Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Mark Kleiman has the The Kerry doctrine
Mark A. R. Kleiman: The Kerry doctrine: "Defend the country. Promote freedom. Pay attention to the facts. Listen to the experts. Make sure your buddies have your back. Plan for victory. Tell the truth."
Monday, October 04, 2004
Two Faces. One Public, One Private. One Phony, One Real
Below are several graphs from digsby on the president we saw in the debate. I think he is on target.
Over the last week or so we have seen an edgy, enigmatic black and white image of George W. Bush appear on web-sites and blogs. At first people thought that sites had been hacked, as Eschaton and Kos and Democratic Underground spontaneously erupted with the black and white figure only to have it disappear and randomly return. Within days it linked to a mysterious DNC web-site with cryptic material that only slowly came into focus. Clearly something was up.
SNIP
I believe that this happened because after 9/11, the media cast Bush in the role of strong, resolute leader, perhaps because the nation needed him to be that, at least for a little while. And the people gratefully laid that mantle on him and he took it because the office demanded no less. The narrative of the nation at war required a warrior leader and George W. Bush was all we had. Karl Rove and others understood that they could use this veil to soothe the American people and flatter the president to take actions that no prudent, thoughtful leader would have taken after our initial successes in Afghanistan. This “man with the bullhorn” image of Bush crystallized in the minds of many Americans and has not been revisited until now.
SNIP
His handlers wisely kept him under wraps, allowing him face time on television only in the company of world leaders or to give stirring speeches written by his gifted speechwriter, Mark Gerson. He rarely held press conferences and when he took questions, he was aggressively unresponsive, choosing instead to offer canned sound bites and slogans and daring the press corps to call him on it. Few did. The mask stayed in place and he remained a symbol instead of a president --- the symbol of American strength, resilience and fortitude. He was, in many people’s minds, the president they wished they had.
On Thursday night sixty-one million people watched George W. Bush for the first time since 9/11 not as that symbol, but as a man. And for those who had not reassessed their belief in his personal leadership since 9/11, it was quite a shock. Their strong leader was inarticulate, arrogant, confused and immature. They must be wondering who that man was.
The truth is that since George W. Bush entered politics he has always had two faces. In fact, virtually everything you know about his public persona is the opposite of the real person.
He claims to be a compassionate, caring man, often admonishing people to "love your neighbor like you loved to be loved yourself." Yet, going all the way back to Yale, he is quoted as saying he disapproved of his fellow students as "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering." His business school professor remembers him saying that poor people are poor because they are lazy. This from a man who was born rich into one of America's leading families and relied on those connections for everything he ever achieved.
SNIP
He ostentatiously calls himself a committed Christian and yet he rarely attends church unless it’s a campaign stop or a national occasion. The man who claims that Christ is his favorite political philosopher famously and cruelly mocked a condemned prisoner begging for her life. He portrays himself as a man of rectitude yet he pumped his fist and said "feels good!" in the moment before he announced that the Iraq war had begun. (One would have thought that if there was ever a time to utter a prayer it was then.) How many funerals of the fallen has he attended? How many widows has he personally comforted?
He portrays himself as a salt of the earth "hard working" rancher, clearing brush on his land in an artfully sweaty Calvin Klein-style t-shirt. Yet in the first 8 months of his presidency leading up to 9/11, he spent 42% of his time on vacation. His "ranching" didn't begin until he bought his million dollar property just before he ran for president in 1999. He has lived in suburbs and cities since a brief period in his childhood in the 50’s, when he lived in the medium sized boom town of Midland before going to Andover.
SNIP
SNIP
George W. Bush is a man with two faces--- a public image of manly strength and a private reality of childish weakness. His verbal miscues and malapropisms are the natural consequence of a man struggling with internal contradictions and a lack of self-knowledge. He can’t keep track of what he is supposed to think and say in public.
There is no doubt that whether it's a cowboy hat or a crotch hugging flightsuit , George W. Bush enjoys wearing the mantle of American archetypal warriors. But when he goes behind the curtain and sheds the costume, a flinty, thin-skinned, immature man who has never taken responsibility for his mistakes emerges. The strong compassionate leader is revealed as a flimsy paper tiger.
On Thursday night, the president forgot himself. After years of being protected from anyone who doesn't flatter and cajole, he let his mask slip when confronted with someone who didn't fear his childish retribution or need anything from him. Many members of the public got a good sharp look at him for the first time in two years and they were stunned. Like that black and white image, the dichotomy of the real Bush vs. the phony Bush is profoundly discomfiting.
