Katha Pollitt: Ayatollah D'Souza

[from the February 5, 2007 issue]

In his new book, The Enemy at Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11, far-right provocateur Dinesh D'Souza argues that Al Qaeda really does hate our freedoms--and so does he. Forget geopolitics--Israel/Palestine, US military bases in Saudi Arabia, our support for assorted corrupt regimes, Arab socioeconomic stagnation. No, 9/11 was provoked by feminism, birth control, abortion, pornography, feminism, Hollywood, divorce, the First Amendment, gay marriage, and did I mention feminism? Muslims fear the West is out to foist its depraved, licentious, secular "decadence" on their pious patriarchal societies. And, D'Souza argues, they're right. Working mothers! Will & Grace! Child pornography! Our vulgar, hedonistic, gender-egalitarian, virally expanding NGO-promoted values so offend "traditional Muslims" that they have thrown in their lot with Osama and other America-haters. At times D'Souza sounds like he can barely keep from enlisting himself: "American conservatives should join Muslims and others in condemning the global moral degeneracy that is produced by liberal values."

Ezra Klein: A Charles Murray Reader

Charles Murray has another execrable article in the Wall Street Journal arguing that most children aren't genetically capable of reading well (it's possible these inferiors can, with great persistence and dedication, learn to sound words out), and so we should stop trying to teach them. Indeed, Murray argues that, "It would be nice if we knew how [to raise intelligence], but we do not. It has been shown that some intensive interventions temporarily raise IQ scores by amounts ranging up to seven or eight points...There is no reason to believe that raising intelligence significantly and permanently is a current policy option, no matter how much money we are willing to spend."

Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of Churches

New report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations

If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.

For those who remember a similar IRD-led attack on the World Council of Churches two decades ago the IRD's latest blast appears to be -- to borrow a phrase from New York Yankee great Yogi Berra -- "déjà vu all over again."

Six Questions for Dale C. Carson on Staying Off the “Electronic Plantation”

Posted on Friday, January 19, 2007.

Dale C. Carson, a former FBI agent and now a criminal defense lawyer in Jacksonville, Florida, authored the new book, Arrest-Proof Yourself. Funny and very politically incorrect, the book is a how-to guide for staying out of jail—which Carson says should be of concern not only to career criminals but to “people with lapses in judgment, bad manners, a taste for marijuana, and no knowledge of how the criminal justice system operates.” Being arrested might not necessarily lead to a prison stretch, but it will lead to permanent placement in the “electronic plantation,” the term Carson uses to describe the growing web of federal and state criminal databases. Once you’re on the plantation, he says, you can look forward to a lifetime of low-wage jobs and trouble with authorities. In the old days, Carson writes, “All anyone had to do to escape youthful indiscretions was blow town. Nowadays, that doesn't work. Once you're in the 'puter, my friend, you're there for life.” I recently spoke by phone with Carson about the many pearls of wisdom contained in his new book. By Ken Silverstein.

Ted Rall: 250,000,000, Insured But Still In Trouble

The Healthcare Crisis for the Rest of Us

NEW YORK--Some people are just cheap. Others are playing the odds, reasoning that paying for doctors and prescription medications on an ad hoc basis will prove cheaper than the $500-plus per month they'd have to shell out for health insurance. But most of America's 47 million uninsured live and die without coverage because they can't afford it. Worse than a national scandal, our failing healthcare system is an international disgrace. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are so desperate that they travel overseas in order to leech off socialized medical care systems, which are prevalent in other industrialized nations.

"We are overwhelmed by you (expletive deleted) Americans," an exasperated emergency-room physician at a Canadian hospital across the border from upstate New York told one of my friends, whose girlfriend had driven him the eight hours from Manhattan to Quebec after he'd fallen down some stairs and broken his arm.

The New Crusaders

The radical traditionalist Catholics, who reject the teachings of the modern papacy, may form America's largest group of anti-Semites.

by Heidi Beirich

"Fucking Jews!"

So began Mel Gibson's now infamous anti-Semitic rant to Los Angeles sheriff's deputies who pulled him over on suspicion of drunken driving last July. "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," the world-famous movie actor continued, before asking his arresting officer: "Are you a Jew?"

After his tirade made international news, Gibson promptly disappeared into an addiction clinic. He left behind a statement, released through a spokesman, begging the Jewish community for forgiveness and suggesting that booze was to blame. He was, he wrote, "in the process of understanding where those vicious words came from during that drunken display." But their origin is easy enough to pinpoint -- the extremist Catholic beliefs Gibson learned at the knees of his anti-Semitic father.

Digby: Coming or Going?

Bush gave another incoherent interview to Jim Lehrer today, which I will have to go back and parse later because I'm tied up. For right now, I wonder if someone who knows more about this would care to comment:

MR. LEHRER: What does success mean in these terms now, Mr. President?

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yeah, well, success, Jim, means a government that is providing security for its people. A success means for the American people to see Iraqi troops chasing down killers with American help initially. A success means a Baghdad that is, you know, relatively calm compared to last year so that people's lives can go forward and a political process can go forward along with it. Success means the government taking steps to share the oil wealth or to deal with a de-Baathification law, to encourage local elections. Success means reconstruction projects that employ Iraqis. Success also means making sure al-Qaeda doesn't get a foothold in Iraq, which they're trying to do in Anbar province. So success is measurable; it's definable; and last year was a year in which there was a setback to success.

