mjh's blog

Half-true

A Half-true Attack on McCain – FactCheck.org

Summary

The conservative anti-tax group Club for Growth targeted 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain with a TV ad in New Hampshire. It contains a half-true claim that McCain would “keep the death tax.” In fact, McCain has long advocated reducing the number subject to the tax, so that it falls only on the estates of multi-millionaires.

The ad also misleads viewers by saying, “when you die, the IRS can tax you again. Taking as much as 55 percent of everything you’ve saved for your children.” In fact, only estates exceeding $1.5 million currently pay any tax on that wealth. It fell on fewer than 1 percent of all Americans who died in 2004.

Delusions of Grandeur

Bush Calls Iraq War Moral Equivalent Of Allies’ WWII Fight Against the Axis
By Peter Baker and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Page A07

CORONADO, Calif., Aug. 30 — Invoking the spirit of Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Bush on Tuesday cast the war in Iraq as the modern-day moral equivalent of the struggle against Nazi fascism and Japanese imperialism in World War II….

Although Bush gave his speech only hundreds of yards from the towering hulk of the USS Ronald Reagan at Naval Air Station North Island, the White House made certain the ship was not in the television shot — an image that could remind viewers of the president’s 2003 speech on the Iraq invasion given on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in front of a premature “Mission Accomplished” banner.

President’s Poll Rating Falls to a New Low

By Richard Morin and Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writers

the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found Bush’s job approval rating at 45 percent, down seven points since January and the lowest ever recorded for the president in Post-ABC surveys. Fifty-three percent disapproved of the job Bush is doing. …

Dissatisfaction is not limited to the president. Fewer than four in 10 Americans — 37 percent — approve of the way the Republican-controlled Congress is doing its job, the lowest rating for lawmakers in nearly eight years.

The survey also provided bad news for Democratic leaders, who are judged as offering Bush only tepid opposition. Slightly more than half of those surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with congressional Democrats for not opposing Bush more aggressively.

Pollute More

New Rules Could Allow Power Plants to Pollute More
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 31, 2005; Page A01

The Bush administration has drafted regulations that would ease pollution controls on older, dirtier power plants and could allow those that modernize to emit more pollution, rather than less.

The language could undercut dozens of pending state and federal lawsuits aimed at forcing coal-fired plants to cut back emissions of harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, said lawyers who worked on the cases.

The draft rules, obtained by The Washington Post from the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group, contradict the position taken by federal lawyers who have prosecuted polluting facilities in the past, and parallel the industry’s line of defense against those suits.

Political Yard Signs Belong in YARDS

MR and I have discussed this issue for many election cycles (the full story is below). We believe yard signs belong in yards, not in public spaces. So, starting with this entry, I intend to highlight candidates who violate this simple guideline: put your yard signs in someone’s yard — nowhere else.

When you see a candidate’s signs in many yards, you know that candidate has real people supporting him or her. When you see yard signs in public spaces, you know that candidate has at least one hard working volunteer and some money to waste — but possibly no support whatsoever. The way to get signs in people’s yards is to meet them; the way to get signs in public spaces is to sneak around at night, like those exuberant Bush supporters who nailed Bush signs high on telephone poles in my neighborhood to make them hard to remove. Turns out it was quite easy with a golf club.

Today’s inaugural violator is Wayne Johnson. On my morning bike ride, I saw many, many of Wayne Johnson’s yard signs in various public spaces and only one in a yard (Wayne’s own yard?).

Mr Johnson: I will not consider voting for you until you remove your signs from public spaces. peace, mjh

The back story:
Continue reading Political Yard Signs Belong in YARDS…

Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent – the fourth straight increase

Poverty Rate Rises to 12.7 Percent By JENNIFER C. KERR, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Even with a robust economy that was adding jobs last year, the number of Americans who fell into poverty rose to 37 million _ up 1.1 million from 2003 _ according to Census Bureau figures released Tuesday.

It marks the fourth straight increase in the government’s annual poverty measure.

The Census Bureau also said household income remained flat, and that the number of people without health insurance edged up by about 800,000 to 45.8 million people. …

Overall, the nation’s poverty rate rose to 12.7 percent of the population last year. Of the 37 million living below the poverty level, close to a third were children.

