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For The Trees
A weblog for Liberals who are FED UP with Bush and the Right! 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: |
 Monday, June 30, 2003 Insider Trading at AEI If you know who American Enterprise Institute is, go read this at TBOGG about insider trading at AEI! If you don't know, go here first. And here. And here. --- Posted at 4:26 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post  
Sunday, June 29, 2003 Blatantly Exploiting A Tragedy Over at Eschaton they have a series of "Bait and Switch" pieces talking about what the Bush people have been scamming on us. I left this comment (edited to make me look better): As blatantly as anything you have ever seen in your life you are watching the results of politicizing what happened to the country on 9/11. 9/11 is the reason no one is paying much attention to all the things Bush is doing to the country. 9/11 is the reason they are getting away with it. They are USING 9/11 to push through this far-right agenda. They keep the public terrified and eager for war, which leaves little room to pay attention to the complicated details of legislation. Then they push through all of this extreme far-right agenda on us, using the tactic of overwhelming us - by the time anyone can build up public support for something it's too late, and they have moved on to 3 or 4 other attacks on us. And when we DO build up public support - like we did for the FCC rule changes - they just say, "fuck you" and go ahead with their agenda anyway. Look how MUCH they have done to change the country since 9/11 and especially since they started their drumbeat for constant war. The tax cuts have effectively gotten rid of Social Security a few years from now. The FCC change effectively gets rid of the last bits of honest news. The hidden Medicare changes in the new "drug benefit" effectively get rid of Medicare soon after the new rules kick in. Etc. and on and on. (Gutting the Clean Air act. Gutting most other environmental laws and regulations. Gutting public education. Gutting Veterans' benefits. Gutting the AmeriCorps program. Etc.) This is the most blatant politicization of a tragedy that I have ever heard of. And BECAUSE they are so shamelessly politicizing a tragedy they are getting away with it. Everyone is too stunned to deal with it all. One thing you can do is get everyone you know - write to your relatives, etc. - to start getting their news online, like from BuzzFlash. It's important that more people start getting good information about what is going on - that is how we can fight this. The general public DOES NOT KNOW what is really going on, because they do not have sources of good information. Help people find good sources of information by letting them know where YOU get YOUR information. --- Posted at 10:04 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Saturday, June 28, 2003 Choosing a Candidate Liberal Oasis has a great post on choosing a candidate to support. As for me, I just got back from an excellent Dean house party. --- Posted at 6:03 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Friday, June 27, 2003 Hate Mail I've been getting some hate mail since posting this about the Green Party sign that disrupted Governor Dean's candidacy announcement. --- Posted at 4:21 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Thursday, June 26, 2003 A Comment I Posted Over at Brad DeLong's, on the effects of the Bush tax cuts: OK, so the effects of the tax cut are not what the Republicans said they would be. It isn't about creating jobs, etc. --- Posted at 2:03 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Corrupted Absolutely Read this story to understand the extent of the absolute, flat-out, wide-open, blatant, bald-faced, unhidden, shameless, arrogant, complete and total corruption of the Republican Party. --- Posted at 1:14 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
God Said Zeitgeist has a piece with an Israeli newspaper claiming a quote from Bush saying directly that God told him to strike al-Queda. --- Posted at 11:27 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Income and Taxes New York Times story, Very Richest's Share of Income Grew Even Bigger, Data Show: The 400 wealthiest taxpayers accounted for more than 1 percent of all the income in the United States in the year 2000, more than double their share just eight years earlier, according to new data from the Internal Revenue Service. But their tax burden plummeted over the period.But wait, there's more: All of the I.R.S. data is based on adjusted gross income, the figure reported on the last line on the front page of individual income tax returns.This is a very important point in any discussion of income and taxes. This is the ADJUSTED income AFTER DEDUCTIONS. Here is a bit about why this matters: The figures do not include the incomes of the many wealthy Americans who use shelters to reduce their reported incomes below the level of the top 400.Got that? This is the income that they could not hide from taxes. There could be a tremendous amount of income that is not included in reports like this one. So when you hear right-wingers complain that the poor, suffereing rich pay a high percentage of income taxes, remember that the share of income they receive is also high, and even the shocking studies showing that the very richest are bringing in extremely high incomes - an ever higher proportion of the country's wealth - don't report the income that is sheltered from the IRS. This report, for example, saying that only 400 people receive over 1% of all the income in the United States, is skewed because it only report SOME of the income they receive! The