In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Ignoromics- Friday, November 12, 2004 -
Anyone who's paying attention understands by now that putting Bush in charge of the U.S. dollar is like putting a crackhead in charge of your mother's furniture. Expressions such as "global hegemony begging with a tin cup" and "deficits as far as the eye can see" and "balance of trade sucks" coupled with "permanent tax cuts" and "tax cuts to stimulate the economy" and "tax cuts to create jobs" and "eliminating capital gains and estate taxes" equals Wile E. Coyote running off the mesa in a cloud of roadrunner dust and poking his finger through it only to discover that he is fact standing on nothing but the futile hope that he might not plummet straight down, just as the lower half of his body plummets and he stares at us wild-eyed in the final second before the rest follows.
Right at this moment, my fellows, we are that pair of desperate eyes. The only thing propping us up -- remember, Bush's trillion-dollars deficit is 3 times what Reagan's was -- are China and the other Asian Tigers' buying our currency so that they can sell their products to us cheap. You may have noticed that other homey expression on everyone's lips, "outsourcing." What do you think that means, as far as the weak dollar is concerned? Here's a hint: Now Asia and Malaysia and India have everything they need to not only make the products but sell them cheaply to each other. What do they need us for? Technology? Hah! I doubt it. When was the last time you had a computer problem you had no idea how to solve? Yesterday? When you called the Help line, who answered? India, right? With an "American" sounding name at the other end of the satellite call? You really think Americans have the technology edge? Have you been to Stanford or Columbia lately? Take a look. According to our Moral President, "the jury is still out on evolution." How's that for 21st century technological global leadership? Do you think Bush even knows how to turn on a computer? Only when he wants to contact "The Internets."
Which brings me back to my original point: Your dollar is fast becoming Joker money. Did you notice last week how the Asian Tigers were divesting themselves of U.S. assets faster than a dealer with his drugs in a raid? I could hear the toilet flushing clear across the other side of the world. China was selling dollars as fast as it could. What do you think happens when they do that? For you economically challenged, here it is: the bill comes due -- and not just sort of, I mean all at once.
So what does Bush do? Cut taxes, of course. In other words, steal the money while it's still worth something, then use it to wage a Middle East war to prevent all those countries from divesting themselves of petrodollars. That's what this goddamn war is about: the fucking dollar. Bush doesn't actually believe in capitalism, because that involves competition. When was the last time Bush ever competed? No, he destroys the playing field. This is called "leveling it." Grab the oilfields and fuck the other countries. Why else wouldn't they go along? Because we want it all, we're not sharing the prize. Let them buy their fucking euros; what difference does it make when you own the game?
Here's the difference: you can't own it. That other homily, "You break it, you own it" is a bunch of crap. We own nothing. In a war, the only thing you own is the ground you're standing on at that second. Whether you're a genius or a moron, this is always true. It doesn't matter how patriotic you are, never confuse a flag with a fact, because your life depends on it.
So Karl Rove, in true Goebbels style, has all of us at each other's throats about "moral values" as war explodes and the dollar shrivels. You'd think anyone paying attention might stand up on a chair and shout it to the rafters, but all we get are adages about "good" and "evil" and what constitutes the definition of "marriage."
I got news: All of us -- red and blue -- are being fucked up the ass, and none of us can afford a lawyer, who can't practice anyway, since the law no longer applies. Get used to it.
Feel the weight of a nickel lately? Light, isn't it?
- Michael 11:30 AM - [PermaLink] -
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The theocratic right: Beginning to eat their own?
American Family AssociationVirginia pro-family advocate says the people who helped re-elect President Bush don't support homosexual relationships -- the administration apparently does. Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has worked tirelessly for family values, including the fight against legalized homosexual "marriage." He says it was conservative Christians who put the president back in office and who held to the belief that the president shared their views. But Glover says the day after the election, that all seemed to go out the window. "The day after George Bush was elected president again, because of this morals revolution taking place in our country, he allows his vice president to not only put his lesbian daughter on the platform, but to bring her lesbian 'partner' up on the stage with him," Glover says. "It almost seems to be a slap in the face from the get-go against the very conservatives that re-elected the president at a time when he ought to paying them some homage and respect." Glover says the Cheney daughter's open flaunting of her homosexuality is the antithesis of what the administration claims to stand for -- and that the post-election display sends a mixed message to Bush supporters.I'd almost say the message wasn't mixed, I'd almost say that they were saying "suckers!" Cheney is not religious at all, in fact the only soul he seems to have is that he seems to value his family. Not to say there aren't scary religious wackos in the administration (there are many), but that they aren't Bush and Cheney, those two are just scary greedy incompetent wackos who will use religion as a tool to get elected.
Or am I being harsh.
More on the national confusion about who Christ was and what kind of car and self help books he'd support:
TRINITY BROADCASTING NETWORK
The biggest and most evil force of unholy false ChristianityTBN is the most unholy so called 'Christian' group on the earth today. It is currently the world's largest Christian television network. TBN has aired the most evil of teachings and supports apostate, Christ hating false prophets. Read below what TBN has broadcast globally....................................And my favorite because it really makes you realize Bush is a lot like God according to these folks:John Avanzini: "John 19 tells us that Jesus wore designer clothes. Well, what else you gonna call it? Designer clothes--that's blasphemy. No, that's what we call them today. I mean, you didn't get the stuff He wore off the rack. It wasn't a one-size-fits-all deal. No, this was custom stuff. It was the kind of a garment that kings and rich merchants wore. Kings and rich merchants wore that garment."
- "Believer's Voice of Victory" program on TBN [20 January 1991]
Frederick K.C. Price: "The whole point is I'm trying to get you to see--to get you out of this malaise of thinking that Jesus and the disciples were poor and then relating that to you- thinking that you, as a child of God, have to follow Jesus. The Bible says that He has left us an example that we should follow His steps. That's the reason why I drive a Rolls Royce. I'm following Jesus' steps."
- "Ever Increasing Faith" program on TBN (9 December 1990]
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Benny Hinn: "Adam was a super-being when God created him. I don't know whether people know this, but he was the first superman that really ever lived. First of all, the Scriptures declare clearly that he had dominion over the fowls of the air, the fish of the sea--which means he used to fly. Of course, how can he have dominion over the birds and not be able to do what they do? The word 'dominion' in the Hebrew clearly declares that if you have dominion over a subject, that you do everything that subject does. In other words, that subject, if it does something you cannot do, you don't have dominion over it. 1'11 prove it further. Adam not only flew, he flew to space. He was--with one thought he would be on the moon."
- "Praise the Lord" program on TBN [26 December 1991]Sounds like touchy feely feel good crap to me, but what do I know, unlike God and Bush I will occasionally say I failed at something.Kenneth Copeland: "I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is....The biggest one is God....I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the Fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least--that's a big loss, man. . . . Now, the reason you don't think of God as a failure is He never said He's a failure. And you're not a failure till you say you're one."
