1000 + 59 = over a Thousand Reasons to vote against Bush
Laura the Astrologist
http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
Can any of the repulitards count that high? Let the keyboard
drool begin:
Reasons are in alphabetical order, by category.
Last updated Wednesday, August 18, 2004, 8:58 PM
1. Attitude: Not-so-Curious George (Bush)
President Bush claimed in an interview a while back that he
does not read newspapers. His wife, Laura, later told a reporter
that the president was fudging and that, in fact, he did actually
peruse the press.
In matters involving the Bush family, it is generally wise
to take Laura's word. And we were inclined to do so - until the
president's latest pronouncement about the benefits that have
supposedly come America's way as a result of occupying Iraq.
The man, who more than a year ago declared that the heavy
lifting in Iraq was done, only to discover that the fight had
barely started, is now back with another over-the-top
pronouncement. "Today," Bush said last week, "because America has
acted and because America has led, the forces of terror and
tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the
world are safer."
By any measure, the president is wrong. Capital Times Monday
July 19, 2004
2. Attitude: The 'don't blame me' president
THE IDEA that an administration would conveniently direct
the finger of blame at one of its agencies with respect to matters
so important as war and peace is manifestly immoral.
When Harry Truman was faced with miscalculations regarding
the Korean conflict, his attitude was: "The buck stops here." And
when John Kennedy was faced with the Bay of Pigs fiasco, he took
full and unqualified blame. These men lived with the aftermath of
their mistakes and blamed them on no one else.
George Bush must assume responsibility for the intelligence
failures and all other mistakes made on his watch. And he must do
so without qualification. That is what honorable men do. If they
cannot or will not, they are not worthy of the offices they hold.
Boston Globe Thursday July 15, 2004
3. Attitude: To Err Is Human, to Flip-Flop Divine
NEW YORK -- President Bush is working hard to convince the
American people that John F. Kerry has a fatal flaw: He changes
his mind. Or, in the current political lexicon, he "flip-flops."
But isn't a willingness to change course -- even to admit error --
an asset in a leader?
Throughout U.S. history, important decisions, some of
monumental proportions, came about because presidents changed
their minds. In his first political statement, in March 1832, the
23-year-old Abraham Lincoln said, "Upon the subjects of which I
have treated, I have spoken as I thought. So soon as I discover my
opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them." LA
Times Tuesday July 06, 2004
4. Attitude: Arrogance, big-time
TO TAKE the measure of a man's character, so the saying
goes, apply a little pressure. Anyone can behave well when life is
easy. The true test comes when the going gets tough.
So, while the X-rated insult Vice President Dick Cheney
hurled Tuesday at Vermont Democrat Patrick J. Leahy might be
forgiven by the senator as the product of a "bad day," it fits so
well into a broader pattern of arrogance as to be indicative of
the inner life of the man who plays an enormous role in running
this country. Baltimore Sun Sunday June 27, 2004
5. Attitude: Bush jokes about search for WMD, but it's no
laughing matter
President George Bush sparked a political firestorm
yesterday after making what many judged a tasteless and ill-judged
joke about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq. Mr Bush made the joke at a black-tie event for radio and
television journalists in Washington on Wednesday night. He
narrated a slide show, described as the White House election year
album, making hay of the administration's reputation for secrecy
and strained relations with European allies. But it was the joke
about the war in Iraq that drew attacks. Guardian Friday March 26,
2004
6. Attitude: Bush's ugly cynicism
George W. Bush will deliver his State of the Union address
this evening and, no doubt, he will talk about how he wants to
unite America and Americans. But the president's comments should
be viewed in the context of his recent actions. Last Thursday,
while on a fund-raising trip to Atlanta, Bush inserted himself
into the celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of the birth of
the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In doing so, the president upset
the schedule of planned local events, but he got what he wanted:
an opportunity to be photographed placing a wreath on the grave of
the slain civil rights leader. Capital Times Tuesday January 20,
2004
7. Attitude: Mourning in America
It is wrong, both morally and for the good of his political
future, for the president to keep skipping funerals for
fund-raisers. NY Times Wednesday November 19, 2003
8. Attitude: American hypocrisy on democracy
With bombs going off in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and
skirmishes raging in Afghanistan, George W. Bush is championing
democracy for Muslims as an antidote to terrorism. But, as usual,
he tells only half the truth. Toronto Star Thursday November 13,
2003
9. Attitude: A Willful Ignorance
According to The New York Times, President Bush was
genuinely surprised to learn from moderate Islamic leaders that
they had become deeply distrustful of American intentions. The
report on the "perception gap" suggests that the leader of the war
on terror has no idea how badly that war -- which must,
ultimately, be a war for hearts and minds -- is going. Mr. Bush's
ignorance may reflect his lack of curiosity: "The best way to get
the news," he says, "is from objective sources. And the most
objective sources I have are people on my staff." Two words:
emperor, clothes. NY Times Tuesday October 28, 2003
10. Attitude: One Reason Not to Like Bush
This is not a policy disagreement. Or rather, it is not only
a policy disagreement. If the president is not a complete moron --
and he probably is not -- he is a hardened cynic, staging moral
anguish he does not feel, pandering to people he cannot possibly
agree with and sacrificing the future of many American citizens
for short-term political advantage. Is that a good enough reason
to dislike him personally? Washington Post Friday October 24, 2003
11. Attitude: Bush fails to recognize middle ground, resorts to
either-or thinking
Either you're with us or against us.--George W. Bush
America--Love It or Leave It.--bumper sticker common in the
1960's. The two statements above are examples of Aristotelian or
two-valued logic, also known as either-or logic: i.e., left/right,
war/peace, evil/good. Either you're with US or against US. Love US
or leave US. The flaw in this system should be obvious: it
recognizes no middle term, no grey area. What of those citizens
who are neither for nor against? Andrew Williams Sunday October
05, 2003
12. Attitude: Bush equates pacifism with "doing nothing"
Pacifism does not have to translate into just doing nothing.
Either-or-thinking, such as Either we attack or we do nothing, is
just lazy, selfish and dangerously limited. Emma Goldman once
said, It takes less mental effort to condemn than to think. The
world and human beings are a lot more complicated than the 0 or 1
parameters we feel so comfortable imposing. psst! Sunday October
05, 2003
13. Attitude: Hubris leads Bush to use out of date intelligence
to justify war
It is an act of extreme hubris for this administration to
repeatedly justify its invasion of Iraq by citing Iraq's attacks
on Iran decades ago and its use of banned weapons in that war.
Those old charges won't suffice for a world demanding hard and
more recent evidence supporting the need for a preemptive attack.
Daily Times Sunday October 05, 2003
14. Attitude: Bush characterizes German anti-war behavior as
undemocratic
The Americans have been furious with the Germans since last
autumn's general election campaign when Gerhard Schroeder adopted
a rather critical attitude towards Bush's policy on Iraq.
Schroeder was well behind in the polls until he emphasised that
Germany would not cooperate with the Americans in attacking Iraq.
This struck a chord in the German people, because the campaign
turned around and Schroeder's coalition won re-election. Yet this
is depicted in Washington as undemocratic, which says more about
the Bush administration than anyone else. Irish Examiner Saturday
October 04, 2003
15. Attitude: Bush's "stupid and arrogant" behavior raise
questions about ability to wage war
Through a combination of sheer stupidity and contemptible
arrogance, the Bush administration has been making a mess of the
public relations battle, which raises the most serious questions
about its competence to wage a war. Irish Examiner Saturday
October 04, 2003
16. Attitude: Bush insists on getting his way, even if democracy
suffers
Now we should be asking if George W Bush understands
democracy, not just because of his attitude towards the Germans,
but also after what happened during the election count in Florida
when he showed little concern for due process. He wanted his way
regardless of the democratic implications. Irish Examiner Saturday
October 04, 2003
17. Attitude: Oval office lacks humility, practices hubris and
deceit
Perhaps the administration's parlay of hubris and deceit can
be made right. These are still early days. George W. Bush said
before his election that as the world's sole superpower, the
United States should be willing to show some humility in
international affairs. It was a good point, and this is a good
time for it. And the Oval Office would be a good place to start.
The Charlotte Observer Friday August 01, 2003
18. Attitude: Hubris leads Bush to "nation building"
The faction that focuses on foreign policy has four core
principles: Preserve U.S. sovereignty and freedom of action by
marginalizing the United Nations. Reserve military interventions
for reasons of U.S. national security, not altruism. Avoid
peacekeeping operations that compromise the military's
war-fighting proficiencies. Beware of the political hubris
inherent in the intensely unconservative project of
nation-building. Seattle Post Intelligencer Sunday July 27, 2003
19. Attitude: Bush uses "faith-based" intelligence to support
preconceived notions
Greg Thielmann, who worked until last fall as a
proliferation expert in the State Department's Bureau of
Intelligence and Research, explains, This administration has had a
faith-based intelligence Attitude: 'We know the answers, give us
the intelligence to support those answers. Counter Punch Saturday
July 26, 2003
20. Attitude: Arrogrance leads to fantastic predictions for Arab
world
The Bush administration will now attempt to refashion Iraq
as a U.S. ally in the Arab world, democratic and globalized,
friendly to Israel, dotted with U.S. bases, open to foreign ideas,
institutions, and missionary efforts. But the neocons' Achilles
heel is arrogance. Counter Punch Saturday July 26, 2003
21. Attitude: Bush shifts blame for bad intelligence
So does GB2 step up to the plate and take responsibility for
his deceptions, hubris, and Oedipal obsessions? No, he pins it on
the CIA. It was George Tenet?s fault, who is obligated to publicly
apologize. Liberal Slant Friday July 25, 2003
22. Attitude: Administration has "bullyboy" attitude
But it's a larger issue, and here's where the Bush people
are so vulnerable. Given that their bullyboy, in-your-face
attitude had worked so well, in their hubris they really thought
they could do and say anything and get away with it forever. So
they told all sorts of whoppers about why Iraq supposedly was an
'imminent' danger to the U.S., and grossly manipulated
non-existent facts to generate pro-war hysteria in time to meet
the go-date for the bombing and invasion - which, of course, had
been set a half-year before. All of that was so blatant and
obvious, it was no wonder millions of protesters took to the
streets, and the European leaders and the U.N. would have nothing
to do with the Bush Administration and even shouted at them in
public. Democratic Underground Friday July 25, 2003
23. Attitude: Bush lacks vision, focuses on "evil"
George W. Bush, who has a problem with the vision thing that
causes his father's confusion over the matter to pale in
comparison, is the man of these people. They didn't mind his
inability to name the leaders of foreign countries when he was put
into office, and now they don't mind the way he whips up frenzies
through an incessant talk of evil. Liberal Slant Thursday July 17,
2003
24. Attitude: Bush exhibits "unfathomable hypocrisy"
This is an eerie moment in American political history.
George W. Bush was defeated in the popular vote by his more
liberal opponent but rules from the most extreme wing of his
party. He campaigned as a fiscal conservative but has pushed tax
cuts that will create a deficit larger than any in US history. As
a candidate, he articulated the need for a humble foreign policy
but now conducts it with a degree of hubris that makes Lyndon
Johnson look like the Dalai Lama. His hypocrisy, in other words,
is so great as to be almost unfathomable, and yet he has somehow
managed to convince the media to admire him for his moral clarity.
The Nation Thursday April 17, 2003
25. Attitude: Bush exhibits "perils of hubris"
As Richard Helms, the CIA director for much of the Vietnam
War, said in 1981, "We were dealing with a complicated cultural
and ethnic problem which we never came to understand. In other
words, it was our ignorance or innocence, if you will, which led
us to misassess, not comprehend, and make a lot of wrong
decisions, which one way or another helped to affect the outcome."
This time out, the nation is more fortunate: the perils of hubris
have become evident within days of the first attack. The Nation
Monday March 31, 2003
26. Attitude: Bush and Cheney try to stop 9/11 investigation
You do remember that both Bush and Cheney quietly asked the
then-leaders of the House and Senate, Gephardt and Daschle, not to
investigate the pre-9/11 period for reasons of national security.
Perhaps one of the things they'd like to keep hidden was the fact
that they were warned by the outgoing Clinton Administration
specifically about the enormous dangers posed by Osama bin
Laden/Al Qaida, but, in their arrogance, the incoming Bush
Administration decided not to pay any attention to those warnings;
instead, they said they were going to set up their own commission
to look into terrorism, with Dick Cheney as head. Cheney -- too
busy putting together an energy policy with Kenneth Lay's Enron
and the other energy companies -- did nothing and the promised
report on terrorism never materialized. The Crisis Papers Thursday
February 06, 2003
27. Attitude: Bush ignored NASA warnings about shuttle dangers
Given this arrogant, we-know-it-all attitude, there was no
reason, then, for Bush and his subordinates to listen to the
technical experts who warned early last year (1), and even as
recently as last August (2) about the disaster-in-the-making for
the Space Shuttle and its crews unless certain procedures and
processes were fixed. These NASA experts were ignored by Bush and
his advisors, and removed from their positions. The Crisis Papers
Thursday February 06, 2003
28. Attitude: Bush squanders 9/11 sympathy with arrogant
behavior
After the 9/11 attacks, the United States enjoyed an
enormous wellspring of sympathy from people around the world. Bush
has squandered this support by projecting an unfortunately all-too
-typically arrogant attitude toward the world. Seattle Post
Intelligencer Saturday December 07, 2002
29. Attitude: Bush and Rumsfeld arrogantly refuse to provide WMD
evidence
This has not stopped our national misleaders from insisting
that they are our ticket to security. But for that assertion there
has been as little evidence offered as there has been for the
claims that Saddam Hussein is a threat to Americans or that he had
anything to do with al-Qaeda. "We don't need no stinkin' evidence"
is the attitude that oozes from President Bush and Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The Future of Freedom Foundation
Wednesday December 04, 2002
30. Attitude: Bush's promise of "humble" foreign policy becomes
preemptive war
Dangerous days lie ahead, thanks to Mr. Bush and his new
strategic doctrine of global preventive war. Things were supposed
to be different. Does anyone remember that day ages ago when
then-candidate Bush promised a "humble" foreign policy? I guess to
Orwell's "War is Peace" and "Freedom is Slavery" we may now add
Bush's "Arrogance is Humility." The Future of Freedom Foundation
Wednesday December 04, 2002
31. Attitude: Bush's "bullying drumbeat"
Angered by what she views as the Bush administration's
bullying drumbeat, Thomas referred early and often to her own
hatred of war, quoting from poets and politicians to bear down on
President Bush and his colleagues. Helen Thomas, speech Wednesday
November 06, 2002
32. Attitude: Bush threatens and bullies Europe over ICC
After months of threats and bullying, the Bush
administration has apparently backed down in its confrontation
with Western Europe over the newly formed International Criminal
Court (ICC). World Socialist Web Site Saturday July 13, 2002
33. Attitude: US's bullying attitude abroad may have "distrous
consequences"
Now, having said that, we must point out that the
institutions in this country -- the Constitution, the courts, the
legislative bodies, civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, the
press, etc. -- are in as much danger as they've ever been in. And
the U.S.'s bullying attitude abroad may well lead to disastrous
consequences for America down the line. Counter Punch Saturday
June 01, 2002
34. Attitude: Arrogance of power leads to assaults on critical
thinking and dissent
They are clear that Washington's arrogance of power and
reckless global war is leading to assaults on critical thinking
and democratic dissent. American Friends Service Committee Sunday
April 14, 2002
35. Attitude: Bush seeks global domination through nuclear
arsenals
Stephen Hadley, one of Condolezzia Rice's senior deputies
reports that, not unlike the elder Bush's New World Order, this
Bush Administration seeks a whole new world, U.S. global
domination based ultimately on its nuclear and high-tech arsenals.
American Friends Service Committee Sunday April 14, 2002
36. Attitude: Bush fails to see that all our lives are
interrelated
President Bush did an excellent job in rallying the country
against the perpetrators of the September 11 atrocities but we
must not forget that all our lives are interrelated, that we are
all citizens of this planet, that we need a new way of thinking
different from 'linear thinking,' and that humanity comes first.
Mario deSantis Tuesday September 25, 2001
37. Democracy: Suppress the Vote?
The big story out of Florida over the weekend was the tragic
devastation caused by Hurricane Charley. But there's another story
from Florida that deserves our attention.
State police officers have gone into the homes of elderly
black voters in Orlando and interrogated them as part of an odd
"investigation" that has frightened many voters, intimidated
elderly volunteers and thrown a chill over efforts to get out the
black vote in November. New York Times Monday August 16, 2004
38. Democracy: Will The Gang That Fixed Florida Fix the Vote in
Caracas this Sunday?
Hugo Chavez drives George Bush crazy. Maybe it's jealousy:
Unlike Mr. Bush, Chavez, in Venezuela, won his Presidency by a
majority of the vote.
Or maybe it's the oil: Venezuela sits atop a reserve
rivaling Iraq's. And Hugo thinks the US and British oil companies
that pump the crude ought to pay more than a 16% royalty to his
nation for the stuff. Hey, sixteen percent isn't even acceptable
as a tip at a New York diner.
Whatever it is, OUR President has decided that THEIR
president has to go. This is none too easy given that Chavez is
backed by Venezuela's poor. And the US oil industry, joined with
local oligarchs, has made sure a vast majority of Venezuelans
remain poor.
Therefore, Chavez is expected to win this coming Sunday's
recall vote. That is, if the elections are free and fair.
They won't be. Some months ago, a little birdie faxed to me
what appeared to be confidential pages from a contract between
John Ashcroft's Justice Department and a company called
ChoicePoint, Inc., of Atlanta. The deal is part of the War on
Terror. Greg Palast Tuesday August 10, 2004
39. Democracy: Time's up inÝblame game
Politics in Washington works in strange ways. A case in
point is theÝSenate Intelligence Committee's decision to divide
its investigation of the US invasion of Iraq into two parts. The
first part dealt with the reasons for intelligence failure, or
false intelligence, governing that decision. That congressional
report, issued on Friday, damned the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) in asserting that the invasion was carried out on false
intelligence.
However, conclusive statements on the second part -
regarding the culpability of the administration of President
George W Bush, whether it went to war for the wrong reasons, by
creating disinformation about the weapons of mass
destruction-related capabilities of Saddam Hussein and his
intentions toward the United States - will come out after the
November presidential elections. Yet that is the most important
part of the investigation. Asia Times Thursday July 15, 2004
40. Democracy: Don't even think about it
OFFICIALS OF the Bush administration are said to be
pondering what power they have -- or should seek -- to postpone
national elections in November in the event of terrorist strikes
aimed at disrupting the democratic process.
The Bush people should drop the idea, lest the hint that
terrorism could curb the rights of Americans be an added incentive
to our enemies. SF Chronicle Monday July 12, 2004
41. Democracy: U.S. control of Iraq betrays founding fathers
Whatever the founding fathers had in mind as the definition
of democracy when they approved the Declaration of Independence
228 years ago today, it cannot possibly have been the condition
that has developed under American control in Iraq today.
There, under the mantle of democracy-making, a bloody,
tawdry, secretive, tragic and sometimes farcical condition exists.
The events of the past week demonstrated as much. Baltimore Sun
Sunday July 04, 2004
42. Democracy: US lawmakers request UN observers for November 2
presidential election
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Several members of the House of
Representatives have requested the United Nations to send
observers to monitor the November 2 US presidential election to
avoid a contentious vote like in 2000, when the outcome was
decided by Florida.
Recalling the long, drawn out process in the southern state,
nine lawmakers, including four blacks and one Hispanic, sent a
letter Thursday to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asking that the
international body "ensure free and fair elections in America,"
Yahoo News Friday July 02, 2004
43. Democracy: Bush's Vatican strategy
BUMPER stickers saying ``Bishops for Bush'' may soon be
coming. It seems that the president who admits few faults and
confesses no shame but invokes God in policy decisions to a
grating degree for many Americans pandered to the pope in his
recent trip to the Vatican. The National Catholic Reporter, an
independent newspaper, published an article that said Bush asked
Vatican officials to help him in the American culture wars. Boston
Globe Tuesday June 15, 2004
44. Democracy: Bush is melding the war in Iraq with the war to
win tax relief on stock dividends.
It is a shameless exploitation of a military victory with
the goal of intimidating Republican holdouts on Capitol Hill. Just
as Bush crushed Democrats in last year's congressional elections
with appeals to patriotism, he is now turning the big guns on his
own party. MSNBC Sunday April 18, 2004
45. Democracy: Bush promises Palestinians democracy, as long as
they don't elect Arafat
Bush II promised Palestinians democracy - provided, of
course, they didn't re-elect Yasser Arafat. Big Eye Saturday
October 04, 2003
46. Democracy: Preemptive, undeclared war is generating
resistance among some rank-in-file soldiers
military personnel who are not pacifists or conscientious
objectors. Joined by military families and 12 members of the U.S.
Congress, a group of U.S. service men and women recently
challenged Presidential abuse of power. Common Dreams Monday April
07, 2003
47. Democracy: Bush angry at Turkey for exercising democratic
will
U.S. reaction to the weekend news that Turkey's parliament
had rejected a proposal to accept the basing of U.S. troops for an
Iraq war only confirmed what has long been obvious: The Bush
administration believes democracy is wonderful -- so long as it
doesn't get in the way of war. Common Dreams Monday March 03, 2003
48. Democracy: Huge protests are "irrelevant" to Bush
When asked about his reaction to the hundreds of thousands
of Americans who rallied on Feb. 15 to oppose a war, Bush brushed
them off as irrelevant. To pay attention to the largest worldwide
political event in recent history, he said, would be like
governing by focus group. Common Dreams Monday March 03, 2003
49. Democracy: In trade, commerce trumps democracy
The U.S. government employs a double standard by trading
with one-party communist regimes in China and Vietnam, affirming
that commerce may open the way for political freedoms, while
shunning Cuba, said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leader of a new
40-member congressional bloc seeking an easing of tensions with
Cuba. Blackpool and Fylde Cuba Solidarity Campaign Sunday March
02, 2003
50. Democracy: For Bush, democracy is really imperial hegemony
In Bush-speak, democracy has been perverted to mean U.S.
imperial hegemony: nations run by puppet rulers who make all the
right noises, like Afghanistan's U.S.-installed figurehead, Hamid
Karzai, while following Washington's orders to the letter. Common
Dreams Sunday March 02, 2003
51. Democracy: Bush has little interest in democracy, jokingly
says he prefers a dictatorship
Bush pushes for democracy abroad as part of his war on
terror, but diminishes it at home. Critics believe he has no real
interest in democracy, only getting rid of terrorists: George W.
Bush says he wants to attack Iraq to install democracy. But as he
explained on 2002-12-18: "If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a
heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator." Common
Dreams Sunday February 23, 2003
52. Democracy: Bush places unrealistic demands on Palestinians
With a straight face, Bush asked the Palestinians to remove
their existing leaders, create a functional democracy with
separation of powers, write a constitution, and implement a market
economy. No state in world history, and certainly not one under
foreign occupation, has ever done this in three years. After a
half-century of independence, none of the Arab states satisfy the
Bush criteria. According to the cynics, Bush knows that the
Palestinians can never meet these criteria, and thus a Palestinian
state will never be created. Taking us to war based on lies is a
clear abrogation of democracy. Counter Punch Friday July 05, 2002
53. Democracy: Bush concentrates executive power by establishing
military tribunals
Bush issued of an Executive Order on November 13th,
establishing a system of military tribunals to try accused
terrorists. The degree to which the Order concentrates power in
the hands of the Executive is breathtaking. Center for
Constitutional Rights Wednesday July 03, 2002
54. Democracy: Bush's democracy based on money --Fidel Castro
For Mr. W, democracy only exists where money solves
everything and where those who can afford a $25,000-a-plate dinner
an insult to the billions of people living in the poor, hungry and
underdeveloped world are the ones called to solve the problems of
society and the world --. Fidel Castro China Daily Thursday June
06, 2002
55. Democracy: The White House has assumed vast new powers for
internal repression
establishing by executive order an Office of Homeland
Security that is not subject to either congressional oversight or
any vote on the personnel appointed to run it. WSWS Friday March
08, 2002
56. Democracy: FCC appointee result of nepotism, not
qualifications
Bush's appointee to head the FCC is the son of Colin Powell.
A more experienced, less-partisan person would have better
protected the public airwaves, which are essential to a
functioning democracy. The Guardian Monday October 29, 2001
57. Democracy: FCC Chair promotes corporate-friendly agenda
After nine months in office, Powell does appear hellbent on
pursuing a corporate-friendly agenda that can only result in a
further torrent of mergers in the media industries. The Guardian
Monday October 29, 2001
58. Economy: Bush's Own Goal
A new Bush campaign ad pushes the theme of an "ownership
society," and concludes with President Bush declaring, "I
understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the
future of America."
Call me naive, but I thought all Americans have a vital
stake in the nation's future, regardless of how much property they
own. (Should we go back to the days when states, arguing that only
men of sufficient substance could be trusted, imposed property
qualifications for voting?) Even if Mr. Bush is talking only about
the economic future, don't workers have as much stake as property
owners in the economy's success?
But there's a political imperative behind the "ownership
society" theme: the need to provide pseudopopulist cover to
policies that are, in reality, highly elitist. New York Times
Friday August 13, 2004
59. Economy: Painting the Economy Into a Corner
President Bush reacted decisively to this month's shockingly
bad employment report - by quickly changing the topic to terror.
The Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, also focused
elsewhere, namely on rising oil prices. Mr. Greenspan used
inflationary energy costs as the rationale for raising interest
rates a quarter point, despite the drastic slump in hiring and a
recent slowdown in productivity growth.
What neither man seems ready to acknowledge outright is that
policy makers have run out of tools for stewarding an economy that
- nearly three years into a recovery - has yet to flourish and may
even be downshifting to neutral. The president's fiscal policies,
mainly high-end tax cuts, have resulted in a record federal budget
deficit without spurring hiring or income growth. If Mr. Bush
continues on the tax-cut path, continuing high deficits will
further threaten job creation and living standards. New York Times
Thursday August 12, 2004
60. Economy: Bush Says National Sales Tax Worth Considering
NICEVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush said on Tuesday
that abolishing the U.S. income tax system and replacing it with a
national sales tax was an idea worth considering.
"It's an interesting idea," Bush told an "Ask President
Bush" campaign forum here. "You know, I'm not exactly sure how big
the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it's the kind
of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously." Yahoo
News Tuesday August 10, 2004
61. Economy: Economic realities
WASHINGTON -- THE LATEST news about the sagging American
economy confirms two important trends:
The alleged recovery from the recession more than three
years ago is sputtering, and the big shots in the financial and
political world have neither seen the slowdown coming nor been
able to explain it to worried Americans.
Instead, they have been caught with their Pollyanna pants
down. The spike in the economy's total output that occurred a year
ago has been decelerating ever since, and the spike in private
sector job creation that occurred in March has also been
decelerating ever since. It was equally alarming on Friday that
the government lowered its estimates of job creation in May and
June even as it was reporting that barely 40,000 new jobs had been
created in July. Boston Globe Sunday August 08, 2004
62. Economy: Few new jobs/Symptom of failed policy
As a general rule of political economy, the prudent citizen
draws a bright line between developments in the marketplace and
events in Washington, D.C. The vast American economy can respond
to forces quite beyond the control of politicians, and the
behavior of politicians can respond to -- well, who knows?
But the dismal employment report released Friday by the
Labor Department makes it impossible to sustain that distinction
-- not with an election just three months away. The disappointing
numbers should be deeply chastening for the campaign of President
Bush and deeply troubling for voters who have suffered the most
incompetent economic stewardship in memory. Star-Tribune Saturday
August 07, 2004
63. Economy: U.S. Adding More Oil to Emergency Reserve
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration said on
Friday it was adding more oil to the U.S. emergency petroleum
reserve, despite record high crude prices and strong oil demand.
The U.S. Interior Department said it awarded contracts to
ChevronTexaco Corp. and Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Shell Oil to
deliver more than 100,000 barrels of crude a day to the nation's
Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Reuters Friday August 06, 2004
64. Economy: A Record Deficit
THE BUSH administration announced last week its revised
figure for this year's budget deficit: $445 billion. This, or so
the spin goes, is good news, because the original forecast was
even higher -- $521 billion. But outside budget experts had warned
that the forecast was inflated, which tarnishes any celebration of
the new number. Not that the administration was deterred. "This
improved budget outlook is the direct result of the strong
economic growth the president's tax relief has fueled," crowed
Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten.
Mr. Bolten's argument makes little sense: Economic growth
has been no faster than the administration anticipated when it
predicted the higher deficit. In any event, $445 billion marks the
highest deficit ever (though the administration seems to be
setting the stage for a new round of better-than-expected numbers
just before Election Day). Only in the administration's
upside-down economic world could a deficit $70 billion higher than
last year's be hailed as progress. Washington Post Thursday August
05, 2004
65. Economy: Deficit rule No. 1: If you're in a hole, stop
digging
WASHINGTON ‚ Bad economic news presses from all sides. The
recovery is faltering. The stock market is in a funk. Consumers
are being squeezed between stagnant incomes, rising costs of
buying credit, and maxed-out credit cards.
Deficits of all kinds are growing. The federal budget
deficit is projected at $5 trillion (that's trillion, as in
5,000,000,000,000) over the next 10 years. The federal
government's unfunded liabilities, mainly for retirement and
healthcare, are $72 trillion. This will show up later in budget
deficits as the baby-boomer generation ages. The trade deficit -
the difference between what the US exports and what it imports -
was $46 billion in May, the latest month for which figures are
available. That's a rate of $552 billion a year, the measure of
the obligations to foreigners incurred by the US.
Doing something about the budget deficit and its cousin, the
unfunded liabilities, is simply being put off in the hope that
they will go away until somebody else is in charge. CS Monitor
Thursday August 05, 2004
66. Economy: The Administration's Efforts to Make Harmful
Deficits Appear Benign
Today, the Office of Management and Budget released new
projections stating that the budget deficit will grow to $445
billion in fiscal year 2004.Ý This is $70 billion larger than the
2003 deficit, which stood at $375 billion.Ý Despite the recovery,
the deficit has continued to rise significantly.
The $445 billion projected deficit also is more than $700
billion worse than what the Administration projected for fiscal
year 2004 in its first budget, submitted in February 2001.Ý At
that time, the Administration forecast a $262 billion surplus for
2004.
In the face of this dramatic fiscal deterioration, the
Administration is now attempting to downplay the deficits and is
citing the new figures as evidence it is making progress on the
fiscal front. ÝIn spinning the new deficit numbers, the
Administration and others have made several dubious claims. CBPP
Sunday August 01, 2004
67. Economy: I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2
Consecutive Years
The overall income Americans reported to the government
shrank for two consecutive years after the Internet stock market
bubble burst in 2000, the first time that has effectively happened
since the modern tax system was introduced during World War II,
newly disclosed information from the Internal Revenue Service
shows.
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1
percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year
for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because
of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7
percent. New York Times Thursday July 29, 2004
68. Economy: Red ink more severe in first three quarters,
figures show
The government's deficit ballooned to $326.6 billion in the
first nine months of the 2004 budget year, according to a snapshot
of U.S. balance sheets released Tuesday.
That's more than 20 percent larger than the $269.7 billion
shortfall for the corresponding period last year. For the current
budget year which began Oct. 1, this spending has totaled $1.73
trillion, 6.4 percent more than the same period a year ago.
Revenues came to $1.40 trillion, 3.5 percent more than the
previous year. SF Chronicle Thursday July 15, 2004
69. Economy: Help wanted
THE CHANCES are minuscule that Congress will reauthorize the
Workforce Investment Act before the fall presidential election,
leaving job training in political limbo.
Partisan jousting in the House and penny-pinching by
President Bush undermine the hopes of 8.2 million unemployed
Americans who need education and training to compete in the job
market. NULLBoston Globe Monday July 12, 2004
70. Economy: Bye-Bye, Bush Boom
When does optimism -- the Bush campaign's favorite word
these days -- become an inability to face facts? On Friday,
President Bush insisted that a seriously disappointing jobs
report, which fell far short of the pre-announcement hype, was
good news: "We're witnessing steady growth, steady growth. And
that's important. We don't need boom-or-bust-type growth."
But Mr. Bush has already presided over a bust. For the first
time since 1932, employment is lower in the summer of a
presidential election year than it was on the previous
Inauguration Day. Americans badly need a boom to make up the lost
ground. And we're not getting it. NY Times Tuesday July 06, 2004
71. Economy: More jobs, less pay
A LEADING consumer confidence index hit a two-year high last
week, and polls show that President Bush's approval ratings have
been hurt by Iraq but helped by a growing belief that the economy
is improving. Certainly, there are more signs of that now than in
the first three years of Mr. Bush's administration. The economy
has been adding an average of more than 300,000 jobs a month since
March, the unemployment rate has fallen over the last year from
6.3 percent to 5.6 percent, and consumer spending set a record in
May.
All for the good -- but not everything is so good. Beneath
the surface lurks disquieting fragility: Baltimore Sun Sunday July
04, 2004
72. Economy: Bush's Tax Cuts Hurt Schools, Spur Local Tax Hikes
June 23 (Bloomberg) -- Al Strazzullo, a retired regional
manager for the U.S. General Accounting Office, got the good news
first. President George W. Bush's $330 billion cut in personal
income taxes put an extra $177 in his 2003 government pension.
In March, Strazzullo, 76, got the bad news. The gain was
wiped out by a $538 increase in property taxes on his three-
bedroom, brick-veneer house in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The bill
went to $3,283 from $2,745. Bloomberg Wednesday June 23, 2004
73. Economy: Factory Bush Touted Closes; 1,300 Ohioans Jobless
Last April, President Bush visited a Timken Company
manufacturing plant in Ohio to press for passage of new tax cuts
that he said would spur the economy. During the speech Bush said
that "the future of this company is bright and therefore, the
future of employment is bright for the families that work here".
Less than a year after the tax cuts for the wealthy passed, that
same factory is shutting down -- putting about 1,300 people out of
work and inflicting a "devastating" blow to the Canton community.
With the White House pushing even more tax cuts for the wealthy
and supporting outsourcing of American jobs, Ohio has lost more
than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office.
Misleader Tuesday May 18, 2004
74. Economy: PASSING DOWN THE DEFICIT: FEDERAL POLICIES
CONTRIBUTE TO STATE FISCAL CRISIS
The state fiscal crisis has been deep and prolonged. States
have struggled to close deficits that have totaled approximately
$190 billion over the past three years. And, as states debate and
enact budgets for fiscal year 2005 (which, in most states, begins
on 2004-07-1), they are facing deficits of roughly another $40
billion for that year. Federal policies, which have reduced state
revenues and imposed additional costs on states, have played a
significant role in enlarging these deficits and are impeding
states' fiscal recovery. These federal policies have contributed
significantly to the need for states and localities to make
expenditure cuts and enact tax increases to bring their budgets
into balance. CBPP Wednesday May 12, 2004
75. Economy: New Report Questions Effectiveness, Design of Bush
Tax Cuts
A new study of three years of Administration tax cuts,
issued by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, finds
adverse fiscal, distributional, and long-term economic effects
from the tax cuts. CBPP Saturday April 24, 2004
76. Economy: The GOP is portraying moderate-tax-cut Senate
Republicans as Francophiles
April 18 - More than 60 percent of Americans say large tax
cuts now are not needed, yet President Bush is making support for
tax cuts a test of party loyalty and patriotism. MSNBC Sunday
April 18, 2004
77. Economy: Bush's job-training proposal empty
"A dagger pointed at the jugular of the unskilled." That's
how economist and free trade advocate Jagdish Bhagwati recently
described the effect of technological change and churning jobs in
the world economy on America's workers. Or, as President Bush put
it just last Monday to an audience in North Carolina: "We're not
training enough people to fill the jobs of the 21st century." In
his speech, the president announced he would seek to revamp
federal job training programs to double the number of people
trained every year. Trouble is, job training isn't cheap. The
president's proposal doesn't offer a single dime of new funding --
it just reshuffles the already inadequate funding. Seattle PI
Thursday April 08, 2004
78. Economy: Bush's Goal of Affordable, High-Speed Internet
Access for All Americans Contradicts Administration Policies
(Washington, D.C.) -- President Bush's much-publicized goal
of providing affordable high-speed Internet access to all
Americans by ensuring "plenty of choice" in broadband service
contradicts Administration policies that actually have
strengthened cable and phone monopolies which have led to higher
prices and less choice in broadband, Consumers Union and Consumer
Federation of America said today in a letter to the president.
Consumers Union Tuesday March 30, 2004
79. Economy: Snow: Outsourcing Can Help the Economy
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Treasury Secretary John Snow says
outsourcing of American jobs, a hot issue in the presidential
campaign, can help make the economy stronger. "It's part of
trade," Snow said. "It's one aspect of trade, and there can't be
any doubt about the fact that trade makes the economy
stronger.""You can outsource a lot of activities and get them done
just as well at a lower cost," Snow said after being asked about
the issue during a stop here Monday. NY Times Tuesday March 30,
2004
80. Economy: Bush Economic Team Draws Fire Over Jobs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrats are pouncing on a series of
stumbles by President Bush's economic team, claiming it's evidence
the administration doesn't have a credible strategy to deal with a
flood of U.S. manufacturing job losses. The latest misstep
occurred Thursday when the administration's first choice as point
man on manufacturing issues withdrew from consideration after
Democrats attacked his decision to set up a manufacturing plant in
China. NY Times Friday March 12, 2004
81. Economy: Critics Tackle $10B Request for Missiles
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic senators Thursday criticized
the administration's budget request for the missile defense
program, questioning anew whether the system will ever work.
Supporters urged continued funding for the program still in
development. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., called the request for
$10.2 billion "truly staggering" -- the largest single-year
funding request for any weapon system in history -- and questioned
the program as "rudimentary and uncertain." NY Times Thursday
March 11, 2004
82. Economy: White House Forecasts Often Miss The Mark
President Bush last week caused a stir when he declined to
endorse a projection, made by his own Council of Economic
Advisers, that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year.
But that forecast, derided as wildly optimistic, was one of the
more modest predictions the administration has made about the
economy over the past three years. Two years ago, the
administration forecast that there would be 3.4 million more jobs
in 2003 than there were in 2000. And it predicted a budget deficit
for fiscal 2004 of $14 billion. The economy ended up losing 1.7
million jobs over that period, and the budget deficit for this
year is on course to be $521 billion. These are not isolated
cases. Over three years, the administration has repeatedly and
significantly overstated the government's fiscal health and the
number of jobs the economy would create, but economists and
politicians disagree about why. Washington Post Tuesday February
24, 2004
83. Economy: Bush Threatens to Veto $318B Highway Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- States would get an additional $100
billion over the next six years to build roads, repair bridges and
improve public transit under a Senate-passed bill that the White
House says is extravagant in an age of record deficits. The Senate
voted 76-21 Thursday to approve the $318 billion surface
transportation bill, a winning margin that would be enough to
override a presidential veto threatened by the administration. AP
Friday February 13, 2004
84. Economy: Homeland Security Spending Under Fire
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration's proposed $6
billion increase on homeland defense spending is a shell game
undermined by cuts to other law enforcement programs, four
Democratic senators charged Wednesday. The four said that it's
disingenuous to tout increases in homeland security spending while
at the same time trying to cut programs like the Community
Oriented Policing Services, or COPS program, which provides grants
to state and local authorities for hiring more police officers. AP
Wednesday February 11, 2004
85. Economy: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps U.S.
WASHINGTON -- The movement of American factory jobs and
white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive
transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even
if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush
administration said yesterday. The embrace of foreign
"outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S.
job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004
elections, is contained in the president's annual report to
Congress on the U.S. economy. Seattle Times Tuesday February 10,
2004
86. Economy: Mr. Bush's Revisionism
Just as he did on Iraq and national security, President Bush
laid the economic foundation for his re-election campaign during a
television interview broadcast Sunday. In a preview of how his
campaign will respond to complaints about the huge deficit and
overall job losses, Mr. Bush defended his tax cuts as ways to
stimulate the economy, blamed Congress for not getting spending
under control and made vague promises about avoiding catastrophic
red ink in the long run by reforming Medicare and Social Security.
None of what we heard made much sense. NY Times Tuesday February
10, 2004
87. Economy: Senators Deride Domestic Security Cuts
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's new budget would not
devote enough money to domestic security, senators said Monday,
noting big cuts in funds for firefighters, police and others who
would respond to a terrorist attack. "A stunning 30 percent cut
... for first responders is the latest alarming evidence of
shortchanging the homeland side of the war against terrorism,"
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., told Homeland Security Security
Secretary Tom Ridge. "We have a long way to go yet before we
fulfill the promises that we made to the American people in those
dark days following the 9-11 attacks to adequately secure the
homeland," Lieberman said at a budget hearing before the Senate
Committee on Government Affairs. AP Monday February 09, 2004
88. Economy: Misspending Military Dollars
"The strong defense everybody wants will not come from
throwing ever larger sums into the wrong weapons."If the Bush
administration were at all serious about fiscal responsibility, it
would have sent Congress a Defense Department budget that
reflected the real costs of military operations, cut out
cold-war-era programs and focused on the things the military needs
in the 21st century. Regrettably, none of that happened. The
budget plan is inaccurate, anachronistic and laden with pork, and
Congress is only likely to make things worse. Mr. Bush is
proposing to increase basic Pentagon spending by more than $20
billion over last year's budget, and that does not even count
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could add a further $50
billion when the bill is presented to Congress after Election Day.
Add that money and the nuclear weapons programs run by the Energy
Department to the Pentagon's $402 billion request, and the total
will approach half a trillion dollars. NY Times Thursday February
05, 2004
89. Economy: Bush cuts rich in, leaves rest out
"the poor are to exist on faith and charity, for such
programs as low-income housing, heating assistance, jobs and
unemployment insurance are all starved"Budgets, as the president
said in his Saturday radio address, are a matter of priorities, of
making hard choices. The president's madcap tax-and-borrow
policies have run up a staggering $500 billion deficit -- without
creating the jobs needed to keep the economy going. Profits are
up, but so is poverty. The Bush administration is building schools
in Iraq, but not in the United States. How do we get out of this
box?The president's budget reveals his priorities, what he truly
cares about. It is not a reassuring picture. The president's first
priority remains tax cuts, largely for the wealthy. Millionaires
are pocketing $30,000 a year in tax breaks from this president.
The president wants, first and foremost, to make his tax cuts
permanent -- no matter what that means for the deficit, for
investments in our future, for already obscene extremes of
inequality in what once was a middle-class nation. Chicago Sun
Times Tuesday February 03, 2004
90. Economy: State of the Union at Home
When the president delivers his State of the Union address,
we like to listen respectfully and respond politely. It is always
easy to find things worth applauding. Last night, for instance,
President Bush mentioned job retraining, immigration law reform
and programs to help newly released prisoners re-enter society.
The impulse is always to split the difference -- to decry the
ideas we disagree with and then note the ones we like. This time,
such evenhandedness seems impossible. The president's domestic
policy comes down to one disastrous fact: his insistence on huge
tax cuts for the wealthy has robbed the country of the money it
needs to address its problems and has threatened its long-term
economic security. Everything else is beside the point. NY Times
Wednesday January 21, 2004
91. Economy: Weak labor market results in second consecutive
year of job loss
According to today's report from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the nation's payrolls expanded by only 1,000 jobs last
month, a marked deceleration from recent gains over the past five
months.Unemployment fell from 5.9% in November to 5.7% in
December, but this drop was wholly due to a contraction in the
labor force, which declined by 309,000. That left the labor force
participation rate at 66%, the lowest it has been since December
1991. Economic Policy Institute Friday January 09, 2004
92. Economy: I.M.F. Report Says U.S. Deficits Threaten World
Economy
WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 -- With its rising budget deficit and
ballooning trade imbalance, the United States is running up a
foreign debt of such record-breaking proportions that it threatens
the financial stability of the global economy, according to a
report made public today bythe International Monetary Fund. In
nearly 60 pages of carefully worded analysis, the report sounded a
loud alarm about the shaky fiscal foundation of the United States,
questioning the wisdom of the Bush administration's tax cuts and
warning that large budget deficits posed "significant risks" not
just for the United States but for the rest of the world. NY Times
Wednesday January 07, 2004
93. Economy: Soaring trade deficit threatens to destabilize U.S.
financial markets
A trade deficit must be financed by net borrowing from other
countries. The United States was effectively spending 5% more than
it was producing last year, but cannot continue to borrow at such
a high rate indefinitely. Worse yet, the trade deficit is growing
each year as a share of GDP. Some government officials have
suggested that such high levels of foreign borrowing do not pose a
problem. Treasury Secretary John Snow recently said that "our
current account deficit in large part reflects the attractive
investment environment and high growth of productivity in the
United States" (Senate Banking Committee on 2003-10-30). This
statement ignores a serious problem resulting from the rising U.S.
trade deficit: a growing dependence on lending by foreign
governments bent on maintaining large trade surpluses with the
United States. Economic Policy Institute Wednesday January 07,
2004
94. Economy: Out of Their Anti-Tax Minds
It's hard to overstate Norquist's importance in contemporary
Washington. He is head of Americans for Tax Reform, is an intimate
of Karl Rove, the president's chief political aide, and has easy
access to the White House. He presides over a weekly meeting of
important Republican activists and lobbyists where the agenda --
at least Norquist's -- is to ensure that taxes are reduced to a
bare minimum, the government is starved and everyone, the rich and
the poor, is taxed the same, which is to say almost not at all.
The Bush administration has mindlessly applied this doctrine. It
has three times reduced taxes -- mostly on the rich -- careening
the federal budget from a surplus to a deficit without end. The
rich, who can afford their schools or health care, will not
suffer. But the poor and the middle class will hurt plenty -- and
state and local taxes, often the most regressive, will go up.
Washington Post Tuesday January 06, 2004
95. Economy: Bush Readies Budget As Spending Balloons
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Conservatives wait warily as President
Bush makes final decisions about his election-year budget, three
years into an administration on whose watch spending has
mushroomed by 23.7 percent, the fastest pace in a decade. While
Bush has emphasized repeatedly the need to rein in spending,
overall federal expenditures have grown to an estimated $2.31
trillion for the budget year that started Oct. 1. That is up from
$1.86 trillion in President Clinton's final year, a rate of growth
not seen for any three-year period since 1989 to 1991. AP Monday
January 05, 2004
96. Economy: The $500 billion bender
In just the last few months, Congress, at Bush's request,
has doled out $87 billion to rebuild and secure Iraq and
Afghanistan; approved a $401 billion defense appropriation bill,
the largest ever; completed a $1 trillion tax cut on top of the
$1.35 trillion reduction the president won in 2001; and approved a
Medicare prescription drug benefit that will cost at least $400
billion over the next decade. If the energy bill is revived next
year, add to the list at least another $26 billion in tax cuts for
energy companies. All of this, it's worth remembering, comes when
the federal government has already logged its largest deficit ever
-- some $374 billion last year, $84 billion more than the previous
record held by Bush's father, George H.W. Bush. SF Chronicle
Saturday December 06, 2003
97. Economy: Looting the Future
One thing you have to say about George W. Bush: he's got a
great sense of humor. At a recent fund-raiser, according to The
Associated Press, he described eliminating weapons of mass
destruction from Iraq and ensuring the solvency of Medicare as
some of his administration's accomplishments. Then came the punch
line: "I came to this office to solve problems and not pass them
on to future presidents and future generations." He must have had
them rolling in the aisles. Paul Krugman NY Times Friday December
05, 2003
98. Economy: Editorial: Big spenders/Bush & Co. remortgage
nation
Someone recently called President Bush "the mother of all
big spenders." It wasn't Howard Dean or any of the other
Democratic presidential candidates. It wasn't a Democratic member
of Congress. It was fiscal analysts for the
conservative-libertarian Cato Institute. Why the harsh rhetoric
for George W. Bush from what should be a sympathetic corner?
Because Bush has simultaneously shrunk the revenue flowing to the
federal government through a string of tax cuts while increasing
federal spending like there was no tomorrow, literally. Star
Tribune Sunday November 30, 2003
99. Economy: Energy Tax Breaks Go to Industries
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two-thirds of the $23 billion in tax
breaks in the Republican-drafted energy bill would go to the oil,
gas and coal industries. Democrats criticized the legislation as
"a hodgepodge of subsidies for the politically well-connected." AP
Monday November 17, 2003
100. Economy: Debt crazy/Reality check on Bush's budget
When the White House reported Monday that the federal
deficit for 2003 came in below expectations -- a mere $374 billion
-- President Bush's aides were quick to celebrate. "We can put the
deficit on a reasonable downward path if we continue progrowth
economic policies and exercise responsible spending restraint,"
budget director Joshua Bolten told the Wall Street Journal. This
outlandish spin is an insult to the nation's taxpayers and
suggests that the White House is reading its own budget documents
as badly as it read the prewar intelligence on Iraq. A new report
by two respected budget watchdogs -- the probusiness Committee for
Economic Development and the hawkish Concord Coalition -- shows
that the federal budget outlook is now the worst in the nation's
history and that the Bush administration is doing absolutely
nothing to fix it. Star Tribune Thursday October 23, 2003
101. Economy: Bush claims that he inherited the recession, but it
didn't begin until later
Bush opened his final radio address of the year this way: In
2002, our economy was still recovering from the attacks of
September the 11th, 2001, and it was pulling out of a recession
that began before I took office. Bush concluded 2002 with the same
dishonesty that defined his economic policy throughout the year--a
mendacity that ranged from denying the tax cut had anything to do
with the re-emergence of the deficit to arguing that the terrorism
insurance bill would create 300,000 construction jobs. In fact,
there is no evidence that the economy was in recession when
President Bush took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2001. Bush
Watch Sunday October 12, 2003
102. Economy: Bush ignores humanitarian needs, spends it on Iraq
By focusing global attention on an economic crisis that does
not really exist, America has diverted public attention from
serious crises that do. Consider the battles against AIDS,
tuberculosis and malaria. About eight million people will die of
these preventable and treatable diseases in 2004. In 2001, the
world created a global fund to fight them. Yet for fiscal year
2004, the Bush administration is committing just $200 million to
that fund. For every one of these dollars, the administration is
committing $350 to Iraq. These are grotesquely distorted
priorities. Miami Herald Wednesday October 01, 2003
103. Economy: The rich get richer by 10% over the past year
America's richest people have seen a 10 per cent increase in
their net worth over the past year, the latest list of individual
fortunes in Forbes magazine reveals. The improving fortunes of
those on the list also reflected the largesse being shown to the
richest Americans by the Bush administration. . . .They are the
main beneficiaries of tax cuts that will pump $100bn into the
economy - most of it into the pockets of the top 1 per cent - this
year alone. They have also benefited from measures such as the
repeal of estate taxes and the lifting of various government
regulations on industry and large businesses. The Independent
Friday September 19, 2003
104. Economy: CBO projects huge budget shortfalls through 2011
The CBO also predicted the annual budget shortfalls would
total $2.3 trillion through 2011, a stunning reversal from the
10-year, $5.6 trillion surplus the CBO forecast in 2001. But
Walker, who heads the General Accounting Office, said even those
daunting figures do not convey the scope of the problem because
conventional government accounting leaves out the impact of
promised benefits for veterans' health, Social Security, Medicare
and other programs. "These additional amounts total tens of
trillions of dollars," he said. "They are likely to exceed
$100,000 in additional burden for every man, woman and child in
America today, and these amounts are growing every day," he said.
Seattle Post Intelligencer Thursday September 18, 2003
105. Economy: Bush says disappearing surplus "incredibly positive
news"
What does "reducing the size and scope of government" mean?
Tax-cut proponents are usually vague about the details. But the
Heritage Foundation, ideological headquarters for the movement,
has made it pretty clear. Edwin Feulner, the foundation's
president, uses "New Deal" and "Great Society" as terms of abuse,
implying that he and his organization want to do away with the
institutions Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson created. That
means Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- most of what gives
citizens of the United States a safety net against economic
misfortune. The starve-the-beast doctrine is now firmly within the
conservative mainstream. George W. Bush himself seemed to endorse
the doctrine as the budget surplus evaporated: in August 2001 he
called the disappearing surplus "incredibly positive news" because
it would put Congress in a "fiscal straitjacket." New York Times
Sunday September 14, 2003
106. Economy: Unfunded federal mandates a burden on states
[U]nfunded federal mandates are driving up the costs of
running the cities and making it impossible to balance state
budgets. SOHO Daily News Wednesday September 03, 2003
107. Economy: Bush trade practices favor China over US
Bush's trade practices are driving Americans out of jobs and
manufacturers out of business, while giving huge advantages to
China and other countries. NY Times Monday August 18, 2003
108. Economy: Bush claims $1.7 trillion tax cuts will help
economy; deficit caused by other factors
Bush has said that war, recession and the costs of securing
the nation after theSept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 have
contributed to the federal budget deficit. The $1.7 trillion in
tax cuts he signed into law have reduced the impact of the
recession his administration inherited, he said. Bloomberg
Wednesday August 06, 2003
109. Economy: Bush's 2004 budget fails to include costs of Iraq
war
This makes it hard to believe the administration's $475
billion deficit estimate for 2004--or the steady improvement it is
forecasting through 2007. The fiscal 2004 estimate again excludes
any additional costs for the U.S. military presence in Iraq and
Afghanistan, even though there is no doubt that they will be
incurred. And as usual, it is based on a decidedly optimistic
economic scenario. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
110. Economy: Bush tinkers with deficit estimates
There were some reports after the midsession review was
released that the administration had intentionally overestimated
the 2003 deficit by considerable amounts in the midsession review
so that it would be able to provide what it considered to be good
news when the fiscal year was actually over. Gov Exec Wednesday
August 06, 2003
111. Economy: Bush's 2003 budget fails to allow for Iraq war,
even though it is imminent
When its budget was released earlier this year, the White
House refused to project any additional spending for the war with
Iraq--even though it was considered highly likely to happen. Like
all presidential budgets, this one used an optimistic economic
forecast. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
112. Economy: Trade deficit continues to widen
In their recent road trip, top Bush economic officials heard
that China's absorption of American jobs is killing local
economies. America's trade deficit with the rest of the world
continues to widen. Common Dreams Wednesday August 06, 2003
113. Economy: Deficit projections consistently understated
Most media coverage overlooked the increasingly obvious
truth that the 2004 deficit could be $100 billion or more above
what the White House projected, and that its long-term estimates
could be equally out of whack. Gov Exec Wednesday August 06, 2003
114. Economy: Budget deficit makes it difficult to handle
baby-boom retirement
The swelling budget deficit, projected by the White House to
reach a record $455 billion this fiscal year, "will make it even
more difficult to cope with the aging of the baby-boom generation,
and will eventually crowd out investment and erode U.S.
productivity growth," the IMF said. Bloomberg Tuesday August 05,
2003
115. Economy: Bush's job record worst since Herbert Hoover
The nation has lost jobs in 25 of the 31 months that
President Bush has been in office, making for the worst jobs
record at this point in a presidency of any administration since
Herbert Hoover. Including last month's loss of 44,000 positions
(when economists had predicted a 10,000-job increase), our economy
has shed more than 2.5 million jobs and 3.2 million private-sector
jobs since the president took office. AFL-CIO Tuesday August 05,
2003
116. Economy: Foreclosures set record highs during Bush recession
Foreclosures are at a record high. Information Clearing
House 5 Saturday June 21, 2003
117. Economy: 2003 spending shows highest federal borrowing rate
since WWII
The latest budget projections from the Congressional Budget
Office indicate that one out of every three dollars the federal
government spends this year outside of the self-funded Social
Security system will be paid for by borrowing. This will be the
highest share of deficit-financed spending since World War II.
