Make Them Accountable

The White House, trying to get out in front of the Yawning Boy story, is now in charge of media access to the young man who was seen on David Letterman's show this week yawning his way through one of President Bush's less robust speeches…

"He's a young person who strongly supports the president and is excited about getting a chance to talk about it," White House assistant press secretary Reed Dickens told The TV Column yesterday.

Dickens has been named go-to guy for anyone wanting to interview Tyler, who gained national prominence when Letterman introduced a new segment on his show Monday called "George W. Bush Invigorates America's Youth."

What followed was a videotape of clips from a recent speech Bush gave at the Orange County Convention Center in which the then-12-year-old Tyler can be seen yawning uncontrollably, stretching, fidgeting and checking his watch while standing behind the president…

CNN apologized on the air to Letterman yesterday for having reported Tuesday that the White House said his videotape had been altered to put the boy right behind Bush.

That honor fell to Daryn Kagan, who first reported on CNN that the White House was calling the tape a fake; Kyra Phillips said something to the same effect later, only she said "We're told that" without citing any source. CNN retracted that report Tuesday night, but only after Letterman had shown the clip of Kagan telling viewers that the White House said the tape was doctored, and only after Letterman had called the White House a bunch of liars. Twice.

"It turns out, due to what we might say a misunderstanding among the folks who are usually so fantastic behind me here in the newsroom, it turns out that was not true," Kagan said yesterday. "The White House, it turns out, I guess never did call us about the tape. . . . And we've been looking through our tapes and apparently we now see no evidence that it was faked…”

[The White House I GUESS never did call us? Are CNN reporters supposed to go around GUESSING? Aren’t they supposed to be reporting the FACTS?—Caro]

"This whole thing just smells. Doesn't it smell a little bit?" Letterman asked his audience last night…

The Daily Mislead

April 2, 2004

Reversing Pledge, Bush Lets OPEC Bilk Americans

As a presidential candidate in 2000, George Bush pledged to use his "political capital" to influence OPEC when gas prices soared, saying that during a crisis, a president, "ought to get on the phone with the OPEC cartel and say, 'We expect you to open your spigots". But with gas prices soaring in the United States, newspapers report the White House now says the president refuses to "personally lobby oil cartel leaders to change their minds".

With the president refusing to do anything about the situation, OPEC opted this week to cut supply to further inflate gas prices and bilk American consumers. While Saudi Arabia's ambassador told the White House yesterday that his country supposedly opposed higher oil prices, the president's refusal to use his close relations with the Saudi government gave the Saudis a pass to support the OPEC production cut. Despite the Saudi effort to keep American energy prices high - and despite their ties to terror groups - the President continues to insist that the Saudi Arabia is "our friend".

During his term, the president has pursued other policies that help enrich the oil industry, which has given him more than $3 million since 2000⁸. For instance, his tax legislation actually created a massive tax incentive for consumers to purchase gas-guzzling SUVs over fuel efficient hybrid cars. Meanwhile, the first budget President Bush introduced after taking office tried to cut 37%, (almost $200 million), out of federal research on renewable energy and energy efficiency programs…

How does Bush flip flop? Let me count the ways.
Center for American Progress

President Bush: Flip-Flopper-In-Chief

March 31, 2004

From the beginning, George W. Bush has made his own credibility a central issue. On 10/11/00, then Governor Bush said: "I think credibility is important. It is going to be important for the president to be credible with Congress, important for the president to be credible with foreign nations." But President Bush's serial flip-flopping raises serious questions about whether Congress and foreign leaders can rely on what he says.

1. Department of Homeland Security
BUSH OPPOSES THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY...
...BUSH SUPPORTS THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY…

2. Weapons of Mass Destruction
BUSH SAYS WE FOUND THE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION...
...BUSH SAYS WE HAVEN'T FOUND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION…

3. Free Trade
BUSH SUPPORTS FREE TRADE...
...BUSH SUPPORTS RESTRICTIONS ON TRADE…

4. Osama Bin Laden
BUSH WANTS OSAMA DEAD OR ALIVE...
...BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT OSAMA…

5. The Environment
BUSH SUPPORTS MANDATORY CAPS ON CARBON DIOXIDE...
...BUSH OPPOSES MANDATORY CAPS ON CARBON DIOXIDE…

6. WMD Commission
BUSH RESISTS AN OUTSIDE INVESTIGATION ON WMD INTELLIGENCE FAILURE...
...BUSH SUPPORTS AN OUTSIDE INVESTIGATION ON WMD INTELLIGENCE FAILURE…

7. Creation of the 9/11 Commission
BUSH OPPOSES CREATION OF INDEPENDENT 9/11 COMMISSION...
...BUSH SUPPORTS CREATION OF INDEPENDENT 9/11 COMMISSION…

