Party of Theocracy

"This Republican Party of Lincoln has become a party of theocracy."

-Republican Congressman Christopher Shays (Conn.)

Grand(standing) Old Party

It seems like the Bush White House and Republicans on the Hill have really overplayed their hand on this one.

Having gotten so comfortable receiving little substantive opposition from congressional Democrats or from the mainstream press, someone (Karl Rove?) actually thought it was a good idea to get involved with the Terri Schiavo case.

It has become very clear that it was all a political move from the start, promoting the favorite Republican theme of “culture of life”, (whatever that means), by demanding that a brain-dead woman be kept on life support.

Only there are problems.

Start with this line from the 2000 Republican platform: "Medical decision-making should be in the hands of physicians and their patients."

Or this one from the 2004 Republican platform: "We must attack the root causes of high health care costs by... putting patients and doctors in charge of medical decisions."

Allan Lichtman, of American University, says the conservatives are being blatantly hypocritical.

"It contradicts a lot of what [conservatives] say they believe: the sanctity of the family, the sacred bond between husband and wife, the ability of all of us to make private decisions without the hand of government intervening, deference to states and localities as opposed to the centralized government," he said in an article in the Washington Post.

And the American public largely agrees.

About seven in 10 Americans say Congress inappropriately intervened in the case, according to a new ABC News poll.

About 60% said they agreed with the decision by a Florida judge to remove the feeding tube from Schiavo.

In the quickly convened congressional hearings on the case there was much grandstanding, with conservatives attempting once again to portray themselves as “moral values” politicians. But morals and ethics seem scarce in congress these days.

Senate majority leader Bill Frist (who also claims to be a doctor) ventured into some potential ethical lapses when he made a medical diagnosis based on the viewing of videotape of Terri Schiavo. Many in the medical profession would see this as unethical at the very least and possibly malpractice.

The Republicans seem to be gaining little and risking a lot, and they are finding themselves caught in a trap that they built themselves.

Answer: Republican

Question: Which political party is interested in micro-managing the lives of American citizens and is spending money like a drunken sailor on shore-leave?

Culture of Life

Really?

This Schiavo spectacle is absolutely creepy.

This administration sends young and healthy Americans to be killed or maimed by the thousands in Iraq. They are not given a clear mission and are sent into a lethal conflict on bogus information by a commander-in-chief who lacks both patience and imagination.

Yet Bush and congressional Republicans are bending over backward to keep a brain-dead woman in Florida on life support machines.

Why?

Bush says: "We prefer to err on the side of life."

Hmmm...

An Invitation to Bush

"Come down, President Bush. Come talk to me. Meet my wife. Talk to my wife and see if you get an answer. Ask her to lift her arm to shake your hand. She won't do it."

- Michael Schiavo, in an interview with the St. Petersburg Times, about Bush's efforts to intervene in the medical care of his wife, Terry.

March Madness

Bill Richardson brought up the NCAA basketball tournament at this year’s Gridrion Dinner in Washington this week:

"Sixty-four teams start and they're whittled down to just one. Kind of reminds me of what we've done with our allies."

Out Of The Red

"When I got elected, Virginia was not only a red state, it was a state in the red."

- Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D)

(Note: Gov. Mark Warner has proven Democrats can show fiscal responsibility, balancing the Vrginia state budget while the Republicans on the national level have taken our country into record deficits.)

Viewer Beware

Washington Post Editorial

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

WHAT DOES Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" have in common with the Bush administration? They're both unabashed about putting out fake news. The Bush administration's version consists of video news releases -- government-produced, government-funded spots packaged to look and sound like regular television reports, complete with fake news reporters signing off from Washington. These are intended to be, and often are, aired by local television stations without any indication that the government is behind them.

The Government Accountability Office found this kind of phony news to be impermissible "covert propaganda." It warned the government last month that such prepackaged news stories must be accompanied by a "clear disclosure to the television viewing audience" of the government's involvement. The Bush administration is now instructing its officials to ignore the GAO -- which is where (in addition to the question of comedic content) the administration and Mr. Stewart diverge. He wants you to know his news is phony.

Although this administration apparently isn't the first to use video news releases, it seems more enamored of them than its predecessors. For example: A spot commissioned by the Transportation Security Administration lauds "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security," which the "reporter" describes as "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history."

It's humiliating that local news stations, however short-staffed and desperate for footage, would allow themselves to be used this way. Indeed, as the New York Times reported Sunday, some have even lopped off government attribution when it was included or pretended the government reporter was one of their own. Even so, it's disingenuous for administration officials to blame the stations, given that many releases are crafted precisely to disguise their government origin.