Citizens for Tax Justice Wednesday June 11, 2003
118. Economy: Bush ends "double taxation"
Bush ends "double taxation" of dividends as unfair even
though most things are taxed multiple times Under our system, the
same dollar is taxed multiple times as it moves through the
economy, from an employer to an employee to a gas station and then
on to the next employee, ad infinitum. Singling out dividends for
exemption from this process is unfair to those who have little or
no dividend income. United for a Fair Economy Friday June 06, 2003
119. Economy: Bush "Jobs and Growth Act" have little stimulus
value, are a giveaway to the rich
On May 28th, President Bush signed into law the so-called
"Jobs and Growth Act," a tax cut package. This tax cut targets its
benefits toward the wealthiest Americans. For that reason alone,
this tax cut is not an economic stimulus -- the only thing this
tax cut "stimulates" is more economic inequality in the U.S.
United for a Fair Economy Friday June 06, 2003
120. Economy: Job shrinkage greatest of any post-WWII recession
Private-sector payrolls are down 260,000 this year and are
down by 3.1 million, or 2.8%, since the recession began in March
of 2001, the largest percentage decline in any post-WWII
recession. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
121. Economy: During first two years of Bush administration,
unemployment up, jobs disappearing
Unemployment has averaged 5.8% over the past year, and most
recently hit 6.1%, two points above the 2000 rate of 4%. Since
then, over 3 million more persons have been added to the ranks of
the unemployed. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
122. Economy: Jobless recovery hurting working families
Despite the fact that the economy has been expanding for
over a year, our labor market remains mired in a jobless recovery,
and these conditions are now hurting the living standards of
working families. The President and the Congress claim to have
done so with the passage of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief
Reconciliation Actof 2003 , but as our testimony argues, this plan
is unlikely to provide the boost the economy needs. Economic
Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
123. Economy: Median earnings down for the last four quarters
Persistently high unemployment has caught up with wage
growth; for the first time since the 1990s, real median earnings
fell for the last four quarters in a row. Economic Policy
Institute Friday June 06, 2003
124. Economy: Tax cuts of this nature will not create jobs
Second, the tax cuts are directed in ways that are very
ineffective at creating jobs. Nearly all economists agree that
excluding taxes on dividends and capital gains will have very
little effect on job growth in the near-term. Tax breaks for
business expenses will also not create jobs. Businesses have the
funds to invest in new equipment and credit is readily available
at very low interest rates. Yet, there is very little investment
now. The reason is that we have substantial overcapacity. What
business needs is more customers people to sell to. As demand
grows, so will jobs and investment. Economic Policy Institute
Friday June 06, 2003
125. Economy: Tax cuts will lead to deficits
The recently passed package of tax cuts follows a misguided
approach to creating jobs in the near future. First, it contains
permanent, or semi-permanent, tax cuts when the need is for
temporary one-time tax relief. The consequence is that the plan is
far more expensive than is needed and will lead to chronic
deficits, which ultimately will end up destroying jobs ten years
from now. Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
126. Economy: Tax cuts favor the wealthy
Third, as is well known, the personal income tax cuts are
largely directed at high-income families--according to estimates
by Brookings/Urban Institute Tax Center, 62% of the cuts go to
households in the top 5% of the income scale. Since these families
have higher saving rates -- spend a lower share of their income --
the income tax cuts will be less effective at generating spending
than tax relief aimed at low-income and middle-income families.
Economic Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
127. Economy: Tax cuts sold as a "jobs" plan, but millions of
jobs have failed to materialize
The administration argued that its tax cut would lead to the
creation of 1.4 million new jobs by the end of 2004. But it is not
widely recognized that according to their own projections, these
new jobs are expected in addition to the 4.1 million jobs the
economy would generate on its own without the tax cuts. Economic
Policy Institute Friday June 06, 2003
128. Economy: Bush falsely claims that economists say tax cuts
will help economic growth
President Bush proclaimed that a report by leading
economists concluded that the economy would grow by 3.3 percent in
2003 if his tax cut proposals were adopted. No such report exists.
Gordan Livingston Tuesday June 03, 2003
129. Economy: Tax cuts driven by Republican ideology that will
force program cuts
Republican ideology is now focused on creating artificial
fiscal crises that will "force" program cuts, without ever
stepping up to the plate and owning up to the program cuts they
want to make. Why? Because it's electoral suicide. Calpundit
Tuesday May 27, 2003
130. Economy: Republicans switch sides, now claim deficits don't
matter
In recent months, Republicans who for years decried federal
imbalances have minimized their significance, arguing that they
were manageable in an economy whose size exceeds $10 trillion. CBS
News Monday May 12, 2003
131. Economy: Manufacturing loss of "catastrophic proportions"
The release today and Friday of rising unemployment numbers
for April revealed that the 33-month erosion of U.S. manufacturing
employment has reached catastrophic proportions and is now
undermining the entire American economy, the United Steelworkers
of America (USWA) said here today. United Steelworkers of America
Monday May 05, 2003
132. Economy: Republican Congress making bad system worse with
retirement benefits
The U.S. Congress adjourned last year after failing to
address the faults in a pension system that has been laid bare by
catastrophic 401(k) losses for thousands of workers, the tumbling
stock market, and high-profile corporate abuse of retirement
plans. Congress is now setting itself up to make the system even
worse. Economic Policy Institute Wednesday April 09, 2003
133. Economy: Bush's "strong dollar" rhetoric hurting small
business
The president's continued cheerleading for the "strong
dollar" is pricing small domestic producers out of international
markets while creating windfalls for companies that can move
overseas to produce goods for sale in the United States. Economic
Policy Institute Tuesday March 04, 2003
134. Economy: Tax code gives billions to companies that send
factories overseas
The current tax code gives billions of taxpayer dollars in
subsidies to companies that export factories, outsource
production, and then hide in offshore tax shelters. Economic
Policy Institute Tuesday March 04, 2003
135. Economy: Bush excludes workers' rights from free-trade
negotiations
And [Bush's] relentless effort to exclude worker and
environmental rights from negotiations on the proposed Free Trade
Agreement of the Americas and the current "Doha Round" at the
World Trade Organization is creating competitive advantages for
companies that shirk social protections. Economic Policy Institute
Tuesday March 04, 2003
136. Economy: Federal government not delivering promised 9-11
funds to states
Despite $7 billion in federal spending promised over two
fiscal years, the federal government has yet to spend a penny
reimbursing hard-pressed state and local governments for costs
they've absorbed since Sept. 11, 2001. Seattle Post Intelligencer
Monday February 10, 2003
137. Economy: States to lose $41 billion from Bush tax cuts
Thus, if these [tax cut] provisions were enacted, states
would stand to lose $23 billion between 2004 and 2008. As the
proposed savings accounts grow in cost over time, so would the
state revenue loss. The state revenue loss would rise to more than
$41 billion over the subsequent five years from 2009 to 2013.
Center on Budget and Policy Prioities Tuesday February 04, 2003
138. Economy: Bush tax cuts play a significant role in turning
surplus to defecit
[The 2001] Bush tax cut combined with a weakening economy
and the Sept. 11 attacks to eliminate the surplus and create a
$157.8 billion deficit. Slate Tuesday February 04, 2003
139. Economy: Bush proposes allowing 50% pension cuts
Reflecting a deep and growing concern about Americans'
retirement security, more than 200 bipartisan members of the House
and Senate wrote to President Bush Thursday calling on him to
withdraw proposed regulations that, if allowed to go into effect,
would permit companies to cut long-time employees' pensions by as
much as 50 percent. Committee on Education and the Workforce
Thursday January 30, 2003
140. Economy: School week shortened to offset budget cuts
As The Washington Post reported, more than 100 school
districts in seven states have shortened the school week to four
days in order to offset budget cuts. Tom Paine Wednesday January
29, 2003
141. Economy: Successful programs being cut in K-12 education
because of budget cuts
Innovative K-12 programs enacted during stronger economic
times have been hacked, and even basic programs for school-aged
kids are being downsized. Tom Paine Wednesday January 29, 2003
142. Economy: State budget shortfalls lead to college tuition
increases
Huge state budget shortfalls have already begun to eat away
at funding for education, health care and higher education.
University tuition has increased by more than 10 percent in over
one-fifth of states. Tom Paine Wednesday January 29, 2003
143. Economy: Bush tax cuts include deduction for SUVs
One of Bush's proposed tax cuts would raise from $25,000 to
$75,000 the amount small business owners -- including doctors,
lawyers and financial advisers -- can write off when buying an SUV
for business purposes. Tom Dispatch Friday January 24, 2003
144. Economy: Tax cuts go to the rich, who distort democracy
through lavish political gifts
Find the Urban-Brookings charts published in the Jan. 7 New
York Times showing who gets how much of this tax cut. You can
barely see the lines that measure the relief until you get above
the 99th percentile. . . . The problem is that the rich are
screwing up our democracy. Less than 0.1 percent of the U.S.
population gave 83 percent of all itemized campaign contributions
for the 2002 elections, according to the Center for Responsive
Politics. Common Dreams Wednesday January 15, 2003
145. Economy: Bush late in extending unemployment benefits
"For the 750,000 or more unemployed workers whose benefits
will be terminated onDecember 28, the President's support is
welcome although it comes painfully late," said Robert Greenstein,
executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
"Had the President weighed in while Congress was in session, these
750,000 jobless workers almost certainly would not have to go
several weeks during the holiday season with neither a paycheck
nor an unemployment check." The Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities Saturday December 14, 2002
146. Economy: Bush administration allows hidden funds to to
remain so
With one hand the administration will release the rich from
their tax obligations, with the other it will choke off
enforcement, allowing hidden funds to remain so. St. Petersburg
Times Sunday December 01, 2002
147. Economy: US loses $70 billion annually to offshore companies
We should also thank the Republicans in the House for
protecting the interests of all those turncoat companies that have
relocated to Bermuda or Barbados with little more than a post
office box, to avoid U.S. taxes. The maneuver costs our treasury
$70-billion annually. St. Petersburg Times Sunday December 01,
2002
148. Economy: Once fully effective 52% of Bush tax cuts will go
to wealthiest 1%
According to Citizens for Tax Justice, when the Bush tax
cuts are fully effective, 52 percent of the cuts will go to this
country's richest 1 percent. And even if by some miracle of
responsible governance they are not made permanent after 10 years,
the total amount of tax cuts already going to the richest 1
percent will total $477-billion -- each taxpayer in that rarified
category receiving an average of $342,000 worth of cuts. St.
Petersburg Times Sunday December 01, 2002
149. Economy: S&P 500 shows biggest 18 month drop of any
presidency since Herbert Hoover
George W. Bush is shattering records for the worst first 18
months in office for a U.S. president as measured by the benchmark
Standard & Poor's 500. In his first year-and-a-half in the White
House, Bush presided over a 36.9 percent decline, almost twice the
percentage drop of Herbert Hoover, the president who led the
nation into the Depression. Consortium News Tuesday July 23, 2002
150. Economy: Bush chooses "star wars" funding over education
I strongly support America's war against terrorism. But as a
teacher, I believe we also have to "do the math." When we're all
being asked to sacrifice, when we've gone beyond trimming the fat
to slicing the bone by laying off almost 200 teachers in just one
school district alone, should the Pentagon really budget $8.3
billion, for example, on an elaborate and unproven Star Wars
system that can neither stop a suicide terrorist nor educate one
sixth-grader? Common Dreams Friday February 15, 2002
151. Economy: Bush offers tax cuts as a solution to every problem
"They have one unchanging, unyielding solution they offer
for every problem: tax cuts that go disproportionately to the most
affluent." This, too, mirrors majority opinion; 54 percent last
summer said the tax cut would mainly benefit the wealthy. Tom
Daschle ABC News Friday January 04, 2002
152. Economy: Ending the inheritance tax leads to command based
on inheritance rather than merit
According to William H. Gates, Sr., father of the richest
man in the world, if we eliminate the inheritance tax, we "pass
down the ability to command the resources of the nation based on
heredity rather than merit." It appears that the Bush
administration agrees. Tom Paine Monday April 09, 2001
153. Education: Rhetoric for kids, money for war
IT WAS EASY to get the mistaken impression that the 50th
anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision by the
Supreme Court to outlaw segregated schools was a really big deal
on Capitol Hill, even to Republicans. The presumptive Democratic
candidate for president, John Kerry, flew to Topeka, Kan., the
site of the case, to say: "We honor the legacy of Brown by
reaffirming the value of inclusion, of equality, and diversity in
our schools and in our life all across this nation, by opening the
doors of opportunity so that more of our young people can stay in
school and out of prison." Boston Globe Friday May 21, 2004
154. Education: US education suffers in waste of Iraq war
IN 2002, President Bush said the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown
v. Board of Education decision outlawing segregated schools was
"the right decision." He said we "can't have two systems, one for
African-Americans and one for whites." Last month, Bush's
education secretary, Rod Paige, said in a speech at Harvard
University's Kennedy School of Government: "Such division was
wrong in 1954, and it is wrong today. It is immoral. It is
unjust." The proclamations made by Bush and Paige are eerie in the
dwindling of their meaning -- assuming that there was much meaning
to start with. Boston Globe Boston Globe Wednesday May 05, 2004
155. Education: Math Class vs. Sex Class
President Bush proposes some important new expenditures for
Education: $100 million for reading programs to help middle and
high schoolers who still struggle to sound out Seuss-simple words;
$40 million to help professionals in math and science make the
transition to teaching; $52 million to bring Advanced Placement
classes to more high schools. Yet all these added together would
be eclipsed by the $270 million the president would devote to a
school program promoting sexual abstinence, despite there being
little evidence that such programs reduce teen sex or pregnancies.
LA Times Monday March 08, 2004
156. Education: Rod Paige Calls Teachers Union a "terrorist
organization"
WASHINGTON - Education Secretary Rod Paige called the
nation's largest teachers union a "terrorist organization" during
a private White House meeting with governors on Monday. Democratic
and Republican governors confirmed Paige's remarks about the
National Education Association. "These were the words, 'The NEA is
a terrorist organization,'" said Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle of
Wisconsin. "He was making a joke, probably not a very good one,"
said Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. "Of course he
immediately divorced the NEA from ordinary teachers, who he said
he supports." Yahoo News Monday February 23, 2004
157. Education: Bush Pushes Abstinence - Only Education
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is proposing to
double spending on sexual abstinence programs that bar any
discussion of birth control or condoms to prevent pregnancy or
AIDS despite a lack of evidence that such programs work. A study
by researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention on declining birth and pregnancy rates among teenagers
concludes that prevention programs should emphasize abstinence and
contraception. "Both are important," said Dr. John Santelli, the
lead author of the study, which has not been Friday February 13,
2004
158. Education: 'No Child Left Behind' should be more than a
slogan
This week, President Bush celebrated the second anniversary
of the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act. I, on the other
hand, see little cause for celebration. While the ideals espoused
in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) are admirable, the realities of the
Bush plan are not. NCLB imposes rigid and expensive mandates on
public schools. It judges adequate yearly progress using a
one-size-fits-all formula, a measure that gives schools an
incentive to lower testing standards in order to meet federal
requirements and, sadly, to push out students that may bring down
a school's average score. Under these new standards, 26,000 of
America's 93,000 schools "failed" to make adequate yearly progress
in 2003 and many are not receiving the additional support they
need to improve. This federal takeover of public education is the
last thing we need. Howard Dean, Seattle Times Thursday January
08, 2004
159. Education: Some School Districts Challenge Bush's Signature
Education Law
READING, Pa. -- A small but growing number of school systems
around the country are beginning to resist the demands of
President Bush's signature education law, saying its efforts to
raise student achievement are too costly and too cumbersome. The
school district here in Reading recently filed suit contending
that Pennsylvania, in enforcing the federal law, had unfairly
judged Reading's efforts to educate thousands of recent immigrants
and unreasonably required the impoverished city to offer tutoring
and other services for which there is no money. NY Times Thursday
January 01, 2004
160. Education: Education 'Miracle' Has a Math Problem
HOUSTON -- When the state of Texas bestowed "exemplary"
status on Austin High School in August 2002, ecstatic
administrators compared the honor to winning the Super Bowl. There
was more cheering and pompom-waving a few weeks later when a
private foundation honored Houston for having the nation's best
urban school district. Just a year later, the high school has been
downgraded to "low-performing," the lowest possible rating. And
the Houston Independent School District -- showcase of the "Texas
educational miracle" that President Bush has touted as a model for
the rest of the nation -- is fending off accusations that it
inflated its achievements through fuzzy math. Washington Post
Saturday November 08, 2003
161. Education: Head Start wisom
TESTING OF students can be an excellent diagnostic tool. But
the Bush administration has gone too far by testing very young
children enrolled in Head Start, the country's program for
low-income preschoolers. Boston Globe Sunday November 02, 2003
162. Education: Bait-and-Switch on Public Education
Congressional Republicans are nervous about a G.O.P. poll
that shows them losing ground over education. But how could voters
not be disappointed by the Bush administration's mishandling of
education policy generally, and especially its decision to
withhold more than $6 billion from the landmark No Child Left
Behind Act, the supposed centerpiece of the administration's
domestic policy? NY Times Tuesday October 21, 2003
163. Education: Fund capacity building (enhanced teaching and
learning) in districts
for several years before engaging in punishing labels and
reckless choice provisions. Capacity building might mean providing
hundreds of hours of training in effective reading strategies, for
example. But it does not mean training everybody in a single
highly scripted program endorsed by the administration for
pseudo-scientific reasons... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday
October 12, 2003
164. Education: NCLB does not enrich the options available to all
children
Forswear tightly scripted, robotic programs and the fast
food approaches to school improvement... NoChildLeft. No Child
Left Sunday October 12, 2003
165. Education: NCLB constitutes an assault on public education
The early focus of NCLB on labeling schools as failures when
combined with parental choice provisions represents an assault on
public education, allowing virtual elementary schools, faith-based
tutoring and other untested charter alternatives to creep into
public systems with public tax money. NoChildLeft. No Child Left
Sunday October 12, 2003
166. Education: NCLB does not fund recruitment and preparation of
effective teachers and aides
from all racial and economic groups to close the gap between
current staffing levels and what is desirable... NoChildLeft. No
Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
167. Education: NCLB does not fund enough construction of new
schools
within public systems so parental choice is real...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
168. Education: NCLB does not emphasize rewards and incentives
rather than sanctions...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
169. Education: NCLB does not build school improvement on a
richly defined foundation of alternatives and strategies...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
170. Education: NCLB does not capitalize on the good research
conducted to discover what works best
in schools and avoid simplistic panaceas and platitudes
imported from the world of business and medicine... NoChildLeft.
No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
171. Education: NCLB does not support informed school choice
within public systems...
NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
172. Education: NCLB is an insulting, broad brush assault on
teachers and administrators
struggling against difficult challenges. .. NoChildLeft. No
Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
173. Education: Significant Omissions of NCLB: Fund social
programs that impact school readiness
so that all children actually enter school ready to learn as
the first President Bush promised long ago... NoChildLeft. No
Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
174. Education: NCLB does not hold all publicly funded schools to
standards
for performance and quality, whether actually private,
charter or truly public. Be careful about simplistic notions of
high stakes testing.... NoChildLeft. No Child Left Sunday October
12, 2003
175. Education: NCLB shifts control to the federal government
How ironic that we have an Education Czar in Washington
violating decades of state and local control of education just as
we profess to introduce democracy to Iraq. The imposition of
specific Washington approved phonics programs and reading programs
under the guise of pseudo science is an ominous erosion of basic
freedoms. Next they will be telling us what science and history to
teach! Big Brother/Sister evidently knows best. NoChildLeft. No
Child Left Sunday October 12, 2003
176. Education: NCLB includes questionable reading instruction
There is insufficient evidence to support the National
Reading Panel's [the heart of Bush's education plan] claims that
phonemic awareness training significantly improves children's
reading, that systematic phonics instruction is superior to less
intensive instruction, and that skills-based approaches are
superior to whole language. Also, contrary to the conclusions of
the National Reading Panel, there is abundant evidence that
encouraging children to read more in school is beneficial. The
Department of Education's data appears to show that spending money
on education hasn't improved student learning, but a closer look
indicates the deception. David Rosnick, CEPR Friday August 29,
2003
177. Education: Education Secretary cooked the books in Houston
Houston schools, under Rod Paige, claimed great success
while Bush was governor of Texas. It now appears that their
accountants could have worked for Enron. Success was not quite
what it seemed. NY Times Friday July 11, 2003
178. Education: New Pell Grant formula leaves out 84,000 students
The new formula for Pell grants (2003) means that 84,000
students will be ineligible. Oregon Daily Emerald Wednesday July
09, 2003
179. Education: NCLB does not devote public money to truly public
schools
Be careful not to divert funds to reckless experiments or
diploma mills. No Child Saturday May 03, 2003
180. Education: Bush to rebuild Iraqi schools, while our own are
in disrepair
With many of our own schools in serious disrepair, the Bush
administration is talking about rebuilding Iraqi schools now. Open
Secrets Monday April 28, 2003
181. Education: Significant unfunded mandates of NCLB
The Unfunded Mandate of NCLB. [A] recent study by the New
Hampshire School Administrators Association estimated that even
with the funding increases, the federal government will give New
Hampshire schools only about $80 for every student, while costing
the state $575 a student to implement NCLB. National Association
of Elementary School Principals Wednesday March 05, 2003
182. Education: NCLB includes mandated access for military
recruiters
A little-known provision of President Bush's education
reform act turns every high school into a military recruiting
station. Under the act, high schools are required to provide
military recruiters with students' names, addresses and telephone
numbers. You have to wonder what that could possibly have to do
with improving the education of students. Can you kids spell
"cannon fodder"? Common Dreams Saturday December 07, 2002
183. Education: Education Secretary demeans teacher education
"Claims that inexperienced college grads can be as
successful as formally trained teachers are insulting and
demeaning to qualified members of the teaching profession. Instead
of helping professionalize teaching, the Secretary's [Paige's]
proposals demean it by promoting teaching as volunteer work." Bob
Chase, National Education Association Tuesday June 11, 2002
184. Education: Education Secretary set unrealistic goals for
teaching degrees in rural areas
Secretary Paige also insists on a strict interpretation of
the law requiring teachers to have degrees in the subject they
teach, an unrealistic requirement for many rural schools.
Education Week Wednesday March 13, 2002
185. Education: NCLB punishes rather than helps failing schools
The heart of Bush's [No Child Left Behind] plan calls for
federally mandated annual testing of all schoolchildren in grades
three to eight in reading and math. If schools fail to improve,
the Bush plan threatens to reduce government aid -- sort of like
threatening to withhold antibiotics from children who can't bring
down their own fevers. Common Dreams Sunday December 23, 2001
186. Education: NCLB uses questionalbe standards
It is also important to recall what standardized reading
tests actually measure: the ability to scan quickly the texts of a
set of unconnected paragraphs and, for each passage, to pick the
correct answers to questions from a set of four or five
alternatives. As useful as this skill may sometimes be, it has
little to do with reading as you or I know it, whether we do it
for a practical purpose, for pleasure, or for inspiration. The
questions surrounding the validity of these tests are no secret.
The Office of Civil Rights in 2000 issued guidelines asserting
that the use of test scores as the single factor to determine
retention, graduation, and college admission is improper, and
possibly a Civil Rights violation. Center for Education Research,
Analysis, and Innovation Wednesday March 14, 2001
187. Education: NCLB degrades curriculum
Numerous studies confirm that heavy reliance on standardized
tests [mandated by NCLB] degrades the curriculum and marginalizes
whatever does not contribute directly to short-term gains in test
scores, including critical thinking, multicultural studies,
citizenship education, the arts, physical education, and bilingual
education. And high-stakes testing increases illiteracy by pushing
more and more students out of school. Center for Education
Research, Analysis, and Innovation Wednesday March 14, 2001
188. Education: Accountability lacking for Bush's Texas charter
schools
Accountability was not high on the lists of then-Gov. Bush
and Texas legislators when they approved another of Bush's
priorities, a form of educational deregulation known as charter
schools. Created by a 1995 law, charter schools are mainly funded
by the state but are exempt from many state regulations. The idea
was to give private groups or individuals the opportunity to be
innovative, to compete with more traditional classrooms for the
chance to stimulate bright young minds -- or to provide options to
failing public schools. In some cases the idea has worked. In
others, it has given would-be, strike-it-rich "entrepreneurs" with
questionable academic and management credentials the opportunity
to rip off youngsters and taxpayers alike. Houston Chronicle
Thursday February 01, 2001
189. Education: Vouchers will not ensure that no child is left
behind
Vouchers help a few students leave public schools and attend
private schools. Left behind are many students in failing schools
with even less funding. Federal funds should instead address
inequities in resources so that some public schools are not
spending twice as much per student as others. Progressive Media
Project Monday January 29, 2001
190. Education: Bush's Education Secretary advocated soft-drink
contracts for schools
Rod Paige, George W. Bush's nominee to run the Education
Department, has been praised as a tough administrator who brought
a reformist rigor to the job of superintendent of the Houston
schools. But under his tenure, the Houston Independent School
District joined one of the cheesier recent trends in public
Education: the boom in exclusive contracts with soft-drink
manufacturers to peddle high-sugar sodas in schools. Organic
Consumer Thursday January 04, 2001
191. Energy: Bush's energy plan endangers National monuments
Bush's energy plan endangers National monuments including
Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah, Upper
Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana, Carrizo Plain
National Monument in California, California Coastal National
Monument, Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington, and
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado. Sierra Club
Tuesday September 02, 2003
192. Energy: Bush energy policy endangers public lands
His policy endangers public lands including Rocky Mountain
Front in Montana, Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain in Alaska, Weatherman Draw
(Valley of the Chiefs) in Montana, Weatherman Draw listed as an
Endangered Sacred Site by Sacred Land Film Project,
Wilderness-quality lands in Utah's Book Cliffs, Jack Morrow Hills
of Wyoming's Red Desert (a pristine area proposed as a national
park since the 1930s), Little Missouri National Grasslands in
North Dakota, Otero Mesa in New Mexico , Vermillion Basin in
Colorado, Green River Basin in Wyoming, and Valle Vidal/Carson
National Forest in New Mexico. Sierra Club Tuesday September 02,
2003
193. Energy: FERC lets energy companies off easy for California
ripoff
Last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known
as FERC, announced settlements with energy companies accused of
manipulating markets during the California energy crisis. Why on
Friday? Because the settlements were a joke: the companies got
away with only token payments. It was yet another demonstration of
how electricity deregulation has gone wrong. Paul Krugman, New
York Times Tuesday September 02, 2003
194. Energy: Energy plan a compendium of tax breaks and subsidies
for industry
What [Bush] and Congress exuberantly describe as their
comprehensive energy plan is in fact a dreary compendium of
subsidies and tax breaks for the coal, oil and gas industries that
do nothing to address the problems of global warming or the
country's dependence on foreign oil. New York Times Tuesday
September 02, 2003
195. Energy: Secretive energy meetings with industry shaped US
energy policy
President Bush convened a meeting in the White House and
established the Energy Policy Development Group chaired by Cheney,
to come up with a short-term plan for the energy crisis, and
produce a report recommending a national energy policy. Over the
next two years, the "Cheney Group" held secret meetings with Enron
and other "energy" executives, which would become the subject of a
lawsuit. The New York Times reported on 2001-05-16, that on the
day the National Energy Plan was released, questions were being
raised about the group's "mysterious ways," amid accusations that
it had met in secret mainly with energy industry moguls who would
benefit from its recommendations. Executive Intelligence Review
Friday August 29, 2003
196. Energy: Federal regulation of power transmission is being
held hostage to the Republican agenda
"This issue has been held hostage to the Republican agenda
of trying to drill in the most pristine wilderness,
environmentally sensitive areas of the country." -Rep. Ed Markey,
member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, referring to
the Republicans' refusal to allow the energy bill to go forward
without several controversial measures, including the opening of
the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. CNN LIVE
SUNDAY Sunday August 17, 2003
197. Energy: Bush to Back Delay Of Power Grid Plan
The Bush administration intends to side with a Senate
Republican attempt to freeze a disputed regulatory proposal meant
to strengthen the nation's aging power transmission system, which
was blamed in last week's massive blackout, a senior
administration official said yesterday. Washington Post Saturday
August 16, 2003
198. Energy: Bush wants to drill in Arctic refuge
Republicans are again trying to stick the country with one
of their favorite bad ideas: drilling for oil in the Arctic
National Wildlife Reserve. This time, they included drilling
within a larger piece of bad policy, the energy bill approved by
the House of Representatives on Friday. The energy bill curries
favor with energy corporations and indulges the Republican
prescription that a free market cures all ills. The House calls
for risky steps deregulating electricity markets, gives new
incentives to oil and gas drillers and creates $18.7 billion in
tax breaks, mostly for oil, gas and nuclear energy. Seattle Post
Intelligencer Tuesday April 15, 2003
199. Energy: Energy plan heavily influenced by oil and gas
industry
Even though the government heavily censored the documents
before supplying them to NRDC, they reveal that Bush
administration officials sought extensive advice from utility
companies and the oil, gas, coal and nuclear energy industries,
and incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into
the energy plan. NRDC Tuesday August 13, 2002
200. Energy: "Science Falls Victim in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge Debate
The Washington Post on 7 April 2002 reported that "one week
after a U.S. Geological Survey study warned that caribou "may be
particularly sensitive to oil exploration in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the agency has completed a quick follow-up
report suggesting that the most likely drilling scenarios under
consideration should have no impact on caribou." American
Institute of Biological Sciences Friday April 12, 2002
201. Energy: New "freedom car" program abandons central goal
One of the most visible changes to the administration's
budget for energy efficiencies the replacement of the Partnership
for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program with a new
"Freedom Car" program. Both programs lack any requirement for
automakers to put advanced technology vehicles on the road.
However, in addition to the change in name, the administration has
abandoned the one specific goal of the PNGV: producing production
prototypes for 80 mile per gallon passenger sedans. NRDC Tuesday
February 05, 2002
202. Energy: Renewable energy funds held hostage to ANWR drilling
Like last year, the Bush budget proposes again to spend the
federal share of bonus bids received for drilling in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge on renewable energy, holding this badly
needed funding hostage to reckless energy development. NRDC
Tuesday February 05, 2002
203. Energy: DOE budget cut for energy efficiency programs
However, the budget for the Department of Energy shows a
sharp and somewhat surprising return to the defense and nuclear
orientation that has characterized it for much of its existence.
The administration proposes boosting the department's budget $582
million, from $21.3 billion to $21.9 billion. However, the jump
can be explained almost completely by increases in the nuclear
weapons programs (+$433 million) and the nuclear waste disposal
program at Yucca Mountain (+$150 million). Many energy efficiency
programs would be cut. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
204. Energy: BLM budget includes money to make the agency "more
responsive" to industry needs
The 2003 BLM budget includes $10.2 million to expand energy
and related activities to make the agency "more responsive" to
energy development. Chief among these activities would be
promoting oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. NRDC Tuesday February 05, 2002
205. Energy: It fails to close the SUV loophole that exempts them
from more stringent CAFE standards
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
206. Energy: It rolls back environmental standards
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
207. Energy: It is designed to ensure the dominance of fossil
fuels
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
208. Energy: It does not raise funding for DOE energy efficiency
programs
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
209. Energy: It fails to set standards for building and appliance
efficiency
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
210. Energy: It does not realistically assess the economics of
nuclear power generation
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
211. Energy: It eases regulation of oil refineries and power
plants
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
212. Energy: It does not propose raising auto fuel efficiency
standards (CAFE)
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
213. Energy: It creates new subsidies for coal and nuclear power
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
214. Energy: It does not contain significant programs for
renewable energy resources
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
215. Energy: It calls for vastly increased oil and gas
exploration
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
216. Energy: It contains no proposals that would spur utility
energy efficiency programs nationally
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
217. Energy: Bush energy plan fails to block air-conditioner
rollback
It fails to block the rollback of air-conditioner efficiency
improvements. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
218. Energy: Emphasizes clean coal over zero-emission
technologies
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
219. Energy: It allows seizing private property for power
generation lines
The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
220. Energy: Bush energy plan fails to assess potential of
alternates
It doesn't assess the potential for energy efficiency and
renewable energy. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
221. Energy: Bush energy plan lacks scientific analysis
Bush's energy plan provides no scientific analysis of why
fossil and nuclear fuel supplies must be expanded. The Energy
Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
222. Energy: Bush energy plan lacks tax incentives for energy
efficiency
It doesn't include tax incentives for energy-efficient
technologies. The Energy Foundation Wednesday May 16, 2001
223. Environment: Two-Faced Forest Policy
There are several good reasons to protect 40,000 acres of
New Mexico's Carson National Forest from gas exploration. For one,
the alpine meadow was donated to the national forest 22 years ago
ã by an oil company ã for wildlife habitat and recreation. The
gift was intended to benefit the public and the environment, not
to help out another energy company. The land lies next to a Boy
Scout camp where for 65 years youths from across the nation have
backpacked, ridden horses and worked on conservation projects.
The U.S. Forest Service has determined that gas exploration
could pollute water in the pristine countryside, as well as harm
wildlife and recreation. Foresters consulted with the U.S. Bureau
of Land Management, which is generally friendly to oil, gas and
timber interests. The consensus: Reject the request of natural gas
producer El Paso Corp. to drill in the meadow.
Then, as Times staff writer Julie Cart reported Monday, came
the White House Task Force on Energy Project Streamlining ã a
title that tells the story. LA Times Tuesday August 10, 2004
224. Environment: Friends in the White House Come to Coal's Aid
WASHINGTON - In 1997, as a top executive of a Utah mining
company, David Lauriski proposed a measure that could allow some
operators to let coal-dust levels rise substantially in mines. The
plan went nowhere in the government.
Last year, it found enthusiastic backing from one government
official - Mr. Lauriski himself. Now head of the Mine Safety and
Health Administration, he revived the proposal despite objections
by union officials and health experts that it could put miners at
greater risk of black-lung disease.
The reintroduction of the coal dust measure came after the
federal agency had abandoned a series of Clinton-era safety
proposals favored by coal miners while embracing others favored by
mine owners. New York Times Monday August 09, 2004
225. Environment: White House Intercedes for Gas Project in
National Forest
CARSON NATIONAL FOREST, N.M. ã Overriding the opposition of
the U.S. Forest Service and New Mexico state officials, a White
House energy task force has interceded on behalf of Houston-based
El Paso Corp. in its two-year effort to explore for natural gas in
a remote part of a national forest next door to America's largest
Boy Scout camp.
Forest Service officials discouraged efforts to drill in the
Valle Vidal at least three times since the agency acquired the
land in 1982, citing concerns about water pollution, wildlife and
recreation if a large-scale energy project were approved.
But last week, the agency took the first step toward
approving the giant energy company's proposal to tap into 40,000
acres of alpine meadows in the Carson National Forest. The agency
released a report that forecast a high probability of recovering
gas from the area and laid out a scenario in which 500 wells could
be drilled on the forest's east side. LA Times Monday August 09,
2004
226. Environment: King Coal pillages beautiful land by ROBERT F.
KENNEDY JR.
In May 2002 I flew over the hills of West Virginia and
Kentucky and saw a sight that would sicken most Americans.
The mining industry is dismantling the ancient mountains and
pristine streams of Appalachia through a form of strip mining
known as mountaintop removal.
Mining companies blow off hundreds of feet from the tops of
mountains to reach the thin seams of coal beneath. Colossal
machines dump the mountaintops into adjacent valleys, destroying
forests and communities and burying free-flowing mountain streams.
According to the EPA, the waste from mountaintop removal
mines has permanently interred 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams,
polluted the region's groundwater and rivers and rendered 400,000
acres of some of the world's most biologically rich temperate
forests into flat, barren wastelands, "devoid of topography and
flowing water." Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
227. Environment: What happened to Bush's promise about parks?
NEWHALEM -- With a wild, fiercely beautiful 684,000-acre
domain, the North Cascades National Park complex is one place on
Earth that will never have problems keeping up appearances.
Appearances deceive, however. Here, as in other Northwest
parks, managers do not have adequate money for basic operations,
overdue repairs and dealing with such emergencies as flash-flood
damage. Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
228. Environment: Bush backpedals on environment by ROBERT F.
KENNEDY JR.
During his presidential campaign, George W. Bush threw a
bone to environmentalists. Global warming, he said in his second
debate with Al Gore, "needs to be taken very seriously."
While Bush opposed the Kyoto Protocol, the international
agreement to slow down global warming, he proclaimed that under
his leadership, the United States would tackle the problem by
strictly regulating carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas.
Barely three months into office, Bush walked away from his
pledge to regulate CO{-2}. The move revealed the depth of industry
clout at the White House. But as Bush and his advisers would
learn, backpedaling on the environment doesn't play well. Seattle
PI Wednesday August 04, 2004
229. Environment: U.S. Eases Review of Pesticides for Endangered
Species
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration made it easier
Thursday for the government to approve pesticides used by farmers
and homeowners, saying it no longer would require the
Environmental Protection Agency to first consult other federal
agencies to determine whether a product could harm endangered
species.
The change, supported by growers and pesticide
manufacturers, affects federal regulations for carrying out the
Endangered Species Act, a law that protects about 1,200 threatened
animals and plants.
Environmentalists said the streamlined process would strip
away protections for those species. LA Times Saturday July 31,
2004
230. Environment: EPA: Exposure Risk at Some Toxic Sites
WASHINGTON - Almost one in 10 of the nation's 1,230
Superfund toxic waste sites lack adequate safety controls to
ensure people and drinking water won't be contaminated, according
to data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
Another 13 percent of the sites lack enough data for
officials to assess the safeguards, the EPA says. Yahoo News
Tuesday July 27, 2004
231. Environment: Bush's Dark Pages in Conservation History
--Stewart L. Udall
SANTA FE, N.M. -- A crucial struggle over land stewardship
is taking place south of my home on the Greater Otero Mesa, a
1.2-million-acre stretch of grassland that looks pretty much the
way it did when Coronado explored the region almost 500 years ago.
As much as half of Otero Mesa still qualifies for protection under
the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, which was enacted when I headed
the Interior Department under presidents Kennedy and Johnson. This
law prevents industrial development on designated federal land
"retaining its primeval character and influence."
But the Bush administration, determined to ransack public
lands for the last meager pockets of petroleum, has turned my old
department into a servile, single-minded adjunct of the Energy
Department. LA Times Sunday July 25, 2004
232. Environment: Lost in Space
SOMEWHERE IN THREE SISTERS WILDERNESS, Oregon
As I scribble these words in my notebook, I'm totally lost.
My two sons and I are backpacking on the Pacific Crest
Trail, but the trail disappeared under three feet of snow several
miles ago. So we set out cross-country, camping last night on a
patch of green surrounded by snow.
At the moment it's dawn at our bivouac, right about
timberline, and my sons are still sleeping, blithely confident
that we'll find our way again. And, truth be told, so long as one
has food, shelter and a compass, it's gloriously liberating to be
lost in a snowy wilderness. New York Times Friday July 23, 2004
233. Environment: Republican Ex-EPA Chief Criticizes Bush
CONCORD, N.H. - The head of the Environmental Protection
Agency for two Republican presidents criticized President Bush's
record on Monday, calling it a "polluter protection" policy.
Russell E. Train, who headed the EPA from September 1973 to
January 1977 -- part of the Nixon and Ford administrations -- said
Bush's record on the environment was so dismal that he would cast
his vote for Democrat John Kerry. AP Monday July 19, 2004
234. Environment: No, Parks Are Not Just Fine
When the chief of the U.S. Park Police complained last
December that her force was understaffed and stretched too thin to
adequately protect National Park Service facilities, her bosses
put her on leave, saying her comments were "an open invitation to
lawbreakers." And then, last week, Chief Teresa C. Chambers was
summarily fired with no further comment from the National Park
Service or its parent, the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Perhaps not coincidentally, Secretary of the Interior Gale
A. Norton held a press conference last week to declare that the
Bush administration was virtually showering money on the nation's
parks. LA Times Thursday July 15, 2004
235. Environment: A Wetland Dying of Thirst
ROCKPORT, Me. -- Now that President Bush has handed off
Iraq, where should he be focusing his energies? Well, if he wants
to get re-elected, the choice is an easy one: on Florida, even
with its new chadless ballots. It just so happens that the
infamously contested state is mired in an environmental conundrum.
Despite the enactment four years ago of the federal Everglades
Restoration Plan, America's largest wetland is most certainly not
being restored. New York Times Thursday July 15, 2004
236. Environment: Roads to Forest Ruination
There's a difference between modifying an environmental
protection and ripping its insides out, but the Bush
administration hasn't picked up on the distinction. LA Times
Wednesday July 14, 2004
237. Environment: Administration Proposes New Logging Rules
BOISE, Idaho - The Bush administration Monday proposed
lifting a national rule that closed remote areas of national
forests to logging, instead saying states should decide whether to
keep a ban on road-building in those areas.
Environmentalists immediately criticized the change as the
biggest timber industry giveaway in history. Yahoo News Monday
July 12, 2004
238. Environment: Endangered Species Act's Protections Trimmed
Back
The Bush administration has succeeded in reshaping the
Endangered Species Act in ways that have sharply limited the
impact of the 30-year-old law aimed at protecting the nation's
most vulnerable plants and animals, according to environmentalists
and some independent analysts.
The Bush initiatives, which have ranged from recalculating
the economic costs of protecting critical habitats to limiting the
number of species added to the protected list, reflect a policy
shift that Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton calls the "New
Environmentalism." Washington Post Saturday July 03, 2004
239. Environment: Judge Orders Explanation of Nature Policy
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered the Bush
administration to explain what prevents it from listing rare
species in four Western states as endangered or threatened. The
ruling by Judge Ann Aiken in Portland, Ore., was hailed Friday by
environmental groups as a victory in efforts to protect the Tahoe
yellow cress plant, the southern Idaho ground squirrel and the
sand dune lizard. AP Saturday June 26, 2004
240. Environment: Habitat for Species Recovery Seen Wanting
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is approving only about
one of every two acres that federal biologists propose setting
aside to help vanishing species recover. Between 2001 and 2003,
the government cut 42 million acres from plans to create nearly 83
million acres of critical habitat for threatened and endangered
species, a National Wildlife Federation study found. The
administration also more often cited economic reasons to justify
decisions to reduce acreage. In 2001, that rationale was used to
trim about 1 percent of the acreage; by 2003, that had risen to 69
percent. AP Wednesday June 23, 2004
241. Environment: Toxic Pollution Rose 5 Percent in 2002
WASHINGTON -- The volume of toxic pollutants released into
the environment in the United States rose 5 percent in 2002, the
first increase since 1997, the government reported Tuesday. Those
two years are the only ones to show an increase since the
Environmental Protection Agency began keeping track of the
billions of pounds of pollution under a 1986 law. In 1997, the
increase was 6 percent.
Even with the most recent rise -- a dramatic turnaround from
the 13 percent decline in 2001 -- environmentalists say the EPA is
still letting industry underreport the amount of air pollution by
330 million pounds a year. Yahoo News Tuesday June 22, 2004
242. Environment: Bush likes forest industry, but not the trees
The president's fondness for the timber industry is well
documented. Even his forest fire prevention bill -- the so-called
Healthy Forests Initiative -- is tilted toward timber industry
interests. But now the Bush administration is poised to issue its
radical rewrite of the National Forest Management Act regulations,
which have protected our national forests, including the Olympic
and Wenatchee forests in Washington, for decades. Seattle PI
Wednesday June 16, 2004
243. Environment: Study Ranks Bush Plan to Cut Air Pollution as
Weakest of 3
WASHINGTON, June 9 - A research firm that the Bush
administration commissioned to analyze its plan to lower emissions
from coal-fired power plants compared the plan with two competing
legislative proposals and concluded in a report released Wednesday
that the administration's plan was the weakest. NY Times Thursday
June 10, 2004
244. Environment: Shortcut on Nuclear Waste
The Senate may consider today whether to allow the Energy
Department to reclassify certain nuclear wastes at a weapons plant
in South Carolina so they can be disposed of faster and cheaper
than if the department complied with current law. Although many
senators may be tempted to skim over this issue as a matter of
parochial concern to South Carolina, they need to consider this
matter carefully lest they set a terrible precedent. The Energy
Department has a notoriously poor record in handling environmental
issues. It should not be granted such unbridled power to define
its waste problems away with the stroke of a pen. NY Times
Thursday June 03, 2004
245. Environment: EPA Relied on Industry for Plywood Plant
Pollution Rule
WASHINGTON -- Pushing aside new scientific studies of
possible health risks, the Environmental Protection Agency
approved an air pollution regulation this year that could save the
wood products industry hundreds of millions of dollars. In doing
so, the agency relied on a risk assessment generated by a chemical
industry-funded think tank, and a novel legal approach recommended
by a timber industry lawyer. The regulation was ushered through
the agency by senior officials with previous ties to the timber
and chemical industries. LA Times Friday May 21, 2004
246. Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service accused of using
flawed data to downgrade panther protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is putting developers'
needs ahead of the survival of the Florida panther, according to a
federal biologist. Andrew Eller, Jr., a 17-year agency employee,
has filed a complaint asserting that the Fish and Wildlife Service
is knowingly using flawed science to support the conclusion that
the dwindling panther population -- protected under the Endangered
Species Act since 1976 -- is not in jeopardy. NRDC Monday May 03,
2004
247. Environment: National Parks Hypocrisy
When Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton and her
assistants fanned out to celebrate Earth Day on April 22, the
headline on the press release proclaimed in part, "Cherishing our
National Parks." Norton visited Yosemite National Park, declaring
in effect that the Bush administration was emulating Teddy
Roosevelt in caring for the nation's natural treasures. In fact,
this administration is the worst in decades in protecting and
maintaining the park system. LA Times Saturday May 01, 2004
248. Environment: Wild salmon runs may not be able to survive
Bush
Delivering an early lesson on the uniqueness of our region,
my folks took yours truly and a buddy up the Glacier Creek Road
below Mount Baker one fall day to watch salmon spawn in a
tributary stream. They explained a few facts to fascinated
8-year-olds: The salmon took on a higher fat content -- hence,
tasted better -- because they had to swim up a silty stream that
drains two great glaciers. The struggle to get up rapids and spawn
makes them fighters. George W. Bush should get a lesson in Wild
Salmon 101. After all, this is the man who told us in an
unforgettable 2000 campaign Bushism: "The man and the fish can
coexist."In news that leaked out yesterday, the president's men
are plotting a brazen flanking move around the Endangered Species
Act. Seattle PI Friday April 30, 2004
249. Environment: Interior Dept. limiting "critical habitat"
protection
The Bush administration, calling the federal process for
ensuring the recovery of imperiled wildlife "broken," has proposed
new limits on designating "critical habitat" under the Endangered
Species Act. The "guidance" instructs U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service field offices not to set aside critical habitat for
threatened or endangered wildlife if other conservation steps are
already in place. In addition, critical habitat protections can
now only be used in limited areas when supported by "sound
science" and after weighing the direct and indirect impacts. Bush
officials justified the new restrictions by claiming that critical
habitat fails to ensure the survival of species -- of 1,304 plants
and animals that have been listed for protection under the ESA
over the past 30 years, only a dozen have recovered, according to
the Fish and Wildlife Service. But environmentalists noted that
the agency's own reports have shown that species with critical
habitat are more than twice as likely to recover than those
without such protection. NRDC Wednesday April 28, 2004
250. Environment: Environmentalists Rap Bush on Development
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- At the same time President Bush is
declaring his commitment to conservation, environmentalists say
his administration is approving development proposals that
endanger sensitive areas such as southwest Florida's Rookery Bay,
where the president traveled last week to defend his record. NY
Times Monday April 26, 2004
251. Environment: Environmentalists Rap Bush on Development
NAPLES, Fla. (AP) -- At the same time President Bush is
declaring his commitment to conservation, environmentalists say
his administration is approving development proposals that
endanger sensitive areas such as southwest Florida's Rookery Bay,
where the president traveled last week to defend his record.
Environmental groups oppose the proposed Winding Cypress
development, saying its 2,300 homes and golf course would destroy
wetlands because the project is at the headwaters of the bay. The
developer is one of the area's most prominent business families,
the Colliers. The county that encompasses Naples bears the family
name NY Tim Monday April 26, 2004
252. Environment: Fire Plan, or Smokescreen?
Wildfire protection must be a key part of any forest
management plan -- as the dozens of San Bernardino and San
Diego-area residents who lost their homes to last summer's
infernos know only too painfully. But fire protection is no reason
to permit unsustainable logging or twist the truth. So why is the
U.S. Forest Service using a 1909 photograph of a Montana forest in
a federal pamphlet extolling the benefits of logging in the Sierra
Nevada? And why does the pamphlet imply the forest pictured is
pristine, when the stumps in the background clearly show the area
was logged? LA Times Monday April 19, 2004
253. Environment: DOE pulling a fast one at Hanford
For the Bush administration's Department of Energy, power
makes for arrogance in the handling of nuclear waste issues. If
the administration can push around workers, communities and the
states, it most certainly will. Rather than accept a federal court
ruling, the administration is trying to force a change in the law
by withholding nuclear cleanup funds. If Congress, Washington and
other states fail to stand firm, the administration will get away
with its Alice in Wonderland plan to have Hanford considered clean
because the Energy Department says it is. Seattle PI Monday April
12, 2004
254. Environment: Energy Dept. Threatens No Nuclear Cleanup
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Energy Department is threatening to
withhold $350 million that was to pay for disposal of some of the
most dangerous radioactive waste from Cold War bomb-making. First,
it says, Congress and state officials must accept a cleanup plan
already rejected in court. The issue has pitted a half dozen
states against the Bush administration -- raising concern that
some of the millions of gallons of highly radioactive waste that
are supposed to be solidified and buried by the government may, in
fact, remain in place. NY Times Wednesday April 07, 2004
255. Environment: The Mercury Scandal
If you want a single example that captures why so many
people no longer believe in the good intentions of the Bush
administration, look at the case of mercury pollution. Mercury can
damage the nervous system, especially in fetuses and infants --
which is why the Food and Drug Administration warns pregnant women
and nursing mothers against consuming types of fish, like albacore
tuna, that often contain high mercury levels. About 8 percent of
American women have more mercury in their bloodstreams than the
Environmental Protection Agency considers safe. NY Times Tuesday
April 06, 2004
256. Environment: EPA Faulted on Clean-Water Violations
The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to act
against widespread violations of the Clean Water Act by plants and
factories across the country, the U.S. Public Research Interest
Group said yesterday based on a study it conducted. More than 60
percent of all major facilities in the United States, or 3,700 out
of 6,184, exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits on
discharges into waterways at least once between 2002-01-1, and
2003-06-30, according to the report. Washington Post Wednesday
March 31, 2004
257. Environment: Bush Mining Regulatory Change Is Denounced
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tales of floods and flattened peaks and
of homes swept away or devalued in central Appalachia were laid
out Tuesday by opponents to the Bush administration's plan to ease
a buffer-zone regulation protecting streams from coal mining
operations. NY Times Tuesday March 30, 2004
258. Environment: Report Faults EPA for Water Claims
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Environmental Protection Agency
incorrectly claimed to have met its goals of ensuring that at
least 91 percent of the nation's drinking water was meeting
federal health-based standards from 1999 to 2002, the agency's
inspector general says. "The agency reported meeting its annual
performance goal for drinking water quality even though it
concurrently reported that the data used to draw those conclusions
were flawed and incomplete," the EPA IG's office said in a report
this week. "EPA's own analysis, supported by our review, indicated
the correct number was unknown but less than what was reported."
NY Times Friday March 12, 2004
259. Environment: Drop in Budget Slows Superfund Program
WASHINGTON, March 8 -- Citing budgetary concerns, the Bush
administration has proposed new toxic waste sites for the
Superfund program at a much slower rate than previous
administrations, a practice criticized by state environmental
officials who say it masks the true demand for cleanup in the
country. On Monday the Environmental Protection Agency proposed 11
sites to be cleaned up under the Superfund program, which lists
more than 1,200 sites. NY Times Tuesday March 09, 2004
260. Environment: How Industry Won the Battle of Pollution
Control at E.P.A.
Just six weeks into the Bush administration, Haley Barbour,
a former Republican party chairman who was a lobbyist for electric
power companies, sent a memorandum to Vice President Dick Cheney
laying down a challenge. "The question is whether environmental
policy still prevails over energy policy with Bush-Cheney, as it
did with Clinton-Gore," Mr. Barbour wrote, and called for measures
to show that environmental concerns would no longer "trump good
energy policy." NY Times Friday March 05, 2004
261. Environment: Again, an Assault on Alaska
If at first you don't succeed in despoiling an environmental
treasure, try, try again. That's apparently the White House motto
for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The
Senate should stop President Bush again, as it has for two years
now. The Bush administration has been no friend to the Alaskan
environment in recent months. in December, the Forest Service
announced it would strip protections from the Tongass National
Forest, allowing loggers to build roads to choice stands of
old-growth trees. In January, the president's budget brought back
his twice-defeated proposal to sell oil leases in the wildlife
refuge, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton approved a plan to open
millions of acres of the North Slope to drilling and loosen
requirements for environmental safeguards. LA Times Wednesday
February 25, 2004
262. Environment: Nuclear safety standards
WORKERS in a nuclear weapons facility should have the
assurance that safety standards are set and enforced by federal
inspectors. But they won't have that assurance if the Bush
administration goes ahead with a draft regulation that would put
safety requirements in the hands of the contractors who operate
the federally owned plants and research labs. Under the Bush plan,
a contractor could establish his own safety requirements within
his plant, subject to approval by the US Department of Energy,
which has responsibility for the facilities. Boston Globe Sunday
February 08, 2004
263. Environment: A sacrifice of species
SCIENTISTS have long warned that global warming is causing
such changes in habitats that many plant and animal species might
not be able to survive the heat. Now, 19 researchers have
predicted just how severe the impact will be if current climate
trends continue: By 2050, 15 to 37 percent of the 1,103 species
they studied will be extinct or beyond the point of no return. The
study in a recent issue of Nature should spur President Bush and
Congress to end their irresponsible neglect of climate change and
its consequences. Boston Globe Monday January 19, 2004
264. Environment: EPA Chief: Superfund Short on Funds
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cleanup work at 11 of the worst toxic
dumps in the country hasn't started because the Superfund program
doesn't have enough money, the Environmental Protection Agency's
inspector general said Thursday. The $3 billion program has a
shortfall of nearly $175 million, according to the report. "When
funding is not sufficient, construction cannot begin; cleanups are
performed in less than an optimal manner; and/or activities are
stretched over longer periods of time," the report said. In
addition to the 11 sites, there are four places where "emergency
removal" of contaminants such as asbestos and lead is on hold for
lack of $9.4 million. NY Times Thursday January 08, 2004
265. Environment: Global warming 'biggest threat'
Climate change is a far greater threat to the world than
international terrorism, the government's chief scientific adviser
has said. Sir David King said the US had failed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. And without immediate action flooding,
drought, hunger and debilitating diseases such as malaria would
hit millions of people around the world. US President George Bush
says more research is needed before he introduces punitive carbon
taxes on industry. BBC Thursday January 08, 2004
266. Environment: Timber giveaway/Logging the best of the Tongass
As the Bush administration tells the tale, its rollback of
the roadless rule in Alaska's Tongass National Forest is just a
minor adjustment. New roads and logging will be permitted on
"only" 300,000 of the Tongass' 17 million acres. Why, that leaves
95 percent of the forest under strict protections. Heck, only 3
percent of the acreage set aside under President Bill Clinton
would be reopened. This sort of numbers game will be familiar to
those who have followed the debate over oil drilling in Alaska's
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There, too, the administration
parrots industry arguments that only a tiny portion of a vast
wilderness will be affected. But its figures obscure more than
they reveal. Star Tribune Monday January 05, 2004
267. Environment: Bush Plans On Global Warming Alter Little
Two years after President Bush declared he could combat
global warming without mandatory controls, the administration has
launched a broad array of initiatives and research, yet it has had
little success in recruiting companies to voluntarily curb their
greenhouse gas emissions, according to official documents, reports
and interviews. Many of the companies with the worst pollution
records have shunned the voluntary programs because even a
voluntary commitment would necessitate costly cleanups or possibly
could set the stage for future government regulation, according to
industry insiders. Washington Post Thursday January 01, 2004
268. Environment: Editorial: Mercury rules/Another retreat on
public health
The competition is tough, but of all the Bush
administration's retreats on controlling air pollution, its
proposed new rules on mercury may prove to be the most cynical.
