Depending who wins the superbowl I'll retire next year!
(okay, not really, its an office pool... I might when pizza money... I'm not even watching the game)

Krugman: Gambling With Your Retirement

Here's the money quote: "In return for the opportunity to get the benefits from the personal account, the person forgoes a certain amount of benefits from the traditional system. Now, the way that election is structured, the person comes out ahead if their personal account exceeds a 3 percent rate of return" - after inflation - "which is the rate of return that the trust fund bonds receive. So, basically, the net effect on an individual's benefits would be zero if his personal account earned a 3 percent rate of return."

Translation: If you put part of your payroll taxes into a personal account, your future benefits will be reduced by an amount equivalent to the amount you would have had to repay if you had borrowed the money at a real interest rate of 3 percent.

Peter Orszag of the Brookings Institution got it exactly right: "It's not a nest egg. It's a loan."

And as with most gambling debts... if it doesn't work out the government is allowed to break your knee caps.

- rob 5:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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In October, 2004 this story made the website of a group called Grain (which we posted about in November - first here - and then in part of a long tirade here)

Now thanks to a post on the Daily Kos I've learned that the story has finally made the big time of being mentioned on a New Zealand website.

Scoop: U.S. Declares Iraqis Can Not Save Their Own Seeds

As part of sweeping ''economic restructuring'' implemented by the Bush Administration in Iraq, Iraqi farmers will no longer be permitted to save their seeds, which include seeds the Iraqis themselves have developed over hundreds of years. Instead, they will be forced to buy seeds from US corporations. That is because in recent years, transnational corporations have patented and now own many seed varieties originated or developed by indigenous peoples. In a short time, Iraq will be living under the new American credo:

Pay Monsanto, or starve.: http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/iraq_seeds.htm

Hopefully with this post on Kos the story will get more attention.

If this story gets the attention it deserves perhaps some of the other economic chicanery of Bremer will see the light of day. From the very first day Bremer saw his mission as the American Administrator of the Iraqi CPA (okay he was appointed Governor of Iraq by King George) was not to bring stability to Iraq, it was not to find the [nonexistent] WMDs, and it was not to bring the Iraqi people freedom; his mission was to privatize Iraqi government holdings and (believe it or not) cut taxes.

From: U.S. Rx for Iraq: privatization (5/31/2003)

After compelling United Nations authorization of an extended U.S.-British occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration is now openly focusing on privatizing Iraq's economy, regardless of the hardships that will mean for the Iraqi people.

U.S. occupation chief L. Paul Bremer told reporters the U.S. will concentrate on installing a "market economy" and "free trade," eliminating the government subsidies that made food, gasoline and other essentials affordable for the Iraqi people.

Bremer said nothing about allowing the return of democracy and self-government. Instead, he asserted the Bush administration?s intention to impose its neo-conservative ideology on Iraq, declaring, "History tells us that substantial and broadly held resources, protected by private property, private rights, are the best protection of political freedom."

Bremer's remarks, wrote Washington Post reporter Scott Wilson, "indicated that Iraqis would not be deciding for themselves what kind of economy will replace the state-planned system that functioned under Hussein."

Okay if that source is a little to commie for you, in June, 2004 TCS noted this article (via Talking Points Memo) from the Washington Post:

Attacks Force Retreat From Wide-Ranging Plans for Iraq

Plans to privatize state-owned businesses -- a key part of a larger Bush administration goal to replace the socialist economy of deposed president Saddam Hussein with a free-market system -- have been dropped over the past few months. So too has a demand that Iraqis write a constitution before a transfer of sovereignty.

With the administration's plans tempered by time and threat, the U.S. administrator of Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, and his deputies are now focused on forging compromises with Iraqi leaders and combating a persistent insurgency in order to meet a July 1 deadline to transfer sovereignty to a provisional government.

"There's no question that many of the big-picture items have been pushed down the list or erased completely," said a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq's reconstruction, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Right now, everyone's attention is focused [on] doing what we need to do to hand over sovereignty by next summer."

The new approach, U.S. diplomats said, calls into question the prospects for initiatives touted by conservative strategists to fashion Iraq into a secular, pluralistic, market-driven nation. While the diplomats maintain those goals are still attainable, the senior official said, "ideology has become subordinate to the schedule."
...
With goodwill toward Americans ebbing fast, Bremer and his lieutenants have also concluded that it does not make sense to cause new social disruptions or antagonize Iraqis allied with the United States. Selling off state-owned factories would lead to thousands of layoffs, which could prompt labor unrest in a country where 60 percent of the population is already unemployed.
...
But there has also been a noticeable dampening of some early ambitions to remake Iraq. In June, as he returned to Baghdad aboard a U.S. military transport plane after speaking at an international economic conference, Bremer discussed the need to privatize government-run factories with such fervor that his voice cut through the din of the cargo hold. "We have to move forward quickly with this effort," he said. "Getting inefficient state enterprises into private hands is essential for Iraq's economic recovery."

We lost precious time in Iraq. We spent our time chasing new-con dreams of multi-nationals plundering Iraq rather than trying to stabilize the country as fast as possible. We were busy laying off employees of state owned companies for the pursuit of economic progress when it was often the unemployed that joined the ranks of the insurgents. And now because of this thousands of Iraqi's have died and over a thousand Americans have died, and the country will be spending years trying to stabilize (if it doesn't collapse into civil war). All because of neo-cons having visions of sugar plumbs dancing in their heads.

The seed issue is just an example of what is the 21st century equivalent of plunder. American neo-cons as desk bound Vikings.

