archived: 2 - 8 Oct, 2005 Back Next
UPDATED: October 6, 2005
DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION
Leave No Child Behind. Charter Schools. These are the catch phrases of the Republican Party. Republicans claim that the policy underlying these catch phrases is to improve public education, to bring accountability.
Democrats contend that Republicans are actually striving to dismantle public education. Former Federal Education Secretary Bill Bennett has admitted that is precisely the goal of the Republican Party.
Reed Hundt, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, met with Bennett to solicit his support to pass legislation to bring internet access to every classroom in America. Hundt describes his intent:
I asked Bill Bennett to visit my office so that I could ask him for help in seeking legislation that would pay for internet access in all classrooms and libraries in the country. Eventually Senators Olympia Snowe and Jay Rockefeller, with the White House leadership of President Clinton and Vice President Gore, put that provision in the Telecommunications Law of 1996, and today nearly 90% of all classrooms and libraries do have such access. The schools covered were public and private. – TPM Cafe
Carefully consider Bennett’s response to Hundt’s request for help in passing the Telecommunications Law of 1996:
At any rate, since Mr. Bennett had been Secretary of Education I asked him to support the bill in the crucial stage when we needed Republican allies. He told me he would not help, because he did not want public schools to obtain new funding, new capability, new tools for success. He wanted them, he said, to fail so that they could be replaced with vouchers,charter schools, religious schools, and other forms of private education. – TPM Cafe (emphasis added)
Bennett’s views were not those of a lone ideologue. Hundt finishes the sordid story:
The key Senate committee voted almost on party lines on the bill, all D's for and all R's against, except one -- Olympia Snowe. Her support provided the margin of victory. On the House side, Speaker Gingrich made sure the provision was not in the companion bill, but in conference again Senators Snowe and Rockefeller, with [Clinton] White House support, made the difference. – TPM Cafe (emphasis added)
For Democrats the message to two fold; first, Bennett’s radical objectives for the demise of public education reflect Republican policy as reflected by the Republican Congressional votes and, second, for Democrats who believe that Republicans and Democrats are the same, think again.
Dr. Steven Jonas opens a new series on the issue of what the Democratic Party must become in “THE FUTURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY, I” Given Bill Bennett’s candid admission, Dr. Jonas is a must read.
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UPDATED: October 4, 2005
AN ECONOMY BLEEDING
The effects of Republican economic policy continue to weigh heavily on Americans. In the past few weeks, the alarms are becoming louder.
The surge in energy prices is inexorably taking its toll on the American economy – inflation. As one economic writer candidly stated the problem:
For years, even through the terrorist attacks in September 2001, consumer spending has continued to rise. Interest rates remained low, and credit has been easily available. Home prices soared. Debt -- and leverage through debt -- became an accepted way of life. Savings disappeared. Soon, very soon, we're going to have to pay for our folly.
You don't need government statistics to tell you that prices are rising. In fact, for some items, prices are rising at an even faster rate than the 0.5 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index in August. – Chicago Sun Times
Energy prices are effecting every country. “Antagonism over the strains inflicted by escalating energy costs is a phenomenon that stretches from rich nations in Western Europe, where filling up a minivan costs upward of $100, to poor countries in Asia and Africa, where rising oil prices have driven up the cost of bus rides and kerosene used for cooking.” – Washington Post
The price of energy has exasperated inflationary pressures in the United States. And, Energy prices are not headed significantly lower in the near future as these articles attest:
Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. warned Friday that Northern California home heating bills would
leap 70.8 percent in October as hurricanes Katrina and Rita drive up natural gas
prices nationwide. . . .
Americans dealing with record high gasoline prices caused by the hurricanes
now also face the prospect of a painfully expensive home heating season.
Utilities across the country are bracing their customers for increases ranging
from 55 to 75 percent. –
SF Gate
The Federal Reserve is continuing to raise interest rates to abate spending. Americans will be paying more for that credit. Ultimately, that means that Americans will have less to spend and the decline in consumer spending threatens recession.
The "R" word is being heard more often among economists, especially after recent reports showed tumbles in consumer spending and confidence.
