It’s Not Racism, Honest!

Via Digby, it’s really hard for the anti-immigrant crowd to claim they aren’t racist when they say stuff like this:

“We are where we were with the black folks after the revolutionary war. We can’t send them back and the more we p *** them off the worse it will be in the future. So what do we do. [.... ] I say the governor needs to try to enforce the law and sign the letter of understanding... and at least we can send the troublemakers back. Sure we are being overrun but we are being outpopulated by the blacks also. What is the answer, only time will tell.”

These words of wisdom apparently came in an e-mail from the chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, state Sen. Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith. Altes complained that:

[he] has been “in the trenches fighting this thing” but that he and former state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, were accused of being racists and bigots for their 2005 stance.

Gee, I can’t imagine why.

For The Record

Bookmark this now.

Because sure as God made little green apples, two years into a Democratic administration some wingnut radio host is going to claim that the U.S. economy was going gangbusters until the “evil libruls” were put in charge.

The source is Fox, because I’m making a point, but the story is from the AP: "Turn out the lights, the party’s over:”

White House Lowers 2008 Economic Forecast

WASHINGTON —  The deteriorating housing market forced the White House to lower its projection for economic growth next year and raise its forecast for unemployment. Inflation was expected to moderate.

The new forecast came as the Commerce Department reported Thursday that the economy barreled ahead in the summer at a 4.9 percent growth rate, the strongest showing in four years. That impressive performance, however, wasn't expected to last through the current quarter, given the strains of the housing slump and credit crunch — problems likely to weigh on individuals and businesses alike.

Under the administration's new forecast, the gross domestic product, or GDP, will grow by 2.7 percent next year. Its old projection called for a stronger, 3.1 percent increase.

"The housing market decline has been more significant than we expected," said Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

The more pronounced housing slump — along with the expectation that problems will persist into next year — was a big factor in the administration's downgrade of its economic growth forecast for 2008.

In the third quarter alone, builders slashed investment in housing projects by a whopping 19.7 percent, on an annualized basis, the biggest cut in a year. That lopped just over a full percentage point off GDP from July through September.

Lazear said he expects the drag from housing on the economy to continue "at least through the first half of 2008." He also noted that the credit situation seems to have gotten "a bit worse again" in the last few weeks.

The pickup in overall national economic activity in the third-quarter — while a testament to the economy's resilience— didn't change the picture forming in the current October-to-December quarter. That scenario is somewhat grim, with indications the economy will lose considerable steam. Growth is expected to clock in at a pace of just 1.5 percent or less in the final three months of this year.

"Turn out the lights the party is over," said Richard Yamarone of Argus Research. "Fourth quarter growth is not going to be anywhere near the third-quarter's pace. It is going to be miserable, but we'll escape a recession."

Personally, I think this outlook is far too rosy. It’s going to take years to recover from the damage caused by the Bush Administration; some places, like the Gulf Coast, will take decades.

But let’s just wait and see.

Double Standards

Would someone please explain to me why Barack Obama's name is enough to fuel speculation that a Democrat is a Muslim and therefore (in the wingnut brain) an actual terrorist, but Rudy Giuliani's actual ties to a "terror sheikh" go unremarked by anyone?

The contradictory and stunning reality is that Giuliani Partners, the consulting company that has made Giuliani rich, feasts at the Qatar trough, doing business with the ministry run by the very member of the royal family identified in news and government reports as having concealed KSM—the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden—on his Qatar farm in the mid-1990s.

This royal family member is Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani, Qatar's minister of Islamic affairs at the time, who was later installed at the interior ministry in January 2001 and reappointed by the emir during a government shake-up earlier this year. Abdallah al-Thani is also said to have welcomed Osama bin Laden on two visits to the farm, a charge repeated as recently as October 10, 2007, in a Congressional Research Service study. Abdallah al-Thani's interior ministry or the state-owned company it helps oversee, Qatar Petroleum, has worked with Giuliani Security & Safety LLC, a subsidiary of Giuliani Partners, on an undisclosed number of contracts, the value of which neither the government nor the company will release.

