The gun fetishists just won't stop talking foolishness, will they? They've gleefully seized on this story:
Gun crime in England and Wales rose to record levels in the past year, with nearly 200 incidents every week.
There were 10,250 incidents, including 80 murders, involving firearms in the year to April, 276 (about 3 per cent) more than the previous year and double the number recorded five years ago.
The lesson Instapundit draws from this is: "More Gun Control, More Crime." Lee at Right-Thinking from the Left Coast just goes totally unhinged: "Yet more evidence that gun control is an utter, abject failure, no matter where it is tried," he writes.
Ahem.
Here are U.S. gun-crime statistics from the Justice Department.
* Gun crimes in the U.S. per 100,000 population: 124.6
* Gun murders per 100,000 population: 3.9
Now here's the British government's count of the population of England and Wales in 2001: 52,041,916 people.
* 10,250 gun crimes per 52,041,916 people in England and Wales is 19.7 gun crimes per 100,000 population. The U.S. total is 124.6.
* 80 gun murders per 52,041,916 people in England and Wales is 0.2 gun murders per 100,000 population (actually 0.1537222, but I'm rounding up because the number's over 1.5). The U.S. total is 3.9.
Yes, the census figures in England and Wales are for 2001 and the crime stas are for 2002. But you get the idea.
And the very story Insty and Lee were citing included an England/U.S. comparison (with slightly different numbers) -- but I guess they hoped you wouldn't read it.
Monday, October 20, 2003
You'd never know it, but technically we're not in a recession -- we're in a recovery, as measured by growth in gross domestic product, and we have been for nearly two years. As Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Roach points out it's a screw-the-workers recovery -- although he doesn't put it quite that way -- and this could have ongoing consequences:
Wage and salary disbursements -- by far the dominant component of personal income -- are basically unchanged in real terms fully 21 months into this recovery; by contrast, at this juncture in the past six upturns, real wage income has been up, on average, by about 9%. The gap between the current cycle and the norm of earlier cycles works out to a shortfall of about $320 billion in real terms, or 4.4% of the current level of real disposable personal income.... Absent other sources of support -- tax cuts, home mortgage refinancing, or a renewal of vigorous hiring -- this shortfall of internally driven income generation could end up spelling serious trouble for the overly indebted, saving-short American consumer....
The flip side of this saga is, of course, quite beneficial to Corporate America. Sourcing demand through low-cost, offshore labor input has become an increasingly important tactic to enhance the operating efficiency of US businesses.... While this has resulted in a significant improvement in corporate earnings, the American workforce is not sharing the benefits.
I'll say.
(Thanks to Nathan Newman for the link.)
Wage and salary disbursements -- by far the dominant component of personal income -- are basically unchanged in real terms fully 21 months into this recovery; by contrast, at this juncture in the past six upturns, real wage income has been up, on average, by about 9%. The gap between the current cycle and the norm of earlier cycles works out to a shortfall of about $320 billion in real terms, or 4.4% of the current level of real disposable personal income.... Absent other sources of support -- tax cuts, home mortgage refinancing, or a renewal of vigorous hiring -- this shortfall of internally driven income generation could end up spelling serious trouble for the overly indebted, saving-short American consumer....
The flip side of this saga is, of course, quite beneficial to Corporate America. Sourcing demand through low-cost, offshore labor input has become an increasingly important tactic to enhance the operating efficiency of US businesses.... While this has resulted in a significant improvement in corporate earnings, the American workforce is not sharing the benefits.
I'll say.
(Thanks to Nathan Newman for the link.)
The Boston Globe reports today that Bush is a uniter, not a divider, in the maufacturing city of Rockford, Illinois (soon, apparently, to be the former manufacturing city) -- he's united management and labor in disgust and outrage:
At Rockford's Dial Machine Inc., general manager Eric Anderberg is intense: Since the recession ended in November 2001, he has laid off 35 of his 75 machinists, cut their work week to 32 hours, and contemplates shutting down all production. He blames foreign competition, particularly from China, for drying up demand for Dial's precision tools.
"There's been no recovery for us," said Anderberg, whose plant 85 miles northwest of Chicago is in an industrial park dotted with "For Sale" signs. A conservative Republican, Anderberg does not think the White House is doing enough to help small business owners, who he says cannot compete with Chinese factories that use cheap labor and an undervalued yuan to undercut US prices for manufactured products.
...Acme Grinding, Inc., has been in Rockford for 57 years, but this might be its last, said owner Judy Pike. She already has laid off 33 of her 40 employees and did about 35 percent of her business with Textron's fastening plants.
"We've had other recessions, and you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't like the jobs weren't coming back," said Pike, who has joined with 85 women in Rockford manufacturing to boycott Christmas gifts with a "Made in China" label. "This time, the lights are going off."
...Edward Smith, 37, didn't vote for president in 2000. He says he will cast a ballot next year, but not for Bush. In 2002, he was laid off after nine years when his employer, a manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders, moved operations to Ohio and Mexico. He prays that he will find a job, but has dropped home remodeling projects, canceled cable service, and thinks about leaving Rockford and moving to Wisconsin.
"President Bush is requesting billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, but I don't hear so much about rebuilding our economy and creating jobs here," Smith said. "I'm wondering what his focus is."
By no means do I wish to let Democrats off the hook for this -- far too many Dems in recent years have taken the job losses associated with globalization far too lightly (yes, that includes you, Bill Clinton).
I know this will seem like heresy to most of the readers of this blog, but there are times when I think the strongest Democratic presidential candidate for '04 would be Richard Gephardt -- not the Gephardt who so often wimps out when confronted with an angry GOP, but the Gephardt we see only once in a while, the one who quite passionately preaches the old-school pro-labor Democratic gospel. Maybe Democrats wouldn't have to run around desperately trying to figure out how to appeal to Middle American guys (do a quail-hunting photo op? sponsor a NASCAR car?) if they just recognized the obvious fact that Middle American guys are workers, and would like their status as workers to be a lot less insecure.
At Rockford's Dial Machine Inc., general manager Eric Anderberg is intense: Since the recession ended in November 2001, he has laid off 35 of his 75 machinists, cut their work week to 32 hours, and contemplates shutting down all production. He blames foreign competition, particularly from China, for drying up demand for Dial's precision tools.
"There's been no recovery for us," said Anderberg, whose plant 85 miles northwest of Chicago is in an industrial park dotted with "For Sale" signs. A conservative Republican, Anderberg does not think the White House is doing enough to help small business owners, who he says cannot compete with Chinese factories that use cheap labor and an undervalued yuan to undercut US prices for manufactured products.
...Acme Grinding, Inc., has been in Rockford for 57 years, but this might be its last, said owner Judy Pike. She already has laid off 33 of her 40 employees and did about 35 percent of her business with Textron's fastening plants.
"We've had other recessions, and you could see the light at the end of the tunnel. It wasn't like the jobs weren't coming back," said Pike, who has joined with 85 women in Rockford manufacturing to boycott Christmas gifts with a "Made in China" label. "This time, the lights are going off."
...Edward Smith, 37, didn't vote for president in 2000. He says he will cast a ballot next year, but not for Bush. In 2002, he was laid off after nine years when his employer, a manufacturer of hydraulic cylinders, moved operations to Ohio and Mexico. He prays that he will find a job, but has dropped home remodeling projects, canceled cable service, and thinks about leaving Rockford and moving to Wisconsin.
"President Bush is requesting billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq, but I don't hear so much about rebuilding our economy and creating jobs here," Smith said. "I'm wondering what his focus is."
By no means do I wish to let Democrats off the hook for this -- far too many Dems in recent years have taken the job losses associated with globalization far too lightly (yes, that includes you, Bill Clinton).
I know this will seem like heresy to most of the readers of this blog, but there are times when I think the strongest Democratic presidential candidate for '04 would be Richard Gephardt -- not the Gephardt who so often wimps out when confronted with an angry GOP, but the Gephardt we see only once in a while, the one who quite passionately preaches the old-school pro-labor Democratic gospel. Maybe Democrats wouldn't have to run around desperately trying to figure out how to appeal to Middle American guys (do a quail-hunting photo op? sponsor a NASCAR car?) if they just recognized the obvious fact that Middle American guys are workers, and would like their status as workers to be a lot less insecure.
Yesterday The Boston Globe did what the government wants it to do -- it ran a Good News From Iraq front-page story, about American GIs who are training an Iraqi police force. But I don't think this is quite what the administration had in mind:
...occasionally [Sergeant Mike] Routh's pupils slip into the authoritarian law-enforcement methods ingrained in 34 years of dictatorship. One officer, Ahmed al Kareem, a 250-pound bruiser nicknamed ''Tiny,'' apprehended a fellow trainee and slammed him to the floor, demanding: ''Give me your money!'' The officers laughed as Routh rolled his eyes in exasperation.
''We're also trying to teach them that even though he's a suspect, he still has rights,'' said Routh, of Hannibal, Mo. ''Some things have been hard to translate.'' ...
...achieving a deeper understanding of the principles of a police force in a democracy could be a problem.
[Captain Ahmad] Shihab indicated a steel door in his station marked ''D ROOM,'' where he said several members of a kidnapping gang were being held.
''These suspects here have all confessed that they are guilty,'' Shihab said. ''But we still have to take them to court. Can you believe that?''
But not all their problems are cultural:
Mistreatment of suspects was not the only deficiency of Iraq's police under Hussein. Training, said Captain Ahmad Shihab, one of several fluent English speakers in the Major Crimes Unit, was ''worthless.''
''As a captain with 11 years on the force, I may have practiced shooting for all of six days,'' Shihab said, pointing to a bottle on a desk a few feet from his. ''I couldn't hit that bottle if I shot at it.''
Then again, that may be a moot point:
Like Iraqi police units everywhere, they lack police radios, squad cars, protective gear, computers, and precision weapons.
''We've put in a wish list of equipment,'' Routh said. ''Now we're waiting.''
Meet the new boss -- about as committed to professionalization as the old boss....
...occasionally [Sergeant Mike] Routh's pupils slip into the authoritarian law-enforcement methods ingrained in 34 years of dictatorship. One officer, Ahmed al Kareem, a 250-pound bruiser nicknamed ''Tiny,'' apprehended a fellow trainee and slammed him to the floor, demanding: ''Give me your money!'' The officers laughed as Routh rolled his eyes in exasperation.
''We're also trying to teach them that even though he's a suspect, he still has rights,'' said Routh, of Hannibal, Mo. ''Some things have been hard to translate.'' ...
...achieving a deeper understanding of the principles of a police force in a democracy could be a problem.
[Captain Ahmad] Shihab indicated a steel door in his station marked ''D ROOM,'' where he said several members of a kidnapping gang were being held.
''These suspects here have all confessed that they are guilty,'' Shihab said. ''But we still have to take them to court. Can you believe that?''
But not all their problems are cultural:
Mistreatment of suspects was not the only deficiency of Iraq's police under Hussein. Training, said Captain Ahmad Shihab, one of several fluent English speakers in the Major Crimes Unit, was ''worthless.''
''As a captain with 11 years on the force, I may have practiced shooting for all of six days,'' Shihab said, pointing to a bottle on a desk a few feet from his. ''I couldn't hit that bottle if I shot at it.''
Then again, that may be a moot point:
Like Iraqi police units everywhere, they lack police radios, squad cars, protective gear, computers, and precision weapons.
''We've put in a wish list of equipment,'' Routh said. ''Now we're waiting.''
Meet the new boss -- about as committed to professionalization as the old boss....
THAT SPECIAL BUSH FAMILY EMPATHY
From a New York Times review of Barbara Bush's new book, Reflections:
... she recounts having two toes removed (because of foot pain); while her husband and son, the 41st and 43rd presidents, are known around the house as "41" and "43," Mrs. Bush wryly notes she now qualifies as "8."
Ouch.
From a New York Times review of Barbara Bush's new book, Reflections:
... she recounts having two toes removed (because of foot pain); while her husband and son, the 41st and 43rd presidents, are known around the house as "41" and "43," Mrs. Bush wryly notes she now qualifies as "8."
Ouch.
Sunday, October 19, 2003
You're probably aware of this story by now:
A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.
....Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems than many Pentagon officials assumed. They warned of a society so brutalized by Saddam Hussein's rule that many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society.
...The working group studying transitional justice was eerily prescient in forecasting the widespread looting in the aftermath of the fall of Mr. Hussein's government, caused in part by thousands of criminals set free from prison, and it recommended force to prevent the chaos.
The article goes on to note that
The man overseeing the planning, Tom Warrick, a State Department official, so impressed aides to Jay Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general heading the military's reconstruction office, that they recruited Mr. Warrick to join their team.
...But top Pentagon officials blocked Mr. Warrick's appointment, and much of the project's work was shelved, State Department officials said.
But this isn’t really news. Let's fill in the missing pieces with this story, from the October 6 issue of Newsweek:
Rumsfeld ordered General Garner to drop a State Department official named Thomas Warrick from his reconstruction team. Garner protested, his aides recall; he needed Warrick, who had been the author of a $5 million, yearlong study called “The Future of Iraq.” Rumsfeld’s reply, as relayed by Garner to his aides, was: “I’m sorry, but I just got off a phone call from a level that is sufficiently high that I can’t argue with him.” Sources tell NEWSWEEK that Rumsfeld was taking his orders from Vice President Cheney.
We have not just the worst president ever but the worst vice president ever.
A yearlong State Department study predicted many of the problems that have plagued the American-led occupation of Iraq, according to internal State Department documents and interviews with administration and Congressional officials.
....Their findings included a much more dire assessment of Iraq's dilapidated electrical and water systems than many Pentagon officials assumed. They warned of a society so brutalized by Saddam Hussein's rule that many Iraqis might react coolly to Americans' notion of quickly rebuilding civil society.
...The working group studying transitional justice was eerily prescient in forecasting the widespread looting in the aftermath of the fall of Mr. Hussein's government, caused in part by thousands of criminals set free from prison, and it recommended force to prevent the chaos.
The article goes on to note that
The man overseeing the planning, Tom Warrick, a State Department official, so impressed aides to Jay Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general heading the military's reconstruction office, that they recruited Mr. Warrick to join their team.
...But top Pentagon officials blocked Mr. Warrick's appointment, and much of the project's work was shelved, State Department officials said.
But this isn’t really news. Let's fill in the missing pieces with this story, from the October 6 issue of Newsweek:
Rumsfeld ordered General Garner to drop a State Department official named Thomas Warrick from his reconstruction team. Garner protested, his aides recall; he needed Warrick, who had been the author of a $5 million, yearlong study called “The Future of Iraq.” Rumsfeld’s reply, as relayed by Garner to his aides, was: “I’m sorry, but I just got off a phone call from a level that is sufficiently high that I can’t argue with him.” Sources tell NEWSWEEK that Rumsfeld was taking his orders from Vice President Cheney.
We have not just the worst president ever but the worst vice president ever.
