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in October
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Today's
Stories
Uri Avnery
A Drug
for the Addict
Recent Stories
August 23/24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
August 22, 2003
Carole Harper
Post-Sandinista
Nicaragua
John Chuckman
George Will: the Marquis of Mendacity
Richard Thieme
Operation Paperclip Revisited
Chris Floyd
Dubya Indemnity: Bush Barons Beyond the Reach of Law?
Issam Nashashibi
Palestinians
and the Right of Return: a Rigged Survey
Mary Walworth
Other People's Kids
Ron Jacobs
The
Darkening Tunnel
Website of the Day
Current Energy
August 21, 2003
Robert Fisk
The US
Needs to Blame Anyone But Locals for UN Bombing
Virginia Tilley
The Quisling Policies of the UN in Iraq: Toward a Permanent War?
Rep. Henry Waxman
Bush Owes the Public Some Serious Answers on Iraq
Ben Terrall
War Crimes and Punishment in Indonesia: Rapes, Murders and Slaps
on the Wrists
Elaine Cassel
Brother John Ashcroft's Traveling Patriot Salvation Show
Christopher Brauchli
Getting Gouged by Banks
Marjorie Cohn
Sergio Vieira de Mello: Victim of Terrorism or US Policy in Iraq?
Vicente Navarro
Media
Double Standards: The Case of Mr. Aznar, Friend of Bush
Website of the Day
The Intelligence Squad
August 20, 2003
Robert Fisk
Now No
One Is Safe in Iraq
Caoimhe Butterly
Life and Death on the Frontlines of Baghdad
Kurt Nimmo
UN Bombing: Act of Terrorism or Guerrilla War?
Michael Egan
Revisiting the Paranoid Style in the Dark
Ramzi Kysia
Peace
is not an Abstract Idea
Steven Higgs
NPR and the NAFTA Highway
John L. Hess
A Downside Day
Edward Said
The Imperial Bluster of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Gridlock at Path 15: the California Blackouts were the "Wake
Up Call"
Website of the Day
Ashcroft's Patriotic Hype
August 19, 2003
Jeffrey St. Clair
Blackouts Happen
Gary Leupp
"Our Patch": Australia v. the Evil Doers of the South
Pacific
Sean Donahue
Uribe's Cruel Model: Colombia Moves Toward Totalitarianism
Matt Martin
Bush's Credibility Problem on Missile Defense
Juliana Fredman
Recipe for the Destruction of a Hudna
John Ross
Fox Government's Attack on Mexican Basques
Sasan Fayazmanesh
What Kermit Roosevelt Didn't Say
Website of the Day
Tom Delay's Dual Loyalities
August 18, 2003
Uri Avnery
Hero in War and Peace
Stan Goff
The Volunteer Military and the Wicked Adventure
Cathy Breen
Baghdad on the Hudson
Michael Kimaid
Fight the Power (Companies)!
Jason Leopold
The California Rip-Off Revisited: Arnold, Milken and Ken Lay
Matt Siegfried
The Bush Administration in Context
Elaine Cassel
At Last, A Judge Who Acts Like a Judge
Alexander Cockburn
Judy Miller's War
Harvey Wasserman
The Legacy of Blackout Pete Wilson
Website of the Day
Fire Griles!
Congratulations
to CounterPuncher Gilad Atzmon! BBC Names EXILE Top Jazz CD
August 16 / 17, 2003
Flavia Alaya
Bastille
New Jersey
Jeffrey St. Clair
War Pimps
Saul Landau
The Legacy of Moncada: the Cuban Revolution at 50
Brian Cloughley
What Has Happened to the US Army in Iraq?
William S. Lind
Coffins for the Crews: How Not to Use Light Armored Vehicles
Col. Dan Smith
Time for Straight Talk
Wenonah Hauter
Which
Electric System Do We Want?
David Lindorff
Where's Arnold When We Need Him?
