Digby: Deadly PR Stunt

Arthur has posted a couple of awful, frustrating stories. There are so many.

This little detail, however, stands out:

...for the entire time Bush was in the state, the congressman said, a ban on helicopter flights further stalled the delivery of food and supplies.

Has anyone else heard that?

Digby: Compassionate Convervatives

Compassionate Conservatives

“It seems to me that the poor should have had the EASIEST time leaving. They don't need to pay for an extended leave from their home, they could have just packed a few belongings and walked away to start over somewhere else. What did they have to lose?

When the wealthy evacuate, they leave behind nice houses, expensive cars, possibly pets that they treat as members of the family, valuable jewelry, family heirlooms, etc. This makes it emotionally difficult for wealthy people to leave. But by definition, the poor do not have this burden: they either rent their homes, or they are in public housing; their cars are practically junk anyway; and they don't have any valuable possessions. This is what it means to be poor. These people could just pick up their few belongings, buy a one-way bus ticket to any city and be poor there. Supposing they even had jobs in NO, it's not like minimum wage jobs are hard to come by.”

Digby: Not A National Disaster

Bill O'Reilly is trying with all his might to make this story about "thugs" and bad Democrats but both Fox news reporters on the ground are having none of it. Shepard Smith and Steve Harrigan are both insisting that the story is about people dying and starving on the streets of New Orleans. Smith is particularly upset that the mayor sent buses to the Hyatt today and took tourists over to the Superdome and let them off at the front of the line.

O'Reilly says "you sound so bitter" and said they need a strong leader like Rudy Giuliani. Smith replies that what they needed "on the first day was food and water and what they needed on the second day was food and water and what they needed on the third day was food and water."

Digby: Dithering or Scared?

For three days, Corps officials had lamented the difficulty of gaining access to the canal, but yesterday a local contractor, Boh Bros. Construction Co., apparently drove to the mouth of the canal and started placing a set of steel sheet pilings to isolate the canal from the lake. This job was finished yesterday afternoon.

What's the deal? Aren't engineers usually pretty good at figuring out how to get into inaccessible places?

I wonder if maybe they were actually all askeered of the roving thugs that seem to have been reported everywhere, but rarely seen? A number of reports in today's newspapers are much more skeptical of the criminal anarchy that was reported all day yesterday. It was more than a little bit odd that the news crews that had access all over the city weren't able to get any pictures of these roving gangs of beasts that were said to be stalking everyone.

PM Carpenter: The ideology of ignorance

A repost from May 2005--Dictynna

Reading journalists’ reports from Iraq is like being sucked into a time warp where ancient incompetence comes flying at you with mocking vengeance. It’s a confirming experience as well -- a confirmation that policy makers will never learn as long as ideology is seen as capable of trumping history.

This time around the Bushies were the best-and-brightest “adults.” They were the steely-eyed realists who understood the world as it is and how to handle it. They alone -- the neocon grownups and hard-asses -- could overcome the wimpish stain of Vietnam on America’s ego.

Iraq I? The Balkans? Child’s play. Not nearly enough to refurbish our standing in the world and erase those 1960s remnants of failure. They would do it right, in a big way, in the Middle East, and start with Iraq. They could hardly wait for excuses. In fact, they didn’t wait. They just made some up.

Progressive Programmer: Olbermann, Limbaugh, Sharpton and the GOP Mindset

Keith Olbermann just had an extraordinary exchange between himself and Al Sharpton.

The subject was the conditions in New Orleans, looting, and the question of where support is.

Olbermann remarked that he had heard Rush Limbaugh earlier today saying that those that were still in New Orleans deserved what they had gotten, as they had chosen to live there. Olbermann went so far as to call him, "that Limbaugh". Denouncing the inherent inconsiderate nature of such a statement.

But Sharpton made the point that struck me.

The Right, as embodied by Limbaugh, Frist, Bush, Hastert, DeLay. They would move heaven and earth to save the life of one White Woman in Florida to combat the very idea of euthanasia (which technically it was not). A woman that a decade earlier had lost her ability to so much as ask for help, much less have coherent thoughts about the quality of her own life.

And they would sit on their ass and watch as tens of thousands of poor men, women, children, babies, and elderly bake in the New Orleans heat surrounded by water, sewage, gasoline and an abandoned city, now devoid of anyone with the means to have escaped ahead of the storm.

Special AP Report Reveals Fresh Details on Iraq WMD Controversy

By E&P Staff

Published: September 02, 2005 8:55 PM ET

NEW YORK An extraordinary recap of U.S. claims about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, to be moved by the Associated Press this weekend, reveals new details about the pre-war misstatements and the desperate efforts by American officials and CIA chief George Tenet to actually find the weapons after the war.

The lengthy report, written by Charles J. Hanley, AP special correspondent, is based on fresh interviews, official documents and other sources.

"There was an absolutely closed mind," Kay tells AP, referring to American officials. "They would not look at alternative explanations,” he said, referring specifically to controversies surrounding the aluminum tubes and bio-weapons trailers.

New Orleans: A Geopolitical Prize

By George Friedman

September 01, 2005 22 30 GMT -- The American political system was founded in Philadelphia, but the American nation was built on the vast farmlands that stretch from the Alleghenies to the Rockies. That farmland produced the wealth that funded American industrialization: It permitted the formation of a class of small landholders who, amazingly, could produce more than they could consume. They could sell their excess crops in the east and in Europe and save that money, which eventually became the founding capital of American industry.

But it was not the extraordinary land nor the farmers and ranchers who alone set the process in motion. Rather, it was geography -- the extraordinary system of rivers that flowed through the Midwest and allowed them to ship their surplus to the rest of the world. All of the rivers flowed into one -- the Mississippi -- and the Mississippi flowed to the ports in and around one city: New Orleans. It was in New Orleans that the barges from upstream were unloaded and their cargos stored, sold and reloaded on ocean-going vessels. Until last Sunday, New Orleans was, in many ways, the pivot of the American economy.

Pentagon Investigator Resigning

Joseph E. Schmitz, the Defense Department's inspector general, is suspected of blocking investigations of senior Bush officials.

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon's top investigator has resigned amid accusations that he stonewalled inquiries into senior Bush administration officials suspected of wrongdoing.

Defense Department Inspector General Joseph E. Schmitz told staffers this week that he intended to resign as of Sept. 9 to take a job with the parent company of Blackwater USA, a defense contractor.

Rove Not Entitled to D.C. Homestead Deduction

Bush Adviser to Reimburse City for Back Taxes

By Lori Montgomery

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 3, 2005; Page A02

Presidential adviser Karl Rove may live in Washington. But in his heart -- and for voting purposes -- he remains a Texan. Which means he is not legally entitled to the homestead deduction and property tax cap he's been getting on his Palisades home for the past 3 1/2 years.

This week, the D.C. tax collector was alerted to the problem. And Rove agreed to reimburse the District for an estimated $3,400 in back taxes, city officials said. But now some Lone Star officials also are wondering about the place Rove calls home.

Daley 'shocked' as feds reject aid

September 3, 2005

BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN AND SCOTT FORNEK Staff Reporters

A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.

That truck, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested to support an Illinois-based medical team, was en route Friday.

"We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call," said Daley, adding that he was "shocked" that no one seemed to want the help.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would call for congressional hearings into the federal government's preparations and response.

