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The Brand New Bag
Books about the Iraq War
September 30, 2003
Photos of 9-28-03 A.N.S.W.E.R. March in Los Angeles, Taken by Left is Right
Mark Kleiman rocks and Guy Andrew Hall rolls!
LeftCoaster reminds us of the numerous calls by the ranking Republicans during the Clinton years for the Attorney General (Reno) to appoint an Independent Counsel (for Clinton/Gore's possible 1996 fundraising abuses), comparing it to today's calls by Democratic Congressmen for an I.C. to investigate the Plame/CIA coverup by Bush.
My Son Is an Honor Student at Hillcrest Nazi High School
Proof that somehow the State of Texas got switched with the one on our alternate-universe-Earth.
Bush helps colleges and universities collect more funds from students.A survey by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges reports tuition hikes at state colleges and universities in at least 37 states -- almost all as a result of state budget cuts. Increases in in-state tuition range from 4.6 percent at the University of Illinois to nearly 40 percent for the schools in the University of California system.
The State University of New York, which includes 64 campuses throughout the Empire State, is typical. After the state legislature cut the budget 20 percent for the school system, SUNY raised annual tuition 28 percent -- from $3,400 to $4,350. "We did not do it lightly," said Shirley Strom Kenny, the president of Stony Brook University, a SUNY school. "But if we didn't raise tuition, we would have to limit what we offer to our students." The $950 increase has hit SUNY students hard: Most are from middle-class and working-class families. "We have been inundated by phone calls from parents and students, asking what are we going to do about this increase," said Jacqueline Pascariello, interim director of financial aid at Stony Brook.
The tuition hike means most students must take out more loans and add to their debt burden -- which for state college and university graduates nationwide already averages between $16,000 and $20,000. |
Okay, Maybe My Parents Weren't That Bad
From CNN: Toddler 'doing well' after nearly 3 weeks alone
Tuesday, September 30, 2003 Posted: 11:38 AM EDT (1538 GMT)
JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) -- After spending nearly three weeks alone and surviving on raw pasta, mustard and ketchup, a 2-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, girl was in good spirits Tuesday morning at a hospital, officials told CNN. |
Bush: "...extend the promise of prosperity to every forgotten corner of this country."
NDOL has actually a pretty good essay on Bush's failure to continue the reduction in poverty, which he promised in 2000, and has, instead, made things much worse for the lower economic class of this nation. Snippet: In 2000, George W. Bush ran for president on a platform that claimed the Clinton administration had done too little to help less-fortunate Americans share in the national prosperity of the 1990s. In his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, he said that Bill Clinton and Al Gore had "coasted through prosperity," and that he would "extend the promise of prosperity to every forgotten corner of this country."
Of all his broken promises, this was perhaps the cruelest. The prosperity he pledged to spread has vanished, and as always, a poor economy hurts poor people the most. But it gets worse: Bush also promised an aggressive agenda of "compassionate conservatism" to harness civil society to the task of addressing entrenched poverty and other social ills. This agenda has never really materialized, and the president seems to have lost interest in developing it. Instead, the administration has perversely and obsessively focused on improving the after-tax incomes of the wealthiest Americans, shifting the tax burden from those who earn income from inheritance and investment to those who earn income from work. Far from worrying about the plight of those in "every forgotten corner of this country," George W. Bush is deliberately engineering a more unequal society as his top domestic priority. |
Well, yeah. Unless you've kept your head in the sand the past 2-1/2 years, this is not news. What would be news is if the Democratic candidates started mentioning it, because this is the type of simple message with which voters can identify.
Impact of Plame's Exposure by Bush's Staff
Josh Marshall hypothesizes the impact of the exposure of Valerie Plame on the safety of America. Snippet: Plame's beat, if we can use that word, was weapons of mass destruction. And, of course, WMD is the big issue. It's why Iraq, why Joe Wilson, why Niger, why CIA referrals. That's what's at the bottom of all this stuff. Keeping WMD out of the wrong hands is, or was, Plame's job. If that's her job you can figure that over the years she's been involved in various operations aimed at tracking proliferation, worked with various human sources, all sorts of stuff like that.
Now Plame's name has been splashed across papers all over the world. And the folks that leaked her name made sure that they used her maiden name, Plame -- the one she did most of her work under -- rather than Wilson, the name which I'm told she now goes by. So now her name's out. You couldn't unlock everything just knowing her name -- covers are used and so forth. But once you know Plame is CIA, and what she looks like and so forth, you unravel most if not everything. And now every bad-actor and bad-acting government knows that anything that Plame was involved with, any operation, any company she was supposed to be working for, any people she worked closely with, are probably also CIA or at least work with CIA. WMD bad-guys now know to steer clear of them.
