What we're up against

- The Rabid Rights Media Menagerie -

From 'The Nation'

article |posted July 8, 2005 (web only)
M is for Moronic
Max Blumenthal

... The conservative media game was neatly summarized by Matt Labash, a former senior writer for The Weekly Standard who now writes for National Review, in a 2003 interview on the website journalismjobs.com. Labash explained: "The conservative media likes to rap the liberal media on the knuckles for not being objective. We've created this cottage industry in which it pays to be un-objective.... It's a great way to have your cake and eat it too. Criticize other people for not being objective. Be as subjective as you want. It's a great little racket." ...
-

- And as examples of that "great little racket" -

From 'Media Matters'

CNN, ABC offered unchallenged legal analysis on Plame leak from Novak's partisan friends
Reporting on White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove's alleged involvement in the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity, CNN and ABC News presented unchallenged legal analysis from Victoria Toensing and Joseph E. DiGenova, respectively, both of whom defended Rove and were identified only as a "legal analyst" and a "former US attorney." Toensing and DiGenova, however, are partisan Republicans and personal friends of CNN host and columnist Robert D. Novak, who originally outed Plame in July 2003.

CNN's Malveaux plays White House correspondent, mind-reader, judge, and jury

CNN's Kyra Phillips: "definitely a major smear campaign going on" against Rove

Fox's Cameron parsed Bush's past statements on the fate of the CIA leaker: Bush "never actually said the word 'fired'"

ABC News, Wash. Post, Newsweek: Rove did not actually disclose Valerie Plame's name

...but a five-minute Google search would have produced it

Thieves and Clowns in high places

There's no excuse for the deadly mess in Iraq. Because of a combination of stupid neo-con ideology and felonious cronyism, reconstruction hasn't happened and rebellion against the occupation has grown. The Bush administration is responsible... Criminally responsible. It's time for them to go... and preferably, go to jail.

Iraq reconstruction riddled with waste, audits find

By DAVID WOOD - Newhouse News Service

WASHINGTON - The U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq, a strategic cornerstone of the war on terrorism, has been badly mismanaged, according to a growing body of evidence compiled mostly by U.S. government auditors.

Billions of dollars - some of it in shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills airlifted to Baghdad from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York - should have helped pay Iraqi bureaucrats, fix power lines and build schools. Instead, much of it can't be properly accounted for and millions have been stolen, auditors say. ...

... On the streets of Baghdad, U.S. military commanders began complaining early that the money rarely seemed to trickle down.

"We're losing the peace," a frustrated U.S. Special Forces Maj. Robert Caffrey said in June 2003 as Iraq teetered between the euphoria of seeing Saddam toppled and frustration at a U.S. occupation that seemed to bring no benefits. At the time, Caffrey was furious that he could get no money to foster local government or pay for small clean-up projects and schools.

Now back home in Hartford, Conn., Caffrey wrote last week in an e-mail that "it doesn't seem that much has changed in the last two years. Much to my sadness, when I said two years ago that we were losing the peace, I was more right than I knew.

"I'm astounded they still haven't gotten it right." ...
[ full article ]

Chickenhawks dis' the troops

Very interesting... PBS airs 'Frontline' "Private Warriors" a documentary about Merc's in Iraq and then FoxNews just happens to stumble across a story sympathetic to the Merc's .

[ A comment at dailykos put me onto this ]


And here's the right answer to all those "support the troops" stickers
- thanks to Jesus' General.

Republican crunchin' number crunching

Many states that went red in '04 are now just seeing red.

In 19 of the states that went to Bush in the '04 election, his approval rating has now dropped below 50% - in 9 of those states his disapproval numbers are 50% or higher!

06/05 - Bush	approve	disapprove
Virginia	49%	46%
Louisiana	49%	47%
Oklahoma	49%	47%
South Carolina	48%	47%
South Dakota	48%	47%
Georgia	48%	48%
Indiana	48%	48%
Tennessee	48%	49%
West Virginia	47%	47%
Arizona	46%	49%
Florida	46%	50%
Missouri	46%	52%
New Mexico	45%	50%
North Carolina	45%	50%
Colorado	45%	52%
Arkansas	44%	52%
Iowa	44%	52%
Ohio	40%	57%
Nevada	38%	57%

-------------------
Bush approval rating is 50% or higher in only 12 states.