"The response was achingly slow, and that, I think, is a view shared by Democrats, Republicans, wealthy and poor, black and white," the freshman senator said. "I have not met anybody who has watched this crisis evolve over the last several days who is not just furious at how poorly prepared we appeared to be."

$41 Billion, and Not a Penny of Foresight

Why is the New Orleans recovery going so badly? Just look at the DHS budget.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, at 1:01 PM PT

As Tim Naftali wrote in Slate yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security just flunked its first test. The question now—to ensure that things go better next time—is: Why? Was it simply that the storm's magnitude would have overwhelmed even the best-laid plans? Or is there something about DHS—a conglomerate of 22 federal departments and agencies mushed together in the desperate wake of 9/11—that compounds the normal sluggishness of large bureaucracies?

To understand why DHS is underperforming on the Gulf Coast, and why it won't improve soon, the best place to start is how it spends its money. There is no clearer window on a bureaucracy's culture than its budget, so let's look inside the DHS's 100-page budget book for fiscal year 2006.

Mystery Unfolds Over Hunt for WMD in Iraq

Friday September 2, 2005 7:46 PM

By CHARLES J. HANLEY

AP Special Correspondent

Beneath the giant dome of a Baghdad palace, facing his team of scientists and engineers, George Tenet sounded more like a football coach than a spymaster, a coach who didn't know the game was over.

``Are we 85 percent done?'' the CIA boss demanded. The arms hunters knew what he wanted to hear. ``No!'' they shouted back. ``Let me hear it again!'' They shouted again.

The weapons are out there, Tenet insisted. Go find them.

Veteran inspector Rod Barton couldn't believe his ears. ``It was nonsense,'' the Australian biologist said of that February evening last year, when the then-chief of U.S. intelligence secretly flew to Baghdad and dropped in on the lakeside Perfume Palace, chandelier-hung home of the Iraq Survey Group.

ACLU Alleges Ga. Hiked Voter ID Card Fee

Friday September 2, 2005 10:01 PM

By JEFFREY McMURRAY

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday alleged that Georgia circumvented a federal law by failing to get Justice Department approval before hiking the fee for a controversial new voter identification card.

The governor's office insisted it notified the department of the change and will waive all fees for poor residents.

Red Cross says they were asked not to provide aid to New Orleans

RAW STORY

Also, Jesse Jackson hits decision not to use buses

From CNN's Larry King.

KING: Joining us now in Washington is Marty Evans, the President and CEO of the American Red Cross. She traveled with the president today. The Red Cross is not in New Orleans, why?

MARTY EVANS, RED CROSS PRESIDENT AND CEO: Well, Larry, when the storm came our goal was prior to landfall to support the evacuation. It was unsafe to be in the city. We were asked by the city not to be there and the Superdome was made a shelter of last resorts and, quite frankly in retrospect, it was a good idea because otherwise those people would have had no shelter at all.

We have our shelters north of the city. We're prepared as soon as they can be evacuated, we're prepared to receive them in Texas, in other states, but it was not safe to be in the city and it's not been safe to go back into the city. They were also concerned that if we located, relocated back into the city people wouldn't leave and they've got to leave.

Say what's unpopular, get to what's popular

By Michael Sherrin | RAW STORY CONTRIBUTOR

Liberal government happens. Imagine 69 Democratic Senators. Imagine, at the same time, a second term Democratic President. Imagine a time when that Democratic President feared Southern Democrats more than Republican sound bites.

This was the case a short 60 years ago. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the Democratic Party commanded such popularity that there was no state where they weren’t competitive. When FDR concerned himself with the social issues of the times, the conservative Southern Democrats threatened his agenda more than any Republican.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 09/02/05

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, a Republican from Louisiana whose "guess" about the death toll from Katrina in his state is that "it will start at 10,000," also "said he gave the federal government a grade 'F' for its response to the disaster so far," reports AFP.

A CNN reporter said that people he talked to at the Pentagon, "seemed to question the motives of some of our reporters ... about why they had so much sympathy for the victims, and not as much sympathy for the challenges that the government met in meeting this challenge."

Economy Was Showing Strain Before Storm

By JENNIFER BAYOT

Rising energy prices were taking their toll on businesses and consumers even before Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast's oil rigs and refineries, industry surveys and government data showed yesterday.

Manufacturing was weakening in August, and consumers were going further into debt in July to maintain their spending, propping up retailers.

The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index was at 53.6 percent last month, down far more than expected and its lowest level since May.

"Business is extremely strong, but energy volatility is playing havoc with planning and pricing scenarios," the survey quoted a chemical industry supply manager as saying.

New Orleans Mayor, in Tears, Blasts Washington's Response

By JOSEPH B. TREASTER and TERENCE NEILAN
Published: September 2, 2005

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 2 - Fires and explosions jolted an area near the French Quarter this morning in a city gripped by despair and violent lawlessness, and the city's mayor, by turns angry and sad, blasted Washington for what he said was its slow response to the storm disaster.

Today President Bush called the response "not acceptable," as he left for a tour of the ravaged areas. Soon after his remarks the nation's airlines said they had been mobilized to fly up to 25,000 refugees out of New Orleans beginning today, under an emergency plan put into effect for the first time by the Department of Homeland Security. Under the plan, the refugees will be taken from Louis Armstrong Airport outside New Orleans to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

Paul Krugman: A Can't-Do Government

Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

So why were New Orleans and the nation so unprepared? After 9/11, hard questions were deferred in the name of national unity, then buried under a thick coat of whitewash. This time, we need accountability.

First question: Why have aid and security taken so long to arrive? Katrina hit five days ago - and it was already clear by last Friday that Katrina could do immense damage along the Gulf Coast. Yet the response you'd expect from an advanced country never happened. Thousands of Americans are dead or dying, not because they refused to evacuate, but because they were too poor or too sick to get out without help - and help wasn't provided. Many have yet to receive any help at all.

NYT Editorial: The Man-Made Disaster

The situation in New Orleans, which had seemed as bad as it could get, became considerably worse yesterday with reports of what seemed like a total breakdown of organized society. Americans who had been humbled by failures in Iraq saw that the authorities could not quickly cope with a natural disaster at home. People died for lack of water, medical care or timely rescues - particularly the old and the young - and victims were almost invariably poor and black. The city's police chief spoke of rapes, beatings and marauding mobs. The pictures were equally heartbreaking and maddening. Disaster planners were well aware that New Orleans could be flooded by the combined effects of a hurricane and broken levees, yet somehow the government was unable to immediately rise to the occasion.

Watching helplessly from afar, many citizens wondered whether rescue operations were hampered because almost one-third of the men and women of the Louisiana National Guard, and an even higher percentage of the Mississippi National Guard, were 7,000 miles away, fighting in Iraq. That's an even bigger loss than the raw numbers suggest because many of these part-time soldiers had to leave behind their full-time jobs in police and fire departments or their jobs as paramedics. Regardless of whether they wear public safety uniforms in civilian life, the guardsmen in Iraq are a crucial resource sorely missed during these early days, when hours have literally meant the difference between evacuation and inundation, between civic order and chaos, between life and death.

The Brad Blog: EXCLUSIVE: Karl Rove Makes Surprise Visit to Camp Casey!

