Saturday, October 08, 2005
ANOTHER RECESSION/DEPRESSION TRIGGER
Staying warm to cost up to 90% more
USA TODAY - U.S. households can expect to pay sharply higher monthly heating bills this winter, with the increases ranging from 45% to 90% in much of the country, utility companies and weather forecasters warn.
Surging energy prices, which have been climbing since spring, come at a time when many households are contending with higher mortgage-finance costs, higher taxes that accompany increased real estate assessments and property-insurance price increases the past two years.
John Tuccillo, former chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says these creeping demands on household incomes will cut U.S. economic growth by three-quarters to 1 percentage point next year. Raphael Bostic, a professor of urban economics at the University of Southern California, says fixed-income and low-income households will be hardest hit.
Higher energy prices are now the No. 1 concern of most small and midsize business owners, a PNC Financial Services Group survey revealed Thursday.
In many parts of the USA, energy utilities are seeking double-digit rate increases from state regulators, though with mixed success. In Nevada, Sierra Pacific Power sought approval in July for a 19% increase in natural gas prices, to be effective next month, a request state regulators revised upward to 27.2%.
In Kansas and Oklahoma, authorities responded to two utilities' recent requests for higher rates with proposed rate cuts. In Ohio, the utility FirstEnergy agreed to defer most fuel-based cost increases for three years, in part to help authorities manage tight budgets. More often than not, however, higher costs are being passed on to consumers.
AccuWeather.com meteorologist Ken Reeves predicts "a very cold winter" for New York - after average winter temperatures last year - contributing to an estimated 50% increase in winter heating oil charges there. In the Midwest, where natural gas is the chief heating fuel, Reeves predicts 70% higher heating costs.
Piedmont Natural Gas of Charlotte says that prior to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, its natural gas costs had increased 57% over last winter, resulting in projected increases of $60 to $90 a month for its residential customers' bills this winter. Since then, natural gas prices have risen higher, faster.
Atmos Energy of Dallas, which serves 3.2 million customers in 12 states, says many of its residential customers will now pay about $690 in gas utility bills for the five-month winter heating season from November to March, up 88% from $367 a year ago.
Atmos CEO Bob Best observes, "We like to say nothing good happens with high prices."Thursday, October 06, 2005
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE
Record low for home affordability in California
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Soaring prices in California's housing market have shut out a record 86 percent of households from buying a typical home with a traditional down-payment, according to a study released on Thursday.
Home prices across California have more than doubled since late 2001, increasing pressure on home buyers, who needed a minimum household income of $133,800 to buy a home at the August median price of $568,890, the California Association of Realtors said in its report.
That meant that only 14 percent of households could afford the typical home, down from 18 percent a year earlier, and the lowest level since records began in 1989, the report said.
The group's calculation was based on a mortgage interest rate of 5.87 percent and assumed a 20 percent down payment. The national minimum household income needed to buy a median-priced home at $220,000 last month was $51,740, the group said.
"It certainly is a concern when we reach a record low for affordability," said association economist Robert Kleinhenz.
August's affordability reading matched a record low 14 percent recorded in early 1989, shortly before a downturn in property prices that began in mid-1991.
"Households in California want to buy homes and can find loan products to do so, but they have to stretch," Kleinhenz added. "Large numbers of households are dedicating 40 percent and in some case 50 percent of their income to housing costs ... The norm nationally is 30 percent."
Fast-rising prices in California have forced home buyers to opt increasingly for interest-only and adjustable-rate mortgages over 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to lower their monthly mortgage payments, a trend concerning many analysts.
They argue that mortgage payments when the loans readjust will be too large for many borrowers if interest rates rise and hold at high levels -- driving more homeowners to sell under distress if they can not refinance loans.
"Our concern is that because it's been so easy to refinance, people assume it always will be," said Beth Haiken, a spokeswoman for PMI Mortgage Insurance Co., a unit of PMI Group Inc.. "They may be able to refinance, but not on the loan terms they want."
Just under a third of mortgages initiated or refinanced in California this year have interest-only components, compared with 1.4 percent in 2000, according to LoanPerformance, a unit of data provider First American Corp.
Another way home buyers in California are coping with high home prices is by increasingly moving from pricey urban coastal areas to inland areas where homes are more affordable.
