18 November 2006

Digby: Having Too Much Fun

Matt Yglesias observes something that I hadn't seen before. And it's very disturbing:
What it comes down to is that, somewhat perversely, the "more open" primary system -- as opposed to old-school smoke filled rooms -- has in many ways made webs of connections more rather than less important. Power has been taken out of the hands of a small group of geographically dispersed elites who, acting out of self-interest, might choose to elevate a relatively obscure figure in the interests of securing victory and placed less in the hands of a broad mass of people than in the hands of a small geographically concentrated elite that controls the channels of mass communications -- i.e., the Washington political press. This elite, lacking an actual stake in the outcome, can afford to let self-interest essentially dictate a policy of laziness. Hence, we may be doomed to an endless cycle of Senators (who DC political reporters already cover), governors from Virginia and Maryland (whose exploits are detailed in the Metro section of The Washington Post), and scions of famous families.

Digby: Clinton Rules Redux

Man are these catty little MSNBC snots enjoying their full-on Demo bitch fest. They are partying like it's 1999. Norah O'Donnell, Lawrence O'Donnell, Mary Ann Akers and some other person I don't know have just spent half an hour discussing the fact that Nancy Pelosi ruined her own honeymoon and now it is really quesionable whether she can lead. Meanwhile, the dirty netroots and Howard Dean must have done something wrong because James Carville is hanging out all the Democratic dirty laundry (while his wife cackles with glee, no doubt) and he wouldn't do that unless there was something to it.

Who Will Pay for Iraq and When?

By Jonathan Coopersmith
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor

Thursday 16 November 2006

In all the heated words about the Iraq war, we've heard little or nothing about paying for it. Regardless of how you feel about the war, you must concede that it is going to cost us all dearly.

The Iraq war is consuming over $1.4 billion a week - or $200 million a day. In the time it takes you to read this article, the American government will have spent $700,000 on the war. The war has cost $200 billion already. Economists have estimated the war's ultimate bill will be $1-2 trillion, which includes costs such as the hospitalization and long-term care of tens of thousands of wounded veterans, interest payments on the wartime debt and replacement of worn-out equipment.

Ruling: Classes divided by race

At Preston Hollow, principal tried to appease affluent parents, halt white flight, judge says
09:14 AM CST on Saturday, November 18, 2006
By KENT FISCHER / The Dallas Morning News

For years, it was an open secret at North Dallas' Preston Hollow Elementary School: Even though the school was overwhelmingly Hispanic and black, white parents could get their children into all-white classes. And once placed, the students would have little interaction with the rest of the students.

The result, a federal judge has ruled, was that principal Teresa Parker "was, in effect, operating, at taxpayer's expense, a private school for Anglo children within a public school that was predominantly minority."

No Secrets Here: Federalist Society Plots In the Open

Conservative Legal Group Focuses on Judiciary to Come

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 18, 2006; Page C01

Election? What election?

The pinstriped tribe of conservative legal minds called the Federalist Society -- more than 1,000 of whom gathered at the Mayflower Hotel this week -- is playing a much longer strategic game. Yesterday they had Sen. Arlen Specter at breakfast, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff before lunch and Vice President Cheney at cocktail hour. The message: full speed ahead with the movement.

Young Borrowers Face A Life of Debt

By G. Pascal Zachary, AlterNet. Posted November 18, 2006.

Veteran TV journalist and media critic Danny Schechter's new film, "In Debt We Trust," shows us how financial insecurity has become a staple of American life.

Financial insecurity is one of the staples of American life, and fuel for our nation's politics as well as cable TV shows. Once the elderly worried endlessly about money matters, athough now people over 65 count as the wealthiest group of Americans. Rather, today the biggest worriers about what's euphemistically called our "financial future" are the young, and especially people under 25 years old.

For new college graduates and people out of school for only a few years, financial worries are enormous. Home prices, even if they are starting to fall, remain very high relative to ordinary incomes, and higher mortgage rates are no balm to money worries either. All Americans carry more debt on average than in the past but the increase for young people is most striking since young workers generally earn the least. Between college loans and car loans, people in their 20s are amazingly burdened financially compared to earlier generations, especially compared to my own generation of late-stage baby-boomer.


Americablog: Another $127 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan

by John in DC - 11/18/2006 12:23:00 PM

This is ridiculous. Two-thirds of the "war on terror" money we've spent to date has gone to Iraq - meaning, it was wasted, and not on the war on terror.
[...]

Since 2001, Congress has approved $502 billion for the war on terror, roughly two-thirds for Iraq. The latest request, due to reach the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress next spring, would make the war on terror more expensive than the Vietnam War.

17 November 2006

Ellen Willis: Escape from Freedom: What’s The Matter With Tom Frank (And The Lefties Who Love Him)?

Full Text: PDF

THE AMERICAN LEFT loves Thomas Frank’s latest book. A few quotes from the jacket of What’s the Matter with Kansas? capture the general adulatory tone. Barbara Ehrenreich: “the most insightful analysis of American right-wing pseudo-populism to come along in the last decade.” Michael Kazin: “the second coming of H.L. Mencken, but with better politics.” Molly Ivins: “A heartland populist, Frank is hilariously funny on what makes us red-staters different from those blue-staters (not), and he actually knows evangelical Christians, antiabortion activists, gunnuts,
and Bubbas.” Janeane Garofolo: “Over the last 30 years, the Right has managed to agitate and frighten the citizens of the heartland into consistently voting against their own best interests. It’s about time someone started telling the truth about it—kudos to Tom Frank.” No left meeting or
conference, it seems, is complete without a speech by Frank or a panel on the book. Trying to think of another piece of backlash-era social commentary that had had a comparable impact in left circles, the closest I could come up with was Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism, which
articulated an emerging strain of left cultural conservatism and added “narcissist” to the lexicon of anti-`60s-liberationist putdowns. These two books could hardly be more different, yet in regard to their audience the comparison is oddly instructive. For throughout the tumultuous political changes
of the past three decades, one theme has remained constant: the mainstream left’s desperate wish that the culture wars would disappear. As Lasch appealed to that wish in 1978, so does Frank today.