History will have to judge. Star Tribune Wednesday December 31,
2003
269. Environment: Ploy Against Clean Waters
Tens of thousands of angry people have shoved the Bush
administration away from its effort to obliterate Clean Water Act
provisions for a whole class of streams and wetlands, one that
includes almost all the waterways in Southern California. But the
action will mean little if the administration doesn't also rescind
an "interim" order to the Army Corps of Engineers that makes it
hard for the agency to protect these waters. LA Times Tuesday
December 30, 2003
270. Environment: Part of Alaskan Forest Opened to Logging
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration opened 300,000 more
acres of Alaska's Tongass National Forest on Tuesday to possible
logging or other development. The decision allows 3 percent of the
forest's 9.3 million acres, which were put off-limits to
road-building by the Clinton administration, to have roads built
on them and perhaps to be opened to use by the timber industry.
Yahoo News Tuesday December 23, 2003
271. Environment: EPA Plan Seeks to Cut Mercury Pollution
WASHINGTON - Days after a scientific panel urged the
government to strongly warn pregnant women and children about
mercury levels in certain fish, the Bush administration is
proposing to give power plants up to 15 years to install
technology to reduce mercury pollution. Yahoo News Tuesday
December 16, 2003
272. Environment: DOE changes rules for nuclear waste storage,
weakening protection
After dismissing as "fatally flawed" a General Accounting
Office (GAO) report critical of his agency's handling of a
proposed permanent nuclear waste storage site in the Nevada
desert, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham changed the rules of the
game -- i.e., the game being whether the proposed site complies
with the law. With its recent issuance of the site suitability
guidelines for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste
repository, the Department of Energy (DOE) now says the government
no longer must prove that Yucca Mountain's underground rock
formations would prevent radioactive contamination of the
environment. Rather, DOE plans to rely on "engineered waste
packages" that they hope will adequately contain the highly
radioactive waste to be stored in Yucca Mountain. NRDC Sunday
December 14, 2003
273. Environment: Keep snowmobiles from befouling parks
The Bush administration is flouting the public's will by
allowing snowmobiles to race through Yellowstone and Grand Teton
national parks. Several studies -- even one by this administration
-- have shown these loud, obnoxious, polluting machines are
harmful to the park environment. They scare the animals and
shatter the quiet. The exhaust fumes are so bad that park rangers
wear gas masks. Overwhelmingly, Americans have been thumbs up on
proposed rules to ban them. Yet the administration just published
new rules that keep the snowmobiles coming, starting next week.
Kansas City Star Saturday December 13, 2003
274. Environment: DOE refuses to comply with Freedom of
Information request from NRDC about Energy Group
After waiting nearly eight months for a response, NRDC filed
a lawsuit today to force the U.S. Department of Energy to produce
records regarding the agency's role in the operations of the
National Energy Policy Development Group chaired by Vice President
Dick Cheney. DOE's refusal to provide basic information about its
involvement with the so-called energy task force violates the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to NRDC. NRDC
Thursday December 11, 2003
275. Environment: Dirty Trick on Waterways
Relying on nonsensical thinking and a narrow court ruling
with dubious application, the Bush administration wants to gut
crucial segments of the Clean Water Act. It isn't just the
tree-hugging crowd raising alarms over this action, which, if it
prevails, would strip protections from waterways that don't flow
at least half the year -- in other words, most of the streams and
ponds of Southern California. LA Times Monday December 08, 2003
276. Environment: Bush Signs Bill to Curb Wildfire Threat
The Healthy Forests Restoration Act is the first major
forest management legislation in a quarter-century. It seeks to
speed up the harvesting of trees in overgrown woodlands and
insect-infested trees on 20 million acres of federal forest land
most at risk to wildfires. It does that by scaling back required
environmental studies. Also, it limits appeals and directs judges
to act quickly on legal challenges to logging plans. Critics said
the bill would let companies cut down large, old-growth trees in
the name of fire prevention. AP Wednesday December 03, 2003
277. Environment: Plan Would Let Mercury Emissions Be Traded
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration is proposing to
abandon the idea of treating mercury as a toxic substance
requiring maximum pollution controls, favoring instead a plan that
allows power plants to curtail emissions through a trading system.
AP Tuesday December 02, 2003
278. Environment: Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
George W. Bush will go down in history as America's worst
environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the
Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of
America's environmental laws, weakening the protection of our
country's air, water, public lands and wildlife. Cloaked in
meticulously crafted language designed to deceive the public, the
administration intends to eliminate the nation's most important
environmental laws by the end of the year. Common Dreams Thursday
November 20, 2003
279. Environment: Radioactive Waste Plan Attacked
The Environmental Protection Agency is considering an
important rule change that for the first time would allow the
nuclear industry to store low-level radioactive material in
ordinary landfills and hazardous waste sites. Washington Post
Tuesday November 18, 2003
280. Environment: U.S. Pushes For Broad Methyl Bromide Exemptions
The two-decade effort to eliminate chemicals that harm the
ozone layer faces its most serious test in recent years this week
as the Bush administration seeks international support for broad
exemptions to a 2005 ban on a popular pesticide. Many U.S. farmers
say the pesticide, methyl bromide, is vital as they try to compete
with farm production in countries where fields are tended by
low-paid laborers. Critics of the proposed exemptions, led by the
European Union, say that substitute chemicals are already in wide
use and that the U.S. request threatens progress toward repairing
the ozone layer, which shields the earth from radiation that
causes cancers and other problems. PCT Monday November 10, 2003
281. Environment: Lawyers at E.P.A. Say It Will Drop Pollution
Cases
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 -- A change in enforcement policy will
lead the Environmental Protection Agency to drop investigations
into 50 power plants for past violations of the Clean Air Act,
lawyers at the agency who were briefed on the decision this week
said. NY Times Thursday November 06, 2003
282. Environment: Missouri River Scientists Off Project
WASHINGTON - The long-running dispute over management of the
nation's longest river took another twist when the Bush
administration yanked government scientists off a project to study
the waterway's ecosystem. The team had been on the job for years
and was within weeks of producing what could have been its final
report. Conservation groups criticized last week's unreported
decision to remove the scientists, which they said was to protect
business interests at the expense of the Endangered Species Act.
Yahoo News Wednesday November 05, 2003
283. Environment: Promising Vote on Global Warming
The bill also found surprising support among Democrats and
Republicans from big industrial and coal-producing states, where
opposition to any legislation having to do with curbing emissions
of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases usually runs high.
This support materialized despite furious opposition from
reactionaries like Oklahoma's James Inhofe, who stubbornly denies
the science of global warming, and from the White House -- which,
true to form, warned of an economic Armageddon. NY Times Saturday
November 01, 2003
284. Environment: Federal tree aid denied before fires
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 31 (UPI) -- California Gov. Gray
Davis requested federal aid to clear dead trees, but it was denied
hours before the current firestorms began. The Bush administration
took six months to evaluate Davis' emergency April 16 request for
$430 million to clear fire-prone areas, and finally denied it Oct.
24, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday. Washington Times | SF
Chronicle Friday October 31, 2003
285. Environment: U.S. EPA fails to meet deadline for handing
over air documents to Senate
In an escalating political game of cat and mouse, the Bush
administration has broken its pledge to provide the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee with internal documents
detailing the Environmental Protection Agency's planned rulemaking
changes to ease Clean Air Act's "new source review" (NSR)
requirements for industry. In response, Committee Chairman James
Jeffords (I-VT) has vowed to issue a congressional subpoena for
the withheld records when Congress reconvenes after the mid-term
elections. NRDC Saturday October 25, 2003
286. Environment: States Try to Force EPA to Regulate CO2
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Eleven states asked a federal
appeals court Thursday to force the Environmental Protection
Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The EPA said in
August that it lacked authority from Congress to regulate
greenhouse gases. It also denied a petition to impose controls on
auto emissions. The states who filed the court petition say the
federal Clean Air Act requires the EPA to regulate gases like
carbon dioxide. AP Thursday October 23, 2003
287. Environment: Forest Service in violation of Endangered
Species Act
A federal judge ruled that the U.S. Forest Service violated
the Endangered Species Act by not protecting Mexican spotted owl
habitat on 80 percent of cattle grazing areas in 11 national
forests in Arizona and New Mexico. NRDC Monday October 20, 2003
288. Environment: Farm Dioxins Won't Be Monitored
The Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday that it
would not regulate dioxins in sewage sludge used as farm
fertilizer, citing new studies indicating that such usage does not
pose significant health or environmental risks. The announcement
came on the eve of a court-imposed deadline for the government to
resolve a long-standing controversy over the handling of
dioxin-laced sludge. It drew condemnation from environmentalists,
public health advocates and scholars who said the administration
is gambling with the public's health. Washington Post Sunday
October 19, 2003
289. Environment: Hawking the EPA / An ad buy that turns politics
to propaganda
The Bush administration has tripped over its political feet
with a taxpayer-supported advertising campaign by the
Environmental Protection Agency touting President Bush's "Clear
Skies" initiative. Post Gazette Sunday October 19, 2003
290. Environment: White House Eases Land Rules for Miners
The Bush administration announced Friday that it would start
allowing companies that mine gold, silver and other precious
metals as much public land as they need to help them develop their
claims. Environmental groups assailed the decision as the latest
in a long string of actions by the Bush administration to roll
back environmental protections. Common Dreams Saturday October 11,
2003
291. Environment: EPA sides with pesticide industry against
famers' lawsuits
The Bush administration is siding with the pesticide
industry to make it harder for farmers to sue manufacturers over
product labels. In a change of interpretation, Environmental
Protection Agency officials said Monday they believe federal law
bars lawsuits against pesticide manufacturers under state laws
when a product fails to do what its federally approved label
promises. NY Times Monday October 06, 2003
292. Environment: Forest Service loosens logging restrictions for
small-scale projects
The Forest Service proposed three new categories forest
managers could use in excluding more timber sales from
environmental review and public participation under the National
Environmental Policy Act. The new "categorical exclusions" would
apply to more than 150 pending logging projects. NRDC Sunday
September 14, 2003
293. Environment: Bush asks judge to suspend mountaintop mining
decision As expected, the Bush administration asked a federal
judge t
May 8 ruling limiting the disposal of mountaintop mining
waste pending an appeal. Federal District Court Judge Charles H.
Haden II ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' practice of
allowing the dumping of coal mining waste as fill into waterways
is inconsistent with the federal Clean Water Act and therefore
illegal. He also criticized the Corps and the Environmental
Protection Agency for attempting to "rewrite" the law. NRDC
Saturday September 13, 2003
294. Environment: Bush encourages sale of PCB-contaminated sites
The Bush administration is encouraging the sale of
PCB-contaminated sites, reversing a 25-year-old policy barring any
such sales before the land is cleaned. Eagle Tribune Thursday
September 04, 2003
295. Environment: Bush refuses to take action against global
warming
Today the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) was forced to admit its continued failure to take
action to reduce the impacts of global warming. Responding to a
lawsuit filed by three environmental organizations, the Bush
Administration is expected today to officially announce it will do
nothing to protect Americans from global warming pollution caused
largely by greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles. Common
Dreams Thursday August 28, 2003
296. Environment: Bush "healthy forest" plan creates unhealthy
forests
The best way to avoid catastrophic fires is by trimming
undergrowth and clearing debris, combined with natural burns of
the kind that have sustained healthy forests in past millennia.
The worst way to create healthy forests, on the other hand, is to
thin trees via increased logging, as proposed by the Bush
administration. Washington Post Wednesday August 27, 2003
297. Environment: Feds Urge Overturn of Calif. Air Law
The federal government is backing a lawsuit before the U.S.
Supreme Court that seeks to overturn a California clean-air
agency's attempt to curb pollution from buses, taxis, trash trucks
and other fleet vehicles. AP Wednesday August 27, 2003
298. Environment: EPA tells WTC workers that air is safe to
breathe
At the White House's direction, the Environmental Protection
Agency wrongly told New Yorkers not to worry about health risks of
debris-laden air from the World Trade Center collapse, the
agency's watchdog says in a report. The White House "convinced EPA
to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" by having
the National Security Council control EPA communications in the
wake of theSept. 11 terror attacks. NY Times Wednesday August 27,
2003
299. Environment: Cheney refuses to release documents about
energy task force
Congressional investigators say they can't determine the oil
industry's influence on the White House's energy policy because
Vice President Dick Cheney refused to provide documents about his
energy task force. Salt Lake Tribune Tuesday August 26, 2003
300. Environment: EPA relies on industry anecdotes to relax
industrial air pollution rules
The Environmental Protection Agency relied on anecdotes from
industries it regulates for its argument that relaxing air
pollution rules for industrial plants will cut emissions and
health risks, congressional investigators said Monday. CBS News
Tuesday August 26, 2003
301. Environment: EPA shifts funds from successful "energy star"
program
"Energy Star" is the Bush administration's most highly
touted energy conservation program, but that has not kept the
Environmental Protection Agency from quietly slashing its budget
by shifting millions of dollars to other programs. NY Times
Wednesday August 20, 2003
302. Environment: Study Finds Atmospheric Decline in Pesticide
Harmful to Ozone
Researchers from National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration find signficant drop in atmospheric levels of
methyl bromide, pesticide that is being phased out because it
damages planet's protective ozone layer; say drop is attributable
to mandatory curbs on chemical under 1987 Montreal Protocol,
treaty aimed at restoring ozone layer. NY Times Saturday August
16, 2003
303. Environment: Bush tells bureau to open land
The Bush administration has directed federal land managers
to remove obstacles to oil and gas development in parts of five
Rocky Mountain states. Policy directives issued to Bureau of Land
Management state directors give the officials tools to implement
the administration's long-standing goal of opening the Rocky
Mountain West to increased exploitation of oil and gas resources.
Washington Times Saturday August 09, 2003
304. Environment: EPA cuts funding for one of its most successful
and popular energy efficiency programs
The agency's operating budget slashed by one-third its
highly touted Energy Star program, which provides a federal seal
of approval for energy efficient consumer products. Energy
conservation groups, which work with the government to promote the
program, now face a significant reduction in federal grants. That
could result in less advertising to spread consumer awareness
about the Energy Star program. NRDC Saturday August 09, 2003
305. Environment: DOT to allow construction at historic sites
Unfortunately, the Bush administration has made changes that
will eviscerate the 1966 Department of Transportation Act law, and
Congress will vote on them shortly. The proposed revisions would
undo the most vital protection: forbidding highway construction at
historic sites unless there is no feasible and prudent
alternative. NY Times Saturday August 09, 2003
306. Environment: Republican Pollster urges party to challenge
global warming science
Before last year's elections Frank Luntz, the Republican
pollster, wrote a remarkable memo about how to neutralize public
perceptions that the party was anti-environmental. Here's what it
said about global warming: The scientific debate is closing
[against us] but is not yet closed. There is still an opportunity
to challenge the science. And it advised Republicans to play up
the appearance of scientific uncertainty. NY Times Friday August
08, 2003
307. Environment: Bush delays action on climate with "study"
Citing what it calls the "uncertainty" of the science behind
global warming, the Bush administration plans to spend several
more years and millions of dollars studying climate change instead
of trying to fix it. As part of its 10-year plan to study climate
change and determine whether human activity or natural occurrences
are causing Earth's atmosphere to heat up, the Climate Change
Science Program will compile expertise from 13 federal agencies
that collectively spend $4.5 billion on climate-change related
programs; it will also redirect $103 million for satellite
technologies to gather global climate data. NRDC Thursday July 24,
2003
308. Environment: DOE attempting legislative end-run around court
ruling on nuke waste
Two weeks ago a federal judge ruled that the Energy
Department acted illegally when they attempted to abandon millions
of gallons of highly radioactive waste in underground storage
tanks at three nuclear weapons facilities by reclassifying it as
incidental waste. Now, the agency is asking Congress to overturn
the court decision. NRDC Thursday July 17, 2003
309. Environment: Bush administration taps new group to speed up
energy development in Rockies
The Bush administration, eager to tap the Rocky Mountains
for natural gas, has charged a group of top government officials
to develop ways to "streamline" or speed up drilling projects in
the region. The new group is part of a pilot project of the White
House Task Force on Energy Streamlining, created by Bush's
National Energy Plan. At its first meeting in Denver -- which was
closed to the public -- the Rocky Mountain Energy Council began
discussions with federal and state officials on how to ease the
permitting process for industry in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico,
Utah and Wyoming. NRDC Tuesday July 08, 2003
310. Environment: Bush administration calls for more gas drilling
on public lands
According to an Interior Department study released last
winter, 88 percent of the natural gas resources found in the five
major energy producing basins in the Rocky Mountains is open for
oil and gas development. But the recent spike in natural gas
prices has Bush administration officials warning of an impending
natural gas supply crisis that can only be alleviated by
increasing drilling on federal lands. In order to make that happen
the administration supports "streamlining" environmental
protections for energy companies. NRDC Tuesday June 24, 2003
311. Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service reduces protected
habitat for threatened mouse by half
Urban development has made survival difficult for a mouse
now found only in Colorado and Wyoming. The good news is that the
Preble's meadow jumping mouse is protected as a threatened species
under the federal Endangered Species Act. The bad news is that the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service cut in half the amount of
designated critical habitat it had originally proposed for the
mouse -- dropping habitat protection from 29,253 acres and 237
stream miles to 10,542 acres and 125 stream miles. NRDC Monday
June 23, 2003
312. Environment: White House whitewashes EPA environment report
"Climate change has global consequences for human health and
the environment." This factual and straightforward statement
appeared in a draft of a new report by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, billed as the first-ever comprehensive
statistical overview of environmental problems facing the United
States. But the White House removed the sentence -- along with
other references to global warming causes and risks -- from the
final version, leaving just a few vague paragraphs. Also omitted
was information on the potential harm to humans and wildlife from
pesticides and industrial chemicals. NRDC Monday June 23, 2003
313. Environment: DOD reneges on plan to test for perchlorate
pollution at U.S. bases
A top Pentagon official who last month circulated draft
guidelines for perchlorate testing at all active, inactive and
closed military sites is now backing off after being pressured by
senior military officials. After those officials complained that
the plan is too costly and the science on perchlorate risks too
uncertain, John Paul Woodley, assistant deputy undersecretary of
defense for the environment, halted the study. NRDC Friday June
20, 2003
314. Environment: Bush administration undermines critical habitat
designations
When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated critical
habitat for 99 endangered and threatened plants on the island of
Oahu, it added -- for the first time -- a disclaimer that
undermines all such designations under the Endangered Species Act.
The disclaimer, which the Interior Department intends to add to
all future designations, asserts that the protections offered by
the ESA's critical habitat provisions have no value in species
protection. It also cites the agency's budget woes and heavy
workload as reasons why the Fish and Wildlife Service is unable to
fulfill scientific requirements for critical habitat protection.
NRDC Wednesday June 18, 2003
315. Environment: Bush administration moves to roll back the
Roadless Rule
Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey has announced his plans
to reverse the Roadless Area Conservation Rule -- issued by
President Clinton -- that bars virtually all roadbuilding and
logging on 58.5 million acres of remote and pristine national
forests. The Bush administration first tried to weaken the rule by
not defending it in court, but in December 2002 a federal appeals
court cleared the way for the implementation of the rule in
response to an appeal filed by NRDC and other environmental
groups. NRDC Monday June 09, 2003
316. Environment: Forest Service plan would triple logging limits
in Sierra Nevada
Vast chunks of California's Sierra Nevada range that are
currently off-limits to logging -- to protect wildlife habitat --
could fall victim to the axe. The U.S. Forest Service, invoking
the clarion call of fire danger, has released a new management
plan that calls for tripling the amount of logging allowed in the
11 national forests in the Sierras. The changes significantly
weaken wildlife habitat protections afforded by the Clinton-era
Sierra Nevada Framework. NRDC Thursday June 05, 2003
317. Environment: DOE moving ahead with new nukes
A month after Congress approved a controversial study of
"low yield" nuclear weapons, the Energy Department cited national
security concerns in announcing a plan to spend $2 billion to $4
billion for a new factory to build "mini-nukes" or "bunker
busters." The facility is expected to be operational in 2020.
Critics warn that developing a new generation of nuclear weapons,
especially those that could be more easily used, is contrary to
the nation's non-proliferation policy. NRDC Monday June 02, 2003
318. Environment: GAO report on forest fires a blow to Bush
administration policies
For the second time in two years, a review by the General
Accounting Office has demonstrated that public comment and appeals
process do not hamper forest fire prevention efforts. This new GAO
report, which the agency released to Congress, finds that the
overwhelming majority of so-called hazardous fuel-reduction or
"thinning" projects go forward in a timely manner -- even when
questions are raised by citizens, industry, recreation groups,
conservationists or other interested parties. NRDC Thursday May
15, 2003
319. Environment: EPA proposes easing, delaying smog control
rules
If tough new smog rules were put into effect as scheduled
next year, dozens of polluted urban areas throughout the country
would find themselves in violation of federal health standards for
clean air. Instead of forcing those areas to reduce smog, the Bush
administration plans to weaken pollution control requirements for
polluted areas. A new proposal by the Environmental Protection
Agency would ease and delay smog cleanup requirements for 35
metropolitan areas, never mind the health of the 47 million
Americans living in those places where asthma and other
respiratory problems are on the rise. NRDC Wednesday May 14, 2003
320. Environment: White House transportation plan steamrolls
environmental protections
The Bush administration sent Congress a $247-billion,
six-year spending plan for transportation that would slash
environmental protections, threaten historic sites and discourage
energy-friendly mass transit. In particular, the proposed bill --
the "Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation
Equity Act of 2003" (SAFE-TEA) -- represents a frontal attack on
the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Air Act. NRDC
Wednesday May 14, 2003
321. Environment: Department of Interior official under ethics
investigation
A former mining lobbyist now embedded in the Bush
administration has a knack for digging up controversy. Deputy
Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, who has come under scrutiny
for maintaining cozy relationships with his former industry
clients, is now under investigation by his agency's Inspector
General. Among the questions the IG is trying to answer is whether
Griles violated the agency's conflict of interest rules when he
took part in regulatory decisions that benefited his former
clients in the energy industry. NRDC Tuesday May 13, 2003
322. Environment: Navy's illegal use of sonar blasts dolphins,
whales in Puget Sound
A group of whale watchers in Washington State's Puget Sound
witnessed a "stampede" of distressed Marine mammals trying to flee
high-intensity sonar blasts from the U.S.S. Shoup , a Navy
destroyer, off San Juan Island. Observers reported that as many as
100 porpoises, 20 orcas and a minke whale leapt through the water
at high speed in an attempt to get away from the sound, which can
damage their sensitive hearing -- impairing their ability to
navigate and find food. NRDC Thursday May 08, 2003
323. Environment: Energy Department illegally approved Mexican
power plants, says judge
A federal judge in San Diego ruled that the U.S. Department
of Energy acted illegally when it found that two Mexican power
plants would not have a significant impact on the air and water
quality in the border region between northwestern Mexico and
southwestern California. That decision calls into question the
U.S. permits granted to the power companies to build cross-border
transmission lines, and could prevent the plants from exporting
electricity to California this summer as planned. NRDC Monday May
05, 2003
324. Environment: EPA secretly considering amnesty for livestock
farm polluters
Behind closed doors the Environmental Protection Agency has
discussed giving industrial livestock farms amnesty from federal
air quality and toxic waste cleanup laws. The agency and industry
groups have confirmed the private negotiations, but insist that no
final agreement has been reached. NRDC Monday May 05, 2003
325. Environment: Bush administration begins diverting water from
Klamath River -- where salmon kill occurred -- to farmers
The controversy in the Klamath River Basin continues, as the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation this week started sending farmers water
despite the prospect of another dry summer that could once again
leave little for the region's protected fish species. At least
34,000 fish died in the lower Klamath River last fall, in what was
the largest salmon die-off ever recorded in the West. California
wildlife officials, scientists at the American Fisheries Society
and at least one biologist with the National Fisheries Marine
Service blamed the tragedy on low water levels caused by the
administration's water policies. NRDC Thursday April 03, 2003
326. Environment: Bush administration giving away federal water
rights in national park
The American public may own the national parks, but what
about the water in the parks? In what amounts to a major policy
shift and an unprecedented federal giveaway, the Bush
administration has negotiated a secret deal to cede federal
control over the waters in Colorado's Gunnison National Park to
the state. The water will be sold to Colorado cities facing a
drinking water shortage, leaving little for wildlife in the park.
NRDC Thursday April 03, 2003
327. Environment: Bush administration slightly raises SUV gas
mileage requirements
The good news is that fuel economy standards are about to go
up for the first time since the mid- 1990s. The bad news is that
sport utility vehicles (SUVs), light pick-up trucks, and vans will
only have to meet slightly more stringent fuel-economy standards
under a new rule issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
NRDC Tuesday April 01, 2003
328. Environment: Interior Department favors boosting offshore
drilling by reducing corporate costs
Interior Secretary Gale Norton believes the way to spur
natural gas production is to make it cheaper for the energy
industry to drill more and deeper wells in the Gulf of Mexico by
allowing them to avoid making royalty payments to the government.
Currently, the government manages more than a billion offshore
acres and collects about $10 billion in mineral revenues a year.
Norton's proposal, which is subject to public comment for 60 days,
would affect owners of 2,400 gas-drilling leases along the coasts
of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. NRDC Wednesday March
26, 2003
329. Environment: EPA backtracks on pledge to close loophole for
California air polluters
Less than a month after the Environmental Protection Agency
publicly urged state officials in California to crack down on air
pollution from farms, the agency is changing its tune. Instead of
repealing a law exempting farms from air pollution monitoring
permits, EPA now supports the industry's position that the tougher
standards should apply only to "major" farm-based pollution
sources. NRDC Tuesday March 25, 2003
330. Environment: EPA cooks fish data to allow more pollution
One fish, two fish, three fish, no fish: that's how many
fish it took to persuade the Bush administration to lift health
protection requirements in Georgia. Apparently, state officials --
under pressure from industry --persuaded the Environmental
Protection Agency last year to accept faulty data showing that
fish in the Savannah River had an average level of methylmercury
contamination that precisely met the federal government's maximum
allowable level. Essentially, overnight the river was transformed
from an "impaired" river to one that no longer violated mercury
pollution standards under the federal Clean Water Act. NRDC Friday
March 21, 2003
331. Environment: Bush administration proposes stripping
protections for endangered wolves
Just when gray wolves are beginning to recover out West, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed stripping federal
protection to make it easier to kill them. The agency's proposal
would downgrade the animals' protected status from "endangered" to
"threatened," a shift that would let ranchers kill wolves that
attack their livestock. NRDC Tuesday March 18, 2003
332. Environment: EPA allows sludge dumping in Potomac River to
continue for seven more years
Under a new permit issued by the Environmental Protection
Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers will face tough restrictions
on dumping sludge in the Potomac River -- but not for another
seven years. For years, the Corps has routinely dumped tons of
sludge at various points along the river, including one spot over
a spawning ground for an endangered fish. NRDC Tuesday March 18,
2003
333. Environment: Forest Service to double logging in Sierra
Nevada forests
In a major shift in forest policy, the Bush administration's
new management plan for California's majestic Sierra Nevada range
involves rolling back Clinton-era timber and wildlife protections
to allow for much more commercial logging. Saying a boost in
timber-cutting is needed to reduce fire danger, U.S. Forest
Service regional forester Jack Blackwell signed off on a proposal
to increase logging by more than twice the current level and allow
cutting of mature trees up to 30 inches in diameter. NRDC Tuesday
March 18, 2003
334. Environment: GAO slams Bush administration for stalling on
chemical security
On the brink of war and with the nation's threat level again
at Code Orange, the Bush administration still has yet to take
appropriate action to reduce the risk of terrorist attacks on the
nation's 15,000 chemical plants. The General Accounting Office,
Congress' nonpartisan investigative agency, released a report
warning that chemical facilities remain highly vulnerable despite
the post-9/11 focus on homeland security. NRDC Tuesday March 18,
2003
335. Environment: EPA conflicted over Pentagon proposal to exempt
the military from environmental laws
Somebody must have missed a memo at the Environmental
Protection Agency. Less than two weeks after EPA Administrator
Christie Todd Whitman told a Senate committee that she knows of no
incident in which environmental protections have ever hampered the
military's ability to train, her agency's enforcement chief, J.P.
Suarez, testified in support of legislation that would exempt the
military from federal environmental and public health laws. NRDC
Thursday March 13, 2003
336. Environment: EPA withdraws water-pollution cleanup rule
With a Clinton-era revision of a major Clean Water Act
program -- Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) -- set to take effect,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially instead simply
withdrew the rule, clearing the way for the agency to develop a
new rule that would put more control in the hands of the states.
The TMDL program was meant to clean up "impaired" or polluted
waters that are plagued by indirect or nonpoint sources of
pollution, such as agricultural runoff. NRDC Thursday March 13,
2003
337. Environment: EPA exempts oil and gas industry from water
pollution rules
In a rather slick deal for oil and gas drillers, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency exempted that industry from a new
water regulation aimed at reducing polluted runoff. NRDC Monday
March 10, 2003
338. Environment: EPA data on Clear Skies clearly wrong
The EPA claimed that the Clear Skies plan would reduce
sulfur dioxide pollution in Washington State by 87 percent, and
nitrogen oxide and mercury pollution would remain stable. But the
EPA's regional office questioned the data for months. "I am also
concerned that Region 10 (Seattle) data is still wrong," read a
2002-07-1, email from a senior EPA regional official to agency
headquarters in Washington, D.C. It turns out that sulfur dioxide
emissions were already achieved last year when the state's largest
power plant installed state-of-the-art pollution control equipment
under a preexisting agreement with state and federal air
officials. EPA corrected its analysis, but continued its defense
of Clear Skies. NRDC Monday March 10, 2003
339. Environment: Pentagon chiefs ordered to hunt for
environmental exemptions
On the heels of the Pentagon's effort to convince Congress
to grant the Defense Department sweeping exemptions from the
nation's environmental and public health laws, the Pentagon's No.
2 official ordered the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force to
provide examples to justify possible exemptions by President Bush
in the name of national security. The secret memo by Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz -- leaked by an environmental
group -- argues the Bush administration's position that
antipollution and wildlife protections threaten military training
and readiness. NRDC Friday March 07, 2003
340. Environment: Defense Department seeking exemptions from
environmental laws
The Bush administration is exploiting the impending war with
Iraq to open a new front in its ongoing campaign to weaken or roll
back the nation's environmental and public health protections. The
Pentagon has once again asked Congress to exempt the Department of
Defense (DoD) from a wide range of laws, including the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act; Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (Superfund law); Clean
Air Act; Endangered Species Act; and Marine Mammal Protection Act.
NRDC Thursday March 06, 2003
341. Environment: Judge orders federal protection for California
fish
In a blow to the Bush administration's prodevelopment
stance, a federal district judge in California gave the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service one year to designate critical habitat for
the Santa Ana sucker. The judge also barred the agency from
issuing anymore permits for activity that would potentially harm
the endangered fish. NRDC Tuesday March 04, 2003
342. Environment: National Park Service sends Yellowstone bison
to slaughter
The National Park Service sent nearly half of the bison herd
at Yellowstone National Park to the slaughterhouse when some 231
animals were about to wander outside the park in search for food.
Many of the bison had not yet crossed the boundary of Yellowstone
when park rangers herded them into a holding pen. NRDC Tuesday
March 04, 2003
343. Environment: Bush administration intervened in Nevada mining
dispute at request of industry
Last fall the Bush administration became the cat's meow for
industry when, at the request of the Interior Department, the
Justice Department intervened in a legal dispute on the side of a
company that wants to develop a controversial clay mine and cat
litter processing plant on federal land near downtown Reno,
Nevada. NRDC Monday March 03, 2003
344. Environment: Bush administration rejects wilderness
protection in Alaska's Tongass The Bush administration affirmed a
recommenda
May by the U.S. Forest Service, deciding not to provide
wilderness protection to millions of acres of Alaska's Tongass
National Forest. The decision by the administration is just the
latest in a string of moves in the last six months that make
forest policy more friendly to the timber industry and less
friendly to wildlife and ecosystems. NRDC Friday February 28, 2003
345. Environment: Interior officials escalate rhetoric over
Arctic Refuge
Two top officials in the Interior Department have stepped up
their vocal support for opening Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to energy development. At a Feb. 25 Senate hearing on
energy production on federal lands, Deputy Interior Secretary J.
Steven Griles called oil exploration in the refuge his "greatest
wish." Griles dismissed environmental concerns and urged the
committee to draft legislation to make his wish come true. NRDC
Friday February 28, 2003
346. Environment: Bush air pollution plan weakens current law,
threatens public health
The Bush administration's air pollution plan, misleadingly
dubbed the "Clear Skies Initiative," was reintroduced in Congress.
If enacted, the plan would weaken public health protections of the
current Clean Air Act. It would delay and dilute cuts in power
plants' sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollution compared to timely
enforcement of current law. By allowing industry to make fewer
reductions in toxic pollution over a much longer period of time
than current law, critics say the plan would cost thousands of
lives, intensify global warming and reward polluting industries
that have been flouting the law for years. NRDC Thursday February
27, 2003
347. Environment: Department of Transportation to expedite more
environmentally harmful road projects
The U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary decided to
speed up six new major transportation projects that could cause
significant environmental damage. That brings the total so far to
13 highway and airport capacity expansion projects that will
benefit from a "streamlined" review process. Environmentalists
expect reviewing agencies to face pressure from the White House to
quickly approve the projects by shortchanging environmental
requirements. NRDC Thursday February 27, 2003
348. Environment: U.S. EPA seeks to weaken endangered-species
protections
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a rule change
to shield itself from litigation under the Endangered Species
Act's "Section 7" consultation process for pesticides. That
section of the law serves as a "look before you leap" mechanism,
requiring federal agencies to consult with the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) when their actions may have an effect on a
federally listed threatened or endangered species. NRDC Thursday
February 27, 2003
349. Environment: Bush administration flunking on salmon recovery
The Bush administration has failed to ensure the survival of
endangered salmon in the Pacific Northwest, according to Save Our
Wild Salmon Coalition. The national group, which is comprised of
regional environmental organizations, issued a report criticizing
the administration for not implementing three-quarters of the
Federal Salmon Recovery Plan adopted in 2000. NRDC Wednesday
February 26, 2003
350. Environment: Bush administration using guise of security to
expand corporate secrecy
The Bush administration has drafted a new, sweeping
antiterrorism bill, the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
2003,"which has been roundly criticized by civil liberties
advocates. The measure also features provisions that worry
environmentalists. In particular, two sections would grant secrecy
and immunity protection to corporations while doing nothing to
require improved security or safety. One provision would
drastically limit citizens' access to information about possible
risks they face from accidents at chemical facilities in their
communities. Another would shield companies from civil liability
for safety risks by granting broad immunity if corporations
voluntarily provide specific information to the government. At
best, this legislation offers Americans a false sense of security.
NRDC Tuesday February 25, 2003
351. Environment: Scientists debunk Bush's global warming plan
Seventeen scientists can't be wrong. At least not when
they're experts on a panel convened by the U.S. National Academy
of Sciences (at the request of the Bush administration), and they
issue a scathing report on the White House proposal for addressing
climate change. According to the experts, President Bush has taken
"a good first step" but the administration's strategic plan needs
"major improvement." Specifically, the Bush plan lacks "a guiding
vision, executable goals, [and] clear timetables," according to
the experts. They also noted that the administration's overall
goal -- to determine the seriousness of global warming in order to
make sound decisions about how to address it -- could never be
achieved at the paltry funding levels proposed in Bush's 2004
budget request. Even more embarrassing for the White House, the
experts ridiculed the idea of conducting research on questions
about which there is already scientific consensus -- namely, that
climate change is happening and it's primarily caused by carbon
dioxide pollution generated by human activities. NRDC Tuesday
February 25, 2003
352. Environment: White House ordered to reveal climate change
documents
The shroud of secrecy surrounding the Bush administration
may soon disperse a bit now that a federal court has ordered the
administration to turn over environmental policy documents or
provide a legal explanation for withholding them. The decision
stems from a lawsuit filed by a conservative Washington,
D.C.-based think tank, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, after
the Environmental Protection Agency refused to release 124
documents related to climate change policy. NRDC Friday February
21, 2003
353. Environment: EPA delays report on mercury risk for children
The bad news is that emissions of mercury by coal-fired
power plants and other industrial sources pose an increasing
danger to children, according to a report by the Environmental
Protection Agency. The worse news is that the Bush administration
has held up public release of the report for nine months.
Completed in May 2002, the administration has promised to release
the report soon -- and an EPA official recently insisted that the
document is "at the printer." NRDC Thursday February 20, 2003
354. Environment: National Park Service overturns ban on
snowmobiles in national parks
Despite adverse effects on wildlife, air quality, noise
levels and human health, the Bush administration decided, once and
for all, to reverse the Clinton-era phaseout of snowmobiles in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. NRDC Thursday February
20, 2003
355. Environment: BLM opening sensitive Wyoming lands to drilling
Under a draft plan released by the Bureau of Land
Management, some 200 oil and gas wells would be allowed in
Wyoming's Jack Morrow Hills. Located in a corner of the Red Desert
region -- encompassing 662,000 acres of wildlands -- the Jack
Morrow Hills feature sand dunes, volcanic formations, colorful
rocky buttes and an array of endangered wildlife. With 94 percent
of Wyoming's public lands already open to leasing, including much
of the Red Desert, conservations and others had hoped BLM would
safeguard the hills' fragile landscape. NRDC Tuesday February 18,
2003
356. Environment: White House gets industry support for voluntary
pollution cuts
The Bush administration says it's serious about addressing
the problem of climate change, and some businesses have pledged to
help in that effort. At a press conference held in the Energy
Department cafeteria, representatives from 13 different industries
-- ranging from automakers to paper mills --signed on to the
administration's new voluntary initiative aimed at improving
efficiency and curtailing global warming pollution. Specifically,
the companies agreed to help the administration reach its goal of
cutting "greenhouse gas intensity" (the ratio of emissions of
economic input) 18 percent by 2012 -- or about 1.5 percent a year.
Environmentalists scoffed at that goal, pointing out that total
emissions will still increase under the Bush plan by as much as 19
percent -- or by roughly the same 1.5 percent increase a year --
because of expected economic growth. NRDC Wednesday February 12,
2003
357. Environment: EPA plans to relax toxic air pollution
standards
The Bush administration plans to relax rules requiring
chemical plants, pulp mills, auto factories, steel mills and other
industries to curb their toxic air pollution. The Environmental
Protection Agency has drafted a set of new rules to exempt these
businesses from current requirements to reduce toxic fumes from
their plants to the maximum extent possible. The new rules also
would allow businesses to self-regulate their operations using
less rigorous controls. For the first time since the Clean Air Act
was amended in 1990, EPA is prepared to shift from stringent
control of toxic emissions to allow companies to avoid pollution
restrictions. The six industrial categories affected include brick
and clay manufacturing; plywood and wood products makers;
stationary backup engines; auto-paint shops; industrial boilers
and process heaters; and gas-fired turbines. NRDC Tuesday February
11, 2003
358. Environment: Bush official touts Western coal, weaker mining
regulations
The Bush administration remains committed to coal as the
country seeks "energy independence," Deputy Interior Secretary
Steven Griles reassured industry executives at the National
Western Mining Conference in Denver. The future of coal, said
Griles, is dependent on passage of the president's so-called Clear
Skies plan, which would reduce three pollutants from coal-fired
power plants -- nitrogen oxide (which causes smog), sulfur dioxide
(which causes acid rain), and mercury. However, Griles neglected
to mention that carbon dioxide, the main global warming pollutant,
would not be regulated at all under the president's air pollution
plan. Nor did he explain that, overall, Clear Skies would reduce
pollution less l (and take longer to do so) than simply enforcing
current Clean Air Act laws. NRDC Monday February 10, 2003
359. Environment: Spotted owl denied federal protection despite
additional logging threat
For the sixth time in as many weeks, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service denied endangered status to an imperiled wildlife
species. In the case of the California spotted owl, the agency
claimed there is not enough evidence that the bird's habitat is
threatened to merit protective listing under the federal
Endangered Species Act -- even though the agency admits that a
U.S. Forest Service draft plan to increase logging in Sierra
Nevada forests could substantially reduce the owl's habitat. NRDC
Monday February 10, 2003
360. Environment: Bush administration pushing for pesticide
exemptions from international environmental treaty
Farmers cheered and environmentalists jeered as the Bush
administration announced plans to allow continued use of a
pesticide that is supposed to be banned by 2005 under an
international treaty to protect the ozone layer. The pesticide,
methyl bromide, is a clear, odorless gas used mostly by tomato and
strawberry growers in California and Florida to kill worms,
insects, rodents and diseases. NRDC Friday February 07, 2003
361. Environment: GAO halts lawsuit over Cheney energy files
The White House won a major legal victory -- by default --
as the General Accounting Office (GAO) decided to end its court
battle to force Vice President Cheney to publicly disclose
information about industry involvement in the Bush
administration's secretive energy task force. By deciding not to
appeal its lawsuit against the administration for withholding
documents, the GAO in effect undermined its own authority as an
investigative arm of Congress and tipped the balance of power to
the executive branch. NRDC Friday February 07, 2003
362. Environment: Bush administration wins sweetheart water
settlement for wealthy California farmers
In a win for the Bush administration, a federal judge
approved $107 million in federal funds to pay farmers whose land
was damaged by salt following decades of intensive irrigation and
poor drainage. Attorneys for the Natural Resources Defense Council
had tried to block the settlement offered by the Bush
administration because it would funnel millions of dollars to a
few wealthy farmers at the expense of the environment and American
taxpayers. NRDC Thursday February 06, 2003
363. Environment: White House fuel cell plan ignores today's oil
insecurity
In a speech on "energy independence," President Bush touted
his plan to commit $1.7 billion over five years on hydrogen fuel
cell technology. The money would pay for research for the
so-called FreedomCar project and a hydrogen fuel initiative -- to
explore making the technology work in automobiles. However, Bush's
promise of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles in the future fails
to address the environmental and national security threats posed
by oil dependence today. NRDC Thursday February 06, 2003
364. Environment: EPA failing to protect Louisiana's environment
and public health
The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general (IG)
issued a report blasting the EPA's Dallas regional office for
insufficient oversight and enforcement of federal air, water and
hazardous waste protections in Louisiana. Specifically, the IG
cited federal regulators for not holding state environmental
officials accountable for meeting the goals and commitments set by
the regional office, and for relying on faulty data provided by
the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. NRDC Tuesday
February 04, 2003
365. Environment: OMB pushes for industry-skewed cost-benefit
analysis
If the White House gets its way, the value of some human
lives could be worth less in the regulatory realm. President
Bush's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has agencies using a
new calculation for weighing the costs and benefits of proposed
regulations. Behind the move is John Graham, head of OMB's Office
of Information and Regulatory Affairs, who wants agencies to
change the way they review rules by relying on a certain kind of
cost-benefit test. Business groups favor the proposal, but critics
warn that the new cost-benefit test is slanted and could be used
as a political tool by the Bush administration to block agencies
from issuing rules that protect public health and the environment.
NRDC Tuesday February 04, 2003
366. Environment: GAO faults EPA oversight on factory farms
Despite the Environmental Protection Agency's new
regulations governing factory farm pollution, the agency hasn't
done enough to make sure states that carry out the program are
doing enough to enforce it, according to a new report by the
General Accounting Office (GAO). In order for the EPA's rule
governing Concentrated Animal Feedlot Operations (CAFOs) to be
effective, the agency must conduct better oversight of states'
implementations -- a challenging task given the agency's lack of a
clear plan or necessary resources. NRDC Friday January 31, 2003
367. Environment: Bush administration seeks waiver on
ozone-destroying pesticide
The Bush administration is planning to seek scores of
exemptions for industries that want to keep using a highly toxic
and ozone-depleting week killer -- methyl bromide -- that is to be
phased out by 2005 under an international treaty to protect the
ozone layer. Methyl bromide is used to sterilize soils used for
tomato, strawberry, pepper, cucumber and other vegetable crops.
Methyl bromide is the most powerful ozone-depleting chemical still
in widespread use. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
368. Environment: BLM putting grazing restrictions out to pasture
The Bush administration intends to roll back Clinton-era
restrictions on cattle grazing on public lands. Speaking at a
National Cattlemen's Beef Association meeting in Nashville, Bureau
of Land Management director Kathleen Clarke unveiled the
administration's proposed changes, which include: requiring the
agency to factor "local culture and economy" into grazing studies
on the public's land; "streamlining" the appeals process for
grazing decisions; and allowing ranchers to hold property rights
in fences, stock ponds and other projects constructed on public
land. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
369. Environment: Bush snowmobile decision defies logic, not to
mention scientific findings
The Bush administration's decision to overturn a ban on
snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, which
was supposed to take effect this year, flies in the face of
scientific evidence that the vehicles cause environmental and
health damage. NRDC Thursday January 30, 2003
370. Environment: Bush administration wins court victory on
mountaintop removal mining
A federal appeals court overturned a lower court ruling that
the Bush administration's practice of granting permits to mining
operations for mountaintop removal violated the Clean Water Act.
Mountaintop removal is an increasingly common practice in West
Virginia, Kentucky and other parts of Appalachia, whereby mining
companies use dynamite to blow off huge slabs of mountains and
then dump the debris -- tons of rock and dirt -- into valleys and
streams. Mining companies, which prefer the environmentally
destructive practice because it is a cheap way to access coal
seams, had enjoyed easy permit approval from the Army Corps of
Engineers until local environmental and citizens groups won a
ruling that stopped the practice last May. NRDC Wednesday January
29, 2003
371. Environment: Polluting industries getting off easier under
Bush administration
Since the Bush administration took office two years ago, all
aspects of environmental enforcement have taken a beating.
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency, however, are
quick to point out that it has forced companies to spend more on
pollution cleanup in the last two years (roughly $8.4 million)
than during the final three years of the Clinton administration
(nearly $7 million). What they don't brag about is that EPA has
eliminated 210 positions, roughly 7 percent of enforcement staff,
which has precipitated a sharp decline in on-site inspections --
from 21,417 in fiscal 2000 to 17,688 in fiscal 2002. In addition,
criminal penalties against polluting industries have dropped by
more than one-third (to $62 million), while civil penalties have
sunk by almost half (to $55 million). NRDC Wednesday January 29,
2003
372. Environment: Sierra Nevada forest protections under fire by
Bush administration
If the Bush administration gets its way, many old-growth
trees previously off-limits to loggers in the 11 national forests
in California's Sierra Nevada mountain range could soon be on the
chopping block. The administration's draft proposal, leaked to
environmentalists, would reduce the amount of protected forest
canopy from 50 percent to 40 percent, and allow logging of large
trees -- up to 30 inches in diameter -- on 11 million acres of
public lands. NRDC Wednesday January 29, 2003
373. Environment: In Bush's State of the Union address, actions
speak louder than words
In his annual State of the Union address, President Bush
touted his administration's plans to protect our forests, clean up
our air and reduce America's dangerous dependence on foreign oil.
Republican strategists called it a smart move, as a way to repair
the president's dismal image on environmental issues. Prior to the
speech, Bush's chief political advisor, Karl Rove, told reporters
that his boss was following in the footsteps of Theodore
Roosevelt, a Republican president lionized for his tradition of
environmentalism. Now, back to reality. Bush offered up in his
speech a pro-industry smorgasbord that calls for rolling back
clean air and water protections, easing logging restrictions in
national forests and increasing oil and gas drilling on public
lands. NRDC Tuesday January 28, 2003
374. Environment: Interior Department may privatize National Park
Service
As part of the Bush administration's broad attempt to
privatize as many as 850,000 federal jobs, 70 percent of National
Park Service jobs -- ranging from biologists to maintenance
workers -- could be taken over by private workers. NRDC Monday
January 27, 2003
375. Environment: California's giant trees threatened by Bush
forest plans
The largest trees on the planet, giant sequoias live more
than 3,000 years and grow in just 75 groves on the western slopes
of California's Sierra Nevada mountain range. Wildlife that
frequent the groves and nearby forestlands include some of the
rarest and most imperiled creatures in California, among them the
elusive Pacific fisher, the California spotted owl, and the
California condor. To save these last unprotected giant sequoias
and the wildlife that inhabit the surrounding forest ecosystem
from logging and other development, former President Clinton
created Giant Sequoia National Monument in April 2000. Now, under
the guise of wildfire risk reduction, the U.S. Forest Service has
issued a draft plan to resume commercial logging in the Giant
Sequoia National Monument east of Bakersfield and two other
national forests in Northern California's Sierra Nevada mountain
range. NRDC Monday January 27, 2003
376. Environment: Ignoring health risks, EPA chooses not to ban
dangerous weed killer
In its latest assessment of atrazine, the Environmental
Protection Agency announced that drinking water that is 12 times
more contaminated with the herbicide than allowed by law does not
pose a health problem. Although more than 75 million pounds of
atrazine are applied annually, and more than 1 million Americans
drink water from systems that have exceeded EPA's drinking water
standard, the agency will allow widespread use of atrazine to
continue. Several European countries have banned the chemical.
NRDC Tuesday January 21, 2003
377. Environment: Pentagon again taking aim at environmental laws
With Republicans in control of both houses of Congress, the
Department of Defense is once again seeking legislation exempting
the military from key environmental laws. Last year, Congress
rejected all but one of the nine proposed exemptions. The
Pentagon's prospects look better this time around, especially
since the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works
Committee, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), firmly supports the position
that laws protecting air, water, endangered species and public
health hamper combat training at military installations around the
country. NRDC Sunday January 19, 2003
378. Environment: Federal study contradicts Bush claims of curbs
on Western energy development
Contrary to the Bush administration's repeated claims,
environmental laws are not hindering oil and gas exploration in
Western states. For example, Vice President Cheney's energy task
force report, issued in April 2001, said that "40 percent of the
natural gas resources on federal lands in the Rocky Mountain
region have been placed off-limits." But a new federal study found
that that 57 percent of oil and 63 percent of gas in five major
geological basins on federal land -- covering 60 million acres
from New Mexico to Montana -- are open for leasing. NRDC Friday
January 17, 2003
379. Environment: EPA sticking with unsafe perchlorate standard
The Bush administration erred on the side of the defense
industry when the Environmental Protection Agency reaffirmed its
1999 guidelines for addressing water pollution caused by
perchlorate (perc), the main ingredient in rocket fuel. NRDC
Thursday January 16, 2003
380. Environment: Environmental experts nixed from international
development agency
In what can best be described as a purge, the U.S. Agency
for International Development eliminated all environmental
personnel from its policy bureau, weakened the authority of the
Agency Environmental Coordinator, and left in limbo several bureau
environmental coordinators. NRDC Thursday January 16, 2003
381. Environment: Bush administration says logging good for
wildlife
The Interior and Commerce Departments issued "guidance" on
evaluating the "net benefit" of projects that reduce hazardous
fuels on public lands. The underlying goal is for agencies to
expedite forest "thinning," or logging projects, supposedly for
the long-term benefit of endangered species. The Bush
administration believes that short-term adverse effects of logging
should rarely, if ever, preempt such activities because of the
supposed long-term benefits provided by reduced fire danger. The
truth is that the kind of intense logging proposed by the
administration does a questionable job of reducing fire risks and
can have a devastating effect of wildlife and their habitat. NRDC
Tuesday January 14, 2003
382. Environment: Despite scientific concerns, Interior
Department approves power plant near Yellowstone
President Bush has said that environmental decisions should
be based on "sound science," but that criteria remains vague and,
apparently, only selectively used. How else to explain the
administration's decision to approve a 780-megawatt coal-fired
power plant on federal land outside of Billings, Montana? In
greenlighting the proposal, Craig Manson, assistant secretary of
the Interior Department for fish, wildlife and parks, reversed the
determination of National Park Service experts that the plant
would adversely impact air quality and visibility of Yellowstone
Park, which is 112 miles downwind. NRDC Friday January 10, 2003
383. Environment: EPA seeking legislative 'fix' to let air
polluters off the hook
Environmental Protection Agency officials met with
Republican congressional aides to discuss a legislative "fix" to
legally delay enforcement of the Clean Air Act in two Texas
cities. NRDC Tuesday January 07, 2003
384. Environment: Bush administration paves way for new roads in
parks, wilderness
In a move that could spur development on millions of acres
in America's national parks and wilderness areas, the Bureau of
Land Management issued a new rule to make it easier for state and
local governments to claim ownership of rights-of-ways along
roads, trails, paths and rivers on federal lands. NRDC Monday
January 06, 2003
385. Environment: Bush administration pushing to lift grizzly
bear protection
In a bid to open up more Western lands to development, the
Bush administration may seek to remove grizzly bears from the
endangered species list later this year. As part of this effort,
grizzly experts contend that federal agencies are using incomplete
data to show that bear population are recovering -- a charge that
Bush officials deny. NRDC Sunday January 05, 2003
386. Environment: Bush administration blamed for Klamath River
fish kill
An investigation by the California Department of Fish and
Game concluded that the Bush administration's controversial
decision to divert water from the Klamath River for irrigation
resulted in last fall's massive die-off of salmon. State
biologists also noted a "substantial risk" of more kills if the
government continues to divert water from the river, which
straddles the California-Oregon border. NRDC Sunday January 05,
2003
387. Environment: New EPA air rules for ocean vessels too weak
Eight months after proposing changes to existing voluntary
air emissions standards for new engines on sea going vessels, the
Environmental Protection Agency issued its final rule. But it will
do little to reduce pollution from oil tankers, cruise ships and
cargo freighters, critics charge. NRDC Wednesday January 01, 2003
388. Environment: EPA to exempt oil and gas industry from runoff
pollution rules
The Environmental Protection Agency wants to exempt the oil
and gas industry from new regulations governing runoff pollution
from construction sites. The EPA's phase II stormwater
requirements, issued during the Clinton administration, force
construction sites between one and five acres to obtain a National
Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The rule is
slated to go into effect on March 10, but the EPA proposal would
exempt the oil and gas industry from the requirements until 2005.