Luckily for America and the world, a fully synthesized, mature man stood on the other side of that stage ready to assume the mantle of leadership, not as a theatrical costume but as an adult responsibility for which he is prepared by a lifetime of service, study and dedication. I would imagine that many voters felt a strong sense of relief that he was there.
Over the last week or so we have seen an edgy, enigmatic black and white image of George W. Bush appear on web-sites and blogs. At first people thought that sites had been hacked, as Eschaton and Kos and Democratic Underground spontaneously erupted with the black and white figure only to have it disappear and randomly return. Within days it linked to a mysterious DNC web-site with cryptic material that only slowly came into focus. Clearly something was up.
SNIP
I believe that this happened because after 9/11, the media cast Bush in the role of strong, resolute leader, perhaps because the nation needed him to be that, at least for a little while. And the people gratefully laid that mantle on him and he took it because the office demanded no less. The narrative of the nation at war required a warrior leader and George W. Bush was all we had. Karl Rove and others understood that they could use this veil to soothe the American people and flatter the president to take actions that no prudent, thoughtful leader would have taken after our initial successes in Afghanistan. This “man with the bullhorn” image of Bush crystallized in the minds of many Americans and has not been revisited until now.
SNIP
His handlers wisely kept him under wraps, allowing him face time on television only in the company of world leaders or to give stirring speeches written by his gifted speechwriter, Mark Gerson. He rarely held press conferences and when he took questions, he was aggressively unresponsive, choosing instead to offer canned sound bites and slogans and daring the press corps to call him on it. Few did. The mask stayed in place and he remained a symbol instead of a president --- the symbol of American strength, resilience and fortitude. He was, in many people’s minds, the president they wished they had.
On Thursday night sixty-one million people watched George W. Bush for the first time since 9/11 not as that symbol, but as a man. And for those who had not reassessed their belief in his personal leadership since 9/11, it was quite a shock. Their strong leader was inarticulate, arrogant, confused and immature. They must be wondering who that man was.
The truth is that since George W. Bush entered politics he has always had two faces. In fact, virtually everything you know about his public persona is the opposite of the real person.
He claims to be a compassionate, caring man, often admonishing people to "love your neighbor like you loved to be loved yourself." Yet, going all the way back to Yale, he is quoted as saying he disapproved of his fellow students as "people who felt guilty about their lot in life because others were suffering." His business school professor remembers him saying that poor people are poor because they are lazy. This from a man who was born rich into one of America's leading families and relied on those connections for everything he ever achieved.
SNIP
He ostentatiously calls himself a committed Christian and yet he rarely attends church unless it’s a campaign stop or a national occasion. The man who claims that Christ is his favorite political philosopher famously and cruelly mocked a condemned prisoner begging for her life. He portrays himself as a man of rectitude yet he pumped his fist and said "feels good!" in the moment before he announced that the Iraq war had begun. (One would have thought that if there was ever a time to utter a prayer it was then.) How many funerals of the fallen has he attended? How many widows has he personally comforted?
He portrays himself as a salt of the earth "hard working" rancher, clearing brush on his land in an artfully sweaty Calvin Klein-style t-shirt. Yet in the first 8 months of his presidency leading up to 9/11, he spent 42% of his time on vacation. His "ranching" didn't begin until he bought his million dollar property just before he ran for president in 1999. He has lived in suburbs and cities since a brief period in his childhood in the 50’s, when he lived in the medium sized boom town of Midland before going to Andover.
SNIP
SNIP
George W. Bush is a man with two faces--- a public image of manly strength and a private reality of childish weakness. His verbal miscues and malapropisms are the natural consequence of a man struggling with internal contradictions and a lack of self-knowledge. He can’t keep track of what he is supposed to think and say in public.
There is no doubt that whether it's a cowboy hat or a crotch hugging flightsuit , George W. Bush enjoys wearing the mantle of American archetypal warriors. But when he goes behind the curtain and sheds the costume, a flinty, thin-skinned, immature man who has never taken responsibility for his mistakes emerges. The strong compassionate leader is revealed as a flimsy paper tiger.
On Thursday night, the president forgot himself. After years of being protected from anyone who doesn't flatter and cajole, he let his mask slip when confronted with someone who didn't fear his childish retribution or need anything from him. Many members of the public got a good sharp look at him for the first time in two years and they were stunned. Like that black and white image, the dichotomy of the real Bush vs. the phony Bush is profoundly discomfiting.
