Thursday, April 1, 2004 Posted 4:21 PM by Jim Hightower How E-Voting Threatens Democracy By Kim Zetter Wired.Com Monday 29 March 2004 In January 2003, voting activist Bev Harris was holed up in the basement of her three-story house in Renton, Washington, searching the Internet for an electronic voting machine manual, when she made a startling discovery. Clicking on a link for a file transfer protocol site belonging to voting machine maker Diebold Election Systems, Harris found about 40,000 unprotected computer files. They included source code for Diebold's AccuVote touch-screen voting machine, program files for its Global Election Management System tabulation software, a Texas voter-registration list with voters' names and addresses, and what appeared to be live vote data from 57 precincts in a 2002 California primary election. "There was a lot of stuff that shouldn't have been there," Harris said. The California file was time-stamped 3:31 p.m. on Election Day, indicating that Diebold might have obtained the data during voting. But polling precincts aren't supposed to release votes until after polls close at 8 p.m. So Harris began to wonder if it were possible for the company to extract votes during an election and change them without anyone knowing. A look at the Diebold ...more Posted 4:16 PM by Jim Hightower 9/11 Widows Skillfully Applied the Power of a Question: Why? By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Published: April 1, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON — Kristen Breitweiser was at home in Middletown, N.J., cleaning out closets. Patty Casazza of Colts Neck was dashing to the dry cleaners. Lorie Van Auken of East Brunswick was headed out to do grocery shopping. Her neighbor Mindy Kleinberg had just packed her children off to school. Then came word, Tuesday morning, that President Bush had agreed to allow his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, to testify publicly about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. All at once, the cellphones started ringing and the e-mail started flying and "the Jersey girls," as the four women are known in Washington, were getting credit for chalking up another victory in the nation's capital. Americans just tuning in to the work of the commission investigating the attacks may not have heard of Ms. Breitweiser and the rest. But on Capitol Hill, these suburban women are gaining prominence as savvy World Trade Center widows who came to Washington, as part of a core group of politically active relatives of Sept. 11 victims, and prodded Congress and a recalcitrant White House to create the panel that ...more Wednesday, March 31, 2004 Posted 2:59 PM by Jim Hightower Al Franken Launches Liberal Radio Talk Show March 31, 2004 02:56 PM EST NEW YORK - Is it a radio business, or is it politics? The two seem inextricably entwined for the leaders of Air America Radio, the liberal talk radio network that launched on five stations around the country Wednesday. As a startup media business, they need to draw in listeners fast. Air America Radio is betting that a menu of left-leaning political commentary, current affairs talk and satire will resonate with those opposed to the Bush administration. Al Franken, who is headlining the network with a daily three-hour talk show, has made no secret of his intention to use his platform to influence the election in November. "We are flaming swords of justice," Franken told a cheering crowd at a party to launch the network Tuesday night. "Bush is going down, he is going down, he is going down. And we're going to help him." Franken's show went live at noon on Wednesday with co-host Katherine Lanpher, a longtime host of a public radio show in Minnesota. At the opening, Franken joked that they were broadcasting from a bunker 3,500 feet below Vice President ...more Posted 1:23 PM by Jim Hightower Reason to Run? Nader Argues He Has Plenty By TODD S. PURDUM Published: March 31, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON, March 30 — Ralph Nader knows all the arguments against him. He can recite, word for importuning word, the letters from old friends urging him not to run for president — "all individually written, all stunningly similar" — and he does so with the theatrical relish of a man whose public life has been one long, unyielding argument with the world. "Here's how it started," he said, his soft voice taking on mock oratorical tones over dinner with a group of aides in Charlotte, N.C., last week: "For years, I've thought of you as one of our heroes." He rolled his eyes. "The achievements you've attained are monumental, in consumer, environmental, etc., etc." He paused for effect. "But this time, I must express my profound disappointment at indications that you are going to run." "And the more I got of these," Mr. Nader said, "the more I realized that we are confronting a virus, a liberal virus. And the characteristic of a virus is when it takes hold of the individual, it's the same virus, individual letters all written in uncannily the same ...more Posted 1:15 PM by Jim Hightower When Goals Meet Reality: Executive Privilege Reversal Is this called Flip-Flopping on an issue? By DAVID E. SANGER Published: March 31, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON, March 30 — When George W. Bush and Dick Cheney took office three years ago, they made no secret of their intention to restore presidential powers and prerogatives that they believed had withered under the onslaught of Washington's cycle of televised, all-consuming investigations. But time and again, that effort by the Bush White House has fallen victim to political reality. It did so once more on Tuesday, when the president made a four-minute appearance in the White House press room to announce that he was giving in to demands from the 9/11 commission that he had resisted for months. His decision to reverse course, dropping his claim of executive privilege preventing public, sworn testimony by his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was part of a distinct pattern that has emerged inside this highly secretive White House. The first reaction to most demands for outside inquiries, or for details about energy policy decisions or intelligence concerning Iraqi weapons or Nigerian uranium, has been to build walls: Mr. Bush, or more often Mr. Cheney in his stead, ...more Posted 1:09 PM by Jim Hightower This Isn't America By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: March 30, 2004 New York Times/Opinion Last week an opinion piece in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin said, "This isn't America; the government did not invent intelligence material nor exaggerate the description of the threat to justify their attack." So even in Israel, George Bush's America has become a byword for deception and abuse of power. And the administration's reaction to Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies" provides more evidence of something rotten in the state of our government. The truth is that among experts, what Mr. Clarke says about Mr. Bush's terrorism policy isn't controversial. The facts that terrorism was placed on the back burner before 9/11 and that Mr. Bush blamed Iraq despite the lack of evidence are confirmed by many sources — including "Bush at War," by Bob Woodward. And new evidence keeps emerging for Mr. Clarke's main charge, that the Iraq obsession undermined the pursuit of Al Qaeda. From yesterday's USA Today: "In 2002, troops from the Fifth Special Forces Group who specialize in the Middle East were pulled out of the hunt for Osama bin Laden to prepare for their next assignment: Iraq. Their replacements were troops with ...more Tuesday, March 30, 2004 Posted 8:01 PM by Jim Hightower William Rivers Pitt: The Line By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Tuesday 30 March 2004 Former White House Counter-Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke has managed to do something that defies modern political gravity. He has stayed in the news, hour after hour and day after day. He was hurled many days ago into the maelstrom of the 24-hour news cycle, which reports one moment on an incredibly important story, flings that story out beyond the Oort Cloud the next moment, and that story is never seen again. Clarke, somehow, has managed to maintain his position at the top of the news despite this process we mistakenly call 'journalism' for longer than any other ten major recent stories combined. There are several reasons for this. First of all, Clarke's accusations are damning. According to him, the Bush administration ignored the threat of al Qaeda terrorism completely. After the attacks of September 11, the administration became obsessed with attacking Iraq, despite the fact that every intelligence organization in America was telling them Iraq had nothing to do with it. Clarke maintains that the war in Iraq is a dangerous distraction from ...more Posted 7:51 PM by Jim Hightower Getting the Secretaries of State out of Partisan Politics When the Umpires Take Sides 3/29/2004 New York Times Opinion/Editorial When Katherine Harris had to decide which candidate won Florida in 2000, many people were disturbed to learn she was both the state's top elections official and co-chairwoman of the Florida Bush-Cheney campaign. This year, that kind of unhealthy injection of partisanship into the administration of a presidential election could happen again. Ms. Harris's successor is staying out of partisan politics this year, but other secretaries of state are diving right in. In Missouri, as important a swing state as Florida, the secretary of state has a top position in the Missouri Bush-Cheney campaign. In Michigan, another battleground state, the secretary of state has signed on as co-chairwoman of the Bush-Cheney campaign, and has been supporting an openly Republican voter registration drive. When international observers monitor voting in new democracies, a key factor they look for is nonpartisan election administration. (A guidebook monitors use instructs that this can be done by the use of either "mainly professional" or "politically balanced" administrators.) This advice is rarely followed here at home. Decisions about voting machines and voter eligibility, and about who has won a close ...more Posted 7:43 PM by Jim Hightower 150 'dead zones' counted in oceans U.N. report warns of nitrogen runoff killing fisheries 3/29/2004 Pew Oceans Commission GEO Year Book The number of oxygen-deprived "dead zones" in the world's oceans has been increasing since the 1970s and is now nearly 150, threatening fisheries as well as humans who depend on fish, the U.N. Environment Program announced Monday in unveiling its first-ever Global Environment Outlook Year Book. These "dead zones" are caused by an excess of nitrogen from farm fertilizers, sewage and emissions from vehicles and factories. In what experts call a “nitrogen cascade,” the chemical flows untreated into oceans and triggers the proliferation of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen in the water. While fish might flee this suffocation, slow moving, bottom-dwelling creatures like clams, lobsters and oysters are less able to escape. “Humankind is engaged in a gigantic, global experiment as a result of the inefficient and often overuse of fertilizers, the discharge of untreated sewage and rising emissions from vehicles and factories,” program executive director Klaus Toepfer said in a statement accompanying the report. From small to vast zones Toepfer noted that 146 dead zones — most in Europe and the U.S. East Coast — range from under a square mile to up to 45,000 ...more Posted 7:39 PM by Jim Hightower Walmart Refuses to sell DVD about Iraq War; Censors movie in it's 3,550 US Stores Wal-Mart nixes 'Uncovered' Posted by Lakshmi on March 26, 2004 @ 10:30AM If you're looking to buy a copy of Robert Greenwald's superb documentary, "Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War," don't go to your local Wal-Mart. Anderson Merchandising, the company that picks the movies that are sold in the retail chain, has told the distributor of the movie that the film is inappropriate for Wal-Mart. The decision is a form of censorship because Wal-Mart is one of the largest outlets in terms of CD and DVD sales, and is often the only retail source in smaller communities. If you want to protest Wal-Mart's decision, you can either call the company headquarters at 1-479-273-4000 email them through the website. The address for snail mail is: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 702 S.W. 8th Street, Bentonville, AR 72716 http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/2004/03/001818.html Posted 7:33 PM by Jim Hightower Walmart has conquered the US; now wants World Domination Retail giant conquers U.S.; global market may be tougher task By Bruce Upbin March 29, 2004 MSNBC.Com With 3,550 stores in the U.S. and 1,000 Supercenters to be added in the next five years, all that's left for Wal-Mart is mop-up. It already sells more toys than Toys "R" Us, more clothes than the Gap and Limited combined and more food than Kroger. If it were its own economy, Wal-Mart Stores would rank 30th in the world, right behind Saudi Arabia. Growing at 11 percent a year, Wal-Mart would hit half a trillion dollars in sales by early in the next decade. But its mesmerizing success in the U.S. masks this fact: Overseas, Wal-Mart has won some — and lost a lot. Just a few victories have been swift: Canada, Mexico and the U.K. More than 80 percent of its international revenue comes from these three countries. In Europe it has proven at times adept, at times inept, at acquiring. In China it struggles with a dauntingly primitive supply chain. In Japan it is taking rice-grain-size steps so as not to damage a powerful but backward retail ecosystem. It has achieved runaway success in Mexico, but ...more Posted 7:17 PM by Jim Hightower (PART 2) Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else David Cay Johnston, Author of "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else," the Book on How the Middle Class is Getting Ripped as the Rich Pad Their Pockets A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW, Part 2. March 29, 2004 "The facts are that we're down 9 million jobs. You keep hearing in the news media we're down 3 million. You have about 3 million fewer jobs than we had in 2001. But during that period of time, normally we would have created about 6 million jobs. So we're really down 9 million jobs in America." -- Award-winning NYT reporter David Cay Johnston reveals the corrupt truth of the American tax system in "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." BuzzFlash: I know you're basically an economic journalist, but -- David Cay Johnston: No, I've been in investigative reporting my whole career. This is just part of investigative reporting. BuzzFlash: In this case, you certainly would persuade anyone you had a ...more Posted 7:08 PM by Jim Hightower Fact Check: Condi Rice's 60 Minutes Interview March 28, 2004 Center for American Progress National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes (3/28/04)in an effort to quell growing questions surrounding the Administration's inconsistent claims about its pre-9/11 actions. Not only did Rice refuse to take Richard Clarke's lead and admit responsibility for her role in the worst national security failure in American history, but she continued to make unsubstantiated and contradictory assertions: RICE CLAIM: "The administration took seriously the threat" of terrorism before 9/11. FACTS: President Bush himself acknowledges that, despite repeated warnings of an imminent Al Qaeda attack, before 9/11 "I didn't feel the sense of urgency" about terrorism. Similarly, Newsweek reports that Bush's attitude was reflected throughout an Administration that was trying to "de-emphasize terrorism" as an overall priority. As proof, just two of the hundred national security meetings the Administration held during this period addressed the terrorist threat, and the White House refused to hold even one meeting of its highly-touted counterterrorism task force. Meanwhile, the Administration was actively trying to cut funding for counterterrorism, and "vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism" despite a serious increase in terrorist chatter in the summer of ...more Monday, March 29, 2004 Posted 5:29 PM by Jim Hightower Vengence is mine sayeth King George A White House "Adept at Revenge." The Associated Press Saturday 27 March 2004 t r u t h o u t.org WASHINGTON - President Bush is playing supercharged hardball in going after his own former anti-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke. It's a risky strategy that shows the single-mindedness of Bush and his re-election team in trying to deflect politically damaging criticism. Loyalty is a hallmark of Bush's administration, with the president and his top lieutenants quick to turn on those who stray from the fold. A week after a broadside that questioned Democratic rival John Kerry's commitment to U.S. troops and fitness to be president -- standard operating procedure for the general election campaign -- Bush's re-election machine unleashed a shock and awe campaign designed to discredit Clarke. Bush's leadership after the Sept. 11 attacks is the guiding theme of his re-election campaign, intended to suggest the nation is safer with him as president. Clarke's claim that Bush ignored the threat from Osama bin Laden and waged a pointless war against Iraq's Saddam Hussein directly challenges that argument. In his book "Against All Enemies," Clarke predicted retribution from a White House "adept at revenge." But Bush and his ...more Posted 3:15 PM by Jim Hightower Clarke wants all testimony, records declassified Ex-counterterrorism aide: 'Not just a little line here and there' Sunday, March 28, 2004 Posted: 7:24 PM EST (0024 GMT) CNN.Com WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former White House counterterrorism aide Richard Clarke, whose criticism of the Bush administration's antiterrorism policy has triggered a ferocious response from the White House, said Sunday that he supports Republican calls to declassify testimony he gave Congress in 2002. At issue is testimony Clarke gave behind closed doors at a July 2002 hearing of the House and Senate intelligence committees jointly investigating the attacks of September 11, 2001. Clarke said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the release of the testimony would prove false any claims that his earlier testimony contradicts statements in his new book, "Against All Enemies." "I would welcome it being declassified," he said. "But not just a little line here and there -- let's declassify all six hours of my testimony." Clarke called on the White House to end what he called "vicious personal attacks" and "character assassination," and focus on issues. "The issue is not about me. The issue is about the president's performance in the war on terrorism," he said on CNN's "Late Edition." "And because I had the temerity to ...more Posted 3:03 PM by Jim Hightower Condoleezza Rice's Credibility Gap The Center for American Progress Friday 26 March 2004 A point-by-point analysis of how one of America's top national security officials has a severe problem with the truth. Pre-9/11 Intelligence CLAIM: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." – National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 5/16/02 FACT: On August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane." In July 2001, the Administration was also told that terrorists had explored using airplanes as missiles. [Source: NBC, 9/10/02; LA Times, 9/27/01] CLAIM: In May 2002, Rice held a press conference to defend the Administration from new revelations that the President had been explicitly warned about an al Qaeda threat to airlines in August 2001. She "suggested that Bush had requested the briefing because of his keen concern about elevated terrorist threat levels that summer." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04] FACT: According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed ...more Posted 2:44 PM by Jim Hightower In Rush to Defend White House, Rice Trips Over Own Words Editor's Note: According to these reports, Condoleezza Rice’s claim that the Bush administration had a plan before 9/11 for action against al Qaeda and the Taliban is contradicted by testimony given by her deputy Richard Armitage. -vlh By Walter Picus & Dana Milbank The Washington Post Friday 26 March 2004 Washington -- This week's testimony and media blitz by former White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke has returned unwanted attention to his former boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The refusal by President Bush's top security aide to testify publicly before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks elicited rebukes by commission members as they held open hearings this week. Thomas Kean, the former New Jersey governor Bush named to be chairman of the commission, said: "I think this administration shot itself in the foot by not letting her testify in public." At the same time, some of Rice's rebuttals of Clarke's broadside against Bush, which she delivered in a flurry of media interviews and statements rather than in testimony, contradicted other administration officials and her own previous statements. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage contradicted Rice's ...more Posted 2:17 PM by Jim Hightower Clarke Known As Abrasive but Efficient By NANCY BENAC Associated Press Writer Mar 27, 11:28 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- Richard Clarke, the man who threw elbows and banged heads together to get things done under four American presidents, is the last person friends and colleagues expected to go public. For decades he was the ultimate inside operator, the person who knew how to tackle the toughest national security problems and overcome bureaucratic inertia with behind-the-scenes guts, arrogance, smarts and hard work. But writing a book and testifying to an official commission with scathing tales of miscalculations, failures and infighting at the highest levels of government? No way. "This really isn't Dick," said Steven Simon, who worked with Clarke both at the White House and at the State Department. "It strikes me as a pretty clear indicator of the magnitude of his outrage." Clarke, who left the Bush administration in early 2003, has become in the past week one of the most talked-about figures in America. In a string of public appearances and a new book that was an instant publishing phenomenon, he has forcefully criticized the Bush administration as a failure in the fight against terrorism that went on a tangent to attack Iraq when ...more Saturday, March 27, 2004 Posted 1:44 PM by Jim Hightower The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else David Cay Johnston is the author of "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich -- and Cheat Everybody Else," the Book on How the Middle Class is Getting Ripped as the Rich Pad Their Pockets A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW Is the American tax system ripping off just about everybody but the super rich Bush supporters? You bet. Award-winning NYT reporter David Cay Johnston reveals the corrupt truth of the American tax system in "Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else." This is not your usual tax book. It was an immediate bestseller. John Kerry took two days off of campaigning in February to read it, Knight-Ridder Newspapers reported. (He also bought another copy recently at a much-covered trip to a Boston Borders.) A broad spectrum of Americans have endorsed the book, from Ralph Nader to Lou Dobbs. What "Perfectly Legal" does is show how our national myth that the rich are heavily taxed to benefit everyone else is untrue and that the middle class ...more Posted 1:36 PM by Jim Hightower Seniors' Prescription Drug Cards Dissected HEALTH CARE Drug Cards Dissected The government announced yesterday the names of the 28 private companies picked to provide prescription drug cards to Medicare recipients beginning this June. The prescription cards purport to provide seniors with discounts on their medications. However, no such discount is guaranteed, and the legislation may help pharmaceutical and insurance companies a lot more than the elderly. Little wonder: Remember, the legislation was crafted by the head of one of the companies chosen to provide the card, Bush crony and AdvancePCS chief David Halbert. The 28 private companies, also including such heavy hitters as United Healthcare, Caremark, Aetna, and Express Scripts along with Advance PCS, worked hard to ensure the law would be in their favor. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the top groups donated well over $150,000 directly to President Bush and Congress since 2000 and Aetna, United Healthcare and Wellpoint alone have spent over $3.25 million to lobby for their interests. See this American Progress examination of how privatization threatens Medicare. THE TRACK RECORD: So who are these companies the White House is entrusting with caring for the nation's seniors? One is Medco, a company which has faced ...more Posted 1:28 PM by Jim Hightower Before 9/11: Despite Terror Ties, Bush-Saudi Bonds Strengthen Truth & Consequences According to Time Magazine, President Bush is far “cozier than most [Presidents] to Riyadh.” But with the LA Times pointing out that the Saudi government “provided significant money and aid to the 9/11 suicide hijackers,” Vanity Fair notes that “the Bush-Saudi relationship raises serious questions” about why the Administration ignored the clear Saudi ties to terror before 9/11. SAUDI TIES TO TERROR KNOWN LONG BEFORE 9/11: According to U.S. News and World Report, a 1996 CIA report found that a third of the 50 Saudi-backed charities it studied "were tied to terrorist groups." Similarly, a 1998 report by the National Security Council had identified the Saudi government as "the epicenter" of terrorist financing, becoming "the single greatest force in spreading Islamic fundamentalism" and "funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to jihad groups and al Qaeda cells around the world." Over the past decade, "al Qaeda and its fellow jihadists collected between $300 million and $500 million, most of it from Saudi charities and private donors" and the very "origins of al Qaeda are intimately bound up with the Saudi charities." [Source: U.S. News and World Report, 12/15/03] ...more Posted 1:19 PM by Jim Hightower Before 9/11: Bush Reduced Counter-Terrorism Efforts Truth & Consequences The federal government was rapidly increasing its counter-terrorism efforts at the time President Bush took office. As the New York Times reported, Attorney General Janet Reno ended her tenure as "perhaps the strongest advocate" of counterterrorism spending. Similarly, Newsweek and the Washington Post reported National Security Adviser Sandy Berger was "totally preoccupied" with the prospect of a domestic terror attack, telling his replacement that they need to be "spending more time on this issue” than on any other. The focus changed dramatically when the Bush Administration took office. ADMINISTRATION SHIFTED LAW ENFORCEMENT’S FOCUS OFF OF COUNTER-TERRORISM: The New York Times reported that in the lead-up to 9/11, Attorney General John Ashcroft "said fighting terrorism was a top priority of his agency," yet upon entering office, "he identified more than a dozen other objectives for greater emphasis within the Justice Department before the attacks." On Aug. 9, the Administration distributed a strategic plan to the Justice Department highlighting its new goals from a list of Clinton Administration goals. The item that referred to intelligence and investigation of terrorists was left un-highlighted. [Source: NY Times, 2/28/02] ASHCROFT OVERRULED EFFORTS FOCUSED ON COUNTER-TERROR: Newsweek ...more Posted 1:11 PM by Jim Hightower Before 9/11: White House Received Warnings Truth & Consequences After September 11, both President Bush and his top national security adviser denied having any prior knowledge that Al Qaeda was planning an attack involving airplanes. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on 5/16/02, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." Similarly, President Bush denied having any idea about the threat, saying on 5/17/02, "Had I know that the enemy was going to use airplanes to kill on that fateful morning, I would have done everything in my power to protect the American people." These denials belie the record. 1999 –EXPLICIT WARNING THAT AL QAEDA HAD PLANS TO FLY AIRPLANES INTO BUILDINGS: A 1999 report prepared by the Library of Congress for the National Intelligence Council "warned that Osama bin Laden's terrorists could hijack an airliner and fly it into government buildings like the Pentagon." The report specifically said, "Suicide bomber(s) belonging to al-Qaida's Martyrdom Battalion could crash-land an aircraft packed with high explosives…into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the CIA, or the White House." In response to the ominous warnings, the New ...more Posted 7:34 AM by Jim Hightower "We Should Have Had Orange or Red-Type of Alert in June/July of 2001" By Eric Boehlert Salon.com Friday 26 March 2004 A former FBI translator told the 9/11 commission that the bureau had detailed information well before Sept. 11, 2001, that terrorists were likely to attack the U.S. with airplanes. A former FBI wiretap translator with top-secret security clearance, who has been called "very credible" by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, has told Salon she recently testified to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States that the FBI had detailed information prior to Sept. 11, 2001, that a terrorist attack involving airplanes was being plotted. Referring to the Homeland Security Department's color-coded warnings instituted in the wake of 9/11, the former translator, Sibel Edmonds, told Salon, "We should have had orange or red-type of alert in June or July of 2001. There was that much information available." Edmonds is offended by the Bush White House claim that it lacked foreknowledge of the kind of attacks made by al-Qaida on 9/11. "Especially after reading National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice where she said, we had no specific information whatsoever of domestic threat or that they might use airplanes. That's ...more Posted 7:29 AM by Jim Hightower Bush continues to chip away at Roe v. Wade and a Woman's Right to Choose Senate Passes Bill On Harm To Fetuses Critics Say Measure Defines Start of Life By Helen Dewar Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 26, 2004; Page A01 The Senate gave final approval yesterday to legislation that would make it a crime to injure or kill a fetus during the commission of a federal crime of violence, overriding critics' claims that the bill defines the start of human life in a way that could undermine abortion rights. The 61 to 38 vote to approve the measure came after a vote of 50 to 49 to reject an alternative favored by abortion rights advocates that would have imposed the same penalties without reference to the legal status of a fetus. The Unborn Victims of Violence Act, given new impetus by the killing of Laci Peterson and her unborn son in California more than a year ago, was passed by the House last month and now goes to President Bush, who strongly supported its passage. It was the second narrowly focused initiative by antiabortion forces to pass in the past two years, fulfilling a ...more Posted 7:25 AM by Jim Hightower Outrage over Bush's Sick, Repulsive Jokes about Iraq and WMD "If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought. Unfortunately for the president, this is not a joke." ---John Kerry By RAYMOND HERNANDEZ Published: March 26, 2004 CNN.Com (US press coverage) WASHINGTON, March 26 — Laughter filled the room Wednesday night at the annual dinner for radio and television correspondents when President Bush displayed a photograph showing him down on his hands and knees looking under furniture in his office and saying, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere!" This morning the joke did not seem quite so funny. CNN, which showed a clip of the event, was getting e-mail messages from unhappy viewers. Foreign newspapers were reacting with outrage. And the White House was busy defending the joke that President Bush delivered as he put on a slide show, called the "White House Election-Year Album," at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association's 60th annual dinner. It is a long tradition among the Washington press corps to invite presidents and other politicians to such dinners, during which they make jokes at their own ...more Friday, March 26, 2004 Posted 8:23 PM by Jim Hightower Paul Begala says it like it is: "Condi Rice is a Liar, a Proven Liar!" CNN CROSSFIRE Bush, Kerry Battle on Multiple Fronts Aired Friday, March 26, 2004 - 16:30 ET CUT Here in the CROSSFIRE to debate it all, Republican strategist Charlie Black, along with Kerry campaign senior adviser Tad Devine. Guys, good to see you. (CROSSTALK) CARLSON: Tad, thanks for coming. I want to hit you with the weaselist thing I've heard this week. Now, the Dick Clarke story has been the center of the news... TAD DEVINE, SENIOR JOHN KERRY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Right. CARLSON: ... the center of the presidential race. John Kerry finally asked about it today. He said, not only had he not read the book, but he hadn't even... DEVINE: Yet. Yet. CARLSON: Yet. (CROSSTALK) CARLSON: But he hadn't even heard the testimony. He didn't know enough to make really any judgment at all. And, instead here's what he said: "My challenge to the Bush administration would be, if he is not believable" -- that is Clarke -- "and they have reason to show it, then prosecute him for perjury, because he's under oath. They have a perfect right to do that." In other words, if the Bush administration doesn't like what ...more Posted 2:06 PM by Jim Hightower CNN LARRY KING LIVE: Interview With Richard Clarke TRANSCRIPT Aired March 24, 2004 - 21:00 ET (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICHARD CLARKE, FMR. WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue. LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism chief making the explosive claims about why President Bush failed to prevent September 11. Now, new revelations challenge credibility plus fierce debate over allegations. With "Newsweek's" Michael Isikoff. He was an eyewitness to Clarke's testimony today at the hearings. Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize- winning "New York Times" reporter on the Middle East and terrorism beat. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel of the Foreign Relations and Select Intelligence Committees, and Democratic Senator Joe Biden ranking member of Foreign Relations. All next on LARRY KING LIVE. (END VIDEOTAPE) KING: Our panel will join us later, we begin with Richard Clarke. He testified before the commission today. He served as White House counterterrorism czar for both President Bush and Clinton, served in the administrations of President Bush No. 1 and Ronald Reagan and is the author of an extraordinary new book, "Against All Enemies, Inside America's War on Terror" published by Free ...more Posted 10:25 AM by Jim Hightower Contradictions surround Condi Rice For the Record Neither Silent Nor a Public Witness Presidential Adviser Rice Becomes a 9/11 Focal Point as Contradictions Appear By Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, March 26, 2004; Page A08 This week's testimony and media blitz by former White House counterterrorism chief Richard A. Clarke has returned unwanted attention to his former boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. The refusal by President Bush's top security aide to testify publicly before the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks elicited rebukes by commission members as they held public hearings without her this week. Thomas H. Kean (R), the former New Jersey governor Bush named to be chairman of the commission, observed: "I think this administration shot itself in the foot by not letting her testify in public." At the same time, some of Rice's rebuttals of Clarke's broadside against Bush, which she delivered in a flurry of media interviews and statements rather than in testimony, contradicted other administration officials and her own previous statements. Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage contradicted Rice's claim that the White House had a strategy before 9/11 for military operations against ...more Posted 10:16 AM by Jim Hightower EXCERPT: 'Against All Enemies' By RICHARD A. CLARKE Published: March 28, 2004 New York Times I expected to go back to a round of meetings examining what the next attacks could be, what our vulnerabilities were, what we could do about them in the short term. Instead, I walked into a series of discussions about Iraq. At first I was incredulous that we were talking about something other than getting al Qaeda. Then I realized with almost a sharp physical pain that Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were going to try to take advantage of this national tragedy to promote their agenda about Iraq. Since the beginning of the administration, indeed well before, they had been pressing for a war with Iraq. My friends in the Pentagon had been telling me that the word was we would be invading Iraq sometime in 2002. On the morning of the 12th DOD's focus was already beginning to shift from al Qaeda. CIA was explicit now that al Qaeda was guilty of the attacks, but Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld's deputy, was not persuaded. It was too sophisticated and complicated an operation, he said, for a terrorist group to have pulled off by itself, without a state sponsor-Iraq must ...more Posted 8:56 AM by Jim Hightower Richard Clarke's Public Testimony under Oath Withstands Scrutiny 3/26/2004 The Center for American Progress Testifying before the 9/11 commission Wednesday, former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke became the first Bush Administration official to take responsibility for the failure to protect America in the lead up to the deadly attacks. While President Bush has repeatedly said he wants to "usher in an era of personal responsibility" neither he nor any of his officials have admitted they ignored repeated terror warnings and dramatically reduced counterterrorism efforts before 9/11 (see American Progress' 9/11 backgrounder for details). Instead, the President has ignored the public record which shows he received warnings, and essentially denied he had any prior warning of an imminent attack. Meanwhile, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice refused to take any responsibility when asked about her own actions on NBC News last night, claimed the Administration "increased counterterrorism funding" before 9/11, and continues to refuse to appear under oath before the 9/11 commission. SUBSTANTIATED – CLARKE'S ASSESSMENT OF BUSH PRIORITIES: Clarke told the commission that terrorism was an "extraordinarily high priority - certainly no higher priority" in the Clinton administration but that the Bush Administration considered it "not an urgent issue" before Sept. 11. This is ...more Posted 8:50 AM by Jim Hightower Bush, Cheney & Rice Obsessed on Tax Cuts for the Wealthy in the months before 9/11, not Terrorism 3/26/2004 The Center for American Progress CONTEST Beat the Progress Report Yesterday, on Hannity and Colmes, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said "the assertion that somehow the Bush administration wasn't paying attention when we came into office is just false." But, despite Rice's comments, we were unable to find a single instance where Rice, Vice President Cheney or President Bush said "al Qaeda" or "bin Laden" in public between Bush Inauguration and 9/11. (The closest thing we could dig up – despite extensive searches on Nexis and the White House website – was a routine written extension of an executive order dealing with the Taliban.) During the same period, however, we were able to identify roughly 400 times that Rice, Cheney and Bush publicly mentioned "tax relief" or "tax cut." Prove you're better than the Progress Report! Send any instance of Rice, Cheney or Bush uttering the words "al Qaeda" or "bin Laden" in public between 1/20/01 and 9/10/01 to pr@americanprogress.org. The first person to submit a successful entry (which we can verify) will receive a free copy of "Deliver Us From Evil" ...more Thursday, March 25, 2004 Posted 3:20 PM by Jim Hightower Published on Wednesday, March 24, 2004 by the Guardian/UK The Perfect Storm That's About to Hit Rising Oil Prices and a Weak Dollar could Shatter the Global Economy by Jeremy Rifkin   The average nationwide price of a gallon of gasoline in America reached a record high of $1.77 this month. The steady spike in prices has left analysts wondering if this is a harbinger of even more dramatic increases as motorists head into the spring and summer months. Get ready for what might become the economy's version of the perfect storm later this summer. The devastation could quickly spread to the UK and the rest of the world, with dire consequences for the global economy. The first hint of what might be in store came last month when Opec announced its decision to withdraw 1m barrels of crude oil a day from the market. Opec is worried about the weakening value of the dollar: it has lost one-third of its value in just under two years. Since Opec sells oil for dollars, the oil-producing countries are losing precious revenue as the value of the dollar continues to erode. And because oil-producing countries then turn around and purchase much of their goods and ...more Posted 3:12 PM by Jim Hightower  White House in Row Over September 11 Evidence      By Julian Borger Guardian, U.K. Wednesday 24 March 2004 National Security Advisor Appears Non-Stop on TV Talk Shows But Snubs Probe     The White House was facing a crisis in confidence yesterday over its handling of the al-Qaida threat prior to September 11, as a public inquiry into the attacks demanded to question George Bush's national security adviser. The September 11 commission insisted that Condoleezza Rice appear at today's session, even though the Bush administration has warned that a public grilling of a member of presidential staff would breach constitutional protocol.     