NRDC Monday December 30, 2002
389. Environment: Bush wetlands proposal will lead to loss and
degradation
The new Bush plan to ensure the goal of "no net loss" of the
nation's wetlands -- set by the first President Bush in 1989 --
emphasizes the ecological quality of the wetlands replaced over
quantity. In other words, the administration's approach will focus
on how and where developers must create new wetlands to compensate
for those destroyed by highways, subdivisions or other
construction projects rather instead of achieving acre-for-acre
replacement. Bush officials said this approach to wetlands
replacement could result in a numerical loss, but an ecological
gain. Environmentalists warned that the administration's new
strategy would do little to stem the loss of valuable wetlands,
particularly since 80 percent of wetlands restoration or
mitigation projects are failures. NRDC Thursday December 26, 2002
390. Environment: Lawsuit forces BLM forced to complete
environmental review
In response to a lawsuit by four environmental
organizations, a federal court late last Friday blocked the
Interior Department from allowing oil exploration in thousands of
acres of public wildlands on the eastern boundary of Utah's Arches
National Park. The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) now will have to complete a proper environmental review
before authorizing energy companies access to the area. NRDC
Monday December 23, 2002
391. Environment: Bush administration weakens federal program for
cleaning up dirty waters
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally withdrew a
Clinton administration rule that imposed federal oversight on
states' efforts to clean up some 20,000 of the nation's "impaired"
or polluted waterways -- a designation that applies to about
300,000 miles of rivers and shorelines and 5 million acres of
lakes. NRDC Saturday December 21, 2002
392. Environment: OMB, with new powers, develops environmental
"hit list" preferred by industry
Under the Bush administration, the OMB has enjoyed
unprecedented new power to undermine existing environmental rules
and bottle up new ones indefinitely. Last year the agency reached
out to polluters and the think tanks they fund to develop a
specific "hit list" of dozens of environmental and public health
safeguards, many of which were weakened. Corporations again
dominated the nominating process this year, placing many of their
suggestions for changing regulations on OMB's "hit list" for 2003.
The federal agency with the largest number of rules targeted for
review (65) is the Environmental Protection Agency. NRDC Thursday
December 19, 2002
393. Environment: White House discounts human life in
cost-benefit analysis
The White House Office of Management and Budget has sparked
a scientific and ethical debate with its position that, when it
comes to evaluating proposed federal regulations, some human lives
warrant less protection than others. NRDC Wednesday December 18,
2002
394. Environment: Government doing big business with lawbreaking
companies
During the 2000 budget year, the federal government awarded
more than $855 million worth of contracts to companies that had
violated at least one federal law in the three previous years,
according to the General Accounting Office. GAO's investigation
revealed that 39 companies winning contracts of $100,000 or more
were guilty of violating federal labor, employment, antitrust, or
environmental laws. The lawbreakers included a waste-disposal
company that illegally dumped nearly 23 million gallons of waste
and falsified documents to avoid paying higher dumping fees; a
safety equipment manufacturer that illegally stored hazardous
waste; and a poultry company that illegally discharged 11 million
gallons of polluted storm water into a federal wildlife refuge.
NRDC Monday December 16, 2002
395. Environment: EPA factory-farm rule favors polluters
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final
rule on controlling factory farm pollution that will allow
agribusinesses to continue to foul the nation's waterways with
animal waste. NRDC Sunday December 15, 2002
396. Environment: White House proposes minor increase in
automobile fuel economy
Reaching for a fig leaf in the growing debate over America's
foreign oil dependence, the Bush administration today announced a
paltry measure that would boost SUV and light-truck fuel-economy
standards by just 1.5 mpg over the next five years. The mileage
requirement for other passenger cars will remain at 27.5 miles per
gallon, the standard set more than a decade ago. NRDC Thursday
December 12, 2002
397. Environment: GAO suit against Cheney energy task force
rejected
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Congress's
General Accounting Office (GAO) seeking records related to Vice
President Cheney's energy task force. The ruling represents a
victory for the Bush administration and a significant setback for
congressional oversight of White House activities. NRDC Monday
December 09, 2002
398. Environment: Bush administration fosters policy of delay on
global warming
Ignoring a decade of peer-reviewed global warming science,
the Bush administration has called for at least five more years of
study before taking any substantial action to stem the problem --
delay that will make it harder and more expensive to solve the
problem. NRDC Wednesday December 04, 2002
399. Environment: Bush administration loses appeal in California
offshore drilling case
A federal appeals court dealt a blow to the Bush
administration's plan to allow new oil drilling off California's
coast. A panel of judges upheld a lower court ruling that the
government illegally extended 36 undeveloped oil leases off the
central California coast. The panel agreed with the state of
California and environmental groups who had sued the federal
government because of the environmental risks posed by oil
drilling. NRDC Monday December 02, 2002
400. Environment: Forest Service rewriting rules to increase
logging, remove wildlife safeguards
The day before Thanksgiving, the Bush administration issued
a real turkey of a policy proposal which essentially puts 192
million acres of public lands on the chopping block. The
administration proposed a significant change in long-standing
federal rules concerning the way the U.S. Forest Service manages
the nation's 155 national forests. The proposed rules would give
local forest supervisors more leeway to allow logging, mining,
grazing, drilling or other commercial activities without having to
complete environmental impact statements -- currently required
under the National Environmental Policy Act -- as part of their
forest plans. NRDC Tuesday November 26, 2002
401. Environment: Bush administration wants to expedite logging
at expense of fish in Northwest forests
In its latest push to rewrite the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan
to boost Northwest timber harvests, the Bush administration
proposed stripping away a requirement that forest officials take
into account certain impacts on threatened fish habitat when they
consider timber sales. NRDC Monday November 25, 2002
402. Environment: Bush administration opens national park to
drilling
The National Park Service gave the go-ahead to open up the
world's longest stretch of undeveloped barrier island to energy
development. With no public announcement, the government issued a
permit to allow BNP Petroleum Corp. to drill tow new natural gas
wells on Padre Island National Seashore, a 69-mile-long island
located off the southern coast of Texas. The government acquired
and set aside the land as a park 40 years ago, but Congress opted
not to buy the mineral rights from the two families who had owned
the island. Although limited drilling has been going on since the
early 1950's, Padre Island becomes the first national park to be
drilled during the Bush administration. NRDC Friday November 22,
2002
403. Environment: EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act
Emboldened by the recent Congressional election results, the
Bush administration announced that it is moving forward with plans
to relax air pollution regulations and enact other changes that
will make it easier for older power plants, factories and oil
refineries to pollute more. The plan involves having the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency weaken a key Clean Air Act
provision, called "New Source Review" (NSR), that requires
facilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade
or modify their equipment and significantly increase their
emissions. NSR requires more than 17,000 of the country's largest
polluting facilities to clean up increased emissions from facility
changes. These facilities also include chemical plants,
incinerators, iron and steel foundries, paper mills, cement
plants, and a broad array of manufacturing facilities. NRDC Friday
November 22, 2002
404. Environment: Interior plans to limit environmental reviews
for grazing
By year's end, the Bush administration hopes to complete a
set of proposals that would reverse federal livestock grazing
regulations to benefit ranchers at the expense of the environment,
according to a top official in the Interior Department. William
Myers, who directs 300 government lawyers as Interior's solicitor
general -- and who previously served as a lobbyist for ranchers
who use public lands -- told members of the Nevada Cattlemen's
Association that the administration is examining ways to limit
environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act.
NRDC Monday November 18, 2002
405. Environment: Bush administration reverses snowmobile ban for
national parks
The Bush administration has reversed a ban on snowmobiles in
Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks that was to take effect
next year. Instead, the administration proposed a new policy that,
beginning next March, would allow 1,100 snowmobiles in Yellowstone
per day, a 35 percent more than the average of 815 snowmobiles
that visit the park daily in winter. NRDC Tuesday November 12,
2002
406. Environment: Bush administration supports renewed elephant
ivory trade
At an international conference on endangered species in
Chile, the U.S. representative shocked other delegates by offering
a plan that would allow for a renewed commercial trade in elephant
ivory within the next three years. NRDC Monday November 11, 2002
407. Environment: BLM grants quickie approval of another energy
project in Utah
For the fifth time under the Bush administration, the Bureau
of Land Management has given the green light to an oil and gas
company's request to conduct seismic exploration in Utah. With the
latest project, BLM avoided public scrutiny by granting fast-track
approval over Veteran's Day weekend of WesternGeco's Horse Point
3-D project, which encompasses about 31 square miles -- one-third
of which is federal land -- in eastern Utah. NRDC Monday November
11, 2002
408. Environment: Bush officials intervened to silence objections
to coal plant near Mammoth Cave National Park
Critics cried foul when the Interior Department reversed its
prior finding that air pollution from a proposed coal-fired power
plant in western Kentucky would significantly hamper visibility at
nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. Documents recently obtained by
NRDC confirm that Interior's reversal came after high-level Bush
administration officials intervened on the coal company's behalf.
NRDC Saturday November 09, 2002
409. Environment: Federal courts overturn habitat protections,
per Bush request
Endangered species have experienced several setbacks of
late, as federal judges have sided with the Bush administration
and developers by throwing out critical habitat designations
throughout the West. Last week a judge approved a "settlement"
between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the government to
lift restrictions for activities within the protected range of the
arroyo toad and fairy shrimp in three Southern California
counties. NRDC Saturday November 09, 2002
410. Environment: Bush administration looking for legal loopholes
on manatee protection
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed changes to
regulations under the Marine Mammal Protection Act that would
protect the government from liability when endangered Florida
manatees are accidentally killed or injured in collisions with
federal watercraft or in other mishaps. The proposal, which would
take effect after hearings over the next month, would immunize the
government from lawsuits for the next five years in all areas of
the state other than the southwestern counties along the Gulf of
Mexico. NRDC Wednesday November 06, 2002
411. Environment: EPA no longer making polluters pay
Under the Bush administration, polluters have paid 64
percent less in fines for breaking environmental laws than they
did in the final two years of the Clinton administration,
according to federal records compiled by a former top
environmental enforcement official. Sylvia Lowrance, acting
assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency until her resignation in August of this year, said that
Bush's EPA not only is forcing fewer polluters to pay fines, but
the penalties are much smaller than they were under Clinton. NRDC
Tuesday November 05, 2002
412. Environment: Bush officials suppress science on Klamath
River policy
An economist with the U.S. Geological Survey accused the
administration of withholding government reports that concluded
buying out farms in the Klamath Basin and leaving their irrigation
water in the river would benefit the fishery and boost recreation
that already provides more economic value than agriculture. Bush
officials acknowledged the three reports, completed last year,
were blocked due to political and scientific controversy
surrounding the Klamath Basin. NRDC Friday November 01, 2002
413. Environment: EPA halts funding at several Superfund sites
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will not complete
clean ups at seven high-priority toxic waste sites because of
funding shortfalls in the Superfund program, according to a report
by the EPA's inspector general. The agency so far has spent $48
million at these sites, but will not allocate the remaining $92
million to finish the cleanups even though regional EPA officials
warn that the sites continue to pose serious environmental and
health risks. NRDC Thursday October 31, 2002
414. Environment: Bush administration doles out political treats
on Halloween
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a list
of infrastructure construction projects -- one airport and six
highways -- around the country that will receive expedited
environmental review under President Bush's executive order last
month "streamlining" rules under the National Environmental Policy
Act review process. The projects are located in California,
Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas and
Vermont. The agency approved these projects despite a pledge by
senior DOT officials to involve environmental organizations in the
decision-making process. Environmentalists are convinced that DOT
selected these federally funded construction projects to boost the
prospects of Republican candidates facing tough elections. NRDC
Thursday October 31, 2002
415. Environment: Interior Department joining fight for Nevada
cat litter mine
Interior Department joining fight for Nevada cat litter
mine. The Bush administration is taking the side of industry in
what amounts to a cat fight over a controversial mine in Nevada.
At the request of the Interior Department, the Justice Department
is considering filing a "friend-of-the-court" brief in U.S.
District Court supporting a proposed mine project on federal land
a few miles from downtown Reno. Chicago-based Oil-Dri Corp., the
largest manufacturer of cat litter, wants a special permit to dig
clay that would be processed at a plant next to the mine on
private land. The county commission rejected the project, citing
public concerns about the impacts of noise and air pollution,
possible groundwater contamination, and increased truck traffic on
one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the nation. NRDC
Thursday October 31, 2002
416. Environment: EPA approves Louisiana's controversial
pollution-trading program
In an effort to bypass federal air pollution laws, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency has approved a plan that allows
Louisiana oil and chemical companies to emit increased levels of
carcinogenic and other hazardous chemicals in return for reducing
emissions of the less dangerous pollutant, nitrogen oxide,
according to internal documents released by an environmental
group. NRDC Tuesday October 29, 2002
417. Environment: Bush administration limiting scope of federal
coal mining study
Bush administration limiting scope of federal coal mining
study. In the wake of massive flooding in West Virginia this
summer, the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) proposed a
detailed investigation of a possible link to coal mining
practices. But the Bush administration is backing away from the
study in response to complaints from state officials. The OSM had
planned to fly federal inspectors over more than 100 valley fills
-- streams buried under waste from mountain-top removal mining --
in an effort to examine their stability and progress on
reclamation. NRDC Monday October 28, 2002
418. Environment: Whistleblower says Bush administration pressure
forced inadequate salmon protection
Last month's massive salmon kill in the Klamath River may
have happened because the Bush administration pressured the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to violate the Endangered
Species Act (ESA). According to NMFS biologist Michael Kelly, who
is now seeking whistleblower protection, his agency's scientific
recommendations were twice rejected under political pressure so
that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) could set lower water
levels than federal biologists believed necessary for the survival
of coho salmon in the Klamath River. The implication is that the
White House favored dramatically cutting scientifically based
fisheries flows so that Klamath Basin farmers could receive more
irrigation water. Soon thereafter, 33,000 fall-run chinook and
coho salmon and steelhead died from lack of water. NRDC Monday
October 28, 2002
419. Environment: Former EPA official blasts Bush commitment to
enforcement of clean air rules
The Bush administration's plans to ease enforcement of
industrial air pollution regulations have halted the government's
litigation crackdown on polluters, according to a former top
Environmental Protection Agency employee. Sylvia K. Lowrance, a
24-year employee who resigned her position as acting head of the
office of enforcement and compliance in July, said that companies
have little incentive to settle cases with the EPA because they
think new rules proposed by the White House will let them off the
hook. NRDC Wednesday October 16, 2002
420. Environment: Justice Department lax on chemical security
The Justice Department has violated a 1999 law by failing to
assess the vulnerability of the nation's chemical facilities to
terrorist attacks, according to a report by the General Accounting
Office. NRDC Thursday October 10, 2002
421. Environment: Bush administration sides with auto industry
against lower emissions
The federal government's long history of support for
California's efforts to fight air pollution has come to an end, as
the Bush administration filed a friend-of-the-court brief siding
with Daimler-Chrysler and General Motors in a lawsuit seeking to
overturn the state's zero-emission vehicle rule. NRDC Wednesday
October 09, 2002
422. Environment: EPA memo improperly encourages employees to
support Bush
The National Treasury Employees Union complained to EPA
Administrator Christine Whitman about a memo sent to all EPA
employees last month encouraging them to "express support for the
President and his program" when off-duty. The union warned that
such wording -- contained in a memo outlining the "do's and
don't's" of election-year policies for federal employees --
violates civil service protections by giving the false impression
that employees are not free to voice their own political beliefs
on their own time. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
423. Environment: Bush stacks panel on lead poisoning with
industry experts
Democratic members of Congress decried the Bush
administration for revamping a government health panel to favor
industry. According to the lawmakers, the administration rejected
renowned scientists with expertise on the health effects of
childhood lead poisoning for service on a Centers for Disease
Control federal advisory committee. In their place, the
administration appointed scientists with deep ties to the lead
industry. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
424. Environment: EPA admits clean water takes back seat to war
on terrorism
Don't you know there's a war on? That is why the
Environmental Protection Agency is no longer making it a priority
to clean up the nation's rivers, streams and lakes, according to
the agency's chief enforcer of the Clean Water Act. Testifying
before a Senate environmental committee, G. Tracy Mehan III, EPA's
assistant administrator for water, said efforts to combat
terrorism and help the economy leave little resources to fight
water pollution. NRDC Tuesday October 08, 2002
425. Environment: BLM approves oil and gas drilling in Utah
The Bureau of Land Management ignored concerns raised by the
Environmental Protection Agency and a record-breaking amount of
public input -- more than 25,000 opposing comments --when it
approved a Houston company's request to embark on the largest oil
and gas exploration project ever in Utah. NRDC Friday October 04,
2002
426. Environment: Judge considers contempt of court for Interior
Secretary Norton over manatees
The Bush administration is appealing a federal judge's
decision to require the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate a
number of sanctuaries and refuges for manatees throughout
Florida's waters. The judge maintains that the Interior Department
has failed to implement a settlement agreement on manatee
protection brokered by environmentalists, industry and the Bush
administration. NRDC Thursday October 03, 2002
427. Environment: White House blocking conservation funding for
farms
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's ability to fully
implement conservation programs is being hampered by the Bush
administration. This summer Congress approved funding to help
farmers enroll land in voluntary conservation programs -- the
Conservation Reserve Program, Wetland Reserve Program, and
Farmland Protection Program. But the White House Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) denied USDA's request of roughly $36.5
million for technical assistance, which pays the salaries of
agency employees who administer the programs. NRDC Thursday
October 03, 2002
428. Environment: Yosemite park official resigns in protest
Another high-level government official is resigning in
protest to the Bush administration's environmental policies. The
superintendent of Yosemite National Park, David Mihalic, has opted
to retire rather than accept a transfer to the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park, where he says Bush officials wanted him
to approve two environmentally harmful projects: building a
28-mile road through the largest undeveloped wilderness in the
eastern United States and conducting a land swap that would allow
a local Indian tribe to develop nearly 200 acres of meadowland
located within the park. NRDC Thursday October 03, 2002
429. Environment: Bush administration relinquishing federal water
rights
Signaling a major shift in federal policy, the Bush
administration appears ready to give Western states more control
over scarce water resources traditionally reserved for federal
lands, at the expense of natural resources. NRDC Monday September
30, 2002
430. Environment: Bush administration rewriting rules to boost
logging in Northwest
As part of legal settlement, the Bush administration has
agreed to ease environmental restrictions in order to clear the
way for more logging on federal land in the Northwest. Last
January, the timber industry filed the lawsuit against the
government alleging that the landmark Northwest Forest Plan -- a
1994 compromise plan between environmentalists and loggers that
set safeguards for remaining old-growth forests in the region --
contained onerous and unnecessary wildlife protections. NRDC
Monday September 30, 2002
431. Environment: New EPA water quality report shows U.S. waters
are getting dirtier
In response to a Freedom of Information Act Request filed by
NRDC and American Rivers, EPA today released its biannual report
of U.S. water quality conditions, and the news is not good. This
year's report shows that U.S. waterways are becoming increasingly
polluted. From 1998 to 2000, the percentage of polluted rivers
rose from 35 percent to 39 percent, the percentage of polluted
estuaries jumped from 44 percent to 51 percent, and the percentage
of polluted shorelines increased from 12 percent to 14 percent.
The percentage of polluted lakes remained unchanged. "This is a
very disturbing trend," said Nancy Stoner, director of NRDC's
Clean Water Project, "and given the Bush administration's water
policies, it is bound to become even worse." NRDC Monday September
30, 2002
432. Environment: The Bush administration is gearing up to remove
federal protections for wolves by next year
Craig Manson, an assistant secretary of the Interior
Department, told reporters that the time is right for the
government "to be relieved of the burdens" of the Endangered
Species Act, and said that the administration will vigorously
defend its action against expected lawsuits from wildlife
advocates. NRDC Wednesday September 25, 2002
433. Environment: Forest Service smoothing the rails for Bush's
logging proposals
With President Bush's controversial wildfire prevention
proposal stalled in Congress, the U.S. Forest Service is preparing
to streamline the administration's plan to "thin" flammable
forests by granting some logging projects in national forests
immunity from laws and regulations that could slow the projects
down. NRDC Thursday September 19, 2002
434. Environment: Bush orders agencies to streamline
environmental review of transportation projects
In a major victory for the nation's road lobby, President
Bush signed an executive order directing the Department of
Transportation and other federal agencies to speed up the
approvals process for federally-backed projects, such as highway
construction or airport projects. The president's order calls for
"streamlining" environmental review and limiting public
participation in planning and permitting processes. NRDC Wednesday
September 18, 2002
435. Environment: Bush replacing health scientists who don't
favor industry views
The Bush administration, unhappy with the findings of the
scientific advisory committees that guide federal policy, has
begun a broad restructuring at the Department of Health and
Services. In the past few weeks, some committees that were coming
to conclusions at odds with the president's views have been
eliminated and membership in others has been reshuffled. NRDC
Tuesday September 17, 2002
436. Environment: U.S. EPA misses deadlines on air toxics
standards
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is nearly two years
behind in fulfilling its statutory responsibilities to develop
standards for some 176 air toxics, according to the Inspector
General. Air toxics such as benzene, mercury and asbestos are
regulated by the Clean Air Act through a two-phased approach as
called for by the law's 1990 amendments. Toxic air pollution
remains one of the most significant health and environmental
problems in the U.S., causing cancer, neurological, immunological
and other serious health problems, according to the IG report.
NRDC Tuesday September 17, 2002
437. Environment: EPA omits global warming section from pollution
report
Top officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
with White House approval, deleted a chapter on global warming
from the annual report on air pollution. The new report, "Latest
Findings on National Air Quality: 2001 Status and Trends," notes a
significant reduction in most emissions, but ignores carbon
dioxide (CO2), the pollution mostly responsible for global
warming. NRDC Sunday September 15, 2002
438. Environment: BLM's plans for California desert favor
commerce over conservation
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently released a
long-awaited draft management proposal for a 5.5 million acre
portion of the California's Sonoran Desert that favors vehicle
recreation at the expense of wildlife, according to
environmentalists. NRDC Friday September 13, 2002
439. Environment: EPA backs off issuing strong antipollution
standards for off-road vehicles.
Bad luck prevailed on Friday the 13th as the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency finally issued new standards for
off-road vehicle emissions and engine regulations. Bowing to White
House and industry pressure, the EPA not only failed to issue
stronger standards to control pollution from these vehicles but
actually weakened the rule it proposed more than a year ago. NRDC
Friday September 13, 2002
440. Environment: Army Corps of Engineers dawdling on Missouri
River plan
The Army Corps of Engineers is unlikely to meet its 2003
deadline to issue a new "master manual" for managing the Missouri
River, leaving endangered wildlife unprotected while dam
operations continue unchanged. As a result, environmentalists may
file lawsuits to force the agency to change the river's flow
regime in order to prevent species from going extinct. NRDC
Tuesday September 10, 2002
441. Environment: Norton rules out citizen's panel for
Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected the need for
establishing a citizens' panel to oversee the trans-Alaska oil
pipeline. State and federal regulators are holding hearings on the
renewal of the pipeline rights-of-way across public lands, as oil
companies seek to extend their use for another 30 years beyond the
January 2004 expiration. Environmentalists want a citizens group
to oversee pipeline operations, similar to the regional citizens
advisory councils created by Congress after the 1989 Exxon Valdez
oil spill. Norton disagreed. NRDC Tuesday September 10, 2002
442. Environment: Bush Pushing Plan for Logging Flexibility
The Bush administration, brushing aside concerns from
environmentalists, is pushing forward with plans to give national
forest managers more flexibility to approve logging and commercial
activities, with less environmental review. AP Monday September
09, 2002
443. Environment: U.S. EPA air-quality enforcement sinks to new
lows
Under the Bush administration, the number of U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency personnel assigned to enforce air
quality laws has fallen to the lowest level on record, according
to an analysis of records obtained through the Freedom of
Information Act by AIR Daily. NRDC Saturday September 07, 2002
444. Environment: Federal officials reject call to add white
marlin to endangered list
The National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates
offshore fishing, rejected a request to place the white marlin on
the federal endangered species list. NRDC Wednesday September 04,
2002
445. Environment: White House seeks unprecedented exemption from
public disclosure rules
In a case involving public access to information about Vice
President Cheney's secret energy task force, the Bush
administration is seeking broad immunity from disclosure laws.
Administration attorneys filed a brief in federal district court
hoping to block citizen groups from obtaining information about
sensitive energy policy documents. They are arguing, for the first
time ever, that virtually anyone employed or detailed to the White
House is exempt from public access laws such as the Freedom of
Information Act, the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the
Administrative Procedures Act. NRDC Monday September 02, 2002
446. Environment: Bush's new wildfire expert no friend of forests
This just in: The man chosen to direct the Bush
administration's efforts to reduce wildfire danger on public lands
doubts the existence of ecosystems and thinks the extinction of
the nation's threatened and endangered species might not be a bad
idea. NRDC Friday August 30, 2002
447. Environment: U.S. undermines renewable energy proposal at
World Summit
Just two days into the U.N. summit in Johannesburg, the U.S.
joined Saudi Arabia and other nations in resisting promises to
expand the use of clean, renewable energy technologies around the
globe. NRDC Tuesday August 27, 2002
448. Environment: White House Utah drilling plans under fire from
local businesses
A coalition of small businesses sent a letter to President
Bush opposing his administration's plans to allow oil drilling on
public lands in southern Utah. They are worried that drilling and
related activities will mar the landscape that is "the bedrock for
drawing significant revenue to our local businesses." They pointed
out that oil produced in the state generates $1 billion annually,
while tourists visiting Utah's popular canyons and other natural
treasures spend $4.25 billion. NRDC Monday August 26, 2002
449. Environment: Bush administration abandons California water
plan
Interior Secretary Norton quietly dropped her agency's
appeal of a court ruling involving a critical component of
California's widely supported water plan. The state-federal
"CalFed" plan is designed to restore the San Francisco Bay-Delta
and improve water supply reliability for California. NRDC Friday
August 23, 2002
450. Environment: Bush administration weakens whale protections
that hindered oil and gas industry
Concern about the environmental dangers of seismic testing
-- which relies on intense blasts of sound to map potential
mineral reserves -- prompted government officials in the Gulf of
Mexico to develop new regulations to protect Marine mammals. But
an industry lobbyist persuaded the Mineral Management Service
(MMS) to weaken some of the protections. NRDC Thursday August 22,
2002
451. Environment: Interior Department allows more air pollution
at national park
The Interior Department reversed a National Park Service
finding that air pollution from a proposed coal-fired power plant
in western Kentucky would significantly hamper visibility at
nearby Mammoth Cave National Park. In an August 22 letter to the
state of Kentucky, Interior Assistant Secretary Craig Manson
rejected the conclusions of career Park Service officials after
meeting with Peabody Energy Corp., one of the nation's largest
coal companies and one of President Bush's major campaign
contributors. NRDC Thursday August 22, 2002
452. Environment: Bush calls for increased logging in the name of
fire prevention
President Bush has a simple solution for preventing forest
fires: Cut down the trees. His new forest management plan
essentially would do just that by rewriting environmental rules to
allow timber companies to increase commercial logging in national
forests. NRDC Thursday August 22, 2002
453. Environment: Bush administration employs stonewall strategy
at World Summit
The good news is the White House announced its goals and
strategies for the upcoming World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg, South Africa. The bad news is that
the U.S. delegation, led by Secretary of State Colin Powell, will
use the summit as a platform to rebut international criticism of
Bush's environmental policies and his failure to be a team player
in global issues. NRDC Wednesday August 21, 2002
454. Environment: Bush administration backing away from
California coastal protection
A proposal to designate one of the last undeveloped
stretches of Southern California's coast as a national seashore is
in danger of being scuttled by the Bush administration. NRDC
Monday August 19, 2002
455. Environment: Bush skipping U.N. Earth Summit
A decade ago the first President Bush attended a world
summit on the environment in Rio de Janeiro, where he agreed to
tackle problems in forestry, biodiversity and climate change.
Unlike his father, President George W. Bush will not attend the
U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held later
this month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Instead, Secretary of
State Colin Powell will lead the U.S. delegation. NRDC Thursday
August 15, 2002
456. Environment: EPA cedes Idaho cleanup authority to state
In a strange and unprecedented move, the Environmental
Protection Agency ceded control of the cleanup plan for Idaho's
highly polluted Coeur d'Alene Basin to state, local and tribal
officials. NRDC Tuesday August 13, 2002
457. Environment: Bush administration allows energy development
in national monument
For the first time ever, energy development activities will
be permitted outside already-leased areas at a national monument,
courtesy of the Bush administration. The Bureau of Land Management
has decided that companies can expand oil and gas exploration
beyond the boundaries of their existing leases at Canyons of the
Ancients National Monument in Colorado. NRDC Monday August 12,
2002
458. Environment: White House looks to sink environmental law
Coming soon to an ocean near you: unfettered waste dumping,
commercial fishing, oil and gas construction, and military
maneuvers. These and other harmful activities could become rampant
if the Bush administration succeeds in lifting environmental
review provisions as they apply to vast tracts of oceans under
U.S. control. NRDC Saturday August 10, 2002
459. Environment: EPA rolls back Clean Water Act's water cleanup
program
This year marks the 30-year anniversary of the Clean Water
Act, yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is moving
forward with a rule to cripple the Act's primary program for
cleaning up the nation's more than 20,000 polluted rivers, lakes
and estuaries. NRDC Wednesday August 07, 2002
460. Environment: EPA fails to meet pesticides review deadline
The Environmental Protection Agency falsely claimed that it
has met a legal deadline for reassessing the safety of pesticides
as mandated by the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996. The FQPA
requires the EPA to complete safety reviews of two-thirds of all
pesticide tolerances (individual uses of pesticides) -- about
6,000 tolerances -- by this date. NRDC Saturday August 03, 2002
461. Environment: Bush uses national security to gain corporate
secrecy and immunity
At the behest of industry, the Bush administration is using
the guise of homeland security to squelch the public's right to
know about corporate practices that threaten its health and
safety. Both houses of Congress are working furiously to pass
massive homeland security legislation before the one-year
anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. But buried
deep within the House version of the bill is a provision --
supported by the Bush administration and its congressional allies
-- that would shield private companies who voluntarily give the
government information related to "critical infrastructure,"
including chemical plants, dams and computer networks, from public
disclosure and civil liability laws. While this may sound
innocuous, the effect would be to broaden corporate secrecy and
immunity at the expense of the environment and public health and
safety. NRDC Friday July 26, 2002
462. Environment: Another EPA official resigns in protest over
Bush policies
In yet another sign of apparent discontent over the Bush
administration's handling of environmental issues, the
Environmental Protection Agency's top enforcement deputy resigned
her post. After more than two decades at EPA, most recently as
assistant administrator in the Office of Enforcement and
Compliance Assurance, Sylvia Lowrance decided to retire rather
than accept a new job assignment. Media reports indicate that she
quit in frustration over the administration's efforts to undermine
ongoing litigation against the utility sector for violating
federal air pollution standards. NRDC Thursday July 25, 2002
463. Environment: Bush administration plans to give away oil and
coal holdings in Utah
Interior Department officials agreed to exchange 135,000
acres of federal land -- containing valuable petroleum and coal
holdings -- for 108,000 acres of scenic land owned by the state of
Utah. The deal, which BLM land appraisers say would amount to a
$100 million giveaway by U.S. taxpayers, is embodied in a bill
introduced by U.S. Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah). The House Resources
Committee tabled the bill (H.R. 4968) until after the August
recess. NRDC Thursday July 25, 2002
464. Environment: Fish and Wildlife Service reneges on manatee
protection plan
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants a federal judge to
delay or revoke the settlement that requires the agency to
designate manatee protection areas in Florida. The request comes
approximately one week after the judge chastised federal officials
for violating a court-approved agreement to provide more safe
havens from boaters for the endangered sea cows. NRDC Wednesday
July 24, 2002
465. Environment: Bush's revised Everglades plan falls short of
restoration goals
Seven months after environmentalists harshly criticized the
Bush administration's draft plan for restoring the Florida
Everglades -- calling it a thinly veiled effort to spur more
development -- the Army Corps of Engineers issued new programmatic
regulations designed to ease those concerns and further flesh out
a conceptual, $8.4 billion restoration blueprint Congress enacted
in December 2000. Their publication in the Federal Register starts
a 60-day public comment period on the project, but already
environmentalists say the administration's revised rules remain
fundamentally flawed. NRDC Tuesday July 23, 2002
466. Environment: Bush administration opposes renewable energy
requirement
The Bush administration has joined several utilities in
opposing a provision of the Senate energy bill that would require
power companies to produce 10 percent of their energy from
renewable sources by 2020. The Senate bill includes a renewable
electricity standard that requires major electric companies to
increase sales of electricity from wind, solar and other renewable
sources from 2 percent today to about 10 percent two decades from
now -- quadrupling the amount of clean energy produced in the
United States. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
467. Environment: Bush cleanup plan could leave behind more
nuclear waste
The Bush administration's strategy to speed up cleanup at
old nuclear weapons sites may result in waste being left behind.
The Energy Department plans to spend $1.1 billion on the
accelerated cleanup program next year. But in an effort to meet
its goals, the agency is considering relaxed requirements on
transporting some of its waste off-site, according to a General
Accounting Office report. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
468. Environment: EPA's scientific review on pesticides
questioned
A report by an independent panel of scientists concluded
that the Environmental Protection Agency used an inadequate margin
of safety in determining that a group of pesticides pose no danger
to children's health. The EPA, prompted by a settlement from a
lawsuit brought by NRDC in 2000, reviewed the cumulative risks of
organophosphorus pesticides in foods most eaten by children. The
EPA Scientific Advisory Panel, composed of government and
nongovernment scientific experts, criticized as premature EPA's
finding last month that 28 of 30 pesticides reviewed were safe for
children. NRDC Friday July 19, 2002
469. Environment: White House backs delay in river changes
Despite the government's own findings that higher water
levels would benefit wildlife, the White House is quietly backing
a 5-year delay in boosting spring levels of the Missouri River.
NRDC Sunday July 14, 2002
470. Environment: Bush administration forced to protect
endangered whipsnake
A federal judge has thwarted another attempt by the Bush
administration to remove critical-habitat protection for species
listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. In the latest in
a series of legal challenges by the construction and timber
industries against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over federal
habit protections, the judge ruled against California developers
by upholding the federal designation of 400,000 acres as critical
for the survival of the Alemeda whipsnake. NRDC Wednesday July 10,
2002
471. Environment: EPA may allow the use of Carbofuran, a formerly
banned toxic pesticide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is allowing
Louisiana rice growers to spread one of the most toxic pesticides
currently known. Carbofuran has been responsible for the deaths of
tens of thousands of birds, including bald eagles, and the
granular form is so dangerous that the manufacturer voluntarily
took it off the market in the mid-1990s. It has not been allowed
on rice since 1998. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, "There are no known conditions under which carbofuran can
be used without killing migratory birds." But EPA did not bother
to consult the Fish and Wildlife Service, as required by law, when
it considered an "emergency use" application from the Louisiana
Department of Agriculture to use the chemical again to combat
water weevil on 100,000 acres of rice fields. NRDC Monday July 08,
2002
472. Environment: Bush administration revokes habitat protection
for California frog
Mark Twain's once celebrated frog has little to cheer about
these days, thanks to the Bush administration. Less than a month
after a federal judge ruled that federal officials could not
revoke protection for more than a half-million acres of habitat
critical to the survival of two endangered species in southern
California, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rescinded its
designations of more than 4 million acres for the protection of
the state's red-legged frog. The agency eliminated the habitat
protections after a legal challenge by home builders who said it
would impede development. NRDC Thursday July 04, 2002
473. Environment: Bush slashing EPA funding for toxic cleanups
The inspector general of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency reported to Congress that the Bush administration has
authorized deep funding cuts for the federal Superfund program,
which will slow or halt the cleanup process at 33 toxic waste
sites in 18 states. These sites are among the most contaminated
grounds in the country and pose some level of health and
environmental hazards to the communities in which they are
located. NRDC Sunday June 30, 2002
474. Environment: Bush administration blames wildfires on
environmentalists
In a new low, the Bush administration is suggesting a link
between forest protection efforts and the scourge of wildfires
currently raging across the country. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture has announced plans to study whether legal actions and
petitions by environmentalists contributed to Forest Service
delays in wildfire prevention projects, thereby contributing to
the catastrophic wildfire season in the West this year. The agency
wants the study to list specific projects rejected due to legal
concerns and any extra time and money spent to immunize projects
against legal action. NRDC Tuesday June 25, 2002
475. Environment: Snowmobiles to be restricted, not banned in
parks
Eighteen months after the National Park Service issued a
supposedly final decision to phase out snowmobiles in Yellowstone
and Grand Teton national parks, beginning in the winter of
2003-04, the agency changed its tune. But, as feared, the Bush
administration has reversed that decision and will allow
snowmobiling to continue in the parks with restrictions to reduce
the volume of traffic and require quieter, cleaner machines. NRDC
Tuesday June 25, 2002
476. Environment: EPA stymied investigation of Yucca Mountain
radiation standards
In testimony before the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's independent ombudsman said that he was
pressured to stop his investigation of the EPA's involvement in
the Yucca Mountain project a year ago. NRDC Tuesday June 25, 2002
477. Environment: EPA backs off mandatory plan to clean up
stormwater pollution
At the behest of the White House, the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency has abandoned its plan to force construction
companies to reduce stormwater runoff caused by development, the
leading source of coastal water pollution in the United States.
NRDC Monday June 24, 2002
478. Environment: Bush administration backtracks on land
preservation
Two years after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
recommended that a 3,800-acre pristine peninsula in Virginia
called the Crow's Nest be designated as a national wildlife
refuge, the Bush administration has determined that it lacks the
number of rare and endangered species necessary for federal
protection. NRDC Wednesday June 19, 2002
479. Environment: Judge rejects Corps request to lift ban on
mining pollution
"Despite the administration's efforts to rewrite pollution
rules to benefit the mining industry, Judge Haden stood by his
decision," said Daniel Rosenberg, an attorney in NRDC's clean
water program. "His ruling is the only thing preventing the Corps
from turning our many of our nation's waterways into landfills for
coal companies." NRDC Monday June 17, 2002
480. Environment: EPA rolls back clean air protections for power
plants
In a major victory for the utility industry, the Bush
administration has proposed changes to federal air pollution rules
that will weaken the Clean Air Act. More than a year after
announcing its "90 day review" of the Clean Air Act, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency will relax federal "new source
review" regulations to allow approximately 17,000 of the country's
biggest polluting facilities to avoid installing pollution-control
equipment when they modernize or expand their plants to produce
more electricity. NRDC Thursday June 13, 2002
481. Environment: Missouri River restoration put on hold
In another setback for river protection proponents, the Army
Corps of Engineers is postponing indefinitely plans to alter the
Missouri River's flows in order to save endangered and threatened
species. The Corps made this decision despite a biological opinion
by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that says restoring more
natural flows is the only way to protect two shorebirds -- the
piping plover and least tern -- and a fish, the pallid sturgeon.
NRDC Thursday June 13, 2002
482. Environment: Bush and Whitman distance themselves from EPA
global warming report
Shortly after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
issued a new report on global warming that represented a stunning
policy shift for the Bush administration, President Bush and EPA
Administrator Christie Todd Whitman began backtracking from the
agency's findings. The report, sent quietly last week to the
United Nations, concluded that greenhouse gas emissions produced
by human activities were the primary cause of climate change. NRDC
Wednesday June 12, 2002
483. Environment: U.S. signs off on endangered salmon harvest
U.S. delegates to an international treaty on wild Atlantic
salmon agreed to allow a foreign commercial harvest of fish from
one of the nation's last surviving critically endangered salmon
runs. At a meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation
Association, the delegates adopted -- with U.S. approval -- a plan
under which Greenland could harvest up to 55 tons of salmon in
waters off the northeastern Atlantic coast where the fish
congregate. That take could include up to 600 of the critically
endangered fish, which cling to survival in only eight rivers in
the state of Maine. Last year 67 percent of wild salmon caught off
Greenland's western coast came from North American runs. The U.S.
listed the Atlantic salmon as a federally endangered species in
2000. NRDC Wednesday June 12, 2002
484. Environment: BLM officials address conflict-of-interest
charges
As the battle over coal-bed methane (CBM) development in
Wyoming's Powder River Basin heats up, two top officials within
the Bureau of Land Management have come under fire for their close
ties to industry. NRDC Monday June 10, 2002
485. Environment: Bush administration pushes oil drilling in
Alaska reserve
Defeated in its attempt to allow oil drilling in the Arctic
Refuge, the Bush administration has set its sights on an even
larger tract of pristine wilderness in Alaska -- the
23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve. The reserve, a large
federally owned area on Alaska's North Slope immediately west of
the sprawling Prudhoe Bay oil field, is an ecologically rich wild
area that provides essential habitat for polar bears, brown bears,
wolves, millions of migratory birds. The area is also home to one
of the world's largest caribou herds. The Interior Department on
June 3 leased more than 60 tracts covering 579,269 acres of the
reserve for $63.8 million; another 10 million acres of the western
portion of the reserve are slated for leasing by 2004. NRDC Monday
June 10, 2002
486. Environment: EPA signs off on safety of all but two of 30
pesticides
The Environmental Protection Agency released its findings on
the safety of pesticides, just hours after a federal appeals court
in Washington rebuffed the pesticide industry's third attempt to
block release of the information. In a study of the cumulative
health risks of 30 organophosphates, the EPA found that two pose
an unacceptable threat to human health when combined. NRDC Monday
June 10, 2002
487. Environment: Bush administration refuses to crack down on
diesel pollution
The Bush administration intends to regulate pollution from
diesel-powered off-road equipment for the first time, but only
through industry-favored actions rather than a federal crackdown.
In an unusual collaboration, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency and the White House Office of Management and Budget will
draft a final rule to be released next year that emphasizes
voluntary incentives for manufacturers, including a system that
would allow manufacturers to trade emission credits. NRDC Friday
June 07, 2002
488. Environment: On offshore drilling, Bush administration won't
give Californians the same relief it gave Floridians.
Interior Secretary Gale Norton rejected California governor
Gray Davis' request that it buy back offshore oil leases, as it
did in Florida last month. Norton contended that the circumstances
were different: Florida opposes coastal drilling and California
does not. Norton also cited two pending lawsuits filed by oil
companies over disputed drilling rights that preclude the
administration from cutting a deal as was done in Florida. Gov.
Davis responded by noting that the vast majority of Californian's
have long opposed drilling off the coast. NRDC Friday June 07,
2002
489. Environment: Bureau of Reclamation balks at Klamath water
plans
Environmentalists criticized the decision by FWS and NMFS to
eventually increase water supplies for fish, insisting that more
needs to be done immediately to help endangered sucker fish and
threatened coho salmon. NRDC Monday June 03, 2002
490. Environment: Bush administration lets construction companies
off the hook for protecting environment
The Bush administration backed off a plan that would have
required the construction industry to spend $4.1 billion a year on
environmental protection. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
had planned to require construction companies to take permanent
steps, such as building ponds in office parks, to reduce pollution
from dirt and other runoff after storms. The White House Office of
Management and Budget rejected the plan as too costly, and instead
proposed temporary measures, such as water basins, that may be
removed as the bulldozers leave. Environmentalists criticized the
administration for, once again, favoring big business at the
expense of the environment. NRDC Friday May 24, 2002
491. Environment: Bush-Putin Summit Produces Deeply Flawed
Nuclear Arms Treaty
President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin have
signed a nuclear arms treaty that will reduce the number of
warheads deployed on ballistic missiles and bombers. Under the
terms of the agreement, each side will reduce its operationally
deployed strategic nuclear warheads to no more than 2,200 by 2012.
But while the White House has been busy hailing the agreement as a
definitive step away from the threat of nuclear destruction, the
fact is that the treaty would impose a binding limit on
operational U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear forces for only one
day -- 2012-12-31. Before and after that date, the number of
nuclear warheads mounted on strategic nuclear missiles and bombers
may exceed the treaty's maximum "limit" of 2,200 warheads in
operation. NRDC Friday May 24, 2002
492. Environment: Army Corps of Engineers' flip-flops on project
reviews further damage its credibility
Less than a week after announcing that it had completed an
unprecedented, in-depth review of 171 projects, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers changed course yet again by reopening reviews
on more than 50 projects while dropping some projects from its
list altogether and adding others. "The Corps appears to be
floundering in a sea of mismanagement," said NRDC attorney Daniel
Rosenberg. NRDC Thursday May 23, 2002
493. Environment: Bush administration rolls back air conditioner
energy efficiency standards
Just days after celebrating the first anniversary of the
release of its national energy policy, the Bush administration
weakened a major efficiency standard for air conditioners. The
Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new that effectively
overturns the so-called SEER 13 standard, which required a 30
percent increase in efficiency, in favor of a lower standard of
SEER 12. Under the new standard, manufacturers will have to make
central home air conditioners 20 percent more efficient beginning
in 2006 -- which means one-third of the savings from the higher
standard will be lost. NRDC Thursday May 23, 2002
494. Environment: Bush administration lifts ban on mining in
Oregon national forest
The Bush administration canceled a two-year ban on new
mining claims in roughly 1.2-million acres in and around
southwestern Oregon's Siskiyou National Forest. The decision to
lift the moratorium, which was set to expire in January 2003,
opens the area to prospectors. NRDC Tuesday May 21, 2002
495. Environment: Forest Service advises against protecting
wilderness in Alaska's Tongass
The 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest in southeastern
Alaska, which contains nearly 30 percent of the world's unlogged
coastal temperate rain forest, is under fire by the Bush
administration. In response to a federal court order last year
that required the U.S. Forest Service to consider designating
additional portions of the Tongass as permanent wilderness, the
administration decided not to grant protection to more than 9
million acres of the forest's roadless area. NRDC Thursday May 16,
2002
496. Environment: Bush signs disastrous farm bill
Despite President Bush's supposed devotion to free markets
and his pledge to wean farmers off of government funding, he
signed a farm bill that is expected to cost $190 billion over 10
years -- or $83 billion more than the cost of continuing current
programs. The bill boosts conservation spending, but that increase
remains low in the context of overall spending -- $9 billion of
the bill's $45 billion in new spending. The conservation funding
is dwarfed by commodities subsidies and environmentally damaging
provisions in the bill. NRDC Tuesday May 14, 2002
497. Environment: EPA proposes water pollution trading scheme
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to give
polluters an alternative to reducing their discharges into the
nation's waterways: paying someone else to reduce their pollution
instead. NRDC Tuesday May 14, 2002
498. Environment: Bush administration agency secretly fights mine
reforms
The federal Office of Surface Mining wants to halt proposed
reforms that would have ensured that coal companies plan
post-mining development before they obtain mountaintop removal
permits, according to government records released by the
Charleston Gazette. The records show that OSM also is pushing for
a federal study to propose lifting restrictions on the size of
valley fill waste piles. NRDC Friday May 10, 2002
499. Environment: Bush administration blocks testimony of key
energy official Government attorneys filed a motion in federal
district
May 15 deposition of the administration energy task force's
executive director, Andrew Lundquist. NRDC issued a subpoena to
Lundquist on April 30 to depose him and force the Energy
Department to finally release records of who consulted with him to
formulate the Bush energy policy. NRDC Thursday May 09, 2002
500. Environment: Bush budget cuts billions from natural
resources spending
According to a report issued by NRDC and other groups --
This Land is Our Land: Saving America's Natural Heritage -- the
Bush administration's budget for Fiscal Year 2003 cuts overall
discretionary funding for the environment by about $1 billion and
plays shell games with some of the most important public lands and
wildlife programs, compromising protection of America's natural
resources. NRDC Wednesday May 08, 2002
501. Environment: Salmon protection temporarily rescinded
The White House won a victory over endangered species
protection when a federal judge accepted a settlement between
developers and the Bush administration that removes critical
habitat protection for 19 groups of Pacific salmon while federal
officials reconsider the economic impacts of saving the fish from
extinction. NRDC Tuesday May 07, 2002
502. Environment: Corps of Engineers' plan threatens to pollute
Florida Everglades
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun building large
storage facilities to hold hundreds of millions of gallons of
polluted stormwater on the borders of Everglades National Park.
Although construction is already underway, hydrologic modeling and
other necessary environmental analyses have yet to be completed.
The project, which threatens to flood and pollute the park, is an
improper use of the money Congress authorized for restoration of
the Everglades. NRDC Friday May 03, 2002
503. Environment: EPA charged with understating impact of Yucca
Mountain nuclear dump on Nevada drinking water supplies
Environmental groups and the state of Nevada are charging
that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency illegally
manipulated standards for protecting groundwater from radioactive
contamination around the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear
repository site. The groups demonstrated the illegality of the
EPA's actions in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today,
and asked the court to require the EPA to rewrite the groundwater
standards it established specifically for Yucca Mountain. NRDC
Friday May 03, 2002
504. Environment: EPA to let mining industry dump waste in
waterways
The Bush administration has reversed a 25-year-old Clean
Water Act rule that flatly prohibited disposal of mining and other
industrial solid wastes into the nation's waters. NRDC Friday May
03, 2002
505. Environment: NRDC issues subpoena to former head of White
House energy task force
Yesterday, NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) issued a
subpoena to the director of Vice President Cheney's energy task
force. The group wants to depose Andrew Lundquist and force the
Energy Department to finally hand over records of who consulted
with him to formulate the Bush energy policy. "As the
administration's top official on the task force, Andrew Lundquist
ran the show for Vice President Cheney," said NRDC senior attorney
Sharon Buccino. "The public is entitled to know what he knows."
Common Dreams Tuesday April 30, 2002
506. Environment: White House rejected more stringent EPA
air-pollution proposal before issuing so-called Clear Skies plan
President Bush's controversial "Clear Skies" proposal to
reduce air pollution -- weak as it is -- is less stringent than an
alternative advocated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
According to administration documents obtained by the New York
Times, the EPA's proposal would have reduced air pollution further
and faster than the proposal the president eventually chose. NRDC
Sunday April 28, 2002
507. Environment: EPA watchdog resigns in protest over Bush
policies
In an embarrassing development on Earth Day, the government
official charged with representing public concerns against the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency resigned, citing mistreatment
by the Bush administration. NRDC Monday April 22, 2002
508. Environment: Bush administration ousts top global warming
scientist
Carrying baggage for ExxonMobil and other fossil-fuel
industries, Bush administration representatives to the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) succeeded in
ousting Dr. Robert Watson from the science panel's chairmanship.
With industry and U.S. government backing, officials meeting in
Geneva, Switzerland, elected Dr. Rajendra Pachuari of India as
IPCC chair for the next five years. NRDC Friday April 19, 2002
509. Environment: Bush administration speeding up drilling in
Rockies
Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be safe from
oil drilling for now, but federal agencies are looking at ways to
encourage and facilitate new energy exploration in the lower 48
states. In testimony before Congress, Bureau of Land Management
Director Kathleen Clarke said that a study on possible oil and gas
reserves on federal lands should be completed this year. Although
more than 50 new sites around the country are being considered for
development, Clarke said the BLM is focusing on five basins in the
Rocky Mountain region where industry has expressed the most
interest. NRDC Thursday April 18, 2002
510. Environment: Bush clean air plan would boost coal use
Under the Bush administration's "Clear Skies"
multi-pollutant reduction plan, the amount of coal burned by
electric power companies will increase by 7.3 percent, according
to an analysis by the Environmental Protection Agency. The
president's initiative, proposed in February, would cause a
79-million-ton increase in coal use between now and 2020. NRDC
Wednesday April 17, 2002
511. Environment: Administration's plan allows overfishing in New
England
Despite data indicating that 12 of 18 New England fish
stocks are severely depleted, the Bush administration will allow
overfishing to continue indefinitely. New England fish populations
are down 70 percent from historic levels, while fishing has
increased 300 percent. But an agreement put forth by the National
Marine Fisheries Service threatens the fishery's sustainability by
failing to impose limits on when, where and how fisherman can
fish, as required by the 1996 Sustainable Fisheries Act. NRDC
Tuesday April 16, 2002
512. Environment: Forest Service wants to circumvent
environmental laws
A draft report by the U.S. Forest Service reveals that the
agency intends to speed up land management projects by
streamlining rules protecting the environment and endangered
species, as well as limit court challenges to its decisions. NRDC
Friday April 12, 2002
513. Environment: Corps approves Everglades mining
The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency in charge of
the government's plan to restore the Florida Everglades, will
actually allow miners to destroy 5,409 acres of this national
treasure in the next decade -- more than doubling the number of
open-pit limestone mines in the protected wetlands. NRDC Thursday
April 11, 2002
514. Environment: White House moves one step forward, two steps
back, on chemical treaty
"By reneging on the promise to fully address the public
health threat posed by the persistence of a wide range of toxic
chemicals, the White House is failing to fulfill the U.S.
obligation under the treaty," said Gina Solomon, director of
NRDC's public health program. NRDC Thursday April 11, 2002
515. Environment: Alaska oil drilling would harm environment,
despite Bush claims
Despite the Bush administration's assurances that oil
drilling would have little impact on the environment, a new
government study confirms that opening Alaska's Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to oil development could significantly harm
wildlife. NRDC Sunday April 07, 2002
516. Environment: Bush administration scales back habitat
protection for endangered butterfly
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reduced nearly 130,000
acres of critical habitat for the endangered Quino checkerspot
butterfly. Instead, the agency set aside 172,000 acres in southern
California -- 40 percent less protected land than the agency
proposed in February 2001. NRDC Friday April 05, 2002
517. Environment: Bush administration promotes coal-bed methane
development
Citing rising energy demands and the need to increase energy
production, the Bush administration is touting natural gas
development on public lands. Assistant Interior Secretary Rebecca
Watson spoke at a conference in Colorado about the Bureau of Land
Management's plans to increase gas supplies through coal-bed
methane development in the Rocky Mountain region. "Conserving
energy through efficient technology and developing clean,
alternative energy sources are far better solutions than turning
our public lands over to industry," said Johanna Wald, director of
NRDC's land program. NRDC Thursday April 04, 2002
518. Environment: White House ends environmental research funding
The Bush administration officially eliminated a popular
Environmental Protection Agency fellowship program that provides
$10 million a year to students pursuing graduate degrees in
environmental science, policy and engineering. NRDC Tuesday April
02, 2002
519. Environment: BLM proposal could doom California dunes
The Bureau of Land Management may lift restrictions on
off-road vehicle usage on 49,000 acres of currently protected
dunes in California. The Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area,
about 150 miles east of San Diego, is home to rare desert plants
and threatened and endangered species. NRDC Friday March 29, 2002
520. Environment: Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental
laws
The Defense Department, citing national security, is
circulating draft legislation that would exempt the military from
compliance with federal laws that protect water quality, air
quality, and endangered species and wildlife habitat. NRDC Friday
March 29, 2002
521. Environment: Energy Department papers show industry is the
real author of administration's energy policy
Despite being heavily censored, the thousands of Department
of Energy documents released under court order this week confirm
the intimate, secretive relationship between huge, politically
connected corporations and the White House energy task force. NRDC
Wednesday March 27, 2002
522. Environment: White House misuses clean energy funds to print
dirty energy plan
The Bush administration used money from the Energy
Department's clean energy budgets to pay the cost of printing its
fossil fuel-friendly national energy plan. According to
court-ordered documents obtained by NRDC, the Energy Department
spent $135,615 from its solar, renewable energy and energy
conservation budgets to produce 10,000 copies of the White House
energy policy released last May. NRDC Monday March 25, 2002
523. Environment: Endangered species habitat under attack The
Bush administration, facing other lawsuits by real estate
developers, i
Marine Fisheries Service, two agencies responsible for
enforcing the ESA, want the courts to rescind millions of acres of
protected habitat for nearly two dozen endangered species
throughout the country. NRDC Tuesday March 19, 2002
524. Environment: BLM plans to open more lands to drilling
The Bush administration put oil and gas companies on notice:
they can expect speedier drilling approvals, easier access to
petroleum deposits, reduced royalty payments, and fewer
environmental restrictions. NRDC Monday March 18, 2002
525. Environment: EPA will weaken federal clean air rules
As expected, the Bush administration has decided to weaken
existing clean air laws for coal-fired power plants and
refineries. The Environmental Protection Agency has formally
announced that it will soon make formal rule changes aimed at
discouraging new government lawsuits against polluters in favor of
incentives for voluntary reductions in toxic emissions. NRDC
Monday March 18, 2002
526. Environment: Gas drilling returns to Padre Island National
Seashore.
