By Joe Conason By stalling or killing President Obama’s new START treaty, Republicans would provide moral support to Iran, North Korea and any other rogue regime seeking to arm itself with nukes. Related Entries November 25, 2010 The Thanksgiving Wars? No Thanks November 24, 2010 Fail and Grow Rich on Wall Street
Continue reading …Partisan Inconsistency: In Close Congressional Races, AP Gives Two Paragraphs to GOP Win in IL-08, 14 to Dem in CA-11
November 29, 2010 No CommentI've noted an interesting disparity in how the Associated Press, the so-called Essential Global News Network, has covered Democratic and Republican congressional victories in situations where the counting has gone on well past Election Day. Let's contrast the amount of ink and bandwidth devoted to Republican Joe Walsh's victory over incumbent Democrat Melissa Bean in Illinois compared to the coverage accorded California Democrat Jerry McNerney in his victory over the GOP's David Harmer. First, in Walsh vs. Bean, the following is the only item that comes up in a search on Ms. Bean's name at the AP's main site: read more
Continue reading …McCain attacks ‘inexperienced’ Obama for promising ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal
November 29, 2010 No Comment
Click here to view this media The military’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy which forces gay, lesbian and trans-gender members to hide their personal lives or face expulsion from the service “is working,” according to Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain. The Pentagon is expected to release a survey Tuesday that will say most of those serving don’t have strong objections to repealing the policy. In mid-November, McCain said he rejected that study because it didn’t ask service members whether the policy should be repealed. “[T]his study was directed at how to implement the repeal, not whether the repeal should take place or not,” McCain said. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates disagrees that there should be a new survey that amounts to a “referendum.” “I do not believe that military policy decisions — on this or any other subject — should be made through a referendum of Servicemembers,” Gates wrote to McCain in October. “I think he certainly has a point,” McCain told CNN’s Candy Crowley Sunday. The Arizona senator belives that by repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell,” the Obama administration is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. “I would also certainly say that we should remember where this all started. There was no uprising in the military, no problems in the military with ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’” McCain noted. “It’s called ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’ If you don’t ask somebody, and they don’t tell,” he said. “The fact is this was a political promise made by an inexperienced president or candidate for presidency of the United States. The military is at its highest point in recruitment and retention and professionalism and capability, so to somehow allege that this policy has been damaging the military is simply false,” McCain continued. “So the fact is that this system is working,” he added.
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Click here to view this media The utter falsity of a statement is no barrier to Republican leaders repeating it. And so it was Sunday, as South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham offered his version of the GOP’s Uber Lie that tax cuts pay for themselves. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Graham defended the Republicans’ demand for another $700 billion windfall for the wealthy by announcing the fiscal equivalent of the sun rising in the west and setting in the east: “When you look historically, when we raise taxes, the economy slows and we don’t get any more revenue. When we cut taxes, the economy grows and we maintain the same amount of revenue.” Not on this planet. In his version of the Republican myth that ” tax cuts pay for themselves ,” President Bush confidently proclaimed, “You cut taxes and the tax revenues increase.” In 2007, Graham’s puppet master John McCain explained, “Tax cuts, starting with Kennedy, as we all know, increase revenues.” As it turned out, not so much. After Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt with his supply-side tax cuts, George W. Bush doubled it again with his own. And in between, the Clinton years saw robust economic growth, balanced budgets along with higher taxes (which, by the way, every single Republican in the House and Senate voted against.) In fact, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) found that the Bush tax cuts accounted for almost half of the mushrooming deficits during his tenure. As another CBPP analysis forecast , over the next 10 years, the Bush tax cuts if made permanent will contribute more to the U.S. budget deficit than the Obama stimulus, the TARP program, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and revenue lost to the recession put together . Predictably, the Bush tax cuts didn’t come anywhere close to paying for themselves. And as Congressional Budget Office projections revealed in June, making them permanent is the very worst thing the so-called deficit hawks could do to reduce the U.S. debt. Sadly, Lindsay Graham’s fraud is now orthodoxy in Republican circles . Despite the inescapable conclusion of history, theory and empirical evidence to the contrary, Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl, John Boehner, Tom Coburn, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison and other Republican alchemists continue to insist that cutting taxes increases government revenue and thereby reduces the deficit. Of course, even though the tax cut claim is laughably false, conservative ideology requires that it must true. Otherwise, the Republicans have just been giving money to rich people . For more background, charts and data, see ” 10 Epic Failure of the Bush Tax Cuts .”
