Start a War, No Money Down!

By MATT MILLER

[Infomercial director: " 'The Republican Guide to Wartime Tax Cuts' ... Take One ... Action!"]

ANNOUNCER: In the old days, war profiteering was a grueling round-the-clock job. You actually had to make something, like planes or guns, and then overcharge the government obscenely. Now, thanks to the Republicans, countless Americans are becoming "war profiteers" in their spare time - and you can, too. Riches once thought to be the exclusive preserve of a few unsavory arms merchants have been made available to thousands of successful Americans, many of whom pull in the cash literally as they sleep!

What's their secret? With "The Republican Guide to Wartime Tax Cuts," you can find out what's in the playbook of Republican professionals. You'll get the war you want without laying out a dime, even as you benefit from huge tax cuts to boot (note: certain income thresholds apply).

Digby: Prescient Heckler

Back in the day, before talk radio became a stroke inducing wingnut nightmare (and before Air America) I used to listen to KABC in Los Angeles, which has always been an all talk station. In the mornings it had Michael Jackson (not that one) a very erudite, well informed personality who had the world's most impressive rolodex. He could get Nelson Mandela or Margaret Thatcher on the phone and callers, before everybody became a right wing asshole, were invariably polite and well informed. It was the kind of talk radio that people like me -- the snoozers who watch the History Channel and Lehrer --- love. No yelling, no controversy, just a bunch of smart people palavering endlessly. Needless to say, this is so far out of fashion it might as well be a Nehru jacket.

Juan Cole - May 14, 2005 Part 2

Afghan Newspaper: US Must Apologize for Koran Desecration
More Deaths in Demonstrations on Friday

An Afghan newspaper has said that the US must apologize for the desecration of the Koran alleged to have happened at Guantanamo prison. This is correct. President Bush should just come out and say that this allegation appeared in Newsweek; that the US military cannot yet confirm whether or not it happened; that if it did happen it is unacceptable and the US sincerely apologizes for the excesses of the interrogators, but we hope it never happened. And if Bush just did that (what would it cost him?), the whole thing would go away and the neo-Taliban would lose it as an issue. Bush is unwise to have let this thing feste for so long, and he can't let Condi be the one who speaks on it, because that is not where the buck stops and everyone in the Muslim world knows it.

Juan Cole - May 14, 2005 Part 1

Did the Elections Make things Worse?

Hannah Allam of Knight Ridder raises the question of whether the January 30 elections made the situation in Iraq worse. Allam writes,

"Two weeks of intense insurgent violence have made it crystal clear that Iraq's parliamentary elections, hailed in late January as a triumph for democracy, haven't helped to heal the country's deep divisions. They may have made them worse. The historic election sheared off a thin facade of wartime national unity and reinforced ethnic and sectarian tensions that have plagued Iraq for centuries. Iraqis immediately began playing the roles the election results delivered to them: victorious Shiite Muslim, assertive Kurd, disaffected Sunni Arab. Within those groups lies a mosaic of other splits, especially between secularists and Islamists vying for Iraq's soul."

I told you at the time that the elections were not a Mardi Gras for Americans and they would be sorry if they took them that way.

David Neiwert: Hal's hate schtick

Friday, May 13, 2005

Right-wingers, as I've often remarked, like to push the envelope of outrageousness constantly, just to keep the outrage flowing. Guys like Hal Turner are the distillation of this tendency, its ugly but ultimately logical outcome.

Pushing the envelope? In Turner's case, how about careering through it like a drunken Paris Hilton driving a Mack truck?

At his Web site, Turner is at it again, this time openly advocating not just the murder of illegal aliens, but the use of extreme violence against them or any of their "sympathizers":

Jim Henley On Bush

Despite all the talk among the pro-Administration media about “Bush hatred,” the truly interesting phenomenon is Bush love. Who could have imagined that this well-born gladhander could become the object of the strongest personality cult in my lifetime?

Brad DeLong: Statement on Social Security Reform

Statement on Social Security Reform

J. Bradford DeLong
U.C. Berkeley and NBER

Democratic Policy Committee
192 Dirksen
May 13, 2005, 10 AM

3385 words

Any discussion of Social Security reform needs to begin with one too-rarely-asked question: Why is the American political system focusing its attention on Social Security? Is this really the aspect of American fiscal policy that should be absorbing our attention right now?

The answer is that we shouldn't. We shouldn't be focusing on Social Security right now.

Torture's Dirty Secret: It Works

lookout by Naomi Klein

[from the May 30, 2005 issue]

I recently caught a glimpse of the effects of torture in action at an event honoring Maher Arar. The Syrian-born Canadian is the world's most famous victim of "rendition," the process by which US officials outsource torture to foreign countries. Arar was switching planes in New York when US interrogators detained him and "rendered" him to Syria, where he was held for ten months in a cell slightly larger than a grave and taken out periodically for beatings.

Arar was being honored for his courage by the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, a mainstream advocacy organization. The audience gave him a heartfelt standing ovation, but there was fear mixed in with the celebration. Many of the prominent community leaders kept their distance from Arar, responding to him only tentatively. Some speakers were unable even to mention the honored guest by name, as if he had something they could catch. And perhaps they were right: The tenuous "evidence"--later discredited--that landed Arar in a rat-infested cell was guilt by association. And if that could happen to Arar, a successful software engineer and family man, who is safe?

Katha Pollitt: Virginity or Death!

[from the May 30, 2005 issue]

Imagine a vaccine that would protect women from a serious gynecological cancer. Wouldn't that be great? Well, both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline recently announced that they have conducted successful trials of vaccines that protect against the human papilloma virus. HPV is not only an incredibly widespread sexually transmitted infection but is responsible for at least 70 percent of cases of cervical cancer, which is diagnosed in 10,000 American women a year and kills 4,000. Wonderful, you are probably thinking, all we need to do is vaccinate girls (and boys too for good measure) before they become sexually active, around puberty, and HPV--and, in thirty or forty years, seven in ten cases of cervical cancer--goes poof. Not so fast: We're living in God's country now. The Christian right doesn't like the sound of this vaccine at all. "Giving the HPV vaccine to young women could be potentially harmful," Bridget Maher of the Family Research Council told the British magazine New Scientist, "because they may see it as a license to engage in premarital sex." Raise your hand if you think that what is keeping girls virgins now is the threat of getting cervical cancer when they are 60 from a disease they've probably never heard of.

I remember when people rolled their eyeballs if you suggested that opposition to abortion was less about "life" than about sex, especially sex for women. You have to admit that thesis is looking pretty solid these days. No matter what the consequences of sex--pregnancy, disease, death--abstinence for singles is the only answer. Just as it's better for gays to get AIDS than use condoms, it's better for a woman to get cancer than have sex before marriage. It's honor killing on the installment plan.

Dr. Hager's Family Values

by AYELISH MCGARVEY

[from the May 30, 2005 issue]

Late last October Dr. W. David Hager, a prominent obstetrician-gynecologist and Bush Administration appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), took to the pulpit as the featured speaker at a morning service. He stood in the campus chapel at Asbury College, a small evangelical Christian school nestled among picturesque horse farms in the small town of Wilmore in Kentucky's bluegrass region. Hager is an Asburian nabob; his elderly father is a past president of the college, and Hager himself currently sits on his alma mater's board of trustees. Even the school's administrative building, Hager Hall, bears the family name.

That day, a mostly friendly audience of 1,500 students and faculty packed into the seats in front of him. With the autumn sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows, Hager opened his Bible to the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel and looked out into the audience. "I want to share with you some information about how...God has called me to stand in the gap," he declared. "Not only for others, but regarding ethical and moral issues in our country."

Billmon on Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, which became an independent state in 1991, has retained much of its Soviet legacy. It has no independent political parties, no free and fair elections, and no independent news media. Torture and police brutality are widespread. Most vulnerable are political dissidents and religious Muslims who worship outside state controls.

Human Rights Watch
U.S. Cautioned on New Ally
October 4, 2001

It was my pleasure to bring to President [Karimov] the greetings of President Bush and also to extend to him our thanks for all the support we have received from Uzbekistan in pursuing this campaign against terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere throughout the world as well. They have been an important member of this coalition against terrorism, and I’m sure they will continue to be so in the future.

