9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

(CBS) For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

All Bush knows was that it was an interesting day, and he was just glad he got to listen to the kids read the book about the goat in its entirety. I mean whats more important? our nation being attacked or photo op with kids?

- rob 2:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A note from a Bush ally:

Rebuilding and retribution in Iraq

The Bush administration has spent a lot of time saying how well things have gone in Iraq, contending the happy truth has been obscured by negative news media coverage. This is privately described by officials as the ''smoke and mirrors'' technique. Nobody has recognized that more clearly than Jerry Bremer. He was not summoned to Washington when he volunteered for a brief visit Nov. 11. He wanted to tell the president personally just how bad things really were in Iraq and, in fact, got a rare one-on-one meeting with Bush.

The inadequate, unrealistic planning for the occupation of Iraq will never be admitted publicly, but it is common knowledge at high levels of the administration. The notion that Iraqi exiles could step in to run the country, pressed on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by his civilian advisory board, was a chimera.

- rob 2:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Senators were told Iraqi weapons could hit U.S.

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson said Monday the Bush administration last year told him and other senators that Iraq not only had weapons of mass destruction, but they had the means to deliver them to East Coast cities.

Nelson, D-Tallahassee, said about 75 senators got that news during a classified briefing before last October's congressional vote authorizing the use of force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Nelson voted in favor of using military force.

We went to war based not on bad intelligence, but on lies. It is as simple as that. Saddam's capture, while great, doesn't change that. Bush must go.

- rob 2:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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For the sake of the country we all love, tell Nader no!

Nader 2004 Presidential Exploratory Committee

- rob 1:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you look to the right you'll see we now offer the ability to translate this site into other languages. We get an occasional foreign reader, so we thought we'd help out. And keeping with the web tech philosophy of this site (as with the store, and with search, and the Buzzflash headlines, etc.) it is a service we don't have to pay for.

Oh, and if someone is visiting from Great Britain and is feeling left out, click here for a cockney translation of our website.

- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Governor Dean Meets the RepubliCard!

- rob 1:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Diebold and Voting Machine Update

Why the Best Voting Technology May Be No Technology at All

Last week, I questioned why the new touch screen voting machines coming into use don't create a result that can be audited.  That is, they don't produce a paper trail.  The rationale for not giving each voter a receipt that shows how he or she voted and can be used for later verification has always been that this would enable vote selling.  If you could prove with an official receipt that you voted for Mr. Big, then it would be practical for Mr. Big to buy your vote, becoming Mayor Big.  So receipts are bad, or at least, they can be bad.  But that doesn't mean that auditing an election is bad, though many people -- some of them election officials -- make that illogical jump.

These same people also claim that receipts are bad because printers are unreliable or need to be refilled with paper, which they fear poll workers would be unable to do.  We don't seem to have a problem printing ATM receipts or lotto cards, but then maybe the folks down at 7-11 are more technically sophisticated.

I asked the question, “Who decided to leave out this auditing capability?” The ability to audit is actually required by the Help America Vote Act of 2001, which is providing the $3.9 billion needed to buy all those touch screen voting machines.  Or at least it appears to be required.  Certainly, most of the Congressmen and Senators who voted for the Act thought it was required.  But then the language was changed slightly in a conference committee, and for some reason, though the auditing requirement remains, most systems aren't auditable.  Huh?  The best explanation for this that I have seen so far says that the new machines are "able" to be audited in the same sense that I am "able" to fly a Boeing 747.  I am a sentient being with basic motor skills just like all 747 pilots, so I am "able" to fly a 747.  So we are "able" to audit these machines.  We just don't know how.

You can help get auditing back as a legal requirement, please help out.

To automatically send this letter to your Congressperson, Click here and fill out their form. Thanks!

The bedrock upon which any democracy is built is confidence that elections are free, fair and accurate. Yet companies such as Diebold are selling machines that leave no tangible evidence of a person's vote. We all know that computers sometimes crash and data is lost, yet the companies selling these machines refuse to let election officials inspect the inner workings of the machines or software.

