Heard in the newsroom of the New York Post last night:
"This Kerik thing is really bad -- it makes Bush look bad and it makes Giuliani look bad. And the Daily News is kicking our asses with it.
"Quick! Get me a Clinton scandal we can put on the front page! Anything! I don't care what it is! I don't care if it's weeks old!"
*****
(Here's the article itself. And here's ABC's story from nearly two weeks ago. The Post puts some flesh on the bare bones of the ABC story, but really now -- this is an "exclusive"? Shameless and desperate.)
Monday, December 13, 2004
Maybe, instead of getting Alberto Gonzales to vet Bernie Kerik, they should have asked Ken Starr.
From the New York Daily News:
Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik conducted two extramarital affairs simultaneously, using a secret Battery Park City apartment for the passionate liaisons, the Daily News has learned.
The first relationship, spanning nearly a decade, was with city Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero; the second, and more startling, was with famed publishing titan Judith Regan.
His affair with Regan, the stunningly attractive head of her own book publishing company, lasted for almost a year.
Dramatically, each woman learned of the existence of the other after Pinero discovered a love note left by Regan in the apartment....
The relationship [with Pinero] continued after Kerik married Hala Matli, a hygienist in his dentist's office whom he met in mid-1996 and wed in November 1998, according to multiple sources close to Pinero and Kerik....
And Regan came into the picture a couple of years later.
That's the guy President Moral Values chose to run Homeland Security.
The union of a man and woman in marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, and the law can teach respect or disrespect for that institution....
For ages, in every culture, human beings have understood that traditional marriage is critical to the well-being of families. And because families pass along values and shape character, traditional marriage is also critical to the health of society. Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of traditional marriage will undermine the family structure.
--George W. Bush, radio address, June 10, 2004
Look, I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I said an adulterer should remain in office back in the '90s and I'd say that adultery alone certainly shouldn't have been a dealbreaker in Kerik's case.
But I can still snicker.
And, of course, Kerik once used police resources to find items Regan thought had been stolen but had only been misplaced. And Kerik denied a promotion to a subordinate who, as part of his job, reprimanded Pinero.
Oh, and note that Kerik's lovenest was, according to the News story, in addition to his official place of residence, an apartment uptown on East 79th Street, and in addition to the condo in Jersey. No wonder he was having trouble paying his bills on a big-city commissioner's salary.
*****
By the way, I've put up a couple of posts in which I've speculated about the reason for the Kerik arrest warrant. I've been thinking that it ought to be possible to handle a dispute over unpaid condo fees without an arrest warrant -- but a newer Newsweek story does say the warrant was issued after Kerik failed to respond to a subpoena. Maybe there's nothing more to it than that.
From the New York Daily News:
Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik conducted two extramarital affairs simultaneously, using a secret Battery Park City apartment for the passionate liaisons, the Daily News has learned.
The first relationship, spanning nearly a decade, was with city Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero; the second, and more startling, was with famed publishing titan Judith Regan.
His affair with Regan, the stunningly attractive head of her own book publishing company, lasted for almost a year.
Dramatically, each woman learned of the existence of the other after Pinero discovered a love note left by Regan in the apartment....
The relationship [with Pinero] continued after Kerik married Hala Matli, a hygienist in his dentist's office whom he met in mid-1996 and wed in November 1998, according to multiple sources close to Pinero and Kerik....
And Regan came into the picture a couple of years later.
That's the guy President Moral Values chose to run Homeland Security.
The union of a man and woman in marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, and the law can teach respect or disrespect for that institution....
For ages, in every culture, human beings have understood that traditional marriage is critical to the well-being of families. And because families pass along values and shape character, traditional marriage is also critical to the health of society. Our policies should aim to strengthen families, not undermine them. And changing the definition of traditional marriage will undermine the family structure.
--George W. Bush, radio address, June 10, 2004
Look, I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I said an adulterer should remain in office back in the '90s and I'd say that adultery alone certainly shouldn't have been a dealbreaker in Kerik's case.
But I can still snicker.
And, of course, Kerik once used police resources to find items Regan thought had been stolen but had only been misplaced. And Kerik denied a promotion to a subordinate who, as part of his job, reprimanded Pinero.
Oh, and note that Kerik's lovenest was, according to the News story, in addition to his official place of residence, an apartment uptown on East 79th Street, and in addition to the condo in Jersey. No wonder he was having trouble paying his bills on a big-city commissioner's salary.
*****
By the way, I've put up a couple of posts in which I've speculated about the reason for the Kerik arrest warrant. I've been thinking that it ought to be possible to handle a dispute over unpaid condo fees without an arrest warrant -- but a newer Newsweek story does say the warrant was issued after Kerik failed to respond to a subpoena. Maybe there's nothing more to it than that.
Sunday, December 12, 2004
KERIK'S ARREST WARRANT
On Friday night, when Newsweek's Mark Hoseball reported that there was a warrant issued for Bernard Kerik's arrest in connection with a dispute over condo fees, I said it struck me as odd. It also struck a reader named Brittney as odd -- and she knows a lot more about these things than I do.
Here's what she wrote (emphasis mine):
Regarding your speculation about whether the arrest warrant could be something more than the financial wrangling ... -- in a word: yes.
I work for a community management firm (managing HOAs - condos, townhouses, single-family homes) and unpaid dues have a very defined process. It takes several months of repeated overdue bill notices (and accrues late fees) before further action is taken, then the property is liened and the account goes to collections (accumulating more fees). After a time period specified in the community's governing documents, if the matter isn't being addressed in some way by the homeowner, the property can ultimately (and legally) go into foreclosure to pay the unpaid fees, but that's incredibly rare.
Usually, even when a homeowner ignores repeated overdue bill notices, a lien filing gets their attention. Most of the time, some kind of payment agreement is worked out. In a very tiny percentage of cases, the homeowners will take it to court and unless the association has violated the policies set forth in the governing documents, the homeowners inevitably lose....
All of this is a very long-winded way of saying that there's no way Kerik's financial tangle resulted in an arrest warrant simply from unpaid dues. Something else had to've happened during that time period that was only tangentially related to the actual financial issue. Your speculation of assault is quite probable; could also be some kind of egregious property damage or even, failure to appear (although I doubt that last one because then the court would just proceed without him). We had a guy once who threatened the HOA's board members and our community manager with a shotgun because he'd just received his lien notice and was prepared "to be another Waco, you commie rat bastards". Proceeded to drive his jacked-up pickup across the lawns of his house and his neighbors', as well as the neighborhood park (making sure to take out some park benches and a stop sign along the way) , then took off before police got there. Then it was a warrant and a standoff and a "eventually, he was taken into custody and no one was harmed" kind of thing....
That's what I was thinking -- why would an arrest warrant ever be necessary -- unless mattered turned (or were about to turn) violent?
On Friday night, when Newsweek's Mark Hoseball reported that there was a warrant issued for Bernard Kerik's arrest in connection with a dispute over condo fees, I said it struck me as odd. It also struck a reader named Brittney as odd -- and she knows a lot more about these things than I do.
Here's what she wrote (emphasis mine):
Regarding your speculation about whether the arrest warrant could be something more than the financial wrangling ... -- in a word: yes.
I work for a community management firm (managing HOAs - condos, townhouses, single-family homes) and unpaid dues have a very defined process. It takes several months of repeated overdue bill notices (and accrues late fees) before further action is taken, then the property is liened and the account goes to collections (accumulating more fees). After a time period specified in the community's governing documents, if the matter isn't being addressed in some way by the homeowner, the property can ultimately (and legally) go into foreclosure to pay the unpaid fees, but that's incredibly rare.