Colin Powell
Joint Press Conference with Karimov
December 8, 2001

Solving the Media Puzzle

By Robert Parry

May 14, 2005

American progressives finally are taking seriously the threat posed by the U.S. news media’s swing to the right, which – perhaps more than any other factor – has transformed the U.S. democratic process into a mess of disinformation, fear and irrationality.

Many of the depredations of the last four-plus years – from the war in Iraq and the collapse of America’s image abroad to assaults on the teaching of evolution and inaction on the looming global-warming crisis – can only be understood by factoring in the Right’s powerful propaganda apparatus and the mainstream media’s complicity.

Digby: Who Loves Ya baby?

Roy Edroso says:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm not being too harsh, and sometimes maybe I am, but I can safely say that I will never regret saying that Michelle Malkin is utterly delusional

Word.

Although I agree that these are fine words to live by, and I do, in this case he is specifically referring to her latest illustration of right wing paranoid victimology:

When was the last time you thanked a cop? And wouldn't it be nice if, for just a brief moment, the mainstream media would hold a ceasefire in its incessant cop-bashing crusades?

There are good cops, and there are bad cops. But national press outlets, predisposed to harp on law enforcement as an inherently racist and reckless institution, hype the hellions at the expense of the heroes.

Yes, and the MSM hates puppies and kitties and baby rhesus monkeys too. Goddamn evil bastards.

Digby: Revival Hype

Both Matt Yglesias and Kevin Drum believe, based upon findings in the recent Pew poll, that we would be better off if we liberals lightened up and accepted the 10 Commandments on public buildings and certain other somewhat trivial religious issues. I'm not sure how we do this, considering that this has been the interpretation of the courts rather than a legislative battle, but I'm sure that if we just give in on Pricilla Owen et al, we'll see some change on this and other issues of importance to the Religious Right. I'm also sure we can then cherry pick those issues that are really important to us, but I'm not certain at all if the principle on which we make our argument will still be operative once we've tossed it aside for these trivial reasons.

Digby: Doomsday Machine

Everybody go sign up for PFAW's "Nuclear Option" Mass Immediate Response:

By giving us your cell phone number, we will text message you as soon as Senate Republicans trigger the "nuclear option." Embedded in that text message will be a link to the Senate switchboard. With the push of a couple buttons, your call – along with thousands of others – goes right through to the corridors of power demanding preservation of the filibuster.

Report paints grim picture of Iraqi life

Thursday, May 12, 2005 Posted: 2056 GMT (0456 HKT)

(CNN) -- In the wake of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the country still struggles with high unemployment, inconsistent utility services and widespread poverty, a joint survey from the Iraqi government and United Nations indicates.

Released Thursday, the report from Iraq's Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation and the U.N. Development Program in Iraq surveyed nearly 22,000 households in the country's 18 provinces during 2004.

Seymour Hersh: Iraq "Moving Towards Open Civil War"

We spend the hour with Pulitzer prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Hersh won the Pulitzer prize for exposing the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Last year, he broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. He is author of the book "Chain of Command: From 9/11 to Abu Ghraib." We hear an address he delivered at an event sponsored by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign entitled "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation?" And he joins us in the studio to talk about the resistance in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi, the state of the media and much more. [includes rush transcript]

White House Moves Disability Benefits to The Chopping Block

BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT

News from the DNC:

Washington, DC - A day after the chief White House economist admitted that the Bush plan to privatize Social Security would include cuts to survivor benefits, the Bush administration also acknowledged that it would not protect disability benefits despite earlier assurances that these earned benefits would remain untouched. This is the latest trial balloon in the Bush administration’s real plan to dismantle Social Security. The announcement may help explain why a new Harris poll found that only 36 percent of Americans think President Bush’s “comments on saving and strengthening Social Security are his real motives for changing the program, while 49% believe his real agenda is to dismantle it.” [Wall Street Journal, 5/13/05]

Paul Krugman: Always Low Wages. Always.

Last week Standard and Poor's, a bond rating agency, downgraded both Ford and General Motors bonds to junk status. That is, it sees a significant risk that the companies won't be able to pay their debts.

Don't cry for the bondholders, but do cry for the workers.

Standard and Poor's downgraded GM and Ford sooner rather than later because it believes that the public is losing interest in S.U.V.'s. But the companies were vulnerable because they still pay decent wages and offer good benefits, in an age when taking care of employees has gone out of style. In particular, they are weighed down by health care costs for current and retired workers, which run to about $1,500 per vehicle at G.M.

So the downgrade was a reminder of how far we have come from the days when hard-working Americans could count on a reasonable degree of economic security.

The Fruits Of One's Labor

The Fruits Of One's Labor
Max B. Sawicky
May 13, 2005

Max B. Sawicky is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute. He would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of Lee Price, EPI Research Director.

The economy has not been much of a story lately. Cassandra-like voices warn of ominous, unsustainable trends in budget and trade deficits, but the public doesn't get very excited because no painful consequences have reared their ugly heads. Yet. More prominent is the jobs situation, which to the man on the street may seem to have righted itself. The latest report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows an addition of 274,000 jobs in April, a good number. Regardless of whether or not you think the president's tax cuts worked, the economy is growing. So how good is it for you?

As usual, it depends on where you sit. The standard of living for most working-age people depends on their rate of return on hours worked. Economists say workers' compensation (wages plus fringe benefits, chiefly health insurance) depends on productivity, usually measured as total output per hour worked. The more workers produce, the more bosses will pay. But economists can be wrong, and this is one of those times. With rising productivity bosses can pay more, but will they pay more? Do they pay more?

The GOP's Attack On Voting Rights

Rep. John Conyers Jr.
May 13, 2005


The GOP's Attack On Voting Rights
Rep. John Conyers Jr.
May 13, 2005

John Conyers, Jr. is a United States Congressman representing Michigan's 14th district.

190: The number of days since Election 2004 and the second consecutive presidential election in which the integrity of this nation’s democracy was questioned. This past November, this country witnessed a flawed election process in which there were biased election officials, overt voter suppression tactics and improper ballot counts and recounts. We know too well the stories about the illegal demands for voter identification, the voting machine shortages, the voting machine malfunctions and the improperly disqualified provisional ballots. More than six months after the election, now is the time to ensure that our second very sad election in a row does not become a third. There is agreement in America that real election reform is necessary and a consensus and focus is needed to guarantee such election reform.

12: A conservative count of the number of election reform proposals currently pending in Congress. While we must continue to assess and debate the accounts of Election 2004 improprieties and irregularities for the sake of history and truth, we must move forward. We need to come to agreement on what election reform should encompass and pursue that agenda with a single-minded focus. The Republicans have made clear the parameters of an election reform bill they will advance this Congress—one that does nothing or even takes us backwards by imposing onerous new requirements on voters. As we go back and forth on paper ballot or no paper ballot and assign ourselves to the pro-theft camp or the anti-theft camp, are we devoting the same energy to developing a consensus about what must be done to reform elections?

Avedon Carol at Eschaton: Who's running this show?

I've been wondering why small businesses haven't banded together to support programs that would give them an edge - programs that are, for the most part, more liberal than what the Republicans are up to - and now I see an article saying that the Small Business Administration actually refused to release a report that says, "large companies are winning contracts in the Federal government's $60-plus billion small business contracting program."

Digby: Oil for Fools

I think the thing I love most about the right wingers is their commitment to principle and intellectual consistency. For instance, on the Un Foundation's blog UN Dispatch, Peter Daou took issue with Roger Simon's obsessing over the Oil For Food program, while never having a kind word to say about the good things the United Nations does around the world. The right blogosphere is incensed that he would dare to tell a blogger what he should blog about, and besides the oil for food scandal is, like, really really bad.

Digby: Gandhi And His Rabble

And the "revisionist historians" proceed apace. Via Ted at Crooked Timber I see that the Highpockets and the boys at Powerline have endorsed the idea that the British should have held out against "Ghandi and his rabble" --- to prevent violence, of course, which is why all good white men have to keep the wogs in line, don't you know. Didn't the Raj have any purple ink to pacify the little bastards? Dear me.

Digby: Blasphemous Perverts

Adults only.--Dictynna

Everybody's talking about the article in The Nation about Dr. David Hager, the Bush appointee to the Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs in the Food and Drug Administration. His wife Linda says he forcibly sodomized her. Often while she was unconcious due to her narcolepsy.

