Bush Is a Worthless Piece of Shit

That's right, Bush is a worthless piece of shit. Where is the federal government? What has Bush been doing the past 5 days? How incompetent and clueless can the President of the United States be? A major US city has been wiped off the face of the earth and there are 2 million refugees. Has our nation been reduced to the level of Bangladesh? If he goes down to New Orleans, I hope people trow some of that raw sewage floating in water on him and then chase him out of the city with pick forks and torches like Frankenstein. That would even be to good for him.
Well, I'm not the only one that thinks Bush and the government's response has been unacceptable.
Here is the NYT's editorial:
Waiting for a Leader

George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end.

We will, of course, endure, and the city of New Orleans must come back. But looking at the pictures on television yesterday of a place abandoned to the forces of flood, fire and looting, it was hard not to wonder exactly how that is going to come to pass. Right now, hundreds of thousands of American refugees need our national concern and care. Thousands of people still need to be rescued from imminent peril. Public health threats must be controlled in New Orleans and throughout southern Mississippi. Drivers must be given confidence that gasoline will be available, and profiteering must be brought under control at a moment when television has been showing long lines at some pumps and spot prices approaching $4 a gallon have been reported.

Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis.

Dollars Can Only Be Sent Once: How Iraq Effects New Orleans

The Iraq War has been sucking up money which could have been invested in domestic infrastructure. Perhaps no investment could have saved New Orleans, but we will never know. This is an example of government choices. Where else are decisions like this happening? There are no free lunches and eventually bills come due. New Orleans and the nation are now paying a terrible price.

From Dailykos
It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.

-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004

When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained...

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.

But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late. One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer was a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach.

What Country Is the Biggest Arms Seller?

Is the US the land of hypocrisy. We jump all over contries buying weapons from China and Russia but look at this.

From today's NYT:
WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 - The value of military weapons sales worldwide jumped in 2004 to the highest level since 2000, driven by arms deals with developing nations, especially India, Saudi Arabia and China, according to a new Congressional study.

The total of arms sales and weapons transfer agreements to both industrialized and developing nations was nearly $37 billion in 2004, according to the study.

That total was the largest since 2000, when global arms sales reached $42.1 billion, and was far above the 2003 figure of $28.5 billion.

The United States once again dominated global weapons sales, signing deals worth $12.4 billion in 2004, or 33.5 percent of all contracts worldwide. But that was down from $15.1 billion in 2003.

The share of American arms contracts specifically with developing nations was $6.9 billion in 2004, or 31.6 percent of all such deals, up slightly from $6.5 billion in 2003.

Russia was second in global arms sales, with $6.1 billion in agreements, or 16.5 percent of all such contracts, a notable increase from its $4.4 billion in sales in 2003. In 2004, Russia signed arms transfer deals worth $5.9 billion with the developing world, 27.1 percent of the global total, up from $4.3 billion in 2003.

Britain was third in arms transfer agreements to the developing world in 2004, signing contracts worth $3.2 billion, while Israel ranked fourth, with deals worth $1.2 billion. France followed with $1 billion.

Who's Unpopular

Well, Well, Well George Bush. You thought you were hot shit, but you fucked up one too many times and now your cold diarrehia in a dixie cup*.

From Gallup
August 26, 2005
Bush Approval Rating Continues to Drop
Current 40% approval is lowest of administration to date


by Frank Newport and Jeff Jones

President Bush's job approval rating is now at 40%, the lowest of his administration. Bush has averaged 43% across three Gallup Polls conducted in August, marking a slow but steady decline since the beginning of the year. Bush's approval rating has dropped among independents, and has also dropped modestly among Republicans. Bush's August average rating is the lowest for any re-elected president since World War II at a similar point after their re-election, with the exception of Richard Nixon. Only 34% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today -- the lowest satisfaction rating since January 1996.

(*-A paraphrase from the character of the Monarch from the cartoon "The Venture Brothers".)

Bush Is an Incompetent Ass

Why can't people see what an incompetent ass the Bush is? Everything this administration does is screwed up. Every department is politicized and therefore incapable of doing their jobs effectively. Almost every higher level decision by government officials is made through a political prism. Instead of making the best decision for general public, decisions are made for the political advancement of the President and the Republican Party. Now look at this editorial from the Washington Post:
This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially" lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission. ...

To be sure, America may well be hit by another major terrorist attack, and we must be prepared for such an event. But I can guarantee you that hurricanes like the one that ripped into Louisiana and Mississippi yesterday, along with tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages, fires and perhaps a pandemic flu will have to be dealt with on a weekly and daily basis throughout this country. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable degree, weakening our ability to respond to them.

New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina is a once in a century storm. It is almost incomprehensible a major america city may be wiped from the face of the globe. I watched CNN today and I was dumbfounded to see 25,000 people being put into the superdome. People were predominantly poor, elderly, disabled, and carless. There is nothing more terrifying than being trapped in a building, pitch black, hot and filling up with water. Plus, officials said they weren't sure if the building would withstand the winds. This seems like a terrible experiment in mass hysteria, but it is real. If the Superdome survives, the city may be flooded for weeks. How are they going to get food and water there for all those people. In addition, millions of gallons of gasoline may be spilled into the flooded city and start burning on top of the water. Thousands may die.
Economically, 16% of imported goods go through the New Orleans' ports. 25% to 33% of domestic oil production is handled in the area and a third of gasoline refining is done there. This may be a biblical scale disaster felt everywhere in the US.
I don't believe in God but those of you who do may need to get busy and start praying.

Harold Ford Commercials

I just watched a Harold Ford commercial. Basically empty rhetoric, but I noticed something. Back in 1996, Steve Forbes ran for President. Many people argued he was a robot or alien because he never blinked. Not Blinking is very disconcerting and it made him an object of ridicule. Well, I'm watching Ford and he never blinks. Is Ford an alien or robot? Maybe. Most likely he is a Manchurian candidate of Friedman, Billings, and Ramsey ($30,000 in campaign donations in 2004) or Credit Suisse First Boston Corporation ($20,000 in campaign donations in 2004). Congressman Ford, would you like to play a hand of solitaire.

What It Is Like in Iraq

An appointment in Samarra
27 Aug 2005 12:42:14 GMT

Source: Reuters

Reuters correspondent Luke Baker covered the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 as an embedded journalist and has reported on the country from our Baghdad office for the last two years. The following story is his personal account of how the atmosphere of death and destruction has become more and more insistent as acquaintances and friends are struck down.

By Luke Baker

BAGHDAD, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Death creeps up on you in Iraq. The longer you remain amid the country's violence, the more insistent, the more bullying it becomes.

Over time, more people you know die, or are maimed, or have scrapes with death that leave them psychologically scarred.

All along there have been stories about it -- those killed by aerial bombardments, children blown apart by suicide bombs, families caught in crossfire, slain at the hands of insurgents or murdered by criminals.

In March last year, I stood in the street in Kerbala as suicide bombers exploded among crowds of Shi'ite Muslim pilgrims, killing more than 100 people, including dozens standing around me -- strangers who became new victims of Iraq's conflict.

But in recent months, the deaths have grown more personalised -- it's not just random people who die anymore, but people you've met, people you've interviewed, some you know quite well, colleagues you work with every day, friends even.

Almost every week, someone on the staff at Reuters, just one of a dozen or so news organisations still operating in the country, has a new tale to tell of a relative -- a brother, a mother, a cousin, or a son -- killed in terrible circumstances.

Last month, one of the team of drivers, Yassin, said he needed some time off to look for his brother, who had been missing from his job as a blacksmith for five days. Relatives searched fruitlessly until, desperate, they decided to look in Baghdad's morgue, a building on the banks of the Tigris that is literally overflowing with bodies.

After trawling through the autopsy rooms, pulling out the cold trays on which the bodies are kept, Yassin found his brother, Ibrahim. He recognised him by the clothes he was wearing and by a tattoo on the inside of his arm.

He couldn't recognise Ibrahim's face because his body had been left outside in the sun after he was killed and the intense summer heat had burned his skin beyond recognition.

Two days ago, another driver, Saed, still wearing the black clothes of mourning he has worn since his brother died in a car accident, heard that his cousin had been killed.

A Shi'ite Muslim who had lived all his life in a mostly Sunni Muslim area, he was killed for belonging to the "wrong" religious sect.

DEATH SQUADS

"Death squads" from both sects now operate. They drive around ridding neighbourhoods of Sunnis or Shi'ites.

In recent months, the litany has continued: the brother of the man who buys food for the office was killed by a roadside bomb; the cousin of our Arabic service correspondent was tortured and killed after being taken by the police; the father-in-law of one of our translators was shot by U.S. troops and had to have his leg amputated; the brother of our reporter in Falluja was killed by Iraqi troops.

Last month, a Sunni Muslim politician who had become a regular source was gunned down in Baghdad because he was working on writing the new constitution. His name and number are still in our list of contacts. Emotionally, it's not easy to erase them.

That is just one office. Others have similar stories to tell.

The vast majority of those who have died are Iraqis, and a huge number are also innocent victims. There is no definitive record but Iraq Body Count, a U.S.-British non-profit group, estimates 25,000 civilians were killed in just the first two years after the war began.

They compiled the figure from media reports, which suggests the total is probably much higher -- far from every death is reported by the media. Almost none of those mentioned above was.

Over the same period, more than 1,850 U.S. troops have also died, 1,400 of them killed in combat, and more than 13,000 have been wounded, many of them horrifically, with the loss of limbs or their sight.

MEDIA IN DANGER

Journalists have not escaped either. More than 50 reporters and their colleagues have died in Iraq since March 2003, making it the most dangerous place in the world for the media to work.

