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ThinkFast PM: July 7, 2006

By ThinkProgress on Jul 7, 2006 at 7:26 pm

A daily Iraq intelligence brief prepared for the U.S. military by a private contractor paints a wrenching picture: “Baghdad looks so exhausted these days and so do her people; the relentless violence, the lack of basic services and the scorching heat abolishes human desire to do anything or to even think of anything.”

$2.94: The average national price for a gallon of gas, the highest of the year.

“Why are Bush supporters celebrating today’s leak of classified information?” Glenn Greenwald asks about today’s leak of the FBI arrests of alleged terrorists, which reportedly “compromised the FBI’s relationship with some foreign intelligence services.”

The Atlantic Monthly blogs the Aspen Ideas Festival.

“Arrogance, secrecy, and bad judgment have mired us in a mess in Guantanamo from which we are having great difficulty in extricating ourselves,” writes U.S. Army Gen. (Ret.) Barry R. McCaffrey in a report on his recent trip to Guantanamo Bay.

And finally: The BBC has been holding a competition to redesign the BBC home page. Check out the winner and the runners-up.

Politics

President Bush’s Job Record Since August 2003: Nothing To Brag About

By Judd Legum on Jul 7, 2006 at 5:14 pm

The White House issued a fact sheet today on President Bush’s economic record. The headline blares “5.4 Million Jobs Created Since August 2003.” The sheet suggests recent job growth proves President Bush’s economic strategy is a smashing success.

Let’s set aside for a moment that the “fact sheet” conveniently ignores the 22 months of jobs losses that proceeded August 2003. Instead, let’s put Bush’s job record since August 2003 in perspective:

1. Monthly job growth since August 2003 is 50% lower than the average of President Clinton’s entire term. Since August 2003, job growth has averaged 160,000 per month. During Clinton’s eight years in office job growth averaged 236,000 per month.

2. Real wages have fallen since August 2003. The average worker’s real wages were twenty cents lower in June 2006 than they were in August 2003.

Any way you slice it, Bush’s economic policy has resulted in slower job growth and lower wages. That’s nothing to brag about.

Security

Murtha is Right: Reagan’s Redeployment Made America Stronger

By Guest Blogger on Jul 7, 2006 at 4:36 pm

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) has argued recently that in Iraq, President Bush should follow the lead of President Reagan in Lebanon, who redeployed U.S. forces. Last week, Cheney responded:

If we follow Congressman Murtha’s advice and withdraw from Iraq the same way we withdrew from Beirut in 1983…we will simply validate the al Qaeda strategy and guarantee more terrorist attacks in the future.

The departure of U.S. troops did not stabilize the situation in Lebanon: the civil war raged on, Syria’s influence grew, and U.S. prestige throughout the world, especially in the Islamic world, was tarnished. But Reagan’s decision saved the United States from becoming further entangled in a raging civil-regional war and was essential to winning the broader Cold War.

As Reagan’s Asst. Defense Secretary Lawrence Korb and I have argued, the real lesson of Lebanon is that our country must be willing to change course when an operation does not advance our strategic interests.

While the Soviet Union was sinking deeper into a quagmire of its own in Afghanistan, Reagan recognized that the United States had overreached in its effort to “solve” a civil-regional war with military force. The Bush administration faces a similar choice today — whether to further drain our resources in a civil-regional war in Iraq or redeploy our assets to defeat global terrorist networks.

Much as Reagan redeployed U.S. troops to better fight the Cold War, so must we redeploy today to better fight the war on terror. Cheney’s approach “” sapping U.S. resources, further taxing the U.S. military, and immersing the United States in an escalating civil war “” endangers the entire effort.

– Max Bergmann

Politics

Bush Brags He Kept Campaign Promise on Global Warming, Forgets Pledge To Regulate CO2

By Faiz Shakir on Jul 7, 2006 at 2:41 pm

On Larry King Live last night, President Bush suggested that he has followed through on campaign promises to deal with greenhouse gases. He cited his administration’s investment in clean coal technologies:

We have done a lot to deal with greenhouse gases by advancing new technologies. You know, I campaigned against Al Gore. I said we’re going to spend money for clean coal technologies, and we’re in the process of doing that.

Bush neglected to mention that in 2000 he campaigned on a pledge to regulate carbon dioxide emissions as central compenent of his energy policy. On Sept. 29, 2000, while campaigning in Saginaw, MI, Bush said: “We will require all power plants to meet clean-air standards in order to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide within a reasonable period of time.”

Shortly after being elected, Bush announced he was backing off his campaign pledge due to pressure from the oil industry. In a March 13, 2001 letter, Bush said: “I do not believe, however, that the government should impose on power plants mandatory emissions reductions for carbon dioxide, which is not a ‘pollutant’ under the Clean Air Act.” Vice President Cheney said of Bush’s campaign pledge, “It was a mistake because we aren’t in a position today to…cap emissions.”

Last night, Bush brushed off Al Gore’s criticisms of his failure to address global warming, saying, “I guess politics never stops.” He’s right about that.

Politics

ThinkFast AM: July 7, 2006

By ThinkProgress on Jul 7, 2006 at 9:17 am

“A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed ‘large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists’ to infiltrate the military.”

House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-IL) “net worth has soared from no more than $290,000 to more than $6 million during his 19-year tenure on Capitol Hill.” Hastert has made most of his money through land deals, sometimes using federal earmarks to turn a profit.

Coal industry veteran Richard Stickler, the man President Bush chose to oversee federal mine safety laws, “has not been able to win Senate confirmation but has gone to work at the Labor Department anyway.”

Allegations of plagiarism in Ann Coulter’s new book are “trivial,” “meritless,” and “irresponsible,” says Steve Ross, SVP of Crown Publishing, which published the book. “The number of words used by our author in these snippets is so minimal that there is no requirement for attribution.”

Contrary to claims in the U.S. media that conditions in Guantanamo have improved, Australian terror suspect David Hicks, who is being held at the prison camp, told relatives that conditions have worsened since three inmates committed suicide last month. Read more

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