Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Bush's Social Security Plan Is Said to Require Vast Borrowing
The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help financeBut proponents of Mr. Bush's effort to make investment accounts the centerpiece of an overhaul of the retirement system said there were no realistic alternatives to some increases in borrowing, a requirement the White House is beginning to acknowledge.
"The administration hasn't settled on any particular Social Security reform plan," Joshua B. Bolten, the director of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, said in an e-mail message in response to questions about overhauling the system.
"The president does support personal accounts, which need not add over all to the cost of the program but could in the short run require additional borrowing to finance the transition," Mr. Bolten said. "I believe there's a strong case that this approach not only makes sense as a matter of savings policy, but is also fiscally prudent."
Monday, November 22, 2004
'Something was not right': "Since the shooting in the mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well.
... when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera - the story of his death became my responsibility."
No More Sham Elections: "In Arkansas, 75 percent of state legislative races this year were uncontested by either the Republicans or by the Democrats. The same was true of 73 percent of the seats in Florida, 70 percent in South Carolina, 62 percent in New Mexico.
And Congressional races were an embarrassment. Only seven incumbents in the House of Representatives lost their seats this month. Four of those were in Texas, where the Republican Legislature gerrymandered Democrats out of their seats.
Granted, gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races are often still competitive. But, increasingly, to be elected to the House once is to be elected for life. As David Broder of The Washington Post put it, the House is becoming like the British House of Lords."
Mr. Gonzales's Record (washingtonpost.com): "Mr. Gonzales has never accepted responsibility, or been held accountable, for his role in setting administration policies that led to extensive violations of international law -- and U.S. standards of justice -- in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and in other still-secret detention facilities. Mr. Gonzales should not become attorney general without being asked by the Senate to answer for that record.
The starting point was Mr. Gonzales's recommendation to Mr. Bush that he declare the Geneva Conventions -- whose rules on the questioning of prisoners he derided as "obsolete" -- inapplicable to detainees from Afghanistan. That decision caused enormous damage to U.S. standing even with close allies, yet from a practical point of view was entirely unnecessary. Mr. Gonzales ignored the advice of the administration's most seasoned national security officials, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told him it was possible to indefinitely detain and vigorously interrogate al Qaeda members without violating Geneva, and that he risked undermining a U.S. military culture of treating prisoners humanely. That prophecy came true when Gen. Sanchez used Mr. Gonzales's logic to authorize the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The position Mr. Gonzales endorsed, that the president could declare that all those captured in Afghanistan were not entitled to Geneva protections, has since been ruled illegal by one federal judge and has led to numerous other judicial complications."
Americans Show Clear Concerns on Bush Agenda: "fter enduring a brutally fought election campaign, Americans are optimistic about the next four years under President Bush, but have reservations about central elements of the second-term agenda he presented in defeating Senator John Kerry, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll.
At a time when the White House has portrayed Mr. Bush's 3.5-million-vote victory as a mandate, the poll found that Americans are at best ambivalent about Mr. Bush's plans to reshape Social Security, rewrite the tax code, cut taxes and appoint conservative judges to the bench. There is continuing disapproval of Mr. Bush's handling of the war in Iraq, with a plurality now saying it was a mistake to invade in the first place.
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While Democrats, not surprisingly, were the staunchest opponents of many elements of Mr. Bush's second-term agenda, the concerns extended across party lines in some cases. Nearly two-thirds of all respondents - including 51 percent of Republicans - said it was more important to reduce deficits than to cut taxes, a central element of Mr. Bush's economic agenda. "
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Newsman Who Taped Marine Shooting Captive Keeps Silent: "'The marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement.'
It goes on to quote a marine saying everything to the west of his position in Falluja was 'weapons free.' It continues, 'Weapons free means the marines can shoot whatever they see - it's all considered hostile.'"
Red Cross condemns Iraq abuses: "'As hostilities continue in Falluja and elsewhere, every day seems to bring news of yet another act of utter contempt for the most basic tenet of humanity: the obligation to protect human life and dignity,' Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the International Committee of the Red Cross operations director, said.
'We are deeply concerned by the devastating impact that the fighting in Iraq is having,' he said. Kraehenbuehl stressed that international humanitarian law prohibits killing anyone who is not actively taking part in combat - or has ceased to do so. "
Absolute Power Erupts: "The White House says it wants greater harmony, but it's acting like the thought police. Having run into resistance in their bid for global domination, the president and vice president are going for federal domination, pushing out anyone with independent judgment who puts democracy above ideology.
