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December 18, 2004
Yellow Magnets IV: Beyond Profitdome
Tonight, while shopping with my wife at a Bed, Bath & Beyond (don't laugh, they donated 93% to Democrats), I noticed a large display of "Support Our Troops" magnets near one of the check-out lanes.
I made my way towards the display to have a closer look, while my wife shopped in -- not the bed or bath sections, but in the mysterious "beyond" department into which customers must pass via a transdimensional vortex.
The magnets' price was marked on a sign as $1.99, however, the sign went on to say that $1 from each magnet would be donated to the USO. On the surface, admirable enough. The legendary USO is great for troop morale and organizes visits from celebrities like Tom Green and Wayne Newton who appear at military bases to entertain the troops. An important thing, considering the impending 30% rate of mental illness amongst American soldiers.
But when I grabbed a magnet from the display, I read something shocking and more than a little confusing...
This past week, we discussed Bush's flippant solution to the growing trade deficit. His great idear:
There's a trade deficit. That's easy to resolve: People can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit.
How confused and conflicted millions of sloganeering consumers must feel when they notice that their precious imperative-tensed magnets are MADE IN TAIWAN. In fact, that was the only text to appear on the packaging.
What do we do? Support the USO but harm the trade deficit? It's like the post-9/11 conundrum: do we fear terrorist strikes or get out and spend money at Disney World? Beg or sit?
Back to our blue friends at Bed, Bath & Beyond. According to one of many yellow ribbon magnet wholesale sites (link), if a company like BB&B purchases 2,500 magnets, the cost per unit is only 2 CENTS for the smaller magnets and 5 CENTS for the larger, more common magnets.
I hate to disparage a blue retailer, but this is asinine. If we consider the 5 cent per unit wholesale price as a standard, and factor in the 50% donation to the USO, BB&B is still making a profit of 95 cents per unit. Plus, a portion of that 5 cents goes to Taiwan (not sure if there's a patriotic middle-man). Not a single American factory worker benefits, and neither does our spastic economy. So their donation percentage is just about equal to their profit margin. We could probably figure some more ridiculous numbers since a major retailer like this one probably buys more than 2,500 units in order to supply its 600 nationwide locations.
Overall, the donation angle sounds like a huge stinky, yellow, profiteering scam. And I seriously doubt Bed, Bath & Beyond is donating caches of decorative soap pumps and Shark vacuums to the boys in the Sunni Triangle to make up for this egregious disparity.
Previous Yellow Magnet Rants:
Part III: Yellow magnets: 'Your ad here'
Part II: Crown Sizing
Part I: Yellow magnets and homeless vets
11:00 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
It's 1933 all over again
Students of history will recall that the Nazis didn't just sweep in one day and install themselves into power. No, they methodically, and cynically, changed long standing laws, rewrote the German Constitution, outlawed disension and they did it all through the proper legal channels. By cobbling together a loosely-knit quilt of lunatic fringe groups, the Nazis, in essence, dismantled Germany's democracy. It took them about six years, but they got the job done.
With that in mind, check out what's happening in Florida and meet the new face of facism.
08:31 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Jim Biederman
The Perfect X-mas Gift
Wow. Taser International, the leading manufacturer of Stun Guns (as well lining the pockets of Bernie Kerik) announced yesterday that they will soon be selling stun guns with built in video cameras. Finally, someone has married America's two favorite past-times: Guns and Reality Television!
12:32 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Jim Biederman
Sauron: Saruman is 'doing a great job'
Speaking for the president, Scott McClellan yesterday voiced the administration's support for Donald Rumsfeld, which is tantamount to Sauron saying, "Saruman is the Saru-MAN!"
"Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job leading our efforts at the Department of Defense to win the war on terrorism and to help bring about a free and peaceful Iraq, and the president is focused on working closely with him on those matters," McClellan said.
So as Rumsfeld incants over a Palantir swirling with visions of amputees and Geneva Accords violations, the beady but fiery "Eye of Dubya" will be watching and scheming along with the despotic Secretary.
11:10 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
44% of Americans identify with Nazis
The AP reported yesterday that researchers at Cornell University did a nationwide poll that found 44% of Americans feel that the civil rights of Muslim Americans should be curtailed.
Does that sound at all familiar? Does it remind you of a certain European country in the 1930s? One that rhymes with "Schermany"?
And guess what? Republicans and "people who described themselves as highly religious" were the majority of the 44%! Perhaps even less surprisingly pathetic, the people who watch television news were more likely to fear terrorist attacks, thus, more likely to think curtailing the rights of Muslim Americans is a dandy idear.
Question for the 44%: Do you think we should've curtailed the rights for white, Midwestern, Gulf War vets after Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in Oklahoma?
Probably not. Because you probably look a lot like Timothy McVeigh, don't you, you 44%?
If we go with this rights curtailing business, I think it'd be just great if we could corral these Muslim Americans into some neighborhoods -- call 'em ghettos. Maybe even, and I know this sounds ambitious, put 'em in camps! They could work in the camps, too, to help the war effort. And maybe these camps could have special showers, and, when certain Muslims got too old, or sick, or troublesome...well, you know...