Utah
Nebraska
Wyoming
Idaho
Montana
Alabama
Alaska
North Dakota
Kansas
Kentucky
Mississippi
Texas

Even in Bush's home state of Texas his numbers look bad, 50% approve and 47% disapprove.

Bush sez trust me - Again

Tuesday night Bush is going togive what's being advertised as a major speech. I'd say anybody who listens should keep the old saying; "Fool me once, shame on you... Fool me twice, shame on me." firmly in mind.

... 91.5 percent of all American military deaths have occurred since Bush declared on May 1, 2003, that "major combat" was over. ...

Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday," for example, that he had not made optimistic predictions during the prelude to war. Such a claim, he said, is "false. ... I have been balanced and measured."

Yet, on Feb. 7, 2003, more than a month before the war began, he predicted that "it could last six days, six weeks, I doubt six months." On Feb. 20, 2003, he told PBS that the Americans "would be welcomed," as happened in Afghanistan, where people in the streets were "playing music, cheering, flying kites." (Seven months later, when a broadcast journalist asked Rumsfeld about his PBS remarks, he replied: "Never said that. Never did. ... You're thinking of somebody else.")

Also Sunday, Rumsfeld told NBC's "Meet the Press" that any rosy prewar predictions (which he denies were made) would have been inappropriate. He said: "Anyone who tries to estimate the end, the time, the cost, or the casualties in a war is making a big mistake." Yet it was Cheney, on March 16, 2003, who said "I think it will go relatively quickly ... weeks rather than months." A month earlier, Bush budget official Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. publicly estimated that the war could cost roughly $60 billion. (The current cost is $208 billion.)...
[ full article ]

It's Hard Work

Yep! I'm pretty sure that's how Simple Scotty McClellan is feeling about press briefings these days. (IT'S HARD WORK) It appears that the press-corps is finally rousing from it's long slumber... well, at least some of them. This exchange at Fridays Press Briefing must have made beads of sweat pop out on Scotty's forehead.

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
James S. Brady Briefing Room
June 24, 2005 2:10 P.M. EDT
[in part]

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I think you can go back and look at those time periods and look at what we said during that time period. This is a very critical period in Iraq. Here's why: because the terrorists are trying to test our resolve, and they're trying to shake the will of the international community and the Iraqi people. The terrorists, as General Abizaid --

Q They've been doing that for months, don't you agree or --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, as General Abizaid talked about, there have been a growing number of foreign terrorists coming in to Iraq, because they recognize that Iraq is a central front in the war on terrorism. And, Bill, we are a nation that is at war. And the Commander-in-Chief believes it's important to keep the American people informed about --

Q Yes, but what's changed?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, are you going to let me finish, or are you going to keep jumping in?

Q Well, you said the same thing before, and I accept what you say. But what's changed?

MR. McCLELLAN: I was just talking to you --

Q It's the same condition that we found ourselves in a year ago.

MR. McCLELLAN: I was just outlining to you why it's a critical period --

Q Yes, but it was a critical period for the same reason then.

MR. McCLELLAN: -- in Iraq, and we are a nation at war. And the Commander-in-Chief has a responsibility to keep the American people informed about the progress we're making and the strategy we have for succeeding. It's important that the American people know the progress that we're making and they understand the difficulties and dangers that lie ahead. This is a time when we are seeing that the enemy is determined and ruthless in the violence that they seek to spread to try to shake our will and shake our resolve. And that's why it's important to talk to the American people. It was important to talk to the American people at that time, as well, Bill.

Q Yes, but I mean, it's the same thing that you're saying.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I think that -- no, it's not. I think the American people want to hear from their Commander-in-Chief. And you may take it --

Q I'm not arguing about that.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you may take a different view, but I think the American people want to hear from their Commander-in-Chief, and they will have the --

Q That's not what I'm arguing about.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let's go on if you're not going to --

He keeps saying this is a "critical period in Iraq" - "the terrorists are trying to test our resolve" but he just can't come up with how the situation in Iraq is any different than it was a month ago... or a year ago, for that matter!
I really hope the press-corps it growing some spine... but maybe it's just that snow-jobs can't be pulled off quite as easily in the Summer heat.

