Andy’s whereIstand Blog

I thought part of the whole GOP/Bush Corp strategy was that they maintain at all times that everything is under control and going exactly according to plan, then what exactly does Bolten have to fix?

Now as President Bush’s second chief of staff, he is suddenly in the spotlight. Last week he appeared before large groups of worried aides in a White House theater, where Bush occasionally holds press conferences, to convince them that a few discomfiting changes, along with a lot of harder, smarter work, could turn around a second term that has disappointed so many of them.

"We have a thousand days to get the job done," he said, according to attendees. The rearranging of staff in the Administration, which has included moving out some loyalists from Texas and is likely to continue, reflects the President’s insistence that Bolten rethink an enterprise that had a series of horrible quarters. The real deadline is not 1,000 days from now, when Bush leaves office. The marker that is uppermost in the minds of Bush’s inner circle is Nov. 7, when Republicans could lose control of the House and even the Senate. "If we don’t keep Congress, there won’t be a legacy," said a presidential adviser. "The legacy will be investigations and fights over Executive privilege" with newly empowered Democrats.

So the White House is now on a survival footing, and Bolten is essentially planning a six-month campaign that will not only prevent a Republican hemorrhage in the fall but might even produce accomplishments for Bush in his lame-duck years. The new chief recognizes that he needs to show results quickly, since aides have claimed to be rebooting the second term so many times (at least three, by TIME’s count) that even their allies have lost track.

See? Is this a new strategy - to acknowledge the investigations and the executive privilege? What is up with all the open-door honesty. Get your truth-o-meters and decoder rings out super sleuths to see what clues of the new spin-ster strategy we get next.

This has been Andy D.

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Prince Harry demands that he be sent to war and treated like every other military academy graduate:

Prince Harry is threatening to quit the British army if he is not allowed to join fellow soldiers in harm’s way, the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported.

“If I am not allowed to join my unit in a war zone, I will hand in my uniform,” he was quoted as telling senior officers before his passing-out from Sandhurst military academy, southwest of London, on April 12.

Harry, 21, third in line to the throne now occupied by his grandmother Queen Elizabeth, who turned 80 on Friday, will now join the Blues and Royals of the Household Cavalry regiment, serving in an armoured reconnaissance unit.

As 2nd Lieutenant Harry Wales, he is to become a troop commander, in charge of 11 enlisted men and four light tanks — a task that could see him sent to Iraq or Afghanistan in the coming year.

The Mail on Sunday, quoting senior army sources, said there is concern in the Ministry of Defence that Harry could become a “trophy target” for insurgents — endangering not only him, but also the troops at his side.

“He will go bananas if he is given special treatment,” an unnamed source close to the prince was quoted as saying. “He doesn’t want to let the rest of the lads and lasses down by opting out.”

It’s not like the guy was ever enlisted as a grunt. Officers mostly just sit at the tops of hills while the infantry gets shit on with bombs - we’ve all seen the movies. I still don’t understand how a royal family persists into the 21st century, some rich figure heads born into privilege beyond their massive fortunes. It’s like the divine right of kings never went out of style. Let the guy fight, and drive his four tanks around the damn desert if he wants to.

This has been Andy D.

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So if the rising cost of fossil fuels isn’t horrible enough, then why not take a hint from The Terminator himself, who in a moment of not towing the party line, has begun sounding more like Al Gore than Ronald Reagan:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, R-Calif., celebrated Earth Day by issuing a global warming warning, extolling the virtues of fuel-efficient vehicles and blasting "outrageous" oil prices at the pumps in an exclusive interview on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos."

"The science is in," the actor-turned-politician claimed. "The facts are there that we have created, man has, a self-inflicted wound that man has created through global warming."

As to the government’s role in combating global warming, Schwarzenegger continued, "I think that the federal government is doing things. But I think that they are not aggressive enough. And I think that the whole world is not aggressive enough."

