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Krugman: "Flags Versus Dollars"

"Howard Dean's remarks about the need to appeal to white Southerners could certainly have been better phrased. But his rivals for the Democratic nomination should be ashamed of their reaction. They know what he was trying to say — and it wasn't that his party should go soft on racism. By playing gotcha, by seizing on the chance to take the front-runner down a peg, they damaged the cause they claim to serve — and missed a chance to confront the real issue he raised."

Spinsanity - The $38 billion deficit that won't go away: "The $38 billion figure received wide publicity earlier this year (with most coverage implying it was a one-year deficit rather than a projection over two years). But on July 31, 2003, just a few days after the recall qualified for the ballot, Davis signed a budget deal closing the projected shortfall, in part by issuing deficit finance bonds (see this overview from the California Legislative Analysts Office). The budget deal received widespread criticism for including $16 billion in borrowing over two years, mostly in the form of deficit financing bonds. But it also included an additional $23 billion in program savings, tax increases, payment deferrals and other measures to close the deficit. Whatever one's view of the budget deal, the $38 billion deficit no longer existed once the legislation was signed, and the relevant state budget figure became a projected $8 billion deficit for 2004-2005."

Fresh Air: Saturday - November 8, 2003: "Listen to Bill O'Reilly "

Spinsanity - Countering rhetoric with reason: "Bill O'Reilly, the host of 'The O'Reilly Factor' on the Fox News Channel and a syndicated radio show, has become the latest pundit to misquote statements by public figures."

Yahoo! News - Toddler Revived After Believed Dead: "A toddler who was revived nearly two hours after she was believed to have drowned and 40 minutes after doctors had declared her dead was responding to touch and sound Saturday, hospital officials said. "

Yahoo! News - Rich Colleges Receiving Richest Share of U.S. Aid: "The federal government typically gives the wealthiest private universities, which often serve the smallest percentage of low-income students, significantly more financial aid money than their struggling counterparts with much greater shares of poor students. "

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Two killed in Manila control tower: "Philippine police shot dead a former top civil aviation administrator and navy reserve officer who seized the control tower at Manila's airport to protest against corruption. "

BBC NEWS | Education | Girls miss out on going to school: "Girls still face 'sharp discrimination' in getting access to schooling in most developing countries, according to a global survey of education trends.

A new report from the United Nations educational organisation, Unesco, talks of 'significant' recent progress.

But equal enrolment remains 'a distant prospect' in 54 out of 120 countries. "

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Martial law extended in Aceh: "The Indonesian government has extended martial law in the province of Aceh for a further six months.

Ministers admitted failing to meet an initial six month deadline for suppressing separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam).

'The military operation will continue,' said security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Hundreds of combatants and civilians have died since the crackdown was launched in May. "

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Namibians plan white farm grabs: "A group of black farmers in Namibia says it will occupy 15 white-owned farms next week.

It says the government's policy of purchasing white-owned farms is moving too slowly in correcting unequal patterns of landownership.

A government spokesman said it would not tolerate any land invasions and urged landless people to be patient.

About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own almost half of Namibia's arable land. "

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Guinea 'armed' Liberia's rebels: "New York-based watchdog Human Rights Watch has accused Guinea of supplying heavy weaponry to rebels in Liberia.

HRW says Guinea broke a United Nations embargo by providing Iranian-built mortars which it alleges were used the July attack on the Liberian capital. "

What You Say Can�t Hurt You Until It Can

"For all the hoopla last week over Howard Dean's musings about the Confederate flag, they should not have come as a surprise. He made similar comments as far back as February, at a national meeting of the Democratic Party. That was not even the first time. At event after event, countless reporters, party stalwarts and even Dr. Dean's rivals in the presidential campaign had heard him say he hoped to draw support from Southerners who display that flag."

"Context is everything, particularly when eight rivals are trying to do you in. When Dr. Dean first talked about the flag, he was an upstart from Vermont � not the Democrat to beat. His rivals weren't scouring his speeches for ammunition against him. The press, as well as his Democratic audiences, happily accepted the most charitable interpretations.

'Everyone now has got their guns locked and loaded at Howard Dean � it's that simple,' said Rachel Gorlin, a Democratic strategist."

