Sunday, May 29, 2005

Clark Comes Back.  Via The Carpetbagger we get a Roll Call article on Wesley Clark's continuing efforts to insinuate himself into the national Democratic structure as the go-to guy on national security. As The Bagger says: The implications in the 2008 race...  [Ezra Klein] 7:10:17 PM     What Does General Myers Believe?. I have always had a hard time trying to figure out what General Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, really thinks about anything. Reading this account of his appearances this morning on the Sunday shows doesn't help. Indeed the statements are worrisome. Does he have a clue?: Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. has done a good job of humanely treating detainees. Did he really say that? The human rights group Amnesty International released a report last week calling the prison camp "the gulag of our time." Myers said that report was "absolutely irresponsible." He said the U.S. was doing its best to detain fighters who, if released, "would turn right around and try to slit our throats, slit our children's throats." That inspires confidence in the humane treatment that will be offered General Myers. Boy, it suuuure does. "This is a different kind of struggle, a different kind of war," Myers said on "Fox News Sunday." So do DIFFERENT rules apply General Myers? That seems to be the implication here. Yes, I am even more confident of that "humane" treatment you are talking about. Suuuure. The four-star general said the U.S. military had detained more than 68,000 people since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and investigated 325 complaints of mistreatment. Investigations have found 100 cases of prisoner mistreatment and 100 people have been punished, Myers said. 325 complaints? 100 cases? This is balderdash. There have been over 100 cases of prisoners DYING IN US CUSTODY in Iraq and Afghanistan! And finally this: Myers said he did not think the United States should have used more troops in the Iraq invasion but acknowledged that progress has proved slower than Pentagon officials had hoped. "I don't think we understood that people had been suppressed, and their spirit had been suppressed to the point where it wasn't just going to naturally blossom once they had the opportunity," Myers said on CBS' "Face the Nation." Naturally blossom? Did he actually use that phrase? Gawd I hope he knows he is full of crap. It would be scary if he did not. [Daily Kos] 7:09:39 PM     US keeps lethal trade arsenal against China. US keeps lethal trade arsenal against China Daniel Hilken | Hong Kong | May 30Standard - If there is any one lesson to be learned from the latest United States-China scuffle over textile trade, it is probably this: Get used to it. The "safeguard'' measures the United States invoked this month to limit year-over-year increases in imports of certain Chinese garment products are just one weapon, and probably not the most lethal one, in a big arsenal, lawyers and economists say. [The Agonist] 7:08:44 PM     France Rejects EU Constitution. Sending shockwaves through the European political system, and bolstering the centrifugal forces in Europe, France has rejected the European Constitution by a sweeping majority - currently 57% Non with 83% of the ballots counted. [BOPnews] 7:07:41 PM     Viagra for sex offenders. I'm getting sick of the manufactured outrage over the fact that New York's Medicaid program pays for Viagra for sex offenders. People are talking about the Viagra for sex offenders "scandal" as if felons were exploiting some kind of loophole....  [Majikthise] 4:48:58 PM     Louis Uchitelle Looks at the Long-Term Unemployed. The reliable Louis Uchitelle looks at the distressingly-high level of long-term unemployment: The New Profile of the Long-Term Unemployed - New York Times: After three years of unemployment, Allen Gruenhut finally landed a job as director of human resources for a company in the stone business on Long Island. His age, 53, worked against him in his long hunt for work, he contends, and so did the six-figure salary he earned at his last job, in banking. "They would not take me seriously at job interviews when I said I would be happy with a lower salary," Mr. Gruenhut said. Jackie Ellenwood, 31, is still without a job. She worked for three travel agencies over 13 years, until her last job, in Allen Park, Mich., ended in a layoff nine months ago. The industry is shrinking in response to more Internet bookings and cutbacks in corporate travel so Ms. Ellenwood is looking for work elsewhere and studying to become a nurse, confident that health care will continue to expand in an aging America. "I'm going to stick to my nursing courses," Ms. Ellenwood said, "even if I get a job." The experiences of Mr. Gruenhut and Ms. Ellenwood help to... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal] 4:47:31 PM     The People's Debt. I thought I might chase The Ethical Werewolf's notes on The People's Money with a snapshot of The People's Debt. I've been following this story for several months, and I've noticed that it doesn't get much air time. The essence... [Ezra Klein] 8:58:41 AM     The People's Money. Hi, everybody! I'm the Ethical Werewolf. As my first post on Ezra's blog, I'd like to point out a nice little pattern that has held over the last 16 years of budget history: In every year when a Democrat has... [Ezra Klein] 8:55:59 AM     Grand Vapids: Preznit Chucklehead seeks yucks on the pleasant peninsula. Great Moments in Oratory: "Someday you will appreciate the grammar and verbal skills you learned here. And if any of you wonder how far a mastery of the English language can take you, just look what it did for me." - President Bush's commencement address of this past week at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. Woo-wee, I'll bet the 11pm show was a real spit-take nut-buster of ironic hilarity! Once ya git that Mr. GW fellar in a frendly room - and on a good timin' roll - the self depricatin' high spirited humorizims, why, they justa don't stop-a-comin'. No siree-dee-dee-dee-dee. Anyway, thanks to John McCaslin: some guy "whose column is nationally syndicated" (and not just by any old syndicated outfit) but, rather, by the Messiah and True Parent hisself - of all humanity - and other seemingly important stuff like that. * - the farmer [corrente] 5:57:49 AM     At Long Last Sir -- Have You No Zingers?. A few days ago I flagged an American Prospect article by Geoffrey Nunberg for its excellent description of the ideologically conservative/operatively liberal divide. Now I want to highlight a different part: Republicans will try to pin a big-government label... [Ezra Klein] 5:56:47 AM

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