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POEM: UTOPIA- .............ABOUT NOUTOPIA ................ARCHIVES
..............QUOTES
Sunday-
6/22/03
A WEALTHY MAN MAKES SENSE
Thanks
to Rittenhouse
Review
for its permalink to this item. In it
Warren Buffet (one of the nation's richest) say no to Bush's
tax cuts.
GRASPING AT STRAWS &
SMOKING GUNS
You know
those biolab trailers, the ones found in Iraq, the ones the president
referred to when he said on May 30th, "For those who say
we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons,
they're wrong. We found them," ...you know, those?
Well according to an article in the Village Voice, all the incriminating
features sited by the CIA to backup the "smoking gun"
theory can be found in similar biolabs operating right here in
the U.S.A.
What the CIA said was, "Coalition experts on fermentation
and systems engineering examined the trailer found in late April
and have been unable to identify any legitimate industrial use
... that would justify the effort and expense of a mobile production
capability."
As especially questionable they cited 1. an exhaust trap 2. a
new coat of paint 3. and the presence of something "caustic".
I think we can eliminate the coat of paint. We just painted our
bedroom, and I swear to you it's not a biolab. As for the other
two (the VV again):
|
"Exhaust
traps are not uncommon in biofacilities—even mobile (and
innocent) ones.
Take, for
instance, one mobile bioreactor in use at Savannah River in South
Carolina, has an optional "noxious gas absorber," or
vapor trap. Or is this a secret Department of Defense biowarfare
operation?"
...and what about the caustic stuff?
"They could have just called it sodium or potassium hydroxide,
the common scientific names for compounds found in every lab
in existence." |
|
Call Tom Ridge, the B.S. level is rising exponentially. The Homeland
is being threatened from within!
^
TOP
THE IRAQ WAR: SECOND
WAVE
After sending in the
troops to clear the way the second wave is hitting the streets
of Iraq in the form of U.S. Corporations. Dick Cheney's Halliburton
is there along with Bechtel, and now Molly
Ivins reports, "..our old friends at WorldCom -- perpetrator
of the largest accounting fraud in American history," have
hit the ground running.
Not wanting to be accused by
it's major constituency of not playing favorites, the corporate
suck-ups of the executive branch (which is everybody but the
White House janitors) gave, "WorldCom (the) contract without
competitive bidding," says Ms. Ivins. She points out that
this angered, "... rival companies AT&T, Sprint, etc.,
which actually have experience in building wireless networks,
according to AP. A WorldCom spokesman 'also stressed the company's
deep, overall relationship with the U.S. military and government.'
"
Let's play that again: deep, overall relationship with the
U.S. military and government. It's a love goddam love fest.
MASTERS
OF WAR DEPARTMENT
Continuing
her commentary, my favorite columnists goes on, "Among those
(making) a good thing out of the Iraq war is Richard Perle of
the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. According to the Los Angeles
Times, last February Perle and the board received a classified
briefing on the potential for conflict in Iraq and North Korea,
including information on new communications networks.
" 'Three
weeks later, the then-chairman of the board, Richard N. Perle,
offered a briefing of his own at an investment seminar on ways
to profit from possible conflicts with both countries,' wrote
reporters Ken Silverstein and Chuck Neubauer."
Let's play that again: Perle gets a classified briefing on
a possible upcoming conflict in Iraq and North Korea and three
weeks later he gives an investment seminar on how to profit from
wars with both countries.
And this is OK with the president?! The Pentagon advisor
is not thrown out on his ass for having a personal interest in
going to war? --well, actually they slapped his pinky. Perle
had to relinquish his post as chairman of the Defense Policy
Board. But he's still on the board advising away.
Thank's Bob Dylan for having the perfect thing to say about such
things:
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build the big bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
. |
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But what about Iraq Viceroy,
Paul Bremmer? Thanks for asking. Bremer's company is Crisis Consulting
Practice, set up after 9/11 to advise multinationals on how to
handle terrorism.
Molly quotes a report from The Nation that says, "Many have
pointed out that Bremer is no expert on Iraqi politics. But that
was never the point. He is an expert at profiting from the war
on terror and at helping U.S. multinationals make money in far-off
places where they are unpopular and unwelcome. In other words,
he's the perfect man for the job."
A president who actually was a real statesman said, "I don't
want to see a single war millionaire created in the United States
as a result of this world disaster." Franklin Roosevelt
(Democrat) said that during WW II. Too bad Bush is taking his
lead from the likes of Richard Perle.