"In the latest episode, Dr. Dean, whose campaign is built on the Internet and has inspired campaign blogs, is also a victim of technology. Gone are the days when a candidate could say one thing in one place, one thing in another — and nobody would know. Words live on (and on) in the Internet."

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage: "The International Committee of the Red Cross has decided to temporarily shut its offices in Baghdad and Iraq's southern city of Basra given concerns about its staff's safety, the Swiss-based organisation says.

'We are temporarily closing our offices in Baghdad and Basra. We are still discussing what to do with our foreign staff. The situation is extremely dangerous and volatile,' ICRC spokesman Florian Westphal said."

Yahoo! News - Some in GOP Challenge Business Tax Cuts: "Some House Republicans are rebelling against a $128 billion package of business tax cuts aimed at helping U.S. manufacturers and endorsed by GOP leaders, griping that it offers too much to multinational corporations that are moving plants and jobs overseas. "

Yahoo! News - Students taking strides in foreign languages: "More college students are studying foreign languages than ever before, and they're choosing from a wider array of languages, including Ojibwe, Tagalog and Vietnamese, a study reports today. "

Focus Is Back on Groping Charges: "The dispute was hardly dead, but the charges that Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger abused more than a dozen women over the past three decades had receded from the headlines. Attention was pivoting to the upcoming inauguration. Schwarzenegger was making news by filling out his Cabinet and appointing senior staff. No new accusations had surfaced since his election victory on Oct. 7.

Yet in the span of an afternoon on Thursday, the focus lurched from Schwarzenegger's methodical efforts to build a government to the uncomfortable question that had dominated the final days of the recall campaign: his treatment of women."

Would someone please tell the other side

Yahoo! News - U.S. Insists It Has Upper Hand in Iraq

BBC NEWS | Americas | US raises spectre of conscription: "The American defence department has begun a recruitment drive for local draft boards, raising questions about a possible revival of conscription. "

TAP: Web Feature: Pickup Line. by Jefferson Cowie. November 7, 2003.: "Then, in 1968, Republican strategist Kevin Phillips conceived his party's southern strategy -- combining its traditional base with segregationist Democrats to form a national majority -- and inaugurated 35 years of GOP dominance that continues to this day. By littering their politics with thinly veiled racial rhetoric ('silent majority,' 'law and order,' 'welfare queens,' 'Willie Horton' and the rest) Republicans have done an outstanding job of driving -- and keeping -- much of the white working-class out of the Democratic Party.

Before the Civil Rights Act, however, the white, southern working class was primarily Democratic, not simply because of segregation but also because of the party's progressive economic policies. Poor, southern whites, as Thomas and Mary Edsall wrote in their 1992 book, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics, were 'among the nation's most liberal constituencies on non-racial economic issues, supportive of government intervention on behalf of full employment, improved education, and low-cost medical care.' White, working southerners were, in fact, outflanked on the left by only the most liberal elements of the Democratic Party -- Jews and blacks.

Those days, of course, are long gone. Since the 1970s, politics has been more about culture than class, and more about the manipulation of race than about racial or economic justice. During this time, we have witnessed the return of a level of economic inequality that most once thought the New Deal had made obsolete."

AlterNet: Confederate Flap: Stand Firm, Howard Dean: "Dean is right for three reasons.
First, he's right politically. Without a vision big enough to embrace Southern white men ? angry or not ? this country cannot be diverted from its current path toward corporation-focused, downwardly mobile plutocracy and turned back toward people-focused, upwardly mobile democracy.
Second, one of Martin Luther King's most profound insights came in his warning that to avoid elimination as the irrelevant unskilled, poor whites and poor blacks had to band together in a 'grand alliance' and demand from politicians jobs, justice and opportunity for everyone.
King realized that the grand old bargain this country had always offered to poor whites ? namely, accept your poverty and we will ensure your racial caste superiority over blacks ? must be destroyed before universal opportunity could be realized.
King clearly knew that the very whites he was appealing to clung to both the Confederate flag and empty white supremacy. Yet he still proposed this alliance for the greater prosperity of all: 'Together [poor whites and poor blacks] could form a grand alliance. Together, they could merge all people for the good of all.'
The third reason is that we need to get beyond fighting over Confederate symbols and get to the critical re-founding of this country for its people. "

Has Cheney Turned Into a Liability?: "Is Vice President Dick Cheney an electoral liability for President Bush? Some top Republicans are reportedly worried that Cheney's actions might threaten Bush's bid for reelection in 2004."