Reuters has had two cameramen killed, shot dead by U.S. tank or machinegun fire. Another cameraman, a freelance who worked for Reuters, was shot dead last November during a U.S. Marine offensive in Ramadi. Several other Reuters cameramen have been shot at, barely escaping alive.

Marla Ruzicka, a young American woman who ran an aid group that worked to win compensation for the innocent victims of war, and who was a constant presence among the press corps in Baghdad, was killed by a car bomb on Baghdad's airport road.

Sometimes the horror stories come out of nowhere. I met an Iraqi Airways official in northern Iraq two weeks ago and we chatted for a while about his life and family. Last week I called to see how he was doing and he broke down on the phone.

"It's too terrible," he said. "I came home from work three days ago and as my son was running to say hello to me, he collapsed on the ground. I went to him and he was covered in blood." His son, 10-year-old Mohammed, had been hit by a stray bullet. It went through his neck, severing his vertebrae, and left him paralysed from the waist down.

One of Iraq's leading psychiatrists, Dr Harith Hassan, believes the country may be the most psychologically damaged in the world, thanks to 25 years of Saddam Hussein's murderous regime and the past 2-1/2 years of violence.

"The long-term implications are profound," he told me this month, estimating that up to 70 percent of the patients he sees are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"What's going on is really a catastrophe from a psychological and a social point of view."

It is perhaps not for nothing that one of the legends of the grim reaper is set in Iraq.

According to the legend, a servant sees Death in the market in Baghdad. Fearing his time has come, he runs back to his master and begs a horse to ride far away to Samarra.

After he has fled, the master goes to find Death in the marketplace. "Why did you scare my servant?" he demands to know.

"I wasn't trying to scare him, I was just surprised to see him," Death replies. "For I have an appointment with him this evening in Samarra."

In Iraq these days, the Samarra of the legend can seem to be all around.

How Important Is Iraq

Iraq is a total mess teetering on civil war. I thought in 2003 that it should have been partitioned. I realize that would require most likely the population transfers of 2 or more million people. It would have been difficult but similiar thing happened in central Europe after WWII. It didn't happen in the Balkans and we saw what happened in the 1990's. Massive numbers of Iraqi's could have been employed in building new homes and upgrading utilities. By now I think Iraq could have been in better shape than it is today. But the US didn't do that. In fact it hasn't done anything right in Iraq. So Iraq may fall into civil war, destabilze the area, threaten oil supplies (global economy), and possibly become even more of a terrorist breeding ground. With 140,000 troops, the US can try to mitigate the civil war and prevent the outflow of violence from disrupting oil production in the rest of the region. At best it is a holding action. Most likely the result will be a continued, incremental increase in violence and instability, exploding if a figure like Sistani or Sadr gets killed.
So do we continue the slow, downward spiral of staying the course or try something else. The establishment democrats have decided to stay the course, while Feingold, with the support of many progressives, proposed a withdrawal date at the end of 2006. Feingold understands you can't just pull out and leave the Iraqi's hanging, but the plan may put a fire under them to get their act together. Will it work, I don't know but it gets everyone seriously thinking about what happens January 1, 2007 and I think that would be a positive.
The establishment democrats like Biden, Clinton, Bayh, Leiberman, and locally Ford support staying the course. They have been put in an akward situation of siding with Bush and make ridiculous statements like "the war was right but the execution was wrong." Staying the course seems not to be politically viable. Bush is getting pummelled and republicans seem to be on the verge of jumping the war ship. But people have talked at length about this. What I want to know is if the war is so important and failure an unacceptable option, what leadership is establishment/DLC democrats willing to show? 140,000 troops are enough to be targets and not much more. Hardly any reconstruction has occured (less electricity, water, and gasoline production than before the war) and the insurgency has grown. So lets talk leadership. The US would have to do a whole lot more with a whole lot more troops and a whole lot more money to accomplish anything. Democratic establishment/DLC Senators, co-sponser a bill to reinstate the draft. A year and a half from now the US would have another 400,000 troops and we could rotate in and extra 250,000 at a time. There has to be 400,000 US troops in Iraq to create stability. Senator Clinton's call to increase the army by 80,000 without a draft is disingenuous. The army can't even meet current recruiting goals, so how are they going to get 80,000 more? Establishment/DLC Democrats in the House, propose a bill to raise taxes to pay for all of this extra defense spending. Right now it costs $1.5 billion a week for military operations in Iraq. With 400,000 it would go up to close to $5 billion a week, plus an increase in the defense departments budget. Doing this would take balls, in fact asking that much of the country when 54% of populace wants to leave tommorrow would probably be political suicide. But by these pro-war democrats statements, Iraq is that important. So sacrifice your political careers for a greater good. If you are not prepared to ask for these sacrifices from the American people and yourself than you don't believe Iraq is truely that important. So for the pro-war democrats, it is time to show what you believe in and how much you are willing to give up to do what is right.

Remember This Quote About Bush Whenever He talks About Iraq

If this doesn't make you doubt Bush's motives for going to War with Iraq, I don't know what will.

"He was thinking about invading Iraq in 1999," said author and journalist Mickey Herskowitz. "It was on his mind. He said to me: 'One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief.' And he said, 'My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it.' He said, 'If I have a chance to invade•.if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency." Herskowitz said that Bush expressed frustration at a lifetime as an underachiever in the shadow of an accomplished father. In aggressive military action, he saw the opportunity to emerge from his father's shadow. The moment, Herskowitz said, came in the wake of the September 11 attacks. "Suddenly, he's at 91 percent in the polls, and he'd barely crawled out of the bunker."

Iraq War Split Democrats Before Republicans

The Iraq War may be the issue that causes civil war in the Democratic Party. I am not exactly sure why the Democratic Party is so far behind the curve on the Iraq War. If Russ Feingold had made his statement about withdrawaling from Iraq eight months ago he would have been mercilessly attacked by the Republican Hate Machine and Mainstream Media. This weekend it barely made a ripple. Chuck Hagel is dominating the headlines with statements much harsher than anything Feingold or another leading Democrat is saying. It seems strange that some of the strongest supporters of continuing the Iraq War are estblishment democrats, particularly DLCer's. Has Democratic leadership become so gun shy of being labeled weak on defense that they will continue supporting this war when the American public doesn't?
Now battle lines are being drawn within the Party. Establishment and DLC democrats vs populists/progressives/anti-war democrats. This battle is not only about Iraq but who controls the Democratic Party. It is seen at the local level with the controversy caused by Harold Ford's speech at the U of M last week. It had been building for a while, but that speech may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. Populists/Progressives can not understand why the democratic leadership isn't being much more aggressive with Bush and presenting alternatives. 54% of Americans want to pull out of Iraq, literally, tomorrow. Bush is at 36% to 40% approval rating. There are scandals everywhere on the Republican side. This is absolutely maddening to populists/progressives. It looks like the Establishment and DLC has accepted it's position as the minority party and become completely captive to their corporate masters. Now the populists/progressives feel their stragegy is correct after being led through three election cycle defeats and their positions are supported by polling of the American public. If this isn't the time to fight when is?
I don't understand what the strategy of the Establishment and DLCer's is. But upon seeing the article below, you have to wonder about their motivation. Is the Party headed towards civil war over Iraq. I think so. Populists/progressives are itching for a fight and the other side wants to maintain its control. If intra-party warfare is inevitable, let it start as soon as possible so that it is finnished before the 2006 election goes into full swing. Populist/progressives feel the Democratic Party must be an alternative and in opposition to the Republican Party and its policies.

From David Sirota's Blog:
DLC Helps Spread Claim That "Progressives Destroyed America"

There is a case to be made that Democrats should go on Fox News, even if it is a right-wing network, because the network blasts its content to the general public. But there is no case to be made that any non-right-wing lunatic should take part in an event at the fringe-conservative Heritage Foundation entitled "Did the Progressives Destroy America?" Unlike a Fox News show where you are speaking to potentially swing voters, there is no "general public" audience at this event - it is an event designed to perpetuate among the Washington, D.C. insider establishment the worst right-wing dishonesty. Any participation by our side helps legitimize this nonsense. Yet, incredibly, the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) is headlining the event.

That's right, Will Marshall - President of the DLC's Orwellian-labeled "Progressive Policy Institute" - is lending his name to the event and taking part. I guess we shouldn't be surprised - this is the same Will Marshall who calls war critics "anti-American". Sure, Marshall will disingenuously argue that he is there to "debate" the issue. But he's been in Washington long enough to know exactly what he's doing: deliberately helping to legitimize the worst right-wing lies. If there was ever a question as to whether the DLC is actively trying to undermine Democrats and the progressive movement in general, there shouldn't be anymore. The answer is, yes they are.

Why Does Bush Exercises SO Much

George Bush exercises to much. The question is then why? Everbody knows Bush has an addictive personality. (Cocaine and Alcohol) So it stands to reason he could get addicted to sex. But he is a devote holy roller and I don't think he's going to get that much from his valium induced, stepford wife. Chances are he feels guilty about spanking the monkey and works out his pent up sexual frustration through exercise. See, religion and an addictive personality makes you crazy. Plus, if Bush works out 2 hours a day, takes a nap, and goes to bed at 9 pm east coast time, when does he actually do anything?
Mr. President, for the good of the America and the world, please wax the dolphin more often.

Does John Roberts Hate Women?

I read this a few days ago. I went to a coed catholic high school. To be honest the education wasn't that good but at least we weren't sexually warped by going to single sex catholic schools. Locking hormone raging teenagers in same sex schools and layering Catholicism on top while make a person screwed in the head. There wasn't nearly as much homoerotic hazing at my coed school as the single sex schools. I can't imagine the weird, perverse fantasies that may percolate in his mind.


