ZELL?

I am a native of Georgia and cannot understand what happened to Zell Miller. He was one of the best governors of Georgia. He spear headed the Hope Scholarship program which gave every high school student with a B average a free college education.

Since then, Zell has become an increasing annoying Republican shill. How can a man go from keynote speaker for Bill Clinton's 1992 convention to speaking at the Republican convention in 2004? In my opinion, it is purely ego. I think he likes the attention. It is sad end to impressive political career.

Here are a few articles:
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Fahrenheit 9/11

I am going to see the movie tonight. It will be interesting to see how it matches up with the hype. I will post my thoughts later...

Health Care and other oddities

Here is an interesting article on the number of Americans without healthcare. It is disgraceful that so many people are at risk and our government is ignoring the problem.

On another note, does anyone find it interesting that people making between 50K and mid 70K were without health care? I am one of those people. I waited a while after I lost my job to pony up for the coverage. What does it say about our values as a nation? How many of those people were paying more for cable than the cost of carrying health insurance? I find it very interesting...

Jobs moving over seas, press misses the boat

This article talks about the trend of moving jobs overseas. I wrote about this story once before. After rereading it, I thought it deserved a second look.

My problem with the article is that it is very narrowly focused. Ok, a small percentage of jobs are being moved overseas. Even a small percentage is bad and it is likely that the trend will continue to grow. In my own experience with outsourcing, the company I worked for did not move any jobs overseas, but all new jobs were created in India. It was nearly impossible to create a new position in the US. Everything had to be routed through the India possibility. Outsourcing by itself is not the end of the world. However, when you add outsourcing to no guarantee of health care and a growing gap between rich and poor, you have a real problem. The middle class is shrinking and we do not have policies to slow that decline. In fact, I would say current tax policies accelerate the process.

Bin laden -- Saddam link ?

Through this entire argument, I think that most news outlets have ignored the history of the region and its competing factions. First, two major political waves washed over the Middle East this century, secular-socialists parties (Baath Party) and Islamist Parties. They have been longtime competitors. What would be more annoying to Islamic Parties than the US occupation? A native secular party, such as the Baath Party. Saddam was a natural competitor. Why would Saddam not help bin Laden? Saddam was concerned primarily with preserving his own power. There was real risk in propping up bin Laden. I think giving him WMDs was totally out of the question. Bin Laden supported terrorist groups within Iraq that were trying to overthrow the government.

Having said all of that, is a connection possible? Yes, but highly unlikely.

Facts cited:
1. Meetings in Eastern Europe between Iraqi intelligence and bin Laden reps.
2. Terrorist training camp in Iraq(cited by the British today).
3. Past support for terrorist groups (Hamas, etc)


1. This was widely refuted. I am still looking for the link to original article.
2. This was a terrorist camp in western controlled Kudish territory. The US and British could have taken this out at any time. The group in this camp also volunteered for inspections during the build up to the war.
3. Palestinian terrorist groups are not targeting the US. Futhermore, many US allies support various groups in the Middle East. Bin Laden is in a different league.

I will be generous and say that there is at least weak evidence of a link. Given the history of this administration and intelligence related to Iraq, I cannot give them the benefit of the doubt. I am afraid that no matter what facts were presented they would still stick to the idea of a link between Iraq and Bin Laden.

Links 1

The fatal flaw...

The current administration has such a problem with arrogance and an inability to admit mistakes that it maybe their undoing. Here is the most recent example Who know what really happened inside the White House, but it seems that the President and many of the people that report to him feel they are above rules and laws. The torture case is just another example.

It is too bad that they are so busy trying to be right that they cannot correct their mistakes.

Reagan's Legacy

This article gives a good overview of the Reagan's legacy. I am sure that my conservative friends would not agree, but I think it is a fair debunking of the fluff that has been flying around.

Interesting article in Times...

Are voters really polarized? I think they are, but I also think this article makes some good points. I think that the people who actually vote are polarized. However, there is a large block of people who don't vote and do not feel represented. I think this is a problem, but I don't know what the solution would be.

Sometimes the press really bugs me...

Here is a story about how the Reagan funeral is helping W. I hate these kinds of stories. They make an assertion, but have nothing to back it up. Show me a jump in poll numbers or something. For all we really know, the funeral could be hurting W. Sometimes, the press seems to be powered by their own wind.

