Category: Politics

Paul Krugman is alarmed by Bushie spin on the economy:

These partisans rely in part on obfuscation: shaping, slicing and selectively presenting data in an attempt to mislead.

…and with good reason: they’re encroaching on his patented technique.

The reality is that American exists as a part of the world economy, and the rise of India and the Chinas has to affect our prosperity. No president can insulate us from the global economy, and it’s folly to try. Krugman once again attempts to obfuscate and deceive, only to fail.
H/T Johnny the K.

Poor ole Crazy Howie, everybody’s on his case. Now moderate Tennessean Harold Ford spanks his little bottom on the Imus show:

Imus: “On another note here, speaking of the Democratic Party, which you are a member of, how’s Howard Dean working for you?”

Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: “(Laughing) I won’t have him down so many times in Tennessee on the campaign trail with me. He has made some comments as of late that really speak to a lack of understanding I think, of the country, a lack of understanding of faith and values. I’m a Democrat and I’m a God fearing one. I grew up in church. Christianity is not reserved for white males. I think perhaps Governor Dean sometimes gets a little excited at the mouth, and says things that are simply not true. It may reach a point where if he can’t find a way to kind of control some of his comments, and temper his comments, it may get to the point where the party may need to look elsewhere for leadership, because he does not speak for me, and I know he does not speak for a majority of Democrats and I dare say Republicans in my home state. I know that other, even Senator Biden and others, have made some stronger comments about him. I look forward to having a chance to sit with him here in the next day or so. I think he’s going to be here in Capitol Hill a little later today to meet with us. I want to ask him directly. Can he contain himself in a lot of ways, and what is his thought process in a lot of these issues because it is not representative of where the party is.”

Is Dean one of Rove’s dirty tricks?

National Geographic news reports a shocking new study of voter preference:

First impressions count, especially in politics. New research suggests many U.S. voters cast their ballots based on their first impressions of a political candidate’s face…

Researchers tested voters’ snap judgments about the political candidates. Attractiveness, honesty, and likeability were measured, but the trait that stood out for voters was a candidate’s competence.

This obviously explains W’s election triumphs.

Howard Dean doesn’t have a friend in the world. Now Susan Estrich, that paragon of moderation, has taken to dissing his famous website:

At the time Dean pulled out of the race in 2004, his much-vaunted website was getting one-tenth as many hits as George Bush’s. Even more important, the Bush team, under the leadership of then-Rove deputy Ken Mehlman, was embarked on a sophisticated technological project that allowed it to communicate with voters in key states and key groups the same way Amazon does with regular purchasers: Understanding more than name, address and serial number, Amazon knows what I like, and what my family likes, and what other people like me like, so that when they write to me, they know how to sell to me. So did Bush.

Didn’t the Moveon.org faction of the Democratic Party secure his party leadership on the strength of his grasp of technology and fund-raising? It looks like they were wrong again.

Asher reports on the encouraging signs from Iran:

Regime’s days are numbered, say activists. This Friday will mark the official beginning of the revolution against the IRI, according to SOS Iran: ‘We the 70 million people of Iran request your declaration to denounce the Islamic Republic as the legitimate government of Iran on the 10th of June. On this historic day, we the Iranian people will place our seal on a promise of this general uprising which will go down in history as a confrontation between good and evil. On the 10th of June, the people of the world shall rally to our cause, in solidarity with Iranians everywhere. We have given the mullahs until the 16th of June to submit to the will of the Iranian people and peacefully surrender the power to its rightful owners. We the 70 million Iranians hereby cast our vote to end the Islamic Republic’s reign of terror, and no longer consider the Islamic Republic a legitimate government. Should they be so unwise not to leave peacefully on June 16th, we are prepared to remove this dictatorship and bring to an end the 26 years of their shameful reign. We will strike on the 18th of June, from every corner of our land, in every city, at every outpost of the Islamic Republic, and will bring those who have wronged us to justice.’ The full text of this ultimatum (PDF), signed by all the major Iranian opposition groups, can be found at the SOS Iran homepage. Iranians are urged to stay indoors with the lights out every evening, beginning this Friday, as a show of unity. The declaration also calls for acts of civil disobedience by Iranian expatriates in Europe in solidarity with activists in the homeland.

See his blog for more details. We talked about this at this week’s meeting of the Portland Patriarchy but I don’t know how to assess it.

Amnesty’s wild claim that Gitmo is a regular ole Gulag prompted a nice response from the ultra-conservative New Republic:

Gulag: For the most part, Gulag prisoners provided labor for the Soviet system. Treatment varied widely, but most prisoners lived in overcrowded barracks, and prisoners occasionally killed one another in an effort to find space to sleep. Deadly dysentery and typhus outbreaks were common. Prisoners often had inadequate clothing to protect themselves from the elements, and most camps lacked running water and heat.

Guantánamo: A recent Time magazine report found that “the best-behaved detainees are held in Camp 4, a medium-security, communal-living environment with as many as 10 beds in a room; prisoners can play soccer or volleyball outside up to nine hours a day, eat meals together and read Agatha Christie mysteries in Arabic. Less cooperative detainees typically live and eat in small, individual cells and get to exercise and shower only twice a week.” Human Rights Watch and other watchdog groups have collected firsthand testimony from prisoners alleging abuses, including the use of dogs, extended solitary confinement, sexual humiliation, and “stress positions.” An official investigation uncovered only minor abuses, and most detainee accusations have not been verified.

