Blue Collar Politics

[BREAK] The credit for this goes to Springer on the Radio! (Speakers/headset needed.)

Also, see Media Matters, here!

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At 5:30 AM this morning, my wife and I sat and watched the final half hour of a film we had rented, Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight. If you've not seen it, you really should. If you have viewed it, you'll never forget how the Bush Administration, through deception and control of the US media, took a retired NYC Police Sargent (Viet-vet) who lost his son in the Towers on 9/11, and led him on a multi year journey from big Iraq War booster to where he's become a depressed and disillusioned questioner of "America" and our goals. The man had been so strong in his backing of Bush's Baghdad Blunder that he petitioned the powers-that-be to have his son's name stenciled onto one of the bombs dropped in our Shock and Awe production of war crime horror. Today, he puffs up with rage while tearing up when he watches Bush's later admission that "We have no evidence Saddam was connected to 9/11." In today's What Is the Latest Thing to Be Discouraged About? The Rise of Pessimism - New York Times , Adam Cohen relates how recent American disappointments have caused a "Rise of Pessimism". Mr. Cohen ends with:

Part of Mr. Bush’s legacy may well be that he robbed America of its optimism — a force that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and other presidents, like Ronald Reagan, used to rally the country when it was deeply challenged. The next generation of leaders will have to resell discouraged Americans on the very idea of optimism, and convince them again that their goal should not be to live with their ailments, but to cure them.

While the loss of optimism is important, the loss of faith, not religious faith, but faith in "America", is the most serious problem facing our country's future. Losing optimism is worrisome. Growing skepticism can be fatal to a representative democracy on the brink of becoming a dictatorship, a theocracy or some weird Super-Sized combo of them both. At the end of Why We Fight, I told Barb how the Bush years had altered my feelings. 27 years ago, I voluntarily dropped a rock solid deferment, as I thought it was time I "did my duty." That sounds so corny that through the years, when asked "why", I've tried out a dozen different rationals for putting my ass in front of bullets. "Wanted to learn about war", "Wanted to see for myself if the 'protesters' or the 'patriots' were right.", or that "I wanted to 'find' myself." But those were dodges, meant to get me away from the sicky-sweet, Norman Rockwell type that would actually feel they had a "duty" to risk all for an ideal. So, I was stupid, corny, ill informed, but, in my slothful ignorance, trying to do the right thing. Today, I'd laugh at anyone using the term "ideal" in conjunction with ANYTHING that is in ANYWAY connected with authority figures, be they US President or the local school crossing guard. If I were 22 today, I'd be marching in protests and, if a draft were coming, my ass would be sitting on a plane out of here. Today, if one of my kids mentioned joining the military, in any job/title that held any possibility of having them face combat, I might be found holding that child in a basement room/prison until the war ends. If a nuclear weapon exploded on American soil, it would take an awful lot of evidence to get me to believe that whatever country our President blames might, in fact, be the country behind the bombing. And don't think I'm exaggerating. Look into your own soul. If next month, a passenger plane flying from London to NYC, blows up, would you quickly agree if the Bushies told you it was al Qaeda. How about if they said it was Iran. Or the local Democrat running for an important House seat? Or, take this one step further. After all the lies and self-serving media stories you've been fed since 9/11, have you not, at least once, thought "I hope they don't commit some horror before the election" . . . and realized it was NOT Osama you were referring to as "they?" This is what the current crop of neo-con war criminals have left America as their legacy. Skepticism AND pessimism. May God forgive them. =====

[BREAK] If you're a fan of the pithy, you'd be hard put to find a few paragraphs of minimal mainstream media verbiage that can so succinctly describe the fundamentally flawed ethos of an entire administration as well as the 5 paras from today's NY Times below!

- - - SNIP Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis. Mr. Bush acknowledged that, for some, rebuilding may have been so gradual as to seem non-existent. But, Mr. Bush said: “For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.” “I feel a quiet sense of determination that’s going to shape the future of Mississippi,” he continued. And then, in comments that could have been as applicable to the other main challenge of his administration — Iraq — Mr. Bush said: “As this part of the world flourishes, and businesses grow, people will find work and have the wherewithal to rebuild their lives.” Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass. - - End of SNIPPET

In almost everything this regime of bumbling war criminals and failed businessmen has touched, from Iraq through Katrina, from Social Security through the handling of security post 9/11, the US can fairly be portrayed as a Marx Brother's comedy . . . with sub-par performances by the third string buffoons filling in for the genius brothers. Unfortunately, the cast change has been accompanied by a total change in genre. Instead of a comedy piece, this real life production has become a very sad drama, bordering on the edge of horror. The same man who held a plastic turkey for his Thanksgiving photo op in Iraq now stands before a another prop, a few new buildings hiding the overall shame and ruin. I give the Times some credit here. It isn't often that the mainstream media strays from reporting just what the White House press office hands out in the press packet. By allowing the readers to get even the briefest peek behind the Bush administrations propaganda curtain, reporters Anne E. Kornblut and David Stout have gone where few of their peers dare to tread. They have, we can only hope, opened a few eyes to a fact many of us have known for a long time. Where perception is paramount, the Bushies perform swimmingly. But where progress is the prime parameter, Bushie BS fails to float. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Meanwhile, back in the US, the wealthy, having been given huge government sponsored bonuses by shifting the tax burden from those who have to those who ain't, are driving gas guzzling Hummers to Starbucks for their morning latte! [/BREAK]

