January 31, 2004
Gold Fillings, Auschwitz and George Bush
The talking heads complain about the libruhls' unfair comparisons between GWB and Hitler. MoveOn.org is torn apart for video submissions of such comparisons to a contest which weren't even accepted! Shock and denial everywhere! And, yet.........
Gold Fillings, Auschwitz and George Bush
From the Streets of Little Beirut
By Glen Yeadon
There were little warning signs but few were paying attention when George Bush the poppy ran for president in 1988 and 1992. First during the campaign it surfaced that one of his campaign staffers was a distributor of pro-Nazi propaganda. Before the ink was dry on the individual's resignation, further revelations showed there were in fact a number of ex-Nazis on Bush's campaign staff including Laszlo Pastor and Yaroslav Stetsko. Pastor was a member of the Hungarian Arrow Cross during WWII and served as an envoy to Germany. The Arrow Cross was known to be excessively brutal even to their Nazi allies. Stetsko served as the prime minister of the short lived Ukrainian puppet government. During the short reign of this puppet regime over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered in Lvov. George Bush's insensitivity towards victims of the holocaust is underlined by his employment of Fred Malek, a well known Nazi collaborator in both his presidential campaigns.
Read the rest...... http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/bushies.htm
January 29, 2004
Rush Limbaugh – “Bush Economic Plan is Not Working!”
It’s a cold day in hell when I can find ANYTHING by Rush Limbaugh that I can agree on , but when when Rush has an article on the Bush budget plan with the title “It’s Not Working,” I can’t help but smile! – E.P.
It's Not Working!
by Rush Limbaugh, January 29, 2004
On Thursday, I took two calls on the Bush proposal to increase the National Endowment for the Arts' budget. As part of his continuing strategy to peel off Democrat voters by growing government, Bush wants to force all of us to give the NEA $15 to $20 million in 2004. Where in the Constitution does it say the federal government will fund art? If we like it, we can fund it on our own.
I can only explain what I think is happening. I can't explain why the White House thinks their strategy is working when it's clearly not. Bush 41 didn't have a strategy, as one caller mentioned when comparing the two presidents. Bush 43 does - and I'm sad to say it's taken the shape of outspending Bill Clinton on the domestic side. This immigration bill and the $400 billion ( Now $540b ) Medicare entitlement makes conservative voters feel taken for granted.
The Big Theory, softening people's view of conservatism by making Americans work more for government and less for themselves, isn't working. How can it? If you act like a liberal to get Democrat votes, you can't do something conservative when you win without losing those new voters. Bush requested $15 billion to fight AIDS in Africa and let Ted Kennedy write an education bill that spent more on "the children" than ever, and they still rip him to shreds on those issues. You know, Republicans told us that we needed to give them control of the House, Senate and White House to get something done.
ARTICLE TAKEN FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH’S OWN WEBSITE AT:
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_012904/content/the_big_theory.guest.html
January 27, 2004
Claim vs. Fact analysis of State of Union
The Center for American Progress has an excellent overview of President Bush's latest State of the Union address, comparing the claims with actual facts.
Share this with your favorite Republican.
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=22985
The mind boggles at Bush's fiscal collapse
Today the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the federal budget deficit will reach $477 billion in 2004 and $2.4 trillion over the next decade. If the Bush tax cuts are made permanent, the deficit will be $443 billion in 2014. Bush and his administration officials like Treasury Secretary John Snow, meanwhile, continue to hold dear their claims, which are flat-out false, that they will cut the deficit in half over the next five years and keep the deficit to 2 percent of the gross domestic product.
"Make no mistake; President Bush is serious about the deficit," Snow said.
(But what about Cheney? Bush's former treasury secretary Paul O'Neill reported that Cheney said President Reagan proved "deficits don't matter.")
Bush's continued fiscal mismanagement has reached fever pitch. The bottom line: Bush has created a $8.5 trillion fiscal collapse in just two years. The mind boggles.
Frankly, we agree with Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND): "The president wants to go to Mars, and he's got deficits going to the moon."
WORDS AND LINKS COURTESY OF THE DNC KICKIN' ASS BLOG at:
http://www.democrats.org/blog/
January 24, 2004
We've Got Work To Do Pt. 2
Thoughts on the Coming 'Discovery' of Bin Laden
The Best Propaganda Money Can Buy
By Eric A. Smith
Unless preparations are made for its eventuality, the announcement of Bin Laden's capture will be the death-knell for the 2004 Democratic campaign. And, like the "heroic rescue" of Jessica Lynch or the toppling of Hussein's statue by "jubilant throngs" of Iraqis, it needn't even be real:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/3028585.stm
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-scheer20may20,1,2187120.column
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2838.htm
So Democrats must have a pre-emptive strategy in place; the most obvious being, early in the game, to accuse the White House of sitting on Bin Laden for political gain.
A better one is to launch an independent investigation to find Bin Laden first and announce the discovery before Rove's political operatives; this would be a huge coup.
In case you haven't been paying attention, this election year, Republicans are playing a deadly game of attrition — death by a thousand tiny cuts, so to speak: extreme gerrymandering in Texas, the recall of a governor in California, the installation of inauditable, easily "preprogrammed" DRE e-vote machines in as many counties as will allow them to be stuffed down their throats, relentless and bloody character assassinations in a bought-and-paid-for Murdoch-dominated media empire, absentee ballots counted by an untouchable firm in Kuwait, stacked courts ready to deliver decisions for which 2000's Gore vs. Bush set the precedent.