Haley Barbour, the GOP candidate hoping to unseat Missisippi's Democratic governor, Ronnie Musgrove, doesn't just play the race card when he's hanging out at shindigs organized by the Council of Conservative Citizens. As Nicholas Dawidoff notes in The New York Times Magazine:
Back in 1967, when William Winter, a Democrat, was running for governor, his campaign was smeared by handbills equating a Winter election with ''Negro domination.'' Recently, according to the Musgrove campaign, handbills have been mailed out that say ''Some of Ronnie Musgrove's important appointments'' and show photographs of his black appointees. Nobody has claimed responsibility, and the Barbour campaign says it knows nothing about the handbills and denies involvement in any divisive tactics....
Then there is the matter of the lieutenant governor's election. In Mississippi, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are obligated by the state Constitution to run separate campaigns and often have little politically in common except party affiliation. The incumbent, Amy Tuck, was elected as a Democrat but switched parties once in office. And when a black lawyer and legislator named Barbara Blackmon won the Democratic lieutenant governor's primary, Barbour introduced the novel notion of a ''Musgrove-Blackmon ticket'' into his speeches. He has since kept it up, warning his mostly all-white crowds that ''Blackmon did a great job getting out her supporters.'' By supporters, he means blacks. Blackmon, if elected, will become the first African-American to hold statewide office in Mississippi history. A laborer's daughter who grew up in inner-city Jackson, Blackmon graduated from college at 19 and subsequently earned three graduate degrees. Her presence on the ballot is expected to energize Mississippi's heavily Democratic black electorate. When she encountered Barbour after a labor meeting at which he made references to her, she told him that he wasn't running against her and requested that he desist. ''He told me I was right, and he wouldn't do it in the future,'' she says. That has turned out to be Barbour's first broken campaign promise.
Back in 1967, when William Winter, a Democrat, was running for governor, his campaign was smeared by handbills equating a Winter election with ''Negro domination.'' Recently, according to the Musgrove campaign, handbills have been mailed out that say ''Some of Ronnie Musgrove's important appointments'' and show photographs of his black appointees. Nobody has claimed responsibility, and the Barbour campaign says it knows nothing about the handbills and denies involvement in any divisive tactics....
Then there is the matter of the lieutenant governor's election. In Mississippi, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor are obligated by the state Constitution to run separate campaigns and often have little politically in common except party affiliation. The incumbent, Amy Tuck, was elected as a Democrat but switched parties once in office. And when a black lawyer and legislator named Barbara Blackmon won the Democratic lieutenant governor's primary, Barbour introduced the novel notion of a ''Musgrove-Blackmon ticket'' into his speeches. He has since kept it up, warning his mostly all-white crowds that ''Blackmon did a great job getting out her supporters.'' By supporters, he means blacks. Blackmon, if elected, will become the first African-American to hold statewide office in Mississippi history. A laborer's daughter who grew up in inner-city Jackson, Blackmon graduated from college at 19 and subsequently earned three graduate degrees. Her presence on the ballot is expected to energize Mississippi's heavily Democratic black electorate. When she encountered Barbour after a labor meeting at which he made references to her, she told him that he wasn't running against her and requested that he desist. ''He told me I was right, and he wouldn't do it in the future,'' she says. That has turned out to be Barbour's first broken campaign promise.
UPI has an appalling story about the treatment of ill and wounded National Gurad and Army Reserve soldiers at Fort Stewart, Georgia:
Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company.... served in the Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated like a third-class citizen."
Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since doubling over in pain there.
After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi. "They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said.
One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart -- home of the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes on their return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.
The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result.
Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment....
Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper.
CNN, which is also pursuing this story, reports a lot of denioals and "yes, but"s from the government but also confirms the basic facts of the story.
Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company.... served in the Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Gulf War. "Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated like a third-class citizen."
Since getting back from Iraq in May, Buckels, 52, has been trying to get doctors to find out why he has intense pain in the side of his abdomen since doubling over in pain there.
After waiting since May for a diagnosis, Buckels has accepted 20 percent of his benefits for bad knees and is going home to his family in Mississippi. "They have not found out what my side is doing yet, but they are still trying," Buckels said.
One month after President Bush greeted soldiers at Fort Stewart -- home of the famed Third Infantry Division -- as heroes on their return from Iraq, approximately 600 sick or injured members of the Army Reserves and National Guard are warehoused in rows of spare, steamy and dark cement barracks in a sandy field, waiting for doctors to treat their wounds or illnesses.
The Reserve and National Guard soldiers are on what the Army calls "medical hold," while the Army decides how sick or disabled they are and what benefits -- if any -- they should get as a result.
Some of the soldiers said they have waited six hours a day for an appointment without seeing a doctor. Others described waiting weeks or months without getting a diagnosis or proper treatment....
Soldiers make their way by walking or using crutches through the sandy dirt to a communal bathroom, where they have propped office partitions between otherwise open toilets for privacy. A row of leaky sinks sits on an opposite wall. The latrine smells of urine and is full of bugs, because many windows have no screens. Showering is in a communal, cinder block room. Soldiers say they have to buy their own toilet paper.
CNN, which is also pursuing this story, reports a lot of denioals and "yes, but"s from the government but also confirms the basic facts of the story.
"Waaaah! They hate us!" Yes, Andrew Sullivan, the Catholic Church does hate you and your fellow homosexuals -- just like we've been telling you for years.
But after reading Sullivan's op-ed piece, I'm reminded that the Episcopals have welcomed a gay bishop and angry conservatives responded by threatening a schism, but the Catholics are rejecting gay people and gay and pro-gay Catholics aren't threatening a schism. Once again the bad guys play hardball and the good guys wimp out.
But after reading Sullivan's op-ed piece, I'm reminded that the Episcopals have welcomed a gay bishop and angry conservatives responded by threatening a schism, but the Catholics are rejecting gay people and gay and pro-gay Catholics aren't threatening a schism. Once again the bad guys play hardball and the good guys wimp out.
Friday, October 17, 2003
THE GOP -- THE PARTY OF CIVILITY
I am wondering. At this point in the Democratic lunge for the presidential nomination, does Dr. Howard Dean have a monopoly on that sector of the Democratic vote that we may classify as the moron vote? Or is the idiotic Sen. John Pierre Kerry chipping away at these serried ranks of oafs?
--first paragraph of a column published yesterday by Emmett Tyrell
But ... but ... but I thought Republicans were the nice guys, and only Democrats were nasty now!
(Thanks to Sadly, No! for the link.)
I am wondering. At this point in the Democratic lunge for the presidential nomination, does Dr. Howard Dean have a monopoly on that sector of the Democratic vote that we may classify as the moron vote? Or is the idiotic Sen. John Pierre Kerry chipping away at these serried ranks of oafs?
--first paragraph of a column published yesterday by Emmett Tyrell
But ... but ... but I thought Republicans were the nice guys, and only Democrats were nasty now!
(Thanks to Sadly, No! for the link.)
Belated thanks to the reader who pointed out that inspectors found a vial of botulinum bacteria rather than botulinum toxin, as I stated in a post last week. And today the Los Angeles Times points out that
* there's no record that anyone's ever managed to weaponize this particular botulinum strain of botulinum, and
* we probably sold it to Iraq:
... Dr. David Franz, a former chief U.N. biological weapons inspector who is considered among America's foremost experts on biowarfare agents, said there was no evidence that Iraq or anyone else has ever succeeded in using botulinum B for biowarfare.
"The Soviets dropped it [as a goal] and so did we, because we couldn't get it working as a weapon," said Franz, who is the former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick, Md., the Pentagon's lead laboratory for bioweapons defense research.
"From the weapons side, it's not something to be concerned about," agreed Dr. Raymond Zilinskas, another former U.N. inspector who is now director of the chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute in California.
Botulinum B is a source of botulism, a common form of deadly food poisoning that usually results from improper canning. It disperses quickly in the air, however, and thus is not effective as an airborne agent for weapons, Zilinskas said....
...Zilinskas said the sample almost certainly came from American Type Culture Collection. "We know they bought their botulinum strains from the United States, including B," he said.
In 1994, an investigation by the House Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee determined that American Type Culture Collection had been a primary supplier of botulinum, anthrax and other pathogens to Iraq. The organization, based in Manassas, Va., shipped at least seven batches of botulinum strains to Baghdad in May 1986 and September 1988, according to records released by the committee.
Nancy Wysocki, a spokeswoman for the bioresource center, said there was no way for her to know if her organization had exported the vial of botulinum B found in Iraq. But she said all botulinum and other exports to Iraq at the time had been approved by the Commerce Department. "Iraq was not an embargoed country in the 1980s," she said....
* there's no record that anyone's ever managed to weaponize this particular botulinum strain of botulinum, and
* we probably sold it to Iraq:
... Dr. David Franz, a former chief U.N. biological weapons inspector who is considered among America's foremost experts on biowarfare agents, said there was no evidence that Iraq or anyone else has ever succeeded in using botulinum B for biowarfare.
"The Soviets dropped it [as a goal] and so did we, because we couldn't get it working as a weapon," said Franz, who is the former commander of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Ft. Detrick, Md., the Pentagon's lead laboratory for bioweapons defense research.
"From the weapons side, it's not something to be concerned about," agreed Dr. Raymond Zilinskas, another former U.N. inspector who is now director of the chemical and biological weapons nonproliferation program at the Monterey Institute in California.
Botulinum B is a source of botulism, a common form of deadly food poisoning that usually results from improper canning. It disperses quickly in the air, however, and thus is not effective as an airborne agent for weapons, Zilinskas said....
...Zilinskas said the sample almost certainly came from American Type Culture Collection. "We know they bought their botulinum strains from the United States, including B," he said.
In 1994, an investigation by the House Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee determined that American Type Culture Collection had been a primary supplier of botulinum, anthrax and other pathogens to Iraq. The organization, based in Manassas, Va., shipped at least seven batches of botulinum strains to Baghdad in May 1986 and September 1988, according to records released by the committee.
Nancy Wysocki, a spokeswoman for the bioresource center, said there was no way for her to know if her organization had exported the vial of botulinum B found in Iraq. But she said all botulinum and other exports to Iraq at the time had been approved by the Commerce Department. "Iraq was not an embargoed country in the 1980s," she said....
Maybe you've heard that box cutters were found on two planes in the South last night. That's distrurbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that testers slipped weapons past security last week at Logan Airport in Boston -- y'know, the airport from which the planes that leveled the Twin Towers took off?
The federal security director at Logan said the security there is "no better or worse" than at other airports. Isn't that reassuring?
The federal security director at Logan said the security there is "no better or worse" than at other airports. Isn't that reassuring?
The commerce secretary is overseas. His trip yields my favorite headline of the day:
Heavily Guarded Evans Says Iraq Dangers Overblown
**********
Meanwhile, this, from Charles Hanley at AP, is just embarrassing:
The U.S. government has launched a "good news" offensive in Iraq, and a couple of Baghdad street kids, peddlers of soda pop, have been recruited for the first wave of attack.
On a two-day visit, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said thousands of new businesses have sprung up here since the war, and gave an example of new entrepreneurship: two boys he spotted by the road selling soft drinks to Baghdad's parched drivers....
Don't worry -- Hanley's not cowed. He spends the next twenty paragraphs debunking the administration's Pollyanna spin.
Heavily Guarded Evans Says Iraq Dangers Overblown
**********
Meanwhile, this, from Charles Hanley at AP, is just embarrassing:
The U.S. government has launched a "good news" offensive in Iraq, and a couple of Baghdad street kids, peddlers of soda pop, have been recruited for the first wave of attack.
On a two-day visit, U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans said thousands of new businesses have sprung up here since the war, and gave an example of new entrepreneurship: two boys he spotted by the road selling soft drinks to Baghdad's parched drivers....
Don't worry -- Hanley's not cowed. He spends the next twenty paragraphs debunking the administration's Pollyanna spin.
ABC News has a story about the surviving victims of the 2001 anthrax attacks and the problems (poor health, governmental indifference) they're still experiencing.
Here's a surprising detail:
Judicial Watch, a public interest group, has filed a $100 million class action lawsuit on behalf of the 1,600 employees who used to work at Brentwood, claiming the Postal Service knew the facility was contaminated days before it was closed.
Judicial Watch? the guys who hounded Clinton? Well, now, of course, they're suing Cheney and Halliburton and succeeding in forcing the release of embarrassing documents. Yikes -- do we have start thinking of Larry Klayman as one of the good guys?
Here's a surprising detail:
Judicial Watch, a public interest group, has filed a $100 million class action lawsuit on behalf of the 1,600 employees who used to work at Brentwood, claiming the Postal Service knew the facility was contaminated days before it was closed.
Judicial Watch? the guys who hounded Clinton? Well, now, of course, they're suing Cheney and Halliburton and succeeding in forcing the release of embarrassing documents. Yikes -- do we have start thinking of Larry Klayman as one of the good guys?
It's nice to see that Haley Barbour, GOP candidate for governor of Mississippi, is feeling a bit of heat now that his picture is prominently displayed on the Web site of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens -- "Barbour Won't Ask CCC to Take Photo Off Web Site" is the headline of this story in The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Mississippi.
But the story's somewhat deceiving. It says:
A photo on the CCC national Web site shows Barbour and several other casually dressed people — including state Sen. Robert "Bunky" Huggins, R-Greenwood — at the Black Hawk political rally this past summer in rural Carroll County, about an hour's drive north of Jackson.
Bill Lord of Greenwood, field director for the CCC, said critics are "trying to make something out of nothing." Lord said the CCC does not endorse candidates and the Barbour picture was included on the group's Internet site because the "Web master was just seeking some publicity for our organization."
Lord said the CCC held a separate barbecue the same day as the Black Hawk rally, which traditionally attracts a broad spectrum of candidates, Democratic and Republican.
That makes it sound as if the rally and the barbecue are unconnected, and the Council has connections only to the barbecue, while Barbour was photographed at the rally. But let's go straight to Council's Web site and read the caption under the offending picture:
The election year Mississippi Black Hawk Barbecue and Political Rally held on July 19 drew dozens of political candidates and was attended by a crowd of over 500. The Black Hawk Barbecue is sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens to raise money for private academy school buses. (Pictured L-R: Chip Reynolds, State Senator Bucky Huggins, Ray Martin, GOP gubernatorial nominee Haley Barbour, John Thompson, and Black Hawk Rally emcee and C of CC Field Director Bill Lord.)
Note the word "was" -- the barbecue and rally was attended by a crowd of over 500. I don't think that's an error, or bad syntax (these people are racially ignorant, but their English is just fine). I think they regard it as one event -- until the mainstream press comes nosing around.
**********
By the way, in the Clarion-Ledger article, Barbour says,
"Once you start down the slippery slope of saying 'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop?"
For all his faults, Ross Perot answered that back in the '92 presidential campaign -- he said, in the first presidential debate (and, as I recall, on several other occasions),
If you hate people, I don't want your vote.
That's all you have to say, Haley.
But the story's somewhat deceiving. It says:
A photo on the CCC national Web site shows Barbour and several other casually dressed people — including state Sen. Robert "Bunky" Huggins, R-Greenwood — at the Black Hawk political rally this past summer in rural Carroll County, about an hour's drive north of Jackson.
