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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (19984)	6/3/2005 8:09:22 PM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 362301

As casualties mount, Bush ignores reality ___________________________________________ Joe Conason - The New York Observer 06.03.05 - Conservatives believe they know the best way to honor the sacrifices of our troops in Iraq: We must all pretend that the war is going fine, that progress is proceeding according to plan, that the insurgency is soon to be routed, and that victory is somewhere just over the horizon. When things momentarily went well last winter during the Iraqi elections, we were urged to proclaim an imminent triumph -- just as the right-wing pundits and politicians did so deliriously back then. When things began to deteriorate again with the recent upsurge in bombings and attacks, we were told to ignore the bad news -- as those same pundits and politicians are doing so quietly now. Although the ongoing carnage in Iraq no longer gets the headlines reserved for exhibitionist celebrities, even the flickering attention paid to death's daily drumbeat is too much for certain war enthusiasts. A conservative columnist for The New York Times has suggested that the media simply cease coverage of suicide bombings. This was a strange proposal from someone working for one of the world's most important news organizations, but one that aptly reflected current attitudes in the White House, the Defense Department and much of official Washington. Both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney evidently believe their own uplifting rhetoric and brusque dismissals of criticism. They won't let reality-based analysis intrude on their faith-based perspective. At his latest press conference, Mr. Bush said he thinks the new Iraqi government "will be up to the task of defeating the insurgents." He harked back to the elections and said he was "heartened" to learn that there are now "40,000 Iraqi troops" sufficiently well trained to protect Baghdad. (In fact, our own commanders place little credence in that encouraging statistic.) To Mr. Bush, every devastating attack merely serves as further proof that the insurgents are "desperate." Mr. Cheney takes the same optimistic approach, explaining that in his estimation, bad news is really good news. He told CNN interviewer Larry King that he perceives "major progress" in Iraq, where "they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." He didn't seem to realize that he contradicted that remark when he then predicted that the war might conclude before 2009, the end of the President's second term, although his general assessment remained vague. "I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time," he said. How that "presence" will serve American interests remains as vague as Mr. Cheney's timetable. In the meantime, it is worth noting that the Bush administration's predictions have proven considerably less reliable than those of the war's opponents. That observation goes beyond the absence of "weapons of mass destruction" or the enormous human and financial costs of what was supposed to be a cheap, easy cakewalk. Many months ago, C.I.A. analysts indicated that bitter conflicts among Iraq's competing ethnic and religious groups were driving the country toward civil war. At the time, Mr. Bush brushed aside such warnings as mere static from habitual critics. Yet now we can see that the car bombings, partisan assassinations and sectarian massacres are vindicating that grim assessment. The cities and villages beset by the insurgency have become training camps for militant Islamists, the future cadre of the next terrorist movement. As Joshua Micah Marshall noted, the Iraqi killing fields are creating new terrorists, just as the bloody civil war in Afghanistan encouraged the rise of Al Qaeda. The war's advocates once suggested that Iraq would serve as "flypaper" for those terrorists, gathering them all in one place where our superior firepower and tactics could decimate them. "America will be safer in the long run when Iraq, and Afghanistan as well, are no longer safe havens for terrorists or places where people can gather and plan and organize attacks against the United States," insists Mr. Cheney. But according to The Washington Post, Bush administration counterterrorism officials now anticipate the "bleeding out" of "hundreds or thousands of Iraq-trained jihadists back to their home countries throughout the Middle East and Western Europe." So while the President may tell us that the terrorists are being vanquished in Iraq, his own officials know better. The American people seem to be realizing that their initial support for the war was misplaced. Over the past month, polls have consistently showed decreasing confidence in the way Mr. Bush has conducted the war and diminishing confidence that the price in lives and treasure was justified. By substantial margins, most Americans no longer approve of administration policy in Iraq, no longer think the war was worth its costs, and no longer feel certain that this misadventure will end happily. Very few are willing to say that we are losing the war, but even fewer agree with the President that things are going very well. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush doesn't seem to realize that he cannot wave away those misgivings -- and that he may already have foreclosed an orderly and honorable conclusion to this war during his Presidency. COPYRIGHT (c) 2005 THE NEW YORK OBSERVER URL: workingforchange.com

To: SiouxPal who wrote (19984)	6/3/2005 8:22:40 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 362301

George Soros made plenty of money last year BUT the Hedge Fund manager behind the Sears takeover was on top...fyi... Copyright 2005 Chicago Tribune Company May 28, 2005 Saturday Chicago Final Edition SECTION: BUSINESS HEADLINE: Kmart a winning bet for financier; Investor magazine ranks Lampert No. 1 Edward Lampert, who bought Kmart out of bankruptcy, nursed it back to health and then engineered its $12 billion acquisition of Sears, Roebuck and Co. in March, was the world's most highly paid hedge fund manager last year, according to Institutional Investor's Alpha magazine. The Greenwich, Conn., financier earned an estimated $1.02 billion in 2004, making him the first to crack the $1 billion mark, the magazine said Friday. Meanwhile, the average income for the 25 top hedge fund managers in 2004 rose 21 percent to $251 million. By comparison, the CEO of a typical top-500 U.S. company made $10 million last year. Lampert, a Yale graduate, moved up from fourth place on the magazine's previous list, which put his earnings at $420 million in 2003. His fund returned 69 percent last year, largely due to his Kmart stake more than tripling in value as investors rode Lampert's coattails and bet that Kmart was sitting on valuable real estate. Knocked from the top perch was George Soros, 74, who earned $750 million in 2003. Soros slipped to sixth place in 2004, earning $305 million, the report said. As chairman of ESL Investments Inc., Lampert, 42, had been chairman and majority investor of Kmart. The Troy, Mich., chain lost market share in its stores but improved profits and saw its stock price skyrocket. Lampert also had been a longtime owner of about 15 percent of Sears. The two retailers announced plans to merge in November, and the deal was completed in March, forming Sears Holdings Corp. Now chairman and 40 percent owner of the nation's third-biggest retailer, Lampert has wasted no time cutting jobs and other spending, as well as looking for new ways to generate more revenue by adding exclusive Sears products to select Kmart stores. A different kind of Sears "Sears Holdings will be a different type of company than Sears Roebuck has been," Sears Roebuck Chief Executive Officer Alan Lacy told Sears workers in a March town hall meeting. "We have a 40 percent shareholder in Eddie Lampert. The subjectivity of what creates shareholder value won't be very subjective because Eddie is a brilliant investor." "His track record is better than Buffett's," Lacy said, referring to Berkshire Hathaway's legendary Warren Buffett. Sears stock holds gains Sears Holdings' stock closed about 1.2 percent higher Friday to $149.20, just short of its highest close of $149.63.Following Lampert on the magazine's list was James Simons of Renaissance Technologies Corp. Simons, 67, made $670 million last year. Alpha's formula for determining managers' earnings was based on two key factors: share of the fees generated by the funds they managed, and gains on their own capital in the funds. - - - Moneymaking managers The 10 hedge fund managers with the highest pay: 1. Edward Lampert $1.02 billion ESL Investments 2. James Simons $670 million Renaissance Technologies 3. Bruce Kovner $550 million Caxton Associates 4. Steven Cohen $450 million SAC Capital Advisors 5. David Tepper $420 million Appaloosa Management 6. George Soros $305 million Soros Fund Management 7. Paul Tudor Jones $300 million Tudor Investment 8. Kenneth Griffin $240 million Citadel Investment 9. Raymond Dalio $225 million Bridgewater Associates 10. Israel Englander $205 million Millennium Partners Source: Institutional Investor.