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December 29, 2005

Friday, April 01, 2005

 

Friday's Links


Activism

Daily Kos is looking at the Federal Election Commission's proposed plans to limit political writing and advertising by online sources (such as blogs). For example, the FEC could decide that Daily Kos, or AmericaBLOG, or StillFighting are "unpaid advertising" for Democrats, and therefore should be shut down. Daily Kos has links to the proposed plans, and has been engaged to write a response. If you're a lawyer, and want to help, they can use it. If not, you're encouraged to send your comments on the regulations straight to the FEC. Let's make some noise, and show that (for example) if Still Fighting wants to endorse Bob Casey Jr. in Pennsylvania, it's not considered a contribution!

News

She Works Hard for the Money. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has decided to look into Maggie Gallagher, the syndicated columnist who was paid by the Department of Health and Human services to promote a marriage initiative. Gallagher wrote publication materials and spoke on the topic. We like the GAO - they seem to be the only government agency that wants to hold the White House...well, accountable. American citizens have a right to know where their tax dollars are being spent, and most Americans would agree that self-serving propaganda probably isn't the best way to spend it.

Hastert Acknowledges Social Security Bill Will Be Unlikely This Year. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R-IL) acknowledged that legislation on Social Security is not likely to pass this year. Unfortunately for Hastert, the White House doesn't agree, and sent out immediate press releases saying that Bush is still hopeful of pushing the legislation through this year. We're not sure why, as Democrats have shown no signs of caving in on this bill. The GOP is anxious to have the bill signed this year, because they want a full year before the next election to show why it's such a good thing (or maybe for America to forget that they are trying to ruin Social Security). Basically, it's shameless pandering - they don't really care about the bill - they care about making the party look good. Hastert thinks that "Most members, down in their heart, know that what we are trying to do is the right thing to do." If by most, he means the 233 Republicans in the House, then he's probably right.

DeLay on the Defensive. By now, you've surely read about House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's legal troubles. But outside the Beltway, these "troubles" aren't getting a lot of MSM press. Enter The Campaign for America's Future and the Public Campaign Election Fund, two liberal groups who are spending a combined $100,000 on advertising that shows DeLay's self-serving agenda, and highlight his legal battles (we linked to this as yesterday's "activism"). Moments like his stand for Schiavo and his acceptance of free gifts will be highlighted. It didn't take long for DeLay's camp to respond, as three conservative groups have organized a "formal defense" against the charges. The upper members of the House and Senate have been exposed quite a bit lately - DeLay, for his illegal acceptance of gifts, Frist, for both his ridiculous notion that tears and sweat cause AIDS and his "diagnosis" of Terri Schiavo, and Rick Santorum, who made absurdly incorrect remarks about the role of judges in Schiavo's case. Now, we need those weaknesses to be exploited, and get these elected officials replaced!

Editorials

Congressional Malpractice. We talked a little bit above about Bill Frist's credibility. Chris Mooney does us one better, and takes us through all of Frist's "sweet medical reason(ing)." The more we read this, the more outraged we get that someone could use his medical credentials to intentionally mislead the country. And make no mistake, that is exactly what Frist is doing.

Why Professors Tilt Left. An interesting editorial by Ezra Klein about the political tendencies of educators. According to Howard Kurtz, 72% of college faculty describe themselves as "liberal." Isn't that shocking? How could so many educated people be slanted to one side? Oh, of course...because it's the side that's the most informed and the most tolerant.

Debt Slavery. The most under-the-counter bill passed by the 109th Congress was the bankruptcy bill, a bill that caters and panders to the profits on credit card companies. But why should you care? Is there anything in that bill that affects you? David Swanson does an excellent job of explaining why you should care, and precisely how this bill could affect you. Yes, you!

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Thursday, March 31, 2005

 

Thursday's Links


Activism

TV ads on DeLay to run in three GOP districts. We usually don't like to run "Activism" items that ask for money. But since money is really the lifeblood of politics, from time to time there are causes that we think might warrant your donations. In particular, getting rid of Tom DeLay from the House would be a fantastic accomplishment, and we think that effort is worth your attention. No one knows what's going to happen with DeLay. Will the GOP turn on him? Will he be booted for ethics violations? Or will he run again? We don't know. But we do know that the longer we can keep the spotlight on this horrible person, the more likely we are to expose his lack or morality for all to see. So, go to the link, view the ads, and contribute what you can. If you can't, then at least write a letter to your local paper.