The last decline in overall poverty was in 2000, during the Clinton administration, when 31.1 million people lived under the threshold. Since then, the number of people in poverty has increased steadily from 32.9 million in 2001, when the economy slipped into recession, to 35.8 million in 2003.

The poverty threshold differs by the size and makeup of a household. For instance, a family of four was considered living in poverty last year if annual income was $19,307 or less. For a family of two, it was $12,334.

The Rio Grande Foundation

Greg Burton’s Albuquerque Blog — Who Are These People?

But who are these people? Well, the Rio Grande Foundation is a “free market” based economics foundation. In other words, they’ve got a bias towards the free market, regardless of whether or not it’s appropriate for the given discussion.

The president is John Dendahl. That should tell you something to start with.

That may say it all. Thanks to Greg Burton for looking deeper into the recent gun-for-hire column shooting down a raise to the minimum wage (and for the link to edgewiseblog); read the rest of his entry. peace, mjh

The Front Range Ranger Express

The Cherry Creek News – High Speed Commuter Rail Plan Unveiled

Imagine a high speed … commuter railroad whisking passengers from Cheyenne along Colorado’s Front Range to Albuquerque and from Denver to Vail. That’s the goal of “Ranger Express.”

Initially, high speed commuter rail service would run along the Front Range, from Fort Collins through Denver’s Union Station to Pueblo. High speed trains between Denver to Vail and connections to Cheyenne and Albuquerque would come later.

“Ranger Express could speed intercity and interstate travel, reduce highway traffic along I-25, I-70 and connecting roadways, and reduce the need to build new highways,” said Bob Briggs, head of the Front Range Commuter Rail, a nonprofit organization set up to get the project off the ground.

Briggs says the first hurdle is to get the federal government to designate the route as a high speed commuter rail corridor. Colorado Senator Ken Salazar is leading that effort.

“I believe we have the opportunity to create a high speed commuter rail system to link our major population centers and set the stage for the next century,” said Senator Salazar when he announced support for the plan.

“It is time to study this project’s feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and most importantly its impact on local communities. No matter the outcome of the study we need to find solutions now to our future transportation problems,” Salazar said. …

Briggs says the first service could begin as early as 2014.

This is a fantastic idea. Don’t let the inevitable hoots from the cheap bastards stop this. The initial funding is insignificant (too little, no doubt). It will be expensive to build, but we are only going up from $70/barrel for oil and $3/gallon for gas. Nuclear-powered cars are a few years off.

I’ve long thought one should be able to take a train from Las Cruces to Taos.

Every mile of highway should have a mile of rail right with it; we should have rail running right down the middle of I-25 and I-40 from border to border. Imagine sitting in traffic and watching the train speed by — that’ll get people out of their cars. mjh

New Mexico’s Rail Runner Commuter Rail

COLORAIL: A Voice For Colorado’s Rail Passengers

Bush to propose cutting Amtrak subsidies – U.S. Business – MSNBC.com

The Bush administration will for the first time propose eliminating operating subsidies for passenger train operator Amtrak as part of a push to cut budget deficits, people close to the budget process said Tuesday. President Bush’s fiscal 2006 budget, which he will send to Congress Monday, will allocate no subsidy for Amtrak to run its trains. [mjh: note that is from February 2005 -- I don't know what happened since.]

Raise the Minimum Wage!

ABQjournal: Mandated Minimum Wage Ships Jobs Outside City Limits By Kenneth M. Brown and Micha Gisser, The Rio Grande Foundation

Obviously a $7.50 minimum wage would send a bad signal to out-of-state firms considering moving here, depending on their wage structure.

But more important would be the not-so-subtle message that Albuquerque municipal government stands ready to insert itself into private working arrangements between companies and their employees. What’s next, they would wonder. Albuquerque would never again make one of those “Best Of” lists produced by Forbes magazine and others.

The logic of a mandatory minimum wage is flawed. Basically, it is the philosophy that a government can force producers to pay employees more than the value of their contribution to production.

