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Fact Check

Fact Check

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FactCheck.org has a great analysis of the debate last night.

Here’s just the Summary for a quick perusal – but you really have to read the analysis:

  • Obama said McCain adviser Henry Kissinger backs talks with Iran “without preconditions,” but McCain disputed that. In fact, Kissinger did recently call for “high level” talks with Iran starting at the secretary of state level and said, “I do not believe that we can make conditions.” After the debate the McCain campaign issued a statement quoting Kissinger as saying he didn’t favor presidential talks with Iran.
  • Obama denied voting for a bill that called for increased taxes on “people” making as little as $42,000 a year, as McCain accused him of doing. McCain was right, though only for single taxpayers. A married couple would have had to make $83,000 to be affected by the vote, and anyway no such increase is in Obama’s tax plan.
  • McCain and Obama contradicted each other on what Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said about troop withdrawals. Mullen said a time line for withdrawal could be “very dangerous” but was not talking specifically about “Obama’s plan,” as McCain maintained.
  • McCain tripped up on one of his signature issues – special appropriation “earmarks.” He said they had “tripled in the last five years,” when in fact they have decreased sharply.
  • Obama claimed Iraq “has” a $79 billion surplus. It once was projected to be as high as that. It’s now down to less than $60 billion.
  • McCain repeated his overstated claim that the U.S. pays $700 billion a year for oil to hostile nations. Imports are running at about $536 billion this year, and a third of it comes from Canada, Mexico and the U.K.
  • Obama said 95 percent of “the American people” would see a tax cut under his proposal. The actual figure is 81 percent of households.
  • Obama mischaracterized an aspect of McCain’s health care plan, saying “employers” would be taxed on the value of health benefits provided to workers. Employers wouldn’t, but the workers would. McCain also would grant workers up to a $5,000 tax credit per family to cover health insurance.
  • McCain misrepresented Obama’s plan by claiming he’d be “handing the health care system over to the federal government.” Obama would expand some government programs but would allow people to keep their current plans or chose from private ones, as well.
  • McCain claimed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had drafted a letter of resignation from the Army to be sent in case the 1944 D-Day landing at Normandy turned out to be a failure. Ike prepared a letter taking responsibility, but he didn’t mention resigning.

Here’s just one example:

Boeing Boasts

McCain was went too far when he said, "I saved the taxpayers $6.8 billion by fighting a contract that was negotiated between Boeing and DOD that was completely wrong. And we fixed it and we killed it."

McCain certainly did lead a fight to kill the contract, and the effort ended in prison sentences for defense contractors. But the contract isn’t exactly "fixed" yet. In fact, questions have been raised about the role McCain has played in helping a Boeing rival secure the new contract.

After the original Boeing contract to supply refueling airliners was nixed in 2003, the bidding process was reopened. And in early 2007, Boeing rival EADS/Airbus won the bid the second time around. But Boeing filed a protest about the way the bids were processed, and the Government Accountability Office released a report that found in Boeing’s favor. In the summary of GAO’s investigation, the organization said there were "significant errors" with the bid process and that the directions given to Boeing were "misleading."

Further, the New York Times reported that "McCain’s top advisers, including a cochairman of his presidential campaign, were lobbyists for EADS. And Mr. McCain had written to the Defense Department, urging it to ignore a trade dispute between the United States and Europe over whether Airbus received improper subsidies." A liberal campaign finance group ran an ad hitting McCain on the connections back in July and our colleagues at PolitiFact found their attacks to be true, saying: "Center for Responsive Politics prepared a report for PolitiFact that backs [the charge] up. U.S. employees of EADS/Airbus have contributed $15,700 in this election cycle to McCain’s campaign."

Youth Ministries Tax Status Revoked

Youth Ministries Tax Status Revoked

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Youth Ministries, Inc. – sounds like a nice charity, doesn’t it? Well, this group turns out to be some front for (or part of?) the notorious “Operation Rescue.”

The IRS has announced that they have revoked the status of Youth Ministries Inc as a Section 501(c)(3) and Section 170(c)(2) exempt non-profit organization.

The group and its leader, Troy Newman, have been under investigation by the IRS for money laundering and tax evasion. Sounds about right.

In case you don’t glean the significance of this… Operation Rescue is an anti-abortion activist group founded by Randall Terry in the late 1980s. It describes itself as “one of the leading pro-life Christian organizations in the nation … on the cutting edge of the abortion issue, taking direct action to restore legal personhood to the pre-born and stop abortion in obedience to biblical mandates.”

Direct action. Yup. Very direct.

