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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: |
 11/30/2003 AFL-CIO sponsors "Tell Us The Truth" concert tour... [The American labor movement has been, and in a large sense, still is, the last vestige of organized and institutionalized opposition to the status quo in American politics - the only one with the resources to really make things happen on a large scale... it is great that they're funding this tour. Progressives have, and have always had, a huge advantage over right-wingers on the cultural front... it is one that they've really failed to take advantage of effectively. This is a good sign, I hope to see more of it. And note how well Morello was able to stay "on message" even when challenged on the reasons for attacking globalisation. Good work. Of course, this item appears to have only made it into "print" on the web...] Raging Against the Machine Lefty rockers like Tom Morello join forces and hit the road in an antiestablishment tour sponsored by the AFL-CIO By Brian Braiker NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE Nov. 26 — Iconoclastic rockers Billy Bragg, Steve Earle and friends recently wound down the first month-long leg of a group tour at the unlikeliest of venues: the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the AFL-CIO. Unlikely, that is, if this were your run-of-the-mill pop concert. But in an era of mega-tours organized and sponsored by soft drink and SUV-makers, the labor-backed “Tell us the Truth” tour is the unlikeliest of shows. [...] --Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/30/2003 03:29:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post  
The Emperor's New Clothes [Obviously, not all the members of the American media are blind...] Ellis Henican - Theatrics Of It All In Iraq --Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/30/2003 03:07:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Letters to the Editor in Washington Post [The Washington Post just published a great letter to the editor (also below, in italics), just below a letter to the editor from John Podesta and the Center for American Progress rebutting the editorial mentioned (and linked to) below. The publication of an editorial by the Washington Post with a line like this speaks volumes about how effective the ultra-right has been at defining the terms of the game... somewhere in a Washington area smoke filled room, the right has decided to go on the offensive, and make attacking Mr. Soros and Peter Lewis the issue of the day. Thus, editorials this ("Mr. Soros's Millions" in the WP) which fail to place Mr. Soros' actions in any context, and news articles (LAT, "Democrats Line Up Their Own Billionaire Firepower") which, even as they mention the Heritage model that the Center for American Progress aims to emulate, fail to mention the overwhelmingly larger amounts poured in to the ultra-right over the last thirty years by a much broader cast of characters (most of it "laundered" through tax-exempt foundations [great tax dodge]), and paint progressives as hypocrites for accepting money from these folks.] I was dumbfounded by this sentence in the Nov. 22 editorial "Mr. Soros's Millions": "For Democrats thrilled with the Soros millions, imagine conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife opening his bank account on behalf of Mr. Bush." Although his money did not go to advocate defeating a particular candidate, Mr. Scaife has given $700 million to conservative organizations over more than four decades. He has been one of the main funders of the Heritage Foundation and many other conservative "think tanks" such as the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Institute for Contemporary Studies. In 1994 he set up a fund to investigate whether Clinton official Vince Foster was murdered, and he funded the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Besides Mr. Scaife, let's not forget about other right-wing billionaires such as Howard Ahmanson, who has spent millions promoting religious-right candidates and funding many conservative groups. There is plenty of reason to worry about money in politics, but why single out Mr. Soros without pointing out the rich funders on the right too? MIGUEL VARGAS Washington [The other point I wish to make, and I'll be brief, in deference to Dave's sensibilities: Podesta, Lewis, Soros, MoveOn.org... they represent a moderate to liberal, Clintonian style politics. What used to be the center of American politics (before the right pulled things so far out of balance). While I appreciate what they're doing, they're by no means attempting to shift American politics to the degree that their ultra-right-wing opponents aimed at, thirty years ago. These groups represent baby-steps in an attempt to move things back into balance... not that I'm unhappy to have them test the waters and take the point on this, mind you. You'd have to go to the left of the Greens (who represent what used to be the liberal/left wing of the Democratic Party) to the Peace and Freedom Party in California (who are seeking to nominate Mumia Abu Jamal and Leonard Peltier for President/VP), before you find anyone near as radical as Scaife, the Koch brothers, and the Coors family, et. al. ... you sure as hell don't see Mr. Soros, et. al pouring millions into the pockets of these folks, people whose goal is to upend the system as it now exists (just as was the goal of the Heritage Foundation, et. al. and still is). When I see seven figure donations pouring in from an assortment of multi-millionaires and the foundations they control to organizations like The Green Insititute, well, then I'll think that maybe the campaign to create balance is beginning to get some traction. We're living in a skewed media environment, where the American Enterprise Institute is a non-ideological mainstream institution, and Richard Perle can get away with attacking the "new liberal institutions" (where the hell does the plural come from) as "political", and "not scholars" (as if what the Heritage Foundation produces is scholarship). I sincerely hope that Podesta, et. al., at the very least, begin to force some "honesty in labeling" upon the American media. That would be a good first step.] --Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/30/2003 02:26:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/29/2003 Things You Have To Believe To Be A Republican Today Things you have to believe to be a Republican today. Including: And read the comments at the end, left by pissed-off right wingers. --- Posted at 11/29/2003 09:53:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Voted For Nader - Now Supports Dean Yahoo! News - HOWARD DEAN FOR PRESIDENT: "Heretofore I have opposed strategic voting tactics. When citizens vote for candidates because they seem likely to win, it creates a winner-takes-all aggregation of support. That subverts democracy's underlying assumption: that people vote for the man or woman they'd most like to see win. At its worst, pick-the-winner voting elevates any candidate lucky enough to enjoy an early jump in the polls to premature, and possibly undeserved victory. Let the electorate vote for politicians whose ideas they like best and let the chads hang where they may.He goes on to make the case why Dean is the one who can beat Bush, including, "Frankly, the other Democratic contenders don't have what it takes to stand up to Karl Rove's brutal war machine." Please read the whole thing! --- Posted at 11/29/2003 09:45:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tax Cuts Or Spending Increases? The right-wingers say that tax cuts stimulate the economy and government spending harms the economy. But why would tax cuts stimulate the economy more than spending increases? A $1 billion tax cut stimulates the economy only if the money is borrowed, by adding $1 billion that can be spent, which increases demand. But so does a $1 billion spending increase. In fact, a $1 billion spending increase would generally be used in ways that stimulate demand more than a tax cut. The spending would usually go to average people, who would immediately spend it on needed goods, so it would all be spent quickly. Meanwhile a tax cut would go to higher income people, who might spend it on a BMW, or more likely just save it. If the money is borrowed it means that we all have to pay interest on that loan for many years, which is the opposite of stimulus. With massive borrowing the government also competes with businesses and others who want to borrow money, which further restrains the economy. And what about a tax cut that is "paid for" by cutting spending? Cutting spending means laying off teachers, or not building a road that would employ hundreds of construction workers, or cutting back on unemployment payments, or cutting back on health care, which is a major employer. Think about the grocery store in the neighborhood of all the people who won't be getting unemployment payment extensions next year. So when you hear that tax cuts are good for jobs and the economy, and spend is bad for the economy, it might sound simple on the surface, but it's not what it seems. The argument presupposes that taxes are collected and then the money just disappears. Don't fall for it. In fact, it's a useful life rule to just disregard anything a right-winger says as a trick with an