What is going on with the economy?

I do not feel like I have good perspective on what a normal recovery looks like, but most of what I read seems to show mixed results. I keep reading about projections being consistently off.

I feel as though there is a fundamental shift going on in the labor market. I think it is a long term trend. I think we are going to see more transient employment and more contracting. I think we will also see fewer benefits. Here is another article about the economy.

If we are seeing a long term change in employment. What is the role of government if these trends do exist, if they intensify?

Conservatives see slant, I see balance

This article outlines Reagan's mixed legacy. I do not point this out to attack Reagan, but to highlight the point that no one is super human. Reagan had some good and bad in his presidency. I think on balance he was an average president. I think his greatest strength was helping America feel better about itself. On the downside, Iran Contra, huge deficits and massive cuts in social programs.

I am heartened to actually hear differing voices on Reagan's legacy. How do you rate Reagan or other presidents?

Bush -- very poor
Clinton -- Above average
Bush -- Average
Reagan -- Average
Carter -- Below average
Ford -- Average
Nixon -- Below average
LBJ -- Above average
Kennedy -- Above average
Eisenhower-- Above average
Truman -- Average
FDR -- Great

Just my opinion. The only other presidents that I think are great are Lincoln and Washington.

Above the law Part II

This article talks about Ashcroft's refusal to provide the legal memo on torture created for the White House. My question is where does executive privelege begin and end? I know that is a virtually impossible question to answer since the privelege is elastic. Why would the White House refuse to give the memo? Just because they were given advice, does not mean they acted upon that advice. How would the president's ability to recieve advice by harmed by giving the memo to Congress? I would think that everyone working in politics would be aware of possible scrutiny of anything they write regardless of the outcome of the executive privelage debate. Memos will always be leaked.

Any thoughts?

Above the law...

This article outlines one of my biggest pet peeves with the Bush Administration. They seem to feel above all rules and laws. Furthermore, they seem to miss the downside of the actions they take. This may sound idealistic, but I think the United States should not engage in wholesale torture. We are supposed to be better than that. We should hold ourselves to a higher standard.

This kind of arrogance is the biggest flaw of the Bush administration. If they are not careful, it will be their downfall.

Military realignment or covering Iraq screw up

This story from Reuters discusses the current changes taking place in the US military. I find it a little troubling that we are moving forces out of Korea. North Korea is one of the greatest threats to the US. I am concerned that the Bush administration is in serious damage control mode and is doing whatever to cover Iraq.

I am not sure this is in our interest. Furthermore, will technology and mobile forces meet our needs going forward? This seems to be the Rumsfeld doctrine for military realignment. This is the same strategy used to a lesser degree in Iraq and part of the reason we have insufficient ground forces in Iraq.

Is this realignment a good idea?

There is also another significant force (no pun intended) at play here. I personally do not trust the intentions of this administration. I do not think I am alone in this feeling. I question the intentions of nearly every action this administration takes. This is really a first for me. I disagreed with Bush I policy frequently, but I truly believed he had the nations best interest at heart. I am not so sure with Bush II.

This is interesting take on the economic recovery

This article shows why some people may not feel as though the economy is in strong recovery. I think there are a lot of people who consider themselves under employed. I think the job picture has improved, but not to the extent we would normally expect in a strong recovery. I know as a programmer that my income has not recovered since 2002 and has not increased since 2000. I think our economy is changing fundamentally. I do not think we can stop the changes, but the government could be doing more to ease the transition and prepare for the future.

Bush Pioneers kinda, don't really come thru in a pinch

I think this article is very telling about the kind of interests that Bush represents. I know that businesses close based on economic interests, but it shows how hollow the affect of the Bush economic policies. It think of the old adage, if all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail. Tax cuts alone, especially the ill advised Bush tax cuts cannot fix the economy.

If only McCain would go along...

I do not think that McCain would join the Democratic ticket, but if he would.... This article outlines the affect that McCain would have on the race. They do not mention all of the advantages, AZ would go from light red to blue. With the divisions in America, I think a unity government is in order....

PLEASE JOHN, JOIN THE TICKET!