Monthly Archives: June 2008

Election

Think Progress » Will: Americans are economically better off today than they were eight years ago.

peace, mjh

Think Progress » Will: Americans are economically better off today than they were eight years ago.

In a USA Today/Gallup poll released earlier this month, a record number of Americans — 55 percent — said that their families are worse off financially than they were a year ago. But conservative columnist George Will thinks these people are just misinformed. On ABC’s This Week yesterday, Will brazenly claimed that average Americans “are better off today than they were in 2000-2001.”

Think Progress » Will: Americans are economically better off today than they were eight years ago.

NADA

Impeach Scalia!

Scalia is the most intemperate, least judicial hot-head. peace, mjh

Think Progress » Scalia: Court’s Decision Restoring Habeas ‘Will Almost Certainly Cause More Americans To Be Killed’

scalia32.jpgIn a landmark decision today, the Supreme Court ruled that habeas corpus protections apply to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. “We hold these petitioners do have the habeas corpus privilege,” wrote Justice Anthony Kennedy in the majority opinion. The decision was a “a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies,” SCOTUS Blog noted.

Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, however, is outraged. In his dissenting opinion, he devoted an entire section to “a description of the disastrous consequences of what the Court has done today,” a procedure “contrary to my usual practice,” he admitted. Scalia adopted extreme rhetoric about the impacts of the decision, calling it a “self-invited…incursion into military affairs” that would “almost certainly” kill Americans. Some lowlights:

– “America is at war with radical Islamists. … Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

– “The game of bait-and-switch that today’s opinion plays upon the Nation’s Commander in Chief will make the war harder on us. It will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.”

– “Today the Court warps our Constitution.”

– “The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today.”

It is unlikely that the Supreme Court’s decision will have the impacts that Scalia claims. As Kennedy explained, “Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system they are reconciled within the framework of the law.” Discussing the restoration of habeas at Guantanamo last year, Colin Powell noted:

The concern was, well, then they’ll have access to lawyers, then they’ll have access to writs of habeas corpus. So what? Let them. Isn’t that what our system’s all about? And by the way, America, unfortunately, has too many people in jail, all of whom had lawyers and access to writs of habeas corpus. And so we can handle bad people in our system.

But as a cheerleader for the administration’s terrorism policies, Scalia’s rhetoric isn’t surprising. It is “absurd” to say that you “can’t stick something under the fingernails,” or “smack [a detainee] in the face,” he said in February. “No. To the contrary,” Scalia said when asked whether torture violates the “cruel and unusual punishment” clause.

Think Progress » Scalia: Court’s Decision Restoring Habeas ‘Will Almost Certainly Cause More Americans To Be Killed’

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 06/15/2008 | America’s prison for terrorists often held the wrong men

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents
has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

McClatchy interviewed 66 released detainees, more than a dozen local officials — primarily in Afghanistan — and U.S. officials with intimate knowledge of the detention program. The investigation also reviewed thousands of pages of U.S. military tribunal documents and other records.

This unprecedented compilation shows that most of the 66 were low-level Taliban grunts, innocent Afghan villagers or ordinary criminals. At least seven had been working for the U.S.-backed Afghan government and had no ties to militants, according to Afghan local officials. In effect, many of the detainees posed no danger to the United States or its allies.

The investigation also found that despite the uncertainty about whom they were holding, U.S. soldiers beat and abused many prisoners.

Prisoner mistreatment became a regular feature in cellblocks and interrogation rooms at Bagram and Kandahar air bases, the two main way stations in Afghanistan en route to Guantanamo.

While he was held at Afghanistan’s Bagram Air Base, Akhtiar said, “When I had a dispute with the interrogator, when I asked, ‘What is my crime?’ the soldiers who took me back to my cell would throw me down the stairs.”

The McClatchy reporting also documented how U.S. detention policies fueled support for extremist Islamist groups. For some detainees who went home far more militant than when they arrived, Guantanamo became a school for jihad, or Islamic holy war.

It’s as if BushCo’s goal was to add fuel to the global fire and guarantee a generation of international warfare. Madness? Yes. peace, mjh

Election

When Did Lying Lose Its Magic?

