Just POlitics

Union idiots

Analysis by: Roger Wm. Hughes

The Detroit News reports on why unions are frequently referenced as dinosaurs. Here’s a good example of why:

It seems that the Reservists of the 1st Battalion 24th Marines had been enjoying the courtesy of using a UAW parking lot. However, it was just too much to see cars with Bush election bumper stickers in the union parking lot. And it was really galling to see those bumper stickers on foreign cars. So, the union informed the Marines that those cars were no longer welcome in the parking lot.

"You either support the Marines or you don't," said Lt. Col. Joe Rutledge, commanding officer of the battalion's active duty instructors. "I'm telling my Marines that they're no longer parking there."

It is a very strong tradition of the Marine Corps that they are a tight, cohesive unit. In trying to separate the Marines, the union raised the ire of Rutledge.

"We're appreciative of what they've done, but you don't come into my office and say, 'OK, we're not going to support some of your Marines.' I don't know what a foreign car is today anyway. BMWs are made in South Carolina now," Rutledge said.

The union still seems to want to fall into failed protectionist policies. Unless the union begins to focus on a changing employment environment that requires constant updating of education skills for new and different jobs, they will continue to be a rearguard action... dinosaur.

Social Security wars

The Washington Times reports on the elation of the Democrats in their belief that they are beating President Bush’s personal accounts campaign. The Democrats are upping their media buy this week as President Bush continues his ‘60 days; 60 stops’ effort.

The Times writes:

Last week, the DNC sent out a press release that called Mr. Bush's promotional tour "Death of a Sales Pitch," saying that "it has gotten so bad that Bush is now traveling to Republican states to shore up support for his ailing scheme."

"It's one thing to say he is losing the debate, but it would be false to say he's lost the debate," tax-cut crusader Stephen Moore said. "This is the third round of a 15-round prize fight."

"It would be foolish to bet against him. The polling numbers were not all that good when he was pushing his tax cuts, but he prevailed in that fight," Mr. Moore said.

Renditions

Liberals seem to be conflicted on the issue of what is called renditions. Renditions is where we transfer prisoners to their countries of origin. There is concern that some countries might not treat these prisoners as well as we do.

The Washington Times’ Inside Politics relates how Bill Clinton’s national security advisor Sandy Berger confessed that the Clinton administration wanted to take advantage of this discrepancy of treatment:

It happens that in the spring of 1996, the government of Sudan offered to deliver Osama bin Laden (then living in Khartoum) into U.S. custody. The Clinton administration was aware of the threat bin Laden posed, but it worried it didn't yet have sufficient information to indict him on terrorism charges in court. Instead, the U.S. sought to have the Saudis take bin Laden and behead him.

"In the United States, we have this thing called the Constitution, so to bring him here is to bring him into the justice system,' Mr. Berger told The Washington Post in October 2001. "I don't think that was our first choice. Our first choice was to send him someplace where justice is more "streamlined." In the event, the Saudis were in no mood to take bin Laden, Mr. Berger did not press the matter, and bin Laden left for Afghanistan on a chartered plane.

"In other words, the Clinton administration used the rendering practice with the avowed expectation that suspects would be tortured, or worse. The Bush Administration says it uses it only on condition of humane treatment and assigns personnel to 'monitor compliance.' If this is a torture scandal, it didn't start on September 12, 2001."

Pro-personal accounts

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard writes that too many Republicans are giving President Bush bad advice on Social Security. Lindsey Graham was personally taken to task for saying personal accounts are a side-show.

"Our advice is quite different. Rather than fall silent on personal accounts, the president should talk about little else. Without the prospect of giving every worker, no matter how poor, a chance to invest in and actually own financial assets, Social Security reform loses its innovative quality. It is bereft of any political appeal, especially to lower-income workers. It's no longer even real reform, but merely a tug-of-war over how much Social Security taxes are going to be hiked or how far benefits are going to be cut.

"Democrats would love to fight on this terrain. It would reduce Bush to their level and operate to their advantage. If the argument is over raising taxes or cutting benefits, Democrats will always win by emphasizing an increase in the Social Security tax rate (now 12.4 percent) or lifting the cap on income subject to payroll taxation (currently $90,000)."

Besides, without personal accounts the third option (higher rates of return) raised by President Clinton is not possible because all the money goes out to pay benefits.

