When Is Enough Enough?

Corporatism:

A virus is spreading: It kills democracies and leaves economic devastation in it's wake. The name of this virus is Corporatism

Did You Know?

1. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations; only 49 are countries (based on a comparison of corporate sales and country GDPs).

2. The Top 200 corporations’ sales are growing at a faster rate than overall global economic activity. Between 1983 and 1999, their combined sales grew from the equivalent of 25.0 percent to 27.5 percent of World GDP.

3. The Top 200 corporations’ combined sales are bigger than the combined economies of all countries minus the biggest 10.

4. The Top 200s’ combined sales are 18 times the size of the combined annual income of the 1.2 billion people (24 percent of the total world population) living in “severe” poverty.

5. While the sales of the Top 200 are the equivalent of 27.5 percent of world economic activity, they employ only 0.78 percent of the world’s workforce.

6. Between 1983 and 1999, the profits of the Top 200 firms grew 362.4 percent, while the number of people they employ grew by only 14.4 percent.

7. A full 5 percent of the Top 200s’ combined workforce is employed by Wal-Mart, a company notorious for union-busting and widespread use of part-time workers to avoid paying benefits. The discount retail giant is the top private employer in the world, with 1,140,000 workers, more than twice as many as No. 2, DaimlerChrysler, which employs 466,938.

continue~
http://americanassembler.com/issues/corporate/corporate.html

Globalization.

I did not appreciate going to Bangkok in 1997 and seeing a bunch of 7-11s and McDonalds that weren't there in 1991.

By the way, when I was in Canada I saw ads for American Apparel, which I had read about. They are based in LA and employ 3600 people and produce no-sweat-shop, no-outsourcing, no-logo casual apparel.

Buy thrift. Buy used. Buy less. Buy wholesale.
Boycott large corporations especially red ones.
Research before buying. Think globally, act locally. Try co-ops. Quality over quantity.

I even get spam from Walmart (which I delete without reading and need to block). I've been in Walmart 3x. It killed the entire mainstreet of my mother's town in ND.

Here is the Mission Statement for American Apparel and Telemundo also has a documentary about how they're the "model factory."

It CAN be done.

http://www.americanapparel.net/mission/

http://www.americanapparel.net/

Mega-Corporations don't have souls or a collective conscience, they exist to constantly increase the bottom line. Their motto is: Enough is never enough.

Big Oil, Bigger Profits

By Stephen D. Simpson
January 31, 2005

This just in: Oil prices are up!
Not surprisingly, oil giant ExxonMobil has reaped what production shortages and global tensions have sown. In the fourth quarter, it reaped these higher prices to the tune of a 26% jump in revenue and a nearly 30% increase in earnings per share.
http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2005/mft05013121.htm

The Real War - On American Democracy
by Thom Hartmann
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0411-12.htm

Someone sent this out to all in our Democracy Cell.

Hi all,

It's been a long weekend - and I have just sat down at my computer to catch up with e-mail - so this will be short, but you might want to read this Frank Rich Editorial carefully.  It talks about Fake News in the White House, but also on the Campaign Trail.

The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'
Frank Rich - New York Times

THE prayers of those hoping that real television news might take its cues from Jon Stewart were finally answered on Feb. 9, 2005. A real newsman borrowed a technique from fake news to deliver real news about fake news in prime time.

Let me explain.

On "Countdown," a nightly news hour on MSNBC, the anchor, Keith Olbermann, led off with a classic "Daily Show"-style bit: a rapid-fire montage of sharply edited video bites illustrating the apparent idiocy of those in Washington. In this case, the eight clips stretched over a year in the White House briefing room - from February 2004 to late last month - and all featured a reporter named "Jeff." In most of them, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, says "Go ahead, Jeff," and "Jeff" responds with a softball question intended not to elicit information but to boost President Bush and smear his political opponents. In the last clip, "Jeff" is quizzing the president himself, in his first post-inaugural press conference of Jan. 26. Referring to Harry Reid and Hillary Clinton, "Jeff" asks, "How are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

If we did not live in a time when the news culture itself is divorced from reality, the story might end there: "Jeff," you'd assume, was a lapdog reporter from a legitimate, if right-wing, news organization like Fox, and you'd get some predictable yuks from watching a compressed video anthology of his kissing up to power. But as Mr. Olbermann explained, "Jeff Gannon," the star of the montage, was a newsman no more real than a "Senior White House Correspondent" like Stephen Colbert on "The Daily Show" and he worked for a news organization no more real than The Onion. Yet the video broadcast by Mr. Olbermann was not fake. "Jeff" was in the real White House, and he did have those exchanges with the real Mr. McClellan and the real Mr. Bush.

"Jeff Gannon's" real name is James D. Guckert. His employer was a Web site called Talon News, staffed mostly by volunteer Republican activists. Media Matters for America, the liberal press monitor that has done the most exhaustive research into the case, discovered that Talon's "news" often consists of recycled Republican National Committee and White House press releases, and its content frequently overlaps with another partisan site, GOPUSA, with which it shares its owner, a Texas delegate to the 2000 Republican convention. Nonetheless, for nearly two years the White House press office had credentialed Mr. Guckert, even though, as Dana Milbank of The Washington Post explained on Mr. Olbermann's show, he "was representing a phony media company that doesn't really have any such thing as circulation or readership."

How this happened is a mystery that has yet to be solved. "Jeff" has now quit Talon News not because he and it have been exposed as fakesbut because of other embarrassing blogosphere revelations linking him to sites like hotmilitarystud.com and to an apparently promising careeras an X-rated $200-per-hour "escort." If Mr. Guckert, the author of Talon News exclusives like "Kerry Could Become First Gay President," is yet another link in the boundless network of homophobic Republican closet cases, that's not without interest. But it shouldn't distract from the real question - that is, the real news - of how this fake newsman might be connected to a White House propaganda machine that grows curiouser by the day. Though Mr. McClellan told Editor & Publisher magazine that he didn't know until recently that Mr. Guckert was using an alias, Bruce Bartlett, a White House veteran of the Reagan-Bush I era, wrote on the nonpartisan journalism Web site Romenesko, that "if Gannon was using an alias, the White House staff had to be involved in maintaining his cover." (Otherwise, it would be a rather amazing post-9/11 security breach.)

By my count, "Jeff Gannon" is now at least the sixth "journalist" (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's "marriage" initiatives. The other four have played real newsmen on TV. Before Mr. Guckert and Armstrong Williams, the talking head paid $240,000 by the Department of Education, there were Karen Ryan and Alberto Garcia. Let us not forget these pioneers - the Woodward and Bernstein of fake news. They starred in bogus reports ("In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," went the script) pretending to "sort through the details" of the administration's Medicare prescription-drug plan in 2004. Such "reports," some of which found their way into news packages distributed to local stations by CNN, appeared in more than 50 news broadcasts around the country and have now been deemed illegal "covert propaganda" by the Government Accountability Office.

The money that paid for both the Ryan-Garcia news packages and the Armstrong Williams contract was siphoned through the same huge public relations firm, Ketchum Communications, which itself filtered the funds through subcontractors. A new report by Congressional Democrats finds that Ketchum has received $97 million of the administration's total $250 million P.R. kitty, of which the Williams and Ryan-Garcia scams would account for only a fraction. We have yet to learn precisely where the rest of it ended up.

Even now, we know that the fake news generated by the six known shills is only a small piece of the administration's overall propaganda effort. President Bush wasn't entirely joking when he called the notoriously meek March 6, 2003, White House press conference on the eve of the Iraq invasion "scripted" while it was still going on. (And "Jeff Gannon" apparently wasn't even at that one). Everything is scripted.

The pre-fab "Ask President Bush" town hall-style meetings held during last year's campaign (typical question: "Mr. President, as a child, how can I help you get votes?") were carefully designed for television so that, as Kenneth R. Bazinet wrote last summer in New York's Daily News, "unsuspecting viewers" tuning in their local news might get the false impression they were "watching a completely open forum." A Pentagon Office of Strategic Influence, intended to provide propagandistic news items, some of them possibly false, to foreign news media was shut down in 2002 when it became an embarrassing political liability. But much more quietly, another Pentagon propaganda arm, the Pentagon Channel, has recently been added as a free channel for American viewers of the Dish Network. Can a Social Security Channel be far behind?

It is a brilliant strategy. When the Bush administration isn't using taxpayers' money to buy its own fake news, it does everything it can to shut out and pillory real reporters who might tell Americans what is happening in what is, at least in theory, their own government. Paul Farhi of The Washington Post discovered that even at an inaugural ball he was assigned "minders" - attractive women who wouldn't give him their full names - to let the revelers know that Big Brother was watching should they be tempted to say anything remotely off message.

The inability of real journalists to penetrate this White House is not all the White House's fault. The errors of real news organizations have played perfectly into the administration's insidious efforts to blur the boundaries between the fake and the real and thereby demolish the whole notion that there could possibly be an objective and accurate free press. Conservatives, who supposedly deplore post-modernism, are now welcoming in a brave new world in which it's a given that there can be no empirical reality in news, only the reality you want to hear (or they want you to hear). The frequent fecklessness of the Beltway gang does little to penetrate this Washington smokescreen. For a case in point, you needed only switch to CNN on the day after Mr. Olbermann did his fake-news-style story on the fake reporter in the White House press corps.