Back to the topic at hand - Seeds. An excellent way to really make sure this century sucks is to have multinationals basically placing patents on sources of food ("I'm sorry, you can't eat that, you haven't paid your licensing fee").

Ooops.. its already happened. Farmer Liable for Growing Biotech Crops (scroll down)

A judge yesterday ordered a Canadian farmer to pay the biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. thousands of dollars because the company's genetically engineered canola plants were found growing on his field, apparently after pollen from modified plants had blown onto his property from nearby farms.

The closely watched case was a major victory for companies that produce genetically modified crops and have been aggressively enforcing agreements that require farmers to pay yearly fees for using their technology.

Stunning. This means that people who are in the neighborhood of genetically modified crops will have to pay royalties to the companies for products they never purchased and got no benefits from.

Yep... a gust of wind made a farmer guilty of infringing on Monsanto's intellectual property rights. Coming soon Monsanto crop dusting Kansas and then suing every farmer that had a seed fall on his land. When people begin to complain Bush, the neo cons and the multinationals will respond: "who said you could breath my air?"

- rob 3:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Shop Talk post (feel free to ignore...)

Switched to the original way posting worked on this site. Hopefully this will be less irritating then it was with the built in blogger posting (less clicking required).

It does look like this transition made some of the comments on this past week's posts kinda disappear (they're still there on the permalink page). Moving forward things should go smoothly.

- rob 2:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why if the plan goes through poor nations would be able to spend their scarce money on health, education, and infrastructure instead of unending debt payments. They might even be able to set themselves down the path to economic prosperity.

Can't have that. Who'd make Walmart's clothes (where you can buy children's clothes made by children!)

US opposes UK's debt relief plan

- rob 1:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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George Bush proves he is twice as stupid as we think

Rumsfeld Says He Offered to Resign Twice

WASHINGTON (AP) - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld disclosed Thursday that he had offered President Bush his resignation twice during the height of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal last year. He said he wanted the decision on his future to be placed in Bush's hands.

"He made that decision and said he did want me to stay on," Rumsfeld told CNN's "Larry King Live."

- rob 12:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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One of our earliest readers (yep... we have readers)... and after google probably our number one source of traffic - The Free Speech Zone - has got a graphic that'll will soon appear everywhere on the web.



Jordan, that image is awesome.

- rob 5:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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no surprise

Halliburton Doing Business With the 'Axis of Evil'

The award for oddest geopolitical couple of 2005 goes to the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Houston-based Halliburton.

You might not think that a charter member of President Bush's "axis of evil" could enlist the oil-services firm once run by Vice President Cheney to bolster its bargaining position with an international community intent on curbing its nuclear ambitions.
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The project includes onshore and offshore sections and its initial phase is to become operational by the first quarter of 2007," said the Tehran-based news site. The total output of the phases will reportedly produce 50 million cubic meters per day of treated natural gas for domestic use and 80,000 barrels of gas liquids per day for export.

Within days three hard-line members of the Iranian parliament attacked the deal. In an open letter they alleged the contract had been arranged by a businessman named Sirous Naseri, who also serves on the Iranian government team negotiating with European powers seeking limits on Iran's nuclear programs. The Halliburton contract, the parliamentarians complained, was "a threat to Iran's nuclear stance."

An Iranian government spokesman did not respond to the allegation but defended the contract saying Halliburton offered a good price and that the project "served the interests" of the Islamic state.

That probably did not please Cheney. On Inauguration Day, he told a nationwide talk radio audience that Iran was "right at the top of the list of potential trouble spots" facing the Bush administration. Many online pundits interpreted his remarks as a threat of military action against Iran. Cheney was not asked about Halliburton's venture.

- rob 3:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And people think this is a good idea?

Participants Would Lose Some Profits From Accounts

If a worker sets aside $1,000 a year for 40 years, and earns 4 percent annually on investments, the account would grow to $99,800 in today's dollars. All of that money would be the worker's upon retirement. But guaranteed benefits over the worker's lifetime would be reduced by approximately $78,700 -- the amount the worker would have contributed to Social Security but instead contributed to his private account, plus 3 percent interest above inflation. The remainder, $21,100, would be the increase in benefit the worker would receive over his lifetime above the level he would have received if he stayed in the traditional system.

Under the system, total benefit gains may be minimal. The Social Security Administration, in projecting benefits under a partially privatized system, assumes a 4.6 percent rate of return over inflation. Thus gains in an account would be offset by a reduction in guaranteed benefits equal to 70 percent of the account's balance.

The Congressional Budget Office, Capitol Hill's official scorekeeper, assumes a 3.3 percent rate of return. Under that scenario, the full amount in a worker's account would be reduced dollar for dollar from his Social Security checks, for a net gain of virtually zero.

If investments earned less than 3 percent a year above inflation, a worker would do worse in total benefits than he would have done in the traditional system.

I'm dizzy. Again you'd have to have an investment earning 3% ABOVE inflation each year just to match the guaranteed monies from the traditional system. Dang, were going to have a lot of poor seniors in the future....

- rob 2:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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White House Plant Update

White House-friendly reporter under scrutiny

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has provided White House media credentials to a man who has virtually no journalistic background, asks softball questions to the president and his spokesman in the midst of contentious news conferences, and routinely reprints long passages verbatim from official press releases as original news articles on his website.

Jeff Gannon calls himself the White House correspondent for TalonNews.com, a website that says it is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." It is operated by a Texas-based Republican Party delegate and political activist who also runs GOPUSA.com, a website that touts itself as "bringing the conservative message to America."

