Wow. Scrolling through some recent Star Ledgers I find these two goodies:
This is a phony issue. The Bush Republicans have succeeded in painting Democrats as softies, one-worlders, U.N.-lovers lacking in patriotism -- never mind that the Bush administration is host to the largest collection of Vietnam-era draft-dodgers ever assembled anywhere outside Canada. LINK
AND
The only reason the Republican Party supports the cigarette industry is that the cigarette industry supports the Republican Party. Take those contributions away, and the tobacco executives would be treated the same as the cocaine executives. LINK
Farmer right on the money and Mulshine (in a bizarre out of sorts way) admitting that the Republican Party is in the pocket of executives. Nice.
Quick links thanks to the good people at Gephardt Grassroots (even though they seem hesitant to make me one of the "good people"): This Wesley Clark poll shows Gephardt's tremendous strengths This Post article has the most meaningful statement about the campaign so far:
No major Democratic presidential candidate is promising to change the country more dramatically than Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.).
At a time when many voters complain of little distinction between the two political parties, Gephardt is calling for a bigger and more activist federal government, one markedly different from the one envisioned by President Bush and by the other contenders for the Democratic nomination.
Gephardt stands far and away the most liberal, New New Deal candidate there is, despite his being a sort-of-self-described moderate (hit next twice.) And that's why he is number one right here. Not that you can see it, but I vaguely point to my heart area. I hit this gap-thingy near my shoulder, but you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, for a while I've been meaning to sum the difference between Dean and Gephardt. For a while I was a Dean guy, as I've written, because I like dark horses and I like liberals. Now that it's clear Dean is neither I can drop him like a molten, two-faced rock. Such rocks may have existed here. But I saw neither them nor magma. I like this. It's snappy, it's simple, it's alliterative somewhat, and it's Labor-Day-themed.
Wherever there is a protest, there is Dean. Wherever there is a picket, there is Gephardt. And it really boils down one of the biggest differences between the two. A protest of the type I'm referring to is a desparate, no-rules, no-money, no-cares struggle. Burned out hippies and Al Sharpton in Vieques. Keep in mind that I love protests, but I'm trying to malign the Dean campaign here. Two different things. Someone looking for attentio, and someone with nothing to lose because they're well off enough to begin with.
Wherever there is a picket, there is Gephardt. Gephardt is the candidate of the people who need help to fight against a corporate class, to fight against (however much I may disagree with "fair trade") a trade policy that sends jobs to foreign countries, to fight against a president and a party that values wealth and not the wealth that creates it. I use the Edwards quote because Edwards is running as a Gephardt that won't do anything so his rhetoric is pretty close to Gephardt. A little tricky, huh? But he has to fight, and the fight is to preserve and create necessities: health care and jobs, among others. He's not out there complaining and stealing the spotlight shamelessly: stuff like Bob Baines' filing for office and the MLK III rally. Just ridiculous. He's working to make America better.
They're so lost as to believe it's a generational thing that people follow Dean off a cliff. Gephardt knows that he can't just be a celebrity, railing against Washington politics just because he has no national experience. This is the best quote I ever heard from Gephardt:
"Every single day that I've been in public service, I have tried to represent people like my parents- the hard working people that make this country great. This president has declared war on the middle class, on labor unions and on working families. He doesn't care about the people who are just trying to get ahead. When I am President, you will never have to wonder or doubt who is fighting for you. This isn't about me, this isn't even about the Democratic Party, it's about what kind of country we can be. It's about what kind of jobs, health care and education, we can have." LINK
So that's it. I'm personally off my game. I can tell. Sorry for the disappointing, off-key post. But, hey, check me out.
OK, so the problem is that the host does not accept passive FTP and that's the only way Blogger works. Yeah, I don't think I can fix that so my choice is to abandon Blogger or the host at some point in the near future. 'K.
Happy Labor Day! I'm hoping to get up'n'rantin' some time soon.
Goldberg also excoriates the two candidates, whom he met frequently on the campaign trail, for alienating young people by demonizing the video games, rap music and movies they love. His strongest language is reserved for current presidential candidate Lieberman. "Not only is he one of the most conservative Democrats with a national profile," Goldberg writes, "but his self-righteousness about religion and venom toward popular culture would make him a serious threat to a free and intellectually diverse American society if he were to gain more power." (Through a spokesman, Lieberman said that he hasn't read Goldberg's book but doesn't "feel it necessary to respond to the political analysis of a record producer. Suffice it to say he should not give up his day job.") LINK
Tie this in with EGM's 09/2003 Letter of the Month:
The next time an election-seeking politician steps up with some uneducated banter about how videogames are worthless wastes of time that rot our brains, we should respond, in a loud voice, that they are the fools.
and "Sugar Joe's" "Big Speech"
I imagine America speaking out against moral decline, whether it's the violence against women in video games played by children, crimes of hate against people who are gay, or the failure of fathers to support their kids. LINK
all point to the importance of pro-gamer candidate, and that pro-games candidate has always been lovable, blue-eyed Ben Grimm. But, I suppose he wouldn't mind if I were that candidate, which I am and have been. Yeah, more serious stuff to come. I'm a little dazed from the flight.
One last thing before I retire from "almost blogging" for the day. Check out this pic: What a homewrecker! I kid. . . Although I'm thinking about re-theming the site a little as per the test pic above. . . Probably not. But I enjoy the test pic as a change-up.
As you can tell, I don't and perhaps won't feel up to giving a full post here until I can figure out something better than the end-around. So, I'll hold off - at least temporarily - from trying anything much longer than this.
It is thus hilarious that Republicans have been so self-righteous against Democrats who have had the nerve to behave as an opposition and challenge President Bush's credibility. Republicans are telling Democrats: "Don't you dare do what we did." It's equally amusing, but also depressing, that hypocrisy isn't being called by its real name.
LINK from EJ Dionne, Jr. Also, the George Will stuff is creeping me out. What is Will's deal?
The blog is ultra-broken. Right now when I try to publish something it sends the message "Transfer Error" with a hyperlinked to nowhere "details." The only way I can publish things is with my un-genious end-around: FTP to Angelfire, download, and upload to the Prohosting server. Anyone with simple solutions for a simple mind (regarding technical issues at least) is invited to help me.
Well, I'm here for a couple more days than I thought. I guess you could call this my "Home from the Heartland" tour. The big news is that the big writers are still catching up to me. David Broder points out through the CBS News that, yes, Bush has been doing everything wrong:
But "The CBS Evening News" that night was like Karl Rove's worst nightmare, and the other network newscasts -- still the main source of information for a large number of Americans -- were not much better. LINK
Duh, Dean Broder. And what else?
the White House faces a credibility gap
Boy, I haven't used that phrase in a while. . . May 13 was it?
You mean Democrats need to angry for liberals but less angry for moderates? Who'd'a thunk it? (I just used that somewhere. . . )
Dean's shifting emphasis was a reminder that the Democratic presidential candidates are still struggling to find the right tone for challenging a president who is enormously unpopular with the activists who are critical to selecting the party's nominee, but generally well-respected by the swing voters who can decide a general election.
The question for Dean and his rivals is whether in satisfying the visceral longing among Democrats for denunciation of Bush, they will frighten away centrist voters — the way conservatives did with their overheated attacks on Bill Clinton throughout his presidency. LINK
I think I'll sweep up the rest of anti-Bush-mania after breakfast. 'ta.
There's been nothing to say that really needs saying. Bush is evil. Liberia is confusing. The Republican Medicare bill is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Dusty Baker is a moron. The Lakers are looking unbeatable. Anything I'm missing?
What? What? I'm here, I'm here. Hold your dark horses.
Human inquiry: Does anyone know where/how to buy a game of Castle Risk?
OK, and now politics, 'cause that's what I do, and doin' is what I do best.
So, if Dean isn't the answer, what do we need? From Unca' Joe Lieberman: "You have to go beyond the anger." THE NOTE Right now every candidate can be slotted accurately into four categories. Not bad for nine candidates, huh?
