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For The Trees
Who is our economy FOR, anyway? About the Authors: Dave Johnson John Emerson Richard Reich Thomas Leavitt
Recent Posts: BEST OF STF: Dave's: Articles not at STF: The ATLA Speech on building a progressive infrastructure Lowering the Bar The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law Who's Behind the Attack on Liberal Professors On the Right and their communications infrastructure: Why Republicans Win Win or Lose The "Conventional Wisdom" Machine Some History of the Conservative Movement HOW TO FIGHT BACK An Amplifier Of Our Own Don't Blame the Democrats How They Do It 1 2 3 4 Getting Rolled Other: You're Gonna Get Drafted Scalia and Self-Government Who is Our Economy For? Voting Machine Story Link Collection What's Wrong with this Picture? (Voting Machines) Like Meat in the Supermarket Get Active Thin Line 1 2 3 Fixing Social Security Seeing the Forest I, II, III "Incredibly Positive News" The Breadth of It The Republican Crony Club Moon Bush Ralph Nader is a Scab John's Best Of: Kerry Smear Page Bandar Bush 9/11 Commission Report Damages Bush -- if you read it Florida Goon Squad Intimidated the Supreme Court The Use and Abuse of George Orwell Zizka's Archives (John's previous identity) Zizka Sampler News Sources: AlterNet BuzzFlash Common Dreams Cursor Drudge Retort Information Clearing House Smirking Chimp TruthOut What REALLY Happened Links to Other Weblogs: |
 10/31/2002 2004 Everyone should go read William Burton's post titled 2004. --- Posted at 10/31/2002 08:49:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post  
Well, DUH! Bush, and the whole right wing crowd, like to say that taxes "take money out of the economy." The New York Times has an article, Do Lower Taxes Mean Faster Economic Growth? But the degree of misleading information emanating from both Washington and the media about how taxes affect the economy is disturbing. As I listen to the radio, watch TV news and read a variety of newspapers, it seems that quite a few Americans, including economics writers and media hosts, think that low-tax countries unquestionably grow faster than high-tax economies. Right and left, they seem to attribute more rapid growth in America to lower taxes.I thought that this was a settled question decades ago. Redistribution of income from the top to the broad consuming public stimulates our CONSUMER ECONOMY. Clinton raised taxes at the top and cut taxes at the bottom and look what happened. Bush cut taxes at the top and cut services for the middle and bottom and look what happened. Well, DUH! There's more - the whole article is worth reading. --- Posted at 10/31/2002 02:09:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
MyDD Are they going to have Reagan die? Seeing the Wellstone effect, the Republicans might have Reagan die this weekend. Check out this at MyDD. --- Posted at 10/31/2002 08:23:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Didn't Take Long The Bush people appointed William Webster to head the accounting oversight board, when was it, Friday? This was after corporate types got Bush to kill the appointment of a serious investigator who would clean up the corporate mess. So take a look at this story, SEC to Investigate Watchdog Pick. It seems that SEC Chair Harvey Pitt concealed from the SEC that his choice to head the accounting oversight board had headed an auditing committee of a company facing fraud charges. These clowns think they can get away with anything. Can they? --- Posted at 10/31/2002 08:10:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/30/2002 FAIR Tom Tomorrow points to Fair's page, "Why U.N. inspectors left Iraq--then and now." It has examples of what various news organizations said back when the inspectors were pulled out, and say now to better fit Bush's lie that they were kicked out. Well worth a look. Here's one example: The U.N. orders its weapons inspectors to leave Iraq after the chief inspector reports Baghdad is not fully cooperating with them.Soon Winston Smith will be changing old videotapes to reflect today's line. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 03:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sideshow, About Iraq First I was pretty upset about Paul Wellstone's death. Then I was too busy to write much. Still am. So go read what Sideshow writes about Iraq. My comment, and my entry on the subject, is, "Yeah, what she said." Well, more, actually. Sideshow writes, "Having already proceeded on a course to create a diplomatic nightmare prior to 9/11..." I've been meaning to say a few words about this. I think US policy leading up to 9/11 deserves more attention. I remember how Bush was swinging US Middle Eastern policy entirely away from the previous (and necessary) role of semi-neutral mediator. After Bush made statements entirely blaming Arafat and the Palestinians for the conflict, I remember saying to my wife that it seemed as though Bush was intentionally trying to start a war. This should be part of any investigation of events leading up to 9/11. Fat chance. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 02:49:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Got a Letter Today I got a letter today: This new Bush/Harken insider trading revelation has really got me steamed:So I asked him if I can post the message, and he writes: You can print it and use my name. I want the whole damn country to know what liars, swindlers and cheats these people are.But I didn't post his name. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 12:50:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Wellstone I'm late getting this posted. The Hamster has suggested that a fitting tribute to Senator Wellstone would be to read Wellstone's 2001 book, "Conscience of a Liberal." I agree. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 10:02:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Radio Day Relating directly to the previous entry, President Bush is planning an election-related "Radio Day" today, with radio talk show hosts setting up on the White House lawn. The tent will be open from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. for about 50 radio hosts and reporters to broadcast live to millions of listeners. Syndicated conservative hosts Oliver North and Sean Hannity will be there.All on paid government time, by the way. And what's this with allowing Ollie North back at the White House? Just how blatant can the election manipulation get, before the public reacts? No, wait a minute, if you listen to AM radio, or watch TV, or read local newspapers, you aren't going to get a chance to hear anyone suggest that there's anything improper about this -- or about the timing of the Iraq war vote. You're only going to hear about why you should vote Republican, and about how stupid "liberals" are, and about how markets are the best way to decide policy, and about how raising wages costs jobs, and about how estate taxes are "death taxes" rather than taxes on inherited income, etc. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 08:34:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Free Airtime Republicans are complaining that Sen. Paul Wellstone's memorial service was broadcast on TV in Minnesota. They say it was giving "free airtime" to Democrats. I guess we'll be hearing that complaint all day, nonstop, from now until the election on AM radio, and on the Fox News Network, and the Sunday talk shows, with no opposing voices whatsoever. We will if that's what the focus groups say works best for The Party. --- Posted at 10/30/2002 07:33:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/29/2002 War and Election I think the Republicans are planning to try to force the UN to vote just before the election, bringing it back into the spotlight. This will be a test to see how blatantly they can try to manipulate the public and get away with it. --- Posted at 10/29/2002 03:08:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/28/2002 Didn't get it. A few people didn't get what I was saying. It was like they were saying, "The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat." OK? I guess I was being obscure. --- Posted at 10/28/2002 10:19:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Only Good Indian Over the weekend and continuing today I heard a lot of right-wing pundits talk about how Senator Paul Wellstone was such a great liberal, a man who stood on his principles, who stood for something, who was honest, how much they respected him, etc., not like those other Democrats who run with the polls, only do what they need to do to get elected, etc. Listening to them, it would seem that Paul Wellstone was the only Good Democrat. --- Posted at 10/28/2002 01:11:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/26/2002 Body and Soul Check out Body and Soul. --- Posted at 10/26/2002 04:38:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Just Around the Corner Barron's poll: Hopes for recovery Prosperity is just around the corner. --- Posted at 10/26/2002 04:22:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/25/2002 Yeah, I'll Just Bet Bush, "I would like to express my deep condolences for the loss of the Senate," Bush said shortly after hearing of Wellstone's death Friday. "And also, I would like to express my condolences to the bereaved family." Yeah, right. If grief for Wellstone is what's on your mind here, how come you said "loss of the Senate?" Update:Bush might not have said it. --- Posted at 10/25/2002 02:42:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