Let's say there's some operation Plame hasn't been involved with for a decade -- but it's still on-going. People will remember she used to be in on that operation and thus it's tagged as an Agency operation and it's useless. Everyone will know to steer clear. Now, I have no knowledge of any operations Plame was involved in or covers she used. These are hypotheticals. But it gives you a sense of the sort of work she was involved in and the potential collateral damage of exposing her cover. And consider what her work was: protecting Americans from weapons of mass destruction. Chew on that irony. |
UPDATE: CalPundit has an excellent summary of this whole, sordid affair.
September 29, 2003
ReviewOlogy is Back!
The witty, cantankerous REVIEWOLOGY is back, with fresh reviews of Once Upon a Time in Mexico along with Matchstick Men.
Watch Paul Krugman's lecture at UC Berkeley on Friday, September 26, 2003 (approx 1 hour).
Kucinich Owes Nothing
CNN.com has an interesting graph showing "how much money each of the 2004 presidential contenders owes to creditors, based on the latest Federal Election Commission figures." Kucinich is the only candidate (including Bush) who owes $0.00. Check out the other graphs, including total raised, total spent and total on-hand.
Bush is Just the Sacrificial Lamb
The Christian Ultra Right is not terribly concerned whether or not Bush is re-elected. They've used Bush as the front man the past three years shoving our nation to the right, increasing the Republican death-grip on industry and the economy, assuming control of elections through voting manipulation (electronic and other), and plunging us into an intractable quagmire in the Middle East. Even if Democrats somehow regain the White House, it will take many times the number of years Bush was in charge to reverse course and return to some semblance of the Clinton years, giving the Christian Ultra Right endless opportunities to regain control. Face it, only a revolution will work. The only question is, is Bush smart enough to understand how he's being used (and if so, does he even give a damn)?
Question of the Month
Where are the grownups of the Republican Party?
September 28, 2003
"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
--- Martin Luther King Jr. |
September 27, 2003
Florida Gets Bitch-Slapped
Josh Marshall has an incredible story about how Florida's state employee pension fund just bought out Edison Schools, a company that gets "contracts to run public schools on a for-profit basis and to do it better and more cheaply." ...
Things looked awfully bad until last week when Florida's state employee pension fund announced it was buying up all of Edison's stock and taking the company private --- for a cool $174 million. That's got to be the shrewdest investment the fund has made since it bought millions of shares of Enron just as the company entered its death spiral --- including 1.3 million shares just two weeks before the company declared bankruptcy.
As the St. Pete Times aptly noted yesterday, this gives "Florida the distinction of being essentially the sole owner of the nation's largest and perhaps most financially imperiled school management business."
The three member board of trustees of the fund is chaired by Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a big supporter of privatized schools and a big supporter of Edison.
So, you start a company to privatize education and take on the teachers unions. Your company fails miserably both in terms of the market and academic success. Then after you've hollowed the company out to cover your other bad debts friendly pols come along to bail you out with a couple hundred million from the teachers (and other public employees') pension fund. I love symmetry. |
I feel sorry for the helpless Florida folks who have their hard-earned funds in the state pension, but, if Florida hasn't figured out by now that their government is corrupt ant that they need to look out for themselves until Democrats regain political power, then they deserve what they get. After all, they gave Bush to the rest of us, so screw 'em.
White House Under Investigation? Yeah, Right...
The CIA has asked the Justice Department to " investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman’s husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush’s since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned": NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell reported Friday night that the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether White House officials blew Plame’s [Wilson's wife] cover in retaliation against Wilson. Revealing the identities of covert officials is a violation of two laws, the National Agents’ Identity Act and the Unauthorized Release of Classified Information Act.
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However, as CalPundit says: Stay tuned. I have my doubts that this investigation will go anywhere — after all, as long as Novak doesn't squeal, the folks in the White House just have to deny everything and let the investigation die. And with Republicans in control of Congress, the special prosecutor act dead, and John Ashcroft running the Justice Department, investigatory zeal is likely to be somewhat below Ken Starrish proportions.
Still, you never know. The CIA must have come up with something or else they would have just dropped the whole thing. |
Everyone who is naive enough to believe that Ashcroft is going to pusue this as required by his job description, please step forward and receive your lashings, because you are, well, naive.
September 26, 2003
Friday Blahs
Mental exhaustion day today. Check out Media Whores Online, Daily Kos, Steve Gilliard, and Talking Points Memo for some really good late news and commentary. Just click "DAILY READINGS" in the Pages of Links on the sidebar. While you're over on the left (no pun intended) visit my photos from New Zealand that I snapped last month; what a beautiful country (and people!).
FRIDAY FUN
New Optical IllusionsFartful (the meanings for names of Ikea furniture) Smallville Home PageConfusing InstructionsHow to Cook an AlienFind the DifferencesLarry Carlson's Flash Movies
September 25, 2003
Put Out an APB on Scrooge McDuck Now!