Hey: Racists. Muslim Americans worked in the Twin Towers. They died on 9/11. Did you, you piece of shit?
09:42 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
When in Rome...Don't Rock the Vote
Viacom International (parent company of CBS, Paramount Pictures, and MTV Networks) is currently looking for a lobbyist in Washington to help pursue their agenda of media consolidation.
According to the Washington Post ("You Can Tell a Republican by His Stripes," 12/17/04) Viacom's Gail McKinnon sent an e-mail this week to offices in the U.S. House of Representatives regarding a job opening in Viacom's government relations department. The e-mail calls for a male, Republican to fill the open position and reads as follows: "Importance: High We need to hire a junior lobbyist/PAC manager. Attached is a job description. Salary is $85-90K. Must be a male with Republican stripes."
Despite Viacom's publicly stated and self-congratulatory goal of diversity and inclusion in their employee ranks, they seem to have overlooked this policy when they posted the above job listing.
Thankfully this has not gone unnoticed by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) who called for both an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Congressional investigation into Viacom International Inc.'s hiring practices.
"This is a blatant violation of federal law prohibiting discrimination against women in hiring," Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. "It is stunning that one of the largest corporations in America is so comfortable violating this 40 year-old prohibition that it has openly sent an e-mail advertising its discriminatory hiring practices to the very body that passed the anti-discrimination laws in the first place. One cannot help but be concerned that Viacom may have a practice of discriminating against women. As a result, CREW calls upon both Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to begin immediate investigations in into Viacom's hiring practices."
01:14 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Jim Biederman
December 17, 2004
FBI: Torture orders came from Rummy
Following up on the Navy documents acquired this week, Joe Conason reports in Salon (Torture begins at the top) that a May, 2004 FBI memo (download pdf) obtained by the ACLU states that Donald Rumsfeld himself authorized the use of torture in interrogations in Iraq, Guantanamo, and Afghanistan. Counterterrorism and interrogation experts with the FBI voiced their objection to the use of torture as dictated by Rumsfeld and the Pentagon.
The grounds for the objections were chiefly more procedural than humanitarian -- information gathered via torture is unreliable. Especially in one case in which Guantanamo interrogators were given a deadlines by the Pentagon for attaining information from detainees.
What do you do when citing the Geneva Accords becomes about as effective an indictment of the Bush Administration as citing a Fat Burger menu. Under the exploitative cover of 9/11 and with the support of a massive right-wing propaganda machine, the administration is behaving like it has carte blanche. Yet at some point, something has to stick. If not the repeated authorization of torture, what then?
11:04 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Poll: No liberties for Muslim-Americans
A Cornell University poll, announced today, found that nearly 50% of Americans think the government should restrict the civil liberties of Muslim-Americans. NY Newsday:
The survey also found respondents who identified themselves as highly religious supported restrictions on Muslim-Americans more strongly than those less religious.
Curtailing civil liberties for Muslim-Americans also was supported more by Republicans than Democrats, the survey found.
Republicans and the ultra-religious. That's surprising, no? RBN's John Christian Plummer gets into it here.
06:01 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Neighbors in human rights violations
Our human rights record has become so deteriorated that CUBA, of all nations, calls us out... This billboard was placed across from the U.S. Interest Section's offices along a highway in Havana (article). The billboard also contained a giant red swastika and the text "Made in America". This makes me angry, but I'm not sure with whom. Perhaps that's why this is so infuriating -- when the line between good and evil becomes this blurred...
05:33 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Bubble Boy Index, 12.17.04
Americans killed in Iraq: 1304
Funerals attended by Bubble Boy: 0
02:56 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
O'Splotchy: We never curse Dems
Media Matters had this today:
In response to reports that actor and comedian Chevy Chase called President Bush a "dumb f---" while co-hosting a December 14 People For the American Way awards ceremony in Washington, DC, FOX News host Bill O'Reilly asserted (Windows Media) on the December 16 O'Reilly Factor that "you don't see this kind of thing on the right." He added: "You don’t see prominent conservatives cursing out Democratic members of Congress, for example."
They follow with this link: "Really?"
02:36 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Reminder: Watch 'Now' Later
Tonight PBS will broadcast the final episode of Now with Bill Moyers as the host. A reknown author and prestigious television journalist, Moyers is seizing the opportunity to retire from television at age 70 with his journalistic integrity intact, but he may be doing so in a blaze of glory. The subject matter for the last broadcast:
Bill Moyers looks inside the right-wing media machine that the conservative NEW YORK TIMES columnist David Brooks called a "dazzlingly efficient ideology delivery system." The program examines how a vast echo chamber that is admittedly partisan and powerfully successful delivers information — and misinformation — with more regard for propaganda than fact.
According to Moyers:
"We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."
So what does the recent "retirements" of journalism's heavy-hitters mean for American TV news? One view might be that the last bastions of broadcast news media's integrity are falling away as the "old schoolers" pack it up, and newer (read that as "younger, more plastic, and invariably more coachable") personnel funnel into their chairs. Admittedly, once we've seperated the chaff of fact from the "news", any reader will do... so we can put in whatever fabricated face will most appropriately match the fabricated news being delivered, and no one will worry about those times long ago, when journalists researched, verified sources, researched again, and, you know, spoke the truth. Or at least tried to.