Yes, let’s send a message to companies looking our way. Paint your CEO gold; bury your board in cash; reward your shareholders royally. But pay those at the bottom of it all enough to live on. If you intend to enrich the top by starving the bottom, look for a real Red State.

Brown and Gisser, who you can be sure made more than $7.50 an hour for this article, use the shotgun approach in their drive by the minimum wage issue. Raising the minimum wage will ruin everything every way imaginable. I, for one, would be delighted to see a single McDonald’s or WalMart close up and move to Los Lunas or New Delhi — ain’t gonna happen. I’m sure Texas will welcome the Rio Grande Foundation with open arms when they move to El Paso to save $2/hour per employee.

Note that B&G’s argument could be used to do away with the federal minimum wage entirely. It is, in fact, the job of government to “insert itself” in lots of areas corporations and profit-takers would rather government stay out of, including many matters of health and safety that impact the bottom line.

Opponents of a living wage often say if one doesn’t want a minimum wage job, one should get an education. I’ve taught UNM Continuing Education for over 17 years. Classes have never been more expensive. Someone on minimum wage can’t afford to take a class.

What has happened to the notion of risk-taking? Do we no longer believe in trial and error, experimentation, observation and revision? Can’t we try something and risk failure? Conservative no longer means cautious, it means fearful. Let’s try raising the minimum wage and reconsider it in a few years — if we were wrong, will Albuquerque really become a ghost town in that short interval? mjh

PhD of ID

This is where ID supporters are taking us. Get your doctorate of bible sciences. mjh

Lawsuit: UC biased vs. Christians

A group representing California religious schools has filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California system of discriminating against high schools that teach creationism and other conservative Christian viewpoints.

The Association of Christian Schools International, which represents more than 800 schools, filed a federal lawsuit Thursday claiming UC admissions officials have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin’s theory of evolution. Other rejected courses include “Christianity’s Influence in American History.”

According to the lawsuit, the Calvary Chapel Christian School in Murrieta was told its courses were rejected because they use textbooks printed by two Christian publishers, Bob Jones University Press and A Beka Books.

Say No to Subtlety!

Taipei Times – archives

“You are giving hope and encouragement to the enemies of America,” said former California assemblyman Howard Kaloogian, a Republican who co-founded Move America Forward, the group that coordinated the rally. …

At the pro-Bush rally, there were some heated moments when two members of Protest Warrior, a group that frequently holds counter-protests to anti-war rallies, walked in with a sign reading “Say No to War — Unless a Democrat is President.”

Many Bush supporters only saw the top of the sign and believed the men were war protesters, so they began shouting and chasing the pair out. One man tore up their signs.

[Other signs said:
stop aiding our enemies
traitors are not welcome in Texas]

QOTD

“Maybe the hand of God is everywhere in the universe,” says Dave Thomas, an Albuquerque scientist and president of New Mexicans for Science and Reason. “But it’s not the job of science to dust for (his) fingerprints.”

ABQjournal: Theologians In Conflict Over Controversy

Born OK the First Time

Watch very closely what is happening in the debate over evolution. Proponents of “Intelligent Design” (ID) insist they just want discussion; they want open-mindedness. Right. Anyone who believes Duhbya when he says it’s good to ask questions has never seen him at a press conference. His mind is made up — he wants YOU to question YOUR beliefs and realize his are the right ones.

ID is simply the latest facet of the culture war, the war being waged by Reactionaries against the rest of us. Don’t trust the media. Don’t trust the government. Don’t trust the courts. Don’t trust the teachers. Trust God and his chosen spokesmen. Believe completely what you are told by these few and no others.

Science is a path and a discipline. The term “pseudo-science” is sometimes applied to ID, but ID is, in fact, anti-science. ID says science CANNOT EVER explain the complexities of life. ID doesn’t just say evolution has so far failed to explain things — science can NEVER explain certain things. Accepting that means accepting that when you reach the limits of whatever you don’t yet understand, you cannot move beyond those limits. God starts at the edge of your ignorance. Under that view, the more ignorant you are, the closer you are to god.

