StudioGlyphic

Underlying my belief in a progressive taxation system is the idea that those who make the most money are the ones who have benefited most from the American system. Without an educated labor force, an infrastructure that promotes commerce, a system of institutions that spur growth, and the social stability provided by social programs, the wealthiest Americans would not be where they are today. As such, they have a responsibility to pay a higher percentage into the system than other Americans.

Furthermore, to view taxation only in terms of income and wealth taxes is to oversimplify taxation. Payroll taxes are a flat 7.65% of earnings up to $85,000. These taxes fund Medicare and Social Security, and are funded primarily by the middle and working classes. It's not fair for a $250,000 a year executive to pay a lower percentage of his earnings than an entry-level associate into Social Security and Medicare. Property taxes and sales taxes are also fixed-rate taxes that tend to take a bigger chunk out of the incomes of middle and working class families. Sure, sales tax is a tax on the consumption of goods, but the wealthy don't spend as much of their income on goods as do other Americans. Add to this the various fees we pay to various local and state agencies, and you will find that the discrepancy between taxation of the richest Americans and the rest of us is not that great. Finally, the wealthy have many options to protect their wealth from taxation that are simply not available to those with lower incomes.

As for the Libertarian argument against taxation and government, I'd like to see them take over a country and implement their ideas. Let's see how a purely market-based society runs, where every family has to pay for their own education and roads, where there is no health insurance for the elderly and poor, where people who lose their jobs have nothing to fall back on, where no one protects consumers from corporations that lie, where no one insures bank deposits against the failure of that institution, and destruction of the environment is standard business practice. Libertarians are so simple.

The government is not a burden on the people. The government should be the agent of our society and civilization.

There's nothing better than data to back up an argument. Unless you're talking to an imbecile who, when confronted with facts, will deny the veracity of the data and attack the source as a member of a conspiracy of some sort. In those cases, there's nothing better than a gun to back up an argument.

Back to the point:

The US Census bureau has lots of data, and publishes a lot of reports that talk about who we are as a nation, and more importantly, where we've been. For instance, the creatively-titled Money Income in the United States report talks about just that. I'll wait while you follow that link above and download the PDF.

...

...

Ready?

Turn to page 25. Share of Aggregate Income Received by Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of Households: 1967 to 2001.

If you examine the Share of aggregate income columns, you will see that every quintile (20%) of the population has lost some of its share of income except for the highest quintile. In fact, most of this increase in share of income occurs for the highest-earning 5% of Americans. Note that these are households that last year made $150,499 and up (probably after taxes and deductions, but I'm not sure).

If you chart the percentages over time, you notice that the increases in income share for the highest-earning Americans begin around 1982. This is the Reagan tax cut. You will also notice that there is a huge jump from '92 to '93. This is the Bush recession. The interesting thing is that both the tax cut and the recession were opportunities for the highest-earners to get a larger share of aggregate income.

Let's look at some real numbers, too. From 1982 to 1992, the upper limit for quintiles 1-4 rose 4%, 6%, 9%, and 11% respectively. The lower limit for the 5% of income-earners rose 14%.

This may be a gross simplification, but if there were any doubt in your mind that supply-side, "trickle-down" economics truly is "voodoo" economics, just look at the effects. The highest-earners raked it in while everyone lost out. It's true that all incomes rose over the ten year period, but with inflation, those increases are either negligible or are in fact decreases.

That isn't to say that trickle-down economics doesn't work. It's very effective at redistributing the income and wealth of this nation to the highest-earning and wealthiest Americans. It's very effective at earning Republicans $2000 checks from a grateful wealth class. It just doesn't do jack shit for the economy, and anyone who claims it's Keynesian is full of shit.

What about Clinton?

Well, Clinton raised taxes on the wealthiest, but you will notice that this has little negative effect on income share for the highest-earners throughout Clinton-Gore. So either they didn't raise taxes high enough, or they raised taxes on wealth (capital gains, etc.), or the economic expansion and tech bubble mitigated the tax increases, or higher-paying jobs generally saw faster wage inflation than lower-paying jobs.

Poor Nations Can Purchase Cheap Drugs Under Accord

The World Trade Organization agreed today to give poor nations greater access to inexpensive life-saving medicine by altering international trade rules.

African countries and their supporters in nonprofit health groups have been campaigning for such an agreement for years, saying that moral and political arguments outweigh commercial considerations in the face of epidemics like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

It's about time.

Now we need to do something about access to clean water--a basic necessity for health that we take for granted, but much of the world's poor do without.

"... To Dare Mighty Things ..."
by Michael Cudahy

Over the last 15 years this country has witnessed the emergence of the neo-conservative wing of the Republican Party. During this time traditional Republicans have been deeply concerned by the serious deterioration of respect for established party principles by GOP leaders. A great party once firmly rooted in the thoughts and policies of visionary presidents like Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower has lost touch with its history.

My political career started with Barry Goldwater at the age of 12, progressed through Gene McCarthy, Bobby Kennedy, Pete McCloskey, Gerry Ford, George H.W. Bush, Elliot Richardson, Bill Weld and my work as the National Communications Director for the Republican Coalition for Choice.

Read on at GreaterDemocracy.org.

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction:

To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

It's important to recall that when Richard Nixon resigned, he was about to be impeached by the House of Representatives for misusing the CIA and FBI. After Watergate, all presidents are on notice that manipulating or misusing any agency of the executive branch improperly is a serious abuse of presidential power.

Again, something that shouldn't be forgotten.

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: GAO's Final Energy Task Force Report Reveals that the Vice President Made A False Statement to Congress

Important to keep this on the radar, though a story about a lack of information is hard to keep up.