California's coastal Santa Barbara region, where just 6 percent of state households could afford a median-priced home, was the state's least affordable market in August, the real-estate trade group said.
California's most affordable area in August was the High Desert region north and east of Los Angeles, followed by the Sacramento region in the central part of the state.
Twenty-eight percent of households could afford to buy homes in the High Desert region and 19 percent could afford homes in and around Sacramento, the state capital.
Home-price appreciation next year will be stronger in inland areas than in coastal areas, Kleinhenz said, adding that the overall pace of home-price appreciation in California was expected to slow next year.
"For 2006, we're saying California's median home price will go up by 10 percent, compared with a projected increase of 16 percent for 2005," Kleinhenz said.Thursday, October 06, 2005
WHEN WE TALK TO GOD, IT'S CALLED PRAYING. WHEN GOD TALKS TO US, IT'S CALLED PSYCHOSIS.
Bush claimed God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan: BBC
"What's that you say, Lord? You want me to kick evildoer ass? Roger that! Now, which ones are the evildoers again Lord?"
LONDON (AFP) - US President George W. Bush allegedly said God told him to invade Iraq and
Afghanistan, a new BBC documentary will reveal, according to details.
Bush made the claim when he met Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and then foreign minister Nabil Shaath in June 2003, the ministers told the documentary series to be broadcast in Britain later this month.
The US leader also told them he had been ordered by God to create a Palestinian state, the ministers said.
Shaath, now the Palestinian information minister, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God.
'God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan'.'
"And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq...' And I did.
"'And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.' And by God I'm gonna do it'," said Shaath.
Abbas, who was also at the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, recalled how the president told him: "I have a moral and religious obligation.
"So I will get you a Palestinian state."
A BBC spokesman said the content of the programme had been put to the White House but it had refused to comment on a private conversation.
The three-part series, "Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs", charts the attempts to bring peace to the Middle East, from former US president Bill Clinton's peace talks in 1999-2000 to Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip.
The programme speaks to presidents and prime ministers, their generals and ministers, about what happened behind closed doors as the peace talks failed and the intifada grew.
The series is due to be screened in Britain on October 10, 17 and 24.Thursday, October 06, 2005
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
Thursday, October 06, 2005
HOW ABOUT THE MYTH THAT THEY HAVE A CLUE
Not that the Repuglicans are any better, but sheesh...
Democrats Urged to Abandon Election Myths
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - To regain political power Democrats must abandon favorite election myths, adopt a strong position on national defense and pick candidates who connect with average voters, two political analysts from the party said Thursday.
Political scientists Elaine Kamarck and William Galston, both Democrats, warned that the most important first step is to abandon beliefs they describe as "election myths."
The report, done for the moderate Democratic strategy group Third Way, compared the current situation to 1989, when they wrote a report that mapped a centrist strategy for Democrats.
The said the current "myths" are:
_The belief Democrats can win if they just do a great job of mobilizing their base. Republicans have improved at mobilizing their own base, so Democrats need to do more than that.
_The theory demographic changes over time will make Democrats a majority, a questionable concept with the Hispanic vote increasingly up for grabs.
_The belief Democrats can succeed politically if they simply learn to talk more effectively about their positions.
_The strategy of avoiding cultural issues, playing down national security and changing the subject to domestic issues. National security is too dominant a concern now.
The report noted Republican gains among married people, Catholics, Hispanics and women during the last presidential election.
Democrats must choose to appeal to a broader majority that includes many moderates, said Galston, a political scientist at the University of Maryland.
The Democrats also must develop a coherent foreign policy because "we just don't have one," said Kamarck, a political scientist at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.Wednesday, October 05, 2005
COLD WINDS ARE FINALLY BLOWING - 'BOUT FUCKING TIME
Reality sends chills through halls of power
By Joseph L. Galloway, Knight Ridder Newspapers Wed Oct 5, 5:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON - A truly horrible summer that seemed unending is finally fading away, and the cold winds of reality are blowing down the collars of a president and the key players in his administration. Those winds could foretell an even more terrible winter ahead.
The folks who prided themselves on sticking to the message like grass-burrs on a hairy dog suddenly are all over the map on everything that counts when you are a lame-duck president whose party is going into a critical midterm congressional election next year.
