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Well-Timed Tax Cuts Open Thread

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OK, so the news on the ballooning poverty in the US will be kicked back and forth like a political socceer ball, but none of it is too good for Bush: Real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 at $43,318, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. At … Read more

Dennis the Menace

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Via Kos (with hat tip to constant reader wilfred) It’s quite a feat, to say the least, but Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (R., Illinois), has managed to become the most hated man in New York City in record time. This from the ultra-conservative New York Post: New Yorkers yesterday slammed House Speaker Dennis … Read more

Defining “Accountability”

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These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility. —Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, May 2004, to the Senate Armed Services Committee In light of the Fay Report (warning: 177-page pdf) released yesterday, showing how policies implemented by Rumsfeld led to the abuse in … Read more

It’s Who You Know

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I’m sure Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife know Bay Buchanan, Gary Bauer, and the other conservative voices who “encouraged” President Bush to endorse a constitutional amendment chiseling discrimination into our nation’s most important document. My guess is they’re not as fond of the Cheneys as they are of Bush (the Cheneys doesn’t wear … Read more

Hurry, where’s your piggy bank?

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Scottish distiller Glenmorangie up for sale: Glenmorangie, the last listed independent Scottish distiller, on Tuesday confirmed it was in preliminary talks with a number of parties potentially interested in acquiring the whisky producer, which may or may not result in an offer. The company said that NM Rothschild, its financial adviser, had been instructed to … Read more

What’s a Medal Worth?

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ObWings reader Tina made a point in the Killing Me Softly thread that deserves its own post: I don’t think the SBV people really understand what they’re doing. Now whenever I see a decorated soldier, there will be a little voice whispering in my ear, “I wonder if he really deserved those?” Do they really … Read more

The Sagrada Familia is finished, sort of

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Continuing with Moe’s excellent choice of lazy-Sunday-suited subjects…

Visiting the great cathedrals of Europe you can’t help but marvel at the dedication represented by a construction project that would not see completion for possibly hundreds of years after the architect and original engineers and financiers were long dead. Off-and-on construction on my very favorite European cathedral, the Duomo in Milan, lasted from 1386 to 1813, for example.

My “second favorite” cathedral has always been somewhat of a dodgy choice because it’s still not complete and most likely won’t be for at least another 30 years. Who knows if I’ll actually like the end result (or if I’ll be here to see it)? But having visited the “in-progress” Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, I can say no other building in the world has so powerfully fired my imagination or captured what I feel 20th Century Christian spirituality had achieved and/or aspired to than this particular vision. “Masterpiece” seems an understatement for something that seems so otherwordly.

Architect Antonio Gaudí died* when his greatest work was only 15% complete, and his notes and designs were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. It’s still only about 40% complete (and finishing it is not uncontroversial) but thanks to technology, some contemporary imagination, and an impatient advertising executive and film producer named Toni Meca, we can now see how it will/might look when finished:


Virtual Sagrada Familia

The technology it took to accomplish this—The degree of detail in computer models is measured in units called polygons; the finished Sagrada Familia model required 35 million polygons, more than 10 times the number used to create the model of the ship in the film “Titanic.”—is described in more detail on the website http://www.tmdreams.com/.

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The Cover Allotted by the Fog of War

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Many moons ago I wrote in a thread on another blog that wars and bad economies come and go. The reason Americans should not re-elect George W. Bush is because he is quietly, systematically, and admittedly doing so aggressively, changing federal regulations in pro-business directions with no Congressional oversight:

Health rules, environmental regulations, energy initiatives, worker-safety standards and product-safety disclosure policies have been modified in ways that often please business and industry leaders while dismaying interest groups representing consumers, workers, drivers, medical patients, the elderly and many others.

When the war on terror is over, many Americans are not going to recognize their nation, and it has nothing to do with the PATRIOT ACT:

Some leaders of advocacy groups argue that the public preoccupation with war and terrorism has allowed the administration to push through changes that otherwise would have provoked an outcry. Carl Pope, the executive director of the Sierra Club, says he does not think the administration could have succeeded in rewriting so many environmental rules, for example, if the public’s attention had not been focused on national security issues.

“The effect of the administration’s concentration on war and terror has been to prevent the public from focusing on these issues,” Mr. Pope said. “Now, when I hold focus groups with the general public and tell them what has been done, they exclaim, ‘How could this have happened without me knowing about it?’ “

With all sincerity: WAKE UP FOLKS! Here’s just a few of the things being changed while we’re distracted by Iraq:

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IOC bought off as well?