The National Park Service issued a permit to allow BNP
Petroleum Corp. to drill for natural gas within Padre Island
National Seashore, a 69-mile stretch of the barrier island off the
southern coast of Texas. Already a 156-foot drilling derrick has
risen above the dunes and, depending on how successful the initial
drilling is, more wells could follow. NRDC Friday March 15, 2002
527. Environment: Bush administration scraps plans for new
wildlife refuge
The Bush administration is rolling back a four-year planning
effort to establish a wildlife refuge near Columbus, Ohio. The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew its proposal to create
Little Darby National Wildlife Refuge. Instead the agency will
work with residents to develop a conservation plan to protect
endangered species and prevent pollution and suburban sprawl from
spoiling Little Darby Creek. Local farmers opposed the plan to buy
about 50,000 acres in two counties for a refuge because it would
eliminate 20,000 acres of prime cropland. "Four years of studies,
congressional hearings, and overwhelming citizen support for the
refuge couldn't prevent a last minute rollback by the Bush
administration," said Greg Wetstone, NRDC's director of advocacy
NRDC Tuesday March 12, 2002
528. Environment: Forest Service proposes oil and gas leasing in
Los Padres
While much attention has been focused on the Bush
administration's efforts to drill for oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge, other fragile public lands in the lower 48 states
are also being targeted. One such place is California's Los Padres
National Forest. Under the administration's pro-industry energy
plan, the Forest Service proposes opening up 140,000 roadless
acres in the Los Padres to oil and gas leasing. NRDC Monday March
11, 2002
529. Environment: Drill first, ask questions later energy policy
threatens wild lands
With very little public debate or scrutiny, the Bush
administration has turned over huge amounts of America's public
lands -- particularly in the West -- to the energy industry. Data
from the Bureau of Land Management shows that the administration
has increased the number of leases for oil, gas and coal mining on
public lands by 51 percent -- from 2.6 million acres in 2000 to 4
million acres last year. BLM has emerged as the lead agency in
opening up pristine public lands to development. NRDC Thursday
March 07, 2002
530. Environment: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees
silenced on Arctic Refuge
According to news reports, U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials
in Alaska have instructed employees not to discuss certain issues
concerning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge without
consulting the public affairs office. Agency officials insist that
the directive is not a gag order, but simply a precautionary
measure to ensure that lawmakers, interest groups and members of
the public get consistent answers and up-to-date information.
Environmentalists, however, view the move as an attempt by the
pro-drilling Bush administration to squelch differing opinions
within the agency. NRDC Wednesday March 06, 2002
531. Environment: BLM Idaho director forced to resign
The director of the Bureau of Land Management's office in
Idaho resigned, rather than accept an involuntary transfer to a
new assignment in New York. In January, Interior Deputy Secretary
Steven Griles, a former industry lobbyist, officially notified
Martha Hahn of her removal. The notice directed her to assume a
previously non-existent post as executive director of New York
Harbor operations for the National Park Service. Contrary to
federal requirements, Hahn was never consulted about the transfer
or accommodated on her choice of a new assignment. She therefore
tendered her resignation from federal service. NRDC Wednesday
March 06, 2002
532. Environment: Whitman remarks undermine government's Clean
Air Act lawsuits
EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman dropped a bombshell
at a Senate hearing when she suggested it would be unwise for
power companies facing air pollution lawsuits to settle with the
government before a federal appeals court rules on a pending case
involving a major violator, the Tennessee Valley Authority. During
her testimony before the Senate Government Affairs Committee,
Whitman seemed to suggest that polluters should ignore the Clean
Air Act when she said, "If I were a plaintiff's attorney, I
wouldn't settle anything until I knew what happened with that
case." NRDC Sunday March 03, 2002
533. Environment: Top EPA official resigns in protest of Bush's
pro-polluter policies
The Bush administration's internal battle over federal clean
air policy took a dramatic turn, as one of the Environmental
Protection Agency's senior officials resigned to protest White
House efforts to weaken tough emissions standards for power
plants. Eric Schaeffer, head of EPA's Office of Regulatory
Enforcement, accused the Energy Department and the White House of
catering to the power industry and obstructing EPA efforts to
enforce New Source Review rules. NRDC Wednesday February 27, 2002
534. Environment: EPA official admits that Bush clean air plan is
weak
The Environmental Protection Agency's top air official,
Jeffrey Holmstead, acknowledged to state regulators that President
Bush's recently announced plan to cut utility emissions won't help
the Northeast meet federal ozone standards. NRDC Tuesday February
26, 2002
535. Environment: Bush administration intends to shift Superfund
cleanup from polluters to taxpayers
The federal trust fund used to clean up 30 percent of the
nation's worst waste sites is facing a cash crunch. But President
Bush plans to shift cleanup costs to citizens rather than make
polluters foot the bill. NRDC Saturday February 23, 2002
536. Environment: BLM rule could block federal land protection
The Bureau of Land Management proposed a rule that could aid
states in claiming ownership of rights-of-way on federal lands.
Under the rule, states would be allowed to apply to BLM for a
"recordable disclaimer of interest" -- essentially a determination
that cedes federal jurisdiction over specified public lands to the
states. NRDC Friday February 22, 2002
537. Environment: Corps doesn't give a dam for Snake River salmon
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued its final
recommendation on the fate of four dams located on the lower Snake
River in Washington and, as expected, the news was not good for
endangered salmon. The Corps opposed breaching the dams, even
though leaving the dams intact could lead to the extinction of the
Snake River's salmon and steelhead runs. NRDC Thursday February
21, 2002
538. Environment: Bush administration seeks to weaken endangered
species protection in California
Despite the fact that habitat loss is the main reason why
species go extinct, the Bush administration wants to invalidate
protection of several hundred acres of land deemed essential for
the survival of endangered species. The administration has asked a
federal judge to allow the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lift
protections on more than a half a million acres in Southern
California while it conducts a two-year reevaluation of economic
analysis of up to 10 "critical habitat" designations. NRDC
Saturday February 16, 2002
539. Environment: National Forest in Missouri opened to drilling
In another victory for the forces of extraction, the U.S.
Forest Service approved lead mining exploration in Missouri's Mark
Twain National Forest. The Doe Run Company plans to drill up to
232 holes in the tree-covered hills and winding streams of the
Ozarks. NRDC Friday February 15, 2002
540. Environment: Bush announces rollback of power plant
pollution rules
President Bush announced new targets for three pollutants
from U.S. power plants that would delay by up to 10 years
life-saving emission cuts now required under the Clean Air Act.
The Bush plan allows three times more toxic mercury emissions than
current law would allow, and postpones forthcoming mercury limits
by a decade. It would allow 50 percent more sulfur emissions --
which cause acid rain and premature death from respiratory disease
-- than current law and push back clean-up standards from 2012 to
2018. It would also allow hundreds of thousands tons of additional
smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution, and delay their clean-up
for a decade beyond current requirements. NRDC Thursday February
14, 2002
541. Environment: White House global warming plan cooks the books
President Bush announced a global warming plan that would do
nothing to address the problem. In fact, the plan uses a brazen
accounting trick to mask the fact that -- even if his voluntary
emissions targets are actually achieved -- heat-trapping carbon
dioxide pollution would keep increasing at almost exactly the same
rate it has for the past 10 years. Based on the president's own
projections, emissions would increase 14 percent over the next ten
years, which is precisely the rate at which they grew during the
last ten years. NRDC Thursday February 14, 2002
542. Environment: The Bush administration's secret plan for
strengthening U.S. nuclear forces
Behind the administration's rhetorical mask of post Cold War
restraint lie expansive plans to revitalize U.S. nuclear forces,
and all the elements that support them, within a so-called "New
Triad" of capabilities that combine nuclear and conventional
offensive strikes with missile defenses and nuclear weapons
infrastructure. NRDC Wednesday February 13, 2002
543. Environment: Park Service wants motorized access in Georgia
wilderness
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the National
Park Service after the agency authorized motorized vehicle tours
in Georgia's Cumberland Island Wilderness. The Wilderness Act
prohibits the use of motorized vehicles in wilderness except in
rare cases such as emergencies. The tours also appear to violate
the law's limits on commercial use of wilderness areas. NRDC
Monday February 11, 2002
544. Environment: Forest Service compromises on Bitterroot
salvage logging plan
The U.S. Forest Service agreed to remove 29,000 acres of
roadless old growth forest and sensitive fish habitat from a
planned "salvage" logging project in the Bitterroot National
Forest in Montana. Under the terms of a legal settlement with
environmental groups, the agency will be allowed to log less
15,000 acres burned during the summer forest fires of 2000; in
exchange, the agency will drop its appeal of a federal court
ruling preventing it from any logging in the Bitterroot. NRDC
Thursday February 07, 2002
545. Environment: President Bush unveils slash and burn budget
for 2003
President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2003 proposes
billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies to energy companies,
threaten the environment and public health, and weaken the
nation's energy security. His new budget would slash overall
spending for environmental and natural resources departments by $1
billion, or 3.4 percent, in fiscal year 2003 -- from $29.3 billion
to $28.3 billion. NRDC Monday February 04, 2002
546. Environment: Bush to boost logging in national forests
If President Bush gets his way, subsidies for logging will
increase in national forests next year. The administration's
fiscal year 2003 budget proposal for the Forest Service included
$404 million to support timber sales, offering 2 billion board
feet (depending on sales volume for salvage timber). This year the
Forest Service is expected to sell about 1.4 billion board feet.
"Job one for the Forest Service should not be underwriting more
logging in roadless areas," said Nathaniel Lawrence, director of
NRDC's forest programs. "With domestic programs targeted for cuts
to fund national security, what are we doing wasting tax dollars
to help timber companies clearcut our remaining wildlands?" NRDC
Monday February 04, 2002
547. Environment: Bush slashes environmental education spending
The 2003 White House budget labels environmental education
"ineffective" and re-allocates this funding to math and science
programs. This shift comes at a time when environmental education
is enjoying popular support nationwide. A 12-state consortium
recently prepared a study called "Closing the Gap," which gave
rave reviews to environmental education. And a 2001 Roper/Starch
poll confirmed that 95 percent of parents support environmental
education. NRDC Monday February 04, 2002
548. Environment: Bush budget cuts student research
President Bush's fiscal year 2003 federal budget proposes
eliminating the Environmental Protection Agency's funding for
graduate student research in the environmental sciences. The EPA
Star grant program, as it's formally called, provides doctoral
students with three years of funding to research topics ranging
from biodiversity and global warming to effective biological
control agents for agricultural pests. NRDC Sunday February 03,
2002
549. Environment: EPA initially criticized Bush-Cheney energy
plan
According to news reports, a memo from the Environmental
Protection Agency blasted the Bush administration's draft energy
plan as "problematic," "overly simplistic" and "not supported by
the facts" -- less than a month before President Bush presented
the plan to the nation. Commenting on what was then Chapter 8 of
the draft plan, the three-page memo -- signed by Tom Gibson, EPA's
associate administrator for policy, economics and innovation --
harshly criticized several policies outlined by the task force,
which was headed by Vice President Cheney. NRDC Saturday February
02, 2002
550. Environment: Bush administration refusing to release energy
task force records
For the first time, President Bush stated support for Vice
President Cheney's refusal to release information about industry
representatives who met with Cheney's secretive energy task force.
After months of discussion between administration officials on the
task force and energy lobbyists, the administration released its
national energy plan last May. The plan read like a "wish list"
for big energy companies, heavily promoting initiatives that would
benefit the coal, nuclear, and oil and gas industries. NRDC Monday
January 28, 2002
551. Environment: Agency pushes oil exploration near Utah park
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants to allow oil
exploration on the Dome Plateau, a scenic 36-square-mile area near
Arches National Park in southern Utah's Redrock Canyon Country.
The project involves crisscrossing the landscape with nearly 50
miles of cable and heavy-duty trucks to conduct seismic testing.
NRDC Thursday January 24, 2002
552. Environment: New NRDC report documents sweeping rollback of
environmental protections by federal agencies
A handful of Bush administration agencies have been quietly
carrying out a coordinated attack on key environmental safeguards,
according to a new NRDC report. The nearly 80 agency actions span
the spectrum of the nation's most important environmental
programs, including those protecting our air, water, forests,
wildlife and public lands. The report also finds that the
administration intensified its efforts after September 11, when
public attention was diverted by the war on terrorism. NRDC
Wednesday January 23, 2002
553. Environment: Forest Service appeals salvage logging legal
decision
The U.S. Forest Service filed an appeal in federal court to
overturn a ruling that halted salvage logging on thousands of
acres of burned timber in Montana's Bitterroot National Forest.
The agency also asked the federal judge who made the ruling to
allow limited logging of about 5,000 acres in order to prevent
sediment runoff from being washing into rivers and streams
inhabited by bull trout, a federally listed threatened species.
NRDC Tuesday January 22, 2002
554. Environment: BLM backs gas drilling in national monument
The Bureau of Land Management gave preliminary approval to a
company to drill eight natural gas wells on already leased federal
land on the eastern end of the Upper Missouri River Breaks
National Monument in Montana. President Clinton designated 47,000
acres along the 149-mile stretch of the Missouri River as a
national monument. The remote and largely undeveloped Missouri
Breaks contains a unique and spectacular landscape marked by
sandstone cliffs shaped by wind and water into twisting spires and
towers. NRDC Monday January 21, 2002
555. Environment: Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific
Northwest
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife concluded that logging "has not
appreciably affected" spotted owls, opening the floodgates for the
return of timber sales in Pacific Northwest national forests. NRDC
Friday January 18, 2002
556. Environment: Bush administration changes science on polar
bear impacts to suit Arctic drilling
"Out with the old 'good' science, in with the new 'bad'
science," said Chuck Clusen, NRDC's program director for national
parks and Alaska. "The Bush administration seems intent on doing
whatever it takes to let the oil industry get its sticky fingers
on one of America's greatest national treasures." NRDC Thursday
January 17, 2002
557. Environment: Norton withholds government critique of
proposal to relax wetlands rules
Interior Secretary Gale Norton suppressed information from
within her agency that was highly critical of a plan to weaken
protections for wetlands and streams. In October, after the Corps
of Engineers proposed relaxing a series of wetlands protection
rules, Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service drafted comments
denouncing the plan as scientifically and environmentally
unjustified. The agency warned that the proposed changes in the
Corps' permitting program lacked a "scientific basis," and would
increase destruction of "aquatic and terrestrial habitats." NRDC
Monday January 14, 2002
558. Environment: Corps relaxes wetlands protections, White House
approves
The Bush administration pulled a "bait and switch" on
wetlands policy. After insisting on Earth Day 2000 that the
administration "will continue to take responsible steps to ensure
that we can preserve these vital natural resources [wetlands] for
future generations of Americans," the White House signed off on a
controversial plan by the Army Corps of Engineers to relax
nationwide permit rules that prevent the destruction of thousands
of streams, swamps and other wetlands. NRDC Monday January 14,
2002
559. Environment: Bush administration nuclear weapon cuts, less
than advertised
As part of its recently completed Nuclear Posture Review,
the Pentagon plans to reduce the number of "operationally
deployed" U.S. nuclear warheads from 6,000 today to 3,800 after
five years and to 1,700-2,200 by 2012. These reductions are
similar to those agreed to by Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin at
the Helsinki summit of March 1997. NRDC Thursday January 10, 2002
560. Environment: Environmental enforcement suffers under Bush
Environmental enforcement has declined steeply during the first
year o
October 1). The fall-off in EPA referrals was more
significant in several of the agency's principal anti-pollution
priority areas: Toxic Substance Control Act (down 80%); Clean Air
Act (down 54%); and Clean Water Act (down 53%). NRDC Thursday
January 10, 2002
561. Environment: Bush administration plans to get ready to
resume nuclear weapons testing
The Bush administration indicated that the United States
needs to be ready to resume nuclear weapons testing. The just
completed but still classified Nuclear Posture Review calls for
speeding up preparations at the government's Nevada test site just
in case. President Bush has said since taking office that he would
maintain a moratorium on underground nuclear testing imposed by
his father in 1992, and upheld by President Clinton. However,
George W. Bush maintained his opposition to the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty, an agreement aimed at instituting a global ban on
nuclear tests. NRDC Tuesday January 08, 2002
562. Environment: Bush administration bends rules for favored
coal company
Bush administration officials granted a Kentucky coal
company a regulatory reprieve to continue mining without a
federally required reclamation bond. Bonds are used to make sure
that mining companies fix environmental damage caused by coal
removal. Addington Enterprises, one of the nation's largest coal
companies, lacks adequate insurance to cover the cost of
reclaiming disturbed areas -- a violation of federal law. In an
unusual move, the Interior Department gave the company a 90-day
grace period to find reclamation insurance or risk being ordered
to cease all mining in Kentucky and Tennessee. The grace period
has expired, so the Bush administration is extending the deadline
for three additional months. NRDC Thursday January 03, 2002
563. Environment: Forest Service reduces protections for roadless
areas
The Forest Service announced "interim" guidelines that would
further reduce protections for roadless areas, including those in
the Tongass National Forest. The new directive includes removing a
requirement that smaller, undeveloped areas next to large swaths
of roadless forest lands be protected. These areas will now be
opened up to road-building. The changes also end mandatory
environmental impact reviews that enhanced public participation in
and agency accountability for decisions to develop smaller
wildlands. NRDC Friday December 14, 2001
564. Environment: Bush opposes mining law reforms, in spite of
EPA pollution data
The Bush administration maintains its strong opposition to
mining law reforms that would improve environmental safeguards
against widespread resource degradation. The Environmental
Protection Agency estimates that 40 percent of Western watersheds
have been polluted by mining. A half-million abandoned or closed
mines dot the landscape nationally, with cleanup costs estimated
in the tens of billions of dollars. NRDC Monday December 10, 2001
565. Environment: Bush delays Clinton's snowmobile rules for
national parks
Last year, the Clinton administration announced that the NPS
would gradually phase out snowmobiles from the parks over three
winters. The Bush administration delayed the rule. NRDC Monday
December 10, 2001
566. Evnironment: Our Forests May Be on a Road to Ruin By Bill
Clinton
A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt warned against despoiling
the environment, saying "to waste, to destroy our natural
resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as
to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days
of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to
hand down to them amplified and developed." As president, I worked
hard to heed that warning.
With the active support of 1.5 million citizens, in January
2001, my administration issued the Roadless Area Conservation Rule
to limit logging and development in nearly 60 million acres of
national forests where there were no roads already built. The
Natural Resources Defense Council called it the most important
forest conservation measure of the past century.
But now, the "roadless rule" faces a threat. In recent
weeks, the Bush administration has announced its proposal to
eliminate it, setting the stage for trees to be cut and roads to
be built in forests throughout our land. The administration claims
that forests can still be protected even without the rule.
However, under its plan, current policy would be stood on its
head: Governors would be required to petition the Forest Service
to keep certain forests roadless ã ignoring the stark political
reality that few governors are likely to stand up to the pressure
of timber companies and other special interests to protect
national forests in their states. LA Times Wednesday August 04,
2004
567. Gay Rights: Putting Bias in the Constitution
With his re-election campaign barely started and his
conservative base already demanding tribute, President Bush
proposes to radically rewrite the Constitution. The amendment he
announced support for yesterday could not only keep gay couples
from marrying, as he maintains, but could also threaten the basic
legal protections gay Americans have won in recent years. It would
inject meanspiritedness and exclusion into the document embodying
our highest principles and aspirations. NY Times Wednesday
February 25, 2004
568. Gay Rights: Bush proposes Constitutional amendment to
prohibit gay marriage
"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman and I
believe we ought to codify that one way or the other and we have
lawyers looking at the best way to do that," Bush said at a
morning news conference at the White House Rose Garden. CNN
Tuesday October 28, 2003
569. Gay Rights: Bush's Secretary of the Interior fought to
restrict gay rights in Colorado
Gail Norton, Bush's choice for Secretary of the Interior,
was a big supporter of the Amendment 2 in Colorado, which failed
because of a Supreme Court ruling. An amendment that would have
voided existing gay rights laws and banned passage of future ones
in Colorado. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Thursday July
31, 2003
570. Gay Rights: Bush wants to privatize half of federal work
force, allowing anti-gay discrimination
Late last week, President Bush announced his intentions to
potentially privatize half of the federal work force. This move,
which does not require congressional approval, would nullify, for
privatized federal workers, a 1998 Executive Order signed by
President Clinton that outlaws anti-gay discrimination in the
federal work place. While the plan would give private companies
the opportunity to bid for federal jobs, it does not require them
to abide by non-discrimination policies regarding sexual
orientation. Out In San Diego Friday November 01, 2002
571. Gay Rights: Bush's attorney general cosponsored the Defense
of Marriage Act
John Ashcroft was a cosponsor of the Defense of Marriage
Act, a law passed in 1996 which bans federal recognition of gay
marriages and prohibits spouses in same-sex marriages from
receiving federal benefits. ABC News, Wednesday January 17, 2001
572. Gay Rights: As Governor of Texas, Bush derailed a hate-crime
bill and opposed gays as foster parents
It is commonly believed that Bush derailed a Texas
hate-crime bill in 1999 because it included protections based on
sexual orientation. Also that year, Bush supported a measure that
banned gay couples from becoming foster parents or from adopting
foster children. ABC News, Wednesday January 17, 2001
573. Gay Rights: Bush opposed to hiring an openly gay person in
his Administration
Bush claimed to be tolerant of gays, but he's on the record
as being adamantly opposed to hiring an openly gay person in his
Administration. And Dick Cheney was forced to back off on his
support for recognition of gay and lesbian relationships. Bush got
positively gleeful over sending the three men who dragged James
Byrd on the back of a truck to the death chamber, when only two
are going (the other got a life sentence). And contrary to what he
said in the debate, he did block hate-crimes legislation. Source:
Time, p. 62, "Double Standard" On The Issues Thursday October 19,
2000
574. Global Affairs: Back to the future: new US-Russia arms race
MOSCOW -- When the US earmarked billions of dollars for a
new national missile defense and broke ground in Alaska,
Washington emphasized that it would be "no threat to Russia."
Then, with the inevitability of a cold-war counterpunch, President
Vladimir Putin saw fit to reassure Russians that America's shield
could be defeated, with a silver bullet successfully tested in
February. "No country in the world as yet has such arms," Putin
declared of the new weapon, which amounts to a space cruise
missile. It will be "capable of hitting targets continents away
with hypersonic speed, high precision, and the ability of wide
maneuver." Welcome back to the future of US-Russian rivalry. CS
Monitor Tuesday June 15, 2004
575. Global Affairs: Bush's gas prices / Foreign policy has an
impact on what people pay
Although analysis of what goes into determining the world
oil price -- and thus, the price of gas at the pump for Americans
-- would give anyone a headache, there are two indisputable truths
about the current situation. The first is that trouble in
oil-producing countries Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and the Middle
East as a region is a large contributor to the climb in prices,
continuing to add the so-called "fear premium." The second fact is
that Bush administration foreign policy in the Middle East and
Venezuela is what has rocked the status quo and rattled the nerves
of these producers. Post-Gazette Monday June 07, 2004
576. Global Affairs: George Bush and the abuse of power
The United States has on more than one occasion
inappropriately intervened in Australian politics. President
George Bush's verbal attack late last week on the Australian
Opposition Leader should not have taken place. The argument
between Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Mark
Latham as to how long Australian forces should stay in Iraq is an
argument between the two Australians. It is quite wrong for the US
President to take sides in that dispute and seek to assist one
party. The Age (AU) Friday June 04, 2004
577. Global Affairs: Bush's Cruel New Rules on Cuba
Divert resources from antiterrorism investigations, mandate
burdensome government paperwork and forbid families from helping
-- or even seeing -- their relatives. That's the new U.S. policy
toward Cuba. As if four decades of a failed embargo were not
enough, the White House just made matters breathtakingly worse. To
demonstrate its disdain for Fidel Castro to Florida's hard-line
exiles, the White House will now punish those most critical to the
future stability of post-Castro Cuba: the moderate Cuban-American
community. Counterpunch Monday May 31, 2004
578. Global Affairs: Why Not Palestinian Elections?
Last week an Arab government publicly embraced the idea of
democratic elections and asked the United States for its help in
holding them -- and the Bush administration, which says Middle
Eastern democracy is its top priority, ducked. That's because the
idea came from the Palestinian Authority, where a free vote would
probably demonstrate that another tenet of Bush policy, the
"irrelevance" of Yasser Arafat, is a fiction. Washington Post
Monday May 24, 2004
579. Global Affairs: Brits support America by calling for ouster
of Bush
Tony Blair tells us that we should do everything we can to
support America. And I agree. I think we should repudiate those
who inflict harm on Americans, we should shun those who bring
America itself into disrepute and we should denounce those who
threaten the freedom and democracy that are synonymous with being
American. That is why Tony's recent announcement that he wishes to
stand shoulder to shoulder with George Bush is so puzzling. It's
difficult to think of anyone who has inflicted more harm on
Americans than their current president. Guardian Saturday May 22,
2004
580. Global Affairs: Tough, Empty Cuba Policy
Talking tough to Fidel Castro usually pays off with votes in
Florida, even if it doesn't move Castro or help forge a viable
U.S.-Cuba policy. Hence President Bush's latest Cuban initiative,
which amounts to little more than election-year pandering. LA
Times Friday May 21, 2004
581. Global Affairs: Only replacing Bush can restore honor to
Americans
But the sad truth is that regardless of who is innocent or
guilty, our country's honor cannot be restored by this president.
A picture of a naked Iraqi with his head covered by woman's
panties speaks louder than anything this president's
representatives can say. Our respect will be regained only after
this administration is replaced by one more credible. Salt Lake
Tribune Sunday May 16, 2004
582. Global Affairs: U.S. undermines non-nuclear treaty
Many security experts believe the likelihood that nuclear
weapons might be used is higher now than it was during the Cold
War, primarily because of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and
nuclear materials around the world. What has the United States
done to prevent proliferation and what more should it do now?
Seattle PI Thursday April 29, 2004
583. Global Affairs: U.S. Alliances Are Shifting
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Across the world, it seems that U.S.
diplomacy is breaking down.America's ties with Europe and the
United Nations are frayed. The Arab world is furious over U.S.
support for Israel on West Bank settlements. Pleas for help in
stabilizing Iraq have found few takers. Troops from Spain,
Honduras and the Dominican Republic are leaving. And coalition
leaders still standing with President Bush face rising political
dissent at home. NY Times Saturday April 24, 2004
584. Global Affairs: Bush's dramatic shift in Mideast
WASHINGTON -- If President Bush wants to give land away,
there is always his 1,600-acre ranch at Crawford, Texas. But he
has no right to endorse the Israeli claim to the captured or
settled property on the West Bank that belongs to the
Palestinians. Seattle PI Tuesday April 20, 2004
585. Global Affairs: World set back 10 years by Bush's new world
order, says Blair aide
George Bush has had a "devastating impact" on global
sustainable development and set the world back more than ten
years, says Jonathon Porritt, the prime minister's senior adviser
on the subject, today. Writing in Guardian Society Mr Porritt, who
is the chairman of the Sustainable Development Commission, says it
is hard to exaggerate the damage done to the planet by Mr Bush's
drive for a "new world order". Guardian Wednesday April 14, 2004
586. Global Affairs: Ill advised on Korea
PRESIDENT BUSH, misled by Vice President Cheney and other
hard-liners, instructed the US delegation at the recent six-nation
Beijing talks on North Korea's nuclear program to say he was
losing patience with the diplomatic effort to persuade Pyongyang
to dismantle its nuclear capability. This was a serious blunder.
Boston Globe Sunday March 07, 2004
587. Global Affairs: Bush undermined Haiti democracy
So much for all that talk about democracy. President Bush
dispatched Marines to Haiti to secure order -- after his
administration forced the elected leader of Haiti, Jean-Bertrand
Aristide -- into exile. Now the administration will determine who
gets to run Haiti. For the Bush administration it was clear: The
Haitian voters had put their faith in and cast their votes for the
wrong man, so he had to go. Bush then ridiculously announced that
the "Haitian constitution is working" -- as if words could turn
night into day. Chicago Sun Times Tuesday March 02, 2004
588. Global Affairs: Bush Shifts U.S. Stance On Use of Land Mines
President Bush will bar the U.S. military from using certain
types of land mines after 2010 but will allow forces to continue
to employ more sophisticated mines that the administration argues
pose little threat to civilians, officials said yesterday.
Washington Post Friday February 27, 2004
589. Global Affairs: Pakistan, a rogue state unpunished
In American usage, the problematic term "rogue state"
usually means a nation which puts a high priority on subverting
other nations by violence, including terrorism in all its forms.
Since 2001-09-11, the declared mission of the United States
President, George Bush, is to prevent the spread of weapons of
mass destruction to terrorists and regimes that sponsor them. His
decision to make war on Iraq was based on the threat he said it
posed with its weapons of mass destruction. Pakistan's marketing
of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea
surely makes it a rogue state in US eyes. Yet Washington's
response to Pakistan's utter disregard for the wider concerns -
shared by many countries, including Australia - about nuclear
weapons proliferation has been extraordinarily mild. Sydney
Morning Herald Thursday February 12, 2004
590. Global Affairs: Annan Warns of Narrow Focus on Terrorism
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
warned the United States and other rich countries Friday that a
too-narrow focus on fighting terrorism could worsen global
tensions and threaten human rights. Addressing the World Economic
Forum, the U.N. chief said international terrorism threatens peace
and stability and "has the potential to exacerbate cultural,
religious and ethnic dividing lines."Yet in unusually blunt
criticism apparently aimed at the Bush administration, he said
that the war against terror also carried the risk of aggravating
such tensions, "as well as raising concerns about protection of
human rights and civil liberties. AP Friday January 23, 2004
591. Global Affairs: Spain's PM Says Bush Acts Like an Emperor
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is seen in Europe as an
emperor, and many Europeans find that difficult to accept, says
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. "The combination of being
a Republican, of being an emperor, a Texan and outspoken is really
a bad mix," Aznar said in an interview Wednesday in The Washington
Post. "To be politically correct in Europe, people cannot digest
the mix that is George Bush as I have described him. They are
allergic to that," Aznar said. AP Wednesday January 14, 2004
592. Global Affairs: Bush Told U.S.-Imposed Policies Are
'Perverse'
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Latin American leaders told
President Bush (news - web sites) on Tuesday that "perverse"
economic policies imposed by Washington had failed their
countries, mired in debt and poverty. Bush tried at an
Americas-wide summit to win back the support of regional leaders
after neglecting them over the last two years to focus on Iraq
(news - web sites) and security. He instead heard stinging
criticism that rampant free market policies had done nothing to
ease poverty and had forced countries like Argentina into deep
crisis. Yahoo News Tuesday January 13, 2004
593. Global Affairs: Torture by proxy: How immigration threw a
traveler to the wolves
On Sept. 26, 2002, U.S. immigration officials seized a
Syrian-born Canadian at Kennedy International Airport, because his
name had come up on an international watch list for possible
terrorists. What happened next is chilling. Maher Arar was about
to change planes on his way home to Canada after visiting his
wife's family in Tunisia when he was pulled aside for questioning.
He was not a terrorist. He had no terrorist connections, but his
name was on the list, so he was detained for questioning. Not
ordinary, polite questioning, but abusive, insulting, degrading
questioning by the immigration service, the FBI and the New York
City Police Department. He asked for a lawyer and was told he
could not have one. He asked to call his family, but phone calls
were not permitted. Instead, he was clapped into shackles and, for
several days, made to "disappear." His family was frantic. SF
Chronicle Sunday January 04, 2004
594. Global Affairs: A Wounded United Nations
These are difficult times for the United Nations. The Bush
administration's taste for unilateral action and its doctrine of
preventive war pose a profound challenge to the U.N.'s founding
principle of collective security and threaten the organization's
continued relevance. Since the day the administration took office,
it has been chipping away at the multinational diplomatic system
that America did so much to build in the past two generations. It
has walked away from the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, waged
war against the International Criminal Court and disparaged
international arms control agencies and weapons inspectors. The
war in Iraq brought these conflicts to a new height. Washington's
rush to invade split the Security Council in ways that have still
not healed. Yet the months since the Iraq invasion have shown how
much the United States still needs the U.N.'s unparalleled ability
to confer international legitimacy and its growing experience in
nation-building. NY Times Friday January 02, 2004
595. Global Affairs: Boomerang Diplomacy
YES, OF COURSE, President Bush's latest initiative on Iraq
is arrogant and self-defeating. But that's not the most remarkable
aspect of his decision to exclude companies from a number of
countries that are important U.S. allies from bidding on
reconstruction contracts. After all, a spiteful unilateralism has
characterized the administration's handling of postwar Iraq all
along, and it's an important reason why the United States must now
face daunting military and political challenges nearly on its own.
What's really strange about the administration's latest slap at
Germany, France, Canada and other countries it seems intent on
treating as adversaries is that it reverses at a stroke months of
patient efforts by that same administration to overcome the
divisions its Iraq policy created. Washington Post Friday December
12, 2003
596. Global Affairs: European force / If the new military hurts
NATO, it will be trouble
As much as senior Bush officials found it satisfying to
scourge and snub European leaders such as French President Jacques
Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the White House
needed to understand -- and didn't seem to -- that there would be
a price. The Europeans are now responding to the U.S. lack of
willingness to work with them on Iraq by walking away from a
U.S.-dominated NATO in favor of their own, independent force. Post
Gazette Tuesday November 04, 2003
597. Global Affairs: Bush's miracle in Iraq: he made people
regret the downfall of Hussein Ayoon wa Azan (If Our Lives Were
Worthless
The U.S. has achieved a miracle in Iraq: it made people
regret the downfall of Saddam's regime. Dar Al Hayat Wednesday
October 29, 2003
598. Global Affairs: Cuban hard line
Pushing and pulling in recent weeks between the Bush
administration and Congress on U.S. policy toward Cuba shows the
president and the Republicans focused on partisan political
advantage rather than on overall U.S. interests. Put more
specifically, President Bush's intended policy on Cuba is oriented
toward keeping Cuban exiles in Florida happy, rather than toward
bringing about democratic change in Cuba itself or promoting U.S.
exports to that country. Post-Gazette Wednesday October 29, 2003
599. Global Affairs: Cuba's needless isolation
PRESIDENT BUSH, unwilling to tackle the difficult issues
between the United States and Cuba, has imposed new restrictions
on Americans' travel to the island. This will do nothing to loosen
Fidel Castro's grip, but it will diminish the contacts that might,
in time, lead to better Cuban-American relations. Boston Globe
Monday October 20, 2003
600. Global Affairs: Disastrous North Korean talks in China
It is a testament to the absurdly low expectations attached
to the diplomatic abilities of both North Korea and the United
States that pundits have avoided the obvious conclusion concerning
the recently concluded six-party talks in Beijing. They were a
disaster. Asia Times Saturday September 06, 2003
601. Global Affairs: US opposes UN staff protections over fear of
ICC prosecutions
The United States on Monday opposed a resolution aimed at
protecting U.N. staff because it fears it could lay the groundwork
for prosecutions by the International Criminal Court. Monterey
Herald Monday August 25, 2003
602. Global Affairs: Confrontational military exercises near
North Korea
Some diplomats are known to worry that [military] exercises
like the one in the Coral Sea might be seen as provocative by the
government of Kim Jong Il in North Korea, and perhaps by China and
Russia, which oppose confrontational tactics toward North Korea.
NY Times Monday August 18, 2003
603. Global Affairs: Bush pushes for death penalty in Puerto
Rico, angering many
The Bush administration is angering many Puerto Ricans by
prosecuting a death penalty case there. The death penalty, which
has not been carried out on the island since 1927, was outlawed in
1929, and the ban was reinforced by Puerto Rico's 1952
constitution in a line that reads, "The death penalty shall not
exist." Bush's Justice Department is running roughshod over Puerto
Rican law. Progressive Media Project Thursday July 24, 2003
604. Global Affairs: African policy helps US more than Africa
The US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, for example,
claims to help African countries get access to North American
markets, but its website kicks off with the question: How does the
act help US firms? and goes on to list numerous conditions for
entry such as elimination of barriers to US trade and investment.
War on Want Wednesday July 02, 2003
605. Global Affairs: Bush blocks bigger voice for developing
countries at World Bank
Moreover, it emerged last week that George Bush blocked a
reform of the desperately undemocratic World Bank that would have
given developing countries a bigger voice. Labeling the preemptive
assassination strike a troubling blow to peace, Bush later bowed
to pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups and Congress members;
White House opinion now firmly backs the Sharon government's
crackdown on militant groups, covert lethal operations and all.
War on Want Wednesday July 02, 2003
606. Global Affairs: Bush African trip hypocritical
If we buy [Bush's] new argument that ending humanitarian
crises through military force is good foreign policy, then how can
he justify embarking on his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa next
week without including on his itinerary Congo and Liberia? His
five-day visit will include Senegal, Botswana, Uganda, Nigeria and
South Africa -- but not the absurdly named Democratic Republic of
Congo, site of what one African expert has labeled "the worst
humanitarian situation on the entire face of the Earth." Common
Dreams Wednesday July 02, 2003
607. Global Affairs: Bush threatens Belgium over war crimes law
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld effectively threatened
Belgium that it risked losing its status as host to NATO's
headquarters if it did not rescind a law that has been used to
lodge accusations of war crimes against American officials. Muslim
News Thursday June 12, 2003
608. Global Affairs: Bush childishly punishes France and Germany
for not supporting war
'George Bush is being childish' " Bush aides have pondered
how best to punish France. Ignoring Germany while forgiving Russia
is also part of the plan ... Now, even as Germany is eager to make
amends, the White House seems intent on downgrading ties with
Berlin. This is not in America's best interest ... President Bush
should be seeking to mend these alliances ... [He] must take
advantage of the Evian gathering not to hold grudges, but to move
on." Guardian Monday June 02, 2003
609. Global Affairs: Bush plans to add execution chamber to
Guantanamo Bay facility
But preemptive assassination strikes are not the Bush
administration's only covert method of eliminating enemies. Plans
are underway to turn the controversial detention facility at
Guantanamo Bay into a full-fledged death camp, equipped with its
own death row and execution chamber. Utne Reader Thursday May 15,
2003
610. Global Affairs: Bush to divide Europe
Certainly, the transatlantic relationship will not be the
same after this. If the administration's Iraq gamble succeeds,
Washington intends to divide Europe and build a new alliance with
Central and Eastern Europe as the base for US power-projection in
the Middle East and Central Asia. If the gamble fails, there
probably will be a general American fallback toward an embittered
version of the anti-internationalist and America-first policies
with which George Bush began his term two years ago. Common Dreams
Monday March 10, 2003
611. Global Affairs: US punishes countries that refuse to exempt
US troops from ICC prosecution
The United States has cut military aid to 35 countries over
their refusal to exempt US troops from prosecution by the new
International Criminal Court (ICC). Radio Australia Friday
February 07, 2003
612. Global Affairs: Bush's bellicose rhetoric puts US at odds
with allies
The increasingly bellicose White House rhetoric puts the
Bush administration sharply at odds with many of its European
allies. Common Dreams Wednesday January 22, 2003
613. Global Affairs: Bush's global warming plan nothing but
window dressing
After Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol on the grounds that
it was too expensive for the US, he came out with an alternate '
plan ' for his nation. Unfortunately the 'plan' is window dressing
for doing nothing. Sierra Club of Canada Friday November 01, 2002
614. Global Affairs: Bush refuses to sign land mine treaty
Nearly five years after the ceremonial signing of an
international treaty to ban land mines, these deadly seeds planted
malevolently in the earth continue to bear bloody fruit around the
world: severed limbs, broken lives, shattered families. And still,
the United States refuses to join 129 other nations that have
already ratified the treaty. Once again, our government's
ungovernable urge to go it alone casts the nation in the role of
pariah. Common Dreams Monday October 21, 2002
615. Global Affairs: Justice Department refuses to reveal Patriot
Act data
The ACLU and other groups have filed a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) request with the Justice Department in an
effort to learn how the government is using new surveillance
powers granted to it under the USA/PATRIOT Act. While the Justice
Department has disclosed some records, it has withheld basic
statistical information that belongs in the public domain. The
ACLU has filed suit to force the Justice Dept. to disclose this
information. ACLU Wednesday August 21, 2002
616. Global Affairs: The Bush administration's hostility to the
ICC has increased dramatically in 2002
The crux of the U.S. concern relates to the prospect that
the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction to conduct politically
motivated investigations and prosecutions of U.S. military and
political officials and personnel. The U.S. opposition to the ICC
is in stark contrast to the strong support for the Court by most
of America's closest allies. Human Rights Watch Friday March 08,
2002
617. Global Affairs: Bush threatens UN with irrelevance
President Bush said Sunday the United Nations was facing a
"moment of truth" over the Iraq issue and the world body had to
decide if it would remain relevant. News Max Sunday February 10,
2002
618. Global Affairs: Bush equates Palestinians to 9-11 terrorists
US President George W. Bush on Tuesday sounded to
Palestinians as if backtracking on h Tuesday September 11, 2001
619. Global Affairs: US backs out of UN racism conference
The American Civil Liberties Union joined other leading
civil and human rights organizations in condemning the Bush
Administration's decision to back out of the United Nations' World
Conference Against Racism currently being held in Durban, South
Africa. ACLU Tuesday September 04, 2001
620. Global Affairs: Bush imposes global gag rule on USAID
On January 22, 2001, on his first business day in office
(and the 28th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S.
Supreme Court decision establishing a woman's right to an
abortion), President George W. Bush re-imposed the Global Gag Rule
on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
population program. This policy restricts foreign non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) that receive USAID family planning funds from
using their own, non-U.S. funds to provide legal abortion
services, lobby their own governments for abortion law reform, or
even provide accurate medical counseling or referrals regarding
abortion. The 1973 Helms Amendment is a legislative provision that
already restricts U.S. funds from being used for these activities.
78,000 women die every year from unsafe abortions. Center for
Reproductive Rights Monday January 22, 2001
621. Global Relations: Indispensable Allies on Iran
Iraq provides a textbook lesson for a superpower about the
dangers of going it alone in the world, but the Bush
administration seems to suffer from attention deficit disorder.
Some of its more hawkish officials are now pressing to confront
Iran over its nuclear weapons development, regardless of whether
America's main allies are convinced that diplomacy and inspections
have been exhausted. Nobody in Washington proposes invading Iran,
but administration officials hint darkly about starting an effort
to destabilize Tehran's clerical dictatorship. Iran's ruling
mullahs are justifiably unpopular. But unilateral American
bullying is one sure way to rally flagging support for them among
nationalistic Iranians. New York Times Saturday August 14, 2004
622. Global Relations: America's blind-eye to N-arms
IN HIS forthcoming memoir on the India-Pakistan nuclear
relationship, Strobe Talbott, a former US deputy secretary of
state, recounts the surprise and alarm that swept the eighth floor
of the State Department on May 11, 1998, when the first reports
came in over CNN that India had tested a nuclear weapon.
One presumes the diplomats were reading the Indian press
carefully. For example, I have in front of me two articles, dated
April 8 and 15, 1998, from the influential Indian daily The
Statesman maintainin that since the nationalists of the Bharatiya
Janata Party had come to power, India was going nuclear quickly.
The information was around for those who had eyes and ears. It was
as if Washington didn't want to know.
Similarly, the reports emerging today suggesting that Saudi
Arabia may be the latest Middle Eastern country to engage in a
research program on nuclear weapons recalls a report of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies published as long
ago as 1989. This London-based body remarked on the then-recent
Saudi purchase of Chinese CSS-2 rockets: "Missiles of such range
are difficult to justify unless they carry nuclear weapons."
"They are too elaborate and expensive to make sense for
anything else," I was told at the time. "Controllable thrust
engines, inertial guidance systems, and heat shielding put up the
cost to astronomical levels."
But Washington didn't want to know. It still doesn't. Not
one senior administration figure is talking about Saudi Arabian
nuclear weapons research despite the new and worrisome
intelligence reports. Boston Globe Tuesday August 10, 2004
623. Global Relations: Iraq War Straining US-Turkey Ties
While the image of the United States has sunk to an all-time
low in the Arab world, the Iraq war has also had a devastating
impact on U.S. ties to another predominantly Muslim power and one
of Washington's closest and most strategically situated Cold War
allies, Turkey, say experts just returned from the region.
Ties between Turkey and Israel ? countries that have long
considered themselves strategic allies against hostile Arab states
? have also become deeply strained as a result of recent events,
according to former U.S. ambassador in Ankara, Mark Parris, who
also served for several years as the number two in the U.S.
embassy in Tel Aviv. Anti-War Tuesday July 27, 2004
624. Global Relations: Arabs: It's the Policy, Stupid
If U.S. President George W. Bush thinks his "war on terror"
is winning Arab hearts and minds, he should think about conducting
it much differently than he has over the past two years...
Beginning with changing his policies.
That is the unavoidable conclusion of the latest two in a
series of major surveys of public opinion in five Arab countries ?
all U.S. allies in the "war on terror" ? released here Friday by
the University of Maryland (UMD), the Arab American Institute
(AAI) and Zogby International. Anti-War Sunday July 25, 2004
625. Global Relations: Sailing Toward a Storm in China
Quietly and with minimal coverage in the U.S. press, the
Navy announced that from mid-July through August it would hold
exercises dubbed Operation Summer Pulse '04 in waters off the
China coast near Taiwan.
This will be the first time in U.S. naval history that seven
of our 12 carrier strike groups deploy in one place at the same
time. It will look like the peacetime equivalent of the Normandy
landings and may well end in a disaster. LA Times Thursday July
15, 2004
626. Global Relations: US scholars 'can't defend' Bush policy
London - American President George Bush's "arrogant" foreign
policy is damaging his country's standing in the world and
threatening the safety of Americans living abroad, a group of
high-level United States scholars said on Monday.
About 200 American students - 30 of them winners of the
prestigious Rhodes scholarship previously held by former US
president Bill Clinton - wrote an open letter warning that Bush's
actions have been "divisive and polarising". IOL Monday July 12,
2004
627. Global Relations: Lost Chances in Iran
Whoever wins this November's presidential election, the
United States faces an urgent question that the Bush
administration has not resolved: What is America's strategy for
coping with the rising power of Iran?
Washington and Tehran have had extensive secret contacts
since Sept. 11 -- premised on their shared goal of destroying al
Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
Despite many meetings, nothing has come of the contacts -- partly
because the Bush administration, not for the first time, was
internally divided over the right strategic course. Washington
Post Friday July 09, 2004
628. Global Relations: Bush aims weapons of malnutrition at Cuba
WASHINGTON -- The values of faith and family mean a lot to
Ana Karim, a Cuban-American from Richmond, Va. and a Mennonite
pastor. She has two very ill uncles living in Cuba. For the past
decade, she has used a US license granted to Cuban-Americans to
travel to Cuba and care for these elderly and infirm relatives.
On her last visit to Havana, she bought a gift of soap for
them at a dollar store; a necessity they can no longer afford
because of rising prices. She carried a suitcase with her, jammed
with medicines for her uncles that are costly and scarce in Cuba.
Ana's uncles, like so many Cubans, depend on visits,
financial support, and gifts to keep body and soul together. She's
now lamenting the real possibility that she will never see them
again. Like thousands of other Cuban-Americans, Ana realizes her
ability to visit Cuba will be radically restricted under new
sanctions embraced by President Bush. CS Monitor Monday July 05,
2004
629. Global Relations: Fortress Bush and the One Law Doctrine
Fortress Bush, determined to continue its aggressive,
swaggering, Cheney/Rumsfeld-dominated policies and the "with us or
against us" theology (which now impels every initiative in foreign
relations, to the despair of State Department professionals), has
had a dire effect on America's international credibility, and thus
on its capability to exercise long-term influence in world
affairs. The vainglorious and exultant 'Them and Us' attitude to
anyone espousing contrary views to those of the White House has
alienated far too many of America's friends. Counterpunch Sunday
July 04, 2004
630. Global Relations: Iraq Occupation Erodes Bush Doctrine
The occupation of Iraq has increasingly undermined, and in
some cases discredited, the core tenets of President Bush's
foreign policy, according to a wide range of Republican and
Democratic analysts and U.S. officials.
When the war began 15 months ago, the president's Iraq
policy rested on four broad principles: The United States should
act preemptively to prevent strikes on U.S. targets. Washington
should be willing to act unilaterally, alone or with a select
coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk. Iraq was the
next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism. And Baghdad's
transformation into a new democracy would spark regionwide change.
Washington Post Monday June 28, 2004
631. Global Relations: Election-Year Cuba Policy
It is outrageous that the people of a communist nation have
just been told they can see their relatives living outside the
country only once every three years. Not only that, the types of
items and amounts of money they can receive from overseas will
also be curtailed, along with their exposure to visitors on
cultural and academic exchanges.
What's most outrageous, however, is that the government
ordering this crackdown is the Bush administration, not the
communist regime in Havana. America's policy, followed for
decades, of trying to force change in Cuba by means of an economic
embargo has been an abject failure, but the administration is
about to embrace it with renewed gusto. New York Times Sunday June
27, 2004
632. Global Relations: Dithering as Others Die
ALONG THE SUDAN-CHAD BORDER -- The ongoing genocide in
Darfur is finally, fortunately, making us uncomfortable. At this
rate, with only 250,000 more deaths it will achieve the gravitas
of the Laci Peterson case.
Hats off to Colin Powell and Kofi Annan, who are both
traveling in the next few days to Darfur. But the world has
dithered for months already. Unless those trips signal a new
resolve, many of the Darfur children I've been writing about over
the last few months will have survived the Janjaweed militia only
to die now of hunger or diarrhea. New York Times Saturday June 26,
2004
633. Global Relations: Iraq Prison Abuse Costs U.S. Votes on UN
Resolution
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States withdrew on
Wednesday its U.N. resolution to shield American soldiers from
prosecution abroad after falling short of votes because of anger
over the Iraqi prisoners abuse scandal. James Cunningham, the U.S.
deputy ambassador, made the announcement after Security Council
members turned down his compromise to renew an exemption from the
International Criminal Court for one year only. Last year's
resolution expires on June 30. Reuters Wednesday June 23, 2004
634. Global Relations: When Irish Ties Are Fraying
DUBLIN -- The Irish hold the rotating presidency of the
European Union and President Bush is scheduled to make an
overnight visit to Ireland this week to take part in a two-hour
summit meeting. On Friday, he'll fly into Shannon, an airport
whose use by the American military during the Iraq venture has
been highly controversial here. Substantial protests are planned,
but the protesters will, of course, be kept far away from the
president. He won't even hear their chants. New York Times
Wednesday June 23, 2004
635. Global Relations: Bush's Pyongyang policy 'futile'
The architect of the Clinton administration's policy towards
North Korea has told the BBC the current US approach to Pyongyang
is going nowhere.
Ambassador Robert Gallucci stressed the growing danger that
North Korea might sell nuclear materials or even a bomb to a
terrorist group.
Ambassador Gallucci also urged a fundamental rethink of US
policy. BBC Tuesday June 22, 2004
636. Global Relations: Report Faults U.S. Action on Nuclear
Proliferation
Within days of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush
highlighted the menace posed by weapons of mass destruction,
declaring: "We will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes
and terrorists to threaten us with the world's most destructive
weapons."
That promise led to designations, such as the "axis of evil"
for Iraq, Iran and North Korea; to steps, such as the
Proliferation Security Initiative, which allows the United States
to search ships for weapons material; and to war with Iraq, based
on the belief that Saddam Hussein's government was sitting on a
stockpile of chemical and biological weapons and working toward an
atomic bomb.
But according to a critical report by the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace, it has not helped secure vulnerable
nuclear facilities, criminalized the transfer of weapons
technology or meted out punishments for countries that renege on
their commitment to remain nuclear-free. Washington Post Monday
June 21, 2004
637. Global Relations: Rebuke of Bush Underscores Foreign Policy
Clash
WASHINGTON -- The call for President Bush's defeat in a
statement released Wednesday by a group of former diplomats and
military officials highlighted the stark divide that has opened
among foreign policy experts over the administration's national
security strategy.
Although some of the 27 members of Diplomats and Military
Commanders for Change are identified most closely with Democratic
administrations, almost all served presidents of both parties ?
either as ambassadors, executive branch officials or military
officers.
In that way, the group's formation symbolizes how Bush's
search for new approaches to safeguard America has triggered a
backlash among the centrist foreign policy establishment. It also
indicates that the debate over Bush's direction could provoke the
sharpest realignment of loyalties on foreign affairs since the
emergence of neoconservative thinkers roughly 30 years ago. LA
Times Friday June 18, 2004
638. Global Relations: Bush insists that Europeans should eat GM
food
In case you thought that the Bush administration's rift with
its European allies ended with the Iraqi military campaign, think
again. The White House has now set its sights on something far
more personal - the question of what kind of food Europeans should
put on their table. President Bush has charged that the EU's ban
on genetically modified food is discouraging developing countries
from growing GM crops for export and resulting in increased hunger
and poverty in the world's poorest nations. His remarks, made just
days before the G8 meeting in Evian, have further chilled
US-European relations. Organic Consumers Association Monday June
02, 2003
639. Government: Holy Terror
President Bush and the Republicans in the Senate have failed
ã for the moment ã to bring the Constitution into conformity with
Judeo-Christian teachings. But even if they had passed a bill
calling for a constitutional ban on gay marriage, that would have
been only a beginning. Leviticus 20:13 and the New Testament book
of Romans reveal that the God of the Bible doesn't merely
disapprove of homosexuality; he specifically says homosexuals
should be killed: "If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both
of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to
death."
God also instructs us to murder people who work on the
Sabbath, along with adulterers and children who curse their
parents. While they're at it, members of Congress might want to
reconsider the 13th Amendment, because it turns out that God
approves of slavery ã unless a master beats his slave so severely
that he loses an eye or teeth, in which case Exodus 21 tells us he
must be freed.
What should we conclude from all this? That whatever their
import to people of faith, ancient religious texts shouldn't form
the basis of social policy in the 21st century. LA Times Saturday
August 14, 2004
640. Government: Bush Forces a Shift In Regulatory Thrust
Tuberculosis had sneaked up again, reappearing with alarming
frequency across the United States. The government began writing
rules to protect 5 million people whose jobs put them in special
danger. Hospitals and homeless shelters, prisons and drug
treatment centers -- all would be required to test their employees
for TB, hand out breathing masks and quarantine those with the
disease. These steps, the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration predicted, could prevent 25,000 infections a year
and 135 deaths.
By the time President Bush moved into the White House, the
tuberculosis rules, first envisioned in 1993, were nearly
complete. But the new administration did nothing on the issue for
the next three years.
Then, on the last day of 2003, in an action so obscure it
was not mentioned in any major newspaper in the country, the
administration canceled the rules. Voluntary measures, federal
officials said, were effective enough to make regulation
unnecessary. Washington Post Saturday August 14, 2004
641. Government: Volcanic Absurdity
WITH ALL THE heightened concerns about terrorism, you might
think the Department of Homeland Security has something better to
do with its time and energy than throw victims of natural
disasters out of the United States. But that's because, like most
Americans, you probably missed a recent notice in the Federal
Register informing victims of a massive volcanic eruption on the
Carribean island of Montserrat that they had to leave this country
by February. Washington Post Saturday August 14, 2004
642. Government: Out of Spotlight, Bush Overhauls U.S.
Regulations
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 - April 21 was an unusually violent day
in Iraq; 68 people died in a car bombing in Basra, among them 23
children. As the news went from bad to worse, President Bush took
a tough line, vowing to a group of journalists, "We're not going
to cut and run while I'm in the Oval Office."