The president's second-term "piece de resistance," Social Security reform, is dead on arrival. His cherished tax breaks for rich Americans are on life support. His generals are saying we need to reduce the American presence in Iraq because just by being there we are infuriating the typical Iraqi and thus fanning the flames of the insurgency we are trying to defeat.
The hard-nosed Texan Tom DeLay, who manages the president's agenda in Congress, has had to step down after being indicted on three felony counts of election law violations down home.
In Washington, a federal grand jury is investigating the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity. If it's going to indict some of the president's leading men, it must act before Oct. 28 when its writ runs out. What will George W. Bush do if his brain, Karl Rove, is charged with conspiracy or perjury? What if Rove is joined in the dock by Dick Cheney's right-hand man, Scooter Libby?
The word on the streets of Washington and in the halls of the Pentagon is that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is seriously considering handing in his letter of resignation sometime this month.
The generals who run the war in Iraq - Central Command boss Gen. John Abizaid and ground commander Gen. George Casey - came to town last week and let slip the awful truth about our efforts to stand up an Iraqi army and security force.
Although the Americans have spent a small fortune training and equipping more than 200,000 Iraqi soldiers and militia and police, the generals concede that only one battalion of perhaps 700 troops is actually capable of operating against the home-grown insurgents and the foreign jihad terrorists.
After two years only one battalion can stand alone without American guidance, backup, direction and fire support.
This was the only real hope of beginning to hand off responsibility for Iraq's future to Iraqis. And it has blown away on those cold winds blowing through the nation's capital.
The president was quick to slap down any thought of reducing the American presence on the roads and streets of Iraq - a presence the generals report is no longer stifling the insurgency but actually feeding it because we are there. No longer converting Iraqis to Jeffersonian democracy but creating new converts to terrorism and resistance.
The president, at a news conference, simply ignored the best advice of his generals and the growing firestorm both in Iraq and America over the future of our occupation of Iraq and declared: "We're not leaving Iraq. We will succeed in Iraq."
The president is still "staying the course" as the people following him fall further and further behind. We have written before, and will again: Staying the course only makes sense if you are on the right course. Otherwise you are just walking deeper into the swamp and the quicksand waiting ahead.
If that wasn't enough, new life was blown into the prisoner abuse scandal this past week by a young West Point-educated captain, Ian Fishback, who didn't like what he was hearing about the physical abuse of Iraqi detainees by soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division and asked his superiors for guidance on standards of conduct.
Eventually he went public and wrote to Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., and Sen. John Warner (news, bio, voting record), R-Va., the top-ranking members of the Senate Armed Service Committee. His actions helped ensure that an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would flatly outlaw any cruel and unusual treatment of detainees in American custody anywhere in the world would pass over Bush's threat of a veto and the Republican Senate leadership's attempt to block a vote.
The amendment is sponsored by McCain, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-N.C., and Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb. Some who opposed it went so far as to say publicly that our forces should be given the freedom to use the terrorists' own methods against those we capture.
If we are to become as cruel and inhumane as al-Qaeda, then why fight al-Qaeda? We will then have become no better than al-Qaeda and we might as well make deals with
Osama bin Laden as we once sent people like Rumsfeld to do deals with
Saddam Hussein.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and co-author of the national best-seller "We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young." Readers may write to him at: Knight Ridder Washington Bureau, 700 12th St. N.W., Suite 1000, Washington, D.C. 20005-3994.Wednesday, October 05, 2005
LET THEM EAT THE RICH
Congress Seeks to Cut Food Aid for Poor
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - Under orders to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion, Republicans in Congress propose reducing food programs for the poor by $574 million and conservation programs by $1 billion, The Associated Press has learned.
The proposal by Senate Agriculture Committee chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., also would cut farmers' payments by 2.5 percent across the board.
Under the plan, payments would be reduced by $1.145 billion over five years. But that is considerably less severe than President Bush had proposed. Bush sought a 5 percent reduction in payments, plus a far-reaching plan for capping payments that would slash billions more dollars from subsidies collected by large farm operations.
The AP obtained a summary of the budget-cutting plan, which is scheduled for a Thursday morning vote in Chambliss' committee.
