Poverty: You Must See It to Fix It

Poverty: You Must See It to Fix It

Recognizing poverty in our own nation is an important step to fixing it, says anthropology student Meg Burd at the Rocky Mountain Collegian [Colorado State U]

Poverty often seems to be an issue swept under the rug...Poverty is present throughout the nation, and is not something we should ever let fade from our view.

See:
Winter Crisis Looms for the Poor in Iowa

Near-record-high gasoline prices, inevitable spikes in energy costs and out-of-state disasters pulling regular donations away from Iowa — these are the "indicators of doom" for the poor this winter, said Jerry McKim, who oversees the state's Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. [Des Moines Register]

NOLA Poverty Changes Philly Doctor's Outlook

NOLA Poverty Changes Philly Doctor's Outlook

A doctor from Philadelphia who assisted in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina says:

"How can you spend a week helping a destitute father find shelter for his family, or a poor elderly woman manage her diabetes, and not come away with a feeling of urgency that things have to change? [..] And since it took Hurricane Katrina for many of us to realize that crushing poverty is alive and well in America - because we've stopped seeing the poverty in our own communities - maybe first-person volunteering in Louisiana would keep that realization fresh enough that we'd agitate for change back home....

If the problem is bad in New Orleans, you know it's probably just as bad in Philadelphia..." - Philadelphia Daily News

Judith Miller Sprung From Calaboose

Judith Miller Sprung
From Calaboose

NY Times reporter Judith Miller was released from jail today. She was allegedly convinced that Scooter Libby's legal waiver was not "coerced." She'll testify later today. How many indictments will follow?

Arianna Huffington says:

"..there is no way that the New York Times editorial claiming “it should be clear…that Ms. Miller is not going to change her mind” can be squared with Ms. Miller changing her mind. And there is no way to accept at face value Miller’s grandstanding about “fighting for the cause of the free flow of information.” Who is she still trying to convince? Herself?"

After Miller answers Patrick Fitzgerald’s questions today, Huffington says she'd like to see Miller start answering some "obvious questions raised by her head-scratching stance." (link)

Edwards Launches "College for Everyone" Initiative

Edwards Launches "College for Everyone" Initiative
Pilot Program Will Benefit Students in Greene County, N.C.

Former Sen. John Edwards promised 140 high school seniors in one of the state's poorest counties that they could get free college tuition through a new program that will require them to work while they study. [Greensboro News and Record]

Edwards says the program would be funded by donations from individuals, companies and charitable foundations. Students could attend North Carolina State, East Carolina, Fayetteville State, North Carolina A&T and UNC-Wilmington. They could also go to two nearby community colleges. [WFMY News, Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem]

See the story by guest blogger Jon at the One America website.

See today's feature on John Edwards at The Daily Tar Heel by Erin Gibson -
A man with many hats

Also, Edwards appeared on News and Notes with Ed Gordon (NPR) today:

Former V.P. Candidate Edwards: Class and Katrina: News & Notes with Ed Gordon, September 29, 2005 · Former North Carolina senator and vice presidential candidate John Edwards talks about America's class crossroads and what can be learned from Hurricane Katrina.

*Audio for this story will be available here at approx. 1:00 p.m. ET

Keep It Real, David Brooks

Keep It Real, David Brooks
We'll respect you a lot more if you stop repeating what we know to be false

David Brooks really needs to get over himself and the patently false point he keeps trying to drive home, which is that Democrats are divided between those who are bitter partisans and those who are less so.

The Democrats have drawn the 10-years-out-of-date conclusion that in order to win, they need to be just like Tom DeLay. They need to rigidly hew to orthodoxy. They need Deaniac hyperpartisanship. They need to organize their hatreds around Bush the way the Republicans did around Clinton.- [NYT Select]

It just isn't true, no matter how many times Brooks says it. Perhaps this is what some pundits hope will become CW ("conventional wisdom,") if it is repeated enough. Democrats will have to show David Brooks that he is wrong. George Bush has become an unpopular president, and it has stunned those of us who have paid attention all along that he has gotten away with so much and has fooled so many Americans, with the help of pliant and intentionally tilted (Fox News) media.

Partisanship is a natural political tendency. To see the Bush administration getting away with lies and the systematic destruction of social democracy has never seemed natural. To see Fox News intentionally tilting the news to the right has never seemed natural. To see the Republican majority virtually shutting the Democrats out from the participatory process in Congress at every opportunity has never seemed fair, natural, or democratic.

If Howard Dean takes the time to remind Americans that it was a vile (and sometimes criminal) kind of partisanship that has allowed us to be in the weakened position our country is in today and to allow the evils of poverty and inequality to flourish, then I say more power to him. At the same time, I look to potential presidential candidates who can offer positive ideas to pull our nation out of the rot to which the Bush administration has led us. Americans aren't so stupid that they're going to continue falling for the line about how Democrats hate Bush. We don't have to hate him anymore - he's a proven abuser of the public trust, and so are many who played vile games thinking the media would continue to cover for them. Drunk with power, Republicans got much too cocky. As Bush and his Republican cronies (in Congress, his administration, and beyond) continue to screw up royally, and as each wrongdoer falls in shame, it will be less likely that Democrats will be forced to convince Americans of what's been true all along.

Bill Bennett Helps GOP to Lose More Minority Votes

Bill Bennett Helps GOP to Lose More Minority Votes
..This idiotic run-of-the-mouth may lose the GOP as many minority votes as the Hurricane Katrina federal response failures

A titan among moral titans. Virtuous spokesman of the virtuous Republican party. Distinguished Fellow of the Heritage Foundation. Bill Bennett says...

"You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down"
[See Steve Gilliard]

A commenter at Gilliard's News Blog says, in response:

We could come up with some stats that prove that if we aborted the offspring of conservative whites about 50-60 years ago, we would have less white collar crime, federal cronyism and government incompetance.

The Public's Changing Mood

The Public's Changing Mood

David Michael Green on the changing mood of the public toward American politics:

Even conservative columnists like David Brooks (though not Novak) are writing articles nowadays accurately describing the changed mood of the American public. Where those powerful currents are heading is unclear, but given the radical right experiment of the present as their point of departure, there would seem to be only two choices. We can either go completely off the deep-end and finally constitute the Fascist Republic of Cheney, or we can turn to the left, toward some semblance of rational policymaking. The latter seems far more likely, especially as America increasingly regains its senses after a long bout of temporary insanity. These are bad bits of news for poor George, but worse yet is that they are only the first signs of the coming apocalypse. The real fun stuff is just around the corner.

Rall on Iraq War: Polarization, Apathy, and Silence

Rall on Iraq War: Polarization, Apathy, and Silence

Ted Rall has some interesting thoughts on the Iraq war.

A year ago, [certain developments] would have sparked accusations, counterarguments and fierce debates in the U.S. over what to do next. Now, no one cares.

Rall claims that political polarization has contributed to citizen apathy and silence.

The Iraq war, validated by neither constitutional legality nor (unlike Vietnam) international endorsement via the U.N., prompted millions to protest before it even began. So when the reality of Iraq belied the Bush Administration's promises--no WMDs, no body armor, no rose petals, no mission accomplished--we clammed up like a bickering couple whose positions are intractable and diametrically opposed. After 9/11, only a fool would have let Saddam remain in power, say the Bushian 44 percent. And 56 percent reply: only a fool would have attacked Saddam while 9/11 remained unavenged. But they keep their opinions to themselves and the occasional pollster.

