Still Fighting

Activism

DEFCON America. America is under attack from religious extremists! Sorry, we didn't mean to alarm you, but we thought it was important that you knew. Oh, you already knew that? Well, we're probably not talking about the same religious extremists: We mean the religious right, which may not be as violent as Islamic terrorists (well, except for the random abortion clinic bombing), but has similar views and similar goals. Fortunately, DEFCON America is fighting back against those who would subvert the Constitution and cripple our freedoms. Take a trip over there and see what you can do to help. It's time we fought back!

News

Buying the Campus Mind. This is a pretty fascinating story. When we think of where the conservative agenda is trying to lead America, we don't often think about post-secondary schools. After all, wasn't there a study released last April that showed that the majority of professors in America were liberal? Putting aside the fact that where you apply to college is a choice, the study was conducted and paid for by conservatives. And that raises the bigger issue: How much of an impact are private donations to universities having on education? The top five conservative funders of colleges combined to give $37,487,843 dollars last year. That's ridiculous! And where is that money going? "...while the federal government pays for nearly two-thirds of all college-based research and development in the sciences, it pays for only 40 percent in the social sciences, education, and humanities." The problem is that most colleges are unable, or unwilling, to disclose these "donations." But with schools struggling for money, the debate as to how much they can take from whom is sometimes moot. And a lot of conservative donations given to fund studies at universities could be better spent at, say, think-tanks. So why go through the school? You can see the conservative agenda at work here.

An Army of Anyone. This is simply disgusting. We know that recruitment numbers are down, but to fake a high school diploma of a kid that hadn't been to school since the eighth grade just to allow him to enlist is not only pathetic, but it's illegal. And it gets worse. The writer, James McSwane, attempted to join the Army, and told the recruiter that he not only didn't have a high school diploma, but that he had huge problems with drugs and alcohol. The recruiter told him not to worry about it. After being sent home to lose 10 pounds and an inch off his waist, the recruiter called him back in a week to check on his progress. McSwane told the recruiter that he had changed his mind, that it was a waste of his time, and that he was still on drugs. The recruiter told him that "[h]e would take me to this 'place' to get this 'stuff' that would 'clean you out,' and offered to pay for half the cost. What was this 'stuff'? A type of detoxification drink that I could take the morning of the physical exam, he explained, and if I followed his instructions precisely, I would pass my urine test. It was no big deal, he said; he'd used it three or four times before." And the story just goes downhill from there. If recruiters are so desperate to get people like McSwane's artificial persona, it's no wonder we are doing so poorly in Iraq. When McSwane confronted the Army about what he went through, Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Brodeur, the man in charge of recruiting for Colorado told him, "Let me sum up all of this in one word: unacceptable. Completely unacceptable." That trick only works the first time. When you get to the seventh, eighth, ninth time and more of hearing the same "bad apple recruiter" story, you start not to believe it. And when you couple this with stories like Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, you see a pattern emerge that starts at the top.

Number of millionaires hits record. Well, hey, this is good news, right? If we have more and more millionaires, it must mean our economy is doing well, correct? Unfortunately, it's numbers like these that convince conservatives that Republicans are good for the economy. We have 8 percent more millionaires than we did last year, although the increase from 2003 to 2004 was a bit more astonishing: 33 percent! And while a million dollars may not go quite as far as it used to, it's still a lot of money, when the minimum wage is still stuck at $5.25. Surveys like this only serve to underscore that in our current economy, the gap between the rich and the poor is ever-widening: 35.9 million Americans are living in poverty, up 1.3 million from last year. If you're a Republican, it's the first survey that's important; if you're a thoughtful human, it's the second.

Editorials

Michael Brown as wake-up call to journalists. The story about Michael Brown is NOT that he blamed state and local governments for his failures; that was to be expected. No, the story about Brownie that the press needs to be covering is how he got there in the first place. Furthermore, it needs to investigate if there are more Brownies at other important positions, and what the effect of their incompetence will be. David E. Lewis, an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University, dissects how Brown got his post in the first place, and how such appointments discourage more competent careerists from fulfilling important government roles.

Purging the Poor. It's often said that every dark cloud has a silver lining. This can even be the case in disasters such as Katrina. The sad fact is that New Orleans was a dysfunctional city before the hurricane hit, with a gigantic poverty problem. If our leaders cared enough, they could use the Katrina rebuilding process to re-engineer a city that benefitted all residents in a more equitable way. In fact, many of the areas that are now livable had a high vacancy rate to begin with, despite being upper- and middle-class areas. Why not house some of the displaced poor in those vacant locations? Because when you're obsessed with promoting "pro-free-market ideas" instead of helping people, poor people don't generate enough revenue to be worth the time.