^
TOP
Saturday-
6/21/03
HEAVY BUT WORTHWHILE
Alterman's
Altercation serves up some heavier
fare today, but it's worth the time. Check out the stuff by Jurgen
Habermas especially (see quote at top of NoUtopia
home page).
ALSO WORTH THE TRIP
...to Josh Marshall's
Talking Points that
is.
Marshall talks about the bogus report of Iraq's purchase of nuclear
materials (the Niger uranium sale) that G.W. included in his
State of the Union address. "...the key piece of information,"
he notes, "comes from the former US ambassador to Niger
who visited the country and came back with clear and multiple
evidence that the whole story was bogus." Marshall reports
that, "The CIA circulated the ambassador's report to the
vice president's office, the ambassador confirms to TNR. But,
after a British dossier was released in September detailing the
purported uranium purchase, administration officials began citing
it anyway, culminating in its inclusion in the State of the Union.
'They knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie,' the former ambassador
tells TNR. 'They were unpersuasive about aluminum tubes and added
this to make their case more persuasive.' "
NEW POLICY
For this administration lies are the coin of the realm, and with
such cash it continues to purchase power. It's actually a new
national doublespeak policy called Fiduciary Mendacity (trust
in lies)--which should be a contradiction in terms, but
with this policy, contradictions in terms are not only allowed,
they are the basic framework of the whole edifice. The policy
seems to be very effective so far.
My prediction is that if Fiduciary Mendacity really becomes
widespread, eventually nobody will be able to trust anybody.
And when nobody can trust anybody, somebody always comes along
to fill the vacuum between everybody with something nobody wants
except, of course, everybody who happens to be Somebody at the
moment the policy is set in stone. When that happens (if history
is any clue) everybody who's not Somebody will discover to their
dismay that they really are nobody. This happened in Europe,
coincidentally, around the time of WW II.
"Do not think you'll be forever blessed. Hold out for the
possibility that you could be left holding the bag and vote accordingly."
Thus saith the Lord.
THE
FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE AND TOBY KEITH RIDE OFF INTO
THE SUNSET WITH A NEOCON MOB OF HUMPTY DUMPTIES
I was talking about an
impending U.S. fiscal
trainwreck of few days ago.
This is the scene in the old movie where a huge and powerful,
lumbering locomotive --the Cannonball Patriot or something--
careens helplessly downgrade into a curve with busted brakes.
But not before the engineer and all his loyal crew have jumped
ship after stealing the bullion from the Wells Fargo car, rolling
down an embankment into a waiting limousine,  and
driving off into the sunset singing patriotic songs in harmony
with the Four
Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Toby
Keith (they were definitely not singing with the Dixie
Chicks ).
But I'm not the only one wrestling with God over the prospects.
Writer Jack Beatty is having the same conversation with himself
and anyone who'll listen. He's
having it in this month's Atlantic.
Beatty points to a study prepared by the Bush Treasury which
provides a scary preview. It predicts that the U.S. faces chronic
budget deficits of at least $44,200 billion— the chasm between
revenue and outlays promised to baby-boom retirees. To quote
The Financial Times, which obtained a copy of the study last
week, "The study's analysis of future deficits dwarfs previous
estimates of the financial challenge facing Washington. It is
roughly equivalent to 10 times the publicly held national debt,
four times U.S. economic output or more than 94 percent of all
U.S. household assets."
If you ran your household this way you'd be called reckless and
irresponsible, or a fool, and no bank would touch you with a
ten foot pole. Why all-of-a-sudden is a stupendous deficit a
beautiful thing to behold? Have we stepped into a looking-glass?
Do things suddenly mean only what Republican Humpty Dumpties
say they mean? I don't know about jumping into a mirror, but
we've definitely fallen into a deep and murky hole --and you
know what? It's late, it's late...
^
TOP
Friday
6/20/01
NATIONAL SECURITY MAN
BOLTS
What would lead an apparently
straight-arrow top white-house national security advisor to quit
his job in the middle of a terrorist threat?
 "Things were
dicey," said Rand Beers, recalling (a) stack of classified
reports about plots to shoot, bomb, burn and poison Americans.
He stared at the color-coded threats for five minutes. Then he
called his wife: I'm quitting."
Not only did he quit, but he took a job as national security
advisor for John Kerry. As Washington Post writer Laura Blumenfeld
observes, "All of which points to a question: What does
this intelligence insider know?"