Greets, Thanks Bush Supporters Opposing Cindy Sheehan
Snubs, Ignores Combat Vets, Gold Star Families Who Made Ultimate Sacrifice for Bush's War

CRAWFORD, TX - Driving his own pickup, with two trucks blockading both sides of the street, Bush Administration Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove made a surprise sunset visit/photo-op Tuesday night to the half dozen or so Bush supporters camped across the street from "Camp Casey" in Crawford, Texas where Cindy Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq -- originally made her stand requesting a meeting and an explanation from George W. Bush, The BRAD BLOG has learned from eye-witnesses.

According to supporters from both the Bush and Sheehan sides of the street at the makeshift protest sites, Rove's visit occurred as the bulk of Sheehan supporters and volunteers were enjoying a final "thank you dinner" down at the larger Camp Casey II several miles down the road on Tuesday evening.

Conservative magazine blames blacks, political correctness for chaos

Ron Brynaert

"New Orleans was ripe for collapse. Its dangerous geography, combined with a dangerous culture, made it susceptible to an unfolding catastrophe. Currents of chaos and lawlessness were running through the city long before this week, and they were bound to come to the surface under the pressure of natural disaster and explode in a scene of looting and mayhem."

So writes George Neumayr, the executive editor of The American Spectator, in "Masques of Death."

The Katrina Premium

Why the hurricane may hurt the economy more than 9/11.
By Daniel Gross
Posted Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, at 12:42 PM PT


Economically speaking, Katrina is no 9/11. It may be much worse. In the months after 9/11, stocks rallied. The Federal Reserve slashed interest rates, unleashing a wave of liquidity and paving the way for economy-boosting gimmicks like zero-percent financing. The airlines suffered a grievous blow. But prices didn't jump; there were no shortages of anything. Looking back, the catastrophe of 9/11 had a relatively minor impact on the broad economy.

And the consensus thus far seems to be that Katrina will be much the same. "As long as we find that the energy impact is only temporary, and there is no permanent damage to the infrastructure," Ben Bernanke, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said yesterday, "the effects in the overall economy will be fairly modest." Traders are already having the 9/11 reaction, bidding up stocks and buying long-term bonds.

Co-pays, drug cuts to save Medicaid $11 bln-report

Fri Sep 2, 2005 12:03 AM BST9


By David Lawder

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal commission on Thursday recommended $11 billion in Medicaid savings over 5 years from raising prescription drug co-payments, drug pricing reforms and curbs against asset transfers to qualify for benefits.

The controversial Medicaid Commission, charged in May with finding $10 billion in immediate savings, delivered its first of two reports to Congress and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.

Costs for the state-federal health care program for the poor have grown dramatically in recent years, reaching $329 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30, according to the National Governors' Association.

It provides care to more than 53 million Americans, but some states, including Tennessee and Missouri, have cut benefits due to cope with growing costs.

Lost in the Flood

Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?
By Jack Shafer
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005, at 4:22 PM PT

I can't say I saw everything that the TV newscasters pumped out about Katrina, but I viewed enough repeated segments to say with 90 percent confidence that broadcasters covering the New Orleans end of the disaster demurred from mentioning two topics that must have occurred to every sentient viewer: race and class.

Nearly every rescued person, temporary resident of the Superdome, looter, or loiterer on the high ground of the freeway I saw on TV was African-American. And from the look of it, they weren't wealthy residents of the Garden District. This storm appears to have hurt blacks more directly than whites, but the broadcasters scarcely mentioned that fact.

Beyond Petroleum

Brian Siu
September 02, 2005

Brian Siu is an energy policy analyst at the Apollo Alliance.

While it is difficult to see beyond the incalculable suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina, the impact on U.S. fuel supply is undeniable. For days, we watched the storm move toward Louisiana’s oil and natural gas operations. As feared, the storm disrupted a tenth of U.S. refining capacity and 25 percent of oil production. Now, analysts expect gas prices to squeeze to $4 per gallon. At this time, it is difficult to assess the price spike’s duration because the extent of structural damage is unknown. What is absolutely clear, however, is that too much reliance on a single energy source is a dangerous thing. As Katrina illustrated, supply interruptions are beyond our control, and without alternative options, there is no safety net to suppress price movements. Instead, we’re given pronounced volatility and an economy that is vulnerable to natural or man-made disruptions.

Critics Say Bush Undercut New Orleans Flood Control

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 2, 2005; Page A16

President Bush repeatedly requested less money for programs to guard against catastrophic storms in New Orleans than many federal and state officials requested, decisions that are triggering a partisan debate over administration priorities at a time when the budget is strained by the Iraq war.

Even with full funding in recent years, none of the flood-control projects would have been completed in time to prevent the swamping of the city, as Democrats yesterday acknowledged. But they said Bush's decision to hold down spending on fortifying levees around New Orleans reflected a broader shuffling of resources -- to pay for tax cuts and the Iraq invasion -- that has left the United States more vulnerable.

The Daily Howler - 09/01/05

QUESTIONS NOT ASKED! Is Calixto given appropriate textbooks? The question is quite rarely asked: // link // print // previous // next //

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005

SECOND EFFORT: Today’s post will serve as a replacement for (and extension of) yesterday’s sub-par effort. In fact, we’ll disappear yesterday’s post tomorrow. Read it today, ye who care!

DEFINING A CRISIS: Letters to this morning’s Times address Bob Herbert’s Monday column (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 9/29/05). We were struck by the first, from a Garden State teacher. Here are her first two paragraphs:

NEW YORK TIMES LETTER (9/1/05): Regarding the state of education in the United States, Bob Herbert writes, "I respectfully suggest that we may be looking at a crisis here" ("Left Behind, Way Behind," column, Aug. 29). As a highly qualified teacher of English at the high school level, I agree.

But this crisis we see in our schools has its roots in American homes increasingly devoid of books and printed material, where children turn exclusively to television, computers and electronic games for entertainment—and see the adults around them doing the same. Instant-gratification technology has, for many students, replaced the task—and the thrill—of reading.

The teacher describes a “crisis in our schools.” But what exactly is that “crisis?”

Digby: Qu'ils Mangent De La Brioche

I don't know if all of you have seen the footage today from the convention center in New Orleans, but it is shocking. There are dead bodies lying all over the place. People are waiting for help and the only people who've come in there are news crews and Harry Connick Jr. (And fuck you Michele Malkin.) It's a living hell.

The MSNNC reporter just said that he counted 82 buses lined up outside the city waiting to go in to evacuate people from the convention center but they won't go because they've been told it isn't safe.

Digby: How Could It Be Otherwise?

More damning evidence of leadership malpractice:

Here's a piece from March 7, 2002 from the Clarion-Ledger on the circumstances of Parker's firing. Here are the first several grafs ...

The assistant secretary of the Army, Mississippi's former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker, was forced out Wednesday after he criticized the Bush administration's proposed spending cuts on Army Corps of Engineers' water projects, members of Congress said.

"Apparently he was asked to resign," said U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the House Appropriations Committee's energy and water development subcommittee that oversees the corps' budget.

Digby: It's Time

I have to say that I'm with Wolcott on this one.

No, this is the time for politics, none better, because I can tell you just from being out of NY a few days that a lot of people in this country are shocked and sobered by New Orleans, but they're also worried and pissed off. They're making the connection between the money, manpower, and resources expended in Iraq and how raggedy-ass the rescue effort has been in the Gulf. If you don't say it now when people's nerves are raw and they're paying full attention, it'll be too late once the waters receded and the media-emoting "healing process" begins.