It's a paradoxical game plan: imposing democracy abroad while impeding it here. "
Friday, November 19, 2004
Study Finds Florida 'Ghost' E-Votes Boosting Bush: "In the nation's first academic study of the Florida 2004 vote, University of California, Berkeley graduate students and a professor have found intriguing evidence that electronic-voting counties there could have mistakenly awarded up to 260,000 votes to President Bush. "
Thursday, November 18, 2004
A Plague of Toadies: "Bush doesn't want any more leaks, like the one showing that he was told two months before invading Iraq that such a move could lead to violent internal conflict and more support for radical Islamists.
Mr. Goss has managed to make the dysfunctional C.I.A. even more dysfunctional. Instead of going after Al Qaeda, he's busy purging top-level officials who had been going after Al Qaeda - replacing them with his coterie of hacks from Capitol Hill.
Mr. Cheney is letting his old mentor, Rummy, stay on. What does it matter if the Rummy doctrine - dangerously thin allotments of forces, no exit strategy, snatching State Department occupation duties and then screwing them up - has botched the Iraq mission and left the military so strapped it's calling back old, out-of-shape reservists to active service?
Condi Rice and Stephen Hadley did not do their jobs before 9/11 in coordinating the fight against Al Qaeda, and they did not do their jobs after 9/11 in preventing the debacle in Iraq. They not only suppressed evidence Americans needed to know that would have debunked the neocons' hyped-up case for invading Iraq; they helped shovel hooey into the president's speeches."
Fallujah fighting takes more lives as wave of violence engulfs Iraq: "A US marine and an Iraqi soldier were killed in Fallujah, as 17 other people died in attacks elsewhere in Iraq and marine intelligence warned that the insurgency would grow despite massive offensives to crush the rebels.
The marine and soldier died during continuing mop-up operations in the former insurgent bastion, raising the coalition toll in the fighting to retake the city to 51 US dead and eight Iraqis, the top US marine commander there said. "
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The New York Times > Washington > New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies: "Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to 'support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.
'As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies,' Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking 'to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road.'
While his words could be construed as urging analysts to conform with administration policies, Mr. Goss also wrote, 'We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker.''
The memorandum suggested an effort by Mr. Goss to spell out his thinking as he embarked on what he made clear would be a major overhaul at the agency, with further changes to come. The changes to date, including the ouster of the agency's clandestine service chief, have left current and former intelligence officials angry and unnerved. Some have been outspoken, including those who said Tuesday that they regarded Mr. Goss's warning as part of an effort to suppress dissent within the organization."
Cabinet Choices Seen as Move for More Harmony and Control: "The essence of Mr. Bush's moves has been to fill crucial cabinet agencies with people he has relied on in the Oval Office, people who know his mind. 'This is a different cabinet - it's a true kitchen cabinet,' said one official who no longer works in the White House but deals with it often.
But one of the mysteries is whether the reorganization foreshadows a change of approach, particularly in American diplomacy.
Some saw the departure of Mr. Powell as the moment for conservatives under the influence of Vice President Dick Cheney to assume an even larger role. "
New C.I.A. Chief Tells Workers to Back Administration Policies: "Porter J. Goss, the new intelligence chief, has told Central Intelligence Agency employees that their job is to 'support the administration and its policies in our work,'' a copy of an internal memorandum shows.
'As agency employees we do not identify with, support or champion opposition to the administration or its policies,' Mr. Goss said in the memorandum, which was circulated late on Monday. He said in the document that he was seeking 'to clarify beyond doubt the rules of the road.'
While his words could be construed as urging analysts to conform with administration policies, Mr. Goss also wrote, 'We provide the intelligence as we see it - and let the facts alone speak to the policymaker.''
The memorandum suggested an effort by Mr. Goss to spell out his thinking as he embarked on what he made clear would be a major overhaul at the agency, with further changes to come. The changes to date, including the ouster of the agency's clandestine service chief, have left current and former intelligence officials angry and unnerved. Some have been outspoken, including those who said Tuesday that they regarded Mr. Goss's warning as part of an effort to suppress dissent within the organization."
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Crushing Fallujah Won't End War: "The recapture of Fallujah is likely to be as disappointing in terms of ending the resistance as was the capture of Saddam Hussein last December or the handover of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government at the end of June. Each event was billed as a success that would tip the balance towards the United States. Instead the fighting got bloodier and more widespread.
There should be no mystery about why this is happening. All countries object to being occupied. Foreign invasions provoke nationalist resistance. This has happened with extraordinary speed in Iraq because of the ineptitude of the U.S. civil and military commanders, but in the long term it would have happened anyway.
... The United States and the British are trying to seize Fallujah and the central Euphrates cities. These may have been the original heartlands of the rebellion, but today there are guerrilla attacks in every Sunni region in Iraq. U.S. and interim government control of Baghdad is limited.