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Not to diminish the truth in what President Bush says about the hope and, well, let’s call it that, satisfaction, in seeing women athletes from Afghanistan compete in the Olympics, this bit in this story threw me off: Afghanistan was suspended from the International Olympic Committee in 1999 due to the Taliban ban on participation … Read more

Goss Not Boss Material

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OK, so I don’t think he’s a good choice for CIA director, because he had gone to the floor of the house to criticize John Kerry, who I predict he’ll be working for in a few months, but my opinion was not consulted. President Bush might have researched his nominee’s own feelings about his qualifications … Read more

McGreevey Out!

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You can’t make this stuff up folks: New Jersey Governor James McGreevey announced his resignation on Wednesday, but that was not the only bombshell he dropped. In a televised speech expected to discuss recent allegations from a former aide, McGreevey chose to announce that he is ‘a gay American,’ and that he had an affair … Read more

Intimidated Off Page One

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UPDATED 1:42 AM: For a few typos and clarifications.

It’s a bit like closing the barn door once the horse has gone, but finally, in even clearer terms than The New York Times did in May, a major US newspaper is admitting they dropped the ball in the months leading up to the invasion of Iraq. From The Washington Post:

An examination of the paper’s coverage, and interviews with more than a dozen of the editors and reporters involved, shows that The Post published a number of pieces challenging the White House, but rarely on the front page. Some reporters who were lobbying for greater prominence for stories that questioned the administration’s evidence complained to senior editors who, in the view of those reporters, were unenthusiastic about such pieces. The result was coverage that, despite flashes of groundbreaking reporting, in hindsight looks strikingly one-sided at times.

[…]

In retrospect, said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., “we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing that we were not giving the same play to people who said it wouldn’t be a good idea to go to war and were questioning the administration’s rationale. Not enough of those stories were put on the front page. That was a mistake on my part.”

Across the country, “the voices raising questions about the war were lonely ones,” Downie said. “We didn’t pay enough attention to the minority.”

That excuse (we were so focused on trying to figure out what the administration was doing) doesn’t paint the whole picture though. Why the paper that toppled Nixon was hesitant about questioning the current White House can be explained in one word: intimidation.

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Banana Republic for Another Day

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An effort by more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers to bring international observers to monitor the November elections has paid off with an invitation by the State Department to the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The 55-nation group has already responded positively to the invitation, although it has yet to determine … Read more

Up with the VAT and into the Fire?

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I actually like the idea President Bush threw out there yesterday of a US value-added tax (VAT) or national sales tax replacing our federal income tax.

“It’s kind of an interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously,” Mr. Bush said in response to a question during an “Ask President Bush” session in Niceville, Fla.

Though the president’s remarks were informal, he made them at a time when some of his advisers, though by no means all, are urging that his speech at the Republican National Convention include a proposal for a vast overhaul of the federal tax system.

Mr. Bush’s comments were followed Wednesday by a conference call with reporters, arranged by the Bush-Cheney campaign, in which the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Representative Bill Thomas, Republican of California, said that he favored looking at “well-thought-out alternate tax structures” and that the committee planned to do so.

“We have one of the more regressive tax structures in the world today that basically is a 19th-century concept,” Mr. Thomas said, adding, “We should get that revenue from people in the least destructive way possible.”

Critics, including John Kerry, argue that such a national sales tax would “punish the poor and the middle class, who typically spend a larger share of their income than the wealthy on consumption.” Supporters argue that it’s simpler and fairer than our traditional income tax “because it would not provide the opportunities for loopholes and sophisticated tax-reduction schemes that tend to favor wealthy taxpayers.” If you buy a humungous SUV or a Hummer, you’re taxed on it fully, no loopholes.

As an anti-materialist, this suits me fine. Anything that encourages Americans to spend less money on frivilous products, many of which are only partially consumed before discarded, strikes me as a step in the right direction. Only problem being, our economy’s recovery is supposedly dependent on consumer spending:

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Why Is This Freak Still Alive?

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OK, so someone has to say it: Why is Osama bin Laden still alive? I know our intelligence sucks, but nearly three years later, and this dog’s vomit of a human being is still being credited for nonsense like this? Al-Qaeda is reportedly planning a high-level assassination against a US or foreign leader to disrupt … Read more

Sugar. There’s a war on.

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DROPPING OFF a sculpture I sold to a couple with an incredible collection of contemporary art last night, I eventually turned the conversation to the fact that the United States may not have representation in the 2005 Venice Biennale. They shook their heads knowingly. The wife noted that our nation is adrift: “We have no national cultural agenda.” For those who don’t care much for fine art, it’s comparable to not having any American athletes in the Olympics. It suggests we simply do not care enough about such things to make the effort or spend the money to send our very best. It has many folks in the American art world in a funk, to say the least. It’s an awful blow to our egos.

