Gov. Doyle by the numbers

John Gard's whining retort to last night's speech by Gov. Doyle deserves to be exposed with a few bright shining facts pulled directly from the recent Wisconsin Bienium budget:

When Governor Jim Doyle assumed office in January 2003, he inherited a situation unlike that faced by any previous Wisconsin Governor: a $3.2 billion deficit. Caused by nearly two decades of a state government living beyond its means, even in times of unprecedented economic growth, the state faced serious choices. For years instead of confronting the fiscal realities, decisions had been made to delay solving the problem until another day.

In facing this historic deficit, Governor Doyle remained committed to balancing the budget without raising taxes. He firmly believed that the taxpayers of Wisconsin had done their part and they should not pay the price for the fiscal mismanagement of previous Governors and legislators. He proposed a budget that...

• cut agency requests by nearly one billion dollars
• reduced spending on state operations by nearly 10%
• eliminated 2900 positions, and
• balanced the budget without raising taxes.
• At the same time, he invested nearly $200 million in education
• protected vital local services, and
• insured access to affordable health care for Wisconsin's working families and seniors.

Since the passage of Governor Doyle's first budget, and the enactment of many of the key provisions of his Grow Wisconsin plan, Wisconsin has been on the move. In the past year, the state has created 70,000 new jobs, leading the Midwest in job growth and the entire nation in the resurgence of manufacturing employment.

The results of the gains in the state's economy are reflected in the revenue estimates for the 2005-07 biennium produced by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. They project a healthy growth in state revenues of $485 million in FY06 (4.3%) and another $599 million in FY07 (5.1%). Leading this growth is a surge in individual income tax revenue, generated by growing employment and rising wages. The revenue estimates assume a 6.6% growth in individual income tax receipts in FY06 and 6.9% in FY07, following a strong 6.7% gain in this year.

Despite the upbeat economic news, the state still must deal with a $1.6 billion deficit. The deficit results from the remaining fiscal problems leftover from the reckless decisions that led to the $3.2 billion deficit, cost pressures caused by the national economic slowdown, and the accelerating costs of Medicaid and the diminishing federal support for financing it.

As with Governor Doyle's initial budget, a key guiding principle in developing the 2005-07 budget is to balance the budget without raising taxes. Creating a more competitive tax climate fosters economic growth by attracting more companies to locate in the state and encouraging businesses to expand their operations within the state. Consequently, the 2005-07 budget does not raise income, sales, corporate, or excise taxes.

Not only does the budget not raise taxes, but taxpayers in Wisconsin will benefit from a number of tax reductions that will begin to take effect during this biennium including the single factor sales tax reform, the dairy modernization tax credit, the venture capital tax credits, and the energy sales tax exemption for manufacturers.

Eliminating a $1.6 billion deficit without raising taxes, and meeting the goal of two-thirds funding of schools, requires tough fiscal choices in the rest of the budget. As with Governor Doyle's first budget, this one makes significant cuts in state government spending to balance the budget and free up resources to invest in the most critical functions of state government. The budget reduces the size of state government by eliminating over 1,800 positions, bringing the total reduction over the last two budgets to nearly 4,000 . The budget reduces expenditures for basic state government operations by $272 million. The overall growth in state GPR spending is a modest 3.7% in FY06 and 3.9% in FY07.

Over 90,000 uninsured kids...
Governor Doyle's budget starts with the central belief that the state should do everything it can to preserve eligibility and benefits for the Wisconsin citizens who depend on the state for health care. Cutting off hundreds of thousands of people from access to health care, like many other states are doing, is shortsighted and only exacerbates a serious problem. Those who lose their coverage are then less likely to receive preventive care, end up with worse health conditions, and utilize emergency rooms rather than doctors' offices. The costs of their care are usually assumed by the health care industry, and eventually passed on to the businesses and individuals who purchase health insurance.

The budget places assessments on nursing homes and HMOs and uses the money to leverage additional federal funds and then pay back the providers with higher rates. In the current Medicaid environment this is one of the few ways states can attract additional federal dollars and it is a system that many states are adopting.

The budget also transfers $180 million from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund to pay for the health care quality initiatives, fund supplemental payments to hospitals (direct graduate medical education, rural hospitals adjustment, pediatric service adjustments, and essential access to city hospital), and help keep hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin residents on medical assistance. The fund currently has a balance of over $700 million and a recent independent analysis suggested it was over funded by as much as $200 million.

Finally, the money from the Injured Patients and Families Compensation Fund will be placed in a new Health Quality Fund, along with the proceeds of up to $130 million from the issuance of revenue bonds, to support the critical health services provided by Medicaid. The bonding will attract an additional $177 million in federal revenue to support Wisconsin health care programs. If, however, the current revenue estimates are too conservative, additional state revenue will be used to replace the bonding.

It's hard to listen to the King of pork barrel spending complaining about the Governor's plans to work for the best interests of the people of Wisconsin. It must be frustrating for the Republican leadership, so constrained by their Gods, Guns and Gays agenda, to have to listen to such a powerfully uplifting and broad based agenda that puts healthy kids at the top of the list. It must be painful for John Gard to get needled once again by the Governor's plans to encourage Wisconsin medical research teams to continue leading the way in stem cell research.

Governor Doyle has already made that U-turn John... away from pork barrel spending based on campaign donor payback. Where will we get the money to help the people of Wisconsin? From the money we won't spend on corporate welfare for greedy cash siphons like Wal-Mart.