I have a proposal to any proponent of ID. I will allow the possibility there was something divine involved at some point in the development of the Universe IF you will allow the possibility that there never, ever was a god and religion might be full of nonsense. We might both be correct. Fair enough? mjh

ABQjournal: From UNM, 2 Different Views; Biologist, Biochemist Share Their Thoughts By John Fleck, Journal Staff Writer

Intelligent design’s central claim is that living organisms have characteristics too complex to be explained by evolution, where random changes in DNA, survival of the fittest and lots of time are evoked to explain the diversity of life we see today. An unnamed “intelligent designer” must have been involved, the idea’s advocates claim. …

At its heart, the debate is a battle over the definition of science itself.

For more than 300 years, the fundamental goal of science has been to try to find naturalistic explanations for what we see in nature, according to University of New Mexico science historian Timothy Moy.

The resulting scientific method of observation, experiment, hypothesis testing and constant revision of ideas, scientists note, has been remarkably successfully at explaining the natural world and providing the technology that underpins modernity.

Invoking a supernatural being to explain the mysterious, as pre-scientific cultures had done, is not part of that process.

When, for example, physicists struggle with their inability to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity, it would never occur to them to invoke a supernatural being and call it solved. “That would not be a scientific argument,” Moy said. …

One of the problems driving the debate, according to Moy, is that science is so esteemed in modern society that everyone wants its stamp of approval for their body of knowledge.

I was stunned by that last assertion. If Moy really believes that, he is stunningly out of touch with America. We believe in God and the Devil and that both take a personal interest in our daily lives. We believe the Bible is literally true. We believe the Founders were Christian zealots. We believe Jesus rode dinosaurs. We believe Indiana Jones was a great archaeologist and Jurassic Park is coming soon. We believe Magic is more powerful than Science. mjh

ABQjournal: Intelligent Design Evidence Ignored By Paul Veers, Engineer

Intelligent design is neither bad science nor stealth creationism. It is a means of setting up mathematically verifiable tests for chance, necessity, or a third possibility, design.

If design is found, it could well raise the issue of its source. The ensuing discussion about the possibility of a creator is a separate issue to be dealt with outside the realm of science.

But it appears from the vehemence of the attacks against intelligent design that the scientific establishment intends to squelch even the possibility of following the evidence wherever it might lead.

Veers is so out-of-touch with the majority of ID supporters it is unreal. mjh

Penguins, People and a Grisly Bear Tale By George F. Will

“March of the Penguins” raises this question: If an Intelligent Designer designed nature, why did it decide to make breeding so tedious for those penguins? The movie documents the 70-mile march of thousands of Antarctic penguins from the sea to an icy breeding place barren of nutrition. These perhaps intelligently but certainly oddly designed birds march because they cannot fly. They cannot even march well, being most at home in the sea. …

But the penguins are made for that behavior in that place. What made them? Adaptive evolution. They have been “designed” for all that rigor — meaning they have been shaped by adapting to many millennia of nature’s harshness. …

Reality’s swirling complexity is sometimes lovely, sometime brutal; its laws propel the comings and goings of life forms in processes as impersonal as Antarctica is to the penguins ….. It is so grand that nothing is gained by dragging an Intelligent Designer into the picture for praise. Or blame.

Like Will, whom I seldom agree with, I thought a great deal about Intelligent Design during March of the Penguins, which is hardly scientific in its approach. If there was a designer of penguins, he was cruel and sadistic. mjh

ABQjournal: Theologians In Conflict Over Controversy By Paul Logan, Journal Staff Writer

“I would certainly have to say we don’t take the Book of Genesis literally — that God made the world in six days,” Sheehan said. “It’s a religious teaching and not a scientific teaching that Genesis gives.” …

There is a concern that the cardinal’s article could move the church away from evolution theory and toward intelligent design, he said.

Pope John Paul II spoke on evolution several times. In a 1996 message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, he said:

“New knowledge leads us to recognize in the theory of evolution more than a hypothesis … The convergence, neither sought nor induced, of results of work done independently one from the other, constitutes in itself a significant argument in favor of this theory.”

“To tell the truth, more than the theory of evolution, one must speak of the theories of evolution … ”

Some scientists consider intelligent design a thinly disguised version of creationism. Thomas called it “creationism in a lab coat.” …

“The Roman Catholic Church does not accept Scripture literally,” Rev. Andy Pavlak, a Dominican priest, said.