Digby: Justice Delayed

... but not denied.

Everyone knows that Firedoglake is the go-to blog for live Libby Trial blogging and analysis, right? Think of it as the internet equivalent of all those OJ shows on the cablers, except smart and literate.

Digby: Family Values

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Digby: Legal Assault

The rightwing assault on the legal system continues apace. First you have this strange Pentagon lawyer and spokesman Cully Stimson obviously cooking up a rightwing noise machine operation with Monica Crowley and the Wall Street Journal editorial page to run a boycott on law firms that represent prisoners at Guantanamo. The Pentagon eventually "distanced itself" from his remarks but this guy has been out there saying all kinds of crazy stuff for some time. (In fact, all the people involved with Guantanamo often sound like psychos for some reason. Do they look for these creepy types specifically?)

Digby: He Has Not Listened

I got yer plan for ya right here:

BLITZER: Are you in favor of using the power of the purse that Congress has to try to stop this war?

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: Yes. I believe because the president has not listened to the Congress, he hasn't listened to the bipartisan Iraq Study Group and to the American people, that overwhelmingly want a change of course, I believe that's the function of the Congress, to deal with the appropriations process, find ways to at least this surge, to deny the funds to make it happen, because this is going to add to sectarian violence.

Digby: Terrified Bean Counters

One of the things I think liberals find most irritating about the right (and they do it for that purpose as much as anything) is when they appropriate liberal icons and language and then disingenuously hit us over the heads with them. Most offensive is when they say we are racists, considering their revolting history in such matters.

Rick Perlstein wrote a piece for TNR last week that reminds us just how much they loved Martin Luther King in his time and why their current paeans to his greatness ring so hollow:

Digby: What The Hell?

Iraq hanged two aides to Saddam Hussein before dawn on Monday but government efforts to avoid a repeat of uproar over the ousted leader's rowdy execution were thwarted when his half-brother's head was severed by the noose.

Many of the government's Shi'ite Muslim supporters rejoiced at the death of Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, Saddam's once feared intelligence chief who was accused of sending people to death in a meat grinder. But voices in Iraq's Sunni Arab minority saw the decapitation as a deliberate sectarian act of revenge.

Digby: Learning Too Much

Jonathan Chait misses the point with this article today in TNR:

I don't want to accuse American doves of rooting for the United States to lose in Iraq, because I know they love their country and understand the dire consequences of defeat. But the urge to gloat is powerful, and some of them do seem to be having a grand time in the wake of being vindicated.

Romney's Mountain Of Dilemmas

12:10 AM CST on Friday, January 19, 2007

Mitt Romney is not going to be president. He's not going to even be the Republican nominee.

It all boils down to - may we use a French word? - finesse. Finesse is defined as "skillful, subtle handling of a situation; tactful, diplomatic maneuvering." The former Massachusetts governor does not have it.

Rogers Says Oil Will Rise to $100 After `Correction' (Update6)

By Wendy Pugh and Yasumasa Song

Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oil will resume its march toward $100 a barrel after a ``correction,'' said Jim Rogers, who predicted the start of the commodities rally in 1999.

``I'm just not smart enough to know how far down it will go and how long it will stay, but I do know that within the context of the bull market, oil will go over $100,'' Rogers said in a Tokyo interview. ``It will go over $150. Whether that is in 2009 or 2013, I don't have a clue, but I know it's going to happen.''

Crude oil in New York has fallen 34 percent to a 19-month low since it peaked at a record $78.40 a barrel in July. Rogers, author of ``Hot Commodities,'' has said oil will keep rising because there hasn't been a major discovery for 30 years and economic growth in China and across Asia is driving up demand.

It's Still About The Oil

Antonia Juhasz

January 19, 2007

Antonia Juhasz, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, is the author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time (HarperCollins, 2006). She is also contributing author, with John Perkins and others, to A Game as Old as Empire (Berrett-Koehler, February 2007).

For more than four years, the Bush administration and its oil company cohorts have worked toward the passage of a new oil law for Iraq that would turn its nationalized oil system over to private foreign corporate control. On Thursday, January 18, this dream came one step closer to reality when an Iraqi negotiating committee of "national and regional leaders" approved a new hydrocarbon law. The committee chair, Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, told Reuters that the draft will go to the Iraqi cabinet next week and, if approved, to the parliament immediately thereafter.

Prosecutor says presidential recount rigged in Ohio county

M.R. KROPKO

Associated Press

CLEVELAND - Three elections workers in the state's most populous county conspired to avoid a more thorough recount of ballots in the 2004 presidential election, a prosecutor told jurors during opening statements Thursday.

"The evidence will show that this recount was rigged, maybe not for political reasons, but rigged nonetheless," Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said. "They did this so they could spend a day rather than weeks or months" on the recount, he said.

Ex-Rice speechwriter: She doesn't have 'vaguest notion' of Middle East history

01/19/2007 @ 11:31 am

Filed by Michael Roston

An ex-State Department speechwriter today told the Wall Street Journal that his former boss Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice lacked a clear understanding of modern Middle Eastern history.

The article by Neil King, Jr., takes up the tendency of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to analogize current US policy in the Middle East with America's experience during the Cold War.