ulterior motive of taking your money or lowering your wages. ;-0 --- Posted at 11/29/2003 11:48:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/27/2003 Greider For Dean Why I'm for Dean: "Dean is opening the possibility of transforming politics--shaking up the tired, timid old order, inviting plain-wrapper citizens back into an active role--and that's why so many people, myself included, are for him." --- Posted at 11/27/2003 03:17:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/26/2003 Whatever Happened With This, Anyway? ABCNEWS.com : Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies? --- Posted at 11/26/2003 05:04:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Speak For Yourself Yahoo! News - Democrats Hope Sen. Breaux Seeks Re-Election --- Posted at 11/26/2003 02:53:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Christopher Lydon Interviews... : Christopher Lydon Interviews... : George Lakoff. --- Posted at 11/26/2003 08:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Create Your Own Ad Bush in 30 Seconds at MoveOn.org. Check out who's judging the contest! --- Posted at 11/26/2003 07:42:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/25/2003 How Many More? How Many More? (850K) --- Posted at 11/25/2003 04:56:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/24/2003 No More Medicare It looks like the Medicare Privatization bill is going to pass. Senate Votes to End Medicare Filibuster: "Twenty-two Democrats and independent Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont joined 47 Republicans in voting to end Kennedy's filibuster."I'll see if I can find out who those 22 Democrats are. I think recall campaigns are in order here. I was counting on Medicare being there for me, and now it won't. --- Posted at 11/24/2003 11:18:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Prescription Drug / Old Man Humor In honor of my 50th birthday last week, AND in honor of the Republican Medicare Privatization bill using the mask of prescription drugs for seniors (see how I got politics into this?), I'll post this that came in the mail today: D A M N I T O LI took out all the forwarded '>>'s --- Posted at 11/24/2003 10:36:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Turkeys Please read this: About a Turkey: "It probably hatched in an incubator on a huge farm, most likely in the Midwest or the South. Its life went downhill from there. A few days after hatching — in the first of many unnatural if not necessarily painful indignities — it had its upper beak and toenails snipped off. A turkey is normally a very discriminating eater (left to its own devices, it will search out the exact food it wants to eat). In order to fatten it up quickly, farmers clip the beak, transforming it into a kind of shovel. With its altered beak, it can no longer pick and choose what it will eat. Instead, it will do nothing but gorge on the highly fortified corn-based mash that it is offered, even though that is far removed from the varied diet of insects, grass and seeds turkeys prefer. And the toenails? They're removed so that they won't do harm later on: in the crowded conditions of industrial production, mature turkeys are prone to picking at the feathers of their neighbors — and even cannibalizing them.BUT you can get natural, humanely raised turkeys: "What to do? One solution is to bypass Broad Breasted Whites altogether. A few nonprofit groups — including my own, Slow Food U.S.A., and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy — are working with independent family farms to ensure that a handful of older, pre-industrial turkey varieties, known as heritage breeds, are still being grown. These varieties are slowly gaining recognition for their dark, rich and succulent meat. (My group, which encourages the preservation of artisanal foods, sells turkeys on behalf of these farmers, but we don't profit from the transactions.)My message is think about what you eat. You can get meat that is raised humanely. Or you can support the corporate culture that only treats EVERYTHING according to its value as a monetary unit - inlcuding you. --- Posted at 11/24/2003 10:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Guest Posters Note - a few guest posters are here. --- Posted at 11/24/2003 08:29:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Republican "Under The Radar" Smear Campaign In The South Begins Here is how the Republicans get votes in the South -- tell them that Democrats are JEWS: Ann Coulter: The party of ideas, (published at the Heritage Foundation's Townhall) "In addition to having a number of family deaths among them, the Democrats' other big idea – too nuanced for a bumper sticker – is that many of them have Jewish ancestry. There's Joe Lieberman: Always Jewish. Wesley Clark: Found Out His Father Was Jewish in College. John Kerry: Jewish Since He Began Presidential Fund-Raising. Howard Dean: Married to a Jew. Al Sharpton: Circumcised. Even Hillary Clinton claimed to have unearthed some evidence that she was a Jew – along with the long lost evidence that she was a Yankees fan. And that, boys and girls, is how the Jews survived thousands of years of persecution: by being susceptible to pandering. "And, in case there is any doubt at all about whether this is targeted to white Southern voters: "Their humble-origins claptrap is designed to disguise the fact that liberals think ordinary people are racist scum."If you think this stuff isn't effective, you haven't been in the Bible Belt. It doesn't matter WHO the Democrats nominate, it matters how that candidate responds to Republican character assassination. That's what Republicans DO. I discovered this at Atrios' site. I'm posting about it here because I want to make the point that this should not be dismissed as the rantings of wingnut Ann Coulter: this is the Republican machine at work. This is Bush doing this, and must be seen as BUSH and Bush directly. --- Posted at 11/24/2003 08:21:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
More Miami madness... "snatch squads" Just found this in my email inbox... Laura Raymond, NLG Student Organizer, has just sent this update from Miami: I can’t emphasis how crazy we all feel this is. People who have been doing legal support for mass demonstrations for years and years–even R2K legal folks who have dealt with Timoney before–are amazed at how unprecedented and overwhelming it is. The unusual thing is that there are no mass arrests! Arrests are mostly being made of small groups or individuals for seemingly nothing. Random people are being pulled behind police lines that may be 3 rows thick and legal observers can’t access them for names and descriptions, nor can medics access people who are hurt in the process. Also undercovers are snatching random people in the crowds and pulling them away. A huge thing is the tactic of unmarked “snatch squads” patrolling the city and grabbing people off the streets. We have 3 Legal Observer’s that have been picked off thisway in separate incidents, and for these we have we have witnesses reporting that the LO’s were beaten by the police. It is really eery and frightening. Many arrest reports we receive include brutality, beatings and such–tasors,wooden and rubber bullets, many cops beating one person, concussion grenades,electrical shields, etc.–so it seems as though arrest numbers are down but the intensity of the arrest and the complexity of defending all these cases is high. This seems like a good media tactic on the part of the police-the small arrest numbers won’t put the actions in much mainstream media. Legal Observers and defense and support people are overwhelmed and we have a lot on our plate. We have a big problem coming up as many of us are leaving this weekend and we will have alot of unresolved legal issues remaining. Plus the precedent all these new tactics set-especially this quote in our press release that this is being referred to by city officials as a “blueprint for homeland security.” As is the case with nearly everyone here, I got 45 minutes of sleep last night and 2 hours the night before. We are so maxed out but we just cannot stop. I am going to be careful and try to not get arrested but if I do they know to call you. Laura Raymond November 21, 2003 -Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/24/2003 03:03:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"This is not an enemy that can defeat us militarily." [DOH! Neither were the Vietnamese! How blind can you be?!? -Thomas] Monday, November 24, 2003 - Page updated at 12:29 A.M. 2 U.S. soldiers meet grisly end at hands of Iraqi mob By Seattle Times news services MOSUL, Iraq — Assailants killed two U.S. soldiers riding in a civilian car yesterday in this northern city and, in a bloody scene, crowds then reportedly mutilated their bodies, trashed the vehicle and made off with the soldiers' belongings. [... descriptions of various and sundry other attacks against everyone under the sun... ] Despite the surge in both the scope and ferocity of the attacks, [Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military deputy director for operations in Iraq] dismissed any threat posed by the guerrillas, whom he described as occasionally clever but overall "a pretty poor group of insurgents. "We have nothing at this point that causes us to be concerned," he said. "This is not an enemy that can defeat us