Bill Lord of Greenwood, field director for the CCC, said critics are "trying to make something out of nothing." Lord said the CCC does not endorse candidates and the Barbour picture was included on the group's Internet site because the "Web master was just seeking some publicity for our organization."
Lord said the CCC held a separate barbecue the same day as the Black Hawk rally, which traditionally attracts a broad spectrum of candidates, Democratic and Republican.
That makes it sound as if the rally and the barbecue are unconnected, and the Council has connections only to the barbecue, while Barbour was photographed at the rally. But let's go straight to Council's Web site and read the caption under the offending picture:
The election year Mississippi Black Hawk Barbecue and Political Rally held on July 19 drew dozens of political candidates and was attended by a crowd of over 500. The Black Hawk Barbecue is sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens to raise money for private academy school buses. (Pictured L-R: Chip Reynolds, State Senator Bucky Huggins, Ray Martin, GOP gubernatorial nominee Haley Barbour, John Thompson, and Black Hawk Rally emcee and C of CC Field Director Bill Lord.)
Note the word "was" -- the barbecue and rally was attended by a crowd of over 500. I don't think that's an error, or bad syntax (these people are racially ignorant, but their English is just fine). I think they regard it as one event -- until the mainstream press comes nosing around.
**********
By the way, in the Clarion-Ledger article, Barbour says,
"Once you start down the slippery slope of saying 'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop?"
For all his faults, Ross Perot answered that back in the '92 presidential campaign -- he said, in the first presidential debate (and, as I recall, on several other occasions),
If you hate people, I don't want your vote.
That's all you have to say, Haley.
Your "free," "liberal" press in action:
Condoleezza Rice is a sticky subject at the Washington Post this week.
The paper has suspended "The Boondocks," a comic strip populated by cynical, politically aware African-American children, because of a series of jokes about the national security adviser's personal life....
On Tuesday, cartoonist Aaron McGruder had one of his young characters speculate: "Maybe if there was a man in the world who Condoleezza truly loved, she wouldn't be so hell-bent to destroy it."
A rep for the Post, which won't be resuming the strip until Sunday, said: "We had no way of knowing whether Mr. McGruder's assertion that Condoleezza Rice had no personal relationship was true or not."
Rice's office didn't return a call yesterday.
The artist's rep told us yesterday, "Not a single other paper in the nation chose to abort this week's strip."
--New York Daily News (scroll down)
Read through the week's strips for yourself here. Pretty mild for the most part, I'd say.
For the record, the Post's squeamishness about the subject of interpersonal relationships in the Executive Branch does not prevent it from preserving a copy of the complete Starr Report on its Web site to this day.
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the Daily news link.)
Condoleezza Rice is a sticky subject at the Washington Post this week.
The paper has suspended "The Boondocks," a comic strip populated by cynical, politically aware African-American children, because of a series of jokes about the national security adviser's personal life....
On Tuesday, cartoonist Aaron McGruder had one of his young characters speculate: "Maybe if there was a man in the world who Condoleezza truly loved, she wouldn't be so hell-bent to destroy it."
A rep for the Post, which won't be resuming the strip until Sunday, said: "We had no way of knowing whether Mr. McGruder's assertion that Condoleezza Rice had no personal relationship was true or not."
Rice's office didn't return a call yesterday.
The artist's rep told us yesterday, "Not a single other paper in the nation chose to abort this week's strip."
--New York Daily News (scroll down)
Read through the week's strips for yourself here. Pretty mild for the most part, I'd say.
For the record, the Post's squeamishness about the subject of interpersonal relationships in the Executive Branch does not prevent it from preserving a copy of the complete Starr Report on its Web site to this day.
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the Daily news link.)
An interesting point about the Bush tax cuts, from Newsweek's Robert Samuelson:
From 2003 to 2013, the tax cut totals an estimated $350 billion. Fully 60 percent ($210 billion) is crammed into the 15 months before the election. This was no accident.
Samuelson's point is that presidents regularly try to get economics good times to coincide with elections, but Bush is trying awfully hard -- Samuelson also cites renewal of generous farm subsidies and an apparent effort to weaken the dollar so U.S. goods will sell better overseas -- and he really might get the timing just right, as Nixon did going into the '72 campaign.
But, as Samuelson notes, Nixon's fix for the economy (wage and price controls) was a long-term disaster. Deja vu all over again?
From 2003 to 2013, the tax cut totals an estimated $350 billion. Fully 60 percent ($210 billion) is crammed into the 15 months before the election. This was no accident.
Samuelson's point is that presidents regularly try to get economics good times to coincide with elections, but Bush is trying awfully hard -- Samuelson also cites renewal of generous farm subsidies and an apparent effort to weaken the dollar so U.S. goods will sell better overseas -- and he really might get the timing just right, as Nixon did going into the '72 campaign.
But, as Samuelson notes, Nixon's fix for the economy (wage and price controls) was a long-term disaster. Deja vu all over again?
Thursday, October 16, 2003
The Taliban have launched an unprecedented campaign to win money and support from Muslim militants outside Afghanistan amid a resurgence by the group marked by roadside killings, ambushes and public statements boasting of their successes.
After remaining relatively quiet for months, a bevy of Taliban spokesmen have been turning up on Arab TV and the Pakistani media, and a handful have started making direct phone calls to the international press, including The Associated Press.
The calls have increased in step with a bolder, bloodier insurgency that has shaken faith in the Washington-backed Afghan government's ability to assert its control, and the U.S. military's resolve at crushing the rebels.
Omar Samad, the Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the Taliban are using the media blitz to try to get their message out to hard-liners in neighboring Pakistan who share their strict brand of Islam.
"I think it is all part of a more organized effort," he told The Associated Press. "They have lost much of their ability to be a real threat to the whole process of change here, but they unfortunately still have substantial support among influential groups in Pakistan with money and access to arms and manpower."
--AP
The rest of this story is kind of murky (are these guys really responsible for a wave of killings of aid workers? have they threatened to cut off the noses and ears of clean-shaven men?), but the upshot is: we haven't even finished the job most Americans think we did manage to finish.
******
And on the subject of Afghanistan, ABC reported this a few days ago:
...The main highway from Kabul to Kandahar is known as the "American Road" because President Bush promised to rebuild it by the end of the year.
But it is still mostly dirt, and at least five collapsed bridges are in disrepair, which poses major economic problems, since it is a crucial artery for the Afghan economy.
The road is a perfect metaphor for what has happened all over Afghanistan. The international community has pledged less than the government says it needs, and it has received less than was promised. The result is that very little has been rebuilt.
According to some Afghan bus drivers, the "American Road" is also becoming too dangerous to use because armed thieves target the slow-moving traffic. Similarly, relief aid workers say the condition of the road is hindering their work.
"There have been a lot more incidents of people being attacked, bus being attacked, and aid workers being attacked. And that is obviously of concern to aid workers and is having a detrimental effect on aid work," said Sally Austin, assistant country director of CARE International in Afghanistan.
Such incidents are why President Bush wants the road to be paved by the end of the year — all 245 miles of it.
But army engineers who have studied the project say that timetable does not provide enough time to rebuild it properly.
So in order to meet the tight deadline, the "American Road" will get just one layer of asphalt this year instead of the standard three...
If that.
After remaining relatively quiet for months, a bevy of Taliban spokesmen have been turning up on Arab TV and the Pakistani media, and a handful have started making direct phone calls to the international press, including The Associated Press.
The calls have increased in step with a bolder, bloodier insurgency that has shaken faith in the Washington-backed Afghan government's ability to assert its control, and the U.S. military's resolve at crushing the rebels.
Omar Samad, the Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the Taliban are using the media blitz to try to get their message out to hard-liners in neighboring Pakistan who share their strict brand of Islam.
"I think it is all part of a more organized effort," he told The Associated Press. "They have lost much of their ability to be a real threat to the whole process of change here, but they unfortunately still have substantial support among influential groups in Pakistan with money and access to arms and manpower."
--AP
The rest of this story is kind of murky (are these guys really responsible for a wave of killings of aid workers? have they threatened to cut off the noses and ears of clean-shaven men?), but the upshot is: we haven't even finished the job most Americans think we did manage to finish.
******
And on the subject of Afghanistan, ABC reported this a few days ago:
...The main highway from Kabul to Kandahar is known as the "American Road" because President Bush promised to rebuild it by the end of the year.
But it is still mostly dirt, and at least five collapsed bridges are in disrepair, which poses major economic problems, since it is a crucial artery for the Afghan economy.
The road is a perfect metaphor for what has happened all over Afghanistan. The international community has pledged less than the government says it needs, and it has received less than was promised. The result is that very little has been rebuilt.
According to some Afghan bus drivers, the "American Road" is also becoming too dangerous to use because armed thieves target the slow-moving traffic. Similarly, relief aid workers say the condition of the road is hindering their work.
"There have been a lot more incidents of people being attacked, bus being attacked, and aid workers being attacked. And that is obviously of concern to aid workers and is having a detrimental effect on aid work," said Sally Austin, assistant country director of CARE International in Afghanistan.
Such incidents are why President Bush wants the road to be paved by the end of the year — all 245 miles of it.
But army engineers who have studied the project say that timetable does not provide enough time to rebuild it properly.
So in order to meet the tight deadline, the "American Road" will get just one layer of asphalt this year instead of the standard three...
If that.
What bugs me about people like General William Boykin --the deputy undersecretary of defense and Special Forces terrorist hunter who's attracted attention for making speeches in which he says that Bush's elevation to the White House is a miracle from God, that our real enemy is not Osama or Saddam but Satan, and that we're a Judeo-Christian nation, while the god of Muslims is an "idol" -- is that, like so many right-wing Christians, he literally doesn't think America would be America if its population weren't predominantly Christian and Jewish. That's as obnoxious an idea as the notion that my Catholic forbears and other non-Protestant immigrants were "polluting" this country a century ago. A century from now, Christians and Jews could in theory be a minority in America -- and if the non-Judeo-Christian majority embraces the American experiment, and works to preserve and strengthen it, it just doesn't matter what their religion is, or whether have any religion at all. America will still be America, whether the general likes it or not.
Oh well -- the prime minister of Malaysia thinks Jews run the world and one of our generals thinks that Judaism and Christianity should be privileged over all other religions in this country. Can we just get these two guys in an elevator together and cut the power for a while?
Oh well -- the prime minister of Malaysia thinks Jews run the world and one of our generals thinks that Judaism and Christianity should be privileged over all other religions in this country. Can we just get these two guys in an elevator together and cut the power for a while?
A couple of days ago I criticized the nasty tone of a Fox News two-minute hate that had Bush critic John MacArthur as its target. Sadly, No! picks up where I left off and nails Fox's Sean Hannity and guest Ann Coulter (and the president) on the facts.
Joel "Yes, Reverend Robertson, I Think We Should Nuke the State Department" Mowbray's bright idea for the terror war, as articulated in a column he wrote last year:
Time to Engage Malaysia Is Now
...Although Malaysia is not a perfect nation, it is an ideal partner for combating terrorism....
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, leader of the moderate ruling party, is already working to establish a positive relationship with the Bush administration. ...
By moving public opinion against hard-line politics, Mahathir has also managed to soften the main opposition party, which mostly consists of fundamentalist Muslims...
Though there has been cooperation between authorities in both countries, our national security can only be enhanced if we forge stronger ties with Malaysia.....
A few months later, ignoring Malaysia's dismal human-rights record, a smiling President Bush shook hands with Mohamad.
Oops.
AP reports today:
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory."
...Mahathir, who is known for his outspoken, anti-Western rhetoric, criticized what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations' inability to adequately respond to it as he opened the meeting of Islamic leaders from 57 nations.
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy," Mahathir said. "They get others to fight and die for them."
...The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world's 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in power, said Jews "invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy" to avoid persecution and gain control of the most powerful countries.
Mahathir added that "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews," but he suggested using political and economic tactics instead of violence....
No surprise, really -- a few months ago, members of his party were handing out copies of The International Jew, Henry Ford's notorious anti-Semitic book.
Ain't realpolitik fun?
Oh well -- Mohamad is stepping down sometime this month.
Time to Engage Malaysia Is Now
...Although Malaysia is not a perfect nation, it is an ideal partner for combating terrorism....
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, leader of the moderate ruling party, is already working to establish a positive relationship with the Bush administration. ...
By moving public opinion against hard-line politics, Mahathir has also managed to soften the main opposition party, which mostly consists of fundamentalist Muslims...
Though there has been cooperation between authorities in both countries, our national security can only be enhanced if we forge stronger ties with Malaysia.....
A few months later, ignoring Malaysia's dismal human-rights record, a smiling President Bush shook hands with Mohamad.
Oops.
AP reports today:
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday told a summit of Islamic leaders that "Jews rule the world by proxy" and the world's 1.3 billion Muslims should unite, using nonviolent means for a "final victory."
...Mahathir, who is known for his outspoken, anti-Western rhetoric, criticized what he described as Jewish domination of the world and Muslim nations' inability to adequately respond to it as he opened the meeting of Islamic leaders from 57 nations.
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy," Mahathir said. "They get others to fight and die for them."
...The prime minister, who has turned his country into the world's 17th-ranked trading nation during his 22 years in power, said Jews "invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy" to avoid persecution and gain control of the most powerful countries.
Mahathir added that "1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews," but he suggested using political and economic tactics instead of violence....
No surprise, really -- a few months ago, members of his party were handing out copies of The International Jew, Henry Ford's notorious anti-Semitic book.
Ain't realpolitik fun?
Oh well -- Mohamad is stepping down sometime this month.
Go, Henry Waxman, go!
A Democratic lawmaker yesterday accused Halliburton, the Texas oil services company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, of overcharging the US government for gasoline the firm imports into Iraq.
..."Millions of Americans want to help Iraqis but they don't want to be fleeced [by Halliburton]," Representative Henry Waxman of California said at a news conference.
Waxman said Army documents showed that as of Sept. 18, the United States had paid Halliburton $300 million to import about 190 million gallons of gasoline into Iraq. Halliburton charged an average price of $1.59 per gallon, excluding the company's fee of 2 percent to 7 percent, said Waxman.
He said the average wholesale cost of gasoline during that period in the Middle East was about 71 cents a gallon, a figure an oil industry source told Reuters was accurate. That meant Halliburton was charging more than 90 cents a gallon to transport fuel into Iraq from Kuwait.
"When we checked with independent experts to see if this fee was reasonable, they were stunned," said Waxman, saying a reasonable transport cost would be 10 to 25 cents per gallon....
--Boston Globe
A Democratic lawmaker yesterday accused Halliburton, the Texas oil services company once run by Vice President Dick Cheney, of overcharging the US government for gasoline the firm imports into Iraq.
..."Millions of Americans want to help Iraqis but they don't want to be fleeced [by Halliburton]," Representative Henry Waxman of California said at a news conference.
Waxman said Army documents showed that as of Sept. 18, the United States had paid Halliburton $300 million to import about 190 million gallons of gasoline into Iraq. Halliburton charged an average price of $1.59 per gallon, excluding the company's fee of 2 percent to 7 percent, said Waxman.