"Praise-a-Thon" program on TBN [April 1988]
- rob 6:02 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Despite The Washington Post and New York Times constant "There is nothing to see here, move on, move on, keep the traffic moving... and remember don't listen to those rumors on all those bad internets" Olbermann over at MSNBC seems to be the lone voice of interest:
Rolled up papers at fifty placesSECAUCUS— You know it's bad when the two sides start throwing professors at one another.
Two conflicting scholarly studies on the variance between the national exit polling and the presidential election results, are flying across the Internet, eating up your e-mail storage capacity.
One, from the University of Pennsylvania, reminds us that exit polls are used as 'audits' on the elections in places like Germany and Mexico, and suggests the actual statistical odds that the exit polling was that wrong in the battleground states were 250,000,000 to one.
The other, from a voting project managed by CalTech and MIT, says that while the incorrectness of national exit polling can't be explained by the proverbial 'margin of error,' on a state-by-state basis, it actually was within that margin.
- rob 5:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Sorry, I don't remember where I got this, but it is great, so thanks.
- rob 10:53 AM - [PermaLink] -
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ahem!... One moment... there... right... got it. There, now with my tin foil hat properly in place I'd like to tell ya something.- Thursday, November 11, 2004 -
Florida is this election's Florida
(or how Saint Ralph is trying to redeem himself)
Now things are getting more interesting.
Ohio is getting a lot of news now as the strangest of bedfellows (the libertarian and green parties) have gotten together and demanded a recount. Now of course they have to pay for it. If you want to help them you can go to The Green Party's Presidential recount page to donate, or if you are a conservative who just hates what Bush is doing to your nation and to the conservative agenda and thus can't stomach donating to the Green party, you can go to the Libertarian candidate's page.
So all eyes will be directed to the abundant weirdness of Ohio. Some of the issues of election night can't be undone (as to why in heavily populate precincts with a high proportion of African Americans there was only one or two voting machines (thus giving us the infamous 5, 7, even 9 hour waits), while more sparsely populate "white" areas had more then enough machines (no wait... or just a few minutes)). Nothing can be done for those situations save for improving the situation next time (wasn't there already a war about giving African Americans the right to vote? (not to even mention the civil rights movement)). There are other things in Ohio that could change the numbers (maybe not the results... but it is definitely closer then what we are hearing).
But I think the big news is the flanking maneuver being implemented by none other then Ralph Nader. Nader is demanding a recount in New Hampshire of all places (a state Kerry one). He's specifically wanting recounts in relatively urban areas that voted much more heavily for Bush this time then last time. Here is where it gets really interesting. These areas voted with the Diebold optical scanners, and a recount would be done by humans.
Where else were Diebold optical scanners used... why in Florida, specifically in those counties where Bush won handedly, in fact getting much more votes then Republican voters. Now that could be legitimate... it is Dixiecrat land, but depending on what happens in the New Hampshire recount... something else may be revealed.
Which leaves us to today's "election fraud?" round up:
- Now this isn't a big number but a paperless voting machine in Texas refused to give the results of 63 votes... it just didn't want to spill the beans. Even the manufacturer (one Diebold Election Systems) couldn't get the machines to work. In the end the votes are going to Canada in attempt to get them to count.
Some citizens are wanting to go to Canada because of the election result, well now we're learning our actual results are going to Canada. This is beyond pathetic.
Information from Put It on Paper: Election snafu points up problems for all-electronic voting.
- And from Indiana: Glitch causes Franklin Co. recount
BROOKVILLE, Ind. - Election equipment counted straight-party votes for Democratic candidates as Libertarian votes, an error that could affect election outcomes in as many as nine counties, the Richmond Palladium-Item reported today.No they weren't Diebold machines.
Democrats discovered the error in Franklin County, where ballots will be counted again tonight.
- All of this has been great for statisticians, people generally not invited to many parties. Well now it is their hour, and they are playing it to the hilt.
The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy (pdf)The likelihood of any two of these statistical anomalies occurring together is on the order of one-in-a-million. The odds against all three occurring together are 250 million to one. As much as we can say in social science that something is impossible, it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote counts in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error.
- rob 10:38 AM - [PermaLink] -
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The Marland official in charge of elections once said of the electronic voting machines, that they would be aware if there was something a miss.
Okay, leaving aside the obvious "and then...?", one of the obvious ways to check to see if everything went all right would be to compare the results to... say... exit polls?
GOP Wants to End Exit PollsAfter early exit polls in Tuesday's election inaccurately suggested that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry would trounce President Bush, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie is recommending that major news organizations pull the plug on the prognostications.Gee... 2000, 2002, and 2004 all elections that had some pretty fishy things happen (Florida in 2000, Georgia in 2002, who knows where in 2004)... and all of those elections had exit polls pointing away from the Republicans. Interesting.
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He also said he was personally affected by the early reports, discouraged by what he was seeing. "But I've been through this before," he said. "In 2000 the exit data was wrong on Election Day. In 2002, the exit returns were wrong on Election Day. And in 2004, the exit data were wrong on Election Day -- all three times, by the way, in a way that skewed against Republicans and had a dispiriting effect on Republican voters across the country."
So, perhaps the only way to see if something is amiss should be removed.
What's going on?
- rob 3:40 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Today's "election fraud" roundup
This story is finally getting greater media coverage. Some articles are debunking some conspiracy theories while others are introducing new issues. Fine in both cases. Again, whatever the results, problems need to be investigated.
- Again, Olbermann isn't letting the issue just disappear: Recounts and Retractions
NEW YORK - John Kerry or no John Kerry, there could still be recounts in Ohio and New Hampshire - courtesy of the two candidates who got far more grief than votes during the presidential campaign.
David Cobb of the Green Party told a California radio station late yesterday afternoon that he is “quite likely to be demanding a recount in Ohio,” with a final decision to be reached and announced during the day
The New Hampshire Assistant Attorney General, meanwhile, told us at Countdown that negotiations are on-going with Ralph Nader, who at a news conference yesterday not only demanded a recount in a minimum of four districts, but also added another bizarre touch to the proceedings by launching into a brief but surprisingly high-quality Richard Nixon impression.
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In any event, if Nader and Cobb are at the edges, questions about Ohio moved back into the mainstream yesterday with another cogent article in The Cincinnati Enquirer. The rationale for the bizarre “lockdown” of the vote-counting venue in Warren County on election night suddenly broke down when it was contradicted by spokespersons from the FBI and Ohio’s primary homeland security official.
County Emergency Services Director Frank Young said last week that in a face-to-face meeting with an FBI agent, he was warned that Warren County, outside Cincinnati, faced a “terrorist threat.” County Commissioners President Pat South amplified, insisting to us at Countdown that her jurisdiction had received a series of memos from Homeland Security about the threat. “These memos were sent out statewide, not just to Warren County, and they included a lot of planning tools and resources to use for election day security.
“In a face to face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency Services,” Ms. South continued, “we were informed that on a scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of Southwest Ohio was ranked at a high 8 to a low 9 in terms of security risk. Warren County in particular, was rated at 10.”
But the Bureau says it issued no such warning.