militarily." [...] -Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/24/2003 02:17:00 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/23/2003 FTAA protests: Miami Police Out of Control I was talking with folks at Dave's birthday party last night (great bash) about the absurdity of Miami spending $16.5 million dollars on security, because "rioters" in Seattle caused $2 million in damage. Economically speaking, it would be more rational to set aside a few million to pay business for any damage caused by "rioters" (assuming any would be caused at all, especially in the absence of police provocation)... but really, we know that's not what it's about. It's about the powers that be attempting to discourage and suppress protest, it's about their total fear that the average people of this and other countries are going to wage up and realize that the agenda of unrestrained capitalism is destroying their quality of life, standard of living, and threatening the very viability of life on this planet, it's about how the "Seattle coalition" represents something new and different ... it is about the efforts of the Secret Service to systematically exclude (link to Google search) any and all protestors from the Presidential presence, and what that says for the health of democracy and protest in our society at this point. ... everything I heard in advance of the protests against the FTAA in Miami was pretty bad - this included police sweeping in and arresting protest organizers and seizing equipment in advance of the protest. And all my expectations have been fulfilled - even exceeded. Yesterday, I received an email outlining how a producer for Democracy Now, Ana Nogueira, had been arrested as she covered the protests against the FTAA in Miami. And wrote a letter of protest. Today, I received this (links to full posting on my personal weblog), an email describing a series of atrocious abuses by police and jail administrators. I haven't been able to obtain independent confirmation (god forbid the mainstream media cover this - try finding out anything about the treatment of protestors in jail via Google News, for example - nothing), but Democracy Now says "the day was marked by extraordinary police brutality against demonstrators", and mentions that two of the people working with them were hit by rubber bullets. According to the Miami Herald, there were "almost as many police as there were protestors"... massive overkill; as has been the case at almost every event since Seattle... weeks and months of fear mongering, followed by... nothing. But, what do you read in the New York Times? "Demonstration Turns Violent" Here's a Miami Herald quote on the theme of the first paragraph:
Here's a New York Times quote:
A "well-oiled machine". Yo gotta love it. Not. The Miami Herald also reports on a massive over-reaction by the Miami-Dade police to a protest outside a court house, quoting the police as blandly denying what all observers appeared to confirm: that the police moved in and arrested scores of people for "failing to disperse", when they were in the process of doing exactly that...
Orwellian! Also see the FTAA IMC reports on this assault. Starhawk says (a report from her is included in the posting on my personal blog): "This action has truly seen some of the most blatant abuses of police power I¹ve encountered in a long time." Thea Lee, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s top international economist, said "I've never seen anything like this show of force and the abuse of ordinary people." (NYT) and "'The Miami Police Department disgraced itself with an outrageous use of force." (Miami Herald) ... this says to me that we need to step up our level of commitment, that we need to turn out tens of thousands of protestors to the next event, that we need to hound and harass these bastards from one end of the planet to the other, give them no rest, until they broaden their agenda to reflect the real concerns and needs of the people of this planet. -Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 11/23/2003 08:02:00 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/22/2003 Voting Machines - California To Require Voter-Verified Paper Trails State changes rule on electronic voting machines: "In an effort to prevent fraud, California's top election official Friday ordered all counties using electronic voting systems to provide voters with printed receipts by 2006. --- Posted at 11/22/2003 07:50:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/21/2003 Fighting Back Against Republican Smears THIS is how you fight back! All I can say is GOOD FOR THEM!!! Update -- Here's the script. --- Posted at 11/21/2003 02:11:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/19/2003 The Medicare Privatization Bill I want to say this to Democrats in the Congress as they prepare to vote on the Medicare Privatization Bill. If you are thinking of voting for this so the Republicans won't campaign against you, saying you opposed prescription drugs for seniors, they're going to ANYWAY! If you voted for the war, they campaigned against you as unpatriotic ANYWAY! If you voted for Bush's tax cuts, they campaigned against you as being a "tax and spend" Democrat ANYWAY! If you voted for the education bill, they campaigned against you as blocking education reform ANYWAY! If you voted against the minimum wage, they campaign against you as "anti-business" ANYWAY! If you voted to let 98% of Bush's judicial nominations through, they say you are an obstructionist blocking Bush's judicial nominations ANYWAY! You need to start listening to talk radio, and hear what they are saying about you. It is worse than anything you can imagine, and it is in the public's ears 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Radio is unabashedly pro-Republican and ridiculing Democrats, and it is repeated and repeated and repeated until even Democrats are repeating their anti-government, pro-corporate messages. Voting with them isn't going to help, not even a little bit. --- Posted at 11/19/2003 10:22:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Bomb On Rumor Stories like this, make me wonder: "The military said the bombings were part of Operation Iron Hammer, the new aggressive tactic of initiating attacks against insurgents before they strike."You mean they weren't attacking the hideouts of insurgents BEFORE? You mean they weren't going after the people leaving bombs for our troops BEFORE? Or is this a new policy of killing anyone they SUSPECT of being a threat? Or maybe anyone they get a tip about? Sounds like a good way to get rid of someone you don't like -- tell the US military they are a threat. --- Posted at 11/19/2003 10:12:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Say What? This story, Dean Calls For New Controls on Business includes this line: "Dean has excited core Democratic voters with a relentless assault on corporations and the rich, and he is moving quickly to stake a position as the candidate with the boldest plans for tempering the influence and power of U.S. businesses."Say what? Dean in a "a relentless assault on corporations and the rich"??????? Where did that come from? --- Posted at 11/19/2003 09:05:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/18/2003 The Beginning Of The Big One? Dollar falls to fresh low against euro: "The dollar fell to a record low against the euro on Tuesday as data showing sharply weaker capital flows prompted new fears over the funding of the US current account deficit.It just might be a good time to own gold and Euros. --- Posted at 11/18/2003 09:10:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
New Article I have an article over at Media Transparency: Lowering the Bar: The conservative movement's well-funded attacks on trial lawyers. --- Posted at 11/18/2003 12:34:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Under Bush There Is No Law Or Accountability - Anywhere Read this story, U.S. destroys suspected guerrillas' homes: In a tactic reminiscent of Israeli crackdowns in the West Bank and Gaza, the U.S. military has begun destroying the homes of suspected guerrilla fighters in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, evacuating women and children, then leveling their houses with heavy weaponry.Then read Article 33 of the Geneva Convention: Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.It doesn't get much clearer than this. We are blatantly violating the Geneva Convention. Under Bush there is no law or accountability at home or abroad. This isn't the first time we've been in blatant violation of Article 33. I wrote then, and say it again now, "The Party can get away with threats, intimidation and blatantly violating laws in the U.S., because they control the House, the Senate, the Justice Department, the FBI, the Courts, the military and the press. Can they continue to get away with it internationally as well?" Update - Billmon has much more. --- Posted at 11/18/2003 11:54:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tom Gets Off Thinking It Through: STOP THE BLOG -- I WANT TO GET OFF 11-18-03: "Well I guess it’s about time to come clean folks. I’ve loved this blogging thing over the last fifteen months but, I’m afraid to say, it’s time to hang it up." --- Posted at 11/18/2003 09:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/17/2003 Today's Google Experiment Let's do a Google Search: on "diebold 18181" and see what we get. --- Posted at 11/17/2003 03:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Nice Work From Eric Alterman:: "Nice work if you can get it:“Edison Schools, a company created to run public schools like private businesses, accepted a $182 million buyout from Florida’s pension fund Wednesday in a deal that follows years of losses but promises millions of dollars for the CEO. ” --- Posted at 11/17/2003 03:20:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Oh Yeah! Go here FOXNews.com, scroll down to "Setting the Record Straight" with Gen. Clark, and watch what happens when the FOX guy tries out the "Do you think it's right for you to say these things while our men and women are fighting in Iraq?" Ooooo - Weeee! Not gonna try THAT again! --- Posted at 11/17/2003 02:14:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
