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BLOG'a'Boulder
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Dispatches from Boulder the Damned
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Monday, August 04, 2008
"We are proud of that commercial." Ah, yes, the commercial that compares Barack Obama with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears along with crowds yelling "Oh-Bam-Ah" in a way and within a frequency range designed to recall Nuremburg rallies of the 1930's heard over short wave radio. Grotesque. But McCain's pride in his commercial is that he expects to get away with it. Inculcated in the most bigotted and slow to integrate military branch, socialized as only the 3rd generation of two fours star admirals can be, and rich beyond ken, McCain feels safe and sophisticated appealing to the bigotry and the prejudice of people just like him, whom he thinks compose most of America. But he gets it all wrong.
To start with, let me say right off that Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are both blond and female and that's all they have in common. While I own none of her cd's and don't like that sort of pop, Spears is extremely talented and Paris Hilton is anything but. It is absurd to cast Spears into the same category because she's famous. Spears accomplished more before she left her teens than most American men in clumps of 20 ever will. Not the greatest voice, she's a good singer in her range, a pretty damned good dancer when in shape, and the proof is in the pudding, so to speak: she's a great entertainer. There are people far less gifted who are good entertainers, but it's rare for someone in her age brackett to have done so well for so long. Her parents should both be shot, along with most of her friends, and she needs help. Well, d'oh. She had no childhood.
Paris Hilton, on the other hand, is famous for her boring performance on a sex tape, and leaving the impression that rich girls are just sluts, which is a common fantasy among the hoi polloi, men and women both. Gives the masses a feeling of superiority. Hilton isn't all that good looking, and comes across on both her television shows and appearences of a deep stupidity not enhanced by her apparent boredom in any particpatory performance, which is pretty much all that can be said of her acting.
In any case, as David Gergen pointed out on This Week on Sunday, McCain's ad is a coded sleaze that Obama is an uppity nigger. He didn't use the word, but that's what was meant and it's absolutely true but true well outside the South as well as in the land of Spanish moss. It's quite disgusting and untrue: Obama, despite David Brooks' downplaying, was a brilliant law school teacher and totally impressed his fellow faculty at the University of Chicago with his gifts of brains, wording, and hard work. Yes, he's probably been running for President for a long time, and yes, he may have too steep a learning curve for anyone, but it's worth the gamble for a slight chance of his failure over another term of office by my age group. McCain is twelve years older than I am, and he's too old. Further, he's missing most of the tool sets America needs: a clear vision, an ability to articulate and move, and a record of getting things done with minimal rancor. McCain has a short fuse and he can't be protected on the international stage, especially when he's so prone to get frustrated.
As many of us have long suspected, anything Ronald Reagan taught Republicans ("He taught us deficits don't matter." - Dick Cheney) is bogus. Bush has bankrupted the United States for nothing but his own vanity and clueless view of the world. And now, troubles in subprime mortgages could be just the beginning of a much wider crisis.
Even as there are signs that the increase in defaults among those with weak credit is slowing down, there are hints that homeowners with good credit are now increasingly in trouble. Analysts are now particularly concerned about so-called alternative-A loans, which were often given to those with a good credit score but without requiring as much documentary proof of income or assets as prime loans. The number of "alt-A" mortgage-holders that are behind on their payments quadrupled in April from a year earlier, while the number doubled among prime loans. Analysts were once concerned about what would happen when the rates on adjustable mortgages would reset to higher values, but that has turned out to be less of a problem because of low interest rates. Now the big concern is concentrated on those who have grown used to paying only the interest for several years. Those with mortgages at levels above subprime were usually allowed to continue paying only the interest for longer, which is why some expect delinquencies in those loans will only keep increasing in the near future. "Subprime was the tip of the iceberg," one expert said. "Prime will be far bigger in its impact."
The FBI used new genetic tests to link Bruce Ivins with the anthrax strain that was sent to victims of the 2001 mailings. USAT focuses on how the complete answers about the evidence against Ivins won't be known until the Justice Department unseals its records. Yesterday, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, whose office was targeted in the attacks, said Ivins' suicide "doesn't bring anything to a closure."
The LAT talks to one person familiar with the evidence against Ivins who says the scientist "provided what became a signature" by his mixture of spores from different institutions. But the NYT talks to another "person who has been briefed on the investigation" who says the evidence against Ivins is largely circumstantial and that at least 10 people had access to the anthrax mix that was used in the letters. It looks more and more like this is an attempt to resolve at least one case before Bush leaves office. The NYT's source admits there might be evidence he's unfamiliar with, but also said there's no proof that Ivins was in New Jersey on the dates when the letters were sent from a mailbox in Princeton.
And here's the capper: The WP notes that some are wondering how Ivins could have kept his security clearance even after the FBI had focused on him as the prime suspect. Ivins was barred from Fort Detrick only on July 10, after a counselor expressed concern about his mental health. One wonders whether the beloved Bureau drove him to suicide in order to blame him for all else.
The Washington Post looks at how insurance companies are beginning to use electronic data containing details on the prescription drug records of millions of Americans to build a "health 'credit report.' " The use of these databases is only expected to increase as the country begins its transition toward electronic medical records. Those in the insurance industry say that using prescription drug records allows them to get a picture of a person's health much more quickly and cheaply than the traditional method of collecting records from physicians' offices. But privacy and consumer advocates say it amounts to an intrusion of which the regular public isn't even aware. The companies that favor the use of these data contend that consumers have to give permission for the data to be released. But some say consumers are left with little choice since they have to sign the consent forms if they hope to get health or life insurance. There are also those who are concerned that insurance companies may make rash decisions based on the records without having all the facts about why someone was taking a particular medication.
A poll of low-wage workers shows Barack Obama has a wide advantage over John McCain among members of that group. Although part of this edge is certainly due to overwhelming support for Obama from African Americans and Hispanics, the Democrat also holds a 47-37 percent lead among white low-wage workers. Although the lead goes against the impression built in the primaries that Obama can't win over white working-class voters, one in six white voters remains uncommitted.
In addition, a majority of all low-wage workers say the election results are unlikely to affect them personally. The Post doesn't specify whether this attitude is normal among these workers, so it's far from clear whether the ambivalence should be seen as significant. Many expressed no opinion when asked which candidate would do more to improve the economy or health care, which means McCain's support could grow, but the Post notes that Obama "has the clear edge among those who picked a favorite on these core issues."
Nobody seems excited about the death of almost 150 Hindu pilgrims in India after rumors of a landslide set off a stampede at a remote temple. The NYT notes that as more people in India begin to have more disposable income domestic travel has increased, and overcrowding during religious festivals has become more common. Many of India's temples can only be reached through narrow paths and don't have the necessary infrastructure to support such large numbers of visitors. Given the population, that could be said about any place there.
We all mourn the death of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian writer who gained worldwide acclaim by chronicling how the Soviet Communist government repressed its own people. He wrote more than two dozen books but will probably be most remembered for One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago, which is often described as his masterpiece for the way in which he described the network of brutal labor camps that were set up in Stalin's Soviet Union.
Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, which he wasn't allowed to formally receive until he was exiled in 1974. He returned to Russia in 1994 but quickly declared he was disappointed to find a country that was "tortured, stunned, altered beyond recognition." Still, he stayed and settled down at a rural estate outside Moscow, where he spent his final years in relative obscurity. He was 89. Peace to his shade, and hale!
In history, this day in 1735, freedom of the press was established with an acquittal of John Peter Zenger. The writer of the New York Weekly Journal had been charged with seditious libel by the royal governor of New York. The jury said that "the truth is not libelous."
Ah, my old hometown of New Bedford. In 1892, someone took an axe and killed Lizzie Borden's millionaire parents in Fall River. Andrew received 10 whacks, and Abby 14. Lizzie is later tried for the murders, but acquitted, by a New Bedford jury. Shelbyville and Springfield's feuds were as nothing compared to Fall River and New Bedford's.
At midnight between the 3rd and 4th of August, 1914, Britain declared war on Germany in World War I. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality and started to roll in the profits.
It was on this day in 1944 that the Gestapo raided a house in Amsterdam and arrested eight people. Anne Frank, a teenager at the time, was one of the people arrested. Her diary would be published after her death at a concentration camp.
This day in 1964, the bodies of Michael H. Schwerner, James E. Chaney, and Andrew Goodman were found in an earthen dam in Mississippi. The three were civil rights workers. They had disappeared on June 21, 1964.
In 1972, Arthur Bremer was found guilty of shooting George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Bremer was sentenced to 63 years in prison, Wallace paralyzed for life. Wallace claimed to have changed during his ordeal, and may have for the good.
It may come back. In 1987, the Fairness Doctrine was rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission. The doctrine had required that radio and TV stations present controversial issues in a balanced fashion.
In 1991, the Oceanos, a Greek luxury liner, sank off of South Africa's southeast coast. All of the 402 passengers and 179 crewmembers survived.
Getting there, but not all the way yet. On August 4, 1993, Japan finally acknowledged that it forced 200,000 Korean and Chinese "comfort women" to service members of its armed forces between 1932 and 1945. Japan apologized for the "immeasurable pain and incurable psychological wounds" it inflicted by forcing these women to be state slaves, but makes no offer to pay reparations. A ways to go before it admits any guilt for its WWII, invasion of Korea and/or China activities.
In 1996, Josia Thugwane won a gold medal after finishing first in the marathon at the Atlanta Olympiacs. He became the first black South African to win a gold medal. South Africa having so few blacks previously......
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Sunday, August 03, 2008
Here in Boulder the Damned, the political waters are warm enough for the bloated carnivorous jellyfish that adorns our cover and terrifies Asia at present. Jellyfish appear in damaged environments in greater numbers than normal and in greater size. Lack of turtles and others that normally feed on them is one reason. But, back to Boulder.
The race between Carlisle and Heath is hard to call. Heath has gotten a lot of superficial support, but there are so many questions about the guy in his dotage (this is not the man of fifteen years ago) it's difficult to excuse a vote in his favor, especially by Democrats this year. His sense of entitlement is that of John McCain's, and his financial connections are not those of a environmentally concerned Democrat. The beefs against Carlisle seem to be, at base, quite personal and those from people she's wallopped in elections before. She moves without the Boulder Democratic Establishment's blessing, which pisses them off mightily. She has my support even though I don't always agree with her choices. I honor her reasoning, though.
Go check them out in person at Boulder 1. You cannot do this without watching Jann Scott, for which you are warned. Who's the poseur, who's the competent who can speak off the cuff and address issues? Under the "More Videos" scroll, go down to Carlisle and Heath.
The New York Times inquires into the practice of American hospitals engaging in their own form of deportation—sending injured illegal immigrants back to their homelands because no American health care provider will accept uninsured aliens. This "apparently widespread" practice represents "the collision of two deeply flawed American systems, immigration and health care," the NYT's 6,000-word lead story reports. The deportations are entirely private, as "American immigration authorities play no role," and are often the conclusion to a string of events that has cost a hospital millions of dollars. Most of the lengthy piece narrates the tragic story of a Guatemalan immigrant who, after being maimed in a collision with a drunk driver, was eventually returned to the remote village where only his elderly mother now cares for him. I'm sorry to hear that, but he was illegal. It's not like Americans don't pay if hurt in foreign nations.
Well, finally. The WP expresses doubts about Bruce Ivins, the scientist who killed himself this week before being indicted by the FBI in an investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Friends and colleagues describe Ivins as a content man without the means or motive to carry out deadly chemical attacks. The FBI anthrax probe could be shuttered as early as tomorrow, says the WP, which would "amount to a strong signal that the FBI and Justice Department think they got their man—and that he is dead, foreclosing the possibility of a prosecution."
But colleagues and former acquaintances are sharply divided on that question: One argues that Ivins worked with anthrax daily and could have easily removed it from his lab without detection; another does not think anyone at USAMRIID would have "the foggiest idea" how to make powdered anthrax. But Ivins' former therapist, a Frederick, Md., social worker, petitioned for court protection because of her suspicions that Ivins was a revenge killer who had previously attempted murder. I'm sorry, but how did that not get prime coverage?
The NYT takes the analytical road, wondering if the military's increase in biological counterterrorism has given more people access to deadly chemical weapons. Federal officials have underestimated the number of HIV infections in the United States by 40 percent for almost a decade, they now say. New technologies have provided more accurate readings, leading the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to up the annual number of infections from 40,000 to around 53,000. Um, I'm confused. If they have HIV you count them. What has been the confusion? The epidemic is not growing, as that figure has been constant for the entire last decade that numbers have been underestimated. The LAT notes that the higher estimates are "a jarring reminder that the United States, while castigating prevention efforts in much of the world, has not been able to get a firm grip on its own problems." So, a convenient stat. Suspicious.
"I was born in a Beijing that has vanished." So says LAT reporter Ching-Chang Ni who returned to her homeland in 2000, after 20 years in the United States, and found it unrecognizable: "While I was gone, China had morphed from a closed communist society with few material comforts into a market-driven economy in which anything seems possible, and purchasable." At the 2008 Summer Olympics, the globe will look primarily upon the sheen of that recent progress—"the world will see the country in all its glory, with as much of the dark side tucked away as possible." As opposed to what other Olympic hosting nation? As Ni leaves China, this time with her husband and two small children, she can't assure their country will be the same when they return. All she will promise, Ni writes, is that they will return: "The only thing I can tell them for sure is that we are not leaving Daddy behind and we will not be gone forever."
The NYT covers the rapid multiplication of jellyfish in coastal waters around the world, a phenomenon some scientists attribute to climate change, overfishing, and pollution. Designed to thrive in "damaged" environments, jellyfish often survive pollution and breed rapidly in the warmer waters. The problem has mostly been noticed on the shore as a result of closed beaches and clogged nets, but could be the symptom of deeper issues in the world's oceans.
