Krugman - Support the Troops

[realFedUp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/11/opinion/11KRUG.html

November 11, 2003
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Support the Troops
By PAUL KRUGMAN

esterday's absurd conspiracy theory about the Bush administration has a way of turning into today's conventional wisdom. Remember when people were ridiculed for claiming that Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, eager to fight a war, were hyping the threat from Iraq?

Anyway, many analysts now acknowledge that the administration never had any intention of pursuing a conventionally responsible fiscal policy. Rather, its tax cuts were always intended as a way of implementing the radical strategy known as "starve the beast," which views budget deficits as a good thing, a way to squeeze government spending. Did I mention that the administration is planning another long-run tax cut next year?

Advocates of the starve-the-beast strategy tend to talk abstractly about "big government." But in fact, squeezing government spending almost always means cutting back or eliminating services people actually want (though not necessarily programs worth their cost). And since it's Veterans Day, let's talk about how the big squeeze on spending may be alienating a surprising group: the nation's soldiers.

snip

At one level, this pattern of cuts is standard operating procedure. Just about every apparent promise of financial generosity this administration has made (other than those involving tax cuts for top brackets and corporate contracts) has turned out to be nonoperational. No Child Left Behind got left behind — or at least left without funds. AmeriCorps got praised in the State of the Union address, then left high and dry in the budget that followed. New York's firefighters and policemen got a photo-op with the president, but very little money. For that matter, it's clear that New York will never see the full $20 billion it was promised for rebuilding. Why shouldn't soldiers find themselves subject to the same kind of bait and switch?

[roguevalley]

1. God, I hate this regime.

[realFedUp]

2. I second that emotion.

[The Zanti Regent]

3. GO PAUL K GO!!!!!!

Once again, Paul K proves he is NOT afraid of the Nazis!

[Myra]

4. I had to write to Krugman about Diebold/Voting Fraud

Which is why the BFEE doesn't care about alienating
soldiers, or any voters.
You guys, fighting Diebold and computerized
voter fraud has to be our top priority.

Feel free to use the below letter in part or
whole, to help fight the fraud.

------------------------------

Mr. Krugman,

Your latest column, "Support the Troops," was excellent,
as are all your columns. However, you, like the few
other columnists willing to print the truth, overlook the real
reason why Bush Inc doesn't care about alienating any voting
demographic, including the traditionally Republican military vote.

They have voting fraud sewn up.

There can be no voter backlash, no ousting of the current
powers that be, because the true will of the voters will be
ignored in 2004, as it was in 2000.

The difference is that in 2000, it became a messy and public
ordeal thanks to: hanging chads, the blatant partisan mechanizations
of strategically positioned Secretary of State Katherine Harris and
Governor Jeb Bush in the key state of Florida,
and the infamous and illegal DBT purge of voters (mostly African Americans who
traditionally vote Democratic) exposed by investigative reporter
Greg Palast:
(http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=122&row=1).

The GOP juggernaut has come a long way in three years.
Those clunky old voting methods, that left clunky old chads and paper
trails,are rapidly being replaced by computerized voting machines,
in most cases from a vendor named Diebold. These Diebold computers
are already entrenched in 37 states, they are the fastest-growing
voting company in the United States, and leave no clunky...pesky
paper trail. But wait, there's more.

The following was reported by Salon.com and investigator Bev Harris on
9/23/03:
(http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/09/23/bev_harris/)


"Harris found that Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, used to
run the voting company that provided most of the voting machines in his state. And in August, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Walden O'Dell, the CEO of Diebold, is a major fundraiser for
President Bush. In a letter to fellow Republicans,
O'Dell said that he was "COMMITTED TO HELPING OHIO DELIVER ITS ELECTORAL VOTES TO THE PRESIDENT NEXT YEAR.
...
Harris has discovered that Diebold's voting software is so flawed that
anyone with access to the system's computer can change the votes without leaving any record. On top of that, she's uncovered internal Diebold memos in which employees seem to suggest hat the vulnerabilities re no big deal. The memos appear to be
authentic -- Diebold even sent Harris a notice warning
her that by posting the documents on the Web, she was infringing upon the company's intellectual property."

According to Ms. Harris:

"...We uncovered a few problems in the memos, but the first one that we published specifically supported the flaw that I wrote about in July of 2003...and they made a decision not to fix it
...
Specifically the flaw was that you can get at the central vote-counting database through Microsoft Access. They have the security disabled. And when you get in that way, you are able to overwrite the audit log, which is supposed to log the transactions, and this is one of the key things they cite as a security measure when they sell the system.
...
You don't even need to break in. It will open right up and in you go. You can change the votes and you can overwrite the audit trail. It doesn't keep any record of anything in the audit trail when you're in this back door, but let's say you went in the front door and you didn't want to have anything you did there appear anywhere --
you can then go in the backdoor and erase what you did..."


In other words Mr. Krugman, anyone who votes on a Diebold machine may
as well write their vote on a piece of toilet paper and flush it down the can. Along with our erstwhile democracy.

You can find out much more at Ms. Harris's website:
http://www.blackboxvoting.com

Computerized voting fraud is the most immediate problem in our
country right now. If we don't stop it we won't get a chance to
fix the other huge problems you write so compellingly about.
And we'll never get an opportunity to enact real campaign finance reform, the number one priority if our democracy is to be resurrected.

Dictators don't steal elections only to relinquish power via the
quaint old "election" process a mere four years later.
So the Bush regime isn't concerned about alienating a
few thousand soldiers, or a few million voters, or anyone
outside their elite club of billionaires. They're only concern is
to insure that Diebold's paperless fraud machines are in place
in time for the 2004 charade.


Myra ...

[Beetwasher]

8. Bingo!

It's becoming more and more obvious they don't care about alienating anybody and there's only one reason for that behavior. They are not worried about re-election. And there's only one reason they wouldn't be worried about re-election; they've got it in the bag.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Wesley Clark

was in Springfield MO the other day on a campaign stop and was talking to veterans. He lambasted the Bush Administration for their treatment of the military and went on to say that the military wasn't going to automatically vote Repug this time. Drew cheers from his audience. When asked to comment, the local Repug leader had nothing to say. (Source: KSMU radio report)

Folks, this is a strong point for the Dems to use. Consider Bush's policies of bait and switch as a house of cards. The support veteran's issues is one of the bottom cards. We pull that, and the whole thing comes down.

[tom_paine]

6. kick for Krugman

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Good job Krugman.

I pointed this out yesterday. The Republicans are creating the money shortfalls BECAUSE of the tax-cuts, but nobody wants to believe the tax-cuts are at fault. The public will pay the ultimate price eventually when the Republicans manage to convince everyone that government can't do the job, and they'll hand over the keys to their private corporations who will pump up the prices to ridiculous heights.