THE FULCRUM

"The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday.

The embrace of foreign "outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the U.S. economy.

"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report. "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."
Emphasis mine.

Mail delivery to the Capitol complex is still suspended indefinitely, Capitol Police spokeswoman Contricia Sellers-Ford said yesterday.

Although police have confiscated all unopened mail from congressional offices, Sellers-Ford said the department still hasn't "pinpointed” its testing procedures or decided if mail will be returned.

The police notice said that mail removed during cleanup was “wrapped in protective packaging, catalogued and sealed inside protective containers and will be cleaned,” adding that “every effort is being made to safely return mail.”

Sellers-Ford said “nothing has tested positive.”

1. I didn't bother to count, but there had to be a dozen references to 9/11 in various guises regardless of whether there was reason to link the topic being discussed with the terrorist attacks of 2001. This has been a staple in every public utterance by aWol.

2. I know I mentioned it in my remarks above, but reading his remarks is like reading the ramblings of a 10 year old. His noun-verb agreement problems make me cringe. His remarks bounce erratically from point to point and topic to topic all within what should be a short, easy answer.

3. Bush's verbal "placeholders" and acknowledgments of statements would have gotten me - and most likely him - slapped as a kid. They consisted of "Yeah" and "Uh-huh" and other figurative verbal tics that are impolite at best and uneducated at worst in "polite conversation." Coming from a supposedly well educated man occupying the most powerful seat in the world, they are atrocious. They are not the sign of a common man, aWol is anything but common in his patrician and very privileged rearing and education.

4. He outright lied in several places. This point is well covered in lots of analysis of the interview, and I won't lay out the specifics here, it's been done better on other blogs (see above).

Right now America is going through an Orwellian moment. On both the foreign policy and the fiscal fronts, the Bush administration is trying to rewrite history, to explain away its current embarrassments.

I'd like to think that the administration's crass efforts to rewrite history will backfire, that the media and the informed public won't let officials get away with this. Have we finally had enough?

The president of Pakistan, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, granted a full pardon today to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the founder of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program, who admitted sharing nuclear technology with other countries in a contrite television appearance on Wednesday night.

[snip]

Speaking to journalists after the news conference, General Musharraf said Dr. Khan would be under close supervision to prevent him from carrying out any more proliferation, but he added that there would be no further investigation.

The tone of his comments indicated that he wished to put the scandal behind him.

Emphasis is mine

In Wednesday's opinion, the majority, led by Chief Justice Margaret Marshall, wrote that while the state couldn't force religions to perform or recognize gay marriages, "neither may the government, under the guise of protecting 'traditional' values, even if they be the traditional values of the majority, enshrine in law an invidious discrimination that our constitution... forbids."

Investigators assume the poison, in the form of a white powder, was sent through the mail. But U.S. Postal Inspectors, who police the mail system, reported no success finding suspect packages after spending Wednesday combing Senate buildings and letter-sorting facilities trying to find a letter or a trail that would link the ricin to the mail system.

"We normally would expect to find a bulging envelope with powder, but there isn't any yet and to be honest I am not optimistic we will find one," said Postal Inspector Daniel Mihalko.

Sorry to spoil the fun, but if Dean is truly out of money, it may well be all over, whatever the delegate count.

Dean's money was, to all evidence, raised in a virtuous way, compared not only to other Dem candidates (though Kucinich also took the small-donations route) but to every candidate in recent prior presidential elections. But there's no getting around the fact that campaigns run on money. I'm hoping for a miracle, and I'm with Dean to the end (election or withdrawal), but I'm afraid it may take a miracle.

The higher deficit estimate, to be reported in the president's 2005 budget request Monday, could give the White House political headaches in the short run, drawing further attention to the nose dive the government's finances have taken on President Bush's watch. But some analysts have suggested that the $500 billion estimate -- which White House officials have floated periodically since last summer -- could actually help Mr. Bush's cause if the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 with a deficit that is less than $500 billion. That could help Mr. Bush persuade voters that his policies have begun to turn around the deficit problem.

The Bush administration plans to propose a 16% cut in spending on air-traffic-control equipment and facilities, saving nearly half a billion dollars a year but postponing or scaling back projects aimed at making air travel more efficient.

Speaking Tuesday to an aviation-industry group, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta made no mention of the budget plan but said the administration is working to triple the capacity of the nation's aviation system over the next 15 to 20 years.

But if the gap between revenues and outlays is of small concern in any single year -- and especially during recession and war -- it does not follow that there should be no worry over rapidly rising levels of federal spending. The much delayed omnibus appropriations bill for 2004, scheduled for a vote in the Senate this afternoon, looks set to cap the first term of the most profligate Administration since the 1960s.