Watch for a pattern in the following. peace, mjh

The Back Forty » McCain Adviser Stays Classy – Lies with a Smile
By Tracy Russo

Nice job, Carly.

On Fox News today, Carly Fiorina, who is a top economic adviser to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), blatantly distorted Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-IL) tax proposals. When Fox’s Martha MacCallum noted that Obama says he wants to “put money back in people’s pockets and give them tax cuts,” Fiorina claimed that Obama has “not proposed one single tax cut”

Fiorina’s assertion is flagrantly wrong and disingenuous. In fact, Obama prominently touts his plan to “cut income taxes by $1,000 for working families” on his website:

obama-tax-cut.jpg

Obama even touted his tax cut plan in a widely covered speech yesterday, saying that it would “provide $1,000 of relief to 95% of workers and their families.”

In the same segment, Fiorina claimed that her boss, John McCain, “has been very explicit about the taxes he will cut.” But she neglected to mention that McCain is far from explicit in explaining how he’ll pay for massive deficits created by his tax proposals. In fact, he refuses to name a single program he’ll cut.

The Back Forty » McCain Adviser Stays Classy – Lies with a Smile

Think Progress » McCain denies his record of supporting Social Security privatization. 

During his town hall event in New Hampshire yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) got into a verbal back and forth with a voter over his support for Social Security privatization. McCain told the man, “I’m not for, quote, privatizing Social Security. I never have been. I never will be.” Watch it:

But McCain’s record begs to differ:

– “Without privatization, I don’t see how you can possibly, over time, make sure that young Americans are able to receive Social Security benefits.” [C-Span Road to the White House, 11/18/2004]

– “As part of Social Security reform, I believe that private savings accounts are a part of it — along the lines that President Bush proposed.” [Wall Street Journal, 3/3/2008]

Not only was McCain “a big booster” of Bush’s 2005 plan to privatize Social Security, but one of his top economic advisers, Carly Fiorina, recently told conservative radio host Bill Bennett that McCain “supports private accounts as one of the ways to reform the system” and that “he will continue to be supportive of those.”

Think Progress » McCain denies his record of supporting Social Security privatization.

Think Progress » Sen. Martinez Calls Out Dick Cheney’s Lie On Oil Drilling Off Coast Of Cuba 

In a speech before the Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney – the former CEO of the oil services company Halliburton — called for a substantial increase in domestic drilling for oil and other natural resources.

In his speech, Cheney claimed that China is pumping for oil off the coast of Florida, noting that “even the Communists” understand the need for more drilling:

It’s my own view that we should be drilling in ANWR in an environmentally responsible way, which could increase our daily domestic oil production by as much as a million barrels a day. As for other locations, George Will pointed out in his column the other day that oil is being drilled right now 60 miles off the coast of Florida. But we’re not doing it, the Chinese are, in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to high prices is more supply.

Mother Jones and the Gavel note that Reps. John Boehner (R-OH) and Roy Blunt (R-MO) have uttered the same talking points. It’s false. And they’re being called out on it by a conservative senator who knows more about the issue than they do.

Armed with maps and reports, Sen. Mel Martinez – a Florida Republican who served in Bush’s cabinet – took to the Senate floor to dispute Cheney’s claim

Think Progress » Sen. Martinez Calls Out Dick Cheney’s Lie On Oil Drilling Off Coast Of Cuba

Election

OMG! ROFLOL!

Think Progress » DeLay On Obama: ‘Unless He Proves Me Wrong, He Is A Marxist’

On right-winger Mike Gallagher’s radio show today, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), who is currently facing charges of money laundering and conspiracy to launder money, launched a fringe attack on Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) by claiming that he is a Marxist. “I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist,” DeLay declared.

Gallagher couldn’t agree more, saying “that’s what he is”:

GALLAGHER: Yeah, that’s, we hear that everyday. Congressman, every day someone will say to me, and I’ve said it, it’s as if this were a guy who’s desperately trying to cover up what seems to be the kind of old school Marxist, radical liberal failed ideology.

DELAY: Absolutely.

GALLAGHER: That’s what he is.