The risks of rapid 'Iraqification' | csmonitor.com: "Despite hopeful talk about quickly pushing native police onto the street, security training takes time if done right and does not necessarily produce elite units."

AlterNet: Aaron McGruder's Right to Be Hostile: "I can't remember what those kids were doing in the first Boondocks comic I saw, but I do remember exactly what passed through my mind when I read it: 'How the hell did this get into a daily newspaper?' "

AlterNet: Manipulating the GNP

President Clinton's tax policies may have contributed to the prosperity of the 1990s but they didn't, in and of themselves, create it. Clinton raised the marginal tax rate on upper-income Americans while lowering it (with the earned income credit) for low-income working Americans. Federal tax policy became fairer and perennial budget deficits were turned into record-breaking budget surpluses – good fiscal policy.


But the prosperity of the Clinton years rode on the revolution in information technology. And the predictability of capitalism's boom and bust economic cycle ultimately trumped the Pollyannaish punditry of Wall Street analysts who believed that the high-tech boom would last forever.

AlterNet: Personal Voices: Politics As Usual: "'Partial birth abortion' is not a medical term, it is a political one. And the (mostly) men who created this law knew darn well that there was no clause for a woman's health. These were my leaders telling me that their opinions (based on a religious foundation) mattered more than my health because there was no clause for a woman's health. "

TOMPAINE.com - Digging For Breaks

Outstanding Stories Of The Week

TOMPAINE.com - Grossly Distorted Picture: "our focus on the GDP is dangerous and, increasingly, does not reflect what average Americans are experiencing. The GDP tells us that dollars are flowing somewhere but sheds little light on who is benefiting from the economic activity. It treats every economic transaction as a good thing. GDP was never meant to be such a central factor in describing economic growth but it has evolved, over the years, into a central barometer, mainly for political reasons. Remember, the criticism often leveled at companies that focused on quarterly earnings just to boost share prices? The GDP is the government equivalent of the short-term focus on the economy. "

Indeed, it's a sad fact that some of the very dire circumstances faced by real people boost the Gross Domestic Product statistic. Sick people with no insurance run up the costs of health care—which is rung up as economic activity. As for debt, according to the Consumer Federation of America, credit card companies mailed five billion solicitations—nearly 50 per U.S. household—trying to dole out $3 trillion in unused lines of credit in just one year. That works out to about $30,000 per household—and, when that money is spent just to make ends meet, that credit card debt is chalked up to GDP activity, even if that activity sinks more families into economic despair.

In particular, this GDP rise is misleading. As the Economic Policy Institute correctly points out, the causes "underlying this growth are temporary: one-time tax cuts lifted disposable income; mortgage refinancing increased household spending; and a decline in inventories contributed to a lower trade deficit." Translation: the GDP this quarter was on a one-time economic steroid shot, juiced up by short-term political bribes (tax cuts) that can't be repeated, home owners cashing in on low interest rates and a temporary change in lower imports.

The problem is that there is no long-term coherent economic plan that deals with peoples' real life struggles and an economy that is quite troubled. In the richest country in the world, more than 34.6 million people (including 12.1 million children) live below what the government says is the "poverty line." But, what about those who live above the "poverty line" of $18,244 for a family of four? How does a family of four earning the enormous sum of, say, $25,000 clothe, feed, house and educate themselves?

The unofficial unemployment rate of 6.1 percent does not tell us how many millions of people are employed in part-time jobs but who would gladly accept full-time work. More than 2.5 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since the current administration took office—56,000 disappeared in June alone. Those were good-paying jobs. In the richest country in the world, 43.6 million people do not have health insurance—more than 15 percent of our families, friends and neighbors have no protection for themselves when they fall ill. A record number of bankruptcies—an estimated 1.7 million—is forecast for 2003.

Zbig Trouble for Bush - Brzezinski proves you don't have to be a liberal to loathe administration policy. By Fred Kaplan:

In an implicit indictment of Donald Rumsfeld, Brzezinski added, "We cannot have that relationship if we only dictate or threaten and condemn those who disagree. … We should seek to cooperate with Europe, not to divide Europe into a fictitious 'new' and a fictitious 'old.'… While America is paramount, it isn't omnipotent. We need the Europeans. We need the European Union."

