big part of the reason the media allowed this to happen is because the right has been so successful in painting the media liberal shills. So, they have bent over backwards to prove otherwise. Eventually though they bent so far over backwards they ended up with their heads up their asses. While at the same moment FOX “News” became the best-funded rightwing propaganda tool in history. It was another win for the word-twisting right. Like tagging Democrats as “tax and spend liberals,” while Republicans got away with becoming borrow and spend conservatives.
I don’t care if the answers the press extracts from government officials supports left of right wing positions. I just want goddamn answer out of them -- a real answer. Is that too much to ask in democracy? And, since the rest of us can’t do it, we rely on the reporters do it for us. Otherwise, they should get better paying jobs writing press releases.
So, a big hooray to Terry Moran. Now let’s see the same kind of gumption during a Presidential news conference. Make that little chimp tap dance. I want to see him earn his living. I want to see that condescending smirk disappear and beads of sweat rolling down his forehead five minutes into the next news conference.
Here are some suggested questions for that news conference.
- After first discovering there really were no WMD in Iraq, and now the Downing St. memos, why shouldn’t the American people believe you lied to them and led them into war on false pretenses?
- If it is ever proven beyond a doubt that a president knowingly lied to take this country to war, would you consider that an impeachable offense?
- Don’t you think that supporting our troops during war includes their Commander-in-Chief showing concern and respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice by attending the occasional funeral?
- Women now serve in frontline military positions. Several have died doing so in Iraq. Can you tell Americans what your two service-age daughters doing these days, besides modeling ball gowns for Vogue?
- You have said that the war on terror will be a long one, and that Americans must be prepared to make sacrifices if we are going to win it. Can you tell us specifically what sacrifices the Bush and Cheney families have made for the war effort?
- A follow up sir: Can you tell me what sacrifices the top 1% of American income families have made for the war effort. How much in the billions of tax cuts they received have they contributed to young working families that lost a mother or father over there?
- Dozens of cases of fraud involving US contractors, like Halliburton, working in Iraq have been confirmed. Can you explain why not a single official from one of those companies has been criminally prosecuted for these frauds. Is government contract fraud no longer a prosecutable crime?
- A follow up please. How does letting cheating private sector officials and their companies off with just civil fines fit with your oft-stated position on personal responsibility? Individuals engineered those frauds but they go un-prosecuted. Do you think this sends the right message to America’s young – America’s next generation of corporate executives?
- You have made an issue of your strongly held Christian beliefs. So, can you explain how you believe Jesus would have responded to 9/11? Would He have counseled restraint, turned the other cheek, or bombed someone?
- A follow up please. Do you think Jesus would agree with your economic policies, that providing more money to the rich while cutting government services to the poor is the way to lift mankind out of misery?
And if he doesn’t answer a question the first time, keep asking. If he refuses a follow up the reporter that asked the question should state, “I’m sorry Mr. President, but if you are just going to answer my questions with pre-prepared statements there’s no reason for me to be here.” He/she should then stand up and walk out. The same for the next reporter, and next, and next, until the President either answers reporter’s questions in his own words, or is left blowing Karl Rove’s prepared PR smoke into an empty room.
Now, that’s a real news conference.
I know. It’s become a cliché for bloggers to rag on the mainstream media (MSM.) Like all such broad-brush criticisms the rap MSM is taking from those of us in the Peanut Gallery is partly fair, partly unfair and part cheap shots.
But the press, like any other profession, benefits from criticism. As a former member of the MSM I can tell you, good reporters and editors know when criticism is deserved, and they hate themselves when it happens.
The Washington press corps has been a special target of critical bloggers, this one included. And it’s been well-deserved criticism too. We have not missed the irony that reporters who are writing now how the CIA botched intelligence on WMD, are some of the same reporters who were like little kittens before the war, lapping up any bowl of warm milk the administration put out for them supporting those bogus WMD claims.
They even rolled over when President Bush unilaterally declared that he would no longer answer follow up questions at his news conferences. Imagine that. Reporters allowing the President of the United States, at a time of war, to answer the most important questions of our time with pre-cooked, pre-chewed, pre-focus-grouped, pabulum. Shocking, bordering on criminal, a dark moment in the history of a free press.
I suggested at the time that reporters in the White House Press Corps make a pact. If they were not allowed follow ups then the next journalist would agree to pick up right where the previous one left off -- re-ask the question, and keep doing so until the little bastard answers it in his own words – or stalks off the stage like the clueless, spoiled little would-be despot a growing number of voters is coming to understand he is.
The day I wrote that I got an email from the brother of ABC’s White House correspondent, Terry Moran, suggesting I might want to watch ABC news because Terry was cut of better clothe. Good advice and I pass it on to you, because he was right.
Last Friday at his daily briefing, White House press spokesman, Scott McClellan’s job was to try to spin new poll numbers. Bush is now at the lowest approval rating since his father was on his way out. The war in Iraq is wearing thin on voters. McClellan told White House reporters that the President was going to “bring sharper focus” to the war.
That was going to be it… a “sharper focus.” This from a man who has shown so little interest in the mess he unleashed that he has not attended a single one of the 1700 funerals for US soldiers killed in Iraq. Not one. Zip. Nada.
But now, his spokesman wanted to assure reporters, the Commander-in-Chief was ready to “sharply focus” on the war – and he thought he was going to get away with it, because he had so often before.
His statement raised more questions than it answered. Can we then assume then that, until now his focus on the war he started has been “fuzzy.”? What a comfort for the parents of those killed in Iraq to know their child died because their Commander-in-Chief had been unfocused. That he started a war, sent their kid over there and then focused on other things, like tax cuts for the rich, letting tobacco companies off the hook for killing millions, gutting Social Security, that kind of thing.
But I digress. Back to the White House press room. This particular day one reporter, ABC’s Terry Moran, wasn’t buying. He wanted a real answer to his question; “Are we defeating the insurgency in Iraq, as VP Cheney claimed last week, or not?”
Here’s the exchange:
Moran: Scott, is the insurgency in Iraq in its 'last throes'?
McCLELLAN: Terry, you have a desperate group of terrorists in Iraq that are doing everything they can to try to derail the transition to democracy. The Iraqi people have made it clear that they want a free and democratic and peaceful future. And that's why we're doing everything we can, along with other countries, to support the Iraqi people as they move forward….
Moran: But the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: The Vice President talked about that the other day -- you have a desperate group of terrorists who recognize how high the stakes are in Iraq. A free Iraq will be a significant blow to their ambitions.
Moran: But they're killing more Americans, they're killing more Iraqis. That's the last throes?
McCLELLAN: Innocent -- I say innocent civilians. And it doesn't take a lot of people to cause mass damage when you're willing to strap a bomb onto yourself, get in a car and go and attack innocent civilians. That's the kind of people that we're dealing with. That's what I say when we're talking about a determined enemy.
Moran: Right. What is the evidence that the insurgency is in its last throes?
McCLELLAN: I think I just explained to you the desperation of terrorists and their tactics.
Moran: What's the evidence on the ground that it's being extinguished?
McCLELLAN: Terry, we're making great progress to defeat the terrorist and regime elements. You're seeing Iraqis now playing more of a role in addressing the security threats that they face. They're working side by side with our coalition forces. They're working on their own. There are a lot of Special Forces in Iraq that are taking the battle to the enemy in Iraq. And so this is a period when they are in a desperate mode.
Moran: Well, I'm just wondering what the metric is for measuring the defeat of the insurgency.
McCLELLAN: Well, you can go back and look at the Vice President's remarks. I think he talked about it.
Q Yes. Is there any idea how long a 'last throe' lasts for?
McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Steve....(Pointing to a different reporter)
I reproduce this transcript because this is what I want to see every time this administration tries to use a press briefing or a news conference as a propaganda tool. It’s what they press is there to do.
Let’s let bygones be bygones. The press may be excused for trusting these guys early in their run. But how many times do you have allow yourself to be used to pass along lies to Americans before you start insisting on more information? I mean there is not a real reporter left in Washington who does not now know for a fact that this administration lies like rug. They lie, lie, obfuscate, lie, obfuscate, dissemble, lie, distort, lie, dither, lie, confuse, lie, lie and, when all else fails, lie again.
A big part of the reason the media allowed this to happen is because the right has been so successful in painting the media liberal shills. So, they have bent over backwards to prove otherwise. Eventually though they bent so far over backwards they ended up with their heads up their asses. While at the same moment FOX “News” became the best-funded rightwing propaganda tool in history. It was another win for the word-twisting right. Like tagging Democrats as “tax and spend liberals,” while Republicans got away with becoming borrow and spend conservatives.
I don’t care if the answers the press extracts from government officials supports left of right wing positions. I just want goddamn answer out of them -- a real answer. Is that too much to ask in democracy? And, since the rest of us can’t do it, we rely on the reporters do it for us. Otherwise, they should get better paying jobs writing press releases.
So, a big hooray to Terry Moran. Now let’s see the same kind of gumption during a Presidential news conference. Make that little chimp tap dance. I want to see him earn his living. I want to see that condescending smirk disappear and beads of sweat rolling down his forehead five minutes into the next news conference.
Here are some suggested questions for that news conference.
- After first discovering there really were no WMD in Iraq, and now the Downing St. memos, why shouldn’t the American people believe you lied to them and led them into war on false pretenses?
- If it is ever proven beyond a doubt that a president knowingly lied to take this country to war, would you consider that an impeachable offense?
- Don’t you think that supporting our troops during war includes their Commander-in-Chief showing concern and respect for those who made the ultimate sacrifice by attending the occasional funeral?
- Women now serve in frontline military positions. Several have died doing so in Iraq. Can you tell Americans what your two service-age daughters doing these days, besides modeling ball gowns for Vogue?
- You have said that the war on terror will be a long one, and that Americans must be prepared to make sacrifices if we are going to win it. Can you tell us specifically what sacrifices the Bush and Cheney families have made for the war effort?
- A follow up sir: Can you tell me what sacrifices the top 1% of American income families have made for the war effort. How much in the billions of tax cuts they received have they contributed to young working families that lost a mother or father over there?
- Dozens of cases of fraud involving US contractors, like Halliburton, working in Iraq have been confirmed. Can you explain why not a single official from one of those companies has been criminally prosecuted for these frauds. Is government contract fraud no longer a prosecutable crime?
- A follow up please. How does letting cheating private sector officials and their companies off with just civil fines fit with your oft-stated position on personal responsibility? Individuals engineered those frauds but they go un-prosecuted. Do you think this sends the right message to America’s young – America’s next generation of corporate executives?
- You have made an issue of your strongly held Christian beliefs. So, can you explain how you believe Jesus would have responded to 9/11? Would He have counseled restraint, turned the other cheek, or bombed someone?
- A follow up please. Do you think Jesus would agree with your economic policies, that providing more money to the rich while cutting government services to the poor is the way to lift mankind out of misery?
And if he doesn’t answer a question the first time, keep asking. If he refuses a follow up the reporter that asked the question should state, “I’m sorry Mr. President, but if you are just going to answer my questions with pre-prepared statements there’s no reason for me to be here.” He/she should then stand up and walk out. The same for the next reporter, and next, and next, until the President either answers reporter’s questions in his own words, or is left blowing Karl Rove’s prepared PR smoke into an empty room.
Now, that’s a real news conference.
Monday, June 20, 2005
June 17-19, 2005
Yes Virginia,
He's Screwed Up More Than Just Iraq
Occasionally when someone yells, “fire!” in crowded theater, it’s because there really is a fire. So...........
Fire!
The US economy is on fire. No, I’m not talking about a new bull market in stocks or real estate. I mean the damn thing is on f-i-r-e. You might not have noticed because it’s smoldering just under the surface, like a peat fire. But it’s heading for a stand of tinder-dry woodlands, and when it hits it’ll be too late to get out.
Those woodlands are the sprawling forest of US homes now financed by risky new adjustable rate and interest-only mortgages. The frenzy to loan money to spendthrift and borrow Americans has become so lucrative for lenders that they have shucked their stiff old green eyeshades and banker’s sobriety and become the lender-equivalents of used car dealers. You’ve seen the Ditech and e-Loan ads. Some would make a local yokel used car dealer blush.
“Are we CaaaaaaaaaRAZY? Go ahead, call us CRAZY. But come in today and buy your new home with a loan from Grabit and Dash Mortgage. NO. NO. NO, I SAID NO MONEY DOWN. But wait! There’s more. NO PRINCIPAL PAYMENTS FOR FIVE.. FIVE.. YES! I SAID FIVE, FIVE, FIVE years.”
And of course, it’s worked. Millions of Americans, many who never would have qualified for a home loan have. The trouble is a lot of these folks would have been politely, but firmly, escorted to the sidewalk a bank security guard just a few short years ago – for their own good, and the bank’s.
I'm a bloodied veteran taxpayer of the savings and loan scandal. So I get a little twitchy when I see institutions, whose chits I might have to cover someday, get loosey-goosey with their lending practices. I remember back in the mid-1980s when another cowboy, Ronald Reagan, was in the White House and supply-siders were pumping nitrous oxide through the national ventilation system. Asset values, they assured us, would go up. So, stop clinging to old-banker bromides, especially those girlie-boy “loan-to-value”rules. If a lender lends 110% of a property’s current value, what’s the problem? In a month or two and the loan will be more than covered by natural property value inflation. And, if problems do develop, the nation will “grow” its way out of it, they said. How? Well by exploiting new “synergies” created by the dynamics of a deregulated banking sector, they assured
Of course it didn’t work quite that way and cost US taxpayers $164 billion to cover those bad loans. (Tip: When you hear someone proposing a loosening of laws regulating the use of other people’s money on the grounds that the changes will create new “synergies,” -- just call the police.)
But memory fades. Today another cowboy is in the saddle and the game is once again afoot. Another prairie fire is about to be set. And here’s the match.
Over the next two years the contractual 5-year “adjustment” on those loans will be triggered. For the first five years borrowers were allowed to make artificially low monthly payments, allowing a lot of people who did not earn enough to afford a $400,000 home to qualify for a loan to buy one. Neither those borrowers or their lenders worried about what was going to happen in five years when their monthly payment jumped from $1500 a month to $2,500 a month. Maybe they would get a $250-a-week raise at work by then. Or, maybe they would sell the house for more. And, if they default, well, the house may be worth more by then to more than cover the lender. Lots of maybe's there that in the past would have had no place in the underwriting process -- and still shouldn't.