GETTING PEOPLE ANGRY AT BUSH: Dean
TRYING TO GET PEOPLE ANGRY AT BUSH BUT LACK VISCERAL ANGER: Edwards Kerry Gephardt Sharpton Moseley-Braun
APPEALING TO MODERATES (who may or may not exist): Lieberman/Graham Edwards
GENERALLY INEFFECTIVE: Kucinich
What we need in the general election is to sustain the anger and still be on the same level as the moderates. And I don't think Dean can reach out to moderates with his guns and budget conservatism without alienating part of even his rabid base and their Pepsi-like enthusiasm. On the other hand, it seems that Graham, Kerry, or Gephardt, if they developed the anger, could successfully attract the liberal base and have the potential to attract the middle as well. I'm basing this part here on feel more than anything. But for many of candidates they need to hone the anger. Democrats hate. . . HATE George W. Bush. And I feel we have good claim to do so. It's not just a matter of hating his policy, but hating him for being a lying, aristocratic idiot carried on the backs of his business interest and right-wing friends as he courts his base but pretends like he actually meant what he said on his campaign. With Jimmy Carter we had a good man and a bad president. With Bill Clinton we had an OK president and flawed man. With George W., we have a bad man who is also an evil but effective president.
And this is the kind of stuff I'm talking about. This blood-and-guts confrontation with Satan is what every Democrat feels deep in their heart. Anyone who wants to beat Dean in the primary ought to wake up and skip coffee, shower in cold water, and step in a bear trap to provide them with the proper motivation and tone, although we would all want such a thing to come as natural to our candidate as it does for us.
This election, for the great mass of moderates and undecideds and Johnny-care-littles, is about who would be the best president. This election, for the Democratic Core, is about terminating the employment of an ogre would seek to invade Old Europe and leave its museums to be ransacked, who would act as the Sheriff of Nottingham and pretend to be Crusading King Richard, who offers a message of hope to our conquered vassals abroad and a message of disdain to our friends, who balanced the budget on the backs of the poor for generations to come, who helped out the little guy with his dividend tax cut. It's not about choice. It's a moral necessity. "The greatest moral issue of our time." It's not about partial-birth or SCHIP or AMT. It's about a man.
The book that does this best and still has me wowed is Shrub . And even recently there are things that Democrats have latched onto:
Edwards also takes a dig at President Bush, saying he "claims he is not one of these people, and he points to his big ranch and shiny belt buckle as proof. But every time the interests of rural America come up against the interests of his corporate friends, he takes the side of his corporate friends." LINK
Apparently the current "working vacation" will bring the amount of time he's spent at his ranch to roughly two months, since taking office in January. This particular 30-day stretch will reportedly tie a modern record (with Nixon) for longest presidential absence from the White House. LINK
. Also,
Washington Post supercomputers calculated that if you add up all his weekends at Camp David, layovers at Kennebunkport, and assorted toing and froing, W. will have spent 42 percent of his presidency ``at vacation spots or en route.'' LINK
So, the president who made character an issue has terrible character issues in his inability to understand work, working people, or non-oil-magnates in general. And for someone to capitalize they should be pretty free of questions. Yet, the story of Dean’s “war record,”
The issue has become so competitive that a whisper campaign is raising questions about how Dean (who is even with Kerry in New Hampshire polls) received a medical deferment at the height of the Vietnam War because of an unfused vertebra, but then went on to spend the year after his graduation from Yale skiing in Aspen, Colo. LINK
AND
For opposition researchers of both parties, Dean is like a newly discovered gold mine whose gleaming potential has barely begun to be tapped. Flip-flops? Try Dean's change of heart on the death penalty (con to pro -- sort of). Third rail? His support -- albeit no longer; see flip-flops, above -- for raising the Social Security retirement age. Responsible governing? Amending the Constitution to require a balanced budget is "not great public policy," but "we may have to have it anyway." LINK
Zing.
I have to qualify my assault on Dean’s “straight talking” because I qualify myself as a straight talker, even though I equivocate and shift a bit. But if anyone is going to be this incredible “Here is what I feel” guy, he’s going to be facing the On Message Presidency, and if the public has questions about Kerry’s waffling on the war just among the Democrats. . .
So, I’ve taken two of his three perceived strengths: his appeal to liberals and his ability to beat George Bush, although the latter was always questionable and proven that they are flawed. His third strength is his amazing grassroots support – from liberals. As soon as they come to the realization that they are supporting a guy with a big mouth as opposed to a guy with big vision, they’ll drop him like yesterday’s Ross Perot. Which I guess is Ross Perot anyway.
The proof is In the puddinghead:
As a dozen people marched toward Dana Place wearing Dean for President T-shirts and carrying Dean for America signs, Rove told a companion, " 'Heh, heh, heh. Yeah, that's the one we want,' " according to Daniel J. Weiss, an environmental consultant, who was standing nearby. " 'How come no one is cheering for Dean?'” LINK
Really, the question becomes how long the Governor can fill the Dean balloon with hot air before his thin skin bursts.
What Dean does well is two things. He comes across as an outsider and as the member of the Democratic Wing yadda yadda. The outsider bit is true. He is not a real power player within the national Democratic party. As he himself put it:
Dean was asked how he would win support of Democratic Party leaders given his frequent criticism of them and he responded that the leaders would come around once they got to know him.
"It is a bit of a club down there," he said. "The Democratic Party, all the candidates from Washington, they all know each other, they all move in the same circles, and what I'm doing is breaking into the country club."
Paul Dean is accused of driving the car while three friends broke into an outbuilding at the country club to steal beer. LINK
There he goes again. But it's not like Dean is the Man from Hope or even the Man from Abilene. He's the Man from Money.
Dean comes from money -- his father, grandfather and great-grandfather were investment bankers; he summered in Sag Harbor, part of the Long Island playground that includes the Hamptons, and went to Yale. During the Vietnam War, he received a medical deferment from the draft for an unfused vertebra in his back and moved to Vermont in 1978 for his medical residency. Entering politics there was relatively easy. LINK
Someone told me when I tried to push Dick's background,
Dick Gephardt grew up in the same working class neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis, Missouri, that he represents today in the U.S. Congress.
Gephardt's father, a milk truck driver and Teamster, taught him the value of hard work. His mother, a secretary, taught him an appreciation for the value of community and caring about the needs and aspirations of others. While his parents didn't finish high school, they instilled in him a lifelong desire to strive and succeed. LINK
, "But I voted for Kennedy and Kennedy was rich." Yet there's a certain aspect of Bush's wealth that inspires us to make related judgments about his character.
The Pentagon, which is studying whether it needs additional troops in Iraq, is straining to sustain more than half the Army in Iraq while maintaining other troop commitments in Afghanistan, South Korea and the Balkans. Other countries are also resisting entreaties to help in Iraq. In the latest sign of the squeeze, the foreign secretary of India, from which the administration is seeking an entire division, said yesterday that his government remains wary of sending troops to Iraq.
Bush's vigorous defense of his administration's decisions in Iraq -- his second defense in as many days after a period of relative silence -- came as another U.S. Marine was killed and three were injured while clearing mines in Iraq, while a soldier died from wounds suffered in an attack on Tuesday. At least 64 Americans have been killed -- 26 from hostile fire -- since Bush declared the bulk of fighting over two months ago. LINK
American Economy Stalling and Flailing:
The nation’s jobless rate jumped to 6.4 percent last month as the number of people looking for work but unable to find it surged past the 9 million mark for the first time in 10 years, the Labor Department reported today. LINK
Bill Safire Making Weakness of Administration Look Like Strength
Their presence may show progress in the Bush go-it-together approach, instead of acceding to the North's divide-and-conquer demand that the U.S. alone negotiate another fruitless payoff. LINK (Emphasis added by candidate)
Administration Hostile to Needs of Working-Class People
The Bush administration, which has the very bad habit of smiling at working people while siphoning money from their pockets, is trying to change the federal Fair Labor Standards Act in a way that could cause millions of workers to lose their right to overtime pay. LINK
OK. So, other than Israel, which is either a ticking time bomb or a victory timer against the World Famous BUSH CHALLENGE, this administration is a malevolent disaster. "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rightie Whitie's Got to Go" and all that jazz. But, I believe that we should not amend our war cry to "Hey, hey, Hoho, Finish Bush and Not Too Slow." Hoho is not the guy we want to lead our party despite our best instincts.
It's not just about being the Governor of Vermont, and being associated with his unpopular but correct stand on the war and most closely linked to "gay marriage" (albeit not really.) And it's not my personal mission that we need a non-Bulldog President (goodbye W., John, Joe, and Evil Dick as well.) Sorry about the language in that one, but I really liked how Princeton comes across as being as unintelligent as they are. (Aside: "The Knicks received a commitment from UGONNA ONYEKWE of Penn, a 6-8 forward, to join the team as an undrafted free agent. He will be with the team for rookie camp and the Boston Summer League." LINK ) And it's not just about interning for Good Dick.
