Bob Allen
08-02-2004, 02:13 AM
Most of you could change your handles to Righty1, Righty2, Righty3 ...
Here's a little list of 50 reasons not to vote for Bush. These cannot be explained away with one sentence so we'll see how literate Bush supporters can be. Team up if you want and each of you could just take one and try to debunk it. Although when they are in Bush's own words it's a little hard to say, "he didn't say that." He did and I have another 1,393 lies or deceptions of George as of right now. He will come up with another 100 or so by the end of next week.
The link at the end of the replies may not work so you can get them here since you will need this information to try and debunk Bush's Failures: "One Thousand Reasons", Relentlessly Documenting the Failures of the Bush Administration
http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
Environment: U.S. Eases Review of Pesticides for Endangered Species
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it easier Thursday for the government to approve pesticides used by farmers and homeowners, saying it no longer would require the Environmental Protection Agency to first consult other federal agencies to determine whether a product could harm endangered species.
The change, supported by growers and pesticide manufacturers, affects federal regulations for carrying out the Endangered Species Act, a law that protects about 1,200 threatened animals and plants.
Environmentalists said the streamlined process would strip away protections for those species. LA Times 2004-07-31 link
Liberty: Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism
Americans are still learning the details of some of the abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases, physical brutality.
Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the abuses of the post-9/11 era is to consider a few case examples.
Nacer Fathi Mustafa, a 29-year-old American citizen, was traveling back to the United States with his Palestinian father on September 15, 2001, after purchasing leather jackets in Mexico for a Florida truck stop he manages. FFF 2004-07-29 link
Government: PAKISTAN FOR BUSH: July Surprise?
This afternoon, Pakistan's interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The timing of this announcement should be of particular interest to readers of The New Republic. Earlier this month, John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari broke the story of how the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistani officials to apprehend high-value targets (HVTs) in time for the November elections--and in particular, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Although the capture took place in central Pakistan "a few days back," the announcement came just hours before John Kerry will give his acceptance speech in Boston. The New Republic 2004-07-29 link
Health: Follow the money to fight AIDS in Africa
By all appearances, the Bush administration is finally providing real money to fight AIDS in Africa. Sure, the $15 billion "PEPFAR" program (President's Emergency Program For AIDS Relief) is under attack for buying expensive brand name drugs rather than cheap and equivalent generic drugs.
Moreover, President Bush is criticized for demanding that PEPFAR AIDS programs focus on abstinence and faithfulness in a context where such a focus might be ineffective. Nevertheless, the administration is credited by most critics as having provided an enormous amount of resources to fight AIDS, said to be more than double the sum of all other donor support worldwide in 2004.
The untold part of this story is where the money flows are going. Most of the PEPFAR money actually ends up in U.S. hands rather than going to Africans or their institutions. Seattle PI 2004-07-29 link
Health: Bush's faulty prescription
PRESIDENT BUSH has made no bones about his agenda for a second term -- he'll be more pro-business, which in conservative-speak means cutting back taxes, loosening regulations and fighting lawsuits. But he's not waiting until November, which may turn out to be a bitter pill for consumers. SF Chronicle 2004-07-29 link
Liberty: Homeland Security Gets Data on Arab-Americans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Census Bureau has provided population data on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including their ancestry and the cities and postal areas in which they live, The New York Times reported on Friday.
While the information sharing is legal, so long as the data do not identify individuals, civil liberties and Arab-American groups called it a breach of public trust and likened it to steps taken against Japanese-Americans in World War II, the newspaper said. Reuters 2004-07-29 link
War: Why the US granted 'protected' status to Iranian terrorists
The US State Department officially considers a group of 3,800 Marxist Iranian rebels - who once killed several Americans and was supported by Saddam Hussein - "terrorists."
But the same group, under American guard in an Iraqi camp, was just accorded a new status by the Pentagon: "protected persons" under the Geneva Convention.
This strange twist, analysts say, underscores the divisions in Washington over US strategy in the Middle East and the war against terrorism. It's also a function of the swiftly deteriorating US-Iran dynamic, and a victory for US hawks who favor using the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or "People's Holy Warriors," as a tool against Iran's clerical regime. CS Monitor 2004-07-29 link
Economy: I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years
The overall income Americans reported to the government shrank for two consecutive years after the Internet stock market bubble burst in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened since the modern tax system was introduced during World War II, newly disclosed information from the Internal Revenue Service shows.
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent. New York Times 2004-07-29 link
War: Iraq may fail as a state, warn MPs
The government's handling of the "war on terror" received a damning appraisal this morning, as senior MPs warned that, more than a year on from the invasion, Iraq was in danger of turning into a "failed state".
The foreign affairs committee also reported that there was "little, if any" sign of the much heralded war on drugs being won under the new regime in Afghanistan. Guardian 2004-07-29 link
War: Unbearable Emptiness
SALEM, Ore. -- Ever since a group of Iraqis told me last year about seeing a redheaded American soldier who was captured, held naked and then executed, I've been haunted by the question of his identity.
The first clues were in Nasiriya, Iraq, where in the aftermath of the war I interviewed the doctors and hospital staff who had cared for Pfc. Jessica Lynch. They said that the Pentagon had exaggerated the drama of her rescue, but what I could never put out of my mind was their tale of another American, whose name they never knew. New York Times 2004-07-27 link
Health: Medical intervention / The drug-card fiasco shows the need for reform
After a flurry of publicity on the inauguration of new drug cards that were supposed to bring down prices for Americans who lack coverage for medication prescribed by their doctors, the truth is emerging even for supporters such as AARP: The Bush drug plan, in its initial stages at least, is a scam. Post-Gazette 2004-07-27 link
Global Relations: Iraq War Straining US-Turkey Ties
While the image of the United States has sunk to an all-time low in the Arab world, the Iraq war has also had a devastating impact on U.S. ties to another predominantly Muslim power and one of Washington's closest and most strategically situated Cold War allies, Turkey, say experts just returned from the region.
