Guest guest Posted September 2, 2004 Report Share Posted September 2, 2004 > Thu, 02 Sep 2004 09:06:48 -0700 > Progress Report: Casting the First Stone > " American Progress Action Fund " > <progress > 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 Progress Report STUDENTS The Center for American Progress is now accepting intern applications for the fall semester. Get a free DVD of Outfoxed. Sign up here to host a screening on your campus. Combat the right-wing noise machine on your campus. Become a member of our network of campus publications and student journalists. 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 Sign up | Send tip | Permalinks | Mobile | Print 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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