concentration of wealth and how it is affecting the economy is a great subject for discussion. Oh yeah, one more thing from the story: A second report that the I.R.S. will make public today shows that the number of Americans with high incomes who pay no taxes anywhere in the world has reached a record. In 2000, there were 2,022 Americans with incomes of more than $200,000 who paid no income tax anywhere in the world, up from just 37 in 1977, when the report was first issued. --- Posted at 9:52 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 An E-Mail I Received I received the following e-mail, and am passing it along: As some of you already know, two weeks ago I turned in my official letter of resignation at work. Monday was my last day as a software engineer. What now, you might be asking?Great letter. (Actually no one is expected to win the MoveOn primary.) By the way - a few hundred readers are going to be asking -- just WHERE is that software engineer job opening up? --- Posted at 1:08 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tuesday, June 24, 2003 Dean On Meet The Press I just watched the tape of Gov. Dean on MTP. I thought Russert was just fine, and did a good job. He was doing his job, getting answers for his viewers, asking tough questions, and nothing is wrong with that. I only wish that at least ONE reporter would have asked - or will EVER ask - Bush similarly tough questions! I think there is a scandal that they do not and the public is right to be demanding a press that does its job! To me, Russert wasn't hostile, he was tough. I think if you are going to be on Meet the Press for an hour you ought to be prepared for the questions that opponents are throwing at you in the press. As they say, this is the big leagues. I don't think you should have stock-prepared answers that you repeat over and over, but I don't think you should be trying to find words to answer questions that obviously are going to come up. It is not unfair for Russert to ask about things people are writing, and because these things are appearing in the press - fairly or unfairly - Dean should be able to respond. This is nothing compared to what's coming from the Right and I have supported Dean because he said he is going to fight back. In the military questions I think Russert asked appropriate questions and was fair. He said he was asking the questions to which people are going to want to know the answers, and he was right. I'm surprised if Dean does not have someone around him who anticipates questions like these and prepares him to answer. I think he has a great point that it is 6 months from the first Democratic primary - but on the other hand he has himself an hour on MTP to respond to the things that have been thrown at him lately, so he might have been better prepared. Bush was an ignorant guy who was finally convinced to do his homework on the campaign trail. I don't want Dean to get a rep as a smart guy who doesn't do his homework. (Also Dean missed a big opportunity to point out that Bush was aWol.) His answer to the gay marriage question was the correct legal answer, which is good. But for a minute it looked like he was trying to avoid saying something that would alienate middle America rather than leading people toward the humane position. But he recovered and recovered well. All that said, I think Dean did a good job, could have been better, and that he will learn from this. I understand the situation with his son had just occurred and that certainly cut into preparation time and threw him off balance a bit. There's 6 months before the first primary. I trust this guy, I agree with most of his positions. I feel that he is a natural leader. He even got me thinking about the death penalty with his answer on that question, so I respect his position. (I support the death penalty in only one circumstance - a person who has killed, is repeatedly violent in prison, and is obviously and seriously dangerous to the life of prison guards. I think the only ethical position there is to support the death penalty or guard that prisoner yourself. I could be convinced that I'm wrong.) --- Posted at 9:37 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Candidates at MoveOn I've been reading all the candidates' replies to MoveOn's questions. I have to say ALL of their answers are great, and informative! (Except Lieberman - see below.) Also, their statements to MoveOn members an be found by clicking on their pictures here. There is a Lieberman statement but the page has this statement regarding his participation in the questions: "The Lieberman Campaign opted not respond to the MoveOn interview." --- Posted at 8:40 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Byrd A speech by Senator Byrd that every American should read. Send it to your friends and family. It is in the compelling national interest to examine what we were told about the threat from Iraq. It is in the compelling national interest to know if the intelligence was faulty. It is in the compelling national interest to know if the intelligence was distorted.... Well, Mr. President, this is no game. For the first time in our history, the United States has gone to war because of intelligence reports claiming that a country posed a threat to our nation. Congress should not be content to use standard operating procedures to look into this extraordinary matter. We should accept no substitute for a full, bipartisan investigation by Congress into the issue of our pre-war intelligence on the threat from Iraq and its use.And there is no possible reason an Amdinistration would not want to get to the bottom of what happened ... unless... Please read the whole speech. We're witnessing