1968 This year is starting to remind me of 1968. A lot has happened. I feel like I felt after Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were killed. --- Posted at 10/25/2002 12:07:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/24/2002 Blog Recommendation I want to recommend a blog called Thinking It Through. Seems to agree with me on many issues: must be brilliant. He does some good in-depth writing. Read his column, Does the NRA Mistrust Democracy? And today's entry, THE TALENT-CARNAHAN RACE AND POLITICS IN MISSOURI --- Posted at 10/24/2002 04:29:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
MoveOn's New Website MoveOn.org has a new website! --- Posted at 10/24/2002 03:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
More No Law Thanks to Tapped, here's a press release from the Dept. of Education, announcing a $600,000 government grant for a PR campaign to help The Party gain votes from black people. A previous entry about Bush's education legislation. --- Posted at 10/24/2002 11:18:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Go Read William Burton is writing some good stuff. --- Posted at 10/24/2002 09:56:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
No Law Anymore Today's Washington Post, Bush Enlists Government in GOP Campaign. Most of it, of course, illegal. Blatantly illegal. Not only that, but much of it is being paid for by the government, not The Party. The 24/7 use of AM radio as a full-time Republicans Party advertisement is, of course, illegal as well. But who is going to enforce these laws, the Bush Justice Department? HA! Update - Imagine the uproar if Clinton were doing any of this. --- Posted at 10/24/2002 08:41:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/23/2002 Voter Fraud I've said a few times that I see the Republicans often using a sophisticated trick, where they accuse their opponents of doing something that they are actually doing themselves. It's called "inoculation." It masks their own activities, and makes the opponent look silly if they come back with an accusation of the Republicans doing the same thing they're accusing the opponent of. Like Bush accusing Gore of being willing to say or do anything to win, or Bush accusing Gore of being a liar. They've become such smokescreen specialists, because they're usually trying to do things that they know the voters don't want. So sometimes to understand what the Republicans are up to you need to listen to what they're accusing the Democrats of being up to. (I said it's sophisticated, but maybe I meant it takes a lot of words to explain it.) The Republicans have been making lots of accusations of voter fraud, and it's building up. Right now Drudge has no fewer than 5 voter fraud stories posted. Meanwhile, in Dallas the voting machines are acting funny. (Eschaton again.) Remember, these are machines that do not generate paper which can be checked against the totals! These are voting machines from one of the companies in the story I wrote about a ways back, about how right-wingers are quietly buying up all the voting machine companies. --- Posted at 10/23/2002 07:42:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
More on Here It Comes TBOGG has a story about Americans for Job Security, which I wrote about earlier. --- Posted at 10/23/2002 03:05:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Blogger Not Publishing I don't know when you-all are reading this. Blogger is not publishing posts today. (Maybe it's the same thing that happened to Eschaton.) I suppose at some point it will publish all the posts I've written and can see here - and then you'll read this and understand what's going on. But until then, you're not even seeing this. --- Posted at 10/23/2002 02:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Long List of Bush Lies PLA published a long list and discussion of Bush lies here. (Thanks Eschaton.) --- Posted at 10/23/2002 02:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Mighty Wurlitzer Have I pointed to this article, The Mighty Wurlitzer, before? Robert Borosage describes how the right-wingers are able to accomplish so much. --- Posted at 10/23/2002 01:06:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Here It Comes Most of the public doesn't realize that this is a crucial election. The Republicans do. So far they've taken advantage of the terrorist attack to push their agenda (examples - phony Dept. of Fatherland Security to get rid of public employee unions and employee protections, phony Terrorism Insurance bill to get rid of corporate liability laws...), terrified the public with phony terrorist alerts just as the President or Vice President are implicated in corporate scandals, and most recently blatantly timed a war scare to manipulate the campaign. What's next? Here's a sign that things are starting: Mysterious group spends $1 million on anti-Wellstone campaign --- Posted at 10/23/2002 09:37:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
FBI Whistle Blower Being Fired Not THAT whistle-blower - yet. MN Star Tribune: Minneapolis whistle-blower may face dismissal from FBI --- Posted at 10/23/2002 09:04:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/22/2002 Suckers Bush Declares U.S. Is Using Diplomacy to Disarm Hussein, "if the Iraqi leader complied with every United Nations mandate it would "signal the regime has changed." The Iraq scare is over. It has served its purpose: the election. I look at the opinion columns in the NY Times, and see, "The Price of Stability By MICHAEL O'HANLON Until we face up to the possibility that a multiyear occupation will be needed, we have not yet accepted what war to overthrow Saddam Hussein could entail." I think, "What's this guy writing about IRAQ for? Occupation? Doesn't he GET it? That's OVER. That's so last week. Suckers. --- Posted at 10/22/2002 07:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/21/2002 Pensions, Again I've been writing about the corporate pension fund problem. Today: Alcoa pension liability to jump $700 mln-$1 bln. Wow! And check this, "Pittsburgh-based Alcoa is also lowering its expected rate of return on its pension assets from 9.5 percent, but did not provide a new figure. Uncertainty over future stock market returns is leading many companies to reduce their fund expectations from recent high levels." That means that they've been reporting an expectation of a 9.5% return. Yeah, right. "Alcoa's comments are the latest in a string of corporate warnings over the health of their pension plans, as company after company discloses huge funding shortfalls.This is a big one, folks. Pay attention. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 04:45:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Estate Tax Just want to get this out there. The Republicans came up with the cute name, "Death Tax," for the Estate Tax. This probably took a few focus groups and polls to come up with. The Estate Tax is paid on the transfer of assets when a zillionaire dies. It is AN INCOME TAX on the income received by heirs of someone who is really, really rich. The Republicans cast it as a tax that causes farms and small businesses to be sold to pay the tax, but this is yet another lie. From NYTimes, Focus on Farms Masks Estate Tax Confusion, While 17 percent of Americans in a recent Gallup survey think they will owe estate taxes, in fact only the richest 2 percent of Americans do. That amounted to 49,870 Americans in 1999. And nearly half the estate tax is paid by the 3,000 or so people who each year leave taxable estates of more than $5 million.Let's be clear on this. You and I pay income taxes on OUR income, but Bush and the Republicans repealed the Estate Tax and now rich kids won't have to pay taxes on THEIR (inherited) incomes. People are not as upset about this as they should be, probably because of the cute name the Republicans were able to apply to the debate. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 03:17:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Correction Earlier I wrote that Enron was paying for the anti-Davis ads. Articles I found point to Reliant Energy more than Enron. The problem is that the group placing the ads, American Taxpayer Alliance, has been allowed to conceal their donors. From Organized Labor: (scroll down to "Hard Hat Rally") The American Taxpayer Alliance is paying for the ads with money from energy companies like Reliant, and money raised by Enron lobbyists. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Reliant Energy of Houston, the largest independent generator of electricity, reported earnings in the first quarter of 2001 that were double those for the first quarter of the previous year, (4/17/01). Two of the directors of Reliant Energy, James Baker and Steve Letbetter have strong ties to the Bush White House. Looking at the Enron Corporation of Houston, we find that revenue increased by 500% over the three-year period from 1997 to 2000, from $20.3 billion to $100.8 billion. Even more interesting, Enron CEO, Kenneth Lay, energy advisor to the Bush administration, made $27.2 million through insider trading of Enron stock in the 12-month period ending April 2001. Not bad for a years work, and this is only his bonus money.From the Davis Campaign: DAVIS WINS INJUNCTION AGAINST AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ALLIANCEDemocratic Underground: American Taxpayers Alliance - NEW! Weeks on chart: 1 - The American Taxpayers Alliance started running a TV ad in California last week attacking Governor Gray Davis for failing to protect the public from rising energy costs. The campaign-style ad doesn't promote a rival candidate, but features fuzzy, unflattering close-ups of Davis while assailing his record. So who are the American Taxpayers Alliance? Surely they're a group of concerned citizens who are worried about spiraling energy prices in California, right? Um, wrong. The "American Taxpayers Alliance" is actually a front group for hundreds of corporations, including Texas-based Reliant Energy. Reliant Energy are proud to list James "rent-a-hatchet" Baker and Bush fundraiser Steve Ledbetter on their board of directors. So, Californians - energy companies are selling electricity to you at vastly over-inflated prices, then spending the profits on TV ads attacking your governor for failing to stop them. How do you feel?And the whole story at CorpWatch. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 02:10:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Best I've Ever Seen Last year the "energy crisis" hit California. Big coincidence, the country had just "elected" two corrupt oil-industry men to "lead" the country and suddenly energy prices shot through the roof. (Remember the gas crisis in the Chicago area that ended immediately as soon as the Senate announced they would investigate?) In California we had "rolling blackouts" and a huge surge in electricity, natural gas and gasoline prices. The Bush FERC, of course, refused to intervene. The Governor had to start purchasing energy on the spot market to try to stop the blackouts. Then nasty TV ads started appearing, blaming Governor Davis. Davis had been a sort-of invisible Governor until then. No one really knew what to think of him. He was "undefined." Those ads stuck, like nothing I've ever seen before. They completely defined Davis, his poll numbers fell through the floor, even good Democrats I knew were blaming Davis for "bungling the energy crisis." He has not recovered from those ads. Those ads were the best I've ever seen. They took that guy and defined him and the public STILL blames him for the energy crisis. When you ask people why they don't like Davis, they'll tell you it is because he bungled the energy crisis, they're not sure about the details. It was later that other ads tagged him with accepting too many campaign contributions. (Imagine, a Democrat being tagged with that, in the Bush era! Shows the power of propaganda, doesn't it?) Turns out that Enron was paying for those ads, while Enron and a few other energy companies were manipulating the energy supply and raking in a huge bundle. (How much of that cash was funneled to The Party?) And now that is part of the public record. Doesn't matter, though. The public blames Davis. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 06:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Read Everything I've been meaning to say that everything over at The Sideshow lately has been a great read. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 06:45:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Dick and George Take Over the World Over at Counterspin Central they've posted a GREAT cartoon. --- Posted at 10/21/2002 06:42:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/20/2002 What He Wrote I was asked to post the message I received from a reader that led to this entry. Here it is: Recently I've discovered the world of Blogs and yours is one of my daily reads. I've been running around the idea of a journal on our website (I used to always keep a journal when I traveled after high school) but obviously the blog is the way to go.Oh yeah, and the Subject line of his message was, "If I had a blog." --- Posted at 10/20/2002 11:04:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/19/2002 What the Republicans Think They Can Get Away With Zizka posted a comment to my Iraq Again posting earlier, "God, those people in Georgia must be dumshits if the Republicans think they can get away with this." Well, I had JUST finished looking at Eschaton when I saw his comment. Eschaton has posted two different entries about Republicans lying, and just lying, and no one calling them on it. One was pointing to today's Daily Howler. It's about the long history of the Republican National Committee sending lies around, and no one calling them on it. Flat out lies, that everyone knows are lies at this point. The second referenced a Crossfire transcript about Republicans lying - JUST LYING - about where the term "privatization" originated. So to respond to Zizka, the Republicans don't THINK they can get away with this stuff, they KNOW they can get away with this stuff! They just lie, they send out "talking points" full of lies, they post lies on their website, they publicly change their story sometimes in the middle of sentences, and THEY JUST GET AWAY WITH IT. It's all there for anyone to see. Anyone with half a brain knows they just lie. Listen to Rush Limbaugh for ten minutes and you will hear a ten-minute-long series of lies. AND IT WORKS! That's why they do it! They lie ENOUGH and some of it sticks, and people start to believe it. People still believe that Clinton got a $200 haircut while his plane held up traffic on the LAX runway. How many of you remember when Clinton was acused of selling an Arlington National Cemetery plot to a campaign contributor? It was just a lie and within a few days the press stopped reporting it, so the Republicans just moved on with the next lie. Go to Google and see if that lie is still in circulation. (And read some of the slime-pages this search brings up.) When one lie fades from the headlines, they start up another lie. It works. Oh, man, this is getting to me. I'm using ALL CAPS in the middle of what I'm saying. The last post I used BOLD ALL CAPS. I think I'll go take a pill. --- Posted at 10/19/2002 05:07:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Bush the Uniter Republican House Speaker Hastert, reflecting the improved "tone" in Washington after two years of Bush the Uniter, who promised to change the tone in Washington, "When partisanship becomes so rigid it makes deal making impossible, the result is a breakdown in the system, and that breakdown is widely seen as simple incompetence" said the statement by Hastert's office. More changed tone from the Uniting Republicans, same article, "House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, asked as the House adjourned this week why al-Qaida can organize itself after a U.S.-led assault "and the Senate cannot organize itself." His answer: "Al-Qaida doesn't have a Senator Daschle who has another focus." Ads with bin Laden's face morphing into Democratic candidates. Timing the Iraq campaign for the election. Ready-to-go with ads with Democratic walking with Saddam Hussein. Gotta hand it to those Republicans, they know how to win elections, saying they'll "change the tone" and saying they are "uniters not dividers." WATCH WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY. --- Posted at 10/19/2002 02:53:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Iraq Again I wrote this in a reply to an e-mail from a reader today: Man, if you get me started about Iraq... point-by-point it just doesn't add up, and then we get this Korea nuke situation, where so many of the Bush people's points DO apply, and you find out that they sat on the news for 12 days because it would interfere with their Iraq-war-vote strategy... So for Korea we will have diplomacy but for Iraq we will have war. I think that the plan from the beginning was to frame this as "liberals" and Democrats against patriotic Republicans. I think this was the plan even before they came up with specifics of which country would get the war beat! It was about the election, not about Iraq. I'll bet that they took polls and found out that x% more people would hate Iraq than would hate Korea, so they decided to use Iraq for the election. It's a "wedge issue" they can use to divide people into camps, with the plan being that their camp gets the most people. Republicans have one issue right now - military - so they needed to create an election around the only issue that works for them. Here's my case - Max Cleland. You can't get much more of war hero material than Max Cleland. (Maybe John McCain.) So here we are with Cleland voting with the President on every single vote. But the Republicans are running ads against him with a picture of bin Laden morphing onto Cleland anyway. (And they're running a draft dodger against him.) So it wasn't about Iraq or supporting