Link Roundup 12.27.05

Link Roundup 12.27.05 - From Zack

Glad to see the Nation magazine agrees...another minor Democratic rebellion is being spurred by our own California senator Barbara Boxer. Jon Nichols discusses the Boxer Rebellion part 2. First, this from the woman herself: "This war was sold to the American people as chief of staff to President Bush Andy Card said like a 'new product.' You rolled out the idea and then you had to convince the people, and as you made your case, I personally believe that your loyalty to the mission you were given overwhelmed your respect for the truth," Boxer calmly declared. "That was a great disservice to the American people. But worse than that, our young men and women are dying. So far, 1,366 American troops have been killed in Iraq. More than 25 percent of those troops were from California. More than 10,372 have been wounded."

Do you ever get that feeling liike the country's been taken over by a cult. Well, you're right, we have. At least that's the case the great Seymor Hersch lays out in a speech covered by Democracy Now. This is about as powerful, sad, and frightening stuff as you'll read, and it comes from a true expert. I hope people wake up and start getting involved soon. Here's Hersch:

"...we're spending $2 billion a day to float the debt, and one of these days, the Japanese and the Russians, everybody is going to start buying oil in Euros instead of dollars. We're going to see enormous panic here. But he could get through that. That will be another year, and the damage he’s going to do between then and now is enormous. We’re going to have some very bad months ahead." This one is long, but even just giving it a look over is useful as it details the 10 worst corporate criminals of the year. Their crimes are outrageous...their penalties are nonexistant. But, we got the Drug War to fill our prisons, who needs CEO's:

Huffington gives her political oscars for 2004. Here's just one of them:

For Creative Writing:
Best: Charlie Kaufman for his mind-bending screenplay, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Worst: Alberto Gonzales for his morality-bending memo calling the Geneva Conventions "quaint" (a.k.a., "Eternal Torment of the Enemy Mind"). Norman Solomon discusses the war and the new $80 billion dollar appropriations bill for it (which doesn't count towards Bush's deficit of course). Here's a clip:
"And death, whether directly from weapons or from neglect due to squandered resources, is the central meaning of the additional $80 billion now being sought by President Bush for the Iraq war. When he said that the election on Sunday would be "a grand moment in Iraqi history," Bush was whistling past a graveyard to be filled with people he never met." Cheers to the NY Times...today's editorial says Gonzales should not be confirmed.

Here here to Ted Kennedy. The first Senator to say what eveyone is still too are afraid to say. "We need to get the hell out of Dodge (meaning Iraq)". Here's a clip:

Today, in a speech before the Johns' Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, DC, Senator Edward M. Kennedy laid out a realistic and responsible course for America's future in Iraq. In his speech, he called for a serious course correction in Iraq, and invoked history's lessons about the dangers of fighting a political war with a military solution, concluding that America's overwhelming military presence has become a part of the problem, not part of the solution in Iraq. "We must learn from our mistakes in Vietnam and in Iraq," Kennedy continued."We must recognize what a large and growing number of Iraqis now believe the war in Iraq has become a war against the American occupation."

And our Scumbag Roundup: FOX News host Bill O'Reilly denied calling Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) a "nut" and promised to play a clip on the air to verify his denial. In fact, he did indeed call Boxer a "nut" on his January 19 radio program. See Transcripts here: O'REILLY: And, she sponsored a bill to have jet airlines be equipped with missile defense systems. [laugh] It didn't pass because -- so look. I mean, this is a nut. All right? This is a nut we got in the Senate. And let's not forget the greatest scumbag of all...Tom Delay everyone!! This on his ongoing fundraising scandal...

