TODAY'S TOPICS: Racist GOP, San Diego Mayor, War Funding, Klein vs. Greenspan, Internet, Lieberman, Moveon
Enough is enough. Last week the Republicans showed once again just how anti-black their party really is. The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades - a voting member of Congress to represent them.
SNIP
At least 57 senators favored the bill, a solid majority. But the Republicans prevented a key motion on the measure from receiving the 60 votes necessary to move it forward in the Senate. The bill died.
At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.
-- Bob Herbert, NY Times
"You start out in 1954 by saying, 'Nigger, nigger, nigger. By 1968, you can't say 'nigger' - that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites."
-- Reagan advisor Lee Atwater in an interview to a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University, explaining the evolution of the Republican party’s "Southern strategy”
"It's almost hard to wrap your head around the fact that seven years into this century, more Americans than not have either no Internet access at all or are still stuck on dial-up. It seems like so long ago that the buzzword was the 'information super-highway,' but much of America is still bouncing down a country lane. That is just unacceptable…Previous generations put a toaster in every home and a car in every driveway as signs of economic progress. To stay competitive, we should strive to do the same with nationwide broadband. Our economy, our businesses and our families are counting on us to deliver."
-- John Kerry…who is holding a forum with The Free Press (the best group) on how to universalize internet access (not only my Master’s Thesis topic, but something critical to the future of our nation)
VIDEO SECTION
Keith Olbermann has been tracking the Bush Administration’s use of trumped up terror alerts to manipulate the American people for the past two years, but in this latest Nexus of Politics & Terror report on Countdown, it appears the president stooped to a new low by using a bogus terror threat that specifically targeted Capitol Hill to manipulate members of Congress just hours before a crucial vote on the FISA bill last August.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/25/countdown-bush-used-bogus-terror-threat-to-scare-votes-for-fisa-bill/
Olbermann interviews Jane Harman, as she elaborates on the bogus terror threats to scare lawmakers into backing administration proposals…
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/26/countdown-rep-harman-gives-more-details-on-bogus-terror-threat-on-capitol/
Naomi Klein grills Greenspan in a debate on Democracy Now:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/25/democracy-now-naomi-klein-asks-alan-greenspan-about-those-missing-billions-in-iraq/
Olbermann's "worst person in the world"...some of the usu. scoundrels, from Limbough to O'Reilly:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/25/countdowns-worst-person-in-the-world-big-fat-fraud-rush-limbaugh/
Webb blasts Lieberman’s anti-Iran amendment (which overwhelmingly passed):
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/25/sen-webb-blasts-liebermankyl-amendment-this-proposal-is-dick-cheneys-fondest-pipe-dream/
ARTICLE SECTION: Scheer, Morford, Huffington
MORE GREENSPAN VERSUS KLEIN
To continue the debate between the “free market” fundamentalism of Greenspan versus the humane, fair, and logical trade and economic policy espoused by Naomi Klein, check out Arianna Huffington’s article on each of their new books.
A few clips:
Meanwhile, the book that should be in the spotlight is The Shock Doctrine. It’s a brilliant dissection of what Naomi Klein calls “disaster capitalism,” an economic philosophy born half a century ago at the University of Chicago under Milton Friedman. It holds that the best time to institute radical free-market policies is in the aftermath of a massive social crisis, such as a terrorist attack, a war, or a natural disaster like Katrina.
Klein shows how the crony capitalists running the Bush administration saw post-invasion Iraq as the perfect proving ground for all their pet free-market policies. The fantasy was that a privitazied and corporatized Iraq would become a free-market utopia that would spread the gospel of the market throughout the Middle East. Democracy would reign, and Halliburton and Bechtel would stand supreme.
SNIP
Greenspan is a lifelong devotee of Ayn Rand, whose books The Virtue of Selfishness and Atlas Shrugged are the bibles of free-marketeers. I actually loved them myself. When I was 11. I grew out of them, but Greenspan never did. And, as any self-respecting fan of Rand knows, the guiding principle of her work is rational self-interest. The problem is, what’s in the self-interest of the CEO of Halliburton is most likely not in the self-interest of your average American.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/26/4108/
BILLIONS MORE FOR WAR…
Robert Scheer dissects the latest supplemental appropriation for war…
A few clips:
What the heck-the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already soaked up $808 billion, so why quarrel about the Bush administration’s request this week for $50 billion more in supplementary spending? That’s on top of the $141 billion in supplementary spending already added to the 2008 budget for the Iraq disaster. Understand that “supplementary” means, in this case, an allocation of funds beyond the $750 billion that U.S. taxpayers spend each year on the regular defense budget.
SNIP
In a recent BBC/ABC poll, a whopping 80 percent of Iraqis said that the U.S. and other coalition forces have done “quite a bad job” (32 percent) or a “very bad job” (48 percent) in carrying out their responsibilities in Iraq, and that includes the supposedly happy Kurds. The same poll found that 72 percent feel the presence of American forces in Iraq is making security in the country worse, and 57 percent said it is “acceptable” to attack the U.S.-led forces. This is not a problem that more armor on vehicles can fix, although those vehicles should have been securely armored from the start if the goal was to occupy an oil-rich country with a fierce tradition of opposing foreigners looking to control that resource.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/26/4105/
REPUBLICAN MAYOR SEES THE LIGHT ON GAY MARRIAGE
Watch him here
Here’s some good news for a change…written by the always entertaining Mark Morford no less. As you probably heard, and if you haven’t watched, you should, but the Republican Mayor of San Diego held a tear filled press conference to announce he WOULD support a gay marriage city council resolution, admitting his daughter was gay herself. Powerful, and moving.