Usually, even when a homeowner ignores repeated overdue bill notices, a lien filing gets their attention. Most of the time, some kind of payment agreement is worked out. In a very tiny percentage of cases, the homeowners will take it to court and unless the association has violated the policies set forth in the governing documents, the homeowners inevitably lose....
All of this is a very long-winded way of saying that there's no way Kerik's financial tangle resulted in an arrest warrant simply from unpaid dues. Something else had to've happened during that time period that was only tangentially related to the actual financial issue. Your speculation of assault is quite probable; could also be some kind of egregious property damage or even, failure to appear (although I doubt that last one because then the court would just proceed without him). We had a guy once who threatened the HOA's board members and our community manager with a shotgun because he'd just received his lien notice and was prepared "to be another Waco, you commie rat bastards". Proceeded to drive his jacked-up pickup across the lawns of his house and his neighbors', as well as the neighborhood park (making sure to take out some park benches and a stop sign along the way) , then took off before police got there. Then it was a warrant and a standoff and a "eventually, he was taken into custody and no one was harmed" kind of thing....
That's what I was thinking -- why would an arrest warrant ever be necessary -- unless mattered turned (or were about to turn) violent?
Why is Kerik out? The New York Daily News has the real story. Cue up the Sopranos soundtrack:
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures, a Daily News investigation has revealed.
... for many years, one of Kerik's main benefactors was Lawrence Ray, the best man at Kerik's 1998 wedding, according to Ray, other sources and checks shown by Ray to The News.
Ray and another Kerik pal, restaurant owner Carmen Cabell, helped bankroll Kerik's 1998 wedding reception, contributing nearly $10,000.
Ray also gave Kerik nearly $2,000 to buy a bejeweled Tiffany badge that Kerik coveted when he was Correction commissioner.
And Ray said he gave Kerik $4,300 more to buy high-end Bellini furniture when Kerik allegedly griped that he couldn't afford to furnish a bedroom for a soon-to-be born daughter....
At the time of the gifts, Ray was working for Interstate Industrial, then a major city contractor....
Hey, but it's just friends helping a friend, right? It's no big frickin' deal.
Er, no:
A week after Kerik's daughter was born, Ray and 18 other men were indicted in a $40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle. Kerik repeatedly spoke to Ray's criminal defense attorney before the indictment, but he dropped his longtime benefactor when the case became public.
A bit more about Lawrence Ray and his associates:
The Federal investigation of the DiTommaso brothers concerned their purchase of a Staten Island waste station controlled by Edward Garafola. who is married to the sister of former Gambino Family Underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Garafola was indicted in March 2000 along with Lawrence Ray, an executive of the DiTommaso brothers’ Interstate Industrial Corporation, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico, on Federal charges involving a $40 million stock ‘pump and dump’ scam. Interstate Industrial Corporation was also denied a contract by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 2000 to perform work on an Atlantic City gambling casino.
Oops -- I almost left out the best stuff, from a Daily News sidebar:
...Kerik recommended his close friend, Lawrence Ray, for a job helping Interstate cope with mob-leery regulators here and in Atlantic City.
Based solely on Kerik calling Ray "a top-shelf guy," the New Jersey company hired Ray at $100,000 a year, according to a sworn deposition that Interstate owner, Frank DiTomasso, gave to city investigators in June 2000.
Shortly after hiring Ray, Interstate hired Kerik's brother, Don, to run a dirt and stone transfer station on Staten Island, DiTomasso told investigators....
Charges that Interstate, based in Clifton, N.J., is controlled by organized crime resurfaced last month when a mob turncoat, Anthony Rotondo, testified in Manhattan Federal Court that Interstate paid protection money to the Gambino crime family....
At his deposition, DiTomasso recalled that in November 1998, he was "venting" to Ray, whom he had known socially for a decade, about his problems convincing investigators that he wasn't tied to the mob.
"He said, 'Look, I have a lot of experience with law enforcement ... I can probably help you,'" DiTomasso said. "At this point in time it was like, you know, I wanted to kiss him."...
Kerik forged his own relationship with DiTomasso, inviting him to his private Christmas party at Correction Department headquarters.
"When I would be in the city I would call him, see if he was in, stop by," DiTomasso told city investigators. "I liked Bernie. I thought he was a pretty interesting guy. Still do."
DiTomasso's right about that.
*****
Oh, and a hat tip to TBogg for spotting the fact that the White House vetter who missed all this stuff is the next U.S. attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.
*****
And I wonder what else might have turned up. Newsday again mentions the case of Eric DeRavin, a deputy warden who says that then-corrections commissioner Kerik refused to give him a promotion because he had reprimanded a woman Kerik had dated -- adding that Kerik's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina,
was in contact with at least one TV news organization in a bid to keep it from airing an interview with another ex-jail supervisor, sources said. The interview contained other allegations against Kerik, some of which have already been in print, the sources said. (emphasis mine)
And Newsday columnist Ellis Henican alludes to "[a] swirl of ugly stories about [Kerik's] dating life."
Worse and worse.
Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik accepted thousands of dollars in cash and gifts without making proper public disclosures, a Daily News investigation has revealed.
... for many years, one of Kerik's main benefactors was Lawrence Ray, the best man at Kerik's 1998 wedding, according to Ray, other sources and checks shown by Ray to The News.
Ray and another Kerik pal, restaurant owner Carmen Cabell, helped bankroll Kerik's 1998 wedding reception, contributing nearly $10,000.
Ray also gave Kerik nearly $2,000 to buy a bejeweled Tiffany badge that Kerik coveted when he was Correction commissioner.
And Ray said he gave Kerik $4,300 more to buy high-end Bellini furniture when Kerik allegedly griped that he couldn't afford to furnish a bedroom for a soon-to-be born daughter....
At the time of the gifts, Ray was working for Interstate Industrial, then a major city contractor....
Hey, but it's just friends helping a friend, right? It's no big frickin' deal.
Er, no:
A week after Kerik's daughter was born, Ray and 18 other men were indicted in a $40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock swindle. Kerik repeatedly spoke to Ray's criminal defense attorney before the indictment, but he dropped his longtime benefactor when the case became public.
A bit more about Lawrence Ray and his associates:
The Federal investigation of the DiTommaso brothers concerned their purchase of a Staten Island waste station controlled by Edward Garafola. who is married to the sister of former Gambino Family Underboss Sammy "The Bull" Gravano. Garafola was indicted in March 2000 along with Lawrence Ray, an executive of the DiTommaso brothers’ Interstate Industrial Corporation, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico, on Federal charges involving a $40 million stock ‘pump and dump’ scam. Interstate Industrial Corporation was also denied a contract by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 2000 to perform work on an Atlantic City gambling casino.
Oops -- I almost left out the best stuff, from a Daily News sidebar:
...Kerik recommended his close friend, Lawrence Ray, for a job helping Interstate cope with mob-leery regulators here and in Atlantic City.
Based solely on Kerik calling Ray "a top-shelf guy," the New Jersey company hired Ray at $100,000 a year, according to a sworn deposition that Interstate owner, Frank DiTomasso, gave to city investigators in June 2000.
Shortly after hiring Ray, Interstate hired Kerik's brother, Don, to run a dirt and stone transfer station on Staten Island, DiTomasso told investigators....
Charges that Interstate, based in Clifton, N.J., is controlled by organized crime resurfaced last month when a mob turncoat, Anthony Rotondo, testified in Manhattan Federal Court that Interstate paid protection money to the Gambino crime family....
At his deposition, DiTomasso recalled that in November 1998, he was "venting" to Ray, whom he had known socially for a decade, about his problems convincing investigators that he wasn't tied to the mob.
