Left In Lowell

You and I know what the average American does not: the Republican Congress and White House has been consistantly suckage on protecting the homeland. Rhetoric does not a good policy make.

So via AMERICAblog, here are a couple of examples of recent weak-on-security Republican moves that Democrats need to publicize in the next election…

First, the Republican-controlled House (which as John mentions, has no minority rights for the Dems, unlike the Senate) killed an air marshal training plan that was aimed at responding to terror alerts:

From AP:

Efforts to train thousands of federal agents to protect commercial flights during heightened terror alerts were quietly abandoned more than a year ago because Congress objected to the cost, government investigators said Tuesday.

Then, John asks, “Why is the Transportation Security Agency facing a “tight budget”?“:

I read this in today’s Washington Post in an article explaining why they’re allowing scissors and other pointy objects back on airplanes:

Faced with a tighter budget and morale problems among its workforce, the TSA says its new policy changes are aimed at making the best use of limited resources.

Limited resources? We’re talking about an agency whose job it is to stop your mom’s airplane from blowing up. What limited resources and tight budget problems are they facing? Who in the GOP-controlled congress isn’t giving this vital agency the money they need?

Funny, but when Bush needs $300 billion to fight a war that’s a lie and a quagmire, we find the money in a snap. But when we need the money to stop our commerical airliners from blowing up, suddenly the budget is tight.

Nuts. We can spend billions a month on war, but not on protecting our own people.

Although I’m really just parroting a couple of with-it MA blogs who posted on this earlier (Beyond 495, The Eisenthal Report, and Blue Mass. Group) it would seem that Worcester’s Mayor Tim Murray has thrown in for running for Lt. Governor, which brings the field to four major candidates (Murray, Andrea Silbert, Deborah Goldberg , and Sam Kelley).

But, I can tell you something those guys couldn’t - anyone coming to BlogLeft Massachussetts December 10th will at least get to meet Mr. Murray, as he will give a greeting at our forum on December 10th.

Speaking of BlogLeft Massachusetts - you still have time to get your registration in, but send it today or tomorrow! It’s $25 for this meeting which includes a buffet lunch and all day coffee and tea.

I’ve gotten word that State Senator Jarrett Barrios is going to be at the Coalition for a Better Acre this coming Friday, December 2nd from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, in order to meet with local area voters and activists. Jarrett is running for Middlesex County District Attorney next year, and is considered by many to be a good progressive and candidate.

Come and meet him Friday! More information about Barrios is at barrios.org.

Well, all right, it’s not so dramatic as that, but it’s pretty much descriptive of what’s happening with our friends to the Great White North.

As a child of Quebecois parents (my dad was actually was born/raised there, and my maternal grandfather was born in Quebec) and with lots of friends in Alberta and BC, I still find Canadian politics utterly beyond my grasp. Parliamentary procedures first destroy the government, then they have elections, whereby it’s likely the ousted party gets in again. I mean, weird. From the diary, quoting the CBC:

In a 171 to 133 vote, the House passed an historic no-confidence motion exactly one year and five months after Canadian voters elected the Liberals.

Prime Minister Paul Martin will now have to go see Governor General Michaëlle Jean Tuesday morning and ask her to dissolve Parliament.

However strange I find it, I almost wish we could do the same here. Oh wait, it wouldn’t work, we have one-party rule, never mind…

By the way, I have an uncle who was (is?) an active member of the separatist party, Parti Quebecois. I still don’t get that whole deal. Canada seems really nice to its French-speaking province, in that typical Canadian fashion…they made French a second official language and everything. Being under the Canadian thumb is like being tied down by a feather. “Help, help, I’m being oppressed by Canadians!” “Oh, we’re sorry, can we do anything to make your stay more comfortable?”

I love Canadians, really. Bunch of fun blokes, they are. (Well, except maybe for my very serious, very stern uncle.)

I’ve been a member of a local business networking group for a couple months now. One of the things I remember recently hearing from the real estate guy was that housing prices in the area are dropping like lead balloons.

Or like a real estate bubble bursting, perhaps?

waittilnextyr in comments mentioned one real estate guru in Lowell who buys at low cost and sells at peak. He sold a bunch of properties recently.

For some of us this means we might - just might - be able to afford to buy a home around here in the next couple of years. But what does this mean for the city’s economic plan? If all those expensive properties that have been bought up to create high-end condos suddenly sell at a loss for those developers, I think that’s going to have an impact on all of us.

People have been riding high on free money (low interest rates) but reality is about to become a harsh mistress.

Dailykos writer Levity points us to a brave whistleblower, interviewed until this point only by PBS’s Frontline and Democracy Now!, who confirms that torture in Iraq was not just a few bad apples, it’s the whole damned orchard:

Here’s a story that will disappear until bloggers start talking about it. Only PBS Frontline and Democracy Now! have dared to interview U.S. interrogator Tony Lagouranis, who reports widespread torture and abuse throughout Iraq.

He admits:
- frustrated US soldiers torture Iraqi families at length in their homes - including flesh burning, bone breaking, and ax attacks - with impunity
- no matter how obvious their innocence, detainees are always treated as guilty and sent to Abu Ghraib
- officers filed unfounded reports to bolster the claim that Fallujah dead were foreigners
- actually the Fallujah corpses included numerous women and children
- Lagouranis’s multiple official abuse reports, ignored by CID and commanders for over a year, were suddenly re-filed after he appeared on Frontline
- torture has produced no useful intelligence, and efforts to legalize it are “the worst thing we could do”

I have yet to see the Frontline (only the greatest and most thorough damned news show on TV right now) with the interview, but you can read the transcript and see highlights here.

