Well Blogger is back up - but I don't have time to post.

At least now some of the typos will get fixed. (just kidding)

- rob 9:17 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Hope you haven't had your lunch yet - otherwise it'll be hard to keep down.



Governor in Chief

Governor in Chief
Jeb Bush's remarkable eight years of achievement in Florida.
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IF ONLY HIS LAST NAME WERE SMITH. He'd not only attract national attention as the popular and successful governor of a difficult-to-govern state. He'd be viewed sympathetically as a leader who had dealt with family issues--his wife's aversion to politics, his daughter's bouts with drug addiction--without losing his grip on the governorship. And he'd be the prohibitive frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

But his last name is Bush. So Jeb Bush, nearing the end of his eight years as governor of Florida, has to settle for being the best governor in America. Not proclaimed the best governor by the media and the political community. But recognized as the best by a smaller group: governors who served with him and experts and think-tank and conservative policy wonks who regard state government as something other than a machine for taxing and spending.

Why is Jeb Bush the best? It's very simple. His record is the best. No other governor, Republican or Democrat, comes close.

Him... so he's been governor for nearly eight years and "his record is his best"?

Well in my day a Governor's record was based somewhat on results.

But here are some stats on Florida:

• While Florida ranks 4th in the U.S. for number of high tech workers, it ranks 32nd for average high-tech wage. [detail]
• In the 2005 ranking of most dangerous states Florida was ranked at number 6. Worse then 2004's ranking of 7. [link]
• Florida ranks 36th as the "smartest" state. [rank]

Heck of a job Jeb.

So maybe they like Jeb because of how he was able to drag a personal family tragedy into the national spotlight (Schiavo)? Or is it the great elections he runs? Or is it the innovative air tower designs in his state? (see an earlier post this week).

- rob 12:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I think it should be noted that when the press and pundits refer the Geneva Convention you will generally here it poo-pooed because it is "international law." And therefor obeying it would be beneath the soverienty of the United States or some other ridiculous idea.

But America ratified the Geneva Convention, which be definition means that it is American Law. The Geneva Convention is a law of the United States.

Keep that in mind you read this (and it is understandable if you cry - it is sad to see America sullied and disgraced in this way).

Army Manual to Skip Geneva Detainee Rule

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

The decision could culminate a lengthy debate within the Defense Department but will not become final until the Pentagon makes new guidelines public, a step that has been delayed. However, the State Department fiercely opposes the military's decision to exclude Geneva Convention protections and has been pushing for the Pentagon and White House to reconsider, the Defense Department officials acknowledged.

- rob 11:40 AM - [PermaLink] -

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At American RadioWorks there is a great series called Power Trips. It takes a look at Congressional Staffers and how the corruption of how our government works is pervasive.

Power Trips: Congressional Staffers Share the Road

Lawmakers get the airtime, but much of the real work on Capitol Hill gets done late at night, far from C-Span's cameras. It's done by high-ranking congressional staff. They are more than gatekeepers. They shape policy, write their bosses' letters, speeches, even write bills. Lobbyists in Washington court staff passionately.

"Your job, particularly a chief of staff to a member, the senior member of Congress, is like being a senior member your self," says Bill Paxon, a lobbyist and a former member of Congress. He says privately sponsored trips are essential. "Staff have a responsibility I believe ... to travel to attend conferences, ... to network with organizations that can then help build the pressure to pass legislative initiatives."

But Ken Boehm, chairman of the conservative National Legal Policy Center, says these trips are unseemly.

"Let's be candid," saus Boehm, "these folks are not paying for trips for staffers and members of Congress because they have extra money and they can't think of anything to do with it."
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We found special interests spending tens of millions of dollars buying face-time with congressional aides, with almost no oversight.

Ken Boehm says bankrolled trips provide a lifestyle many staffers can't afford.

"They will be treated like royalty. They will be wined and dined, and it is meant to influence the official behavior of ... Congress. That is exactly what the rules sought to prevent," says Boehm.

- rob 11:26 AM - [PermaLink] -

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AMERICAblog: The Wall is Bush's Maginot Line

The GOP is proving once again that they can't learn anything from history as they fortify the southern border of the US to stop the "invasion" from the south.