Guardian Unlimited Business | |
Brussels warns carmakers: meet targets to slash CO2 emissions or face tougher laws *Manufacturers on course to miss pledge of 25% drop *Treble annual reductions, says commissioner Nicholas Watt in Brussels Wednesday August 30, 2006 The Guardian Car manufacturers were given a blunt warning yesterday from Brussels, which said companies would face stringent laws if they failed to abide by their commitment to cut carbon dioxide emissions. European, Japanese and Korean carmakers were threatened with the "stick" of mandatory cuts in the polluting emissions after figures showed that they were on course to miss a 25% reduction in CO2 levels by 2009. Gregor Kreuzhuber, the European commission's industry spokesman, said: "The [commission] will not hesitate to replace the carrot with the stick. This would be regulation. The car industry should be aware that we are watching the situation very closely." More Here

[BREAK] Well, the nukes will fly now. If Rove/Cheney think that there is a 1% chance that the blubbering idiot in Chief would EVER be forced to speak, aloud, about important policy in a debate with a smart, albeit crazy, opponent, they'd rather have the Chimp in Chief grab the nuclear football and make the biggest Hail Mary pass in history. A nuclear war just might leave a few Bushies surviving. A debate with Ahmadinejad would have GW dissolve into a puddle the minute the US staged [and Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, Kermit, led "Operation Ajax"] "revolt" against democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and the puppet Shah who was his "replacement" came up. [/BREAK]

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Ahmadinejad condemns UN and challenges Bush to debate Robert Tait in Tehran Wednesday August 30, 2006 The Guardian Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran brushed off a looming UN deadline to suspend a key part of his country's nuclear programme by dismissing the international body as an illegitimate tool of Britain and America. In a press conference in Tehran yesterday, Mr Ahmadinejad restated his determination to continue Iran's nuclear activities, which the west suspects is aimed at producing an atomic bomb. "The use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is the right of the Iranian nation. The Iranian nation has chosen this path ... no one can prevent it," he said. More Here

[BREAK] Americans between puberty and middle-age, BEWARE! South Africa law is a giant step towards a draft here in the US. Remember, corporate mercenaries represent the 2nd largest armed force in Iraq, and have surpassed the number of British troops in our meager "Coalition of the Billing!/Leaving". [/BREAK]

BBC NEWS | Africa | MPs approve new SA mercenary bill Suspected mercenaries handcuffed in court in Zimbabwe South Africans were among the group arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 South Africa's National Assembly has approved a law requiring that citizens working as security staff abroad must seek permission from the government. It will also make South Africans seek permission to serve in foreign armies. Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota said the law was to prevent mercenaries from subverting democracy across Africa but opponents say it is too stringent. More Here

[BREAK] As anyone with even the most rudimentary acquaintance with the word "fascism" can tell you, having a column on the use of the word that does NOT contain any mention of government bowing to corporate interests is akin to writing a piece on the Pope and failing to mention the Catholic Church! But the Repugnants are hoping that, as they did with Saddam and 9/11, they can cojoin Islam and Fascist and their supplicants in the mainstream media will help keep the citizens ignorant of the true facts. It worked with Bush's Baghdad Blunder in 2003, so why not now? That's why even Rumsfeld is throwing the F word at Liberals, claiming they aid the Fascists. Of course, should one give the subject a little thought, a malodorous fascist scent can be discerned in our "War on Terror." Corporate power, corrupt contracting, a growing disparity between classes, Patriot Act outrages, "Total Information Awareness", torture and war crimes are all reminiscent of what we heard of the fascist regimes in WWII. But, they sure don't want you going there!!! ===== [/BREAK]

Republicans Target 'Islamic Fascism' - Los Angeles Times Republicans Target 'Islamic Fascism' By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 4:23 AM PDT, August 30, 2006 WASHINGTON -- President Bush in recent days has recast the global war on terror into a "war against Islamic fascism." Fascism, in fact, seems to be the new buzz word for Republicans in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq. Bush used the term earlier this month in talking about the arrest of suspected terrorists in Britain, and spoke of "Islamic fascists" in a later speech in Green Bay, Wis. Spokesman Tony Snow has used variations on the phrase at White House press briefings. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., in a tough re-election fight, drew parallels on Monday between World War II and the current war against "Islamic fascism," saying they both require fighting a common foe in multiple countries. It's a phrase Santorum has been using for months. And Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Tuesday took it a step further in a speech to an American Legion convention in Salt Lake City, accusing critics of the administration's Iraq and anti-terrorism policies of trying to appease "a new type of fascism." White House aides and outside Republican strategists said the new description is an attempt to more clearly identify the ideology that motivates many organized terrorist groups, representing a shift in emphasis from the general to the specific. More Here

