From truthout.org :
Maya Schenwar
Four Years Later, the Fallout of Iraq
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011708J.shtml
To mark the fifth year of the occupation of Iraq, Truthout will be profiling veterans who served in Iraq, have returned to the US and are trying to adjust to life at home. This is an effort to step outside of the beltway coverage revolving around the policies, and focus more on the individuals who have been directly affected physically and emotionally.
In the first story of this series, Maya Schenwar profiles Joe Wheeler, an Iraq vet suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who says it's criminal to call war a "learning experience."
Wrap...
Thursday, January 17, 2008
From CIA tapes to Hillary, Flight Attendent...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
After hearing testimony from CIA Acting General Counsel John A. Rizzo, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) indicated yesterday that CIA official Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. "ordered the destruction of videotapes depicting agency interrogation sessions even though he was directed not to do so." Rodriguez was previously said to never have been "instructed to preserve them."
The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a group dedicated to fighting illegal immigration, launched an effort to draft CNN's Lou Dobbs into the presidential race as an independent.
In recognition of the difficulty in passing timelines for withdrawal from Iraq, anti-war groups will instead "push for legislation to prevent President Bush from entering into a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that could keep significant numbers of troops in Iraq for years to come."
Americans are "revved up -- and ready to vote." According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 62 percent of voters "say they're more enthusiastic about voting than usual. That's 17 percentage points higher than at this point in 2000 and 6 points higher than in 2004 -- a year in which November turnout was the highest in a generation."
Asked about an incident this month involving Iranian speedboats and U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said "he did not know who was responsible for a threat made over the radio that brought the United States and Iran close to confrontation."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "told lawmakers that he can support tax cuts or spending measures to stimulate the economy" that are "quick and temporary," even "if they increase the budget deficit." Bernanke refused to comment on linking "a stimulus package with a permanent extension of President Bush's tax cuts," which may disappoint conservatives.
At an event in South Carolina yesterday, a questioner angrily confronted John McCain about his support for removal of the Confederate flag from the state Capitol. "My answer to that is I can't be more proud of the overwhelming majority of the people of this state who came together in taking that flag off the top of the Capitol," said McCain to a standing ovation.
68 percent: Americans who "say individuals should be required to have medical insurance, with government help for those who cannot afford it," according to a new poll by The Commonwealth Fund. In the survey, even 52 percent of Republicans said they support health care mandates.
And finally: Yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) "tried another career on for size: flight attendant." Playing flight attendant on a chartered 737 carrying her staff and members of the media, Clinton said over the loud speaker, "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard the maiden flight of Hill Force One." She joked that the FAA prohibits the use of electronic devices "that may be used to transmit a negative story about me" and added that the "in-flight entertainment" would be her "stump speech." (Video here.)
Wrap...
Think Fast...
After hearing testimony from CIA Acting General Counsel John A. Rizzo, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) indicated yesterday that CIA official Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. "ordered the destruction of videotapes depicting agency interrogation sessions even though he was directed not to do so." Rodriguez was previously said to never have been "instructed to preserve them."
The Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee, a group dedicated to fighting illegal immigration, launched an effort to draft CNN's Lou Dobbs into the presidential race as an independent.
In recognition of the difficulty in passing timelines for withdrawal from Iraq, anti-war groups will instead "push for legislation to prevent President Bush from entering into a long-term agreement with the Iraqi government that could keep significant numbers of troops in Iraq for years to come."
Americans are "revved up -- and ready to vote." According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll, 62 percent of voters "say they're more enthusiastic about voting than usual. That's 17 percentage points higher than at this point in 2000 and 6 points higher than in 2004 -- a year in which November turnout was the highest in a generation."
Asked about an incident this month involving Iranian speedboats and U.S. warships in the Strait of Hormuz, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said "he did not know who was responsible for a threat made over the radio that brought the United States and Iran close to confrontation."
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke "told lawmakers that he can support tax cuts or spending measures to stimulate the economy" that are "quick and temporary," even "if they increase the budget deficit." Bernanke refused to comment on linking "a stimulus package with a permanent extension of President Bush's tax cuts," which may disappoint conservatives.
At an event in South Carolina yesterday, a questioner angrily confronted John McCain about his support for removal of the Confederate flag from the state Capitol. "My answer to that is I can't be more proud of the overwhelming majority of the people of this state who came together in taking that flag off the top of the Capitol," said McCain to a standing ovation.
68 percent: Americans who "say individuals should be required to have medical insurance, with government help for those who cannot afford it," according to a new poll by The Commonwealth Fund. In the survey, even 52 percent of Republicans said they support health care mandates.
And finally: Yesterday, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) "tried another career on for size: flight attendant." Playing flight attendant on a chartered 737 carrying her staff and members of the media, Clinton said over the loud speaker, "Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard the maiden flight of Hill Force One." She joked that the FAA prohibits the use of electronic devices "that may be used to transmit a negative story about me" and added that the "in-flight entertainment" would be her "stump speech." (Video here.)
Wrap...
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Blackwater and the DOJ....
From The New York Times via truthout.org:
Blackwater Case Faces Obstacles, Justice Department Says
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011608K.shtml
Jmes Risen and David Johnston report for The New York Times, "Justice Department officials have told Congress that they face serious legal difficulties in pursuing criminal prosecutions of Blackwater security guards involved in a September shooting that left at least 17 Iraqis dead."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Blackwater Case Faces Obstacles, Justice Department Says
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011608K.shtml
Jmes Risen and David Johnston report for The New York Times, "Justice Department officials have told Congress that they face serious legal difficulties in pursuing criminal prosecutions of Blackwater security guards involved in a September shooting that left at least 17 Iraqis dead."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
The Latest on Nukes....
From Secrecy News:
NUCLEAR WEAPONS NEWS
The United States intervened to block South Korea from developing nuclear weapons in the 1970s, according to newly declassified Korean government documents. South Korea was seeking to acquire nuclear reactors from Canada and nuclear reprocessing technology from France in support of a weapons program, but U.S. pressure led to cancellation of the latter purchase, the Korean press reported this week.
See "Park Sought to Develop Nuclear Weapons," Korea Times, January 15: http://tinyurl.com/29hvuq
Meanwhile, the island nation of Barbados this week ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban. A total of 142 countries have now ratified the treaty, which prohibits all nuclear explosions. http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/01/barbados.html
Wrap...
NUCLEAR WEAPONS NEWS
The United States intervened to block South Korea from developing nuclear weapons in the 1970s, according to newly declassified Korean government documents. South Korea was seeking to acquire nuclear reactors from Canada and nuclear reprocessing technology from France in support of a weapons program, but U.S. pressure led to cancellation of the latter purchase, the Korean press reported this week.
See "Park Sought to Develop Nuclear Weapons," Korea Times, January 15: http://tinyurl.com/29hvuq
Meanwhile, the island nation of Barbados this week ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban. A total of 142 countries have now ratified the treaty, which prohibits all nuclear explosions. http://www.fas.org/irp/news/2008/01/barbados.html
Wrap...