Putting aside the debate of immigration, one of the slight flaws in this expensive and resource draining plan is that walking over the border addresses some of the people, but hardly all of them. Yep, there's nothing to learn from other peoples mistakes.

The little-acknowledged reality is that nearly half the estimated 12 million undocumented foreigners in the United States entered on bona fide U.S. visas -- and simply never left. Authorities call them "overstays" who have been largely overlooked in the vitriolic debate on immigration.

As I've been remiss in posting this week, I though this was a good opportunity (The Bush - Maginot Line comparison) to reprint a TCS post from April, 2003. This way it looks like we're actually working on TCS this week.

France and Defense Contractors

With all the jokes about France always surrendering, it would be good to remember the cause of their swift defeat: The Maginot Line. Basically it was the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars, now called Ballistic Missile Defense System) of the thirties, a huge and expensive military undertaking. It was, of course, the largest military failure of all time, as the Nazi’s just went around it. And that is the problem with the Strategic Defense Initiative; we are spending BILLIONS on an untested technology that is already out of date. France wasn’t prepared for a mobile modern army, and we are pretending our enemies will play by the rules. Our own strength makes that somewhat inevitable; we are so strong that anyone fighting us by the rules will lose, so the enemy breaks the rules. In this case the enemy (terrorists) loves breaking the rules anyway, and we’ll still win anyway, but this is still an issue. Germany “broke the rules” by going into France via Belgium (which was neutral) because it could not go through the Maginot Line, it was too strong. America isn’t going to be attacked head on, ever. We only have to fear terrorism.

But given the state of things the Bush Administration is still investing heavily on “missile defense” and leaving other things wanting. Sneaking in “Weapons of Mass Destruction” on a freight ship seems like an obvious danger, so one would assume that the security budget at our ports has increased. Nope it’s the same as it was pre-9/11.
How much did the port authorities said did they require additionally to make the ports secure?
2 billion.
How much is the missile defense budget?
62 billion
How much is a good friendship with a defense contractor?
Priceless… I guess.

Money in the budget is limited, so instead of cutting back on veteran benefits (but I thought the GOP supported our troops?), perhaps we should cut back on useless defense projects.

I wonder how much the French defense contractors of the thirties pushed for the Maginot Line?

So that post is over 3 years old and we are still talking about "securing our ports."

- rob 10:48 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Chamberlain Specter leaves negotiations and pronounces proudly "Peace in Our Time!" "Rule of law in Out Time!"

Senators won't grill phone companies

WASHINGTON Â? A last-minute deal Tuesday with Vice President Cheney averted a possible confrontation between the Senate Judiciary Committee and U.S. telephone companies about the National Security Agency's database of customer calling records.
The deal was announced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the committee chairman, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. They said Cheney, who plays a key role supervising NSA counterterrorism efforts, promised that the Bush administration would consider legislation proposed by Specter that would place a domestic surveillance program under scrutiny of a special federal court.

In return, Specter agreed to postpone indefinitely asking executives from the nation's telecommunication companies to testify about another program in which the NSA collects records of domestic calls. [emphasis mine]

Is there anything more pathetic then this GOP Senate? (yes this GOP House - sorry trick question) They do not want to do the their job and they beg for scraps from the VP for a chance to do just a smidge of what the people of America put them there for.

Has it come to the point where we really have to ask?

Is Congress pathetic, sad, ineffectual, and filled with bickering losers under the GOP on purpose so there is an excuse for the Executive Branch to step in and take over?

or Is Congress pathetic, sad, ineffectual, and filled with bickeringloserss under the GOP because the legislators really are pathetic, sad, ineffectual, petty losers?

- rob 12:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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How many yachts can you ski behind?

This Column in TheWashington Post (thanks to D for pointing it out) gets it right.

Reward for the Hereditary Elite . . .

It doesn't matter if you are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican. There is no possible excuse for doing what Congress is poised to do this week: Abolish the estate tax.

The federal government faces a future of expanding deficits. Thanks to the baby bust and medical inflation, spending is projected to rise by nearly 3 percent of gross domestic product by 2030, a growth equivalent to the doubling of today's Medicare program. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Take a source of revenue and abolish it outright.
...
The United States is by some measures the most unequal society in the rich world and the most unequal that it's been since the 1920s. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Identify the most progressive federal tax and repeal it.