Luckily for America and the world, a fully synthesized, mature man stood on the other side of that stage ready to assume the mantle of leadership, not as a theatrical costume but as an adult responsibility for which he is prepared by a lifetime of service, study and dedication. I would imagine that many voters felt a strong sense of relief that he was there.
Friday, September 24, 2004
He Does Not Know What Death Is.
E. L. Doctorow writes: "I fault this president for not knowing what death is. He does not suffer the death of our 21-year-olds who wanted to be what they could be. On the eve of D-Day in 1944 General Eisenhower prayed to God for the lives of the young soldiers he knew were going to die. He knew what death was. Even in a justifiable war, a war not of choice but of necessity, a war of survival, the cost was almost more than Eisenhower could bear.
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.
He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." Keep reading, here.
But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.
He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country." Keep reading, here.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
War is Hell
From Salon
"The war, illegal and founded on a vast lie, has produced two tragedies of equal magnitude: an embryonic civil war in the world's oldest country, and a triumph for those in the Bush administration who, without a trace of shame, act as if the truth does not matter. Lying until the lie became true, the administration pursued a course of action that guaranteed large sections of Iraq would become havens for jihadis and radical Islamists. That is the logic promoted by people who take for themselves divine infallibility -- a righteousness that blinds and destroys. Like credulous Weimar Germans who were so delighted by rigged wrestling matches, millions of Americans have accepted Bush's assertions that the war in Iraq has made the United States and the rest of the world a safer place to live. Of course, this is false.
But it is a useful fiction because it is a happy one. All we need to know, according to the administration, is that America is a good country, full of good people and therefore cannot make bloody mistakes when it comes to its own security. The bitter consequence of succumbing to such happy talk is that the government of the most powerful nation in the world now operates unchecked and unmoored from reality; leaving us teetering on the brink of another presidential term where abuse of authority has been recast as virtue.
The logic the administration uses to promote its actions -- preemptive war, indefinite detention, torture of prisoners, the abandonment of the Geneva Convention abroad and the Bill of Rights at home -- is simple, faith-based and therefore empty of reason. The worsening war is the creation of the Bush administration, which is simultaneously holding Americans and Iraqis hostage to a bloody conflict that cannot be won, only stalemated.
Over the last three years, practicing a philosophy of deliberate deception, fear-mongering and abuse of authority, the Bush administration has done more to undermine the republic of Lincoln and Jefferson than the cells of al-Qaida. It has willfully ignored our fundamental laws and squandered the nation's wealth in bloody, open-ended pursuits. Corporations like Halliburton, with close ties to government officials, are profiting greatly from the war while thousands of American soldiers undertake the dangerous work of patrolling the streets of Iraqi cities. We have arrived at a moment of national crisis.
At home, the United States, under the Bush administration, is rapidly drifting toward a security state whose principal currency is fear. Abroad, it has used fear to justify the invasion of Iraq -- fear of weapons of mass destruction, of terrorist attacks, of Iraq itself. The administration, under false premises, invaded a country that it barely understood. We entered a country in shambles, a population divided against itself. The U.S. invasion was a catalyst of violence and religious hatred, and the continuing presence of American troops has only made matters worse. Iraq today bears no resemblance to the president's vision of a fledgling democracy. On its way to national elections in January, Iraq has already slipped into chaos."
"The war, illegal and founded on a vast lie, has produced two tragedies of equal magnitude: an embryonic civil war in the world's oldest country, and a triumph for those in the Bush administration who, without a trace of shame, act as if the truth does not matter. Lying until the lie became true, the administration pursued a course of action that guaranteed large sections of Iraq would become havens for jihadis and radical Islamists. That is the logic promoted by people who take for themselves divine infallibility -- a righteousness that blinds and destroys. Like credulous Weimar Germans who were so delighted by rigged wrestling matches, millions of Americans have accepted Bush's assertions that the war in Iraq has made the United States and the rest of the world a safer place to live. Of course, this is false.
But it is a useful fiction because it is a happy one. All we need to know, according to the administration, is that America is a good country, full of good people and therefore cannot make bloody mistakes when it comes to its own security. The bitter consequence of succumbing to such happy talk is that the government of the most powerful nation in the world now operates unchecked and unmoored from reality; leaving us teetering on the brink of another presidential term where abuse of authority has been recast as virtue.
The logic the administration uses to promote its actions -- preemptive war, indefinite detention, torture of prisoners, the abandonment of the Geneva Convention abroad and the Bill of Rights at home -- is simple, faith-based and therefore empty of reason. The worsening war is the creation of the Bush administration, which is simultaneously holding Americans and Iraqis hostage to a bloody conflict that cannot be won, only stalemated.