Beers was having trouble squaring what his boss was saying with
what his boss was doing. "The administration wasn't matching
its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism. They're making
us less secure, not more secure," he said. He went on, "As
an insider, I saw the things that weren't being done. And the
longer I sat and watched, the more concerned I became, until
I got up and walked out."
Find out here
more about why this unlikely insurgent abruptly left the Bush
camp to advise a Democratic candidate.
"Counter-terrorism is like a team sport. . . . There has
to be offense and defense," says Rand Beers. "The Bush
administration is primarily offense."
After two years of bluster, lies,
and belligerence, why am I not surprised.
^
TOP
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE ESSENTIAL
HUMAN GREED
Apparently
things are not great in California. The weather's still great,
as far as I know, but the climate's getting as bad there as it
is across the country. Bad air. It's like a temperature inversion,
but instead of captured smog we've got fetid conservative thought
stacked to the stratosphere. That along with hydrocarbon pollution
and George Bush's wonton recklessness might just do what Lenin
and Nikita Kruschev could not...bury us, that is.
I mentioned Tuesday
that I received word from an old shipmate that the "natives
were restless" in the Golden State. That was how he put
it. It seems that Republicans who lost the Governorship to Grey
Davis last time around are looking to circumvent another election.
Their tactics are different than they were in Florida in 2000,
but don't count on U.S. media to give you the straight scoop
on what's up.
In Florida Republicans successfully conspired to purge
voting roles of black voters. This, along with a right-bending Supreme
Court, gave Dubya Bush the presidency, and infected the USA with
what might be a fatal case of mass hysteria complicated by hyper-selective
ignorance. What they're up to now with Grey Davis is overturning
an election with a recall vote. Tampering with the electoral
process is apparently accepted practice in some circles. It's
also ignored for the most part, by the so-called "liberal"
media.
One of the main things Davis is being blamed for is the energy
crisis that hit the state a couple of years ago. A crisis caused
in large measure by the adoption of one of the GOP's favorite
remedies for governmentally constrained greed: deregulation.
As Cuauhtemoc Ortega writes in today's
NY Times,
"Mr. Davis may have provided less than impressive leadership
during the state's doomed energy deregulation project, but deregulation
was, after all, the Republicans' idea and the creation of Republican
Gov. Pete Wilson, Mr. Davis's predecessor. Mr. Davis was forced
to use state funds to purchase energy for the state when the
utility companies went bankrupt, but it was representatives of
the Bush administration who resisted his pleas for some controls
on excessive
profit-taking
by the energy industry." Did they do that just to make Davis
look bad? Well it worked.
One of the biggest backers of the recall move is one very wealthy
Darrell Issa who has nothing better to do with his money than
to finance a recall drive so he might become governor. Although
he says he'd like to be governor, he denies he's backing the
recall to actually become governor --uh, huh. And Saddam
Hussein was on the brink of launching an all-out nuclear, biological,
and chemical pre-emptive war on the United States.
But conservatives
want to have it all ways. They want their deregulation. They
want the power to do nothing to avert disaster (especially if
it advances their cause). And they want the freedom to promulagate
slanders when an opponent gets caught in their whirlwind. As
writer Ortega points out in his article, "...in Washington,
Republicans have been very reluctant to help bail out floundering
state governments. When President Bush was busy planning for
tax cuts, Democrats proposed an alternative economic plan that
included large amounts of financial aid to troubled states. Mr.
Issa should have been lobbying for that plan rather than collecting
signatures for a recall."
If the people of California had any sense they'd tell these deep-pocket
Republicans to take their blankin' money and go stuff ballot
boxes in some other state, or preferrably in The Sea of Tranquility
without a spacesuit. They oughta say, "We already voted,
dudes, and if we want the guy out we'll throw him out when the
vote comes around again. You don't just go around buying governorships
in a state as big as Iraq!"
God knows I want
to get rid of George Bush, but you don't see me financing
a multi-million dollar recall vote.
Then of course there's the other issue.
Reporter Greg Bieter reminds us that, "Amid the collapse
of the energy trading specialist Enron, it has come to light
that Enron, amongst other energy magnates, played a key role
in causing the power shortages and exorbitant electricity price
rises in California last year. The California Independent Systems
Operator, the institution that oversees the transmission of power
in the state, stated that "many large suppliers actively
have engaged in strategic bidding efforts, consistent with oligopoly
pricing behavior, with a direct and substantial impact on market
prices."
