Let me see if I have this straight.
The issue of the day is not about lying to the American people to justify an illegal, unnecessary, wasteful, destabilizing, murderous war.
It's not about the use of American power. Not the abrogation of civil liberties by the Justice Department. Not the assault by the administration on health, safety and environmental protections it took generations of political struggle to put in place. Not the multi-billion dollar faith-based antiballistic missile program. Not Senator Kerry's lackluster legislative career. Not big business dominance of both parties. Not national health. Not jobs.
Even limiting the debate to the candidates' military records, it's not about Bush's reliance on family juice to score a cushy spot in the National Guard and avoid going to 'Nam nor that he couldn't be bothered to show up as required for his already minimal service obligation.
No.
The most important issue of this political campaign is whether John Kerry exaggerated or mis-remembered exact details of his sojourn in Vietnam 35 years ago.
Even granting that Kerry invited this brouhaha by making his short stay in Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign, a responsible, self-respecting, professional media would never allow a minor story of little import to mushroom into a central focus of a presidential race.
Be thankful the sideshow is showing signs of running down (if anyone is interested in the facts, they can be found in a long investigatory piece in the New York Times (Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad, 2004-08-22) and on the Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.Org <http://www.factcheck.org/>), although now, having raised doubts with whomever they can about Kerry's heroism, the president's minions can proceed to the next phase where the senator's antiwar activism will be used to attack his patriotism. The first blast came Sunday from former Senator Bob Dole (Et tu, Bob?) who, while complaining that Kerry's exit pass home from southeast Asia was undeserved because his wounds were "superficial," added that it was past time for Kerry to apologize for telling Congress about alleged atrocities in Vietnam (CNN).
It remains to be seen whether this folderol will fool enough of the people enough of the time to affect the outcome of the election, but for now the Republicans are unchallenged at controlling the parameters of the political debate.
Both sides are spending all their time looking backwards, Kerry to Vietnam, the White House to 9/11 and the tiffany tax cuts. The Democrats' bid to be the war party isn't playing very well and there isn't much time to redirect the campaign to the future -- to health care and jobs and safeguarding the environment -- before election day. Hope may well be on the way, but it's looking like it may arrive too late to help Kerry.
The progressives, meanwhile, are in their usual prone position, demanding nothing in exchange for their energies on Kerry's behalf, and pretty much assured of getting nothing if he is elected.
Christmas in Cambodia (continued)
The U.S. Census Bureau reported yesterday that in 2003, for the third consecutive year, there was an increase in the numbers of uninsured and impoverished Americans.
"Real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 at $43,318," according to the agency. "At the same time, the nation’s official poverty rate rose from 12.1 percent in 2002 to 12.5 percent in 2003. The number of people with health insurance increased by 1.0 million to 243.3 million between 2002 and 2003, and the number without such coverage rose by 1.4 million to 45.0 million. The percentage of the nation’s population without coverage grew from 15.2 percent in 2002 to 15.6 percent in 2003."
Those who did get jobs were faced frequently with accepting scaled-back benefits and pension plans. Many workers did not receive cost of living increases.
That neutral sounding 12.5%, by the way, means that 35.8 million people were living in poverty. That's 1.3 million more than the year before. Adding to the pain, about 800,000 children made up more than half the increase, and the child poverty rate rose to 17.6% from from 16.7% a year earlier (the government's definition of poverty conveniently leads to an undercount -- the feds think two people are poor if they make less than $12,015 a year; the cutoff point for a family of four is $18,810).
Whites, blacks and Asians saw no significant change in median household income, but the income of Hispanics went down slightly. Though male worker's earnings held steady, wages fell for women age 15 and older working full-time year-round, the first annual decline for this category since 1995.
Swift boats. Millions in poverty. You decide.
"Real median household income remained unchanged between 2002 and 2003 at $43,318," according to the agency. "At the same time, the nation’s official poverty rate rose from 12.1 percent in 2002 to 12.5 percent in 2003. The number of people with health insurance increased by 1.0 million to 243.3 million between 2002 and 2003, and the number without such coverage rose by 1.4 million to 45.0 million. The percentage of the nation’s population without coverage grew from 15.2 percent in 2002 to 15.6 percent in 2003."
Those who did get jobs were faced frequently with accepting scaled-back benefits and pension plans. Many workers did not receive cost of living increases.
That neutral sounding 12.5%, by the way, means that 35.8 million people were living in poverty. That's 1.3 million more than the year before. Adding to the pain, about 800,000 children made up more than half the increase, and the child poverty rate rose to 17.6% from from 16.7% a year earlier (the government's definition of poverty conveniently leads to an undercount -- the feds think two people are poor if they make less than $12,015 a year; the cutoff point for a family of four is $18,810).
Whites, blacks and Asians saw no significant change in median household income, but the income of Hispanics went down slightly. Though male worker's earnings held steady, wages fell for women age 15 and older working full-time year-round, the first annual decline for this category since 1995.
Swift boats. Millions in poverty. You decide.
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