the President at all. It was about getting the public stirred up so they could run ads like that against Democrats. Here's a war hero supporter of the President and he gets ads comparing him to bin Laden. --- Posted at 10/19/2002 02:42:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Suckers Washington Post: N. Korea Issue Irks Congress - Key Democrats Kept in Dark On Admission Before Iraq Vote The White House withheld North Korea's admission about a nuclear weapons program from key Democrats until after Congress had passed its resolution authorizing war with Iraq, prompting complaints on Capitol Hill that the administration has let politics influence its conduct of foreign affairs.Suckered again. Never gonna learn. --- Posted at 10/19/2002 02:39:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/18/2002 Send West Wing to BartCop Someone needs to send this week's West Wing to BartCop. Scroll down below where Dorothy's shoes are clicking heels (until I can figure out how to link to a particular item.) --- Posted at 10/18/2002 02:29:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Blah, Blah, Blah, Yada, Yada A good piece over at Blah3, scroll to "The MBA who wasn't" (until I can figure out how to link to a particular item.) Remember when the wingnuts were telling us that the corporate scandals were all Clinton's fault because of the moral tone he set during the 90's? (Never mind the tone set by Bush regarding corporate responsibility, when he took office.) I know, I know, I'm always saying don't pay attention to the specific nonsense the wingnuts spew, those are trees, see the forest, etc., yada, yada. BUT ANYWAY go see this one. --- Posted at 10/18/2002 02:05:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Talkleft does Altercation Take a look. --- Posted at 10/18/2002 01:54:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
It's the Radio, Stupid! Reading this story in USA Today, about how the economy isn't getting traction as an issue, and listening to the radio in the car while I ate a sandwich today, I'm thinking about how the public's political information process has changed. The Republicans have greatly increased their control over the information that the public receives. I drove across the country in 2001, and once you get away from the coasts, news is ENTIRELY a Republican media operation. Every town is right-wing radio, right-wing newspapers, FOX in the motel rooms, etc. There are very few other sources of information. Coming back from my lunch I'm thinking about how AM radio has been completely taken over by the Republican Party and is being used used as a 24/7 running Republican Party political advertisement. Today's Hannity show, while I was listening, was a blatant full-scale Republican Party ad, asking people to donate, to volunteer to work on Republican campaigns, etc. AS WELL as spewing out the right-wing lies, like that Democrats are blocking the Fatherland Security Bill so you have to vote for Republicans if you want the country protected. (Facts - The Democrats PROPOSED the agency, and the Republicans are filibustering it.) This use of the AM band is illegal, and it shows where The Party wants to take the country. The Democrats should grow spines and demand that the these stations be fined for making in-kind donations to The Party, and that they put some opposing voices on the airwave. --- Posted at 10/18/2002 01:24:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Career Change I have recently changed careers. I have taken a position at a public policy institute, and will be writing more about this soon. Until June I was VP Marketing at a tech company competing with Microsoft in an age when big companies can purchase their way out of legal verdicts. I wrote one of my personal favorites, The Retirement Plan of the Unemployed Man in the period of unemployment following the demise of my employer. 2.5 years ago Microsoft was convicted of violating antitrust laws but bought a deal with the Bush administration that effectively set aside the verdict. Yesterday Microsoft reported profits more than doubling, based on a new licensing scheme forcing business users to pay even more for their software. "Results for the first quarter were exceptionally strong, exceeding our expectations," John Connors, Microsoft's chief financial officer, said in a statement. "During the quarter, we saw broader customer adoption of our licensing programs than we anticipated, as customers recognized the value of entering into long-term licensing agreements for our products."The "value" is that there isn't any alternative. After fighting Microsoft, battling right wingers won't be so bad. At least there are alternatives. --- Posted at 10/18/2002 09:38:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Talk, Talk, Talk Bush says, "Now, listen, the foundation for growth is strong, interest rates are low, inflation is low ... productivity is high in America," he said. "But so long as somebody's looking for work can't find work, I think we have a problem." How come no one is asking him what is he DOING about it??!! Look at what they DO, not what they SAY! And, by the way, interest rates are low BECAUSE the economy sucks. It is NOT a sign that the economy is doing well. DUH! And someone should tell him that economists are worried about deflation. Inflation being this low is an ominous sign, not something to brag about right now. --- Posted at 10/18/2002 09:24:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/17/2002 Agrees With Me, Must Be Brilliant! Mary McGory in today's Washington Post, on the subject I wrote about earlier today. Are Democrats making a major effort to reduce voter turnout in the coming election? Or are they just trying to fight free of the trap they diligently fashioned for themselves on the subject of war with Iraq? By their conduct on the issue in the recent congressional debate, they seemed eager to show there was no difference between them and the Republicans -- a strategy that guarantees voters will ask themselves, when it comes to digging out on a cold November morning, "Why bother?" --- Posted at 10/17/2002 11:40:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Reward the Heroes, Still Not in the News MoveOn.org is up to $1,250,000 in three days. This is just phenomenal! It's worth putting their whole letter up: Dear MoveOn member, --- Posted at 10/17/2002 10:49:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Punishing Who? I'm starting to hear people saying that they are so mad at the Democrats for voting for war with Iraq that they'll sit out this election. This is sort of a Naderist view, and I can almost sympathize with it. There really wasn't a difference between the Republicans and many Democrats when it came down to the vote on whether to go to war. And what could be more important than that? The problem is that sitting out the election might punish the Democrats, but it is cutting off your nose to spite your face. If the Democrats lose the Senate it's US who are really punished. Look at the terrible things Bush has done so far and imagine what will happen if there is nothing in place to hold him back. But why do the Democrats have to make it so difficult to support them? --- Posted at 10/17/2002 10:29:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/16/2002 Reward the Heroes, Day 2 Yesterday I wrote about MoveOn.org's 'Reward the Heroes' campaign. This update just came in and it speaks for itself: Our fundraising effort for heroes in Congress has been wildly successful, with almost $900,000 raised in under 48 hours from more than 25,000 individual donations. You folks are amazing. Let's make it a cool million. Just go to http://www.moveonpac.org/moveonpac/viewcandidates.phtmlI did. I hope you will, too. --- Posted at 10/16/2002 12:00:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Make Your Own Bush Speech Make your own Bush speech here. --- Posted at 10/16/2002 10:43:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/15/2002 William Burton William Burton is writing great stuff lately. Go take a look. --- Posted at 10/15/2002 09:03:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Reward the Heroes If you don't know about MoveOn.org, I recommend you go take a look and sign up for their action updates. They sent a message out yesterday, "Reward the Heroes," asking us to donate some campaign cash to the candidates in tight races who went ahead and voted against Bush because it was the right thing to do. Here's a bit of yesterday's letter: "As strategists look back at this election over the years to come, either they'll say, "President Bush manufactured a war and won at the polls" or they'll say, "President Bush manufactured a war and lost at the polls." Your gift today can make the difference."Well, today they sent another message out. Here's a piece of it: Good news: in just 24 hours, ten thousand of us have given more than $400,000 for our four heroes in Congress. That's $180,000 to Senator Wellstone's campaign alone. The campaigns are ecstatic. One campaign manager said, "You have no idea what this means to us."These candidates did the right thing, MoveOn.org did the right thing, now you do the right thing. Get your credit