Ties between Turkey and Israel ? countries that have long considered themselves strategic allies against hostile Arab states ? have also become deeply strained as a result of recent events, according to former U.S. ambassador in Ankara, Mark Parris, who also served for several years as the number two in the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. Anti-War 2004-07-27 link
Environment: EPA: Exposure Risk at Some Toxic Sites
WASHINGTON - Almost one in 10 of the nation's 1,230 Superfund toxic waste sites lack adequate safety controls to ensure people and drinking water won't be contaminated, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another 13 percent of the sites lack enough data for officials to assess the safeguards, the EPA says. Yahoo News 2004-07-27 link
Economy: Bush Seen Projecting Record Deficit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is expected to project soon a record federal budget deficit of about $420 billion for 2004, which could give ammunition to both sides of the election-year debate over tax and spending policies.
Congressional sources said on Tuesday the White House review of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, was likely to project a deficit about $50 billion greater than 2003. But the new figure would be nearly $100 billion less than forecast five months ago. Reuters 2004-07-27 link
War: Bush's 9/11 Farce
BOSTON -- Back before Jonas Salk developed his polio vaccine in 1952, summer could be a bad time for America's children. The fear of polio often kept them indoors, away from the beach or out of the pool. So it came as something of a surprise when the government somehow ran out of the vaccine and the secretary of health, education and welfare, Oveta Culp Hobby, uttered one of the great dumb remarks of American history: "No one could have foreseen the public demand for the vaccine."
The spirit of Mrs. Hobby lives on in George W. Bush. Almost three years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the biggest intelligence failure in U.S. history -- and after his own administration went to war for reasons that did not exist, the president has ordered his crack staff to see which of the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations can be implemented fast and without congressional approval. Washington Post 2004-07-27 link
War: An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted by 9/11 Report
Busted! Like a teenager whose beer bash is interrupted by his parents' early return home, President Bush's nearly three years of bragging about his "war on terror" credentials has been exposed by the bipartisan 9/11 commission as nothing more than empty posturing.
Without dissent, five prominent Republicans joined an equal number of their Democratic Party peers in stating unequivocally that the Bush administration got it wrong, both in its lethargic response to an unprecedented level of warnings during what the commission calls the "Summer of Threat," as well as in its inclusion of Iraq in the war on terror. LA Times 2004-07-27 link
Campaign: Moore to Show 'Fahrenheit' in Bush's Texas Town
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Filmmaker Michael Moore will bring his antiwar documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to President Bush's Texas hometown on Wednesday and has invited the commander-in-chief to attend the viewing, organizers said.
In the parking lot of the Crawford High School football field, Moore is expected to make a presentation about the film to an audience that could temporarily double the tiny hamlet's usual population of 705, according to peace activists who first proposed showing the satirical film on the side of a barn. Yahoo News 2004-07-26 link
Global Relations: Polls apart
Opinion polls in the Arab world are a comparatively rare event, but last week there were two and their message was very clear: US foreign policy is a disaster.
One poll was commissioned by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the other by the University of Maryland. Both were conducted by Zogby International, a US-based polling firm which interviewed 3,300 people in six Arab countries: Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In all six countries, an overwhelming majority of Arabs expressed an unfavourable view of the United States, ranging from 69% in Lebanon to 98% in Egypt, according to the AAI poll. Guardian 2004-07-26 link
Environment: Bush's Dark Pages in Conservation History --Stewart L. Udall
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A crucial struggle over land stewardship is taking place south of my home on the Greater Otero Mesa, a 1.2-million-acre stretch of grassland that looks pretty much the way it did when Coronado explored the region almost 500 years ago. As much as half of Otero Mesa still qualifies for protection under the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, which was enacted when I headed the Interior Department under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This law prevents industrial development on designated federal land "retaining its primeval character and influence."
But the Bush administration, determined to ransack public lands for the last meager pockets of petroleum, has turned my old department into a servile, single-minded adjunct of the Energy Department. LA Times 2004-07-25 link
Liberty: A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects
STOCKHOLM -- The airport police officer was about to close his small precinct station for the night, when two men wearing suits walked in. The visitors said the special Swedish security police had just arrested two suspected terrorists -- very dangerous men -- and needed a place to hold them until a plane could take them away.
The airport policeman recounted in an interview that he agreed to let them borrow his cramped office that night, Dec. 18, 2001, and stepped out of the way. But there was something strange about this operation. The two men in suits, who were soon joined by two uniformed Swedish police officers, did not speak Swedish, he said, and their English sounded distinctly American. Washington Post 2004-07-25 link
Government: In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
WASHINGTON, July 24 ? The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices.
The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.
2004-07-25 link
Global Relations: Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid
If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his "war on terror" is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...
Beginning with changing his policies.
That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a series of major surveys of public opinion in five Arab countries ? all U.S. allies in the "war on terror" ? released here Friday by the University of Maryland (UMD), the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Zogby International. Anti-War 2004-07-25 link
Environment: Lost in Space
SOMEWHERE IN THREE SISTERS WILDERNESS, Oregon
As I scribble these words in my notebook, I'm totally lost.
My two sons and I are backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail, but the trail disappeared under three feet of snow several miles ago. So we set out cross-country, camping last night on a patch of green surrounded by snow.
At the moment it's dawn at our bivouac, right about timberline, and my sons are still sleeping, blithely confident that we'll find our way again. And, truth be told, so long as one has food, shelter and a compass, it's gloriously liberating to be lost in a snowy wilderness. New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Liberty: Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed
A week ago, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was satisfied that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was keeping his promise to leave no stone unturned to investigate the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison. A newly released report by the Army's inspector general shows that Mr. Rumsfeld's team may be turning over stones, but it's not looking under them.
The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no "systemic" problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides; even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police were improperly involved in interrogations; even though young people plucked from civilian life were sent to guard prisoners - 50,000 of them in all - with no training. New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Government: GOP Seeks Catholic Parish Directories
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee has asked Bush-backing Roman Catholics to provide copies of their parish directories to help register Catholics to vote in the November election, a use of personal information not necessarily condoned by dioceses around the country. AP 2004-07-23 link
Iraq: Accounting and Accountability
Accountability is important. The nation will be ill served if officials who didn't do all they could to prevent a terrorist attack, or led the nation into an unnecessary war, manage to shift the blame to someone else.