Blogger Commentary

Karen Hughes and Our Godly Constitution. Karen Hughes was given the post of Undersecretary of State in an attempt to smooth out our image with, primarily, the Muslim world. As we've talked about before, she's not been exactly welcomed by anyone not considered a Bush ally. Now, we'll be the first to admit that we all make mistakes, but her most recent screw-up takes the cake. Apparently, in a briefing while on the way to Turkey earlier this week, Hughes was asked about Bush's support of a Palestinian State, and she responded with...well, let's let her tell you. "I had one person at one lunch raise the issue of the President mentioning God in his speeches. And I asked whether he was aware that previous American presidents have also cited God, and that our Constitution cites 'one nation under God.'" It does? Really? Because according to the good folks at "It Affects You", in the title link, it doesn't appear in the version at the National Archives, the Senate, the House or the official U.S. Government website. "One nation under God" appears in the Pledge of Allegience, but only since 1954. In fact, there is absolutely no mention of the word "God" in the Constitution at all! It appears once in the Declaration of Independence ("...the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them..."), but that's about it. How can we expect the Muslim community to take Hughes seriously when the American people can't?

110 Shiites Dead in 2 Days. Yup, it sure is getting uglier by the day over in Iraq. 110 Shiites dead in 2 days. Iraqi president Jalal Talabani has accused Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of turning his back on the Kurds. Shiites are calling on Sunnis to abandon al-Zarqawi, to no avail. Heck, the Center for American Progress has introduced a detailed plan for phasing out American troops from the country over the next two years. It's called "Strategic Redeployment," and it's pretty thorough in getting our troops home, but getting Iraq where it needs to be between now and then. Of course, the Center is very close with the Democrats, so the plan can't be put into effect until...oh, let's count on 2008, at the earliest. Hey, remember when we were looking for Osama bin Laden, dropping bombs on Tora Bora? Those were the days, weren't they? Whatever happened to that guy?

Activism

The National Voting Rights Institute (NRVI) is in the news, and we couldn't be more pleased. Thanks to Kos, we know that the Supreme Court will look at a case in Vermont where the state is attempting to limit campaign spending. What this means is that, in a two-year cycle, anyone running for governor (or to be re-elected as governor) could only spend a maximum of $300,000. Lieutenant Governor, $100,000, and so on. It's a fascinating idea, and the big concern is whether approving this would infringe on free-speech rights. NRVI is involved in this case, and so much more. Check out their website here to get educated and involved!

News

Fehr: New Steroids Policy Could Happen By Series. We don't talk sports much here at Still Fighting. We have our own personal blogs for that. But when sports meets Congress, Senator John McCain gets exasperated. You may recall several months ago, when baseball player Rafael Palmeiro testified before the House Government Reform Committee that he never used steroids. That was in March. In August, he was suspended by Major League Baseball for....using steroids. Congress was a little upset, and invited the heads of the four major sports (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL) to meetings this week with the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The goal of this meeting is to create legislation that would standardize steroid policies in professional sports. To this we ask, "Does Congress not have anything better to do?" You see, Congress is tired of the major sports limping around and not getting their act together, so they're creating legislation. They don't "want" to, but they "have no choice." If Congress is so inspired to do things that they don't "want" to do, but they "have no choice" in doing, why not set up that independent commission to investigate Katrina? Or try and get answers about what Rove told who about Valerie Plame? Or maybe, just maybe, where that $8 billion we "lost" in Iraq went to.

Bush Warns Of Upsurge Of Violence In Iraq. Did we miss the downsurge? For the week of September 12 - September 17, 2005, over 250 Iraqis died. Of course, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that this "upsurge" will be caused by next month's vote, but there's Bush for you. It's clear the idea of "supporting our troops" is not at all the same as "supporting the war," but you wouldn't know it from the president's comments. You also wouldn't think public opinion matters at all, as he said, "The support of Congress for our troops and our mission is important and Americans need to know about the gains we have made in recent weeks and months, they need to know the way we're adapting our tactics, and the way we're changing our strategies to meet the needs on the ground." So, the support of Congress is important (because they give out the money), but people should just...know what's going on? That clearly doesn't make sense. Then again, we've all learned that anything this president doesn't want to hear just bounces off of him, so why should we be surprised?