But there’s no maybe about this. This is a hard fact. In 2007 lenders will trigger ARM adjustments on more than $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of outstanding mortgage debt. That will add over $40 billion in additional monthly payments for those homeowner/borrowers. Yes, $40 billion more. Call me CRAZY, but that sure smells like smoke to me.
Nevertheless, this problem continues to grow. This year lenders report that 40% of the mortgage and refi loans they made were ARMs. As rates begin to go up this year and next, expect that percentage to jump. That’s because the loan-'em-all-they-want feeding frenzy of the past five years has created a glut of lenders. As rates go up it will force consolidation and fierce competition. Expect all kinds of TV teaser rate mortgage ads touting, “low-down, no-down, low-fee, no-fee, low-documentation, no-documentation, approval-on-line, you-don’t-even-need-to-prove-you’re-alive,” loan offers.
All this is particularly disturbing when you recall that the only thing that’s been holding this hollow economy together for the past four years has been the housing market. Automakers, airlines, textile manufacturers, manufacturers in general, are all just trying make it to the next fiscal year without filing for bankruptcy protection. If housing goes into the shitter, everything else follows.
But don’t expect an early warning call from Alan Greenspan, or anyone from Washington, Wall Street or the US Chamber of Commerce. Because those guys hate it when someone yells “fire,” in their theater. It can result in a rush to the exit, and that could leave “stake holders” holding the bag -- and that’s no fun.
Instead they like to engineer what they call “a soft landing.” Sounds nice.. ummm-a soft landing. Of course what they really mean that is they like to beat the rush, to have time to slip quietly from the theater while the rest of us are still absorbed in the movie -- and before we notice the smoke.
So expect Alan and his friends to continue making soothing remarks like, “While there is some froth in the real estate markets in isolated regions, we expect no large scale decline in real estate values nationwide,” and “While long term rates continue low, for reasons we cannot explain, and there appears to be continuing weakness in the manufacturing sector, the economy on a whole remains on firm footing.”
But here’s a tip from a guy who got caught in the last theater-fire: Keep one eye peeled for guys in suits leaving their seats.You might not notice them because they will just stroll up the darkened aisle as though going to the lobby for a popcorn refill.
Follow those guys.
He's Screwed Up More Than Just Iraq
Occasionally when someone yells, “fire!” in crowded theater, it’s because there really is a fire. So...........
Fire!
The US economy is on fire. No, I’m not talking about a new bull market in stocks or real estate. I mean the damn thing is on f-i-r-e. You might not have noticed because it’s smoldering just under the surface, like a peat fire. But it’s heading for a stand of tinder-dry woodlands, and when it hits it’ll be too late to get out.
Those woodlands are the sprawling forest of US homes now financed by risky new adjustable rate and interest-only mortgages. The frenzy to loan money to spendthrift and borrow Americans has become so lucrative for lenders that they have shucked their stiff old green eyeshades and banker’s sobriety and become the lender-equivalents of used car dealers. You’ve seen the Ditech and e-Loan ads. Some would make a local yokel used car dealer blush.
“Are we CaaaaaaaaaRAZY? Go ahead, call us CRAZY. But come in today and buy your new home with a loan from Grabit and Dash Mortgage. NO. NO. NO, I SAID NO MONEY DOWN. But wait! There’s more. NO PRINCIPAL PAYMENTS FOR FIVE.. FIVE.. YES! I SAID FIVE, FIVE, FIVE years.”
And of course, it’s worked. Millions of Americans, many who never would have qualified for a home loan have. The trouble is a lot of these folks would have been politely, but firmly, escorted to the sidewalk a bank security guard just a few short years ago – for their own good, and the bank’s.
I'm a bloodied veteran taxpayer of the savings and loan scandal. So I get a little twitchy when I see institutions, whose chits I might have to cover someday, get loosey-goosey with their lending practices. I remember back in the mid-1980s when another cowboy, Ronald Reagan, was in the White House and supply-siders were pumping nitrous oxide through the national ventilation system. Asset values, they assured us, would go up. So, stop clinging to old-banker bromides, especially those girlie-boy “loan-to-value”rules. If a lender lends 110% of a property’s current value, what’s the problem? In a month or two and the loan will be more than covered by natural property value inflation. And, if problems do develop, the nation will “grow” its way out of it, they said. How? Well by exploiting new “synergies” created by the dynamics of a deregulated banking sector, they assured
Of course it didn’t work quite that way and cost US taxpayers $164 billion to cover those bad loans. (Tip: When you hear someone proposing a loosening of laws regulating the use of other people’s money on the grounds that the changes will create new “synergies,” -- just call the police.)
But memory fades. Today another cowboy is in the saddle and the game is once again afoot. Another prairie fire is about to be set. And here’s the match.
Over the next two years the contractual 5-year “adjustment” on those loans will be triggered. For the first five years borrowers were allowed to make artificially low monthly payments, allowing a lot of people who did not earn enough to afford a $400,000 home to qualify for a loan to buy one. Neither those borrowers or their lenders worried about what was going to happen in five years when their monthly payment jumped from $1500 a month to $2,500 a month. Maybe they would get a $250-a-week raise at work by then. Or, maybe they would sell the house for more. And, if they default, well, the house may be worth more by then to more than cover the lender. Lots of maybe's there that in the past would have had no place in the underwriting process -- and still shouldn't.
But there’s no maybe about this. This is a hard fact. In 2007 lenders will trigger ARM adjustments on more than $1 trillion of the nation's mortgage debt - or about 12 percent of outstanding mortgage debt. That will add over $40 billion in additional monthly payments for those homeowner/borrowers. Yes, $40 billion more. Call me CRAZY, but that sure smells like smoke to me.
Nevertheless, this problem continues to grow. This year lenders report that 40% of the mortgage and refi loans they made were ARMs. As rates begin to go up this year and next, expect that percentage to jump. That’s because the loan-'em-all-they-want feeding frenzy of the past five years has created a glut of lenders. As rates go up it will force consolidation and fierce competition. Expect all kinds of TV teaser rate mortgage ads touting, “low-down, no-down, low-fee, no-fee, low-documentation, no-documentation, approval-on-line, you-don’t-even-need-to-prove-you’re-alive,” loan offers.
All this is particularly disturbing when you recall that the only thing that’s been holding this hollow economy together for the past four years has been the housing market. Automakers, airlines, textile manufacturers, manufacturers in general, are all just trying make it to the next fiscal year without filing for bankruptcy protection. If housing goes into the shitter, everything else follows.
But don’t expect an early warning call from Alan Greenspan, or anyone from Washington, Wall Street or the US Chamber of Commerce. Because those guys hate it when someone yells “fire,” in their theater. It can result in a rush to the exit, and that could leave “stake holders” holding the bag -- and that’s no fun.
Instead they like to engineer what they call “a soft landing.” Sounds nice.. ummm-a soft landing. Of course what they really mean that is they like to beat the rush, to have time to slip quietly from the theater while the rest of us are still absorbed in the movie -- and before we notice the smoke.
So expect Alan and his friends to continue making soothing remarks like, “While there is some froth in the real estate markets in isolated regions, we expect no large scale decline in real estate values nationwide,” and “While long term rates continue low, for reasons we cannot explain, and there appears to be continuing weakness in the manufacturing sector, the economy on a whole remains on firm footing.”
But here’s a tip from a guy who got caught in the last theater-fire: Keep one eye peeled for guys in suits leaving their seats.You might not notice them because they will just stroll up the darkened aisle as though going to the lobby for a popcorn refill.
Follow those guys.
Friday, June 17, 2005
June 16, 2005
Spring Time for Neocons
Jeezzee I hate to do this, but what else can I do when it finally becomes this obvious.
This week we saw something truly remarkable, and thoroughly terrifying. I don’t know how to begin this so that I don’t lose half of you from the start.
Let’s begin with this:
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) responding to the ongoing tales of serious abuse at Guantanamo Bay:
“Now, how do we treat these people? I sent down yesterday for the menu from Guantanamo, so that the average American could understand how we’re brutalizing people in Guantanamo, and I’ve got it right here. For Sunday they’re going to be having – let me see – orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit groupe, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf, another form of torture for the hijackers. We treat them very well. (And, all in a resort-like Caribbean setting to boot!)
Guard, Allah willing, would you pass the lemon-fish. I always enjoy it, but it’s particularly good today – praise Allah and complements to the chef.
That gastronomic news conference was, for me, the death rattle for this administration’s war on terror. It is the kind of thing despots resort to when caught red handed being despots. By this time they have fooled their own people successfully, so many times, with so many lame lies and obfuscations they figure they can handle this one the same way.
Hello folks, we have been down this road before. History, what a bitch!
Check this one out:
“The English, the French, and the Americans have their Devil's Islands and penal colonies. They are located in deadly climates of brutal heat or ice cold, and poisonous insects. They all have such hells where they sentence lawbreakers for long years or even for life. Most end up dying before they have been there very long….Germany does not have such tropical Devil's Islands or deadly ice camps. And even if Germany had such places, no one would be locked away there. In German camps, criminals and misfits live in clean and orderly accommodations, receive sufficient nourishment and have enough time for both work and play.
That little gem is straigth from the original 1940 German propaganda booklet entitled, “Wie Sie Lugen, (How They Lie.) The booklet was produced and distributed to prepare the German public for allied reports of Nazis atrocities. (Full Pamphlet)
In 1941 word had gotten out of the Nazis mistreatment of Jews in Poland. The Germans responded with a film entitled, Der Führer gibt den Juden eine Stadt. (The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City)
The city was The Ghetto of Terezin (Theresienstadt) the Nazi’s set up as a "model ghetto." The film showed families playing together, well dressed, well housed and well dressed. The Nazis used the film to impress the international community as well as deceive the Jews about what really lay in their future. Once the film was completed and distributed the Nazis opened a crematorium in their model ghetto in November 1942.
And let us not forget that the Nazi’s provided something for their prisoners we have not yet provided; high culture. While German civilians might not have been able to attend a symphony during the war, Jews could. And where? Auschwitz Concentration Camp, of all places! Yes, the Nazi’s wanted the world to know that, while they may not like Jews, and locked them up, they treated them well in captivity.
Just as Rep.Hunter and Sen. Session’s trotted out those steaming plates of scrumptious Gitmo food for the cameras, the Nazi’s provided pictures of concentration camp orchestras. It's one of the oldest s despotic ricks in the book. It’s all the same lying, cynical, crapola in a different wrapper.
I hope I have not lost any of you yet, cause I ain’t done.
When the public starts getting queasy, despots first try to scare them back into line. The administration and its Neocon supporters in congress are about this business now. They warn that all this loose talk about Gitmo and other US misconduct is putting our boys and girls in uniform at risk. Loose lips kill our kids, so shut the f—k up out there!
Well, the world's been there and done this dumb trick before too.
(From “False Consideration,” A Nazi propaganda pamphlet, describing a German soldier home on leave in 1939) (Full version)
“He visited a family of acquaintances. They spoke of this and that. The conversation turned to an old woman. One preferred to avoid Frau So-and-So. She was a nice enough woman, to be sure, but she said the oddest things. Recently, she said it was stupid that our soldiers had to undergo such dangers, and similar things. She caused a lot of bother and annoyance, and probably is not quite right in the head. One really cannot take her seriously. One didn't report her to the police, our reader asked? No, one could not do that. One could hardly send her to prison or even the gallows. She was such a nice woman!…This is the core of the problem that we have to speak openly about, German to German….Our enemy is giving us a clear enough picture of what he would do to us so that only a small percentage of criminals and racial trash in Germany opposes our victory. Their number is so small as to pose no danger to us. However, they could have an impact not only at home, but far worse on the soldiers at the front.”
Sound familiar?
Some Americans are beginning to argue we should close Gitmo, that the place has become worse than an embarrassment, it’s become a recruiting tool for terrorists. If that’s true, and only a fool would think otherwise, then it’s Gitmo, not loose lips at home, that’s really endangering our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the Neocons rallied in support of Gitmo this week. They say we have to keep it open because, damn it, the people there are really bad. They’d slit our babies' throats and drink their blood if let out. Only bleeding heart liberals and those who wish the US ill could possibly argue that what is going on at Gitmo is not wrong and not crucial to protect the American people.
Yeah, well, that justification jumped straight out of the same Nazi propagandist handbook quoted above:
“To whom was this slanderous distortion useful? Only the warmongers who wanted to starve and annihilate the entire German people…. Each of us knows what a crude and baseless lie this is. Every decent person in the world should have known this. And yet: "Some of it will always be believed, the stupid and gullible will never see through it all" — so hope the political liars and slanderers…..Certainly we do not relish the thought of losing our freedom, to be locked up, away from friends and family. But a country that wants to work to support itself in peace and tranquility must isolate the troublemakers to make them harmless. It has always been that way, and it will always be that way….We will not be confused by the lies of the foreign countries! We know what we are fighting for!”
This week's full court press by Bushite Neocons pulled out all the old propagandist tricks in the book. To me it has the sound of a death rattle to it. But death of what? That's what remains to be decided. We can hope it’s the sound of Neocon policies falling apart under the cold, disgusted glare of American voters.
But then it could also be the sound of America sliding down the slippery slope of – (and sorry, but there is simply no other word that applies) – fascism.
Don't wait until you hear the knock on the door in the middle of night to start worrying about it though. American fascism will not arrive in the familiar crude and obvious garb of Nazi fascism.
It will be better. There will be good food, and music.
Just don’t ask for seconds on the lemon-chicken if you know what's good for you.
Jeezzee I hate to do this, but what else can I do when it finally becomes this obvious.
This week we saw something truly remarkable, and thoroughly terrifying. I don’t know how to begin this so that I don’t lose half of you from the start.
Let’s begin with this:
Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) responding to the ongoing tales of serious abuse at Guantanamo Bay:
“Now, how do we treat these people? I sent down yesterday for the menu from Guantanamo, so that the average American could understand how we’re brutalizing people in Guantanamo, and I’ve got it right here. For Sunday they’re going to be having – let me see – orange-glazed chicken, fresh fruit groupe, steamed peas and mushrooms, rice pilaf, another form of torture for the hijackers. We treat them very well. (And, all in a resort-like Caribbean setting to boot!)
Guard, Allah willing, would you pass the lemon-fish. I always enjoy it, but it’s particularly good today – praise Allah and complements to the chef.