One of the strangest justifications for the attack on Fallujah is that it will allow an election to take place. This would be true only if the Sunni rebellion was a mirage and was entirely the work of FFs and FRLs oppressing a local population yearning to break free. A much more likely result of an increase in the fighting is a boycott of the election by the Sunnis. Even if they do vote there is no reason to suppose that the guerrillas will stop fighting any more than the IRA laid down its arms despite numerous elections in Northern Ireland in the '70s and '80s."
Halliburton May Have Been Pressured by U.S. Diplomats to Disregard High Fuel Prices: "On Dec. 2, 2003 - shortly before Pentagon auditors questioned the fuel prices but well after the issue had been raised in Washington - the ambassador, Richard H. Jones, who also served as deputy administrator of the coalition authority in Iraq, wrote to a colleague: 'Please, tell KBR to get off their butts and conclude deals with Kuwait NOW! Tell them we want a deal done with Altanmia within 24 hours and don't take any excuses.' "
Urban resistance poses questions over tactics: "taking the city, while far from complete, may actually prove the easy part of the operation; the hard part will be holding it.
'Failure for me is not just we can't go into Falluja,' said Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA Iraq analyst and expert on Arab militaries. 'Failure for me is we go into Falluja, we take the whole town, we kill a bunch of bad guys, and six months later it's basically back where it was before we went in. That to me is also failure.'"
Monday, November 08, 2004
Ethnic Minorities Supported Kerry Over Bush: "Nearly 60 percent of white Americans chose Bush, effectively giving him the three-million-vote margin that decided the election, according to the polls which found that, of this group, more than three out of four self-identified fundamentalist Christians, nearly 80 percent of whom cast their ballots for the president, were the most supportive sub-group.
African Americans, who constituted about 12 percent of the total vote this year and turned out in record numbers in critical swing states, particularly Florida, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, voted by nearly a nine-to-one ratio for Kerry.
According to independent polls and Republican estimates, 11 percent of black voters chose Bush, which actually constituted a slight improvement over the level of support he received from them in 2000 � nine percent.
A higher percentage of Jewish voters � particularly Orthodox Jews and Russian �migr�s � also voted for Bush this year. The exit poll figures range from 20 percent to 25 percent. In 2000, against then-Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), Bush received only 19 percent of Jewish-American votes. "
Halliburton Admits Bribes 'May Have Been Paid' in Nigeria: "US oil service firm Halliburton has acknowledged that improper payments 'may have been made' to Nigerian officials through a consortium of which it was a member.
... The alleged payments, many of which occurred when Halliburton was being run by Dick Cheney, now the US vice president, helped a consortium including the US group to win a 12 billion dollar contract to build a gas terminal."
Judge Says Detainees' Trials Are Unlawful (washingtonpost.com): "The special trials established to determine the guilt or innocence of prisoners at the U.S. military prison in Cuba are unlawful and cannot continue in their current form, a federal judge ruled yesterday.
In a setback for the Bush administration, U.S. District Judge James Robertson found that detainees at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions and therefore entitled to the protections of international and military law -- which the government has declined to grant them.
... The Bush administration denounced the ruling as wrongly giving special rights to terrorists and announced that it will ask a higher court for an emergency stay and reversal of Robertson's decision. Military officers at Guantanamo immediately halted commission proceedings in light of the ruling.
"We vigorously disagree. . . . The judge has put terrorism on the same legal footing as legitimate methods of waging war," said Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo. "The Constitution entrusts to the president the responsibility to safeguard the nation's security. The Department of Justice will continue to defend the president's ability and authority under the Constitution to fulfill that duty." "
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Evolving Nature of Al Qaeda Is Misunderstood, Critic Says: "The Bush administration has failed to recognize that Al Qaeda is now a global Islamic insurgency, rather than a traditional terrorist organization, and so poses a much different threat than previously believed, says a senior counterterrorism official at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit and the author of a best-selling book critical of the administration's handling of the fight against terrorism, said in an interview with The New York Times this weekend that the government 'doesn't respect the threat' because most officials still regard Al Qaeda as a terrorist organization that can be defeated by arresting or killing its operatives one at a time.
He noted that President Bush and other officials had repeatedly said two-thirds of the leadership of Al Qaeda has been killed or captured, but he said the figure was misleading because it is referring to the leaders who were in place as of Sept. 11, 2001. "
Saturday, November 06, 2004
New York Times Killed "Bush Bulge" Story: "Five days before the presidential election, the New York Times killed a story about the mysterious object George W. Bush wore on his back during the presidential debates, journalist Dave Lindorff reveals in an exclusive report on this week's CounterSpin, FAIR's weekly radio show. The spiked story included compelling photographic and scientific evidence that would have contradicted Bush's claim that the bulge on his back was just a matter of poor tailoring.