Winning the War on Terra' ? - I Wish

First, under the heading; "We told you so, before the election" -

Aznar accused on Madrid bombing
Dale Fuchs in Madrid
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian

A parliamentary panel investigating the Madrid rail bombings has concluded that the former government of José María Aznar "manipulated" and "twisted" information about the blasts to further its electoral interests, it emerged yesterday. ...

- Then, Two related stories under the heading; "We told you so, before the election, you dumbasses".

Iraq creating new breed of jihadists, says CIA
Ewen MacAskill, Duncan Campbell and Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian

The war in Iraq is creating a new breed of Islamic jihadists who could go on to destabilise other countries, according to a CIA report. The CIA believes Iraq to be potentially worse than Afghanistan, which produced thousands of jihadists in the 1980s and 1990s. Many of the recruits to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida had fought in Afghanistan. ....

British warplanes join assault on Taliban
Scores killed but US spy plane lost after mission

Declan Walsh in Islamabad
Thursday June 23, 2005
The Guardian

Afghan and US troops backed by British warplanes pounded a mountain hideout in southern Afghanistan in a day-long battle that left more than 76 Taliban guerrillas dead. The battle was the bloodiest engagement yet in a summer of escalating violence that has dimmed hopes for an early end to the Taliban insurgency. ....

- And finally tying those two stories together.

Blinded by the light at the end of the tunnel

The American public is increasingly disillusioned by the Iraq war, and Bush's triumphalism only makes things worse

Sidney Blumenthal
Thursday June
23, 2005
The Guardian

Outlawing Flag Burning?

Once again, Free speech is under assault by rabid-right-wingers.
I'm not a big fan of flag burning, but I'm absolutely opposed to amending the Constitution to making political dissent a crime.

And besides: When it comes to desecration of the flag, what's the bigger crime; flames or pit stains?

Downing Street Memo's

Read 'em for yourself
On the Net:
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/fcolegal020308.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/manning020314.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/meyer020318.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ods020308.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ricketts020322.pdf
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/straw020325.pdf
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1648758,00.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html

Reasoned Progress vs. Right-wing Nuts

A couple of interesting stories from Iowa... See, not all of the midwest is bug-house slug-nutty.
=====================
Governor Vilsack to restore felons' voting rights

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 17, 2005

Gov. Tom Vilsack said Friday that he soon will sign an
executive order restoring voting rights to convicted felons who have served their sentence.

‘‘This action we take is not going to be a pardon,’’ Vilsack said.

The governor said only four other states prohibit felons from voting after completing their sentences.

‘‘We’re here today to talk about justice,’’ Vilsack aid. ‘‘When you’ve paid your debt to society, you need to be reconnected to society. ...
=========================
Civil union dissolution withstands challenge
The decision says those who wanted to overturn a judge's order to void a lesbian union had no right to interfere.
By FRANK SANTIAGO
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
June 18, 2005
...The justices ruled that those who sued over Neary's order - a group of conservative Iowa lawmakers led the effort - had no legal standing or right to interfere.

"It would be strange indeed and contrary to our notions of separation of powers if we were to recognize that legislators have standing to intervene in lawsuits just because they disagree with a court's interpretation of a statute," Chief Justice Louis Lavorato wrote. ...
==========================
on the creepy - 'how do twisted weirdo's like this get elected' - side of thing:

Editorial
Congress Assaults the Courts, Again
Published: June 18,
2005

The House of Representatives took a little- noticed but dangerous swipe at the power of the courts this week. It passed an amendment to a budget bill that would bar money from being spent to enforce a federal court ruling regarding the Ten Commandments. The vote threatens the judiciary's long-acknowledged position as the final arbiter of the Constitution. It is important that this amendment be removed before the bill becomes law.

During consideration of an appropriations bill for the Departments of State, Justice and Commerce, Representative John Hostettler, Republican of Indiana, introduced an amendment to prohibit any funds from being used to enforce Russelburg v. Gibson County. In that case, a federal court ruled that a courthouse Ten Commandments display violated the First Amendment and had to be removed. Mr. Hostettler declared that the ruling was unconstitutional, and inconsistent with "the Christian heritage of the United States." ...

A little birdie tells me, "Keep Fighting!"

First the ivory-billed woodpecker  reappeared in Arkansas, then it turned out the pink wildflower, Mount Diablo buckwheat wasn't extinct after all and now the least Bell's vireo is making a come back

Rare bird found in San Joaquin Valley
The Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. — A chatty songbird thought to have disappeared from the Central Valley 60 years ago has been spotted nesting in a patch of restored habitat along the San Joaquin River. ...

What does it mean?... examples of the power of remote prayer? a sign of the end times?... Not hardly! Thirty years of environmental regulations and conservation efforts have paid off. Proof that those things work and that it's worth fighting to keep the Right-wing Free-marketist from undoing it all. 

As these pay-offs of environmental regulations are hitting the news (on the back pages), the Rabidly pro-pillage Republicans are moving to undo the progress and to equate support for environmental protection with support for terrorism.

FBI: Radical-activist groups are major threat
By John Heilprin - The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Environmental and animal-rights activists who have turned to arson and explosives are the nation's top domestic-terrorism threat, an FBI official told a Senate committee yesterday. ...
...Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the panel's chairman, said he hoped to examine more closely how the groups might be getting assistance in fund-raising and communications from "mainstream activists" in tax-exempt organizations.
"Just like al-Qaida or any other terrorist organization, ELF and ALF cannot accomplish their goals without money, membership and the media," Inhofe said. ...

Lightbulb reading for the weekend

Ok. friends, here's my (populist) recommended read list for the weekend.

On Rebalancing the Rights of Corporations and Communities

Redefining "Corporate Governance"

Losing Our Country
by Paul Krugman

Dean isn't the Problem
by Joan Vennochi

Dean Just Told Them The Truth and They Thought It Was Hell
by Thom Hartmann

The Myth That Populism & Anger Lose Elections

They're all relatively short articles and if you read them in order, there's actually a 'what's wrong and what to do about it' theme to the list.

- And when you're done reading we can all sing a verse from
Bob Dylans "THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’".

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the
doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who
has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake
your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Homeland Security?

Man With Chain Saw Allowed to Enter U.S.
Hmmmm? White guys with bloody chainsaws aren't on the Border Patrols "things to watch for" list?

But then again, I suppose if you let one angry/crazy white-guy in



you have to let them ALL in.

How can we tell if we're safer

The Bush Administration has been lying to the American people. The Bush Administration is still lying to the American people. Some of us have known that all along; but now the hard evidence is coming to light

Tinkers tailoring information
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
(KRT) - The following editorial appeared in the Seattle Times on Tuesday, April 19:
X X X
The details vary of course, but the story line is becoming too familiar. Information into or out of the Bush administration is either manipulated toward a desired outcome or completely hidden. ...
[ full article ]

Are We Safer?
04/20/2005 @ 5:29pm
- Kristin Breitweiser -
... Where are we today? Are the democratic principles that Osama Bin Laden tried to destroy on 9/11 still safely intact? Do nations around the world still respect and admire Americans? Are we still 'all Americans' like we were in the immediate wake of September 11th when almost every country in the world declared their solidarity with us? Or have we squandered that worldwide good will, faith and common purpose to fight terrorism? Have we learned any lessons since 9/11? And, most importantly, have our country's choices made us any safer than we were pre-9/11? ...
[ full article ]

So, with the Bush Administration hiding the facts from us, how will we be able to tell is we are safer? So far, all the evidence that's come to light says the Bush Administration is incompetent and-or more interested in setting up sweat-heart deals for their friends than in keeping America safe.
===

The War on Truth

Here's a Friday afternoon story that was supposed to fly in under the radar.
This is one more example of what a horror show the Bush Administration is! They are massively incompetent and rather than make any effort to address their incompetence, they make every effort to cover it up.

Bush administration eliminating 19 year-old international terrorism report

By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder
Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The State Department decided to stop publishing an annual report on international terrorism after the government's top terrorism center concluded that there were more terrorist attacks in 2004 than in any year since 1985, the first year the publication covered. ...