Over the last three years, practicing a philosophy of deliberate deception, fear-mongering and abuse of authority, the Bush administration has done more to undermine the republic of Lincoln and Jefferson than the cells of al-Qaida. It has willfully ignored our fundamental laws and squandered the nation's wealth in bloody, open-ended pursuits. Corporations like Halliburton, with close ties to government officials, are profiting greatly from the war while thousands of American soldiers undertake the dangerous work of patrolling the streets of Iraqi cities. We have arrived at a moment of national crisis.
At home, the United States, under the Bush administration, is rapidly drifting toward a security state whose principal currency is fear. Abroad, it has used fear to justify the invasion of Iraq -- fear of weapons of mass destruction, of terrorist attacks, of Iraq itself. The administration, under false premises, invaded a country that it barely understood. We entered a country in shambles, a population divided against itself. The U.S. invasion was a catalyst of violence and religious hatred, and the continuing presence of American troops has only made matters worse. Iraq today bears no resemblance to the president's vision of a fledgling democracy. On its way to national elections in January, Iraq has already slipped into chaos."
Friday, September 17, 2004
This Is Bush's Vietnam
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: This Is Bush's Vietnam
Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.
When the newscaster David Brinkley, appalled by the carnage in Vietnam, asked Lyndon Johnson why he didn't just bring the troops home, Johnson replied, "I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war."
George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.
I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this colossal mistake.
Three more marines were killed yesterday in Iraq. Kidnappings are commonplace. The insurgency is growing and becoming more sophisticated, which means more deadly. Ordinary Iraqis are becoming ever more enraged at the U.S.
When the newscaster David Brinkley, appalled by the carnage in Vietnam, asked Lyndon Johnson why he didn't just bring the troops home, Johnson replied, "I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war."
George W. Bush is now trapped as tightly in Iraq as Johnson was in Vietnam. The war is going badly. The president's own intelligence estimates are pessimistic. There is no plan to actually win the war in Iraq, and no willingness to concede defeat.
I wonder who the last man or woman will be to die for this colossal mistake.
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Pop was smarter
From Dkos, Here is a snip from a speech 41 gave in 1998 to Gulf war Veterans. Don't you wish 43 would listen to his daddy instead of acting like the spoiled brat he is.
"Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what? Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."
"Had we gone into Baghdad -- we could have done it, you guys could have done it, you could have been there in 48 hours -- and then what? Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power -- America in an Arab land -- with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous."
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Once Again Mark Morford scares me
Love Masochism? Vote BushCo! / Could four more brutal years of the Dubya nightmare actually be good for America?: "Look at it this way: If Kerry wins now, the nation won't have suffered enough, won't have traveled far enough down the road of right-wing egotism and misogyny and homophobia and religious self-righteousness and deficit mauling and sanctimonious ideology and mangled grammar to really learn anything indelible, nothing that will affect a permanent sea change in our worldview, and we will just continue to limp along, never really healing and never really refocusing our intention and never fully understanding the depths of our dark side.
And, furthermore, if Kerry wins, history might not be as fully and inevitably antagonistic toward BushCo as his short, dreadful despotism deserves. Our national memory is frightfully short. Everyone will think, oh well, it's all over now and the damage has been done and it wasn't all that bad, really, was it? "
And, furthermore, if Kerry wins, history might not be as fully and inevitably antagonistic toward BushCo as his short, dreadful despotism deserves. Our national memory is frightfully short. Everyone will think, oh well, it's all over now and the damage has been done and it wasn't all that bad, really, was it? "
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Good Idea for a Kerry stump speech
From Dkos and Zackpunk's diary:
Daily Kos: "I was just listening to the Al Franken show, and he touched on a point, but didn't make an interesting connection. Colin Powell told president Bush, 'if you break it, you own it.' And now president Bush is going around talking about having an 'ownership society.' That's a huge opening for Kerry:
'Mr. president, Colin Powell told you about this war that 'if you break it, you own it.' And now you're going around talking about an 'ownership society.' Well, Mr. President, let me tell you what you own. A million jobs lost. You own that. A thousand soldiers lost. You own that. 1.4 million new people living below the poverty line. You own that. 1.2 million less people covered by health insurance. You own that. A seventeen percent medicare increase. You own that. Health care costs skyrocketing. You own that. The tax burden increasing amongst the middle class. You own that. Mr. President, if you want to talk about an ownership society, let's talk about what you own.' "
Daily Kos: "I was just listening to the Al Franken show, and he touched on a point, but didn't make an interesting connection. Colin Powell told president Bush, 'if you break it, you own it.' And now president Bush is going around talking about having an 'ownership society.' That's a huge opening for Kerry:
'Mr. president, Colin Powell told you about this war that 'if you break it, you own it.' And now you're going around talking about an 'ownership society.' Well, Mr. President, let me tell you what you own. A million jobs lost. You own that. A thousand soldiers lost. You own that. 1.4 million new people living below the poverty line. You own that. 1.2 million less people covered by health insurance. You own that. A seventeen percent medicare increase. You own that. Health care costs skyrocketing. You own that. The tax burden increasing amongst the middle class. You own that. Mr. President, if you want to talk about an ownership society, let's talk about what you own.' "
Monday, September 13, 2004
Al Qaida is making progress we aren't
As usual Juan Cole has an absolutely perfect analysis of the situation.
