Jerome Berlin, a Miami lawyer once described as "one of the nation's most powerful Democratic fundraisers," was found dead Tuesday, the victim of two gunshot wounds to the chest. He was found with the body of his business partner, Michael Pecora, in what the police are calling a murder-suicide.
Democratic Fundraiser Murdered
Who hired this clown?
This gets repetitive, but unfortunately every part of Bush's resume [PDF] is accurate. (HTML version here.)
You'll love this. You may also be amazed at how little of this true conservatives know.
Rolling Back the 20th Century
If we oppose them, what do we then stand for? They have the power (the legitimacy of which is irrelevant), they have the money, they seem to have a game plan, and they plan to use their money, power, and influence to achieve their objectives.
I've been wondering for some time what the conservative agenda was all about. I figured there had to be some end state they were aiming for. Hatred is strong and certainly a factor in their decision making (hatred of the earth, of us, of their children, of themselves), but that can only take you so far. I believe this article may have broken the code for me.
Rolling Back the 20th Century
by William Greider
Bush's governing strength is anchored in the long, hard-driving movement of the right that now owns all three branches of the federal government. Its unified ranks allow him to govern aggressively, despite slender GOP majorities in the House and Senate and the public's general indifference to the right's domestic program.
The movement's grand ambition is to roll back the twentieth century, quite literally. That is, defenestrate the federal government and reduce its scale and powers to a level well below what it was before the New Deal's centralization. With that accomplished, movement conservatives envision a restored society in which the prevailing values and power relationships resemble the America that existed around 1900, when William McKinley was President. Governing authority and resources are dispersed from Washington, returned to local levels and also to individuals and private institutions, most notably corporations and religious organizations. The primacy of private property rights is re-established over the shared public priorities expressed in government regulation. Above all, private wealth--both enterprises and individuals with higher incomes--are permanently insulated from the progressive claims of the graduated income tax.
These broad objectives may sound reactionary and destructive, but hard-right conservatives see themselves as liberating reformers who are rescuing old American virtues of self-reliance and individual autonomy from the clutches of collective action and "statist" left-wingers. Right-wingers--who once seemed frothy and fratricidal--now understand that three steps forward, two steps back still adds up to forward progress. "It's a long march", they say. "Stick together, because we are winning."
If we oppose them, what do we then stand for? They have the power (the legitimacy of which is irrelevant), they have the money, they seem to have a game plan, and they plan to use their money, power, and influence to achieve their objectives.
We can not sit here festering and bemoaning the "phantoms of lost liberties". We have to stand up, we have to stand together, we have to stand FOR something, and we have to know what it is and defend it. Defeating Bush in 2004, while a worthy (lofty) goal, even if it's possible, will only last for a few moments, if it happens at all. I don't even think it will happen if we can't tell the world what we want. We've gotten good at saying what we DON'T want, but who's listening? And why would anyone? If we can't agree on and present valid alternatives (like progress, health, safety, defense of freedom, true democracy, a working society that actually cares for its members) we won't win anyway. And we shouldn't.
Let's sing in tune, for once
I nominate the following notes for our little choir to sing: (in no particular order):
- Bush's record on the environment
- Kenneth Lay, Enron, and the Bush connection
- Karl Rove, the most powerful man in America who is accountable to no one.
- George Bush, Commander in Chief, went AWOL.
- George Bush's grandfather's wealth resulted from his business with the Nazis.
- Harken and the SEC investigation.
- The criminal records of W, his brothers, his wife, his brothers' wives, his children, his brothers' children, his grandfather, his grandfather's children.
- Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and the Florida voting scandal of 2000.
- Bush/Rove's mistreatment and lies about John McCain in the primaries.
- Campaign fund raising
- Bin Laden and James Bath, Robert Jordan and James Baker
- The stifling of the investigation of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
- Republicans spent $40,000,000 investigating Clinton; $3,000,000 on 911.
- Republican choices for federal judges.
- Fuel efficiency standards
- Social (un)Security
- Tax cuts for the wealthy
- Reduction of government services (and tax cuts)
- Increasing the military budget more than the Pentagon requested (and tax cuts)
- From budget surplus to record deficits (and tax cuts)
- The budget crises in almost all the states (and the national debt)
- Attack on Veterans' benefits
- Iraq / WMD / UN Inspections / Why we (supposedly) invaded / Why we (really) invaded / WMD
- Post-Taliban Afghanistan and the opium trade
- The Skull and Bones Society (and the opium trade)
- The University of Michigan's admission policy and the Presidential briefs claiming reverse discrimination
- Republican hypocrisy over abortion (and Bush's obligations to the Christian right)
- Republicans' stance on homosexuality and AIDS
- John Poindexter, 5 felony convictions, Total Information Awareness
- Larry Lindsey, Paul O'Neil, Harvey Pitt
- Trent Lott, Rick Santorum
- Arsenic levels
- Secrecy vs. Freedom of Information
- Cheney and the Energy Task Force (and the Congressional Accounting Office having to sue to (not) review documents)
- Burden of debt left to future generations
- Halliburton, Carlyle, Adnan Khashoggi, Richard Perle, Thomas White, Project for a New American Century, Rumsfeld and Hussein, Rumsfeld and Swiss-based ABB (the company that sold N. Korea its reactors)
- Patriot Act, TIPS, Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003
Blogs Brought Down Trent Lott:
Is Rick Santorum Next?