Congress ordered the $3 billion in cuts in a budget outline passed earlier this year. Leading Republicans indicated they would rather target food stamps and conservation programs than simply make the deep cuts that Bush was seeking, and the administration backed off its plan in April amid fierce opposition from farmers. Cotton and rice growers would bear the brunt of payment limits.
It's not fair for nutrition and conservation programs to shoulder more of the burden, said environmental groups, anti-hunger advocates and taxpayer organizations fighting the cuts.
"Subsidies get $20 billion a year; conservation gets less than $4 billion — to expect farmers who want to help the environment to shoulder as heavy a load as fat-cat cotton producers is terrible policy," said Scott Faber, spokesman for the Washington-based advocacy group Environmental Defense.
Government conservation programs pay farmers to stop farming certain land or to change their practices to help the environment.
Congressional Democrats were also hostile to the cuts.
"It is hard to see this budget balanced on the backs of poor people and struggling family farmers when agribusinesses continue to reap millions without payment caps in place," said Sen. Tim Johnson (news, bio, voting record), D-S.D., a member of the Senate Agriculture appropriations subcommittee.
Another subcommittee member, Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., said he and Sen. Charles Grassley (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, are still pushing for Bush's payment limits.
Faber called the budget cuts "a body blow" to global trade talks being held by the
World Trade Organization. Developing nations are insisting that the U.S. and other wealthy nations cut subsidies.
"Developing nations won't open their markets to our farm products unless we're willing to reform our farm subsidies. This sends exactly the wrong signal at exactly the wrong time," Faber said.
The $574 million cut in food stamps would come from restricting access to this benefit for certain families that receive other government assistance. The restriction would shut an estimated 300,000 people out of the program.
The $1.05 billion conservation cuts would curb the number of acres that can be enrolled in the biggest of the programs, the Conservation Reserve Program, and limit spending on two others, the Conservation Security Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
The payment cuts would affect all payments and marketing loan gains for producers of corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, cotton and other subsidized crops. Dairy producers, too, would see a 2.5 percent drop in payments from the Milk Income Loss Contract program, which pays to help producers cope with dips in market prices. The MILC program expired Friday, but supporters are trying to get Congress to renew it.Tuesday, October 04, 2005
...AND THEN WE'LL SHOOT YOU - NEXT QUESTION...
Bush Considers Military Role in Flu Fight
WASHINGTON, Associated Press - President Bush, stirring debate on the worrisome possibility of a bird flu pandemic, suggested dispatching American troops to enforce quarantines in any areas with outbreaks of the killer virus.
Bush asserted aggressive action could be needed to prevent a potentially crippling U.S. outbreak of a bird flu strain that is sweeping through Asian poultry and causing experts to fear it could become the next deadly pandemic. Citing concern that state and local authorities might be unable to contain and deal with such an outbreak, Bush asked Congress to give him the authority to call in the military.
The president has already indicated he wants to give the armed forces the lead responsibility for conducting search-and-rescue operations and sending in supplies after massive natural disasters and terrorist attacks — a notion that could require a change in law and that even some in the Pentagon have reacted to skeptically. The idea raised the startling-to-some image of soldiers cordoning off communities hit by disease.
"The president ought to have all ... assets on the table to be able to deal with something this significant," Bush said during a 55 minute question-and-answer session with reporters in the sun-splashed Rose Garden.
Dr. Irwin Redlener, associate dean of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and director of its National Center for Disaster Preparedness, called the president's suggestion an "extraordinarily draconian measure" that would be unnecessary if the nation had built the capability for rapid vaccine production, ensured a large supply of anti-virals like Tamiflu, and not allowed the degradation of the public health system.
"The translation of this is martial law in the United States," Redlener said.
It was the president's first full-fledged news conference in over four months, as the White House hopes to regain momentum lost amid sky-high gasoline prices, a rising death roll in Iraq, and a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina. Bush has seen a small rise in his approval ratings, but they remain near the lowest of his presidency.
Despite the polls and recent grumbling about his performance from some Republicans, Bush insisted he still had "plenty" of political capital that he would spend getting lawmakers to go along with his proposed budget cuts, Iraq strategy, proposals to add to U.S. oil refining capacity and desire for a reauthorization of the anti-terror Patriot Act.