Ellen Willis, 1941–2006

A personal tribute to the legendary writer, feminist, academic, and Village Voice editor
by Karen Durbin
November 14th, 2006 11:56 AM

"I believe that we are all, openly or secretly, struggling against one or another kind of nihilism. I believe that body and spirit are not really separate, though it often seems that way. I believe that redemption is never impossible and always equivocal. But I guess that I just don't know." —Ellen Willis, Beginning to See the Light


Ellen Willis and I met at The New Yorker in 1968, when I was an editorial dogsbody and she was the magazine's first-ever rock critic. Instead of letting me hate her for that, she was extraordinarily nice and friendly in a shy, wry sort of way. After a while, she took to perching on a corner of my desk—something other New Yorker writers only did if they were going to ask you for a date. Ellen just wanted to talk. I had an anti-war poster on my wall, and we talked about Vietnam and became pals. Eventually we started talking about women's liberation, a subject I found so seismic that I kept my hands under the desk so she wouldn't see them shaking while I casually protested that it really wasn't my thing. What I was really feeling during those conversations were little shocks of recognition, the kind that if you let them can propel you past your own fear.


Katha Pollitt: Why They Lost

[from the December 4, 2006 issue]

They lost because they were mean and let it show. They lost because they were bullies and kicked sand in too many faces. They lost because they said their opponents were godless criminals who wanted Osama to win. They lost because of Iraq. They lost because they kept saying the economy was great to people with bills and pink slips crumpled on the kitchen table. They lost because voters wanted to let the other team screw up for a change. They lost because fourteen months after Katrina, New Orleans is still a wasteland. They lost because of Mark Foley, Macaca, Jack Abramoff and Ted Haggard, the evangelical preacher with the male prostitute and the meth. They lost because Katherine Harris just wouldn't go away. They lost because people thought it over and decided they liked the Constitution the way it was. They lost because of that weird coin scandal in Ohio. They lost because there are limits. They lost because Bush thought it made a difference if he stopped saying we had to "stay the course." They lost because women don't want to be forced to bear their rapists' babies, even in South Dakota, and they don't want the attorney general investigating their abortions, even in Kansas. They lost because Bob Sherwood's mistress called 911 saying she had locked herself in a bathroom because he was trying to strangle her. They lost because they lied so much and stole so much, the other side started to look honest. They lost because you can only outlaw gay marriage once, and they'd already done that in most places. They lost because they couldn't explain why the mission wasn't accomplished and all those people were dead. They lost because torture is not just wrong, it's embarrassing. They lost because Jesus didn't want them for a sunbeam after all.

Foul state of affairs found in feedlots

Factory farms are harmful to the public and the environment, researchers report.

By Marla Cone, Times Staff Writer
November 17, 2006

Growing so large that they are now called factory farms, livestock feedlots are poorly regulated, pose health and ecological dangers and are responsible for deteriorating quality of life in America's and Europe's farm regions, according to a series of scientific studies published this week.

Feedlots are contaminating water supplies with pathogens and chemicals, and polluting the air with foul-smelling compounds that can cause respiratory problems, but the health of their neighbors goes largely unmonitored, the reports concluded.

New Focus on Affirmative Action

Ballot Measures Add to Debate on Continuation of Programs

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, November 17, 2006; Page A23

The number of minorities -- particularly black Americans -- winning government contracts and being admitted to public colleges and universities in California has dwindled since a ballot measure was passed 10 years ago outlawing preferential treatment for minorities in those areas, according to a study released yesterday.

The report comes as the longtime controversy over affirmative action is gaining new attention. Michigan voters last week adopted a constitutional amendment essentially taking the same action as California, and the American Bar Association is facing criticism from some groups for strengthening its diversity requirements for accreditation of law schools.

Preaching the Gospel of Small Government

Published: November 17, 2006

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Lawrence W. Reed is one of those people with so much passion for an unusual line of work that he invented a new occupation, and it has helped shape the conservative movement from here to the Himalayas

Mr. Reed runs a conservative think tank school. Twice a year, ideological allies from across the globe travel to his program at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Mich., to study the tricks of the idea-peddling trade. Policy institutes have been central to a national organizing strategy that has long won the right a reputation for savvy, and state-level versions are growing in number and clout.

Justice Recalls Treats Laced With Poison

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — A discussion of recent threats to judges’ safety, at a bar association conference in suburban Dallas last week, became startlingly specific when Sandra Day O’Connor, the retired Supreme Court justice, recounted that each justice had received in the mail “a wonderful package of home-baked cookies” that contained “enough poison to kill the entire membership of the court.”

Justice O’Connor’s remarks were reported on Thursday in The Star-Telegram in Fort Worth.

Although the episode was not publicly disclosed when it occurred in April 2005, it had a public, although little-noticed, denouement last month when the sender of the poisoned cookies was sentenced in federal court here to 15 years in prison.

America faces a future of managing imperial decline

Bush's failure to grasp the limits of US global power has led to an adventurism for which his successors will pay a heavy price

Martin Jacques
Thursday November 16, 2006
The Guardian


Just a few years ago, the world was in thrall to the idea of American power. The neoconservative agenda not only infused the outlook of the White House, it also dominated the global debate about the future of international relations. Following 9/11, we had, in quick succession, the "war on terror", the "axis of evil", the idea of a new American empire, the overarching importance of military power, the notion and desirability of regime change, the invasion of Iraq, and the proposition that western-style democracy was relevant and applicable to every land in the world, starting with the Middle East. Much of that has unwound with a speed that barely anyone anticipated. With the abject failure of the American occupation of Iraq - to the point where even the American electorate now recognises the fact - the neoconservative era would appear to be in its death throes.

