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Tale from A Red State Vol 2
Another good commentary from "The Manhattan Mercury"
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February 9, 2005
Cutting back on compassion
President Bush is right to contend that his budget proposal sets priorities; that's what spending plans do.
But the priorities in his $2.57 trillion budget are skewed. Fortunately, the lukewarm response of many members of Congress — including some influential Republicans — suggests that they have serious misgivings about aspects of the plan.
They should. The budget doesn't include $80 billion the president says is needed for the Iraq war, and it omits hundreds of billions to cover the proposed transition to private Social Security accounts. The budget also doesn't include hundreds of billions more over the next decade to deal with the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was supposed to make sure the wealthy didn't escape taxes but is taking a growing toll on middle class taxpayers.
Meanwhile, in the name of getting the federal deficit under control, President Bush seeks funding cuts that would weaken or eliminate programs for some of America's most vulnerable and deserving people. Thousands of low-income citizens would lose health insurance, child-care subsidies for 300,000 families would disappear, several hundred thousand would lose food stamps, programs for at-risk youth and preschool children would be scaled back or ended and even veterans' military benefits would be reduced.
While the Defense budget would increase, spending for most Cabinet departments would fall short of inflation; worse, the president proposes freezing discretionary spending for the next five years. The effect would be double-digit funding cuts over that period in education, housing, transportation and other areas.
Reducing the federal deficit is a worthwhile goal. But scapegoating valuable programs and services is unworthy. They're not responsible for the return to deficit spending under President Bush. His series of record tax cuts — cuts that overwhelmingly favor America's wealthiest people — must bear much of the blame. Yet rather than acknowledge that, the president wants to make them permanent and even calls for additional tax cuts.
What these tax cuts do — in addition to contribute to the deficit — is reduce the flow of federal revenue that funds programs that provide important services for millions of Americans.
It's time President Bush gave them more consideration and let America's most affluent fend more for themselves do so, instead of vice versa. The least he could do is spread the austerity around a little more equitably.
~besides Gannon-gate news being covered at
http://www.buzzflash.com/
here are some MSM headlines today ....
Poll Shows Drop in Bush's Job Approval
http://tinyurl.com/63o39
New Iraq Violence Greets Rumsfeld
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml
Democrats Demand Bush Halt Attacks on Reid
http://tinyurl.com/5zy8d
Democrats Aren't Giving Bush a Break This Term
http://tinyurl.com/558wr
(how absurd is this!) Supreme Court news:
White House Seeks Ban on Religious Tea
http://tinyurl.com/3u7v6
Clinton Sees Better Future for Democrats
http://tinyurl.com/6oumr
Dean Vows to Lead Democrats Back to Power
http://tinyurl.com/6etn5
Newly released report details alerts to FAA before Sept. 11
http://tinyurl.com/3wqzu
A little Friday humor...........
TV's hottest new "reality" show
Now that "reporter" Jeff Gannon, nee James Dale Guckert, has resigned from the Talon "news" organization, the White House is going to need another fake reporter to throw softballs at the president! Executive Producer Mark Burnett is currently accepting videotapes, and will select 5 lucky contestants who will vie for the chance to be the next paid Republican shill, I mean fair and balanced member of the White House press corps! Coming this spring to FOX: Who will be the White House's next Top Fake Reporter?
http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/canderson/2005/02/11
Apparently 18 of our Democratic Senators are cowards and were once again intimidated by the Rove machine. What an embarassment to be a Democrat today.I am sure that Dodd and Lieberman were behind this.
WASHINGTON - In a big victory for President Bush and corporations, the Senate on Thursday voted 72-26 for a bipartisan bill that would restrict multimillion-dollar national class-action lawsuits by forcing them out of state courts and before federal judges.
The legislation goes to the House, where the Republican majority is expected to approve it quickly - perhaps as soon as next week - and send it to Bush for his signature.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who failed in an effort to amend the bill by requiring new federal court procedures in handling national class actions, voted for the legislation, saying it was "the best that can be done to solve what is a real problem in our legal system."
Experts say the practical impact of forcing class actions into the federal court system will be that many cases will not go forward. That is because federal judges have been constrained by a series of legal precedents from considering large class actions that involve varying laws of different states.
It could have an especially significant effect on cases involving accusations of defective products, such as drugs and cars; plaintiffs in such cases have had success in bringing large class actions in state courts.
Automakers and drug makers have worked for years with manufacturers and insurers to press Congress to adopt the bill.
The legislation also makes it more difficult for class-action lawsuits to be settled by payments of coupons for goods and services instead of cash by the defendants, a practice that has been heavily criticized by Democrats and Republicans.