Compiling the complaints of annoyed New Yorkers, the NYT Arts & Leisure section constructs a piece on the city's summer European invasion, which makes many Manhattanites feel like members of an endangered species. Europeans, lured by New York's concentration of chic and the weakness of the U.S. dollar, are crowding the city's upscale boutiques and trendy restaurants to spend with reckless abandon—as if New York were "the Wal-Mart of hip."
In 1492, this day in history, Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.
This day in 1914, Germany declared war on France. The next day World War I began when Britain declared war on Germany for invading Belguim.
In 1936, Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals. The Nazis were thrilled and lavished him with praise and dinner with Hitler. Well.....no...
On August 3, 1950, the U.S. Army knowingly killed hundreds of civilian refugees when Maj. General Hobart R. Gay gave the order to demolish a bridge, including refugees on it, over the Naktong River at Waegwan, Korea. The overwhelmed Army was not at its best, and the incident haunted those ordered to carry it out. They were the ones who outed it, overcame the Army's lies, and perhaps came to peace with it.
On this day in 1956, Bedloe's Island had its name changed to Liberty Island.
In 1958, the Nautilus became the first vessel to cross the North Pole underwater. The mission was known as "Operation Sunshine."
George Carlin's idol, comedian and social critic Lenny Bruce, died of a morphine overdose in his Hollywood Hills home, two years after his original obituary was published in The Realist. At the time of his death, Bruce was being maliciously harassed by police and districts attorney in various states for his groundbreaking standup performances, causing great difficulty in finding venues at which to perform. In fact, his routines were less funny and more disturbed towards the end, but he had reason to be bitter.This day in 1988, the Soviet Union released Mathias Rust. He had been taken into custody on May 28, 1987 for landing a plane in Moscow's Red Square, exposing the military as incompetent and bloated. Rust did as much to bring down the Soviet Union as anyone.
Well. I liked it once just because it was so different. But on August 3, 1996, an angry God made "Macarena" by Los Del Rio #1 on the pop charts. The accompanying dancing disease afflicts millions before final eradication.
In 2004, NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011. I sometimes forget the time elements that oppress space exploration, and how much dedication there must be to these long missions.
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Friday, August 01, 2008
Christmas. Another 100 degree day in Boulder, and we aren't used to it.
The Daily Camera came out with their support for Cindy Carlisle's opponent for State Senate, as could be predicted since they are just about always supporting the loser. Carlisle deserves to win in the face of the immense money being spent by the Rollie Rictus, but may not. If she loses, it's because all the people who blame her for the football team fiascos and trials and the resignations of everyone from the CU president down to the football coach and of course the misogynists aplenty, including the older white men - alumns and wannabes - who really enjoy being allowed into the locker rooms primarily utilized by young black men. Woman got raped? She was asking for it.
Carlisle keeps getting hit with a conflict of interest but for that to be true, everyone from Bill Owens down to the lowliest lawyer on CU's incompetent and extortionate legal team has had to be in on it. She's controversial and she's a mean opponent when hit below the belt, but she's done almost everything she set out to do when she ran for Regent. The institutionalization of female subservience to the needs of the football team took a beating, and damned overdue. A lot of rotting dead wood is gone, and new blood afoot. She leaves CU in far better shape from money to education than she found it. Go figure.
She did lose when the office of the Regents was moved to Denver to be near other Regents. She didn't get her way that the faculty should adjudge Ward Churchill rather than be fired by the Regents approval (I didn't and don't agree with her, but - and most impressively - there was not a shred of poltical benefit to vote alone to not fire him and much known flack to come her way. She's a fathead often enough, and that's so rare it exerts its own charm.
Wait. A government scientist who was about to face charges for the 2001 anthrax attacks apparently committed suicide? So, there was another suspect all along when they were persecuting Hatfill?
Bruce Ivins, 62, a "skilled microbiologist," worked at the government's biodefense labs at Fort Detrick, Md., for the last 18 years and, according to people who knew him, had been informed of his impending prosecution. Ivins helped the government investigate the anthrax mail attacks that killed five people shortly after Sept. 11, 2001. Ivins, who had never been publicly identified as a suspect, comes on the heels of the FBI's settlement with Steven Hatfill valued at $5.82 million. Hatfill, a former biodefense researcher, was long the main suspect of the anthrax attacks, and the payout "was an essential step to clear the way for prosecuting Ivins," reports the LAT. Ivins was being treated for depression, but his condition apparently quickly worsened after the settlement was announced, and he was committed to a facility for treatment.
Ivins had already been questioned by Army officials for failing to report anthrax contaminations. Ivins admitted he had made a mistake by cleaning up the contaminations and staying quiet, but the Army didn't discipline him. Some now say that the investigation raised some red flags that should have been looked into. The main suspicion comes from Ivins' claim at the time that he couldn't remember whether he tested contaminated areas that had been cleaned to make sure that they were, in fact, free of spores. The thinking now is that he may have been reluctant to give a definite answer in case someone checked and found spores in his office.
Why, though?
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that members of Pakistan's intelligence service helped militants plan the bombing of the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan last month, an attack that killed more than 50 people. The link had long been suspected, but intercepted communications finally brought confirmation. The NYT notes that the confirmation of the link between Pakistani intelligence officers and militants in Afghanistan have provided "the clearest evidence to date that Pakistani intelligence officers are actively undermining American efforts to combat militants in the region."
Along with the link, officials also say that "new information" gave them evidence that Pakistan's spy service has also provided militants with details of American operations in the region. There's little detail about what this new information consists of, significantly, officials emphasized that the cooperation with militants was not the work of intelligence officers operating on their own, "indicating that their actions might have been authorized by superiors," says the NYT. "It confirmed some suspicions that I think were widely held," one American official said. "It was sort of this 'aha' moment."
Five American troops died in combat in Iraq last month. When noncombatant deaths are added, the number increases to 13, which is the lowest American death toll in any single month since the war began in 2003. President Bush praised the "durability" of the security gains even as he took pains to emphasize that "the progress is still reversible." Bush suggested that the decrease in violence could lead to further U.S. troop withdrawals before he leaves office. All he's hoping for is that Obama or McCain will take the blame for the surety of the increase as we depart.
Bush made his statement about the possibility of withdrawing troops from Iraq on the same date that had originally been informally set as a deadline for Iraqi and U.S. officials to reach a new security agreement. The two sides are close to reaching a deal. The LAT says the deal won't establish a strict timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq but rather "outline a conditional time frame for Iraqi troops to take charge of the country and U.S. combat troops to be withdrawn." Whatever ends up being decided, it seems clear that it won't look anything like what administration officials had initially hoped. "The whole thing has been spun around," a senior Iraqi politician tells the LAT.