Citizens for Tax Justice has released a soberingly grim report on the effect of Bush's tax cuts on the average family of four. The report is in PDF format. Highlights: - The study calculates the net effects of Bush's tax cuts and massive borrowing over six years on a state-by-state basis. - Current projections from the CBO show that Bush's policies are likely to add $3.8 trillion to the U.S. debt. - Over the next six years each family will have an additional debt burden of over $52,000. After subtracting the 6-year tax savings from the tax cuts, the burden will still be nearly $38,000 per family. - The burden to California will be $342.5 billion. - After the first six years, the debt is expected to skyrocket by another $5.8 trillion between 2008 and 2013. Oh my. This is serious, folks.
Does This Mean That Store-Bought Is Better?
From Reuters: Flame retardant found in breast milk
Last Updated: 2003-09-24 11:34:06 -0400 (Reuters Health)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several American mothers nursing their infants had high levels of potentially toxic flame retardant chemicals in their breastmilk, a U.S. environmental group said on Tuesday.
While the study by the Environmental Working Group was small and did not show any health effects in the babies, the group said it showed just how widespread the chemicals are.
The chemicals are bromine-based fire retardants and are used in a wide range of products including furniture, computers, television sets, automobiles, copy machines and hair dryers to make them less likely to catch fire. They can build up in the body over years.
"Brominated fire retardants impair attention, learning, memory, and behavior in laboratory animals at surprisingly low levels," the EWG report reads. |
No WMD - Still
From the Guardian (intro): The hunt for weapons of mass destruction yields - nothing
Intelligence claims of huge Iraqi stockpiles were wrong, says report
Julian Borger in Washington, Ewen MacAskill and Patrick Wintour
Thursday September 25, 2003
The Guardian
An intensive six-month search of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction has failed to discover a single trace of an illegal arsenal, according to accounts of a report circulating in Washington and London. The interim report, compiled by the CIA-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG) of 1,400 weapons experts and support staff, will instead focus on Saddam Hussein's capacity and intentions to build banned weapons.
A draft of the report has been sent to the White House, the Pentagon and Downing Street, a US intelligence source said. It has caused such disappointment that there is now a debate over whether it should be released to Congress over the next fortnight, as had been widely expected.
"It will mainly be an accounting of programmes and dual-use technologies," said one US intelligence source. "It demonstrates that the main judgments of the national intelligence estimate (NIE) in October 2002, that Saddam had hundreds of tonnes of chemical and biological agents ready, are false."
A BBC report yesterday said that the survey group, which includes British and Australian investigators, had come across no banned weapons, or delivery systems, or laboratories involved in developing such weapons. |
Diebold Scandal
A SAIC report evaluating Diebold software (used in electronic voting machines) was released yesterday and it is a scathing evaluation. Read an evaluation of some of the more important conclusions HERE. Deibold says this about the report: | We are pleased to be moving forward," said Thomas W. Swidarski, president of Diebold Election Systems. "The thorough system assessment conducted by SAIC verifies that the Diebold voting station provides an unprecedented level of election security." |
The report, on the other hand, notes this: | This Risk Assessment has identified several high-risk vulnerabilities in the implementation of the managerial, operational, and technical controls for AccuVote-TS voting system. If these vulnerabilities are exploited, significant impact could occur on the accuracy, integrity, and availability of election results. In addition, successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could also damage the reputation and interests of the SBE and the LBEs. This Risk Assessment also identified numerous vulnerabilities with a risk rating of medium and low that may have an impact upon AccuVote-TS voting if exploited. |
Read the whole mess and draw your own conclusions. The web site, Blackboxvoting.com, was temporarily shut down yesterday when Diebold threatened the ISP hosting BBV. The site is back up and stronger than ever. Check it out.
No-win Situation
The debate last night was a circus. Left is Right nearly turned it off several times when it appeared to be getting out of control, with 3 or more people speaking/shouting in unison. Arianna seems hell-bent on singling out Arnold on most every issue, which may not be the best strategy; it makes her appear petty and vindictive. She has a lot of great things to say otherwise, and these personal attacks on Arnold detract from the impetus of her ideas and policies. McClintock was definitely the most polished speaker; his points were clear and understandable; too bad he's a conservative. Cruz was very unimpressive and needs to show a hint of emotion when he speaks; his ideas are pretty good, but unless he shows some feeling towards his own concepts, many voters are not going to take him seriously. Camejo made points with his promise to reverse the trend of reducing taxes on the wealthy, but his appearance and demeanor were not polished enough for television. Arnold? What an underinformed, sexist dweeb.
One Ringy Dingy, Two Ringy Dingies
The ultra-right media has been jumping all over Wesley Clark regarding a couple of phone calls he allegedly had, one from Canada and one to Rove. Spinsanity corrects the false impressions. On a related note, Clark has apparently allowed his campaign to strike a blow at his online grassroots supporters, not a good way to kick off a presidential campaign. DailyKOS has the story.
September 24, 2003
Shaking a stick at 50 million Americans
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