Democratic opponents described the vote as a setback for consumers who, if injured by a business product or action, may find it harder in a federal court than in a state court to win a lawsuit for the harm done to them.
"Are there bad lawyers that bring meritless cases? Sure there are," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "We should crack down on them. But this bill is not about punishing bad lawyers. It is about hurting consumers and helping corporations avoid liability for misconduct."
All 53 Republicans present, 18 Democrats and one independent voted for the legislation. All 26 no votes were cast by Democrats, including Barbara Boxer of California.
Under the legislation, damage claims would have to total at least $5 million for the case to be heard in federal court. The cases would stay in state courts if the primary defendant and one-third of the plaintiffs were from the same state.
Sponsors said the legislation still would allow virtually all aggrieved plaintiffs to have their day in a local court.
"By this bill, we are reining in abuses," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said, blasting what he called "predatory lawyers" who create classes of plaintiffs from across the nation. GOP advocates cited tobacco lawsuits as an example of class-action lawsuits filed in friendly local courts.
Frist said the legislation would end forum-shopping, through which some trial lawyers have found a few state and local courts customarily friendly to plaintiffs and inclined to award big-dollar judgments.
But Reid said the legislation "lets corporate wrongdoers off the hook."
The three-day debate, brief by Senate standards on a controversial measure, largely avoided one of the underlying issues - the fact that trial lawyers as a group are one of the Democratic Party's biggest contributors, while the business interests that supported the measure are among Republicans' biggest campaign givers.
The outcome reflected the more conservative bent in the Senate now that Republicans have a 55-44-1 majority.
Jeff,
Looks like the Merc's got some life left in it. Was this an editorial? And how is the response of the readership to the new mgt.'s changed editorial policy? Wondering how this "blue shift" is going over . . .
Three Texas surgeons were having lunch together and discussing
surgeries they had performed.
One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Texas. A concert pianist lost 7 fingers in an accident, I reattached them and 8 months later he performed a private concert for the Queen of England."
One of the others said. "That's nothing. A young man lost both arms and legs in a terrible accident, I reattached them and 2 years later he won 2 gold medals in field events in the Olympics."
The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago a guy who was high on cocaine and alcohol rode a horse head on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the horse's ass and a cowboy hat. He's now president of the United States."
That's fine. Bush has refused to veto one piece of legislation, I believe a first. Let's see if he has the cajones to veto this turkey and see it overwridden.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Friday threatened to veto any changes Congress tries to make to Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, which takes effect in January 2006.
~~Can we scream about this any louder??? This was held under wraps until after the election!
January 2001 Memo Warned Bush of Al Qaeda Threat
By JoAnne Allen
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A newly released memo warned the White House at the start of the Bush administration that al Qaeda represented a threat throughout the Islamic world, a warning that critics said went unheeded by President Bush until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The memo dated Jan. 25, 2001 -- five days after Bush took office -- was an essential feature of last year's hearings into intelligence failures before the attacks on New York and Washington. A copy of the document was posted on the National Security Archive Web site on Thursday.
The memo, from former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke to then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, had been described during the hearings but its full contents had not been disclosed.
Clarke, a holdover from the Clinton administration, had requested an immediate meeting of top national security officials as soon as possible after Bush took office to discuss combating al Qaeda. He described the network as a threat with broad reach.
"Al Qaeda affects centrally our policies on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, North Africa and the GCC (Gulf Arab states). Leaders in Jordan and Saudi Arabia see al Qaeda as a direct threat to them," Clarke wrote.
"The strength of the network of organizations limits the scope of support friendly Arab regimes can give to a range of U.S. policies, including Iraq policy and the (Israeli-Palestinian) Peace Process. We would make a major error if we underestimated the challenge al Qaeda poses."
The memo also warned of overestimating the stability of moderate regional allies threatened by al Qaeda.
It recommended that the new administration urgently discuss the al Qaeda network, including the magnitude of the threat it posed and strategy for dealing with it.
The document was declassified on April 7, 2004, one day before Rice's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission. It was released recently by the National Security Council to the National Security Archive -- a private library of declassified U.S. documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The meeting on al Qaeda requested by Clarke did not take place until Sept. 4, 2001.
http://tinyurl.com/3qdnc
Benson and the budget..
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/
Benson on Rice
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/articles/021005benson.html
Posted by: battlebob at February 11, 2005 02:12 PM
Battlebob--Both these Benson cartoons are terrific!Thanks!
The outcome reflected the more conservative bent in the Senate now that Republicans have a 55-44-1 majority.