"Jeff Gannon" had decided to give an exclusive TV interview to a sober practitioner of by-the-book real news, Wolf Blitzer. Given this journalistic opportunity, the anchor asked questions almost as soft as those "Jeff" himself had asked in the White House. Mr. Blitzer didn't question Mr. Guckert's outrageous assertion that he adopted a fake name because "Jeff Gannon is easier to pronounce and easier to remember." (Is "Jeff" easier to pronounce than his real first name, Jim?). Mr. Blitzer never questioned Gannon/Guckert's assertion that Talon News "is a separate, independent news division" of GOPUSA. Only in a brief follow-up interview a day later did he ask Gannon/Guckert to explain why he was questioned by the F.B.I. in the case that may send legitimate reporters to jail: Mr. Guckert has at times implied that he either saw or possessed a classified memo identifying Valerie Plame as a C.I.A. operative. Might that memo have come from the same officials who looked after "Jeff Gannon's" press credentials? Did Mr. Guckert have any connection with CNN's own Robert Novak, whose publication of Ms. Plame's name started this investigation in the first place? The anchor didn't go there.

The "real" news from CNN was no news at all, but it's not as if any of its competitors did much better. The "Jeff Gannon" story got less attention than another media frenzy - that set off by the veteran news executive Eason Jordan, who resigned from CNN after speaking recklessly at a panel discussion at Davos, where he apparently implied, at least in passing, that American troops deliberately targeted reporters. Is the banishment of a real newsman for behaving foolishly at a bloviation conference in Switzerland a more pressing story than that of a fake newsman gaining years of access to the White House (and network TV cameras) under mysterious circumstances? With real news this timid, the appointment of Jon Stewart to take over Dan Rather's chair at CBS News could be just the jolt television journalism needs. As Mr. Olbermann demonstrated when he borrowed a sharp "Daily Show" tool to puncture the "Jeff Gannon" case, the only road back to reality may be to fight fake with fake.

Iraq, Then and Now

By BOB HERBERT NYT op/ed
Published: February 21, 2005

So tell me again. What was this war about? In terms of the fight against terror, the war in Iraq has been a big loss. We've energized the enemy. We've wasted the talents of the many men and women who have fought bravely and tenaciously in Iraq. Thousands upon thousands of American men and women have lost arms or legs, or been paralyzed or blinded or horribly burned or killed in this ill-advised war. A wiser administration would have avoided that carnage and marshaled instead a more robust effort against Al Qaeda, which remains a deadly threat to America.

What is also dismaying is the way in which the administration has taken every opportunity since Sept. 11, 2001, to utilize the lofty language of freedom, democracy and the rule of law while secretly pursuing policies that are both unjust and profoundly inhumane. It is the policy of the U.S. to deny due process of law to detainees at the scandalous interrogation camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where prisoners, many of whom have turned out to be innocent, are routinely treated in a cruel and degrading manner.

The U.S. is also engaged in the reprehensible practice known as extraordinary rendition, in which terror suspects are abducted and sent off to be interrogated by foreign regimes that are known to practice torture. And the C.I.A. is operating ultrasecret prisons or detention centers overseas for so-called high-value detainees. What goes on in those places is anybody's guess.

It may be that most Americans would prefer not to know about these practices, which are nothing less than malignant cells that are already spreading in the nation's soul. Denial is often the first response to the most painful realities. But most Americans also know what happens when a cancer is ignored.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/opinion/21herbert.html?hp&oref=login

2 Oil "Men" in White House... war in Oil rich country... coincidence?

Exxon tops GE as highest valued firm

Soaring oil prices help No. 1 oil producer also become the biggest as measured by market value.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp. has knocked General Electric Co. from its perch as the world's most valuable public company ranked by stock market capitalization.

Riding the tide of high oil prices, tight U.S. refining capacity and market enthusiasm for its dynamic cash flow growth, Exxon Mobil shares have soared about 40 percent over the last year, outperforming all of the major U.S. stock indexes and GE by nearly 4 to 1. GE is up just 10.3 percent over the same period.

Graphic showing drop in newspaper readership & increased dependence on other sources between 1967 and now:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/daily/graphics/newspapers_022005.html

It's good if more are depending on the internet as it's more "open source" than controlled corporate-sponsored/owned tv. It's also more neutral though, so rightwing also uses it to organize. It is more democratic by nature though, because of its nominal cost & also fast.

Blogs are getting publicity because they have the potential to actually break news but the cut/paste group/list email combo is where things go viral.

Marc Trager

Yes we had an oil man v an environmentalist run for president - a fork in the road & we continued down the wrong path.

Loved Andree's comment under the last topic about the same old wine in a new bottle.

CNN QuickVote

Will President Bush be successful in his fence-mending trip to Europe?

Yes 25% 41313 votes

No 75% 120817 votes

Total: 162130 votes

20% of Canadian & European consumers avoid US brands:

http://www.indymedia.be/news/2005/02/93096.php

& in Adbusters, "Who's Buying Brand America?"

In this article, the author seques from the image of Lyndie England with her leash to Colin Powell SIX MONTHS PRIOR TO 9/11 talking about how we need to bring into the State Department's media people adept at "really branding foreign policy, branding the department, marketing the department, marketing American values to the world."

Fast forward ahead - 9/11. Madison Avenue executives openly talk about saving our global image using the methodology of capitalist branding. Next slide: Abu Graib. This is not the image Colin Powell had in mind.

Now: McDonalds franchises around the world under attack. Muslim-oriented soft drinks spring up as alternatives. Last year a survey of 30,000 consumers in 30 countries found a souring attitude toward American culture and brands.

Pepsi has written a "World Citizen's Guide" for students travelling abroad, encouraging them to be more "humble."

MacDonalds responded by trying to make its menu more local-friendly. Pepsi sponsored cricket in India. Coca Cola funded education grants via the Palestinian Authority. Tourists are encouraged to return to Beirut.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1419221,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4814109,00.html

I'm re-posting Andrée's links from the last thread. Important info contained in both articles.

Great observation by Marc on the last thread about "spreading freedom and democracy" vs. "imposing freedom and democracy" in Iraq. I caught that "framing" in BushCo-speak and Condi-speak over the last few months... and wonder how long red America will refuse to hear the distinctive difference...?

I'm quite sure European leaders know the difference; they've been heads of state longer than BushCo, they are experienced diplomats, and they know how to get along with their neighbors without imposing their will on anyone.

I'm so sorry Europe had to be sullied by first Condisleazy's visit, followed so closely by our PresiDunce.... It's bad enough we have to deal with them in our own country.

I am hoping that the European leaders continue to refuse being taken in by this sudden "conciliatory" rhetoric and once the PresiDunce has left their soil, that they continue on with what they have been doing all along and dismiss him entirely. I've deconstructed some of what's contained in his speeches and he is not being conciliatory at all. He's only trying cajole people to do what he wants them to do, only using "nicer" phrases and a "nicer" tone of voice. Like a little boy trying to get his mommy and/or daddy to forget his destructive and lethal temper tantrum and play nice with him and give him ice cream, even though all treats were forbidden him when he misbehaved.... Europe: Don't be fooled by the con man who is lying through his teeth so he can further his own agenda and that of the corporations who support him - please!!! Send Bush, badly misbehaving child that he is, to stand in the corner for punishment, and don't let him off the hook or shorten his banishment to the corner or give him what he wants. Keep him and his cronies ostracized from polite company. Blue America is relying on the leaders of other countries to maintain a mature adult stance when it comes to BushCo and his evil minions....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Buy thrift. Buy used. Buy less. Buy wholesale.
Boycott large corporations especially red ones.
Research before buying. Think globally, act locally. Try co-ops. Quality over quantity.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 21, 2005 09:54 AM

Wise words, DiAnne.... I'm already doing that, also. Buying only what's necessary, even making lists of what to buy in advance, so my lists are limited to food and necessary household stuff... if it ain't on the list, I don't buy it (that's a wonderful impulse buying control strategy!).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the Color Me Amazed department: I actually heard the recording of shrubbie talking about his marijuana use on two networks: CBS in the middle of the night on their news, and this morning on a news segment of GMA. CBS overnight news had about two seconds (literally - I'm sure it didn't get to five seconds even) of video of European demonstrators against Bush, as did ABC this morning. It was a brief blip of video and anyone who wasn't watching missed it. (I did notice, however, that the anchors' tone of voice was carefully neutral in their mention of the European demonstrators....) Of shrubbie's visit to Europe they used the White House rhetoric and put a positive spin on the visit.... of course.

Bush in Brussels blog:

http://superblog.org/planet/bushinbrussels/

Quicktime movie showing antiBush protest - expressed as in solidarity with those in the US who oppose the invasion & occupation of Iraq:

http://www.indymedia.be/news/2005/02/93168.php

This is yesterday's protest:

http://www.indymedia.be/news/2005/02/93126.php

Party time!!

Unveiling the Corporate Greed Market
by Jim Hightower

The official line of the Powers That Be is that corporations simply do what their customers want. It’s nothing but “supply and demand” action they tell us, the glorious free market in excelsius deo.

Nice theory, but reality is another story. For example, thanks to insider tapes from Enron that George Bush’s justice department was recently forced to release, we can hear the free-market thoughts of one Enron trader talking to another about all the money they “stole from those poor grandmothers in California” by manipulating the energy market in 2001: “Yeah, Grandma Millie, man. But she’s the one who couldn’t figure out how to [blankety-blank] vote on the butterfly ballot. Yeah, now she wants her [blankety-blank] money back for all the power you’ve charged right up — jammed right up her [blankety-blank] for [blankety-blank] 250 dollars a megawatt hour.”

Enron executives used market-manipulation techniques that they colorfully dubbed “sidewinder,” “Russian roulette,” “ping pong,” and “donkey punch.”