Digby: They Are Invisible

Maybe this will show Michael Chertoff that evacuating wasn't a matter of people stubbornly refusing to obey a mandatory order. These people are rich and white:

BLITZER: The disaster, what's unfolding in New Orleans, elsewhere in the Gulf as well, the situation, especially, especially worrisome in downtown New Orleans. We have on the line now Phyllis Petrich. She's stranded in one of the hotels in New Orleans. Phyllis, where exactly are you?

PHYLISS PETRICH, STRANDED IN NEW ORLEANS: I'm at the Ritz Carlton on Canal Street in the French Quarter.

Digby: I Wondered About This

From Kos diarist Militarytracy:

I have also spoken today on post here with Army pilots really pissed off that when the helicopter was shot at yesterday at the Superdome, they suspended operations. What I have been told is IT IS A MILITARY HELICOPTER AND YOU ARE PREFORMING A KIND OF MILITARY MISSION AND YOU ARE TAKING FIRE SO WHAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM? I heard this from pilots who have served in Iraq. They are really upset right now that it is okay to take fire to liberate Iraqis but it isn't okay to take fire attempting to rescue and save people in your own country!

I've been a little bit gobsmacked by this fraidy-cat reaction to the surly thugs in the streets I've been hearing about all day. The national guard and the coast guard are trained to operate in hostile environments where people are shooting at them. And big city police forces are no slouches either.

King of Zembla: Out of Libertaria

Next up, courtesy of Zemblan patriot M.D., is former NSC staffer Roger Morris, who argues that you needn't immerse yourself in the works of Leo Strauss to understand the origins of neoconservatism. The true spritual father of the movement is Democratic uberhawk Henry "Scoop" Jackson:

But it was in national security that Jackson's impact was deepest. The hawks' hawk, he was to the right of many in both parties. Not even the massive retaliation strategy and roving CIA interventions of the Eisenhower '50s were tough enough for him. Perched on the mighty Armed Services Committee as well as his other bases of power, he went on over the next decade to goad the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, urging the Vietnam War, fatter military budgets, stronger support of Israel in the Middle East and a more aggressive foreign policy in general.

It was then, 40 years ago, that Jackson began to be linked directly, if furtively, to some of the uglier and little-known origins of the war on Iraq. Overseeing the CIA's "black budget" for covert operations and interventions from a subcommittee of Armed Services, he was one of a handful of senators who gave a nod to two U.S.-backed coups in Iraq, one in 1963 and again in 1968. Those plots brought Saddam Hussein to power amid bloodbaths in which the CIA, exacting the price for its support, handed Saddam and his Baath Party cohorts lists of supposed anti-U.S. Iraqis to be killed.

The Mahablog: Do Some Good

Please take a moment to look at the ad over on the right-hand column and donate to Liberal Blogs for Hurricane Relief.

This campaign is being coordinated by Kari Chisholm. All of the proceeds will be sent to the Red Cross. Donations are being tracked by Drop Cash. Transactions are secured through Paypal. You can be certain that your contribution will be secure, for a good cause, and it people will know it came from the liberal blogosphere. Click here to donate!

Now, on to regular snarking.

The Mahablog: Whoa

CNN's Jack Cafferty has been tearing Bush a new one every chance he gets this afternoon. In a nutshell, Cafferty said that Bush has failed to show leadership and that the ineptness of the government's "response" to Katrina has been a disgrace.

Video at Crooks and Liars.

He read this editorial from the Manchester Union Leader:

AS THE EXTENT of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before.

Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage.

A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease.

Life in the Bottom 80 Percent

Economic growth isn't what it used to be. In 2004, the economy grew a solid 3.8 percent. But for the fifth straight year, median household income was basically flat, at $44,389 in 2004, the Census Bureau said Tuesday. That's the longest stretch of income stagnation on record.

Economic growth was also no elixir for the 800,000 additional workers who found themselves without health insurance in 2004. Were it not for increased coverage by military insurance and Medicaid, the ranks of the uninsured - now 45.8 million - would be even larger. And 1.1 million more people fell into poverty in 2004, bringing the ranks of poor Americans to 37 million.

When President Bush talks about the economy, he invariably boasts about good economic growth. But he doesn't acknowledge what is apparent from the census figures: as the very rich get even richer, their gains can mask the stagnation and deterioration at less lofty income levels.

Release of oil reserves has little effect

By Carola Hoyos in London
Published: August 31 2005 20:43 | Last updated: August 31 2005 20:43

The US government on Wednesday agreed to lend refiners small quantities of oil from its strategic emergency stockpile to help ease the shortage of petrol caused by Hurricane Katrina.

But the relief it caused in the overheated oil market was cut short when it became clear that the move would have little impact on the problem and was as much a political gesture as an economic one.

In fact, helping the US deal with the loss of 20 per cent of its oil production and 10 per cent of its refining capacity has become a global tug of war between three powerful players.

Why the Levee Broke

By Will Bunch, Attytood
Posted on September 1, 2005, Printed on September 1, 2005
http://www.alternet.org/story/24871/

Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters continued to rise in New Orleans on Wednesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until until it's level with the massive lake.

There have been numerous reports of bodies floating in the poorest neighborhoods of this poverty-plagued city, but the truth is that the death toll may not be known for days, because the conditions continue to frustrate rescue efforts.

Billmon: When the Levee Breaks

Crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good
Now, crying won't help you, praying won't do you no good
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

Memphis Minnie McCoy
When the Levee Breaks
1929

I woke up yesterday expecting to write a post about how the Lord had spared New Orleans -- thus proving that He likes a good party as much as anybody. But instead I spent the day looking at, and reading about, scenes like these:

There's something peculiarly horrible about the way the worst-case scenario unfolded in New Orleans, as the most unique city in America gradually filled with water -- like a child's toy in a bathtub -- after the worst of the danger had appeared to pass. It seems Katrina was only toying with her prey when she wobbled a bit to the east just before landfall. She left the death blow to the waters of Lake Pontchartrain.

The Daily Howler - 08/31/05

THE QUESTIONS NOT ASKED! How well can Calixto read? A fine profile doesn’t quite ask: // link // print // previous // next //

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31, 2005

ALL WEEK, THOSE BACK-TO-SCHOOL BLUES: Darn it! We had to do a show last night. As you read today’s report, can you notice the attendant loss of focus? In 200 words or less, explain. Compare and contrast today's report with those from Monday and Tuesday.

Special report: Back-to-school blues! PART 3—THE QUESTIONS NOT ASKED: The Post’s Darragh Johnson listened hard to Calixto Salgado (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 8/30/05). Her subject was 14 years old, the son of Salvadoran immigrants, and he (and his friends) told Johnson a great deal about “the fault lines Calixto must negotiate as he...enters ninth grade” in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a community in the DC suburbs. Johnson discusses Calixto’s thoughts about gangs—the gangs that have gotten so much attention in the Washington area recently. She mentions the fact that this low-income child volunteers at the nursing home where his father works. She tells us that Calixto feels special because he’s an altar-boy at his church. (“After serving at one well-attended Sunday Mass, [Calixto] decides that being up on the altar ‘means I'm serving for God. It means God chose me. There was a whole rack of boys in the Mass—a whole rack of boys. But God chose me. I'm up there for a reason.’”) And, in one passage, she quotes Calixto and a string of his friends explaining how they think they’re perceived by the wider society. Just last year, a former Maryland governor had a nervous breakdown after struggling to order breakfast at a local McDonald’s; his young server’s English wasn’t real good, and the former governor was disturbed to no end. (The current governor then chimed in with foolish, ill-advised statements.)