A few clips:
Could it really be happening? Was there really any way in hell a straight white male BushCo-era Republican would dare step up to a live microphone in front of a TV camera in a major American city and honestly admit that, well, he was wrong, and he is very sorry, and he has now officially reversed his position and now fully supports gay marriage and will actually sign a city council resolution acknowledging and advocating same?
SNIP
...is it not interesting that you almost never hear a Democrat or a liberal step up to a microphone and choke back tears and say, “My people, I have been all wrong about, say, the death penalty (or gun control, or women’s rights), and after searching my heart and following my intuition and seeking inspiration from my loving family, I now have reversed my position. I wish to wholly support killing prisoners. What’s more, I now support torture, and will vote for the unprovoked bombing or Iran and I just signed a decree that everyone must get a large handgun and by the way it turns out sex really is deeply scary and we cannot let women have such control over their bodies and therefore I no longer support condoms or RU-486 or low-rise jeans in public. Thank you.”
Truly, Sanders seems to follow a wondrous, though not often noticed, law of humanistic expansion. It goes something like this: When you find your heart, when you look to your own family and your own life and your own soul for the answers and go beyond the limitations of your political handbook and disregard the bitter decrees force-fed to you by some dogmatic religion or belief system, well, chances are just incredibly good you will emerge a tiny bit more progressive or liberal or open-minded than before. Is that not fascinating?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/26/4102/
MORE DISGRACE IN THE US SENATE...
BREAKING: Senate Passes Lieberman/Kyl Amendment; House Vote to Condemn MoveOn
By: Nicole Belle @ 10:28 AM - PDT
The Lieberman/Kyl Amendment has passed (the Iran saber rattling bill) by an unbelievable 76-22 vote.
Voting NO (anyone that voted yes should be disowned):
Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA)Dodd (D-CT)Feingold (D-WI) Hagel (R-NE) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Kennedy (D-MA)Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Leahy (D-VT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) McCaskill (D-MO) Sanders (I-VT) Tester (D-MT) Webb (D-VA) Wyden (D-OR)
Roll Call here
Biden’s Iraq Partitioning Amendment passed by a vote of 75-23. (Iraqis polled at 98% against this idea)
And the House of Representatives, evidently eager to show that they are as spineless and easily cowered as the Senate, voted to condemn MoveOn for the Gen. Betrayus ad, 341-79. Roll Call here. What a disgrace…how could Pelosi let this even come to a vote??? The Republicans would NEVER allow this if they were in charge.
MoveOn’s response to the House vote here.
WAXMAN URGES STATE DEPT. TO COOPERATE WITH INVESTIGATION INTO CORRUPTION IN IRAQ: Yesterday, the House Oversight Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA) accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of "interfering" with the committee's investigation into corruption in Iraq. State Department officials refused to allow any potentially negative comments about the Maliki government in Iraq to be made public. "The scope of the prohibition is breathtaking," Waxman wrote, alleging that State seems to view criticism of the government as "a national security secret." "[I]t means that unless the Committee agrees to keep the information secret from the public, the Committee cannot obtain information from officials...about whether there is corruption within the Iraqi ministries." Waxman also pressed Rice about his committee's investigation into Blackwater USA, a private security firm that was allegedly involved in a shooting incident that left 11 Iraqis dead. The State Department has instructed Blackwater not to provide the Committee with necessary information, and Rice has refused to testify about the incident. Congress has a "constitutional prerogative" to look into the issues, Waxman wrote, and Rice is "wrong to interfere with the Committee's inquiry."
While expressing his support for international human rights yesterday at the U.N., "Bush didn't mention the U.S. prisons in Afghanistan or at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. practice of holding detainees for years without legal charges or access to lawyers, or the CIA's 'rendition' kidnappings of suspects abroad, all issues of concern to human rights activists around the world."
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said he will "press the government for the release of a black teenager held in the 'Jena 6' case that spurred one of the biggest civil-rights demonstrations in years." "Our first responsibility is to get young Mychal Bell out of prison," he said.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
TODAY'S TOPICS: Krugman, Iraqi Oil, E-Voting, Internet for All, Fred Thompson Exposed, Blackwater on Tape, Neo Con Papers
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
-- John F. Kennedy
Note: I'm very strapped for time this week...and moving on top of that...so there's going to be a lot of copy and pasting for awhile:
VIDEO SECTION:
Some Simpsons and family guy political satire clips:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/63385/
Ken Burns discusses his new miniseries on WWII and parallels with Iraq:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/ken-burns-the-war-talks-about-the-parallels-between-iraq-and-wwii/
Bill Maher, Janeane Garafalo and company talk politics...good stuff:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/real-time-overtime-on-oj-iraq-and-democratic-messaging/
A Mitt Romney parody ad regarding his brave campaigning sons:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/slate-v-takes-romney-campaign-ad-challenge-priceless/
Taser nation...backs up the point I made last week...these "non lethal" weapons are NOT making us safer, but in fact, less so. This segment details the rise in use and abuse of tasers by police:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/63381/
David Schuster, a reporter for MSNBC that I've been saying is one to watch for some time now gets a crack at hosting his own show for the week. Watch him absolutely destroy a Republican guest that just can't stop talking about the MoveOn ad...even as young men from her own district are being killed in Iraq (and she doesn't know their name)...classic:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/24/shuster-to-rep-blackburn-when-was-the-last-time-a-new-york-times-ad-ever-killed-somebody/
Iraq is suing Blackwater...right on!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/iraqi-government-to-file-criminal-charges-against-blackwater-staffers/
ARTICLE SECTION: Krugman, Taibbi, Nichols
Paul Krugman writes on the GOP candidates decision to literally shun both black and hispanic debate forums....who said racism is dead??? Let's not forget what's happening in Jena Louisiana either.