"Al-Qaeda wanted to build enthusiasm for the Islamic superstate among the Muslim populace, to convince ordinary Muslims that the US could be defeated and they did not have to accept the small, largely secular, and powerless Middle Eastern states erected in the wake of colonialism. Jordan's population, e.g. is 5.6 million. Tunisia, a former French colony, is 10 million, less than Michigan. Most Muslims have been convinced of the naturalness of the nation-state model and are proud of their new nations, however small and weak. Bin Laden had to do a big demonstration project to convince them that another model is possible.
Bin Laden hoped the US would timidly withdraw from the Middle East. But he appears to have been aware that an aggressive US response to 9/11 was entirely possible. In that case, he had a Plan B: al-Qaeda hoped to draw the US into a debilitating guerrilla war in Afghanistan and do to the US military what they had earlier done to the Soviets. Al-Zawahiri's recent message shows that he still has faith in that strategy.
The US cleverly outfoxed al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, using air power and local Afghan allies (the Northern Alliance) to destroy the Taliban without many American boots on the ground.
Ironically, however, the Bush administration then went on to invade Iraq for no good reason, where Americans faced the kind of wearing guerrilla war they had avoided in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda has succeeded in several of its main goals. It had been trying to convince Muslims that the United States wanted to invade Muslim lands, humiliate Muslim men, and rape Muslim women. Most Muslims found this charge hard to accept. The Bush administration's Iraq invasion, along with the Abu Ghuraib prison torture scandal, was perceived by many Muslims to validate Bin Laden's wisdom and foresightedness.
After the Iraq War, Bin Laden is more popular than George W. "
We are losing the war.
"Al-Qaeda wanted to build enthusiasm for the Islamic superstate among the Muslim populace, to convince ordinary Muslims that the US could be defeated and they did not have to accept the small, largely secular, and powerless Middle Eastern states erected in the wake of colonialism. Jordan's population, e.g. is 5.6 million. Tunisia, a former French colony, is 10 million, less than Michigan. Most Muslims have been convinced of the naturalness of the nation-state model and are proud of their new nations, however small and weak. Bin Laden had to do a big demonstration project to convince them that another model is possible.
Bin Laden hoped the US would timidly withdraw from the Middle East. But he appears to have been aware that an aggressive US response to 9/11 was entirely possible. In that case, he had a Plan B: al-Qaeda hoped to draw the US into a debilitating guerrilla war in Afghanistan and do to the US military what they had earlier done to the Soviets. Al-Zawahiri's recent message shows that he still has faith in that strategy.
The US cleverly outfoxed al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, using air power and local Afghan allies (the Northern Alliance) to destroy the Taliban without many American boots on the ground.
Ironically, however, the Bush administration then went on to invade Iraq for no good reason, where Americans faced the kind of wearing guerrilla war they had avoided in Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda has succeeded in several of its main goals. It had been trying to convince Muslims that the United States wanted to invade Muslim lands, humiliate Muslim men, and rape Muslim women. Most Muslims found this charge hard to accept. The Bush administration's Iraq invasion, along with the Abu Ghuraib prison torture scandal, was perceived by many Muslims to validate Bin Laden's wisdom and foresightedness.
After the Iraq War, Bin Laden is more popular than George W. "
We are losing the war.
Still here!
If anyone cares.....I am still here. Recovering slowly from the surgery and feeling better every day. Still a week or so before I can spend anytime not laying down but more everyday.