Bieter says, Enron took advantage of California's energy deregulation
to accumulate oversight of 30% of energy bought and sold in the
state. This gave Enron enormous leverage over prices and supply.
Enron often traded energy between its subsidiaries in order to
raise the price, when, in effect, Enron was just trading with
itself. Enron and its subsidiaries also intentionally withheld
energy to increase the price.
While the energy
corporations that engaged in this chicanery made millions, the
consumers were robbed blind of billions. Enron profited $404
million in the second quarter of 2001, Dynergy made $949 in 2001,
while Reliant Energy made $274 million in the first quarter of
2001. Meanwhile, California taxpayers were hit hard by the $11.7
billion that the state spent to prevent further shortages. This
cost will be passed onto [the backs of] the residential consumers,
whose bills have already been jacked up 12-47%.
And who ran Enron?
Remember Ken Lay, George Bush's benefactor and friend? He ran
Enron. And is he in jail yet? No. And he's not Polish either.
If Californians want someone to blame, they'd be more intellectually
honest to go after the real cause of their problems rather than
blame a hapless politician who got snagged in a capitalist trap.
Go pillory some neocon Republicans, they're the ones screwing
the country up.
For other
tidbits check out these related stories:
|
One of the
biggest beneficiaries of the California power crisis is a Texas
energy conglomerate that more than any other single company has
helped
bankroll President Bush's political career.
Long before Enron Corp.'s plunge from riches to rags, the Houston
energy maverick's aggressive campaign to
push government regulators out of the electricity industry found its best business
opportunity in California.
No company
preached free-market electricity with the same fervor. No company
purported to know more about how to open energy markets to competition.
And no company
was in a better position to take advantage of the energy market
the state eventually created. After all, Enron helped design
it.
"Enron's
fingerprints are all over all of the dysfunctional parts of the
market," said John Rozsa, an aide to state Sen. Steve Peace,
D-El Cajon, who was the chairman of a legislative committee on
deregulation.
This spring, as authorities focused their attention on the off-balance-sheet
partnerships that Enron used to inflate its profits, it seemed
that the question might be forever buried under more pressing
inquiries.... [/] [F]allout from the ... newly released documents
-- memorandums that appear to offer the first proof that Enron
deliberately manipulated California's energy market -- widened yesterday.
(CBS) State officials say California's energy crisis -- its blackouts
and sky-high power prices that cost
California billions -- was manufactured by key power companies that
hoarded energy supplies to make more money, reports CBS News
Correspondent Vince Gonzales. |
|
And what about
George Bush and Enron?
|
The
Argentinian connection:
A few weeks after the U.S. presidential election in 1988, Terragno
received a phone call from a failed Texas oilman named George
W. Bush, who happened to be the son of the president-elect. "He
told me he had recently returned from a campaign tour with his
father," the Argentine minister recalls. The purpose of
the call was clear: to push Terragno to accept the bid from Enron.
The scandal with the energy company unveiled the delicate details
of the close
relations between Vice President Dick Cheney and George W. Bush
himself with the head of the bankrupt company, Kenneth Lay, or just
"Kenney-boy," as his friends call him.
This spring, as authorities focused their attention on the off-balance-sheet
partnerships that Enron used to inflate its profits, it seemed
that the question might be forever buried under more pressing
inquiries.... [/] [F]allout from the ... newly released documents
-- memorandums that appear to offer the first proof that Enron
deliberately manipulated California's energy market -- widened yesterday.
(CBS) State officials say California's energy crisis -- its blackouts
and sky-high power prices that cost
California billions -- was manufactured by key power companies that
hoarded energy supplies to make more money, reports CBS News
Correspondent Vince Gonzales.
A new power plant every week for 20 years, new nukes, drilling
in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge - is this an energy policy, or
a payback
for President Bush's big campaign contributors?
From the moment
George W Bush announced he was running for president, $50m came
in from Texas-based energy companies.
But they are
hundreds of millions of dollars better off from his time as governor
of Texas - and because of decisions taken in the first months
of his presidency. |
|
I could go on and on, but I don't have enough pixels. Suffice
it to say that with this good Christian president, corruption
is at last honestly up on the table.
^
TOP
Tuesday-
6/17/03
CHICK FOLDS
Dixie
Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines was singing a new tune late
Friday,  this time in the
form of an apology to President Bush for
saying she was ashamed that he was from Texas.
This was in response to the reaction of the Texas Chick's audience
to Maines' statement that they, "... we're ashamed the president
of the United States is from Texas," which is understandable
because there are better places he could be from.
THROW THE BUM OUT!
This
seems to be the sentiment of many California voters. The movement
to recall Gov. Grey Davis, funded by Darrell Issa, a deep-pocket
Republican, looks like it may be successful. But, although Issa
says he has gubernatorial aspirations, he insists he is not funding
the recall for that reason. ...and my name ain't Jim.
A old shipmate
and conservative, Bob S., who usually bashes what I have to say
here writes, "Gray Davis, the most incompetent governor
in history of California with a 25% approval rating, will probably
be one of the first casualties of a public fed up with tax and
spend politicians. The last time the California public got angry
it resulted in Proposition 13, a state constitution limiting
property taxes. Davis has squandered a huge surplus and put one
of the most wealthiest states in one of the worst positions.
After the success of proposition 13, other states felt the wave
of the public with similar adoptions of laws to limit their politicians.
"Living in California is surely NO UTOPIA!"
For more info Bob suggests you go here
and here
and here.
I have to confess I haven't followed this story so I don't know
how bad life in California really is, but if squandering a huge
surplus and putting (the wealthiest nation) in a worst position
is recallable, will you radical west-coasters teach the rest
of us how to do it? I've got a candidate I'm dying to have recalled.
Comments from any other Californians?
^
TOP
Monday-
6/16/03
MORE ON THE FCC LET-THE-MEDIA-BE-MONOLITHIC
RULING
Fortunately
William Safire has more critical things to say here about the FCC ruling
to allow greater concentration of corporate ownership of media
outlets. Safire's on the left side of this issue, and that's
right.
THE WAGES OF SIN, AND
THE WAGES OF SIN WITH BETTER CONNECTIONS
ROLLING
BACK THE 20TH CENTURY
A Fable:
Having stumbled
into a dark alley at the start of the 21st century a thin man
named Mr. Jones, knows something's happening, but he doesn't
know what it is. Frightened, and longing for old, familiar haunts,
he asks a sinister character dressed in white waving an up-side-down
American flag for directions.
Uh, excuse me sir, I appear to be lost. Can you tell me how to
get to the McKinley era?
Well, sure. Just head down Pennsylvania Avenue until you come
to the big white house with a crucifix on the portico, hang a
right there onto The Yellow Brick Rd., follow that to Easy Street,
bear right at the fork of Left and Right and take Right as far
as the traffic will bear. If you haven't been run over by a corporation
by then --or by the Attorney General in Ezekial's chariot-- take another right onto the Boulevard
of Broken Dreams, one more at Desolation Row and you'll find
you've gone in a complete circle. But, by the time you return
to the McKinley era you'll be so dizzy from the spin you'll actually
believe you're where you want to be. Then it'll be deja vu all
over again ...pre-forty-hour-work-week and OT pay.
The End |
|
For a more detailed
rendition of the route check out William Greider's excellent
article in
The Nation. It's a rundown of where the right is going
and what it's doing to get there. It's recommended reading if
you'd rather not go along for the ride.
^ TOP
CRIMPING THE HOSE
Everyone
knows if you crimp a hose less water comes out of the end.
What..., you think its different with the news?
"One of our best-kept secrets is the degree to which a handful
of huge corporations control the flow of information in the US.
Whether it is television, radio, news papers, magazines, books
or the internet, a few giant conglomerates are determining what
we see, hear and read. And the situation is likely to become
much worse."
Before we can say, oops! there'll
just be a trickle to water our democracy.
Take a look at the crimping process here.
GOVERNMENT PLEASURING
THE RICH
In his recent speech to the Take Back America conference
Bill Moyers takes us back to those thrilling days of yesteryear
when the people struggled for things we take for granted. In
his speech Moyers gives us a back-to-the-future moment.
Recalling the founding of the
Peoples Party (the Populists) in 1892 Moyers quotes this from
the party's platform (italics mine):
. "We meet," it said, "in the midst of a nation
brought to the verge of moral, political and (maybe not yet
but...) material ruin....Corruption dominates the ballot
box, the [state] legislatures and the Congress and touches even
the bench.....The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled,
public opinion silenced....The fruits of the toil of millions
are boldly stolen to build up colossal fortunes for a few."