[Emphasis added. -v]
The odds look dire for Democrats (and, by extension, the majority of Americans, though they are as yet blissfully unaware of the slender thread from which all our liberties hang).
But, in case you haven't connected the dots, this time the GOP is playing for keeps.
Once the fix is in, there will be no turning back: by an invisible, carefully planned coup, the neoconservatives will have transformed America into an autocracy, and any remaining political opposition will be window dressing.
And so, I challenge you: this is a battle we perhaps cannot win, but, at all costs, MUST NOT LOSE.
The consequences of surrender will be incalculable: one by one, like dominos, institutions we cherish will fall — environmental laws, social security, independent media, healthy advocacy groups, assistance for the unemployed, impoverished and disenfranchised — and, foremost, the right to choose our leaders. [Emphasis added. -v]
CONTINUE, PLEASE! http://www.pressaction.com/pablog/archives/001226.html
We've Got Work To Do Pt. 1
Truth? You can't handle the truth!
Here's the truth in a brillliant animation from our friend Eric Blumrich. You'll want to play it a couple of times, then share it with your pro-war and pro-Bush friends.
SOURCE: http://www.ericblumrich.com/thanks.html
Snake of the Union Address
GOP Chairman Ed Gillespie sent me my very own personal copy of Bush's State of the Union Address. To be courteous I dashed off the following reply:
1/21/04 -- Barry Crimmins responds to the 2004 SOTU Address.
(Barry's remarks are preceded by" BC". Bush's remarks are by "GWB:")
The State of the Union Address
President George W. Bush
January 20, 2004
GWB: Mr. Speaker, Vice President Cheney, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow citizens: America this evening is a Nation called to great responsibilities. And we are rising to meet them.
BC: Particularly in New Hampshire.
GWB: As we gather tonight, hundreds of thousands of American servicemen and women are deployed across the world in the war on terror. By bringing hope to the oppressed, and delivering justice to the violent, they are making America more secure.
BC: They are delivering justice, alright. They are delivering it by telling the truth about the neglect, shoddy equipment, dangerous circumstances and muddled mission that has been inflicted upon them. The wounded, who've returned to abysmally poor treatment and benefits, will soon gather enough strength to seek some justice of their own. The dead, although brought into our nation under the shroud of darkness in an attempt to minimize the significance of their sacrifice, have filled some 600 graves that will forever remind the world of your callous wasting of their lives. Thousands and thousands of more such graves bespeak the same needless horror in Afghanistan and Iraq.
GWB: Each day, law enforcement personnel and intelligence officers are tracking terrorist threats; analysts are examining airline passenger lists; the men and women of our new Homeland Security Department are patrolling our coasts and borders. And their vigilance is protecting America.
BC: In the meantime while using all of this personnel to handle an unwieldy and hopelessly inefficient method of allegedly keeping us safe, you have caught thousands of innocents in your driftnet of paranoia. In the process you have done savage harm to the very civil liberties that should be a top priority of any decent homeland security operation.
GWB: Americans are proving once again to be the hardest working people in the world.
BC: Those not looking for work 24 hours a day simply can't because their multiple part-time, benefit-less jobs won't allow them to do so.
GWB: The American economy is growing stronger. The tax relief you passed is working.
BC: Glad to hear tax relief, unlike millions of Americans, is working. If we continue to create jobs at the rate of 1,000 per month (last month's total) it will only take 3,000 more years of your giveaways to the rich for us to regain the THREE MILLION jobs we have lost under your court-appointed presidency.
GWB: Tonight, Members of Congress can take pride in great works of compassion and reform that skeptics had thought impossible. You are raising the standards of our public schools; and you are giving our senior citizens prescription drug coverage under Medicare.
BC: Compassion for Big Pharmaceutical companies in guaranteeing them retail list price in perpetuity. Compassion for insurance hucksters that spend more money figuring out how to deny coverage than provide it. And reform by stealing funds from public schools so that they can be used to indoctrinate children in religious dogma at private institutions. Yeah, those are some real proud achievements.
CONTINUE: http://www.barrycrimmins.com/sotu04.html
January 22, 2004
Interactive Crossword
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT . . .
From Mad Kane:
State of the Disunion
In honor of George W. Bush's 2004 State of the Union Address, I'm pleased to present
my first interactive crossword puzzle.
Mad
Madeleine Begun Kane, Humor Columnist
http://www.madkane.com
http://www.madkane.com/notable.html (Notables Weblog)
http://www.madkane.com/bush.html (Dubya's Dayly Diary)
Subscribe to MadKane Humor Newsletter (weekly) here:
http://www.madkane.com/email.html
January 21, 2004
THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION
232: Number of American combat deaths in Iraq between May 2003 and
January 2004. . .
0: Number of American combat deaths in Germany after the Nazi surrender
to the Allies in May 1945. . .
0: Number of funerals or memorials that President Bush has attended for
soldiers killed in Iraq. . .
100: Number of fund-raisers attended by Bush or Vice President Dick
Cheney in 2003. . .
2: Number of nations that Bush has attacked and taken over since coming
into the White House. . .
9.2: Average number of American soldiers wounded in Iraq each day since
the invasion in March last year. . .
1.6: Average number of American soldiers killed in Iraq per day since
hostilities began. . .
