Uncategorized
-
David Horowitz’s “Discover The Network”
David Horowitz, that shoddy right-wing provocateur, has debuted his latest project, DiscoverTheNetwork.org, which is tagged as “A guide to the political left.” I learned about it from an ad in The Chronicle, Duke’s student newspaper, which simply included the URL and promised to reveal who really controls the Democratic Party. The site claims that it
-
Payola far and wide
The Armstrong Williams fiasco has drawn important attention to inappropriate government payments to journalists. But Bruce Bartlett notes that very little has been said about reporters, anchors and commentators who routinely accept massive corporate speaking fees: [M]ainstream journalists who routinely speak before corporations, trade associations and interest groups hoping to influence news coverage practice the
-
Krugman on Greenspan and Social Security rhetoric
Paul Krugman makes two important points today. First, the evidence that Alan Greenspan is a partisan is just undeniable. After pressuring the Clinton administration to focus on debt reduction, he endorsed Bush’s tax cuts and then backed private accounts in Social Security this week even though the President has presided over a massive deterioration in
-
Bush phaseout hints?
Is President Bush suggesting that he wants to phase out traditional Social Security entirely? From the New York Times today: In the interview on Tuesday, Mr. Bush suggested that he foresees the plan to divert 4 percent of earnings into private accounts as a first step toward a longer range transformation of Social Security. “The
-
Bush can’t move the numbers
It’s worth reviewing where we are in the Social Security debate. President Bush has proposed a big initiative at great political risk to himself, confident that he can sway public opinion in his favor as he did with Iraq. But he’s about to find out that domestic politics plays by a different set of rules.
-
Slime x3
With Spinsanity shut down, I try to avoid reading as much political vitriol, but here’s a list of three people who need to be called out. First, New York state Republican chairman Stephen Minarik said after Howard Dean’s election as DNC chair that “now [Democrats] can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne
-
Dean cronyism at DFA
It’s amusing that Howard Dean, who furiously denounced the cronyism of the Bush administration, has installed his brother as placeholder chair of Democracy for America now that he’s DNC chair. Jim Dean has no obvious qualifications other than being Howard’s brother. Jim’s only function is to ensure that Howard retains control of the organization while
-
Yoo on mandates
The Jane Meyer New Yorker article on the rendition of suspected terrorists mentioned below has another noteworthy passage in which former Bush Justice Department official John C. Yoo defends his legal advice to the President justifying the use of torture: Yoo also argued that the Constitution granted the President plenary powers to override the U.N.
-
The public vs. the spinners on Social Security
Is the public catching up to Social Security spin? In a Washington Post poll last week, the brouhaha about “private” versus “personal” accounts seemed not to matter: Americans seem not to change their views when the president’s plan is characterized as a “private” rather than a “personal” investment account — a change from earlier studies,
-
What is waterboarding? (part II)
About a month ago, I pointed out that the Washington Post and other publications have published contradicting definitions of the interrogation tactic known as “waterboarding,” which is either strapping someone to a board and submerging them under water until they think they are about to drown, or placing a wet towel over their face and