Letter to Howard Dean

I received a letter from Howard Dean, asking for money. Here is the letter I sent back to him.

Howard Dean, Chair
Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003

re: 2005 Grassroots Survey of Democratic Leaders

Dear Dr. Dean,

I am a 53 year old white woman from Western Massachusetts. I have voted in every local and federal election since I became eligible to vote. I have lived in big cities (New York), small towns (Chesterfield, MA), and middle sized cities (Santa Fe, NM, Springfield, MA, Northampton, MA). I follow the news closely, and take the time to look at various news sources from the U.S. and internationally. Last May I graduated from college, finally finishing my B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Despite my success in school, I am still looking for a job. I have been using my time to volunteer for an organization that is working to reform the mess that we call the media. I also have been involved with a non-profit that runs writing workshops for incarcerated women. I have changed my party affiliation over the years from Democrat to Independent and back again to Democrat. I have thought about changing to Green. I support election reform, a multiple-party system, and run-off elections.

I met you a few years ago at a GLBT fundraiser for Shannon O’Brien who was running for governor of Massachusetts. I didn't vote for her in the primaries--I voted for Robert Reich. But I would never vote for the man who eventually won the election, Mitt Romney, so I threw my support to O'Brien. You were just starting your own grassroots campaign for president. I was impressed by your honesty about why you allowed civil unions to be legalized in Vermont. “It was a civil rights issue,” you said. “Ten percent of the people in my state were not able to exercise their civil rights. It had to be done.” I supported you during your run for president and cheered for you as you took on thorny issues like the war in Iraq and health care.

I’m writing today to tell you I am not going to give one dime to the Democratic Party until the Democrats in office stop acting like Republicans. I will not support a party whose members vote to retain the Patriot Act, vote to continue the war in Iraq indefinitely, are against pro-choice, and vote to further cut taxes. I will not support a party that continues to bow down to huge corporations, giving them even more legal standing to do whatever they want whenever they want. I will not support a party that does not fight vigorously for media reform, breaking down the stranglehold of the six corporations that own most of the media infrastructure, outlets, and content providers. I will not support a party whose members vote for cuts in education, job training, food stamps, or health care. I will not support a party that does not fight hard for increases in both the minimum wage and taxes on the rich. I will not support a party that supports privatization of our basic institutions like schools, the military, and basic utilities.

When I met you, it seemed to me you were being very honest, and I am going to be very honest with you. Even as the Bush administration implodes, the Democrats are looking like ineffectual buffoons. Where is the strong leadership that is needed to finally stand up to this extreme neoconservative, neoliberal, dominionist, regime? If you want money and support from me and others in my area, here is a list of changes that we need to see:

1. Start supporting those in your party who oppose the war and are looking for a way out. Why are Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid distancing themselves from Rep. John Murtha for standing up and recognizing we need to get out of Iraq?

2. Don’t be whining about how the Democrats were duped into supporting the war. There were plenty of people reporting on what was really going on, several people speaking out in favor of keeping the weapons inspections going, and some with a greater understanding of Iraqi politics than any of the experts trotted out by the administration. The question is, why didn’t the Democrats who claimed they were misled know more than they did? There are two plausible answers: a) They were too busy grasping for poll numbers to really dig into the facts, or b) They thought it would be a good idea. What I need to hear from them before I would vote for any of them again is: a) I made a mistake in prioritizing. I have since hired more staff to do more thorough research into important issues, and I will not allow my re-election interests influence my decision-making on matters that have a direct negative impact on human life, national and international security, or the economic well being of our citizens and our future generations. b) I now see it is not such a good idea to occupy a country for what is essentially imperialist gain for the U.S. If we truly had the best interests of the average Iraqi in mind when we initiated the invasion, there would not have been a reason to militarize as heavily as we did, blow up infrastructure as we did, or kill close to 100,000 innocent people as we have done. We should have spent our appropriations more wisely, and invested in Iraqi businesses with Iraqi people, and insured for them a living wage and employment opportunities for them to rebuild their own country.

3. Come out strong for media reform. Freedom of information is crucial to the democratic process. Allowing a few corporations to own just about every wire, cable, newspaper, TV and radio station, and magazine is not healthy for democracy. Make noise about what this administration has done to cronyize public television, partisanize the FCC, and corporatize media outlets. Publicly owned airwaves are valued at $367 billion, but the public has never been paid a dime for their use by U.S. broadcasters. In fact, Big Media has spent about $100 million on lobbying the FCC and Congress in just the past four years. Currently, more than half of the US relies on only one newspaper for their news. Craft your own vision of a revitalized CBP, assured public access, net neutrality, and community internet. Strongly denounce cronyism and partisan appointees and come up with a list of your own choices for key positions. Promote your vision as what could be—quality, diverse information in newspapers and television for local, state, and national news, and faster, cheaper, and universal access that would get the US back in the top tier of broadband use per capita. Currently, we are 16th in the world and quickly falling even further behind. as other countries have instituted national broadband policy that actively encourages competition among providers. Squash any attempt to treat cable and telephone lines as proprietary and under sole ownership of any monopoly or duopoly.

4. Someone please tell Hillary Clinton to stop parading around like a Republican. Her changing attitudes are abhorrent and downright creepy. She is playing right into the Republican hand, and she will get whipped soundly come election time. Find someone who stands solidly behind a Democratic platform even when the polls are in flux.

