Color Us Purple

Republicans showed up at the State of the Union address waving purple fingers, symbolizing the Iraqi equivalent of the "I voted" tag. Initial indications were of a high turnout, pleasing everyone but of course the Bushheads had to indulge in partisan gloating.

And now? ... not so much.

The official turnout figures were supposed to become available today, but they won't. That may be because indications now are that the turnout was much lower that ballyhooed in Baghdad before, according to the Associated Press. The New York Times reported on a district in Mosul where it appears to have been around 10%. The first figures that made headlines were 70% and then 60%.

Meanwhile, the first returns counted suggest that the secular Shiite slate with the current US-installed Allawi at its head is losing badly to the slate of Shiite clerics loyal to Sistani, raising the possibility that the U.S. toppled a secular dictator and 200 billion dollars later, may get a fundamentalist Islamic state, with close ties to Iran, that next door neighbor and charter member of the Axis of Evil.

"Sharif Ali bin Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Party, likened the vote outcome to a "Sistani tsunami" that would shake the nation.

"Americans are in for a shock," he said, adding that one day they would realize, "We've got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that's extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops."""""

So where was Diebold when they needed them this time?

U.S. 'in for a shock' / In early election results, Shiite cleric's alliance trouncing Washington's favorite

UPDATE: The other shoe has fallen already: the New York Times reports that Shiite clerics are calling for a constitution that enshrines Islam as the state religion, and religious law as the law of the land.

State of Bushamerica Continued

Sorry, but you just can't make this stuff up.

In his State of the Union address, GWBush said, "Justice is distorted and our economy is held back, by irresponsible class actions and frivolous asbestos claims--and I urge Congress to pass legal reform this year."

On February 3, a Halliburton subsidiary agreed to pay a $30 million settlement in an asbestos lawsuit, as part of a global pay-out of $4.3 billion. The subsidiary, Dresser Industries, was acquired while VP Dick Cheney was chairman of Halliburton. Plaintiffs in the suit alleged that Dresser knew their products were harmful to workers in the 1930s but continued to sell them for forty more years.

Thanks and kudos to Hunter at daily kos for catching this. His link:

Daily Kos :: Loyalty, Rewarded

The Social Security Scam

There are stories appearing now that claim younger voters are in favor of privatizing Social Security, but a study cited on this site says otherwise. It also suggests why this is a particularly costly scam for younger people.

Dude Where's My Retirement

Dear Abby: What is Authoritarianism?

There's something to be said for reading newspapers, as opposed to only online news. Under a news story we saved, this paragraph from a Dear Abby column:

"""Dear Abby: At my school, a period of time is dedicated to discussing world events. My teacher, "Mrs. Jones," has often shared her opinions about world events and our government with us. She has very strong opinions and usually gets upset when anyone disagrees with her. One day when she was talking, I told her I did not agree with her opinion and got detention for it. I understand that I shouldn't be rude to teachers, but I believe that my comment was respectful. Was I out of line?
UNCERTAIN
IN FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J.

Dear Uncertain: If the comment was disruptive, it may have been. It would have been more diplomatic had you voiced your disagreement after the class was over."

(The column byline is Jeanne Phillips, and is distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. This item appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 29, p. E10.)

After reading Dale Maharidge's excellent book, Homeland, which among other things chronicled the ease with which Americans after 9-11 were eager to give up First Amendment rights, to punish dissenters or even those who asked questions, this item is a little indicator that things really don't change much.

We posted this on daily kos and the reaction was interestingly tepid. We wonder if that's because the politics of the teacher aren't revealed. Some commented they got detention for similar questioning. Of course, all the Dash brothers were in constant trouble for this, especially in high school, but we do recall a few teachers who encouraged us to think for ourselves, and to engage. Anyway, the irony of having world affairs "discussion" in which actual discussion is punished was obvious to us, though surprisingly not to everyone. Theron's thought: Apparently the nuns have taken over the world.

Captive Audience

The Bushmeisters are masters of the outrage barrage: create enough outrages, and nobody has the time, energy or space to focus on all of them.

So for months and probably years the Bushwhackers have been getting away with turning ostensibly public forums and rallys into private members-only events. They give Bush the obverse of a captive audience: instead of keeping people in, they keep people out. It's the shopping mall philosophy of public event, with a little J.Edgar Hoover brand of fascism to boot.

