Bad Deeds for 7-7-2008

George W. Bush and Members of His Cabinet Tried to Make the Case to Invade Iraq, Even Before He Was President – CNN video takes a look back at statements made by President Bush, and members of his cabinet, making their case to invade Iraq, perhaps even before George W. Bush was President.

Fox News Attacks Their Critics – Fox News, says New York Times columnist David Carr, is run more like a political campaign than a media outlet. “Once the public relations apparatus at Fox News is engaged,” Carr wrote of requesting interviews, “there will be the calls to my editors, keening (and sometimes threatening) e-mail messages, and my requests for interviews will quickly turn into depositions about my intent or who else I am talking to.” “Despite repeated calls,” Carr said, “the public relations people at Fox News did not return his requests for comment. (In a neat trick, while they were ignoring his calls, they e-mailed his boss asking why they had not heard from him.) Carr himself recalls being called a “crack addict” by Bill O’Reilly.

Republican Party Plans To Redistrict Itself Back Into Power – Republican officials now believe that the party’s best hope for retaking seats in Congress may come during gubernatorial elections in 2010. Should the GOP win back the majority of these seats (Democrats currently occupy 28 state capitols), they would be extremely well positioned to influence the redistricting of the political map that will come after the 2010 census.

“The 2010 elections are almost as important or equally important as the elections this year. After redistricting in 2011, the governors are going to have a huge influence in determining the political makeup of this country,” said Chris Schrimpf, a spokesman for the Republican Governors Association. “We could feasibly see 25 to 30 congressional seats swing as the result of redistricting.”

Because redistricting follows the 2010 census, each state will be reevaluating its congressional map in 2011. And in almost every one of these states, a tremendous amount of authority for this endeavor is placed in the governor’s hands.

U.S. Missed the Opportunity to Avert High Oil Prices – Over the last 25 years, opportunities to head off the current oil crisis were ignored, missed or deliberately blocked, according to analysts, politicians and veterans of the oil and automobile industries. What’s more, for all the surprise at just how high oil prices have climbed, and fears for the future, this is one crisis we were warned about. Ever since the oil shortages of the 1970s, one report after another has cautioned against America’s oil addiction.

McCain and Republican Party Lie About Obama’s Tax Votes – The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee both claim that Obama has voted 94 times “for higher taxes.” After looking at every one of the 94 votes that the RNC includes in its tally, FactCheck.org finds:

Twenty-three were for measures that would have produced no tax increase at all; they were against proposed tax cuts.

Seven of the votes were in favor of measures that would have lowered taxes for many, while raising them on a relative few, either corporations or affluent individuals.
Eleven votes the GOP is counting would have increased taxes on those making more than $1 million a year – in order to fund programs such as Head Start and school nutrition programs, or veterans’ health care.

The GOP sometimes counted two, three and even four votes on the same measure. We found their tally included a total of 17 votes on seven measures, effectively padding their total by 10.

The majority of the 94 votes – 53 of them, including some mentioned above – were on budget measures, not tax bills, and would not have resulted in any tax change. Four other votes were non-binding motions related to conference report negotiations.

McCain’s Iraq Plan Would Cost Tens-of-Billions (Perhaps Hundreds-of-Billions) More – The Congressional Budget Office has put out several possible templates for an American presence in Iraq and Afghanistan that offer an approximation of the costs of Obama and McCain’s policies. Should the candidates follow through with their proposals, taxpayers would be spending, perhaps, tens-of-billions (if not hundreds-of-billions) more under McCain.

Bush Not Planning Any Good Deeds After His Presidency – In a series of interviews, George W. Bush confirmed that the banality – and venality – that defined his presidency will also characterize his post-presidency as well:

First, Mr. Bush said, “I’ll give some speeches, just to replenish the ol’ coffers.” With assets that have been estimated as high as nearly $21 million, Mr. Bush added, “I don’t know what my dad gets – it’s more than 50-75” thousand dollars a speech, and “Clinton’s making a lot of money.”

Then he said, “We’ll have a nice place in Dallas,” where he will be running what he called “a fantastic Freedom Institute” promoting democracy around the world. But he added, “I can just envision getting in the car, getting bored, going down to the ranch.”

Bush’s plans are not exactly like Jimmy Carter’s charitable works and efforts for world peace, or Bill Clinton’s foundation and campaigns to battle AIDS, disease and natural disasters.

Republican Billboards Claim Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Was a Republican – A black Republican group has put up billboards in Florida and South Carolina saying the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican, a claim that black leaders say is ridiculous.

Glenn Beck on How the US Should Treat Gitmo Detainees: We’re Going to Shoot Them All in the Head – Listen to this rant from Glenn Beck about the Supreme Court decision on Gitmo detainees and you’ll know the state of conservatism in this country.

This court has done some frightening. frightening things….If I’m president of the US, I would go on National television and say—’ladies and gentlemen, the Supreme Court said that we don’t have Gitmo so that is over. We’re going to release all of them, but I want you to know from here on out our policy is to not have prisoners. We’re going to shoot them all in the head.’

If we think they are against us, we’re going to shoot them and kill them—period because that’s the only thing we’ve got going for us—cause we can put them away and get information. If we can’t put them away and they’re going to use our court system—kill them.

Fox News Sunday: Conservative Fred Barnes Suggests McCain Use Gay Bashing – Gay bashing worked for Republicans in 2002 and 2004 [under the direction of Karl Rove], and on this today’s Fox News Sunday, The Weekly Standard’s Fred Barnes suggests that it’s a winning issue for John McCain in 2008:

He needs to touch on, and – some of the social issues which energize the right. In particular, gays in the military for one. We know Barack Obama is for allowing gays in the military, and Bill Clinton tried to do and then backed off. This is not a popular issue. Gay marriage is another one. These are both issues that I think McCain’s gonna have to use. He can’t ignore the right. If he does, he’ll lose.

Nation’s Poorest 1% Now Controls Two-Thirds Of U.S. Soda Can Wealth 😉 – A report on growing disparities in the concentration of U.S. aluminum-can wealth, released Tuesday by the Department of Commerce, revealed that 66 percent of the nation’s recyclable assets are now held by the poorest 1 percent of the population.

According to the sobering report, the disproportionate distribution of soda-can wealth is greater than ever before, and has become one of the worst instances of economic inequality in the nation’s history. Data showed that over-salvaging of cans by a small and elite group of can-hoarders has created a steadily growing and possibly unbridgeable gap between the rich and the mega-poor.

“Although our nation’s upper middle class actually consumes the most beverages, a staggering percentage of these cans wind up in the hands of a very few,” said economist Cynthia Pierce, who worked as a consultant on the three-year, $14 million government study.

Regards,

Jim