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So the media was kept two floors away from the vote counting at the Warren County Administration on election night on the basis of a “10” FBI terror threat that the FBI says was never issued.- Other's at MSNBC (a network that too often wants to be MSGOP), have also begun to discuss the issue: Election Irregularities
In any case, we still have a lot of unanswered questions... and I know many of you do as well. Can we agree that the non partisan GAO is wise to get involved?- Salon weighs in:
Was the election stolen?
The system is clearly broken. But there is no evidence that Bush won because of voter fraud.
- And One site is already asking for donations to fund the recount: Help America Recount!
- And don't forget to sign the Petition to request a recount: Investigate the Vote
- rob 1:58 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Hey Hey E P A!
How Many Children
Did You Poison Today!
Pesticide Study Using Children PostponedWASHINGTON (AP) -- A planned government study into how children's bodies absorb pesticides and other chemicals has been temporarily suspended due to ethical concerns.Ethical concerns? Inside Bush's EPA? Maybe they were concerned some of the members of the study had ethics... that'd ruin everything.
- rob 1:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Texas: Land of the Real Americans... you know the ones that drug their kids so they'll be all calm and respectful like (yes I realize that is horribly unfair... but what do you expect from a site with our name - Fair and Balanced reporting?)
WOAI: SAN ANTONIO: Foster Kids on Mind-Altering Drugs?Why would a child as young as 3 ever be on mind-altering drugs? For the past eight months, the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters have poured through reams of state documents and discovered thousands of foster kids appear to be on powerful psychotropic drugs. Many of these children are barely in kindergarten. Some are mere toddlers.
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A sampling of state records released by the State Comptroller's office shows two out of three foster kids in texas appear to be on psychotropic meds. The Medicaid prescription records are from November of last year and show that many kids are taking two or more of these drugs.
At the risk of losing her job, a Child Protective Services worker spoke to the Trouble Shooters following a hearing by State Rep. Carlos Uresti last month. She talked about one child on 17 different medications. That's right. Seventeen!
"I think he had three to four psychotropic medications in addition to the Depakote, in addition to Zoloft, in addition to Trazadone to help him sleep." Some of these drugs the FDA states are not even safe for kids.
- rob 1:06 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Look what the lady with Red Horns is saying:
Dowd: A Moveable Feast of TerrorismDuring the campaign, President Bush and Dick Cheney gave the ominous impression that there was a dire threat that terrorists could incinerate Americans at any time if that powder puff John Kerry got anywhere near the Oval Office.I just have to say that thanks to Ashcroft achieving the goal of securing Americans from crime and terror, I have started leaving my door wide open and walking about New York city with my eyes closed and money hanging out of my pockets. I guess women no longer have to worry about taking back the night, now they only have to worry about being jailed for having premarital sex.
We felt the hot breath of the wolf pack bearing down on us. But only a week later, the alarums have dimmed.
The administration lowered the terror threat in New York and Washington yesterday, and the Capitol Hill police were dismantling the elaborate security checkpoints they had put on streets around the Capitol to thwart would-be bombers.
In his handwritten resignation letter, John Ashcroft reassured Mr. Bush that "the objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.''It was a tad surprising that Mr. Ashcroft would want to leave just when he had a mandate to throw blue curtains over every naked statue in town and hold Bible study for government employees in a federal office. (He called his daily devotionals at the Justice Department "RAMP'': Read, Argue, Memorize and Pray.)The Red Horns bit is from Zell Miller's attempt at branding Dowd either a satanic New York Jew or a satanic Catholic... no one is quite sure.
The president is putting his own counsel, Alberto Gonzales, who wrote the famous memo defending torture, in charge of our civil liberties. Torture Guy, who blithely threw off 75 years of international law and set the stage for the grotesque abuses at Abu Ghraib and dubious detentions at Guantánamo, seems to have a good grasp of what's just. No doubt we'll soon learn what other protections, besides the Geneva Conventions and the Constitution, Mr. Gonzales finds "quaint'' and "obsolete.''Appearing on Don Imus' national radio program on Tuesday, Miller ripped the woman he called "Maureen Loud," calling her a "highbrow hussy from New York." He added that the "red-headed woman at the New York Times" should not mock anyone's religion: "You can see horns just sprouting up through that Technicolor hair."
- rob 12:03 PM - [PermaLink] -
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We've all been having fun about red versus blue America.- Wednesday, November 10, 2004 -
But really, This Is What America Really Looks Like:
Red and Blue America? Maybe more Red and Blue Americans... giving America its famous Purple Mountains (you know the ones with Majesty?).
For more fun color, go to: Election result maps
- rob 11:28 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Mencken Speaks From the Grave
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
--H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
- Michael 9:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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And heard in the crowd were shouts of: Like, Oh My God! Bummer! Whatever!
Video of Tanks at anti-war protest in LA
- rob 3:12 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Election Fraud? - Update (mainstream media only)
A bunch of cats across the parking lotNEW YORK - The election vote mess is like one of those inflatable clown dolls. You knock it down with your hardest punch, it goes supine, and then bounces back up, in the meantime having moved an inch or two laterally.
The punch, of course, is the explanation that the 29 more-votes-than voters precincts in greater Cleveland appear to have been caused by the addition of Absentee Ballots. The total difference between registered voters and votes (93,000) might be explained by that process, but it does little for one’s confidence in the whole result from Ohio.
The problem is, the rubber clown immediately bounces back with the report that officials in Youngstown managed to catch a slight glitch in their voting there: a total drawn from all the precincts that initially showed negative 25,000,000 million votes cast. It evokes a Monty Python sketch (“Mr. Kevin Phillips Bong - Sensible Party - 14,352. Mr. Harquin Fim Tim Lim Bim Bus Stop Fatang Fatang Ole Biscuit Barrel - Silly Party -- minus 25,000,0000).
No reason to worry about the integrity of the outcome in Ohio, is there?
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On the show last night there was also confirmation of something I speculated about here 24 hours ago. Craig Crawford, one of our MSNBC political contributors and also a columnist for Congressional Quarterly, admitted that the concession did trigger a kind of ‘we can all go home now!’ exultation in the media. “Since John Kerry conceded,” Craig said, “there wasn’t that great desire to run out to Columbus and try to figure this out. And the concession is the key because we’re often wimps in the media and we wait for other people to make charges, one political party or the other, and then we investigate.”
Bless Craig Crawford for saying that.
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He didn’t, however, endorse any conspiracy theories. “My experience with Election Supervisors is that they’re very independent, often real characters, hard people to actually organize into a conspiracy. I think it’d be easier to herd a bunch of cats across a parking lot.”
But - as I pointed out to him after he crafted that colorful bit of imagery - when one voting machine can add 4,000 votes for one presidential candidate in a 650-vote precinct, and another one in the same state can turn a day’s balloting into a net result of negative 25 million, it may also be true that altering those machines may be easy enough that it could be pulled off not only by conspiratorial Election Supervisors, but also, just by a bunch of cats from across the parking lot.