Gas prices...Getting their money back....
From Greg Palast via email:
George of Arabia: Better Kiss Your Abe 'Goodbye'
by Greg Palast
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Bend over, pull out your wallet and kiss your Abe ‘goodbye.’ The Lincolns have got to go - and so do the Hamiltons and Jacksons.
Those bills in your billfold aren’t yours anymore. The landlords of our currency - Citibank, the national treasury of China and the House of Saud - are foreclosing and evicting all Americans from the US economy.
It’s mornings like this, when I wake up hung-over to photos of the King of Saudi Arabia festooning our President with gold necklaces, that I reluctantly remember that I am an economist; and one with some responsibility to explain what the hell Bush is doing kissing Abdullah’s camel.
Let’s begin by stating why Bush is not in Saudi Arabia. Bush ain’t there to promote ‘Democracy’ nor peace in Palestine, nor even war in Iran. And, despite what some pinhead from CNN stated, he sure as hell didn’t go to Riyadh to tell the Saudis to cut the price of oil.
What’s really behind Bush’s hajj to Riyadh is that America is in hock up to our knickers. The sub-prime mortgage market implosion, hitting a dozen banks with over $100 billion in losses, is just the tip of the debt-berg.
Since taking office, Bush has doubled the federal debt to more than $5 trillion. And, according to US Treasury figures, on net, foreign investors have purchased close to 100% of that debt. That’s $3 trillion borrowed from the Saudis, the Chinese, the Japanese and others.
Now, Bush, our Debt Junkie-in-Chief, needs another fix. The US Treasury, Citibank, Merrill-Lynch and other financial desperados need another hand-out from Abdullah’s stash. Abdullah, in turn, gets this financial juice by pumping it out of our pockets at nearly $100 a barrel for his crude.
Bush needs the Saudis to charge us big bucks for oil. The Saudis can’t lend the US Treasury and Citibank hundreds of billions of US dollars unless they first get these US dollars from the US. The high price of oil is, in effect, a tax levied by Bush but collected by the oil industry and the Gulf kingdoms to fund our multi-trillion dollar governmental and private debt-load.
The US Treasury is not alone in its frightening dependency on Arabian loot. America’s private financial institutions are also begging for foreign treasure. Yesterday, King Abdullah’s nephew, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, already the top individual owner of Citibank, joined the Kuwait government’s Investment Authority and others to mainline a $12.5 billion injection of capital into the New York bank. Also this week, the Abu Dhabi government and the Saudi Olayan Group are taking a $6.6 billion chunk of Merrill-Lynch. It’s no mere coincidence that Bush is in Abdullah’s tent when the money-changers made the deal just outside it.
Bush is there to assure Abdullah that, unlike Dubai’s ports purchase debacle, there will be no political impediment to the Saudi’s buying up Citibank nor the isle of Manhattan.
So what? I mean, for the average American about to lose their job and their bungalow it doesn’t matter a twit whether it’s Sheik bin Alwaleed who owns Citibank or Sheik Sanford Weill, Citi’s past Chairman.
It’s the price paid to buy back our money from abroad that’s killing us. Despite the Koranic prohibition on charging interest, the Gulf princes demand their pound of flesh, exacting a 7% payment from Citibank and 9% from Merrill. That hefty interest bill then pushes adjustable rate mortgages into the stratosphere and pushes manufacturing into China by making borrowing and energy costs impossible to overcome. Forget the cost of health care: General Motors’ interest burden quintupled in just two years.
As the great economist Paddy Chayefsky wrote in the film The Network:
“The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. … It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity…. There are no nations, there are no peoples. There is only one vast and immense, interwoven, multi-national dominion of petro-dollars. … There is no America. There is no ‘democracy.’ The world is a business, one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work.”
In 2005, the US consumer paid Arab and OPEC nations a quarter trillion dollars ($252 billion) for oil - and the USA received back 100% of it - and then some ($311 billion) via Gulf nations’ investment in US Treasury bills and purchases of US businesses and property. Bush’s trip to Abdullah’s tent is all about this vast business of keeping this petro-dollar treadmill spinning.
The Bush Administration, rather than tax Americans to cover our deficits or make the banks suffer the consequences of their predatory lending practices, is allowing the Saudis to charge us big time at the pump with the understanding they will lend it all back to us - so the party never has to stop.
It has been reported that the President’s Secret Service men traveling with him seemed embarrassed by the eye-popping loads of diamond and gold gifts which they have to carry back for President Bush. They need not feel they have taken too much from their hosts: Bush has assured Abdullah that the King can suck it back out through our gas tanks.
***********
Greg Palast is the author of The Network: The World as a Company Town, in the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse. Hear Ed Asner read from the book and the film ‘The Network’ at www.gregpalast.com
Wrap...
George of Arabia: Better Kiss Your Abe 'Goodbye'
by Greg Palast
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Bend over, pull out your wallet and kiss your Abe ‘goodbye.’ The Lincolns have got to go - and so do the Hamiltons and Jacksons.
Those bills in your billfold aren’t yours anymore. The landlords of our currency - Citibank, the national treasury of China and the House of Saud - are foreclosing and evicting all Americans from the US economy.
It’s mornings like this, when I wake up hung-over to photos of the King of Saudi Arabia festooning our President with gold necklaces, that I reluctantly remember that I am an economist; and one with some responsibility to explain what the hell Bush is doing kissing Abdullah’s camel.
Let’s begin by stating why Bush is not in Saudi Arabia. Bush ain’t there to promote ‘Democracy’ nor peace in Palestine, nor even war in Iran. And, despite what some pinhead from CNN stated, he sure as hell didn’t go to Riyadh to tell the Saudis to cut the price of oil.
What’s really behind Bush’s hajj to Riyadh is that America is in hock up to our knickers. The sub-prime mortgage market implosion, hitting a dozen banks with over $100 billion in losses, is just the tip of the debt-berg.
Since taking office, Bush has doubled the federal debt to more than $5 trillion. And, according to US Treasury figures, on net, foreign investors have purchased close to 100% of that debt. That’s $3 trillion borrowed from the Saudis, the Chinese, the Japanese and others.
Now, Bush, our Debt Junkie-in-Chief, needs another fix. The US Treasury, Citibank, Merrill-Lynch and other financial desperados need another hand-out from Abdullah’s stash. Abdullah, in turn, gets this financial juice by pumping it out of our pockets at nearly $100 a barrel for his crude.
Bush needs the Saudis to charge us big bucks for oil. The Saudis can’t lend the US Treasury and Citibank hundreds of billions of US dollars unless they first get these US dollars from the US. The high price of oil is, in effect, a tax levied by Bush but collected by the oil industry and the Gulf kingdoms to fund our multi-trillion dollar governmental and private debt-load.