This technique is both illegal and unwise. As a legal matter, the prepackaged news releases run afoul of the prohibition on the use of government funds for domestic "propaganda." The administration's interpretation -- it's okay to hide the source as long as the spot is "purely informational" -- is untenable: Highlighting some "facts" and leaving out others can be even more persuasive than outright advocacy, which is why the administration chose this device.

More important, this kind of propaganda masquerading as news is a deceitful way for a democratic government to do business; fake journalists paid by the government to deliver its version of news are as disturbing as real commentators paid by the government to tout its views. White House press secretary Scott McClellan defended the video news releases on Monday as "an informational tool to provide factual information to the American people."

Nice sentiment, but why, exactly, wouldn't the administration want to let the people in on one of the most salient facts: who, really, is doing the talking?

Reid on Blogs

"Wealth and power control most everything in this country. But one thing they do not control -- wealth and power does not control the Internet. Through the Internet, regular ordinary people have a voice. That’s why I go out of my way to communicate any way that I can on the Internet and I think the blogs are a tremendously important way for the American public to find out what’s really going on."

- Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)

Congress on Steroids

Congress has decided that it is an issue of such national importance, it will hold hearing to look into steroid use among major league baseball players. The ball players allegedly have used performance enhancers to gain an unfair advantage.

Admittedly, politicians do know something about gaining an unfair advantage.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that this should be something that is handled within the league or possibly, if some crime has been committed, by the courts.

We shouldn’t be using taxpayer’s money and elected official’s time to help major league baseball sort out their issues. It is quite amazing that Congress would find time to look into this matter while remaining unwilling to investigate the chain of command that led to the human rights abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.

Congress would do much better to focus on its constitutional duties, starting with keeping a closer eye on the executive branch, something they’ve been neglecting the last few years.

Stage Right

Bogus events crafted to sell the Bush agenda

George Bush continues to tour around the country selling his plan for reforming Social Security, despite the public’s disapproval for his plan.

But you wouldn’t know from his “town-hall” style meetings there was much opposition at all.

Overwhelmingly, the audiences show support for the plan and warm regard for Bush.

Occasionally, a voice of opposition is heard and the offender is promptly escorted from the event.

The local news media tend to take these events at face value-which is exactly what the Bush team wants. T.V. pictures of support for Bush, if shown often enough, will eventually turn into vocalized support for Bush in opinion polls.

This strategy is nothing new. During the 2004 presidential campaign, while most of John Kerry’s appearances were open to the public, Bush’s were tightly controlled, including requirements to sign a “loyalty oath” to the party. Spooky stuff if you ask me.

The current events are staged as well, with G.O.P. activists standing in as “average Americans”. At some of the events, questioners have been brought in a day ahead of time to rehearse what they will say.

The national press is now starting to draw attention to this deceit but the American public seems slow to show outrage. They are apparently too busy gasping at the spectacle of Michael Jackson wearing his pajamas to court.

Even supporters of Bush and his policies should be offended by this sort of propaganda. After all, the White House is betting that most Americans are too stupid or oblivious to see the reality behind these bogus events.

Unfortunately, instead of denouncing these tactics and trusting Americans to sift through the propaganda, the Democrats are attempting similar types of stagecraft in an attempt to counter the Republicans.

All of this should be alarming to Americans who value an open democracy and their First Amendment rights.

Cause-and-Effect

The press promotes this logical fallacy

In a fit of mass hysteria, writers and pundits across the political spectrum announced last week that George Bush had single-handedly changed the face of the Middle East.

The region was moving toward democracy, they declared, as a direct result of Bush’s aggressive (and invasive) policies in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The press has largely bought into the linear-thinking that there is a clear cause-and-effect going on: Bush invades a country (never mind the “preemptive war” was based on trumped up charges of weapons of mass destruction). Then, after a couple years and tens of thousands of citizens dead, an election is held (never mind they seem to have voted against the candidate hand-picked by Washington). Fingers are stained purple. Next thing you know, other movements toward freer and more open societies in the region seem to be emerging.

Cause-and-effect: Bush, bombing leads to democracies, emerging.

The problem with this logical fallacy is that other factors within those other countries are ignored, as are the failures of Bush’s policies in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Furthermore, there is the problem of what to do when the desired effect doesn’t seem to be occurring, or when the trend reverses course. More bombing? Another invasion?

Caught up in the irrational exuberance, the press has forgotten to ask: “What’s next?” They have written the history of Bush’s role in the Middle East in the course of one week.

The pro-Syrian prime minister of Lebanon resigns in the face of 75,000 citizens protesting and Bush is declared a genius. By the time the stories in the weekly news magazines are on the newsstands, 500, 000 other Lebanese citizens have taken to the streets in support of the pro-Syrian government and the prime minister is reinstated. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m rooting for the 75,000 (and in this case, the apparent underdog). But just as quickly as Bush can look like a foreign policy wizard he can look completely irrelevant.