That gastronomic news conference was, for me, the death rattle for this administration’s war on terror. It is the kind of thing despots resort to when caught red handed being despots. By this time they have fooled their own people successfully, so many times, with so many lame lies and obfuscations they figure they can handle this one the same way.
Hello folks, we have been down this road before. History, what a bitch!
Check this one out:
“The English, the French, and the Americans have their Devil's Islands and penal colonies. They are located in deadly climates of brutal heat or ice cold, and poisonous insects. They all have such hells where they sentence lawbreakers for long years or even for life. Most end up dying before they have been there very long….Germany does not have such tropical Devil's Islands or deadly ice camps. And even if Germany had such places, no one would be locked away there. In German camps, criminals and misfits live in clean and orderly accommodations, receive sufficient nourishment and have enough time for both work and play.
That little gem is straigth from the original 1940 German propaganda booklet entitled, “Wie Sie Lugen, (How They Lie.) The booklet was produced and distributed to prepare the German public for allied reports of Nazis atrocities. (Full Pamphlet)
In 1941 word had gotten out of the Nazis mistreatment of Jews in Poland. The Germans responded with a film entitled, Der Führer gibt den Juden eine Stadt. (The Fuhrer Gives the Jews a City)
The city was The Ghetto of Terezin (Theresienstadt) the Nazi’s set up as a "model ghetto." The film showed families playing together, well dressed, well housed and well dressed. The Nazis used the film to impress the international community as well as deceive the Jews about what really lay in their future. Once the film was completed and distributed the Nazis opened a crematorium in their model ghetto in November 1942.
And let us not forget that the Nazi’s provided something for their prisoners we have not yet provided; high culture. While German civilians might not have been able to attend a symphony during the war, Jews could. And where? Auschwitz Concentration Camp, of all places! Yes, the Nazi’s wanted the world to know that, while they may not like Jews, and locked them up, they treated them well in captivity.
Just as Rep.Hunter and Sen. Session’s trotted out those steaming plates of scrumptious Gitmo food for the cameras, the Nazi’s provided pictures of concentration camp orchestras. It's one of the oldest s despotic ricks in the book. It’s all the same lying, cynical, crapola in a different wrapper.
I hope I have not lost any of you yet, cause I ain’t done.
When the public starts getting queasy, despots first try to scare them back into line. The administration and its Neocon supporters in congress are about this business now. They warn that all this loose talk about Gitmo and other US misconduct is putting our boys and girls in uniform at risk. Loose lips kill our kids, so shut the f—k up out there!
Well, the world's been there and done this dumb trick before too.
(From “False Consideration,” A Nazi propaganda pamphlet, describing a German soldier home on leave in 1939) (Full version)
“He visited a family of acquaintances. They spoke of this and that. The conversation turned to an old woman. One preferred to avoid Frau So-and-So. She was a nice enough woman, to be sure, but she said the oddest things. Recently, she said it was stupid that our soldiers had to undergo such dangers, and similar things. She caused a lot of bother and annoyance, and probably is not quite right in the head. One really cannot take her seriously. One didn't report her to the police, our reader asked? No, one could not do that. One could hardly send her to prison or even the gallows. She was such a nice woman!…This is the core of the problem that we have to speak openly about, German to German….Our enemy is giving us a clear enough picture of what he would do to us so that only a small percentage of criminals and racial trash in Germany opposes our victory. Their number is so small as to pose no danger to us. However, they could have an impact not only at home, but far worse on the soldiers at the front.”
Sound familiar?
Some Americans are beginning to argue we should close Gitmo, that the place has become worse than an embarrassment, it’s become a recruiting tool for terrorists. If that’s true, and only a fool would think otherwise, then it’s Gitmo, not loose lips at home, that’s really endangering our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the Neocons rallied in support of Gitmo this week. They say we have to keep it open because, damn it, the people there are really bad. They’d slit our babies' throats and drink their blood if let out. Only bleeding heart liberals and those who wish the US ill could possibly argue that what is going on at Gitmo is not wrong and not crucial to protect the American people.
Yeah, well, that justification jumped straight out of the same Nazi propagandist handbook quoted above:
“To whom was this slanderous distortion useful? Only the warmongers who wanted to starve and annihilate the entire German people…. Each of us knows what a crude and baseless lie this is. Every decent person in the world should have known this. And yet: "Some of it will always be believed, the stupid and gullible will never see through it all" — so hope the political liars and slanderers…..Certainly we do not relish the thought of losing our freedom, to be locked up, away from friends and family. But a country that wants to work to support itself in peace and tranquility must isolate the troublemakers to make them harmless. It has always been that way, and it will always be that way….We will not be confused by the lies of the foreign countries! We know what we are fighting for!”
This week's full court press by Bushite Neocons pulled out all the old propagandist tricks in the book. To me it has the sound of a death rattle to it. But death of what? That's what remains to be decided. We can hope it’s the sound of Neocon policies falling apart under the cold, disgusted glare of American voters.
But then it could also be the sound of America sliding down the slippery slope of – (and sorry, but there is simply no other word that applies) – fascism.
Don't wait until you hear the knock on the door in the middle of night to start worrying about it though. American fascism will not arrive in the familiar crude and obvious garb of Nazi fascism.
It will be better. There will be good food, and music.
Just don’t ask for seconds on the lemon-chicken if you know what's good for you.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
June 15, 2005
Obstruction Gets A Bum Rap
If we’ve learned anything about this administration over the last five years it’s that they are geniuses at redefining the terms of debate. Words are like PlayDough to these people, to be shaped into weapons.
One would think we've now seen enough of this Orwellian behavior, and it's results, to be on guard, even immune. But, so far anyay, we still fall for it every time. Americans continue to allow these people to reprogram our internal dictionaries at will.
* Crippling deficits became “investments in America’s future,”
* The invasion and occupation of countries thousands of miles away becomes “liberation and democratization” operations.
* The erosion of the constitutional separation of church and state becomes, “faith-based community action.”
* Laws restricting constitutional rights here became, “The Patriot Act” and "Homeland Security.”
Goebbels, eat your heart out dude. These guys are really good at being really bad. Then again, maybe we’re just stupid. Both could be true, and probably are.
Anyway, that’s all so yesterday. A new word is on the doctor’s operating table today. Boys and girls, can you say, “obstruction?” Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you think obstruction is a bad thing? Because, I just want you kids to understand, Principal Bush thinks it’s a very, very bad thing.
WASHINGTON, June 14 - President Bush spent Tuesday replenishing his party's coffers and, in the face of resistance to his Social Security plan and much of the rest of his second-term agenda, struck an aggressive new tone by accusing Democrats of standing for nothing but obstructionism… The Democratic leadership, he said, embodies "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the roadblock." (Full Story)
The plastic word-surgeons in the Bush administration are, as we speak, doing a Michael Jackson-level nose job on the word obstructionist. And, if the past is indeed prolog, by the time they are done it will be unrecognizable – and, they hope, just as ugly.
So, before it’s too late let’s nail down what the word really means:
Webster’s defines “obstruct” as:
To block or fill (a passage) with obstacles or an obstacle.
To impede, retard, or interfere with; hinder.
To get in the way of so as to hide from sight.
The first two definitions are the ones the Bush folk want to weoponize. If they can get the public to react to the term “obstructionist” the same way they react to “pedophile,” “terrorist,” or “Hillary,” they believe they can completely neuter opposition.
But using obstruction before fixing the term poses a danger. It’s that third definition. It will have to be dealt with, disappeared, left on the operating room floor.
“To get in the way of so as to hide.”
Yikes! That’s the entire Bush administration game plan described in a single, incomplete sentence! They built their entire evil empire upon it. Someone might notice.
After all, this is the administration that successfully obstructed public access to who advised Dick Cheney’s energy task force and what advice they gave, obstructed access of 9/11 Commission investigators to White House pre-war intelligence, and continue to obstruct access to important documents required for the John Bolton nomination as UN ambassador.
"As long as the White House is not allowing the information to come forward, there's going to be no change in the (Bolton) vote," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday. (Full Story)
Obstruction is this administration’s middle name. (Read today’s stories about the growing flood of Downing Street memos." If that’s not definition No. 3, I have no idea what is.)
But who knows, they may well succeed, as they have in the past, fixing that little definitional problem with “obstruction.” That would leave them with definitions No. 1 and No. 2. These are, at first glance, the very kind of blunt objects Republicans have successfully used in the past to beat Democrats silly. But is being an obstructionist, as defined in 1 and 2, always a negative? Bush wants to make it so, but IS it?
Well, not always. How nicer the world would have been if the German parliament of the 1930s had had some gutsy and effective obstructionists, ey? And how many more Russians would be alive and kicking today if the Soviet Politburo had obstructed Stalin’s purges – his version of homeland security? How many fewer people would have died if someone in 1930's Japan had organized enough obstructionists to cripple Japan’s ill-fated imperialist aspirations.
And no need to look backwards to find obstrutionist opportunities. I bet the Bushites would love to see some obstructionist pop up within the North Korean and Iranian governments right now. (Of course they would not call them obstructionists. They would call them “patriots,” and “friends of democracy.”)
History is chuck-full of such missed opportunities, moments when obstructionists might have saved hundreds of millions of people from misery, poverty, oppression and death. There are probably times when obstructionists did just that, but we never hear about them. When something doesn’t happen it becomes the proverbial tree falling in the forest no one hears. Therefore, nowhere will you find an Obstructionist Hall of Fame, museum or monument. We celebrate no Obstructionist Day. There are no obstructionist medals awarded at White House ceremonies.
So the Bushites want to use the ambiguity around this word as a weapon against their opponents. They will paint Democrats as “obstructionists.” And make sure you understand that's behavior that with no social upside.
But, as this new word-warping campaign get underway the press needs to make sure it's coverage of obstrutionism is, dare I say, "fair and balanced." Because clearly there are lots of potential upsides to obstruction, as pointed out above.
It might be an interesting exercise to look back and see what obstructionist opportunities Democrats missed already that might have yielded far better results than the Bush administrations they failed to stop.
Would America be better or worse off today had Democrats successfully obstructed Bush’s rush to war with Iraq?
Would America be better or worse off today had these same Democrats obstructed Bush’s $1.6 trillion in tax cuts for the rich and instead forced a payroll tax cut of less than half that amount for working Americans?
Would America be better or worse off if Democrats had obstructed Bush’s so-called Medicare Drug Benefit program that prohibits Medicare negotiating lower drug prices, and instead insisted that government use its purchasing power to lower drug costs?
Would America be better off tomorrow if Democrats obstruct Bush’s energy program, block drilling in the Artic Refuge and refuse to budge until the administration commits agrees to increase higher gas miliage standards on automaters and to fund a 10-year Manhattan Project-level renewable energy research and development program?
Well, what ya think? Is obstruction always a bad thing? Come on Bush voters. I want to hear what you guys have to say. Is it? Answer the damn questions.
Then get out there and obstruct something bad -- for the common good.
Patriotic obstructionists of America, unite!
If we’ve learned anything about this administration over the last five years it’s that they are geniuses at redefining the terms of debate. Words are like PlayDough to these people, to be shaped into weapons.
One would think we've now seen enough of this Orwellian behavior, and it's results, to be on guard, even immune. But, so far anyay, we still fall for it every time. Americans continue to allow these people to reprogram our internal dictionaries at will.
* Crippling deficits became “investments in America’s future,”
* The invasion and occupation of countries thousands of miles away becomes “liberation and democratization” operations.
* The erosion of the constitutional separation of church and state becomes, “faith-based community action.”
* Laws restricting constitutional rights here became, “The Patriot Act” and "Homeland Security.”
Goebbels, eat your heart out dude. These guys are really good at being really bad. Then again, maybe we’re just stupid. Both could be true, and probably are.
Anyway, that’s all so yesterday. A new word is on the doctor’s operating table today. Boys and girls, can you say, “obstruction?” Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you think obstruction is a bad thing? Because, I just want you kids to understand, Principal Bush thinks it’s a very, very bad thing.
WASHINGTON, June 14 - President Bush spent Tuesday replenishing his party's coffers and, in the face of resistance to his Social Security plan and much of the rest of his second-term agenda, struck an aggressive new tone by accusing Democrats of standing for nothing but obstructionism… The Democratic leadership, he said, embodies "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the roadblock." (Full Story)
The plastic word-surgeons in the Bush administration are, as we speak, doing a Michael Jackson-level nose job on the word obstructionist. And, if the past is indeed prolog, by the time they are done it will be unrecognizable – and, they hope, just as ugly.
So, before it’s too late let’s nail down what the word really means:
Webster’s defines “obstruct” as:
To block or fill (a passage) with obstacles or an obstacle.
To impede, retard, or interfere with; hinder.
To get in the way of so as to hide from sight.
The first two definitions are the ones the Bush folk want to weoponize. If they can get the public to react to the term “obstructionist” the same way they react to “pedophile,” “terrorist,” or “Hillary,” they believe they can completely neuter opposition.
But using obstruction before fixing the term poses a danger. It’s that third definition. It will have to be dealt with, disappeared, left on the operating room floor.
“To get in the way of so as to hide.”
Yikes! That’s the entire Bush administration game plan described in a single, incomplete sentence! They built their entire evil empire upon it. Someone might notice.
After all, this is the administration that successfully obstructed public access to who advised Dick Cheney’s energy task force and what advice they gave, obstructed access of 9/11 Commission investigators to White House pre-war intelligence, and continue to obstruct access to important documents required for the John Bolton nomination as UN ambassador.
"As long as the White House is not allowing the information to come forward, there's going to be no change in the (Bolton) vote," Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday. (Full Story)
Obstruction is this administration’s middle name. (Read today’s stories about the growing flood of Downing Street memos." If that’s not definition No. 3, I have no idea what is.)
But who knows, they may well succeed, as they have in the past, fixing that little definitional problem with “obstruction.” That would leave them with definitions No. 1 and No. 2. These are, at first glance, the very kind of blunt objects Republicans have successfully used in the past to beat Democrats silly. But is being an obstructionist, as defined in 1 and 2, always a negative? Bush wants to make it so, but IS it?
Well, not always. How nicer the world would have been if the German parliament of the 1930s had had some gutsy and effective obstructionists, ey? And how many more Russians would be alive and kicking today if the Soviet Politburo had obstructed Stalin’s purges – his version of homeland security? How many fewer people would have died if someone in 1930's Japan had organized enough obstructionists to cripple Japan’s ill-fated imperialist aspirations.