Now, this would noramlly be just a run of the mill GOP hypocrite story that doesn't deserve any more than a little laugh over beers. But it should be emphasized that many of of us knew Dr Hager was a scumbag when he was appointed back in 2002. And he has subsequently proven to be the extremist we knew he was by personally blocking, in unprecedented fashion, the FDA's decision to make Plan B, the morning after pill, a quasi OTC drug.

James Wolcott: Permanent War for Permanent F*kwits

It's almost impressive how much militaristic gusto is packed inside the inert biomass of some of our leading neoconservatives. Not only are they avid to have others wage World War IV, the final global battle of good vs evil being promoted by fight managers Norman Podhoretz and James Woolsey, but they're hankering to refight old wars that ended before some of them were born, assuming they were born and not hatched in underground silos. If only it had been George Bush or John Podhoretz sitting there with Churchill, Stalin never would have gotten away with that swindle at Yalta. And of course they wouldn't have wimped out in Vietnam, letting the liberals and peaceniks undermine our will to win. They would have released Slim Pickens through the bomb bay chute atop a nuke no matter how much it would have riled the Chinese.

One has to admire their feistiness of course, which will come in useful at the old folks' home when the nurse brings them watery pudding.

The Estate Tax: Efficient, Fair and Misunderstood

By ROBERT H. FRANK
Published: May 12, 2005

THE Bush administration has proposed permanent repeal of the estate tax, the tax people pay when they inherit money. Citing overwhelming support even among middle-class voters, some predict that the Senate will soon approve a repeal bill similar to the one the House passed last month.

New Panel Will Study Medicaid With Eyes Toward Big Changes

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: May 12, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 11 - The Bush administration will create an advisory panel to recommend big changes in Medicaid eligibility and benefits and in the financing of the program, administration officials said Wednesday.

By Sept. 1, the panel is to recommend ways to save $10 billion in Medicaid, the federal-state program that insures more than 50 million low-income people.

Equalization of (NY) City Schools Is Abandoned

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
Published: May 12, 2005

The New York City Education Department has abandoned an effort to correct what it viewed as historic inequities in school budgets, ending an initiative that had been a centerpiece of Chancellor Joel I. Klein's effort to overhaul the school system's financial operations.

Sirotablog: Ike Predicted GOP Demise Over Social Security

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 11/8/54

WWII comments blasted

I think he just likes to stir things up--Dictynna

BY ANDREW METZ
STAFF WRITER

May 12, 2005

Was World War II worth it?

In the inflammatory world view of Pat Buchanan, the short answer is no. The war that stopped the Nazis' global campaign and the mechanistic extermination of European Jewry was actually not worth the effort.

The commentator yesterday offered equally provocative answers to other questions: Why destroy Hitler? And why venerate FDR and Churchill?

On the radio and Internet, Buchanan framed his positions as amplification of remarks made over the weekend by President George W. Bush that the pact ending the war brought on a Stalinist domination that was "one of the greatest wrongs of history."

Two Amigos And Their Gulag Archipelago

Lou Dubose is the author, with Jan Reid, of The Hammer: Tom DeLay, God, Money and the Rise of the Republican Congress by Public Affairs.

Jack Abramoff won’t make the May 12 Salute to Tom DeLay banquet at the Capitol Hilton.

That doesn’t seem fair.

For decades the two men—one an Orthodox Jewish lobbyist and Republican Party rainmaker, the other a fundamentalist Christian Congressman and Republican Party rainmaker—were a team. Raising money. Handicapping races. Supporting candidates. Lining up K Street support for Republican candidates and legislation. Playing the world’s best golf courses. But mostly raising money—a political forte the two men shared.

Oddly, it’s because of the money that Abramoff is not welcome at the DeLay tribute. Jack got a little carried away. He is currently under investigation by a multi-agency task force, U.S. attorneys, and two Washington, D.C., grand juries regarding $82 million he and former DeLay press aide Mike Scanlon billed (or bilked from) six Indian tribes. Sen. John McCain is running a similar investigation out of Senate Indian Affairs.

Demise of a Hard-Fighting Squad

Marines Who Survived Ambush Are Killed, Wounded in Blast

By Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 12, 2005; Page A01

HABAN, Iraq, May 11 -- The explosion enveloped the armored vehicle in flames, sending orange balls of fire bubbling above the trees along the Euphrates River near the Syrian border.

Marines in surrounding vehicles threw open their hatches and took off running across the plowed fields, toward the already blackening metal of the destroyed vehicle. Shouting, they pulled to safety those they could, as the flames ignited the bullets, mortar rounds, flares and grenades inside, rocketing them into the sky and across pastures.

Daily Howler - May 12, 2005

HANG HER HIGH! Hillary wasn't involved, say the feds. On Hardball, they strung her up anyway

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 2005

NO HOWLER THURSDAY OR FRIDAY: We’re off on a matter of some importance, travels that take us to the shadows of Roanoke’s famous Smith Mountain Lake! But we may well post a Saturday HOWLER, so eager are we to address these four issues:

1. Critiques of Matt Miller’s New York Times column—critiques which, in our view, fail to address Miller’s central claim;

2. The early coverage of the David Rosen trial—especially a disappointing, semi-ominous Hardball colloquy between Chris Matthews and Margaret Carlson (see update below);

3. This remarkably foolish dispute in the Virginia gubernatorial race—and this remarkably milquetoast response from the Washington Post editorial board;

4. And the New York Times’ decision (in the words of Dan Kennedy) to “speak out more aggressively when its editors believe the paper has been unfairly attacked.” (No word on what the paper plans to do when it is criticized fairly.)

So many howlers! And so little time! Meanwhile, what’s the matter with southwest Virginia? (Short answer: Nothing.) While we’re gone, read those pieces about the Virginia campaign. See how far some parties will go to treat “red state” voters like victims—and see how hard some press elites will work to avoid confronting such conduct.

Digby: Getting Antsy

Kevin Drum wonders what Bush's bizarre Yalta blathering was code for. We all know that when Junior dredges up some obscure historical reference (like his strange interjection of "Dred Scott" into the debates) you can be sure he's speaking in tongues to somebody. The question is who and why.

I think it's just possible that the neos are getting ready to turn up the heat on their old nemesis, Russia. They will not rest until some commie blood is spilled by the forces of good. And terrorism just isn't a grand enough enemy for these guys. It's messy, it's hard to define, we can't defeat it with bombs and military invasion. I think it's been much too hard for these guys to get their nut with this sneaky, asymetrical 21st century enemy, and the Iraqis just aren't cooperating enough with their "liberation" to be truly satisfying. Time to get back to basics.

KOS: Progress In Iraq

by kos
Wed May 11th, 2005 at 11:40:02 PDT

Yet another string of car bomb attacks targeting police and national guard recruits lined up outside of station. Another 60 dead.

Umm, why do they still do this? Why line them up outside of recruiting stations presenting such juicy targets?

The suicide bomber was standing in line with the rest of the potential recruits. Why don't they search people before they stand in line? That much explosive can't be easy to hide from the most cursory search.

Meanwhile, the GAO has issued a report about the mess in Iraq. DHinMI writes:

But the most revealing part of the report is contained in the background information. According to GAO, and contrary to the propaganda from the White House celebrating a "peaceful" election, the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told GAO that "attacks on Iraq's election day reached about 300, double the previous 1 day high of about 150 during last year's Ramadan." Furthermore, the peak months for attacks since June 2003 were August and November 2004, and January 2005. During this period, according to GAO, the attacks have grown in intensity and sophistication. (And presumably in lethality.)

Ted Rall: Lies Run Big, Facts Small in U.S. Media

Tue May 10, 9:37 PM ET

Black and White and Full of Crap: Lies Run Big, Facts Small in U.S. Media

NEW YORK--One year ago the American media was pushing the Pat Tillman story with the heavy rotation normally reserved for living celebs like Michael Jackson. Tillman, the former NFL player who turned down a multi-million dollar football contract to fight in

Iraq

Afghanistan, became a centerpiece of the right's Hamas-style death cult when he lost his life in the mountains of southeastern Afghanistan. To supporters of the wars and to many football fans, Tillman embodied ideals of self-sacrifice and post-9/11 butt-kicking in a hard-bodied shell of chisel-chinned masculinity on steroids.

U.S. army probes why troops go wild in Colombia

By REUTERS

Published: May 11, 2005

Filed at 4:59 p.m. ET

SUMAPAZ, Colombia (Reuters) - The U.S. military is investigating what has gone wrong with its operations in Colombia, where troops have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling drugs and selling arms to far-right militias, a senior U.S. officer said on Wednesday.