A defector in the TRMPAC war
BY AMY SMITH

Trevor Potter, a lifelong Republican and former commissioner and chair of the Federal Election Commission, will testify on behalf of five defeated legislative candidates who claim a political fundraising group Texans for a Republican Majority Political Action Committee violated campaign finance laws in its quest to produce a GOP controlled House. The lawsuit a civil spin-off of an ongoing criminal probe touched off by the 2002 election upset will be heard in a nonjury trial that begins Feb. 28. TRMPAC attorneys had sought to have Potter eliminated from the plaintiffs' witness lineup, but a ruling last week cleared the way for his testimony. The pretrial setback for TRMPAC followed arguments before Senior Retired State District Judge Joe Hart. Lawyers for the TRMPAC defendants asserted that Potter's legal expertise on federal election matters doesn't qualify him as an authority on the Texas Election Code. In fact, said attorney Terry Scarborough, referring to a transcript of Potter's Jan. 11 deposition, Potter "is guilty of not even knowing the basic definition of a campaign contribution in Texas." (Of course, TRMPAC's apparently ingenious redefinition of Texas campaign finance law is exactly what is at issue in the lawsuit.) Scarborough represents TRMPAC campaign treasurer Bill Ceverha. Attorney Mike Thompson Jr. also presented arguments on behalf of client John Colyandro. Meanwhile, Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle is continuing his criminal investigation of TRMPAC the brainchild of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and the group's reliance on corporate dollars to ensure GOP victories in several House races. The lawsuit and the criminal probe represent one of the biggest power plays in the history of state politics. Tension between the two parties could grow more strained in the weeks leading up to the civil trial. Some Democrats believe the GOP already fired the first warning shot on Jan. 14: The Texas Ethics Commission levied a rare $10,000 fine against one of the lawsuit's plaintiffs former state Rep. Ann Kitchen, D-Austin for failing to include several in-kind contributions in her financial reports filed eight days before the 2002 election. Kitchen said the omission was inadvertent and corrected the error after TRMPAC lawyers brought it to her attention during a deposition earlier this year. The TEC typically waives or reduces fines if good-faith efforts are made to correct reporting errors. Kitchen has asked the commission to reconsider its penalty. Blair's Global Warming Challenge to America

Speaking at the World Economic Forum yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of President Bush's closest allies, made his position crystal clear: "if America wants the rest of the world to be part of the agenda it has set, it must be part of their agenda too." High on Blair's agenda is enlisting the cooperation of all countries to tackle the problem of global warming. America and Australia are the only two industrialized nations that have not ratified the Kyoto accords, the global agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming, which is scheduled to take effect on Feb. 16. Blair's specific recommendations for action mirrored those just released by the International Climate Change Task Force co-chaired by British MP Stephen Byers and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress. American Progress CEO John Podesta said Blair's strong advocacy, along with bipartisan support in Congress, could persuade the administration "to come back to the table and get involved with this huge challenge facing humanity."

THE TASK AT HAND: According to the "vast majority of international scientists and peer-reviewed reports," climate change is a "serious growing threat." Unless concrete steps are taken to mitigate the problem, "no country will be immune from the extreme weather events and rising sea levels that scientists predict will occur." The Task Force recommends 10 concrete but practical steps aimed at ensuring that global warming does not exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. If global warming exceeds that point, "the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow significantly." The recommendations of the Task Force include: taking greater advantage of existing low and zero-carbon technologies, creating a global emissions trading market and, for G8 countries, producing 25 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2025.

THE HIGH PRICE OF DOING NOTHING: Addressing the climate change problem does not, in Blair's view, involve "drastic cuts in growth or standards of living." In fact, investing in low and zero-emissions technologies "provide[s] the prospect of significant business and economic opportunities." Meanwhile, the costs of doing nothing are severe. Recently, the most extensive scientific modeling on global warming ever conducted "found that global temperatures could rise by up to 11°C if emissions of carbon dioxide continue unabated." That is more than five times the increase the Task Force determined could have severe impacts in the form of flooding and extreme weather events.

KILLING TWO BIRDS WITH ONE STONE: Efforts to reduce global warming go hand in hand with enhancing oil security. Low and zero-carbon energy sources, including many biofuels, are renewable and can be produced domestically reducing our dependence on foreign oil. (Brazil, for example, already derives one-third of its transport fuel from ethanol produced from sugar cane.) The Task Force recommends that the United States and other major industrialized nations "divert their agricultural subsidies to biofuels instead of food crops."

BIG OIL TARGETS BRITAIN: While Blair is courageously leading an effort to bring the world together, big U.S. oil companies are bankrolling an effort to bring him down. The Guardian reports, "lobby groups funded by the US oil industry are targeting Britain in a bid to play down the threat of climate change and derail action to cut greenhouse gas emissions." Specifically, ExxonMobil is funneling tens of thousands of dollars to industry front groups operating in Britain that produce reports that claim to "undermine" growing scientific consensus about climate change.