The standoff with the inquiry could damage the White House's popularity in a tightly contested presidential campaign, in which President Bush is concentrating on his reputation as a decisive wartime leader.     The commission is due to submit its final report on July 26, just before the Democratic party's convention.     Ms Rice has become a lightning rod for criticism of the administration after the publication of a White House memoir by the president's former top counter-terrorism adviser, Richard Clarke.     Mr Clarke portrayed Ms Rice as ill-informed about the seriousness of the threat posed by al-Qaida. He said she "gave me the impression she had never heard ...more Posted 3:06 PM by Jim Hightower Stern's loose lips give Bush the slip Shock jock launches an air war against the administration that puts his politics on the offensive BY DANNY SCHECHTER from Newsday Danny Schechter is the editor of the Web site, Mediachannel.org, and author, most recently, of "Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception: How the Media Failed to Cover the War in Iraq." March 24, 2004 What's with Howard Stern? Has he finally gone too far by daring to become political? The long-haired, big-mouthed self-promoting shock jock - who calls himself the "King of All Media" - had in recent years become a cartoon of a caricature of the sexually obsessed boobologist, well before Janet Jackson's Super Bowl stunt bared her you-know-what. When that incident led to investigations of on-air obscenity, Stern went from being a controversial object of the objectionable to a target for the conservative campaign demanding we "do something" to clean up the airwaves. In short order, Clear Channel stations dropped his show from six stations and started a radio war that some say has turned the airwaves into a political battleground. Overnight, politicians who had been complaining about too much broadcast regulation insisted on more regulation. And Stern quickly became the poster boy for what offended them the most. His ...more Posted 3:03 PM by Jim Hightower NY Fed warns of potential fallout from US deficits Reuters, 03.25.04, 10:31 AM ET By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) - A ballooning budget deficit and low savings rate pose risks to the U.S. economy and the financial system, New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner said on Thursday. "The current deterioration in the U.S. fiscal position and the acute decline in the net national savings rate represent risks to the financial system and the economy as a whole," Geithner told the New York Banker's Association. Geithner said such looming risks were made all the more worrying by the size of the U.S. current account deficit and the unprecedented scale of financing needed to fund it. The central banker urged the United States to strengthen risk management in an increasingly complex financial environment to guard against any eventualities. He also noted that U.S. inflation was very low and the outlook was for only very modest prices rises ahead, but offered little in the way of hints on monetary policy in his first major speech since becoming NY Fed President. GREENSPAN ON FARMS Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan also refrained from using any language that might suggest the future direction ...more Wednesday, March 24, 2004 Posted 4:10 PM by Jim Hightower "Your Country Failed You. I Failed You. I ask your understanding and forgiveness." Ex-counterterror chief says Bush didn’t consider terrorism urgent 3/24/2004 CNN.Com WASHINGTON - President Bush's former counterterrorism adviser, the star witness at hearings into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, apologized to the families of the victims Wednesday, testifying that "your government failed you." The former adviser, Richard Clarke, issued the apology in a 30-second statement he read to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, which is examining diplomatic, military and intelligence efforts to fight Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaida terror network. Clarke has accused President Bush in a new book of ignoring al-Qaida before the Sept. 11 attacks, in which about 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He has said the president then rushed to blame Iraqi President Saddam Hussein for the devastation. "Your government failed you, those entrusted with protecting you failed you and I failed you," Clarke said. "I ask for you understanding and forgiveness." Clarke testified that while the Clinton administration had "no higher priority" than combating terrorism, the Bush administration made it "an important issue but not an urgent issue." "Although ...more Posted 4:07 PM by Jim Hightower Bush administration eases old-growth logging rules Wednesday, March 24, 2004 CNN.Com SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- The Bush administration on Tuesday eased restrictions on logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest, completing a rules change that will allow forest managers to begin logging without first looking for rare plants and animals. Instead, the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management will rely on information provided by Washington, Oregon and California to decide whether to allow logging, controlled forest fires, and trail- or campground-building, agency spokesman Rex Holloway said. Environmentalists decried the change, saying it would double logging on federal land in the region and have disastrous consequences for rare species. Regna Merritt, executive director of Oregon Natural Resources Council Action in Portland, Oregon, said the decision ignored environmental science. "The idea of looking before you log was that way we could prevent hundreds of species from going extinct," she said. Holloway said most old-growth forests in the region remain protected. The change applies only to old-growth and other forests designated for logging in 1994. "We feel fairly confident that remaining old growth will provide sufficient habitat for the remaining species," Holloway said. The change was prompted by a timber industry lawsuit and is intended to increase ...more Posted 11:22 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. Business Group Slams Bush 'Deception' Over Iraq War By Agence France Presse (FRANCE) Monday 22 March 2004 NEW YORK (AFP) - A US business group that monitors federal spending took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times, likening President George W. Bush to a corrupt chief executive officer who has forfeited public trust. Timed to coincide with the weekend anniversary of the US-led war against Iraq, the advertisement -- paid for by Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities -- said Bush's case for invasion "was built entirely out of falsehoods." Highlighting the cost of the war in terms of hundreds of US casualties and tens of billions of dollars, the ad said the "state-sponsored deception" underpinning the conflict dwarfed the damage caused by the series of corporate scandals that recently rocked Wall Street. "It's past time for finger pointing," it said. "It's time for someone in this government to step forward and take personal responsibility for the deadly deceptions used to mislead this great nation into war. "And that someone must be George W. Bush." Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities was formed in 1996 on concerns that federal government spending ...more Posted 11:13 AM by Jim Hightower Bush accuses Kerry of 350 votes for “higher taxes.” It's a lie. March 23, 2004 FactCheck.Org Summary The President misled voters and reporters in a March 20 speech when he claimed that Kerry “voted over 350 times for higher taxes on the American people” during his 20-year Senate career. Bush spoke of “yes” votes for “tax increases.” But in fact, Kerry has not voted 350 times for tax increases, something Bush campaign officials have falsely accused Kerry of on several occasions. On close examination, the Bush campaign’s list of Kerry’s votes for “higher taxes” is padded. It includes votes Kerry cast to leave taxes unchanged (when Republicans proposed cuts), and even votes in favor of alternative Democratic tax cuts that Bush aides characterized as “watered down.” Analysis To be sure, Kerry has cast votes to increase taxes, and he's clearly on record favoring raising taxes on persons making over $200,000 a year, if he's elected. It's a major difference between the two candidates. But Bush aides have been falsely accusing Kerry for weeks of casting far more votes for tax increases than is the case. And now the President himself has joined in the misleading attack. Bush’s campaign manager Ken Mehlman told CNN’s ...more Posted 10:56 AM by Jim Hightower September 11: the shocking evidence of secret deals, missed chances and fatal misjudgements By David Usborne, Andrew Buncombe and Rupert Cornwell 24 March 2004 The Independent (United Kingdom) The full extent of America's failed attempts to neutralise the threat of Osama bin Laden before 11 September 2001 was graphically and embarrassingly spelt out yesterday in a report by a commission set up to investigate the terror attacks. The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks did not reserve its criticism solely for the Bush administration. Its report also offered a catalogue of failed diplomatic opportunities and doomed policies that were followed by US officials as far back as the mid-1990s, when Bill Clinton was in the White House. Most of these abortive initiatives were aimed at persuading the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan to expel al-Qa'ida. But the report's greatest impact will be to undermine the credibility of President George Bush and his platform for fighting terrorism. It appears to confirm claims made at the weekend by a former White House anti-terrorism aide, Richard Clarke, that warnings he gave in early 2001 regarding al-Qa'ida were ignored. The preliminary report was published as the independent panel opened two days of public hearings into the attacks at which ...more Posted 10:50 AM by Jim Hightower What the jobless statistics don't reveal By Paul E. Harrington and Andrew M. Sum 3/23/2004 Boston Globe ASSUMING THEY have time for anything besides responding to each other's attacks, President Bush and Senator John Kerry will be spending a lot of time talking about the economy and jobs. Kerry claims that Bush has overseen a recovery without job creation, while the president claims that strong growth in gross domestic product and productivity indicates that new jobs are just over the horizon. They're both wrong. Since the end of the 2001 recession, the nation has been adding employment. But Bush and Kerry are failing to get America's job story right in a fundamental way. And unless they begin to get it right, America's workers -- and the families and economy that depend upon them -- will be the real losers. It's understandable how the jobs story can be so confusing. Suppose that you wanted to know how many Americans found work from the end of the recession in 2001 through the first two months of this year. According to one of the two leading sources for such data -- the current employment statistics, also known as the payroll survey -- the number of wage ...more Tuesday, March 23, 2004 Posted 9:42 AM by Jim Hightower Insiders confirm each others accounts of Bush's Lying and Vengence By PAUL KRUGMAN March 23, 2004 New York Times From the day it took office, U.S. News & World Report wrote a few months ago, the Bush administration "dropped a shroud of secrecy" over the federal government. After 9/11, the administration's secretiveness knew no limits — Americans, Ari Fleischer ominously warned, "need to watch what they say, watch what they do." Patriotic citizens were supposed to accept the administration's version of events, not ask awkward questions. But something remarkable has been happening lately: more and more insiders are finding the courage to reveal the truth on issues ranging from mercury pollution — yes, Virginia, polluters do write the regulations these days, and never mind the science — to the war on terror. It's important, when you read the inevitable attempts to impugn the character of the latest whistle-blower, to realize just how risky it is to reveal awkward truths about the Bush administration. When Gen. Eric Shinseki told Congress that postwar Iraq would require a large occupation force, that was the end of his military career. When Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV revealed that the 2003 State of the Union speech contained information known to ...more Posted 9:33 AM by Jim Hightower The Book on Richard Clarke Style Served Him Well But Made Enemies By Dan Eggen and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, March 23, 2004; Page A01 Minutes after the second jetliner hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Richard A. Clarke recounts in his new book, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice anointed him "crisis manager." The assignment meant Clarke, the White House counterterrorism adviser, found himself ordering around high-level officials and urging his superiors to ground air traffic, according to his account. Clarke also takes credit for barring President Bush from immediately returning to Washington. The passage, which opens Clarke's incendiary new book, "Against All Enemies," provides a telling look at Clarke's traits as the nation's longtime counterterrorism czar. It indicates that Rice and other senior officials had so much confidence in Clarke, they entrusted him with a key leadership role after the hijackings. But it also reveals a hard-charging style and a penchant for self-promotion that has earned him many enemies over the years, and which has given ammunition to his critics in recent days. "Dick certainly did infuriate a lot of his interagency colleagues with his take-no-prisoners ...more Posted 9:29 AM by Jim Hightower FBI Spied on John Kerry in '70s, Report Says Tuesday, March 23, 2004 7:08:45 AM Austin American Statesman KETCHUM, Idaho — Reports that the FBI monitored John Kerry's anti-war activities in the early 1970s highlight the need "to be vigilant about civil liberties," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Monday. In a radio interview Monday evening on WBZ-AM in Boston, Kerry said the reports are "such ancient history." "It's just sort of in the past, but it underscores to everyone of us why we have to be vigilant about civil liberties, why we have to have an attorney general who respects the Constitution, and why our Bill of Rights is so important in the United States," said Kerry, who was on vacation in Sun Valley. He added: "We're suddenly learning about it because I am about to be the nominee of the party, and the Republicans are very good at finding records that have been lost for a long period of time, particularly when they control the government." The Los Angeles Times, in a story published Monday, cited FBI documents indicating the bureau spent a year monitoring the activities of the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War. After returning from Vietnam, where he commanded ...more Posted 9:16 AM by Jim Hightower Before These Crowded Streets By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Tuesday 23 March 2004 I went to New York City this weekend to cover the protests marking the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. It was a good showing as far as these things go; having covered the massive demonstrations last year, I was impressed by the number of people who turned out. The protest wended its way down many blocks of Madison Avenue, and then down the Avenue of the Americas, pretty much cutting that portion of the city in two. The protesters themselves were well-behaved - vocal, colorful, angry, but well-behaved - and the police stayed out of the way. Later that afternoon, I jumped into a cab and headed down to the financial district to do something I hadn't done yet. A few minutes later, I found myself at the corner of Church St. and Vesey St. standing between two graveyards. The one on the left was small fenced in by a black wrought-iron fence, and very old. It reminded me of the Revolutionary War-era Granary on Tremont St. in Boston, where Paul Revere and Samuel Adams ...more Sunday, March 21, 2004 Posted 9:19 PM by Jim Hightower Senator Edward Kennedy: Meet the Press Transcript (3/21/04) Sunday, March 21, 2004 GUESTS: Mass. Sen. Edward Kennedy, Ron Brownstein and Robin Wright. This is a rush transcript provided for the information and convenience of the press. Accuracy is not guaranteed. In case of doubt, please check with MEET THE PRESS - NBC NEWS(202)885-4598 (Sundays: (202)885-4200) MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: The president marks the first anniversary of the Iraq war. But first, with us now, the senior senator from the state of Massachusetts, Edward M. Kennedy, welcome back to MEET THE PRESS. SEN. EDWARD M. KENNEDY, (D-MA): Morning. Morning. MR. RUSSERT: Senator, this marks the first anniversary of the war in Iraq. Was the war worth it? SEN. KENNEDY: What we have to recognize as a nation and as a leader, really of the Free World is that after 9/11 we had the whole world working with the United States to deal with the problems of terror all over the world. They were supporting us militarily, they were supporting us with intelligence, they were supporting us to deal with the financial links of al-Qaeda. Then this president made a unilateral decision to bring this country to war, and as a result of that unilateral ...more Posted 9:08 PM by Jim Hightower Live, From the Left, It's ...Al Franken Progressives are looking to a 'Saturday Night Live' alum for salvation. Backstage with Al Franken, air warrior. By Weston Kosova Newsweek March 29 issue - Al Franken is eating a sandwich—demolishing it, really—blissfully unaware of the barrage of wet, sticky mouth sounds he's sending into the microphone that hangs in front of his face. It's the third day of recorded rehearsals for Franken's daily radio show on Air America, a left-leaning, all-talk network that launches next week, and he's trying to choke down a quick lunch during the few minutes of commercials between segments. On the other side of the studio desk, the show's cohost, Franken's friend and radio pro Katherine Lanpher, is experiencing every note of the gastric symphony. She shoots him an amused, exasperated look. "Bet you're glad you didn't have the chips," she deadpans. It isn't the first time Franken has broken a cardinal rule of radio. "I tried to tell him yesterday he can't eat on the air." She laughs. "Listeners don't want to hear ... that." But Franken is lost in his thoughts. He's pecking ideas into his laptop, cracking up at his own punch lines, trying to decide ...more Posted 8:28 AM by Jim Hightower 60 Minutes: Bush ignored Terror warnings prior to 9/11 as he obsessed about Iraq Did Bush Press For Iraq-9/11 Link? "I find it outrageous that the President is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know." "---Richard Clarke, Bush's top anti-terrorism adviser March 20, 2004 CBS News (CBS) In the aftermath of Sept. 11, President Bush ordered his then top anti-terrorism adviser to look for a link between Iraq and the attacks, despite being told there didn't seem to be one. The charge comes from the advisor, Richard Clarke, in an interview airing Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT on 60 Minutes. The administration maintains that it cannot find any evidence that the conversation about an Iraq-9/11 tie-in ever took place. Clarke also tells CBS News Correspondent Lesley Stahl that White House officials were tepid in their response when he urged them months before Sept. 11 to meet to discuss what he saw as a severe threat from al Qaeda. "Frankly," he said, "I find it outrageous that the President ...more Posted 7:36 AM by Jim Hightower Chomsky backs 'Bush-lite' Kerry By Matthew Tempest Saturday March 20, 2004 The Guardian (United Kingdom) Noam Chomsky, the political theorist and leftwing guru, yesterday gave his reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party's presidential contender, John Kerry, calling him "Bush-lite", but a "fraction" better than his rival. Professor Chomsky - a linguist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as a renowned chronicler of American foreign policy - said there were "small differences" between Senator Kerry and the Republican president. But, in an interview on the Guardian's politics website, he added that those small differences "can translate into large outcomes". He describes the choice facing US voters in November as "the choice between two factions of the business party". But the Bush administration was so "cruel and savage", it was important to replace it. He said: "Kerry is sometimes described as 'Bush-lite', which is not inaccurate. But despite the limited differences both domestically and internationally, there are differences. In a system of immense power, small differences can translate into large outcomes." He reserved his especial venom for the Bush administration's plans for the health sector: "The people around Bush are deeply committed to dismantling the achievements of popular struggle ...more Posted 7:29 AM by Jim Hightower A Day For Marching By Medea Benjamin Saturday, March 20, 2004; Page A23 Washington Post Thousands of Americans today (Saturday March 20, 2004) will mark the first anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq by marching against the war. Why, if the war is officially over and Saddam Hussein has been captured, will residents of some 200 American cities join others around the world and take to the streets? Those of us who have traveled to Iraq to witness firsthand the effects of this occupation have returned with some profound reasons. We are marching for Jesus Suarez, a Marine who died when he stepped on an American cluster bomb in Iraq on March 27, and for the more than 500 U.S. servicemen and women who have died in Iraq. Suarez left behind a young wife, a 1-year-old son and bereaved parents who are angered by the injustice of his death. "Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction and wasn't connected to the September 11 tragedy. George Bush lied, and my son died," said a tearful Fernando Suarez at an unofficial memorial for the fallen soldiers outside Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies of U.S. soldiers ...more Saturday, March 20, 2004 Posted 5:35 PM by Jim Hightower Thousands Worldwide Demand Troops Pull Out of Iraq Sat Mar 20, 2004 02:55 PM ET By Grant McCool NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thousands of antiwar protesters poured into streets around the globe on Saturday's anniversary of the Iraq war to demand the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. From Sydney to Tokyo, Madrid, London, New York and San Francisco, protesters condemned U.S. policy in Iraq and said they did not believe Iraqis are better off or the world safer because of the war. Journalists estimated that at least a million people streamed through Rome, in probably the biggest single protest. In London, two anti-war protesters evaded security to climb the landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, unfurling a banner reading "Time for Truth." About 25,000 demonstrators streamed through central London, many carrying "Wanted" posters bearing the faces of Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his main war ally. In most places, the demonstrators numbered tens of thousands, compared with hundreds of thousands who marched in big cities in Feb. 15, 2003, to try and prevent the conflict. In New York, scene of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane strikes by Islamic militants, tens of thousands voiced ...more Posted 5:26 PM by Jim Hightower Bush's Distortions Misled Congress in Its War Vote COMMENTARY By Edward M. Kennedy A year ago, the United States went to war in Iraq because President Bush and his administration convinced Congress and the country that Saddam Hussein was an urgent threat that required immediate military action. The nation has paid a high price for that decision ever since. The case for war was based on two key claims: that Hussein was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, and that he had close ties to the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the atrocities of Sept. 11. Both claims proved to be demonstrably false. We can only speculate about the real reasons we went to war. What is known, however, is that, at the time the decision was being made in the summer of 2002, Osama bin Laden was still at large, the war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan had entered a troubled phase, our economy was reeling from recession, the president's approval rating in the Gallup Poll had declined from its peak of 90% after Sept. 11 to 63% by Labor Day 2002, and control of the Senate and House was at stake in the critical congressional elections ...more Posted 5:06 PM by Jim Hightower GOP Pollster Warns Bush not to Ease Up on Clean Water Act "From more toxic pollution, to sewage discharges, to mountaintop removal mining, this [Bush] administration is the worst for clean water since the Clean Water Act was passed 30 years ago," Joan Mulhern, senior legislative counsel for Earth Justice, told BushGreenwatch. March 19, 2004 Bush Green Watch Under fire for its ongoing campaign to weaken environmental protections, the Bush Administration has received an unequivocal heads-up from the leading Republican pollster advising that undermining clean water safeguards is politically dangerous, and goes against the overwhelming sentiment of the American public. "Young and old, Democrat AND Republican, the demand for clean water is universal" declares a February 2004 memorandum prepared by The Luntz Research Companies, headed by GOP opinion guru Frank Luntz. Based on its extensive polling about clean water issues, the Luntz organization found that the American people consider safeguarding clean water to be "a national problem requiring a national solution" and "the public is willing to pay for it." Indeed, 83% of those polled supported the idea of a trust fund for clean water infrastructure. Addressed to "interested parties," the memo concludes with the warning: "I'll be blunt...this issue ...more Posted 5:02 PM by Jim Hightower Bush's Broken Campaign Promise Crippling National Parks Bush Green Watch March 17, 2004 President Bush pledged to "restore and renew" America's national parks during the 2000 election campaign. However, America's national parks now face major staffing cutbacks in both permanent and seasonal staff, according to a new report by the nonpartisan National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA). Without sufficient operating budget increases, and allocations from the Department of Homeland Security, the National Park Service will be unable to catch up an enormous maintenance backlog, protect park resources, or even provide some of the basic educational services Americans expect during their park visits. "Endangered Rangers: A Study of the Severe Staffing Shortages Crippling America's National Parks," details chronic under-funding of the national parks, which has continued under the Bush administration despite the president's campaign promise. The report documents a service-wide budget shortfall of over $600 million annually, leading to cuts in seasonal park staffing that affect not only the public's ability to use and enjoy the parks, but the conservation, scientific and preservation work intrinsic to the Park Service mandate.[1] NPCA reports that park rangers are increasingly called upon for security duties, such as protection of dams, borders, and national icons ...more Posted 4:52 PM by Jim Hightower Leaked Memo reveals coaching tips on how to lie about cuts in services and hours at National Parks Department memo told park heads to spin cuts By Christopher Smith The Salt Lake Tribune Thursday March 18, 2004 WASHINGTON -- A retired superintendent of Utah's Dinosaur National Monument released internal National Park Service memos Wednesday that coached park bosses on ways to hide the true nature of Bush administration cutbacks in park services from the public. The Park Service confirmed the authenticity of the memos and said, while some of the terminology was "unfortunate," the agency recognizes that superintendents face difficult cost-cutting decisions this summer and wants to avoid politicizing the situation. Denny Huffman, of the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees, said the leaked memos show park bosses were told to consider closing visitors centers on Sundays and holidays this summer while agency leaders were kicking off a tourism campaign to boost park visitation. The Park Service "was trying to jam more people into the parks at the same time it was setting the stage for cuts in essential services," said Huffman, who retired as superintendent of the renowned fossil bed on the Utah-Colorado border in ...more Posted 4:46 PM by Jim Hightower ACCOUNTABILITY: Lying, Crooked, Scary Bush doesn't wanna talk about it Taken for a Ride By PAUL KRUGMAN OP-ED COLUMNIST Published: March 19, 2004 New York Times Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists." So George Bush declared on Sept. 20, 2001. But what was he saying? Surely he didn't mean that everyone was obliged to support all of his policies, that if you opposed him on anything you were aiding terrorists. Now we know that he meant just that. A year ago, President Bush, who had a global mandate to pursue the terrorists responsible for 9/11, went after someone else instead. Most Americans, I suspect, still don't realize how badly this apparent exploitation of the world's good will — and the subsequent failure to find weapons of mass destruction — damaged our credibility. They imagine that only the dastardly French, and now maybe the cowardly Spaniards, doubt our word. But yesterday, according to Agence France-Presse, the president of Poland — which has roughly 2,500 soldiers in Iraq — had this to say: "That they deceived us about the weapons of mass destruction, that's true. We were taken for a ride." This is the context for last weekend's ...more Posted 12:15 PM by Jim Hightower Clinton Aides Plan to Tell 9/11 Panel of Warning Bush Team on Al Qaeda By PHILIP SHENON New York Times Published: March 20, 2004 WASHINGTON - Senior Clinton administration officials called to testify next week before the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks say they are prepared to detail how they repeatedly warned their Bush administration counterparts in late 2000 that Al Qaeda posed the worst security threat facing the nation - and how the new administration was slow to act. They said the warnings were delivered in urgent post-election intelligence briefings in December 2000 and January 2001 for Condoleezza Rice, who became Mr. Bush's national security adviser; Stephen Hadley, now Ms. Rice's deputy; and Philip D. Zelikow, a member of the Bush transition team, among others. One official scheduled to testify, Richard A. Clarke, who was President Bill Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said in an interview that the warning about the Qaeda threat could not have been made more bluntly to the incoming Bush officials in intelligence briefings that he led. At the time of the briefings, there was extensive evidence tying Al Qaeda to the bombing in Yemen two months earlier of an American warship, the Cole, in which ...more Friday, March 19, 2004 Posted 3:11 PM by Jim Hightower E-Voting Advocates Launch Ad Campaign March 19, 2004 BALTIMORE - Supporters of a paper trail for electronic voting machines ran full-page advertisements Thursday in newspapers in Maryland and Florida calling for a tangible record of each ballot cast in the November election. Ads in The (Baltimore) Sun and The Palm Beach Post show a touch-screen computer from Diebold Election Systems, the Ohio-based company that makes Maryland's machines, sprouting monster fangs, its screen displaying a time bomb and reading, "System Error! Vote Data Lost." Diebold and Maryland elections officials say the machines are safe and have never recorded an inaccurate vote. The Maryland ad implores state Delegate Sheila Hixson and Sen. Paula Hollinger - key Democratic members of committees considering paper trail legislation - to support their cause. "There's such an easy, reasonable, inexpensive solution to this problem," said Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and president of TrueMajority.org, the advocacy group funding the ads. "Just have the machine print out a receipt, like an ATM does." Supporters want a "voter-verified paper ballot," meaning each voter would get a copy confirming the way they had voted, which they would then turn over to a poll ...more Posted 6:39 AM by Jim Hightower Drilling OK'd on Padre Island National Seashore Bush Administration opens National Parks to Oil Corporations The Austin Chronicle March 19, 2004 By Lee Nichols (Austin, Texas) The National Park Service announced last month that BNP Petroleum Corporation's plan to drill for natural gas on Padre Island National Seashore had been approved. Environmentalists and some biologists are upset over the plans, concerned that the drilling – and the trips by large trucks to and from the proposed well site – will disturb nesting of the endangered Kemp ridley sea turtle. "These drilling permits are the fruits of an administration that would rather spoil America's natural heritage than protect our national parks and invest in renewable resources," said Chris Wilhite, a Sierra Club organizer, in a press release. "Turning the last, longest, undeveloped beach in the nation into a gas drilling highway doesn't make sense for anyone but BNP Petroleum. It makes no sense whatsoever for the Park visitors, most local businesses, jobs, the environment, or the wildlife." The NPS and BNP, on the other hand, say the drilling will have minimal impact on wildlife, and that the legislation that first created the Padre Island National Seashore in the 1960s mandates that prior privately ...more Posted 6:28 AM by Jim Hightower Polish President now says Bush mislead him about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction March 18, 2004 The Associated Press reports that Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski - a strong White House ally - now says he was "misled" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction before the war. (1) Poland, which has about 2,400 troops in Iraq, has been touted by President Bush for its leadership, and the Administration has repeatedly cited Poland as one of the key allies in Iraq. (2) Kwasniewski told a small group of European reporters, "I feel uncomfortable [about Iraq] due to the fact that we were misled with the information on weapons of mass destruction." The remarks come just a few days after the House Government Reform Committee released a comprehensive database of "237 specific misleading statements" before the war about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq. (3) Sources: 1. "Poland 'Misled' on Iraq, President Says", Associated Press, 03/18/2003, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1214992&l;=23094. 2. President Bush Welcomes President Kwasniewski to White House, 01/27/2004, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1214992&l;=23095. 3. Committee on Government Reform Minority Office, http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1214992&l;=23096. Visit Misleader.org for more about Bush Administration distortion. --> Posted 6:06 AM by Jim Hightower AP Tally: Suicide Bombers Strike Almost at Will in Iraq, Killing at Least 660 in Two Dozens Strikes This Past Year By Tarek Al-Issawi Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 18, 2004 ISKANDARIYAH, Iraq (AP) - Thousands of people in Iraq have suffered from suicide bombings - a phenomenon unknown here until after the U.S.-led war toppled Saddam Hussein's regime nearly a year ago. The cycle began nine days after fighting erupted, and has claimed at least 660 lives - far more than in 3 1/2 years of Israel-Palestinian suicide attacks - according to U.S. military officials. The majority of victims are Iraqis, the U.S. military said. Iraqi officials and police put the death toll higher by at least 100. In the past year, there have been at least 24 suicide bombings, including four where more than one attacker struck at the same target, according to an Associated Press tally and interviews with officials. In comparison, since September 2000, 474 people - the majority Israelis - have been killed in 112 Palestinian suicide bombings. The carnage continued this week, after a suicide bomber detonated his car near a hotel in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least seven people. ...more Posted 5:57 AM by Jim Hightower Mysterious Fax Adds to Intrigue Over the Medicare Bill's Cost The $151.5 Billion cost overrun on the "prescription drug" bill is due to Republicans refusal to put Cost Controls on medicine. By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and ROBERT PEAR Published: March 18, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON, March 17 — Late one Friday afternoon in January, after the House of Representatives had adjourned for the week, Cybele Bjorklund, a House Democratic health policy aide, heard the buzz of the fax machine at her desk. Coming over the transom, with no hint of the sender, was a document she had been seeking for months: an estimate by Medicare's chief actuary showing the cost of prescription drug benefits for the elderly. Dated June 11, 2003, the document put the cost at $551.5 billion over 10 years. It appeared to confirm what Ms. Bjorklund and her bosses on the House Ways and Means Committee had long suspected: the actuary, Richard S. Foster, had concluded the legislation would be far more expensive than Congress's $400 billion estimate — and had kept quiet while lawmakers voted on the bill and President Bush signed it into law. Ms. Bjorklund had been pressing Mr. Foster for his numbers since June. ...more Thursday, March 18, 2004 Posted 9:35 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Administration's 237 Misleading Statements on Iraq "President Bush and four top advisors made a combined 237 misleading public statements on the threat posed by Iraq, Democrats charged in a congressional report released on Tuesday." Presented by Congressman Henry Waxman t r u t h o u t | Report Wednesday 17 March 2004 Background On March 19, 2003, U.S. forces began military operations in Iraq. Addressing the nation about the purpose of the war on the day the bombing began, President Bush stated: "The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder." One year later, many doubts have been raised regarding the Administration's assertions about the threat posed by Iraq. Prior to the war in Iraq, the President and his advisors repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction that jeopardized the security of the United States. The failure to discover these weapons after the war has led to questions about whether the President and his advisors were candid in describing Iraq's threat. The Report The Iraq on the Record Report, prepared at ...more Posted 7:13 AM by Jim Hightower What $80 Million could be used for if Bush wasn't using it for Medicare Propaganda Ads March 16, 2004 Center for American Progress According to news reports, the Bush Administration is now on track to spend $80 million of taxpayer money this year for propaganda advertisements, inaccurate fliers and counterfeit newscasts to spin the truth about the recently passed Medicare bill. The spending plan includes "$12.6 million for advertising this winter, $18.5 million to publicize drug discount cards this spring, about $18.5 million this summer, and $30 million for a year of 'beneficiary education.'" Here are just a few things that $80 million could be used for instead: $80M is more than needed to set up a system to give seniors access to meds from Canada. According to incoming FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford, the FDA would need $58 million "to set up a program to reimport drugs from Canada" and give millions of seniors access to lower-priced FDA-approved drugs. The program could potentially save seniors hundreds of millions of dollars. Despite bipartisan support for the measure, the Administration has opposed the proposal and had it stripped out of the final Medicare bill. [Source: Health News Daily] $80M would prevent the White House ...more Posted 6:54 AM by Jim Hightower Bank of America to Terminate 13,000 Jobs in Merger with Fleet Boston The Associated Press Published: Mar 17, 2004 NEW YORK (AP) - Bank of America Corp. plans to cut as many as 13,000 jobs as it completes its $47 billion acquisition of FleetBoston Financial Corp., according to a newspaper report. The cuts will coincide with the expected completion of the purchase next month, The Wall Street Journal reported in Wednesday editions, citing unidentified people familiar with the plans. A Bank of America spokeswoman said Wednesday she couldn't confirm the number of jobs that will be lost. "There will be job cuts as a result of the merger, however we have not provided that information," spokeswoman Eloise Hale said. The cuts would come through layoffs and attrition from the operations of both banks and amount to about 7 percent of their combined work force of 181,000, the report said. Shareholders of the banks were to meet Wednesday in Charlotte, N.C., and Boston to approve the acquisition, which was approved by the Federal Reserve Board on March 8. Calls to Charlotte-based Bank of America and Boston-based Fleet were not immediately returned early Wednesday. Last week, an analyst predicted that ...more Posted 6:42 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. Soldier Refuses to Return to Iraq to Fight in "an oil-driven war" G.I. Says He's Prepared to Go to Prison Mar 16, 7:30 PM (ET) By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press NORTH MIAMI, Fla. (AP) - A U.S. soldier who refused to return to Iraq after seeing civilians killed reported to his unit in Florida on Tuesday and said he would go to prison rather than take part in "an oil-driven war." Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who is seeking to be declared a conscientious objector, met with officials at his Florida National Guard unit after repeating his determination not to return to the Middle East and fight. "I'm prepared to go to prison because I'll have a clear conscience," Mejia said. Guard spokesman Jon Myatt said Mejia has been classified as a deserter because he had been missing from his unit for more than 30 days. Myatt said a warrant to arrest Mejia could be issued if he failed to appear Wednesday at Fort Stewart, Ga., from which his unit is deployed. He said the 28-year-old Mejia had not been charged. Mejia said he's been treated with "respect and dignity" by the military and he intends to report to the Georgia ...more Posted 6:37 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. Factory Shipped To China CBS Evening News March 16, 2004 STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS) Eight months after a factory that makes television screens shut down, an invasion of sorts has landed in Pennsylvania. Scavenger crews are now dismantling the plant for a Chinese company that's bought the equipment and plans to put it to work on its own soil, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta. "Our competition is overseas and people in the United States are losing out," said former factory worker Ron Welch. Welch and 1,100 other workers once made TV screens here. Now they see trucks clearing an economic battlefield that America lost. "It's hard to watch our jobs going down the road in tractor trailers," said Scott Conway, another laid-off worker. Once this project is finished and the equipment is reassembled in its new plant in China, the workers won't be making $18 an hour. Over there, the average wage is closer to $2 a day. The factory's owner, Corning, claims it no longer made sense to build the screens in Pennsylvania, as most TVs are now assembled in Asia. That's where the company is opening its own new factories. "So you have to decide whether you're going ...more Wednesday, March 17, 2004 Posted 6:00 AM by Jim Hightower William Rivers Pitt: 9/11 Nonsense 9/11 Nonsense By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Wednesday 17 March 2004 The attacks of September 11 have become, morosely, a political football. The Bush for President campaign is running commercials that display burning towers and the faces of brave firefighters, said firefighters being played by actors. Despite outraged howls from real firefighters, who were joined in rage by family members of 9/11 victims, the commercials continue to run. Bush believes his leadership in the aftermath of the attacks should be a campaign issue, and so there it is. In truth, however, September 11 became a political football on September 11. Conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan, in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, blamed the Clinton administration. "The decision to get down and dirty with the terrorists, to take their threat seriously and counter them aggressively, was simply never taken," wrote Sullivan. Senator Orrin Hatch referred in 1996 to the terrorist threats, threats which compelled Clinton to attempt the passage of a comprehensive anti-terrorism bill that would have gone a long way to stopping 9/11, as "Phony threats." After September 11, he joined the 'Blame Clinton' ...more Posted 5:55 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. Factory Shipped To China CBS Evening News March 16, 2004 STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS) Eight months after a factory that makes television screens shut down, an invasion of sorts has landed in Pennsylvania. Scavenger crews are now dismantling the plant for a Chinese company that's bought the equipment and plans to put it to work on its own soil, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Acosta. "Our competition is overseas and people in the United States are losing out," said former factory worker Ron Welch. Welch and 1,100 other workers once made TV screens here. Now they see trucks clearing an economic battlefield that America lost. "It's hard to watch our jobs going down the road in tractor trailers," said Scott Conway, another laid-off worker. Once this project is finished and the equipment is reassembled in its new plant in China, the workers won't be making $18 an hour. Over there, the average wage is closer to $2 a day. The factory's owner, Corning, claims it no longer made sense to build the screens in Pennsylvania, as most TVs are now assembled in Asia. That's where the company is opening its own new factories. "So you have to decide whether you're going ...more Posted 5:42 AM by Jim Hightower Bush is Weak on Terror By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: March 16, 2004 New York Times OP-ED COLUMNIST My most immediate priority," Spain's new leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared yesterday, "will be to fight terrorism." But he and the voters who gave his party a stunning upset victory last Sunday don't believe the war in Iraq is part of that fight. And the Spanish public was also outraged by what it perceived as the Aznar government's attempt to spin last week's terrorist attack for political purposes. The Bush administration, which baffled the world when it used an attack by Islamic fundamentalists to justify the overthrow of a brutal but secular regime, and which has been utterly ruthless in its political exploitation of 9/11, must be very, very afraid. Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength George Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. This reluctance dates back to Mr. Bush's ...more Posted 5:33 AM by Jim Hightower Wave Bye-bye to U.S. Jobs By Molly Ivins AlterNet March 16, 2004 How much fun can one administration have? More dead GIs. New record trade deficit. Stock market plunge. Defeated ally in Spain. New Spanish prime minister says the occupation in Iraq is a "continuing disaster" and he's pulling his troops out. Still no jobs. And then the guy who was supposed to be the new jobs czar turns out to have laid off 75 of his own workers while building a $3 million factory in China to employ 165 Chinese people. Whoever has the aspirin concession at the White House must be making a fortune. The unfortunate matter of the would-be jobs czar came at a particularly awkward moment. More than six months ago, President Bush promised to appoint a "manufacturing czar" at the Commerce Department. As the Center for American Progress points out, since then we've lost another 250,000 manufacturing jobs. Bush was on his way to Ohio last week, where the economy has just been hemorrhaging jobs, to "focus on jobs." He actually claimed, "We're creating jobs – good, high-paying jobs for the American citizen." The guy is living on some parallel planet. Bush chose Anthony Raimondo, CEO of ...more Tuesday, March 16, 2004 Posted 9:52 AM by Jim Hightower Bank of America, FleetBoston to pay $515M in Mutual Fund Scandal Will cut fees by $160 million in mutual fund settlement THE ASSOCIATED PRESS March 15, 2004 Washington -- Bank of America and FleetBoston Financial have agreed to pay $515 million to resolve allegations of improper mutual fund trading and to reduce fees investors pay by $160 million in the biggest fund scandal settlement to date, authorities said Monday. Eight members of the board of directors of Nations Funds, Bank of America's group of mutual funds, also will be required to resign their positions within a year for their alleged role in allowing the trading violations -- the first sanction of its kind in what has become an industry wide investigation. "These directors clearly failed to protect the interest of investors," said New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, who brought the first charges last September in the controversy that has rapidly enveloped the $7 trillion fund industry. "They acknowledged the problem of market timing, but then allowed a favored client to engage in that harmful practice. The departure of these board members should sound an alarm for all those who serve in similar capacities." Under the tentative agreement, which must be formally approved by ...more Posted 9:23 AM by Jim Hightower What if Attorney Generalisimo Ashcroft Were Uninsured... By Dan Frosch AlterNet March 14, 2004 From the moment Attorney General John Ashcroft was diagnosed with gallstone pancreatitis on March 4, he has without a doubt received the best and most efficient medical care in the world. While Justice Department officials haven't released many details, the Attorney General, because of his status, was most likely whisked through the emergency room at George Washington University Hospital, into intensive care and then surgery, and has all the while been doted on by a team of concerned and caring medical experts. Ashcroft has little reason to worry about the charges he's incurring. Like virtually all civilian federal employees, Ashcroft is presumably covered by any one of the impressive health plans offered by the United States Office of Personnel Management. The most popular plan, Blue Cross/ Blue Shield 'Standard,' could conceivably pay for close to 90 percent of Ashcroft's hospital care. But what if John Ashcroft was never confirmed as Attorney General and didn't have that impressive federal health plan? According to the Chicago-based group, Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), 41 million Americans don't have any health insurance and the majority of them, the group says, ...more Posted 9:17 AM by Jim Hightower Prime Minister-Elect Zapatero Calls Iraq War "a Disaster; Occupation continues to be a Disaster," Calls for U.N. Take Over Spain Likely to Pull Troops From Iraq By Fred Barbash Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, March 15, 2004; 9:03 AM Spain's new prime minister-elect today reiterated that Spain will withdraw its 1,300 troops from Iraq, unless the United Nations begins "taking charge of the situation." Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said "the war has been a disaster, the occupation continues to be a disaster. . . . There must be consequences. There has been one already," he said, "the election result. The second will be that Spanish troops will come back." Zapatero made his comments in a post-election interview Monday with Spain's Cadena SER radio. He elaborated later in a news conference, saying that "the occupation of Iraq has been poorly managed . . . If there isn't a change and the United Nations doesn't take charge of the situation, and the occupying forces don't cede political control, the Spanish troops will return and the deadline for their presence there will be June 30." Zapatero's Socialist Party won Spain's parliamentary elections Sunday, following the terrorist attack ...more Monday, March 15, 2004 Posted 12:29 PM by Jim Hightower Andy Rooney iritates some Christian Viewers with his comments about the Passion of the Christ The 'Passion' Over Andy Rooney March 14, 2004 (CBS) The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent Andy Rooney. “You asinine, bottom-dwelling, numb-sculled, low-life, slimy, sickening, gutless, spineless, ignorant, pot-licking, cowardly pathetic little weasel." One Christian Viewer's response Of a record 30,000 pieces of mail and email we got, not much of it mentioned Pat Robertson's conversation with God. Most of it concerned Mel Gibson and his movie about the crucifixion of Christ. I think the mail was a good indication of how bitterly divided our country is right now. I hope I’m not contributing to that - even though I’m right and everyone else is wrong. Here are some excerpts from a few of the nasty letters: "After watching your segment on 60 Minutes Sunday, I was reminded of what a trashy liberal you are.”--Jonathan Hendrick, Portland, Ore. "Please forgive me for not writing to you all the times you were absolutely right on a point...I must now point out how terribly wrong you were..." --Thomas Steinke, Indianapolis, Ind. "I am so angry I could spit!!!" --Susie Baker, Normal, Ill ...more Posted 12:19 PM by Jim Hightower BushCo sent Govt. propaganda news videos to TV stations, with actors portraying journalists, praising the Medicare Bill U.S. Videos, for TV News, Come Under Scrutiny By ROBERT PEAR Published: March 15, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON — Federal investigators are scrutinizing television segments in which the Bush administration paid people to pose as journalists praising the benefits of the new Medicare law, which would be offered to help elderly Americans with the costs of their prescription medicines. The videos are intended for use in local television news programs. Several include pictures of President Bush receiving a standing ovation from a crowd cheering as he signed the Medicare law on Dec. 8. The materials were produced by the Department of Health and Human Services, which called them video news releases, but the source is not identified. Two videos end with the voice of a woman who says, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." But the production company, Home Front Communications, said it had hired her to read a script prepared by the government. Another video, intended for Hispanic audiences, shows a Bush administration official being interviewed in Spanish by a man who identifies himself as a reporter named Alberto Garcia. Another segment shows a ...more Posted 10:19 AM by Jim Hightower Three Days in Spain By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Monday 15 March 2004 The winds of change are blowing furiously through Spain today, as terrorism and war take center stage for the first time since September 11 as the determining factors in a democratic election. It began in horror with the bombing of Spanish commuter trains and the deliberate slaughter of 200 people on Thursday. Thousands more were wounded in the blasts, and the entirety of the nation was hurled into the blackest mourning. The government of Jose Maria Aznar has attempted to connect the bombings to the Basque separatist group ETA, but evidence - including a videotaped claim of responsibility - is pointing towards al Qaeda as the perpetrators. The reasons Aznar's government wanted to see the attacks connected to ETA instead of al Qaeda were found in the streets of Spain by the thousands on the Saturday after the bombs went off. Madrid was awash with protesters demanding answers from Aznar as to who was responsible. They thronged the streets holding signs reading 'Paz,' and carried a banner reading 'Your War, Our Corpses.' There were protests in Andalucia, Barcelona ...more Posted 8:54 AM by Jim Hightower 60 Minutes Investigates: Prescription Drugs And Corporate Profit March 14, 2004 60 Minutes "This is a perfect example, in my opinion, of where a special interest, the pharmaceutical industry, has been able to manipulate the Congress and the government of the United States to their benefit..." ---Congressman Dan Burton (CBS) It may come as no surprise that the pharmaceutical industry is the most profitable business in the country. Americans pay far more for their prescription drugs than citizens of any place on Earth. It will also come as no surprise that as a political issue, the high price of drugs has united both Republicans and Democrats. More than a million Americans now buy their medications in Canada. And it's no longer just older people taking buses across the border. Mayors and governors from Minnesota to Alabama are helping Americans get Canadian drugs by mail. Such purchases are technically illegal. So far, the government has declined to prosecute individual customers or the cities and states involved. But the FDA - The Food and Drug Administration - has raised the specter of safety. For more than a year, the FDA Commissioner, Dr. Mark McClellan, has been waging a campaign against Canadian importation. ...more Sunday, March 14, 2004 Posted 2:37 PM by Jim Hightower Republican'ts spin Unemployment Numbers. U.S. Unemployment is really 7.4% Things aren't as bad as they seem; they're worse! No More Excuses on Jobs By Paul Krugman The New York Times Friday 12 March 2004 As job growth continues to elude the U.S. economy, we're hearing two main excuses from the Bush administration and its supporters: that the real situation is much better than you're hearing, and that to the extent employment is lagging, it's the result of factors outside the administration's control. But after three years of extravagant promises and dismal results, the time for excuses has passed. Let's start with the real job situation. A number of readers have asked me about what Marc Racicot, who heads the Bush re-election effort, told Don Imus the other day. He claimed that those miserable job numbers are misleading, and that another survey presents both a more accurate and a much happier story. You can find the same claim all over the right-wing media. But it just isn't so. It's true that there are two employment surveys, which have been diverging lately. The establishment survey, which asks businesses how many workers they employ, says that 2.4 million jobs have vanished in ...more Posted 2:22 PM by Jim Hightower Security issues cloud e-voting Lawmakers fear lack of paper trail By Tamara Lytle Washington Bureau Chief Orlando Sentinel WASHINGTON -- Up to 50 million Americans will use electronic ballots in November's presidential election -- machines that an increasing number of people fear are vulnerable to tampering and errors because they lack backup to ensure votes are properly counted. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., called Wednesday for a new federal law that would require all electronic voting systems to include a paper trail that the voter can see to check for errors and officials can use in recounts of close elections. Without a printed record, it would be tougher to catch programming errors or malicious plots to miscount votes on the ATM-like machines -- and no way to do a ballot-by-ballot recount if the 2004 presidential election comes down to a handful of disputed votes, as happened in Florida in 2000. The rush to electronic voting came after Congress pushed states and counties toward more modern balloting machines -- methods not prone to the embarrassing "hanging" or "pregnant" chads that for weeks tied up the presidency in piles of Florida's old punch-card ballots. "Everyone dove headfirst ...more Posted 2:13 PM by Jim Hightower Florida as the Next Florida Florida officials refuse to implement a voter-verified paper trail on their E-Voting Machines Published: March 14, 2004 New York Times As Floridians went to the polls last Tuesday, Glenda Hood, Katherine Harris's successor as secretary of state, assured the nation that Florida's voting system would not break down this year the way it did in 2000. Florida now has "the very best" technology available, she declared on CNN. "And I do feel that it's a great disservice to create the feeling that there's a problem when there is not." Hours later, results in Bay County showed that with more than 60 percent of precincts reporting, Richard Gephardt, who long before had pulled out of the presidential race, was beating John Kerry by two to one. "I'm devastated," the county's top election official said, promising a recount of his county's 19,000 votes. Four years after Florida made a mockery of American elections, there is every reason to believe it could happen again. This time, the problems will most likely be with the electronic voting that has replaced chad-producing punch cards. Some counties, including Bay County, use paper ballots that are fed into an optical scanner, so a ...more Posted 6:35 AM by Jim Hightower A BuzzFlash Interview with Eric Alterman Eric Alterman, Author of "The Book on Bush" and "What Liberal Media?" A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW March 12, 2004 Eric Alterman has emerged as one of the most astute and meticulous writers and thinkers with two essential books that explain the gap between the perception and the reality of George W. Bush's policies and how a compliant media enables a distorted image of Bush. Alterman clarified the true bias in the news with his spectacular bestseller book What Liberal Media?, now available in paperback with a new chapter on media coverage in Iraq. And he has exposed and demystified the policies of the Bush Administration with co-author Mark Green in his new book The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America. Eric Alterman writes the "Stop the Presses" media column in The Nation and "TheAltercation" Web log for MSNBC.com. He has been a contributing editor to, or columnist for Rolling Stone, Elle, Mother Jones, World Policy Journal, and The Sunday Express (London). His Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy (1992/2000) won the 1992 George Orwell Award and also wrote Who Speaks for America? Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy (1998). Alterman is a senior fellow ...more Posted 6:29 AM by Jim Hightower Official Says He Was Told To Withhold Medicare Data from Congress or be Fired By Amy Goldstein Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, March 13, 2004; Page A01 The government's longtime chief analyst of Medicare costs said yesterday that Bush administration officials threatened to fire him last year if he disclosed to Congress that he believed the prescription drug legislation favored by the White House would prove far more expensive than lawmakers had been told. Richard S. Foster, a nonpartisan Department of Health and Human Services official who has been Medicare's chief actuary for nine years, said he nearly resigned in protest because he thought the top Medicare administrator, and perhaps White House officials, were acting against the public interest by withholding information about how much changes to the program would cost. "Certainly, Congress did not have all the information they might have wanted, or that we had," Foster said in an interview. He said Thomas A. Scully, then administrator of the HHS agency that oversees Medicare, repeatedly told him last spring and summer that Foster would be fired if he complied with requests from Republican and Democratic lawmakers to provide cost estimates of aspects of the prescription ...more Saturday, March 13, 2004 Posted 7:34 PM by Jim Hightower Ashcroft wants Easier Internet Wiretaps Justice Dept., FBI Want Consumers To Pay the Cost By Dan Eggen and Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, March 13, 2004; Page A01 The Justice Department wants to significantly expand the government's ability to monitor online traffic, proposing that providers of high-speed Internet service should be forced to grant easier access for FBI wiretaps and other electronic surveillance, according to documents and government officials. A petition filed this week with the Federal Communications Commission also suggests that consumers should be required to foot the bill. Law enforcement agencies have been increasingly concerned that fast-growing telephone service over the Internet could be a way for terrorists and criminals to evade surveillance. But the petition also moves beyond Internet telephony, leading several technology experts and privacy advocates yesterday to warn that many types of online communication, including instant messages and visits to Web sites, could be covered. The proposal by the Justice Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration could require extensive retooling of existing broadband networks and could impose significant costs, the experts said. Privacy advocates also argue that there are not enough safeguards to prevent the ...more Posted 7:29 PM by Jim Hightower Life in Utah: Poverty stalks middle class FRIDAY March 12, 2004 By Jacob Santini The Salt Lake City Tribune A combination of economic downturns and the high cost of living in Utah has put many middle-class workers one job loss or one medical emergency away from poverty. "There are 200,000 poor people in Utah," said Sarah Wilhelm, a fiscal policy analyst for Utah Issues. "That's officially poor." And there are another 400,000 Utahns who don't earn enough to pay their living expenses, a combination of bills that include housing, medical insurance and food, according to the Utah Issues annual report -- Poverty in Utah 2003. The problem is threefold: lower average wages, high housing prices and large family sizes. And those three issues are preventing many Utahns from gathering assets, such as money in savings accounts, to survive three months after a crisis hits. "Almost one-fifth of Utahns do not have the sufficient net worth to survive for three months without income," according to the report. The report -- released today -- compiles information gathered primarily between 2001 and 2002. The sources range from the federal government and national poverty agencies to data from sources ...more Posted 7:11 PM by Jim Hightower Weblogs, the Progressive Answer to Right-Wing Talk Radio Blogs take Web diaries to the next level "It's totally democratic. It's democratic journalism ... it's journalism by the masses." (CNN) -- Ever frog blog -- or contemplate blogging your dog? Or how about blogging over that 1967 mustang? Blogs are journalism's latest craze. The odd little word is short for "Web logs." They first appeared around 1998, and are starting to take off among people searching for information online. You can find a blog on just about any topic imaginable, and this week, Bruce Burkhardt speaks to a self-proclaimed blog enthusiast. Josh Quittner, editor of Business 2.0, tells Bruce Burkhardt why he thinks blogs are journalism for the future. BRUCE BURKHARDT: What is a blog and why do they call it that awful word? JOSH QUITTNER: It's a great word! I love the word "blog." The word "blog" is nothing more than a combination of two words: "Web" plus "log" -- blog! And the idea is, it's the almost perfect way of communicating your thoughts -- one to many -- on the Web. It's the natural evolution of what used to be known as Web-based diaries or ...more Friday, March 12, 2004 Posted 1:24 PM by Jim Hightower Happy 25th Birthday to Televising Congress On March 19th C-SPAN will turn 25 years old March 12, 2004 By David Corn The Nation The mud is flying, as a bitter presidential campaign is under way. With eight months remaining until E-Day, commentators are already pointing to the vicious and caustic debate as yet another sign of the coarsening of America's political culture. The mainstream media hypes the charges and countercharges exchanged by the candidates without fully evaluating them and fixates on who's up and who's down (and who is screaming) rather than what's at stake. With the rise of the cable-news gabfests, there's more information but not necessarily more understanding. Despite the McCain-Feingold law, special-interest money continues to pour into electoral politics. Democrats are bending, if not breaking, the rules to keep soft-money alive. On the Hill, conservative Republicans are using mob-like tactics to control legislation. Are all the trends in the political-media world negative? No. In recent decades, there has been one undeniable advance in the land of politics-and-the-media: C-SPAN. On March 19, the cable network that airs the proceedings of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, will turn 25 years old. Anyone who gives a damn about politics, ...more Posted 1:18 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Administration Thwarts Access Excerpt from The Buying of the President 2004 Shows the White House's Propensity for Secrecy March 12, 2004 The Center for Public Integrity If history is any guide, George W. Bush will not seek to undo the regulations that help shroud so many financial transactions from view. After all, his presidency has been characterized by a zeal for secrecy, an unrelenting push to stem the free flow of information. One particularly notable example has been the Administration's effort to undermine the Freedom of Information Act, the 1966 law that grants citizens access, although with some exceptions, to federal agency records. By statute, government FOIA officers may withhold records dealing with classified national security information, trade secrets, personnel or medical issues, and a handful of other matters---decisions that in each case are left to an official's own discretion (although those denied the requested information may appeal). In October 1993, to better standardize the process and create more openness in government, Attorney General Janet Reno dispatched a memorandum revamping the way the Act would be administered; from now on, the memo directed, FOIA officers should "apply a presumption of disclosure." To drive home the point, Reno decreed that, ...more Posted 6:38 AM by Jim Hightower Bush uses Fear in New Ads that Attack Kerry Bush Ads Go Negative; Kerry Refutes Claim By RON FOURNIER and LIZ SIDOTI Associated Press Writers 3/11/04 WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) unleashed the first negative ads of the general election campaign Thursday, accusing Democratic rival John Kerry (news - web sites) of seeking to raise taxes by $900 billion and wanting to "delay defending America." "John Kerry: Wrong on taxes. Wrong on defense," says an announcer in a new 30-second ad that will begin airing in battleground states. Kerry's campaign called the $900 billion figure "completely made up," and accused Bush of running away from his own record. A second Bush ad tells voters they face choices on the economy, health care and the war on terrorism. "We can go forward with confidence, resolve and hope. Or we can turn back to the dangerous illusions that terrorists are not plotting and outlaw regimes are no threat," Bush says in the second ad, without mentioning Kerry by name. The Bush ads will begin airing in 18 states Friday along with radio ads that make the same high-taxes, soft-on-terorrism argument against Kerry. They are the second ...more Posted 6:31 AM by Jim Hightower "Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing its Idiot" Austin duo launch company creating anti-Bush slogans Sayings starting to catch on nationally By Denise Gamino AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, March 11, 2004 Austin, TX --As much as George W. Bush wants jobs created for those without them, the president may wish a couple of out-of-work Austin bartenders had remained jobless. Instead, the barkeeps turned their gift of gab into a commercial war of words against George W. Bush. They are selling sound-bite arguments, with the emphasis on bite: "Like Father Like Son — One Term Only." "Somewhere in Texas a Village is Missing its Idiot." "Save the Environment, Plant a Bush in Texas." "President Bush is an oxymoron." "Stop Mad Cowboy Disease." And, even, "UnbelieveaBush." From a three-bedroom, rented condo in South Austin, the two friends run an Internet business that creates and ships anti-Bush messages around the world in the form of T-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, buttons and magnets. Last year, their company, called Two Unemployed Democrats, sold $141,000 worth of one-liners challenging everything from Bush's 2000 election to the $87 billion appropriation for the war on Iraq. Since January, they have sold another $70,000 in Bush-bashing merchandise off their seeyageorge.com site. The two unemployed Democrats who ...more Posted 6:26 AM by Jim Hightower Kerry---the Real Deal vs. Bush---the Raw Deal The Real Deal March 11, 2004 By David Michael Rothschild democraticunderground.com Like many of you, my interest in the 2004 presidential campaign was born not out of a bold vision for the next four years, but out of a very real concern for the future of our country. George Bush's cowboy diplomacy has made America an international pariah, spoiling generations of good will, while guaranteeing years of costly and unnecessary war. Young Americans are dying daily in Iraq, a war created on false pretences and a peace that lacked any serious planning. Bush tells us that freedom of speech is expendable, because we are in a uniquely dangerous security situation. He has done little to restore the legitimacy of our electoral process and implies that those people who question his pernicious policies are traitors. How can we export democracy and promote the American political system as a positive alternative to current religious autocratic governments, when we consider democracy and freedom of speech expendable at the first sign of trouble? Bush mortgaged my generation's future: our tax money, our education, and our Social Security and Medicare, to pay for his wars and his contributors (read Halliburton). No ...more Thursday, March 11, 2004 Posted 7:41 PM by Jim Hightower The new (Iraq) Pentagon papers A high-ranking military officer reveals how Defense Department extremists suppressed information and twisted the truth to drive the country to war. By Karen Kwiatkowski Salon.Com March 10, 2004 In July of last year, after just over 20 years of service, I retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force. I had served as a communications officer in the field and in acquisition programs, as a speechwriter for the National Security Agency director, and on the Headquarters Air Force and the office of the secretary of defense staffs covering African affairs. I had completed Air Command and Staff College and Navy War College seminar programs, two master's degrees, and everything but my Ph.D. dissertation in world politics at Catholic University. I regarded my military vocation as interesting, rewarding and apolitical. My career started in 1978 with the smooth seduction of a full four-year ROTC scholarship. It ended with 10 months of duty in a strange new country, observing up close and personal a process of decision making for war not sanctioned by the Constitution we had all sworn to uphold. Ben Franklin's comment that the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia had delivered "a republic, madam, ...more Posted 7:30 PM by Jim Hightower Kerry criticized for telling Truth: "Republicans are crooked, lying, scary group" "We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. We're just beginning to fight here," Kerry said. "These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary." Yahoo News.Com By Jill Zuckman and Jeff Zeleny Tribune national correspondents 3/10/2004 Seemingly unaware that his microphone was still on, Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) used uncharacteristically harsh language Wednesday to describe Republicans as "crooked" and "lying" during a quiet exchange with several workers at the Hill Mechanical Group in Chicago's Ravenswood neighborhood. As one worker urged Kerry to "tell it like it is" and to "keep smiling," the presumptive Democratic nominee told the man not to worry. "We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you. We're just beginning to fight here," Kerry said. "These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group I've ever seen. It's scary." The incident followed a videoconference call by Kerry to a meeting of AFL-CIO leaders in Florida before he left for Washington to meet with former rival Howard Dean (news - web sites) to seek Dean's support. It also came on a day in which Republican ...more Posted 7:00 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Lied! Our Children Died! Military Families Organize to Oppose War Military Families vs. the War Organized Opposition Is Small, but Some See It as Historic By Paula Span Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, March 11, 2004; Page A01 EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- On the night last month he learned that his son had died in Iraq, Richard Dvorin couldn't sleep. He lay in bed, "thinking and thinking and thinking," got up at 4 a.m., made a pot of coffee. Then he sat down at the kitchen table and wrote a letter to the president. When the invasion of Iraq began, Dvorin -- a 61-year-old Air Force veteran and a retired cop -- thought the commander in chief deserved his support. "I believed we were destroying part of the axis of evil," he says. "I truly believed that Saddam Hussein was a madman and that he possessed weapons of mass destruction and wouldn't hesitate to use them." By the time Army 2nd Lt. Seth Dvorin was sent to Iraq last September, however, his father was having doubts. And now that Seth had been killed, at 24, by an "improvised explosive device" south of Baghdad, doubt had turned ...more Posted 6:48 PM by Jim Hightower BushCo plays another Fear Card: Uses sky-high gas prices to bring back pork-packed Energy Bill A Twitch Before Dying? By Amanda Griscom Grist Magazine March 9, 2004 U.S. oil prices jumped to their highest levels since the Iraq war this week, hitting $37.51 a barrel, for an average of about $1.74 a gallon – unwelcome news for those feeling the pinch at the pump, but great news for supporters of the newly overhauled but still-stalled energy bill. "They've been waiting for something like this – a blackout, a spike in gas prices, a terrorist attack – anything to convince a majority in the Senate that they have no choice but to steamroll this energy bill through," said a staffer at the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Sure enough, on Monday, Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), chair of the ENR committee, announced that the energy bill would come up for consideration again at the end of this month – when high gas prices will still be fresh on senators' (or, more to the point, their constituents') minds. Right on cue, a chorus of Bush officials chimed in to play up economic fears: Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said last week that the ...more Posted 10:34 AM by Jim Hightower William Rivers Pitt: Exerpts of "Take Them At Their Words" Fish. Barrel. Boom. By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Thursday 11 March 2004 "I'm a firm believer in feeding people their own words back to them, when it's appropriate." – Trent Lott As we hurtle headlong into the silly season, a high colonic for the mind is in order. There is going to be a lot of back-and-forth between the candidates regarding who said what and when. Feast, in that context, upon this small collection: "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." - George W. Bush, discussing Kosovo, Houston Chronicle, 04-09-99 "I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." - Bill O'Reilley, on ABC's Good Morning America, 03-18-03 "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus - living fossils - so we will never forget what these people stood for." ...more Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Posted 8:09 PM by Jim Hightower Liberal Talk Radio Network to Launch March 31st Wed Mar 10 2004 13:15:26 ET Air America Radio, a progressive talk radio network, announced today it will hit the airwaves on March 31st. "Air America Radio is launching in the top U.S. markets with leading talent that will provide compelling and entertaining programming on the radio, on satellite feeds, and on the web," said Mark Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Air America Radio. “We aim to build an important new media franchise that delivers results.” The network’s on-air personalities represent today’s top political and popular satirists, commentators and activists. Comedian, and best selling author Al Franken, who was recently taken to court when Bill O’Reilly and Fox News were seeking an injunction to halt distribution of "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," and is known for fact-based, drug-free satire, will host a weekday show on the network called “The O’Franken Factor.” “I’m so happy that Air America Radio