Gen. Bantz Craddock, commander of the U.S. military's Southern Command, said he was concerned by the recent incidents.

Terror Suspects Sent to Egypt by the Dozens, Panel Reports

By DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: May 12, 2005

WASHINGTON, May 11 - The United States and other countries have forcibly sent dozens of terror suspects to Egypt, according to a report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. The rights group and the State Department have both said Egypt regularly uses extreme interrogation methods on detainees.

Robert Parry: Bush, Posada & Terrorism Hypocrisy

By Robert Parry
May 10, 2005

The New York Times has finally put the case of fugitive terrorist Luis Posada Carriles on Page One, observing that the violent anti-Castro Cuban’s presence in Florida “could test” George W. Bush’s universal condemnation of terrorism. But that principle already appears to have been tested and failed.

Without doubt, Posada – who reportedly has been hiding in South Florida for six weeks – is getting the benefit of a conscious U.S. policy of benign neglect, a Bush version of the “I know nothing” approach made popular by Sgt. Schultz, the German prison guard in the TV comedy “Hogan’s Heroes.”

If Posada were a suspected Islamic terrorist – not a CIA-trained right-wing Cuban exile – there’s no question that the Bush administration would be showing zero tolerance for his presence inside the United States. Certainly, the U.S. government wouldn’t be waiting around patiently for the terrorist to check in with immigration authorities.

Daily Howler - May 11, 2005

MOYNIHAN’S LEGACY! Matt Miller put his words in your mouth. We thought about Moynihan’s legacy:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 11, 2005

THE MILLER’S TALE: It didn’t take Matt Miller long. At the Times, he’s replacing Maureen Dowd for a month. And in the second paragraph of his very first piece, he boldly speaks on behalf of all Democrats. Miller makes a sweeping statement—a statement that is just flat-out wrong. For the record, Miller is explaining why Dems “should quit carping about Bush's evil ‘cuts:’”

MILLER (5/11/05): Start with this poorly understood fact: Under today's system of ''wage indexed'' benefits, every new cohort of retirees is guaranteed a higher level of real benefits than the previous generation. Workers retiring in 2025, for example, are scheduled to receive payments 20 percent higher in real terms than today's retirees. Today's teenagers are slated to get a 60 percent increase. When Democrats cry about ''cuts,'' they mean trims from these higher levels.

But that isn’t what all Democrats mean when they “cry” about those “evil” cuts. Perfect, isn’t it? Two grafs into his inaugural piece, Miller speaks on behalf of all Dems. And what he says is just plain flat-out wrong.

Digby: Kangaroo Justice

The Talking Dog has posted another one of his interesting interviews with attorneys for alleged unlawful combatants, this one with Joshua Dratel, the lawyer for the Australian David Hicks, who is being held at Guantanamo. Read the whole thing, but this passage is particularly stunning:

Talking Dog: Can you briefly summarize what you in particular find unfair about the military commission process at Guantanimo?

Joshua Dratel: Basically, there are no rules. The Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs court-martials -- that's been thrown out. No standards at all. Total arbitrariness. No efforts at anything resembling fairness. Let's start with evidence and proof. People don't know this, of course.The government's "proof" consists entirely of interrogators reading from reports of their interrogations-- without any basis to challenge the underlying accounts of witnesses, such as the witnesses themselves (who have frequently been shipped out of Guantanamo) or their interpreters, or the conditions under which the statements were taken, which were frequently, to put it politely, "coercive." Just statements from the detainees themselves-- regardless of whether obtained from abuse, or coercion, even rising to torture. In the commissions, you simply can't challenge them-- you don't have access to the witnesses.

Privatization Bamboozle Michael Medved Meltdown.

Privatization Bamboozle Michael Medved Meltdown.

And the reality is even weirder than that convoluted phrase. See this post for the details.

The Count even gets dragged into the action.

(ed.note: Believe me, you won't want to miss this one.)

-- Josh Marshall

Robert Scheer: Nationalism's psychotic side

Even decent people can be swept along by barbarism when a nation gets sick

When I was a kid in the Bronx during World War II, my mother got me to eat my vegetables by playing a war game in which the spinach or the broccoli were the Germans -- the evil ones to be gobbled up. The tastier items on the plate were labeled Americans, British and Russians -- the good guys. Even now, on the 60th anniversary of Germany's defeat, I experience a twinge of anxiety over my mother's mealtime allocation of ethnic virtue.

The problem was that my father was a German-born Protestant farm boy who had come to the United States as a teenager and spoke English with a pronounced accent. My Jewish mother, who was 19 when she fled the Soviet Union soon after the Bolshevik Revolution, earnestly assured me that my kindhearted father was not one of the bad Germans. Nor was his brother, who took me fishing quite often.

The Parents Television Council

Media Transparency original
Bill Berkowitz
May 11, 2005

2004 was banner year for 'national clearing house for, and arbiter of, decency' on America's airwaves

On April 18, L. Brent Bozell, the founder and president of the Parents Television Council (PTC - website), a subsidiary of his Media Research Center (MRC - website), appeared on the Fox News Channel's morning show, "Fox and Friends," to talk about the PTC's new report, "The Ratings Sham: TV Executives Hiding Behind a System That Doesn't Work".

Wearing his PTC hat (he also presides over the MRC, and is a founder of a PR outfit called the Conservative Communications Center), Bozell told Fox viewers that the study found that "the current ratings system and V-chip are failures."

In a press release issued the same day, Bozell asserted that the

"findings show the blatant hypocrisy of TV executives who claim that parents should rely on TV ratings and the V-chip to protect their children. Most television programs showing foul language, violence, and inappropriate sexual dialogue or situations do not use the appropriate content descriptors that would warn parents about the presence of offensive content."

Experts Are at a Loss on Investing

Nobel winners and top academics fumble the sorts of decisions Bush's Social Security overhaul plan would ask average Americans to make.

By Peter G. Gosselin
Times Staff Writer

May 11, 2005

WASHINGTON — Harry M. Markowitz won the Nobel Prize in economics as the father of "modern portfolio theory," the idea that people shouldn't put all of their eggs in one basket, but should diversify their investments.

However, when it came to his own retirement investments, Markowitz practiced only a rudimentary version of what he preached. He split most of his money down the middle, put half in a stock fund and the other half in a conservative, low-interest investment.

"In retrospect, it would have been better to have been more in stocks when I was younger," the 77-year-old economist acknowledged.

Ridge reveals clashes on alerts

By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

USDA Paid Freelance Writer $7,500 for Articles

By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 11, 2005; Page A15

An Agriculture Department agency paid a freelance writer at least $7,500 to write articles touting federal conservation programs and place them in outdoors magazines, according to agency records and interviews.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service hired freelancer Dave Smith in September 2003 to "research and write articles for hunting and fishing magazines describing the benefits of NRCS Farm Bill programs to wildlife habitat and the environment," according to agency procurement documents obtained by The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Know Thy Allies: What Bush got wrong about Yalta.

By David Greenberg
Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2005, at 10:23 AM PT

After World War I, the political right in Germany developed a myth called the "stab in the back" theory to explain its people's defeat. Though military leaders had helped negotiate the war's end, they fixed blame on civilian leaders—especially Jews, socialists, and liberals—for "betraying" the brave German fighting men. This nasty piece of propaganda was later picked up by Hitler and the Nazis to stoke the populist resentment that fueled their rise to power.

America has had its own "stab in the back" myths. Last year, George W. Bush endorsed a revanchist view of the Vietnam War: that our political leaders undermined our military and denied us victory. Now, on his Baltic tour, he has endorsed a similar view of the Yalta accords, that great bugaboo of the old right.

Bush stopped short of accusing Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill of outright perfidy, but his words recalled those of hardcore FDR- and Truman-haters circa 1945. "The agreement at Yalta followed in the unjust tradition of Munich and the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Once again, when powerful governments negotiated, the freedom of small nations was somehow expendable. Yet this attempt to sacrifice freedom for the sake of stability left a continent divided and unstable. The captivity of millions in Central and Eastern Europe will be remembered as one of the greatest wrongs of history."

US real wages fall at fastest rate in 14 years

By Christopher Swann in Washington
Published: May 10 2005 17:59 | Last updated: May 11 2005 15:20

Real wages in the US are falling at their fastest rate in 14 years, according to data surveyed by the Financial Times.