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enlarge And the fur will start flying. Wikileaks has released some 250,000 documents from US Embassy cables (thus dubbing this latest scandals “Cablegate”) and what they reveal isn’t pretty for this country. Huffington Post : WikiLeaks published the first set of more than 250,000 secret State Department documents Sunday, in one of the largest leaks of classified information in history. Earlier in the day, The New York Times and The Guardian published a selection of the documents. The WikiLeaks website was inaccessible for part of the day, and WikiLeaks said in its Twitter feed that it was experiencing a denial of service attack . WikiLeaks also provided the documents to Spain’s El Pais , France’s Le Monde , and Germany’s Der Spiegel . The website says it will publish the full set of 250,000 documents in stages over the next few months. According to The New York Times , the cables reveal how foreign leaders, including Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, urged the U.S. to confront Iran over its nuclear program . “The cables also contain a fresh American intelligence assessment of Iran’s missile program,” The Times reports. “They reveal for the first time that the United States believes that Iran has obtained advanced missiles from North Korea that could let it strike at Western European capitals and Moscow and help it develop more formidable long-range ballistic missiles.” Haaretz reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attempted to pressure the U.S. into military action against Iran by exaggerating its nuclear capabilities: Meanwhile, another cable shows that a 2009 claim by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Iran was months away from achieving military nuclear capability was dismissed by the Americans as a ploy. According to German weekly Der Spiegel, which also received advance information from WIkiLeaks, a State Department official says in a classified cable that Netanyahu informed the United States of Iran’s nuclear advancement in November 2009, but that the prime minister’s estimate was likely unfounded and intended to pressure Washington into action against the Islamic Republic. Perhaps more embarrassing to U.S. officials is the revelation, according to The Guardian that U.S. diplomats spied on UN officials , including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: A classified directive which appears to blur the line between diplomacy and spying was issued to US diplomats under Hillary Clinton’s name in July 2009, demanding forensic technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys used in private and commercial networks for official communications. Story continues below It called for detailed biometric information “on key UN officials, to include undersecretaries, heads of specialised agencies and their chief advisers, top SYG [secretary general] aides, heads of peace operations and political field missions, including force commanders” as well as intelligence on Ban’s “management and decision-making style and his influence on the secretariat”. The cables also provide frank assessments of foreign leaders : Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev “plays Robin to Putin’s Batman.” French president Nicholas Sarkozy displayed a “thin-skinned and authoritarian personal style.” Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is described as “feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader.” Hamid Karzai, is “an extremely weak man who did not listen to facts but was instead easily swayed by anyone who came to report even the most bizarre stories or plots against him.” At least one progressive blogger, while generally supportive of Wikileak’s actions, sees some long term damage from this . However, I’m of the belief that if this is the price we must pay to show the government that acting as if no one has a right to privacy is a double-edged sword that can hurt them as well, we might as well pay it now. If the government thinks it will damage their interests to have their corrupt actions known, perhaps they might not want to participate in them.
Continue reading …If you’ll remember, the citizens of Iceland stood up and said no to bailing out bankers, and their economy got better much faster because of it. Now they’re helping to write the country’s new constitution . They sound more American than our country does: REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Iceland’s getting a new constitution – and it’s really going to be the voice of the people. The sparsely-populated volcanic island is holding an unusual election Saturday to select ordinary citizens to cobble together a new charter, an exercise in direct democracy born out of the outrage and soul-searching that followed the nation’s economic meltdown. Hundreds of people are vying for the chance to be among up to 31 people who will form the Constitutional Assembly slated to convene early next year – a source of huge pride for Icelanders who have seen their egos take a beating in recent years. “This is the first time in the history of the world that a nation’s constitution is reviewed in such a way, by direct democratic process,” says Berghildur Erla Bergthorsdottir, spokeswoman for the committee entrusted with organizing the Constitutional Assembly. Iceland has never written its own constitution. After gaining independence from Denmark in 1944, it took the Danish constitution, amended a few clauses to state that it was now an independent republic, and substituted the word ‘president’ for ‘king.’ A comprehensive review of the constitution has been on the agenda ever since. Pressure mounted for action after the nation’s economic collapse in 2008, an event punctuated by ordinary citizens gathering outside the Althingi, the parliament, banging pots, pans and barrels – a loud, clanging expression of fury. The meltdown was seen not only as a failure of the economy but of the system of government and regulatory agencies. Many came to believe a tighter constitutional framework – including a clearer division of powers – might have been able to minimize that damage, or even prevent it. “It is very important for ordinary citizens, who have no direct interest in maintaining the status quo, to take part in a constitutional review,” said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. “We are hoping this new constitution will be a new social covenant leading to reconstruction and reconciliation, and for that to happen, the entire nation needs to be involved.”
