Archives

28 August 2003

Republican Party Outsources Fund Raising to India

Unprecedented levels (at least in modern times) of unemployment and underemployment, yet Republican party powers send work overseas. Shows you where their sentiments are...
THE REPUBLICAN PARTY is using call centres in Gurgaon and Noida in India to raise funds for itself and for its chieftain, George W. Bush.

Young people at the call centres are helping robots to phone American citizens to enlist their support and money for the political party, with plans to extend the scheme if they whip up enough donations.

20 August 2003

Military Families to Rally in Crawford, Texas

To send President Bush a message - BRING THEM HOME NOW.
The truth is coming out. The American public was deceived by the Bush administration about the motivation for and intent of the invasion of Iraq. It is equally apparent that the administration is stubbornly and incompetently adhering to a destructive course. Many Americans do not want our troops there. Many military families do not want our troops there. Many troops themselves do not want to be there. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis do not want US troops there.

18 August 2003

Lights Out on Deregulation

Dennis Kucinich, guest blogging for Lawrence Lessig, has written an interesting piece about the energy company that was the responsible culprit for the blackout that gripped cities in the northeast U.S. and Canada.

16 August 2003

Neither my mother nor Maria is allowed to go out with me in pants

Skeletons continue popping out of Arnold Schwarzenegger's closet.
During hundreds of interviews over three decades to promote 28 starring movie roles, the cameras rolled and the tape recorders were on as he openly smoked marijuana, acknowledged his Nazi father and admitted to steroid use. No doubt he wasn't thinking about his future constituents in Berkeley when he unloaded this comment on appropriate attire for women:

"I hate pants. This is something I have inherited from my father," the actor told Playboy magazine in 1988. "He despised pants, and my mother was never allowed to wear them at home. We're talking about a different time period now, when the man was much more the ruler of the house. But I still feel that way, and neither my mother nor Maria is allowed to go out with me in pants."

Not that smoking pot or gobbling up steroids should automatically disqualify him from office. But the womanizing, admiration for Kurt Waldheim, and the heavy handed treatment of any reporters probing his personal life should sound a shrill alarm.

7 August 2003

Whatchoo talking about Arnold?

Arnold Schwarzenegger upstaged Gary Coleman and announced on the Jay Leno show that he will be a candidate for governor in the upcoming California recall election. He started his campaign to win the governorship of the largest state in fine Hollywood fashion, blurting out action movie slogans to a cheering television studio audience.
"Do your job for the people or else you're out. It's hasta la vista, baby," Ah-nold said, repeating the Terminator's catch phrase in his famous Teutonic accent.

"I will pump Sacramento up," he said. "I will go to Sacramento, and I will clean house."

Forgive me if I don't leap on to the Arnold for governor bandwagon - I realize millions of Californians and Americans are enthralled with the blockbuster superstar's political foray, but I believe it bothersome, and I'm thankful I am not a California resident. What exactly qualifies the immigrant son of a Nazi stormtrooper to be a state governor? California's dismal problems can't be solved by sci-fi flick quips. Folks will point to Ronald Reagan, Jesse Ventura and other examples where sports stars pursued a second political career. But there was a large gap of time before ascending to the presidency where Reagan performed executive type behavoir, like being president of the screen actors guild.

Sorry but celebrity status and treasure chests packed with gold doesn't convince me of Schwarzenegger's suitability. And his boast that "I don't need to take money from anyone - I have plenty of money myself." is a hollow cry as he, no doubt, will serve nothing more than a front man token for a small group of ideological extremists to wreak more devastation on a state that is already reeling.

6 August 2003

Bush Administration's Top 40 Lies About War and Terrorism

All the President's Lies

2 August 2003

Missing 28 pages detail connections between the 9/11 hijacking plot and the very top levels of the Saudi royal family

According to a New Republic article, an official who has read the entire joint Congressional committee report on the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, Saudi Arabia's support of the hijackers goes far beyond the cited links to Al Qaeda charities.
The Bush administration has, of course, good reason for not wanting to ruffle the Saudis by declassifying the 28 pages. Saudi Arabia sits atop 25 percent of the world's proven oil reserves and, through its dominant position in OPEC, essentially controls the global energy market. In addition to stabilizing world oil prices--most recently during the run-up to the war with Iraq--the Saudis also directly subsidize American consumers by offering oil at lower prices to the United States. In a 2002 article for Foreign Affairs, petroleum experts Edward Morse and James Richard estimated the subsidy at $620 million a year. It's probably much larger now, given recent trends in oil prices and the volume of oil imports. A serious conflict with the Saudis could not only disrupt an already turbulent Middle East, but could halt the economic recovery here and perhaps even precipitate a global downturn.

The Bush administration has insisted, again and again, that the war on terror is its first priority. In testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz argued, "The battle to secure the peace in Iraq is now the central battle in the global war on terror." Wolfowitz says this presumably because he still believes that Saddam Hussein's regime had close ties with Al Qaeda. But it's looking more and more like the principal theater in the war on terror lies elsewhere. The official who read the 28 pages tells The New Republic, "If the people in the administration trying to link Iraq to Al Qaeda had one-one-thousandth of the stuff that the 28 pages has linking a foreign government to Al Qaeda, they would have been in good shape." He adds: "If the 28 pages were to be made public, I have no question that the entire relationship with Saudi Arabia would change overnight."