09:24 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By
Bush's "support" for 9/11 reforms
Bush delights lawmakers with a doodle of "either a fat woman bending over, or a light bulb" while Senator Joe Lieberman inexplicably strokes his own crotch.
Today, George W. Bush signed the National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 which contains recommendations from the 9/11 Commission. Suffice to say, Bush was "against it before he was for it".
Bush Opposes 9/11 Query Panel
Bush Opposes Extension of 9/11 Probe
9/11 Panel: Bush White House Withheld Papers
Bush opposes commission to probe 9/11 warnings
White House Opposes Sections of 9/11 Bill
Playing politics with the 9/11 commission
Bush Obstructs Investigation Into 9-11 Attack
Four 9/11 Moms Battle Bush
9/11 Panel Rejects White House Limits on Interviews
The White House: A New Fight Over Secret 9/11 Docs
Opposition firm to 9/11 bill
Bush Stonewalls 9/11 Panel, Opposes Request for More Time
9/11 Panel Rejects White House Limits on Interviews
Flip. Flop. Flip. Flop.
09:09 AM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Some GOP idiocy in the morning
[UPDATED WITH PRECISE QUOTE] Tara Setmayer, a Republican strategist and fellow with the Coalition of Urban Renewal and Education, on CNN "This Morning":
"Donald Rumsfeld has been an excellent Secretary of Defense. Now notwithstanding there have been some miscalculations for the post-war effort in Iraq, but for the most part the morale of the troops, the troops on the ground love him."
Regarding the DNC chairman post:
"Well, if character and integrity were any measure then I guess no one would have been around in the Clinton administration, including Clinton. But anyway as the Democrats, you know, it's funny. Of course I'm going to still gloat in our victory -- they need to pick someone like Michael Moore -- how about that? Or George Sorros. I'd love to see those people. Or Alec Baldwin run the Democratic National Committee. We'll win elections for the next 20 years."
08:41 AM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
December 16, 2004
NYT: Mental health 'the story of this war'
Another in a growing list of parallels between Iraq and Vietnam. The NY Times today profiled a report from the U.S. Army which warns that a serious mental health crisis is facing American soldiers in Iraq. In fact, 1 in 6 soldiers are currently reporting "depression, serious anxiety, and post traumatic stress disorder..."
...a proportion that some experts believe could eventually climb to one in three, the rate ultimately found in Vietnam veterans.
Because about one million U.S. troops have served so far in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Pentagon figures, some experts predict that the number eventually requiring mental heath treatment could exceed 100,000.
10:05 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Boxer Bout
Barbara Boxer was just reelected to the Senate in California, and she's an extremely progessive member of what has become yet another embarrassing body of our federal government. Today, you need to ask her to do the right thing.
For those who saw Fahrenheit 9/11, I'm sure you recall with horror the scene where members of Congress -- predominantly from the Congressional Black Caucus -- contested the results of the 2000 election on the floor of the House. But as Michael Moore informed us, the Electoral Count Act of 1887 mandates that at least ONE senator join with one House Representative to contest an election prior to inauguration. Not a single senator, including John Kerry and John Edwards, stood up in 2001 to contest the results. And so Bush was "elected," and the government went on to do next to nothing to enact voter reform.
There is a recount now underway in Ohio, where allegations of vote tampering and voter suppression run rampant. Mainstream media is ignoring Ohio, ignoring an estimated hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised voters.
I don't expect people to start protesting in the streets. I don't expect the media to start investigating allegations. This is America, after all, not the Ukraine.
But one thing you can do is sign a petition urging Barbara Boxer to join with the 10 brave members of Congress who care about democracy, and who will be contesting the election results. You don't have to live in California to do this, either. Just go to this website: Contest the Vote,
and sign the on-line petition. Or if you want to go crazy, call her or write her directly. Her contact information is here.
Democracy=Everyone Gets To Vote, Every Vote Gets Counted. Not very fuzzy math.
06:23 PM | Comments (5) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Morality on the March
"What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core."Hannah Arendt, 1963
Photographed September 21, 2001 by REUTERS/Mike Segar.
04:39 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Delusional Inaugural 2005
The White House is planning a splendid inauguration for Bush on January 20, complete with fireworks and the theme: "Celebrating Freedom, Honoring Service."
Don't laugh.
An "honoring service" theme could be the high water mark of hypocrisy for a president who has yet to attend a single military funeral for a soldier killed in Iraq, and who has failed to properly supply the soldiers who are miraculously still living.
Planners of the festa told the AP that another theme will underscore sacrifice, which, we can only assume, will be emphasized by the record high $40 million price tag for the event.
But since the planners are offering 2,000 free tickets to soldiers, I suppose that makes up for the bludgeoning they're enduring at the behest of Bush's political legacy.
Inaugural chairwoman Jeanne Johnson Phillips told the AP that the intent is to (get a load of this tripe) "paint a picture of democracy". Ostensibly because an actual picture of democracy no longer exists here.