Abortion Foes Win Day in Wisconsin State Senate. These people really are idiots, aren't they? Republicans in the Wisconsin State Senate pass two bills; one that would "[f]orce physicians to tell women considering abortions that the fetus feels pain," the other would "[e]stablish a 'conscience clause' allowing doctors and other health care workers to refuse to participate in such procedures as abortion; sterilization; vitro fertilization; and assisted suicide, which is already illegal in Wisconsin." Thankfully, Governor Jim Doyle has promised to veto both bills. Still, doesn't it bother anyone in the state Senate that there is one non-profit group supporting the bills, and 25 medical and health groups opposed? There's no scientific conclusion that the fetus feels pain, and there isn't any scientific conclusion to say that it doesn't. Trust Republicans to smear science as they see fit, regardless of fact. The state Senate also passed a measure that would "require that abstinence be taught in public schools as the main means of preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases." We're not OK with this either, particularly because of the state Senate's reasoning. Wisconsin has a high rate of out-of-wedlock births, and this bill is designed to lower that. But abstinence is taught in many school districts already, and it's clearly not working. Another reason to teach abstinence, but not to hang your hat on the idea that it'll solve all your problems.

Editorials

A Matter of Honor. What does it mean to be a soldier? To live your life by a code of honor and ethics? It's becoming much harder to know, as of late, because this administration is changing the meaning of the words "honor" and "ethics." Is it justifiable to beat someone into submission if they have intelligence information that we need? Is it OK to make prisoners stand in a naked human pyramid? Where does the blurry line end? While we, as citizens, have been asking this question for months, the Washington Post has published a letter written by Captain Ian Fishback, 1st Batallion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Captain Fishback wrote the letter to Senator John McCain, who, after introducing legislation a few weeks ago to define torture in the new Army manual, has since not spoken much about it, preferring to spend his time figuring out the steroid policy of professional sports (see News #1). Fishback wants the same answers we do. How can a soldier know what to do when that soldier doesn't have the law to guide him or her? We'd all rest easier knowing that our armed forces have "clear standards of conduct."

Bush's Leadership: Running on Empty. Unlike Mark Twain, the reports of Bush's death have not been exaggerated. Well, the death of his presidency, at least. Joan Vennochi details how Bush has asked both the American public and federal agencies to cut down on their energy use. So why has Bush used Air Force One to fly back and forth from the gulf coast seven times? What could he possibly be doing that isn't hindering the relief effort? Bush's arrogance of power has led him to be mistrusted and condemned by the American people. Now, do we all recognize that Bush is not a rare breed of Republican, but rather the standard? We sure hope so.

Blogger Commentary

Iraq Burns; Dems Look on the Bright Side. Arianna Huffington knows what we know; Democrats have been docile since 2004, if not earlier. Instead of going on the offensive, and attacking Bush's supposed strengths, Democrats prefer to sit back and let it ride; be optimistic, if you will. That's just not going to work. Bush has given Democrats nothing but ammunition, but with no response, there won't be any backing. Journalists and bloggers like us can only do so much. We need our leaders to stand up and attack. Mel, the cook on Alice, prophetized that "The best defense is a good offense," and that standard applies mightily to politics. In politics, you can't just prove your point by letting the other side implode. You're seen as weak. And we don't know about you, but to us, the Democratic party has looked positively anemic lately.

Idiots Abroad. We've made the point several times that Karen Hughes is way out of her element in the Middle East. Not only will Muslims not truly respect her (as a woman), but she then gets blasted in Turkey by women! Mahablog details the trials and tribulations of one Karen Hughes and her Middle East road trip. By visiting White House friendlies, she is not only spending a useless amount of time and money, but she isn't doing her job. In fact, Sidney Blumenthal is quoted in this editorial as saying that Hughes is actually doing Osama bin Laden's job for him! (Remember that guy?)

Activism

Pledge-A-Picket. A little while ago we mentioned a novel approach to opposing the disgusting picketers who were protesting an American's soldier funeral with anti-gay rhetoric. Well, the approach has taken off, and now you can help, except this time you can fight back against anti-abortion picketers. You can make a donation based on the number of protesters that show up outside of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania. So, either a lot of protesters will show up and PPSP will receive important funds to help women make informed health choices, or fewer protesters will show up, and women will be able to make those choices without being harassed and intimidated. Either way, you'll strike a blow for choice!

