25 October 2003


Deception dollars....

These were being distributed at today's peace demonstation.

Very effective and packed with information. Check them out here, too. (It loads faster.)

President Bush's downfall...?

We can only hope.
...Since 1979, when manufacturing employment peaked at 19.6 million, 1 in 4 [American] factory jobs have disappeared. It took more than two decades to lose the first 2.5 million. The second 2.5 million have gone away since Bush took office in January 2001.

[...]

But even the optimists tend to agree this recovery is different. So far, it is occurring without a net gain in factory employment, and economists say it is likely that many of the lost jobs will not be restored. That's because most of the losses are attributable to permanent, structural shifts instead of the cyclical layoffs typical of past recessions.

"They're not all going to come back," acknowledged National Assn. of Manufacturers President Jerry Jasinowski. Displaced factory workers "will have to move on," he said, into growing sectors of the economy, such as home building and health care.

Pete Merriman moved on earlier than most. After being laid off several times as an industrial electrician, he staked his claim in the service economy shortly after Bush assumed office in 2001. For the last three years, he's been delivering pizza for a living.

"It's hurt [Bush] in my view, that's for sure," said Merriman, who said he is making decent money toting thick-crust pizzas around Green Bay but would rather be wiring paper-making machinery again. The rate of decline during Bush's tenure dwarfs the experience of his father, George H. W. Bush, who was turned out of office in 1992 after presiding over the first "jobless recovery." Over the four years of the elder Bush's presidency, America lost factory jobs at a rate of about 26,000 a month. Since his son settled in the White House, the monthly job loss has averaged nearly 80,000.
The reporter uncritically gives far too much ink to those who believe the massive hemorrhaging of American manufacturing jobs is a natural result of “the inevitable march of history.”

If that were true, why have European countries not suffered--and worse, too, as they consist of smaller, older, and more dependent economies?

What is happening in America is neither inevitable nor accidental. It is the result of deliberate taxation, trade and government policies which, for the past 30 years or longer, have been made in such a way as to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of those who are already wealthy and powerful. While the Republican party has taken both the ideological and legislative lead in this process, the Democrats have been not very far behind.

Complete story here.

San Diego peace rally....

My guess, there were about 500-600 people at the peace rally and march in downtown San Diego today.

What's even more significant, the reaction from onlookers in buildings, on foot and in automobiles was overwhelmingly supportive. Thumbs-up, cheering, peace-signs and honking outnumbered thumbs-down or middle-fingers (isn't the Right articulate?) probably 4 or 5 to one. And this in San Diego!

Just where are all those ardent Bush supporters anyway?

As for any sort of organized counter-protest, nothing. Maybe I overestimated Protest Warrior...

"Core values of this country...?"

This group, "Protest Warrior," has set itself up as defenders of America’s core values and is "crashing" anti-war demonstrations across the country. My sweetie, in D.C. for today’s protest, said a large contingent of more than 100 people shoved its way into today’s rally, carrying assembly-line produced protest signs.

Typical of the Right (think Limbaugh, O’Reilly, etc.), what they lack in logic and truth, these guys more than make up for in aggression, belligerence and arrogance. Take this quote, for example:
We must admit we get a certain high from puncturing the moral self-righteousness of leftists. These people claim to have a monopoly on what is good, their entire self-esteem depends on it. So we like to take their premises to their logical conclusions, and show them that the policies they endorse actually lead to what they're purportedly against. For example, take our sign "Saddam only kills his own people. It's none of our business." A sign like that strikes at their ill-conceived mental constructs, because it's pointing out that their anti-war view on Iraq is very selfish and isolationist. And when this is pointed out to them, it forces them to acknowledge that they are really not for what's good, but that their ideology is based on something far less noble - that in fact they have a hatred of what's good. Witness that the two countries on this planet that stand most for 'liberal' values, the United States and Israel, are the two countries leftists despise the most.
Yeah, and black is white and down is up.

Another tactic of the Right: repeating distortions so often that people come to believe them.

When you explore their site, you see too how the Right portrays itself as the beleaguered victim in American politics. They are beset by the “liberal media,” the ideological McCarthyism at our universities.” And now, the greatest threat to America? “Islamo-fascism.”

Talk about projection.

You’ll be glad to know, though, that according to them, “…due to a successful campaign in Afghanistan, the Taliban is no more, and Al-Qaeda was largely disrupted.” Now that's a relief.

What a bunch of delusional fanatics.

Unfortunately, their ilk now holds the reins of our government.

While they criticize "the Republican party" and "its tradition of weak and uninspiring ads," (which Republican party are they talking about?) it's clear that this group is bigger than just the two, young, affable-looking white guys, pictured on the website. It takes money and organization to mobilize 100 or more anti-protesters to a Washington rally. They may portray themselves as "grassroots" but they're getting watered by someone.

And speaking again of the photo of the two founders. What's with the peace-sign Alan Davidson is flashing?

No, you do not get to co-opt that! It's not just some hip gesture: protestors have had their heads bashed in--they have been shot-- for what it represents. And, believe me, what it represents is not the fascistic pabulum that passes for discourse on your site.

I wonder if they'll show up at today's rally in San Diego...?

24 October 2003


Do the ends justify the means...?


I'm sad to report that progressives are resorting to "astroturfing."

If you go here, you can click through the menus and generate a "letter to the editor" of your local paper--in this case, against Patriot Acts I and II.