Harvey Wasserman
This Grid Should Not Exist
Don Moniak
"Unusual Events" at Nuclear Power Plants: a Timeline
for August 14, 2003
David Vest
Rolling Blackout Revue
Merlin Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Sherman Austin
Adam Engel
The Loneliest Number
Poets' Basement
Guthrie, Hamod & Albert
Book of the Weekend
Powerplay by Sharon Beder
August 14, 2003
Peter Phillips
Inside
Bohemian Grove: Where US Power Elites Party
Brian Cloughley
Charlie Wilson and Pakistan: the Strange Congressman Behind the
CIA's Most Expensive War
Linville and Ruder
Tyson
Strike Draws the Line
Jim Lobe
Bush Administration Divided Over Iran
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon Freezes the Road Map
Tom Turnipseed
Blowback in Iraq
Gary Leupp
Condi's
Speech: From Birgmingham to Baghdad, Imperialism's Freedom Ride
Website of the Day
Tony Benn's Greatest Hits
August 13, 2003
Joanne Mariner
A Wall of Separation Through the
Heart
Donald Worster
The Heavy Cost of Empire
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Elaine Cassel
Murderous Errors: Executing the Innocent
Ralph Nader
Make the Recall Count
Alexander Cockburn
Ted Honderich Hit with "Anti-Semitism" Slur
Website of the Day
Defending Yourself Against DirectTV Lawsuits: 9000 and Counting
August 12, 2003
Ron Jacobs
Revisionist History: the Bush Administration, Civil Rights and
Iraq
Josh Frank
Dean's Constitutional Hang-Up
Wayne Madsen
What's a Fifth Columnist? Well, Someone Like Hitchens
Ray McGovern
Relax,
It Was All a Pack of Lies
Wendy Brinker
Hubris in the White House
Website of the Day
Black
Mustache
Hot Stories
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
William Blum
Myth
and Denial in the War on Terrorism
Standard Schaefer
Experimental Casinos: DARPA and the War Economy
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click Here
for More Stories.
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August
25, 2003
The Governors Come
to Indy
Corporations
Welcome; Citizens Locked Out
By THOMAS P. HEALY
Indianapolis.
Prelude
On August 12, two days before the nation's largest
power blackout, the Washington D.C.-based Economic Policy Institute
arranged a news conference call in which a half dozen leading
economists discussed the Bush administration's fiscal policies.
George Akerlof, professor of economics at the University of California,
Berkeley and a 2001 Nobel Prize winner in economics, delivered
a devastating opening remark: "The Bush fiscal policy is
the worst policy in over 200 years." Using data from the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Akerlof estimated a 10-year
fiscal deficit of almost $6 trillion. "Now, $6 trillion
is a very large number," he said. "It's so large, the
deficits are of such magnitude that they threaten the fiscal
integrity of the United States."
During the question and answer session
that followed Akerlof's opening remarks, I asked what the panelists
would say to the nation's governors, who are forced by state
balanced budget amendments to exercise fiscally responsibility,
yet bear the brunt of the effects of poor fiscal policies in
Washington. Nobel Prize winner Robert M. Solow, professor emeritus
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, deadpanned, "Complain
bitterly."
***
Reeling from the combined effects of
a dismal U.S. economy and a costly war in Iraq, increased concerns
about homeland security and vulnerable energy transmission networks,
rising healthcare costs and lowered revenues, 32 governors of
the American states, commonwealths and territories converged
on Indianapolis Aug. 1619 for the 95th annual meeting of
the National Governors Association (NGA).
Think of the NGA as a trade association
that hosts two gatherings a year where colleagues caucus to work
on the group's business agenda and get some time for socializing
as well. But unlike dentists, architects, printers, journalists
or other members of professional societies, members of the NGA
are elected officials and the association business they conduct
has an influence on public policy.
Kentucky Governor Paul Patton, chairman
of the NGA, said the many "governors-only" sessions
provided opportunities "to discuss and examine some of the
most important issues facing the states."
Gov. Patton added that the economy, while
not specifically on the agenda, was on everybody's mind. "I
think we're all concerned, I think the administration is concerned.
... I think we're all trying to figure out what we can do to
stimulate the economy. ... It's an ongoing debate." That's
as close to "complaining bitterly" as it got during
the four day event.
Citing the loss of sales tax revenues
from electronic commerce coupled with depleted state reserves,
Patton said states were struggling to maintain essential services.
Asked if he considered environmental remediation and protection
part of those essential services, he replied, "I think protection
of the environment is just as essential a government service
as providing social services or providing for education. In my
opinion--and I think most governors will agree--protecting our
environment is one of those vital government services that states
are in the front line of providing with federal partnership."
***
I skipped presentations by Tom Ridge
and William Cohen but couldn't resist sitting in on the NGA's
Natural Resources Committee where Gail Norton, secretary of the
U.S. Department of Interior, made a short presentation about
the natural gas shortage.
