Friday, March 19, 2004
A firm commitment to (in)consistency
The official merchandise Web site for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign has sold clothing made in Burma, whose goods were banned by Bush from the U.S. last year to punish its military dictatorship.
The merchandise sold on www.georgewbushstore.com includes a $49.95 fleece pullover, embroidered with the Bush-Cheney '04 logo and bearing a label stating it was made in Burma, now Myanmar. The jacket was sent to Newsday as part of an order that included a shirt made in Mexico and a hat not bearing a country-of-origin label.
The Bush merchandise is handled by Spalding Group, a 20-year-old supplier of campaign products and services in Louisville, Ky., that says it worked for the last five Republican presidential nominees.
Ted Jackson, Spalding's president, said, "We have found only one other in our inventory that was made in Burma. The others were made in the U.S.A." He said the company had about 60 of thefleece pullovers in its warehouse, and that a supplier included the Burma product by mistake.
Bush campaign officials did not return calls seeking comment. The imports are potentially an issue because outsourcing has become a hot political topic in the election.
Bush last July signed into law the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act, saying "The United States will not waver from its commitment to the cause of democracy and human rights in Burma."
Story here via Atrios.
posted by chris at 1:07 PM
One year later
The invasion and occupation of Iraq, his administration predicted, would come at little financial cost and would materially improve the lives of Iraqis. Americans would be greeted as liberators, Bush officials predicted, and the toppling of Saddam Hussein would spread peace and democracy throughout the Middle East.
Things have not worked out that way, for the most part. There is evidence that the economic lives of Iraqis are improving, thanks to an infusion of U.S. and foreign capital. But the administration badly underestimated the financial cost of the occupation and seriously overstated the ease of pacifying Iraq and the warmth of the reception Iraqis would give the U.S. invaders. And while peace and democracy may yet spread through the region, some early signs are that the U.S. action has had the opposite effect.
Much of the focus on prewar expectations vs. postwar reality has been on the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. But while that was the central justification for the war in Iraq, the administration also made a wide range of claims about the ease of the invasion and the benefits that would result. Though comparisons between expectations and results are complex, it appears that the administration, based on limited human intelligence and conversations with a small corps of Iraqi exiles, was overly optimistic.
Story.
posted by chris at 11:53 AM
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Thursday, March 18, 2004
An alternative to Wal-Mart
There are a growing number of successful community-owned retail enterprises operating around the country. Last week, at an event organized by the Middlebury Business Association, more than seventy residents gathered to hear from a panel of speakers and discuss the idea. The panel included environmental author Bill McKibben; Bob Fuller, owner of the Bobcat Caf? in nearby Bristol; Bob Rottenberg of the Greenfield, Mass.-based Cooperative Development Institute; and me.
There are three ways to structure a community enterprise. Consumer cooperatives, which have a long and successful history in food retailing, are one possibility. Another involves the community putting up the start-up capital for a business that is owned and operated by a local entrepreneur. The Bobcat Caf? is a good example of this. It was financed entirely by three dozen Bristol residents, who saw a need for a local watering hole and put up $5,000 each, which was paid back over two years with a modest return and a dining discount.
Finally, there are community corporations. These are capitalized through stock shares sold to local residents (bylaws typically stipulate that stockholders must live in the state) and are run by an elected board of directors. Investors generally expect that much of their return will be in the form of community benefits, rather than financial gains.
An interesting story with some hopeful examples.
posted by chris at 4:50 PM
More cracks
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said that his country had been "taken for a ride" about the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
"That they deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride," Kawsniewski said Thursday.
And Italy too.
An Italian minister broke ranks with his pro-war government on Iraq, telling a newspaper that last year's invasion could have been a mistake, and was in any case not the best thing to have done.
"The war may have been a mistake. Perhaps there were ways it could have been avoided," said European Affairs Minister Rocco Buttiglione in an interview published Thursday by the daily newspaper Il Messaggero.
"What is certain is that it wasn't the best thing to do," he added.
"Terrorism cannot be defeated only by the force of arms, and if we give the impression that weapons play the dominant role, we will only stir up nationalist feelings among the Arabs against us," he added.
posted by chris at 4:13 PM
The Zen Master
Donald Rumsfeld on the June 30th date for handing over soverignty to the Iraqi people:
"And do I think it will happen? It has a chance of happening, yes. Will it happen for sure? Who knows? I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow," Rumsfeld added.
He's just so . . . hard . . to . . pin down. But that's his brilliance.
posted by chris at 3:49 PM
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Wednesday, March 17, 2004
Coalition of the "willing" not so willing anymore
As the White House downplayed suggestions that its coalition was beginning to fray, Bush lobbied the Dutch prime minister on the issue but won no commitment that 1,300 troops from the Netherlands would remain in Iraq beyond June. At the same time, Honduran officials said Tuesday that they would pull their 370 troops out of Iraq during the summer, and diplomats speculated that El Salvador and Guatemala might follow suit.
Spain's newly elected Socialist leaders promised this week to withdraw the country's 1,300 troops from Iraq by June 30 unless they were serving under a new United Nations mandate. Incoming Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has called the Iraq war "an error" based on "lies," and his condemnations of U.S. and British war efforts have helped stimulate antiwar public sentiments in other countries.