He said the average wholesale cost of gasoline during that period in the Middle East was about 71 cents a gallon, a figure an oil industry source told Reuters was accurate. That meant Halliburton was charging more than 90 cents a gallon to transport fuel into Iraq from Kuwait.
"When we checked with independent experts to see if this fee was reasonable, they were stunned," said Waxman, saying a reasonable transport cost would be 10 to 25 cents per gallon....
--Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 15, 2003
Hey -- it's Marriage Protection Week, officially proclaimed by the White House and co-sponsored by such fine organizations as the Christian Coalition, William Bennett's Empower America, and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. As a married guy, I suppose I should be happy about this -- except I'm struggling to figure out what exactly my marriage needs to be protected from. Oh yeah -- I guess it has to be protected from a five-year-old boy named Nicolaj:
Eva Kadrey and Camille Caracappa had been a couple for five years before they decided to have a family together.
With the help of an anonymous sperm donor, Ms. Kadrey became pregnant. In March 1998, with Ms. Caracappa and her mother in the delivery room, Ms. Kadrey gave birth to a boy. The couple named him Nicolaj, after Ms. Kadrey's father.
For two years, the two women and their son were part of Ms. Caracappa's large and boisterous extended family in the Jersey Shore area, spending birthdays and holidays together. Then, in October 2000, Ms. Caracappa, an oncology nurse, died of a brain aneurysm at age 38.
The following month, with the support and urging of Ms. Caracappa's mother, Ms. Kadrey — who had been a stay-at-home mother to her son — applied for Social Security survivor benefits for Nicolaj. But the Social Security Administration denied the request, saying that the child did not meet the agency's test as Ms. Caracappa's legal survivor. The two women were not legally married, as New Jersey law does not allow same-sex marriages, and Ms. Caracappa was not Nicolaj's biological mother....
Yeah -- it's a good thing we're not giving this kid the Social Security benefits I got when my father died. That would just destroy my marriage, and the marriages of all straight people.
Eva Kadrey and Camille Caracappa had been a couple for five years before they decided to have a family together.
With the help of an anonymous sperm donor, Ms. Kadrey became pregnant. In March 1998, with Ms. Caracappa and her mother in the delivery room, Ms. Kadrey gave birth to a boy. The couple named him Nicolaj, after Ms. Kadrey's father.
For two years, the two women and their son were part of Ms. Caracappa's large and boisterous extended family in the Jersey Shore area, spending birthdays and holidays together. Then, in October 2000, Ms. Caracappa, an oncology nurse, died of a brain aneurysm at age 38.
The following month, with the support and urging of Ms. Caracappa's mother, Ms. Kadrey — who had been a stay-at-home mother to her son — applied for Social Security survivor benefits for Nicolaj. But the Social Security Administration denied the request, saying that the child did not meet the agency's test as Ms. Caracappa's legal survivor. The two women were not legally married, as New Jersey law does not allow same-sex marriages, and Ms. Caracappa was not Nicolaj's biological mother....
Yeah -- it's a good thing we're not giving this kid the Social Security benefits I got when my father died. That would just destroy my marriage, and the marriages of all straight people.
Just got a copy of the new New York Times list. Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? is #1 in its first week on the list. O'Reilly's #2. Al Franken slips to #3. Molly Ivins is still #6 and Paul Krugman's still #8. Laura Ingraham drops from #7 to #11. On the extended list, David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush is #29.)
Those women who went public about Arnold Schwarzenegger's groping? They're like Stalin and Osama bin Laden -- just not quite as bad. Follow the logic of Celia Farber, writing in New York Press:
They threw every imaginable weapon at Arnold, and it was as though they were suddenly shooting blanks. The L.A. Times. Gloria Allred. The whole rotten phony lot of them.
Arnold sucked on my nipple! Blam.
I’ve never been so traumatized in my life! Blam.
He’s a sex criminal! Blam.
He’s ambivalent about Hitler! Blam. Blam. Blam.
...It didn’t work this time. The voters rose up and said UP YOURS. They sent a message to the identity thugs and the agents of political correctness. It’s like the bird flying over to Noah with the leafed twig in his beak....
Few things in life are as enjoyable as watching despotism crumble. If Gorbachev could condemn the Soviet’s crushing of the Prague Spring two decades after it happened, I hold out hope that the identity thugs in America 2003 can come to their senses and start to make amends for what they have done.
But it seems that they have no awareness whatsoever that they have "done" anything. Then again, neither did the Stasi, the VOPO (People’s Police), the KGB or any of the myriad enforcers of communism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the cliche goes, they were just doing what the State had ordered them to do, even in homicide.
Like terrorism, Political Correctness is stateless, and it lurks everywhere. Let’s not pretend it’s comparable with the despotic regimes I have cited. Of course it’s not, because it didn’t actually physically murder people....
Go read the whole thing. There are moments of lucidity, but on balance it's just loony.
(Farber, by the way, is best known as a writer on AIDS who boinked her boss at Spin magazine, then railed against the fact that he was later charged with sexual harassment. The long rant she published on the subject in Salon in '97 is more of the same. In her writing on AIDS, she questioned the belief that HIV causes the disease, which explains a few otherwise baffling sentences in the current piece. Nothing, however, explains her utter ignorance of the attitude toward speech of the ACLU, which unswervingly opposes campus speech codes and defends the right to socially objectionable speech.)
(UPDATE: Describing Farber's Salon piece on the Spin sexual-harassment trial as "more of the same" probably isn't fair. The process Farber describes sound very, very ugly and intrusive -- but she seems to regard the trial and everything that led up to it as singularly degrading and totalitarian, primarily for herself, whereas I'm sure it that at every given moment a hundred well-lawyered civil and criminal cases are similarly turning people's lives upside down. If she can think of a better way to litigate such matters, I'd like to hear what it is -- should we breed a race of mutant judges who can read minds and and resolve lawsuits and trials without evidence?)
They threw every imaginable weapon at Arnold, and it was as though they were suddenly shooting blanks. The L.A. Times. Gloria Allred. The whole rotten phony lot of them.
Arnold sucked on my nipple! Blam.
I’ve never been so traumatized in my life! Blam.
He’s a sex criminal! Blam.
He’s ambivalent about Hitler! Blam. Blam. Blam.
...It didn’t work this time. The voters rose up and said UP YOURS. They sent a message to the identity thugs and the agents of political correctness. It’s like the bird flying over to Noah with the leafed twig in his beak....
Few things in life are as enjoyable as watching despotism crumble. If Gorbachev could condemn the Soviet’s crushing of the Prague Spring two decades after it happened, I hold out hope that the identity thugs in America 2003 can come to their senses and start to make amends for what they have done.
But it seems that they have no awareness whatsoever that they have "done" anything. Then again, neither did the Stasi, the VOPO (People’s Police), the KGB or any of the myriad enforcers of communism in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. As the cliche goes, they were just doing what the State had ordered them to do, even in homicide.
Like terrorism, Political Correctness is stateless, and it lurks everywhere. Let’s not pretend it’s comparable with the despotic regimes I have cited. Of course it’s not, because it didn’t actually physically murder people....
Go read the whole thing. There are moments of lucidity, but on balance it's just loony.
(Farber, by the way, is best known as a writer on AIDS who boinked her boss at Spin magazine, then railed against the fact that he was later charged with sexual harassment. The long rant she published on the subject in Salon in '97 is more of the same. In her writing on AIDS, she questioned the belief that HIV causes the disease, which explains a few otherwise baffling sentences in the current piece. Nothing, however, explains her utter ignorance of the attitude toward speech of the ACLU, which unswervingly opposes campus speech codes and defends the right to socially objectionable speech.)
(UPDATE: Describing Farber's Salon piece on the Spin sexual-harassment trial as "more of the same" probably isn't fair. The process Farber describes sound very, very ugly and intrusive -- but she seems to regard the trial and everything that led up to it as singularly degrading and totalitarian, primarily for herself, whereas I'm sure it that at every given moment a hundred well-lawyered civil and criminal cases are similarly turning people's lives upside down. If she can think of a better way to litigate such matters, I'd like to hear what it is -- should we breed a race of mutant judges who can read minds and and resolve lawsuits and trials without evidence?)
Have you seen the photo of Haley Barbour -- the Republican who'll he'll probably be Mississippi's next governor -- at an event sponsored by the racist Council of Conservative Citizens? Here it is, on the CofCC's Web site (just to the right of the Confederate flag and a bit above the link to a multi-part essay called "In Defense of Racism").
Barbour used to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 1999, one of Barbour's successors at the RNC said of the CofCC, "It appears this group does hold racist views." (I'll say. Here's a good rundown of the group's history.)
Barbour also, as the bio on his campaign Web site points out, "chaired the Bush for President Campaign Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C. He was one of ten members of Governor Bush’s National Presidential Exploratory Committee in 1999."
Barbour used to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee. In 1999, one of Barbour's successors at the RNC said of the CofCC, "It appears this group does hold racist views." (I'll say. Here's a good rundown of the group's history.)
Barbour also, as the bio on his campaign Web site points out, "chaired the Bush for President Campaign Advisory Committee in Washington, D.C. He was one of ten members of Governor Bush’s National Presidential Exploratory Committee in 1999."
Have you seen the Jesus pictures of George W. Bush? BuzzFlash and its readers have been tracking them.
Here's one, from the Associated Press.
Here's another, also from AP.
Here's yet another (source unknown).
Administrations regularly arrange sites of presidential appearances so the photographs and TV footage will be flattering -- you place the lectern here, you compel the photographers to stand there, and, if you've done your job right, your guy looks heroic or compassionate or whatever.
But the Bushies want their guy to look as if he's got a halo around his head.
That's creepy. And if a some voters actually like this, or respond to it even on a subconscious level, that's even creepier.
Here's one, from the Associated Press.
Here's another, also from AP.
Here's yet another (source unknown).
Administrations regularly arrange sites of presidential appearances so the photographs and TV footage will be flattering -- you place the lectern here, you compel the photographers to stand there, and, if you've done your job right, your guy looks heroic or compassionate or whatever.
But the Bushies want their guy to look as if he's got a halo around his head.
That's creepy. And if a some voters actually like this, or respond to it even on a subconscious level, that's even creepier.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
In a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, Bush's approval rating is at 53% -- his lowest ever in the poll. As for the matchup with a generic Democrat,
If the 2004 presidential election were today, 46 percent of Americans say they would vote to re-elect Bush, while 47 percent would favor the Democratic candidate — the president's weakest showing to date in this so-called generic horse race. (It's 44 percent to 49 percent among registered voters). Bush's lead [sic] in this test is down from +13 in April, +8 in August and +5 last month.
Women favor a Democrat over Bush, 50%-42%; men favor Bush, 50%-44%. Bush wins whites, 53%-39%, but loses nonwhites, 23%-74%. Higher-income people favor Bush, lower-income people the Democrat. All pretty much what you'd expect.
If the 2004 presidential election were today, 46 percent of Americans say they would vote to re-elect Bush, while 47 percent would favor the Democratic candidate — the president's weakest showing to date in this so-called generic horse race. (It's 44 percent to 49 percent among registered voters). Bush's lead [sic] in this test is down from +13 in April, +8 in August and +5 last month.
Women favor a Democrat over Bush, 50%-42%; men favor Bush, 50%-44%. Bush wins whites, 53%-39%, but loses nonwhites, 23%-74%. Higher-income people favor Bush, lower-income people the Democrat. All pretty much what you'd expect.
The fact that the car was stopped so far from the hotel may have prevented much more extensive damage, said Maj. Will Delgado of the First Armored Division, who was at the scene.
Military officials said there was no structural damage to the hotel and only minor damage to several nearby buildings. The concrete barriers absorbed much of the force of the blast, they said.
--story by Alex Berenson in yesterday's New York Times story about Saturday's Baghdad Hotel bombing
A U.S. military spokesman says they received a tip three days ago that the Turkish embassy could be a target. Had they not installed concrete blast barriers, he said, the loss of life could have been greater.
--story by Bill Redeker on ABC's World News Tonight this evening about the bombing of the Turkish embassy in Baghdad today (not available online)
I guess this is the new glass-is-half full U.S. line: Lots of civilians were injured, people are terrified, but hey, without those concrete barricades, everything could have been so much worse -- so hey, things are improving!
Military officials said there was no structural damage to the hotel and only minor damage to several nearby buildings. The concrete barriers absorbed much of the force of the blast, they said.
--story by Alex Berenson in yesterday's New York Times story about Saturday's Baghdad Hotel bombing
A U.S. military spokesman says they received a tip three days ago that the Turkish embassy could be a target. Had they not installed concrete blast barriers, he said, the loss of life could have been greater.
--story by Bill Redeker on ABC's World News Tonight this evening about the bombing of the Turkish embassy in Baghdad today (not available online)
I guess this is the new glass-is-half full U.S. line: Lots of civilians were injured, people are terrified, but hey, without those concrete barricades, everything could have been so much worse -- so hey, things are improving!
I could give you a big explanation of what follows, but I think I'll let it speak for itself. It's a partial transcript of last night's Hannity & Colmes show on Fox News. In the excerpt, right-winger Sean Hannity interviews John MacArthur of Harper's Magazine. If you avoid political talk on cable TV and don't know why decent people express revulsion at the mention of Fox News or its conservative hosts, just read this. And please pass it along to any conservative friends who think liberals are the nasty ones now, the ones who need to learn civility:
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: While inspectors in Iraq continue searching for weapons of mass destruction, some Americans are outraged at the president that so far no weapons of mass destruction have been found. Our next guest thinks that's grounds for impeachment.
We're joined by the publisher of Harper's magazine, John MacArthur, who's with us. And the author of the best selling book, Treason, Ann Coulter is with us.
It's not even really intellectually worth discussing. After reading your article, my first reaction is to bubble and fizz and get mad. My second reaction is this is beyond silly, you know, but you really believe this?
JOHN MACARTHUR, HARPER'S MAGAZINE: Why do you invite me to go on the show if you think it's beyond discussion?
HANNITY: Because Alan wanted you on. That's why.
MACARTHUR: OK. But clearly...
HANNITY: It wasn't my first choice.
MACARTHUR: Clearly, if the president of the United States has lied on a grand scale to Congress...
HANNITY: Name me one lie. Name me one lie.
MACARTHUR: Let me finish.
HANNITY: If you're going to call him a liar, back it up.
MACARTHUR: I will, yes. I'll talk about what he said to Bush…Blair at the press conference on September 7 at Camp David. He said…he cited a non-existent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that Saddam was six months away from developing a nuclear weapon and infamously said, "What more evidence do we need?" And from there...
HANNITY: We don't have time for a speech.
MACARTHUR: ... we moved on to aluminum tubes. We moved on to connections with Al Qaeda.
HANNITY: Did you call...
MACARTHUR: We talked about an atomic bomb threat that did not exist. Sean, this didn't exist. This didn't exist.
HANNITY: This isn't a speech time.
MACARTHUR: You need me to give you the facts.