The issue actually does come back to Dean's electability despite my earlier protestation, and that is that:
But Democrats could make 2004 resemble 1972. Then their nominating electorate, blinded by its loathing of Richard Nixon, and contemptuous of the nation that elected him, went on a ruinous ideological toot with George McGovern. Dean is the McGovern option this time. LINK
But it's not that Dean is the most liberal, as we've gone over. He just makes people think that. The thing that attracted me in particular to Gephardt and Gephardt's health care plan is
Other Democratic hopefuls have not put out health plans. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, a doctor who is expected to make health care a centerpiece of his campaign, called Gephardt's plan a "pie-in-the-sky radical revamping of our health care system." LINK
Oh, yeah, I forgot to throw this backhanded slap at Bush and the red states in:
More immediately, 12 of the 13 states with sodomy laws on the books were states that George W. Bush carried in the 2000 election, and the 13th -- Florida -- was the one that Scalia and company handed to him. The culture wars over legal equality for gays -- save on the question of gay marriage -- are pretty much settled within the Democratic Party. It's the Republicans who are split on the question of equal rights for gays. LINK
There's sort of a grand theme to this. The Democrats are correct and the Republicans are always behind the times, significantly, and leading their member astray into a wilderness of communitarian poverty.
I am beaten down by the drive back from New Hampshire and befuddled by this "new Blogger" among other things.
I meant to express my grave, GRAVE, GRAVEDIGGING disappointment in the lack of draftation for one Ugonna Onyekwe. On that day I meant to make the now falsely proven prediction that "Ugonna Onyekwe will be a surprise early pick in the second round or maybe even a late first-round pick. By the time he is done with the NBA, the position of "small forward" will be called the "U-position," the "dunk" will be called the "U-Move," and the submarine will be called the "U-Boat." Will the prophecy come true? Only a high-pitched Jaleel White can answer.
Yah, I'm ignoring contemporary politics 'cause I'm kept a little out of the loop in New Hampshire. It goes something like "Yay for the Supreme Court, Yay for the Road Map, Yay for Democratic grassroots, Boo for their choice of Howard Dean, Laugh at Liberman, Edwards, Qualified Yay for Dick Gephardt." I think. That Road Map is unbelievable. How the great conqueror and anti-statesman of our time (first is rhetoric, second is not) could solve the untractable. . . .? I really cannot believe that the peace can hold, and the Great Cynic within me says that Hamas needs some regrouping time. Still . . .
I'll be around for about a week. Expect some lower-keyed posts - more resembling rants than media notes.
Also, I really have to revise all of the strewn mission statmenets and biographical accessories to the blog.
Local directors of AmeriCorps, the community service program President Bush has repeatedly praised and promised to expand, said yesterday they have been notified of what they called "devastating" cutbacks in their allocation of volunteers for the coming year. LINK
I call it "Tax Cuts at Unwork." It's the latest masterpiece from a talented pinter--- I mean painter.
Interesting philosophical piece about the Bush tax plan? Well, not quite philosophical:
So under the American tax system, as designed by the Bush administration and congressional Republicans, the most a person of vast wealth is expected to contribute to the commonweal from his or her last dollar of investment profits is the same 15 cents or so that a minimum-wage worker is expected to pay on his or her first dollar. LINK
Interesting though. . .
Bizarre with this disease thing and before you accuse me of pouring blood in the water for SARS-lite (Dbl. Zing) feeding frenzy, I'll have to add a story. It has to do with "fire in the belly." I have so much fire in the belly that it's overflowing, pushing past a seemingly defective esophageal sphincter and into my esophagus, but whatever. I'm fired up and ready to. . . How's that Firebat quote go again? To burn, is it? Double whatever. And so in order to explain what fire in the belly means, I explain that I wish a pox on other candidate's family members. This being a joke because such a thing is highly immoral (causing shock) and because I had considered pox an anachronism. Well, then imagine my surprise when:
I'm here for a couple of days - not even that much, so I shurg and type a couple things.
I liked the Nets to win in a half-ironic way because when I followed basketball more closely they always seemed to be more like the Newark Bears than even the Mets to the Knicks' Yankees. The Nets playing in the playoffs let alone in the finals is outrageous. But then this got me fired up.
"I don't know of anything in New Jersey that we'd want," Perry told the San Antonio Express-News for Thursday editions. LINK
No Bush's hand-picked successor makes fun of my home state. And that's a rule that applies from Dick Cheney all the way down. Jason Kidd, the future NBA Finals MVP should be made the Point Guard Laureate of New Jersey.
But things that are actually important? You mean like a clear example of deception by a sitting president?
During the weeks last fall before critical votes in Congress and the United Nations on going to war in Iraq, senior administration officials, including President Bush, expressed certainty in public that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons, even though U.S. intelligence agencies were reporting they had no direct evidence that such weapons existed.
In an example of the tenor of the administration's statements at the time, the president said in the Rose Garden on Sept. 26 that "the Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons. The Iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons."
But a Defense Intelligence Agency report on chemical weapons, widely distributed to administration policymakers around the time of the president's speech, stated there was "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing or stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has or will establish its chemical agent production facilities." LINK
Whoa. Now this is a lie that goes beyond the character, honor, and dignity (terrible and the latter two non-existent) and is pretty much an indication that we don't have a president that is at all concerned with reality and the American people. He does what he wants and no Speaker Hastert will hold him down. Or the truth even. Joking and anti-war sentiment aside, if he knowingly exaggerated Iraq's capabilities to press his already dubious claims for preventative war that is beyond despicable. Hideous. A genuine horror.
Although maybe it was to make this sound less hideous:
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told Congress yesterday that he would like to strengthen the USA Patriot Act to allow capital punishment for all terrorist acts that result in fatalities and to prevent suspects accused of terrorism from being released on bond.
Three days after the Justice Department's inspector general suggested that law enforcement agencies had mistreated hundreds of immigrant detainees taken into custody after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ashcroft asked Congress to tighten several Patriot Act provisions, calling them "weaknesses which terrorists could exploit." LINK
Yeah, my buddies and myself also think that the PATRIOT Act (remember that the only way they could get such a ridiculous name is through acronym) wasn't strong enough. I mean, it infringes our rights, taking away our liberty and happiness. But no administration would be totally bonkers until it felt it was removing liberty, the pursuit of happiness, AND life from its citizens. Yep.
And then there's this not-really-TIN about the Transcription that is Apparently Serious and Never Dies:
Dean is almost irrationally protective of "Bush Lite." Indeed, several weeks before Dean blasted Kerry, Dean's aides went after Gephardt for using the term. But, this week, alerted to the fact that Dean's campaign had accused their man of stealing Dean's supposedly trademarked expression, the Gephardt campaign quickly responded with a "Brief History of 'Bush Lite,'" a paper documenting 15 years of the term's use, from its origins as a reference to Dan Quayle in the late '80s to its emergence as a description of Bill Clinton's early foreign policy to its widespread application as a derogatory moniker for George W. Bush during his 1994 gubernatorial campaign. As recently as 2000, according to the Gephardt study, the term was being used in the same context in which Dean now uses it: "The first modern documentation of a Democrat being considered `Bush Lite'" occurred in 2000 when someone hurled the epithet at Al Gore, the Gephardt report states. "When will [Dean] file the lawsuit against Bud and Miller?" asks Gephardt's spokesman, Erik Smith. LINK
Krugman lays the smackdown on George Bush's unbelievable revenue cutting. It's almost like Bush is not used to having to worry about paying for things!
Of course, the big betrayal was George W. Bush's decision to push this tax cut in the first place. There is no longer any doubt that the man who ran as a moderate in the 2000 election is actually a radical who wants to undo much of the Great Society and the New Deal.