Charming, huh? Other Enroners brag on the tapes about cheating still more “poor grandmothers,” about shutting down an Enron-controlled power plant to drive up electricity prices, and about how “awesome” it will be if Enron’s honcho, Kenny-boy Lay, is chosen by his pal Bush to be the new energy secretary.

Alas for Kenny Boy, Enron was crashing and he was too politically hot to get the energy job, but George still helped him out. For the first several months of his administration, he deliberately forestalled demands to impose price controls to stop Enron’s gouging of West Coast consumers. In that time, the corporation essentially stole billions of dollars from its unsuspecting customers — and Kenny Boy himself was able to bail out with a $100 million golden parachute.

Corporations today don’t operate in a “free market” — they operate in a greed market, aided and abetted by the political puppets they put in office.

~~fighting Big Oil for the right to breathe...

The Toxic Terror of Diamond, Louisiana

By Ruth Rosen Dissent Magazine February 21, 2005.

In one of the most remarkable tales ever told about the environmental justice movement, an African American community fought for, and won, the human right to breathe clean air.
continue~
http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21286/

http://www.pvda.be/images/solidair2002/sol4702/AFFICHE_STOPUSA_1901_FR500.jpg

One of many flyers in prep for Bush's visit to Europe

NonnyO

Andree sent me an article in French from "Journal L'humanite" and I slowly worked my way through it but it was really good. Really spot on. Bush is not interested in multilateralism, as Kerry was - not at all. He expects the Europeans to help finance a war they didn't start and in fact opposed - that is destabilizing the middle eastern populations in their own countries. The article points out how Condoleezza visited Europe and only parroted her boss's positions and made no bones about it. Andree also sent me an interesting African article about how Condi doesn't represent people there at all, other than having similar color skin.
of citizens have internet access & most have cable or satellite - that's alot of bloggers & disseminators!! 83% are on-line & surpass the national average by 21%. Seattle Wireless Network was crreated by a blogger. This is free and allows email & data sending without even logging onto the internet (within city).

Hooray for the Urban Archipelago! We also have a new library (I will go for lst time today) that is environmentally-friendly in design. I have been looking at job listings in Canada but maybe I'll stay here & see how we do in the 2006 elections.

DiAnne:

I distinctly remember reading a story last summer about letters supposedly being written by our soldiers from Iraq to national newspaper syndications praising everything Bush did in Iraq and finding out weeks later that those letters were not from soldiers but fake letters written by folks tied to the RNC. Do you recall that story and has anyone looked into its ties to Gannon. Sounds like Nixon's dirt tricksters.

DiAnne---

Wow, what a flyer. Imagine a web site called STOPUSA. The word Manifestation on the top made me think INFESTATION. Like a virus descended on this country, and spread around the world. That flyer will never make it into the MSM, and I can't help but feel that if more people in this country found out that we are being labeld 'aggressors' they might justlook at things a little differently. The sad thing is, I am equally sure that there are those who would say 'serves them right' and the the U.S. deserves to have it's way in all things. The world is calling this a war for oil, WE call it a war for oil, and the faithful are imposing, oh er, um spreading freedom and democracy.

Ira

I remember that too! We are not imagining it!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3190934.stm

In my recollection, someone at the Tacoma News Tribune noticed some identical letters.

Here is Talking Points Memo on it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3190934.stm

Wal-Mart as the new robber barons.

Barry I wouldn't even know where to begin on this one, as I said my own town has been strangled to death by them and I have to buy there..

Ok Ill vent then ...Wal Mart Stupor Centers You Suck and I personaly hope a law abiding president knocks you on your arse one fine day....

Ok Barry I know that wasn't the perspective you had in mind but I am a sinner who is forced onto the dark path of walmart the town killers...

Christy,

Unfortunately, many people are forced to work at walmart of places like walmart.

I'm wondering if we can harness this anger and create a storm on Congress and in the Walmart's of the world. Make calls and demand a wage that is higher than the poverty level; demand goods made in America; and ask Congress to demand these low paying jobs provide healthcare to their employees.

Picket the stores, Call washington, call the business headquarters and create a MOVEMENT out of this frustration.

And demand tax breaks for businesses who provide a great wages, great benefits, and buy and support Americans.

on topic---

I had a conversation with a Wal Mart shopper just the other day. She has no car, rides the bus to all her destinations, and in her area, as soon as the superstore went up, the bus company made the front door of the store a brand new stop. Now, instead of having to ride the bus to several destinations, and pay various fares, she can get all her shopping done in one place. Not only that, the Wal Mart runs are more regular than the trips and stops through town to get to local businesses. This woman lives on a disability, and her options are limited in how to best use her income. She even misses the congenial contact that she had with long-time local business owners, but if she tries to continue to patronize them, she has less to spend on them when she gets there. I can't find it in my heart to fault her, she never planned to be poor and sick.

I've seen mom and pop stores and main streets fold up shop when a Wal Mart comes to town too. I know full well how we lose our communities and neighborly ways when a big box store hits town. If Wal Mart is making more and more money, it's because we are turning out more and more people who just don't have a choice.

Those of us who just do not shop Wal Mart are a drop in the bucket, compared to those who feel they have to. The cycle goes on and on, doesn't it?

It would take a Perfect Storm (of dare I say, Biblical proportions) to create enough outrage to offset the likes of WalMarch.

That kinda dough doesn't roll over easily.

And Congress? Well, they have become a fairly useless institution with their very own special "Red Tag" sale.

But you are correct, there needs to be a huge groundswell, on so many fronts... and it has to come from within.

You say you want a revolution?

DiAnne,

I'm happy you could get trough the bunch of French articles I mailed you today.
From left to right, the feeling is the same, and we trust very little the diplomatic new style of Chimperator. No one can change overnight.
We have a totally different approach of foreign policy and do not intend to pay tribute to the Commander in Chief. His system showed its limits.
Though we kept collaborating in the past years or months on specific topics, we know Bush came for money....in order to support his war and policy.
How far is he ready to go to get our precious €uros?
How far can we go in playing fair game?
This is the question.

again on topic----

I do have to still be amazed that some of these same poor people who shop at Wal Mart also voted for W. That plainly puzzles me more than anything else. Have people really been educated to think that this is all they can expect out of life, that this is all they deserve? Have they accepted that this is as good as it gets and if they rock the boat, it could get worse?

Do they know they are going to get substandard education for their kids, and live in low rent, high risk housing forever? Are they sure that the promises of 'community college' and 'neighborhood health centers' aren't coming to them soon, so they have to hold onto what little they have? Do they go vote with that much fear in their lives that what little they have could be taken from them, and yet the very people who have been keeping them down are the same people who give them no assistance in being lifted up?

On this whole Walmart thing, I think if the concept of unions is not regenerated, then that is the future we are looking at. Hang together or hang separately, as they used to say.

Chuck in Baku

Chuck in Baku again as long as I’m up on a Soap Box:

And on the consumer side, on this Walmart thing, that reminds me of another pet peeve of mine. I remember we used to have this Cosco stool in our kitchen. My folks bought it in the early fifties. It’s still being used. Another one we bought in the ‘seventies fell apart in the ‘eighties. Here in Baku, we get the “made in China” (or Pakistan) rejects from the US/EU market – look the same, but missing some safety components. But they are only marginally worse than what I can buy in the states. I remember recently getting a Bic-type lighter in Germany – made in Germany – it lasted for about a year. The ones I but here, that look the same, last a week or so, though they cost about a quarter as much. So you do the math – one lasts fifty times longer but costs four times as much. Likewise stupid things like pencil sharpeners. I bought one in Innsbruck – made in Germany – two years ago. Still sharp, and still sharpens. Much more expensive than the ones I buy in Baku – which sharpen for a month or so. Folks, we are getting the short end of the stick here. It don’t take a Ralph Nader to figure out we are being abused as consumers. I think that is on topic. How do we address this given our political system? I’ll be moving back to the states soon and I hate the idea of outfitting my place with junk.

Chuck in Baku

Casey...awsome post!
I have struggled with the question many times myself, and with friends, as to "when excess has been reached"...when DOES the 'free enterprise system' reach a limit...or does it EVER reach a limit. When you are say, for instance, Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, and are the worlds richest man, owner of the worlds richest company...are you expected to, for example, 'give all k-12 school districts free windows?'or third world governments?...SHOULD society have the right to expect that from Bill?

Tough question...but for myself, I believe that after you have stepped on enough people, and reached the top of your particular mountain...you should look back down, and lend a hand to those that you stepped over, or right smack dab ON, during your rise to the top. No body does that today...they continue to keep looking for that next step up, never giving back to the system that made it possible for them to succeed.

This, in my mind, is the fundamental difference between the wealthy, and average citizens. The wealthy will always oppose the idea that they somehow 'owe' a debt to society for their accumulation of wealth...where the 'common person' figures that the system the wealthy were fortunate enough to have available, to be able to manipulate successfully, was built on the backs of the collective efforts of ALL society...and therefore, they most definately DO owe society its due.

Like I said before...."Tough question" ;)

pcdoc:

What you posted reminds me, oddly enough, of something a freind of mine from Arkansas always says: be careful of who you step on on your way up; you might be stepping on them on your way down. My take on that is "Don't tread on Me."

Chuck in Baku.

PS: We'll get them if we are patient, smart, and cool.

hey doc---

isn't that what we've all been saying. where are the ultra mega super wealthy going to get more if there isn't any MORE?

once you drive the the majority of the population into the ultra super mega poor class, just where do you go to get MORE?

there is a limit to everything. i can't fathom having a million dollars, anymore than i can fathom having a billion. but once you get that billion, what else can you buy? how many houses, cars, luxury vacations, are there before you've done it all, seen it all bought it all?

what happens when even for the richest of the rich, there is just no MORE?

