My new favorite dictionary webpage is Mirriam-Webster. They have just announced their choice for 2006 Word of the Year:
truthiness(noun)
1 : “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)
2 : “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006
Runners up included “google” and “decider.”
Pres. Bush’s approval rating today is just five points higher than Pres. Nixon’s approval when he resigned in August 1974:
The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30 percent, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31 percent approval rating he dropped to in early June.
1958: John Birch Society founded. Organized by Robert F. Welch on December 9, 1958, the John Birch Society was an ultra-conservative politcal force in the era after Sen. Joseph McCarthy disgraced the American right by leading an anti-communist crusade that turned into a witch hunt.
The JBS was based in McCarthy’s hometown, Appleton, Wisconsin, and perhaps its most famous member was Roy Cohn, McCarthy’s evil, closeted gay sidekick, whose death from AIDS is fictionalized in the play, “Angels in America.”
JBS reached its zenith during Barry Goldwater’s presidential campaign in 1964, and Goldwater’s resounding defeat was the start of the decline of its influence. The fall of communism pushed it to the brink of obscurity.
Ironically, the policies of Republicans in Washington, especially the Bushes, have re-energized the Birchers:
When Robert F. Welch died in 1985, the Birch Society had shrunk to less than 50,000 members. There then ensued an internal struggle over who would grab the reins of the organization. The victors even alienated Welch’s widow who denounced the new leadership from her retirement home in Weston, MA. Magazine subscriptions, often a close parallel to membership, fell from 50,000 to 30,000 to 15,000.
The collapse of communism in Europe and the end of the Cold War might have signaled the end of the Birch Society, but the UN role in the Gulf War and President Bush’s call for a New World Order unwittingly echoed Birch claims about the goals of the internationalist One World Government conspiracy. As growing right-wing populism sparked new levels of cynicism regarding politicians, and economic and social fears sparked rightist backlash movements, the Birch Society positioned itself as the group that for decades had its fingers on the pulse of the conspiracy behind the country’s decline. Between 1988 and 1995 the Birch Society at least doubled, and perhaps tripled its membership to over 55,000.
Who was John Birch? The society’s namesake, John Birch, was “a United States military intelligence officer and Baptist missionary in World War II who was killed in 1945 by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, and whom the JBS describes as ‘the first American victim of the Cold War.’ His parents joined the society as life members,” according to Wiki.
Several ways out: As reported by National Journal’s PollTrack today, several recent polls show a marked preference among Americans for a measured pullout from Iraq, not a Vietnam-like mad dash. Most Americans agree that the botched war is pretty much due to George W. Bush’s utter incompetence.
A new Associated Press/Ipsos Public Affairs survey finds that disapproval of the president’s policies on Iraq is at an all-time high of 71 percent. Bush apparently scores few points on non-Iraq policies as well; 64 percent disapprove of the job he is doing in general. That’s a slightly worse appraisal than the one given in mid-November.
It seems unlikely that Bush or Congress will embrace all 79 tenets of the Iraq Study Group’s long-anticipated report. But the two in particular the president has dismissed out of hand — drawing down U.S. forces over the next 15 months and bringing Iran and Syria into the discussion — are both policies Americans would like to see the administration pursue.
When asked about a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops by mid-2007, a half-sample approved by 60 percent. But when presented with a timetable that calls for troops to leave within two years, 71 percent approved. The results suggest that Americans aren’t exactly itching to quit Iraq simply because they feel things aren’t going well there, as supporters of the war might put it. Rather, respondents seemed to think it’s still possible to make progress on the ground, although not possible to achieve victory as defined by the administration.
Nearly two-thirds said a “stable, democratic government” in Iraq was probably out of reach. Thirty-five percent felt that a democratic foothold in the Middle East was still possible; half of Republicans queried said so, compared with 22 percent of Democrats, according to AP’s analysis.
A poll commissioned by WorldPublicOpinion.org and conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes and Knowledge Networks also shows that Americans’ concern over Iraq has at least as much to do with the welfare of that country as U.S. interests. Fewer than two in 10 of those respondents wanted an immediate withdrawal within six months. A 40-percent plurality favored a one-year or two-year timeline, while 38 percent wanted a withdrawal only “as the security situation improves.”