Try to find a big D in this list

While the media tries to portray this as a fair 'n balanced scandal, the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics says the following is a list of officeholders and candidates that received political donations specifically from Abramoff since 2000:

Tom DeLay (R-Texas). John Ashcroft (R-Mo.). Frank A. LoBiondo (R-NJ). Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). John Ensign (R-Nev.). Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.). Charles H. Taylor (R-NC). Chris Cannon (R-Utah). Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). Mark Foley (R-Fla.). Richard Pombo (R-Calif.). Christopher S. "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.). Curt Weldon (R-Pa.). Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). Doug Ose (R-Calif.). Ernest J. Istook (R-Okla.). George R. Nethercutt Jr. (R-Wash.). Jim Bunning (R-Ky.). Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.). Tom Feeney (R-Fla.). Dan Burton (R-Ind.). Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Suzanne Terrell (R-La.). Rob Simmons (R-Conn.). Charles W. "Chip" Pickering Jr. (R-Miss.). Connie Morella (R-Md.). Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.). James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.). James M. Talent (R-Mo.). John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.). John Thune (R-SD). Tim Hutchinson (R-Ark.). Bob Smith (R-Fla.). Bob Ney (R-Ohio). CL. "Butch" Otter (R-Idaho). Carolyn W. Grant (R-NC). Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.). Elizabeth Dole (R-NC). Heather Wilson (R-NM). J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.). Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). James V. Hansen (R-Utah). John Cornyn (R-Texas). Kimo Kaloi (R-Hawaii). Marilyn Musgrave (R-Colo.). Mike Ferguson (R-NJ). Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). Ralph Regula (R-Ohio). Ric Keller (R-Fla.). Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.). Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Thad Cochran (R-Miss.). Dave Camp (R-Mich.). Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). Tom Young (R-Ala.). Bill Janklow (R-SD). Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.). Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.). William L. Gormley (R-NJ). Bill McCollum (R-Fla.). Bill Redmond (R-NM). Bob Riley (R-Ala.). Claude B. Hutchison Jr. (R-Calif.). Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.). Francis E. Flotron (R-Mo.). George Allen (R-Va.). Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). Walter B. Jones Jr. (R-NC). Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). Bob Smith (R-Fla.). Joe Pitts (R-PA). Charles H. Taylor (R-NC). Bob Ehrlich (R-Md.). Charles R. Gerow (R-Pa.). Ed Royce (R-Calif.). Elia Vincent Pirozzi (R-Calif.). Jerry Weller (R-Ill.). Mark Emerson (R-Utah). Tom Davis (R-Va.). Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).

The Tribes that hired Abramoff are the ones that made fair 'n balanced contributions down both sides of the aisle. You'll even see Barbara Boxer and Paul Wellstone on their list.

Wolf Blitzer recently asked Howard Dean this question: "Should Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff... give that money to charity or give it back?"

Dean: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff. Not one. Not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican, every person under investigation is a Republican, every person indicted is a Republican, this is a Republican finance scandal, there's no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money and we've looked through all those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

Blitzer: But there... but... but... through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.

Dean: ...There's no evidence for that either... they took money from Indian tribes, but they aren't agents of Jack Abramoff... I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared, they should be scared. They haven't told the truth, they have misled the American people and now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this."

Blitzer: Unfortunately, Mr. Chairman, we've got to leave it right there...

Dear Herb

Does any of this sound familiar to Wisconsin's Democrats? Does anyone have a sharp pencil? Dear Sen. Kohl...

Are Voters Ready to Dump Lieberman?
by EMILY BIUSO
[posted in The Nation online on January 11, 2006]

At the close of a regular Democratic Town Committee meeting in Manchester, Connecticut, in December, 79-year-old Joe Rafala, a World War II veteran and party worker for more than sixty years, decided he had had enough with the state's junior senator, Joe Lieberman.

Rafala, like many in Connecticut, had voted for Lieberman in the past but is troubled by Lieberman's continued public support for the Iraq War. Before the meeting adjourned, Rafala presented a surprise motion proposing that the committee reproach the senator by sending him a letter criticizing his stance on Iraq.

"I was upset about our boys and girls in the armed forces getting killed, coming home in body bags," Rafala says. On January 3, the committee overwhelmingly passed the resolution. Rafala, who considers himself a moderate Democrat, speaks for many in the state who have tired of Lieberman's constant cheerleading for the war and for President Bush. "This man has gone too far," he says.

It's pretty unusual for a Democratic Town Committee to formally criticize its Democratic senator. Lieberman appears to be taking the action seriously, as he has offered to meet with Rafala and others from the committee early next week. But the senator's office did not respond to requests to comment for this article.

Lieberman has been a fixture in Connecticut politics since 1970, when he served in the State Senate. He was a popular state attorney general in the 1980s, and voters catapulted him to the US Senate in a stunning upset in 1988 against incumbent Lowell Weicker. Though liberals griped at Lieberman's frequent backbends toward the center, support for him remained strong. In 1994 Lieberman won the largest landslide victory ever in a Connecticut Senate race against Republican Gerald Labriola. Six years later, when he simultaneously ran for re-election and stood as Al Gore's vice presidential running mate, Connecticut voters sent him to the Senate again, apparently untroubled that his ambitions appeared to lie elsewhere.

But Lieberman's support for the war has alienated many of his constituents who are frustrated with an occupation that seems to have no end in sight.

Just as a political moderate like Joe Rafala is an unlikely figure to emerge as a critic of Lieberman's stance on the war, Manchester is an unlikely town to play host to any kind of protest. Democrats have dominated local politics for thirty-three of the past thirty-five years, and registered Democrats far outnumber registered Republicans. A former mill town in central Connecticut with a population of 55,000, Manchester sits just east of Hartford. The median household income is $49,000, which is a little above the national average but below the state average. "These aren't some guys sitting around on their yachts," notes Tom Breen, a reporter at Manchester's Journal Inquirer.