Posted by: Ira at February 11, 2005 12:24 PM
Ira-- here are the recorded "no" votes on class-action bill .These senators-- all Democrats-- deserve thanks for having some gumption:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00009
(all rollcall votes can be seen at www.senate.gov. . go to legislation and record, then to roll call vote, then click on bill in question)
Akaka (HI)
Baucus (MT)
Biden (DE)
Boxer (CA)
Byrd (WV)
Clinton (NY)
Corzine (NJ)
Dayton (MN)
Dorgan (ND)
Durbin (IL)
Feingold (WI)
Harkin (IA)
Inouye (HI)
Kennedy (MA)
Kerry (MA)
Lautenberg (NJ)
Leahy (VT)
Levin (MI)
Mikulski (MD)
Murray (WA)
Nelson (FL)
Reid (NV)
Sarbanes (MD)
Stabenow (MI)
Wyden (OR)
Though I've pretty much given up on senators such as , say, Lieberman (and, sadly,Dodd, too, alas), Obama's "yea" was surprising to me. . and disappointing.
One more question for DCP readers, then back to work: Has anyone else besides me been struck by the absence of even minimal historical perspective in newspaper and TV reporting on the North Korea debacle? When I first heard about North Korea's "nukes" statement,my first thought was: this is exactly what Kerry (other Dems, too, but Kerry made a special issue of this at almost every opportunity) warned about all through the primary and general campaign! In debates, interviews and speeches, Kerry criticized W. for walking away, scornfully, from the delicate, ongoing bilateral talks between the US and North Korea started in the Clinton administration, and pointed out, time after time, that the regional 6-nation talks were not enough. All the Dems talke d about the lunacy of neglecting the REAL nuclear threats-- north Korea in particular (also Iran)-- while choosing instead to pursue the folly in Iraq. This came up again and again and again, from Kerry and also other Dems and foreign-policy analysts. . the warnings have been out there for YEARS> Is no one in the MSM saying anything about this, or have I just missed it? Everything I've read and heard so far suggests that this is a newish issue. But the truth is that Bush created this problem the day he and his neocon buddies deliberately and scornfully terminated the bilateral negotiations four years ago. Commentators have mentioned the "bad choices" for the US, but, really, it's the ineptness and incompetence of W.'s so-called "diplomacy", starting from Day 1, that brought us to this place.
I'd love to hear about any media stories that delve into this recent history, and assign credit and blame to the proper folks. ..
mbk-one thing that I am sure of is that bushco will blame the current situation with NK on Clinton-just wait.
Veterans Urge Adequate Budget for VA Medical Care
February 21, 2003, WASHINGTON, DC
Organizations representing millions of America's veterans are urging Congress to fully fund medical care for their sick and disabled comrades, many of whom have been put on long waiting lists or have been denied treatment because of budget shortfalls. Noting that the Bush Administration's proposed budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) would do little to end severe rationing of health care, the authors of The Independent Budget are calling on lawmakers to add some $2 billion to the President's request for veterans health care and enact legislation to guarantee adequate funding to meet current and future needs.
The Independent Budget developed by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States identifies a $2 billion budgetary shortfall that seriously compromises the government's ability to provide adequate medical care to veterans.
"There is no excuse for the long delays many sick and disabled veterans face in getting medical care," said The Independent Budget authors. "Guaranteed funding is a common-sense solution to the decades-long crisis that has led to the severe rationing of health care that plagues the VA medical system."
http://www.pva.org/independentbudget/news/ib0301.htm
http://www.independentbudget.org/
Sorry, posted the lead-in to an old vets statement by mistake. I have the new one, too long to post, and I don't think it's up on their website yet.
Here's the lead of their statement on the current budget proposal:
FY06 Veterans Independent Budget Release
Veterans Groups: Administration's VA Health Care Budget Proposal Shortchanges America's Sick and Disabled Veterans
2/10/2005
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The fiscal year 2006 Budget Request released Monday by the President follows a script military veterans have seen before from Administration budget hawks: meager increases, new user fees and an attempt to help offset the nation's budget deficit by shortchanging disabled veterans, according to four veterans groups.
The Administration proposes a VA health care budget of $28.1 billion for FY 2006, an insufficient increase given the influx into the system of new veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In contrast, The Independent Budget (IB), a comprehensive budget policy document co-authored by AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America and the Veterans of Foreign Wars --recommended $31.2 billion in funding for veterans' health care during FY 2006. This IB-suggested funding increase of $3.5 billion for FY06 is designed to meet realistic inflation and health care demand increases. This increase does not include onerous enrollment fees or increased co-payments for prescriptions put forward by the Administration.