Total time lapsed between Lott's remarks and the press making the story front-page news? Just two weeks.
Is Rick Santorum Next?
Last night, The Newshour With Jim Lehrer focused on the growing popularity and influence of web logs. Blogs may even have helped bring down Trent Lott by keeping the senator's racist remarks - made at Strom Thurmond's birthday - in the public consciousness long enough for the mainstream media to pick it up. Joan Connell of MSNBC.com noted: "... this story gathered momentum enough in the blogosphere to shake the foundations of traditional journalism, and then the traditional news organizations jumped on board."
Which weblogger led the charge against Lott? It may very well have been Josh Marshall, who authors talkingpointsmemo.com:
"Blogs sort of kept it from dying for a critical period, until the rest of the media paid attention.
"It was one of those things that kind of needed to be repeated and unpacked over time to really get a sense, and so, blogs, I think, were... had all the right characteristics to be able to do that."
Total time lapsed between Lott's remarks and the press making the story front-page news? Just two weeks.
Could Rick Santorum's days be numbered? Doubtful. The GOP was eager to have an excuse to cut Lott loose. Santorum is a rising star. I predict that the party and the president will defend him, to their detriment.
Spin Is What The Other Guys Do
On Tim Russert this weekend, Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox's "O'Reilly Factor" and author of "The No Spin Zone," was spinning freely. He used the words "steal" and "misappropriate" in a particularly gross generalization about how federal dollars are spent on health and social programs.
Speaking of stealing and misappropriation, the lead story on tonight's 60 Minutes - "Halliburton: All In The Family" - focused on government contracts awarded to Halliburton, Bechtel and others, secretly and without competitive bidding. The connections between these companies and Bush Administration insiders like Vice President Dick Cheney, Richard Perle, George Schultz and others is impressive. This story is getting harder and harder to spin as it reeks of influence peddling, graft and backroom deals.
An Open (Form) Letter to Bill Frist
The Honorable Bill Frist
Washington, DC 20510-4205
Dear Senator Frist,
I am writing to urge you to take quick and decisive action to repudiate the discriminatory and hurtful statements made by Senator Rick Santorum against lesbian and gay Americans in an interview with the Associated Press.
Many American families have members who are lesbian and gay and those families should be treated with dignity and respect. I say this also to include the family of Vice President Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is a lesbian.
In his statements, Senator Santorum compared homosexuality with polygamy, incest and adultery. These kind of hateful remarks do not display the compassionate conservatism that is espoused by President Bush.
Discriminatory remarks like these only fuel prejudice that can lead to violence and perpetuate discrimination against the lesbian and gay community.
Senator Santorum's remarks are neither compassionate, nor truly conservative. They are simply un-American.
I look forward to your reply.
Whom does Senator Rick Santorum represent?
When asked whether President Bush defends the homophobic remarks made by Senator Rick Santorum, Ari Fleischer said, "The President judges people by who they are, as individual souls."
We're hearing more and more of this nonsense since President Bush began criticizing the international body for not supporting his invasion of Iraq. Bush may not appreciate this, but an American president coined the phrase "United Nations."
Ted Turner, BBC Director Criticize Fox News
Powell Defends Attacks on Journalists
The Pentagon and Powell claim that the Palestine Hotel was fired upon in self-defense, but eyewitnesses say there was no gunfire heard coming from the Hotel. I have not come across any statements that the hits on the offices of Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV were unintentional.
"I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts."
"We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything."
"In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."
When asked whether President Bush defends the homophobic remarks made by Senator Rick Santorum, Ari Fleischer said, "The President judges people by who they are, as individual souls."
Some conservatives feel compelled to ask, "Have Republican leaders been so intimidated by the smear tactics of the homosexual lobby and its Democratic attack dogs that they are cowering in silence?" I was unaware that there even was a homosexual lobby, but they now have my support.
What is Rick Santorum so afraid of? And does he really think that homosexuality has anything to do with bigamy, polygamy, incest or adultery? That just sounds ignorant and intolerant to me.
If you disagree with Santorum, write Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist a letter reminding him that we know that Vice President Dick Cheney's daughter is gay and that's okay. Tell him that homophobic speech made by a Senator holding the No. 3 position in the Republican Party reflects poorly on the president and the GOP. An appeal to reason might work. Otherwise, we'll have to embarrass Santorum and his party by exposing them as idiots. That shouldn't be too difficult.