Wednesday, September 01, 2004
Don't Forget
During the Republican convention, while everyone praises George Bush and his "great record", let's not lose sight of the facts.
Since he took office;
1.2 million people in America have lost their jobs, bringing the total to 8.2 million.
The number of Americans living below the poverty line has increased by 4.3 million to 35.9
million - 12.9 million of them children.
The number of Americans with no health insurance has increased by 5.8 million - with 1.4 million
losing their insurance in 2003. The total now stands at 45 million.
Forty percent of the 3.5 million people who were homeless at some point last year were families
with children, as were 40 percent of those seeking emergency food assistance.
Median household income has fallen more than $1,500 in inflation-adjusted terms in the last three
years, and the wages of most workers are now falling behind inflation.
Average tuition for college has risen by 34 percent, while 37 percent of fourth graders read at a
level considered "below basic."
One third of the president's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts benefits only the top 1 percent of
wealthiest Americans.
He failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive".
Traded the moral high ground for preemptive war and the horrors of Abu Ghraib.
Never attended a funeral or memorial service for any of the 975 soldiers killed in Iraq.
Pulled out of the Kyoto agreement on global warming.
Gutted the Clean Air Act and initiated the rollback of more than 200 environmental regulations.
Backed a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage.
Refused to follow through on his promise to extend the assault weapons ban.
Since he took office;
1.2 million people in America have lost their jobs, bringing the total to 8.2 million.
The number of Americans living below the poverty line has increased by 4.3 million to 35.9
million - 12.9 million of them children.
The number of Americans with no health insurance has increased by 5.8 million - with 1.4 million
losing their insurance in 2003. The total now stands at 45 million.
Forty percent of the 3.5 million people who were homeless at some point last year were families
with children, as were 40 percent of those seeking emergency food assistance.
Median household income has fallen more than $1,500 in inflation-adjusted terms in the last three
years, and the wages of most workers are now falling behind inflation.
Average tuition for college has risen by 34 percent, while 37 percent of fourth graders read at a
level considered "below basic."
One third of the president's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts benefits only the top 1 percent of
wealthiest Americans.
He failed to fulfill his pledge to get Osama Bin Laden "dead or alive".
Traded the moral high ground for preemptive war and the horrors of Abu Ghraib.
Never attended a funeral or memorial service for any of the 975 soldiers killed in Iraq.
Pulled out of the Kyoto agreement on global warming.
Gutted the Clean Air Act and initiated the rollback of more than 200 environmental regulations.
Backed a constitutional amendment to outlaw gay marriage.
Refused to follow through on his promise to extend the assault weapons ban.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Indecision is the key to flexibility
"We meet today in a time of war for our country, a war (i.e., the war on terror) we did not start yet one that we will win."
-- George W. Bush, August 31st, 2004
"I don’t think you can win it (i.e., the war on terror). But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are — less acceptable in parts of the world."
-- George W. Bush, August 28th, 2004
-- George W. Bush, August 31st, 2004
"I don’t think you can win it (i.e., the war on terror). But I think you can create conditions so that the — those who use terror as a tool are — less acceptable in parts of the world."
-- George W. Bush, August 28th, 2004
More "catastrophic success"
Change, real median household income (2003 adjusted dollars)
Bush II: -$1,535
Clinton: +$5,489
Bush I: -$1,314
Change, number of people living in poverty
Bush II: +4,280,000
Clinton: -6,433,000
Bush I: +6,269,000
Bush II: -$1,535
Clinton: +$5,489
Bush I: -$1,314
Change, number of people living in poverty
Bush II: +4,280,000
Clinton: -6,433,000
Bush I: +6,269,000
Monday, August 30, 2004
Proud of America Today
"On bicycles, on foot, and some with their children in tow, hundreds of thousands of people moved through areas of Manhattan today in rallies or mass demonstrations, carrying messages against war and the Bush administration.
In the largest demonstration ever at a political convention, people swarmed through the midtown area of Manhattan in a march organized by United for Peace and Justice, passing by Madison Square Garden...At the height of the march, it took more than an hour to move one block."
I am very proud of America today. I haven't felt so for the last few years. Yesterday, Americans showed up in New York and made it clear to the Bush administration and to the world that this country belongs to us, and is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton. It was beautiful. Thanks to all of you who were in New York yesterday, on behalf of those of us who couldn't be there with you.
In the largest demonstration ever at a political convention, people swarmed through the midtown area of Manhattan in a march organized by United for Peace and Justice, passing by Madison Square Garden...At the height of the march, it took more than an hour to move one block."