And no need to look backwards to find obstrutionist opportunities. I bet the Bushites would love to see some obstructionist pop up within the North Korean and Iranian governments right now. (Of course they would not call them obstructionists. They would call them “patriots,” and “friends of democracy.”)
History is chuck-full of such missed opportunities, moments when obstructionists might have saved hundreds of millions of people from misery, poverty, oppression and death. There are probably times when obstructionists did just that, but we never hear about them. When something doesn’t happen it becomes the proverbial tree falling in the forest no one hears. Therefore, nowhere will you find an Obstructionist Hall of Fame, museum or monument. We celebrate no Obstructionist Day. There are no obstructionist medals awarded at White House ceremonies.
So the Bushites want to use the ambiguity around this word as a weapon against their opponents. They will paint Democrats as “obstructionists.” And make sure you understand that's behavior that with no social upside.
But, as this new word-warping campaign get underway the press needs to make sure it's coverage of obstrutionism is, dare I say, "fair and balanced." Because clearly there are lots of potential upsides to obstruction, as pointed out above.
It might be an interesting exercise to look back and see what obstructionist opportunities Democrats missed already that might have yielded far better results than the Bush administrations they failed to stop.
Would America be better or worse off today had Democrats successfully obstructed Bush’s rush to war with Iraq?
Would America be better or worse off today had these same Democrats obstructed Bush’s $1.6 trillion in tax cuts for the rich and instead forced a payroll tax cut of less than half that amount for working Americans?
Would America be better or worse off if Democrats had obstructed Bush’s so-called Medicare Drug Benefit program that prohibits Medicare negotiating lower drug prices, and instead insisted that government use its purchasing power to lower drug costs?
Would America be better off tomorrow if Democrats obstruct Bush’s energy program, block drilling in the Artic Refuge and refuse to budge until the administration commits agrees to increase higher gas miliage standards on automaters and to fund a 10-year Manhattan Project-level renewable energy research and development program?
Well, what ya think? Is obstruction always a bad thing? Come on Bush voters. I want to hear what you guys have to say. Is it? Answer the damn questions.
Then get out there and obstruct something bad -- for the common good.
Patriotic obstructionists of America, unite!
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
June 14, 2005
The Moderate Trap
It’s not just generals who fight the last war; politicians make the same mistake, with the same results. Democrats, after losing the last three wars in a row, are gearing up to fight the same enemy again. The only trouble is, it won’t be the same enemy.
Nope. By the time the ’08 general election rolls around the sun will have set on the Neocon revolution. The damage their policies caused, domestic and international, will be abundantly clear. Voters will have had “right up to here” with swagger unaccompanied by tangible results. The already rich will have become conspicuously, filthily wealthy while working Americans increasingly become their servers in America’s new service-based economy.
All that, and more, will put Neocons back where they belong, in straightjackets, locked in the tower of the Hoover Institute at Sanford.
So, you Democrats won’t have very many Neocons to kick around in ’08. Instead they will face moderate-sounding Republican candidates. Gone will be the bombast, the swagger, and the robber baron-apologists. In their place will be candidates putting forth policies that may actually make sense.
Example De Jour: Arrrrrrrrnold.
Forget for a moment the caricature – of the muscle-bound, Sgt Schultz sounding actor/action hero turned politician who can’t even pronounce the name of the state (“Cal-eee-fornia") over which he rules. Democrats would love it if that was all voters focused on, a fact that Arnold is only too aware of. Which is why he called this special election where he can make issues, the issue. He is going to force voters to focus on the policies he advocates, which include several Democratic Party mainstay issues, such as a woman’s right to choose and environmental protections.
Notice too the GOP’s newfound populism.
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic and labor forces that oppose him switched into full campaign mode after the governor made official what he has threatened for months — a special election to change the way state government does business…. Schwarzenegger announced Monday that he had signed a proclamation calling a special election for Nov. 8, only the fifth special election in California since 1910. He wants voters to consider measures that would cap state spending, strip lawmakers of their power to draw legislative boundaries and increase the amount of time it takes public school teachers to get tenure.” (Full Story)
Smart – very smart. The issues he will elevate during this special election will resonate with average voters. No tax breaks for big business or wealthy contributors in this package. Nope. This time the issues are the stuff of morning counter-chatter at any diner in California on any day of the workweek. For example;
- He is proposing an increase from two to five the number of years a California schoolteacher must work before being granted tenure. That sounds pretty reasonable, especially to average working folk who can’t even dream of job tenure. If Democrats come out swinging against it – and I just know they will – they will get hurt by it. After all, it’s not exactly like our school kids are kicking academic ass on the world stage right now.
- He wants to require that labor unions get written permission from its members before they use any portion of member dues for political contributions. Democrats REALLY hate this one. Getting money from labor has become a wholesale operation for Democrates. If this measure passes it will become a retail operation. They will have to woo individual workers. That means standing out in the rain greeting workers at plant gates instead of smoking cigars and sipping brandy with union bosses. But to the average Joe, this proposal too makes sense. Nevertheless, Democrats are already jumping in front of this train, arguing that the Governator’s proposal would be "too burdensome," since it would require unions get permission every year to use worker’s dues for political purposes. Ah, would this be the same unions that don’t find it "too burdensome" to bill workers for union dues? If Democrats waste political capital fighting this one it will hurt them. After all, how can politicians who call themselves “Democrats,” oppose democracy for unionized workers when it comes to how their own money is used for naked political purposes? Duh.
On the national scene Democrats will find themselves paired off against similar Republican candidates they won’t be able to easily portray as stereotypical evil Republican fat cats. Take Rudi Guliani, for example. Here’s a simple little test. Imagine for a moment that Al Gore had been born Rudolph Gore, or John Kerry been named Rudolph Kerry. Do you think for a second either man would have built his political carrier as a “Rudi?” Forget about it. They both would have run, win or lose, as Rudolph’s, never Rudi’s -- and that says it all.
Like Arnold, Rudi doesn't run from all things common, but embraces them. Imagine again Al Gore, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton in the cheap tickets seats at an Indy 500 race. Do you think they could engage the folks around them in anything but the most pedantic and condescending small conversaton? And how long do you think they’d stay? Answer: until the photographers left.
But voters can imagine Rudi and Arnold not only sitting through the whole race, but yukking it up with their fellow fans as well. Is that trait we need in our politicians? Depends. There have been just as many patrician demagogues as there have been populist demagogues. I am only saying that this is the way it is -- not that's such traits represent our national salvation.
This is the new GOP trap Democrats are blissfully jogging into. If Democrats do have candidates hidden away in the wings who can connect with average Americans, now would be the time to drag them out for an airing.
But alas, instead the party appears once again determined to present us with the same preppy, blow-dried, never-done-a-real-day’s-work-in-their-lives, professional candidates. A pack of self-described social reformers, whose children are raised by nannies, whose gardens are manicured by migrants, whose cars are driven for them, whose medical bills are paid by government health insurance, whose retirement plans are kept safely separate from everyone else’s, is secure and fully funded by the taxpayers.
Democrats. Where are they? I mean the real ones. If they still exist this would be a good time for them to stand up and be counted. Howard Dean has tried a couple of times, only to be knocked back down by members of his own party. (In Japan they have a saying taught to school children, "The nail that sticks up gets pounded down. What have seen is the "Japanese-ization" of the Democratic Party. Woe be the Democrat who sticks up for average Ameicans. Just ask Howie )
Well, there are Republicans emerging who are more than willing to stand out from their party's current leaders. And the Rudi’s and Arnolds of the GOP are going to eat Democrats lunch, again unless they wake up, and fast.
How did a party that built it’s brand on such worthy accomplishments as Social Security, Medicare and civil rights, lost touch in such a fundamental and shocking way?
It’s not just generals who fight the last war; politicians make the same mistake, with the same results. Democrats, after losing the last three wars in a row, are gearing up to fight the same enemy again. The only trouble is, it won’t be the same enemy.
Nope. By the time the ’08 general election rolls around the sun will have set on the Neocon revolution. The damage their policies caused, domestic and international, will be abundantly clear. Voters will have had “right up to here” with swagger unaccompanied by tangible results. The already rich will have become conspicuously, filthily wealthy while working Americans increasingly become their servers in America’s new service-based economy.
All that, and more, will put Neocons back where they belong, in straightjackets, locked in the tower of the Hoover Institute at Sanford.
So, you Democrats won’t have very many Neocons to kick around in ’08. Instead they will face moderate-sounding Republican candidates. Gone will be the bombast, the swagger, and the robber baron-apologists. In their place will be candidates putting forth policies that may actually make sense.
Example De Jour: Arrrrrrrrnold.
Forget for a moment the caricature – of the muscle-bound, Sgt Schultz sounding actor/action hero turned politician who can’t even pronounce the name of the state (“Cal-eee-fornia") over which he rules. Democrats would love it if that was all voters focused on, a fact that Arnold is only too aware of. Which is why he called this special election where he can make issues, the issue. He is going to force voters to focus on the policies he advocates, which include several Democratic Party mainstay issues, such as a woman’s right to choose and environmental protections.
Notice too the GOP’s newfound populism.
“Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic and labor forces that oppose him switched into full campaign mode after the governor made official what he has threatened for months — a special election to change the way state government does business…. Schwarzenegger announced Monday that he had signed a proclamation calling a special election for Nov. 8, only the fifth special election in California since 1910. He wants voters to consider measures that would cap state spending, strip lawmakers of their power to draw legislative boundaries and increase the amount of time it takes public school teachers to get tenure.” (Full Story)
Smart – very smart. The issues he will elevate during this special election will resonate with average voters. No tax breaks for big business or wealthy contributors in this package. Nope. This time the issues are the stuff of morning counter-chatter at any diner in California on any day of the workweek. For example;
- He is proposing an increase from two to five the number of years a California schoolteacher must work before being granted tenure. That sounds pretty reasonable, especially to average working folk who can’t even dream of job tenure. If Democrats come out swinging against it – and I just know they will – they will get hurt by it. After all, it’s not exactly like our school kids are kicking academic ass on the world stage right now.
- He wants to require that labor unions get written permission from its members before they use any portion of member dues for political contributions. Democrats REALLY hate this one. Getting money from labor has become a wholesale operation for Democrates. If this measure passes it will become a retail operation. They will have to woo individual workers. That means standing out in the rain greeting workers at plant gates instead of smoking cigars and sipping brandy with union bosses. But to the average Joe, this proposal too makes sense. Nevertheless, Democrats are already jumping in front of this train, arguing that the Governator’s proposal would be "too burdensome," since it would require unions get permission every year to use worker’s dues for political purposes. Ah, would this be the same unions that don’t find it "too burdensome" to bill workers for union dues? If Democrats waste political capital fighting this one it will hurt them. After all, how can politicians who call themselves “Democrats,” oppose democracy for unionized workers when it comes to how their own money is used for naked political purposes? Duh.
On the national scene Democrats will find themselves paired off against similar Republican candidates they won’t be able to easily portray as stereotypical evil Republican fat cats. Take Rudi Guliani, for example. Here’s a simple little test. Imagine for a moment that Al Gore had been born Rudolph Gore, or John Kerry been named Rudolph Kerry. Do you think for a second either man would have built his political carrier as a “Rudi?” Forget about it. They both would have run, win or lose, as Rudolph’s, never Rudi’s -- and that says it all.
Like Arnold, Rudi doesn't run from all things common, but embraces them. Imagine again Al Gore, John Kerry or Hillary Clinton in the cheap tickets seats at an Indy 500 race. Do you think they could engage the folks around them in anything but the most pedantic and condescending small conversaton? And how long do you think they’d stay? Answer: until the photographers left.
But voters can imagine Rudi and Arnold not only sitting through the whole race, but yukking it up with their fellow fans as well. Is that trait we need in our politicians? Depends. There have been just as many patrician demagogues as there have been populist demagogues. I am only saying that this is the way it is -- not that's such traits represent our national salvation.
This is the new GOP trap Democrats are blissfully jogging into. If Democrats do have candidates hidden away in the wings who can connect with average Americans, now would be the time to drag them out for an airing.
But alas, instead the party appears once again determined to present us with the same preppy, blow-dried, never-done-a-real-day’s-work-in-their-lives, professional candidates. A pack of self-described social reformers, whose children are raised by nannies, whose gardens are manicured by migrants, whose cars are driven for them, whose medical bills are paid by government health insurance, whose retirement plans are kept safely separate from everyone else’s, is secure and fully funded by the taxpayers.
Democrats. Where are they? I mean the real ones. If they still exist this would be a good time for them to stand up and be counted. Howard Dean has tried a couple of times, only to be knocked back down by members of his own party. (In Japan they have a saying taught to school children, "The nail that sticks up gets pounded down. What have seen is the "Japanese-ization" of the Democratic Party. Woe be the Democrat who sticks up for average Ameicans. Just ask Howie )
Well, there are Republicans emerging who are more than willing to stand out from their party's current leaders. And the Rudi’s and Arnolds of the GOP are going to eat Democrats lunch, again unless they wake up, and fast.
How did a party that built it’s brand on such worthy accomplishments as Social Security, Medicare and civil rights, lost touch in such a fundamental and shocking way?
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
June 13, 2005
Don’t Work on Maggie’s Farm No More
Good morning suckers. Yes, I am talking to you. Well, at least most of you because it would take most of you to go along for it to work as well as it has.
I'll get around to explaining, but first this.
There’s a chicken processing plant along a highway a few miles from my house. I drive by it regularly. Big triple-decker trucks back into an open garage and the chickens hung, one by one, by their feet on a conveyor.
Every time I drove by the place, there they’d be, a hundred or so, heads down riding the conveyor towards a little hatch covered by a rubber flap. The chickens have no idea what’s on the other side of that flap, but we do.
They are strangely calm during the minute or so it takes to ride the conveyor to the door. And why not? Humans had always fed them, kept them warm and dry and changed their water daily. This was just something different. Right?
One day I was driving by and I saw this large white hen running hell-bent for leather across the highway. In pursuit was burly guy in white apron covered with blood. I rolled down my window and shouted, “Run baby. Run like your life depends on it.”
The butcher scowled, but the hen escaped.
That’s what I meant above when I said not all of you are to blame. Some of you are escapee hens, like me. But too many of you are hanging from your feet with stupid, well fed, satisfied looks on your faces heading straight for that little door.
Okay, time to stop with what has become a tiresomely long metaphor.