[BREAK] Barb and I watched Keith Olbermann deliver this chilling piece. For those of you who read beyond the mainstream media, he adds nothing truly new. But he used prose that strikes a group of chords that could lead to a truly patriotic harmony. And his passionate but reasoned delivery emphasizes how close we are to it being TOO LATE to stop the true fascist juggernaut that is mightily churning through the homes in America, while the right-wing noise machine is kept at a volume that deafens many to the Repugnant juggernaut's explosive razing of all that's good about our country while it raises the country's once minor faults to where it is all that others, even in many country's that once were considered friends, can now see. If the American people don't forcibly take back the juggernaut's controls, either in the upcoming elections, or, assuming that the "fix" is in, by taking to the streets in protest, within but months we'll be at war with Iraq/Islam and the blood of our kids, their kids and kids unconnected to any of the machinations will forever stain the pages of our history. But not for long. Because, even with a school system in which students hear nothing of true history, civics or even get to use the critical thought process produced by a reading of simple geography, the history texts that are now available at the college level will be so sanitized that future generations in Amerika will be reading of the commie ideas of George Washington (democracy), Thomas Jefferson (public schooling, democracy), Abraham Lincoln (strong unions), Theodore Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman (health care), Franklin D. Roosevelt (EVERYTHING!), Dwight D. Eisenhower (Corporatocracy warnings), John F. Kennedy (Peace Corps), Lyndon B. Johnson (Civil Rights), Richard M. Nixon (EPA) and Jimmy Carter (human rights and honest government), while being treated to stories of the heroism, intellect and military mastery of the Bush/Cheney (AWOL/Draft Dodgers, war crimes, Patriot Act horrors, Katrina, 9/11) dynasty. Wake up, sheeple!!! (And pass the link below on to every Republican in your address book . . . AFTER you pass it to everyone else!) ===== [/BREAK]

Crooks and Liars � Keith Olbermann Delivers One Hell Of a Commentary on Rumsfeld - - - SNIP The confusion we — as its citizens - must now address, is stark and forbidding. But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note - with hope in your heart - that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light… and we can, too. The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this Administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought. And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a "new type of fascism." As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that — though probably not in the way he thought he meant it. - - - End of SNIPPET

[BREAK] In an op-ed in today's NY Times, Andrew Rosenthal writes of the lack of large protest marches against the Bush regime in general and Bush's Baghdad Blunder in particular. When he bemoans the lack of campus outrage, I somewhat share his pain. But he also seems to give short shrift to general, more generic, protests. He states:

Now, people find protesters vaguely embarrassing and don’t want to make too much noise.

On that, I both differ and agree. While I certainly think there needs to be more protest in America, I wonder if Mr. Rosenthal has been locked in a cave for the past 6 years? He also mentions that

"There was a brief burst of protest when America first invaded Iraq."

No, there were near a a quarter-million "noisy" people in NYC, and many millions around the world, protesting the month BEFORE we began committing war crimes under Bush. And there have been many protests since, from large ones like at the Repugnant's convention in NYC and marches in Wash DC, through smaller ones organized though Code Pink and at Camp Casey [Sheehan]. Sure I'd love the younger generation to be protesting on the campuses, ala the 60's. And, I believe that if the media covered protests/war now even half as well as they did back then, you'd have a much larger protest community and many more marches. Hell, I'll go further. If the media covered Iraq as well as it did Vietnam, and Bush as well as they did Johnson/Nixon, there would have been impeachment hearings long ago. Iraq would be over, if ever it began. And, the more informed Mr. Rosenthal would have been aware of the protests AND would NEVER have believed "Mr. Young’s call for impeachment is over the top,", but would have joined in the chorus of the [informed] majority that would be in harmony in calling for Bush's ouster from the people's White House! [/BREAK]

There Is Silence in the Streets; Where Have All the Protesters Gone? - New York Times By ANDREW ROSENTHAL Published: August 31, 2006 It was almost painful the other night to hear Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young sing about a war whose purpose Americans never really understood, started by a president who didn’t tell the truth and then waged the war ineptly. And that was before they sang about Iraq. The audience rose for Neil Young’s blast at George Bush, “Let’s Impeach the President,” and sang the words displayed on a huge TV screen, even the 20-something in front of us who had been text-messaging throughout the concert. That same screen also displayed thumbnail photos of slain soldiers while a counter ran up the most recent toll. It takes longer than you might think to count to 2,600. More Here

[BREAK] If you needed to give someone a wake-up call on the need for unions, this piece would be a good primer. As most sentient beings could tell you, just because increased productivity leads to increased profits in a company/industry that does NOT mean those who produced the profit will get to share in it. In Realityville, a place the corporate Repugnants would rather isolate and quarantine, report after report shows that the lack of organization amongst the workers causes the profit sharing to get stuck in a bottleneck somewhere below the corporate execs and the shareholders. This forces the Execs to grab some of the productivity cash and grant the rest to the stockholders. Since the Reagan years, and accelerating with the Bush administration,there have been four distinct, but oh so very connected, stories on the business pages of our newspapers.