Digby: Reason #673

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war
Says US must prevent oil fields from falling into hands of terrorists

By Jennifer Loven, Associated Press | August 31, 2005

CORONADO, Calif. -- President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

Digby: Game Cancelled

BagNews Notes has the most interesting take on the compelling images of New Orleans: he looks at pictures of the refugees at the Superdome and observes:

Beginning with the weekend evacuation, one unstated subtext running through much of the reporting involved the disparate prospects between rich and poor. In many accounts, for example, the more well-to-do were securing refuge by way of upper-floor hotel rooms, or escape via rental cars and long-haul taxi rides.

Digby: Calling In The Leadership

Oh, this is rich. DC MediaGirl (via the Daoureport) says that Michele Malkin is having a fit because Hollywood and LiveAid hasn't stepped into the breach in New Orleans. Apparently, Hollywood should hold fundraisers while disasters are still unfolding. They shouldn't even have a day or two to plan them --- entertainers should immediately rush to the closest TV studio and just start singing and dancing as fast as they can. I presume that Malkin feels this should be done in lieu of actual disaster relief by Big Govmint, which is the root of all evil after all.

The Mahablog: What Now?

The scenes of devastation from the Gulf Coast defy description. This is a terrible blow to the nation. The effects of this tragedy will be felt for generations.

Will Bunch writes in Editor & Publisher ("Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayne' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues"):

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Arthur Silber: The Real Threat Is Sex, Not Terrorists, You Immoral Degenerates!

August 31st, 2005

There are no words:

When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, they wondered what the top enforcement priority for Acosta and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be.

Would it be terrorism? Organized crime? Narcotics trafficking? Immigration? Or maybe public corruption?

The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it’s obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

Acosta’s stated goal of prosecuting distributors of adult porn has angered federal and local law enforcement officials, as well as prosecutors in his own office. They say there are far more important issues in a high-crime area like South Florida, which is an international hub at risk for terrorism, money laundering and other dangerous activities

.

Hurricane Politics

As Katrina forced President Bush to cut short his vacation, the White House is facing a perfect storm of trouble at home and abroad.

WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY

By Richard Wolffe and Holly Bailey

Newsweek

Updated: 5:59 p.m. ET Aug. 31, 2005

Aug. 31, 2005 - On Tuesday, President Bush called an abrupt end to his five-week “working vacation” at his Texas ranch and announced he would return to the White House two days early to oversee federal response to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. “These are trying times for the people of these communities,” Bush said Tuesday during a visit to a naval base in San Diego. “We have a lot of work to do.”

For the White House, it was interesting timing. Over the last month, administration officials have deflected criticism of Bush’s monthlong stay at his Texas ranch by making the case that technology has made it possible for Bush to run the country from anywhere, even the so-called Western White House. Indeed, the Bush ranch is equipped with highly secure videoconferencing equipment and phones, and, according to White House officials, Bush has made use of them just about every day this month to talk to senior aides back in Washington and other administration officials scattered throughout the country.

Bush Family's Terrorism Test

By Robert Parry
August 31, 2005

A week after a Cuban civilian airliner was blown out of the sky in 1976, George H.W. Bush’s CIA was hearing from informants that two right-wing Cuban extremists were implicated in that terrorist attack – as well as in an earlier assassination in Washington – but the Bush Family has continued to protect these operatives for the three decades since.

That long record of loyalty is now being tested by Venezuela’s demand that one of the Cuban exiles – former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles – be extradited from the United States to stand trial as an international terrorist for the airplane bombing that killed 73 people. The request is before a federal immigration judge in El Paso, Texas.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 08/31/05

A Pandagon poster finds evidence that, judging by the coverage of white people "finding" and black people "looting" things they need in New Orleans, the media may "bury the truth of what happened" before the city can bury the storm victims.

The Los Angeles Times reports that New Orleans residents were standing in "orderly lines to loot," and quotes one "looter" as saying that "I just took what I need ... Everyone you see out here, they're just trying to survive."

'When the levee breaks' "In the tradition of the riverboat gambler," writes Will Bunch, "the Bush administration decided to roll the dice on its fool's errand in Iraq, and on a tax cut that mainly benefitted the rich. And now Bush has lost that gamble, big time."

The Seattle Times editorializes that Bush must choose between 'Withdrawal from Iraq, or the greater mistake,' reasoning that "to our dead we owe honor and respect. To the living we owe good judgment."

"The war in Iraq is over. We lost. Islam won," writes columnist Denis Hamill, who adds that "somehow I don't see the Stones playing Baghdad on the next tour."

"Their science is dismal," a defender of evolution says of creationists, "but they do have American culture on their side."

U.S. Poverty Rate Was Up Last Year

By DAVID LEONHARDT

Published: August 31, 2005

WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 - Even as the economy grew, incomes stagnated last year and the poverty rate rose, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. It was the first time on record that household incomes failed to increase for five straight years.

The portion of Americans without health insurance remained roughly steady at 16 percent, the bureau said. A smaller percentage of people were covered by their employers, but two big government programs, Medicaid and military insurance, grew.

Vermont Blends 'Green' Flush Toilets and a Greenhouse

By KATIE ZEZIMA

SHARON, Vt. - It is a rare rest stop attraction, especially in Vermont, a humid greenhouse soon to be filled with orchids and other flora better suited to steamy jungles than snowy mountains.

But this exotic enticement is possible here because of the most mundane of rest stop features: flushing toilets.

The State of Vermont has installed a system that uses plants and organisms to clean wastewater at a rebuilt rest stop on Interstate 89 here, 10 miles northwest of White River Junction, and then pumps the treated water back to the toilets for reuse.

State officials said the system, called a living machine, not only advanced so-called green construction, but also allowed the rest area to stay open and the country's first Vietnam veterans memorial, erected in 1982, to remain at the site.

"Its purpose is two-fold," Gov. Jim Douglas said. "We thought it was important to do something honoring our Vietnam veterans, and Vermont has a long tradition of environmental stewardship."

Bush gives new reason for Iraq war: Protecting oil reserves

RAW STORY

President Bush answered growing antiwar protests yesterday with a fresh reason for US troops to continue fighting in Iraq: protection of the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists, the AP reported Wednesday via the (registration-restricted) Boston Globe. Excerpts...

#

The president, standing against a backdrop of the USS Ronald Reagan, the newest aircraft carrier in the Navy's fleet, said terrorists would be denied their goal of making Iraq a base from which to recruit followers, train them, and finance attacks.

Teacher and war mom fired for discussing protest crusades for vets

Jennifer Van Bergen

RAW STORY caught up with Deb Mayer at Cindy Sheehan’s anti-war protest in Crawford. Mayer was fired for being outspoken about Iraq in the classroom. Her son is a nuclear engineer in the Navy.

Deb Mayer was fired when one of her fourth grade students told a parent Mayer was encouraging students to protest the pending invasion of Iraq. Mayer says she was discussing a current events reading assignment from a Time Magazine issue for children on Iraq, including a section on antiwar demonstrations; a child asked her if she would march in a protest, and Mayer replied by discussing peaceful alternatives to war.

New Rules Could Allow Power Plants to Pollute More

By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.

The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.