America’s consumers are the chickens in this tale of deception and deceit. Americans no longer save money for a rainy day, because they spend it as fast as it comes in and, if they run out before the next time they are fed, they borrow.
Americans no longer have mortgage-burning parties when they pay their homes off. Because Americans don’t pay off their homes like Mom and Dad once did. Instead they have been told by finance companies that any equity that builds up in their homes is wasted money unless they take it out and do something with it. Investment advisors roll their eyes when a person tells them they have built up a quarter of million dollars in equity in their home. They shake their heads looking somber and worried. “That’s just dumb,” they say. “You could be “leveraging” that equity by borrowing it and investing it in – another home, hog bellies, remodeling, a Hummer, a boat, a college education…," whatever.
Investment Tip: Whenever someone starts telling you to leverage you home equity, show them your partially paid for front door and send Mr. Leverage on his smarmy way. Because, what they mean when they say, “leverage your equity,” is “gamble with your home equity.” But, it they put it precisely that way, it would be hard sell – as it should be.
By now there are economists and investment advisors thinking, “Man, is this guy out to lunch. Leveraging existing assets is how you get more assets. It’s a tried and true path to building wealth.
Sure, fine. As a former real estate broker I have done it successfully myself. Just never with my home equity. My house is paid for and will remain so. Because – and this is what Mom and Dad and your grandparents knew as survivors of the Great Depression; when you own your home free and clear, no one can mess with you. Whatever happens your chance of having a place to weather the storm is astronomically increased by paying off your home. (That has to be one of economics great "DUHs!!!")
If you want to leverage something, go ahead. Here’s how you do it.
* Work extra hours
* Save extra money
* Take two-thirds of the money you saved and use it to make a downpayment on something. Put down as little of it as possible and borrow as much as makes sense. BUT... are you listening? BUT... make damn sure the loan only encumbers the investment property or asset. That way if you make a bad investment all you lose is that extra money you worked for. There's an old saying among serial-leveragers.. "If the bank lends you $1000, the bank owns you. But if the bank loans you $1 million you own the bank." I would just add, that when the bank loans you money secured by your home, the bank owns your home.
But that advice appears lost on American homeowners, who have sunk their teeth into their home’s juggler veins and sucked the life blood -- equity -- out of their castles. Instead of chipping away at their home mortgages, they are taking out larger and larger mortgages.
“In the first quarter of 2005, 64 percent of Freddie Mac-owned loans that were refinanced resulted in new mortgages with loan amounts that were at least five percent higher than the original mortgage balances, according to Freddie Mac’s quarterly refinance review." (Freddie Mac)
There's been much handwringing in the press lately about the "housing bubble," is it, or isn't it? Write this down: Yes, it is. How do I know? Simple -- the appearance of new "interest only" loans for homebuyers. Typically these are five year loans and no principal is paid down during the life of the loan. Clearly this is for people betting on continued appreciation, that their home will be worth a lot more in five years at which time they could sell or refinance it. That's bubble-time behavior if I've ever seen it. And if you can't see it, you're hopeless.
Where does all this borrowing and spending lead? Hiistory tells us. Read about the farmers in the late 1920s who listened to their bankers and tried to borrow their way to prosperity using their farms as collateral. When the shit hit the fan - as it always does eventually -- they lost their farms, and then everything else as well. Those same old bankers hoisted those farmers by their feet and sent them and their families right through that little door.
Here's some more history. Remember “the company store?” Coal mining companies were notorious for this, but plenty of other industries used them as well. Poor working families would be provided the "convenience" of shopping for stuff right there on company property. The company store was born.
"You would look stunning in that gingham dress Mrs. Clucker? And your husband needs a new Sunday suit. You don't have the money right now? Not to worry, we’ll just put it on your tab and you can pay us for it, plus interest, when you can.”
Company stores became combination shopping center/paycheck advance operations. Before they knew it workers who ran up tabs, and most of them did, were working just to pay off their tabs. Many became veritable indentured workers.
We no longer have company stores, not because they were unprofitable, but because they became an embarrassment to the companies that ran them. Now we have credit cards, which are ever so much better for spending more than workers earn. It's like carrying a little money printing press right in our wallets. Now workers can run up, not just a single tab at their company store, but dozens of tabs on different credit cards.
The result will, of course, be the same for companies, minus the bad publicity for companies. Because, when the shit hits the fan it will no longer be about trickle down economics, but "personal responsibility." They are very good doing that.
"Well, it's not our fault they could not exercise spending restraint," the trickle-downers will shamelessly huff. "These are their debts and they have to pay them back. It's all about personal responsibility, you know."
(Unless of course you are a big tobacco company or Halliburton or Pfizer or CitiBank...)
Today’s working families are now imprisoned by nearly $3 trillion in debt. This debt averages out to about $12,000 for each household of which $8,000 is credit card debt. And, like Mrs. Clucker who had to pay off her gingham dress over time, plus usurious interest, paying off an eight grand credit card debt at 18% interest one minimum payment at a time, will cost these families not $8,000 dollars, but three times that much, over $24,000. Oh, and miss a payment and the interest jumps to 21%. John Gotti, eat your heart out.
That is the bill of goods Americans were sold by the trickled-down, flat-earthers on the right.
"Don’t save money. Spend it on the stuff produced by big companies. That will provide jobs for you and yours, which in turn will result in more money in your pockets to spend creating still more jobs."
That was their sales pitch. What they left out was that the jobs created by your profligate borrowing and spending would be in China and India, not here. So, if you like curry or noodles pack and head there where you will be paid 71 cents an hour, if you’re lucky.
At the very center of this lie has been getting Americans to spend instead of save. And to borrow when they ran out of their own money.
With interest rates at record lows investment advisors are loath to advise their clients to settle for a measly 1% or 2% returns in money market funds. But that’s not where the smart investors, the really big ones, put their money either. China is rolling in US dollars, but you not find a cent of it in a money market fund or bank or an S&L. They buy US bonds – by the billions. ]
Are the Chinese stupid? Yes, like foxes. They know they are not going to get rich investing in US bonds at current rates, but that their investments strengthen the US dollar. They like that for sevcral entirely selfish reasons. The own a lot of US dollars, thier currency is pegged to the dollar in ways that keeps their imports to the US artificially cheap, and they know that money they put into US bonds goes right back to work. For whom? Well, for them of course. The more money they lend the US the bigger our trade deficit gets with China. Make the connection? Someone should.
But the same process would work for Americans as it is now for the Chinese. That is iif Americans would just slow down on the borrowing and start saving money again. Pay off your damn home mortgage. There’s NO shame in that. In fact, the day you pay off that mortgage I will park right outside the bank yelling,
“Run you glorious fool! Run and don’t look back.”
But, if you are one of those millions of Americans in hock up to your wallet to credit card companiess, and/or have sucked all the accumulated equity out of your home, and spent it on stuff, and woke up this morning realizing that you're in late 40's and starting all over with a brand new, much larger 30-year mortgage – if that's you -- then you my friend are a chicken -- a big fat, stupid, white chicken.
If the truck hasn’t been around for you yet not to worry, it’s on the way.
Editor's Note: After writing a screed like that readers might assume I am Lenin's great grandson or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a capitalist right down to my toes. I love making money. And, I have made my share. I just believe that unless an economy works for the majority it is destined to fail. Booms are created by this kind of nonsense. Busts are the inevitable result. The trouble is that the wrong people benefit from the booms and then excape all responsibility and most of the pain of the busts. Harry Truman said it best:
"Of course I believe in the free enterprise, but in my system of free enterprise,
the Democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, and never will be room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few."
President Harry S. Truman
One more thing before I go. Sorry I had to call you a big, fat, stupid chicken. But these are facts of economic life your parents should have taught you. Either they did and you forgot, or they didn't and you never looked into the matter yourself. Either way, you have some catching up to do, and time is short. So if my name calling gets you off the dime, it will be a small price to pay.
Quote of the Day
Regarding the sorry state of the press
"In the classic example, a refugee from Nazi Germany who appears on television saying monstrous things are happening in his homeland must be followed by a Nazi spokesman saying Adolf Hitler is the greatest boon to humanity since pasteurized milk. Real objectivity would require not only hard work by news people to determine which report was accurate, but also a willingness to put up with the abuse certain to follow publication of an objectively formed judgment. To escape the hard work or the abuse, if one too many says Hitler is an ogre, we instantly give you another to say Hitler is a prince. A man says the rockets won't work? We give you another who says they will. The public may not learn much about these fairly sensitive matters, but neither does it get another excuse to denounce the media for unfairness and lack of objectivity. In brief, society is teeming with people who become furious if told what the score is." Russell Baker
Good morning suckers. Yes, I am talking to you. Well, at least most of you because it would take most of you to go along for it to work as well as it has.
I'll get around to explaining, but first this.
There’s a chicken processing plant along a highway a few miles from my house. I drive by it regularly. Big triple-decker trucks back into an open garage and the chickens hung, one by one, by their feet on a conveyor.
Every time I drove by the place, there they’d be, a hundred or so, heads down riding the conveyor towards a little hatch covered by a rubber flap. The chickens have no idea what’s on the other side of that flap, but we do.
They are strangely calm during the minute or so it takes to ride the conveyor to the door. And why not? Humans had always fed them, kept them warm and dry and changed their water daily. This was just something different. Right?
One day I was driving by and I saw this large white hen running hell-bent for leather across the highway. In pursuit was burly guy in white apron covered with blood. I rolled down my window and shouted, “Run baby. Run like your life depends on it.”
The butcher scowled, but the hen escaped.
That’s what I meant above when I said not all of you are to blame. Some of you are escapee hens, like me. But too many of you are hanging from your feet with stupid, well fed, satisfied looks on your faces heading straight for that little door.
Okay, time to stop with what has become a tiresomely long metaphor.
America’s consumers are the chickens in this tale of deception and deceit. Americans no longer save money for a rainy day, because they spend it as fast as it comes in and, if they run out before the next time they are fed, they borrow.
Americans no longer have mortgage-burning parties when they pay their homes off. Because Americans don’t pay off their homes like Mom and Dad once did. Instead they have been told by finance companies that any equity that builds up in their homes is wasted money unless they take it out and do something with it. Investment advisors roll their eyes when a person tells them they have built up a quarter of million dollars in equity in their home. They shake their heads looking somber and worried. “That’s just dumb,” they say. “You could be “leveraging” that equity by borrowing it and investing it in – another home, hog bellies, remodeling, a Hummer, a boat, a college education…," whatever.
Investment Tip: Whenever someone starts telling you to leverage you home equity, show them your partially paid for front door and send Mr. Leverage on his smarmy way. Because, what they mean when they say, “leverage your equity,” is “gamble with your home equity.” But, it they put it precisely that way, it would be hard sell – as it should be.
By now there are economists and investment advisors thinking, “Man, is this guy out to lunch. Leveraging existing assets is how you get more assets. It’s a tried and true path to building wealth.
Sure, fine. As a former real estate broker I have done it successfully myself. Just never with my home equity. My house is paid for and will remain so. Because – and this is what Mom and Dad and your grandparents knew as survivors of the Great Depression; when you own your home free and clear, no one can mess with you. Whatever happens your chance of having a place to weather the storm is astronomically increased by paying off your home. (That has to be one of economics great "DUHs!!!")
If you want to leverage something, go ahead. Here’s how you do it.
* Work extra hours
* Save extra money
* Take two-thirds of the money you saved and use it to make a downpayment on something. Put down as little of it as possible and borrow as much as makes sense. BUT... are you listening? BUT... make damn sure the loan only encumbers the investment property or asset. That way if you make a bad investment all you lose is that extra money you worked for. There's an old saying among serial-leveragers.. "If the bank lends you $1000, the bank owns you. But if the bank loans you $1 million you own the bank." I would just add, that when the bank loans you money secured by your home, the bank owns your home.
But that advice appears lost on American homeowners, who have sunk their teeth into their home’s juggler veins and sucked the life blood -- equity -- out of their castles. Instead of chipping away at their home mortgages, they are taking out larger and larger mortgages.
“In the first quarter of 2005, 64 percent of Freddie Mac-owned loans that were refinanced resulted in new mortgages with loan amounts that were at least five percent higher than the original mortgage balances, according to Freddie Mac’s quarterly refinance review." (Freddie Mac)
There's been much handwringing in the press lately about the "housing bubble," is it, or isn't it? Write this down: Yes, it is. How do I know? Simple -- the appearance of new "interest only" loans for homebuyers. Typically these are five year loans and no principal is paid down during the life of the loan. Clearly this is for people betting on continued appreciation, that their home will be worth a lot more in five years at which time they could sell or refinance it. That's bubble-time behavior if I've ever seen it. And if you can't see it, you're hopeless.
Where does all this borrowing and spending lead? Hiistory tells us. Read about the farmers in the late 1920s who listened to their bankers and tried to borrow their way to prosperity using their farms as collateral. When the shit hit the fan - as it always does eventually -- they lost their farms, and then everything else as well. Those same old bankers hoisted those farmers by their feet and sent them and their families right through that little door.
Here's some more history. Remember “the company store?” Coal mining companies were notorious for this, but plenty of other industries used them as well. Poor working families would be provided the "convenience" of shopping for stuff right there on company property. The company store was born.
"You would look stunning in that gingham dress Mrs. Clucker? And your husband needs a new Sunday suit. You don't have the money right now? Not to worry, we’ll just put it on your tab and you can pay us for it, plus interest, when you can.”
Company stores became combination shopping center/paycheck advance operations. Before they knew it workers who ran up tabs, and most of them did, were working just to pay off their tabs. Many became veritable indentured workers.
We no longer have company stores, not because they were unprofitable, but because they became an embarrassment to the companies that ran them. Now we have credit cards, which are ever so much better for spending more than workers earn. It's like carrying a little money printing press right in our wallets. Now workers can run up, not just a single tab at their company store, but dozens of tabs on different credit cards.
The result will, of course, be the same for companies, minus the bad publicity for companies. Because, when the shit hits the fan it will no longer be about trickle down economics, but "personal responsibility." They are very good doing that.
"Well, it's not our fault they could not exercise spending restraint," the trickle-downers will shamelessly huff. "These are their debts and they have to pay them back. It's all about personal responsibility, you know."
(Unless of course you are a big tobacco company or Halliburton or Pfizer or CitiBank...)
