brainrow

In a blog post a few days ago, I linked to a map showing declines in median incomes across the U.S. Now I see The Washington Monthly reports a problem with the map.

they used a different measure for the 1999 figures than for the 2005 numbers, and that made the decline look worse than it was.

There is a chart (no map this time) at the Washington Monthly site with more consistent data.

I’ve heard it’s a good practice to correct your errors. Might as well give it a try.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman:

Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, and let’s have an unprecedented wartime tax cut and shrink our armed forces. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but let’s send just enough troops to topple Saddam — and never control Iraq’s borders, its ammo dumps or its looters. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism, but rather than bring Democrats and Republicans together in a national unity war coalition, let’s use the war as a wedge issue to embarrass Democrats, frighten voters and win elections. They told us we are in the fight of our lives against a new Islamic fascism — which is financed by our own oil purchases — but let’s not do one serious thing about ending our oil addiction.

Hey, why should Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld get all worked up and lose sleep or quality leisure time to get this war right? It’s just the little people fighting and dying there.

Remember the Social Security fight? It ain’t over, baby:

In an interview published today in The Wall Street Journal, President Bush told editorial page editor Paul Gigot that next year he plans on partially phasing out Social Security and replacing it with private accounts, and that he thinks he can do it as long as the Republicans retain control of Congress, which he thinks they will.

…

It’s also no accident he raises the issue in an interview with conservative columnist Gigot. The White House doesn’t want to broadcast his interest in phasing out Social Security. But they very much do want to create what amounts to a paper trail so that after a potential Republican victory they can argue that they contested the election on the basis of privatization and their win gives them a mandate.

If the Republicans hold onto their Congressional majorities by even a single vote, they will declare a mandate for their Dark Ages agenda. That is why they must be defeated.

Why, oh, why did we have such inadequate post-war plans when we went into Iraq? Here’s why:

Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a post-war Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.

In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said “he would fire the next person” who talked about the need for a post-war plan.

…

“The secretary of defense continued to push on us that everything we write in our plan has to be the idea that we are going to go in, we’re going to take out the regime, and then we’re going to leave,” Scheid said. “We won’t stay.”

Scheid said the planners continued to try “to write what was called Phase 4,” or the piece of the plan that included post-invasion operations like security, stability and reconstruction.

Even if the troops didn’t stay, “at least we have to plan for it,” Scheid said.

“I remember the secretary of defense saying that he would fire the next person that said that,” Scheid said. “He said we will not do that because the American public will not back us if they think we are going over there for a long war.”

Rummy’s views have matured in the years since. Now that we’re in, the American public can go fly a kite.

(Via Think Progress.)

A great old cartoon from Tom Tomorrow.

On the PBS NewsHour tonight was poet Lucille Clifton, reading from her poem “September Songs, A Poem in Seven Days.” My own transcription:

Tuesday, 9/11:
Thunder and lightning and our world is another place.
No day will ever be the same,
No blood untouched.
They know this storm in other wheres:
Israel, Ireland, Palestine,
But God has blessed America, we sing.
And God has blessed America,
To learn that no one is exempt.
The world is one.
All fear is one.
All life, all death, all one.

From an email message:

I was in my car listening to the radio and conservative talk show host Michael Savage said that if Hillary is elected president it would result in a Maoist government and people like him would be taken to re-education camps or death camps.

Wow.

Well, to be fair, it does sound like Mr. Savage could use a nice long rest. But death camps? Frankly, I’m surprised at you, Hillary.

Sometimes people say things that are a little more true than they intended.

For example, (via Countdown), Katherine Harris, the Florida senatorial candidate most famous for her efforts to short-circuit the electoral process in the 2000 presidential election, was on MSNBC’s Hardball a few days ago, interviewed by Norah O’Donnell:

O’DONNELL: The latest poll in your state, out July, shows, however, that it looks like a blowout, that Senator Nelson would crush you 61 to 24. That‘s a huge lead even with just two months to the election. Is your campaign essentially a fool’s errand?

HARRIS: Oh, you know, you can make polls say whatever you want.