News

Bush's Gulf Enterprise-Zone Plan Has Failed to Deliver Before. Apparently, there's nothing that Bush thinks can't be fixed with tax cuts. Oh, he'll shine up his "Gulf Opportunity Zone" plan real nice, and make it seem like he's doing something magnanimous, but basically it amounts to more tax cuts for big companies. The only problem: It doesn't work. The "enterprise zone" idea has been tried before - Los Angeles is the most recent notable example - and it simply didn't work. What the plan does do is provide money to pad the pockets of large businesses who would likely locate themselves in the gulf anyways. Given all that, it's pretty obvious why Bush is bringing the plan back - and it's not to help the citizens of the Gulf Region, that's for sure.

Make Levees, Not War. What's that sound we hear in the distance? Is it the slow rumblings of a growing anti-war movement? We certainly think so. In case you missed it, this past weekend there was a gigantic anti-war rally in front of the White House. The most reasonable estimates are saying that somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 people showed up to voice their clear opposition to this Administration's policies. The following day, a counter-protest was staged. That crowd was estimated to be around 400 people. Now that the people are beginning to speak up, let's start working on the next project: Getting our Democratic leaders to join us. We're not quite sure what they're waiting for.

Insurgents seize 5 towns near Syria. Speaking of that war in Iraq, how's that going? Well, it certainly seems we're inching closer and closer to civil war. Zarqawi-loyalists are forcing local residents out of their towns, threatening them with beheadings. The Administration, grasping at straws for any signs of progress, is the death of "al-Qaeda's number two in Iraq". (They've already killed the "number three" four or five times.) But if you look at the bottom of that story, the violence is continuing, regardless. The road out of Iraq is not clear at all, but one thing is: Our current approach must change now.

Editorials

Democrats' special interest problem. As fans of democracy, Democrats tend to value the opinions of minority groups. We want to concern ourselves with the issues facing everyone, certainly a noble endeavor. But because of the Democrats' "big tent", it's easy to become fractured. For too long, the Democratic Party has been labelled the party of special interest groups. Sometimes, this label has been deserved, and sometimes it hasn't. Recently, after meeting with civil rights and women's groups, Harry Reid announced his opposition to John Roberts. And while we're all for civil rights and women's right, and we have no problem with standing up to Roberts, the real problem was what occurred afterwards. Kim Gandy, President of NOW., said "He got the message loud and clear, didn't he?" How does that help things? It's self-aggrandizing, and only furthers the perception of Democrats as beholden to special interests. Our "big tent" should only extend to those groups that respect the Party, and are willing to work for our common good, not just their own.

Cheap Gas Is a Bad Habit. Sometimes, problems have to get worse before they get better. We certainly don't like the situation at the pump, but we're tired of all of the whining about gas prices. If you keep prolonging the tough decisions about how to wean ourselves off of oil, then eventually those decisions get made for you, which is precisely what is happening now. Of course, unfortunately, the oil companies are getting rich off of our stubbornness, and the ones who are going to suffer most are those who don't have the resources to find alternative means of transportation. For getting us to this, we can blame our leaders for their stunning lack of vision. But now that people can clearly see how vulnerable we are due to our dependence on cheap gas, it's our fault if we still do nothing about it but complain about the high prices, and then continue to guzzle gas at the same rate.

Blogger Commentary

Iraqi women say freedoms are slipping away. As time goes on, we become more and more in favor of withdrawal from Iraq as soon as possible. But the fact remains that we've gotten in so deep, and the war was executed so poorly, that there's really no good solution to the situation we're in. Unfortunately, if we pull out, there will be significant costs, in addition to the ones we've already incurred. Bush's pie-in-the-sky idea of spreading democracy is a noble one, if unrealistic. Toppling Saddam may have bred some hope in Iraq, but already our inability to maintain peace in the country is having dire consequences. One of those is the rapid loss of women's rights, and issue that we promised we'd fix. But if we leave behind civil war, or a fundamentalist government protected by a new, and flawed constitution, all of those promises may very well go down the drain.

'Operation Offset' - GOP To Target Working Families. With the horrible state of the budget, Republicans are finally being forced to realize that they have to do something to reduce the deficit. But they're not giving up the tax cuts. They're also not giving up their pork projects. So who's going to sacrifice? That's right - the middle and lower class again. This time, they're proposing going after so-called "tax cheats". Corporate tax cheats? Nope. Those who file but don't qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit - low-income working families. Because as you can plainly see, the problem is that low-income working families are robbing us blind. Duh.

Activism

It's either an admirable idea or a disgustingly desperate tactic; it depends on which side of the fence you're on. For the GOP, it's obviously the former, as they mobilized thousands of out-of-state Republicans to blitz the state with phone calls for GOP Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore. Ken Mehlman also sent out an email pleading with Republicans to help with the calls. If for no other reason than this, Tim Kaine needs your help. Sign up on his page here to volunteer. With so few races in 2005, Kaine needs all the support we can give him to keep Virginia's Governor a Democrat.