Today’s working families are now imprisoned by nearly $3 trillion in debt. This debt averages out to about $12,000 for each household of which $8,000 is credit card debt. And, like Mrs. Clucker who had to pay off her gingham dress over time, plus usurious interest, paying off an eight grand credit card debt at 18% interest one minimum payment at a time, will cost these families not $8,000 dollars, but three times that much, over $24,000. Oh, and miss a payment and the interest jumps to 21%. John Gotti, eat your heart out.
That is the bill of goods Americans were sold by the trickled-down, flat-earthers on the right.
"Don’t save money. Spend it on the stuff produced by big companies. That will provide jobs for you and yours, which in turn will result in more money in your pockets to spend creating still more jobs."
That was their sales pitch. What they left out was that the jobs created by your profligate borrowing and spending would be in China and India, not here. So, if you like curry or noodles pack and head there where you will be paid 71 cents an hour, if you’re lucky.
At the very center of this lie has been getting Americans to spend instead of save. And to borrow when they ran out of their own money.
With interest rates at record lows investment advisors are loath to advise their clients to settle for a measly 1% or 2% returns in money market funds. But that’s not where the smart investors, the really big ones, put their money either. China is rolling in US dollars, but you not find a cent of it in a money market fund or bank or an S&L. They buy US bonds – by the billions. ]
Are the Chinese stupid? Yes, like foxes. They know they are not going to get rich investing in US bonds at current rates, but that their investments strengthen the US dollar. They like that for sevcral entirely selfish reasons. The own a lot of US dollars, thier currency is pegged to the dollar in ways that keeps their imports to the US artificially cheap, and they know that money they put into US bonds goes right back to work. For whom? Well, for them of course. The more money they lend the US the bigger our trade deficit gets with China. Make the connection? Someone should.
But the same process would work for Americans as it is now for the Chinese. That is iif Americans would just slow down on the borrowing and start saving money again. Pay off your damn home mortgage. There’s NO shame in that. In fact, the day you pay off that mortgage I will park right outside the bank yelling,
“Run you glorious fool! Run and don’t look back.”
But, if you are one of those millions of Americans in hock up to your wallet to credit card companiess, and/or have sucked all the accumulated equity out of your home, and spent it on stuff, and woke up this morning realizing that you're in late 40's and starting all over with a brand new, much larger 30-year mortgage – if that's you -- then you my friend are a chicken -- a big fat, stupid, white chicken.
If the truck hasn’t been around for you yet not to worry, it’s on the way.
Editor's Note: After writing a screed like that readers might assume I am Lenin's great grandson or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am a capitalist right down to my toes. I love making money. And, I have made my share. I just believe that unless an economy works for the majority it is destined to fail. Booms are created by this kind of nonsense. Busts are the inevitable result. The trouble is that the wrong people benefit from the booms and then excape all responsibility and most of the pain of the busts. Harry Truman said it best:
"Of course I believe in the free enterprise, but in my system of free enterprise,
the Democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, and never will be room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few."
President Harry S. Truman
One more thing before I go. Sorry I had to call you a big, fat, stupid chicken. But these are facts of economic life your parents should have taught you. Either they did and you forgot, or they didn't and you never looked into the matter yourself. Either way, you have some catching up to do, and time is short. So if my name calling gets you off the dime, it will be a small price to pay.
Quote of the Day
Regarding the sorry state of the press
"In the classic example, a refugee from Nazi Germany who appears on television saying monstrous things are happening in his homeland must be followed by a Nazi spokesman saying Adolf Hitler is the greatest boon to humanity since pasteurized milk. Real objectivity would require not only hard work by news people to determine which report was accurate, but also a willingness to put up with the abuse certain to follow publication of an objectively formed judgment. To escape the hard work or the abuse, if one too many says Hitler is an ogre, we instantly give you another to say Hitler is a prince. A man says the rockets won't work? We give you another who says they will. The public may not learn much about these fairly sensitive matters, but neither does it get another excuse to denounce the media for unfairness and lack of objectivity. In brief, society is teeming with people who become furious if told what the score is." Russell Baker
Monday, June 13, 2005
June 11, 2005
So, Is This What You Wanted?
Yo… Red State voters. I listen up. I have a question and I need you to focus for a moment.
I don’t know what you thought you were getting when you put these guys into office the first time. But by the second time around one would have thought you’d have a clue. So I have to ask: Is this what you thought you were voting for? And, now that you have it, is it what you really want?
Let’s look at some examples just from this morning’s papers:
Big Bird A L’Orange
Republicans rank public broadcasting right there alongside Fidel Castro – a little piece of commie-nism right here in the US of A. Rupert Murdoch agrees. Public broadcasting occupies prime frequency real estate that could be used to make a few worthy/wealthy contributors even more worthy. So the guys you sent to Washington last November figure it’s high time to kick those do-gooder, frequency squatters off the air.
“A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster. …."This could literally put us out of business," said Paul Stankavich, president and general manager of the Alaska Public Radio Network, “Almost all of us are down to the bone right now.” (Full Story)
So, I ask, was this one of the things you thought you were going to get when you sent Bush to the White House and gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress? Huh? Was it? As you filled out your ballot were you humming, “Bye, bye Big Bird.” Did you chuckle at the idea of Bert and Ernie as “Dead Men Walking?”
Well, did ya?
How about this:
Let ‘em Eat Chemo
After years of litigation seeking $130 billion in penalties from tobacco companies, that lied to its customers, the Bush DOJ cut the penalty request to just $10 billion earlier this week. All hell broke loose. Nevertheless, the fix was in. And this morning we see this:
“The government announced yesterday that it will further scale back its demands for penalties on the tobacco industry in a landmark civil racketeering case, saying it is no longer seeking to help 45 million American smokers quit their habit. In the surprising final day of an eight-month trial, the Justice Department's lead attorney said the government now wants tobacco companies to pay only for smoking cessation programs for an unspecified number of future smokers who may become addicted to cigarettes in the first year after the trial concludes.”(Full Story)
Let’s roll the tape and see what the Bush folks at DOJ are really saying here.
So what that Big Tobacco behaved liked an inner-city crack dealer and got millions of Americans hooked on their product. So what they peddled a product they knew was deadly to kids. So what they produced fake science to refute real research that showed their product killed people. And so what those tobacco executives lied to Congress, under oath. That’s all in the past. Let’s let bygones be bygones, okay?
What about all those customers Big Tobacco lied to and got addicted over the decades? No free stop smoking programs for them. Big Tobacco can keep them as customers. Let them die of cancer. All they are going to hold tobacco companies liable for are people they addict from now on, and even then, only for a short while. After that, it’s back to business as usual.
Is that what you Red Staters voted for? Is there anyone in your family addicted to smoking? Ever see anyone die from it? It’s not pretty. But hey, tough shit, right? Let ‘em eat chemo. To the Bush administration – which values life -- it’s nothing personal, just business. The administration has more to worry about than just your good health, or that of your kids. They also have to worry about Big Tobacco companies, their shareholders and all those God fearing Red State tobacco farmers the government still subsidizes. Get over it. It can’t just be about “the common good” all the time, you know. Business is business.
So, when you dropped the voting booth handle last November, is that what you voted for? Did you say to yourself, “Hey, those smokers were asking for it smoking like that.”? Did you feel the warm glow of satisfaction knowing you had just struck a blow for accountability? Well, individual accountability, anyway -- because clearly corporate accountability was not to have been part of the deal.
Did you know that? Do you know it now? Do you even care?
So, You Want Medicine?
You might be excused for not seeing this one coming, because it is so far out in right field it would have been impossible to imagine must a few years ago. But it’s happening now because rightwing Republicans have sold their souls to the religious fundamentalists in return for their votes. What I am talking about is this:
“A pharmacist in Illinois has filed a lawsuit challenging an order by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich requiring pharmacies to dispense birth control and emergency contraceptives without delay. The pharmacist, Luke Vander Bleek, 42, says in his lawsuit that the order violates state law by requiring pharmacists to act against ethical and religious beliefs that oppose morning-after birth control pills. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, is the third contesting the governor's action.” (Full Story)
Let’s understand what we have here. We have here is a professional, licensed by government to dispense legal, prescription drugs to the public, who now claim they have a God-given unilateral right to deny any medications at odds with their religious beliefs.
“But I have a prescription from my doctor,” you whine. “Sorry,” the pharmacist says looking down on you. “I don’t believe in dispensing (birth control, enemas, anti-depressants, pain killers… fill in the blanks.)
Since there are an endless number of religious flavors and beliefs ranging from mainstream to screwball, this could get interesting. Someday soon finding a druggist to fill your prescription could become a daylong affair.
Is that the kind of world you thought you were creating when you voted for these guys? Did you chuckle when you passed the local high school on the way home from voting thinking, “Okay kids, go ahead, screw around, and get pregnant. Then we’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.” Huh, is that what you thought?
You might want to ask yourself this, what’s next? There are religions that oppose blood transfusions. Might you someday find yourself bleeding to death on an emergency room only to have a pious doc lean over and inform you, “I’m sorry. I can’t give you blood, that would just be wrong. But let us pray.”
Is that what you voted for? Don’t laugh. That’s where this kind of nonsense leads. It’s the slipperiest of slippery slopes and the folks you elected have started us down it.
While the Bush DOJ pursues sick patients who use medical marijuana, they’ve had nothing to say about forcing religious-nut-pharmacists to follow the law themselves. Is that what you voted for? Well, it’s what you got. Hope you never need a life-saving drug some holier-than-though pharmacist believes Jesus or Allah hates. That’s when that chicken will come home to roost at your house – or grave.
I could go on, and on, and on. But you get the point. Have you Red State voters spent any time lately reviewing what you thought you voted for and comparing what you it is you ended up getting out of these guys? Have you? Soaring deficits, two wars, declining military capabilities, job outsourcing on steroids, tearing down of the wall between church and state, torture, the “Patriot” Act, Social Security in the crosshairs, Medicare on the ropes, Medicaid slashed. Is that what you really wanted?
Well, is it? Since you guys put them in power, I think you owe the rest of us an answer. If your answer is “yes,” then there is no hope. If it’s “no” then you might want to let those guys you voted into office know it. Because they still think they have you in their pockets. They dangled a gay couple in wedding dress in front of you. You hated it. They dangled a plastic Jesus in front of you and that looked more like it. So you voted for them. They figured you were now a wholly owned asset of the GOP (God’s Own Party.)
If that’s wrong, please let them know before they do more damage in God and your names.
Dumb Labor Tricks
It’s no secret that organize labor is no longer the force it once was. But to listen to Big Labor big shots you might think that it’s all management’s fault. Well not entirely. Big Labor has, for decades, either been a part of organized crime, or acted like it. To wit:
BOSTON, June 9 - Union longshoremen here have been placing children as young as 2 years old on their payroll for years in a scheme to secure jobs and higher salaries for members' children when they reach working age, the state attorney general said Thursday…. The scheme guaranteed that the salaries of workers placed on the payroll as children were inflated, as employees are paid hourly wages that increase with seniority, said Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who has begun a criminal grand jury investigation into the practice. (Full Story)
Maybe if union workers took their unions away from their own corrupt management we would see more young, educated workers willing to join. But who wants to pay dues to union leaders that make their corporate employers look like Mother Teresa?
Forgetaboutit.
Yo… Red State voters. I listen up. I have a question and I need you to focus for a moment.
I don’t know what you thought you were getting when you put these guys into office the first time. But by the second time around one would have thought you’d have a clue. So I have to ask: Is this what you thought you were voting for? And, now that you have it, is it what you really want?
Let’s look at some examples just from this morning’s papers:
Big Bird A L’Orange
Republicans rank public broadcasting right there alongside Fidel Castro – a little piece of commie-nism right here in the US of A. Rupert Murdoch agrees. Public broadcasting occupies prime frequency real estate that could be used to make a few worthy/wealthy contributors even more worthy. So the guys you sent to Washington last November figure it’s high time to kick those do-gooder, frequency squatters off the air.
“A House subcommittee voted yesterday to sharply reduce the federal government's financial support for public broadcasting, including eliminating taxpayer funds that help underwrite such popular children's educational programs as "Sesame Street," "Reading Rainbow," "Arthur" and "Postcards From Buster. …."This could literally put us out of business," said Paul Stankavich, president and general manager of the Alaska Public Radio Network, “Almost all of us are down to the bone right now.” (Full Story)
So, I ask, was this one of the things you thought you were going to get when you sent Bush to the White House and gave Republicans majorities in both houses of Congress? Huh? Was it? As you filled out your ballot were you humming, “Bye, bye Big Bird.” Did you chuckle at the idea of Bert and Ernie as “Dead Men Walking?”
Well, did ya?
How about this:
Let ‘em Eat Chemo
After years of litigation seeking $130 billion in penalties from tobacco companies, that lied to its customers, the Bush DOJ cut the penalty request to just $10 billion earlier this week. All hell broke loose. Nevertheless, the fix was in. And this morning we see this:
“The government announced yesterday that it will further scale back its demands for penalties on the tobacco industry in a landmark civil racketeering case, saying it is no longer seeking to help 45 million American smokers quit their habit. In the surprising final day of an eight-month trial, the Justice Department's lead attorney said the government now wants tobacco companies to pay only for smoking cessation programs for an unspecified number of future smokers who may become addicted to cigarettes in the first year after the trial concludes.”(Full Story)
Let’s roll the tape and see what the Bush folks at DOJ are really saying here.
So what that Big Tobacco behaved liked an inner-city crack dealer and got millions of Americans hooked on their product. So what they peddled a product they knew was deadly to kids. So what they produced fake science to refute real research that showed their product killed people. And so what those tobacco executives lied to Congress, under oath. That’s all in the past. Let’s let bygones be bygones, okay?
What about all those customers Big Tobacco lied to and got addicted over the decades? No free stop smoking programs for them. Big Tobacco can keep them as customers. Let them die of cancer. All they are going to hold tobacco companies liable for are people they addict from now on, and even then, only for a short while. After that, it’s back to business as usual.
Is that what you Red Staters voted for? Is there anyone in your family addicted to smoking? Ever see anyone die from it? It’s not pretty. But hey, tough shit, right? Let ‘em eat chemo. To the Bush administration – which values life -- it’s nothing personal, just business. The administration has more to worry about than just your good health, or that of your kids. They also have to worry about Big Tobacco companies, their shareholders and all those God fearing Red State tobacco farmers the government still subsidizes. Get over it. It can’t just be about “the common good” all the time, you know. Business is business.