The chairman of the Manchester Democratic Town Committee, 82-year-old Ted Cummings, is also a veteran of World War II; he has led the party there for forty-four years--longer than any other chairman in the state. Manchester's Democrats have traditionally been moderate, he says, but lately they've been critical of the Patriot Act and of the Bush Administration's failed attempt to privatize Social Security. Like Rafala, Cummings once supported Lieberman, but now he is fed up.

"Lieberman doesn't speak about the fundamental and most critical problems in nation-building," Cummings says. "People are asking, 'What side is he on?' "

Others in Connecticut are asking the same questions.

Myrna Watanabe, chair of the Harwinton, Connecticut, Democrats, is planning to propose a similar resolution to the committee in her northwest Connecticut town. She has been publicly critical of Lieberman recently and is hoping the other committee members will agree to admonish him in a letter. "They are disgusted with Joe," she says, "and pretty disgusted with the war."

Even longtime political allies of Lieberman are speaking out. Toby Moffett, a Democratic US Congressman who represented parts of northwest Connecticut from 1975 to 1983, overcame his reluctance to criticize Lieberman because he felt he couldn't remain silent about the war, which he calls "a gigantic, horrendous mistake."

"There's not a nicer person in politics--he's genuinely nice," Moffett says of Lieberman. "But his support for this outrageous war far outweighs that he's likable.... It's pretty serious for someone representing the state to take exactly the opposite position."

Keith Crane, a member of the Branford, Connecticut, Democratic Town Committee, was so infuriated with Lieberman that he founded DumpJoe.com. He started the group in February 2005, the day after Lieberman voted to confirm Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and built the organization--which has attracted more than 300 members so far--using connections and skills he gained participating in meet-ups for the Howard Dean presidential campaign. At a recent state Democratic fundraiser, Crane and some others handed out buttons that featured a picture of Lieberman kissing the President--an act that got them thrown out of the event. "Most people agree with us that he's a crummy senator and an even crummier Democrat," he says.

But are Connecticut voters really ready to dump Joe? Recent polls suggest that Democrats, at least, are starting to consider it. Remarkably, Lieberman's approval ratings are higher among Republicans and Independents than among members of his own party. Among Connecticut liberals, Lieberman is essentially tied with a potential challenger in the 2006 election, the maverick Republican Lowell Weicker.

It was only in December that Weicker raised the possibility of a run against Lieberman, but Connecticut has been swept up with Lieberman-Weicker fever ever since. Weicker was a Connecticut senator from 1971 until Lieberman defeated him by a slim margin in 1988. Weicker, by then an Independent, went on to become governor of the state in 1990. He has reluctantly offered himself as a Lieberman opponent this time around because, as he has told reporters, "I'm not going to give Joe Lieberman a free pass on the war."

Howard Reiter, chair of the University of Connecticut's political science department, notes the twist involved if the two decide to face off again. "When Lieberman defeated Weicker...Weicker would consistently get higher ratings in the other party than in his own," Reiter says. "It's ironic that Lieberman is in the same situation now."

Emperor's New Clothes revealed...

During President George W. Bush's 2006 State of the Union address, how many times will the President say the following words: Iraq ? Evil ? Patriot Act ? Place your bets...

Online gambling giant Bodog.com announced January 9 that it has recorded its highest volume of betting action on political wagers since entertainment-betting offerings were introduced on the site five years ago.... Record Betting on State of the Union Address; As Bodog.com Posts Odds on Bush's Ovations

Poolitics.com also has a number of small change betting pools that are entertaining... but not as funny as Will Durst's, The State of the Union Address Drinking Game- even though it was published in 2004 nothing much has changed and the jokes still work.

One for the road

Robert says:

I suggest a drinking game (a'la the Bob Newhart version) wherein everyone has to down a shot of some liquor or other everytime Bushie says any of the following phrases:

• "September the 11th"
• "We have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here"
• "War on Terra"
• "Resoloot"
• "Unwavering"
• "Vigilant"
  

The apartment owners better be prepared for overnight guests.

Let's not forget "Stay the course."
A new study by Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes have calculated that the war is likely to cost the United States a minimum of nearly one trillion dollars and potentially over $2 trillion. The economists take into account lifetime disability and health care for the over 16,000 injured and "then goes on to analyze the costs to the economy, including the economic value of lives lost and the impact of factors such as higher oil prices that can be partly attributed to the conflict in Iraq."

Said Stiglitz, "Shortly before the war, when Administration economist Larry Lindsey suggested that the costs might range between $100 and $200 billion, Administration spokesmen quickly distanced themselves from those numbers. But in retrospect, it appears that Lindsey’s numbers represented a gross underestimate of the actual costs."

Viva Hugo Citgo

Chicago is refusing Venezuelan discounted oil to low-income neighborhoods...
The Chicago Transit Authority is refusing an opportunity to alleviate commuting costs for hundreds of thousands in the Windy City's low-income neighborhoods. Instead of accepting deeply discounted fuel from the Venezuela-owned CITGO Petroleum Corporation, the city is instead raising fares to solve budget shortfalls.

Jessica Pupovac reports additional info: Chicago Turns Down Discounted Venezuelan Oil

Naughty artists in Austria

Eine Sex-Szene in Staatschefmasken, eine Frau mit EU-Slip, ein Aufruf zum Terror-Voten, EU-Galgen: Sind die Bilder der Kunstaktion "25Peaces" zu Europa gute Werbung für die EU? EU-Kampagne schlägt Wellen.

