Fact-esque

There's a New Agenda to Keep a Fetishist's Eye On. Corporate Media, Start Your Engines.

Even though I think that BushCo is continuing to make great progress on his real agenda and that all the talk about the public Agenda is mostly PR nonsense, I'm having a good time making fun of the popular corporate media meme that BushCo is obsessed with rescuing his Second-Term Agenda from the dustbin of history now that polls reflect the rotten job he's been doing for five years.  Along those lines, it's important to note that the Official Second-Term Agenda has changed.  Up until yesterday we were operating on this version, announced during his victory lap press conference on Nov. 4 of last year:

And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital.  You asked, do I feel free.  Let me put it to you this way:  I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.  It is my style.  That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital.  I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda:  Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror.

We have an obligation in this country to continue to work with nations to help alleve poverty and disease.  We will continue to press forward on the HIV/AIDS initiative, the Millennium Challenge Account. We will continue to do our duty to help feed the hungry.  And I'm looking forward to it, I really am.

Good times.  I included the foreign policy part because I wanted to prove to myself that even though it seems like the consuming force that drives him now, we weren't hearing anything about an FTAA before this week.  Anyway, it looks like all that may have been rendered inoperative because now we have a new outline to work from, announced this week during the Summit of the Americas:

""My obligation is to set an agenda and I've done that.  And the agenda's fighting and winning the war on terror and keeping the economic vitality and growth alive, dealing with the energy problem, nominating people to the Supreme Court that adhere to the philosophy that I can depend on.""  (the pro-war WaPo initially reported that as "the philosophy that I campaigned on.")

Ending terror?  Check.
Vital economy?  Check.
Energy?   What now?
Philosophical Supreme Court packing?   Huh?
Social Security?  Gone. (but not forgotten)
Tax Reform?  Not so much.
Alleviating poverty and disease?   Are you kidding?  That's so Chavez.

Later, in an attempt to dodge a question from Ms. Bumiller about polls that show that most of America thinks he's a liar, BushCo expanded on the new Agenda:

Well, no, I understand there is a preoccupation by polls and by some.  I think this may be -- I think we've got -- this is maybe the fourth or fifth consecutive semi-press conference -- press conference or semi-press conference that I've been asked about polls. The way you earn credibility with the American people is to declare an agenda that everybody can understand, an agenda that relates to their lives, and get the job done.  And the agenda that I'm working on now is one that is important to the American people.

First of all, it's to protect our country; it's to understand that we're at war with a radical ideology that wants to inflict harm on America and, at the same time, use that harm they inflict to achieve territorial ambition.  I've talked a lot recently about the Zawahiri letter to Zarqawi, which is a clear statement of purpose by these terrorists.  It should be viewed for what it is:  an open warning to the free world that this is a very vital war and we need to win it.  So I spend a lot of time talking about that -- and more than talking about it, acting on it.

Secondly, you know, our economy has shown amazing resilience in the face of natural disaster, as well as rising energy prices. But we've got to have policies in place that make it possible for the economy to continue to grow.  You know, we're down here talking about trade -- it's hard to trade with somebody if they're broke.  And I've told our partners that we've got good economic growth now.

I'm sorry, I have to interrupt Dear Leader - what in the hell is he talking about???   Who's worried that we're broke?  Are we broke?  Is China making noise?

He rambled on:

But what we need to do is to work with Congress to make sure that we deal with the energy crisis -- what can we do to deal with the energy crisis?  Well, we can expand refinery capacity in the United States. I mean, it should be apparent to the members of Congress that when the Katrina hit there was massive disruptions of our own capacity to make gasoline, which put us in a precarious position for the consumers -- which would affect the economy, by the way.

And so we'll be talking to Congress about a further energy initiative to make sure we've got economic growth.  We've obviously got work to do with Katrina and Rita, the damage from those hurricanes.

And I mentioned the Supreme Court.  This is a very vital issue for the United States Senate and for the country.  Sam Alito, Jr., is an incredibly intelligent, well qualified person who should be on the Court. I told the leadership I thought it would be best to have the hearings before Christmas.  They didn't feel like they could get the job done.  I talked to Chairman Specter, and the reason why, at least he explained to me, that he couldn't get the hearings done before Christmas is because Alito had written so many opinions and he wanted to make sure he had time to read them.  And they made that decision.  Fortunately, there is a firm date and we look forward to working on that date.

