corrente

BushCo's winding labyrinth of crookery.

Given - the Madison Ave cableTV "news" media "Street" walkers will never mention any such bother with respect to BushCo's transpositions on any number of issues, because you know, thats not in the RNC blast fax talking points script.

CNN's American Enterprise Institute potted plant Bill Schneider won't make any honest noise of it, thats for sure, not since the Southern Poverty Law Center labled AEI one to watch with respect to "special interest" think tanks and groups spiking right wing poison into the mainstream vein.

Via SPLC:

How do ideas that once were denounced as racist, bigoted, unfair, or just plain mean-spirited get transmitted into mainstream discussions and political debates? Through a wide array of political and social networks. Such networks are a robust part of democracy in action, and include media outlets, think tanks, pressure groups, funders and leaders.

What follows are descriptions of a number of these institutions, organized alphabetically, that focus on their roles in spreading bigotry.

Recall here that AEI is the cheery well pressed outfit that helped bankroll Charles Murray's reanimated Nazi eugenics screed The Bell Curve. Which all the bobbleheads in mainstream media looloo-land celebrated until someone actually pointed out to them what it was they were actually celebrating. (anyone wondering why Germany fell victim to the goosestep should just spend forty three minutes with the yes-men of the corporatist fourth estate.) Ay yi yi.

In any event, for instance, when was the last time you heard some clown at MSGOP or CNN (or FOX, hahahaha ) mention Bush's flip-flop on global warming? Or BushCo's reversals on any number of other grand panderings? Eh? Forgit it.

So.......

1- Save this APJ page link below for a quick reference to Daily Ko's list of BushCo flip-flop acrobatics. See: Tuesday Morning Memo: American Politics Journal

And, visit Sam Parry at Consortium News. Parry provides details on Bush's reversals on a variety of key positions, from global warming to Social Security.

[Consortium excerpts in blockquote below. Bold emphasis THEN and NOW separation heads are mine.]

A vigorous debate could be arranged by splicing together clips of Bush-2000 with Bush-2004.

THEN

Bush made an unequivocal pledge not to raid the Social Security trust fund to pay for deficits in other parts of the federal budget. “We’re going to set aside all the payroll taxes for one thing, Social Security,” Bush said in a stump speech four days before the presidential election. [Nov. 2000]

GOING, GOING, GONE TO MARS
Now, younger workers - our younger citizens - fully understand - I think the polls - it's more likely to see some of you go to Mars than to receive a check from the Social Security system. -- GW Bush to Jim Lehrer, April 27, 2001

NOW

Bush has pulled more than $350 billion out of Social Security surpluses to pay for discretionary government spending.

THEN
My p[l]an plays down an unprecedented amount of our national debt. - GW Bush, addressing Congress, February 27, 2001

NOW

Even without considering the costs for the Iraq War, the CBO said Bush’s tax and spending plans will add $2.75 trillion to the national debt, a stunning $8.4 trillion turnaround from the projected surpluses at the end of the Clinton administration.

Rather than the fleeting worry of 2000-2001 of how to cope with a debt-free U.S. government, the American people now will be left figuring out how to pay off a federal debt that will have ballooned 67 percent to almost $7 trillion.

THEN

Critics have noted other reversals from Bush’s campaign positions. During the campaign, one of Bush’s favorite lines was that under Clinton, the "military is over-deployed, under-trained and underpaid."

NOW

Under Bush, however, the military has been stretched even thinner and has faced administration efforts to trim expected pay raises. The Army Times, an independent newspaper that covers military affairs, reported that Bush tried “to significantly cut the 2004 military pay raise” from 3.7 percent to 2 percent. The Bush administration also got into trouble last year when it tried to cut combat pay and family separation pay for the men and women serving overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

THEN

In December 2000, activist judges making novel legal arguments to protect Bush's interests were just fine.

NOW

Today, however, Bush is outraged that "activist judges" have ruled that the government shouldn't bar homosexuals from getting married. Stopping vote counts apparently is one thing, while stopping weddings is an altogether different matter.

THEN

Global warming represented Bush’s first major flip-flop. In a clear campaign promise on September 29, 2000, Bush proposed regulating carbon dioxide as one of "four main pollutants" released into the environment by the burning of fossil fuels at power plants.

NOW

But two months after taking office, Bush suddenly jettisoned the carbon-dioxide pledge. Bending to the wishes of the energy industry and its lobbyists, Bush pulled the rug out from under his Environmental Protection Agency director, Christie Whitman.

Continue reading Sam Parry at Consortium News

CNN morning "news" cipher Carol (Chad, oh Chad!) Costello is attempting to commit tv journalism as I speak. Go ahead, just count how many times this vapid showroom dummy says, "Chad". Go ahead, I dare you. If I were "Chad" (who's just a barrel of hilarious yucks hisself -- :-) I'd thrash this abnoxious harpie with a rolled up copy of the USA Today! While on the air! Fortunately, I don't even read the USA today. Which means I gotta get away from the boob tube and all other forms high comminication technology until cable TV morning programming blows over. Otherwise I will surely be arrested for something. God only knows what.


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