culture, politics, commentary, criticism

Friday, July 15, 2005
The Blair Doctrine. If it is indeed true that the London bombers spent significant amounts of time in
Cleveland and North Carolina, the next question will be whether Tony Blair invokes the Bush doctrine — recognizing no difference between terrorists and the countries that harbor them.

UK forces will then be obligated to invade the Red States of Ohio and North Carolina.
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World's greatest lies.
I readily admit I'm not going to grow the size of the federal government like [Gore] is. Your question was deployment. It must be in the national interests, must be in our vital interests whether we ever send troops. The mission must be clear. Soldiers must understand why we're going. The force must be strong enough so that the mission can be accomplished. And the exit strategy needs to be well-defined. I'm concerned that we're overdeployed around the world. See, I think the mission has somewhat become fuzzy. Should I be fortunate enough to earn your confidence, the mission of the United States military will be to be prepared and ready to fight and win war. And therefore prevent war from happening in the first place.
— George W. Bush, October 17, 2000,
the third Gore-Bush Presidential Debate.
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
"Let me remind you that the underlying issue in the Karl Rove controversy is not a leak, but a war and how America was misled into that war," says Daniel Schorr in the
Christian Science Monitor.
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The ultimate fall guy. As commenter Matt Davis rightly points out at
The Carpetbagger:
If Rove is indicted, Fitzgerald becomes the target. Runaway prosecutor and all. Cooper will be slimed, but it's clear that it won't be Cooper's testimony that makes the difference. Remember, once indictments issue, all this stuff will start playing out in public. There will certainly be witnesses aside from Cooper.
This is a smart prediction of the near future. Wilson and Cooper will vanish from the public eye along with Iraq, Abu Ghraib, and the Downing Street Memos, as the entire Republican machine will focus on defaming Fitzgerald.

UPDATE: TPMCafe has a whole thread on this subject entitled Rove Slime Machine Watch: "Help us chart the movements of the Rove Slime Machine. Have you seen media attacks on Matt Cooper and/or Patrick Fitzgerald?"
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Rove = Downing Street Memo
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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Inside truths and outside lies. This is Part 549 of our ongoing series, "Enron as metaphor for the Bush administration" (Mary Flood,
Houston Chronicle):
Final arguments began Tuesday in the Enron Broadband Services trial, with the prosecution telling jurors they got to see behind the scenes and under the rocks at Enron — a view carefully hidden from investors.

"You learned the inside story never matched up to the outside story," prosecutor Ben Campbell told the jury in U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore's court.

On trial for the past 13 weeks are five former Enron Broadband Services executives accused of conspiracy and fraud in two schemes to fool investors and Wall Street about Enron's earning and technological capabilities. All five defendants testified that they did nothing wrong.

"We all know that money can corrupt people," Campbell said. "These five men lied for personal profit and professional advancement."

He said the simple motive was greed.
The inside story never matched up to the outside story. Seeing behind the scenes and under the rocks of a stage-managed narrative. Schemes to fool the people who want to support you.

Who could be capable of such callowness?

fakebox
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Here's an old post from
January 15, 2004 that I thought was worth revisiting, now that Karl Rove's crypto-Christian tactics (ahem, Schiavo) are failing as quickly as his criminal reputation grows:

cartman
rove2
South Park Christians. Here's a disturbing headline: "Bush seeks billions for religious groups."

Last night I was reminded of South Park Republicans while watching a rerun in which the following exchange takes place (Kyle is questioning Cartman's motives in starting a Christian rock band):
Kyle: But you don't know anything about Christians!
Cartman: I know enough about them to exploit them.
I guess I never noticed Cartman's resemblance to Karl Rove before. Right down to his chinny-chin-chin.
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Fifteen cents for you. The headline is "Enron Settles With Employees Who Lost Retirement Money," but the settlement is awfully unsettling (
WSJ):
Enron Corp. agreed to a $356 million settlement with about 20,000 current and former Enron employees who lost money in their retirement plans when the company collapsed in 2001, though they likely will see only a fraction of that amount.

[...]

However, it is likely that participants will get only 15% to 20% of the claim, said Lynn Sarko, an attorney with Keller Rohrback in Seattle who represented the Enron employees, as the final amount paid depends on the total amount of assets available for distribution in the bankruptcy court.
Quick review: Enron faked profits through a variety of schemes (including its participation in the California energy scam) to pump up its stock price and create imaginary wealth which it then used to become the the largest contributor to Bush-Cheney 2000. Enron executives participated in secret energy policy meetings with Dick Cheney a month after he took office, the minutes of which are still secret despite court challenges.

