Month: June 2007
Does the U.N. Still Matter?
Parade magazine, that venerable arbiter of objectivity and fairness, is running an on-line poll this week about the United Nations. It’s a simple question: Does the U.N. still matter? That’s a fair question — would that it had been asked in the context of a fair and objective article.
But it’s not. The article is long on criticism of the U.N. and short on criticism of the Bush administration, which has done much to harm the effectiveness and standing of the United Nations. The administration’s only act more crass than thumbing its nose at the world body on the eve of the invasion of Iraq was to send John Bolton — a stolid critic of the organization — there as U.S. ambassador.
Granted, the U.N. has never been that cool, collective, Esperanto-speaking, august body of the world’s best and brightest solving the world’s problems to make a better world. But it’s all we’ve got as a super-national entity. There’s not going to be any 20-foot tall robot named Gort to come down and make the nations of the Earth stop fighting like in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Closest we have is U.N. Attorney General Ban Ki-moon.
So go to the Parade poll and vote that the U.N. still does matter.
Quote du Jour
As entropy increases, energy hemorrhages. Language is affected. Words become mere incantation. When that happens, the end is near, and the cold.
— Gore Vidal
Poll: Dems On a Roll — Kind of
Catch the aura: Seems the Democratic Party is on the rise, with a majority of Americans polled expressing support for a “generic” Democratic candidate for prez. Problem is, there are no “generic” Dem candidates — they’ve all got liabilities and personalities and other stuff that makes them somewhat acceptable but not as the iconic Democratic uber candidate that would be the polar opposite of the current resident fo 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
National Journal’s PollWatch was sratching its number-crunching noggin over the fact that Democrats seem to be more satisfied — enthusiastic even — about their primary choices than Republicans, who will probably not be jazzed even after former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson enters the race (Thanks, Mr. President!). Other poll findings:
In a recent Newsweek survey, the three top Democrats — Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama — led in every combination of matchups against the top four Republicans — Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson. It is crucial, however, to note that the poll was [composed] of 40 percent Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and 27 percent independents.
All three Democrats had double-digit leads over Thompson and Romney.For Democrats, the most precarious matchup may be Edwards versus Giuliani, as 48 percent said they would vote for the former North Carolina senator if the former New York City mayor was his opponent. Giuliani received 46 percent in that scenario. But Edwards stacked up best against Romney at 57 percent to 36 percent; the 21-point gap was the largest margin of all 12 heats tested.
Clinton was strongest of the three against Giuliani with her seven-point lead, and Obama was the biggest threat to McCain with his 10-point advantage. All three Democrats had double-digit leads over Thompson and Romney.
Newsweek pollsters also threw New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) into matchups including Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, Obama and Thompson. Although there has been much speculation over which party Bloomberg might hurt more should he jump into the race, both Clinton’s and Obama’s margins of victory increased in their head-to-head matchups against the GOP front-runners with Bloomberg in the field. (His support was just north of 10 percent in all six cases.)
Also of note in the survey were the primary fields, because while Obama trails Clinton by 16 points, 27 percent still supported him — that’s the same percentage of support as the top candidate in the Republican field, Giuliani. Of course, the Republican Party has the disadvantage of an unpopular president in office now. In a new American Research Group poll, President Bush’s approval rating rests at a dismal 27 percent.
Quote du Jour
Pepsi“There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to other animals as well as humans, it is all a sham.”
— Anna Sewell (1820-1878), Quaker, author of Black Beauty
What If the US Was Commandeered by a Rogue Elements – And Nobody Cared?
By any objective measure, rogue elements at the very top of the Executive Branch have seized control of the United States government:
- For all we know, Dick Cheney is using a frontloader to deliver state secrets to the Saudis, or the British or Israel. Since 2003, he has refused to accede to security oversight regarding secret documents from his own administration.
- If you think Cheney wouldn’t do anything to harm the country, you are wrong. In 2003, he instructed his minions, including Scooter Libby, to unmask a CIA agent who was working on a covert project tracking blackmarket sales of weapons of mass destruction. There is no reason not to expect that one of the weapons that the agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, would have otherwise helped capture will be set off in Times Square one day.
- Late yesterday, the White House confirmed that Pres. Bush has also refused oversight on documents.
- For years now, when Bush has signed a bill into law that he doesn’t like, he has simultaneously countermanded it with a “signing statement” indicating his intent to break the very law he just signed. He has done this over over 700 times.
- Pres. Bush has admitted violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act over 1,000 times.
- The United States Dept. of Justice is being run out of a a boiler room at the RNC.
- To further his party’s political ends, Bush divided the country and then took us to war using an indictment against Iraq that was full of lies.
And yet what this state of affairs evinces from a wide spectrum of the American public is a shrug. “What can ya do?”
For many people, shrugging off the outrage comes from fatigue. While the Republicans controlled everything, it seemed it would never end. When the Democrats took over last year, their margin in the Senate was too slim to fully take control. The conventional wisdom now is that Bush will serve out his term, albeit under constant barrage from his critics.
But this could be changing. If action is taken against the rogue elements at the top of our government before they are scheduled to step down in January 2009, it will only be with the blessing of the Republican minority.
Bush has polled under 30 percent in four polls this year. A majority of Republicans continue to support him, roughly 60 percent in a recent poll. But this number was 20 percentage points higher six months ago.
If it continues to go down, we may find that despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s assurances last year, impeachment is on the table.
Bush Says He, Too, Is Above the Law – Including His Own Presidential Decrees
That whirring sound you hear is the U.S. Constitution going through the shredder:
The White House said Friday that, like Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, President Bush’s office is not allowing an independent federal watchdog to oversee its handling of classified national security information.
An executive order that Bush issued in March 2003 — amending an existing order — requires all government agencies that are part of the executive branch to submit to oversight. Although it doesn’t specifically say so, Bush’s order was not meant to apply to the vice president’s office or the president’s office, a White House spokesman said.
At Picnic, Bush Tells New Orleans Jazz Musician to ‘Pick Up Trash’ After Performance
At the annual congressional picnic yesterday, Pres. George Bush, addressing the crowd of 1,500, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggested that the African American musicians performing for the event should earn their keep after they performed:
THE PRESIDENT: Kermit Ruffins and the Barbeque Swingers, right out of New Orleans, Louisiana. (Applause.)
MR. RUFFINS: Thank you. Thanks for having us. We’re glad to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: Proud you’re here. Thanks for coming. You all enjoy yourself. Make sure you pick up all the trash after it’s over. (Laughter.)
Via Eric Alterman at Media Matters.
Lowering the Bloom — On the GOP
Political analyst Craig Crawford says that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s noisy exit from the Republican Party and foray into the ranks of political independence helps the Democrats and harms the Repugs:
Even though he was once a Democrat and despite his liberal social views, Bloomberg more naturally appeals to those Republicans who are iffy on social matters but who tend to admire a wealthy businessmen who runs government like a CEO (which he also once was).
What little polling data exists right now suggests a break toward Democrats. For instance, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York nets an across-the-board gain of three percentage points in a 3-way matchup against Bloomberg and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani done this month by SurveyUSA in battleground states. A Bloomberg candidacy boosts Clinton’s net margin in 10 of the 15 states surveyed, while giving Giuliani a bump in only three and producing no change in two.
The Bloomberg assist to Clinton is most evident in Southern and border states. Missouri actually flips from a Giuliani lead to a Clinton lead if Bloomberg is in the mix. And in Kentucky – one of the few Southern states that the Clinton campaign intends to target – the Bloomberg factor tightens a Giuliani lead to a dead heat between he and Clinton.
While a slew of new polls will surely test other matchups, expect the Bloomberg spoiler effect to narrowly benefit Democrats.
Bloomberg had better run for something and win because he’s quickly running out of potential party affiliations. Forget the Greens, maybe the Libertarians and there’s always the World Socialist Party of the United States or the National Nihilist Party, if he gets really desperate.