HANNITY: I've got to ask you, did you call for the impeachment of Bill Clinton?
MACARTHUR: I wasn't interested in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: You weren't interested? So you're only interested in the impeachment of Republicans?
MACARTHUR: No, no, no, no. I mean, it's…Listen, I can't stand Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: Did Bill Clinton lie to the American people?
MACARTHUR: Yes.
HANNITY: Why do you have one standard for him and another standard for a Republican?
MACARTHUR: I have the same standard for both of them.
HANNITY: No, you don't. Because you didn't write an article asking for his impeachment.
MACARTHUR: Actually, what I'm trying to tell you is that if you, as Senator Graham put it a few months ago very intelligently, if you apply the same standard to Bush that was applied to Clinton, then it's impeachable. He should be impeached. Absolutely.
HANNITY: Ann...
MACARTHUR: Because as Alexander Hamilton said in The Federalist Papers, this has to do with the immediate consequences and harm done to society. What could be greater harm than the deaths of American soldiers...
HANNITY: Excuse me. The immediate consequences…Sir, you have yet to...
MACARTHUR: ... in Iraq, who have been sent to Iraq on a fraudulent pretext, utterly...
HANNITY: My patience is really running thin.
MACARTHUR: ... and they're dying.
HANNITY: Could you please be quiet, because there are other people on the panel?
MACARTHUR: OK. Sure.
HANNITY: The idea here, he cannot give a specific example.
MACARTHUR: I did give a specific example.
HANNITY: He's full of crap.
MACARTHUR: I did give an example.
HANNITY: And this is just, hatred of George W. Bush now has become a sport for these guys....
SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: While inspectors in Iraq continue searching for weapons of mass destruction, some Americans are outraged at the president that so far no weapons of mass destruction have been found. Our next guest thinks that's grounds for impeachment.
We're joined by the publisher of Harper's magazine, John MacArthur, who's with us. And the author of the best selling book, Treason, Ann Coulter is with us.
It's not even really intellectually worth discussing. After reading your article, my first reaction is to bubble and fizz and get mad. My second reaction is this is beyond silly, you know, but you really believe this?
JOHN MACARTHUR, HARPER'S MAGAZINE: Why do you invite me to go on the show if you think it's beyond discussion?
HANNITY: Because Alan wanted you on. That's why.
MACARTHUR: OK. But clearly...
HANNITY: It wasn't my first choice.
MACARTHUR: Clearly, if the president of the United States has lied on a grand scale to Congress...
HANNITY: Name me one lie. Name me one lie.
MACARTHUR: Let me finish.
HANNITY: If you're going to call him a liar, back it up.
MACARTHUR: I will, yes. I'll talk about what he said to Bush…Blair at the press conference on September 7 at Camp David. He said…he cited a non-existent report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying that Saddam was six months away from developing a nuclear weapon and infamously said, "What more evidence do we need?" And from there...
HANNITY: We don't have time for a speech.
MACARTHUR: ... we moved on to aluminum tubes. We moved on to connections with Al Qaeda.
HANNITY: Did you call...
MACARTHUR: We talked about an atomic bomb threat that did not exist. Sean, this didn't exist. This didn't exist.
HANNITY: This isn't a speech time.
MACARTHUR: You need me to give you the facts.
HANNITY: I've got to ask you, did you call for the impeachment of Bill Clinton?
MACARTHUR: I wasn't interested in the impeachment of Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: You weren't interested? So you're only interested in the impeachment of Republicans?
MACARTHUR: No, no, no, no. I mean, it's…Listen, I can't stand Bill Clinton.
HANNITY: Did Bill Clinton lie to the American people?
MACARTHUR: Yes.
HANNITY: Why do you have one standard for him and another standard for a Republican?
MACARTHUR: I have the same standard for both of them.
HANNITY: No, you don't. Because you didn't write an article asking for his impeachment.
MACARTHUR: Actually, what I'm trying to tell you is that if you, as Senator Graham put it a few months ago very intelligently, if you apply the same standard to Bush that was applied to Clinton, then it's impeachable. He should be impeached. Absolutely.
HANNITY: Ann...
MACARTHUR: Because as Alexander Hamilton said in The Federalist Papers, this has to do with the immediate consequences and harm done to society. What could be greater harm than the deaths of American soldiers...
HANNITY: Excuse me. The immediate consequences…Sir, you have yet to...
MACARTHUR: ... in Iraq, who have been sent to Iraq on a fraudulent pretext, utterly...
HANNITY: My patience is really running thin.
MACARTHUR: ... and they're dying.
HANNITY: Could you please be quiet, because there are other people on the panel?
MACARTHUR: OK. Sure.
HANNITY: The idea here, he cannot give a specific example.
MACARTHUR: I did give a specific example.
HANNITY: He's full of crap.
MACARTHUR: I did give an example.
HANNITY: And this is just, hatred of George W. Bush now has become a sport for these guys....
Over at Jewish World Review (which is only incidentally Jewish and really should be called Right-Wing World Review) they found a black person who'll defend Rush Limbaugh's comments about black quarterbacks.
Jimmie Walker.
Yup, J.J. from Good Times. Mister Dyn-o-Mite!
This guy must really need the money.
Sample quote:
The Left has a double standard. When someone on the Left says something about race, they're standing up for the people. But if someone on the Right dares to opine about race, he's a racist....
I've got one thing to say: Long Live El Rush-Bo!
Yeah, I really believe he says stuff like this in his day-to-day life. I really believe that, when he's hanging around on Sunday with his friends watching football, he talks just like a National Review intern. And yes, I want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
Jimmie Walker.
Yup, J.J. from Good Times. Mister Dyn-o-Mite!
This guy must really need the money.
Sample quote:
The Left has a double standard. When someone on the Left says something about race, they're standing up for the people. But if someone on the Right dares to opine about race, he's a racist....
I've got one thing to say: Long Live El Rush-Bo!
Yeah, I really believe he says stuff like this in his day-to-day life. I really believe that, when he's hanging around on Sunday with his friends watching football, he talks just like a National Review intern. And yes, I want to buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Asia Times says the U.S. is desperately looking for an exit strategy in Afghanistan -- and a big part of the strategy is working with members of the Taliban:
With Afghanistan daily slipping into more anarchy and chaos, United States authorities, aware that they are unlikely to ever bring stability to the country by military means, continue to explore political avenues that ultimately could pave the way for them to withdraw from the country.
First there were the talks at the Pakistan Air Force base in Quetta with "moderate" elements of the Taliban (which immediately failed due to the US insistence on the sidelining of Taliban leader Mullah Omar). Then came the formation of Jaishul Muslim, a formal grouping of lesser Taliban lights (which failed even to enter into Afghanistan), and moves to pry some of the more powerful mujahideen commanders from the anti-US resistance movement.
And last week, former Taliban foreign minister Mullah Abdul Wakeel Mutawakil was released from US custody in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where he had been in detention since handing himself over to the US in February last year.....
...Mutawakil ... is now expected, with help from the Pakistanis, to be given a senior position in the local government in Kandahar, the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban.
At the same time, options are being explored to recruit other powerful former Taliban ministers into the central cabinet in key positions, including that of defense....
The story goes on to say that the U.S. is trying to "flip" Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a prominent mujahideen who "gave up his high position in the Taliban regime to take up arms as a guerrilla against the US-led invading army." (Hey, wouldn't that make him an "enemy combatant" if we had him in custody? Sorry, never mind.)
If this is really what the Bush administration intends to do, it's awfully convenient that many Americans are now angrier at Saddam Hussein for the Taliban-supported al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11 than they are at al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
With Afghanistan daily slipping into more anarchy and chaos, United States authorities, aware that they are unlikely to ever bring stability to the country by military means, continue to explore political avenues that ultimately could pave the way for them to withdraw from the country.
First there were the talks at the Pakistan Air Force base in Quetta with "moderate" elements of the Taliban (which immediately failed due to the US insistence on the sidelining of Taliban leader Mullah Omar). Then came the formation of Jaishul Muslim, a formal grouping of lesser Taliban lights (which failed even to enter into Afghanistan), and moves to pry some of the more powerful mujahideen commanders from the anti-US resistance movement.
And last week, former Taliban foreign minister Mullah Abdul Wakeel Mutawakil was released from US custody in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where he had been in detention since handing himself over to the US in February last year.....
...Mutawakil ... is now expected, with help from the Pakistanis, to be given a senior position in the local government in Kandahar, the former spiritual headquarters of the Taliban.
At the same time, options are being explored to recruit other powerful former Taliban ministers into the central cabinet in key positions, including that of defense....
The story goes on to say that the U.S. is trying to "flip" Maulana Jalaluddin Haqqani, a prominent mujahideen who "gave up his high position in the Taliban regime to take up arms as a guerrilla against the US-led invading army." (Hey, wouldn't that make him an "enemy combatant" if we had him in custody? Sorry, never mind.)
If this is really what the Bush administration intends to do, it's awfully convenient that many Americans are now angrier at Saddam Hussein for the Taliban-supported al-Qaeda attacks of 9/11 than they are at al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Want to send a pre-written letter to your local newspaper that says the Bush administration is doing a really swell job? Just go here and click on one or more of the green check marks, then fill in a few of the other fields and you're good to go.
I'll say it again -- why aren't the reporters who are writing stories about identical soldiers' letters bothering to mention that this is a favorite technique of the GOP?
(UPDATE: I see from Hesiod at Counterspin Central that Joshua Micah Marshall was discussing the nature of "Astroturf" letter-writing campaigns on CNN Newsnight last night -- scroll down to "ADDENDUM" for a partial transcript. But it's discussed in an "everybody does it" way. Also, Bush's "regional media" strategy and the letter-writing campaign are mentioned in the same paragraph in this Washington Post story, but that's just an arched eyebrow, if that. I think the fact that the political wing of the GOP was caught doing this, recently, is highly relevant to the GI Astroturf story. Somebody needs to say so outright.)
I'll say it again -- why aren't the reporters who are writing stories about identical soldiers' letters bothering to mention that this is a favorite technique of the GOP?
(UPDATE: I see from Hesiod at Counterspin Central that Joshua Micah Marshall was discussing the nature of "Astroturf" letter-writing campaigns on CNN Newsnight last night -- scroll down to "ADDENDUM" for a partial transcript. But it's discussed in an "everybody does it" way. Also, Bush's "regional media" strategy and the letter-writing campaign are mentioned in the same paragraph in this Washington Post story, but that's just an arched eyebrow, if that. I think the fact that the political wing of the GOP was caught doing this, recently, is highly relevant to the GI Astroturf story. Somebody needs to say so outright.)
Lucianne.com is still pushing the notion that a 5% increase in approval plus a 5% decrease in disapproval (as reported by Gallup) means George W. is up 10% in the polls (scroll down to the photo caption). I haven't found evidence that this outright distortion of reality is being repeated elsewhere, but I'll keep looking.
I'm still trying to figure out why Bush is up. The Gallup site says, "The improvement in Bush's ratings comes mainly from Democrats, who remain highly critical of the president, but show a 12-point improvement in ratings from mid-September (16%) to now (28%)"; Gallup simultaneously conducted a poll for CNN and USA Today that had similar results, and a CNN story on the poll cited "big gains among men and among high-income Americans."
It's hard to believe both of these explanations are correct. I'd say this was a margin-of-error swing, or maybe some of the sticker shock from the $87 billion Iraq/Afghanistan request had worn off -- or maybe some white guys felt the urge to rally to Bush because they see him as an embodiment of Regular-Guydom (remember that the poll was conducted just at the moment when Regular Guy heroes Arnold and Rush were being attacked by those stinky old liberals and blacks and the the law and women who won't just shut up and play nice). That's just a wild guess, of course, but I haven't seen a better explanation.
I'm still trying to figure out why Bush is up. The Gallup site says, "The improvement in Bush's ratings comes mainly from Democrats, who remain highly critical of the president, but show a 12-point improvement in ratings from mid-September (16%) to now (28%)"; Gallup simultaneously conducted a poll for CNN and USA Today that had similar results, and a CNN story on the poll cited "big gains among men and among high-income Americans."
It's hard to believe both of these explanations are correct. I'd say this was a margin-of-error swing, or maybe some of the sticker shock from the $87 billion Iraq/Afghanistan request had worn off -- or maybe some white guys felt the urge to rally to Bush because they see him as an embodiment of Regular-Guydom (remember that the poll was conducted just at the moment when Regular Guy heroes Arnold and Rush were being attacked by those stinky old liberals and blacks and the the law and women who won't just shut up and play nice). That's just a wild guess, of course, but I haven't seen a better explanation.
Monday, October 13, 2003
Kurt Cobain was, ladies and gentlemen, a worthless shred of human debris.
--Rush Limbaugh on his short-lived TV show, April 11, 1994, six days after the suicide by shotgun of the chronically depressed, drug-dependent leader of the rock group Nirvana
Want to explain to me again why I'm supposed to go easy on Rush Limbaugh, Howie?
(Quote from The Way Things Aren't by Steve Rendall, Jim Naureckas, and Jeff Cohen of FAIR.)
--Rush Limbaugh on his short-lived TV show, April 11, 1994, six days after the suicide by shotgun of the chronically depressed, drug-dependent leader of the rock group Nirvana
Want to explain to me again why I'm supposed to go easy on Rush Limbaugh, Howie?
(Quote from The Way Things Aren't by Steve Rendall, Jim Naureckas, and Jeff Cohen of FAIR.)
IT'LL BE A GREAT DAY WHEN THE SCHOOLS HAVE ALL THE FUNDS THEY NEED AND THE PENTAGON HAS TO SELL NUDE PICTURES OF DONALD RUMSFELD TO BUY OMBERS
How much do we care about our kids in this country? So much that local school districts have to do stuff like this:
JUNCTION CITY, Oregon (AP) -- Cleve Dumdi -- a 70-year-old respected sheep rancher, husband of a former county commissioner -- was walking in this small Oregon town one day when a longtime acquaintance hailed him from across the street.
"Hey Dumdi!," the man hollered. "Didn't recognize you with your clothes on!"
It's the kind of ribbing Dumdi has had to bear ever since he disrobed and perched on his tractor for a 2004 nudie calendar featuring the men of Junction City's Long Tom Grange.
All proceeds from calendar sales go to the Junction City school district, which has had to give up at least three classroom teachers, art, music, gym class and field trips after recent severe state cutbacks in education budgets.
The calendar, which is being sold online for $17, is the latest gambit to raise money for local schools in a state where teachers already have lined up to sell their blood plasma and ranchers have auctioned off the rights to hunt for buffalo and antelope on their property....
Look, I don't want to be totally humorless about this -- the calendar is done in good fun, in the manner of England's Ladies of Rylstone calendar, which raised money for leukemia research. But come on, people. These are our schools. These are our kids. Pay some damn taxes. The sight of slightly embarrassed middle-aged naked people is entertaining for a year or two, but for school funding it's not a long-term plan.