Inflation rose 3.1 per cent in the year to March but salaries climbed just 2.4 per cent, according to the Employment Cost Index. In the final three months of 2004, real wages fell by 0.9 per cent.

The last time salaries fell this steeply was at the start of 1991, when real wages declined by 1.1 per cent.

Stingy pay rises mean many Americans will have to work longer hours to keep up with the cost of living, and they could ultimately undermine consumer spending and economic growth.

Digby: Nixon's Babies

It's pretty clear to me that Beltway insiders are aware of the explosive "Watergate" style possibilities of the Tom DeLay scandal, but I don't get the impression that anyone knows quite what to make of it or how to exploit it. And perhaps it's one of those things that's best left to unfold naturally. If it does unravel completely it could be the end of the ascendency of the conservative movement and we could, perhaps, get down to the important business of spending the next generation undoing all the damage they've done. It is, after all, out specialty.

Digby: Not Ready For The Close-up

In the post below, I wondered why Jack Abramoff was so unsuccessful in Hollywood and surmised that it might be because Hollywood types aren't as gullible and easily led as those in the conservative movement (which is really saying something.) And what do I find immediately after I posted it, but proof, right on the new internet nexus of Hollywood and politics The Huffington Post, from none other than Danielle Crittendon of "What Our Mothers Didn't Tell Us" (and marriage to David Frum) fame:

Maybe it is futile to hope that we can ever bridge the gap between Powertown and Tinseltown so long as the Republicans are in power. But if that day ever comes, perhaps it will go -- or should go something like this:

Digby: Freakishly Confident

A scary post--Dictynna.

Avedon Carol, pinch hitting over at Eschaton writes:

One reason I don't think it's at all paranoid to suspect that the Republicans have deliberately taken over the voting system in order to cheat is that they keep doing things that don't otherwise make sense. There's a rather long list of things you just wouldn't expect them to think they could get away with unless they really thought they could control the ballot box, because otherwise they would have to expect that the public would kick enough of them out to not only end some political careers but also make impeachment - and prison - a distinct possibility.

As pointed out to me this morning by my favorite correspondent, the item at the top of the list (that may just be the "real" nuclear option) is this provision in the "Real ID" bill that removes judicial review. This article calls the hoohaw over the filibuster a trojan horse ---- it's the elimination of judicial review that's the constitution buster.

Why U.S. troops won't be coming home from Iraq anytime soon.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Tuesday, May 10, 2005, at 11:03 AM PT

U.S. soldiers are stuck in a catch-22

Now that an Iraqi government is taking form, however haltingly, how much longer will American troops have to stay? Judging from the data in two recent official U.S. reports, they probably won't be coming home soon.

Read together, the two documents—the latest quarterly report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, just released today, and the State Department's "Iraq Weekly Status Report" dated May 4—suggest that the Iraqi leaders have a long way to go (by some measures, as long as they've ever had) before they can rebuild their country, secure order, stabilize their regime, and protect their borders without a large American military presence.

Juan Cole: May 11, 2005 Part 3

Al-Qaeda on Trial in Yemen
Planned Attacks on Americans

Reuters reports on the ongoing trial of 8 alleged al-Qaeda members in Yemen. In a dramatic new develeopment, the prosecutor said information had arisen that the group was planning to kill Americans in Saudi Arabia, and were working on plans for attacks in Gulf countries.

Juan Cole: May 11, 2005 Part 2

Constitution-Drafting Subcommittee Excludes Sunnis
Chalabi to be Pardoned

Hamza Hendawi reports that the new government will attempt to use high Sunni officials such as Defense Minister Saadoun Dulaimi and Vice Premier Abid Mutlak al-Juburi (Jiburi) to reach out to Sunni Arab moderates. Few expect this effort to have an effect on the guerrillas. But it might draw away some fence-sitters among the Sunni Arab notables. Hendawi notes, " Key members of the Shiite Alliance, the largest parliamentary bloc with 140 seats, say the government plans to amend a 2003 ''de-Baathification'' law to give judges the final say on dismissing suspected Baathists. They hope that will make the process fairer in the eyes of Sunni Arabs."

Juan Cole - May 11, 2005 Part 1

50 Dead, 90 Wounded in Iraq Bombings on Wednesday Morning
Qaim Campaign Continues

On Wednesday morning, a suicide bomber in a car detonated his payload near a market in Tikrit, killing 27 persons and wounding 70. Reuters adds that guerrillas struck two further times early on Wednesday: "In the town of Hawija, southwest of the strategic oil city of Kirkuk, a man strapped with explosives walked into an army recruitment center and blew himself up, killing 19 people and wounding 25, police said. A suicide car bomb also exploded outside a police station in the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora, killing at least four people and wounding dozens, police said."

David Neiwert: The undertow of totalism

A long but very important post--Dictynna.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides, the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be. There were also whispered stories of a terrible book, a compendium of all the heresies, of which Goldstein was the author and which circulated clandestinely here and there. It was a book without a title. People referred to it, if at all, simply as the book. But one knew of such things only through vague rumours. Neither the Brotherhood nor the book was a subject that any ordinary Party member would mention if there was a way of avoiding it.

In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out 'Swine! Swine! Swine!' and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. It struck Goldstein's nose and bounced off; the voice continued inexorably. In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic.

-- George Orwell, 1984, (Chapter 1)

Totalitarianism is always a two-part dynamic: there are the totalitarian leaders, and there are their followers.

The Carpetbagger Report: Bush's Bubble Bursts

Posted 11:13 am | Printer Friendly

For almost five years, Bush aides have been effective and efficient in shielding the president from any and all dissent. The president may be aware of the fact that there are some people who disagree with him, but he doesn’t have to see them and — perish the thought — he certainly doesn’t have to answer any of their questions. Ever.

But someone on Bush’s staff apparently made a tragic error over the weekend and the president started taking questions from some young people who hadn’t been pre-screened for ideology, hadn’t signed a loyalty oath, weren’t prepped by a White House advance team, and had questions that the president didn’t care for.

Unfortunately, this occurred in the Netherlands, so it wasn’t Americans who got to ask their president questions, but it was compelling anyway.

“I have a question … concerning the terrorism,” said the first student to be called on, a young woman. “And you made many laws after 9/11, many — many laws and many measures. And I’m wondering, will there be a time when you drop those laws and when you decrease the measures?”

“Look,” Bush replied, “a free society such as ours, obviously, must balance the government’s most important duty, which is to protect the American people from harm, with the civil liberties of our citizens. And every law we passed that was aimed to protect us in this new era of threats from abroad and the willingness for people to kill without mercy has been scrutinized and, of course, balanced by our Constitution.”

Another student asked Bush about the cost of the Iraq war, which is when the funny part happened: reporters were ushered from the room.

Media were then asked to leave, though the meeting, held in a window-lined room at a glorious chateau near Maastricht, went on for another half-hour.

What happened in that other half-hour? American journalists were barred from listening in and — you guessed it — the White House has not released a transcript of the meeting, despite providing transcripts for every single “townhall meeting” and scripted “conservation” Bush has hosted since becoming president.

Christians Urged to Adapt to Fluid World

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 10, 2005

Filed at 8:19 a.m. ET

AGIOS ANDREAS, Greece (AP) -- Christian churches must set aside differences and adopt less confrontational approaches toward other faiths in an age of mobile populations and strains between the West and the Islamic world, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church told a global religious conference Tuesday.

''The consequences of globalization, terrorism and the war on terror require that Christian churches rediscover their prophetic voice ... to raise their voice and be on the side of peace,'' Archbishop Christodoulos said, opening a weeklong gathering of more than 500 Christian leaders and theologians here to examine challenges to the faith.

The secretary-general of the World Council of Churches -- the organizers of the conference -- also noted the ''demographic center'' of Christianity is shifting into the southern hemisphere led by explosive growth in African congregations and rising populations in Latin America.

Conservatism As Pathology: Are Bush supporters literally insane?

By Timothy Noah
Posted Monday, May 9, 2005, at 8:40 PM PT

The people who were once radical are now reactionary. Though they speak today in the same aggrieved language of victimization, and though they face the same array of economic forces as their hard-bitten ancestors, today's populists make demands that are precisely the opposite. Tear down the federal farm programs, they cry. Privatize the utilities. Repeal the progressive taxes. All that Kansas asks today is a little help nailing itself to that cross of gold.

