Monthly Archives: October 2004

How wrong can you be? An article “Estimates by U.S. See More Rebels With More Funds” by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker in The New York Times yesterday said senior American officials have raised the estimate of the number of insurgents, previously 2,000 to 7,000, to 8,000 to 12,000. So it is either about twice as bad as we thought (comparing the maximums) or about four times as bad (comparing the minimums).
If the new portrait is just spin designed to keep Americans too frightened to think, it is its own brand of terrorism. If the new estimate is true and the wealth of the Saudis is behind the insurgency with the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein’s relatives still in charge, as the article states, then we have not removed Hussein from power.
And between you and me, I’m not feeling like we have made the world or ourselves any safer.

Apparently in my little corner of the Commonwealth, the Republican majority has only nine commandments. Deuteronomy 5:19 has gone missing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t all be having our Kerry Edwards yard signs stolen.

The New York Times endorses John Kerry for President. It continues to amaze me that any single person anywhere in any state in the United States still supports George W. Bush. If John Kerry promised only to undo half of what Bush has done, that would be enough. Instead he offers hope on many fronts, strong and reasonable plans that relate to real problems, and a record of public service that demonstrates character and consistency. In addition, he has something we have not seen in Washington for a long time, the willingness and ability to actually think.

The New York Times endorses John Kerry for President. It continues to amaze me that any single person anywhere in any state in the United States still supports George W. Bush. If John Kerry promised only to undo half of what Bush has done, that would be enough. Instead he offers hope on many fronts, strong and reasonable plans that relate to real problems, and a record of public service that demonstrates character and consistency. In addition, he has something we have not seen in Washington for a long time, the willingness and ability to actually think.

John Kerry will not privatize Social Security. In case you missed it, since it was mentioned in the debate so briefly, the “gap” that Kerry referenced in Bush’s plan occurs when the working generation, under the Bush plan, would presumably take money out of Social Security for the proposed private investment accounts. Since the working generation pays for the retiring generation, this money re-directed to private investment accounts would result in a loss of funds to support Social Security payments to the retiring generation. If privatizing were eventually to prove successful, the gap would last until the retiring generation for whom there was no money passed away and the private Social Security investment accounts started paying out.
Like all Bush initiatives, privatizing Social Security would produce more of a gap between the “haves” and the “have nots.” A person with a $25,000.00 a year income and two children would not have much to invest, but a person with $100,000.00 would do well if the investment decisions were consistently wise. If not, well, that’s the way it goes in private investment. You win some, you lose some. It wouldn’t really be security at all, just another way to produce more poor people and richer rich people.

An article from The Army Times,06/27/2003, “Nothing But Lip Service for Our Soldiers”, available in full on the web site of Veterans for Common Sense:

In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately.

I live in the Bible Belt, and in case you haven’t noticed, wide belts are “in” now. There is a lot more Bible Belt than there used to be. But even when it was narrow, I was in it. So I hear quite often “I am with Kerry on the economic issues, but I am voting for Bush because I am with him on the moral issues.”
What is invisible here is the link between the economic issues and the moral issues:

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