They pretty much got away with it in the campaign, as when attendees at a Cheney events literally had to sign a loyalty oath. So even with no election to worry about, they are continuing the policy. In Fargo, North Dakota, no less.

"City Commissioner Linda Coates says she was shocked to learn she and her husband were among more than 40 area residents on a list of people barred from attending President Bush's speech here Thursday.
The list was supplied to workers at the two Fargo distribution sites, along with tickets and other forms citizens were asked to fill out, The Forum reported.
The list includes critics of Bush or the war in Iraq. It includes two high school students, a librarian, a deputy Democratic campaign manager and a number of university professors. "

So if you want to see the President, bring your Bushamerica card. It's the only card accepted by the Bushmeisters. They don't take the Bill of Rights.

? IN-FORUM ?: "Media Partners:

Log In Register "

The Torture Vote

The news isn't that Alberto Gonzales won confirmation by the Senate for Attorney General. The news is that 36 Senators voted against him, and that several days of debate highlighted the issue of torture as never before. Even a vote that Gonzales got--from the freshman Senator Salazar of Colorado--came only after Gonzales sent him a letter in which he pledged in writing to oppose torture in all its forms.
Bloomberg.com: U.S.

Gonzales may yet prove to be a millstone around the Bushneck, provided investigations into his questionable conduct in Texas continue. Europe is paying much more attention to the war crimes trial than is Island America but there may be fallout from those quarters as well.

In the meantime, Blue Staters must not relax vigilance on the topic of torture, including pressuring Hollywood to stop depicting torture as some sort of obligatory and sensationalistic interrogation technique. It is seldom used for interrogation, and almost never with success. Since people get their ideas about torture more from the movies and TV than from the news or even politicians, this is important.

And even more scrutiny must be focused on Iraqi prisons and Guantanamo.

Crew of the Enterprise, leaving orbit at the end of this season. 

In other news...

A review of Italian Tales, a new anthology of writing from Italy is at Books In Heat.

A comment on yesterday's cancellation of the Star Trek: Enterprise TV series is at Soul of Star Trek.

Failing Health

A new book by historian Scott Sandage chronicles how "failure" and "bankrupt" became synonymous in 19th century America, and financial failure meant you were a failure as a person.

In our time we've seen that poverty has become immoral, and millions of Americans hide their difficulties, and don't complain, feeling mostly shame, and all too often redirect their anger to people who aren't responsible for their plight and may be even worse off than they are.

There are increasing numbers of bankruptcies suffered, not on paper by businesspeople who cynically game the system with tax shelters and phony corporations, or just use the law to protect themselves behind incorporation, but by ordinary people who thereby lose everything. It's a low grade fever in America now, but if the dollar sinks and interest rates soar, it could become a raging epidemic.

If that wasn't enough, there is this study that says many Americans are just a serious illness away from bankruptcy, even if they have health insurance. Just what does that say about this society?

Getting Sick in America is Going to Cost You

James Joyce, born February 2, 1882 

"I am a democrat. I'll work and act for the social liberty and equality among all classes and sexes in the United States of the Europe of the future."
James Joyce 1916.

Smirking droning litany of lies continued

From an Associated Press analysis:

""""Bush explained in detail how, under his proposal, younger workers would be able to divert some of their Social Security payroll taxes into private accounts "so you can build a nest egg for your own future."

Nowhere in his State of the Union speech did he give the other side of the equation — that Social Security benefits for those workers would be reduced as a result. He stated "your account will provide money for retirement over and above the check you will receive from Social Security," without explaining that check would be smaller. """""

And more from this Associated Press analysis

Yahoo! News - Only One Side Told in Bush Soc. Sec. Pitch

Kerry Response

to the droning smirking litany of lies...

“Our country faces a real crisis in health care, a real challenge of record budget deficits, and every American deserves a real plan to improve retirement security -- not weaken it. The problems of health care can be solved if we stop giving tax cuts to those who have the most, and start making health care affordable for those working harder and harder for too little. I was disappointed the President did not spend more time addressing this problem that keeps millions of Americans up at night worrying about their children's future."

“The problems facing Social Security 50 years down the road can be fixed tomorrow if Washington ends the borrow-and-spend policies that are running up a record debt and dumping it on the backs of our children. The challenge of retirement security can be solved if we sit down in the true spirit of bipartisanship and make it possible for young people to save and invest while still guaranteeing that Social Security remains insurance against poverty and disability that can never be wiped away."