• 1) Union membership declines.
• 2) Corporate exec pay rises at record breaking rates. (war profiting CEO's do even better!)
• 3) the "real wage" of the lower and blue collar working classes has dropped.
• 4) Republicans refuse minimum wage hikes..

Meantime, instead of giving appropriate page/TV space to crimes based on the harm to society, white collar criminals get little press while kids dealing pot and the sporadic news of corrupt union officials gets plenty of space/time. So, Jimmy Six-pack/Jane Merlot is often the first to spout off with "Why should I shell out dues money to someone?" Jimmy goes home with less real cash each year, and, although working more hours and producing more each hour he/she works, Jane/Jimmy wonders why he can't afford to live like he did yesterday. And the corporate pirates chuckle at the ease with which they've enlisted Jimmy/Jane in a war of self attrition, while those gaining from the employees labor keep divvying up the huge productivity cash pie! Wouldn't you? ===== [/BREAK] How the World Works - Salon.com Too productive While browsing the World Bank Web site this morning, a headline caught my eye: "Rapid Growth in China, India Are Reducing Extreme Poverty, UN Labor Agency Says." That's odd, I thought, the International Labor Organization doesn't usually specialize in repeating World Bank talking points. As noted here before, the single most common justification given for expanding free trade are the hundreds of millions of people who have escaped extreme poverty in India and China as a result of the integration of those nations into the global economy. But the ILO's attention tends to focus on other matters. I guess executive summaries are all in the eye of the beholder. Here, for example, is the lead sentence of a Shanghai Daily article on the same ILO report referenced by the World Bank, "Eye-popping economic growth and productivity gains in East Asia haven't led to adequate job creation, higher wages or improved working conditions in the region, the International Labor Organization said in a report yesterday." More Here!

[BREAK] Following a sunny blue sky horrific day in September, 2001, the Repugnants have, with much help from a manipulated mainstream media, heaped irrational fear onto the citizenry of the US, and tossed, or inspired to be tossed/placed by others, bomb loads of VERY RATIONAL fear onto countries far and wide. Now, as November looms large in their sights, fear has decided to take residence in the empty, dark recesses of the Repugnants themselves. This year, they fear those they once frightened, the American voters! How delicious is that bowl of irony! ===== [/BREAK]

GOP kisses up to liberal Chafee | Salon News Chances for a Democratic takeover of the Senate may hinge on whether Republican maverick Lincoln Chafee survives the Rhode Island primary. By Walter Shapiro Sept. 1, 2006 | PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- One of the nastier attack ads currently being aired anywhere in the country is being aired here, and is sponsored by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the official arm of the GOP majority. The 30-second spot employs all the traditional techniques of political fear-mongering: a voice-of-doom narrator, grainy photographs, purported FBI warnings, menacing footage of a Willie Horton-like villain (a Hispanic illegal immigrant) and the stark closing question about the challenger, "Will he put our security at risk in the Senate?" The factual basis for the commercial is flimsy. The mayor of Cranston agreed in 2005 to accept Mexican-government-issued matricula cards as a valid form of identification, a position so radical that it is shared by the U.S. Treasury Department. But that justification is enough to allow the NRSC to tar the mayor, who is now running for the Senate, as a permissive advocate of open borders who is seemingly eager for every resident of a Mexican barrio to move into the mansions of Newport. What makes this GOP smear attack so unusual is that the target of this venom, Mayor Steve Laffey, is a Republican. And he is the only Rhode Island Senate candidate who voted for George W. Bush in 2004, supports the Iraq war and believes in the magic elixir of Miracle-Gro tax cuts. Laffey's unforgivable sin in the eyes of the national Republican establishment is that he has an even-money chance of defeating antiwar incumbent GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee in the traditionally low-turnout Sept. 12 party primary. More Here

[BREAK] Unfortunately, while the meat of Frank's thought is fine, he makes one major flaw. He conflates Liberal with Democrat in his bash of politicians in the Democratic Party. Some of us can fathom the immense difference between a Liberal, like Ned Lamont or Denis Kucinich(Fair trade vs Free Trade, Health Care vs Neglect etc.), and some Democrats like Biden, Lieberman and, now, Hillary Clinton. Liberals and the (DLC's) "New Democrats" are like oil and water. Just because someone (Frank) tries to mix them together does not preclude the oil (Liberal) from rising to the top! Other than that conflating flaw, this op-ed be a precious jewel and well worth the viewing. [/BREAK] =====

The Unknown Candidate: Rendezvous With Oblivion By Thomas Frank The New York Times Over the last month I have tried to describe conservative power in Washington, but with a small change of emphasis I could just as well have been describing the failure of liberalism: the center-left’s inability to comprehend the current political situation or to draw upon what is most vital in its own history. - - - SNIP Historically, liberalism was a fighting response to precisely these conditions. Look through the foundational texts of American liberalism and you can find everything you need to derail the conservative juggernaut. But don’t expect liberal leaders in Washington to use those things. They are “New Democrats” now, enlightened and entrepreneurial and barely able to get out of bed in the morning, let alone muster the strength to deliver some Rooseveltian stemwinder against “economic royalists.” - - - End of SNIPPET More Here