He called for quick confirmation of his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to replace Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.
On Katrina, Bush said the federal effort to help evacuees and local communities remains uneven.
He praised his administration's success at handing out $2,000 in immediate cash assistance to some storm victims and in resolving bureaucratic hurdles that had impeded the removal of the Gulf Coast's huge debris piles. But he said the government could "probably do a better job" arranging for temporary housing for displaced people and needed to be up to the task of retraining people to fill new jobs.
Responding to fiscal conservatives' sticker shock at the costs of rebuilding the Gulf Coast, Bush called for "even deeper reductions in the mandatory spending programs than are already planned" to pay for it.
On other topics:
_Bush said the White House has begun the search for a replacement for Federal Reserve Board Chairman
Alan Greenspan, who retires in January, but he hasn't seen names yet.
_He acknowledged the public had a "diminished appetite" for overhauling Social Security, a top priority earlier this year that was in trouble before Katrina hit and has nearly completely fallen off Congress' radar since then.
_Bush said he was "disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African-American community" in November after trying hard to bring it up from the 9 percent he got in 2000. Bush won 11 percent of the black vote in 2004, and the poor federal response to Katrina's mostly poor and black victims has led many to question Republicans' hopes of doing better next time.
_Citing the investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity that has two White House officials as its focus, Bush declined to say if he would fire anyone indicted in the probe, or whether he has discussed the case with the two officials.
Bush signed an executive order in April adding pandemic influenza to the government's list of communicable diseases for which a quarantine is authorized.
The key question he introduced into the debate Tuesday was who would control it: the states that by law now have the main responsibility for containing an outbreak within their borders, or the federal government, which typically has been in charge of keeping diseases from entering the country.
White House spokesman Trent Duffy said the president envisioned possible military control of the quarantine process only "in the most extreme circumstances" and when state and local resources are overwhelmed.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military hasn't be asked to develop such a plan. But he noted the military's capabilities, with mobile medical units and hospital ships and the ability to create field hospitals quickly.
Avian flu has killed or led to the slaughter of millions of birds, mostly in Asia but in parts of Europe, too.
It has killed about 60 people, mostly poultry workers. So far it doesn't spread easily from person to person. If that changes — and flu viruses mutate regularly — there could be a worldwide outbreak.
___
On the Net:
CDC inforation on flu pandemics:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/avian/gen-info/pandemics.htmTuesday, October 04, 2005
SAAAY... WHERE *IS* RUMSFELD, ANYWAY? WHY IS THIS NOT SURPRISING?
Convicted US soldier speaks of worse abuse at Abu Ghraib
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US soldier convicted of abusing Iraqi prisoners said, in remarks recently made public, she knew of "worse things" happening at Abu Ghraib and insisted military commanders were fully aware of what was going on in Iraq's infamous jail.
The comments, made by Private First Class Lynndie England in her first post-court-martial interview, contradicted assertions by top Pentagon officials that a small group of out-of-control soldiers were responsible for abuse at Abu Ghraib, and that no matter how repulsive that mistreatment was, it did not amount to torture.
England, who became the face of the scandal because of a photograph of her holding a naked prisoner by a leash, was sentenced last Tuesday to three years in prison and ordered to be dishonorably discharged from the Army after a military jury found her guilty of maltreating prisoners and committing an indecent act.
The trial capped a damaging scandal that erupted in 2004, following publication of pictures that showed Abu Ghraib inmates piled up naked on the floor in front of US soldiers, cowering in front of snarling military dogs, chained to beds in stress positions and forced to stand naked in front of female guards.
But England, appearing on NBC's "Dateline" program, said the pictures did not convey the full extent of the abuse that took place in the cell block.
"I know worse things were happening over there," admitted the 22-year-old convict.
She said one night she heard blood-curdling screams coming from the block's shower room, where non-military interrogators had taken an Arab detainee.
"They had the shower on to muffle it, but it wasn't helping," she recalled. "They never screamed like that when we were humiliating. But this guy was like screaming bloody murder. I mean it still haunts me I can still hear it just like it happened yesterday."
The interrogators were not identified, but several investigations into the abuse have disclosed that
Central Intelligence Agency operatives worked at Abu Ghraib alongside US military intelligence, mining for useful information.