In case you don't listen to the BBC or missed hearing about this "scandal" elsewhere, Austria has experienced artshock at the hands of euroPART, an independent artists' group. Very independent indeed with a million euros grant, they embarrassed the government by covering Vienna with thought-provoking posters just days before Austria assumed the EU's rotating presidency on Sunday.

Three of the 150 works by over 70 artists from all 25 EU countries were deemed porn and have been removed, two for showing nude models wearing masks of President George W. Bush, the Queen and French President Jacques Chirac and the other a pelvic shot of a woman in a suggestive spread who wears nothing but EU-blue panties emblazoned with the stars symbol of the 25-country European Union.

"Not a single poster portrays Europe in a good light," Karl Doutlik, the head of the European Commission representation in Austria, was quoted as saying by the Kurier.

"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys," says P.J. O'Rourke.

"Giving money and power to artists is like giving water baloons to teenage boys in the closed balcony section of a movie theater," says me.

Impeachment Checklist

"We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent," Bush explains. "Do I have the legal authority to do so? The answer is, absolutely."

Many people including respected Constitutional scholar and George Washington University Professor Jonathan Turley disagree, "I think that this operation was based upon a federal crime. Under federal law, there's only two ways in order for the President to engage in the surveillance of citizens in this way. They can get a Title 3 warrant, which is the traditional electronic surveillance warrant in criminal cases, or they can get a so-called FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] warrant from the secret court. But it is a crime for someone, acting under the color of law, to order surveillance — or to conduct surveillance — unless you've gone to a judge under one of those two schemes."

1. Familiarize yourself with the Question that the Bush administration simply cannot answer:
"If time was of the essence, why didn't they conduct the searches and get the warrants after the fact, something that is allowed under the FISA law? They conducted the searches alright, but they never once sought the retroactive warrants."

2. Send an email to all of these media folks and ask them "The Question."

3. Sign Senator Boxer's petition.

4. Contact your senator.

5. Contact your congressman.

6. Contact Congressman Pete Hoekstra too.

7. File a Freedom of Information Act request HERE.

8. Sign John Conyers' petition to censure and investigate impeachment.

9. Join the guerilla marketing campaign.

10. Make a donation to ImpeachPAC.

11. Join the Impeach Bush Coalition.

12. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper asking people to consider "The Question."

(Thanks to Redneck Mother for inspiring the above list with HTML provided by Bulldog Manifesto.)

Predicting the War on Iran

Dollars, Euros and the Upcoming Iranian Oil Bourse by William R. Clark exposes the relation between oil and the US dollar. In October of 2004 he said, "In essence, Iran is about to commit a far greater "offense" than Saddam Hussein's conversion to the euro for Iraq's oil exports in the fall of 2000." - a fatal political move, but one that improved Iraq's earnings thanks to the rise in the value of the euro against the dollar.

To date, one of the more difficult technical obstacles concerning a euro-based oil transaction trading system is the lack of a euro-denominated oil pricing standard, or oil "marker" as it is referred to in the industry. The three current oil markers are U.S. dollar denominated, which include the West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI), Norway Brent crude, and the UAE Dubai crude. However, since the spring of 2003, Iran has required payments in the euro currency for its European and Asian/ACU exports - although the oil pricing for trades are still denominated in the dollar. Beginning in March, 2006, the Tehran government will begin competing with New York's NYMEX and London's IPE for international oil trades using a euro-based international oil-trading mechanism, launching the petroeuro.

"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous...Having said that, all options are on the table." - President George W. Bush, February 2005.

A Financial Times article dated June 5, 2003 - shortly after the war officially ended - announced that Iraqi oil sales had returned to the international markets - once again denominated in US dollars, not euros. Not surprisingly, this detail was never mentioned in the five US major media conglomerates.

Beware the Ides of March...
The most recent news reports indicate the Iranian oil bourse will start trading on March 20, 2006, coinciding with the Iranian New Year.

In "Doomsday for the Greenback," Mike Whitney explains, "At present, the greenback serves as the world's reserve currency, the main medium of exchange. This allows the US to pile up enormous debt while avoiding the pitfalls of skyrocketing interest rates or hyper-inflation. The $2 billion of borrowed wealth that props up the faltering empire every day comes primarily from the exporting powerhouses Japan and China."

Coincidentally on March 23, 2006 the Federal Reserve System plans to stop reporting on the M3 in contrast to continuing detailed reporting on the other three indicators of the United States money supply:

• M0: The total of all coins and banknotes in circulation. (i.e. currency)
• M1: M0 + the amount in demand accounts (also called "checking account" or "current account")
• M2: M1 + other various savings account types, money market accounts, and certificate of deposit accounts (CDs) of under $100,000.
• M3: M2 + all other CDs, deposits of euro dollars and repurchase agreements.
  

William Clark notes that “both Russia and China significantly increased their central bank holdings of the euro, which appears to be a coordinated move to facilitate the anticipated ascendance of the euro as a second world reserve currency.”

Venezuela, the only member of OPEC from the western hemisphere, and the world'’s 5th largest oil exporter, has already dumped the dollar for the euro and has given the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, until the end of this year to enter a joint venture with the state.

While the arguments for attacking Iran will hinge around their alleged attempts to attain nuclear weaponry, Bill and Kathleen Christison, former CIA analysts explain why, "...every peace activist on the globe ought to be in the streets and elsewhere lobbying in support of something very simple: do not attack Iran, even if this means allowing Iran to develop its own nuclear weapons."