On the same day, deep within the turgid pages of the Federal
Register, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
published a regulation that would forbid the public release of
some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles, saying that
publicizing the information would cause "substantial competitive
harm" to manufacturers. New York Times Friday August 13, 2004
643. Government: U.S. Didn't Warn Las Vegas of Threats
WASHINGTON - A year after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Justice
Department obtained video surveillance tapes suggesting terrorists
were targeting Las Vegas casinos but authorities never alerted the
public as they discussed whether a warning might hurt tourism or
increase the casinos' legal liability, internal memos show.
The mayor of Las Vegas said Monday he was never told about
the tapes uncovered in Detroit and Spain in 2002, and had been
assured by the FBI there were no credible threats against his
city. "If I were told, I would certainly tell the public," Mayor
Oscar Goodman said. AP Monday August 09, 2004
644. Government: PAKISTAN FOR BUSH: July Surprise?
This afternoon, Pakistan's interior minister, Faisal Saleh
Hayyat, announced that Pakistani forces had captured Ahmed Khalfan
Ghailani, a Tanzanian Al Qaeda operative wanted in connection with
the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The
timing of this announcement should be of particular interest to
readers of The New Republic. Earlier this month, John B. Judis,
Spencer Ackerman, and Massoud Ansari broke the story of how the
Bush administration was pressuring Pakistani officials to
apprehend high-value targets (HVTs) in time for the November
elections--and in particular, to coincide with the Democratic
National Convention. Although the capture took place in central
Pakistan "a few days back," the announcement came just hours
before John Kerry will give his acceptance speech in Boston. The
New Republic Thursday July 29, 2004
645. Government: In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits
WASHINGTON, July 24 ? The Bush administration has been going
to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been
injured by prescription drugs and medical devices.
The administration contends that consumers cannot recover
damages for such injuries if the products have been approved by
the Food and Drug Administration. In court papers, the Justice
Department acknowledges that this position reflects a "change in
governmental policy," and it has persuaded some judges to accept
its arguments, most recently scoring a victory in the federal
appeals court in Philadelphia.
Sunday July 25, 2004
646. Government: GOP Seeks Catholic Parish Directories
WASHINGTON - The Republican National Committee has asked
Bush-backing Roman Catholics to provide copies of their parish
directories to help register Catholics to vote in the November
election, a use of personal information not necessarily condoned
by dioceses around the country. AP Friday July 23, 2004
647. Government: Bush quietly meets with Amish here; they offer
their prayers
LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - President Bush met privately with a
group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last
Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion.
He asked them to vote for him in November.
The Amish told the president that not all members of the
church vote but they would pray for him. Lancaster Online Monday
July 19, 2004
648. Government: Failure Is Not an Option, It's Mandatory
WASHINGTON
For three days this week the nation was transfixed by the
spectacle of the United States Senate, in all its august majesty,
doing precisely the opposite of statesmanlike deliberation.
Instead, it was debating the Federal Marriage Amendment, which
would not only have discriminated against a large group of
citizens, but also was doomed to defeat from the get-go. Everyone
knew this harebrained notion would never draw the two-thirds
majority required for a constitutional amendment, and yet here
were all these conservatives lining up to speak for it, wasting
day after day with their meandering remarks about culture while
more important business went unattended. What explains this folly?
Not simple bigotry, as some pundits declared, or even simple
politics. While it is true that the amendment was a classic
election-year ploy, it owes its power as much to a peculiar
narrative of class hostility as it does to homophobia or ideology.
And in this narrative, success comes by losing. New York Times
Friday July 16, 2004
649. Government: Onward G.O.P. Soldiers
The Bush-Cheney campaign is buttonholing Christian churches
nationwide to serve as virtual party precincts in the Republican
drive to turn out voters in November. The campaign has sent
congregation volunteers marching orders -- a schedule of 22
"duties," beginning with the submission of local church membership
directories to party headquarters, the better to compare them with
voter registration lists.
The Bush team maintains that this ham-handed proselytizing
is legal and somehow nonpartisan. That is hard to comprehend,
given that other "duties" for pro-Bush volunteers include lobbying
congregation groups to talk up the Bush-Cheney ticket and
producing "voters' guides" on hot issues. Ministers are being
pressed to create registration drives and speak out about "all
Christians needing to vote." New York Times Wednesday July 14,
2004
650. Government: Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's
Reconstruction
WASHINGTON -- In the months and years leading up to the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, they marched together in the vanguard
of those who advocated war.
As lobbyists, public relations counselors and confidential
advisors to senior federal officials, they warned against Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction, praised exiled leader Ahmad Chalabi,
and argued that toppling Saddam Hussein was a matter of national
security and moral duty.
Now, as fighting continues in Iraq, they are collecting tens
of thousands of dollars in fees for helping business clients
pursue federal contracts and other financial opportunities in
Iraq. For instance, a former Senate aide who helped get U.S. funds
for anti-Hussein exiles who are now active in Iraqi affairs has a
$175,000 deal to advise Romania on winning business in Iraq and
other matters. LA Times Wednesday July 14, 2004
651. Government: Could Bush Cancel the Election?
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security
have begun examining ways to postpone November's presidential
election in the event of an attack near election day. This
according to a report in Newsweek.
Last week the Department of Homeland Security asked the
Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to analyze what legal
steps would be needed to permit the cancellation and rescheduling
of the election. Democracy Now Monday July 12, 2004
652. Government: US in talks over biggest missile defence site in
Europe
The US administration is negotiating with Poland and the
Czech Republic over its controversial missile defence programme,
with a view to positioning the biggest missile defence site
outside the US in central Europe.
Polish government officials confirmed to the Guardian that
talks have been going on with Washington for eight months and made
clear that Poland was keen to take part in the project, which is
supposed to shield the US and its allies from long-range ballistic
missile attacks. Guardian Monday July 12, 2004
653. Government: Free Pass From Congress By Henry A. Waxman
In the past four years there has been an abrupt reversal in
Congress's approach to oversight.
During the Clinton administration, Congress spent millions
of tax dollars probing alleged White House wrongdoing. There was
no accusation too minor to explore, no demand on the
administration too intrusive to make.
Republicans investigated whether the Clinton administration
sold burial plots in Arlington National Cemetery for campaign
contributions. They examined whether the White House doctored
videotapes of coffees attended by President Clinton. They spent
two years investigating who hired Craig Livingstone, the former
director of the White House security office. And they looked at
whether President Clinton designated coal-rich land in Utah as a
national monument because political donors with Indonesian coal
interests might benefit from reductions in U.S. coal production.
Washington Post Tuesday July 06, 2004
654. Government: Bush made all-out attempt to scuttle prison
abuse bill
In a recent late-evening session noted mostly for Republican
grousing about Democratic senators who had attended a screening of
"Fahrenheit 9/11," the Senate considered an amendment to the
Pentagon budget bill that would require the president to abide by
the Geneva Conventions. It was passed, with the support of five
Republicans who resisted frantic arm-twisting from the
administration. Now we'll see whether the House can muster the
political courage to follow suit. Rutland Herald Sunday July 04,
2004
655. Government: Baptists Angry at Bush Campaign Tactics
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention, a
conservative denomination closely aligned with President Bush,
said it was offended by the Bush-Cheney campaign's effort to use
church rosters for campaign purposes.
``I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude
on a local congregation in this way,'' said Richard Land,
president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious
Liberty Commission. AP Saturday July 03, 2004
656. Government: The dangers of a US civil-military divide
In an interview with Time magazine in December 2001,
second-time US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recollected a
conversation he had with President George W Bush during the early
days of his administration. "A lot of people in the world had come
to conclude that the United States was gun-shy, that we were
risk-averse," Rumsfeld told Time. "The president and I concluded
that whenever it occurred down the road that the United States was
under some sort of threat or attack, the United States would be
leaning forward, not back." Asia Times Friday July 02, 2004
657. Government: Churchgoers Get Direction From Bush Campaign
The Bush-Cheney reelection campaign has sent a detailed plan
of action to religious volunteers across the country asking them
to turn over church directories to the campaign, distribute issue
guides in their churches and persuade their pastors to hold voter
registration drives.
Campaign officials said the instructions are part of an
accelerating effort to mobilize President Bush's base of religious
supporters. They said the suggested activities are intended to
help churchgoers rally support for Bush without violating tax
rules that prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity.
Washington Post Thursday July 01, 2004
658. Government: Abu Ghraib, Stonewalled
While piously declaring its determination to unearth the
truth about Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has spent nearly
two months obstructing investigations by the Army and members of
Congress. It has dragged out the Army's inquiry, withheld crucial
government documents from a Senate committee and stonewalled
senators over dozens of Red Cross reports that document the
horrible mistreatment of Iraqis at American military prisons. Even
last week's document dump from the White House, which included
those cynical legal road maps around treaties and laws against
torturing prisoners, seemed part of this stonewalling campaign.
Nothing in those hundreds of pages explained what orders had been
issued to the military and C.I.A. jailers in Iraq, and by whom.
New York Times Wednesday June 30, 2004
659. Government: White House Tries to Rein In Scientists
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has ordered that
government scientists must be approved by a senior political
appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the
World Health Organization, the leading international health and
science agency. LA Times Saturday June 26, 2004
660. Government: Cheney's high court
Unfortunately, the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to
permit Vice President Dick Cheney to keep secret the records of
his energy task force meetings came as no great surprise.
The willingness of the court to allow Justice Antonin Scalia
to take part in the deliberations - despite the fact that Scalia
has a 30-year friendship with Cheney and recently accompanied him
on a duck hunting trip - gave a pretty good indication that this
court would rather serve the private interests Cheney seeks to
protect than the public interest. Capital Times Saturday June 26,
2004
661. Government: Buyouts and Sellouts
A FEW WEEKS AGO a multibillion-dollar buyout for U.S.
tobacco farmers was a critical piece of a delicate legislative
package that included giving the Food and Drug Administration
reasonable regulatory authority over tobacco products and did not
cost the public a dime. House Republicans have managed to
transform this worthy public policy into an expensive corporate
handout, paid for out of the public till and without any public
health benefit. Washington Post Saturday June 26, 2004
662. Government: Stem-cell research: Why Bush is wrong
President Bush's overly cautious policy on stem-cell
research shackles scientists and limits hope for many Americans.
The United States has always been a leader in pushing the outer
limits of scientific research. Science should trump ideology; Bush
lets it be the other way around. Seattle Times Friday June 25,
2004
663. Government: A Loss for Open Government
The case involving Dick Cheney's energy task force, which
the Supreme Court ruled on yesterday, has been mired in
controversy, notably over Justice Antonin Scalia's refusal to
recuse himself from hearing it. But the legal issues, though
important, are narrow, involving the power of a federal judge to
order the executive branch to disclose the information necessary
to enforce a federal law. The Supreme Court reached an
unfortunate, if tentative, result, unduly shielding Vice President
Cheney from answering questions about his task force's activities.
New York Times Friday June 25, 2004
664. Government: Welcome to the Machine
When presidents pick someone to fill a job in the
government, it's typically a very public affair. The White House
circulates press releases and background materials. Congress holds
a hearing, where some members will pepper the nominee with
questions and others will shower him or her with praise. If the
person in question is controversial or up for an important
position, they'll rate a profile or two in the papers. But there's
one confirmation hearing you won't hear much about. It's convened
every Tuesday morning by Rick Santorum, the junior senator from
Pennsylvania, in the privacy of a Capitol Hill conference room,
for a handpicked group of two dozen or so Republican lobbyists.
Occasionally, one or two other senators or a representative from
the White House will attend. Democrats are not invited, and
neither is the press. Washington Monthly Thursday June 24, 2004
665. Government: The White House Papers
It was certainly good to finally see documents indicating
that President Bush did not order the torture of prisoners. The
newly released presidential memo of Feb. 7, 2002, talks about
treating detainees humanely and refers comfortingly to American
values. Unfortunately, beyond that there's not much comfort in
these documents, which only confirm that the Bush administration
fostered a culture of permissiveness regarding the treatment of
prisoners that ultimately led to the Abu Ghraib disaster.
We're still being denied the full picture because the
documents on planning for the treatment of prisoners were selected
by the White House, which has for months ignored the Senate Armed
Services Committee's demand for the whole record. These hundreds
of pages, which the administration has kept classified for so
long, pose no possible security danger. About the only thing in
them worth keeping secret was the degree to which the
administration had decided to exempt itself from the Geneva
Conventions and then spent months debating whether there was a
legalistic way to justify what ordinary people would consider the
torture of prisoners. New York Times Thursday June 24, 2004
666. Government: Noonday in the Shade
In April 2003, John Ashcroft's Justice Department disrupted
what appears to have been a horrifying terrorist plot. In the
small town of Noonday, Tex., F.B.I. agents discovered a weapons
cache containing fully automatic machine guns, remote-controlled
explosive devices disguised as briefcases, 60 pipe bombs and a
chemical weapon -- a cyanide bomb -- big enough to kill everyone
in a 30,000-square-foot building.
Strangely, though, the attorney general didn't call a press
conference to announce the discovery of the weapons cache, or the
arrest of William Krar, its owner. He didn't even issue a press
release. This was, to say the least, out of character. Jose
Padilla, the accused "dirty bomber," didn't have any bomb-making
material or even a plausible way to acquire such material, yet Mr.
Ashcroft put him on front pages around the world. Mr. Krar was
caught with an actual chemical bomb, yet Mr. Ashcroft acted as if
nothing had happened. New York Times Tuesday June 22, 2004
667. Government: Banana Republicans and Weapons of Mass Deception
We speak with PR Watch editors, John Stauber and Sheldon
Stauber about their new book, Banana Republicans: How the Right
Wing is Turning America into a One-party State. Democracy Now
Friday June 18, 2004
668. Government: Travesty of Justice
No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in
history. For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role
in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively
uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention
counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities
for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him
why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a
personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for
good measure. New York Times Tuesday June 15, 2004
669. Government: The White House Hangs Up
The Bush administration is abandoning the landmark 1996
Telecommunications Act, which spawned a new era of competition in
telephone service. That is the net effect of its refusal to appeal
to the Supreme Court a federal court decision striking down rules
that gave local phone companies access to the Baby Bells'
networks. Even more disturbing, the administration pressured the
Federal Communications Commission, ostensibly an independent
agency, to abstain from filing its own appeal in defense of its
own rules. New York Times Monday June 14, 2004
670. Government: White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved
Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says
In the fall of 2002, in the preparations for possible war
with Iraq, the Pentagon sought and received the assent of senior
Bush administration officials, including the vice president's
chief of staff, before hiring the Halliburton Company to develop
secret plans for restoring Iraq's oil facilities, Pentagon
officials have told Congressional investigators. New York Times
Monday June 14, 2004
671. Government: The Day the Constitution Died
AUSTIN, Texas --When, in the future, you find yourself
wondering, "Whatever happened to the Constitution?" you will want
to go back and look at June 8, 2004. That was the day the attorney
general of the United States -- a.k.a. "the nation's top law
enforcement officer" -- refused to provide the Senate Judiciary
Committee with his department's memos concerning torture. Alternet
Thursday June 10, 2004
672. Government: Bush Campaigns Heavily on Air Force One
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is using Air Force One for
re-election travel more heavily than any predecessor, wringing
maximum political mileage from a perk of office paid for by
taxpayers. While Democratic rival John Kerry digs into his
campaign bank account to charter a plane to roam the country, Bush
often travels at no cost to his campaign simply by declaring a
trip ``official'' travel rather than ``political. NY Times Monday
May 31, 2004
673. Government: Cheney Office 'Coordinated' Halliburton Deal
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Pentagon e-mail said Vice President
Dick Cheney's office "coordinated" a multibillion-dollar Iraq
reconstruction contract awarded to his former employer
Halliburton, Time magazine reported on Sunday. The e-mail, sent by
an Army Corps of Engineers official on 2003-03-5, said Douglas
Feith, a senior Pentagon official, provided arrangements for the
RIO contract, or Restore Iraqi Oil, between Halliburton and the
U.S. government, Time said. Reuters Sunday May 30, 2004
674. Government: Reveal the Rules
THE BUSH administration is doing its best to keep secret the
policies it has developed for handling foreign prisoners and to
stifle congressional examination of the issue. Rules for the
interrogation of detainees used to be published in widely
available Army manuals. But the Bush administration has classified
the procedures it has approved for the Guantanamo Bay prison,
Afghanistan and Iraq -- even though it claims that all are in
compliance with the Geneva Conventions. It has been slow to
release the procedures even to the Senate Armed Services
Committee, which is leading the way in investigating the Abu
Ghraib prison scandal. The Pentagon still has not met the
committee's request for the legal memos that supposedly justify
such techniques as hooding, putting prisoners in stress positions,
sleep and dietary deprivation and intimidation by dogs. Washington
Post Sunday May 23, 2004
675. Government: Petroleum president
George W. Bush's calculated inaction with regard to soaring
gas prices should come as no surprise. The petroleum president has
never worried about high gas prices. Heck, the higher the prices,
the more money his oil industry supporters have to contribute to
his campaign. Capital Times Friday May 21, 2004
676. Government: Ruling Says White House's Medicare Videos Were
Illegal WASHINGTON,
May 19 - The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm
of Congress, said on Wednesday that the Bush administration had
violated federal law by producing and disseminating television
news segments that portray the new Medicare law as a boon to the
elderly. The agency said the videos were a form of "covert
propaganda" because the government was not identified as the
source of the materials, broadcast by at least 40 television
stations in 33 markets. The agency also expressed some concern
about the content of the videos, but based its ruling on the lack
of disclosure. NY Times Thursday May 20, 2004
677. Government: Pioneers Fill War Chest, Then Capitalize
GREENSBORO, Ga. -- Joined by President Bush, Vice President
Cheney and a host of celebrities, hundreds of wealthy Republicans
gathered at the Ritz-Carlton Lodge here in the first weekend in
April, not for a fundraiser but for a celebration of fundraisers.
It was billed as an "appreciation weekend," and there was much to
appreciate. ... Of the 246 fundraisers identified by The Post as
Pioneers in the 2000 campaign, 104 -- or slightly more than 40
percent -- ended up in a job or an appointment. A study by The
Washington Post, partly using information compiled by Texans for
Public Justice, which is planning to release a separate study of
the Pioneers this week, found that 23 Pioneers were named as
ambassadors and three were named to the Cabinet: Donald L. Evans
at the Commerce Department, Elaine L. Chao at Labor and Tom Ridge
at Homeland Security. At least 37 Pioneers were named to
postelection transition teams, which helped place political
appointees into key regulatory positions affecting industry.
Washington Post Sunday May 16, 2004
678. Government: Just Trust Us
Didn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib
would eventually come to light? When the world first learned about
the abuse of prisoners, President Bush said that it "does not
reflect the nature of the American people." He's right, of course:
a great majority of Americans are decent and good. But so are a
great majority of people everywhere. If America's record is better
than that of most countries -- and it is -- it's because of our
system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances. Yet
Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't believe
in that system. NY Times Tuesday May 11, 2004
679. Government: Medicare Contractor Firm Donates to GOP
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A few weeks after the Bush administration
named Medco to be one of the first Medicare drug card providers, a
company executive helped throw a $100,000 fund-raiser for the
president that was headlined by Health and Human Services
Secretary Tommy Thompson. WASHINGTON (AP) -- A few weeks after the
Bush administration named Medco to be one of the first Medicare
drug card providers, a company executive helped throw a $100,000
fund-raiser for the president that was headlined by Health and
Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson. NY Times Monday May 10,
2004
680. Government: Cheney: hypocrite on defense
Give Republican Vice President Dick Cheney the nod for
political hypocrite of the month and hope that the American people
see through his game. On Monday, Cheney attacked Massachusetts
Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' all-but-certain nominee for
president, for his votes against numerous defense programs over
the years. Cheney went so far as to say that Kerry is a political
opportunist who is unfit to lead the nation. The thing is, as
secretary of defense in the first Bush adminis Thursday April 29,
2004
681. Government: A Vision of Power
There's a deep mystery surrounding Dick Cheney's energy task
force, but it's not about what happened back in 2001. Clearly,
energy industry executives dictated the content of a report that
served their interests. The real mystery is why the Bush
administration has engaged in a three-year fight, which reaches
the Supreme Court today, to hide the details of a story whose
broad outline we already know. One possibility is that there is
some kind of incriminating evidence in the task force's records.
Another is that the administration fears that full disclosure will
highlight its chummy relationship with the energy industry. But
there's a third possibility: that the administration is really
taking a stand on principle. And that's what scares me. NY Times
Tuesday April 27, 2004
682. Government: For God's sake
Evangelical lobbyists used to talk about access to previous
Republican administrations. Today, they can say with confidence:
"Who needs access when we are already on the inside?" The
influence of the Christian right on the Bush White House is
self-evident. As well as George Bush, cabinet members Condoleezza
Rice, John Ashcroft and Don Evans all consider themselves to be
born again. This administration has embarked on a bold agenda to
roll back liberalism in the US, and won't let up if it gets a
second term. Guardian Friday April 23, 2004
683. Government: Science Group Says U.S. Budget Plan Would Harm
Research
WASHINGTON, April 22 -- The nation's largest general science
group said Thursday that the Bush administration's proposed budget
for the next five years could cut research financing at 21 of the
24 federal agencies that engage in it. NY Times Friday April 23,
2004
684. Government: U.S. Contractor Fired for Military Coffin Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. contractor and her husband
have been fired after her photograph of 20 flag-draped coffins of
U.S. soldiers going home from Iraq was published in violation of
military rules. Wired Thursday April 22, 2004
685. Government: Pentagon Deleted Rumsfeld Comment
The Pentagon deleted from a public transcript a statement
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made to author Bob Woodward
suggesting that the administration gave Saudi Arabia a two-month
heads-up that President Bush had decided to invade Iraq. At issue
was a passage in Woodward's "Plan of Attack," an account published
this week of Bush's decision making about the war, quoting
Rumsfeld as telling Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador
to Washington, in January 2003 that he could "take that to the
bank" that the invasion would happen. Washington Post Wednesday
April 21, 2004
686. Government: An I.R.S. Promotion for Bush at Tax Time
As the deadline for filing tax returns approached, news
releases from the Internal Revenue Service included a little
something extra, a sentence promoting the administration's tax
policies that said, "America has a choice: It can continue to grow
the economy and create new jobs as the president's policies are
doing, or it can raise taxes on American families and small
businesses, hurting economic recovery and future job creation." NY
Times Tuesday April 20, 2004
687. Government: Bush rejects practical advice, prefers talking
to God
"Did Mr. Bush ask his father for any advice?" I [Bob
Woodward] asked the president about this. And President Bush said,
"Well, no," and then he got defensive about it," says Woodward.
"Then he said something that really struck me. He said of his
father, "He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong
father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength." And then he
said, "There's a higher Father that I appeal to." CBS News
Thursday April 15, 2004
688. Government: Incurious Bush
In her testimony before the Sept. 11 commission on Thursday,
national security adviser Condoleezza Rice gave glimpses of the
inner workings of the Bush White House that were extraordinarily
revealing for this highly secretive administration. Anyone who
listened closely during her three hours on the stand could glean
much about the strengths and weaknesses of this White House, a
place where few outsiders have gained a clue about how it
operates. What emerged was a picture of an organization with great
discipline and a strong belief in orderly structures and
articulated concepts and policies. But it is also a top-down
bureaucracy, with little capacity for hearing variant viewpoints
or testing its theories against the practical wisdom of front-line
operatives. Washington Post Sunday April 11, 2004
689. Government: Bush on vacation 40% of his presidency
This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming
president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch
since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his
78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport,
Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of
his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency.
Washington Post Friday April 09, 2004
690. Government: Critics condemn Bush campaign's use of resources
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Department of the Treasury analyzes
John Kerry's tax proposals, and the numbers quickly find their way
to the Republican National Committee. The Department of Health and
Human Services spends millions on ads promoting President George
W. Bush's prescription drug plan. The House Resources Committee
posts a diatribe against Kerry's "absurd" energy ideas on its Web
site. With friends like these, who needs a re-election campaign?
Columbia Daily Tribune Friday April 09, 2004
691. Government: A Clash on Classified Documents
The Bush administration's uneven decision-making on which
sensitive documents it declassifies has prompted criticism that
the White House is selectively releasing information to justifies
its foreign policy decisions and respond to political pressure.
Before the war, for example, the administration kept classified
the intelligence community's significant dissents to the overall
assessment that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. It later
released those dissents, however, after the CIA was criticized for
failing to accurately assess Iraq's weapons -- a reversal cited by
those who argue such decisions are being based on politics, not
national security. Washington Post Wednesday March 31, 2004
692. Government: Hostile to the environment
ONE OF President Bush's worst nominations for a lifetime
judicial appointment -- and there is plenty of competition in this
category -- is about to come up for a vote in the Senate Judiciary
Committee. As with a number of Bush's nominees, William G. Myers
III has a long record of ideological extremism that raises
questions about his suitability for the federal judiciary. SF
Chronicle Wednesday March 24, 2004
693. Government: The Worst Form of Exploitation
How perfect the irony, how sordid the scam. The president,
who ignored the Al Qaeda threat beforeSept. 11, 2001, who diverted
public attention in that horror's aftermath to the nonexistent
threat from Iraq and who has stonewalled the investigation of
9/11, now seeks to exploit that tragedy as a reelection gimmick.
George W. Bush avoids being photographed with the dead and injured
from his folly in Iraq, but hey, those flag-draped coffins of 9/11
victims make great TV ads. What a grisly low in political
exploitation. LA Times Tuesday March 09, 2004
694. Government: No way to start a probe
BY SHIELDING the financial records of members of the White
House commission investigating U.S. intelligence failures,
President Bush further fuels the public skepticism that forced him
to order the probe in the first place. The commission is supposed
to find out how and why faulty intelligence was gathered and used
to mount a pre-emptive military attack on Iraq. SF Chronicle
Sunday March 07, 2004
695. Government: Secrecy sullies Bush presidency
Some recent events showed how President Bush's silence amid
many pressing questions has only caused suspicion about his
administration to grow. An extreme case is the lawsuit Ellen
Mariani filed under the 1970 Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act against President Bush and other White House
officials. Mariani's retired husband, Neil Mariani, died Sept. 11,
2001, on United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into the World
Trade Center. Kansas City Star Wednesday March 03, 2004
696. Government: Bush Replaces Members of Bioethics Panel
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Friday replaced two
members of a panel that advises him on issues such as cloning and
stem cell research, drawing criticism that he is stacking the
bioethics group with ideologically friendly members. Elizabeth
Blackburn, a cell biologist at the University California San
Francisco and former president of the American Society for Cell
Biology, and William F. May, a medical ethicist and retired
professor at Southern Methodist University, were dismissed from
the President's Council on Bioethics. NY Times Saturday February
28, 2004
697. Government: Cheney's unprecedented power
DICK CHENEY is the most powerful vice president in US
history. Indeed, there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence
that Cheney, not Bush, is the real power at the White House and
Bush the figurehead. The true role of the shadowy Cheney is
finally becoming an issue in the election, and it deserves to be.
A recent piece in The New Yorker by Jane Mayer lays out in
devastating detail how Cheney, while CEO of Halliburton, created
the blueprint for shifting much of the military's support role
from the armed services to private contractors. The leading
contractor, of course, is Halliburton. When Cheney became vice
president, Halliburton was perfectly positioned to make out like a
bandit. Boston Globe Wednesday February 25, 2004
698. Government: U.S. Scientist Tells of Pressure to Lift Bans on
Food Imports
A senior scientist at the Department of Agriculture says its
scientific experts have been pressured by top officials to approve
products for Americans to eat before their safety can be
confirmed. NY Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
699. Government: Uses and Abuses of Science
Although the Bush administration is hardly the first to
politicize science, no administration in recent memory has so
shamelessly distorted scientific findings for policy reasons or
suppressed them when they conflict with political goals. This is
the nub of an indictment delivered last week by more than 60
prominent scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates. Their
statement was accompanied by a report published by the Union of
Concerned Scientists, listing cases where the administration has
manipulated science on environmental and other issues. NY Times
Monday February 23, 2004
700. Government: Bush Puts Conservative on Court, Bypasses
Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Friday he had
installed Alabama Attorney General William Pryor on an Atlanta
appeals court, the second time this year he has bypassed Congress
on a judicial selection. "I am proud to name this leading American
lawyer to the appellate bench," Bush said in a statement. Pryor,
an outspoken foe of abortion rights, was blocked by Democrats when
Bush first nominated him 10 months ago. But the president used a
"recess appointment" -- naming him while Congress was on a
five-day break -- to circumvent Senate approval. Reuters Friday
February 20, 2004
701. Government: Trip With Cheney Puts Ethics Spotlight on Scalia
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney and Supreme Court
Justice Antonin Scalia spent part of last week duck hunting
together at a private camp in southern Louisiana just three weeks
after the court agreed to take up the vice president's appeal in
lawsuits over his handling of the administration's energy task
force. While Scalia and Cheney are avid hunters and longtime
friends, several experts in legal ethics questioned the timing of
their trip and said it raised doubts about Scalia's ability to
judge the case impartially. Yahoo News Saturday January 17, 2004
702. Government: Patriots and Profits
Last week there were major news stories about possible
profiteering by Halliburton and other American contractors in
Iraq. These stories have, inevitably and appropriately, been
pushed temporarily into the background by the news of Saddam's
capture. But the questions remain. In fact, the more you look into
this issue, the more you worry that we have entered a new era of
excess for the military-industrial complex. NY Times Tuesday
December 16, 2003
703. Government: High Payments to Halliburton for Fuel in Iraq
The United States government is paying the Halliburton
Company an average of $2.64 a gallon to import gasoline and other
fuel to Iraq from Kuwait, more than twice what others are paying
to truck in Kuwaiti fuel, government documents show. NY Times
Wednesday December 10, 2003
704. Government: Iraq delays hand Cheney firm $1bn
Halliburton, the engineering group formerly run by US
vice-president Dick Cheney, has been given $1 billion worth of
reconstruction work in Iraq by the US government without having to
compete for it, thanks to repeated delays in opening up a key
contract to competition. The Houston-based company was
controversially awarded a contract to repair Iraq's damaged oil
infrastructure without competition in February. Guardian Sunday
December 07, 2003
705. Government: Money controls politics in a new way
If anyone had lingering doubts about George W. Bush being a
leader, they should be gone by now. He even has the major
Democratic presidential contenders following him. In the 2000
campaign, Bush spurned campaign public financing in order to make
use of the huge amounts his corporate friends were pitching his
way and not be fettered by pesky primary spending limits. No
longer does money control politics in the old-fashioned way, but
in a new, turn-of-the-century way: boldly, shamelessly, proudly.
Bush is now gathering $200 million for his unopposed primary race.
Chicago Sun Times Sunday November 23, 2003
706. Government: Scaring Up Votes
WASHINGTON First came the pre-emptive military policy. Now
comes the pre-emptive campaign strategy. Before the president even
knows his opponent, his first political ad is blanketing Iowa
today. "It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped
into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever
known," Mr. Bush says, in a State of the Union clip. Maureen Dowd,
NY Times Saturday November 22, 2003
707. Government: America is more divided than ever
AT A 1999 fund-raiser, George W. Bush said: "I think it's
important for our party to look at candidates and determine who's
a uniter, not a divider. Who has proven that they know how to
bring people together based upon common consensus?"In 2000, he
said: "I do not believe in pitting one group against another.
There is a trend in this country to put people into boxes. . . . I
see a United States with one big box: American."Three years later,
Americans are sealing themselves away from each other in thicker
boxes than ever -- on war, on race, on religion, on just about
everything. This cannot be a surprise. Bush began his presidency
by having the United States secede from the earth. His
antienvironmental and anti-family planning policies and his
unprovoked invasion of Iraq prove that Americans under his
leadership will do what we want, take what we want, pollute what
we want, and invade whom we want. Boston Globe Wednesday November
12, 2003
708. Government: The Fruits of Secrecy
One of President Bush's first acts was to convene a task
force to produce a national energy strategy. Led by Vice President
Dick Cheney, the group met secretly with hundreds of witnesses. It
heard from few environmentalists, but many lobbyists and
executives from industries whose fortunes would be affected by any
new policies. Despite lawsuits, the White House has refused to
divulge the names of those privileged to get Mr. Cheney's ear. The
results, however, have been plain as day: policies that broadly
favor industry -- including big campaign contributors -- at the
expense of the environment and public health. NY Times Saturday
November 08, 2003
709. Government: Out of the Mainstream, Again
Of the many unworthy judicial nominees President Bush has
put forward, Janice Rogers Brown is among the very worst. As an
archconservative justice on the California Supreme Court, she has
declared war on the mainstream legal values that most Americans
hold dear. And she has let ideology be her guide in deciding
cases. At her confirmation hearing this week, Justice Brown only
ratified her critics' worst fears. Both Republican and Democratic
senators should oppose her confirmation. NY Times Saturday October
25, 2003
710. Government: Bush an "incurious" leader who doesn't read
newspapers
It should have been an embarrassing admission for him and a
flabbergasting one for us: President Bush told Fox News recently
that he only "glanced" at newspaper headlines, rarely reading
stories, and that for his real news hits, he relied on briefings
from acolytes who, he said flippantly, "probably read the news
themselves." He rationalized his indifference by claiming he
needed "objective" information. Even allowing for the president's
contempt for the press, it was a peculiar comment, and it prompted
the New York Times to call him "one of the most incurious men ever
to occupy the White House." Los Angeles Times Sunday October 05,
2003
711. Government: Bush twists and distorts facts to fit policy
A minority staff report issued last month by the House
Government Reform Committee investigating scientific research
found 21 areas in which the administration had "manipulated the
scientific process and distorted or suppressed scientific
findings," including the president's assurance that there were
more than 60 lines for stem-cell research when there were actually
only 11; it concluded that "these actions go far beyond the
typical shifts in policy that occur with a change in the political
party occupying the White House." Los Angeles Times Sunday October
05, 2003
712. Government: Bush favors posting Ten Commandments in public
places
Bush has no problem with the Ten Commandments posted on the
wall of every public place, and has recommended hanging the
standard version, apparently unaware of the differences between
the Ten Commandments of different faiths. Spirit Restoration
Saturday October 04, 2003
713. Government: DOMINATION OF ONE PARTY: Republicans engage in
aggressive gerrymandering
Tom DeLay, who is a leader of anti-environmental forces in
the U. S. Congress, is simply making a power grab to try to shift
the balance of the Texas congressional delegation from a 17-15
Democratic/Republican split to a 20-12 Republican/Democratic
split. DeLay has been quoted in the press as saying ""I'm the
majority leader, and we want more seats," DeLay said. Sierra Club
Thursday September 18, 2003
714. Government: Bush threatens veto of bill to tighten media
ownership rules
Today, the Senate plans to attempt for only the second time
in its history to block a regulation from going into effect, using
the Congressional Review Act. Despite another White House veto
threat, it is expected enact a resolution to repeal new Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) regulations that loosen media
ownership rules. The Hill Tuesday September 16, 2003
715. Government: Bush equates hate crimes with ordinary crimes
Equating hate crimes to other crimes, Bush said, I've always
said all crime is hate crime (Houston Chronicle, 1999-04-5). For
example, Bush believes that the crime of painting swastikas on a
church merits no stiffer punishment than what could be applied
under Texas' current defacement laws. When pushed by NBC's Tim
Russert to make a statement that this is serious, Bush said, "I
think we can [fight against discrimination] without special
treatment of people." NJDC Tuesday September 16, 2003
716. Government: Bush praised racist religious group
Bush praised the Nation of Islam, a group whose leaders have
vilified Jews and Catholics, as a faith based upon some universal
principles that would be eligible to receive federal funding under
his charitable choice program. NJDC Tuesday September 16, 2003
717. Government: Governor Bush argued for prayer at sporting
events, saying football was "sacred"
As Governor, Bush filed a joint brief for appeal before the
Fifth Circuit with Texas Attorney General John Cornyn defending
sectarian, proselytizing prayers before high school football
games. Using the argument that in some areas of Texas, high school
football is sacred to buttress his case, Bush accused defenders of
the separation of church and state of engaging in constitutionally
forbidden viewpoint discrimination (The Forward, 1999-04-2). The
Supreme Court heard the case in March and rejected Governor Bush's
arguments, declaring such prayer unconstitutional. NJDC Tuesday
September 16, 2003
718. Government: Bush dramatically expands federal government
The Bush Administration has brought the era of big
government back, say a Brookings Institution scholar and a growing
number of conservatives dismayed about such growth under the
Republicans' watch. National Center for Policy Analysis Friday
September 12, 2003
719. Government: Bush Wants States to Use Taxes on Theology.
The Bush administration has stepped into the Supreme Court's
next big church and state case, seeking to force some states to
spend tax money on college students' religious education. AP
Wednesday September 10, 2003
720. Government: Bush protects illegal labor practices in Myanmar
The Bush administration argues that permitting the Myanmar
villagers to sue will interfere with American foreign policy,
including the war on terrorism. But this is false. The United
States has no interest in protecting companies that engage in
forced labor or other such abuses. The appeals court should adhere
to decades of legal precedents and reject the Bush
administration's argument. NY Times Friday August 08, 2003
721. Government: Pentagon officials meet with Iranian arms
merchant
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday
that Pentagon officials met secretly with a discredited expatriate
Iranian arms merchant who figured prominently in the Iran-contra
scandal of the mid-1980s, characterizing the contact as an
unexceptional effort to gain possibly useful information.
Washington Post Friday August 08, 2003
722. Government: CDC awards grants to religious institutions even
though their methods are unscientific
Under Bush, the CDC has muddied the line between church and
state by awarding grants to religious institutions, even though
their methods go against recognized science. AJC Sunday August 03,
2003
723. Government: Bush expresses disdain for separation of church
and state
Trying to add a tolerant note to an intolerant policy on
anti-gay marriage, [Bush] allowed that he was mindful that we're
all sinners showing again his disdain for the separation of church
and state. Common Dreams, Sunday August 03, 2003
724. Government: AIDS Programs in Africa and the Global Gag Order
House Republicans included two amendments in this year's $15
billion bill to help stop the spread of AIDS in Africa, which
passed on 2003-05-1. The first provision would require one third
of the money to be used to promote abstinence (a favorite cause of
the religious right). The second would permit religious
organizations that receive program funding to reject AIDS
prevention strategies they find objectionable (such as instruction
in the use of condoms). This action, combined with the "global gag
rule," creates a double standard in the degree of control the U.S.
government seeks to assert over activities and speech that it does
not fund. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
725. Government: All publicity by NGOs in Iraq must be cleared by
USAID Reconstruction Efforts
In May 2003, the U.S. Agency for International Development
awarded $7 million in grants for "critical reconstruction and
development needs" in Iraq. USAID said each grantee must agree to
clear any an all publicity or media-related matters through USAID
and consistently publicize the U.S. government's funding. The head
of USAID said that he would "personally tear up their contracts
and find new partners [for NGOs that do not comply]. [They] are an
arm of the U.S. government." OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
726. Government: Charities that lobby selected for audits
Selected Audits of Charities that Lobby: Several charities
that elected to fall under the IRS "expenditure test" for lobbying
purposes received phones calls regarding tax audits. This raised
concern among some groups as to whether the IRS was targeting
charities that lobby or simply "elected." IRS officials denied
that the audits were targeted to those who elected to lobby under
the expenditure test, but did acknowledge that lobbying was factor
in selecting the groups for audits. The IRS has halted the program
pending a review. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
727. Government: LIMITING NONPROFIT SPEECH: Administration letter
threatens Head Start defenders
Head Start: HHS sent to Head Start programs a letter
containing inaccurate, confusing and vague information about
federal laws governing their right to lobby. The same letter
threatened to issue sanctions for programs that violated the law.
The letter was a ham-handed effort to stop advocacy in opposition
to the President's plan for Head Start reauthorization. A court
chastised HHS and made the agency send a new letter, noting that
federal grantees can lobby with their non-federal funds. OMB Watch
Tuesday July 01, 2003
728. Government: Nonprofits fear wide ranging attacks from Bush
administration
General fears: Many nonprofits with differing perspectives
from those of the Bush administration, such as those working on
reproductive rights and HIV/AIDS, fear the government is taking
actions to silence them. Some talk about targeted audits; others
about being put on a blacklist; others claim they have been told
not to apply for further grants: that the funds will be going to
faith based organizations instead of them. Some believe the
government and others are combing through their websites to find
objectionable words to shut them down. Building off some written
communications from government agencies, some groups feel it does
not matter to government that the "objectionable" activities are
not paid for with federal funds. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
729. Government: Proposal threatens cuts for non profits engaging
in "federal relations"
Parent Centers Serving Families of Children with
Disabilities: A bill to reauthorize the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act contained a provision that would
prohibit nonprofits from receiving grant funds to run parent
centers if the organization engaged in any "federal relations."
While "federal relations" was not defined, the bill also
prohibited lobbying; so it was clear that the intended scope of
prohibitions was broad. This ban would have applied to any board
members, as well as staff that happened to serve as board members
for other organizations, even in their capacity as citizens. After
a firestorm of protest the provision was dropped, but it is clear
that some in the Bush administration and Congress support this
type of proposal. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
730. Government: Stop AIDS scrutinized for workshop material
content
Stop AIDS: The San Francisco-based group has been the
subject of a HHS Inspector General examination and CDC reviews,
all resulting in a clean bill of health. CDC recently sent a
letter to Stop AIDS noting that materials announcing workshops may
be in violation of laws encouraging sexual activity. A panel that
was set up by law to insure that grantees were not encouraging
sexual activity or other impermissible activities, however,
cleared the workshops. Stop AIDS, moreover, notes that no federal
funding is involved with the workshops. Yet CDC claims that is
irrelevant and intends to increase oversight of other HIV/AIDS
grantees. OMB Watch Tuesday July 01, 2003
731. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to choke off
social programs
The transformation of our budget surplus to endless deficits
is part of this strategy instead of having to argue against
specific social programs the right-wingers can now simply say that
they're being realistic and dealing honestly with the real lack of
funds Steven Miller. Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
732. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to limit
taxation on the investing class
Before that, it means finding ways to exempt as much as
possible starting with those aspects that primarily hit the
investing classes; (i.e. the rich). Steven Miller, Common Dreams
Friday June 13, 2003
733. Government: Bush and the radical right ignore large segments
of the world
The most important implication of all this is that large
segments of the domestic and world population are no longer seen
as worth worrying about. On one level, this is just racism and
classism. But there's more than that going on. In the past,
capitalism was optimistic and assumed that it would keep
expanding, which provided the basis for a corporate liberalism;
that saw everyone in the world as a potential consumer and/or
laborer and therefore having some potential worth. But the new
reactionaries see the future as much more of a zero-sum game.
Partly, this is an expression of their incredible greed and
corruption their incessant efforts to rip off wealth for
themselves and their narrow sets of cronies. Steven Miller, Common
Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
734. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to fundamentally
change the role of government
In the Nation a couple weeks ago, this was described as
going back to President McKinley. In other words, stripping
government of all social welfare functions and all economic
regulatory activity. Instead, government would revert to the sole
role of protecting property and sovereignty through the use of its
police/military power. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June
13, 2003
735. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to justify
violent behavior
Acting like a bully also helps create the type of world that
justifies the behavior. In the Middle East, Hamas and Sharon need
each other to legitimize their own violence as the only viable
response to the extremism of the other side. Similarly, by acting
in ways that assume the world is full of terrorists, that allies
are untrustworthy, that security comes from hitting everyone else
before they can hit you, the new imperialists help create the very
conditions they claim to be responding to, which then makes it
necessary to act even more aggressively. Steven Miller, Common
Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
736. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to create a new
world order
Fundamentally change the nature of international relations
from a trilateral; world in which multinational elites
collaborated on creating an investment-friendly world into a
US-dominated new world order; in which narrow nationalist goals
are achieved through unilateral and preemptive use of the US's
military power and everyone else is forced to accommodate
Washington's ability to create facts on the ground. Steven Miller,
Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
737. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to control
opposition by creating a climate of fear
Finally, the current climate of insecurity, fear, and even
paranoia which the government and media are successfully doing
their utmost to deepen and expand plays an important role in
making it hard to opposition to find political space. Steven
Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
738. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to shift
taxation from capital to consumption
Fundamentally shifting the burden of taxation from capital
(including profits and all forms of unearned; income) to
consumption. The eventual goal is to eliminate all capital gains,
inheritance, and corporate taxes, as well as the entire income
tax. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
739. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to privatize
social programs they can't eliminate
Those functions that simply cannot be eliminated will be
privatized as much as possible. Steven Miller, Common Dreams
Friday June 13, 2003
740. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to shift tax
burden to the less affluent
Radical and repeated tax cuts help create deficits
(re-enforcing the first strategic goal). They also make taxation
increasingly regressive, putting ever-larger burdens on working
families and the poor. Since this is happening at the same time
that services provided by government to those groups are being
reduced, it reinforces the traditional anti-tax feeling among the
general population making it easier to push for still more tax
cuts and reinforcing the general anti-government feeling that has
always been part of American culture. Steven Miller, Common Dreams
Friday June 13, 2003
741. Government: Bush and the radical right wrap themselves in
religion
Most important, by wrapping themselves in the mantle of
religion, the GOP leadership has made themselves a vehicle for the
growing religious fundamentalist upsurge parts of which can
accurately be described as a fascist movement. Having god on your
side means you are always right, no matter what other people may
think or how events may fall out. Steven Miller, Common Dreams
Friday June 13, 2003
742. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to stifle
dissent, especially the labor movement
The end result is an authoritarian state whose main function
is repression of all institutionalized (and individual) avenues of
resistance, perhaps even of dissent, particularly the labor
movement. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
743. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to weaken
multnational organizations
This involves the radical transformation or withering away
of many existing multinational organizations and arrangements and
the permanent escalation of US military spending (which helps
support the other two strategic goals). Steven Miller, Common
Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
744. Government: Bush and the radical right seek to stack the
judiciary
The judiciary will be stacked, the legislature will pass the
appropriate laws, and the executive will become more centralized
and autocratic. Steven Miller, Common Dreams Friday June 13, 2003
745. Government: White House accused of political interference in
water controversy
The inspector general at the Interior Department will look
into possible political interference by the White House in
developing water policy in the Klamath River Basin in the
Northwest. Spirit One Monday June 09, 2003
746. Government: Illegal use of federal forces to capture Texas
Democrats
Homeland Security forces were used when Democrats fled the
state to prevent a vote on redistricting. See above. CBS News
Thursday May 15, 2003
747. Government: Bush prefers separation of church and state in
Iraq, but not in America
During a recent interview, Tom Brokaw asked President Bush
about the prospect of an Islamic government in postwar Iraq, a
country with a 60 percent Shiite majority. President Bush replied:
What I would like to see is a government where church and state
are separated. BJCPA Wednesday April 30, 2003
748. Government: Administration officials have close ties to
tobacco companies
Philip Morris has numerous long-standing ties to the Bush
administration. Karl Rove, a senior White House adviser, worked as
a political consultant for the company from 1991 to 1996. OCA
Thursday March 06, 2003
749. Government: Bush sides with tobacco in suit
Mr. Bush has avoided making a definitive statement about the
tobacco suit. But referring to the case in August, he said, I
think we've had enough suits, adding, The lawyers I talk to don't
feel they [the Justice Department] have a case. OCA Thursday March
06, 2003
750. Government: BUSH TIES TO TOBACCO: Tobacco companies
contribute heavily to Bush
Beyond the campaign, industry titan Philip Morris Cos. was
one of the most generous contributors to Mr. Bush's inaugural,
giving $100,000 itself and another $100,000 through its
subsidiary, Kraft Foods. Along with a number of inauguration
tickets, these donations entitled company executives to two tables
at a candlelight supper attended by President Bush and Vice
President Cheney the night before their swearing-in. OCA Thursday
March 06, 2003
751. Government: Healthcare Reveals Real "Conservative" Agenda -
Drown Democracy In A Bathtub
Indeed, in late February a "senior administration official"
presented The New York Times with a masterpiece of obfuscation and
avoidance of responsibility. Speaking of the administration's
plans to push users of Medicare and Medicaid into the hands of
for-profit corporations, this "official" said, "We're looking at
two programs that have worked, that have provided health coverage
to people who need it, and we want to help them work better."
Common Dreams Tuesday February 25, 2003
752. Government: Bush keeps presidential documents secret
At the beginning of November 2001, just before documents
from the Reagan administration were to be released, Bush signed an
Executive Order that effectively denies the public's right of
access to presidential documents by giving an incumbent or former
president veto power over any public release of materials. OMB
Watch Friday October 25, 2002
753. Government: GAO sues executive branch to overcome secrecy
For the first time, the General Accounting Office an arm of
Congress is suing the executive branch, because it cannot get the
basic facts about who participated in what meetings. OMB Watch
Friday October 25, 2002
754. Government: Bush abuses executive privilege
Asserting executive privilege. in December, 2001, in
response to a congressional subpoena, President Bush asserted
executive privilege to withhold giving information to the House
Government Reform Committee regarding documents related to former
Attorney General Janet Reno's decision not to appoint a Special
Counsel to pursue possible campaign finance misdeeds. OMB Watch
Friday October 25, 2002
755. Government: DOD proposal would have criminalized publication
of unclassified documents A
March 2002 Department of Defense proposal that has been
withdrawn would have created the possibility for criminal
sanctions to be brought against individuals publishing
unclassified research. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
756. Government: Memo urges government secrecy
In October 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft released a
guidance memo to agencies on implementing the Freedom of
Information Act. The memo instructed agencies, in essence, to
withhold information whenever possible. This is a fundamental
reversal of past policy, which stressed disclosure where possible.
OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
757. Government: Bush closed immigration hearings and files of
special interest
Beginning in September 2001, the Bush administration closed
all immigration hearings and files of special interest,; which
means that family members and the media no longer know when or if
a hearing is being held. OMB Watch Friday October 25, 2002
758. Government: Bush administration unresponsibe to FOIA
requests Growing delays in responding to FOIA requests. At the end
of
September 2002, the General Accounting Office, the
investigative arm of Congress, announced that the number of
freedom of information requests within the executive branch
agencies have either held even or declined, but the backlog has
increased. In its review of implementation of the Electronic
Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996, GAO found that
agency backlogs of pending requests are substantial and growing
government-wide, and that some agencies are not properly making
information available through their web sites or are making it
difficult to find the information. OMB Watch Wednesday September
25, 2002
759. Government: Providing energy industry exemptions.
in September 2002, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC), issued a draft rule that would restrict access to
previously public information that is now deemed potentially
useful to a person planning an attack on production, generation,
transportation, transmission or distribution of energy. This
Critical Energy Infrastructure Information; (CEII) would suddenly
be made exempt from FOIA and overseen by a critical energy
infrastructure coordinator.; In essence, the proposal allows
industry to categorize its information as CEII so that it will not
be disclosed to the public. FERC argues it can exempt CEII from
disclosure under FOIA as confidential business information since
terrorism causes financial harm. Congress, at the urging of the
Bush administration, is considering Critical Infrastructure
Information; (CII) legislation as part of the bill to create a new
department of homeland security. Voluntarily submitted CII would
be exempt from FOIA, and such information could not be used in
civil action suits or anti-trust actions. OMB Watch Monday
September 16, 2002
760. Government: Republicans use faith-based grant prospects to
woo voters
Republicans are using the prospect of federal grants from
the Bush administration's faith-based initiative to boost support
for GOP candidates, especially among black voters in states and
districts with tight congressional races this fall. Washington
Post Sunday September 15, 2002
761. Government: Rumsfeld creates own intelligence agency
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, in a very quiet
maneuver, has all but gotten Congress to create a new Pentagon
position of undersecretary of defense for intelligence. When the
position is created, Rumsfeld's Pentagon will get to keep key
intelligence assets like the National Security Agency and the
National Reconnaissance Office that were likely to have been taken
from the military and turned over to the CIA. The move illustrates
the growing power of Rumsfeld in Washington: it flies in the face
of recommendations for intelligence reform proposed by a
commission headed by retired Gen. Brent Scowcroft US News and
World Report Thursday August 01, 2002
762. Government: Bush uses fear to manipulate the public
While it may not quite the audacity of Wag the Dog, Bush and
his administration have clearly used fear to manipulate the
public. The Village Voice Monday March 11, 2002
763. Government: Faith groups may be less accountable
Some critics charge that faith-based groups will be less
dependable and less accountable as partners in government-funded
programs. Public Justice Report Friday March 01, 2002
764. Government: Bush blocks arms control proposal to satisfy NRA
The US president, George Bush, is about to spark a
transatlantic row over a UN conference which opens today aiming to
reduce the 500m Kalashnikovs and other small arms contributing to
worldwide carnage. Mr Bush has ordered the US delegation to the
New York conference to block the main proposals because he fears
inflaming the US gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association,
one of the most powerful vested interests in the country. The
Guardian Monday July 09, 2001
765. Government: Ashcroft weakens justice suit against Big
Tobacco
Determined to scuttle a federal lawsuit against Big Tobacco
without publicly acknowledging as much, Attorney General John
Ashcroft has signaled that the Justice Department would like to
settle, out of fear that it might lose at trial. ASH Friday June
22, 2001
766. Government: Charitable Choice violates church-state
separation
The Rev. Eliezer Valentin Castanon, of the church's General
Board of Church and Society, outlined the denomination's position
during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing June 6. Castanon said
the church cannot support the charitable choice provisions of the
Bush plan because they violate church-state separation, subsidize
religious discrimination and threaten the independence of
churches. News.Com Thursday June 14, 2001
767. Government: The vitality of our faith communities will be
hurt
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
768. Government: There's no proof that religious groups will
offer better care than secular providers
Many supporters of Bush's proposal have insisted that
faith-based institutions are better, and far more successful, than
secular service providers. However, little empirical research
supports these claims. Few studies have examined whether religious
ministries are more successful than secular groups in providing
aid or producing better results, and it is unwise to launch a
major federal initiative with so little research in the area.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
769. Government: Religion could be forced on those in need of
assistance
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
770. Government: Some religions will be favored over others
While on the campaign trail, Bush promised that he would
"not discriminate for or against Methodist or Mormons or Muslims
or good people with no faith at all." Then he announced he would
not allow funding of the Nation of Islam, because, as he sees it,
the group "preaches hate." Americans United for Separation of
Church and State Tuesday February 20, 2001
771. Government: Bush's plan opens the door to federal regulation
of religion
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
772. Government: Federally funded employment discrimination is
unfair
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
773. Government: Bush's faith-based' initiative plan violates the
separation of church and state
Americans United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday
February 20, 2001
774. Government: Bush's plan pits faith groups against each other
Since the founding of the nation, all religious groups have
stood equal in the eyes of the law. With a separation between
church and state, government has been neutral on religious issues
and no specific faith tradition received favoritism or support.