Amnesty – which we’re calling Amnesia on account of their sense of history – has some other interesting claims on their web site. Did you know that violence against women is the “greatest human rights scandal of our time?” Amnesia does. Never mind that 60% of violent crime victims in the US are male::

During 1994 men experienced almost 6.6 million violent victimizations; women experienced 5 million. For every 3 violent victimizations of males, there were 2 of females.

…or that 77% of murder victims, or 99% of military deaths, or that women resort to violence in relationships as often as men – when momma ain’t happy, Amnesia ain’t happy and that’s just the way it is.

The current leader of Amnesia, Irene Zubaida Khan, has clearly run it off the rails.

H/T John Cole.

Here’s a good linkie-winkie: Shamnesty International via Protein:

Al Qaeda knows better than any organization that its success depends on peeling both Muslim-world support and U.S. public support away from the Bush administration’s war on terrorism. Consider the quasi-reasoned tone Osama bin Laden adopted in a recording he allegedly made last November, calling on the “people of America” to drop their support for the president. The recording was full of contemporary and historical allusions, as is the training manual. If Al Qaeda’s savvy enough for that, it’s savvy enough to know that civil liberties – even the civil liberties of accused bad guys – are a hot-button issue in the U.S.

In the U.S. alone, there are 65-plus lawsuits claiming abuse of detainees at American hands. There are still more legal demarches overseas. We’ve seen inaccurate Koran-desecration stories send Muslim crowds raging in protest. We have regular accounts of arrested terrorism suspects being sent to third countries where they face torture-driven interrogation. And, as if on cue, we have Amnesty International calling the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, “the gulag of our time.”

Naturally, the Bush administration is berating the organization for such a ridiculous comparison. After all, Guantanamo Bay’s guards are under the microscope of human-rights lawyers all the time. The inmates are fairly treated. The guard-throws-Koran-in-toilet story was false. And claims that the inmates’ detention oversteps the boundaries of international law have been responded to at the highest levels. Besides, the 500-600 Guantanamo detainees wouldn’t be there if Al Qaeda hadn’t killed 2,948 Americans and others on Sept 11, 2001.

The cottage industry stuff is spot on. Read it and see.

Dutch voters were even more forceful than the French in their rejection of the EU Constitution today:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – Dutch voters rejected the European Union constitution on Wednesday, exit polls showed, deepening a crisis in the bloc and possibly dooming the treaty after fellow EU founding member France rejected it on Sunday.

Interview/NSS projected the “No” camp had won 63 percent of votes based on an exit poll to 37 percent for the “Yes.”

What’s a poor bureaucrat to do?

It turns out that this loss of confidence in a united Europe has affectd the currency as well:

The euro fell to its lowest level against the dollar for more than seven months on Wednesday and has lost almost 10 percent since March when polls turned negative on the treaty, which needs the approval of all members to go into force.

Some of my friends who’ve been selling the dollar short against the Euro must be hurting right now.

H/T John Cole.

During Watergate, I was as anti-Nixon has anyone, completely convinced that he was a lowlife, a scumbag, and a liar. But since Nixon, we’ve had presidents like Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton, so I think it’s appropriate to re-evaluate Tricky. That’s what former Nixon speechwriter Ben Stein does here:

Can anyone even remember now what Nixon did that was so terrible? He ended the war in Vietnam, brought home the POW’s, ended the war in the Mideast, opened relations with China, started the first nuclear weapons reduction treaty, saved Eretz Israel’s life, started the Environmental Protection Administration. Does anyone remember what he did that was bad?

Oh, now I remember. He lied. He was a politician who lied. How remarkable. He lied to protect his subordinates who were covering up a ridiculous burglary that no one to this date has any clue about its purpose. He lied so he could stay in office and keep his agenda of peace going. That was his crime. He was a peacemaker and he wanted to make a world where there was a generation of peace. And he succeeded.

Comments on the connection between Mark Felt and the Cambodian Genocide follow. What is it with Commies and genocide anyway?

We always hear that the religious Right is a great demon bent on lying and destroying our world, but what about the equally fanatic religious Left, that shapeless army of Buddhists, Christians, and observant Atheists who make up their own reality from moment to moment? One of their house organs is Sojourners Magazine, the source of a a big fat lie about abortion:

Politicians from Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Howard Dean have recently contended that abortions have increased since George W. Bush took office in 2001.

This claim is false. It’s based on an an opinion piece that used data from only 16 states. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute of 43 states found that abortions have actually decreased. Update, May 26: The author of the original claim now concedes that the Guttmacher study is “significantly better” than his own.

Oops – busted.

But lying about abortion and Bush isn’t as bad as excusing the Tienanmen Square massacre, is it?

What’s the more significant recent election, France’s rejection of the European constitution, or Beirut’s election of Saad Hariri and his slate to lead the new democratic government?

France gets more play, but I’d go with Lebanon, one of the immediate consequences of the Bush policies in the Middle East. Besides, countries like Lebanon are the future, and France is the past.