But first Moyers outlines the context of the populist movement
and who they were. He says the founders, "...were mainly
cotton and wheat farmers from the recently reconstructed South
and the newly settled Great Plains, and they had come on hard,
hard times, driven to the wall by falling prices for their crops
on one hand and racking interest rates, freight charges and supply
costs on the other. This in the midst of a booming and growing
industrial America." In short, they were experiencing the
dark side of the private sector still alive and kicking today
and held in such high esteem by our present leaders.
In spite of what you hear from the neoconservative Bush administration,
our government leaders did not always hold the dons of business
in such high regard. Moyers points out that the Populist platform
contained furious words, "...from rural men and women who
were traditionally conservative and whose memories of taming
the frontier were fresh and personal. But in their fury they
invoked an American tradition as powerful as frontier individualism
– the war on inequality and especially on the role that
government played in promoting and preserving inequality by favoring
the rich. The Founding Fathers turned their backs on the idea
of property qualifications for holding office under the Constitution
because they wanted no part of a 'veneration for wealth"
in the document. Thomas Jefferson, while claiming no interest
in politics, built up a Republican Party – no relation to
the present one – to take the government back from the speculators
and "stock-jobbers," as he called them, who were in
the saddle in 1800. Andrew Jackson slew the monster Second Bank
of the United States, the 600-pound gorilla of the credit system
in the 1830s, in the name of the people versus the aristocrats
who sat on the bank's governing board."
Moyers makes the point that the populist anger at government
was not simply a low regard for government itself, but government
in "unholy alliance" with people of wealth. As the
Populist platform said, tramps and millionaires were bred, "from
the same womb of governmental injustice". Government was
not the problem. The problem was (and still is) government pleasuring
the rich.
Check out Moyers' speech here.
AND, YEAH, DEMOCRATS
ARE RICH TOO
The Clintons and at least several Democratic candidates are in
the same
cash league as the president. So don't avert your gaze for
an instant when looking left either.
^ TOP
GOING TO WAR ON COOKED
BOOKS
War supporter and NY
Times columnist, Bill Keller, in today's paper discusses
the corruption of the intelligence process that led to the
invasion of Iraq.
Kelly sum things up with this: "The truth is that the information-gathering
machine designed to guide our leaders in matters of war and peace
shows signs of being corrupted. To my mind, this is a worrisome
problem, but not because it invalidates the war we won. It is
a problem because it weakens us for the wars we still face,"
...which is an even more frightening thought when you consider
the inclinations of these boys of war and their ideology.
OR, AS PAUL KRUGMAN SORT
OF SAYS, "WOULD YOU BUY A USED HUMMER FROM THESE GUYS?":
Specifically, "...dishonest salesmanship has been the hallmark
of the Bush administration's approach to domestic policy. And
it has become increasingly clear that the selling of the war
with Iraq was no different."
In his article
in the NY Times commentator Krugman considers some cagey
and inflammatory rhetoric:
"The implication from
Bush on down was that Saddam supported Osama bin Laden's network.
Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks frequently were mentioned in the
same sentence, even though officials have no good evidence of
such a link." Not only was there no good evidence: according
to The New York Times, captured leaders of Al Qaeda explicitly
told the C.I.A. that they had not been working with Saddam.
Or, in the case of the bio-lab trailers, "What is clear
is that an initial report concluding that they were weapons labs
was, as one analyst told The Times, 'a rushed job and looks political.'
President Bush had no business declaring 'we have found the weapons
of mass destruction.' "
Or on weapons of mass destruction, "...the Bush administration
found scraps of intelligence suiting its agenda, and officials
began making strong pronouncements. 'Saddam Hussein recently
authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons —
the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have,' Mr.
Bush said on Feb. 8. On March 16 Dick Cheney declared, 'We believe
he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.' "
|
|
Although Krugman believes such statements are outrageous, he
doesn't think they're the worst of it. He adds, "I'll tell
you what's outrageous. It's not the fact that people are criticizing
the administration; it's the fact that nobody is being held accountable
for misleading the nation into war."
And they tried to impeach Clinton for lying about his little
rogue cigar when it's clear --as rogue cigars go-- Bush's is
much bigger.
^ TOP
LADLING
HOT FUDGE ONTO THE GRAVEY TRAIN WHILE UNCOUPLING THE CABOOSE
There'll be no increased
child tax credit for low income people as long as this Republican
has his way. Displaying his tinge of Texan right-wing megalomania
again, House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, licks neoconservative
boots. Which is like licking his own boots, which is like being
the master of his domain --if you take the Seinfeldian meaning
of the phrase. But his awesome onanism is now not only showering
the lowly of the land, some of it is even landing on the President.