From Salon:
John Roberts actually went public with a strong opinion on a controversial subject: writing an editorial for the school paper vehemently opposing coeducation at his all-boys prep school.
Here's what Roberts wrote in 1972 for the La Lumiere school paper, The Torch:

The presence of the opposite sex in the classroom will be confining rather than catholicizing. ... I would prefer to discuss Shakespeare's double entendre and the latus rectum of conic sections without a [b]londe giggling and blushing behind me.

That ought to alarm James Dobson: Not every 17-year-old can condescend in French and Latin. But conservatives can rest assured that whether or not Roberts is reluctant to overturn Roe now, he would never have voted for it in the first place. Anyone who dismissed all women as giggling blondes in 1972 certainly wouldn't have found a right to privacy in the Constitution in 1973.

Roberts wrote of his horror that girls would spoil the playing fields of La Lumiere: "Imagine the five cheerleaders on the sidelines, with block 'L's' on their chests, screaming, 'Give me an "L."!' Give me a break!" He'd better hope Sen. Lott doesn't put a hold on his nomination.

Remember the Other War

G.I. Death Toll in Afghanistan Worst Since '01
By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 21 - This year is already the deadliest for American soldiers in Afghanistan since the war of 2001, and the violence is likely to intensify before the nation's legislative elections on Sept. 18.

Four soldiers were killed Sunday, meaning that 13 have been killed in August alone. Sixty-five Americans have been killed this year.

More money is coming in, probably from Arab countries, and a unit of Qaeda fighters has returned to the region from Iraq to teach local fighters an unspecified "new tactic they learned in Iraq," one security official said, explaining that he could not be identified because of the clandestine nature of his work.

Bad Economic Times Ahead?

A year ago, former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker said there is 65% chance in the near future of a major economic recession. Now Volcker says there is a 75% chance in the next 5 years. George Soros and Warren Buffet have both bet against the US dollar and economy. Add to this the rapidly rising oil prices, housing market going soft, and the approaching inversion of the long and short term interest rates, a recession may be coming by 2006.


This came from Dailykos
The Coming US Debt Crash
by bonddad
Sun Aug 21st, 2005 at 10:08:21 PDT

Consumers who freely piled up debt when interest rates were falling soon could wake up with a financial hangover.

The costs of carrying consumer loans, from home-equity loans to credit cards and auto loans, have been steadily rising ever since the Federal Reserve began its more than yearlong campaign to boost short-term interest rates. Last week, the Fed raised its target rate for the 10th consecutive time, to 3.5 percent, and showed no signs of letting up.

Because rates on most consumer loans are tied to the prime rate -- now 6.5 percent, compared with 4.5 percent a year ago -- average rates have risen alongside the Fed's moves. Home-equity lines of credit, for instance, have risen two percentage points in the past year.


bonddad's diary :: ::


For one, consumers have been feasting off low rates for some time. Overall, U.S. consumers hold nearly $11 trillion in debt, up from $6.8 trillion in 1999, according to the Federal Reserve. To be sure, households' net worth, bolstered by appreciating home prices, also has risen over the period, to about $49 trillion from $42 trillion. The major shift is that consumers are piling up more adjustable-rate debt -- meaning their monthly payments will move in tandem with interest-rate increases.

Consumers may not feel the full squeeze of rising rates for another two or three years, experts say, giving households time to whittle down their debts. Households may start buckling under their debt loads starting next year or in 2007, when many option adjustable-rate mortgages and interest-only loans begin to reset at the higher interest rates.


Let me put these debt figures into historical context.

According to the Federal Reserve, total consumer debt is just under 10 trillion dollars. This includes credit card and mortgage debt. This is the highest level in 25 years.

According to the Federal Reserve, mortgage debt increased from 5 trillion to just under 10 trillion from 2000 - 2004. This is the highest level in 25 years.

According to the Federal Reserve, household debt as a percentage of GDP has increased from 70% to 85% from 2000 - 2004. This is the highest level in 35 years.

According to the Federal Reserve, household debt as a percentage of assets has increased from 15% - 18% from 2000 - 2004. This is the highest level in 40 years.

Also remember that after inflation, wage growth was stagnant for the last few years. This means debt payments are taking a larger percentage of personal income.

America has maintained it's standard of living through debt because wages have not grown in the last 5 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average earnings increase from 2000-2004 was 3.86%, 3.22%, 3.12%, 1.71% and 2.39% respectively. However wages have to be compared to inflation to determine the real rate of wage growth. For the same years, annual inflation was 3.4%, 2.8%, 1.6%, 2.3% and 2.7% respectively. When inflation is subtracted from wages, overall wage growth becomes .46%, .42%, 1.52%, -.59% and-.31% respectively for 2000-2004.

As former Fed Chairman Paul noted: "What holds it all together is a massive and growing flow of capital from abroad, running to more than $2 billion every working day, and growing. There is no sense of strain. As a nation we don't consciously borrow or beg. We aren't even offering attractive interest rates, nor do we have to offer our creditors protection against the risk of a declining dollar."

At the same time, the US savings rate - which has been declining for the last 20 years, has hit 0%. Therefore, consumers have no money set-aside for a "rainy day." This lack of national savings makes the US that much more dependant on foreign inflows of capital. Should foreigners decide the US is no longer a great place to invest, they refusal to fund our debt-spending habits would spike interest rates, starting the spike.

Combine that with the new bankruptcy bill which makes it harder to declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and we could quickly become a nation of indentured servants, serving credit card companies, banks and other creditors.

Let me sum up. The US is in debt up to its eyeballs. We have no savings. The only thing keeping the economy together at the macro-level is the kindness of foreign investors. Should they stop investing heavily in the US, the dollar will start to drop. The Fed will be forced to hike interest rates to protect the dollar in the forex markets. The massive national debt load will become far more expensive to maintain.

The Almost Great Escape In Iraq

How did the US get cast as the Germans in the remake of the "Great Escape". These guys were remarkable. Look at their self-organization and discipline. No wonder the resistance movement is so tough.

In Iraq Jail, Resistance Goes Underground
Escape Tunnel, Improvised Weapons Showcase Determination of Inmates

By Steve Fainaru and Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; A01



CAMP BUCCA, Iraq -- In the darkest hours before dawn, groups of 10 detainees toiled 15 feet beneath Compound 5 of America's largest prison in Iraq. The men worked in five-minute shifts, digging with shovels fashioned from tent poles and hauling the dirt to the surface with five-gallon water jugs tethered to 200 feet of rope. They bagged it in sacks that had been used to deliver their bread rations and spread it surreptitiously across a soccer field where fellow inmates churned it during daily matches, guards and detainees recalled.

The 105th Military Police Battalion, charged with running Camp Bucca in the scorching desert of southernmost Iraq, knew something was amiss: Undetectable to the naked eye, the field's changing color was picked up by satellite imagery. The excavated dirt was also clogging the showers and two dozen portable toilets. The dirt was showing up under the floorboards of tents; some guards sensed that the floor itself seemed to be rising. Mysteriously, water use in the compound had spiked.

Hours before the planned prison break on March 24, an informant tipped off the Americans, who then drove a bulldozer across Compound 5. What they discovered was breathtaking: a fully completed tunnel that stretched 357 feet, longer than a football field. Inside were flashlights built from radio diodes and five larger spaces to provide ventilation. The tunnel's walls were as smooth and strong as concrete, sculpted with water and, the Americans believe, milk. The exit, beyond the compound's fence, was camouflaged with sand-colored cardboard. It opened into a partially concealed trench that would lead the detainees to freedom.

The discovery of what came to be known as "The Great Escape" tunnel was a seminal moment for the Americans charged with guarding Iraq's exploding prison population. It underscored the fact that the guards were not simply policing more than 6,000 detainees but, in their own way, fighting an enemy that exhibited the same complexity and resilience inside the prison's chain-linked fences and miles of coiled razor wire as it did in the most embattled streets of Iraq. For the inmates, the fight had never stopped.

Three meals a day are served -- bread, cheese, jam and tea for breakfast and dinner, rice and stew for lunch, former detainees recalled in recent interviews. Although the Americans offer classes and even movies as incentives for good behavior, most downtime is devoted to lessons organized by the inmates. Some English is offered -- both elementary and advanced -- but the curriculum is heavy on religion: Islamic jurisprudence and doctrine, Muslim history, Arabic grammar and Koranic recitation, the former detainees said.

Most Sunni and Shiite prisoners are kept in separate compounds. In the Shiite area, about 20 clerics are in charge. They hand down stern justice. For breaking rules, inmates are denied food or beaten on the soles of their feet with poles, leaving no visible marks. In the more numerous Sunni compounds, inmates elect a leader from their ranks. Once in power, detainees said, his decisions are unquestioned.

Bush vs. the Pentagon

Do you get the feeling that the Pentagon is sick of being stuck in Iraq? The gulf between administration zealots and commanders must be huge. One statement which particularly caught my eye was the one about "Reagan..being hard as nails." Please. When I was kid, I lived in Jacksonville, NC, home of Camp Lejune Marine Corps base. I was having my tenth birthday on Oct 23, 1983. That morning news came out that 248 marines were killed when their barracks in Beirut was blown up. A couple of kids couldn't come to my birthday party because their dads were in Beirut. (One of the kids' dad was killed.) Was Reagan hard as nails about staying in Beirut. Hell no. the first thing he did was invade Grenada 5 days later to look like war president. (Three aircraft carriers and a few thousand men to knock over a fruit stand.) Then he packed up all those marines in Beirut and left. After they all got out, the USS New Jersey shelled the hills above the city. Then we contracted the Saudi's to put a hit on a radical leader in Beirut. The Saudi's got the guy but it took a car bomb in front of a mosque, killing bunches of innocent people and wounds dozens more, to do it. So not only did Reagan look weak, he ham handly lashed out killing innocent people.

War Messages That Don't Quite Match
The president and top Defense officials have given conflicting statements on bringing troops home from Iraq. Some see a policy split.