State and local governments have been on a spending binge lately. State and local governments increased spending 7.8 percent in the second quarter of this year compared with the same period last year, while revenue rose a mere 2.5 percent. Some states are taking drastic measures to reduce spending, and some predict there will be deep cuts in 2009 as governments begin to feel the effects of a weakening economy.
New figures showed a weak expansion of the U.S. economy from April to June while numbers for the last couple of months of 2007 were revised and now show "the first official slide backward since the last recession in 2001," says the NYT. Economists say these new numbers increase the likelihood that the country is in a recession. All eyes will be on the jobs report this morning as analysts widely expect that it will show the seventh straight month of losses.
The issue of race was openly discussed on the presidential campaign trail. Of course, race was much discussed during the primaries, but yesterday John McCain's campaign helped push its debut in the general election by accusing Barack Obama of playing "the race card." The statement was a response to Obama's remarks from the previous day when he said that McCain and his allies would try to get voters to be "scared" of the Democrat, who has "a funny name" and "doesn't look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills."
McCain said he agreed with the "race card" comments, while Obama's aides emphasized that the Democrat had uttered similar lines throughout the campaign. Although it's true that Obama has frequently made comments about what the LAT describes as his "otherness," the WP says that "Obama did appear to expand upon the theme by linking the attacks to McCain by name." The NYT points out that by simply raising the "race card" comment, McCain's aides made sure that "race would once again become an unavoidable issue" and "would again be a factor in coverage of the presidential race." Indeed, attention to this issue made sure that Obama's attacks against McCain's energy policies didn't get much coverage. Sleaze.
Scientists have discovered a drug that could provide the benefits of exercise without moving a muscle. Yes, it has been tested only on mice, but scientists are optimistic that it could some day help humans, too. In fact, the scientists have discovered two drugs that improved the athletic performance of mice, although one has to be combined with (gasp!) actual exercise in order to work. "It's a little bit like a free lunch without the calories," one researcher said.
In history, this day in 1790, the first U.S. census was completed. The population of the 17 states was 3,929,214.
In 1834, slavery was outlawed in the British empire with an emancipation bill.
This day in 1876, my beloved Colorado became the 38th state to join the United States.
In 1907, this day, the U.S. Army established an aeronautical division that later became the U.S. Air Force.
In 1914, Germany declared war on Russia at the beginning of World War I. Twenty two years to the day later, Adolf Hitler presided over the Olympic games as they opened in Berlin.
This day in 1954, not so long ago, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River overflowed, submerging 8 million acres. The floodwaters killed more than 30,000 Chinese and displace 18.9 million others. Hence Three Gorges.
In 1956, the Social Security Act was amended to provide benefits to disabled workers aged 50-64 and disabled adult children.
This day in 1966, fifteen people were shot and killed and 31 others were injured by Charles Joseph Whitman from a tower at the University of Texas at Austin. Whitman was killed in the tower. He had a brain tumor. Harry Chapin wrote a song.
In 2006, Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned over absolute power when he gave his brother Raul authority while he underwent an intestinal surgery. He never regained power.
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Surprise! The White House will announce today "the largest overhaul of intelligence powers in a generation" says the WSJ. President Bush has signed an executive order updating spy powers yesterday that boosts the power of the director of national intelligence. Under the executive order signed by Bush yesterday, the director of national intelligence will have more power over staffing and coordinating work between agencies. The director will also be responsible for nurturing relationships with foreign intelligence services and developing policy, which the CIA would have to implement.
The order "largely steered clear of prickly civil-liberties issues" regarding domestic surveillance but did assign the attorney general a greater oversight role, "which intelligence officials cast as an enhancement of privacy," reports the WSJ. Some in Congress expressed frustration that the White House didn't consult with them about the changes. In fact, is it legal?
More! The WP announces a new National Defense Strategy that Secretary Robert Gates approved last month and hasn't been officially released. In the document, Gates describes the fight against extremists and terrorists as a "Long War" that will not end with the fights in Afghanistan and Iraq. As a result, the Pentagon must master "irregular" warfare, and the country needs to embrace the use of "soft power" if it hopes to be successful. Inside, Gates also points to China and Russia as potential threats and says the United States needs to work toward preventing conflict with them by building "collaborative and cooperative relationships." The Post says it is "unusual for a defense secretary to offer a comprehensive military strategy so late in an administration's tenure." But the paper for some reason fails to mention that, as has been widely reported, both McCain and Obama appear open to the idea of asking Gates to stay put at least temporarily. In the document, Gates wrote that it could be used by a future administration as a "blueprint to success." Could.
The Los Angeles Times leads with a look at how John McCain's campaign is focusing its energies on trying to shape the public's view of Barack Obama. Funnily enough, that's exactly what Obama's campaign is trying to do as well. While McCain has turned increasingly negative—"even derisive," says the LAT—in trying to portray Obama as inexperienced and out of touch, the presumptive Democratic nominee is attempting to convince voters that he can be trusted as commander in chief.
Obama's efforts to "portray himself as presidential … run the risk of appearing arrogant or presumptuous," says the LAT. That's exactly what the McCain campaign is hoping for as it released an advertisement yesterday that compares Obama to celebrities like Britney Spears by showing pictures of his speech in Berlin last week. "Right now, both campaigns have to do the same thing, which is establish who Barack Obama is," a Republican pollster tells the LAT. "That's the real battle going on."
Something the LAT fails to mention but the NYT points out in its off-lead is that McCain's tactic comes straight out of the President George Bush playbook that seeks "to make campaigns referendums on its opponents." The WP goes one step further and directly states that McCain is "adopting the aggressive, take-no-prisoners style of Karl Rove." Everyone says that even some Republicans have been taken aback by the recent aggressiveness of McCain's attacks. Espousing such a persistent negative message about his opponent could easily evaporate one of the main aspects working in McCain's favor—his image as a politician who doesn't play by the normal rules of Washington.
In a front-page piece that almost (but not quite) implies that McCain's aides are thrusting this aggressive style on the candidate against his will (a typical head fake), the Post notes that the senator from Arizona is unpredictable and dislikes parroting talking points over and over again. As a result, McCain's "advisers cringe" when he "keeps talking" and subsequently dilutes what could have been a good sound bite. McCain's campaign has been criticized for lacking a consistent message, but to some Republicans that failure has more to do with the candidate's shortcomings rather than the campaign's failures. And the NYT points out that there are those who believe that trying to "apply the Bush model" to McCain simply won't work. "It could be the Coca-Cola strategy of marketing that they're trying to apply to Dr Pepper," a former McCain strategist said. What?
In the Post's op-ed page, David Ignatius flat-out suggests that what we're seeing now isn't the real McCain. But it is. In a fawning piece that goes through McCain's biography, Ignatius says the presumptive Republican nominee needs to stop listening to advisers and start being himself. "What's damaging the McCain campaign now, I suspect, is that this fiercely independent man is trying to please other people," writes Ignatius. "He should give that up and be the person whose voice shines through the pages of his life story." But that's not what shines through. He has a sense of entitlement as deep as Bush.