In a way, we have returned to early in the industrial age, before the unions existed and businesses and the wealthy walked over people.

Perhaps, it's a good time for people to reread Upton Sinclairs Book The Jungle. Of course the book was originally written for the working class, but it was the conditions in the food industry that provoked change.

Dear All from Chuck in Baku:

Well, what the hay, I might as well throw this out. This is something I worked up a while back which I wish I had during the run-up to the last election cycle when trolls asked why we were for the alternative (as opposed to what we were against). In the context of this thread, items D, E and F below might be germain. Sorry if this is a bit pedantic, but, as I said, what the hay:

I. First Principles

A. When taking a position on any issue, don’t ask “will this position fly politically?” Ask “is it right? Does it correspond with our principles? If so, which?” Then, figure out how to make it fly politically.
B. As per the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, American government rests on two principles that may often conflict: majority rule and inalienable individual rights. Two corollaries to that would be: (1) The use of coercive force inside America must always respect inalienable individual rights and must only be used to according to majority rule; and (2) The use by America of coercive force outside America may only be undertaken in order to defend the vital interests of the majority as clearly enunciated to that majority and to the world community and only after all means short of the application of coercive force have been thoroughly exhausted.
C. Majority rule requires the most transparent, free and fair elections that can reasonably be provided for, and the franchise must be limited only to coming of age (e.g., 18), and the procedures set forth in the Constitution today are not necessarily the best ones for achieving this.
D. The well being of the people is best served by a predominately market economy, respecting individual property rights, but well regulated by majority rule to promote the following goals: (1) achieving the highest possible standard of living of the entire population, (2) insuring the environmental sustainability of economic activities, (3) maintaining the best health, safety, environmental and educational practices, (4) insuring fair labor practices, (5) guaranteeing a reasonable baseline standard of living and access to opportunity for the poorest citizens, and (6) ensuring maximum financial transparency in publicly traded organizations to protect the rights of shareholders in such organizations while providing for a fair and even playing field for all such organizations and protecting privileged information within that organization from unfair exposure to competitors.
E. Regulation of markets, as an imposition of majority rule on individual rights (and, in this sense, a corporation of any kind is a legal person) should only be undertaken when such regulations meet one of the six goals enumerated above and can be designed to allow for monitoring and enforcement with a reasonable outlay of resources and without infringing inalienable individual rights.
F. Direct government involvement in economic activities, as opposed to market regulation strategies, outside of the minimum required to maintain government offices, officers, agencies and agents themselves, should be undertaken only in the cases of providing for the following needs: (1) national security, including security with respect to threats from foreign militaries, environmental change, and public health and safety exposures; (2) public knowledge and education; (3) public domain arts and sciences, and (4) the provision of such public infrastructure, facilities and utilities that might be required to promote these special needs or to foster growth in the market economy.

Chuck in Baku

Chuck in Baku again (I think this is Presidents’ Day in the states):

Just wanted to post something from Abraham Lincoln in that respect from my Encyclopedia Britannica CD (off topic somewhat, I admit, but like the Stones, somehow always appropriate to my way of thinking):

“The text quoted in full below represents the fifth of five extant copies of the address in Lincoln's handwriting; it differs slightly from earlier versions and may reflect, in addition to afterthought, interpolations made during the delivery.

“’Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
“’Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

“’But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we can not hallow--this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.’”

Chuck in Baku signing off (GMT+4, NYC+9, PDX+12)

This from the Arizona progressives...

On the way home from the DFA (Democracy for America) meeting in Tucson tonight, my head was full of “annoy a conservative” slogans. There was one on the table: “Annoy a Conservative: Care about Someone Besides Yourself!” Last weekend at the PDA (Progressive Democrats of America) forum in Phoenix, Tom Racey spotted one saying, “Annoy a Conservative: Defend the Constitution.”

So, I am making up some new e-bumper stickers. Here is my first one of a long list. Each day I could have a new e-bumper sticker on my e-mail. You may use them if you like them. I would love your suggestions, if it’s OK to use them and you won’t be offended if I alter them or don’t use one. The thing I like about them, is each one says something we WANT.

For those without HTML, this one says: Annoy a Conservative: Defend Life after Birth.

Someday this year I hope to have a web site up, and I can post stuff like this more easily.

The ten most Repub at-risk seats...

http://hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021705/gop.html

Native Americans Back From Iraq Decry Cutback

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30683-2005Feb16.html

[snip]
Saying that conditions in Indian country are worse than conditions in Iraq, two Native American war veterans spoke out yesterday against the Bush administration's plan to cut millions of dollars from a fund that helps build houses on reservations.

Chuck--

I think you might still be looking for Utopia?

There are way too many things wrong with government overseeing business and business influencing government.The marriage is working just fine,(for them) and there is no impetus to change it.

As long as the people who do bother to vote (and the percentage is still shameful)keep electing fat cats bought be special interest lobbies, we feed them the right to keep right on doing what they do.

You get what you pay for, and the idea is to get people to stop paying for things that slit their own throats. How many people put the weapon in the hands of the people who are gleefully going to employ it?

People forget that they own government. Now a days, politicans are like rock stars, people look at them in awe and delight, instead of acting like the boss. We might never have a perfect world, where everyone lives a perfect life, but we do bear the responsibility for trying to get it.

Battlebob, I signed off but what the hay:

"Annoy a Conservative: Defend Individual Liberties."

"Annoy a Conservative: Stick up for Your Community."

"Annoy a Conservative: Help Families Cope."

OK, lame, but the best I can do at this point. God Bless and GOTV in 2006!

Chuck in Baku

Annoy a Conservative: Teach Them How To Research

Chuck in Baku for Mark Trager:

I love that! How about: Annoy a Conservative: Deal in Reality (or facts or respect science or something along those lines).

Chuck in Baku

Back in the late 70s, as newspaper Business Editor in Denver, my husband wrote interesting Sunday features, like are recessions inevitable, some humorous. Still relevant here, and from all his years watching and interviewing, he wrote "Are Corporate Ever Enough?" The end was no, of course, and it was kind of question that stumped hero Paul Samuelson, when he asked. Corporations don't think modest, moderate, for society as a whole, long-term, none of the concepts of accommodation. Corporations just can't be trusted to be good citizens, typically.

Chuck in Baku to All:

Remember, corporations are not people. Corporations are a form of organization that allow for econimic activity while limiting the liability of owners. We should not "anthropomorphize" them. They, like any other communal activity, are subject to the rules applied by the political community in which they exist.

Chuck in Baku

Why triple-talented Dean spells trouble for Republicans

Full story: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002185662_reed21.html

NOW that Howard Dean has ascended to the chairmanship of the Democrat National Committee, Republicans are high-fiving one another with such mad glee that you'd think Democrats had just nominated Dennis Kucinich to run in 2008.

The GOP needs to sit back down, recork the champagne and get back to work. Whether they know it or not, Republicans need to understand that Dean spells trouble for the Republican Party. Big trouble.

Republicans may think that the nomination of Dean is hysterically funny; a scream, in fact, as George Will recently put it; but they are deluding themselves if they think Dean is nothing more than a wild-eyed ideologue with a temper and a cult following.

Dean brings three talents to the chairmanship that can potentially sink not just a GOP presidential candidate in 2008 but the Republican-controlled House and maybe even the Senate well before then.

First, he's a fund-raiser par excellence. Lest we Republicans forget, not only did Howard Dean set records for fund raising, he set them in one of the most imaginative, difficult and unorthodox ways imaginable; namely, through the Internet. And remember, he set those records not by initially tapping the big-money crowd but by combing through the grass roots for nickels and dimes.

Second, and more important, Dean knows not only how to raise money but what to do with it once he gets it. He has repeatedly declared that he's going to rebuild the Democratic Party from the bottom up, blade by blade, volunteer by volunteer, state by state, because he understands that face-to-face get-out-the-vote programs, not slick advertising or direct-mail merchandizing, are what win elections.

Not only does he have a mountain of scholarly evidence confirming; Yale, of all places, has a group of scholars insisting that the only get-out-the-vote effort that works at all is face-to-face contact; but he also has the elections of 2004 to go on. After all, virtually every commentator and analyst in politics is claiming that the Bush victory is owed largely to its monumental grass-roots get-out-the-vote effort. And if Dean stands for anything, it's the importance of grass-roots politics.

Third, he is charismatic. And this is where Republicans make their biggest mistake in judging him. They believe his allegedly vegan, bohemian liberalism will appeal only to lefties from New England and Seattle.

Well, maybe so, but that's not the secret to Dean's charisma or his recent DNC election. Dean's appeal doesn't lie primarily in the fact that he's a great speaker (although he is) but in the fact that he's a great listener.

Grass-roots activists in both parties have been so starved for attention and support during the past 20 years that they will flock to the first person who promises to listen and do what he can to support them.

And that, more than anything else, was the message that Dean took to the party faithful in his campaign for the party chairmanship: He's there for them, not for the insiders, not for the professionals, and certainly not for the consultants. Dean will be there for the hardworking activists who make up the rank and file.

Contrast this to the state of the Republican base right now. No less a figure than Rush Limbaugh is warning the president that he faces a mutiny if he and the Republican Congress don't control spending and protect the borders, the two top concerns of the GOP rank and file.

In fact, if Republican leadership fails here, the GOP will have bigger problems than Howard Dean.

Now more than ever, the Republican Party needs to toss its heavy-handed, top-down management style overboard and rejuvenate its grass-roots parties. Howard Dean already has.