16,000: Approximate number of Iraqis killed since the start of war. . .
10,000: Approximate number of Iraqi civilians killed since the beginning
of the conflict. . .
92%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that had access to drinkable water
a year ago. . .
60%: Percentage of Iraq's urban areas that have access to drinkable
water today. . .
10: Number of solo press conferences that Bush has held since beginning
his term. His father had managed 61 at this point in his administration,
and Bill Clinton 33. . .
28: Number of days holiday that Bush took last August, the second
longest holiday of any president in US history (Record holder: Richard
Nixon). . .
13: Number of vacation days the average American worker receives each
year. . .
$10.9 million: Average wealth of the members of Bush's original
16-person cabinet. . .
88%: Percentage of American citizens who will save less than $100 on
their 2006 federal taxes as a result of 2003 cut in capital gains and
dividends taxes. . .
$42,000: Average savings members of Bush's cabinet are expected to enjoy
this year as a result in the cuts in capital gains and dividends taxes. . .
$42,228: Median household income in the US in 2001. . .
$116,000: Amount Vice President Cheney is expected to save each year in
taxes. . .
January 20, 2004
Defense Budget
The Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think
By Robert Higgs, The Independent Institute
When President Bush signed the defense authorization bill for fiscal year 2004 on November 24, 2003, the event received considerable attention in the news media. At $401.3 billion, the public's visible cost of funding the nation's defense seemed to be reaching astronomical heights, and the president took pains to justify that enormous cost by linking it to the horrors of 9/11 and to the “war on terror.” He pledged that “we will do whatever it takes to keep our nation strong, to keep the peace, and to keep the American people secure,” clearly implying that such payoffs would accrue from the expenditures and other measures that the act authorizes.
Although the public may appreciate that $401.3 billion is a great deal of money, few citizens realize that it is only part of the total bill for defense. Lodged elsewhere in the budget, other lines identify funding that serves defense purposes just as surely as -- sometimes even more surely than -- the money allocated to the Department of Defense (DoD). On occasion, commentators take note of some of these additional defense-related budget items, such as the nuclear-weapons activities of the Department of Energy (DoE), but many such items, including some extremely large ones, remain generally unrecognized.
Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), many observers probably would agree that its budget ought to be included in any complete accounting of defense costs. After all, the homeland is what most of us want the government to defend in the first place.
Many other agencies, such as the Department of Justice and the Department of Transportation, also spend money in pursuit of homeland security. According to the government's budget documents (Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2004, Table S-5), in fiscal year 2002, all such agencies together added approximately 50 percent to the amount spent on homeland security by the agencies later incorporated into the DHS.
Much of the budget for the Department of State and for international assistance programs ought to be classified as defense-related, too. In this case, the money serves to buy off potential enemies and to reward friendly governments who assist U.S. efforts to abate perceived threats. A great deal of U.S. foreign aid, currently more than $4 billion annually, takes the form of “foreign military financing,” and even funds placed under the rubric of economic development may serve defense-related purposes indirectly.
Continue for full story: http://www.independent.org/tii/news/031222Higgs.html
60 Talking Points
For Immediate Release, January 17, 2004
Presidential Election Talking Points for All Concerned Americans
(Abbreviated Version)
For the fully sourced 26 page free version of these Talking Points, please email uxorpress@usa.com.
A public service project initiated by Bob Zimmerman, author of:
The American Challenge: Twenty-One Winning Strategies for the 21st Century.
www.TheAmericanChallenge.com, or BobZimmerman@usa.com.
Contact for author queries is Bobbi Pallas at 415-383-8481.
The Bush Record Exposed:
Nothing but Lies, Deceptions, and Crimes against Humanity
1. The Bush War of Terror is judged “unfocused,” and the Bush decision to
invade Iraq is dubbed a disastrous “strategic error.”
- Source: U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute, December 2003.
2. Bush Knew: He deliberately and repeatedly lied to us about 9/11; he was told 9/11 was imminent; and, instead of protecting us, he slept at the helm;
the record clearly shows he could and should have prevented 9/11.
3. Bush Knew: He deliberately and repeatedly lied to us about Iraqi WMD.
4. Bush Knows: He has destroyed more American jobs than Herbert Hoover.
5. Bush Knows: He seeks to place WMD in space and on Mars.
6. Bush lied to us and then used our soldiers as re-election propaganda props.
7. Bush refuses to cooperate with the official 9/11 investigating commission.
8. Bush actions upon learning of the 9/11 attack are highly suspect.
9. Bush deliberately stonewalls the families of the victims of 9/11.
10. Bush concern for America’s national security and claims about exporting
democracy to Iraq are entirely bogus.
11. Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says Bush is a failed president.
12. Bush is obstructing justice in the criminal investigation of the White House.
13. Bush is busily installing an anti-democratic, fascist, neocon agenda.
14. Bush policies and programs favor only wealthy special interest groups.
15. Bush seeks to fool seniors and to destroy Social Security and Medicare.
16. Bush is anti-choice, anti-women’s rights, anti-civil rights, anti-human rights, anti-worker rights, and approaches environmental issues with disdain.
