Did The Iraq War Cause Our Recession?

Our current economic downturn is being attributed to many different things. That includes the price of oil, the housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage fiasco and the ridiculous amount of national and personal debt that we hold in the country. But what about Iraq. We waste billions upon billions over there, that has to account for something....something many Republicans do not want to even accept as a topic for debate. Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist, does want to make it an issue. And I am willing to go out on a ledge and say that he can debate any Republican politician willing to argue the other side and it would be a cakewalk for Stiglitz.

From The Australian News:

Professor Stiglitz told the Chatham House think tank in London that the Bush White House was currently estimating the cost of the war at about $US500 billion, but that figure massively understated things such as the medical and welfare costs of US military servicemen.

The war was now the second-most expensive in US history after World War II and the second-longest after Vietnam, he said.

The spending on Iraq was a hidden cause of the current credit crunch because the US central bank responded to the massive financial drain of the war by flooding the American economy with cheap credit.

"The regulators were looking the other way and money was being lent to anybody this side of a life-support system," he said.

That led to a housing bubble and a consumption boom, and the fallout was plunging the US economy into recession and saddling the next US president with the biggest budget deficit in history, he said.

Professor Stiglitz, an academic at the Columbia Business School and a former economic adviser to president Bill Clinton, said a further $US500 billion was going to be spent on the fighting in the next two years and that could have been used more effectively to improve the security and quality of life of Americans and the rest of the world.

The money being spent on the war each week would be enough to wipe out illiteracy around the world, he said.

Just a few days' funding would be enough to provide health insurance for US children who were not covered, he said.

Well it doesn't take a Nobel Award winner to tell me that we could have paid to wipe out illiteracy or provide health insurance for underprivileged kids with that blood war money. Maybe he could get through to Bush on this....or perhaps Congress. Too bad the former doesn't care and the latter is too weak to act to help their constituents.

Young Turks Weekly Round Up

Enjoy!

Constitutional Showdown: Bush Vs democracy

Although the amount of time it took was surprising, the Bush Administration's lackey Michael Mukasey (a.k.a. United States Attorney General) handed back an all too expected response to Congress that he will not fulfill his duty to prosecute Miers and Bolten. When it comes down to it, Bushies will protect Bushies over the Constitution any day of the week. So what is Congress going to do about it?

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused Friday to refer the House's contempt citations against two of President Bush's top aides to a federal grand jury. Mukasey said White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former presidential counsel Harriet Miers committed no crime.

As promised, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that she has given the Judiciary Committee authority to file a lawsuit against Bolten and Miers in federal court.

"The House shall do so promptly," she said in a statement.

Mukasey said Bolten and Miers were right in ignoring subpoenas to provide Congress with White House documents or testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

First off, Mukasey doesn't know shit other than subverting the rule of law. For him to decide what is right or wrong is ridiculous. If your goal is to thrash our system of government and install an autocratic dictator, then maybe you are on the right track. Its just, well, the American people might have something to say about that.

So anyway, this civil lawsuit will go to a judge sooner or later. Mukasey will argue that Miers and Bolten could not testify because the President said so. He obviously believes Bush has more power than the Congress, despite the fact that the United States was set up with three co-equal branches of government. This isn't a case that is hard to determine, it is a slam freakin dunk for Congress. All this does is delay the American people from hearing the truth about what Miers and Bolten did on behalf of the White House.

Oh and just in case you forgot what this whole brouhaha is about.....Bush and his cohorts had United States Attorneys fired for not prosecuting people based on the political beliefs of the Bush Administration. When several of the dismissed Attorneys came forward with what happened, Congress started asking questions and no one that is involved with doing the firing is answering. Finding out those answers could implicate Bush Administration officials in a crime. The American people deserve the answer, and those that violated any laws of our land must be held accountable. It is that simple.

Clinton Shifts Expectations Again

Nothing surprises me anymore when it comes to the Clinton campaign. Whether she releases ads to play on the fears of voters, throws the kitchen sink at Obama full of negative attacks or changing expectations of her campaign, this is nothing new from a candidate that will do anything to win. Now she's playing down next Tuesday's contests and it seems that she'll be happy to go on as long as she wins one race out of four.

From The Politico:

At the start of the call, Plouffe read back predictions by Clinton campaign officials that they would be nearly tied – or even ahead – in the delegate count after March 4, an eventuality that now seems unlikely even if Clinton has a strong day.

“Those are their own benchmarks,” Plouffe said. “The Clinton campaign has to begin winning big states by big margins to have any hope of erasing this delegate deficit. … The most likely outcome Tuesday is not a huge delegate swing either way.”

The latest CBS News delegate count has Obama at 1,373 and Clinton at 1,265. That includes the party insiders known as super delegates. The count for pledged delegates – those allocated based on primaries and caucuses – is Obama at 1,192 and Clinton at 1,035.

Plouffe said that if the Ohio vote is close – say, less than 5 percent – the leader will only pick up three delegates. He referred to the press role as “referees” of how the results will be interpreted, and he sought to convince reporters that even if Clinton wins the popular vote in one of the states, she is likely to still face an insurmountable deficit in the delegate count.

After the call, the Clinton campaign e-mailed a memo entitled, "Obama Must-Wins": "The media has anointed Barack Obama the presumptive nominee and he's playing the part. With an eleven-state winning streak coming out of February, Senator Obama is riding a surge of momentum that has enabled him to pour unprecedented resources into Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont. ... Senator Obama has campaigned hard in these states. He has spent time meeting editorial boards, courting endorsers, holding rallies, and - of course - making speeches. If he cannot win all of these states with all this effort, there's a problem."

No Senator Clinton, the problem is with you and the assumption you will still be in this after Tuesday. Your campaign said winning Ohio and Texas were crucial. Many of your supporters agree. It would be embarrassing if you were to continue this race if you can't win Texas and Ohio in five days. You might find that all those friends are going to disappear very quickly.

Words Move People, Fear Drives Them Away

Would you rather be inspired or terrorized by a candidate? While Hillary advertises about how would you want having to answer a critical call at 3am, Obama's supporters have a different tune:

McCain Using Tired Political Tricks On Dems

Oh John, why must you be so full of shit? When are you going to take that "Straight-Talk" off your bus and replace it with something more fitting. Perhaps along the lines of "GOP Hack Express?" "Straight Talk" sounds like you are being level with the voters of this country and playing with a spirit of fairness and respect for the other side. That is something you apparently have no regard for. Seriously, why is it so hard to say "Dem-o-crat-ic?"

From The Washington Post:

“One thing I’m not any good at predicting is the outcome of Democrat elections,” he said Tuesday aboard his bus, dubbed the Straight Talk Express. A day earlier, he had mentioned his “Democrat friends” to a Cleveland-area audience.

Asked aboard his bus about the “ic,” he replied, “I’m sorry, I usually say Democratic. They prefer Democratic, so I try to say Democratic… It offends some members of their party, so I’ll say Democratic if that’s what makes them feel better.”

But his resolve didn’t last long. Later on that same ride, he was talking about his annoyance that Democrats take credit for the improving situation in Iraq. “To say, as Sen. Obama has said, that it’s because of the Democrat majority that we have experienced success in Iraq, that’s just beyond comprehension.”

McCain is trying to mimic George Bush in all sorts of ways now, not just with his blind ambition to continue the mess we have in Iraq and the absence of a plan to help the nation's economy and those that are losing their homes because of it. Now it has to be about emphasizing the part of our party name to make it sound like we are rats. How mature is that? Seriously, is the Republican party run by a bunch of sniveling five year olds? Though as the Washington Post tells us, it wasn't Bush that started this practice:

The usage goes way back, but according to the Columbia Guide to Standard English, Republicans are wrong to use the phrase “Democrat Party.” The guide reports that the phrase was used “with particular virulence” by the late senator Wisconsin Republican Joseph R. McCarthy who “sought by repeatedly calling it the Democrat party to deny it any possible benefit of the suggestion that it might also be democratic.”

You know, the Joseph McCarthy that was bent on scaring the hell out of the country in the 1950s? McCarthy was anything but respectful. If McCain wants to continue to emulate that epitome of fear and manipulation then by all means do so, but do not think for one second that you'll be regarded as respectful or fair by the time this election is all said and done.

Comcast Pays Seat Warmers To Help Block The Net

Net Neutrality is a big deal, and so is the process for corporations like Comcast to make the net more suitable for their bottom line and not for equal access to the Internet. Right now the FCC is touring the country to get public comments from Americans to see what they think about companies being allowed to filter certain sites and speeds of communication at their whim. Comcast, being the greedy corporation that they are doesn't want to play fairly, so they hired seat warmers to stay silent and keep the interested public out of the hearing in Boston.

From Save The Internet:

Comcast — or someone who really, really likes Comcast — evidently bused in its own crowd. These seat-warmers, were paid to fill the room, a move that kept others from taking part.

[Update: Comcast admits to paying people to stack the room in their favor. Read the report.]

They arrived en masse some 90 minutes before the hearing began and occupied almost every available seat, upon which many promptly fell asleep (picture above).

Comcast’s sleeper cell

One told us that he was “just getting paid to hold someone’s seat.”

>> Listen to the audio

He added that he had no idea what the meeting was about.

If he was holding someone else’s seat, he never gave it up.

Many of this early crowd had mysteriously matching yellow highlighters stuck in their lapels.

Comcast payoff

We also photographed them outside the venue being handed papers by an organizer who had been seen earlier talking with several of the Comcast people at the hearing.

Here’s why this is a problem. Comcast clearly paid disinterested people to fill seats. This barred interested citizens from entering.

More than 100 people who arrived at the appointed time for the hearing were turned away by campus police because the room was already full.

Barred: The interested public

The Cambridge hearing is part of the FCC’s ongoing investigation into Comcast’s blocking of Internet traffic. But there’s much more at stake. We are at a critical juncture, where it will be decided whether we have a closed Internet controlled by a small handful of giant corporations, or an open Internet controlled by the people who use it.

Comcast wants the former — to dictate which Web sites and services go fast, slow or don’t load at all. And they’re backed by the other would-be gatekeepers at AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner.

Comcast doesn't give a rats you know what about you, whether you're a customer of theirs or not. This is about control, plain and simple. Corporations like Comcast want to own us, its their inherent nature. They'll do anything for absolute power in order to make a larger profit and if controlling information is part of the game plan, then so be it. This is why we need to show up, en masse and apparently early to tell the FCC (and then Congress) that Net Neutrality must stand.

Republicans Are Going To Love This

Hey Mr. McCain, is this how you woo those conservatives, with your oratorical skills?

Mr. Luntz Goes To Albany

The GOP caucus in the New York state Senate isn't doing so well. Their majority has been dwindling and their hold over the Senate for the last fifty years or so is perilously close to being washed away this November. The attacks from Bruno, Barclay, etc did not work in the very conservative Senate District 48 last week, as Darrel Aubertine became the first Democrat in seat since the 1800s. Now they are desperately looking for something new to throw at NY Dems, and their go to man is about to be none other than Frank Luntz.

From The Poughkeepsie Journal:

In the first sign of a shakeup, the party plans to hire national Republican consultant Frank Luntz to look at how Senate Republicans can redefine themselves as they seek to retain their slim majority in the chamber.

"I'm taking a look at everybody and everything," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County on Albany radio station 1300-AM Thursday. "We are going to do a self-inspection."

The hiring of Luntz, also a Fox News pollster and focus-group guru who has worked with Senate Republicans in the past, may be the beginning of several changes within Republican ranks. Republicans said they are considering the hiring other high-profile national strategists. With Democrat Darrel Aubertine's victory in the race for an open North Country Senate seat Tuesday over GOP opponent Will Barclay, some Republican operatives and leaders said the party needs a new message.

Well Joe, there is no need to hire Luntz, let me help you pro-bono instead. Luntz likes to use alliterations and other neat phrases to oooh and ahhhh the audience, so lets see what we can do. "Albany Allows A**holes?" Hmm. How about "GOP: Government Of Patronage." Nah probably not. What about "Vote For Entrenched Power, More Of The Same Is A Good Thing." O.K. maybe I'm not so good at this.

Well Mr. Bruno waste those campaign contribution on Mr. Luntz if you wish. The problem is, despite the clever slogans he comes up with for you, it won't do any good versus your record and that of your caucus. If a heavily Republican district in the Oswego area won't vote GOP, something isn't wrong with the message, its the platform....or lack thereof.

Sheldon Silver Practices Cronyism? Never.

Did you hear the sarcasm dripping in that title? Or was it more of a roaring, giant waterfall sound? Silver has been the Assembly Leader since forever and in 'representing' Lower Manhattan/LES since the mid 1970s. After you have acquired enough power like Sheldon has, coupled with working in Albany, you know things can go wrong when it comes to good government. Well, he was caught in the act again this week.

From The NY Post:

Silver and Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith last month tapped Arthur Luxenberg as their appointment to the 13-mem- ber committee that recommends to the governor candidates for the Appellate Division, Court of Claims and State Supreme Court in the city's district.

Luxenberg is a co-founder of Weitz & Luxenberg, one of the state's largest trial-law firms. Silver has been "of counsel" at the firm since 2002.

He and the firm have repeatedly refused to reveal who his clients are or how much he is paid, although sources have said it could be in the seven figures.

Luxenberg told The Post he was a joint appointment of Silver and Smith and denied the fact that Silver's ties to the firm had anything do with his placement in the nonpaying post on the commission.

Oh of course not. How could we think such a thing of Silver? I'm sure they barely know each other in the office and that his name came up because he was highly recommended by some government watchdog organization like, oh, I don't know, maybe N.Y.P.I.R.G.?

"The speaker is entitled to pick someone who shares his judicial philosophy, but he should look outside a firm with which he is affiliated," said Russ Haven, of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

One lawyer with knowledge of the appointment noted that Luxenberg, whose firm's Web site boasts of "more million-dollar verdicts than most firms in the country," will now have a say in selecting appellate-court judges who will decide whether to uphold or lower such awards.

"It just doesn't look good," said the lawyer, who asked for anonymity.

No, it doesn't look good. Not at all. It looks like more of the same from Albany. Just another reason why voters from his district must take a look at Paul Newell in the primary this year. Paul is anything but about cronyism and shady deals, the exact opposite of what we must deal with in Sheldon Silver's stewardship of the Assembly.

Eco-Friendly Torture

I can almost see this being replayed as the McLaughlin report, or perhaps on Tweety's show:


In The Know: How Can We Make The War In Iraq More Eco-Friendly?

Sick and twisted yes, but definitely funny.

Wow, Pelosi Actually Wrote The Letter

Congratulations Madam Speaker:

Washington, D.C. – Today, Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, informing him of the referral letter sent to U.S. Attorney of the District of Columbia Jeffrey Taylor on contempt citations of former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten. Taylor is required by law to bring the matter before a grand jury. However, Mukasey has indicated that the Justice Department intends to prevent Taylor from complying with the law.

“There is no authority by which persons may wholly ignore a subpoena and fail to appear as directed because a President unilaterally instructs them to do so. Even if a subpoenaed witness intends to assert a privilege in response to questions, the witness is not at liberty to disregard the subpoena and fail to appear at the required time and place. Surely, your Department would not tolerate that type of action if the witness were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury,” she wrote.

“I strongly urge you to reconsider your position and to ensure that our nation is operating under the rule of law and not at presidential whim,” she added.

Two weeks ago, the House passed H.R. 979, which holds Miers and Bolten in contempt of their subpoenas.

You can read the letter via the link if you so choose, but this excerpt sums it up. Now the ball is in Mukasey's court. Will he comply with the Constitution, or continue being Bush's lackey? I'm going to go with the latter, you know, based on the last seven-plus years of this pathetic excuse of a Presidential Administration.

So once he ignores the letter, Pelosi will have the Judiciary Cmte (see Congressman Conyers) file a civil suit. This is the agreed upon action and it isn't even an idea hatched by Democrats. No, this one was concocted by no less than James Sensenbrenner, the Judiciary Cmte Chairman back when the GOP held the house.

Gee, look at that, Republicans actually do have some relevant ideas!