history shaping up here. Mr. President, the American people have questions that need to be answered about why we went to war with Iraq. To attempt to deny the relevance of these questions is to trivialize the people's trust. --- Posted at 3:56 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Gary Hart Gary Hart has some good posts up. But the war on terrorism is now the excuse for America to assume imperial powers and to employ those powers even when our traditional allies oppose our actions. The war on terrorism is fundamentally altering our global policies. We have discarded our half-century reliance on the Atlantic Alliance for collective security. We have marginalized the United Nations at the precise time it should have been empowered to undertake peacemaking roles. And we have alienated key regional powers, including Russia, China, and India, at a time when we should be encouraging them to assume greater responsibilities for regional stability.And a great supplement to what I wrote the other day: Second, we've had satellite surveillance of Iraq for many years. Either destruction or movement of large quantities of weapons of mass destruction (many barrels; many trucks) would have been detected. Let's quit pretending that these weapons, at least in the quantities that we've been warned about (and not to say the delivery systems that were being urgently built, so we were told), have become part of an international shell game. No one in the intelligence community believes that, and neither should we. --- Posted at 3:08 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Thanks to uggabuga, who got it from Roger Ailes, we find this in the Washington Post: In a U.S. News & World Report column about frivolous lawsuits, owner Mort Zuckerman serves up a couple of doozies:Does anyone remember when President Clinton was accused of selling plots in Arlington Cemetery? (Especially read this.) When the story was shown to be fabricated (it was in a Moonie magazine - Insight) one pundit wrote that it was a justified story because it "sounded like something Clinton could have done." Totally fabricated "news" reports are OK, because they fit the line that someone is paying to drive into the public mind. Would it be interesting if we learned that the same people (search for "tort") who are behind the anti-Clinton efforts were also funding the tort reform movement? By the way, why is this Zuckerman story fabrication somehow different from that Blair did at the NY Times? Why are ANY of the reporters and pundits who went after Clinton still employed? --- Posted at 8:30 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Monday, June 23, 2003 Dirty Tricks & Differences I'm watching Governor Dean's declaration of candidacy on the web, and have to make one comment. I see that the Green Party is practicing Republican-style dirty tricks. They're trying to ruin his announcement by holding up a giant Vote Green sign right behind him, so it's the backdrop that everyone sees. Nasty. I think it says a lot about the Greens that they emulate the Republican model of no respect for others. Another thing I notice is that there are no goons "escorting" the sign holder away from the camera's view. We all know what would happen if someone tried this at a Republican rally. I wonder what would happen if Dean peop-le tried this at a Green rally? We don't know because they haven't - in fact they have reached out to the Greens. Update -OK, I was unfair to the Greens there. It was one or two people holding up that sign, not the Green Party. I was trying to provoke a couple of regular Green commenters I have here, but I was a little too harsh. Sorry. And the darn comments aren't even working today anyway. --- Posted at 10:30 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
How To Counter The Right Over at The Left Coaster they're continuing the discussion of how to get a moderate/progressive message out. Go have a read and leave a comment. Here's a comment I left: (EDMMLB -- Edited to make me look better.) Reply to CTDem2 - "Toss a thousand coins, and 700 come up heads; the next thousand coins will probably bring the average closer to center." Not if someone is catching the coins in the air and then placing them on the ground heads up. This is the analogy to what the right is doing to our society. Societies do not self-regulate. In fact, once the mechanisms for moderation are removed - as has happened here with the right wing takeover of the press, the courts and the media, history shows that they become more extreme. We're all going to have to donate our time, energy and money to combating the right and restoring moderating influences to our society. It isn't going to happen by itself. Reply to comment from pessimist -- I don't think the fault lies with the Democrats. Politicians respond to the public. The right changed the PUBLIC, and that is how they took over the Republican Party. They were able to do this because Scaife and a few others stepped up to the plate and provided the money. On the moderate/progressive side our philanthropists are NOT funding the kind of organization that can make a difference - except in the case of Podesta's American Majority Institute. But while that is a very necessary component of what we need to do, it is a short-term, "hot issues" Washington-focused organization. This is much needed, but without working to change the broad, general public it is only going to fight a defensive action to try to hold back the onslaught. What we need is for our philanthropists to step up to the plate and start funding organizations that work over the long term to change the public BACK to moderate/progressive principles. We need a Scaife of our