The nation faces the prospect that inequality will damage meritocracy. When the distance between top and bottom widens, it becomes harder to traverse the gap; people of low birth are stuck at the bottom, and human talent is wasted. What is the dumbest possible response to this? Take the tax that limits what the super-rich pass on to their children and get rid of it. Send a message to hereditary elites: Go ahead, entrench yourselves!

Conservatives and others in the past have been right that one of the problems with many welfare programs is that they punish those that do get some work by taking away the benefits as soon as income comes in. The programs trapped people in welfare.

And again Conservatives and others were right to note that the human cost of this was dramatic as people have a need to earn their own living. It is bad for your sense of self worth and emotions to know that you are not making it on your own. Some cannot earn a living and they are saddled with those emotions (so increasing the stigma of being "on the dole" doesn't help these people.)

But the GOP has no such concern for the poor rich children. The GOP is fine with diminishing their sense of self worth and have generations grow up without knowing that they can earn a living. That they have what it takes to make it on their own. The GOP is fine with the moral rot that comes with knowing you haven't done a damn thing and yet you live like a king while others work 2 jobs and still live as wretches.

Why given undeserved wealth and prestige has given us such grounded and emotionally vibrant people. Like Paris Hilton, Prince Charles, and George W. Bush.

- rob 1:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When told that the American Bar Association is investigating him, George Bush begins to regret all the times he skipped out on paying for his drinks.

Bar group will review Bush's legal challenges

WASHINGTON -- The board of governors of the American Bar Association voted unanimously yesterday to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his constitutional authority in reserving the right to ignore more than 750 laws that have been enacted since he took office.

Meeting in New Orleans, the board of governors for the world's largest association of legal professionals approved the creation of an all-star legal panel with a number of members from both political parties.

They include a former federal appeals court chief judge, a former FBI director, and several prominent scholars -- to evaluate Bush's assertions that he has the power to ignore laws that conflict with his interpretation of the Constitution.

- rob 8:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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GOP buttons on their shirts and faith on their sleeves

SAN ANTONIO – Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell offered a greeting to delegates to the Republican convention. "It's great to be back in the holy land," the Fort Worth native said to the cheers of the party faithful. For the 4,500 delegates at last week's biennial gathering, it was both an expression of conservative philosophy and religious faith, a melding of church and state.

At Saturday morning's prayer meeting, party leader Tina Benkiser assured them that God was watching over the two-day confab.

"He is the chairman of this party," she said against a backdrop of flags and a GOP seal with its red, white and blue logo.

The party platform, adopted Saturday, declares "America is a Christian nation" and affirms that "God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom."

"We pledge to exert our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and dispel the myth of the separation of church and state," it says.

Wow. The Texas GOP seems to really not understand what our nation's founders were about.

What do they about our government and Christianity: ...the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion...

Let's say it again (and again as this is from an earlier post):

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
One More Time: the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion! That isn't some liberal opinion. That is a quote, a direct quote, from a treaty ratified by the Senate and signed by President John Adams. That proclamation was the law of the land!

Okay, yes it was a liberal opinion in that the founding fathers were liberals, heck the whole proposition of a nation for the people, by the people, and of the people was pretty durn liberal.

The founding fathers didn't build a Christian nation... they explicitly denied having done so!

The idea, concept, and founding of the nation was to make a state whose rule was removed from religion and royalty.

For a copy of the treaty go to: The Barbary Treaties 1786-1816 - Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Signed at Tripoli November 4, 1796

And yes we do have that quote on a T-shirt at our sadly out of date little TCS store (yep, we're still selling election 2004 bumperstickers - you gotta problem with that. Actually I take that back, looking at the store I realize I did delete the really obvious 2004 campaign stuff - I must have done it in a haze of anger and depression in November of 2004).

- rob 7:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just to let The Washington Post, AP, and The New York Times know - they will always hate you.

For years those papers (and wire service) have been bending over backwards defending Bush or acting like his mouth piece.

They didn't do their job's of questioning what the President was doing. Or why he was doing it. They were do busy groveling for insider tips they all knew were lies, because they wanted to be liked. They wanted Rush to like them, they wanted Fox News to like them, and they really wanted Rove to like them.