17. Bush is pursuing an ugly policy of economic class warfare in America.
18. Bush has repeatedly looted the U.S. Treasury to enrich his wealthy friends.
19. Bush tax cuts are nothing but an ugly scam on working families and retirees.
20. Bush, with a smirk on his face, is waging war on America’s children.
21. Bush is contributing to the spread of AIDS amongst our youth.
22. Bush has failed to provide promised federal funding to fight global AIDS.
23. Bush is deliberately waging war on the environment.
24. Bush foreign policy is deliberately creating global instability.
25. Bush deliberately spreads hatred, fear, and loathing in America.
26. Bush is deliberately rescinding the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
27. Bush war talk is nothing but schoolyard bullyboy arrogance.
28. Bush has failed to capture Osama bin Laden and defeat al Qaeda.
29. Bush, immediately after 9/11, helped the bin Laden family, and numerous
other Saudi financiers of terror flee America.
30. Bush deliberately undercuts our soldiers and veterans by slashing veteran’s benefits and by treating our soldiers as slaves.
31. Bush is highly antagonistic to working people and their unions.
32. Bush elective wars are ungodly and un-Christian.
33. Bush federal deficits (trillions of dollars) are a catastrophic blunder.
34. Bush is deliberately starving state and local governments.
35. Bush favors political fundraising over attending the funerals of the
soldiers who died in Iraq.
36. Bush deserted from the military when the U.S. was at war in Vietnam.
37. Bush as lord high executioner.
38. Bush anti-science policies are retarding scientific research.
39. Bush stole one election; is he planning to steal another?
40. Bush has lost his self-proclaimed global war of terror.
41. Bush war spending is counterproductive and bankrupting America.
42. Bush will say and do anything to avoid defeat in 2004.
43. Bush seeks to crush dissent in America # 1 (USA Patriot Act).
44. Bush seeks to crush dissent in America # 2 (First Amendment).
45. Bush sends U.S. reserve units into action without proper equipment.
46. Bush has appointed a cabinet of, by, and for the wealthy.
47. Bush spends big for bombs while slashing vital programs for the needy.
48. Bush denies access to necessary medical care to millions of Americans.
49. Bush is deliberately destroying America’s middle-income families.
50. Bush wants full control of what is left of our free press.
51. Bush has set out to destroy the separation of church and state.
52. Bush regularly violates international law; he and others that lied to us about the reasons for invading Iraq could be tried as war criminals.
53. Bush has failed to prosecute most giant corporate crime.
54. Bush has an energy bill that only energizes energy company profits.
55. Bush rigged the California gubernatorial recall election.
56. Bush, a rugged individualist, or a military deserter, and a spoiled brat?
57. Bush prefers rebuilding Iraq to rebuilding America.
58. Bush friends stuff their pockets with staggering war profits.
59. Bush appoints judges for the sole purpose of furthering neocon interests.
60. Bush White House secrecy exceeds all reasonable bounds.
January 16, 2004
Exploiting MLK's Grave
BUSH EXPLOITS MLK'S GRAVE FOR POLITICAL FUNDRAISER
By the staff of MoveOn.org
The MisLeader
On last year's Martin Luther King Day, President Bush eloquently honored the
memory of Dr. King, saying "I believe [in the] power of his words, the clarity of his vision and the courage of his leadership." This year,however, instead of honoring the legacy of Dr. King, President Bush has decided to use Martin Luther King Day as tool to force the federal government to subsidize a fundraising trip for his re-election campaign.
The New York Times reports that the President "hastily planned" a visit to
Dr. King's grave, and then will immediately go to "a $2,000-a-person fundraiser in Atlanta." Even though Bush may spend the majority of his time
hobnobbing with donors at the fundraiser, because he will briefly visit Dr. King's grave, he is allowed to deem the entire trip "official" and then bill
taxpayers for portions of the huge cost of hotel rooms, rental cars, security, and travel. And those are no small costs - the Washington Post notes that Air Force One alone costs $57,000 an hour to operate.
Civil rights leaders are outraged at the blatant exploitation of Dr. King's
birthday as a tool to force taxpayers to bankroll a political fundraiser.
Rev. Timothy McDonald, an organizer of Atlanta's Martin Luther King Day
celebrations said, "It's the epitome of insult. He's really coming here for
the fundraiser. The King wreath was an afterthought." Despite Bush's platitudes about Dr. King's legacy, he is so focused on his fundraiser -- and
so neglectful of the Martin Luther King Day celebrations -- that he has done
little to prevent his visit's security detail from limiting access to a historic black church where a civil rights symposium will be taking place.
In response to Bush's visit, protestors are marching "with bullhorns, signs
and thumping drums, shouting for the president to stay away." They say that
on top of Bush using Dr. King's grave as pretext for a fundraiser, his policies have directly insulted Dr. King's memory. As Rev. Raphael Allen said, "His administration has never supported anything to help the poor, education, or children. It's all about isolationism and greed for the upper class. That's not promoting the legacy of Dr. King."
Read the Mis-Lead -->
http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1266507&l=14725
Don't just recall beef!
Recall the Mad Cowboy
The Bush administration's lack of attention to meat safety regulations has left
the door wide open for mad cow disease to enter this country, and several cows
have potentially been tainted by the disease. Meat is being recalled in 13
states and over 100 cows have been destroyed.