own, and a few others, to start funding progressive ADVOCACY organizations, that work to change the broad, GENERAL public back to progressive principles of helping each other, supporting equality and democracy, respecting community, supporting collective bargaining, and other ways that people work together to combat the influence of money. This means things like working in the South and the Midwest and churches - advertising at auto races, football games, writing general-interest books, producing movies, etc. It's a big task, but the model is in front of us. The right has been successful and we can look at how they did it. They build their system over time using a trial-and-error approach. By following the model they have developed we can take advantage of what they have learned and get this going in a much shorter time. One thing we need to do is recognize just how broad the right-wing infrastructure is. The people you see speaking on TV are FUNDED. People like Bill Bennett are FUNDED. The organizations that promote their ideas are FUNDED. Their activists are FUNDED! And this is what WE need as well! But there is MORE money on the moderate/progressive side - and there are MORE people. The problem is that our philanthropists are funding narrow-focus environmental programs, etc. This is great, but with the right's attack going on it's almost useless - a waste of money. If they would divert 10-20% of that funding to building a broad progressive infrastructure similar to the right's, developing public support of progressive principles in general, then this public support leads to progressive candidates getting elected - and even leads to environmental organizations, etc. having a broader base of funding support - all of which leads to the accomplishment of the very goals that the original narrow-focused programs were trying to achieve! It is an INVESTMENT and it will pay results. So the philanthropic community - the foundations, etc. - need to wake up and see that their money is wasted without building broad public support for progressive principles. --- Posted at 9:51 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sunday, June 22, 2003 No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq The Wurlitzer is trying out the focus-group tested "he hid them or moved them out of the country" excuse for no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) being found in Iraq. I want to remind you of something. Before the war, when the inspectors were still in Iraq, the Bush people were saying that they needed to be able to talk to scientists in private, with their families protected, so the scientists could feel safe telling them what they knew. Well, now we control Iraq (mostly), and we're not only able to protect the scientists and their families, we're certainly offering unbelievable rewards to anyone who can bail Bush out and provide evidence of WMD. So far no scientists, no technicians, not even any anthrax-lab janitors have come forward to say that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We haven't found any storage locations, not even recently emptied. We haven't found any labs. No trucks for moving them to war zones. No remotely guided aircraft. No soldiers who talk about having seen stockpiles of curiously guarded bombs or shells. No anything. Nowhere. Nothing. Whatever the reason we got into this war - intelligence failure, people hearing what they want to hear, intelligence agencies ordered to manipulate information, manipulation of our entire intelligence process by Iraqi exiles, flat-out lying by fanatics intent on starting a war for geopopolitical conquest, or just an old-fashioned scam to seize the oil, loot the country and give lucrative construction contracts to cronies - we have invaded a country that did not threaten us, we're stuck there now with soldiers dying and this will go on for years, the world hates us, and the government and the administration have no credibility left. It is urgent that we remove this President from office and begin attempts to repair the damage. --- Posted at 8:44 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Why Bush Must Be Removed -- A Comment I Left Here's a comment I left, to this post over at Daily Kos: (edited to make me look better) When a President of the United States comes to the public and says there is a threat and he needs our support to deal with it, then we gotta go along. He might be right. He might know something we don't. It's the President's job, so we gotta trust him on this. It's our security, and our lives on the line. So if a President abuses this, or even uses this incompetently, where does that leave us? Breaking down the trust between the public and Office of the President on this kind of thing it opens us up to doubt or cynicism if there is a next time. This endangers the country. There is no question that the Office of the President was misused over the Iraq issue and over national security issues. Calling for a war vote before the election was an abuse - it necessarily brought politics into the issue when it could have been avoided. Creating the Department of Homeland Security the way they did was pure politics. Saying there was an imminent threat from Iraq when, at the very least, the intelligence did not support such a claim, opens the public up to doubt the next time a President needs to protect us from an ACTUAL threat. This is why this President must be removed from office. He has broken the bond of trust between the public and the Office of the President on the most critical issue, and politicized the process, and this has placed us all in danger should there be an ACTUAL threat to our nation and our lives in the future. Update - this continues in the post above titled, "No Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq." --- Posted at 2:01 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Pundits and Blogs I read the San Jose News on paper, then onto the web and read the NY Times and the Washington Post every morning. I read the professional high-paid pundits like David Broder. Usually, they are a yawn. (Krugman's never a yawn, but his day job isn't pundit.) And then I read things like this post, Dwarves and Midgets by Steve Gilliard over at Daily Kos. Compare this GREAT piece to the tired inside-the-beltway crap you read from the professionals, who are pulling in hundreds of thousands a year. There just is no comparison. That's "old media." Blogs are new media. Reading some of the great stuff I find on weblogs feels a bit like when Clinton won in 1992 and we all felt so good about a new generation taking over from the tired old politics-as-usual crowd. Blogging isn't a new generation, it's a new way of expressing opinions. New media. I think if Gilliard got a job as a pundit making hundreds of thousands he would probably become a tired boring David Broder. (Wow a number of bloggers are pissed at me now! They were hoping blogging would take them to the top-tier make-a-million level.) Anyway, good post, Steve. --- Posted at 12:50 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
He's Baaaack Digby's Back! --- Posted at 10:02 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Friday, June 20, 2003 Part 203 In The Continuing Series Titled, "A Comment I Left" Here is a comment I left, over at Atrios (edited to make me look better.) I think the full impact of two recent events are going to take some time to dawn on all of us. 1) We just went to war with a country that did not threaten us. However we got there, that is a huge change in the nature of our country, and a huge change in the world order. As the world recedes from the fog of propaganda surrounding this war the consequences will begin to appear. I think it still has only barely started to dawn on everyone how big a deal it is that this happened - never mind how we got there. 2) We are only starting to wake up to the consequences of the Bush tax cuts. Before the tax cuts the administration was assaulting everything we care about, on many fronts at once, overwhelming our ability to gather a response. But the tax cuts - they have virtually destroyed the government a few years out. Aside from the international consequences of racking up that much debt there is the effect on the ability to pay for our government -- Starting a few years from now Social Security is gone, Medicare is gone, even fixing roads is gone! As I said, the consequences of ALL the money being gone are only beginning to dawn on us. --- Posted at 3:20 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Pop-Up Is Gone OK, the Dean pop-up is gone. I couldn't stand it anymore, and readers were complaining. All of you who were annoyed are now ethically bound to go contribute to Dean so he can show a great quarter at the end of the money, and become the nominee, and get Bush out of the White House. I actually think there is some validity to determining the viability of a candidate by how much money the candidate can raise early in the process. It is a gauge of whether the candidate is able to generate committed support, which is necessary to sustain a campaign for the White House. BUT I think it is just as important to look at the number of donors as it is to look at the amount. If a candidate is able to inspire a lot of people to send $100 checks, that says a lot. If a candidate is mostly raising $2000 check, that's a different story - that tells you how many rich people who don't CARE about spending $2000 the candidate attracts, and could lead to absurd pro-rich positions like supporting repealing the estate tax. I think people who send $100 checks are almost always people for whom that $100 really matters. I think people who can send $2000 are more likely to be people to whom $2000 doesn't matter all that much. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to send $100 if you CAN send $2000! Gov. Dean needs every penny if he's going to be able to go after Bush. I will be writing about how I think we can beat Bush's money advantage. I've been percolating an idea. --- Posted at 1:57 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Stolen Election Coin Check out the Stolen Election Coin! --- Posted at 11:14 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Bubbles and Disconnects Paul Krugman starts his column today with: "The big rise in the stock market is definitely telling us something. Bulls think it says the economy is about to take off. But I think it's a sign that America is still blowing bubbles ?— that a three-year bear market and the biggest corporate scandals in history haven't cured investors of irrational exuberance yet."A news story this morning, Foreclosures Hit Record High in 1st Qtr: Home loans in the process of foreclosure climbed to 1.2 percent of all mortgages in the first quarter, beating the previous high of 1.18 percent set in the fourth quarter of 2002, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America said.And a little story in this morning's San Jose Mercury News, Home sellers paring prices to speed deals: "In general, homeowners are selling at lower prices, even in the lower-end ranges of homes,'' said Richard Calhoun, of Creekside Realty, who tracks Silicon Valley real estate data. "With increased inventory, buyers have more choice. And if a seller is not aggressive on pricing, the property doesn't sell.''Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve sees a need to cut interest rates further, All the debate in financial markets this week has been on exactly how much "insurance" the Fed will want to take out. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said recently that in the face of sluggish growth, insurance is cheap compared to the cost of disappointing growth that could eventually lead to deflation.And the trade deficit, expected to decrease as the dollar falls, is rising, U.S. trade deficit swells, The latest snapshot of trade activity reported by the Commerce Department Thursday shows that the mushrooming "current account" deficit in the first quarter was 5.8 percent larger than the previous record deficit of $128.6 billion set in the fourth quarter of 2002.OK, the Federal Reserve is concerned enough about the economy that they are using up their last interest rate cut. The housing bubble looks like it could burst very soon. The Federal budget deficit is wildly, massively, unbelievably out of control. Japan is in deflation and Germany looks like it's there as well. The dollar has dramatically fallen, but the trade deficit is UP. And the jobs picture is still declining. But the stock market is engaged in a major rally. What's up? I think we're seeing one more part of what I will call a "disconnect society." This is the disconnect between the top tier of people who are doing well and managing things, and the rest of us. I think we are seeing the effects of a widening gap between the affluent and regular people, where the affluent lifestyle depends on greater and greater isolation from reality -- a reinforced head-in-the-sand view of the world. In today's stock market rally we see a disconnect between the wealthy elite who manage the stock funds, and the real economy. They live well, they commute from the wealthy suburbs around New York into office buildings inhabited by other top tier elites, they don't know anyone who is hurting, they read the Wall Street Journal (written by other top tier elites) and they watch the world on TV. They think things are great, everyone THEY know is doing well, and we're in a "recovery" and heading for a prosperous Republican future. We see the same disconnect in news reporting. Our local paper, the San Jose News, occasionally runs stories about how people live, and invariably picks people living in four-bedroom million-dollar houses, with six-figure incomes, and tells their readers how hard things are for them because their exclusive private school tuitions have risen. It is infuriating! The paper's managers, editors and reporters are well-paid and live in that top-tier world. The news anchors and reporters on the networks make seven figure salaries. The head of the companies they glorify make hundreds of millions! The politicians make six figures and live in the Washington yuppisphere - and say that people who talk like I am talking are on the "fringe." And people in business are living this disconnect. Look what they expect people to be able to pay. Cable TV with a premium channel is $65-70 per month. A cable modem or DSL is another $40-50. (Cable modem is better.) A cell phone account for two is $65 or so. Then they show up with offers for internet or satellite radio for another $10-20 per month and think people can afford it - because THEY can. Never mind that they are moving YOUR job to India. I'm not talking about essential services here; my point is that they're trying to get customers and are pricing for a society that is living like they are. (Health insurance - $500 a month for a couple, minimum.) I'll write more about this disconnect society. Leave a comment. --- Posted at 10:47 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Thursday, June 19, 2003 Building The Right I came across this interesting look at how the right developed. At the bottom of the page are links to more pages. --- Posted at 3:18 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Former Senator Max Cleland A recent speech by former Senator Max Cleland is certainly worth reading. Here's a bit: "Since the President declared a so-called "victory," we have buried 34 young Americans killed in Iraq. We are losing young men and women every day. We are trapped in a quagmire. We have 240,000 American troops tied down in Iraq and Kuwait. We have no clear exit strategy. So far we have found no WMD. We have taken our eye off the ball. In so many ways, we have substituted a rogue regime for the true target. The real target is Osama bin Laden and his terrorist cadre around the world.Sen. Cleland lost three limbs fighting in Vietnam. But the Republicans campaigned against him by saying he is "unpatriotic" because he is a Democrat. The guy who won is another Republican chickenhawk. But wait, there's more: "What then is the Bush record in fighting the so-called war on terrorism? They have not found bin Laden. They have not found Saddam Hussein and as of yet there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. However, we have found two trailers. Is that why we fought the war? For two trailers? Did we send our sons and daughters to spill their blood in the desert over two trailers? We are spending over $100 billion bombing and then rebuilding Iraq while giving a tax cut to America's wealthiest citizens and denying hard-working Americans making $26,000 a year or less a child tax credit in order to pay for it.and: "Like Colin Powell, I have served in a real war, and I know what it is like. The same cannot be said for other top administration officials, including the president, vice president, secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense, and other top national security advisers who hatched this scheme to go to war with Iraq."Go read. Thanks to Counterspin Central. --- Posted