Called on last week by President Bush at a press conference, Gannon attacked Democratic Senate leaders and called them "divorced from reality." During the presidential campaign, when called on by Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Gannon linked Senator John F. Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, to Jane Fonda and questioned why anyone would dispute Bush's National Guard service.

Now, the question of how Gannon gets into White House press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that Gannon is not a journalist but rather a White House tool to soften media coverage of Bush.

What were the softballs from Fox, MSNBE, et al. still too tough for the wittle guy?

GannonGate

Yesterday evening Fishbowl tracked down the mysterious Gannon and spent nearly forty minutes talking with him about what is being dubbed "GannonGate" (Get it? It's sort of like Watergate because it's a scandal--but instead it involves Gannon, not water).

We started with the easy question: Is Jeff Gannon your real name or just your reporter's name? "It's definitely my reporter's name, and beyond that, I don't see how relevant anything else is," he replied after a moment's hesitation. There, see, that settles that? It's none of your business.

While he explained that his background prior to joining Talon News was light on journalism, Gannon said that he'd done both blue collar and white collar work, including owning companies, teaching, and a whole bunch of other things that gave him "a solid background in Americana." "Is journalism my background? Not particularly. But who's to determine who's qualified to be a journalist?" he asked. "I'm sitting here watching Ron Reagan on MSNBC and people are calling him a journalist."

Actually I think they are calling him a commentator, he's a President's son, and he's been working in the press for over a decade (fluffy press admittedly), but whatever... he makes a good point there though. They call NY Times Judith Miller a journalist... I guess the word doesn't really mean much these days.

The best coverage of the issue is courtesy of the Daily Show (media player required).

- rob 2:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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How to have a bad day.

You're 20 years old and have lived in America since you were 2, you have been told by your parents that you are a legal resident. You go to college and take a quick trip into Mexico with friends and disover:

1. you are not a legal resident.
2. You aren't even 20 (you're 18).

USU student suddenly discovers she is not a legal resident

- rob 2:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Are as you as surprised as I am?
(you'd think the youth of America would jump at the chance to lay down their lives for our Leader)

Proof that perhaps some of our children is learning.

Marines come up short on recruits / Service fails to attain monthly quota for first time in a decade

- rob 1:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Full text: State of the Union Address

NO MORE ASBESTOS CLAIMS

Wow Halliburton actually writes parts of the State of The Union these days.

12/2001: Asbestos Claims Make Halliburton Hazardous

Even some fervent Halliburton bulls have turned pessimistic in the wake of last week's Baltimore verdict. UBS Warburg analyst James Stone, who earlier this year dismissed the asbestos threat as a mere irritant, lowered his rating on the stock Friday from strong buy to hold, citing asbestos liability as a significant threat to the company.

"If only 1% of cases resulted in jury verdicts of a similar magnitude and the awards were upheld at the appellate level, the future liability would be much greater than our previous expectations," Stone told clients Friday. If liability increases in that fashion, it "could cause the company to significantly increase its provisions and perhaps strain its future liquidity."

As Halliburton management attempted to soothe nerves on Monday morning's conference call, the stock may partially recover from Friday's drubbing. For most analysts, that would be a chance to further reduce positions. "If you look at other companies that have faced a similar asbestos situation, you don't see a sustained rebound," says Pickering. "The stock could easily be 10% to 20% lower from here without other news. And the next verdict will make it even worse."

Some still argue that Halliburton's core oil service business continues to lead the industry. While that may be true, it now seems irrelevant.

"This shackles Halliburton and its solid core business," says Pickering. "Right now, the direction of the business doesn't matter. The market has put a tight collar around the company's neck."

That suggests Halliburton isn't a place to play in the oil patch. "While the stock heavily discounts Halliburton's asbestos exposure, the specter of lawsuits spiraling out of control is likely to adversely impact the stock for the foreseeable future," Salomon Smith Barney oil field service analyst Geoff Kieburtz told clients Friday, when he downgraded the stock from buy to neutral.

Wow... asbestos claims really made Halliburton's future look bleak.... But somehow (Cheney) there was a marvelous turn around (Iraqi War) and everything is okay.

But being a good corporate citizen that Halliburton is, it doesn't want anyone to go through the horrible asbestos claim nightmare it had to go through. So after a phone call with Uncle Dick....

NO MORE ASBESTOS CLAIMS became the rallying cry for a generation.

- rob 1:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Social "What Crisis" update

All Your Risk Are Belong To You

So, here's the basic Bush piratization plan:

Cuts in guaranteed benefits to make the system solvent in perpetuity without any tax increases.

A "voluntary" system of accounts that lets you divert up to 4 percentage points of your payroll taxes, subject to smaller cap in early years. Initial investment choices would be based on the Thrift Savings Plan.

On top of guaranteed benefit cuts, there's a one for one benefit offset up to a 3 percent real rate of return, or the real rate of return on Treasury bonds (unclear if it's actually 3 percent or just expected to be 3 percent -- I assume the latter). In other words, your SS benefits are cut dollar for dollar up until you hit that magic limit then the extra is yours. Odd, I thought the trust fund wasn't real. Silly me. There's very little actual "ownership" here.
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Upon retirement, you're forced to buy an annuity such that your SS benefits plus the annuity purchased from your personal account at the minimum give you poverty line income. Unclear what happens if there isn't enough money to get you to the poverty line. The federal government would handle the annuities. The rest you can spend when you want.

If you retire and die the next day, as with any annuity the money reverts back to the issuer - in this case the feds.