By Ronald Brownstein and Mark Mazzetti, Times Staff Writers

This dissonance on message is unusual in an administration that prides itself on coordination and discipline.

"The president has now twice in effect overruled or corrected" the Pentagon, said Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard. "I think the president realizes how much damage was being done by the appearance coming out of the Pentagon of seeking urgently to get out" of Iraq.

One GOP strategist familiar with White House thinking said that, on both issues, the president had moved to regain control of the administration message to erase any doubt that he is committed to his course in Iraq and the broader struggle against terrorism.

So instead of encouraging talk of troop withdrawal to salve public anxiety about the war, the White House upended conventional wisdom by reaffirming the president's resolve — which they see as the cornerstone of his public support.

"Will the president pull stakes and leave because of political pressure?" one White House official said. "The answer is absolutely no. If you look at presidents for the past 50 years, you'd be hard pressed to find someone — maybe Ronald Reagan — who would be as hard as nails on this."

Rethuglican Chickenhawks Patriotism-lite

Poor and middle-class kids should stop fighting the wars of the rich. Go send your own kids to steal your oil. An extra $100 billion a year on the pentagon budget since 2002 and an extra $250+ billion for Iraq. That's $550 billion we could have spent on investing in America or just not going into debt.

From the Post-Gazette
August 11, 2005
Staff Sgt. Jason Rivera, 26, a Marine recruiter in Pittsburgh, went to the home of a high school student who had expressed interest in joining the Marine Reserve to talk to his parents. It was a large home in a well-to-do suburb north of the city. Two American flags adorned the yard. The prospect's mom greeted him wearing an American flag T-shirt. "I want you to know we support you," she gushed.

Rivera soon reached the limits of her support.

"Military service isn't for our son. It isn't for our kind of people," she told him.

Why Can't We Just Report the Good News: Too Much Bad News

Can anyone doubt how much war-profiteering and corruption has and will continue to go on by Iraqis and Americans. "Fighting for a noble cause" my ass.

Audit: Iraq fraud drained $1 billion
By Hannah Allam
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi investigators have uncovered widespread fraud and waste in more than $1 billion worth of weapons deals arranged by middlemen who reneged or took huge kickbacks on contracts to arm Iraq's fledgling military, according to a confidential report and interviews with U.S. and Iraqi officials.
Among the findings:


-Multimillion-dollar contracts were awarded to favored weapons suppliers without a bidding process and without the required approval from the prime minister's office. Investigators wrote that the chief procurer went "beyond his authority" in purchasing equipment.


-Senior Iraqi officials kept little or no record of major purchases, sometimes noting lucrative deals in "undated and unnumbered" memos. Nearly all purchases contained a clause - unusual in international contracting of this magnitude - that required the contract's full value to be paid up front in cash.


-Instead of buying directly from a foreign company or government, Iraqi arms procurers hired third-party companies to negotiate the contracts. When Iraqi leaders later complained about unfulfilled contracts, they discovered they had no recourse to demand a refund because the payments were made to Iraqi middlemen who vanished after receiving the millions. "The undertakings make no obligation ... toward the Iraqi Ministry of Defense," according to the report.


-The sole beneficiary on 43 of the 89 contracts was a former currency-exchange operator, Nair Mohamed al-Jumaili, whose name doesn't even appear on the contracts. At least $759 million in Iraqi money was deposited into his personal account at a bank in Baghdad, according to the report. Internal records incorrectly "indicated that the Ministry of Defense signed contracts with Poland, Arab countries, the United States and Europe, but we discovered that all contracts were signed and executed with Iraqi suppliers," the report said.


The contracts under scrutiny total $1.27 billion, nearly equal to the estimated $1.3 billion allocated for the Defense Ministry's budget this year. The money came solely from Iraqi coffers, not from the training budget of the U.S. military or from NATO and foreign donations to Iraq's military.
"There's no rebuilding, no weapons, nothing," said retired Iraqi Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz al-Yaseri, who worked in the Defense Ministry at the height of the alleged corruption. "There are no real contracts, even. They just signed papers and took the money."


Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who oversees the U.S. military's training of Iraqi troops, conducts weekly briefings with the defense minister. Other Iraqi defense officials seldom are spotted without American civilian advisers nearby. The close relationship has raised questions as to how $500 million or more could vanish without U.S. intervention to stop the suspicious contracts that flowed for at least eight months.


"Ask them. I have the same question," al-Dulaimi said. "I blame those who posted them (the officials under investigation). And, by the way, the CPA posted them."


He was referring to the Coalition Provisional Authority, the occupation-era administration that American Ambassador L. Paul Bremer oversaw. Al-Dulaimi, other Iraqi politicians and some U.S. military officials blamed the CPA for forcing the Defense Ministry to hire previously unknown Iraqi officials, especially former exiles, without consulting Iraqi leaders.

Nikki Tinker US Congress Candidate

Nikki Tinker is apparently going to run for Harold Ford's congressional seat. I am willing to listen to what she has to say but this quote is almost a support killer.“I understand business, and I understand the social needs of this community,” Tinker said, indicating that she would run as a centrist Democrat, like Ford. “I can bring both sides to the middle.”
The Middle? Hello, the middle has gone so far to the right that this statement is laughable. Does the middle mean you would have voted for the bankruptcy bill? How about Schiavo? Bush's tax breaks? The War? Weakening oversight of SEC? Tell me how you are going to seperate yourself from Harold Ford's voting record of the past 4 or 5 years? At least Ford mascaraded as a progressive his first two terms? It seems you may not even do that. Memphis, TN does not need a DLC corporatist representative. I hope she has some progressive ideas about health care, taxes, wage erosion,etc because if she doesn't people within this party are going take the knives out. After 6 years of Bush and the rethuglicans, we don't want to hear DLC appeasement. It's 6 years behind the political curve.

The Hill
August 10, 2005
SBF ISO congressional seat
By Jonathan E. Kaplan

Nikki Tinker, a corporate lawyer, has emerged as the front-runner in the Democratic primary race to succeed Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.).

Tinker, 34, will be the first to announce her candidacy, even though Ford has been campaigning for the Senate for two months. She told The Hill that she is “putting together the foundation” of a campaign before formally announcing her candidacy next month. If elected, she would become the youngest black female lawmaker in Congress and the youngest member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Tinker and Ford have traveled much different paths to get to where they are. Ford is part of one of Tennessee’s most established political families. He grew up in Washington, D.C., attending the prestigious St. Albans School in Washington and the University of Pennsylvania.

Tinker was raised by a single mother in Gadsen, Ala. She earned her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Alabama, where she was the first black student elected president of the law school’s student body. After working in private practice in Birmingham and Memphis, she became the general counsel for Northwest Air Link in Memphis last year. She has served as Ford’s campaign manager.

“I understand business, and I understand the social needs of this community,” Tinker said, indicating that she would run as a centrist Democrat, like Ford. “I can bring both sides to the middle.”

The 9th Congressional District of Tennessee, which includes Memphis, is a majority-minority district. The Ford family has held the seat for the past three decades; Ford’s father, Harold Sr., represented the district for 22 years before his son was elected in 1996. Without any member of the Ford family running, the Ford family’s political dynasty in the district will end after the 2006 midterm elections.

Tennessee has been gripped by a corruption scandal that has ensnared Ford’s uncle, who had been a longtime Democratic state senator, as well as four other state representatives. Federal prosecutors have charged five elected officials for accepting bribes.

FBI agents set up a company, E-Cycle, which claimed to buy used equipment from the state and resell it at a profit. The “bagmen” offered cash to the lawmakers in exchange for their help in promoting legislation that would help E-Cycle win state contracts. The operation’s code name was “Tennessee Waltz.”

“People there are wanting to see new blood, new ideas and new faces,” said Jarvis Steward, a D.C.-based lobbyist and Ford’s former chief of staff, who is advising Tinker.

It is unclear whether corruption in Tennessee and in other states, such as Ohio and California, can lead to big changes in Congress. Paul Hackett, a former Marine Corps officer who served in Iraq, tried to tie his Republican opponent to Ohio’s corruption scandal in that state’s 2nd Congressional District. He lost by just four percentage points in a heavily GOP district.

In California, the political parties are waiting to see what role allegations play in the race to succeed Rep. Duke Cunningham (R), who has been accused of directing government contracts to a political benefactor who bought his house at an inflated price.

In Memphis, Ford’s uncle, John Ford, a state senator, resigned in May after being indicted on bribery and extortion charges. The FBI videotaped him accepting a bribe. In the special primary election to replace him held earlier this month, Ophelia Ford, his sister, won and is expected to coast to victory in the general election.

“The first real chance to see a backlash, we did not see it,” said Marcus Pohlmann, a political scientist at Rhodes College in Memphis. “These types of stories just don’t have that long of legs.”

Tinker has spent her time sizing up support within Memphis’s business community, churches and plaintiff’s bar. Like most other first-time candidates, she is reaching out to her sorority sisters and friends.

There could be as many as eight candidates seeking to win the Democratic primary.

“Right now, everyone is jockeying to figure out who is going to support who,” said Stewart.

Ford won with 84 percent in 2002 and 82 percent in 2004. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) won Ford’s district with 65 percent last year, while President Bush defeated Kerry statewide, 57-43 percent.

The Democratic primary is scheduled for Aug. 3, 2006.

Hispanic Outreach

USA Today has an article about immigration and migration in the US. Here are a few sections from that article. The Shelby County Democratic Party has to reach out to hispanics now. A trend that should especially worry the Democratic Party is the division of the hispanic population by class. Those hispanics moving to the suburbs are much more likely to be drawn to the republican message. There is only a relatively small window left. Hispanic immigrants who had children in the US between 1990 and 1995, are only 3 to 8 years from those children being eligible to vote. Plus, many hispanic immigrants have gotten their citizenship over the past 15 years.
If you need another reason for outreach, look at the growth rates of the county compared to the city. The city has almost no population growth while the county is rapidly catching up to the city's population. We have to keep Shelby County at least a blue island in the area. SCDP wake up and go after hispanic voters or else you will become a political dinosaur.

