Note to Omaha World-Herald: There's No Excusing Karl Rove

Yesterday's Omaha World-Herald included an editorial that went out of its way to make a false and preposterous equivocation between political strategist and White House adviser Karl Rove (aka "Bush's Brain"; aka "The Architect"; aka "Turdblossom") and political players from year's past - particularly in the Clinton years:

The purpose of political parties and their operatives, so it is said, is to win elections. Karl Rove, about to depart the Bush administration 17 months shy of its eight-year limit, devoted himself fervently to that purpose. Just as people like James Carville did for Bill Clinton and other partisan devotees did for presidents long ago.......  

[A]s 2004 nominee John Kerry said this week, "the politics of division may win some elections but cannot govern America." But he ascribed the proof to Rove alone, as though Clinton's team didn't do its share. The pursuit of electoral success and the formation of wise public policy can be mutually exclusive.... 

Leave it to practitioners of his trade to weigh Rove's success or failure in building the long-term Republican majority that he craved. (That is, after they analyze how a more deeply rooted Democratic regime in Congress crumbled more quickly on the watch of Carville & Co.)

The World-Herald reveals its bias quite plainly for all to see by writing as if Rove's notoriety were a fabrication rather than a reflection of his singular legacy in modern American politics.

To suggest, as the World-Herald does, that the Clinton White House practiced the same "politics of division" as Rove and the Bush Administration is - frankly - a damn lie. Clinton - in policy-terms and in presentation - was always a uniter seeking to bridge the gaps that predominate in American life. Bush, on the other hand - under Rove's tutelage - long ago embraced a presidency of paranoia and endless power plays that saw a sitting president campaign for re-election speaking almost exclusively to audiences that had to sign a pledge of support to even get past security. Gone was even the pretense of representing a united American public. Rove's was a game of numbers - pure and simple - in which victory was not just the ultimate goal but the only principle.

It is absurd and patently hypocritical for the World-Herald to simultaneously accuse the Clinton White House of divisiveness while mocking it for the Democratic Party's 1994 defeat. The anti-Clinton backlash that resulted in the Republican Party's takeover of Congress that year was a manifestation of the GOP's politics of division, proving just how effective a weapon it could be.

The whole Clinton impeachment ordeal was an extension of that style of politics, which the American people eventually rejected as Clinton left the White House with high approval ratings and the affection of many voters. Still, it wasn't until Karl Rove that we saw the true culmination of that ethos - at the very highest level of power - bringing us to the present where the sorry state of George W. Bush's presidency hopefully spells an end to what will be remembered as a very dark political era.

The World-Herald's attempt at defending Rove is insultingly idiotic and utterly preposterous. No matter their self-serving desire to portray Democrats as just as devious and just as corrupt as their Republican counterparts, there is only one Karl Rove - and thank God for that.

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Dan Rather Reveals Troubling Practices By Nebraska Vote-Counters ES&S

