Progress Report: Casting the First Stone

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DON'T MISS DAILY TALKING POINTS:

 

GOP Focuses on Hate, Not Issues in NYC

 

ELECTION: Filmmaker Michael Moore has advice for

President Bush in giving his speech tonight: Take

responsibility and apologize.

 

JUSTICE: The Justice Department admits possible

criminal misconduct after dropping its prosecution of

Detroit immigrants accused of being an al Qaeda

sleeper cell.

 

MILITARY: Salon's Mary Jacoby takes a look at

President Bush's missing year of National Guard

service.

 

SECRECY: New report examines the cost of secrecy in

the Bush White House.

 

 

DAILY GRILL

" In his 16 years in the Senate#8230;John [Kerry] has

worked to strengthen our military, reform public

education, boost the economy and protect the

environment. "

 

- Zell Miller, 3/1/01

 

VERSUS

 

" For more than 20 years, on every one of the great

issues of freedom and security, John Kerry has been

more wrong#8230;than any other national figure. "

 

- Zell Miller, 9/1/04

 

 

DAILY OUTRAGE

So-called Democrat Zell Miller elevates the national

political debate by challenging Chris Matthews to a

duel after being probed about his divisive #8211; and

questionable #8211; convention speech.

 

 

ARCHIVES

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by David Sirota, Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and

Jonathan Baskin.

SEPTEMBER 2, 2004

 

ECONOMY Lying About The Bush Recession

CONVENTION Casting the First Stone

UNDER THE RADAR Go Beyond The Headlines

 

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ECONOMY

Lying About The Bush Recession

 

Apparently reading off the same talking points, top

conservatives yesterday repeatedly claimed their

policies have nothing to do with the sagging economy,

instead blaming the previous administration. In

separate interviews, Secretary of Commerce Donald

Evans claimed, " we were handed a Clinton recession "

and then said, " the president inherited a Clinton

recession and turned it into the early stages of Bush

prosperity. " Gov. George Pataki (R-NY) said,

" President Bush inherited a recession. We are now

seeing the beginning of Bush prosperity. " Gov. Bill

Owens (R-CO) claimed, " I noticed that when President

Bush was inaugurated on January 20th of 2001, we were

already in a recession. The economic data clearly

showed us that. " Not only are the statements belied by

the data, but the White House has gone out of its way

to hide the most damning statistics about its economic

policy failures.

 

THE RECORD - 'BUSH RECOVERY' HAS WORST RECORD IN 72

YEARS: Evans claimed, " this is a very strong economy,

it continues to get stronger. " But as American

Progress senior fellow Scott Lilly points out, it is

now all but certain that " the current administration

will compile the worst record in job creation since

the Hoover administration. " All told, this will be the

weakest " recovery " in 72 years, in terms of job

growth. Additionally, wages are stagnating, personal

bankruptcies are up 33 percent since 2000, and

consumer confidence is plummeting.

 

THE TRUTH - BUSH ADMITS WE FACE A BUSH RECESSION: On

12/1/01, President Bush said, " This week, the official

announcement came that our economy has been in

recession since March " of 2001. This was the same

month the president rammed his deficit-exploding tax

cuts for the wealthy through the House of

Representatives.

 

THE TRUTH - BUSH ECONOMIC GURU ADMITS IT IS A BUSH

RECESSION: Bush's economic adviser Martin Feldstein

pronounced that economic activity peaked under Bush,

and then the economy headed downward. He offered " a

determination that the expansion that began in March

1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. "

 

THE TRUTH - OFFICIAL DATA CLEARLY SAY IT IS A BUSH

RECESSION: The Washington Post reports, " The recession

officially began in March of 2001 #8211; two months

after Bush was sworn in #8211; according to the

universally acknowledged arbiter of such things, the

National Bureau of Economic Research. "

 

THE FRAUD - WHITE HOUSE CAUGHT REVISING RECESSION

DATE: Earlier this year, Business Week reported, " When

economic history is rewritten #8211; with political

consequences #8211; that's going too far. President

George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers is

trying to get away with exactly such revisionist

history. " Specifically, the CEA's Economic Report of

the President " unilaterally changed the start date of

the last recession to benefit Bush's reelection bid. "

Instead of using the accepted start date of March

2001, the CEA announced that the recession really

started in the fourth quarter of 2000. The Washington

Post reported that the " shift that would make it much

more credible for the Bush Administration to term it

the Clinton Recession#8230;This simple statement masks

an attack on one of the few remaining bastions of

economic neutrality. For almost 75 years, the start

and end dates of recessions have been set by the

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a private

nonpartisan research group. "

 

THE FRAUD - WHITE HOUSE CAUGHT KILLING KEY JOBS

REPORT: In 2003, AP reported, " The Bush administration

has dropped the government's monthly report on mass

layoffs, which also had been eliminated when President

Bush's father was in office. The report by the Labor

Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded

layoffs of 50 or more workers regardless of duration. "