8. Time Extension for 9/11 Commission
BUSH OPPOSES TIME EXTENSION FOR 9/11 COMMISSION...
...BUSH SUPPORTS TIME EXTENSION FOR 9/11 COMMISSION…

9. One Hour Limit for 9/11 Commission Testimony
BUSH LIMITS TESTIMONY IN FRONT OF 9/11 COMMISSION TO ONE HOUR...
...BUSH SETS NO TIMELIMIT FOR TESTIMONY…

10. Gay Marriage
BUSH SAYS GAY MARRIAGE IS A STATE ISSUE...
...BUSH SUPPORTS CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BANNING GAY MARRIAGE…

11. Nation Building
BUSH OPPOSES NATION BUILDING...
...BUSH SUPPORTS NATION BUILDING…

12. Saddam/al Qaeda Link
BUSH SAYS IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEEN AL QAEDA AND SADDAM...
...BUSH SAYS SADDAM HAD NO ROLE IN AL QAEDA PLOT…

13. U.N. Resolution
BUSH VOWS TO HAVE A UN VOTE NO MATTER WHAT...
...BUSH WITHDRAWS REQUEST FOR VOTE…

14. Involvement in the Palestinian Conflict
BUSH OPPOSES SUMMITS…
...BUSH SUPPORTS SUMMITS…

15. Campaign Finance
BUSH OPPOSES MCCAIN-FEINGOLD…
...BUSH SIGNS MCCAIN-FEINGOLD INTO LAW…

Are you scared enough yet to vote Republican? No? Well, maybe this will do the trick.
Associated Press

Gov't Warns of Summer Bomb Plots in U.S.

Fri Apr 2,10:59 PM ET

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Trains and buses in major U.S cities may be targeted this summer by terrorists using bombs hidden in bags or luggage, federal counterterrorism officials have told law enforcement and transportation officials in a nationwide bulletin.

FBI and Homeland Security Department officials said they had received uncorroborated intelligence reports about a plot by terrorists to target commercial transportation systems. [Emphasis added.] The bulletin, issued late Thursday, mentioned no specific cities or dates and did not elaborate on the source of the information.

A senior federal law enforcement official, speaking Friday on condition of anonymity, said the intelligence, coupled with the deadly March 11 commuter train attacks in Madrid in which bombs went off inside backpacks, has increased the level of wariness about a similar attack in the United States… [Emphasis added.]

PBS NOW

Published on Friday, April 2, 2004 by NOW with Bill Moyers

Ex-Nixon Aide John Dean Tells Bill Moyers that Bush Should Be Impeached

[O]n NOW with Bill Moyers , former counsel to President Nixon John Dean tells Bill Moyers that he believes the Bush Administration's secrecy and deception over the war with Iraq should result in impeachment…

BILL MOYERS:
Be specific with me. What is worse than Watergate?

JOHN DEAN:
If there's anything that really is the bottom line, it's taking the nation to war in a time -- when they might not have had to go to war and people dying. That is worse than Watergate. No one died for Nixon's so-called Watergate abuses.

BILL MOYERS:
Let me go right to page 155 of your book. You write, quote, "The evidence is overwhelming that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have engaged in deceit and deception over going to war in Iraq. This is an impeachable offense."

JOHN DEAN:
Absolutely is. The founders in the debates in the states-- I cite one. I cite one that I found -- I tracked down after reading the Nixon impeachment proceedings when-- Congressman Castenmeyer had gone back to look to see what the founders said about misrepresentations and lying to the Congress. Clearly, it is an impeachable offense. And I think the case is overwhelming that these people presented false information to the Congress and to the American people…

The New York Times

No End in Sight

By BOB HERBERT

Published: April 2, 2004

We're told that President Bush watched the television news coverage of the Iraqi mob that attacked, burned and mutilated four American civilians in Falluja on Wednesday. I can imagine the fury he must have felt. But I wonder what specific thoughts ran through his mind, and what other emotions he experienced.

Was there any soul-searching, any second thoughts about whether he did the right thing in launching this war, which he thought was all but over last May but which remains with us, with no end to the carnage in sight? With so many now dead, might the president have felt even the mildest of qualms, the faintest flickering of regret while watching the hideous images from Falluja?..

Why were [our troops] ever placed in harm's way in Iraq? Wednesday's atrocity was inexcusable — unconscionable — and those responsible should be tracked down and punished. But even if that happens, the greater tragedy of the war itself will continue indefinitely.

We rode into this wholly unnecessary conflict on the wave of Mr. Bush's obsession with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, and we've made a hash of it. Hundreds of Americans and thousands of innocent Iraqis have died for reasons the administration has never been able to coherently explain…

BuzzFlash.com

April 3, 2004

GOP Hypocrite of the Week: James Thompson

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Listen to the GOPHOTW HERE.