Medicaid directors frustrated by feds



State Medicaid officials, meeting in Washington, D.C., made no progress this week in their standoff with the Bush administration over its plans to cut more than $12.2 billion over five years without consulting Congress.

A top official from the federal agency that oversees Medicaid told state Medicaid directors that the Bush administration plans to go ahead with new administrative rules that will crack down on controversial accounting maneuvers used by many states.

Dennis Smith, director of the federal government’s Center for Medicaid and State Operations, said issuing new regulations would ensure that all states played by the same rules when trying to secure matching grants from the federal government to run Medicaid, the joint state-federal health insurance program for the poor.

Senate Dems plan overhaul of military tribunals bill

Gearing up for a major clash with the Bush administration and Republicans in Congress, several key Senate Democrats are planning to overhaul the newly minted legislation governing military tribunals of detainees.

Even before it was signed into the law last month, Democrats were criticizing the military commission bill as unconstitutional and a magnet or endless legal challenges.

Defense lawyers working on behalf of military detainees at Guantanamo Bay quickly filed suits with the U.S. District Court challenging the constitutionality of the tribunal bill because it suspends the writ of habeas corpus, a court order that would allow detainees to have the legality of their detention reviewed in court to determine whether they should be released from custody.

Good Riddance To The Gingrichites

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16, 2006
(CBS) This commentary was written by CBSNews.com's Dick Meyer.

This is a story I should have written 12 years ago when the "Contract with America" Republicans captured the House in 1994. I apologize.

Really, it's just a simple thesis: The men who ran the Republican Party in the House of Representatives for the past 12 years were a group of weirdos. Together, they comprised one of the oddest legislative power cliques in our history. And for 12 years, the media didn't call a duck a duck, because that's not something we're supposed to do.

I'm not talking about the policies of the Contract for America crowd, but the character. I'm confident that 99 percent of the population — if they could see these politicians up close, if they watched their speeches and looked at their biographies — would agree, no matter what their politics or predilections.

I'm confident that if historians ever spend the time on it, they'll confirm my thesis. Same with forensic psychiatrists. I have discussed this with scores of politicians, staffers, consultants and reporters since 1994 and have found few dissenters.

'Stealth' Bush Appointee Worries About Wayward Wives

By moiv , Talk To Action. Posted November 16, 2006.

The Religious Right's man in Boston is set to become Bush's man for the nation

He's a favorite guest speaker at meetings of the National Right to Life Committee. He's on the medical advisory council for the notorious Leslee Unruh's National Abstinence Clearinghouse, whence he expounds on such topics as the physical and emotional consequences of premarital sex.

He teaches that there is a physiological cause [pdf link] for relationship failure and sexual promiscuity -- a hormonal cause-and-effect that can only be short-circuited by sexual abstinence until marriage. (Editor's note: The following images, except when otherwise noted, are from the PowerPoint presentation described and linked to above.)

Will Dems Protect Americans' Right to Sue?

By Stephanie Mencimer, TomPaine.com. Posted November 17, 2006.
Lobbyists and are gearing up once again to push for tort reforms in Washington. Will the Dems cave in to their demands?

The midterm election returns were barely in before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce started running ads encouraging Democrats to take up where Republicans left off. Their issue wasn't a business staple like lower taxes, smaller government or even illegal immigration. Instead, the nation's biggest business lobby was calling on Democrats to fix "America's lawsuit crisis." The ads promoted the chamber's latest poll, which claimed that 85 percent of people who voted in the midterm elections think frivolous lawsuits are a serious problem and want the next Congress to do something about it. Helpfully, the ad suggests Democrats could improve their standing with swing voters by embracing this "bipartisan" issue.

Enough with the '08 Presidential 'Buzz' Already

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. Posted November 15, 2006.

With the '06 election barely in the rearview mirror, out comes the media's two-year long presidential campaign rumor and buzz industry.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Union Station, late Sunday evening. Arriving in town after a long train ride to do a post-election follow-up, I ducked into the men's room to wash my face before hailing a cab. As I propped my roller luggage against the tile wall and flicked on the faucet, I heard a voice -- to my surprise, since I'd thought the bathroom was empty.

"Hey," it said. "Hey, excuse me. I'm sorry. I know how this sounds, but do you have six dollars?"


16 November 2006

Digby: Quick On The Taser

I have written before about the abusive use of tasers by police in this country. (Talk Left has written much more about this, including discussions of the lawsuits filed against the (Bernie Kerick owned)taser company by police officers themselves for maiming them in their training --- and more than 70 reports of death.)

Here's the latest installment in what is becoming a depressingly commonplace occurence in this country. Excruciating pain is now commonly accepted as a proper way for the police to bend people to their will. It's often used against the mentally ill who populate our streets and is increasingly used in cases of civil disobedience. It's not even particularly controversial.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 11/16/06

As analysts warn that 'Sectarian Strife in Iraq Imperils Entire Region,' Norman Solomon finds that "the American media establishment has launched a major offensive against the option of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq," while 'Dems call for more urgency' but lack 'consensus.'

A "senior U.S. government official" talks up the possibility of a 'pre-emptive Iran strike,' Israel's ambassador claims that 'Bush will not hesitate to use force in Iran," and Bush himself is said to have given the go-ahead for building a 'Bush Center' in Israel.

'Bush Renominates Judicial Picks,' in a move said to have "heartened conservatives" and "outraged liberals." The renominees include Mississippi lawyer Michael Wallace, a unanimous recipient of the American Bar Association's lowest rating.

Bush also renominated former CPB chairman Kenneth Tomlinson as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors.