[BREAK] Well, my fervor for Tasini takes a boost from a NY Times knock. And don't you just love it when the premiere media organ to help garner support for Bush's Baghdad Blunder, by publishing weeks on end worth of lies as to WMD and Iraq connections to Al Qaeda, deigns to explain and render innocuous Hillary's support for the war??? The Times has yet to successfully explain its own war mongering. And the Times, in a rare glimpse beneath the Gray Lady's skirts, seems to allow why it comes out so soon with an endorsement against Jonathan Tasini:

Mr. Tasini, a labor leader who once successfully sued The Times on behalf of freelance writers, is the politically impractical candidate from the left that many commentators incorrectly imagined Ned Lamont to be when he challenged Mr. Lieberman in Connecticut. Mr. Tasini deserves credit for making the run and we are sorry that Mrs. Clinton did not respond to his demands for a debate. But it is hard to imagine him working well in a large body of egotistic and generally conservative politicians.

Tasini fought the Times . . . and Tasini won! ===== [/BREAK] A Senate Primary in New York - New York Times - - - SNIP Mr. Tasini, a labor leader who once successfully sued The Times on behalf of freelance writers, is the politically impractical candidate from the left that many commentators incorrectly imagined Ned Lamont to be when he challenged Mr. Lieberman in Connecticut. Mr. Tasini deserves credit for making the run and we are sorry that Mrs. Clinton did not respond to his demands for a debate. But it is hard to imagine him working well in a large body of egotistic and generally conservative politicians. - - - End of SNIPPET More Here

[BREAK] This "pensions hurt us all" story has been the corporate media story du jour for months now. It's as if the retired/retiring workers suddenly grabbed guns and robbed the cash from the company. The headline, "Cost of Pensions Adds to Factory Town’s Troubles", sure makes "pensions" the bad guy. Of course, they usually fail to mention the fact that the workers could have taken the pension funds as pay/cash in their contracts, but chose to allow the company to invest that portion of the money the employees could have taken as salary after collective bargaining. They chose to allow that money to be a form of forced retirement savings . . . not knowing that when it came time to collect they'd suddenly be made to beg, negotiate again or just be denied the pension. In many of these sleight-of-hand corporate bankruptcies, the retirees lose much, if not all, of what had been promised/offered to them in return for their labor. Keep in mind, it was their money! It is not some gift that the corporation grants the retiree, out of the magnanimous generosity of the corporate board. But let's look at another huge cost facing society today. When was the last time you saw a headline like "Huge tax breaks given by [local/state/Federal] government[s] to large corporations are causing cut backs in government services." Can't remember? Neither can I! And, with the corporate media we have today, you're not likely to see many of those. But those tax breaks/gifts hurt us all, just the same. ===== [/BREAK]

Cost of Pensions Adds to Factory Town’s Troubles - New York Times LOCKPORT, N.Y. — For two and a half years, Michael Tucker was mayor of this small city by day and an autoworker by night. Then in May, he became one of the nearly 50,000 workers at General Motors or its former Delphi parts division to take buyouts, lured by the $33,000-a-year pension his company offered. That pension, and a smaller one he expects to collect from the state after his years as mayor, makes him a little unusual in a nation where more and more workers are not covered by such plans. But now, as mayor of Lockport, Mr. Tucker, 49, is seeing the budget of this city north of Buffalo consumed by the kind of pension and retiree health care costs that helped push Delphi into bankruptcy. So he is preparing to do what his former employers, G.M. and Delphi, have already begun to do: ask the city’s five unions for concessions, including limiting wage increases and cutting benefits, when labor contracts expire next year.

More Here

[BREAK]
Karl Rove sycophant Bob Novak first released Valerie Plame's status as a CIA operative, and then exposed her cover company, Brewster, Jennings & Associates, as being a CIA front. By doing so, Novak and his sources assured that not only would Plame's career be ruined, everyone who had any contact with Brewster Jennings would now be in danger. As we now know that Plame was the head of a large group that was gathering intelligence on any WMD program in Iraq, you could safely guess that any Iraqis known to have spoken with anyone associated with Brewster Jennings, as well as all those CIA assets who worked under that cover company, were placed in jeopardy by Novak and his hydra of traitorous sources!

[BREAK] Disney has this new propaganda film on 9/11 (“The Path to 9/11”)that puts the blame on Clinton. (So far, 9/11 Commision members and Richard Clarke, amongst others, have come out saying the 2-part, commercial free miniseries is full of lies.) For example, they show Clinton refusing a CIA request to kill bin Laden when they had him in their sites. In reality, the CIA says Clinton authorized the killing of bin Laden many times, every time the CIA asked.

“As we were watching, we were trying to think how they could have misinterpreted the 9/11 commission’s finding the way that they had,” Mr. Ben-Veniste said. “They gave the impression that Clinton had not given the green light to an operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. to kill bin Laden,” when, in fact, the Sept. 11 commission concluded that Mr. Clinton had.