But those weren't the only big mistakes of the last few years. Will anyone be held accountable for the mishandling of postwar Iraq?
Last month we learned that the United States, while it has spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed.
Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi sources, mainly oil revenues. This revelation helps explain one puzzle: the sluggish pace of reconstruction, which has yet to restore many essential services to prewar levels.
But it creates another puzzle: given that the authority was spending Iraq's money, why wasn't it more careful in its accounting? New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Race and Class: The hidden issue of class
SOCIAL CLASS is one of the most explosive issues in American politics. Like any explosive, it can dramatically transform a landscape -- or blow up in the user's face.
There are far more ordinary wage-earning people than wealthy investors and corporate moguls, but the political right has done far better at using class solidarity to its advantage than the liberal left. Americans like to view their country as a wide-open land of opportunity. Most consider themselves middle class, and most are uneasy thinking in terms of class at all. It's the rich who understand and act on class interests.
The Bush presidency has intensified a trend that began under Ronald Reagan -- widening inequality that benefited those at the very top. Boston Globe 2004-07-21 link
War: Bad Joke of the Day
Bush: 'I Want to Be the Peace President'
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - After launching two wars, President Bush said on Tuesday he wanted to be a "peace president" and took swipes at his Democratic rivals for being lawyers and weak on defense.
With polls showing public support for the war in Iraq in decline, the Republican president cast himself as a reluctant warrior as he campaigned in the battleground state of Iowa against Democrat John Kerry and his running mate, former trial lawyer John Edwards. Bush lost the state in 2000 by only a few thousand votes.
"The enemy declared war on us," he told a re-election rally. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president." Reuters 2004-07-20 link
War: Exactly How Has Bush?s War Made Us Safer?
President Bush claims that his war on Iraq has made Americans safer. His primary rationale is that by removing from power a foreign dictator who was supposedly bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, Americans are safer as a result. Unfortunately for the American people, however, Bush's reasoning is both false and fallacious. FFF 2004-07-20 link
War: Regime change in Iran now in Bush's sights
PRESIDENT George Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target.
Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North Korea and Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current conservative religious leadership.
The official said: "If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran." Sunday Herald 2004-07-20 link
Environment: Republican Ex-EPA Chief Criticizes Bush
CONCORD, N.H. - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's record on Monday, calling it a "polluter protection" policy.
Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 -- part of the Nixon and Ford administrations -- said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry. AP 2004-07-19 link
War: If Bush Has Plans For Another Preemptive War, He Should Forget It
WASHINGTON -- If President Bush has any grand plan for another preemptive war, he had better forget it.
Bush has crash landed on the fallacy of the invasion of Iraq. It will take time for the self-described "war president" to make a recovery.
It brings to mind an old saying: "Some day they will give a war and nobody will come." WLKY 2004-07-19 link
Government: Bush quietly meets with Amish here; they offer their prayers
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion.
He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him. Lancaster Online 2004-07-19 link
Attitude: Not-so-Curious George (Bush)
President Bush claimed in an interview a while back that he does not read newspapers. His wife, Laura, later told a reporter that the president was fudging and that, in fact, he did actually peruse the press.
In matters involving the Bush family, it is generally wise to take Laura's word. And we were inclined to do so - until the president's latest pronouncement about the benefits that have supposedly come America's way as a result of occupying Iraq.
The man, who more than a year ago declared that the heavy lifting in Iraq was done, only to discover that the fight had barely started, is now back with another over-the-top pronouncement. "Today," Bush said last week, "because America has acted and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer."
By any measure, the president is wrong. Capital Times 2004-07-19 link
Women's Rights: Betraying Iraqi Women
Despite the Bush administration's assurances to the contrary, conditions for women have worsened substantially as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continuing aftermath. The contrast between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning. One year ago, in July 2003, Undersecretary of State Paula J. Dobriansky wrote, "Indeed, the commitment of the United States to the human rights of Iraq's women is unshakable and manifested clearly by our activities on the ground as well as our policy statements." Ton Paine 2004-07-17 link
Iraq: U.S. Won't Turn Over Data for Iraq Audits
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 -- The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding, the head of the international auditing board said Thursday.
Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, the U.N. representative to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), said that the United States has repeatedly rebuffed his requests since March to turn over internal audits, including one that covered three contracts valued at $1.4 billion that were awarded to Halliburton, a Texas-based oil services firm. It has also failed to produced a list of other companies that have obtained contracts without having to compete. Washington Post 2004-07-16 link
Government: Failure Is Not an Option, It's Mandatory
WASHINGTON
For three days this week the nation was transfixed by the spectacle of the United States Senate, in all its august majesty, doing precisely the opposite of statesmanlike deliberation. Instead, it was debating the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would not only have discriminated against a large group of citizens, but also was doomed to defeat from the get-go. Everyone knew this harebrained notion would never draw the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment, and yet here were all these conservatives lining up to speak for it, wasting day after day with their meandering remarks about culture while more important business went unattended. What explains this folly?
Not simple bigotry, as some pundits declared, or even simple politics. While it is true that the amendment was a classic election-year ploy, it owes its power as much to a peculiar narrative of class hostility as it does to homophobia or ideology. And in this narrative, success comes by losing. New York Times 2004-07-16 link
Race and Class: Bush's Not-So-Big Tent
Just as George W. Bush is on track to be the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs, he is now the first president since Hoover to fail to meet with the N.A.A.C.P. during his entire term in office.
Mr. Bush and the leadership of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization get along about as well as the Hatfields and the McCoys. The president was invited to the group's convention in Philadelphia this week, but he declined.
That Mr. Bush thumbed his nose at N.A.A.C.P. officials is not the significant part of this story. The Julian Bonds and Kweisi Mfumes of the world can take care of themselves at least as well as Mr. Bush in the legalized gang fight called politics.