at 10:57 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Progressive Talk Radio BuzzFlash points to this story, asking for a progressive talk-radio network. Well, I'm listening to one right now, online. It isn't JUST online - it carries talk shows that are syndicated on radio stations - but you can listen to it anywhere online. It is so refreshing to be able to tune in for this perspective, and it is also very informative. But you gotta tune in just to hear the clip where they play Ari Fleisher saying, the job of the press secretary is to faithfully articulate what the President is thinking," and then play what the President is thinking! Right now Thom Hartmann has a libertarian on, talking about health care. He is just ripping the libertarian's arguments apart. (Not hard to do.) Thom is a more serious, intellectual host, and his show is great. Yes, the same Thom Hartmann who writes articles on Common Dreams, AlterNet, etc. Later there's Peter Werbe, out of Detroit, and he is more aggressive and funny. Go see the "Topple Bush Now" poster at his website. Tonite is Mike Malloy, who is a wild man, very, very funny, takes no prisoners. He talks about "the Bush Crime Family." To tune in, go to ieamericaradio.com on the web. Click on "Listen Live!" at the top and on the left side of the window. You will be taken to a page with instructions for how to listen. Update -I guess Peter Werbe has a substitute on today... --- Posted at 9:40 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What Bush Said Tuesday Tuesday Bush had this to say about the Iraq invasion: "We made it clear to the dictator of Iraq that he must disarm ... and he chose not to do so. So we disarmed him," Bush said at a Virginia community college.Well, Bush has now set the marker. He has made it clear that the invasion WAS about WMD, not the post-war excuses about "liberating the people of Iraq." But there were no WMD. It was either bad intelligence or they lied. Bad intelligence certainly doesn't let Bush of the hook. Since Bush has declared that preventive invasion is U.S. policy, we need to have faith in our intelligence that the country we invade really IS a threat. Bush invaded Iraq, killed thousands, bogged down half our forces in a quagmire with no path out (and by the way, we're going to need to start drafting people into the army soon), found no WMD, and this has destroyed the credibility of our intelligence agencies and our country. --- Posted at 8:23 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Jobs Data Remember last week, when the number of people filing first-time unemployment claims "dropped 17,000 to 430,000?" Well, this week it "dropped 13,000 to 421,000." At least this week the number is lower after "dropping." Last week it "dropped" to a higher number. Anything over 400,000 shows a still-deteriorating jobs situation. --- Posted at 6:50 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Wednesday, June 18, 2003 WMD Question If Bush misled the country into war, can he be prosecuted for murder? Are there any legal experts out there who want to comment? --- Posted at 7:45 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tax Cuts What do those tax cuts mean, besides that YOUR Social Security money is gone now? This post by Lambert over at Eschaton sums it up: Student loans? "Wiped clean." Unemployment insurance? "Wiped clean"? School lunch for your kids? "Wiped clean." National parks? "Wiped clean." Your Mom's Medicare? "Wiped clean." Your Dad's Medicaid? "Wiped clean." And so on. Well, it is certainly "bold" and "audacious."Oh yeah, don't forget paying for checking cargo containers at ports. Even the National Parks (yes, they're proposing selling them.) --- Posted at 7:09 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Lakoff Doc Searls writes about George Lakoff's work describing why people become liberals or conservatives. As I have said before, I highly, highly recommend reading Lakoff's book Moral Politics. --- Posted at 10:47 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tuesday, June 17, 2003 Investigate the Missing WMD From this story, Dean: Investigate Bush's Statements on Iraq "Yesterday, President Bush asserted that those who question the evidence he used to justify the pre-emptive war in Iraq are ‘revisionist historians.’ Yet it is President Bush who is rewriting history.Right to the point. --- Posted at 7:09 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Taking Credit Bush takes credit: Bush, Republicans Buoyed by Stock Market Gains. So if the market does down, that will be Clinton's fault. --- Posted at 5:33 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Monday, June 16, 2003 MoveOn Primary If you are not already a MoveOn member, please consider registering for MoveOn.org's Presidential Primary and participating. I encourage you to vote for Howard Dean, but even if you don't support Dean it's great to get involved and MoveOn is an important organization to support. Voting begins June 24. You'll receive a "ballot" via e-mail. --- Posted at 9:42 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Malpractice Awards P.L.A. brings some perspective to the cost to society of jury malpractice awards. --- Posted at 4:05 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sunday, June 15, 2003 Eschaton <<--------- Eschaton is referring to the pieces linked to in the left column, like Don't Blame the Democrats, An Amplifier Of Our Own, Some History of the Conservative Movement, and the How They Do It series. There's also We Urgently Need Our Own "Message Amplification Infrastructure". Because it's blogspot, sometimes you have to scroll down to those titles, sometimes it takes you right to them... | ||||