Continue reading …Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Chokes Up At The Wealthy’s Lack Of Contribution To This Country
November 28, 2010 No Comment
I come from a fairly privileged family. I’m not talking Rockefeller wealth, but we did okay. Even with all the perks, one thing that was always drummed into me and the rest of my generation was the responsibility we had to give back for all that we had been given. Certainly, that teaching has informed my liberalism and I hope that I am passing down that same attitude to my children now. Sadly, there are not enough people enjoying the good fortune of their lives who understand that life is not a zero-sum game and that helping others makes things better for all of us as well. But billionaire hedge fund manager Tom Steyer shares my feelings of obligation and actually teared up talking about the need to give back: “You said that you would be willing to have your taxes higher. Many Americans, particularly those who are successful say, hang on, I did this work, this is a capitalist society, this is my just reward. You disagree with that notion,” anchor Christiane Amanpour asked Steyer. “I certainly do,” he said. “Because?” Amanpour asked. “I think anyone who doesn’t give credit to the system that they are born into is taking an awful lot onto themselves. I mean, I really think that people have sacrificed a lot more than a little tax money to make that system available for all of us. And I would be ashamed of myself if I didn’t give some credit to them,” Steyer said, choking up and pausing to regain his composure. It’s easy to take a cynical view of the weepy billionaire, but Steyer actually does put his money where his mouth is. A signatory to The Giving Pledge , Steyer has promised to donate half of his fortune to charity and has already given money to various philanthropic sources , including the successful defeat of Prop 23 here in California.
Continue reading …Reagan Biographer Refutes Woodward’s Claim Obama’s Too Busy to be Effective: Reagan Was Just as Busy
November 28, 2010 No Comment
Bob Woodward on Sunday tried to excuse Barack Obama's ineffectiveness by claiming his “day is crazy” with “so many meetings, so many outings, so many handshakes, and so many trips to Ohio and here.” Having previously scolded “Face the Nation” host Bob Schieffer for asking a “bulls–t question,” Ronald Reagan biographer Edmund Morris countered, “Yeah, but presidents have plenty of spare time” (video follows with transcript and commentary): read more
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Click here to view this media WikiLeaks hasn’t even released the latest round of US government documents and already politicians and pundits are calling for prosecutions. The latest release from the WikiLeaks website is expected to include as many as 250,000 secret diplomatic cables. The Obama administration warned Wednesday that the documents could damage US relations with friends and allies. “Leaking the material is deplorable,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News’ Chris Wallace Sunday. “I agree with the Pentagon’s assessment that the people at WikiLeaks could have blood on their hands.” “I don’t know what the cables may say but it’s just a — we’re at war. I mean the world is getting dangerous by the day and the people who do this are really low on the food chain as far as I’m concerned. If you can prosecute them, let’s try.” Sen. Clair McCaskill (D-MO) agreed. “Lindsey’s right,” she said. “The people who are leaking these documents need to a gut check about their patriotism and I think they’re enjoying the attention they’re getting but, frankly, it’s coming at a very high price in terms of protecting our men and women in uniform.” “I hope that we can figure out where this is coming from and go after them with the force of law,” McCaskill said. Also appearing on Fox News Sunday , former State Department official Liz Cheney called for the government to go after the leakers. “I think, once again, the government of Iceland ought to shut down that [WikiLeaks] website,” Cheney said. “I think they ought to stop allowing the stuff to come out of the website in Iceland. I think that the administration ought to be focused very much on prosecuting those responsible.” The State Department sent a letter Saturday to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Publication of documents of this nature at a minimum would: * Place at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals — from journalists to human rights activists and bloggers to soldiers to individuals providing information to further peace and security; * Place at risk on-going military operations, including operations to stop terrorists, traffickers in human beings and illicit arms, violent criminal enterprises and other actors that threaten global security; and, * Place at risk on-going cooperation between countries – partners, allies and common stakeholders — to confront common challenges from terrorism to pandemic diseases to nuclear proliferation that threaten global stability. “Despite your stated desire to protect those lives, you have done the opposite and endangered the lives of countless individuals. You have undermined your stated objective by disseminating this material widely, without redaction, and without regard to the security and sanctity of the lives your actions endanger,” State Department legal advisor Harold Hongju Koh wrote. “If you are genuinely interested in seeking to stop the damage from your actions, you should: 1) ensure WikiLeaks ceases publishing any and all such materials; 2) ensure WikiLeaks returns any and all classified U.S. Government material in its possession; and 3) remove and destroy all records of this material from WikiLeaks’ databases.” Assange told reporters Sunday that Washington had “contacted the governments of almost every nation on earth to brief them about what some of these embarrassing revelations will do.” “They’re in a rather unusual difficult position where it is not sure precisely what is going to be revealed,” he said.
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At a time when the American mood has turned against excessive government spending, Christiane Amanpour devoted Sunday’s This Week to four liberal Democratic billionaires, though she failed to identify their political orientation, who want higher income tax rates on the wealthy. Unmentioned during the pre-taped interviews with Warren Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates, Ted Turner and Tom Steyer revolving around their participation in “The Giving Pledge” – the promise to give away at least half their wealth: how they are free now to give all the money they want to the federal government. Amanpour began by touting: “Warren Buffett has been practically begging the country, begging Congress to tax him more. In fact, many of the richest Americans like Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates and Ted Turner say that they should pay higher tax.” In between letting Buffett expound at length on why taxes should be hiked, she fretted to Bill Gates: “If people aren't going to pay for the services that they need, how are those services going to get funded, do you think?” read more
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