Baghdad visit gives big boost to Bush By Stephen Dinan, The Washington Times

A new poll shows President Bush has received a ”substantial immediate” boost in popularity and approval ratings after his surprise visit with the troops in Iraq on Thanksgiving.

The National Annenberg Election Survey compared polling from the four days before Thanksgiving with the four days following the holiday and found significant changes on everything from Mr. Bush’s personal likability to his job performance to the country’s direction.

Well, I had my own ”daily outrages” before I ran across Matt Bivens’. I recommend you check out his blog (Thanks, Jas!) mjh

the daily outrage by Matt Bivens, The Nation

Welcome to ”The Daily Outrage,” your last best hope to keep up with the blizzard of Bush-era bad news. Whether they’re cutting down your forests, raiding your retirement funds, reading your email or shrinking your constitutional rights, the Republican (sometimes it’s bipartisan) assault advances by the hour. The outrages come so fast that it’s hard for even well-read citizens to stay abreast. So this column will provide you with a regular update on their doings. Pass it on.

Bush Baghdad trip distracts media from black sheep brother By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles for independent.co.uk news

[T]he sight of the President serving Thanksgiving turkey to the troops has also served to overshadow – at least for the moment – a catalogue of potential political embarrassments created by his younger brother. Neil Bush caused trouble for their father, President Bush the first, more than a decade ago because of his role in the collapse of a savings and loan company that ended up costing American taxpayers $1.3bn (£750m). Now he is in trouble again, largely as a result of the startling revelations from a highly acrimonious divorce. …

Potentially more damaging revelations – certainly for the Oval Office – concern business rather than pleasure, and the strong impression that Neil might have taken brazen advantage of his membership of America’s most powerful political family to make a killing on business deals. …

Whether any of this might damage the President or not, it adds to a conviction that the Bush family has been trading off its political connections for years.

So, Duhbya’s little brother cheats on his wife, sleeps with numerous prostitutes, takes large sums from others for nothing more than access. Where is the moral outrage of the holier-than-thou Right? Or are they too busy planning to run Neil after Jeb’s 8 years in the White House? mjh
(Thanks to Jas. for the news)

Newsday.com – President’s Brother Has $2m Contract In China By Warren Vieth and Lianne Hart, LOS ANGELES TIMES

Neil Bush, a younger brother of President George W. Bush, has a $400,000-a-year contract to provide business advice to a Chinese computer chip manufacturer, according to court documents. …

“There’s certainly the appearance of influence being sought,” said Charles W. McMillion, a Washington business consultant who advised a congressional commission on U.S.-China policy. “If nothing else, it doesn’t look good.” …

[T]he president’s brother acknowledged that he knew little about the industry he had just joined.

A Bush in Bed With Beijing? from The Daily Outrage, by Matt Bivens, The Nation

Now consider the case of Neil Bush — the former president’s son, current president’s brother — whose frank admissions in court testimony to screwing around in Thailand and Hong Kong, and taking huge sums of money from Chinese political players for murky services, are somehow barely even news — much less front-page, what-the-heck, what-does-Congress-think news.

Shifts in States May Give Bush Electoral Edge By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, NYTimes

Beyond issues like Iraq and the economy is one political reality that both the White House and Democrats say is already shaping next year’s presidential race: If President Bush carries the same states in 2004 that he won in 2000, he will win seven more electoral votes.

That change, a result of a population shift to Republican-friendly states in the South and West in the last several years, means the Republicans have a slight margin of error in 2004 while the Democrats will have to scramble just to pull even. …

”Before a vote is cast, we’ve increased our margin,” Matthew Dowd, chief strategist for Mr. Bush’s campaign, said. ”In a race that’s very close, those small readjustments in the electoral map will have significance.”

Because of those shifts, both sides predict that 15 states may be up for grabs: Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine and Florida. …

“No matter how well the economy is doing, no matter how well we’re doing in Iraq, and even if we’re running the best campaign in the world, this election will be decided within a margin of 4 or 5 percent,” Mr. Dowd said.

Op-Ed Columnist: Hack the Vote By PAUL KRUGMAN, NYTimes

Inviting Bush supporters to a fund-raiser, the host wrote, ”I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” No surprise there. But Walden O’Dell — who says that he wasn’t talking about his business operations — happens to be the chief executive of Diebold Inc., whose touch-screen voting machines are in increasingly widespread use across the United States.