[snip]

GOP leaders would have us believe this all adds up to one of the leanest spending plans in years -- an increase in federal discretionary spending of only 3%, compared with 13% and 12% in each of the previous two years. But Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation points out that it's really more like a 9% increase, and that's assuming there will be no supplemental appropriations as in previous years.

The 3% vs. 9% discrepancy results from the difference between budget authority and actual outlays. The increase in budget authority looks smaller only because a lot of money that will actually be spent in 2004 was assigned to 2003. That's true most importantly of the Iraq war supplemental. But the drive for the appearance of fiscal sanity has also reduced our representatives to gimmicks such as moving the authority for $2.2 billion in education spending back into 2003, after previously voting to push it forward to 2004. When corporations tried accounting like this, Congress gave us Sarbanes-Oxley.

[snip]

Amazing as it may sound, the ostensibly small-government GOP seems totally oblivious to the fact that all this spending puts its future economic agenda in jeopardy. Appropriations do mean taxes after all, even if they're deferred taxes.

All emphasis is mine.

The Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates sharply criticized President Bush's signature education program Friday, calling the No Child Left Behind Act an unfunded mandate that threatens to undermine the state's own efforts to improve students' performance.

[snip]

No Republicans voted against the resolution, a fact that House Education Committee Chairman James H. Dillard II (R-Fairfax) said is proof that "the damn law is ludicrous."

[snip]

As a result of a Republican legislative initiative in Ohio, the state commissioned a study released this month that found the federal government had significantly underfunded No Child Left Behind.

In North Dakota, a resolution sponsored by Democrats that stated the "cost to states of implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is as yet unclear" was passed by both the Republican-controlled House and Senate. And the Republican legislature in Utah is considering legislation to forgo the federal money and opt out of the program entirely.

The CIA named a new inspector to lead the search for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction Friday, choosing a veteran investigator who has expressed recent skepticism that Saddam Hussein possessed banned weapons that posed an immediate threat.

Bill Janklow, who dominated South Dakota politics for three decades as governor and then congressman, was sentenced to 100 days in jail Thursday for an auto accident that killed a motorcyclist and ended Mr. Janklow's career in disgrace.

After 30 days behind bars, Mr. Janklow will be allowed to leave jail during the day for up to 10 hours to perform community service. After he completes his jail term, he will be on probation for three years, during which he won't be allowed to drive.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was chairman of Halliburton until he left in 2000, defended the company Wednesday in a Fox Radio Network interview. "They get unfairly maligned simply because of their past association with me," he said.

KBR [Note: a subsidiary of Halliburton] is now repairing Iraqi oil fields and supplying everything from food and laundry services to housing for U.S. troops and coalition officials in Iraq under two huge contracts valued at up to $16 billion. That work has so far cost nearly $6 billion, well over twice what has gone to all of the other 40 U.S. contractors in Iraq, according to government records.

It is unusual for former intelligence officers to petition Congress on a matter like this. The unmasking of Ms. Plame is viewed within spy circles as an unforgivable breach of secrecy that must be exhaustively investigated and prosecuted, current and former intelligence officials say. Anger over the matter is especially acute because of the suspicion, under investigation by the Justice Department, that the disclosure may have been made by someone in the White House to punish Ms. Plames's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for opposing administration policy on Iraq.

A reality check on what Bush said on key issues.
Weapons of mass destruction

What Bush said: Search teams have "identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities" in Iraq. "Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day."

Context: The Bush administration has struggled to explain why weapons hunters have found no chemical or biological weapons in Iraq in 10 months of searching. On the eve of the war, President Bush said there was "no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." He said terrorist groups could acquire weapons from Iraq and use them against the United States. A search effort led by CIA appointee David Kay has turned up no weapons and no evidence of any advanced weapons program, raising questions about the quality of U.S. intelligence and the Bush administration's justification for war in Iraq.

Over promise.

Under fund.

Appeal to the base(r) desires.

Let the shit hit the fan long after he's gone.

The IBM documents show that the company is acutely aware of the sensitivities involved. One memo, which advises managers how to communicate the news to affected employees, says among other things: "Do not be transparent regarding the purpose/intent" and cautions that the "Terms 'On-shore' and 'Off-shore' should never be used." The memo also suggests that anything written to employees should first be "sanitized" by human-resources and communications staffers.