Look at it this way: as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, this latest tax cut reduces federal revenue as a share of G.D.P. to its lowest level since 1959. That is, federal taxes are now back to what they were in an era when Medicare and Medicaid didn't exist, and Social Security was still a minor expense. How can we maintain these programs, which have become essential to scores of millions of Americans, at today's tax rates? We can't. LINK
Hey, check out this George Will column about my man Gephardt. I didn't realize how much the schedule favors Dick and even quite how strong a candidate he was until I read it:
The schedule of early nominating events—probably the only ones that will matter—may favor Gephardt. In 1988 he won Iowa (next year, Jan. 19), where the UAW is strong. In New Hampshire (Jan. 27), both Vermont’s Howard Dean and Massachusetts’s John Kerry must win, and both can’t. In South Carolina (Feb. 3), where almost 40 percent of the primary vote will be black, Gephardt has the support of 16 of the 26 members of the state’s black mayors’ conference—and his campaign is run by Ike Williams, chief political operative of the state’s foremost black leader, Rep. Jim Clyburn, who Gephardt says “is a good friend.” How good? Gephardt is asked. “We’ll find out,” he says with a matter-of-factness that suggests confidence. LINK
I almost want to just leave it at "Where there's a Will, there' s a way." but I'm suspicious that it's George Will and not E. J. Dionne talking up Gephardt.
Finally, this news from the Union Leader:
Dick Gephardt’s next visit to the state will be June 13, with details yet to be announced. Yesterday he announced his new Granite State field director is Anna Landmark, a native of Wisconsin where she ran the successful campaign of Dave Cieslewiza for mayor of Madison in 2003. Landmark was a political organizer for the Madison teachers, organizing member get-out-the-vote efforts. Gephardt’s new local endorsements include Coos County Commissioner Paul Grenier; Vikash Reddy, the former chairman of Dartmouth College Democrats; and activists Bradley Cate of Hooksett, Leo and Doris Langelier of Portsmouth, Pat Manseau of Pembroke, Norman and Augustine McNerney of Hampton and Paula Scales of Merrimack. LINK
The question on everyone's lips: Will Dick jump over fifteen flaming schoolbuses (symbolizing the lack of NCLB funding) while gargling mouthwash (to symbolize the breath of fresh air that will accompany the "end of the politics of destruction"?) Only time will tell.
Taking a moment away from work to remind you that the rhetoric NEVER dies:
During the House debate, House Judiciary Committee chairman Henry Mock, R-Jackson, urged lawmakers to take an up or down vote on the bill and not stoop to parliamentary maneuvers. LINK
Heavens to Mergatroid. Back atcha in a couple weeks for keeps, I thinks.
As the Zero Hour Approaches I Write My Last Fly like bird in Spring
Haiku for you!
When the Note tells a joke, as they do irregularly, I like to make a note of it myself:
In his prepared remarks, Lieberman said "The administration of George W. Bush has pursued a Flintstones agenda in a Jetsons world."
Hadassah!!! Get me off this crazy thing!!! THE NOTE
Spanish Literature fans look out. It seems like our década de oro est? terminando y va a entrar un década de decadencia sobre el <<direcci?n>> de Bush. How 'bout that? Looks like with a little brushing up I can still campaign decently in Spanish. Not that I think I'll be able to in five years or so, so I hope everyone enjoyed the play on words! 'Cause I suspect that's going to be it. Oh, yeah. The article quote:
''No area can appreciate the fact that we've lost 2.5 million jobs over the last three years more than the Bay Area and Silicon Valley,'' Lehane said. ''This president has presided over the greatest loss of wealth in human history.'' LINK
One of yesterday's articles that I forgot and remembered because it was also in a Boston paper:
``Wherever he goes, Kerry walks in thinking he's the smartest guy in the room - and he just has to show it,'' said one Massachusetts Republican, echoing party insiders. ``Gore was the same way. They're really birds of a feather.'' LINK
This leaves me with a clever retort.
This as opposed to Bush. Wherever he goes, everyone secretly knows he's the dumbest guy in the room.
ALTERNATE PUNCHLINE
If Kerry ever walked into a room with a Massachusetts Republican, he has good reason to think he's the smartest guy in the room.
Ah, zingeroo!
Broder pretty much sums up the tax bill as it can be summed up:
Well, they did it. The Republicans in Congress cobbled together one of the strangest, least plausible tax bills in history and sent it off to President Bush, who discovered hidden virtues in a measure whose provisions he had repeatedly called woefully inadequate for the task of stimulating a sickly economy. LINK
Yeah. As many negative adjectives as you can throw at it.
If you want to talk about this President and economic woes, though, there's almost nothing scarier than seeing a leading indicator fall. It's one thing to know we're in a recession and another to hear that it might be getting worse:
The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that orders for durable goods - manufactured products such as cars and appliances expected to last at least three years - dropped by 2.4 percent in April from the month before, when they rose by 1.4 percent.
April's decline in orders was deeper than the 1 percent decrease economists were expecting and marked the largest drop since September. LINK
And finally an interesting piece on social dynamics, my man Dick, and Evil Dick:
The Gephardts are presenting their handling of the matter as a stark contrast to that of Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, who once said of their gay daughter, "Mary has never declared such a thing." Democrats are, in fact, dueling for the gay vote, trying to lure fiscally minded, gay Republicans to their side. Taking this risk hints at progress. LINK
And now your daily moment of TIN!? Although this is pretty common talk, I still find it interesting.
Where do those hats come from? Ask Ho-Seong Koh. [. . .]
Mr. Koh makes two sets of caps ahead of time, one for each team, for sales immediately after a champion is crowned; the loser's hats are burned. LINK
I had three news pieces to quote and mock, and then IE froze. Essentially, all it amounted to was that the tax cut was just terrible and extremist, in la-la land right field. 'K.
Happy Memorial Day to you, your family, and the Alabama in between:
Santorum's disapproval ratings did climb over that period, from 20 percent to 33 percent, as fewer respondents said they were undecided. But three-quarters also said Santorum, who is the Senate Republican Conference Committee chairman, the chamber's third-highest post, should not resign his leadership position. Meanwhile, a majority -- 58 percent -- said they believe "homosexual behavior" is morally wrong. LINK
I'm rewriting (that is to say "editing," but I'm really rewriting. Don't let this parenthetical remark fool you.) this kid's high school graduation speech, and despite my writer's block, I'm impressed at how well I can do with generalities. (I don't know this kid; he's an acquaintance of an acquaintance, and I also went to an entirely different high school.) But I really like this line and I'm claiming it for mine:
The world has never been better than it is today, for only today can we act.
Not so much a theme as a state of life under the worst president in a long while. I mean there's this remarkable E. J. Dionne column:
If Vandenberg's words have a familiar ring these days, it's because the new Politics of Terrorism bear remarkable similarities to the old Politics of the Cold War. Fear has once again become a powerful tool and motivator. LINK
Right. President Bush is abusing the fear of the nation for bizarre, useless right-wing agenda goals. And then there's his bizarre, harmful right-wing agenda goals. If the tax cut was really for everyone why do the lowest two brackets receive no cut (which is very cheap since they give so little anyway) and the highest bracket receive 50% more cut BY PERCENTAGE than any other bracket. It's a dollar-to-dollar issue. The President is FLATTENING the tax code. Way to go, Ghost of Forbes.
This column will go pretty much on hiatus later this week. I'm going to be in Manchester, NH (the first of many!) to intern for Representative Richard Gephardt. I'll be gone for at least a month without a computer of my own. But when I get back I'm sure I'll have rollicking stories to tell of life on the high seas. Well. . .
I'm not going to do a full post today and I might take off a few months for reasons I will declare like so much stolen produce a little later on. But, hey, Democrats, brighten up. Turn those frowns upside down into an umbrella. Republicans think they can walk all over us. But they're stupid and terrible. If we simply talk to our neighbors about the world, we can have a unified government in 2004 under the Democrats. Really. Anyway, giving up or claiming that the Democrats are too weak isn't helping. So pitch in!
Today's Theme: The President is Weak, and the Senate is Willing
Of course, I'm going to sample a repetition of how ill-concieved and irresponsible the final tax cut is.
Indeed, by "sunsetting" all the tax cuts well before the bill's official 2013 expiration date, congressional tax writers took a measure that would have cost the Treasury more than $800 billion over the next decade and crammed it into a $350 billion price tag that could garner just enough support to pass the Senate.[. . .]
But Democrats have focused on just who will get the bulk of the tax cuts. Households with taxable income between $50,000 and $75,000 would receive an average tax cut of $703 and a boost to household income of 1.2 percent, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a liberal-leaning economic think tank. Those with taxable incomes between $200,000 and $500,000 would receive a tax cut of $5,015 and a considerably larger boost to household wealth, 2.2 percent. For millionaires, the tax cut would exceed $93,000 and the boost to household income would be 4.4 percent.