And, finally, an issue that is of concern to the American people is the border, is border security.  I signed an appropriations bill for border security and during that signature ceremony talked about our strategy to use technology and border patrol and wise policies to do our job, which is to prevent people from illegally -- not only people, but, by the way, contraband, guns and drugs -- from coming into our country illegally. And so that's the agenda before us, and that's the agenda that I will continue to work on.

Ah, border security, of course.  But they don't read polls in this White House.

I'll be interested to see if the corporate media, so obsessed with The Agenda, which isn't really an agenda at all but more of one big campaign ad, picks up on the fact that we have a brand new one to talk about and why that may be the case.   

Operation Save My Crappy Agenda: Day Six

Photo credit: Pilar Oliares/Reuters
source: NYT, where it appeared on the front page above the fold.

"Every one of us has brought a shovel, because Mar del Plata is going to be the tomb of F.T.A.A.," Mr. Chávez said. "F.T.A.A. is dead, and we, the people of the Americas, are the ones who buried it."

Reuters:

"We listened to Washington's recipes for our economies for years and what did it bring us? More poverty and more unemployment. Free trade won't be any different," said Daniel Rodriguez, a 34-year-old protester.

AP photo/Robert Candia  via the pro-war WaPo

Bush has said the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA, would generate wealth, create jobs and help lift tens of millions of Latin Americans out of poverty.

Bush did not mention the pact on the summit's opening day Friday, leaving the heavy lifting on negotiations to Mexico's Fox.

""My obligation is to set an agenda, and I've done that.  And the agenda's fighting and winning the war on terror and keeping the economic vitality and growth alive, dealing with the energy problem, nominating people to the Supreme Court that adhere to the philosophy that I campaigned on.""

It Should Feel More Like Winning

A BushCo comment from his Q&A (question and avoid) session with Latin American press today during the increasingly embarrassing (for BushCo) Summit of the Americas:

""My obligation is to set an agenda, and I've done that.  And the agenda's fighting and winning the war on terror and keeping the economic vitality and growth alive, dealing with the energy problem, nominating people to the Supreme Court that adhere to the philosophy that I campaigned on.""

At first I thought, great, I've got another quote to bang him over the head with.  But the sad fact is that while his plan to destroy Soc Sec (never something anyone on the Right expected to get accomplished this term) is flailing about and even though they are starting to  lower the expectations for tax reform so that he'll be able to claim a win there and despite polls that  finally reflect his status as Worst President Ever, the fact is that he's moving along with his real agenda at a pretty good clip. 

The Energy Bill is through; CAFTA (god help us all) is through; he' s going to get Alito confirmed in a walk; every one but four of his federal bench nominees is on the job;  the union-busting NCLB is chugging along despite lackluster results; after almost a decade the Barriers to Bankruptcy Bill is law; the reconstruction of Lousiana will turn into a giant boondoggle for the forces of privatization; speaking of boondoggles, OSHA and other regulatory structures are being dimantled; torture is on its way to becoming the law of the land; the Medicare prescription benefit is set to lurch into effect; Plan B is stalled; the Dominionists are riding high; Haiti is on its way to sham elections that will annoint a U.S. puppet in an important region in our hemisphere;  health savings accounts are gaining steam; we're still in Iraq ...

It's great to see the country waking up to the criminal disaster that is Team BushCo, but it's all PR at this point.  When it comes to his agenda, that ship is sailing along at a good clip. 

Part of the reason is because the current shameful bunch of Republicans in Congress can be counted on to choose party over country and robber barons over workers every time.  Part of the reason is because the bulk of BushCo's true agenda is essentially unpublicized and what little reporting does emerge on stories like the decimation of OSHA is shouted down by the RW Noise Machine.  But we knew all that.  The whole question of a second term agenda is a silly one.  The much more important issue is the one of midterms, which may be able to make Team BushCo pay, politically at least, for its crimes.  As I've posted, the Congressional campaign has already begun in my district.  The only people ignoring the real implications of all the bad PR are those whose job it is to report on it.

Operation Save My (Crappy) Agenda: Day Five

The protesters' voice inside the summit meeting room will be Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the leftist leader who opposes Bush's economic model. He arrived early Friday vowing to stop the stalled Free Trade Area of the Americas or FTAA. "I think we came here to bury FTAA. I brought my shovel," Chavez told reporters.

Some moron hotlinked this really cool image of a graph tanking and so I had to remove it.  I hate people who steal bandwidth.

For the first time in his presidency a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows. On almost every key measure of presidential character and performance, the survey found that Bush has never been less popular with the American people. Currently 39 percent approve of the job he is doing as president, while 60 percent disapprove of his performance in office -- the highest level of disapproval ever recorded for Bush in Post-ABC polls.

A Louisiana congressman says e-mails written by the government's emergency response chief as Hurricane Katrina raged show a lack of concern for the unfolding tragedy and a failure in leadership.

Rep. Charlie Melancon, whose district south of New Orleans was devastated by the hurricane, posted a sampling of e-mails written by Federal Emergency Management chief Michael Brown on his Web site on Wednesday.

Top White House aides are privately discussing the future of Karl Rove, with some expressing doubt that President Bush can move beyond the damaging CIA leak case as long as his closest political strategist remains in the administration.

The European Commission plans to investigate reports that the CIA is running a secret prison system in Eastern Europe and using it to interrogate key al-Qaeda captives.

EU officials say they will informally question the European Union's 25 member nations.

"We have to find out what is exactly happening. We have all heard about this, then we have to see if it is confirmed," EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said Thursday.

And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital.  You asked, do I feel free.  Let me put it to you this way:  I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.  It is my style.  That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital.  I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda:  Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror.

 

Operation Save My (Crappy) Agenda: Days Three and Four

Day Three: Reid Takes on Stonewallling GOP

Reid's aides said yesterday that their boss decided on the dramatic, attention-grabbing ploy because he was weary of GOP foot-dragging on a promised inquiry by the Senate intelligence committee into the Bush administration's handling of prewar intelligence on Iraq. "We'd had enough press conferences and requests, public and private," Reid spokesman Jim Manley said. "Now it was time to act."

Day Four:  Cheney Aide Libby Heads to Court

Photo via DragonBallYee.

 Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff is making his first court appearance since his indictment in the CIA leak investigation, a case in which Bush administration officials including Cheney could be summoned to testify.

 

And it's one of the wonderful -- it's like earning capital.  You asked, do I feel free.  Let me put it to you this way:  I earned capital in the campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it.  It is my style.  That's what happened in the -- after the 2000 election, I earned some capital.  I've earned capital in this election -- and I'm going to spend it for what I told the people I'd spend it on, which is -- you've heard the agenda:  Social Security and tax reform, moving this economy forward, education, fighting and winning the war on terror.

Operation Save My Agenda: Day Two - Big Pharma Will Save Us All

So the big BushCo Bird Flu plan is finally out.  Typically, like any guilty, abusive parent, he's showering us with money.  Actually, it's more promises than money since the billions he's talking about are mostly going to be funnelled into Big Pharma's pockets.  Effect Measure has the best review of the plan.  This is my favorite part because it is the flipside of today's big headline: BUSH ASKS FOR BILLIONS FOR VACCINE PRODUCTION!

Bush also wants $1.2 billion to purchase enough H5N1 vaccine, developed by NIH, to vaccinate 20 million people. But there is no vaccine yet. The experimental batch that went through clinical trials a few months ago showed itself unable to protect people unless unrealistically high doses were used. And the strain it was directed against has already changed, so the best one could hope for would be some residual cross protection. No one knows how effective that would be, but no where near as effective as a vaccine directed against the actual pandemic strain when that arrives. There is also a $2.8 billion request to develop cell culture vaccines instead of conventional egg-based ones. That is already happening (Sanofi-Pasteur) but will take time. R&D money could have been pumped into this obvious need years ago, but the Administration relied on private sector initiative and Big Pharma had no interest in the lower profit vaccine business when it could make high profit Viagra and similar drugs. So the work didn't get done and now we are playing catch up. The bottom line for Big Pharma (the only line it cares about) will be that the public will fund the R&D and the big drug companies will be allowed to privatize the profits. And they are being asked to do it in a hurry, without time for adequate safety testing. So they don't want to take the risk and want immunity from suits.

If you're reading the corporate media today thinking that everything will be okay because BushCo is making noise about stockpiling Tamiflu and creating super vaccines in record time with new technology (suddenly he's all about the miracles of modern science), my guess is that when a panflu hits the U.S., you'll be wondering how Dear Leader could have let you down.  Part of the answer is, of course, "You fool.  What ever made you think that BushCo, who, since he took office, has been dismantling the very social structures and programs that are in place to protect you, could be trusted to take care of the country?"   But part of the answer is that no president can protect the entire country from the effects of a panflu.  BushCo is simply uniquely unqualified. 

We need a leader who knows the value of community.  This is one of those dare-to-be-great moments that seem to be coming along with increasing frequency.  A great leader would be honest about the limitations of throwing billions at Big Pharma.   A great leader would demand that local governments and industry, from the smallest villages on up, submit preliminary panflu plans no latter than December 31 with final versions due by January 30 and that those plans coordinate with surrounding jurisdictions and are kept up-to-date.  Local water treatment plants, electrical plants, nuclear plants, (put your indepensible utility/industry here) need protocols on file that would allow National Guard troops (whatever we have on hand) and other volunteers to  walk in and run the joint without a break in service. 

Surveys of people in need of daily medications need to be made.  How are they going to get their meds if supply lines are down?  Volunteer lists need to be drawn up. Who's going to take insulin to shut-ins?  Or to people who are self-quarantining?   

Who's going to back up the fire department or  police department  when half the staff is down with the flu?

Protective clothing needs to be stockpiled.   

Education/information seminars need to be held.  We need to educate communities about the value of better hygeine practices.   State and local boards of health need to be built up instead of torn down.  A great leader would remember the value of public health services and fully fund them top to bottom. 

School boards need to figure out what to do about facilitating homeschooling. 

Where will we put the auxilliary morgues?  What facillities can serve as emergency hospitals to take the patient overflow? 

That's only the tip of the iceberg but I think that 90% of what a good municipal panflu plan covers is not too diffcult to do.   The most difficult part now will be dealing with the ego problems that always pop up and hobble cooperative efforts.  Basically the goal is to keep the water running and to keep people from panicking and/or dying in the streets.  Good planning now will go a long way to keeping panic at a minimum when people do start dying or when food is harder to find.   The planning  gets trickier when we start talking about stuff like the personal stockpiling of food.  But personal responsibility needs to be addressed.  Leaders who ignore it are cowards. 

Related: You can go to Pandemicflu.gov to see if your state has a Panflu plan and whether it's any good.  If you get active on this issue, be sure to check out the FluWikie for tips and general education on the topic. 

My state, PA, has a panflu plan but it's so vague, it's useless.  That's a bummer because the person I spoke to at the county level told me that the state plan is the county plan, which makes no sense at all.   As far as I know, my township has no plan.  Maybe the state plan is their plan too!  This is the kind of leadership we can count on being useless when up to two thirds of the popluation is incapacited during a pandemic.   Now is the time to help local administrators see what has to be done.  We really don't have any excuse not to at least try.

Operation Save My Agenda: Day One

I plan to stay out of the Alito nomination talk because I have nothing to add to the conversation.  Sure, I'm upset that the traitorous Team BushCo can nominate anyone to the Supreme Court.  Beyond that I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to happen and that the nominee will be a disaster for women's reproductive rights, minorities, workers' rights, the environmen ...  basically any leap forward made since 1937.  The Dems won't block Alito because they're still keeping that powder dry for a really big fight.  We are well and truly fucked. 

That said, I am interested in the depths to which the GOP will stoop during the crucial media storm that started this morning.  Carpetbagger caught Orrin Hatch setting the bar for poisonous rhetoric  particularly high:

Of course, now that conservatives approve of the president's new nominee, they've come to play the bigot card all over again. Consider, for example, what Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) told Fox News viewers this morning.

"[Democrats] think they own the Italian-American vote all up and down the East Coast. They don't, but they think they do. If they become offensive against somebody with the qualifications of Sam Alito, Judge Alito, then I think it's going to be held against them. They're going to have to be very careful how they handle this."

Hatch has been pulling this stunt for too damn long. I don't expect much from him, but this kind of crass identity politics is vile and Hatch surely knows it.

He also knows that there are no consequences for talk like that.