Please support legislation that would simply require that I as a voter be able to approve a paper copy of my choices before they are registered in the computer. These anonymous paper copies can then be saved. If there is ever a question about the intent of the voters the paper ballots can be checked and both voters and candidates can be confident in the outcome.

I urge you to support this simple measure that can prevent a real crisis in our democracy.

- rob 1:43 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Coming Soon: Civil War

From this eyewitness's Iraq Diaries:

"On BBC we watch footage of Americans gunning down Iraqis as they ran from the armor clad vehicles. Gunned down in the street as they tried to run away, red tracer bullets leaving laser-like trails as they flew past bodies falling upon the cement. This was told to be in Ramadi, by the BBC, then later the same footage was told to have occurred in Falluja. As usual, the truth is hard to come by, even here, unless it is witnessed personally -- or residents of an entire neighborhood or city are all telling the same story."

"Do we need yet another reason for Iraqis who have been attacked by US soldiers to be enraged? Unfortunately, there are more. One being that the Americans sealed off the hospital in Al-Aadimiyah today after removing all the bodies of Iraqis killed last night in the fighting. The wounded were taken directly to prison. No journalists were allowed inside."

"Reports are streaming in of Iraqis being killed in demonstrations in Samarra, Falluja, Tikrit, and around parts of Baghdad. Some of the demonstrations have turned violent, this being the reason for American force -- while most haven't until Americans opened fire first."

I realized something this morning (when epiphanies are rife): no matter what the spin de jour, the next spin is right around the corner, always. No one ever claimed that the capture of Saddam Hussein meant back to life as we knew it before the Bush crowd officially redefined reality; now, further war and further complications and murder and mayhem are all a permanent part of the picture, as planned, as far as the eye can see, forevermore. The warmongers' casus belli, as far as Saddam is concerned, cannot be impinged; can you recall, even for a moment, anybody in the White House or the Pentagon ever claiming that the capture of the Iraqi dictator meant the end of hostilities, for even one hot minute? This is just the beginning. There's more where that came from, and if you don't believe me, just ask Joe Lieberman. Or Seymour Hirsch. Or the New York Times.

The New America's "just cause" as implemented and defined by this administration henceforth can never be impeded, encroached on, restricted, or held to any other standard than that according to the official White House daily pronouncement, no matter how contradictory, self-serving, nonsensical, hypocritical, or life-threatening to every man, woman and child on earth. No international body, court of law, other branch of government, or media can touch or in any way arbitrate or question America's "mission," which is no less than Good versus Evil, everywhere on the planet, as Bush sees it, and the reason given
for this is that he was personally annointed by God, who is bigger and badder than any other god in any other religion. We have Bush's word for it,
and since honor and integrity are de facto qualities of this administration, and of Bush in particular, we just have to trust him, and if you don't . . .

well, then get the Hell out of my country. You're not a good Christian.

- Michael 1:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A letter I wish I wrote

Joe Scarborough: You're a very disgraceful person

Joe,

I've been getting my nightly does of Republican hypocrisy from your show about a year now and you and
your crew should be ashamed of yourselves you put political interest ahead of informing people on the truth.

You know Bush lied these young men and women into a war for reasons that were not humanitarian or liberation
reasons. You know this war was political and financially motivated by Bush campaign backers in the oil industry
and those in the Project for New American Century, the neo con think tank who been around since Bush one.

How dare you make it sound like us on the left don't care about the lives of these our brothers and sisters in
the armed forces? How dare you make it sound we on the left feel sorry for guys like Saddam Hussein by
asking the question "Where were these groups when he was gassing his people?"

Hell, where was Ronald Reagan and Vice president George H. W. Bush?
I tell you where they were, Joe.
They were arming Saddam and Iran, that's what your two heroes were doing, Joe.

When you and other talking heads ask that question answer this one:
Should Reagan and Bush Sr face war crimes charges, too?
After all, they did arm this tyrant, Joe.

And tell me how does capturing a man who neither plan or aided in the attacks of September 11 make a victory for Bush?
I want you, Chris Matthews, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity to explain to the American public how is taking down a man
who didn't have a hand in 9-11 is a victory. While Osama and his group are still out there, planning attacks in the future.