How do you stop a war that you believe is unjust and immoral when most Americans could give a hoot?

"..the war has become institutionalized. It is background noise. It is hard to imagine what could happen in Iraq that would make pay attention and talk, even argue, about the war. A bomb that killed a thousand civilians? Probably not even that ... Right or wrong? Essential or idiotic? When it comes to the war against Iraq, Americans only agree about one thing: It is no longer interesting. And so, pro or con, it is lost all the same."

Republican Scandals Abound

Republican Scandals Abound

Catherine Dodge and Laura Litvan [Bloomberg] report that U.S. Senate Majority leader Bill Frist will cooperate with all probes and "denies having any non-public information when he directed the sale of his HCA Inc. stock a month before the company said quarterly profit would miss analysts estimates."

Otis Bilodeau [Bloomberg] follows up his own story about the probability of an SEC probe from yesterday with today's Frist Faces Heat as SEC Orders Formal Inquiry Into Stock Sale

The SEC authorized a formal order of investigation of Frist's sale in June of HCA Inc. shares, people with direct knowledge of the inquiry said yesterday. The order allows the agency's enforcement unit to subpoena documents and compel witnesses to testify, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the order hasn't been made public...``This turns the flame up under the kettle and keeps the water boiling,'' said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the independent Rothenberg Poltical Report in Washington.

At the WaPo, Terry M. Neal asks:

Is it 1994 all over again? .. Dark and ominous clouds are gathering over the Republican Party these days, with a series of ethical and legal scandals that threaten to further damage a White House and Congress already reeling from a sharp drop in public approval ratings...Rep. Tom Delay (Tex.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) and a top administration official (David Safavian, the White House's top procurement officer) have all been ensnared in highly embarrassing ethics scandals recently.

Catherine Dodge [Bloomberg] reports that U.S. House Representative Roy Blunt will replace Tom Delay as U.S. House Majority leader. (Blunt info)

When will we hear about what U.S. federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald discovered over the summer about traitors/CIA outers Karl Rove and Scooter Libby?

The "I-word" (impeachment) is seriously discussed by Dr. Bernard Weiner.

Citizens/Media Speak Out on Posse Comitatus

Citizens/Media Speak Out on Posse Comitatus

- Farewell Posse Comitatus [watchblog.com]

- The Mother of All Bad Ideas [scalzi.com]

- The War on Posse Comitatus [mutualist blog]

- Posse Comitatus Problems
[qando.net]

- Using the Military at Home [PBS]

- Repealing Posse Comitatus Means Iraq in the US. Do We Really Want This? [ilcaonline.org]

- If Posse Comitatus is chucked, time to reconsider federalism
[PalmBeachPost.com]

- Hands off Posse Comitatus [newsleader.com]

- Leave things that don't need fixing alone [baxterbulletin.com]

- Should the military handle natural disasters? - Posse antiqus [mtulode.com]

- The Danger of Standing Armies [lewrockwell.com]

- Pentagon begins review of law on military's domestic role [govexec.com]

- Proposal for military to take lead in disasters raises concerns [Knight Ridder]

- Bush Wants to Consider Broadening of Military's Powers During Natural Disasters [NYT]

Poverty in America

Poverty in America

It's plain to see that Poverty is in the forefront of American minds today, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the reality of which Katrina exposed as she literally blew the curtain away. There is a reawakening in this country, after 30-40 years of virtual political silence.

Sandra Price says the key to stopping the cycle of poverty is Education:

I watch every Governor’s convention on CSPAN and hear them pat each other on the back for some stupid bridge or street and they know damn well the children in their own states are failing academically in every district...We must pull these kids up to a higher standard and allow them to set goals and learn their own strengths and help fix their weaknesses.

Published originally at EtherZone.com

Others have ideas about the state of American education and the poverty problem:

1. Paul Nyhan - College divide threatens to keep the poor in poverty [Seattle Intelligencer]

2. David Brooks - The Education Gap [NYT Select]


Marc H. Morial lays out the National Urban League's ideas regarding post-Katrina protection for those who have lived for too long in poverty:

"...the National Urban League has proposed a Victims Bill of Rights which recommends guidelines Congress should take to protect the victims and ease their burdens—including a victims compensation fund (as was done for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks) for the hundreds of thousands of citizens injured, killed and displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

Congress should also provide meaningful federal disaster unemployment assistance to every worker—estimated to be at least half a million—left jobless by this tragedy. And it must ensure that the hundreds of thousands of displaced Gulf citizens continue to have full voting rights in their home states and districts, so that they can have a proper voice in the rebuilding of their communities."

The poverty rate in Santa Clara county, California, has shocked many people. Of the nearly 400,000 families living in Santa Clara County, almost a quarter, or approximately 93,000 families, earn annual incomes less than the local family threshold of $45,000.


Jim Cresson of the Cape Gazette (Cape region, Delaware) staff reports that Derrick Span, national president of the Community Action Partnership, urged people of Sussex County to call on their elected representatives to support a renewed anti-poverty plan for America. Hurricane Katrina shed new light on old problems, said Span, speaking Sept. 17 to more than 125 members and guests at the Lower Sussex Branch of the NAACP's annual Freedom Fund Banquet at Grace United Methodist Church.

“Katrina was a sociological exclamation point, a political question mark, a moral indictment and a theological statement,” he said. “Why in a nation committed to family values, was so little done to protect those displaced families in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane? Why did it take so long to rescue them? Every human being has dignity, and all humans deserve to be rescued.”....Span said it became obvious that the hurricane revealed a need for a new national anti-poverty law. He said the Congressional Black Caucus recently laid out an eight-point plan to fight poverty and presented it to the Bush administration. But he also said more needs to be done.

“There are more than 37 million Americans living in poverty,” Span said. “That is 1 million more people than were living in poverty in 2004. There are 47 million people, many of them working poor, who do not have health insurance for themselves or their families.”

Span said that poverty is not just a black or white issue; it is a multicultural issue. He said it is not just an inner-city issue; it is also a rural issue. And he said it is not just a regional issue; it is an American issue, one that must be solved soon.

“There is no coherent policy for the poor, and that amounts to economic terrorism,” he said. “The weapons of mass destruction related to poverty are poor health, poor housing and no housing. People who work must be paid more. There is no such thing as a menial job, because every job has dignity. There is just menial pay, and that can be corrected.”

Full text available at Cape Gazette.com


In a Hartford Courant article about an upcoming Mahavir Ahimsa (non-violence) Seminar at the University of Connecticut's Storrs campus featuring Sri Lankan speaker Jeyanthy Siva, Susan Campbell says:

"Substitute "New Orleans" or "Gulf Coast" for "Sri Lanka" and you can ask the same questions. But Siva pushes the discussion just a little further: How can we continue to ignore U.S. poverty?"Whether a 20-meter wall of water works to clear the minds of a populace horrified by poverty and devastation, a discussion of inequity and fairness must be ongoing. And it must not fall into the us vs. them category...Katrina ripped off a psychic lid...If a wall of water did not cleanse the land, it can at least serve to clear perceptions.