...with the exception of Jeremy's, of course, but if Bister, Ester, and Jacobs had thrown in a few profanities and exclamation marks, they could have given him a run for his money.

Donna Bister, Marc Estrin and Ron Jacobs: Vermonters on Howard Dean

I think it's important to read the criticism, though I think this article would be better served by providing endnotes or links to backing documentation.

That said, I think one of the most disturbing thing in Dean's record (as it was in Clinton's) is the bogus Welfare Reform programs. But I'm not a single-issue activist, so this is not going to stop my support of Dean. Especially when the alternative is certainly going to be more jobs lost, higher tax burdens on the middle class and poor, attacks on workers' rights, etc.

Most importantly, though, I don't buy the line Bister et. al. push about there being no difference between Bush and Dean. That's a fucking lie we don't need right now.

The Stranger: Flying High: Howard Dean has gone from nobody to the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now he's a political rock star, and he just went on a coast-to-coast tour to prove it. The Stranger tagged along for the ride.

LA Weekly: Out of Left Field: Rolling with people-powered Howard Dean from the highs and lows of spring to the triumphs of summer

Boston Phoenix: Howard Dean's make-or-break point: The next several weeks could be key for the former Vermont governor. Can he press enough flesh and garner enough endorsements to power his New Hampshire momentum?

Baghad couple names son after Bush

This is one fucked up world.

Check it out. Save the picture.

Ananova - Madonna snogs Spears and Aguilera:

Madonna has stunned the audience at the 20th MTV Video Music Awards by giving open-mouthed kisses on stage to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Heh.

Ownership Statistics Why a Shared Capitalism is Needed...

Current trends in economic inequality, both domestically and abroad, pose dangers to human dignity, democracy, political stability, fiscal sustainability, social justice, freedom, civil society, physical/mental health and environmental sustainability. These dangers are palpable, real and on the rise.

This page from the Shared Capitalism Institute (i.e., Communism in Rushspeak) lists a number of statistics about wealth in this country and the world.

Here's an interesting one:

Government debt securities are owned dominantly by upper-crust households. The latest figures show that tax-exempt interest was reported on 4.9 million personal tax returns for 1997, about 4 percent of all taxpayers. Total tax-exempt interest income was $48.5 billion in 1997. [Note 14]

So if that trend were to hold true today, that would mean that the the Bush Administration "borrowed" money from the wealthy to give tax cuts to the wealthy... which ultimately pays off in the form of $2000 checks for Bush-Cheney '04. Unbelievable.

Let Google send you daily news updates to your email with Google News Alerts. Just put in key words like "Poker Tournament," "George Bush Pretzel," or "Moon Base" and stay up to date.

This weekend a special geek party will be held at the Griffith Observatory to celebrate our Communist neighbor to the south.

Griffith Observatory Mars 2003:

"August 30:
8 p.m. Star Party and planetarium shows. Telescopes provided by Celestron, Jeff Schroeder (11-inch refractor), Los Angeles Astronomical Society, and the Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers.
10 p.m. Talk by Timothy Robertson, Training Coordinator for ALPO on Mars observing techniques.
11 p.m. -1 a.m. Mars observing workshop and public Mars viewing."

Yeah, right, I'm going to watch Mars night after night. But hey, NASA scientists have to do something. Check this out: Mars does a Loop De Loop.

In "The Dean Deception" on Antiwar.com, Justin Raimondo reveals the truth about Howard Dean. Howard Dean is not the "anti-war" candidate Raimondo thought he was. In fact, it turns out he's a double-talking imperialist in isolationist peacenik clothing.

It really surprises me that anyone who says he supported Dean would suddenly realize that Dean wasn't the Great White Liberal Hope. Doesn't anyone do any research anymore? As for me, if there's any purely idealistic component to my support of Dean, it's the hope that his campaign is able to get people interested in politics and involved in society. That, along with getting rid of the Bush Administration, would be a start.

This falsehood is about those unmanned drones.

Democracy Now! | 50 Years After the CIA’s First Overthrow of a Democratically Elected Foreign Government We Take a Look at the 1953 US Backed Coup in Iran:

After nationalizing the oil industry Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was overthrown in a coup orchestrated by the CIA and British intelligence.

Check this one out. It's a good read/listen.

California Roughly Same Size As Iraq:

Two hundred and seventy seven U.S. soldiers have now died in Iraq, which means that, statistically speaking, U.S. soldiers have less of a chance of dying from all causes in Iraq than citizens have of being murdered in California--which is roughly the same geographical size. The most recent statistics indicate California has more than 2,300 homicides each year, which means about 6.6 murders each day. Meanwhile, U.S. troops have been in Iraq for 160 days, which means they are incurring about 1.7, including illness and accidents, each day.

Ooh. Fuzzy math. I mean, for Chrissake, you could look at Alaska's land area and murder rate and say that Iraq is more dangerous than Alaska. Okay, so here's the population vs death rate calculation:

150,000 Americans in Iraq, 40,000,000 Americans in California. That works out to a .42% annual death rate for Americans in Iraq, .00575% death rate for Americans in California, or 73 times the number. Yeah, I'd rather be in California than Iraq, thank you very much!

Taped at the BBC - Can the Beeb put its entire archive on the Web? By Paul Boutin:

"For those of us still debating whether to shell out the 40-odd bucks for Fawlty Towers: The Complete Collection on DVD, BBC Director-General Greg Dyke may have settled the matter this weekend. At the end of his speech to an annual TV industry conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, Dyke announced that the Beeb plans to put its enormous TV and radio archives online and to allow anyone to download them—free—for non-commercial use. 'Under a simple licensing system, we will allow users to adapt BBC content for their own use,' Dyke said. 'We are calling this the BBC Creative Archive.'"