A total of nine low-ranking soldiers have now been convicted or voluntarily pleaded guilty in the scandal that has sparked condemnation of the United States around the world.
But a Defense Department probe has cleared all top US commanders of criminal responsibility in the matter.
Taking issue with that finding, England argued stripping prisoners naked and handcuffing them to steel bars was part of an officially-sanctioned strategy designed to soften inmates before interrogation and make them more cooperative.
"It was just humiliation tactics and things that we were told to do." she said.
She insisted Specialist Charles Graner, a senior prison guard and her boyfriend, would always show pictures of intimidation procedures to military intelligence (MI) officers when they came to work in the morning.
"And the MI would be like, 'Oh, that's a good job! I never would have thought of that,'" England recalled. "He'd show him and hed show the command and they'd be like, 'Oh, just keep up the good work.'"
US human right advocates argue additional light could be shed on the events at Abu Ghraib with the release of 87 more photographs and four videotapes made by guards at the prison but kept by the Pentagon under lock and key.
A federal judge in New York, responding to a lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union, ruled Thursday these materials should be made public.
But the Defense Department was expected to appeal, arguing such a release would fuel anti-American propaganda and help recruit new Islamic extremists in Iraq and elsewhere.Tuesday, October 04, 2005
NOTHING UP THEIR NEOCON SLEEVES... OOOH LOOK, OVER THERE! KATRINA! OOOOO!
"Operation Offset" my ass. Operation Slash-N-Burn is more like it.
None of these rich assholes will ever need the social net, so it's clearly not important.
From MoveOn.org - The Republican proposal, titled "Operation Offset," was authored by the Republican Study Committee, a group of over 100 influential members of Congress, including powerful committee chairs and members of the Republican leadership.[3] The proposal starts with support from at least these 100 representatives, and they are looking to quickly build momentum.
A full reconstruction of the Gulf Coast region is generally estimated to cost around $200 billion.[4] We could more than meet this cost by rolling back Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for just the wealthiest 1% of the country, which would save us an estimated $327 billion.[5]
“Operation Offset,” however, calls for an astounding $949 billion dollars in cuts over 10 years to vital national services.[6] -- almost five times the full cost of reconstruction. To further put that in perspective, it’s also more than 4 times what we’ve spent in Iraq.[7]
This plan is not about “offsetting," or rebuilding - it’s about exploiting this crisis to push their longstanding goals for America. As conservative kingmaker Grover Norquist has often put it, the goal is to get government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."[8] This proposal is their latest attempt to drown the public sector.
The excess the Republicans' proposed cuts is almost unbelievable. You can read the full proposal here: http://www.moveonpac.org/images/operation_offset/operation_offset.htm Here are just some of the most egregious cuts: • $225 billion cut from Medicaid, the last-resort health insurance program for the very poor. • $200 billion cut from Medicare, the health care safety net for the elderly and the disabled. • $25 billion cut from the Centers for Disease Control • $6.7 billion cut from school lunches for poor children • $7.5 cut from programs to fight global AIDS • $5.5 billion to eliminate all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting • $3.6 billion cut to eliminate the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities • $8.5 billion cut to eliminate all subsidized loans to graduate students. • 2.5 bullion cut from Amtrak • $2.5 billion to eliminate the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative • $417 million cut to eliminate the Minority Business Development Agency • $4.8 billion cut to eliminate all funding for the Safe and Drug-Free schools program And the list goes on and on.
Which and how many of these cuts move forward in congress depends largely on the public response this week.
As the reconstruction begins our country faces a basic question: Will we respond to Katrina by banding together to solve national problems, or by helping the wealthy and powerful cut and run while those left behind fend for ourselves?
The radical Republicans have spoken up loud and clear with their answer, and we must respond with ours.