Well, Katherine Harris ought to know that if anybody does.

And George W. Bush in an interview with Katie Couric on CBS News Wednesday night:

One of the hardest parts of my job is to connect Iraq to the war on terror.

Oh, it’s hard work. But he’s gonna do it, by golly, no matter what it takes. Since we invaded Iraq, the whole country seems to have turned into a terrorist training ground. That counts, right?

This worries me:

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, a moderate conservative and often decisive vote, was hospitalized for a stent procedure after experiencing mild chest pains, a court spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Let’s pray for Justice Kennedy’s full and speedy recovery. He might be the final obstacle to George W. Bush’s vision of a monarchical presidency. We need him.

For two more years, George W. Bush gets to pick the judges who fill any vacancy on a federal court — including the Supreme Court. If the rubber-stamp Republicans retain control of the Senate, you can bet he’ll name extremists sympathetic to unlimited presidential power (so long as the president is a right-wing Republican).

So let’s back up our prayers with deeds. Here’s the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. This seems like a good time to give them money.

From the NewsHour last night, Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, discussed why Osama bin Laden wanted to attack the United States:

By provoking America, he hoped to get America to follow in the footsteps of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. He imagined that America, like the other super-power, the Soviet Union, would blumder into Afghanistan and there be bled to death by Muslim holy warriors. So it was an escalation on his part to try to draw the U.S. into Afghanistan and then rally Muslims to attack us, thereby creating a unified Muslim umma — an army of Muslims who would then be able to spread their message throughout the world.

…

We don’t know the ending.

I can tell you this: in November or December of 2001, when American and coalition forces invaded Afghanistan and fought the battle of Tora Bora, although we didn’t capture or kill bin Laden or Zawahiri or some of the other top lieutenants, al Qaeda was essentially dead. Not only had most of the members been killed or captured, it was repudiated throughout the world. The internal documents show that they were in great despair.

Unfortunately, Iraq — the war in Iraq — has given them new life, and I fear the progeny of al Qaeda are going to be with us for a long time.

Via Hetty Litjens: Cartoonist Walt Handelsman has the George W. Bush Hurricane Katrina One-Year Anniversary Heckuva Job Tour.

Via Atrios, The Washington Monthly says “Happy Labor Day” with a very educational map:

here’s a handy map showing how far median incomes have dropped over the past six years. And it’s good news for most of you: Compared to Michigan and North Carolina you’re not doing so badly after all. So stop your sniveling.

Update: Now The Washington Monthly reports a problem with the map.

they used a different measure for the 1999 figures than for the 2005 numbers, and that made the decline look worse than it was.

There is a chart (no map this time) at the Washington Monthly site with more consistent data.

Via Daily Kos: Mother Jones brings us Lie by Lie: Chronicle of a War Foretold, a timeline from August 1990 to March 2003.

It’s a Flash application, which makes it amusing for about two seconds. Then I think it’s annoyingly difficult to use. But there’s a lot of good information buried in there.

Via Slashdot: Having trouble with an annoying neighbor or an irritating relative? Have them declared a sex offender. Here in Ohio, it’s quick! It’s easy! No evidence required! No formal charges! No reluctant jury or costly trial!

A recently enacted law allows county prosecutors, the state attorney general, or, as a last resort, alleged victims to ask judges to civilly declare someone to be a sex offender even when there has been no criminal verdict or successful lawsuit.

The rules spell out how the untried process would work. It would largely treat a person placed on the civil registry the same way a convicted sex offender is treated under Ohio’s so-called Megan’s Law.

The person’s name, address, and photograph would be placed on a new Internet database and the person would be subjected to the same registration and community notification requirements and restrictions on where he could live.

You know, sometimes I think maybe I’m just paranoid. Maybe the Constitution isn’t being shredded. Maybe our rights are safe. Then I read something like this and I know this fight is real.

From the BBC: ‘Crocodile Hunter’ Steve Irwin killed.

Australian environmentalist and television personality Steve Irwin has died during a diving accident.

Mr Irwin, 44, was killed by a stingray barb to the chest while he was filming an underwater documentary in Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.