President Bush has benefited from his close ties to the meat industry. The livestock industry gave him over $500,000 during his first election campaign, and has chipped in another $250,000 this election cycle. Meat processing companies dumped over $75,000 into the Bush campaign in 2000, and have followed that with another $40,000 this cycle. [This doesn't include donations from individuals in the meat industry as well as donations given in the names of employees who might not have donated had their employers not coerced them to allow the donation in their names. -v] [Emphasis added. -v]
On several occasions since Bush took office, Congressional Democrats introduced provisions demanding the increased inspection of meat, only to have them shot down by their conservative counterparts. As you know, we think there is something else that needs to be recalled along with American meat, so we're asking you to help us Recall the Mad Cowboy.
We're starting a new campaign to Recall the Mad Cowboy. Please go to our Bush Recall website (www.bushrecall.org) and sign the new petition, as well as forward this along to all of your friends. At the website, you can find background information about our mad cowboy on the Daily Reality Check column.
We also thought you might enjoy the fact that right-wing strategist Paul Weyrich
has targeted BushRecall.org's treasurer and co-founder Mike Lux as someone to "look out for." We couldn't be more proud.
Mr. Weyrich will be dismayed to learn that the BushRecall.org website is looking
to expand so that we may bring you more in-depth information on this, and many other issues we know are important to you.
Help us raise money to make right-wingers like Weyrich even more mad, money that will help us organize more of the campaigns and projects like the ones you've already seen -- The Lord of the Right Wing video and the Daily Reality Check column.
Please contribute to BushRecall.org, a project of the Fair and Balanced PAC.
Paid for by the Fair and Balanced PAC, www.bushrecall.org, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
January 14, 2004
Politics in the lab hits US scientific integrity
Dubya's handlers are pushin' the Kennedyesque "vision thing" for the election season. Spare us! He's already made such a mess down here, he's ready for another Star Wars project and a hiding place for himself. For someone whose vision didn't even extend to an exit strategy in Iraq, today's moon speech was laughable--especially in light of his reputation with the sciences!
Politics in the lab hits US scientific integrity
By Barton Reppert
Christian Science Monitor
GAITHERSBURG, MD. – In theory, science is supposed to be cold, analytical, dispassionate -- and studiously apolitical. But in the real world of competing demands for federal research dollars, savvy scientists of all disciplines -- from cognitive psychologists running rats through mazes to nuclear physicists operating massive particle accelerators -- recognize that a certain amount of political meddling in their research by policymakers in the executive branch and Congress is to be expected.
However, there are limits -- limits the Bush administration has frequently disregarded by imposing stringent political controls on a broad variety of federal scientific programs and activities. This has raised acute concern in the American scientific community that the administration's drive to stamp its conservative values on science isn't just affecting policy decisions, but undermining the integrity of the US research infrastructure itself. [Emphasis added. -v]
Please continue:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0106/p11s02-coop.html?
entryBottomStory
National Security Threat- Bush Economy
Thanks to the enormous trade and budget deficits run up by the Bush administration, the U.S. economy is dangerously dependent on foreign investors, especially China. Ian Williams provides some sobering information in a recent article for Alternet:!
Indeed, the United States' position is worse than it looks since it's problems run deeper than the national level. Thanks to a federal system of government, much of the money that central governments control in other countries is spent in this country by state, county and city governments. And they are all facing growing deficits. It all adds up to a fiscal nightmare.
There are few reasons in the long run for foreigners to want to put their money in a rapidly depreciating currency that pays lousy interest rates. What's more, the Bush foreign policy doesn't exactly inspire confidence. The more the U.S. government acts as a solo rogue elephant in world affairs and disregards international law, the less secure foreign investors will be that they can get their money back on demand. There has already been an outflow of Arab money as the Sheikhs worry that between John Ashcroft and ambulance-chasing lawyers, their holdings can be easily frozen or confiscated.
And if the investors all get the jitters together, the U.S. will experience a snowball effect, similar to the meltdown in South East Asia and Argentina.
A run on the bank is a real possibility, and, as we know, these get out of control. It led to breadlines in Buenos Aires recently, and our very own Great Crash of 1929.
Read the full story at Alternet:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17547
January 12, 2004
Happy New Year??
Where's the evidence . . . the smoking gun, so to speak, that this year will be happy?
Three commentaries from Online Journal tell it like it is!
(And we deserve better than this.)
Random Thoughts: 2003
By W. David Jenkins III
January 10, 2004—Okay, 'fess up. Does anybody else feel totally beat up? Kind of like the feeling of waking up with the hangover from Hell only to have some idiot drop a box of sledge-hammers on your head. I remember hearing that you should never challenge "worse." Never say to yourself, "Oh man, things can't get worse" because worse has a way of crawling up onto your lap and—with a big smile on its face—smacking you over the head with an iron skillet.
Quail hunting in the backwoods
By Teresa Simon-Noble
January 10, 2004—Quail, my friend Claudette tells me, is an innocent, fragile, trusting bird.
Out in the backwoods of Texas on New Year's Day 2004, the Enchanted Prince and his proud as a peacock that my son is President of the United States, father, George Herbert Walker Bush, hunt for quail on the enchanted land of a family friend who is related to a Texas engineering and construction company that many years ago became part of Halliburton—the firm which has received untold, overgrown, oversized, disproportionate favors from the Bush administration in the so called reconstruction of Iraq.
Emerging from said enchanted forest to face an enthralled press core, where the only mortal danger lurking about was the one the Prodigious (don't get in my way or your life will pay) Father and his Enchanted Prince posed to any poor, defenseless quail, unlucky enough to make its living in those woods, Splendid Son said he thought he shot five quail.