BZZZZZZ Hear that buzzing noise? Its just us... and lots of other sites folks actually visit: Internet buzz on vote fraud is dismissedA week after Kerry conceded and Bush declared victory, those assertions and scores of others from New Mexico to North Carolina have kept alive fierce speculation that Bush's victory either wasn't real or wasn't as decisive as it seemed. With memories fresh from the 2000 irregularities, e-mails and Web postings accuse Republicans of stealing an election.Here Here
Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.
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Another site suggests Kerry is refusing to contest the election because fellow members of the Yale secret society Skull and Bones forbade him to do so. [hey, I really wanted to say that... but of course I didn't want to sully TCS's standard of excellence]
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Heather Gerken, a professor at Harvard Law School, said the fact that this year's election went smoothly compared to 2000 shouldn't blind policy makers to problems still inherent in the system. Many jurisdictions continue to use outdated equipment, states are behind in compiling reliable voter lists, and elections are still run by partisan officials, she said.
''I have not yet seen anything that convinces me that the election was stolen, but I certainly think that we should treat these allegations seriously and do them justice," she said. ''There's clearly problems with the elections system. It's crucial to the health of this country that we have an election system that we can trust."
- rob 3:10 PM - [PermaLink] -
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"humor" break (thanks to phunksters):
Alas we knew him too well: Former President George W. Bush Dead at 72Mr. Bush was a politician opponents underestimated at their peril, and throughout his career his opponents did just that. He cultivated an aura of know-nothingness, of "a fine disregard" of inconvenient facts or opinions, but he was devastating on the attack, able to present himself as an ordinary man outraged by the self-superiority of whoever might be opposing him at any time and on any issue. Even as president, before the al Qaeda terrorist attacks on Washington, D.C., and New York City, in 2001, he was not always taken seriously by political commentators or the public at large; after that event he became a heroic figure, standing in defense of the United States as if that historic responsibility were his alone.
He launched an assault against Afghanistan, where al Qaeda had its headquarters and training grounds, weeks after the 2001 attacks, leading to the immediate fall of the totalitarian Islamic regime of the Taliban, which had given al Qaeda sanctuary. Though Osama bin Laden, the leader of the worldwide Islamist movement, escaped capture, his forces were severely weakened and scattered; during Mr. Bush's first term there was, against all expectations and predictions, no further terrorist attack on American soil. Arguing that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq was a center of terrorist plotting and a repository of terrorist weaponry, from what turned out to be nonexistent chemical and biological arms to equally chimerical nuclear technology, Mr. Bush in 2003 led a limited international coalition into Iraq and replaced Mr. Hussein with an occupying force, which over the next year was pushed back into consistently shrinking enclaves in the face of a fierce insurgency. Following his reelection in 2004, Mr. Bush ordered the destruction of the cities where the insurgents were thought to be concentrated; though the cities were destroyed, the insurgency continued. Mr. Bush then pressed on to Iran and North Korea, which he had identified as "rogue states."
With U.S. Armed Forces tied down in Iraq, Mr. Bush turned to what critics called a "private army subject to no law and operating at the whim of a single individual"--that is, to large numbers of private contractors employed by U. S., Serbian, Nigerian, and Saudi corporations--to launch land, sea, and air attacks meant to destroy nuclear facilities in both Iran and North Korea. While the Afghan and Iraqi armies and governments had collapsed almost at the first sign of American assault, the Iranian and North Korean invasions were beaten back by sustained resistance and, in North Korea, the use of explosives that Mr. Bush denounced as "tactical nuclear weapons," though this was later proved not to be the case. Nonetheless Mr. Bush then ordered what he described as "pinpoint" nuclear attacks on the nuclear sites in Iran and North Korea, which, while achieving their goals, also led to the One-Day War, a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan that left Bombay and Karachi in ruins and led to the fall of the governments of both countries, and to the withdrawal of the American-led coalition forces from Iraq. The result was the series of still-continuing civil wars throughout the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent that, while involving no unconventional weapons since 2006 have, according to the United Nations, caused the deaths of 12 million people and the displacement of millions more. Mr. Bush's claim in action if not in words that the United States retained an international monopoly on the legitimate use of force left allies such as Great Britain and alliances such as NATO crippled; it also left the United States at least formally unchallenged.
The Jerusalem Post: A two-state solutionDespite common historical roots, they are today irreversibly separated by opposing cultural, political, and religious values. Although some still dream that they can live together in peace in one nation, it is increasingly clear that nothing short of a two-state solution will resolve this conflict.
Of course, I'm talking about the United States. President George W. Bush's victory over John Kerry has opened up a major fault line between the two Americas: the so-called Republican-conservative Red States, and the Democratic-liberal Blue States.
On such key issues as abortion, gay rights, taxation, church-state separation, and America's place in the world, they are irreconcilably divided. The passions aroused by last week's election have only exacerbated their differences.
At this point, a clean break between the two may be the best answer.
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Given America's past experience with secession, it's obvious the US is going to need some help in dividing itself into two nations: The Republican Republic of Red America, and the Democratic Union of Blue America. And this is where I think Israel has a tremendously helpful role to play.
No other country in the world has had more experience in modern times with the two-state solution process. True, we haven't actually achieved it yet; but Israel is unmatched in terms of dealing with the steps needed to get there.
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Some tricky issues will need to be worked out. For one thing, the three clusters of Blue States in the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific coast do not form a contiguous territory. One solution may be found in the fact that all three areas border at some point on Canada. Perhaps the Canadians can be convinced to provide an extra-territorial "safe-passage corridor" along the US border connecting the Blue State clusters
Then there's the question of what to do with those large "settlement" pockets of conservative Red State voters found in Blue States California's Orange County, for example and likewise, those liberal Blue State settlements in Red States such as Austin, Texas. I suggest a "mutual transfer" agreement of sorts, where the residents of these regions would be compensated to move to the area where they would feel most politically comfortable.
One of the trickiest issues is bound to be the status of the capital. Although Washington, D.C., is currently controlled by the Red Republicans, it sits within the solidly Blue Democratic District of Columbia. Given the immense symbolic value of the city, and specifically such structures as Capitol Hill and the White House, it's unlikely either side would be willing to cede full sovereignty over the site to the other.
The only answer here may be to "internationalize" Washington, D.C., with a neutral third party overseeing its governance and allowing both Red and Blue Americans equal access to its politically holy monuments.
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Sounds farfetched? Maybe. But believe it or not, some people think such a scenario is even possible here.
- rob 2:42 PM - [PermaLink] -
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John F. Kennedy: What is a Liberal?What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."I'll add this quote to our site template shortly.
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I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.
I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.
- rob 2:35 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Also noted: God speaks in a funny voice
Jesus speaks through the RepublicansI hope the election of George W. Bush is seen as a wake-up call to all the liberal Democrats who oppose God's will.Thanks to The Daily Kos for finding this wonderful piece.
It is His doing that George W. Bush is still our president. Millions of born-again Christians helped win this election through our prayers and votes. Jesus speaks through the Republicans.