Voice of America (Jim Malone) has a feature on the ways in which the "Hurricane aftermath" has sparked a debate over Poverty.
Malone report - Download 674k
- Listen to Malone report
- watch Hurricane Poverty report / Real broadband
- watch Hurricane Poverty report /Real broadband
- watch Hurricane Poverty report / Real dialup
- watch Hurricane Poverty report / Real dialup

____________

Jack Kemp, the 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee and former U.S. Housing secretary, wrote last week that conservatives could turn Katrina into an opportunity just as presidents Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt did during other periods of crisis.

In an essay in the online conservative journal Human Events, Kemp wrote: "In the wake of this national catastrophe we should all be imagining the unimaginable."

- From a report at BlackAmericaweb.com, which is site with Republican-based views. See Rep. Elijah Cummings'(D-MD) comments, also.


OTHER ARTICLES:

Poverty: The Crisis Katrina Revealed BusinessWeek

Politicians' ignorance of poverty helps foster climate of cynicism Decatur Daily Democrat

Katrina highlighted the problem of poverty Fort Worth Star Telegram

Bringing Up Mommy Portsmouth Herald, NH

Realities of Poverty Atmore Advance, AL

Poverty exposed: Winds of Katrina swept away cloak that hides America's poor Martha Mendoza | Associated Press

Empowering the poor by David T. Ellwood Boston Globe

New Orleans flooding flushes poverty back into fashion Tom Teepen/SaltLakeTribune

Poverty and Racism in America Kevin Agnese/Manhattan College Quadrangle

"....now, in the aftermath of one of the greatest natural disasters the country has ever faced, with his approval ratings slipping down the tubes because thousands of poor residents didn't have any means to escape certain death, the nation is expected to believe Bush cares about the poor. Sorry Mr. President, not a chance."
[State of the Legacy - The Daily Campus - UConn]

John Edwards on Jon Stewart's Daily Show Oct 5th

John Edwards on Jon Stewart's Daily Show Oct 5th

Sen John Edwards will appear on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on October 5th (next Wednesday).

Recent Speeches Available Online:

Center for American Progress Speech
Video & Transcript
• Intro: Video
• Speech: Video
• Q&A Session: Video
• Transcript: Full text (PDF)

Sen Tom Harkin's (D-Iowa) Steak Fry,
Warren County Fairgrounds, Indianola, Iowa (CSPAN)

Modern Real Estate Practice in North Carolina

North Carolina is one of the fastest growing states in the union, and one of the reasons is the astonishingly rich variety of homes available to the discerning shopper. One Carolina company, Smart Choice Realty, for example, offers unique opportunities such as cash back at closing and zero money down.
For more on real estate in North Carolina, a good place to start is by reading Modern Real Estate Practice in North Carolina, but perhaps a better way would be to have a look yourself. A combination of the two, plus copious surfing of the net, will always yield fruit.

In a few weeks, North Carolina will play host to bloggers from all over America, and I think it would be nice if some of them decided to relocate here. One can never have too many bloggers!

So after attending the ConvergeSouth conference, take a drive around and see if you find something that jumps out at you.

- Mr Beckwith (anonyMoses) has performed internet related services for a variety of companies, like Automated Directions, Inc. -- a full service system integrator and distributor for many of today's leading manufacturers of material handling equipment -- WebKorner -- Web and Internet solutions for homes and businesses in the Charlotte area -- Casual Furniture World where comfort CAN be beautiful...and affordable -- The Leonardo Store -- which was introduced from Germany, but whose accolades include the Oprah magazine's "O" list, and stints on the Today Show and Redbook. Some of these companies will be sending representatives to the conference and may soon be entering the exotic world of bizblogging.

Tar Heel Tavern 31

Tar Heel Tavern 31

Don't miss this week's Tar Heel Tavern at Pratie Place.

WaPo Rips Iraq Constitution

WaPo Rips Iraq Constitution

Faced with sinking domestic support, the Bush administration seems driven by an unwise zeal to produce visible results in Iraq -- such as a ratified constitution -- however problematic they may be. [WaPo editorial]

The Iraq war has been based upon deceiving the public with the most vile form of politics I have ever witnessed in my time. I search history for something that rivals the low level of planning and respect for the American citizens' collective sense of intelligence. Someone recently called this moment in time Bush's "Lincoln moment." This is not to say he is a uniter who leads a nation, even when it means war. Instead, it means war based on lies and fake benchmarks for political gain - and through it all, he has not fooled all the people all the time. As a matter of fact, he has fooled only a few - some so blindly partisan that they would fall off a cliff if Bush led them...and Bush is leading them.

If the protesters visiting Washington this weekend succeeded in forcing a quick U.S. troop withdrawal, the bloodshed in Iraq, and the damage to the United States, would grow far worse.

I see the logic in this statement. Emotions tell a different story. Only President Bush and his administration can rectify this problem of public perception. Only they can turn this around to make the war a global effort to bring Iraqis to the table and to convince them it's a sincere effort for the peace - and not a race for control of their energy resources or some kind of an imperial stampede or holy war. I have no confidence that they will ever change the course to make the Iraq war a success. If you think that doesn't concern (and perhaps frighten) millions of Americans, I'd have to say you aren't paying close attention. Who wants to wind up with an Iraq that no one will have an interest in defending?

Political Correctness Will Not Serve Progressives Well

Political Correctness Will Not Serve Progressives Well

Ruth Rosen fears that liberals are accepting a Conservative reframing of the problem of poverty - namely the National Review's Rich Lowry's naming of the root cause of the poverty exposed by Hurricane Katrina as "the breakdown of the family." She says:

With amazing gall, conservatives have shredded the safety net and then blamed unmarried mothers for their own neglect-the-poor policies.

Ms. Rosen includes NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof and former Sen John Edwards in this analysis, and I'll tell you where I think she's not being fair.

We progressives tend to cling to the belief that the Bush domestic policy (which has shredded the domestic safety net) is such an obvious perversion that it, on its own, it is a strength and a surefire strategy for the electability of Progressives in 2006 and 2008. We've been proven wrong on that belief before, and we could very well be proven wrong again. We cannot rely on mere disgust for the Bush agenda for political success. We need ideas - good ideas - ideas that work in the reality-based community.

Stating the fact that more teen pregnancies can be prevented by advocating for new economically healthy/federally-funded social programs is surely not a turn toward conservatism. It speaks of a reality that anyone can clearly understand and it supports social democracy by creating ideas for programs that work when properly funded and administered.

Ms. Rosen quotes New York Times reporter Jason DeParle, who concluded in his book "American Dream" that "it is poverty itself — not a lack of personal responsibility—that is the main reason for single-parent families."

If that is true, and it well may be, I would hope that Ms. Rosen and other progressives would embrace the hard truth that it's still wrong to bring into the world a child for whom the parents are not ready to take responsibility. We need to continue to pull young girls out of their abject poverty by strengthening them with education and opportunity. I don't believe it's a liberal sin to speak about the reality that is right before our eyes.

That is not to say that a single woman cannot be responsible for a child when she makes a conscious decision to bear one. Responsibility is the key word.

In a speech last week at CAP (The Center for American Progress), I heard Sen Edwards say that if given the opportunity, he'd lead many young men who've fathered children (and have abandoned them) to more responsibility by creating welfare-reform opportunity for them and mandating them to pay child-support in the participatory process. That is part of what could be a new democratic society by federal design, and it isn't a conservative idea. It's progressive - and it's realistic.