Woah.

The latest Zogby poll shows Dean with 38% support among likely Democratic primary voters, compared to second-place Kerry with 17%. 21 points!

A poll conducted in June by Zogby showed Kerry leading Dean 25% to 22%. Trends from comparisons of these polls and a poll from February shows most of the candidates trending downward; Dean and Kerry remain the only candidates with double-digit support. Undecided voters comprise 23% of the respondents, just slightly more than the gap between Dean and Kerry.

The poll also shows a majority of those polled believe Bush will win the 2004 election. This is a number we need to work on changing.

Wesley Clark outlines in this Washington Monthly article from last year the key factors to the success of the Kosovo war, including cooperation from NATO and support from other international institutions. The former NATO commander contrasts this with the campaign in Afghanistan and makes recommendations for future conflicts.

BBC NEWS | Criminal charges for WorldCom: "The state of Oklahoma has filed criminal charges against MCI - the firm formerly called WorldCom - its former chief executive Bernie Ebbers and five other former top executives."

Put Bernie in jail! I think he's a flight risk.

Discovery Channel :: Hubble Captures Mars Close-Up

When we finally add up all the expenses, this is going to be one whopper of a bill.

U.S. occupation coordinator Paul Bremer told the Washington Post that rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure and kick-starting its economy would cost "several tens of billions."

This is on top of the billion a week we're already paying to keep the troops there.

Billion a week... billion a week. What could we pay for with a billion a week? Hey, you could solve all the states' economic woes for a billion a week. What else could we pay for with a billion a week? Well, with a tenth of this weekly expense we could pay for AmeriCorps and its Teach for America program.

I'm going to make up some numbers based on what little we know since no one in the Pentagon seems to want to release realistic projections:

150 billion for military during war
198 billion for military during occupation
62 billion for rebuilding Iraq
--
410 billion

Ouch! Well, at the end of the day, the important thing to remember is that we have dismantled a great arsenal of nuclear warhead-tipped intercontinental ballistic missles that were aimed at our major cities; in fact, they were actually ticking down to 0 when we rushed in and saved the day (and Jessica Lynch). Oh, wait, that's not true. Hmm. No chemicals either. Or biologicals. Er. No, no Al Qaeda. Eh. Wait, so what was this all for?

Forbes.com: The Deficit--How Big?:

While Democrats and Republicans traded charges over the deficit in predictable ways..., more unusual is the IMF sticking its nose in. The international bank is set to reproach the U.S. for being too optimistic in its assumptions on government spending and revenue, and lacking a coherent budget plan, according to Reuters.

TOMPAINE.com - Rove's New Wedges

Rove has made no secret of the fact that he wants to bring to the polls in 2004 the four million of America's 19 million Evangelicals who didn't vote in 2000. Judge Moore's showdown is his bait. "I've worked in the Deep South for 25 years," says [veteran Democratic political consultant Hank] Sheinkopf, "and the Washington types don't understand just what an enormous impact all this will have. And not just on Christians -- it's a reflection of the states-rights mentality that plays on distrust of the power of the federal government. Race is no longer the political dividing line in this country -- it's region and religion."

4 days, 8 states, 9 stops, 17,717 contributions, 10,138 first-time contributors, an average contribution of $58.30. The Sleepless Summer Tour is over and has met its goal of matching Bush's 1 million dollar fundraiser in Oregon last week. USAToday reports that the Dean campaign is targeting $10.3 million for the third quarter. The NYTimes reports on the New York City rally and the campaign's plans to run TV spots for two weeks in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Washington. The Times also says that Zogby will release a poll Wednesday showing Dean leading in New Hampshire with 38 percent of the vote compared to second-place Kerry with 17 percent.

Arnold's race for California governor continues to dominate the political headlines, but the Dean campaign is building on the momentum it gained last quarter to reach more people and solidify his front-runner status.

A bit of local news for us SoCal people:

Flash floods hit Mojave Desert, forcing shutdown of I-15

Not a good time to go to Vegas, apparently.

Michael May lost his sight when he was a kid, and only had it restored a couple years ago. While the operation was successful, May has had to work hard to learn how to see.

May finds it particularly difficult to interpret faces and facial expressions--during testing, he could only correctly identify a face as male or female 70 percent of the time, and expressions as happy, neutral or sad 61 percent of the time. In addition, seeing only the face of his own wife is still not enough for him to identify her, and he relies on clues such as hair length or gait to help him recognize people.

I bet his wife's a little relieved he can't recognize faces; he won't be disappointed by her looks.

Scientific American: Learning to See Requires More Than Just Eyesight

You just gotta love someone named Byrd. Seriously, though, West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd is an old-fashioned (and old) politician whose eloquence, dignity, and conviction are always welcome: Unprepared for Peace in Iraq

GOP Renews Hopes for Alaska Oil Drilling (washingtonpost.com):

Renewed interest in a major energy bill has raised Republicans' hopes for a cherished goal: drilling for oil in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

But Tauzin said Democrats were obstructing an environmentally friendly approach to drilling that would boost the nation's oil reserves. He suggested critics of the plan should try to "live in the dark and see how they like it."

