bin Laden Been Dead?
You've heard these rumors bubbling out of France that bin Laden's dead or the related ones out of Saudi intelligence that he's ill from a water-borne illness. You buying it? Tell us what you think.
Week of September 17, 2006 - September 23, 2006
Congress Emboldens the Debt Bullies
When Congress adopted the bankruptcy amendments in 2005, it was with the explicit purpose of making it harder to file for bankruptcy. But the supporters of the bill claimed over and over that “honest, but unfortunate” people would still have plenty of access to the bankruptcy courts. They were going after only those who could repay their debts--or so they said.
No one is surprised to discover that bankruptcy filings are down. Filing fees have increased, attorneys’ fees have increased, and people might reasonably be worried about the new counseling and disclosure rules. But the courts are still open, and most people have low enough incomes that many of the changes won’t apply to them. Jim Caher, an Oregon lawyer and the author of a really good book full of advice about bankruptcy (Bankruptcy for Dummies), gives another reason why filings are down: the debt collectors are lying to people. Here’s his story:
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John Bolton Could Be Given Pay Cut and Appointed Deputy Ambassador in Bid to Keep Him at UN
So far, there has been no sign that the Bush administration's considerable efforts to get Ambassador John Bolton confirmed are yielding any success in changing the environment currently blocking him.
But the White House has considered a shocking plan to keep the Ambassador in his position at the UN that may not involve a second recess appointment to his current position -- which would mean that he could not be compensated, may not be eligible for travel funds, may not be able to actually use government facilities for his work, and would possibly be time limited to a certain number of days that he could remain in this position, even if largely stripped of all taxpayer support.
The White House is studying appointing Bolton as one of the deputies at the United Nations, specifically the "political deputy." This position also carries the title of Ambassador, as do four other slots at the US Mission to the UN. Bolton would take a pay cut, and would then be made "Acting Ambassador" and chief of mission.
John Bolton Could Be Given Pay Cut and Appointed Deputy Ambassador in Bid to Keep Him at UN
So far, there has been no sign that the Bush administration's considerable efforts to get Ambassador John Bolton confirmed are yielding any success in changing the environment currently blocking him.
But the White House has considered a shocking plan to keep the Ambassador in his position at the UN that may not involve a second recess appointment to his current position -- which would mean that he could not be compensated, may not be eligible for travel funds, may not be able to actually use government facilities for his work, and would possibly be time limited to a certain number of days that he could remain in this position, even if largely stripped of all taxpayer support.
The White House is studying appointing Bolton as one of the deputies at the United Nations, specifically the "political deputy." This position also carries the title of Ambassador, as do four other slots at the US Mission to the UN. Bolton would take a pay cut, and would then be made "Acting Ambassador" and chief of mission.
Democracy Promotion and a Progressive Foreign Policy
Should ‘Democracy Promotion’ (DP) be at the center of a progressive foreign policy? Bruce Jentleson takes up the thorny question of DP in his recent post, and it has generated a lot of thoughtful commentary. Before voting yea or nay on the question, I will say that the path to more positive and progressive foreign policy will only come from conversations like this one on important international issues like democracy. Now to the merits.
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O-for-Trifecta: Don't Extend Yourself, Dr. Frist
Last Friday, the four GOP Senators tapped by Bill Frist to find enough sweeteners to get the Democratic votes needed to pass the three-part package known as the “trifecta” were due to offer Frist a legislative option.
But no such recommendation issued from them and, at this point, the only chance for action on the package before Congress’ pre-election adjournment would if Frist, heeding his colleagues' cries from the campaign trail, allows a stand-alone vote on the popular extenders. Don't expect Frist to extend himself.
Delegating to the President on Torture
I tend to follow Marty Lederman on understanding the torture agreement as well, and so am a little perplexed by various groups singing its praises let alone a lot of the news analysis. I was ultimately wrong that the Senators would hold out, cause now I've read the text. Here's my shot at another tragic flaw.
BIG Win: Appeals Ct. Upholds California Pro-Labor Law
This decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is a big legal win for labor. In its decision, the full panel of the Ninth Circuit upheld a California law passed back in 2000 that prohibits recipients of state government funds from using it to oppose unionization of their employees (although they are free to use private funds to do so).
The right of states to control their own money might seem uncontroversial, but a lower federal court and then a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit both issued decisions striking down the law as preempted (i.e. incompatible with) the federal National Labor Relations Act. The real danger was that states would be denied any ability to prevent public money being used to bust unions using those funds.