The Democrats will not be able to win elections until they renounce their sinful ways and stop encouraging abortions, gayness, and trying to take away our guns.
- rob 2:15 PM - [PermaLink] -
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George Bush: The Pro Life President
Fallujah a humanitarian disaster
- rob 2:12 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Hey look! The "Torture is Cool" guy got a promotion:
Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft, Sources SayWASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has chosen White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, a Texas confidant and one of the most prominent Hispanics in the administration, to succeed Attorney General John Ashcroft, sources close to the White House said Wednesday.Well just for one more disgusting piece of information, he once was a partner at a law firm the represented Enron. My what a small little corrupt world we live in.
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Gonzales has been at the center of developing Bush's positions on balancing civil liberties with waging the war on terrorism - opening the White House counsel to the same line of criticism that has dogged Ashcroft.
For instance, Gonzales publicly defended the administration's policy - essentially repudiated by the Supreme Court and now being fought out in the lower courts - of detaining certain terrorism suspects for extended periods without access to lawyers or courts.
He also wrote a controversial February 2002 memo in which Bush claimed the right to waive anti-torture law and international treaties providing protections to prisoners of war. That position drew fire from human rights groups, which said it helped led to the type of abuses uncovered in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
- rob 2:10 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Laws declaring women do not have souls introduced in several states- Tuesday, November 09, 2004 -
Druggists refuse to give out pillFor a year, Julee Lacey stopped in a CVS pharmacy near her home in a Fort Worth suburb to get refills of her birth-control pills. Then one day last March, the pharmacist refused to fill Lacey's prescription because she did not believe in birth control.Just my luck, my pharmacist is a Christian Scientist.
"I was shocked," says Lacey, 33, who was not able to get her prescription until the next day and missed taking one of her pills. "Their job is not to regulate what people take or do. It's just to fill the prescription that was ordered by my physician."
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Mississippi enacted a sweeping statute that went into effect in July that allows health care providers, including pharmacists, to not participate in procedures that go against their conscience. South Dakota and Arkansas already had laws that protect a pharmacist's right to refuse to dispense medicines. Ten other states considered similar bills this year.
- rob 2:03 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Wonderland 2004
A Hearing With a Heron
Alice rounded the corner, where she found herself face to face with a Congress of Beaks. The Great Blue Heron presided over lesser birds, regarding them on one foot with a simpering expression.
"But why are dogs involved?" the tiny birds wanted to know.
The Blue Heron paused. "The Dog ... pursues the Quarry." His statement was followed by impenetrable silence.
"But the quarry is us!" the little birds shrieked.
"You ... Me ... is relative ...." The Heron shifted a leg and swallowed something imaginary.
The birds fidgeted. "How is it," one of them asked, "we find ourselves in the position we're now in? Something's got to give."
"Some things ... are seldom gotten. ... And rarely given." The Heron stood stark still.
"Anything gotten must have been given," Alice added. The birds regarded her.
"And by the same token," the Heron replied, "anything given must have been gotten."
"Anything given gotten!" the rest of them chirped. Soon this turned into a chorus of "Anything gotten given" and finally "Anything, anything, anything at all!"
Alice considered the value of this. "It seems true, on the face of it," she continued, "but I don't remember ever getting anything back that I gave away in the first place."
"In the first place," the Blue Heron responded, "you must have given anything away."
"In the first place," a sparrow shouted, "you don't remember getting anything back."
"Come to think of it," Alice mused, "I don't remember getting anything back."
"That's because you never gave it in the first place." The Heron looked stupidly at Alice.
"She never had it to begin with!" the rest of the Congress agreed.
"This meeting is adjourned," the Heron proclaimed. All the birds fluttered.
"This meeting never took place," one of them ventured.
"If this never took place," Alice wondered aloud, "then where do I stand, exactly?" No sooner had she asked this than the entire company vanished, leaving nothing but an echo of her question, dangling in thin air.
- Michael 10:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Got values?
It appears that most of the "values" voters were mainly worried about sex. My thoughts about sex are really a very small part of the beliefs that make up my value system. "Thou shalt not kill" is up there near the top. And I'm talking about living, breathing beings who actually walk/crawl the earth, including those who live in Iraq.Apparently, if you are more worried about a Super Bowl halftime show than
about the fact that the United States invaded a sovereign nation without
provocation, you've got values.
If you are more offended by two guys kissing than by the fact that 100,000 Iraqi citizens have died while being liberated, you have values.
And if you care more about a single, fertilized egg in some deep freeze somewhere than about all the children with diabetes and all the grandparents with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, you have values.
If you care more about your exclusive and personal relationship with God than you do about his admonition to care for the poor and the weak, you have values.
The right values, anyway.
- Laurie 7:58 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Election "Fraud" Update.
Again I want to be clear, as much as I dislike him, if Bush won legitimately we all need to "know" that so we can stop harping about it, and complain about all the real bad things he is doing.
Here's a rundown:
- Keith Olbermann came through last night and did a piece about the issue last night, and will do more today. This is what he has to say about it:
Electronic Voting Angst
It may be different elsewhere, but there was no struggle to get this story on the air, and evidently I should be washing the feet of my bosses this morning in thanks. Because your reaction was a little different than mine. By actual rough count, between the 8 PM ET start of the program and 10:30 PM ET last night, we received 1570 emails (none of them duplicates or forms, as near as I can tell). 1508 were positive, 62 negative.
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Interestingly, none of the complaining emailers took issue with the remarkable results out of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. In 29 precincts there, the County’s website shows, we had the most unexpected results in years: more votes than voters.
I’ll repeat that: more votes than voters. 93,000 more votes than voters.
Oops.
Talk about successful get-out-the-vote campaigns! What a triumph for democracy in Fairview Park, twelve miles west of downtown Cleveland. Only 13,342 registered voters there, but they cast 18,472 votes.
Vote early! Vote often!
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Back to those emails, especially the 1508 positive ones. Apart from the supportive words (my favorites: “Although I did not vote for Kerry, as a former government teacher, I am encouraged by your ‘covering’ the voting issue which is the basis of our government. Thank you.”), the main topics were questions about why ours was apparently the first television or mainstream print coverage of any of the issues in Florida or Ohio. I have a couple of theories.
Firstly, John Kerry conceded. As I pointed out here Sunday, no candidate’s statement is legally binding - what matters is the state election commissions’ reports, and the Electoral College vote next month. But in terms of reportorial momentum, the concession took the wind out of a lot of journalists’ aggressiveness towards the entire issue. Many were prepared for Election Night premature jocularity, and a post-vote stampede to the courts - especially after John Edwards’ late night proclamation from Boston. When Kerry brought that to a halt, a lot of the media saw something of which they had not dared dream: a long weekend off.