The Daily Howler - 08/30/05

WHY CALIXTO CAN’T READ! We asked ourselves what Calixto meant when he fumed to a scribe, “I can’t read:” // link // print // previous // next //

TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005

ALL WEEK, THOSE BACK-TO-SCHOOL BLUES: All week, we’ll be discussing reports about those back-to-school blues. Since we think low-income kids deserve what they so rarely get—full attention—we won’t likely mix in other topics. Our conclusions on The Survivor will have to wait, although there is more to be said.

Special report: Back-to-school blues!

PART 2—WHY CALIXTO CAN’T READ: Obvious point—Bob Herbert’s heart is in the right place when it comes to American education (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 8/29/05). But sadly, that just isn’t enough—and it hasn’t been enough for the past thirty-five years. During that time, well-meaning liberals have mouthed bland cant about the problems of urban schools—and little real progress has been made in fighting the problems which Herbert describes. How bad are the actual problems? In Monday’s column in the New York Times, Herbert discussed the latest new study of American schools, this one commissioned by two liberal think tanks. Just try—just try—to comprehend the gravity of the situation described here:

HERBERT (9/29/05): An education task force established by the center and the institute noted the following:

''Young low-income and minority children are more likely to start school without having gained important school readiness skills, such as recognizing letters and counting...By the fourth grade, low-income students read about three grade levels behind non-poor students.

The Mahablog: Progress in Iraq

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, who heads the powerful ultra-conservative Guardian Council, told worshippers in Tehran’s Friday prayers, “Fortunately, after years of effort and expectations in Iraq, an Islamic state has come to power and the constitution has been established on the basis of Islamic precepts”.

“We must congratulate the Iraqi people and authorities for this victory”, he said. [Iran Focus News]

There's good news for the White House, too. Sunnis in Iraq, who had been sitting out the "nation building" process, are registering to vote so they can block ratification of the constitution. Democracy is on the march!

Our vacationing President is optimistic.

So what does the president have to say for himself? It's "hard work," but "we're making good progress." To be fair, Bush acknowledged, albeit in a minimizing way, that there "have been disagreements amongst the Iraqis about this particular constitution." He acknowledged that the violence in Iraq is likely to get worse before it gets better. And he did manage to get through an eight-minute speech on Iraq without mentioning 9/11 even once. But the president didn't acknowledge that the draft constitution -- even if it passes -- will create something less than the Western-style democracy he had envisioned for Iraq, nor did he give any hint that the breakdown in the constitutional process might be a cause to reassess what is possible in Iraq and how many U.S. troops should die in pursuit of it.

David Neiwert: All our extremists belong to you

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

You've got to admire, in a perverse sort of way, conservatives' apparently deep-seated belief in the power of wishful thinking. Kind of like the audiences at performances of Peter Pan: "I do! I do! I do believe in fairies!"

Whether it's the war in Iraq or the economy or race relations, whenever anyone points out any of the panoply of abject difficulties arising from their policies and agenda, conservatives just cover their ears and wish them away. They do this through one of two techniques:

-- Pretend the problems don't really exist.

-- Pretend that they're really the fault of, or emanate from, liberals.

This is, of course, also the case when it comes to the most persistent problem that underlies everything that is wrong with the conservative movement -- namely, the extremism that has become their pervasive trait.

Still Dreaming of Saddam-9/11 Connection

Remember the study that found that watching Fox News actually made people less well-informed about Iraq and al Qaeda? Turns out the same is true of people who work at Fox, too.

People like John Gibson, host of "The Big Story." Gibson is one of those who apparently believes Iraq had something to do with 9/11.

In his "My Word" segment on Wednesday (August 24, 2005), Gibson was griping about a Los Angeles Time "unsigned editorial" (that's the only kind there are, John) criticizing Bush for conflating Al Qaeda and Iraq, specifically for Bush's failure "to note that Al Qaeda put down roots in Iraq only after the invasion or that Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with 9/11 or Usama bin Laden."

Cursor's Media Patrol: 08/30/05

Martial Law Declared With the city said to be 80 percent underwater, New Orleans residents described "whitecaps on Canal Street," a month after an ABC affiliate reported that "when members of the Louisiana National Guard left for Iraq ... they took a lot of equipment with them ... and in the event of a major natural disaster, that could be a problem."

The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg finds that "the reticence of so many Democrats is rooted as much in perplexity as in timidity," while noting that "9/11 did nothing to change ... the Bush Administration’s top priority ... the use of the tax code to transfer wealth to the rich and, especially, the superrich." Earlier: Hertzberg on mud people.

Andrew Gumbel: All I did was say they can't run a fair election

He caters to a British sensibility that sees us as an errant colony run by a gang of thugs'
Published: 29 August 2005

I've got bad news for anyone already made queasy by the marathon length of American presidential elections. Not only is the 2008 race already concentrating political minds, it is becoming ever clearer the country has not recovered from the infamous mano a mano between Al Gore and George W Bush in Florida in 2000. In fact, in many important - and depressing - ways, the battle over Florida is still raging.

I've learned this the hard way, by becoming part of the battle myself. This past week, a posse of internet screamers who clearly don't like the idea of an uppity Brit questioning the legitimacy of George W Bush's first election took it upon themselves to denounce me as a "conspiracy journalist", a "left-wing hack" and a bare-faced liar.

The occasion for their fury was a book I've written chronicling, and attempting to explain, the inability of the world's most powerful democracy to conduct fair and transparent elections by any recognisable international standard. It came as no surprise that some people would find the premise of the book troubling, even offensive. My conclusions are hardly tender towards voting machine manufacturers, local and state election officials, or indeed the entire two-party system that underpins US politics.

What I was not expecting, however, was that the object of the internet screamers' fury would be the raw arithmetical data from the 2000 presidential race, something I had naively believed had moved on from the stuff of partisan brick-throwing into the realm of historical research and analysis.

The storm broke out when the New York Times columnist Paul Krugman generously cited my book and argued that many Americans are unaware of some deeply troubling facts about their country's electoral system. He, like me, pointed out what extensive analysis of the Florida ballots after the election had indicated as far back as 2001: that a full statewide recount - an option rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in the heat of the battle even though it was the only democratically responsible thing to do - would have narrowly tipped the balance of the race in Al Gore's favour.

In the book, I use this point as much to attack the Gore campaign's deficient commitment to counting all the votes as I do to argue that he deserved to win. (The case I make on Gore's behalf rests much more strongly on other factors, especially the wholesale disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of overwhelmingly Democrat-leaning African-American voters.)

But the internet screamers didn't appreciate this line of argument, largely because they didn't bother to follow it for themselves. As one blogger revealingly wrote: "I haven't read Gumbel's book, and don't intend to." Rather, they threw themselves right back into the rancour and partisan hostility of four and a half years ago, making the rigid argument that Bush won, Bush deserved to win and any other analysis was no more than sour grapes by a bunch of losers.

Soon, I was subject to wholesale character assassination, by people who didn't know a whole lot about me, and seemed in no hurry to find out. "It's doubtful he's ever written a true story about anything pertaining to the US, as he caters to a certain British sensibility that wants to see us as an errant colony run by a gang of bloodthirsty thugs," wrote my most vehement detractor, a certain Richard Bennett. Mr Bennett went on to argue I was a crackpot who thought al-Qa'ida had blown up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995 - an incendiary strike against me except for the inconvenient fact that it is not true.