So, when you dropped the voting booth handle last November, is that what you voted for? Did you say to yourself, “Hey, those smokers were asking for it smoking like that.”? Did you feel the warm glow of satisfaction knowing you had just struck a blow for accountability? Well, individual accountability, anyway -- because clearly corporate accountability was not to have been part of the deal.
Did you know that? Do you know it now? Do you even care?
So, You Want Medicine?
You might be excused for not seeing this one coming, because it is so far out in right field it would have been impossible to imagine must a few years ago. But it’s happening now because rightwing Republicans have sold their souls to the religious fundamentalists in return for their votes. What I am talking about is this:
“A pharmacist in Illinois has filed a lawsuit challenging an order by Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich requiring pharmacies to dispense birth control and emergency contraceptives without delay. The pharmacist, Luke Vander Bleek, 42, says in his lawsuit that the order violates state law by requiring pharmacists to act against ethical and religious beliefs that oppose morning-after birth control pills. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, is the third contesting the governor's action.” (Full Story)
Let’s understand what we have here. We have here is a professional, licensed by government to dispense legal, prescription drugs to the public, who now claim they have a God-given unilateral right to deny any medications at odds with their religious beliefs.
“But I have a prescription from my doctor,” you whine. “Sorry,” the pharmacist says looking down on you. “I don’t believe in dispensing (birth control, enemas, anti-depressants, pain killers… fill in the blanks.)
Since there are an endless number of religious flavors and beliefs ranging from mainstream to screwball, this could get interesting. Someday soon finding a druggist to fill your prescription could become a daylong affair.
Is that the kind of world you thought you were creating when you voted for these guys? Did you chuckle when you passed the local high school on the way home from voting thinking, “Okay kids, go ahead, screw around, and get pregnant. Then we’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget.” Huh, is that what you thought?
You might want to ask yourself this, what’s next? There are religions that oppose blood transfusions. Might you someday find yourself bleeding to death on an emergency room only to have a pious doc lean over and inform you, “I’m sorry. I can’t give you blood, that would just be wrong. But let us pray.”
Is that what you voted for? Don’t laugh. That’s where this kind of nonsense leads. It’s the slipperiest of slippery slopes and the folks you elected have started us down it.
While the Bush DOJ pursues sick patients who use medical marijuana, they’ve had nothing to say about forcing religious-nut-pharmacists to follow the law themselves. Is that what you voted for? Well, it’s what you got. Hope you never need a life-saving drug some holier-than-though pharmacist believes Jesus or Allah hates. That’s when that chicken will come home to roost at your house – or grave.
I could go on, and on, and on. But you get the point. Have you Red State voters spent any time lately reviewing what you thought you voted for and comparing what you it is you ended up getting out of these guys? Have you? Soaring deficits, two wars, declining military capabilities, job outsourcing on steroids, tearing down of the wall between church and state, torture, the “Patriot” Act, Social Security in the crosshairs, Medicare on the ropes, Medicaid slashed. Is that what you really wanted?
Well, is it? Since you guys put them in power, I think you owe the rest of us an answer. If your answer is “yes,” then there is no hope. If it’s “no” then you might want to let those guys you voted into office know it. Because they still think they have you in their pockets. They dangled a gay couple in wedding dress in front of you. You hated it. They dangled a plastic Jesus in front of you and that looked more like it. So you voted for them. They figured you were now a wholly owned asset of the GOP (God’s Own Party.)
If that’s wrong, please let them know before they do more damage in God and your names.
Dumb Labor Tricks
It’s no secret that organize labor is no longer the force it once was. But to listen to Big Labor big shots you might think that it’s all management’s fault. Well not entirely. Big Labor has, for decades, either been a part of organized crime, or acted like it. To wit:
BOSTON, June 9 - Union longshoremen here have been placing children as young as 2 years old on their payroll for years in a scheme to secure jobs and higher salaries for members' children when they reach working age, the state attorney general said Thursday…. The scheme guaranteed that the salaries of workers placed on the payroll as children were inflated, as employees are paid hourly wages that increase with seniority, said Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who has begun a criminal grand jury investigation into the practice. (Full Story)
Maybe if union workers took their unions away from their own corrupt management we would see more young, educated workers willing to join. But who wants to pay dues to union leaders that make their corporate employers look like Mother Teresa?
Forgetaboutit.
Friday, June 10, 2005
June 9, 2005
I nearly threw my glass of wine at David Gregory last night. Gregory is NBC’s White House correspondent, in case you don’t know. So there I was enjoying my evening libation and listening to Gregory report from the White House lawn the news that a former oil company lobbyist had changed scientific reports on global warming in ways that downplayed the threat.
The former oil industry lobbyist, Philip Cooney, is now chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He is, by profession, a lawyer with no background whatsoever in science. Before joining the Bush administration he had worked for the American Petroleum Institute where he headed its “climate issues programs.” Like Big Tobacco propagandists that preceded him, Cooney’s job was to sow doubt and confusion over any scientific claims that his employer's products were killing people -- and maybe the earth itself. And that’s just what he was doing for the Bush administion when he got caught.
Anyway, back to Gregory’s report. After dutifully – and correctly – reporting both sides of the flap, including a proforma denial from the White House spokes-flak, Gregory ended his report like this:
“The question remains, was the Bush administration trying to shed light on global warming, or trying to muddy the waters? This is David Gregory at the White House.”
Okay Dave, which is it? I just listened to your report and I am none the wiser for it. Holy molly man, how much are you paid? I assume you are paid a lot more than a stenographer. Any first-year journalism student could have put that story together, and without even leaving his or her dorm room.
Look, I was a reporter for over a quarter century so I understand the balancing act journalists have to perform when covering a story with more than one side to it. But there seems to be some confusion about that among journos these days. They seem to be confusing coming to an informed conclusion with opinion journalism. And the two could not be more different.
While journalists are rightly not supposed to inject their own opinions or bias’ into their stories, readers do expect them to deliver some kind an informed conclusions in return for pouring through a storys' "balancing" and conflicting positions. "He's wrong about that," says someone for the Party of the First Part. "He's right about that," says someone representing the Party of the Second Part. Okay. So, Mr. Reporter, can you help us sort that out before signing off?
I always assumed that was my real job. To get out there and do the research, interviews and gumshoe work my readers didn't have the time, resources or inclination to do for themselves. Reporters are human and of course they often begin work on a story with some of their own opinions. But if they do their job right their opinion is always trumped by the facts they discover while researching the story. I can’t count the number of times I began work on a story pretty sure I knew what was going on, only to end writing just the opposite.
Readers don’t want a reporter’s personal opinion in a news story. But, after cutting through all the balancing comments, conflicting views and spin-doctor la de da, they sure as hell expect some kind of informed conclusions. I mean, both sides can’t be right. One side is almost always wrong, lying, or - as has so often been the case with this administion -- both.
Or let’s stop pretending and call reporters stenographers and press release readers. Hell, the networks could save a fortune by replacing expensive reporters with pretty boys and girls to read dueling press releases in place of the evening news. After all, that's often all they do now under the guise of “news.”
Yesterday I mentioned the flap over Howard Dean’s remarks that the GOP had become the “white Christian party.” I challenged reporters to report some real news about Deans comments. I noted it would be a lot more helpful to their readers if they spent some time researching Dean's claim to discover if he was right or wrong.
Instead the media continues to make Dean the story. Is he outrageous? Is he hurting his party or helping it? Blah, blah, blah, uninformative, inside the beltway, intramural, politics of personality, blah blah.
Why don’t reporters these days produce stories actually end with informed conclusions? Because that kind of journalism is hard -- really hard. It requires reporters nail that sucker down tight as drum before it goes to press. But, as long as a story simply dutifully and accurately reports just what each side says, that's easy. That can be done without ever leaving their cubical, via email, or phone. And those kind of stories are safe for both reporters and their bosses. They produce less flak, fewer lawsuits, and fewer angry letters from readers.
But, if after doing their due diligence a reporter comes to and informed conclusion, and prints it, it better be right. And that level of getting it right requires a lot more work and nervous tension than many of today’s journalists have the stomach for. Ask me if I miss it. I don't.
Anyway, here were are a week into Dean “white Christians” story and we still have no probing investigation into the truth, or lack thereof, of his claim. Could it be true? Did he break out of the politically correct straightjacket to describe what is? We still don’t know. I can’t find out because I am just a reader like the rest of you now. I don’t have big medial resources to get at that kind of information anymore. But from what research I can do from my desk just using Google, it sure looks like he was right on target.
"White evangelicals and born-again Christians are 26 percent of all registered voters -- that's quite a big chunk -- and the survey shows they are quite happy with Republicans," said Adam Clymer, political director of the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which polled 3,715 registered voters nationwide July 1 to 21, with a margin of error of 1 percentage point. "Whatever percentage the turnout of your voters, if you get another 1 percent of evangelicals and born-agains, that's a lot more votes.... There are more of them in the South than the Northeast, but they are just as much pro-Bush and pro-Republican in general in either place." Mr. Clymer said.
(Washington Times, July 27, 2004)
And how about this?
But the untold story of the 2004 election…. (is that) the White House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted with the movement's leaders in weekly conference calls…in many respects, Christian activists led the charge that GOP operatives followed and capitalized upon…. surveys of voters leaving the polls (showed), Bush won 79 percent of the 26.5 million evangelical…
(Washington Post, November 8, 2004)
It sure sounds to me like the GOP is the party of choice of white Christians. But I still want to see the hard, unmonkeyed-with numbers. I just know that some pollster or demographer out there has done such research and knows the answer. All we need now is a reporter with the get up and go to get up and go get that information and share it with the rest of us.
Then the story will not be whether Howard Dean is a loudmouth. He is. We know that already. And it won’t be whether Dean is a polarizing force. He is. That’s his job. We know that already. And it won’t be if Republicans are mad at his remarks. Great Caesar's ghost, Jimmy Olson, what a scoop that is! Of course Republicans are mad about Dean's remark. But we knew that already. Hell, we would have known that even if reporters had not reported it.
No, the real story… the still untold story… is whether Dean’s claim is correct.
If it isn’t, that matters.
But if if Dean's charge is true, that really matters -- and a hell of a lot more than whether Dean is a loudmouth or not.
The former oil industry lobbyist, Philip Cooney, is now chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. He is, by profession, a lawyer with no background whatsoever in science. Before joining the Bush administration he had worked for the American Petroleum Institute where he headed its “climate issues programs.” Like Big Tobacco propagandists that preceded him, Cooney’s job was to sow doubt and confusion over any scientific claims that his employer's products were killing people -- and maybe the earth itself. And that’s just what he was doing for the Bush administion when he got caught.
Anyway, back to Gregory’s report. After dutifully – and correctly – reporting both sides of the flap, including a proforma denial from the White House spokes-flak, Gregory ended his report like this:
“The question remains, was the Bush administration trying to shed light on global warming, or trying to muddy the waters? This is David Gregory at the White House.”
Okay Dave, which is it? I just listened to your report and I am none the wiser for it. Holy molly man, how much are you paid? I assume you are paid a lot more than a stenographer. Any first-year journalism student could have put that story together, and without even leaving his or her dorm room.
Look, I was a reporter for over a quarter century so I understand the balancing act journalists have to perform when covering a story with more than one side to it. But there seems to be some confusion about that among journos these days. They seem to be confusing coming to an informed conclusion with opinion journalism. And the two could not be more different.
While journalists are rightly not supposed to inject their own opinions or bias’ into their stories, readers do expect them to deliver some kind an informed conclusions in return for pouring through a storys' "balancing" and conflicting positions. "He's wrong about that," says someone for the Party of the First Part. "He's right about that," says someone representing the Party of the Second Part. Okay. So, Mr. Reporter, can you help us sort that out before signing off?
I always assumed that was my real job. To get out there and do the research, interviews and gumshoe work my readers didn't have the time, resources or inclination to do for themselves. Reporters are human and of course they often begin work on a story with some of their own opinions. But if they do their job right their opinion is always trumped by the facts they discover while researching the story. I can’t count the number of times I began work on a story pretty sure I knew what was going on, only to end writing just the opposite.
Readers don’t want a reporter’s personal opinion in a news story. But, after cutting through all the balancing comments, conflicting views and spin-doctor la de da, they sure as hell expect some kind of informed conclusions. I mean, both sides can’t be right. One side is almost always wrong, lying, or - as has so often been the case with this administion -- both.
Or let’s stop pretending and call reporters stenographers and press release readers. Hell, the networks could save a fortune by replacing expensive reporters with pretty boys and girls to read dueling press releases in place of the evening news. After all, that's often all they do now under the guise of “news.”
Yesterday I mentioned the flap over Howard Dean’s remarks that the GOP had become the “white Christian party.” I challenged reporters to report some real news about Deans comments. I noted it would be a lot more helpful to their readers if they spent some time researching Dean's claim to discover if he was right or wrong.
Instead the media continues to make Dean the story. Is he outrageous? Is he hurting his party or helping it? Blah, blah, blah, uninformative, inside the beltway, intramural, politics of personality, blah blah.
Why don’t reporters these days produce stories actually end with informed conclusions? Because that kind of journalism is hard -- really hard. It requires reporters nail that sucker down tight as drum before it goes to press. But, as long as a story simply dutifully and accurately reports just what each side says, that's easy. That can be done without ever leaving their cubical, via email, or phone. And those kind of stories are safe for both reporters and their bosses. They produce less flak, fewer lawsuits, and fewer angry letters from readers.
But, if after doing their due diligence a reporter comes to and informed conclusion, and prints it, it better be right. And that level of getting it right requires a lot more work and nervous tension than many of today’s journalists have the stomach for. Ask me if I miss it. I don't.
Anyway, here were are a week into Dean “white Christians” story and we still have no probing investigation into the truth, or lack thereof, of his claim. Could it be true? Did he break out of the politically correct straightjacket to describe what is? We still don’t know. I can’t find out because I am just a reader like the rest of you now. I don’t have big medial resources to get at that kind of information anymore. But from what research I can do from my desk just using Google, it sure looks like he was right on target.
"White evangelicals and born-again Christians are 26 percent of all registered voters -- that's quite a big chunk -- and the survey shows they are quite happy with Republicans," said Adam Clymer, political director of the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey, which polled 3,715 registered voters nationwide July 1 to 21, with a margin of error of 1 percentage point. "Whatever percentage the turnout of your voters, if you get another 1 percent of evangelicals and born-agains, that's a lot more votes.... There are more of them in the South than the Northeast, but they are just as much pro-Bush and pro-Republican in general in either place." Mr. Clymer said.
