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Sunday, May 21, 2006
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No real surprise. All the White House ever does is spin and campaign. They can elect Republicans, but they can't run America. The White House has turned in to a purely political operation: Bush has turned his attention to the campaign. Six months before the election, he has made 36 fundraising appearances, more than at this point in 2002. He spoke at a party gala last week that broke off-year records for hard-money fundraising and later attended events in Virginia and Kentucky. Vice President Cheney has been even more active, making 62 fundraising appearances, including one in Nashville on Saturday, and he plans three more in California in the next couple of days.
With Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove reassigned from day-to-day policy management to concentrate on the fall campaign, the White House has begun setting an agenda. Bush focused on stopping illegal immigration with his National Guard plan announced in an Oval Office address last week, followed a few days later by a visit to the border. In between, he signed legislation extending $70 billion in tax cuts that he has made a signature issue on the campaign trail. Every tax dollar we spend on the White House operation is really just paying for the GOP campaign operation.
(Via AMERICAblog.)
11:04:36 PM 
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I find it funny that because Rep. William Jefferson is almost certainly a crook, the right is saying that the idea of a Republican culture of corruption is moot. Jefferson is notable largely for how isolated his incident is in the Democratic caucus.
While on the Republican side:
* Tom DeLay, the House majority leader was indicted and resigned in shame
* Bill Frist, the Senate majority leader is under SEC probe
* Duke Cunnigham is in prison now for bribery, and is apparently fingering the ills of numerous other congressmen as well as two or three CIA people.
* Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff is in the middle of a bribery scandal involving numerous Republican congressmen (like Bob Ney)
* Not to mention: no bid Halliburton contracts, secret meetings with oil executives, the flaunting of all sorts of laws - including FISA
But yeah, there’s no Republican culture of corruption
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
10:57:29 PM
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...The nation's top law enforcer also said the government will not hesitate to track telephone calls made by reporters as part of a criminal leak investigation, but officials would not do so routinely and randomly.
"There are some statutes on the book which, if you read the language carefully, would seem to indicate that that is a possibility," Gonzales said, referring to prosecutions. "We have an obligation to enforce those laws. We have an obligation to ensure that our national security is protected."
...Gonzales said he would not comment specifically on whether The New York Times should be prosecuted for disclosing the NSA program last year based on classified information.
He also denied that authorities would randomly check journalists' records on domestic-to-domestic phone calls in an effort to find journalists' confidential sources.
"We don't engage in domestic-to-domestic surveillance without a court order," Gonzales said, under a "probable cause" legal standard.
But he added that the First Amendment right of a free press should not be absolute when it comes to national security. If the government's probe into the NSA leak turns up criminal activity, prosecutors have an "obligation to enforce the law."
"It can't be the case that that right trumps over the right that Americans would like to see, the ability of the federal government to go after criminal activity," Gonzales told ABC's "This Week." Editor&Publisher
(Via Prairie Weather.)
6:34:31 PM
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With a strong showing in global markets, "The Da Vinci Code" posted the second highest grossing opening weekend of any film, according to Sony Pictures Entertainment.
(Via The New York Times > Home Page.)
6:10:46 PM
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Seeing the Forest has a fantastic post on the shock going around the wingnutosphere that two Saudi men got on a school bus. I guess it's a clear indication they plan to commandeer some yellow buses for god knows what nefarious purposes.
6:07:35 PM
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Is "waterboarding" an acceptable interrogation technique? Gen. Hayden responded: "Let me defer that to closed session, and I would be happy to discuss it in some detail." That was the wrong answer. The right one would have been simple: No... The damage done by such silence to America's global standing and long-term interests is incalculable.... Washington Post editorial.
(Via Prairie Weather.)
12:22:11 PM
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Five miners died today in a Kentucky mine explosion, and ABC asks, What's Being Done to Prevent Mine Deaths? Good question, especially since four-and-a-half months have passed since the Sago mine tragedy. The answer, according to the article is: not a lot. And one Democratic representative, George Miller, who co-sponsored a miner safety bill that's languishing in Congress, is pretty unhappy about it: "When Janet Jackson had her wardrobe [malfunction], it took Congress 40 days to change the law," Miller said. "It's now over 120 days, and Congress hasn't done a damn thing about securing a safer workplace for these miners and for these families." Miller also discussed the possible ramifications of the Kentucky mine being non-unionized: "In non-union mines there's a great deal of intimidation that goes on against the workers, because the mine owners do not want to shut down the mines, they do not want to reduce their output," Miller said. "If you suggest that something is as dangerous to do that, you may lose your job, and it's a real problem." Is America about ready to turn the federal government back over to people who ... you know ... actually believe government can be an agent for good and can run it competently? Imagine the Mine Safety and Health Administration back under the leadership of the party who will help it live up to its motto: Ensuring Worker Safety and Health in the Nation's Mines. It's hard to believe people in Kentucky tonight are happy that the Republican Congress, instead of seeing to hundreds of life and death issues for Americans, have been wrangling over gay marriage, official/common/shared language, FCC indecency fines and other meaningless symbolic crap. This continual dodging of real citizen concerns is beginning to reek of criminal neglect.
(Via Daily Kos.)
12:04:46 PM
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On page 28 of today's New York Times, the last place in the world that Bush's base would be likely to spot it, we learn that the Decider has decided to raise taxes after all — on teenage kids saving for college. Coming soon: tax hikes on orphanages, soup kitchens, and paraplegic veterans of the Bush family wars.
The $69 billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed this week tripled tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Mr. Bush’s 1999 pledge to veto any tax increase.
Under the new law, teenagers age 14 to 17 with investment income will now be taxed at the same rate as their parents, not at their own rates. Long-term capital gains and dividends that had been taxed at 5 percent will now be taxed at 15 percent. Interest that had been taxed at 10 percent will now be taxed at as much as 35 percent.
(Via Bad Attitudes.)
11:34:02 AM
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The story has made its way to Newsweek. Thanks to The Brad Blog, I learned about this story: Will Your Vote Count in 2006?, How bad are the problems? Experts are calling them the most serious voting-machine flaws ever documented. Basically the trouble stems from the ease with which the machine's software can be altered. It requires only a few minutes of pre-election access to a Diebold machine to open the machine and insert a PC card that, if it contained malicious code, could reprogram the machine to give control to the violator. The machine could go dead on Election Day or throw votes to the wrong candidate. Worse, it's even possible for such ballot-tampering software to trick authorized technicians into thinking that everything is working fine, an illusion you couldn't pull off with pre-electronic systems. "If Diebold had set out to build a system as insecure as they possibly could, this would be it," says Avi Rubin, a Johns Hopkins University computer-science professor and elections-security expert.
... The Diebold security gap is only the most vivid example of the reality that no electronic voting system can be 100 percent safe or reliable. That's the reason behind an initiative to augment these systems, adding a paper receipt that voters can check to make sure it conforms with their choices. The receipt is retained at the polling place so a physical count can be conducted. "When you're using a paperless voting system, there is no security," says David Dill, a Stanford professor who founded the election-reform organization Verified Voting.
... In other words, it's unlikely that every voter using an electronic voting device in 2006 will know for sure that his or her vote will be reflected in the actual totals. Six years after the 2000 electoral debacle, how can this be? [emphasis added] This is an issue everyone should be making noise about.
(Via Seeing the Forest.)
DON'T vote using one of these machines! Ask for a paper ballot or vote absentee.
11:28:19 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Steve Michel.
Last update: 6/1/2006; 8:54:34 AM.
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