"If we want to lead, we have to have other countries trust us. When we speak, they have to think it is the truth. … We are going to live in an insecure world. It cannot be avoided. We have to learn to live in it with dignity, with idealism, with steadfastness."

The Prague Post Online: "European Parliament (EP) elections have traditionally been disappointing in terms of voter turnout, and the Czech Republic isn't expected to buck that trend in June., when voters will send their first 24 representatives to Brussels and Strasbourg.

Despite the gloomy predictions, however, the largest political parties in this country still plan to dig deep into their war chests and put their most popular candidates on the ballot. Given that an EU Parliament election is often a barometer of the national political mood, several parties are getting an early start -- mapping out strategies, penning slogans and preparing budgets for a plebiscite that is still seven months off. "

Pravda.RU Four European spaces to be discussed at Russia-EU summit: "The formation of four European spaces is to be discussed at the Russia-EU summit in Rome, RIA Novosti was told by a high-placed source in the Kremlin.

According to the source, the formation of European economic space, space of freedom of movement, external security space, and space of science, education and culture will come under discussion.

Speaking of the common economic space, the source noted that 'the work on this question went on for more than two years, and objectively not bad results have been attained'. In particular, the parameters of drawing the legislation of Russia and the EU closer together have been determined. 'This is very important, since we want to bring our legislation closer to the European legislation soon', the source said.

The source qualified the discussion of such questions as facilitation of the visa regime, the fight against illegal migration, and cooperation along the Interior Ministries' lines as the formation of internal security space.

The source called the joint fight against terrorism the main question of external security.

As he said, cooperation in forming common space of science, education and culture 'has been making rather fast headway'.

The Kremlin source also said that the question of the shaping of the Russia-EU permanent council will be discussed in the course of the summit, and that the development of the internal situation in Russia and the EU will be considered.

The international block of the summit's agenda includes the situation in Iraq, in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the status of Russian-speaking population in Latvia and Estonia. "

Pravda.RU Tehran has nothing to conceal?: "Chairman of the Iranian National Security Council Hasan Rouhani intends to meet IAEA Director General Mohamed El-Baradei on Saturday in Vienna to give him an official letter specifying Iran's stance on its own nuclear programs and facilities, IAEA representative Peter Rickwood announced in Vienna. "

9/11 Panel Issues Subpoena to Pentagon: "The federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks stepped up pressure on the Bush administration to cooperate by issuing a subpoena on Friday to the Pentagon."

Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution Cases: "A change in enforcement policy will lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act, lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week said.

The lawyers said in interviews on Wednesday that the decision meant the cases would be judged under new, less stringent rules set to take effect next month, rather than the stricter rules in effect at the time the investigations began."

"The lawyers said the change grew out of a recommendation by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, which urged the government two years ago to study industry complaints about its enforcement actions. The Bush administration has said its goal is to ensure cost-effective improvements to air quality."

News Analysis: For G.O.P., Abortion Bill Signing Is a Moment: "President Bush's signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on Wednesday was a moment of political triumph for the anti-abortion movement, a reflection of its influence with a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican president.
But it was also, leading opponents of abortion say, a validation of the movement's long-term strategy of incrementalism, restricting abortion step by step as part of the larger battle to turn public opinion against Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized a constitutional right to abortion."

Washington Talk: The Race According to George McGovern: "The pivotal issue in the coming primaries, Mr. McGovern said in an interview, is sure to be the 'foolish war in Iraq,' just as the Vietnam War was central to his own campaign for the Democratic nomination. Next year, he believes, Democratic voters will insist on a nominee who is outspoken against the war, just as they did then. 'I don't see that this war has any more to commend it than Vietnam did,' he said."

"'You need to appeal to rank-and-file Americans to win' a general election, Mr. McGovern said. But winning the nomination, he added, is something else, and this is working to Dr. Dean's advantage.

'To win the nomination, you have to activate the voters,' Mr. McGovern said. 'Primary and caucus voters are the committed people who care about the issues, and in this instance about the war, and they are the ones who are prepared to go out in a blizzard to someone's house for a caucus or to a fire station to vote.'"

"I think the field of '72 was more capable than this year's group," he said. But he added, "Every time I've heard them this year, I think they're better than they were the last time."

