This is what's missing from the Democrats' "new" populism--the big ideas for fundamental change, the hardheaded analysis that confronts national decline in all its ugly manifestations. We know some Democrats yearn to begin this kind of broad-gauged assault on the status quo, and the new concern in party circles about income and wealth inequality is encouraging. But the party, and most presidential candidates, are still too shy on the big questions. Where is the party's comprehensive critique of taxation--not just the wildly reactionary rate structure but the corrupted federal tax code, which allows the wealthiest players to decide for themselves how much tax they will pay (see David Cay Johnston's devastating reports in the New York Times and Perfectly Legal, his shocking book)? What do Democratic candidates have to say about how to redeem government as a trustworthy agent for the general welfare and an equitable society? The government's loss of integrity and effectiveness is growing, and citizens know the degradation did not originate with George W. Bush. To restore reliable government, a reforming party will have to cut corporate power down to a size society can tolerate.

If our nation is at a great turning point, an opening for momentous reforms, a party that seeks to win the governing majority cannot duck on any of these matters. We understand the hesitations; we are familiar with the obstacles. But to put it plainly, you cannot run on "populist" politics and count on robber barons to finance your campaigns. It might fool people for a season or two, but when nothing changes, they will punish the culprits.

Buddha [a military contractor, ex Delta Force] is not optimistic about the war his Army friends are fighting. "I've never seen a war of occupation that worked," he says. "This is an unconventional war being fought by a conventional army." And like other contractors, he says the war depends on the likes of him: "Without us, they could crunch numbers and lie to the public all day, but they wouldn't be able to do it."

link

Mark that date on your calendar...

It's happened

The newest addition to the right hand column at Lotus, added a week or two ago, is the running total of "Iraqi Deaths Due to U.S. Invasion" provided by Just Foreign Policy. As a base, the counter total used last year's study published in The Lancet that said there had been about 650,000 "excess deaths" in Iraq as a result of invasion, of which 601,000 were due to violence. It then uses the Iraq Body Count's tabulation of civilian deaths to estimate the rate at which those excess deaths by violence are increasing and updates the number displayed accordingly. The entire methodology is explained in more detail here.

Just a little while ago, sometime this afternoon, it ticked over to 1,000,985.

The threat was picked up by DEBKAfile's monitors from a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites Thursday, Aug. 8.
The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans of the grave error of failing to take seriously the videotape released by the American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gaddahn last week. "They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations," said one message.
Another said the attacks would be carried out "by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America's biggest city and financial nerve center."

Debka File

Supporters of the war in Iraq -- including President George W. Bush -- claim that a withdrawal of US forces would lead to an al Qaeda takeover of Iraq. Yet according to Pentagon war games, this scenario is highly unlikely.

However, an email sent this morning to Wired News, the Chicago Sun Times, the LA Times, and the Wall Street Journal alleges that AT&T censored the Flaming Lips and the John Butler Trio during previous webcasts:

"I read your article about this and it makes me so angry that AT&T say this is a one time mistake.

"They did the same thing on the webcasts from Bonnaroo in June during the John Butler Trio show when he was talking about the lack of response from our government during Katrina, and also during the Flaming Lips show when the lead singer was talking about how much George Bush had screwed up.  I was at both of those live shows and saw the webcasts later. The sound did not cut out at any other time - only when someone was talking about George Bush or the goverment in a negative way.

"It was not a mistake, it is full out censorship."

What I can't figure is what the Defense would think a jihad defense made sense, anyway. I mean what's the deal??

"I didn't do it, but if I did jihad gave me the right to."

AP - Jurors in the trial of Jose Padilla and two other men cannot consider whether the men's actions were justified by Islamic law, a federal judge ruled. The judge, Marcia G. Cooke of Federal District Court, agreed to a request from prosecutors to instruct the jurors that each of the men could be convicted even if they "may have believed that the conduct was religiously, politically or morally required, or that ultimate good would result." A cornerstone of the defense during the nearly three-month trial has been the idea that Islamic teaching provides for legitimate "defensive jihad." Mr. Padilla and his co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, are charged with being part of a North American terrorism support cell.

NASA's much-ballyhooed data showing that 1998 was the warmest year on record for the Earth the USA was, uh, wrong. A blogger found a Y2K bug in the data algorithm, NASA climatologist James Hansen, and NASA has now issued corrected data. The warmest year on record for the Earth the USA: 1934 - 1998 was the second-warmest. The third warmest: 1921. Michael Asher at DailyTech.com tells the story of how blogger Steve McIntyre, who operates the site climateaudit.org, found the error and forced NASA to admit it.

wasn't there a decision a few weeks / a month back that pertained to home health care workers?

I didn't catch any blog-o-sphere analysis of it that was readable to my math degree brain.

can anyone at least point me to the decision?

thnxs.

Democrats are growing anxious about a state initiative filed last month by a prominent Republican attorney to change the way California assigns its presidential electors, even though the proposal has no discernible financial backers yet.

Rather than assign all of California's 55 electoral votes to one candidate under the current winner-take-all system, the initiative would split the nation's largest electoral bounty between two or more candidates.

Filed by GOP lawyer Thomas Hiltachk, it would give a presidential candidate one electoral vote for each congressional district he or she wins in California, plus two additional votes to whomever wins a plurality statewide. If it qualifies, it would appear on the June 2008 ballot and take effect in next year's presidential contest.

That could spell disaster for Democrats and be a significant boon to Republicans in a state the GOP hasn't won since 1988. If the proposed system had been in place in 2004, President Bush would have received 22 electoral votes from California rather than none.

Bush set to beat Reagan's vacation record.

Homeless vets: a hidden crisis

ORLANDO, Fla. - Often, when Ryan Svolto manages to sleep, he finds himself back in Iraq preparing for triage, awash in blood and bodies. But he can't find his medical kit, and, helpless, he thrashes awake, damp with sweat.

As an infantry medic, he patched up soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq. Now, Svolto, 24, is trying to fix his own wounded life after a recent stint at a Daytona Beach, Fla., homeless shelter.

Svolto is one of a growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who joined the ranks of the homeless after returning home. Experts say a system already buckling under one of the nation's largest homeless populations might collapse under the weight of a new wave of veterans, many saddled with mental-health issues and crippling brain injuries.

''If I could identify and convince every homeless vet in the area to come to a shelter or a transitional-housing program,'' said Cathy Jackson, executive director of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, ''we wouldn't have enough beds for them.''

For Svolto, it's yet another battle, one he believes he won't be fighting alone.

''That's the scary part: when they get out of the Army and realize they're not who they used to be,'' he said. ''It seems easier to disappear in the woods and live that way. A lot of these kids aren't going to be prepared. I wasn't prepared.''

Nearly half of all homeless veterans served in Vietnam. Hamstrung by a lack of job skills, by drug addictions and psychological issues, they became homeless 12 to 15 years after discharge.

But veterans of the latest war are hitting the streets much sooner.
...
A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that nearly 20 percent of Iraq vets show clinical signs of major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Similarly, about a fifth of them have traumatic brain injuries, often the result of being wounded by roadside bombs. Such injuries can produce personality changes, mood swings and impaired memory.

(more...)