News Hounds catches Fox News following the script, Robert Greenwald hints of more memos to come, and Cenk Uygur argues that "it's one thing for Fox to be manipulative, it's another for the mainstream press to get manipulated and be oblivious to it."

Ted Turner says that Rupert Murdoch "is one person I don't like. He gives nothing to charity."

Digby: Disenchantment

Beliefnet did a recent poll of evangelicals that sheds a little light on my post below:
The findings were in line with exit poll estimates such as CNN's, which found about 70 percent of white evangelicals voted Republican in Tuesday's elections in which Democrats regained control of the U.S. Congress from President George W. Bush's Republicans.

While still strong, that level of support was below the 74 to 78 percent range that different surveys found in the 2004 election.

Daily Kos: Delaware: A "50 State Strategy" case study

Thu Nov 16, 2006 at 08:19:28 AM PST

(From the diaries. More here -- kos)

If anyone still doubts that Howard Dean's "50 State Strategy" is a huge success compare this recent email message from the Delaware Democratic Party to this recent newspaper article about the Delaware Republican Party:

First the Dems:

We need your help -- this is NOT the end...
Election Day 2006 has passed, but the work at the Delaware Democratic Party is really just beginning.

All five staff members are staying on and we all have a full plate. There are still many jobs that need to completed all over the state, and we need your help.

The worst possible result of an election -- especially a successful one such as this -- is that our supporters go home and are not heard from for two years.

Juan Cole - 11/16/06

Abizaid Opposes Withdrawal, Increase in Troop Levels;
Nearly 100 Killed, including 6 GIs
Hayden: Almost Satannic Terror


Reuters was able to find out about and report nearly 100 killings in the ongoing Iraqi civil war on Wednesday. Police discovered 55 bodies in Baghdad alone, and there were car bombings, firefights and assassinations. The deaths of 6 US troops were announced.

Here's how I interpret the contretemps Wednesday between Gen. John Abizaid and Republican Senator John McCain.. McCain wants to send another division, about 20,000 US troops, to Iraq.

A Way Out Of Iraq

Russ Feingold

November 16, 2006

Russ Feingold is a United States senator from Wisconsin.

On Election Day, the American people weighed in at the ballot box: They want to get our troops out of Iraq. Voters rejected the president’s failed Iraq policy, putting Democrats in charge of Congress and responsible for setting a new direction for Iraq, and, most importantly, for our national security.

Democrats agree that we should begin redeploying troops, but some do not want to set a target deadline for the majority of troops to be withdrawn. That is a mistake. Without a target date, redeployment could drag on indefinitely. The president consistently refused to set a target date for withdrawal, and Democrats shouldn’t follow in his footsteps. Democrats should move forward with a new Iraq policy that includes a target date for the redeployment of U.S. troops so that we can refocus on defeating global terrorist networks.

Lincoln Group: Unethical weapon of mass deception

The controversial public relations outfit has been awarded yet another Pentagon contract. This time, it's up to $20 million for monitoring the media.

Since the inception of the Iraq war, and even during the run-up to the invasion, the Bush Administration aimed to control the news about, and from Iraq. Early on, embedded reporters told stories about the toppling of the statue of Saddam and the heroism of individual soldiers as the military quickly seized Baghdad. Over the course of the subsequent three-plus-year occupation, several hundred million dollars have been spent on an assortment of media projects that were specifically designed to sell "good" news about the occupation. Perhaps the most notorious U.S. effort involved a U.S. public relations company that was contracted to pay for positive news stories -- written by U.S. military personnel -- to be placed in Iraqi publications.

Tomgram: Klare, Bush Goes Over to Imperial Defense

In September 2002, Arab League head Amr Mussa warned that an invasion of Iraq would "open the gates of Hell" in the Middle East. Four years later, with those gates -- at least in Iraq -- open wide enough to drive a tank through, the look of the Bush administration is suddenly in rapid flux. (The neocons, having ushered in Hell, are being ushered out the door; while the first President Bush's "realists" and their followers are heading in.) Given the nominee to replace Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, the Gates of Hell may soon have a new meaning. Right now, despite all the anticipation about future Iraq policy changes, the good news that accompanies the nomination of former CIA Director (and, as president of Texas A&M, keeper of the Bush family flame) Robert Gates has little to do with Iraq and lots to do with Iran.

What the Democrats' win means for tech

By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: November 9, 2006, 4:00 AM PST
Last modified: November 9, 2006, 9:13 AM PST

update It was the narrowest of Republican margins in the U.S. Senate that doomed a crucial vote on Net neutrality earlier this year.

By an 11-11 tie, a GOP-dominated committee failed in June to approve rules requiring that all Internet traffic be treated the same no matter what its "source" or "destination" might be. A similar measure also failed in the House of Representatives.

But now that this week's elections have switched control of the House back to the Democrats--and they appear to have seized the Senate as well--the outlook for technology-related legislation has changed dramatically overnight.

15 November 2006

Digby: Supporting The Troops

Veteran's Day is a good day to take a look at one of the greatest building blocks of the American middle class, the GI Bill:

On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the "Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944," better known as the "GI Bill of Rights." At first the subject of intense debate and parliamentary maneuvering, the famed legislation for veteran of World War II has since been recognized as one of the most important acts of Congress.

During the past five decades, the law has made possible the investment of billions of dollars in education and training for millions of veterans. The nation has in return earned many times its investment in increased taxes and a dramatically changed society.

The law also made possible the loan of billions of dollars to purchase homes for millions of veterans, and helped transform the majority of Americans from renters to homeowners.bocmsdl

Digby: More Southern Agitation

Super smart commenter Sara left this one the Southern Comfort post and I thought it was well worth talking about as we continue this conversation:
Yes, the South needs to rebuild its Democratic Party, and the DNC and Dean can start the ball rolling with some subsidies, but the hard work will be pulling together the Majority Minority African American Democratic Districts with the progressive democratic culture. It has to be built by people on the ground who can cross that racial divide and the trust divide that reflects racial sell-outs of the past, and create one party. For right now the secure Democratic Districts are mostly Majority African American -- and in many parts of the South, that is the core of the Democratic Party. In Texas it will need to be three way trust -- White anglo, Hispanic and Black.