The US Treasury is not alone in its frightening dependency on Arabian loot. America’s private financial institutions are also begging for foreign treasure. Yesterday, King Abdullah’s nephew, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, already the top individual owner of Citibank, joined the Kuwait government’s Investment Authority and others to mainline a $12.5 billion injection of capital into the New York bank. Also this week, the Abu Dhabi government and the Saudi Olayan Group are taking a $6.6 billion chunk of Merrill-Lynch. It’s no mere coincidence that Bush is in Abdullah’s tent when the money-changers made the deal just outside it.
Bush is there to assure Abdullah that, unlike Dubai’s ports purchase debacle, there will be no political impediment to the Saudi’s buying up Citibank nor the isle of Manhattan.
So what? I mean, for the average American about to lose their job and their bungalow it doesn’t matter a twit whether it’s Sheik bin Alwaleed who owns Citibank or Sheik Sanford Weill, Citi’s past Chairman.
It’s the price paid to buy back our money from abroad that’s killing us. Despite the Koranic prohibition on charging interest, the Gulf princes demand their pound of flesh, exacting a 7% payment from Citibank and 9% from Merrill. That hefty interest bill then pushes adjustable rate mortgages into the stratosphere and pushes manufacturing into China by making borrowing and energy costs impossible to overcome. Forget the cost of health care: General Motors’ interest burden quintupled in just two years.
As the great economist Paddy Chayefsky wrote in the film The Network:
“The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. … It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity…. There are no nations, there are no peoples. There is only one vast and immense, interwoven, multi-national dominion of petro-dollars. … There is no America. There is no ‘democracy.’ The world is a business, one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work.”
In 2005, the US consumer paid Arab and OPEC nations a quarter trillion dollars ($252 billion) for oil - and the USA received back 100% of it - and then some ($311 billion) via Gulf nations’ investment in US Treasury bills and purchases of US businesses and property. Bush’s trip to Abdullah’s tent is all about this vast business of keeping this petro-dollar treadmill spinning.
The Bush Administration, rather than tax Americans to cover our deficits or make the banks suffer the consequences of their predatory lending practices, is allowing the Saudis to charge us big time at the pump with the understanding they will lend it all back to us - so the party never has to stop.
It has been reported that the President’s Secret Service men traveling with him seemed embarrassed by the eye-popping loads of diamond and gold gifts which they have to carry back for President Bush. They need not feel they have taken too much from their hosts: Bush has assured Abdullah that the King can suck it back out through our gas tanks.
***********
Greg Palast is the author of The Network: The World as a Company Town, in the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse. Hear Ed Asner read from the book and the film ‘The Network’ at www.gregpalast.com
Wrap...
O'Reilly says no homeless vets....
From Media Matters:
O'Reilly said he's "still looking" for the homeless veterans Edwards (and the VA) say are "out there"
Bill O'Reilly again baselessly challenged John Edwards' claim that "200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates," telling radio host Ed Schultz, "[W]e're still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed. So if you find anybody, let us know. ... They may be out there, but there are not many of them out there."
Schultz replied: "Well, they're out there, Bill, don't kid yourself." According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, they are, in the approximate numbers Edwards asserted. Read More
Wrap...
O'Reilly said he's "still looking" for the homeless veterans Edwards (and the VA) say are "out there"
Bill O'Reilly again baselessly challenged John Edwards' claim that "200,000 men and women who wore our uniform proudly and served this country courageously as veterans will go to sleep under bridges and on grates," telling radio host Ed Schultz, "[W]e're still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed. So if you find anybody, let us know. ... They may be out there, but there are not many of them out there."
Schultz replied: "Well, they're out there, Bill, don't kid yourself." According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, they are, in the approximate numbers Edwards asserted. Read More
Wrap...
Cheney Impeachment...Pay attention, Pelosi....
From Congressman Robert Wexler:
Last night, I took to the floor of the House of Representatives and outlined our case as to why this Congress must hold immediate hearings on Rep. Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment.
I didn’t do it alone: I was armed with nearly 200,000 signatures of support from you and so many others. Please watch the video of this speech and forward it to as many people as possible. I've posted it on the front page of www.WexlerWantsHearings.com
This morning, I delivered letters to all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, urging them to support Cheney Impeachment Hearings. You can read a copy of both the letter to my colleagues as well as the letter to Chairman Conyers I am asking them to sign at:http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/news.asp?ItemID=230
Additionally, I have delivered to my colleagues in the Judiciary Committee a list of names who have signed up at www.WexlerWantsHearings.com. We now have almost 200,000 patriotic Americans dedicated to this cause.
We are beginning to make some progress. I have urged the Democratic Leadership to enforce the subpoenas being ignored by Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten by holding them in contempt of Congress.
This fight is not over. You must continue the pressure on your representatives and the media, or Congress will take no notice. That would be a historic mistake – one we must prevent Congress from making.
We stand at a critical juncture in our efforts. Forget all of those arguments that it is too late or that we have run out of time. You can’t run the clock out on our Constitution. Those of us dedicated to this fight – Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the online community, and millions of patriotic Americans – will keep the pressure on.
I will be furiously lobbying my fellow members of Congress to get behind these efforts and sign onto my letter to Chairman Conyers.
Please continue to spread the word and help deliver accountability to the corrupt Bush-Cheney administration.
With great respect,
Congressman Robert Wexler
Wrap...
Last night, I took to the floor of the House of Representatives and outlined our case as to why this Congress must hold immediate hearings on Rep. Kucinich’s Articles of Impeachment.
I didn’t do it alone: I was armed with nearly 200,000 signatures of support from you and so many others. Please watch the video of this speech and forward it to as many people as possible. I've posted it on the front page of www.WexlerWantsHearings.com
This morning, I delivered letters to all of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, urging them to support Cheney Impeachment Hearings. You can read a copy of both the letter to my colleagues as well as the letter to Chairman Conyers I am asking them to sign at:http://www.wexlerforcongress.com/news.asp?ItemID=230
Additionally, I have delivered to my colleagues in the Judiciary Committee a list of names who have signed up at www.WexlerWantsHearings.com. We now have almost 200,000 patriotic Americans dedicated to this cause.
We are beginning to make some progress. I have urged the Democratic Leadership to enforce the subpoenas being ignored by Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten by holding them in contempt of Congress.
This fight is not over. You must continue the pressure on your representatives and the media, or Congress will take no notice. That would be a historic mistake – one we must prevent Congress from making.
We stand at a critical juncture in our efforts. Forget all of those arguments that it is too late or that we have run out of time. You can’t run the clock out on our Constitution. Those of us dedicated to this fight – Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the online community, and millions of patriotic Americans – will keep the pressure on.
I will be furiously lobbying my fellow members of Congress to get behind these efforts and sign onto my letter to Chairman Conyers.
Please continue to spread the word and help deliver accountability to the corrupt Bush-Cheney administration.
With great respect,
Congressman Robert Wexler
Wrap...
From Economic Stimulus to Couric freaked....
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Economic stimulus proposals favored by Democrats, including tax rebates [and] extended unemployment benefits...are cost-effective ways" to boost the economy, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). At the same time, "some options floated by Republicans such as extending President Bush's tax cuts...may be less cost-effective."