Reed Davis is an associate professor of political science at Seattle Pacific University. He ran for the GOP nomination to the U.S. Senate last year, and is a former chairman of the King County Republican Party.

Anyone see the PBS show "Now" this week. They talked about a local township supervisor who ran on a "Stop the Quarry" campaign, won and was then threatened with a lawsuit by the proposed-quarry land owner if he then voted against the quarry. They claimed his vote would be bias because it was his campaign theme and would deprive them of their property without due process of law. This all relates back to the late 1860s when corporations hijacked the 14th Amendment that was supposed to protect newly freed African-Americans and other potential targets of slavery and discrimination. Corporations got the status of "person" under the 14th and most of the law under it has nothing to do with minorities or protecting people from future threats of slavery, but protects corporations by creating potential lawsuits they then use to prevent citizen's groups from protecting their communities. The mis-use of the 14th Amendment has been one of the biggest tragedies of our history and still affects us today.

You know the article I just posted about Dean?

If you make it all the way to the bottom, notice that it was written by an impressed Republican.

I want to give some props to Babblefish, promoting world peace through global communication (translatin).

http://www.babblefish.com/babblefish/

Chuck in Baku for Tutterfly:

I think that we need to get people to start cozying up to the idea that the government -- in an ostensibly democratic republic -- represents them (by default or otherwise). The fact that moneyed interests have more access to the process than regular folks is exactly what we should be fighting.

I don't believe I'll ever see Utopia, or that such a thing might exist. And I don't really worry about that. I do want to live my life in a way that allows me to tell my daughter, someday, that life can be better if we believe that it must be and if we fight and strive to make it so. And that if we fail we still have a moral obligation to pass that torch to the next generation. I also want to pass on to my daughter the idea that failure in a righteous cause is infinitely more worthy than success in the cause of falsehood and vanity.

To me, it's all about sticking with what I believe to be true and right. For now, for me, that means trying my best to convince whichever Americans I might that we need to unite and use the democratic process to further our common interest in creating an environment that helps all families live in a dignified and meaningful way.

Ouch. I re-read the above and it sounds very self-righteous and pompous. But I'll go ahead and post anyway because I know we are on the same side and I have faith that you all will take it as an affirmation rather than a criticism!

Respectfully Yours,

Chuck in Baku

3:31 Just realized I left out the big word-profit. Are Corporate Profits Ever Enough? Sorry.

DiAnne:

I thought you were a Dennis fan!

Go Howard Dean!

Chuck in Baku

PS: We'll get them. It will take a lot of hard work and a lot of faith but we will.

OT--but we need to know:

This week's podcast is really fun! Andrew and Fe are talking about Gannon and shame. Also--there's an easy way each of us can be part of the next podcast, so CHECK IT OUT:

http://www.democracycellproject.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=364&st=40

Marjorie G.:

Corporate profits, ceteris paribus (other things being equal, I think), don't mean anything other than attracting investment to activities that conform to "consumer sovereignty" (Pareto), thereby directing economic activity into avenues that best fit the needs of the consumer (us). Having said that, when it becomes obvious that some activity that generates relatively high profits damages the interests of significant parts of the population, it is up to that population, in a democratic republic, to commission legislators to deal with that.

Chuck in Baku

Chuck---

not pompous at all. it sounds like the way i feel. get it right for the children is my goal too. we won't give them perfect, but we should be able to give them enough tools to go into the battle. tell you daughter that i am making my kids into people she will be able to call friends in the future.

Chuck, which brings up another circular argument. How can we legislate greed? The morality of greed.

Chazman

I like them all. I supported Kerry for the combo of foreign & domestic policy experience.

I posted the Dean article because 1) it's local, 2) it's by a Republican, 3) it makes some good points.

I always hated the primaries because Democrats had to go into a "survival of the fittest" mode in full view of the Republicans, who then stole the Dem attacks from the primaries & refined them for the general eletion.

DiAnne:

Me too. I thought we had a stellar group of candidates this time. Sorry, I was just yanking your chain on the Dennis thing! My bad. I liked Kerry from the start because I remember the run-up to the Iran-Contra hearings.

Chuck in Baku

To Marjorie G. from Chuck in Baku:

Marjorie, I don't look at it so much as legislating greed as changing the rules of the game such that greed works toward the purposes of the wider community, as expressed through legislative regulation, as expressed through voter preferences, rather than against it. Greed in and of itself isn't necessarily bad in this formulation -- wasn't it Samuel Gompers who said, when asked "what does the American Worker want," answered "more."

Chuck in Baku

Tutterfly:

Sounds good. Now, if only I could get my daughter to practice her violin!

Chuck in Baku (home town of Rostopovich)

Chuck---

In our house we live to dance. Wall to wall jazz.
And gymnastics, no one here can be still. They have to move in order to to keep themselves happy. All I have to do is keep the car gassed up and my schedule clear to be the taxi service.

And, I wouldn't have it any other way, with the children, I can breathe.

Tutterfly:

We're a bit Stones too:

Our love was like the water,
That splashes on a stone,
Our love is like our music,
That's here, and then, it's gone.

Chuck in Baku (melodramatically going off line -- couldn't help it --headphones -- and lost my slide to boot)

Check out this report from the Center for Rural Affairs to find out the cost of shopping at Wal-Mart.

Report Finds U.S. Taxpayers Subsidize Low Wages

Each Wal-Mart store costs federal taxpayers over $2,000 per employee to supplement low wage levels, according to a congressional study released by U.S. Representative George Miller. For a store with 200 employees, the report estimates taxpayers each year pay:
http://www.cfra.org/newsletter/2004_05.htm

This is from the LUTD site and is one of my favorite writers: William Lind.

More Election Ju-ju
http://www.d-n-i.net/lind/lind_2_09_05.htm
[snip]
While the elections themselves did not re-create a state in Iraq, they may have opened a door to doing so – a narrow door, but one Iraq and the U.S. might pass through if both prove more adroit than they have in the past. The key to success – and success remains less likely than failure – is for both the new Iraqi government and Washington to understand that the critical issue is legitimacy. No Iraqi regime can retain legitimacy if it is seen as a creature of the United States.

Defense and the National Interest.

http://www.d-n-i.net/
[snip]
Did you know that we are spending as much on defense as we did during the height of the Cold War? Yet many of our military leaders tell us they don't have enough money and that we need to buy more modern and expensive weapons to assure our national security.

What BushCo and the top military really think about veterans.

[snip]
Senior administration officials are openly complaining that costs of honoring commitments to veterans are hurting their ability to fund massive weapons programs [Wall St. J., 25 Jan 2005.] To pay for these new weapons, the Pentagon and the Office of Management and the Budget have proposed a number of cuts in other accounts, including funding for military families. Recent proposals include closing some commissaries and dependent schools and tripling the costs that retirees pay for generic medicines.

Another Lind article about a possible China-Japan war and the likely result..

http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Lind_021505,00.html

[snip]
China's present grand strategy is to avoid conflicts and build up her economic strength. She is happy to watch potential rivals dissipate their strength in wars while she drives their industry into the ground. The Chinese government takes a long view of history.

~Bu$h in Europe, now esp. with Chirac, pretending to be a diplomat....oh puh-leeze!
once again, Bu$h is following John Kerry's lead...we knew this would happen. JK leads the way, putting forth real ideas for America & the world....Bu$hco & his repub sheeple ridicule JK and the very idea of "nuanced" diplomacy...then Bu$h follows JK's lead, and attempts to do what John Kerry advised all along...Bu$h calls it diplomacy and sheeple applaud....
Some days, I just want to scream & rage at the hypocrisy....

Scott Ritter Says U.S. Plans June Attack On Iran:
Ritter said plans for a June attack on Iran have been submitted to President George W. Bush, and that the president has approved them. He also asserted that knowledgeable sources say U.S. officials "cooked" the results of the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq.
http://207.44.245.159/article8130.htm

Paul Craig Roberts: Bush Outfoxed By Bin Laden:
Any day now the neocons may orchestrate a scenario that will suck the US into a wider war that America has no possibility of winning. If the American people had the slightest sense of their danger, they would demand immediate US withdrawal from Iraq and accountability for the liars who orchestrated the ill-fated US invasion.
http://207.44.245.159/article8133.htm

We Aren't Fighting to Win Anymore:
U.S. troops in Iraq are only trying to buy time.
http://207.44.245.159/article8134.htm

Why Bush will fail in Europe :
The President has an enormous political gulf to bridge. The trouble is, he doesn't even know it's there
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1418548,00.html

Why isn't Bob Novak going to jail?:
Will someone please explain in simple, easy-to-understand language, why we never see right-wing pundit Bob Novak's name mentioned in the same breath as reporters facing jail time for contempt in the Valerie Plame affair?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05049/459428.stm

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious.” Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

“A man who has in mind an apparent advantage and promptly proceeds to dissociate this from the question of what is right shows himself to be mistaken and immoral. Such a standpoint is the parent of assassinations, poisonings, forged wills, thefts, malversations of public money, and the ruinous exploitation of provincials and Roman citizens alike. Another result is passionate desire — desire for excessive wealth, for unendurable tyranny, and ultimately for the despotic seizure of free states. These desires are the most horrible and repulsive things imaginable. The perverted intelligences of men who are animated by such feelings are competent to understand the material rewards, but not the penalties. I do not mean penalties established by law, for these they often escape. I mean the most terrible of all punishments: their own degradation.”Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

Oh, puh-leeze!!!! PresiDunce...