CSPAN - Road to the White House

CSPAN - Road to the White House

Be sure to tune in on Sunday at 6:30 pm as C-SPAN's "Road to the White House 2008" continues. This week's installment will feature former Sen. John Edwards' Sept. 18 speech to the 28th Annual Harkin Steak Fry at the Warren County Fairgrounds in Indianola, IA.

Aldon Hynes on Washington DC March

Aldon Hynes on Washington DC March

My Idea Consultants colleague Aldon Hynes has written a blog for Howard Dean's Blog for America website. It begins..

Today, hundreds of thousands of Americans gathered in Washington to express their displeasure with the current administration, it's policies in Iraq and the horrible effect those policies are having on people across America....

Aldon says that we'll hear soundbytes about the March, but they will not reflect what is really happening out there in D.C. and on other American street corners.

It wasn't just the national politics that united us. Several of us talked about the importance of races further down the ticket, such as Melissa Berger's campaign for House of Delegates in Maryland. We talked about the importance of reaching out to people in rural America such as Rob at turningblue has been doing in Georgia.

At the end of the day, I spoke with Kim who is up in Burlington and about the importance of campaigns around the country. I write this post sitting in Hypatia's kitchen as numerous bloggers eat, laugh and take pictures.

The way we are going to take this country back is through the friendships that we all share on this blog, when we get together for fun and when we work together on campaigns.

There were 100,000 people who protested the war in D.C. yesterday...and there were a couple hundred anti-peace types who were apparently unaware that there already was no peace in Iraq...

Broussard says: "Get Out of My Face"

Broussard says: "Get Out of My Face"

Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana sent out the message to all ideologues - including rightwing bloggers who Broussard believes have an agenda when accusing him of politicizing Katrina.

"Get out of my face."

On Meet the Press today, Broussard entertained direct challenges regarding the now-clarified details of an emotional story which he'd told Tim Russert about the abandonment of New Orleans by the federal government in the aftermath of Katrina.

Bill Frist's Very Bad Week

Bill Frist's Very Bad Week

Adam Zagorin of Time Magazine, reports that the U.S. Army has launched a criminal investigation into new allegations of serious prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan made by a decorated former Captain in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

Senate sources tell TIME that the Captain has also reported his charges to three senior Republican senators: Majority Leader Bill Frist, Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner and John McCain, a former torture victim in Vietnam. A Senate Republican staffer familiar with both the Captain and his allegations told TIME he appeared "extremely credible."..The new allegations [Human Rigts Watch] center around systematic abuse of Iraqi detainees by men of the 82nd Airborne at Camp Mercury, a forward operating base located near Fallujah, the scene of a major uprising against the U.S. occupation in April 2004.

At Think Progress:

On July 27, the same month the Captain came forward, Sen. Frist single-handedly derailed a bipartisan effort — led by Sen. McCain — to clarify rules for the treatment of enemy prisoners at U.S. prison camps. In what news reports at the time described as an “unusual move,” Frist “simply pulled the bill from consideration” before it could be debated.

A suggestion is made that Bill Frist should "come clean: Was his office told of the “systematic abuse” in the 82nd Airborne before he torpedoed the new detainee laws?"

Bill Frist is having a rough week. At the Progressive Zone, David has a thorough blogpost about the questions surrounding Frist's possible insider stock trading.

First Peak Oil Conference in NYC

First Peak Oil Conference in NYC
October 5 9 A.M. - 5 P.M

The first Peak Oil Conference will take place in in New York City On October 5th www.petrocollapse.org. Oil experts and scientists will speak on the local and global consequences of Peak Oil. Speakers include James Howard Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency; Dr. John Darnell, Science and Energy Advisor to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett; Jan Lundberg of Culturechange.org, former publisher of the Lundberg Survey; Mike Ruppert, author: Crossing the Rubicon, Fromthewilderness.com; David Pimental, Cornell University, and David Room, Post Carbon Institute. The Moderator is Jenna Orkin, co-founder of the World Trade Center Environmental Organization. The event is sponsored by Culturechange.org and by Continuing Education & Public Programs, The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY).

It takes place at the Community Church of New York Unitarian Universalist 40 E. 35th Street, New York, NY 10016

The Petrocollapse Conference the participants will ask:

1. What are we facing now as the economy prepares to hit the wall known as resource limits? Will growth suddenly implode?

2. What will be the effects of Peak Oil (a geological phenomenon) and petrocollapse (an economic and social phenomenon) on food supply and other services we depend on?

3. What is the role of the market in determining how severe will be the effect of shortage stemming from geological depletion?

4. Upon upheaval, deprivation, and a restructuring of social relations in a "new" local economics system, will we choose to create a sustainable culture?

5. Is there a "Plan B" to ease a transition to sustainable living in a world without plentiful energy and petroleum's materials? "It is up to us to find solutions that involve everyone in a spirit of solidarity," said Lundberg

Source: PRWeb.com

Katrina’s Wake: Our Government and the Common Good

Katrina’s Wake: Our Government and the Common Good

According to Mark J. Green, Air America is organizing a colloquium Tuesday evening, September 27, at CUNY Graduate Center in New York City entitled “Katrina’s Wake: Our Government and the Common Good” to begin a conversation that will next culminate in November ’06 or November ’08. For information about the guest speakers, please visit their websites : Katrina vanden Heuvel; Billy Sothern; Mark Green; National Priorities Project; ACORN.


SEE: If Poverty is the Question by the late Paul Wellstone:

I will be the first to say that adults in our society need to take responsibility for themselves if they possibly can. But until we come to a real understanding of the structural problems in our economy and society that are getting in our way, we will continue to legislate by bumper stickers and slogans. We need to have an honest national conversation, and an honest conversation in every community, about what is really going on, why we face the unacceptable level of poverty and near-poverty, and what we are going to do about it.

Obama Appreciated for Eloquence of Argument

Obama Appreciated for Eloquence of Argument

David Schraub (Moderate Voice) talks positively about Barack Obama, who has decided to vote against John Roberts.

Quote of the Day: Oliver Willis

Quote of the Day: Oliver Willis

"The left needs to realize that they are no longer fighting George Bush. "

- Oliver Willis, reminding progressive democrats that they aren’t running and advocating against Bush anymore - but against the "perverted movement" that he stands for.

Abandoning the Misplaced/Hiding the Poor

Abandoning the Misplaced/Hiding the Poor

Using an LA Times excerpt, Josh Marshall (with tongue placed firmly in cheek) says that "sometimes it's hard to appreciate the sort of tireless, behind-the-scenes efforts that the White House puts into into screwing the middle class and abandoning those displaced and uprooted by Katrina." It seems that rather than culturally integrating misplaced people, the White House believes in building trailer parks in which the poor can be crammed (and kept from the rest of America). That is morally wrong and socially unjust. What makes it unethical is the fact that the government would be putting these high-risk trailers on land which we know is vulnerable to natural disaster.

John Edwards coined* the moniker "Bushvilles" to represent the idea of concentrated numbers of poor Americans packed and hidden away in stacks of virtual tin cans on federal land in Edwards' speech on Poverty this week at the Center for American Progress. It's morally, ethically, and socially wrong, and I believe that most Americans would acknowledge that it's wrong for a democratic and multicultural society to function well when certain citizens are purposely isolated from others. It perpetuates "identity politics," which the Right will accuse the Left of opportunistically tapping into, when the Right have been the ones initiating the core problem and opening the doors wide open to vaild social injustice complaints.