Census tracks 'major waves'
By Paul Overberg and Haya El Nasser, USA TODAY
In the 1990s, most Hispanic immigrants came to the USA through five "gateways": California, Texas, Illinois, New York and Florida. "Now, you're just as likely to go to Iowa, South Carolina or Tennessee," Frey says.

Hispanics make up at least 5% of the population in 28 states, up from 16 in 1990, Frey says.

"You've got a very large share of the population living not in stereotypical neighborhoods where all the signs are in Spanish," says Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, a research group in Washington. "There are still a lot living in densely Hispanic neighborhoods, but there are more who are scattered all over the landscape."

Some are middle-class Hispanics moving to the suburbs. Others are less-educated, poorer immigrants seeking jobs in construction, service industries and retailing.

Unmitigated Tastlessness

I had to get this from an Australian newspaper. It almost seems like a hoax but it is real. Are there no depths republicans will go to politize and manipulate the public. They can't see how tastless this is? 'America Supports Your Freedom Walk' So wtf does this have to do with the Iraq war? And what's up with country music. How far has it fallen from Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Whores. At least I know the Dixie Chicks will not be there.
You can register for the walk here
https://www.penfed.org/freedomwalk/register.asp

Pentagon announces September 11 concert
Washington
August 10, 2005 - 1:36PM
The Age

The Pentagon would hold a massive march and country music concert to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in an announcement tucked into an Iraq war briefing today.

"This year the Department of Defence will initiate an America Supports Your Freedom Walk," Rumsfeld said, adding that the march would remind people of "the sacrifices of this generation and of each previous generation".

The march will start at the Pentagon, where nearly 200 people died on September 11, 2001, and end at the National Mall with a show by country star Clint Black.

In case you don't know much about Clint Black's ignorant politics. Here's are lyrics from his little ditty about the Iraq War. Has anyone told Black Iraq didn't have anything to do with 9/11.

Black is the man behind "I Raq and Roll," a country ditty that conflates Saddam Hussein with "the devil" who attacked the United States on 9/11: "We can't ignore the devil, he'll keep coming back for more ... If they won't show us their weapons, we might have to show them ours. It might be a smart bomb -- they find stupid people, too. And if you stand with the likes of Saddam, one just might find you."

Election Papertrails

Five states have recently passed legislation to require papertrails for elections. The total number of states that have required this are 25. So what's the problem with Ohio and Florida.

US Army: Sex Unaaceptable, Torture OK

Let me get this straight. This general gets canned for having an affair but the officers involved in the Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, and Gitmo torture are free and still in the military. WTF! I think the last paragraph below shows all the hypocrisy at play here.

4-Star General Relieved Of Duty
Rare Move Follows Allegations of an Extramarital Affair

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 10, 2005; Page A01

In a rare move, the Army relieved a four-star general of his command amid allegations that he had an extramarital affair with a civilian, Army officials said yesterday.

Gen. Kevin P. Byrnes, 55, led the Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va., where he supervised the recruitment and academic programs at 33 Army schools, from basic training to the war colleges. Byrnes, who several military sources said had a previously unblemished record, was set to retire in November after 36 years of service.

Byrnes, reached by telephone at his home yesterday, declined to comment. His defense attorney, Lt. Col. David H. Robertson, said the allegation against Byrnes involves an affair with a private citizen. Byrnes has been separated from his wife since May 2004; their divorce was finalized on Monday, coincidentally the same day he was relieved of command, Robertson said.

"The allegation against him does not involve a relationship with anyone within the military or even the federal government," Robertson said, emphasizing that the allegations do not involve more than one relationship. "It does not involve anyone on active duty or a civilian in the Department of Defense."

"We all swear to serve by the highest ideals, and no matter what rank, when you violate them, you are dealt with appropriately," said one Army officer familiar with the case. "Relief of command is a huge consequence. He's had an extraordinary career, but at the end of the day, the Army has to hold people accountable for their conduct."

Iraq Is Looking Better Everyday

This is an interesting story. I think it shows how power is being distributed and taken by different groups. It sure seems like power through the barrel of a gun. If this is 'freedom on the march' and 'building democracy' after two years of occupation than we really are in bad shape.

Baghdad mayor says gunmen ousted him from office
Tue Aug 9, 2005 12:31 PM ET
Reuters

By Mussab al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The mayor of Baghdad said on Tuesday he was ousted on Monday when 120 gunmen surrounded his office and installed the city's governor in his place.

Alaa al-Tamimi, a secular official, told Reuters he was not at the office at the time but the gunmen installed Baghdad Governor Hussein al-Tahhan, an Islamist Shi'ite, in his place. Tamimi's account could not be immediately confirmed.

"I am appointed by the state. I handed in my resignation three times because I knew there would be trouble. Acts like these set a very dangerous precedent for a country that wants to be free and democratic," Tamimi said.

Tamimi, an engineer, said tension between him and the Shi'ite-dominated Baghdad provincial council had been rising in the past few weeks, mirroring power struggles that have fractured the national government.

Tamimi said the council had been keen to replace him ever since it was elected in January.

His account of events was challenged by Tahhan, who denied he had entered the mayor's offices by force.

"I was greeted at the door by the deputy mayor, Amir al-Su'aidi. He led me in person to the office and I told my guards to stay outside," he told Reuters.

"It's absurd to think that I could force my way in. I only came with five Land Cruisers! The whole governorate only has 15, while he (Tamimi) has 100 personal guards."

Scary Oil Prices

The National Commission on Energy Policy ran a simulation in June. Here is what they found. Be ready to break out the bicycles.

In a scenario confronted by the bipartisan panel of intelligence, military, and energy experts, a series of events over several months - unrest in Nigeria, an attack on an Alaskan oil facility, and the emergency evacuation of foreign nationals from Saudi Arabia - drives the price of oil to over $150 per barrel. These events lower expected employment levels by more than 2 million jobs, embolden countries that are major oil producers and consumers to pressure the U.S. on key foreign policy concerns, and cause a variety of other significant economic and security challenges.

The scenario removed only 3.5 million barrels of oil from a global market of more than 83 million barrels, resulting in the following consequences:

• Gasoline prices of $5.74 per gallon;
• Global oil price of $161 per barrel;
• Heating oil prices of $5.14 per gallon;
• Fall of gross domestic product for two consecutive quarters;
• Drop in consumer confidence by 30 percent;
• Spike in the consumer price index to 12.6 percent;
• Ballooning of the current accounts deficit to $1.087 trillion;
• Decline of 28 percent in the S&P 500;
• Aggressive pressure on the U.S. from China to end arm sales to Taiwan, and;
• Demands from Saudi Arabia for changes to U.S. policy regarding the Mid-East peace process.

• Once oil supply disruptions occur, there is little that can be done in the short term to protect the U.S. economy from its impacts, including gasoline above $5/ gallon and a sharp decline in economic growth potentially leading into a recession.

• There are a number of supply and demand-side policy options available that would significantly improve U.S. oil security. Benefits from these measures will take a decade or more to mature, and thus should be enacted as soon as possible.

• Supply-side measures include promoting developing of conventional oil reserves in nations currently off limits to private investment through enhanced U.S. diplomacy, increase research and development into environmentally-benign extraction of unconventional oil reserves such as oil shale and tar sands, and enable siting of new liquid natural gas and other energy facilities.

• Demand-side measures include promoting energy efficient passenger vehicles with incentives for hybrid electric vehicles , strengthen fuel economy standards, and increase research and development into plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

• Alternative fuel measures include increased research and development that enable ethanol production from plant materials, fischer-tropsch diesel from domestic coal, and hydrogen from coal and eventually from renewable sources.

"This simulation serves as a clear warning that even relatively small reductions in oil supply will result in tremendous national security and economic problems for the country," said SAFE President Robbie Diamond. "This issue deserves immediate attention."

"We can neither drill nor conserve our way out of this problem—we must do both," said Jason Grumet the Executive Director of the National Commission on Energy Policy. "The energy bill pending before the U.S. Senate is a significant step in the right direction but we must do much more to protect our economy from the risks of oil supply disruptions."

Handy Dandy Plamegate Timeline

Here is a great timeline for what is known in the Valerie Plame case.
http://www.factcheck.org/article337.html

George W. Bush: Commander and Prick

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of a soldier killed in Iraq. She has camped out on the road to George Bush's "ranch" in Crawford, TX. She is demandin to meet Bush and ask him what her son died for in Iraq. But they have meet before. In today's NYT, Sheehan describes her meeting with Bush. Surprise, Surprise, Bush seems like a complete cocksucker unable to relate to people on any level.

As the mother of an Army specialist who was killed at age 24 in the Sadr City section of Baghdad on April 4, 2004, Ms. Sheehan's story is certainly compelling. She is also articulate, aggressive in delivering her message and has information that most White House reporters have not heard before: how Mr. Bush handles himself when he meets behind closed doors with the families of soldiers killed in Iraq.

The White House has released few details of such sessions, which Mr. Bush holds regularly as he travels the country, but generally portrays them as emotional and an opportunity for the president to share the grief of the families. In Ms. Sheehan's telling, though, Mr. Bush did not know her son's name when she and her family met with him in June 2004 at Fort Lewis. Mr. Bush, she said, acted as if he were at a party and behaved disrespectfully toward her by referring to her as "Mom" throughout the meeting.