21,600 More Unemployed Yahoo! News - About 21,600 Accept Buyout From Verizon: "NEW YORK - About 21,600 employees accepted a buyout offer from Verizon Communications and will leave the payroll by the end of the week, nearly double the number that the nation's biggest telephone company estimated last month."21,600 more unemployed people. My question: will they show up on next week's newly unemployed count? --- Posted at 11/17/2003 11:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/15/2003 Who Is Our Economy For, Anyway? Robert Reich, writing about the loss of manufacturing jobs: "America has been losing manufacturing jobs to China, Latin America and the rest of the developing world. Right? Well, not quite. It turns out that manufacturing jobs have been disappearing all over the world. Economists at Alliance Capital Management in New York took a close look at employment trends in 20 large economies recently, and found that since 1995 more than 22 million factory jobs have disappeared.It's not just that we're shipping more and more of our jobs to other countries, and we are, but it looks as though the world really may be reaching the point where we need fewer people working to get done the things we need to get done. You hear about "high productivity." Well, that is what "high productivity" MEANS. Even China is losing manufacturing jobs. And the answer isn't retraining people to move into higher-level jobs. When I moved to Silicon Valley in 1980, everyone was talking about retraining auto workers for tech jobs. Well, now in Silicon Valley almost the only jobs in the paper are for auto mechanics. Wealth is concentrating as never before. The rich aren't just getting richer and richer anymore -- the concentration is way beyond that. And the opportunity avenues the rest of us expect from the social contract that tolerates such wealth are not expanding. If you look around at all the supposed prosperity -- the big houses, the SUVs, the electronic toys, nice clothes, etc. -- you should also understand what is supporting it: Massive debt. Massive, massive debt on a scale never before seen. Everyone thinks they are rich now, and are doing what it takes to live that way. It is the cultural expectation now, and I think this illusion is a way of avoiding accepting the concentration that is occurring and accepting that we are working harder, but receiving less and less of the benefits. The only way for most of us to achieve that lifestyle is to refinance our houses, run up our credit cards, and elect leaders who encourage all of that while running the country the same way. Massive, massive debt. Everywhere. A bankrupt philosophy surely expressing itself one day with real-world bankruptcy. If something is unsustainable, it won't be sustained. We are all frantically trying to find new ways to buy time. Perhaps if we can sustain things another month we will turn the corner. Perhaps we'll get a raise in time. Perhaps tax revenue will increase in time. Perhaps the stock market will go back to where it was and our pensions will be there for us. Perhaps we'll win the lottery. But what is happening is that the money is draining upwards. As we work longer hours, and more members of our families enter the job market just to cover the house payments, the insurance payments, the childcare and the increasing cable-TV and credit card bills, the banker who collects our interest payments, and the owners and executives of the insurance companies are gobbling up more and more of the world's resources to "own" for themselves. Our government is even preparing to sell off our national parks -- another transfer of "ownership" of OUR resources to the priviledged FEW. In the end, a very basic question will need to be addressed. Who is our economy FOR, anyway? This is a very dangerous question, and just asking it leads to places that many of us have not gone in our thinking, and many of us certainly don't want the rest of us to go. And, of course, the corollary question: Who is our GOVERNMENT for? Is it US, after all, or not? You learned in grade school that "we" decide the laws and policies of OUR government. WE are our government -- that's what our government IS: US, grouping together to decide things. "Of the people, by the people and FOR the people." We even decide who "owns" what, and we do so because it supposedly benefits all of us. For example, no one "owns" the air or the oceans or the state capital building or the right to cut off your arm. In many other countries now, (and in America until just a few years ago), there are some limits on how much of the public resources (money) one person can acquire. High taxes are imposed after a person has brought in some large amount for him or herself. Then, much of the rest is put to use for the benefit of the overall public. If a person has hit the jackpot and is bringing in, say, $10 million a year, anything beyond that is taxed at a high rate. Everyone benefits from this. The jackpot winner is bringing in a huge sum, but the public is also benefiting from having made the collective decisions that set up the system. In Europe the workday is shorter, they get 6 weeks average vacation per year, their health care is covered, AND they get generous pensions when they retire. This is because they have set up a system that works for THEM. But in America, we are degenerating into a form of feudalism, where the super-rich rule over the rest of us, to their benefit. "Ownership" is only a concept. It is nothing more than a right that is granted by government -- US -- and only for the benefit of US. Corporations are not entities created by nature, they are structures created and defined by laws, and defined by law, and supposedly for the benefit of the public. Why else would we have passed the laws that set them up? Remember, feudal lords "owned" the right to sleep with any bride on her wedding night. "... a problem whose queasy horrors will eventually be made world-wide by the sophistication of machines. The problem is this: How to love people who have no use? --- Posted at 11/15/2003 09:35:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Everything, Everything, Everything For The Election Even bugging out of Iraq. Just in time. Iraq to Get Transition Government by June, Council Says. I really wonder what they're going to do in October, surprise! --- Posted at 11/15/2003 07:39:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/14/2003 New Democrat Network Conference I just got home from a day at a New Democrat Network conference. I went because Daily Kos had a special price offer, due to Markos speaking on a panel. Over the weekend I'll be writing about the conference, but I'll quickly say that I met Markos, and had a good conversation with David Brock. If you're coming here after talking to me at the conference, please read this recent post to get the idea of Seeing the Forest: Getting It. --- Posted at 11/14/2003 05:13:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/13/2003 Just In Time For The Election So, the plan is to declare victory and bug out mid-year 2004. U.S. Moves to Speed Up Iraqi Vote and Shift of Power: "WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 — The Bush administration, moving up its timetable for self-government in Iraq and yielding to its own handpicked leadership there, has decided to try to hold elections in the first half of next year and turn civilian authority over to a temporary government before a new constitution is written, administration officials said Wednesday.Do they think the Iraqi opposition can't read? So now they know it's just a waiting game. Hold out, kill a few soldiers a day to stiffen Bush's resolve to retreat in time for re-election, and mid-year they can take over Iraq. What a mess Bush has gotten us into. --- Posted at 11/13/2003 08:26:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Dubya Goes To Hell This just came to me in an e-mail: While walking down the street one day, George "Dubya" Bush is shot by a disgruntled NRA member. His soul arrives in heaven and he is met by St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. --- Posted at 11/13/2003 08:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Contraceptives, Too If you know the history of the anti-abortion movement, you know they won't stop when abortion is outlawed. They also oppose contraceptives, and had banned them in some states. This is why concervatives insist there is no "right to privacy" in the Constitution. (Remember Judge Bork?) Bishops Open a New Drive Opposing Contraception: "It will also examine the 'relationship between contraception and abortion' by pointing out that there is a link between abortion and failed contraception, and noting the potential for some contraceptive drugs to be 'abortifacient.' " --- Posted at 11/13/2003 08:01:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