will be on in three battleground states, New York, Illinois and California….no wait…those aren’t battleground states. What the hell are we doing?” said Franken. Air America Radio has signed actress and comedienne Janeane ...more Posted 7:57 PM by Jim Hightower McCain declines to rule out VP spot on Democratic ticket Wednesday, March 10, 2004 San Francisco Chronicle Republican Sen. John McCain allowed a glimmer of hope Wednesday for Democrats fantasizing about a bipartisan dream team to defeat President Bush. McCain said he would consider the unorthodox step of running for vice president on the Democratic ticket -- in the unlikely event he received such an offer from the presidential candidate. "John Kerry is a close friend of mine. We have been friends for years," McCain said Wednesday when pressed to squelch speculation about a Kerry-McCain ticket. "Obviously I would entertain it." But McCain emphasized how unlikely the whole idea was. "It's impossible to imagine the Democratic Party seeking a pro-life, free-trading, non-protectionist, deficit hawk," the Arizona senator told ABC's "Good Morning America" during an interview about illegal steroid use. "They'd have to be taking some steroids, I think, in order to let that happen." McCain gained a reputation as a party maverick who appealed to independent voters during his 2000 race against Bush for the Republican nomination. This year, McCain has campaigned for the president and said he would continue to do so. Unlike some other Republican senators, he hasn't railed ...more Posted 7:50 AM by Jim Hightower Cheney and Wolfowitz: Architects of U.S. World Domination Larger Than Iraq The True Rationale? It's a Decade Old By James Mann Sunday, March 7, 2004; Page B02 The Washington Post The Bush administration has offered a series of shifting justifications for the war in Iraq. Each has been quite specific: The war was to uncover Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction; to dislodge a brutal dictator; to combat Iraq's support for terrorism; to deal with what President Bush called a "grave and gathering threat." Which was the real one? That's the overarching question that has dominated public debate in recent months. But the question is too narrow. The underlying rationale was both broader and more abstract: The war was carried out in pursuit of a larger vision of using America's overwhelming military superiority to shape the future. The outlines of that vision were first sketched more than a decade ago, immediately after the Soviet Union collapsed. Some of the most important and bitterly debated aspects of the war in Iraq -- including the administration's willingness to engage in preemptive military action -- can be traced to discussions and documents from the early 1990s, when Pentagon officials, under then-Defense ...more Posted 7:35 AM by Jim Hightower Air Force study: 92 cases of rape in Pacific in just past three years Review leads to service-wide inquiry into how assaults are reported, dealt with By Eric Schmitt THE NEW YORK TIMES Tuesday, March 9, 2004 WASHINGTON -- At least 92 accusations of rape involving Air Force personnel in the Pacific were reported to military authorities there between 2001 and 2003, according to a new study by the service. The findings, which surprised some top Air Force officials, also singled out serious flaws in the reporting of sexual assault claims and in assistance to victims. The five-month review was the most comprehensive report of its kind by an Air Force command and has led to a servicewide investigation into how sexual assault is reported, how it can be prevented and how commanders deal with victims. Investigators said Monday that conditions varied among installations, depending on the services available on and off bases. Last week, Gen. William J. Begert, the commander of Pacific Air Forces who sought the review, ordered broad changes in training, reporting and victims' assistance. He has also summoned his top field commanders to a meeting in April at his headquarters in Hawaii to discuss the problem. "I found ...more Posted 7:29 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. Military Program Full of Corruption, Waste and Fraud Another Embarrassment for the Pentagon Here is a news update from Taxpayers for Common Sense. TCS is the best organization that monitors excessive government spending, corruption and corporate welfare. The Progress Report March 9, 2004 The Pentagon has cancelled the expensive and increasingly irrelevant Comanche helicopter program. At 15 years overdue and many millions over budget, the only thing the Comanche ever did well was prove that pigs can fly. With any luck, this is just the first domino in a chain of many in the Pentagon budget. The Pentagon insists each of its weapons projects is essential to national security, but the failure of the Comanche has undercut their credibility, and the next domino seems within reach. The Department of Defense will try to suture its wounds by denying that the Comanche's problems are systemic. They will claim that it is 'unusual' for a weapons program to take far longer than originally planned and be millions over budget. But those criticisms describe pretty nearly every major weapons program that the Pentagon manages. Instead of stemming the hemorrhaging, the Pentagon should be putting itself through an old-fashioned blood letting to ...more Posted 7:21 AM by Jim Hightower Kerry Flip Flops??? Bush is the King of Waffling on Promises Remember when? Bush record replete with rewritten histories and chucked promises Molly Ivins Creators Syndicate 03/09/04 AUSTIN, Texas -- Living proof that the Democrats haven't gotten any smarter since the last time they ran a candidate for president: Much huffing (and a huffy Democrat is a terrifying sight) over the fact that George W. Bush used images of 9-11 and of the firefighters at Ground Zero to tout his candidacy in his first campaign ad. How crass , said the D's. Exploiting a national tragedy for political purposes -- oh, how tacky. Dammit, the problem is not that the ad is in bad taste, the problem is that Bush screwed the firefighters in a famous case of his favorite bait-and-switch tactic, and now he has the chutzpah to exploit them anyway -- and that, my friends, is gall. Bait, switch and then claim credit anyway. For those of you who have forgotten what happened (apparently including the entire Bush campaign) shortly after the 9-11 attacks, President Bush promised a $3.5 billion aid package to provide equipment and training in dealing with such attacks to local police ...more Tuesday, March 9, 2004 Posted 9:23 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Softens 9/11 Commission Stance "It's good to see that the president has finally found time in his schedule to spend more than an hour with the 9-11 commission to investigate the greatest intelligence failure in our nation's history. I think all Americans hope that his cooperation with the commission will lead to real answers instead of more stonewalling." ---John Kerry (3/9/2004) Bush still refuses to meet with the entire 9/11 Commission; will only meet with chairman and vice-chairman By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent Mar 9, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush will answer privately all questions raised by a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the White House said Tuesday, softening its insistence that Bush's testimony be limited to an hour. "Nobody's watching the clock," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. Still, he said an hour was "a reasonable period of time to set aside for a sitting president of the United States." The White House and the commission are working on a date for the meeting with Bush. The commission urged Bush to meet with all of its members, not just the chairman and vice chairman. The shift came after presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry accused Bush ...more Posted 10:27 AM by Jim Hightower Back to Vietnam NOTE: The Viet Nam War (1964-1975); American Deaths---58,226; American Wounded---153,303. Vietnam released figures on April 3, 1995 that a total of one million Vietnamese combatants and four million civilians were killed in the war. The accuracy of these figures has generally not been challenged. It is unclear how many Vietnamese were wounded in the war. http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/V/Vietnam-War.htm By Tom Hayden The Nation March 8, 2004 I was digging into the batter's box one Saturday morning in San Pedro a couple of years ago when the catcher behind me muttered, "I'm a Vietnam vet, and I've been waiting for twenty years to say you should be dead or in jail for being a traitor." The umpire said nothing. I flied out to center. Later we talked. Then we became friends. It turned out that his hatred was toward my ex-wife, not me, because he believed certain website fabrications about Jane Fonda that circulate among veterans. Twice the Republicans in the California legislature tried to block my seating because of my trips to Hanoi. But I was never a target of opportunity like my ex – more like collateral damage. While most Americans, perhaps including that former Yale cheerleader and ...more Posted 10:22 AM by Jim Hightower Six Ways Kerry Can Win By Arianna Huffington AlterNet March 8, 2004 Dear Senator Kerry, Congratulations on becoming the de facto nominee. Now the White House is gunning for you and party hacks are deafening you with advice. Take a deep breath and tune them out. Here is a simple six-point plan for becoming the 44th president of the United States. 1. You may share JFK's initials, but you need to campaign with RFK's passion. The night Bobby Kennedy was assassinated, you were on a ship coming home from Vietnam. And you have often talked about his legacy on the campaign trail, about politics as something more than "the art of the probable – tinkering around the edges without any greater vision." Ushering Bush out of the White House will take more than a critique, however masterful, of his failed policies – and more than a new-and-improved Medicare plan. It will take a bold moral vision of what America can be. As Bobby Kennedy often said, "Some men see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'" 2. Don't pick a VP by looking at the map. Pick someone who can help ...more Posted 10:13 AM by Jim Hightower Aristide Interview with Democracy Now! By Amy Goodman Democracy Now! Monday 08 March 2004 AMY GOODMAN: I am Amy Goodman from the radio/TV program Democracy Now! around the United States. We would like to know why you left Haiti. PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: Thank you. First of all, I didn't leave Haiti because I wanted to leave Haiti. They forced me to leave Haiti. It was a kidnapping, which they call coup d'etat or [inaudible] ...forced resignation for me. It wasn't a resignation. It was a kidnapping and under the cover of coup d'etat. AMY GOODMAN: It was a kidnapping under the cover of coup d'etat? PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: Yes. AMY GOODMAN: Who forced you out of the country? PRESIDENT ARISTIDE: I saw U.S. officials with Ambassador Foley. Mr. Moreno, [inaudible...] at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti I saw American soldiers. I saw former soldiers who are linked to drug dealers like Guy Philippe and to killers already convicted, Chamblain. They all did the kidnapping using Haitian puppets like Guy Philippe, [inaudible], and Chamblain, already convicted, and basically, this night, I didn't see Haitians, I saw Americans. AMY GOODMAN: So, you say that they kidnapped you from ...more Monday, March 8, 2004 Posted 9:01 PM by Jim Hightower Transcript of Senator Edward M. Kennedy's Speech to the Council on Foreign Relations March 5, 2004 Thank you, Glenn Kessler, for that generous introduction. As you all know, Glenn does an outstanding job covering diplomacy and foreign policy for the Washington Post. It's a privilege to be here today with the Council on Foreign Relations. The Council and its members have a distinguished record of notable contributions to the national debate over the years. On the most important foreign policy issues confronting our nation and the world, the Council is at the forefront. Your views and analyses are more important than ever today as America tries to find its way in this vastly transformed modern world. The nation is engaged in a major ongoing debate about why America went to war in Iraq, when Iraq was not an imminent threat, had no nuclear weapons, no persuasive links to Al Qaeda, no connection to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, and no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Over two centuries ago, John Adams spoke eloquently about the need to let facts and evidence guide actions and policies. He said, "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, ...more Posted 6:02 PM by Jim Hightower Selling Death for Fun and Profit By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Monday 8 March 2004 "For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don't put a bolt to a nut, he don't tell you the law or give you medicine. He's a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back - that's an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you're finished." – Arthur Miller, 'Death of a Salesman' Sooner or later, if you live in a world without consequences, you will say or do something so utterly reprehensible, so completely beyond the pale, that those who behold your pestiferous splendor will be left, simply, in awe. This world without consequences has been the realm of the Bush administration for three long years. They enjoyed umbilical ties to Enron, one of the companies which participated in the gang-rape of our economy, and have suffered no consequences. They gave away the Federal Treasury to the wealthiest of their supporters, compounding the budgetary shock that came in the aftermath of ...more Posted 1:48 PM by Jim Hightower Bush commercials exploit the suffering of the surviving relatives and friends of the dead, and they abuse the fears of the nation (NOTE: FDR did not exploit Pearl Harbor, and Bill Clinton did not exploit the Oklahoma City terrorist bombing in order to get re-elected.) Bush and the myth of great leadership By BILL MAXWELL, Times Staff Writer Published March 7, 2004 St. Petersburg Times (Florida) President Bush's new campaign ads are on the air and generating unintended consequences. Nov. 2, of course, will tell us if these ads were effective. We do not need to wait until November to know, however, that these ads are some of the most cynical, tasteless, deceptive and exploitative the nation has ever seen. I have seen the ads, by the way. They make heavy visual use of the charred, smoldering remains of the World Trade Center. One clip even shows firefighters ferrying what appears to be the flag-draped body of a terrorist victim. Remember now, these ads are the work of the same George W. Bush who, when seeking more money from Congress in 2003 to fight terrorism, said: "I have no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue." The president lied. The World Trade Center ...more Posted 1:19 PM by Jim Hightower The pain and suffering in Bush America Multi-Millionaire Bush doesn't get it! The Unrecognizable Recovery By BOB HERBERT Published: March 8, 2004 The Bush crowd couldn't have been more pleased with the timing of the Martha Stewart verdict on Friday afternoon. The big news heading into the weekend was almost guaranteed to be the awful jobs report released by the Labor Department Friday morning. The White House needed a world-class distraction and the Stewart jury, eager to wrap things up before the weekend, obliged. It strolled in, as if on cue, with a verdict of guilty on all counts. Distractions don't get much bigger. The Labor Department report was as grim as faces on a bread line. Despite all the president's promises, the economy added just 21,000 jobs last month. No jobs were added by the private sector. The 21,000 additional jobs were all government hires. The report also showed that job growth in December and January was worse than previously reported. The January tally was revised from 112,000 to 97,000. The December count dropped from 16,000 to a pathetic 8,000. A number of demographic groups are getting absolutely hammered. A new study by Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, ...more Sunday, March 7, 2004 Posted 10:40 AM by Jim Hightower Republican National Committee warns TV stations not to run anti-Bush ads GOP committee [lies and] says MoveOn.org's spots are illegally financed Sunday, March 7, 2004 CNN.Com WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Republican National Committee is warning television stations across the country not to run ads from the MoveOn.org Voter Fund that criticize President Bush, charging that the progressive political group is paying for them with money raised in violation of the new campaign-finance law. "As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility to the viewing public, and to your licensing agency, to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity," said the RNC's chief counsel, Jill Holtzman Vogel, in a letter sent to about 250 stations Friday. "Now that you have been apprised of the law, to prevent further violations of federal law, we urge you to remove these advertisements from your station's broadcast rotation." But MoveOn.org's lawyer, Joseph Sandler, said in a statement that the ads were funded legally, calling the RNC's letter "a complete misrepresentation of the law." "The federal campaign laws have permitted precisely this use of money for advertising for the past 25 years," he said. And MoveOn.org, which was planning to spend $1.9 million on an ad buy that ...more Posted 10:36 AM by Jim Hightower U.S. has failed to recover tons of uranium it sent overseas Government auditors say that the United States is making little effort to recover tons of weapons-grade uranium that it has given to 43 countries By Joel Brinkley and William J. Broad THE NEW YORK TIMES Sunday, March 7, 2004 WASHINGTON -- As the United States presses Iran and other countries to shut down their nuclear weapons development programs, government auditors have disclosed that the United States is making little effort to recover large quantities of weapons-grade uranium -- potentially enough to make roughly 1,000 nuclear bombs -- that the government dispersed to 43 countries in the past several decades. The Energy Department auditors said they found that "large quantities of U.S.-produced highly enriched uranium were out of U.S. control." Among the countries that received the highly enriched uranium, generally with the expectation that it would be returned, were Iran and Pakistan. The uranium was loaned, leased or sold to dozens of countries starting in the 1950s under the Eisenhower administration's Atoms for Peace program, intended to help other countries develop nuclear energy facilities or pursue scientific or medical initiatives. The dispersals continued until 1988. In the past 50 years, the report says, ...more Posted 6:42 AM by Jim Hightower Growth in Jobs Is Still Sluggish Despite Forecast "You would think that after spending almost $3 trillion, you'd get more than 21,000 jobs," said Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois. "The president has not only a fiscal deficit, but a jobs deficit and a credibility deficit." By DAVID LEONHARDT Published: March 6, 2004 Job creation all but stalled in February, surprising Wall Street forecasters and giving Democrats economic ammunition to use against President Bush as he begins his re-election campaign. The economy added just 21,000 jobs last month, down sharply from January's increase and far below the gains that were common in the 1980's and 1990's. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.6 percent, the Labor Department reported yesterday, but mostly because many people have stopped looking for work since late last year, removing them from the government's official count of the jobless. "This is a disappointment," said Richard D. Rippe, chief economist of the Prudential Equity Group. "It shows very sluggish job creation in an economy which by almost all other measures is really doing very well." With the slump in the job market nearing its third anniversary, economists said they were starting to wonder whether the relationship between economic growth and employment had ...more Saturday, March 6, 2004 Posted 8:46 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Deliberately Inflated Iraq Threat, Kennedy Says March 5, 2004 By DOUGLAS JEHL New York Times WASHINGTON, March 5 — Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts today delivered a blistering indictment of President Bush's decision to go to war in Iraq, accusing Mr. Bush of deliberately exaggerating the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime. The speech by Mr. Kennedy to the Council on Foreign Relations was the most detailed Democratic assault to date on the issue. He has played a high-profile role in Senator John Kerry's presidential campaign, and the tone and timing of his remarks suggested that Democrats see merit in opening a new election-year challenge on the issue of Mr. Bush's credibility. Mr. Kennedy accused the president of resorting to "pure, unadulterated fear-mongering, based on a devious strategy to convince the American people that Saddam's ability to provide nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda justified immediate war." He also accused the Bush administration of going well beyond the assessments provided by intelligence agencies in its prewar depictions of Iraq, its alleged illicit arsenal and its ties to terrorism. The senator singled out George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, who said last month that his agency had never portrayed Iraq ...more Posted 8:37 PM by Jim Hightower Troops Rally For Regime Change Battle By Don Hazen and Tai Moses AlterNet March 5, 2004 Super Tuesday was John Kerry's Rubicon. The furious, but not so fast general presidential contest began, in all its excessive glory and gore. While George W. Bush made his disingenuous congratulatory phone call to Kerry on Tuesday, the president's campaign was working to churn out the beginning of millions of dollars of television and radio ads that will try to negatively define John Kerry for swing voters in a number of key states. Kerry, for his part, didn't hesitate to set the tenor of his campaign – his victory speech ripped Bush on health care, jobs and national security, and charged the administration with having "the most inept, reckless, and ideological foreign policy in modern history." Meanwhile, the online advocacy group MoveOn.org, intent on covering Kerry's back, shifted its three-tier operation into high gear. It urged its members to open their wallets and contribute to the Kerry campaign, and MoveOn PAC asked members to become campaign activists and pledge a certain number of hours per week reaching out to potential voters on the web, telephone, and in face-to-face conversations. (On March 5, that number ...more Posted 8:10 PM by Jim Hightower Federal Election Commission planning to stop Anti-Bush Groups But Key FEC Member May Oppose Immediate Changes in Rules By Thomas B. Edsall Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 5, 2004; Page A06 The Federal Election Commission yesterday set in motion regulatory proceedings that could severely restrict new pro-Democratic groups seeking to defeat President Bush. The proposed regulations, drafted by the agency's general counsel, would severely crimp the fundraising and spending activities of "527" groups, named for the section of the tax code that governs their activities. But advocates of the tough regulations suffered a setback when a Democratic commissioner in a position to cast the key swing vote said she is likely to oppose any changes in the rules that would take effect before the November elections. The FEC, normally a backwater among Washington agencies, has become a battlefield pitting a flush Republican Party and a Bush campaign with a $100 million-plus war chest against a Democratic Party suffering from a 2 to 1 financial disadvantage. The Republican National Committee, joined by a number of campaign watchdog groups, is pressing the six-member commission to rule that a network of pro-Democratic organizations with a plan to spend as ...more Posted 8:03 PM by Jim Hightower Air Force One phone records subpoenaed Grand jury to review call logs from Bush’s jet in probe of how a CIA agent’s cover was blown BY TOM BRUNE STAFF WRITER March 5, 2004 WASHINGTON -- The federal grand jury probing the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity has subpoenaed records of Air Force One telephone calls in the week before the officer's name was published in a column in July, according to documents obtained by Newsday. Also sought in the wide-ranging document requests contained in three grand jury subpoenas to the Executive Office of President George W. Bush are records created in July by the White House Iraq Group, a little-known internal task force established in August 2002 to create a strategy to publicize the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. And the subpoenas asked for a transcript of a White House spokesman's press briefing in Nigeria, a list of those attending a birthday reception for a former president, and, casting a much wider net than previously reported, records of White House contacts with more than two dozen journalists and news media outlets. The three subpoenas were issued to the White House on Jan. 22, three weeks after Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago, was ...more Posted 7:29 AM by Jim Hightower Meet the Party Crashers Welcome to the world of cyberpolitics. What took you so long? BY MIKE CLARK-MADISON MARCH 5, 2004 The Austin Chronicle The world of politics – the candidates, the media, the consultants and consiglieres, the pimps and ho's, and, oh yes, the citizens – is a "marketplace" like any other, where power is bought, sold, and traded. So the Internet's impact in transforming that marketplace – just like it's transformed the stock market, the publishing market, the travel market, the music market, the tchotchke market – should be no great surprise. What worked for Beanie Babies also works for Deanie Babies. But why now? Why so quickly and massively in this political cycle? Why so predominantly on the left side of the spectrum? And why at just the point when boom-era Net visions of cybertopia had almost been completely laughed off? Maybe that last question answers itself. The current cyberpolitical explosion – MoveOn.org, the Howard Dean campaign, the proliferation of political bloggers, and all the rest – has revitalized not only politics but also the Internet. The world has been reminded that Netizens are a large, moderately diverse, culturally committed, and socioeconomically attractive group whose needs aren't being ...more Posted 7:17 AM by Jim Hightower President George Bush and the Gilded Age March 1, 2004 Yoshi Tsurumi (Professor of International Business, Baruch College, the City University of New York ) Something really strange has happened to the U.S. under the Bush Administration. With her ever bulging budget deficits and foreign debts, America's skewed income distribution is rapidly making the U.S. resemble Argentina or Mexico. The "Jobless Recovery" is not a political mirage, but a serious problem. America's GDP is increasing at an annual rate of about 4.0% this year. But, only those Wall Street "money gamers" and self-dealing "management aristocrats" of Corporate America are dizzy with their huge bonuses, padded salaries, and self-dealt stock options. The remaining hard working Americans cannot eat "GDP." The U.S. has widening income gap between a few "haves" and many "have-nots." During the last economic recovery period of March 1991 to April 1993, a 10% increase in GDP increased manufacturing jobs and service jobs 3% and 5.9% respectively. However, for the present economic recovery since November 2001, a 10% increase in GDP is increasing manufacturing and service jobs only 0.7% and 0.9% respectively. Just to keep up with her population growth, the U.S. needs to create about 230,000 jobs a month. ...more Posted 7:10 AM by Jim Hightower Wal-Mart brings supercenters to California Retail giant's grocery operations will put new pressure on supermarket chains By Rachel Katz and Josh Fineman BLOOMBERG NEWS Thursday, March 4, 2004 LOS ANGELES -- Only days after Kroger Co., Safeway Inc. and Albertson's Inc. settled the longest strike in their industry's history, they begin another battle against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which Wednesday opened its first supercenter in California. The 225,000-square-foot store in La Quinta, near Palm Springs, is the first of about 40 supercenters Wal-Mart plans to open in the state in the next four years. Wal-Mart also won a battle over a San Francisco-area county ordinance banning the large stores. Adding low-priced milk and meat has lured shoppers from supermarkets and made Wal-Mart the largest U.S. grocer. The supermarkets cut hundreds of millions of dollars in wage, pension and health care costs from the recently ratified labor contract in California to prepare for Wal-Mart, whose nonunion wages enable it to keep prices low, analysts said. Those cost savings may not be enough to prevent the supermarkets from closing many stores in the next three years. "They are heading into the Wal-Mart supercenter tsunami, which is forming to wash out a lot of California ...more Thursday, March 4, 2004 Posted 8:43 PM by Jim Hightower 'It's Time to Give Them Another Jolt' An Interview with Ralph Nader BY MICHAEL KING MARCH 5, 2004 The Austin Chronicle On Wednesday, Feb. 25, newly declared presidential candidate Ralph Nader passed through Austin on the campaign trail and delivered two speeches on the UT campus. Prior to his public appearances, he spoke to The Austin Chronicle about his decision to run for president. Austin Chronicle: Do you think your candidacy will help build a progressive movement? Ralph Nader: It always does. You never want to sit out a presidential election, when you think you can expand civic and political energies for a progressive future. The struggle for justice never gets put on adjournment – except by people whose expectation levels are so low that they'll settle for two parties that both have flunked, although one is worse than the other. AC: This time it seems to me the negative reaction to your running is stronger than 2000, and not only from the "liberal intelligentsia" or The Nation or The New York Times. Clearly more than 2.7 percent of the people, your 2000 percentage of the vote, in this country support the things you've fought for – yet in ...more Posted 8:34 PM by Jim Hightower About 4,700 Democratic Files Improperly Obtained Thu Mar 4, 2004 04:46 PM ET By Thomas Ferraro Reuters.Com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two Republican congressional staffers improperly accessed about 4,700 computer files of their Democratic colleagues, a source familiar with an investigation of the matter said on Thursday. Members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee privately received a written report on the probe of their own panel's computer system, and put off until at least next week what, if any action to take, said the source, who asked not to be identified. Options included -- if consensus can be reached on the often sharply divided panel -- seeking criminal prosecutions against the two Republican staffers who have since resigned. The computer files were improperly accessed between 2001 and 2003, the source said, and dealt largely with President Bush's embattled judicial nominees. Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, earlier on Thursday blamed the matter on "two misguided former Senate staff members." Hatch also said Democrats were not the only victims, disclosing that the investigation found more than 100 of his documents were also improperly accessed. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the committee, called it unprecedented "partisan spying." ...more Posted 3:39 PM by Jim Hightower Senate Mulls Move Against Job Outsourcing By MARY DALRYMPLE AP Tax Writer Mar 4, 2004 8:48 AM EST WASHINGTON (AP)-- Senators are weighing whether to block federal contractors from using tax dollars to move American jobs to a foreign shore, a response to increasing angst over job losses in manufacturing and service work. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., wants to prohibit offshore work in cases where the government privatizes government jobs, the federal government contracts for goods and services, and state governments contract work using federal funds. "Federal dollars ought to be used to pay American workers," he said. Dodd moved Wednesday to attach the prohibition to a corporate tax break under consideration in the Senate. Republicans asked for more time to study the idea and propose changes. The proposal is more fallout from the uproar that broke out when N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, suggested that sending American jobs overseas was good for the U.S. economy in the long run. Mankiw later apologized but said he had been misunderstood. The flap came just when President Bush was fending off attacks from Democrats over the 2.2 million payroll jobs lost on his watch. And the barrage of criticism over the practice known ...more Wednesday, March 3, 2004 Posted 8:25 PM by Jim Hightower Whacking the Hornet's Nest By Molly Ivins AlterNet March 2, 2004 Anyone see any reason to think Haiti will be better off without Jean-Bertrand Aristide? Just another little gift from the Bush foreign policy team, straight out of the whacko-right playbook. Jesse Helms always did think Aristide was another Fidel, not being able to distinguish between a Catholic and a communist. We know the main armed opposition group is a bunch of thugs and that they have been joined by old Duvalierists, including members of the Tonton Macoutes, the infamous torturers. The Bush administration wanted this to happen – it held up $500 million worth of humanitarian aid from the United States, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and International Monetary Fund. Without U.S. or multilateral help, the country spiraled downward. So here we are, reduced to hoping for the best again. David Corn of The Nation magazine developed a wonderful metaphor for this experience. It goes like this: Two kids are playing, and one says, "I'm gonna take this stick and whack that hornets' nest." Second kid says, "Don't hit the hornets' nest." "I will." "Don't hit the hornets' nest." "Will so." "Don't hit the hornets' nest." Kid hits the hornets' nest, ...more Posted 8:21 PM by Jim Hightower Left on your Dial March 3, 2004 New York Post By JOHN MAINELLI The long talked-about liberal talk radio network has finally found an affiliate in New York - WLIB-AM, The Post has learned. Air America, as the network will be known, is also expected to announce that outspoken comedian Janeane Garofalo will join pit-bull humorist Al Franken in its line-up. The network could be up and running later this month or early April. Backers of the network are eager to get on the air as quickly as possible in order to play a role in the upcoming presidential elections. WLIB (1190 AM) currently mixes Caribbean music with black-targeted talk shows after budget cuts forced it to drop its all-talk format three years ago. Air America and its parent, Progress Media, just moved onto a floor shared by WLIB and sister station WBLS at 3 Park Ave. WLIB, owned in part by former Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton and run by his son, Pierre, broadcasts a strong signal over New York City, Westchester and a nice chunk of eastern New Jersey. It is not known whether WLIB will be purchased outright or leased. The line-up will pit the new network's talkers ...more Posted 6:36 AM by Jim Hightower The Junk Science of George W. Bush By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Nation March 8, 2004 Issue As Jesuit schoolboys studying world history we learned that Copernicus and Galileo self-censored for many decades their proofs that the earth revolved around the sun and that a less restrained heliocentrist, Giordano Bruno, was burned alive in 1600 for the crime of sound science. With the encouragement of our professor, Father Joyce, we marveled at the capacity of human leaders to corrupt noble institutions. Lust for power had caused the Catholic hierarchy to subvert the church's most central purpose--the search for existential truths. Today, flat-earthers within the Bush Administration--aided by right-wing allies who have produced assorted hired guns and conservative think tanks to further their goals--are engaged in a campaign to suppress science that is arguably unmatched in the Western world since the Inquisition. Sometimes, rather than suppress good science, they simply order up their own. Meanwhile, the Bush White House is purging, censoring and blacklisting scientists and engineers whose work threatens the profits of the Administration's corporate paymasters or challenges the ideological underpinnings of their radical anti-environmental agenda. Indeed, so extreme is this campaign that more than sixty scientists, including Nobel ...more Posted 6:21 AM by Jim Hightower Wilson Book Will Reveal White House Leak Publisher's Weekly Newsletter Tuesday 02 March 2004 By Steven Zeitchik The much-awaited May book from nuclear expert Joseph Wilson will disclose who in the White House he says leaked information that led to the outing of his wife as a CIA agent, PW has learned. Sources say the embargoed title, The Politics of Truth, from Carroll & Graf, will reveal who tipped off syndicated columnist Robert Novak in July that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked for the CIA--a felony punishable by as many as ten years in prison--and the larger circumstances around the leak. The matter is the subject of a grand-jury investigation that has seen Novak, Wilson and a number of high-profile administration members questioned. Asked about such disclosures in the book, C&G; editor Philip Turner did not deny that the book was specific. "I think readers who want the personality side will not be disappointed. He lays it on the line." As for the author's candor on the leak's larger circumstances, Turner says, "Without going too far, he sketches out a scenario of events that is convincing and plausible and very personal." Turner says the book has been ...more Tuesday, March 2, 2004 Posted 9:24 PM by Jim Hightower Groups contend House ethics system virtually meaningless 3/2/2004 USA Today WASHINGTON (AP) - The House ethics system has almost stopped functioning because public interest groups can no longer file complaints and party leaders have an informal agreement not to trigger new investigations, several organizations contended Tuesday. Conservative Judicial Watch, joined by mostly liberal groups in a news conference, urged reversal of the prohibition against nongovernment organizations and an end to what they called a sweetheart pact to avoid investigations. As examples of stonewalling, the eight organizations said the House ethics committee has taken no action on allegations that Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is using a children's charity for political purposes; or on a reported offer from unnamed Republicans to Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., to aid the congressional campaign of his son if he voted for the Medicare overhaul last year. Despite the comments on the Smith case, House ethics committee chairman Joel Hefley, R-Colo., and ranking Democrat Alan Mollohan of West Virginia announced last month that they had initiated in December "informal fact-finding." They have not commented since. Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said DeLay 'has horse blinders on" where ethical conduct is involved. The DeLay charity, "Celebrations for ...more Posted 9:16 PM by Jim Hightower MoveOn.org to Counter Bush's Ad Blitz Mar 2, 2:44 PM (ET) By LIZ SIDOTI WASHINGTON (AP) - A Democratic-leaning online group will run television commercials in 17 presidential battleground states starting Thursday to counter President Bush's multimillion-dollar advertising blitz that will begin the same day. The MoveOn.org Voter Fund has been airing commercials assailing Bush for months in several swing states, but this $1.9 million, five-day effort will be its most far-reaching. The ads will ensure that there is a Democratic presence on the TV airwaves in key states as Bush begins to make his case for re-election. John Kerry, the Democratic front-runner, is considering a modest response designed to put the White House on the defensive, advisers say, but the Democratic National Committee is waiting until there is a nominee before it starts running ads. That leaves outside groups like MoveOn, acting independently of the campaign, as the primary Democratic voice. Other such groups, nicknamed "527s" after the section of the tax code that applies to them, and traditional lobbying organizations may follow soon. Bush's campaign plans to spend a large part of its $100 million war chest on ads during spring and summer. It will begin running a ...more Posted 9:36 AM by Jim Hightower It's the Debt, Stupid! Medicare and Social Security Challenge NOTE: $6 Trillion of the $7 Trillion of National Debt was accrued during the Reagan, Bush 1 and Bush 2 administrations. By EDMUND L. ANDREWS Published: March 2, 2004 New York Times Analysis WASHINGTON, March 1 - When Alan Greenspan urged Congress last week to cut future benefits in Social Security and Medicare, sending elected officials to the barricades, he was if anything understating the magnitude of the problems ahead. Today's budget deficits are measured in the hundreds of billions, but the looming shortfalls for the two retirement programs are projected to be in the tens of trillions of dollars. The Bush administration has estimated that the gap between promises under current law and the revenues expected will total $18 trillion over the next 75 years. But an internal study in 2002 by the Treasury Department, looking much further ahead, concluded that the gap was actually $44 trillion - and would climb each year that nothing was done. Indeed, the numbers are so big and extend so far into the future that they border on the surreal. Analysts in both Congress and the administration warn that the flood of retiring baby boomers will cause ...more Posted 9:28 AM by Jim Hightower Congress has stolen your Social Security retirement benefits The Social Security Promise Not Yet Kept By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON Published: February 29, 2004 New York Times SOCIAL Security retirement benefits are going to have to be cut, Alan Greenspan announced last week, because there just is not enough money to pay the promised benefits. President Bush said those already retired or "near retirement age'' should not worry. They will get their promised benefits. That, in short form, was the story carried on front pages and television news programs across the country. But there is an element that was forgotten in the rush of news. It dates back 21 years to the events that catapulted Mr. Greenspan into national prominence and led to his becoming chairman of the Federal Reserve. Since 1983, American workers have been paying more into Social Security than it has paid out in benefits, about $1.8 trillion more so far. This year Americans will pay about 50 percent more in Social Security taxes than the government will pay out in benefits. Those taxes were imposed at the urging of Mr. Greenspan, who was chairman of a bipartisan commission that in 1983 said that one way to make sure Social Security remains solvent ...more Monday, March 1, 2004 Posted 8:50 AM by Jim Hightower Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy By Bob Fitrakis The Columbus Free Press Wednesday 25 February 2004 The Governor of Ohio, Bob Taft, and other prominent state officials, commute to their downtown Columbus offices on Broad Street. This is the so-called “Golden Finger,” the safe route through the majority black inner-city near east side. The Broad Street BP station, just east of downtown, is the place where affluent suburbanites from Bexley can stop, gas up, get their coffee and New York Times. Those in need of cash visit BP’s Diebold manufactured CashSource+ ATM machine which provides a paper receipt of the transaction to all customers upon request. Many of Taft’s and President George W. Bush’s major donors, like Diebold’s current CEO Walden “Wally” O’Dell, reside in Columbus’ northwest suburb Upper Arlington. O’Dell is on record stating that he is “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President” this year. On September 26, 2003, he hosted an Ohio Republican Party fundraiser for Bush’s re-election at his Cotswold Manor mansion. Tickets to the fundraiser cost $1000 per couple, but O’Dell’s fundraising letter urged those attending to “Donate or raise $10,000 for the Ohio Republican Party.” According to the ...more Posted 7:08 AM by Jim Hightower Robert Byrd: A Budget of Gimmicks, False Promises and Unrealistic Expectations Senator Robert C. Byrd truthout | Statement Friday 27 February 2004 Senator Byrd delivered the following remarks as the Senate Budget Committee prepares to debate and vote on the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2005. The Budget Committee is scheduled to work on that budget beginning on Wednesday, March 3, 2004. With the release of the President's budget for the Fiscal Year 2005, and the upcoming markup of the Fiscal Year 2005 budget resolution, it's now clear that the promises made by this Administration during the 2000 election have not been kept. Contrary to the promise made four years ago to ensure the Social Security benefits promised to our nation's workers, our retirement and disability system has become more vulnerable. Contrary to the promise made four years ago to make health care more affordable, drug prices continue to rise and health insurance remains unobtainable for too many Americans. Contrary to the promises made four years ago to protect our nation's vital industries, this Administration's tax and trade policies have been an unmitigated disaster, with an alarming number of jobs being lost overseas. Contrary to its assurances that it could ...more Sunday, February 29, 2004 Posted 7:37 AM by Jim Hightower America as a One-Party State Volume 15, Issue 2. February 1, 2004. The American Prospect By Robert Kuttner Today's hard right seeks total dominion. It's packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself. America has had periods of single-party dominance before. It happened under FDR's New Deal, in the Republican 1920s and in the early 19th-century "Era of Good Feeling." But if President Bush is re-elected, we will be close to a tipping point of fundamental change in the political system itself. The United States could become a nation in which the dominant party rules for a prolonged period, marginalizes a token opposition and is extremely difficult to dislodge because democracy itself is rigged. This would be unprecedented in U.S. history. In past single-party eras, the majority party earned its preeminence with broad popular support. Today the electorate remains closely divided, and actually prefers more Democratic policy positions than Republican ones. Yet the drift toward an engineered one-party Republican state has aroused little press scrutiny or widespread popular protest. We are at risk of becoming an autocracy in three key respects. First, Republican parliamentary gimmickry has emasculated legislative opposition in the House ...more Saturday, February 28, 2004 Posted 10:48 AM by Jim Hightower Happy Birthday Wishes for Ralph Nader's 70th Birthday Yesterday 2/28/2004 From: www.happybirthdayralph.org Keep at em Ralph THANKS FOR ALL YOUR HONEST BRAVE WORK Happy Birthday, Ralph Nader. Thank you for all you have done and do. For caring and daring so much . You honor us all by being so true to yourself. I'm wishing you well in every way! Hope the year to come is the greatest Let it be known to the corrupt establishment that Ralph Nader has not yet begun to fight! You are my personal hero and all time favorite person! Thank you so much for all of your hard work! Thanks for fighting the good fight for so long. Hope theres another 70 years. Blessings and power through God for all your days! Thanks for everything you've done for all of us, Ralph. I mean it. My parents and I literally owe our lives to your pioneering campaigns for auto safety. And I am greatly impressed with your tireless efforts with Multinational Monitor, Public Citizen, PIRG, and the Greens. Thank you again, for all you do! Thanks for making the world a better place and for being such an inspiration. You have ...more Posted 10:44 AM by Jim Hightower Missouri Democrats: Viacom Corporation Kills Political Ad Feb 26, 11:15 PM (ET) By CHERYL WITTENAUER Associated Press ST. LOUIS (AP) - The state Democratic Party on Thursday accused media giant Viacom of political favoritism and corporate censorship for backing out of a deal to sell billboard space for a political ad. Party Chairwoman May Scheve Reardon said the ad was set to run for a month along Interstate 70 in predominantly black sections of St. Louis and Kansas City. The ad, featuring a black man's face against an American flag, states: "Missouri Republicans have a plan. You are not a part of it." In a letter Wednesday, Viacom Outdoor General Manager Kyle Dorton in St. Louis told party Executive Director Jim Kottmeyer the company viewed the ad as "negative." Viacom spokesman Carl Folta said the company saw the billboard as an "ambush ad" that used race in a divisive way. He said the ad didn't meet Viacom's standards - the same reason given for the refusal of Viacom's CBS division to air the online liberal activist group MoveOn.org's Super Bowl ad critical of President Bush. Scheve Reardon countered that the Democratic party ad was "fact-stating and informative." Ann Wagner, chair ...more Posted 10:37 AM by Jim Hightower Electronic Vote Faces Big Test of Its Security By JOHN SCHWARTZ Published: February 28, 2004 KENNESAW, Ga. — Millions of voters in 10 states will cast ballots on Tuesday in the single biggest test so far of new touchscreen voting machines that have been billed as one of the best answers to the Florida election debacle of 2000. But many computer security experts worry that the machines could allow democracy to be hacked. Here in Georgia, along with Maryland and California, an estimated six million people will be using machines from Diebold Election Systems, which has been the focus of the biggest controversy. Independent studies have found flaws in Diebold's system that researchers say might allow hackers or corrupt insiders to reprogram the touchscreens or computers that tally the votes, without leaving a trace. Without a paper record of every vote or some other way to verify voters' choices after the fact, these experts warn, elections may lose the public's trust. "People complain about hanging chads," said Aviel D. Rubin, technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a co-author of the first study that found security flaws in the Diebold machines. "But if an electronic machine has malicious ...more Posted 7:48 AM by Jim Hightower Tech Companies Focus on Asia to Expand Jobs By David Zielenziger Yahoo! News Fri, Feb 27, 2004 NEW YORK (Reuters) - Technology companies are seeing a rebound in business, but top executives this week said any jobs added to meet growing demand will likely be in countries where labor is cheaper than the United States. Executives speaking at the Reuters Technology, Media and Telecommunications Summit in New York said they see increased hiring in countries like India and China, but few jobs will be added in the United States. Bruce Claflin, chief executive of network products maker 3Com Corp. (NasdaqNM:COMS - news) said the company's joint-venture with Huawei Technologies of China will add 1,000 engineers, all supplied by Huawei. In the future, customers "won't know where the technology comes from," Claflin said. Anne Mulcahy, chief executive of Xerox Corp. (NYSE:XRX - news), which has about 40 percent of its 60,000 employees outside the U.S., expects little hiring. "I don't really think we'll be adding people the way we used to," she said. Xerox has already handed over manufacturing of most printers to Flextronics International Ltd. (NasdaqNM:FLEX - news) of Singapore. Only a few companies, such as International ...more Posted 7:42 AM by Jim Hightower CBO: Bush budget would produce $2.75 trillion of debt over next ten years 2/27/2004 5:33 PM USA Today WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush's budget would produce deficits totaling $2.75 trillion over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office projected Friday in the first authoritative look at the plan's longer-range implications. The forecast — $737 billion worse than the budget office expects should Congress ignore Bush's tax and spending plans — is sure to factor into this year's presidential and congressional campaigns. Bush sent lawmakers a $2.4 trillion budget for 2005 on Feb. 2, but it projected outward only for five years. The White House argues that longer-range forecasts are guesswork, but Democrats say the administration wants to hide future deficits that will careen out of control as baby boomers begin to retire. The nonpartisan budget office also forecast that Bush's fiscal plans would produce deficits of $478 billion this year and $356 billion in 2005. Both figures are smaller than the shortfalls Bush has projected for those years. For the decade ending in 2014, however, annual shortfalls never would be smaller than $242 billion, which would occur in 2007, the budget office said. After that, they would bounce as ...more Friday, February 27, 2004 Posted 6:47 PM by Jim Hightower Blaming It on Ralph, Again The real question remains: How do we replace this two-horse scam? BY MICHAEL KING FEBRUARY 27, 2004 The Austin Chronicle Ralph Nader has long since earned the right to run for president any damn time he pleases. There is no U.S. citizen who has more thoroughly dedicated his life to improving the lives of ordinary Americans, to giving effective grief to those whose allegiance is solely to self-interest and the corporate bottom line, and to creating effective and independent political institutions in defense of the public interest, both nationally and state-by-state. Nader is reflexively described in the mainstream press as a "consumer advocate" – sort of a two-legged quality-control machine. In fact, through the numerous independent organizations he has founded or strongly influenced over several decades, he has measurably improved the political life of the nation and, through federal and state legislation, the lives of ordinary citizens. Capitol observers know only too well the importance of Nader-influenced organizations and activism on Texas politics. Every time Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen, Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, Sparky Anderson of Clean Water Action, Dan Lambe of Texas Watch, Fred Lewis of ...more Posted 11:09 AM by Jim Hightower Gouging the Poor By Barbara Ehrenreich The Progressive February 2004 Issue There's been a lot of whining about health care recently: the shocking cost of insurance, the mounting reluctance of employers to share that cost, the challenge--should you be so lucky as to have insurance--of finding a doctor your insurance company will deign to reimburse, and so forth. But let's look at the glass half full for a change. Despite the growing misfit between health care costs and personal incomes, it is not yet illegal to be sick. Not quite yet, anyway, though the trend is clear: Hospitals are increasingly resorting to brass knuckle tactics to collect overdue bills from indigent patients. Take the case of Martin Bushman, an intermittently insured mechanic with diabetes who, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, had run up a $579 debt to Carle Hospital in Champaign-Urbana. When he failed to appear for a court hearing on his debt rather than miss a day of work, he was arrested and hit with $2,500 bail. Arrests for missed court dates, which the hospitals whimsically refer to as "body attachments," are on the rise throughout the country. Again, on the half full side, we ...more Posted 11:01 AM by Jim Hightower 'The Passion' of the Americans By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Friday 27 February 2004 The television airwaves have been filled for the last several days with a lot of back-and-forth about Mel Gibson's new film, 'The Passion of The Christ.' A great deal of debate centers around whether Gibson has fashioned a broadside against Jewish people in the manner of the Medieval anti-Semitic passion plays of old. There are plenty of rabbis arguing with Christian ministers on just about any channel you might choose to watch, so I'm going to leave that question to them for the time being. My question is much simpler: Why would Mel Gibson make a movie about people in the ancient Middle East and cast it with so many white people? To look at the central actors in this film, you'd think Jesus did his work near Manchester, New Hampshire instead of the Holy Land. The answer to that question lies within the United States, the prime market for this film. There are millions of Christians in America, some 25% of whom would characterize themselves as evangelical. It stands to reason that this film ...more Posted 7:17 AM by Jim Hightower Attorney Generalisimo Ashcroft Seeks Hundreds of Medical Records of Women who have had abortions Reuters Thu Feb 26, 2004 10:37 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters)- The U.S. Justice Department has subpoenaed Planned Parenthood for the confidential medical records of hundreds of women as part of its defense against challenges to a federal law that bans a type of late-term abortion, the family planning organization said on Thursday. Attorney General John Ashcroft said this month the records were needed to find out whether the procedure, called "partial birth abortion" by its critics, was medically necessary. "We believe that this is a sweeping invasion of medical privacy. Ashcroft has subpoenaed hundreds of confidential medical records and we're taking every step within the law to resist this," said Elizabeth Toledo, a spokeswoman for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Planned Parenthood said subpoenas had been served on Tuesday at six of its locations -- Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Washington, Kansas City and Pittsburgh. ABC News reported that the subpoenas demand hundreds of women's medical records for all surgical abortions performed in the past year at six Planned Parenthood affiliates. Ashcroft has asked that he medical records be turned over to ...more Posted 7:10 AM by Jim Hightower Subpoenas aim to find DeLay role with PAC Lawmaker's daughter included on long list of committee workers By JANET ELLIOTT and R.G. RATCLIFFE Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau Feb. 26, 2004, 11:05AM AUSTIN -- A slew of subpoenas released Wednesday show Travis Country prosecutors are trying to determine how deeply involved U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was in the possible criminal misuse of corporate funds in the 2002 legislative campaign. Nearly 50 subpoenas -- some issued Tuesday and others dating back to last October -- were made public as part of the ongoing investigation into Texans for a Republican Majority, a political action committee formed by DeLay, R-Sugar Land. The subpoenas seek testimony and documents from the committee's researchers, political consultants and fund-raisers, including DeLay's daughter, Danielle Ferro. John Colyandro, director of the fundraising committee commonly referred to as TRMPAC, was subpoenaed to appear last month and bring "all documents concerning TRMPAC's past, present or intended relationship with Tom DeLay." Colyandro has said that all of TRMPAC's activities were legal. Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is investigating whether TRMPAC violated state law in using corporate funds to help 21 Republicans win Texas House seats in 2002, giving the GOP a House ...more Posted 7:04 AM by Jim Hightower Illinois Seniors Sue Government for Right to Buy Cheaper Medications in Canada By Lisa Stark and Philip Stewart ABC News 2/26/2004 An Illinois couple is filing suit against the federal government, arguing it is unconstitutional to prevent them from buying cheaper prescription drugs from Canada. Ray and Gaylee Andrews, both 74, pay as much as $800 each month for prescriptions for ailments that include arthritis, high blood pressure, heart and stomach problems, and asthma. It is an amount the Elk Grove, Ill., couple say has depleted their savings and is forcing them to sell their home of 34 years. Ray is employed by Wal-Mart; Gaylee works for a marketing company. "We're not just doing this for ourselves," she said. "We're worried about our children, we're worried about other seniors we have seen who have to choose between their food and their medication." This is believed to be the first individual lawsuit against the drug importation ban. Protecting Drug Companies’ Profits? With the backing of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, the Andrewses are suing the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, seeking to overturn the federal law prohibiting Americans from importing cheaper prescription drugs. They say they could save more than ...more Posted 6:59 AM by Jim Hightower BUSH: Let's study if importing Drugs from Canada is a Good Idea? Let's put the guy who hates this idea in Charge! U.S. to Study Importing Canada Drugs but Choice of Leader Prompts Criticism By ROBERT PEAR Published: February 26, 2004 WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — Hoping to mollify its critics, the Bush administration said Wednesday that it would conduct a yearlong study of how prescription drugs might be safely imported from Canada. But it then infuriated the critics by selecting Dr. Mark B. McClellan, the commissioner of food and drugs, to lead the study. Dr. McClellan has adamantly opposed any relaxation of the rules barring drug imports. He says such imports would be unsafe, and his agency has threatened legal action against cities and states that help people import Canadian drugs. The study is required under the new Medicare law, signed by President Bush on Dec. 8. But the administration announced it with fanfare, in an effort to deflect criticism of its policy on the issue, which threatens to delay Senate confirmation of Dr. McClellan for a new position as administrator of the Medicare program. Tommy G. Thompson, the secretary of health and human services, said the panel studying the matter would be a ...more Posted 6:44 AM by Jim Hightower Code Red Arianna Huffington is a syndicated columnist and author of Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America (Random House, 2003). If he’s smart enough to use it, the Democratic nominee may have just been handed the perfect cudgel with which to pummel President Bush—and cripple Karl Rove’s attempts to position his man as America’s go-to guy on national security. The weapon in question is a new report on the grave and gathering threat posed by global climate change—and the potentially cataclysmic consequences of the Bush administration’s obstinately ignorant approach to global warming. And the thing that makes the report so frightening—and the prospective bludgeon so crushing—is that it wasn’t authored by some crunchy granola think tank or a band of tree-hugging EarthFirsters, but by the U.S. Department of Defense. That’s right, the Pentagon—Rummy’s playpen. In fact, the report, which was slipped to the press earlier this month after being kept under wraps by the White House for four months, was commissioned by Andrew Marshall, a legendary DOD figure, nicknamed "Yoda" for his sagacity. As head of the Pentagon’s secretive Office of Net Assessment, Marshall has offered national security assessments to every ...more Posted 6:39 AM by Jim Hightower 112 Rapes Reported by American Servicewomen in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan by American Servicemen By ERIC SCHMITT Published: February 26, 2004 WASHINGTON, Feb. 25 — The United States military is facing the gravest accusations of sexual misconduct in years, with dozens of servicewomen in the Persian Gulf area and elsewhere saying they were sexually assaulted or raped by fellow troops, lawmakers and victims advocates said on Wednesday. There have been 112 reports of sexual misconduct over roughly the past 18 months in the Central Command area of operations, which includes Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, military officials said on Wednesday. The Army has reported 86 incidents, the Navy 12, the Air Force 8 and the Marine Corps 6. Military officials said that the bulk of the charges were being investigated and that some had already resulted in disciplinary actions, but they could not provide specifics. They said a small number of the reports had turned out to be unfounded. In addition, about two dozen women at Sheppard Air Force Base, a large training facility in Texas, have reported to a local rape-crisis center that they were assaulted in 2002. The Air Force Academy in Colorado is still reeling from the disclosure last year of ...more Posted 6:34 AM by Jim Hightower Privatize Profits for Corporations; but Socialize Corporate Risk to Taxpayers Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are $2 Trillion in debt and if they go under who's on the hook---the taxpayers. By Molly Ivins AlterNet February 26, 2004 Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have gone and gotten themselves in big trouble. For those of you who do not follow the business pages, I only wish we were talking about pregnant teen-agers. Fannie and Freddie are the two government-sponsored mortgage companies that help most of us buy homes. Trouble is, they've run themselves into big-time debt – they've doubled the amount they owe in just the last five years. When I say big-time, try $2 trillion. And guess who's on the hook if these things go under? Congratulations, taxpayers. This week, Alan Greenspan, the Great Pooh-Bah of the financial world, opined in his usual Delphic style before the Senate Banking Committee, "To fend off possible future systemic difficulties, which we assess as likely if the expansion continues unabated, preventive actions are required sooner rather than later." The Wall Street Journal helpfully translates this as, "Act quickly." Hard to tell with Greenspan: I yield to the Journal's long experience in Greenspan translation, but it could also ...more Thursday, February 26, 2004 Posted 7:25 PM by Jim Hightower Number of Mass Layoffs Rose Sharply in January 2,400 Employers Let Go 50 or More Employees By Kirstin Downey Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 26, 2004 More than 2,400 employers across the country reported laying off 50 or more workers in January, the third-highest number of so-called mass layoffs since the government became tracking them a decade ago. Only in December 2000 and December 2002 were the number of large layoffs higher. A total of 239,454 workers lost their jobs in the January layoffs, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported yesterday, based on unemployment insurance claims filed with state employment agencies. Among them were 17,544 temporary workers. The total jobs lost in January was the most since November 2002, when 240,171 workers were let go in groups of 50 or more. Manufacturing workers, particularly in transportation, food processing and retail jobs, were hardest hit. The large layoffs also included 10,876 government workers, most at the state and local levels. January often brings pink slips for workers because many employers staff up for the holidays and lay people off after Christmas. It's also the end of the fiscal year for many employers, making Dec. 31 a ...more Posted 7:17 PM by Jim Hightower Extension of Unemployment Benefits Fails in Senate Senator Don Nickles (R-Okla.) said jobless workers have more incentive to find a job when the extra unemployment benefits stop. "The more you pay people not to work, the less inclined they are to work," he said. By LEIGH STROPE AP Labor Writer Yahoo! News Thu, Feb 26, 2004 WASHINGTON - A Senate measure to extend federal unemployment benefits failed by two votes Thursday despite the election year support of 12 Republicans from states hit hard by layoffs. Democrats tried to attach the amendment to a gun liability bill, but it failed 58-39 in the GOP-controlled Senate. The measure would have extended the emergency benefits program for six months, providing 13 weeks of extra unemployment benefits to people who exhaust their state benefits — usually after 26 weeks. The unemployment rate dropped to 5.8 percent last month from a high of 6.4 percent last summer, but the economy still is not producing many new jobs. In fact, more than 2,400 U.S. employers reported laying off 50 or more workers in January, according to the Labor Department (news - web sites). It was the third-highest level since the government started tracking ...more Posted 6:51 AM by Jim Hightower Greenspan warns against deficits; recomends cutting Social Security Benefits Moves that would cut Social Security benefits among recommendations made by Fed chief today. February 25, 2004 CNN/Money NEW YORK - Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Congress Wednesday to take quick action to fix the nation's swollen budget deficit -- including measures that could cut some future Social Security payments -- to avoid even bigger problems for the nation's economy down the road. The central bank chairman also repeated his assertion that recent tax cuts should be made permanent and said cutting spending was a better way to fix the deficit than tax increases. Greenspan, in remarks for delivery to the House Budget Committee, noted that the recent surge in the deficit is particularly dangerous, coming less than a decade before Baby Boomers begin drawing on federal retirement benefits, putting an ever bigger strain on government resources. "This dramatic demographic change is certain to place enormous demands on our nation's resources -- demands we almost surely will be unable to meet unless action is taken," he said in his remarks. "For a variety of reasons, that action is better taken as soon as possible." Greenspan said that, if the demographic shift ...more Posted 6:46 AM by Jim Hightower Why do average Americans seem to favor tax policies that reward the wealthy? Princeton's Larry Bartels sorts through this tricky question. by Sam Pizzigati Inequality.Org JUST OVER A half-century ago, at the end of World War II, Republicans in Congress made cutting taxes their top priority. It looked like a winning issue. The war had seen taxes on America's highest incomes soar to all-time record rates. For the first time ever, FDR had applied the income tax to the paychecks of ordinary salaried Americans. With the war over, the GOP calculated that the electorate would be eager for relief. So Republicans in Congress quickly pushed through an across-the-board tax cut -- and another and another after President Truman responded by using his veto power. It wasn't until 1948 that the Republicans finally marshaled enough votes to override. Then the President made them pay. In his re-election bid, Truman thundered repeatedly against GOP giveaways to the rich. Americans, on election day, handed him a stunning upset victory. And though the Republicans finally won the White House four years later, by then their standard-bearer, Dwight Eisenhower, had taken 1948's lessons to heart. In his eight years as President, Eisenhower never even tried to cut taxes. ...more Posted 6:39 AM by Jim Hightower Senators Threaten to Stall Nomination of Medicare Czar McCain and Dorgan Seek Explanation of McClellan's Drug Importation Stand By Ceci Connolly Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) threatened yesterday to hold up the nomination of Mark McClellan to run the federal Medicare program because they are frustrated by his refusal as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration to permit importation of lower-cost medicines from Canada. Speaking to governors at a meeting on Capitol Hill, McCain said the pair will stall McClellan's nomination to be administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "until there's a full and complete explanation of why he will not make prescription drugs from Canada available to Americans." He and congressional allies also intend to use parliamentary maneuvers to force votes in the Senate on the volatile issue, he said. Also yesterday, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) announced that his state -- in defiance of the FDA -- will launch an Internet site this week to steer residents to a limited number of Canadian mail-order pharmacies that Wisconsin officials deem safe and reliable. At a separate meeting, ...more Posted 6:22 AM by Jim Hightower Most Parents Raise Money for Schools Feb 24, 2004 By BEN FELLER WASHINGTON (AP) - The three-campus Capitol Hill Cluster School needed it all: paper, paint, ink cartridges, locker parts and those little metal glides to fix wobbly chairs. Who raised the money? Parents, mainly. Most of the $105,000 raised by the school's PTA this school year is going for classroom basics, a trend playing out nationwide, according to a poll of public school parents commissioned by the 6.2-million member National PTA. Beyond fund-raising, the poll found, many parents are spending their money for teacher salaries, sports equipment, art supplies and other items schools used to cover. "I don't recall my parents ever having to purchase what I consider essential items just to make a school run," said Suzanne Wells, vice president of the PTA at Capitol Hill Cluster School, where her son, Joshua, attends fifth grade. Parents in her community - by no means wealthy, she said - raised money with events from gift-wrapping to Capitol Hill home tours. "This is not the answer," she said. "Every school won't have parents who can do this." The PTA hopes the poll will help propel its election-year drive for greater ...more Wednesday, February 25, 2004 Posted 7:18 AM by Jim Hightower Happy 70th Birthday to Ralph Nader To: Ralph Nader Born February 27, 1934 in Winsted, Connecticut --Graduated from Princeton University (1955) and Harvard University Law School (1958) --In 1965 published Unsafe at Any Speed, exposing unsafe cars such as the Corvair --Launched the modern consumer movement as "Nader’s Raiders" pushed through numerous laws to protect consumers, workers, taxpayers, and the environment --Founded dozens of public interest organizations such as Public Citizen, the Center for Auto Safety, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), the Disability Rights Center, the Pension Rights Center, and many others --Author or co-author of many books, including Corporate Power in America, Getting the Best From Your Doctor, Verdicts on Lawyers, Who’s Poisoning America, and Winning the Insurance Game --Green Party candidate for President, 1996 and 2000 --Nader played a key role in the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Freedom of Information Act and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. To wish Ralph Happy Birthday select ...more Dear Ralph, On the occasion of your 70th birthday, in honor of your relentless work and countless achievements on behalf of the public interest – to protect ordinary ...more Posted 7:12 AM by Jim Hightower Daniel Ellsberg: Where are Iraq's Pentagon Papers? "I urge patriotic and conscientious Americans who have access to these documents, and who know it is wrong for their bosses to lie to the public about why we are in this war, to consider doing what I wish I had done in 1964 or early 1965, years earlier than I did: Go to Congress and the press; tell the truth, with documents. The personal risks are real, but a war's worth of lives are at stake." By Daniel Ellsberg The Boston Globe Sunday 22 February 2004 As more and more of our young men and women come home from Iraq crippled or in body bags this election season, Americans ask, with increasing urgency, "Why did we send our children to die in Iraq? Was this war necessary?" Indeed, Tim Russert asked the president precisely that on "Meet the Press" a few weeks ago: "In light of not finding the weapons of mass destruction, do you believe the war in Iraq is a war of choice or a war of necessity?" President Bush replied "It's a war of necessity. . . . the man was a threat. . . . the ...more Posted 7:07 AM by Jim Hightower Most Parents Raise Money for Schools Feb 24, 3:59 PM (ET) By BEN FELLER WASHINGTON (AP) - The three-campus Capitol Hill Cluster School needed it all: paper, paint, ink cartridges, locker parts and those little metal glides to fix wobbly chairs. Who raised the money? Parents, mainly. Most of the $105,000 raised by the school's PTA this school year is going for classroom basics, a trend playing out nationwide, according to a poll of public school parents commissioned by the 6.2-million member National PTA. Beyond fund-raising, the poll found, many parents are spending their money for teacher salaries, sports equipment, art supplies and other items schools used to cover. "I don't recall my parents ever having to purchase what I consider essential items just to make a school run," said Suzanne Wells, vice president of the PTA at Capitol Hill Cluster School, where her son, Joshua, attends fifth grade. Parents in her community - by no means wealthy, she said - raised money with events from gift-wrapping to Capitol Hill home tours. "This is not the answer," she said. "Every school won't have parents who can do this." The PTA hopes the poll will help propel its election-year drive for ...more Posted 7:02 AM by Jim Hightower Bush's slash-and-burn surrogates Executive M.O.: stay above fray while GOP henchmen do dirty work E.J. Dionne, Jr. Washington Post Writers Group 02/24/04 WASHINGTON -- "When I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible." [---George W. Bush] That was George W. Bush's brilliant dodge throughout the 2000 campaign whenever questions came up as to how he behaved during his 20s and early 30s. By poking fun at himself, Bush was winking at the press corps, especially the baby boomers among them. Bush's unspoken subtext: You guys did a lot of irresponsible things then, too, so you're not in an ideal position to ask me a lot of questions, are you? Now comes John Kerry as the Democrats' front-runner. When Kerry was young and serious, he was young and serious. He put away childish things early on. He served in combat in Vietnam and decided that the war was a terrible mistake. He helped organize Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He testified before a congressional committee and went on "Meet the Press." He ran unsuccessfully as an antiwar candidate for Congress. And, lo, because Kerry took life so seriously so young, his 20s are getting a thorough going-over. Right-wing ...more Tuesday, February 24, 2004 Posted 7:56 PM by Jim Hightower William Rivers Pitt: A NOC at Bush's Door By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Tuesday 24 February 2004 Her name was Valerie Plame, and she was a NOC. NOC is a designation within the Central Intelligence Agency which means "non-official cover." It denotes an agent working under such deep cover that said agent cannot be officially associated with the American intelligence community in any way, shape or form. In order to keep covered, a NOC will work for the CIA out of a front company, which provides the illusion that the agent is just an ordinary accountant, lawyer or businessperson. Between the CIA and the agent, a process is created to construct an identity which obscures completely the reality of the agent's true employment. The training of these NOC agents, along with the creation of the cover stories which are known as "legends" within the agency, requires millions of dollars and delicate work. It is, quite literally, a life and death issue. Little or no protection is given to an exposed NOC agent by the American government, an arrangement that is understood by all parties involved. A blown NOC can wind up ...more Posted 7:45 PM by Jim Hightower "All in the (profiteering First) Family" Monday, February 23,2004 By Margie Burns Prince George's Journal Close relatives of President George W. Bush continue to benefit financially from the Iraq invasion, as revealed by sources including regulatory filings. St. Louis, Mo.