Gonzales faces sharp criticism by senators

By Greg Gordon

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats and one Republican pressed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Thursday to explain why it took the Bush administration five years to give a secret national security court control over government eavesdropping on suspected terrorists.

Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that such a change was highly complex - "not the kind of thing you pull off a shelf" - and that it took time to find a way to do it without compromising the nation's security.

House Democrats celebrate the passage of their 100-hour agenda

By Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Democrats congratulated themselves Thursday as they led the House of Representatives to pass the last of their six priority bills well within a self-imposed deadline of the first 100 legislative hours.

"We have delivered on the promise," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "We have demonstrated that the Congress of the United States is not a place where good ideas and the optimism of the American people go to die."

The partisan celebration may be short-lived, however. For all the House Democrats' success in delivering on their campaign promise to win results in their first 100 hours in power, the achievement reveals little about whether they'll be able to push the federal government in a new direction.

Tomgram: Crusading in the Arc of Instability

George Bush's Crusading Scorecard (2001-2007)

The Look of a War against Islam

By Tom Engelhardt

Just five days after the September 11th attacks in 2001, in a Q and A with reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, a President with a new mission, a new cause, and a new purpose in life told the American people that, though they had to "go back to work tomorrow," they should now know that they were facing a "new kind of evil." He added, "And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while."

This crusade, this war on terrorism. It had such a ring to it; in the Arab world, of course, it was a ring many centuries old and deeply disturbing. And it came so naturally, so easily off the President's tongue (though it took days of backtracking by his spokesmen and prominent presidential references to "the peaceful teachings of Islam" perverted by "a fringe form of Islamic extremism" to begin to make up for it). But that little "slip" of the tongue spoke volumes. It signaled that George W. Bush was already in his own heroic dream world and, only those few days after the 9/11 attacks, had both a "crusade" on the brain and "victory" in that crusade firmly in mind. As a result, he made this promise to the American people: "It is time for us to win the first war of the 21st century decisively, so that our children and our grandchildren can live peacefully into the 21st century."

Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials

By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 18, 6:55 PM ET

The Pentagon set rules Thursday for detainee trials that could allow terror suspects to be convicted and perhaps executed using hearsay testimony and coerced statements, setting up a new clash between President Bush and Congress.

The rules are fair, said the Pentagon, which released them in a manual for the expected trials. Democrats controlling Congress said they would hold hearings and revive legislation on the plan, and human rights organizations complained that the regulations would allow evidence that would not be tolerated in civilian or military courtrooms.

GSA Chief Scrutinized For Deal With Friend

No-Bid Contract A Mistake, She Says

By Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, January 19, 2007; Page A01

The chief of the U.S. General Services Administration attempted to give a no-bid contract to a company founded and operated by a longtime friend, sidestepping federal laws and regulations, according to interviews and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan, a former government contractor appointed by President Bush, personally signed the deal to pay a division of her friend's public relations firm $20,000 for a 24-page report promoting the GSA's use of minority- and woman-owned businesses, the documents show.

Paul Krugman: Surging and Purging

There’s something happening here, and what it is seems completely clear: the Bush administration is trying to protect itself by purging independent-minded prosecutors.

Last month, Bud Cummins, the U.S. attorney (federal prosecutor) for the Eastern District of Arkansas, received a call on his cellphone while hiking in the woods with his son. He was informed that he had just been replaced by J. Timothy Griffin, a Republican political operative who has spent the last few years working as an opposition researcher for Karl Rove.

Defense official says Pentagon hid unspent funds in accounts

Posted 1/17/2007 9:54 PM ET

By Matt Kelley, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has hidden at least $1.4 billion in other agencies' accounts instead of returning unspent money to the U.S. Treasury, the Defense Department's internal watchdog told Congress Wednesday.

Thomas Gimble, the Pentagon's acting inspector general, said Pentagon offices between 2002 and 2005 used the General Services Administration (GSA) and the Interior Department "to 'park' or 'bank' funds that were expiring."

GSA and Interior then spent the money on Pentagon contracts, circumventing the law, Gimble said.

Deep in Arctic Mud, Geologists Find Strong Evidence of Climate Change

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- How severe will global warming get?

Jason P. Briner is looking for an answer buried deep in mud dozens of feet below the surface of lakes in the frigid Canadian Arctic.

His group is gathering the first quantitative temperature data over the last millennium from areas in extreme northeastern sections of the Canadian Arctic, such as Baffin Island.

Spocko, Glenn Beck, and ABC

by Eric Boehlert

President George W. Bush's popularity has fallen to new lows, Democrats have been swept into office, and a strong majority of Americans now opposes the war in Iraq, but ABC has decided the time is right to beef up with more conservative pundits on staff and to strike out against a liberal online critic who raised questions about the network's policy of broadcasting hate radio.

Last week spotlighted ABC and its unfortunate trend toward irresponsibility, as the broadcasting giant hired Glenn Beck -- a high-profile war cheerleader known for grade-school level name-calling of Democrats -- to comment on the day's events for Good Morning America. ABC last week was also dealing with the messy fallout from its wrongheaded decision to fire off a cease-and-desist letter to a little-known blogger named Spocko who had been posting audio clips from KSFO in San Francisco, an ABC-owned talk station where hosts have advocated violence against, progressives, Muslims, and Democratic members of Congress.