By Ms. Sheehan's account, Mr. Bush said to her that he could not imagine losing a loved one like an aunt or uncle or cousin. Ms. Sheehan said she broke in and told Mr. Bush that Casey was her son, and that she thought he could imagine what it would be like since he has two daughters and that he should think about what it would be like sending them off to war.

"I said, 'Trust me, you don't want to go there'," Ms. Sheehan said, recounting her exchange with the president. "He said, 'You're right, I don't.' I said, 'Well, thanks for putting me there.' "

We're Not #1 So Get Your Head Out of Your Ass

This blog entry at dailykos is fairly remarkable. It illustrates how the United States is an underperforming developed country sliding closer and closer to underdevelopment. If this doesn't make you stop and wonder about public policy, I have no clue what will. I do know one thing, prayer in school, intelligent design, abstinance programs, cutting taxes on the wealthy and almost everything else on the right side of the political spectrum are not going to solve our country's fucking problems.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/7/20486/49640

Halliburton, Minion of Satan

WTF! It is so important that democrats retake at least the House in the 2006 election. That way Congressional Investigations can begin and all the rethuglican corruption can be brought to light.

Halliburton Sold Iranian Oil Company Key Nuclear Reactor Components, Sources Say
Published Date: 2005/8/6 13:25:28Reads : 2281
By Jason Leopold

© 2005 Jason Leopold
Scandal-plagued Halliburton -- the oil services company once headed by Vice President Cheney -- sold an Iranian oil development company key components for a nuclear reactor, say Halliburton sources with intimate knowledge into both companies’ business dealings.

Halliburton was secretly working at the time with one of Iran’s top nuclear program officials on natural gas related projects and sold the components in April to the official's oil development company, the sources said.

With Iran's new hardline government now firmly in place, Iranian officials have rounded up relatives and close business associates of Iran's former President and defeated mullah presidential candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, alleging the men were involved in widespread corruption of Iran's oil industry, specifically tied to the country's business dealings with Halliburton.

Now comes word that Halliburton, which has a long history of flouting U.S. law by conducting business with countries the Bush administration said has ties to terrorism, was working with Cyrus Nasseri, vice chairman of the board of directors of Oriental Oil Kish, one of Iran’s largest private oil companies, on oil and natural gas development projects in Tehran. Nasseri is also a key member of Iran’s nuclear development team and has been negotiating Iran's nuclear development issues with the European Union and at the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Nasseri was interrogated by Iranian authorities in late July for allegedly providing Halliburton with Iran’s nuclear secrets and accepting as much as $1 million in bribes from Halliburton, Iranian government officials said. During the first round of interrogations in the judiciary, a huge network of oil mafia has been exposed, according to the IPS report.

In 1991, Halliburton sold Libya, another country that sponsors terrorism, nuclear detonator devices. The company paid more than $3 million in fines for violating a U.S. trade embargo that President Reagan imposed in 1986 because of Libya's ties to terrorist activities.

Oriental Oil Kish dealings with Halliburton became public knowledge in January when the company announced that it had subcontracted parts of the South Pars natural gas drilling project to Halliburton Products and Services, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Halliburton that is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Halliburton first started doing business in Iran as early as 1995, while Vice President Cheney was chief executive of the company and in possible violation of U.S. sanctions.

According to a February 2001 report in the Wall Street Journal, “Halliburton Products & Services Ltd. works behind an unmarked door on the ninth floor of a new north Tehran tower block. A brochure declares that the company was registered in 1975 in the Cayman Islands, is based in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Dubai and is non-American. But, like the sign over the receptionist's head, the brochure bears the company's name and red emblem, and offers services from Halliburton units around the world.”

Moreover, mail sent to the company’s offices in Tehran and the Cayman Islands is forwarded to the company’s Dallas headquarters.

Why the Iraqi Adventure Is an Even Bigger Disaster

Juan Cole is great. Here is a good piece from his blog.

From Juan Cole's blog
The Bush administration and its Neocons have shot themselves in the foot big time if they thought they could use Iraq to reduce US dependence on Saudi Arabia. If you want to understand the problem, look at it this way. The world produces about 80 million barrels of petroleum every day. But only a fraction of that is exported, since producing countries use a lot of it at home.

Rather than being marginalized, Saudi Arabia has entered a new economic golden age. This was not what the Neocons were going for.

Of course, a lot of the problem is at home. The United States is an oil hog. Sorry to be blunt. But these were the top oil consuming countries in 2004, below. The United States gobbles up a fourth of all the petroleum produced every year, even though it only has about 5 percent of the world's population.

2004 Top Petroleum Importers:

1. United States 20.5
2. China 6.5
3. Japan 5.4
4. Germany 2.6
5. Russia 2.6
6. India 2.3
7. Canada 2.3
8. Brazil 2.2
9. South Korea 2.1
10. France 2.0

So, since we like to drive rather than take the train, and since we don't really care about things like gas mileage or efficient use of energy, where are we going to get all the petroleum, since we produce less than half of what we use?

Meet the biggest oil exporters. You can think about them as your friends or your suppliers (in another context). In short, they are people you have put yourself in the position of desperately needing. The US doesn't necessarily get petroleum directly from these countries. But since there is just one, world-wide, petroleum market, that doesn't matter. We still depend indirectly on what they produce.

2004 top petroleum exporters (millions of barrels a day):

1. Saudi Arabia 8.73
2. Russia 6.67
3. Norway 2.91
4. Iran 2.55
5. Venezuela 2.36
6. United Arab Emirates 2.33
7. Kuwait 2.20
8. Nigeria 2.19
9. Mexico 1.80
10. Algeria 1.68
11. Iraq 1.48
12. Libya 1.34
13. Kazakhstan 1.06
14. Qatar 1.02

Saudi Arabia is actually producing 9 million barrels a day, of the 80 million total in the world, or 11 percent. It has a small population and doesn't use much itself, so it can export almost all of it. (Russia produces about as much as Saudi Arabia, but uses much more).

Since the Bush administration mismanaged Iraq into chaos, it is producing far below its capacity. Cheney thought it would be doing 3 million barrels a day by now, but it is only managing half that, because of sabotage. If it was calm and invested billions in overhauls, it could maybe produce 5 million barrels a day five years out. Maybe 20 years out it could match what Saudi Arabia and Russia do today. But since its population is growing quickly and it will want to industrialize, it will probably use a lot of its petroleum in-country.

Corporate Pressure on Israel

I like this idea. I'm not sure how effective it will be but it is an indicator of rising awareness of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Israel is stealing land in the West Bank thanks greatly to your US tax dollars. With the building of the wall, Israel is trying to turn what's left of the Palestinian West Bank into "Escape from New York." For the past 50 years Palestinians have been screwed and shit on, is it any wonder they have been radicalized.


Threat to Divest Is Church Tool in Israeli Fight
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
NYT
Published: August 6, 2005
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. announced Friday that it would press four American corporations to stop providing military equipment and technology to Israel for use in the occupation of the Palestinian territories, and that if the companies did not comply, the church would take a vote to divest its stock in them.

The companies - Caterpillar, Motorola, ITT Industries and United Technologies - were selected from a list of several dozen possibilities by a church investment committee that met Friday in Seattle. The Presbyterians accused these companies of selling helicopters, cellphones, night vision equipment and other items Israel uses to enforce its occupation.

In an effort to appear even-handed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the church committee also included Citigroup on its list of targets, alleging it had a connection to a bank accused of having a role in funneling money from Islamic charities to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The church said it included Citigroup because it was mentioned in an article in The Wall Street Journal.
The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. is in the forefront of a campaign now spreading to other mainline Protestant churches to use corporate divestment as a tactic in the Middle East conflict, a tactic that is roiling relations with Jewish groups.

The Episcopal Church U.S.A., the United Church of Christ, two regions of the United Methodist Church, as well as international groups like the World Council of Churches and the Anglican Consultative Council have all urged consideration of divestment or economic pressure in recent months, though the tone and emphasis of each resolution varies. The Disciples of Christ passed a resolution last month calling on Israel to tear down the barrier it has built to wall off the occupied territories, and other churches are considering similar resolutions.

The First Executive Committee Meeting in the New Unity Era

Thursday night was the first EC meeting in the new era. The business of electing vice chairs and other positions were addressed. It went relatively uneventful. The MDIA/Chism slate was elected. Cherry Davis 1st chair, Desi Franklin 2nd chair, David Holt 3rd chair. It was interesting that in a new day for Shelby County Democratic Party, good old fashioned dealmaking ruled the day. The two people who talked about ideas for the party, Brad Watkins and Ted Strom, lost in all three contests they competed in. Notable in the voting for the MDIA/Chism alliance were the Ford supporters. I guess they don't want to come off as obstructionist at the first meeting. That is very considerate. They didn't walk out for the next two years. The jobs for the chairs, an idea presented most thoroughly by Joe Young, were not discussed. Chances are Davis will do GOTV, Desi will be responsible for voter registration, and David will be doing group outreach. (How was the EC supposed select the best people for positions if no one knows what the positions are? I'm sorry, I just realized that's not what these votes were about?)
It seems as though it has been recognized that Bredesen and Ford will run independent campaigns apart from the SCDP. SCDP will do county elections. Interesting, considering Chism will be a candidate for County Commision. Will the SCDP put resources into state level races?
I know that the primary problem Women for Kerry had with Bowers was how the campaign was run and resources allocated in 04. How will the two groups in the new alliance handle the distribution of finite amounts of money in the 06 campaigns? Will money go to south Memphis GOTV operations at the cost of voter registration? Who will Matt have to say no to first and how will they deal with it? As a friend of mine said, "the caucus and convention were the fun, easy and glamorous parts. Now it's just work, fundraising, arguing your side and competing for resources."