- rob 1:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ashcroft sanctioned by judge, fined by election agency

WASHINGTON - Tuesday wasn't a particularly good day at the office for Attorney General John Ashcroft.

A federal judge publicly admonished him for violating a gag order covering a high-profile terrorism case in Detroit and unsealed Ashcroft's apology to the court for his remarks.

And the Federal Election Commission determined that his unsuccessful 2000 Senate re-election campaign violated federal election laws by accepting $110,000 in illegal contributions.

See a lot of other Attorney General's don't have that much experience with illegal activity and the courty system.

- rob 1:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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NOAA.gov: THE
EARTH HAS LEFT ITS ORBIT AND IS HURLING TOWARD THE SUN

.UNUSUALLY HOT WEATHER HAS ENTERED THE REGION FOR DECEMBER...AS THE
EARTH HAS LEFT ITS ORBIT AND IS HURLING TOWARD THE SUN.

MOZ012-021-172251-
ANDREW MO-CLINTON MO-
1055 AM CST WED DEC 17 2003

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THIS AFTERNOON TO LATE
TONIGHT...

UNUSUALLY HOT WEATHER WILL OCCUR FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS
AS THE EARTH DRAWS EVER NEARER TO THE SUN. THEREFORE...AN EXCESSIVE
HEAT WATCH HAS BEEN POSTED.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND OTHER LOCAL MEDIA FOR FURTHER
DETAILS OR UPDATES.

ohhh... what's it say higher up on the page? ...TEST...TEST...TEST....

whew. I thought Bush screwed up something really big this time.

- rob 12:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Troops Need Your Help

Operation Hero Miles - Official Website

I've posted this before, but its still a great idea. If you've got extra frequent flyer miles sitting around, why not donate them to Hero Miles. The airlines will add them all up and use the free tickets to get soldiers home for R&R (rather than leave them stranded in Germany, BWI (Washington), Dallas, or Atlanta... which is as far as the government will take them).

Obviously I'm against the war buy these guys and gals are heroes even if they are being lied to by President AWOL.

So if you got extra miles. Go help them out.

- rob 9:34 AM - [PermaLink] -

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And to end what suddenly became a trilogy of posts about the GOP attempting to become the official party of the white Christian God...

The GOP's religious right - paid for by Rev. Moon

On Jan. 28, 1995, a beaming Rev. Jerry Falwell told his Old Time Gospel Hour congregation news that seemed heaven sent. The televangelist hailed two Virginia businessmen as financial saviors of debt-ridden Liberty University, the fundamentalist Christian school that Falwell had made the crown jewel of his Religious Right empire.
...

Reber and Thomas came to Falwell's rescue in the nick of time. Their non-profit Christian Heritage Foundation of Forest, Va., snapped up a big chunk of Liberty's debt for $2.5 million, a fraction of its face value. Thousands of small religious investors who had bought church construction bonds through a Texas company were the big losers. But Falwell shed no tears. He told local reporters that the moment was "the greatest single day of financial advantage" in the school's history.

Left unmentioned in the happy sermon was the identity of the bigger guardian angel who had been protecting Falwell's financial interests -- from a distance and without publicity. That secret benefactor was the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the self-proclaimed South Korean messiah who is controversial with many fundamentalist Christians because of his bizarre Biblical interpretations and his brainwashing tactics that have torn thousands of young people from their families. Moon also has grown harshly anti-American in recent years.

Covertly, Moon helped bail out Liberty University through one of his front groups which funnelled $3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation, the non-profit that had purchased the school's debt.
...

The full public record strongly suggests that Falwell solicited Moon's help in bailing out Liberty University. In a lawsuit on file in the Circuit Court of Bedford County -- a community in southwestern Virginia -- two of Reber's former business associates alleged that Reber and Falwell flew to South Korea on Jan. 9, 1994, on a seven-day "secret trip" to meet "with representatives of the Unification Church."

The court document states that Reber and Falwell were accompanied to South Korea by Ronald S. Godwin, who had been executive director of Falwell's Moral Majority before signing on as vice president of Moon's Washington Times.