47.5 percent: Americans who believe a recession is likely. "The survey also found that barely more than one in five gave President George W. Bush's administration high marks for economic policy, and many voters thought they would be better off financially with a Democrat in the White House."
An audit by the Government Accountability Office questions the efficacy of sanctions against Iran. "U.S. officials and experts report that U.S. sanctions have specific impacts on Iran; however, the extent of such impacts is difficult to determine," said the report states.
In late 2005, the CIA's then-director of clandestine operations, Jose Rodriguez, authorized the CIA station chief in Bangkok to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogation practices. "Rodriguez consulted CIA lawyers and officials, who told him that he had the legal right to order the destruction."
President Bush wraps up his week-long tour of the Middle East today, "leaving many Mideast political observers mystified as to the purpose of the visit and doubtful that the president made inroads on his twin campaigns for Arab-Israeli peace and isolation for Iran."
A congressionally-mandated panel of public and private experts yesterday recommended more than doubling the [gasoline] tax" to "boost funding for transportation projects." The panel's suggestions "would take the U.S. down a more European path, with higher gas taxes and greater investment in high-speed rail and other modes of transportation."
The conservative Heritage Foundation released its 2008 Index of Economic Freedom, in which the United States ranked fifth. Not mentioned in the report is the fact that the top four -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Australia -- all have universal health care, whereas U.S. businesses are forced to pay health care premiums whose cost rose 98 percent between 2000 and 2007.
The House plans to vote today on a mine safety bill, which is meant to update regulations after August's deadly Crandall Canyon Mine disaster. The White House, however, yesterday threatened to veto the bill because it would allegedly jeopardize its achievements and efforts" already underway.
And finally: Katie Couric goes off-script. A new video shows views "behind the scenes at CBS News" and what Couric "had to say about the presidential candidates in between live shots from the New Hampshire primaries." At one point she made "a cutting motion across her neck" when referring to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and admitted "that she doesn't know much about former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee." She also said that Cindy McCain had "weird blue eyes" that were "freaking [her] out a little."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Economic stimulus proposals favored by Democrats, including tax rebates [and] extended unemployment benefits...are cost-effective ways" to boost the economy, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). At the same time, "some options floated by Republicans such as extending President Bush's tax cuts...may be less cost-effective."
47.5 percent: Americans who believe a recession is likely. "The survey also found that barely more than one in five gave President George W. Bush's administration high marks for economic policy, and many voters thought they would be better off financially with a Democrat in the White House."
An audit by the Government Accountability Office questions the efficacy of sanctions against Iran. "U.S. officials and experts report that U.S. sanctions have specific impacts on Iran; however, the extent of such impacts is difficult to determine," said the report states.
In late 2005, the CIA's then-director of clandestine operations, Jose Rodriguez, authorized the CIA station chief in Bangkok to destroy videotapes of harsh interrogation practices. "Rodriguez consulted CIA lawyers and officials, who told him that he had the legal right to order the destruction."
President Bush wraps up his week-long tour of the Middle East today, "leaving many Mideast political observers mystified as to the purpose of the visit and doubtful that the president made inroads on his twin campaigns for Arab-Israeli peace and isolation for Iran."
A congressionally-mandated panel of public and private experts yesterday recommended more than doubling the [gasoline] tax" to "boost funding for transportation projects." The panel's suggestions "would take the U.S. down a more European path, with higher gas taxes and greater investment in high-speed rail and other modes of transportation."
The conservative Heritage Foundation released its 2008 Index of Economic Freedom, in which the United States ranked fifth. Not mentioned in the report is the fact that the top four -- Hong Kong, Singapore, Ireland, and Australia -- all have universal health care, whereas U.S. businesses are forced to pay health care premiums whose cost rose 98 percent between 2000 and 2007.
The House plans to vote today on a mine safety bill, which is meant to update regulations after August's deadly Crandall Canyon Mine disaster. The White House, however, yesterday threatened to veto the bill because it would allegedly jeopardize its achievements and efforts" already underway.
And finally: Katie Couric goes off-script. A new video shows views "behind the scenes at CBS News" and what Couric "had to say about the presidential candidates in between live shots from the New Hampshire primaries." At one point she made "a cutting motion across her neck" when referring to former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani and admitted "that she doesn't know much about former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee." She also said that Cindy McCain had "weird blue eyes" that were "freaking [her] out a little."
Wrap...
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
A Short Selection of Books Coming....
From Publishers Lunch Weekly:
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Veteran TV writer/producer William Rabkin's (Psych, Monk, and Diagnosis Murder) original novels based on the USA network television series PSYCH, about a novice sleuth hired by the police after he cons them into thinking he has psychic powers, to Kristen Weber at NAL, Kim Niemi at NBC Universal (world).
THRILLER:
Jamie Freveletti's RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, introducing an ultra marathon runner who uses her experience as a bio-chemist to survive in the jungle after a hijacking gone wrong, to Carolyn Marino at Harper, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Barbara Poellee at the Irene Goodman Agency (world).
GENERAL/OTHER:
NYT bestselling author of Songs in Ordinary Time, Mary McGarry Morris's THE LAST SECRET, about a woman who uncovers her husband's affair while a dark secret from her own past reemerges with devastating consequences, for publication in spring 2009, to John Glusman at Shaye Areheart Books, by Jean Naggar at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
Mark Garvey's STYLIZED: How Strunk and White Can Change Your Life, An exploration of one writer's obsession with the most beloved (and the most controversial) style guide of all time, to Michelle Howry at Touchstone Fireside, in a nice deal, for publication Fall 2009, the 50th anniversary of The Elements of Style, by Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (world).
UK:
Pseudonymous (and bestselling) Belle de Jour's first three autobiographical novels, fictionalized versions of the call girl life she has now given up, to Malcolm Edwards at Orion, for publication beginning in October 2008 (and annually thereafter), by Patrick Walsh at Conville & Walsh (UK/Commonwealth).UK television rights to second series for ITV2 of 14 episodes. Rights to both of the series to Showtime for the US. malcolm.edwards@orionbooks.co.uk patrick@convilleandwalsh.com
BIOGRAPHY:
Philip Mitchell Freeman's ALEXANDER THE GREAT, a lively biography of the man who changed the world in the first great meeting of East and West, conquering much of the known world in the fourth century BC, from Homer's Troy to the deserts of Egypt to the mountains of central Asia and jungles of India, while bringing Greek culture to the lands he conquered, which had a profound effect on the ancient and modern world, to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, for publication in Fall 2009, by Joelle Delbourgo at Joelle Delbourgo Associates (World English).
MEMOIR:
Comedian/entertainer Hape Kerkeling's German bestseller (said to have over 2.8 million copies in print) I'M OFF THEN: My Travels Along the Camino De Santiago, the story of how the author questioned his life and took off for 6 weeks to walk the thousand-year old pilgrimage route, to Hilary Redmon at Free Press, by Barbara Zitwer at Barbara Zitwer Agency (NA). zitwer@gmail.com
Leading scholar on thought control and mass violence, Robert Lifton's WITNESS TO AN EXTREME CENTURY, about his extraordinary life, to Martin Beiser at the Free Press, by Richard Morris at Janklow & Nesbit (world).