5. Stand up for civil liberties for everyone, including women, the GLBT community, people of color, the poor and working poor, the middle class, students, Guantanamo detainees, and every political prisoner anywhere. This should be a no-brainer, but ah, well, some Democrats still aren’t getting how important civil liberties and little things like the Geneva Conventions really are for a safer and saner world. Take back the discourse about abortion, which for so many years has been a Republican cash and vote cow, and start talking about a women’s right to her own body. Make a big deal out of the fact that the democratic process in Iraq the administration is crowing about has actually diminished women’s rights as radical Muslims craft a constitution that denies any legality that does not conform to Shari’a law. Make comparisons between the teachings of radical fundamentalist and evangelical Christian dominionists and the radical Muslim mullahs who squash women’s rights. Leave libraries and bookstores alone. Reign in the CIA and FBI before they start coming after you.

6. Roar against the use of chemical weapons by the U.S. under any circumstances. The fact is, it’s a war crime, and to weasel a way to justify it just makes you look, well, like a weasel. White phosphorous is a chemical weapon. It burns skin to the bone on contact. There is no other way to view it, and its use, along with all the other chemicals, must be denounced. If we do not honor the Chemical Weapon Convention, how can we expect others to not use chemical weapons? This is a very dangerous game, and the Democrats can take a strong position here without looking like wimpy peaceniks.

7. Start crafting good policy to get more money for researching alternative energies.
Peak oil and oil cartels are only going to get worse. Stand up to Big Oil in all its forms and start creating research programs. Invite the public to participate. It’s amazing how many ideas are out there when they are not being squelched by corporate thugs.

8. Put energy and money into economic think tanks that simply don’t take global market capitalism as some natural state of being. It is, still and all, only one of many possible types of economic arrangements, and it’s a brutal one at that. There’s got to be a better way, and Democrats better start articulating how they are going to get us out from under the thumb of the multinational corporations. As it stands now, they are the real superpower of the world, and the U.S. is only a pawn in their game. A good way to start would be to fold into an new economic vision a wide net of social support, increased market regulation, and policies that can help citizens, not impoverish them. Touting unregulated Big Business as the economic salvation for ordinary working people flies in the face of the reality of stagnant wages and increased hardships by our working class.

9. Stop allowing Israel to occupy Palestinian territory and making life miserable for millions of ordinary Palestinians. It only breeds hate and death. In order for the Palestinian people to overcome their impoverished situation, they must have political freedom along with social and economic opportunities. Constructing a wall on their olive groves does not secure economic, social, or human survival.

10. Stand up for clean air and water and against slash and burn practices that ruin forever biodiverse habitats that are crucial for human existence. Stop corporations like Coca Cola from draining aquifers and McDonald’s from bulldozing rainforest to grow hamburgers.

11. Filibuster Alito. Anyone who writes "I believe very strongly in limited government, federalism, free enterprise, the supremacy of the elected branches of government, the need for a strong defense and effective law enforcement, and the legitimacy of a government role in protecting traditional values" should not have a seat on the highest court in the land. The fact that he told Senator Kennedy that he was just trying to get a job in a Republican office doesn’t bode well, either. The fact that he thinks its ok to say whatever just to get what he wants or to please others is not the type of character we need sitting on the Supreme Court.

12. Make a distinction between bureaucracy that’s bloated and departments that are needed. The GAO is a good case in point for necessary cadres of accountants. Show the American people you want the government to be accountable and applaud those departments that are still able to furnish that accountability despite the Republican war against them. Point out how this administration has not been accountable for billions of dollars spent on the Iraq war and how you would have handled the money going over there. Tell the American people that you would restore crucial departments like FEMA to their past levels of efficiency and accountability, and that, unlike Grover Norquist who wants to shrink government down and drown it in a bathtub, you believe that sometimes government can do it better and often does; that there are some things that cannot be reduced to a financial bottom line, like social security, education, and healthcare; that hurricane Katrina proved Norquist wrong—we actually need government agencies who’s sole interest is the American people and to rely on private industry to help is spotty, shoddy, inefficient, and very costly—in dollars and human lives; that the government should not be pitted against the people, strangled, and drowned, but that the government is for the people, by the people. Government is the people, and we need to keep our safety nets strong, our accountability accurate and trustworthy, and our executive branch in check.

Finally, stop playing into those Republican chestnuts that clog up the media like abortion, gun control, social security, GLBT rights, women’s rights, and idols of religion on state property. Change the discourse to economic strategy, wages, accountability, transparency, governmental balance in the three branches of government, the eroding environment, and healthcare. Develop strategies, papers, brochures, internet sites, and talking points that speak to your vision—people want to know how you plan on getting there. Hold town meetings now—before election time so it doesn’t look fake. Get every state representative who’s a democrat to hold a district meeting with their constituents, have them report back, and compile the results. Find young activists and begin grooming them as Democratic leaders. Have a mentoring program. Get new energy, new faces, new perspectives. Develop radio and television shows that can be distributed for free to PBS, public access, and college and low power radio stations. We need a vision and a way to achieve it.

Thank you for your attention, and I hope to see the Democrats continue to grow a backbone in the coming months, not only against this administration but to articulate very clearly what they would do differently. When I see evidence of real leadership and vision, I will respond with a financial donation and enthusiastic support.

