Saturday, February 28, 2004

Misrble Failure

Can't this idiot get anything right? Turns out the average federal income tax refund isn't $300 higher than last year, as Bush predicted, but less than $100. I love the explanation at the bottom of the article, which is, essentially, that the average may go up as later returns are filed because these will be mostly those of higher-income taxpayers.

Exactly.

Riverbend rocks

This lady's blog, Baghdad Burning, is keeping on keeping on, this time on the subject of American propaganda in the Iraqi press. Her last remark, too, is cute.

Osama's capture

One benefit of insomnia is watching stories evolve in the media. This story still hasn't made the crawls of CNN, Fox or MSNBC, and if it has to happen before the election, oh please, oh please, let it be like this.

Update: I've just seen Faux News' initial report of this story and it's amazing how clear their bias is. They entirely pooh-poohed it, their disdain palpable. Makes me want it to be true, more than ever.

An interesting comparison

Check out this clash of predictions. A major high-tech executive says that any new jobs in his sector will likely be exported to Asia, while Greenspan claims that there's an imminent "pop" in high tech jobs in America.
Who're you gonna believe? The next Labor Department report, for February job creation, is due in a week and we'll see. Already the predictions are being hedged, suggesting about 100,000 new jobs, fewer even than last month's disappointing 116,000.
Update: January's mass-layoff figures were larger than those of a year ago and were the largest since records have been kept. This is improvement?

Friday, February 27, 2004

Can't wait to sign up

For the Pentagon's latest, a direct governmental news service that will emphasize the benign facets of the reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan. Literally, as fun as watching paint dry.

How does he get away with this?

First Bush opposes the creation of a 9-11 committee by the Congress, then, after pressure, relents. Then he opposes an extension of the committee, then, after pressure, relents. Then he limits his appearance to an informal meeting with only the two committee chairs, and now he limits his meeting with them to one hour.
Does this sound like someone with something to hide? Or maybe he just thinks he can get away with it. Will he? Yeah, no doubt.

More on Greenspan

This article places in historical perspective the varying positions of Greenspan and the class warfare his recent pronouncement about reducing social security benefits portends. Recall, he was originally appointed by Reagan, and is now showing his true colors, now that the bubble has burst and he faces a fiscal crunch. The rich get richer, and pay less tax, while the poor get reduced benefits.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Lies and Lying Liars

Here's something to mull over as we're all wondering why in the world the US Congress isn't calling for the impeachment of George Bush:

Even a lie is a psychic fact.
-Carl Jung

Hmmm.

Greenspan's a goner

After he tell us that Bush's deficits are going to require cutting future social security benefits, Greenspan has finally shown his colors. He's a money-changer, solely, who's take on the economy is limited to balancing the books, and doing so by limiting governmental expenditures.
Those in the White House are just waiting to get him alone, and I wouldn't bet on his chances from emerging from the back alley.

Burger assembly line

Under the title, "Would you like rivets with that?" the Daily Mislead reports that the Bush administration is attempting to re-define "manufacturing jobs," as set forth in the Labor Department employment report, to include burger-flipping at fast-food places. Not only would this hide Bush's continuing loss of manufacturing jobs, but it would obscure the obvious impact of such loss, that is, that the new jobs that are being created under Bush are in low-pay brackets, causing a gross loss in income to wage-earners.

Is there nothing Bush is incapable of?

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Avoiding Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

These posts are brief because I have so many observations to make about Bush's lies and misdeeds that my fingers are getting numb. This latest bombshell about Bush's pre-Iraq warplan should be enough to bring down his administration, but is just one of so many many that I despair of capturing all of them on this blog.

So, I just keep on keeping on.

Baghdad Listening

Riverbend's recent post about the bias of newscasts in Iraq is illuminating. In fact, given the pervasive rightwing cant of the media in this country, I'm thinking of moving to Baghdad to get the scoop of what's happening in the Middle East.

George W. Bush, the President of small business

Yeah, just listen to him tout the power and success of small business. Forget about job outsourcing--it'll all work out in the end (after years of poverty and displacement, I suppose) because his economic program benefits small businesses that will hire all those employees.

Not so fast, Bush. Check out this BusinessWeek report about the plight of American small business. Not a pretty picture. Ugly, in fact.

Hand puppets

I'm watching C-Span's telecast of Senate hearings where the directors of CIA, FBI and DIA are presenting the up-to-date threat assessment. Their spiels and Senators' examination of them is a laughable exercise, providing nothing but Administration propaganda. The system isn't working. We're on the way to dictatorship, governance by executive decree, and can only avoid it by replacing the executive and repopulating the Congress.

Ralph Nader's absolutely right. I just wish...

Monday, February 23, 2004

The Fox is guarding Halliburton

I'm much heartened that the Defense Department is investigating Halliburton, aren't you? No doubt Rumsfeld's minions will agressively ferret out all wrongdoing by this company that the Vice President recently headed, right?

Bombshell?

The report, a few days ago, by sixty eminent scientists berating the Bush administration for distorting and ignoring science to support its ideological agenda went nowhere, buried beneath stories about Martha Stewart's trial and Sex and the City. But today's blockbuster, that senior Pentagon advisers have told the Bush White House (in a suppressed report) that global warming is a fact, and that it can cause imminent catastrophe to the planet--that's got to get some traction, right?

Let's see.

And then there's the refugee problem

Of the thousands of Kurds who Saddam displaced from their homes around Kirkuk as part of his "arabization" policy, and who now want to reclaim their homes, displacing thousands of arabs; and the thousands of Shiites in the south whom Saddam "relocated" after the Gulf War, who are also returning to their homes.
When these factions clash, what will our forces do? Watch?

Sunday, February 22, 2004

Senator Levin's obsession

With finding out whether the administration purposely withheld intelligence about Iraq's WMD sites from the UN inspectors has finally borne fruit. Turns out the CIA (could this be Tenet's doing, or Condi's, or Rummie's--or Bush's?), gave the UN only some of the suspected sites, holding back 20.

Why would they do this? Simple.

"[Senator Levin] said he believed that the Bush administration had withheld the information because it wanted to persuade the American people that the United Nations-led hunt for weapons in Iraq had run its full course before the war."

No other explanation is possible--not from an administration that vowed to do all it could to find WMD and to root out terrorism.

This is another in the long string of egregious misdeeds by Bush, the warmonger.



Your reaction?

More newspapers, including Aljazeera, are reporting that Osama is trapped. I'm curious. Are you rooting for him to evade capture, or am I alone in this?

Small comfort

Apparently the universe is going to last for a long time. I wish I found this more comforting, but I'm sure with Bush at the helm, our race won't be around to celebrate the 30 billionth year anniversary. Maybe not even the next year.