"He said, 'Look, I have a lot of experience with law enforcement ... I can probably help you,'" DiTomasso said. "At this point in time it was like, you know, I wanted to kiss him."...
Kerik forged his own relationship with DiTomasso, inviting him to his private Christmas party at Correction Department headquarters.
"When I would be in the city I would call him, see if he was in, stop by," DiTomasso told city investigators. "I liked Bernie. I thought he was a pretty interesting guy. Still do."
DiTomasso's right about that.
*****
Oh, and a hat tip to TBogg for spotting the fact that the White House vetter who missed all this stuff is the next U.S. attorney general, Alberto Gonzales.
*****
And I wonder what else might have turned up. Newsday again mentions the case of Eric DeRavin, a deputy warden who says that then-corrections commissioner Kerik refused to give him a promotion because he had reprimanded a woman Kerik had dated -- adding that Kerik's lawyer, Joseph Tacopina,
was in contact with at least one TV news organization in a bid to keep it from airing an interview with another ex-jail supervisor, sources said. The interview contained other allegations against Kerik, some of which have already been in print, the sources said. (emphasis mine)
And Newsday columnist Ellis Henican alludes to "[a] swirl of ugly stories about [Kerik's] dating life."
Worse and worse.
Saturday, December 11, 2004
This is what you get when you entrust the White House to a party that hates government and a president who throughout his life has rarely if ever been held accountable for a failing:
Medicare's toll-free telephone line, one of the main vehicles for disseminating information about new prescription drug benefits and drug discount cards, gives accurate answers less than two-thirds of the time, Congressional investigators say.
In a test of the service, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, found that 29 percent of callers received inaccurate answers, while 10 percent got no answers at all....
In another recent report, the accountability office found that Medicare provided even less accurate information to doctors who inquired about the proper way to bill for treating Medicare patients.
In response to 300 test calls, the accountability office said, customer service representatives gave correct and complete responses to only 4 percent of the billing questions. About 54 percent of the answers were simply wrong, and 42 percent were incomplete or partly correct, it said....
"We were faced with an unprecedented volume of calls about a new part of the Medicare program that required new training efforts and many new customer service representatives," said Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "We believe we responded as well as we reasonably could given the unique and demanding circumstances."...
--New York Times
McClellan of course, may be punished for this by being promoted to Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(Although there's also speculation that the next HHS secretary could be -- yikes! -- Newt Gingrich.)
Medicare's toll-free telephone line, one of the main vehicles for disseminating information about new prescription drug benefits and drug discount cards, gives accurate answers less than two-thirds of the time, Congressional investigators say.
In a test of the service, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, found that 29 percent of callers received inaccurate answers, while 10 percent got no answers at all....
In another recent report, the accountability office found that Medicare provided even less accurate information to doctors who inquired about the proper way to bill for treating Medicare patients.
In response to 300 test calls, the accountability office said, customer service representatives gave correct and complete responses to only 4 percent of the billing questions. About 54 percent of the answers were simply wrong, and 42 percent were incomplete or partly correct, it said....
"We were faced with an unprecedented volume of calls about a new part of the Medicare program that required new training efforts and many new customer service representatives," said Dr. Mark B. McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "We believe we responded as well as we reasonably could given the unique and demanding circumstances."...
--New York Times
McClellan of course, may be punished for this by being promoted to Secretary of Health and Human Services.
(Although there's also speculation that the next HHS secretary could be -- yikes! -- Newt Gingrich.)
Friday, December 10, 2004
Kerik's out, for the wrong reason.
I've recounted some of the dubious moments in his past (here and here). But they wouldn't have been a problem for him. A nanny problem got him.
****
UPDATE: Newsweek's Mark Hosenball says maybe the nanny wasn't the reason Kerik withdrew. Hosenball points to an arrest warrant for Kerik at a time when he was involved in a legal dispute over condominium fees he hadn't paid.
Note that this happened not during Kerik's hand-to-mouth days -- he declared bankruptcy in 1987 -- but in 1998, when he'd been New York City's commissioner of corrections for several years. The guy had a good job, but he had unpaid debts. Bush wanted this guy to run a Cabinet department?
And why an arrest warrant? This is 100% speculation, but was something more than financial wrangling taking place? Did he threaten someone?
I've recounted some of the dubious moments in his past (here and here). But they wouldn't have been a problem for him. A nanny problem got him.
****
UPDATE: Newsweek's Mark Hosenball says maybe the nanny wasn't the reason Kerik withdrew. Hosenball points to an arrest warrant for Kerik at a time when he was involved in a legal dispute over condominium fees he hadn't paid.
Note that this happened not during Kerik's hand-to-mouth days -- he declared bankruptcy in 1987 -- but in 1998, when he'd been New York City's commissioner of corrections for several years. The guy had a good job, but he had unpaid debts. Bush wanted this guy to run a Cabinet department?
And why an arrest warrant? This is 100% speculation, but was something more than financial wrangling taking place? Did he threaten someone?
The Reagan administration tried to classify ketchup as a vegetable for school lunches. To mollify an appalled America, Reagan then announced that he was going to put a teacher on the space shuttle.
The Bush administration was embarrassed by a question about poor equipment for soldiers. To mollify an appalled America, today Bush helped put together care packages for troops.
Same bullshit, different decade.
The Bush administration was embarrassed by a question about poor equipment for soldiers. To mollify an appalled America, today Bush helped put together care packages for troops.
Same bullshit, different decade.
So did you see the statement issued by recess judicial appointee and coddler of cross-burners Charles Pickering when he announced he was leaving the federal bench? The New York Times has it:
"Extreme special-interest groups opposed my nomination primarily due to their hostility to any nominee with strong religious convictions who personally disagrees with them on abortion, marriage and references to God at public ceremonies and institutions," Judge Pickering wrote in a statement, issued late Wednesday. "These far-left groups cowed Democrat leadership into opposing my nomination. In doing so, they pushed those senators out of the American mainstream, some out of their Senate seats, and the Democratic Party out of entire regions of the country."
Yeah, that's the sort of even judicial temperament we want on the federal bench, isn't it?
****
The obvious thing to say here is, "Gee, maybe William Donohue can replace Pickering on the bench."
By now you may have seen what Donohue said last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country in a discussion about Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ:
Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It‘s not a secret, OK? And I‘m not afraid to say it. That‘s why they hate this movie. It‘s about Jesus Christ, and it‘s about truth. It‘s about the messiah.
Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.
Yikes.
Incidentally, go to the link and note the makeup of the panel: conservative substitute host Pat Buchanan; Donohue, also a conservative; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a Bush supporter and Kerry basher; Govindini Murty, director of the right-wing Liberty Film Festival; and Jennifer Giroux of Women Influencing the Nation, which is conservative and appears to be, er, natalist. There's your "liberal media": There's not even a pretense of balance on this panel. And this isn't even Fox News.
And can we please let go of this notion that the cultural elite is hell-bent on lavishing Michael Moore with awards? Look at the independent filmmakers' organization IFP, which recently announced the winners of its Gotham Awards (can you get more blue-state than that?). F9/11 wasn't even nominated for Best Feature, although it did win a Best Documentary nomination. Thing is, it didn't win for Best Documentary -- that award went to The Agronomist. (Nope, I don't know anything about it either.) Sideways won Best Feature. (Michael Moore did win the Filmmaker Award, not to be confused with the Filmmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement, which went to Mike Leigh.)