Schwarzenegger encouraged buying fuel-efficient vehicles and pointed to California’s policies as an example for the nation, saying, "We want to inspire people that desire cars that are fuel efficient and also drive less, do more carpooling and so on. Because remember, the oil price is all based on supply and demand."

Regarding the issue of rising gas prices at the pump, Schwarzenegger said, "I think that’s absolutely outrageous. And believe me, I am all for profit. I love when businesses are booming. But there is a certain point when you have a product that everyone needs and that everyone is relying on because of the situation that you have created. … We’ve got to protect the people."

Okay so maybe Al Gore wouldn’t be saying the world isn’t aggressive enough, nor would he vulgarize the sitch by telling us that oil price is based on supply and demand instead of tariffs and foreign wars, and politics as well.

This has been Andy D.

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• Is global warming a problem primarily caused by humans?
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Yeah, if global warming and environmental destabilization weren’t enough reason for  the American people to demand alternative sources of energy, then pure economics might do the trick:

US President George W. Bush has warned rising oil prices will mean a "tough summer" for US consumers as the high cost of gasoline (petrol) showed signs of becoming a big political issue.

But even as more Americans expressed discontent over the price of filling up their gas tanks, Bush suggested there was little his government could do in the short term about the problem.

"We’re going to have a tough summer because people are beginning to drive now during tight supply," Bush said as he toured a California facility developing hydrogen-powered vehicles.

"The American people have got to understand what happens elsewhere in the world affects the price of gasoline you pay here."

Bush spoke after a week of unremitting rises in prices in global crude oil markets and at gasoline (petrol) pumps across the country. Crude topped a record 75 dollars per barrel in New York trading Friday, five dollars up from a week earlier.

I love how Bush really does think that he is the first to get every concept - like the American People don’t know that the War in Iraq is heavily vested in oil availability. We’re setting up an petrol Republic instead of a Banana Republic, but the effects are the same. I’m quite sure the American people realize that what happens abroad and what happens at home are intimately connected, we just don’t like to think about it - about how horrible things are done to other people in our name, for our sake by people we elect. In fact I’m sure if the American people really did take the time to wrap their heads around what happens elsewhere in the world and how that effects us here, and how what we do effects others, Bush Corp and all his Oil-grubbing fat-cat cronies would absolutely hate it, because they would lose their voting base.

This has been Andy D.

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So while Shell gives US consumers watery gasoline…

Darnell Greene had a bone to pick today with this Delta gas station attendant in Paterson, all due to yesterday’s ten-dollar fill-up.

The problem? Watered down gasoline, part of a bad shipment. A big shipment - totaling tens-of-thousands of gallons of fuel supplied by the Shell Oil Company and distributed out a Newark refinery.

Darnell told us as soon as he "pulled out of the lot, the car started sputtering, and backfiring."

Darnell had a feeling the gas might be the culprit. His suspicions were confirmed when his mechanic siphoned the gas out of his gas tank. The gas was a big difference from what regular gas is supposed to look like.

A Shell spokesman says the problem originated at the refinery and should be resolved by Wednesday evening.

The company says it will pay for any damage the bad gas may have caused.

 (Yeah I’m sure it was a mistake) The Dems, in a moment of consumer advocacy rage against gas price gouging:

With Americans across the country struggling with an unusual and unexplained spike in gas prices and with experts predicting a 25 percent increase in prices over last summer, 15 Senate Democrats today sent the following letter to President Bush, urging him to take action to support federal anti-price gouging legislation and renewing their call for a bipartisan energy summit to solve the dangerous problem of America’s dependence on foreign oil.

Check out the text of the letter.

This has been Andy D

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Yeah the 2nd Amendment people are freaking out on the Mexicans. Talk about great foreign relations, or public relations for that matter:

If the government doesn’t build security fencing along the Mexico border, Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox says he and his supporters will.

Simcox, whose civilian watch group opposes illegal immigration, said Wednesday he was sending an ultimatum to President Bush to deploy military reserves to the Arizona border by May 25 or his supporters will break ground for their own building project.

"We’re going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise," Simcox said.