While there is always more news on Social Security than is worth reporting on, an article in USA Today is noteworthy. It covers the large number of countries that already have private accounts. Clearly, Chile is the model to follow:

At least 20 countries have added some kind of private component to their traditional pension systems, with seven more in the process of implementing them. Each offers lessons on how — and how not — to revamp Social Security. With President Bush and his Cabinet in the middle of their "60 stops in 60 days" tour to tout changes to the US retirement system, the Monitor asked its correspondents in London and Santiago to examine two of those lessons.

Chile's bold moves pay off

Chile has what economists call a fully funded system, containing enough money to cover all retirees if they simultaneously decided to cash out.

The first pillar is the state's responsibility, which covers workers who retired before 1980 and guarantees minimum pensions for poor workers.

The second and main pillar is the obligatory monthly payroll deduction of 12.3%. Ten percent goes into the worker's own account, administered by one of six private pension funds, while 2.3% covers administrative fees. Unlike in the US, the payroll tax is funded entirely by the employee. At retirement — age 60 for women, 65 for men — they take out what they put in, plus accumulated gains. Currently 3.6 million Chileans, or 65% of the 5.5 million-person workforce, are actively contributing under this system.

The third pillar is a voluntary, tax-deductible savings plan administered by banks. One can withdraw before retirement, or add it to a pension. Some 420,000 Chileans have this type of savings. "We have to be proud of Chile's system," says Guillermo Arthur, who runs Chile's pension program. He says that pensions have grown an average of 10.4% since 1981, far exceeding the 4% that he says they need to be profitable.

Today, Chile has more than $60 billion in pension investments, equivalent to more than a third of the country's gross domestic product. Mr. Arthur says that these funds have been crucial to economic growth in the 1980s because pensions were invested in Chilean companies.

Liberal bloggers call in

The NY Times reports on the fact that liberal bloggers are calling old media trying to mitigate the influence of conservative bloggers:

Even as online pundits criticize traditional news organizations as slow, biased and technologically challenged, a group of bloggers is trying to use old-fashioned telephone conference calls to share their ideas with newspaper and television journalists.

The bloggers, who describe themselves as liberal or progressive, say the conference calls are intended to counter what they regard as the much stronger influence of conservative pundits online. Bob Fertik, president of Democrats.com, the host of the two calls so far, views them as a step toward getting their reports out to mainstream news organizations.

800,000 demonstrate in Lebanon

AFP reports that the Lebanese anti-Syrian forces have outdone the recent pro-Syrian demonstration by a factor of 2 times:

Beirut city official Mounib Nassereddine said the estimate of 800,000 did did not include demonstrators who were still arriving from all parts of the country ahead of the rally.

Thousands of Lebanese had made their way throughout the morning to the capital by car, bus and boat, heading for Martyrs Square and the grave of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, assassinated exactly one month ago in a bomb blast.

Lebanese television aired spectacular pictures of a massive throng in the square, showing thousands of demonstrators waving the red, white and green Lebanese flag in bright sunshine against the deep blue of the Mediterranean in the background.

Nassereddine said Monday's gathering was "at least two and a half times" larger than last Tuesday's turnout called by pro-Syrian Lebanese parties, notably the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah. AFP correspondents estimated the crowd last week at 400,000.

Hughes announcement today

ABC’s The Note reports that Karen Hughes will be announced at her new position today:

…Today, Rice will appear in the ornate Benjamin Franklin room with Karen Hughes. The President's most trusted advisor is running back to Washington not to rescue his Social Security plan, but to do something about America's image in the world (and maybe buff up Rice's image in the process).

Once confirmed, Ambassador Hughes' title will be Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. And she's got some high-powered help: White House personnel diva Dina Powell will be Hughes' deputy and the Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs.

The Egyptian-born Powell is just 31, but she's the highest-ranking Middle Eastern woman in the Administration and she speaks Arabic. When she wasn't helping the President pick his cabinet secretaries, Powell often traveled to the Middle East as a White House emissary on reform and women's rights in the Arab world.

Media biased coverage of election

Reuters reports on the Columbia School of Journalism study which shows that the media was biased against President Bush:

The annual report by a press watchdog that is affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said that 36 percent of stories about Bush were negative compared to 12 percent about Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.

Only 20 percent were positive toward Bush compared to 30 percent of stories about Kerry that were positive, according to the report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Wead’s mea culpa

Doug Wead who tape recorded President Bush and released embarrassing comments has a major public apology in USA Today.