[BREAK] For many people, being a "witness to history" is a goal. Being present when important events go down, events that shape the future and will be recorded in our texts/videos, is an exciting thing. Well citizens of River City, I'm here to tell you that, as the Chinese say, you live in interesting times. You are "witnesses to history . . . being revised." The Disney/ABC 9/11 movie is just one of many recent attempts to rewrite our past in order to shape thought in the future. (And Disney claims it avoids partisan outlooks???) As FAIR points out, it ain't just a slowly dying broadcast TV Network that is putting it's integrity in jeopardy in order to shape a national debate. The once prestigious NY Times recently gave us a half-hearted apology for allowing Mata Hari Miller (Judy) to manipulate their readers into supporting a push to war. But, as luck would have it, most readers of the Times are also familiar with other sources of news, and had realized that, based on the length the lie kept running, the front page placement of many chapters of the lie AND the financial costs and human anguish caused by the lie, the Times/Judy needed to give a much more sincere, open and moving apology. As luck would have it, once again,the NY Times saw that we are in an astrological period wherein the planet Reality is being rocked by the exaggerated "spinning" of its moon, Corporatocracy. In Astrology, they refer to the phenomenon as "The Spin." In this scenario, Corporatocracy will allow "The Spin" to take reality wherever Corporatocracy wishes. Hence, while the paper must apologize if it led folks to believe Saddam HAD WMD, it doesn't need to give any "Sorry's" to the unwashed masses if the people can be made to believe we only said:

"The possibility that Saddam Hussein might develop "weapons of mass destruction" and pass them to terrorists was the prime reason Mr. Bush gave in 2003 for ordering the invasion of Iraq."

You see, when referring to the reasons we attacked, invaded and occupied Iraq, putting in cavernous wide caveats like "possibility" and that Saddam might "develop" WMD's and might "pass them to terrorists" can make folk forget Judy's "THEY HAVE NUKES, BUBONIC PLAGUE and KLINGON LIGHT SABERS THAT BEHEAD ANY CHRISTIANS (INCLUDING CUTE WHITE CHRISTIAN BABIES) WITHOUT ANYBODY HOLDING THEM!" (A bit of poetic license, that. But, with the fear running around the town square back then, [and continuing through today]it could be said to be an accurate representation of Judy's stories effect.) So, the Times need not apologize IF the reasons Bush gave for an illegal war were factual. And, if we get to rewrite the reasons 3 years later, why wouldn't they now be reasons we could defend? And, with Bush well into "attack Iran" mode, we just have to grant him some credibility in his last push to war, even if that leaves poor reality-based History raped, bleeding and gasping with last breath in the alley of fraud. So, now we can wait for the anniversary of that September day in 2001 that Hitler attacked America, Liberals lined the streets cheering the terrorists in the planes and watching entranced as their fellow Americans jumped from the upper floors of the Twin Towers. The same times that GW Bush saved the US Constitution by protecting it with the Patriot Act and TIA program, and finally gave the tools (cattle prods, iron ladies, water-boarding kits, etc.) to our Justice system that it had long needed, and that we found, in recently discovered diaries, our founding fathers had originally written into the Constitution . . . but was deleted by a nefarious and (you guessed it) stinkin' LIBERAL printer! What's that? Oh, I see. Sorry 'bout that, Chief. My mistake!
That movie doesn't come out until September 2007! [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Once again, the NY Times proves that its new motto should be "All the news that's fit to print, unless it reflects poorly on an administration run by war criminals seeking to render the Constitution, and America's soul, into crap they can wipe from their boots!" A failed land deal, in which a powerful local politician lost money (Whitewater)? The Times' will run it to death, while peppering the front page with baseless allegations and unconfirmed rumor. A politician (Gore) has a meet and greet in a Buddhist temple . . . the Times will turn it into the story of the year. Don't even get me started on a stained blue dress from the Gap. The Times, and the Republican Congress, could not have given more prominence to an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth. But when it becomes clear that America is using torture, even to the death of captives, the Times figures that anyone searching for a small bra ad from Macy's on page 14 is worthy of hearing that tale. There is much going on in today's Amerika that I wouldn't have fathomed just 6 short years ago. But one thing I find the most telling of our current situation. If you're in NYC and you're looking for unbiased coverage of the Washington political scene, I'd recommend you bring your laptop, as the newspapers aren't what they once were so you'll want to visit news on the Internet. But should you be stuck without a vehicle to drive onto the info superhighway, I'd recommend the NY Post over the NY Times. For whatever reason, the NY Post has been covering the real stories of our ride down the moral roller-coaster on the journey to the section of Hell for citizens that allowed their country to go bad, while the Times has been spraying hot grease on the rails! ===== [/BREAK]

Columbia Journalism Review: Failures of Imagination (9–10/06) by Eric Umansky Media Views New York Times Afghanistan reporter Carlotta Gall overcame her initial reaction to learning the 2002 death of a Bagram Air Base prisoner named Dilawar was a homicide and not simply due to heart attack, as originally claimed by the U.S. military—"I remember gasping and saying, ‘Oh, my God, they killed him.' I hadn’t really been thinking that before.” But Howell Raines and other Times editors found the idea "just hard to get their mind around," despite then-Times foreign editor Roger Cohen having "pitched it, I don’t know, four times at page-one meetings, with increasing urgency and frustration.... My single greatest frustration as foreign editor was my inability to get that story on page one.” More Here