What is troubling is Mr. Bush's relationship with black Americans in general. New York Times 2004-07-16 link
War: U.S. intelligence on Iraq: Cheney just won't let it go
(KRT) - Late last week, yet another august body - this time the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - issued yet another massive report again confirming that the U.S. intelligence establishment got just about everything wrong when it came to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
But buried deep in the Senate report - little noticed and even less remarked upon - is something important that the committee credits the intelligence community for getting right. And it puts the torch to whatever flimsy tissue of credibility the Bush administration had left:
With respect to contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda during the 1990s, the committee found that the CIA "reasonably assessed ... that these contacts did not add up to an established formal relationship." News-Sentinal 2004-07-15 link
War: Duped by the neo-cons
AMONG the various rationales the Bush administration has given for invading Iraq 16 months ago, the most compelling to the American people was always the claim of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida. The September11 attacks left Americans angry, frightened, and ready for justified revenge.
If Saddam was in league with the al-Qa'ida terrorists who plotted and carried out the 9/11 attacks and a bad guy to begin with, surely it made eminent sense to take him out. As one White House adviser recently told The New York Times: "If you discount the relationship between Iraq and al-Qa'ida, then you discount the proposition that [the Iraq war] is part of the war on terror. If it's not part of the war on terror, then what is it - some cockeyed adventure on the part of George W. Bush?" The Australian 2004-07-15 link
War: The Latest Bush Doctrine
Britain's report on the prewar intelligence assessment of the Iraqi threat is in and it reached basically the same conclusions as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: the intelligence was seriously flawed and Iraq had no usable weapons of mass destruction.
Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately accepted ?personal responsibility.?
President Bush has taken not one ounce of personal responsibility for the failings of our intelligence. Pathetically, that is the custom in American politics, but it still reflects poorly on the president. CBS 2004-07-15 link
Liberty: The CIA's Prisoners
FOR DECADES the United States led the denunciation of despots whose enemies "disappear" -- vanish into official custody, with no accounting for their whereabouts or treatment, no notification of their families and sometimes, no acknowledgement that they are being held. Now that same term is being applied to prisoners held by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. Washington Post 2004-07-15 link
Iraq: Perception Gap in Iraq
Iraq's newly empowered politicians have not stemmed the violence and instability in their country. But nearly three weeks of partial sovereignty may have helped the Bush administration's drive to reduce its political vulnerability on Iraq at home.
Reducing that vulnerability is now the White House's most urgent goal. What happened at the June 28 handover ceremony in Baghdad was not so much a transfer of sovereignty as it was a transfer of political responsibility -- from President Bush to a willing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Allawi has kept his part of the bargain with Washington by repeatedly appearing before U.S. television cameras on two missions: to thank Bush for freeing Iraq and to take on the responsibility for answering attacks on U.S. forces and Iraqis. Washington Post 2004-07-15 link
Environment: A Wetland Dying of Thirst
ROCKPORT, Me. -- Now that President Bush has handed off Iraq, where should he be focusing his energies? Well, if he wants to get re-elected, the choice is an easy one: on Florida, even with its new chadless ballots. It just so happens that the infamously contested state is mired in an environmental conundrum. Despite the enactment four years ago of the federal Everglades Restoration Plan, America's largest wetland is most certainly not being restored. New York Times 2004-07-15 link
Attitude: The 'don't blame me' president
THE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding the Korean conflict, his attitude was: "The buck stops here." And when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold. Boston Globe 2004-07-15 link
Global Relations: Sailing Toward a Storm in China
Quietly and with minimal coverage in the U.S. press, the Navy announced that from mid-July through August it would hold exercises dubbed Operation Summer Pulse '04 in waters off the China coast near Taiwan.
This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster. LA Times 2004-07-15 link
Environment: No, Parks Are Not Just Fine
When the chief of the U.S. Park Police complained last December that her force was understaffed and stretched too thin to adequately protect National Park Service facilities, her bosses put her on leave, saying her comments were "an open invitation to lawbreakers." And then, last week, Chief Teresa C. Chambers was summarily fired with no further comment from the National Park Service or its parent, the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton held a press conference last week to declare that the Bush administration was virtually showering money on the nation's parks. LA Times 2004-07-15 link
Democracy: Time's up in blame game
Politics in Washington works in strange ways. A case in point is the Senate Intelligence Committee's decision to divide its investigation of the US invasion of Iraq into two parts. The first part dealt with the reasons for intelligence failure, or false intelligence, governing that decision. That congressional report, issued on Friday, damned the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in asserting that the invasion was carried out on false intelligence.
However, conclusive statements on the second part - regarding the culpability of the administration of President George W Bush, whether it went to war for the wrong reasons, by creating disinformation about the weapons of mass destruction-related capabilities of Saddam Hussein and his intentions toward the United States - will come out after the November presidential elections. Yet that is the most important part of the investigation. Asia Times 2004-07-15 link
Economy: Red ink more severe in first three quarters, figures show
The government's deficit ballooned to $326.6 billion in the first nine months of the 2004 budget year, according to a snapshot of U.S. balance sheets released Tuesday.
That's more than 20 percent larger than the $269.7 billion shortfall for the corresponding period last year. For the current budget year which began Oct. 1, this spending has totaled $1.73 trillion, 6.4 percent more than the same period a year ago. Revenues came to $1.40 trillion, 3.5 percent more than the previous year. SF Chronicle 2004-07-15 link
Government: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
WASHINGTON -- In the months and years leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they marched together in the vanguard of those who advocated war.
As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty.
Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq. For instance, a former Senate aide who helped get U.S. funds for anti-Hussein exiles who are now active in Iraqi affairs has a $175,000 deal to advise Romania on winning business in Iraq and other matters. LA Times 2004-07-14 link
And they're off,
Bob
Here's a little list of 50 reasons not to vote for Bush. These cannot be explained away with one sentence so we'll see how literate Bush supporters can be. Team up if you want and each of you could just take one and try to debunk it. Although when they are in Bush's own words it's a little hard to say, "he didn't say that." He did and I have another 1,393 lies or deceptions of George as of right now. He will come up with another 100 or so by the end of next week.