More Military Purging of Liberals Soldier Might Face Court Martial For Radio Comments: According to the Illinois Leader, a National Guard soldier based in Rockford, IL, who blasted President Bush on a local radio talk show Friday, may face court martial for her public comments. --- Posted at 11/13/2003 07:56:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/12/2003 Making Friends - Showing The US Way Posted without comment: Iraqi Arrested for Criticizing US: "BAGHDAD - American soldiers handcuffed and firmly wrapped masking tape around an Iraqi man's mouth after they arrested him for speaking out against occupation troops.OK, I'll comment. Maybe he was out of the "free speech zone." --- Posted at 11/12/2003 08:08:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
A Great One From Molly Ivins Call Me a Bush-Hater: "By now, quite a few people who aren't even liberal are starting to say, "Wha the hey?" We got no Osama, we got no Saddam, we got no weapons of mass destruction, the road map to peace in the Middle East is blown to hell, we're stuck in this country for $87 billion just for one year and no one knows how long we'll be there. And still poor Mr. Krauthammer is hard-put to conceive how anyone could conclude that George W. Bush is a poor excuse for a President.Me, too. --- Posted at 11/12/2003 05:45:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
From The AFL-CIO Even though both houses of Congress responded to your appeals by voting to block President Bush's overtime pay cuts, the president is refusing to withdraw his pay cuts and says he will veto final legislation protecting overtime pay. Back-room maneuvering by the Bush administration and House Republican leaders has made it increasingly likely that the overtime pay protections we won will not make it out of Congress this year. Bush's Labor Department could put the overtime pay cuts into effect as soon as January. --- Posted at 11/12/2003 10:48:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
What Atrios Said What Atrios Said. "Hey, Nick Kristof - Blow Me!" In fact, one minute I'm reading that the Republican plan is to get people to dismiss the Democrats' message because they are nothing more than "Bush-haters" (previous post), and the next minute I'm reading Nick Kristof accusing Democrats of being nothing more than Bush-haters. Well, Nick, let me guess where you get your column inspiration from. Could it have shown up on your FAX machine? THIS is why I don't read most "major" columnists. Why bother? Update - Eric Alterman expands on this topic: 1) Bush “haters” talk about policy not personality.And let me just add one thing -- Look where the Clinton-Hating got them. As a result of their aggressive tactics they control the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Courts, the Military, and all the other things I wrote the other day. --- Posted at 11/12/2003 09:47:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Republican Election Plan The Republicans are not being secretive about their plans for the 2004 election. This story contains the following: "The strategy will involve the dismissal of Democrats as the party of 'protests, pessimism and political hate speech,' Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee chairman, wrote in a recent memo to party officials -- a move designed to shift attention toward Bush's broader foreign policy objectives rather than the accounts of bloodshed. Republicans hope to convince voters that Democrats are too indecisive and faint-hearted -- and perhaps unpatriotic -- to protect US interests, arguing that inaction during the Clinton years led to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."Lies, and smears. And worse. This stuff works. We just got a cable bill - with another big rate increase. I suggested looking at satellite and my wife said she "heard" that satellite can be a problem because you have to keep positioning the dish. Well, the only place she "heard" this was from cable company ads. Advertising works. Repeating something over and over again works. Think of knowledge as a vacant receptor -- my wife had no information about satellite, so the cable companies were able to fill a vacant receptor with a message. Since there was no prior information there, and since she is a busy person with other concerns, that message was able to slide into place unchallenged. And later, when it matter, all she knew was that she had "heard" that satellite has problems. The Republicans wouldn't be planning this without a great deal of work -- focus groups, polls, psychologists, etc. So they already know that the public is ready to receive this message. Can they get away with convincing people that Democrats are unpatriotic? Can they get away with convincing people that Clinton caused 9/11? "Inviting a fierce foreign policy debate in the months to come, Gillespie continued: "The bombings of the World Trade Center in 1993, Khobar Towers, our embassies in East Africa, and the USS Cole were treated as criminal matters instead of the terrorist acts they were. After Sept. 11, President Bush made clear that we will no longer simply respond to terrorist acts, but will confront gathering threats before they become certain tragedies.""Every time you hear someone repeat the lie that Clinton "bombed an aspirin factory" remember that what he really did was send a flurry of cruise missiles after bin Laden. This was a chemical factory owned by bin Laden. The same day Clinton sent dozens of cruise missiles into Afghanistan trying to get bin Laden, and destroying an al-Queda training camp. But I digress... --- Posted at 11/12/2003 09:35:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Microsoft Patch I installed the latest Microsoft XP update this morning. Now, every time I click on Internet Explorer's scroll bar it acts as two clicks. Great. (Yes, I use Windows. I have a PC laptop because the last company I worked for made an MSOffice competitor, and they ran out of cash -- couldn't get funded competing with Microsoft -- before they got the Linux version done, or I'd probably be using Linux now. Before that I worked on BeOS which ran on Intel machines. Before that I had a Mac software company and we have a Mac desktop at home, so don't write to me about using Windows, OK?) (Oh yeah, and if you're going to be regularly pouring coffee onto your keyboard it should be a PC and not a Mac. Right? Does that help you feel better about my using a Wintel machine?) --- Posted at 11/12/2003 08:14:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Pensions NY Times story today, Failed Pensions: A Painful Lesson in Assumptions: "Assumptions that the government considers inadequate contributed to the demise of almost all of the roughly 150 pension plans that failed in the last year. Current detailed information about pension plans is not routinely disclosed, however.Got that? Even as pension plans are failing left and right, The Party is RELAXING the rules. Let's look at the results of The Party's long-term effect on our retirement. In the 80's 401K plans were introduced. 401Ks are a plan for screwing workers out of having their companies paying for their retirement. Guess where the money that the corporations had been paying into retirement funds went? Then, during the stock run-up companies that still offered pensions projected ongoing huge returns, so they didn't need to put money aside for their workers. Now, they're allowed to continue to make optimistic projections. But, of course, the really, really big effect on our retirement is Bush's massive deficits. That's our Social Security money being sent to Iraq, folks. --- Posted at 11/12/2003 07:57:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/11/2003 Liberals Purged From Military The Left Coaster has a post about liberals being kicked out of the military because of their views. --- Posted at 11/11/2003 10:43:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"Getting It" Expanding on my previous "Dean as McGovern", and the power of The Party's use of smears, and how it doesn't matter who we run. What matters is how the candidate fights back. Here is one of the very first posts to this weblog: Seeing the forest"Getting it," in this election, means understanding the new political environment of a near-fascist right controlling the White House, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Courts, the Justice Department, blocking any and all oversight or investigations into their abuses of power, using the FBI as their investigative arm, the military as their international enforcement arm, and the major broadcast and print media as their propaganda organ. It means understanding that smears, threats and intimidation are the favored tactic of The Party. Understanding that there is nothing The Party will not do, even politicizing the national tragedy of 9/11 and using it to justify a pre-planned war in an unrelated country, all the while using THAT to manipulate an election. The only way to fight this is to take it on directly, and FIGHT it. Otherwise the Party machinery