[BREAK] IF you think you're reading too much in the blogosphere about the "Path To 9/11", you're not paying attention. Remember, Bush has suddenly requested a live 15-20 minute interruption of the film's final hour (Eastern Time) to give a speech to the nation. The Repugnants are really scared . . . scared that voters will come out against them in numbers that may be hard to overcome just by corrupting the ballot count in certain areas. Well, if you don't realize how your neighbor can still be swayed by irrational fear, Karl Rove does. So, they have a movie that blames Dems come out, sans commercials, just prior to primaries across the nation and weeks before a big election. Blaming Dems for letting attacks take place (during Bush's presidency?) helps make that neighbor fill a Republican ballot. He'd rather live under a trult fascist regime, rather than chance death defending the Constitution under a Democrat who seems to be in the party at fault for the 9/11 ataacks. Sounds crazy, I know. But with the country divided, just a few confused voters can bring the Repugs close enough to steal another election. Remember, the Dems need a real landslide if they want to be sure of winning; the Repugs are well satisfied with a fairly close [but easily turned] loss. Which brings us to how that same fear can lead to the granting of powers, powers that make the Constitution moot, to someone who promises to keep the bogeyman out of your closet. Let's hope we're rid of our own bogeyman, and get back our country, real soon!! As this writer for the UK Independant reports, we started on a fear/revenge road to America's ruin just a week after 9/11. His whole piece, portions of which I cut into the "Continue reading" part of this entry (below), is well worth a read. While it points to the mess we Americans have managed to make of the planet in the last 6 years, his final paragraph highlights what, to me, is the hope and dream of every patriotic American - to be rid of a President who puts the Constitution in the drawer while he allows America's power to be misused around the globe and her troops to be abused in order to maintain corporate profits of his buds!

- - - - - - - - SNIP Were the Democrats to gain control of the House of Representatives and/or the Senate in the November mid-term elections (not very likely but certainly possible), that would at least restore the separation of powers, allowing a Democratic legislative branch to check and balance the Republican executive. Unless and until that happens, the Bush administration is likely to go on using the images and memories of September 11 to reinforce and justify the enormous boost of power it received on September 18. What further discord this turbocharged presidency may engineer here and in the larger world between now and January 2009 is the stuff of international bad dreams. - - - - - - - - End of SNIPPET

Of course, it's rather bittersweet, reading what you've known to be sad but true
. . . and then finding that only the foreign mainstream media publishes/gets it!

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[BREAK] Some members of a "daily news" mailing list I run have mentioned that I seem to have little love for America's paper of record. And, I'll admit that there are times that I question my own antagonism to the more recent incarnation of the NY Times. Not often, but there are times. (And it is not just a reaction to a publisher who decides that those who can't afford subscriptions to "Times Select" should not benefit from the edification provided by some great minds.) Then, something like this Lieberman story comes along (kudos to Atrios), and I realize that far from beating a dead horse named Judy Miller, my internal blood-boil at the gray lady is really justifiable anger. Through the years, the Times was really NOT a Liberal paper in its news content, but mainly in its editorials and commentary. As with it's Conservative sister, the Wall Street Journal, you could usually count on the news stories in both papers to be factual and unbiased. (While the editors at both papers might differ on which stories they found worthwhile to publish, with each choosing stories more reflective of their editorial outlook, the stories rarely strayed from the factual path.) But over the past decade, the NY Times has not only left a grand tradition of factual journalism behind, it has gone on to where facts are cut from stories, leaving the exact opposite meaning in a story than the facts truly portray. In the Jennifer Medina story in the Times, the headline reads "Lieberman Points Out a Turnabout by Lamont", yet, when one actually reads the full Lamont letter, one can't help but realize that the letter chastised, and did not just praise, Lieberman. Here's the verbatim first paragraph of Lamont's letter:

Dear Joe, I reluctantly supported the moral outrage you expressed on September 3. I was reluctant because I thought it might make matters worse; I was reluctant because nobody expressed moral outrage over how Reagan treated his kids or Gingrich lied about supporting term limits (in other words, it was reluctant outrage); I was reluctant because the Starr inquisition is much more threatening to our civil liberties and national interest than Clinton's misbehavior.

As with many of us, Lamont lamented Clinton's idiotic tryst in the White House. And, like most Americans, including this Liberal, Lamont was probably angry at Clinton for his televised lie to the nation. But, as with those of us who loved our country too much to allow it to be used as a venue for internecine blood sport, he found much more offence in the manner the Repugnants in Congress and their henchman, Ken Starr, dragged our country down to where America looked like a rejected episode of the Jerry Springer TV show. After the jump to "Continued Reading", below, I'll place the story, followed by the actual letter Lamont sent to Lieberman.

You be the judge!