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[1] “Lawmakers Prepare Plans to Finance Storm Relief,” The New York Times, September 20th 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/21/national/nationalspecial/21cong.html Note: the $500 billion referred to this article only covers section 1 in “Operation Offset”. The full proposal has six sections and calls for total cuts of $949,674,000,000 over 10 years. See the full proposal here: http://www.moveonpac.org/images/operation_offset/operation_offset.htm [2] Center for American Progress http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/22/progressive-spending/
[3] The Republican Study Committee http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/about.htm
Some examples of prominent RSC members include:
RSC Founder Rep. John Doolittle (AZ), Republican Conference Secretary Rep. Eric Cantor (VA) Chief Deputy Majority Whip Rep. Richard Pombo (CA), Chair, House Committee on Resources Rep. Joe Barton (TX), Chair, House Committee on Energy and Commerce
[4] “How to spend (almost $1 billion a day)” Time Magazine, September 26th, 2005 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1106310,00.html
[5] Center for American Progress http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/22/progressive-spending/ [6] Operation Offset, RSC Budget Options 2005 Rephttp://www.moveonpac.org/images/operation_offset/operation_offset.htm [7] Based on a $196 billion dollar cost for the Iraq war to date. National Priorities Project http://costofwar.com/
[8] “Grover Norquist: ‘Field Marshal’ of the Bush Plan”, The Nation, May 14th 2001 http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010514/dreyfussMonday, October 03, 2005
CORRUPTION AND MISMANAGEMENT IS WHAT FUCKS US OVER
Pentagon report links Katrina, Iraq problems
LONDON (Reuters) - An official U.S. report says that failure to plan and train properly has plagued U.S. efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and most recently relief work to combat Hurricane Katrina, The Independent newspaper said on Monday.
The British daily said the report by Stephen Henthorne, a former professor and adviser to the Pentagon, concluded that the poor response to Katrina mirrored earlier shortcomings in U.S. campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"Failure to plan, and train properly has plagued U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and now that failure has come home to roost in the United States," the confidential report said.
The report was commissioned by the Pentagon to provide an "independent and critical review" of what went wrong after Hurricane Katrina swept ashore in September.
"The one thing that this disaster has demonstrated (is) the lack of co-ordinated, in-depth planning and training on all levels of government, for any/all types of emergency contingencies," the report said.
"Another major factor in the delayed response to the hurricane aftermath was that the bulk of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq," it said.
The report also blamed corruption and mismanagement by local government in New Orleans for diverting cash earmarked for flood prevention schemes to projects more likely to win votes.
Henthorne is a former professor of the U.S. Army's War College and was a deputy director in the Louisiana relief efforts, the paper said.Monday, October 03, 2005
BUSH PICKS HIS PERSONAL LAWYER AS NOMINEE
You're fucking kidding, right Gee Dumbya? This is like appointing someone who has never performed an operation to be Surgeon General:
High Court Nominee Has Never Been a Judge
Harriet Miers Begins Courtesy Calls After Bush Chooses White House Counsel for Supreme Court
President Bush announces his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers, left, to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington Monday, Oct. 3, 2005. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
WASHINGTON, The Associated Press Oct 3, 2005 — President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, turning to a lawyer who has never been a judge to replace Sandra Day O'Connor and help reshape the nation's judiciary.
"She has devoted her life to the rule of law and the cause of justice," Bush said as his first Supreme Court pick, Chief Justice John Roberts, took the bench for the first time just a few blocks from the White House.
If confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, Miers, 60, would join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the second woman on the nation's highest court and the third to serve there. Miers was the first woman to serve as president of the Texas State Bar and the Dallas Bar Association.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist outlined a timetable calling for confirmation by Thanksgiving a tight timetable by recent standards that allowed less than eight weeks for lawmakers to review her record, hold hearings and vote. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, made no commitment, saying he wanted a thorough confirmation proceeding.
O'Connor has been the court's majority maker in dozens of controversial cases in recent years, casting deciding votes that upheld the 1973 ruling that established the constitutional right to an abortion, sustaining affirmative action programs and limiting the application of the death penalty.
Within hours of Bush's announcement in the Oval Office, Miers travelled to the Capitol to begin courtesy calls on the senators who will vote on her nomination.
Frist, R-Tenn., was first on the list. His welcome was a statement in praise. "With this selection, the president has chosen another outstanding nominee to sit on our nation's highest court," it said.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid was complimentary, issuing a statement that said he likes Miers and adding "the Supreme Court would benefit from the addition of a justice who has real experience as a practicing lawyer."
At the same time, he said he looked forward to the "process which will help the American people learn more about Harriet Miers, and help the Senate determine whether she deserves a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court."