Discuss the Torture Deal
Do you understand the deal the three GOP senators struck with the White House on torture? I'm still having a hard time getting my head around it. Understand it? Explain it? Have thoughts? Share them here.
Ted Stevens Plugs Choice -- But Not for the Internet
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens is still plugging away with his attempt to pass a massive telecommunications bill. You’ve got to admire him for that. He claims to be fairly close to the 60 votes he needs to bring the bill to the Senate floor to debate, and perhaps by speaking out as if the bill really has a chance this session, he is trying to keep some senators from drifting away while recruiting new legislators to the cause.
At the same time, however, a new poll paid for by Verizon is serving to undermine his cause because it shows what the public really wants in a telecom policy. Here’s a hint: Having the telephone and cable companies control the Internet isn’t in the lineup. Unfortunately, that’s what would happen if Stevens’ bill gets passed, because there are no guarantees that the companies controlling the telecom networks won’t start levying new fees and playing favorites. It’s that drive to keep the principle of non-discrimination alive that’s embodied in the poorly named issue Net Neutrality.
The Middle Class Squeeze and Measuring Household Labor
American families are under economic strain, but there is a rousing debate among economists over whether workers and families are doing better than a generation ago-- and what that means for shaping economic and social policy. The American Prospect is hosting a lively debate online on the fate of the middle class and how progressives need to tailor their message accordingly.
But largely missing in the debate is a measure of the value of the unpaid work of stay-at-home moms of a generation ago-- and the financial costs for two-earner families of replacing it.
The End of Early Admissions
There’s an old saying, when Harvard sneezes, everyone catches a cold. Earlier this week Princeton University caught the Harvard bug and eliminated early admissions programs. While Harvard certainly made a bold statement in ending early admissions, Princeton’s decision is equally important because it tells other universities that this proposal’s time has come. And this is big news for students and for middle class families.
Carol Shea-Porter takes on Jeb
New Hampshire politics is paleo-politics. It isn't driven by ads, it isn't driven by money, it isn't about one industry, it isn't about one ideology. It has a wide streak of the "leave us alone" coalition. It's the state that gave the world the adjective "rock ribbed". But strange days are on New Hampshire. The old man of the mountain, a geological features that had lasted thousands of years, has collapsed. And the Republican dominance of the state, which many took to be a geological rather than political fact, is looking shakier than anyone could have dreamt possible before.
Carol Shea-Porter is taking on Jeb Bradley in New Hampshire-01, and wants to send the former health food store owner back to selling granola.
On David Horowitz: Is an Ex-Stalinist More Credible than an Ex-Nazi?
I just came across this terrific piece about the ABC-Disney 9/11 travesty by the fine young writer Max Blumenthal (Sidney Blumenthal's kid). Max reveals the role of David Horowitz, former fan of the Soviet Union in the whole revolting affair.
Democracy Promotion and Democrats
Ernie Wilson made some useful posts (this and this, and others from other AAbroaders) to get us thinking and discussing the core ideas, priorities and strategies for alternatives to the Bush foreign policy. Ernie called it a “progressive foreign policy”, others use different formulations but the gist is the same.
One of the key issues is democracy promotion. This is central to Peter Beinart’s Good Fight, to his and other invocations of Truman, to the “exemplarism” on the American Prospect website by Shadi Hamid, to various platforms coming from Capitol Hill, and others. Definitions vary but the central element usually is political --- elections, individual freedom, liberal civic values and practices.
Is this right?
Blaming The Victim
I’m still surprised by the number of times I hear about what a stupid place New Orleans is to have a city. Even more, it seems a little bizarre that these people I’ve just met still seem so eager to tell someone from New Orleans their opinion on this. It seems a little cruel to want to kick us like that when we’re down, but I think I understand it.
Taxing the Black
The Liberal Democrats of the UK have taken their first concrete step towards doing it. Al Gore has wanted to do it for a while. What is it? Taxing carbon - taxing the black.
In a world where Exxon lies about climate change - it is an increasingly attractive possibility, since people don't really know how much they will pay under the new system, and they know they are paying a great deal under the old one.
How We Picked The Wrong Team
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.
To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.What's going to happen?
Washington is abuzz with rumors about the Pentagon's plans to bomb Iran before the election. Everyone believes that the Europeans supported the American go-ahead for the Palestinian invasion because they wanted to make sure the Iranians knew they were on thin ice. Everyone believes that as a going-away present, Blair would like to support President Bush in at least one more military incursion. Finally, the wild-eyed rhetoric from Iran provides plenty of war-words for Fox, CNN, and Tony Snow.