Remember Randall Terry? He, along with Robert Schenck and Harley David Belew, were sentenced to five months in prison for arranging to have a fetus in a jar delivered to then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. In 1998, Terry ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress in upstate New York as a member of the New York State “Right to Life” Party. His platform was one that was described as “no property taxes, no IRS, no social security, no abortion, and no homosexuals.” In 2000 Terry divorced his wife of 19 years and married Andrea Kollmorgen, with whom he had three children. The same month that he put the down payment on a $432,000 home in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida (for the purpose of entertaining “people of stature, people of importance”), the courts found he wasn’t paying appropriate child support to his ex.

You may remember that Terry was paid $10,000 to act as spokesman for the Schindler family to keep Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube connected after three courts ruled to have it removed. Terry’s adopted son Jamiel came out as a homosexual, and Terry disowned him. Both of Terry’s adopted daughters became pregnant outside of marriage, which ended their relationship with their father, too (one later became a Muslim). Terry claims interesting things, like that 90% of lesbians were sexually assaulted in their youth, and that gay men die at the average age of 42. Terry ran in the primary against Florida Republican state senator James E. King, in opposition to King’s work in attempting to block legislation which would have kept Schiavo on life support. On September 5 2006, Terry was roundly defeated – King took over 2/3 of the votes cast, even in Florida.

Sorry to get carried away with Terry Randall/Randall Terry (he has one of those names) but he is very creepy. I just about jumped out of my skin when I saw him on tv during the right-wing manipulation of the Shiavo case. Here was one of the people inciting violence toward doctors standing up to act as PR for the Schindler family; my loud, sputtering exclamation of disbelief irritated some of my family members at the time.

Anyway, back to Troy Newman, current president of Operation Rescue. This excerpt will give you an idea of his sense of mission…

From One Man’s God Squad: Troy Newman’s plan to stop abortions in Wichita, Kansas – Rolling Stone

In 2004, Sara was an administrative assistant at an abortion clinic:

.. hundreds of Phares’ neighbors received an anonymous postcard of a mangled fetus. This is abortion! read the big block letters. “Your neighbor Sara Phares participates in killing babies like these.” The postcard implored them to call Phares, whose phone number and address were provided, and voice their opposition to her work at the clinic. Another card soon followed. It referred to Phares as “Miss I Help to Kill Little Babies” and suggested, in an erratic typeface that recalled a kidnapper’s ransom note, that neighbors “beg her to quit, pretty please.” The third postcard dispensed entirely with pleasantries: “Sara Phares is not to be trusted! Tell her to get a life!” …

Before long, protesters from Operation Rescue showed up at her house. They parked a tractor-trailer across the street, plastered with twenty-foot-long images of dismembered fetuses. From its speakers came the kind of sweet, tinkling music that lures children from their back yards in pursuit of Dreamsicles. One protester, a somber man in a tan windbreaker with a three-foot crucifix thrust before him, performed an exorcism on Phares’ front lawn, sprinkling holy water on the grass to cast demons from the property….

Operation Rescue’s smear campaign against Phares is part of a new strategy to shut down abortion clinics by systematically harassing their employees into quitting. Banned by law from blockading clinics as it did in its early days, Operation Rescue has taken its offensive to the front lawns and mailboxes of clinic workers. In Wichita, members of the group rummage through employees’ garbage in search of incriminating information. They tail them around town as they run errands. They picket clinic staffers at restaurants while they’re inside having dinner and castigate them while they’re standing in line at Starbucks. Operation Rescue is also visiting companies that do business with the clinic and threatening them with a boycott if they don’t sever their ties with the facility. This is America’s new abortion war, and the objective, in military terms, is to cut off the supply lines to abortion clinics and demoralize their troops.

Troy Newman, the head of Operation Rescue, calls it the Year of Rebuke — and if it works in Wichita, he plans to unleash the campaign of intimidation on abortion clinics all across the country.

Intimidation tactics, smear, war metaphor – yup, a perfect fit with Rove/Bush, etc.

However, this particular money trail is still a no-go with the IRS.

The lesson is, follow the money. The money tells the tale.

Dubya’s Dashboard – ooh, shiny

Dubya’s Dashboard – ooh, shiny

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Since I’m considered a nationally influential blogger, particularly for the viral distribution of bright shiny Blogger objects, here’s another: Dubya’s Dashboard from JumperBailey.com

In addition to counting the number of days left, it gives a few hints as to why many of us are counting down the days.

I’m placing it on the sidebar right beneath the running national debt so as to quicklook the misery.