*Note: NCDem at the One America website has advised me that Sen. Edwards hadn't actually "coined" the term, because it's been used for quite some time now. He simply brought it into the public consciousness.

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan



I am looking forward to Martin Scorcese's "No Direction Home: Bob Dylan," which will appear this week on PBS's "American Masters" series. It's sequel to Bob Dylan's book, "Chronicles: Volume One," which is one of the most interesting memoirs I've read. According to Richard Harrington (WaPo), there will be "rare film and recordings, as well as something even rarer: an extended interview with the famously private artist.." Scorcese did not actually meet Dylan while making the film, but he says that Dylan gave him free rein to shape the story and complete control over the final cut. Dylan admits that back in high school, "two girls in particular brought out the poet" in him. I'd like to shake their hands. When this quiet, intelligent boy from the mundane town of Hibbing, Minnesota found himself, he helped a nation's young generation to find itself.

David Brooks on John Edwards

David Brooks on John Edwards

David Brooks has written a column in today's NYT (NYT Select) about the contrast that he clearly sees between John Edwards and John Kerry in light of the Democratic voters and what they are looking for in leadership. In my opinion, Mr. Brooks gives the first honest mainstream view of the two speeches, rather than lumping them together and calling them "withering attacks" on Bush, as so many newspapers unfairly did this week. He begins his piece this way:

John Kerry and John Edwards ran for office together and they lost together, and they both gave major speeches about Katrina this week, but there the similarity ends. The two men might as well live in different worlds.

He goes on to explain how he believes the Kerry-Edwards contrast is characteristic of the argument that now causes division within the Democratic Party.

On one side are those who believe that the party's essential problem is with its political style. On the other side are those who believe that the Democratic defeats flow from policy problems, not from campaign style or message framing. They don't believe that Democrats can win wrapped in their own rage, or kowtowing endlessly to their psychologically aggrieved donor base. For them, the crucial challenge is to come up with policies more in tune with voters...Kerry speaks for the first group, which believes in more partisanship, and Edwards for the second, which believes in less.

Mr. Brooks does not believe the Democratic party will snap back to the centrism of Bill Clinton, and neither do I. If Democrats are going to come back and succeed, they need to do it with a leader who is not a Bill Clinton-clone. Clinton did an excellent job as President in his time, but that time will have been "eight years gone" by the next Presidential election. I think most people would agree with me when I say that the world has drastically changed since President Clinton presided over this nation.

John Edwards's speech had a different feel. Edwards took some hard shots at Bush, some of them deserved, but having left Washington after the election, Edwards is not so obsessed with power struggles. In his talk he roamed outward and spoke about the complexities of actual life.

Democrats need a liberal populist with solid and innovative ideas; who is not afraid to be himself (or herself); an eloquent-yet-straight-shooting communicator; someone who will stick by his (or her) own convictions without hesitation or equivocation. If you ask me, that leader is John Edwards. When he says he believes in one America for all of us, I believe him because I can hear it in his tone and in his ideas. I think he's a natural. I'll bet that he'll convince many others as days go on.

____________

Update: At Daily Kos, davidkc says that he believes that David Brooks incorrectly concluded that Dems must choose one side or the other as it decides where it wants to go in the future, and this is a false choice...Dems need to do both. I don't think it's so much of a "false choice" as it is good, plainspoken advice. We do need to move ahead with creativity and innovative ideas about how we can govern better, while not being intimidated by criticizing the obvious shortcomings of the Bush administration.

See this related Daily Kos entry, too. A commenter named "briannowhere" says we need a candidate who has a clear and inventive message:

The Democrats are suffering from a lack of imagination. Nothing more. They way to win the hearts and minds of Americans is to buck the status quo and start thinking outside the box. I think Edwards has the best potential to be the candidate who comes closest to that (while also being realistcally electable). I truly get the sense from him that he actually cares about the issue of poverty and it's effects and does not seem to be simply playing lip service to the notion of helping communities change.

Related:
See - The Return of John Edwards [TPM Cafe]

What will Edwards bring? Edwards will bring the progressive ideology to heal the nations wounds. He has liberalism diplomatic skills that would enhance our standing in the world. He would appoint competent Secretary of Defense that would end the War in Iraq. We would finally see a domestic approach aimed at reducing the levels of poverty, protecting minority rights, expanding healthcare, more funding for education, reform Social Security, ending tax and corporate loopholes benefitting the rich, more jobs, and a national security aimed at protecting it’s citizens. He would work to unite the country and end the constant bickering between our nations top parties.

Quote of the Day - Arianna on Blogs

Quote of the Day - Arianna on Blogs

"When bloggers decide that something matters, they chomp down hard and refuse to let go. They're the true pit bulls of reporting. The only way to get them off a story is to cut off their heads (and even then you'll need to pry their jaws open). They almost all work alone, but, ironically, it's their collective effort that makes them so effective. They share their work freely, feed off one another's work, argue with each other, and add to the story dialectically. All of which has made the blogosphere the most vital news source in our country -- and led me to take a flying leap into it with The Huffington Post."

- - Arianna Huffington in an interview with Wired News

* A tip o'the hat to the Gawker, whose big story today is a National Enquirer story about George W. Bush - believe it or not. Justin Frank is quoted in the NE article - see my August 2004 review of Dr. Frank's book here or at DKosopedia.

In the GOP, It's Suddenly Every Man for Himself

The Threat - gulp!

In the GOP, It's Suddenly
Every Man for Himself

I looked at Dana Milbank's latest WaPo article, and I could just imagine what another Category 5 hurricane, fast approaching the Texas coast, might do to the GOP and their hideous scrambling jumble of political self-preservation.

This week, I think I've heard it all. President Bush says we'll spend like [wise and honest] drunken sailors to rebuild New Orleans, with Karl Rove at the helm. Halliburton will profiteer. New Orleans workers will have their wages slashed while millionaire cronies walk away with their pockets full. Not one fat-cat will be left behind - every tax-cut promise to the richest will be kept.

But what's THIS I'm hearing!? Treasury Secretary John W. Snow says that hurricane recovery spending will push the GOP's plans to extend the tax cuts to the back burner for this year.

But what's THIS I'm hearing!?! The Washington Post reported Sept. 9 that Treasury Secretary John Snow is once again being shown the door. His rumored replacement is White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who would then be replaced either by Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or Office of Management and Budget Director Josh Bolten. [Washington Times]

Dick Cheney said he sees no need for a "czar" to oversee the Katrina response.

But what's THIS I'm hearing? Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said after meeting with administration figures yesterday: "I feel we need a czar, an administrator."

Tom Delay (R-Tex.) asserted last week that the GOP majority had "pared... down" federal spending so well that there was no more fat to be found. There ain't no pork. As DeLay said about the budget, "After 11 years of Republican majority, we've pared it down pretty good."

But what's THIS I'm hearing? The weeping hypocrite Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is telling us that the evil Washington Times made up these Tom Delay quotes. [see Atrios]

But what's THIS I'm hearing!? The chickenhawks of Congress have come up with a tough-guy sounding "Operation Offset" to balance Hurricane Katrina recovery costs with other federal spending reductions. The brave and brawny National Taxpayers Union (NTU) has reported "ready for duty," armed with budget restraints to make any social Democrat's bleeding heart stop beating.