In another stupefying line of reasoning, the usually thoughtful Fareed Zakaria argues in Newsweek that it is Bush’s ignorance of the Middle East that makes him so successful there. If he really understood the complexities of the Middle East “he might have been disheartened,” Zakaria writes. “Freed from looking at the day-to-day realities, Bush [has] maintained a vision of what the region could look like.”

Using this logic, we should replace the rocket scientists as NASA with the comic book writers of the 40’s and 50’s. We’d be traveling to Pluto by now.

Optimism is to be commended, but utter ignorance is horrifyingly dangerous in the hands of the commander-in-chief of the most powerful military machine on the planet.

The Great Divide

More from Wallis

"The great crisis of American democracy today is the division of wealth. The Republicans hate it when people talk this way and, frankly, so do many Democrats, but the political issues now are increasingly populist ones- which is another way to speak of "class warfare"- the rich against the rest of us.

"But the real battles are seldom discussed in a media that really hates the class warfare subject (perhaps, in part, because so many media reporters and pundits have gone through the dramatic conversion from middle to upper income themselves)."

-Jim Wallis, God's Politics

Terrorism Defined

"Fuzzy and ideological definitions of terrorism just make it easier to kill people.

"When you know your actions will kill innocent noncombatants, that’s terrorism. And it must be clearly named as unacceptable-no matter who does it (individuals, groups, or states), whatever the weapons, the expressed intentions, or political justifications.

"Deliberately taking the lives of innocent civilians simple must be morally condemned. That’s a clear definition of terrorism and a beginning of resistance to it.”

- Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics and one of many Evangelical Christian leaders who met with Geo. W. Bush prior to the Iraq war in an effort to talk him out of it.

What's The Frequency?

Dan Rather signs off

"We have shared a lot in the 24 years we've been meeting here each evening. And before I say good night this night, I need to say thank you. Thank you to the thousands of wonderful professionals at CBS News, past and present, with whom it has been my honor to work over these years.

"And a deeply felt thank you to all of you, who have let us in to your homes night after night. It has been a privilege and one never taken lightly.

"Not long after I first came to the anchor chair I briefly signed off using the word 'courage.' I want to return to it now, in a different way, to a nation still nursing a broken heart for what happened here in 2001, and especially to those who found themselves closest to the events of September 11th.

"To our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in dangerous places. To those who have endured the tsunami, and to all who have suffered natural disasters and who must now find the will to rebuild.

"To the oppressed and to those whose lot it is to struggle in financial hardship and failing health. To my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all.

"And, to each of you, courage.

"For the 'CBS Evening News,' Dan Rather reporting. Good night."

Mission Accomplished

No, this time for real.

Inside the Bush Administration it’s high-fives all around.

The chattering class on the T.V. news shows and columnists in newspapers are presenting instant-history, declaring Bush was right, after all: Bomb the hell out of the citizenry of one country and its neighbors will see the wisdom.

In the past week or so, Lebanon, if you were to believe some of these folks, has suddenly become a democratic nation. It’s a fait accompli. Mission accomplished.

Few in this giddy group are remembering that we supposedly went to Iraq to gather up weapons of mass destruction, not spread democracy.

Bush was out this morning giving himself a round of pats on the back and praising the Lebanese citizens for embracing our way of life. Meanwhile, half a million Lebanese were taking to the streets with anti-American signs and chants.

The Bush Administration seems to suffer from a sort of geo-political Attention Deficit Disorder. There are years of work to be done in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, as a result of Bush’s recklessness and impatience, the costs of the rebuilding those two nations is falling on American taxpayers and American soldiers.

Democracy is far from taking hold in those countries and we are deeply invested there.

Unless Bush is ready to commit America's blood and money in yet another part of the Middle East he should be cautious about throwing himself a victory party.

Madison Quote

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes... known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

-President James Madison, 1795

Maestro Myth

In the 1990’s praise was heaped upon Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan for creating one of the greatest economic booms in U.S. history. It was said he was managing the economy by tweaking interest rates and promoting sound fiscal policy.

Republicans especially loved him and it was Greenspan who was always due the credit, not some tax-and-spend liberal like Bill Clinton.

But interestingly, the maestro of the 90’s boom is still holding the conductor’s baton in one of the weakest economies since the Great Depression.

What happened?

Why doesn’t Greenspan offer the same bold advice to the current administration that he offered to Clinton over 10 years ago? Why haven’t we heard stronger critiques of the outrageous borrow-and-spend habits and the irresponsible tax policy of George Bush?