- rob 1:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Darwin's got the blood of 135 million on his hands? WTF?

D. James Kennedy Sees 'Wall of Evolution' Eventually Tumbling Down

It is Kennedy's opinion that Christians who embrace evolution are compromising their faith. He describes evolution as the most destructive idea ever to enter the mind of man, and a concept that has killed more people than all religions that ever existed.

"Communistic evolution, according to the Senate committee that examined it, is responsible for 135 million deaths in peacetime," he said. "There's no religion that has a tiny fraction of that many deaths on it conscience." And it is amazing, he added, that evolution -- despite its widespread acceptance -- has no scientific basis. "There are scientists who will admit that there's not one iota of scientific evidence to support it."

There are scientists who will admit that the Sumerian empire was created with the help of lizard like aliens, but I don't think that should be in schools.

And a Senate Committee examined communistic evolution (wow, can't believe I never hear about that one... sounds like fun) and decided that these societies killed 135 million people? Not sure how. Hmmm... you know I don't think "communistic evolution isn't about humans at all - but rather it is about the "changes over time" of communistic societies? Did these societies kill 135 million people? Does that include the communistic societies that evolved into appliance companies (Amana - A Christian communist society)? Does it include the communist societies that evolved into making tableware (Oneida - A Christian free love communist society - gotta love that)?

Creation is extremely important, and not too many people can articulate it," DeRosa says. "But I believe there needs to be ongoing training [for Christians in this area]. Just like we go to school and study a course in the Bible, perhaps, like the Book of John. I believe creation needs that kind of importance and designation, because unfortunately it's been neglected."

The ability to defend creation, he says, is "foundational" to a Christian's faith.

Okay, maybe it is the Unitarian in me, but why would creationism be part of the foundation of a Christian's faith? I'm at a loss.

Look a guy was locked in a tower and damned to hell (but that hell damnation has since been reversed... "hey about those hundreds of years burning in hell...never mind.") because he said the Earth was not the center of the universe. Guess what? The Christian faith survived the revelation he was right. Perhaps these guys shouldn't argue against any potential challenge to their faith as evil or even as a challenge. Maybe evolution is how God wanted to create man. Wouldn't this method be all the more wondrous and magnificent? Isn't faith about spirituality and not science books? Couldn't science be considered an investigation of the wonders and mysteries of God's creations and not an attack on one's faith? Couldn't I just note that by rejecting science one is actually rejecting the works of God? (heck, I just did note that didn't I... guess I can not that than... good to know).

And not to belittle the creationists, but which creation story are they all wanting to be taught? There are thousands out there. Heck even the bible has two.

- rob 4:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Long but excellent post: Daily Kos :: Kennedy Letter Claims 'Smoking Gun' Against Gonzales

A vote for Gonzales is a vote for torture. It is as simple as that. Do Republicans like McCain, Hagel, and Hatch support torture? (of course we know Frist does).

- rob 3:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Halliburton: Pay us even more or your troops starve!

US faces 4-billion-dollar budget gap for feeding troops in Iraq: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Food, housing and other services for US troops in Iraq will cost four billion dollars more than the Pentagon anticipated in its 2005 budget, a US newspaper said, citing figures from Halliburton, the parent company of KBR, which provides the services.

In December, KBR (Kellogg Brown and Root) submitted a quote for an estimated 10 billion dollars to the Pentagon for the 150,000 US soldiers' meals, lodging and other services in Iraq for the year beginning May 1, The Wall Street Journal said.

The Pentagon had budgeted just 3.6 billion dollars for KBR's services. It managed to reduce some other expenses to pay for a portion of the difference, which initially amounted to nearly seven billion dollars, but it still faces a four-billion-dollar budget gap, according to General George Casey.

What were the other expenses they reduced to bridge the gap? Body armor? Armored vehicles?

And is anyone auditing KBR's "estimate?" If it ends up being more the 10 billion (which is just a huge number... wow it really better be good food), does KBR start giving our troops porridge or does KBR have to eat it (please please let them eat it).

And these soldiers are getting shot at... please could someone at least give them a good meal.

- rob 3:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Crisis? You want a domestic Crisis George?

I got your crisis right here: Researchers: Half of bankruptcies caused by health costs
Researchers say 50% of filing caused by medical bills; most who file are insured middle class.

This is real... this isn't a 25% (or so) dip in benefits anfter the year 2052 (and that is if nothing is done... a minor tweak would take care of the issue)... this isn't going to be solved by making sure pharma companies can dodge lawsuits either.

This is a crisis. This needs real thought. This requires solutions that are not designed to benefit campaign contributors.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers with health insurance, researchers said Wednesday.

The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans every year, if both debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children, are counted.

"Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy," said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study. "Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection."
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"From 1982 to 1989, I reviewed every bankruptcy petition filed in South Carolina, and during that period I came to the conclusion that there were two major causes of bankruptcy: medical bills and divorce," said George Cauthen, a lawyer at Columbia-based law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. "Each accounted, roughly, for about a third of all individual filings in South Carolina."

He said fewer than 1 percent of all bankruptcy filings were due to credit card debt. "That truly is a myth," Cauthen said in a telephone interview.

But a good enough myth to change the bankruptcy laws to the banks favor!

"Any myth is a good myth" if it works to your favor... just ask George, truly 21st century's greatest myth maker.

- rob 1:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A free press? Who needs it.
They're always so negative

Don't Mind Me. I'm Just Doing My Job

Unaware of the new escort policy (it wasn't in place during the official parties following the 2001 inauguration), I blithely assumed that in the world's freest nation, I was free to walk around at will and ask the happy partygoers such national security-jeopardizing questions as, "Are you having a good time?"