The link at the end of the replies may not work so you can get them here since you will need this information to try and debunk Bush's Failures: "One Thousand Reasons", Relentlessly Documenting the Failures of the Bush Administration
http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
Environment: U.S. Eases Review of Pesticides for Endangered Species
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it easier Thursday for the government to approve pesticides used by farmers and homeowners, saying it no longer would require the Environmental Protection Agency to first consult other federal agencies to determine whether a product could harm endangered species.
The change, supported by growers and pesticide manufacturers, affects federal regulations for carrying out the Endangered Species Act, a law that protects about 1,200 threatened animals and plants.
Environmentalists said the streamlined process would strip away protections for those species. LA Times 2004-07-31 link
Liberty: Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism
Americans are still learning the details of some of the abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases, physical brutality.
Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the abuses of the post-9/11 era is to consider a few case examples.
Nacer Fathi Mustafa, a 29-year-old American citizen, was traveling back to the United States with his Palestinian father on September 15, 2001, after purchasing leather jackets in Mexico for a Florida truck stop he manages. FFF 2004-07-29 link
Government: PAKISTAN FOR BUSH: July Surprise?
This afternoon, Pakistan's interior minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The timing of this announcement should be of particular interest to readers of The New Republic. Earlier this month, John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari broke the story of how the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistani officials to apprehend high-value targets (HVTs) in time for the November elections--and in particular, to coincide with the Democratic National Convention. Although the capture took place in central Pakistan "a few days back," the announcement came just hours before John Kerry will give his acceptance speech in Boston. The New Republic 2004-07-29 link
Health: Follow the money to fight AIDS in Africa
By all appearances, the Bush administration is finally providing real money to fight AIDS in Africa. Sure, the $15 billion "PEPFAR" program (President's Emergency Program For AIDS Relief) is under attack for buying expensive brand name drugs rather than cheap and equivalent generic drugs.
Moreover, President Bush is criticized for demanding that PEPFAR AIDS programs focus on abstinence and faithfulness in a context where such a focus might be ineffective. Nevertheless, the administration is credited by most critics as having provided an enormous amount of resources to fight AIDS, said to be more than double the sum of all other donor support worldwide in 2004.
The untold part of this story is where the money flows are going. Most of the PEPFAR money actually ends up in U.S. hands rather than going to Africans or their institutions. Seattle PI 2004-07-29 link
Health: Bush's faulty prescription
PRESIDENT BUSH has made no bones about his agenda for a second term -- he'll be more pro-business, which in conservative-speak means cutting back taxes, loosening regulations and fighting lawsuits. But he's not waiting until November, which may turn out to be a bitter pill for consumers. SF Chronicle 2004-07-29 link
Liberty: Homeland Security Gets Data on Arab-Americans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Census Bureau has provided population data on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including their ancestry and the cities and postal areas in which they live, The New York Times reported on Friday.
While the information sharing is legal, so long as the data do not identify individuals, civil liberties and Arab-American groups called it a breach of public trust and likened it to steps taken against Japanese-Americans in World War II, the newspaper said. Reuters 2004-07-29 link
War: Why the US granted 'protected' status to Iranian terrorists
The US State Department officially considers a group of 3,800 Marxist Iranian rebels - who once killed several Americans and was supported by Saddam Hussein - "terrorists."
But the same group, under American guard in an Iraqi camp, was just accorded a new status by the Pentagon: "protected persons" under the Geneva Convention.
This strange twist, analysts say, underscores the divisions in Washington over US strategy in the Middle East and the war against terrorism. It's also a function of the swiftly deteriorating US-Iran dynamic, and a victory for US hawks who favor using the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or "People's Holy Warriors," as a tool against Iran's clerical regime. CS Monitor 2004-07-29 link
Economy: I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years
The overall income Americans reported to the government shrank for two consecutive years after the Internet stock market bubble burst in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened since the modern tax system was introduced during World War II, newly disclosed information from the Internal Revenue Service shows.
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent. New York Times 2004-07-29 link
War: Iraq may fail as a state, warn MPs
The government's handling of the "war on terror" received a damning appraisal this morning, as senior MPs warned that, more than a year on from the invasion, Iraq was in danger of turning into a "failed state".
The foreign affairs committee also reported that there was "little, if any" sign of the much heralded war on drugs being won under the new regime in Afghanistan. Guardian 2004-07-29 link
War: Unbearable Emptiness
SALEM, Ore. -- Ever since a group of Iraqis told me last year about seeing a redheaded American soldier who was captured, held naked and then executed, I've been haunted by the question of his identity.
The first clues were in Nasiriya, Iraq, where in the aftermath of the war I interviewed the doctors and hospital staff who had cared for Pfc. Jessica Lynch. They said that the Pentagon had exaggerated the drama of her rescue, but what I could never put out of my mind was their tale of another American, whose name they never knew. New York Times 2004-07-27 link
Health: Medical intervention / The drug-card fiasco shows the need for reform
After a flurry of publicity on the inauguration of new drug cards that were supposed to bring down prices for Americans who lack coverage for medication prescribed by their doctors, the truth is emerging even for supporters such as AARP: The Bush drug plan, in its initial stages at least, is a scam. Post-Gazette 2004-07-27 link
Global Relations: Iraq War Straining US-Turkey Ties
While the image of the United States has sunk to an all-time low in the Arab world, the Iraq war has also had a devastating impact on U.S. ties to another predominantly Muslim power and one of Washington's closest and most strategically situated Cold War allies, Turkey, say experts just returned from the region.
Ties between Turkey and Israel ? countries that have long considered themselves strategic allies against hostile Arab states ? have also become deeply strained as a result of recent events, according to former U.S. ambassador in Ankara, Mark Parris, who also served for several years as the number two in the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv. Anti-War 2004-07-27 link
Environment: EPA: Exposure Risk at Some Toxic Sites
WASHINGTON - Almost one in 10 of the nation's 1,230 Superfund toxic waste sites lack adequate safety controls to ensure people and drinking water won't be contaminated, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another 13 percent of the sites lack enough data for officials to assess the safeguards, the EPA says. Yahoo News 2004-07-27 link
Economy: Bush Seen Projecting Record Deficit
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is expected to project soon a record federal budget deficit of about $420 billion for 2004, which could give ammunition to both sides of the election-year debate over tax and spending policies.