03:09 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
And you wanna be my latex salesman
How will Alberto Gonzales handle his duties as Attorney General -- the nation's highest ranking law enforcement official -- if he couldn't even figure out, as White House counsel, that Bernard Kerik was dirtier than a gas station toilet?
02:32 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Thank you, Mr. President
President Bill Clinton while walking through Central Park this week...
VERBAL MUGGER: You were an embarrassment to the office of commander-in-chief!
PRESIDENT CLINTON: Oh, really? I think I did a helluva job... I'll admit I misled people about my personal life. And I have even apologized for it, but I never misled the people about policy and I certainly never misled the people about going to war. I hope your children turn out to be as perfect as you are, sir.
From the New York Daily News.
02:03 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Is the nanny a disinformation effort?
It appears as if Kerik's nanny issue was simply disinformation fed to the public in an effort to withdraw focus from more serious charges against the embattled former DHS nominee. The New York Times reports today that an illegal alien nanny might not have ever existed. The Times:
Yet six days after Mr. Kerik withdrew his nomination, citing "questions about the immigration status of a person who had been in my employ," the figure central to the scandal - the nanny - remains a complete mystery.
Why use a nanny ploy? Scandals related to illegal nannies date back to Clinton nominee Zoe Baird and through and including Bush nominee Linda Chavez. So the issue is well-worn and the public has been desensitized, effectively shaking their heads in disgust -- but not calling for any public floggings. The looking-glass conventional wisdom says that an illegal nanny issue is a more acceptable a reason for a nominee to back out. We're, in a way, used to it. Much like we're used to presidents who avoided military service or smoked pot while in college. It just isn't that big a deal.
But fabricating an illegal nanny story IS a big deal. We've all fallen victim, time and time again, to the Bush neocon strategy of "Quick! Look over there!" But a lot of times, the "over there" is an item with some tiny shred of legitimacy. This time, it appears as if the distraction has been entirely a smokescreen.
Anyone who's familiar with the Rove Unit can recognize his oily elfin fingerprints all over this one. When are we going to hold these bastards accountable? Why are we allowing ourselves to play the role of the White House's battered spouse? Repeating the delusional, "If we just behave, the beatings will stop."
12:01 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Quietly, democracy presses on
From the AP: Jeannette Harrison, middle, observer for the campaign of Sen. John Kerry, and Denise McCoskey, right, observer for the campaign of the Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb, watch as ballots are recounted at the Hamilton County Board of Elections, Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2004, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)
And the media? Shh! Napping. As I file this article, CNN is breaking a story about properly bubble-wrapping gifts (really).
09:29 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
December 15, 2004
Impeachment
Let's cut to the chase. Impeachment of the president.
Bush was re-elected, not on his own accord, but instead due to, 1) a subverted press which deliberately spread disinformation and failed to adequately reveal to the public this administration's rampant malfeasance, and 2) clear indications of tampering and disenfranchisement in the elections of 2000 and 2004.
Never-the-less, his actions as our chief executive and the military's commander-in-chief (he's not "our" commander-in-chief as he likes to say; the title is intended to be used with regards to his command of the military and not the citizenry, though his usage of the title is revealing) warrants nothing short of impeachment, conviction, and removal from office.
More...
So the question is, on what charges? We know there's a laundry list a mile long, but what charges could reasonably be raised by Congress without the prosecutors being laughed out of office? I'm going to list the three most feasible charges without going into the cold, hard details of each. We all know the details.
1) For the purpose of political, personal, and financial gain, deliberately deceiving the Congress and the American public by fabricating and exaggerating military and civilian intelligence reports to justify an illegal invasion of the sovereign nation-state of Iraq. This offense took place covertly and publicly from September 2001 through and including November 2004.
2) Willfully allowing his closest advisors to reveal the name of an undercover operative from the CIA to syndicated columnist Robert Novak in June 2003. In doing so, Bush was an accomplice to the high crime of treason against the United States of America, its citizens, and its Constitution.
3) Abridging the basic Constitutional rights of the citizens of the United States of America. A strategy of artificially generating fear and terror to manipulate public opinion has been employed and fully perpetrated upon the American public from September 12, 2001 through the present day. Bush also engaged in violations of, but not limited to, Amendments IV (signed laws allowing illegal searches and seizures), VI (authorized the prevention of American citizens from receiving quick and speedy trials), and VII (has prevented American citizens from the right to a trial by jury).
So that's a start. President Clinton was impeached on charges of basic perjury. It doesn't take much research to determine that any one of Bush's offenses (whether listed here or not) are far greater violations of the Constitution and laws of the nation than lying under oath about oral sex. Comments are encouraged on this article. Let's brainstorm.
11:22 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Fox News priority watch, 12.15.04
The Fox News pundits (Hannity, Buchanan, and O'Reilly mainly) seem to think that somehow Christmas is going to be cancelled. Forever and ever. "Christmas Under Attack!" the logos say. Kids can't sing songs about Baby Jesus in public schools! Macy's is banning the word "Christmas" from banners in their store! Jews should move back to Israel! And "Happy" the Baby New Year is missing! Possibly kidnapped by Jews and atheists who hate babies with giant ears!