But there's little question that a security agreement with Qatar's government, or with Qatar Petroleum, would put a company like Giuliani's in direct contact with the ministry run by Abdallah al-Thani: The website of Qatar's government, and the interior ministry's press office, as well as numerous press stories, all confirm that the ministry controls a 2,500-member police force, the General Administration of Public Security, and the Mubahathat, or secret police. The ministry's charge under law is to "create and institute security in this country." Hassan Sidibe, a public-relations officer for the ministry, says that "a company that does security work, they have to get permission from the interior ministry."

What's most shocking is that Abdallah al-Thani has been widely accused of helping to spirit KSM out of Qatar in 1996, just as the FBI was closing in on him. Robert Baer, a former CIA supervisor in the region, contends in a 2003 memoir that the emir himself actually sanctioned tipping KSM. The staff of the 9/11 Commission, meanwhile, noted that the FBI and CIA "were reluctant to seek help from the Qatari government" in the arrest of KSM, "fearing that he might be tipped off."

But “Obama” sounds like “Osama,” which is really, really scary.

Does this make sense to anyone?

I thought not.

(h/t, Digby).

Trouble At Trent Lott's?

1 Update Below

Sharon Cobb is reporting the news that the Oxford, Miss., office of Trent Lott's brother-in law has been raided by the FBI. As she notes, the timing is tres awkward, what with Lott's just-announced retirement:

Late yesterday afternoon, news broke that Trent Lott's brother-in-law Richard Scruggs in Oxford, Mississippi had his law office raided by the FBI.

You want to know what they're looking for? Contracts and documents related to Katrina and State Farm, according to my sources.

Interesting timing on Lott's retirement, huh?

Very interesting, indeed. I haven't seen anything about this on CNN, but the AP has a short story up:

Langston told The Associated Press the agents were looking for a document that "might be ancillary to something pertaining to Katrina litigation," but is not directly involved in any of those cases. He declined to elaborate but said authorities are not likely to find the document at the office.

Scruggs is a high-profile lawyer who has represented policyholders in lawsuits against State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. over Hurricane Katrina damage claims. State Farm is based in Bloomington, Ill.

[...]

In June, U.S. District Judge William Acker in Birmingham, Ala., ruled Scruggs violated a court order to return documents given to him by two sisters who helped State Farm adjust claims on Mississippi's Gulf Coast after Katrina. The storm struck Aug. 29, 2005.

After U.S. Attorney Alice Martin declined to prosecute Richard Scruggs, Acker appointed special prosecutors for the case.

The AP story didn’t mention Scruggs’ famous brother in law, but his Wikipedia bio does.

Hmm, wonder what's in that document? Any guesses?

[UPDATE]:

Someone’s been indicted.

CNN: Serial Offender

Memo To CNN: young women are not bimbos. Get it, learn it, spray paint it on your newsroom walls.

I just saw morning anchor Tony Harris perform the most sexist, condescending interview of two intelligent young women I've ever had the displeasure of witnessing. I really don’t want to see anything like this again.

The young women were high school students who had posed questions to the Republican candidates for tonight’s YouTube debate. Rebecca Durr asked about homeless Iraq War veterans. Hilarity ensued (I’m transcribing this by hand but will post a linked transcript when it becomes available):

TONY HARRIS: Becka let’s start with you, you’ve been watching the debates I understand, and you feel you know where the candidates stand on the issues that are important to you.

Rebecca Durr: Well I feel that it’s important for the public to be able to ask the questions that they want to ask to the candidates and declare issues that are on their mind. So the questions that we asked were important to us, and we did want to hear the ans-

TONY HARRIS: (interrupting) Look at you there all strong and poised! Very nice! Okay!

Gee, thanks Mr. Harris! Golly! But that didn’t end the trainwreck:

TONY HARRIS: Annie one last question for you, has the internet participation, CNN/YouTube debate, has it made the debate process more interesting, more compelling for you?