_________
Don't take my pork!.................Pork? What pork?

I thought that Speaker of the House Denny Hastert looked like he was going to toss his cookies today when he was put on the spot about House minority leader Nancy Pelosi's challenge to him - daring him to commit to giving up his precious pork.

The messages are swirling. We feel like we're spinning in hurricane-induced whirlpools. How can we be one America when it's every man for himself?

I agree with what Jonathan Chait has said about the GOP - "the usual guideline in these kinds of circumstances is craziest man wins."

> 1,900

> 1,900
The war in Iraq passed a sobering milepost Tuesday when U.S. officials reported 12 more Americans were killed — eight of them members of the armed forces, raising to more than 1,900 the number of U.S. service members who have died in the country since the invasion. [Houston Chronicle]

John Edwards' Speech at Center for American Progress

John Edwards' Speech at Center for American Progress

Restoring the American Dream
An excerpt from my guest-blog at the One America blog:

John Edwards assures us that a war on Poverty is not a futile one. He envisions what he calls the Working Society, where every American who works hard should have tangible rewards to show for it, whether it's a home, a savings account, a chance to get ahead, an education, a safe neighborhood, or easier access to a job. It is based upon the principle that no one succeeds on their own and it strengthens our national community by making the pact that, if you're willing to hold up your end of the bargain, the Working Society will make sure you are able to get ahead, and not just get by.

What I appreciate most about Sen. Edwards is that, unlike any Democrat today, he has forwarded concrete ideas that will make a real difference in the personal lives of so many poor and hard-working Americans who aren't looking for a hand-out, but are instead willing, responsible, and enthusiastic partners in the Working Society. The ideas he brings to us are not ideas to benefit the poor alone; they are for all of us - one America. With our eyes focused upon a higher purpose and a new social compact, we will be a stronger national community.

I wish to end with some lines from a song that increased my own awareness of Poverty many years ago, and it reinforces John Edwards' hope to see fewer Americans living "just a bank account away" from the American dream. It's by one of my favorite songwriters, Nanci Griffith:

Can you spare the time?
Can you spare a dime?
Can you look me in the eye?
I'm down 'n' out
And I am lonely
Do you ever think of me on
Sunday?
No. I don't live
Across the water
Hey, I live right here
On this corner
...just a bank account away from
America.

- from the song Down 'N' Outer by Nanci Griffith

Blogs:

See Ezra Klein's Been A Long Time Since I Had This Feeling


Comments in the media:

Thomas Oliphant: Edwards got it right about poverty [Boston Globe]

Dan Balz uses the angle that the Edwards speech was one of three recent public appearances (Bill Clinton, Edwards, Kerry) that was an opportunity to criticize the handling of Katrina'a aftermath. While that may be so, in part, I would be disappointed to think that's the main point that most people might take away about Edwards' speech after reading the Washington Post article. The speech was brimming with new ideas, something you rarely see (or hear about) in the Democratic party these days. I noticed that Tracey Schmitt, press secretary for the Republican National Committee, had accused Edwards of attempting to politicize the tragedy along the Gulf Coast. It looks like Dan Balz wrote his piece all around the RNC fear. I think we miss a lot of constructive ideas when politics get in the way, but that's how the big show goes on, I suppose.

Chaos In Iraq Today

Chaos In Iraq Today

This is opening up a can of worms. I'd be remiss not to bring it to your attention.

In the WSJ, Yochi J. Dreazen says that new doubts are being raised about the U.S.-led coalition's strategy for pacifying southern Iraq by giving free rein to Shiite religious militias with ties to neighboring Iran.

Juan Cole says the NYT has the only version that makes any sense.

A spokesman for Moqtada al-Sadr has accused Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of dividing Shiites.

The British papers are mulling over what this means - and what comes next.

The Telegraph has asked the public for their comments - do they see a civil war in Iraq today?

Dem Leadership Should Take This Advice

Dem Leadership Should Take This Advice
Markos had some words for Dem leadership that I found to be excellent advice.

Iraq is only going to get worse. There is little danger in calling for a troop withdrawl upon approval of the Iraqi Constitution. Most Americans don't expect us to hold Iraq's hand for the long-term. It's their country, they're going to have to survive on their own. While "we broke it, we fix it" has its moral attractiveness, fact is we can't fix it. Only Iraq can, and we must let them do so..We also need the money and troops to help rebuild the gulf coast and prepare for the next big disaster. Katrina was definitely not the last we'll face.

Serious Democrats cannot take a muddled approach to Iraq. "Staying the course" is a phrase that has become meaningless to Americans, who are not stupid and can see that "the course" has produced disastrous results, and we have not learned from these mistakes because the president won't admit he made any. Polls show that Americans are afraid and non-trusting on the issue of this war. They need to hear that there is, indeed, a timetable for bringing our troops back. More than that, Americans are caring people, and they know we've gone in and bombed the hell out of Iraq - and we aren't the kind of society that would run from an obligation to assist in rebuilding the country. Like it or not, Bush committed us to this mess and we will never regain any international respect if we break a nation and fail to assist in fixing a new infrastructure.

The window of opportunity is not closed. Most Democrats can support a pull-out now and escape appearances of pandering (especially with Katrina as cover). But if they wait until next year as Iraq burns hotter and public support for the war falls further, and suddenly announce a big turnabout on the war, they will be every bit the panderers they appear to be. And if they continue supporting the war, they'll simply be supporting a failed adventure with no hope of success..In other words, Democrats can still get ahead of the issue, or they'll be on the wrong side of history next year. But that window of opportunity is closing fast.

Now is the time. Now. Now. Now. Before anti-war protestors clash with pro-war supporters. Before things in Iraq get worse. Before FOX News and National Review morph the public's opinion of you into silent supporters of "the course" and we send more soldiers to die. Americans are intelligent and intuitive people. Trust them. They'll trust you if you do.

Read Kos' entire post on this issue.

Sheehan Manhandled by Authorities at Peaceful NYC Rally

Sheehan Manhandled by Authorities at Peaceful NYC Rally



I picked this one up from Common Ills. It appears that Cindy Sheehan was manhandled yesterday by the New York City authorities.

I attended a Bring Them Home Now rally last week, and I can tell you, in no uncertain terms, that these people are intelligent, introspective, and they do not promote any kind of violence. In Syracuse, some of the speakers engaged those in the crowd who had oppositional beliefs with respect and entertained their concerns.

I'm disgusted that the authorities would have treated Mrs. Sheehan in this manner, whether or not the paperwork had been properly filed.

Posse Comitatus Revisited

Posse Comitatus

"The Dims will raise a great cry against this in an attempt to style themselves defenders of liberty."

- Freeper quote, exposing the fear that surrounds the Bush administration's revisiting of the Posse Comitatus Act.

I can just hear Gore Vidal saying, "I told you so." We cannot allow the Bush administration to turn us into a banana republic with a wealth-filthy class on one side of a divide, a deep canyon in between, and the rest of us on the other side - with our own military policing our side. That's a sickening thought.

"Americans need to rethink how to protect the country curtailing the rights and the privileges of the free society that we defend."

- Gore Vidal

*tip o' the hat to Pam Spaulding on the Freeper quote

Bob Livingston Boggles Minds

Bob Livingston Boggles Minds
...with his absurd finger-pointing

At Think Progress, Judd exposes former Congressman Bob Livingston for the boob he appears to be. Still blaming Clinton - for things he's never had control over. I got this tip from Andrew Sullivan, who calls it mind boggling.