After Enron's demise, Bush-Cheney went on to a second term proposing a massive privatization of Social Security assets (read: benefit cut) which would essentially divide the massive Social Security insurance pool into millions of tiny 401(k)-like puddles of assets. Privatization is essentially the opposite of an economy of scale — smaller accounts mean more, not less, administrative fees that significantly reduce long-term return. The Bush crock was sold to the American people on the premise that it's your money and you ought to decide how to invest it no matter how ill-informed you are or how little you have to do with the management of the concerns in which you invest.

And now we learn that in an analogous scheme former Enron employees will get 15% of their own money. Not of possible future benefits — they will only receive 15% of the money they paid into the system.

Here it is: a preexisting model for Bush-style privatization, courtesy of his largest contributor. The result is an 85 percent loss within five years.

And after jacking her utility bills and taking her retirement money, the sad irony is that the Bushies won't even let Grandma Millie call Dr. Kervorkian.
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Monday, July 11, 2005
eBay replaces Social Security. Not so long ago we were barraged with the many distractions of the Republican Social Security "reform" privatization debacle, all of which sidestepped the real problem — a liveable income and reasonable medical coverage (
FindLaw):
(AP) - SAN JOSE, Calif.-Selling items on eBay Inc.'s online auction site is a pastime for some people, but for Ellen Lee it's a matter of paying for some of life's necessities.

Ellen, 59, and her husband, Peter, 57, worked as a nurse practitioner and family physician, respectively, until they retired in the late 1990s, with the goal of slowing their hectic lives. But when they needed health insurance, Ellen's pre-existing medical condition prevented her from getting affordable coverage.

The couple was already selling some books on eBay when their accountant asked if there was some type of business they could start to qualify for affordable health insurance offered to small-business owners. They set up a business in June 2001 to more formally sell items on eBay.

The Lees are part of a contingent of eBay sellers 55 and older who retired or were laid off from traditional full-time jobs and now sell online for income. The company doesn't have statistics about the number of sellers who fit that description, but spokesman Hani Durzy said eBay is seeing more of them attend classes the company sponsors on how to sell items.
It's not America — it's a Garage Sale.®
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Greatest Hits · Alternatives to First Command Financial Planning · First Command, last resort, Part 3 · Part 2 · Part 1 · Stealing $50K from a widow: Wells Real Estate · Leo Wells, REITs and divine wealth · Sex-crazed Red State teenagers · What I hate: a manifesto · Spawn of Darleen Druyun · All-American high school sex party · Why is Ken Lay smiling? · Poppy's Enron birthday party · The Saudi money laundry and the president's uncle · The sentence of Enron's John Forney · The holiness of Neil Bush's marriage · The Silence of Cheney: a poem · South Park Christians · Capitalist against Bush: Warren Buffett · Fastow childen vs. Enron children · Give your prescription money to your old boss · Neil Bush, hard-working matchmaker · Republicans against fetuses and pregnant women · Emboldened Ken Lay · Faith-based jails · Please die for me so I can skip your funeral · A brief illustrated history of the Republican Party · Nancy Victory · Soldiers become accountants · Beware the Merrill Lynch mob · Darleen Druyun's $5.7 billion surprise · First responder funding · Hoovering the country · First Command fifty percent load · Ken Lay and the Atkins diet · Halliburton WMD · Leave no CEO behind · August in Crawford · Elaine Pagels · Profitable slave labor at Halliburton · Tom Hanks + Mujahideen · Sharon & Neilsie Bush · One weekend a month, or eternity · Is the US pumping Iraqi oil to Kuwait? · Cheney's war · Seth Glickenhaus: Capitalist against Bush · Martha's blow job · Mark Belnick: Tyco Catholic nut · Cheney's deferred Halliburton compensation · Jeb sucks sugar cane · Poindexter & LifeLog · American Family Association panic · Riley Bechtel and the crony economy · The Book of Sharon (Bush) · The Art of Enron · Plunder convention · Waiting in Kuwait: Jay Garner · What's an Army private worth? · Barbara Bodine, Queen of Baghdad · Sneaky bastards at Halliburton · Golf course and barbecue military strategy · Enron at large · Recent astroturf · Cracker Chic 2 · No business like war business · Big Brother · Martha Stewart vs. Thomas White · Roger Kimball, disappointed Republican poetry fan · Cheney, Lay, Afghanistan · Terry Lynn Barton, crimes of burning · Feasting at the Cheney trough · Who would Jesus indict? · Return of the Carlyle Group · Duct tape is for little people · GOP and bad medicine · Sears Tower vs Mt Rushmore · Scared Christians · Crooked playing field · John O'Neill: The man who knew · Back to the top






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