Annie Ulizio: Definitely. I think it’s really a way for kids that can’t vote yet to get involved, you know, because people are on the internet a lot, people hear about the YouTube debate and it’s just a great way to understand where the candidates are coming from on different policies so people can really be comfortable with what they’re voting for in November and really know what they’re doing.

TONY HARRIS: Boy, so smart! So poised! Both of you! How great is that!

How condescending! How sexist! How unprofessional! And no, Tony Harris, it’s not great. Had the students interviewed been young men, not women, I doubt the interview would have descended into verbal pats on the head.

But of course, it’s CNN. And we all know that CNN thinks young women should ask more appropriate questions, of the silly ”diamonds v. pearls” variety.

Saying No To Colin Powell

What the hell is Hillary Clinton thinking?

“I won’t even wait until I’m inaugurated, but as soon as I’m elected I’m going to be asking distinguished Americans of both parties — people like Colin Powell, for example, and others — who can represent our country well, including someone I know very well,” Mrs. Clinton said, according to a Fox News Web report. “Because I want to send a message heard across the world. The era of cowboy diplomacy is over.”

In Monday’s post I said these clowns should never be trusted with our foreign policy again. And that goes most especially for the guy who gave us this famous moment:


I’m sorry that Powell now wants a do-over, but I’m going to quote the famous Digby on this issue:

Powell himself should never be allowed anywhere near government again.

That goes for every one of the the Iraq War pushers, who by all rights should have been laughed off the world stage years ago. It’s only our celebrity-infatuated media that continues to give these people any credibility. They sure don’t have any anywhere else.

Again, from Digby:

No member of the Bush administration should ever be set out to represent this country abroad again. And aside from Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney, I can't think of anyone less credible than Colin Powell.

I agree 100%.

GOP Priorities

GOP House Reps show where their priorities lie: in scoring political points and playing political games, not making Americans’ lives better:

Democrats are struggling even to pass a middle-class tax cut under the banner of fiscal responsibility. A House plan to shield 21 million mainly Democratic households from the alternative minimum tax, and offset the lost revenue with higher taxes on Wall Street, appears to be unraveling. If it does, so does the vaunted "pay as you go" rule that Pelosi pledged would re-establish fiscal responsibility in Washington after years of rampant Republican borrowing.

Bewildered Democrats have concluded that Republicans simply want them to fail.

[...]

Even Republican moderates are furious. "I think it's disgraceful," said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, as she left the Senate after the last vote before the Thanksgiving recess. "Unfortunately, there are not enough people building bridges. There are too many people destroying them."

[To clarify, those “21 million mainly Democratic households” are middle class taxpayers who live in high-tax states like New York and California.]

It’s always just about the politics with the Bush crowd, isn’t it? Well, what do you expect from a group whose sole ideology is that government doesn’t work? They’re right: their kind of government doesn’t work. We certainly learned that with Hurricane Katrina. And is anyone really surprised that Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour’s Gulf Coast recovery plan has favored big-business casino interests over that of the people who lost their homes? It’s the GOP way to put profits over people.

I still fail to understand why anyone would put our domestic policy in the hands of a group of people who don’t believe in government’s ability to work. That’s like going to a doctor who doesn’t believe in medicine.

Now it’s time we stopped trusting these clowns wituh our foreign policy, too. From the above-referenced budget story is this:

The White House seems happy to make the argument that the war should be fully funded, while domestic programs should be contained. The war, now in its fifth year, has killed more than 3,870 American military personnel and wounded more than 28,000, and is estimated to have cost taxpayers more than $800 billion if the current request is approved.

[....]

James Horney, director of fiscal policy for the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said, "My impression is that the White House decided quite awhile ago that it was in the president's political interest to have a confrontation with Congress over budget issues.

"He's not really trying to take stances on the budget that necessarily appeal to the majority of the American public, but stances that will play well with people currently supporting him, and stances that allow him to still be relevant," Horney said.

That sounds about right. Who was it that said President Bush’s job is to serve those that voted for him? Oh yeah, that guy.