G.O.P. Posted Gains Among Voters After 9/11, Survey Shows: "WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 ? The Republican Party, which has lagged behind the Democrat Party in registered voters for much of the last century, has made significant gains across the country and has now pulled virtually even with the Democrats, according to a new portrait of the electorate conducted by the Pew Research Center."

"'Since Sept. 11, 2001, Republicans have made significant gains both geographically and demographically,' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 'Yet the favorable trends for the G.O.P. are imperiled by rising discontent with national conditions and unease with the situation in Iraq.'

The gains came chiefly among white Protestants, white Catholics, Hispanics in the West and Texas and in important swing states like Florida as well as in three states that Al Gore won in 2000 — Michigan, Minnesota and Iowa. Women and early baby boomers — people in their middle 40's to late 50's — are still more likely to be Democrats, while men, married people with children and people aged 30 to 44 are more likely to lean Republican.

President Bush runs dead even against an unnamed generic Democrat, the survey showed, but he beats all of his current Democratic rivals when they are named."

Baghdad Scrambled to Offer Deal to U.S. as War Loomed:Lies, exposed lies, and the lying liers we elect
"As American soldiers massed on the Iraqi border in March and diplomats argued about war, an influential adviser to the Pentagon received a secret message from a Lebanese-American businessman: Saddam Hussein wanted to make a deal.

Iraqi officials, including the chief of the Iraqi Intelligence Service, had told the businessman that they wanted Washington to know that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, and they offered to allow American troops and experts to conduct an independent search. The businessman said in an interview that the Iraqis also offered to hand over a man accused of being involved in the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 who was being held in Baghdad. At one point, he said, the Iraqis pledged to hold elections." "'Since Sept. 11, 2001, Republicans have made significant gains both geographically and demographically,' said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 'Yet the favorable trends for the G.O.P. are imperiled by rising discontent with national conditions and unease with the situation in Iraq.'

"In interviews in Beirut, Mr. Hage said the Iraqis appeared intimidated by the American military threat. 'The Iraqis were finally taking it seriously,' he said, 'and they wanted to talk, and they offered things they never would have offered if the build-up hadn't occurred.'
Mr. Perle said he found it 'puzzling' that the Iraqis would have used such a complicated series of contacts to communicate 'a quite astonishing proposal' to the Bush administration.
But former American intelligence officers with extensive experience in the Middle East say many Arab leaders have traditionally placed a high value on secret communications, though such informal arrangements are sometimes considered suspect in Washington."

"Mr. Obeidi explained that the Iraqis wanted to cooperate with the Americans and could not understand why the Americans were focused on Iraq rather than on countries, like Iran, that have long supported terrorists, Mr. Hage said. "

Microsoft Offers Reward to Stop Viruses: "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Applying Wild West bounties to modern Internet crimes, Microsoft Corp. set aside $5 million Wednesday to pay large cash rewards to people who help authorities capture and prosecute the creators of damaging computer viruses."

Issue for Bush: How to Speak of Casualties?: "Mr. Bush does send a personal letter to the family of every soldier killed in action and has met privately with relatives at military bases"

Well that makes up for everything doesn't it

Illegally in U.S., and Never a Day Off at Wal-Mart: "The 21-state raid last month exposed an unseemly secret about Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer: Hundreds of illegal immigrants worked at its stores, and its subcontractors appear to have violated overtime, Social Security and workers' compensation laws. "

"Company officials deny having known that illegal immigrants worked in their stores, saying they required their cleaning contractors to use only legal workers.

But two federal law enforcement officials said in interviews that Wal-Mart executives must have known about the immigration violations because federal agents rounded up 102 illegal immigrant janitors at Wal-Marts in 1998 and 2001. In the October raid, federal agents searched the office of an executive at Wal-Mart's headquarters, carting away boxes of papers. Federal officials said prosecutors had wiretaps and recordings of conversations between Wal-Mart officials and subcontractors."

"The use of illegal workers appeared to benefit Wal-Mart, its shareholders and managers by minimizing the company's costs, and it benefited consumers by helping hold down Wal-Mart's prices. Cleaning contractors profited, and thousands of foreign workers were able to earn more than they could back home.

But the system also had its costs — janitors said they were forced to work seven days a week, were not paid overtime and often endured harsh conditions. Foreigners got jobs that Americans might have wanted. And taxpayers sometimes ended up paying for the illegal workers' emergency health care or their children's education in American schools."