Wednesday, March 24, 2004
What's Up With Senate Dems?
Whose passing out the steroids to the Senate Democrats? First, Daschle gives a great floor speech on the Bush administration's Corleone tactics with dissenting ex-staffers, and now effectively using parlimentary procedures to attack the aggregious overtime rules.
I am not only impressed, I am overjoyed. I have probably tired out my family members and co-workers with my displeasure at the acquiesence of the Senate Dems. My heart is now beginning to beat proudly.
CNN.com - Overtime debate threatens tax bill - Mar 24, 2004
Whose passing out the steroids to the Senate Democrats? First, Daschle gives a great floor speech on the Bush administration's Corleone tactics with dissenting ex-staffers, and now effectively using parlimentary procedures to attack the aggregious overtime rules.
I am not only impressed, I am overjoyed. I have probably tired out my family members and co-workers with my displeasure at the acquiesence of the Senate Dems. My heart is now beginning to beat proudly.
CNN.com - Overtime debate threatens tax bill - Mar 24, 2004
Small Business' Not Rich
I believe it was either Krugman or DeLong who first mentioned that the Kerry proposed tax increases would only affect a small number of "small business" owners. Well, here is more evidence to support that. According to the article, IRS estimates still showed that 73 percent of their returns listed income of $100,000 or less in 2000. And there is still another $100,000 to go before they are affected by the rate increase. In addition, 55 percent list their income as below 50,000.
Is there any subject on which we can have a fact-based debate with these guys? I haven't found it yet.
Politics News Article | Reuters.com
I believe it was either Krugman or DeLong who first mentioned that the Kerry proposed tax increases would only affect a small number of "small business" owners. Well, here is more evidence to support that. According to the article, IRS estimates still showed that 73 percent of their returns listed income of $100,000 or less in 2000. And there is still another $100,000 to go before they are affected by the rate increase. In addition, 55 percent list their income as below 50,000.
Is there any subject on which we can have a fact-based debate with these guys? I haven't found it yet.
Politics News Article | Reuters.com
Waiting for that Kay Report
Remember the good ole days when the administration was telling everyone to wait for the Kay Report. It was going to answer all of the questions. Well, with Kay's speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Kay is becoming possibly more embarssing to Bush than Richard Clarke. No one can say the Kay is a disgruntled ex-staffer. Kay appeared to have fully expected to find what the administration was expecting. Now, every other week there is a new article quoting Kay as saying the they were wrong, and they need to fess up.
Drip, drip, drip.
Link from Buzzflash
Kay implores US to admit mistakes in Iraq
Remember the good ole days when the administration was telling everyone to wait for the Kay Report. It was going to answer all of the questions. Well, with Kay's speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Kay is becoming possibly more embarssing to Bush than Richard Clarke. No one can say the Kay is a disgruntled ex-staffer. Kay appeared to have fully expected to find what the administration was expecting. Now, every other week there is a new article quoting Kay as saying the they were wrong, and they need to fess up.
Drip, drip, drip.
Link from Buzzflash
Kay implores US to admit mistakes in Iraq
Tuesday, March 23, 2004
More Conservative Wacko Judges
Looks like Mr. "Changing the Tone, One Judge at a Time" is at it again. William Haynes II, the man responsible for "enemy combatants" and military tribunals is at for nomination to the 4th Circuit Court. Hasn't Bush gotten this conservative cred yet?
An Injudicious Nominee
Looks like Mr. "Changing the Tone, One Judge at a Time" is at it again. William Haynes II, the man responsible for "enemy combatants" and military tribunals is at for nomination to the 4th Circuit Court. Hasn't Bush gotten this conservative cred yet?
An Injudicious Nominee
Monday, March 22, 2004
Trash Liberal Media, Not Clarke
That seems to be OxyRush's strategy.
Listening in my car while running out for a snack, Rush seems to be falling back on the old standard liberal media tact. Leave it to the liberal media to promote Clarke's book.
This is pretty good. I think he (and they) realize that Clarke will be difficult to slime, not that they won't try, because of a number of articles already out there. But, there is always the liberal media.
Not bad.
That seems to be OxyRush's strategy.
Listening in my car while running out for a snack, Rush seems to be falling back on the old standard liberal media tact. Leave it to the liberal media to promote Clarke's book.
