The Hamster

Jack Hitt. Jesus Was No GOP Lobbyist: A tortured version of his message is being marketed for political gain
NYT. The Disappearing Wall: The Republican campaign to breach the wall between church and state is having a corrosive effect on policymaking and the lives of Americans
Nicholas Kristof. N. Korea, 6, and Bush, 0
SFC. No accountability for Abu Ghraib
Margi Fox. Our efforts can save the Arctic refuge
Helen Thomas. Bolton wrong man for U.N. job
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. American justice / Bush needs to address prisoner abuse concerns
Marie Cocco. U.S. shouldn't make Moussaoui a martyr
Robert Scheer. Fiddling While Crucial Programs Starve
LAT. Letting the Dogs Out; The U.S. drug industry spent $4.1 billion hawking pharmaceuticals to consumers last year, a 28% jump from 2003
Jesse Jackson. Right-wing assault threatens independence of judiciary
Des Moines Register. Iowa Poll on Social Security shows Iowans get it

Posted by Eric at 08:31 AM | Comments (1)

Wolfowitz Flashback

This skillful and astute guy is heading to the World Bank:

Until now, Wolfowitz has expressed great faith in the capacity of oil to bail out developing nations. In fact, he said it would be the key to postwar development in Iraq. Iraq's oil revenues "could bring between $50 [billion] and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years," Wolfowitz told the House Budget Committee in February 2003. "We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

But experts were already warning that the Pentagon's faith in oil was folly. "His miscalculation on Iraq was appalling," says Youssef Ibrahim, managing director of the Dubai-based Strategic Energy Investment Group and former energy editor for the Wall Street Journal. "Before the invasion, Iraq exported to the outside world 3.5 million barrels of oil a day. Today, on a lucky day, Iraq exports maybe 1.4 million barrels. Not only did he completely miscalculate what Iraqi production would be after the war, but in fact the world has lost nearly 2 million barrels a day of Iraqi oil."

The linked Salon.com article tells of the Wolfowitz vision for the World Bank which - surprise! - invovles oil companies. Woe is the anti-poverty mission of the World Bank.

Posted by Eric at 05:38 AM | Comments (0)

Focus on the Family Targets Business of Senator's Wife

The Colorado conservative group, headed by James Dobson, has taken to attacking the business of Sen. Ken Salazar's (D-Co) wife. Sen. Salazar, viaProgress Now:

"Today, supporters of Focus on the Family attempted to disrupt business at the Dairy Queen owned by my wife Hope."

"It is one thing to disagree with me on controversial issues of the day, and I accept and welcome differing views."

"But it is something else to target my wife's business, in an attempt to intimidate me. These tactics are outrageous and un-American, and simply won't work."

"We make progress in America when cooler heads work to find solutions to common problems. That is how I approach my job in the US Senate, as an independent voice tackling the issues that matter to Coloradans every day."

Why? Salazar has attacked Focus on the Family for their overheated rhetoric.

Posted by Eric at 04:20 AM | Comments (1)

Bush's War on the Press

Read.

Posted by Eric at 04:09 AM | Comments (0)

No Syrian Help on WMD; No to Nuclear Option

Two quick news notes from the Washington Post. First, the Iraq Survey Group "found no senior policy, program, or intelligence officials who admitted any direct knowledge of such movement of WMD.":

U.S. investigators hunting for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have found no evidence that such material was moved to Syria for safekeeping before the war, according to a final report of the investigation released yesterday ... The report, which refuted many of the administration's principal arguments for going to war in Iraq, marked the official end of a two-year weapons hunt led most recently by former U.N. weapons inspector Charles A. Duelfer. The team found that the 1991 Persian Gulf War and subsequent U.N. sanctions had destroyed Iraq's illicit weapons capabilities and that, for the most part, Hussein had not tried to rebuild them. Iraq's ability to produce nuclear arms, which the administration asserted was a grave and gathering threat that required an immediate military response, had "progressively decayed" since 1991. Investigators found no evidence of "concerted efforts to restart the program."

Still, the administration puts a positive spin on the report:

Administration officials have emphasized that, while the survey group uncovered no banned arms, it concluded that Hussein had not given up the goal of someday acquiring them.

Hussein "retained the intent and capability and he intended to resume full-scale WMD efforts once the U.N. sanctions were lifted," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said yesterday. "Duelfer provides plenty of rationale for why this country went to war in Iraq."

And a WPost/ABC poll on the nuclear option:

But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.

Also in the poll: declining numbers for Bush's Social Security privatization.

Posted by Eric at 03:31 AM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2005

Comedy Monday

"You're happy beause its Earth Day, or as President Bush calls it, Friday" Bill Maher

"In honor of Earth Day, Congress passed the Bush energy bill, which gives billions of dollars in tax breaks to the coal and oil companies and opens up Alaska for drilling. It's hard to hide the glee in the White House. Today President Bush appeared in front of one of those back drops that just said 'F--- You.'" Bill Maher

"Fox News broke the story with the stunning words 'We have a pope!' Exclamation point. ... Apparently Fox News is now officially a diocese." Jon Stewart

"The cardinals said they have to be very careful in the process of electing a new pope because the pope will be interpreting God's law for them. You know, kind of the way Republican leaders do for us in this country." Jay Leno

"Vice President Dick Cheney's reported income of $1.3 million in 2004 is nearly double that of President Bush - which is only fair, since the boss usually makes more than the employee." Jim Barach

---

Click down comics

Posted by Eric at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

Democrats an Opposition Party?