Adultery could mean life, court finds

That's what the law says in sex-drug case Cox appealed

January 15, 2007

BY BRIAN DICKERSON

FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

In a ruling sure to make philandering spouses squirm, Michigan's second-highest court says that anyone involved in an extramarital fling can be prosecuted for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, a felony punishable by up to life in prison.

"We cannot help but question whether the Legislature actually intended the result we reach here today," Judge William Murphy wrote in November for a unanimous Court of Appeals panel, "but we are curtailed by the language of the statute from reaching any other conclusion."

Americablog: Senate Republicans stop ethics reform

by Joe in DC - 1/18/2007 09:51:00 AM


Given the damaging role corruption played against the GOP in the 2006 elections, one might think that Republicans would be anxious to get on the right side of ethics reform. One would be wrong. Yesterday, the Senate GOP voted en masse against ending debate on the Senate ethics bill. The GOP's first filibuster stops ethics reform. Nice work - the Washington Post explains:

Iran envoy: Iraq to free captured Iranians

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer
Thu Jan 18, 7:08 AM ET

Iran's ambassador said Thursday that Iraq's foreign minister promised him that Iranians captured by U.S. troops in north of the country last week will be freed "within days," adding that their detention was an insult to the Iraqi government and people.

It was the first public comment by an Iranian diplomat in Baghdad about last week's U.S. raid on a liaison office in the northern city of Irbil and the capture of six Iranians.

One of the six was released and U.S. officials said the five still in custody were linked to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents and militias in Iraq.

Court to monitor Bush eavesdropping program

By Marisa Taylor and Greg Gordon

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - In a major retreat, the Bush administration disclosed Wednesday that it has obtained approval for its domestic spying program from a special national security court and no longer will resort to warrantless telephone taps to search for terrorists.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales revealed the secret arrangement with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on the eve of his first appearance before the Democratic-controlled Congress and amid an appeals court fight over a federal judge's ruling striking down the spying program as illegal and unconstitutional.

Senate Panel Limits Pay Deferrals for Executives

Measure Is Part of Broad Tax-Break Package to Help Small Businesses Offset Cost of Minimum Wage Rise

By Lori Montgomery and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum

Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 18, 2007; Page D01

The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation yesterday to limit one element of the big pay packages awarded to corporate executives, a move that business lobbyists saw as the harbinger of an assault on corporations and the wealthy now that Democrats control Congress.

On a voice vote, the committee agreed to change rules permitting some executives to amass millions of dollars in tax-deferred accounts. Limiting that perquisite would raise $806 million over 10 years, by congressional estimates. The money would be used to help cover tax breaks for small businesses hurt by a proposed increase in the minimum wage, a top Democratic priority.

TPM Muckraker: WH Moved Swiftly to Replace US Attorneys

By Paul Kiel - January 16, 2007, 3:22 PM

The administration is replacing U.S. Attorneys throughout the country. How'd they get that power?

It was an obscure provision in the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act, and it didn't take them very long to use it. The president signed it into law in March of last year -- by June, they were already moving to replace unwanted prosecutors.

Former Arkansas USA Bud Cummins told the Wall Street Journal that "a top Justice official asked for his resignation in June, saying the White House wanted to give another person the opportunity to serve." Cummins was finally forced out in December, replaced with Timothy Griffin, formerly the research director of the Republican National Committee.

Tomgram: Klare, Is Big Brother in Your Energy Future?

For the last two weeks, Tomdispatch has been concentrating on the way Pentagon strategists have taken possession of our future and are writing their own dystopian science fiction scenarios about the world we are soon to enter -- and the weapons systems that are meant to go with it. Five years ago, Michael Klare, a military and energy expert, wrote a prophetic book, Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict. Its title caught the embattled nature of our emerging resource future moment better than any Pentagon fantasy. His most recent book, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependence on Imported Petroleum, was no less on the mark. Now, for Tomdispatch, he continues to peer ahead in the second of a two-part series on our militarized energy future.

34,452 Iraqi Civilians Killed in 2006, Three Times Previous Estimates

The U.N. envoy to Iraq has revealed that the correct number of Iraqi civilians killed in 2006 is 34,452.

The figure is nearly three times higher than calculations previously made on the basis of Iraqi interior ministry statistics for 2006.

Euro displaces dollar in bond markets

By David Oakley and Gillian Tett in London

Published: January 14 2007 22:08 | Last updated: January 14 2007 22:08

The euro has displaced the US dollar as the world’s pre-eminent currency in international bond markets, having outstripped the dollar-denominated market for the second year in a row.

The data consolidate news last month that the value of euro notes in circulation had overtaken the dollar for the first time. Outstanding debt issued in the euro was worth the equivalent of $4,836bn at the end of 2006 compared with $3,892bn for the dollar, according to International Capital Market Association data.

Out of Sight, Under Fire Over Leases

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

Published: January 16, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 — Johnnie M. Burton, who runs the Interior Department’s troubled program to collect royalties on oil and gas pumped on public lands, is under attack and out of sight.

As director of the Minerals Management Service, Ms. Burton has faced widespread complaints from Congress for months that her agency is mismanaged, unaccountable and on the verge of losing billions of dollars owed by oil and gas companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico.