"Extreme special-interest groups opposed my nomination primarily due to their hostility to any nominee with strong religious convictions who personally disagrees with them on abortion, marriage and references to God at public ceremonies and institutions," Judge Pickering wrote in a statement, issued late Wednesday. "These far-left groups cowed Democrat leadership into opposing my nomination. In doing so, they pushed those senators out of the American mainstream, some out of their Senate seats, and the Democratic Party out of entire regions of the country."
Yeah, that's the sort of even judicial temperament we want on the federal bench, isn't it?
****
The obvious thing to say here is, "Gee, maybe William Donohue can replace Pickering on the bench."
By now you may have seen what Donohue said last night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country in a discussion about Fahrenheit 9/11 and The Passion of the Christ:
Who really cares what Hollywood thinks? All these hacks come out there. Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It‘s not a secret, OK? And I‘m not afraid to say it. That‘s why they hate this movie. It‘s about Jesus Christ, and it‘s about truth. It‘s about the messiah.
Hollywood likes anal sex. They like to see the public square without nativity scenes. I like families. I like children. They like abortions. I believe in traditional values and restraint. They believe in libertinism. We have nothing in common. But you know what? The culture war has been ongoing for a long time. Their side has lost.
Yikes.
Incidentally, go to the link and note the makeup of the panel: conservative substitute host Pat Buchanan; Donohue, also a conservative; Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a Bush supporter and Kerry basher; Govindini Murty, director of the right-wing Liberty Film Festival; and Jennifer Giroux of Women Influencing the Nation, which is conservative and appears to be, er, natalist. There's your "liberal media": There's not even a pretense of balance on this panel. And this isn't even Fox News.
And can we please let go of this notion that the cultural elite is hell-bent on lavishing Michael Moore with awards? Look at the independent filmmakers' organization IFP, which recently announced the winners of its Gotham Awards (can you get more blue-state than that?). F9/11 wasn't even nominated for Best Feature, although it did win a Best Documentary nomination. Thing is, it didn't win for Best Documentary -- that award went to The Agronomist. (Nope, I don't know anything about it either.) Sideways won Best Feature. (Michael Moore did win the Filmmaker Award, not to be confused with the Filmmaker Award for Lifetime Achievement, which went to Mike Leigh.)
RACE TO THE BOTTOM
So do you realize that soon -- perhaps as early as next month -- there will be a massive increase in low-priced textiles from China (far more than we import now), and the likely result will be the destruction of what's left of the U.S. textile industry and a huge loss of jobs? And there's nothing anyone can do about it except possibly stall for time?
After Jan. 1, when federal limits on textile and apparel imports are scheduled to expire, China is poised to flood the U.S. market with cheap bluejeans, T-shirts and underwear.
More than 600,000 more jobs might disappear, too, textile industry executives warn....
In 1994, the World Trade Organization voted to eliminate all textile and apparel quotas by January 2005. A quotaless world would allow U.S. retailers to buy textiles and apparel from the lowest-cost suppliers, mainly China, India and Pakistan. Cheap production in those countries means cheaper prices for U.S. consumers.
China now supplies the United States with 16 percent of the textiles and apparel goods sold in this country. The WTO expects that amount to triple come January.
That's from an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article published in October.
The U.S. is allowed to invoke "safeguard" provisions to prevent the onslaught -- but only for a year at a time, and only until 2008. U.S. textile manufacturers are asking the Bush administration to invoke these provisions -- but now retailers are suing:
The U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, the main trade group representing major U.S. garment importers and retailers, hopes to win an injunction to block the Commerce Department and four other U.S. agencies from considering nine petitions from domestic textile companies seeking strict limits on clothing and textiles coming in next year from China.
BusinessWeek notes that the impact of this is going to be global:
Some 30 million jobs worldwide could be affected, including an estimated 650,000 in the U.S. Developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Central America that benefited from quotas will have to compete with two emerging giants, China and India, which boast low wages, modern factories, and strong infrastructure.... The result could be mass unemployment in countries from Honduras to Bangladesh. "The developing countries are doomed," says Clyde V. Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank.
I don't know what could slow this trend. There's the barest hint of a labor movement in China -- some Chinese textile workers recently went on strike, but after seven weeks the strike was crushed.
Meanwhile, from the Journal-Constitution, here's what's happening in and around the textile town of Eden, North Carolina, as a result of the import onslaught we've already experienced:
Pillowtex's demise ratcheted up the intensity of domestic abuse in Rockingham County, says Angie Boles, executive director of Help Inc., which assists victims of violence and sexual assault. "The injuries were more severe," Boles says. "About that time there were two or three assaults with hammers right in a row. One woman had 80 stitches. Victims come in and make excuses. They say, 'Well, he was drinking or he lost his job and that's why he did it.' "
Over the past four years, North Carolina's midsection has lost 25,000 manufacturing jobs. One in six residents lives below the poverty line.
Mayor Price points, though, to manufacturing newcomers. A boilermaker is poised to move into the Pillowtex plant and hire 103 workers. An Israeli baby-wipe company announced plans last year to hire 200 workers in nearby Reidsville.
But 10,000 people applied for those jobs, says Gordon Allen III, who runs the county's employment office. "This is different than any recession I've ever experienced," says Allen, a 27-year veteran of the employment wars. "The jobs are just not there. When you lose 5,000 jobs" --- out of a countywide labor force of 45,000 --- "it's a devastating blow. We're in a transition, but the $64 million question is, what are we transitioning into? What are the jobs going to be? Where are we headed?"
I don't know. But I'm with The American Prospect's David Sirota, who thinks Democrats need to start preaching economic populism instead of unquestioningly touting the virtues of globalization. Citing electoral victories in red states by economic-populist Democrats (as well as Bernie Sanders), Sirota argues that this is good politics. I agree -- and I think it's good for the country as well.
So do you realize that soon -- perhaps as early as next month -- there will be a massive increase in low-priced textiles from China (far more than we import now), and the likely result will be the destruction of what's left of the U.S. textile industry and a huge loss of jobs? And there's nothing anyone can do about it except possibly stall for time?
After Jan. 1, when federal limits on textile and apparel imports are scheduled to expire, China is poised to flood the U.S. market with cheap bluejeans, T-shirts and underwear.
More than 600,000 more jobs might disappear, too, textile industry executives warn....
In 1994, the World Trade Organization voted to eliminate all textile and apparel quotas by January 2005. A quotaless world would allow U.S. retailers to buy textiles and apparel from the lowest-cost suppliers, mainly China, India and Pakistan. Cheap production in those countries means cheaper prices for U.S. consumers.
China now supplies the United States with 16 percent of the textiles and apparel goods sold in this country. The WTO expects that amount to triple come January.
That's from an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article published in October.
The U.S. is allowed to invoke "safeguard" provisions to prevent the onslaught -- but only for a year at a time, and only until 2008. U.S. textile manufacturers are asking the Bush administration to invoke these provisions -- but now retailers are suing:
The U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles and Apparel, the main trade group representing major U.S. garment importers and retailers, hopes to win an injunction to block the Commerce Department and four other U.S. agencies from considering nine petitions from domestic textile companies seeking strict limits on clothing and textiles coming in next year from China.
BusinessWeek notes that the impact of this is going to be global:
Some 30 million jobs worldwide could be affected, including an estimated 650,000 in the U.S. Developing nations in Asia, Africa, and Central America that benefited from quotas will have to compete with two emerging giants, China and India, which boast low wages, modern factories, and strong infrastructure.... The result could be mass unemployment in countries from Honduras to Bangladesh. "The developing countries are doomed," says Clyde V. Prestowitz, president of the Economic Strategy Institute, a Washington think tank.