and the Wurlitzer will just crush you under a pile of lies and smears. From what I see, only Dean "gets it." Only Dean is willing to take them on -- head-on and directly. Only Dean is building an organization of people, ready to talk to their neighbors, going door-to-door, and organizing the public to fight back. --- Posted at 11/11/2003 09:53:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Dean As McGovern Talking Points Memo (also here) and Atrios (and here) are talking about whether Dean is electible. Is Dean another McGovern, destined to lose because of his anti-war stance? Two words: Max Cleland. Two more words: John McCain. So you want to nominate a candidate who has a good military resume, because you think this means Rush Limbaugh will say good things about him? Well, guess what: IT DOESN'T MATTER. The Republicans are going to smear the candidate ANYWAY! And by the time they get done smearing the candidate YOU'RE going to be questioning whether the guy should be in office. (Admit it, it worked with Gore, didn't it? Even YOU started disliking Gore and having doubts about him, after they got through with him.) IT'S WHAT THEY DO! GET USED TO IT! What matters is how the candidate is going to fight back. Al Gore didn't fight back. Clinton did. Dean will. Just as important, Dean will also have hundreds of thousands of volunteers, walking precincts all across the country, and dragging people to the polls on election day. None of the other candidates have anything even close to that. The Democrats haven't had that for decades. This is going to put Dean in office, AND it is going to bring in Demcoratic members of Congress and the Senate and local offices as well. I see a pattern forming. Politicians and pundits from Washington hate Dean and "just don't get it." People from outside "the Beltway" are enthusiastic. By the way, I'll say it again, I LOVE Clark and I LOVE Edwards. But their campaign staffs just don't get it. Update - Oh yeah, one more thing. McGovern was a war hero who was against the war. So if the DLC is really so worried about repeating the McGovern experience they should be trashing Clark instead of running him. In MY opinion, it's about Washington insiders v.s. outsiders, and the insiders concerned about outsiders getting elected and affecting their Washington insider careers. --- Posted at 11/11/2003 09:45:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/10/2003 If You Are Buying A Mac Buy it at Small Dog Electronics. I just heard them advertising on Thom Hartmann's radio show. They should be rewarded for supporting progressives. --- Posted at 11/10/2003 10:55:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Always Amazed Doc Searls: "I'm always amazed, though I shouldn't be, when I talk politics with people who get all their news from newspapers, radio and TV. "It's an excellent read, when you also go to the links. --- Posted at 11/10/2003 08:02:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
For Bush-Haters Only For all you Bush-Haters out there who also have high-bandwidth. (750K) --- Posted at 11/10/2003 07:45:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/08/2003 It Was A Set-Up -- They Were Getting Too Close It turns out that the phony dispute over a leaked, never-circulated Senate Democrat committee memo that outlined ideas for what to do if the Republicans block the war intelligence probe was a complete set-up, providing cover for the Republicans to cancel the investigation. The thought of the Republicans accusing Democrats of politicizing national security... Sheesh! Here's what I wrote on May 4, 2003: PredictionI thought they'd wait until next summer. (Back then, Digby wrote this.) And now, as the investigations and public opinion are closing in on The Party's use of national security for political gain, we get this: Frist Freezes Senate Probe of Prewar Iraq Data: Angry about a leaked Democratic memo, the Republican leadership of the Senate yesterday took the unusual step of canceling all business of the committee investigating prewar intelligence on Iraq.Look at this Google search, with many examples of the Right-wing Wurlitzer manufacturing upset over the memo. Look at the way they orchestrate the pretend "outrage." See who is speaking out, and who is covering it, and the sequence of coverage. Far-right Republican leaders speaking out (here, here, here, here), using the same words. The Washington Times covering it, pretending it's a big story. Then far-right outlets like CNSNews issuing stories with the headline, "Memo Indicates Democrats Mulled Plan to Politicize War Planning," being picked up and repeated by other far-right news outlets. Murdoch's NYT Post prints, "TREASON'S FIRST COUSIN." Heritage's Town Hall with "Political terrorism" from, of all people, Ollie North. Manufactured outrage - all of it, obviously. Look at this Google news search, and follow the timeline backwards. It's obvious that the memo dispute was a set-up from the start, preparing to give them cover for blocking the investigation. Clearly they have been planning this for a while - since the Plame affair started showing the public what this crowd is really made of. How does The Party get out of being caught leaking the name of a CIA agent, and using national security to manipulate public opinion for political and financial gain? By accusing the Democrats of doing it, using the Wurlitzer to orchestrate the outrage. It's what they do best. Oh yeah - one more thing. Yesterday was the deadline for the White House to turn over documents to the committee, but they refused. Incredible coincidence on the timing, no? Updates - Thinking It Through: Knowing W will come out looking like a dishonest snake if there's any serious investigation into the lies he told about pre-war intelligence, Republicans are trying to shut down an investigation by pretending this memo indicates the investigation will somehow be a sort of political bag job.Talking Points Memo: "Two guys walk into a ring for a fight. One knows he’s about to get creamed. But he can’t bear the shame and humiliation of walking away from a fight. So at the very last moment he whips out some phony claim that the other guy’s cheating."Body and Soul: "Forget manufactured outrage. Can Democrats summon any of the genuine article? Sarcasm is a good beginning, but doesn't the occasion demand something a bit stronger?"The Left Coaster: "First, Bill Frist just announced that because the Democrats are trying to politicize the issue of intelligence use and misuse by the Bush Administration, he is shutting down the Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry. Coming as this does from a party that used a war drive for political purposes leading up to the 2002 midterms, and then politicized intelligence to create a WMD threat that didn't exist, this is the height of gall. But it can galvanize the Senate Democrats to unite and fight the GOP leadership and the White House on all issues, all the time. With this clumsy arrogant move by Frist and the White House, this is now a legitimate political issue for next year because it confirms that the GOP is hiding something."Oliver Willis: "What's also interesting is the machine in action. Data flows from the congress, probably through some Republican flunky and then it magically finds its way into Hannity's hands. Then it fitters out to all the right-wing news services (Newsmax, Worldnetdaily, Washington Times) and becomes a "story". I'm not whining about it, heck I'd like my side to get off their high horse and build up an infrastructure with that sort of resiliency and reach. That's the only way you can win." --- Posted at 11/08/2003 09:11:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Collective Punishment From the Geneva Convention: "Art. 33. No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."From today's news: "TIKRIT, Iraq — The U.S. military swept through Iraqi neighborhoods early Saturday, firing at houses suspected to be harboring hostile forces in the wake of an apparent attack on a Black Hawk helicopter that killed six U.S. soldiers.It doesn't get much clearer than this. The Party can get away with threats, intimidation and blatantly violating laws in the U.S., because they control the House, the Senate, the Justice Department, the FBI, the Courts, the military and the press. Can they continue to get away with it internationally as well? --- Posted at 11/08/2003 12:22:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/07/2003 Getting Nastier In Washington It's getting even nastier in Washington. Three stories today: Rejection of 'Earmarks' Angers Democrats, "Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio), who chairs the subcommittee that controls spending on education, health and jobs programs, recently stunned Democrats by announcing plans to reject every "earmarked" project they are seeking in the final, compromise version of the bill, which funds the departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Labor."No government funding for projects in any district with a Democratic representative! And White House Puts Limits on Queries From Democrats, "The Bush White House, irritated by pesky questions from congressional Democrats about how the administration is using taxpayer money, has developed an efficient solution: It will not entertain any more questions from opposition lawmakers."Democratic lawmakers are no longer