A few clips:
Republican politicians, who understand quite well that the G.O.P.'s national success since the 1970s owes everything to the partisan switch of Southern whites, have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism.
Thus Ronald Reagan, who began his political career by campaigning against California's Fair Housing Act, started his 1980 campaign with a speech supporting states' rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered. In 2000, Mr. Bush made a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University, famed at the time for its ban on interracial dating.
And all four leading Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination have turned down an invitation to a debate on minority issues scheduled to air on PBS this week.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092407F.shtml
Jon Nichols of the Nation discusses the giant elephant in the room that no one, certainly not the media, will talk about: None other than the US takeover of Iraq oil resources (or "control" of it anyway). The blackout of this giant story makes it clear just how beholden our press is to corporate interests and perpetuating the myth of American foreign policy objectives.
A few clips:
Thus, while it is right to pay close attention to the emerging discussion about Blackwater’s wicked work in Iraq, Americans would do well to pay an equal measure of attention to the still largely submerged discussion about an Iraqi oil deal that will pay huge benefits to the Hunt Oil Company, a Texas firm closely linked to the administration. How closely? When he was running Halliburton, Cheney invited Hunt Oil Company CEO Ray Hunt to serve on the firm’s board of directors. Hunt, a “Bush Pioneer” fund raiser donated the tidy sum of $35 million to the Bush presidential library building fund.
The new “production sharing agreement” between Hunt Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government puts one of the administration’s favorite firms in a position to reap immeasurable profits while undermining essential efforts to assure that Iraq’s oil revenues will be shared by all Iraqis. Hunt’s deal upsets hopes that Iraq’s mineral wealth might ultimately be a source of stability, replacing the promise of economic equity with the prospect of a black-gold rush that will only widen inequalities and heighten ethnic and regional resentments.
The Hunt deal is so sleazy — and so at odds with the stated goals of the Iraqi government and the U.S. regarding the sharing of oil revenues — that even Bush has acknowledged that U.S. embassy officials in Baghdad are deeply concerned about it. What Bush and Cheney have been slow to mention is the fact that Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, says the deal is illegal.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/22/4019/
FRED THOMPSON EXPOSED...BY MATT TAIBBI NO LESS (this is entertaining!)
Matt Taibbi does one of his no holds barred, gloves off, red pill special exposes on another GOP phony, liar, and fraud. Welcome to the real Fred Thompson...as Taibbi has been covering his campaign, in person, for the past few weeks.
A few clips:
Probably what? Probably a shoo-in for the presidency, that's what! I shudder as I realize my mistake, and suddenly the candidacy of Fred Thompson, which seemed impossibly silly just a few minutes ago, makes deadly serious sense. Thompson may act like a blank slate -- a homespun version of Being There hero Chauncey Gardiner running on a platform of "Whatever you say" and "I'll get back to you on that" -- but he represents something else that no one, after seven years of George W. Bush, could possibly have expected: a new low. It was bad enough when the GOP field was led by a grinning Mormon corporatist and a fascist ex-mayor itching to take his prostate pain out on the world, but Thompson is the worst yet -- a human snooze button, campaigning baldly for the head-in-the-sand vote by asking Americans not to think but to change the channel.
SNIP
I watched this phenomenon in action over and over again. In a dead-still convention hall in Sioux City, Thompson meanders his way through a stump speech that appears to be about absolutely nothing at all -- he makes tamely self-deprecating jokes about his bald head ("You young fellas with good-lookin' heads of hair, enjoy it while you can"), ogles a standard-issue stuffed-animal-bearing Adorable Toddler ("You're a good Republican. Now let's show 'em your elephant") and talks away questions about specific policy issues with inspired flurries of utterly nonsensical hick'ry saws (his take on how to deal with the energy crisis: "We got to learn to skip 'n chew gum't the same time").
SNIP
His politics, though, are another matter. As a political animal, Thompson embodies the twisted core of the Sean Hannity/Rush Limbaugh era: He looks you right in the eye with that aw-shucks face of his and tells you shit that just isn't true about who we are as a country. In his first few days on the campaign trail, he paces back and forth in front of crowds of Iowans and assures them without blinking that "we have the best health-care system in the world" -- and you sit there wondering how the hell he can get away with saying that when America's infant mortality rate is behind fricking Slovenia's.
But by then Thompson is talking about how France and England are desperate to copy our market-based system of health care. And then he's on to Iraq, where we "went in for the right reasons" because Saddam was planning a "nuclearized Middle East" that "would have defeated all of us," assertions that leave the bad-news-weary crowd dewy-eyed with approval. Thompson represents the essential bullshit at the heart of modern conservatism: The fantasy that we are the benevolent envy of the world must be believed at all costs, no matter how much waste or mayhem or loss of young lives is suffered in deference to it.
SNIP
What Thompson offers is a chance to drag the presidency itself into that bubble, leaving ugly reality behind. His campaign is basically a referendum on what America wants out of its president. Do we want an executive who solves problems and tackles issues, making decisions that are grounded in reality? Or do we want a lead actor to star in a television show about a fantasy America of our own creation, an America where poverty and war and insecurity can be solved simply by keeping them off camera?