I don't know what could slow this trend. There's the barest hint of a labor movement in China -- some Chinese textile workers recently went on strike, but after seven weeks the strike was crushed.
Meanwhile, from the Journal-Constitution, here's what's happening in and around the textile town of Eden, North Carolina, as a result of the import onslaught we've already experienced:
Pillowtex's demise ratcheted up the intensity of domestic abuse in Rockingham County, says Angie Boles, executive director of Help Inc., which assists victims of violence and sexual assault. "The injuries were more severe," Boles says. "About that time there were two or three assaults with hammers right in a row. One woman had 80 stitches. Victims come in and make excuses. They say, 'Well, he was drinking or he lost his job and that's why he did it.' "
Over the past four years, North Carolina's midsection has lost 25,000 manufacturing jobs. One in six residents lives below the poverty line.
Mayor Price points, though, to manufacturing newcomers. A boilermaker is poised to move into the Pillowtex plant and hire 103 workers. An Israeli baby-wipe company announced plans last year to hire 200 workers in nearby Reidsville.
But 10,000 people applied for those jobs, says Gordon Allen III, who runs the county's employment office. "This is different than any recession I've ever experienced," says Allen, a 27-year veteran of the employment wars. "The jobs are just not there. When you lose 5,000 jobs" --- out of a countywide labor force of 45,000 --- "it's a devastating blow. We're in a transition, but the $64 million question is, what are we transitioning into? What are the jobs going to be? Where are we headed?"
I don't know. But I'm with The American Prospect's David Sirota, who thinks Democrats need to start preaching economic populism instead of unquestioningly touting the virtues of globalization. Citing electoral victories in red states by economic-populist Democrats (as well as Bernie Sanders), Sirota argues that this is good politics. I agree -- and I think it's good for the country as well.
Good Lord, they're everywhere:*
Pregnant women who take slimming pills 'are more likely to have gay children'
Women who take slimming and thyroid pills during pregnancy are substantially more likely to have homosexual children, according to research.
Prof Lee Ellis and colleagues at Minot State University, North Dakota, traced the mothers of more than 5,000 American and Canadian students and members of gay and lesbian support groups, looking for links between prescription drugs taken during pregnancy and the sexual orientation of their children.
The researchers found that the mothers of homosexual women were at least five times more likely to have taken synthetic thyroid medications during pregnancy than mothers of heterosexual women, and eight times more likely to have used amphetamine-based diet pills such as Dexedrine and diethylpropion....
--Telegraph, 12/5/04
Lee Ellis? If this is accurate (scroll down), he's linked to the Human Biodiversity Group run by Steve Sailer, the racist who was a source for David Brooks's recent column on "natalists."
And here's Ellis asserting that there are "significant positive correlations" between brain size and intelligence -- a pet theory of racists and eugenicists since at least the nineteenth century, currently advanced by J. Philippe Rushton, a well-known academic racist (see some of his work here). Note that what follows Ellis's message is a positive response from Rushton.
I haven't found the article the Telegraph is writing about, but here's another example of Ellis's work: "The Religiosity of Mothers and Their Offspring as Related to the Offspring's Sex and Sexual Orientation." It contains this passage:
Among males, homosexuals were especially prone to subscribe to a religious belief other than that of their mother (only 51% choosing the same denomination). Since the main direction of switching religious preference for male homosexuals was toward the non-Christian category, this could partly explain why most Christian denominations have had a long-standing objection to homosexuality (Greenberg & Bystryn, 1984, p. 33; also see Time, June 7, 1986, p. 88; Newsweek, September 14, 1992, p. 37).
Curious wording in that last sentence -- shouldn't "could partly explain why" be "could partly be explained by the fact that"? That's how I'd put it -- gay children of devout Christians flee Christianity because Christianity isn't very gay-friendly. (And I'd probably omit "partly.")
Maybe that's what Ellis meant. Or maybe he meant exactly what he said: that some homosexuality-linked aversion to Christianity, an aversion that's shown up regularly across the generations, is the reason that Christianity rejects homosexuals. Christian churches shun gays because gayness -- perhaps the biology of gayness -- compels gays to flee Christianity.
I may be leaping to too many conclusions about Lee Ellis. It's clear, though, that he is at least loosely affiliated with the Steve Sailer crowd, and the current article dovetails nicely with Sailer's theory that homosexuality is a disease caused by a "gay germ."
(Incidentally, if you want to see more of Sailer's deep thoughts on homosexuality, check out "Why Lesbians Aren't Gay.")
****
UPDATE: I want to make it clear that I'm not an absolutist in the other direction -- I think biology is an important determinant of who we are; I certainly don't think we're all shaped exclusively by experience. I think homosexuality is innate. But I don't trust the work of the hardcore biology-explains-everything crowd, which clearly includes Sailer and Rushton, and may include Ellis.
****
*I've since heard from Professor Ellis, who pointed out that I misinterpreted his thinking in some significant ways. See this post for clarifications.
Pregnant women who take slimming pills 'are more likely to have gay children'
Women who take slimming and thyroid pills during pregnancy are substantially more likely to have homosexual children, according to research.
Prof Lee Ellis and colleagues at Minot State University, North Dakota, traced the mothers of more than 5,000 American and Canadian students and members of gay and lesbian support groups, looking for links between prescription drugs taken during pregnancy and the sexual orientation of their children.
The researchers found that the mothers of homosexual women were at least five times more likely to have taken synthetic thyroid medications during pregnancy than mothers of heterosexual women, and eight times more likely to have used amphetamine-based diet pills such as Dexedrine and diethylpropion....
--Telegraph, 12/5/04
Lee Ellis? If this is accurate (scroll down), he's linked to the Human Biodiversity Group run by Steve Sailer, the racist who was a source for David Brooks's recent column on "natalists."
And here's Ellis asserting that there are "significant positive correlations" between brain size and intelligence -- a pet theory of racists and eugenicists since at least the nineteenth century, currently advanced by J. Philippe Rushton, a well-known academic racist (see some of his work here). Note that what follows Ellis's message is a positive response from Rushton.
I haven't found the article the Telegraph is writing about, but here's another example of Ellis's work: "The Religiosity of Mothers and Their Offspring as Related to the Offspring's Sex and Sexual Orientation." It contains this passage:
Among males, homosexuals were especially prone to subscribe to a religious belief other than that of their mother (only 51% choosing the same denomination). Since the main direction of switching religious preference for male homosexuals was toward the non-Christian category, this could partly explain why most Christian denominations have had a long-standing objection to homosexuality (Greenberg & Bystryn, 1984, p. 33; also see Time, June 7, 1986, p. 88; Newsweek, September 14, 1992, p. 37).
Curious wording in that last sentence -- shouldn't "could partly explain why" be "could partly be explained by the fact that"? That's how I'd put it -- gay children of devout Christians flee Christianity because Christianity isn't very gay-friendly. (And I'd probably omit "partly.")
Maybe that's what Ellis meant. Or maybe he meant exactly what he said: that some homosexuality-linked aversion to Christianity, an aversion that's shown up regularly across the generations, is the reason that Christianity rejects homosexuals. Christian churches shun gays because gayness -- perhaps the biology of gayness -- compels gays to flee Christianity.
I may be leaping to too many conclusions about Lee Ellis. It's clear, though, that he is at least loosely affiliated with the Steve Sailer crowd, and the current article dovetails nicely with Sailer's theory that homosexuality is a disease caused by a "gay germ."
(Incidentally, if you want to see more of Sailer's deep thoughts on homosexuality, check out "Why Lesbians Aren't Gay.")