How To De-Fund The Escalation

Gareth Porter

January 16, 2007

Gareth Porter is a historian and national security policy analyst. His latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam was published in June 2005. During the Vietnam War, Porter was a Ph.D. candidate specializing in Vietnamese history and politics who debunked the Nixon administration's "bloodbath" argument in a series of articles and monographs.

Democratic congressional leaders have thus far been unable to decide what to do about a president and vice-president who have openly announced their intention to defy the electorate. While the last election rejected our current foreign military adventure, Congress has stopped far short of acting on that sentiment, allowing the Bush administration to continue indefinitely and to even escalate the war. Comments from some Democratic leaders reveal a misunderstanding of the power Congress has in the present situation.

Globalization Has Increased the Wealth Gap

By Terrence McNally, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2007.

Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz talks about what's gone wrong with globalization.

Globalization was meant to be the great equalizer. Goods would flow easily across borders. Standards of living in poor countries would be raised. Governments would become more stable. Instead it has brought citizen protests, greater economic disparities between first- and third-world nations, and a complex trade regime that may well benefit only the richest in richest countries. What went wrong?

In his new book, "Making Globalization Work," Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz argues that the special interests of governments, corporations, and international organizations like the IMF and the World Bank have thrown globalization off its proper path. But he doesn't stop there. He offers a practical vision for making globalization the equalizing force he believes it was always meant to be.

51% of Women Are Now Living Without Spouse

By SAM ROBERTS

Published: January 16, 2007

For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to a New York Times analysis of census results.

In 2005, 51 percent of women said they were living without a spouse, up from 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000.

Enjoying Technology's Conveniences But Not Escaping Its Watchful Eyes

By Ellen Nakashima

Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

The tracking of Kitty Bernard begins shortly after she wakes up. All through the 56-year-old real estate agent's day, from walking in her building's lobby to e-mailing friends and shopping and working, the watchful eye of technology records her movements and preferences.

Welcome to the 21st century.

Burden Set to Shift On Balanced Budget

Bush Likely to Force Democrats' Hand

By Lori Montgomery and Nell Henderson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 16, 2007; Page A01

When he takes the House rostrum next week for the State of the Union address, President Bush will list among his goals a balanced federal budget, a shift for a president who has presided over record deficits while aggressively cutting taxes.

Politically, analysts say, the president is calling the bluff of Democrats, who won control of Congress in part by accusing Bush of reckless fiscal policies. While Bush now shares the Democrats' goal to erase the deficit by 2012, the politically perilous work of making that happen -- cutting spending or raising taxes -- falls to the Democratic-run Congress.

Fox Show "24": Torture on TV

By Jon Wiener, TheNation.com. Posted January 15, 2007.

With at least one big torture scene in every episode and steadily increasing ratings, TV show "24" is more convincing than the White House at making the case for torture.

"24" is back on Fox TV -- the hit show starring Kiefer Sutherland, which premiered Sunday night, once again features at least one big torture scene in every episode -- the kind of torture the Bush White House says is necessary to protect us from you-know-who.

The show is much more convincing than the White House at making the case for torture; its ratings have gone steadily up over the last five years, while Bush's ratings have gone steadily down.

Why Being a Feminist Does Not Mean Backing All Women

By Gloria Steinem, Women's Media Center. Posted January 16, 2007.

It's OK not to care if Condi Rice goes down with a sinking ship or if Katherine Harris, the woman who handed Florida's electoral votes to Bush in 2000, enters history as an unprincipled crook.

There is still a false idea out there that feminists back every woman, regardless of how she behaves. Let's leave that behind right along with 2006.

In fact, feminism is just the belief that all people have the full circle of human qualities combined in a unique way in each of us. The simplistic labels of "feminine" and "masculine" are mostly about what society wants us to do: submerge our unique humanity in care giving and reproducing if we're women, and trade our unique humanity for power if we're men.

Medicare for All: The Only Sound Solution to Our Healthcare Crisis

By Guy T. Saperstein, AlterNet. Posted January 16, 2007.

Our $2 trillion healthcare industry is not only unhealthy, it is unsustainable. Why universal Medicare is the way to get universal healthcare without collapsing the system.

We all know that America's healthcare system is collapsing. Andy Stern has written that America's employer-based health insurance system is "dead." Auto executives troop to the White House complaining that they are not competitive with foreign automakers because they pay $1,500 per car for health insurance. Some of the biggest laughs in movies come when America's healthcare system is ridiculed. Politicians, even Republicans, are offering solutions.

In the Greenberg Quinlin poll of November 2006 voters, 22 percent ranked healthcare as the most important issue; likewise, MoveOn.org recently polled its members, received over 100,000 responses, and healthcare ranked as the No. 1 concern.

Step on the gas -- New fuel cell design adds control, reduces complexity

When Princeton University engineers want to increase the power output of their new fuel cell, they just give it a little more gas – hydrogen gas, to be exact. This simple control mechanism, which varies the flow of hydrogen fuel to control the power generated, was previously thought impossible and is a potentially major development in fuel cell technology.

The secret of their success is a system in which the fuel input itself changes the size of the reaction chamber, and therefore the amount of power produced. The breakthrough design also adds to the understanding of water management in fuel cells – one of the major obstacles to large-scale deployment of the technology in automobiles.