card out and click here. --- Posted at 10/15/2002 07:50:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What the Right is Saying about Carter I subscribe to the far-right Heritage Foundation's TownHall, and they send me a list of right-wing articles every day. Today brings, The Nobel Prize Should Go To Those Who Really Support Peace. Here's some quotes: Jimmy Carter has "continuously betrayed the principles on which peace depend." He espouses "collectivist ideals", "supported the dictator Castro", "understands nothing of rights and peace." "In choosing Carter the Nobel Committee has shown yet again that it does not understand the cause of war and so of peace." "Shamefully, the Nobel Committee has repeatedly awarded its Peace Prize to the bringers of war." Such pleasant people, those right-wingers. Always ready to speak well of others. --- Posted at 10/15/2002 10:04:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Using War Here's a story about the Republicans using "the war" against them in this election? In television ads and campaign speeches, Republican candidates have become increasingly bold about using war with Iraq and the threat of terrorism as issues against their Democratic opponents -- even when there is little or no difference between the candidates on issues such as the recent congressional vote to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.Were these Democrats thinking that voting with the President would make a difference in the Republicans using "the war" for politics? "The war" IS politics. (I put quotes around "the war" because I'm not sure that jet planes chasing a bunch of guys on horseback around the desert - and not catching them - merits calling Bush the great "wartime President" they make him out to be.) Maybe I'm old, maybe I'm not ready for the new millennium where it's OK to politicize these things, and to send kids off to die so you can win an election and vote to get rid of programs for regular people to open the way for ever lower taxes for the rich. And maybe it isn't OK. The Democrats aren't doing this sort of thing. They aren't running ads that say, "While Bush was on another vacation, and Republicans were busy helping CEOs steal your 401K, the Democrats were trying to warn them to pay attention to the terrorist threat." --- Posted at 10/15/2002 09:13:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/14/2002 Really Good News From Yahoo News, An MSNBC-Zogby poll last week, after Wellstone announced he would vote against the resolution, suggests the decision not only didn't hurt his re-election chances but also might have helped them. In a major reversal, the poll showed voters choosing him over Coleman 46% to 37%. A similar poll in September had the Republican leading 47% to 41%. Other polls show Wellstone, who won his last two races with 50% of the vote, a smidgen ahead of Coleman.Voting against the President, Wellstone moves from behind 41%-41% to AHEAD 46%-37%! --- Posted at 10/14/2002 05:56:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Skippy, This is How They Do It Skippy is fuming about a NY Post column. So I go look the column's author up on Google, which, 5th entry down, leads me to this page at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Now, look up FPI at Media Transparency then click on Foreign Policy Institute, and you find ... millions and millions of dollars form ... guess who ... Scaife, Olin, Bradley and Smith Richardson Foundations. The "four sisters." Why waste your time fuming, once you know that it comes from Scaife? Start here, for more details on How It's Done, and see the bottom of this piece for a bunch of links to articles about these foundations, where it says, "here, here, here" etc... --- Posted at 10/14/2002 04:26:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Why No Draft? Immediately undoing my "light blogging" pledge, I want to ask why there is no talk of reimposing the draft? We're about to enter into a major ground war against a country BECAUSE they have weapons of mass destruction. Isn't there any concern that they'll USE them? If we're not concerned that they'll use them then why are we entering into the war? And if there IS concern that they'll use them, why aren't we starting up the draft? If Iraq USES weapons of mass destruction we will need to replace the troops killed. That's why they're called weapons of MASS DESTRUCTION. So why no draft? What kind of contingency planning is that? What is going on? --- Posted at 10/14/2002 03:56:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Light Blogging I've been very busy so I won't be putting much up. It seems to be the convention among "bloggers" to post a message that they're doing "light blogging," even though it seems this would be obvious -- you go to the blog, there's very little there that's new, hence there is "light blogging" going on. Maybe people don't want to upset the readers, worried that they'll think the blogger died unless the blogger posts a message saying "light blogging." Anyway, light blogging today. I'm not dead. P.S. why doesn't Blogger Pro's spelling checker know the words "blog," "blogger," blogging," or "bloggers?" I used to own a spelling checker company and got so many letters like that... It feels good to complain about someone else's. --- Posted at 10/14/2002 03:50:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/11/2002 How to Catch the Sniper Philidelphia Daily News - WASHINGTON SNIPER HAS A FRIEND IN NRA Ballistics have long allowed police to link a bullet to a particular gun. So if they ever find this killer and his weapon, they can clearly connect rifle and crime.If I lived in the conservative suburbs around Washington, D.C. I'd be re-thinking my position on supporting these clowns. Thanks to MWO for pointing to this. --- Posted at 10/11/2002 04:24:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
VFW Endorses Chickenhawk Over War Hero! Counterspin Central pointed me to this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The national VFW has endorsed a Republican chickenhawk over war-hero Max Cleland for the Georgie Senate. One side touts Cleland's immense sacrifice in war: he lost three limbs in a grenade explosion, and was decorated for helping wounded comrades during a 1968 rocket attack.That's right, it isn't about veterans or war heroes or who fought for the country and who didn't. The VFW has joined the Republican Crony Club and that's all that matters. When the Republican Machine wants you out of the way, it won't matter who you are or what you've done. War hero? Record of brilliant public service? Record of honesty in your business dealings? Forget it. And it doesn't even matter how long you've on their side - when you're in the way, you're in the way and you're in the way. For some reason this takes me back to what happened to well-respected, honest, conservative, war-hero John McCain in the South Carolina primary against Bush. He wasn't willing to play the crony game so the Republican Machine needed him out of the way. The crony candidate - Bush - a chickenhawk, foul-mouthed, alcoholic, drug-using, not-too-bright, spoiled rich boy with a history of failure in business and accepting bribes for his dad, and otherwise no particular resume. Military patriotism is a big deal in South Carolina, so the challenge was great. Remember what the Bush people did? Remember the rumors about McCain as being mentally deranged, being a "Manchurian Candidate", being too angry to be the leader of a country, "the fag candidate", and all that? When you're in the way, you're in the way. War hero vs. chickenhawk? VFW chooses chickenhawk. South Carolina chooses chickenhawk. --- Posted at 10/11/2002 03:35:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Easiest Way to Steal the Election The other day I wrote about the nightmare of Republicans controlling the companies that make the vote-counting machines. Today BuzzFlash links to Who makes the vote-counting machines?, another story on this topic. I used to worry that the Republicans would eventually just cancel elections. After reading these stories I worry that they won't need to. By the way, about 1/4 way down this article mentions Koch Industries. As you read this article, remember this is the same Koch that I wrote about recently - Bush just handed them the contract to supply all the oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (billions of dollars). This is the same Koch who funds a chunk of the Republican Machine. --- Posted at 10/11/2002 02:45:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/10/2002 Stimulation Republicans are holding fast to the idea that getting money into the hands of businesses and the rich "creates jobs." I ran a company for 13 years. I know a little bit about how it works. I employed exactly as many people as we needed. I did not employ extra people because I perhaps had more money in the bank account than usual. If times were slow and someone handed me a sackful of money I'd say, "THANKS!" and pocket the money. The only thing that would get me hiring more people was customers with money coming in the door. Period. And if I didn't have extra money around I would find it. Let me repeat that. Customers with