****
UPDATE: I want to make it clear that I'm not an absolutist in the other direction -- I think biology is an important determinant of who we are; I certainly don't think we're all shaped exclusively by experience. I think homosexuality is innate. But I don't trust the work of the hardcore biology-explains-everything crowd, which clearly includes Sailer and Rushton, and may include Ellis.
****
*I've since heard from Professor Ellis, who pointed out that I misinterpreted his thinking in some significant ways. See this post for clarifications.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
We all know that filthy sixties hippies who live in filthy hippie throwback blue-state enclaves raise filthy hippie kids who become filthy terrorists like John Walker Lindh and Adam Gadahn -- whereas real conservative Americans from real American communities produce good, upstanding kids who do good, upstanding things like fight for their country, and don't do bad things like the children of filthy hippies.
So you should not pay attention to the fact that the guy who shot Dimebag Darrell of Damageplan at that rock show in Ohio was an ex-Marine from Marysville, Ohio.
The two Honda plants outside Marysville employ 8,250 workers....
Around there, conservative social and religious values rule the vote, said Chet Hartley, 69, an insurance agent who lives outside West Mansfield, in Honda's shadow.
Many lawns have signs supporting a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which is also on the Nov. 2 ballot.
"What it comes down to is that you know what Bush is going to do, and with Kerry you have no idea," Hartley said. "I predict Bush wins by 10 points."
That's from a Seattle Times story published in October. In fact, Marysville is in Ohio's Union County. (West Mansfield is in nearby Logan County.) The state of Ohio says Bush beat Kerry 70%-29% in Union County (and 68%-31% in Logan County).
A crazed heavy-metal murderer in a red county? Wouldn't David Brooks say that's impossible?
So you should not pay attention to the fact that the guy who shot Dimebag Darrell of Damageplan at that rock show in Ohio was an ex-Marine from Marysville, Ohio.
The two Honda plants outside Marysville employ 8,250 workers....
Around there, conservative social and religious values rule the vote, said Chet Hartley, 69, an insurance agent who lives outside West Mansfield, in Honda's shadow.
Many lawns have signs supporting a state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which is also on the Nov. 2 ballot.
"What it comes down to is that you know what Bush is going to do, and with Kerry you have no idea," Hartley said. "I predict Bush wins by 10 points."
That's from a Seattle Times story published in October. In fact, Marysville is in Ohio's Union County. (West Mansfield is in nearby Logan County.) The state of Ohio says Bush beat Kerry 70%-29% in Union County (and 68%-31% in Logan County).
A crazed heavy-metal murderer in a red county? Wouldn't David Brooks say that's impossible?
VALUES
From the Raleigh News & Observer:
Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures." ...
Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery.
"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said....
The authors of the booklet are Douglas Wilson, an Idaho pastor, and Steve Wilkins. Wilkins
is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.
In response to the article, Cary Christian has issued a press release:
As you may be aware, today the News and Observer published a rather negative article about Cary Christian School and our use of a small booklet supplement entitled, "Southern Slavery, As It Was". Within the article it stated, "the booklet has received criticism from a number of historians and that it has been pulled from publication because of faulty footnotes and citation errors."
We were unaware of these findings and as a result have already pulled this booklet from our curriculum....
Yes, apparently the controversy surrounding the booklet came as a complete surprise to the folks at Cary Christian. Apparently they had to buy a newspaper to learn that historians took issue with statements such as:
* "Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." (page 24)
* "Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." (page 25)
* "But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends." (page 27)
But I hope it wasn't a mistake to remove the book from the curriculum. After all, why tinker with success?
At a time when a number of Triangle Christian schools have lost enrollment and even closed, Cary Christian has seen rapid growth since it opened in 1996....
(Story via Democratic Underground.)
From the Raleigh News & Observer:
Students at one of the area's largest Christian schools are reading a controversial booklet that critics say whitewashes Southern slavery with its view that slaves lived "a life of plenty, of simple pleasures." ...
Principal Larry Stephenson said the school is only exposing students to different ideas, such as how the South justified slavery. He said the booklet is used because it is hard to find writings that are both sympathetic to the South and explore what the Bible says about slavery.
"You can have two different sides, a Northern perspective and a Southern perspective," he said....
The authors of the booklet are Douglas Wilson, an Idaho pastor, and Steve Wilkins. Wilkins
is a member of the board of directors of the Alabama-based League of the South. That is classified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights group.
In response to the article, Cary Christian has issued a press release:
As you may be aware, today the News and Observer published a rather negative article about Cary Christian School and our use of a small booklet supplement entitled, "Southern Slavery, As It Was". Within the article it stated, "the booklet has received criticism from a number of historians and that it has been pulled from publication because of faulty footnotes and citation errors."
We were unaware of these findings and as a result have already pulled this booklet from our curriculum....
Yes, apparently the controversy surrounding the booklet came as a complete surprise to the folks at Cary Christian. Apparently they had to buy a newspaper to learn that historians took issue with statements such as:
* "Slavery as it existed in the South was not an adversarial relationship with pervasive racial animosity. Because of its dominantly patriarchal character, it was a relationship based upon mutual affection and confidence." (page 24)
* "Slave life was to them a life of plenty, of simple pleasures, of food, clothes, and good medical care." (page 25)
* "But many Southern blacks supported the South because of long established bonds of affection and trust that had been forged over generations with their white masters and friends." (page 27)
But I hope it wasn't a mistake to remove the book from the curriculum. After all, why tinker with success?
At a time when a number of Triangle Christian schools have lost enrollment and even closed, Cary Christian has seen rapid growth since it opened in 1996....
(Story via Democratic Underground.)
Of course, as Donald Rumsfeld says, we're giving the troops the protection they need as fast as we can.
...Whoops! Sorry -- we're not:
Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army....
Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings last month told the Army it could add armor to as many as 550 of the trucks a month, up from 450 vehicles now, Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group said in a telephone interview today.
``We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,'' Mecredy said in the interview. ``I've told the customer that and I stand ready to do that.'' ...
Production of the armor needs to be coordinated with output of the actual trucks by AM General LLC of South Bend, Indiana, Mecredy said. AM General spokesman Lee Woodward also said that truck output could also be increased.
``If they ordered more trucks, we'd build more trucks,'' Woodward said. ``We're not close to capacity. It might take some time to ramp up but we can do it.''...
--Bloomberg News
(Link via Sisyphus Shrugged.)
...Whoops! Sorry -- we're not:
Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army....
Jacksonville, Florida-based Armor Holdings last month told the Army it could add armor to as many as 550 of the trucks a month, up from 450 vehicles now, Robert Mecredy, president of the company's aerospace and defense group said in a telephone interview today.
``We're prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month,'' Mecredy said in the interview. ``I've told the customer that and I stand ready to do that.'' ...
Production of the armor needs to be coordinated with output of the actual trucks by AM General LLC of South Bend, Indiana, Mecredy said. AM General spokesman Lee Woodward also said that truck output could also be increased.
``If they ordered more trucks, we'd build more trucks,'' Woodward said. ``We're not close to capacity. It might take some time to ramp up but we can do it.''...
--Bloomberg News
(Link via Sisyphus Shrugged.)
This is the nuclear bomb that's meant to destroy the story about the questioning of Donald Rumsfeld: an e-mail, leaked to Drudge, allegedly from a Chattanooga reporter claiming to have worked out the embarrassing question to Rummy in advance, in a conversation with a couple of soldiers. Expect the right-wing press to now declare the question a "fake" and compare it to CBS's National Guard documents. Expect the "liberal" press to whimper that it's been bad and deserves to be spanked.