Congressional sources said on Tuesday the White House review of the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, was likely to project a deficit about $50 billion greater than 2003. But the new figure would be nearly $100 billion less than forecast five months ago. Reuters 2004-07-27 link
War: Bush's 9/11 Farce
BOSTON -- Back before Jonas Salk developed his polio vaccine in 1952, summer could be a bad time for America's children. The fear of polio often kept them indoors, away from the beach or out of the pool. So it came as something of a surprise when the government somehow ran out of the vaccine and the secretary of health, education and welfare, Oveta Culp Hobby, uttered one of the great dumb remarks of American history: "No one could have foreseen the public demand for the vaccine."
The spirit of Mrs. Hobby lives on in George W. Bush. Almost three years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the biggest intelligence failure in U.S. history -- and after his own administration went to war for reasons that did not exist, the president has ordered his crack staff to see which of the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations can be implemented fast and without congressional approval. Washington Post 2004-07-27 link
War: An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted by 9/11 Report
Busted! Like a teenager whose beer bash is interrupted by his parents' early return home, President Bush's nearly three years of bragging about his "war on terror" credentials has been exposed by the bipartisan 9/11 commission as nothing more than empty posturing.
Without dissent, five prominent Republicans joined an equal number of their Democratic Party peers in stating unequivocally that the Bush administration got it wrong, both in its lethargic response to an unprecedented level of warnings during what the commission calls the "Summer of Threat," as well as in its inclusion of Iraq in the war on terror. LA Times 2004-07-27 link
Campaign: Moore to Show 'Fahrenheit' in Bush's Texas Town
CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - Filmmaker Michael Moore will bring his antiwar documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" to President Bush's Texas hometown on Wednesday and has invited the commander-in-chief to attend the viewing, organizers said.
In the parking lot of the Crawford High School football field, Moore is expected to make a presentation about the film to an audience that could temporarily double the tiny hamlet's usual population of 705, according to peace activists who first proposed showing the satirical film on the side of a barn. Yahoo News 2004-07-26 link
Global Relations: Polls apart
Opinion polls in the Arab world are a comparatively rare event, but last week there were two and their message was very clear: US foreign policy is a disaster.
One poll was commissioned by the Arab American Institute (AAI) and the other by the University of Maryland. Both were conducted by Zogby International, a US-based polling firm which interviewed 3,300 people in six Arab countries: Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
In all six countries, an overwhelming majority of Arabs expressed an unfavourable view of the United States, ranging from 69% in Lebanon to 98% in Egypt, according to the AAI poll. Guardian 2004-07-26 link
Environment: Bush's Dark Pages in Conservation History --Stewart L. Udall
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A crucial struggle over land stewardship is taking place south of my home on the Greater Otero Mesa, a 1.2-million-acre stretch of grassland that looks pretty much the way it did when Coronado explored the region almost 500 years ago. As much as half of Otero Mesa still qualifies for protection under the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, which was enacted when I headed the Interior Department under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This law prevents industrial development on designated federal land "retaining its primeval character and influence."
But the Bush administration, determined to ransack public lands for the last meager pockets of petroleum, has turned my old department into a servile, single-minded adjunct of the Energy Department. LA Times 2004-07-25 link
Liberty: A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects
STOCKHOLM -- The airport police officer was about to close his small precinct station for the night, when two men wearing suits walked in. The visitors said the special Swedish security police had just arrested two suspected terrorists -- very dangerous men -- and needed a place to hold them until a plane could take them away.
The airport policeman recounted in an interview that he agreed to let them borrow his cramped office that night, Dec. 18, 2001, and stepped out of the way. But there was something strange about this operation. The two men in suits, who were soon joined by two uniformed Swedish police officers, did not speak Swedish, he said, and their English sounded distinctly American. Washington Post 2004-07-25 link
Government: In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
WASHINGTON, July 24 ? The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices.
The administration contends that consumers cannot recover damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal appeals court in Philadelphia.
2004-07-25 link
Global Relations: Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid
If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his "war on terror" is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting it much differently than he has over the past two years...
Beginning with changing his policies.
That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a series of major surveys of public opinion in five Arab countries ? all U.S. allies in the "war on terror" ? released here Friday by the University of Maryland (UMD), the Arab American Institute (AAI) and Zogby International. Anti-War 2004-07-25 link
Environment: Lost in Space
SOMEWHERE IN THREE SISTERS WILDERNESS, Oregon
As I scribble these words in my notebook, I'm totally lost.
My two sons and I are backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail, but the trail disappeared under three feet of snow several miles ago. So we set out cross-country, camping last night on a patch of green surrounded by snow.
At the moment it's dawn at our bivouac, right about timberline, and my sons are still sleeping, blithely confident that we'll find our way again. And, truth be told, so long as one has food, shelter and a compass, it's gloriously liberating to be lost in a snowy wilderness. New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Liberty: Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed
A week ago, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was satisfied that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was keeping his promise to leave no stone unturned to investigate the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison. A newly released report by the Army's inspector general shows that Mr. Rumsfeld's team may be turning over stones, but it's not looking under them.
The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no "systemic" problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides; even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police were improperly involved in interrogations; even though young people plucked from civilian life were sent to guard prisoners - 50,000 of them in all - with no training. New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Government: GOP Seeks Catholic Parish Directories
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee has asked Bush-backing Roman Catholics to provide copies of their parish directories to help register Catholics to vote in the November election, a use of personal information not necessarily condoned by dioceses around the country. AP 2004-07-23 link
Iraq: Accounting and Accountability
Accountability is important. The nation will be ill served if officials who didn't do all they could to prevent a terrorist attack, or led the nation into an unnecessary war, manage to shift the blame to someone else.
