"Around here we're for tax cuts for working people, paid for by tax hikes for the relatively-rich." MaxSpeak guides us to Class Warfare: Fact and Fiction, a series of papers that expose the myths behind Bush tax policy:

To help correct myths and misleading claims that have appeared in the media during the current "class warfare" debate, and to defend the idea that we must consider the fairness of economic policy, this series provides basic facts that demonstrate why particular assertions are wrong.

Myth #5 - In good economic times, benefits flow to all strata of society.

Myth #4 - Over the course of lifetimes, Americans are highly likely to enjoy upward economic mobility.

Myth #3 - Stock ownership and other wealth is much more evenly distributed today than it was in the past, so cuts in taxes on investment income benefit everyone.

Myth #2 – Cutting taxes on dividends and other capital income will generate new investment essential for economic growth.

Myth #1 – The rich deserve most of the tax cuts because they pay most of the taxes.

I have difficulty with the word "Myth" and its literary connotations that ennoble the strategy behind the tax thievery.

The word should stress the intentional, coordinated attack on economic justice. The word should be "Lie."

{ 2:56 PM }

.

Fake cowboy disappoints real president. Clinton knew:

Speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the History Channel on Wednesday, Clinton said he discussed security issues with Bush in his "exit interview," a formal and often candid meeting between a sitting president and the president-elect.

"In his campaign, Bush had said he thought the biggest security issue was Iraq and a national missile defence," Clinton said. "I told him that in my opinion, the biggest security problem was Osama bin Laden."

[...]

At Wednesday's luncheon, Clinton said his inability to convince Bush of the danger from al Qaeda was "one of the two or three of the biggest disappointments that I had."

Clinton said that after bin Laden, the next security priority would have been the absence of a Middle East peace agreement, followed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

"I would have started with India and Pakistan, then North Korea, and then Iraq after that," he said. "I thought Iraq was a lower order problem than al Qaeda."

Clinton knew, because Clinton was known to actively read newspapers as opposed to being a vapid, intellectually passive baby — spoon-fed by advisors.

{ 2:55 PM }

.

Christianity on the offense. For a non-Christian, I spend a good deal of time complaining about Christianity, at least in its highly politicized American incarnation. Avedon Carol at The Sideshow has articulated the inconsistency that is so offensive, even to a nonbeliever:

...as someone who has actually read the Gospels several times, and who really did teach Sunday school, I seem to remember Jesus saying a whole lot more about loving your neighbor and having charity (of both heart and wallet) than about killing fags. I remember the story of the Good Samaritan, the Loaves and Fishes, and the Widow's Mite, but I don't actually remember the story of The Good Rich Polluter Who Destroyed the Unions and Prevented Universal Healthcare. And I remember that the one person in the Bible to whom Jesus promised paradise was not a king, not a president, and not an attorney general or a Supreme Court Justice, but a man who was about to receive the death penalty.

The "traditional" religious nuts are lost in an orgy of greed and self-righteousness and public piety — all things Jesus preached against — and calling the rest of us bad Christians. Yes, it offends me.

The most serious problem I have with the concept of God is its continual use as a weapon of mass destruction. In this regard, the White House and the Vatican are no different from Al Qaeda.

As we've proved so recently in the United States, the politicization of religion guarantees that irrationality will serve as the basis for armed conflict and public health policy. This overextension beyond the spiritual into the political realm is the point at which faith becomes offensive — in the military sense of the word.

{ 9:09 AM }

.

Shit-soaked carcasses. mmw at bad things explains the sad state of meats in the USA, both imported and domestic:

What is interesting domestically is that the FDA may have more power to inspect meat plants than the FSIS (USDA), which is responsible for making sure that the meat is safe now. So agribusiness will still be free to sell us shit-soaked carcasses, while the FDA can shut them down if one of their minimum wage indentured servants looks fishy.

In other words, safety last.

{ 10:50 AM }

.

War as year-end bonus. Privatizing our national defense may actually stimulate permanent war, because it provides financial incentives for chaos. A new book, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry, reviewed in the Christian Science Monitor spells it out:

[Author P.W.] Singer worries that the current rush to privatize runs the risk of cutting crucial corners. For-profit firms, he warns, may be cost-effective, but they are largely unaccountable, with plenty of incentives to pad their payrolls and hide their failures. Government can be notoriously inefficient, to be sure. Even so, its constitutional duty is to provide for the common defense. Those responsible for this fundamental public service, Singer says, should be fully accountable to the public. He's exactly right.