I am very proud of America today. I haven't felt so for the last few years. Yesterday, Americans showed up in New York and made it clear to the Bush administration and to the world that this country belongs to us, and is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton. It was beautiful. Thanks to all of you who were in New York yesterday, on behalf of those of us who couldn't be there with you.
Friday, August 27, 2004
I couldn't resist this graph from Mark Morford
Sentient Non-Idiots For Kerry / Repubs pick a fight about Vietnam while Bush ruins America right now? Is the nation drunk?: "So, let's see: Bona-fide war hero turned incredibly articulate, educated, gifted Vietnam War protester and respected senator on one side, alcoholic AWOL failed-businessman born-again pampered daddy's boy evangelical Christian on the other. Is this really the contest? Bush slugs gin and tonics like Evian while Kerry is accused of ... what again? Not being incredibly heroic enough? Wow."
Friday, August 20, 2004
Via Corrente - Zell needs to reuse this speech
"I made it because Lyndon Johnson showed America that people who were born poor didn't have to die poor. And I made it because a man with whom I served in the Georgia Senate - a man named Jimmy Carter - brought honesty and decency and integrity to public service.
I am a Democrat because we are the party of hope. For... dark years the Republicans have dealt in cynicism and skepticism. They've mastered the art of division and diversion%2C and they have robbed us of our hope.
Americans have seen plants closed down, jobs shipped overseas and our hopes fade away as our economic position collapses right before our very eyes. And George Bush does not get it. Let's face facts. A George Bush just doesn't get it. He doesn't see it he doesn't feel it and he's done nothing about it.%"
Credit to ArchPundit for the catch, and also for noting "we need rules for a drinking game here". The full, original text can be found here.
I am a Democrat because we are the party of hope. For... dark years the Republicans have dealt in cynicism and skepticism. They've mastered the art of division and diversion%2C and they have robbed us of our hope.
Americans have seen plants closed down, jobs shipped overseas and our hopes fade away as our economic position collapses right before our very eyes. And George Bush does not get it. Let's face facts. A George Bush just doesn't get it. He doesn't see it he doesn't feel it and he's done nothing about it.%"
Credit to ArchPundit for the catch, and also for noting "we need rules for a drinking game here". The full, original text can be found here.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Where to Shop
Information from Slate:
Costco
Based: Washington State
Pay: Starts at $10 an hour.
Turnover: 21%
Unionized: 1 in 6 workers.
Executive Donations: $365,750 to Democratic causes.
Walmart (includes Sam's Club)
Based: Arkansas
Pay: Average pay lower than Costco's lowest pay.
Praises Sung By: Dick Cheney
Turnover: 44%
Unionized: No none nada.
Company donations: $1.658 million, 81% to Republicans
You know what to do.
Costco
Based: Washington State
Pay: Starts at $10 an hour.
Turnover: 21%
Unionized: 1 in 6 workers.
Executive Donations: $365,750 to Democratic causes.
Walmart (includes Sam's Club)
Based: Arkansas
Pay: Average pay lower than Costco's lowest pay.
Praises Sung By: Dick Cheney
Turnover: 44%
Unionized: No none nada.
Company donations: $1.658 million, 81% to Republicans
You know what to do.
Another must read from Mark Morford
Time To Get Out The Bush / How do you know it's time for a major change in American leadership? Let us count the signs: "Don't you feel it? The sensation that the country cannot continue to careen down this ultraviolent, antihumanitarian path much longer without implosion and desperation and a massive increase in sedative prescriptions for anyone with an even slightly intuitive sense of justice and future and long hot sighs of hope? You're not alone.
You know it's time for a dramatic change when American bookstores and movie theaters are filled with unprecedented numbers of extraordinarily damning BushCo expos�s and embarrassing tell-all tomes and brutal whistle-blower digests from all corners of the culture, produced by everyone from disheartened CIA insiders to ex-generals to respected reporters to former U.S. allies."
You know it's time for a dramatic change when American bookstores and movie theaters are filled with unprecedented numbers of extraordinarily damning BushCo expos�s and embarrassing tell-all tomes and brutal whistle-blower digests from all corners of the culture, produced by everyone from disheartened CIA insiders to ex-generals to respected reporters to former U.S. allies."
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Ronald McDonald doesn't love you
I’ve been suffering off and on for several weeks with a maddening lower GI trouble that finally forced me to go to a Colon/rectal specialist. Turns out it is mostly attributable to improper diet, mostly not enough dietary fiber. Now that I am on a fiber rich diet with proper amounts of fruit, grains and less meats I am slowly getting a little better. It is, however, very slow going.