It's fairly clear that air strikes on Iran would stun most Democratic candidates into speechlessness. Does anyone think General Rove might enjoy that turn of events in October, when the claims of genius by this autodidact depend on the pending election?
The discussion about the Administration's right to torture is, as you would expect, a distraction, a huge red herring dragged across America's train of thought. It's a set up for something. But what? Air strikes on Iran would not risk many American fliers. Iran would probably not invade Iraq in retaliation. Iran probably wouldn't launch missiles at Israel for payback. Is it thinkable?
Ask this question: if an air campaign is not where the United States is heading, then what is the denouement of the President's speech at the UN?
This Week: How Bush Rules
Welcome to the TPMCafe Book Club! This is where we regularly invite authors to come and discuss their most recent works with readers and invited commentators. Past Book Club authors include Thomas Frank, Anthony Shadid, Larry Diamond, George Packer, Ivo Daalder/James Lindsay, Robert Dreyfuss, Chris Mooney, Gene Sperling, Gershom Gorenberg, Peter Beinart, and Kevin Phillips.
This week we'll be discussing Sidney Blumenthal's How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime. Debating Sidney's appraisal of the Bush administration will be Andrew Bacevich, David Greenberg, Todd Gitlin, and Larry Johnson. - pbk
Distant Turbulence
Thailand's military has launched a coup attempt - the nation has been under a caretaker government, and faces uncertainties. It is not the first time that the military has intervened in civilian government - a bloodless coup in 1932 toppled the monarchy, and in 1947 toppled the civilian government, and then in 1952 another coup revoked the constitution and appointed half of the members of parliament. In 1971 the premier dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution. There have been others since.
Last year fears of a coup spread through Thailand and on August 29th, an assassination attempt was felt to be the prelude to a coup.
In Case There Was Any Doubt
Colin Powell's Chief of Staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, has strongly opposed Bolton. Powell didn't sign a letter from former Secretaries of State supporting Bolton. Yet, Gen. Powell has never openly voiced his well-known opposition to Bolton's nomination.
That is, until now. Today's Washington Post:
Powell also allowed his name to be identified among those opposed to Bush's nomination of his former State Department subordinate, John R. Bolton, as Washington's U.N. ambassador.
Welfare "Reform": Ten Years Later
It's now ten years since the 1996 welfare law promised to end "welfare as we know it." That goal may have been accomplished, but the results have been decidedly mixed, both for poor families and for state lawmakers coping with changing federal mandates.
As I detail at Progressive States this week, it was less the 1996 law than other changes in state and federal law that have given poor families any chance to thrive -- and still, many lives have been made worse because of the 1996 changes in welfare law. But states are finding innovative ways to expand the anti-poverty agenda in the wake of those changes.
Is George Allen an Anti-Semite or Just a Moron?
I think anti-semitism is coming back. Or maybe it never left. I say maybe because I've never encountered it in my life, even growing up in a town where there were five Jews in my high school class and never once did I hear any kind of slur.
Which is It?: Yoo and Presidential Authority
I'm trying to get over the amount of space the New York Times gave to John Yoo on Sunday. And much has been made, by Josh and others, of his notion that President's gave up too much power in light of the lack of a national security threat from basically the Viet Nam War till 9/11. I actually found the piece somewhat liberating, a reminder about why the Bush Doctrine has been so utterly flawed and so careless. Yoo seems to sweep through the Bush Presidency and his national security strategy as if it were a success. [A quick caveat: I was asked, but had to decline due to our primaries tomorrow -- vote!!!-- a congressional hearing with Posner and Yoo on the British airplane bomb threat, would have been "fun", don't miss it tomorrow afternoon].
TALK NOW TO END THE GRIDLOCK
This week is gridlock week in New York City. The General Assembly of the UN is convening, Clinton's Global Initiative is convening-and while most New Yorkers have no idea why the traffic is even worse than ever, the fact is that there is a critical mass of world leaders in the borough of Manhattan, ready to talk to each other--and some of them are going to get an audience with President Bush. This morning, I met for breakfast with some Palestinian businessmen. Behind us, in the hotel dining room, were several members of the Jordanian cabinet. The cross-town traffic was at a crawl. But, our discussion over coffee--like many informal and formal talks this week--was about whether or not there could be renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians, and the role of the U.S. There was also an interesting news article in today's New York Times about Israeli visa policy, where Palestinian businesspeople are caught in a catch 22 Israeli policy that is bent on discouraging more Palestinian settlement in the West Bank, but is especially harmful to Palestinian businesspeople, many of whom lived in the diaspora and returned to the West Bank to build a future Palestine--exactly the sort of folks Israel might want, one would think, to anchor a future state--but instead, they are finding themselves unable to work and travel because the Israeli system of granting temporary visas for travel is now culminating in Israel cutting off travel outside of the West Bank or Jerusalem after a certain number of visits. I heard about this from people I met with this summer when I was in the region, people whose livlihood depended on frequent trips between Jerusalem or Ramallah and Amman or Frankfurt or Dubai, but who were being restricted by Israeli policy, people whom Israel needs to build a viable state on its border.
