Don Meredith

Who Were the Anarchists? Part 1

STEELERS at RAVENS

STEELERS at RAVENS
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2010
KICKOFF – 8:20 P.M.

This Week: The Steelers are on the road this week, taking on the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, December 5 at M&T Bank Stadium in a battle for first place in the AFC North. Kickoff for the game is at 8:20 p.m. on NBC.

Game Information:
Teams: Steelers (8-3) at Ravens (8-3)
Date: Sunday, Dec. 5, 2010
Kickoff: 8:20 p.m. ET
Site: M&T Bank Stadium
TV: NBC (WPXI-TV Channel 11 in Pittsburgh)
Radio: WDVE-FM (102.5)/WBGG-AM (970)
Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley
Spanish Radio: Grupo Imagen - Destrito Federal (Mexico City) XEDA-FM 90.5

Steelers Notes for Ravens Game

Vote the Steelers to the Pro Bowl

Steelers fans be sure to vote for your favorite Steelers players and send them to the Pro Bowl. Ballots are available by clicking on Pro Bowl Ballot.

Before Bankruptcy, Conservatives Touted Ireland As Model For U.S.

THINK PROGRESS

During the 2008 Presidential campaign, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) praised the Irish economy for its low corporate tax rate and said that if the U.S. would just follow suit, companies would “be able to create jobs, increase your business, make more investment.” And McCain was far from the only conservative making the “Celtic Tiger” argument that Ireland’s low tax rates were a shining, successful model of conservatism in action. Some examples:

– Dan Mitchell (then of the Heritage Foundation, now at The Cato Institute), July 2002:

Ireland already has shown that tax cuts are a recipe for prosperity. Thanks to Reagan-style tax-rate reductions, including a corporate income tax rate of just 10 percent, Ireland has become the “Celtic Tiger” and is now the European Union’s second richest country.

– Sean Dorgan, The Heritage Foundation, June 2006:

While economic success over the past 15 years can be ascribed to a range of domestic and international factors, it was not a fluke. Ireland has long had, and intends to sustain, low tax rates to attract investment. Its current 12.5 percent corporate tax rate evolved from the zero rate on export sales in the 1950s and the 10 percent rate on manufacturing and some internationally traded services introduced in 1980.

– Chris Edwards, The Cato Institute, March 2007:

However, the key to Ireland’s success has been its excellent tax climate for business. In 1980, Ireland established a corporate tax rate for manufacturing of just ten percent. That low rate was subsequently extended to high-technology, financial services, and other industries. More recently, Ireland established a flat 12.5 percent tax rate on all corporations — one of the lowest rates in the world, and just one-third of the U.S. rate. Low business tax rates have helped Ireland attract huge inflows of foreign investment.

– Jurgen Reinhoudt, American Enterprise Institute, October 2007:

The real credit belongs to Irish fiscal policy. Beginning in the late 1980s, successive Irish governments pursued vital spending cuts and tax relief…At present, Ireland has a 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, which has made it a magnet for powerhouse firms.

– Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), FOX News, January 2008:

MITT ROMNEY: Well, you know, the — the experience of other countries in the world is some guide. You take a nation like Ireland, for instance. They cut their tax rate. I believe it’s less than half of the tax rate in most of the other European nations. And they have become — well, they have moved from a basket-case economy to a booming economy. Jobs have been flowing into Ireland.

– Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sean Hannity, FOX News, October 2008:

MCCAIN: No. But you know what, Sean? You’re going to go on my first overseas trip. And I think it might be to Ireland.

HANNITY: Listen, you were right about their tax rates. They did lower tax rates on businesses and it’s been a big economic boom for them.

But now that Ireland’s economy has crashed down around it, those on the right are claiming that Ireland’s woes are due to big government run amok. As Jonathan Chait mocked, “Sadly, the Irish fiscal crisis has prompted a quick realization [amongst conservatives] that Ireland was not actually the free market state we thought it was”:

– Dan Mitchell, Cato Institute, November 2010:

There are lots of lessons to learn from Ireland’s fiscal/economic/financial crisis. There was too much government spending. Ireland also had a major housing bubble. And some people say that adopting the euro (the common currency of many European nations) helped create the current mess.

