Kill the messenger

Here's an interview with former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in Buzzflash. It's worth a read. I like to note why he thinks it's important to call the Bush Administration on their lies.

From the Catch-22 department...

It appears as though life is imitating art is imitating life...

Read and re-read this headline from the Washington Post:

Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act

Then read the story. Then write your elected representatives.

The nottruth and everything but the truth, doubleplusgood

One of the most confounding characteristics of the Bush administration is it's ability to shape perception through propaganda. The rhetorical style of this administration is deliberately sunny - Clear Skies, Healthy Forests, No Child Left Behind, the Patriot Act. However, underneath the covers of each of these are provisions that lead the country in exactly the opposite direction as the title indicates. It has reached the stage where it isn't really possible to trust any information that comes out of the government. Matt Wuerker created a great cartoon today illustrating this. He calls it Rovespeak.

Now, grandiloquent names are nothing new in politics. It is also common practice to add provisions to bills that have nothing to do with the title of the bill. That's called pork.

But President Bush has gone further.

He and his team believe their ideology is the central fact that shapes reality.

They then set about editing the body of facts available to the public to conform to their ideology. This is done in a massive effort to mold public opinion to support their initiatives, which reflect their ideology, which now reflects the facts available to people...and so on.

After 9/11, Bush "convinced the EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones," according EPA Inspector General Nikki Tinsley. In late 2003, the White House website was scrubbed of quotes by administration officials speaking out against the war in Iraq. In Paul O'Neill's The Price of Loyalty it is revealed that cabinet members are regularly given memos outlining the positions they are supposed to support during cabinet meetings.

In February of 2004, the Union of Concerned Scientists issued a report entitled, "Scientific Integrity in Policymaking, An Investigation into the Bush Administration's Misuse of Science" that documented how the Bush administration has supporessed or distorted the scientific analyses of federal agencies to bring results in line with administration policy. The report begins with the censorship of finding on Global Warming, covers the effects of mercury on human beings, distortions on HIV/AIDS research, Abstinence education, and the appointment of politically qualified rather than scientifically qualified candidates to key posts.

Just recently, it has been exposed that the White House is "Making Women's issues go away" by deleting information from government websites that may be antithetical to its views. Salon has an expose on this. The full report is here.

I ask you to imagine making each of these decisons yourself. Imagine choosing to censor that 9/11 report, or scientific conclusions, or ... I find it very difficult. The truth is being bent before our eyes. We must not let the white snow of political euphemism and doublespeak send us wandering, souless into this new century. Speak now. Act now.

Oh Mercury, Where Art Thou? (in your kid)

EPA rule written to suit industry, staff says

This article was originally published in the Los Angeles Times. It's about the Bush administration's approach to managing mercury emissions through the Clear Skies Act. In a previous post, I asserted that the Republicans in charge of our country are not conservatives. They are Ideologues, reactionaries really, much more interested in reaching their policy goals than in you or I, or our kids. They use the friendliest possible language to describe their policy initiatives while the impact of the legislation is often ruinous.

Let's take mercury as an example. Mercury is bad for you. It's one of the most toxic substances to humans that we know about. It's bad for fish and animals, too. It's especially bad for kids, because, according to the EPA, "Impacts on memory, attention, language and other skills have been found in children exposed to moderate levels in the womb." According to the LA Times, "In 2000, a National Research Council study commissioned by Congress estimated that each year about 60,000 children born in the United States could have neurological problems because they were exposed to mercury before birth. Exposure could lead to developmental problems."

Now, mercury is also useful. It's used in the auto industry, in healthcare, and it is a by-product of coal burning power plants. It has been in use for a long time. In fact, we started using mercury before we really knew it was bad for us. As a conservative and a businessman, I understand business implications and cost of removing mercury from our manufacturing, healthcare, and energy delivery systems. It isn't possible to just outright ban it. The business problem is too large. However, as a progressive, I understand that we have to remove it. Why? Because as a father I am horrified at the thought of one of my precious children, or anybody else's for that matter, sacrificing even one brain cell to the almighty dollar. I mean, let's get our priorities straight, shall we?

You would think the president of the United States, who is also a father, would view things similarly.

You would be wrong. President Bush and his administration are ideologues. He is neither compassionate nor conservative. With this crowd, you have to watch what they do, not what they say.

From the article:

"The EPA staffers say they were told not to undertake the normal scientific and economic studies called for under a standing executive order. At the same time, the proposal to regulate mercury emissions from coal-burning power plants was written using key language provided by utility lobbyists."

You see, the energy industry has donated upwards of $40 million dollars to Republican candidates since 1999, and $6 million to the Bush campaign directly. That money bought Energy Industry the right to author this nation's energy policy. They met in secret, lead by the Ideologue-in-Hiding, Dick Cheney, and came up with the Clear Skies Act. This legislation allows mercury polluters, typically coal burning power plants, to buy polluting "credits" from non-polluters, allowing them to continue spewing mercury into the air. Since mercury is heavy, it will concentrate in vastly higher amounts around the plants.

What will the result be? The people who live around those plants will be exposed to much higher levels of mercury than are known to be safe.

This is not a partisan issue. It's a human issue. See-- for President Bush, it isn't about you and me and our kids, it's about business. And because he believes that, he ignores the facts. And that means that somebody's kid - maybe yours - might not get to be everything they could have been.

That's what happens when you have a president that cares more about his ideas than he does about the well being of the people he leads.

Speak into my lapel

I read today that the g-men might start monitoring blogs. Hi there Agent Jones!

Am I Progressive? Yup. Am I conservative? Yup.

So I got a couple of really interesting emails today...all of them from offended "conservatives." They asked me why I am calling myself a "Progressive Conservative" on my campaign for "American Candidate." How, they ask, can I be a conservative when I am pro gay-marriage and pro-choice. This is the question I want to be asked again and again, on tv, on radio, on street corners.

I am a conservative American because I am extremely hesitant to tinker with America the idea.:

1) I am a constitutional fundamentalist. It has served as the overarching structure underwhich all of us have lived in liberty for over two centuries. We should leave it alone.

2) I believe in a smaller government with focused, progressive social services.

3) I believe in a balanced budget

4) I believe in free trade, a marginally controlled free market and enlightened capitalism.

5) I believe in states rights

It is a mistake to call the Idealogues that are running the country and the current Republican Party "Conservatives." Given the opportunity, they would conserve little of the America that is envisioned in the Declaration of Independenceand made whole in the US constitution. They would conserve little of the social advances, individual liberties or the social progress of the twentieth century. In fact, Republicans at all levels of government have an aggressive agenda of radical change - criminalize abortion, starve public education to its literal death, amend US and State constitutions to outlaw gay marriage, privatize social security, end welfare, kill affirmative action, roll back environmental protection laws and worker saftey laws, deregulate big business and expand tax protection for the rich and perhaps most disturbing - to end the separation of church and state by declaring the US a Christian Nation.

No, the leaders of the Republican party these days are not conservatives. They are idealogues. Only one thing is for sure when idealogues take control. Their ideas will come first, the means to implement them will come second, the welfare of the people will follow a distant third.

I am progressive because I believe that our understanding of the human condition evolves over time-- That Sexual Orientation may be genetic, for example-- and we must rise to meet those challenges "with malice towards none and charity towards all." Yet, I claim the word "conservative" for those who know the difference between simple tolerance of other religions and true religious liberty, who recognize in the unpopular decision of a state or federal supreme court the beauty of checks and balances, who understand that when the civil liberties of one american are threatened then we are all less free. Is that you? Then you might be conservative, like me.

Just the facts, mamn

You know what I like? I like facts. I am trying appear with 11 other candidates on Showtime's new reality show called, "American Candidate" so I can spout facts in support of progressive conservatism. As a good fact lover I like to visit Factcheck.com. They editorial team there takes the spin out of both sides. They catch Democrats and Republicans equally. Even though I am fighting hard for Democratic Victory in November, accountability matters. Afterall, if you are only interested in the lies of your opponent, you aren't much interested in the truth.

He really is the most amazing ventriloquist...

This week's Onion has this headline:

"Cheney Wows Sept. 11 Commission By Drinking Glass Of Water While Bush Speaks."

It's Mighty funny.