This is pretty good. I think he (and they) realize that Clarke will be difficult to slime, not that they won't try, because of a number of articles already out there. But, there is always the liberal media.
Not bad.
Clarke and Time
My initial reaction to the Richard Clarke 60 Minutes interview was to go back and re-read the August 2002 Time article, TIME.com: Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented?. My reading and comparison with Clark shows pretty much near complete corraboration. The biggest difference is that I see a Clarke attempting to be a team player in his direct quotes, while others characterize him a being extremely frustrated by the ongoing process of constantly reevaluating policy.
This article is a must read as far as putting any upcoming attempts to discredit Clarke in their proper place.
My initial reaction to the Richard Clarke 60 Minutes interview was to go back and re-read the August 2002 Time article, TIME.com: Could 9/11 Have Been Prevented?. My reading and comparison with Clark shows pretty much near complete corraboration. The biggest difference is that I see a Clarke attempting to be a team player in his direct quotes, while others characterize him a being extremely frustrated by the ongoing process of constantly reevaluating policy.
This article is a must read as far as putting any upcoming attempts to discredit Clarke in their proper place.
Friday, March 19, 2004
Scott McClellan, Our Guy
In The New Republic, Jonathan Chait gives an entertaining look at the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. This comparison with Ari Fleischer is especially noteworthy:
One of my secret wishes is to be a press secretary. But then I watch McClellan and give it a second and third thought. But then again, I would hope that I wouldn't attach myself to a politician for whom the ability to lie is at such premium.
In The New Republic, Jonathan Chait gives an entertaining look at the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan. This comparison with Ari Fleischer is especially noteworthy:
McClellan's ineptitude is made all the more noticeable by the contrast it poses with Ari Fleischer, his syrup-tongued predecessor. Fleischer could spin elaborate webs of obfuscation, leaving the press corps mystified and docile, albeit somewhat resentful as well. Every sentence he uttered came out in the same bored affectation. The most outrageous lie sounded, in his telling, like a truism so obvious it barely deserved mentioning. Most people find such behavior deeply unnatural. When asked a direct question, our natural impulse is to answer it honestly. The capacity to do otherwise is useful for any press secretary but particularly so for the current administration, whose domestic agenda has never commanded popular support and which relies heavily upon secrecy and message discipline. Fleischer was in this sense the perfect Bush press secretary. His ability to prevaricate and dodge, without betraying himself through physical or verbal tics, represented a kind of genius. Alas, what came so easily to Fleischer utterly eludes McClellan. If the two of them ever sat down at a poker table, Fleischer would probably walk away with all of McClellan's money and the shirt off his back.
In a certain sense, this is to McClellan's credit: He's not a natural liar. Some of the best insight into the psychology of deceit can be found in the works of playwright and director David Mamet. In Mamet's 1983 play Glengarry Glen Ross, weak-willed insurance salesman George Aaronow tells consummate pro Ricky Roma, "When I talk to the police, I get nervous." "Yeah. You know who doesn't?" Roma replies. "Thieves." Fleischer had the soul of a thief. McClellan doesn't. Indeed, all the White House reporters I spoke with went out of their way to praise him as a human being, especially in contrast with Fleischer. "Scott is, at core, an honest man, and Fleischer is, at core, a dishonest man," one puts it. "[McClellan] has a real handicap in this [job] in that he's a decent guy."
One of my secret wishes is to be a press secretary. But then I watch McClellan and give it a second and third thought. But then again, I would hope that I wouldn't attach myself to a politician for whom the ability to lie is at such premium.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Dennis Miller, Major-League Asshole
Well, I for one cannot wait for the latest entry from Eric Alterman, after the disgraceful performance by Dennis Miller last night. Eric has every reason to completely pissed off, and hopefully he is. I say that, because I don't think you just shrug off treatment like that. It has been difficult enough to get a message like Eric's out, and to have to deal with Miller's behavior is just ridiculous.
After Alterman gave a intro about his book and his point of view on Bush, Miller began a commenting on the way Alterman was sitting in his chair. At that point, after that irrelevancy, Alterman went into more issues covered by his book, there was a little give and take, and then during a comment by Alterman, Miller jumped in, Alterman asked to finish his comment and from that point on Miller became a tit-sucking baby as he pouted in his chair. When Alterman finished his comment, Miller turned to the camera and ended the segment.