Okay Ladies, I feel like I'm in the stew pot with this issue and hardly anyone is shouting that the heat is too high. I am sick and tired or hearing the media refer to Roe vs. Wade as the "Abortion Issue". Just by the continual use of that terminology, the conservative right is taking a strong hold. The issue is about my rights as a woman, the right to determine what takes place in my body, and the right to use my brain and determine what is best for me, and it is about states rights. It just makes my blood boil constantly hearing abortion issue. It is insideous. As women, mothers, and daughters who may remember the significance to womens rights that Roe v. Wade made, we need to make sure that younger women understand what the true issue is.

Look, I am no politician, and I'm not ever crystal clear about the details of Roe v. Wade, but neither are the christian fundamentalists set on taking my rights away from me. The fact that Bush has yet again chosen another male for the supreme court makes me truly concerned for what takes place in my body. I think Harriet Miers was just a ploy, a set up, so that Bush could say, "Congress chose to turn down my Female nominee."

Roman is sick of me ranting about this. He is on our side. But I really get the feeling that Guys just don't get it.

Pen

Goodbye Harriet!

The only two things anyone had to know about Harriet Miers is that (1) She was a corporate lawyer her whole career, and (2) She said that George W. Bush was the most brilliant man she had ever met. Case closed.

Libby's Replacement Even Worse

I guess there's just no bottom to the barrel of nasty neocons who work tirelessly to undermine democratic rule. Even if David Addington is not named (but it is likely he will be) to replace Scooter Libby, the fact that this guy roams the White House inner circle is a real fright. Read this.

Yet Another Crony!!!

This from the NY Times

October 11, 2005

Inexpert Selection


The list of Bush appointees who seem to be rising on political connections rather than expertise continues to grow. A recent example is President Bush's choice to head a key office at the State Department that coordinates the delivery of life-sustaining emergency aid to refugees of foreign wars, persecution and natural disasters. The nominee is Ellen Sauerbrey, the former Maryland state legislator and twice-defeated Republican candidate for governor who was state chairman of Mr. Bush's 2000 campaign.

In 2002, Mr. Bush nominated her for another patronage job, to serve as the American representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. There she has relentlessly pressed an antiabortion and anti-family-planning agenda at international conferences meant to focus on urgent problems like sexual trafficking and the spread of AIDS.
Ms. Sauerbrey has no experience responding to major crises calling for international relief. As assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, she would oversee a vital $700 million a year bureau that coordinates with private relief groups and other international players like the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to set up refugee camps and arrange for adequate food, protection and other crucial assistance. She also would oversee the admissions of refugees for permanent resettlement in the United States. This is a post for an established expert in the field.

Concerned leaders of international relief groups have largely held their fire for fear of jeopardizing the government grants that support their work. But the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should give her careful scrutiny when it gets around to holding a confirmation hearing, perhaps by the end of this month. Before then, Mr. Bush ought to spike Ms. Sauerbrey's elevation, thereby voiding the need for responsible senators to do it for him.

Crony Baloney

I've been waiting for someone to write this article. The New Republic finally did it. They have assembled 15 of the most egregious crony hacks in the Bush administration. If anyone has any more to add, please post.I'm posting the article for those that can't get to TNR.