Here’s the explanation, and I’ll plug in the numbers for today.

  • Days Left, 911
    The number of days left in Dubya’s presidency. 911, huh?
  • Approval = 31%
    Dubya’s current approval rating as determined by Gallup (updated every couple of weeks)
  • Deficit/Surplus = $319B
    The current U.S. budget deficit (updated annually)
  • Forbes 400 = $1.13T
    The cumulative wealth of the richest 400 Americans, which interestingly dwarfs the deficit (updated annually)
  • Soldiers = 2648
    The number of coalition deaths in the Iraq War (updated weekly)
  • WMD = 0
    The number of “weapons of mass destruction” found, which is the ostensible reason we went to war in the first place (updated whenever we find them)

Links:

  • An approval “trend” graph which shows the president’s Gallup approval rating over the course of his administration. (Updated every few weeks)
  • A budget deficit “trend” graph (shown as a percentage of GDP) which charts our budget deficit history from JFK to Dubya. (Updated annually)
  • A “winners” table which shows which segments of society won and lost after taxes from 2002 to 2003.
  • A list of the names, ages, and hometowns of the men and women who have lost their lives in the Iraq conflict. (Updated weekly until the deaths stop)
  • A “Get the Dashboard!” link which allows people to get their own dashboard.

My criticisms are these:

  1. The statistics, graphs and lists aren’t updated often enough.
  2. It’s not intuitively clear that you can click within the frame to return to the original state of the display.
  3. I had to adjust the width and height to get rid of scrollbars.
  4. It would be a better strategy all around to have the links go out to full webpages

I would like to see an expanded version of these kinds of statistics. Here are some of my suggestions for blog toymakers:

  • How much money is being printed (trend report)
  • Amount of tax revenue lost through corporate welfare (trend report)
  • Environmental effects – Increase in children with asthma, extinctions, top 50 companies who destroy for profit, etc.
  • Number of schools “left behind” (Does that phrase remind you of the Rapture, or is it just me?)
  • Average college tuition (trend report)
  • Average student loan debt (trend report)
  • Average household credit card debt (trend report)
  • Consumer price index, and price of a gallon of: milk, gasoline, housepaint, water (trend report)
White House Switchboard

White House Switchboard

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Political comedy email making the rounds…

“Thank you for calling the White House switchboard. Our new voice activated system will help direct you to the proper office.”

“If you are calling to complain about the mishandling of the war in Iraq, press one.”

“If you are calling to complain about the abuse of prisoners and the White House’s endorsement of torture, press two, and then say the name of the torture site that you wish to complain about (and please note for the sake of the voice mail system that it is pronounced Abu GRABE, not Abu grahb).”

“If you are calling to complain about illegal spying on American citizens and the abuse of FISA laws, press 3, but do know that these calls will be recorded.”

“If you are calling to complain about the disastrous mismanagement of the hurricane Katrina recovery, please press 4, and your call will be directed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If you wait for more than 48 hours without anyone picking up the phone, hang-up and send a letter. We have been assured that all letters will receive a prompt reply within one year.”

“If you are calling regarding the administration’s unwillingness to enforce immigration law, press cinco, por favor, or direct any thanks to your local chamber of commerce office, which can explain why we like cheap labor that can’t vote and where you may be able to find willing illegal day laborers in your local area.”

“If you are Jack Abramoff or any Saudi prince, please call the private line * it is always open.”

“If you are calling about the Medicare prescription debacle, please press 6. If you are having a medical emergency, you should proceed directly to your local emergency room, although please understand that your health coverage may not pay for the visit and you can no longer get out from under the bill by declaring bankruptcy.”

“If you are calling about the ballooning federal deficit or the recent hike in the debt ceiling to $3 trillion, please press 7, unless you are Bill Clinton calling to brag about the surpluses under your administration, in which case we don’t want to hear about it.”

“If you are calling to complain about the White House’s efforts to block stem cell research, please press 8, and then say the disease that you are most concerned about that may ultimately be cured through scientific
research. If you are a scientist calling with new research findings or important clinical data, please hang up, we don’t want to hear from you.”

“If you are calling to express concern about global warming and our efforts to roll back environmental laws, please press 9, unless you are a government scientist, in which case you are forbidden to talk without first clearing it with the oil lobbyist we hired to screen and edit your research. He can be reached at Exxon 4-2611.”

“If you are calling to complain about the President’s efforts to “privatize” social security, please press 1 and then the pound key, and your call will be redirected to representatives at Merrill Lynch, who will explain the
virtues of putting all your savings in the stock market.”