News

Bush: Townsend to Lead Katrina Inquiry. Are they kidding us? This would be like Gerald Ford being appointed to investigate Watergate. For those of you keeping score, Fran Townsend is Bush's homeland security advisor. She's the one who took the calls when people were dying in NOLA and Bush was playing buddy-buddy with country singers. And now we're supposed to expect that she's going to give a fair and balanced investigation? What's wrong with appointing an independent commission, as Democrats have asked for? It's not like Harry Reid has been demanding a liberal commission. He knows that an independent investigation will find the truth; namely, that BushCo dropped the ball in a big way.

Hughes Launches US Image Makeover Among Muslims. And speaking of unqualified people, Karen Hughes is in the Middle East, attempting to mend the U.S.'s image with Muslims. To continue analogies, this would be similar to having the Vatican send James Dobson to Israel to apologize for the Spanish Inquisition. How are Muslims supposed to take a country seriously that won't even consider asking Arabs for advice, much less a leader who won't appoint any? As you can see by some of the interviews in this article, it seems like the problems might be less with America and more with Bush.

A Web of Faith, Law and Science in Evolution Suit. Put aside the conservative politicians, who are routinely out of touch with mainstream America anyway, and look at the parents. It's extremely interesting to see what the parents have to say, when it comes to Intelligent Design. Parents who support ID, like the Heids in this article. Mrs. Heid is quoted as saying, "I think we as Americans, regardless of our beliefs, should be able to freely access information, because people fought and died for our freedoms." But that's not what the problem is, nor is it what Democrats are arguing. Parents that support ID want it there because they want their children to learn it; in most cases, it's because they have raised their children to believe in ID, or Creationism. But liberals argue (rightly) that ID shouldn't be taught as a science, in a required class. The Heid's live in Dover, Pennsylvania, where the first lawsuit against the teaching of ID starts today. Here's hoping that the court rules correctly, and sets a precedent. If not, what's next? An alternate theory on math? "1+1=2, but how can we know that? Maybe 1+1=7." Don't laugh - it's just as absurd and idea as teaching ID in required classes.

Editorials

Relax, Borrow and Spend! Clarence Page sums up Bush's "fiscal policy," which we discussed yesterday: Relax, borrow and spend. Costs are on the rise, and even the least educated of us know that you can only spend so much before you need to do something. Our administration's solution to all that spending: Cut current programs (thus hurting the current population) and borrow the rest (thus hurting future Americans). We're on record for repeatedly saying that we're upset Bush hasn't raised taxes, and we surprise ourselves by saying that we wish he would. Otherwise, that "surplus" that we had when Clinton left will be a long time in coming back again.

We Can Pay Teachers More. Of course we can. If we can somehow "find" 200 billion dollars to rebuild New Orleans, and untold hundreds of billions to pay for the war, then certainly we can find a way to pay our public school teachers more than the average of $46,000 that they make right now. Chris Whittle advocates a radical idea: Tearing down our dysfunctional system and rebuilding it in an intelligent manner. Maybe we could find a way to make it more efficient, and require less teachers overall, allowing us to pay them more. Whittle's specific suggestions may or may not be effective solutions, but at least he's thinking outside the box. It's quite ironic that in fixing our schools, the quality we lack is precisely a quality we want to engender in our students: Imagination.

Blogger Commentary


Disaster Czar Rove Plays Politics Instead of Focusing on Rita. Hundreds are dead. Thousands are displaced, with their homes destroyed. Fortunately, President Bush has put someone in charge of the recovery effort, namely, one Karl Rove. And apparently, Rove was so amazingly effective that he's got enough free time to go to a political fundraiser in North Dakota. Of course, those pesky Democrats keep getting in the way. In particular, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) had the nerve to ask the President why Rove would do such a thing. But clearly, it's because Rove's already fixed everything in the Gulf Coast. Silly Democrats.

Anatomy of a Disgrace. The Cunning Realist has been all over the Pat Tillman story, even when it seemed the story had already been told. First, we were informed that the Army lied about the nature of his death. Now, we learn more about how they've co-opted his image for their propaganda. TCR points out the highlights of a San Francisco Chronicle story that peels back the lies, and reveals the real story. It's a tale of a true patriot who was abandoned by his government, and then a government that manipulated his death for maximum public gain. Tillman become a hero the moment he enlisted - it's a shame that he had to become a martyr.