Big mistake. After cruising by the media pen -- a sectioned-off area apparently designed for corralling journalists -- a sharp-eyed volunteer spotted my media badge. "You're not supposed to go out there without an escort," she said.

I replied that I had been doing just fine without one, and walked over to a quiet corner of the hall to phone in some anecdotes to The Post's Style desk.

As I was dictating from my notes, something flashed across my face and neatly snatched my cell phone from of my hand. I looked up to confront a middle-aged woman, her face afire with rage. "You ignored the rules, and I'm throwing you out!" she barked, snapping my phone shut. "You told that girl you didn't need an escort. That's a lie! You're out of here!"

With the First Amendment on the line, my natural wit did not fail me. "Huh?" I answered.
...
Consider that the escorts weren't there to provide security; all of us had already been through two checkpoints and one metal detector. They weren't there to keep me away from, Heaven forbid, a Democrat or a protester; those folks were kept safely behind rings of fences and concrete barriers. Nor were the escorts there to admonish me for asking a rude question of the partying faithful, or to protect the paying customers from the prying media.

Their real purpose only occurred to me after I had gone home for the night, when I remembered a brief conversation with a woman I was interviewing. During the middle of our otherwise innocuous encounter, she suddenly noticed the presence of my minder. She stopped for a moment, glanced past me, then resumed talking.

No, the minders weren't there to monitor me. They were there to let the guests, my sources on inaugural night, know that any complaint, any unguarded statement, any off-the-reservation political observation, might be noted. But maybe someday they'll be monitoring something more important than an inaugural ball, and the source could be you.

Well I do think it is important that no one says anything bad about emperor Bush (he of divine providence), so that's why I have no problem with networks banning any ad that focus on "controversial issues" ("controversial" being defined as "not one of the GOP talking points")

4 Networks Reject Ad Opposing Bush on Lawsuits

WASHINGTON, Jan. 31 - An advocacy group, USAction, said on Monday that four television networks had turned down its request to run an advertisement opposing President Bush's effort to clamp down on medical malpractice lawsuits.
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The NBC Universal Television Network, owned by General Electric, told the group, "We are sorry that we cannot accept your ad based on our network policy regarding controversial issue advertising."
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ABC, CBS and the Fox Broadcasting Company said they had also turned down the advertisement.
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Mr. Bush has proposed strict limits on medical malpractice litigation, including caps on damages for pain and suffering, as part of a campaign for sweeping changes in the nation's civil justice system. In the television advertisement, Dylan Malone of Everett, Wash., says his son Ian suffered severe brain damage at birth, as a result of "medical errors," and died before his fifth birthday.

"President Bush is siding with the insurance, H.M.O. and drug companies, trying to end what they call frivolous lawsuits, while 100,000 Americans like Ian die each year because of medical errors," Mr. Malone says in the spot. "Mr. President, let's fix the health care mess, but please stop blaming the victims. My son's life was not frivolous."

Well I can see the controversy there... did she just suggest the President should try to fix something? Why is she allowed to talk with anyone?

Some people though don't seem to like propaganda: Letter from David Brock to Scott McClellan

I am writing to ask you to consider revoking the White House press credentials apparently granted to Jeff Gannon of Talon News. Mr. Gannon and Talon News appear to be political activists rather than actual journalists, and as such should not be presented to the public as an independent news agency.
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Mr. Gannon's conduct during your briefings, as well as presidential press conferences, further suggests that his true role is that of a partisan operative rather than an independent journalist. His questions reliably criticize Democrats and praise President Bush, often containing false assertions, such as his question last week -- based on Rush Limbaugh's radio program -- that incorrectly asserted that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid "was talking about soup lines."
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Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin noted in a March 10, 2004, column that Mr. Gannon frequently asks "softballs" during White House press briefings...
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Given all of this, it seems that Mr. Gannon serves not as a reporter during press briefings but as a useful lifeline for you to rely on when you get in trouble.

In light of recent revelations about the Bush administration's relationship with conservative writers Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Michael McManus, as well as about the administration's repeated use of fake video "news" reports to promote policies, the public is understandably concerned that the White House seems to be trying to manipulate public opinion using fake "news." Given that Talon News seems to be little more than a partisan political organization and given that, based on what Mr. Gannon has written, you apparently know what he will ask during your briefings, Mr. Gannon's continued participation in White House press briefings would seem to exacerbate those concerns.

The public has a right to expect that when you hold press briefings, the reporters are real and the questions are not staged beforehand. They have a right not to be deceived into thinking they are seeing and hearing reporters ask honest questions when they are really seeing a staged performance by partisan operatives.

Boy, that guy seems to be stuck in the 20th Century. "[the public] have a right not to be deceived," please. What a baby. Bush is giving as a new world. Your either with him, or a godless Christian hating - baby killing - porn watching - gun hating - commie pagan. Take your pick.

- rob 5:19 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Crisis? What Crisis?

New Soc. Sec. Estimates More Optimistic

WASHINGTON - The Social Security system will take in more money annually than it pays out in benefits until 2020, two years later than earlier estimated, the Congressional Budget Office reported Monday in a modest change unlikely to alter the growing political debate over the program.

Congress' budget analysts also estimated the program's trust funds will be depleted in 2052, "meaning that beneficiaries will be able to count on receiving only 78 percent of their scheduled benefits beginning then.

