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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Mon. 01/26/04 07:25:48 AM
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A Different State of the Union? Democrats in Self-Destruct Mode CXXXVIII From the Contra Costa Times, Jan. 23. + + + + + Two days before President Bush delivered his State of the Union address, a sold-out audience filled the Berkeley Community Theater for a decidedly different kind of event. In "Unraveling the Lying Liars of the Bush Dynasty," three best-selling authors took aim at not only Bush and his administration, but also at what they consider the complicity of the media. That the event had the air of a major rock concert or sporting event was evidenced by the number of people at the corner of Allston Way and Milvia Street holding up signs seeking tickets. Those who got in weren't disappointed by authors Paul Krugman ("The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century"), Kevin Phillips ("American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush") and Al Franken ("Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"). Krugman, a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, New York Times columnist and a senior economic adviser for one year during the Reagan administration, questioned Bush tax cuts that he said mean little to the average person but provide a windfall to those in the top 1 percent income bracket. He cited the income tax reduction that was claimed to return an average of $1,000 to households. "Let me explain average to you," he said. "If Bill Gates walks into a bar, the average income of everyone goes up by several million dollars." Krugman, who was on the council of economic advisers during the Reagan administration, had similar criticism of the tax cut on dividends and the Bush plan -- reiterated during Tuesday's State of the Union address -- to privatize a portion of Social Security. The media, he said, have generally failed to question any of the initiatives. Regarding the president's upcoming address, Krugman said, "I'm told he's going to portray himself as a visionary ... and it's true. His vision is 'Let's go to Mars.'" Phillips, a well-respected Republican campaign analyst for many years beginning with Richard Nixon's successful 1968 run for the White House, painted a much more sinister picture of an aristocratic dynasty whose roots began to take hold more than 80 years ago when the Bush family developed ties to the Middle East. "Lying presidents didn't start with Bush," he said, noting Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton. "But they were all first generation. This is the first multi-generational family of fibbers." The Bush family's ties to the intelligence date back to World War I, he said, and when George H.W. Bush became director of the CIA for 14 months in 1979-80 "he was a 'made man,' in a certain sense," Phillips said, adding that the family also maintains strong ties dating to pre-Castro Cuba. Franken, whose book is third on the New York Times Bestseller list, was the headliner of the evening, and the veteran writer and performer in television and movies delivered lines well-polished on nationwide promotional appearances for his second bestseller. His first was "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations." He called Bush's No Child Left Behind initiative "the most ironically named piece of legislation since the 1942 Japanese Family Leave Act," and said that a "code orange" national security warning means "go to the mall," while "code red" means "shop online." "We were lied to about weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), which raises serious questions," Franken said. "If, as may be the case, the president did not understand his intelligence briefings, why didn't he ask to have them explain them to him. And did he know that he didn't understand them? These are questions that must be asked repeatedly and in an accusatory fashion." Franken saved some of his sharpest barbs for the Fox News cable channel and its conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly. A picture of O'Reilly appears on the cover of Franken's book. Fox sued the author and his publisher for including "fair and balanced," the cable channel's slogan, in the book's title. "Satire is protected speech, even if the object of the satire doesn't get it," said Franken, adding that his response to the possibility of a publicity windfall from a lawsuit was, "please, please sue us." The three authors donated their time to the event, moderated by public radio host Amy Goodman, which was a fund-raiser for KPFA radio and human rights organization Global Exchange. + + + + + The Blog from the Core asserts Fair Use for non-commercial, non-profit educational purposes. In case you were wondering, the Contra Costa Times is, indeed, a Bay Area newspaper. (Thanks, Donald.) [Follow-up: Battering the "House of Bush".] Lane Core Jr. CIW P Mon. 01/26/04 07:25:48 AM |
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