Here's an Energy Plan that would work to address the oil issue:

1) Take away the bogus tax write-off for the largest of SUVs
2) Force SUVs to comply with passenger vehicle fuel efficiency standards within 3 years
3) Increase across-the-board fuel effiency standards over 10 years
4) Provide refundable tax credits to people who purchase electric, hybrid, or E85 vehicles
5) Provide tax credits to family farms to purchase equipment to convert biomass to ethanol
6) Provide refundable tax credits to fuel stations to upgrade existing pumps to deliver E85 (approximately $300 per pump), while educating the public about the new fuel

At the end of ten years, you would see a dramatic decrease in our consumption of petroleum and an elimination of our dependence on foreign oil. We wouldn't need to drill in ANWR, and we wouldn't be as likely to go around targeting dictators with oil fields at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.

Still secret! And it's pissing off the General Accounting Office. Cheney's Energy Task Force consisted of "petroleum, coal, nuclear, natural gas, electricity industry representatives and lobbyists," including Ken Lay, the chairman of Enron.

GAO Cites Corporate Shaping of Energy Plan (washingtonpost.com):

Of the 77 pages Cheney's office provided the GAO, two-thirds contained no cost information, and the remaining third included "miscellaneous information of little or no usefulness," the report said.

The vice president's office "stated that it would not provide any additional information," the investigators wrote. An unusually caustic GAO news release complained of the office's "persistent denial of access" to task force records.

Here on campus and configured to access USC's wireless network. Not particularly difficult, but there were a lot of steps. Now if I could only get this to work at home....

Campus is full of people today. I dropped by the bookstore to pick up my books for my Transportation class, but they weren't on the shelf. Couldn't even find an empty space where they should go. I guess I'll just order them online instead and rush them. Hopefully the prof is aware of the book situation and won't ask too many questions.

It's the end of summer. My first class meets tomorrow for a marathon 3 1/2 hour session. Wish me luck!

$516,455.53 raised in the $1,000,000 A Million Against Bush fundraiser since Friday (with two days left to go), with 8,931 contributors at an average of $57.83 per donor.

Up to 15,000 at a rally for Dean in Seattle today.

326,745 people signed up with the Dean campaign.

90,155 Dean volunteers signed up at MeetUp.com.

This groundswell of support, 5 months before the Iowa Caucus, 14 months before the National Election, is the reason why Dean is the man who can beat Bush.

Hey, how sick of hearing about Dean are you?

Well, here's a funny story from one of his supporters in San Francisco, and, oddly enough, it's not really about Dean:

This is a great anti-Bush story from the Emergency Room of Kaiser Hospital in San Francisco.

Posted by: Pat in CA at August 24, 2003 12:26 PM | Link

Those lying Bush Administration hypocrites make me sick! Read this Boston Globe story about life as a veteran for one woman who served in Iraq.

A new Newsweek poll shows Bush's approval rating dropping to 53%. Moreover, 49% of registered voters do not want to see him elected, versus the 44% who do.

Polls are always tricky, and it's usually better when you get to see more of the numbers and questions, but this one, at least, is conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, which appears to be an independent group.

Once a term, USC gathers volunteers to do some community service. It's called Friends and Neighbors Day. There are different "projects" that people can sign up for, varying from local things like helping St. Vincent's School do some end of summer cleaning to not-so-local things like helping Heal the Bay pick up trash on the beach. This was, obviously, my first time doing this, but I thought it was really cool.

The campus Dean group, USC for Dean, came out with a contingent of six people (undergrads, grad students, post-doc research people, alumni) and worked at St. Vincent's. Click the photo above to see more pictures from the event.

I have no idea what my hand is doing inside my bag.

Since it was a USC community service event, we were told we had to wear our USC volunteer shirts (instead of our Dean shirts), but we were allowed to wear our Dean buttons. We were also prohibited from doing any "campaigning," but if someone asked about Dean, we could pass out literature. I gave stuff to three people; altogether we probably got about a half dozen people information about the campus group and the upcoming MeetUp at Margarita Jones.

Fundraising update: $371,578 from 6,607 contributors. A little over 3 days to go.

The Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News - Granite Status: Kerry puts emphasis on his war service

DOESN'T NEED A WIN HERE? There was an interesting take by Kerry on the first-in-the-nation primary on WHDH-TV last Friday. According to the report by the Boston TV station?s political editor, Andy Hiller, Kerry said he can win the White House without winning the New Hampshire primary.

"If the field is all split and I would have had 60 percent or 40 percent or 50 percent of a vote, but because there are so many candidates still there, you can go on elsewhere if you have a viable candidacy." Say what?

Now this is just dumb. No one wants to hear that his state is not important, especially when that state is New Hampshire, with its first-in-the-nation primary. Furthermore, with the way the primaries work, every candidate should work to earn every vote he can get. What the hell is Kerry thinking?

A pretty good article from The Concord Monitor about Dean's environment and development record. It shows a record that can't easily be characterized as either pro-environment or pro-development. And it's much more balanced than the BusinessWeek article, which paints a more critical picture of the candidate as a gung-ho pro-business flatlander. Which is odd coming from a publication called BusinessWeek.

Kerry using ship in campaign kickoff: "Democratic presidential contender Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts will make the formal announcement of his candidacy on Sept. 2 in front of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown in Charleston, S.C."

You can't have your corn dog and eat it, too.

Peter Freyne writes the Inside Track column at Seven Days, a Burlington-based Vermont weekly. Freyne often reports on the Dean campaign, sometimes disparagingly, but always with a light and funny touch. After finding out that Dean's wife wasn't taking new Medicare patients, Freyne decided to find out why:

We called Dr. Judy's medical office in Shelburne Tuesday. We told Kathy the receptionist what we were up to and asked to speak to Dr. Judy. She put us on hold for about a minute. Then a different voice picked up.

Hell of a coincidence, eh? Dr. Judy had hit the wrong button. Instead of the next President of the United States, she'd gotten Seven Days.