According to Bedford County court records, Reber, Falwell and Godwin also had discussions at Liberty University in 1993 with Dong Moon Joo, one of Moon's right-hand men and president of The Washington Times. Though Reber was queried about the purposes of the Moon-connected meetings in the court papers, he settled the business dispute before responding to interrogatories or submitting to a deposition. He did deny any legal wrongdoing.
...

At times, Moon's penetration of conservative ranks has raised red flags among Republicans. In 1983, the GOP's moderate Ripon Society charged that the New Right had entered "an alliance of expediency" with Moon's church. Ripon's chairman, Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, released a study which alleged that the College Republican National Committee "solicited and received" money from Moon's Unification Church in 1981. The study also accused Reed Irvine's Accuracy in Media of benefitting from low-cost or volunteer workers supplied by Moon.

Leach said the Unification Church has "infiltrated the New Right and the party it [the New Right] wants to control, the Republican Party, and infiltrated the media as well." Leach's news conference was broken up when then-college GOP leader Grover Norquist accused Leach of lying. (Norquist is now head of Americans for Tax Reform and a prominent ally of House Speaker Newt Gingrich.)

For its part, The Washington Times dismissed Leach's charges as "flummeries" and mocked the Ripon Society as a "discredited and insignificant left-wing offshoot of the Republican Party." [WP, Jan. 6, 1983]

Despite periodic fretting over Moon's influence, conservatives continued to accept his deep-pocket assistance. When President Reagan and Oliver North were scratching for support for the Nicaraguan contras, The Washington Times established a contra fund-raising operation. Moon's international group, CAUSA, also dispatched operatives to Central America to assist the contras.

By the mid-1980s, Moon's Unification Church had carved out a niche as an acceptable part of the American right. In one speech to his followers, Moon boasted that "without knowing it, even President Reagan is being guided by Father [Moon]."

Yet, Moon also made clear that his longer-range goal was the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and America's democratic form of government. "History will make the position of Reverend Moon clear, and his enemies, the American population and government will bow down to him," Moon said, speaking of himself in the third person. "That is Father's tactic, the natural subjugation of the American government and population."

As Andrew Ferguson wrote in the right-wing American Spectator, Moon's church attracted U.S. conservatives by advocating a muscular anti-communism. "There is little else in Unificationism that American conservatives will find compelling," Ferguson noted -- except, of course, the money. "They're the best in town as far as putting their money with their mouth is," one Washington-based conservative told Ferguson. [AS, Sept. 1987] Link mine.
...

Many deeply religious moral people believe it when the GOP says it is one of them, but its about politics and money, not faith. It is a sad scam.

- rob 2:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You go Dean

CNN.com - Transcripts

WOODRUFF: Let me ask you about the south. As you said you were just there. And among some of the other things you said yesterday was southerners shouldn't vote on issues of guns, God and gays.

My question to you is, are you at all concerned that's going to turn off some people of faith in the south, who do know want to know what you have to think about God?

DEAN: They're going to find out what I think. And I'm pretty outspoken about what I think about all areas.

I actually spoke in an African-American church yesterday. And I was very open about talking about Jesus and God's will and so forth and so on, but the truth is that the way to win elections is not to play them on the Republicans' ground. We cannot be talking about divisive social issues. What we've got to be talking about is the things we all have in common. That is health care, jobs and education.

WOODRUFF: At the same time, Governor, I'm sure you know the Republicans are already starting to talk about the fact that you -- I think by your own acknowledgment, left the Episcopal Church in some dispute over a bike path, and you switched to another denomination, the Congregationalist denomination.

They're asking what does this say about the depth of your commitment to your own faith?

DEAN: You know what it really says? It says the Republicans are talking like they're out of the Pharisees. Because if you're a Christian, you're a Christian. I don't believe it ought to matter what kind of a denomination you are.

As a matter of fact, if you're a religious person, you're a religious person. I don't think it ought to matter what religion you are.

So people who talk like that are what Jesus would call the Pharisees. And I think that's enough of that kind of stuff in the Republican Party. We are all in this together, whether you are a Christian, or a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu. And there's plenty of all to go around in this country.

WOODRUFF: Was it just over a bike path that you left the Episcopal Church?