I can’t wait to see evangelicals attack Catholics as lacking faith. I wonder if Catholics will ever regret joining forces with the Bible Literalists like our President. mjh

PS: the title of this entry (“Born OK the First Time”) was reported to me by friends who saw it on a bumper sticker.

Religion – RELIGION TODAY: Among influential American evangelicals, a sense of persecution persists – sacbee.comBy RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer

To outsiders, conservative Christians seem at the peak of their influence.

Books by evangelical pastors Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are multimillion best sellers, megachurches are building satellite congregations to meet demand, conservatives control Congress and, most importantly, religious activists helped put a Bible-believer in the White House.

Yet, many evangelicals still consider themselves a persecuted majority, hounded by “secular fundamentalists” intent on driving religion from public life.

Opponents find this view baffling. Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School in North Carolina and a critic of the religious right, says evangelicals consider themselves oppressed only because some Americans disagree with them.

“They want to be culture dominant,” Leonard said. …

The sense of being outsiders has historical roots as well. For much of the 20th century, liberal-leaning Protestants were considered the mainstream of American Christianity, while biblical traditionalists were generally marginalized and often mocked.

Starting around the 1960s, as mainline Protestant denominations started losing members, conservative churches were growing, yet evangelicals still felt shut out. A new emphasis on personal freedoms was pushing organized religion to the sidelines of public life.

U.S. Supreme Court decisions supporting abortion-rights and prohibiting public school officials from organizing or leading prayers and devotional Bible reading were also part of this troubling shift for evangelicals….

Behind the conflict about religion in public life is a debate within Christianity itself over how the Bible should be interpreted and which view should be considered the norm. Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, warned recently that Christianity is experiencing a “global identity crisis.”

Gibbs said conservative Christians need to accept that they live in a nation that is becoming ever more diverse, and that no single Christian group will have a “privileged voice” in society.

“You’ve got to find ways of being heard within that context,” Gibbs said. “But we shouldn’t get angry or try to reclaim the past.”

I’m not laughing with Dimdahl, I’m laughing at him

ABQjournal: Richardson Won a Battle, But CYFD’s Bolson Won War By John Dendahl

Laugh of the Month: Richardson remains obstinate. Despite environment-friendly natural gas production on super-enviro Ted Turner’s Vermejo Park Ranch next door, drilling for natural gas in the Valle Vidal is vigorously opposed by some special interests. Vowing to do all he can to prevent Valle Vidal drilling, Richardson recently told the opponents, “We are not going to stand for special-interest management of the public domain.” Say what?

Lifelong New Mexican John Dendahl is a retired executive and political leader. E-mail: jdendahl@swcp.com

Those “special interests” Dimdahl denegrates include a diverse group of tree huggers like me plus hunters and outdoors people, Gary Fonay, former president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, and Northern New Mexico rancher Alan Lackey, a Republican and a founding member of the Coalition for the Valle Vidal, who has pointed out the networks of roads and well pads that have sprung up on the Vermejo Park Ranch….

It is Dimdahl who remains obstinate and misleading. mjh

Fool me twice, Shame on me

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / Power line fails, 700,000 homes blacked out

In one of the most severe electricity problems since the energy crisis, blackouts hit Southern California on Thursday after a major transmission line was knocked out, cutting power to roughly 700,000 homes.

Just because the last crisis was a phony, created by a friend of Duhbya’s and leading directly to the rise of Republican Governor Schwartzeneggar, that’s no reason to be cynical about this crisis — this crisis is real, don’t you know. mjh

News > Business — FERC wants closure to energy crisis” href=”http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20050813-9999-1b13refunds.html”>SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Business — FERC wants closure to energy crisis

California has sought $9 billion in refunds for electricity and natural gas that it says was over-priced due to market manipulation by some of the nation’s biggest energy firms.

Reliant settles issues involving California energy crisis – 2005-08-15

Houston-based electricity provider Reliant Energy Inc. announced Monday morning that it has reached a $445 million settlement over litigation and regulatory investigations stemming from the sale of electricity during California’s energy crisis in 2000 and 2001.