DoI controls nearly one out of every
five acres in the country, she said, and Interior-managed lands
produce "about a third of the nation's oil and natural gas
and coal."
The natural gas shortfall is expected
to be 50 percent in 50 years, she said, noting that "while
the supply remains constant, demand will increase." Citing
the "dramatic impact" of soaring natural gas prices
on home utility bills and industrial users, she declared, "We
have seen a sea change of use in natural gas."
This necessitates "moving from a
regulatory approach to a market approach" and quickly finding
more domestic sources. She outlined the approach her department
will take: removing legal obstacles (lawsuits by environmentalists),
"streamlining" the permitting process (speeding up
paperwork processing), "thoughtfully reviewing land-use
restrictions" (opening up offshore sites to drilling) and
providing utilities with "flexibility to comply with law."
She did manage to drop a "green"
bomb. "Energy production and environmental protection cannot
be competing priorities," she said. "We look at these
lands to see what uses will be appropriate. And sometimes those
lands are off limits and should remain off limits. Wilderness
areas or national parks are not areas we consider for oil or
gas leases." Special wildlife and scenic areas are respected,
she said. "Furthermore, we respect all the moratoria that
exist on offshore drilling."
Given the Bush administration's eagerness
to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and other wild
places, her statement provided a "pinch me, I'm dreaming"
moment.
Afterward, at a briefing with reporters,
she mentioned "streamlining" again, so I said, "Madame
Secretary, the issue of streamlining is very important to the
environmental constituency. It seems to mean you're going to
ramrod transmission lines or pipelines through wilderness areas."
She didn't skip a beat as she launched
into her response. "As we looked at the way in which all
kinds of different comments on rights of way or other things
have been handled in the time --this also comes up as we were
talking about the President's Healthy Forest Initiative in trying
to deal with treating areas to minimize fire danger. What we
found is that we had these applications where one agency does
for example a cultural survey to see if there are any archeological
sites and then that sits on somebody's desk for 30 days after
that gets finished. Then we do the environmental analysis and
that may sit on somebody's desk for a while. Let's say there's
an air quality question. That goes to EPA and they study that
and then you have the Endangered Species. Well, Fish & Wildlife
looks at Endangered Species and again there's analysis and it
goes to somebody's desk and waits. There's a lot of things that
you can do to speed up that process without in anyway changing
the environmental standards that are applied or the analyses
that are done."
"For example," she continued
in her measured, sensible-sounding way, "on the Endangered
Species Act, by simply figuring out standardized kinds of questions
that might arise or standardized projects--you've got three or
four projects that affect similar species in one geographic area--handling
all of those as a group; that can speed things up a lot. And
by having a database for exchange of information so you don't
have different field offices each inventing the wheel when it
comes to common scientific questions, there are a number of things
we are able to do to really speed up the process and make it
much more effective at the same time so we try to do those commonsense
approaches."
Two more questions and two prompt replies
and she was gone.
The mesmerizing quality of the encounter
stuck with me for hours. The key to her success, and to the success
of all the Bush administration's initiatives from Clear Skies
(which are anything but) to No Child Left Behind (as long as
their parents can afford private school) to Healthy Forests (genetically
modified tree farms crisscrossed by superhighways) is the ability
to frame the issues in light of the needs of business interests,
equating commercial concerns with the public good while paying
lip service to environmental stewardship.
Norton's comments bolster the League
of Conservation Voters' recent contention that the primary beneficiaries
of the administration's environmental actions have been timber,
mining, oil and gas industries and real estate development companies.
Patricio Silva, an attorney with the
Natural Resources Defense Council who has worked on energy policy
for the past decade, provided a much-needed jolt back to reality.
Silva notes that in the last 20 years more than 60 percent of
all federal public lands have been opened to leasing and that
environmental regulations are routinely waived as hardships for
industry.
"Environmental regulations have
never hindered accessing the large natural gas deposits in the
Rocky Mountains," he said. Instead, the restrictions are
economic. "The western Rockies consist of valleys, mesas,
bluffs and incredibly isolated areas that will require building
hundreds of miles of roads. That's why there hasn't been a lot
of drilling," he said. "Infrastructure is too costly."
Silva serves as the Midwest Activities
Coordinator for NRDC and asserts that no matter what the United
States does, it will have to import increasing quantities of
natural gas. "That's the unfortunate reality about the natural
gas shortage and not because of any particular issue regarding
access to federal public lands or national parks or national
monuments or sensitive offshore marine habitats."