allowed to ask the White House any questions! And Judicial Nominee Approved 10-9: "The GOP's main event will be a 30-hour talkathon, which would keep the Senate in session through the night Wednesday into Thursday evening, to showcase the GOP's case against the Democrats. "This means that they won't just have a vote to see if they can override a Democratic filibuster, they'll make the Democrats talk for 30 straight hours. When Clinton was President the Republicans blocked almost everything using filibusters -- and then told the public, "The Democrats are in charge but aren't pasing the bills you want" -- but the Democrats never made them actually filibuster by talking nonstop. This shows the difference between a party that is willing to fight for its constituents, and a party that doesn't even know it's in a war. --- Posted at 11/07/2003 08:11:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/06/2003 Dean & Public Financing Dr. Dean is likely to drop out of the public financing system. The reason is that Bush is going to have $200 million+ to use in the primaries, even though he has no opponent. Meanwhile the Democrats are all going to use up all of their money working to get the nomination. If they stay in the public financing system they are not allowed to spend any more money until after the convention in August. This means that Bush will be running $200 million of nasty, negative ads between May and August, while any Democratic nominee who chooses to stay in the public financing system is not allowed to respond in any way. Dean will get the nomination -- I think that's a given at this point. He is far ahead of the other candidates in all the states that matter, and he has a huge base of supporters and contributors, while the other candidates do not, and are depending on party insiders to get them through. And they're hanging around in case something changes -- Dean says something stupid or who knows what. If Dean drops out of the public financing system he will be able to ask his base of supporters for the money to respond to Bush. He will easily have 2 million+ donors by then. He is going to ask each donor for $100, bringing him $200 million with which to respond. Now, you can't even imagine Kerry or Edwards or even Clark being able to round up enough supporters to raise that kind of money. And, frankly, I also can't imagine Kerry or Edwards fighting back. Clark, yes. But he is not running the kind of campaign that is bringing in the numbers of active supporters. So I support Dean leaving the public financing system. --- Posted at 11/06/2003 11:07:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Too Obvious For Smart People To See? A week ago I attended a panel discussion on the election of Schwartzenegger, put on by Bay Area Dems. Speakers that day included California's Controller, Steve Westly, and Treasurer Phil Angelides. The panel included several high-level campaign consultants and ex-Clinton-White House officials. Each panelist offered reasons they thought the recall occurred. Lots of high strategy was discussed. The reasons included the unpopularity of Davis, the failure to find and use a consistent framing narrative, the entry of Democrats into the race, failure of Get Out The Vote efforts, and others. I listened to the panel and couldn't get over the feeling that all these smart people were missing what to me is the most obvious component. I think that we can't ignore that when you turn on AM radio you hear nonstop ridicule of Democrats and praise for Republicans. There's just no way around this. This is what radio IS now, and this has to have an effect, not just in California, but nationwide. (I'm using AM radio as my example, but the fact is that the right dominates every communications channel.) Before the California election every AM station I tuned into was promiting Arnold all day, every day, nonstop. I mean national as well as local talk shows. Sean Hannity, Limbaugh, Beck, etc. All of them, all the time. They were talking about how the Democrats had caused all the problems in the state, and how "we" all want Arnold to get rid of Davis and "fix" the state. All day, every day. I have a little bit of a marketing background, but I don't think you need to be a professional to know that marketing has an impact on people. It's pretty basic that repetition drives a message into people's consciousness. And what is going on around us, on the radio, on TV, in the newspapers, and from the Right's politicians is repetition. Coordinated repetition of strategic messages. In most parts of the country there is NO OTHER SOURCE OF INFORMATION. The public is saturated with right-wing messaging from radio, Fox News, and right-wing local newspapers. People like you and me don't tend to listen to these right-wing talk shows, but I think we should. I think we need to understand the extent of right-wing domination, we need to experience it, and it would benefit our understanding of America to know what they are saying, every day. I listen when I'm driving somewhere -- usually turning it off in disgust after a few minutes of lies -- but I try to listen in several times a week. There are a lot of people listening to this stuff. When you only have limited sources of information and everyone around you is in agreement on certain points, it's hard to resist joining them. Most people are not newshounds. They form their opinions based on hearing a few filtered news items, and from a sense of what most people around them are thinking. For example, everyone has heard about the woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued and got rich, and thinks there are too many lawsuits. This story is a flat-out lie, intentionally spread to further a right-wing agenda, but it is accepted as fact by almost everyone in this country. This is an example of manipulation of an information-poor environment to generate conventional wisdom. THIS is what is going on out there in America. Marketing professionals know how this works and know how to use it. When your message is repeated to a distracted public without opposition, your product sells. It's also much of the reason that Democrats are completely on the defensive, even in their own minds. 1) It doesn't matter what your messages, arguments, merits, etc. are if the public doesn't hear them -- and hear them repeatedly. 2) The general public isn't paying attention, and almost all of their information comes from right-wing dominated sources. (CBS cancelling the Reagan miniseries demonstrates the extend of right-wing's domination of ALL sources of information AND the Right's understanding of the importance of furthering thisdomination.) Update -- I just came across this piece by Thom Hartmann. Here's an excerpt: "The result of conservatives buying their way into our airwaves has been a conservative transformation in average Americans' political viewpoints. Soccer Moms and NASCAR Dads tune in to coast-to-coast, dawn-to-midnight conservative talk radio, and many have come to believe the right's slogans and myths. --- Posted at 11/06/2003 08:08:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Howard Dean Talks About Confederate Flag Remarks Dean's statement: "We're at a space today that's rich in our nation's history, a place where citizens have gathered for more than a century to debate the great issues of the day. From this platform and from this very podium Abraham Lincoln spoke nearly 150 years ago as a presidential candidate and when Lincoln came here, he did not shy away from talking about the greatest threat that our republic faced at that time which is the terrible institution of human slavery. I will not shy away today either. --- Posted at 11/06/2003 08:01:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Draft The Zeitgeist talks about the draft. Also, I read somewhere (I forget where) speculation that while bringing back a draft is clearly necessary, Bush won't do it before the election. So just after the election Bush will start it up if he wins, or will leave it as a present for Dean to have to start up, ensuring him a stormy presidency. Bush won't do it now, because doing what is necessary for the country would harm The Party. Dean would do it because it is necessary for the country. --- Posted at 11/06/2003 07:58:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/04/2003 Blatant Lies Turns out I get a lunch break this time. (Last time too many voters, no breaks.) I'm watching Crossfire. It looks like the Republicans are afraid of Dr. Dean because they are using the smear machine on him. The Republican guy just said, "Howard Dean has said he is the candidate for white guys with confederate flags on their pickup trucks." This is a blatant lie. What Dean said was that poor Southern white guys driving pickup trucks with confederate flags should vote for him, too, because their kids don't have health insurance either, and they didn't get the tax cut either. That is a very different statement, and it has a very different meaning -- one that really scares Republicans, because it's true. Dean is going to campaign in the South, and he's going to point out that the Republican appeal to racism isn't benefiting anyone, that the poor whites should look at what they are really getting out of voting Republican. They have to lie, because Dean is going to tell the truth. What really gets me is that the Republican guy KNOWS what Dean really said, and is choosing to blatantly lie. And later they have a "Democrat" guy on -- clearly a Kerry or Leiberman supporter -- who pretends to agree that this is what Dean said. This is why so many of us are Dean supporters. We are so tired of these corporate Demcorats who are willing to play this kind of Washington politics game, handing Republicans issues to use against them as well as against the rest of us. --- Posted at 11/04/2003 01:39:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Working At The Polls Today I'm working at the polls today. It starts at 6am and ends about 9pm so I'm not going to be in too much of a mood to be blogging. No blog hero here. Maybe if my wife was having contractions... :-) --- Posted at 11/04/2003 05:42:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