Fortunately, that's not something with substance. In a piece entitled "Is John McCain Stupid?" the WSJ's Daniel Henninger writes that McCain is constantly making things harder for himself on the campaign trail by talking too much and failing to make things simple. (Sorta like he doesn't understand it himself.....) "Someone in the McCain circle had better do some straight talking to the candidate," writes Henninger, who suggests that, essentially, the presumptive Republican nominee needs to be saved from himself. Instead of playing to win, McCain is "competing as if he expects the other side to lose it for him."
In the LAT, Jonathan Chait also essentially says that Obama needs to let go of his instincts, but in the other direction. Instead of just presenting himself as the better candidate, Obama must tell voters why they shouldn't vote for McCain. Just like McCain seems to be following Bush's playbook, Chait says Obama appears to have picked up John Kerry's strategy that worked so well in 2004. Now, instead of relying on his usual "weak-tea replies" that "express 'disappointment' with McCain," Obama needs to go on the offensive and start attacking. "Obama doesn't need to engage in character assassination and baseless charges, as his opponent has done," writes Chait. "All he needs to do is stop letting McCain paint a wildly distorted self-portrait."
The WP says the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq may have recently moved to Afghanistan with several of his closest aides. This development comes as U.S. intelligence officials say they are seeing hints that the Sunni insurgent group is encouraging new recruits to avoid Iraq and go to Afghanistan and Pakistan instead. The Post reports that even some al-Qaida in Iraq leaders acknowledge their organization has suffered serious setbacks, but many blame the failures on a lack of leadership, and some say they have split off and created their own insurgent group.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has announced he would resign after his party chooses a new leader in the September elections. The news of Olmert's resignation was hardly unexpected because the prime minister has been severely weakened by a series of corruption scandals, although he has never been charged. But the move has raised doubts about the recently stepped-up efforts at peace talks with the Palestinian Authority and Syria. The LAT notes that if the party's new leader fails to form a new government without general elections, Israel could be "without effective leadership" until early next year. Great, us with Bush and Israel with Olmert, good time for someone to attack. As might be expected, uncertainty about Israel's political future makes it unlikely that Olmert would be able to reach a deal with either the Palestinians or Syria.
Air travelers have been experiencing lots of flight delays despite government efforts to alleviate the problem after last year's disastrous summer. The problem has improved in some airports and worsened in others. But in roughly the first half of the year, the number of on-time arrivals across the country improved by less than one percentage point from last year.
On this day in history in 1919, Germany's Weimar Constitution was adopted. There's the success tale of the ages.....
This day in 1966, while I was in Spain, Beatles records were burned in Birmingham, Alabama, and this because John Lennon innocently declared that the band happened to be "more popular than Jesus." At the time, probably true.
Three years later, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Examiner, and the Vallejo Times-Herald each receive nearly identical letters from the Zodiac Killer. Specific details are given about recent murder scenes, along with the demand that a "cipher" be printed on on the front page of the papers (or else Zodiac will go on a "ram-Page") He got this from how Jack the Ripper played the London media.
In 1971, men rode in a vehicle on the moon for the first time in a lunar rover vehicle (LRV).
In 1991, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
In 1997, in New York City, police seized five bombs believed to be bound for terrorist attacks on subways.
A year later, more than 50 people died in Kashmir due to crossfire between India and Pakistan.
In 1999, the spacecraft Lunar Prospect crashed into the moon. It was a mission to detect frozen water on the moon's surface. The craft had been launched on January 6, 1998.
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Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Rove held in contempt. Halle-lu-u-jah! It's late, it's mostly partisan, but by God that bastard ought to explain himself before the public. I'm also interested in a truth and forgiveness commission like they have in South Africa.
Here in Boulder the Damned, I'm seeing more coverage of the state Senate race, and finally Heath his getting heat for his presence on corporate boards that he's tried to hide, deny income from, deny presence on. Carlisle has finally gotten some coverage of her clear ''recusal" issues, although indirectly. Although, for example, Heath served on the board of CACI for four of the ten years he's said he had no contact with them, the good news is that CACI is not engaged with Iraq interrogations, not since 2005. Good to know.
Joe Klein. Thank you.
And the hypocrisy continues. Pete Sessions, a Republican Congressman, once dissed Timberlake and Jackson after the 'wardrobe malfuntion' for their liberal values. He has fundraisers in Vegas. Vegas strip clubs. Christian values.
The WP looks into the allegations John McCain and his allies have been repeating over and over again in the last few days claiming that Obama canceled a visit to a military hospital in Germany because he was forbidden from taking reporters along. This is all part of McCain's strategy to portray Obama as a shrewd political operative who has no real interest in the well-being of American troops. There's just one problem: It's not true. Obama's campaign didn't help itself by "offering slightly different reasons at different times" for canceling the visit. But ultimately, "there is no evidence that he planned to take anyone to the American hospital other than a military adviser," says the Post.
McCain's claim has received lots of attention lately. The Republican released an advertisement detailing the claim, and although it ran as a paid commercial "roughly a dozen" times, it has been shown repeatedly on newscasts across the country. This all amounts to "a public relations coup" for the candidate who was able to get millions to see his ad, mostly without paying a penny.
The Bigger News: Ted Stevens of Alaska was indicted on public corruption charges. About time.
Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, was charged with seven counts of making false statements on his financial disclosure forms about more than $250,000 in gifts from VECO Corp., an oil services company. The indictment states that Stevens "knowingly and willfully engaged in a scheme to conceal" the gifts, which included extensive home renovations and a Land Rover, among other items. "I am innocent of these charges and intend to prove that," Stevens said in a statement. The indictment clearly clouds Stevens' bid for re-election this year, and Democrats quietly celebrated as they savored the prospect of winning a Senate seat in Alaska for the first time since 1974.
It need be said that Stephens is an illustrative example of power/corruption. He was a decent guy at the beginning and worked hard for his state. He got too powerful, corrupt, and lazy. It was not always so.
Stevens is the highest-profile figure to be indicted in a wide-ranging political corruption investigation in Alaska that was launched in 2004. He also has the rare distinction of being the first sitting senator to face criminal charges in 15 years. And there might be more coming. The WSJ points out that the "indictment was narrow" but the FBI is still investigating "a variety of real-estate deals in Alaska and elsewhere" and is looking into whether friends of the senator benefited from specific earmarks or federal spending that Stevens supported. And there's a lot of that to look into. The LAT notes that Alaska has received the most "pork per capita every year since 1999."
It's no coincidence that Stevens' home state has received so much money from the federal government over the years. He's a powerful senator who has served in some of the chamber's most powerful positions, including as a chairman of the appropriations committee. Everyone describes him as an outsize figure in his home state who was once described by a local paper as "the second-largest engine of the Alaska economy." But the light has been fading, and there were already signs of trouble in his political future before the indictment became public. A poll released earlier this month showed Stevens trailing his Democratic rival by nine percentage points. But before he worries about that election, he must first beat six Republican challengers in the state's primary next month. The LAT reports that some think Stevens might decide to back out before the primary rather than risk losing his seat to a Democrat.