Digby: My Best Vote

This is my congressman:
The Democratic congressman who will investigate the Bush administration's running of the government says there are so many areas of possible wrongdoing, his biggest problem will be deciding which ones to pursue.

There's the response to Hurricane Katrina, government contracting in Iraq and on homeland security, political interference in regulatory decisions by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, and allegations of war profiteering, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Digby: God Gap

Before everyone moves on from this election, I think it's important that we all bookmark this post by Kevin Drum and keep it handy. A new zombie meme is emerging and it's going to have to be chased down and killed over and over again:
Why do I keep writing about the exit polls? Because of stories like this from the Washington Post's Alan Cooperman:
Religious liberals contended that a concerted effort by Democrats since 2004 to appeal to people of faith had worked minor wonders, if not electoral miracles, in races across the country.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Catching the Can’t-Do Spirit

After their roaring two-house victory, the Democrats are squeaking about micro-policies. There’ll be no impeachment, we’re told, though maybe a bit more oversight of Halliburton-style war profiteering. No withdrawal from Iraq, only a “phased redeployment.” And, the New York Times assures us (11/12/06), that the Dems “ have largely dropped … talk of a Canadian-style national health insurance.” Instead, they might try to reverse the Medicare drug plan’s ban on bargaining for drug price discounts.

They’ve caught the can’t-do spirit that hovers over that former malarial swamp, Washington D.C.

Americablog: Here we go again

by John in DC - 11/15/2006 06:00:00 PM

This just in. Sources close to the Abramoff investigation say Harry Reid might have been fingered by Abramoff as one of the Senators he peddled influence to, or from, or whatever.

Oh, I'm sorry.

That's not breaking news.

FOX NEWS INTERNAL MEMO: "Be On The Lookout For Any Statements From The Iraqi Insurgents...Thrilled At The Prospect Of A Dem Controlled Congress"...

| Posted November 14, 2006 06:50 PM

Huffington Post has obtained an internal Fox News memo written by the network's Vice President of news. The memo details Fox's game plan the day Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House.

Abramoff Reports to Prison Tomorrow; Offers Testimony on Democratic Senators

November 14, 2006 4:13 PM

Brian Ross and Rhonda Schwartz Report:

Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff is scheduled to report to federal prison tomorrow, over the objections of federal prosecutors who say they still need his help to pursue leads on officials he allegedly bribed.

Sources close to the investigation say Abramoff has provided information on his dealings with and campaign contributions and gifts to "dozens of members of Congress and staff," including what Abramoff has reportedly described as "six to eight seriously corrupt Democratic senators."

The sources say Abramoff was about to provide information about Bush administration officials, including Karl Rove, "accepting things of value" from Abramoff.

Amateur Videos Are Putting Official Abuse in New Light

By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 15, 2006; A01

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- "Do your squat! Do your squat!" the policewoman barked. "Arms up!"

The 22-year-old babysitter, Hemy Hamisa Abu Hassan Saari, had already been forced to strip naked. Now she was being ordered to squat up and down, over and over, keeping her elbows away from her body and holding her earlobes.

"I cried. I was scared. I was ashamed," Hemy said in an interview, recalling what had happened on the night of June 29, 2005. She had just been arrested for drug possession. She had no drugs, her attorney said, but police found some on a friend of her fiance. Police arrested the whole group anyway.

"Do I really have to do this?" Hemy, who had never been arrested before, pleaded with the female officer standing in front of her in a tiny police station locker room.

Intelligence sources question Gates' independence from Cheney, Rumsfeld

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Tuesday November 14, 2006

Many current and former intelligence experts, officers, and policy makers are questioning the rationale for the seemingly unexpected nomination of Robert M. Gates to the post of Secretary of Defense, RAW STORY has learned.

Gates was named as President Bush's chosen replacement for the beleaguered Donald Rumsfeld just one day after the Democrats swept the midterm elections last week to win majorities in both houses of Congress.


Official says U.S. may mull pre-emptive Iran strike

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States or other countries will one day be forced to consider pre-emptive action if Iran and North Korea continue to seek nuclear weapons, a senior U.S. government official said on Tuesday.

The United States and its allies have accused Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy program and are pushing for United Nations' sanctions. Tehran denies the accusation.

North Korea conducted an underground test of what was believed to have been a small nuclear weapon last month.

(US-provided) Cuban democracy funds spent on Game Boys

Richard Luscombe in Miami
Wednesday November 15, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


Cuban dissidents who were given millions of dollars by the US government to support democracy in their homeland instead blew money on computer games, cashmere sweaters, crabmeat and expensive chocolates, which were then sent to the island.

A scathing congressional audit of democracy-assistance programmes found “questionable expenditure” by several groups funded by Washington in opposition to President Fidel Castro’s rule on the communist Caribbean island.

Pakistan Link Seen in Afghan Suicide Attacks

Published: November 14, 2006

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 13 — Afghan and NATO security forces have recently rounded up several men like Hafiz Daoud Shah, a 21-year-old unemployed Afghan refugee who says he drove across the border to Afghanistan in September in a taxi with three other would-be suicide bombers.

Every case, Afghan security officials say, is similar to that of Mr. Shah, who repeated his story in a rare jailhouse interview with a reporter in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The trail of organizing, financing and recruiting the bombers who have carried out a rising number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan traces back to Pakistan, they say.

