spoken like a true patriot

and i can't remember a time when i agreed with this guy, but today, he's making sense.

James Dobson: "If the nation’s politicians don’t fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we’ll see. Some religious leaders want new ethics rules for Congress, but that’s only a band-aid fix. Politicians need to root out this infection. Gambling – all types of gambling – is driven by greed and subsists on greed. That makes it morally bankrupt from its very foundation. Gambling creates addicts, breeds crime and destroys families. We need courageous office holders who will begin the process of shutting down lotteries, casinos and other gambling outlets."

--source

from the well, WAT DIDJA EXPECT file

WASHINGTON - Since the Bush administration took office in 2001, it has been more lenient toward mining companies facing serious safety violations, issuing fewer and smaller major fines and collecting less than half of the money that violators owed, a Knight Ridder Newspapers investigation has found.

At one point last year, the Mine Safety and Health Administration fined a coal company a scant $440 for a "significant and substantial" violation that ended in the death of a Kentucky man. The firm, International Coal Group Inc., is the same company that owns the Sago mine in West Virginia, where 12 workers died earlier this week.

The $440 fine remains unpaid.

--source

DELAY WATCH

did someone ever go with that moniker? i should have, but i jus dont have the time like i used to. from MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom DeLay, under indictment on criminal charges in Texas, announced Saturday that he will not try to reclaim his job as majority leader of the House of Representatives.

In a letter to rank-and-file Republicans, DeLay says he has “always acted in an ethical manner.’

At the same time, “I cannot allow our adversaries to divide and distract our attention,” the Texas Republican wrote.

oh, forgot the link to a lively thread HERE

bush's iraq war has cost U.S. over $1,000,000,000,000.00

that's TRILLION. from josh marshall's TPM cafe:

A new study by two leading academic experts suggests that the costs of the Iraq war will be substantially higher than previously reckoned. In a paper presented to this week’s Allied Social Sciences Association annual meeting in Boston MA., Harvard budget expert Linda Bilmes and Columbia University Professor and Nobel Laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz calculate that the war is likely to cost the United States a minimum of nearly one trillion dollars and potentially over $2 trillion.

support the troops

is a phrase lost among the echelons of the armed forces i guess.

The NYT fronts an internal Pentagon report concluding that 80 percent of marines who died from upper-torso wounds in Iraq could have been saved by larger body armor. The Marine Corps has known this since last June, yet did not place an order for the armor until September. (The report itself was held up for four months when the corps failed to pay a medical examiner $107,000 to examine the data.) The Army, for its part, has not even placed its order yet. Based on this report and other studies, the Times concludes that 300 of the 1,700 U.S. military fatalities in Iraq could have been averted with the new armor, which has been available since 2003.

from today's papers

so we now know there are two insurgencies

The NYT lead is mostly sourced to "a Western diplomat," but it also features interviews with two insurgent leaders and with "a former associate of [Saddam] Hussein" who was, the insurgents assert, released by the United States as a "goodwill gesture" toward them. The American negotiators are trying to exploit a presumed rift between Iraqi nationalist insurgents (who simply want the U.S. gone) and al-Qaida (which has international, pan-Islamic goals). Predictibly, the "nationalist" insurgents blame most of the insurgency's carnage on Abu al-Zarqawi and other "foreign" al-Qaida leaders. The United States is talking to the insurgents via intermediaries, the paper reports, and the communications are part of a larger strategy to encourage Sunni participation in the new government. It's unclear from the article whether the two insurgent leaders, identified by pseudonyms, were interviewed by the Times reporters in person.

carry their hate around with them, like it's a flag

that's the best description of these whacko reich-wing nuts who support that punk in the whitehouse. got it from a scene in bonanza.

they just don't get it

this (p)resident of the whitehouse thinks he can do any damned thing he wants to, legal or not.

Earlier this week, TP flagged a "signing statement" President Bush submitted with the McCain antitorture amendment, seeming to assert that the administration was not ultimately bound by the law. TP suggested that the papers ask the White House where it stands on the amendment.

Well, the Boston Globe, at least, has done just that. The White House's answer: Sure we're bound by the torture ban—except when we decide we're not. Or as an (anonymous) administration spokesperson put it, ''Of course the president has the obligation to follow this law, [but] he also has the obligation to defend and protect the country as the commander in chief, and he will have to square those two responsibilities in each case." That did not make Sens. McCain, Warner, or Graham happy.

Letter of the WeeQ

Clark Sheets (Dec. 22 letter) criticized the Register’s Young Adult Board of Contributors for “simplistic moralizing.” I will not defend the viewpoints of the writers, but I think he's missing the point.

Morality is a concept rooted in thinking outside of your own ego. Perhaps, young people are less “tempered by life experience.” Maybe they are slightly idealistic, but this world wouldn't be the same without their contributions.

Jesus Christ, the most revolutionary “moralizer” in history, barely lived past 30. He was also criticized for bold, moral proclamations, but he didn't sign up for the job for self-gratification. He did so because he was passionate about his convictions.

Do young Iowa writers get everything right? Obviously not, but at least they are testing beliefs instead of treading through their days without ever engaging a formidable question. Why are their contributions so simplistic? They have only 100 words to express a thought.

These ideas aren't intended to win a debate. Rather they're intended to make the wheels turn for the prepubescent and elderly alike.

—Tony Coppola, Des Moines.

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Letter Of The Day

I must have read this statement in the Register dozens of times. “The administrative costs of Medicare are only 3 percent compared to the 15 percent administrative costs of private health insurers.” I have been using Medicare insurance for almost two years and can explain why. There are almost no checks for fraud or abuse in Medicare.

The most common expression in the medical profession is, “Medicare will pay.” Health-care providers are only too happy to help you fill out the forms, schedule monthly visits and provide all kinds of medical devices that require only the doctor's prescription. The TV ads pushing motorized chairs for disabled patients is only one of the many ways Medicare is being abused.

I have seen the government's version of health care up close, and I don't think the country can afford it in its present form.

— Richard L. Powell, Grimes.

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incompetence DEFINED

The Post goes inside with President Bush bypassing the Senate and making a raft of recess appointments last night. Among the fine new hires: Julie Myers who will become head of the immigration bureau, despite complaints across the political spectrum that she's unqualified. Another hire will head a preparedness office at the Department of Homeland Security after making a name for herself, as the Post puts it, "demanding that information about racial disparities in police treatment of blacks in traffic cases be deleted from a news release." And a third will head the State Department's office to coordinate emergency relief. She has no experience in emergency management or relief, but, don't fret, she did serve as a state chair of Bush's 2000 campaign.

from today's papers

the new medicare part D law

seems we're getting the typical bushlexia response from the government:

A Medicare official said the problems are relatively minor, and are being dealt with.

Larry Kocot, senior adviser to Medicare's top administrator, said early January is always a tough time for pharmacies, because many people switch insurance plans at this time of year. He said pharmacists are also learning how to use a new computer search tool provided by the government.
...
Lutz (president of the American Pharmacists Association) was unimpressed by such talk from Medicare's leaders. "They're saying, 'Well, there's a few glitches, but overall it's been going pretty well,' " he said. "They haven't been talking to pharmacists in the field, I can tell you that."

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read between the lines

and you get the same shit: bush is power hungry to the point of being drunk with lust. from today's papers

Yesterday's Post noted President Bush's penchant for "signing statements," which give the White House interpretation of a law being, well, signed. The idea is to have challenges to a law on paper and thus give the administration a potential leg up in future court cases. The signing statements are an attempt to "address specific provisions of legislation that the White House wishes to nullify," said one presidential historian. He added that they are "also in an effort to significantly reposition and strengthen the powers of the presidency relative to the Congress."

Letter of the WeeQ

Years ago, I decided that it was important to maintain balance in my exposure to political opinion. If I read Richard Cohen and Molly Ivins, I will also read Charlie Krauthammer and Cal Thomas. I figure that it does not make me a more informed citizen to read only those with whom I agree. I do not regret the decision, although I must admit that it is tainted with a certain amount of self-righteousness.

Speaking of self-righteousness, my dedication to this practice was severely tested on Wednesday morning, Dec. 21, while I read Cal Thomas' column. There Cal is, staring dreamily off into God-knows-where (however, as Cal seems to have a direct communications pipeline to God, I am sure they have agreed on a suitable place) telling me that my "civil liberties mean nothing."

He didn't use "right to privacy" — a concept whose existence is the subject of occasional argument. He didn't use the word "privilege," as if to suggest that it is optional. He said "civil liberties" — a concept central to the founding of the country.

And he wants me to know that they have no value, although he obviously values the "civil liberties" of the Iraqi people, as evidenced by the fact that he is willing to go, uninvited, to war in their pursuit. Benjamin Franklin said "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." Who do we want to speak for us — Ben or Cal?

—Ken Schumacher, Ames.

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Letter Of The Day

today's winner is from my hometown newspaper.

I am one Christian who would like to buck this year’s fundamentalist trend by wishing all of my neighbors “Happy Holidays.”

By this, I mean all the holidays: Christmas, yes, but also Thanksgiving, New Year’s and Epiphany. For six weeks, we have a number of holidays, or “holy days,” and I see wise stewardship of resources in creating advertising that lasts an entire season.

Where is the merit behind the extremists’ claims of a war against Christmas? I do not see what any truly faithless person would find meaningful in celebrating our holy day, anyway. However, I do see that Christmas can be a means of grace, a doorway by which questions of faith behind traditions come to be asked and people search for meaning which goes deeper than piles of gift-wrap.

If anything should be boycotted at Christmas, it is materialism, not gestures of hospitality and welcome. Our retail centers are not, and should not purport to be, Christian institutions.

I do not go to Kmart seeking faith, I go seeking socks. A quick review of Wal-Mart’s alleged exploitative personnel policies certainly demonstrates it is not a Christian institution. But the extremists are not boycotting Wal-Mart for its treatment of its poor.

What disturbs me most about the “inclusive greetings boycott” is the implications of anti-Semitism. Hanukkah is the most prominent non-Christian holiday celebrated at this time. Why would we want to exclude Jews from our greetings of goodwill? I would like to wish our Jewish friends “Happy Holidays” as well.

Instead of picking this fight, I wish these extremists would focus on feeding the poor, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison and working for peace. That would be a useful Christian witness any time of year.

By LE ANNE CLAUSEN, Mason City
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Letter Of The Day

I am appalled at the idea that teachers are overpaid or that education and knowledge could be considered a commodity.

First, I challenge anyone who feels teachers are overpaid to step into a classroom of 30 15-year-olds and complete a lesson, then grade those students’ work, try to find current lesson plans and information in your 15-year-old textbooks and deliver the lesson with interest and have them actually remember it and learn something.

Second, education and knowledge are not commodities in the sense that one can buy and sell them for a profit. The educational system is cumbersome, yes; however that is because learning is cumbersome.

Does everyone learn how to read the first time they pick up a book or sing the ABCs? Students learn at different rates and in different ways. It takes a flexible model to allow for those differences and still encourage progress.

Why is teacher pay based on years of service then? It takes years to hone teaching skills. It takes the summers of curriculum building, classes, nights of lesson planning along with classroom experience to gain those skills. Yet base pay is necessary because teachers are the lowest-paid professionals with four-year degrees.

Don’t forget, it is the teachers who educate the doctors, lawyers and business people of tomorrow. The most educated people, who could also make great teachers, often don’t enter the profession because it doesn’t pay enough.

Is “performance” the answer? The best teachers are often given the most difficult students. Thus, their performance may be skewed by the results of some test score versus the progress a child has made in their classroom.

No matter what the scenario may be, teachers are worth way more than the measly salaries they are paid. Education is not for sale.

--J. Powers
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thank you mr president

the news picked up on bush's response to the spying program:

SAN ANTONIO -- President Bush on Sunday strongly defended his domestic spying program, saying it's a limited initiative that tracks only incoming calls to the United States.

and in the words of a friend of mine:

The President, who decried the leak of generic information about the spying as "shameless" and causing "great harm to the nation," now singlehandedly undermined the effectiveness of his own program. Shameless indeed.

--kos