March It's March. That's when we have to remove a significant number of troops. From Krugman today: "In September the Congressional Budget Office analyzed how many U.S. soldiers could be kept in Iraq without extending tours beyond one year. The conclusion was that force levels would have to start dropping rapidly about five months from now, and that the forces in Iraq and Kuwait would eventually have to shrink by almost two-thirds. As the report explains, the Pentagon can use various expedients to maintain a larger force in Iraq, but all of these expedients would threaten to undermine our military readiness."We know it, and the Iraqi opposition and al-Queda know it, too. So in April and May the shit hits the fan. --- Posted at 11/04/2003 05:34:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/03/2003 DNC: Kicking Ass Guest Poster is Al Franken DNC: Kicking Ass --- Posted at 11/03/2003 08:28:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Party Orders Reagan Miniseries Off Air Oliver Willis says it better. --- Posted at 11/03/2003 08:22:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Army Times Poll At Army Times: "If you were going to vote for president right now, which candidate would you support:Something tells me the Kucinich campaign has asked people to vote. --- Posted at 11/03/2003 02:56:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Randi Rhodes Show I hope you'll tune into the The Randi Rhodes Show over the internet. I'm listening now. Click on "Listen Live 3pm-7pm ET." --- Posted at 11/03/2003 02:42:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
The Draft - Another Example of Republican Party Over Country Salon has a story about the draft: "Divisive military actions are ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. News accounts daily detail how the U.S. is stretched too thin there to be effective. And tensions are high with Syria and Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, with some in or close to the Bush White House suggesting that military action may someday be necessary in those spots, too.Here's the fact. We've overcommitted in Iraq. We don't have enough troops there now and next year the rotation schedules will have the military severely understaffed WITHOUT another conflict breaking out. So how are we going to defend the country if another conflict DOES break out? From the story: "The closest parallel to the Iraq situation is the British in Northern Ireland, where you also had some people supporting the occupying army and some opposing them, and where the opponents were willing to resort to terror tactics," says Charles Peña, director of defense studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. "There the British needed a ratio of 10 soldiers per 1,000 population to restore order, and at their height, it was 20 soldiers per 1,000 population. If you transfer that to Iraq, it would mean you'd need at least 240,000 troops and maybe as many as 480,000.The Republicans are refusing to reinstate the draft purely for political reasons: it will cost them votes. Never mind that it will cost lives and threaten our security if there is a conflict in, say, Korea or Iran. Or something unforeseen. The country NEEDS the draft now, but they refuse. Party over country, as always. --- Posted at 11/03/2003 10:25:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
House Nixes Anti-Profiteering Penalties in Iraq Spending Bill House Nixes Anti-Profiteering Penalties in Iraq Spending Bill: "The final version of the $87 billion spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan is missing provisions the Senate had passed to penalize war profiteers who defraud American taxpayers."The Republicans rigged the "conference committee" to take out the reasonable provisions that the Senate had added to the Iraq spending bill. THIS change allows corrupt crony contracts that reward campaign contributors. Remember that immediately after taking office Bush gave the go-ahead to corporate lawbreakers. I think it's time for the Democrats to make an issue of this corrupt cronyism. This spending bill should be filibustered. (Thanks Atrios for the original article.) --- Posted at 11/03/2003 09:14:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/02/2003 CBS Self-Censoring Reagan Miniseries According to The War Over the Gipper, CBS executives are cutting out anything they think the Right might object to: "Director Robert Allan Ackerman has opted out of the editing, and CBS executives are now cutting it themselves.Once you let yourself care what the Right is going to think about ANYTHING you do, it's all over. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 03:55:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Another Voting Machines Article Newhouse A1: "The problem? 'There's no guarantee that what you see on the screen is what the machine is recording or counting,' said Stanford University computer scientist David Dill."And, let me add, there is no way for anyone to ever KNOW if what you see on the machine is what is recorded. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 03:45:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Voting Machines Warren Slocum, San Mateo County's Chief Elections Officer has a web page called Support Verified Voting, talking about electronic voting machines. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 02:58:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Voting Machines Story At CNN CNN.com - Worries grow over new voting machines' reliability, security. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 02:31:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Blog Hero Award From DailyKos this morning: "Ok guys. I'm checking out. Elisa is having contractions three minutes apart which means it's time to go to hospital."OK, this guy's wife is having contractions three minutes apart and this guy is WRITING IN HIS WEBLOG! For this he earns the coveted Seeing the Forest Blog Hero Award. I mean, how can I even call myself a blogger after that? I mean, I'm supposed to be at my aunt's right now, walking the dogs. And my wife is yelling at me to get off the computer and into the car. But that's NOTHING. That's not even worth mentioning next to Daily Kos! I'm not worthy. Few of us are. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 09:01:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
By Nightfall From Daily Kos: "In other news, Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz spoke at Georgetown University on Friday and and took questions. (hat tip Juan Cole.)Doing my part to get this all over the blogosphere by nightfall.Q: Hi, Mr. Wolfowitz. My name is Ruthy Coffman. I think I speak for many of us here when I say that your policies are deplorable. They're responsible for the deaths of innocents and the disintegration of American civil liberties. [Applause]That is OUT-FREAKING-RAGEOUS. I'd like to see this excerpt all over the blogosphere by nightfall. --- Posted at 11/02/2003 08:59:00 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
11/01/2003 Voting Machines Cartoon This Modern World: Something Truly Terrifying. --- Posted at 11/01/2003 04:58:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Voting Machines Petition ActForChange Petition: Stop the Florida-tion of the 2004 election --- Posted at 11/01/2003 04:57:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"I'm A Uniter, Not A Divider" Bush said, "I'm a uniter, not a divider." Newspaper story today, Nation Is Again Divided Over Bush. Actually, he's nothing more than a big liar. --- Posted at 11/01/2003 04:02:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
"Strict Father, Nurturant Mother" I left a comment over at DailyKos, in the discussion of Lakoff's "Strict Father, Nurturant Mother" description of politics. This is being discussed by Digby and Body and Soul. Please go take a look at what they're writing and discussing. My comment: "Lakoff is a linguist, and he studies how people think about new concepts. His research shows that people use metaphors to understand new conecpts. For example, if you are familiar with cars, and then see a bus for the first time, you'll think 'big car,' using the car as a model for your metaphor for understanding and categorizing what you are looking at. And when you see an airplane you'll think 'bus with wings that flys.' This is how our minds work.I advise everyone to read Lakoff's book, Moral Politics. --- Posted at 11/01/2003 01:01:00 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
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