(Washington Times, July 27, 2004)
And how about this?
But the untold story of the 2004 election…. (is that) the White House struggled to stay abreast of the Christian right and consulted with the movement's leaders in weekly conference calls…in many respects, Christian activists led the charge that GOP operatives followed and capitalized upon…. surveys of voters leaving the polls (showed), Bush won 79 percent of the 26.5 million evangelical…
(Washington Post, November 8, 2004)
It sure sounds to me like the GOP is the party of choice of white Christians. But I still want to see the hard, unmonkeyed-with numbers. I just know that some pollster or demographer out there has done such research and knows the answer. All we need now is a reporter with the get up and go to get up and go get that information and share it with the rest of us.
Then the story will not be whether Howard Dean is a loudmouth. He is. We know that already. And it won’t be whether Dean is a polarizing force. He is. That’s his job. We know that already. And it won’t be if Republicans are mad at his remarks. Great Caesar's ghost, Jimmy Olson, what a scoop that is! Of course Republicans are mad about Dean's remark. But we knew that already. Hell, we would have known that even if reporters had not reported it.
No, the real story… the still untold story… is whether Dean’s claim is correct.
If it isn’t, that matters.
But if if Dean's charge is true, that really matters -- and a hell of a lot more than whether Dean is a loudmouth or not.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
June 8, 2005
News Blues
One of my favorite scenes in a movie is the one in Roxanne where Steve Martin puts a quarter into a newspaper machine, takes a paper, glances at the front page, runs back to the machine, shoves another quarter in and puts the paper back. That’s how I felt this morning within seconds of opening my morning paper.
Okay, let’s go. Buckle up and keep your hands and arms inside until we come to a full stop.
Saddam v. Joe Camel. Saddam Loses.
While Saddam Hussein awaits trail in Baghdad for killing tens of thousands of his own citizens, it’s a different matter here in the US where Big Tobacco executives killed millions of their own customers, and continue doing so. They got a pass yesterday from the Bush Justice Department.
"After eight months of courtroom argument, Justice Department lawyers abruptly upset a landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry yesterday by asking for less than 8 percent of the expected penalty…. Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking-cessation programs…(the case) had been the largest civil racketeering and conspiracy case in U.S. history." (Full Story)
I bet that story really burns Saddam’s ass. I mean think about it:
* Saddam killed tens of thousands of his own people. But Big Tobacco killed – and continues to kill – millions of people every year, yet they are not in jail and not going to be.
* Saddam lied about his murderous intentions. Big Tobacco lied and lied and lied about its murderous products, even lying under oath to Congress. Still, no one is in jail, and no one going to jail.
* Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction after all. Big Tobacco did, and does. Yet no one occupies Big Tobacco’s offices. No Big Tobacco execs are being pulled out of spider holes.
* Bush claimed Saddam posed a WMD proliferation danger, which he was not. But Big Tobacco sure as hell is. Big Tobacco proliferates its WMD products to any country where people inhale.
Nevertheless Bush wants Saddam to swing. Big Tobacco, on the other hand, is let off with a slap on the wrist and a good ole boy slap on the back. (“Hey, you boys be good now, hear?” Wink wink, nod, nod.)
If I were Saddam I’d complain. I’m certain he’d happily pay a $10 bil fine and just call it even. Saddam might also want to make the case that he hasn't killed anyone for over two years. (Okay, not voluntarily, but just the same..) Big Tobacco, on the other hand, has gone right on killing its own customers by the thousands every day, even as it was negotiating this sweetheart deal with the Bush Justice Department.
Sorry Saddam, but you blew it. I’ll send you the book, “Racketeering For Dummies,” and you will see where you made your biggest mistake. See, you didn’t share. Big Tobacco shares its booty with the right people. The Saudis know how to do this too, which is why they are still enjoying their palaces and you’re cooling your heels in the calaboose. It really isn’t all that complicated. Just make sure the checks don’t bounce.
Is It Getting Hot in Here?
Big Tobacco may have pull with the Bush administration but Big Oil is a virtual subsidiary. And nothing annoys Big Oil more than all this tree-hugger hand wringing about global warming.
The first thing former Texas oilman Bush did when he got in office was to shred the Kyoto Treaty. But the subject just wouldn’t go away. When asked about it Bush would get a little pissy. “This administration believes in sound science,” he would declare. “When we have sound science we will follow those recommendations.”
But Bush couldn’t make the subject disappear. Instead he made it worse. Scientists kept producing good science and sending it to him showing that, “yes, it is getting hot in here,” and “yes, fossil fuels are a big reason for it.”
What’s a oilman to do?
Well, get a “good” editor to change the good science into bad science.
“A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.” (Full Story)
Do you see a pattern here? Wasn’t this the same MO we saw on WMD intel? When it did not agree with the Bush administration’s wishes, they just changed it. I’d love to see these guys do a jigsaw puzzle. When a puzzle piece would not fit where they wanted it to go, they’d just get the scissors and mallet out.
But this editing of global warming data is something else again. It’s as if Columbus’ logs had been edited before publication by a confirmed Flat Earther. That’s pretty close to what this administration anti-global warming sycophant did, turning sound science into junk science. These people are natural born liars – the whole pack of them.
Anyway, Big Oil and Big Tobacco clearly know how to reply when asked by the Bush folk, “Who’s Your Daddy?”
Saying It Like It Is
All this news comes on the same day the mainstream press all atwitter over harsh anti-GOP comments by DNC head, Howard Dean.
“Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are "pretty much a white, Christian party….Dean noted that he, too, is a white Christian. But he said the GOP is too narrow in its scope and the Democratic Party is far more diverse.” (Full Story)
Now, as a veteran of the Clinton scandals I find all this quite odd. Republicans clawed their way to majority status in Congress and to the White House, in large part, through non-stop, vitriolic, and more often than not, false, attacks on Democrats. Even now the smarmy GOP hit men Swift Boaters are releasing a book that “insinuates” that Hillary runs with lesbians.
But let Howard Dean suggest that some Republicans may have made their millions in unsavory ways, or that the GOP has become a party run by rightwing white Christians, and all hell breaks loose.
Instead of jumping all over Dean why doesn’t the press do their real job? Go out there and do some research You remember how to research don’t you? It’s a bit harder than just being a stenographer for political spokespeople, but it’s the way real journalism used to be done. So do some research and either prove or disprove Dean’s comments.
* Did some top Republicans make their money in ways that might not cut the ethical mustard?
* And what exactly is the demographics of the GOP? Are white Christians the dominant and controlling GOP demographic, or not? Was Dean wrong, or was he right about that?
Unlike Dems Republicans don't lay down when kicked. They jumped right on Dean's remarks because they struck at it threated to unmask their "big tent" facade. You know, that the GOP is the “party of inclusion.” What nonsense. The GOP today is made up largely of two kinds of people; white Christians, and blue collar Reagan Democrats who, only now are beginning to realize they were suckered. For Reagan Democrats the GOP’s promise to return America to “traditional values,” was the political equivalent of a Venus Flytrap. Suckers! First it consumed their votes, then sent their jobs overseas, gutted their pension plans and sent the whole lot of them back to work as minimum wage Wal-Mart greeters.
(Breaking Sucker Update: GM to layoff a third of its workers... Full Story.)
To add insult to injury whimpy Congressional Dems have fueled press negative stories about Dean’s cage-rattling remarks. “He sure doesn’t speak for me,” winced Sen. Joe Biden.
Get a backbone, Biden, et al. God forbid that the head of the loyal opposition party should speak harshly of the other party. Fine. You Dems in Congress just go back to living in your collegiality pretend world while your surrogates of your GOP “colleagues” pick you off one by one with smears, lies and demagogic IEDs. (BANG! Did you know Hillary was a lesbian? Huh?)
Crap. I have splitting headache. See you tomorrow.
One of my favorite scenes in a movie is the one in Roxanne where Steve Martin puts a quarter into a newspaper machine, takes a paper, glances at the front page, runs back to the machine, shoves another quarter in and puts the paper back. That’s how I felt this morning within seconds of opening my morning paper.
Okay, let’s go. Buckle up and keep your hands and arms inside until we come to a full stop.
Saddam v. Joe Camel. Saddam Loses.
While Saddam Hussein awaits trail in Baghdad for killing tens of thousands of his own citizens, it’s a different matter here in the US where Big Tobacco executives killed millions of their own customers, and continue doing so. They got a pass yesterday from the Bush Justice Department.
"After eight months of courtroom argument, Justice Department lawyers abruptly upset a landmark civil racketeering case against the tobacco industry yesterday by asking for less than 8 percent of the expected penalty…. Justice Department lawyer Stephen D. Brody shocked tobacco company representatives and anti-tobacco activists by announcing that the government will not seek the $130 billion that a government expert had testified was necessary to fund smoking-cessation programs…(the case) had been the largest civil racketeering and conspiracy case in U.S. history." (Full Story)
I bet that story really burns Saddam’s ass. I mean think about it:
* Saddam killed tens of thousands of his own people. But Big Tobacco killed – and continues to kill – millions of people every year, yet they are not in jail and not going to be.
* Saddam lied about his murderous intentions. Big Tobacco lied and lied and lied about its murderous products, even lying under oath to Congress. Still, no one is in jail, and no one going to jail.
* Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction after all. Big Tobacco did, and does. Yet no one occupies Big Tobacco’s offices. No Big Tobacco execs are being pulled out of spider holes.
* Bush claimed Saddam posed a WMD proliferation danger, which he was not. But Big Tobacco sure as hell is. Big Tobacco proliferates its WMD products to any country where people inhale.
Nevertheless Bush wants Saddam to swing. Big Tobacco, on the other hand, is let off with a slap on the wrist and a good ole boy slap on the back. (“Hey, you boys be good now, hear?” Wink wink, nod, nod.)
If I were Saddam I’d complain. I’m certain he’d happily pay a $10 bil fine and just call it even. Saddam might also want to make the case that he hasn't killed anyone for over two years. (Okay, not voluntarily, but just the same..) Big Tobacco, on the other hand, has gone right on killing its own customers by the thousands every day, even as it was negotiating this sweetheart deal with the Bush Justice Department.
Sorry Saddam, but you blew it. I’ll send you the book, “Racketeering For Dummies,” and you will see where you made your biggest mistake. See, you didn’t share. Big Tobacco shares its booty with the right people. The Saudis know how to do this too, which is why they are still enjoying their palaces and you’re cooling your heels in the calaboose. It really isn’t all that complicated. Just make sure the checks don’t bounce.
Is It Getting Hot in Here?
Big Tobacco may have pull with the Bush administration but Big Oil is a virtual subsidiary. And nothing annoys Big Oil more than all this tree-hugger hand wringing about global warming.
The first thing former Texas oilman Bush did when he got in office was to shred the Kyoto Treaty. But the subject just wouldn’t go away. When asked about it Bush would get a little pissy. “This administration believes in sound science,” he would declare. “When we have sound science we will follow those recommendations.”
But Bush couldn’t make the subject disappear. Instead he made it worse. Scientists kept producing good science and sending it to him showing that, “yes, it is getting hot in here,” and “yes, fossil fuels are a big reason for it.”
What’s a oilman to do?
Well, get a “good” editor to change the good science into bad science.
“A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming, according to internal documents.” (Full Story)
Do you see a pattern here? Wasn’t this the same MO we saw on WMD intel? When it did not agree with the Bush administration’s wishes, they just changed it. I’d love to see these guys do a jigsaw puzzle. When a puzzle piece would not fit where they wanted it to go, they’d just get the scissors and mallet out.
But this editing of global warming data is something else again. It’s as if Columbus’ logs had been edited before publication by a confirmed Flat Earther. That’s pretty close to what this administration anti-global warming sycophant did, turning sound science into junk science. These people are natural born liars – the whole pack of them.
Anyway, Big Oil and Big Tobacco clearly know how to reply when asked by the Bush folk, “Who’s Your Daddy?”
Saying It Like It Is
All this news comes on the same day the mainstream press all atwitter over harsh anti-GOP comments by DNC head, Howard Dean.
“Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are "pretty much a white, Christian party….Dean noted that he, too, is a white Christian. But he said the GOP is too narrow in its scope and the Democratic Party is far more diverse.” (Full Story)
Now, as a veteran of the Clinton scandals I find all this quite odd. Republicans clawed their way to majority status in Congress and to the White House, in large part, through non-stop, vitriolic, and more often than not, false, attacks on Democrats. Even now the smarmy GOP hit men Swift Boaters are releasing a book that “insinuates” that Hillary runs with lesbians.
But let Howard Dean suggest that some Republicans may have made their millions in unsavory ways, or that the GOP has become a party run by rightwing white Christians, and all hell breaks loose.
Instead of jumping all over Dean why doesn’t the press do their real job? Go out there and do some research You remember how to research don’t you? It’s a bit harder than just being a stenographer for political spokespeople, but it’s the way real journalism used to be done. So do some research and either prove or disprove Dean’s comments.
* Did some top Republicans make their money in ways that might not cut the ethical mustard?
* And what exactly is the demographics of the GOP? Are white Christians the dominant and controlling GOP demographic, or not? Was Dean wrong, or was he right about that?
Unlike Dems Republicans don't lay down when kicked. They jumped right on Dean's remarks because they struck at it threated to unmask their "big tent" facade. You know, that the GOP is the “party of inclusion.” What nonsense. The GOP today is made up largely of two kinds of people; white Christians, and blue collar Reagan Democrats who, only now are beginning to realize they were suckered. For Reagan Democrats the GOP’s promise to return America to “traditional values,” was the political equivalent of a Venus Flytrap. Suckers! First it consumed their votes, then sent their jobs overseas, gutted their pension plans and sent the whole lot of them back to work as minimum wage Wal-Mart greeters.
(Breaking Sucker Update: GM to layoff a third of its workers... Full Story.)
To add insult to injury whimpy Congressional Dems have fueled press negative stories about Dean’s cage-rattling remarks. “He sure doesn’t speak for me,” winced Sen. Joe Biden.
Get a backbone, Biden, et al. God forbid that the head of the loyal opposition party should speak harshly of the other party. Fine. You Dems in Congress just go back to living in your collegiality pretend world while your surrogates of your GOP “colleagues” pick you off one by one with smears, lies and demagogic IEDs. (BANG! Did you know Hillary was a lesbian? Huh?)
Crap. I have splitting headache. See you tomorrow.
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