The Bush plan, however, calls for competition between religious
groups. For the first time in American history, religious groups
will be asked, indeed encouraged, to battle it out for a piece of
the government pie. Pitting houses of worship against each other
in this fashion is a recipe for divisive conflict. Americans
United for Separation of Church and State Tuesday February 20,
2001
775. Government: Both liberals and conservatives are concerned
about Bush's plan
Controversies surrounding Bush's scheme are not limited to a
"left vs. right" argument. Americans United is part of a broad
coalition of education, religious and civil liberties groups
opposed to Bush's faith-based plan. The coalition includes
organizations such as the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on
Civil Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National
Education Association, the American Counseling Association and the
Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Concerned conservative
leaders have also expressed reservations about the plan. For
example, representatives of the Cato Institute, a conservative
think tank, argued that mixing government and charity is
dangerous. Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Tuesday February 20, 2001
776. Government: Bush apparently believes he was elected national
preacher as well as president
Lynn said. The newly elected president presented himself
today as a determined foe of church-state separation. The
Constitution he swore to uphold simply does not permit the
president to merge religion and government. Common Dreams Saturday
January 20, 2001
777. Government: White House Counselor, Karen Hughes
Dubya's communications director & spokeswoman during
campaign, co-wrote (auto)biography with him, previously Dallas TV
reporter, worked on '84 Reagan campaign in Texas, George II's
campaign for Governor in '94. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
778. Government: US Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick
Most notable for his ardent support of free trade and
globalization, Zoellick, as a State Dept. Undersecretary for
Economic and Agricultural Affairs in the George I years, was a
prime architect and negotiator for the proposals that became NAFTA
and the World Trade Organization. An Assistant Secretary in the
Treasury Dept. under Reagan, he became Deputy Chief of Staff late
in George I's term, moving on during Clinton time to be, among
other things, Senior International Advisor for Goldman Sachs the
notorious international investment firm some suggest is
responsible for widespread Third World economic misery. AlterNet
Tuesday January 16, 2001
779. Government: Senior Advisor and Assistant to President, Karl
Rove
A close friend of George II since the '60s. Worked on his
campaigns for Congress in '78, Governor in '94, and '98. According
to a George II biography, his campaign dirty tricks include
sending out false invitations to political events, falsifying
documents on opponents' stationery, and using false names.
AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
780. Government: Office of Budget & Management, Mitch Daniels
Corporate VP for Eli Lilly & Co. pharmaceuticals for the
last 13 years. The two things he'll be doing in his job is
drafting the national budget and dealing with tax issues; he is
completely without experience in either arena. Served as political
director under Reagan (85-87). Headed right-wing think tank Hudson
Institute. A key player in Quayle's VP campaign. AlterNet Tuesday
January 16, 2001
781. Government: National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice
Spent two years as a mid-level staffer and Soviet expert for
the National Security Council during the '80s, her only federal
experience. Her only expertise is the old Soviet Union. She is an
ardent globalization fan, and is on the board of Chevron Oil, one
of Africa's worst human rights abusers. Chevron recently named an
oil tanker after her. She favors continuing Iraq sanctions, likes
Star Wars, and argues for global domination. She has lots of
opinions, but very little knowledge of contemporary foreign
affairs. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
782. Government: Dept of Housing & Urban Development, Melquiadees
Martinez
George II's thank-you kiss to Florida. His only housing
experience is serving as chairman of Orlando Housing Authority for
two years (84-86). He's very vocal on right-wing Cuban issues; he
has called for a naval blockade of Cuba. A yes-man who has no clue
about housing. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
783. Government: Dept of Interior, Gale Norton Norton
lobbied in DC for a lead paint manufacturer, NL Industries,
which is named as a defendant in lawsuits involving 75 Superfund
and toxic waste sites, plus a dozen suits of children poisoned by
lead paint. Was Colorado's Attorney General from 91-99. Supports
mining and oil and gas exploration and more timber harvesting on
all federal lands. A harsh critic of the Endangered Species Act,
her first job in 1979 was at James Watt's Mountain States Legal
Foundation. Founder and serves on the Advisory Committee for the
Coalition of Republican Environmental Advocates, a pseudo-green
front group funded by energy companies and associations
representing the mining, logging, chemical, and coal industries.
She pushed for Colorado's self-audit law that allows polluting
companies to monitor themselves. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
784. Government: Dept of Justice, John Ashcroft (Atty General)
Opposes abortion, hates gays, supports the death penalty,
opposes a moratorium on executions, wants tougher sentences for
drug crimes, opposes any and all gun control laws. Scuttled the
appointment of Ronnie White (the first African-American on the
Missouri Supreme Court) to a federal district court bench. In a
1998 interiew he lauded the cause of pro-slavery Confederate
secessionists; in 1999, Ashcroft got an honorary degree from Bob
Jones University. Lobbyists reportedly consider him an advocate
for drug companies and the automotive industry, and for preventing
consumers from suing HMOs. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
785. Government: EPA, Christine Todd Whitman
As governor, she cut the New Jersey environmental protection
budget by 30%, relaxed enforcement of pollution regulations,
promoted voluntary compliance by industry, abolished NJ's
environmental prosecutor's office. New Jersey has the highest
number of Superfund sites in the nation. She regularly fought with
the EPA over numerous issues concerning lax compliance with
environmental laws in her state. Whitman has said she doubts that
the giant ozone hole over the North Pole or global warming are
actually serious problems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
786. Government: Dept. of State, Colin Powell
In Vietnam, Powell's casual investigation rejected as false
initial charges of a civilian massacre at My Lai. As a member of
Reagan's national security team, he personally arranged the
illegal transfer of at least 2,000 missiles to Iran. In his
autobiography, Powell claims that he was the chief administration
advocate for the Contras. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
for both the invasion of Panama (and decimation of civilian
neighborhoods) and the Gulf War. Powell has been dismissive of
Gulf War Syndrome, while 184,000 of the 697,000 Gulf War troops
have filed disability claims with the government. Powell has no
experience with diplomatic matters of state. AlterNet Tuesday
January 16, 2001
787. Government: Dept. of Labor, Elaine Chao
A Taiwanese immigrant, Linda Chavez's replacement also has
little experience with unions or industry; she comes from a stint
as President/CEO of United Way, and is a past (91-92) director of
the Peace Corps. A Dept. of Transportation official under Reagan.
Married to Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who is famous for his
strident opposition to any and all campaign finance reform. Her
actual record is indistinguishable from Chavez: she opposed the
Civil Rights Act of 1991, which increased worker rights to sue for
discrimination in the workplace. She's against affirmative action
and has criticized efforts to diversify workplaces. She opposes
the new rules on ergonomics in the workplace and she supports
allowing workers to withhold the portion of their union dues that
would be used for political purposes. She's also likely to oppose
any increases in the minimum wage. AlterNet Tuesday January 16,
2001
788. Government: Dept of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi
Deputy Secretary of V.A. under George I, later ran the
agency under him. He's a decorated vet of Vietnam War. He has also
served as chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Integrated
Systems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
789. Government: Dept of Transportation, Norman Mineta
Currently Commerce Secretary under Clinton. He was a senior
VP at Lockheed Martin Corp. He was a key author of the 1991
Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which devolved
responsibility for transportation down to state and local
governments. Most importantly, he's a big supporter of the
aviation industry (Boeing & Lockheed Martin love him). AlterNet
Tuesday January 16, 2001
790. Government: Dept of Treasury, Paul O'Neill
Was deputy director of Office of Management & Budget under
Ford. Chairman of Alcoa Corp., one of the nation's largest toxic
polluters; O'Neill's shares are worth more than $50 million.
Political policy insider, no Wall Street or economic experience.
Supports balanced federal budget, critic of Federal Reserve
interest rate hikes. Chair of the board of Rand Corp., serves on
other right-wing think tank boards. AlterNet Tuesday January 16,
2001
791. Government: Dept of Commerce, Donald (Donnie) Evans
George II's closest friend and confident. As his
presidential campaign chairman, he raised $100 million. Only
worked for one company in his life: Tom Brown, Inc., an oil and
gas company. Nine years as President and 10 yrs as CEO. No Wall
Street or economic experience at all. AlterNet Tuesday January 16,
2001
792. Government: Dept of Health & Human Services, Tommy Thompson
As governor, imposed Wisconsin's harsh, trendsetting welfare
reform. He opposes abortion, signing legislation that forces WI
women who want abortions to seek counseling first, then wait three
days before surgery. Wants to convert Medicaid to a system of
block grants to states. Wants to restructure Medicare, Social
Security, and Medicaid. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
793. Government: Dept of Energy, Spencer Abraham
In 1999, he was one of a handful of Senators who sponsored a
bill to abolish the DOE. He was a top aide to VP Dan Quayle. He's
a major advocate for auto industry. In 2000, he joined a bid to
open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas
exploration. Strongly favors utility deregulation. No idea how to
manage the DOE's nuclear weapons facilities. AlterNet Tuesday
January 16, 2001
794. Government: Dept of Education, Rod Paige
Former collegiate head football coach. As Houston School
Superintendent, he raised test scores, downsized administration,
moved authority out to individual schools. His key issues are
literacy, school safety, testing. He takes a fence-sitting role on
school vouchers. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
795. Government: Dept of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld
Defense Secretary under Ford ('75-'77), ambassador to NATO
in '72, worked for pharmaceutical companies GD Searle and Gilead
Science Inc. He testified against the chemical weapons convention,
opposed the SALT II arms agreement, and supported the MX and B-1
and B-2 bombers. Past board member of Hoover Institution (right
wing think tank), and is also a member of the Council on Foreign
Relations. A leading proponent of Star Wars and other costly,
hi-tech gadget weaponry, his Rumsfield Commission's inaccurate,
alarmist views of North Korea and Iran gave Clinton the necessary
cover to support National Missile Defense. Opposed the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. He supports surprise! massive
increases in an already bloated military budget. Paranoid about
attacks against US communications satellites and US computer
systems. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
796. Government: Assistant for Economic Affairs, Larry Lindsey
A defender of Reagonomics. Long-time tax-cut advocate who
drafted George II's tax cut plan and his plan to reform Social
Security by creating individual investment accounts. He'll pull
the economic strings. AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
797. Government: Chief of Staff, Andrew Card
Headed General Motors lobbying efforts. Formerly director of
Office of Intergovernmental Affairs under Reagan. He worked on
various campaigns and then as deputy chief of staff and Secretary
of Transportation for George I. He then took $600,000 lobbyist job
as president of American Automobile Manufactures Association. Ran
2000 Republican national convention and Republican role in running
presidential debates. link">AlterNet Tuesday January 16, 2001
798. Government: An analysis of Bush's cabinet and closest
advisors shows the heavy influence of corporate America on
government. Dep
Assistant Secretary of Agriculture under George I (91-92).
Spent seven years in Dept. of Agriculture under Reagan-Bush
(86-92). Ran CA state Agriculture Dept. Served on the board of
Calgene, which researches genetically engineered foods (92-94).
She's pro-GE foods, pro-export, pro-globalization, pro-cutting
(she will oversee the Forest Service), and helped to negotiate
farm portions of the GATT agreement. AlterNet Tuesday January 16,
2001
799. Government: Bush favors teaching Creationism alongside
evolution
Regarding the teaching of creationism alongside evolution as
science in public schools, Bush said, I have absolutely no problem
with children learning different forms of how the world was formed
(Reuters, 1999-11-4). Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker has also said,
He believes both creationism and evolution ought to be taught. He
believes it is a question for states and local school boards to
decide but believes both ought to be taught. ABC News Thursday
November 16, 2000
800. Government: As governor, Bush proclaims Jesus Day, claiming
all religions revere Jesus
Governor Bush proclaimed June 10 as Jesus Day. PBS Friday
September 01, 2000
801. Government: Bush calls off regulators after company
contributes to reelection
Texas Governor George W. Bush's regulators backed off tough
controls of a dietary supplement after lobbyists friendly to Bush
were hired by a leading manufacturer and contributed to his 1998
gubernatorial re-election campaign. Time Sunday May 14, 2000
802. Health: Sickly tactics / A high price for the prescription
drug plan
The news that the Bush administration exonerated itself for
lying to Congress about the true cost of the new Medicare
prescription drug benefit is shocking. It sets a government
standard that is undesirable in a democracy.
The inspector general of the Health and Human Services
Department, and the Justice Department, found nothing illegal in
the aggression with which the White House conned Congress about
the price of the legislation it asked members to pass.
It was even OK, the HHS inspector general said, for the
administration's former Medicare chief, Thomas Scully, to threaten
the job of Medicaid-Medicare actuary Richard S. Foster, who
estimated that the drug benefit, instead of costing the touted
$395 billion over 10 years, would actually price out at $551
billion. Post-Gazette Saturday August 14, 2004
803. Health: Now Bush wants to test every American for mental
illness--including you! And guess who will create the tests?
Next month, President Bush plans to unveil a broad new
mental health plan called the "New Freedom Initiative." Never mind
that it couldn't have less to do with freedom; if you're a
thinking American, this initiative should scare the hell out of
you.
The New Freedom Initiative proposes to screen every
American, including you, for mental illness. To this end, the
president established a New Freedom Commission on Mental Health,
to study the nation's mental health delivery service and make a
report. It's interesting to note that many on the staff appointed
to the Commission have served on the advisory boards of some of
the nation's largest drug companies. Intervention Monday August
09, 2004
804. Health: Blocking Medical Product Suits
It is disheartening that the Bush administration has been
intervening in court to block lawsuits filed by people seeking
compensation from manufacturers for harm allegedly caused by drugs
or medical devices. As described by Robert Pear in last Sunday's
Times, the administration has argued in several cases that
individual consumers have no right to sue for such injuries if the
products have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
If the Bush administration's campaign proves broadly successful,
people injured by drugs or medical devices may be left without
legal recourse, no matter how just their complaints. New York
Times Sunday August 01, 2004
805. Health: Bush's faulty prescription
PRESIDENT BUSH has made no bones about his agenda for a
second term -- he'll be more pro-business, which in
conservative-speak means cutting back taxes, loosening regulations
and fighting lawsuits. But he's not waiting until November, which
may turn out to be a bitter pill for consumers. SF Chronicle
Thursday July 29, 2004
806. Health: Follow the money to fight AIDS in Africa
By all appearances, the Bush administration is finally
providing real money to fight AIDS in Africa. Sure, the $15
billion "PEPFAR" program (President's Emergency Program For AIDS
Relief) is under attack for buying expensive brand name drugs
rather than cheap and equivalent generic drugs.
Moreover, President Bush is criticized for demanding that
PEPFAR AIDS programs focus on abstinence and faithfulness in a
context where such a focus might be ineffective. Nevertheless, the
administration is credited by most critics as having provided an
enormous amount of resources to fight AIDS, said to be more than
double the sum of all other donor support worldwide in 2004.
The untold part of this story is where the money flows are
going. Most of the PEPFAR money actually ends up in U.S. hands
rather than going to Africans or their institutions. Seattle PI
Thursday July 29, 2004
807. Health: Medical intervention / The drug-card fiasco shows
the need for reform
After a flurry of publicity on the inauguration of new drug
cards that were supposed to bring down prices for Americans who
lack coverage for medication prescribed by their doctors, the
truth is emerging even for supporters such as AARP: The Bush drug
plan, in its initial stages at least, is a scam. Post-Gazette
Tuesday July 27, 2004
808. Health: US Spurns Annan's $1 Bln Plea for Global AIDS Fund
BANGKOK (Reuters) - The United States rejected on Wednesday
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plea to inject $1 billion a
year into a global AIDS fund.
"It's not going to happen," U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator
Randall Tobias told a small group of reporters at the 15th
International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. Reuters Wednesday July
14, 2004
809. Health: Experts in Sex Field Say Conservatives Interfere
With Health and Research
For years, Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based
organization devoted to adolescent sexual health, says, it
received government grants without much trouble. Then last year it
was subjected to three federal reviews.
James Wagoner, the president of Advocates for Youth, said
the reviews were prompted by concerns among some members of
Congress that his group was using public funds to lobby against
programs that promoted sexual abstinence before marriage. Although
that was not the case, Mr. Wagoner said, the government officials
made their point.
"For 20 years, it was about health and science, and now we
have a political ideological approach," he said. "Never have we
experienced a climate of intimidation and censorship as we have
today." New York Times Monday July 12, 2004
810. Health: Feds' Wayward Path on Pot
It isn't surprising that the Bush administration clashed
with California over its 1996 voter initiative that approved
medical use of marijuana under remarkably liberal conditions. The
Justice Department raided medical pot farms, arrested medical pot
distributors and threatened to prosecute doctors for recommending
or prescribing marijuana to AIDS and cancer patients and other
chronically ill people.
Today, however, the Justice Department's medical marijuana
war seems increasingly out of step with the whole country. LA
Times Wednesday July 07, 2004
811. Health: Drug Prices Rose After Medicare Law, Group Says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prices for medicines most used by
older Americans rose steadily after the Bush administration
enacted the new Medicare law late last year, the nation's largest
group representing the elderly said on Wednesday.
AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired
Persons, said brand-name drug prices have climbed 3.4 percent --
or three times the rate of inflation -- since December. The jump
was one of the sharpest quarterly spikes since 2000, the report
said.
The findings follow another AARP report this year that
showed prices for drugs used most by the elderly grew 6.9 percent
in 2003. But the increase since President Bush signed the Medicare
bill into law was even sharper, the AARP said on Wednesday.
Reuters Wednesday June 30, 2004
812. Health: AIDS won't wait
ENDING the AIDS scourge will take cooperation, innovation
and billions of dollars. But how committed is President Bush to
these realities since he announced a five-year plan with a $15
billion budget last year?
The record so far shows a religious conservative slowly
bending to science and political pressure. But with 40 million
afflicted worldwide, the epidemic needs bolder action. SF
Chronicle Saturday June 26, 2004
813. Health: Malpractice Myths
The power brokers obsessed with tort reform really have the
jargon down. They travel the country with overheated stories about
runaway juries and jackpot justice. The way they tell it, sinister
lawyers and opportunistic plaintiffs are on the hunt, preying on
virtuous corporations, hospitals and doctors in search of that big
payout from the lawsuit lottery.
President Bush has been complaining about "junk and
frivolous" lawsuits for years. So it's interesting to hear the
following from the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer
advocacy group New York Times Monday June 21, 2004
814. Health: Veggies with that? / Consumers get fried over batter
dipping
Only the absence of common sense would explain labeling
batter-coated french fries a "fresh vegetable." But government and
common sense are not always compatible. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture now defines the popular fast food in that manner as
part of a plan to benefit fruit and vegetable farmers. Given the
way bureaucrats operate, don't be surprised if french fries wind
up in the vegetable column in school lunches, too. Post-Gazette
Monday June 21, 2004
815. Health: Bush Rejects Calls on Stem-Cell Research
WASHINGTON - The White House rejected calls Monday from
Ronald Reagan's family and others to relax President Bush's
restrictions on stem-cell research in pursuit of potential cures
for illnesses. Yahoo News Tuesday June 15, 2004
816. Health: Bush's health care scam
IF THE MESS in Iraq and the high price of oil were not
crowding out other election year issues, health care would top the
list. Premium costs keep increasing, out-of-pocket charges keep
being shifted onto consumers, and the number of uninsured is at an
all-time high. President Bush, speaking Tuesday at a Youngstown,
Ohio, community health center, promised to help more uninsured
Americans obtain affordable health care. But his key proposals are
dubious health policy, waste taxpayer dollars, and are unlikely to
increase coverage. They deserve more attention because they
epitomize Bush's utterly cynical approach to governing. Boston
Globe Thursday May 27, 2004
817. Health: Bush Cuts Children's Health While Rewarding HMOs
During today's trip to Tennessee 1, President Bush will hold
a photo-op at a children's hospital and then attend a
$2,000-per-person fundraiser at the home of a top health insurance
executive 2. The two events provide a perfect display of how the
President has misled America on health care policy: at the same
time that he has tried to slash funding for children's hospitals,
his budget lavishes billions of dollars on health insurance
companies who fund his campaign. Misleader Thursday May 27, 2004
818. Health: U.S. Accused of Weakening Organic Standards
WASHINGTON (AP) -- New government guidelines allowing
limited use of pesticides and antibiotics in organic farming have
provoked a backlash from farmers and consumer groups who say they
devalue the federal organic label. NY Times Tuesday May 25, 2004
819. Health: USDA Allowed Canadian Beef In Despite Ban
The Agriculture Department allowed American meatpackers to
resume imports of ground and other "processed" beef from Canada
last September, just weeks after it publicly reaffirmed its ban on
importing those products because mad cow disease had been found in
Canadian cattle. In the next six months, a total of 33 million
pounds of Canadian processed beef flowed to American consumers
under a series of undisclosed permits the USDA issued to the
meatpackers, permits that remained in effect until a federal judge
intervened in April. Washington Post Thursday May 20, 2004
820. Health: Opposition to Condoms
The Bush administration's enlightenment on AIDS treatment
has not, alas, been matched in AIDS prevention programs. Spurred
by the religious right, the administration and Congress have
fenced off one-third of the nation's international AIDS prevention
funds to be used for abstinence programs starting in 2006, even
though such programs alone are insufficient. The administration is
using pseudoscience to justify its decisions. Randall Tobias, its
AIDS coordinator, has said numerous times that condoms are not
effective at preventing the spread of AIDS in the general
population. He repeated this assertion while testifying in the
House of Representatives in March, citing the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Mr. Tobias is wrong. The dean of
the London School wrote to him to say that the school had never
produced any such report, and that its research shows that condoms
do work. NY Times Tuesday May 18, 2004
821. Health: NRA's Eye Is Fixed on Bush
Just under four months from today, Americans will be able to
walk out of a gun store with an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi or other
weapon of mass murder under their arm. Unless Congress acts -- and
Republican leaders show no inclination to do so -- the 10-year-old
federal assault gun ban will expire Sept. 13. A word from
President Bush would get a renewal before lawmakers, a majority of
whom would probably approve it. But the president is silent. LA
Times Sunday May 16, 2004
822. Health: More Mad Cow Mischief
The federal Department of Agriculture is making it hard for
anyone to feel confident that the nation is adequately protected
against mad cow disease. At a time when the department should be
bending over backward to reassure consumers, it keeps taking
actions that suggest more concern with protecting the financial
interests of the beef industry than with protecting public health.
NY Times Saturday May 08, 2004
823. Health: USDA Rescinds Policy Allowing Sale of Canadian Beef
The Agriculture Department yesterday abruptly rescinded an
unannounced policy shift that allowed the widespread sale of
hamburger and other beef products from Canada. The turnaround came
10 days after a federal judge in Montana upbraided the agency for
disregarding basic regulatory procedures and possibly jeopardizing
public health. Washington Post Thursday May 06, 2004
824. Health: Bush ducking gun ban renewal
This week, the Bush White House had the chance to send a
clear message about howSept. 11 had transformed our politics.
Instead it ducked, preferring pandering to principle. Vice
President Dick Cheney, armed with muscular rhetoric, was
dispatched to woo the zealots of the National Rifle Association.
Cheney looked them in the eye and ducked completely on the issue
of the day: whether the White House will renew the ban on the sale
of assault weapons. Bush has gone AWOL once more. Chicago
Sun-Times Tuesday April 20, 2004
825. Health: U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle for Mad
Cow The Department of Agriculture refused yesterday to allow a
Kansas
December tested positive for mad cow. The company has
complained that the ban is costing it $40,000 a day and forced it
to lay off 50 employees. NY Times Saturday April 10, 2004
826. Health: Soldiers: Army Ignores Illness Complaints
NEW YORK - Six soldiers who have fallen ill since their
return from Iraq (news - web sites) said Friday that the Army
ignored their complaints about uranium poisoning from U.S. weapons
fired during combat. They also said they were denied testing for
the radioactive substance. "We were all healthy when we left home.
Now, I suffer from headaches, fatigue, dizziness, blood in the
urine, unexplained rashes," said Sgt. Jerry Ojeda, 28, who was
stationed south of Baghdad with other National Guard members of
the 442nd Military Police Company. He said symptoms also include
shortness of breath, migraines and nausea. Yahoo News Friday April
09, 2004
827. Health: A 'Flip-Flop' on Patients' Right to Sue?
On Oct. 17, 2000, in a presidential debate against
Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Gov. George W. Bush of Texas
promised a patients' bill of rights like the one in his state,
including a right to sue managed-care companies for wrongfully
refusing to cover needed treatment. "If I'm the president . . .
people will be able to take their HMO insurance company to court,"
Bush said. "That's what I've done in Texas and that's the kind of
leadership style I'll bring to Washington." Today, legislation for
a federal patients' bill of rights is moribund in Congress. And
the Bush administration's Justice Department is asking the Supreme
Court to block lawsuits under the very Texas law Bush touted in
2000. Washington Post Tuesday April 06, 2004
828. Health: U.S. Scientist Tells of Pressure to Lift Bans on
Food Imports
A senior scientist at the Department of Agriculture says its
scientific experts have been pressured by top officials to approve
products for Americans to eat before their safety can be
confirmed. In particular, the scientist said, approval to resume
importing Canadian beef was given last August before a study
confirming that it was safe. Canadian beef was banned after mad
cow disease was found there in May. The scientist's concerns were
echoed by several scientific groups, including the Union of
Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project,
which say the Agriculture Department has pressured scientists to
protect industries or countries favored by the Bush
administration. NY Times Wednesday February 25, 2004
829. Health: Sick State Budgets, Sick Kids
While headlines continue to tell us how great the economy is
doing, states across the U.S. are pulling the plug on desperately
needed health coverage for low-income Americans, including about a
half-million children. Even as the Bush administration continues
its bizarre quest for ever more tax cuts, the states, which by law
have to balance their budgets, are cutting vital social programs
so deeply that tragic consequences are inevitable. The cruel
reality is that Americans at the top are thriving at the expense
of the well-being of those at the bottom and, increasingly, in the
middle. NY Times Friday January 09, 2004
830. Health: Drug firms pull out stops on imports
The Bush administration, doing the bidding of the big drug
corporations, wants to make it next to impossible for U.S.
citizens to buy their drugs in Canada. The Food and Drug
Administration insists that Americans can't be sure the drugs from
Canada are safe, therefore it won't give its OK to state
governments, co-ops and others who would like to save about a
third of the cost of prescription drugs by going through Canadian
pharmaceutical channels. Capitol Times Sunday January 04, 2004
831. Health: USDA PROPOSALS TO PREVENT SPREAD OF MAD COW DISEASE
INADEQUATE TO PROTECT PUBLIC HEALTH
Consumers Union, independent nonprofit publisher of Consumer
Reports, criticized the US Department of Agriculture's (USDA's)
new proposals today to prevent the spread of mad cow disease as
inadequate to protect public health. "These are positive steps,
but they simply don't go far enough," stated Michael Hansen,
Ph.D., Senior Research Associate at Consumers Union. "USDA
Secretary Ann Veneman today failed to make any promises about
increasing the testing of US cattle for mad cow disease."
Consumers Union Tuesday December 30, 2003
832. Health: Top Democrats say Bush policy will weaken HIV
prevention programs
A new Bush administration policy that imposes a new layer of
state or local review on federally funded HIV prevention programs
has drawn a stern rebuke from top congressional Democrats. They
say it could paralyze AIDS prevention initiatives and weaken local
efforts to slow the spread of the deadly AIDS virus, HIV, which
infects at least 40,000 people each year and kills 20,000 others.
USA Today Sunday September 14, 2003
833. Health: Food and Drug Disaster
With gusto, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark
McClellan has promoted, in speeches and press releases, one of his
priorities: increasing the amount of accurate information conveyed
to consumers about FDA-regulated products. "I consider it a public
health hazard when people are misled by false claims," he said
recently. Unfortunately, this rhetoric obscures a pattern of FDA
actions and inaction under his leadership that decrease the amount
of accurate information in the marketplace and, in McClellan's
words, create "public health hazards." Washington Post Tuesday
September 09, 2003
834. Health: Bush's stem cell policy hinders medical progress
An umbrella group that advocates for more scientific
research into technologies such as stem cell research and
therapeutic cloning marked the second anniversary of President
Bush's stem cell research policy in August by issuing a statement
declaring that the policy is hindering medical progress. American
Medical News Monday September 01, 2003
835. Honesty: The Republican War Against Vietnam Veterans
First they attacked a U.S. Navy pilot shot down over North
Vietnam who was imprisoned and tortured for five long years.
Shadowy Republican groups whispered he was mentally unfit to be
President of the United States because he had been a POW in
Vietnam. They said he had a Black baby and was morally unfit to
hold political office. The propaganda was sneaky and relentless,
eventually undermining John McCain's credibility and his bid to be
the Republican Party's presidential nominee. The winner was George
W. Bush.
Then they attacked a man who lost three limbs--two legs and
one arm--on the battlefield in South Vietnam. First in Georgia and
then nationally--highlighted by Ann Coulter, a volcano of hate
toward veterans--they proclaimed that he made no sacrifices for
America and should not be respected. The man lost three limbs in
Vietnam! And Max Cleland lost his Senate seat to a tough
Republican patriot who somehow missed the fighting in Vietnam.
Intervention Monday August 16, 2004
836. Honesty: Old Data, New Credibility Issues
The White House's failure to make it clear that the dramatic
terrorism alert Sunday was based largely on information that
predated the Sept. 11 attacks is a case study in the difficulty of
managing such warnings for an administration whose credibility is
a central issue in a difficult presidential campaign.
At one level, experts yesterday credited the Department of
Homeland Security for narrowly targeting the warning to selected
buildings in three cities, rather than raising the threat level
across the nation. But they said the effort was seriously undercut
by the revelation that much of the surveillance of those buildings
took place three to four years ago. Washington Post Wednesday
August 04, 2004
837. Honesty: Deficit deception
PRESIDENT BUSH is using White House budget projections to
disguise the reality of dismal fiscal news. This year's deficit
will be the largest ever, and his tax cuts are responsible for
much of the red ink.
In releasing the figures last week, the Office of Management
and Budget said the $445 billion deficit expected for this year is
$100 billion less than the projection in February. But many budget
watchers at the time said the figure was too high. Even at $445
billion, the figure is $70 billion worse than last year's and
represents 3.8 percent of the economy, a huge amount during a time
of expansion. Boston Globe Tuesday August 03, 2004
838. Honesty: Can't Bush and Blair See Iraq Is About to Explode?
BAGHDAD, 2 August 2004 ã The war is a fraud. I'm not talking
about the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. Nor the
links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda which didn't exist. Nor
all the other lies upon which we went to war. I'm talking about
the new lies.
For just as, before the war, our governments warned us of
threats that did not exist, now they hide from us the threats that
do exist. Much of Iraq has fallen outside the control of America's
puppet government in Baghdad but we are not told. Hundreds of
attacks are made against US troops every month. But unless an
American dies, we are not told. This month's death toll of Iraqis
in Baghdad alone has now reached 700 ã the worst month since the
invasion ended. But we are not told. Arab News Monday August 02,
2004
839. Honesty: Bush: Safely in Denial
Back in the good ol' days of the Cold War, I returned from a
visit to East Germany and was instantly berated by one of its
diplomats in Washington. He wanted to know how I could have
written that East Berlin was bleak and dismal when everyone knew
that West Berlin was really that way. For years, I've wondered
what happened to that man. Now I think he's the president of the
United States.
When it comes to telling you right to your face that black
is white, maybe no one compares with George W. Bush. Washington
Post Monday July 12, 2004
840. Honesty: George Bush's Crumbling Credibility
The Bush administration?s eroded credibility on matters
relating to terrorism, intelligence, and national security was
further diminished this past week by the US Senate Intelligence
Committee?s report on the ?US Intelligence Community?s Prewar
Intelligence Assessments on Iraq.?
The Senate report provided disturbing additional
confirmation of the 9/11 Commission?s conclusions last month about
the dangers resulting from the distortions and deceptions of
?cherry picked? intelligence. ÝThe New York Times reported that
the 9/11 Commission is nearing a final report that will stand
unanimously by the staff conclusions dismissing the White House
theories of an al Qaeda-Iraq working relationship and any possible
Iraqi involvement in 9/11.
It gets worse.Ý Washington Dispatch Monday July 12, 2004
841. Honesty: Kerry Vows To Restore 'Truth' to Presidency
ALBUQUERQUE, July 10 -- President Bush has governed in a
dishonest fashion, trampling values on every issue except fighting
terrorism and leaving voters "clamoring for restoration of
credibility and trust in the White House again," John F. Kerry and
John Edwards said in an interview. Washington Post Friday July 09,
2004
842. Honesty: Cheney Had No New Data on Saddam, Al Qaeda-Panel
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Sept. 11 commission, which
reported no collaborative links between Iraq and al Qaeda, said on
Tuesday that Vice President Dick Cheney had no more information
than commission investigators to support his later assertions to
the contrary.
The 10-member bipartisan panel investigating the 2001
attacks on New York and Washington said it reached its conclusion
after reviewing available transcripts of Cheney's public remarks
asserting long-standing links between the former Iraqi president
and Osama Bin Laden's Islamist militant network. Reuters Tuesday
July 06, 2004
843. Honesty: Cheney-speak
ONE DAY after the Sept. 11 Commission said that there was
"no collaborative relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda, Vice
President Cheney reasserted on CNBC, "There clearly was a
relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is
overwhelming." CNBC's Gloria Borger asked Cheney, "Do you know
some things that the commission does not know?" Cheney said,
"Probably . . . There are reams of material here. Your show isn't
long enough for me to read all the pieces of it."
The Dick Cheney Show isn't long enough for how many times he
has claimed to possess overwhelming reams of material, yet has not
read one piece of it on the air. Boston Globe Wednesday June 23,
2004
844. Honesty: The loss of credibility
President Bush's credibility sank last week when the
commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
concluded there was no collaborative relationship between Iraq and
al-Qaida.
Bush needs to take decisive action to repair his
administration's credibility, and he should start by dismissing
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and replace him with a
respected and trusted official such as Colin Powell. FW Journal
Gazette Sunday June 20, 2004
845. Honesty: Facts vs. fiction
NOW THAT President Bush and co-president Cheney have backed
themselves into a corner with statements about Iraq and terrorism
that aren't credible, it's interesting to watch them squirm.
Bush has an entertaining habit of confusing assertion with
argument. For example: "The reason I keep insisting that there was
a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and Al Qaeda is because
there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."
The logic here is breath-taking. Boston Globe Sunday June
20, 2004
846. Honesty: Bush Team Tries to Brazen It Out
WASHINGTON -- "The reason I keep insisting that there was a
relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al-Qaeda," U.S. President
George W. Bush told reporters Thursday, is "because there was a
relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda."
This is what logicians call a tautology, or a "useless
repetition," as the dictionary defines it, but it is also an
indication of how the Bush administration is defending itself
against a growing number of scandals and deceptions in which it
finds itself enmeshed. Anti-War Saturday June 19, 2004
847. Honesty: Blind to the Truth
The Bush administration's reaction to the report of the
bipartisan US commission investigating September 11, which has
found no evidence of a substantive relationship between Iraq and
al-Qaida, is a classic case of none being so blind as those who
will not see. "We stand by what was said publicly," said the White
House spokesman, thus endorsing the stream of loose and
contradictory claims made by the president and vice-president as
they have thrashed around to justify the Iraq war. A year ago
George Bush, in his prematurely triumphal aircraft-carrier speech,
asserted that "we've removed an ally [Iraq] of al-Qaida". Common
Dreams Friday June 18, 2004
848. Honesty: The meaning of 'is'/Bush takes lesson from Clinton
Watching the Bush White House defend itself on the issue of
linkage between Iraq and Al-Qaida brings to mind President Bill
Clinton's infamous statement that, "It depends on what the
definition of 'is' is." President Bush and those around him are
parsing the meaning of words with a precision that would do a
lexicographer -- or Clinton, for that matter -- proud.
The fact is that Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and others
in the administration misled the American people big-time about
the Iraq link to Al-Qaida. Star Tribune Friday June 18, 2004
849. Honesty: Cheney blames media for blurring Saddam, 9/11
WASHINGTON - Blaming what he called "lazy" reporters for
blurring the distinction, Vice President Dick Cheney said that
while "overwhelming" evidence shows a past relationship between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida, the Bush administration never accused
Saddam of helping with the Sept. 11 attacks. "We have never been
able to prove that there was a connection there on 9/11," he said
in the CNBC interview that aired on NBC's "Today" show Friday.
MSNBC Friday June 18, 2004
850. Honesty: U.S. Wrongly Reported Drop in World Terrorism in
2003
WASHINGTON, June 10 - The State Department acknowledged
Thursday that it was wrong in reporting that terrorism declined
worldwide last year, a finding the Bush administration had pointed
to as evidence of its success in countering terror. Instead, the
number of incidents and the toll in victims increased sharply, the
department said. Statements by senior administration officials
claiming success were based "on the facts as we had them at the
time; the facts that we had were wrong," Richard A. Boucher, the
State Department spokesman, said. New York Times Friday June 11,
2004
851. Honesty: American fib factory
THE WHITE House's Iraq fib factory went into overdrive last
week, ballyhooing claims that the new "caretaker government" the
UN had supposedly just installed in Baghdad was "fully sovereign"
and "totally independent." We would like to believe American
president George Bush. But this latest claim comes from the same
truth-deficient people who concocted Iraq's imminent threat to
destroy the U.S. with nuclear and germ weapons, Saddam Hussein's
vans and drones of death, Saddam's tryst with Osama bin Laden, and
a slew of other preposterous whoppers that would have made the
Nazis' propagandist, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, blush deep crimson.
Toronto Sun Thursday June 10, 2004
852. Honesty: Bush's false advertising
MANY HAVE dubbed the Bush administration "data averse," in
the sense that its powerful ideology blinds it to the facts. The
Bush political wing also appears hostile to facts that don't fit
its prevailing ideology, to wit: reelecting the president. Bush
campaign advertisements in battleground states have so distorted
John Kerry's record that the voters soon won't be able to know
what to believe. It is time to flag these ads and call the foul.
Boston Globe Wednesday June 02, 2004
853. Honesty: To Tell the Truth
Some news organizations, including The New York Times, are
currently engaged in self-criticism over the run-up to the Iraq
war. They are asking, as they should, why poorly documented claims
of a dire threat received prominent, uncritical coverage, while
contrary evidence was either ignored or played down. But it's not
just Iraq, and it's not just The Times. Many journalists seem to
be having regrets about the broader context in which Iraq coverage
was embedded: a climate in which the press wasn't willing to
report negative information about George Bush. NY Times Friday May
28, 2004
854. Honesty: Hyping Iraq's `terror' threat
Stumbling in Iraq, U.S. President George Bush played the
terror card for all it was worth this week to shore up his sagging
standing with voters. He crammed more than 20 alarmist references
to Al Qaeda, 9/11 and terror into a half-hour speech on Iraq at
the U.S. Army War College. And he stoked fears about Saddam
Hussein loyalists, murderers, fanatics, extremists, criminals and
other enemies. In all, Bush insisted more than 70 times that U.S.
troops are battling fanatical terrorist/enemies, hammering home
the point every half-minute or so in a relentless barrage. Toronto
Star Thursday May 27, 2004
855. Honesty: Five Points of Reality That Bush Overlooked
Dear Mr. President: Your speech Monday night carried
stirring visions of the change you want to bring to Iraq and the
Middle East. What it lacked was more important: a clear
recognition of the ever-widening gap between those uplifting
visions and the explosive conditions produced in Iraq by what has
become a self-defeating U.S. occupation policy. Your words lacked
the minimal dose of honesty a leader owes his nation in times of
crisis. Washington Post Wednesday May 26, 2004
856. Honesty: Tearing the fabric of lies
The latest revelations about the Iraqi prison abuses have
torn the fabric of lies sewn together by the Bush administration
and the opening is shining light on the fact that the scandal's
threads may go all the way up the chain of command to the Pentagon
and the White House. Capital Times Wednesday May 19, 2004
857. Honesty: Protecting the System
THE BUSH administration still seeks to mislead Congress and
the public about the policies that contributed to the criminal
abuse of prisoners in Iraq. Yesterday's smoke screen was provided
by Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence.
Mr. Cambone assured the Senate Armed Services Committee that the
administration's policy had always been to strictly observe the
Geneva Conventions in Iraq; that all procedures for interrogations
in Iraq were sanctioned under the conventions; and that the abuses
of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison were consequently the
isolated acts of individuals. These assertions are contradicted by
International Red Cross and Army investigators, by U.S. generals
overseeing the prisoners, and by Mr. Cambone himself. Washington
Post Wednesday May 12, 2004
858. Honesty: The president as illusionist
FOR A MAN often clumsy with words, George W. Bush proved
himself a master of misdirection during his Tuesday night press
conference. His poll numbers sinking under the weight of war, the
president implied that Iraq was somehow linked to Sept. 11 without
ever actually asserting that. Similarly, without quite saying as
much, Bush also left the distinct impression that the threat from
Saddam had been so serious that he would have invaded Iraq even if
he had known Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction. Most of
that sleight of tongue came in the president's long opening
statement, which was addressed to a prime-time televison audience.
Boston Globe Friday April 16, 2004
859. Honesty: Bush, aides distort terrorism memo
President Bush and his national security adviser are arguing
that "up" is "down." They say the dire warnings they received
about al-Qaida before the Sept. 11 attacks were not warnings at
all. This is obvious nonsense. The administration's claims became
even more ridiculous with the release last weekend of the
top-secret memo -- the President's Daily Brief that Bush received
at his Texas ranch on Aug. 6, 2001. Its title: "Bin Laden
Determined to Strike in U.S." Kansas City Star Tuesday April 13,
2004
860. Honesty: Snares and Delusions
In his Saturday radio address, George Bush described Iraqi
insurgents as a "small faction." Meanwhile, people actually on the
scene described a rebellion with widespread support. Isn't it
amazing? A year after the occupation of Iraq began, Mr. Bush and
his inner circle seem more divorced from reality than ever. Events
should have cured the Bush team of its illusions. After all,
before the invasion Tim Russert asked Dick Cheney about the
possibility that we would be seen as conquerors, not liberators,
and would be faced with "a long, costly and bloody battle." Mr.
Cheney replied, "Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that
way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as
liberators." NY Times Tuesday April 13, 2004
861. Honesty: U.S. Videos, for TV News, Come Under Scrutiny
WASHINGTON, March 14 -- 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." NY Times Monday March
15, 2004
862. Honesty: Official Says He Was Told To Withhold Medicare Data
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. Washington Post
Saturday March 13, 2004
863. Honesty: Exaggerations chip away at credibility of White
House
George Tenet's Senate testimony this week made the CIA
director look like a one-man clean-up crew hurrying after Vice
President Dick Cheney with a broom. Why, just last Monday night
Tenet discovered that Cheney, supposedly the wise man of the
administration on matters of national security, had been
incorrectly opining about Iraq once again. Cheney had overstated
evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaida to a Colorado
newspaper earlier this year. Tenet assured senators on Tuesday
that he would call the vice president to straighten him out.
Kansas CIty Star Thursday March 11, 2004
864. Honesty: Doubts Cast on Efforts to Link Saddam, al-Qaida
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's claim that Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al-Qaida - one of the
administration's central arguments for a pre-emptive war - appears
to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the
administration's claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical
and biological weapons. Nearly a year after U.S. and British
troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify
allegations of Saddam's links with al-Qaida, and several key parts
of the administration's case have either proved false or seem
increasingly doubtful. Common Dreams Wednesday March 03, 2004
865. Honesty: Scientists Accuse White House of Distorting Facts
The Bush administration has deliberately and systematically
distorted scientific fact in the service of policy goals on the
environment, health, biomedical research and nuclear weaponry at
home and abroad, a group of about 60 influential scientists,
including 20 Nobel laureates, said in a statement issued today.
The sweeping charges were later discussed in a conference call
with some of the scientists that was organized by the Union of
Concerned Scientists, an independent organization that focuses on
technical issues and has often taken stands at odds with
administration policy. The organization also issued a 37-page
report today that it said detailed the accusations. NY Times
Wednesday February 18, 2004
866. Honesty: Get Me Rewrite!
Right now America is going through an Orwellian moment. On
both the foreign policy and the fiscal fronts, the Bush
administration is trying to rewrite history, to explain away its
current embarrassments. Let's start with the case of the missing
W.M.D. Do you remember when the C.I.A. was reviled by hawks
because its analysts were reluctant to present a sufficiently
alarming picture of the Iraqi threat? Your memories are no longer
operative. On or about last Saturday, history was revised: see,
it's the C.I.A.'s fault that the threat was overstated. Given its
warnings, the administration had no choice but to invade. NY Times
Friday February 06, 2004
867. Honesty: In a Democracy, Liars Can Never Be Liberators
It takes stunning arrogance for a president to invade an
oil-rich, politically strategic country on the basis of
demonstrable lies, put his favorite companies in control of its
economic future, create a puppet regime to do his bidding and then
claim, as George Bush did last week in a speech, that this is all
a bold exercise in spreading democracy. LA Times Tuesday November
11, 2003
868. Honesty: Master of Fiction
Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president of modern
times -- more powerful than the seasoned Gore under the callow
Clinton or the experienced Poppa Bush under the inexperienced
Reagan. Cheney, in fact, is sometimes referred to as George W.
Bush's brain or, to be even more mocking, his ventriloquist. It
would be fitting, then, for this most powerful of all vice
presidents to be the first in American history to be censured. He
has it coming. Washington Post Tuesday October 28, 2003
869. Honesty: Cheney claimed that Clinton ignored the threat of
terrorism
Cheney is the latest example of administration mendacity. He
repeated the mantra that the nation ignored the terrorism threat
beforeSept. 11. In fact, President Bill Clinton and his
counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, took the threat very
seriously, especially after the bombing of the USS Cole in October
2000. Star Tribune Wednesday September 17, 2003
870. Honesty: Cheney said Mohamed Atta met an Iraqi intelligence
officer in Prague
Cheney also cited a supposed meeting in Prague between
hijacker Mohamed Atta and a senior Iraqi intelligence officer --
but the FBI concluded that Atta was in Florida at the time of the
supposed meeting. The CIA always doubted the story. And according
to a New York Times article on Oct. 21, 2002, Czech President
Vaclav Havel "quietly told the White House he has concluded that
there is no evidence to confirm earlier reports" of such a
meeting. Star Tribune Wednesday September 17, 2003
871. Honesty: Cheney implied that Iraq's "500 tons of uranium"
were a danger
On weapons of mass destruction, Cheney made a number of
statements that were misleading or simply false. For example, he
said the United States knew Iraq had "500 tons of uranium." Well,
yes, and so did the U.N. inspectors. What Cheney didn't say is
that the uranium was low-grade waste from nuclear energy plants,
and could not have been useful for weapons without sophisticated
processing that Iraq was incapable of performing. Star Tribune
Wednesday September 17, 2003
872. Honesty: Cheney lied about Britain's "revalidation" of
Iraq's attempt to acquire uranium
Cheney also said that an investigation by the British had
"revalidated the British claim that Saddam was, in fact, trying to
acquire uranium in Africa -- what was in the State of the Union
speech." The British investigation did nothing of the kind. Star
Tribune Wednesday September 17, 2003
873. Honesty: Cheney said Iraq was the "geographic base" for
those who struck on 9-11
In trying to make that link, Cheney baldly asserted that
Iraq is the "geographic base" for those who struck the United
States on Sept. 11. No, that would be Afghanistan. Star Tribune
Wednesday September 17, 2003
874. Honesty: Cheney said he "didn't know" if Iraq was connected
to 9-11
Cheney said that "we don't know" if there is a connection
between Iraq and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. He's
right only in the sense that "we don't know" if the sun will come
up tomorrow. But all the evidence available says it will -- and
that Iraq was not involved in Sept. 11. Star Tribune Wednesday
September 17, 2003
875. Honesty: Bush claimed support for ethanol plant, then cut
funding for it
At a South Dakota ethanol plant, Bush claimed support for
ethanol as a way to decrease dependence on imported oil, then
submitted his budget, which eliminated funding for that same
plant. Caught on Film Monday September 15, 2003
876. Honesty: Bush expressed his everlasting gratitude to
veterans, then cut their funding
His budget fell $1.5 billion short of needs. Caught on Film
Monday September 15, 2003
877. Honesty: Bush promised to leave no child behind then
promptly did by cutting funds for the program.
Bush said, ?This administration is committed to your effort.
And with the support of Congress, we will continue to work to
provide the resources school need to fund the era of reform.?
Unfortunately, the President?s 2003 budget ? the first education
budget after he signed and touted the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) -Ý proposed to cut NCLB programs by $90 million overall,
leaving these programs more than $7 billion short of what was
authorized under the bill. Bush?s 2004 budget for NCLB is just
1.9% above what he proposed in 2003 - $619 less than needed to
offset inflation. Caught on Film Monday September 15, 2003
878. Honesty: Bush promised increased funding for first
responders, then cut grants
He promised to increase funding for first responders, then
tried to cut $1 billion of existing grants. Later he rejected $150
million in state and local grant requests for first responders.
Caught on Film Monday September 15, 2003
879. Honesty: Bush said he would protect seniors' retirements,
then began to privatize accounts.
On August 7, 2002, Bush said, ?We've got to do more to
protect worker pensions.? Just four months later, Bush?sÝ
TreasuryÝ Department announced plans to propose new rules that
?would allow employers to resume converting traditional pension
plans to new ?cash balance? plans that can lower benefits to
long-serving workers.Ý Such conversions are highly controversial.
Critics contend that they discriminate against older workers in
violation of federal law? [Washington Post, 12/10/02] Caught on
Film Monday September 15, 2003
880. Honesty: At a DC food bank, bush urged people to do more,
then cut funding for Meals on Wheels.
On December 19, 2002, Bush said, ?I hope people around this
country realize that agencies such as this food bank need money.
They need our contributions. Contributions are down. They
shouldn't be down in a time of need. We shouldn't let the enemy
affect us to the point where we become less generous. Our spirit
should never be diminished by what happened on September the 11th,
2001. Quite the contrary. We must stand squarely in the face of
evil by doing some good.? However, the 2003 and 2004 Bush budgets
proposes to freeze the Congregate Nutrition Program, which assists
local soup kitchens and meals on wheels programs. With inflation,
this proposal would mean at least 36,000 seniors would be cut from
meals on wheels and congregate meals programs. Currently, 139,000
seniors are already on waiting lists for home-meal programs. His
2004 budget continues the freeze. Caught on Film Monday September
15, 2003
881. Honesty: Cheney continued to claim Iraq had WMDs long after
the end of war
Months after the war's end, Vice President Dick Cheney, a
leading advocate of the war in Iraq rarely heard in the public
debate, strongly defended his prewar claims that Iraq posed a
chemical, biological and nuclear threat and that it had links to
al-Qaida. Concord Monitor Monday September 15, 2003
882. Honesty: Bush promises health care funding, then cuts budget
by 15%
Bush said he would make sure the health care system would be
funded, then cut the budget for childrens hospitals by 15%. 100
Days of Bush Monday September 15, 2003
883. Honesty: In New Mexico, Bush lauded the efforts of the Even
Start program, then (you guessed it) decreased federal funding
Under the headline ?Bush lauds Albuquerque woman for
volunteerism? the AP reported on Bush?s visit to New Mexico to
tout Lucy Salazar, a volunteer with the Even Start literacy
program. But, according to the Associated Press, Bush proposed ?to
slash funding 20 percent for the Even StartÝ program, which offers
tutoring to preschoolers and literacy and job training for their
parents? ? the very program he was touting in New Mexico. Caught
on Film Monday September 15, 2003
884. Honesty: Bush advocates increased port security, then cuts
funds.
On June 24, 2002, Bush said, ?We're working hard to make
sure your job is easier, that the port is safer. The Customs
Service is working with overseas ports and shippers to improve its
knowledge of container shipments, assessing risk so that we have a
better feel of who we ought to look at, what we ought to worry
about.? However, the President?s 2003 and 2004 budget provides
zero for port security grants. The GOP Congress has provided only
$250 million for port security grants (35% less than authorized).
Additionally, in August, the President vetoed all $39 million for
the Container Security Initiative which he specifically touted.
Caught on Film Monday September 15, 2003
885. Honesty: In Atlanta, Bush sang the praises of a HUD housing
project, then announced that the program was being phased out.
In Atlanta on June 17, 2002, Bush visited a HOPE VI housing
project and announced, "Part of being a secure America is to
encourage homeownership." Six months later, his budget proposed
eliminating that program. Renee Glover, executive director of the
Atlanta Housing Authority said. "We didn't anticipate that HOPE VI
would be eliminated." [AP, 2/5/2003] Caught on Film Monday
September 15, 2003
886. Honesty: Powell claims Iraq failed to dispose of WMDs
"If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of
mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several
months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be
facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the
suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every
country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not
correct." United States Embassy, Tokyo, Japan Monday September 15,
2003
887. Honesty: Clark: "One of our top objectives is to find and
destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites."
No additional data. Irish Anti-war Movement Saturday
September 06, 2003
888. Honesty: Adelman: "I have no doubt we're going to find big
stores of weapons of mass destruction."
No additional data. Star-Telegram Thursday September 04,
2003
889. Honesty: Tommy Franks: "There is no doubt that the regime of
Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction."
And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be
identified, found, along with the people who have produced them
and who guard them. Miami Herald Wednesday September 03, 2003
890. Honesty: Colin Powell: "We know that Saddam Hussein is
determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined
to make
No additional data. The Miami Herald Wednesday September 03,
2003
891. Honesty: Rumsfeld: "We never believed that we'd just tumble
over weapons of mass destruction in that country."
No additional data. Miami Herald Wednesday September 03,
2003
892. Honesty: Bush claimed that Iraq bought aluminum tubes for a
nuclear fuel centrifuge, in spite of strong evidence to the
contrary
The Bush administration said that aluminum tubes Iraq bought
were centrifuge parts, used in concentrating uranium to make
bombs. Gas centrifuge experts consulted by the U.S. government
said repeatedly for more than a year that the aluminum tubes were
not suitable or intended for uranium enrichment. By December 2002,
the experts said new evidence had further undermined the
government's assertion. The Bush administration portrayed the
scientists as a minority and emphasized that the experts did not
describe the centrifuge theory as impossible. Washington Post
Sunday August 10, 2003
893. Honesty: Bush insinuated that Hussein's meetings with
nuclear scientists were about arms
Bush and others often alleged that President Hussein held
numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, but did not
disclose that the known work of the scientists was largely benign.
Iraq's three top gas centrifuge experts, for example, ran a copper
factory, an operation to extract graphite from oil and a
mechanical engineering design center at Rashidiya. Washington Post
Sunday August 10, 2003
894. Honesty: Bush overstated Iraq's nuclear potential
Two senior policy makers, who supported the war, said in
unauthorized interviews that the administration greatly overstated
Iraq's near-term nuclear potential. Washington Post Sunday August
10, 2003
895. Honesty: Even as evidence grew about the benign nature of
the aluminum tubes, Powell continuted to stress the danger.
In the weeks and months following an expert's briefing,
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and others continued to
describe the use of such tubes for rockets as an implausible
hypothesis, even after U.S. analysts collected and photographed in
Iraq a virtually identical tube marked with the logo of the
Medusa's Italian manufacturer and the words, in English, "81mm
rocket." Washington Post Sunday August 10, 2003
896. Honesty: NIE Report of October 2002 cited new construction
at nuclear facilities, suggesting a danger when none existed.
The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of October 2002
cited new construction at facilities once associated with Iraq's
nuclear program, but analysts had no reliable information at the
time about what was happening under the roofs. By February, a
month before the war, U.S. government specialists on the ground in
Iraq had seen for themselves that there were no forbidden
activities at the sites. Washington Post Sunday August 10, 2003
897. Honesty: WHIG group formed to "educate" the public about
Iraq's nuclear danger, including the references to "mushroom
clouds."
The escalation of nuclear rhetoric a year ago, including the
introduction of the term "mushroom cloud" into the debate,
coincided with the formation of a White House Iraq Group, or WHIG,
a task force assigned to "educate the public" about the threat
from Hussein, as a participant put it. Washington Post Sunday
August 10, 2003
898. Honesty: Bush cover Niger-Iraq lie with another lie: it was
a "miscommunication"
Bush claimed that his Niger-Iraq nuclear statement in his
SOTU speech was because of a miscommunication, but he and his
staff made the same statement multiple times before and after the
speech. Washington Post Thursday August 07, 2003
899. Honesty: Bush promised to not pass along problems to future
generations, but deficit does exactly that
SOTU: "We will not pass along our problems to other
Congresses, to other presidents and other generations." The truth,
however, is that Bush's handling of the economy is creating huge
deficits and weakening Social Security, problems that will be
passed to our children. Truthout Friday July 18, 2003
900. Honesty: Some of the so-called evidence against Saddam
Hussein was forged, and not well done at that.