Congress has been debating immigration reform for several months. One bill, approved by the U.S. House in December, calls for nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence proposal has angered Mexicans, with President Vicente Fox calling it "shameful."

Berlin Wall, people. I mean it’s ironic enough that Israel would emulate Germany and build a wall to separate Palestine, but to have a nation founded on immigrants to be building fences, well, that’s just too much.

This has been Andy D.

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• How should the federal government approach legal immigration?

Yeah, we hear a lot about the impending economic clash between the aging colossus that is the US and the rising behemoth of China and it’s new middle class, but where the relations between our two nations will really be strained is in the case of human rights, though the current administration doesn’t seem to be too concerned at all:

In a surprise outburst that cast a diplomatic shadow, a screaming protester confronted President Bush and Chinese President Hu Jintao and interrupted the welcoming ceremony on the White House lawn Thursday. Bush later apologized to the Chinese leader.

"President Bush, stop him from killing," the woman shouted, to the surprise of hundreds of guests spread across the lawn on a sunny, warm day. "President Bush, stop him from persecuting the Falun Gong" - a banned religious movement in China.

Standing beside Bush, Hu had just begun his opening remarks when the woman started yelling in Chinese and English. Bush leaned over and whispered to Hu, "You’re OK," indicating the Chinese leader should proceed. Hu, who had paused briefly, resumed speaking even though the woman kept screaming for several minutes before security officers forcibly removed her.

The woman had obtained temporary press credentials as a reporter for a Falun Gong newspaper and positioned herself on a camera stand in front of the two leaders. A cameraman tried to put his hand over her mouth before uniformed Secret Service officers hustled her away.

Chinese leaders place high importance on protocol and symbolism, and Bush moved promptly to deal with the protest on the lawn. Once they reached the Oval Office, Bush apologized to his guest.

"He just said this was unfortunate and I’m sorry it happened," said Dennis Wilder, acting senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council staff.

Hu was gracious in accepting Bush’s apology, Wilder said. The two leaders moved on in their talks and it was not mentioned again in several hours of meetings. In what the White House described as a sign of their friendship, Hu and Bush sat next to each other at the luncheon - a departure from traditional protocol that would have them at different tables.

Yeah I guess you have to play to foreign officials for good diplomacy, but Bush, for all his "I love freedom" rhetoric should maybe more upset that a woman was gagged in a free speech-loving country for decrying the human rights violation of another country than that this outburst upset his guest. He wants to export democracy somewhere, maybe China should be the next port of call, if their tariffs aren’t too high.

This has been Andy D.

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Of course Bush is the deciding factor on Rumsfeld, but the voting populace is the deciding factor on the strength of his party’s future - so why defend one guy so much, he’s turn team players into scapegoats for far less:

President Bush sharply defended Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday, saying the embattled Pentagon chief is doing a "fine job" despite calls for his resignation from six retired military generals.

Despite a practice of not usually commenting on personnel moves, the president told reporters Tuesday that his vote of confidence for Rumsfeld was an effort to stamp out speculation about his status.

"You can understand why, because we’ve got people’s reputations at stake," Bush said of his usual aversion to speculation about personnel matters.

"And on Friday I stood up and said, ‘I don’t appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld; he’s doing a fine job; I strongly support him.’ "

People’s reputations at stake - like Abramoff and De Lay - Bush Corp wasn’t sticking up for them unless disavowing all knowledge of ever knowing one is a vote of confidence. You know what though - people’s lives are also at stake - all the people Rumsfeld and Bush have sent to Iraq to possibly die. This is CIndy Sheehan’s whole point. And it should be all of our points.

This has been Andy D.

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So there is some new blood at the White house - I wonder if he’s the new scapegoat-in-training or if those he may be re-staffing will garner that honor:

President Bush’s new chief of staff said Monday it was time to "refresh and re-energize the team," and he told senior White House aides who might be thinking about quitting this year to go ahead and leave now.

Taking charge in a time of crisis, with Bush’s poll ratings at their lowest point ever and Republicans anxious about the November elections, Bolten laid down his pointed directive at his first meeting with top presidential aides.