Denny Hastert's Midnight Express

This is an amazing story, especially if it is true. The allegation is that FBI anti-terrorist translators stumble upon phone conversations of Turks bribing Denny Hastert. It's taken from a Vanity Fair article.
It's at the http://rawstory.com

What Pharma Companies Spend on Marketing & RD

The poor Pharmaceutical companies just can't afford R&D, they have to spend over twice as much on maketing. Plus they have to spend so much to buy Congressmen like our very own Harold Ford. Just say no to drugs!!


Company Marketing costs, Research and Development
Pfizer $16.90 billion, $7.68 billion
GlaxoSmithKline $12.93 billion, $5.20 billion
Sanofi-Aventis $5.59 billion, $9.26 billion
Johnson & Johnson $15.86 billion, $5.20 billion
Merck $7.35 billion, $4.01 billion
Novartis $8.87 billion, $4.21 billion
AstraZeneca $7.84 billion, $3.80 billion
Hoffman La Roche $7.24 billion, $4.01 billion
Bristol-Myers Squibb $6.43 billion, $2.50 billion
Wyeth $5.80 billion, $2.46 billion
Abbott Labs $4.92 billion, $1.70 billion
Annually, the industry spends up to $60 billion on drug marketing—nearly twice what it spends on research and development. In 2004, Pfizer spent almost $120 million for media ads for Lipitor, the world's number-one selling prescription drug, while companies promoting erectile dysfunction treatments Viagra, Levitra and Cialis spent $425 million. Direct to consumer advertisement has also grown significantly: from $791 million in 1996 to $3.8 billion in 2004.

Lobbying numbers since 1998
Amount spent on lobbying $675 million
Lobbyists 3,009
Former officials who registered to lobby 1,014
Former members of Congress who lobbied 75
Bills lobbied More than 1,600

Money the pharmaceutical industry spent to directly influence public policy since 1998.
Federal lobbying $675 million
Federal Campaign Contributions $87 million
State Political Contributions $46 million
527 Donations $10 million
Total $818 million

Bush Just Works So Hard

49 - the number of vacations that Bush has taken since he was inaugurated in 2001

5 - the number of weeks that Bush will spend on vacation, starting yesterday. It is the longest presidential vacation in at least 36 years.

319 - August 3, 2005 was the 319th day Bush has spent on vacation since his 2001 inauguration.

20% - the fraction of Bush's presidency that he has spent on vacation

People Aren't Believing Bush's Bullshit Anymore

Results from poll taken last week.
59% of people think the war wasn't worth fighting

Right Direction 37%
Wrong Track 57%

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Approve Bush Foriegn Policy 42%
Disapprove Bush Foriegn Policy 52%

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Approve Bush Social Security Plan 29%
Disapprove Bush Social Security Plan 58%

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Do you think the war in Iraq is part of the War on Terrorism?
Major part 39%
Minor Part 12%
No Part 46%

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As a result of the Iraq War, do you think the threat of terrorism against America has:
Increased 45%
Decreased 14%
Stayed the Same 39%

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Do you think Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks?
Yes 34%
No 53%

The Coalition Is Over

Last night, it was stated (not by any DFM member) the coalition formed for the Shelby County Democratic Party restructuring was over. The goal of the coalition was to elect people to the Executive Committee. Now that this has happened, coalition members are free to go on their own.
I'm not on the Executive Committee, but Brad Watkins and David Holt should be elected. They are competent and have great ideas to make the party more merit based and open. Plus, they are willing to work with others. If it's a new day in the Selby County Democratic Party than let in new ideas and people.

43 American Troops Have Been Killed in Iraq in the Last 10 Days

Peace Corps/Marine Corps, It's Like Chocolate and Peanut Butter

What the fuck is this. You are going to mix the military and the Peace Corps. Brilliant, what a good idea. Let's discredit the one American program with high international standing. Wow, this opens up whole new fields for PC operations over seas. Now the PC could teach children and offer military advisors. The US would be able to give so much more to our favorite third world dictators. I can see the requests from places like Azerbaijan. Here's the headline: Khalaf Khalafov, deputy foreign minister of Azerbijan, has just opened the newest Peace Corps operation, PC Azerbaijan. It will have 50 PC volunteers. The government requested 1/3 of the volunteers have IT experience, 1/3 have medical experience, and the last 1/3 of the volunteers be graduates of the US Army's School of the Americas. Azerbaijan is working to develope it's communications network and medical infrastructure, while preparing to militarily crush it's long time foe Armenia. Foreign Minister Khalafov is looking forward to a long and productive relationship between Azerbaijan and the Peace Corps.

Peace Corps Option for Military Recruits Sparks Concerns
By Alan Cooperman / Washington Post

The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is offering to allow recruits to meet part of their military obligations by serving in the Peace Corps, which has resisted any ties to the Defense Department or U.S. intelligence agencies since its founding in 1961.

The recruitment program has sparked debate and rising opposition among current and former Peace Corps officials. Some welcome it as a way to expand the cadre of idealistic volunteers created by President John F. Kennedy. But many say it could lead to suspicions abroad that the Peace Corps, which has 7,733 workers in 73 countries, is working together with the U.S. armed forces.

"Does this raise red flags for the Peace Corps community? I'd say yes -- emphatically so," said Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, an organization of returned volunteers, staff and supporters. "We think a real or perceived linkage between the Peace Corps and military service could damage the Peace Corps and potentially put the safety of Peace Corps volunteers at risk."

Congress authorized the recruitment program three years ago in legislation that drew little attention at the time but is stirring controversy now, for two reasons: The military has begun to promote it, and the day is drawing closer when the first batch of about 4,300 recruits will be eligible to apply to the Peace Corps, after having spent 3 1/2 years in the armed forces. That could happen as early as 2007.

Two longtime proponents of national service programs, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.), devised the legislation "to provide Americans with more opportunities to serve their country," said Bayh's spokeswoman, Meghan Keck. When it stalled as a separate bill, aides to the senators said, they folded it into a 306-page defense budget bill, where it did not attract opposition.

Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez, who was appointed in 2002 by President Bush, said in a recent interview that the Peace Corps was unaware of the provision until after it became law. Vasquez declined to say whether he would have opposed the legislation, had he known about it in time.

"There might have been a discussion, there could have been some dialogue on this, but obviously that didn't happen," he said.

Several former Peace Corps leaders said they hope that Congress and the Bush administration will reverse course and scuttle the program. They include former senator Harris Wofford (D-Pa.), who helped found the Peace Corps as a young aide in the Kennedy White House; Carol Bellamy, the former New York City Council president who headed the Peace Corps from 1993 to 1995; and Mark L. Schneider, who was a volunteer in El Salvador in the late 1960s and headed the Peace Corps during the last two years of the Clinton administration.

"Democratic and Republican administrations alike have kept a bright line separating the Peace Corps from short-term foreign and security policies," Schneider said. "Blurring that sharp line is a bad idea, particularly now, given the unfortunate rise in anti-American sentiment following the Iraq war."

After the law went into effect in 2003, the Defense Department was slow to promote the option of combining military and Peace Corps service, but it is now energetically flogging the "National Call to Service" program, recruiters said. The Army, which began a pilot project in 10 of its 41 recruiting districts in October 2003, expanded it into a nationwide effort this year. The Air Force, Navy and Marines offer identical programs, said Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

In all of the services, recruits are eligible for a $5,000 cash bonus or repayment of $18,000 in student loans if they agree to spend three months in boot camp, 15 months on active duty and two years in the Reserves or National Guard.

After that, they can fulfill the remainder of their eight-year military obligation in the Individual Ready Reserves -- available for call-up, but without regular drilling duties -- or by serving in the Peace Corps or Americorps, the domestic national service program created in 1993.

Vasquez emphasized that recruits have no guarantee that they will be accepted into the Peace Corps. Once they complete their active duty and Reserve or National Guard service, they can apply to the Corps. But they will not receive any preferential treatment, and the Peace Corps is not changing its admission standards, he said.

"Ultimately, the impact to Peace Corps in terms of how we recruit, who we accept into service, remains very much intact and consistent with what we've done for 40-plus years," the Peace Corps director said. "I am an individual who embraces a very important facet of Peace Corps, and that is the Peace Corps' independence as an agency within the executive branch."

Wofford, who worked in the White House with Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy brother-in-law who became the Peace Corps' first director, said the Corps historically has shown "passionate determination" to maintain that independence. At the outset in 1961, Shriver appealed to Kennedy to keep the Peace Corps from being placed under the Agency for International Development. Later, the Corps fought to uphold rules barring intelligence officers from joining the Peace Corps and prohibiting former Peace Corps volunteers from working for U.S. intelligence agencies.

Several current Peace Corps volunteers said they opposed the military recruitment option but were reluctant to speak out publicly, because the Peace Corps forbids volunteers from talking to the media without permission.

"We are already accused on a daily basis of being CIA agents so I don't see how this [link to the U.S. military] could help," a volunteer in Burkina Faso said by e-mail.

"It is hard enough trying to integrate yourself into a completely different culture, convincing people that . . . Americans are not these gun-toting sex maniacs . . . without having a connection to the U.S. military," another volunteer in Africa wrote.

Former volunteers expressed a variety of reservations. Pat Reilly, a former chairwoman of the National Peace Corps Association who served in Liberia from 1972 to 1975 and spent several years as a full-time Peace Corps recruiter, said she worries about the motivation of people who enter the Peace Corps to fulfill a military service obligation.

"The magic that makes the Peace Corps work is motivation, and when you tinker with that, then it won't work for the applicant and it won't work for the people it serves," she said.

John Coyne, who served in Ethiopia during the 1960s and was a regional director in the Corps' New York office from 1996 to 2001, said numerous military veterans have joined the Peace Corps and been superb volunteers. But he said there has always been a "clear separation" between the two kinds of service. The new recruitment program "eats away at the purity of the Peace Corps as designed by Kennedy, which is that it was not going to be military," he said.