"I'm not that good of a shot," he said, then, flaunted for the press corps and in the face of all of the families he has temporarily or forever disjoined with his takeover of Iraq, "but it was a lot of fun. It's a good way to start the New Year—outdoors [and] with my dad."
Outdoors in America these days is filled with the many empty places of mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, aunts, and uncles, nieces, who have died or are fighting in Iraq for Bush's oil and for the establishment of his New American Century.
I want to believe
By Norma Sherry
January 10, 2004—It's a new year: 2004. A time to reflect on all that's past and a time to be filled with the hope of all that's new. Try as I might, though, I find it very difficult to imagine that this new year, this the fourth year in the new millennium holds any more promise than the years that came before.
1,000 Reasons
TooManyReasons.com is proud to recognize another great website with a similar name and a similar outlook.
http://www.thousandreasons.org/
This site is dedicated to "Relentlessly Documenting the Failures of the Bush Administration." At this site, you view a list of the U.S. Soliders killed in Iraq, subscribe to a "Reason of the Day" news service, look up specific topics,
view the latest polls, and install an XML/RSS newsfeed.
This is an amazing web resource.
Lies! Damned Lies!
From Nora, at ACT
The totality is -- the Prime Minister lied
By Boris Johnson
The Telegraph, 8 January
Right. OK then! Now I get it (slap forehead). How could I have been so slow on the uptake? I understood until yesterday that the Prime Minister had been caught out in a great big fat steaming smoking-pants lie. I thought it was clear to the meanest intelligence that Tony Blair had authorised the naming of poor Dr David Kelly to the media, and then pretended otherwise.
But it turns out that we haven't been paying enough attention to the "totality" of what he said. No, no, he kept saying yesterday, as he wriggled before Michael Howard like a kebabbed witchetty grub. Only the "totality" is operative, said Blair, irresistibly recalling the performance of Nixon's spokesman during Watergate. Well, let us indeed examine the totality of the Prime Minister's words and deeds, and discover how we came by this misunderstanding. They total up to quite a lot ...
In the 48 hours before Dr Kelly's name was released to the media, the Prime Minister chaired four meetings on the business of how to do just that, and those meetings lasted several hours. As Sir Kevin Tebbit, the Permanent Secretary at the MoD, revealed to the Hutton Inquiry, "a policy decision on that matter had not been taken until the Prime Minister's meeting on Tuesday, July 8."
And yet that is a fact that Mr Blair chose to try to conceal. Flying to Hong Kong a few days after Dr Kelly's death, he was asked directly: "Did you authorise anyone in Downing Street, or the MoD, to release David Kelly's name?" He replied: "Emphatically not." He was asked: "Why did you authorise the naming of David Kelly?" He replied: "That is completely untrue."
Yesterday, in a feat of Clintonian pretzel-words, he told us that, in order to understand this flagrant inconsistency, we had to look at the "totality" of his words, because he also said that he did not authorise the "leaking" of the name. So he accepts that he authorised the "naming", but not the "leaking"?
That is a distinction without a difference. He authorised and orchestrated a strategy to put Kelly's name out, and panicked when the lights came on. He was shocked and appalled by the death, and fearful, of course, for his political skin.
The PM lied, and that is the totality of the matter.
==0==0==0==
US calls off search for weapons of mass destruction
Irish Times, 9 January
The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn a 400-member military team it sent to Baghdad to scour Iraq for evidence of unconventional weapons, write Conor O'Clery in New York & Deaglán de Bréadún in Dublin.
The move indicates that the US does not now expect to find illegal weapons, the main reason given by President Bush for the war last year that toppled Saddam Hussein.
At the same time, a prestigious Washington-based research foundation, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has published a scathing report on President Bush's case for war.
Source
Carnegie group says Bush made wrong claims on WMD
==0==0==0==
Powell Admits No Hard Proof in Linking Iraq to Al Qaeda
New York Times, 9 January
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 -- Secretary of State Colin L. Powell conceded Thursday that despite his assertions to the United Nations last year, he had no "smoking gun" proof of a link between the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and terrorists of Al Qaeda.
"I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection," Mr. Powell said, in response to a question at a news conference. "But I think the possibility of such connections did exist, and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did."
Mr. Powell's remarks on Thursday were a stark admission that there is no definitive evidence to back up administration statements and insinuations that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda, the acknowledged authors of the Sept. 11 attacks. Although President Bush finally acknowledged in September that there was no known connection between Mr. Hussein and the attacks, the impression of a link in the public mind has become widely accepted — and something administration officials have done little to discourage." [My emphasis - N]
WHat Really Happened?
A "FLASHBACK' from WHATREALLYHAPPENED.COM
November 17, 2003 issue
Copyright 2003 The American Conservative
[You and me both! I never thought I'd reprint from a conservative
source either! But it's a definite MUST READ! LOL! -v]
Most Favored Democracy
The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies goes on offense.
By Daniel McCarthy
The images on the screen show American flags on fire, children dressed as suicide bombers, Saddam Hussein triumphantly addressing a throng of Iraqis, and grainy footage of the destruction wrought by a terrorist attack. These arresting pictures and the voice-over narration tell viewers that the war in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and al-Qaeda's attacks against the United States are all part of a larger war that Israel and the U.S. must fight together.