-based Engineered Support Systems (EASI), where William H. T. Bush, an uncle of George W. Bush, joined the board of directors in 2000, is a major military contractor. William H. T. Bush is a Bush "Pioneer," a contributor raising more than $100,000, in the 2000 and 2004 elections. Following the 2000 election and Sept. 11, 2001, the company's federal contracts, revenues and stock price have increased. The company declined to comment for this article. EASI received contracts from all branches of the armed forces in 2003. The Defense Department listed EASI in its top 100 contractors in 2001, with $330 million in contracts; and in 2002, with $380 million in contracts Estimates for 2003 are over $380 million. As luck would have it, company products include "Field Deployable Environmental Control Units" to deal with weapons of mass destruction. On Jan. 17, 2003, the company announced orders from the Air Force and the Marines for these units, complete with Nuclear Biological ...more Posted 5:27 PM by Jim Hightower It’s the Electoral System, Stupid! Monday, February 23, 2004 CommonDreams.org by Blair Bobier George W. Bush lost the popular vote in the 2000 election and was installed as president by a questionable party-line vote of the U.S. Supreme Court despite the illegal and widespread disenfranchisement of African American voters in Florida perpetrated by Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. Rather than challenging or investigating these blatant banana republic shenanigans, the press and the Democrats decided that the greatest failure of the American electoral system in history was the fault of one individual: Ralph Nader. Now that Mr. Nader has again decided to seek the presidency, the media and the incredibly shrinking Democratic Party will overlook the obvious once more. The problem isn’t having an accomplished consumer advocate or too many candidates in the race. No, here’s the problem: It’s the electoral system, stupid. The problem is an electoral system which has allowed a president to take office with a minority of votes for the past three presidential elections in a row. The problem is an electoral system which forces voters to choose a candidate they really don’t support because voting for the candidate of their choice would be a ...more Posted 5:20 PM by Jim Hightower BUSH: Let Taxpayers pay for Toxic Waste Cleanups, not Corporations White House won't tax corporations for Superfund cleanup February 24, 2002 Posted: 5:10 PM EST CNN.Com WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration has told Congress it will not ask for taxes on businesses to pay for federal toxic waste cleanups, as the Clinton administration had unsuccessfully tried to do since 1995. In its fiscal year 2003 budget request recently sent to Capitol Hill, the Bush administration said it has no intention of asking Congress to reauthorize corporate taxes used to finance toxic waste cleanups since the passage of the Superfund Act in 1980. The White House's budget request the previous fiscal year did not mention the issue. A congressional Democrat criticized the White House's decision, saying it let corporate polluters "off the hook." Cleanup funds from corporations have been dwindling ever since the laws authorizing the taxes that support the trust fund expired in 1995. The Republican-controlled Congress had rebuffed former President Clinton's annual efforts to renew the Superfund taxes. The Bush administration spelled out the decision not to follow Clinton's lead and try to renew the Superfund taxes in its budget request for the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has identified ...more Posted 2:53 PM by Jim Hightower Claim vs. Fact: President Bush's Speech to U.S. Republican Governors "There are the 8.7 million unemployed, defined as those without a job who are actively looking for work. But lurking behind that group are 4.9 million part-time workers who say they would rather be working full time — the highest number in a decade. There are also the 1.5 million people who want a job but didn't look for one" because the economy had become so bleak. "Add these three groups together and the jobless total for the U.S. hits 9.7% February 23, 2004 Center for American Progress HOMELAND SECURITY CLAIM: "We are on the hunt for al Qaeda. You just got to know that there's a lot of brave people searching them out. And I view the hunt for al Qaeda as part of the war on terror. And it requires all assets, intelligence assets and military assets, to chase them down and bring them to justice." – President Bush, 2/23/04 FACT: Knight-Ridder reported that experts now say the "Iraq war is diverting resources from war on terror." Specifically, "a growing number of counter-terrorism experts are questioning whether the U.S. invasion of Iraq has hurt rather than helped the global ...more Posted 8:57 AM by Jim Hightower AP Poll: One Third of Americans have trouble paying for Medicine By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer February 23, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Almost a third of Americans say paying for prescription drugs is a problem in their families, and many are cutting dosages to deal with the crunch, according to a poll by The Associated Press. Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in the AP-Ipsos poll said the government should make it easier to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or other countries. Carol Valentine of Melbourne, Fla., said she lost her job after having surgery and faces $600 to $700 in drug bills each month without any insurance to pay for them. Without a local clinic's help paying for those drugs, "I'd be dead," said Valentine, who is 52 and disabled. "A lot of people I know skip meals because they can't afford medicine." The poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos-Public Affairs found most Americans either take prescription drugs or someone in their family does. Of those, 33 percent said their families have trouble paying at times. Of those with such trouble, three-fourths say the solution often is to cut back on the dosage. The high cost of prescription drugs will be an important issue ...more Posted 8:52 AM by Jim Hightower Education Secretary Paige Denounces Teachers' Union as a Terrorist Organization February 23, 2004 05:53 PM EST Associated Press WASHINGTON- Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" Monday, taking on the 2.7-million-member National Education Association early in the presidential election year. Paige's comments, made to the nation's governors at a private White House meeting, were denounced by union president Reg Weaver as well as prominent Democrats. Paige said he was sorry, and the White House said he was right to say so. The education secretary's words were "pathetic and they are not a laughing matter," said Weaver, whose union has said it plans to sue the Bush administration over lack of funding for demands included in the "No Child Left Behind" schools law. Paige said later in an Associated Press interview that his comment was "a bad joke; it was an inappropriate choice of words." President Bush was not present at the time he made the remark. "As one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks, I should have chosen my words better," said Paige, the first black education secretary. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin said Paige's words were, "The ...more Monday, February 23, 2004 Posted 3:53 PM by Jim Hightower Now the Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us · Secret report warns of rioting and nuclear war · Britain will be 'Siberian' in less than 20 years · Threat to the world is greater than terrorism Mark Townsend and Paul Harris in New York Sunday February 22, 2004 The Observer (United Kingdom) Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters.. A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world. The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents. 'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.' The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, ...more Posted 3:45 PM by Jim Hightower Pentagon's terror research shuffled to other agencies By Alex Brandon, AP 2/22/2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite an outcry over privacy implications, the government is pressing ahead with research to create powerful tools to mine millions of public and private records for information about terrorists. Some of the projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's anti-terror efforts have been sent to other government offices. Congress eliminated a Pentagon office that had been developing this terrorist-tracking technology because of fears it might ensnare innocent Americans. Still, some projects from retired Adm. John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness effort were transferred to U.S. intelligence offices, congressional, federal and research officials told The Associated Press. In addition, Congress left undisturbed a separate but similar $64 million research program run by a little-known office called the Advanced Research and Development Activity, or ARDA, that has used some of the same researchers as Poindexter's program. "The whole congressional action looks like a shell game," said Steve Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tracks work by U.S. intelligence agencies. "There may be enough of a difference for them to claim TIA was terminated while for all practical purposes the identical work is continuing." Poindexter aimed to predict terrorist ...more Posted 3:39 PM by Jim Hightower Will Nader matter at all? 02/22/2004 @ 2:13pm The Online Beat by John Nichols The Nation The best-case scenario for Ralph Nader's fourth presidential campaign -- a 1992 write-in effort in the New Hampshire primary, Green Party runs in 1996 and 2000, and the independent candidacy he announced on Sunday -- is to pull a Norman Thomas. In the Great Depression election of 1932, Democrats worried that Thomas, the perennial Socialist Party candidate, would draw off votes in key states and help reelect Republican President Herbert Hoover. When the ballots were counted, however, Democrat Franklin Roosevelt defeated Hoover in all but six states and was swept into the White House. At the same time, Thomas won close to 900,000 votes nationwide, and in many state his backers provided a cushion of votes for Democrats who swept local, state and congressional races. Thomas was invited to the White House, treated with respect on Capitol Hill and credited with providing the inspiration for important elements of Roosevelt's New Deal. The worst-case scenario for Nader's 2004 campaign is the James Birney circumstance. Birney, a prominent attorney who served as secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society, sought the presidency in 1840 and again in ...more Posted 3:31 PM by Jim Hightower Who cares about the American Worker? Theory vs. Reality By BOB HERBERT Published: February 23, 2004 Welcome to the 21st century. The landscape has changed. We're in a new hypercompetitive worldwide economy, driven by breathtaking advances in technology. Men and women are being added to the global work force by the hundreds of millions. In this dynamic, potentially very treacherous labor market, few people are looking out for the interests of the American worker. The very concept of the traditional high-paid American job, with its generous health and pension benefits and paid vacations, is at risk. Senator Charles Schumer of New York sees the economic changes as a paradigm shift. In an era of high-bandwith communications and the free flow of capital, most goods and services can be produced or performed anywhere in the world. And with highly educated workers in countries like China and India ready and able to perform sophisticated tasks at a fraction of the pay earned by Americans, there are fewer and fewer reasons for those American jobs not to take flight. In light of these changes, said Senator Schumer, we should at least be asking some tough questions about the real-world effects of free trade as we've known it. Referring to ...more Posted 10:17 AM by Jim Hightower ANALYSIS: Nader not responsible for Gore's Loss The Truth about Ralph Nader and the 2000 Election By Sam Smith The Progressive Review BECAUSE OF THE CONTINUED SLANDER OF RALPH NADER by Democrats in deep denial, we went back and looked at the actual poll results in the last months of the 2000 campaign. The chart above shows the change in the average poll percentage from month to month. You will note that except between July and August during a period of minimal change, there was no correlation between Bush's percentage change and that of Nader. A STUDY by the Progressive Review of national and Florida polls during the 2000 election indicates that Ralph Nader's influence on the final results was minimal to non-existent. The Review tested the widely held Democratic assumption that Nader caused Gore's loss by checking changes in poll results. Presumably, if Nader was actually responsible for Gore's troubles, his tallies would change inversely to those of Gore: if Gore did better, Nader would do worse and vice versa. In fact, the only time any correlation could be found was when the changes were so small - 1 or 2 percentage points - that they were statistically insignificant. On the other hand when, ...more Sunday, February 22, 2004 Posted 2:36 PM by Jim Hightower Kerry blasts Bush over attacks on Senate voting record Presidential candidate responds to fresh Republican criticism on Vietnam The Associated Press Feb. 22, 2004 ATLANTA - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry accused President Bush on Saturday of using surrogates to attack his military service in Vietnam and his subsequent activism against that war. In a letter to Bush, Kerry wrote: “As you well know, Vietnam was a very difficult and painful period in our nation’s history, and the struggle for our veterans continues. So, it has been hard to believe that you would choose to reopen these wounds for your personal political gain. But, that is what you have chosen to do.” Kerry’s voting record in question Kerry was reacting to criticism earlier in the day from a leading Georgia Republican who, speaking for Bush’s re-election campaign, predicted trouble for Kerry in the state’s primary. Sen. Saxby Chambliss said during a conference call arranged by the Bush campaign that Kerry has a “32-year history of voting to cut defense programs and cut defense systems.” When Kerry responded later, at his side was Max Cleland, a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran who lost his Senate seat to Chambliss in 2002 after being portrayed as soft on homeland security. He said the ...more Posted 2:29 PM by Jim Hightower Disenchanted Bush Voters Consider Crossing Over By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL February 22, 2004 New York Times EACHWOOD, Ohio - In the 2000 presidential election, Bill Flanagan a semiretired newspaper worker, happily voted for George W. Bush. But now, shaking his head, he vows, "Never again." "The combination of lies and boys coming home in body bags is just too awful," Mr. Flanagan said, drinking coffee and reading newspapers at the local mall. "I could vote for Kerry. I could vote for any Democrat unless he's a real dummy." Mr. Flanagan is hardly alone, even though polls show that the overwhelming majority of Republicans who supported Mr. Bush in 2000 will do so again in November. In dozens of random interviews around the country, independents and Republicans who said they voted for Mr. Bush in 2000 say they intend to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate this year. Some polls are beginning to bolster the idea of those kind of stirrings among Republicans and independents. That could change, of course, once the Bush campaign begins pumping millions of dollars into advertising and making the case for his re-election. But even as Democratic and Republican strategists and pollsters warned that a shift could be transitory, ...more Posted 1:07 PM by Jim Hightower Transcript of Ralph Nader on Meet the Press NBC News MEET THE PRESS Sunday, February 22, 2004 GUEST: Ralph Nader MODERATOR/PANELIST: Tim Russert - NBC News This is a rush transcript provided for the information and convenience of the press. Accuracy is not guaranteed. In case of doubt, please check with MEET THE PRESS - NBC NEWS(202)885-4598 (Sundays: (202)885-4200) MR. RUSSERT: Coming next, will Ralph Nader run as an independent candidate for president in 2004? He is ready to announce his decision right here on MEET THE PRESS. Ralph Nader and his decision, next. (Announcements) MR. RUSSERT: Ralph Nader announces his decision on a run for the White House after this brief station break. (Announcements) MR. RUSSERT: And we are back joined by Ralph Nader. Welcome. MR. RALPH NADER: Thank you. MR. RUSSERT: What's your decision? MR. NADER: After careful thought and my desire to retire our supremely selected president, I've decided to run as an Independent candidate for president. And if you'll allow me to explain why, I'll give some of the reasons with elaboration coming on our Web site, votenader.org. First of all, this country has more problems and injustices than it deserves, and more solutions and good-willed people applying those solutions. That's because there's a democracy gap. ...more Posted 1:02 PM by Jim Hightower Ralph Nader announces run for 2004 presidency "Washington is now corporate occupied territory," Nader said. "There is now a for-sale sign on most agencies and departments. ... Money is flowing in like never before. It means that corporations are saying no to the necessities of the American people. ... Basically, it's question of both parties flunking." Updated 2/22/2004 10:56 AM USA Today WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced Sunday he will run again for the presidency, declaring that Washington has become "corporate occupied territory" and arguing there is too little difference between the Democratic and Republican parties. Nader, who will turn 70 this week, said he contemplated retirement but decided against that. "I've decided to run as an independent candidate for president," he announced on NBC's "Meet The Press." "This country has more problems and injustices than it deserves," Nader said, bemoaning a "democracy gap." He said he needed to get into the race to "challenge this two-party duopoly." "There's too much power and wealth in too few hands," he said. "They have taken over Washington." "Washington is now corporate occupied territory," Nader said. "There is now a for-sale sign on most agencies and departments. ... ...more Posted 12:48 PM by Jim Hightower White House Economists classify Hamburger Flipper as a Manufacturing Job Raising the possibility of changing how manufacturing jobs are classified has provoked a sharp response By James Toedtman Chief Economic Correspondent February 21, 2004 NewsDay.Com Washington -- White House economists wonder whether hamburger flippers at fast-food restaurants should be considered manufacturers. Not a chance, said Edson Pardo, manager of the McDonald's around the corner from the White House. "We don't flip hamburgers," he said. "We just heat them up." President George W. Bush raised the issue in his annual economic report. In the report last week, Bush's chief economic adviser N. Gregory Mankiw called the definition "somewhat blurry" and asked whether it should be changed. "When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?" For an administration that has seen 2.6 million manufacturing jobs vanish since January 2001, raising the possibility of changing how manufacturing jobs are classified has provoked a sharp response, especially in an election year. When Mankiw's remarks came out this week, Democrats had a field day. "If fast food is classified as manufacturing, perhaps the neighborhood lemonade stand should be considered part of the military-industrial complex," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.). In Ohio, ...more Posted 6:16 AM by Jim Hightower Howard Zinn: The Ultimate Betrayal Upcoming in our April 2004 Issue The Progressive It Seems to Me---by Howard Zinn I cannot get out of my mind the photo that appeared on the front page of The New York Times on December 30, alongside a story by Jeffrey Gettleman. It showed a young man sitting on a chair facing a class of sixth graders in Blairsville, Pennsylvania. Next to him was a woman. Not the teacher of the class, but the young fellow's mother. She was there to help him because he is blind. That was Jeremy Feldbusch, twenty-four years old, a sergeant in the Army Rangers, who was guarding a dam along the Euphrates River on April 3 when a shell exploded 100 feet away, and shrapnel tore into his face. When he came out of a coma in an Army Medical Center five weeks later, he could not see. Two weeks later, he was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star, but he still could not see. His father, sitting at his bedside, said: "Maybe God thought you had seen enough killing." The newspapers on December 30 reported that 477 American GIs had died in the war. But what is not usually ...more Saturday, February 21, 2004 Posted 5:33 PM by Jim Hightower Ralph Nader: Consumer Crusader Academy of Achievement---A Museum of Living History BIOGRAPHY born: February 27, 1934 Ralph Nader is American's most renowned and effective crusader for the rights of consumers and the general public, a role that has repeatedly brought him into conflict with both business and government. Ralph Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut to Nadra and Rose Nader, Lebanese immigrants who operated a restaurant and bakery. Nader's dream of becoming a "people's lawyer" was instilled in him in adolescence by his parents, who in noisy free-for-alls, conducted family seminars on the duties of citizenship in a democracy. Mark Green, a former Nader associate, said that "When (the Naders) sat around the table growing up it was like the Kennedys. Except that the subject was not power but justice." Following his graduation in 1951 from Gilbert School, Nader entered the Woodrow Wilson School of International Affairs at Princeton University. Graduating magna cum laude in 1955, with a major in government and economics, Nader enrolled in Harvard Law School. He became an editor of the Harvard Law Review and, after graduating with honors, set up a small legal practice and traveled widely. The young attorney became distressed by the indifference ...more Posted 7:43 AM by Jim Hightower The Republican Sleeze Machine already at work "What the Anybody But Bush Democrats fail to recognize is that the differences between Bush and Kerry are only in the outer wrapping. Both are members of Yale's secretive Skull & Bones Society. Kerry also is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission and Bilderberg. If he is allowed to win, Kerry will present a kinder face to us and a softer approach to the world, but it will be business as usual: more "security" measures at home, more mucking about in Iraq and Afghanistan, and continuing the bogus 'war on terror.'" By Bev Conover Online Journal Editor & Publisher February 18, 2004—While Republicans claim George W. Bush has yet to start his campaign for the presidency, the rabid right-wingers are already wallowing in filth when it comes to the Democrats, yet hypocritically charging that those who seek the truth about Bush's military service are engaging in "gutter politics" and "trolling for trash." The whole thing would be laughable if it weren't so sick. Bush has only been running around, at your expense, for two or more years sucking up between $130 and $140 million for his election campaign—notice, folks, that's ...more Posted 7:38 AM by Jim Hightower King George still stonewalls 9/11 Commission over what Bush Knew A recalcitrant Bush administration forces the 9/11 Commission to poke into Bob Woodward's notebook Feb. 18, 2004 Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball Newsweek Feb. 18 - Faced with presidential resistance to turning over highly sensitive intelligence briefs, the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks tried to learn the details in the documents by obtaining access to White House transcripts of interviews that senior officials gave to a prominent journalist, NEWSWEEK has learned. The extraordinary access that top Bush administration officials gave Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward more than two years ago for his book, “Bush at War,” became a principal issue in the contentious battle between the September 11 panel and the White House over access to the President’s Daily Briefs or PDBs—the intelligence briefing report that is given to the president every morning. Threatened with a subpoena for the documents, the White House relented somewhat last week and agreed to allow the full 10-member commission to hear a summary of key PDBs about the Al Qaeda terrorist threat that were given to Bush and before him, to President Clinton. The summary was prepared by a four-member team that was allowed ...more Posted 7:33 AM by Jim Hightower Concerns About Yucca Mt. Leaks Echoed By The Associated Press Thursday 19 February 2004 RENO, Nev. - New data the past year substantiate decade-old concerns an independent U.S. panel of scientists have raised about potential leaks at a proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the board's top administrator said Thursday. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board documented the new evidence of potential dangers in a report to the Energy Department in November and is still waiting for DOE's formal response, said William Barnard, the board's executive director. Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is planned to begin receiving waste in 2010. Some 77,000 tons of highly radioactive waste at commercial and military sites in 39 states would be stored in metal canisters underground in tunnels. Barnard's comments come in support of criticism leveled Wednesday by Paul Craig, a University of California-Davis scientist who said he quit the panel last month so he could speak more freely about problems with DOE's design for Yucca Mountain, especially the potential for high-temperature waste to corrode steel waste canisters. "The board always has had concerns about the uncertainty at these high temperatures and ...more Posted 7:13 AM by Jim Hightower William Rivers Pitt: The One You've Been Waiting For "Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival." - Winston Churchill By William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Perspective Thursday 19 February 2004 We hold these truths to be self-evident. Nicole Frye and Bryan Spry are dead because of George W. Bush. Both died in Iraq. Both were 19 years old. William Ramirez was also 19 years old, as was Holly McGeogh. Luis Moreno and Nathan Nakis, Jeffrey Braun and Jason Wright, Joey Whitener and Steven Acosta and Rachel Bosveld, all were 19 years old when they died in Iraq. Ryan Thomas and Michael Mihalakis were 18 when they died in Iraq. They join the 544 American soldiers who have been killed there in less than a year. They were lied to, as were we all, and now they are forever young in death. The lie they, and we, were fed still sits on the White House website. You can find the lie if you go to www.WhiteHouse.gov and do a search for the ...more Posted 7:08 AM by Jim Hightower The Dark Side of Free Trade By BOB HERBERT New York Times Op/Ed Columnist Published: February 20, 2004 The classic story of the American economy is a saga about an ever-expanding middle class that systematically absorbs the responsible, hard-working families from the lower economic groups. It's about the young people of each successive generation doing better than their parents' generation. The plotline is supposed to be a proud model for the rest of the world. One of the reasons there is so much unease among voters this year is the fact that this story no longer rings so true. Books based on its plotline are increasingly being placed in the stacks labeled "fantasy." The middle class is in trouble. Globalization and outsourcing are hot topics in this election season because so many middle-class Americans, instead of having the luxury of looking ahead to a brighter future for the next generation, are worried about slipping into a lower economic segment themselves. This is happening in the middle of an economic expansion, which should tell us that the terrain has changed. In terms of job creation, it's the weakest expansion on record. The multinationals and the stock market are doing just fine. But American workers are ...more Posted 7:00 AM by Jim Hightower Million $$ Bonuses For AT&T; Wireless Execs, Worthless Stock Options For Workers AT&T; Wireless calls it a performance bonus. Employees call it the shaft February 20, 2004 07:17 AM EST Seattle Post-Intelligencer Despite a stock valuation that's still a fraction of its high nearly four years ago and a service record so poor that the Redmond cellular company recently lost more subscribers than any other cellular provider, executives at AT&T; Wireless Services Inc. were given shares worth millions of dollars as performance bonuses last month. That award came a week before they moved to sell the company for a price that renders nearly all the employees' options worthless. The bonuses were paid under a stock-based performance-incentive plan approved by the board of directors more than a year ago, so analysts said they don't constitute before-the-sale manipulation. But their amount and timing is interesting considering that the move to sell the company automatically will vest employee stock options -- at a price to exercise that's more than their current value, which renders them worthless. What's more, Cingular officials said they will not provide compensatory options to most AT&T; Wireless employees who survive the job cuts already under way and are taken ...more Friday, February 20, 2004 Posted 1:23 PM by Jim Hightower National Debt Tops $7 Trillion [NOTE: National Debt History---Reagan administration (8 years) 1 Trillion to 2.7 Trillion; Bush Sr. (4 years) 2.7 Trillion to 4.3 Trillion; Bush Jr. (3 years 5.7 Trillion to 7 Trillion) The last three Republican presidents have given our children, grand-children and great-grand-children $6 Trillion worth of debt to pay off. During the Clinton administration the national debt was being paid down for the first time in history.] Feb. 18 — By Jonathan Nicholson ABCnews.Com WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government's national debt -- the accumulated debt from past budget shortfalls -- totaled more than $7 trillion for the first time as of Tuesday, according to a Treasury Department report. In its daily financial statement released on Wednesday, the Treasury said the U.S. debt subject to a Congressionally set limit totaled $7.015 trillion, up from $6.983 trillion on Friday. The government was closed on Monday for the Presidents Day holiday. While passing the $7 trillion mark itself has little practical significance, not unlike a car's odometer rolling over, it may signal some tough political times ahead for President Bush's administration on fiscal policy. The government debt ceiling stands only a few hundred billion dollars ahead at $7.384 trillion, and ...more Posted 1:18 PM by Jim Hightower BUSH ROUSES THE SLEEPING DOGS OF THE CULTURE WAR (Bush Jr. Legacy: 3 Million Unemployeed; 35 Million Americans living in poverty; 51 Million Americans without Health Insurance) By Arianna Huffington 2/20/2004 “I’m a war president,” George Bush told us. But as the body count in Iraq continues to rise, the president’s approval rating plummets, and the furor over phantom WMD, sexed-up intel, and Bush’s spotty Air National Guard service refuses to go away, it appears Karl Rove is planning a small rewrite for his candidate: “I’m a culture war president.” Remember that divisive pre-9/11 campaign staple? Well, it’s flared up again — with a vengeance and a rash of new administration actions clearly aimed at shoring up the president’s Christian conservative base. In the last month, the president has traded in his too-tight flight suit for a revival tent, backing a new anti-obscenity crusade, anti-condom sex-ed programs, a renewed commitment to fighting the drug war, and his attorney general’s efforts to poke around the private medical records of women who’ve had abortions. He even hinted in his State of the Union that he’d be willing to endorse a constitutional ban on gay marriage. With Silver Starred John Kerry threatening the president’s hold on the high ground of national defense, Team Bush has decided it’s time to switch battlefields ...more Posted 1:09 PM by Jim Hightower Enron's Skilling Is Indicted by U.S. in Fraud Inquiry By KURT EICHENWALD February 20, 2004 New York Times HOUSTON, Feb. 19Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, was indicted on Thursday on charges that he conspired to disguise the company's troubled financial performance while profiting from sales of stock inflated by false earnings reports. Mr. Skilling, who pleaded not guilty at an arraignment here, was charged with 35 counts of fraud, insider trading and conspiracy. Simultaneously, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud action against Mr. Skilling, seeking the forfeit of all "ill-gotten gains," including the compensation he received at Enron, which filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2001. The collapse of Enron, a once-staid pipeline business that Mr. Skilling transformed into a global energy-trading giant, sent a clear signal that the boom years of the bubble era had come to an end. Investors lost billions in the debacle, which quickly became enmeshed in Washington politics because of the company's ties to White House officials. While Enron seemed an isolated case at first, it was soon eclipsed by accounting scandals at an array of companies including WorldCom, Tyco and others that shook investor confidence in the integrity of corporate financial ...more Posted 1:03 PM by Jim Hightower What Bush vs. Saddam Is All About FEBRUARY 17, 2004 Business Week While neocons created a policy that posited a safer world without the dictator, many wonder if George W. was more bent on revenge. A failure of intelligence? At this point, Bush's expressions of shock, shock! at the absence of any weapons of mass destruction being discovered in Iraq are about as credible as the French inspector's surprise in Casablanca that gambling was going on in Rick's Place. Weeks before David Kay expressed doubts that biological or nuclear weapons stockpiles will ever be found in Iraq, a Time/CNN poll already found more voters (48%) thought Bush had plans to take out Saddam Hussein before the September 11 terrorist attacks than not (44%). Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill's assertions that the Administration talked about an invasion from Day One of the Bush Presidency caused a fuss in Washington, but people in the hinterlands just nodded their heads. As the perception of being misled sinks in among Americans, however, Bush faces his own gathering threat: A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows 54% of Americans now believe the President either lied about or deliberately exaggerated the evidence of WMDs to justify ...more Posted 12:58 PM by Jim Hightower Texas jury convicts Peace activists of violating protest ordinance "Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore testified that a person wearing political buttons without a permit could violate the city ordinance..." By The Associated Press 02/17/04 CRAWFORD, Texas — Five peace activists arrested last year en route to a demonstration outside President Bush's ranch were convicted yesterday of violating the city's protest ordinance. A jury deliberated about 90 minutes before returning the guilty verdicts for the five on the Class C misdemeanor of violating Crawford's parade and procession ordinance. "It's an overall picture of the complacency of our nation and how the president has this sort of no-protest zone around him at all times," Amanda Jack, one of the defendants, said in a story in today's Waco Tribune-Herald. "It's completely absurd that you can't even get near the peoples' president," the 23-year-old Austin resident said. "You can't even petition your own government representative." The Crawford ordinance required protesters to give 15 days' notice and pay $25 before the chief of police could issue a permit to protest within the city. The rule has since changed to allow for a seven-day notice. The five activists, who were given fines ranging from $200 to $500, say they plan to ...more Posted 12:52 PM by Jim Hightower Kerry/Fonda picture was Faked The photographer whose image was used to try to discredit Democrat frontrunner John Kerry, says mainstream media can help to expose dirty tricks. Wednesday, 18 February, 2004 BBC News (UK Edition) "We act as an important filter in determining what is real and what is truthful," Ken Light told the BBC. The fake photo combined two images to make it seem as if Mr Kerry shared a stage at an anti-Vietnam war rally in the 1970s with the actress, Jane Fonda. The forgery was widely aired on the internet before it was exposed. The revelation follows the rumour that Mr Kerry had had an affair with a young trainee reporter. 'Shocked' The forgery was posted on a rightwing website of Vietnam veterans who have long been critical of Mr Kerry. Two British national newspapers - the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday - used the picture in editions last week and over the weekend. Mr Light, from the Center for Photography at University of California's Berkeley, told the BBC's Today Programme he was "quite shocked", when he first saw the fake. "It was my photograph with an image of Jane Fonda dropped in." In ...more Thursday, February 19, 2004 Posted 7:56 PM by Jim Hightower Group: Bush Ignores, Manipulates Research By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Associated Press Writer Feb 18, 5:45 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's administration distorts scientific findings and seeks to manipulate experts' advice to avoid information that runs counter to its political beliefs, a private organization of scientists asserted on Wednesday. The Union of Concerned Scientists contended in a report that "the scope and scale of the manipulation, suppression and misrepresentation of science by the Bush administration is unprecedented." "We're not taking issue with administration policies. We're taking issue with the administration's distortion ... of the science related to some of its policies," said the group's president, Kurt Gottfried. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said he had not seen the report but that the administration "makes decisions based on the best available science." White House science adviser John Marburger said he found the report "somewhat disappointing ... because it makes some sweeping generalizations about policy in this administration that are based on a random selection of incidents and issues." He added, "I don't think it makes the case for the sweeping accusations that it makes." Marburger acknowledged that the complaint was signed by a wide assortment of prominent scientists, including Nobel Prize winners and recipients of the National Medal ...more Posted 7:48 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Backs Off Forecast of 2.6M New Jobs this Year By TERENCE HUNT AP White House Correspondent Feb 18, 6:28 PM EST WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush distanced himself Wednesday from White House predictions that the economy will add 2.6 million jobs this year, the second embarrassing economic retreat in a week and new fuel for Democratic criticism. "Now they're already walking backwards on their own predictions," Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry said in Ohio, where unemployment has risen from 3.9 percent to 6 percent since Bush took office. The jobs controversy came on the heels of White House economist N. Gregory Mankiw's assertion that "outsourcing" American jobs overseas was good for the U.S. economy in the long run. Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republicans quickly disavowed Mankiw's remarks, and the economist had to apologize for a "lack of clarity." Jobs are a sensitive political issue for Bush as he fights to keep his own job in a second term. The economy has lost 2.2 million payroll jobs since Bush took office, the worst job-creation record of any president since Herbert Hoover. The forecast of 2.6 million new jobs was contained in the annual Economic Report of the President, a 412-page volume of charts, ...more Wednesday, February 18, 2004 Posted 5:06 PM by Jim Hightower The Assassination of Howard Dean By Naeem Mohaiemen AlterNet February 18, 2004 Two months ago, Howard Dean was the man to beat for the Democratic nomination. Then his campaign fell over a cliff, limping in as a distant second, third and even fourth, in the primaries. On Wednesday Dean officially ended his bid for the White House, telling supporters, "I am no longer actively purusing the presidency." What happened? How could Dean's insurgent candidacy, which had energized and excited voters in every state, come to such a screeching halt? The pundits claim Dean's "rage" undid him, that voters took a "second look," etc. etc. Nonsense really. The answer is much simpler. Howard Dean was assassinated in broad daylight. Unlike Kennedy's "grassy knoll," Dean's killers are not hiding – it was the Democratic Party itself, and more specifically the DLC, that successfully went after, and sabotaged his candidacy. Remember the 1980s, when the Democratic Party found itself facing unassailable Ronald Reagan, "It's morning in America" slogans and an era of go-go optimism? In three successive elections, the Democrats were felled by the memory of Jimmy Carter. Dems were seen as soft on the Soviets, mullahs, crime and welfare mothers. Although Carter's gentle ways secured the historic Camp David Egypt-Israel accord, most Americans remembered the Iranian hostages, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the infamous "malaise" speech. ...more Tuesday, February 17, 2004 Posted 8:23 PM by Jim Hightower Why single women must vote Monday, February 16, 2004 by Ruth Rosen FORGET THE ANGRY white men of 1994, the soccer moms of 1998 or the NASCAR dads of 2002. This year, Democrats believe that single women -- one- fifth of the nation's population and 42 percent of all registered women voters -- are the demographic-swing group that could decide a close election, oust President Bush and alter the political landscape in Congress. Who are these unmarried women? They are never-married working women, divorced working mothers raising kids alone and widows who are worried about their economic security. Last December, Celinda Lake and Stan Greenberg, two well-known Democratic pollsters, released the results of a survey that Democrats are taking to heart. "Unmarried women represent millions more voters with very clear concerns about the economy, health care and education," said Lake. To this, Greenberg added, "If unmarried women voted at the same rate as married women, they would have a decisive impact on this (2004) election and could be the most important agents of change in modern politics." The problem is that single women just don't exercise their electoral power. In the 2000 presidential election, 68 percent of married women ...more Posted 8:17 PM by Jim Hightower Federal Prosecutor Sues Ashcroft Suit Accuses Justice Department of Mismanaging War on Terrorism By Pete Yost The Associated Press Tuesday, February 17, 2004 The Washington Post The Justice Department has exaggerated its performance in the war on terrorism, interfered with a major terror prosecution and compromised a confidential informant, a federal prosecutor has alleged in an extraordinary lawsuit against Attorney General John Ashcroft. The lawsuit by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino is the latest twist in the Bush administration's first major post-Sept. 11 terrorism prosecution, a Detroit case jeopardized over allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. Convertino was the lead prosecutor on the case, in which the government did not provide defense attorneys a letter alleging that a prosecution witness lied until long after a trial had ended. In his lawsuit, Convertino says the Justice Department is retaliating against him because he has complained frequently and publicly about "the lack of support and cooperation, lack of effective assistance, lack of resources and intradepartmental infighting" in terrorism cases. "These concerns directly related to the ability of the United States to effectively utilize the criminal justice system as a component in the 'war on terrorism,'" says his lawsuit filed in federal ...more Posted 11:51 AM by Jim Hightower How America Doesn't Vote Published: February 15, 2004 New York Times Editorial One outcome of this year's presidential election is already certain: people will show up to vote and find they have been wrongly taken off the rolls. The lists of eligible voters kept by localities around the country are the gateway to democracy, and they are also a national scandal. In 2000, the American public saw, in Katherine Harris's massive purge of eligible voters in Florida, how easy it is for registered voters to lose their rights by bureaucratic fiat. Missouri's voting-list problems received far less attention, but may have disenfranchised more eligible voters. It's hard to judge where voting lists are being mishandled, since the procedures by which they are kept and corrected are shrouded in secrecy. That's the beginning of the problem. The public has a right to know that the rolls are being properly maintained — and to know it before the election. As became clear in 2000, after the fact is too late. Federal law provides some general guidelines about keeping voting rolls, but the basic decisions about who is eligible to vote are largely left to local officials. City and county election offices are responsible for ...more Monday, February 16, 2004 Posted 9:10 PM by Jim Hightower Republican Smear Machine Backfires this time Woman Denies Rumors of Kerry Affair By MATTHEW ROSENBERG Associated Press Writer Feb 16, 3:32 PM EST NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- A woman who has been the subject of rumors linking her to Sen. John Kerry denied Monday that she ever had an affair with the Democratic presidential candidate. Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying, "I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false." Kerry already has denied reports that he had an extramarital affair. On Monday, his campaign said he would have no further comment. Polier's statement was released to the AP in Nairobi, where the 27-year-old freelance journalist is visiting the parents of her fiance, Yaron Schwartzman, an Israeli who was raised in Kenya. She previously worked as an editorial assistant for the AP in New York. "Whoever is spreading these rumors and allegations does not know me," Polier said, appealing to the media to respect her privacy and the privacy of her fiance and his family. Polier also took issue with reports that referred to her as a former Kerry intern. "I never interned or ...more Sunday, February 15, 2004 Posted 7:03 PM by Jim Hightower Bush administration reverses proposal to ban gasoline additive 2/15/2004 3:56 PM By: Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has quietly shelved an effort to ban a gasoline additive that contaminates drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency -- under the Clinton administration -- said low levels of MTBE can make water undrinkable due to its offensive taste and odor. People say the contaminated water tastes like turpentine. But the Bush administration is letting Congress handle the issue. The regulation is bogged down there over a proposal to shield the industry from some lawsuits. That initiative is being led by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Critics say the administration is helping its campaign contributors at the expense of public health. Three top MTBE producers have given more than $1 million to Republicans since 1999. The producers are Texas-based Lyondell Chemical and Valero Energy and the Huntsman companies of Salt Lake City. A spokesman for one MTBE producer said the issue has nothing to do with campaign donations. Facts about the gasoline additive MTBE MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a petroleum-based oxygenate that has been used in gasoline since the 1970s to increase octane and reduce smog-causing emissions. Since 1990 it has ...more Posted 6:58 PM by Jim Hightower Shaken father writes to president Published in the Home News Tribune 2/05/04 Dear President Bush, With heavy heart, tears in my eyes and a home full of sorrow, I pick up my pen to write you about a brave soldier, 2nd Lt. Seth J. Dvorin, U.S. Army. My son was killed in Iraq on Feb. 3, 2004 fighting in a war. Seth was a good boy, well-mannered, smart, kind and understanding. He joined the Army in an effort to serve his country. And serve his country he did. Seth made the ultimate sacrifice. Burying a child will no doubt be the hardest task that his mother and I shall ever have to do. The one question I have, and the one question I would like you to answer, is, "Why did my son and every other soldier that was killed, maimed and wounded have to suffer settling your vendetta?" My son is gone just when he was laying a strong foundation to build upon for the rest of his life. Now, President Bush, his life has been snuffed out in a meaningless war. Where are all the weapons of mass destruction, where are the stock piles of chemical and biological weapons? Please President, pray for all our fallen heroes ...more Saturday, February 14, 2004 Posted 7:18 PM by Jim Hightower Watergate II: GOP Computer Espionage Worse than Suspected - Criminal Investigation Imminent "Senate Democrats who were briefed Monday about an investigation into how Democratic strategy memorandums dealing with judicial nominations ended up in the hands of Republican staff members said they now believe the problem was far more extensive than previously thought. Some of the internal memorandums appear to have been used to prepare one or more of President Bush's appeals court nominees to answer specific questions from Democratic senators during their judiciary committee hearings, Democrats said Monday. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said he learned from Pickle's briefing that the improper reading, copying and distributing of confidential Democratic memorandums had gone on far longer and had involved a greater amount of information than had previously been believed. Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the committee's ranking Democrat, told reporters after the 90-minute meeting that it appeared to him Pickle's investigation would lead to a criminal investigation." http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%7E29805%7E1946317,00.html Posted 5:38 PM by Jim Hightower Bush tries Document Dump of hundreds of irrelevant documents from National Guard Years Many Gaps In Bush's Guard Records Released Papers Do Not Document Ala. Service By Dana Milbank and Mike Allen Washington Post Staff Writers Saturday, February 14, 2004; Page A01 Files released by the White House last night from President Bush's Vietnam War-era service in the National Guard show that the future president was an exemplary pilot whose military record contains numerous gaps in the last two years of his six-year commitment. The White House, seeking to quell a revived controversy over Bush's Guard service, released hundreds of pages of records that were previously withheld. The documents include what the White House describes as all the non-medical elements of Bush's military personnel file, including performance evaluations, documentation of his honorable discharge, and a thick bureaucratic paper trail of applications, promotions and transfers. The records show Bush was an eager fighter pilot who said he wanted to spend a lifetime in aviation. But they provide no evidence that he did any military service in Alabama, to which he had requested a transfer in May 1972 to work on a Senate campaign that ended in November 1972. ...more Posted 5:22 PM by Jim Hightower The Bush Illusion The Real Man By Paul Krugman The New York Times Friday 13 February 2004 To understand why questions about George Bush's time in the National Guard are legitimate, all you have to do is look at the federal budget published last week. No, not the lies, damned lies and statistics — the pictures. By my count, this year's budget contains 27 glossy photos of Mr. Bush. We see the president in front of a giant American flag, in front of the Washington Monument, comforting an elderly woman in a wheelchair, helping a small child with his reading assignment, building a trail through the wilderness and, of course, eating turkey with the troops in Iraq. Somehow the art director neglected to include a photo of the president swimming across the Yangtze River. It was not ever thus. Bill Clinton's budgets were illustrated with tables and charts, not with worshipful photos of the president being presidential. The issue here goes beyond using the Government Printing Office to publish campaign brochures. In this budget, as in almost everything it does, the Bush administration tries to blur the line between reverence for the office of president and reverence for the person who currently ...more Friday, February 13, 2004 Posted 8:55 PM by Jim Hightower Most Americans Now Think Bush Stretched the Truth to Justify Iraq War By Richard Morin and Dana Milbank Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, February 13, 2004 A majority of Americans believe President Bush either lied or deliberately exaggerated evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to justify war, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. The survey results, which also show declining support for the war in Iraq and for Bush's leadership in general, indicate the public is increasingly questioning the president's truthfulness -- a concern for Bush's political advisers as his reelection bid gets underway. Barely half -- 52 percent -- now believe Bush is "honest and trustworthy," down 7 percentage points since late October and his worst showing since the question was first asked, in March 1999. At his best, in the summer of 2002, Bush was viewed as honest by 71 percent. The survey found that nearly seven in 10 think Bush "honestly believed" Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Even so, 54 percent thought Bush exaggerated or lied about prewar intelligence. Honesty and credibility have been central to Bush's appeal since the 2000 campaign, when he benefited from disgust over ...more Posted 8:38 PM by Jim Hightower George W. Bush's Lost Year in 1972 Alabama by Glynn Wilson The Progressive Southerner 2/2/2004 BIRMINGHAM, Ala., — The result of an investigation into George W. Bush's lost year in 1972 reveals a cocky privileged son who used his family connections to avoid military service in Vietnam and spend seven months in Alabama partying. He clearly skipped out on National Guard duty and avoided a mandatory drug test, all while learning the politics of "dirty tricks," deception and coded racism in the land of George Wallace. It was the year Wallace, the spunky Alabama governor and presidential candidate, was gunned down in a Maryland parking lot, the year of the Watergate break in and the beginning of the end for "Tricky Dick" Nixon. It was also the last year for segregationists to openly fight integration of the public schools, a time when racism went underground in American politics in the form of a "Dixie Strategy." And it was the beginning of a major political realignment that transformed the American South from a one-party Democratic stronghold into a solid block for the GOP. Bush made the move to Alabama in May to work on Winton "Red" Blount's campaign for the U.S. Senate against ...more Posted 8:14 AM by Jim Hightower Report indicates effort made to screen Bush's Texas National Guard Files when he was Texas Governor Move to Screen Bush File in 90's Is Reported By RALPH BLUMENTHAL Published: February 12, 2004 New York Times HOUSTON, Feb. 11 — A retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard complained to a member of the Texas Senate in 1998 that aides to Gov. George W. Bush improperly screened Mr. Bush's National Guard files in a search for information that could embarrass the governor in future elections. The retired officer, Bill Burkett, said in the letter to Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, a Democrat from Austin, that Dan Bartlett, then a senior aide to Governor Bush and now White House communications director, and Gen. Daniel James, then the head of the Texas National Guard, reviewed the file to "make sure nothing will embarrass the governor during his re-election campaign." A copy of the letter was provided to The New York Times by a lawyer for Mr. Burkett to support statements he makes in a book to be published this month, which Mr. Burkett repeated in interviews this week, that Mr. Bush's aides ordered Guard officials to remove damaging information from Mr. Bush's military personnel files. Mr. Bartlett denied on Wednesday ...more Posted 8:05 AM by Jim Hightower During the Bush Administration, Defense Contractors Owe Billions in Unpaid Taxes, Investigation Finds 27,000 defense contractors owed a total of $3 billion in unpaid taxes By Mary Dalrymple The Associated Press Published: Feb 12, 2004 WASHINGTON (AP) - Privacy laws hamstring the Defense Department's ability to prevent government contracts from going to businesses that owe unpaid taxes, Pentagon and Internal Revenue Service officials said Thursday. Their statements came after congressional investigators found that 27,000 defense contractors owed a total of $3 billion in unpaid taxes. Auditors at the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, studied taxes owed in the budget year that ended Sept. 30, 2002. The secrecy laws prevent the Defense Department from asking the IRS whether a prospective contractor is delinquent in its tax payments, the officials said. Nevertheless, the Pentagon should have been withholding 15 percent of its payments to individuals or businesses identified as tax delinquent, according to the GAO, and should have made a dent in the billions owed by collecting at least $100 million in unpaid taxes in 2002. A 1997 law [passed during the Clinton administration] requires federal agencies to withhold 15 percent from payments to individuals or businesses ...more Thursday, February 12, 2004 Posted 8:37 AM by Jim Hightower Brothers in Arms? By Mother Jones Sunday 08 February 2004 George W. Bush and John Kerry both spent their mid twenties in uniform. The similarities end there. John Kerry February 18, 1966: A senior at Yale, Kerry commits to enlist in the Navy. December, 1967: Kerry is assigned as an Ensign to the guided-missile frigate USS Gridley. After five-months aboard, he returns to San Diego to undergo training to command a Swift boat, used by the Navy for patrols in Vietnam. November 17, 1968: Kerry arrives in Vietnam, where he is given command of Swift boat No. 44, operating in the Mekong Delta. December 2, 1968: Kerry gets his first taste of intense combat, and is wounded in the arm. He is awarded a Purple Heart. January, 1969: Kerry takes command of a new Swift boat, completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all in the Mekong Delta area. February 20, 1969: Kerry is wounded again, taking shrapnel in the left thigh, after a gunboat battle. He is awarded a second Purple Heart. February 28, 1969: Kerry and his boat crew, coming under attack while patroling in the Mekong Delta, decide to counterattack. In the middle of the ensuing ...more Posted 8:27 AM by Jim Hightower Seven questions on Bush's National Guard service An open letter to George 'I'm a war president!' Bush February 11, 2004 (67th anniversary of the Great Flint Sit-Down Strike) Dear Mr. Bush, Thank you for providing the illegible Xeroxed partial payroll sheets (or whatever they were) yesterday covering a few of your days in the National Guard. Now we know that, not only didn't you complete your tour of duty, you were actually paid for work you never did. Did you cash those checks? Wouldn't that be, um, illegal? Watching the press aggressively demand the truth from your press secretary -- and refusing to accept the deceit, the dodging, and the cover-up -- was a sight to behold, something we really haven't seen since you took office (to watch or listen to the entire press conference, or to read the full transcript, go here). More than one reporter pointed out that those pieces of paper your press secretary waved at them yesterday mean nothing. Even if they aren't forged documents, getting paid does not necessarily mean you showed up to do your duties. As retired Army Col. Dan Smith, a 26-year veteran, told the AP: "Pay records don't mean anything except ...more Posted 8:22 AM by Jim Hightower Bush, Adviser Assailed for Stance on 'Offshoring' Jobs By Jonathan Weisman Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Democrats from Capitol Hill to the presidential campaign trail lit into President Bush's chief economist yesterday for his laudatory statements on the movement of U.S. jobs abroad, seizing on the comments to paint Bush as out of touch with struggling workers. "They've delivered a double blow to America's workers, 3 million jobs destroyed on their watch, and now they want to export more of our jobs overseas," said John F. Kerry, the Massachusetts senator and front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination. "What in the world are they thinking?" Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) called for the resignation of N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and a prominent Harvard University economist. Manzullo said industrial state Republicans are furious. "I know the president cannot believe what this man has said," Manzullo said. "He ought to walk away, and return to his ivy-covered office at Harvard." As Mankiw released the annual Economic Report of the President, he said Monday that the "offshoring" of U.S. service jobs is only "the latest manifestation of the gains from ...more Posted 8:17 AM by Jim Hightower Justice Scalia Defends Duck Hunting Trip With Defendant Cheney By GINA HOLLAND Associated Press Writer 2/10/2004 WASHINGTON - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia strongly indicated he will ignore calls to recuse himself from a court case involving his friend and hunting partner, Vice President Dick Cheney. Scalia told a gathering at Amherst College on Tuesday night there was nothing improper about his accompanying Cheney to Louisiana last month to hunt ducks. The trip came three weeks after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Bush administration's appeal in a case involving private meetings of Cheney's energy task force. "It did not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual," Scalia said in response to a question from the audience of about 600 people. "This was a government issue. It's acceptable practice to socialize with executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them. That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack, quack." Cheney wants to keep private the details of closed-door White House strategy sessions that produced the administration's energy policy. The administration is fighting a lawsuit brought by watchdog and environmental groups that contend that industry executives helped shape the administration's energy policy. Democrats ...more Wednesday, February 11, 2004 Posted 12:59 PM by Jim Hightower The President's National Guard Service Published: February 11, 2004 New York Times Editorial If President Bush thought that his release of selected payroll and service records would quell the growing controversy over whether he ducked some of his required service in the Air National Guard three decades ago, he is clearly mistaken. The payroll records released yesterday document that he performed no guard duties at all for more than half a year in 1972 and raise questions about how he could be credited with at least 14 days of duty during subsequent periods when his superior officers in two units said they had not seen him. Investigative reporting by The Boston Globe, our sibling newspaper, revealed in 2000 that Mr. Bush had reported for duty and flown regularly in his first four Texas Guard years but dropped off the Guard's radar screen when he went to Alabama to work on a senatorial campaign. The payroll records show that he was paid for many days of duty in the first four months of 1972, when he was in Texas, but then went more than six months without being paid, virtually the entire time he was working on the Senate campaign in ...more Posted 11:29 AM by Jim Hightower Bush Family Values: War, Wealth, Oil By Kevin Phillips The Los Angeles Times Sunday 08 February 2004 Four generations have created an unsavory web of links that could prove an election-year Achilles' heel for the president. WASHINGTON — Despite February polls showing President Bush losing his early reelection lead, he's still the favorite. No modern president running unopposed in his party's primaries and caucuses has ever lost in November. But there may be a key to undoing that precedent. The two Bush presidencies are so closely linked, especially over Iraq, that the 43rd can't be understood apart from the 41st. Beyond that, for a full portrait of what the Bushes are about, we must return to the family's emergence on the national scene in the early 20th century. This four-generation evolution of the Bushes involves multiple links that could become Bush's election-year Achilles' heel — if a clever and tough 2004 Democratic opponent can punch and slice at them. Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, the clear Democratic front-runner, could be best positioned to do so. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he investigated the Iran-Contra and Bank of Credit and Commerce International scandals, both of ...more Posted 9:30 AM by Jim Hightower CNN Says It Overplayed Dean's Iowa Scream ... the cable and broadcast news networks aired Dean's Iowa exclamation 633 times — and that doesn't include local news or talk shows — in the four days after it was made, according to the Hotline, a Washington-based newsletter. Sunday 08 February 2004 By David Bauder The Associated Press NEW YORK - It probably means little now to Howard Dean, but CNN's top executive believes his network overplayed the infamous clip of Dean's "scream" after the Iowa caucuses. "It was a big story, but the challenge in a 24-hour news network is that you try to keep all of your different viewers throughout the day informed without overdoing it," said Princell Hair, CNN's general manager. The breathtaking media explosion turned the former Democratic presidential front-runner into a punch line and arguably hastened his campaign's free fall. It's also an instructive look at how television news and entertainment works today. Whatever handwringing there may be in retrospect — and there's only a little — comes with a sense that repeats are inevitable. "It was unfair," said Joe Trippi, Dean's former campaign manager, who lost his job in the fallout. "It was totally unfair. I ...more Posted 9:24 AM by Jim Hightower KHAN JOB: BUSH SPIKED PROBE OF PAKISTAN’S DR. STRANGELOVE, BBC REPORTED IN 2001 Monday Feb 9, 2004 by Greg Palast On November 7, 2001, BBC Television's Newsnight and the Guardian of London reported that the Bush administration thwarted investigations of Dr. A.Q. Khan, known as the "father" of Pakistan's atomic bomb. This week, Khan confessed to selling atomic secrets to Libya, North Korea, and Iran. The Bush Administration has expressed shock at disclosures that Pakistan, our ally in the war on terror, has been running a nuclear secrets bazaar. In fact, according to the British news teams' sources within US intelligence agencies, shortly after President Bush's inauguration, his National Security Agency (NSA) effectively stymied the probe of Khan Research Laboratories, the Pakistani agency in charge of the bomb project. CIA and other agents told BBC they could not investigate the spread of “Islamic Bombs” through Pakistan because funding appeared to originate in Saudi Arabia. Greg Palast and David Pallister received a California State University Project Censored Award for this expose based on the story broadcast by Palast on BBC television's top current affairs program. According to both sources and documents obtained by the BBC, the Bush Administration “spike” of the investigation of Dr. ...more Tuesday, February 10, 2004 Posted 9:04 PM by Jim Hightower CLAIM vs. FACT: The President on Meet the Press by David Sirota, Christy Harvey and Judd Legum February 8, 2004 Statement of John Podesta, President and CEO, Center for American Progress "President Bush wouldn't have agreed to an hour long network interview without a good reason and today he had one: in the span of a week he's faced the dual challenges of a loss of credibility on the war in Iraq and his management of the economy. "His statement this morning that he would cut the deficit in half is simply laughable. Analyses by independent organizations like Goldman Sachs, the Concord Coalition, the Committee for Economic Development, and Decision Economics all project deficits of about $5 trillion over the next decade, even assuming a return to strong growth." "The President's statement that there is ‘good momentum' on the job creation front is dishonest: while we are averaging 72,000 new private sector jobs created per month, at that pace, it would not be until May 2007 that this President would have created his first net job. President Bush is well on his way to having the worst job creation record since the Great Depression. His bragging today only served to reinforce his ...more Posted 12:46 PM by Jim Hightower Gore Says Bush Betrayed the U.S. by Using 9/11 as a Reason for War in Iraq by Katharine Q. Seeleye NASHVILLE, Feb. 8 — In a withering critique of the Bush administration, former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday accused the president of betraying the country by using the Sept. 11 attacks as a justification for the invasion of Iraq. "He betrayed this country!" Mr. Gore shouted into the microphone at a rally of Tennessee Democrats here in a stuffy hotel ballroom. "He played on our fears. He took America on an ill-conceived foreign adventure dangerous to our troops, an adventure preordained and planned before 9/11 ever took place." The speech had several hundred Democrats roaring their approval for Mr. Gore, the party's 2000 standard-bearer. Mr. Gore was one of three Tennessee Democrats, along with former Gov. Ned McWherter and former Senator James Sasser, being honored by the state party two days before the state's Democratic primary on Tuesday. The event served as a neutral platform for this season's candidates. Gen. Wesley K. Clark and Senator John Edwards addressed the crowd, but it was Mr. Gore who fired it up. While the other honorees and party officials gave a nod to all of ...more Posted 12:34 PM by Jim Hightower The partisan "mastermind" in charge of Bush's intel probe Whenever there's a vast right-wing conspiracy, Judge Laurence Silberman keeps turning up. - - - - - - - - - - - - By Michelle Goldberg Feb. 10, 2004 | Judge Laurence Silberman, George Bush's nominee to co-chair the commission investigating U.S. intelligence on Iraq, knows quite a bit about the murky intersection between facts and ideology. The senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington has been near the febrile center of the largest political scandals of the past two decades, from the rumored "October surprise" of 1980 and the Iran-contra trials to the character assassination of Anita Hill and the impeachment of President Clinton. Whenever right-wing conspiracies swing into action, Silberman is there. A veteran of the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations who is close to Vice President Dick Cheney, Silberman has a reputation as a fierce ideologue who doesn't let his judicial responsibilities get in the way of his Republican activism. David Brock, the repentant former right-wing journalist and Silberman protégé, describes his former mentor as "an extreme partisan" who seems to relish "the political wars." Kevin Phillips, the former Nixon staffer who authored ...more Posted 12:21 PM by Jim Hightower and the Rich get Richer... "Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston A Pulitzer-winning New York Times reporter argues that the rich have ruthlessly rigged the tax system against the rest of us. Aren't you shocked? By Farhad Manjoo Feb. 9, 2004 | In 1913, the year the United States created the federal income tax, a small company near Chicago, CCH Inc., published a handy little volume documenting every tax regulation newly on the books. At 400 pages, the "Standard Federal Tax Reporter" wasn't exactly a brisk read, but CCH's publishing decision proved prescient. Federal taxes, it turned out, were an idea with permanence; the U.S. tax code, in all its future labyrinthine intricacies, would be a growth industry. In the 91 years since it was first published, CCH's "Tax Reporter," now the tax accountant's Bible, has expanded nearly exponentially by the divine right of Congress; the 2003 volume outlining every tax rule in the land drones on for 45 times the length of the Good Book -- almost 55,000 pages. David Cay Johnston, the New York Times' chief correspondent in the tax world, is fascinated and reviled by the people who live their lives in the thicket of regulations outlined in these ...more Monday, February 9, 2004 Posted 9:03 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Prepares His Electoral War Machine By Philippe Gelie & Le Figaro Thursday 05 February 2004 Truthout.org The President, showing his worst popularity rating since the outset of his term, is hoarding his resources for the final face-off. The American President is going through a bad patch. The attacks by his Democratic opponents, the suspicions fabricated intelligence was used to justify the war in Iraq, a budget deficit of worrying proportions have earned him the worst ratings of his term: his approval rating has suddenly slipped below the 50% level, and, if the election were held today, John Kerry would win by 53% to 46%. However, the election won't take place today. Between now and the November 2 polling, one element, now invisible on the political scene, will go into action: the formidable electoral war machine perfected by George W. Bush. To begin with, the candidate can count on his party, unified as never before: not only does he not have any rival in the primaries and may therefore spare his resources for the final face-off, but also 90% of Republican militants support him without hesitation. That support has been transformed into a powerful network from which the President ...more Posted 1:49 PM by Jim Hightower Did Bush drop out of the National Guard to avoid drug testing? The young pilot [George Bush] walked away from his commitment in 1972 -- the same year the U.S. military implemented random drug tests. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By Eric Boehlert Salon Magazine 2/6/2004 One of the persistent riddles surrounding President Bush's disappearance from the Texas Air National Guard during 1972 and 1973 is the question of why he walked away. Bush was a fully trained pilot who had undergone a rigorous two-year flight training program that cost the Pentagon nearly $1 million. And he has told reporters how important it was to follow in his father's footsteps and to become a fighter pilot. Yet in April 1972, George W. Bush climbed out of a military cockpit for the last time. He still had two more years to serve, but Bush's own discharge papers suggest he never served for the Guard again. It is, of course, possible that Bush had simply had enough of the Guard and, with the war ...more Saturday, February 7, 2004 Posted 4:57 PM by Jim Hightower Feds Win Right to War Protesters' Records February 7, 2004 02:06 PM EST BY RYAN J. FOLEY Associated Press Writer DES MOINES, Iowa - In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists. In addition to the subpoena of Drake University, subpoenas were served this past week on four of the activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the protesters said. Federal prosecutors refuse to comment on the subpoenas. In addition to records about who attended the forum, the subpoena orders the university to divulge all records relating to the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based legal activist organization that sponsored the forum. The group, once targeted for alleged ties to communism in the 1950s, announced Friday it will ask a federal court to quash the subpoena on Monday. "The law is clear that the use of the grand jury to investigate protected political activities or to intimidate protesters exceeds its authority," guild President Michael Ayers said in a statement. Representatives of ...more Posted 1:26 PM by Jim Hightower The High Price of Wal-Mart By David Sirota, Christy Harvey and Judd Legum The Progress Report February 5, 2004 Faced with mounting criticism over low pay, sex-discrimination, exploitation of undocumented immigrants, violation of child labor laws and hard-line anti-union tactics, Wal-Mart has tapped its $250 billion in annual revenues to shower conservatives in Washington with money. According to a study by the non-partisan Center for Responsive politics, Wal-Mart is now the second highest contributor to the 2004 elections, having already contributed more than $1 million to federal candidates. Last year, Wal-Mart didn't even rank in the top 100. But, notwithstanding their generosity to "pro-business" politicians, as Wal-Mart aggressively expands – 220 new U.S. supercenters are slated to open this year alone – it is sparking citizen revolts around the country. Wal-Mart already accounts for 8 percent of total U.S. retail sales. Chief Executive Lee Scott, trying to placate those who are alarmed by Wal-Mart's astounding rate of expansion, said company did not have a "grand plan to own the world." Wages for many Wal-Mart employees are so low that many are forced to rely on government assistance – especially for health care. The Seattle Times reports that in Washington State, subsidized insurance ...more Posted 1:18 PM by Jim Hightower The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003 By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman AlterNet February 6, 2004 2003 was not a year of garden variety corporate wrongdoing. No, the sheer variety, reach and intricacy of corporate schemes, scandal and crimes were spellbinding. Not an easy year to pick the 10 worst companies, for sure. But Multinational Monitor magazine cannot be deterred by such complications. And so, here follows, in alphabetical order, our list for Multinational Monitor of the 10 worst corporations of 2003. Bayer: 2003 may be remembered as the year of the headache at Bayer. In May, the company agreed to plead guilty to a criminal count and pay more than $250 million to resolve allegations that it denied Medicaid discounts to which it was entitled. The company was beleaguered with litigation related to its anti-cholesterol drug Baycol. Bayer pulled the drug – which has been linked to a sometimes fatal muscle disorder – from the market, but is facing thousands of suits from patients who allege they were harmed by the drug. In June, the New York Times reported on internal company memos which appear to show that the company continued to promote the drug even as its own analysis had ...more Posted 1:08 PM by Jim Hightower 8 Questions Tim Russert should ask-- for George W. Bush's Meet the Press Appearance Published on Friday, February 6, 2004 The Nation by David Corn Tim Russert, the Grand Inquisitor of Sunday morning, is scheduled to have George W. Bush in the witness chair for a full hour on the next Meet the Press. He's a lucky man--Russert, that is. This will be high drama, as the nation's politerati--and millions of others--watch to see if Russert gives Bush the hot-seat treatment. There is, of course, much to ask Bush about. Did he decide to use military force against Iraq before 9/11? Where are the WMDs he insisted were there? Why is he using phony budget numbers? Did he engage in less-than-proper business dealings before he entered politics? Why he has misled the public while promoting his policies on stem cells research, global warming, and missile defense? Why has he opposed certain homeland security measures and not adequately funded others? It's a long list, and I'm sure Russert is busy preparing his own queries. But in an unsolicited act of kindness, I have crafted eight questions for Russert--several on matters in the news, a few on issues that have ...more Posted 7:47 AM by Jim Hightower Liar, Incompetent or Space Cadet? 02/04/2004 @ 8:29pm Katrina vanden Heuvel The Nation Is he incompetent, clueless, lying? Why has President Bush--once again--asserted that he went to war because Iraq refused to allow weapons inspectors into the country? Last Wednesday, Bush went on about how "it was [Saddam's] choice to make, and he did not let us in." Bush made the same false statement, last July, with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at his side. "We gave [Saddam} a chance to allow the inspectors in," Bush declared, "and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power." These statements defy rational explanation. As Democrats.com observed last summer--after launching a website petition to declare Bush insane under the 25th amendment--"everyone in the world knows that Hussein allowed a fully-equipped team of UN inspectors to comb every inch of his country...The only conclusion we can draw is that Bush has lost touch with reality. In other words, he has gone mad." Or is it that he prefers his news heavily filtered, aka censored? As Bush told Brit Hume on Fox News last September, "The best way to get the news is from objective ...more Friday, February 6, 2004 Posted 9:09 PM by Jim Hightower Bush's Tax Cuts for his Rich Buddies will Slash, Freeze Funding for Many Popular Domestic Programs for Years Budget Envisions Long-Term Cuts OMB Predicts Reduced, Frozen Spending for Popular Programs By Dan Morgan Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, February 6, 2004; Page A21 The Bush administration's plan to cut the deficit in half within five years envisions an unprecedented long-term spending clampdown that would continue well beyond 2005 for hundreds of popular domestic programs, according to an unpublished White House budget document. A 999-page Office of Management and Budget computer printout suggests that low-income education programs, medical research at the National Institutes of Health, grants to local law enforcement agencies, job training and other popular programs could be subject to freezes or cuts at least through 2009. Whether the computer-generated estimates represent the administration's policy intentions -- or are simply a device enabling the president to claim that he has a plan to rein in the deficit -- was a matter of debate yesterday on Capitol Hill. "This is one more piece of the puzzle showing this is not a serious, credible budget," said Thomas S. Kahn, Democratic staff director on the House Budget Committee. A ...more Posted 9:01 PM by Jim Hightower Cheney's Staff Focus of Justice Dept Probe Posted Feb. 5, 2004 By Richard Sale Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said. According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls. The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time" as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law-enforcement official said. The case centers on Valerie Plame, a CIA operative then working for the weapons of mass destruction division, and her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who served as ambassador to Gabon and as a senior U.S. diplomat in Baghdad in the early 1990s. Under President Bill Clinton, he was head of African affairs until he ...more Posted 9:38 AM by Jim Hightower S.E.C. Settles a Mutual Fund Fraud Case for $225 Million New York Times Published: February 5, 2004 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday that MFS Investment Management, America's oldest mutual fund company, had agreed to pay $225 million to settle fraud charges involving trading in shares of its mutual funds. MFS, a unit of Canada's Sun Life Financial Inc.