Saturday, May 27, 2006

Media madness

Articles like this drive me crazy. It seems all that matters is what Bush says or how he appears. He's contrite, he's plain-spoken, he's abashed, he's unabashed, he's truthful, he's a liar. On and on.

What about what he does? He invades sovereign nations pre-emptively and contrary to international law. He demolishes the middle class in America with ruinous tax cuts and corporate welfare. He wrecks America's standing abroad, fomenting wild anti-American sentiment globally. He sanctions ongoing corporate greed and devasation of the planet by huge companies. He sanctions torture abroad and spying at home. He does nothing while emergencies arise. He panders to the basest impulses of the basest citizens by dropping "anti-gay" and "anti-immigrant" cards whenever he gears up for elections.

Forget Bush's demeanor, forget his persona. Hell, Hitler, it's said, was a good speaker who had good and bad days. And look what he managed to do with his nation, the operative word being "do". Just as Bush is doing to us. Is anybody paying attention?

Here's another take on Bush's latest barrage of "apologies" for his "tough talk."

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

What tax cut?

This analysis of the effect of Bush's latest tax cut (scroll to bottom of article) shows how the benefits of the legislation will be distributed. To me, the most stark statistic is that 5% of the benefits from the cuts will be shared by persons earning less than $75,000 per year, which equals seventy-five percent of American households; conversely, 95% of the benefits will go to those earning more than $75,000.

If you wonder why so many folks in the middle class still vote Republican, so do I.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

How's that again?

This article tracks the number of times over the last three years that Tom Friedman, one of the NYT's most prominent editorial apologists for the war in Iraq, has in interviews said that "the next six months" are do-or-die for democracy in Iraq. Funny if it weren't so tragic.