For example, Georgia — where Republicans scored spectacular upset victories in the 2002 midterm elections — relies exclusively on Diebold machines. …

[Y]ou don’t have to believe in a central conspiracy to worry that partisans will take advantage of an insecure, unverifiable voting system to manipulate election results. Why expose them to temptation?

[L]et’s be clear: the credibility of U.S. democracy may be at stake.

See also Can we trust electronic voting machines?

G.O.P. Option at Convention: Luxury Liner By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, NYTimes

It is being billed as the perfect place for celebrations during the Republican National Convention next summer, with shows, fine works of art, health clubs, bars, cafes, amazing views, luxury staterooms and restaurants serving cuisine from around the world. And it is just a short walk to Midtown.

But before its visitors can cross a New York City street, they will have to pass over a gangplank. The Norwegian Dawn, a 2,240-passenger luxury cruise liner, has 15 decks, 14 bars and lounges and babbling brooks. But even docked at a pier on the Hudson River, it is not New York City. And, to many critics, that is the point.

The House majority leader, Tom DeLay, would like the ship to serve as a floating entertainment center for Republican members of Congress, and their guests, when the convention comes to New York City next Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

”Our floating hotel will provide members an opportunity to stay in one place, in a secure fashion,” said a spokesman for Mr. DeLay….

Mr. DeLay’s idea has infuriated a cross section of New Yorkers, much to the delight of Democrats and the embarrassment of some Republicans. …

Republican strategists say being docked on the Hudson River would send out the message that they are a bunch of elitists who will not mingle with city residents — and just might be ducking New York’s laws, including the one that prohibits smoking in public places….

Still, few Republicans are willing to publicly challenge Mr. DeLay, whose nickname in Congress is the Hammer. …

One Republican strategist said he imagined that New York tabloids would run headlines like “Ship of Fools” or “Titanic.” …

Mr. DeLay has indicated that he has no plan to back off.

Mr. DeLay has won power — and loyalty — from Republican members of Congress by making sure they were treated luxuriously. He saw to it that House ethics rules were changed so that members could accept free trips and lodging to attend charity events.

This is the perfect metaphor for the Radical Right: a castle and moat to keep out the impoverished rabble while the rich indulge themselves endlessly. Didn’t the Right used to call the Left “elitists”? Probably still do — the hypocrits! mjh

See also: Tom Delay is corrupt

[The brochure] invites potential donors to give as much as $500,000 to spend time with Tom DeLay during the Republican convention in New York City next summer….

See also: Tom Delay: ‘I am the federal government.’

[Speaker of the House Tom] DeLay recently revealed how he felt about rules of general applicability. When he tried smoking a cigar in a restaurant on federal property, the manager told him it violated federal law. His response, according to The Washington Post, was, “I am the federal government.”

Editorial Observer: Turning Northeast Wyoming Upside Down in the Hunt for Coal-Bed Methane By VERLYN KLINKENBORG, NYTimes

The Powder River Basin is the most active region of coal-bed methane drilling in the nation, a place where in the next few years more than 50,000 wells will have been drilled to obtain, at most, a year’s supply of natural gas. …

In Wyoming, and in much of the country, mineral extraction is still considered the highest and best use of the land. … Extracting coal-bed methane means draining groundwater that is often charged with toxic salts. …

I’ve come to think of the coal-bed methane industry as a metaphor for something deeper that’s going on in our country. The methane play, as the industry likes to call it, is being sold on the grounds of energy security, as a way of ensuring that the American lifestyle can continue uninterrupted and undiminished. But what that means is turning everything upside down. All that drilling and scarring, all that animosity and moral erosion lead to one year’s supply of natural gas and the waste of billions of gallons of water.

Americans could essentially create that amount of energy through conservation, which is the true source of energy security. But conservation turns no profits, not to the owners of subterranean mineral rights or the gas companies or the pipelines or the lobbyists who drive this kind of extraction through the highest levels of government. No. The methane play is about short-term profits, not long-term security. A deal gets done, and soon you no longer recognize the country you live in.