In the Post's op-ed page, Michael Crowley, a senior editor at the New Republic, writes that if Stevens is convicted "few tears will be shed" for the "meanest man in Washington." Throughout his years in the Senate "Stevens cultivated a tyrannical image and personalized politics to an extreme degree, dividing the world into friends and enemies," Crowley writes. One of his most famous outbursts involved his promise to travel the country to campaign against every senator who had helped defeat efforts to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge for oil drilling.
This was merely the latest in what seems to be an endless stream of bad news for the GOP, so the reaction might not be as dramatic. "We've had nothing but challenges all the way through, so what else is new?" said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah. The WP notes that some think the Stevens indictment might even help Barack Obama win in a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964.
USA Today covers how environmental groups and big businesses are filling a void left by the government by directly cutting "unprecedented deals" that involve trade-offs between new development and conservation. The deals permit businesses to carry out new projects, such as oil drilling or the construction of new power plants, without worrying about opposition from environmental groups. In exchange, companies often agree to preserve undeveloped land or to adhere to strict environmental standards. "These private deals are a pragmatic way to accomplish good things," an environmental lawyer explained.
In Our Two Wars, the CIA's deputy director recently traveled to Pakistan to confront some of the country's most senior officials with evidence that members of Pakistan's spy service have deep ties to militants operating in the practically lawless tribal areas. The fact that these ties exist is hardly new, but the White House has often steered clear of directly criticizing Pakistan for fear of alienating an ally. The NYT describes the decision to have such a senior CIA official pass on the message as "an unusual one" and says that it could be "a sign" that the relationship between the two countries' intelligence services "may be deteriorating."
Although talks between Washington and Baghdad about a long-term security pact seemed to have reached a deadlock last month, the WSJ reports the negotiations started to move forward after the White House agreed to a "general time horizon" - Bush Speak for Timeline - for troop withdrawals. There is still no agreement on a pullout date. While Iraqis are pushing for a 2010 withdrawal, a compromise could tack on a year or two to that goal, along with the necessary caveat that the plan could change if violence increases.
Another Rice triumph! Well. Sorta. The collapse of global trade talks in Geneva after seven years of negotiations is a real lemon. Everyone sees it as a sign of the growing power of developing countries, particularly China and India, to set the global agenda. The talks formally broke down after India and China refused to give up the power to increase tariffs on crops if there is an increase in cheap imports. The so-called Doha Round of talks is now "dead in the water," says the WSJ, and there's little hope that it will be revived anytime soon. Many had described it as the last chance to increase free trade worldwide before protectionist sentiments take over in weakening economies. USAT says that the "talks' failure may mark a watershed after two decades of increasing globalization."
In history, this day in 1945, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1,196 men aboard survived the attack, the Navy didn't notice it was missing, and most survivors of the attack died to sharks. It was such a catastrophe that the captain was courtmartialed to shovel blame around.
In 1965, President Johnson signed into law Social Security Act that established Medicare and Medicaid. It went into effect the following year.
This day in 1974, the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee voted to impeach President Nixon for blocking the Watergate investigation and for abuse of power.
A year to the day later Jimmy Hoffa, former Teamsters union president, disappeared in Michigan. His remains were never found.
In 2003, in Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagon Beetle rolled off an assembly line.
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Senator Ted Stephens of Alaska is indicted on seven (7) counts this morning.
I was surprised to learn at whatever age I did that water isn't a good conductor of electricity, just the stuff it generally has in it. Pure water isn't so hot. The stuff in water can give it a bad name. People, like me, bitch a lot about the smell of chlorine, which in an inside and hot pool can nauseate me. So, I was less than pleased to note that the distinctive pool smell usually attributed to chlorine is actually produced by the combination of chlorine and perspiration, body oils, and urine. Just something to make your summer more enjoyable. If you can smell it, it's working. Be advised.
Colorado is getting around to redoing its PostIt note constitution. One of the many reasons why Carlisle - Heath's race is important, because our legislature in Denver will be voting for it.. I'm for Carlislse. One would like to think that when voters weigh in on whether their state's constitution should be amended, they've thought about the issue and have a clear point of view. But those who are campaigning for and against the proposition that would amend California's constitution are betting that how the ballot measure is worded can change votes, notes the LAT. Well, duh. Supporters of the proposition are up in arms because the attorney general's office changed the language on the ballot to say that it would "eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry" instead of stating that the amendment seeks "to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." Political analysts say people are less likely to vote for something that is seen as taking away existing rights.
I'm so sick of that, but I AM worried about how the needed changes that have to be voted on here are worded, both to control the coming ( the second or third coming....) of shale oil profits as well as all the other crappy parts to the Constitution added in haste and in conflict with each other and current needs. 
David Kilcullen, a military advisor to Condoleezza Rice, reflecting on the decision to invade Iraq, called it "fucking stupid." But Bush doesn't listen to those who know. He wants to look into their soul and listen to those who believe. Believe what? That he's a godhead, and 'his' employees swear allegiance to him and not our constitution and government. It's less of a problem when you have graduates of Regent University - founded by chowderheaded bigot Pat Robertson - like Monica Goodling doing your bidding. A dim bulb, Goodling has just been savaged by the Department of Justice.
And internal Justice Department report details how department aides broke civil service laws by taking politics into account in hiring decisions. Close aides to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asked inappropriate questions at interviews for nonpolitical jobs and frequently hired those who were vocal about their conservative and Christian views, even when they were less qualified for the job. Much less. The aides also carried out Internet searches to identify conservatives and screen out applicants whose views were seen as too liberal.
The revelation that the hiring process at the Justice Department was politicized under Gonzales is hardly new. But the report gives more details about how pervasive the problem was and how it affected some of the department's most important positions. For example, everyone mentions the case of an experienced prosecutor who was denied an important counterterrorism job because of his wife's activism in Democratic politics. The report noted that the inappropriate use of politics in hiring decisions was most widespread in hiring immigration judges.
The LAT also fronts the report out of Justice and focuses on how it hints that one of the U.S. attorneys who was fired in 2006 may have been dismissed because of rumors that she was having a sexual relationship with a female career prosecutor. One thing that has always been revolting about the "conservative" concern for other people's morals is that they don't seem to produce much improvement and in many cases seem far worse even before the issue of hypocrisy is layered on. The Good Old Days were when the Dems were into power and sex scandals were merely heterosexual and didn't involve children.
The WP focuses on Monica Goodling, who came under the heaviest criticism in the report for implementing what one senior official described as a "farm system" that was designed to increase the number of Republicans in the department. Democratic lawmakers suggested they would look into whether they could charge Goodling and others with perjury for failing to fully disclose the extent of the practice when they testified before Congress. Realistically, no one expects much to happen, particularly since most of those named in the report are no longer at the department. As many as 40 immigration judges were recruited because of their political views, and they're likely to remain on the job.
In the Post's op-ed page, a former deputy attorney general wonders: "Where were the career people on whom we count to keep the department honest?" Jamie Gorelick notes that the report details how several senior officials at the Justice Department had enough information to know that there was something strange going on but failed to say anything. Besides making sure this never happens again, the department "needs to hold individuals responsible for their actions" and "offer opportunities to those who were improperly denied them."
Plans are currently in the works to move a unit of Pakistan's army into the country's tribal regions. The United States has long advocated such a move because Pakistan's Frontier Corps, currently assigned to guarding the largely lawless region, is ineffective. By which is meant they're merely a supply unit for the Taliban.
Even as U.S. officials praised Pakistan's plans to move a regular army unit into the country's tribal areas, they still question how much good it could do if the government continues to be unwilling to recognize the extent of the problem. The unit itself will likely run into trouble because, according to U.S. officials, it has been trained to carry out conventional war and not counterinsurgency operations. It's also unclear whether the unit would be able to do much good in an area that has long resisted military involvement. But some think there might be an opening for progress because there are hints that extremists might have alienated some tribes by betraying or killing tribal leaders. Which will last until they bribe them back to their side.
USA Today has a new poll taken over the weekend that shows a tightening presidential race. Among registered voters, Barack Obama's lead over John McCain decreased a few points as registered voters preferred the Democrat 47 percent to 44 percent. Among likely voters, McCain comes out ahead 49 percent to 45 percent, although both cases are within the margin of error. Perhaps most worrying for Obama is that 41 percent of respondents said they don't think he has what it takes to be commander in chief, which is at the same levels as last month.
The WP now says Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine appears to be on the vice presidential shortlist. Kaine has apparently told "close associates" that he's had "very serious" conversations with Obama. Sens. Evan Bayh and Joseph Biden are also under serious consideration. Besides Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, most of the others being considered are senators with lots of foreign-policy experience. Kaine seems to fulfill many of the characteristics Obama is looking for in a running mate, but he has no foreign policy experience and is a first-term governor.
To the shock of no one, the NYT notes that Sen. Hillary Clinton doesn't appear to be a contender for the job. Why would she step down in power. Also? I don't believe she thinks Obama is a shoo-in.
Violence again shook Iraq yesterday as four female bombers (the NYT says three were suicide bombers and another left a bomb in a bag and walked away) and the subsequent chaos killed at least 61 people. It marked yet another example of how women are increasingly carrying out attacks because they can evade security checkpoints more easily, and it was a reminder of how fragile the situation continues to be in Iraq. One of the bombers blew herself up in the middle of a political demonstration in Kirkuk, in northern Iraq. As the NYT recounts in detail, many blamed Turkmen extremists for the attack and angry Kurds quickly began to attack Turkmen offices and confront guards who then shot into the crowds. The Baghdad bombers carried out what appeared to be a coordinated attack against Shiite pilgrims. I don't think Turks would use women.
Beijing continues to be shrouded in a gray haze despite recent efforts to curb pollution that have forced hundreds of thousands of residents to change their daily routines. Now the government is considering implementing even tougher measures that could lead to more factory closings, and officials might ban as many as 90 percent of private cars from the streets. If China fails to improve the situation, many athletes are likely to wear masks while in Beijing, which would be extremely embarrassing for the Communist government. The WSJ notes that many are looking to the efforts as a learning experience about what can be done to decrease pollution. Experts say that if an authoritarian government that can order businesses around more easily than most other countries can't control the problem then it's unlikely that other industrialized nations could have much success in reducing pollution.
The NYT looks at how the Chinese government is so determined to show the world a sanitized picture of Beijing that it has put up walls and screens around some of the city's more unsightly buildings and blocks.
The LAT fronts a look at how fire commanders are often pressured to deploy military planes to drop water and retardant to fight a wildfire even if they won't do any good. Firefighters call them "CNN drops" because they're often launched because of pressure from politicians who want to demonstrate that everything is being done to put out a wildfire. No one doubts that aircraft can play an important role in putting out a fire, but the increasing, and often unnecessary, use of air power is one of the reasons why the cost of fighting wildfires has skyrocketed in recent years.
In an interesting piece on the first trial of a Guantanamo detainee, the NYT notes that while the proceedings might look like they could take place in the United States, the truth is that things are far from normal. FBI agents have testified about how they didn't inform Osama Bin Laden's former driver, Salim Hamdan, about his constitutional rights, and a psychiatrist has said that the isolation and repeated interrogations have so warped Hamdan's sense of reality that he sometimes thinks the trial itself is another method of interrogation. The whole process sometimes takes on a surreal nature. At one point, a prosecution witness showed a chart of al-Qaida's leadership that includes Hamdan far below the supposed leader, who was released from Guantanamo in 2004. Plus there's the small fact that the administration has made it clear that even if Hamdan is acquitted, he could still face indefinite detention. "Where else in the world," an ACLU lawyer said, "is someone being prosecuted for a crime who is already serving a life sentence and will continue to serve one if he's acquitted?"
This day in 1588, the English defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines.
In 1874, Major Walter Copton Winfield of England received U.S. patent for the lawn-tennis court. The game didn't take off until Prime Minister Balfour was known to enjoy it. Balfour helped found Wimbleton.
Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France, in 1890.
In 1950, Disney's adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" was released. Important solely because Robert Newton gave the world its first 'pirate' with the "Arghhhh" and parrot and all.
Happy fiftieth birthday NASA!!!
In 1967, this day, fire swept the USS Forrestal in the Gulf of Tonkin. 134 U.S. servicemen were killed. One of John McCain's missiles cooked off.
My ex-wife, a Tica, told me that when in 1968 (the year I met her) on this day Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's stance against artificial methods of birth control the Costa Rican village she lived in threw away all birth control pills and devices. The encyclical was Humanae Vitae, prohibiting all unnatural forms of birth control except timing.
In 1974, Mama Cass Elliot, of The Mamas and the Papas, died in London of a heart attack.
In 1985, General Motors announced that Spring Hill, Tennessee, would be the home of the Saturn automobile assembly plant. A good idea that went terribly wrong.
Impressively, in 1993 the Israeli Supreme Court acquitted retired Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk of being Nazi death camp guard "Ivan the Terrible." His death sentence was thrown out and he was set free.
In 2005, astronomers announced that they had discovered a new planet larger than Pluto in orbit around the sun. Today, neither are called planets.
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Monday, July 28, 2008
Bush's Carnivale of Corruption continues. It needs be said that this particular story came about because of the courage of GOP lawyers mostly, and while I would contend it was obvious from the start, what I know now about John Ashcroft and his judicial ethics (let's not discuss his silly sexual issues) make me feel good a bit about our lawyers. From the DOJ's own report:
In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct, when she considered political or ideological affiliations in hiring decisions for candidates for career positions within the Department. In particular, the evidence showed that she considered political or ideological affiliations in deciding several waiver requests from interim U.S. Attorneys, in promoting several candidates for career positions, and in disapproving a candidate for an EOUSA career SES position.
from TPM:
"Late update: Here are the names of other implicated in the report:
former Chief of Staff to former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Kyle Sampson; Goodling's predecessor, former White House Liason Jan Williams, and EOUSA (Executive Office for United States Attorneys) Director John Nowacki-- who is still at the department. The report states that Nowacki knew of the politicization of the DOJ but drafted a press statement saying otherwise. Of Sampson, Williams and Goodling the report states:
In sum, the evidence showed that Sampson, Williams, and Goodling violated federal law and Department policy, and Sampson and Goodling committed misconduct, by considering political and ideological affiliations in soliciting and selecting IJs [immigration judges], which are career positions protected by the civil service laws."
The Los Angeles Times views the "rickety calm" that has engulfed Iraq as the last of the "surge" troops leave the country and citizens wait to see what happens next. Even as they're getting used to living with much less violence, Iraqis "tread carefully" out of a generalized fear that gains could quickly unravel, which they will once the militias sense the vacuum.
There's such poor oversight of contractors in Iraq that one company got paid for work it never completed, notes the WP. The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says Parsons received $142 million of a total $333 million, even though it completed only about one-third of the projects stipulated in one of its contracts. Parsons questions the findings and says its work was hindered by the violence in Iraq. A separate Post story points out that the government has apparently decided that its experience with contractors in Iraq has been so successful that it's expanding efforts to award new contracts for work in Afghanistan.
A group calling itself the "Indian Mujahadeen" claimed responsibility for the explosions over the weekend in India.
Banks are reducing the number of loans they give out to businesses. Good. Over the last year, two key credit sources for companies have collectively declined 3 percent, which "is the largest annual decline since the credit tightening that began with the last recession, in 2001." In seven years. Somehow the medias use of 'worst' and 'most' make them look hysterical.
The White House has increased its estimate for next year's deficit to a record $490 billion. It'll be over a half trillion. A previous estimate for the deficit in the fiscal year beginning on Oct. 1 was $407 billion, but the numbers have been revised to reflect a weakening economy and "larger-than-anticipated costs" of the fiscal stimulus package. Also, they lie a lot.
The examples cited by the NYT to illustrate the way credit has tightened for companies make it clear that money is still available, but banks are being more careful about approving loans. Indeed, businesses "with solid credit and profitable businesses can generally still get loans, but rates are higher and wait times are longer," says the paper. The paper notes that until about a year ago, banks could easily sell most of their loans, which passed the risk on to someone else. But now that banks are risking their own money, they're more motivated to make sure a borrower can actually afford the credit payments.
That doesn't necessarily sound like a negative development, but some contend that banks have gone from one extreme to the other. Whereas banks used to give almost anyone credit, as they gave them credit cards, they now have "an equally arbitrary aversion to lend," and even profitable companies are having to jump through hoops in order to get credit to expand their businesses.
USAT admits that the projection for next year's deficit is likely to be even higher than the revised projections because the estimate doesn't take into account the full cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, if the economy worsens the number is likely to increase further. Despite its record-breaking sum, as a share of the economy, the 2009 deficit would be 3 percent to 4 percent and falls below the post-World War II record of 6 percent that was set in 1983. Still, it's a sobering reminder of how much the deficit has increased under Bush, who inherited a $128 billion surplus in 2001.
The Washington Post looks at efforts by Barack Obama's campaign to increase registration and turnout among African-Americans. Black voters could be the key to an Obama victory in several battleground states, including some in the South. But the campaign has a steep hill to climb, and there's uncertainty about whether spending so much time and effort on reaching citizens who have long tuned out of politics will actually pay off in November.
In politics, the NYT views John McCain's 15-year leadership of the International Republican Institute, a role that has brought him into close contact with many of Washington's most powerful lobbyists. The group's mission of promoting democracy around the world is certainly consistent with McCain's stated values, but a closer examination "reveals an organization in many ways at odds with the political outsider image that has become a touchstone" of his campaign for the White House. McCain has helped the institute raise millions of dollars from lobbyists and companies who have interests before the Senate. And lobbyists have also been an integral part of the institute, as 14 of them served on the group's board during McCain's tenure.
The WP continues its series about oil and focuses on China, a country that "accounts for about 40 percent of the world's recent increase in demand for oil." Whereas private cars in China were a rare sight 15 years ago, there were 15.2 million of them last year. That number has plenty of room to grow as fewer than 4 percent of people in China have actually bought a car. Even as demand skyrockets, China, along with other developing countries, heavily subsidizes oil so there's little incentive to conserve fuel. Um. So do we. The NYT also takes a look at subsidies around the world and notes that, according to one estimate, countries with fuel subsidies "accounted for 96 percent of the world's increase in oil use last year."
The NYT and WP both note that the Senate will devote much of its time this week to considering a huge omnibus package that contains 35 bills. The brainchild of Majority Leader Harry Reid is officially known as the Advancing America's Priorities Act, but the NYT calls it the "Tomnibus" since it's devoted to thwarting the efforts of one man, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Coburn, known as the Senate's "Dr. No," is an expert at using parliamentary tactics to block the passage of legislation. Much of the legislation in the $10-billion package has overwhelming bipartisan support, but Coburn says it involves unnecessary government spending.
On this day in 1540, King Henry VIII's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, was executed. The same day, Henry married his fifth wife, Catherine Howard, a cousin of his second, Anne Bolyn.
This day in 1794, Maximilien Robespierre was sent to the guillotine. He was a leading figure in the French Revolution, but his Reign of Terror turned against him.
On this day in 1841, James Boulard and Henry Mallin pulled the decomposed body of a young woman from the Hudson River near Hoboken, New Jersey. Mary Cecilia Rogers, who worked at a popular cigar store, was initially thought to have been killed in the course of a brutal gang rape, but ultimately it seemed more likely that she died from a botched abortion. Edgar Allen Poe adapted the sensational news story about "The Beautiful Cigar Girl" into a short story, "The Mystery of Marie Roget."
On this day in 1914, World War I officially began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Moronic to the extreme.
In 1932, federal troops under Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the "Bonus Army" of World War I veterans who had gathered in Washington, DC. They were demanding money they were not scheduled to receive until 1945. But, the Depression and all.
Third World then. Second, now. But imagine the U.S. suffering this: in 1976, an earthquake in northern China killed at least 242,000 people. At least. Dead. Destruction? Died later?
The world's anathema nation, Serbia, in 1998 seized the Kosovo town of Malisevo.
In 2006, researchers announced that two ancient reptile fossils had been found off Australia. The Umoonasaurus and Opallionectes were the first of their kind to be found in the period soon after the Jurassic era.
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All material on this site copyright Richard L. MacLeod (Dark Cloud) 1968-2010 unless otherwise stated.
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