Still Fighting

Activism

America Needs a Friend on the Supreme Court. Why Not Yours? It's tempting to sit back and munch some popcorn while the President flounders on multiple fronts. And while it's amusing to see conservatives become apoplectic because Harriet Miers doesn't appear to be an abortion-banning, gay-bashing, free-market-obsessed wingnut, let's not forget the bigger picture. Bush appointed someone with absolutely no qualifications for one of the most important positions in the country, mostly because she was his friend. Surely, you know someone equally qualified, right? Nominate your friend, and explain to DFA why he or she should be on the Supreme Court. The best nominees will be shared with the DFA community and the President. Why should Bush get to have all the fun?

News

Political Screening for All Park Service Managers. You know what we've always liked about trees? They're apolitical. They provide shade to Democrats and Republicans alike, and even fascists and communists! But apparently, that's a problem for Bush, whose Administration has now taken cronyism to a whole new level. Under a new Bush order to the National Park Service, "all mid-level managers and above must also be approved by a Bush administration political appointee." We've already seen the danger caused by cronyism, as well as the havoc wreaked when everything is politicized. Aside from taking positions awarded based on merit and making them based on political fealty, what this does is divide the country even further, making it so that there is no aspect of American life that's apolitical. What's next? Trees can only grow towards the right?

Amtrak Breakup Advances. You've all heard about the GOP's plan to destroy social security, welfare, and basically any government function that helps out the last fortunate. But Amtrak? Doesn't that seem a bit ridiculous? Well, initially it might, but upon further reflection, it actually fits entirely within the GOP scheme. Rich people don't take the train. But it costs the government money to subsidize Amtrak. The benefits of Amtrak are obvious, though, right? Certainly, if nothing else, it's nice to have a rail system for safety reasons. But look at what just happened: On September 22nd, the entirely Bush-appointed Amtrak Board voted to break up the railroad, making the Northeast Corridor a separate division. This would transfer at least some of the costs to the states through which the trains run (mostly blue state - not a coincidence), and is seen as a precursor to dismantling Amtrak entirely.

EPA Issues Draft Rules On Plants' Emissions. Just wait. Take a guess on what the draft rules do. If you said, "make it easier for companies to pollute", you're right! Of course, that's not what the EPA claims - they state they're just making their efforts to clean the air easier to implement. "But environmentalists and some of EPA's own lawyers said the move will undermine one of the agency's most effective means of forcing aging utilities to install new anti-pollution technology when they expand or modernize." So, who do you believe? Because everything's political (see news item #1 above), we certainly can't trust the EPA, but it'd be nice to have some non-partisan analysis. Too bad independent, fact-based analysis is becoming extinct these days.

Editorials

Questions of Character. It seems that Krugman and Truthout.org are a match made in heaven. In his latest installment, Krugman opines about how we got to the point where people actually believed Bush was "an honest, likable guy" in 2000, and a "strong, effective leader" in 2004. Clearly, many of us knew all along that those impressions were largely false. But how come the media was unable to convey that? Krugman contends that the people tend to prefer "up close and personal interviews" with candidates, but they're usually rarely revealing. The media plays to the public's desire to get to know candidates personally, when what they really should be doing is analyzing their policies. Additionally, while many of us believe we're good judges of character, for the most part, we aren't. What's Krugman's solution? "What we really need is political journalism based less on perceptions of personalities and more on actual facts." That's so crazy, it just might work!

A *Real* Contract With America. In 1994, Republicans rode the Contract with America to power. In theory, it was a nice idea - nationalizing what are usually relatively local campaigns for the House and Senate. Of course, what really took place was that "The right set up the election with two years of unrelenting, scorched-earth assault on the newly elected Bill Clinton.", and "Gingrich's Contract With America was a notably cynical document." Then, we all know what happened: The GOP took hold, fought tooth-and-nail against everything Clinton did, ultimately impeaching him. And now that they control everything, they won't stop until they've ridden this country into the ground. But that doesn't mean we can't learn from them, and take their tactics, except use them to benefit the country. In this article, Borosage proposes a real Contract with America, one that Democrats can use to nationalize this election. It would include of cracking down on corruption, making America safe, unleashing new energy, making work pay, rebuilding America, making health care affordable for all, and protecting retirement security. Sounds like a good start to us.

Blogger Commentary

Boortz: Faced with an impending national disaster, "we should save the rich people first". Right-wing radio talk show hosts utter absurdities all the time. We've grown so used to it that no one really calls them on it any more. So, it's not really all that surprising that Neal Boortz, in response to the news that the richest New Yorkers got a tip about the pending subway attack before average citizens were alerted, he claimed "This is as it should be." And that's not all. For some ridiculous reason, he kept on talking, revealing his appalling priorities: "Well, hell, yes, we should save the rich people first. You know, they're the ones that are responsible for this prosperity." We aren't going to say that ALL right-wingers believe this, but this man should be fired, and his listeners should revolt. If they don't, well, they're complicit in his utter lack of decency and humanity.

Bush Political Hacks Buried & Doctored Key Outsourcing Report. Another day, another case of corrupt Bush appointees doing something immoral and possibly illegal. Today's post has a running theme, in case you didn't notice. We've talked about appointing cronies to the Supreme Court, politicizing apolitical agencies and programs, and the changing of rules for political purposes. And now, there's a case of politics distorting an important outsourcing report that was required by Congress to be released before the 2004 election. Except it must have contained something the Administration didn't like, because they hid it until well after the election, when it was only released because Manufacturing News filed a Freedom of Information Act request. But that's not the end of the story - it turns out that the report itself was doctored by Bush appointees at the Commerce Department to only show the highlights of outsourcing. "In other words, the White House didn't just take liberties - it deliberately violated the will of Congress in order to suppress and doctor government data for its own political purposes. That's way over the line, even for these guys." Don't be silly, David Sirota - nothing's over the line for these guys.