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Tuesday, May 24, 2005
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The Impossible Has Happened.
I've found an HSA plan I like: Oshkosh Truck Corp. (OSK ), for example,
has veered away from the old -- and costly -- health maintenance
organization it used for its 4,500 nonunion employees. The plan's low
copayments encouraged...
[Ezra Klein]
5:09:52 PM 
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BREAKING: Ignoring Deal, Frist to File for Cloture on Myers.
In the deal struck yesterday evening, negotiators agreed that two
judicial nominees - William G. Myers and Henry Saad - “will be
filibustered or withdrawn.” Last night, Frist indicated he would abide
by the agreement: Mr. President, a lot has been said about the
uniqueness of this body. And, indeed, our ...
[Think Progress]
5:07:44 PM
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Shutdown of Inquiry....
It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.
Galileo Galilei
The astronomer Galileo was more than a simple academic. He was a
wealthy aristocrat, a social climber, and something of a political
figure. ...
[j a c k *]
5:04:24 PM
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Ordinary Rendition.
Next time Bush declares his confidence in our rejection of rendition, I
wouldn't, uh, believe him. Sweden's released a report detailing an
America rendition done on their territory, which, had it been done by
Swedish police, would've been illegal....
[Ezra Klein]
3:15:05 PM
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AIPAC's Big, Bigger, Biggest Moment.
Perle provoked cheers from the crowd when he favored a military raid on
Iran, saying that "if Iran is on the verge of a nuclear weapon, I think
we will have no choice but to take decisive action." When Harman said
the "best short-term option" is the U.N. Security Council, the crowd
reacted with boos.
AIPAC's Big, Bigger, Biggest Moment
Dana Milbank | May 24
WaPo - How much clout does AIPAC have? Well, consider that during the
pro-Israel lobby's annual conference yesterday, a fleet of police cars,
sirens wailing, blocked intersections and formed a motorcade to escort
buses carrying its conventioneers -- to lunch. Richard Perle, Jane
Harman (D-Calf), and Sec. Rice addressed the AIPAC crowd. As Brian
notes at Gorilla in the Room, it appears Perle is pushing for military
action in Iran. These people are scary. -ww This article is posted
under fair use rules in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107,
and is strictly for the educational and informative purposes of our
readers.
[The Agonist]
3:14:09 PM
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A better game Josh has a fun game, but I've got a better one. What "senior biologist"
would call a platypus a "bird-like mammal", think the fugu genome is a
strike against evolutionary biology, says that evolution is "irrelevant
to most of the life sciences", and would declare that "scientific case
against Darwinism is largely won"?
I sure don't have any idea, but whoever it is is certainly an odd duck, very marginal and freaky.
I don't agree with Josh that it could be Phil Skell. Dembski claims it's someone not known for their views on ID creationism, and unless ol' Bill is lying…no. Couldn't be.
- PZ Myers (pzmyers@pharyngula.org)
[Pharyngula]
3:12:45 PM
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Preemptive Strikes. After we lived through crap like this : Q
Scott, I just wanted to ask you, follow up on the Catholic bishops and
a couple of actions they took. One was, they raised questions about
whether we should -- there was justification for preemptive action against Iraq without further evidence, I wonder if the White House has any comment on their statement.
MR. MCCLELLAN: Well, I think the United States and the
international community were all speaking with one voice when it comes
to the importance of disarming Saddam Hussein. This threat is real, and
it must be addressed. The risk of inaction is too great. So we are
going to continue work with the United Nations and work with our
friends and allies to disarm Saddam Hussein. It's about protecting not
only America, but the region and the world from the risks that he
poses. Is anyone really surprised to see this?North Korea on Tuesday refused to rule out a pre-emptive attack, even amid signs it may be willing to return to the nuclear bargaining table.
ADVERTISEMENT
The North poured out anti-American rhetoric — a tactic it has used
in the past before entering negotiations — by claiming that
Washington's "hostile policies" led it to develop nuclear weapons as a
deterrent and warning against any attack to dislodge its leadership.
"The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive
attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the
state-run newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with
force is our unswerving method of response." It's too
late to start complaining now, Mr. President. You're the one who set
the precedent for unprovoked attacks on other countries. As a country
that prides itself for its (mostly undeserved) reputation as the
world's moral leader, the United States gave the okay for other
countries to attack their enemies without evidence of an impending
threat. You can't just close Pandora's box just because you didn't like
what was in it. [The Talent Show]
1:35:24 PM
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Everyone To The Brig!. Michelle Malkin writes on
Milagro Cunningham, the illegal immigrant who raped and attempted to
murder an 8-year-old. The horror of his crime and the well-being of the
girl seem to be made subservient to the fact that he was in the country
illegally. It's not the law or his illegality I'm arguing against, but
rather the idea that he did what he did because he was an
illegal alien, as Malkin seems to be implying by the connection to
driver's licenses and Osama bin Laden. She's obsessed with proving that
illegal immigrants are, by their very natures, murderers and rapists.