Fortunately, Congress refused to go along, and the

mass layoff report still exists today. This most

recent monthly report, issued yesterday, showed mass

layoffs were higher than a year ago and that the

number of initial unemployment claims from those

layoffs was " higher than any July since 2001. "

 

THE FRAUD - WHITE HOUSE CAUGHT HIDING POVERTY DATA:

Recently compiled Census data shows that under Bush,

poverty has increased for three straight years and the

number of uninsured Americans has hit an all-time

high. But instead of being forthcoming about these

statistics, the administration did all it could to

bury them.#160; According to the Washington Post, " The

Census Bureau normally releases its income, poverty

and health insurance figures in September. " Yet this

year, the Bush administration " moved the release date

up a month " #8211; insuring that it did not coincide

with the Republican National Convention and that its

release is as far from Election Day as possible.

Worse, Roll Call reported that the Census Bureau

" chose to release its annual U.S. poverty figures not

on the traditional Tuesday downtown at the National

Press Club, but rather on a Friday afternoon at Census

headquarters in Suitland, Md. #8211; a place far from

most newsrooms. "

 

CONVENTION

Casting the First Stone

 

It was the penultimate day of the Republican National

Convention and vitriol was spreading like a sunrise.

On a night when the theme was supposed to be " Land of

Opportunity " #8211; focusing on the party's domestic

record and second term agenda #8211; Vice President

Dick Cheney set the tone. In a 2,800-word speech,

Cheney devoted just 50 words of his speech to health

care, 92 to the economy and 102 to education. There

was no mention of energy policy, trade or the

environment. Even Iraq, undoubtedly the focus of

Cheney's term in office, merited just 34 words. Number

of words Cheney devoted to personally attacking and

distorting the record of John Kerry: 671.

 

THE SENSITIVE HYPOCRISY: Cheney mocked John Kerry for

promising to " fight a more effective, more thoughtful,

more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on

terror. " He accused Kerry of believing " Al Qaeda will

be impressed with our softer side. " But President Bush

has used the exact same term in the exact same way. On

3/4/01, Bush said, " because America is powerful, we

must be sensitive about expressing our power and

influence. " Just last April, Cheney himself said, " We

recognize that the presence of U.S. forces can in some

cases present a burden on the local community. We're

not insensitive to that. We work almost on a continual

basis with the local officials to remove points of

friction and reduce the extent to which problems arise

in terms of those relationships. " Find more on the

sensitive hypocrisy here.

 

THE FLIP-FLOP HYPOCRISY: Cheney also saved plenty of

time for contemptuously accusing Kerry of waffling on

the issues. He said that Kerry's " back-and-forth

reflects a habit of indecision and sends a message of

confusion. " But, just in the last four years, the

president has flip-flopped on a multitude of critical

issues from Homeland Security to campaign finance

reform to gay marriage. For a fully sourced list of 30

major policy flip-flops by President Bush, read the

just-updated American Progress document President

Bush: Flip-Flopper-in-Chief. #160;It's also available

as a printable PDF poster.

 

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ZELL: Cheney's speech was

preceded by 16 minutes of invective against Kerry by

Sen. Zell Miller. With " his voice booming and his face

twisted into a countenance of contempt and anger, "

Miller called Kerry " faint-hearted, " " weak, " " wobbly "

and " an auctioneer selling off our national security. "

Miller, apparently contemptuous not just of the

Democratic candidate but of democracy itself, said

that the nation " is being torn apart and made weaker "

by Democrats who support John Kerry. According to

Miller, the leaders of the Democratic Party " don't

believe there is any real danger in the world except

that which America brings upon itself. " Miller's

comments last night contrast sharply with his opinion

of Kerry just three years ago.

 

THE WEAPONS HYPOCRISY: Miller also blasted Kerry for

opposing some weapons programs. Miller's broad point

was that any opposition to weapons systems is a sign

of critical weakness on national defense and that the

weapons systems opposed by Kerry were being used to

win the war on terrorism. But the man Miller supports

for vice president, Dick Cheney, opposed scores of

weapons systems himself. On 2/1/90, Cheney said " these

are the programs that I have recommended for

termination to the Congress, with some success #8211;

not total success, but some success. The V-22 Osprey

is at the top#8230;The F-14B, of course, we're

terminating in '90. There's no new money in it for

'91. The AHIP, the Phoenix missile, the F-15 aircraft,

et cetera #8211; all of those are being terminated in

'91. A couple of things that I would point out in

particular. The Apache helicopter, of course, ends in

'91. The M1 tank, we're proposing to shut down the M1

tank production lines in '91. "

 

MILLER FALLS OFF THE DEEP END: Miller was pressed by

MSNBC's Chris Mathews, who pointed out that many of

Kerry's votes that Miller cited were small provisions

in large appropriations bills that Kerry opposed for

other reasons. He also asked Miller if he really

believed, as he said only minutes earlier, that John

Kerry intended to defend the country with spitballs.