One question each: Europe's leaders are awarded topics for their presidential chat

By Stephen Castle in Brussels
21 February 2005

As the leader of the free world George Bush is known to be a busy man. There have also been question-marks in the past over his attention span and dislike of protracted debate, but, even by the standards of the Bush White House, the assembled heads of Europe will be given short shrift tomorrow when they gather to address the President of the United States.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=613151

I think about that last OBL video before the election. W. is doing OBL's work for him. He can sit in his cave or some luxury suite provided by his admirers and he never has to lift a finger again. America didn't do the instant crumble after 9-11, but this slow death must suit just as well. I know that there have to be people around the world, who sympathize with the agony we are going through, and I'm grateful for their empathy.There is no win coming. Not here, not in the Middle East, not anywhere. How many dead people, from 9-11 through Afghanistan to Iraq and on to Iran will it take till it becomes a win?

Since there isn't an answer, I know you will pardon my weeping. Grab that box of tissues, gang, there are more tears to be shed.

On to victory

You're right. I read this morning an article by Reuters, stating that a memo had been distributed to the EU deputees asking them NOT to raise questions that might hurt Bush (getting him blowing the fuses?): Kyoto, International Court of justice...

On the news we saw Bush laughing a lot when asked if he would invite Chirac to his ranch, and answering "I must find a gig... I need a cowboy". Chirac said again that the Franco American relationship was very strong, (traditional blah, blah) but that they kept disagreing about Irak.
In the meantime we could hear the protesters under the windows of the American Embassy. Though Brussels has been turned into a Washington bis, they are there, yelling at Chimp about Irak and the Kyoto protocol.

The dems have not been forgotten in the media. There is a vey long interview of Joe Biden in Le Monde.

Kerry sees hope to mend ties between U.S., France

January 16, 2005

BY ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS -- Sen. John Kerry's French connection was treated as a liability during his bid for the U.S. presidency. On Friday, he used his popularity here to try to help rebuild strained ties between Paris and Washington and expressed confidence that would happen.

The Massachusetts Democrat was in Paris at the close of a tour of Europe and the Middle East that included trips to Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank.

In a meeting with President Jacques Chirac, the former presidential candidate discussed frayed relations between France and the United States.

''I'm convinced there's an opportunity here to bring that relationship closer,'' he said.

'A responsibility to do more'

He and Chirac discussed Iraq, Iran and the Middle East peace process, Kerry said.

''Succeeding in Iraq and winning the war on terror will take a global effort, and I have conveyed that in my meetings with heads of state in the Middle East and Europe,'' Kerry said in a statement. ''We all have a stake in the outcome of Iraq, and I believe they have a responsibility to do more.''

Kerry visited U.S. forces in the volatile northern Iraqi city of Mosul. ''This has been a good trip. It was very important for me personally to thank our brave men and women in uniform for their service and assess the situation in Iraq,'' he said.

Kerry, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, forecast a meeting between Chirac and Bush. ''I hope President Bush will have an opportunity to meet the president,'' he told reporters. ''I'm confident that will happen, not just the meeting but the movement in the right direction.''

Kerry spoke English during the meeting and Chirac spoke French, presidential spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said. Kerry, accompanied by his daughter Vanessa, declined to speak in French to reporters, saying his French was rusty.

He would have won French vote

Kerry has a Gallic clan in Saint-Briac-Sur-Mer, in western France, including cousin Brice Lalonde, a former environmental minister. As a boy, Kerry spent summers there. The French relatives kept a low profile during the campaign.

France's adamant opposition to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq left ties between Paris and Washington in tatters and put France-bashing in vogue in the United States.

Kerry has a high sympathy rating in France where polls before the U.S. election showed that he would have won by a landslide if the French could vote.

Kerry's meeting with Chirac came hours after talks in London with British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the prospect of peace in the Middle East. He met Thursday with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

AP

Good link, otv4D...!!! We get great info from foreign presses...!!! :-)

Andrée - I'm sure shrubbie does not want any questions coming his way he can't answer. Likely they've arranged for questions to be given to him in advance so he can memorize the answers. No one, and I mean NO ONE should believe a word that comes out of his lying mouth!!! He's just trying to coerce the leaders in Europe to go along with whatever he wants done. Shameful, in my opinion!!!

And, like, aren't the other leaders of other nations just as busy as shrubbie, if not more so?!? Bu$h should be limited to five minutes, too!!!

Tutterfly: I'll bring another box of tissues... we can cry together.....

I forgot. During his speech at the Royal Palace in Brussels this morning, Bush didn't get any applause except about.... Lebanon.

We must be a bit dumb, he was explaining to us that we are the best friends on earth and that we are going to work hand in hand for a better world!

Which world?

Andree-

the one with the other internets.

I'm sure shrubbie does not want any questions coming his way he can't answer.
Posted by: NonnyO at February 21, 2005 07:38 PM

Ok, I have yet to hear the man give an answer to a single question that has made any sense since the campaign in 2000... and I am NOT kidding.

Always looking incredibly uncomfortable when fielding questions, he consistently gives the most rambling, incoherent responses to questions I have ever heard or read in all my years of studying politics.

He has a few key words and phrases that he has up his sleeve (or his back) and he relies heavily on them, depending on the topic.

So to sum if up Nonny, I'm sure any question is one he does not want to answer.

Thank you for all of the nice compliments about this thread header. When I write a header, I am never really sure, what or how something might resonate. I know that whatever I am writing about, I chose because it resonated with me. It's not a question of wanting to write about something, but needing to write about it.

When I read about this story, I knew that it was something I needed to write about.

It's nice to see this topic resonating with so many people on the blog, because i think this, on some level, gets to the very heart of what we are fighting for, and what we are fighting against.

A troll on another blog asked alst summer at the height of the campaign, well, just what is it you democrats like? It seems like nothing ever satisfies you. And it made me think. And what I thought about was this:

It's not a question of Republicans against Democrats, or right against left. It's a question of how we see ourselves in the larger sense. Do we see ourselves as individuals only, or do we see oursleves as individuals in the context of a larger family, a part of America, the United States of America?

The danger of the vision of this administration does not lie in the fact that it is Republican. It lies in the fact that the concept of an "ownership society" requires each person to manifest their highest level of personal greed in order to survive.

It's not about right or left, it's about right and wrong. And since the age of about five or so, we have all known that it's not right to eat the whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich that Mom made you for lunch if the kid sitting next to you doesn't have any lunch.

It was true then and it's true now.

The protesters were about 4000 in front of the American Embassy, throwing bottles of beer and eggs...

I post the link, scroll down to the very bottom, hit at translation. it will be computerized, so kinf of phony/funny, but you'll get it.

You're smart on here.

http://permanent.nouvelobs.com/etranger/20050222.FAP5983.html?0046

Posted by: Marc Trager at February 21, 2005 07:37 PM

Marc~
THNX for posting that! I definitely needed to read that once again :)
As always, JK leads the way.

Casey...

The PB&J analogy is sticking to the roof of my mouth.

An American classic.

Posted by: Marc Trager at February 21, 2005 07:47 PM

I've yet to hear one word from him that made any sense either. The only time he "almost" makes sense, or at least has his grammar somehwat correct, is in his prepared speeches his writers have prepared. If his writers can get something together fast enough for him to memorize something, he'll speak "off the cuff." But even if he gets one or two sentences sort of correct and doesn't stumble through his remarks too badly, he still won't make any sense to any of us who know how to deconstruct his sentences and have heard his pet phrases over and over and over..... (Gawd, but I detest repetition!!!)

And that horrid remark about "I need a cowboy..." Puh-leeze.... Is there no end to the embarrassing things he can say?!?

Is there no end to the embarrassing things he can say?!?

Posted by: NonnyO at February 21, 2005 08:06 PM

Yes, there is no end... (sounds just like something he would say).

Posted by: Marc Trager at February 21, 2005 08:13 PM

:-) :-)

Is it election day 2008 yet? I feel a need to vote for someone with common sense, a peacenik who will bring our kids home, someone who will represent the US diplomatically who uses graceful tact while speaking with the leaders of other nations... someone who will speak correctly and coherently off the cuff.... (Gawd, I miss Clinton!)

Scottie McClellan Announces new Criteria for Press Credentials for Hotties:

http://www.whitehouse.org/media/application.asp

Also click on my name if you want to see Michael Jackson's face as made from breakfast cereal

America didn't do the instant crumble after 9-11, but this slow death must suit just as well. I know that there have to be people around the world, who sympathize with the agony we are going through, and I'm grateful for their empathy.There is no win coming. Not here, not in the Middle East, not anywhere. How many dead people, from 9-11 through Afghanistan to Iraq and on to Iran will it take till it becomes a win?

Since there isn't an answer, I know you will pardon my weeping. Grab that box of tissues, gang, there are more tears to be shed.

Posted by: tutterfly at February 21, 2005 07:13 PM

Tutt,

Reading your post refreshed in my memory the times I have agonized over the toll this administration is taking on our collective lives.
The scene from the movie "The Titanic" came to mind, where the many people remaining on the ship watch as the final lifeboats are lowered into the water. And the orchestra played on...... There HAS to be SOMETHING WE CAN DO.

My very dear friends---

We are doing something. We are refusing to be led by lies and deception. It hurts not to have an instant win, or immediate justice. Every time one new person realizes how badly they've been swindled and crapped on we've won something. The only good thing I can say about the time we are currently living in, is that people are going to be forced to think of people at some point, not political parties. W. makes a mistake thinking he can portray himself as humane and still pull off this garbage. Lights are going on over quite a few heads. it might not be enough to save all the ones who are doomed, but we will prevail.

One at a time. It's the best we have right now, unless those articles of impeachment are ready.....

~we can hope...