In Let's Stop a US/Israeli War on Iran they say, "It is simply not worth a war... From 1945 until we invaded Iraq in 2003, we never once took military action to prevent other nations from developing nuclear weapons," including Israel, Pakistan and India. "...unless the U.S. and Israel (and other nations as well) all agree to work seriously toward eliminating their own nuclear weapons, any Iranian government will consider that it has as much right as the rest of us to such weapons," and much like Israel did until their weaponry development program was exposed, Iran will also deny that they are trying to attain nuclear weapons.

The Christisons say that Muslims around the world and many other people believe that, "Iran, with a population of close to 70 million, has at least as much right as Israel, with a population less than one-tenth as large, to have nuclear weapons."

MSNBC Poll hits 175,000

On December 21 MSNBC reporter Howard Fineman posted, "Spying, the Constitution — and the ‘I-word’ - 2006 will offer up Nixon-era nastiness and a chorus of calls to impeach Bush." Along with it a poll, that remains active and quite busy, asks readers to choose whether or not to punish Pinocchio for all of that lying and spying...

The poll just crossed 175,000 voters and the percentage who are choosing the YES button seem to indicate that George truly is a uniter and not a divider. A vast number of Dems, Greens, Repugs and Indies all seem to agree: Dubya deserves the same fair and balanced treatment we gave to Bubba before him.

Meanwhile, Washington Post's polling editor Richard Morin was online Tuesday, December 20, to discuss the new Post/ABC poll, which showed an eight point increase in President Bush's approval rating. Morin got a wee bit testy with the many participants who kept asking when he would poll on impeachment.

Dear Cliff

You have been a very good boy... and for such a long time, very ethical, fair, honest and faithful. And I know you feel like things are just not right anymore. Well, Merry Chrismaramadakwanzakkuh errr... Merry XMas. You are not alone in wondering how a President that was naughty with his secretary deserves impeachment while one who took the Nation to war over imaginary evidence presented as fact deserves to remain in office. Well, I have a surprise for you Cliff. Let me dig down in my bag.

At long last someone is asking about the I-word in a nationwide public poll...

"This is a day-show..." not polling only members of the left-wing choir. MSNBC wants to know, "Do you believe President Bush's actions justify impeachment?"

• Yes, between the secret spying, the deceptions leading to war and more, there is plenty to justify putting him on trial.
• No, like any president, he has made a few missteps, but nothing approaching "high crimes and misdemeanors."
• No, the man has done absolutely nothing wrong. Impeachment would just be a political lynching.
• I don't know.

Join the 146,000 people so far that stand united and VOTE Cliff. Then, have a Merry Christmas... and a Happy Holiday Season!

Santa!

Dear Santa

It's been over 50 years since I wrote you. I imagine you know about my being a Marine in Vietnam and my two divorces, but I have tried to be good.

I know you're busy with all the kids, but, Santa, I'm feeling too old to be this sad at Christmas.

Can you help my country be what I thought when I was a kid? I want America to be good, not just strong. I want telling the truth to be really important. I want us to respect our friends and our enemies. I want us not to torture people even if they've hurt us. I want us to be safe because people like us, not because they're afraid of us.

I know I said I didn't believe in you, Santa, but I don't know what to believe anymore. Please bring these things for Christmas; I don't know where else to turn.

Cliff Adams

Bristol

...published yesterday in a small Vermont newspaper called the Addison Independent.

Four Republican rebels

4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal
More Safeguards Needed, They Say

The four Republican rebels:

Larry E. Craig (Idaho), 202-224-2752
Chuck Hagel (Neb.), 202-224-4224
John E. Sununu (N.H.) 202-224-2841 and
Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) 202-224-6665

have joined all but two Senate Democrats in arguing that more civil liberties safeguards need to be added to the proposed renewal of the Patriot Act.

Hagel says, "I took an oath of office to the Constitution, I didn't take an oath of office to my party or my president."

"The beauty of Westerners is that we have a healthy distrust of our government," says Sen. Larry Craig, adding that gun owners are particularly leery of laws that give federal agents greater powers to secretly search offices and homes. "Whether they are business records or they are gun dealers' records or whatever, they are records that can be gained" under the law.

Sununu, whose father was a New Hampshire governor and White House chief of staff to George H.W. Bush, took issue with Bush's ultimatum. "How can the president justify vetoing the [temporary] extension?" Sununu says. "That suggests that he thinks the country is better off without any Patriot Act provisions in place than with a three-month extension. And that makes no sense at all."

"I think the responsible thing to do at this point is to move forward with a three-month extension" of the current law says Murkowski. She says she has received angry phone calls and e-mails from non-Alaskans. "But I've got to listen to my constituents first," she says, and they have been "very supportive."

Please. take time to call and thank them for their courage in putting the Constitution ahead of party politics.

And then consider sending one more thank you call to Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell at 202-224-3441 for leading a filibuster against the ANWR drilling bill and winning the critical vote against drilling. Senators Kerry, Reid, and Feinstein, among others, also played important roles, but Cantwell has been a consistent leader on environmental and energy issues.

"This is nothing more than a sweetheart deal for Alaska and the oil companies," she says. "That's why I am prepared to use every procedural option available to me as a senator to prevent this language from moving forward."

Check out the centerfold at...

Pentagon officials have been spying on what they call "suspicious" meetings by civilian groups, including student groups opposed to the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ban on lesbian, gay and bisexual military personnel. The story (first reported by Lisa Myers and NBC News last week) noted that Pentagon investigators had records pertaining to April protests at the State University of New York at Albany and William Patterson College in New Jersey. A February protest at NYU was also listed, along with the law school's LGBT advocacy group OUTlaw, which was classified as "possibly violent" by the Pentagon. A UC-Santa Cruz "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" protest, which included a gay kiss-in, was labeled as a "credible threat" of terrorism.

Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) condemned the surveillance and monitoring saying, "The Pentagon is supposed to defend the Constitution, not turn it upside down." SLDN executive director C. Dixon Osburn explains, "Students have a first amendment right to protest and Americans have a right to expect that their government will respect our constitutional right to privacy. To suggest that a gay kiss-in is a 'credible threat' is absurd, homophobic and irrational. To suggest the Constitution does not apply to groups with views differing with Pentagon policy is chilling."

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sought access to FBI files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored. Civil rights advocates say the government is improperly blurring the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

One FBI document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic ideology." A third document indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Rumsfeld Spies on Quakers and Grannies. says Progressive's editor Matthew Rothschild.

"You look at these documents," says Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the ACLU, "and you think wow, we have really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover."

Retro fear of Commies should then come as no surprise...
In New Bedford, Standard-Times staff writer Aaron Nicodemus reports, "A senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents two months ago, after he requested a copy of Mao Tse-Tung's tome on Communism called 'The Little Red Book'."


Mr. Peabody set the Wayback Machine to the year 1974 to the final days of Richard Nixon...
The AfterDowningStreet.org coalition, an alliance of over 100 grassroots organizations, has launched the Censure Bush campaign in order to support new legislation introduced by Congressman John Conyers that would censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney and create a select committee to investigate the Administration's possible crimes and make recommendations regarding grounds for impeachment.

Doris "Granny D" Haddock, says it plainly, "Isn't it odd that a fellow can provide such poor administrative leadership that we lose part of New York and a big part of New Orleans, he can get away with leading a nation to war on falsified evidence resulting in the death of thousands of our young soldiers and tens of thousands of people abroad, he can get away with rigging elections and he can get away with destroying the environmental protections for our air and water and wild places, and he can get away with putting people in jail indefinitely without recourse to lawyers or fair judges, and he can get away with reneging on the Geneva Convention and actually torturing people in secret prisons--all of that--and still survive politically, but he can't get away with admitting to a little old felony back home. It will be like sending Capone up for tax evasion, but if that'll work, let's do it. We owe this to ourselves, our children, and the people of the world. Oh, that the Germans in the 1930s were as resolute in standing up for their higher values as we must do now!" ImpeachTheSonofabitch.com!

Here in Wisconsin...
State Republican leaders are trying to rush through the constitutional ban on civil unions and marriage. Action Wisconsin would like you to Ask Lawmakers to Vote NO on the Amendment. "While the state Senate voted 19-14 on Dec 7 to pass the amendment, we still have time to contact our lawmakers in the state Assembly."

Tricky Dick...

"After years of researching Richard Nixon, which has often been met with amusement by friends, I exhume from my database the following nugget," writes Nixonbuff, Gregory. "David Frost interviewed Nixon in the late 1970's, and as a result there are many hours of tape providing much information. The following though, should make Bush nervous, as the White House meets the outrage from a troubled nation over illegal activities against Americans."

FROST:
So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, here the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON:
Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

FROST:
By definition.

NIXON:
Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is ne that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.

"And we all recall that Nixon fared so well with the American people too..."

Click to read more excerpts from an interview with David Frost that exposed Nixon's views on Presidential power which aired on television May 19, 1977.

Mad King George...

The Washington Post reports:
"Beginning in October, The Washington Post published articles describing a three-year-old Pentagon agency, the size and budget of which are classified, with wide new authority to undertake domestic investigations and operations against potential threats from U.S. residents and organizations against military personnel and facilities. The Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, began as a small policy-coordination office but has grown to encompass nine directorates and a staff exceeding 1,000. The agency's Talon database, collecting unconfirmed reports of suspicious activity from military bases and organizations around the country, has included "threat reports" of peaceful civilian protests and demonstrations.

Yesterday's acknowledgment of warrantless NSA eavesdropping brought the most forthright statement from the president that his war on terrorism is targeting not only "enemies across the world" but "terrorists here at home." In the "first war of the 21st century," he said, "one of the most critical battlefronts is the home front."

On occasion the Bush administration has explicitly rejected the authority of courts and Congress to impose boundaries on the power of the commander in chief, describing the president's war-making powers in legal briefs as "plenary" -- a term defined as "full," "complete," and "absolute."

In a Sept. 25, 2002, brief signed by then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, the Justice Department asserted "the Constitution vests in the President inherent authority to conduct warrantless intelligence surveillance (electronic or otherwise) of foreign powers or their agents, and Congress cannot by statute extinguish that constitutional authority."

The brief made no distinction between suspected agents who are U.S. citizens and those who are not.

United States Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) made the following statement on Saturday, December 17, 2005 in response to President Bush's weekly radio address:

“The President's shocking admission that he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on American citizens, without going to a court and in violation of the Constitution and laws passed by Congress, further demonstrates the urgent need for these protections. The President believes that he has the power to override the laws that Congress has passed. This is not how our democratic system of government works. The President does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king."