But this kind of talk was absent from
the NGA meetings. Many of the governors in attendance made a
point of voicing their support for the Bush Administration's
Clean Skies initiative. For example, Colorado Governor Bill Owens,
a Republican and co-chair of NGA's Natural Resources committee
said, "There is a disconnect between the facts of what's
happening in the American environment and perception of the public."
In another context plenty of progressives
could agree with that statement. But Owens continued: "[We
have] two and a half times the production of electrical generation
of coal today versus 1970 and between one-third and one-fifteenth
the pollution," he said. "So it is possible to meet
the needs of a growing economy with less pollution."
It's this kind of talk that infuriates
environmentalists: Bush supporters taking credit for programs
they bitterly opposed. Apparently they really can have it both
ways, given compliant media and an electorate so overwhelmed
by economic hardship they're too busy trying to earn money to
have any time left to complain.
Vicky A. Bailey, assistant secretary
for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Department of
Energy, told the Natural Resources Committee that worldwide electrical
consumption is projected to grow at an annual rate of 2.4 percent
annually between now and 2025--a 51 percent increase. "The
world will need all of the energy it can find and economically
bring to market," she said.
She assured her listeners, including
Committee Chair Bob Wise--a Democrat and governor of West Virginia,
the nation's number two coal-producing state--that coal would
be needed to fuel increased electrical consumption (up 35 percent
by 2025, according to Bailey.) "The President doesn't believe
that we have to sacrifice our coal industry" to achieve
reductions in pollutants associated with coal-fired power plants."
She spoke glowingly of so-called clean coal technology.
Her most effusive praise was saved for
the Bush administration's latest techno-fix: FutureGen, a $1
billion project to create a prototype 275-megawatt coal-burning
zero-emissions hydrogen power plant in 15 years. The Feds expect
to cover 80 percent of the costs.
The governors were eager to hear about
this latest science-fiction plan for energy independence and
to formulate strategies to land the project in their respective
states. Expect a serious bidding war if this project ever gets
off the drawing board.
***
Though big-name governors such as California's
embattled Gray Davis and Florida's Jeb Bush stayed away, keynote
presenters in addition to Sec. Norton included U.S. Department
of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and former U.S. Secretary
of Defense William S. Cohen. Utah Governor Michael Leavitt, recently
nominated by President Bush to fill the top job at the Environmental
Protection Agency, was also in attendance, although he declined
to talk about the nomination "in deference to the confirmation
process," according to one of his aides.
The combined presence of so many political
leaders in one spot required tight security. A "green zone"
surrounded the grounds around the Marriott Hotel in downtown
Indianapolis and access was strictly limited.
Arriving at the front door of the Marriott
with my highly visible credentials, I got stuck behind a woman
in a wheelchair whose access was blocked by a large Indiana State
Police trooper. "I'm sorry ma'am, we're in lockdown,"
he said.
"I'm a guest in this hotel,"
she said evenly, and held up her room card. "I'm sorry,"
he replied and stood firm. Behind him the doors were being pulled
shut and a plainclothes security man was waiving his hand in
front of the door sensor. It didn't open. Lots of serious-looking
men in suits were speaking into their wrists. The woman finally
got the attention of the concierge and she was permitted to enter
through a side entrance.
The woman is Teresa Torres, a member
of ADAPT, a disabled citizens' rights group that had booked a
block of rooms at the Marriott and held a protest rally in the
lobby earlier in the day. "All we want is a chance to talk
with the governors," she said. I told her the NGA didn't
consider the request appropriate for this meeting. "When?"
she shot back. "And where? We'll be there!" ADAPT members
are proud of their mobility and want to keep it but feel that
they are being pressured into assisted-living centers by Medicaid
rules that issue funds to nursing homes, not individuals.
Because they were hotel guests, they
had access to the main lobby. Meanwhile, across the street, a
noisy group of three dozen protestors filled the police-designated
"free speech zone" surrounded by concrete barricades
and cops on bikes.
One masked woman holding a "Free
Speech Zone" sign objected to the NGA's policy of limited
access. "They've closed off the convention to the public
and at the same time they're letting corporations pay to have
representatives in the meetings with the governors," she
said. "The spokespeople for the corporations get to influence
our public policy but we don't. We don't think it's fair at all
that the corporations get to push their agendas [ahead of the]
people the governors are supposed to represent."
