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lurching to the right One of the definitions of slick is "deftly executed; adroit." Synonyms include "sly, shrewd, slippery, wily." These words came to mind as I watched the Republican Party's remarkable off-year election triumph last week. Give credit where it's due. Bill Clinton at his most devious was never as sly or as cunning (or as politically effective) as the Republican Party has become. I think of the G.O.P. as the costume party. It wears a sunny mask, which conceals a reality that is far more ideological, far more extreme, than most Americans realize.
Among the less meaningful questions being asked in Washington is whether the Republicans, having won control of the Senate and strengthened their hold on the House, will now go too far and outpace their mandate. My question is: Where have you been? In a nation that is divided almost 50-50 politically, the Republicans flew past their mandate a long time ago.
DANGEROUS TIMES AHEAD AFTER ELECTION 2002: Election 2002 does not give the Bush-Cheney administration a mandate to load the federal judiciary with right wing judges. The voters, after all, had the economy and the war on their minds - not the federal courts. But if you doubt it's about to happen, just sit tight and wait. The headlines and accompanying stories two days after the election tell the tale: The Los Angeles Times led with "Bush Gets Credit, Clout for Leading GOP Sweep." Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal proclaimed "GOP Sweep Gives A Boost to Bush - and Business." And The New York Times reported that "Victorious Republicans Preparing A Drive For Bush Agenda And Judgeship Nominees" Each of these leading news journals reports that the Bush Administration will soon make a effort to pack the federal courts with socially, economically and politically conservative judges. Worse, these judges will be the type who view positions on the judiciary as a prize opportunity to make their philosophy the law of the land.
The Bush-Cheney White House believes it has been reborn. In truth, Election 2002 has only given the GOP technical control. But that is all this White House believes they need. So does much of the Republican news media. thanks to wood s lot
How to Break the American Trance Some of you may be old enough to remember the Reagan Administration. Mr. Reagan and those around him believed in a very new kind of American hero. This new hero was a business hero -- not the fellow who built up a family furniture store on Main Street and supported the Little League and the Scouts; this new hero was not the woman who worked late hours to create a successful travel agency, nor was this new business hero anything like any of the hard-working Americans who built-up our middle class, advanced our standard of living and gave us the resources and leisure for the proper civic life of a democracy, with its leagues and Rotaries and Lions and Elks and VFWs and party conventions and all that glory.
No, the Reagan business hero was the corporate takeover artist.
environment Toyota plans all gas-electric vehicles by 2012 Toyota Motor Corp., the world's third-largest automaker, plans to use gasoline-electric hybrid engines in all vehicles by 2012 to increase fuel efficiency and reduce tailpipe emissions, an executive said. (...)
"Hybrids are our core technology for the solution of environmental problems," Takimoto said. Toyota is considering how to use hybrid engines in vehicles ranging from sport-utilities to sports cars. Takimoto didn't say how much the automaker expects to spend on the effort. thanks to follow me here...
Ooh, Barbie, that's no way to treat a lady IT'S ENOUGH TO make Barbie and her long- serving boyfriend, Ken, blush with embarrassment. These dolls are her unofficial new cousins - but would look more at home in a sado-masochist's dungeon than in a girl's bedroom.
They were created by British artist Susanne Pitt, who has just won a New York court battle over copyright against US toy giant Mattel for the right to sell her creations. thanks to follow me here...
liar, liar, pants on fire The Washington press corps has come grudgingly to the recognition that George W. Bush is “malleable” with the truth, as the Washington Post delicately put it. Pressing for war with Iraq, Bush has been exaggerating his case so much that even CIA analysts are complaining, as a number of newspapers have now reported. But the underlying reality about Bush’s honesty is far worse. Throughout his adult life, Bush has dodged the truth along with personal responsibility for his actions. Indeed, a remarkable feature of his presidency is the gap between Bush's public image as a straight-talking everyman and the behind-the-curtain Bush whose imperial impulse sometimes flashes into public view.
Like a boy emperor convinced of his infallibility, Bush rarely admits errors, ‘fesses up to misstatements or apologizes for inappropriate behavior. thanks to follow me here... The more things change... Roughly ten years ago, I celebrated the criminal indictment of Elliott Abrams for lying to Congress by writing an Op-Ed in the New York Times on the increasing acceptance of official deception. (I was just starting my dissertation on the topic back then.) The piece got bogged down, however, when an editor refused to allow me even to imply that then-President Bush was also lying to the country. I noted that such reticence made the entire exercise feel a bit absurd. He did not dispute this point but explained that Times policy simply would not allow it. I asked for a compromise. I was offered the following: "Either take it out and a million people will read you tomorrow, or leave it in and send it around to your friends." (It was a better line before e-mail.) Anyway, I took it out, but I think it was the last time I've appeared on that page.
President Bush is a liar. There, I said it, but most of the mainstream media won't. Liberal pundits Michael Kinsley, Paul Krugman and Richard Cohen have addressed the issue on the Op-Ed pages, but almost all news pages and network broadcasts pretend not to notice. In the one significant effort by a national daily to deal with Bush's consistent pattern of mendacity, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank could not bring himself (or was not allowed) to utter the crucial words. Instead, readers were treated to such complicated linguistic circumlocutions as: Bush's statements represented "embroidering key assertions" and were clearly "dubious, if not wrong." The President's "rhetoric has taken some flights of fancy," he has "taken some liberties," "omitted qualifiers" and "simply outpace[d] the facts." But "Bush lied"? Never. thanks to follow me here...
lynch mob THE SNIPER KILLINGS AND THE CALLS FOR EXECUTION Since the arrest of John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo as suspects in the East Coast sniper killings, the calls for their execution have been almost constant. The sentiments -- expressed by private citizens and government officials alike -- have taken on a frenzied quality. Everyone seems to be trying to figure out which jurisdiction most "deserves" to kill the two; which has a statute that will enable it to kill the boy as well as the man; which would kill them with the greatest speed and certainty.
As yet, I have heard no voice raised to question these furious calls for execution - to question what it means for a civilized nation to be obsessively focusing its collective attention on the swiftest, surest way that we can take more life in response to horrible acts of murder. I wish to raise these questions here. thanks to wood s lot
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barbies from hell