A couple of problems with this. If the e-mail is real and the story is true, why did the soldier agree to ask the question? What did the reporter do -- put a laptop to his temple? Maybe the reporter suggested the question, but the soldier chose to ask it. (And if this story from yesterday's Newsday is accurate, the soldier's a Bush supporter.)
And what about the reaction? The e-mail says the reporter discussed the line of questioning with two soldiers. It doesn't say the reporter urged the rest of the troops to cheer when the question was asked. But that's what happened. You''ve seen the clip -- the cheering sounded pretty damn spontaneous.
A couple of problems with this. If the e-mail is real and the story is true, why did the soldier agree to ask the question? What did the reporter do -- put a laptop to his temple? Maybe the reporter suggested the question, but the soldier chose to ask it. (And if this story from yesterday's Newsday is accurate, the soldier's a Bush supporter.)
And what about the reaction? The e-mail says the reporter discussed the line of questioning with two soldiers. It doesn't say the reporter urged the rest of the troops to cheer when the question was asked. But that's what happened. You''ve seen the clip -- the cheering sounded pretty damn spontaneous.
Yellow-dog Republican Hugh Hewitt attends a meeting of Republican women and -- sometime after the group is "entertained by the local home-schooling association's girls' choir" -- learns that the ladies' favorite candidate for president four years from now is Rudy Giuliani.
Among the many praises that gushed forth: decisive, experienced, loyal to "W"--an interesting positive, that--funny and, crucially, tough enough to take on the Clintons. There were many praises for Senator Frist, and some for John McCain, but Giuliani has their hearts--already.
I've been warning you about Rudy. I'm warning you again.
I don't know if we can beat this guy in '08. Other Republicans can beat him in the primaries, by stressing his positions on abortion, gays, and guns (assuming he doesn't change them all by then), and circumstances can beat him -- Bush could screw up so badly in the next four years that even obtuse Bush '04 voters reject the GOP in November, Rudy's ex-flunky Bernard Kerik could screw up badly at Homeland Security and taint his ex-boss, cancer could return to Giuliani's life in a serious way -- but I don't think we have a strategy to beat him.
Among the many praises that gushed forth: decisive, experienced, loyal to "W"--an interesting positive, that--funny and, crucially, tough enough to take on the Clintons. There were many praises for Senator Frist, and some for John McCain, but Giuliani has their hearts--already.
I've been warning you about Rudy. I'm warning you again.
I don't know if we can beat this guy in '08. Other Republicans can beat him in the primaries, by stressing his positions on abortion, gays, and guns (assuming he doesn't change them all by then), and circumstances can beat him -- Bush could screw up so badly in the next four years that even obtuse Bush '04 voters reject the GOP in November, Rudy's ex-flunky Bernard Kerik could screw up badly at Homeland Security and taint his ex-boss, cancer could return to Giuliani's life in a serious way -- but I don't think we have a strategy to beat him.
So what else do we know about Bernard Kerik, Bush's nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security? Well, The Washington Post has an interesting story that also appears in Newsday and is best summed up by Newsday's headline:
While leading Saudi hospital security, Bush's Homeland Security pick pried into private matters on behalf of boss
In his 2001 memoir "The Lost Son," Kerik described his discomfort at investigating employees' private lives but said it was necessary because of Saudi laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public.
Since he was nominated last week to be Homeland Security secretary, however, nine former hospital employees have said that Kerik and his colleagues were carrying out the private agenda of hospital administrator Nizar Feteih, and that the surveillance involved people's private affairs. Feteih used the hospital's security staff to track the private lives of women with whom he was romantically involved and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.
Elsewhere, Newsday reports that Kerik
blocked the promotion of a qualified jail supervisor because he had once run afoul of a female correction officer Kerik dated, a lawsuit alleges.
Retired Correction Department supervisor Eric DeRavin III claims in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court that Kerik passed him over five times between 1998 and 2000 in retaliation for reprimanding Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero.
(DeRavin, by the way, "is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and served nine months in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as a military intelligence and civil affairs officer." That's three months longer than Kerik's scheduled term in Iraq -- and six months longer than Kerik actually served.)
And while AP's list of firms Kerik has worked for as a security consultant may interest you for other reasons (yeah, he worked for Purdue Pharma, maker of Limbaugh's favorite after-dinner cocktail, OxyContin), the company name that jumps out at me is Entergy. Entergy owns the Indian Point nuclear plant, which is not all that far north of New York City. The Journal-News, an upstate paper, reported in 2003 that Kerik would "serve as 'in-house consultant' to Entergy and may represent the firm at official hearings and meetings on security issues and emergency planning." I wonder if he had anything to do with a subsequent safety drill at Indian Point that, as The Journal-News reported, involved a mock terrorist attack, but one in which
[t]he phantom plane didn't strike a nuclear reactor, [so] there was no simulated leak of radiation, and only a small-scale evacuation was ordered....
"I can't fathom a terrorist attack that wouldn't be targeted directly at the heart of the plant," said Rockland Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, whose feelings were echoed by Westchester County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D-Somers, and several citizen activists.
"The reason so many politicians and concerned citizens asked for terrorism to be included in an emergency drill was to test the response to a scenario in which a large amount of radiation is released in a short period of time, requiring a rapid evacuation of a significant amount of people," said Mark Jacobs, a spokesman for the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition. "Since the drill did not test this at all, the test was completely inadequate. And your incorporation of terrorism served only one purpose — a public relations trick."
Afterward, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano praised emergency officials for their response Tuesday but called the drill's scope "totally inadequate."
Oh, and The Village Voice has a nice roundup of questions about Kerik, which includes this quote from a 2004 Jimmy Breslin column:
"At the World Trade Center, Kerik was in the back of his car dictating the last part of a book that was going to appear under his name. It had him writhing with delicious excitement. It was about his mother being a prostitute. 'That's what's going to make me all the money,' he told a friend of mine."
That's a story I remember reading at the time, though this is the only mention of it I can find now -- that Kerik was putting the finishing touches to his book on the evening of 9/11. If that's true, it's appalling.
While leading Saudi hospital security, Bush's Homeland Security pick pried into private matters on behalf of boss
In his 2001 memoir "The Lost Son," Kerik described his discomfort at investigating employees' private lives but said it was necessary because of Saudi laws prohibiting drinking and mingling of the sexes in public.
Since he was nominated last week to be Homeland Security secretary, however, nine former hospital employees have said that Kerik and his colleagues were carrying out the private agenda of hospital administrator Nizar Feteih, and that the surveillance involved people's private affairs. Feteih used the hospital's security staff to track the private lives of women with whom he was romantically involved and men who came in contact with them, the ex-employees said.
Elsewhere, Newsday reports that Kerik
blocked the promotion of a qualified jail supervisor because he had once run afoul of a female correction officer Kerik dated, a lawsuit alleges.
Retired Correction Department supervisor Eric DeRavin III claims in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court that Kerik passed him over five times between 1998 and 2000 in retaliation for reprimanding Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero.
(DeRavin, by the way, "is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves and served nine months in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 as a military intelligence and civil affairs officer." That's three months longer than Kerik's scheduled term in Iraq -- and six months longer than Kerik actually served.)
And while AP's list of firms Kerik has worked for as a security consultant may interest you for other reasons (yeah, he worked for Purdue Pharma, maker of Limbaugh's favorite after-dinner cocktail, OxyContin), the company name that jumps out at me is Entergy. Entergy owns the Indian Point nuclear plant, which is not all that far north of New York City. The Journal-News, an upstate paper, reported in 2003 that Kerik would "serve as 'in-house consultant' to Entergy and may represent the firm at official hearings and meetings on security issues and emergency planning." I wonder if he had anything to do with a subsequent safety drill at Indian Point that, as The Journal-News reported, involved a mock terrorist attack, but one in which
[t]he phantom plane didn't strike a nuclear reactor, [so] there was no simulated leak of radiation, and only a small-scale evacuation was ordered....