New home sales are down. Auto sales have slowed. Higher energy prices - due partly to the hurricanes that damaged drilling and refining installations along the Gulf Coast - have eroded consumers' buying power. Inflation is trending higher. Interest rates, too.
"Recession risks are rapidly rising," said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Economy.com, an economic analysis service in West Chester, Pa. The last recession was in 2001. -- Associated Press
At the same time, Republicans in Congress are spending at an alarming rate, creating historic levels of debt. As that debt mounts and interest rates go up, Americans will even more to pay the interest on the debt. Alan Greenspan recently issued this assessment:
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told France's Finance Minister Thierry Breton the United States has "lost control" of its budget deficit, the French minister said Saturday.
"'We have lost control,' that was his expression," Breton told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Greenspan.
"The United States has lost control of their budget at a time when racking up deficits has been authorized without any control (from Congress)," Breton said.
"We were both disappointed that the management of debt is not a political priority today," he added. – Money (emphasis added)
Inflation up, energy prices up, interest rates still going up! In this context consider the following alarm:
Hit by rising gasoline prices, a record percentage of credit-card accounts were delinquent in the second quarter, the American Bankers Association reported Wednesday.
The ABA found that the 4.81 percent of credit-card accounts had payments that were past due by 30 days or more between April and June. That's up from 4.76 percent in the first quarter, which was the previous record. The ABA started tracking delinquencies in 1973.
The ABA also noted an increase in delinquent payments on personal loans, auto loans, home equity loans and lines of credit.
A key reason for the increase: the strain of higher gas prices. – Money
Republican economic policy – and you are paying the price! That is the message that Democrats must convey to the public.
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DELAYED SPIN
Rep. Tom Delay, former Majority Leaders of the US House, was indicted last week in Texas on one count of conspiracy for violation of campaign fundraising laws. Rep. Delay immediately went on the attack, accusing the prosecutor, a Democrat, of pursing a prosecution because of Rep. Delay’s politics. Rep. Delay stated:
"Never asking me to testify, never doing anything for two years," DeLay said in the interview. "And then, on the last day of his fourth or sixth grand jury, he indicts me. Why? Because his goal was to make me step down as majority leader."
On Thursday, DeLay said in another broadcast interview that he was under the impression that he wasn't going to be indicted because he hadn't been called to testify before the grand jury.
"I have not testified before the grand jury to present my side of the case, and they indicted me," said DeLay, according to the Associated Press. – Houston Chronicle
Rep. Delay has simply lied about the facts according to Rep. Delay’s own lawyer:
Dick DeGuerin, the attorney representing DeLay, said Thursday that DeLay actually was invited to appear before the grand jury, where he would have been under oath. The Houston attorney was not yet on the legal team when DeLay was asked to appear, but he said other attorneys advised him not to testify — a decision DeGuerin supports.
DeGuerin said that DeLay may have been referring in the interviews to the fact that the grand jury did not subpoena him to testify. – Houston Chronicle (emphasis added)
The foreman of the Grand Jury, a citizen of Texas, confirms that Rep. Delay is simply telling “the big lie:”
The foreman, William M. Gibson Jr., a retired state insurance investigator, said the Travis County grand jury waited until Wednesday, the final day of its term, to indict him because it was hoping he [Delay] would accept jurors' invitation to testify. . . .
Gibson said there was an open invitation, but the grand jury decided not to force him to appear. – Houston Chronicle (emphasis added)
Delay’s public attack on the prosecutor is disingenuous as it implies that the Democratic prosecutor was responsible for the indictment. That is simply not true – only the Grand Jury can authorize an indictment. The Grand Jury is composed of 12 Texas citizens who are randomly selected to review potential crimes and issue charges. Gibson, the Grand Jury foreman, plainly stated WHY Rep. Delay was indicted:
"We had Republicans and Democrats and independents on that grand jury," Gibson said. "They were all professional people. I won't say where they work, but there were state employees and federal employees." . . .
Gibson said he worked for 20 years as a Travis County deputy sheriff and 21 years as an investigator for the state insurance commissioner.