The events of the past months have awakened the press to the true nature of the Bush administration. It is overrun with hacks--that is, government officials with waifish resumés padded like the Michelin man, whose political connections have won them important national responsibilities. But, in the face of this rush to flay the Bush hacks, we should consider their achievements.
To fully appreciate the virtues of this administration, we must first recall the administration that came before. Back in the 1990s, Bill Clinton recruited a small army of Arkansans and Rhodes scholars to the West Wing. Although there was the occasional kindergarten buddy who was out of his depth, most of these FOBs (friends of Bill) were insufferable wonks who never let you forget their dense resumés. President Bush put his finger on the smug mindset of these Clinton meritocrats when he said, "They're all of a sudden smarter than the average person because they happen to have an Ivy League degree."
Now we can consider this problem solved. The Bush era has taken government out of the hands of the hyper-qualified and given it back to the common man. This new breed may not have what the credentialists sneeringly call "relevant experience." Their alma maters may not always be "accredited." But they have something the intellectual snobs of yore never had: loyalty. If not loyalty to country, then at least loyalty to party and to the guy who got them the job. And their loyalty has been rewarded: Even if they fail, they know they can move up the chain until they find a job they can succeed in or until a major American city is destroyed, whichever comes first.
The hackocracy, of course, reflects the virtues of its architect, George W. Bush. Like Michael Brown and lesser known hacks, the president hasn't allowed personal setbacks to stymie him. The old-fashioned values of fortitude and family have given him the strength to rebound from a doomed oil company called Arbusto, a doomed congressional candidacy, and catastrophic failures at Harken Energy. That may be why, while cronies populate every presidency, no administration has etched the principles of hackocracy into its governing philosophy as deeply as this one. If there's an underappreciated corner of the bureaucracy to fill, it has found just the crony (or college roommate of a crony), party operative (or cousin of a party operative) to fill it. To honor this achievement, we've drawn up a list of the 15 biggest Bush administration hacks--from the highest levels of government to the civil servant rank and file. The tnr 15 is a diverse group--from the assistant secretary of commerce who started his career by supplying Bush with Altoids to the Republican National Committee chair-turned-Veterans Affairs secretary who forgot about wounded Iraq war vets--but they all share two things: responsibility and inexperience.
Although he could not possibly have envisioned what Bush has accomplished, Theodore Roosevelt delivered the single most poetic appreciation of this hackocratic style: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again...."
Bush, who may or may not be familiar with the Bull Moose, has lived and governed by this dictum. Never before have we so rewarded the valiant striver who comes up short by placing the fate of the nation in his hands. Never before have so many gotten so far with so little.
15: Israel Hernandez
Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the United States and Foreign Commercial Service, Department of Commerce (confirmation pending)
Fresh out of college and seeking a job on George W. Bush's 1994 Texas gubernatorial campaign, Israel Hernandez showed up an hour early for his interview with the candidate. Impressed by his punctuality, Bush hired Hernandez within days and eventually invited him to live with the Bush family in their Dallas home, where Hernandez reportedly became like an older brother to Jenna and Barbara Bush. Serving as Bush's travel aide for the next few years, "He was always there with the Altoids, the speech box, the schedule, whatever I needed," Bush later wrote in his autobiography. After getting a master's degree at (where else?) the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M (named after H.W.), Hernandez--or, as Bush called him, "Altoid Boy"--joined Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and later worked in the White House as an assistant to Karl Rove. There, he helped choreograph Bush's events and was once made part of the first lady's official delegation on a trip to Europe so that he could keep an eye on Jenna. All of which, apparently, was good preparation for managing more than 1,800 employees in more than 80 countries, because, earlier this year, Bush nominated the 35-year-old Hernandez to serve as an assistant secretary of Commerce and to run the United States and Foreign Commercial Service, the federal government's key export promotion agency.
14: Andrew Maner
Chief Financial Officer, Department of Homeland Security
Andrew Maner comes to his job with unimpeachable credentials--not in finance or accounting, admittedly, but as a dues-payer in the Bush family empire. In the first Bush administration, Maner helped to plan presidential travel and served as a junior press aide. Later, he followed the defeated George H.W. Bush back to Texas to be a spokesman and political fixer for the ex-president. After several private sector years working in information technology and procurement, he took over the U.S. Customs Office of Trade Relations, whose mission is to foster "positive relationships with the international trade community." Billing himself as a trade expert, Maner called the Customs gig a "logical next step in [my] career." Less logical, however, was his leap (after a short stint as chief of staff to the Customs commissioner) to managing DHS's sprawling $40 billion budget. Given his slim management background, it's convenient that Maner landed the only Cabinet department CFO slot that doesn't require Senate confirmation. Perhaps it also explains why, when DHS officials recently unveiled a revamped organizational chart, Maner's office was accidentally omitted. (Hack bonus: "Of all the things we do in the Department, charts may not be our strength," said the Department's undersecretary for management, Janet Hale.)
13: Claire BuchanChief of Staff, Department of Commerce
As deputy press secretary at the White House, Claire Buchan gained a reputation as a kept-in-the-dark spokesbot who was often relegated to baby-sitting reporters on long trips. But all that changed last spring, when Buchan was promoted to chief of staff at the Commerce Department, where she now helps the secretary oversee a $6.3 billion budget and some 38,000 employees. Buchan owes this stroke of good fortune to her years in the Bush family trenches. Previously, she served as a public affairs underling for the Treasury Department under former President Bush, a flack for the Republican National Committee, and (during the Clinton years) an image czar for the lawn care, extermination, and appliance repair company ServiceMaster. Some of Buchan's erstwhile colleagues in the White House press corps were left speechless when her new assignment was announced in February. One White House reporter who worked closely with Buchan for five years called her "the most useless in a Bush universe of enforced uselessness. She took empty banality to a new low."

12: Paul Hoffman
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Department of the Interior
Paul Hoffman is an avid angler, hunter, skier, and horseman. So it was only natural to tap this former chief of the Chamber of Commerce in Cody, Wyoming, (population 9,000) to help run the National Park Service. Sure, Hoffman had no parks experience other than recreating in them and, as head of the Cody Chamber, advocating for more snowmobiles in nearby Yellowstone National Park. But he had spent four years in the 1980s working as the state director for then-Wyoming Representative Dick Cheney. Since arriving at the Interior Department in 2002, Hoffman has demonstrated a knack for thinking outside the box. In April 2003, he went against the wishes of the staff of Yellowstone and asked the U.N. World Heritage Committee to remove the park from its "In Danger List." Last year, he overruled geologists at the Grand Canyon National Park and instructed the park's visitor centers to stock a creationist book that explained how God made the canyon 6,000 years ago, ordering up a flood to wipe out "the wickedness of man." And, this year, Hoffman pushed for wholesale revisions to the Park Service's management policies. Instead of giving priority to protecting natural resources, Hoffman proposed that managers emphasize multiple uses for their parks--including snowmobiling, Jet-Skiing, grazing, drilling, and mining. After Hoffman's proposed reforms set off a firestorm of criticism from Park Service employees and members of Congress--"The inmates are in charge of the asylum," one Park Service retiree complained--the Bush administration claimed that Hoffman's suggestions were "no longer in play" and that he had merely been playing "devil's advocate."

11: Patrick Rhode
Acting Deputy Director Federal Emergency Management Agency
As acting deputy director of fema, 36-year-old Patrick Rhode had, until recently, the unenviable job of backstopping the hapless Michael Brown, a man who needed much backstopping. Unfortunately, it's not clear that Rhode is much more qualified than Brown to be managing the nation's worst disasters. Before joining fema, the biggest disaster he had helped manage was the Small Business Administration (see Hector Barreto)--and even that was something of a stretch. Rhode entered federal government in 2001 as deputy director of advance operations for the Bush White House, a job he had also held for Bush's 2000 campaign. Never fear, though: Rhode has covered disasters--as a TV anchor for local network affiliates in Alabama and Arkansas, in which capacity he developed "an acute interest in what responders do in times of crises." Perhaps not acute enough. He recently said that >fema's response to Katrina was "probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country's history."

10: Steven Law
Deputy Secretary, Department of Labor
Since 2004, Steven Law has helped run a department with 17,000 employees and an annual budget of over $50 billion. Pretty good for a guy who started out as a lowly Capitol Hill legislative aide. In 1990, Law's boss, Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell, tapped him to serve as campaign manager for his reelection race. Law didn't disappoint, running a notably nasty campaign that insinuated McConnell's Democratic opponent was both mentally ill and a drug addict. Law returned to Washington as McConnell's chief of staff, and, six years later, when McConnell was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he made Law the group's executive director, relying on him for help in vacuuming up campaign contributions for Republican Senate candidates and thwarting campaign finance reform legislation. In each job he did for McConnell, Law proved to be an unusually dedicated--and worshipful--worker. Asked once by Campaigns & Elections to name his political heroes, Law answered: "Ronald Reagan, for his vision of America; Abraham Lincoln, for his moral statesmanship; and Mitch McConnell, for his principle and tenacity." It was little wonder, then, that, in 2001, the newly appointed Labor Secretary Elaine Chao--who happens to be McConnell's wife--hired Law as her chief of staff, a stepping stone to his current position; after all, once you've found such loyal help, you want to keep it in the family.

9: Hal Stratton
Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission
A former state representative and attorney general in New Mexico, Hal Stratton never asked for his current job, protecting American citizens from such dangers as lead-laced toy jewelry and flammable Halloween costumes. Instead, the former geology major who went on to co-chair the local Lawyers for Bush during the 2000 campaign initially wanted a job in the Interior Department. "That didn't work out," he told the Albuquerque Journal, "but I told them, 'Don't count me out' ... and they came up with this." "This" being the not-unimportant position of deciding which of 15,000 types of consumer products pose a health risk and might need to be recalled. Shortly before Stratton's confirmation hearing, Senator Ron Wyden expressed concern that Stratton "has no demonstrable track record on public safety." (Bill Clinton's cpsc chief, Ann Brown, spent 20 years as a consumer advocate and served as vice president of the Consumer Federation of America.) But now he does have a track record: rare public hearings and a paucity of new safety regulations, as well as regular (often industry-sponsored) travels to such destinations as China, Costa Rica, Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. But at least Stratton won't let personal bias influence him: Despite saying that he wouldn't let his own daughters play with water yo-yos--rubber toys that are outlawed in several countries because of concerns that children could be strangled by them--he refused to ban them in the United States.

8: Mark McKinnon
Member, Broadcasting Board of Governors (confirmation pending)
The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees Voice of America and other U.S. media beamed to the Middle East; and, in the spirit of accurately representing the United States, it reserves seats for members of both major political parties. For one of the four Democratic slots, President Bush recently nominated Mark McKinnon, or "M-Cat" as he affectionately calls him. M-Cat's Democratic credentials, however, are somewhat wanting. McKinnon's career highlights include overseeing media strategy for Bush's two presidential bids, in which capacity he masterminded a spot predicting that John Kerry would "Weaken [the] Fight Against Terrorists." And, in last year's campaign, his company, Maverick Media, accepted over $177 million in fees from Bush and the Republican National Committee--money we assume was not intended to help return the Democrats to power.

7: Stewart Simonson
Assistant Secretary for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services
According to his official biography, Stewart Simonson is the Health and Human Services Department's point man "on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies." Hopefully, he has taken crash courses on smallpox and avian flu, because, prior to joining HHS in 2001, Simonson's background was not in public health, but ... public transit. He'd previously been a top official at the delay-plagued, money-hemorrhaging passenger rail company Amtrak. Before that, he was an adviser to Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, specializing in crime and prison policy. When Thompson became HHS secretary in 2001, he hired Simonson as a legal adviser and promoted him to his current post shortly before leaving the Department last year. Simonson's biography boasts that he "supervised policy development for Project BioShield," a program designed to speed the manufacture of crucial vaccines and antidotes. "That effort, however, has by most accounts bogged down and shown few results," The Washington Post reported last month.
6: Hector Barreto
Administrator, Small Business Administration
No one can accuse Hector Barreto of being unfamiliar with small business. His Los Angeles firm, Barreto Insurance & Financial Services Company, had only ten employees. Alas, now that he is in charge of a bigger operation--the Small Business Administration (SBA) has over 3,000 employees, a budget of about $600 million, and a portfolio of loans totaling $45 billion--Barreto is struggling. Last year, the SBA failed to notify Congress that it needed additional funding for its largest and most popular loan program and was forced to temporarily shutter it because, as Barreto's spokesperson explained, it was "out of money." Meanwhile, the SBA was doing such a poor job managing the $5 billion in loans the government set aside to help small businesses recover from September 11 that, according to an Associated Press investigation, the vast majority of the money went to businesses not affected by the terrorist attacks--including a South Dakota country radio station, a Utah dog boutique, and more than 100 Dunkin' Donuts and Subway sandwich shops. Last month, the Senate Small Business Committee, prompted by complaints from Gulf Coast small-business owners, held hearings on the SBA's response to Hurricane Katrina. Barreto pledged that his agency would approve Katrina-related loans in days, not months, but a SBA deputy conceded in late September that, out of 12,000 loan applications from small businesses affected by the hurricane, the SBA had so far approved only 76.
5: David Wilkins
American Ambassador to Canada
An unspoken rule dictates that politically appointed ambassadors should be seen and not heard--or, at the very least, not heard provoking international incidents with close U.S. allies. But David Wilkins--a former South Carolina legislator whose chief contribution to world affairs before this year was raising $200,000 for President Bush's 2004 campaign--is not one to stand on ceremony. Though he'd only been to Canada once (Niagara Falls) prior to his nomination in April, the Bush Ranger assured Congress that "I won't be afraid to talk about the tough issues." A man of his word, Wilkins promptly escalated the two countries' dispute over softwood lumber by accusing Canadians of being overly emotional and by threatening an all-out trade war that would have affected multiple industries, from broadcasting to eggs. The Canadian government fought back, however, and, although generally disinclined toward mea culpas--"You talking about regrets by the United States?" he asked a Canadian reporter with incredulity--Wilkins eventually admitted his approach to the lumber dispute had been flawed. "My attempt to bring the emotion down increased the emotion," he said. To demonstrate his diplomatic sensitivity, he continues to open speeches with a jolly, "Bonjour, y'all!"
4: Jim Nicholson
Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs
In contrast to the four most recent VA heads--who had previously held leadership positions with Disabled American Veterans, the Department of Defense, a state-level VA department, and VA itself--Jim Nicholson brings a refreshing lack of experience to veterans' advocacy. Although he is one of the country's 25 million military veterans, Nicholson--who, after Vietnam, went into real-estate law and development in Colorado--is best known as a campaign veteran. He chaired the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2000, raising close to $380 million for the 2000 cycle. In Bush's first term, Nicholson was rewarded with the ambassadorship to the Holy See. But he traded vespers for vets last February, joining his brother John, who was already head of the National Cemetery Administration. In June, he admitted that VA had underestimated the number of veterans who would be seeking medical treatment this year by nearly 80,000 because it had failed to take into account the surge in enrollment by veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts--13,700 of whom have suffered blown-off limbs, bullet wounds, and the like. The miscalculation was a surprise to Congress, since Nicholson had written on April 5: "I can assure you that VA does not need [additional money] to continue to provide timely, quality service." Republican House Appropriations Committee Chair Jerry Lewis said VA's failure to identify the problem and notify Congress earlier "borders on stupidity."
3: Rear Admiral Cristina Beato
Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human Services
In June 2004, Cristina Beato admitted to her hometown newspaper that she hadn't paid much attention to the details of her resumé. That's too bad, because those silly little details seem to have stalled her confirmation for assistant secretary for health for over two years now. Beato said she earned a master's of public health in occupational medicine from the University of Wisconsin (but the university doesn't even offer that degree). She claimed to be "one of the principal leaders who revolutionized medical education in American universities by implementing the Problem Based learning curriculum" (but the curriculum was developed while Beato was still a medical student). She listed "medical attaché" to the American Embassy in Turkey as a job she held in 1986 (but that position didn't exist until 1995). She also boasted that she had "established" the University of New Mexico's occupational health clinic (but the clinic existed before she was hired, and there was even another medical director before her). For her part, Beato has offered a simple explanation: English is her third language, after French and her native Spanish, and sometimes the language barrier is just too much to handle. How does one say "pants on fire" in Spanish?

2: John Pennington
Director, Region Ten, Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Pacific Northwest is a catastrophe-prone area-- from tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in Washington and Oregon to wildfires in Idaho and oil pipeline ruptures in Alaska. That's why former Washington Representative Jennifer Dunn knew that fema needed "a natural" to head its disaster response efforts in the region. And that's exactly what Dunn said she found in 38-year-old John Pennington. Pennington would have to be a natural, given his utter lack of disaster-relief experience. A former state representative who ran a coffee business with his wife in rural Washington, Pennington served as Cowlitz County co-chairman of the Bush campaign in 2000. Dunn, who had been the Bush campaign's state chairperson, approached Pennington about the fema post, to which he was appointed in 2001. Alas, in the wake of former fema Director Michael Brown's resignation, Pennington's disaster of a resumé has come under increasing scrutiny. Last month, The Seattle Times reported that, just before he was appointed to his fema post, Pennington received his bachelor's degree from an unaccredited California correspondence school that federal investigators later described as a "diploma mill." Pennington's defenders have responded to questions about his qualifications by arguing that he has surrounded himself with competent staff.

1: Harriet Miers
White House Counsel, Nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
When we started researching this guide to the Bush hackocracy, nobody was sure who would wind up as number one. Competition was fierce. From under every bureaucratic rock, out scurried a Bush buddy. But we endeavored to be fair. There was spirited debate over the nuances between merely mediocre officials blindly loyal to the president and those with a demonstrated history of incompetence. (Alas, Andrew Card wound up on the cutting room floor.) Some argued that, by our own strict criteria, the president himself should be judged the number-one hack, but our deference to the wisdom of the electorate kept him off the list.
Truth be told, Harriet Miers could have easily slipped through quality control. But fate intervened. On Monday, Bush nominated Miers, the personal lawyer who fixed the paperwork on his fishing cabin, to the Supreme Court of the United States. Suddenly, it was no longer a competition. "I picked the best person I could find," Bush said Tuesday. And so have we.
We'd like to think that our process was slightly less arbitrary than the president's. Judging such matters is admittedly subjective, but if one were to express hackishness as a formula, it would look something like the adjacent equation.
Miers's croniness quotient is high. After all, the president has given her five jobs over the past eleven years. And senior White House aides have repeatedly remarked about her devotion to Bush. A Bush official's Danger to the Republic factor can generally be gleaned by the importance of his or her new job. And, while we grant that some unqualified candidates have turned out to be capable justices (see Jeffrey Rosen, "Judge Not,"), Miers's lifetime appointment to the highest position Bush is authorized to fill is like winning the hack lotto.
What, then, about Miers's qualifications? This is where she left the competition in the dust. Take, for example, her two-year stint on the Dallas City Council. Although she may not have been guided by any awe-inspiring understanding of constitutional law, she is credited with calming down a crowd of protesters after a county commissioner punched a police officer.
In announcing his choice, Bush pointed to her storied career as chairman of the Texas Lottery Commission. Although the Commission has historically not produced many Supreme Court justices, Bush has reason to be pleased with her lottery service. Miers may not have dealt with issues like civil rights or the death penalty, but she dealt with bingo. As chairman, she opined that she wanted all bingo-related games "to look and feel and smell like the game of bingo," which seems like a reasonable position.
Miers's solid job at the Lottery Commission and her other work for Bush catapulted her into the upper ranks of the White House. After three years as staff secretary, she beat out Brett M. Kavanaugh, a bright conservative lawyer with a John Roberts-like resumé, for the job of White House counsel. It was this job that positioned her to lead Bush's search for a court nominee.
This is quite a resumé, even before getting to some of Miers's legal writings. A search of the Nexis news database returns three articles by Miers. One is an opinion piece urging legislative calm in the wake of a string of deadly shootings. The second reveals Miers, who ran the corporate law firm of Locke Liddell & Sapp, to be an expert on a legal issue of great importance to the American people: managing the merger of two firms. The final article is a 1996 ABA Journal piece advertising the American Bar Association's new telephone seminars. "If you have heard any of the buzzwords of product promotions lately," she writes cheerfully, "we hope you will spot 'ABA Connection.'"
In hindsight, Harriet Miers was always the obvious choice for the Supreme Court. She is the logical conclusion of the unchecked Bush administration hackocracy. Bush's case for Miers actually rests on her being a crony. "Because of our closeness," he said Tuesday, "I know the character of the person."
In Federalist No. 76, Alexander Hamilton warned that, in presenting nominations to the Senate, a president "would be both ashamed and afraid" to nominate cronies--or, as Hamilton called them, "obsequious instruments of his pleasure." Maybe politics was different back in the 1780s, but we have watched Bush appoint many obsequious instruments of his pleasure. It may be his legacy: George W. Bush--he took the shame and fear out of cronyism.

Tax Exemptions for Religious Discrimination

Jean C writes:

Earlier this month, a high court in NY ruled that faith based organizations are exempt from federal anti-discrimination laws, even when they receive federal funds. The defendant in this case was the Salvation Army, which reportedly receives 95% of its funding from the government (which in my book makes it a government agency...).

The NYCLU alleges: "In announcing the lawsuit, Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the NYCLU, noted, “This case is not about the right of The Salvation Army to practice or promote its religion. They have every right to do so, but not with government money. The Salvation Army cannot use taxpayer money to practice religious discrimination against its social services employees.”

The Salvation Army recently began to require all employees in its Social Services for Children division to fill out a form on which they: a) identify their church affiliation and all other churches attended for the past decade, b) authorize their religious leaders to reveal private communications to The Salvation Army; and c) pledge to adhere to the religious mission of The Salvation Army which, according to The Salvation Army, is to “preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

The great thing about America is that people are entitled to their own misguided beliefs. They can freely express them and even act on them to a large degree. In America, people can exclude Jews from their churches and clubs. They can teach intelligent design versus evolution in their private schools. They can view homosexuals as an abomination and refuse to employ them in their private companies. The line seems pretty clear, however, when they start to use my money to do these things. This court ruling sets a terrifying precedent, particularly given that the Bush Administration will be funneling billions of Katrina/Rita relief dollars toward faith-based organizations and away from secular organizations. (It's already begun happening, in fact.) So now it's okay to require that the people responsible for extending benefits to many of our nation's most vulnerable citizens sign an oath of fealty to the Lord Jesus Christ first??? This defies everything I learned in high school civics class! I've included a few links and further reading below.

http://www.nyclu.org/salvation_army_pr_100405.html

http://www.use.salvationarmy.org/use/www_use.nsf/0/47FF985F7F2AAB6785256E46006CC 354?opendocument

Copyright 2005 National Public Radio (R) All Rights Reserved SHOW: All Things Considered 8:00 AM EST NPR October 4, 2005 Tuesday

HEADLINE: Judge rules use of religion in hiring decisions is OK

BARBARA BRADLEY HAGERTY reporting:

For years the Salvation Army did not make employees wear their faith on their sleeves. Although it is an evangelical Christian church, it hired people who adhered to other religions to do its social service work, things like foster care programs, HIV services and child care. But two years ago the Salvation Army began to vet its employees. They were required to report where they went to church and to agree with the Army's mission--that is, to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Several people quit and sued the Salvation Army and the state and local agencies that funded it. Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, says it's fine for a church to hire or preach any way it wants.

Ms. DONNA LIEBERMAN (Executive Director, New York Civil Liberties Union): But when a church takes on the responsibilities of government, then it can't discriminate against people based on their religion. It can't impose a religious litmus test on its employees; it can't require them to sign a loyalty oath, not on the taxpayers' dime.

HAGERTY: `Not so fast,' says federal Judge Sidney Stein. Stein ruled this week that it would be, quote, "untenable for the Constitution to require a religion to water down its beliefs simply because it accepts government money."

Bob Tuttle, a law professor at George Washington University, says this ruling disperses a big cloud hanging over the president's faith-based initiative, the question of whether a church that accepts government contracts must adhere to government rules barring discrimination.

Professor BOB TUTTLE (George Washington University): And with this ruling, the court has sided with the Bush administration. The court says, `No, when you take government money, at least if you're a religious organization, you don't become an arm of the government. You can continue to prefer people of your own faith.'

HAGERTY: Tuttle says the White House should be celebrating. Jim Towey, who heads the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, is doing just that.

Mr. JIM TOWEY (Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives): Oh, I think this is going to send a resounding signal out there in America because here you have an organization, the Salvation Army, that got 95 percent of its money from government to do its social service work. And the court held that they were allowed to hire on a religious basis, even though nearly the entire entity was funded by government.

HAGERTY: Towey says if the court had gone the other way, the entire faith-based initiative could have been jeopardized. And he says the ruling comes at a critical time. After Hurricane Katrina, he says, religious groups rushed to the scene, and the government not only plans to reimburse some of them but wants them to play a larger role.

Mr. TOWEY: I think it's going to bolster an awareness by governors and mayors that it's safe to partner with faith-based groups. I think it's going to tell faith-based groups, `Oh, we can do this work without having to secularize and sell our soul in order to provide a public service.' It's a complete vindication of President Bush's Faith-Based and Community Initiative.

HAGERTY: The New York Civil Liberties Union is considering an appeal. It's worried that the ruling sets a dangerous precedent as the Bush administration gives more and more federal dollars to churches.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty, NPR News.

# of Casualties in Iraq

Militar justice is to justice what military music is to music" Groucho Marx

Since the war began 3/19/03 - 1896 (1509 in combat)

since "mission accomplished" (5/1/03) 1759 (1401 in combat)
Since the capture of saddam (12/12/03) 1429 (1205in combat)
Since the election (1/31/05) 464 (876 in combat)
American wounded 14,362 (403 in combat)
www.antiwar.com

Number of Iraqi civilian deaths (minimum) 24,712
www.iraqbodycount.net

DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW MANY TROOPS ARE IN IRAQ RIGHT NOW?

ExxonMobil--The Gouging Starts Here

This was one of the news items on Democracy Now! this morning.

ExxonMobil Sees Record $10B 2nd Quarter Profits
Oil giant ExxonMobil is expecting to report profits of over $10 billion over the past quarter -- making it the most profitable single quarter for any company ever. This means ExxonMobil averaged making over 4.5 million dollars every hour for the past three months. During that same period gas prices shot up to record highs. Meanwhile the Energy Department is warning consumers in the Northeast to expect their winter heating bills to jump over 30 percent.

This is the problem with global market capitalism. There are no allowances for human need.

Greyhound "Jail" in NOLA

Thought I would pass this information along, which came to me from my professor: according to a Yahoo article written by Mark Egan on Tuesday, September 6th, NO officials have set up a "temporary jail" at a Greyhound Bus terminal in New Orleans. The men who are being confined--and this is really no big surprise--are almost all African American, between the ages of 18 and 35 and are being guarded by "heavily armed officers from Angola State Penitentiary." The plan is to move them from the bus station to "some place" where they will "stand trial via videoconference with a judge in Baton Rouge."
The article says there is an attempted murder suspect and rapist among them, but that most of dozens of men being held are there for looting.
O the ingenuity of a video conference; the hard work, time, effort and money being spent to make looters pay for their "crimes," which, considering the horrendous and desperate conditions surely can be nothing more than attempts at survival.
Why are non-violent acts being criminalized? What so easily (with as much ease as it took to set up a video conference courtroom) could be humane and compassionate aid is being militarized.
Why? Why?
Is part of the aid money that is being sent to NOLA being funnelled to pay for things like makeshift jails and the salaries of notoriously brutal C.O.s?
It makes me sick to my stomach.