However, regarding voting irregularities and threats to our most basic democratic principle of one-person-one-vote... (Crickets chirping)
05:59 PM | Comments (4) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Ask not what Bush can do for you...
From the Mark Scott school of simplistic solutions to complex problems (ie. reduce poverty by exiling the poor), comes this Bush gem from today:
There's a trade deficit. That's easy to resolve: People can buy more United States products if they're worried about the trade deficit. (Quote courtesy of TPM)
When President Kennedy said, "Ask not what your country can do for you..." he probably didn't mean, "...so I don't have to think too hard."
04:17 PM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
It's the hypocrisy, stupid
Why, oh why, don't the leaders of the Democratic Party go after the GOP on the issue of sex and extra-marital affairs? Today, the New York Times (article) revealed that almost-Homeland Security jefe Bernard Kerik kept an apartment near Ground Zero for trysts with his lover, Judith Regan. The story is murkier than that, and the Times has got a lot of dirt.
But the point is: up until a few days ago, Bernie Kerik was held up as paragon of the morality party. When in fact, this sex-crazed stud is a big, bald hypocrite.
American tax-payers spent MILLIONS of dollars to find out that Clinton was given fellatio by an intern. The press could talk of little else for over a year. The affair got Clinton impeached. And it was certainly instrumental in Al Gore's "losing" the White House.
But Bernie Kerik can screw around on his wife (and two daughters) in an apartment originally procured as a crash pad for Ground Zero workers, and the DNC ignores it. There are many examples of prominent Republicans who have actually been caught in affairs, but the Dems always turn the other cheek.
Why? The putative answer is "we're above that gutter-trawling." But they shouldn't be. Because it's not about morals, it's about credibility. The fact is, the GOP has established itself squarely as the "moral party." And so when prominent party members like Bernie Kerik and his political sensei, Rudy Guiliani (who brought his mistress to Gracie Mansion), screw around on their wives, they should be called out for what they are: hypocrites.
Go on, Dems: dig the dirt. Find George H.W. Bush's mistress, the one that's been the talk of the Beltway insiders since Bush I was V.P. Or find someone else -- I'm sure there are plenty of prostitutes and mistresses who'd like to sell some book and screen rights. And then do what the GOP does: start the story rolling on Air America and the blog sites, and hammer the hypocrisy until the mainstream media has little choice but to pay attention. Hold them up to the standard they set for themselves.
03:37 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By John Christian Plummer
Yellow magnets: 'Your ad here'
While driving into work this morning, a car directly ahead of me had two of our favorite ribbon magnets adhered to either side of its trunk key lock. But these ribbons looked unusually cheap: no gradients and slightly misshapen.
Since we've been covering the prevalence of the yellow ribbon magnets and their hollow intent, I pulled closer to have a better look.
In addition to the "God Bless America" slogan on the flag-colored ribbon, there was a logo: "Bob Fisher Chevrolet". Dammit. Quickly, I turned my attention to the "Support Our Troops" magnet and sure enough, it contained the same logo: "Bob Fisher Chevrolet".
The tastelessness of the magnets is clear. But "tasteless" fails to fully describe the idea of including advertising on objects meant to convey sympathy for the men and women dying in Iraq, however misplaced the statement might be.
Contact Bob Fisher and ask him why he's using a bloody, tragic war in which thousands are dying to advertise his ridiculous car dealership. Additionally, the idea is borderline incestuous -- a car dealership using a war for oil to advertise a make of car that boasts terrible fuel efficiency.
11:45 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Typical Scarborough
Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's Scarborough Country has taken aim at Bill Moyers this week. But not from his show -- Pat Buchanan has been guest hosting while "Congressman Joe" nurses a bad back (Joe retired from Congress in 2001 while accused of having an affair, and his "mistress" mysteriously died after falling down some stairs at Joe's headquarters).
Joe penned a typically shallow missive on his blog yesterday regarding Friday's episode of "Now", and rather than dissecting Moyers' view that Republicans are subverting the press, Joe simply attacked Moyers.
Just about anyone would agree that Moyers is one of the most reputable, acclaimed journalists of our time. Yet, in predictable fashion, Joe resorted to the usually simplistic Republican tactic of "I know you are but what am I?"
And doesn't it seem to you that Bill Moyers is accusing right-wing media types of doing the same thing for the Republican Party that he has been doing for Democratic candidates for forty years?
So Moyers, like, say, Rush Limbaugh, has fabricated information, made racist comments, disinformed the public, and has vocally campaigned for Republicans ON THE AIR? Joe continued...
Of course. But in the media world, liberals like Moyers get journalism awards, while cultural megaforces like Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge get served extra helpings of scorn and ridicule from media elites.
DRUDGE? JOURNALISM AWARD? Giving Drudge a journalism award is like giving that kid in first grade who bites the other kids a Nobel Peace Prize. However, Joe's admiration for Rush and Drudge says more about how right wing hacks are passed off as journalists these days than it does about Joe's questionable taste in "journalism".
09:46 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
December 14, 2004
No cute headline. This will sicken you.
U.S. Navy documents, attained via the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU, have revealed more grotesque abuses of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of our military forces, according to the AP.