AS I RODE the train this morning, I scoured The New York Times for a hot topic to rant on. Nothing even remotely sparked my interest. Then I found the Times’ third installment of Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s (they’re reprinting installments of novels as part of their Summer Reading Free Book Series). “You don’t have time to indulge yourself with such trifles,” I thought. “Besides, you’ve already read the whole thing three times or more. Politics, War, Economic Strife…these are things worthy of your time…get serious. So much is at stake.”

A FEW YEARS AGO I became obsessed with trying to remember this short story I read in high school. I think it was titled “The Disappearing Act,” but I’ve been unable to find it or even verify that was its title. The story was set in the near future, and the world was in constant war. As I recall, generals and such were running the country, Spartan thinking was demanded of everyone, and creative endeavors were officially discouraged.

Then people started disappearing. Driving along in their car and then GONE. Hammering out a deal on the telephone and just VANISHED. It was officially denied by the government at first, when only a few people were disappearing, but soon there were so many folks vanishing without a trace, they had to do something about it. The final, chilling scene of the story has the country’s leaders realizing that they didn’t even have the skills to comprehend what was going on…they didn’t have the sensibilities to get their minds around the problem. Someone high up, rather frantically, begins commanding, “Get Me a Poet. We need a Poet.”

There simply were none left.

SO I READ the third installment of Breakfast at Tiffany’s on my way to work. It’s an American masterpiece. If you haven’t read it already, you really owe it to yourself.

Here’s a snippet (I rekeyed this, so please forgive any typos):

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Mission Implausible

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If I could have one moment with President Bush, just one conversation about the way he’s running the government, I’d ask him to take one very simple step that would improve the performance of the federal agencies under his control: read the agencies’ pre-existing mission statements and follow them. It ain’t rocket science. In fact, the statements are usually right there on the agency/department website.

Take for example, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration. Their mission statement reads:

The mission of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) is to administer the provisions of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (Mine Act) and to enforce compliance with mandatory safety and health standards as a means to eliminate fatal accidents; to reduce the frequency and severity of nonfatal accidents; to minimize health hazards; and to promote improved safety and health conditions in the Nation’s mines. (emphasis mine)

In choosing who to head up this office, Bush only needs to read the mission statement to potential candidates and ask whether they believe they can fulfill that mission. Anyone who has a track record suggesting they don’t believe in that mission should be considered an unwise choice for the job.

Take for example David Lauriski. Back in 1997, as an executive of a mining company, he wanted to allow much* higher levels of coal dust than current federal regulations allow. I assume this would save coal mining companies money. It would also put miners at greater risk of black-lung disease.

It would seem to make sense that anyone willing to put miners at greater risk of black-lung disease might not be an ideal choice to “to promote improved safety and health conditions in the Nation’s mines.” But Bush made Lauriski the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration anyway.

Now, as the New York Times is reporting, in direct opposition to the MSHA’s mission, Lauriski has revived his higher coal-dust levels idea.

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Voting Early (or “Hecklerphobia”)

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What I want to know is, if President Bush loses the election in November, will he sit down and compare the election returns against the loyalty oaths signed by voters who wanted to attend one of his rallies? I mean, if you’re being asked to swear you’ll vote for Bush, isn’t that essentially asking for … Read more

Hart in or out of GOP?

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Tennessee District 8 candidate for the House of Representatives, James L. Hart, seems to have won the GOP primary. This is a bit confusing, because he’s listed as an Independent or a Republican (depending on which source you consult) and the GOP of Shelby County endorsed a write-in candidate (Dennis Bertrand): On Thursday night, in … Read more

“The Boss” and Politics

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Bruce Springsteen explains in a NYT op-ed today why he and a group of other musicians will be touring this fall under the name Vote For Change: I don’t think John Kerry and John Edwards have all the answers. I do believe they are sincerely interested in asking the right questions and working their way … Read more

Reading for Reformation

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Kristof shares some encouraging news on the Reformation of Islam in his column today:

But now the same tools that historians, linguists and archaeologists have applied to the Bible for about 150 years are beginning to be applied to the Koran. The results are explosive.

The Koran is beautifully written, but often obscure. One reason is that the Arabic language was born as a written language with the Koran, and there’s growing evidence that many of the words were Syriac or Aramaic.

For example, the Koran says martyrs going to heaven will get “hur,” and the word was taken by early commentators to mean “virgins,” hence those 72 consorts. But in Aramaic, hur meant “white” and was commonly used to mean “white grapes.”

Not so sure about his timeframe. I believe the Bible has been undergoing quite a thorough deconstruction (off and on) since the early 16th Century or before, but he’s right to point to this new trend in re-examining the Koran as encouraging.

And none too soon either.