Having moved online to pursue the kind of investigative reporting that no longer has a home on TV news, longtime CBS anchorman Dan Rather has just struck a devastating blow to Election Systems & Software (ES&S), an Omaha-based company specializing in vote counting technology and overseeing elections. Last fall, I challenged the Omaha World-Herald's biased coverage of ES&S' failures in the 2006 elections, while taking issue with the World-Herald's ownership of a significant stake in ES&S. But, nothing then reported was so damning as Rather's new report, The Trouble with Touch Screens, which should be viewed by absolutely anyone concerned with the integrity of our elections and our democracy. Rather's hour-long report spends the first 30 minutes focusing almost exclusively on the shoddy manufacturing of ES&S' Touch Screen voting machines, which became all the rage after federal tax dollars were sent to the states through the Help America Vote Act to purchase tens of millions of dollars worth of such machines in response to the supposed failures of more traditional practices in the 2000 Florida presidential election. Rather makes a convincing case that the rush to embrace these new technologies might actually have created more problems than it solved, using the 2006 Congressional race in Florida's 13th District where ES&S machines showed very high rates of failure to set the tone for the entire report. Of ES&S' manufacturing, Rather uncovers terrible work conditions and almost no quality control with overseas workers in the Philippines paid as little as $2.15 a day. There are also suggestions that ES&S is tied in with a corrupt Filipino family and that they knowingly used touch screens with obvious material defects. In fact, a plant manager estimates that as many as 16,000 defective machines were delivered in the United States. Perhaps most disturbing for our purposes in Nebraska - where the Omaha World-Herald is so dominant a force in the local media - is the documented evidence of ES&S being so much more concerned with avoiding negative publicity than correcting problems with their software and their machines. The second half-hour of Rather's report is just as thought-provoking and scary, looking back at the circumstances of the 2000 election to advance a plausible theory of intentional sabotage by the vote machine industry to force adoption of new and more expensive technology. Again, I strongly urge readers to watch Rather's full report. It is sad that the Omaha World-Herald does not offer this sort of investigative reporting in its own pages. What's even sadder is that they continue to own so questionable a stake in ES&S, leaving open the possibility that their journalistic complacency is actually corporate-dictated journalistic corruption.

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The Hidden Numbers Behind Heineman's Corporate Welfare

Following up on Gov. Dave Heineman's celebrating the success of the Nebraska Advantage Act, it was suggested to me by a reader that we whip out our trusty NNN Calculator and take a closer look at the actual numbers.  The press release from Heineman's own office reads: The Nebraska Advantage was designed to encourage new capital investment and job creation in communities throughout the state. The program took effect on Jan. 1, 2006. By the end of July, 116 applications had been received from businesses expecting to invest a potential $4.06 billion in the state and create more than 10,400 new jobs during the next several years. Gov. Heineman adds: "We knew one of the most powerful issues for our state and for the young people attending our colleges and universities was to create good quality jobs right here in Nebraska. The Nebraska Advantage is creating real jobs and real results for Nebraska." But, remember that whole part about the program being "more popular" and, thus, "more expensive" to the state - perhaps more than double original estimates (which the Associated Press reported but the Omaha World-Herald neglected entirely): OWH: Richard Baier, the state's economic development director, said he does not know how much the business incentive tax credits equal, but he estimated them at about 12 percent to 15 percent of the value of investments made. AP: The total value of the tax breaks for the businesses that have applied through the end of last month could hover around $600 million. The $600 million in tax breaks falls squarely in line with Baier's 12-15% estimate of the $4 billion in potential investment Heineman's credited to Nebraska Advantage. But, let's not forget about all those "good quality jobs" Heineman promises as the true cornerstone of the entire program - "more than 10,400 new jobs during the next several years." Well, this is where the NNN Calculator comes in handy: Cost: $600 million Benefit: 10,400 jobs Total tax credits per job created = $57,692.30 It's funny how that number never found its way into Heineman's press release, nor the media reports that followed. Of course, there are ancillary benefits to our communities if this program actually encourages $4 billion in capital investments, but - as a tool for job creation - it's plain to see that Heineman's Nebraska Advantage appears to be nothing more than an instrument for corporations to take advantage of Nebraska taxpayers. Under this program, the state is handing out $57,692.30 in tax credits for every job that's supposedly being created.  And, I would love to know how many of these potential jobs will pay an annual wage that comes anywhere even close to that amount. You can bet that it's not many. Heineman is reporting numbers like these and hailing them as a success???? Is he crazy? Or, maybe Heineman just knows he can afford to be so shameless and deceptive because the Nebraska press will publish his spin without subjecting the facts to even the most basic level of scrutiny. The people of Nebraska need to see these numbers for themselves. Seem a little funny, don't they? Seem a little stupid and short-sighted, wouldn't you say? Unless Nebraska taxpayers are so soundly in favor of corporate welfare - handing out $57,692.30 to create a $30,000 per year job - Heineman should have some serious explaining to do. But, who will ask the questions? Who will demand the answers? Will you?

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