House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) tried to blunt the Democrats' "fairness" argument, disparaging it as "the class warfare card."
Rep. Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.), the committee's ranking Democrat, did not really disagree. "Is it class warfare? You bet your life," he said to Thomas during the late-night House debate. "But you declared it against the working people of America." LINK
AND
No one expects that tax breaks for married couples and a bigger tax credit for children, popular features of the bill, will be allowed to expire after next year. This is what lawmakers call a sunset. It was put into the measure to hold down the 10-year cost.
Nor, barring a political upheaval that puts Democrats in the White House and in control of Congress, is it likely that the lower tax rates on dividends and capital gains will be allowed to expire after 2008, another sunset in the bill.
[. . .]If these elements of the tax cut are calculated on a 10-year basis, the cost in lost revenue stands to be over $800 billion, more than what the president proposed, according to the first analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priority, a liberal research institute.[. . .]So for a president who seems to favor the largest possible tax cut in every circumstance — whether the economy is strong or weak, whether the budget is running a surplus or a deficit — this legislation was a substantial accomplishment.[. . .]
The budget deficit, long the bugaboo of Republicans, could reach $400 billion this year, by far, the largest in history in dollar terms and growing with each new estimate.
The public is not clamoring for lower taxes. Just Thursday, The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that only 29 percent of the public believes "tax cuts are the best way to increase economic growth and create jobs," while 64 percent said there were "better ways." LINK
AND FINALLY
In Ohio last month, Bush said senators "might have some explaining to do" for approving "a little bitty tax relief package" of $350 billion. "The package ought to be at least $550 billion in size over a 10-year period in order to make sure that the economy grows," he said.
But it was a different Bush who appeared in the Capitol yesterday to congratulate lawmakers for reaching agreement on a $350 billion plan with $318 billion of tax cuts over 10 years.
"I look forward to signing the economic recovery bill soon," he said. "This bill I'm going to sign is good for American workers, it is good for American families, it is good for American investors and it's good for American entrepreneurs and small-business owners." LINK
And yes, I'm trying to pick up the pace a bit today. I wink. That's not all the reasons you have today to hate the Bush White House and Congressional Republicans. There's a little of this:
Although they now serve President George W. Bush in sharply different roles, the three share a common experience. They are among more than 50 political appointees found by The Herald to have served as troops in the frantic Florida recount battle that followed the Nov. 7, 2000 election.
Political patronage has long been a reward for campaign loyalty. But the distribution of plum jobs to those who worked in Florida after the 2000 election suggests that service became a kind of political merit badge that carried a special benefit.
''Work on the recount is the indispensable connection for work at the Bush administration,'' said Jeffrey Toobin, author of Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election. LINK
AND THIS:
What began as a state-level political brawl now raises troubling questions about whether federal and state authority was misused -- questions that require quick and thorough answers. LINK
And now onto some niggling things that easier to talk about because they're new and not nearly so unbelievably horrible AND at the same time predestined to occur as anything President Bush does.
Once again it becomes clear that Republican regulars are uncomfortable - that is to say "bigoted against" - homosexuality. A Florida representative running in the Republican primary for Bob Grandpa's Senate seat refuses to say whether he is gay I can't imagine that he is doing it because he is so principled to his right to privacy as much as that it seems to me that he is gay and knows his party regulars won't be able to handle it. Which is a crying shame on both sides. I wish he had the dignity to tell the truth and not make homosexuality appear to be something worthy of fear (as he does by not answering the question, whether he is gay or not.) It's goofball.
The answer, Foley said, is that it's nobody's business but his own. He called the innuendo about his private life ''revolting and unforgivable,'' and blamed it on Democratic activists who fear his strength as a candidate. LINK
And now even more nifty about Gephardt is this little personal detail:
One wag noted that back when Gephardt was a city alderman, he won an Arch-front contest for former restaurant servers. "Man, he was some terrific waiter," the onlooker said. "He ran down the walkway with beverage-filled glasses. He was quick and didn't spill a drop." LINK
Finally, the RHETORIC THAT NEVER DIES, which is now also a GALLERY OF HORRORS inductee makes its way into the New York Times, a newspaper of record:
But six Democrats refused to cast their votes up or down for Mr. Chertoff, instead simply voting "present," because they said they wanted more time to review two new issues involving him and the Justice Department. LINK
Today's Theme: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. "
You're not going to get the connection between the theme and the body, but the body is so short that if it's head is a little ugly that's the least of its concerns. First, have you tried negotiating with Hamas?
"We told him (Abbas) that ... if the Zionist enemy stopped his aggression ... the Hamas movement might stop its attacks against civilians, which does not include settlers and the occupation army presence in the Palestinian land," said Hamas spokesman Ismail Hanieh. Hamas officials said they would hold more talks with Abbas. LINK
Well, I suppose that's all that Abbas can do. If he had a provision about not negotiating with terrorists, he wouldn't be able to reach anyone in the Arafat-era power structure. Badda bing.
Republicans keep our money safe. Safe from us. It's called the Ricardo-Barro effect. When the government spends (in this case hands out money to the rich) on deficit, it is equivalent of taxing at a later date. So, they're giving $350B to the rich, but what else is going on?
That was probably a smart move, because the proposal on the table this week is to raise the debt limit by an eye-popping $984 billion, the biggest single jump ever, on top of a current ceiling of $6.4 trillion. The increase alone would be bigger than the entire federal debt in 1980. The Treasury Department happens to need this increase just as Congress is debating a $350 billion-plus tax cut that will only add to the existing debt. Democrats haven't been shy about noting this unfortunate juxtaposition. Their game on the Senate floor is to try to tack an amendment onto the debt limit bill that would toss it back to the House for a separate vote, exactly what the revived Gephardt rule was designed to prevent. LINK
Oh. The biggest deficit ever. Well, then. I suppose I won't miss that $634 billion. Although the Republicans could always take up their rhetoric and eliminate everything good that the government does. Maybe I won't miss that either.
I'm kidding. I want my money and my services.
But I suppose if I want money from George W., I either ought to be rich or a Republican candidate for office:
President Bush flexed his political muscles tonight for the first time since declaring himself a candidate for re-election, raising $22 million for Republican House and Senate candidates in his initial fund-raising appearance of the 2004 election cycle. LINK
That's right. He raised almost more than three times John Edwards. John Edwards exhausted every trial lawyer he knew over a fiscal quarter. GWB took one night. Like a wampire he strikes in the night. He surely belongs as a star attraction in a GALLERY OF HORRORS.
Finally, the stuff for me. It is/has been my birthday today. I'll Barry Horrowitz myself for you. Also, Jeff Rowland? But, me! Don't forget me! And my birthday. Hooray.
Today's Theme: A Cute Metaphor Like the Franken Platform
A conservative libertarian gets angry at conservative big-governmenters ("neocons"):
In a memo to hundreds of fellow conservatives, a former Reagan administration official says traditional views are being edged out by a neoconservative "national greatness" ideology that accepts big government and advocates interventionist foreign policy. LINK
It's tough. Part of me would love to see a conservative Libertarian leeching votes from Bush in the general election but part of me is scared that the Libertarians will begin ascending as they become more liberal. That's the problem with four quarters instead of two parties.
Goodbye, Christie, goodbye!
Christine Todd Whitman, often at odds with the Bush White House over environmental issues and a lightning rod for the administration's critics, resigned Wednesday as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. LINK
She's not that liberal, and she's not that tough. But she sure is a Republican and all Republicans need to get out of policy-making and figurehead positions in government. Honestly, any confirmation battle that might slow down consideration of judges, Supreme or otherwise, thumbs up! So, to keep track: 3 of Bush's Cabinet-Level and Cabinet appointees have resigned/been replaced (O'Neil/Snow, Daniels, Whitman) plus a Press Secretary, one has been added (Ridge), and. . . wait. . . John Ashcroft is in charge of the Department of Justice??? Is that some sort of sick ironic joke?
An evil man surrounds himself with evil just as a man who breathes oxygen surrounds himself with oxygen.
And I almost forgot. This is going to be my last opportunity to dust off the mothballs of my favorite Christine Whitman joke:
BRIAN: Why does Christine Whitman make a better director of the EPA than Governor of New Jersey? SOME RUBE: Why? BRIAN: Because you can't racially profile environmentally-damaging chemicals!