An overwhelming 79 percent backed a major summit on Iraq that would include the United States, Iraqi leaders and Arab nations. When asked if the United States should try to work with neighboring countries “with whom we have other disputes” on the problem of Iraq, three-quarters said yes — including 72 percent of Republicans. Those figures held when respondents were asked if such talks should be held with Syria.
1969 – At a news conference on December 8, 1969, Pres. Richard Nixon announced that the war in Vietnam would soon be resolved. Just two month earlier, Nixon had announced at a conference in Midway that the United States would be following a new program he termed “Vietnamization.” Vietnamization has echoes of Pres. George Bush’s “stand-up, stand-down” strategy for Iraq in which the United States forces would redeploy as Iraqi forces became trained and ready to take their places. Nixon proved to be wrong, of course. In April 1970, he expanded the war by ordering US and South Vietnamese troops to attack communist sanctuaries in Cambodia. The resulting outcry across the United States led to a number of antiwar demonstrations-it was at one of these demonstrations that the National Guard shot four protesters at Kent State. The fighting in Vietnam continued until April 1975 when Saigon fell to the communists. [This Date]
The Republican Party’s putative 2008 nominee St. John McCain has hired Terry Nelson as his campaign manager.
In the Tennessee senate campaign this year, Nelson produced the racist television commercial for Sen.-Elect Bob Corker that depicted a blonde actress who says she met Corker’s opponent, former Rep. Harold Ford, who is black, at a “Playboy party.” Toward the end of the ad, she whispers seductively, “Harold, call me.”
Before the ad ran in Tennessee, Ford was slightly ahead or even with Corker in the polls. After the ad was up for a week or two, Ford’s polling sank permanently to double digits behind Corker, a real estate developer who had served as mayor of Chattanooga.
Nelson and his company were fired by Wal-mart’s advertising department after the ad ran because it was considered to be racist.
The Bush era’s “Walmart-ification” of America was symbolized at a White House reception last Sunday, December 3, 2006, for the Kennedy Center Honors gala event, when First Lady Laura Bush and three other women showed up wearing the same dress:
With guests in the spotlight at the exclusive White House receptions that go with the ceremony, the designer gowns are always scrutinized. And on Sunday, four women at the reception wore the exact same $8,500 Oscar de la Renta dress, Mrs. Bush among them.
Letitia Baldridge, Jacqueline Kennedy’s chief of staff and White House social secretary, says the gown was beautiful, but oh, what a faux pas!
“They all should have congratulated one another on their good taste and the fact that they could afford the dress. … Jacqueline Kennedy, when she was first lady, made sure, and her couturiers made sure, that nobody else wore that dress that season.”
Laura Bush is no Jackie Kennedy, that’s for sure.
The rightwing noise machine doesn’t like the report of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group because it repudiates their Dear Leader. One complaint the lying liars are bandying about is that none of the groups’ members served in the military. In fact, among the Democrats, two were uniformed officers and a third served as secretary of defense. The GOP chairmain, James Baker, also served.
• Former Rep. Lee Hamiltion did not serve in the military.
• Vernon Jordan did not serve.
• Former Clinton chief of staff and congressman from California Leon Panetta:
In 1964 he joined the United States Army as a Second Lieutenant. There he received the Army Commendation Medal, and was discharged in 1966 as a Captain.
• Chuck Robb, former Democratic senator and governor of Virginia, was a Marine:
A Marine Corps veteran who finished first in his class at Quantico, Robb became a White House Honor Guard. It was there that he met and eventually married Lynda Johnson, the daughter of former U.S. President, Lyndon B. Johnson. Robb went on to serve two tours of duty in Vietnam, where he led a rifle company in combat, and was awarded the Bronze Star. After the war he attended the University of Virginia Law school earning a LL.D. in 1973, and following a federal judicial clerkship he entered private practice.
• William Perry served as Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997.
• Former Sec. of State James Baker:
He … served in the United States Marine Corps for two years as a lieutenant.
• Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor did not serve.
• Former Secretary of State (for 10 minutes) Lawrence Eagleburger did not serve.
• Authoritarian former Attorney General Edwin Meese did not serve.
• Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson did not serve.
In the diplomatic ranks, trained professionals toil,
To keep the peace and tamp down foreign turmoil.
But for Greek ambassador,
Trump picked an artful dodger —
The grifting, drunken blackmailer Kimberly Guilfoyle.