Fact Sheet on Domestic Intelligence Wiretaps
December 17, 2005

• The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted in 1978 to provide a statutory framework for eavesdropping on individuals within the United States, including U.S. citizens, who are not suspected of having committed a crime but who are likely to be spies or members of terrorist organizations.
• FISA established a secret court that could issue wiretap orders if the government showed probable cause that the individual to be tapped is an “agent of a foreign power,” meaning he or she is affiliated with a foreign government or terrorist organization. This is an easier standard to meet than the criminal wiretap standard, which requires that there be: (1) probable cause that the individual to be tapped has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime, and (2) probable cause that communications concerning that crime will be obtained through the electronic surveillance.
• In the 27 years since it was established, the FISA court has turned down only a handful of applications for wiretap orders. The number of approved FISA wiretap orders has jumped since September 11, 2001, with 1,754 FISA orders issued last year, up from 934 such orders in 2001.
• FISA already addresses emergency situations where there is not time to get pre-approval from the court. It includes an emergency exception that permits government agents to install a wiretap and start monitoring phone and email conversations immediately, as long as they then go to the FISA court and get a court order within 72 hours.
• FISA makes it a crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, to conduct electronic surveillance except as provided for by statute. The only defense is for law government agents engaged in official duties conducting “surveillance authorized by and conducted pursuant to a search warrant or court order.” [50 U.S.C. § 1809]
• Congress has specifically stated, in statute, that the criminal wiretap statute and FISA “shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance . . . and the interception of domestic wire, oral, and electronic communications may be conducted.” [18 U.S.C. § 2518(f)].
• The target of a FISA wiretap is never given notice that he or she was subject to surveillance, unless the evidence obtained through the electronic surveillance is ultimately used against the target in a criminal trial.
  

There are moments...

...in the Truman Show when cracks in the conjured reality inhabited by Truman Burbank start to widen. Like a mad detective, Truman tells his wife to look in the rear view mirror with him, "I predict, that in just a moment we will see a lady on a red bike, followed by a man with flowers and a Volkswagen Beetle with a dented fender...." and sure enough they materialize, passing by, almost as if he had a crystal ball.

Last night I had one of those Truman flashes... when I learned that, "a U.S. House of Representatives committee on Thursday approved a bill to create a corporation that would buy and redevelop tracts of land devastated by recent Gulf Coast hurricanes, helping property owners in Louisiana avoid massive defaults on home and business loans."

First the lady on a red bike...
Katrina floods breeches the 17th Street Canal levee with surgical precision, inundating the poorest sections of the city, leaving the poor and a majority of NOLA's (democ)rats left clinging to anything that floats for almost a week. Then, survivors are bussed as far as possible from the scene of the crime - Houston, Atlanta. Those who want to stay, undergo forced evacuation by sheriff's deputies in body armor, holding rifles. Shipwrecked, jobless, homeless, the refugees still hang on to their land back home, expecting to return someday.

Followed by a man with flowers...
Facing foreclosure with no solution in sight, they can thank Louisiana Republican and White Knight, Rep. Richard Baker for coming to the rescue with the Louisiana recovery bill. The House agreed yesterday to create the "Louisiana Recovery Corp." taking over the debt on "destroyed" properties at the request of owners unable to make their mortgage payments. The corporation would "relieve" hurricane victims of their mortgage obligations up to $500,000.

"This is a major step toward providing urgently needed financial options to tens of thousands of Louisiana citizens who right now face terrible choices, between continuing to pay the house note on a destroyed home they will never live in again or accepting foreclosure and an impaired credit record," Baker said.

"It's also a step toward rebuilding communities through the maintenance of a functioning market system, safeguarding a lending industry that will be essential for financing recovery efforts, and utilizing private sector resources to provide a fiscally responsible return on the taxpayer's investment," he said.

and a Volkswagen Beetle with a dented fender....


All of those beached and demolished waterfront casinos will magically reappear on dry land in the 9th Ward, bringing jobs and prosperity to a section of the city that was once wrought with poverty.

The Truman Show stars the first child ever adopted by a corporation... tune in any time for another episode in Louisiana's Electoral Disaster.

"When Hurricane Katrina broke the levees in New Orleans, it did more than create a wave of evacuees fleeing the city. Democracy itself is now a disaster area. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has postponed city elections indefinitely, thereby extending the term of the city's mayor by executive decree. Meanwhile, bureaucratic squabbling and flawed voting mechanics threaten to bar tens of thousands of people from future elections..."

"New Orleans needs to get absentee ballots to its many registered voters who are displaced, but only the Federal Emergency Management Agency has a relatively comprehensive list of new addresses. Citing privacy concerns, FEMA refused to share that list and later decided it was too costly to notify people about their voting rights. Just this week, under threat of a lawsuit, it agreed to pass the list on to the state. Louisiana now plans to send notices about how to apply for a mail-in ballot to those already registered, but the onus remains on displaced residents to register and apply for a mail-in ballot."

All we are saying...

...is give peace a chance. Seems like a harmless request, but in the run up to the Iraq war it was Clear Channel that published a list of banned anti-war songs and prohibited their stations from broadcasting them.

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reports on another sign of the times....

A Madison radio station owned by national media conglomerate Clear Channel is selling the name of its newsroom, a move that drew sharp criticism from the Society of Professional Journalists. Under the naming rights deal, the station will deliver its newscasts from the "Amcore Bank News Center.

Imagine the discomfort in two corporate offices if this story ever needed to be told: Now this news update from the Amcore Bank News Center... Top Amcore Bank officials were indicted this morning by a federal grand jury on charges of financial fraud, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of justice. More on this breaking story at the top of the hour.

Death notices

An editorial, "Without mercy" in today's SF Chronicle states, "GOV. ARNOLD Schwarzenegger once characterized his conflicted feelings about the death penalty as a duel between his 'Austrian brain and the American brain.' He recalled that capital punishment was an 'absolute no-no' in his native Austria."