Bush’s Tipping Point
Is it too soon to decree the president a lame duck?
By Robert Kuttner

The great Social Security battle of 2005 could well be remembered as the tipping point that ended George W. Bush’s remarkable winning streak. It’s now clear that Democrats are not about to provide Bush bipartisan cover for privatization. Even usually reliable Republicans are putting some distance between themselves and the president.
http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9191

Fill the Vacuum

by Roni Krouzman Published on Monday, February 21, 2005 by CommonDreams.org

Today, being a true patriot goes hand in hand with being a global citizen, one who cares about freedom and justice and equality.

For too long, the Right has been allowed to define patriotism, and has taught us all to believe that the generals and the presidents and the religious extremists of this country are the true patriots. And if its definition were really true, I would want little to do with patriotism.

But that is not the case, and it never has been. The true patriots have not been the presidents, they have been the Freedom Riders and the Suffragettes and the Abolitionists and the labor organizers who forced those presidents to do what was right.

The true patriots have not been the generals. They have been the pacifists and the tax resisters and the peace activists and the conscientious objectors who have kept them from destroying the planet.

The true patriots have not been and never will be the religious extremists. They are us. They are the people who work at the non-profits and care for the elderly and stand with the poor and teach the sick and make our buildings more environmentally friendly and farm our land organically and preserve our glorious open spaces.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0221-21.htm

Andree,
Thanks for posting the piece on the protest march in front of the embassy. Interesting stuff, especially considering I do not see any report of this in the mainstream media here.

8:22

Nonny,

Kerry made sense and reassured me when speaking off the cuff. Wish more people had seen him at all. Now he's a non-person, when he looked so great while overseas, at ease, and respected.

Before the bed bugs bite--one more thing to add about Walmart. This was discussed this morning by Nancy Skinner on WDTW who spoke about the hidden costs of shopping at walmart.

Sure, we might get a bargain, but then we're socked with a bigger punch by paying for Walmart employees to get welfare or medicare because the Walmart owners and ceo's are making a higher profit. Therefore, it's a hidden and even bigger cost than if Walmart charged more and created american jobs and gave workers a living wage and benefits.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/022105D.shtml

Bush not impressing Europe - contains some sobering & rational quotes from thinking people

Some GOP senators want Eastern Washington as a state unto itself (AP)

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- If Sen. Bob Morton has his way, he'll soon be a resident and lawmaker in the 51st state of the United States.

To Morton, the Cascade Mountains are more than just the dividing line between wet and dry Washington. They are the indisputable wall between political ideologies that only became more apparent during the recent contested governor's race.

The Republican from Orient is the prime sponsor on a joint memorial in the Senate that asks President Bush to create a new state east of the Cascades that would comprise 20 of the current state's 39 counties. Nine other Republican senators have signed on in support. Similar measures have been introduced in past years without success.

"It's not sour grapes," Morton said. "It's common sense. People who think alike should be united."

Morton said Eastern Washington has its own distinct culture, lifestyle and agriculture-driven economy. And he says growth development restrictions and other regulations imposed by Olympia put a stranglehold on his area.

But even if the measure passes the Senate and House and is signed by the governor, the U.S. Constitution says that Congress, not the president alone, has the power to create a new state.

Morton acknowledged the challenge of anything coming of the measure, but said "it's worth every effort."

Other Republicans also noted that because about one-third of the state's voters reside in Washington's largest, and overwhelmingly Democratic, county - King County - that their constituents' voices are overshadowed by their western neighbors.

Bitterness over the red-blue divide in the state only increased in November's governor's race. Eastern Washington overwhelmingly voted in support of Republican candidate Dino Rossi, only to see Democrat Christine Gregoire pull ahead after a third count.

"Look at the election results. We elected Rossi. King County elected Gregoire," said Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley.

The measure will have a public hearing before the Government Operations and Elections Committee Tuesday morning.

Committee Chair Sen. Jim Kastama, D-Puyalllup, said he has no plans on moving the measure out of committee. He said he decided to hold a public hearing because it was "an opportunity to learn from each other."

"This is purely an opportunity for us to engage in a conversation about why they do perceive Western Washington the way they do," he said. "I hope something positive comes from this. In no way am I really serious about dividing the state of Washington."

But McCaslin said that there's no way to escape domination from the west coast without becoming a whole new state.\

more at link

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20XGR%20Eastern%20Washington%20State?

Hey guys!

I have just returned from a trip to Vermont! I met some great people there who sort of already had their own cell group and I told all of them about the DCP.

In other news, heres a story to make you happy:

Today in class my students were doing writting assignments and I over heard one student ask his friend, "What's another word for 'mentiroso,' or liar?" The girl looked up, said "arbusto," and went back to work. He said thanks and wrote it down. A few minutes later he came to a realization: "Wait a minute... arbusto means bush." The girl looked at him and said casually, "I know."

=)

Here is the link from the WA Election task force:

http://www.governor.wa.gov/electionreform/

The model could be used in any state. There is a questionaire also.

Our local news is full of this today. Our state is bitter & polarized & people seem to be walking on eggshells.

We are doing something. We are refusing to be led by lies and deception.
Posted by: tutterfly at February 21, 2005 08:51 PM

...and we are standing firm, and being the truth.

"If there is no wind, row." - Latin proverb.

~ ~ ~ ~

The true patriots have not been and never will be the religious extremists. They are us. They are the people who work at the non-profits and care for the elderly and stand with the poor and teach the sick and make our buildings more environmentally friendly and farm our land organically and preserve our glorious open spaces.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0221-21.htm

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at February 21, 2005 09:07 PM

...and we will continue to work in the non-profits, and care for the elderly, and those in poverty, and those disregarded and discriminated against. We will continue to fight to have our voices heard.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are doing something. We are refusing to be led by lies and deception.
Posted by: tutterfly at February 21, 2005 08:51 PM

...and we are standing firm, and being the truth.

"If there is no wind, row." - Latin proverb.

Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at February 21, 2005 11:09 PM

"All that needs to be done for evil to previal is that good men do nothing."

We are not doing nothing, and we are not being silent!

Why isn't Bob Novak going to jail?:
Will someone please explain in simple, easy-to-understand language, why we never see right-wing pundit Bob Novak's name mentioned in the same breath as reporters facing jail time for contempt in the Valerie Plame affair?
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05049/459428.stm

this was posted by nonnyo at 6:51 this evening. tony norman is a very good guy. he writes the truth, please read him when you get the chance, and let him know we are reading him.

I was watching Documetaries today on the Sundance Channel, and they were showing highlights of documentaries in 2004. One was The Corporation. I had never heard of it, so I searched the net, and lo and behold it will be available on DVD April 5th.

Here is a paragraph about it and what Corporations think about Democracy, or how they don't think or care about Democracy.

DEMOCRACY LTD.
Democracy is a value that the corporation just doesn’t understand. In fact, corporations have often tried to undo democracy if it is an obstacle to their single-minded drive for profit. From a 1934 business-backed plot to install a military dictator in the White House (undone by the integrity of one U.S. Marine Corps General, Smedley Darlington Butler) to present-day law-drafting, corporations have bought military might, political muscle and public opinion.

And corporations do not hesitate to take advantage of democracy’s absence either. One of the most shocking stories of the twentieth century is Edwin Black’s recounting IBM’s strategic alliance with Nazi Germany—one that began in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continued well into World War II.

To see the trailer and how to order follow the link.
http://www.thecorporation.com/about/

NO SURRENDER !!!

Reading the Guardian - it's so wierd. Sounds like the Tories are kind of like their Republicans and they're having a conservative resurgence, which doesn't sound good. They seem to be fairly anti-immigrant and harp away on law & order (forget about civil rights).

These creeps are crawling up in the polls, gaining on Blair's Labour party, as if he isn't bad enough. Then the cool party (according to the Intern we had), which is the Lib Dems, they seem to be in the minority. I emailed him & asked for an interpretation & also told him about how some WA state Senators want to break WA into 2 states (he knows local politics better than most locals, after working hard here in the summer!)

Then I found this amazing quote, in an article which otherwise tried to convince the reader that all was rosy with Bush in Europe.

"Iran could shift entirely to windmills and solar panels and Washington would still not be satisfied," one official said.

Just got this from a friend in Oregon

President's Day: Thank You John Kerry, Here's To The Future

Kerry Remains Committed To Supporters, Party Building:

Donates $1 Million to DNC to Support Grassroots Organizing

Democratic Party of Oregon Chair Jim Edmunson issued the following statement today:

Today as we honor America's great presidents, I want to honor all of you who believed so passionately in a stronger America with your support of John Kerry.

There is no need to rehash the disappointing outcome of the presidential election, but there is a great need to redouble our efforts for debates over current issues and to strengthen the Democratic Party.

As you know, Governor Howard Dean visited Oregon last week on his first trip as Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Governor Dean has hit the ground running and is truly committed to building a stronger party from the grassroots up. However, he can't do it alone and its going to take a lot of resources from Democrats everywhere.

I'm so proud that in Washington, the first person to step up to support a new grassroots initiative was Senator John Kerry, who made an unprecedented $1 million contribution to the DNC. I applaud Senator Kerry‚s efforts, and his continued financial contribution to support grassroots organizing at the state party level.

We know in Oregon that when Democrats have the resources to organize, we win -- and it showed last November.

Don't think for a minute that John Kerry has forgotten the 50,000-person rally at Waterfront Park or the campaign we waged in all the Democratic victories here in 2004.

John Kerry‚s presidential campaign made tremendous investments in grassroots organizing across the country, including right here in Oregon. His contribution to the DNC, targeted explicitly at grassroots organizing in Oregon and across the country, demonstrates his commitment to the long term success of our Party at all levels.