Inside the Marriott, Christine LaPaille,
director of the NGA's office of communications, tried to explain
the policy. "We're not really conducting the public's business,
we're conducting the business of the association," she said.
"And the business of the association is to develop bipartisan
policy positions on major issues that we deal with in Washington."
Her boss, NGA Executive Director Ray
Scheppach, denied any behind-the-scenes deal making occurs at
NGA events. "We have kicked out organizations that have
unfairly lobbied," he said.
"If the corporations want to lobby,
they lobby directly to the state office," he said, not at
NGA meetings where policies are worked out well in advance of
the actual meetings.
"I would argue that the people who
come to these meetings are generally state coordinators rather
than lobbyists," he said. "It would be a rare situation
where a federal lobbyist would be the representative for one
of these corporations [at NGA meetings]."
It's worth noting that presenters to
the NGA's three standing committees displayed an industry-friendly
tilt. For example, a Battelle spokesman appeared before the Committee
on Economic Development and Commerce in a discussion on biotechnology
and the president of Energy Corporation of America urged the
Committee on Natural Resources to make sure independent energy
producers have "access to resources."
This shouldn't come as a big surprise,
given that research and support to governors is provided by the
NGA's nonprofit arm, the Center for Best Practices, which is
funded by foundation grants and dues from 100 "Corporate
Fellows," including Alcoa, AOL Time Warner, Bechtel, Dow
Chemical, Monsanto and Wal-Mart. Several major energy companies
are Fellows, too, including American Electric Power, ConocoPhillips,
DTE Energy and Exelon/Peco Energy.
Though NGA staff assured me that "environmentalists'
voices are heard," it is up to individual governors to insist
that they have a seat at the table during staff meetings held
throughout the year to formulate association policy and establish
the agenda for the group's two yearly meetings. "We've got
a lot of governors from states who are pretty environmentally
conscious and a lot of time their feeling is we've got to have
these people involved--we have to bring them [environmentalists]
in," Scheppach said, "So that does happen."
Greenpeace, NRDC and the Sierra Club,
as well as ADAPT and the AFL-CIO, were absent from the list of
Fellows, and Sheppach acknowledged it's a valid concern. "Some
of it is legitimate criticism. We have discussed whether associations
and other groups should in fact be part of the corporate fellows--should
that be expanded to other groups." He said there had been
a recent "knock-down, drag-out discussion" about whether
to include organized labor. Guess who won?
"Our line is, if your main business
is lobbying to try to effect public policy, we didn't want to
bring those people in," Scheppach said.
Nevertheless, corporate industry representatives
are always present during the process in which NGA policies and
agendas are set, so the fact that they may not lobby at the NGA's
annual meeting doesn't reduce the substantial impact they have
on the policy making process as a whole. Whether any other constituencies
will ever gain similar access is doubtful. Like Teresa Torres,
they'll find the door blocked by an armed agent of the State
who merely says, "I'm sorry."
Thomas P. Healy
is a freelance writer in Indianapolis. He can be reached at apple@branches.com
Weekend
Edition Features for August 23 / 24, 2003
Forrest Hylton
Rumsfeld
Does Bogota
Robert Fisk
The Cemetery at Basra
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity
Insults to Intelligence
Andrew C. Long
Exile on Bliss Street: The Terrorist Threat and the English Professor
Jeremy Bigwood
The Toxic War on Drugs: Monsanto Weedkiller Linked to Powerful
Fungus
Jeffrey St. Clair
Forest
or Against Us: the Bush Doctor Calls on Oregon
Cynthia McKinney
Bring the Troops Home, Now!
David Krieger
So Many Deaths, So Few Answers: Approaching the Second Anniversary
of 9/11
Julie Hilden
A Constitutional Right to be a Human Shield
Dave Lindorff
Marketplace
Medicine
Standard Schaefer
Unholy Trinity: Falwell's Anti-Abortion Attack on Health and
Free Speech
Catherine Dong
Kucinich and FirstEnergy
José Tirado
History Hurts: Why Let the Dems Repeat It?
Ron Jacobs
Springsteen's America
Gavin Keeney
The Infernal Machine
Adam Engel
A Fan's Notations
William Mandel
Five Great Indie Films
Walt Brasch
An American Frog Fable
Poets' Basement
Reiss, Kearney, Guthrie, Albert and Alam
Website of the Weekend
The Hutton Inquiry
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