Still Fighting

Activism

Rights, Recovery, and Renaissance. Unfortunately, now that the hubbub about Katrina has died down, many Gulf Coast residents are being left to their own devices to rebuild the devastated areas. But with the federal government often working to undermine their rights, it's becoming even more difficult that you might imagine. That's why Democracy for America and Louisiana's NAACP are sponsoring a "day-long event to create actionable items that will foster the cultural and economic rebirth of the Gulf Coast. If you can make it to Baton Rouge on November 19th, sign up and do what you can to ensure the rights of those who want to start a Gulf Coast Renaissance.

News

Food Stamp Cuts Are On Table. The age-old conservative philosophy of "starving the beast" is alive and well. Except the philosophy is horribly misguided; the so-called beast is really our government programs that aid the poorest, sickest, and most unfortunate in this country. But the budget's so unbalanced that even the no-tax-and-spend GOP is realizing something's gotta be done. But they're not going to end the expensive and unnecessary war, or the expensive and unnecessary tax cuts, or the expensive and unnecessary prescription drug plan. No, they're going to end the relatively inexpensive and quite necessary food stamp plan for about 300,000 citizens. Furthermore, they're considering cutting people off of school lunch programs, and rolling back expanded foster care support. It's simply disgraceful.

AIDS Gel on a Faster Track. Here's some fantastic news, for once. A new, promising method of fighting AIDS is being pursued by both Bristol-Myers and Merck. We often lambaste drug companies for not doing more to help the billions of people who need their help, and maybe they're finally getting the message. (Of course, we're not delusional enough to believe it's because of us, but hey, every little bit helps, right?) What's even more promising is that usually, drug companies won't make groundbreaking treatments available to poorer countries until they've been on the market a while. And often, it's the poorer countries that need the advanced treatments most. But in this case, Merck and Bristol-Myers are trying to keep costs low, and seem to be interested in providing the new gel to AIDS victims in poor countries. It's a start - let's hope other drug companies will follow their lead.

Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military. Newly released Pentagon data shows just how much this war is taking from the people who can least afford to give. 44% of recruits come from rural areas, while only 14% are from major cities. And "[n]early two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median." It's a deadly spiral - we have an economy with slow job growth, and that funnels money from the poor to the rich. Then, the poor have no opportunities, so they're forced to join the military, which is fighting a war in which the only people benefitting are the rich contractors and oil companies. It's not sad that kids are joining the Army - after all, the profession is a noble one, even if their current mission night not be. However, what is deeply disturbing is that many of this kids are forced to turn to the Army because they have no other options.

Editorials

The wealth puzzle: There’s a lot of money someplace, but where? You know, one thing we agree with the Bush administration on is that the tax code is too complicated. But it's too complicated because there are all sorts of loopholes that only the richest among us qualify for, and on top of that, only people that are well off can afford accountants to even find those loopholes. Beyond that, Henry Banta does some interesting work for Nieman Watchdog, and digs up some very important questions. There's clearly been shift of income to the top 1% (or even top .05%), but their wealth hasn't increased. So where's all that money going? Banta proposes that the money's being put in offshore tax havens that the IRS is doing very little to investigate. Banta claims the IRS isn't even capable of investigating these cases, and that's by design. We're not sure why, though: Just imagine how many wars we could fund with the taxes on the estimated $1.6 trillion held by Americans offshore! (Hmm...let's not give Bush any ideas...)

In the Company of Friends. You know, with news continuing to be released about the ineptitude and callousness of Michael Brown, you might think that Bush had taken a respite from cronyism. Hell, he even nominated Ben Bernanke to the Fed, a man who actually appears to be qualified! Apparently, he thinks that absolves him of past and future cronyism, because now he's at it again. This time, Bush "appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts." Yes, campaign contributors have been appointed to positions in the past, but Bush has really elevated these appointments to an art form. And given that he's still ostensibly fighting this whole war on terror thing, one might think that he'd be interested in having qualified people improve our intelligence gathering critiques. You might think that, but you'd be wrong.

Blogger Commentary

Partisan Democrats? Let's Look at How The GOP-Dominated Senate Has Worked This Year. The biggest slam that Republicans have been making against the Democrats, when they're not slamming their patriotism, or using the word "liberal" as a slur, is claiming that they're simply obstructionist and have no ideas. Well, we know that's not true, especially as of late, when Democrats have suggested plans for exiting Iraq , Katrina-relief suggestions, and improved health care for children, just to name a few ideas. But most of the time (and this is just in the Senate - the House is far worse), the Senate just shuts the Democrats out. They complain about Democrats not acting in a bipartisan manner, but it's all just a ruse. In fact, they want nothing to do with Democrats. The stats bear this out: "Of 118 pieces of Democratic-sponsored legislation, a whopping 80 percent were rejected by Senate Republicans, many of them on straight party-line votes. Of those bills, 24 were 'agreed to' and 94 were 'rejected.' " Not only that, but of those 24, "nine were benign acts that passed by a unanimous vote or, in one case, 94-6." Remember that Democrats do hold 44 seats, and that those seats actually represent over 50% of the country's population. Democrats have tried bipartisanship. It doesn't work, because the Republicans won't let it. And they have the nerve to criticize Harry Reid for finally playing hardball?