DEAN: Yes, as a matter of fact it was. I was fighting to have public access to the waterfront, and we were fighting very hard in the citizens group to allow the public to use it. And this particular diocese decided to join a property rights suit to close it down. I didn't think that was very public spirited.

One thing I feel about religion, you have to be very careful not to be a hypocrite if you're a religious person. It is really tough to preach one thing and do something else. And I don't think you can do that.

WOODRUFF: And you don't believe, Governor, the Republicans are going to have a field day with comments like these?

DEAN: The Republicans always have a field day with things like this. That's the reason Democrats lose, is because they're so afraid of the Republicans having a field day with comments like this or like that, that they never make any comments.

Found this originally on: StoutDemBlog

- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I know what God wants
I know what God wants
I know what God wants
God wants me - Bush

David Frum's Diary on National Review Online

For now, let’s say that while the President’s opponents have made much sport of the idea that God called George Bush to the presidency, it’s becoming increasingy difficult to doubt that God wants President Bush re-elected.

Flashback a couple of thousand years:
"Now that Caligula's horse is a respected member of the senate and the Gauls have been beaten back, it is no doubt Caligula is indeed a God."

Spain a little more recently:
"The members of the Spanish Inquisition having made the streets of Spain run red with the blood of all who did not worship appropriately have proven there is no reason to doubt they were choosen by God. Of course if you do still doubt it, they will kill you."

A Lot More recently:
"Members of Heaven's Gate understanding they were getting orders from God first cut off their testicles and later took their lives."

Folks, Bush is the spoiled son of a famous political figure (who was a slighly less spoiled sun of a famous political figure and Nazi business partner) who has achieved nothing... nothing... of his own. I would doubt he is an agent of God any more than Osama is. That kind of talk is how you grow suicide bombers. Politics are not the occupation of the divine. Politics are simply the art of the possible.

Remember what Christ thought of the money lenders, those that corrupted church with commerce? Um... now what party is the 21st century equivilent of money lenders? Either way it is stupid talk.

The entire history of humanity is filled with death and war brought on by those who believed their actions were what God wanted. Let's just leave that to God shall we? Let's concentrate on what is best for our still great (but fading under Bush) nation.

That statement brought to my attention by one of those fine sites I link to there on the right (sorry I forgot which one).

- rob 1:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Remember: George Bush wants to do for America what he did for Texas

And Texas is doing just fine.

Texas housewife busted for hawking erotic toys / Sales rep for Brisbane firm sold vibrator to undercover agents

A Texas housewife is in big trouble with the law for selling a vibrator to a pair of undercover cops, and the Brisbane vibrator company she works for says Texas is an "antiquated place'' with more than its share of "prudes.''

Joanne Webb, a former fifth-grade teacher and mother of three, was in a county court in Cleburne, Texas, on Monday to answer obscenity charges for selling the vibrator to undercover narcotics officers posing as a dysfunctional married couple in search of a sex aid.
...

Webb said she was amazed that the town's narcotics squad would be put on the case.

"We have a real problem with drugs in our schools,'' she said, "and they're using our narcotics officers to entrap me for selling a vibrator.''

She should have just started a large energy firm, lied about its capabilities, made millions, admit the fraud leaving investors broke and workers unemployed, and lived happily ever after. That's legal in Texas. But vibrators? That's bad.

Thanks to Atrios for the link.

- rob 1:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Going Shopping for Christmas?

I can understand if you might not want one of our fine TCS products. No really, I do understand. Actually I don't... why wouldn't you want some of our fine fine tshirts?!?

But if you are thinking of Amazon, please come here first and click our link over there on the left side, if you do we get a whee bit of money from your purchase (and it won't cost you anything). All proceeds will either go to hosting this site, to supporting the eventual democratic candidate that runs against Bush, and/or to buying advertising that promotes bringing this country back from this dark land that Bush and his era of greed has been taking us.

- rob 11:57 AM - [PermaLink] -

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If you feel like spending a dollar today: Herseth for U.S. Congress

Save the House from right wing extremism!

- rob 11:49 AM - [PermaLink] -

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The Coming Storm



Falling Dollar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar retested record lows against the euro on Monday after trimming gains made on the initial excitement over the capture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein at the weekend.