Five years into the Clnton Presidency -

"I would like to note that the current economic expansion is now entering its seventh year. That makes it already a long upswing by historical standards. And yet, looking ahead, the prospects for sustaining the expansion are quite favorable."

- Alan Greenspan, March 20, 1997

Those were the days.

Clinton Disappoints on Iraq

Clinton Disappoints on Iraq

I believe that Bill Clinton was one of the best presidents this country has ever had. He was an excellent diplomat, and I saw him being a very good diplomat yesterday at exactly the when he shouldn't have been. I thought that former President Clinton was far too careful yesterday when he was interviewed about the Iraq war by Tim Russert on Meet the Press. In an atmosphere where I don't just suspect, but I know that I (and all Americans) have been lied to - flat out and bold faced - by our President, platitudes, soft criticism, and wimpy rationalizations just don't engender my trust or warrant my respect. Those who care about America understand that America is worth fighting for. I want a man or woman of firm and undeniable conviction to say the words to Tim Russert or George Stephanopoulos which give clear indication and acknowledgement that we've been bamboozled on Iraq - that it's clearly a disaster - and that we must change the course - and not throw one more troop's body to the Iraqi civil war until we can show that we're capable of cooperating with international allies to organize a protective force for innocent citizens while their burgeoning democracy is "growing up".

Bill Clinton didn't do that. If you ask me, he looked like a bowl of cold pablum.

I was disappointed in his performance. What he did gives every one of the right wingnuts who tried to destroy his own presidency the ammunition to continue to attack Democrats of conviction - like his own VP Al Gore.

Arianna Huffington commented on her belief that Russert dropped the ball and how National Review moved in to take Clinton's cold pablum on Iraq and spin it into more of Bush's Fools' Gold.

There's a fallacy about this being the first time one former American President has publically criticized the incumbent President. It's being spread by Powerline, and it stems from an AFP report with an overdramatic (and decidedly false) headline ["Clinton launches withering attack on Bush"] :

"Breaking with tradition under which US presidents mute criticisms of their successors, Clinton said the Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq "virtually alone and before UN inspections were completed, with no real urgency, no evidence that there were weapons of mass destruction."

First of all, that's not a "withering attack." It's the damned TRUTH. Only a fool or a blind partisan couldn't tell the difference.

John Hinderaker speaks of the public criticism, saying, "This has never happened before," which is totally false. High-profile blogger should be careful about disseminating obvious disinformation.

________

UPDATE: Arianna has more on this today (Sept 20). See Bill Clinton's Muddled Attempt to Own the Middle

Nat'l Voter ID Card Could Disenfranchise Millions

National Voter ID Card Could Disenfranchise Millions

At 10:35 am ET, President Bush will receive former President Carter and James Baker's election reform report. There's something contained within that report that is dismaying for any libertarian-leaning citizen to learn. Millions of Americans will likely be made ineligible to vote in elections should legislation be enacted to require national voter ID cards. It is believed that it would also inevitably disenfranchise minority voters, along with those who live in poverty and the elderly. In a shocking turn of events, Raw Story reports that a voting reform commission which has already taken heat for playing host to sham voting rights groups run by members of the Bush-Cheney campaign has now recommended the institution of a national voter ID card. What is particularly disturbing is that civil rights groups had essentially been barred from testifying about their concerns. You can the Commission on Federal Election Reform here (pdf).

UPDATE: Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) will hold a 2:15 pm ET press conference to voice their opposition to a recommendation made by the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform which would require all Americans to show photo identification before voting. [Source:TheNote/ABC]

Hypocritical Times

Hypocritical Times

We're living in hypocritical times. We are aware that the US went into heavy deficits four years ago. The Bush administration has taken us to two wars - one in Afghanistan and the other in Iraq, but never saw a need to call for any personal sacrifice to carry the debtload of hundreds of millions of dollars each day. Instead of calling for sacrifice, tax breaks have been legislated for the benefit of the richest. Through our need to borrow, our own economy has come to depend on the kindness of communist nations like China to pay for our elective wars which we claim will "make the world safe for democracy." Meanwhile, the gap between rich and poor has widened. Poverty in America is on the rise while the Bush economy grows, taking on third-world characteristics. We see a staggering amount of concentrated wealth that recalls to us the memory of the pre-Depression days. Hurricane Katrina literally blew the lid off the issue of poverty and washed away the illusion that we didn't know that the problem of poverty existed. The truth is, we didn't act because we didn't want to look, as Sen John Edwards eloquently said today in his Center for American Progress speech on "Restoring the American Dream." The $3.oo per gallon we pay at the pump for our gas is a personal sacrifice - but only for the oil companies.

I want to know what happened to the America where caring citizens shared common traditional values and worked for the common good? Just about any issue you examine today leaves you with a sense that you're living as an island - in a vacuum where everything your leadership is telling you they're doing raises a distinct sense of hypocrisy when you look at the actual outcome of their actions.

Americans thirst for community - and they're becoming increasingly tired of the kind of political hypocrisy where one thing comes out of the President's lips, and another thing happens altogether.

Peter Daou: The Triangle

Peter Daou: The Triangle
Limits of Blog Power
Peter Daou of the Daou Report[Salon.com]has written a piece on blogging and its political power and the limits of that power. As a Kerry advisor, he says he'd made his case as forcefully as he could on behalf of netroots organizing as a communications tour de force, but to a good extent, "the old guard" made it clear that it was too early in American political history for convincing them.

By defining "political influence" as the capacity to alter or create conventional wisdom, (conventional wisdom meaning a widely held belief on which most people act), Daou uses Hurricane Katrina and Ohio candidate-for-Congress Paul Hackett as prime examples of how a triangle of blogs, media, and the political establishment has been (and can be) an essential influence in creating a major shift of "conventional wisdom."

Daou offers his view of the confluence of the triangle construct (netroots + media + party establishment = Conventional Wisdom), and forwards the notion that, although media would get along just fine without bloggers - having a megaphone large enough to keep their corner as the gatekeepers of Conventional Wisdom - the bloggers' presence has thrown an undeniable monkey wrench in the spokes of their wheels.

From whence doth netroots power cometh? I'll use Peter Daou's words:

Reporters, pundits, and politicians read blogs, and, more importantly, they care what bloggers say about them because they know other reporters, pundits, and politicians are reading the same blogs. It’s a virtuous circle for the netroots and a source of political power.

I found agreement with Daou's view of the right blogosphere in that their primary strategic aim seems to be preventing the left from forming its own triangle, as they have done with Drudge-Fox News and the RNC (top-down strategy). Desperation shows when an unvarnished truth (such as that exposed by Katrina) appears, rendering their "conventional wisdom" as little more than a smoke screen - a "triangle-emperor with no clothing."

As far as the left is concerned, Daou says :

...left-leaning bloggers face the challenge of a mass media consumed by the shop-worn narrative of Bush the popular, plain-spoken leader, and a Democratic Party incapacitated (for the most part) by the focus-grouped fear of turning off "swing voters" by attacking Bush. For the progressive netroots, the past half-decade has been a Sisyphean loop of scandal after scandal melting away as the media and party establishment remain disengaged.

and he offers some advice:

It would seem reasonable to conclude, then, that the best strategy for the progressive netroots is to go after the media and Democratic Party leaders and spend less time and energy attacking the Bush administration. If the netroots alone can’t change the political landscape without the participation of the media and Democratic establishment, then there’s no point wasting precious online space blasting away at Republicans while the other sides of the triangle stand idly by.