The ultimate Newspeak. Tired of simple-minded partisan discussions? Well, then you can turn to the same guy that we turn to for erudite discussion and heady analysis: Dave Neiwert. We find it amusing that he often seems to challenge people like Michelle Malkin and Jonah Goldberg - in the real of intelligence, it's like Goliath attacking a pair of smurfs. Goldberg, who we can reliably say might be one of the biggest idiots in the entire world, has released a new book titled "Liberal Facism". Why does Neiwert spend time on this moron? Because, as he says, "Propagandists like Goldberg always flourish in a vacuum of public ignorance. If liberals try to pretend he doesn't exist in the hope this meme will just go away ... it may be a fatal mistake."

Humor

Harlan McCraney, Presidential Speechologist. You probably thought that Bush's obliteration of the English language was accidental. Not so. In fact, it's the product of Harlan McCraney, who has specially crafted Bush's incomprehensible manner of speech. Masterful!

Activism

Question War. Look, the central message of the "Support Our Troops" ribbons is certainly worth supporting - the troops do need and deserve our support. But what frustrates us to no end is the simplistic jingoism that leads people to believe slapping a magnet on their car is the best way of doing so - it's worthless tokenism, bordering on mindless propaganda. Furthermore, many of these people likely believe that supporting our troops is the same as blindly supporting the administration that sent so many of them to die. Finally, someone's come up with a retort - an unwound ribbon in the shape of a question mark, urging people to "question war". Of course, there's a lot more you can do to end the war, and slapping a ribbon on your car really isn't that powerful a statement, but it's better than rear-ending that car with 87 magnets all over its bumper. Maybe one of those fools will see your ribbon and get the message. We can dream, can't we?

News

Truck Bomb Explosion in Iraq Kills 26. This is what Scooter Libby was covering up. He (and his boss) didn't want America to know that what we were getting into wasn't worth the cost. Scooter may go to jail for up to 30 years, although Cheney and Bush still walk free, but tens of thousands of people are paying for their sins with their lives. They won't go to jail. Almost all of them did nothing wrong, yet they'll be giving their lives up for this ridiculous war. And nothing's changed, as we hear Bush utter the same things, over and over again, fiddling while his empire burns. What kind of perverse logic concludes that the only way to honor death is with more death?

U.S. Quietly Issues Estimate of Iraqi Civilian Casualties. You didn't think they'd just trumpet this at a press conference, did you? Of course, it's shameful that it's not on the front page of most papers. Care to hazard a guess at the estimates? Well, using the coarse statistics provided, the estimate is that 25,902 civilians and security forces have been killed by insurgents. This doesn't count the ones killed by American troops - there's an estimate of 589 killed in Baghdad alone. The details are fuzzy because the military is only releasing estimates in the form of bar graphs, but not the underlying data, citing security issues.

Commissions Are Fine, but Rarely What Changes the Light Bulb. This is an interesting news article about presidential commissions. The reports that presidential commissions compile are rarely used. The two biggest commissions in history were the 9/11 commission and the Warren commission, and in both cases it was looked at, people said "ah," and then they went on a shelf. Most don't even get the "ah." The newest report is from the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, and although the changes that are made are probably good, they won't be implemented. They'll get read by some administration official, they'll be posted on a website, and then they will be forgotten. Once again, your tax dollars are hard at work.

Editorials

News Media Profits Undermine Reporting. Michael Bugeja, posting on Nieman Watchdog, writes about how profits ultimately trump everything in the media. This shouldn't be news to anyone. After all, media outlets are corporations. They exist to make money. The idea that the press is "a mouthpiece to the public" is all well and good, but profit trumps that. Need to break a story first, but don't have all the facts? That's OK (see Newsweek). Tied to a political party, so you want to slant your reporting? That's OK too (see Fox News). "It doesn’t matter if sources are lying, spinning, manipulating, hoaxing or misinformed. Fact-checking, once routine, has been eliminated at many outlets because it cuts into productivity, resulting in cases of plagiarism at newspapers." (read: Jayson Blair). Bugeja's article is extremely well thought out, and you should definitely check it out.

Our 27 Months of Hell. Hey, remember Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV? You know, the guy who's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed and let to Scooter's resignation? Wilson has an editorial up on Truthout, in which he discusses the "27 months of hell" since Plame was outed. Wilson doesn't offer thanks that Scooter resigned, which is good, because it's not over. Wilson laments th Iraq War, because he knows that the justification for that war was "faulty," to say the least. He ends the editorial with a heartfelt sentiment: "We anticipate no mea culpa from the president for what his senior aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explanation and an apology."

Blogger Commentary

Fitz’s Knuckle Ball. By now, you're all away of Libby's indictment in the Plame leak case. And we warned you that once indictments were handed down, fur would fly. The initial question is, what's really going on? Libby was indicted, and that's it? What about Rove? What about Cheney? Well, of course, because Fitzgerald is a professional, no one really knows. And we're back to the guessing game, although it's nice to have bagged Cheney's Chief of Staff. But one of the important things that Fitzgerald said (and we urge you to read the entire transcript of the press conference here) is that Libby's obstruction of justice impeded his investigation into who was actually responsible for the leak itself. This is important to note. Gadfly's article delves into some more details of the case and what's coming up. He believes that Fitzgerald's gearing up to take a shot at Cheney. Let's hope he's right!

Reform Ohio Now: By the Numbers. With all the issues surrounding Ohio in 2004, it's extremely interesting to see where the state stands now. There are four measures on the ballot next month, and of the two biggest PACs in the state, the liberal PAC (Reform Ohio Now) is far outdistancing the GOP PAC (Ohio First), in terms of total donations, average donations and total donors. Tim Tagaris does a "Harpers-style index" of the issues in Ohio, and the results are not only pretty interesting, but they lend further credence to the idea that Ohio was "stolen" in 2004.