SNIP
In the case of Thompson, that someone would be a slick frontman who might play the part of a Goldwater small-government Republican but in reality has made his living as an extravagantly paid pimp for government welfare. As a professional lobbyist in the 1980s, Thompson worked on behalf of Westinghouse, which was seeking billions in federal subsidies for nuclear power plants. (He conveniently leaves that part of his past out when, in his campaign speeches, he mentions nuclear power as one of the "other fuels" that "have to be part of the solution.") He also lobbied for the deregulation of the savings-and-loan business -- a Reagan-era move that helped lead to the infamous collapse of the industry. And between 2004 and 2006 he earned $760,000 lobbying to cut the asbestos liability of Lloyd's of London.
http://alternet.org/story/63351/
GOP OBSTRUCTIONISM…SETTING A PROUD PREDENT
And that’s just from news items yesterday. Kevin Drum highlights the problem we’ve been watching all year. Republicans aren’t just obstructing legislation at normal rates. They’re obstructing legislation at three times the usual rate. They’re absolutely desperate to keep this stuff off the president’s desk, where the only choice is to either sign it or else take the blame for a high-profile veto.
As things stand, though, Republicans will largely avoid blame for their tactics. After all, the first story linked above says only that the DC bill “came up short in the Senate” and the second one that the habeas bill “fell short in the Senate.” You have to read with a gimlet eye to figure out how the vote actually broke down, and casual readers will come away thinking that the bills failed because of some kind of generic Washington gridlock, not GOP obstructionism. […]
Would it really be so hard for reporters to make it clear exactly who’s responsible for blocking these bills? Good question. The only resolution to GOP obstructionism is public outrage, which might encourage the GOP to allow the Senate to start voting on bills again, and which might happen if reporters gave it to us straight.
END
LET’S SEE IF ARNOLD REALLY IS THE ENVIRO “CHARACTER” HE PLAYS AS GOVERNOR…(don’t believe the hype...he's not)
Green light for governor? -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to be tested on how far he's willing to go to keep his reputation green. Sitting on the governor's desk are three Democratic bills that would expand California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring state, residential and certain commercial buildings to adopt environmentally responsible practices in design and construction. Judy Lin in the Sacramento Bee -- 9/24/07
Telecoms Launch Secret Lobbying Campaign For Immunity On Illegal Spying
By: Logan Murphy @ 8:48 AM - PDT
Via Newsweek:
The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs.
The campaign—which involves some of Washington’s most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed.
If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant.
Read more…
CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE OR WAR?
Let's compare the amount in dispute on the SCHIP bill with spending on the Iraq War. The $120 billion a year in spending on the war comes to about $10 billion a month, or $0.3 billion a day. This means every 20 days we spend enough money in Iraq to make up the full difference between the SCHIP bill likely to be approved by Congress and the amount of money requested by President Bush. Since CBO estimates this additional funding would ensure four million kids, we can conclude that every day we spend enough money on the war in Iraq to insure 200,000 kids for a year….
Of course, there are other ways to pay for expanding SCHIP, such as cutting the subsidies private insurers receive in the Medicare program. We can also change the Medicare prescription drug benefit so the drug companies only get to charge the same prices for drugs as they charge the Veterans Administration. Taking back these subsidies would provide far more than enough money to expand SCHIP, but these industries made big campaign contributions for these subsidies and don't intend to give them up without a big fight.
-- Dean Baker, is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
OLD NEOCON POLICY PAPERS UNCOVERED...IMPERIALISM BABY!
(This document that was leaked to the NY Times back in 1992, explains in detail the Neocon wet dream of world domination. One wonders if the media would have looked at the cabinet Bush put together when he took office and then asked some real questions about Wolfie’s plan of world domination. I guess they had other things to do.
These scenarios, issued separately to the military services on Feb. 4, were detailed in a New York Times article last month. They postulated regional wars against Iraq and North Korea, as well as a Russian assault on Lithuania and smaller military contingencies that United States forces might confront in the future.
These hypothetical conflicts, coupled with the policy guidance document, are meant to give military leaders specific information about the kinds of military threats they should be prepared to meet as they train and equip their forces. It is also intended to give them a coherent strategy framework in which to evaluate various force and training options…
read on
Here it is. The PNAC’ers plan right in front of our media. And you’d think the NY Times would have taken the lead on this since they actually published it. Oh, that’s right. Judy Miller and Michael Gordon had other ideas. When the administration turned its attention to Iraq—-flashing red lights should have gone off…
END
VIDEO OF BLACKWATER CRIMES...BUT THE IRAQI GOVT. HAS NO POWER
Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths.
He told The Associated Press that the conclusion was based on witness statements as well as videotape shot by cameras at the nearby headquarters of the national police command. He said eight people were killed at the scene and three of the 15 wounded died in hospitals. Read more…
C&L has been documenting Blackwater’s activities for some time now. While it would be heartening to think these investigations by the Iraqi government will end in justice for the families of the murdered, it’s not a likely outcome. It’s put up or shut up time for the Bush administration — if the Iraqi government is truly sovereign as they love to shout at every opportunity, they need to step back and let them make their own decisions. In a separate matter, Blackwater has released a statement in which they deny illegal arms activities in Iraq.
END
MELTDOWN '07: Diebold Touch-Screens Flipping in Memphis Mayoral Election
Tight Three-Way Race Falling Victim to Crappy Voting Technology - Who Could Have Predicted It?