How much do we care about our kids in this country? So much that local school districts have to do stuff like this:
JUNCTION CITY, Oregon (AP) -- Cleve Dumdi -- a 70-year-old respected sheep rancher, husband of a former county commissioner -- was walking in this small Oregon town one day when a longtime acquaintance hailed him from across the street.
"Hey Dumdi!," the man hollered. "Didn't recognize you with your clothes on!"
It's the kind of ribbing Dumdi has had to bear ever since he disrobed and perched on his tractor for a 2004 nudie calendar featuring the men of Junction City's Long Tom Grange.
All proceeds from calendar sales go to the Junction City school district, which has had to give up at least three classroom teachers, art, music, gym class and field trips after recent severe state cutbacks in education budgets.
The calendar, which is being sold online for $17, is the latest gambit to raise money for local schools in a state where teachers already have lined up to sell their blood plasma and ranchers have auctioned off the rights to hunt for buffalo and antelope on their property....
Look, I don't want to be totally humorless about this -- the calendar is done in good fun, in the manner of England's Ladies of Rylstone calendar, which raised money for leukemia research. But come on, people. These are our schools. These are our kids. Pay some damn taxes. The sight of slightly embarrassed middle-aged naked people is entertaining for a year or two, but for school funding it's not a long-term plan.
Why does the Bush administration hate the troops?
Nearly one-quarter of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still have not been issued a new type of ceramic body armor strong enough to stop bullets fired from assault rifles.
Delays in funding, production and shipping mean it will be December before all troops in Iraq will have the vests, which were introduced four years ago, military officials say.
Congress approved $310 million in April to buy 300,000 more of the bulletproof vests, with 30,000 destined to complete outfitting of the troops in Iraq. Of that money, however, only about $75 million has reached the Army office responsible for overseeing the vests' manufacture and distribution, said David Nelson, an official in that office....
--AP
Nearly one-quarter of the 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq still have not been issued a new type of ceramic body armor strong enough to stop bullets fired from assault rifles.
Delays in funding, production and shipping mean it will be December before all troops in Iraq will have the vests, which were introduced four years ago, military officials say.
Congress approved $310 million in April to buy 300,000 more of the bulletproof vests, with 30,000 destined to complete outfitting of the troops in Iraq. Of that money, however, only about $75 million has reached the Army office responsible for overseeing the vests' manufacture and distribution, said David Nelson, an official in that office....
--AP
I'm delighted that a number of newspapers, including USA Today, are running the story about the phony letter that's appeared over various soldiers' signatures in many different newspapers -- but why haven't any of the stories pointed out that this "Astroturf" (phony grassroots) propaganda technique was being used last winter by an online division of the Republican National Committee?
This scares me a bit:
BERLIN (Reuters) - Call it the "Arnold Effect."
The straight-talking Hollywood action star's election win in California has had an electrifying impact on Germany, leading to calls Friday for top politicians to voice clear ideas in simple language or be swept away at the polls.
"The more confused we are by what they say, the greater our longing for a man or woman with simple words," wrote Bild newspaper columnist Franz Josef Wagner. "The only problem is that it's the wrong ones who usually master simple language."
Schwarzenegger's victory in the California race for governor has led to editorials calling for German politicians to abandon their barely comprehensible speaking style in favor of "Klartext" (straight talk).
..."My first thought was 'Oh my God, not another Austrian emigrant -- the first one caused enough damage"' wrote Peter Boenisch, a former government spokesman and newspaper editor, in an analysis on Schwarzenegger for the tabloid Bild.
"But Germany urgently needs something Schwarzenegger-like: a can-do spirit, unconventional thinking, courage, strength and vision. We're facing the worst crisis since the war," he wrote....
"People want to be entertained and not bothered with problems," wrote the liberal Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "People want a strong leader."...
All right -- let me say that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not, at the end of the day, actually a believer in Nazism. And let me also say that Germans have tried really, really hard to learn from their mistakes in the middle of the last century.
OK, I said those things. I still don't feel any better.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Call it the "Arnold Effect."
The straight-talking Hollywood action star's election win in California has had an electrifying impact on Germany, leading to calls Friday for top politicians to voice clear ideas in simple language or be swept away at the polls.
"The more confused we are by what they say, the greater our longing for a man or woman with simple words," wrote Bild newspaper columnist Franz Josef Wagner. "The only problem is that it's the wrong ones who usually master simple language."
Schwarzenegger's victory in the California race for governor has led to editorials calling for German politicians to abandon their barely comprehensible speaking style in favor of "Klartext" (straight talk).
..."My first thought was 'Oh my God, not another Austrian emigrant -- the first one caused enough damage"' wrote Peter Boenisch, a former government spokesman and newspaper editor, in an analysis on Schwarzenegger for the tabloid Bild.
"But Germany urgently needs something Schwarzenegger-like: a can-do spirit, unconventional thinking, courage, strength and vision. We're facing the worst crisis since the war," he wrote....
"People want to be entertained and not bothered with problems," wrote the liberal Sueddeutsche Zeitung. "People want a strong leader."...
All right -- let me say that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not, at the end of the day, actually a believer in Nazism. And let me also say that Germans have tried really, really hard to learn from their mistakes in the middle of the last century.
OK, I said those things. I still don't feel any better.
GREAT MOMENTS IN TRANSPARENTLY DISHONEST SPIN
The most recent Gallup Poll shows a mixed set of results on ratings of George W. Bush. The president's job approval rating is up slightly from his previous rating, which was the low point of his presidency....
The poll was conducted Oct. 6-8 and shows Bush's job approval rating at 55%, with 42% disapproving. This represents a modest improvement from the previous Gallup Poll of Sept. 19-21, when 50% approved and 47% disapproved -- the most negative approval ratings in Bush's presidency to date.
--Gallup poll analysis at Gallup.com
* Mixed Results in Latest Bush Ratings
Not so 'mixed' - up 10%
--citation of the Gallup poll at Lucianne Goldberg's Lucianne.com
So now, if Bush is up 5% in a poll, he isn't just up 5% -- he's really up 10%, because the spread between "favorable" and "unfavorable" has now changed 10% in his direction.
This is a highly creative use of numbers. Somehow I don't think Lucianne and her allies ever read the numbers quite this way during the last presidency.
********
Here's what Gallup actually means by "mixed results":
Forty-two percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the economy, compared with steady ratings in the mid-40s from July through September. Currently, 55% of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy. Bush's current economic ratings are the worst of his presidency.
...Ratings of Bush's handling of Iraq have also hit a new low. Just 47% approve while 50% disapprove, the first time this approval rating has dipped below 50% in the year in which Gallup has tracked his handling of Iraq.
...Consistent with what has been the case throughout his presidency, the public still has a generally positive impression of Bush. Sixty percent view him favorably, while 39% hold an unfavorable view. While still firmly in positive territory, this is the lowest rating Bush has received since he took office, tied with a 60% favorable rating in August 2001.
The most recent Gallup Poll shows a mixed set of results on ratings of George W. Bush. The president's job approval rating is up slightly from his previous rating, which was the low point of his presidency....
The poll was conducted Oct. 6-8 and shows Bush's job approval rating at 55%, with 42% disapproving. This represents a modest improvement from the previous Gallup Poll of Sept. 19-21, when 50% approved and 47% disapproved -- the most negative approval ratings in Bush's presidency to date.
--Gallup poll analysis at Gallup.com
* Mixed Results in Latest Bush Ratings
Not so 'mixed' - up 10%
--citation of the Gallup poll at Lucianne Goldberg's Lucianne.com
So now, if Bush is up 5% in a poll, he isn't just up 5% -- he's really up 10%, because the spread between "favorable" and "unfavorable" has now changed 10% in his direction.
This is a highly creative use of numbers. Somehow I don't think Lucianne and her allies ever read the numbers quite this way during the last presidency.
********
Here's what Gallup actually means by "mixed results":
Forty-two percent of Americans approve of Bush's handling of the economy, compared with steady ratings in the mid-40s from July through September. Currently, 55% of Americans disapprove of Bush's handling of the economy. Bush's current economic ratings are the worst of his presidency.
...Ratings of Bush's handling of Iraq have also hit a new low. Just 47% approve while 50% disapprove, the first time this approval rating has dipped below 50% in the year in which Gallup has tracked his handling of Iraq.
...Consistent with what has been the case throughout his presidency, the public still has a generally positive impression of Bush. Sixty percent view him favorably, while 39% hold an unfavorable view. While still firmly in positive territory, this is the lowest rating Bush has received since he took office, tied with a 60% favorable rating in August 2001.
Sunday, October 12, 2003
WWJN? (WHAT WOULD JESUS NUKE?)
The U.S. State Department has condemned an on-air suggestion by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the agency ought to be blown up with a nuclear device.
Robertson, who heads the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, made the remark while interviewing author Joel Mowbray on "The 700 Club" television program last week. Mowbray wrote a book called "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Endangers America's Security."
"I read your book. When you get through, you say, 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer.' I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've got to blow that thing up,'" Robertson said during the interview.
...Robertson also advocated bombing the State Department during a June interview with Mowbray.
"Well, it looks like Congress had better do something, and maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up," Robertson said.
--AP
Yes, yhe State Department denounced the remark, but nothing has been said, as far as I know, by the folks who got so worked up a few months ago about John Kerry's far milder call for "regime change in the United States."
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the link.)
The U.S. State Department has condemned an on-air suggestion by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson that the agency ought to be blown up with a nuclear device.
Robertson, who heads the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network, made the remark while interviewing author Joel Mowbray on "The 700 Club" television program last week. Mowbray wrote a book called "Dangerous Diplomacy: How the State Department Endangers America's Security."
"I read your book. When you get through, you say, 'If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom, I think that's the answer.' I mean, you get through this, and you say, 'We've got to blow that thing up,'" Robertson said during the interview.
...Robertson also advocated bombing the State Department during a June interview with Mowbray.
"Well, it looks like Congress had better do something, and maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up," Robertson said.
--AP
Yes, yhe State Department denounced the remark, but nothing has been said, as far as I know, by the folks who got so worked up a few months ago about John Kerry's far milder call for "regime change in the United States."
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the link.)
Some fun facts about CEO pay:
CEOs at companies with the largest layoffs, most underfunded pensions and biggest tax breaks were rewarded with bigger paychecks, according to a new report, “Executive Excess 2003: CEOs Win, Workers and Taxpayers Lose.”
Median CEO pay skyrocketed 44 percent from 2001 to 2002 at the 50 companies with the most announced layoffs in 2001, while overall CEO pay rose only 6 percent. These layoff leaders had median compensation of $5.1 million in 2002, compared with $3.7 million at the 365 large corporations surveyed by Business Week.
At the 30 companies with the greatest shortfall in their employees’ pension funds, CEOs made 59 percent more than the median CEO in Business Week's survey....
...At the 24 Fortune 500 companies with the most subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, median CEO pay over the 2000 to 2002 period was $26.5 million -- 87 percent more than the $14.2 million median three-year pay at firms surveyed by Business Week.
The top layoff leader in terms of layoff numbers is Carly S. Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard. She fired 25,700 workers in 2001, and saw her pay jump 231 percent, from $1.2 million in 2001 to $4.1 million in 2002.
The top layoff leader by percentage pay increase is AOL Time Warner's Gerald M. Levin, who presided over 4,380 layoffs in 2001. Levin's pay increased a staggering 1,612 percent, from $1.2 million in 2001 to $21.2 million in 2002.
The highest paid layoff leader was Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski, who took home over $71 million in 2002, a $34.7 million raise, even though he was forced out in disgrace mid-year. In 2001, Tyco laid off 11,300 workers. The top 50 layoff leaders cut a total of 465,252 jobs in 2001.
This report, by Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Chris Hartman, and Scott Klinger, “ was done for the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.
CEOs at companies with the largest layoffs, most underfunded pensions and biggest tax breaks were rewarded with bigger paychecks, according to a new report, “Executive Excess 2003: CEOs Win, Workers and Taxpayers Lose.”
Median CEO pay skyrocketed 44 percent from 2001 to 2002 at the 50 companies with the most announced layoffs in 2001, while overall CEO pay rose only 6 percent. These layoff leaders had median compensation of $5.1 million in 2002, compared with $3.7 million at the 365 large corporations surveyed by Business Week.
At the 30 companies with the greatest shortfall in their employees’ pension funds, CEOs made 59 percent more than the median CEO in Business Week's survey....
...At the 24 Fortune 500 companies with the most subsidiaries in offshore tax havens, median CEO pay over the 2000 to 2002 period was $26.5 million -- 87 percent more than the $14.2 million median three-year pay at firms surveyed by Business Week.
The top layoff leader in terms of layoff numbers is Carly S. Fiorina at Hewlett-Packard. She fired 25,700 workers in 2001, and saw her pay jump 231 percent, from $1.2 million in 2001 to $4.1 million in 2002.
The top layoff leader by percentage pay increase is AOL Time Warner's Gerald M. Levin, who presided over 4,380 layoffs in 2001. Levin's pay increased a staggering 1,612 percent, from $1.2 million in 2001 to $21.2 million in 2002.
The highest paid layoff leader was Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski, who took home over $71 million in 2002, a $34.7 million raise, even though he was forced out in disgrace mid-year. In 2001, Tyco laid off 11,300 workers. The top 50 layoff leaders cut a total of 465,252 jobs in 2001.
This report, by Sarah Anderson, John Cavanagh, Chris Hartman, and Scott Klinger, “ was done for the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.
Thursday, October 09, 2003
Well, we are trying, I guess. The St. Petersburg Times reports:
Earlier this year, American officials in Iraq contracted with two United Nations agencies to provide 72-million new textbooks for Iraqi schoolchildren to replace the old books crammed with photos and praise of Saddam Hussein.
But when Iraq's schools reopened last week, there were few, if any, revised textbooks in the classrooms.
U.S. officials said that most of the new books, which are being printed primarily on local presses, may not get to Iraqi children until sometime in November. And some books may even be delayed until next April.
In the breach, references to Hussein were crossed out by hand and decals pasted over his pictures....
About 1,000 of the country's 13,500 school buildings have been refurbished so far, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. officials say the schoolbook revision project was carried out by a committee of Iraqi teachers. The committee went through more than 500 different books, deleting such statements as "learn the instruction of the Leader and all science shall be yours."
The new Iraqi education ministry also has pledged to increase salaries for teachers. In the past, teachers were paid the equivalent of $5.33 to $13.33 a month; the new scale calls for monthly wages of $66.66 to $333.33.
At the link there's information about other aspects of the reconstruction, some of it good, more of it bad. The report is summed up in this sidebar, which begins:
Status of goals
Two months ago, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq listed hundreds of projects it wanted to accomplish by Oct. 3. When that day passed on Friday, some of the tasks were done and some were not. Here is a sampling:
SECURITY
Locate, secure and eliminate WMD.
Actual: Not yet.
Defeat internal armed threats.
Actual: Not yet....
Click the link for the rest.
Earlier this year, American officials in Iraq contracted with two United Nations agencies to provide 72-million new textbooks for Iraqi schoolchildren to replace the old books crammed with photos and praise of Saddam Hussein.