Consider the growing sentiment in Egypt, as reported by David Remnick recently in the New Yorker*:

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Turning the Corner…Finding Same Old Problems

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So the BBC (hat tip Wilfred) is running further with the idea than the US media that the Terror Alerts announced Sunday are timed to promote some GOP political advantage (considering how old the intel is there’s an argument to be made there). They offer that it was timed to “to knock presidential challenger John … Read more

Still the Reluctant Imperialists

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Hat tip to Constant Reader Wilfred for this item
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When the Bush Doctrine was first introduced, political analysts began debating whether or not it actually indicated that the US was now actively/openly pursuing an imperialist approach to our foreign policy.

Here’s a sampling of articles on the subject (with choice quotes) dating back to 2002:

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“Apparently fear wasn’t enough”

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That’s the epitaph of President Bush’s foreign policy suggested by Robert Wright (senior fellow at the self-declared “nonpartisan” New American Foundation) in an op-ed in the New York Times today. We don’t need to be loved in the Muslim world, but we need to be respected. And even real men want respect. After all, strength … Read more

A good job spoiled for what?

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So I’m listening to a live press conference where NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg is describing the planned response to the Homeland Security Department’s announcement that Reports indicate that al-Qaida is targeting several specific buildings, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in the District of Columbia, Prudential Financial in northern New Jersey, and Citigroup … Read more

Off By 20 Years

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Saw “Orwell Rolls in His Grave” the other night. Tackling the whoredom that passes as mainstream media these days, Director Robert Kane Pappas assembles an impressive cast of media experts (including a priceless 1980 interview with Peter Mitchelmore, the New York Post’s former editor, on his way out…to say he was candid is a gross … Read more

Re-re-inventing

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/political snark on/ There’s an adage in campaigning that notes: It’s better to get out there and define yourself before your opponent does. I thought about that when I saw this headline on FoxNews GOP: Dems Reinventing Kerry Re-re-inventing him, they mean. After the millions of dollars Bush has spent re-inventing Kerry’s record (Oh, keep … Read more

Anti-Americanism Petri Dish: II

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This is a follow-up to the discussion on how American corporations can directly influence anti-American sentiments through their dealings with the governments of unstable countries. The example used was ExxonMobil’s extraction of oil off the shore of Equatorial Guinea. Most of the discussion was based on a report aired on 60 Minutes.

Although Exxon declined an invitation to be interviewed for the 60 Minutes segment, apparently they did send a written response to some questions. They don’t get into specifics (and I’ve scoured their site for information on ROI that might shed some light on whether they took Equatorial Guinea to the cleaners, but to no avail), but they do make this declaration:

ExxonMobil is firmly committed to honest and ethical behavior. We pledge to be a good corporate citizen in all the places we operate worldwide. We maintain the highest ethical standards, obey all applicable laws and regulations, and respect local and national cultures.

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Of course it’s petty…that’s why it makes me smile

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Via the incomparable Harley on Tacitus ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drudge is running a story re Ann Coulter’s column for USA Today. Seems they spiked it for being ‘unusable’ and ‘not funny.’ This should not come as a surprise. Drudge does offer a nice photo, tho’. Contemplative, martyred, almost, dare I say it? Human. But you gotta give … Read more

Anti-Americanism Petri Dish

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Brig. Gen. (Ret.) Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo rules the relatively tiny African nation of Equatorial Guinea like any other dictator. He denies freedom of expression. He has had announcers on the state-run radio station declare that he is a “God.” He does allow elections (in which he gets 97% to 99% of the vote), but he regularly jails his opponents and plasters his own face on nearly every surface in the country (including clothing worn by his nation’s poverty-stricken citizens).

Yes, most of Equatorial Guinea’s population lives in squalor:

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Hello Sperm Bank? I want it all back, NOW!

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Surely this will be overturned on appeal: A state appeals court ruled that a verbal agreement between a woman and her sperm donor was invalid, and ordered the man to pay child support for the woman’s twins. The three-judge panel ruled Thursday that the deal between Joel McKiernan and Ivonne Ferguson — in which McKiernan … Read more

Gagging on the Donkey, Not Yet Ready to Swallow the Elephant

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Does the Democratic Party take African-American votes for granted? That’s the question President Bush asked during a refreshingly blunt address before the Urban League: “I know, I know, I know,” Bush added. “The Republican Party has got a lot of work to do. I understand that,” prompting laughter and louder applause and apparently provoking a … Read more

Comfortable Armchairs: II

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UPDATE: I’ve been convinced that this post asserts a charge against Glenn Reynolds that is unfair. I apologize to any of his fans who may have been offended, and especially to him. (Still, would it kill him to add a disclaimer each time he writes on this topic???) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With a hat tip to Von … Read more