– Nicole Gelinas, The National Review, November 2010:

A big reason for Ireland’s current sub-crisis is that in the fall of 2008, the nation guaranteed all of its bank liabilities. This fateful choice was not a market decision, but a government one. One could make the case that had Ireland let its bank bondholders go, as Iceland did, Ireland would be better off today. Unlike Greece, Ireland has competitive tax rates, an English-speaking population, and a workforce that desires work.

– Margot Crouch, The Heritage Foundation, March 2010:

One of the reasons for the flight of companies from Ireland and other European nations is the potential for a common tax base across the European Union which forced Ireland to raise its taxes on businesses significantly to be more consistent with high-tax European norms.

– Reihan Salam, The National Review, November 2010:

Let me say that I’m quite willing to believe that an excessively progressive income tax in Ireland exacerbated underlying political economy problems.

Though far from being the sole cause of Ireland’s economic calamity, its very low-tax environment turned it into a favorite tax haven and led to an influx of “business” that wasn’t really business at all: it was just companies like Google shuffling paper through Ireland to dodge taxes.

Ireland then experienced the same housing bubble that plagued both the U.S. and mainland Europe, and its banks, the biggest of which were twice the size of the nation’s GDP, went bust. As Peter Boone and Simon Johnson wrote, “Simply put, the Irish miracle was a mirage driven by clever use of tax-haven rules and a huge credit boom that permitted real estate prices and construction to grow quickly before declining ever more rapidly.”

Now, Ireland is undertaking draconian austerity measures, including raising personal income taxes by €1.9 billion and cutting the minimum wage, in order to receive an €85 billion bailout. So as Fortune’s Dan Primack wrote, “Got to wonder if McCain would like to recall his original message, or if he still considers Ireland to be the beacon of federal tax policy. And, if the latter, I’d assume he also believes that raising personal income taxes [is] a smart way to deal with staggering budget deficits.”

Anti-Spending Tea Party Caucus Members Took Over $1 Billion In Earmarks

THINK PROGRESS

Congressional earmarks have been one of the primary targets of the tea party, representing the nexus of the movement’s arch foes — government spending and Washington influence peddling. If Republicans “go back to their old earmarking ways it could be a VERY short majority,” the president of the hard-right Citizens Against Government Waste warned. Looking to capitalize on the tea party, Republican leaders endorsed bans on earmarking as a way to show they were different from their spendthrift predecessors in previous Congresses. And last month, House Republicans unanimously extended an internal moratorium on earmarks.

But it appears that tea party’s self-proclaimed representatives in Washington haven’t been putting their money where their mouths are. Hotline On Call reports today that members of House Tea Party Caucus, founded by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to “represent the views of our constituents,” requested over $1 billion in earmarks during the last fiscal year:

According to a Hotline review of records compiled by Citizens Against Government Waste, the 52 members of the caucus, which pledges to cut spending and reduce the size of government, requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1,049,783,150 during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available.

Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), for one, attached his name to 69 earmarks in the last fiscal year, for a total of $78,263,000. The 41 earmarks Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) requested were worth $65,395,000. Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) wanted $63,400,000 for 39 special projects, and Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) wanted $93,980,000 set aside for 47 projects.

When asked to explain how they could join a caucus dedicated to fighting government spending and yet request millions in pork projects, tea party lawmakers told the Hotline that they stopped requesting new earmarks after joining the group.

But this is hardly the first indication that Republicans may not be as genuine in their commitment to fighting pork as they would like tea party activists to believe. Last month, as the AP reported that “[o]nly three days after GOP senators and senators-elect renounced earmarks, Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl, the No. 2 Senate Republican, got himself a whopping $200 million to settle an Arizona Indian tribe’s water rights claim against the government.” An earmark ban was also conspicuously absent from House Republicans’ Pledge to American governing agenda, causing uproar among activists.

Tea party favorite Sen.-elect Rand Paul (R-KY) highlights this disparity between rhetoric and action well. In March, his website told supporters that “a ban on wasteful earmark spending in Washington D.C. [is] one of the key points of his campaign.” But after winning the election, Paul told the Wall Street Journal that he “will fight for Kentucky’s share of earmarks and federal pork,” suggesting it would be “crazy” not to.