And from the official response by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid:

"Too many of the President's economic policies have left Americans and American companies struggling. And after we worked so hard to eliminate the deficit, his policies have added trillions to the debt - in effect, a 'birth tax' of $36,000 on every child that is born.

We Democrats have a different vision: Spurring research and development in new technologies to help create the jobs of the future. Rolling up our sleeves and fighting for today's jobs by ending the special tax breaks that encourage big corporations to ship jobs overseas. A trade policy that enforces the rules of the road so that we play to win in the global marketplace instead of sitting by and getting played for fools. After World War II, through the Marshall Plan, we rebuilt Europe and they went from poverty to an economic powerhouse. Today, we need to invest in our nation's future with a Marshall Plan for America - to build the infrastructure our economy needs to go - and grow. President Eisenhower did that in the 1950s with the interstate highways. National investment created the Internet in the 1970s. We need to build the next economy - and we need to start now. "

Latest Republican Plot

In the latest Republican plot designed to depress the entire Dash family as well as the Blue States in general, the latest episode of "The West Wing" was pre-empted by that other president and his droning smirking litany of lies. If you are interested, a blow by blow account is available from John Podesta and his team at Center for American Progress:

Think Progress

As for us we await next Wednesday when hopefully the only President we recognize returns to the airwaves: President Bartlett.

I'm ready

The State of Bushamerica, Inc.

Live from Washington---

Instead of a State of the Union, this year I thought I'd just read you highlights from our Annual Report. It's a nice document, with great illustrations and glossy paper, and I recommend it to all right thinking Americans.

Here's the cover. Pretty nice, huh? For our Spanish-speaking friends it says, BUSHAMERICA INC. And here's the list of our officers: Chairman of the Board of Directors and President-G.W. Bush, that's me. Vice-President and CEO-Dick Cheney. Vice-President of Operations--- Don Rumsfeld. Director of Marketing-Karl Rove. And so on.

So let me read you some of the highlights.

The state of Bushamerica Inc. is pretty darn good.

We're returning stockholder investment and building a future for ourselves. Our brand identity has never been stronger.

9-11

Our 9-11 Line continues to out-perform expectations. As everyone in our business knows, the secret of ultimate performance is in thinking big, which means being willing to take and manage big risks.

The key to selling products is keep it simple, and link it to strong emotions. Most products have to make do with simple anxiety, which is okay if you're selling mouthwash, but not war. For that you need the big smell of fear.

Of course we didn't know when and where a terrorist attack would come. Though we encouraged the illusion that we didn't expect it, we were ready to seize the opportunity. That it was larger and hit closer to home than we anticipated only made our response stronger. And actually made our job easier.

There are many ways to position a terrorist attack, and we chose imagery consistent with our goals and philosophy. We made it a very simple case of good against evil, and we made sure to stress that the triumph of good was no certainty. By painting the enemy as mysterious, inscrutable and very powerful, we ensured that our "us or them" polarity would enable us to exert control.

This formula of course matched the worldview imagery of our core customer, comfortable with the good v evil scenario. It's clear, it's definite, and those are two wonderful attributes for a product that sells itself. Benefit to the customer? That's easy.

Our product we called Freedom, but in essence it meant the continuing of the mindless work-and-spend lifestyle everyone loves. For our core constituency, it's work, worship and spend, and we made sure to integrate their lifestyles into our program.

To the fear we linked to terrorism, we added economic anxieties to increase dependence on our leadership. It's a delicate balance to maintain anxiety without widespread feelings of deprivation, so our outsourcing to China kept low-cost consumer products flowing in. Our Wal-Mart subsidiary in particular helped us keep their eyes off the ball out there in consumerland.

We have to acknowledge that we couldn't have had this year of success without the softening up work of the 1980s into the 90s, when it became clear to everybody that to be poor or sick and need help from the government is not only shameful, it is immoral. So Bushamerica could thrive, while millions of our non-partners worked 2 and 3 jobs for slave wages and never complained, except about liberals and foreigners and know-it-all traitors who don't support Bushamerica.

The underlying product support we utilized is the time-tested need for the king, especially in time of "invasion." There is nothing like fear to ensure loyalty, and nothing like the feeling of being in mortal danger to inspire both fear and "loyalty to the royalty."

Patriotism can be a powerful ally when you are in power, and we're happy to report that it still works great, even after the previous eight years when we didn't use it, for obvious reasons.