It's become fashionable to say that 11 September 2001 was the day that changed everything in American politics. But I'm not sure the bigger watershed didn't come nine months earlier when the Supreme Court pulled the plug on the Florida battle and installed George W Bush in the White House.

Given the trauma and upheaval of everything that has happened since - the Iraq war, of course, but also spiralling deficits, huge tax cuts for the rich, a stark widening of the income gap between rich and poor, and on and on - it is perhaps natural for Bush supporters to dig in their heels and claim full democratic legitimacy for what the administration has wrought.

Likewise, it is natural for Bush opponents to wonder how much of it might have been avoided - how many military deaths, how much anti-American anger and resentment around the world, how many detentions, deportations and torture scandals - if the 2000 election had concluded differently.

No wonder the passions continue to rage. It is, or should be, beyond dispute that the Florida election was fought dirtily and that there is at least a case to be made that the wrong man ended up in the Oval Office. Contrary to received wisdom, the problem was not ultimately with deficient voting machines or even the respective merits and demerits of the Republican and Democratic causes. What Florida suggested - and continues to suggest - is that the very foundation of the American democratic system is corrupted and rotten. And that's a reality many Americans may not yet be ready to confront.

The writer is Los Angeles correspondent for the 'The Independent. 'Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America' is out in the US from Nation Books and available at amazon.co.uk

I've got bad news for anyone already made queasy by the marathon length of American presidential elections. Not only is the 2008 race already concentrating political minds, it is becoming ever clearer the country has not recovered from the infamous mano a mano between Al Gore and George W Bush in Florida in 2000. In fact, in many important - and depressing - ways, the battle over Florida is still raging.

Roadmap to a Scandal

The first TRMPAC-related trial set the stage for the criminal process to come

BY JAKE BERNSTEIN

oe Crews is relating how he convinced his partners at the law firm of Ivy, Crews & Elliott to jump into litigation involving the 2002 election. “I told them ‘it’s going to be a pain in the ass, cost a lot of money, and take a long time to resolve,” he laughs.

On November 22, 2002, the firm had filed a lawsuit against the Texas Association of Business after its president, Bill Hammond, boasted that the TAB’s use of corporate cash “blew the doors off the November 5 general election using an unprecedented show of muscle that featured political contributions and a massive voter education drive.” As the TAB case languished on appeal, new facts emerged about the involvement of Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC) in the 2002 campaign. The PAC, founded by U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land), had filed documents with the IRS that revealed more than $700,000 in corporate contributions that had not been disclosed to the Texas Ethics Commission.

Republicans accused of witch-hunt against climate change scientists

Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Tuesday August 30, 2005
The Guardian

Some of America's leading scientists have accused Republican politicians of intimidating climate-change experts by placing them under unprecedented scrutiny.

A far-reaching inquiry into the careers of three of the US's most senior climate specialists has been launched by Joe Barton, the chairman of the House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce. He has demanded details of all their sources of funding, methods and everything they have ever published.

Mr Barton, a Texan closely associated with the fossil-fuel lobby, has spent his 11 years as chairman opposing every piece of legislation designed to combat climate change.

Air Force Bans Leaders' Promotion of Religion

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: August 30, 2005

The Air Force issued new religion guidelines to its commanders yesterday that caution against promoting any particular faith - or even "the idea of religion over nonreligion" - in official communications or functions like meetings, sports events and ceremonies.

The guidelines discourage public prayers at official Air Force events or meetings other than worship services, one of the most contentious issues for many commanders. But they allow for "a brief nonsectarian prayer" at special ceremonies like those honoring promotions, or in "extraordinary circumstances" like "mass casualties, preparation for imminent combat and natural disasters."

Judge: Bush Plot Case Evidence Classified

Tuesday August 30, 2005 1:46 AM

By MATTHEW BARAKAT

Associated Press Writer

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - The judge in the case of a man accused of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush said Monday he possesses evidence that could help the defendant, but that he can't turn it over to defense lawyers because they lack required security clearances.

U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee said at a pretrial hearing that he received the classified material from prosecutors, who are required to turn over any evidence that's potentially beneficial to the defense.

ACLU argues for release of new Abu Ghraib photos

RAW STORY

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union will again appear before a federal judge Tuesday, August 30, to seek the release of Defense Department photographs and videotapes depicting the abuse of prisoners held by the United States at Abu Ghraib, RAW STORY has learned....
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RUSH RELEASE... MORE DETAILS SOON.... / FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE /August 30, 2005

The ACLU today also released previously redacted government documents, including declarations by General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Ronald Schlicher, former Deputy Assistant Secretary and Coordinator for Iraq in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs of the Department of State, in which they argue that the photographs and videos should not be made public. General Myers also argues that "the democratic idea of public accountability... is misunderstood in other parts of the world."

Killed soldier questioned 'f*tarded' war plan

RAW STORY

"Before he died when his truck overturned during combat in Baghdad, Sgt. Thomas Strickland, 27, posted an entry on his weblog sharing his anger about the situation in Iraq," in which he questioned the United States' 'fucktarded' Iraq war plan, Rogers Cadenhead reports on his site, DrudgeRetort.com.

In a post he titled One Foot in the Grave, Strickland asked, "What kind of fucktarded plan have we been half-assedly executing?" You can read Strickland's blog post here.

Storm Turns Focus to Global Warming

Though some scientists connect the growing severity of hurricanes to climate change, most insist that there's not enough proof.

By Miguel Bustillo
Times Staff Writer

August 30, 2005

Is the rash of powerful Atlantic storms in recent years a symptom of global warming?

Although most mainstream hurricane scientists are skeptical of any connection between global warming and heightened storm activity, the growing intensity of hurricanes and the frequency of large storms are leading some to rethink long-held views.

Most hurricane scientists maintain that linking global warming to more-frequent severe storms, such as Hurricane Katrina, is premature, at best.

Though warmer sea-surface temperatures caused by climate change theoretically could boost the frequency and potency of hurricanes, scientists say the 150-year record of Atlantic storms shows ample precedent for recent events.

But a paper published last month in the journal Nature by meteorologist Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is part of an emerging body of research challenging the prevailing view.

The Medicare Gold Rush

Dee Mahan
August 30, 2005

Dee Mahan is deputy director of health policy at Families USA.

Come mid-November, along with the familiar autumn sounds of crackling fires and crunching leaves, there will be confusion in the air, too. That’s because open enrollment for Medicare Part D, Medicare’s drug benefit, will be starting. More than 40 million seniors and people with disabilities who rely on Medicare will have the difficult job of sorting through what promises to be an abundance of choices for drug coverage. For some—those who have no drug coverage now and who qualify for low-income subsidies—Medicare Part D may be a real improvement. But many, if not most, of those enrolled in Medicare are likely to find the coverage disappointing, the process of picking a plan unduly daunting, and their remaining drug costs surprisingly high.

And it’s not just seniors who may be facing sticker shock. Controversy around the program’s budget assumptions continues in Washington as the projected pricetag for the benefit rises. Recalling the refrain of Harry and Louise, the seniors who were insurance company props lamenting Clinton’s health plan in 1990s television commercials, "There’s got to be a better way.” There was. It just didn’t happen.

Anti-War America

Todd Gitlin
August 30, 2005

Todd Gitlin (toddgitlin.net) contributes regularly to TPMcafe.com and is the author of The Intellectuals and the Flag, forthcoming from Columbia University Press.

