mjh's blog

Lucky Lady

I have to pass on this story of ‘living a charmed life.’ Happy New Year to us all!

mjh

Dr. Koop- Is There a Doctor on Board? Yes, 15 of Them

If you’re going to have a heart

attack on a transcontinental jet, make sure there’s a doctor on board.

In 67-year-old Dorothy Fletcher’s case, there were plenty of

them — and not just doctors, but cardiologists.

When the Liverpool grandmother started having severe chest pain aboard the England-

to-Orlando flight, a stewardess yelled out, “Is there a doctor on the plane?” According to an account from BBC News Online, 15 passengers

shouted, “Yes.” Turns out they were on their way to a cardiologist convention in Florida.

Your Tax Dollars At Work — Saving Sinners

Bush’s brother opens first ‘faith-based’ prison

Christmas in Florida ushered in America’s first ”faith-based prison” a sprawling jail in rural northern Florida, in which 800 inmates from 26 faiths are blending hallowed time with hard time.

Governor Jeb Bush, President George W Bush’s younger brother, dedicated the prison on Christmas Eve, saying it would encourage spirituality and – he hoped – cut reoffending. …

In addition to regular prayer sessions, the jail, which holds “mid-level felons” – men convicted of burglary, hold-ups, car theft and assault – will offer religious studies, choir practice and religious counselling seven days a week. There will also be job training and classes in subjects such as “parenting” and “character building”. …

Like his brother in the White House, Gov Bush believes that the best way to rehabilitate criminals is to “lead them to God”.

Don’t laugh: there are many on the Right who hope Jeb will be the third President Bush. No, this is not a Saturday Night Live skit. God help us. mjh

Bush is Corporate America’s Buddy

Edwards Sets Work Safety Plan By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD, NYTimes

Accusing the Bush administration of failing to protect workers, Senator John Edwards of North Carolina will announce a plan to decrease workplace deaths and injuries by strengthening laws and hiring more federal safety personnel, his campaign said Tuesday. …

”George Bush did not enact new laws or increase funding to protect our workers,” Mr. Edwards said in remarks released by his campaign on Tuesday for delivery in Iowa on Wednesday. ”He did not push employers to better protect their employees. He did the exact opposite. He rolled back worker safety standards, and made them voluntary. He proposed cutting OSHA’s work force by 77 people. And he continues to ensure that breaking existing laws amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.”

The Talk Radio Campaign

Bush’s Campaign Finds Platform on Local Radio By JIM RUTENBERG, NYTimes

While the Bush campaign maintains a low profile on the national campaign stage — content for now to watch the Democrats beat on one another — it is aggressively working the expansive hustings of Republican-friendly talk radio, priming the grass roots faithful for battle next year. …

It is a network that the Democrats do not have — though they are trying to cultivate one — and one that Mr. Bush’s campaign strategists believe will give him an edge in an election that could go to whichever side best mobilizes its core voters.

Presidents have used radio to reach voters virtually since its invention. But strategists and radio experts say the Bush campaign has taken it to a new level of sophistication, using it far earlier in the campaign cycle and appearing regularly on shows with even the tiniest of audiences. …

The Republican courtship of talk radio began in earnest in 1994, when Newt Gingrich used the medium to push the “Contract With America” and, ultimately, bring about a Republican majority in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Bush’s political staff further perfected the strategy in the 2002 midterm election, when they invited radio hosts to the White House to interview top officials less than a week before the vote.

Cutting our own throats

CNN.com – Rivals hit Dean for criticism of Democratic Party boss – Dec. 29, 2003

Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for former Vice President Al Gore, said Republicans would be taking notes during the Democrats’ primary battle.

Brazile’s old boss has endorsed Dean, and she said she was particularly disturbed about an anti-Dean ad that used an image of bin Laden to raise questions about Dean’s national security credentials.

“If I was Karl Rove, all I’d have to do is look at the other campaign’s daily talking points,” Brazile said. “The party is sitting on it’s ass, and I think that’s a big mistake.”

Democrats for Bush

This is an interesting piece with a troubling conclusion. Democrats must consider how many in their party will vote for Bush. Too many voters are impressed by the bully cowboy. mjh

A Democrat breaks with tradition By P. Amy MacKinnon

When Mr. Bush first ran for president in 2000, I found both his politics and his campaign methods anathema to the American concept of justice. I was with the many who questioned whether his intellect, interest, and experience were commensurate with the demands of being the leader of the free world. I didn’t approve of his so-called middle-class tax cuts, nor his incorporating nuclear power into his energy plan, nor his judgment in appointing an attorney general inclined to sheathe immodest works of art.

But then Sept. 11 happened. Our nation needed the strength of a leader, and I wondered where we’d find one.

For nearly 25 years, America has been under attack by Muslim fundamentalists – attacks virtually unanswered by all presidents as far back as Jimmy Carter.

We’ve somehow confused the systematic massacre of Americans for random acts of violence, though the collective onslaught – catalogued even incompletely – seems in retrospect to be a clear declaration of war: ….