Don’t discount this. This has been our longest presidential campaign ever, to say nothing of the one in which the truth was most artfully hidden or manufactured. To consider this mess over was enough to get 54 percent of the respondents to an Associated Press poll released yesterday to say that the “conclusiveness” of last week’s vote had given them renewed confidence in our electoral system (of course, 39 percent said it had given them less confidence). Up for the battle for truth or not, a lot of fulltime political reporters were ready for a rest. Not me - I get to do “Oddball” and “Newsmakers” every night and they always serve to refresh my spirit, and my conviction that man is the silliest of the creator’s creations.
There’s a third element to the reluctance to address all this, I think. It comes from the mainstream’s love-hate relationship with this very thing you’re reading now: The Blog. This medium is so new that print, radio, and television don’t know what to do with it, especially given that a system of internet checks and balances has yet to develop. A good reporter may encounter a tip, or two, or five, in a day’s time. He has to check them all out before publishing or reporting.
What happens when you get 1,000 tips, all at once?
I’m sounding like an apologist for the silence of television and I don’t mean to. Just remember that when radio news arose in the ‘30s, the response of newspapers and the wire services was to boycott it, then try to limit it to specific hours. There’s a measure of competitiveness, a measure of confusion, and the undeniable fact that in searching for clear, non-partisan truth in this most partisan of times, the I’m-Surprised-This-Name-Never-Caught-On “Information Super Highway” becomes a road with direction signs listing 1,000 destinations each.
Having said all that - for crying out loud, all the data we used tonight on Countdown was on official government websites in Cleveland and Florida. We confirmed all of it - moved it right out of the Reynolds Wrap Hat zone - in about ten minutes.- Bush's 'Incredible' Vote Tallies
George W. Bush’s vote tallies, especially in the key state of Florida, are so statistically stunning that they border on the unbelievable.
While it’s extraordinary for a candidate to get a vote total that exceeds his party’s registration in any voting jurisdiction – because of non-voters – Bush racked up more votes than registered Republicans in 47 out of 67 counties in Florida. In 15 of those counties, his vote total more than doubled the number of registered Republicans and in four counties, Bush more than tripled the number.
Statewide, Bush earned about 20,000 more votes than registered Republicans.
By comparison, in 2000, Bush’s Florida total represented about 85 percent of the total number of registered Republicans, about 2.9 million votes compared with 3.4 million registered Republicans.
Bush achieved these totals although exit polls showed him winning only about 14 percent of the Democratic vote statewide – statistically the same as in 2000 when he won 13 percent of the Democratic vote – and losing Florida’s independent voters to Kerry by a 57 percent to 41 percent margin. In 2000, Gore won the independent vote by a much narrower margin of 47 to 46 percent.- A Message From The Democratic Party In Ohio is a nice bit listing the facts about a recount in Ohio.
- rob 4:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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US ready to put weapons in space
Defence expert says America is likely to ignore treaty banAmerica has begun preparing its next military objective - space. Documents reveal that the US Air Force has for the first time adopted a doctrine to establish 'space superiority'.
The new doctrine means that pre-emptive strikes against enemy satellites would become 'crucial steps in any military operation'. This week defence experts will attend a conference in London amid warnings that President Bush's re-election will pave the way to the arming of space.
- rob 4:05 PM - [PermaLink] -
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“Christian” America?
In this post when I refer to the exclusionist homophobic war friendly Bush supporting Christians, I am referring to what one Kos poster refers to as Christianist (instead of Christian). In this excellent post: Christianism vs. Christianity the author really clearly divides the American Christian community. One following the words of Christ and the other converting his words and various selections of the old testament into the Christian version of Wahabism. We are growing our own reactionary, xenophobic, homophobic, potentially violent, and insensitive fundamentalism right here in America. People have been saying America has been standing alone in some of its more backward votes recently in the U.N. such as voting against women rights, we were not alone however, strict fundamentalist Islamic states stood right along with us. Bush has his religious state contemporaries… unfortunately many of them are or could be members of the Axis of Evil.
From the above mentioned Kos post:A Christianist America is a frightening place indeed. Already, gay individuals are having their rights revoked. But that is just the beginning. Under Christianist rule, women would lose all of their rights. Not just the right to choose, but the right to vote, or the right to own property. Under some of the more extreme Christianist thinking, women are property.That post says it better then I will and hopefully makes it plain that I am not bashing Christianity… I’m bashing extremist fundamentalism. The conservative media elite is already trying to say any discussion of this issue is “Religion Baiting.” As in an article from pandering “middle American” and “dead intern ex-congressman” Joe Scarborough (and I’m not implying that something was amiss in his intern’s death, I just want to point out that in the exact same time a “liberal” congressman was front page news for months because his intern (who it did seem he had an affair with) was missing while this “conservative” congressman had an intern die in his Florida office (and the medical examiner who said there was no foul play in the death had previously had his medical license revoked in Missouri for falsifying an autopsy report) not only doesn’t get a one write up in a major newspaper about this, but gets a job spouting insane religious rhetoric on MSNBC).
It seems to me that the Christianists are using wedge issues to promote the change needed in order to push their agenda. We saw this with the "gay marriage" ballot initiatives in this election. Of course, their hypocrisy concerning these wedge issues is clearly evident.
One wedge issue is that they want Creationism taught in our public schools. The argument being that Evolution is only a theory, therefore other "theories" should be taught, including Creationism. Of course, this means that they want Christian creationism taught, because they are using the cover of Christianity to hide their own political agenda. Any proposal to teach Hindu creationism, or Native American, would be met with howls of protest. Another wedge issue is the posting of the Ten Commandments in our public courthouses, because, as the Christianists righteously state, God is the source of our laws. However, if a law were proposed that would put the Five Pillars of Islam in our courtrooms, because the source of all law is Allah, the Christianists would be apoplectic.
9/11 is a good benchmark to show the difference between Christians and Christianists. A Christian, following the attacks of 9/11, most likely prayed to God for mercy for the victims, prayed that peace would come to the families of the victims, and prayed that God would protect the Nation. The Christianists, however, took 9/11 as an opportunity to blast their political opponents, such as Falwell blaming 9/11 on the liberals.
And this is the crux of Christianism. A political ideology masquerading as a religion. They have not only taken over the leadership of the Republican Party, but they are now beginning to take over the control of the Christian community (as was quite evident in the sermon in the church I attended on the Sunday prior to the election, where the congregation was told that voting for John Kerry was a "sin").
The bottom line is that Christianism is going to destroy the America that the Founding Fathers envisioned, and will usher in a repressive nation more along the lines of post-Shah Iran. It is incumbent upon the Christians of this nation to heed the warning, "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. (Jer. 23:16)"
America must be alerted to the threat of Christianism. It has to be made clear to Christians that when we attack Christianism, we are not attacking Christianity. THEY ARE NOT ONE AND THE SAME! Christianity is a beautiful religion of hope and redemption, based on the universal love of God. Christianism is an ugly political ideology, based on power, hatred and hypocrisy, whose sole goal is the destruction of the United States of America.
Here’s Scarborough on this “Religion Bating” that seems to be all the rage with the elite “educated” sushi eating blue state media:The elite media declared open season on the President and his supportersThis divide in Christian American has been opening wider for years. It should have been so obvious to us this spring. There was a very strong signal that America and Americans were different then we imagined: Mel Gibson's Passion. If you saw the movie, as I did, you too were probably stunned at the sheer brutality of it all (and I like John Woo’s Hong Kong films). How could this be the uplifting spiritual movie that was making hundreds of millions of dollars? Why didn’t we realize that the people who also saw this film and thought it was reaffirming would also vote?
A nasty streak of religious intolerance is rearing its ugly head in America. And it's coming from America's cultural elites.
The election of George W. Bush has exposed an ugly anti-Christian streak in many of those who work in America's most powerful newsrooms. A flood of vicious opinion pieces over the past few days have generalized Christians who helped elect the President as a group of knuckle dragging neandrethals whose aims are nothing less than anti-American.
Not surprisingly, some of the most offensive, bigoted rhetoric came from the opinion pages of the New York Times, a paper that at one time embraced diversity of thought and belief. But apparently those positions of convenience are closeted away when it comes time to opine on conservative Christians.
I saw it with a Christian who pulled herself through the masochism hoping for the wonderful moment at the end that washes away the blood and gore and grime and leaves one with the faith reaffirming ending.... Nope didn't happen. More gore. More blood. This isn't the Christianity that I've seen from the family and friends who share that faith. This wasn't a Christ teaching about love and forgiveness. These scenes of torture seemed only to bespeak revenge.
Remember the only time Christ got really pissed off at anyone was when people were using the temple as an excuse and location for making money. You know like most TV evangelists or those "Christian investment" spam emails I get.
A huge chunk of Christianity in America isn't about the love and the teachings of Christ. Sure they have all the bumper stickers that say Christ Loves Me (but not you... okay they don't say that), but what their religion seems to be about is persecution. They are persecuted. They live to be persecuted. It makes them "special."
Like Scarborough says above even discussing the fact that there is a vein of reactionary fundamentalist Christianity in America is yet more persecution. What is this persecution?
When I moved to California (before going back to the northeastern elite states) my friend and I were looking for a place to live. I called about a home in Mountain View. The woman was very friendly. I said my friend and I would love to see the place and that’d I’d see when “she” (my friend) could come and see it. The women almost went ballistic. “oh, I’m sorry we can’t rent to you, we don’t want our children to be exposed to that.” Catching on, I quickly noted that my friend was just that, a friend. She immediately said “look, we are Christians and though that may mean nothing to you we don’t want to demonstrate that in front of our children.” (I hope they don’t have TV). The conversation was then ended. I was stunned. They don’t want to show their children that males and females can have platonic friendships? Was it always about sex with them (well yes I guess it is)? And had I said worn one against Christianity (our was the mere fact that I had a female friend the attack? Probably).
This feeling of persecution is at the core of all fundamentalism. This reactionary version of faith on its own in unsustainable, it has rid itself of the reaffirming aspects of the religion and will fall apart… unless it has enemies. It needs to be persecuted, even if there is no real persecution. All extremist fundamentalism shares this. Bin Laden’s vision of Islam needs America… it is what binds their faith, not spirituality.
This is the 21st century’s great battle, lets hope it can stay on websites, newspapers, and ballot boxes here.
- rob 3:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Tell me where to sign up! (oh wait... I'm broke... never mind)
Al Gore starts sustainable growth fund firm
- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Okay. Its all right to get angry and all. It's okay to ask to investigate if this election is legitimate (and even if it means Bush is the President I'd sleep better knowing that people voted stupidly rather then that believing that maybe they weren't really voting at all). It's okay to have long pointless posts on a web site that is hidden in the dark corners of the internet, but this is wrong (and sad):- Monday, November 08, 2004 -
Bush Protestor Commits Suicide At Ground ZeroA Georgia man, who apparently was upset over President Bush's re-election, has shot and killed himself at Ground Zero in New York.
His body was found Monday morning inside the former World Trade Center site, which is closed off to the public.
Police say they found no suicide note, but friends tell newspapers in New York his death was a "a protest," and that the 25-year-old was against the war in Iraq and distraught over Bush's win last Tuesday.
- rob 11:54 AM - [PermaLink] -
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I really shouldn't be surprised... and yet I was.
Terror Financing Fines Fall After 9/11WASHINGTON - Despite the Bush administration's pledge to battle terrorist financing, the government's average penalty against companies doing business with countries listed as terrorist-sponsoring states fell sharply after the Sept. 11 attacks, an Associated Press analysis of federal records shows.An official was quoted as saying, "look for every dollar we fine these companies that is another dollar that wasn't available to then to donate to Bush's re-election, and without Bush's re-election the terrorists would win. Why is this confusing to you?"
- rob 5:48 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Below I talked about the importance of faith in keeping the US dollar strong. Well the Chinese have lost "the faith." Expect interest rates to go up pretty quick in 2005. And people if you have an ARM mortgage... move to fixed rate... as fast as you can.
FT.com / Markets / Currencies - Dollar expected to fall amid China's rumoured sellingThe dollar could slide still further, in spite of hitting an all-time low against the euro last week in the wake of George W. Bush's re-election, currency traders have said.
The dollar sell-off has resumed amid fears among traders that Mr Bush's victory will bring four more years of widening US budget and current account deficits, heightened geopolitical risks and a policy of "benign neglect" of the dollar.
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Speculative traders in Chicago last week racked up the highest number of long-euro, short-dollar contracts on record. Options traders have reported brisk business in euro calls - contracts to buy the euro at a pre-determined rate.
However, the market has been rife with rumours that the latest wave of selling has been led by foreign governments seeking to cut their exposure to US assets.
India and Russia have reportedly been selling US assets, as well as petrodollar-rich Middle Eastern investors.
China, which has $515bn of reserves, was also said to be selling dollars and buying Asian currencies in readiness to switch the renminbi's dollar peg to a basket arrangement, something Chinese officials have increasingly hinted at. Any re-allocation could push the dollar sharply lower and Treasury yields markedly higher.
- rob 5:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Oh, in case you do have an objection to tax-exempt Christian politics
you just might go to jail.
Is Americans United Executive Director Barry Lynn headed for prison?
If six U.S. senators have their way, he will be.
On July 2, Sens. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Don Nickles (R-Okla.) and Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) contacted Attorney General Janet Reno, seeking a criminal investigation of Americans United for allegedly trying to "intimidate" religious voters from going to the polls.
"Americans United is being singled out for attack for a simple reason -- because we have the nerve to stand up to Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition," Lynn said. "It is clear to us that the senators' request for an investigation is politically motivated, and Helms, Robertson and their allies are hoping to intimidate us from telling churches the truth about the law. This is politics at its worst."
In fact, many observers believe that it was the abundant evidence given to the IRS by Americans United that ultimately helped prove that the Coalition was unworthy of a tax exemption. Particularly relevant was a secretly-recorded Robertson speech boasting of the group's Republican election successes and urging his top lieutenants to build a Tammany Hall-style political machine based in churches. [Emphasis mine.]
At this point, it is not clear how the Justice Department will act on the senators' request. John Russell, a spokesman for the agency, told reporters that the complaint has been received and is under consideration.
"It's being reviewed by the public integrity section of the criminal division, which investigates voter fraud, and we will respond in time," Russell said.
It is particularly ironic that Helms would be involved in accusing anyone of illegally intimidating voters in light of the ballot box bullying in his own past.
In the 1990 Senate race, the North Carolina Republican Party, working on behalf of Helms, instituted a "ballot security" project that sent 150,000 postcards to heavily African-American precincts, warning prospective voters that they faced "fines and jail terms" if they cast ballots at the wrong location.
A week earlier, Robertson said Americans United may be indirectly responsible for mass murderers such as neo-Nazi Benjamin Nathaniel Smith.
Observed Robertson, "[Americans United's] total goal is to eliminate Christianity and eliminate religion from the public square, take all vestiges of supernatural religion out of our state and make us a totally secular group. If we take the knowledge of the true God and the restraint of the Holy Spirit from society, we will have this kind of violence."
How do you like them apples? They're tax-free, in God's Little Acre.
- Michael 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -
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To update my post earlier today, a further rundown of voting issues. Much like the strength of the dollar the strength of America's democracy depends of faith. For the American Dollar faith is defined as the belief that the dollar will always be strong and that American economy will always be strong (and with Bush's re-election the dollar is falling really far... but that is for another post). For our American Democracy faith is defined by the belief that our Government is for the people, by the people, and of the people. "For" is iffy (but always has been)... same for "of" (that is also up in the air), but if we don't clear this up "by" will forever be in question, and at that point our democracy is shot. These issues need to be cleared up, which ever way they fall.
So here we go, some more links to check out:
- Ready To Get Angry? has a nice list of issues.
- An Examination of the Florida Elections is an amazingly detailed report (with charts, and graphs, and tables... oh my!) about the 2004 Florida results.
- The list of "Totals from yesterday" is from a Kos poster who's posted many "diaries" of late on the subject, you can check them out on his "Diary" home page.
- For another frighteningly long list of articles about various "issues" popping up ("hey Gus look over here, fir some reason we got us 11,823 extra votes for Bush... I dun told you God would stop at nothing to git him elected."): Republican Election Theft Roundup (and with a title like that you know it is an unbiased look at the issue).
- Of course you know Bev over at Black Box Voting is all over this.
- And finally (for now), Worse Than 2000: Tuesday's Electoral Disaster is another good and detailed list about potential problems, and features a letter from some Congressmen about the 2004 election.
- rob 5:13 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A scary conservative scared of Bush: Paul Craig Roberts
An Election That Will Live In InfamyOn November 2 Americans blew their only chance to redeem themselves in the eyes of the world.
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The world was waiting hopefully for the sensible American people to rectify the ill-advised actions of a rogue neoconservative administration. Instead, Americans placed the stamp of approval on the least justifiable military action since Hitler invaded Poland.
- rob 4:58 PM - [PermaLink] -
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American Marines attack FallujahThe city of Fallujah is said to be the home of the insurgents behind the recent wave of kidnappings, beheadings and suicide bombings.Whoa! Some guy is walking around with horns, a red suit, a pitchfork, and has a tail? They'll get him in a jiffy, and then all will be well in Iraq. Heck, everything will be okay everywhere... I'm so excited that after millions (billions? eons?) of years we've finally got that Satan bastard cornered.
Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented:
"The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him."
- rob 4:55 PM - [PermaLink] -
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We need to know without a doubt that when the President is actually elected (40 plus days from now) that he won the vote.
Everyone thought this was the year that "rock the vote" was going to make a difference, but it seemed that maybe "hack the vote" was the way it went.
Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been HackedWhile the heavily scrutinized touch-screen voting machines seemed to produce results in which the registered Democrat/Republican ratios largely matched the Kerry/Bush vote, in Florida's counties using results from optically scanned paper ballots - fed into a central tabulator PC and thus vulnerable to hacking ? the results seem to contain substantial anomalies.
In Baker County, for example, with 12,887 registered voters, 69.3% of them Democrats and 24.3% of them Republicans, the vote was only 2,180 for Kerry and 7,738 for Bush, the opposite of what is seen everywhere else in the country where registered Democrats largely voted for Kerry.
In Dixie County, with 9,676 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.
The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the counties where optical scanners were used. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.
Yet in the touch-screen counties, where investigators may have been more vigorously looking for such anomalies, high percentages of registered Democrats generally equaled high percentages of votes for Kerry. (I had earlier reported that county size was a variable ? this turns out not to be the case. Just the use of touch-screens versus optical scanners.)
This story is growing... It may make a difference if we support those who are willing to investigate and report... and so far that looks like a small number for the large mainstream media... so far it is only MSNBC's Keith Olbermann.
NEW YORK: Here's an interesting little sidebar of our system of government confirmed recently by the crack Countdown research staff: no Presidential candidate's concession speech is legally binding. The only determinants of the outcome of election are the reports of the state returns boards and the vote of the Electoral College.
That's right. Richard Nixon may have phoned John Kennedy in November, 1960, and congratulated him through clenched teeth. But if the FBI had burst into Kennedy headquarters in Chicago a week later and walked out with all the file cabinets and a bunch of employees with their raincoats drawn up over their heads, nothing Nixon had said would've prevented him, and not JFK, from taking the oath of office the following January.
This is mentioned because there is a small but blood-curdling set of news stories that right now exists somewhere between the world of investigative journalism, and the world of the Reynolds Wrap Hat. And while the group's ultimate home remains unclear - so might our election of just a week ago.
On election night I kept hearing about how the concern about voting machines were unfounded and that they worked flawlessly: Errors plague voting process in Ohio, Pa.
Don't let our depression as to the results stop us from validating the results. Even though I hate Bush I think I'd be much much happier if we check the results and found out he did EARN the votes to win. Heck I think he be much happier too if he cared about such things. Maybe the truth could lead to awkward moments during his Man Date.
There is a lot to read and with reading: ACT! Write letters! (I already have) Tell your friends!
Other articles to read:
- A nice list of articles on more poll weirdness can be found in: Totals From Yesterday.
- for actual stats on the Florida results go to: Surprising Florida Presidential Election Results.
- An incredibly detail tracking of issues can be found at: 2004 U.S. Election Controversies and Irregularities.
- A less detailed, but easier to read report on issues is a blog set up just for this issue (so it is a good place to start to keep up on everything: Who Really Won?
- rob 3:21 PM - [PermaLink] -
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If you think I have a problem- Sunday, November 07, 2004 -
listen to this.
- Michael 1:35 PM - [PermaLink] -
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And speaking of values ...
... how about now that politics and church are inseperable, all those churches lose their tax-exempt status? Why should I subsidize political speech? Where does it say that in the Constitution? "The what?" you say? "Oh, that; yeah, well."
Seems the pigs have flown the coop, and all the chickens have lips. Hypocrisy thy name is God.
- Michael 3:43 PM - [PermaLink] -
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