money coming in the door. That is what gets companies to hire. They hire just enough employees to handle the extra customers. Period. And when there are customers with money coming in the door companies will find the money to hire them, don't you worry about that. Raise the minimum wage. Extend unemployment benefits. Launch some jobs programs. Cut the payroll tax. How to pay for that? Raise the sh*t out of taxes on the rich. Raise them till they squeal and then raise them some more. --- Posted at 10/10/2002 11:50:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Scaring People As I often say, if you want to learn what Republicans are doing, take a look at whatever they are currently accusing Democrats of doing. Their tactic is accuse the other side of doing whatever THEY'RE doing in order to "inoculate" themselves. It heads off being exposed themselves. It's a little bit complicated, but it works. According to today's NY Times, In campaigns across the country the Republicans are accusing Democrats of scaring people. Imagine, scaring people as an election strategy. "According to President George W. Bush, as well as Senators John Warner, Joseph Lieberman and many others who have spoken lately in the Capitol, there is no limit to the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. According to them, it is 1939, and we are again facing the twilight of Western civilization." --- Posted at 10/10/2002 09:18:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Why Isn't This a Major Story? White House Sides With Automakers Against California's Zero Emissions Requirement for Cars That's right, the STATES RIGHTS White House has joined in a lawsuit against California setting tough pollution and fuel economy standards. --- Posted at 10/10/2002 07:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
New Unemployment Claims New claims for jobless benefits fell by 40,000 last week. BUT WAIT, from the story, "While the decline offers a promising sign, Labor Department analyst Thomas Stengle cautioned against reading too much into the drop, saying it may partly reflect difficulties adjusting for seasonal factors. The unadjusted claims figures, for instance, showed an equally sharp rise."Got that? UNadjusted claims figures INCREASED by the same amount. (And the economy LAST 43,000 jobs last month.) So don't get your hopes up too high yet. --- Posted at 10/10/2002 07:52:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/09/2002 Betty Check out America's Best Christian's page, "President Bush To Use What's Left of Social Security for Multi-Billion Dollar National Demon Defense Shield" And PLEASE surf around the rest of the site! --- Posted at 10/09/2002 04:01:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Election Issue At this point there is no question that the Republicans planned this Iraq war campaign to coincide with the election. I hope that the Democrats are just waiting until the right time to make a really big noise about this. They shouldn't be subtle and let the public come to their own conclusions - they should be making it clear that without an IMMINENT threat the Republicans had no business bringing this up during the election campaign. With some help the public will come to understand this. --- Posted at 10/09/2002 10:34:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Appearance of Impropriety Imagine a world where Republicans control all the vote counting. I have worked in elections. If you use paper ballots, you have the actual ballots that can be watched and counted by enough witnesses to control chances of fraud. If we switch to paperless voting, it's all over - you're at the mercy of what the machine tells you, and machines can be rigged. --- Posted at 10/09/2002 09:48:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/08/2002 Join a Union A line in this morning's The Note, about the dock workers situation here on the West Coast, got me thinking, The lockout explodes this morning as a political issue, leading the Wall Street Journal : "The move toward intervention cast President Bush solidly with his Republican base: business groups that are often at odds with the country's big unions. And in this case, the president is taking on a union that is widely regarded as one of the best organized and best paid in the country. West Coast longshoremen can earn more than $100,000, with overtime, plus generous retirement and health plans to go along with it.Some people would read this and think, "Those guys get paid too much - way more than me - I think unions are too powerful." I think about it a different way. I would say to the complainer, "LEARN from it, bonehead! Stop complaining about unions and JOIN a union, bonehead. You'd get PAID MORE and you'd have better BENEFITS and JOB SECURITY, bonehead." I mean, you'd think people would figure it out. It's right in front of their faces. I remember hearing talk at HP of forming a union before the Compaq purchase. But noooo, not THAT. So what happened? The purchase went through and so far at least 16,800 have been laid off. Better that then, God forbid, form a union. --- Posted at 10/08/2002 09:03:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Well, Maybe One Well, maybe ONE post now... :-) I'd like to see it pointed out more often and much louder that most of the people pushing for this war are people who found something better to do when VietNam was going on (click here and here), while so many of the people against it were in combat or very close to it, or at least in the military. I've been thinking about comments I have heard about those Representatives who went to Iraq to try to prevent a war - Rep. Jim McDermott, Rep. Mike Thompson and Rep. David Bonior. The right-wing drumbeat I've heard repeated all over the place was that these three were "still stuck on protesting against the VietNam war." I heard this repeated from several sources, so I figure it must have been the official focus-group-tested Republican talking points handed out by the Heritage Foundation (or someone similar). But those guys WENT TO VietNam! And the people mocking them as "protesters" DIDN'T! How do they get away with it, without being called on it, dragged into the street and tarred & feathered by the veterans? And how do military veterans justify their continued support for these Republican clowns? At what point do they say, "Wait a minute, I went to VietNam, these guys didn't, these guys are all rich and acting like they are war heros, why am I voting for them"? It's an interesting problem of persuasion. How do you neutralize the politics of you being a chickenhawk, and your opponents being war heros - Bush vs McCain - or at least being VietNam veterans - Bush vs Gore? One way appears to be with enough loud bluster. Another way appears to be to make sure that no one involved in the debate has a child who would have to actually fight the war you're starting. --- Posted at 10/08/2002 04:55:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sorry Sorry - very busy otherwise today, no posts. Maybe later. --- Posted at 10/08/2002 04:27:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/07/2002 Active Duty Marine Drudge is pointing to a story, "Views of an Active Duty Marine" This Marine asks, "Where was Sun Tzu's press corps? My best guest was in the grave. I'm sure he considered them to be enemy spies." Some of us might think this shows that the press should be restricted. Others of us would think this shows why the military needs to be kept firmly under civilian control. --- Posted at 10/07/2002 06:48:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/06/2002 Go Protest I won't be posting until later because I'm heading up to San Francisco to join in anti-war protests. I feel that I should add myself to the numbers. Info is here. --- Posted at 10/06/2002 12:51:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/05/2002 Ecoterrorists Zizka's Vanitysite.net has a story about the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arresting some environmental activists for sabotaging logging trucks. You gotta go read this one. Zizka writes, "Anyone who believed that the FBI and the Bush Administration would not abuse the blank check they were given by the Patriot Act and the War on Terrorism should now realize that these new powers will be used entirely freely, whether or not the case in question has anything to do with real terrorism. Nobody should really be surprised." --- Posted at 10/05/2002 05:43:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