The Dean campaign has decided to "bring back the bat" for the Sleepless Summer Tour. The last time they brought out the bat was about four weeks ago, when they tried to match the amount of money Cheney raised in one luncheon. Well, they doubled their original goal, and now they're shooting for a million. And they've already raised a fifth of the money today. Wow.

What the Stanford Prison Experiment shows is that "'good people are not enough'" to prevent abusive excess, [says experiment-lead Professor Philip Zimbardo]. 'Individual differences matter very little in the face of an extreme situation. . . . Institutional settings develop a life of their own independent of the wishes and intentions and purposes of those who run them.'"

It comes down to the fundamental question of what is the purpose of prison? Is its purpose correctional, or punitive? If a prison sentence is intended to rehabilitate the convict, then why do we allow them to become dehumanized and exposed to danger? Can a man who's been ass-raped, beaten, and starved ever rejoin society as a fully-functioning member?

Car's been hit. Smashed. Fucked up.

More at eleven.

Anyone who's followed this blog for a while knows that it's changed over time. It started off as a personal blog, then became a political blog, and now it's become a campaign blog.

I think it's time to diversify.

Great article. This is what's at stake.

AlterNet: The Progressive Case for Howard Dean:

"I passionately supported the Greens in 2000 and 2002. I traveled 125 miles to see Dennis Kucinich speak when he came to Los Angeles in May, and had the pleasure of introducing him to a crowd of several hundred when he visited Santa Barbara recently. Kucinich is a guiding light in Congress and, of the nine Democratic presidential contenders, his views most closely mirror my own.

"Yet I won't be voting for Kucinich in the Democratic primaries, nor will I vote Green in the general elections. My support will go to Howard Dean."

Ashcroft is going on a national tour to promote the virtues of the PATRIOT Act and the success Justice has had in stopping terrorism. This is in reaction to a growing movement in the country and in the Congress to repeal those parts of the PATRIOT Act which infringe on our civil liberties. What's that mean? It means Ashcroft wants to tear up the Bill of Rights and several important Amendments that protect our freedom.

Sign the Petition to Stop Ashcroft and sign up for the Dean campaign. I know, I'm crossing purposes here, but Dean is the man who can beat Bush in November, and by doing so, will kick Ashcroft out of DC.

A new NH poll on 2004 Democratic Presidential Preference by American Research Group shows Dean surging to the front of the pack:

28% Dean
21% Kerry
10% Gephardt

With a margin of error of ± 4 percentage points, it's possible that Kerry could be at 25% and Dean at 24%, but isn't very likely. Also, the historical poll data shows Dean trending upward and Kerry trending downward (though not as rapidly). Most of the other candidates are flat, but Gephardt and Lieberman are trending downward as well.

This is interesting as well:

"Of the 32% of likely Democratic primary voters undecided in their preference for president, 41% have a favorable opinion of Dean, and 32% have a favorable opinion of Kerry."

There's still more work to be done, of course. There's still 5 months before the NH primary and a lot can change, especially with Kerry's Dean-lite tactics.

Even if the poll numbers were frozen for the next several months and you add the 13% of likely primary voters who have a favorable opinion of Dean to the 28%, that's still only 41% versus Kerry's 31%. A majority lead is not only more likely to result in a win, but will also earn bigger headlines and better influence other primaries and caucuses. Also, as I've said before, the more votes a candidate gets, the more delegates he will be assigned at the Democratic Convention.

This is a guy who just wants to be able to trust the "leader of the free world" to do the right thing, and probably doesn't pay much attention to policy, or doesn't really understand it.

Like a Cloud, Economic Woes Follow Bus Tour: "'You look at the tax breaks he's cut for everybody and I wonder how he's able to do that,' said John Dutschmann, 32, a sales manager for a concrete products company who had just attended services at Crawford's First Baptist Church. Mr. Dutschmann, a Democrat who supported Mr. Bush in 2000, said he was still behind the president, although he had trepidations about the economy. 'We just put our trust in him, and we hope he knows what he's doing,' he said."

Bush's Neverland Economics (washingtonpost.com): "When all 50 state governors agree on something, that's a powerful message. Especially when it's a cry for help in dealing with what many governors say is a national fiscal crisis -- invisible at the federal level but ravaging state government."

Who's surprised?

washingtonpost.com: Utility Officers Gave to Bush:

"The top two executives of FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio-based utility that is a focus of investigations into last week's cascading blackouts, are key financial supporters of President Bush, according to campaign records."

The Google Index now includes this blog. You can use the search box at the bottom of any page to search.

NSF - OLPA - PR 03-84: MICROBE FROM DEPTHS TAKES LIFE TO HOTTEST KNOWN LIMIT: "Strain 121 ... comes from water at the ocean bottom, from a surreal deep-sea realm of hydrothermal vents. Heated to extremes by the earth's magma, water there spouts forth through leaks in the ocean floor. The pressure of the immense depths prevents such hot water from turning to steam—even as it sometimes emerges at temperatures near 400 C (750 F)."

Health Care Policy Forum on C-SPAN: I've been watching a lot of the Democratic Candidate Forums on C-SPAN, including the AFL-CIO and other debates. The debates, with the 9 candidates, haven't really been a good forum for many of the candidates. But this Health Care Policy Forum is different. All the candidates get a lot of time, and on this topic, I think Dean really shines. I like Kucinich's ideas, but Dean's ideas appear to be really pragmatic and have the level of detail that these plans really need.

CBS News | Judge: 10 Commandments Stay Put | August 14, 2003 15:46:02: "Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore said Thursday that he won't obey a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state's judicial building."