News

The Army You Have. We're not exactly sure this is what Rumsfeld had in mind when he told troops that they had to go to war "with the army you have, not the army you'd wish you have." Troops in Iraq have a new transport vehicle called "Stryker." The vehicle is so overweight that it requires daily maintenence to the tires. Extra armor that adorns the Stryker causes the vehicle to greatly lose speed in mud. The main weapons system does not work when the vehicle is in motion. The seat belts cannot be used when soldiers are armored up. Oh, and the vehicles armor is effective roughly 50% of the time. Yet we've spent $11 billion on these vehicles. You hear that, troops? No more complaining! You demanded armor, and you got it. You never specified that the armor had to be effective, though...

No, I'm Afraid You Cannot Have Fries With That. Pharmacists across the country are refusing to fill prescriptions for birth control and morning-after pills. These pharmacists maintain that dispensing the medication violates their personal moral or religious beliefs. Some even deliver stern lectures when they tell the patient that they will not fill the prescription. Can you imagine anything so ridiculous? It is one thing for a doctor to refuse to prescribe, say, birth control for a patient. But a pharmacist is not a doctor. The pharmacist is the middle man between you and the medication. The pharmacist cannot prescribe you something different, and has no right to interfere with the process. Imagine going to McDonalds, ordering a Big Mac, and being told by the person behind the counter that they won't serve it to you, as it violates their beliefs because they're a vegetarian. If the pharmacy, as a corporate entity, decides not to stock certain medications, that is one thing. But for a pharmacy to have the medication, and a pharmacist refuse to fill a prescription for it is beyond lunacy.

Props to GOP Judges. Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, refused to reconsider Terri Schiavo's case. Late last night, the Supreme Court also refused. While the latter may seem important, the former is far more telling. In Birch's statement, he wrote, "When the fervor of political passions moves the executive and legislative branches to act in ways inimical to basic constitutional principles, it is the duty of the judiciary to intervene. If sacrifices to the independence of the judiciary are permitted today, precedent is established for the constitutional transgressions of tomorrow." Here's the catch - Judge Birch is widely known as a conservative Republican. Last year, he wrote the ruling for a three-judge panel of the court unanimously upholding a Florida law that prohibits gay men and lesbians from adopting children. His personal politics aside, we commend Judge Birch for recognizing that Bush and the Congress have no jurisdiction to demand the case be re-opened, and for calling them on it.

Editorials

Schiavo: Case Closed. Well, Keith Olbermann thinks so. If you've been following this Schiavo saga (we know that news coverage has been a little slim), you've probably noticed that one of the right's favorite arguments is that Michael Schiavo (Terri's husband) was an abusive husband, and wants Terri's life ended to cover himself. Well, on Tuesday, Michael announced that he wanted to delay the cremation of his wife so that an autopsy may be performed. As Olbermann says, "If he, as some blood relatives of his wife now suggest after a decade of suggesting otherwise, somehow abused her, or he led to the heart stoppage that put her in her present state, it is not likely to be missed by the autopsy." So, if Michael had an ulterior motive for pulling the feeding tube, wouldn't it show up on an autopsy? This question should now be put to rest, but, of course, it won't be. If you want some additional satisfaction of seeing the right's distortions of this issue exposed, check out this video of Joe Scarborough getting verbally destroyed by a doctor.

The Marginalization Outrage. Our new favorite Republican (there's not a whole lot of competition), The Cunning Realist, weighs in with an important question that hasn't been asked in a while: Where is Osama bin Laden? If only mor Republicans were as cunning, and as "real". TCR asks because he read this article about Bush selling fighter jets to Pakistan. But isn't Pakistan one of those countries that suppresses democracy? Additionally, hasn't Musharraf been completely unhelpful in delivering bin Laden? TCR asks: "Can you imagine if---just a few months after 9/11---a President Gore said breezily that he 'truly was not that concerned' about the person who had organized and financed the murder of thousands of American civilians? How would Conservatives have reacted?" Good question, TCR. You're such a realist!