There come moments in the course of all movements when they go mainstream, despite the best efforts of their enemies to demonize them and of their most radical elements to purify them. Such a moment has probably arrived in the case of the current anti-war effort. But pitfalls also loom.

You cannot trade on certainties in such elusive matters, because events intrude. But a probable turning point arrived the evening of Wednesday, August 17, when (according to Moveon.org) some hundreds of thousands around the country turned out for more than 1,600 candlelight vigils to express solidarity with Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey outside Crawford, Texas. In White Plains, N.Y., the more than 100 who gathered included, I was told by a correspondent, “loads of soccer moms, Little League dads and plenty of their kids.” In Indianapolis, 400 turned out. A few days later, it was 2,000 in Salt Lake City, addressed by the Democratic mayor . Elizabeth Edwards wrote a piece supporting the vigils, though not necessarily total withdrawal. Most Democrats continue to duck anti-war demonstrations, though ex-Senator Gary Hart has urged them to come out of hiding. But the growing anti-war base is unlikely to let them rest easy in silence.

Rumsfeld: U.S. Won't Lose in Iraq

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A03

FORT IRWIN, Calif., Aug. 29 -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered a passionate defense of the war in Iraq while speaking to a group of hundreds of soldiers at the Army's National Training Center on Monday afternoon, urging them not to give up on the war against extremism as they prepare to re-enter the fight in coming months.

While Rumsfeld has consistently emphasized the need for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his speech was particularly emphatic and included criticism of those in Congress and the media who have questioned the rate of progress, specifically in Iraq.

U.S. Warplanes Back Unprecedented Sunni-Led Offensive

Fierce Fighting in Growing Rift Between Zarqawi Insurgents and Sunni Arab Tribes

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Omar Fekeiki
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; 11:45 AM

RAMADI, Iraq, Aug. 30 -- U.S. warplanes backed Sunni Arab tribal fighters on Tuesday in what tribal leaders called an unprecedented Sunni-led offensive to drive out Abu Musab Zarqawi's forces.

Three days of ongoing fighting in towns near the Syrian border killed at least 61 people, at least 56 of them Tuesday, said Dr. Ali Rawi, emergency-room director at the hospital in the largest city near the fighting, Qaim, about 200 miles northwest of Baghdad.

Gonzales Faults Senate Version of Patriot Act Legislation

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A09

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales yesterday criticized a Senate bill that would place new restrictions on law enforcement in the USA Patriot Act, saying the legislation would hamper the government's ability to prevent terrorist attacks.

Gonzales, during a meeting with editors and reporters at The Washington Post, said he favors a competing House version of the antiterrorism law that includes fewer restrictions on the government.

Roberts Memo Urged Laws Prohibiting Busing, Quotas

By R. Jeffrey Smith and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Page A02

Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr. advised the Reagan administration's attorney general that "it makes eminent sense" to seek legislation permanently barring the use of employment quotas to redress discrimination and prohibiting the busing of students to foster the integration of schools, according to newly disclosed archival documents.

The March 15, 1982, recommendation to enact administration policy into law came up in a written assessment that year by Roberts and a colleague in the office of then-Attorney General William French Smith of legal issues raised by conservative groups.

Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent

By JENNIFER C. KERR
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; 11:10 AM

WASHINGTON -- The nation's poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year, the fourth consecutive annual increase, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

The percentage of people without health insurance did not change.

Digby: Tim Russert For Best Actor

Following up on Michael Wolff's Vanity Fair piece, Media Matters points out that Time magazine withheld information from the public and wrote articles that can only be described as cover ups in the Plame affair.

After speaking to Rove, Cooper sent an email to Michael Duffy, Time's Washington bureau chief, relating what Rove had told him about Wilson's wife and saying that Rove had spoken on "double super secret background." The next day, Cooper spoke to Libby, who confirmed Plame's identity. Two days later, Robert D. Novak's infamous column revealing Plame's identity appeared.

Digby: Got Morals?

Peter Daou has written a very interesting piece today about how the left and right philosophically differ on Iraq. He points out the overlooked fact that the left views the war from a moral standpoint --- indeed, the left views our relationship with the world from a moral standpoint --- while the right sees both those things from a material standpoint. It seems obvious now that he's brought it up, but I've never actually thought about it quite that way before:

The right (broadly speaking) can’t fathom why the left is driven into fits of rage over every Abu Ghraib, every Gitmo, every secret rendition, every breach of civil liberties, every shifting rationale for war, every soldier and civilian killed in that war, every Bush platitude in support of it, every attempt to squelch dissent. They see the left's protestations as appeasement of a ruthless enemy. For the left (broadly speaking), America’s moral strength is of paramount importance; without it, all the brute force in the world won’t keep us safe, defeat our enemies, and preserve our role as the world’s moral leader.....

Digby: Judy In Da Skies

Arianna has a great pithy take on the NY Times ever more pathetic editorial attempts to persuade their readers that something terrible has happened to Judith Miller who is now in her 55th *gasp* day of confinement. (Even as her husband is telling all their friends that Judy is having the time of her life in jail.)

The crux of the editorial is a ludicrous attempt to show that a worldwide outpouring of support for Miller has created a veritable Judy Tsunami heading toward Pat Fitzgerald and the Alexandria Detention Center, ready to sweep her to freedom.

Digby: Mad Props

Angry Mad Props

Everybody's talking about the Iraqi woman, Safia Taleb al-Suhail (who Bush used as a prop last year at the SOTU) saying that the new constitution is a setback for women's rights:

"When we came back from exile, we thought we were going to improve rights and the position of women," she said. "But look what has happened -- we have lost all the gains we made over the last 30 years. It's a big disappointment."

But she's not the only one.

Digby: Awesome Chutzpah

Didn't Reagan and Bush I do this too?--Dictynna.

It looks as though the Republicans are trying out a new play. If it works in this out of town try-out, will it be long until we see it on the national stage? From Josh Marshall:

Gov. Ernie Fletcher(R) of Kentucky and a slew of people from his adminsitration have been embroiled for some time now in a big government personnel scandal. And he just called a press conference and basically pardoned everybody.

King of Zembla: Porn for Monsters

From New Scientist: IN INTERNET chat rooms, veterans ask if anyone else is having a similar experience. "I had an incident where a small Iraqi boy had his leg blown off. His screams haunt my thoughts. Is what I am experiencing normal?" asks IraqCowboy. "They gave me sleeping pills, but it doesn't stop the nightmares," says Chucky. "The doctor says my husband has PTSD," posts Sam. "Does that count as a combat-related illness?"

What is now known as PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder, was called shell shock back in the days of the first world war. Sufferers have harrowing flashbacks, and alternate between emotional numbness and outbursts of rage, guilt and depression. Previously well-adjusted soldiers suffer impaired memory and attention, insomnia and anxiety, and are more likely to take drugs and alcohol later in life. That much is well recognised.

What is less well known is that PTSD can trigger physical as well as psychological ill health. And as the US agonises over how long its soldiers should stay in Iraq, New Scientist has pieced together evidence showing that veterans will be paying the price of combat for decades to come. Recent and soon-to-be published research reveals that soldiers who fought in theatres as diverse as Vietnam and Lebanon are not only more likely to die from an accident on their return, but are also twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease, diabetes and even cancer later in life. And these problems are particularly likely to afflict troops who experience the close-quarters fighting taking place in Iraq . . . .