During his reign as the longest serving governor in the history of Illinois, they called the tall former U.S. Prosecutor, "Big Jim."

But as a member of the 9/11 Commission, James Thompson, now head of a prominent Chicago law firm, has justly earned the honor of being named the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Thompson, along with other Republican 9/11 Commission panel members, was provided anti-Clarke information by FOX "White House Propaganda" news. In addition, we can only speculate on what unseemly message points the White House itself spoon fed to the GOP partisans on the commission.

When it came his turn to question Clarke, "Big Jim" Thompson went after Clarke's credibility like a rat on $25 brie. Thompson, however, was up against an honest man who knew that the truth can force an overzealous prosecutor into retreat. And, indeed, as Clarke received applause from the family members of those killed on 9/11, Thompson ended his ferocious attack-rat questioning by suddenly departing the hearing room in an embarrassing defeat.

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) appropriately noted that Thompson was just doing the bidding of "his client at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."…

The New York Times

2 Decline to Testify on Drug Cost

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: April 2, 2004

WASHINGTON, April 1 — A senior White House official and the former Medicare administrator, central figures in a controversy over the cost of the new prescription drug law, declined to appear before a House committee Thursday, defying Democrats who had sought their testimony.

Citing executive privilege, the White House refused to send Doug Badger, special assistant to the president for health policy, to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee. The former Medicare administrator, Thomas A. Scully, who no longer works for the government, wrote the committee a letter saying he had been busy traveling and would be "unable to appear."

Democrats then tried to persuade the committee to subpoena them, but those motions failed along party lines, by votes of 23 to 16…

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Friday, April 2, 2004

Be careful what you say on campus

By BESHARA DOUMANI
PROFESSOR

The most ominous threat to academic freedom in decades looms in a seemingly innocuous Senate bill expected to come up for vote shortly. A short but critical clause would rob our society of the open exchange of ideas on college campuses that is vital to our democracy.

House Resolution 3077 passed last fall. It included a provision to establish an advisory board to monitor campus international studies centers in order to ensure that they advance the national interest. While the law would apply to all federally funded institutes with an international focus, the target is clearly the nation's 17 centers for Middle East studies. The driving force behind this provision is the same group of conservative ideologues who have long promoted the war on Iraq and who support the extreme right-wing politics of the Sharon government in Israel. Their aim is to defend the foreign policy of this administration by stifling critical and informed discussion on U.S. campuses.

The Senate vote comes at a time in which conservative activists walk the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. They include Education Secretary Rod Paige, who in a moment of failed but revealing levity, recently described the National Education Association, with 2.7 million member teachers, as a terrorist organization.

For professors like me, entrusted with teaching facts as well as critical thinking and the ability to analyze all sides of an issue, the pending legislation must be viewed against the backdrop of other recent and chilling developments.

Be careful what books you buy or check out from the library…

Be careful what readings you assign…

Be careful what you say in or out of class…

Students and faculty connected academically or culturally to Muslim and Middle Eastern countries have been especially targeted. Some have been subjected to hate mail blitzes and their institutions pressured to short-circuit their careers. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Penn., announced his intent last April to introduce legislation cutting federal funding to institutions of higher learning where students or faculty criticize Israel, labeling such criticism -- regardless of its content or basis in fact -- as anti-Semitic.

All of this will seem like child's play, though, if the attempt to stifle academic freedom is formalized through Congress…

Steve Bradenton

This needs to happen all over the country.
Oakland Tribune

Article Last Updated: Friday, April 02, 2004 - 6:54:17 AM PST

Perata pushes ban on e-voting

Oakland Democrat's bill aims to stave off repeat

By Steve Geissinger - SACRAMENTO BUREAU

SACRAMENTO -- Senate Majority Leader Don Perata introduced urgency legislation Thursday to ban use of computerized voting machines in Alameda County and across Cali-fornia during the November election -- a dramatic move the secretary of state said he is seriously considering…

The authors -- Perata, an Oakland Democrat who is chairman of the Senate elections committee, and Sen. Ross Johnson, an Irvine Republican who co-chairs the panel -- said the bill is aimed at thwarting the sort of problems with e-voting machines that emerged in Alameda and San Diego counties during the March primary.

"Thousands of Californians were denied their right to vote on March 2 because electronic voting systems failed to work," Perata said. "We cannot afford to let that happen to November. We have a duty to seek a legislative solution if that becomes necessary."

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, the state's top election official, is "seriously considering" decertification of computerized voting machines as one of his options while he pressures manufacturers and county officials for greater security precautions, said Shelley spokeswoman Carol Dahmen…

Last changed: April 03, 2004