So in November, I’ll break with tradition and vote for a Republican. I’ll place my trust, fears, and future in the hands of a man who has shown the world what it means to lead a nation. It’s a tradition of leadership that began with Washington and Lincoln, continued with FDR, and has been resurrected by Bush. It’s a tradition I expect our future presidents to follow.

• P. Amy MacKinnon, a freelance writer, has worked for Democrats in Congress and the Massachusetts State House.

Firing Government Workers (start with Bush)

The Salt Lake Tribune — Privatization cuts Forest Service jobs By Robert Gehrke

Dozens of Forest Service employees in Utah and Montana are spending their last days on the job after becoming some of the first victims of the Bush administration’s program to cut costs by privatizing government work. …

The decision came despite a cost estimate showing that government employees could do the work for $425,000 a year less than private contractors.

“We can make a pretty strong case for keeping us on board, but nobody gave us an opportunity to do that,” said Karl Vester, whose last day on the job was Friday. “The Forest Service should be ashamed for what they’ve done to us.”

It was all part of a Bush administration initiative to determine if agency functions could be done more efficiently by the private sector.

The Forest Service spent $24 million on outsourcing studies in the past year, 93 percent of which showed it was cheaper for government employees to continue the work.

See also: mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: The End of Public Service

The Potential Threat of A-76
A Bush Administration Initiative Could Have Grave Consequences

Oil Industry Owns US

The Salt Lake Tribune — Energy bonanza creating a stampede By Robert Gehrke

Oil and gas companies eager to drill in the Rocky Mountain West appear to have an ally in the Bush administration, which is approving wells at a pace well ahead of the Clinton administration and looking to get even faster.

An Associated Press review of thousands of applications to drill on Bureau of Land Management land since 1998 shows a 34 percent increase in the number of wells approved under Bush when compared with the last three years of the Clinton administration.

The vast majority of the permits, 94 percent since 2001, are clustered in five states: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — a key region in the administration’s push to open more public land for energy development.

The BLM has received nearly 26,000 applications to drill wells and approved nearly 19,000 since 1998 — nearly three of every four. …

The AP review found that, during the first 33 months of the Bush administration, the BLM approved 9,876 wells, or about 299 per month. In the final 40 months of the Clinton presidency, 8,934 wells were approved, or 223 per month.

The volume of permit applications has also grown fairly steadily, from 3,790 in 1998 to 4,715 in 2003. The number approved has fluctuated some, but has generally increased as well.

Oil and gas companies contributed nearly $2 million to Bush’s 2000 campaign and have already given nearly $1 million to his re-election bid, according to campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. The industry has contributed $29 million to political campaigns since 1999, with roughly 80 percent going to Republicans.

Billions of dollars are at stake….

Rumsfeld 40 Years Ago vs Today

Government Executive Magazine – 1/30/01 Rumsfeld faces big choices in second tour at Pentagon By George C. Wilson, National Journal

[Rumsfeld's] first [tour as Secretary of Defense] ran only 14 months from Nov. 20, 1975, to Jan. 20, 1977…

On the basis of his 14-month tour, Pentagon reporters in a survey conducted by Armed Forces Journal in 1979 voted him the worst Defense Secretary up to that time; they voted fellow Republican Melvin R. Laird, formerly a Congressman from Wisconsin, the best.

[Rumsfeld was a congressman representing] Illinois’ 13th District (Chicago) from 1963-69. …

In 1966, he was one of only 38 Republicans to vote against increasing the minimum wage from $1.25 to $1.60 an hour. He also opposed spending federal money to establish the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities, and he opposed such Great Society initiatives as Medicare, mass transit, and anti-poverty programs. …

During the Vietnam War-on Aug. 30, 1966-Rumsfeld told his House colleagues that it “is beyond me” why the huge contract awarded to Brown and Root [now a subsidiary of Halliburton!] of Houston and other U.S. firms to build air fields and other facilities in South Vietnam “has not been and is not now being adequately audited. The potential for waste and profiteering under such a contract is substantial.” [I guess he got over that.] …

He believed while a lawmaker that Congress, especially the House, should have a larger say in military and foreign affairs. He declared, for example, on March 18, 1968, while the Vietnam War was raging: “The executive needs parcels of extraordinary power to deal with extraordinary situations. However, I question whether the executive should have the range of powers in the range of situations that is the case today.” Three years earlier he said: “Congress must be able to do more than merely nod yes or no to presidential proposals-whether out of apelike obedience or uninformed obstinacy.” [Clearly, he got over this.] …

“The point, I think, that I feel so strongly about is the fact that certain people of this country, in order for them to support something, requires that there is an understanding of it,” Rumsfeld said on July 10, 1967.