Of course, given her general proclivity to believe that all non-her
immigrants deserve a good locking up or three, I shouldn't really be
shocked at this. [Pandagon]
11:54:52 AM
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Novak falsely claimed that national debt is smallest percentage of GDP "that it has ever been". In
describing the mounting national debt as "a phony issue," CNN host and
syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak stated that the debt "is smaller
as a percentage of GDP [gross domestic product] than any of our other
-- than it has ever been." In fact, the national debt as a percentage of GDP
(Excel document) has grown every year since President George W. Bush
has been in office. In 2004, the $7.4 trillion national debt
constituted 62.9 percent of GDP; in 2001 when Bush took office, the
debt was 57.3 percent of GDP. In 1981, it was 32.9 percent of GDP; in
1929, the earliest year for which the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis lists
GDP figures, it was just 16.3 percent. The 2004 figure of 62.9 percent
is close to double that of 1981 and nearly four times that of 1929.
| Year | National debt ($) | GDP ($) | Debt as percentage of GDP |
| 1980 | 930,210,000,000 | 2,789,500,000,000 | 33.3% |
| 1981 | 1,028,729,000,000 | 3,128,400,000,000 | 32.9% |
| 1982 | 1,197,073,000,000 | 3,255,000,000,000 | 36.8% |
| 1983 | 1,410,702,000,000 | 3,536,700,000,000 | 39.9% |
| 1984 | 1,662,966,000,000 | 3,933,200,000,000 | 42.3% |
| 1985 | 1,945,941,616,460 | 4,220,300,000,000 | 46.1% |
| 1986 | 2,125,302,616,658 | 4,462,800,000,000 | 47.6% |
| 1987 | 2,350,276,890,953 | 4,739,500,000,000 | 49.6% |
| 1988 | 2,602,337,712,041 | 5,103,800,000,000 | 51.0% |
| 1989 | 2,857,430,960,187 | 5,484,400,000,000 | 52.1% |
| 1990 | 3,233,313,451,777 | 5,803,100,000,000 | 55.7% |
| 1991 | 3,665,303,351,697 | 5,995,900,000,000 | 61.1% |
| 1992 | 4,064,620,655,522 | 6,337,700,000,000 | 64.1% |
| 1993 | 4,411,488,883,139 | 6,657,400,000,000 | 66.3% |
| 1994 | 4,692,749,910,013 | 7,072,200,000,000 | 66.4% |
| 1995 | 4,973,982,900,709 | 7,397,700,000,000 | 67.2% |
| 1996 | 5,224,810,939,136 | 7,816,900,000,000 | 66.8% |
| 1997 | 5,413,146,011,397 | 8,304,300,000,000 | 65.2% |
| 1998 | 5,526,193,008,898 | 8,747,000,000,000 | 63.2% |
| 1999 | 5,656,270,901,615 | 9,268,400,000,000 | 61.0% |
| 2000 | 5,674,178,209,887 | 9,817,000,000,000 | 57.8% |
| 2001 | 5,807,463,412,200 | 10,128,000,000,000 | 57.3% |
| 2002 | 6,228,235,965,597 | 10,487,000,000,000 | 59.4% |
| 2003 | 6,783,231,062,744 | 11,004,000,000,000 | 61.6% |
| 2004 | 7,379,052,696,330 | 11,735,000,000,000 | 62.9% |
From the May 18 edition of CNN's Crossfire:
NOVAK: You know, James [Carville, co-host], of all the lousy issues
you have, the lousiest is the debt. As Ronald Reagan once said, I don't
worry about the national debt; it's big enough to take care of itself.
As a matter of fact, it is smaller as a percentage of GDP than any of
our other -- than it has ever been. This is a phony issue. That's not
hurting us.
[Media Matters for America]
7:00:16 AM
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Senate compromise.
So the good news is that cooler heads prevailed, and Senators John
McCain and Ben Nelson are the heroes while Sen. Bill Frist is the goat
who comes out looking like an idiot. (I saw somewhere that he had cots
brought in for an all-nighter. What a drama queen.) (...)
[South Knox Bubba]
6:53:31 AM
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© Copyright
2005
Michael Mussington.
Last update:
6/1/2005; 1:34:19 AM.
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