"Reminded at a news conference that Ari Fleischer, the White
House press secretary, had said that Mr. Bush wanted the House
to pass the Senate bill quickly, Mr. DeLay reacted derisively."
"The last time I checked,
he doesn't have a vote," Mr. DeLay said of Mr. Fleischer.
What DeLay is doing is rejecting a demand from the administration
that the House pass the Senate bill, which would provide an increased
child tax credit to 6.5 million low-income families.
"Ain't going to happen,"
Mr. DeLay said this afternoon, reiterating his stance that the
credits would be approved only as part of a much larger tax-cut
bill, an $82 billion package that House Republicans unveiled
later in the day and plan to bring to the floor on Thursday.
Which is to say, there ain't no poor person gonna get even an
itsy-bitsy break as long as someone well-to-do doesn't get another
even bigger one. Tom Delay knows what side his bread is buttered
on; question is, do you know what side his bread is buttered
on?
Go here
to read about it.
AND IF THAT AIN'T ENOUGH...
IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE.
Paul
Krugman says, "...the really important stories about
Mr. DeLay, a central figure in the impeachment of Bill Clinton,
involve his continuing drive to give his party a permanent lock
on power."
In the case of Westar Energy
(whose CEO was indicted for fraud) promises were made for solicited
donations to DeLay-connected groups. The prize was "a seat
at the legislative table" for an appropriate amount of cash.
This was a far better deal than a paltry overnight stay in the
Lincoln bedroom offered by the Clintons. No wonder Democrats
can't get anywhere, they're not as ballsy at corruption.
(By the way, what's being
devoured at the table is the soul of this democratic republic.)
Krugman reports that, "The provision Westar wanted was duly
inserted into an energy bill. Republican leaders deny that there
was any quid pro quo. They were a little more cagey though,
when asked if there might then have been some quo pro quid.
In reply an unnamed source said, "Well let's just say, if
there was, it was part of the war on terror like everything else."
Then there's the tale from Texas a few weeks ago when Republicans
enlisted the state police and the Department of Homeland Security
to track down disagreeable Democratic Texas legislators. Delay was behind that
too.
As Krugman points out, "Normally states redraw Congressional
districts once a decade: Texas redistricted after the 2000 census.
But under Mr. DeLay's leadership, Texas Republicans are trying
to increase their advantage in seats with a second redistricting.
This in itself is an unprecedented power grab."
Though there's already much about what the man does to loath,
DeLay just keeps piling it on, increasing his loathability quotient
to Guinness Book of World Record levels. In a classic slip into
what psychologists call a "projection", Mr. DeLay,
in hints of his scorched-earth approached to government, has
described the Environmental Protection Agency as "the Gestapo."
What's that we used to say when we were kids? ...it takes one
to know one
Read it
and weep.
^
TOP
Thursday-
6/12/03
STUPID, OR IN A STUPOR?
In an ongoing give and
take with a friend, he took issue with a remark I made the other
day about Americans being in a kind of post-9/11 stupor.
He questioned whether Americans are really in a stupor. He said
he didn't think I thought the American people were stupid ...did
I?
I don't, but this is where the
stupor part comes in.
As a student of myself and having
spent a long time trying to figure out the subject, I know people
will do things that are against their best interest in spite
of their intellect. I know this first hand and painfully. My
friend knows this too, the same way. Being average guys and knowing
by simple observation that we're not the only ones with such
masochistic tendencies, he understands as well as I do that people
have a knack for stupidity no matter how smart they are. And
stressed people in mass movements motivated by personal demons,
can be the most stupid of all.
So in answer to his question,
I simply say, a 60 to 70 percent stupidity rating is not completely
outside the realm of possibility for any group, superpower or
not. But note... I'm using the word "stupid" as it
relates to "stupor", which is, by definition, an IQ-dampening
condition that can result from just being exposed to bad atmosphere
generated by tainted information, ...as well as from drugs. I'm
not using "stupid" in the "thicker-than-a-stone"
sense. I'm not really being pejoritive at all. As my mother used
to say, "I'm not complaining, I'm just explaining."
So is it possible for otherwise smart people to go off half-cocked
for say, superstitious reasons? ...think Salem Witch Trials.