I can't call for a boycott of Miller, because the only reason I was watching his show was to see Alterman. It was a disgraceful performance, but it was also completely consistent with the course that Miller has decided to take politically.
For his part, Alterman agressively pushed his views of Bush, and hopefully a few of Miller's viewers, and there are only a few, eyes were opened.
Now I could say that if the liberal blogosphere had helped me with my attempt to start a email campaign to push for a show for Alterman, (thanks by the by to Bob at LiberalOasis for his help), we might have been watching "Altercation - The TV Show". But that would be too self-serving.
Well, I for one cannot wait for the latest entry from Eric Alterman, after the disgraceful performance by Dennis Miller last night. Eric has every reason to completely pissed off, and hopefully he is. I say that, because I don't think you just shrug off treatment like that. It has been difficult enough to get a message like Eric's out, and to have to deal with Miller's behavior is just ridiculous.
After Alterman gave a intro about his book and his point of view on Bush, Miller began a commenting on the way Alterman was sitting in his chair. At that point, after that irrelevancy, Alterman went into more issues covered by his book, there was a little give and take, and then during a comment by Alterman, Miller jumped in, Alterman asked to finish his comment and from that point on Miller became a tit-sucking baby as he pouted in his chair. When Alterman finished his comment, Miller turned to the camera and ended the segment.
I can't call for a boycott of Miller, because the only reason I was watching his show was to see Alterman. It was a disgraceful performance, but it was also completely consistent with the course that Miller has decided to take politically.
For his part, Alterman agressively pushed his views of Bush, and hopefully a few of Miller's viewers, and there are only a few, eyes were opened.
Now I could say that if the liberal blogosphere had helped me with my attempt to start a email campaign to push for a show for Alterman, (thanks by the by to Bob at LiberalOasis for his help), we might have been watching "Altercation - The TV Show". But that would be too self-serving.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
The Obvious
According to The Note: Dick Cheney said the following in Pennsylvania yesterday, "The VP took the opportunity to slam Kerry on his foreign leaders comments, saying: 'Yesterday, in Pennsylvania, a voter asked Senator Kerry directly who these foreign leaders are. Senator Kerry said, 'that's none of your business.' But it is our business when a candidate for President claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders. At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.'"
Am I the only one who wants to know where was the obvious Kerry retort that it is our business to know who was involved in writing the energy bill?
Can they make it easier? Where is the Kerry team?
According to The Note: Dick Cheney said the following in Pennsylvania yesterday, "The VP took the opportunity to slam Kerry on his foreign leaders comments, saying: 'Yesterday, in Pennsylvania, a voter asked Senator Kerry directly who these foreign leaders are. Senator Kerry said, 'that's none of your business.' But it is our business when a candidate for President claims the political endorsement of foreign leaders. At the very least, we have a right to know what he is saying to foreign leaders that makes them so supportive of his candidacy.'"
Am I the only one who wants to know where was the obvious Kerry retort that it is our business to know who was involved in writing the energy bill?
Can they make it easier? Where is the Kerry team?
Monday, March 15, 2004
Thanks, Colin
Over at LiberalOasis, Bob Scheer argues the same thing I was thinking while watching Colin Powell on Stephanopolous' show. Powell made Kerry's point of law enforcement vs military as far as terrorism.
This is the essence of Kerry's argument. The first phase of any terrorist attack is the investigative, or law enforcement, effort. Once the data and intelligence has been gathered, then you go where it leads you. Investigations after 9/11 led us to Afghanistan. We still don't know what led us to Iraq.
Over at LiberalOasis, Bob Scheer argues the same thing I was thinking while watching Colin Powell on Stephanopolous' show. Powell made Kerry's point of law enforcement vs military as far as terrorism.
The President…made it clear right after 9/11 that we all have to come together and go after these kinds of organizations:
Sometimes with military force, more often with law enforcement activities, intelligence activities, going after their financial infrastructure… [emphasis added]
This is the essence of Kerry's argument. The first phase of any terrorist attack is the investigative, or law enforcement, effort. Once the data and intelligence has been gathered, then you go where it leads you. Investigations after 9/11 led us to Afghanistan. We still don't know what led us to Iraq.