Congressmen and senators, White House aides and Pentagon officials, lobbyists and journalists are seeing the ad, which has been running on cable television in the Washington D.C., area. It is just one tactic used by an aggressive new neoconservative think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), to shape American thinking on war, terrorism, and the Middle East. The Foundation is only two years old, but already the group is making its influence felt on the nation's policymakers.
In early 2001, a tightly knit group of billionaire philanthropists conceived of a plan to win American sympathy for Israel's response to the Palestinian intifada. They believed that the Palestinian cause was finding too much support within crucial segments of the American public, particularly within the media and on college campuses, so they set up an organization, Emet: An Educational Initiative, Inc., to offer Israel the kind of PR that the Israeli government seemed unable to provide itself.
At first, Emet floundered, without an executive director or a well-defined mission. But that changed after Sept. 11, and Emet changed too, into what is now the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. The name is different, but the goal of influencing America's opinion-forming classes remains.
CONTINUE, by all means!
January 11, 2004
Kevin Phillips on House of Bush
In the latest Rolling Stone magazine, there's an excellent article on Kevin Phillips, who just wrote a book entitled "American Dynasty." Phillips served as the chief political strategist for Richard Nixon in 1968, and, in his book "The Emerging Republican Majority," he formulated the "southern strategy" that helped hand the White House to the GOP for a generation. As it turns out, Mr. Phillips' view of the Republican party has changed considerably since 1968.
Here's an excerpt:
In his new book American Dynasty, Phillips lays out his almost visceral distaste for what he calls "the politics of deceit in the House of Bush," accusing the administration of dishonesty and secrecy that would make Tricky Dick blush. He traces the course of Bush's family over the past 100 years, detailing how they sought influence "in the back corridors" of the oil and defense industries, investment banking and the intelligence establishment. Elites, not elections, put Bush in power. "I'm not talking about ordinary lack of business ethics or financial corruption," says Phillips, who recently registered as an Independent for the first time. "Four generations of building toward dynasty have infused the Bush family's hunger for power and practices of crony capitalism with a moral arrogance and backstage disregard of the democratic and republican traditions of the U.S. government." As a result, he says, "deceit and disinformation have become Bush political hallmarks."
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT:
http://www.rollingstone.com/features/nationalaffairs/featuregen.asp?pid=2751
January 10, 2004
French Investigate VP Cheney Bribery Charge
From the TomPaine.com blog.
The French, our mortal enemy—if you believe Richard Perle's new book— is investigating Vice President Dick Cheney for bribery. You won't read about it stateside, but French law enforcement authorities believe Cheney had a role in a massive bribery scandal during his time as CEO of Halliburton. Le Figaro, one of France's biggest (and most conservative) newspapers, reports "an investigative judge is looking into allegations of corruption during construction of a natural gas complex in Nigeria by Halliburton and" a French oil company.
If he were charged, it would be under one of the international laws in one of the rare international treaties we still belong to, meaning the consequences could be very real.
READ ALL ABOUT IT AT:
http://irak.figaro.net/enjeux/20030402.FIG0639.html
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20040112&s=ireland
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/21/1071941598014.html
January 09, 2004
Former Treasury Secretary O'Neill on his ex-boss
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill likened President Bush at Cabinet meetings to "a blind man in a room full of deaf people," according to excerpts Friday from a CBS interview.
O'Neill, who was fired by Bush in December 2002, also said the president did not ask him a single question during their first one-on-one meeting, which lasted an hour.
"As I recall it was just a monologue," he told CBS' "60 Minutes," which will broadcast the entire interview Sunday.
In making the blind man analogy, O'Neill told CBS his ex-boss did not encourage a free flow of ideas or open debate.
READ SOME MORE NEWS, OK?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3315-2004Jan9.html
http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2004/01/09/rtr1204904.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107899,00.html
THE INSANITY RAGES ON!
There are two sure signs of insanity. One is doing
something the same way over and over expecting
a different result. The other is saying "I'm all right,
the WORLD'S all wrong!" --v
US Rejects IMF Warning that Debts Could Affect Global Economy
By Barry Wood, Washington
Voice of America News
08 Jan 2004, 20:52 UTC
The U.S. Treasury Department Thursday rejected a warning from the International Monetary Fund that the huge American trade and budget deficits could pose a risk to the global economy. {Oh? Just flat out rejected a warning from the IMF, eh? Well, that's just fine. -v}
A Treasury spokesman dismisses the IMF report as breathless hyperbole. {And if there's anything we've learned to recognize, it's breathless hyperbole! -v}The IMF says the $500 billion U.S. fiscal deficit combined with a $135 billion trade deficit could undermine the world recovery by pushing the dollar lower and interest rates higher. {Yeah? So? -v}
Treasury Secretary John Snow acknowledged Wednesday that the growing fiscal deficit is a problem. But he promised to cut the deficit by half within five years. {Uh oh! More tax cuts for the rich! -v} Mr. Snow outlined several reasons why the deficit is higher than anticipated.
"The war in Iraq: It is a one-time thing. {Yep. A one-time, 20+ year, $300 billion+ "thing." -v} But it had to be dealt with. Afghanistan had to be dealt with," he said. "But they created a bulge in [government] spending. And then we had the tax reductions." {Du-uh! -v}
The IMF has for a long time been worried about the burgeoning U.S. trade deficit. Its concern about the U.S. fiscal deficit is more recent, as the United States went from having a budget surplus in 2000 to having a very large deficit just three years later.