We want to particularly thank our media partners for their help in creating optimum conditions.


Iraq Inc.

Our returns on Iraq this year were strong. Through the smokescreen of "bad news" we saw the sunlight of a robust arms technology industry, and record profits for many of our contractors. We used the full federal borrowing and spending power for our short-term stimulus, as well as our long-term investment in that oil-rich region.

Stimulus from Iraq Inc. and even more from Homeland Security (our "stealth" profit center!) kept the national economy vibrant enough to offset tax revenue losses, which of course accrued as gains to our stockholders.

Contract Renewal

Of course the big news, and the big triumph of the year was our contract renewal for another four years. Our marketing team outdid themselves again this time, but we really must thank that peerless combination of our stockholders and contractors, plus our core constituency of consumers, for putting us over the top. Diebold, Sinclair,Fox---hey, you know who you are.

Forecast

Our strategic goals continue to be: 1. maximize immediate value for stockholders. 2. commit longterm federal investment to benefit stockholders, subsidiaries and contractors regardless of who runs the federal government in the future. New foreign markets are expensive to develop but we've invested a lot of taxpayer money in them, so Bushamerica will be in position to reap whatever profit opportunities may result. And if none do, well, it wasn't our money.

We're all justly proud that in the 90s, even without the White House, we were able to turn a citizenry angrily demanding affordable health care into wary consumers who preferred insurance instruments designed by our corporate partners. We're hopeful that we can work our magic again on an even tougher product: Social Security. But we will need all our partners help on this one. It has immense longterm potential for financing options, but even if we don't get there this time, the controversy should be sufficiently distracting that we can close any number of other deals without opposition.

Summary and Corporate Overview

Bushamerica has never been a stronger, more integrated corporation with a clear identity and clear mission for the future. In four short years we have transformed the country we took over, and by the end of four more years we hope that transformation will be complete, so that in brand terms, the difference between America and Bushamerica will be zero.

Of course by then, Bushamerica will be considerably more profitable, but that's for our stockholders to know, and our customers never to find out.

Gosh, maybe I wasn't supposed to read that part.

Good night and may God bless Bushamerica.

Gonzales Debate: Say No to Dictatorial Power

While we didn't watch it all, we caught some of the Senate debate on the Gonzales nomination. It seemed that Democrats succeeded in making torture the main issue, beginning with an impassioned statement by Senator Ted Kennedy, linked here.

KENNEDY URGES SENATE TO DENY GONZALES NOMINATION OVER TORTURE POLICIES

But we heard another compelling and important argument from Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. She emphasized that Gonzales insisted in his memos and testimony that the President has the power and right to override law as passed by Congress and interpreted by courts. This is nothing less than a recipe for state fascism and dictatorship. Her statement, which at this moment is not yet available, was eloquent on the subject of the danger of making Gonzales the chief law enforcement officer of the country. She emphasized that his main qualification is as the private lawyer for George Bush, but this isn't the constitutional job description of the Attorney General.

Say No to Torture: Vote No on Gonzales

American Dash is one of more than 500 blogs on record opposing Alberto Gonzales for U.S. attorney-general. The Senate opens debate on his nomination today, and there may even be a vote. We urge our U.S. readers to contact their Senators and urge them to vote no. Torture is ineffective and therefore unnecessary, but more than that it is inhuman and immoral.

If he is confirmed, Gonzales' problems will not go away. His torture memos, which he has never clearly repudiated, will haunt the U.S. for a generation, and will keep the Iraqi prison photos alive around the world. But he also faces legal questions, including possible perjury and other crimes and improprieties in Texas, and now he has been named as a defendant in a suit alleging complicity in war crimes (link below), namely the torture of Iraqi prisoners and prisoners at Guantanamo.

CCR

Questions continue on 04 vote

Earlier this month the company that owned the 2004 election exit poll statistics issued its report on why exit polls showed Kerry with a 3% advantage but Bush apparently won with a 2.5% advantage. The reason given was basically that Kerry voters were more willing to talk to the people doing the exit polls.

Now academic statisticians have had the time to study the figures and this interpretation, and find it wanting. Specifically this group, from several prominent universities, doesn't accept this explanation, and says that widespread fraud is still an open possibility. They call for more investigation. Here's the press release with links to the full reports:

Prominent Statisticians Urge Investigation of 2004 U.S. Presidential Election Results - USCountVotes.org

He's back

Looking rested though not so tanned, John Kerry was the only interview guest on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday. His answers were clear, sharp and pointed. (He had a slight flub once, which was probably due to not hearing the question correctly, and it was a dumb question anyway.)

On the campaign and its outcome, Kerry said that post-election analysis suggests that 9-11 was the paramount issue, and that voters were reluctant to change presidents in the middle of a war, which they've never done in the past. When host Tim Russert quoted him as telling an audience in November that it was the Osama bin Laden tape, magically appearing a few days before the vote, that sunk him, he didn't disagree. He said that until the last weekend he was rising in the polls (one assumes he meant his campaign's polling), then flattened out on Sunday when the tape was played, and went down on Monday, the day before the election.

Even so, he said, he won the popular vote in the battleground states, and if distributedly a little differently, he would be president. He took responsibility for the campaign's mistakes, specifically for not coming out sooner and more strongly in his own defense against the Swift Boat liars (though that's in hindsight; at the time, many others came to his defense, and it didn't seem necessary.)

He said he "wasn't thinking about" either the presidential election or his own senatorial election in 2008, but about the issues of today. He mentioned several times the legislation that he has already introduced to finance health care for American children. But his strongest moments came when talking about Social Security, and countering a Russert characterization for his plan to rollback Bush tax cuts as "a tax increase," he called those tax cuts "irresponsible," and whipped out the Financial News article (linked from this site several posts back) stating that European central banks are losing confidence in the U.S. dollar.

The bottom line for us is that this appearance solidifies Kerry as the leader of the Democratic party, and most specifically of the party in Congress. This is very important, especially in light of the post-2000 election period, in which Al Gore refused to stay involved, and the party wandered leaderless into the disastrous 2002 congressional elections.

Although Kerry would not back Senator Kennedy's call for immediate troop withdrawls and a date certain for U.S. troops to leave Iraq, he endorsed Kennedy's analysis that the presence of U.S. troops is a major cause of problems, and the goal of proceeding to train Iraqis as quickly as possible so U.S. troops can leave as soon as possible. On other matters, however, Kerry is taking bold stands: he voted against Condi Rice, he said he would vote against Scalia if he is nominated for chief justice.

This is what the Democrats need to be an effective opposition party: boldness, spine, intelligence, a sophisticated grasp of the issues, and Kerry's battle-tested stature and the crispness he learned for the debates. When Russert asked him "The most important thing you learned running for president?" He answered, "How great, how unbelievable the American people themselves are. They are just--the courage of the American people day to day blew me away. And I think that, you know, this is an amazing country, and I came to love it even
more."

We aren't thinking about 2008 either. But it would be another shame if the experiences of such an incredible campaign were lost, when they could inform the political process of now.

Here's the transcript link:

MSNBC - Transcript for Jan. 30

Throwing the First Stone

Sharon Stone is an actor, most famous for sexy movie roles. She's a blond, too, so we know all about her, right?

Recently Sharon Stone stood up in a crowd and pledged a $10,000 donation. Nobody asked her to, it wasn't a fund-raising event. But she made it one--she challenged others in the audience to pony up. And oddly enough, they did. In five minutes, Sharon Stone raised one million dollars.

For what? you might well ask. Not her Oscar dress. Not even for a currently fashionable charity, however worthy, like the upteenth solicitation/benefit/etc/ for tsunami victims.

For mosquito nets. For African children.

It seems Sharon Stone was in the audience for a panel discussion on poverty in Africa at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. One of the panelists mentioned that 150,000 children in Africa die each and every month of malaria, principally because they don't have mosquito nets for their beds.

So Sharon Stone disrupts the tsk tsk panel discussion, and finances a way to address the problem. Which is one important thing. But here's the other important thing.

One million dollars buys time for a 30 second campaign commercial. One million dollars pays for one one-thousandth of one week's military spending the U.S. devotes to Iraq.

But those mosquito nets cost $7 each. They last for five years. One million dollars buys nearly 150,000 mosquito nets. That's the lives of 150,000 children. The Grim Reaper gets a whole month off.

One blond. Five minutes.

She puts the leaders of the world to shame.

And with one week's worth of what the U.S. is spending in Iraq, which is one billion dollars, which is one thousand times a million dollars, the children of Africa would sleep in safety.

BBC NEWS Entertainment Film Actress Stone raises fast million