<...turningtables...>:

"he says a lot of the iraqi people are acting very crazy...stealing and killing...raping and littering...

'they think freedom is doing absolutely anything that you want...they don't understand what freedom is...they are creating an anarchy not freedom'

...he tells me about the gangs...they steal anything and everything...

'they are cutting the copper electrical lines and pulling them up...they drive them to jordan and sell them on the black market...they will steal your car at gunpoint and sell it across the border'...

'yeah we have gangs like that too in america'...

'really'...he is very surprised to hear this...they must not see much american gang activity on the television pictures of california...

'yeah it's called car jacking in the states'...he looks at me and cranes his neck trying to understand what i just said...

'car vacking'...

yeah something like that..."

These are the guys who are going to save America's Economy:

(Stephen Jaffe -- AFP)

One Grey, a handful of voter initiatives, bubble-happy legislators, a national recession, energy industry crooks, and an uncaring White House:

California's Budget Crisis and Recall Election

washingtonpost.com: Voter Initiatives Limit Calif. Wiggle Room: "In one day Californians had locked in additional financial obligations totaling $40 billion, according to Brian P. Janiskee, a political scientist at California State University at San Bernardino."

Slim Shady, Watch It: Asian Rapper's Got It: "The attention so far has revolved around Jin's being a Chinese-American rapper, but the excitement has grown as he has won fans for his inventive lyrics, a style resembling a less angry Eminem. Jin has appeared alongside the rap star Ludacris in this summer's film '2 Fast 2 Furious.' And he has already spent part of his summer on MTV's 'You Hear It First' tour in New York, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston. He holds a place in Black Entertainment Television's 'Freestyle Friday' Hall of Fame for going undefeated seven straight weeks in the network's '106 & Park: Top 10 Live' rap battles, in which the best barbs and rudest rhymes often win in spontaneous, head-to-head duels. All this and Jin's debut album — 'The Rest Is History' — on Ruff Ryders Records/Virgin Records does not even drop into stores until Oct. 28."

Toyota Rushes to Meet xB Demand: "Early buyers of the Scion brand of youth-oriented vehicles have chosen the boxy xB over the xA hatchback by a 2-1 margin. Scions have been on sale for two months, in California only."

"The vehicle, which resembles a junior version of a 1980s Chevrolet Astro van, is marketed in Japan as the bB."

"The average Scion buyer is spending $1,000 on accessories. The average Toyota customer spends $310 on accessories."

Signs Grow of Innocent People Being Executed, Judge Says: "'The experience,' Judge Michael A. Ponsor wrote, 'left me with one unavoidable conclusion: that a legal regime relying on the death penalty will inevitably execute innocent people — not too often, one hopes, but undoubtedly sometimes.'"

One hopes? Unbelievable.

Here's a game I played today:

PokerStars Game #: Hold'em No Limit ($0.10/$0.25) - 2003/08/11

Table 'Actor' Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: Player 1 ($9.45 in chips)
Seat 2: Player 2 ($19.60 in chips)
Seat 3: Player 3 ($20.70 in chips)
Seat 4: Player 4 ($22.30 in chips)
Seat 5: Player 5 ($23.10 in chips)
Seat 6: Player 6 ($21.60 in chips)
Seat 7: Our Hero ($20.70 in chips)
Seat 8: Player 8 ($8.30 in chips)
Seat 9: Player 9 ($8.50 in chips)

Player 1: posts small blind $0.10
Player 2: posts big blind $0.25

*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to Our Hero [7c Kd]
Player 3: calls $0.25
Player 4: calls $0.25
Player 5: folds
Player 6: calls $0.25
Our Hero: calls $0.25
Player 8: folds
Player 9: folds
Player 1: calls $0.15
Player 2: checks

*** FLOP *** [As Qc Jh]
Player 1: checks
Player 2: checks
Player 3: checks
Player 4: bets $1
Player 6: raises $1 to $2
Our Hero: folds
Player 1: folds
Player 2: folds
Player 3: folds
Player 4: raises $4 to $6
Player 6: calls $4

*** TURN *** [As Qc Jh] [Ad]
Player 4: bets $1
Player 6: raises $3 to $4
Player 4: calls $3

*** RIVER *** [As Qc Jh Ad] [6h]
Player 4: checks
Player 6: bets $5
Player 4: calls $5

*** SHOW DOWN ***
Player 6: shows [Ac Js] (a full house, Aces full of Jacks)
Player 4: shows [Td Ks] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
Player 6 collected $30 from pot

*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $31.50 | Rake $1.50
Board [As Qc Jh Ad 6h]
Seat 1: Player 1 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 2: Player 2 (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: Player 3 folded on the Flop
Seat 4: Player 4 showed [Td Ks] and lost with a straight, Ten to Ace
Seat 5: Player 5 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: Player 6 showed [Ac Js] and won ($30) with a full house, Aces full of Jacks
Seat 7: Our Hero folded on the Flop
Seat 8: Player 8 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: Player 9 (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Player 4, having been re-raised when he had the nut hand, might have suspected something dangerous was afoot. He might have been able to go all-in and scare Player 6 out.

NPR : DNA Tests Shed Light on 'Hybrid Humans'

DNA technology is helping scientists learn more about a rare genetic phenomenon. When two fertilized eggs fuse in the womb, they create a child with two full sets of genes, called a chimera. NPR's David Baron reports.

Woah.

16 words, 28 missing pages... the White House pattern of deception and cover-up surrounding the Iraq war and the 9/11 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon could undermine the perception of foreign policy/military defence strength of Resident Bush, one of the few issues on which the poll numbers match his overall job approval.