--Thomas Frank, What's the Matter With Kansas?

The working class's refusal to synchronize its politics with its economic interests is one of the enduring puzzles of the present age. Between 1989 and 1997, middle-income families (defined in this instance as the middle 20 percent) saw their share of the nation's wealth fall from 4.8 percent to 4.4 percent. Yet Al Gore lost the white working class by a margin of 17 percentage points, and John Kerry lost it by a margin of 23 percentage points. As the GOP drifts further to the right, and becomes more starkly the party of the wealthy, it is gaining support among the working class.

The Perfect Storm That Could Drown the Economy

By DANIEL GROSS
Published: May 8, 2005

WE seem to be living in apocalyptic times. On NBC's "Revelations," Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone seek signs of the End of Days. In the Senate, gray-haired eminences speak of the "nuclear option."

The doomsday theme is seeping into the normally circumspect world of economics. In April, Arjun Murti, a veteran analyst at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, warned that oil could "super-spike" to $105 a barrel. And increasingly, economists are prophesying that the American economy as a whole may be sailing into choppy waters.

A GOP Plan to 'Fix' the Democrats

By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A21

The stakes in politics are about to get a lot higher.

The partisan battles in the coming weeks -- on judges, Social Security and the future of Tom DeLay -- are part of a larger struggle in which Republicans are seeking to establish themselves as the dominant party in American politics. Essential to their quest is persuading Democrats, or at least a significant number in their ranks, to accept long-term minority status.

Former U.N. Counsel Defends Disclosure

Injunction Puts Cooperation With Congressional Oil-for-Food Probe on Hold

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 10, 2005; Page A13

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 -- A former U.N.-appointed investigator probing corruption in the Iraq oil-for-food program on Monday defended his decision to retain confidential official documents after he quit the inquiry and give them to a congressional committee.

Daily Howler - May 10, 2005

FOR INFORMATION, READ THE OPINIONS! Again, a Times op-ed gives information you can’t get in news reports:

TUESDAY, MAY 10, 2005

TONIGHT ON CHANNEL 666: Omigod! Tonight—Ann Coulter, appearing on Leno! Of course, Jay has outdone our fact-challenged “journalists” at least once in the past (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 11/10/98). Maybe he’ll even question Coulter’s “mistakes”—the mistakes Time hunted for so hard, but just couldn’t manage to locate.

FOR INFORMATION, READ THE OPINIONS: Omigod! In today’s New York Times, readers actually get some basic info about judicial filibusters. Here is the passage in question:
NEW YORK TIMES (5/10/05): Since 1789, the Senate has rejected nearly 20 percent of all nominees to the Supreme Court, many without an up-or-down vote.

In 1968 Republican senators used a filibuster to block voting on President Lyndon B. Johnson's nominee for chief justice of the Supreme Court. During the debate, a Republican senator, Robert Griffin, said: "It is important to realize that it has not been unusual for the Senate to indicate its lack of approval for a nomination by just making sure that it never came to a vote on the merits. As I said, 21 nominations to the [Supreme] court have failed to win Senate approval. But only nine of that number were rejected on a direct, up-and-down vote."

Echidne: The Dangers of Cohabitation

Did you know that cohabitation between unmarried couples is still illegal in seven states? North Carolina is one of them and is having its law challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU):

The law against cohabitation is rarely enforced. But now the American Civil Liberties Union is suing to overturn it altogether, on behalf of a former sheriff's dispatcher who says she had to quit her job because she wouldn't marry her live-in boyfriend.

Deborah Hobbs, 40, says her boss, Sheriff Carson Smith of Pender County, near Wilmington, told her to get married, move out or find another job after he found out she and her boyfriend had been living together for three years. The couple did not want to get married, so Hobbs quit.

Echidne: Poor Big Pharma!

The pharmaceutical industry has had such a hard time, what with the Vioxx scandal and such. So it comes as a relief to learn that the government is helping these suffering firms out by giving them a tiny tax cut. It goes like this:

A new tax break for corporations is allowing the biggest American drugmakers to return as much as $75 billion in profits from international havens to the United States while paying a fraction of the normal tax rate.

The break is part of the American Jobs Creation Act, signed into law by President Bush in October, which allows companies a one-year window to return foreign profits to the United States at a 5.25 percent tax rate, compare

Digby: Ethical Misdirection

Ethical Misdirection

Adam Cohen wrote an interesting op-ed this week-end about ethics and it's one I think that the people involved should take a long hard look at. He makes the following good points:

But more talk show hosts, and talk show audiences, are starting to ask whether at least the most prominent talk shows with the highest ratings shouldn't hold themselves to the same high standards to which they hold other media...Many talk show hosts make little effort to check their information...They rarely have procedures for running a correction...The wall between their editorial content and advertising is often nonexistent...And talk show hosts and their guests rarely disclose whether they are receiving money from the people or causes they talk about.

Robert Dreyfuss: The Quagmire

As the Iraq war drags on, it's beginning to look a lot like Vietnam

By ROBERT DREYFUSS

The news from Iraq is bad and getting worse with each passing day. Iraqi insurgents are stepping up the pace of their attacks, unleashing eleven deadly bombings on April 29th alone. Many of the 150,000 Iraqi police and soldiers hastily trained by U.S. troops have deserted or joined the insurgents. The cost of the war now tops $192 billion, rising by $1 billion a week, and the corpses are piling up: Nearly 1,600 American soldiers and up to 100,000 Iraqi civilians are dead, as well as 177 allied troops and 229 private contractors. Other nations are abandoning the international coalition assembled to support the U.S., and the new Iraqi government, which announced its new cabinet to great fanfare on April 27th, remains sharply split along ethnic and religious lines.

Juan Cole: May 10, 2005 Part 3

Al-Qaeda in Kuwait

A Kuwaiti court sentenced 25 radical Muslim fundamentalists for plotting to go to Iraq to fight US troops, or to fund the effort. They were also accused of belonging to an illegal organization. Only as you read down the Reuters report does it gradually become apparent that the "forbidden organization" is . . . al-Qaeda! Diplomats in Kuwait City told Reuters that "sympathy for Saudi-born al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is on the rise among Kuwaiti youth."

Juan Cole: May 10, 2005 Part 2

Bomb found at Sistani's Home
Shiite Tensions Rise over Killings

AP writes,

At least four car bombs exploded in Baghdad on Monday, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said. They included a morning suicide attack in southern Baghdad that killed two Iraqi policemen and a civilian at a checkpoint at a busy intersection, police said. Six other policemen and three civilians were wounded in the attack. Another suicide attacker exploded a car bomb at an army checkpoint in eastern Baghdad, wounding five Iraqis, the Interior Ministry said. When police approached a suspicious car in south Baghdad, the booby-trapped vehicle exploded, killing one officer and a civilian bystander, the Interior Ministry said. Another policeman lost an arm in the attack.

Juan Cole: May 10, 2005 Part 1

US Releases Enemy Casualty Estimate of 100

The US military is conducting a major operation around Ubaidi, near Qaim on the border with Syria. The operation near the Euphrates was aimed at foreign jihadi bases.

The Marines are reportedly surprised by the degree of preparation the guerrillas are showing. They also seem to have specialized knowledge of how best to fight the Americans. (This datum suggests that someone in the Iraqi army or government let them know the US was coming. Everyone knows that the police, national guards and security apparatuses are extensively infiltrated by the guerrilla resistance).

Avedon Carol: And only wealth will buy you justice

This is from WorldNutDaily, but they at least know what their nuts are up to. Bill to take profit out of anti-religion suits:

An Indiana congressman plans to curb the ACLU's appetite for filing suits targeting religion in the public square by introducing a bill that denies plaintiff attorneys the right to collect attorneys fees in such cases.

Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., is expected to file his measure next week to amend the Civil Rights Attorney's Fees Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. Section 1988, to prohibit prevailing parties from being awarded attorneys fee in religious establishment cases, but not in other civil rights filings.

In other words, they want to make it impossible for anyone who isn't rich to even think about defending the establishment clause in court.Which means, don't forget, that you lose your right to protect religion from the government.

A New Counterterrorism Strategy: Feminism

A sustained and serious effort to gain human rights for women worldwide could be the start of a brand new approach to fighting terrorism.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from 'Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism (Inner Ocean),' edited by Code Pink co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans.