Log Cabin's Drug Money. You may have heard of the "Log Cabin Republicans", a group of gay, well, Republicans, obviously. Seems kind of strange, eh? We've all started to understand how certain groups can be convinced to vote against their own economic self-interest, but you have to wonder about people who support a party that supports policies that blatantly discriminate against them. Mike Signorile discusses how it looked like they might be waking up, as they refused to endorse Dubya in the 2004 election. Sadly, though, they've slowly been reverting to supporting Bush. They've been pushing for his Social Security plan (even when ads have been exploting gays), and they've also been stumping for the pharmaceutical industry as they try to stop generic AIDS drugs from being developed. It's a sad situation when, as Signorile says, the Log Cabin folks are "gay people who are so greedy and lacking in dignity that theyll help out in the [gay] bashing."

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Wednesday, March 30, 2005

 

Wednesday's Links


Activism

Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (AU) is a non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to defending the separation of church and state in the courts, educating legislators, working with the media to inform Americans about religious freedom issues and organizing local chapters all over the country. AU is not comprised of a bunch of agnostics who are disgruntled with the religious right, but rather people from both parties and all walks of life, who feel that the line between Church and State is getting blurrier by the day. Check out their activities, and then go here to see how you can get involved (join a local chapter, for example).

News

WMD Commission Plans to Release Report. Ah, but who will they blame? The administration, as many believe they should, or the intelligence-gathering agencies? Remember, the administration's initial justification for going to war was that Hussein had WMDs. Since none were found, the WMD Commission was formed to investigate why we thought they did. We're pretty sure that the intelligence community will take the blame, but the facts we've seen so far don't point that way. For more on the WMD Commission's report, see Editorial #1 below.

They Didn't Make the List. When it comes to contractors, elections, legislature, judicial nominees and the like, we know that we're going to see partisan politics. But when it comes to the hard and fast safety of the country, we would hope that those in charge would put aside political considerations and focus on national security. Silly us. You see, the Department of Homeland Security has an internal list of threats to America's security. Added to that list? Animal rights groups and ecology militants. Sure, we guess we can see that. Some do have violent protests. Missing from the list? Right-wing domestic terrorists. You know, groups like the Army of God, whose members were responsible for the 1996 Olympic park bombing in Atlanta and the murdering of doctors who perform abortions. Or people like the conspirators behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, who have admitted being influenced heavily by radical right-wing movements. Read this article and weep, knowing our country's politics are hindering us from being safer.

Bush Predicts That Factions in Iraq Will Mend Rifts. Proving that he truly does not understand Iraq, Bush predicts that the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds in Iraq will be able to resolve their differences "through debate and persuasion instead of force and intimidation." Avoiding the obvious joke about the pot and the kettle, Bush appears to be the father who tells his kids to "talk over their problems," then goes to the other room, grabs a beer, and watches television. Not only are the Sunnis not going to be mollified with their smaller representation in the government, but the Shiite majority still has retribution on their minds, for all of the hardships they suffered under Hussein's regime for the last two decades. We want to be optimistic, but it's going to take more than a few words to turn the heat down on this powderkeg.

Editorials

Stealth Panel Ready to Report. Dan Froomkin looks at the WMD Commission, which has been operating well under the radar over the last year. Froomkin raises the very good point that the public will probably not see any of the final report. How can we trust a government that agrees to investigate itself, and then not show the results of that investigation? Nieman Watchdog looks at many of the questions that should be answered in the report, but wonders what kinds of recommendations we'll see come out of the report, particularily towards intelligence reform, and whether they'll will be implemented. Remember, the 9/11 commission suggested many changes, but was stonewalled by House Republicans and the White House.

Nothing 'New' in This War. How did we go from demolishing the Hussein regime two years ago, and seemingly in control of a war, to the madness that now dominates Iraq? The answer is more than just "insurgents." Andrew J. Bacevich breaks down the last two years, and draws the only good conclusion that has come out of the war - Americans have received a wake-up call about the true capability of our military. It's not indestructible. It is overstretched because of waning recruiting efforts. New technology can't just easily eliminate an insurgency. And even if it's could, we're not that "mobile, tactical, swift" force that Rumsfeld supposedly envisions. It's important that we learned these lessons before it's too late...but some might argue that learning them now is already too late. Did it have to cost us the lives of over 1,500 soldiers and possibly over 100,000 Iraqi citizens?

A Future the Army Can't Afford. Fred Kaplan asks if we should be spending the billions we are currently on a future high-tech army. The answer, of course, is "No," but Kaplan explains why in great detail. Remember, these are YOUR tax dollars at work, and you should know exactly what they are being spent on. Kaplan's piece opens up a side of the military many don't know much about, and it makes for fascinating (if not nauseating) reading.