..."Instead of dealing with the facts and dealing with them in an intelligent fashion, they try to hide their facts from the American public," charged Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA analyst and State Department terrorism expert who first disclosed the decision to eliminate the report in The Counterterrorism Blog, an online journal.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who was among the leading critics of last year's mix-up, reacted angrily to the decision.

"This is the definitive report on the incidence of terrorism around the world. It should be unthinkable that there would be an effort to withhold it - or any of the key data - from the public. The Bush administration should stop playing politics
with this critical report." ...

... statistics that the National Counterterrorism Center provided to the State Department reported 625 "significant" terrorist attacks in 2004.

That compared with 175 such incidents in 2003, the highest number in two decades.

The statistics didn't include attacks on American troops in Iraq, which President Bush as recently as Tuesday called "a central front in the war on terror." ....

[ full story ]

Where are the Republicans really taking us?

House warned on rise in debt
GAO chief says current spending path
won't work

Thursday, March 10, 2005
By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette
National Bureau

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Comptroller General David M. Walker warned members of Congress yesterday that government spending is on an unsustainable path and that Social Security's financial problems made up only a fraction of the spending headaches Congress will face in coming years.

During the House Ways and Means Committee's first hearing on Social Security this year, Walker reminded members that while they are struggling to find a way to make up Social Security's $3.7 trillion shortfall, Medicare's is facing a shortfall that will be about eight times larger at $28 trillion.

The government is so deeply in debt, Walker said, that if spending rises at the pace of the growth of the economy and if the president's tax cuts are extended, the money coming into the Treasury in 2040 might only be enough to pay interest on the money the government is borrowing to pay for its programs.

"We are on an imprudent path," said Walker, who heads the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. "The government has no money. The government owes money."
... [ full article ]

Don't be fooled into thinking this situation is accidental. Massive deficit spending coupled with tax cuts for the wealthy is part of a plan to destroy the government of the United States. Bush is part of the cabal of free market maniacs who are out to steal the resources of the whole world.

To understand what Bush/Republican policies are aiming for we can look to the activities of the World Bank and IMF, who's leaders are also member of the cabal of free market maniacs. Time after time the World Bank and IMF have lent money to less developed countries knowing the money was being spent badly. Then when the poorly designed development projects came to nothing and all the money had disappeared, they forced the governments to cut social spending to nothing and sell off the nations assets at fire-sale prices.

If this cabal of free market maniacs isn't stopped, that is where they will take the United States. Tax cuts for the wealthy, massive deficit spending and Privatizing Social Security are just steps in bankrupting the U.S.. If allowed to carry out their plan; once the U.S. government is bankrupted, Republicans will begin demanding not only an end to ALL social programs but also the liquidation of assets to raise money to pay on the national debt. That would mean selling off inter-state hiways and bridges, auctioning of federal buildings and public lands. Our national forests and national parks would go on the auctions block.

And who will be the buyers? For the answer, just look to who's accumulating cash because of big tax cuts.

Just say NO!

Don't be fooled

Ownership Society?

Yeah, that's right! Bush and his pals want to OWN America.

Promises of wealth and easy living, wrapped up in Buzz words. This is just the latest ultra-Right-wing bait'n'switch scheme designed to enrich the insiders while impoverishing and disenfranchising ordinary Americans.
Like Georgie-boy keeps saying, fiefdom is on the march!
Today it's 'Privatizing Social Security'. Tomorrow it'll be 'Tort Reform', so they'll have immunity when they're caught stealing our 'Privatized Social Security'.

---

The Kansas City Star
Posted on Wed, Feb. 02, 2005

Bush Offering Expanded 'Ownership Society'

NANCY BENAC
Associated Press


WASHINGTON - Richard Nixon promised a "new American revolution." Ronald Reagan pushed his "new federalism." Bill Clinton invoked a "new covenant." Now, George Bush is offering Americans a new, expanded "ownership society." ...

...the president is taking the noble idea of an "ownership society" and using it to sugarcoat a scheme that would unwisely saddle ordinary Americans with even greater risks and costs for Social Security, health care, retirement benefits and other programs.

"Hokum, that's a good word for it," says former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "They have a knack for putting labels on their policies that stand for exactly the opposite of what the policies aim to achieve." ...
[ full article ]

Killing the Goose

There is a CRISIS in Social Security
and HIS name is George W. Bush!