Bush Official:
Abolish Corporate Taxes, Slash Social Security and Medicare
September 9, 2001
Often you can discern the
ultimate direction an administration wants to take the country not so much
from what the big honchos -- Bush, Cheney, Powell et al -- say, but more so
from the little-reported remarks of lower-level officials.
The big honchos are virtually
always under the tight control of administration spinmeisters and
image-makers. The lesser officials, however, occasionally slip under
the radar of the administration controllers, and blurt out the truth.
When that happens, a quick retraction, clarification or statement that the
official "was only speaking personally and did not reflect
administration policy" will follow. But these attempts at spin
should be seen for what they are.
It's no secret that the Bush
administration has some fanatical right-wingers in it, like John Ashcroft, he of the
"dancing is sin" and pro-Confederacy outlook. But recent
statements by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill would make all rational people
stop in their tracks.
As documented by the media
watchdog group Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting, O'Neill, in an
interview with the British Financial Times, has called for:
- abolishing taxes on
corporations
- abolishing capital gains
taxes
- drastically reducing or
eliminating Social Security
- drastically reducing or
eliminating Medicare
Usually, such radical,
politically unpalatable proposals would be saved until an administration's
second term, when there are no concerns about being re-elected.
Luckily for the Bush
administration, the mainstream media have virtually ignored O'Neill's
comments, made a few months ago. I've just read about them
myself now.
However much fair-minded
people condemn the way Bush's tax cuts are heavily skewed in favor of
upper-income individuals, that skewing would probably be small potatoes
compared to how a Bush administration proposal to shift the tax burden
entirely onto individuals would be structured.
O'Neill has apparently spoken
about the need to "educate" the public about the current system
and how it needs to be changed.
Keep your eyes and ears open
for the first "official" hints of policy proposals along the above
lines.
As has been said in a notably
happier context, "America, you ain't seen nothing yet!"
Aren't
Republicans Really Talking About Themselves When They Claim Democrats
Haven't Had Any Good Ideas in 60 Years?
August 31, 2001
It's an elementary principle
of psychology that we criticize in others that which we most don't want to
recognize in ourselves.
This seems to apply perfectly
to Republicans.
Lately they've been saying
that the Democrats "have no new ideas," or better yet, that the
Democrats "haven't had a good idea in 60 years."
Aren't the Republicans
talking about themselves? When was the last time they had a
good idea?
Virtually all the pieces of
legislation in the past 60 years that have made our society more just and
humane have been Democratic initiatives, and opposed by most Republicans.
Just to mention some of the
highlights, the Democrats were behind the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and
1991, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Medicare
in 1965, the Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and the Americans with
Disabilities Act of 1990 -- not to mention being in the forefront to update
and adequately fund and enforce these Acts every one of the last 60 years
right up through the year 2001.
It could well be argued that
the only ideas Republicans ever have is to oppose all programs that move us
away from Darwinian survival of the fittest and the law of the jungle (and
to sometimes offer in their stead ersatz solutions which those supposedly
being helped invariably oppose).
Republicans don't have useful
ideas; they only offer mean-spirited vehicles to exercise the
fundamental lack of compassion afflicting that political party.
Republican Pundit
on Fox Makes a Fool of Herself Over Chandra Levy
July 25, 2001
Conservative pundits often
make assertions at odds with undisputed facts, hoping they won't get
caught. If someone calls them on it, then these blabmeisters will
blurt out the most ridiculous things to try to wiggle out of the
situation.
Take for example Susan
Carpenter McMillan, "president" of some entity called the
"Women's Coalition," who made an absolute fool of herself the
other day on Hannity & Colmes.
McMillan was claiming that it
was only Democrats who had affairs and took advantage of interns.
Apparently the names Bob Packwood, Henry Hyde, Bob Livingston and Newt
Gingrich eluded her.
Here's the essence of the
exchange between McMillan and host Alan Colmes:
MCMILLAN: No. 1,
Democrats have given interns and internship a bad name.
COLMES: Oh, stop politicizing it. You ought to be ashamed of yourself
politicizing this.
MCMILLAN: I'm not
ashamed of myself. I'm not ashamed of myself at...
COLMES: We have a missing woman, Susie, and you want to make a political
football out of this. That's -- shame on you.
A bit later, Colmes went on:
COLMES: There are
Republicans who are scoundrels, who are cheaters, who are adulterers, who
are not nice to their wives and families, and who lie and cheat.
It is not a matter of party affiliation, and how dare you try to make that
the issue here.
After a commercial break,
McMillan gave her reply:
MCMILLAN: ...You
said how dare I -- how dare I politicize it. You opened your show by
saying real men don't cheat on their wives.
You tell me the last Republican who was fooling around with not one, not
two, not three, [but] 15, 20, whatever, interns...
So according to this apparent
revision of the Republican dogma, affairs with a few interns are OK, just
don't get into the double figures! LOL.
Have You Seen
the Ridiculous "Bush Country"
T-Shirt?
August 13,2001
There is a widespread notion
in the country that the Bush presidency is somewhat less than legitimate,
since he lost the popular vote, and gained an Electoral College victory only
through a Supreme Court diktat.
Rabid right-wingers,
apparently desperate, have enlisted a ridiculous T-Shirt to counter
this belief.
The "Bush
Country" T-shirt shows a map of the United States coded not state
by state, but county by county -- the now-familiar red for Bush, blue for
Gore. On a county by county basis, the nation is indeed awash in
red. All this red "Bush Country" must have looked very
exciting to the T-shirt designers and their conservative backers.
But what does this map
actually mean, given that the popular vote and the electoral college were
virtually evenly divided? It merely means that a large number of the
most sparsely populated areas of the country voted for Bush. What this
bizarre fact proves to the right-wingers about the legitimacy of the Bush
presidency is anyone's guess, but it doesn't prove much to me.
Phony
Newsmax.com-appointed African-American "Leader" Should Shut Up
About Jesse Jackson
August 21,2001
The headline on wacky-right
Newsmax.com reads "Black Leader to Jesse Jackson: You're No Reverend." The article
goes on to quote someone called the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson:
Now is the time to stand on moral
principle and demand that Jackson drop the title 'Reverend,' and [to]
speak out against this immoral man.
To the question, "Have they no
shame?" the answer as to Newsmax.com and Rev. Peterson is, clearly,
"They have no shame."
Newsmax.com, which has a large and
fast-growing conservative audience, is here shown in a pathetic attempt to
elevate one bigmouth with a phantom following (called Brotherhood
Organization of a New Destiny) into a legitimate African-American leader.
Rev. Peterson doesn't have the authority to call for a pizza delivery on
behalf of anyone, let alone to call for Jesse Jackson to drop the title
"Reverend."
As discussed
earlier, Newsmax.com and Fox News are both attempting to discredit the
established African-American leadership and substitute individuals of their
own choosing. Who's buying this con game is anyone's guess.
[more on others who need to shut up
about Jesse Jackson]
Newsmax.com Presents
More Wisdom From Its African-American Leaders
August 22,2001
Yesterday,
Newsmax.com graced its home page with the wisdom of the eminent
African-American leader the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, who demanded that Jesse
Jackson drop his Reverend title.
Today, the American public
should again be grateful to Newsmax.com, this time for making room not only
for the insights
of another well-known "civil rights leader" in the
African-American community, Kevin Martin, but also for the further words
of Rev. Peterson, who called for all Americans to boycott the NAACP.
Who?! Huh?!
Precisely.
I understand that tomorrow,
Rev. Peterson and Mr. Martin will be holding a joint press conference to
announce the formation of a committee to build a memorial honoring that
great champion of African-American civil rights, Sen. Jesse Helms, who will
be retiring from the Senate after his current term.
Cuban-American Hard-liners
Scared of Musicians
August 23,2001
After suffering a defeat last
year in their valiant attempt to stop a little boy from being reunited with
his loving father, the hard-line element of the Cuban-American community has
finally scored a major victory.
According to The
New York Times,
Months after announcing
to considerable fanfare that the Latin Grammy Awards would move to Miami
from Los Angeles, event organizers have pulled the show from South
Florida over fears that Cuban-American protesters would disrupt the
event.
Why would some
Cuban-Americans object to the Latin Grammy Awards being held in Miami?
Critics of having the
show here argued that the ceremony could provide a platform for
pro-Castro Cuban artists.
But according to the Miami
Herald:
Several Cuban musicians
are nominated this year, but none were scheduled to perform and it was
unclear whether any would be attending the ceremony.
Even if a
"pro-Castro" singer or band leader did attend, and did get an
award and did say something favorable about Castro, this fanatical element
of the Cuban-American community is so insecure that they need to prevent
that?
And so much for free speech.
But we already know how much
this hard-line element of the Cuban-American community cared about such
things when they were the big shots in dictator Batista's Cuba, and, after
they came to the U.S., how much they have concerned themselves about such
Constitutional niceties here.
[see Cuban-American "Democracy"
article] |