The Democratic Party of Oregon looks forward to continuing to work closely with him to grow our grassroots even more. So today, as we honor the best of what America has been, let us renew our commitment to building the best of what America can be. We can only do this together and I'm asking for your continued support.

Get involved, get your friends involved, write us a small check when you can spare it, and rest assured that the Democratic Party of Oregon is going to fight for you every single day -- until we elect a new president that we'll really feel like celebrating on this holiday.

WEST COAST SOLIDARITY & I'm sending this out to my Dem Cell!!

Diane, thank you for posting that mention of grassroots building that includes Kerry. So much of what he did was good and difficult, considering so much misinformation. I do believe he won narrowly, and for those who say he should have done things differently to win bigger, I'm not sure that was possible. Hope springs eternal an anti-war candidate could win, but I don't think so. But there is no one whose instincts I trust more in that regard.

Marjorie G

A lawyer volunteering for Kerry here said that in 2000, Florida was the tip of the iceberg.

I think our government is totally corrupt - of course Kerry won.

No wonder the Republicans here want all WA residents to "re-register." They know we registered far more Democrats & they know it would be very hard to locate them all again. They try to imply they're dead people and felons.

No, they're single moms, minorities and new citizens. They're people who hadn't voted before. Of course they don't want people like that voting!

The opposition can lie, spin, distort, reframe all they want but they're still putting lipstick on a pig, or as Andree says, putting the same old wine into a new bottle (but it's still cheap wine).

The Gold Standard for Election Reform

An editorial in Tuesday’s New York Times takes an objective look at election reform bills sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. While the Republican bill sponsored by Senator John Ensign of Nevada focuses on requiring that electronic voting machines that produce voter-verifiable paper records, it appears to fall flat from there…

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=413

English blow for your propaganda/media!

Here is a regular article by the Guardian about Bush meeting Blair, but take time to read the little comic ad piece on top of the page with Bush parading above European flags.
It says:

"Many US Citizens Think the World Backed the War in Irak"
"Maybe I'ts the papers they are reading"
Then they put The Guardian....ad.

Their opinion about your news is cristal clear. I hope the link still works when you'll be up.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1419981,00.html

Tralala, lala...not ready to follow Chimp and take our orders from Washington about NATO.
Enjoy the picture, it's quite telling.

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7698018

By the way, yesterday night on radio, I heard the following comment by a journalist who had the honour of attending the privy press breakfast with sweet Condi in Paris.
"When a tough queston was asked to her, suddenly the mask dropped and she looked like Uma Thurman in Kick Bill". Gee...

We already know she can play the piano, does she have a future in the movie industry when she is sent back home?
I already have the title "The Black Falcon", that's how she is called by the African press.

Wag-the-Dog Protection
By PAUL KRUGMAN
The campaign against Social Security is going so badly that longtime critics of President Bush, accustomed to seeing their efforts to point out flaws in administration initiatives brushed aside, are pinching themselves. But they shouldn't relax: if the past is any guide, the Bush administration will soon change the subject back to national security.

The political landscape today reminds me of the spring of 2002, after the big revelations of corporate fraud. Then as now, the administration was on the defensive, and Democrats expected to do well in midterm elections.

Then, suddenly, it was all Iraq, all the time, and Harken Energy and Halliburton vanished from the headlines.

I don't know which foreign threat the administration will start playing up this time, but Bush critics should be prepared for the shift. They must curb their natural inclination to focus almost exclusively on domestic issues, and challenge the administration on national security policy, too.

I say this even though many critics, myself included, would prefer to stick with the domestic issues. After all, domestic issues, particularly Social Security, are very comfortable ground for moderates and liberals. The relevant facts are all in the public domain, voters clearly oppose the administration's hard-right agenda, and Mr. Bush's attack on Social Security stumbled badly out of the gate. It's understandable, then, that critiques of the administration's national security policy have faded into the background in recent months.

But a president can always change the subject to national security if he wants to - and Mr. Bush has repeatedly shown himself willing to play the terrorism card when he is losing the debate on other issues. So it's important to point out that Mr. Bush, for all his posturing, has done a very bad job of protecting the nation - and to make that point now, rather than in the heat of the next foreign crisis.

The fact is that Mr. Bush, while willing to go to war on weak evidence, hasn't taken the task of protecting America from terrorists at all seriously.

Consider, for example, the case of chemical plants.

Just days after 9/11, many analysts identified sites that store toxic chemicals as a major terror risk, and called for new safety rules. But as The New York Times reported last fall, "after the oil and chemical industries met with Karl Rove ... the White House quietly blocked those efforts."

Nearly three and a half years after 9/11, those chemical plants are still unprotected.

Other major risks identified within days of the attack included the possibility of terrorist attacks on major ports or nuclear plants. But in the months after 9/11, the administration flatly refused to allocate the sums that members of the House and Senate from both parties thought necessary to secure these sites.

And when the administration does spend money protecting possible terrorist targets, politics, not national security, dictates where the money goes. Remember the "first responders" program that ended up spending seven times as much protecting each resident of Wyoming as it spent protecting each resident of New York?

Well, it's still happening. An audit of the Homeland Security Department's (greatly inadequate) program to protect ports found that much of the money went to unlikely locations, including six sites in landlocked Arkansas, where the department's recently resigned chief of border and transportation security is reported to be considering a run for governor.

Nor are Mr. Bush's national security failures limited to nonmilitary policy. The administration appears to be in a state of denial over the effects of the endless war in Iraq on U.S. military readiness, particularly the strains on the reserves and the National Guard.

The ultimate demonstration of Mr. Bush's true priorities was his attempt to appoint Bernard Kerik as homeland security director. Either the administration didn't bother to do even the most basic background checks, or it regarded protecting the nation from terrorists as a matter of so little importance that it didn't matter who was in charge.

My point is that Mr. Bush's critics are falling into an unnecessary trap if they focus only on domestic policies, and allow Mr. Bush to keep his undeserved reputation as someone who keeps Americans safe. National security policy should not be a refuge to which Mr. Bush can flee when his domestic agenda falls apart.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/opinion/22krugman.html?th

Still on topic... it ain't just WalMart... wonder what the sales of plastic and duct tape were?

Home Depot reports solid rise in earnings
Home improvement giant says quarterly profit up 10 percent

ATLANTA - The Home Depot Inc., the nation’s largest home improvement store chain, reported a nearly 10 percent jump in fourth-quarter earnings on solid sales, particularly at stores open at least a year.

Thats a great article madame, and an awesome point.

We need to get out ahead of the curve on that, and scream it from th hilltops.

Just think how safe $300+ BILLION dollars could make these highly attractive and highly vulnerable sites... all the while removing all of our resources from here at home to send them to fight and die in the Middle East, while simultaneously creating division in our country and destroying our budgets and economy.

Osama could not be happier if he wanted to be.

Man, I miss him already... Wish we had just one journalist who has one-half the guts that Hunter S. Thompson had...

The Thompson Style: A Sense of Self, and Outrage
--snip--
Of all of the so-called practitioners of New Journalism, Mr. Thompson was the one who was willing to insert himself and his capacious reserve of outrage into the middle of every story. In his articles for Rolling Stone and his seminal 1973 book, "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72" Mr. Thompson threw himself at the conventions of political reporting. Not only was he not neutral, he was angry, an avenging proxy for the American polity. Brick by brick, he tore away a wall - since rebuilt - that made politics seem like a low-stakes minstrel show.
--snip--
As a writer though, Mr. Thompson met plenty of honest digressions, and engaged them all to their fullest. He would begin with a premise - Richard Nixon was doing Satan's handiwork, for instance - and then in writing about it, tumble through the Tet Offensive, the drugs from the previous night he was trying to fight through, Hubert Humphrey's alleged spinelessness, Nixon's surprising knowledge of the N.F.L., and the fecklessness of his editors, before landing the entire rococo mix in one tidy package, like a gift.
--snip--
For a generation of American students, Mr. Thompson made journalism seem like a dangerous, fantastic occupation, in the process transforming an avocation that was mostly populated by doughy white men in short-sleeve white button-downs and bad ties into something fit for those who smoked Dunhills at the end of cigarette holders and wore sunglasses regardless of the time of day. It is to his credit or blame that many aspiring journalists showed up to cover their first, second, and sometimes third local city council meetings in bowling shirts and bad sunglasses (no names need be mentioned here), along with their notebooks.

For all of the pharmacological foundations of his stories, Mr. Thompson was a reporter, taking to the task of finding out what other people knew with an avidity that earned the respect of even those who found his personal hobbies reprehensible. Hunter S. Thompson knew stuff and wrote about it in a way that could leave his colleagues breathless and vowing to do better.

In tribute to him, please read the entire article and hope that some journalist, somewhere, will aspire to follow in his footsteps...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/22/books/22appr.html?th

How objective journalism can fail to reveal the truth

by Kirk Caraway

This is a time when I wished someone would ask the obvious question of the president: Are you really bad at math, or are you lying to us?

But of course, you won't hear that question at the next press conference. There's something about calling the president a liar on live TV that scares the willies out reporters, even when it's this blatant.

Certainly, they'll ask a much nicer question, and they will dutifully report his answer, even if it makes no sense.

That's what we call objective journalism.
snip~
Hey, if you are caught lying, then people should be warned to take what you say with a grain of salt. It may not be polite to call people liars, but then the Founding Fathers didn't create the First Amendment so reporters could write flattering puff pieces on powerful politicians.

If journalists won't point out the liars, who will?

http://www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20050220/OPINION/102200026