U.S. Marines forced Iraqi juveniles to kneel while troops discharged a weapon in a mock execution, used electric shock on one prisoner and set fire to a puddle of solvent that burned a prisoner.
The children weren't prisoners, but simply "looters". Not enemy combatants. Not terrorists. Not insurgents. But it's a safe bet that they are now.
What else? There's a document detailing an investigation of a Marine who strangled a prisoner to death. The AP breaking news story says, "Investigators ruled that the death was accidental." Accidental death while strangling is kind of like accidental digestion while eating.
Another case involves a Marine who "[shocked] an Iraqi detainee with an electric transformer, [holding] wires against the shoulder area of the detainee [who] danced as he was shocked."
10,000 pages of investigatory documents from the U.S. Navy regarding abuses -- all of which took place away from Abu Ghraib. Huzzah! America (or as Bush insists, God) has given the gift of freedom and democracy to Iraq!
Here's an interesting quote: "This vile display shows a contempt for all the rules of warfare, and all the bounds of civilized behavior."
That was Bush talking about a beheading last May. Interesting how the same condemnation could be used for our "contempt for all the rules of warfare". Of course, the same words don't apply to Bush who gives out promotions to men who show contempt for those rules.
10:58 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
The realities of Darfur, 12.14.04
This is 85-year-old Abu Hamid Omar. Not only was he burned and branded in an attack by the Janjaweed and Sudanese Government forces, but his village was burned to the ground. Abu Hamid Omar was the ONLY villager to survive the persecutory assault. Photographed October 11, 2004, by Benjamin Lowy. Learn more about the atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan here.
02:59 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Moyers: The delusional Right
First, a reminder to set your Tivo for Friday night when Bill Moyers presents his final episode of "Now" on PBS. The last installment will focus on the right wing's subversion of the media. Required viewing.
Last Friday, Moyers wrote an amazing piece for TomPaine.com which analyses the right's delusions about the environment and how religion influences their destructive tendencies. These formerly fringe elements of the right wing have now become, Moyers says, the mainstream, much to the chagrin of the planet.
He writes, "...millions of Christian fundamentalists may believe that environmental destruction is not only to be disregarded but actually welcomed—even hastened—as a sign of the coming apocalypse... We're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs." Continuing:
Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election—231 legislators in total, more since the election -- are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt.
Not surprisingly, it's a stunning essay which ultimately questions why we've allowed the betrayal of our children in the name of delusional, Revelations-hyped environmental policy. Read it here.
02:38 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Congressional Dems to investigate Bush
Freshly minted Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) sounds like he's ready to take the gloves off. Congressional Democrats will begin hearings into a handful of Bush improprieties in January. Hopefully, it'll happen with the right PR and the right names and some solid evidence. They certainly have plenty of material. From AP:
"There are too many unasked and unanswered questions and the American public deserves better," the Nevada senator said at a news conference.
They said issues that "cry out" for closer investigation, in addition to contracting abuses in Iraq, include the administration's use of prewar intelligence and its reported effort to stifle information about the true cost of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. Reid also mentioned global warming and the "No Child Left Behind" education program as topics that needed a closer look.
Bush's second term has begun.
10:48 AM | Comments (3) | Posted By Bob Cesca
'Bush Monkeys' painter censored
REUTERS: Painter Christopher Savido poses with his painting "Bush Monkeys," a portrait of U.S. President George W. Bush, at the Animal gallery on New York City's lower east side. Curator of the show Bucky Turco said that Savido's painting of Bush was removed from an art exhibit at the Chelsea Market in Manhattan over the past weekend after the director of the market protested the content of the painting of Bush, which is made of tiny images of chimpanzees in a marsh-like landscape. REUTERS/Mike Segar. Read more here.
09:25 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
December 13, 2004
Buying blue
A new website has opened with the purpose of listing and profiling businesses and retailers who contribute money to Democrats:
Before you finish your holiday feeding frenzy, check the list and make sure you're not unwittingly endorsing Republican contributors.
Also, you'll notice that Amazon contributed 61% of their PAC money to Republicans. Therefor, we've changed all of our product links to point to Barnes & Noble who gave 98% of its political donations to Democrats this year.
05:02 PM | Comments (2) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Let's play 'Decipher Rummy'
While in New Delhi, Donald Rumsfeld was asked about his exchange with Spc. Wilson, and Wilson's alleged collaboration with an imbedded reporter. This was Rummy's answer:
I don't know what the facts are, but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him [Wilson] and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing.
You know... It's worth repeating that Rummy is one of few cabinet members who ISN'T being replaced. Stupid is as stupid does.
04:39 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
McCain: 'no confidence' in Rummy
McCain and everyone else with a brain in their head. From the AP:
U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.
"I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops - linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc.," said McCain, R-Ariz. "There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue."
When asked if Rumsfeld was a liability to the Bush administration, McCain responded: "The president can decide that, not me."
Rumsfeld will never resign, and Cheney won't allow him to be fired. Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz are a package deal.
04:17 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Local case study in raping the poor
A little background first, then to the meat and potatoes of this article. Hang in there. It'll be worth the long read.