So far, the number of enlistees is tiny compared with the 1.4 million men and women serving in the military, but large compared with the Peace Corps, which receives about 12,000 applications to fill about 4,000 openings each year.

In 2004 and the first five months of this year, 4,301 people entered the armed services under the National Call to Service program. Of those, 2,935 enlisted in the Navy, 614 in the Air Force, 444 in the Army and 308 in the Marines. Pentagon and Peace Corps officials said they have no way of knowing how many will apply to the Peace Corps when they become eligible to do so in 2007 or 2008.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, Bush called for doubling the size of the Peace Corps, from 7,000 to 14,000 volunteers, within five years. That same year, the administration named a career Navy officer with 12 years of experience in military recruiting to head the Peace Corps' recruitment and selection office.

Since then, however, the Corps has grown by little more than 10 percent. Barbara Daly, a spokeswoman for the Corps, said that tight budgets -- rather than a shortage of qualified candidates -- were the reason.

"The president has been very supportive of the Peace Corps and has requested budget increases each fiscal year that would allow for this" gradual doubling, she said. "Congress has not approved our budget at the levels requested by the president."

America's Savings Rate

One day the bill is going to come due and all our borrowing is going to cause a nasty downturn. Pete Petersen, Paul Volcker, and Bob Rubin are all concerned about a bad economic correction in the near future.

This is from today's Financial Times Article
In May Americans had been savings 40 cents for every hundred dollars of disposable income. In June the savings rate fell to 0 cents - the lowest rate on record except for one month in 2001 when the rate turned negative.

Wage growth remained relatively weak at 0.2 per cent - suggesting that salaries are still falling short of the rising cost of living.
"Households may be comfortable with saving nothing while they see big increases in housing wealth, the housing market will eventually weaken," said Paul Ashworth, an analyst at Capital Economics, a consultancy. "This will force households to start saving again using traditional means, leading to a potentially sharp slowdown in spending."
This is from the June 23 Economist
IN THE late 1990s The Economist's favourite gauge of America's bubble economy was the private sector's financial deficit (also known as private-sector net saving). This is the combined saving of households and firms minus their investment, and it nicely summed up why we believed America's boom was unsustainable.

(...)

Analysis by the Bank for International Settlements has shown that whenever a country's private-sector net saving swung sharply into deficit in the past, it was almost always followed by a deep economic downturn as the private sector was eventually forced to slash spending, reduce debts and move back into surplus. America, however, escaped with a mild recession, thanks to a generous easing of monetary and fiscal policy.

(...)

Usually, in a balanced economy households as a group have been savers, while firms borrow to invest, and thereby boost future output and income. As net borrowers, American households can bring forward spending from the future. The snag is that by consuming ever more jam today, rather than saving and investing, America may be left with only dried bread tomorrow. Keep watching this chart.

more of this on dailykos

Paul Hackett Came Close

In the past 5 elections, no democrat got more than 30% in the Ohio 2nd district. Hackett got 48% and lost by only 4000 votes. This is what is scaring the rethuglican party the most though: The returns showed that Ms. Schmidt won handily in most of the affluent Cincinnati suburbs, while Mr. Hackett won the district's more rural counties. It is all about class warfare. Don't run from class warfare, embrace it. Because rethuglicans are waging war on the middle and lower classes.

Leakers Keep Screwing up the Proganda from the Administration

From NYT article about the Iraqi military
Money quote:
"What are lacking are the systems that pay people, that supply people, that recruit people, that replace the wounded and AWOL, and systems that promote people and provide spare parts," said a top American commander in Iraq, who asked not to be identified because his assessment of Iraqi abilities went beyond the military's public descriptions.

Well it looks like we will be able to pull out most of our troops by next July.

Bush Likes to Believe in Fairy Tales

Knight Ridder notices that Palmeiro, a former Texas Ranger, still has at least one supporter: His former boss, President Bush. "Rafael Palmeiro is a friend. He testified in public and I believe him," Bush told a few reporters in Texas. "He's the kind of person that's going to stand up in front of the klieg lights and say he didn't use steroids, and I believe him. Still do."

I guess this explains why you "believed" there were WMD's in Iraq.

I Really, Really, Really Hate Rick Santorum

I really hate this ignorant ass, ferret-faced, Frank Burns looking, self-righteous, Senate nincompoop. I know that George Allen, everything can be turned into a football metaphor, and this moron are the two dumbest members of the US Senate, but for some reason I don't hate Allen as much as Santorum. Santorum just drives me to madness. If he runs for President, I'll end up shooting my TV from the frustration of listening to his mindless drivel pour forth from his pompously, super-catholic mouth. Santorum is like the bizarro world Bobby Kennedy. His borderline melt-down on Stephanopoulous this Sunday was great though. The only funny thing I have ever heard about Santorum was his first day in Senate. In the main hall of the Capital Building, Bob Kerrey and another Sentor are talking. Santorum walks up and says "Hi, My name is Rick Santorum." Kerrey, in a deadpan response, says "Doesn't santorum mean reem job in latin?" and goes right back to his conversation. Ha, Ha, Ha Welcome to the Senate dumbass.


Santorum's Mighty Wind
The AccuWeather Protection Act of 2005.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Monday, Aug. 1, 2005, at 10:02 PM PT
I wish Rick Santorum would make up his mind.

On the one hand, the Republican senator from Pennsylvania says that the free market system is godly: It "not only produces wealth but also virtuous people whose worldly enterprise complements the work of the Creator." Big government, I need hardly add, is an unholy lumbering giant that's "overly intrusive and burdensome."

On the other hand, private companies like AccuWeather, which disseminate information collected by the National Weather Service—a big-government agency—cannot hope to compete with the NWS if the NWS itself disseminates that information. The combined might of Adam Smith and the Man Upstairs are simply no match for the brain-dead time-wasters on the federal payroll. Or so Santorum must believe, because he has introduced a bill forbidding the NWS from providing "a product or service ... that is or could be [italics mine] provided by the private sector" unless the secretary of commerce (who oversees NWS) determines that "the private sector is unwilling or unable" to do so, or unless some international treaty requires the NWS to do so. (A thoughtful exception is made for "preparation and issuance of severe weather forecasts and warnings designed for the protection of life and property.")
Imagine if Federal Express were to decide it could no longer compete against the U.S. Postal Service and sought legislation to prevent the mailman from delivering packages. Better yet, imagine if Federal Express had emerged only as a result of the federal government stepping in and telling those bullies at the Post Office to stop delivering packages. Absurd, correct? FedEx became a free-market success story not by seeking special favors, but by beating the government at its own game. By contrast, AccuWeather (which happens to reside in Santorum's home state of Pennsylvania) would like you to know that it exists only because NWS has, over the past half-century, pursued a "non-competition" policy with the private sector, the idiocy of which apparently only occurred to NWS this past December, when it revoked that policy. The earlier non-competition policy, says an AccuWeather press release, "led to the development of specialized weather services" like, well, AccuWeather. The company became a success story only because the federal government built it a special incubator.

There are two possible responses to AccuWeather's suggestion that competition with NWS would wipe it out.

One possibile response is that it isn't true—that AccuWeather might be mildly inconvenienced by the government's dissemination of weather information, but that consumers will always want AccuWeather's prettier weather maps. If it turned out that the federal government was withholding vital weather information from AccuWeather to such an extent that the company couldn't make its prettier maps, the true free-market solution would be for AccuWeather to start collecting its own damn data—not for AccuWeather to go crying to Santorum for legislative relief.

The other possible response to AccuWeather's whining is that it is true—that the NWS will squash AccuWeather like a bug by providing taxpayers with the weather information that they, ahem, already paid for, instead of leaving it to AccuWeather to charge taxpayers a second time for access to that information. That obviously would be a problem for AccuWeather. But why should the rest of us care?

Santorum has tried to argue that his bill would actually lead to more dissemination of weather information, not less, but of course if that were true in any meaningful sense then AccuWeather and the Commercial Weather Services Association wouldn't be pushing Santorum's bill. What the bill actually says is that the NWS must issue all its data "in real time, and without delay for internal use." This means that the NWS must issue data in raw form that will be incomprehensible to the general public—thereby providing private weather companies with a government-guaranteed opportunity to massage that information into something the public can actually comprehend. That the intended recipient of the NWS's raw data is the private weather industry, rather than the inexpert consumer, is made plain in the bill's very next sentence, which states, "Data, information, guidance, forecasts, and warnings shall be issued ... through a set of data portals designed for volume access by commercial providers [italics mine] of products or services." The envisioned "data portals" (whatever they turn out to be) are quite obviously not intended to get all that weather information to you and me.

Some people think the entire weather service should be privatized. I don't happen to agree, but it's an argument you can advance without making a fool of yourself. But Santorum doesn't want to block the NWS from the tedious business of collecting weather data; he wants NWS to collect weather information and then to turn over that information to private companies to disseminate it. It's as if FedEx wanted the post office to gather together in one convenient location all the mail packages people sent, leaving actual delivery to FedEx. That would save FedEx a lot of trouble. But why would the rest of us choose such an arrangement?

Santorum can't have it both ways. If big government really is as inherently dopey and inefficient as he maintains, then AccuWeather has nothing to worry about. But if AccuWeather is in a desperate fight for its life merely because the NWS wants to release weather information in consumer-friendly form, that would seem to suggest that the NWS does its job at least as well as AccuWeather ever will. An orthodox belief in big government's inefficiency cannot coexist with an orthodox belief in private industry's inability to compete with big government.

How do you resolve this riddle? Perhaps by concluding that the common denominator to contemporary conservative thought isn't ideology at all, but rather, the crude imperative for big government to shovel as many special privileges as possible to big corporations. Adam Smith would be appalled.