Did anyone else notice that Santorum's remarks coincided with the Supreme Court considering the legality of state sodomy, i.e. gay-discrimination laws?
Sailors Return Home
The USS Mobile Bay and Shiloh made an emotional return to their home port of San Diego today, and two lucky sailors won a lottery to get the first kiss, i.e. the sailors were first off the boat, and their wives were first across the gangway to greet and kiss them. It was a great photo moment, and even included kids and other relatives. After one kiss went on for more than just a few seconds, one CNN Anchor said, "I'm blushing."
Conservatives Want US Out of UN
The Federalist, "the most widely read conservative e-journal on the Internet," is asking its readers, "fellow American patriots, especially families and friends of our armed forces," to:
"terminate all participation by the United States in the United Nations, terminate any and all U.S. taxpayer-funded support for the UN, and prohibit American Armed Forces from serving under the command of the United Nations anywhere in the world." The U.S. should remove itself from this "mother of all" -- "entangling alliances."
We're hearing more and more of this nonsense since President Bush began criticizing the international body for not supporting his invasion of Iraq. Bush may not appreciate this, but an American president coined the phrase "United Nations."
The Media Research Center, a right-wing 501 (c)(3) non-profit research and education foundation founded in 1987 to expose the "liberal" media bias, gave Fox News and David Bloom the highest grades in its media "War Report Card" - the Bill O'Reilly network and the guy who died because he didn't get out of the tank to stretch his legs.
The MRC, without any sense of irony that I could detect, had this to say about Santorum's comments and the media's coverage:
"With this, the media show not only liberal bias, but contempt for free speech and open debate on crucial social issues. This isn't Saddam Hussein's Baghdad. This isn't a George Orwell novel. This is still a democracy, and legislators ought to be free to talk about the law without the media acting as publicity agents for gay groups as they try to pick off conservative Republican leaders."
Ted Turner, BBC Director Criticize Fox News
Ted Turner called Rupert Murdoch a "warmonger," for using jingoistic war packaging to boost his network's ratings.
Greg Dyke, Director General of the BBC, criticized the US Media, namely Fox News, for its propagandistic reporting of the Anglo-American invasion:
"And we must never allow political influences to colour our reporting or cloud our judgement.
"Commercial pressures may tempt others to follow the Fox News formula of gung-ho patriotism but for the BBC this would be a terrible mistake."
Powell Defends Attacks on Journalists
In a letter to Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio, Colin Powell defended the US bombing of journalist sites which struck three known locations for journalists in a one hour period, killing two Spanish journalists. Powell said:
"Our review of the April 8 incident indicates that the use of force was justified and the amount of force was proportionate to the threat against United States forces."
The Pentagon and Powell claim that the Palestine Hotel was fired upon in self-defense, but eyewitnesses say there was no gunfire heard coming from the Hotel. I have not come across any statements that the hits on the offices of Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV were unintentional.
Castro Cracks Down on Dissent
It looks like Castro is using our war as a distraction to crack down on political dissidents and human rights activists in his country. Colin Powell, referring to the arrests of 75 dissidents, journalists and activists, had this to say:
"We call on Castro to end this despicable repression and free these prisoners of conscience. The United States and the international community will be unrelenting in our insistence that Cubans who seek peaceful change be permitted to do so."
"Media, military investigated for taking art, artifacts, cash from Iraq"
Should we be surprised that some of our soldiers and members of the embedded press decided it was okay to bring home some souvenirs from their trip to Iraq?
Government officials are on the record as having made comments like:
"These goods are rightfully the property of the people of Iraq."
"This is theft. We are there to liberate. This must cease."
"This activity is clearly illegal."
Illegal?! You mean its against the law for us to take things that don't belong to us? Well, call me a stickler for consistency, but isn't it hypocritical that our military could preemptively invade a sovereign nation, our president could violate the Constitution by declaring "war" without Congressional approval, and our generals could violate the Geneva Conventions by intentionally targeting journalists, yet our Customs officials are coming down hard on G.I. Joe and Fox News Guy for indulging themselves in some harmless, petty larceny?
In response to the above mentioned news article:
I come from the "Conan, the Barbarian" School of thought... regarding conquests: if you can't take home the gold, the cash, the artwork, and the women, then what's the point of going to war?
This hogwash about the goal of the war being liberation of the Iraqi people is like betting on a horse after it's won the race. It may make you feel good, and it might fool some of your friends, but it's far from candidly answering the question as to why, initially, Mr. Bush committed our troops to the effort thereby placing a $100 billion bet. The true goal of the war was in our national interest insofar as we sought to destroy a regime bent on destabilizing the Middle East region by perhaps employing Weapons of Mass Destruction; the region which we depend upon for the steady flow of cheap crude oil.
The elimination of the military dictator and his tyranny of fear is a crowd-pleasing side show.
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