RELATED: Federal Bill That Wouldn't Have Corrected the Problem - Rush Holt's HR 811 - Back 'In the Freezer' in the House, According to Roll Call...
We were in Nashville a couple of months ago, at a meeting of the Davidson County Board of Elections. We tried to warn them that they would run into trouble with their ES&S touch-screen voting machines, probably sooner, rather than later. But the kool-aid drunk Republicans on the board would have none of it. "Paper ballots are the biggest scam ever perpetrated on America," one of them told us. To our astonishment, he actually seemed to believe himself.
That GOP blend must be some very tasty Kool-aid.
Meanwhile, the nice Democrats who were in the majority on the board, sat there and said and did nothing. They were very very nice. And completely clueless...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5089
INTERNET FOR EVERYONE??
From the Free Press:
What if I told you we could use empty TV channels to connect millions of Americans to the Internet? New technology would do just that. But the powerful TV broadcast lobby is standing in the way with a multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign.
The Federal Communications Commission is about to make a critical choice: support innovation or side with the broadcasters and let the United State slide further behind the rest of the world in Internet access.
Tell the FCC: Open the Internet for Everyone
The fight for universal Internet access is now being waged over "white spaces" -- empty frequencies between television channels on the public airwaves. New devices can use these vacant airwaves to connect millions to the information superhighway, including many people still stuck on dial-up -- or without any service at all.
Here's the problem. The National Association of Broadcasters wants to keep white spaces for themselves. This week, they're blitzing Washington with television ads and a swarm of lobbyists. They're making outright false claims that any new devices will interfere with over-the-air TV broadcasts.
Their scare tactics are aimed at convincing the FCC and Congress to stifle new technologies that can revolutionize our airwaves. Unless we act now, the FCC could side with the broadcasters and deny us one of our last opportunities to deliver a better Internet to more people.
Last year we sent 1.5 million letters to Congress and halted the phone and cable industry efforts to kill Net Neutrality. This year, we're fighting to make the Internet available and affordable to everyone. Opening up white spaces is key to creating the healthy competition, consumer choices and technological innovation we need to provide an open Internet to all.
END
IPCC: GLOBAL WARMING BEING FELT 'ON EVERY CONTINENT,' 'SOONER THAN EXPECTED': A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that "hundreds of millions of people in developing nations will face natural disasters, water shortages and hunger" due to climate change. The report warned that global warming's effects are already being felt "on every continent, and sooner than expected." "Professor Martin Parry, who chairs the working group, said today that he was pessimistic about the chances of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C," which would severely damage the environment. "Africa will be one of the areas worst hit" by climate change; by 2020, "the report warns, up to 250 million Africans may be left short of water, while access to sufficient food is 'projected to be severely compromised by climate variability and change.'" Coinciding with last month being the "second warmest August on record," the IPCC stated that "[d]eveloped regions like the US and southern Europe are likely to experience more severe summer heatwaves."
CONCERNS ABOUT MUKASEY: While Mukasey is a qualified nominee who is certainly a better choice than other names that have been floated, there are still issues of concern for progressives. Mukasey's respect for the Constitution and the rule of law should not be overstated. While Mukasey ruled that Padilla was entitled to counsel, he "also ruled, very dubiously, that President Bush had the authority to detain American citizens, even those detained on U.S. soil, as 'enemy combatants,' and that they need not be charged with any crimes." Mukasey's opinion was set to be tested before the Supreme Court until the administration, fearing a defeat, transferred Padilla to a criminal court and tried him there. "If Mukasey is the nominee, he should certainly be questioned aggressively about whether he believes that the President does have this authority [to indefinitely detain Americans without charge] and whether he would intend as Attorney General to defend that authority if it were exercised again." Mukasey will also likely be questioned about an op-ed he penned in the Wall Street Journal last month that essentially agreed with the Bush administration argument that federal courts are not equipped to deal with national security cases. Mukasey urged Congress to consider creating national security courts beyond the military commissions in existence at Guantanamo Bay. While Muksaey's idea for national security courts would provide for some judicial review, it is not a preferable solution. The federal courts have evolved ample means for handling the special challenges posed by national security cases, and the case has not been made as to why those means are inadequate.
"We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
-- John F. Kennedy
Note: I'm very strapped for time this week...and moving on top of that...so there's going to be a lot of copy and pasting for awhile:
VIDEO SECTION:
Some Simpsons and family guy political satire clips:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/63385/
Ken Burns discusses his new miniseries on WWII and parallels with Iraq:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/ken-burns-the-war-talks-about-the-parallels-between-iraq-and-wwii/
Bill Maher, Janeane Garafalo and company talk politics...good stuff:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/real-time-overtime-on-oj-iraq-and-democratic-messaging/
A Mitt Romney parody ad regarding his brave campaigning sons:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/22/slate-v-takes-romney-campaign-ad-challenge-priceless/
Taser nation...backs up the point I made last week...these "non lethal" weapons are NOT making us safer, but in fact, less so. This segment details the rise in use and abuse of tasers by police:
http://alternet.org/blogs/video/63381/
David Schuster, a reporter for MSNBC that I've been saying is one to watch for some time now gets a crack at hosting his own show for the week. Watch him absolutely destroy a Republican guest that just can't stop talking about the MoveOn ad...even as young men from her own district are being killed in Iraq (and she doesn't know their name)...classic:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/24/shuster-to-rep-blackburn-when-was-the-last-time-a-new-york-times-ad-ever-killed-somebody/
Iraq is suing Blackwater...right on!