"The euro picked back up. The Saddam news affected overnight trade but the U.S. trading session has been underweight," said Tim Mazanec, senior foreign exchange strategist at Investors Bank and Trust Company.

"The trend of dollar weakness/euro strength is once again picking up and the geopolitical news is having limited effect in U.S. trade," Mazanec said.

The euro was slightly softer near $1.2287 against the dollar, off its record high above $1.23 reached on Friday.

So the "we got Saddam" rally didn't even last a day. Another prediction of Fox News analysts (i.e. RNC spokespersons) has been proven wrong (they talked about a 1,000 up tick on Dow Jones from the capture of Saddam).

Let's look back a moment, shall we? Back to the heady days of Clinton:

Euro takes new beating



The euro remains near its lows after a Bundesbank council member warned that European Central Bank intervention to support the ailing currency was likely to fail.

Remarks by Klaus-Dieter Kuehbacher dampened expectations that the ECB might intervene in the market, which had provided some support to the beleaguered currency.

Mr Kuehbacher said intervention would only work if the US and Japan took part as well, but he said he saw no willingness from the US to get involved.

"Any intervention by the ECB against these big partners would have no effect," Mr Kuehbacher said.

"There is nothing left for Europe than to push ahead with structural reforms," he said.

Following Mr Kuehbacher's comments, the euro fell by almost half a cent to below the mid-$0.89, down from its morning highs of about $0.90.

Eurpore was in a panic. But then came many things: the dot com crash, George Bush, the return of large US deficits for at least the next decade, and suddenly we get:

A Falling Dollar



Are people not buying into the dollar anymore? Worse... it seems they're not buying into America as much any more:

Where have all the European investors gone?

Since the beginning of 2002, the dollar has fallen by about 25 percent compared with the euro. That means an espresso at that café just off the Ponte Vecchio in Florence now costs an American tourist $2.50 instead of $2. On the flip side, European purchasing power is higher in U.S. markets than it has ever been. As a result, one might expect European purchases of dollar-denominated goods, whether they're Disneyland tickets or Disney's stocks and bonds, to be growing.

But in September, as chart CM-V-1 shows, net foreign purchases of U.S. assets were less than $16 billion, down dramatically from $62.4 billion in August and $75 billion in July. In September, Europeans collectively sold about $400 million in U.S.-denominated assets.

Are Europeans going on a buyer's strike in a fit of pique over Iraq? Not necessarily. For the first nine months, inflows from Europe were $224 billion. And one month's data does not a trend make. But more recent data isn't exactly encouraging. Last week the Wall Street Journal reported that "at November's auction of two-year U.S. Treasury notes held last week foreign investors bought just 32% of the $26 billion issue. That compares with the 42% foreigners snapped up at October's auction of the same size."

Low interest rates, which tend to dampen demand for the dollar, are partially to blame. And the actions of the administration's economic team aren't helping. Treasury Secretary John Snow has ineptly tried to talk down the dollar, knowing that the weak dollar would be good for domestic manufacturers and help counteract the trade deficit, all the while, of course, insisting that the United States remains committed to a strong dollar. For his part, President Bush has tried to discourage Japan and China from weakening their own currencies, which they do by buying U.S. government securities and dollars, even as he's racked up huge deficits, a policy that in turn requires ever greater sales of government bonds. (Even after virtually every original member has been replaced, this economic team still hasn't demonstrated it knows how to play the game.)

The larger the deficit the more we'll need Europe's investment in our bonds... but they don't seem to be buying. This inevitably will lead tointerest iterestdramaticallyamaticly higher, if we're going to get the Eurporeans interested. This could kill the "recovery" we've supposedly been in for the past two years. But will Greenspan start the hikes now or wait until after the election. If he raises the rates dramatically in the next few months, he'll slow the "recovery," which may hinder Bush's reelection. If he waits until after the re-election he'll have to make a more dramatic adjustment... perhaps pushing us back towards a recession. Either way not a good thing. Though politics aside, Greenspan should do it sooner than later, and including politics he should definitely do it sooner than later (Bush the elder always blamed his re-election loss on Greenspan, why not the same for the lesser Bush?).