'The New York Times assigned three editors to this story and had it scheduled to run five days before the election, which would have raised questions about the president's integrity,' said Lindorff. 'But it was killed by top editors at the Times; clearly they were chickening out of taking this on before the election.'
Lindorff says two other major newspapers, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, also decided not to pursue the story, which featured a leading NASA satellite photo imaging scientist's analysis of pictures of the president's back from the first debate."
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
U.S. Wants No Warming Proposal (washingtonpost.com): "The Bush administration has been working for months to keep an upcoming eight-nation report from endorsing broad policies aimed at curbing global warming, according to domestic and foreign participants, despite the group's conclusion that Arctic latitudes are facing historic increases in temperature, glacial melting and abrupt weather changes.
State Department representatives have argued that the group, which has spent four years examining Arctic climate fluctuations, lacks the evidence to prepare detailed policy proposals. But several participants in the negotiations, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of derailing the Nov. 24 report, said officials from the eight nations and six indigenous tribes involved in the effort had ample science on which to draft policy.
The recommendations are based on a study, which was leaked last week, that concludes the Arctic is warming much faster than other areas of the world and that much of this change is linked to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions."
Monday, November 01, 2004
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Days of Shame: "On Saturday, as if to take our minds off the sideshow, nine more American marines were killed in the Iraq slaughterhouse. It was the deadliest day for U.S. forces in six months. The death toll for Iraqis, which the U.S. government has tried mightily to keep from the American people, is flat out horrifying. Unofficial estimates of the number of Iraqis killed in the war have ranged from 10,000 to 30,000. But a survey conducted by scientists from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad compared the death rates of Iraqis before and after the American invasion. They estimated that 100,000 more Iraqis have died in the 18 months since the invasion than would have been expected based on Iraqi death rates before the war.
The scientists acknowledged that the survey was difficult to compile and that their findings represent a rough estimate. But even if they were off by as many as 20,000 or 40,000 deaths, their findings would still be chilling.
Most of the widespread violent deaths, the scientists reported, were attributed to coalition forces. 'Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces,' the report said, 'were women and children.'
That people are dying by the tens of thousands in a war that did not have to be fought - a war that was launched by the United States - is mind-boggling.
Also mind-boggling is the attempt by Republican Party elements to return the U.S. to the wretched days of the mid-20th century when many black Americans faced harassment, intimidation and worse for daring to exercise their fundamental right to vote. A flier circulating extensively in black neighborhoods in Wisconsin carries the heading 'Milwaukee Black Voters League.' It asserts that people are not eligible to vote if they have voted in any previous election this year; if they have ever been found guilty of anything, even a traffic violation; or if anyone in their family has ever been found guilty of anything.
'If you violate any of these laws,' the flier says, 'you can get ten years in prison and your children will get taken away from you.'
In Philadelphia, where a large black vote is essential to a Kerry victory in the crucial state of Pennsylvania, the Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House, John Perzel, is hard at work challenging Democratic voters. He makes no bones about his intent, telling U.S. News & World Report:
'The Kerry campaign needs to come out with humongous numbers here in Philadelphia. It's important for me to keep that number down.'
That's called voter suppression, folks, and the G.O.P. concentrates its voter-suppression efforts in the precincts where there are large numbers of African-Americans. And that's called racism."
US journalist punched, arrested by officer outside Florida voting office: "A sheriff's spokesman said later the deputy was enforcing a new county rule prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls, the Palm Beach Post said.
The deputy Sunday tried to grab the camera of James Henry, a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Henry, 54, ran across the pavement but was tackled by the deputy, who pinned him to the ground, punched him in the back and handcuffed him, according to the daily.
He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Teresa LePore did not comment on the incident or the new rule, which had not been previously announced. LePore gained notoriety as the creator of the infamous butterfly ballot that confused thousands of voters in the chaotic and controversial 2000 election.
Her counterpart from Leon County, Ion Sancho, expressed outrage at the attempt to restrict reporters and photographers outside polling places, saying it was a constitutional right, according to the Palm Beach Post. "
US journalist punched, arrested by officer outside Florida voting office: "A sheriff's spokesman said later the deputy was enforcing a new county rule prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls, the Palm Beach Post said.
The deputy Sunday tried to grab the camera of James Henry, a freelance journalist who has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Henry, 54, ran across the pavement but was tackled by the deputy, who pinned him to the ground, punched him in the back and handcuffed him, according to the daily.
He was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Palm Beach Supervisor of Elections Teresa LePore did not comment on the incident or the new rule, which had not been previously announced. LePore gained notoriety as the creator of the infamous butterfly ballot that confused thousands of voters in the chaotic and controversial 2000 election.
Her counterpart from Leon County, Ion Sancho, expressed outrage at the attempt to restrict reporters and photographers outside polling places, saying it was a constitutional right, according to the Palm Beach Post. "