Sure The New York Times reported on the wiretapping but only after sitting on it for a year at Bush's request (and thus passing over the election) and then only when the reporters' book on the issue was about to come out.

And yes The Washington Post actually had some good reports too, but that was just because some reporters forget they weren't working for the Post of the Seventies. The New Post is run by editors and publishers that want to make sure they get to go to all the nice GOP Christmas parties.


But you guys - it doesn't matter what you do for them. They'll still hate you.

As long as their is potential that you will report real news. As long as you are legally allowed to report real news. They will hate you.

So maybe you could go back to reporting.

Report about the full extent of Congressional corruption. Hey feel free to add that Democrat who keeps his ill gotten gains in the fridge. There is alot of corruption to report. And when the facts are out American's will realize how the GOP and modern politics have sullied our government. They will realize our politicans are pimps prostituting America's wealth, potential, and assets to the highest bidder.

Investigate the forged document from Italy that was the basis of the Yellow Cake story.

Give updates on the Anthrax mailer investigation.

You know - do your job.

Are you worried the neo-cons will hate you? Well they do and they always will.

Cavuto: Media biased if they cover Iraqi insurgency, biased if they don't

Summary: On Fox News' Your World, host Neil Cavuto complained that "the media is all over" the alleged Haditha killings but that there has been "virtually no coverage of the daily savage attacks by insurgents on Iraqi civilians and our troops." Onscreen text during the segment read: "Blatant Bias?" But Cavuto has previously alleged that "all you see in the media out of Iraq are the insurgent activity, our soldiers getting killed or hurt." In fact, he recently asked if "beheadings and roadside bombs, suicide attacks" in Iraq are "being blown out of proportion by the media." Onscreen text during this segment read: "Media Bias?"

- rob 6:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush believes government isn't the solution.

And he is going to prove it even if it kill's us.

Fire copters gone
11 Guard aircraft on way to Iraq, leaving some worry behind

Even as Colorado is facing a dangerous wildfire season, 11 of the 12 large Colorado National Guard helicopters that can be used for backup firefighting are on their way to Iraq.
Their departure comes on top of problems with the nation's fleet of heavy planes used to drop slurry on leaping flames. Only 16 of the country's 46 heavy air tankers are flying this year following a series of crashes and maintenance problems.

The Guard has sent its huge double-rotor Chinooks and medium- sized Black Hawks to Texas, where crews are training for a deployment that will keep them away from Colorado for this fire season and the next.

The departed helicopters could carry nearly 17,000 gallons altogether and fly rapidly to forest fires from their base in Aurora.

It is good to know that though the pentagon isn't giving our troops the armor they need, they are making sure that our soldiers are prepared for those big forest fires that Iraq gets.

- rob 6:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Q: What do you get when you combine G.W. Bush's FAA with Jeb Bush's Florida?

A: You get this:



Air controllers are on shaky ground in 'tower'

For the next three years, Opa-locka Airport's control tower will be a trailer perched atop cargo containers welded together. Controllers must climb a ladder to get inside. And the tower is only 33 feet off the ground, meaning controllers can't see the entire airfield.
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Some pilots wonder how controllers can guide planes safely given their diminished views. ''They can't see where you taxi out,'' said pilot Rene Martin.
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The Federal Aviation Administration moved into the temporary, specially designed control trailer in early May because the old 141-foot-tall tower is falling apart. Though controllers had complained about conditions in the old tower for years, wrangling over money between the county's Aviation Department and the FAA has stalled construction of a new $11 million facility.

I bet security at this airport's really tight too.

- rob 6:31 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Loving v. Virginia:

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby ending all race-based legal restriction on marriage in the United States.

George Bush, yesterday:

And in a free society, decisions about such a fundamental social institution as marriage should be made by the people -- not by the courts.

This Daily Kos diary then asks:

The President couldn't have made his position any clearer. Courts should not be overturning the will of the people when it comes who should and should not be allowed to marry. Now, which enterprising White House reporter will ask whether the President thinks that Loving v. Virginia should be overturned?

Of course we already know the answer is that none of them will.

- rob 10:45 AM - [PermaLink] -

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