That one always gets a laugh. Unfortunately the laugh is always mine.
Also, George W. Bush is crazy. He has this weird single-mindedness thing that people think is "resolve" when it's really more like "craziness." Like if I talked about why Transformers is a better book than the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for three or four months straight and demanded that book publishers release the Transformers book that they hid inside the kidney of Jason Sehorn, I would be crazy. And if anyone compromised Similarly, a President who talks about how some dividend tax cut is going to help create jobs (what?) for several months and gets a compromise is both crazy and lucky. Seriously, there's more jobs-and-growth in my kidney than in that stinker. But still the press can't seem to remember a time when not slashing a gaping hole in the budget just to help out some rich fellers was an option:
The deal marks a significant retreat for Bush, who had for months been uncompromising in his pursuit of the elimination of all taxes on dividends paid out of fully taxed corporate earnings. But with the House balking at a temporary dividend tax elimination, the president decided winning quick passage of the overall tax cut was more important than securing a dividend plan more to his liking. LINK
Anyway my cute metaphor that combines Bush's single-mindedness and tax cutting. He's like a vending machine accidentally hooked up to an ATM, so everyone thinks "Free money!" Unfortunately all the money is coming from bank accounts. Well, no big deal. Everyone can take all that they have in the bank, right? No! The vending machine costs too much for the poor to try to get their money back, and the rich take it all. Meanwhile the vending machine shows resolve.
A lot of things I harp on are being repeated back to me by the news. Or maybe it's the third bounce with me repeating the news and they repeating themselves?
On-message, on-message, on-message
Fleischer could be maddeningly on-message as White House spokesman. He would insist that the president hadn't changed policies when he clearly had. He would repeat the same answer a half-dozen times in a row. Reporters badgered him as best they could, but rarely budged him. LINK
Re-using the Bush I "voodoo economics" phrase as even the dumbest liberal could have done in 1989 (and I still do proudly):
Overall, it's hard to conceive of anything sillier than the schedule the Senate has laid out. Indeed, the first President Bush had a name for such activities: "voodoo economics." The manipulation of enactment and sunset dates of tax changes is Enron-style accounting, and a Congress that has recently demanded honest corporate numbers should now look hard at its own practices. LINK
That one is a must-read Buffett opinion piece by the way. He makes it crystal clear what the tax cut really is: a handout to the wealthy that does not contribute to jobs or growth.
Poor Governor McGreevey and his constant missteps?
But back in the state capital, Mr. McGreevey frequently seems less a master of the machinery of state government than an earnest novice whose necktie keeps getting caught in the gears. Rarely does a week pass without his having to respond to headlines about a fresh political fiasco: taking junkets and personal helicopter trips at taxpayer expense, advocating pet projects and appointments for political patrons, or making a succession of high-profile nominations that turned into public relations disasters. LINK
All major Republican figures and demagogues have a bizarre supply-side belief that is in complete denial of reality?
With the ink barely dry on Albany's new city tax hikes, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani broke a long-held silence yesterday to say that a better solution would have been to lower the taxes on city people - not raise them.
"I agree with the governor's philosophy that tax increases are not good for the economy," Giuliani told reporters after a benefit luncheon, putting him publicly at odds with Mayor Bloomberg for the first time. "We're far better off with tax decreases to stimulate the economy." LINK
Yes, Rudy, tax decreases would have closed the budget loophole. I guess I can't really do even the most basic accounting.
How 'bout that New Political Contiuum and Stockmann's Revenge?
Kerry's speech underscores that the core divide in American politics now is not between liberals and conservatives, or between capitalists and socialists. It is between libertarians and communitarians.
Libertarians believe that tax cuts are always better than government programs, that private striving and self-improvement are the central acts of American citizenship, and that where the government and the market are concerned, the government should almost always get out of the way. Communitarians also see the market as useful and private striving as essential. But they insist that preserving the individual freedom that makes both possible is a cooperative endeavor. Self-rule in a democracy demands not just private creativity but also public commitment. Government needs to assert itself when private markets fail, and when markets fail to serve the common good.
Bush is not a pure libertarian, as critics of his Justice Department would note. But his tax policies are consciously aimed at so depleting the federal treasury that the government's capacity to act will be constrained for a generation. If the boldness of Bush's vision does not call forth a comparable boldness from those with communitarian commitments, Bush will win by default. Kerry's call to service is a useful start in redefining the terms of the battle ahead. LINK
Yep, that's truth.
And then even your daily (ha!) dose of TIN!? that I found compellingly useless:
What is Cornel West doing in "The Matrix Reloaded"? LINK
Today's Themes: Crusty Old Candidate Dean and The Bush challenge continues (well, as always -- but the news I have selected is primarily about about how bad Bush is and secondarily (a word?)about the primaries)
For instance, Howard Dean takes on President Bush using very similar language to mine:
"He is the most conservative president in our lifetime." "This president has the worst environmental policy I've ever heard of." "He's been the most divisive president since Nixon." LINK
This interview gets to the heart of my ambivalence about Governor Dean. I have always recognized that:
But as I discovered last week in two days with Dean and his campaign as it swung through New Hampshire, none of that really matters, because Dean's appeal to the liberal wing of his party transcends the issues. It is an emotional connection more than an intellectual one. After the embarrassments of 2000 and 2002, Democrats are angry. They are angry at the Bush administration for its pandering to the far right, and they are angry at their own party for its impotence. And Howard Dean is angry about the same things, and he is not afraid to say so. LINK
And this leads me to believe he has to travel a path between Scylla and Charybdis, both to win my vote/endorsement and to win the presidency. He has to prove to me that he is really as liberal as he'd like me to think that he is:
Looking into Dean's record and his rocky relationship with the left in Vermont, one can't help but wonder if the Democratic activists at Piecora's in Seattle know exactly who they're signing up to support. Dean is a more complicated man than local lefties seem to realize. LINK
AND he has to prove to the DLC and to Centrists and Independents that he would be the best President:
Dean once condemned the left wing of his party as arrogant and uncompromising and often turned to Republicans to win his legislative victories. Liberal Democrats in the state often harshly criticized Dean as too conservative and some formed a new political party, the Progressive Party, because they felt Dean was pulling the Democratic Party too far to the right.
The Dean campaign says it is actually pleased with the criticism from the DLC; campaign officials believe it is evidence of the growing strength of Dean's candidacy. But the criticism is also evidence that the liberal label, whether deserved or not, is firmly pinned to Howard Dean. LINK
That's tough stuff. Tough stuff, indeed.
Now let's start with our daily dissection of the president. I'm not sure I should ask for a scalpel as much as I'd prefer to simply have a new patient. Bill Clinton makes the easy statement:
"I supported the president when he asked for authority to stand up against weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but we can't be forever strong abroad if we don't keep getting better at home," Clinton said Sunday to a crowd of about 8,000. LINK
For a man fixated on Iraq, you'd think he'd run for President of Iraq instead. Of course, maybe he would have if his parents had named him "Uday" instead of "George." Does the President have the power to unilaterally change his first name?
In the course of today's news, I found Safire's pro forma defense of the Bush administration's constant bumbling and then a nice retort.
SAFIRE: That horrendous deficit? To avert long-term deflation, and to increase the demand that helps coax the business cycle upward, we belong in the red for now. Comes the animal-spirited upturn, company profits and personal incomes will rise and greater tax revenues based on lower rates will flow to Washington and statehouses. That will turn deflation to inflation, strengthen the dollar, balance budgets and cause interest rates to rise again. LINK USA TODAY ARTICLE: Bush has long believed in the theory of ''supply-side'' economics: Tax cuts create growth by allowing businesses to put the savings back into their companies, which generates higher productivity, bigger profits and more jobs. He also believes that if consumers' taxes drop, they'll spend the windfall, enabling businesses to hire more workers. [. . .] Some Democrats say Bush's commitment to cutting taxes could backfire. ''The Bush people feel that virtually any tax cut will spur enough growth in the future to essentially pay for itself,'' says Gene Sperling, who was an economic adviser to President Clinton. ''Others of us, including many moderate Republicans, believe that rising deficits will ultimately hurt long-term confidence in the U.S. economy.'' LINK
I know, I know. It's hard to put faith in a Clinton economic adivser. Not only are they partisan, but record of success did they have? Oh, that's right. A lot.