The writer concludes, "Perhaps there was a time when Schwarzenegger might have at least delayed the death of Stanley Tookie Williams until the California Assembly could consider the merits of AB1121, which would impose a moratorium on capital punishment while a commission assesses whether its application in this state is 'fair, just and accurate.'"

MTV reports, "In the end, the execution process took longer than usual as technicians struggled for more than 10 minutes to find a vein in Williams' muscular left arm. As the team searched, Williams visibly winced and lifted his head off the gurney several times and, according to the Times, at once appeared to say, 'Still can't find it?' Witnesses said his death from the lethal injection took close to 20 minutes."

Williams' friend Barbara... "Becnel and two other supporters of Williams turned toward the media in the witness room and yelled in unison, "The state of California just killed an innocent man!"

"Mr. Williams has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested," Attorney Verna Wefald wrote in the petition filed to California's top court on Saturday. "Given that the state's case rests on the testimony of criminal informants who had an incentive to lie, not only to obtain benefits, but to hide the truth of their involvement in these crimes, it is imperative that discovery be granted at this critical stage of Mr. Williams' case."

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union), the national NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and several other civil rights groups filed an amicus (Friend of the Court) brief urging the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to consider racist injustices in jury selection during Tookie’s 1981 trial:

"His trial was based on circumstantial evidence and the testimony of several witnesses, all of whom were facing a range of felony charges, including fraud, rape, murder and mutilation. Even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stated in a September 10, 2002, ruling that the witnesses in Stan’s case had 'less-than-clean backgrounds and incentives to lie in order to obtain leniency from the state in either charging or sentencing.'"

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Tookie’s appeal to investigate the racism and discrimination at the heart of his case, as well as Tookie’s innocence issues. One issue highlighted the fact that the prosecutor in Tookie’s original case removed three African-American jurors from the jury. During Stan’s trial, this prosecutor made racially-coded remarks during his closing argument, comparing Stan during the trial to a Bengal tiger in the zoo and stating that a black community - South Central Los Angeles - was equivalent to the natural "habitat" of a Bengal Tiger.

Now upheld by the United States Supreme Court, this ruling will establish as "case law" for the nation the right for prosecutors to exclude jurors on the basis of race and to denigrate minority defendants in front of all-white juries.

The ruling is a frontal attack on the civil rights of all Americans.

The California State Supreme Court had twice censured this prosecutor for equally discriminatory behavior. Indeed, a member of the California Supreme Court at that time made the following statement about that prosecutor :

...I believe that we must place the ultimate blame on its real source - the prosecutor. It was he who unconstitutionally struck Black prospective jurors. The record compels this conclusion and permits none other... This prosecutor knew that such conduct was altogether improper. The trial court told him as much. And so did we... This court attempted to teach this same prosecutor that invidious discrimination was unacceptable when we reversed a judgment of death because of similar improper conduct on his part. He failed - or refused - to learn his lesson. The result is another reversal - and another costly burden on the administration of justice.

Robert G. says, "Today, the Times ran lengthy obits of Eugene McCarthy and Richard Pryor on opposing pages and one neat bit of symmetry was found in their definitions of truth that has stayed in my thoughts throughout the day."

McCarthy: "slowed his baritone for a plain definition of patriotism: 'To serve one's country not in submission but to serve it in truth.'"

Pryor: "a lie is profanity," he explained. "A lie is the worst thing in the world. Art is the ability to tell the truth, especially about oneself."

Talk 2 Action

What if there was a place you could go to talk about the religious right, whenever you had a question and needed an answer?

What if there was a place you could increase your knowledge, hone your skills and network with concerned and knowledgeable people all over the United States?

What if that place was not controlled by an organization with a narrow agenda?

What if people of any religious or nonreligious orientation who share a concern about the rise of the dominionist movement in the Unites States were equally welcome, and their perspectives were respected and taken into account as strategy discussions took place?

What if that place had an eclectic mix of people with considerable expertise as featured writers who you could read, and question and discuss with every day? And what if those same experts and all of the site participants shared a spirit of learning -- and learning in the open -- about things that could affect the outcome of the most important struggles of our time?

What if the goal of the site were not just education and the expression of opinions, but to think about and encourage taking action?

Talk to Action hopes to be that place. Become a registered user to participate.

"We are pro-religious equality and pro-separation of church and state. We are prochoice, and we support gay and lesbian civil rights -- including marriage equality. Therefore, debates about the validity of abortion and gay rights are off topic."

Good News for Progressives!

Senator Hillary Clinton is being challenged for her US Senate Seat by Jonathon Tasini. This will be a campaign worth watching.

"Our goal is to raise $3 million. Not to run television ads full of poll-driven political spin," says Johnathan. "We want to build a statewide, grassroots movement of people who are tired of politics as usual and want their elected politicians to reflect their values."

Tasini intends to run a bread and butter campaign. The only issues he'll be actively speaking about are:

• End the War
  
• Medicare For All
  
• New Rules For the Economy

Tasini says, "The Administration and others who attack those who call for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq often pose that option as 'cut and run.' The language is purposely designed to try to frame people who oppose the war as unreliable cowards who can't be trusted to stick around when the going gets tough."

"But, the truth is immediate withdrawal is a far more sophisticated position...might I say "adult" position. It acknowledges the reality and the chaos of the war, it looks at the facts on the ground as they are and, effectively says, the war was a mistake. Grown-ups admit mistakes, learn from them and try to pursue a better course."

He will be a great ally of the Barbara Boxers and Russ Feingolds in the US Senate. Read more in his blog: Working Life.