In those capacities, he said he appeared as a witness before grand juries. He also said he had served on more grand juries that he could remember but had not been on one since 2000.
Gibson said Earle [the prosecutor] did not pressure the panel to vote to indict: "He wanted us to listen to the facts presented. If we needed additional information they presented it. But he did not in any way say, 'We want this done.' " . . .
"We felt there was sufficient evidence presented to us over the months," he said. – Houston Chronicle (emphasis added)
Rep. Delay is already adopting the Karl Rove “game plan” as Dr. Steven Jonas so cogently described in his article "ON THE GREAT NEW ORLEANS FLOOD OF 2005, II." The KRGP (Karl Rove Game Plan) consists of these five elements:
1. displacing blame (playing the “blame game”) at the same that they are lecturing their critics about the harms of doing so;
2.
attempting to kill
the messenger rather than discuss substance and policy (as they always do);
3.
having its minions
make statements that are patently untrue
4.
stating that they
“are doing all we can” (but certainly not doing all that could be done);
5.
doing their very
best to keep the focus on the here-and-now, in the terms they would like it to
be seen in (with as little
attention as possible paid to their own actions . . .)
Delay has already started placing “blame,” number one above, on the prosecutor for initiating a political prosecution and is “attempting to kill the messenger (prosecutor),” number two above. The “minions” are already sliming the prosecutor, number three above. Two examples demonstrate the “slime.” Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX) is calling Earle as a "partisan crackpot.” – Boston Globe. Michael Barone, Fox News and U.S. News and World Report, stated on Fox, "Ordinarily I would agree with the Democrats' point of view on this. This is, you know, changing the rule, lowering the ethical standards. But the fact is what you've got here is a prosecutor -- Travis County prosecutor, Ronnie Earle, a partisan Democrat who has done some really rotten, political prosecuting. ... So this is a rotten prosecutor who -- and I think in those circumstances, it's appropriate." -- Media Matters
The truth is that Earle has prosecuted far more Democrats in Texas for political corruption than Republicans – 13 to 3. The truth is that Earle enjoys a sterling reputation among prosecutors in Texas.
Democrats should honor the fact that Delay is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Democrats must also challenge the Republican/Rove use of “the big lie.”
CHENEY!!
VP Cheney’s chief aide, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was the leak who disclosed that Valerie Plame was a CIA undercover agent.
An investigation into a White House intelligence leak was nearing its conclusion yesterday after a New York Times reporter, jailed in July for refusing to testify, identified Vice-President Dick Cheney's leading aide as her main source. . . .
Miller did not name that source in public, but lawyers in the case named Lewis Libby, the vice-president's chief of staff, as the government official she had spoken to in July 2003, about a CIA undercover agent, Valerie Plame. – Guardian Unlimited
Miller’s purported testimony demonstrates several critical points.
First, Libby is one of the highest ranking members of the Executive Branch. He would have clearly known that disclosing Plame as a CIA operative was illegal.
Second, would Libby have retaliated against Plame without VP Cheney’s knowledge?
Third, Miller’s purposed disclosure is another fact confirming that the war in Iraq was orchestrated by the neoconservatives placed within the Pentagon. TPJ published this chart from Mother Jones in February 2004 (TPJ, DOWN TO WURMSER) demonstrating that VP Cheney was at the heart of the intelligence flow from the Secret Intelligence Unit that ultimately became the Office of Special Plans. These ad hoc groups created within Pentagon were staffed with neoconservatives, many with connections to the Project For New American Century, who could be trusted to make the case for war. (Mother Jones’ work has proven to be extraordinarily accurate since its publication.) In this context, Libby’s outting of Plame appears to have been an attempt to quell those insiders who knew the intelligence leading to war had been distorted or fabricated. In this case, it was Joseph Wilson, Plame’s husband, who disclosed that Bush’s assertion that Saddam Hussein was attempting to buy “yellow cake” was simply not true. TPJ, WILD JUSTICE, “FAIR GAME”
Will Libby be indicted? Where does responsibility ultimately rest?
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Last Update: 03/27/2006