Nigeria to charge Dick Cheney in $180 million bribery case, issue Interpol arrest warrant

RAW STORY

The company that Dick Cheney ran prior to becoming Vice President of the United States was atop the tongue of liberals each time his company was awarded a contract in Iraq.

Now the company's name, Halliburton, is being spoken somewhere else: Nigeria.

According to a story filed late Wednesday, Cheney will be indicted in a Nigerian bribery case as part of an investigation into an alleged $180 million bribery scandal.

"Last week, Nigeria arrested at least 23 officials from companies including Halliburton, Saipem, Technip and a former subsidiary of Panalpina Welttransport Holding AG in connection with alleged illegal payments to Nigerian officials. Those detained were all freed on bail on Nov. 29," Bloomberg News' Elisha Bala-Gbogbo wrote.

"Authorities in the West African nation are probing Halliburton, Saipem and Technip for the alleged payment of $180 million in bribes to win a $6 billion liquefied natural-gas contract," Bala-Gbogbo added. "Panalpina is being investigated for illegal payments it allegedly made to Nigerian customs officials on behalf of Royal Dutch Shell Plc."......................................

Media Matters Daily Summary --12-01-10

Fox continues to push false federal vs. private pay comparison
On the November 30 edition of Fox & Friends, Fox Business' Charles Payne pushed the claim that federal worker compensation is about twice that of private sector workers. In fact, that claim is based on a discredited apples-to-oranges comparison. Read More

Fox News' Deficit Reduction Plan: Extend Tax Cuts For The Rich
Fox News' Megyn Kelly claimed that tax cuts "on the so-called rich" increase federal revenues. In fact, tax experts and economists note that tax rates are not high enough for a tax cut to increase revenues, and President Bush's own economic advisors have said the Bush tax cuts did not raise revenue. Read More

Conservative Media Rail Against Efforts To Ensure Safe And Healthy Food
In recent weeks, Fox News' Glenn Beck has railed against the proposed food safety legislation making its way through Congress, claiming it is a way for the government to "control your food" and ultimately "control you." This is just the latest in a long line of hysterics from conservatives regarding efforts to make Americans' food safer and healthier. Read More

The Weekly Standard Alleges An ‘Iran-Al Qaeda Connection’ In WikiLeaks Cables That Doesn’t Exist

THINK PROGRESS

While many conservatives are reacting to the WikiLeaks U.S. diplomatic cables release with hyperbolic rage and vindictiveness, the neoncons appear to view the doc dump as an opportunity. Take Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol, who this week said that his top takeaway is that the U.S. should attack Iran because some Arab leaders have urged American officials to take action (other cables, however, reveal Arab officials imploring restraint).

Now, in a Weekly Standard article titled, “WikiLeaks: The Iran-Al Qaeda Connection” and subtitled, “What a leaked State Department cable says about the mullahs’ collusion with al Qaeda,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies fellow Thomas Joscelyn appeared to find what the neocons need: an Iranian connection to Al-Qaeda (see late 2002-early 2003 for a preview).

What is the evidence? Joscelyn found a cable from September 2009 in which Saudi Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Prince Nayif bin Abdulaziz “complained” to U.S. top counterterror official John Brennen that “over the past two years Iran has hosted Saudis (all Sunnis) — including Osama bin Laden’s son Ibrahim — who had contacts with terrorists and worked against the Kingdom.” To bolster his case, Joscelyn notes previous reports that Ibrahim’s brother, Saad, and another wanted terrorist, Abdullah al Qarawi, had both “operated inside Iran” at some point.

Joscelyn makes the leap that, because a Saudi official told an American official of concerns that Iran “hosted Saudis…who had contacts with terrorists” and “operated” in Iran at some point, Iran’s leaders are therefore “connected” and “colluding” with Al-Qaeda. Nevermind the fact that the terrorists have also “operated” inside the United States (the cable does not actually say these Saudis were terrorists). Neither the article, nor the cable itself, offer anything else that “highlighted Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda,” as Joscelyn wrote.

As the Wonk Room’s Matt Duss notes in the American Prospect today, “Unsurprisingly, these cables have bolstered neoconservative calls for a U.S. military strike on Iran. Leaving aside the irony that neoconservatives are citing as justification for another war the concerns of the same Arab authoritarians they wanted overthrown in 2003, it’s quite interesting to note when and on what subjects Arab leaders are to be believed.”