Daily Kos: Response for Right Wing E-mails, now with extra logical goodness!

by murrayewv
Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 11:18:50 AM PST

This diary is prompted by a request from a new dailykos member, billyb, who asked for help in his first diary, entitled "Help me debunk this bs". I admit, I wasn’t very sympathetic to billyb. This sort of popular e-mail posted as a first diary is often a way for trolls to rev up discussion with their poor quality data and distract people in the community from issues at hand. I felt billyb should do a little simple research by his or herself and debunk these claims, rather than asking for us to do so. Further checking on this e-mail out revealed it is everywhere on the on the conservative blogs and lots of people besides billyb have received it. Apparently it was sent out before the 2006 elections. I have not identified the original author of this e-mail, although it was discussed in the excellent thread attached to the original diary. Instead, I have worked to address the question posed by diarist billyb, namely “help me debunk this bs.”

Digby: The Decider Decides

President Bush, facing opposition from both parties over his plan to send more troops to Iraq, said he has the authority to act no matter what Congress wants.

"I fully understand they could try to stop me from doing it. But I've made my decision. And we're going forward," Bush told CBS'"60 Minutes" in an interview to air Sunday night.

'The jihad now is against the Shias, not the Americans'

As 20,000 more US troops head for Iraq, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, the only correspondent reporting regularly from behind the country's sectarian battle lines, reveals how the Sunni insurgency has changed

Saturday January 13, 2007
The Guardian

One morning a few weeks ago I sat in a car talking to Rami, a thick-necked former Republican Guard commando who now procures arms for his fellow Sunni insurgents.

Rami was explaining how the insurgency had changed since the first heady days after the US invasion. "I used to attack the Americans when that was the jihad. Now there is no jihad. Go around and see in Adhamiya [the notorious Sunni insurgent area] - all the commanders are sitting sipping coffee; it's only the young kids that are fighting now, and they are not fighting Americans any more, they are just killing Shia. There are kids carrying two guns each and they roam the streets looking for their prey. They will kill for anything, for a gun, for a car and all can be dressed up as jihad."

Avedon Carol: Alert: Bipartisan bastardy

Dean Baker warns of stealth Social Security scum:

A small item in the Washington Post last week reports that the Senate budget committee is apparently planning to set up a panel to operate in secret to devise a plan for restructuring Social Security. According to the short piece, the intention is to produce a "bipartisan" plan which will then be put up for a vote by congress.

If the media is doing its job, it will out these secret Social Security planners. This is not a matter of national security. We are supposed to have a democracy. Any plans for restructuring the country's most important social program should be aired fully in public.

Government watchdog says control spending or face economic meltdown

01/15/2007 @ 11:16 am

Filed by Michael Roston

n an overlooked hearing last Thursday, the head of a government watchdog agency warned of looming disaster for America's economy if an effort isn't made to control spending, RAW STORY has learned. Adding that decision-makers in Washington suffer from "tunnel vision and "myopia," he said that getting the budget under control could even require steep tax increases if action isn't taken now.

When False Equivalecy Distorts the News

Traditional Media reports seldom correctly characterize the IRD

You wouldn't know it to read the mainstream media, (or to listen to those who wring their hands over the alleged efforts by as yet unnamed secularists to drive also unnamed people of faith from public life) that the rightist Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), the inside the beltway, neoconservative agency has waged a war of attrition against the historic mainline protestant churches in the U.S.

Editorial: Bush in the bully pulpit

It is all well and good to celebrate the cautious baby steps being taken by Congress to reassert itself as a check and balance on the executive branch excesses of the monarchical Bush administration. When even Republicans, such as Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, are publicly admitting that the House and Senate failed during the first six years of the Bush interregnum to practice even minimal oversight, there is perhaps a measure of hope for the republic.

But that hope will not be realized if we wait for Congress to develop the spine it has been deprived of since the Watergate era. There must be an external check and balance on the executive branch, and that will only happen if the media abandon the bended-knee position from which they have covered the Bush administration.

Tomgram: Klare, The Pentagon as an Energy-Protection Racket

This January, Tomdispatch has been focusing on the Pentagon, the imperial path, and militarization. Last week, Nick Turse explored the way Pentagon strategists, having taken possession of our future, are writing their own dystopian science fiction scenarios about how to fight in Baghdad 2025 and other urban megaslums of the planet (as American troops may soon be doing in Baghdad's huge Shiite slum of Sadr City). Then, Frida Berrigan considered the massively profitable business operation the Pentagon was running off fictional futures and the all-too-real weapons systems that will result from it.

Correspondent Helen Thomas lashes out at the 'lapdog media'

By Trevor Aaronson
Contact
January 13, 2007

Tapping into one of the strongest undercurrents at the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis, longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas criticized what she described as a lapdog media for not erecting roadblocks on the road to war in Iraq.

The doyenne of Beltway journalism, Thomas issued a sweeping indictment of American media during a Saturday-afternoon discussion at the Cook Convention Center.

AP analysis: Iraq policy isolates Bush

By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush once said he was determined to stick with the Iraq war even if his wife and his dog were the only ones left at his side.

It's moving in that direction.