Miller then lost it. He told Mathews that he wished he

" could get a little closer up into your face " and that

he lived in a time " where you could challenge a person

to a duel. " He later said he would only answer a

question if Mathews agreed to " shut up " after he asked

it.

 

THE OCCUPIERS HYPOCRISY: Last night, Miller attacked

John Kerry for using the word " occupiers " rather than

" liberators " when talking about the U.S. military in

Iraq. When CNN's Jeff Greenfield asked how he could

criticize Kerry when President Bush has also used the

exact same language, Miller prevaricated, saying, " I

don't know if the president of the United States used

those words. " Miller hadn't done his homework. During

his prime time press conference on 4/13, President

Bush himself referred to Iraq as occupied by American

forces, saying, " they're not happy they're occupied. I

wouldn't be happy if I were occupied either. "

 

MILLER AND ROVE SUPPORT SWIFT BOAT S:

Yesterday also marked the end of any pretense that the

Bush campaign did not endorse and support

advertisements run by the so-called Swift Boat

Veterans for Truth. Karl Rove, Bush's top political

advisor, " endorsed one of the key lines of attack " of

the supposedly independent group bankrolled by his

longtime friend Bob Perry. Rove said that Kerry's

anti-war advocacy after his service in Vietnam

" tarnish[ed] the records and service of people

defending our country and fighting communism and doing

what they thought was right.' " The line was echoed by

Miller, who said during his keynote speech that " as a

war protester, Kerry blamed our military. "

 

Under the Radar

 

CONTRACTS #8211; HALLIBURTON PLAYS GAMES WITH THE

TRUTH: More developments in the Halliburton bribery

case in Nigeria: The Wall Street Journal reports

Halliburton recently made public internal documents

" indicating officials of a consortium it now leads

discussed bribing public officials in Nigeria in order

to secure a multibillion-dollar contract there. " Now,

the Los Angeles Times reports, the Nigerian parliament

released a new report on the allegations that

Halliburton made " vast illegal payments to win

multibillion-dollar deals " while Vice President Dick

Cheney was at the helm in the 1990s. The report

accuses the company of now playing " hide-and-seek

games " with local investigators. The Nigerian

government is now calling on Halliburton CEO Dave

Lesar to come to Nigeria to " make necessary

clarifications " to parliamentary investigators and

recommends that the company " receive no further

contracts in Nigeria until all international inquiries

have been concluded. "

 

POLITICS - GOP SLURS SOROS: Billionaire financier

George Soros is demanding an apology from House

speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) for comments made in an

interview on Fox News last week. Hastert said, " You

know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money.

I don't know where #8212; if it comes overseas or from

drug groups or where it comes from. #8230; " When

challenged by host Chris Wallace, Hastert made more

baseless claims: " Well, that's what he's been for a

number years #8212; George Soros has been for

legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he's got

a lot of ancillary interests out there. " Hastert is

not the first to make baseless prejudicial statements

against Soros, a Hungarian Jew. The Hill notes that

GOPAC, an organization that helps elect GOP

candidates, compared Soros on its website to Shylock,

the Shakespearian Jewish banker " whose venality would

not stop him from cutting human flesh to repay loans. "

 

ECONOMY #8211; RETAIL SALES DOWN: As the Bush campaign

fine tunes its " turning the corner " rhetoric, AP

reports another sign of consumer anxiety showed up in

lower-than-expected retail sales in August. Higher gas

prices, along with consumers' concerns about money and

jobs, are thought to have contributed to a

disappointing back-to-school shopping season for major

retailers. Analysts " reported a larger than expected

decline in consumer confidence, " and attributed the

slide largely to Americans' worries about the job

market, which has performed weakly in recent months.

" Overall, this doesn't look so good, " said Ken

Perkins, president and research analyst at

RetailMetrics LLC, an independent research company.

" There are a number of different factors that are

coming together to dampen consumer spending. "

 

MEDIA #8211; FOX DOUBLES COVERAGE FOR GOP: Watchdog

group Media Matters reports today that " fair and

balanced " FOX News Channel devoted more than double

the amount of time to covering the Republican

convention on its first night than it did the

Democratic convention. Fox news showed 74 total

minutes of live primetime speech coverage of the

Republican National Convention (RNC), or " 33 minutes

more than the network showed of speeches on the first

night of the Democratic National Convention (DNC). "

That skewed coverage " came after FOX News Channel host

Cal Thomas said that, in order to be 'fair and

balanced,' the coverage should not differ from the DNC

coverage #8211; and after FOX host Bill O'Reilly

announced that his show would air the same amount of

coverage of RNC speeches as it did of DNC speeches. "

 

MEDIA #8211; WHERE IS THE NEWS?: For those Americans

looking to non-cable news for their convention

coverage, they may be hard-pressed to find it. In

fact, the San Francisco chronicle reports, al-Jazeera,

the Qatar-based Arab television station #8211; will

air more hours of convention coverage than America's

major television networks #8211; ABC, CBS and NBC

#8211; combined.