One answer might be found in a quick survey of those government officials who no longer hold the jobs they had at the beginning of the first Bush term. The lesson is clear: If you cross or disagree or criticize the Bush agenda you will be forced out. No matter who you are. Just ask Colin Powell, Christine Todd Whitman, or Richard Clarke.

There is one thing Greenspan does know about this economy: He knows how to hang on to a job.

Reid's Read

“I'm not a big Greenspan fan -- Alan Greenspan fan. I voted against him the last two times. I think he's one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington. The fact of the matter is, he told us when we were in power and Clinton was president the biggest problem facing the American people was the deficit. And we did something about it. We, during the Clinton years, paid down the debt by about a half a trillion dollars.

Why doesn't he respond to the Republicans and tell them the big problem here is the debt that this administration is created? We had a $7 trillion surplus when Bush took office, now we have a $3 or $4 trillion deficit. That's, in fact, what Greenspan should be telling people.”

-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to CNN’s Judy Woodruff

Collapse

Cracks In The Empire?

Jared Diamond, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns Germs, and Steel has another examination of human history called Collapse.

As the ominous title suggests this is the story of how and why societies fail.

He states explicitly that he does not believe that the American Empire is doomed to decline. Yet his formula for the collapse of societies throughout world history does present some clear warning signals for the future of America.

Diamond lists five major factors he believes leads to the demise of a society:

1. Environmental Damage
2. Climate Change (both natural and man-caused)
3. Hostile Neighbors
4. Friendly Trade Partners (or lack thereof)
5. Society’s response to environmental problems

To many, this would seem to describe the United States as we get started in the 21st Century. This may be a book some of our country’s leaders should be taking a close look at.

1500

Death toll rises in Bush's War

Officially, the death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq is now at 1500.

1362 since George Bush declared major combat operations over.

Jump-start Your Career

Martha learns a lesson

I have no interest in reading, writing or following Michael Jackson or Kobe Bryant. I find these stories simultaneously appalling and boring. The subjects indeed are sleazy, but the media coverage may actually be sleazier.

Likewise, I am not interested in keeping up with the details of Martha Stewart. But I do have one thought concerning her trial, sentence and jail time.

From what I can tell, there are no lessons to be learned. Neither for Stewart nor for the general public.

Well, except for this: It appears that the whole episode did not punish or harm her in any significant way, but, in fact, has likely helped her. As she takes leave of “Camp Cupcake” after serving her 5 months, her company’s stock price and her notoriety are at all time highs.

If you are wealthy or famous, perhaps a little white-collar crime and subsequent jail time are just the thing to jump-start a sagging career.

A Doctrine Of Taking Credit

And Ignoring Failure

As things continue to go badly in the Iraq Occupation with civilians dying daily and many U.S. Forces also losing their lives, Bush needs to look elsewhere to find things for which he can pat himself on the back.

So, he is looking to the recent changes in Lebanon, among other places, to take credit for the apparent shifts toward some sort of freedom. See, the Bush team will say, we liberated Iraq and freedom is spreading! Problem is, the places where change may be taking hold are the places Bush has not been involved, diplomatically or militarily. (Let's remember, it was a U.N resolution back in September demanding Syria's withdrawl.)

Whether the other happenings will foster real change has yet to be seen, but the credit, if there is any, goes to the brave citizens of those countries that had the courage to speak up or protest or work to change their countries from within. The credit does not belong to Bush.

More and more, the evidence shows that, given time, the Iraqi people would likely have attempted their own transition. With weapons inspectors inside Iraq, and "No-fly" zones putting the squeeze on Saddam, he could not have stayed in power forever. In the view of many Mideast analysts, change was inevitable. In what ways, and how fast, will now never be known. But like the other countries around the world that are slowly finding their own way, it certainly could have happened with much less bloodshed.

There are really only two examples of the Bush Doctrine in the world and those are Afghanistan and Iraq. And neither of those has gone all that well. If Iraq does eventually form some sort of democracy it will have come at a very heavy price: Thousands of U.S. casualties, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed or maimed.

We should remember also that "spreading freedom" was not the justification for our initial invasion of Iraq. George Bush spoke only of weapons of mass destruction and "getting them before they get us".

Bush deceived, lied, and misled the world and many, many people have been killed as a result. Pointing out successful and relatively peaceful changes in other countries cannot change that reality.

It is shameful that the Bush administration moves to take credit for successes that are not their own while denying the tragedy and failure that can be seen daily in the body counts that started when Bush began the bombing.

Red Sox at the White House

The World Champion Boston Red Sox will attend a White House ceremony today. This quote from last fall is worth noting:

"It's been four days and I'm finally starting to believe the Red Sox won the World Series, but it's been four long years and I still can't believe George Bush is President of the United States."

- Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein at a John Kerry rally.