So the real date of important is 2052. The 2020 date is just when Social Security has to get back some of the money the government borrowed. i.e. if anyone mentions the 2020 date as an important sign of trouble should be made aware that banks often ask borrowers to return their money too.... Oh dear! a banking crisis!

So in the year 2052... if nothing is done... Social Security will have to cut benefits to 78%. I never realized that Social Security was in such good shape.

I think it is time we go to an expert: Krugman: Many Unhappy Returns

Schemes for Social Security privatization, like the one described in the 2004 Economic Report of the President, invariably assume that investing in stocks will yield a high annual rate of return, 6.5 or 7 percent after inflation, for at least the next 75 years. Without that assumption, these schemes can't deliver on their promises. Yet a rate of return that high is mathematically impossible unless the economy grows much faster than anyone is now expecting.
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They can rescue their happy vision for stock returns by claiming that the Social Security actuaries are vastly underestimating future economic growth. But in that case, we don't need to worry about Social Security's future: if the economy grows fast enough to generate a rate of return that makes privatization work, it will also yield a bonanza of payroll tax revenue that will keep the current system sound for generations to come.

Alternatively, privatizers can unhappily admit that future stock returns will be much lower than they have been claiming. But without those high returns, the arithmetic of their schemes collapses.

It really is that stark: any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black.

And I suspect that at least some privatizers know that. Mr. Baker has devised a test he calls "no economist left behind": he challenges economists to make a projection of economic growth, dividends and capital gains that will yield a 6.5 percent rate of return over 75 years. Not one economist who supports privatization has been willing to take the test.

- rob 3:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because yesterday was Monday

The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 184 - Democratic Underground

1. The Bush Administration
Armstrong Williams, eat your heart out! It was revealed last week that two more journalists have been caught with their sticky fingers in the Bush administration's payola pie. According to the Washington Post, "In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families" - all part of the Bushies' anti-gay-marriage propaganda, of course. But what Gallagher's readers didn't know was that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the proposal. Tsk tsk. Next up was Michael McManus, author of the nationally syndicated "Ethics & Religion" column. Ethics, eh? How amusing. According to Salon, McManus "was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed." For his part, Our Great Leader was out and about last week insisting in that horribly bland way of his that, hey, this is really wrong, and we'll put a stop to it, even though we've spent 128 percent more on public relations this year than Clinton did in the last year of his administration, and these payola scandals are starting to pop up like wack-a-moles, don't y'all worry your heads about it. Because come on everybody, let's not forget that neither Bush nor anyone in the White House knew anything about any of this. Obviously. So how many more conservative "journalists" are going to get caught sucking at the taxpayer's teat before all this is over? Rush Limbaugh? Sean Hannity? Do you have anything you want to tell us?

2. Jeff Gannon
Apparently the Bush administration isn't just paying journalists to spout White House propaganda - they're also planting journalists in press conferences to ask helpful questions. At a press conference last week, George W. Bush was happy to take a question from Jeff Gannon of "Talon News." Gannon asked, "Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work - you've said you are going to reach out to these people - how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?" Gee.. that sounds... fair and balanced. Rush Limbaugh was delighted to hear the question, saying on his radio show, "I said earlier today in the program, shortly after we began, that somebody in the White House press corps listens to this program. It is Jeff Gannon from Talon News." No doubt Jeff Gannon does listen to Rush Limbaugh, since Gannon is a poster at Free Republic. As for "Talon News," well, it consists of approximately two people - Gannon and Bobby Eberle, who is also the CEO of GOPUSA, a "conservative news, information, and design company dedicated to promoting conservative ideals." Nice to know they have such easy access to White House press conferences, isn't it?

Well I guess the Bush administration thought Fox News was too liberal.

- rob 1:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Florida State Law Officer (yeah... let's call in another unfair red state dig)

Prosecutor Mugged After Calling Escort Service

TAMPA, Fla. -- A senior assistant state attorney general was hit with pepper spray and mugged after he called an escort service to a hotel, police said.
...
The police report states that two women arrived at Rimes' hotel room late Thursday after he called an escort service for female companionship.

Police said Rimes had $200, but the women told him he needed more. He went to an ATM and withdrew $300.

After Rimes returned, someone knocked on his hotel room door. Rimes saw a well-dressed man through the peephole and opened the door, police said.

That's when the man used pepper spray on Rimes, beat him and took the money, police said. The women left, and guests who were affected by the spray called security, the report said.

Gee, I guess calling 2 hookers over wasn't a bright idea.

I wonder if he got his parents permission: Top court hears abortion case
At issue: requiring parental notification for underage girls

Underage girls in Florida have been able to get an abortion without their parents' permission for more than 26 years. A law requiring that parents give consent before their minor daughters have an abortion was found unconstitutional a decade ago. Bebe Anderson, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law, said the same rules apply to notification because it often has the same effect as parental permission.

"The right to make the deeply personal decision as to whether or not to bear a child is part of a fundamental right to privacy under the Florida Constitution for minors as well as adults," Anderson said.

But Assistant Attorney General John Rimes III argued for the state that parents have not only a right but an obligation to safeguard their children's health.

"Minors who are 13, 14 and 15 years old are having surgery with their parents not knowing, and the evidence in this case is crystal clear that while abortion is generally one of the more safe proceedings, it is surgery. There are impacts to the body of a young woman," Rimes said.

Rimes knows all about the bodies of women don't you know.

- rob 12:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Go Vote and Risk Your Life -- Don't Vote, You Get No Food and Starve. "Democracy"

Bush style.

"Two of the food dealers I know told me personally that our food rations would be withheld if we did not vote," said Saeed Jodhet, a 21-year-old engineering student who voted in the Hay al-Jihad district of Baghdad.

Many Iraqis had expressed fears before the election that their monthly food rations would be cut if they did not vote. They said they had to sign voter registration forms in order to pick up their food supplies.

Their experiences on the day of polling have underscored many of their concerns about questionable methods used by the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government to increase voter turnout.

Just days before the election, 52 year-old Amin Hajar who owns an auto garage in central Baghdad had said: ”I'll vote because I can't afford to have my food ration cut...if that happened, me and my family would starve to death.”

Hajar told IPS that when he picked up his monthly food ration recently, he was forced to sign a form stating that he had picked up his voter registration. He had feared that the government would use this information to track those who did not vote.

More than 30 Iraqis, a U.S. soldier, and at least 10 British troops died Sunday. Hundreds of Iraqis were also wounded in attacks across Baghdad, in Baquba 50km northeast of the capital as well as in the northern cities Mosul and Kirkuk.

Despite unprecedented security measures in which 300,000 U.S. and Iraqi security forces were brought in to curb the violence, nine suicide bombers and frequent mortar attacks took a heavy toll in the capital city, while strings of attacks were reported around the rest of the country.

As U.S. President George W. Bush saw it, "some Iraqis were killed while exercising their rights as citizens."

Citizens of what country? That's what I want to know. Whose fine line is it, anyway? The one in the sand? Whose sand is it anyway?

Here's what Bob Herbert says about it:

"Democracy," according to "The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World," "refers to a form of government in which, in contradistinction to monarchies and aristocracies, the people rule."

The desire of the U.S., as embodied by the Bush administration, is to exercise as much control as possible over the Middle East and its crucial oil reserves. There is very little concern here about the plight of ordinary Iraqis, which is why the horrendous casualties being suffered by Iraqi civilians, including women and children, get so little attention.

In large swaths of the country, death at the hands of insurgents seems always just moments away. It's also extremely easy for innocent Iraqis to get blown away by Americans. . . . Crime in many areas is completely out of control. Kidnapping for ransom, including the kidnapping of children, is ubiquitous. Carjackings are commonplace. Rape and murder are widespread.

Iraqis may have voted yesterday. But they live in occupied territory, and the occupiers have other things on their minds than the basic wishes of the Iraqi people. That's not democracy. That's a recipe for more war.

Mmmmm. I love a good recipe, especially when I'm cooking somebody else's goose.

- Michael 9:44 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Great Fun: Olbermann and "Focus on the Family"

Delusions of grandeur at "Focus on the Family"

Dobson, you will recall, joined the singularly inoffensive animated character “SpongeBob SquarePants” to his conspiracy theories of a “pro-homosexual” agenda, in order to get headlines. When he got those headlines, he promptly complained about getting them. Dobson, like many other exploiters of Amoral Values, ran immediately to the easiest way out of a stupid fix of his own creation: he blamed the big old ugly media.

His website asked readers to send emails of protest to me and four other reporters who had covered this foofery - it even provided them with an email-generator with which to do so. But because I responded to nearly all of those missives with something other than “I’m sorry, please don’t send me to hell,” Dobson has determined I need more exposure.
...
“…When it comes to lobbying liberal journalists like Olbermann, the sad reality is that getting them to acknowledge - let alone to respond respectfully - to our point of view is the longest of long shots. Theirs is a 24/7 secular world - in most newsrooms, especially those in big cities, about the only time you hear the word ‘God’ is as the first part of somebody’s second-favorite swearword.”

Wow. Talk about creating your own reality.

My newsroom is in Secaucus, New Jersey - population 15,931.

“Focus On Family” headquarters is in Colorado Springs, Colorado - population 360,890.

And not to let the facts get in the way of FOF’s prejudice, but I happen to be a religious man. I believe in God, I pray daily, and if I’ve ever gotten any direct instructions from my maker, they were that I’ll be judged by whether I tried to help other people, or hurt them. Also, that true belief should not be worn like a policeman’s club, nor used like one.
...
And, before we went on the air that night, we contacted Dobson’s office for a statement that might disconnect SpongeBob from the contretemps, and outlined how we intended to cover the story. We got no “that’s not right,” no “you’re demeaning Dr. Dobson,” and especially no “you’re taking Dr. Dobson’s words out of context.”

All that came after Dr. Dobson realized how much damage he’d done to his cause.

I suspect, long-term, that this is how Dr. Dobson’s followers are going to react in the next few months and years as the world around them gets increasingly tolerant and less reactionary. Several of his spammers warned of the coming Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriages (which the President many of them also claimed they personally elected used so efficiently in the campaign, but has already dropped with that “whaddya gonna do” shoulder shrug of his).

More importantly, at some point, some of these people are going to wake up to find that the great secular assault they see on their children was, in fact, a bogeyman created to hide their own bad parenting. If they can’t convince their own kids of the appropriateness of their religion and values, then the religion, the values, or the convincing, must not have been very good. Ask my folks if I was an easy sell - yet most of my tenets turn out to have been their tenets - not my teachers’, not television’s, not the secular world’s.
...
Schneeberger finishes his piece with the hope that I’ll experience the same kind of epiphany he claims to have in 1997. “Let’s pray, if he ever does, that he comes up with the right answer - and not because it may lead to fairer reporting. But because it may lead to a redeemed life.”

Hey, guys, worry about yourselves. You’re spewing hate, while assuming that for some reason, God has chosen you and you alone in all of history to understand the mysteries of existence, when mankind’s existence is filled with ample evidence that nobody yet has been smart enough to discern an answer.

You might try keeping it simpler: did you help others, or hurt them?

I’ll be happy to be judged on the answer to that question, and if it’s a group session, I don’t expect I’ll find many members of “Focus On Family” in the “done ok” line.

And it continues with: More fun with Dobson's spammers

PINEAPPLE UNDER THE SEA— H.L. Mencken’s biographers always note that the great cynic used to enjoy jousting with the religious extremists of his day. But he usually had to type up a letter and waste a stamp on them.

While making no undue comparisons, I should note the ease with which I can do the same: a quick hit of the reply button, and they seem largely confounded that anybody has disagreed with them, or that their leader, Dr. James Dobson, might have made a fool of himself.
...
correspondent, unhappy that I did not simply agree with her fire-and-brimstone forecast for me, wrote “I showed respect even though I disagreed with you and yet you have the audacity to call me intelligent.”

Well, you have me there, Ma’am. My mistake.
...
Still, if there was one disturbing element, it was the number of emails— maybe 20 percent—which invoked Dan Rather and “what we did to him.” There is evidently a mass misunderstanding of the history of Rather’s retirement from the CBS Evening News. He was not hit by vengeful lightning, although don’t go telling that to the religious right. That his retirement was being planned last summer is an irrelevancy to them.

Even in this, though, one emailer provided mirth. “We got Tom Brokaw at ABC,” he warned, “and we can get you.”

I’ll have to drop Tom a note.

And there is more. Much fun.

- rob 3:40 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ooops... I must have left it in my other pants

Audit: $9 Billion Unaccounted for in Iraq

Hmmm... is this considered looting or plundering? Or war profiteering?

- rob 2:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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off topic (well, actually on topic with this whole "this century sucks" bit)

Bird flu kills 12th victim in month

A dozen people have died of bird flu in Vietnam since Dec. 30, raising concerns that the disease could be re-emerging after an outbreak last year spread to 10 Asian countries, forcing the slaughter of more than 100 million birds.

The disease, which jumped to humans in Vietnam and Thailand, has killed 44 people in the past 12 months but has subsided elsewhere in the region.

- rob 2:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Average Iraqi citizens.... Heroes dying for democracy
Average American High School Student... Yawn

Attacks in Baghdad and Elsewhere Reportedly Kill Several Dozen

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 30 - After a slow start, voters turned out in very large numbers in Baghdad today, packing polling places and creating a party atmosphere in the streets as Iraqis here and nationwide turned out to cast ballots in the country's first free elections in 50 years.
...
In Baghdad, Basra in the South, the holy Shiite city of Najaf and even the restive Northern city of Mosul, Iraqi civilians crowded the polling sites, navigating their way through tight security and sometimes proudly displaying the deep blue ink stain on their fingers that confirmed they had voted.

This isn't the time the neo-cons should crow. Bush should keep his claims of victory to himself. To do so would damage a victory acheived by everyday Iraqis; Iraqi citizens proved their strength and showed up to vote. They voted for hope. Lets hope Bush actually lets their votes count (he hasn't been so hot with that here in America).

A lot of violence is still to come, but you have to hope, for the sake of the Iraqi people, this is the turning point.

Be that as it may, hundreds of thousands of people are dead - Families were destroyed, and over a thousand Americans were killed as well. This war was not sold to the American people or to its representatives (those folks asleep in the Capital) as a fight for freedom. If it was, it would not have happened. Yes freedom is a right of any human, but America does not have the right to kill thousands while forcing it on other countries. More lives and more freedoms can be gained and saved by much less violent ways. Violence begets violence and the ripples from this will be harming America for decades to come.

I have a New York Post sitting near me. It is from February 6, 2003 (wow... its only been two years?). The headline in bold NY Post style:
PROOF
How Saddam hides terror weapons
Powell makes case for war

The "full story" takes up 6 pages and features headlines such as:

• Powell unveils evidence Iraq plays doomsday hide-and-seek
• High-tech gear captures cheats in mass obstruction
• Even Dems say it was 'compelling'
• SADDAM'S SHELL GAME EXPOSED (That article's title takes up 2 pages)
• U.N. den of harlots no place for hero Powell (come on that is an awesome article title... no matter how idiotic)
• JOINT FORCES OF EVIL / Qaeda, Saddam tie bared

Did I somehow miss the article about freedom???

Meanwhile, back to the land of the free, let's again check in with the youth of America, where you don't have to risk death to vote: First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say

The original amendment to the Constitution is the cornerstone of the way of life in the United States, promising citizens the freedoms of religion, speech, press and assembly.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.
...
When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn't know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It's not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can't.

Gotta love the internet.

- rob 1:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Go online - fund the Spanish American War

Congress proposes tax on all Net, data connections

An influential congressional committee has dropped a political bombshell by suggesting that a tax originally created to pay for the Spanish American War could be extended to all Internet and data connections this year.

The committee, deeply involved in writing U.S. tax laws, unexpectedly said in a report Thursday that the 3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover "all data communications services to end users," including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links.

- rob 1:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

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36% of American High Schools Students hate Freedom

U.S. students say press freedoms go too far

One in three U.S. high school students say the press ought to be more restricted, and even more say the government should approve newspaper stories before readers see them, according to a survey being released today.

The survey of 112,003 students finds that 36% believe newspapers should get "government approval" of stories before publishing; 51% say they should be able to publish freely; 13% have no opinion.

"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?" - G.W. Bush

No George, they are not learning, and your confused vision of "democracy" and "freedom" benefits.

- rob 12:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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