Singer Rickie Lee Jones Speaks Out
American singer Rickie Lee Jones has attacked the policies of the Bush administration on her latest record - despite the potential risk to her career.
Lee Jones took the music world by storm in the late 1970s when her self-titled debut album won best newcomer award at the Grammys.
But despite having vowed to stay away from politics, her latest album, The Evening Of My Best Day, features many political protest songs that directly criticise current US policy.
"To address George Bush and his presidency is a departure from my usual point of view," Lee Jones told BBC World Service's Everywoman programme.
"I usually reflect things totally internally. But I think what is happening in America is so disturbing to me, it becomes internal.
"You can't not address it."
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/music/3370359.stm
Rickie Lee Jones also created a website titled "FURNITURE FOR THE PEOPLE- A web community working to bring people together for peace."
http://www.furnitureforthepeople.com/
January 07, 2004
The truth WILL out! Say Hallelujah!
From Lisa at ACT:
President Bush Served Friday With Personal 9-11 RICO Complaint
[Note: TomFlocco.com is apparently being barraged with hits. The front page is loading very slowly, and the permalink to the full story (also above) gives a quota-related error message. If you have trouble getting through, try this Information Clearinghouse link
U.S. media blackout continues as New Hampshire widow’s attorney also served multiple government officials and moved to examine new evidence while preparing subpoenas and written interrogatories for individual depositions. This, as corporate media execs continue to withhold important stories about presidential foreknowledge of attacks, military stand-down, and evidence of controlled demolition of third WTC Building 7, containing critical Securities and Exchange Commission corporate fraud investigation documents.
by Tom Flocco
PHILADELPHIA -- January 6, 2003 [sic? I hope they meant
Among those served besides the President, were Vice-President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet, National Security Advisor Dr. Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta,
***
Berg told TomFlocco.com "the multiple summonses and complaints were filed last week in Philadelphia; and they require an answer within 60 days," adding "we feel confident that we'll be successful, and that the evidence in this case is so strong, it will lead to the end of the Bush presidency." ... [Emphasis
MoveOn for the Truth- the TV ads
MoveOn.org has recently wrapped up their "Bush in 30 Seconds" political TV ad contest. The intension of this contest was to find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies. Amateur and professional filmmakers alike joined in this this ambitious cinematic effort to expose the reckless policies of the president. Expecting a few hundred entries, the MoveOn folks were overwhelmed by approximately 1,500 different TV clips. After sorting through the collection, elmimating the clips that violated F.E.C. regulations, there were still over 1,000 clips to chose from.
After approximately 2-3 weeks of voting by the general public, and a group of celebrity judges that included Jack Black, Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Gus Van Sant, Michael Stipe, Margaret Cho, and Moby, 15 finalists were chosen. The big winner of this contestant will be announced at a special awards ceremony in New York on January 12th, with a broadcast premiere to take place the same week as President Bush's annual state of the union address. You can see the results of this contest at:
http://www.bushin30seconds.org/
Soon after the contest ended, there was a major stink from the Republican National Committee and the Drudge Report, condemning two commercials that dared to compare George W. Bush with Adolph Hitler. It didn't matter that neither advertisement was voted as one of the 15 finalists. All that mattered was that the Republicans were offended, and they wanted an apology for irresponsible behavior. Wes Boyd, one of the principals of MoveOn, released a statement that clarified what the contest was all about, pointing out that submissions did constitute endorsement or sponsorship by the MoveOn organization.
With a tip of the hat to BushOut.TV for the cross-link, LiberalOasis points out the true motivation of the RNC attacks against MoveOn.
And what about the "Bush-Hitler-Nazi" connection? Both men rose to the height of their powers after terrorist attacks on certain public buildings. Bush’s grandfather was the president of bank prosecuted by the U.S. government in 1942 for dealing with the Nazis under the “Trading with the Enemy Act. There’s a lot of other other really interesting connections.
Just do a Google search. You’d be amazed! Some of it is even true!
Bush Hater's Handbook
The Bush-Hater's Handbook: A Guide to the Most Appalling Presidency of the Past 100 Years, recently released by Nation Books, is a godsend to those looking for a concise, mordantly entertaining overview of the Bush record, or for those wanting to arm themselves with facts and figures as we head into the presidential election year. It's also the perfect gift for that certain, special Bush-hater--or for a Bush-lover who could still be rescued from the realms of outer darkness.
Arranged alphabetically by topic, Huberman summarizes, details, and bewails all of the more important Bush Administration outrages, scandals and deceits. The Bush-Haters Handbook has already sold more than 10,000 copies in its first month in the bookstores.
As Bob Fertik, co-founder of Democrats.com says: "Bush-hating is a demanding vocation. Beginners simply hate Bush's character--ignorant, warmongering, and contemptuous of those who dare to question him. Intermediates cite Bush's theft of the presidency, turning a $5 trillion surplus into a $5 trillion deficit, destroying 3 million jobs, and waging a war of lies in Iraq. But advanced Bush-haters need an in-depth understanding of the devastation Bush has wrought at home and abroad. From AIDS to the 'War on Terrorism,' from Ashcroft to welfare 'reform,' there is no better guide to Bush's reign of horror than The Bush-Hater's Handbook."
And check out the Nation Books site for all current titles:
January 01, 2004
A Resolution for 2004
One man made a new year’s resolution to work actively to elect a better president. You can read all about it at EP-RANTS! (the blog)