TBOGG Again OK, TBOGG earned a place in the Essential Links. They pointed me at what they said was the coolest website they have ever seen. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 05:32:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Funny at TBOGG Funny poem over at TBOGG. A sample, A is for Ashcroft, the Crisco-anointedGo take a read. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 05:11:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Go See Go on over to Maru's WTF and scroll down to Thursday's picture (the links aren't working right.) Then scroll down to the "With All Due Respect, Mr. President" poster. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 01:39:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Planet Swank Have I mentioned Planet Swank? I've been meaning to. Read his discussion of Christopher Hitchens and Iraq here. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 12:53:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Overwhelm as a Tactic A while back I wrote a piece called Overwhelm, in which I wrote, Some days the bad news flys at you so fast ... it seems like the Bush strategy is to overwhelm people by doing so many bad things that you lose track and give up... I've been trying to pin down what it is about this, it seems like an effective tactic. Today I saw a piece by Ted Rall, titled Permanent Revolution, that explains it. ... Bush's biggest cribbing from the Hitler playbook is "permanent revolution." Developed by socialist theorist Leon Trotsky in 1915 and applied by such totalitarian masters of control as Hitler, Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, permanent revolution is the pinnacle of the art of mass distraction--one continually changes the subject of debate by striving for new goals that are always just beyond reach. The idea is diabolically simple: by the time people start grumbling about the problems created by your Great Leap Forward, you're causing new difficulties with your Cultural Revolution. Opposition takes time to materialize; taking the nation from one crisis to the next neutralizes your enemies by focusing them against initiatives you've already abandoned.Please go read this piece. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 12:23:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
My Faith in Economists... PART of the confusion in yesterday's employment numbers is explained at the end of this NYTimes story. Still, economists agreed that September's household survey, which showed a gain of 711,000 jobs, was far too optimistic. About half of the increase came from the survey's overestimation of the number of teenagers who would quit their jobs at the end of summer. When fewer teenagers than usual left the labor force in September — perhaps because the economy made summer jobs hard to find — the Labor Department's seasonal adjustment counted a large increase in jobs.OK, it's complicated. They measured about 350,000 fewer teenagers leaving jobs at the end of summer than usually leave jobs at the end of summer, so they chalked it up as teenagers taking 350,000 NEW jobs that opened up. What REALLY happened was that at the BEGINNING of summer 350,000 fewer teenagers than usual were able to find jobs, so they couldn't be leaving them at the end of summer. I mean, DUH! What were these people thinking? They said the numbers looked this way because 350,000 teenagers took jobs at the end of summer. What do teenagers do at the end of summer? They go back to school. But the economists didn't think of that. Not a good day for the reputation of economists. Perhaps they are more than a little out of touch with "regular people." --- Posted at 10/05/2002 11:25:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Irresponsible Here's a good one to test out the new COMMENTS capability! Today's San Jose Mercury News contains the following letter, [A previous letter writer] could not be more disingenuous. His analogy is flawed. A more accurate and truthful analogy would be:Never mind that this wild analogy falls apart in several ways. I think it is irresponsible for this newspaper to publish such a letter. You get a letter from a guy fantasizing that a guy across town means him harm, claiming this justifies his buying a weapon and shooting the man dead. You don't PUBLISH a letter like that, you take it to the POLICE! Publishing it puts the paper's credibility behind the notion that such action is justified. Nuts reading this might believe the information is correct and act on it. I think this shows what could happen to the world if Bush gets his way. A "pre-emptive strike" against Iraq tells India to go ahead and invade Pakistan, China to invade India or Taiwan, etc. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 10:28:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Comments I'm trying out comments here for the first time, so please help me test them. --- Posted at 10/05/2002 10:23:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/04/2002 Over at Eschaton Over at Eschaton they've got a good discussion going in the comments attached to the posting, talking about how the Republicans are going after Democrats as unpatriotic, and "hating America" and the rest of the stuff they're spewing. (Should I start having comments here?) Here's my contribution, posted both there and here (but spellchecked here ;-) : It's worth noting that the very core of the Republican Party now encourages & even pays good money to get this stuff out to the public. TownHall.com is part of the Heritage Foundation - go see their links to Coulter, etc. Listen to Limbaugh's vicious hate attacks on people - yet the Vice President was on his show recently. Bush put several of the nastiest anti-Clinton people into policymaking positions, and he has rewarded the people who physically attacked the vote counting in Florida. This is clearly part of their strategy. There's no way around that at this point. It must serve their purposes so they do it. It is not a lot different from the brownshirts attacking rallies of your opponents, and serves much the same purpose. But this kind of stuff encourages a violent, hateful segment of society, and encourages others in that direction. This stuff is what got McVeigh fired up - and now their star Anne Coulter says she only wishes McVeigh had bombed the New York Times building instead! The times have become rather scary. When you see your opponents using these tactics - this is way beyond Nixon - you start thinking about what might be coming if they aren't stopped. If you REALLY mean it when you say they are fascists, you need to start thinking about how to protect your family. --- Posted at 10/04/2002 02:38:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Today's Google Experiment Back in the Reagan days I used to spend time arguing online with right-wingers (on CompuServe! - I even had a back-and-forth with Limbaugh once.) I used to research budget numbers and other statistics to refute the right-wing arguments, like "tax cuts cause revenue to increase," "welfare causes women to have more babies," and of course the old Republican standard, "blacks are less intelligent than whites." (I was working on a never completed book.) Eventually I came across a website of a guy doing very similar work - Steve Kangas and his Liberalism Resurgent pages. He was even in the same town as me, although I never met him. So for today's Google experiment, let's look up Steve Kangas, author of the Liberalism Resurgent website. Scroll down and look at some of the references. Don't miss this great page. And ESPECIALLY don't miss this one and this one. --- Posted at 10/04/2002 11:08:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Huh? I need an economist to write to me and explain today's jobs report. The press is reporting good news - unemployment went DOWN to 5.6% from 5.7%, while the economy LOST JOBS. The U.S. economy shed jobs in September for the first time in five months, the government said on Friday in a report that highlighted the uneven pace of the U.S. economic recovery. Payrolls outside the farm sector fell by 43,000, in contrast to the 5,000 gain private economists had predicted, the Labor Department said. But in another unexpected development, the unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent in September from 5.7 percent in August.I had understood that if the economy lost jobs in this report, this was the worst possible news, that we're heading for a dubya-dip recession or worse. September marked the first payroll decline since a 21,000 job loss in April. But then there's this. Offsetting some of the gloomy news in the September figure, however, was a sharp upward revision in August payrolls to a 107,000 gain from a previously reported 39,000 increase. Did YOU see any of those jobs where YOU are? Certainly not here. And one more thing. He said that recently, the household survey has been boosted by the number of teenage workers who have held on to their summer jobs, rather than leaving the workforce as many do in the fall. What ever happened to SCHOOL? --- Posted at 10/04/2002 06:38:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/03/2002 Oppo Costs Money Why is someone doing extensive opposition research on Barbara Streisand? It isn't cheap. The work required to do this kind of full-time digging into your past, your finances, etc. costs money. The message is that WHOEVER YOU ARE, if you come out publicly against Bush, the Republican Machine will commence with their world-famous character assassination. --- Posted at 10/03/2002 07:44:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Gotta Go Read You're dismissed from Seeing the Forest class early today so you can go read "Oil Be Seeing You" over at MaxSpeak. The print media have published maps showing the build-up of U.S. military bases in the 'oil patch' running from Saudi Arabia through Iraq and the "stans." What's in prospect here is a geo-strategic interest in dominating a region, not simply grabbing a concession in Iraq. No specific oil asset (or means of conveyance, like a pipeline or port) is the lynchpin for the policy. It's the whole shootin match. The world economy depends on the output of this region for the foreseeable future. There could hardly be a larger prize.We'll be checking so don't use the time to skip out and smoke a joint in the parking lot. --- Posted at 10/03/2002 03:52:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