Religious reasons? ...think 9/11. For reasons of hate? ...Buchenwald.
What about for fear of terrorists? ...it's not a stretch.
Everybody want's to be safe,
it's natural. What you're willing to sacrifice for safety though,
often turns out to be a political question. It's a choice best
made with courage and a clear head, not one tuned solely to Corporate
News or conservative propaganda.
^ TOP
THE BUSH SERVICE CUTS
Speaking of being smart...
Thomas Friedman yesterday had a commentary
in the NY Times that said if Democrats were smart they'd recast
the tax debate and call the tax cuts "service cuts".
Good point. If you cut every service provided by government except
the military, as conservatives would love, you'd be left with
a playing field private industry could finally have its way with,
and we know how essentially ethical they are.
Think how wonderful a Republican
wil-o'-the-wispocracy would be! No government regulators, no
environmental laws, no one to make sure your meat's free of mad
cow disease, no one to guard against the chemical company down
the street dumping heavy metals into your well, no officials
to prevent Yellowstone from becoming a strip mine with geyser,
no one to call when you're being raped by your insurance company,
no one to curtail the whims of people like Jeff Skilling, Andy
Fastow, and Ken Lay (Enron), or Dennis Koslowski (Tyco), or Bernie
Ebbers (Worldcom), or Gary Winnick (Global Crossing) ... it'd
be a utopia for the myopic and greedy!
Government is a collective organized (among other things) to
minimize the ravages of human nature in a society. We should
not dismantle it, we'd be better off just making sure it's not
run by extremists, left or right. In a world of sharks, con artists,
and run-of-the-mill sociopaths, if government were really to
work to serve the interests of society's full spectrum the taxes
we pay to have it hum would be a bargain. Although there are
no utopias possible --in this world at least, in theory our democracy
is the best shot the globe has to enjoy anything even close to
one.
^ TOP
PREVIOUS DAYS> |
THE
ORIGIN OF ALL WARS IS
THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH
--SOCRATES, PHAEDO
THE COST
OF WAR:
A
RUNNING TALLY
CHECK OUT
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questionW
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FEATURE COMMENTARIES
Red
Herrings and Front-men
"Does even the most left-wing
Democrat want to defend the proposition that the world would
be better off with Saddam in power?" This is Newt Gingrich's
justification for the war. This is the sleight-of-hand now in
play by front-men. This defensive shift in the justification
for war is taking place all over the news from president Bush
on down. But it should not be surprising to find such good Christian
men adhering to the observation of Don Marquis, an American humorist
of the early 20th century, who said that, "Honesty is
a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless
it is kept under control." Boosting profit and keeping
honesty under control permeates the atmosphere of the Bush administration.
In fact, if we're going haul ourselves out of this mess, we'll
need a Pentagon-sized Department of Debunkers headed by the Amazing
Randy with under-secretaries Penn & Teller whistle-stopping
the country deflating illusions .
Less
Beautiful and Noble
By the time the average U.S. citizen wakes from his-and-her reality
tv, comfort, and fear-induced stupor there won't be a single
social or regulatory program of the federal government left.
For Republican neoconservatives this is exactly the point. To
follow their rhetoric, government-funded programs such as public
education, social security, medicare, and universal health care
coverage, run counter to the dictates of a market economy and
thwart the will of God. With George Bush's tax-cut orgies, by
the time Dubya supporters John and Jane Doe (at the moment among
post-9/11 hyper-patriotic 70-percenters) realize they've participated
in their own enronization every single one of those programs
will have been sucked into the investment portfolios of the richest
among us.
The Grandure of the Deceit
Today we have an
administration that misled us into a war and manipulates information
without shame, creating lies that have resulted in death and
destruction and altered the character of the nation, and the
right claims it’s unpatriotic to be critical. It’s
not. If we're talking about mendacity, the difference between
the Clinton and Bush administrations is simply the the grandure
of the deceit.
Is
Iraq His Elizabeth Smart ?
By all the evidence
I've come to believe that faithfulness to God is like anything
else in this world, it's only as good as its practitioner. Sometimes
faith leads to self immolation, sometimes to the immolation of
others; sometimes the practitioner goes to jail, sometimes he
starts a religion, sometimes he even gets declared president
by the Supreme Court. In the beginning (to quote a phrase), there's
no way of telling where it'll end up. This puts religious faith
in the same class as everything else we do and should not be
relied upon as a guarantee of right-action. |
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