The home base of RBN is Berks County, Pennsylvania, just outside the Philadelphia metro region. The county seat is Reading: an old city famous for outlet shopping and an actual Chinese pagoda resting on the mountainside above the modest city skyline. It’s a red county in a blue state. Bush won here by around 11,000 votes. Despite the slim 52/48 margin, Berks County consistently votes Republican for president. Strange, considering the high population of adult stores and "massage" parlors.
We also have one of "those" Republicans on the county board of commissioners, complete with his own mini-Rove political advisor. His name is Commissioner Mark Scott, and he hates poor people as well as people who don't speak his native WASP. He once postured to his wealthy suburban base by demagoguing against bilingual ballots. He lost the battle and the bilingual ballot measure was approved, but he handily won re-election in 2003. Nice guy. More in a minute.
During November's last county commissioner's meeting, the board considered the 2005 budget for the county. This budget contains a property tax increase of -- get this -- 34 percent. If you own a home, you're screwed.
All three county commissioners are against the punitively high tax increase, but will probably approve it simply because they don't quite know how else to -- here we go -- make up for the decreases in federal transfer payments to the county due to Bush's tax cuts. In other words, thanks to Mr. Bush's fiscal irresponsibility, there's not enough federal spending to go around, leaving counties like Berks high and dry.
In addition to illustrating one of many major flaws in Bush's through-the-looking-glass fiscal policies, it's also a perfect example of citizens voting against their own financial interests.
Perhaps Berks Countians elected Bush to protect their guns. Berks loves its guns and hunting. There's a new Cabela's franchise here. Of course, very few people know that Cabela's was given enormous tax breaks and incentives to come to this forsaken burg. Tax breaks that the gun-toters who shop there will be paying for.
But rather than blaming his own party's blunders in Washington for the tax hikes, we're getting more political posturing from Commissioner Scott.
Make no mistake, he'll vote to adopt the 2005 budget, but in the meantime, he's back to demagoguing against the disenfranchised. Last year it was the "swarthies", this time it's the county's poor people. The tax increases, Scott is saying in a new series of local radio ads, are due in part to poor people who come to the area to plunder our human services programs. Human services like homeless assistance, low income housing programs, and child welfare. Programs vital to the area since the departure of the city’s manufacturing economic base.
His solution?
"Demolish more houses in the city so poor families will not be enticed by low rent housing to move in from outside the county," Scott told the Reading Eagle (article not online for linking).
He continued, "Identify other factors that may be attracting poor families and eliminate them." By "them" we can only assume he wants to eliminate both the "other factors" AND "the poor families".
Solid plan.
What better way of reducing the poverty rate. Simply exterminate the impoverished! And to think of all the time we wasted with trying to create jobs and build affordable homes. Bah! Just get rid of them!
So rather than calling for small cuts in incentives for retail megastores and bank branches, he'd rather cut funding to the poor and demolish their homes, effectively destroying their only hope for survival.
Desperate people do desperate things, like selling drugs, abusing their children (Berks is already third in Pennsylvania for child abuse), or robbing the homes of near-by suburbanites who, themselves, might be slipping into poverty.
The trickle-down effect of Bush’s tax cuts and budget deficits are beginning to feel more like a giant cartoon anvil landing on the heads of those most vulnerable. The middle class will become poor, the poor will become homeless, and the homeless will die, creating a Mobius Loop of poverty in an area already in danger of catastrophic implosion.
Meanwhile, for many upper middle class residents who compose the core of the county's tax base, incentives to live here will diminish as property taxes (along with soaring utility costs -- another story) force them to move to areas closer to near-by New York, Allentown, or Philadelphia. After all, if the cost of living is going to rival areas closer to big cities, why stick around in a more rural county with little or no aesthetic appeal.
The city will fall first. It doesn't have far to go, especially with a 420% increase in the occupational privilege tax. That's no typo, by the way. A 420% occupational privilege tax hike in Reading. A story for another time and place. Then, like a cancer, the rest of the county will go with it. As long as the contradictory voters here continue to cast ballots against their own self-interests, there's very little that can be done to stop it.
Fortunately for Mark Scott, his 130 acre ranch could easily be fenced off to keep the new legions of poor people from setting up shanty towns on his spacious lawn.
Learn more about Commissioner Mark Scott here.
12:18 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Sleep tight!
"[Bombings and humiliation in Iraq] could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and the humiliation of Germans in World War I," Yawar told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar,
from Haaretz Israeli News
09:13 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
December 12, 2004
The buck stops everywhere else
Google search results for:
Bush blames: 24,800
Bush takes responsibility: 657
Bush takes the blame for: 12
Inspired by this post at DailyKos.
10:03 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Brzezinski: 'Fanatics' led us to war
Former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, appeared this afternoon on CNN's "Late Edition". While Wolf Blitzer tried to guide the Iraq discussion in the direction of the White House "the intelligence folks screwed us" blame game, Brzezinski honed in on the true culprits behind the war.
BLITZER: Dr. Brzezinski, we know there was a huge intelligence blunder on the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Everybody recognizes that now.