Between the lines of 28 missing pages:

...even in its sanitized version, the bipartisan report, long delayed by an embarrassed White House, makes clear that the U.S. should have focused on Saudi Arabia, and not Iraq, in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

The report finds no such connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda terrorists. It is now quite clear that the president -- unwilling to deal with the ties between Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden -- pursued Hussein as a politically convenient scapegoat. By drawing attention away from the Muslim fanatic networks centered in Saudi Arabia, Bush diverted the war against terror. That seems to be the implication of the 28 pages, which the White House demanded be kept from the American people when the full report was released.

Maureen Dowd - Neocon Coup at the Department d'Etat: "'This is the revenge of the neocons for two months of bad news, looking like they're falling all over themselves in Iraq,' said a Powell confidant, noting that Alma Powell was furious she had been dragged in."

Maureen Dowd sees the story reported in the Post last week about Powell's resignation as part of a pattern of attacks by neo-conservatives to complete their hijacking of the White House.

New York Times Editorial: "Even Chief Justice William Rehnquist, whose conservative credentials are unassailable, has warned that collecting data on judges' sentencing practices 'could amount to an unwarranted and ill-considered effort to intimidate individual judges.'"

Of course, I think a Supreme Court Justice, whatever his politics, will be troubled by attacks on his brothers and sisters. Future Bush appointees are less likely to have these kinds of qualms.

Boston Globe Online: CIA warned administration of postwar guerrilla peril :

The February report was not the only warning Bush received that a guerrilla war was in the offing. According to US intelligence officials who compiled or contributed to the reports, and provided excerpts to the Globe, on multiple occasions in the months before the war the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency warned that fighting would probably continue after the formal war. The assessments went so far as to suggest that guerrilla tactics could frustrate reconstruction efforts.

But intelligence officials, former military officers, and national security specialists say the administration instead clung to the optimistic predictions of the Iraqi National Congress, an exile group headed by Ahmed Chalabi, who left Iraq in 1958. Chalabi, who is now a member of Iraq's US-backed Governing Council, is a close Rumsfeld and Cheney ally who had the ears of top administration officials in the months before the war.

Today's Post has an article that outlines the way in which the "Bush administration portrayed a menacing Iraqi nuclear threat, even as important features of its evidence were being undermined."

washingtonpost.com: Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence

CNN.com - Larry King Live Transcript:

He's also saying that the 16 words are not a significant issue. He's saying it was probably a mistake, but nothing for which the Democrats should take the administration to task. However, Clinton neglects to point out that these words are a part of a pattern of deception by the White House that should be investigated.

I think the context of his remarks also shades his remarks; this was an 80th birthday tribute to Bob Dole on Larry King Live. Clinton was a phone-in guest, and the occasion was not appropriate to take Bush to task for the appropriateness of unilateral war in the face of international and domestic criticism.

War-supporter Larry Elder takes a different stance. He claims the 9/11 report shows that the Clinton administration failed to take action and therefore Clinton has backed off of criticism of Bush. However, I don't think this is the endorsement Elder makes it out to be.

As Campaign Tightens, Kerry Sharpens Message

Kind of a funny article about Kerry, illustrating the ways in which his campaign has mimicked Dean's. Still, there are some fundamental differences between the candidates:

While Dr. Dean announces, "I want our country back," Mr. Kerry is more apt to explain that he is running because "this is a critical historical moment for our country and we deserve strong leadership that moves the country in the right direction."

No, it's not that Jon Stewart clip that pits Dubya versus Dubya in a candidate debate. This is actually Jeb Bushcourting the Cuban vote after the Feds decided to return 12 Cuban boat hijackers to Cuba for trial. The article quotes the executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation as saying, "This community made a substantial commitment to the president. We're not only not getting what we were promised, we're getting treated worse.... When commitments aren't lived up to, then action needs to be taken."

This could be an issue that weakens the Republicans in Florida.

If you don't read Jay's Cavebutter blog, you may have missed this fact...

State Has Nearly Half of U.S. Job Loss: "More than 1.1 million Californians are unemployed, nearly a quarter of them have been out of work more that six months."

Entire Transcript

KING: We're back with former president Bill Clinton, you mentioned earlier briefly about the tax cuts.

CLINTON: Well, look. I'm glad because I have the senator's support, you know, and that's not the least expensive thing in the world. I'm glad, it's wonderful in a lot of ways. My daughter can in home if she wants. She doesn't have to worry about that. We have a nice place to live in Washington and our home in New York is nice. I'm grateful to be able to earn this money, but I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't been able to live a life in America. And those of us who have been fortunate to have benefited from the American dream and there's not a living soul in America that's benefited more than I have.

One of the most problematic issues with Dean is his stance on capital punishment:

"I believe the death penalty should be available for extreme and heinous crimes, such as terrorism or the killing of police officers or young children."

However, his position statement focuses primarily on the injustice in the current criminal justice system and the abuses of the Bush administration regarding this issue. As Governor of a state with no capital punishment, Dean was never faced with the choice of granting a stay of execution, nor was he an advocate for a change in the laws.

So what is his real stance?

A Rutland Herald article speculates that the change is politically motivated to help him win the Presidency, a conclusion with which I would agree. That in itself is problematic for any candidate I would want to support. However, it does make him more "electable," which is the most important thing.

Capital punishment, in my view, is not the most important issue in this election, but a stance against capital punishment could be a political liability in a country where an arrest automatically suggests guilt, where an inability to establish guilt in a trial is assumed to be a miscarriage of justice. I can't take an idealistic stand in this election when you have an Attorney General and an administration that is by-passing Due Process and Equal Protection, violating the Bill of Rights, and compiling a list of "lenient" judges; when the Thief in Residence has a record of 152 executions as Governor.

