I love this man....

Bill Clinton, in his own words (from CNN):

"The tax cut that I got has been protected against all cost," said Clinton, referring to the $1 trillion income tax cuts that primarily benefited Americans with high incomes such as the former president, who has earned millions for his forthcoming memoirs and for making speeches.

"It's the most important thing in the world to the administration and the majority party in Congress to protect my tax cut," Clinton said.

"So to protect my tax cut in this budget, they are kicking 300,000 poor children out of after-school programs, 23,000 cops off the street.

"They've already removed 83,000 students from the student loan program, depriving 140,000 unemployed workers from job training and removing child care supports to 100,000 working families," Clinton continued.

"Now that's a choice they made. They actually believe the most important thing in the world is to have less government and low taxes.

"They believe that lower taxes are good even if you have to have adverse human consequences. It's a difference of opinion."

Kerry's radio address

John Kerry gave the Democratic radio address a week ago. It shows that he is willing to attack Bush's credibility on foreign policy:

"We cannot let the strongest armed forces in the world be weakened. America's greatest military strength has always been the courageous, talented men and women whose love of country and devotion to service lead them to attempt and achieve the impossible everyday. We must resolve that America's leaders will never let them down.
"Yet we hear reports that - in dangerous parts of Iraq - our helicopters are flying missions without the best available anti-missile systems.

"At the same time, un-armored Humvees are falling victim to road-side bombs and small-arms fire. The Bush Administration waited through month after month of ambushes and only acted to start manufacturing armored door kits three months ago.

"The Army's 428th Transportation Company, headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, shipped out to Iraq two weeks ago. They had to ask local businesses to donate the steel to armor their vehicles. When the Bush Administration heard about this, their response wasn't `never again.' It was `good idea' - they emailed instructions to other units letting them know how they could use homemade armor to protect their own Humvees from attacks. I believe our soldiers deserve better.

"Even more shocking, tens of thousands of other troops arrived in Iraq to find that - with danger around every corner - there wasn't enough body armor to protect them. Many of their families on the homefront - mothers and fathers, husbands and wives and children - were forced to raise the money to buy it for them. They went to their neighbors for donations - and dipped into their savings to give their sons and daughters the equipment to save their lives - which the Army should be providing. Last month, a young newlywed in Virginia even gave her husband body armor for Valentine's Day as he prepared to ship out to Iraq.

"Families should be sending pictures and care packages to Iraq - and the Department of Defense should be sending the body armor. Today, I call on President Bush to support a law now in Congress to reimburse each and every family who had to buy the body armor this Administration failed to provide. This month, I will also be introducing a Military Family Bill of Rights to prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

"What we face isn't a question of the budget; it's a question of priorities and values. This Administration has given billions to Halliburton and requested 82 million dollars to protect Iraq's 36 miles of coast line. But they call this basic body armor a `non-priority' item.

Good news for fiscal sanity

The biggest news in politics today is the Senate's passage of a rule that requires a 60 vote quorum for tax cuts to be passed. The rule will be in effect for the next 5 years (not coincidentally the period where Bush could possibly be President). This is great news. Perhaps now we'll get rid of this deficit eventually.

Private Gardner's kooky critique

9 out of 10 of John Kerry's crewmates in Vietnam are campaigning for him. The 10th wasn't located - until now. Time Magazine has a profile of the 10th soldier, Stephen Gardner. His war stories are best described as "nutty".

Kerry wanted to "gut the intelligence budget"?

Nope.

Check out this Slate article for an explanation of Kerry's 1995 proposal.

SS crisis nonexistent?

The Brookings institute has an interesting theory about the Social Security numbers that the government is putting out:

1. They ignore the trend of higher productivity growth. (Higher productivity means higher GDP growth, and therefore more SS tax revenues)

2. They ignore the effect of immigration. Since immigrants workers to the population and often return to their home countries before collecting SS benefits, they will help add to the pot of money that will fund the baby boomers' retirement.

It's an interesting theory...

More about Zarqawi

The Bush administration has offered a 10 million dollar award for this man's capture. But most intelligence experts think it's impossible that he is coordinating dozens of attacks in Iraq, as he claims (from the LA Times):

Although Zarqawi has been identified as a central figure in a multiethnic network whose tentacles reach across Europe and the Middle East, his anointment as an all-powerful kingpin troubles some investigators and experts, who say it distorts the nature of the insurgency in Iraq.

An Iraqi anti-terrorist police commander dismissed the claim in the purported Zarqawi letter that he has carried out 25 "martyrdom operations," which would encompass most major attacks here since the fall.

"They are always exaggerating about Al Qaeda," said Col. Dhia Hussein of the Baghdad anti-terrorism unit. "No witnesses have come and talked to me about Zarqawi. The only thing is that he is mentioned in the newspapers. And a $10-million reward. Who is this man? … Maybe he exists — such characters exist. But to complete these operations and we don't know, it's impossible."

Die-hard loyalists of the former Iraqi regime represent a bigger threat than Zarqawi, Hussein said. The suicide bombings in Baghdad are the work of different groups, he said, including the loyalists, recently arrived freelance Islamic extremists and foreign fighters who came to Iraq before the war.

The focus on Zarqawi is part of a political strategy to portray the terrorism threat as essentially foreign and rooted in the Al Qaeda network, thereby downplaying the significance of Iraqi insurgents, critics say. But outsiders could not operate in Iraq's "hostile tribal environment" without local allies, said Mustafa Alani, an Iraq-born expert on terrorism.

Furthermore, as I reported a couple of days ago, Zarqawi could have been neutralized in 2002 (from MSNBC):

In June 2002...the Pentagon quickly drafted plans to attack the camp [but]....the plan was debated to death in the National Security Council....The Pentagon drew up a second strike plan, and the White House again killed it....The Pentagon drew up still another attack plan, and for the third time, the National Security Council killed it.

Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.

He was organizing an Al Qaeda sect in under the no fly zone!

George W. Bush: Real Leadership in the War on Terror.

Yeah right...