“If you are calling about the need for more prayer in public schools or any other faith-based initiatives, please press 1 and then the star key, and Reverend Falwell will be with you shortly.”

“If you are calling to lobby for more Supreme Court Justices who will block a woman’s right to choose, please stay on the line and the President will be with you immediately.”

“If you are calling about all the tax breaks for the wealthy, press *1 if you have ideas for more loopholes and are making more than a million dollars per year; if you are earning less than a million per year but have ideas for how you may help the wealthy, press *2; if you are earning less than a million per year and just want to complain that all the burden is now falling on you, please call back in a couple of years.”

“If you voted for President Bush and are now concerned that over 12% of the U.S. population now falls below the poverty line while the top 1% has wildly increased their wealth, please understand that we are not laughing AT you.”

“Press zero at any time if you would like to hear these options again.”

“Thank you for calling the White House. It is our pleasure to serve you.”

(Thanks Corinne!)

No Tax Money for GA Public School Bible Classes

No Tax Money for GA Public School Bible Classes

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The Georgia State Senate has passed two pieces of legislation that pose a serious threat to the separation of church and state.

One would create state-funded Bible classes in Georgia public schools.
The second would allow the Ten Commandments to be displayed by county governments.

Both bills are on Governor Sonny Perdue’s desk, and he is contemplating whether to sign them.

Take action now and demand that Governor Perdue defend the Constitution and Georgia’s citizens from these attacks on the separation of church and state.

If these were really christians, they would want to post something that better represented Jesus’ teaching. The focus on the ten commandments is symptomatic of their seeming inability to understand love, forgiveness and grace. Neither do they take into account hundreds of years of Jewish and Christian scholarship and debate on issues of interpretation, translation, or socio-historical context. Their “take” on christianity is a perversion of their own religion. Their absolutist views of human beings show little evidence of any of the spiritual virtues. Think I’m overstating? Try Googling “Christian Reconstruction” or “theonomy” – they want a theocracy here, complete with the total control of women, even stoning!

From the Forerunner – I’m not linking to this site – Google a phrase:

We are not looking for a “voice a the table” nor are we seeking “equal time” with the godless promoters of pornography, abortion, safe-sodomy subsidies, socialism, etc. We want them silenced and punished according to God’s Law-Word.

They use God as a tool. Jesus would think they were jerks. This is about votes! This is about scapegoating and turning us against one another so that we don’t notice that we’re all getting robbed. I mean literally robbed – of our traditions, our ideals, our treasury, our natural resources, our futures.

From Apologetics Index:

Epitomizing the Reconstructionist idea of Biblical ”warfare” is the centrality of capital punishment under Biblical Law. Doctrinal leaders (notably Rushdoony, North, and Bahnsen) call for the death penalty for a wide range of crimes in addition to such contemporary capital crimes as rape, kidnapping, and murder. Death is also the punishment for apostasy (abandonment of the faith), heresy, blasphemy, witchcraft, astrology, adultery, ”sodomy or homosexuality,” incest, striking a parent, incorrigible juvenile delinquency, and, in the case of women, ”unchastity before marriage.”

I can’t believe this. Really. I’m shaking my head. So now they want to get ’em while they’re young – and use our own tax dollars to do it! Already they have uniforms. What next, a special salute?

The separation of church and state protects religious rights, the freedom of religious expression. There should be no state sponsorship of a specific religious tradition. Religious training of minors is the right and responsibility of families and their own religious tradition.

There is no proposal here to teach a wide range of religious texts or religious themes across the world’s traditions. The cuts to more fundamental educational areas serve only to highlight the political motivation of these bills.

Bible classes for minors are an unconstitutional use of funds. At the college level, courses related to religion, such as comparative religion and mythology, spiritual autobiography, Bible as literature, and the like are appropriate as elective courses at state universities. I have been trained in theology and ethics at a state university, and taken courses in religion at the undergraduate level at another. But courses and departments of religion have a different set of approaches than the ones we can expect to see from public school teachers. They started with home schooling, now this. Questions of belief will enter the classroom, and we will see a newly indocrinated “Christian Youth” if they get their way. Wake up, sheeple.

No – you can’t use our tax dollars to indoctrinate our children. No – you can’t fool us, we know what this is all about, and we’re not all as ignorant as you seem to think. Add these totalitarian “religious” power freaks to the neo-cons of empire and the puppets of corporate interests, and you see the unholy trinity that is killing this country and all it stands for! Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, take heed!

Stop the pseudo-religious right from pushing their dubious “theology” in our public schools and our public square.