I've been reading Bin Ladin--Carmen, that is, not her brother-in-law Osama (she spells the last name with an "i")--and I'd like to present a brand-new approach to terrorism, one that turns out to be more consistent with traditional American values. First, let's stop calling the enemy "terrorism," which is like saying we're fighting "bombings." Terrorism is only a method; the enemy is an extremist Islamic insurgency whose appeal lies in its claim to represent the Muslim masses against a bullying superpower.

Jerry Falwell in Liberal Land

Sarah Posner (10:25AM) link

The Washington Post this morning reports that the school superintendent of Montgomery County, Maryland suspended a "contentious" sex education curriculum after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing, for 10 days, the county's implementation of the curriculum.

What the Post story doesn't tell you is that the curriculum, designed to help prevent sexually transmitted disease, teen pregnancy, and homophobic bullying, was made contentious by a small group of parents with support from Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins, and Beverly LaHaye.

In other words, these extremists have infiltrated one of the country's most liberal counties. But the Post portrayed them as just a bunch of concerned parents.

Saudi Arabia's Doomsday Plan

By Rick Shenkman
Mr. Shenkman is the editor of HNN.

Saudi Arabia, bracing for the possibility of an attack either by an outside power or restive Shiite residents, implemented an intricate doomsday plan in the 1980s giving officials the power to blow up their own oil wells, according to a new book by journalist Gerald Posner. In the event of an attack, says Posner, the Saudis would trigger a series of "dirty bomb" explosions designed to destroy use of the kingdom's oil supplies for decades. Posner's account, related in his new book, Secrets of the Kingdom (Random House), which is due out on May 17, is based on both Israeli and American intelligence.

Bush Mendacity Will Shock Historians

By Bill Gallagher

DETROIT -- When historians write about our times, they'll shake their heads and wonder how so many people could believe so many lies for so long. They might actually write two parallel books -- one describing the cascading lies and deceptions George W. Bush and the Republicans sold and the other telling the truth.

We're told, in effect, that trampling on civil liberties and eroding freedom are a sure way to protect us from terrorists who envy our freedom. That colossal lie will be one of the lasting stains on this era, and I fear the day coming when the Busheviks or their political heirs, gripped in fascist fever, will silence those who expose the fraud.

The latest assault on liberty cloaked as protection is the Republican campaign in Congress for national identity cards. Of course, they don't call them that. Such candor sparks opposition. It's much more benevolent sounding to call the measure the Real ID Act.

Internet Attack Called Broad and Long Lasting by Investigators

By JOHN MARKOFF and LOWELL BERGMAN

AN FRANCISCO, May 9 - The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.

Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.

Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories.

Robert Parry: The Bushes & the Death of Reason

By Robert Parry
May 9, 2005

If you want to understand why George W. Bush and his political allies were so confident they could get away with manipulating information to dupe the American people into war in Iraq, a good place to start might be to look at this photo of 16 men posing for a group shot in front of the Parsonage cottage at the Bohemian Grove on the last weekend of July 1980. [Click here for JPEG or click here for PDF.]

Daily Howler - May 9, 2005

BEINART STARTS GETTING IT RIGHT! Peter Beinart starts getting it right in the Post—just about six years too late:

MONDAY, MAY 9, 2005

BEINART STARTS GETTING IT RIGHT: Yes, the crazies are coming for Hillary Clinton, as we warned you just last week (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 5/3/05). Indeed, see this morning’s follow-up piece by the New York Times’ Raymond Hernandez. And omigod! In the matter of Possible Candidate Clinton, Peter Beinart starts getting it right, in today’s Washington Post! In an op-ed column, Beinart warns against the coming attacks on Clinton’s character, and he sets the record straight about her ballyhooed “move to the center.” This is exactly what libs and Democrats should be doing—and they need to start doing it now.

Digby: Retro Wingnuttia

So The Huffington Post is up and right now it's featuring Larry David at the top of the page supporting John Bolton. I guess he really is a conservative just like my favorite mainstream writers Ann Coulter and Tony Blankley said. First David Horowitz, now this. Where will it end, I ask you, where?

It is good to see that David Frum is seriously performing this week's designated function of rewriting history in ways that would make Stalin proud. He claims that the cold war started on May 9th 1945 when the Russians inexplicably required that they be allowed to celebrate the end of the war on a different day than their allies. This is a new one on me. I had always heard from the wingers that the cold war started at the "sell-out at Yalta" which didn't happen until October. But Frum sees this earlier intransigence as a sign of foreboding which we presumably should have heeded and invaded Russia forthwith. (In any case, he thinks that it's wrong that we haven't established memorials to the Gulags in the same way that we established memorials to the Holocaust and I'm sure that liberals are to blame for this because you know how we love Gulags.)

David Neiwert: The new vigilantes

Vigilantism has a bit of a mixed history in America. In some places and contexts, it is thought of fondly as a kind of citizen-imposed form of law and order. In others, though, it is nothing less than the murderous face of mob rule.

Which face, do you think, the Minutemen will reveal over time?

Now, if you go to Montana, you may be surprised to learn that, in many regards, the state's notorious vigilantes of 1864-1885 are viewed rather benignly, as icons of Old West-style law and order. There's an annual Vigilante Parade in Helena, and my wife's Helena High yearbooks are named The Vigilante. The state's highway patrolmen have the number "3-7-77" -- which was the still-mysterious calling card of the old vigilantes -- embroidered into their shoulder patches.

David Neiwert: Going Down To Davis

Monday, May 09, 2005

I'm scheduled to give a talk on hate crimes this Thursday in Davis, California, that's being sponsored by the city's Human Rights Commission and Blacks for Effective Community Action, a local civil-rights group that has a long history in Davis, as well a couple of local congregations.

Titled "So What's a Hate Crime Anyway? The ABCs of Hate Crimes," it will be at 7 p.m. at the University Covenant Church, 315 Mace Blvd. I'll talk for about half an hour or 45 minutes, take questions for another 45 or so, and then sign books. Copies of Death on the Fourth of July will be available.

The Poor Man: Character

From the Crimson:

Thirty years ago, President Bush was my student at Harvard Business School. In my class, he called former president Franklin D. Roosevelt, Class of 1904, a “socialist” and spoke against Social Security, unemployment insurance, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and other New Deal innovations. He refused to understand that capitalism becomes corrupt without democratic civic values and ethical restraints.

In those days, Bush belonged to a minority of MBA students who were seriously disconnected from taking the moral and social responsibility for their actions. Today, he would fit in comfortably with an overwhelming majority of business students and teachers whose role models are celebrated captains of piracy. Since the 1980s, as neo-conservatives have captured the Republican Party, America’s business education has also increasingly become contaminated by the robber baron culture of the pre-Great Depression era.

Bush is the first president of the United States with a Master’s of Business Administration (MBA). Yet, he epitomizes the worst aspects of America’s business education. To privatize Social Security, he is peddling a colossal lie about its solvency. Furthermore, Bush, along with today’s business aristocrats, shows no compassion for working Americans, robbing them to benefit big business and the very rich. Last year, due to Bush’s tax cuts, over 80 of America’s most profitable 200 corporations did not pay even a penny of their federal and state income taxes. Meanwhile, to pay for his additional tax cuts for the very rich, Bush is drastically cutting back several social services, such as federal lunch programs for poor children.

The Intensifying Global Struggle for Energy

By Michael T. Klare

From Washington to New Delhi, Caracas to Moscow and Beijing, national leaders and corporate executives are stepping up their efforts to gain control over major sources of oil and natural gas as the global struggle for energy intensifies. Never has the competitive pursuit of untapped oil and gas reserves been so acute, and never has so much money as well as diplomatic and military muscle been deployed in the contest to win control over major foreign stockpiles of energy. To an unprecedented degree, a government's success or failure in these endeavors is being treated as headline news, and provoking public outcry when a rival power is seen as benefiting unfairly from a particular transaction. With the officials of numerous governments coming under mounting pressure to satisfy the needs of their individual countries -- at whatever cost -- the battle for energy can only become more inflamed in the years ahead.

Political Animal: Republicans vs. Democrats On The Economy

Did you know that Democratic presidents are better for the economy than Republicans? Sure you did. I pointed this out two years ago, back when my readership numbered in the dozens, and more recently Michael Kinsley ran the numbers in the LA Times and came to the same conclusion.