The cost-effectiveness of privatized military solutions is yet to be demonstrated.

But "unaccountable"? "Incentive to pad payrolls and hide failures"? Does that bring the monumentally incompetent Dick Cheney to mind?

Links via Cursor, October 16.

{ 8:15 AM }

.

Arnron, cyborg from California's dystopian future. To protect their future, the same present-day humans who went after Gray Davis are going after Schwarzenegger (San Diego Channel):

WASHINGTON -- California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger must explain the substance of his private May 2001 meeting with Enron chief Ken Lay, the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights wrote in a letter to Schwarzenegger Tuesday.

FTCR, which was the state's most vocal critic of Governor Gray Davis' handling of the energy crisis, said that if the governor-elect did not recount the meeting by the time of his inauguration, the group would ask state lawmakers to open an investigation to uncover the substance of the meeting, including any information that might further the state's efforts to return billions of dollars that taxpayers and consumers overpaid for electricity during the energy crisis.

"A meeting with the biggest corporate crook in recent memory, while he and his firm were in the midst of ripping off the state, should not be taken lightly," FTCR wrote. "As Governor, you must explain to Californians what you were doing at that meeting, what information Ken Lay shared with you and how the meeting has influenced your thinking on energy issues."

In addition to calling on Schwarzenegger to come clean about the meeting with Lay, the group highlighted key aspects of the governor-elect's energy program that reflect an Enron perspective on energy policy. In the letter, FTCR asked Schwarzenegger to rewrite his energy policy and remove his push for further energy deregulation.

The policy proposals, available online at www.joinarnold.com, call for the expansion of California's failed experiment with electricity deregulation, including a dramatic ceding of power from state regulation to federal control.

Lay also attended secret conferences with another Republican on the topic of energy policy in 2001 — truth-challenged cardiac cyborg Dick Cheney.

Is this garden-variety Republican greed, or something more?

{ 9:51 AM }

.

Prognosis: grim. Xymphora paints a startling picture of the near future. After predicting Cheney's resignation "for health reasons," (read "for Valerie Plame reasons"), he [?] suggests the following scenarios:

2. Rumsfeld made the remarkable political faux pas of admitting that he'd been punked by Condi and was angry about it. If you get dissed in the power game, you're never supposed to admit that it happened, and you're especially never supposed to show that you care (and Condi was caught lying again). It would appear that he is not long for this Administration. Presumably the plan is to replace him by Wolfowitz (who has already started to make nice with the army in preparation for his new role), and replace Wolfowitz by Feith, thus completely putting the American military under the control of the Israeli cabinet.

3. Condi has been elevated to Grand Vizier of Iraq, with the accompanying rise in stature and visibility in the Administration. So you can see what's coming. She will be Bush's Vice President. Black and women voters will see a black woman Vice President only a pretzel away from the Presidency. At the same time, a black woman VP makes Bush completely assassination-proof, as the right-wing nuts would never dare shoot him.

Those are just two of eleven points from a fascinating list.

{ 1:54 PM }

.

Second Amendment Darwinism. Survivor: Harris County is now shooting, so to speak, in Texas (Houston Chronicle):

A suspected burglar shot and critically wounded in north Harris County early today turned out to be the brother-in-law of the homeowner who shot him, officials said.

The incident happened about 3 a.m. when a homeowner in the Riverwood subdivision heard someone breaking into his house on Countryside, authorities said.

The homeowner fired on the intruder, who officials say also was armed, and struck him at least once in the leg.

The homeowner then learned the identity of the intruder, with whom there apparently had been problems previously, deputies said.

The suspect is in critical condition at Ben Taub Hospital.

Guns don't kill people. Brothers-in-law kill people.

{ 9:53 AM }

.

Army of One. It's not just a slogan (The Olympian):

WASHINGTON -- Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours.

And all the letters are the same.

A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.

The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters.

[...]

A seventh soldier didn't know about the letter until his father congratulated him for getting it published in the local newspaper in Beckley, W.Va.

"When I told him he wrote such a good letter, he said: 'What letter?' " Timothy Deaconson said Friday, recalling the phone conversation he had with his son, Nick. "This is just not his (writing) style."

He spoke to his son, Pfc. Nick Deaconson, at a hospital where he was recovering from a grenade explosion that left shrapnel in both his legs.

It isn't enough that they're taking soldiers' lives and limbs — they want soldiers' signatures on Bush astroturf too. Stolen, if need be.

Found at Atrios and elsewhere.

{ 12:07 PM }

.