Then, of course, there's one of my favorite Bush qualities: on-message, on-message, on-message:
Fleischer, responding to the wishes of Bush and his fellow members of the senior staff, was known for sticking tenaciously to a narrow set of facts, no matter how many ways reporters sought to probe. LINK
I'm glad that the press secretary did not tell the press much. He was good.
Unbelievably exciting, funny, and hypocritical news about Republicans and spending:
State legislatures controlled by Republicans increased spending an average of 6.54% per year from 1997 to 2002, compared with 6.17% for legislatures run by Democrats. State spending rose slowest -- 6% annually -- when legislatures were split, and each party controlled one chamber. Inflation averaged 2.55% annually 1997-2002. LINK
See? Democrats like government but do not waste—also deficit-increasing tax cuts.
I just want to include this without real comment (you have to read the article to get the context) because it's bizarre:
Though they make up just 30 percent of the state's population, blacks account for 63 percent of the lynching charges, according to an Associated Press analysis of crime statistics.
For every 1,000 blacks in South Carolina, 2.07 were charged with lynching, compared with 0.46 charged per 1,000 whites. LINK
Now, this. I'm going to chide two people and try for a witty zinger. It's hard for Democrats to stay witty because commenting on what is terrible and funny because it's terrible about the Republican doesn't change much and in fact grows worse and worse so that the jokes seem stale rather than pointed. But, here goes:
Sen. Bob Graham launched a grenade, alleging there's a Bush administration cover-up about what happened before and after Sept. 11, 2001, and about presidential responsibility for the deaths of 3,000 Americans. He didn't explain himself. LINK
I think it's important for Democrats to attack Bush on national security where he is as weak as he is everywhere else, but I believe that September 11 should be off-limits. After all, let Bush look weak and foolish as he constantly raises the grim spectre of September 11 and pretends that presiding over a disaster is an accomplishment and anything more than his sole attempt at decency. In fact, he will do as he has done and insist that the only way to resurrect the thousands who have died is necessarily through voodoo economics!
Popcorn is just one step away from being named the official Illinois state snack.
The Illinois House on Wednesday voted 98-to-17 to give the honor to popcorn. That sends the measure to Gov. Rod Blagojevich. LINK
And, yeah, I just wanted to find some TIN!? because I haven't included any in a while.
Especially since the world is always so serious when I and I'd assume most people would rather have some light-hearted air-popped fun. I mean the whole Middle East is still a powderkeg:
Drive around Basra and see what looters have done to just one institution: the 12,000-student Basra University. It looks like a tornado hit it. Looters have made off with all the desks and chairs, ransacked the library, and were last seen by my colleague Marc Santora ripping out window frames and digging up cables. Check out some of the factories around Baghdad, or many ministries, power plants, oil refineries, police stations, water systems. All have been hobbled by looting — which is why power is in short supply, phones don't work, and gas lines are a mile long.
"There are no police in my neighborhood, no judge — I can kill you right now and no one will say a thing," Hasanian Muallah, an engineer, said to me. "We're very happy to get rid of Saddam, but we're depressed by the situation on the street. People don't care who is going to be vice president. They just want a government."
I am sure things will improve. But after traveling around central Iraq, here's what worries me: The buildup to this war was so exhausting, the coverage of the dash to Baghdad so telegenic, and the climax of the toppling of Saddam's statue so dramatic, that everyone who went through it seems to prefer that the story just end there. The U.S. networks changed the subject after the fall of Baghdad as fast as you can say "Laci Peterson," and President Bush did the same as fast as you can say "tax cuts." LINK
AND
Sunday's bus blast was one of four Palestinian attacks within 11 hours, apparently aimed at derailing the peace plan. The attacks -- three suicide bombings and a shooting -- left nine Israeli civilians and five Palestinian assailants dead. The attacks were timed to coincide with the first Israeli-Palestinian summit since 2000, held late Saturday between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas. LINK
So, as much as Sharon may be a pebble in the path of what I always hope to be an unstoppable Peace Juggernaut because he refuses to take down those stupid stettlements, Hamas is much worse. I always like how the facts show that point so clearly. Sharon is still bothering me more than usual, though. But this whole terrorism thing isn't lost on some people. And not the people you'd suspect. After all, President Bush is focused on tax slashes, so that leaves. . . The Democrats!
"We have let Al Qaeda off the hook," Mr. Graham said, as members of the municipal workers union here rose in applause. "We had them on the ropes close to dismantlement, and then we we moved resources out of Afghanistan and Pakistan to fight the war in Iraq. We let them regenerate." LINK
The more you listen to Bob Grandpa, the more it makes you feel like we should have invaded Syria instead of Iraq, but now we really can't because we used up all the International Goodwill we have. Oh, well. More on that Democratic function:
Some of the sharpest words aimed at Bush came over the issue of homeland security. "What this administration has done," said Graham, former chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, "is they have conducted an ideological war in Iraq where they have not found the weapons of mass destruction upon which it was predicated. And at the same time, they have stopped the war on terrorism. . . . We have let al Qaeda off the hook. . . . We let them regenerate."
Gephardt said the administration had left the country "vulnerable to future attacks" by failing to provide money and training for local fire and police departments, while Sharpton accused the Republicans of using members of the New York fire and police departments for photo opportunities and closing firehouses for lack of funds.
"It's a political fraud that needs to be exposed," he said.
Edwards said, "We should not cede this issue to a party and a president whose idea of homeland security is plastic wrap and duct tape." [. . .]
Dean linked the tax cuts to homeland security, saying, "The enormous tax cuts are not only undercutting Medicaid and Social Security, Mr. President. The enormous tax cuts that you have passed are actually undercutting our ability to defend ourselves." LINK
It seems clear to me which party is strong and which is weak. Because the Democrats are the party of government, only the Democrats can perform governmental functions well: defending the nation, stimulating the economy, and providing for the less fortunate. And because the Republicans are the party of Big Business and Libertarians and the Religious Right, they can perform those functions well: Enron-like accounting, running on long-term deficits for short-term appearances, cutting back on necessary government functions, and intruding on the rights of private citizens for their own faux moralistic reasons. Easy, peasy. I think I'm going to repeat this at the end as it makes such a good conclusion, not only for this post, but for any history or discussion of modern American politics.
Also, that same article used my system sort of. But just, it makes the Team Levy Primary more spiff, I'd say.
When the event was over, the 30 Iowans were asked to give each candidate a favorability rating on a scale from zero to 100. Kucinich was first at 78, followed by Sharpton at 76, Gephardt at 75, Edwards at 69, Braun at 66 and Graham at 63. Kerry and Lieberman were not rated because they appeared later. Lake said on a separate question of who was most electable, Gephardt scored best among the seven who appeared in person. LINK
Another quick potshot at W.'s environmental record, which some (cough!cough!Rove!cough!cough!) would say is somehow not abysmal, but very good (see this article that you have pay for here and a quote from it at this archived Note.) Here's your shot:
"The whole thing appears to be driven far more by what is politically acceptable to the administration than by science," said Lee H. Metzgar, a bear population expert and retired director of wildlife biology at the University of Montana in Missoula. "In my view, the grizzly population in the Cabinet region is being managed for extinction." LINK
Compare this with the real Theodore Roosevelt who:
In November of 1902 President Theodore Roosevelt, a noted hunting enthusiast, had been invited to join a bear hunt near the town of Smedes, Mississippi. When the President had initially proven unsuccessful on this hunt, guide Holt Collier determined to find a suitable quarry for Roosevelt. Tracking a 235-pound bear to a watering hole, Collier stunned the unfortunate bear by clubbing it over the head, and tied it securely to a nearby tree. A messenger was sent to summon the President, but when Roosevelt arrived he was unimpressed by the spectacle of a bound, dazed and bleeding bear. He had been dismayed by this unfamiliar method of hunting, using packs of dogs to track, flush out and wear down the prey while the hunter need only lie in wait for the animal to be driven to him. This was far from the strenuous physical challenge Roosevelt was accustomed to and fond of. He not only refused to claim the bear himself, but forbade anyone else from doing so as well. Regrettably, the rarely repeated resolution to the story does not include a happy ending for the bear. Seeing the condition of the injured bear, which had been badly mauled by the dogs, Roosevelt asked that it be put out of its misery and it was killed with a hunting knife. LINK
I think it's clear who is the environmentalist and who is a leading candidate for Worst President Ever. Yes, I believe that to be a fair dichotomy. I also like this one-liner in an otherwise pointed, but bizarre (is the point that we would be better off if W. were cute, pert, and seductive (I would argue he has quite the fashion-sense as rebutted in this quote) instead of macho and swaggering?) MoDo piece:
(Imagine Abe Lincoln with a backdrop endlessly repeating: "End Slavery Now.") LINK
And now I conclude:
It seems clear to me which party is strong and which is weak. Because the Democrats are the party of government, only the Democrats can perform governmental functions well: defending the nation, stimulating the economy, and providing for the less fortunate. And because the Republicans are the party of Big Business and Libertarians and the Religious Right, they can perform those functions well: Enron-like accounting, running on long-term deficits for short-term appearances, cutting back on necessary government functions, and intruding on the rights of private citizens for their own faux moralistic reasons. Easy, peasy. I think I'm going to repeat this at the end as it makes such a good conclusion, not only for this post, but for any history or discussion of modern American politics. LINK
You got me. I missed another day. And someone logged me off so I lost all the open windows I had, and now I can't remember what to cite.