But those weren't the only big mistakes of the last few years. Will anyone be held accountable for the mishandling of postwar Iraq?
Last month we learned that the United States, while it has spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed.
Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi sources, mainly oil revenues. This revelation helps explain one puzzle: the sluggish pace of reconstruction, which has yet to restore many essential services to prewar levels.
But it creates another puzzle: given that the authority was spending Iraq's money, why wasn't it more careful in its accounting? New York Times 2004-07-23 link
Race and Class: The hidden issue of class
SOCIAL CLASS is one of the most explosive issues in American politics. Like any explosive, it can dramatically transform a landscape -- or blow up in the user's face.
There are far more ordinary wage-earning people than wealthy investors and corporate moguls, but the political right has done far better at using class solidarity to its advantage than the liberal left. Americans like to view their country as a wide-open land of opportunity. Most consider themselves middle class, and most are uneasy thinking in terms of class at all. It's the rich who understand and act on class interests.
The Bush presidency has intensified a trend that began under Ronald Reagan -- widening inequality that benefited those at the very top. Boston Globe 2004-07-21 link
War: Bad Joke of the Day
Bush: 'I Want to Be the Peace President'
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (Reuters) - After launching two wars, President Bush said on Tuesday he wanted to be a "peace president" and took swipes at his Democratic rivals for being lawyers and weak on defense.
With polls showing public support for the war in Iraq in decline, the Republican president cast himself as a reluctant warrior as he campaigned in the battleground state of Iowa against Democrat John Kerry and his running mate, former trial lawyer John Edwards. Bush lost the state in 2000 by only a few thousand votes.
"The enemy declared war on us," he told a re-election rally. "Nobody wants to be the war president. I want to be the peace president." Reuters 2004-07-20 link
War: Exactly How Has Bush?s War Made Us Safer?
President Bush claims that his war on Iraq has made Americans safer. His primary rationale is that by removing from power a foreign dictator who was supposedly bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction, Americans are safer as a result. Unfortunately for the American people, however, Bush's reasoning is both false and fallacious. FFF 2004-07-20 link
War: Regime change in Iran now in Bush's sights
PRESIDENT George Bush has promised that if re-elected in November he will make regime change in Iran his new target.
Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North Korea and Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current conservative religious leadership.
The official said: "If George Bush is re-elected there will be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran." Sunday Herald 2004-07-20 link
Environment: Republican Ex-EPA Chief Criticizes Bush
CONCORD, N.H. - The head of the Environmental Protection Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's record on Monday, calling it a "polluter protection" policy.
Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to January 1977 -- part of the Nixon and Ford administrations -- said Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast his vote for Democrat John Kerry. AP 2004-07-19 link
War: If Bush Has Plans For Another Preemptive War, He Should Forget It
WASHINGTON -- If President Bush has any grand plan for another preemptive war, he had better forget it.
Bush has crash landed on the fallacy of the invasion of Iraq. It will take time for the self-described "war president" to make a recovery.
It brings to mind an old saying: "Some day they will give a war and nobody will come." WLKY 2004-07-19 link
Government: Bush quietly meets with Amish here; they offer their prayers
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion.
He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the church vote but they would pray for him. Lancaster Online 2004-07-19 link
Attitude: Not-so-Curious George (Bush)
President Bush claimed in an interview a while back that he does not read newspapers. His wife, Laura, later told a reporter that the president was fudging and that, in fact, he did actually peruse the press.
In matters involving the Bush family, it is generally wise to take Laura's word. And we were inclined to do so - until the president's latest pronouncement about the benefits that have supposedly come America's way as a result of occupying Iraq.
The man, who more than a year ago declared that the heavy lifting in Iraq was done, only to discover that the fight had barely started, is now back with another over-the-top pronouncement. "Today," Bush said last week, "because America has acted and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer."
By any measure, the president is wrong. Capital Times 2004-07-19 link
Women's Rights: Betraying Iraqi Women
Despite the Bush administration's assurances to the contrary, conditions for women have worsened substantially as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continuing aftermath. The contrast between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning. One year ago, in July 2003, Undersecretary of State Paula J. Dobriansky wrote, "Indeed, the commitment of the United States to the human rights of Iraq's women is unshakable and manifested clearly by our activities on the ground as well as our policy statements." Ton Paine 2004-07-17 link
Iraq: U.S. Won't Turn Over Data for Iraq Audits
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 -- The Bush administration is withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding, the head of the international auditing board said Thursday.
Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, the U.N. representative to the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), said that the United States has repeatedly rebuffed his requests since March to turn over internal audits, including one that covered three contracts valued at $1.4 billion that were awarded to Halliburton, a Texas-based oil services firm. It has also failed to produced a list of other companies that have obtained contracts without having to compete. Washington Post 2004-07-16 link
Government: Failure Is Not an Option, It's Mandatory
WASHINGTON
For three days this week the nation was transfixed by the spectacle of the United States Senate, in all its august majesty, doing precisely the opposite of statesmanlike deliberation. Instead, it was debating the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would not only have discriminated against a large group of citizens, but also was doomed to defeat from the get-go. Everyone knew this harebrained notion would never draw the two-thirds majority required for a constitutional amendment, and yet here were all these conservatives lining up to speak for it, wasting day after day with their meandering remarks about culture while more important business went unattended. What explains this folly?
Not simple bigotry, as some pundits declared, or even simple politics. While it is true that the amendment was a classic election-year ploy, it owes its power as much to a peculiar narrative of class hostility as it does to homophobia or ideology. And in this narrative, success comes by losing. New York Times 2004-07-16 link
Race and Class: Bush's Not-So-Big Tent
Just as George W. Bush is on track to be the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs, he is now the first president since Hoover to fail to meet with the N.A.A.C.P. during his entire term in office.
Mr. Bush and the leadership of the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization get along about as well as the Hatfields and the McCoys. The president was invited to the group's convention in Philadelphia this week, but he declined.