If I were to throw in any additional advice, it would be for left-bloggers to continue to contribute and forward constructive ideas about respective issues, because someone is definitely listening and may be interested or influenced by those ideas.

When Karl Rove Speaks

When Karl Rove Speaks...

...people listen to (and tell about) what the influential gasbag is saying.

Middle Class Taxpayers Will Lose American Dream

Paying for Katrina:
Middle Class Taxpayers Will Lose American Dream

On Katrina rebuilding:

"It's going to cost whatever it costs," [President] Bush said [last Friday.] Allan Hubbard, Bush's economic adviser, was equally blunt when asked who will pay: "The money ... is going to come from the federal taxpayer." [USA Today]

Do the math, whiz kids. Unless Bush tax cuts are rolled back now, you middle-class taxpayers are going to bear the brunt of this thing - and so will your children. Bush says he's confident that "we" can handle it - meaning you, the taxpayer. Are you so sure? Tom Delay admits there's no more federal spending to cut. "No appreciable fat", he says, as if he's talking about Kate Moss instead of your government.

This is where the rubber meets the road - and Karl Rove is drunk with power at the wheel. I can see us going off the road, Middle Class taxpayers, and what will be derailed, by the undue burden put upon you, is your American dream.

Call for Bush tax rollbacks now - before it's too late. Demand a realistic and transparent plan to rebuild New Orleans and end the poverty that pervaded the city before the Hurrican ever came close.

John Edwards to Give Speech on Poverty

John Edwards to Give Speech on Poverty

Today at 1:15 pm ET at the Center for American Progress, Sen. John Edwards will discuss the structural poverty that was exposed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and how the country needs to seize this opportunity to take the steps necessary to fight poverty and expand opportunities for everyone in our country. For more information, click here. [from-OneAmerica]

Watch the One America website for my summary of and thoughts on John Edwards' speech.

CYA on WMD Tied Military's Hands in Iraq

CYA on WMD Tied Military's
Hands in Iraq

"I was in meetings where (General John) Abizaid was pounding on the table trying to get some help," says a senior military officer.

This is just one of the sad and shocking facts revealed in the most recent Time magazine [The Secret History of How the U.S. Misjudged the Enemy in Iraq], showing that the Bush administration was trying so hard to cover their asses on WMD that our military was barred from obtaining important intelligence to help them fight the insurgency because it wasn't "the priority."

I'm furious - and if you're not, then you are not paying attention.

Iraq's missing $1billion

Iraq's missing $1billion
One of the largest thefts in history

One billion dollars has been plundered from Iraq's defence ministry in one of the largest thefts in history, The Independent can reveal, leaving the country's army to fight a savage insurgency with museum-piece weapons. [Independent]

Quote of the Day: Frank Rich

Quote of the Day: Frank Rich

"What comes next? Having turned the page on Mr. Bush, the country hungers for a vision that is something other than either liberal boilerplate or Rovian stagecraft. At this point, merely plain old competence, integrity and heart might do."

- Frank Rich [NYT]

Harry Hopkins' Name Making a Resurgence

Harry Hopkins' Name Making a Resurgence

Ralph E. Shaffer and Walter P. Coombs, professors emeriti at Cal Poly Pomona, talk a bit more about good old Harry Hopkins (as I did on September 16th).

See: Why It's Time for Dr. New Deal (Again)

The anti-visionaries are once again coming out of the woodwork, too - once again calling old Harry Hopkins - the man who brought America up from its knees to newfound success - a "commie".

Quote of the Day - John Dryden

Quote of the Day - John Dryden

"Let grace and goodness be the principal loadstone of thy affections. For love which hath ends, will have an end; whereas that which is founded on true virtue, will always continue."

- - John Dryden

Neocons Will Burn Jurassic Park DVDs

Neocons Will Burn Jurassic Park DVDs
..when they hear this one:

From today's Miami Herald:

Actor Sam Neill has blamed President Bush's economic policies for contributing to the disaster that engulfed Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit, reports The Associated Press.

In a speech Wednesday night attacking New Zealand opposition leader Don Brash ahead of the country's general elections on Saturday, Neill, a supporter of the ruling Labour Party, compared tax cuts proposed by Brash to Bush's election pledges in 2000.

'Perhaps we should look at somewhere else where they recently used the time-old bribe of tax cuts, and see how it worked. In 2000 George Bush, under the reasonable sounding `compassionate conservatism,' offered huge tax cuts. And he delivered,'' Neill told an audience in Oamaru, 200 miles east of his home and vineyard on New Zealand's South Island.

''Take a look at America now. The rich are certainly richer, but the economy is in the tank, a healthy surplus has been converted into a massive deficit, and the U.S. is a place that cannot even afford the basics. Like maintaining levees in low-lying Louisiana. Might I suggest that tax cuts led indirectly to the flooding of New Orleans?'' Neill added.

He also heavily criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Brash, a former central bank governor, would have sent New Zealand troops to Iraq in 2003 while Prime Minister Helen Clark refused.

''The greatest achievement of this government is that they kept us out of the war in Iraq. Let's make no mistake about this -- this war is a bloody mess, and a terrible blunder, with disastrous consequences for the future,'' he said.

Tar Heel Tavern #30

Tar Heel Tavern 30

Don't miss Erin's beautifully displayed Tar Heel Tavern XXX.

The Next Inaugural

The Next Inaugural

Stirling Newberry takes you on a hopeful journey forward to January, 2009.

May it be.

Bring Them Home Tour - Part One

Bring Them Home Now Tour - Part One
Notes from the "Bring Them Home Now" bus tour, which stopped in Syracuse NY on September 14.

Mike Ferner was the first to speak.He is a freelance writer from Toledo, Ohio, and a member of Veterans for Peace. Encouraging all to attend the March on Washington on September 24th, he commented it should have come as no surprise when a powerful insurgency emerged in Iraq. He asked all to consider that if a foreign power had invaded our country, that we would have fought back, and we see the same level of violence in Iraq today. He said, "We need to get the hell out of Iraq – and the sooner the better. I have a two-word exit strategy – SHIPS and PLANES. Get our troops on them and bring them home now."

Tammara Rosenleaf of Helena, Montana spoke on behalf of Military Families Speak Out - tearfully, she described how her husband is soon to be deployed to Iraq and how he is willingly going to Iraq for “his buddies.” She knows that when she wakes in the middle of the night, scared to death that her husband is dead or injured in Iraq - or if he really is injured or killed, that the military is not going to be there for her as they claim they will be. She hears many people say that it's demoralizing to troops when Americans speak out against the Iraq war. Ms. Rosenleaf's husband tells her that he does not believe it’s demoralizing to troops at all. She assured the group of about 150 people that her husband and most troops would agree that our constitutional right to free speech was living in each person that was in attendance at the rally. In her words: "Who needs a free speech zone? We ARE a free speech zone." While in Crawford, she had seen a photo display of wounded soldiers that deeply disturbed her - their pain cannot be understood unless you really look at their eyes. She says that our leaders need to take a close look at those men and women before committing another soldier to die.

Quote of the Day - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Quote of the Day - Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

About America:

"Those of us who know that it’s worth fighting for have to take it back now from those who don’t."

- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.