Why Over Half of New Orleans Cannot Return - No $ for Renters
Renters are being encouraged not to return to New Orleans.
Though over half of the people of New Orleans before Katrina were renters - none of the federal housing money coming into the area is designated for renters. There is some money going to landlords and developers who at some point may provide some affordable housing to some people - but essentially renters are being left out.
This is an administrative complaint sent to HUD that challenges in detail the refusal of the state to help renters.
Nola blogger scoops Times Picayune
Congratulations to Dambala at American Zombie for anticipating (if not scooping) the Times Picayune's Front Page story on Imagine Software and their controversial pleasure craft.
Here's the first few graphs from Gordon Russell's T-P article titled "Yachting by N.O. official raises questions":
Cronyism = The Right's Governing Philosophy
Every time a new story comes along about the Bush administration’s obsessive hiring of conservative ideologues to run government agencies and activities, the instinctive reaction is to express astonishment at how mind-bogglingly political and incompetent these guys are. Yesterday’s Washington Post piece about the parade of wingers chosen to rebuild Iraq was no exception, with Andrew Sullivan for one grousing about “the administration's relentless, politicized incompetence.” But that reaction lets the broader conservative movement off too easily, because Bush is only doing exactly what the Heritage Foundation says he should be doing in hiring personnel. There’s every reason to believe that future Republican presidents, following the guidance of the right’s wonks, will staff the upper reaches of the federal government with the same kinds of inexperienced, inept true believers.
Bush vs. The National Security Professionals
Larry Johnson and many readers participating in the TPM Book Club have commented on my new book, “How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime” about their surprise or lack of it at the emergence of Bush’s thoroughgoing radicalism. One aspect of his radicalism that I describe at length is his war on the national security professionals. This is a largely unnoticed but critical part of his regime. His efforts to suppress internal debate, discussion and objective analysis are essential to his creation of executive power and an imperial presidency. Bush’s war on the professionals is an ongoing battle within the government. Certainly, they were among the most startled of all by Bush’s radicalism. Many of them expected that this Bush would be like his father. Needless to say, their expectations have been dashed.
Infectious Authoritarianism
From the morning NYT: “They hate us all because we are Americans,” Mr. Lieberman said, referring to Islamic terrorists. “Yet we remain divided among ourselves in responding to them. It’s really outrageous that that continues to be the case. We have got to move forward together.”
The Hartford Courant confirms the quote.
It's really outrageous--that we find the Bush crowd's approach to port and train security, WMD defense, state-by-state allocations and other such matters feeble, corrupt, and brainless.
Joe Lieberman, meet Ari Fleischer ("watch what you say").
The appeal to bipartisanship as if it were a position rather than a substitute for one is the last refuge of a cynic masquerading as a numskull.
Laughing as the Rich Go Broke
Why do the rich go broke? The question is titillating—a little like peeking in the bathrooms of the Rich and Famous. And for those purposes, Timothy O’Brien’s piece in the NYT this morning is perfectly suited. Lots of juicy details about how the once-rich ran through their money.
But there is an interesting tangle in the analysis. While the dominant chord of the piece is about the man-child and instant gratification (giggle, giggle), business reversals also explain why some of the high and mighty suddenly crash back to earth.
Chinese Censorship as Economic Advantage- Idiocy of "Free Trade"
Why do we worry about freedom in Iraq, when our government looks the other way as free speech and labor rights are ruthlessly suppressed in China?
Google took a lot of bad press (rightly) when it agreed at one point to censorship by Chinese authorities. But in some ways it's hard to blame them, when the Chinese government blocks US companies that promote free speech, even as US trade deals help build companies built on exploitation of Chinese workers or Chinese censorship. For a pure example of the latter, Just look at the dominant Chinese Internet search engine, Baidu:
