Spam as opinion

This morning the Boulder Daily Camera ran a piece of political spam email as a letter to the editor. The letter was "written" by Cody Elmore of Boulder, and it makes two general claims (that Bush is lowering the average American's tax burden; that John Kerry will raise that burden and yet is avoiding paying his own) as well as several specific claims (John Kerry owns four mansions; Kerry paid less than Bush in taxes even though they should have paid the same; and so on). All of these claims are either false or misleading.

The website Apeiron has a detailed breakdown of the problems with this email, including (heavens above!) actual sources and references to back up their claims. Here are some of the most salient:

Spam: "Kerry owns 4 mansions ... (His ski resort home in Idaho is an old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. ...)"
Truth: John Kerry and Teresa Heinz own one home together, their Boston townhouse. The other homes are ones that Heinz owned before she married Kerry; the "ski resort" in question was actually brought over from Europe in pieces by her late husband, Republican Senator John Heinz.
Sources:
  FactCheck.org
  Snopes Urban Legends
  Urban Legends and Folklore

Spam: "Both George Bush and John Kerry are wealthy men. ... Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has figured out a way to avoid paying his own."
Truth: The only truths here are that both men are wealthy and that Kerry paid approximately $90,000. George Bush paid $227,490 in taxes in 2003 which would more truthfully be rounded to $225,000 than to $250,000. Furthermore, the implication that Kerry "avoided" paying taxes is simple slander. Kerry's income was less than Bush's ($395,338 total v. $822,126 total), and he therefore paid less in taxes. Not exactly a case for tax fraud.
Sources:
  Tax History Project
  Citizens for Tax Justice - Bush & Cheney Tax Returns
  U.S. Newswire - Kerry Releases 2003 Income Tax Returns
  Washington Post - President Benefits From His Tax Cut

As I mentioned, Mike Buck of Apeiron has done a fabulous job of refuting pretty much every claim the email makes, so I won't go into more detail here; just read his rebuttal.

The fact that there are political spam emails being sent around the Internet with lies, unfair innuendos and faulty logic is hardly newsworthy. That the Boulder Daily Camera would print this spam as if it were a "letter to the editor," however, deserves attention. I will be calling the Camera on Monday, when their editorial staff gets back from the weekend, to ask for a retraction or an apology.

I don't expect that they fact-check every letter (though it wouldn't hurt them to ask for sources), but neither do I expect that the letters I'm reading are actually spam. And how hard could it be to look into claims like this before going to press? All I needed to learn that this was a bunch of nonsense was an Internet connection, Google, and about 15 minutes. In fact, doing a search for the exact phrase "Bush paid $250000 in taxes this year Kerry paid $90000" yields 75 different posts of the exact text of the letter they were sent.

I'm disappointed, and I'm going to let them know it.

[cross-posted at DugBlog]

Right Issue, Wrong Target

Thanks to the Boulder Daily Camera for coming up with that nice title for my letter to the editor that was published today (scroll to the bottom). The opinion piece I'm referring to in my letter can be found here. [cross-posted on DugBlog]

Convention Blogs

Colorado delegation's Blog.

conventionbloggers.com A community site for bloggers participating in the DNC, July 26-29

Denver's Talk Left, attending the Convention

Department of: Bush teaches Children Values with Poverty

The Bush administration is pushing teaching values to children, but if children don't have the basic necessities of life, values won't mean much to them. Maybe that is why the American Federation of Teachers has endorsed John Kerry. According to UPI report on 7/16/04 the number of children in poverty rose from 15.8% in 2001 to 16.3% in 2002. In addition, the Bush team has underfunded the No Child Left Behind program by $27 billion., and cut after school programs by 40%, denying 500,000 children this service.

Also, due to state budget cuts, up to 1.6 million people are losing health care coverage, including a half million children. States are finding it hard to keep up with needs due to federal cuts. Finally, in contrast to his radio address, president's 2005 budget proposes cutting Medicaid by $16 billion over 10 years according to the Office of Management and Budget.

.. This will hurt the most vulnerable children as well as senior citizens.

These cuts show how much the Bush administration values children!
via Donna

Getting Out the Word: Cheney isn't going away

Colorado Daily July 23, 2004 Letters

Cheney isn't going away

Dick Cheney, contrary to the rumours, is not going away in my opinion, with respect to the Republican Presidential ticket. It would only accentuate the essentially manipulative (often bait and switch) nature of this administration. So yeah Cheney's going to be there -I think we can count on it.

It is also interesting to me that Republicans are always so ready to attack Democrats and others for trying to start a diviisive economic class war (which it often really is).

They then turn around and attempt to cast this election as a war of American values and culture. What hypocrites! If that isn't the most divisive and most painful/personal kind of division of Americans then I'm afraid I don't know what is.

Methinks Bush/Cheney and company have picked one fight that they are NOT going to win this time. At least let' hope so.

Grant D. Cyrus (Grantmon)

Boulder

Department of: Ignore the Elephant in the Room

American Progress has a good writeup on the Sandy Berger synthetic scandal and why the Republicans are so eager to be outraged. You can get the best description of it on CNN transcripts with Blitzer apparently reading the Republican Talking Points and Berger's lawyer speaking English. Among other things it explains why Kerry knew nothing about it. Something to do with the professional standards of Ashcroft's Justice Department.

Start with:

BLITZER: "Brian Todd, thanks very much for that report. Samuel Berger is represented by another White House veteran."

Political Animal points out that Tom Davis, Republican chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, started this investigation in a day while the Valerie Plume probe has yet to start.

Department of Direct Governance

The New Yorker has a short piece about the reading textbook which includes the story The Pet Goat*, the same story that kept George Bush enraptured as planes were hitting the World Trade Towers on September 11th, 2001 (as seen in Fahrenheit 9/11).

The piece is mainly about the textbook's author, Zig Engelmann, and the instructional methodology it was created for: Direct Instruction. Direct Instruction, according to the New Yorker article and DI's website, places the "willingness to follow certain carefully prescribed instructional practices" above the creativity and knowledge of individual teachers. Or, according to Engelmann himself, "We don't give a damn what the teacher thinks, what the teacher feels."

Though Engelmann might not like the comparison (the article describes him as "hard left" politically), it seems to me that this is a perfect metaphor for the Bush Administration. Republican party trappings notwithstanding, this president seems to have no interest whatsoever in letting the people who actually know what they're doing do it without interference. Doctors may not tell patients about abortion options. Scientists must modify their reports to match political expectations. Long-time Iraq analysts are ignored in the build-up to war. States may not decide issues of marriage law on their own. Homeland Security gets all the money it wants, but local police and fireman must make do.

Despite political differences, Bush should go ahead and make Engelmann a speech-writer. Then his campaign motto could be, "We don't give a damn what you think, what you feel."

* The first Amazon review for this book is classic:

"After reading the enclosed story "The Pet Goat," I was stunned by its lyrical beauty and easy cadence. The tempo, the choice of words, and the layout on each page captured my imagination so much that it took me about seven minutes to recover my bearings."

[cross-posted at DugBlog]

Department of Forcing Out the Vote

The American Street links to an article from Jacksonville, Florida's News Channel 4 describing how volunteers at a naturalization ceremony were offering voter registration forms with the party choice already checked Republican. The case is being investigated; at this time, there's no word on whose idea this was or why they'd think these kind of dirty tricks wouldn't just annoy the new citizens.

Department of: Ignore the Wolf at the Door, the Economy is Improving. II

Via a Angry Bear signs that the economy is slowing as retail sales fell in June (permlink) Reuters quotes an outplacement firm study that Kerry-Favored Industries See More Job Growth than Bush. (permlink). American Assembler has the graphic "Want Jobs ? Vote Democratic". Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley details the poor quality of Bush Boom jobs.
Second in a series

Department of: Bush Cutting Benefits All Over.

I was asked about Bush cutting veteran's benefits. I looked through the Center for American Progress and then did a Google on "cutting veterans benefits" and about the fourth result down was Ensuring Affordable, Quality, and Reliable Health Care for America’s Veterans on the Kerry/Edwards site. It's the best summary I found.

Meanwhile, Bush's "cheneying' of retirees is coming out. The Department of Health and Human Services finally admitted that 3.8 million or 1/3 of corporate retirees will lose coverage under Bush's Medicare Bill. This was not surprise. Most independent analysts and Democrats have been saying this from the getgo. Details according to the New York Times (permlink) and a few others although I can't find it at HHS

Department of: Walk a Mile In His Flip Flops

via Angry Bear the very valuable site American Progress has an ever expanding list of Bush's Flip Flops. This is a good time to introduce the Right Wing tactic of Projection (psychiatry) a defense mechanism by which your own traits and emotions are attributed to someone else.

Department of: Ignore the Man behind the Curtain

The Daily Camera's reprint of an AP article today: Study: News events eclipsing race permlink is based on the study Character and the Campaign subtitled: What Are The Master Narratives about the Candidates in 2004 and How Is The Public Reacting To Them?

Another possible headline is "Press Doesn't Cover Campaign"

Department of: 30 % or 30 Pieces of Silver

G.O.P. Hopes Web Sites Will Be a Link to the Small Donor permlink reminds us that the hundreds of millions that Bush extorts goes to a lot of different places, like consultants, perks, and fees. The auditing of these funds makes the Cheney Energy Task Force look transparent. This means that $100 to Bush gives $33 to the sponsoring website. If they are willing to pay that kind of commission, imagine what their fundraising administrative costs are.

Department of: Ignore the Wolf at the Door, the Economy is Improving.

The official story in the SCLM (So Called Liberal Media) is the economy is doing recovering and no longer a political issue. Actually there are a lot of indications that it is not. Summer job market for students thought to be worst in 56 years permlink is an article which appears in the print Denver Post but can't be found on the website. If you read the New York Times, A Recovery Trying to Keep Its Legs Suddenly Feels Woozy permlink carefully you will see that there are a lot of problems. In fact CNN's Job growth disappoints permlink has an interesting graphic which could read "Job Growth Falls for Third Straight Month"

There are other indications Consumer Spending Growth Slowed in May permlink If you can stand some detail look at this which makes the point that this is a Bush recovery. The high end gets more and everyone else gets "Cheneyed"

Of course Tom Toles has the best word.

Department of : Lying about Iraq

Morning Edition today on Colorado Public Radio had an attack on Kerry for not having a plan for Iraq. Actually, you can read Kerry's plan A Strategy to Win the Peace in Iraq. It's one thing to attack the plan. It's another to lie about whether it exists. I mean, it's not like it's WMDs.

Bush's web site doesn't have a specific plan although it seems to include Star Wars (the anti-missile boondoogle not the movie). Some say the plan is "Keep Digging".

The problem is Bush isn't using holding the shovel or paying the price.

Department of: Health Care

Paul Krugman has an excellent clear description of Kerry's health care plan compared with Bush's shifting cost of government services from the wealthy to the middle class: Health Versus Wealth. There is a longer description, More Thoughts About Kerry Health Care Proposals, by Brad Delong which is also worth reading.

Department of: The Winners Count

Denver "Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Action Rally: Denver "Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Action Rally: July 13th at noon Capitol Building 200 E. Colfax Denver, CO Join us on the West Steps of the Capitol! The Capitol is on Colfax, bordered by Lincoln, Grant and E. 14th Street. This event organized by Coloradoans for Voting Integrity contact person: Margit (margitjo@aol.com) 303-442-1668

Department of: Hiding Their True Nature

In The Hill July 8, 2004: Conservative angst over New York stars ‘Traditional moral values’ given no voice at convention
Includes the following from our own moderate immigrant basher:
"Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) told The Hill: “The convention is using people that run the State Department because they are accustomed to the concept that they must not rock any boats, so that everything runs smoothly. The people who reflect the majority of the party should certainly be given a chance to present their positions.”
tip via atrios

Department of: Money Makes the World Go Around

5 Coloradans bag big bucks for GOP Denver Post The whole sorry story at Payola Pioneering: Exposing the Bush Pioneer/Ranger Network