Wrap...
MYSTERY/CRIME:
Veteran TV writer/producer William Rabkin's (Psych, Monk, and Diagnosis Murder) original novels based on the USA network television series PSYCH, about a novice sleuth hired by the police after he cons them into thinking he has psychic powers, to Kristen Weber at NAL, Kim Niemi at NBC Universal (world).
THRILLER:
Jamie Freveletti's RUNNING FROM THE DEVIL, introducing an ultra marathon runner who uses her experience as a bio-chemist to survive in the jungle after a hijacking gone wrong, to Carolyn Marino at Harper, in a pre-empt, in a two-book deal, by Barbara Poellee at the Irene Goodman Agency (world).
GENERAL/OTHER:
NYT bestselling author of Songs in Ordinary Time, Mary McGarry Morris's THE LAST SECRET, about a woman who uncovers her husband's affair while a dark secret from her own past reemerges with devastating consequences, for publication in spring 2009, to John Glusman at Shaye Areheart Books, by Jean Naggar at Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency (NA).
Mark Garvey's STYLIZED: How Strunk and White Can Change Your Life, An exploration of one writer's obsession with the most beloved (and the most controversial) style guide of all time, to Michelle Howry at Touchstone Fireside, in a nice deal, for publication Fall 2009, the 50th anniversary of The Elements of Style, by Michael Bourret at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management (world).
UK:
Pseudonymous (and bestselling) Belle de Jour's first three autobiographical novels, fictionalized versions of the call girl life she has now given up, to Malcolm Edwards at Orion, for publication beginning in October 2008 (and annually thereafter), by Patrick Walsh at Conville & Walsh (UK/Commonwealth).UK television rights to second series for ITV2 of 14 episodes. Rights to both of the series to Showtime for the US. malcolm.edwards@orionbooks.co.uk patrick@convilleandwalsh.com
BIOGRAPHY:
Philip Mitchell Freeman's ALEXANDER THE GREAT, a lively biography of the man who changed the world in the first great meeting of East and West, conquering much of the known world in the fourth century BC, from Homer's Troy to the deserts of Egypt to the mountains of central Asia and jungles of India, while bringing Greek culture to the lands he conquered, which had a profound effect on the ancient and modern world, to Bob Bender at Simon & Schuster, for publication in Fall 2009, by Joelle Delbourgo at Joelle Delbourgo Associates (World English).
MEMOIR:
Comedian/entertainer Hape Kerkeling's German bestseller (said to have over 2.8 million copies in print) I'M OFF THEN: My Travels Along the Camino De Santiago, the story of how the author questioned his life and took off for 6 weeks to walk the thousand-year old pilgrimage route, to Hilary Redmon at Free Press, by Barbara Zitwer at Barbara Zitwer Agency (NA). zitwer@gmail.com
Leading scholar on thought control and mass violence, Robert Lifton's WITNESS TO AN EXTREME CENTURY, about his extraordinary life, to Martin Beiser at the Free Press, by Richard Morris at Janklow & Nesbit (world).
Wrap...
And the financial mess began...here....
From The Los Angeles Times:
Financial forces run amok
Without regulation, the invisible hand of the market is robbing us blind.
By Al Meyerhoff January 14, 2008
For about the last 30 years, our nation has been traveling the deregulation highway, a road with no rules or direction. We have let enterprise be free, business go unfettered, the good times roll. And roll they have, but to where? One stopping point: the current mortgage crisis.
Recently, however, there has been a slight regulatory bump in the road. After its chairman acknowledged that "market discipline has in some cases broken down," the Federal Reserve released new mortgage lending rules "to protect consumers against fraud [and] deception."
Banks making sub-prime loans will be required to actually consider the borrower's ability to pay and confirm a borrower's income before handing over the money. Now there's a radical notion. Disclosure also will be required of those nasty little (actually not so little) "bonuses" that brokers receive for writing loans at rates higher than a poor, unwitting consumer can afford.
To some, they may not be much, but the absence of such rules encouraged the predatory lending practices that have left millions of Americans facing foreclosure.Let's take a look at how we got here before the deregulation highway takes us over a cliff.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-meyerhoff14jan14,1,7284065.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Financial forces run amok
Without regulation, the invisible hand of the market is robbing us blind.
By Al Meyerhoff January 14, 2008
For about the last 30 years, our nation has been traveling the deregulation highway, a road with no rules or direction. We have let enterprise be free, business go unfettered, the good times roll. And roll they have, but to where? One stopping point: the current mortgage crisis.
Recently, however, there has been a slight regulatory bump in the road. After its chairman acknowledged that "market discipline has in some cases broken down," the Federal Reserve released new mortgage lending rules "to protect consumers against fraud [and] deception."
Banks making sub-prime loans will be required to actually consider the borrower's ability to pay and confirm a borrower's income before handing over the money. Now there's a radical notion. Disclosure also will be required of those nasty little (actually not so little) "bonuses" that brokers receive for writing loans at rates higher than a poor, unwitting consumer can afford.
To some, they may not be much, but the absence of such rules encouraged the predatory lending practices that have left millions of Americans facing foreclosure.Let's take a look at how we got here before the deregulation highway takes us over a cliff.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-meyerhoff14jan14,1,7284065.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
From Michigan's troubles to The daughter's date...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Today's Republican presidential primary in Michigan is "this election year's first clear referendum" on the economy, state voters' top concern. Conditions have left Michigan "in a virtual single-state recession" with an unemployment rate of seven percent, the highest in the nation.
"Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) returns full time to the Senate this month with high expectations from his colleagues -- and particularly his leadership -- that he will play a key role in their plans to make the economy a dominant issue this year." An aide added that "Dodd will not lose focus on the FISA issue."
With "just 32 percent of Americans" now approving of the way he is handling his job, "President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the worst approval rating of his career." Sixty-six percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance.
President Bush yesterday "launched a rare round of intensive personal diplomacy with Saudi King Abdullah aimed at winning support for a variety of American objectives such as rebuilding Iraq, pressuring Iran, fighting al-Qaeda and backing the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians."
The House Intelligence Committee has postponed testimony from former CIA official Jose Rodriguez Jr., who destroyed videotapes showing harsh interrogation tactics, "after being told that he would not answer questions without a grant of legal immunity for his testimony." Senior CIA lawyer John A. Rizzo is still scheduled to appear tomorrow.
Federal authorities expect to "deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country," said Julie Myers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is spearheading the effort.
"Patients are waiting longer for care in the nation's emergency rooms, a potentially deadly result of the shrinking number of emergency departments and rising demand for emergency services, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School." Between 1997 and 2004, median waiting times increased by 36 percent.
Iraqi defense minister Abdul Qadir said Monday that Iraq "would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.' The predictions were "even less optimistic than those he made last year."
And finally: Love can transcend politics. Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) "bloggy" daughter, recently went on a date with "an ardent Ron Paul supporter." "The date became all about him trying to convince her about Paul," noted one of Meghan's friends. "Finally she said,'You know my dad's running for president. You're not going to change my mind!'"
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Today's Republican presidential primary in Michigan is "this election year's first clear referendum" on the economy, state voters' top concern. Conditions have left Michigan "in a virtual single-state recession" with an unemployment rate of seven percent, the highest in the nation.
"Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) returns full time to the Senate this month with high expectations from his colleagues -- and particularly his leadership -- that he will play a key role in their plans to make the economy a dominant issue this year." An aide added that "Dodd will not lose focus on the FISA issue."
With "just 32 percent of Americans" now approving of the way he is handling his job, "President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the worst approval rating of his career." Sixty-six percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's job performance.
President Bush yesterday "launched a rare round of intensive personal diplomacy with Saudi King Abdullah aimed at winning support for a variety of American objectives such as rebuilding Iraq, pressuring Iran, fighting al-Qaeda and backing the U.S.-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians."
The House Intelligence Committee has postponed testimony from former CIA official Jose Rodriguez Jr., who destroyed videotapes showing harsh interrogation tactics, "after being told that he would not answer questions without a grant of legal immunity for his testimony." Senior CIA lawyer John A. Rizzo is still scheduled to appear tomorrow.
Federal authorities expect to "deport more than 200,000 immigrants this year who are convicted criminals serving time in prisons and jails across the country," said Julie Myers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is spearheading the effort.
"Patients are waiting longer for care in the nation's emergency rooms, a potentially deadly result of the shrinking number of emergency departments and rising demand for emergency services, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard Medical School." Between 1997 and 2004, median waiting times increased by 36 percent.
Iraqi defense minister Abdul Qadir said Monday that Iraq "would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on its own to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.' The predictions were "even less optimistic than those he made last year."
And finally: Love can transcend politics. Meghan McCain, Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) "bloggy" daughter, recently went on a date with "an ardent Ron Paul supporter." "The date became all about him trying to convince her about Paul," noted one of Meghan's friends. "Finally she said,'You know my dad's running for president. You're not going to change my mind!'"
Wrap...
Only John Edwards would deal with this corporate media crap...
From AP via truthout.org:
Judge Grants Kucinich Entry to Nevada Debate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011508O.shtml
The Associated Press reports: "NBC News said Monday it will appeal a judge's ruling rather than include Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich in a candidates' debate in Nevada....
Hours earlier, Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson ruled that Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, must be allowed to participate. If he is excluded, Thompson said he would issue an injunction to stop the televised debate."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Judge Grants Kucinich Entry to Nevada Debate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011508O.shtml
The Associated Press reports: "NBC News said Monday it will appeal a judge's ruling rather than include Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich in a candidates' debate in Nevada....
Hours earlier, Senior Clark County District Court Judge Charles Thompson ruled that Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, must be allowed to participate. If he is excluded, Thompson said he would issue an injunction to stop the televised debate."
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Monday, January 14, 2008
Bush & the golden sword....
From Information Clearing House:
Arab Press Reactions To Bush Visit: 'An Absurd, Sadistic Image':
"This black caricature of George W. Bush in (Bahrain capital city) Manama is a fitting conclusion to the Arab tragedy. It's an absurd, sadistic image: the sheikh of Bahrain welcoming his exceptional guest with ... a golden sword -- the symbol of loyalty and submission, meaning:
"Bleed me white my lord, if my death pleases you!"
http://snipurl.com/1xg1g
Wrap...
Arab Press Reactions To Bush Visit: 'An Absurd, Sadistic Image':
"This black caricature of George W. Bush in (Bahrain capital city) Manama is a fitting conclusion to the Arab tragedy. It's an absurd, sadistic image: the sheikh of Bahrain welcoming his exceptional guest with ... a golden sword -- the symbol of loyalty and submission, meaning:
"Bleed me white my lord, if my death pleases you!"
http://snipurl.com/1xg1g
Wrap...
Molly Ivins: Fight or we'll find someone who can....
An excerpt from a Buzzflash Editorial:
Which brings us to the late Molly Ivins, who we had the pleasure to interview on BuzzFlash. In 2006, she wrote a column simply entitled: "I Will Not Support Hillary Clinton for President." Here it is:
AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election.
Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.
The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief. If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it.
In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.
What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First, you have to win elections"). Can't you even read the damn polls? Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, "There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."
This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened by "a string of bad news from the Middle East ... into calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.
Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily. You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking.
I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely. Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this -- that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied this.
Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.
Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds.
The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news." Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite.
If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.
COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
To read more: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/031
Wrap...
Which brings us to the late Molly Ivins, who we had the pleasure to interview on BuzzFlash. In 2006, she wrote a column simply entitled: "I Will Not Support Hillary Clinton for President." Here it is:
AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president. Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election.
Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.
The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief. If no one in conventional-wisdom politics has the courage to speak up and say what needs to be said, then you go out and find some obscure junior senator from Minnesota with the guts to do it.
In 1968, Gene McCarthy was the little boy who said out loud, "Look, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes." Bobby Kennedy -- rough, tough Bobby Kennedy -- didn't do it. Just this quiet man trained by Benedictines who liked to quote poetry.
What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes. The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
I listen to people like Rahm Emanuel superciliously explaining elementary politics to us clueless naifs outside the Beltway ("First, you have to win elections"). Can't you even read the damn polls? Here's a prize example by someone named Barry Casselman, who writes, "There is an invisible civil war in the Democratic Party, and it is between those who are attempting to satisfy the defeatist and pacifist left base of the party and those who are attempting to prepare the party for successful elections in 2006 and 2008."
This supposedly pits Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, emboldened by "a string of bad news from the Middle East ... into calling for premature retreat from Iraq," versus those pragmatic folk like Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Joe Lieberman.
Oh come on, people -- get a grip on the concept of leadership. Look at this war -- from the lies that led us into it, to the lies they continue to dump on us daily. You sit there in Washington so frightened of the big, bad Republican machine you have no idea what people are thinking.
I'm telling you right now, Tom DeLay is going to lose in his district. If Democrats in Washington haven't got enough sense to OWN the issue of political reform, I give up on them entirely. Do it all, go long, go for public campaign financing for Congress. I'm serious as a stroke about this -- that is the only reform that will work, and you know it, as well as everyone else who's ever studied this.
Do all the goo-goo stuff everybody has made fun of all these years: embrace redistricting reform, electoral reform, House rules changes, the whole package. Put up, or shut up. Own this issue, or let Jack Abramoff politics continue to run your town.
Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I've said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were "German dogs." They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds.
The MINUTE someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means. That, or you could just piss on them elegantly, as Rep. John Murtha did. Or eviscerate them with wit (look up Mark Twain on the war in the Philippines). Or point out the latest in the endless "string of bad news." Do not sit there cowering and pretending the only way to win is as Republican-lite.
If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can.
COPYRIGHT 2006 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
To read more: http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/031
Wrap...
From Cheney & the NIE to 1-nite stand with Prez...
From American Progress:
Think Fast...
Officials in Vice President Cheney's office saw the Iran National Intelligence Estimate "as a death blow to their Iran policy," reports the Wall Street Journal. The report's authors "knew how to pull the rug out from under us," said a "long-time aide to the vice president, referring to the way the key judgments were presented."
"In a closed door hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Congress plans to ask why the CIA destroyed tapes showing interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. Was it a cover-up?"
75 percent: Americans who think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times poll.
"Strong evidence is emerging that consumer spending, a bulwark against recession over the last year even as energy prices surged and the housing market sputtered, has begun to slow sharply at every level of the American economy, from the working class to the wealthy."
Soon "after it returns tomorrow, the House is likely to take up contempt of Congress resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers for their refusal to appear before Congress for questioning about the 2006 removal of nine U.S. attorneys, Democratic leadership aides said."
The de-Baathification law passed by Iraq's parliament on Saturday is "riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries."
MSNBC uninvites Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). After initially inviting Kucinich to take part in its debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday, MSNBC announced that it had changed its criteria and told Kucinich he was not allowed to attend.
"Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming." The report came just days after the head of the IPCC "said the group's next report should look at the 'frightening' possibility that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could melt rapidly at the same time."
And finally: A survey conducted by pollster Frank Luntz exclusively for Playboy magazine found that Republicans and Democratic voters have more in common than they realize. Among its key finds, the poll reported that "a quarter of Dems and GOPers say they'd have a 'one night stand' with the president, in the White House."
Wrap...
Think Fast...
Officials in Vice President Cheney's office saw the Iran National Intelligence Estimate "as a death blow to their Iran policy," reports the Wall Street Journal. The report's authors "knew how to pull the rug out from under us," said a "long-time aide to the vice president, referring to the way the key judgments were presented."
"In a closed door hearing scheduled for Wednesday, Congress plans to ask why the CIA destroyed tapes showing interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda operatives. Was it a cover-up?"
75 percent: Americans who think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times poll.
"Strong evidence is emerging that consumer spending, a bulwark against recession over the last year even as energy prices surged and the housing market sputtered, has begun to slow sharply at every level of the American economy, from the working class to the wealthy."
Soon "after it returns tomorrow, the House is likely to take up contempt of Congress resolutions against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers for their refusal to appear before Congress for questioning about the 2006 removal of nine U.S. attorneys, Democratic leadership aides said."
The de-Baathification law passed by Iraq's parliament on Saturday is "riddled with loopholes and caveats to the point that some Sunni and Shiite officials say it could actually exclude more former Baathists than it lets back in, particularly in the crucial security ministries."
MSNBC uninvites Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH). After initially inviting Kucinich to take part in its debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday, MSNBC announced that it had changed its criteria and told Kucinich he was not allowed to attend.
"Climatic changes appear to be destabilizing vast ice sheets of western Antarctica that had previously seemed relatively protected from global warming." The report came just days after the head of the IPCC "said the group's next report should look at the 'frightening' possibility that ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could melt rapidly at the same time."
And finally: A survey conducted by pollster Frank Luntz exclusively for Playboy magazine found that Republicans and Democratic voters have more in common than they realize. Among its key finds, the poll reported that "a quarter of Dems and GOPers say they'd have a 'one night stand' with the president, in the White House."
Wrap...
Enough religion already! Sheesh!
From truthout.org:
Jason Leopold
House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011408A.shtml
Jason Leopold, reporting for Truthout, writes: "A Republican congressman, who has spent the better part of the past two years on a mission to ensure Jesus Christ has a place in all aspects of federal government, has introduced a resolution to designate a week every year to honor the nation's 'rich spiritual, and religious history.'"
Wrap...
Jason Leopold
House Passes, Considers Evangelical Resolutions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011408A.shtml
Jason Leopold, reporting for Truthout, writes: "A Republican congressman, who has spent the better part of the past two years on a mission to ensure Jesus Christ has a place in all aspects of federal government, has introduced a resolution to designate a week every year to honor the nation's 'rich spiritual, and religious history.'"
Wrap...
Edwards in 3-way dead heat in Nevada....
From The Caucus: NY Times Political Blog:
January 14, 2008, 1:11 pm
Edwards Campaign Calls Nevada Race a Dead Heat
By Julie Bosman
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Edwards campaign characterized the Nevada race as a three-way dead heat in a conference call with reporters today, pointing to poll numbers and a robust field operation in the state.
Speaking from Nevada, David Bonior, the national campaign manager, said the Edwards campaign contacted 15,000 potential caucus goers last weekend, roughly one-third of the overall expected turnout.
“This campaign is a three way race,” Mr. Bonior said. “And this is a huge sign of strength for John Edwards as we march into Nevada and South Carolina.” Mr. Edwards has made 17 trips to the state, roughly the same as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama combined, Mr. Bonior added.
The poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal, released Monday morning, showed Mr. Obama with 32 percent, Mrs. Clinton with 30 percent and Mr. Edwards with 27 percent.
The Edwards campaign has played down Mr. Edwards’s losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, saying that he is prepared to continue campaigning through Super Tuesday and beyond even without winning a single state.
Hoping to show that the campaign is still looking ahead to Super Tuesday states, the campaign is planning a “fly-around” on Thursday and Friday, stopping in California, Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia, before returning to South Carolina to campaign before the primary on Jan. 26.
Wrap...
January 14, 2008, 1:11 pm
Edwards Campaign Calls Nevada Race a Dead Heat
By Julie Bosman
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Edwards campaign characterized the Nevada race as a three-way dead heat in a conference call with reporters today, pointing to poll numbers and a robust field operation in the state.
Speaking from Nevada, David Bonior, the national campaign manager, said the Edwards campaign contacted 15,000 potential caucus goers last weekend, roughly one-third of the overall expected turnout.
“This campaign is a three way race,” Mr. Bonior said. “And this is a huge sign of strength for John Edwards as we march into Nevada and South Carolina.” Mr. Edwards has made 17 trips to the state, roughly the same as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama combined, Mr. Bonior added.
The poll by the Reno Gazette-Journal, released Monday morning, showed Mr. Obama with 32 percent, Mrs. Clinton with 30 percent and Mr. Edwards with 27 percent.
The Edwards campaign has played down Mr. Edwards’s losses in Iowa and New Hampshire, saying that he is prepared to continue campaigning through Super Tuesday and beyond even without winning a single state.
Hoping to show that the campaign is still looking ahead to Super Tuesday states, the campaign is planning a “fly-around” on Thursday and Friday, stopping in California, Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia, before returning to South Carolina to campaign before the primary on Jan. 26.
Wrap...
State Secrets Privilege threatens Rights...
From Secrecy News:
CONFRONTING THE STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE
The growing use of the state secrets privilege could threaten basic constitutional rights, according to one recent critical analysis.