Other things that would help the American dollar? Well, quite frankly getting rid of Bush would help. A strong signal that we are interested in a strong dollar, that we are interested in rejoining the world community, and that we are interested in reducing our deficit would all help in making our bonds more popular even with lower interest rates. Europeans do take politics in to account with their investments, and if they don't like the US they won't invest in the US. We need their investment.

If America was a cow and we were in Texas, tax payers could sue for damaging our sales potential. Bush is making our dollar and our bonds a damaged good. It will take years to get the faith of the world back, because, when you get down to it, the value of the dollar is based only on faith (thanks to Nixon, there's no gold backing it up... there is only good will), if they lose faith (and they are starting to), we lose our strong dollar, or low interest rates, and the ability to run a deficit in times of need (unlike now when we are running a deficit because Dick's pals need a new pool).

The falling dollar picture at the top of this post is from Business Week.

- rob 11:34 AM - [PermaLink] -

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It's a Wonderful Life's Henry Potter and Dick Cheney: Separated at Birth?


Cheney's "Bedford Falls" is also known as Earth.

It's that time of year, so chances are you can catch It's a Wonderful Life on TV at least a couple times a week. If so, when watching it this year... keep Cheney in mind when you watch Potter. Eerie. Now who would George be? (and not George Bush... I'm talking about George Bailey)

From a review of It's a Wonderful Life

The film's villain is a miserly old man named Potter (played with consummate nastiness by movie great Lionel Barrymore), who uses his considerable wealth to bleed the citizens of Bedford Falls dry. The Bailey Building and Loan Society is the only institution in town that he doesn't own, and he's willing to do anything to get his hands on it – lie, cheat, bribe, steal… There's no end to the schemes that Potter devises to destroy George. Yet the Baileys always seem to end up on top.

Thanks to Bartcop for the Cheney picture.

- rob 2:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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1 Down 3 To Go

I am glad we got Saddam, now how about:

• Osama
  
• The Anthrax mailer
  
• the guy in the administration who outs CIA agents that work undercover on finding the weapons of mass distruction

- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Flashback: Wolfowitz and Scott Ritter

"It is an honor to appear as part of a hearing in which Scott Ritter testifies. Scott Ritter is a public servant of exceptional integrity and moral courage, one of those individuals who is not afraid to speak the truth." - Paul Wolfowitz, September, 1998.

"We're in Iraq --carrying out the right-wing neo-conservative motives of a handful of people. The Richard Perle's, Paul Wolfowitz's; the Dick Cheney's. And we've allowed them to hijack our foreign policy." - Scott Ritter, March, 2003. Emphasis mine.

- rob 1:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Slightly off topic

PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

In August, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board at NASA released Volume 1 of its report on why the space shuttle crashed. As expected, the ship's foam insulation was the main cause of the disaster. But the board also fingered another unusual culprit: PowerPoint, Microsoft's well-known ''slideware'' program.

NASA, the board argued, had become too reliant on presenting complex information via PowerPoint, instead of by means of traditional ink-and-paper technical reports. When NASA engineers assessed possible wing damage during the mission, they presented the findings in a confusing PowerPoint slide -- so crammed with nested bullet points and irregular short forms that it was nearly impossible to untangle. ''It is easy to understand how a senior manager might read this PowerPoint slide and not realize that it addresses a life-threatening situation,'' the board sternly noted.

Of course the PNAC's plan for Iraq was done in powerpoint as well, and that's why no one noticed the bullet point that said "could get ugly." (no, I don't know if the plan to take Iraq was done in powerpoint or not... it might have been crayon if Jeb let George come to that meeting.

- rob 1:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Good News Saddam's arrest

Saddam documents lead to arrests

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- U.S. military officials said Monday they had arrested several resistance leaders in Baghdad based on documents found when Saddam Hussein was captured.

Officials said that some of the documents detailed a meeting of resistence cell leaders -- and included their names.

I do hope this takes some wind out of those killing our soldiers, and I hope that it means we can now get out of there soon, but I'm not too sure. He was living in a hole... he wasn't leading any resistance (you were thinking a posting at a web site called this century sucks would be totally optimistic?).

- rob 10:36 AM - [PermaLink] -

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