Sirota on the Washington Post's Unexpectedly, Capitol Hill Democrats Stand Firm and this Roll Call article on a rift between moderates and liberals (e.g. bankruptcy):

Both of these stories are positive. The first story shows that on some key issues, Democrats have been very effective. The second story shows that on other key issues where the party has fractured - bankruptcy, class-action reform, the estate tax and energy policy - progressives are finding their voice, and are increasingly willing to tell it like it is to their colleagues (big kudos to Pelosi). That's a major step forward in building the kind of durable, sturdy opposition party that will be necessary to defeat the GOP. Far from "hurting the party," these progressives are emboldening it for the long run, as they are moving Democrats back to their traditional position as defenders of middle and working class America.

Sam Rosenfeld on the Roll Call article:

It’s hard to say how pervasive or growing this rift is, since a large majority of the article concerns disagreement over the bankruptcy bill alone. On that particular score, however, it’s very hard to countenance the moderates’ argument. Can anybody make a convincing case that getting behind this bill was a requirement for red-district Democrats? That when Democrats are hobbled by a public perception of being too left-wing and out of the mainstream, the party’s opposition to legislation like this is what people are thinking about? The “personal responsibility” line the bill’s supporters tossed around worked on welfare reform because Americans hated free-loading welfare queens, and had for decades. Was there any indication that such an argument resonated on this issue?

It’s just silly to justify supporting the bankruptcy bill on public opinion or party image grounds. One can either defend it on the merits -- a tough challenge in itself -- or make a brass tacks argument that the Democrats can’t alienate the credit and banking industries completely if they want their campaigns funded. But judging from the quotes in this piece, that’s not what moderates are arguing.

It’s dispiriting to see internal party debates carried out in this way, since there are issues where moderates’ arguments for adhering to a degree of political realism are valuable. But the kind of corporate whore legislation that Republicans don’t even make a big public spectacle out of supporting surely does not fall under that category.

Posted by Eric at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

Dean vs Terry McAuliffe

Writes US News of the current and former DNC head:

Let's just state the obvious: New Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is no Terry McAuliffe . Where the flashy former Clinton fundraiser was a gregarious ringmaster accustomed to the bling-bling of the highest non-publicly elected Democratic job around, Dean is almost a seminarian in his approach to the post. And, oddly, his style seems to fit with the party's bid to build its blue-collar base--just as McAuliffe's meshed with the DNC's need to raise gobs of money and go high tech.

What's so different? McAuliffe would limo around town, dropping in at the Palm to huddle with Washington big shots. The 2004 presidential hopeful, by contrast, takes the bus or subway, buying his own $1.35 ticket. Sometimes he bums rides from staffers or walks the four blocks to the Capitol for meetings. "Please Call Me Howard" never flies first class and always carries his own bags.

Other signs of the ex-guv's modest style: He eats at his desk, stays in a cheap D.C. hotel, and likes oxford shirts and penny loafers. Affectionately dubbed a "geek" by pals, he's often glued to his cellphone and loves E-mail. "His expertise is grass roots and his lifestyle is no different," says an associate. So far, Washington likes what it sees, surprised he's not the oddball that newsies pegged him as last year. Says an aide, smiling: "They're giving him a shot."

Posted by Eric at 10:42 PM | Comments (1)

Bubble Bush?

Garance Franke-Ruta of TAPPED asks if Bush has pulled a Jake Gyllenhaal (insolated in a bubble):

The idea that Charlie Rangel -- Rangel! -- might be punished by voters in '06 for opposing Bush on Social Security is, of course, beyond ludicrous. More importantly, if Bush really thinks his "60 stops in 60 days" tour is going well, it is a worrying sign of a president so isolated by his zealous advance staffers and hyper-partisan aides from the country he's governing that he is actually being led astray. Of course, it's always possible Bush could have had some politically strategic reason for feeding Rangel this particular positive line, as opposed to making some other boosterish remark. But I'm hard pressed to think of one.

Indeed, Bush's actions on Social Security recently -- including his lack of an "exit strategy" -- have seemed increasingly inexplicable to those accustomed to viewing the White House as a ruthless and uncannily successful political machine. But once you hypothesize that he's a leader isolated from reality inside a wholly positive and supportive bubble -- a situation all politicians must guard against, but presidents more than others -- and that, in this case, it's a bubble that also distrusts and discounts objective press reports, his actions begin to make a lot more sense.

Posted by Eric at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

Katherine Harris Won't Explicitly Support Bush's SS Plan

Har!

Karl Rove stopped by Rep. Katherine Harris' office last week to talk about Social Security reform and her political future.

The Sarasota Republican has been slippery about both.

Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and senior adviser, apparently didn't convince Harris to back President Bush on private accounts. He also didn't prompt a decision on her potential Senate bid next year.

But Rove's influence on whether Harris takes on Sen. Bill Nelson in 2006 is clear.

"I'll only do this if he can help make certain I'm victorious at the end," she said, declining to discuss details of their meeting Thursday. "His input is very important to me."

Posted by Eric at 09:22 PM | Comments (0)

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