DELAY: No doubt about it.

other voices

This Week’s WTF!?

Gas will *never* be as cheap as it has been. Supplies will *never* keep up with demand — unless the economy collapses. We will *never* drill our way out of this dead-end. Wake up. Stop whining. Change. peace, mjh

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Letters To the Editor

Thank Environmental Wackos for $5 Gas
CONGRATULATIONS to the politicians in Santa Fe on their recent decision to haul waste products from drilling locations from sites in New Mexico.
This is just another sample of the irrational thinking that has brought us to seeing $4 per gallon gas when we fill up our cars with this product. This started when Bill Clinton vetoed drilling in that beautiful ANWR that a lot of folks will visit.
We also have coming down the tracks the Lieberman/Warner Climate Security Act that has just come out of Barbara Boxer’s Environmental and Public Works Committee. This will add an estimated $1.50 to $5 per gallon of gas to the current price, according to industry experts. The energy industry is not faultless with their record-setting profits.
Let us send Santa Fe some $5 per gallon gasoline from the San Juan Basin and perhaps the legislators can jump on King Bill’s train and go up to the Galisteo Basin and enjoy the beautiful environment. They might also stop and buy some corn on the cob at $5 per ear — thanks to ethanol — and have a snack.
Everyone else can have a nice day pedaling their bikes around town and take time to thank the idiotic environmental whackos!
ROGER BILLINGS
Farmington

Election

The Catbird Seat (or the Crosshairs)

NM Could Decide the 2008 Race (no really!) – Duke City Fix

Electoral-vote.com classifies our state as “barely Democrat”. In New Mexico in 2000, Gore defeated Bush by 366 votes. In 2004 Bush beat Kerry by 5988 votes. It is conceivable that in 2008, New Mexico might decide who the next President is by a state margin of less than half a percentage point.

Each Party Is Set to Hunt The Other’s Usual Ground

An analysis of past elections shows remarkable stability. States the Democrats have won in four of the past five elections add up to 255 electoral votes; states Republicans have won in five of the past seven elections (including two Ronald Reagan electoral landslides) account for 269 electoral votes. New Hampshire, New Mexico and West Virginia, representing 14 electoral votes, fall into neither category.

In 2004, 13 states were decided by seven or fewer percentage points: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

2008 Electoral Map Based On Intrade Prediction Market

Democrat: 289
Republican: 227 [-13]
Dead Heat: 22 [+13]
Total: 538 (270 to win)

Election 2008: Presidential, Senate and House Races Updated Daily

Obama 287 McCain 227 Ties 24

The Back Forty » Sweet Seventeen By Sean Reagan

While not backing off its 50-state strategy, the Obama campaign is prepping for a 17 state focus – key battlegrounds where they’ll be directing the bulk of their resources.

The seventeen states are: Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

Obviously a lot of these are swing states – Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania. A couple – Georgia and North Carolina – are eye-openers, but as I noted earlier, forcing the Republicans to spend time and money in places they don’t want or didn’t expect to, is a net gain for Democrats.

[Sean Reagan] might’ve added a couple states – Montana and Maine most notably – but on whole it’s a sound list.

The other point to be made is that many of the states have a significant rural constituency. In terms of population, New Hampshire and North Carolina are ranked 11th and 12th respectively. Wisconsin and Missouri are 20 and 21.

Altogether, ten of the seventeen are ranked above the U.S. average of 21% rural population.

If Obama plans to win in these states, then he’s going to have to win the urban areas (at which he excels) but also pick up votes in the hinterlands. He’s already indicated that he knows this. Going forward, the fight for rural votes may be one of the most exciting stories of this election.

http://www.ruralvotes.com/thebackforty/?p=108

Election

Kudos to Wilson (and Laura Bush)

A latent and lamentable sexism – New Mexico Independent

In a brief piece entitled “Hermione Clinton,” Wilson lays the blame in part on “a latent and lamentable sexism”:

She [Clinton] lost because the superdelegates — the Democratic establishment — went against her.

She became a caricature: too smart, too strong, too assertive, too rational, too competent. Think how the young Harry Potter and his male friends initially reacted to Hermione Granger and you get the idea.