Der Speigel Interview with Nobel Prize in Economics co-winner George A. Akerlof: "The Administration is giving us red ink as far as the eye can see, and these permanent aspects outweigh the short-term stimulatory effects."

What the hell is Joe talking about?

Opinion: John Nichols: Joe Lieberman just doesn't get it (captimes.com): "'I share the anger of my fellow Democrats with George Bush and the direction he has taken this nation. But the answer to his outdated, extremist ideology is not to be found in the outdated extremes of our own,' Lieberman told reporters. 'That path will not solve the challenges of our time and could send us back to the political wilderness for years to come.'"

And is he comparing his "fellow Democrats" to Moses?

Gore gave a good speech at NYU for MoveOn.org today. At the close of the speech, he said he still isn't running, but will announce an endorsement later in the season. A link to the RealVideo archive of the speech will be on the home page after 2 PM Pacific today.

RALL'S RULE OF IDEOLOGICAL BALANCE: "Before his 1972 reelection campaign, Richard Nixon had created the Environmental Protection Agency and signed the Clean Air Act. He negotiated the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. He went to China, leading to the first U.S. diplomatic recognition of Communist China. He imposed anti-inflationary wage and price controls that enraged corporate America. Nixon's first term was one of moderate Republicanism."

It's funny. Nixon would be considered a hard-core Republican by many. Yet compare the Bush Administration: undermining the EPA's report on global warming, attacking many environmental protections (e.g., a pollution-increasing "Clear Skies Initiative"), starting two wars and threatening three others, and attempting to eliminate the 40-hour work week and overtime pay. Not to mention the threat to our freedom (i.e., PATRIOT Act v. Bill of Rights).

Rall's article is about ideological balancing. I don't know if I buy the theory, but Rall's a pretty hardcore lefty and I guess he thinks Dean is a lefty.

Arianna for Governor! campaign site: "Arianna Huffington's entrance into the race for Governor of California represents a tremendous and exciting opportunity. Progressive and independent voters, united through Arianna's candidacy, can and will turn this recall election into an historic demonstration of everyday people's power. Together, we can turn this top-down, right-wing attempt to steal the government into a bottom-up, people's rescue of the state!"

It's official. Arianna Huffington, one-time Contract With America/Compassionate Conservative Republican, now Progressive Independent, and longtime political columnist, is running for Governor of California. Arianna would make a great governor: she's pro-education, anti-special interest, and a crusader against corporate corruption. An Arianna governorship would revitalize California politics in a way that Davis and Simon and all the other compromised political ho-hums could never hope to accomplish.

I'm still against the recall because it's become a political tool of Issa and some dangerous Republicans, but I can vote no for the recall and vote for Arianna as my candidate. Remember, you must register to vote by September 22 to vote in this election.

Nicholas D. Kristof writes in the NY Times that the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified because "The Japanese military ferociously resisted surrender even after two atomic bombings on major cities, even after Soviet entry into the war, even when it expected another atomic bomb — on Tokyo."

It might be true. Their military leadership might have been insane enough to refuse to surrender.

However, I don't think this justifies US actions. I don't think the US had any idea how crazy the enemy was, and therefore were not taking this into account in their strategy. The US action was blood lust, plain and simple. The fire bombings of cities like Dresden or the nuclear devastation unleashed on Nagasaki are both symptoms of the "salt the fields" mindset that had seized the Allied leadership. This is the same fervor that seized this country in the weeks and months that followed 9/11, and it was ugly.

7 working days have passed since I left Universal Music, and still no work. It's getting tougher all the time. I was so down this morning I took a trip down to Manhattan Beach to lie in the sun and body surf. I think my spirits picked up a bit after that. Now it's time to do some laundry and get my car washed at Millennium Car Wash. I'll let you know how they do.

The Des Moines Register reports that 23 percent of Iowans likely to attend the caucuses list Howard Dean as their first choice. Gephardt comes in second with 21 percent, and Kerry in third with 14 percent. With a margin of error of 4.9 points, these results could easily mean that Dean leads Gephardt by 12 points, or Dean trails Gephardt by 8 points. However, the article also reports that "Among Iowans polled who say they definitely will attend the Democratic caucuses, ... Dean's lead grows to 10 points over Gephardt." (emphasis mine)

"Recent polls in New Hampshire showed Dean and Kerry running neck and neck. A Field Poll of Californians taken last month showed Dean with a slight lead over Kerry and Lieberman."

Most importantly, the results of these polls show an amazing upward trend for the Dean campaign, which garnered only 6% of Iowans' support just 3 months ago.

Another sign of strength for the campaign is the surge in numbers of people signed up for the Dean campaign's mailing list: 255,000. Just 3 days ago the number stood at 225,000.

With the next Dean MeetUp only 2 days away, the number of people signed up for the MeetUp is 71,890. This is an increase of nearly 3,000 people over the past 3 days.

I strongly believe that the way to combat the organizational and financial power of the Republican party is to mobilize people and expand the voting base; 5 months before the first primary, the Dean campaign is doing just that.

See you at MeetUp!

Nice. I don't know why he's doing it, but it's good to see someone decide to do something about regressive taxation and education.

Summary of the plan: State of Alabama - Office of the Governor Bob Riley

ThisModernWorld got a letter from a National Guardsman whose life is on hold.

Not only is this a great cartoon, but Tom Tomorrow's blog is a great read. Find out why Bush's prior tax cuts have not helped the economy, from the mouth of W himself.