But now it's apparent, and Kanan Makiya now believes, and other Iraqis, that Saddam Hussein was plotting this insurgency all along, anticipating a U.S. assault. That would seem to be another intelligence blunder of huge import, and as a result a lot of Americans and others are dying.
ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, it's not just an intelligence blunder. It's a question of the mindset. There was such fervor to go to war against Iraq. And it was propounded with such intensity and, I'm sorry to say, demagoguery by a bunch of fanatics that it was quite natural for them also to argue that it's going to be very easy, that we'd be welcomed as liberators, that the aftermath would be very simple.
I think we're dealing here with a problem which goes beyond intelligence. It's a fundamental misjudgment, and it's a consequence of a decision-making process in which skeptics, questioners, people who disagreed really didn't play much of a role.
Wolfie must've blown a flywheel when Brzezinski refused to stick with the pre-ordained "everybody knows it's the intelligence community's fault" line of questioning. More on the next page...
BLITZER: Well, you use a tough word, "fanatics." Who do you mean, when you say fanatics, talking about fanatics?
BRZEZINSKI: I'm not going to mention names, but people who, either for religious or strategic reasons, have a very one-sided view of Iraq and of the Middle East and what needs to be done in the area.
Hint number two, Wolfie. Fill in the blanks, oh bearded one. One of the fanatics has a name that starts with an "R" and rhymes with "Umsfeld". Another fanatic has a name that starts with YOUR first name and ends with "Owitz".
BLITZER: When you say "religious reasons" -- I'm pressing you, because these are strong words that you're throwing out, and you're a man of very precise language.
BRZEZINSKI: Well, I think we all know that in American politics, particularly in recent times, there has been an intensified linkage between extreme religious views and politics. And there are a number of people who have very, very intense feelings about the Middle East. And I think that has colored our approach to Iraq and has colored our assessments of what would happen.
Brzezinski wants to name names, but is giving Wolf too much credit.
BLITZER: Well, maybe I'm missing something. Are you talking about fundamentalist Christians? Are you talking about Jews? Specifically, what are you trying...
No! You're missing the elephant in the room, Wolf. Brzezinski is trying to say--
BRZEZINSKI: I'm talking about all of them. I'm talking about all of them: people who approach this issue with a very strong religious fervor or a kind of strategic fanaticism, the kind of fanaticism that leads some people currently, for example, to argue that we should attack Iran, that we should bomb Iran.
He's talking about the Bushies engaging in a religious and financial crusade. If Wolf was half the reporter he says he is, he'd know there are around 25,000 missionaries from Richard Land's Southern Baptist ministry alone currently in Iraq. There's more evangelical missionaries who went into Iraq after the invasion than there are non-American members of the military "coalition of the willing".
BLITZER: And is this related to support for Israel is coloring their...
DAMMIT, Wolf! It's not just Israel. If at all. Bush has actually turned his back on Israel by supporting a Palestinian state. Israel was not a high priority for the Bushies when moving into Iraq.
BRZEZINSKI: In some cases, I'm sure it is. In some cases, it isn't. It's a mixture. You know, this is a very diversified country, and there's a variety of viewpoints.
But in recent times, and particularly after 9/11, there has been an intensification in intensely views, intensely views. And when that is translated into the decision-making process, in which you really don't vent alternatives very systematically, you are inclined to get into difficulties of the kind that we're now facing in Iraq.
Wolf totally missed the point in his ham-fisted "uh doy" attempt to discredit Brzezinski and paint him as blaming "support for Israel" as the reason for war and crux of the "fanaticism". It's partially ignorance, and partially that Wolf seems totally brainwashed in believing that the WMD debacle and the invasion was simply due to an intelligence mistake. He doesn't want to hear that Bush & Co.'s obsessive "fanatical" attitudes towards Iraq and their desire to be re-elected in 2004 drove them to cook the books on Iraq.
BLITZER: Do you accept that, General Scowcroft?
SCOWCROFT: This is a complex situation, and I would leave it to my colleague to define it.
And a brilliant final word from Condi Rice's mentor.
05:19 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
Surprise! White House blames Kerik
The White House is claiming that their vetting of Bernard Kerik failed because Kerik didn't tell them what they needed to know -- even though their vetting process is "thorough and extensive".
Today's Washington Post:
Current officials dismiss criticism, saying it is virtually impossible to stop candidates from withholding information or lying to White House investigators.
"The vetting process is a thorough and extensive one," McClellan said. "It's a process that looks at all the issues related to the nominee's financial, professional and personal background. It was Commissioner Kerik himself who said this was a matter he should have brought to our attention sooner."
"Should have brought it to our attention" calls to mind one of the great Robin Williams monologues in "Good Morning Vietnam" in which Williams as Adrian Cronauer slips into a slow-witted military intelligence character voice and drones, "We've realized that we're having a very difficult time finding the enemy. We walk up to someone and say, 'Are you the enemy?' And, if they say 'yes', we shoot them."
The Bush administration continues to behave like petulent children. When something goes awry and they're clearly to blame, they huff and puff in protest while repeating, "I didn't do it!" To say their lack of responsibility is reaching childish proportions only serves to insult the integrity of actual children.
12:06 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca