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Monday, March 28, 2005

 

Monday's Links


Activism

Military Free Zone. Look, our military serves an important purpose. The men and women who make up our Armed Forces are brave patriots and deserve our gratitude. Furthermore, their contributions should never be taken for granted. That said, as long as we have an all-volunteer military, citizens should have the right to choose not to participate. Furthermore, they should have the right to attend public high school without being actively recruited by the military. With recruitment numbers quickly dropping, military recruiters have had to resort to increasingly aggressive tactics to meet their quotas. But you should know that you children have a right to opt-out of having their private information given to the military. Go to the site and take action: Opt-out if you like, and sign the petition protecting the private records of students. Maybe the military wouldn't have to take such extreme measures if they were used properly.

News

Past Arguments Don't Square With Current Iran Policy. Can you hear that? It's the sound of war drums, off in the distance. This time, the war's going to be with Iran, and it's going to be based on the assertion that they're building nuclear weapons. Of course, just like in Iraq, we don't have any concrete proof of that, and Iran claims that they're interested in nuclear capabilities in order to create energy. We certainly should be skeptical about this, but there's a minor problem: 30 years ago, the Ford administration wasn't nearly so skeptical. In fact, key players in the Ford administration worked to give Iran access to nuclear technologies. Who are those key players? Well, there's Kissinger, and our old friends Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz. This article makes for quite the interesting read: Donnie, Dick, and Paul may have forgotten their old policies, but Iran sure hasn't, and neither should you.

Movement in the Pews Tries to Jolt Ohio. Trying to build off of their narrow victory in 2004, Christian Conservative leaders are pushing full-force to take control of more local government posts in Ohio. The "Ohio Restoration Project," as it's known, has made grand plans to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year. The initial primary objective? Get J. Kenneth Blackwell elected governor. You remember Blackwell - he's the Secretary of State who maintained that Ohio wouldn't turn into another Florida in 2004, and then proceeded to ignore requests for recounts and investigations. Although there are two other Republican candidates vying for the governorship, only Blackwell has the "solid support of religious conservatives." One of the remaining two candidates was against last year's same-sex marriage ban, and the other favors abortion rights. Can't have that, can we? Phil Burress, who led the push for last year's ban, said, "We're very confused that you have a Republican Party platform, and yet people running for higher office pay no attention to it. Why don't they just become Democrats?" Well, we think it's partly because there is no black and white in politics, though many people will tell you so. It's the same reason we like Bob Casey Jr. for Pennsylvania's Senate seat - it's too much to expect every candidate in every election to agree with all of the party's core values. The result of that expectation is people like Blackwell, who served his state and country poorly in 2004, and we wouldn't expect it to get any better.

Editorials

'Balance' and the Tipping Point. Orcinus has written an extremely insightful editorial on the new "Balance." If real balance is striving for the truth, the new balance is a result of the right-wing media response to the idea of a "liberal bias" in the media. It's why we see "Fight for Terri" plastered on every network, showing "experts" who argue Terri is not in a vegetative state. It's why we see the Fact of Evolution being held up side-by-side with the Myth of Intelligent Design. It's why nutcases who don't believe that the Holocaust really happened get equal airtime with authors who have written about it. The media's definition of "balance" has become so far removed from Webster's definition of the word that it does nothing but polarize this country further.

A Blow to the Rule of Law. In a brief editorial, the New York Times easily shows why Congressional intervention into the Schiavo case is a horrendous misuse of government. Republicans insist that the emergency bill is not a blanket, but was created solely for Terri. But why? Each year, hundreds of families experience the same thing that the Schiavos are going through. Yet Schiavo caught Congress's eye. Why? You might call it a Target of Opportunism, as Harold Meyerson does. You might wonder, after reading Rick Santorum's ridiculous comments, what Congress's ulterior motive was: A judge finding truth, or a judge overturning the verdict? You may even be curious why Congress didn't intervene directly and alter the ruling, when people like DeLay are up in arms over the court's most recent decision. Republicans may finally be realizing that this was a battle they should not have started. With recent polls showing the President's approval rating down, and 4 out of 5 Americans against the Congressional intervention, only one question remains. Where are the Democrats?

Humor

Monday Morning Humor. Tom DeLay recently compared himself to Christ, saying, "people hate the messenger. That's why they killed Christ," in response to Congress's intervention into the Schiavo case. With that in mind, we present the similarities between Tom DeLay and Jesus Christ.

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