This is all such a shame. Because we’re talking about a war that every day takes more American soldiers’ lives. We’re talking about people without healthcare and senior citizens still living in FEMA trailers. This isn’t about President Bush or Karl Rove or political games. It’s about America -- or, it should be. Too bad the Republican Party has forgotten that.

News From Down Under

Slow posting -- Mr. Beale and I are still traveling and I haven’t had internet access in three days. But I did pick up this piece of good news from Australia:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard has suffered a humiliating election defeat and the opposition Labor Party has swept into power.

[...]

Former diplomat Mr Rudd, 50, presented himself as a new generation leader compared with the 68-year-old Mr Howard.

Voters warmed to his promise to pull Australian troops out of Iraq and sign the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, further isolating the US, which had received strong backing from Mr Howard.

At least where Iraq was concerned, John Howard seemed to follow President Bush’s lead, not the wishes of Australians. I think there’s a lesson to be learned here for American politicians.

(h/t, Salon)

What To Do With Those Leftovers

Mr. Beale and I are still traveling, so I wanted to wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving and offer up this novel thought:

San Francisco to Fuel Cars with Grease
Waste Oils Will Power the City's Vehicle Fleet

San Francisco is pioneering another environmental initiative, with the launch today of SFGreasecycle.

The free program will transform used cooking oil into biodiesel that will power part of the city vehicle fleet. It is believed to be the largest such program in the nation, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Not only does it provide a useful alternative to ditching old grease (which if illegally dumped can clog sewers) but it offsets the need for petroleum diesel, which is more highly polluting and has to be imported at high cost.

The genius of the program is embedded in its name: cycle. By using waste, rather than disposing of it, it treats consumption as a part of a cycle of usefulness, rather than a straight line from natural resource toward disposal.

I’m not the most technical person in the world so when I learned a few years ago that diesel engines can easily be retrofitted to run on used cooking grease, I was amazed. I actually spoke to someone who transitioned his pickup truck to run on oil he gets free from a local KFC. All that was required, he said, was a $200 part. Then he called around and found a local KFC willing to give him their used grease, which they were more than happy to do since they usually pay a waste management company to haul it away. Now he gets free fuel and his car smells like fried chicken.

This idea has intrigued me, and I love that San Francisco is transitioning their fleet to run on restaurant grease. Imagine if Metro’s city buses smelled like french fries and cheeseburgers instead of diesel smoke--I wonder if obesity rates in the city would climb accordingly?

We in the South have never seen a Fry Daddy we didn’t like. Fried food is a staple around these parts, and it’s hard to find a downtown street corner that doesn’t have a fast food restaurant. Has anyone ever wondered what happens to all that leftover fry grease?

Maybe it’s time to start reusing our cooking grease instead of dumping it. Anyone?

For more information on SF GreaseCycle, check out their website.

California Scenes

Mr. Beale and I are officially on vacation. We’re at the beach in Santa Monica; it’s overcast, chilly, and a little gloomy, which has made for a surreal visit to my hometown.

Probably the oddest thing was seeing Richard Kelly’s “sequel” to “Donnie Darko,” ”Southland Tales,” which coincidentally was filmed almost entirely in Santa Monica and Venice--the very places we had just visited that day. With its post-apocalyptic theme and a storyline involving the rift in the space-time continuum, I started getting this spooky feeling like I had spent the entire day inside a movie I hadn’t seen yet.

I don’t know if “Donnie Darko” fans will like the film, since the two are very similar. But I will say this: Richard Kelly doesn’t like the Republican Party very much! It’s worth catching on DVD, since I doubt the film will come to Nashville.

Today’s a travel day for us, so I thought I’d share some images from the past day, which seem to capture the eerie vibe sparked by the film.

Some graffitti we saw on the PCH underpass:Mitchie Yost surfing in the fog!Arlington West, a display about the Iraq War erected by Veterans for Peace. I saw this while walking down the Santa Monica Pier with my cousin, a Vietnam veteran who still suffers the physical effects of shrapnel he received over 30 years ago. It was quite sobering to tour this exhibit with him.

Each cross represents a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq:

Finally, some grafitti of the "biker rebellion" sort: