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 Sunday, June 20, 2004
Hearts and Minds of Darkness (It Can't Get Any Worse #358). It's official. Putting it mildly, they don't like us. The first survey of Iraqis sponsored by the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority after the Abu Ghraib prison scandal shows that most say they would feel safer if Coalition forces left immediately,... [Change for America]
Here are the latest poll numbers from Iraq. Less than 1% feel we are making them more secure. The Iraqi police get 18 times more respect. Over 70% say they are providing their own security through friends and families. This is the major blunder of RUmsfeld's policy. We severely undermanned the post-war security, providing about 1/5th the number of ground troops needed to maintain order and security. The continuing degradation of the average Iraqis safety is a major reason we are losing oveer ther. All because Rumsfeld wanted to propose a new approach to fighting on lnad, to declare that modern technology allowed us to ignore thousands of years of history. His viewpoint about a New Order are just as much a fantasy as the Internet's New Economy. And oth have been incredibly destructive. 2:30:08 PM 
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A Recollection of Early Questions About Reagan's Health. A look back at Ronald Reagan's health leaves the author looking for answers, some of which may be revealed by complete medical records. By Lawrence K. Altman, M.d.. [New York Times: Health]
I have never been one to beleive that Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's during his time in office. this article seems to clarify this question. No, I truly believe that he alowed Iran-Contra to occur becuase he believed, as did many in his Administration, that what the Executive branch wanted was more important than what the Legislative branch wanted, and that, as Dick Nixon proposed, if you simply followed the President's order, it was by definition NOT illegal. We see the same sort of sophistry today, only by people much less concerned then they were 20 years ago about what the Amrican people will think. They believe that a majority can be made to think almost anything. 2:21:28 PM
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Pray for Reason. Possibly because of the "Pray for Cynicism" banner adorning the bottom of my blog, Mark Dionne sends along a link to Pray for Reason, a site that wants us to win the war of prayers against those who are praying for Bush's reelection. (More here...)... [Joho the Blog]
Fight prayer with prayer. 2:13:50 PM
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No Communion for Santorum. He did support a pro-choice politician (Specter) against a pro-life one (Toomey).
But, surprise surprise - yet another article in the liberal New York Times about Catholic politicians and abortion rights which miraculously manages to not mention a single pro-choice Republican.
Confessore wonders why Bush is pushing this even though Catholic and Protestant views on abortion are pretty similar across the board.
Why, then, does the White House keep pushing the issue of John Kerry and the bishops? Good question. I suspect it has a lot to do with keeping Kerry off-balance and in an awkward position on a touchy subject. But clearly the Bush administration believes that having bishops and priests denounce Kerry from the pulpit would help them with some segment of voters. I wonder if they are correct.
I don't think that's it. I think it's that a clueless and hostile media will continue to push the idea that Kerry, alone in the world, is betraying his religion. Even those who aren't Catholic, and even those who aren't particularly religious, will get the message that Kerry doesn't live up to his professed beliefs.
It has nothing to do with increasing the Catholic vote for Bush -- if anything, I'd guess it'll lose Bush a few of those votes. It's about painting a general picture of an amoral man with no core beliefs.
In other words, it's just like every other Republican presidential campaign. [Eschaton]
Here is the explanation for why only Kerry will be mentioned in this debate about Catholics, and NO Republican official who holds similar views will be. (Nor will the Death penalty be brought up, something Kerry does agree with the Church on and many Republicans do not.) The Catholic Church is being made a tool of the Republican Party. And many of its officials seem to be happy to participate. Perhaps they should be tending to their own flocks, instead. 2:13:01 PM
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Ah. The Economist Issues a Correction. Ah. The Economist issues a correction:
Economist.com: Last week (“Cursed by lagging perceptions”) we suggested that the current pace of job growth (an average of 238,000 new jobs per month this year) meant that a forecast published in February by George Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, which suggested 2.6m new jobs would be created in 2004, might prove too low. In fact, the CEA'S forecasts were based on calendar-year averages, not year-end figures, and their calculations actually implied the creation of more than 320,000 new jobs per month during 2004.
320,000 per month is 3.8 million over the calendar year.
The Wall Street Journal, however, has not yet corrected its June 8 observation that "readers may recall that chief White House economist Greg Mankiw was widely ridiculed in February for predicting that the economy would create 2.6 million new jobs this year."
And I don't believe that the Wall Street Journal ever will.
[Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]
A great example of how this Administration confuses the media, who are so mathematically challenged that they do not know what an average is. And, most of the readers of said bad journalism would never know what was wrong. It sure makes it easy to run a country when the media are simply lapdogs for your propaganda. Glad to see someone is aware of the problem now, even if it is only read by a small number of people, and it is a British publication. 2:05:50 PM
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Hostage Paul Johnson: Where's the Body?. We wrote this morning of the strange twist in the speedy and convenient capture and killing of American hostage Paul Johnson's alleged kidappers/murderers. We said: For three days they couldn't catch a lead. All of a sudden, they get a... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
They were not led to the killers because of the body, as originally reported. Seems kind of convenient that they kill the guys that they have been looking months for within hours of Johnson's death. And very convenient that there are no survivors to be questioned. Bring out your conspriacy theories. Right out of Oswald and Ruby. 1:53:27 PM
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Bush: Torturer-in-Chief. Law Professor Marjorie Cohn at Jihad Unspun examines the Bush Administration's conflicting legal positions on torture in George Bush: Torturer-in-Chief. She concludes that his actions warrant impeachment. She's not the only one. This week more than 400 legal scholars signed... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Clinton was obviously impeached for purely political reasons. Because if receving a blow job and lying about it rises to high crimes and misdemeanors, then what in hell is going on with this Administration? The damage being done now is so much greater. People a half centurt from now will just not understand how we could have so completely lost our minds. assuming they are still living in a free democracy. 1:50:35 PM
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New Art in Downtown San Francisco. If you're going to be in San Francisco this week, check out the new street art. The downtown area has been papered with 'got democracy?' posters, questioning U.S. policy in Iraq: In the past five days, the posters have... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
As long as this sort of political statement is still allowed, there is hope. Let's see what happens when these posters go up outside of San Francisco. 1:44:44 PM
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Editor's Cut: Former Bush (41) and Reagan Officials Say Bush (43) Must Go. These old hands are taking a stand against the most arrogant and incompetent foreign policy in their lifetimes. [The Nation Weblogs]
Some of the grown-ups seem to have rediscovered their voice. Many of these are officials who worked under Reagan and Bush Sr. They are not political hacks but mostly career public servants who are upsey at the tremendous loss in american prestige that has occurred, and continues to occur, under the arrogant Bush Administration. 1:42:26 PM
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Missle Attack May Have Been Based on Bad Intelligence. by TChris Was the U.S. missle attack in Fallujah based on another intelligence failure? Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt assured reporters that multiple intelligence sources confirmed that the attacked house was used by the al-Zarqawi network. But a senior officer of... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]
Why in the world should we believe that we are all of a sudden getting good intelligence? Why in the world would anyone in the Middle East believe that? Maybe they got it from one of the prisoners they are still interrogating in one of the numerous secret prisoners they use throughout the world?How could the US have gotten itself into the position that even if it did tell the truth, most of the citizens of the world would not belive it? Only something like 2% of the Iraqis now beliewve we are liberators. The majority see us as oppressors. Unilaterally violating a ceasefire in Fallujah would have huge repercussions in the current environment, ven if we were 100% certain. I belive we will be seeing more Americans put in harm's way over the next few weeks due to this. 1:39:00 PM
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Plan B. PLAN B....A few weeks ago I briefly mentioned the FDA's obviously political decision to ban over-the-counter availability of Plan B, a "morning after" contraceptive. Today, at Kautilyan, Lerxst has the latest on the Bush administration's nanny state desire to control... [Political Animal]
Not only is this Administration harming the environment by its ideology. It continues to harm our health with its politicization of medicine. It was bad enough to believe that the FDA could belong to drug companies. But to now see that it is even more under the control of ideologues, who will rule against a 22-4 vote by the advisory board. well, THAT must send chills down the spine of any pharmaceutical company. You can spend $800 million proviing your drug is safe and effective and some appointed official can turn it down FOR NO GOOD MEDICAL REASON! This ruling will be used by people of either party to control who gets what based on political ends, not medical.
This hits right where I live and will have a lingering effect long after Bush leaves. How can we trust the FDA to provide us with appropriate medication, or even safe ones, if it can be kidnapped by political ideologues? Bad news for Big Pharma. 1:31:03 PM
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Cognitive Dissonance: A View from A Professional. We know there's evidence that Bush is being less than... [Daily Kos]
I know several Republicans who have taken the same route Bush has - they simply no longer listen or read ANYTHING from the newsmedia. The dissonance is too great. It is so much easier to fabricate your own world if you do not let any facts intrude. 1:25:54 PM
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