Who Cares?

Who gives a shit about the lives of the Iraqis? The secretary of the defense doesn't even give a fuck about the lives of his own troops. In Iraq, life is worth exactly zero. And what we've accomplished there is worth less than zero.

Taking over the world doesn't work.

- Michael 7:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Some decisions are difficult:

- work to fix a program that will have a $3.7 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years, but that has saved tens (hundreds) of thousands of seniors from living in poverty and has been going strong for over 50 years.

or

- work to fix a program that will have a $7 to 8 trillion shortfall over the next 75 years that barely helps any seniors with their prescriptions and that basically feeds America's tax dollars straight into the hands of big Pharma. Oh and this program isn't even a year old yet.

Guess which one Bush will recommend of "reforming" to the point of destruction?

ONE STEP BACKWARD - TWO STEPS FORWARD

- rob 4:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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G.O.P. Divided as Bush Views Social Security

In addition, he is dispatching his Treasury secretary, John W. Snow, to New York to reassure Wall Street that his approach, which could involve trillions of dollars in new government borrowing, is consistent with efforts to reduce the budget deficit and improve the nation's financial condition.

"Here let me take a knife to that wound... it is consistent with the healing process."

This sounds a lot like "the higher frequency of attacks against us means were winning" crap the White House uttered in the summer.

- rob 4:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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What would your answer be?

"Look mom, I know I've kick dogs in the past and was caught torturing the neighbors cart and yes that was me blowing up frogs down by the creek, but if you give me a pet dog I promise I'll stop hurting animals."

Gonzales Pledges to Abide by Treaties as Justice Dept. Chief

- rob 12:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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She may right bad checks (well... back in her House days)... but Boxer comes through!

Democrats to Force Debate on Ohio Results

WASHINGTON - A small group of Democrats agreed Thursday to force House and Senate debates on Election Day problems in Ohio before letting Congress certify President Bush's win over Sen. John Kerry in November.

While Bush's victory is not in jeopardy, the Democratic challenge will force Congress to interrupt tallying the Electoral College vote, which had been scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. EST Thursday. It would be only the second time since 1877 that the House and Senate were forced into separate meetings to consider electoral votes.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., signed a challenge mounted by House Democrats to Ohio's 20 electoral votes, which put Bush over the top. By law, a protest signed by members of the House and Senate requires both chambers to meet separately for up to two hours to consider it. Lawmakers are allowed to speak for no more than five minutes each.

"I have concluded that objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate way to bring these issues to light by allowing you to have a two-hour debate to let the American people know the facts surrounding Ohio's election," Boxer wrote in a letter to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, a leader of the Democratic effort.

The action seems certain to leave Bush's victory intact because both Republican-controlled chambers would have to uphold the objection for Ohio's votes to be invalidated. But supporters of the drive hope their move will shine a national spotlight on the Ohio voting problems.

- rob 11:26 AM - [PermaLink] -

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An email I just sent to Senator Kerry:

Senator Kerry,

I received your email in which you state you will not challenge Ohio's vote.

It does not matter that the outcome "probably" was not changed by the delibarate actions of Ohio officials to manipulate the vote. What does matter is that Americans need to have faith that their vote is counted.

If you wish to have honest elections you must have the courage to act against dishonest elections.

The integrity of Ohio's vote was severely compromised with both federal and state elections laws blatantly disregarded. That should be enough to cause you to challenge the Ohio electors tomorrow.

You may think your electoral vote challenge tomorrow as putting your 2008 campaign at stake. Inaction puts America's democracy at stake. What do you hold more dear?

Respectfully yours,

[rob]

- rob 3:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you're running for governor, what better way to raise funds then to brag about your ability to steal elections.

Ohio Republican Secretary of State brags about delivering Ohio for Bush in gubernatorial fundraising letter

- rob 2:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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From my favorite Texas Newspaper:

The Lone Star Iconoclast: 05’s Brave New World

As 2005 emerges, it will be interesting to see just how many freedoms will be robbed from Americans this year. Although most do not realize it, a new, stealthier version of the Patriot Act has been approved. It was renamed so as not to draw attention to itself and get the public into an uproar. With the passage of time comes acceptance, for each day lets the ink dry on acts that become history.
Investigations into the presidential vote in Ohio have revealed that the election was compromised in a major way, eliminating any possibility that the election was fair. On Jan. 6, the government has an opportunity to right this wrong to democracy by refusing to certify the Ohio electors. That will be a red-letter day in history, for its ramifications are deep.

Our question is “Will Congress act to save democracy?” Our guess is “Probably not.” The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the people do not deserve a fair election; only reassuring propaganda.

- rob 2:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Would you like fries with that?

U.S. ag export surplus evaporates

For nearly two years, U.S. farmers and ranchers watched as the second shoe grew bigger and bigger.

On Nov. 22, it officially dropped. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service estimates released that day, 2005 will be the first year in nearly 50 that America will not turn an agricultural trade surplus.

The dubious milestone was met with odd silence at USDA. Odd because throughout the fall presidential campaign, Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman talked herself hoarse each time some farm community in a swing state dedicated a new USDA-sponsored street light.

Now, as America is about to become a net food importer for the first time in generations, Veneman has no explanation of how Bush Administration economic and trade policies have taken American agriculture from a $13.6 billion trade surplus in 2001 to a flat line in four short years.

Wow, yet another Bush success story.

- rob 2:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you were President what would you do?

You have an employee who has advised you to:

• disregard the constitution when it comes to Executive Powers.
• disregard American laws about torture.
• disregard the geneva conventions (which has been ratified by congress)

What would you do with such an employee? Why make him the chief law officer of the land!

What would you do with an employee who went behind the backs of justice apartment lawyers? Why make him in charge of that very same Justice Department!

How would you signal to the world that you want America does not condone torture? Why promote him of course! (that will send a signal to the world)

Gonzales Helped Set the Course for Detainees

In March 2002, U.S. elation at the capture of al Qaeda operations chief Abu Zubaida was turning to frustration as he refused to bend to CIA interrogation. But the agency's officers, determined to wring more from Abu Zubaida through threatening interrogations, worried about being charged with violating domestic and international proscriptions on torture.

They asked for a legal review -- the first ever by the government -- of how much pain and suffering a U.S. intelligence officer could inflict on a prisoner without violating a 1994 law that imposes severe penalties, including life imprisonment and execution, on convicted torturers. The Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel took up the task, and at least twice during the drafting, top administration officials were briefed on the results.

White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales chaired the meetings on this issue, which included detailed descriptions of interrogation techniques such as "waterboarding," a tactic intended to make detainees feel as if they are drowning. He raised no objections and, without consulting military and State Department experts in the laws of torture and war, approved an August 2002 memo that gave CIA interrogators the legal blessings they sought.

Gonzales, working closely with a small group of conservative legal officials at the White House, the Justice Department and the Defense Department -- and overseeing deliberations that generally excluded potential dissenters -- helped chart other legal paths in the handling and imprisonment of suspected terrorists and the applicability of international conventions to U.S. military and law enforcement activities.

Gonzales is a close confidant of Bush... and like Bush, who didn't write his own auto-biography... it looks like Gonzales didn't even write his own torture memos.

But one of the mysteries that surround Gonzales is the extent to which these new legal approaches are his own handiwork rather than the work of others, particularly Vice President Cheney's influential legal counsel, David S. Addington.
...
On at least two of the most controversial policies endorsed by Gonzales, officials familiar with the events say the impetus for action came from Addington -- another reflection of Cheney's outsize influence with the president and the rest of the government. Addington, universally described as outspokenly conservative, interviewed candidates for appointment as Gonzales's deputy, spoke at Gonzales's morning meetings and, in at least one instance, drafted an early version of a legal memorandum circulated to other departments in Gonzales's name, several sources said.

Conceding that such ghostwriting might seem irregular, even though Gonzales was aware of it, one former White House official said it was simply "evidence of the closeness of the relationship" between the two men. But another official familiar with the administration's legal policymaking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because such deliberations are supposed to be confidential, said that Gonzales often acquiesced in policymaking by others.

Oh, that answers it... he's a toady.

- rob 2:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Krugman: Stopping the Bum's Rush

The people who hustled America into a tax cut to eliminate an imaginary budget surplus and a war to eliminate imaginary weapons are now trying another bum's rush. If they succeed, we will do nothing about the real fiscal threat and will instead dismantle Social Security, a program that is in much better financial shape than the rest of the federal government.
...
Today let's focus on one piece of those scare tactics: the claim that Social Security faces an imminent crisis.

That claim is simply false. Yet much of the press has reported the falsehood as a fact. For example, The Washington Post recently described 2018, when benefit payments are projected to exceed payroll tax revenues, as a "day of reckoning."

Here's the truth: by law, Social Security has a budget independent of the rest of the U.S. government. That budget is currently running a surplus, thanks to an increase in the payroll tax two decades ago. As a result, Social Security has a large and growing trust fund.

When benefit payments start to exceed payroll tax revenues, Social Security will be able to draw on that trust fund. And the trust fund will last for a long time: until 2042, says the Social Security Administration; until 2052, says the Congressional Budget Office; quite possibly forever, say many economists, who point out that these projections assume that the economy will grow much more slowly in the future than it has in the past.

So where's the imminent crisis?

- rob 1:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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An Iraqi take on the coming elections from Baghdad Burning

We're being bombarded with cute Iraqi commercials of happy Iraqi families preparing to vote. Signs and billboards remind us that the elections are getting closer...

Can you just imagine what our history books are going to look like 20 years from now?

"The first democratic elections were held in Iraq on January 29, 2005 under the ever-watchful collective eye of the occupation forces, headed by the United States of America. Troops in tanks watched as swarms of warm, fuzzy Iraqis headed for the ballot boxes to select one of the American-approved candidates..."

It won't look good.

There are several problems. The first is the fact that, technically, we don't know the candidates. We know the principal heads of the lists but we don't know who exactly will be running. It really is confusing. They aren't making the lists public because they are afraid the candidates will be assassinated.

Another problem is the selling of ballots. We're getting our ballots through the people who give out the food rations in the varying areas. The whole family is registered with this person(s) and the ages of the varying family members are known. Many, many, many people are not going to vote. Some of those people are selling their voting cards for up to $400. The word on the street is that these ballots are being bought by people coming in from Iran. They will purchase the ballots, make false IDs (which is ridiculously easy these days) and vote for SCIRI or Daawa candidates. Sunnis are receiving their ballots although they don't intend to vote, just so that they won't be sold.

Yet another issue is the fact that on all the voting cards, the gender of the voter, regardless of sex, is labeled "male". Now, call me insane, but I found this slightly disturbing. Why was that done? Was it some sort of a mistake? Why is the sex on the card anyway? What difference does it make? There are some theories about this. Some are saying that many of the more religiously inclined families won't want their womenfolk voting so it might be permissible for the head of the family to take the women's ID and her ballot and do the voting for her. Another theory is that this 'mistake' will make things easier for people making fake IDs to vote in place of females.

All of this has given the coming elections a sort of sinister cloak. There is too much mystery involved and too little transparency. It is more than a little bit worrisome.

- rob 12:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I'm throwing a party honoring our American heroes in Iraq

How are you going to Honor them?

By having the party silly! We'll have neat little itty bitty sandwiches and quiche. Now don't be such a party pooper.

Questions for Jeanne L. Phillips: It's the President's Party

It's his party but you'll die if he wants you (to), die if he wants you (to)

I hear one of the balls will be reserved for troops who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Yes, the Commander-in-Chief Ball. That is new. It will be about 2,000 servicemen and their guests. And that should be a really fun event for them.

As an alternative way of honoring them, did you or the president ever discuss canceling the nine balls and using the $40 million inaugural budget to purchase better equipment for the troops?

I think we felt like we would have a traditional set of events and we would focus on honoring the people who are serving our country right now -- not just the people in the armed forces, but also the community volunteers, the firemen, the policemen, the teachers, the people who serve at, you know, the -- well, it's called the StewPot in Dallas, people who work with the homeless.

How do any of them benefit from the inaugural balls?

I'm not sure that they do benefit from them.

Then how, exactly, are you honoring them?

Honoring service is what our theme is about.

Oh My God! Doesn't the reporter get it? The ball is the honor in itself. There is nothing a wounded soldier whose lost his legs wants to hear more then that a rich oil man and his trophy wife danced in his honor.

We're now thinking of having a tenth ball, they'll called it the Tsunami Disaster Ball! It'll have a real cool underwater blue motif, and they'll play songs like "under the sea" and "sea of love" and "under the boardwalk." We couldn't think of any better tribute for those poor folks in...um...those islands.


Was that too harsh? It is $40 million being spent on a goddamn party for America's worst President. THAT is harsh.

Why not write a letter to one of these folks and ask why they thought this was an appropriate way to spend their money. i.e. what are they going to get out of it?

Big companies give money to hold a party, and the President rewrites the laws to help them... what could possibly go wrong?

Exxon Mobil Corporation - Washington DC - $250,000
...
Nuclear Energy Institute - Washington DC - $100,000
Occidental Petroleum Corporation - Los Angeles CA - $250,000
...
Sallie Mae, Inc. - Reston VA - $250,000
Stephens Group, Inc. - Little Rock AR - $250,000
...
CheveronTexaco - Concord CA - $250,000

etc. etc. etc.