If current trends in government reliance on the state secrets privilege are allowed to continue, "it is questionable whether any constitutional complaint against the government involving classified information will ever be allowed to be adjudicated," concluded Carrie Newton Lyons in a review published last year.
Ms. Lyons, a former CIA operations officer, presented her assessment in "The State Secrets Privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse," Lewis & Clark Law Review, Volume 11, No. 1, Spring 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/statesec/lyons.pdf
Potential reforms to the state secrets privilege will be explored by Louis Fisher of the Law Library of Congress and other experts in a January 24 panel discussion sponsored by the Constitution Project.
http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=449
Wrap...
CONFRONTING THE STATE SECRETS PRIVILEGE
The growing use of the state secrets privilege could threaten basic constitutional rights, according to one recent critical analysis.
If current trends in government reliance on the state secrets privilege are allowed to continue, "it is questionable whether any constitutional complaint against the government involving classified information will ever be allowed to be adjudicated," concluded Carrie Newton Lyons in a review published last year.
Ms. Lyons, a former CIA operations officer, presented her assessment in "The State Secrets Privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse," Lewis & Clark Law Review, Volume 11, No. 1, Spring 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/statesec/lyons.pdf
Potential reforms to the state secrets privilege will be explored by Louis Fisher of the Law Library of Congress and other experts in a January 24 panel discussion sponsored by the Constitution Project.
http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=449
Wrap...
Voted for Edwards yesterday on CA mail-in ballot....
From David Sirota:
http://www.credoaction.com/sirota/2008/01/for_those_of_you_who_think_its.html
For the Blowhards Who Insist It's a Two-Way Race...
By David Sirota
Credo Action, 1/14/08
For those of you who think the Democratic presidential nominationfight is just a two-way race between Obama and Clinton, check outthis brand new poll from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
http://www.rgj.com/blogs/inside-nevada-politics/2008/01/new-poll-democratic-race-in-nevada-dead.html
Yup, that's right - it shows the Nevada caucus race a three-way, deadheat with John Edwards right in the mix.Interestingly, this poll comes right on the heels of the Establishment viciously ratcheting up its angry attacks on the Edwards candidacy.
Late last week, we saw a Reuters story headlined"Corporate Elite Fear Candidate Edwards" detailing how Wall Street moneymen and K Street lobbyists are frightened about Edwards populist, power-challenging message against greed and corruption. We also saw self-anointed Democratic "expert" Lawrence O'Donnell pen a fulminating screed on the Huffington Post demanding Edwards get out of the race - not surprising coming from a man who made his name running the U.S. Senate Finance Committee - long the most corrupt, lobbyist-ravaged panel in all of Washington (somehow, running the U.S. Congress's version of a pay-to-play casino now makes people credile "experts" in campaign strategy and political morality).
According to the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism, Edwards has long faced a media blackout - one that at least some honest media brokers like Keith Olbermann have noted. That blackout is, at some level, motivated by the same impulses that moves lobbyists to whine and cry to Reuters and self-important bloviators like O'Donnell to publicly burst a blood vessel on the HuffingtonPost - the people who have gotten used to the status quo are truly terrified by any candidates who they really believe will change things and threaten their power and status.
Edwards is just such a candidate - one who threatens to muck up what the media and political elite want to be a race between two "nonthreatening," WallStreet-approved candidates.
I have no idea if Edwards will win Nevada, or any other state. Unlike most reporters, I don't spend my time covering the horse race, nor judging the candidates' viability only on the grounds of how much corporate cash they've been able to vacuum in. I spend my time trying to figure out which of these candidates represent the most fundamental form of change.
One of the ways to judge that is to see who these candidates make uncomfortable. And by that measure, here's what I know: Edwards is generating hostility from precisely the kinds ofpeople who are likely to be most averse to real, systemic change. And that speaks very well for the former senator from North Carolina.
Wrap...
http://www.credoaction.com/sirota/2008/01/for_those_of_you_who_think_its.html
For the Blowhards Who Insist It's a Two-Way Race...
By David Sirota
Credo Action, 1/14/08
For those of you who think the Democratic presidential nominationfight is just a two-way race between Obama and Clinton, check outthis brand new poll from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:
http://www.rgj.com/blogs/inside-nevada-politics/2008/01/new-poll-democratic-race-in-nevada-dead.html
Yup, that's right - it shows the Nevada caucus race a three-way, deadheat with John Edwards right in the mix.Interestingly, this poll comes right on the heels of the Establishment viciously ratcheting up its angry attacks on the Edwards candidacy.
Late last week, we saw a Reuters story headlined"Corporate Elite Fear Candidate Edwards" detailing how Wall Street moneymen and K Street lobbyists are frightened about Edwards populist, power-challenging message against greed and corruption. We also saw self-anointed Democratic "expert" Lawrence O'Donnell pen a fulminating screed on the Huffington Post demanding Edwards get out of the race - not surprising coming from a man who made his name running the U.S. Senate Finance Committee - long the most corrupt, lobbyist-ravaged panel in all of Washington (somehow, running the U.S. Congress's version of a pay-to-play casino now makes people credile "experts" in campaign strategy and political morality).
According to the nonpartisan Project for Excellence in Journalism, Edwards has long faced a media blackout - one that at least some honest media brokers like Keith Olbermann have noted. That blackout is, at some level, motivated by the same impulses that moves lobbyists to whine and cry to Reuters and self-important bloviators like O'Donnell to publicly burst a blood vessel on the HuffingtonPost - the people who have gotten used to the status quo are truly terrified by any candidates who they really believe will change things and threaten their power and status.
Edwards is just such a candidate - one who threatens to muck up what the media and political elite want to be a race between two "nonthreatening," WallStreet-approved candidates.
I have no idea if Edwards will win Nevada, or any other state. Unlike most reporters, I don't spend my time covering the horse race, nor judging the candidates' viability only on the grounds of how much corporate cash they've been able to vacuum in. I spend my time trying to figure out which of these candidates represent the most fundamental form of change.
One of the ways to judge that is to see who these candidates make uncomfortable. And by that measure, here's what I know: Edwards is generating hostility from precisely the kinds ofpeople who are likely to be most averse to real, systemic change. And that speaks very well for the former senator from North Carolina.
Wrap...
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Don't vote without reading...Kucinich read.
From Information Clearing House:
Kucinich says he'd pull out of Iraq in 3 months:
A wildly cheering crowd of several hundred Thursday night heard Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich promise that if he is elected president, he will eliminate the Patriot Act. "I'm the only one in Congress who voted against it," he said, pausing, "because I read it."
http://snipurl.com/1xc4r
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
Kucinich says he'd pull out of Iraq in 3 months:
A wildly cheering crowd of several hundred Thursday night heard Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich promise that if he is elected president, he will eliminate the Patriot Act. "I'm the only one in Congress who voted against it," he said, pausing, "because I read it."
http://snipurl.com/1xc4r
[Use link above to continue reading]
Wrap...
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