This last month or so, of serious pain at times, has given me some time to reassess how I am eating and my philosophy of food. Those who know me know how I love good food and enjoy cooking with the best ingredients and generally having and creating a lot excitement around food and its preparation. This is all fine and good and this is not changing. What needs to change and has, is what defines good food.
It boils down to this. General Foods, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC, Kroger, or Publix, you name it, doesn’t care about you except as a source of revenue. That is because these folks are supposed to make money first and foremost. They are in businesses doing what businesses are supposed to do. They don’t care for you or whether you feel good and energized. They are not going to be with you when you are sick, your children are sick or when you die. If you are lucky your friends and your family will be with you. And likewise you will be there for them during life’s ups and downs. This brings us to the food part. Your family and friends are supposed to provide you with good food and you, in turn, are to provide for them. Feeding someone should be an act of love and caring. If someone truly loves or cares for us then they will always be our best source of nourishment. If you rely on businesses to provide what is best for you then you will be ill served as they don’t care about you.
As a society we are poisoned, fat, sick and dying because we have turned our most basic, important function of life over to corporations who don’t love us. We have chosen to value our food and care so little that we entrust it to strangers. We are talking insane here.
Feed yourselves. Feed your loved ones. Especially feed the children. Please don’t trust anyone else to do it. This is not to say that you shouldn’t go out to dinner or buy anything to eat from a stranger every now and then. It is fun to go to a good restaurant where the chef understands and loves food. If we encourage chefs and restaurants to use natural, organic foods and remove toxic manufactured foods from their menus we can change the market place and cause this kind of food to be more readily available.
What it means is that you must understand the sources of your food. Chicken, beef and lamb are not created in the grocery. They were living things that were produced to provide us with nourishment. Were they raised and slaughtered with love? Have they been pumped with hormones and antibiotics whose effect on us is known? Think natural and organic. Think about the near term and long term effects of what you are eating and giving to your loved ones to eat. Love good food for what it can do for you and your loved ones. Take responsibility for what you are eating and feeding to them.
This last month or so, of serious pain at times, has given me some time to reassess how I am eating and my philosophy of food. Those who know me know how I love good food and enjoy cooking with the best ingredients and generally having and creating a lot excitement around food and its preparation. This is all fine and good and this is not changing. What needs to change and has, is what defines good food.
It boils down to this. General Foods, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, KFC, Kroger, or Publix, you name it, doesn’t care about you except as a source of revenue. That is because these folks are supposed to make money first and foremost. They are in businesses doing what businesses are supposed to do. They don’t care for you or whether you feel good and energized. They are not going to be with you when you are sick, your children are sick or when you die. If you are lucky your friends and your family will be with you. And likewise you will be there for them during life’s ups and downs. This brings us to the food part. Your family and friends are supposed to provide you with good food and you, in turn, are to provide for them. Feeding someone should be an act of love and caring. If someone truly loves or cares for us then they will always be our best source of nourishment. If you rely on businesses to provide what is best for you then you will be ill served as they don’t care about you.
As a society we are poisoned, fat, sick and dying because we have turned our most basic, important function of life over to corporations who don’t love us. We have chosen to value our food and care so little that we entrust it to strangers. We are talking insane here.
Feed yourselves. Feed your loved ones. Especially feed the children. Please don’t trust anyone else to do it. This is not to say that you shouldn’t go out to dinner or buy anything to eat from a stranger every now and then. It is fun to go to a good restaurant where the chef understands and loves food. If we encourage chefs and restaurants to use natural, organic foods and remove toxic manufactured foods from their menus we can change the market place and cause this kind of food to be more readily available.
What it means is that you must understand the sources of your food. Chicken, beef and lamb are not created in the grocery. They were living things that were produced to provide us with nourishment. Were they raised and slaughtered with love? Have they been pumped with hormones and antibiotics whose effect on us is known? Think natural and organic. Think about the near term and long term effects of what you are eating and giving to your loved ones to eat. Love good food for what it can do for you and your loved ones. Take responsibility for what you are eating and feeding to them.
Bush rally was sad day for democracy
This is not an isolated incident but happening everyday along the Bush and Cheney campaign trail.
I think I am suffering from outrage fatigue.
News-Leader.com | Opinions | Bush rally was sad day for democracy
I think I am suffering from outrage fatigue.
News-Leader.com | Opinions | Bush rally was sad day for democracy
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