Isn't it nice to know that Sallie Mae, a corporation created by Congress with our tax dollars, finished privitizing at the end of 2004. And what better way to show that it has terminated all ties to the federal government by putting the President in its pocket ("awww isn't he cute").

Thanks to Jer for the original link.

- rob 12:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Jeb shows why he is known as the "smart Bush" brother:

Jeb Bush says Florida hurricanes pale in comparison to tsunami

Jeb also notes that America is bigger then England, and Maine is colder then Florida.

Jeb's Tsunami Trip is stage one of his 2008 Presidential campaign by the way.

- rob 11:35 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Wake Up

I posted this in the Comments section as a reply to a very good point about foreign aid and who we are. In case anyone missed it I'm posting here.

argantonio @ 3:09PM | Dec 30th 2004|

Mr Aznar´s wife wellfare council woman in Madrid municipal goverment presided an non governmental organization ONG named Cooperacion Iberoamerica which should have rebuilt many destructed houses in Central America but after 2 o 3 years of the hurricane very little has been done, they have to pay back 70 millions pesetas in euros to the European Union which funded this ONG.

Michael @ 10:16AM | Jan 4th 2005|

Yes, and we're spending $1 billion a week in Iraq to murder people. I hope anybody reading this understands this fact and remembers, because as a country we lost our way. What exactly are we accomplishing there? C'mon, I want to hear from you people who whine constantly about 9/11. Were you there? I was. So fucking what? Where is it written that Americans are entitled to be safe? The world is fucking dangerous. Get used to it. Bush isn't protecting us, and he couldn't even if he wanted to. Wake up, and smarten up. We have obligations, not murders to commit. America dropped the ball, and if you disagree, history will judge you.

- Michael 9:26 AM - [PermaLink] -

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A comment posted to this story says it best:

Either:
a) The exit polls, conducted by hundreds of people across the nation, were entirely wrong, or
b) The vote counting, conducted by machines manufactured and programmed by blatantly partisan companies, was entirely wrong.
Now, take into account that every theory which accounts for mistaken exit polls has not been proven, while numerous proven instances of vote counting errors have turned up. Which would you say is more likely?

A post on DKos about exit polls and analysis of said polls.

Remember In America Exit Polls that said Bush lost were proof that Exit polling should stop, and Exit Pollis in the Ukraine proved voter fraud, caused a new election, overturned the results and were priased for being the last safeguard in ensuring a fair vote. Interesting.

Daily Kos :: The 2004 Election Was Stolen

The latest is the analysis posted below in its entirety (converted from PDF for convenience and posterity) by Jonathan D. Simon, J.D. and Ron P. Baiman, Ph.D. from Institute of Government and Public Affairs - University of Illinois at Chicago. This paper, combined with others, namely Freeman, is as close to a "smoking gun" as you will ever find.
...
Also, some fail to appreciate the significance of exit polls for proving election theft. The power of statistical evidence should be well known. DNA or fingerprint analysis is actually statistical in nature. The veracity of such evidence is derived from a statistical probability that no one else shares those traits. By the same token, if the election outcome is statistically improbable, by a factor of 1000 or more, you can pretty much take it to the bank that the outcome is wrong.

`Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence', I heard recently. This assertion is built on the false premise that rigging an election in the United States is somehow extraordinary. Considering the history of US elections, and the stakes involved, and the fact that 80% of all votes in the US were either cast on, or counted by two private corporations owned by Republicans, this and all elections should be suspect from the start.

History will judge us harshly for this election. Not just the Bush administration, but the media, the Democrats, and the online community as well. Future historians will no doubt get a chuckle for the providence of the Ukraine fiasco falling so closely behind our own. But mostly, when they examine the American response to the exit poll discrepancies of the 2004 election, they will be saddened by the blaring naiveté, maliciousness, and cowardice.

The 2004 Presidential Election: Who Won The Popular Vote?
An Examination of the Comparative Validity of Exit Poll and Vote Count Data
...
Executive Summary

• There is a substantial discrepancy--well outside the margin of error and outcomedeterminative--
  between the national exit poll and the popular vote count.
• The possible causes of the discrepancy would be random error, a skewed exit poll, or
  breakdown in the fairness of the voting process and accuracy of the vote count.
• Analysis shows that the discrepancy cannot reasonably be accounted for by chance or
  random error.
• Evidence does not support hypotheses that the discrepancy was produced by problems
  with the exit poll.
• Widespread breakdown in the fairness of the voting process and accuracy of the vote
  count are the most likely explanations for the discrepancy.
• In an accurate count of a free and fair election, the strong likelihood is that Kerry
  would have been the winner of the popular vote.