He did not ask for anyone’s resignation, and none of the senior aides stepped forward to say they would go, White House press secretary Scott McClellan reported later. But Bolten has Bush’s full authority to make changes to the president’s staff, and McClellan said he would expect announcements soon.

One of the first jobs to be filled is that of budget director _ the position that Bolten left to become chief of staff. The job of domestic policy adviser at the White House is open as well. Further changes are clearly on the horizon, and Bolten gave top aides the option of leaving first.

"He wanted to make sure he had the team in place that is going to be here for a minimum of the remainder of the year," McClellan said. "And he said if people are thinking about leaving, that now is the time to come to such a decision."

Bolten told the staff that he was assuming his new job at a challenging time when the United States was engaged in a war on terrorism. With U.S. casualties rising in Iraq, Bush faces sagging public support, Republican angst about the midterm election and struggles with a Congress that has been resistant to some of his top priorities.

So if they want to escape clean - well as clean as they are now, they best bail out on this lame-duck admin right now. Pretty civilized.

This has been Andy D.

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So I’ve been dropping a few comments on this debate so far, but I think it time to properly weigh-in on the immigration protests. Here’s the story from today’s NYT article "Demonstrations on Immigration Harden a Divide:"

As lawmakers set aside the debate on immigration legislation for their spring recess, the protests by millions around the nation have escalated the policy debate into a much broader battle over the status of the country’s 11 million illegal immigrants. While the marches have galvanized Hispanic voters, they have also energized those who support a crackdown on illegal immigration.

"The size and magnitude of the demonstrations had some kind of backfire effect," said John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster who said he was working for 26 House members and seven senators seeking re-election. "The Republicans that are tough on immigration are doing well right now."

Mr. Hayworth said, "I see an incredible backlash." He has become one of the House’s most vocal opponents of illegal immigration and is one of dozens of Republicans who have vowed to block the temporary-worker measure that stalled in the Senate.

Representative Steve King, an Iowa Republican from another district, said his office had been flooded with angry calls about the recent marches. "It is one thing to see an abstract number of 12 million illegal immigrants," Mr. King said. "It is another thing to see more than a million marching through the streets demanding benefits as if it were a birthright." He added, "I think people resent that."

But Mr. King, who supported a House bill to restrict illegal immigrants without creating a guest-worker program, said he was also feeling new heat from the thousands of Hispanics in his district, many of whom worked in its meatpacking plants. Responding to a survey by his office, some Hispanics called him a racist for asking questions about building a wall with Mexico, or suggested a wall with Canada, he said.

Well, let’s see. I start with the premise that we are a nation of immigrants - either forced or voluntary - and their descendents. It’s all over our symbols. For example - the Statue of Liberty - that accompanying inscription about giving her your tired, your poor, etc.

The fact is that when "millions go marching through the streets demanding benefits as if it were a birthright," it’s probably because IT IS a birthright: these truths are self-evident that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL. These are human rights we are talking about - our country is founded on the premise that EVERYONE is equal, not differently entitled based on what side of an imaginary line they are born.

I’m all for getting rid of borders, and while I know that is retardedly idealistic of me to believe this, I’m not advocating getting rid of them all at once, nor even altogether necessarily, just that we really examine why these borders exist and why they mean anything - why certain people want to be on certain sides of them and why others would prefer to see some people stay where they are or where they came from.

The right is using Terrorism to crack down on border patrol, but the reality is that danger comes from within our borders as well as from without - Timothy McVey was a US citizen and Hurricane Katrina didn’t respect State nor country borders when it devastated the gulf coast, and while people born here in America were off protecting borders a world away, their families were drowning because the national guard of the gulf states was not their to defend the border we are getting so keen on defending right now.

This seems absurd if I think about it too much, though I know it is very serious, deadly serious. And just as the redistricting of Omaha school corp is destroying race relations, and enforcing race as a social construct, building another Berlin Wall between us and Mexico, would damage so much more.

This as been Andy D.

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