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/09/23/iraqi-government-to-file-criminal-charges-against-blackwater-staffers/
ARTICLE SECTION: Krugman, Taibbi, Nichols
Paul Krugman writes on the GOP candidates decision to literally shun both black and hispanic debate forums....who said racism is dead??? Let's not forget what's happening in Jena Louisiana either.
A few clips:
Republican politicians, who understand quite well that the G.O.P.'s national success since the 1970s owes everything to the partisan switch of Southern whites, have tacitly acknowledged this reality. Since the days of Gerald Ford, just about every Republican presidential campaign has included some symbolic gesture of approval for good old-fashioned racism.
Thus Ronald Reagan, who began his political career by campaigning against California's Fair Housing Act, started his 1980 campaign with a speech supporting states' rights delivered just outside Philadelphia, Miss., where three civil rights workers were murdered. In 2000, Mr. Bush made a pilgrimage to Bob Jones University, famed at the time for its ban on interracial dating.
And all four leading Republican candidates for the 2008 nomination have turned down an invitation to a debate on minority issues scheduled to air on PBS this week.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092407F.shtml
Jon Nichols of the Nation discusses the giant elephant in the room that no one, certainly not the media, will talk about: None other than the US takeover of Iraq oil resources (or "control" of it anyway). The blackout of this giant story makes it clear just how beholden our press is to corporate interests and perpetuating the myth of American foreign policy objectives.
A few clips:
Thus, while it is right to pay close attention to the emerging discussion about Blackwater’s wicked work in Iraq, Americans would do well to pay an equal measure of attention to the still largely submerged discussion about an Iraqi oil deal that will pay huge benefits to the Hunt Oil Company, a Texas firm closely linked to the administration. How closely? When he was running Halliburton, Cheney invited Hunt Oil Company CEO Ray Hunt to serve on the firm’s board of directors. Hunt, a “Bush Pioneer” fund raiser donated the tidy sum of $35 million to the Bush presidential library building fund.
The new “production sharing agreement” between Hunt Oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government puts one of the administration’s favorite firms in a position to reap immeasurable profits while undermining essential efforts to assure that Iraq’s oil revenues will be shared by all Iraqis. Hunt’s deal upsets hopes that Iraq’s mineral wealth might ultimately be a source of stability, replacing the promise of economic equity with the prospect of a black-gold rush that will only widen inequalities and heighten ethnic and regional resentments.
The Hunt deal is so sleazy — and so at odds with the stated goals of the Iraqi government and the U.S. regarding the sharing of oil revenues — that even Bush has acknowledged that U.S. embassy officials in Baghdad are deeply concerned about it. What Bush and Cheney have been slow to mention is the fact that Iraq’s oil minister, Hussain al-Shahristani, says the deal is illegal.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/22/4019/
FRED THOMPSON EXPOSED...BY MATT TAIBBI NO LESS (this is entertaining!)
Matt Taibbi does one of his no holds barred, gloves off, red pill special exposes on another GOP phony, liar, and fraud. Welcome to the real Fred Thompson...as Taibbi has been covering his campaign, in person, for the past few weeks.
A few clips:
Probably what? Probably a shoo-in for the presidency, that's what! I shudder as I realize my mistake, and suddenly the candidacy of Fred Thompson, which seemed impossibly silly just a few minutes ago, makes deadly serious sense. Thompson may act like a blank slate -- a homespun version of Being There hero Chauncey Gardiner running on a platform of "Whatever you say" and "I'll get back to you on that" -- but he represents something else that no one, after seven years of George W. Bush, could possibly have expected: a new low. It was bad enough when the GOP field was led by a grinning Mormon corporatist and a fascist ex-mayor itching to take his prostate pain out on the world, but Thompson is the worst yet -- a human snooze button, campaigning baldly for the head-in-the-sand vote by asking Americans not to think but to change the channel.
SNIP
I watched this phenomenon in action over and over again. In a dead-still convention hall in Sioux City, Thompson meanders his way through a stump speech that appears to be about absolutely nothing at all -- he makes tamely self-deprecating jokes about his bald head ("You young fellas with good-lookin' heads of hair, enjoy it while you can"), ogles a standard-issue stuffed-animal-bearing Adorable Toddler ("You're a good Republican. Now let's show 'em your elephant") and talks away questions about specific policy issues with inspired flurries of utterly nonsensical hick'ry saws (his take on how to deal with the energy crisis: "We got to learn to skip 'n chew gum't the same time").
SNIP
His politics, though, are another matter. As a political animal, Thompson embodies the twisted core of the Sean Hannity/Rush Limbaugh era: He looks you right in the eye with that aw-shucks face of his and tells you shit that just isn't true about who we are as a country. In his first few days on the campaign trail, he paces back and forth in front of crowds of Iowans and assures them without blinking that "we have the best health-care system in the world" -- and you sit there wondering how the hell he can get away with saying that when America's infant mortality rate is behind fricking Slovenia's.
But by then Thompson is talking about how France and England are desperate to copy our market-based system of health care. And then he's on to Iraq, where we "went in for the right reasons" because Saddam was planning a "nuclearized Middle East" that "would have defeated all of us," assertions that leave the bad-news-weary crowd dewy-eyed with approval. Thompson represents the essential bullshit at the heart of modern conservatism: The fantasy that we are the benevolent envy of the world must be believed at all costs, no matter how much waste or mayhem or loss of young lives is suffered in deference to it.
SNIP
What Thompson offers is a chance to drag the presidency itself into that bubble, leaving ugly reality behind. His campaign is basically a referendum on what America wants out of its president. Do we want an executive who solves problems and tackles issues, making decisions that are grounded in reality? Or do we want a lead actor to star in a television show about a fantasy America of our own creation, an America where poverty and war and insecurity can be solved simply by keeping them off camera?
SNIP
In the case of Thompson, that someone would be a slick frontman who might play the part of a Goldwater small-government Republican but in reality has made his living as an extravagantly paid pimp for government welfare. As a professional lobbyist in the 1980s, Thompson worked on behalf of Westinghouse, which was seeking billions in federal subsidies for nuclear power plants. (He conveniently leaves that part of his past out when, in his campaign speeches, he mentions nuclear power as one of the "other fuels" that "have to be part of the solution.") He also lobbied for the deregulation of the savings-and-loan business -- a Reagan-era move that helped lead to the infamous collapse of the industry. And between 2004 and 2006 he earned $760,000 lobbying to cut the asbestos liability of Lloyd's of London.
http://alternet.org/story/63351/
GOP OBSTRUCTIONISM…SETTING A PROUD PREDENT
And that’s just from news items yesterday. Kevin Drum highlights the problem we’ve been watching all year. Republicans aren’t just obstructing legislation at normal rates. They’re obstructing legislation at three times the usual rate. They’re absolutely desperate to keep this stuff off the president’s desk, where the only choice is to either sign it or else take the blame for a high-profile veto.
As things stand, though, Republicans will largely avoid blame for their tactics. After all, the first story linked above says only that the DC bill “came up short in the Senate” and the second one that the habeas bill “fell short in the Senate.” You have to read with a gimlet eye to figure out how the vote actually broke down, and casual readers will come away thinking that the bills failed because of some kind of generic Washington gridlock, not GOP obstructionism. […]
Would it really be so hard for reporters to make it clear exactly who’s responsible for blocking these bills? Good question. The only resolution to GOP obstructionism is public outrage, which might encourage the GOP to allow the Senate to start voting on bills again, and which might happen if reporters gave it to us straight.
END
LET’S SEE IF ARNOLD REALLY IS THE ENVIRO “CHARACTER” HE PLAYS AS GOVERNOR…(don’t believe the hype...he's not)
Green light for governor? -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is about to be tested on how far he's willing to go to keep his reputation green. Sitting on the governor's desk are three Democratic bills that would expand California's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by requiring state, residential and certain commercial buildings to adopt environmentally responsible practices in design and construction. Judy Lin in the Sacramento Bee -- 9/24/07
Telecoms Launch Secret Lobbying Campaign For Immunity On Illegal Spying
By: Logan Murphy @ 8:48 AM - PDT
Via Newsweek:
The nation’s biggest telecommunications companies, working closely with the White House, have mounted a secretive lobbying campaign to get Congress to quickly approve a measure wiping out all private lawsuits against them for assisting the U.S. intelligence community’s warrantless surveillance programs.
The campaign—which involves some of Washington’s most prominent lobbying and law firms—has taken on new urgency in recent weeks because of fears that a U.S. appellate court in San Francisco is poised to rule that the lawsuits should be allowed to proceed.
If that happens, the telecom companies say, they may be forced to terminate their cooperation with the U.S. intelligence community—or risk potentially crippling damage awards for allegedly turning over personal information about their customers to the government without a judicial warrant.
Read more…
CHILDREN'S HEALTH CARE OR WAR?
Let's compare the amount in dispute on the SCHIP bill with spending on the Iraq War. The $120 billion a year in spending on the war comes to about $10 billion a month, or $0.3 billion a day. This means every 20 days we spend enough money in Iraq to make up the full difference between the SCHIP bill likely to be approved by Congress and the amount of money requested by President Bush. Since CBO estimates this additional funding would ensure four million kids, we can conclude that every day we spend enough money on the war in Iraq to insure 200,000 kids for a year….
Of course, there are other ways to pay for expanding SCHIP, such as cutting the subsidies private insurers receive in the Medicare program. We can also change the Medicare prescription drug benefit so the drug companies only get to charge the same prices for drugs as they charge the Veterans Administration. Taking back these subsidies would provide far more than enough money to expand SCHIP, but these industries made big campaign contributions for these subsidies and don't intend to give them up without a big fight.
-- Dean Baker, is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research
OLD NEOCON POLICY PAPERS UNCOVERED...IMPERIALISM BABY!
(This document that was leaked to the NY Times back in 1992, explains in detail the Neocon wet dream of world domination. One wonders if the media would have looked at the cabinet Bush put together when he took office and then asked some real questions about Wolfie’s plan of world domination. I guess they had other things to do.
These scenarios, issued separately to the military services on Feb. 4, were detailed in a New York Times article last month. They postulated regional wars against Iraq and North Korea, as well as a Russian assault on Lithuania and smaller military contingencies that United States forces might confront in the future.
These hypothetical conflicts, coupled with the policy guidance document, are meant to give military leaders specific information about the kinds of military threats they should be prepared to meet as they train and equip their forces. It is also intended to give them a coherent strategy framework in which to evaluate various force and training options…
read on
Here it is. The PNAC’ers plan right in front of our media. And you’d think the NY Times would have taken the lead on this since they actually published it. Oh, that’s right. Judy Miller and Michael Gordon had other ideas. When the administration turned its attention to Iraq—-flashing red lights should have gone off…
END
VIDEO OF BLACKWATER CRIMES...BUT THE IRAQI GOVT. HAS NO POWER
Iraqi investigators have a videotape that shows Blackwater USA guards opened fire against civilians without provocation in an incident last week in which 11 people died, a senior Iraqi official said Saturday. He said the case was referred to the Iraqi judiciary.
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said Iraqi authorities had completed an investigation into the Sept. 16 shooting in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad and concluded that Blackwater guards were responsible for the deaths.
He told The Associated Press that the conclusion was based on witness statements as well as videotape shot by cameras at the nearby headquarters of the national police command. He said eight people were killed at the scene and three of the 15 wounded died in hospitals. Read more…
C&L has been documenting Blackwater’s activities for some time now. While it would be heartening to think these investigations by the Iraqi government will end in justice for the families of the murdered, it’s not a likely outcome. It’s put up or shut up time for the Bush administration — if the Iraqi government is truly sovereign as they love to shout at every opportunity, they need to step back and let them make their own decisions. In a separate matter, Blackwater has released a statement in which they deny illegal arms activities in Iraq.
END
MELTDOWN '07: Diebold Touch-Screens Flipping in Memphis Mayoral Election
Tight Three-Way Race Falling Victim to Crappy Voting Technology - Who Could Have Predicted It?
RELATED: Federal Bill That Wouldn't Have Corrected the Problem - Rush Holt's HR 811 - Back 'In the Freezer' in the House, According to Roll Call...
We were in Nashville a couple of months ago, at a meeting of the Davidson County Board of Elections. We tried to warn them that they would run into trouble with their ES&S touch-screen voting machines, probably sooner, rather than later. But the kool-aid drunk Republicans on the board would have none of it. "Paper ballots are the biggest scam ever perpetrated on America," one of them told us. To our astonishment, he actually seemed to believe himself.
That GOP blend must be some very tasty Kool-aid.
Meanwhile, the nice Democrats who were in the majority on the board, sat there and said and did nothing. They were very very nice. And completely clueless...
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5089
INTERNET FOR EVERYONE??
From the Free Press:
What if I told you we could use empty TV channels to connect millions of Americans to the Internet? New technology would do just that. But the powerful TV broadcast lobby is standing in the way with a multimillion-dollar misinformation campaign.
The Federal Communications Commission is about to make a critical choice: support innovation or side with the broadcasters and let the United State slide further behind the rest of the world in Internet access.
Tell the FCC: Open the Internet for Everyone
The fight for universal Internet access is now being waged over "white spaces" -- empty frequencies between television channels on the public airwaves. New devices can use these vacant airwaves to connect millions to the information superhighway, including many people still stuck on dial-up -- or without any service at all.
Here's the problem. The National Association of Broadcasters wants to keep white spaces for themselves. This week, they're blitzing Washington with television ads and a swarm of lobbyists. They're making outright false claims that any new devices will interfere with over-the-air TV broadcasts.
Their scare tactics are aimed at convincing the FCC and Congress to stifle new technologies that can revolutionize our airwaves. Unless we act now, the FCC could side with the broadcasters and deny us one of our last opportunities to deliver a better Internet to more people.
Last year we sent 1.5 million letters to Congress and halted the phone and cable industry efforts to kill Net Neutrality. This year, we're fighting to make the Internet available and affordable to everyone. Opening up white spaces is key to creating the healthy competition, consumer choices and technological innovation we need to provide an open Internet to all.
END
IPCC: GLOBAL WARMING BEING FELT 'ON EVERY CONTINENT,' 'SOONER THAN EXPECTED': A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that "hundreds of millions of people in developing nations will face natural disasters, water shortages and hunger" due to climate change. The report warned that global warming's effects are already being felt "on every continent, and sooner than expected." "Professor Martin Parry, who chairs the working group, said today that he was pessimistic about the chances of keeping the increase in global average temperatures below 2C," which would severely damage the environment. "Africa will be one of the areas worst hit" by climate change; by 2020, "the report warns, up to 250 million Africans may be left short of water, while access to sufficient food is 'projected to be severely compromised by climate variability and change.'" Coinciding with last month being the "second warmest August on record," the IPCC stated that "[d]eveloped regions like the US and southern Europe are likely to experience more severe summer heatwaves."
CONCERNS ABOUT MUKASEY: While Mukasey is a qualified nominee who is certainly a better choice than other names that have been floated, there are still issues of concern for progressives. Mukasey's respect for the Constitution and the rule of law should not be overstated. While Mukasey ruled that Padilla was entitled to counsel, he "also ruled, very dubiously, that President Bush had the authority to detain American citizens, even those detained on U.S. soil, as 'enemy combatants,' and that they need not be charged with any crimes." Mukasey's opinion was set to be tested before the Supreme Court until the administration, fearing a defeat, transferred Padilla to a criminal court and tried him there. "If Mukasey is the nominee, he should certainly be questioned aggressively about whether he believes that the President does have this authority [to indefinitely detain Americans without charge] and whether he would intend as Attorney General to defend that authority if it were exercised again." Mukasey will also likely be questioned about an op-ed he penned in the Wall Street Journal last month that essentially agreed with the Bush administration argument that federal courts are not equipped to deal with national security cases. Mukasey urged Congress to consider creating national security courts beyond the military commissions in existence at Guantanamo Bay. While Muksaey's idea for national security courts would provide for some judicial review, it is not a preferable solution. The federal courts have evolved ample means for handling the special challenges posed by national security cases, and the case has not been made as to why those means are inadequate.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