And the Check Goes To... Not waiting for Congress to actually PASS the bill (who needs Congress, anyway), and not worried at all that the press might point out that the program is nothing more than a funding channel for the Republican Party (forget about government funding for religion - that was only the cover story), Bush has started handing out "faith-based" checks. And the first check goes to ... THE CHRISTIAN COALITION! A while back I wrote about the Cato Institute getting the HUGE government contract to provide oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve... I wonder if the Democrats in the Senate are going to hold hearings. NAH! --- Posted at 10/03/2002 01:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Hope You're Sitting Down A new book published by the Republican Machine accuses "Democratic operatives and journalistic naysayers" of "questioning the administration’s every move." OK, calm down. Yes, I know this exactly describes happened to Clinton, and I know that this is the thanks that the Democrat leadership gets for supporting the President after 9/11 and continuing to support him now. Never mind truth. Never mind reality. This is a tree. Don't let it get to you. See the forest - this is what the Republican Machine DOES. The trees will drive you absolutely crazy. Remember, watch what they DO, not what they SAY. And remember, when the Republican Machine accuses the Democrats of something you can bet that it's because it's something the Republicans are doing. Like when Bush said, "The Gore campaign will say anything and try to win at any cost." --- Posted at 10/03/2002 08:59:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
10/01/2002 Skippy Said It Skippy wrote what I was going to write. So go read it here. (Also here, an earlier story that is in the same vein.) And he even left out that auto sales dropped last month and home foreclosures are at a 30 year high. I can't bear it either. After reading Skippy, go here. --- Posted at 10/01/2002 09:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
More Ranting I wrote earlier about a "BILLIONS of dollars spent by small cadre of ideologues." Here's what I'm saying. You open your newspaper and see an op-ed piece, and it's by a "scholar" from some "institute" somewhere, maybe the Hoover Institute. Then you read a column on the same page by maybe George Will or Mona Charen that says something similar about the same subject. Then you open a magazine and there's an article that uses the Heritage Foundation as a source. Later you watch Fox TV and see a couple of guys, one from Americans for Tax Reform and another from the Center for Security Policy. Then you change the channel and a speaker from Capital Research Center is talking. You turn on the radio and it's Sean Hannity or Rush and they're quoting from a report from Southwest Legal Foundation or Free Enterprise Partnership. You see that Congressman Delay is speaking. You buy a book published by Regenry Publishing, by a scholar from the Manhattan Institute. You get on the web and check the Drudge Report and there's a story on the UPI wire service saying the same things. All of them saying something similar on the same subject. So maybe you think you've just heard opinions from 10 or 13 different sources. Sounds like there are a lot of experts who are in agreement that something is a certain way. And after enough of this it is very hard to think that things are a different way, since so many experts from so many different directions have this opinion. Maybe they're saying, "Social Security is going broke," or "public schools are failing." These are things that have become "conventional wisdom" because everyone has heard these things over and over from so many sources over so many years that everyone KNOWS they're true. Guess what. You have just heard from Richard Mellon Scaife, maybe the Bradley Foundation and maybe one or two others. That's all. (Look them up here.) You DIDN'T hear a number of different "voices" - you heard a lot of voices all paid to say the same thing in creatively different ways, and with tons of cash put into making them seem like credible experts. --- Posted at 10/01/2002 09:24:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Non-war Scenario Picture a non-war scenario. The election proceeds with war issues masking economic problems and Republicans pick up the Senate, gaining them a majority in both houses, plus the Presidency. They continue reshaping the entire government in the libertarian vision, making the tax cuts permanent (shooting to hell any change of ever getting the government out of debt or paying the Social Security of the boomers when it comes due), get rid of any remaining environmental regulations & any other regulations that corporations don't like, get rid of Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, etc., pass the faith-based funding initiative giving tax funds to Republican backers. Lucrative government contracts of course continue to be awarded to key Republican funders. Etc. Meanwhile suppose U.N. inspections in Iraq find very little, or nothing & it turns out that the war thing really WAS a sham to boggle the election, with Bin Laden now forgotten and Israel-Palestine a complete mess. So there we would be with two elections now behind us where the Democrats would have won but for Republican lies and manipulations, the prior Democratic Presidency destroyed by a carefully planned and well-funded plot. There we would be with the country evenly divided but the Republicans only involving their party and their wishes, taking nothing the Democrats or the public say into account. There we would be with these "movement conservative" Republicans continuing to transform the government into a libertarian image of a country ruled by the rich, while masking their agenda from the public. As I've been documenting and will continue to research and post here, this is the result of BILLIONS of dollars spent by a small cadre of ideologues with a long-term hidden agenda. If this sounds paranoid and conspiratorial, go do your homework ("Best Of" links on the top left of this page). They really HAVE spent billions getting here, and billions buys lots. They really DO have weekly meetings to cordinate their activities. If this doesn't make you mad ... After Bill Clinton won the presidency, conservative Republicans feared that they would be reduced again to an embattled minority. To prevent this, a group of political operatives, journalists, lobbyists, and politicians began meeting in several, interconnected groups to plot a comeback. Key players included Norquist, Ralph Reed of the Christian Coalition, talk show host Rush Limbaugh (who maintained a Washington office), the editors of The American Spectator and The Washington Times, Paul Beckner of Citizens for a Sound Economy, Georgia Senator Paul Coverdell, Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich, and Texas congressmen Dick Armey and Tom DeLay. Norquist convened representatives from many of these groups--including the National Right to Life Committee--at a regular Wednesday meeting. Another group that included business lobbyists met under the auspices of Beckner and Coverdell. During Clinton's first two years, their principal aim was to block the president's proposal for national health insurance by any means necessary, including the spread of scandalous rumors.They really do meet weekly to coordinate their activities and message. The Republican Party coordinates with the NRA, Christian Coalition, Limbaugh, Washington Times and all those right-wing front groups... --- Posted at 10/01/2002 01:12:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Spelling Checkers Hey, how come Blogger Pro's spelling checker doesn't know "Blogger," "bloggers" and "blogs"? --- Posted at 10/01/2002 06:52:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Reverberating Noted in this morning's New York Times, As criticism of the weekend bombing raids around Basra, in southern Iraq, reverberated through foreign capitals, the White House today pressed ahead on multiple fronts to win United Nations support for a toughly worded draft resolution calling on President Saddam Hussein to disarm immediately or face a full-scale military attack.Reverberating through foreign capitals -- and not even barely reported in the press at all here in the U.S. Bloggers knew. But do YOU know anyone who knows that we have been conducting bombing raids on Iraq? Tell everyone you know that they should read blogs. (Especially this one.) --- Posted at 10/01/2002 06:49:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
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