But when Iraq's schools reopened last week, there were few, if any, revised textbooks in the classrooms.
U.S. officials said that most of the new books, which are being printed primarily on local presses, may not get to Iraqi children until sometime in November. And some books may even be delayed until next April.
In the breach, references to Hussein were crossed out by hand and decals pasted over his pictures....
About 1,000 of the country's 13,500 school buildings have been refurbished so far, according to U.S. officials.
U.S. officials say the schoolbook revision project was carried out by a committee of Iraqi teachers. The committee went through more than 500 different books, deleting such statements as "learn the instruction of the Leader and all science shall be yours."
The new Iraqi education ministry also has pledged to increase salaries for teachers. In the past, teachers were paid the equivalent of $5.33 to $13.33 a month; the new scale calls for monthly wages of $66.66 to $333.33.
At the link there's information about other aspects of the reconstruction, some of it good, more of it bad. The report is summed up in this sidebar, which begins:
Status of goals
Two months ago, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq listed hundreds of projects it wanted to accomplish by Oct. 3. When that day passed on Friday, some of the tasks were done and some were not. Here is a sampling:
SECURITY
Locate, secure and eliminate WMD.
Actual: Not yet.
Defeat internal armed threats.
Actual: Not yet....
Click the link for the rest.
This is truly appalling:
Catholic Churches Say Condoms Don't Stop AIDS - BBC
The lives of Roman Catholics in some of the countries worst hit by HIV/AIDS are being put at even greater risk by advice from their churches that the use of condoms does not prevent transmission of the disease, according to a British television program.
..."The moral argument against the use of condoms is being superseded by a clinical argument which is flawed," said Steve Bradshaw, reporter on the BBC Panorama program "Sex and the Holy City" that will be aired in Britain on Sunday night.
"The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, told the program.
"The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."
...The Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki told the program: "AIDS...has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
While in Luak near Lake Victoria, Gordon Wambi, director of an AIDS testing center, said he had been prevented from distributing condoms because of church opposition.
...The World Health Organization, guardian watchdog of global wellbeing, rejected the Vatican view.
"These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million," the WHO told the program....
Don't you dare accuse me of "anti-Catholic bigotry" for objecting to this. In this case, the church of my youth is working strictly in the secular realm, peddling junk science and playing games with human lives. And if you must accuse me of anti-Catholic bigotry, accuse the Centers for Disease Control as well -- although information on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV infection was once taken down from the CDC's Web site, it's back up now:
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
AIDS is, by far, the most deadly sexually transmitted disease, and considerably more scientific evidence exists regarding condom effectiveness for prevention of HIV infection than for other STDs. The body of research on the effectiveness of latex condoms in preventing sexual transmission of HIV is both comprehensive and conclusive. In fact, the ability of latex condoms to prevent transmission of HIV has been scientifically established in “real-life” studies of sexually active couples as well as in laboratory studies.
Laboratory studies have demonstrated that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of STD pathogens.
Catholic Churches Say Condoms Don't Stop AIDS - BBC
The lives of Roman Catholics in some of the countries worst hit by HIV/AIDS are being put at even greater risk by advice from their churches that the use of condoms does not prevent transmission of the disease, according to a British television program.
..."The moral argument against the use of condoms is being superseded by a clinical argument which is flawed," said Steve Bradshaw, reporter on the BBC Panorama program "Sex and the Holy City" that will be aired in Britain on Sunday night.
"The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon," Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, told the program.
"The spermatozoon can easily pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom."
...The Archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki told the program: "AIDS...has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
While in Luak near Lake Victoria, Gordon Wambi, director of an AIDS testing center, said he had been prevented from distributing condoms because of church opposition.
...The World Health Organization, guardian watchdog of global wellbeing, rejected the Vatican view.
"These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and currently affects at least 42 million," the WHO told the program....
Don't you dare accuse me of "anti-Catholic bigotry" for objecting to this. In this case, the church of my youth is working strictly in the secular realm, peddling junk science and playing games with human lives. And if you must accuse me of anti-Catholic bigotry, accuse the Centers for Disease Control as well -- although information on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing HIV infection was once taken down from the CDC's Web site, it's back up now:
Latex condoms, when used consistently and correctly, are highly effective in preventing the sexual transmission of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
AIDS is, by far, the most deadly sexually transmitted disease, and considerably more scientific evidence exists regarding condom effectiveness for prevention of HIV infection than for other STDs. The body of research on the effectiveness of latex condoms in preventing sexual transmission of HIV is both comprehensive and conclusive. In fact, the ability of latex condoms to prevent transmission of HIV has been scientifically established in “real-life” studies of sexually active couples as well as in laboratory studies.
Laboratory studies have demonstrated that latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of STD pathogens.
Well, we made everyone in America think you're a filthy traitor, but -- whoops! -- we just noticed we really have no case against you. Awfully sorry about that....
No spy rap vs. cleric? Expect just minor Gitmo charges
WASHINGTON - Army investigators are leaning toward filing slap-on-the-wrist charges versus a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was investigated for espionage, a military source told the Daily News yesterday.
The "handful" of minor charges against Capt. Yousef Yee could be leveled by next week and are not expected to include the more serious allegations of spying, sedition or aiding the enemy, according to the source familiar with the probe.
"It's very weak," the military source said, saying the charges are likely to be related to dereliction of duty and disobeying a general order. "It's nothing compared to espionage or anything like that." ...
--New York Daily News
Oh, and by the way,
Several military sources said that although many questions remain in the larger espionage investigation, there is no indication a spy ring operated inside the camp.
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the link.)
No spy rap vs. cleric? Expect just minor Gitmo charges
WASHINGTON - Army investigators are leaning toward filing slap-on-the-wrist charges versus a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo Bay who was investigated for espionage, a military source told the Daily News yesterday.
The "handful" of minor charges against Capt. Yousef Yee could be leveled by next week and are not expected to include the more serious allegations of spying, sedition or aiding the enemy, according to the source familiar with the probe.
"It's very weak," the military source said, saying the charges are likely to be related to dereliction of duty and disobeying a general order. "It's nothing compared to espionage or anything like that." ...
--New York Daily News
Oh, and by the way,
Several military sources said that although many questions remain in the larger espionage investigation, there is no indication a spy ring operated inside the camp.
(Thanks to BuzzFlash for the link.)
Ever read an actual Republican Party platform? Ever read the Texas Republican Party platform? Kevin Drum at Calpundit has, and it's more extreme than you could possibly imagine. I can give you some of the highlights (it is the official position of the Texas Republican Party that Social Security and the minimum wage should be abolished), and I can point out Neanderthal social attitudes (not only do Texas Republicans oppose adoptions by homosexuals, they believe no gay person should be allowed to be in the same room with a minor unsupervised) -- but read read Kevin's post (and the excerpts) for yourself.
Kevin says, "Texas-style conservatism has already put George Bush, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove in charge of the country, and it is very much the future of the Republican party." I agree. Forget Schwarzenegger and Giuliani. Look at the Republicans who actually run the country, in the White House and Congress and on the Supreme Court. Kevin's absolutely right -- this is why we loathe the GOP, and it's why we're right to do so.
Kevin says, "Texas-style conservatism has already put George Bush, Tom DeLay, and Karl Rove in charge of the country, and it is very much the future of the Republican party." I agree. Forget Schwarzenegger and Giuliani. Look at the Republicans who actually run the country, in the White House and Congress and on the Supreme Court. Kevin's absolutely right -- this is why we loathe the GOP, and it's why we're right to do so.
I said yesterday, in response to a post at Calpundit, that I think it would be a really bad idea to do what some people are proposing -- start a drive right now to recall Arnold Schwarzenegger.
But I think this would be a perfect time for Democrats to turn the recall table on Republicans in a different way.
I think -- right now -- someone needs to draft an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing for recall of elected and appointed officials in the federal government. Ideally, this amendment would be introduced as a bill by a member of Congress, but a petition drive calling for a constitutional convention (see Article V of the Constitution) could be rather frightening to the GOP, too.
We don't actually have to succeed -- if this gets a big enough favorable response and enough press, it will reinforce the impression of a weakened, wounded, vulnerable administration.
Just what we want going into 2004.
Recall Bush? Recall Cheney? Recall Rummy? Let's write a law that could make it happen.
(UPDATE: Yeah, I know -- a constitutional convention can go off half-cocked and produce any amendments it wants, and any con-con that took place in contemporary America would probably approve amendments outlawing abortion, mandating school prayer, banning gay marriage, and so on -- but that's no reason not to threaten to go that route. This is meant to rally refuseniks and put the regime on notice. Remember how Bob Barr called for Clinton's impeachment well before Monica? It's meant to be like that.)
But I think this would be a perfect time for Democrats to turn the recall table on Republicans in a different way.
I think -- right now -- someone needs to draft an amendment to the U.S. Constitution allowing for recall of elected and appointed officials in the federal government. Ideally, this amendment would be introduced as a bill by a member of Congress, but a petition drive calling for a constitutional convention (see Article V of the Constitution) could be rather frightening to the GOP, too.
We don't actually have to succeed -- if this gets a big enough favorable response and enough press, it will reinforce the impression of a weakened, wounded, vulnerable administration.
Just what we want going into 2004.
Recall Bush? Recall Cheney? Recall Rummy? Let's write a law that could make it happen.
(UPDATE: Yeah, I know -- a constitutional convention can go off half-cocked and produce any amendments it wants, and any con-con that took place in contemporary America would probably approve amendments outlawing abortion, mandating school prayer, banning gay marriage, and so on -- but that's no reason not to threaten to go that route. This is meant to rally refuseniks and put the regime on notice. Remember how Bob Barr called for Clinton's impeachment well before Monica? It's meant to be like that.)
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
Judging from this AP report, it appears that the Bush administration's new Iraq strategy consists largely of having Dick Cheney's Big Lies delivered in a high, girlish voice:
Rice Says Iraq Never Disarmed
...Condoleezza Rice told a foreign policy forum in Chicago that the team led by chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay "is finding proof that Iraq never disarmed and never complied with U.N. inspectors."
In fact, she suggested, if the U.N. Security Council knew last winter what Kay's group has uncovered now, it never would have rejected the U.S. call for war.
"Right up until the end, Saddam lied to the Security Council. And let there be no mistake, right up to the end, Saddam Hussein continued to harbor ambitions to threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction and to hide his illegal weapons activity," she told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
..."We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks," Rice said. Still, she added, the possibility that the Iraqi leader could be behind another attack "beyond the scale of 9-11 ... could not be put aside." ...
Oh, for the love of Mike.... Iraq clearly had WMDs a long time ago. They're not there now, dammit. A hundred thousand Americans were in Saddam's own country overthrowing his government and he couldn't get his chem-bio-nuke act together to attack a single one of those soldiers unconventionally. The UN couldn't find the WMDs and the best we've come up with is one stinking vial of botulinum toxin squirreled away far from any battalion of soldiers or military outpost.
Do these Bushies ever get sick of lying?
(UPDATE: And don't forget that that vial of botulinum toxin had been sitting in a refrigerator since 1993, as Billmon notes, and is a precursor agent, not a bioweapon on its own.)
(UPDATE: Actually, it's awfully hard to beat the debunking of the Kay report by Fred Kaplan in Slate, which points out weasel-word after weasel-word and shows that no one's yet found evidence of an imminent threat.)
(UPDATE: I said "botulinum toxin" above, but of course it wasn't toxin at all, as a reader has pointed out. And see this later post for more, from the L.A. Times.)
Rice Says Iraq Never Disarmed
...Condoleezza Rice told a foreign policy forum in Chicago that the team led by chief U.S. weapons hunter David Kay "is finding proof that Iraq never disarmed and never complied with U.N. inspectors."
In fact, she suggested, if the U.N. Security Council knew last winter what Kay's group has uncovered now, it never would have rejected the U.S. call for war.
"Right up until the end, Saddam lied to the Security Council. And let there be no mistake, right up to the end, Saddam Hussein continued to harbor ambitions to threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction and to hide his illegal weapons activity," she told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations.
..."We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks," Rice said. Still, she added, the possibility that the Iraqi leader could be behind another attack "beyond the scale of 9-11 ... could not be put aside." ...
Oh, for the love of Mike.... Iraq clearly had WMDs a long time ago. They're not there now, dammit. A hundred thousand Americans were in Saddam's own country overthrowing his government and he couldn't get his chem-bio-nuke act together to attack a single one of those soldiers unconventionally. The UN couldn't find the WMDs and the best we've come up with is one stinking vial of botulinum toxin squirreled away far from any battalion of soldiers or military outpost.
Do these Bushies ever get sick of lying?
(UPDATE: And don't forget that that vial of botulinum toxin had been sitting in a refrigerator since 1993, as Billmon notes, and is a precursor agent, not a bioweapon on its own.)
(UPDATE: Actually, it's awfully hard to beat the debunking of the Kay report by Fred Kaplan in Slate, which points out weasel-word after weasel-word and shows that no one's yet found evidence of an imminent threat.)
(UPDATE: I said "botulinum toxin" above, but of course it wasn't toxin at all, as a reader has pointed out. And see this later post for more, from the L.A. Times.)
The New York Times has posted the front-page Financial Times story "Rumsfeld Says Not Told of Postwar Shake-up" -- it's here.
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said on Tuesday he had not been told by President George W. Bush or the National Security Council that the White House was to restructure the handling of postwar Iraq before the media were briefed on the plan by NSC officials.
Mr Bush has ordered the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by Condoleezza Rice who is head of the NSC, which co-ordinates foreign policy in the White House....
In an interview with the Financial Times and three European news organisations, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that the new NSC role appeared to be no different from the policy-co-ordinating structure that had existed for more than a year.
He said he did not know why Ms Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, had felt it necessary to send a memorandum about the new organisation to cabinet officials or brief the New York Times about the move.
"That's what the NSC's charter is," Mr Rumsfeld said. "The only thing unusual about it is the attention. I kind of wish they'd just release the memorandum."...
And here's the Washington Post story in which he blows up when asked about it ("I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English?").
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary, said on Tuesday he had not been told by President George W. Bush or the National Security Council that the White House was to restructure the handling of postwar Iraq before the media were briefed on the plan by NSC officials.
Mr Bush has ordered the creation of an "Iraq Stabilization Group," which will be run by Condoleezza Rice who is head of the NSC, which co-ordinates foreign policy in the White House....
In an interview with the Financial Times and three European news organisations, Mr Rumsfeld insisted that the new NSC role appeared to be no different from the policy-co-ordinating structure that had existed for more than a year.
He said he did not know why Ms Rice, Mr Bush's national security adviser, had felt it necessary to send a memorandum about the new organisation to cabinet officials or brief the New York Times about the move.
"That's what the NSC's charter is," Mr Rumsfeld said. "The only thing unusual about it is the attention. I kind of wish they'd just release the memorandum."...
And here's the Washington Post story in which he blows up when asked about it ("I said I don't know. Isn't that clear? You don't understand English?").
Meanwhile, back at the quagmire....