So, folks, is torture now an American value? Seems like it is.

I don’t know if over the holidays you heard about this new Downing Street memo that was (almost) leaked. This story might even be bigger than the original Downing Street Memo (the one that showed Bush wanted to go into Iraq even if it took fixing the intell). Because this one involves British PM Tony Blair talking Bush out of bombing the free press of another country, a US ally no less:

PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a “Top Secret” No 10 memo reveals.

But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.

A source said: “There’s no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.” Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.

The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.

I love, love, love this line:

A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been “humorous, not serious”.

Ha ha, joke’s on you, you thought I was serious! Too bad it’s a flimsy and not credible explanation. According to another official, “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.”

Blair is taking a page out of Bush’s book and threatening the press against releasing the memo. Britain is known for having a less free press than we do, but such prosecutions are rare.

The Republican Congress in the 90’s was pissed at Clinton for wanting to bomb Al Quada targets in Afghanistan, you know, that illegal government we never even acknowledged the existence of who was supporting terrorist activities. IOKIYAR (It’s OK If You Are Republican), though! Bombing al-Jazeera in Qatar. I don’t care how much you don’t like someone else’s media, you do not bomb non-combatants at a TV station. Of course, all indications are that Bush would love to do the same to the US media. Pesky do-gooders askin’ all those questions about his run up to the war. It was much better when the reporters were on the government payroll, no?

I hope everyone has a warm place to go and enough to eat this Thanksgiving holiday. Take a moment to think about those who do not during your feast, and be thankful for what you have. I know I am grateful to be surrounded by family (too much family maybe - my husband and I will be eating two dinners within 4 hours), to have each other, and to have health insurance again.

Here’s a couple of upcoming political events people might be interested in after your holiday reveling is over:

11/28 Drinking Liberally Lowell - As usual you can find me hosting Monday night DL at the Brewery Exchange, 201 Cabot St, second floor, at 7:30pm (til about 9pm). We’ll probably talk about attending the other two events and what could be accomplished.

12/03 Town Meeting with Meehan - bring all your concerns and questions (I certainly hope to, especially about H.R. 4194) to the Congressman during two town meetings in the Southern part of the 5th District. On December 3, 2005 Congressman Meehan will hold a Town Meeting at 11am at the Hudson Town Hall and another meeting at 2 PM at the Peabody School in Concord

12/06 Centerville Neighborhood Action Group - a neighborhood group for Centerville residents. The next meeting will be looking at planning concerns for Bridge street December 6th at 6pm at the East End Club on West 4th Street

12/10 BlogLeft Massachusetts - [Details] A forum and gathering for Massachusetts progressive bloggers, readers, and other quirky liberal people, December 10th, 2005, 10:30 to 4pm at the Tatnuck Bookseller in Worcester, MA. Cost: $25 per person. Preregistration by Thursday, December 1st required. Lunch is included. Free wireless internet available.

I jaunt over to the Lowell Sun to go slumming it and see if there’s anything I want to pick apart today. Of course, the Sun (and other bigger publications) have been all over the stories about the Lowell Connector and the recent dangerous, fatal accidents that occurred within hours of one another. I suppose it’s only fair to say any newspaper would probably overcover it; especially the hometown paper where the “most dangerous stretch of highway” exists. It’s easy copy and dramatic, to say the least, and people do want to hear about it.

But man, Mike Lefleur really ought to pay attention to his titles, at a minimum. Here’s the newest Connector story at the Sun: “Connector safer — but at what cost? Guardrails installed just weeks after fatal crash.”

OK, that makes it sound like some excessive sum of money was spent and Mike’s going to break the news story to us. Read on, oh captured listener! You will be shocked and horrified!

Except the story has very little to do with a critique of the money spent (and in my humble opinion, a good chuck should be spent to make the road safer - do you put a dollar figure on lives?). Instead, it talks about all the Important People^TM that came to gawk at the new guard rail. Only later, casually, do we find out it cost $400,000. I don’t know the going rate for high-end guardrails, so I don’t know if that was a good deal or not. Of course, the author promised in his title to tell us whether or not that cost was excessive, but doesn’t even deliver a lukewarm report about that.

Look, I know I razz the Sun a lot. I know this is nitpicking to some extent. I know they must do something well over there. But their writing and editing don’t appear to be one of them. If you want to run a classy newspaper, at least match the title to the story before publication.

…because everyone is commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the death of JFK. Dimmy Karras shares a famous photo. Andy at MassRevNow, JumboDem at Idealism without Illusions, and Wes at Walk in Brain all share their thoughts.

What is my sense of that fateful day and this historic person? I was born long after. The first president I really remember is Reagan. Ever since, cynicism and attack politics have reigned. The Right says that’s all the Democrats’ fault, facts reveal (in my opinion) that it started with the hostage situation that ended Carter’s presidency arranged by Republicans to make him look bad, and continues right through today with Republicans in charge of Executive, Legislative, and now, Judicial. If power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, how bad is the effect of gaining absolute power absolutely corruptly?

To me, learning about history piecemeal in my public school education, JFK’s presidency harkens back to a time before Tricky Dick, when people at least trusted the office, whoever held it. At least, that’s what I am told by my elders. Is it better for the people to respect the office of the President without the critical eye to watch for those bumps in the democratic road the President travels on? (Or in the case of Bush II, gaping car-length holes.) I’m pretty sure now that I’ll never know first hand. The age of Camelot - not of chivalry, but of civility - appears to be dead. We have a recent history of divisive politics whose legacy will never allow another JFK again.

Well, unless Barak Obama gets on the presidential ticket! I guess there still is hope.

Oh, and happy birthday to my husband Chris - he’s 34 today.