Discounting the projected additional revenues from an annual $250 enrollment fee, and more than doubling prescription co-pays for thousands of veterans, the Administration's health care funding increase provides new appropriations of only $111 million. This is an increase of four-tenths of one percent over last year's appropriation that falls far short in meeting veterans' needs.
Message from AFL/CIO:
Sign Petition: Hold Wal-Mart Accountable
Your help is urgently needed.
Wal-Mart announced Feb. 9 it will shut down the Canadian store where workers had formed a union six months earlier to have a voice on the job.
Workers at the Jonquiere, Quebec, store had been negotiating with Wal-Mart for several months, attempting to reach a fair agreement on wages and benefits. The company pulled the plug when workers appealed to the Quebec Labor Ministry to start a process to establish a wage and benefit settlement.
The world's largest retailer is choosing to destroy the livelihoods of nearly 200 working families rather than accept a fair and impartial agreement on workers' wages and benefits.
Take action by signing the petition telling Wal-Mart to do the right thing by reversing plans to close its store and negotiate in good faith with Wal-Mart workers.
Sign online at:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/walmart_accountable
Posted by: mbk at February 11, 2005 03:20 PM
~mbk
The rest of the country will soon learn what we already know...EVERYTHING JK said before the election, regarding Bu$hco's failures & gross incompetence, is true & is becoming more obvious with every passing day...as JK said so many many times: "Everything is at stake in the election"...."Everything".
Each day, every time a new "story" breaks,about Bu$h's corrupt/incompetent domestic & international policies, I think of JK's words of wisdom, words of warning.
50% of the country and 99% of the main stream media has no clue that JK warned us all about what was happening and what would continue if Bu$h won...because they were not listening to JK. Or to us.
I recorded all 3 debates. In 4 years, I plan to watch all 3 again. I'll bet the rent that JK will turn out to be 99% correct in everything he said. But Bu$h had them bamboozled...he still does...I just wonder how bad will things get before the "other half" wakes up & realizes they've been 100% bamboozled by Bu$h.
mbk at 03:20 PM
Lack of perspective or credit for Kerry, or the Dems, on anything they've said. It's as if we said nothing during the campaign and stood for nothing. Get the feeling everyone wants to forget the last two years, because they might have to take responsibility for not being part of the solution.
The Dems should be reminding what we tried to have said, did say, so the public understands better the stakes, and that we have been there for them. To what end this embarrassment at loss, when press would have given us a 50 state campaign, and better voting safeguards, the election?
As a Kerry fan, the silence is deafening.
Bob E- they invested a lot in that store, but are so philsophically opposed to unions, would rather shut down than cooperate.
We are trying to stop a Wal-Mart from going in to Queens. Shoppers looking for low prices don't get the big picture of this at all.
Marjorie,
Yes, the attack on unions continues. In weakening or destroying unions, they are also trying to kill a source of Democratic Party financing. And with Republicans dominating both White House and Congress, they're pressing a coordinated, multi-layered assault.
They are now using homeland security as a wedge to change the federal employee personnel system in that department -- and to extend those changes government-wide.
JK's words of wisdom, words of warning.
50% of the country and 99% of the main stream media has no clue that JK warned us all about what was happening and what would continue if Bu$h won...because they were not listening to JK. Or to us.
I recorded all 3 debates. In 4 years, I plan to watch all 3 again. I'll bet the rent that JK will turn out to be 99% correct in everything he said. But Bu$h had them bamboozled...he still does...I just wonder how bad will things get before the "other half" wakes up & realizes they've been 100% bamboozled by Bu$h.
Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at February 11, 2005 05:36 PM
I have all the debates and the convention, he knew what we all knew, and the other half will not wise up soon enough believe me. They are brain dead.
Kangaroo
As a true "security mom," I watched US foreign policy for years, including the mistakes. I watched tv, which I usually don't like to do, in order to see Richard C. Clarke on 60 Minutes & then bought his book the lst day it was available. I even got my former Republican Mom to read it! I bought the 9-11 Commission Report. I worked for 2 years for Senator Kerry to be elected. I started reading The Guardian on 9/11/01 because I wanted to get an idea what kind of bungling intelligence failure has allowed such a thing to happen.
Now that is a true Security Mom.
Next I will tell you how I am a true supporter of the Culture of Life. It begins with a vision since childhood of World Peace. I values health and education and quality of life for everyones' children, not just my own.
We need to reclaim all Orwellian terms the Bush propaganda machine puts out & deconstruct their lies and twistings.