Windfalls of War – The Center for Public Integrity
Continue reading Rumsfeld 40 Years Ago vs Today…

A referendum on our direction as a nation

Bush Advisers, With Eye on Dean, Formulate ’04 Plans

President Bush’s campaign has settled on a plan to run against Howard Dean that would portray him as reckless, angry and pessimistic, while framing the 2004 election as a referendum on the direction of the nation more than on the president himself, Mr. Bush’s aides say. …

As a Bush strategist put it, Dr. Dean’s rivals are ”doing a great job for us” with their increasingly tough attacks on him. …

Mr. Bush’s campaign aides left little doubt that if Dr. Dean captured the nomination, those Democratic criticisms would be put to service in Republican television advertisements next year, a tactic that would fit with the White House’s general goal of keeping Mr. Bush personally above the partisan fray.

Bush wants a ‘referendum on the direction of the nation’? Fine: is this nation going to move farther to the right than any time since Joseph McCarthy? Are we going to let the President amass more power than any time since the Civil War? Are we going to let the Radical Right completely dismantle the New Deal and the Great Society? Bush is no Teddy Roosevelt; Bush is right of Nixon and more dangerously deceptive. mjh

Journalists should do their job

New Year’s Resolutions By PAUL KRUGMAN, NYTimes

[T]here can be no illusions: President Bush has turned this country sharply to the right, and this election will determine whether the right’s takeover is complete. …

Beware of personal anecdotes. Anecdotes that supposedly reveal a candidate’s character are a staple of political reporting, but they should carry warning labels.

For one thing, there are lots of anecdotes, and it’s much too easy to report only those that reinforce the reporter’s prejudices. The approved story line about Mr. Bush is that he’s a bluff, honest, plain-spoken guy, and anecdotes that fit that story get reported. But if the conventional wisdom were instead that he’s a phony, a silver-spoon baby who pretends to be a cowboy, journalists would have plenty of material to work with. …

Look at the candidates’ records. A close look at Mr. Bush’s record as governor would have revealed that, the approved story line notwithstanding, he was no moderate.

Your Tax Dollars At Work — Monitoring You

USATODAY.com – Federal surveillance technology to be tested at T.F. Green

A system able to detect ”unusual activity” by anyone inside the airport. For example, the technology could identify an individual who has put down a piece of luggage and left, and then track that person moving through the airport, Cheston said. …

Cheston brushed off concerns about a Big Brother-type of system.

“Everyone should know that if they’re coming to the airport, they’re going to be looked at [...],” he said.

…every single second — how long before this extends to people who have ever been at an airport? mjh

Tracking Suspicious Behavior

Government Computer News (GCN) daily news — federal, state and local government technology; TSA seeks vendors to detect terrorists by checking public data

The Transportation Security Administration has invited proposals from contractors to perform advanced terrorist threat analysis of the agency’s job candidates and employees.

”The analysis should be able to confirm an individual’s identity using public records data, and use that confirmed identity to provide insight and information as to whether the individual presents a potential terrorist threat or has possible connections to potential terrorists,” the agency said in a procurement notice posted Dec. 17.

Makes sense to check your job applicants and employees, doesn’t it? Read on.

The Homeland Security Department agency said potential terrorists might not be on watch lists and might ”try to achieve relative obscurity by constructing typical lifestyles on U.S. soil. In so doing, they will develop an ‘electronic footprint’ of publicly available information that can be acquired and used as a key input for” terrorist threat analysis.

Some terrorists who have not established a significant or useful electronic footprint may still be detected by their lack of such a footprint, TSA said.

Follow the logic: you’re suspicious for leading a normal life and you’re suspicious for leading an unusual life (for having a ‘footprint’ or lacking one).

The procurement notice says the contractor should be able to analyze the records of at least 30,000 individuals in 120 days. Contractors will be required to provide a facility approved for top-secret work and employees with top-secret security clearances.

Responses to the solicitation were due yesterday afternoon.

Finally, note two things: the need to analyze 30,000 people in 120 days (must be planning a lot of job applicants at TSA). Also, this bid was open for exactly 1 week — probably only enough time for someone with lots of computing power and advance insider notice to put a bid together. Halliburton or EDS — which do you want spying on you? mjh

The End of Public Service

Even a non-political publication like American Archaeology sees the threat of the Bush administration.

The following excerpts are from an article not available online. The article documents the Bush administration’s efforts to privatize everything — the end of public service. Searching for ”efficiency,” Bush would have every civil servant replaced with Wal-Mart employees making less than minimum wage. mjh

The Potential Threat of A-76
A Bush Administration Initiative Could Have Grave Consequences For Public Archaeology.
by Elizabeth Wolf

Circular A-76, first drafted during the Eisenhower Administration and revised by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) over the years, is the government’s vehicle for conducting public-private cost comparisons. President Bush says A-76 “competitive sourcing” promotes government efficiency and gets the most bang for the taxpayer’s buck even if the jobs ultimately stay in the public sector. …

The manner in which the A-76 process was initiated took a heavy toll on the morale of the [Southeast and Midwest Archaeological Centers'] staffs [mjh: and their budgets and time].

Competitive sourcing is the most controversial component of the President’s five-part Management Agenda. [It is seen by some] as a bald attempt to shrink the civil service and reduce government accountability to American citizens.

Welcome to American Archaeology