The results are simple: Democratic presidents have consistently higher economic growth and consistently lower unemployment than Republican presidents. If you add in a time lag, you get the same result. If you eliminate the best and worst presidents, you get the same result. If you take a look at other economic indicators, you get the same result. There's just no way around it: Democratic administrations are better for the economy than Republican administrations.

States Propose Sweeping Changes to Trim Medicaid by Billions

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, May 8 - Governors and state legislators have devised proposals for sweeping changes in Medicaid to curb its rapid growth and save billions of dollars.

Under the proposals, some beneficiaries would have to pay more for care, and states would have more latitude to limit the scope of services.

The proposals, drafted by separate working groups of governors and state legislators, provide guidance to Congress, which 10 days ago endorsed a budget blueprint that would cut projected Medicaid spending by $10 billion over the next five years.

Paul Krugman: The Final Insult

Hell hath no fury like a scammer foiled. The card shark caught marking the deck, the auto dealer caught resetting a used car's odometer, is rarely contrite. On the contrary, they're usually angry, and they lash out at their intended marks, crying hypocrisy.

And so it is with those who would privatize Social Security. They didn't get away with scare tactics, or claims to offer something for nothing. Now they're accusing their opponents of coddling the rich and not caring about the poor.

Well, why not? It's no more outrageous than other arguments they've tried. Remember the claim that Social Security is bad for black people?

Before I take on this final insult to our intelligence, let me deal with a fundamental misconception: the idea that President Bush's plan would somehow protect future Social Security benefits.

Risky lending trends could bust mortgage boom

By F. N. Chancellor Smalkin

May 9, 2005

AS A SELF-STYLED hipster, I was somewhat perturbed when a new trend caught me off guard this spring. Another school year is closing and students are lining up residences for the fall. I learned that my friends are purchasing homes, and I'm not.

At first, I suppose I was slightly jealous. I can't afford a house. But as I thought more about it, I realized that neither could they.

This piqued my economic curiosity. So I looked harder at what was going on around me. My earlier perturbation turned to concern as I listened to my friends' responses and saw new, disturbing trends emerge.

First, I noticed that some of my friends had already amassed small fortunes in real estate from prior residences and investment properties. This kind of industry is not disturbing. But when I asked one friend about her methods I noted a second trend, and it raised hairs on my neck.

"The real estate market always goes up."

Juan Cole: Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven

I saw Kingdom of Heaven Sunday. The film has many virtues, with its attention to costume and scene. I could quibble. Medieval European swords of the 1100s could not be wielded in the way they were shown here; they were very heavy. And I doubt that whatever the catapults were throwing in the way of fiery material would explode like bombshells on impact. Even bombshells didn't explode until the 18th century, as I recall. The history is not entirely wrong, though predictably liberties are taken.

Juan Cole: 8 US Servicemen Killed Over Weekend

The NYT reports that guerrillas killed 8 US servicemen in separate incidents over the weekend. On Sunday, bombings in Samarra and Khalidiya killed 3 US servicemen. In Haditha on Saturday, guerrillas attacked and captured a hospital, killing 3 US Marines and a sailor when the US attempted to take it back

Home from Iraq

We spent 10 months in Iraq, working on a story, understanding who the people are who are fighting, why they fight, what their fundamental beliefs are, when they started, what kinds of backgrounds they come from, what education, jobs they have. Were they former military, are they Iraqi or foreign? Are they part of al-Qaida? What we came up with is a story in itself, and one that Vanity Fair ran in July 2004 with my text and pictures. [My colleague Steve Connors] shot a documentary film that is still waiting to find a home. But the basic point for this discussion is that we both thought it was really journalistically important to understand who it was who was resisting the presence of the foreign troops. If you didn't understand that, how could you report what was clearly becoming an "ongoing conflict?" And if you were reading the news in America, or Europe, how could you understand the full context of what was unfolding if what motivates the "other side" of the conflict is not understood, or even discussed?

What's So Scary About a National ID

An emergency funding measure earmarked for our fighting men and women overseas seems an odd place for a sweeping change to U.S. privacy policy. But that's just where House conservatives have tucked their proposal to impose federal requirements on state driver's licenses—a proposal dubbed the Real ID Act.

Civil libertarians hate the idea, because in the ACLU's phrase, it "takes us one step closer to a national ID." What's rarely stated is why a national ID would be such a bad thing.

Michael Kinsley: The Press is In Decline

Where Are Our Subsidies?

By Michael Kinsley

Sunday, May 8, 2005; Page B07

In this great country, there are newspaper editorial pages of every political stripe, from nearly insane far-left rantings to the Wall Street Journal. But when the United States faces a danger to its most important institutions and values, Americans can count on the newspaper industry to put aside petty differences and speak with one voice.

Several years in small classes in elementary school yields big rewards at graduation time

WASHINGTON -- It is well established that small class size in the early elementary grades boosts student achievement in those grades and allows students to be more engaged in learning than they are in larger classes. But there has been little research on the long-term effects of small class size. A new study involving a large sample of students followed for 13 years shows that four or more years in small classes in elementary school significantly increases the likelihood of graduating from high school, especially for students from low-income homes. The study is reported on in the May issue of the Journal of Educational Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Frank Rich: Laura Bush's Mission Accomplished

AS we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Drudge Report and the second anniversary of the Jayson Blair scandal, American journalists are in a race with the runaway bride for public enemy No. 1. Newspaper circulation is on the skids, the big three network anchor thrones are as precarious as King Lear's, bloggers are on the rampage, and the government is embracing fake reporters and threatening to jail real ones. A Pew Research Center poll shows that Americans now trust the press less than every other major institution, from government to medicine to banks. We can only be grateful that the matchups didn't include pornographers or Major League Baseball.

Then - just when you think things couldn't get any worse - along comes the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner.

Daily Howler - May 7, 2005

THE LOGIC OF BORROW AND SPEND! Tierney types a tired old tale. But how should a Democrat answer?

SATURDAY, MAY 7, 2005

THE LOGIC OF BORROW AND SPEND: We’ve received e-mails each day this week which sound just like this John Tierney column—a column in which the Times’ newest typist shows that he doesn’t understand the logic of borrow and spend. Does Social Security have a trust fund? Or is that trust fund just a big “hoax?” Democrats need to understand the logic of these scripted issues. If they want to prevail in this endless debate, Democrats need to understand the logic of borrow and spend.

Echidne: Feeding Time

This filibuster debacle is going to be fun to watch (if you ignore what's at stake):

With the climax nearing, the tone of the debate is escalating. A radio address taped by three Christian conservative leaders for broadcast Monday called the judiciary "the last playground of the liberal left." In the address, James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, described the fight as the tipping point of the Bush presidency. "Nothing good took place last November, only the potential for something good," Dr. Dobson said.

Juan Cole: 2-Day Bombing total of 100 Dead, Hundreds Wounded

On Saturday, Guerrillas in Baghdad targeted a convoy of vehicles of the sort used by notables with a massive bomb that tossed armored SUVs about like toys, and left 29 dead and 54 wounded, as a small mushroom cloud billowed into the sky. Two American security guards were among the dead. A school bus also appears to have suffered damage, but the casualties among the school children had not been reported when this Tribune story was filed.

The Poor Man: From the Future

PART A: Science

1. A strain of bacteria, after repeated exposure to an antibiotic, develops a resistance to that antibiotic. This is an example of:
A. microevolution
B. microintelligentdesign
C. how the liberal media lies
D. why faith healing is better than secular medicine

2. Global temperatures have risen 1 degree F since 2004. This is due to:
A. the greenhouse effect
B. unsound science
C. the Clinton administration
D. gays

3. Scientific theories are:
A. ones which makes predictions one can test against experimental data
B. only theories
C. used by out-of-the-mainstream liberal eggheads to oppress white people
D. tricks of Satan

Sirotablog: NY Times Picks Up Sirotablog Scoop on Medicare

Saturday, May 07, 2005

Forgive me for a bit of shameless, irritating self-congratulation, but this is some great news I just had to share because it gives us all hope that we can make an impact and occasionally break through the media din. On Friday May 6th, Sirotablog had an exclusive story uncovering evidence that the Bush administration is now telling Congress and the public that food stamp recipients could see their food stamp benefits eliminated under the new Medicare bill. The New York Times quickly got in touch with me for the details, and now has a prominent story on the scam in its May 8th newspaper.