Daily Kos: Frederick Kagan is an Unqualified Fraud: Read His CV Here

by The Angry Rakkasan
Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 06:29:00 PM PST

Frederick Kagan is the neo-conservative scholar to whom George W. Bush listens. Working for the conservative think tank AEI, Kagan supposedly gives the Bush administration intellectual cover—as he is one of the few academic "experts" who supports the President’s ideas. He can often be found on C-SPAN, sitting on a distinguished-looking panel, articulating his views on the Iraq insurgency. He is admired by neo-conservatives around the world as being highly knowledgeable in this field, and he is said to have the ear of the President.

So what are Kagan’s credentials if he’s such an expert on the Iraq insurgency? Well, as it turns out, he’s actually completely unqualified, to a point that borders on fraud. Let’s take a look at his CV....

Paul Krugman: The Texas Strategy

Hundreds of news articles and opinion pieces have described President Bush’s decision to escalate the Iraq war as a “Hail Mary pass.”

But that’s the wrong metaphor.

Mr. Bush isn’t Roger Staubach, trying to pull out a win for the Dallas Cowboys. He’s Charles Keating, using other people’s money to keep Lincoln Savings going long after it should have been shut down — and squandering the life savings of thousands of investors, not to mention billions in taxpayer dollars, along the way.

US strikes on al-Qa'ida chiefs kill nomads

By Anne Penketh and Steve Bloomfield
Published: 13 January 2007

The herdsmen had gathered with their animals around large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes. But lit up by the flames, they became latest victims of America's war on terror.

It was their tragedy to be misidentified in a secret operation by special forces attempting to kill three top al-Qa'ida leaders in south-ern Somalia.

Oxfam yesterday confirmed at least 70 nomads in the Afmadow district near the border with Kenya had been killed. The nomads were bombed at night and during the day while searching for water sources. Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kenya has acknowledged that the onslaught on Islamist fighters failed to kill any of the three prime targets wanted for their alleged role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Dems Drive Another Stake into the Conservative Project

By Joshua Holland, AlterNet. Posted January 15, 2007.

The Democrats' passage of tough budget rules in Congress mark another step in righting the course of GOP profligacy.

Americans from all walks of life rejoiced last week when the House, as part of the new Democratic majority's "100 hours agenda," passed pay-as-you-go rules for Congressional budgeting by a 280-152 vote.

Or maybe not. On its face, the measure appears to be the type of eye-watering technocratic fix so popular with the Clinton-era policy set. After a decade of reckless borrow-and-spend governance, "paygo" looks like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic -- tinkering around the edges of a federal government with screwy priorities and a dysfunctional legislative system.

Glenn Greenwald: The collapse of the Bush presidency poses risks

(updated below)

From Rasmussen Reports, the favorite polling firm of Bush followers:

For the second straight day, 35% of Americans approve of the way that George W. Bush is performing his role as President. That’s the lowest level of Approval ever measured by Rasmussen Reports.

That polling was conducted after the President's "surge" speech. What is particularly notable is this observation:

It is interesting to note that the last time the President’s Approval Ratings hit a new low followed the President’s speech on immigration. Typically, President’s (sic) expect to get a positive bounce following a national address.

Digby: No Progress

And now for some even better news:

Intel director John Negroponte gave Congress a sobering assessment last week of the continued threats from groups like Al Qaeda and Hizbullah. But even gloomier comments came from Henry Crumpton, the outgoing State Department terror coordinator.

Digby: Pick Up A Paper, Bozo

President Bush on Saturday challenged lawmakers skeptical of his new Iraq plan to propose their own strategy for stopping the violence in Baghdad.

"To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible," Bush said.

Digby: Mistakenly Aggressive

In fact, administration officials (anonymous due to diplomatic sensitivities) concede that Bush's Iran language may have been overly aggressive, raising unwarranted fears about military strikes on Tehran. Instead, they say, Bush was trying to warn Iran to keep its operatives out of Iraq, and to reassure Gulf allies—including Saudi Arabia—that the United States would protect them against Iranian aggression. A senior administration official, not authorized to speak on the record, says the policy is part of the new Iraq offensive.

Please. I know these people are dumb, but even they aren't this dumb.

Digby: Banana Republic

What's with all the military spying inside the US? Maybe the Pentagon ought to spend more time gathering intelligence in Iraq and Afghanistan and leave the spying on US citizens to the FBI, DHS, INS, DEA, ATF and state and local police agencies. I think they can handle the illegal wiretapping, mailreading and bank account tracking all by themselves.

Digby: Sharkskin Suits

While the government is digging around in your bank accounts for god knows what reasons, they have also decided that it's better to let corporations off easy when it's determined that they owe taxes.

The country is going broke and they are doing this:

Top officials at the Internal Revenue Service are pushing agents to prematurely close audits of big companies with agreements to have them pay only a fraction of the additional taxes that could be collected, according to dozens of I.R.S. employees who say that the policy is costing the government billions of dollars a year.

Digby: Open Your Wallet And Show Us What You've Got

A lot of folks don't seem exercized that the government might be listening in on their phone calls without a warrant or reading their e-mails and letters with no oversight from anyone. But I have noticed for years that people would much rather tell you every detail of their sex lives than reveal their financial status.