Besides the low-level programmers billing at $12.50 an hour, the chart shows that a Chinese senior analyst or application-development manager with more than five years experience would be billed at $18 an hour. The person familiar with IBM's operations said that person would be equivalent to a U.S. "Band 7" employee billed at about $66 an hour. And a Chinese project manager with seven years experience would be billed at $24 an hour, equivalent to a U.S. "Band 8" billed at about $81 hourly.

In the draft script prepared for managers, IBM suggests the workers be told: "This action is a statement about the rate and pace of change in this demanding industry. ... It is in no way a comment on the excellent work you have done over the years." The script also suggests saying: "For the people whose jobs are affected by this consolidation, I understand this is difficult news."

As the news flashed around the world by e-mail, other astronomers joined the Hubble team in their shock. Dr. David N. Spergel, an astronomer at Princeton and a member of a committee that advises NASA on space science, called it a "double whammy" for astronomy. Not only was a telescope being lost, but $200 million worth of instruments that had been built to be added in the later shuttle mission will also be left on the ground, Dr. Spergel said.

The fates dealt Mr. Gore and the United States a weird hand in 2000. He got the most votes but the other guy became president. And the country, its Treasury looted and its most pressing needs deliberately ignored, has been rolling backward ever since.

"This is insanity," said Mr. Gore, referring to the administration's handling of the environment. But his speech made it clear that he could just as easily have applied that sentiment to the full range of Bush-Cheney policies. History will not be kind to the chicanery that passes for governing in the Bush II administration.

Brazil's New Entry Rules
Cause Yet Another Flap

Associated Press


SAO PAULO, Brazil -- An American Airlines pilot was arrested by federal police after making an obscene gesture when being photographed at the airport as part of a newly imposed entry requirement for U.S. citizens, federal police said.

The pilot allegedly lifted his middle finger while undergoing a new fingerprinting and photographing process put in place by Brazil for U.S. citizens Jan. 1, said Francisco Baltazar da Silva, chief of Sao Paulo's federal police. The pilot has agreed to pay a fine equal to $12,750, a federal prosecutor said.

The incident is the latest flap in a growing diplomatic spat between Brazil and the U.S. Brazil began requiring Americans to be photographed and fingerprinted upon entering Brazil in response to a U.S. antiterrorism measure that requires the same from citizens of all countries who need visas to enter the U.S. The Brazilian requirement became the government's official policy Monday, citing the diplomatic concept of "reciprocity."

American Airlines spokeswoman Martha Pantin said the incident was the result of a misunderstanding under investigation by the airline, but didn't provide more details. American Airlines is owned by holding company AMR Corp.

Mr. Rumsfeld defended the president for "his brain, his engagement, his interest, his probing questions, his constructive and positive approach to issues."

"No President has ever done more for human rights than I have."

BlogSpeak is currently down because the bastards that host it decided to suspend my account. I do not know as of yet when this situation will be resolved. If you don't want any JavaScript errors on your pages, take the code off for the time being. Thanks for your patience.

The report, by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, warns that as a result of those mistakes, the Army is "near the breaking point."

It recommends, among other things, scaling back the scope of the "global war on terrorism" and instead focusing on the narrower threat posed by the al Qaeda terrorist network.

The Supreme Court today allowed the administration to withhold the names and whereabouts of hundreds of people seized in the United States by the government in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"It's the first time in history that the government has arrested people in secret," said Kate Martin, who represented the Center for National Security studies in challenging the government. "We had hoped that the court would look at the unprecedented and serious first amendment issues here . . . We have 200 years of law and tradition saying that arrests are public . . . We do not have secret arrests."

America Still Needs Striped-Pants Brigade

It is ironic that David Frum and Richard Perle ("Beware the Soft-Line Ideologues," editorial page, Jan. 7) dismiss diplomacy while using an example that clearly indicates the risks of an assertive foreign policy. They express concern over the future of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. Yet the assassination attempts on Mr. Musharraf must be partly caused by frustration over assertive American actions abroad and Islamabad's reluctant support of those actions.

And condemning diplomacy because it has not solved an incredibly complicated problem such as the Israeli/Palestinian dispute is ridiculous. Their shallow perspective is akin to dismissing the utility of military force following our defeat in Vietnam.

My students at the Naval War College are chiefly military officers, many of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are not "soft-line ideologues." Yet it has constantly surprised me how many of them believe that diplomacy will be a crucial weapon in the struggle against terror. Given that military force alone will never defeat the diverse forces that generate terrorism, we must avoid the narrow and dangerous perspective that Messrs. Frum and Perle offer.

Andrew L. Stigler
Associate Professor
National Security Affairs
United States Naval War College
Newport, R.I.