That Mr. Bush thumbed his nose at N.A.A.C.P. officials is not the significant part of this story. The Julian Bonds and Kweisi Mfumes of the world can take care of themselves at least as well as Mr. Bush in the legalized gang fight called politics.
What is troubling is Mr. Bush's relationship with black Americans in general. New York Times 2004-07-16 link
War: U.S. intelligence on Iraq: Cheney just won't let it go
(KRT) - Late last week, yet another august body - this time the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - issued yet another massive report again confirming that the U.S. intelligence establishment got just about everything wrong when it came to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent biological, chemical and nuclear weapons.
But buried deep in the Senate report - little noticed and even less remarked upon - is something important that the committee credits the intelligence community for getting right. And it puts the torch to whatever flimsy tissue of credibility the Bush administration had left:
With respect to contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda during the 1990s, the committee found that the CIA "reasonably assessed ... that these contacts did not add up to an established formal relationship." News-Sentinal 2004-07-15 link
War: Duped by the neo-cons
AMONG the various rationales the Bush administration has given for invading Iraq 16 months ago, the most compelling to the American people was always the claim of a link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa'ida. The September11 attacks left Americans angry, frightened, and ready for justified revenge.
If Saddam was in league with the al-Qa'ida terrorists who plotted and carried out the 9/11 attacks and a bad guy to begin with, surely it made eminent sense to take him out. As one White House adviser recently told The New York Times: "If you discount the relationship between Iraq and al-Qa'ida, then you discount the proposition that [the Iraq war] is part of the war on terror. If it's not part of the war on terror, then what is it - some cockeyed adventure on the part of George W. Bush?" The Australian 2004-07-15 link
War: The Latest Bush Doctrine
Britain's report on the prewar intelligence assessment of the Iraqi threat is in and it reached basically the same conclusions as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: the intelligence was seriously flawed and Iraq had no usable weapons of mass destruction.
Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately accepted ?personal responsibility.?
President Bush has taken not one ounce of personal responsibility for the failings of our intelligence. Pathetically, that is the custom in American politics, but it still reflects poorly on the president. CBS 2004-07-15 link
Liberty: The CIA's Prisoners
FOR DECADES the United States led the denunciation of despots whose enemies "disappear" -- vanish into official custody, with no accounting for their whereabouts or treatment, no notification of their families and sometimes, no acknowledgement that they are being held. Now that same term is being applied to prisoners held by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. Washington Post 2004-07-15 link
Iraq: Perception Gap in Iraq
Iraq's newly empowered politicians have not stemmed the violence and instability in their country. But nearly three weeks of partial sovereignty may have helped the Bush administration's drive to reduce its political vulnerability on Iraq at home.
Reducing that vulnerability is now the White House's most urgent goal. What happened at the June 28 handover ceremony in Baghdad was not so much a transfer of sovereignty as it was a transfer of political responsibility -- from President Bush to a willing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Allawi has kept his part of the bargain with Washington by repeatedly appearing before U.S. television cameras on two missions: to thank Bush for freeing Iraq and to take on the responsibility for answering attacks on U.S. forces and Iraqis. Washington Post 2004-07-15 link
Environment: A Wetland Dying of Thirst
ROCKPORT, Me. -- Now that President Bush has handed off Iraq, where should he be focusing his energies? Well, if he wants to get re-elected, the choice is an easy one: on Florida, even with its new chadless ballots. It just so happens that the infamously contested state is mired in an environmental conundrum. Despite the enactment four years ago of the federal Everglades Restoration Plan, America's largest wetland is most certainly not being restored. New York Times 2004-07-15 link
Attitude: The 'don't blame me' president
THE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding the Korean conflict, his attitude was: "The buck stops here." And when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold. Boston Globe 2004-07-15 link
Global Relations: Sailing Toward a Storm in China
Quietly and with minimal coverage in the U.S. press, the Navy announced that from mid-July through August it would hold exercises dubbed Operation Summer Pulse '04 in waters off the China coast near Taiwan.
This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy landings and may well end in a disaster. LA Times 2004-07-15 link
Environment: No, Parks Are Not Just Fine
When the chief of the U.S. Park Police complained last December that her force was understaffed and stretched too thin to adequately protect National Park Service facilities, her bosses put her on leave, saying her comments were "an open invitation to lawbreakers." And then, last week, Chief Teresa C. Chambers was summarily fired with no further comment from the National Park Service or its parent, the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton held a press conference last week to declare that the Bush administration was virtually showering money on the nation's parks. LA Times 2004-07-15 link
Democracy: Time's up in blame game
Politics in Washington works in strange ways. A case in point is the Senate Intelligence Committee's decision to divide its investigation of the US invasion of Iraq into two parts. The first part dealt with the reasons for intelligence failure, or false intelligence, governing that decision. That congressional report, issued on Friday, damned the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in asserting that the invasion was carried out on false intelligence.
However, conclusive statements on the second part - regarding the culpability of the administration of President George W Bush, whether it went to war for the wrong reasons, by creating disinformation about the weapons of mass destruction-related capabilities of Saddam Hussein and his intentions toward the United States - will come out after the November presidential elections. Yet that is the most important part of the investigation. Asia Times 2004-07-15 link
Economy: Red ink more severe in first three quarters, figures show
The government's deficit ballooned to $326.6 billion in the first nine months of the 2004 budget year, according to a snapshot of U.S. balance sheets released Tuesday.
That's more than 20 percent larger than the $269.7 billion shortfall for the corresponding period last year. For the current budget year which began Oct. 1, this spending has totaled $1.73 trillion, 6.4 percent more than the same period a year ago. Revenues came to $1.40 trillion, 3.5 percent more than the previous year. SF Chronicle 2004-07-15 link
Government: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction
WASHINGTON -- In the months and years leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they marched together in the vanguard of those who advocated war.
As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi, and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national security and moral duty.
Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in Iraq. For instance, a former Senate aide who helped get U.S. funds for anti-Hussein exiles who are now active in Iraqi affairs has a $175,000 deal to advise Romania on winning business in Iraq and other matters. LA Times 2004-07-14 link
And they're off,
Bob