Digby: Positioning

Matthew Yglesias explains why some of the Republican presidential candidates are inexplicably behaving like Bush cultists and some are not:

The oddity of the emerging GOP presidential field is that it's dominated by candidates -- John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney -- who are, in one way or another, importantly unorthodox conservatives. Consequently, they need to hew very closely to hawk dogma in national security policy to prove their bona fides even at the moment where political support for the hawkish position is collapsing. Sam Brownback, a distinctly second-tier contender but one who benefits from being a committed social conservative with standard conservative economic views, is taking the chance to be the exception and resist the urge to surge...

Digby: Urban Legend

Yesterday on The Situation Room:

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there was a U.S. military strike in northern Iraq against an Iranian facility. And that, perhaps, is causing just as much consternation as the president's new Iraq plan.

It was during his speech, the president gave, perhaps, his most aggressive warnings to date to Iran and Syria to stop meddling in Iraq's affairs. The president saying that he would seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weapons and training to U.S. enemies in Iraq.

Digby: Pig Slop

Shakespeare's Sister and Punkass Blog riff on an ignorant little screed by Baby Ben Shapiro in which he says:

Nancy Pelosi, however, could breastfeed on the speaker’s podium and receive the plaudits of the mainstream media.

and

No woman in the history of politics has used her womb like Nancy Pelosi.

Think Progress picked it up, too.

Daily Kos: Holy Fact Check, Batman! McClatchy Drops a Bomb

by SusanG

Sun Jan 14, 2007 at 05:47:07 PM PST

And a jaw-droppingly beautiful one it is, dead smack in the middle of its news section, mind you – not as an op/ed.

McClatchy (formerly the excellent Washington bureau of Knight Ridder) begins:

Administration leaving out important details on Iraq

By MARK SEIBEL
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq.

Frank Rich: He's In The Bunker Now

The New York Times
Sunday 14 January 2007

President Bush always had one asset he could fall back on: the self-confidence of a born salesman. Like Harold Hill in "The Music Man," he knew how to roll out a new product, however deceptive or useless, with conviction and stagecraft. What the world saw on Wednesday night was a defeated Willy Loman who looked as broken as his war. His flop sweat was palpable even if you turned down the sound to deflect despair-inducing phrases like "Prime Minister Maliki has pledged ..." and "Secretary Rice will leave for the region. ..."

Mr. Bush seemed to know his product was snake oil, and his White House handlers did too. In the past, they made a fetish of situating their star in telegenic settings, from aircraft carriers to Ellis Island. Or they placed him against Orwellian backdrops shrieking "Plan for Victory." But this time even the audio stuttered, as if in solidarity with Baghdad's continuing electricity blackout, and the Oval Office was ditched, lest it summon up memories of all those past presidential sightings of light at the end of the Iraqi tunnel. Mr. Bush was banished to the White House library, where the backdrop was acres of books, to signify the studiousness of his rethinking of the "way forward."

Democratic presidential candidate Kucinich warns, 'If Bush attacks Iran, all bets are off'

01/14/2007 @ 11:10 am

Filed by Miriam Raftery

While making an unannounced appearance at a media reform conference on Friday, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) - a candidate for president in 2004 and already announced for 2008 - was pressed by bloggers in attendance about impeachment.

Telling the crowd that while he didn't think immediate action was wise, due to fears that Bush might "accelerate the war even more," the congressman warned that "if Bush attacks Iran, all bets are off."

Military Is Expanding Its U.S. Intelligence Role

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to obtain banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage inside the United States, part of an aggressive expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering.

The C.I.A. has also been issuing what are known as national security letters to gain access to financial records from American companies, though it has done so only rarely, intelligence officials say.

Digby: There But For the Grace of God

So Dan "Scumbag" Burton broke with his party and voted for the Democratic bill calling for the government to be able to negotiate drug prices for people on Medicare. Very compassionate of him.

He did this because his wife died of breast cancer a few years ago after a long illness and he was personally exposed to the way the medical system works for average people when he would sit with his wife at the cancer center and listen to what the cancer patients said. Because his family was going through a medical crisis he understood why it was so stressful for people to be unable to afford prescriptions under such circumstances.

Digby: Scraping The Bottom Of The Wingnut Barrel

How pathetic is it that the White House is now depending on Michele Malkin to tell their "real story" of Iraq? You would think that they could have found a journalist who writes for a real rightwing rag somewhere to go over to Iraq and tell the story they really want told.

Digby: TIME Goes Unhinged

I have to say that I'm kind of enjoying Swampland, TIME's attempt to ape The Corner with Ana Marie Cox, Joe Klein, Jay Carney and Karen Tumulty. But I'm a little bit concerned that Joe Klein is travelling in company that's going to embarrass him with its intemperate and provocative language.

Joe is going to have to have a talk with the fellow blogger who wrote this:

Condi at the Foreign Relations Committee:

"The Iraqis have developed a plan...and we will support that plan."

The most blatant nonsense in the President's speech was that we're just supporting an Iraqi plan to escalate. Now Condi's doing it. Disingenuous and insulting.

Newly in the Minority, G.O.P. Shows Signs of Division on Iraq and Domestic Policies

By CARL HULSE

Published: January 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — After years of rock-solid party discipline and fealty to President Bush, Congressional Republicans have suddenly fractured in their new role as members of the minority, with some prominently deserting the White House on Iraq and others bolting from their leadership on popular domestic issues.

“We have got a lot of free agents,” said Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, referring to the Republican backlash over the president’s proposal for a troop increase in Iraq.