Clearly, the problem is $350billion tax cut, which is clearly not $350B because of sunsets that won't go away. The unemployment and stagnation Bush economic package has passed the Senate. The conference committee could be interesting. Could it follow the established pattern of making it seem smaller, but actually making it more bloated and complicated? Only time and Tom DeLay will tell!
The names of the traitors: Ben Nelson (D-NE), Zell Miller (D-GA), and Evan Bayh (D-IN). In a just world, they would all be purged in primaries. Miller is stepping down, though, and apparently feels like getting chummy with the President these days is more important than helping his constituents as his constitutents cannot reach him.
Thanks to E3, I'm a little bit stuck in videogame mode. So I haven't found as much political news worthy to regurgitate to you as of now. Basically the big deal is that the Republicans will lie to each other, to the Democrats in the Senate, and to the American people, and insist that their dangerous strategy of laying waste to the federal government through attrition is really an attempt to stimulate the economy. Ever lovable is when you present the facts to the tax cut:
The committee, like the CBO, used dynamic scoring, predicting the tax cut's effect on the economy and taking that into account when measuring revenue impact. And, as Mr. Snow hoped, it considered the effect of tax cuts without changes on the spending side. Nevertheless, it found that a tax cut totaling $550 billion through 2013 would barely budge the economy. Three of five models predict an increase of 0.2 percent of gross domestic product between 2003 and 2008 -- or an average of $18 billion annually. The most optimistic suggests a rise of 0.9 percent -- an average of $76 billion a year. And that's the good news. During the second five years, from 2009 to 2013, the tax cut would likely be a drag on economic growth. Three of the five models show a drop in gross domestic product of 0.1 percent, one foresees a 0.2 percent decrease and one is simply flat-lined. [. . .]
Will the tax cut create jobs? In the first five years, somewhere between 230,000 (according to three of the models) and 900,000 jobs would be created. To put this in perspective, the economy has lost 500,000 jobs in the past three months alone. In the second five years, the study predicts no new job creation (one model) or actual job losses. Will the tax cut pay for itself by generating more tax revenue, or even come close? The "feedback effects" found in the five models through 2013 show that part of the tax cut would indeed be recouped through higher revenue, but even the most optimistic prediction (recovering 23.4 percent of the cost) falls far short of having the cut somehow magically pay for itself. The other numbers are far lower, as tepid as 2.6 percent. Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) took a glass-half-full approach to all this, writing to colleagues yesterday that the report "shows clearly that smart tax policy can have a significant positive effect on the economy." LINK
Ah, jobs and growth. And bad enough is that they're going to be liquidating the federal government, but they're giving off the assets (or in this case the liquid capital) to a certain group of Americans, your rich friends and mine: the rich:
Both the House and the Senate would speed up cuts in individual income tax rates passed in 2001. For three income brackets, rates would drop by 2 percentage points. But the top rate falls by 3.6 percentage points, from 38.6 percent to 35 percent. One argument for this is that it would help small businesses, many of which pay taxes at individual rates. But only 2 percent of taxpayers with small-business income pay the top rate -- and many of these are not mom-and-pop businesses but rather wealthy individuals with complex tax returns full of partnerships and royalty income and the like.
The losers are those near the bottom: low-income working families eligible to receive money under the Earned Income Tax Credit. LINK
Finally, I'm still looking for a good unbiased comparison of the Gephardt, Dean, and unreleased Kerry health care plans—not that it should matter. I'm hoping that whoever wins will simply take the best plan. I mean, why not? No one owns these plans. (Which always brings up the question of why it is that if these plans are so good they weren't introduced in Congress a long time ago by the same men proposing them, but whatever for now.) The best I can do is use the Dean campaign's head-to-head. Gephardt is only shadowboxing with Bush right now. No offense to Mr. Gephardt, but that seems a little easy to me.
Ask and ye shall receive right quick. If you go to Games: Sonic Heroes: Movies on Sega's E3 website. You'll see the line-up:
Team Sonic: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles Team Dark: Shadow (He's dead, though. Wha'?), Rouge, and an unidentified E-102-alike Team Rose: Amy, Cream and Cheese, and Big the Cat (oh no!) Team Chaotix: Espio, Vector, and Charmy
Knuckles really needs to lead the Chaotix, but maybe it will be explained. Of course, the old question about where are Mighty and Ray the Squirrel, but, hey, the Chaotix are back. As, it seems, are the J-Poppish tunes of the Sonic levels in SA2. OK, I'm done for real with the Sonic stuff for now I hope.
Alright, Sonic the Hedgehog geek time. Remember, you heard it here first if you weren't enterprising:
All twelve characters have unique strengths that you'll take full advantage of to get your team through the course at full speed. Whether you choose Team Sonic, Team Dark, Team Rose, or Team Chaotix, you'll be off on a wild journey filled with challenging missions unique to each team. In this groundbreaking title that brings the Sonic series to PlayStation 2 and Xbox for the first time, Sonic Heroes marks the next evolution in Sonic's gaming career. LINK
The Chaotix live! Who could be in Team Rose? Team Dark? Could Knuckles be in both Team Sonic and Team Chaotix? I knew E3 would give me one good surprise like this. Sorry to bother you with my fanboyishness, but "Gamer Candidate."
Greetings,
citizen, and welcome to the official website of "Levy for President 2020." I'm hoping you'll find that I'm true to my
word - that my candidacy and my campaign is radically different from every political campaign in the last half-century.
Like most Americans, I believe honesty is an asset. I also believe that ideas are the strongest facet of any
candidate. Although I am not a believer in the somewhat inconsistent New Democrat ideals, I believe the American
people will best be served by the idea primary. (And, hey, with the increasingly front-loaded primaries, I have until
June 2015 until the citizens of New Hampshire vote in the 2020 primary.) This means that I will not tell you about
growing up the son of a blue-collar laborer, because I did not. Rather, I will tell you that I support the cause of
the union, and the working man, and one of my first priorities as President will be universal, single-payer health
care. I can't tell you that I grew up in a diverse environment, but that I support affirmative action and removing the
Confederate flag from state governments across the nation. And so on.
Though this webpage officially
declares my candidacy, I feel that it is important to note that "Levy for President 2020" has not officially registered
with the FEC as either an exploratory or campaign committee. The FEC requirements essentially consist of having a
$1,000 balance. My first and foremost interest is to fight for every American, not to hoard money. As the website
gears up, I will be looking to sell campaign memorabilia and advocacy items and ask for donations for two reasons. Of
course, the first is that I would like to file with the FEC to prevent any misunderstanding. The second is that money
will ultimately be necessary for primaries and to buy server space to host things like forums and pictures of me on the
campaign trail.
On this website, in addition to championing your cause, I will respond to current events as I
see them. No punches will be pulled. My character, my views, and my sense of humor will be evinced by the watchdog
campaign that I will run over the next decade-and-a-half. Sorry for the color scheme, but orange and green are the
colors of the campaign for metaphorical reasons.
Thank you for visiting levy2020.com, the official website
of your next-next-next-next (give-or-take a couple) President of the United States.
What a homewrecker! I kid. . . Although I'm thinking about re-theming the site a little as per the test pic above. . . Probably not. But I enjoy the test pic as a change-up.