While I agree with the end, I strongly disagree with the means. Leftists have been rightly criticizing the RNC for using this tactic for some time now.

I must say, True Majority and Ben Cohen, of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream fame, I'm disappointed in you.

23 October 2003


Correction....

The link to the House of Representatives vote tally of infamy (below: removed now) was incorrect. I got it from MoveOn.org, who now says that link was for a procedural vote on the $87 billion -- not the final Yes or No.

My post was correct on this matter: Susan Davis did vote for the bill.

I hope other voters besides me are calling her office to express their displeasure.

Here's the final tally for the yes or no.

Rummy memo a plant...?

I must say, I've been suspicious of the Rumsfeld memo from the start. This guy makes sense:
That memo wasn't leaked, it was obviously planted. Why? Well here are a few reasons I believe:

- The administration obviously knows they are losing the war on terrorism and so now they are setting up their excuses. How else are they going to try to explain why there are still so many terrorists?

- They are trying to prepare the American mentality to expect long drawn out occupations in both Iraq and Afghanistan as necessary evils.

- It makes Rumsfeld look like he is doing his job, but that the Department of Defense is a large difficult bureaucracy to manage (shift the blame).

- It plants the seed for the possible development of a new branch of defense designed by the White House.

- It paves the way for them to take more "necessary" aggressive measures.
Complete post here.

Infamy in the House....

To my ire, Congresswoman Susan Davis, my rep, voted to give Bush his $87 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan. I just called her office and expressed my displeasure.

Want to check your own representative's vote? Go here. [Link removed: see above.]

Make sure you let them know if you're pleased or angry.

This made my day...!

Bush heckled inside and outside Australia's Parliament.
...Thousands of demonstrators banged drums and shouted outside the Parliament building while a separate group of protesters jostled with security officials outside the U.S. embassy compound where Bush stayed overnight.

During Bush's speech, two Green Party senators jumped to their feet and shouted war protests at Bush. They were ordered removed from the chamber but sat and refused to leave. One of them, Sen. Bob Brown, shouted "we are not a sheriff," a reference to Bush's recent description of Howard.

"I love free speech," Bush said to laughter. [You lie, you smug bastard.]
If only more lawmakers, at home and abroad, had the guts.

Complete story here.

22 October 2003


Roll call of infamy ii....

If you want to see how your senators voted on the abortion ban.

Here.

Roll call of infamy...

On the $87 billion funding to continue the debacle in Iraq.

Senator Diane Feinstein, of California, voted "yea." So did Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer, of New York.

For shame!

Only 12 senators stood up to President Bush: Boxer (D, CA), Byrd (D, WV), Edwards (D, NC), Graham (D, FL), Harkin (D, IA), Hollings (D, SC), Jeffords (I, VT), Kennedy (D, MA), Kerry (D, MA), Lautenberg (D, NJ), Leahy (D, VT) and Sarbanes (D, MD).

Tally here.

U.S. troops spread too thin....

We're so overextended, we have to hire rent-a-cops to guard our military bases!

Of course, this means big bucks for the companies getting the contracts, both here and abroad.

...In Iraq, almost a third of the $4 billion monthly costs are going to private contractors. One foreign policy expert estimates the current Bush Administration has five times as many civilian contractors in Iraq as his father's administration did during the first Gulf War in 1991. [Emphasis mine.]

The privatization practice, first explored when Cheney was Secretary of Defense for the senior Bush, led to an $8.9 million logistics contract for Brown and Root, a company Cheney later oversaw as head of Halliburton after he left government. Of approximately 3,000 civilian contracts awarded by the Pentagon since 1994, about 2,700 have gone to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root and one other firm.
Complete story here.

Abortion ban passes....

Sometimes I see this as a continuation of the centuries-long battle between secularism and superstition. You know, the same battle that claimed Galileo as a victim and kept us believing the sun rotated around the earth for a few hundred years longer?
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 — The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first federal ban on a specific abortion procedure, ending eight years of divisive debate and clearing the way for President Bush to sign the measure into law.

Both sides declared the 64-to-34 vote a historic turning point in a controversy that has split Americans for decades, ever since the Supreme Court established a constitutional right to abortion in the case of Roe v. Wade 30 years ago.
Of course President Bush is salivating to sign the bill, calling it, "very important legislation that will end an abhorrent practice and continue to build a culture of life in America."

Gag.

Our hopes lie in the Supreme Court now.

Yep, the same court that appointed Bush some two years ago.

Complete story here.

Stovepiping...

Interesting interview with Seymour M. Hersh on the New Yorker website, referring to his recent article, "The Stovepipe," which details the practice of "taking a piece of intelligence or a request that should be pushed through the chain of command—checked at levels and sent from one level to another—and bringing it straight to the highest authority." He makes a strong case that President Bush might actually believe his own misinformation about Iraq--a frightening prospect.
...Remember that the Administration, no matter how they twist the words or spin the words, told us we’d find weapons in Iraq. They believed it. That was the intelligence they got. And, to me, the fact that they weren’t lying and really believed it is as alarming as if they had been lying. It’s very, very troubling.
He also quotes classified sources inside the U.S. government that say, as of two weeks ago, the number of incidents against American forces in Iraq were up to 23 a day!

Not that we hear about them here in the United States.

Complete story here.