A new poll showed that two-thirds of Italians favor the withdrawal of their country's 3,000 troops ? although Italy's leaders promised to stand pat ? and opposition Dutch political parties called for military withdrawals.
Although small in number compared with the 110,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, the other nations' forces are important for giving the war effort an international face; a total of 35 other countries now contribute soldiers. Besides the British, with 8,220 troops, the other coalition members have contributed about 15,000 troops.
Story
posted by chris at 3:32 PM
234....235....236....237!
In light of the controversy surrounding the information the Bush Administration provided to Congress and the American people in order to invade Iraq, Rep. Henry Waxman requested a report from the House Committee on Government Reform to document and research the statements made by various members of the Administration. The report was released yesterday and is titled "Iraq on the Record: The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq." From the press release:
The report and accompanying searchable database provide a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five officials most reponsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq: President George Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice. The report and database identify 237 specific misleading statements made by these officials in 125 separate public appearances.
The report can be found here.
posted by chris at 1:42 PM
Caught in a lie
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was caught in a blatant "deception" on Sunday as he continued to insist that he had never called the threat of Saddam Hussein "imminent." Thankfully, someone was there to prove him wrong. On camera.
Watch Rumsfeld squirm.
3/18 Updated for clarity.
posted by chris at 12:30 PM
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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Forget that "making America safer" stuff; just get the President some good photo-ops!
Administration sources tell TIME that employees at the Department of Homeland Security have been asked to keep their eyes open for opportunities to pose the President in settings that might highlight the Administration's efforts to make the nation safer. The goal, they are being told, is to provide Bush with one homeland-security photo-op a month.
Via Pandagon from this Time magazine article.
posted by chris at 12:48 PM
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Monday, March 15, 2004
Drafting the draft
The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages.
The Selective Service System has begun the process of creating the procedures and policies to conduct such a targeted draft in case military officials ask Congress to authorize it and the lawmakers agree to such a request.
Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, said planning for a possible draft of linguists and computer experts had begun last fall after Pentagon personnel officials said the military needed more people with skills in those areas.
"Talking to the manpower folks at the Department of Defense and others, what came up was that nobody foresees a need for a large conventional draft such as we had in Vietnam," Flahavan said. "But they thought that if we have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special skills draft."
Story.
posted by chris at 6:46 PM
Truth or consequences
The government's longtime chief analyst of Medicare costs said yesterday that Bush administration officials threatened to fire him last year if he disclosed to Congress that he believed the prescription drug legislation favored by the White House would prove far more expensive than lawmakers had been told.
Richard S. Foster, a nonpartisan Department of Health and Human Services official who has been Medicare's chief actuary for nine years, said he nearly resigned in protest because he thought the top Medicare administrator, and perhaps White House officials, were acting against the public interest by withholding information about how much changes to the program would cost.
"Certainly, Congress did not have all the information they might have wanted, or that we had," Foster said in an interview.
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Internal documents and federal officials made clear that the White House had known of the higher cost estimates for months. Until now, it has not been apparent the lengths to which Bush aides who negotiated the bill with Congress went to keep the figures private.
Whatever it takes to push thru their agenda.
posted by chris at 2:22 PM
People of Spain reject Bush ally
The ouster of the center-right party in Spain, only days after a terrorist bombing that may be linked to Al Qaeda, is the first electoral rebuke of one of President Bush's most steadfast allies in the Iraq war.
When France and Germany balked at supporting the war on Iraq, the Spanish prime minister, Jos? Mar?a Aznar, stood publicly by Mr. Bush at a summit meeting in the Azores a year ago this week, and just days before the war began. Now voters have elected the opposition Socialists, although the center right was leading in the polls until the terrorist attack.
The Bush administration must now fight the perception, accurate or not, that acts of terror against America's allies can sway nations into rethinking the wisdom of standing too closely with Mr. Bush.
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Only last week several senior members of the administration said they fully expected that his conservatives would emerge victorious. In fact, months ago a senior adviser to Mr. Bush predicted that should a terrorist attack occur in Europe, it would probably drive the Europeans closer to the United States and its approach to the campaign against terror, not away from it.
Instead, the terrorist act in Spain did the opposite. These Bushies sure are optimistic folk, aren't they?
posted by chris at 1:41 PM
"Reporters" tout new Medicare law
Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines.
The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8.
The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government.
Another video, intended for Hispanic audiences, shows a Bush administration official being interviewed in Spanish by a man who identifies himself as a reporter named Alberto Garcia.
Another segment shows a pharmacist talking to an elderly customer. The pharmacist says the new law "helps you better afford your medications," and the customer says, "It sounds like a good idea." Indeed, the pharmacist says, "A very good idea."
The government also prepared scripts that can be used by news anchors introducing what the administration describes as a made-for-television "story package."
In one script, the administration suggests that anchors use this language: "In December, President Bush signed into law the first-ever prescription drug benefit for people with Medicare. Since then, there have been a lot of questions about how the law will help older Americans and people with disabilities. Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details."
The "reporter" then explains the benefits of the new law.
The propaganda machine in action: when the truth doesn't work, just shove it down people's throats.
posted by chris at 11:46 AM
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