Insurers offer plan to cover uninsured

Industry group calls it America's No. 1 policy priority

By Judith Graham, Tribune staff reporter; Tribune news services contributed to this report
Published November 14, 2006

The insurance industry proposed an ambitious plan Monday to cover as many as 45 million uninsured Americans, adopting a pro-health reform posture that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

"We think covering the uninsured should be the nation's No. 1 domestic policy priority," said Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, the nation's leading health insurance trade group.

The organization called on the federal government to spend an additional $300 billion over 10 years to expand public health programs for poor Americans, offer subsidies to working families to buy medical coverage, and support state health reform efforts. But there are no specifics on how the proposals would be financed or provisions for taming rapidly escalating costs.

Dems win another seat in the House, GOP incumbent overthrown in recount

Recount gives Courtney win in 2nd District

HARTFORD, Conn. --A roller-coaster recount that uncovered vote-counting flaws in several Connecticut towns gave Democrat Joe Courtney a narrow victory over three-term Republican Rep. Rob Simmons on Tuesday.

Courtney won by 91 votes instead of the 167-vote margin counted on election night, according to results tabulated by 65 town clerks and reported to The Associated Press. Nearly 250,000 votes were cast.

14 November 2006

Russ Feingold: The Dangerous Lame Duck

In January, we will be looking at a new Congress, and with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, we will be looking at a new national policy agenda. I know that I am looking forward to moving the progressive agenda forward in the next Congress. But Democrats can't just kick back and take it easy for the next few weeks.

It would be a huge mistake to overlook the potential for damage in the lame duck session. A lame duck session doesn't sound like anything to worry about, but this lame duck may be a lot more dangerous than people think. We can expect Republicans to try to jam through as much of their agenda as they can while they have the chance.

For Evangelicals, Supporting Israel Is ‘God’s Foreign Policy’

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — As Israeli bombs fell on Lebanon for a second week last July, the Rev. John Hagee of San Antonio arrived in Washington with 3,500 evangelicals for the first annual conference of his newly founded organization, Christians United For Israel.

At a dinner addressed by the Israeli ambassador, a handful of Republican senators and the chairman of the Republican Party, Mr. Hagee read greetings from President Bush and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and dispatched the crowd with a message for their representatives in Congress. Tell them “to let Israel do their job” of destroying the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, Mr. Hagee said.

He called the conflict “a battle between good and evil” and said support for Israel was “God’s foreign policy.”

The next day he took the same message to the White House.

New 'Terrorism' Laws to Protect Animal Abusers’ Profits

Legislation that zipped easily through the Senate would re-criminalize certain acts, including non-violent civil disobedience, as "terrorism" if carried out in defense of animals.

Nov. 13 – A new law moving through Congress threatens to classify non-violent civil disobedience carried out by animal-rights groups as terrorism.

The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), already passed unanimously by the US Senate, expands on a previous law aimed at activists who protest the treatment of animals. It reclassifies common activist tactics as terrorism based solely on the cause pursued.

Rumsfeld may face abuse charges

Donald Rumsfeld, who quit as US defence secretary this week, may face criminal charges in Germany for alleged abuses in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.

A complaint has been launched by the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, representing a Saudi detained in Cuba and 11 Iraqis held in Baghdad.

German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world.

Michael Kinsley: Bake Me a Cake, Baker Man

Why the Baker commission won't fix Iraq.


If I told you that there was something in Washington called the Baker commission but didn't tell you what it was about, you still could probably name many of its members. If you are of a certain age, you might wonder, "Jim or Howard?" And you might have a quibble or two.

Where is Dick Holbrooke? Does Sandra Day O'Connor's new availability mean that Madeleine Albright is out of luck from now on? Are they sure that Larry Eagleburger is still alive? But Vernon Jordan is there, along with Ed Meese and Alan Simpson and Lee Hamilton. This is one torch that has not been passed to a new generation, although former Virginia senator and presidential son-in-law Charles Robb (age 67) is a fresh face in the pool of Washington Wise Men. Welcome, Chuck.

Paul Krugman: True Blue Populists

Senator George Allen of Virginia is understandably shocked and despondent. Just a year ago, a National Review cover story declared that his “down-home persona” made him “quite possibly the next president of the United States.” Instead, his political career seems over.

And it wasn’t just macaca, or even the war, that brought him down. Mr. Allen, a reliable defender of the interests of the economic elite, found himself facing an opponent who made a point of talking about the problem of rising inequality. And the tobacco-chewing, football-throwing, tax-cutting, Social Security-privatizing senator was only one of many faux populists defeated by real populists last Tuesday.

Administration: Detainees have no rights

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
Mon Nov 13, 6:53 PM ET

The Bush administration said Monday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts and that lawsuits by hundreds of detainees should be dismissed.

In court documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department defended the military's authority to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without access to courts.

It's the first time that argument has been spelled out since President Bush signed a law last month setting up military commissions for the thousands of foreigners being held in U.S. prisons abroad.

Bush hailed the law as a crucial tool in the war on terrorism and said it would allow prosecution of several high-level terror suspects.

A Liberal's Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives

by Michael Moore

To My Conservative Brothers and Sisters,

I know you are dismayed and disheartened at the results of last week's election. You're worried that the country is heading toward a very bad place you don't want it to go. Your 12-year Republican Revolution has ended with so much yet to do, so many promises left unfulfilled. You are in a funk, and I understand.

Well, cheer up, my friends! Do not despair. I have good news for you. I, and the millions of others who are now in charge with our Democratic Congress, have a pledge we would like to make to you, a list of promises that we offer you because we value you as our fellow Americans. You deserve to know what we plan to do with our newfound power -- and, to be specific, what we will do to you and for you.

RAND study shows little public money spent on health care to undocumented immigrants

A small fraction of health care spending is used to provide publicly supported care to America's undocumented immigrants, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today. The report, which appears in the November edition of the journal Health Affairs, estimates that about $1.1 billion in federal, state and local government funds are spent annually on health care for undocumented immigrants aged 18 to 64 -- amounting to an average of $11 in taxes per US household.

Firms covering large majority of nation's workers view health benefits as important recruitment tool

Health Affairs article finds employers support shared responsibility for financing health coverage

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Despite intense health care cost pressures, firms covering more than 90 percent of the nation's workforce view health benefits as an important tool to attract and retain qualified workers, according to a national study by researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) and The Commonwealth Fund published in the November/ December edition of Health Affairs.

Moreover, firms employing two-thirds of all workers, including both firms that do and do not offer health benefits, agreed that "all employers should share in the cost of health insurance for employees, either by covering their own workers or by contributing to a fund to cover the uninsured," the study found.

13 November 2006

Glenn Greenwald: George Bush and GOP House Leaders: "conservatism" defined

Of all the dishonesty and political manipulation to which we have been subjected over the last five years, a good argument can be made that this is the most dishonest yet:
Since the election, a chorus from the right has been noisily distinguishing between conservative and Republican, blaming deviation from conservative principles for the election losses. From George Will to Rush Limbaugh, conservatives cut loose with criticisms of the Republicans for spending too much at home and getting bogged down in Iraq.
"Conservatism" -- like "communism" -- has only one real definition, only one definition that matters: "that which 'conservatives' and the leaders they support do when in power." Conservatism is a set of principles about how government ought to function and the policies which political leaders should implement. And those principles can be known not by how they exist in some Platonic form, abstractly enshrined by think tank groups or in textbooks. One knows it by how its proponents -- "conservatives" -- actually govern and by who and what they support.

Dollar Hit By Chinese Comments

Shu-Ching Jean Chen and R.M. Schneiderman 11.10.06, 3:35 PM ET

These days, the currency markets turn to Chinese central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, as much as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, for clues about the future of the dollar.

An apparently off-the-cuff comment from Zhou late on Thursday set off a round of selling pressure against the dollar. The Chinese central bank chief was quoted as saying that his institution has plans to diversify its assets into “many instruments,” presumably moving away from the dollar.

Social Security at roots of shift

Democrats set groundwork in reform fight

WASHINGTON -- Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid had a decision to make. President Bush was starting his second term with a brash challenge to a sacred Democratic program -- Social Security -- and the House and Senate Democratic leaders needed a coordinated response, and fast.

Pelosi and Reid, new leaders of demoralized and diminished Democrats in the House and Senate, were caught off guard by the president's gambit, and quickly faced Republican mockery that the Democratic Party could only say "no." Would Democrats offer a plan of their own? Or would they insist on total opposition, brushing aside Bush's not-so-subtle message that Democrats would stand in his way at their own peril?

Steve Gilliard: Republican staffers, a new career awaits

I'm sure we'll see a stampede to the recruiters office...--Dictynna

Dear Republican staffer,

As you know, the last election cycle has left many of you looking for employment.

We are hiring.

We know many of you are patriotic Americans who long to serve their country, and take great pride in the country and it's ideals.

I'll be honest, we need more Marines. We need the kind of men and women who want to serve this country, and often face danger.

Having served the Congress, you know the peril we face. Without your help, all of our work and effort in the war on terror may come to naught.

Global growth in carbon emissions is 'out of control'

By Steve Connor Science Editor

Published: 11 November 2006

The growth in global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels over the past five years was four times greater than for the preceding 10 years, according to a study that exposes critical flaws in the attempts to avert damaging climate change.

Data on carbon dioxide emissions shows that the global growth rate was 3.2 per cent in the five years to 2005 compared with 0.8 per cent from 1990 to 1999, despite efforts to reduce carbon pollution through the Kyoto agreement.

America's worst presidents

The Republican performance in this week's midterm elections has led many commentators to describe Bush as the most disastrous leader in US history. But what about the competition? We asked the experts to cast their votes

Published: 11 November 2006

George W Bush: chosen by Owen Dudley Edwards

The question "who is the worst US president" is something I have thought long and hard about and the answer is very simple: it is the incumbent president. I had previously thought that Nixon was the worst and there were other candidates such as Warren Harding - but they all pale in comparison to Bush. He has displaced all his predecessors. Nobody has been quite as appalling.

'IBD' Hits Rep. Conyers As 'Islamist' Tool, Hails Rumsfeld as 'Great'

By E&P Staff

Published: November 11, 2006 3:30 PM ET
NEW YORK The conservative business publication, Investor's Business Daily, isn't taking this week's elections results in stride. In a blistering editorial, the newspaper charges that Rep. John Conyers, soon to chair the House Judiciary Committee, is "leading a Democrat jihad to deny law enforcement key terror-fighting tools" and "is in the pocket of Islamists."

Proof for this? Conyers, whose district in Michigan holds a large Arab-Amercian population, has a version of his Web site in Arabic and allegedly "does the bidding of these new constituents and the militant Islamist activists who feed off them." More "evidence": Conyers opposes the Patriot Act and has called for the president's impeachment.

Somber analysis of Iraq's future

STUDY GROUP MEETS WITH BUSH MONDAY

By Frank Davies MediaNews Washington Bureau

The situation in Iraq is ``even worse than we thought,'' with key Iraqi leaders showing no willingness to compromise to avoid increasing violence, said Leon Panetta, a member of the high-powered advisory group that will recommend new options for the war.

The Iraq Study Group, including Panetta, plans to meet with President Bush and his national security team Monday at the White House, and gather more data on the war through briefings and interviews next week. Panetta was chief of staff in the Clinton White House.

The blue-ribbon group, headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and ex-Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, plans to make recommendations to the Bush administration and Congress next month on new ways to handle the war. Members said they wanted to wait until after the election, to remove a debate about Iraq from campaign pressures.

Liberal groups expect postelection results

Funny, this only seems to be a problem for liberals...and why do Democrats have to "govern from the center"? The Republicans certainly didn't!--Dictynna

Activists who helped Democrats secure Congress make clear they intend to get their reward.

By Peter Wallsten and Janet Hook, Times Staff Writers
November 12, 2006

WASHINGTON — After toppling the long-dominant Republicans in a hard-fought election, the Democratic Party's incoming congressional leaders have immediately found themselves in another difficult struggle — with their own supporters.

Some of the very activists who helped propel the Democrats to a majority in the House and Senate last week are claiming credit for the victories and demanding what they consider their due: a set of ambitious — and politically provocative — actions on gun control, abortion, national security and other issues that party leaders fear could alienate moderate voters and leave Democrats vulnerable to GOP attacks as big spenders or soft on terrorism.

African nomads to be first people wiped out by climate change

Kenya's herdsmen are facing extinction as global warming destroys their lands

Peter Beaumont, foreign affairs editor
Sunday November 12, 2006
The Observer


They are dubbed the 'climate canaries' - the people destined to become the first victims of world climate change. And as government ministers sit down in Nairobi at this weekend's UN Climate Conference, the people most likely to be wiped out by devastating global warming will be only a few hundred miles away from their deliberations.

Those people, according to research commissioned by the charity Christian Aid, will be the three million pastoralists of northern Kenya, whose way of life has sustained them for thousands of years but who now face eradication. Hundreds of thousands of these seasonal herders have already been forced to forsake their traditional culture and settle in Kenya's north eastern province following consecutive droughts that have decimated their livestock in recent years.

Black candidates head for middle at polls

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Black candidates in the U.S. midterm elections moved toward the political center, seeking votes across the spectrum and playing down race, academics and analysts said on Friday.

The strategy reflects a further shift from African- American leaders rooted in the civil rights era to a generation of politicians for whom race can be used best as a vehicle for appealing to universal themes such as overcoming poverty.

In one of the most high-profile races involving black candidates, Democrat Deval Patrick was elected governor of Massachusetts, becoming the state's first black governor, after running on a centrist platform.

Bush facing Senate barrier to judges

BY TOM BRUNE
Newsday Washington Bureau

November 13, 2006

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's aim of creating an unwavering conservative majority on the Supreme Court faces higher hurdles now that Democrats control the Senate, but he still could achieve his goal before leaving office, some activists and experts say.

With a slim 51-vote margin and control of the judicial confirmation process, Democratic Senate leaders can stall and delay but likely cannot count on all senators in the caucus to vote against an appealing conservative nominee.

Glenn Greenwald: Why the Beltway class can't comprehend the Russ Feingolds of the world

When Russ Feingold announced in March that he would introduce a resolution to censure President Bush for breaking the law by eavesdropping on Americans without warrants, a clear two-pronged consensus immediately arose among Beltway pundits and politicians -- including Republicans and many Democrats as well:

(1) Feingold had just disastrously handed a huge "gift" to Republicans, because opposition to Bush's warrantless eavesdropping would doom the Democrats politically, and,

(2) Feingold had introduced this resolution not because he really believed anything he was saying about it, but only as a "political stunt," selfishly designed to advance his own political interests (at the expense of his party) by shoring up the "liberal base" for his 2008 presidential run.

12 November 2006

Can Eliot Spitzer Stay Progressive?

Clint Hendler November 8, 2006

He’s famously fought Wall Street corruption, Con Edison, and the insurance industry. But now that Spitzer is New York’s 54th Governor, can he take these values to Albany and (eventually) the White House?

Late Tuesday night, Eliot Spitzer took the stage in a crowded Manhattan ballroom to be greeted as New York’s governor-elect. Clinging tightly to the Plexiglas podium, sweat rolling down his face, he stood in front of his family and a hand-painted American flag backdrop.

“At times in my life, I have been known as the people’s lawyer,” Spitzer told the cheering crowd. “And I fully intend to serve this state as a people’s governor.”

Marines’ Reaction to the News: ‘Who’s Rumsfeld?’

Published: November 10, 2006

ZAGARIT, Iraq, Nov. 9 — Hashim al-Menti smiled wanly at the marine sergeant beside him on his couch. The sergeant had appeared in the darkness on Wednesday night, knocking on the door of Mr. Menti’s home.

When Mr. Menti answered, a squad of infantrymen swiftly moved in, making him an involuntary host.

Since then marines had been on his roof with rifles, watching roads where insurgents often planted bombs.

Jack Abramoff’s Shell Games and Fall Guys

The spreading ripples of corruption around the superlobbyist helped to take out Burns, Pombo, and Hayworth. But at its core, Abramoff’s operation used an assortment of players and patsies to funnel money all over D.C.

Peter Stone
November 09 , 2006

The sprawling influence-peddling scandal starring convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff was the most prominent of several corruption and ethics issues that in Tuesday's elections proved costly to Republicans. The defeats of Senator Conrad Burns of Montana and Reps. Richard Pombo of California and J.D. Hayworth of Arizona were all partly attributable to their links to the one time superlobbyist whose campaign largess was legendary. Burns received almost $150,000 in campaign contributions—more than any other Member of Congress—from Abramoff, his lobbying colleagues and his deep-pocketed Indian casino clients. Burns, two of whose former staffers worked for Abramoff, has faced scrutiny in the long running Justice Department-led criminal probe into Abramoff's influence-buying schemes.

That probe last month secured its first conviction of a member of Congress when Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), pleaded guilty to two felonies. One of the charges centered on Ney's receiving tens of thousands in free meals at Abramoff's former restaurant Signatures, free tickets to sporting events, and an infamous $160,000 golf junket to Scotland in the summer of 2002 with the lobbyist and several others. In exchange, Ney agreed to push legislation to benefit Abramoff and some of his clients. Ney, who resigned from Congress right before the midterm election, is expected to serve about two years and is slated to go to prison early next year.