...


The reaction of election night analysts interpreting this differential was
immediately to query what had "gone wrong" with the exit polls. This was a curious
approach both in light of standard accounting practice, which compels independent
examination of both sets of numbers that are found to be in conflict, and in light of muchvoiced
pre-election concerns about the accuracy and security of the computerized vote
counting systems.
...
Conclusion

In light of the history of exit polling and the particular care that was taken to
achieve an unprecedented degree of accuracy in the exit polls for Election 2004, there is
little to suggest significant flaws in the design or administration of the official exit polls.

Until supportive evidence can be presented for any hypothesis to the contrary, it must be
concluded that the exit polls, including the national mega-sample within its ±1.1%
margin of error, present us with an accurate measure of the intent of the voters in the
presidential election of 2004.

According to this measure, an honest and fair voting process would have been
more likely than not--at least 95% likely, in fact--to have determined John Kerry to be
the national popular vote winner of Election 2004.31 Should ongoing or new
investigations continue to produce evidence that, to an extent determinative of the
electoral college outcome, votes have not been counted accurately and honestly or
discriminatory vote suppression has occurred, the re-examined popular vote outcome
may well be deemed relevant to the question of what remedies are warranted.

These same exit polls everyone is saying are wrong, are the same exit polls the right is using to prove that "values" was the winning factor. So are the polls wrong or right?

Jackson thinks something is up: (and that at least means the issue will get some play in the media)

‘We Will Not Faint’
Jesse Jackson on why he thinks John Kerry really won the election

(a newsweek online exclusive... i.e. won't be read by Newsweek subscribers)

- rob 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You can actually get news from NYTimes these days... but only on the editorial pages.
Editorial: The Social Security Fear Factor

If you've lent even one ear to the administration's recent comments on Social Security, you have no doubt heard President Bush and his aides asserting that a $10 trillion shortfall threatens the retirement system - and the economy itself. That $10 trillion hole is the basis of the president's claim last month that "the [Social Security] crisis is now." It's also the basis of the administration's claim that the cost of doing nothing to reform the system would be far greater than the cost of acting now.
Well, the $10 trillion figure is the closest you can get to pulling a number out of the air. Make that the ether. Starting last year, as the groundwork was being set for the emerging debate, the Social Security trustees took the liberty of projecting the system's solvency over infinity, rather than sticking to the traditional 75-year time horizon. That world-without-end assumption generates the scary $10 trillion estimate, and with it, Mr. Bush's putative rationale for dismantling Social Security in favor of a system centered on private savings accounts. The American Academy of Actuaries, the profession's premier trade association, objected to the change. In a letter to the trustees, the actuaries wrote that infinite projections provide "little if any useful information about the program's long-range finances and indeed are likely to mislead any [nonexpert] into believing that the program is in far worse financial condition than is actually indicated."
...
Over a 75-year time frame, Social Security's shortfall is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office at $2 trillion and by the Social Security trustees at $3.7 trillion, a manageable sliver of the economy in each case. If the shortfall is on the low side, Social Security will be in the black until 2052, when it will be able to pay out 80 percent of the promised benefits. If it is on the high side, the system will pay full benefits until 2042, when it will cover 70 percent.
Contrary to Mr. Bush's frequent assertion that Social Security is constantly imperiled by political meddling, it has in fact been preserved and improved by political intervention throughout its 70-year history, most significantly in 1983. The system could - and should - be strengthened again by a modest package of benefit cuts and tax increases phased in over decades.
Instead, the administration wants workers to divert some of the payroll taxes that currently pay for Social Security into private investment accounts, in exchange for a much-reduced government benefit. To replace the taxes it would otherwise have collected - money it needs to pay benefits to current and near retirees - the government would borrow an estimated $2 trillion over the next 10 years or so and even more thereafter.

Some say that social security is a pyramid scheme. Yes it is. The money it pays out to the old is what it takes in. There is no "lock box." The money doesn't gain interest. But unlike a pyramid scheme that leads to financial ruing, this one doesn't end, and that is why it works. A pyramid collapses when someone wants their money back but no one is putting money in. This won't happen.... unless Bush stops putting money in with this play... then the house of cards falls and we get the budget shortfall of trillions now.
Oh and I had more posts today, but Blogger seems to have misplaced them. So it'll be light today.

- rob 5:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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AP Photo shows Laura Bush hailing the dark lord, despite Episode III not opening until May.



Here's the source (to prove this wasn't photoshopped): Yahoo! News - Top Stories Photos - AP

- rob 3:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
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