U.S. Can't Locate Missiles Once Held in Iraq Arsenal
The United States military has been unable to locate a large number of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles that were part of the arsenal of Saddam Hussein, officials say, compounding the security risks for airports and airlines in Iraq and around the world.
The lack of accounting for the missiles — officials say there could be hundreds — is the primary reason the occupation authorities have not yet reopened the Baghdad International Airport to commercial traffic, officials said. The terminal has been rebuilt and the runways repaired, and Australian soldiers are running the air traffic control system.
But portable missiles were fired at incoming planes several times in recent weeks, one senior official said. Most of those incidents have not been reported to the public....
--New York Times
We are paying $500 to Iraqis who turn these missiles in -- but, of course, they go for $5,000 on the black market.
And TBOGG takes note of a few details in this story about changes made in the House to Bush's request for Iraq/Afghanistan money:
From Bush's request for rebuilding Iraq, the House version drops $50 million for traffic police; $300 million out of $509 million Bush wants for prisons; and $153 million that included money to buy garbage trucks for $50,000 apiece.
Also dropped from Bush's request is $100 million for restoring Iraq's marshlands, systematically emptied and destroyed by deposed President Saddam Hussein's government to punish Shiite Muslims who live there; $13 million for ZIP and area codes; $100 million to build seven public housing communities; and $150 million to begin building a new children's hospital in Basra.
Way to win hearts and minds, guys!
U.S. Can't Locate Missiles Once Held in Iraq Arsenal
The United States military has been unable to locate a large number of shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles that were part of the arsenal of Saddam Hussein, officials say, compounding the security risks for airports and airlines in Iraq and around the world.
The lack of accounting for the missiles — officials say there could be hundreds — is the primary reason the occupation authorities have not yet reopened the Baghdad International Airport to commercial traffic, officials said. The terminal has been rebuilt and the runways repaired, and Australian soldiers are running the air traffic control system.
But portable missiles were fired at incoming planes several times in recent weeks, one senior official said. Most of those incidents have not been reported to the public....
--New York Times
We are paying $500 to Iraqis who turn these missiles in -- but, of course, they go for $5,000 on the black market.
And TBOGG takes note of a few details in this story about changes made in the House to Bush's request for Iraq/Afghanistan money:
From Bush's request for rebuilding Iraq, the House version drops $50 million for traffic police; $300 million out of $509 million Bush wants for prisons; and $153 million that included money to buy garbage trucks for $50,000 apiece.
Also dropped from Bush's request is $100 million for restoring Iraq's marshlands, systematically emptied and destroyed by deposed President Saddam Hussein's government to punish Shiite Muslims who live there; $13 million for ZIP and area codes; $100 million to build seven public housing communities; and $150 million to begin building a new children's hospital in Basra.
Way to win hearts and minds, guys!
There's a lot to chew on in CNN's California exit poll.
Most interesting fact, in my opinion: This was a revolt of the haves. The recall was rejected by voters with household incomes between $30,000 and $49,999, and by voters with household incomes between $15,000 and $29,999. For household incomes under $15,000, the vote was 50-50. The pro-recall majorities were in the upper brackets ($50,000-$74,999 and up), and the biggest majority (62%-38% in favor of recall) was in the $75,000-$99,999 bracket. (For a gloss on this, I wish I had my copy of Barbara Ehrenreich's Fear of Falling handy.)
Schwarzenegger got 24% of the vote of people who call themselves liberal, including 16% of those who call themselves "very liberal." He got 22% of the vote among people who disapprove of Bush.
Oh, and he got 42% of gays and bisexuals.
Of those who voted, 39% said they were Democrats, 38% Republicans. Soi what happened to that big registration advantage Democrats have? It doesn't help much if the extra Democrats don't actually vote.
64% of voters didn't think Schwarzenegger addressed issues in enough detail -- but 38% of that group voted for him anyway.
Here's my favorite: 15% of voters who "strongly approve" of Gray Davis's job performance say they voted to recall him anyway. Um, should we repeat the question?
Most interesting fact, in my opinion: This was a revolt of the haves. The recall was rejected by voters with household incomes between $30,000 and $49,999, and by voters with household incomes between $15,000 and $29,999. For household incomes under $15,000, the vote was 50-50. The pro-recall majorities were in the upper brackets ($50,000-$74,999 and up), and the biggest majority (62%-38% in favor of recall) was in the $75,000-$99,999 bracket. (For a gloss on this, I wish I had my copy of Barbara Ehrenreich's Fear of Falling handy.)
Schwarzenegger got 24% of the vote of people who call themselves liberal, including 16% of those who call themselves "very liberal." He got 22% of the vote among people who disapprove of Bush.
Oh, and he got 42% of gays and bisexuals.
Of those who voted, 39% said they were Democrats, 38% Republicans. Soi what happened to that big registration advantage Democrats have? It doesn't help much if the extra Democrats don't actually vote.
64% of voters didn't think Schwarzenegger addressed issues in enough detail -- but 38% of that group voted for him anyway.
Here's my favorite: 15% of voters who "strongly approve" of Gray Davis's job performance say they voted to recall him anyway. Um, should we repeat the question?
I'm with Kevin Drum of Calpundit -- please, no quickie campaign to recall Schwarzenegger.
I haven't read all the comments that follow his post, but the ones I've read present this as a choice between playing nice and taking a stand. But do you know that old political saying -- "When your enemy's drowning, throw him an anvil"? People who want to recall Schwarzenegger want to throw him an anvil when he's not even damp.
Let him screw up first. Then consider -- consider -- a recall campaign. Don't get so far ahead of the general population's opinion that you look ridiculous, just because you want payback for Florida '00 and the Texas legislature '03.
Sustain the anger. Develop counterarguments. But don't try to take Schwarzenegger down between election cycles unless there is genuine widespread outrage. There'll be a real election soon enough -- I'm not sure I fully believe that revenge is a dish that's best served cold, but that can be a really satisfying way to serve it. Meanwhile, if Schwarzenegger makes an absolute bollocks of the job, he'll be a big fat millstone around Bush's neck a year from now in the state with more electoral votes than any other.
I haven't read all the comments that follow his post, but the ones I've read present this as a choice between playing nice and taking a stand. But do you know that old political saying -- "When your enemy's drowning, throw him an anvil"? People who want to recall Schwarzenegger want to throw him an anvil when he's not even damp.
Let him screw up first. Then consider -- consider -- a recall campaign. Don't get so far ahead of the general population's opinion that you look ridiculous, just because you want payback for Florida '00 and the Texas legislature '03.
Sustain the anger. Develop counterarguments. But don't try to take Schwarzenegger down between election cycles unless there is genuine widespread outrage. There'll be a real election soon enough -- I'm not sure I fully believe that revenge is a dish that's best served cold, but that can be a really satisfying way to serve it. Meanwhile, if Schwarzenegger makes an absolute bollocks of the job, he'll be a big fat millstone around Bush's neck a year from now in the state with more electoral votes than any other.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Davis is out, Schwarzenegger wins -- Tom Brokaw cut into the local news just after 11:00 Eastern time to make the call. If it's this obvious this early, presumably neither vote is even close. Not that I'm the least bit surprised.
Wasn't there anyone in the national Democratic Party with a pulse and a brain who could have prevented this train wreck? This wasn't just a California race. This became the biggest news in the country. Why was Gray Davis allowed to embody the Democratic Party in this moment of intense national focus on politics? Why did Clinton and so many presidential candidates dutifully flock to Davis's side, sending a message that being a Democrat means supporting a status quo hated by the citizenry? Yes, I know that hatred was largely misplaced. But, as I've said before, a campaign isn't a damn poli sci seminar, and certainly not a campaign this short -- the time to educate the voters was long past.
Why didn't anyone tell Davis to stop signing bills that looked like interest-group pandering? Why didn't anyone see that the party's only hope was to deemphasize the "no on recall" mantra and unite behind a replacement candidate, Bustamante or someone else, with a message that it was OK if you wanted change? And why, if Gray Davis or his allies really did have a hand in it, was the eleventh-hour mudslinging -- however much fun it was for a couple of days -- allowed to happen? Didn't we learn anything about modern attitudes about politicians' sexual behavior from the Clinton years? Did supporters of Davis really think that this wouldn't be, rightly or wrongly, ascribed to Davis and, rightly or wrongly, seen as last-minute desperation?
I don't really care if I'm pissing off people who usually agree with me. This was a debacle, and it was preventable.
I'm sure a lot of people deserve blame, but I blame Terry McAuliffe. If Karl Rove can micromanage races across the country for the GOP, then McAuliffe could have developed a clue somewhere along the line and done something, anything, to prevent this embarassment.
Lord, it's worse than I thought -- maybe this isn't accurate, but Fox is projecting that Schwarzenegger got a majority of the vote on the recall ballot. A majority, in what was, or should have been, a three-man race. For Republicans everywhere, that would have to feel even better than that damn Supreme Court decision in 2000
How the hell did we allow this to happen?
Wasn't there anyone in the national Democratic Party with a pulse and a brain who could have prevented this train wreck? This wasn't just a California race. This became the biggest news in the country. Why was Gray Davis allowed to embody the Democratic Party in this moment of intense national focus on politics? Why did Clinton and so many presidential candidates dutifully flock to Davis's side, sending a message that being a Democrat means supporting a status quo hated by the citizenry? Yes, I know that hatred was largely misplaced. But, as I've said before, a campaign isn't a damn poli sci seminar, and certainly not a campaign this short -- the time to educate the voters was long past.
Why didn't anyone tell Davis to stop signing bills that looked like interest-group pandering? Why didn't anyone see that the party's only hope was to deemphasize the "no on recall" mantra and unite behind a replacement candidate, Bustamante or someone else, with a message that it was OK if you wanted change? And why, if Gray Davis or his allies really did have a hand in it, was the eleventh-hour mudslinging -- however much fun it was for a couple of days -- allowed to happen? Didn't we learn anything about modern attitudes about politicians' sexual behavior from the Clinton years? Did supporters of Davis really think that this wouldn't be, rightly or wrongly, ascribed to Davis and, rightly or wrongly, seen as last-minute desperation?
I don't really care if I'm pissing off people who usually agree with me. This was a debacle, and it was preventable.
I'm sure a lot of people deserve blame, but I blame Terry McAuliffe. If Karl Rove can micromanage races across the country for the GOP, then McAuliffe could have developed a clue somewhere along the line and done something, anything, to prevent this embarassment.
Lord, it's worse than I thought -- maybe this isn't accurate, but Fox is projecting that Schwarzenegger got a majority of the vote on the recall ballot. A majority, in what was, or should have been, a three-man race. For Republicans everywhere, that would have to feel even better than that damn Supreme Court decision in 2000
How the hell did we allow this to happen?
Not even bothering to wait until the polls close to declare their guy a winner, the folks at Fox News are saying Schwarzenegger is comfortably ahead in exit polls, according to Kathryn Jean Lopez, blogging at National Review Online.
By the way, does anyone think that some of Schwarzie's most fervent supporters might get a tad rowdy tonight?
By the way, does anyone think that some of Schwarzie's most fervent supporters might get a tad rowdy tonight?
That one-joke homophobia machine, Reverend Fred Phelps, is at it again. The proprietor of godhatesfags.com, whose last big stunt was a protest at the opening of New York City's Harvey Milk High School, wants to do something special for the folks of Matthew Shepard's hometown, Casper, Wyoming. The Denver Post reports:
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of gay college student Matthew Shepard's gruesome death, the Rev. Fred Phelps wants to erect what he calls an "absolutely beautiful" monument in Shepard's hometown of Casper, Wyo.
About 6 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide, Phelps' monument would bear a brass plaque reading: "Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."
...."He's a bad cold that won't go away," Casper City Manager Tom Forslund said of Phelps, who has announced he'll protest gay rights in Fort Collins, Casper and Laramie later this month. "He just is a very strange person. He sends faxes to us. I got three of them this morning."...
From godhatesfags.com itself, here's a rendition of the proposed monument.
According to both the Post (Phelps's site concurs), a federal court ruling may require Casper to allow the monument:
In July 2002, the 10th Circuit ruled that governments that allow statements like the Ten Commandments to be posted on public property must permit all other messages, too.
The folks who put up the Commandments monument have offered to take it back.
I don't know what Phelps's point is. He's so over the top that he alienates and embarrasses people who might agree with him. But I guess he must be having the time of his life doing this. Most guys his age would just want to buy a Porsche.
To commemorate the fifth anniversary of gay college student Matthew Shepard's gruesome death, the Rev. Fred Phelps wants to erect what he calls an "absolutely beautiful" monument in Shepard's hometown of Casper, Wyo.
About 6 feet tall and 3 1/2 feet wide, Phelps' monument would bear a brass plaque reading: "Matthew Shepard entered Hell October 12, 1998, at age 21 in defiance of God's solemn warning: 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination.' Leviticus 18:22."
...."He's a bad cold that won't go away," Casper City Manager Tom Forslund said of Phelps, who has announced he'll protest gay rights in Fort Collins, Casper and Laramie later this month. "He just is a very strange person. He sends faxes to us. I got three of them this morning."...
From godhatesfags.com itself, here's a rendition of the proposed monument.
According to both the Post (Phelps's site concurs), a federal court ruling may require Casper to allow the monument:
In July 2002, the 10th Circuit ruled that governments that allow statements like the Ten Commandments to be posted on public property must permit all other messages, too.
The folks who put up the Commandments monument have offered to take it back.
I don't know what Phelps's point is. He's so over the top that he alienates and embarrasses people who might agree with him. But I guess he must be having the time of his life doing this. Most guys his age would just want to buy a Porsche.
Is this guy Rush Limbaugh, who became so upset about the fact that three Democratic presidential candidates said he should be fired from his second job, the same Rush Limbaugh who urged his listeners to make it as difficult as possible for the Dixie Chicks to do their first job?
(Thanks to TBOGG for the first link.)
(Thanks to TBOGG for the first link.)
I don't normally get my news from the right-wing frothers at Free Republic, but if what this person is saying is true, it's appalling on multiple levels, and it strongly suggests that the next recall we should have is for our entire news media, possibly worldwide:
There are literally 100's of journalists, local, national, and international waiting at the Brentwood Polling center at this very moment waiting for Arnold to vote.
They are all disappointed that he hasn't shown up yet, but they are breathlessly awaiting his arrival.
Too bad no one called them to report that Arnold voted over 2 hours ago at his polling center in Pacific Pallisades.
This is what hundreds of them are doing: waiting for him to walk out of a polling place so he can smile and wave at them.
And they don't even know where he votes, or that he voted already.
What else don't these people have a clue about?
There are literally 100's of journalists, local, national, and international waiting at the Brentwood Polling center at this very moment waiting for Arnold to vote.
They are all disappointed that he hasn't shown up yet, but they are breathlessly awaiting his arrival.
Too bad no one called them to report that Arnold voted over 2 hours ago at his polling center in Pacific Pallisades.
This is what hundreds of them are doing: waiting for him to walk out of a polling place so he can smile and wave at them.
And they don't even know where he votes, or that he voted already.
What else don't these people have a clue about?
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