Fmr. Lt. Gov. 'Ashamed' of His Role in Getting W. Out of Vietnam

This item taken verbatim from Michael Moore's better-all-the-time page where there is also relevant video:

Ben Barnes, former Lieutenant Governor of Texas, says he's "ashamed" of securing George W. Bush a position in the Texas Air National Guard in 1969 so he could avoid serving in Vietnam.

Barnes, who was the Texas House Speaker at the time, says it was a recent trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., that led him to the realization that aiding the children of rich donors, including President Bush, in their efforts to avoid service in Vietnam was "the worst thing I did."

Bush has repeatedly denied having had any preferential treatment in getting into the Texas Air National Guard to avoid Vietnam.

Karl Rove: Boy Genius?

A post over at TAPPED points to a new blog that's worth a read through: New Donkey (which has been added to our list of weblogs). In particular it points to post about Karl Rove's failed strategy to reach out to the centrist vote.

If there's one thing the Republicans have been amazingly good at this election season, it's sticking to talking points even if the facts no longer support them. Along with our "strong economy" and our supposed successes in the war on terror, Karl Rove's "genius" seems to be one of those hallowed truths that no one has the courage to question. But at the end of the day, what exactly has the genius done? More and more swing states seem to be leaning toward Kerry, and Bush is no more popular now than when he was sworn in. In fact, considering one poll has his approval rating at 39%, he may be worse off. If this is proof of Karl Rove's success, I'd love to see what happens when he fails miserably.

For Commander Bush, Mum's the Word on "Osama Bin Forgotten"

This is an interesting article about these members-only events Bush is holding. Very revealing of his strategy. Here's an excerpt:

Bush's overriding strategy is to bolster his credentials as a decisive military figure and to impugn his opponent's manhood. In his latest TV commercial, he says: "We cannot hesitate, we cannot yield, we must do everything in our power to bring an enemy to justice before they hurt us again." But, according to the Washington Post, for the last two years he has uttered the elusive Osama bin Laden's name only 10 times, and "on six of those occasions it was because he was asked a direct question ... Not once during that period has he talked about Bin Laden at any length, or said anything substantive".

The Flag: Part II

Anybody else ever wonder what happened to the story of the new Iraqi flag discussed in this forum on April 27? While watching the opening ceremonies of the summer Olympic games, nearly four months later, I was surprised to see the Iraqi team proudly waving little personal-sized versions of Sadaam's 1991 "Allahu Akbar" banner to the roar of the Athens crowd. "What's up with this?" "Why aren't the commentators noting this audacious nose-thumbing?" It took me a fair amount of surfing to find any mention of what had happened to April's symbol of "liberty", and when I did, it wasn't from any news source. Here's what seems to be the current low-down from a site that deserves congratulations on at least being up-to-date.

By the way, among the most misleading (or misled) of the headlines I came across in my search was this one from ESPN. The story itself, however, turns out to be pretty interesting.

Cops expect unexpected with GOP

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA, Staff Writer (Newsday)

August 13, 2004

Water balloons. Sleeping dragons. A drummer really into the beat.

These are some of the tools of anarchy that police have been told to watch for as they prepare for protests during the Republican National Convention.

According to an NYPD guidebook printed for the convention and obtained by Newsday, cops assigned to convention duty are likely to have their hands full with strident protest groups that don't have permits to march and generally don't play by the rules.

The 35-page booklet, "Legal guidelines for the Republican National Convention," was printed to let cops know what to expect when the protest groups that police generally call anarchists roll into town the last week of August, police sources say.

The booklet deals in great detail with First Amendment issues, media accessibility and what cops should and should not allow. It also lays out the various tricks, tactics and methods that police say many protest groups use to get their message out.

Rigged balloons and more

Seemingly innocent balloons may not be so harmless, the booklet says, as protesters have been known to fill them with metal shavings and launch them "towards electrical power lines" in hopes of causing a blackout.

Cops are also told in the booklet to expect protesters to hurl objects at them. Weapons of choice for the protesters, according to the booklet, include frozen water balloons thrown off buildings, as well as billiard and golf balls and hockey pucks hurled from street level, often with slingshots.

The problem with the groups coming here with no permit and intent to wreak havoc is that police do not know where or when some of them are likely to act.

Hurling projectiles, on cue

Police sources say undercover cops have infiltrated at least some of the groups they expect to cause trouble. That should help them nip some of the problems in the bud, but there is still some concern, according to the booklet, that protesters may hide items on the streets that they intend to hurl at police. Often, the signal to start throwing or to rush to a predetermined location is the faster beat of the drummer from the band that accompanies many groups.

Eric Laursen of A31 Coalition, a group organizing civil disobedience on Aug. 31, said that the warnings in the NYPD booklet are "urban legends" that only increase the likelihood of conflict.

"The unanswerable question is how conscious the top brass are that these are basically urban legends," Laursen said. "If they aren't, they need to be more responsible. If they are aware, then you have a really reckless, nefarious effort to discredit people who haven't done anything wrong."

The booklet also warns cops that protesters have been known to target police horses by stringing wire at street level to trip them, tossing marbles in their paths or slicking streets with vegetable oil.

Police expect to make hundreds of arrests, but even then, protesters have plans, according to the booklet: faking police brutality, with protesters impersonating cops and beating other protesters; falling limp; securing themselves to others or to fixed objects with bicycle locks or by inserting their arms into "sleeping dragons," concrete-enforced pipes often rigged with chicken wire.

Words will be rubber

The booklet also serves as a legal primer for cops. It explains the First Amendment, warns cops against arresting someone if they don't like what they are saying, and tells them they must have "thicker skins and tolerate verbal abuse that would otherwise constitute harassment if directed at an ordinary citizen."

"With few exceptions," the booklet notes, "a person may say anything he or she wants, no matter how offensive."

Staff writer Daryl Khan contributed to this report.

The Second Most Biased Opinion in Politics

Is it just me, or was there a time in the not-so-distant past when Paul Krugman strove for some kind of nonpartisan credibility?

I mean, I agree with him a lot of the time, but presumably the reason his voice means anything more than the average run-of-the-mill liberal fire drill is that he's supposedly a highly respected scholar of economics, not a hysterical left-wing rabble-rouser. Yet with each new column, he seems to be gradually frittering away his Ivy-bestowed credibility on half-truths and unsubstantiated claims, earning SECOND PLACE (just behind Anne Coulter) on Lying in Ponds' Top Ten Most Partisan Columnists index -- a laurel that shocked me when I first read it but is beginning to seem rightfully bestowed. And Spinsanity.org even takes him to task for his views on Iraq.

In his column today, he goes back to straight economics, where he should be expected (or at least I still expected him) to have something useful to say. Seems Team Bush is using a new catchphrase -- "ownership society" -- to describe their new dystopian vision. Krugman's take: this is another attempt by the administration "to provide pseudopopulist cover to policies that are, in reality, highly elitist." Oh, ha ha -- the Bushies attempt to get popular support for the object of Krugman's favorite (and probably most true) critique of the sitting President: his rob-the-poor-to-feed-the-rich tax policy. Great copy.

But in order to engage the public in a true discourse over the actual foundation of Bush's policies -- to engage the ideas that so many Americans (though obviously not Krugman's readers) STILL find appealing -- an honest look at what Team Bush actually says to those people would be necessary. So here it is, straight from a speech delivered to supporters at the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans, in January of this year:

A compassionate society must promote opportunity for all of us including the independence and dignity that come from ownership. This administration will constantly strive to promote an ownership society in America. See, we want more people owning their own home. We have a minority home ownership gap in America. I proposed a plan to the Congress, starting with helping with the poorest of poor make a downpayment for a home, to close that gap. It's in the national interest that more people own their own home.

We want people owning and managing their own healthcare accounts and their own retirement accounts. We want more people owning their own small business. This is an administration that understands when someone owns something, he or she has a vital stake in the future of our country.

Now, aside from the mild revulsion that comes with being able to totally envision the bastard delivering these lines, what I see is an opportunity for Krugman (or anyone else) to engage these ideas, and probably to refute them. Is an increase in minority home ownership or small business ownership a bad idea? No. Will the Bush economic plan cause that to happen? Probably not, but Krugman, the economist, could probably do a better job of telling us why (and maybe even giving Club Kerry a few pointers on how it might truly be done, being that people seem to like the idea so much).

Too bad Krugman's content making the easy arguments: tearing down the silly social-security privatization plans which, he says, even Bush's own team admitted would never work, rather than getting to the root of an issue he only briefly mentions: the fact that Bush's "tax plans" fly because people are compelled by arguments like the one Bush actually made -- that everyone will get a piece of the pie, that "everyone can join the elite." True or false? Why or why not? These more complex issues of economics do not seem to concern Krugman quite as much as the easy shot. But more importantly, by sullying any hope of a reputation for impartiality, he simultaneously detracts from the arguments he does make well, rendering him powerless to convince anybody but the already convinced.

Got Terror?

JuliusBlog has posted an interesting chart that pairs the "terror alert" status with Bush's polls. It's confusing, but informative.

Also, did you hear that Jenna caught a 38" bass off of Kennebunkport? I wonder if it was a terrorfish! C'mon, Palabris, don't you know a story when you see it?

August 14 is Defend Dick Cheney Day!

Enough is enough! Dick Cheney has taken it on the chin for the last time. So, in his defense, the Billionaires for Bush are declaring August 14th "Defend Dick Cheney Day", a National Day of Action. Please join Billionaires across the country and organize an action with your fellow members of the top 1%

Action resources available now.

How Do You Lose a Truck?

Millions in U.S. property lost in Iraq, report says (Bloomberg News)

Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.

The auditors couldn't account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton's KBR unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general.

Halliburton is providing services to U.S. troops under a contract that has generated $3.2 billion in revenue so far.

"This occurred because KBR did not effectively manage government property," Bowen wrote. "As a result, we projected that KBR could not account for 6,975 property items from an inventory of 20,531 valued at $61.1 million."

Halliburton is under investigation by the Justice Department for allegedly overcharging the military by $61 million for fuel purchases.

Democrats accuse the Bush administration of favoring the company because of its former connections to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Halliburton disagrees with the new audit, said company spokeswoman Cathy Gist.

"The examination simply included projections that were based on limited sample groups that were not necessarily a representative selection amount, which could have provided a more accurate measure," Gist said in an e-mailed statement. "The facts show that (KBR) has adequately managed the property for this mission by aggressively monitoring its property management functions above and beyond what is required for government approval of a property control system."

All the President's Spin

The writers of Spinsanity.org have released their new book: All the President's Spin. These writers are intellectually honest - check out their latest critical entries of Michael Moore and Paul Krugman. I think the book could be powerful among certain swing voters who aren't swung by F911.

Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Jonathan Chait, The New Republic "A clinical, dispassionate, and intellectually bulletproof analysis of the ways President Bush has manipulated public opinion. The authors meticulously paint a troubling picture of the way our national debates function. It ought to shame the press corps into mending its ways."
Tucker Carlson, CNN "Politicians talk so much that hardly anyone pays close attention to what they're actually saying. Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer, and Brendan Nyhan do, staying up late to match words with reality. It's a tough job -- imagine the migraines -- but the rest of us can be glad someone's doing it."

Neal Pollack, author of Never Mind the Pollacks "A chilling and comprehensive account of how the government has polluted our country with a thick mist of foul propaganda."

Book Description
All the President's Spin, the first book from the editors of the acclaimed nonpartisan website Spinsanity, unmasks the tactics of deception and media manipulation that George W. Bush has used to sell his agenda to the American people.

From his campaigns for tax cuts to the debate over war in Iraq, President Bush has employed an unprecedented onslaught of half-truths and strategically ambiguous language to twist and distort the facts. Fritz, Keefer, and Nyhan's powerful critique of Bush's record of policy deception explains why the media has failed to hold him accountable and demonstrates the threat these tactics pose to honest political debate.

This is the essential book for every citizen who wants to understand how George W. Bush has misled the nation and why, if left unchallenged, all the President's spin could soon become standard practice -- a devastating development for our democracy.