"I can't fathom a terrorist attack that wouldn't be targeted directly at the heart of the plant," said Rockland Legislator David Fried, D-Spring Valley, whose feelings were echoed by Westchester County Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D-Somers, and several citizen activists.
"The reason so many politicians and concerned citizens asked for terrorism to be included in an emergency drill was to test the response to a scenario in which a large amount of radiation is released in a short period of time, requiring a rapid evacuation of a significant amount of people," said Mark Jacobs, a spokesman for the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition. "Since the drill did not test this at all, the test was completely inadequate. And your incorporation of terrorism served only one purpose — a public relations trick."
Afterward, Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano praised emergency officials for their response Tuesday but called the drill's scope "totally inadequate."
Oh, and The Village Voice has a nice roundup of questions about Kerik, which includes this quote from a 2004 Jimmy Breslin column:
"At the World Trade Center, Kerik was in the back of his car dictating the last part of a book that was going to appear under his name. It had him writhing with delicious excitement. It was about his mother being a prostitute. 'That's what's going to make me all the money,' he told a friend of mine."
That's a story I remember reading at the time, though this is the only mention of it I can find now -- that Kerik was putting the finishing touches to his book on the evening of 9/11. If that's true, it's appalling.
A former U.S. marine testified yesterday that the U.S. military "murdered" civilians in Iraq and that he pumped 500 rounds of bullets into vehicles that failed to stop at military checkpoints.
Jimmy Massey, a former marine staff sergeant, told an immigration and refugee board hearing in Toronto that he and his fellow marines shot and killed more than 30 unarmed men, women and children and even shot a young Iraqi who got out of his car with his arms in the air....
Mr. Massey testified in the refugee claim of U.S. army deserter Jeremy Hinzman, 26, who sought asylum in Canada after his application to be a conscientious objector was rejected....
--Toronto Globe & Mail
I see that second-tier right-wing attack pundit Michelle Malkin thinks both Hinzman and Massey are smearing the troops.
But in an article he wrote for last month's Atlantic, William Langewiesche -- an actual reporter who's spent most of the past year in Iraq -- wrote that the chaos on roads in Baghdad included
the presence of U.S. military patrols -- generally groups of machine-gun-equipped Humvees, operated by tense and frustrated GIs who swing their weapons at the surrounding traffic and were more than ready to shoot. If there was one remaining road rule in Iraq, it was to stay well behind those patrols, because of the understandable tendency of American soldiers to fire back indiscriminately when attacked. There are many stories, glossed over in official reports, of innocent Iraqis who were shredded in their cars because they happened to drive too close to a patrol that had been bombed or fired upon. Sometimes entire families died that way.
There's not a huge difference between that and what Massey says.
(Globe & Mail story via INTL-News.)
Jimmy Massey, a former marine staff sergeant, told an immigration and refugee board hearing in Toronto that he and his fellow marines shot and killed more than 30 unarmed men, women and children and even shot a young Iraqi who got out of his car with his arms in the air....
Mr. Massey testified in the refugee claim of U.S. army deserter Jeremy Hinzman, 26, who sought asylum in Canada after his application to be a conscientious objector was rejected....
--Toronto Globe & Mail
I see that second-tier right-wing attack pundit Michelle Malkin thinks both Hinzman and Massey are smearing the troops.
But in an article he wrote for last month's Atlantic, William Langewiesche -- an actual reporter who's spent most of the past year in Iraq -- wrote that the chaos on roads in Baghdad included
the presence of U.S. military patrols -- generally groups of machine-gun-equipped Humvees, operated by tense and frustrated GIs who swing their weapons at the surrounding traffic and were more than ready to shoot. If there was one remaining road rule in Iraq, it was to stay well behind those patrols, because of the understandable tendency of American soldiers to fire back indiscriminately when attacked. There are many stories, glossed over in official reports, of innocent Iraqis who were shredded in their cars because they happened to drive too close to a patrol that had been bombed or fired upon. Sometimes entire families died that way.
There's not a huge difference between that and what Massey says.
(Globe & Mail story via INTL-News.)
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
A soldier asked a frank question of Donald Rumsfeld. ABC follows up:
They call it "hillbilly armor" -- U.S. military vehicles protected with scrap metal salvaged from landfills. And now U.S. soldiers want to know how long they will have to scavenge for junk to protect themselves in combat....
... Kurt Hendler, a reservist serving with the Seabees, the Navy's construction force ... and his welding partner, Joe Parrot, are customizing the standard equipped personnel trucks with new steel doors, higher sides and deflecting roofs -- all fashioned from steel plates intended for road repairs in Iraq.
"We cover up the doors and put on some three-inch plate to protect the passenger and driver's side from IED [improvised explosive device] attacks, sniper fire and any other small-arms fire," Hendler said.
This makeshift armor ended up saving the life of a crew whose vehicle took a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade. They say it will take 2 ½ months to get a new door to replace the one that was damaged....
I love that -- they have to use steel that was intended for Iraqi reconstruction. Our own troops are being shortchanged, the people we're trying to liberate are being shortchanged -- too bad we're not, y'know, the richest country in the world or anything.
They call it "hillbilly armor" -- U.S. military vehicles protected with scrap metal salvaged from landfills. And now U.S. soldiers want to know how long they will have to scavenge for junk to protect themselves in combat....
... Kurt Hendler, a reservist serving with the Seabees, the Navy's construction force ... and his welding partner, Joe Parrot, are customizing the standard equipped personnel trucks with new steel doors, higher sides and deflecting roofs -- all fashioned from steel plates intended for road repairs in Iraq.
"We cover up the doors and put on some three-inch plate to protect the passenger and driver's side from IED [improvised explosive device] attacks, sniper fire and any other small-arms fire," Hendler said.
This makeshift armor ended up saving the life of a crew whose vehicle took a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade. They say it will take 2 ½ months to get a new door to replace the one that was damaged....
I love that -- they have to use steel that was intended for Iraqi reconstruction. Our own troops are being shortchanged, the people we're trying to liberate are being shortchanged -- too bad we're not, y'know, the richest country in the world or anything.
Income tax delinquents on Web site
Redding resident Richard "Dick" Morris, who was former President Clinton's chief campaign adviser, is one of the state's top income tax delinquents.
Morris, of Beeholm Road, West Redding, owes the state $289,200, making him seventh on the list of the state's worst 100 tax delinquents. That amount includes interest and penalties....
--newstimesLive.com, Danbury, Ct.
Here's the list. Morris is #7.
Guess turning Bill and Hillary into your personal White Whale doesn't free up much time to file tax returns.
*****
UPDATE: Gee, I almost forgot that Morris co-wrote and narrated the Moore-bashing DVD FahrenHYPE 9/11 (love those extra capital letters, Dick!).
Redding resident Richard "Dick" Morris, who was former President Clinton's chief campaign adviser, is one of the state's top income tax delinquents.
Morris, of Beeholm Road, West Redding, owes the state $289,200, making him seventh on the list of the state's worst 100 tax delinquents. That amount includes interest and penalties....
--newstimesLive.com, Danbury, Ct.
Here's the list. Morris is #7.
Guess turning Bill and Hillary into your personal White Whale doesn't free up much time to file tax returns.
*****
UPDATE: Gee, I almost forgot that Morris co-wrote and narrated the Moore-bashing DVD FahrenHYPE 9/11 (love those extra capital letters, Dick!).
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