(SLF.N), agreed to reimburse investors, pay fines and reform the way it runs its operations, while its chief executive and chief investment officer agreed to be barred from serving as corporate officers or directors in the mutual fund industry for three years, the SEC said. http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-financial-mfs-settlement.html Posted 9:32 AM by Jim Hightower Pentagon Cancels Internet Voting System Protests and Grassroots Efforts Work...for now! February 5, 2004 04:27 PM EST Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Pentagon won't use an Internet voting system for overseas U.S. citizens this fall because of concerns about its security, an official said Thursday. The official, who requested anonymity, said Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz made the decision to scrap the system because Pentagon officials were not certain they could "assure the legitimacy of votes that would be cast." Computer security experts who last month reviewed the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, had urged the Pentagon to scrap the system, saying it was too vulnerable. The experts said the system could be penetrated by hackers who could change votes or gather information about users. "Internet voting presents far too many opportunities for hackers or even terrorists to interfere with fair and accurate voting, potentially in ways impossible to detect," the experts said in a statement Jan. 21. "Such tampering could alter election results, particularly in close contests." Despite the concerns, Pentagon officials had said they still planned to use the system this fall and would test it during Tuesday's South Carolina primary. But the day before ...more Posted 9:29 AM by Jim Hightower Justin, Janet and Weapons of Mass Distraction 02/03/2004 @ 1:05pm Katrina vanden Heuvel The Nation The investigation will be "thorough and swift," Powell said yesterday. "Our nation's children, parents and citizens deserve better." That would be Michael-- not Colin--Powell and this is not about that investigation into those pesky missing WMDs; it's that high-level probe into who knew what and when about how Janet Jackson's breast--adorned with a silver "nipple guard"--was exposed by pop idol Justin Timberlake before millions of upstanding Americans during the Super Bowl half-time show. Surfing Tuesday's morning shows, I blearily counted more time devoted to heated discussion about what Timberlake called a "wardrobe malfunction" than to debate about the Administration's hyping and cherry-picking (excuse the word) of intelligence in order to mislead a nation into war. But, I'm not shocked that our TV culture cares more for weapons of mass distraction. Nor am I shocked at Michael Powell's "shock." As executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy Jeff Chester points out, Powell is trying to distract the public and press from the impact of his decision last June changing the media rules and making CBS, among others, far more powerful. Powell's rule changes have done ...more Posted 9:24 AM by Jim Hightower Kerry criticizes Bush's cut to Native American small business program Thursday, February 5, 2004 Indianz.com Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, vowed to support full funding of the Native American Outreach program at the Small Business Administration, which President Bush proposed eliminating for the second year in a row. "With unemployment as high as 70 percent and poverty rates well above the national average, Native Americans need a commitment from the federal government that we're here to help," Kerry said. "It is wrong for the President to turn his back on Native American businesses and the Native American community." In 2002, the Bush administration dismantled the infrastructure of SBA's only program aimed at helping Native Americans -- the tribal business information centers (TBICs) -- and for the for the past two years has proposed eliminating all native American outreach at the agency. "This country is about opportunity, and we ought to give Native American's an equal opportunity for self-sufficiency and economic independence," Kerry added. "For years, I've fought to support Native American entrepreneurs, and I pledge to continue that fight because it's the right thing to ...more Thursday, February 5, 2004 Posted 7:50 PM by Jim Hightower TENET EXPOSES BUSH'S MISLEADING ON WMD =============================== THE DAILY BUSH MIS-LEAD < http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1214992&l;=17046 > =============================== 2/6/2004 In a stunning blow to the president's credibility, CIA Director George Tenet said this morning that intelligence "analysts never said there was an imminent threat" from Iraq before the war. His comments are consistent with various warnings sent to the White House from the intelligence community that specifically told the president his claims that Iraq definitely had chemical/biological and nuclear weapons were unsubstantiated. Tenet's comments call into question whether the Bush Administration was knowingly ignoring intelligence and misleading the country by claiming definitively that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was therefore an "imminent," "immediate," "urgent" and "mortal" threat to the American people. Though the White House has claimed it never said Iraq was an imminent threat, the record proves otherwise. When White House communications director Dan Bartlett was asked before the war whether Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat, he responded, "Of course he is." When White House spokesman Scott McClellan was asked why NATO (and thus the United States) should support Turkey's request for defensive troops, he responded, "This is about an imminent threat." When White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was asked whether the invasion of Iraq was because Iraq was an ...more Posted 1:55 PM by Jim Hightower Gouging the Poor By Barbara Ehrenreich The Progressive February 5, 2004 There's been a lot of whining about health care recently: the shocking cost of insurance, the mounting reluctance of employers to share that cost, the challenge – should you be so lucky as to have insurance – of finding a doctor your insurance company will deign to reimburse, and so forth. But let's look at the glass half full for a change. Despite the growing misfit between health care costs and personal incomes, it is not yet illegal to be sick. Not quite yet, anyway, though the trend is clear: Hospitals are increasingly resorting to brass knuckle tactics to collect overdue bills from indigent patients. Take the case of Martin Bushman, an intermittently insured mechanic with diabetes who, as reported in The Wall Street Journal, had run up a $579 debt to Carle Hospital in Champaign-Urbana. When he failed to appear for a court hearing on his debt rather than miss a day of work, he was arrested and hit with $2,500 bail. Arrests for missed court dates, which the hospitals whimsically refer to as "body attachments," are on the rise throughout the country. Again, on the half full side, we ...more Posted 12:09 PM by Jim Hightower The Secretary of Labor Is the Enemy of Labor Published on Wednesday, February 4, 2004 by Newsday / Long Island, NY by David Moberg Common Dreams By law, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is required "to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States." Given her record, American workers might want to make a symbolic citizens' arrest of the secretary for breaking the law. At the moment, Chao's prime offense is promotion of changes in overtime pay rules. They would deprive an estimated 8 million workers - such as secretaries, sales representatives, and medical or legal workers - of their right to time-and-a-half premium pay when they work more than 40 hours a week. Last month, Chao testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee that only 644,000 workers would lose that protection. But Economic Policy Institute economist Jared Bernstein explained how the Labor Department ignored large groups of affected workers to come up with its inaccurate, low-ball number. Chao also insisted that the new rules would make 1.3 million new workers eligible for overtime pay, but Bernstein showed that fewer than 700,000 would benefit. Even many of those workers could be denied the premium overtime pay if ...more Posted 12:03 PM by Jim Hightower Halliburton investigated for $180 MIllion Bribe when Cheney was Chairman of Company Already under fire for its contracts in Iraq, the company now faces a Justice Department inquiry about business done during Dick Cheney’s tenure. Feb. 04, 2004 Newsweek The Justice Department has opened up an inquiry into whether Halliburton Co. was involved in the payment of $180 million in possible kickbacks to obtain contracts to build a natural gas plant in Nigeria during a period in the late 1990’s when Vice President Dick Cheney was chairman of the company, Newsweek has learned. There is no evidence that Cheney was aware of the payments in question and an aide said today the vice president has not been contacted about the probe. Still, the inquiry by the Justice Department’s fraud section—which prosecutes federal anti-bribery law violations—is likely to bring new public attention to the vice president’s past at the giant oil-services firm. Halliburton has been under intense scrutiny in recent months over its handling of hundreds of millions of dollars contracts relating to the rebuilding of Iraq. The Justice inquiry, along with a related probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission, parallels a separate investigation into the Nigerian payments that is being conducted ...more Posted 9:19 AM by Jim Hightower Will Cheney Provide The Margin Of Victory---For Democrats? By Ariana Huffington February 4, 2004 GOP inner circles are buzzing with the rumor that President Bush is planning to drop Dick Cheney from his re-election ticket and replace him with 9/11 action hero Rudy Giuliani. As one firmly committed to making sure Bush doesn't get another four years in office, all I can say to this is: Please, Mr. President, say it ain't so! Cheney is the Democrats' best -- though sorely underutilized -- weapon. A loose-lipped loose cannon who threatens to torpedo the Bushie ship of state every time he half-opens his mouth. If only we start paying attention. Perhaps sensing that Broadway Rudy is warming up in the bullpen, Cheney has begun upping his public profile. After rarely venturing out of his secure, undisclosed location -- aka Republican fund-raisers -- he has given a rash of high-profile interviews over the past month. And thank god for that: the Most Powerful Number Two In History just can't help telling it like he sees it, and the way he sees it is very, very telling. And frightening. Take his recent, evidence-be-damned assertions regarding Iraqi WMD and a Saddam/al-Qaeda connection. While ...more Wednesday, February 4, 2004 Posted 5:14 PM by Jim Hightower Ellsberg: The Next 'Pentagon Papers' Daniel Ellsberg is the author of Secrets: a Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. After 17 months observing pacification efforts in Vietnam as a state department official, I laid eyes upon an unmistakable enemy for the first time on New Year's Day in 1967. I was walking point with three members of a company from the U.S. Army's 25th Division, moving through tall rice, the water over our ankles, when we heard firing close behind us. We spun around, ready to fire. I saw a boy of about 15, wearing nothing but ragged black shorts, crouching and firing an AK-47 at the troops behind us. I could see two others, heads just above the top of the rice, firing as well. They had lain there, letting us four pass so as to get a better shot at the main body of troops. We couldn't fire at them, because we would have been firing into our own platoon. But a lot of its fire came back right at us. Dropping to the ground, I watched this kid firing away for 10 seconds, till he disappeared with his buddies into the rice. After a ...more Posted 5:06 PM by Jim Hightower BUSH SABOTAGES WMD COMMISSION BEFORE IT STARTS =============================== THE DAILY BUSH MIS-LEAD < http://daily.misleader.org/ctt.asp?u=1214992&l;=16927 > =============================== Over the last two days, President Bush and the White House have claimed that they are going to establish an "independent" commission to promptly investigate the over-hyping of intelligence before the Iraq war. But as details come out about the White House's proposal, it appears the commission will be neither independent nor prompt. Specifically, the president will appoint the entire commission himself, breaking the previous tradition of allowing lawmakers from both parties to appoint commission members. Although lawmakers have raised objections to the commission's lack of independence, the White House is moving forward with its plans. Additionally, despite the fact that the commission's work will be critical to national security, the president will only authorize a commission that produces a report after the election -- so as to minimize any political fallout for himself. This contrasts sharply to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is putting national security ahead of politics. As the Los Angeles Times reports, "in contrast to a bipartisan investigating committee announced by Bush, the British panel is to announce its conclusions by July. That would put any damaging disclosures for Blair's government well in advance of parliamentary elections, expected in 2005." It also contrasts with similar investigations in ...more Posted 12:38 PM by Jim Hightower Rising Anti-Bush Sentiment Driving Democrats to Polls By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, February 4, 2004 The Democratic presidential contest went national yesterday, and what was true in Iowa and New Hampshire proved true coast to coast: Voters in these elections are deeply dissatisfied with President Bush, and defeating him in November is their prime issue, according to exit polls. The belief that he can beat Bush continued to be Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry's greatest attribute with the Democratic electorate, the polls suggested. Even in South Carolina, where Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) handed Kerry his first defeat in this nomination fight, Kerry led 2 to 1 among voters who rated electability as the quality they cared most about in a candidate. That advantage translates among Democrats all over the country, according to yesterday's exit polls. For the first time, southern, western and big-city voters were heard from; African American voters -- a key Democratic constituency -- voted in large numbers for the first time, as did Hispanics. Turnout was a record high for a Democratic primary in South Carolina and was twice the 2000 number in Arizona. Anti-Bush feeling varied a bit from ...more Posted 12:32 PM by Jim Hightower US press lashes Bush's "Pinocchio budget" AFP[ TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 03, 2004 09:30:40 PM ] The Times of India WASHINGTON : President George W. Bush's 2005 spending plan took a whiplashing Tuesday in the press as a bogus, irresponsible and dishonest "Pinocchio budget". "The central fiction in the budget is that it constitutes the first step in halving the record 521 billion dollar deficit over the next five years," the New York Times editorial said. Its headline was "The Pinocchio Budget." Bush's budget estimates the deficit will hit a record 521 billion dollars this year ending September 30, fall to 364 billion dollars in fiscal 2005, and dwindle to 237 billion dollars in 2009. But the president accomplished that feat on paper in part by excluding roughly 50 billion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan military costs until after the November elections, the New York Times said. Bush also ignored the long-term effects of his proposal to make permanent most of the administration's 1.7 trillion dollars in temporary tax cuts, it said. At the same time, the budget proposed an "unconscionable" seven-percent cut in spending for the Environemntal Protection Agency and "plays havoc" with a program to prevent the poor becoming homeless. "Polls ...more Posted 12:24 PM by Jim Hightower Ten Things You Should Know About President Bush’s FY 2005 Budget February 3, 2004 The Bush administration’s 2005 budget presents a misleading picture of our nation’s finances and includes a number of manipulative tactics to hide the true costs and consequences of the administration’s fiscal priorities. Provides a deceptive five-year budget outlook: The administration’s single largest policy choice in the 2005 budget is to extend their tax cuts into the next decade. Yet their choice of a five-year budget window, conveniently stopping at 2009 – the year before the major tax cuts expire and the year the baby boomers begin retiring – presents an unfair picture of our fiscal situation. The tax cuts will cost $4.6 trillion including increased interest costs if extended over the next decade, over $400 billion in increased costs in 2014 alone. Denies tax cuts are the true cause of the deficit: The president’s budget takes aim at non-security discretionary spending programs, while ignoring the impact of massive tax cuts on future fiscal deterioration. Overall funding for discretionary programs increased from 6.8 percent of GDP in 2001, before September 11 reshaped our priorities, to 8.1 percent of GDP in 2004. This is almost entirely attributable to increases ...more Monday, February 2, 2004 Posted 3:53 PM by Jim Hightower "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke" Failing in Your Middle Class By Michelle Singletary Sunday, February 1, 2004; Page F01 You would think that if you are a two-income family, living in a nice house in a good neighborhood, you've arrived. You've done what it takes to achieve middle-income status and you should be okay, right? But what you may have done is fall into a two-income trap. Two researchers have found that millions of middle-income families are in deep financial trouble or only breaking even. In "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke" (Basic Books, $26), authors Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi conclude that earning two incomes doesn't guarantee financial security. "Over the past generation, the number of American families who have found themselves in serious financial trouble has grown shockingly large," the authors write. "In a world in which our neighbors seem to be doing fine and the families on television never worry about money, it is hard to grasp the breadth or depth of financial distress sweeping through ordinary suburbs, small towns, and nice city neighborhoods." For February, I've selected ...more Posted 3:48 PM by Jim Hightower Bush to pick panel for WMD inquiry From John King CNN Washington Bureau Monday, February 2, 2004 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush said Monday he would appoint an outside commission to review U.S. intelligence on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Responding to political pressure, Bush told reporters at a Cabinet meeting he wanted to look at prewar intelligence and what the Iraq Survey Group -- the U.S. team hunting for Iraq's weapons programs -- found. "We also want to look at our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction in a broader context," Bush said. "So I'm putting together a independent, bipartisan commission to analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror." Bush said he wanted to talk to former U.S. chief weapons inspector David Kay before moving forward with the commission. Kay told a Senate panel last week that his group did not find weapons of mass destruction and said he didn't believe significant stockpiles of banned weapons would be found. "It turns out we were all wrong, and that is most disturbing," Kay said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing during which he called for an ...more Posted 3:43 PM by Jim Hightower Halliburton in $16M food probe Report: Contractor allegedly overcharged U.S. military for food-service work. February 2, 2004: 9:49 AM EST CNN/Money NEW YORK (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. allegedly overcharged more than $16 million for meals at a U.S. military base in Kuwait during the first seven months of last year, according to a published report Monday, citing Pentagon investigators auditing the company's work. Because of the charges, which involve food-service work done by Halliburton (HAL: Research, Estimates) unit Kellogg Brown & Root, the Pentagon has extended its audit of KBR food services to include more than 50 other dining facilities in Kuwait and Iraq, according to an e-mail sent Friday to more than 12 U.S. Army contracting officials and reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The company issued a statement Monday, saying it is not an issue of overcharging, it's "about finding a good way to estimate the number of meals so soldiers can get fed. It's difficult to determine how many people will be at the dinner table in the middle of a war zone and the number must be based on estimates." "We plan, purchase and prepare meals based on estimates. At times, soldiers are on leave or troops ...more Posted 2:08 PM by Jim Hightower DO SOMETHING...FUN Perhaps you've heard of Meetup.com, the Internet phenomenon that's bringing together like-minded people all across the country. Well, we've organized our own Meetup groups for Hightower Lowdowners and other just-plain-folks who are interested in taking back power through grassroots activism. To learn about the next Hightower Lowdowner Meetup in your area, just visit www.meetup.com. On the left side of the home page, click on "Politics & Activism" and then click on "Groups & Associations." You'll then see a link for "Hightower Lowdowners." Click that link to find out details about the next Lowdowner gathering in your area. We'll talk about how to make your voice heard and assert your power as citizens. And most important of all...we'll have fun. Posted 12:31 PM by Jim Hightower Restoring Trust in America By Zbigniew Brzezinski Monday, February 2, 2004; Page A17 Washington Post Whether or how our national leadership should be held accountable for having inaccurately asserted, at war's outset, that Iraq was armed with weapons of mass destruction is ultimately a matter for the politicians to debate and the electorate to resolve. But two consequences with ominous implications for our national security call for a more urgent response: U.S. credibility worldwide has been badly hurt by the WMD affair, and U.S. intelligence capabilities have been exposed as woefully inadequate. America is preponderant in the world today, but it is not omnipotent. Thus America must have the capacity, when needed, to mobilize the genuine and sincere support of other countries, particularly of its closest allies. It can do so only if it is trusted. That U.S. credibility has been hurt is indisputable. It is a serious matter when the world's No. 1 superpower undertakes a war claiming a casus belli that turns out to have been false. Numerous public opinion polls demonstrate there has been a worldwide drop in support for U.S. foreign policy. There is manifest resentment of recent American conduct and a pervasive ...more Posted 9:57 AM by Jim Hightower A scandal greater than Watergate "Too few Americans seem troubled their president either lied or blundered into a horrible mess in Iraq, so far costing 520 American dead, nearly 10,000 casualties and $200 billion US for 2003-04." By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor Toronto Sun February 1, 2004 "We were all wrong," White House chief weapons hunter and longtime war booster David Kay admitted last week. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, as the U.S. and Britain had long alleged. Iraq's nuclear weapons, death rays, vans of death, drones of death, mobile germ labs, poison gas factories, hidden weapons depots, long-range missiles, links to al-Qaida - all were bogus. The only thing real is Iraq's oil. If Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction (WMD), as it long insisted, we must draw one of two conclusions. Either President George Bush, and secretaries Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld, lied about the global threat they claimed Iraq posed, and deceived Congress and the American people. Or, they were grossly misinformed by their intelligence experts and must be judged fools of the first order. If Bush and his team of chest-thumping, self-proclaimed national security experts were really misinformed ...more Sunday, February 1, 2004 Posted 8:26 PM by Jim Hightower Why Kerry worries Wall Street Securities industry contributions to his campaign are big, but it doesn't mean the market likes him. January 31, 2004 By Alexandra Twin CNN/Money Staff Writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - It's an interesting paradox: the perception of Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's potential "electability" as a presidential candidate makes him both Wall Street's most alluring and most dreaded Democratic contender. Even before he won Iowa and New Hampshire, judging by their donations, Wall Street firms were betting that John Kerry was the most electable of the Democratic candidates. Members of the securities and investment industry have donated nearly $4 million to big-business friendly George W. Bush's re-election campaign, but have also donated more than $1 million to Kerry's campaign, according to the latest available data from the Center for Responsive Politics. His nearest Democratic competitor, in terms of donations, is Joseph Lieberman, with about $660,000 in Wall Street contributions. But before Kerry won in Iowa and New Hampshire, former Vermont governor Howard Dean was seen as the Democratic front runner, not Kerry. And while its still very early in the game to call the ultimate front runner, many see Kerry as now assuming that role, and this makes some ...more Friday, January 30, 2004 Posted 7:08 PM by Jim Hightower Chickenhawk Bush's War Record: Missing, Inaction Operation Desert Guard By James Ridgeway Village Voice January 28 - February 3, 2004 The moral dictates of the Christian right are nothing compared with the concerns of the protectors of public morality in the press corps. Ever vigilant in our behalf, they recently condemned Michael Jackson (Who needs a trial with the people's advocate Nancy Grace and CNN judge Larry King on the job?). But even Jackson didn't have the audacity to say what Michael Moore said—that the president of the United States is a deserter. Yes, indeed. He said that. Not only did Moore say it, but he said it in public on a stage in the midst of a political campaign. In the midst of a war, no less. The press corps blushed in shame for all of us and promptly condemned Moore as an ignorant fool who ought to stick with his disgusting comedy shows. Fortunately for us, Michael Moore is crazy like a fox. By calling Bush a "deserter," (video) he got the big-time journalists—horrified David Broder, incredulous Peter Jennings, outraged Robert Novak, nonplussed Tim Russert—to openly raise the deserter issue before millions. It is now a political ...more Posted 7:04 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Threatens Veto on Congressional attempt to Restrict Powers Under Terrorism Law By ERIC LICHTBLAU Published: January 30, 2004 New York Times WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — The Bush administration, stepping up the debate over its antiterrorism policies, threatened on Thursday to veto a pending bill that would scale back the government's powers under the USA Patriot Act. Attorney General John Ashcroft told reporters that the bill, sponsored by Senate Republicans and Democrats, "unilaterally disarms America's defenses" against terrorists and that President Bush intended to veto the measure if Congress passed it. The threat of a veto represents an unusual pre-emptive strike by the administration. The bill has not even come up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Supporters of the measure reacted angrily. Senator Richard J. Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who is a co-sponsor of the measure, called Mr. Ashcroft's comments "an unfortunate overreaction." The measure, introduced in October, would restrict the broadened powers that the government was given in the antiterrorism law, approved by Congress weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The bill would limit the government's ability to use roving wiretaps against terrorist suspects, to execute search warrants against suspects without immediately notifying them and to obtain business ...more Posted 6:59 PM by Jim Hightower Bush Creating Class of Permanent Jobless Americans Exhausting Federal Compassion Published: January 30, 2004 New York Times Editorials/Op-Ed The pernicious joblessness bedeviling the nation is spawning a new category of Americans dubbed "exhaustees": the hundreds of thousands of hard-core unemployed who have run through state and federal unemployment aid. According to the latest estimates, close to two million Americans, futilely hunting for work while scrambling for economic sustenance, will join the ranks of exhaustees in the next six months. They represent a record flood of unemployed individuals with expired benefits — the highest in 30 years — who are plainly desperate for help. President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress are doing nothing to help these people. Washington showed no qualms last month in allowing the expiration of the emergency federal program that had offered an extra 13 weeks of help to those who exhausted state benefits. Historically, such help has been continued in periods of continuing job shortages. A year ago, the aid was extended an extra year by Republican leaders. But now, the G.O.P.'s election-year talk is of a recovery rooted in the tax cuts weighted for affluent America. Tending to the exhaustees clearly mars that message. The emergency program cries out for immediate ...more Posted 9:27 AM by Jim Hightower Senator John Kerry's Army of Amercan Veterans by Bruce Shapiro The Nation comment | Posted January 29, 2004 John Kerry kept a bodyguard beside him at his town meeting in Somersworth, a working-class hamlet near the Maine border, two days before the primary. At least it appeared he had: The granite-jawed, gimlet-eyed face beneath the VFW hat festooned with unit badges looked ready in an instant to swing a mean left hook. But Kerry's shadow man had only one arm and no legs. It was Max Cleland, former senator from Georgia, triply maimed by combat wounds in Vietnam. From his wheelchair at Kerry's side throughout the ninety-minute question-and-answer session, Cleland maintained the unblinking gaze of a combat soldier on night watch--a silent dare to any antagonist. Other Vietnam-era vets have run for President--John McCain in 2000, Wesley Clark this year. And every Democratic candidate shouts out that the Bush Administration has abandoned veterans even in the midst of war, from cutbacks in medical eligibility to loss of overtime pay. Somehow Kerry's candidacy and his veterans operation are different. Written off only a few weeks ago as heir to Gore's Herman Munster stiffness, Kerry has--at least in two states--aroused a hidden ...more Posted 9:02 AM by Jim Hightower Bush Opposes Senator John McCain's (R-Ariz.) Call for Independent Probe Into Intelligence Failures By KATHERINE PFLEGER Associated Press Writer 1/30/2004 WASHINGTON — Parting company with many of his fellow Republicans, Sen. John McCain said Thursday he wants an independent commission to take a sweeping look at recent intelligence failures. The White House has dismissed the proposal, saying the CIA is committed to reviewing the intelligence behind claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The Bush administration also argues that the weapons search is not yet complete. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., has expressed frustration with those who suggest an outside investigation is needed before his committee has a chance to complete an inquiry now underway. Senate Armed Service Chairman John Warner, R-Va., supports letting the committee finish its work. In an interview with The Associated Press, McCain said he believes the public needs an assessment that won't be clouded by partisan division. The Arizona senator said he is seeking a full-scale look not only at apparently botched intelligence on Iraq's weapons capabilities, but also flawed estimations of Iraq, North Korea and Libya and the faulty assessments from other Western intelligence services. "I am absolutely convinced that one is necessary," McCain said, "because ...more Posted 8:54 AM by Jim Hightower Michael Moore apologizes for calling Bush "deserter" by Michael Moore MichaelMoore.com Jan. 27, 2004 I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a "deserter." What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants. In fact, he "shot a man in Reno just to watch him die." Actually, what I meant to say up in New Hampshire last week was that "We're going to have Bush for dessert come November!" I'm always mixing up "dessert" and "desert" -- I'm sure many of you have that problem. Well, well, well. As George W. would say, "It's time to smoke 'em out of their hole!" Thanks to my "humorous" introduction of Wesley Clark 10 days ago in New Hampshire -- and the lughead way the no-sense-of-humor media has covered it -- there were 15 million hits this weekend on my website. Everyone who visited the site got to read the truth about Bush not showing up for National Guard duty. The weird thing about all this is that during my routine I never went into any details about Bush skipping out ...more Posted 7:46 AM by Jim Hightower Let's be Explicit and Clear: George McGovern Was Right About the Vietnam War -- And He's Right About the Iraq War January 29, 2004 A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW "Let me say that one thing that Richard Pearle and Dick Cheney and George W. Bush have in common is that none of them have ever been near a combat scene. They're perfectly willing to send younger people -- other people's sons -- into war. They're very generous with that blood of the young men and women that they throw into combat so casually. But they've protected their blood and their limbs by never serving near a battlefield. That's true of the President. It's true of the Vice President. It's true of Pearle and Wolfowitz -- that whole crowd of neo-conservatives that have the ear of the President." -- Former Senator George McGovern and 1972 Democratic Candidate for President He's 82 now and America still owes him his due. Unlike GOP Chickenhawks Dick Cheney and George Bush, George McGovern was a decorated combat veteran. He knew war -- and he knew the Vietnam War was a waste of American life. Thousands of American lives would have been saved -- and millions of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotians would ...more Thursday, January 29, 2004 Posted 5:06 PM by Jim Hightower Exxon-Mobil sets record profits in 2003; Still refuses to pay Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Damages for past 15 years Exxon Mobil Set Record Profit in 2003 By David Koenig The Associated Press Published: Jan 29, 2004 DALLAS (AP) - Exxon Mobil Corp. saw fourth-quarter earnings jump 63 percent as it benefited from higher prices for crude oil and natural gas. Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, said Thursday that it also set a record for earnings in one year, $21.51 billion, nearly double its profit for all of 2002. In the October-December quarter, Exxon Mobil earned $6.65 billion, or $1.01 per share compared with $4.09 billion, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding $2.23 billion from settlement of a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service and other one-time gains and losses, Exxon Mobil said it earned operating profit of $4.42 billion, or 68 cents per share, compared with $3.79 billion, or 56 cents per share a year ago. That easily beat the forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call, who had expected earnings of 58 cents per share. Revenue rose to $65.95 billion from $56.21 billion. Exxon Mobil shares rose 66 cents, or 1.6 percent, ...more Posted 7:29 AM by Jim Hightower Will Dubya Dump Dick? (Will Bush select Condoleezza Rice as his VP running mate for 2004 to woo African-American and female voters to the Republican party? Check out: http://www.bushrice04.org/) By Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service January 28, 2004 Alternet.org While Democratic rivals battle for the presidential nomination in a succession of grueling primary elections, Vice President Dick Cheney appears to be fighting to secure his spot on the Republican ticket behind President George W. Bush. The vice president, whose supposed moderation and 35-year Washington experience reassured Bush voters worried about the callowness and inexperience of Bush in 2000, is increasingly seen by Republican Party politicos as a millstone on the president's re-election chances in what is expected to be an extremely close race. The reasons are for their worries are evident. Ongoing disclosures about Cheney's role in the drive to war in Iraq and other controversial administration plans reveal him as not the much-touted moderate but an extremist who constantly pushed for the most radical policies. But more than just an extremist, Cheney is also viewed as a kind of eminence grise who exercises undue influence over Bush to further a radical agenda, a perception confirmed by recent revelations by former treasury ...more Posted 7:25 AM by Jim Hightower BushCo Lies and says they never claimed Iraq was an "imminent threat" BUSH CLAIMS TO NEVER SAY IRAQ WAS "IMMINENT THREAT" Facing mounting pressure over charges that the White House deliberately misled the American people about Iraq's WMD, President Bush is now claiming that U.N. weapons inspectors were not allowed into Iraq before the war. Yesterday, the pesident said, Iraq "chose defiance. It was [Saddam's] choice to make, and he did not let us in." But U.N. weapons inspections led by Hans Blix began inspections on November 27th, 2002, as noted by the State Department at the time. Over the course of the next five months, those inspections found "little more than 'debris'" from a WMD program that had long since been destroyed. The weapons inspectors were forced to leave when Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq. President Bush then "refused to permit the U.N. inspectors to return to Iraq." When asked about the issue yesterday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan claimed the entire WMD issue was unimportant because the Bush Administration had never said Iraq was a threat. He said, "the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent'" to describe the Iraqi "threat" - not the Bush Administration. But the record shows the Administration repeatedly said ...more Wednesday, January 28, 2004 Posted 9:00 AM by Jim Hightower 1 in 4 Schools Fall Short Under Bush Law (According to a recent report in Education Week magazine, the Department of Education has given more than $77 million to pro-voucher, pro-privatization groups, although No Child Left Behind has never been fully funded. In fiscal 2003, schools got $6 billion less than it cost them to comply, and in 2004 under-funding will be $8 billion. Of course, the president did find $1.5 billion to lecture poor people on the virtues of marriage and $150 billion for an unnecessary war in Iraq.) By SAM DILLON Published: January 27, 2004 Bush's signature education law has already put more than a quarter of the nation's public schools on academic probation, and thousands more are likely to face federal sanctions in the coming years, according to the most comprehensive study to date of the law's impact. The law, known as No Child Left Behind, seeks to raise achievement by meting out sanctions to schools that fail to reach achievement targets on standardized tests. It has succeeded in focusing educators' energies on closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged students and others, said the study, by the Center on Education Policy, a nonpartisan group. But requirements that many ...more Posted 8:53 AM by Jim Hightower Citing Free Speech, Judge Voids Part of "Patriot" Act By ERIC LICHTBLAU New York Times Published: January 27, 2004 WASHINGTON — For the first time, a federal judge has struck down part of the sweeping antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, joining other courts that have challenged integral parts of the Bush administration's campaign against terrorism. In Los Angeles, the judge, Audrey B. Collins of Federal District Court, said in a decision made public on Monday that a provision in the law banning certain types of support for terrorist groups was so vague that it risked running afoul of the First Amendment. Civil liberties advocates hailed the decision as an important victory in efforts to rein in what they regard as legal abuses in the government's antiterrorism initiatives. The Justice Department defended the law as a crucial tool in the fight against terrorists and promised to review the Los Angeles ruling. At issue was a provision in the act, passed by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that expanded previous antiterrorism law to prohibit anyone from providing "expert advice or assistance" to known terrorist groups. The measure was part of a broader set of prohibitions that the administration has relied ...more