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[BREAK] Believe what you want, the Pope is not stupid. While he'll certainly give an apology; he knew exactly what reaction his taunt would engender. If a Muslim, Jew or Buddhist had said that all Christ brought to religion was "only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”, the Pope would lead the chorus of "Off with his/her head!" Yet, historically, a case could be made. Begin with the Inquisition and the Crusades and carry forward to GW Bush grabbing Jesus's coat tails every time he wants to kill and/or a few thousand more people. The fact that some whackos like Osama and Bush use religion as a force for evil should not be cause to condemn whole religions or their founders. ===== [/BREAK]

The Pope’s Words - New York Times Published: September 16, 2006 There is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.” In the most provocative part of a speech this week on “faith and reason,” the pontiff recounted a conversation between an “erudite” Byzantine Christian emperor and a “learned” Muslim Persian circa 1391. The pope quoted the emperor saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” - - - SNIP The Vatican issued a statement saying that Benedict meant no offense and in fact desired dialogue. But this is not the first time the pope has fomented discord between Christians and Muslims. In 2004 when he was still the Vatican’s top theologian, he spoke out against Turkey’s joining the European Union, because Turkey, as a Muslim country was “in permanent contrast to Europe.” - - - End of SNIPPET

More Here

[BREAK] I've liked to think that by keeping myself "aware," by keeping well informed, by reading voraciously, I and a large portion of the beings on this great nation with me have kept ourselves way above the fawning wackos who so eagerly fell for the Anti-Christ, Rapture and Second Coming crowd of fear mongers. We aware ones had no need to even acknowledge, let alone confront, those who so yearned for strict moral leadership that even sanctimonious evil (albeit evil that is poorly camouflaged by a covering cloak manufactured from a hodgepodge of misused religious phraseology and symbols) commanded their adoration and sacrifice. The fact that instead of debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, these priests of evil debate how much torture the masses would allow and pretended to care about the Constitution and Geneva Convention protections for detainees. We aware ones just shook our heads while observing how pseudo-moralistic fascist's who spout anti-fascist and oxymoronic rhetoric (Islamo-Fascists!, the Bushies cry) were allowed to confidently order the waste the lives of their most ardent worshiper's sons and daughters by using them as cannon fodder for artificially conceived wars, as the modern day corporate-government sock puppets knew colorful yellow-ribbons, red meat speeches and material carrying a red,white and blue pattern would suffice as reason for the ill informed worshipers. Today's Washington Post story, Corruption That Shook Capitol Isn't Rattling Elections, shows that we forget/forgive so quickly, it's a wonder more politicians don't cross the line. And, yes. Corporatist's have infiltrated both sides of the political spectrum, but there's still some difference between the Repugnants and the Dems.) That miraculous anxiety-numbing salve, of arrogant super-ego mixed with a dollop of disinterested sophistication, that kept many of us sated has been steadily and progressively weakened in the past few years, as more and more people fell under the spell of the war criminals who currently lead much of the Earth's human population. The ability to see right through the smoke and mirrors that Karl Rove and his ilk used to stupefy the masses no longer brings any relief or comfort, as the US is losing two wars, suffering the deaths of thousands of young troops, causing the deaths of a multitude of innocents and making preparations to add a third country to George Bush's death march to a bankrupt Empire. Now that we have placed war, war anytime/anywhere/anyone, above all other priorities, we can not handle any domestic crisis. Ask a homeless Katrina victim, an uninsured sick child, a veteran from Afghanistan/Iraq needing treatment or a 9/11 Ground Zero rescue worker who can't get medical care for his/her scorched lungs or decrepit kidney. Domestic security is in shambles, from poor port security, through flawed flight security to failed programs to protect us from bio-terrorism. And, while America is certainly leading the civilized world in deconstructing back to a more primitive state, it ain't just us yanks going crazy. While some sociopaths use their own warped interpretation on the Koran to try and justify mass murder, we have a Pope who decided to pick at scabs covering centuries of wounds from Christian and Muslim battles, then offended many Jews with his belated apology to the Muslim faithful. In England, our partner in crime and an exhausted ally in Iraq/Afghanistan, the now centrist Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, is holding on by its fingertips, while the Conservatives are salivating over polls that show them taking over Britain. In Germany, neo-Nazism is on the rise, to the point that swastikas are near to becoming a common fashion accessory. In France, escalating discrimination has led to bloody riots. In Darfur, where tens of thousands have died and over 200,000 have fled their country, and in other Hell-On-Earth spots that dot the globe, killing on a scale that could make Hitler envious is proceeding on a daily basis. And the march of right-wing governments are increasing as if contagious. [/BREAK]

[BREAK] Getting rid of our war mongering, torture loving, elitist, science despising, corporate puppet(see "A Quiet Break for Corporations - washingtonpost.com") of a President won't, I'm sorry to say, even begin to get our once proud America back. Public education MUST be radically reformed if we are to have any hope of raising generations that will excel and help generate economic benefits, while having the general knowledge that leads to critical thought and a love of the rights, privileges and opportunities a true democratic republic like ours (once was?) can bring. (And other more administrative idiocy must also be reformed.) In contrast, No Child Left Behind only guarantees our kids will be capable of punching the picture of the cheeseburger on the cash register at McDonald's and fill out the easiest, but most unfair, income tax forms. So, I'll stray from the news pages here to recommend you visit