Among the many glaring errors evident in the documents,
which were allegedly produced by an underpaid Nigerien diplomat
and published in La Repubblica, are the use of obsolete
letterheads, incompatible dates and poorly forged signatures. In
one document that supposedly formalizes the sale of uranium to
Iraq, dated October 2000, bears the signature of a man who has not
been Niger's foreign minister since 1989. ABC News Wednesday July
16, 2003
901. Honesty: Bush deletes unflattering wage data from web site
The Bush administration deleted a Labor Department report
from its web site showing the real value of the minimum wage over
time (which would show the workers losing ground under Bush since
there has been no increase since 1997). Slate Friday July 11, 2003
902. Honesty: Labor Dept. stops reporting Mass Layoff statistics
The Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly Mass Layoff
Statistics report was killed by the administration in December
2002 and only noted in a footnote in the final report. Slate
Friday July 11, 2003
903. Honesty: Bush kills study critical of tax cut proposal
The administration deep-sixed a 2003 Treasury Department
study that projected that the equivalent of an immediate and
permanent 66 percent across-the-board income tax increase would be
required to eliminate a projected $44.2 trillion budget deficit
due to Bush's tax cuts. Slate Friday July 11, 2003
904. Honesty: Bush: "I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the
weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons
progr
No additional data. Not in Our Name Monday June 09, 2003
905. Honesty: Bush claims Iraq "expanding and improving"
biological weapons
In his address to the UN, Bush claimed that Iraq was
"expanding and improving facilities that were used for the
production of biological weapons." FindLaw Friday June 06, 2003
906. Honesty: Bush said that Saddam authorized the use of
chemical and biological weapons
In that same radio address, Bush said that "We have sources
that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field
commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the
dictator tells us he does not have." FindLaw Friday June 06, 2003
907. Honesty: Bush claimed Iraq had stockpiled biological and
chemical weapons In an
October 2002 radio address, Bush claimed that "Iraq has
stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the
facilities used to make more of those weapons." FindLaw Friday
June 06, 2003
908. Honesty: Bush said Iraq had some of the most lethal weapons
ever devised
Before he took us to war, Bush addressed the nation and said
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no
doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some
of the most lethal weapons ever devised." FindLaw Friday June 06,
2003
909. Honesty: Wolfowitz admitted that WMDs were the only thing
the administration could agree upon as justification for the Iraq
inva
"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with
the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that
everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as
the core reason," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in a Pentagon
transcript of an interview with Vanity Fair . USA Today Sunday
June 01, 2003
910. Honesty: Ari Fliescher "We know for a fact that there are
weapons there."
No additional data. Sunday Business Post Sunday June 01,
2003
911. Honesty: Ari Fliescher said that Saddam was misleading the
world by arms declaration
If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam
Hussein is once again misleading the world. Sunday Business Post
Sunday June 01, 2003
912. Honesty: Wolfowitz: "For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on
one issue, weapons of mass destruction"
(as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one
reason everyone could agree on. United States Department of
Defense Wednesday May 28, 2003
913. Honesty: Powell: "I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons
of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming."
We're just getting it just now. CBS News Sunday May 04, 2003
914. Honesty: Bush claims Patriot Act responsible for terrorism
arrests
Last week, Bush made two speeches about the Patriot Act, one
in New York City, one in Buffalo. The Buffalo speech focused on
how the Lackawanna Six, young American citizens of Yemeni descent
who never engaged in one act of terrorism but made the dumb
mistake of going to Afghanistan (and returning) to study Islam
before September 11, are serving long prison terms because of the
Patriot Act and the prosecutors who used it to nab the bad guys
before they could hurt us. Nothing could be further from the
truth. The Patriot Act itself cannot be tied to any terrorism
"convictions" (mostly guilty pleas) other than the fact that it
defines "terrorism" so broadly that my writing this article equals
a terrorist act. Ergo, traveling to a "terrorist" country before
September 11 makes you a terrorist. Counterpunch Saturday April
26, 2003
915. Honesty: President claims "sneak and peek" laws weren't
available prior to Patriot act
The President: "Thirdly, to give you an example of what
we're talking about, there's something called delayed-notification
search warrants. ... We couldn't use these against terrorists
[before the Patriot Act], but we could use against gangs." The
Truth: Delayed-notification - or so-called sneak-and-peek search
warrants - were never limited to gangs. The circuit courts that
had authorized them in limited circumstances prior to the Patriot
Act did not limit the warrants to the investigation of gangs. In
fact, terrorism or espionage investigators did not necessarily
have to go through the criminal courts for a covert search - they
could do so with even fewer safeguards against abuse by going to a
top secret foreign intelligence court in Washington. For criminal
sneak-and-peek warrants, the Patriot Act added a catch-all
argument for prosecutors - if notice would delay prosecution or
jeopardize an investigation - which makes these secret search
warrants much easier to obtain. The president's sneak-and-peek
misstatement clearly demonstrates that the Patriot Act is not
limited to terrorism. In fact, many of the law's expanded
authorities can clearly be used outside the war on terrorism.
Counterpunch Saturday April 26, 2003
916. Honesty: President claims roving weiretaps weren't available
for "chasing down terrorists"
The President: "And that changed, the law changed on- roving
wiretaps were available for chasing down drug lords. They weren't
available for chasing down terrorists, see?" The Truth: Roving
wiretaps were available prior to 9/11 against drug lords and
terrorists. Prior to the law, the FBI could get a roving wiretap
against both when it had probable cause of crime for a wiretap
eligible offense. What the Patriot Act did is make roving wiretaps
available in intelligence investigations supervised by the secret
intelligence court without the judicial safeguards of the criminal
wiretap statute. Counterpunch Saturday April 26, 2003
917. Honesty: President claims Patriot Act gives judges greater
authority to deny bail
The President: "Judges need greater authority to deny bail
to terrorists." The Truth: The new presumptive detention that the
president is proposing takes judicial authority away from the bail
process. The presumption would take away the prosecution's burden
of showing that the accused is a danger or flight risk and instead
puts it on the accused. Counterpunch Saturday April 26, 2003
918. Honesty: President claims Patriot act set to expire "next
year" The President: "By the way, the reason I bring up the
Patriot Ac
The Truth: Less that 10 percent of the Patriot Act expires;
most of the law is permanent and those portions that do sunset
will not do so until 2005-12-31. Counterpunch Saturday April 26,
2003
919. Honesty: President claims CIA and FBI "couldn't talk"
because of the law
The President: "... see, I'm not a lawyer, so it's kind of
hard for me to kind of get bogged down in the law. (Applause). I'm
not going to play like one, either. (Laughter.) The way I viewed
it, if I can just put it in simple terms, is that one part of the
FBI couldn't tell the other part of the FBI vital information
because of the law. And the CIA and the FBI couldn't talk." The
Truth: The CIA and the FBI could talk and did. As Janet Reno wrote
in prepared testimony before the 9/11 commission, "There are
simply no walls or restrictions on sharing the vast majority of
counterterrorism information. There are no legal restrictions at
all on the ability of the members of the intelligence community to
share intelligence information with each other. "With respect to
sharing between intelligence investigators and criminal
investigators, information learned as a result of a physical
surveillance or from a confidential informant can be legally
shared without restriction.
"While there were restrictions placed on information
gathered by criminal investigators as a result of grand jury
investigations or Title III wire taps, in practice they did not
prove to be a serious impediment since there was very little
significant information that could not be shared." Counterpunch
Saturday April 26, 2003
920. Honesty: Ari: "But make no mistake -- as I said earlier --
we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass
destruction."
That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have
high confidence it will be found. The Straits Times Wednesday
April 16, 2003
921. Honesty: Kagan: "Obviously the administration intends to
publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find --
and t
No additional data. Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace Tuesday April 08, 2003
922. Honesty: Rumsfeld said that he knew where the weapons of
mass destruction were
"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit
and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." US
Department of Defense Sunday March 30, 2003
923. Honesty: Rumsfeld claims coalition larger than in 1991 Gulf
War
Secretary Rumsfeld proclaimed the war coalition against Iraq
was larger than the coalition that existed during the Gulf War in
1991. Washington Post Friday March 21, 2003
924. Honesty: Bush delayed release of Korean nuclear program
report until after Iraq war vote
The Left is fond of pointing out that the Bush
administration knew last September that North Korea has been
building a light-water nuclear reactor, financed by South Korea
and Japan. When the Bush administration found out about the
reactor in September, it informed a bipartisan group of
Congressional leaders. The administration did not further
publicize the fact that North Korea had admitted it had a nuclear
weapons program until three weeks later, after Congress had voted
to authorize force against Iraq. Intellectual Conservative
Saturday March 15, 2003
925. Honesty: Bush claimed Iraq's WMDs threatened the US
The Bush administration said that Iraq had the capability to
deliver weapons of mass destruction, even as far as the United
States. efn Monday March 10, 2003
926. Honesty: Bush claims capture of key commander of Al Qaeda,
but most still at large
Bush, in his State of the Union Speech (SOTU) said: "To date
we have arrested or otherwise dealt with many key commanders of Al
Qaeda." Most are clearly still at large. Buzz Flash Wednesday
February 05, 2003
927. Honesty: Bush claimed to place high value on education in
New York, then cut funding for training programs.
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney Press Release Tuesday February
04, 2003
928. Honesty: White House removes poor job forecast from web site
A Council of Economic Advisors' forecast showing that the
Bush stimulus plan would only create 170,000 jobs per year and
would be a job killer after 2007 was removed from its website. Our
Future Saturday February 01, 2003
929. Honesty: Bush claimed to be fiscally responsible, then gave
away the store in the form of a $300 billion tax cut.
That was followed by even more cuts. Citizens for Tax
Justice Thursday January 30, 2003
930. Honesty: Bush claimed to allocate funds for bioshield
program, but did not
SOTU: Bush asked Congress to add to our security with a
major research and production effort to guard our people against
bio-terrorist, call Project Bioshield: " The budget I will send
will propose almost $6 billion to quickly make available effective
vaccines and treatments." Bush included no increase in the NIH
funding. The Olympian Thursday January 30, 2003
931. Honesty: Bush touts Soviet Union WMD program, but he cut its
funding
In his State of the Union speech, Bush delcared: " We're
working with other governments to secure nuclear materials in the
former Soviet Union, and to strengthen global treaties banning the
production and shipment of missile technologies and weapons of
mass destruction."
The Truth: The Bush Administration has actually blocked
efforts to strengthen international treaties preventing the spread
of biological and chemical weapons and successfully instigated and
led an effort to remove the highly-effective director of an
international program overseeing the destruction of chemical
weapons stockpiles around the world. In addition, the Bush
Administration has cut funding for programs to remove nuclear
materials from the former Soviet Union and rejected a proposed
treaty by Russia that would have destroyed thousands of nuclear
weapons, insisting that they instead simply be put into storage.
Finally, the Bush Administration has rejected calls for a
nuclear-free zone for all the Middle East. Common Dreams Wednesday
January 29, 2003
932. Honesty: Bush mischaracterizes AA program at U of Michigan
Bush claimed, falsely, that the Affirmative Action program
at the University of Michigan was a quota system. The Affirmative
Action and Diversity Project Friday January 24, 2003
933. Honesty: Bush claims earlier start to 2001 recession
In his December 28th radio address, Bush claimed that the
recession began before he took office. But the economy was still
growing at the end of 2000. The recession began during the first
year of the Bush administration. Slate Monday December 30, 2002
934. Honesty: EPA assessment conceals better plan
An EPA assessment of Bush's Clear Skies plan concealed the
fact that a proposal by Senator Carper (D-Del.) would provide
greater long term benefits at only slightly higher costs.
4CleanAir Thursday August 08, 2002
935. Honesty: Bush claimed the Kenneth Lay of ENRON fame,
supported his opponent in Texas, despite Lay's gift of $37,000 to
Bush.
Houston Chronicle Friday January 11, 2002
936. Iraq: The withdrawal of foreign troops is the only solution
Most legends contain a small grain of truth, but none is to
be found in the fraudulent images being presented each day by the
BBC (and the US networks). The print media is not much better.
Official propaganda is constantly repeated in sentences such as:
"On June 28 the United States and its coalition partners
transferred sovereign control of Iraq to an interim government
headed by prime minister Ayad Allawi. The transfer of sovereignty
ended more than a year of American-led occupation".
Meanwhile, US intelligence agencies admit that the size of
the resistance increases every day. If Moqtada al-Sadr were to be
captured or killed in the fighting taking place in Najaf, the
steady trickle of recruits could become a flood. In such a
situation and with no official opposition to the occupation in the
Commons it should be the responsibility of the media to ensure
that some truth, at least, is regularly reported. Guardian
Thursday August 12, 2004
937. Iraq: What About Iraq?
A funny thing happened after the United States transferred
sovereignty over Iraq. On the ground, things didn't change, except
for the worse.
But as Matthew Yglesias of The American Prospect puts it,
the cosmetic change in regime had the effect of "Afghanizing" the
media coverage of Iraq.
He's referring to the way news coverage of Afghanistan
dropped off sharply after the initial military defeat of the
Taliban. A nation we had gone to war to liberate and had promised
to secure and rebuild - a promise largely broken - once again
became a small, faraway country of which we knew nothing.
Incredibly, the same thing happened to Iraq after June 28.
Iraq stories moved to the inside pages of newspapers, and largely
off TV screens. Many people got the impression that things had
improved. Even journalists were taken in: a number of newspaper
stories asserted that the rate of U.S. losses there fell after the
handoff. (Actual figures: 42 American soldiers died in June, and
54 in July.) New York Times Friday August 06, 2004
938. Iraq: The Hand-Over That Wasn't
Officially, the U.S. occupation of Iraq ended on June 28,
2004. But in reality, the United States is still in charge: Not
only do 138,000 troops remain to control the streets, but the "100
Orders" of L. Paul Bremer III remain to control the economy.
These little noticed orders enacted by Bremer, the
now-departed head of the now-defunct Coalition Provisional
Authority, go to the heart of Bush administration plans in Iraq.
They lock in sweeping advantages to American firms, ensuring
long-term U.S. economic advantage while guaranteeing few, if any,
benefits to the Iraqi people. LA Times Thursday August 05, 2004
939. Iraq: Accounting and Accountability
Accountability is important. The nation will be ill served
if officials who didn't do all they could to prevent a terrorist
attack, or led the nation into an unnecessary war, manage to shift
the blame to someone else.
But those weren't the only big mistakes of the last few
years. Will anyone be held accountable for the mishandling of
postwar Iraq?
Last month we learned that the United States, while it has
spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no
aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by
Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed.
Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional
Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi
sources, mainly oil revenues. This revelation helps explain one
puzzle: the sluggish pace of reconstruction, which has yet to
restore many essential services to prewar levels.
But it creates another puzzle: given that the authority was
spending Iraq's money, why wasn't it more careful in its
accounting? New York Times Friday July 23, 2004
940. Iraq: U.S. Won't Turn Over Data for Iraq Audits
UNITED NATIONS, July 15 -- The Bush administration is
withholding information from U.N.-sanctioned auditors examining
more than $1 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. and
other companies in Iraq without competitive bidding, the head of
the international auditing board said Thursday.
Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, the U.N. representative to the
International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB), said that the
United States has repeatedly rebuffed his requests since March to
turn over internal audits, including one that covered three
contracts valued at $1.4 billion that were awarded to Halliburton,
a Texas-based oil services firm. It has also failed to produced a
list of other companies that have obtained contracts without
having to compete. Washington Post Friday July 16, 2004
941. Iraq: The Real Enemy Staring Us in the Face
Justin Hunt, a young man from Wildomar, Calif., about 75
miles east of Los Angeles, was determined to join the Marines.
When recruiters pointed out that he was grossly overweight, he
spent a year losing more than 150 pounds. Then he signed up and
was promptly sent to Iraq, where he was killed last Tuesday in an
explosion. He was 22.
Three American soldiers, not yet publicly identified, were
killed yesterday in two separate attacks on military patrols north
of Baghdad. On Saturday four marines were killed in a vehicle
accident near Falluja. And five more American soldiers were killed
Thursday in a mortar attack on a base in the Sunni-dominated city
of Samarra.
For what? New York Times Monday July 12, 2004
942. Iraq: Pentagon Deputy's Probes in Iraq Weren't Authorized,
Officials Say
WASHINGTON -- A senior Defense Department official conducted
unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts and
used their results to push for lucrative contracts for friends and
their business clients, according to current and former Pentagon
officials and documents.
John A. "Jack" Shaw, deputy undersecretary for international
technology security, represented himself as an agent of the
Pentagon's inspector general in conducting the investigations,
sources said.
In one case, Shaw disguised himself as an employee of
Halliburton Co. and gained access to a port in southern Iraq after
he was denied entry by the U.S. military, the sources said. LA
Times Wednesday July 07, 2004
943. Iraq: Iraq Announces New Security Law Amid Bloody Clashes
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's interim government announced a
new security law giving itself wider counter-insurgency powers on
Wednesday as gunmen battled U.S. troops and Iraqi forces in the
heart of Baghdad.
Almost within earshot of the clashes, Justice Minister Malek
al-Hassan told a news conference the widely anticipated National
Safety Law enabled the government to impose emergency measures
such as curfews, searches and detentions in defined areas for
periods of up to 60 days.
"We are aware that it could curb some freedoms," Hassan
said. Reuters Wednesday July 07, 2004
944. Iraq: Iraq: A Failure Without Borders
How are the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan going? Perhaps the
best way to answer that question is to look at what is happening
in Saudi Arabia. Until about a year ago, Saudi Arabia was one of
the safest countries on earth. Crime was rare, and everyone,
including Americans, was secure almost anywhere in the kingdom. In
a world where the most important distinction will increasingly be
that between centers of order and centers of disorder, Saudi
Arabia was a center of order.
That is no longer true. Anti-war Saturday July 03, 2004
945. Labor Relations: New Reports Attack Bush's Overtime Rules
WASHINGTON - Disputing Bush administration estimates, a
labor-backed think tank said Wednesday that new federal rules will
remove overtime protections for at least 6 million U.S. workers.
The study by the Economic Policy Institute was released a
day after three former Labor Department officials said in a report
requested by the AFL-CIO that "large numbers" of employees
entitled to overtime would no longer get it when the new rules
take effect Aug. 23. Yahoo News Wednesday July 14, 2004
946. Labor Relations: Bush report: Sending jobs overseas helps
U.S.
WASHINGTON -- The movement of American factory jobs and
white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive
transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even
if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush
administration said yesterday. The embrace of foreign
"outsourcing," an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S.
job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004
elections, is contained in the president's annual report to
Congress on the U.S. economy. Seattle Times Tuesday February 10,
2004
947. Labor Relations: Labor Dept. Offers Tips on Avoiding OT Pay
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A proposed Labor Department rule suggests
ways employers can avoid paying overtime to some of the 1.3
million low-income workers who would become eligible this year.
The department's advice comes even as it touts the $895 million in
increased wages that it says those workers would be guaranteed
from the reforms. Among the options for employers: cut workers'
hourly wages and add the overtime to equal the original salary, or
raise salaries to the new $22,100 annual threshold, making them
ineligible. AP Monday January 05, 2004
948. Labor Relations: George W. Bush's protectionist moves
Like any self-respecting Republican, U.S. President George
W. Bush believes passionately in the principles of free trade.
Given the opportunity, he can speak forcefully and at length about
the benefits of fair international competition, open markets,
lower tariffs and import duties, and the spread of liberal
economic values around the globe. If only Mr. Bush matched deeds
to words. Boston Globe Tuesday November 25, 2003
949. Labor Relations: Free Trade, a la Carte
It was a good week for protectionists in Brazil and for
subsidized American farmers. The outcome of this week's
hemispheric trade gathering in Miami suggests that both will
continue to be shielded from full competition in a global market.
It also means the ambitious effort to create a mammoth free trade
area throughout North and South America by 2005, begun with such
fanfare nine years ago, runs the risk of being downsized to a
point of near irrelevance. The Bush administration's disturbing
pattern of defensively siding with the most obstructionist party
at these international negotiations mirrors its domestic strategy
of trying to placate narrow protectionist special interests, be
they steel makers, cotton farmers or the textile lobby. Both at
home and abroad, this approach is a recipe for disaster. NY Times
Saturday November 22, 2003
950. Labor Relations: White House Wins Fight on OT Rule Changes
Critics of the new rules said they could lead to 8 million
Americans losing eligibility for overtime pay, largely
white-collar workers earning more than $65,000 a year.
Administration officials say more than 644,000 such employees
would lose the time-and-a-half pay now required when they work
more than 40 hours in a week. AP Friday November 21, 2003
951. Labor Relations: Aiming at Chinese Imports
Again On Tuesday, the Bush administration announced that it
would restore curbs on imports of Chinese knit fabrics, dressing
gowns and bras. Under the terms of the agreement China signed to
join the World Trade Organization, Washington is entitled to stem
any surge of imports from China, without needing to allege any
wrongdoing. But the case against Beijing looks flimsy. China
simply appears to be the current scapegoat of choice in Washington
for any and all economic woes. NY Times Thursday November 20, 2003
952. Labor Relations: Steel tariffs/Bush should heed the WTO
President Bush made a mistake when he imposed tariffs on
imported steel early last year: He violated international trade
rules and his own free-trade principles. Now the World Trade
Organization (WTO) has concurred -- not once, but twice -- and the
president should lift the tariffs. Star Tribune Thursday November
13, 2003
953. Labor Relations: Bush illegally used procurement regulations
to supersede labor law
In a decision dated Jan. 2, Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. of
Federal Disrict Court in Washington ruled that Mr. Bush had
illegally used federal procurement regulations to supersede
federal labor laws. Steamfitters, Pipefitters & Apprentices Local
Union No. Steamfitters, Pipefitters & Apprentices Local Union
No.475 Sunday October 05, 2003
954. Labor Relations: Bush nominates anti-ergonomics Scalia for
Solicitor of Labor Dept.
Just a few months after Bush and his allies in Congress
overturned the ergonomics job safety rule in March, the president
nominated Eugene Scalia to be solicitor of the Department of
Labor, its top attorney. Prior to his nomination Scalia helped
lead Big Business's charge against the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration's ergonomics workplace rule while working as
a lawyer for a Washington, D.C., corporate law firm. His clients
included UPS, Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc. and the National
Coalition on Ergonomics, a coalition of corporations and business
groups. Steamfitters, Pipefitters & Apprentices Local Union No.475
Sunday October 05, 2003
955. Labor Relations: Canceled OSHA grants for 19 workplace
health and safety programs
The Bush administration's Department of Labor revoked
previously approved federal grants for safety and health training
programs for immigrant workers, small business employers and
employees and workers in high-risk jobs such as construction. The
unions, universities and labor management groups that had been
awarded the 19 grants totaling $4.8 million in January were told
in a March 29 letter from the Labor Department that "because of
budgetary circumstances and an evaluation of the financial
projections for this program, the long-term grant you had applied
for cannot be funded." Steamfitters, Pipefitters & Apprentices
Local Union No. 475 Sunday October 05, 2003
956. Labor Relations: Bush asked Fire Fighters member to resign
from valor commission because of union affiliation
When the Bush White House asked Prince Georges County, Md.,
Fire Fighters Local 1619 President Thomas McEachin to resign his
appointment to its Medal of Valor Commission--a group that
recognizes firefighters and other public safety officers for
service above and beyond the call of duty--because of his IAFF
affiliation, he refused. So this October the administration simply
removed him. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
957. Labor Relations: Bush bands labor agreements on construction
projects
One of Bush's first actions when he took office was to issue
an executive order banning the use of project labor agreements on
all federally funded construction projects. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
958. Labor Relations: Bush announced plans to intervene a second
time in airline contract negotiations
Bush, on June 25, announced he would appoint again a
Presidential Emergency Board to deny airline workers their right
to strike, thwarting the collective bargaining process for a
second time during his brief period in office. The 23,000 flight
attendants at American Airlines, members of an unaffiliated union,
have worked without a contract for two-and-a-half years. AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
959. Labor Relations: Bush blocked responsible contractor
regulation
Using a little-known federal procedure called a "deviation,"
the administration blocked a new regulation requiring that
taxpayer-funded projects be awarded to responsible companies, not
chronic lawbreakers. It required agencies to take into account a
company's record of complying with the law--including laws
designed to protect workers, the public and the
environment--before awarding contracts. The responsible contractor
rule had been opposed vehemently by business groups, several of
which filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of
Columbia attempting to block its Jan. 19 implementation. AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
960. Labor Relations: Backs employer efforts to use taxpayer
money for anti-union campaigns
The Bush administration's National Labor Relations Board
(NLRB) is helping Big Business fight a California law that
mandates accountability for the way state dollars are spent and
requires state neutrality in worker organizing campaigns by
banning the expenditure of state monies--pro-union or
anti-union--in such campaigns. In 2000, the California legislature
passed and Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed AB 1889, which prohibits
employers from using taxpayer dollars to pay for employer-run
campaigns to influence workers in their efforts to form or join a
union. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
961. Labor Relations: Bush banned mechanics at United Airlines
from exercising their right to strike
Bush, on Dec. 20, appointed a Presidential Emergency Board,
which bars any job action by United Airlines' 15,000 mechanics,
who are members of the Machinists, for 60 days. The workers have
been bargaining for more than two years to recoup some of the wage
concessions they made in 1994 to help save the company from
bankruptcy. The United mechanics are working under 1994 wage
rates. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
962. Labor Relations: Bush banned mechanics at Northwest Airlines
from exercising their right to strike
for a fair contract. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
963. Labor Relations: Bush called for "paycheck deception" to
silence working families as part of campaign finance reform In a
March 15 letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.), Bush outlined his campaign finance reform principles.
Chief amongst them is "paycheck deception," which would silence
the voice of working families in politics and legislation by
making it very difficult, if not impossible, for working people to
participate in the political process through their unions. Also,
while most reformers seek ways to reduce the influence of wealthy
contributors, Bush's principles include raising the limits on what
individuals can contribute to campaigns. AFL-CIO Monday September
15, 2003
964. Labor Relations: Bush bypassed Congress to appoint labor
solicitor opposed to worker safety measures
Acting while Congress was in recess and bypassing the Senate
confirmation process, President Bush appointed Eugene Scalia as
the U.S. Labor Department solicitor or chief attorney. Scalia
faced considerable opposition in the Senate because of his extreme
views. He has written that ergonomics is "quackery" and fought
numerous worker protection initiatives by OSHA and other agencies.
As the Labor Department's chief lawyer, Scalia now is responsible
for enforcing the laws that provide basic worker protections in
areas such as safety and health, minimum wage, equal employment
opportunity and pension security. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
965. Labor Relations: Bush denies airport screeners freedom to
choose a union
The Bush administration denied collective bargaining rights
to newly federalized airport security screeners. Adm. James Loy,
undersecretary of transportation for security, on Jan. 9 signed an
order precluding workers' rights to bargain, saying that such
rights were not compatible with the nation's war against terrorism
and "collective bargaining conflicts with national security
needs." AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
966. Labor Relations: Bush denies airline workers due process in
security assessments
The Bush administration issued new rules Jan. 24 that allow
the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Aviation
Administration to revoke an aviation worker's certification
without basic due process protections. The new rule was issued and
took effect without any public comment period. It allows the
government to revoke or deny needed federal certification for
pilots, mechanics, flight instructors and other aviation workers
if the government--under secretive and arbitrary
procedures--concludes a worker is a "security threat." AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
967. Labor Relations: Bush delayed annual update in wages for
agricultural guest workers
Since 1987, the Department of Labor has been required to
publish each year the results of regional surveys of the average
hourly wage rates for field and livestock workers. These rates
effectively set a wage floor for temporary or seasonal guest
workers employed by agricultural employers under the H-2A program.
Under that program, employers can legally employ workers who are
not U.S. residents. The employers are required to observe certain
labor standards, including these wage floors. Usually, the wage
floors are published in February for use during that year. Bush's
Labor secretary, Elaine Chao, has delayed issuing the rates. As a
result, some of the lowest-paid workers in the United States will
not get a needed annual pay raise. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
968. Labor Relations: Bush held no public nomination process for
important safety group
The Bush administration's Department of Labor reversed more
than 30 years of practice and closed the nomination process for
the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety and Health
(NACOSH) and on Dec. 31, 2002, announced the appointment of three
new members. Since the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970
established the committee, nominations have been open to the
public to ensure a wide range of groups is represented on NACOSH.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
969. Labor Relations: Bush considers troops to keep ports open in
West Coast docks lockout or strike
The Bush administration admitted it is considering using
federal troops to help West Coast port management keep the ports
open if workers are locked out of their jobs or if they strike.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents
some 16,000 workers, and the Pacific Maritime Association are in
contract talks. But the Bush administration has assembled a task
force to explore ways for the federal government to intervene,
including changing labor laws to remove the dockworkers from
National Labor Relations Act jurisdiction and make them subject to
the more restrictive Railway Labor Act. AFL-CIO Monday September
15, 2003
970. Labor Relations: Bush imposed steel tariffs that give hope
to steel industry, but fall short of need
President Bush imposed tariffs on imported steel of up to 30
percent for three years on March 5. The decision came just days
after nearly 30,000 Steelworkers and steel community supporters
rallied near the White House and called for 40 percent tariffs for
four years on unfair steel imports. USWA President Leo W. Gerard
said Bush's announcement was "not as comprehensive as we had
hopedĶbut raises our hopes that the steel industry can be saved."
According to the USWA, the unfair imports have fueled a crisis
Monday September 15, 2003
971. Labor Relations: Bush issued four anti-worker, anti-union
executive orders, sought by corporate contributors
that end job retention protections that cover "working poor"
employees--largely immigrants and women--of service contractors in
federal buildings; abolish labor-management partnerships that
serve the federal government and hundreds of thousands of federal
workers; effectively bar project labor agreements on federally
funded construction projects; and require government contractors
to post notices telling employees they cannot be required to
become union members and may object to paying the portion of
agency fees not related to collective bargaining. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
972. Labor Relations: Bush keeps labor, environmental and
consumer representatives off trade board
The Bush administration nominated 32 persons to serve on the
Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations (ACTPN) in
December. But contrary to the law that created the committee in
1974, Bush did not include a single representative from labor,
environmental or consumer groups among the nominees for the trade
panel announced in December. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
973. Labor Relations: Bush hedges on Homeland Security Dept.
collective bargaining rights
White House refuses to say if federal workers transferred to
new Homeland Security Department will be able to maintain their
collective bargaining rights. A White House spokesman refused to
say June 12 if federal workers who would be transferred to
President Bush's proposed Homeland Security Department would be
allowed to maintain their union representation rights. About half
of the 170,000 workers in the existing agencies and offices slated
for consolidation into the new department are union members.
Bush's proposal calls for "significant flexibility" in hiring,
firing, setting pay scales and other worker issues that are for
the most part now governed by collective bargaining agreements.
Workers and union leaders have expressed concern that Bush's past
actions against Justice Department workers and a recent executive
order concerning air traffic controllers against unionized federal
workers indicate the Bush administration may attempt to strip the
workers of their union rights. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
974. Labor Relations: Bush forced elimination of $359 million in
help for dislocated workers and adult job training
In what may be the first wave of extreme funding cuts in
vital working family programs to pay for Bush's
multitrillion-dollar tax cut for the rich, the House
Appropriations Committee June 14 eliminated $259 million from
current funding for the dislocated worker programs and another
$100 million in adult job training programs. In addition, Bush's
budget request for fiscal year 2002 would cut those programs by
another $200 million and $50 million respectively. Studies of the
massive tax cut bill show it uses most of the projected budget
surplus and will force huge spending cuts. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
975. Labor Relations: Bush eliminated a training, equipment and
fire prevention program for local fire departments
but restored funding under pressure from Fire Fighters.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
976. Labor Relations: Bush fired all members of key federal
workers' dispute resolution panel
The Bush administration fired the seven members of the
Federal Service Impasses Panel Jan.7. The panel helps protect
federal workers' collective bargaining rights. Federal workers do
not have the right to strike and the FSIP is the last resort when
unions and federal agencies reach an impasse on issues such as
organizing and contracts. It tries to reach a compromise and, if
that is not possible, it can impose settlement terms. On Jan. 10,
the Bush administration nominated four conservatives to the board,
including Becky Norton Dunlop, vice president of the
ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, as chairperson. AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
977. Labor Relations: Bush negotiated 'Fast Track' trade
agreements weaker than existing treaties
on workers' rights. Armed with Fast Track trade promotion
authority, the Bush administration is moving rapidly to rack up as
many so-called free trade agreements as possible. The
administration negotiated the first two agreements under Fast
Track--deals with Chile and Singapore--in secret and said in
February it is not releasing the details to the public until later
this year. The deals will go to Congress later this year, and
under Fast Track the lawmakers cannot amend the deals and can only
approve or reject them as a whole. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
978. Labor Relations: Bush nominates worker-unfriendly Labor
Secretary
Nominated Linda Chavez to become labor secretary. The move
was seen as an affront to workers and unions because Chavez had
opposed such basic worker protections as the minimum wage and
suggested that Department of Labor personnel who disagree are
"Marxist." She has supported rolling back overtime protections and
the 40-hour workweek, opposed the federal family leave law and
dismissed the role of discrimination in explaining lower earnings
of women. She opposed anti-discrimination programs, including
affirmative action, which the secretary of labor is charged with
enforcing. She had belittled women who file sexual harassment
lawsuits as "crybabies," ridiculed the Americans with Disabilities
Act as "special treatment in the name of accommodating the
disabled" and expressed insensitivity to the privacy rights of
injured workers. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
979. Labor Relations: Bush proposed paying subminimum wage to
"workfare" workers
Under its welfare reform proposal released in late February,
the Bush administration planned to give states permission to pay a
subminimum wage to welfare recipients in "workfare" jobs. AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
980. Labor Relations: Bush opens Mexican border to unsafe trucks
Bush indicated he will lift the ban on cross-border
trucking, opening the U.S. border to unsafe trucks (and possibly
buses) from Mexico. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
981. Labor Relations: Bush offered toothless, voluntary ergonomic
guidelines The Bush Labor Department announced a watered-down,
volu
April 5 to replace the tough ergonomics standard the Bush
administration helped kill last year. The new plan would rely on
as yet undeveloped voluntary guidelines for selected industries,
which are not even identified. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
982. Labor Relations: Bush proposes $1 billion reporting burden
on unions
On Dec. 23, the Bush administration proposed new financial
reporting and disclosure requirements for national and local
unions that create a huge tangle of red tape and estimated
compliance costs of as much as $1 billion year. These regulations
apply to small unions that often rely on part-time and voluntary
staffing, as well as large unions. The requirements are far more
stringent and sweeping than those on corporations. They are so
burdensome "they will weaken unions as a force for workers' rights
and economic fairness," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
983. Labor Relations: Bush reneges on steel tariffs
The Bush administration in August excluded 178 imported
steel products from high tariffs imposed this year, threatening
the goal of saving the nation's steel industry. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
984. Labor Relations: Bush proposed a federal budget that ignores
working families' priorities
Working families' top priorities--improving education and
health care and strengthening Social Security and Medicare--are
not reflected in the Bush budget proposal, which instead places
top priority on a massive tax cut that will benefit mainly the
wealthy. Recent surveys by the Washington Post -ABC News, Newsweek
, Opinion Research Corp. and the Pew Center show that working
families would rather see investments in Social Security,
Medicare, health care and education than have the federal budget
surplus invested in a huge tax cut. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
985. Labor Relations: Bush refused to accept court ruling
overturning anti-worker executive order
The Bush administration continued its efforts to undermine
workers' right to choose a voice at work when it announced it
would appeal a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
ruling overturning one of Bush's first anti-worker executive
orders. The Bush order required employers to post notices telling
workers about their right to avoid unionization and union dues
obligations-- but did not compel contractors to inform workers
about their right to join a union. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
986. Labor Relations: Bush proposes to eliminate civil service
protections for Department of Defense workers
The Bush administration has developed legislation that would
enable the Defense Department to gut the current personnel system
that governs the department workers' pay, salary increases,
hiring, firing, job classifications, performance evaluations, due
process and appeal rights, reduction in force rules and many other
federal workplace rules. In all, the proposal would allow the
department to waive a dozen chapters of Title 5 of the U.S. Code,
which covers government organization and federal employment.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
987. Labor Relations: Bush proposes eliminating 83 full-time
safety and health jobs at OSHA and cutting $9 million from safety
progra
In his proposed budget, President Bush cuts $9 million in
funding for health and safety initiatives. He also seeks to
eliminate 83 full-time Occupational Safety and Health
Administration jobs. Funding cuts include workplace safety and
health standard setting and enforcement and safety training for
workers. Along with the OSHA cuts, the Mine Safety and Health
Administration is slated for a $4 million cut and the loss of 46
jobs. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
988. Labor Relations: Bush repealed key worker safety rule
Bush supported and signed the first-ever congressional
repeal of an Occupational Safety and Health Administration worker
protection rule, killing OSHA's ergonomics standard that would
have prevented hundreds of thousands of workplace injuries, such
as carpal tunnel syndrome, each year. His March 21 signature
overturned more than a decade of work by OSHA. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
989. Labor Relations: Bush repealed worker protection and
labor-management relations rules
Bush issued four anti-worker, anti-union executive orders,
sought by corporate contributors, that end job retention
protections that cover "working poor" employees--largely
immigrants and women--of service contractors in federal buildings;
abolish labor-management partnerships that serve the federal
government and hundreds of thousands of federal workers;
effectively bar project labor agreements on federally funded
construction projects; and require government contractors to post
notices telling employees they cannot be required to become union
members and may object to paying the portion of agency fees not
related to collective bargaining. AFL-CIO Monday September 15,
2003
990. Labor Relations: Bush seeks to slash job training and help
for workers who lose their jobs
President Bush's proposed budget ignores the sharp increase
in unemployment and economic hardship by cutting worker training
programs by 9 percent. The proposed cuts in job training run
counter to the emphasis in his State of the Union message about
creating jobs to "defeat this recession." He said, "My economic
security plan can be summed up in one word, jobs." But the various
job training programs targeted for cuts are designed to help
jobless workers learn new skills, prepare adults moving from
welfare to work in the job market and provide educational and
training opportunities for young people in poverty. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
991. Labor Relations: Bush rescinded strict reporting
requirements for union-busting consultants and attorneys
Federal law requires labor relations consultants and
attorneys to report to the Department of Labor their activity
designed to influence workers' choice about whether to form a
union. But for nearly 40 years the Labor Department exempted
"advice" given to an employer, not directly to employees. This
loophole allowed a range of union-busting activity to go
undisclosed to the public. Recognizing this abuse, on Jan. 11,
2001, the Labor Department revised its interpretation of the law
to require reporting when union-busters provide material (a
script, letter or videotape, for example) for the employer to use
in communicating with workers. The Bush administration rescinded
that revised interpretation April 11, again permitting
union-busting activity to take place beyond public view. AFL-CIO
Monday September 15, 2003
992. Labor Relations: Bush shuts workers, unions out of most
safety studies
The Bush administration announced formation of a national
advisory committee on ergonomics Dec. 4 to study causes and
methods to prevent workplace ergonomic injuries that hurt some 1.8
million workers a year. But for the first time in the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration's 32-year history, a workplace
safety advisory committee did not contain an equal number of union
and management representatives. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
993. Labor Relations: Bush revoked union representation for
hundreds of workers in five Department of Justice divisions
President Bush issued an executive order Jan. 7 that revoked
union representation for workers in the Justice Department's U.S.
attorney's offices, the Criminal Division, the U.S. National
Central Bureau of INTERPOL, the National Drug Intelligence Center
and Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. "Accordingly, the
following bargaining units, previously represented by AFGE as
their exclusive representative under the Federal Service Labor
Management Relations Statute, cease to exist as do their
corresponding bargaining units," the Justice Department said in a
letter to AFGE. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
994. Labor Relations: Bush terminated collective bargaining
rights for 1,300 federal workers
On Jan. 30, a Bush administration official terminated the
collective bargaining rights of more than 1,300 workers at the
National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). Following the lead of
other Bush administration officials, James Clapper Jr., the
agency's director, invoked the terrorist attacks ofSept. 11, 2001,
as the reason for curtailing workers' rights. However, union
leaders said the move comes just as NIMA workers--members of AFGE
Local 1827 in St. Louis and Local 3407 in Bethesda, Md.--were
pursuing concerns about safety, promotions and gender and racial
bias in the agency. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
995. Labor Relations: Bush supported steps that will make a
critical workers' compensation program less responsive to workers'
needs
Bush's secretary of labor, Elaine Chao, supports a move that
would weaken the program that compensates workers who suffer from
illnesses they acquired building and maintaining the U.S. nuclear
arsenal. Chao wants to shift the running of the Energy Employees
Occupational Illness Compensation Act from her department to the
Justice Department. This could mean that it will take much longer
for workers to get their compensation benefits, because the
Justice Department doesn't have enough staff to administer the
claims and it historically has fought these same workers when they
filed claims for these diseases under state workers' compensation.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
996. Labor Relations: Bush stops action on rule to prevent worker
TB exposure
The Bush administration halted efforts to establish
workplace health rules protecting workers and patients from
exposure to tuberculosis. on May 27, the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) withdrew a proposed TB rule from its
regulatory agenda. In 1997, OSHA published a proposed tuberculosis
rule and in 1998 and 1999, held hearings and took comments. After
the Bush administration came into office, OSHA reopened the
comment period on the rule in 2002, but its newest move halts
further action on the rule. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
997. Labor Relations: Bush stopped Department of Labor action on
almost 30 job safety initiatives
The Bush administration's Department of Labor regulatory
agenda for 2002 withdraws or halts action on 16 pending
Occupational Safety and Health Administration and 13 pending Mine
Safety and Health Administration safety actions. These actions
would have strengthened job safety protections for workers.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
998. Labor Relations: Bush weakens scrtiny of companies seeking
government contracts
Bush suspended and proposed to revoke federal responsible
contractor rules that require scrutiny of the legal track records
of companies seeking lucrative government contracts. Under Bush's
revisions, chronic law-breaking companies could profit from
taxpayer dollars. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
999. Labor Relations: Bush's labor secretary rejected a proposal
for accurate reporting and record keeping of workplace injuries
On June 19, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, responding to
business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, rejected
a Labor Department proposal requiring employers to separately
report musculoskeletal injuries as part of a workplace injury
record-keeping rule going into effect next year. AFL-CIO Monday
September 15, 2003
1000. Labor Relations: Bush sought to limit legal rights of
workers with repetitive motion injuries
The Bush administration's Justice Department filed a brief
in June with the U.S. Supreme Court siding with Toyota Motor Corp.
in its fight against an assembly-line worker. The worker, who was
suffering with repetitive motion injuries, sued the carmaker under
the Americans with Disabilities Act after the company refused to
assign her to a different job. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1001. Labor Relations: Bush will block funds to monitor health of
World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers and money for
firefig
Aug. 13 he will not release the $5.1 billion Congress
approved for supplemental homeland security programs. Those funds
include $90 million to monitor the health of workers who cleaned
up the rubble at Ground Zero, as well as $150 million for
equipment and training grants requested by some of the nation's
18,000 fire departments and $100 million to improve the
communications systems for firefighters, police officers and other
emergency personnel. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1002. Labor Relations: Labor Secretary supports weakening
compensation program for ill nuclear workers
Bush's secretary of labor, Elaine Chao, supports a move that
would weaken the program that compensates workers who suffer from
illnesses they acquired building and maintaining the U.S. nuclear
arsenal. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1003. Labor Relations: Establishes system to privatize 850,000
federal jobs
The Bush administration on May 29 unveiled the details of
its plan to ultimately eliminate federal jobs and contract out the
work to private companies. The changes are in the rules that
govern contracting out--OMB Circular A-76--and give private
companies the advantage over federal workers in the private-public
competition process, federal workers' unions say. in November, the
Bush administration announced its goal of putting 850,000 federal
jobs up for bid, including at least 15 percent, or 127,500 jobs,
by October 2003. Administration officials reaffirmed that goal in
their latest announcement. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1004. Labor Relations: Labor Dept. revokes health training
programs
The Bush administration's Department of Labor revoked
previously approved federal grants for safety and health training
programs for immigrant workers, small business employers and
employees and workers in high-risk jobs such as construction.
AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1005. Labor Relations: No longer requires employers to keep track
of such injuries as carpal tunnel syndrome
The Bush administration's Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA) June 30 revoked a 2001 requirement that
employers track workplace ergonomic injuries such as carpal tunnel
syndrome. The record-keeping rule, issued in 2001, required
employers to check a box on standard workplace injury and illness
logs if an injury was a musculoskeletal injury. The rule was
designed to help employers, workers and OSHA identify and keep
track of ergonomic injuries. AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1006. Labor Relations: Threatens to veto labor appropriations bill
if it includes ban on eliminating overtime
Speaking to a convention of cardiologists about the
Patients' Bill of Rights March 21, Bush said he "cannot sign any
one that is now before Congress." Bush told the physicians that he
objected to provisions that allow patients to legally hold HMOs
accountable for medical decisions in state and federal courts,
such as those in the Bipartisan Patient Protection Act, introduced
in February by Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and John McCain
(R-Ariz.) and Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) and Greg Ganske
(R-Iowa). AFL-CIO Monday September 15, 2003
1007. Labor Relations: Slashes congressionally approved pay raise
for federal workers
President George W. Bush on Aug. 27 announced his intention
to limit next year'spay raises for federal workers to 2
percent,citing executive authority that allows the president to
limit increases in times of "national emergency or serious
economic conditions." Since Bush took office, 3.2 million
private-sector jobs have disappeared, unemployment hit its highest
level in 10 years in June and the Bush administration has run up
the highest federal deficit in history. AFL-CIO Monday September
15, 2003
1008. Labor Relations: US loses two million manufacturing jobs
since Bush took office
An estimated 740,000 jobs have been lost as a direct result
of the North American Free Trade Agreement, according to figures
compiled by the Teamsters. The U.S. has hemorrhaged more than two
million manufacturing jobs since President Bush took office in
January 2001. Labor Research Association Tuesday July 29, 2003
1009. Labor Relations: Bush selectively publishes labor reports
Bush administration publishes union financial reports on the
web but fails to publish reports required by employers and
anti-union consultants. Labor Research Association Wednesday May
29, 2002
1010. Labor Relations: Bush attempts to divide labor movement
With an eye on his own 2004 reelection campaign, Bush had
been courting a handful of unions where he found support for his
energy bill. But his attempt to divide the labor movement hit a
brick wall in February when Labor Secretary Elaine Chao offered
one insult too many at the AFL-CIO's executive council meeting in
Florida. Labor Research Association Wednesday March 27, 2002
1011. Labor Relations: Bush budget cuts labor spending, ignores
growing number of unemployed
Meanwhile, Bush's budget for fiscal year 2004 calls for cuts
in labor spending and fails to address the growing ranks of the
long-term unemployed. Labor Research Association Wednesday March
27, 2002
1012. Liberty: F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation
has been questioning political demonstrators across the country,
and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort
to forestall what officials say could be violent and disruptive
protests at the Republican National Convention in New York.
F.B.I. officials are urging agents to canvass their
communities for information about planned disruptions aimed at the
convention and other coming political events, and they say they
have developed a list of people who they think may have
information about possible violence. They say the inquiries, which
began last month before the Democratic convention in Boston, are
focused solely on possible crimes, not on dissent, at major
political events.
But some people contacted by the F.B.I. say they are
mystified by the bureau's interest and felt harassed by questions
about their political plans. New York Times Monday August 16, 2004
1013. Liberty: Privacy vs. safety in screening travelers
SHOULD THE federal government compile a registry of the
names and addresses of every airline passenger in America who
requests a kosher meal? This could be the reality if the
Transportation Security Administration proceeds with a system to
build databases of personal dossiers on Americans who take airline
flights. In late 2001, Congress mandated that the Transportation
Security Administration create a Computer Assisted Passenger
Prescreening System, known as CAPPS 2. The first CAPPS system
triggered alerts on nine of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001.
However, Federal Aviation Administration regulations required
merely checking their baggage to confirm that they were not
carrying explosives on board. Even though the feds had received
numerous warnings of an Arab hijacking conspiracy in the works,
the FAA did not alert airlines or require additional security
procedures for people who triggered computer alerts.
Because the feds screwed up massively, the obvious
Washington solution is to sacrifice more of Americans' privacy.
CAPPS 2 aimed to create a database including the names, credit
card numbers, addresses, meal preferences, and other details for
every airline passenger. Boston Globe Monday August 16, 2004
1014. Liberty: Ashcroft's Quiet Prisoner
Miami -- David Joseph is a little guy, about 5-foot-5, maybe
115 pounds. He's 20 years old, looks younger, and has the sluggish
demeanor and sad expression of one who is deeply depressed. He has
nightmares and headaches. He spends his days dressed in the blue
fatigues of detainees at the federal Krome Detention Center,
washing dishes at mealtimes, staring listlessly at television
images broadcast in a language he doesn't understand, and praying.
"I thought I would come here for a few days and be
released," he told me in a soft voice, his words translated by an
interpreter. "But I watch the other people come and go, and I am
stuck here."
Mr. Joseph is a refugee from Haiti who is seeking asylum in
the United States. He is not a terrorist, and no one has even
suggested that he is a threat to anyone. And yet he's been in
federal custody for nearly two years.
An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals
have ruled that he should be freed on bond, pending a final ruling
on his asylum request. But the attorney general of the United
States, John Ashcroft, won't let him go. New York Times Friday
August 13, 2004
1015. Liberty: Tyranny in the Name of Freedom
So it has come down to this: You are at liberty to exercise
your First Amendment right to assemble and to protest, so long as
you do so from behind chain-link fences and razor wire, or miles
from the audience you seek to address.
The largely ignored "free-speech zone" at the Democratic
convention in Boston last month was an affront to the spirit of
the Constitution. The situation will be only slightly better when
the Republicans gather this month in New York, where
indiscriminate searches and the use of glorified veal cages for
protesters have been limited by a federal judge. So far, the only
protesters with access to the area next to Madison Square Garden
are some anti-abortion Christians. High-fiving delegates evidently
fosters little risk of violence. New York Times Thursday August
12, 2004
1016. Liberty: ABA denounces U.S. treatment of detainees
ATLANTA -- The nation's largest lawyers' organization
yesterday condemned the U.S. government's treatment of foreign
detainees and called for an independent commission to investigate
the matter.
Critics called the resolution overwhelmingly passed by
delegates to the American Bar Association at its annual meeting in
Atlanta an unwarranted attack on the White House.
The resolution calls on the Bush administration to comply
with the Geneva Conventions, which set rules for dealing with
prisoners of war, and it urges the formation of an independent
bipartisan commission to fully investigate U.S. detention and
interrogation practices used battling terrorism. Seattle PI
Tuesday August 10, 2004
1017. Liberty: Guantanamo Dawdle
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Bush
administration to let the hundreds of detainees it claims are
terrorists meet with lawyers and challenge their imprisonment ã
nearly three years behind bars for some. The high court decisions
were a resounding defeat for the president, who has steadfastly
asserted his right to round up and put away pretty much anyone he
deems a terrorist.
So, after the court rejected Bush's arguments, government
officials opened the doors of military brigs and the Guantanamo
Naval Base to detainees' lawyers, right?
Wrong. LA Times Sunday August 08, 2004
1018. Liberty: 130 Jurists Condemn White House Torture Memos
Nearly 130 influential U.S. jurists, including twelve former
federal judges and a former director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI), have signed a statement denouncing Bush
administration memoranda regarding the treatment of Iraqi and
other detainees and accusing their authors of unprofessional
conduct.
The statement, in the form of an open letter sent Wednesday
to President George W. Bush, other top administration officials
and members of Congress, declares that the memoranda, which were
drafted by political appointees in the Pentagon, the Justice
Department and the White House, "seek to circumvent long
established and universally acknowledged principles of law and
common decency." Anti-War Saturday August 07, 2004
1019. Liberty: Terrorism suspect's suit tells of U.S. abuse
Recently declassified documents in a Seattle federal court
describe the extreme isolation of an alleged al-Qaida member at a
U.S. military prison that experts say constitutes torture and war
crimes.
The documents, unsealed yesterday at the request of the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others, include U.S. Navy lawyer
Charles Swift's firsthand observation at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,
prison of the conditions of solitary confinement of his client,
Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni who acknowledges
chauffeuring Osama bin Laden at his Afghan farm.
The court documents describing the alleged mistreatment of
Hamdan are part of a lawsuit challenging his detention, the
conditions of detention and his prolonged isolation in solitary
confinement.
The suit also directly challenges President Bush's plan to
use military tribunals to try Hamdan and other alleged terrorists
as an unconstitutional power grab that would fail to give him a
fair trial. Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
1020. Liberty: Why This Really Is "the Most Important Election of
Our Lifetime"
Veterans For Peace just concluded its 2004 National
Convention, held in Boston at the same time as the Democratic
Party's Convention. Attenders heard Daniel Ellsberg and Howard
Zinn both warn of an escalating danger of fascist-like repression
if we have another four years under the current administration.
I would like to commend to you Senator Robert Byrd's new
book, Losing America. Byrd, you will recall, accused his Senate
colleagues of "sleepwalking through history" for their failure to
resist George Bush's spurious rush to war against Iraq. Now he
expresses the bleak conviction that we are on the verge of losing
our democracy, just as Rome slipped from republic to autocratic
empire through an inert populace, a supine legislature, and an
ambitious and arrogant executive. Baltimore Chronicle Sunday
August 01, 2004
1021. Liberty: Homeland Security Gets Data on Arab-Americans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Census Bureau has provided
population data on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland
Security, including their ancestry and the cities and postal areas
in which they live, The New York Times reported on Friday.
While the information sharing is legal, so long as the data
do not identify individuals, civil liberties and Arab-American
groups called it a breach of public trust and likened it to steps
taken against Japanese-Americans in World War II, the newspaper
said. Reuters Thursday July 29, 2004
1022. Liberty: Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism
Americans are still learning the details of some of the
abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected
terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general
issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing
violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases,
physical brutality.
Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the abuses of
the post-9/11 era is to consider a few case examples.
Nacer Fathi Mustafa, a 29-year-old American citizen, was
traveling back to the United States with his Palestinian father on
September 15, 2001, after purchasing leather jackets in Mexico for
a Florida truck stop he manages. FFF Thursday July 29, 2004
1023. Liberty: A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects
STOCKHOLM -- The airport police officer was about to close
his small precinct station for the night, when two men wearing
suits walked in. The visitors said the special Swedish security
police had just arrested two suspected terrorists -- very
dangerous men -- and needed a place to hold them until a plane
could take them away.
The airport policeman recounted in an interview that he
agreed to let them borrow his cramped office that night, Dec. 18,
2001, and stepped out of the way. But there was something strange
about this operation. The two men in suits, who were soon joined
by two uniformed Swedish police officers, did not speak Swedish,
he said, and their English sounded distinctly American. Washington
Post Sunday July 25, 2004
1024. Liberty: Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed
A week ago, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed
Services Committee, said he was satisfied that Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld was keeping his promise to leave no stone unturned
to investigate the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison. A newly
released report by the Army's inspector general shows that Mr.
Rumsfeld's team may be turning over stones, but it's not looking
under them.
The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no
"systemic" problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of
prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides;
even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of
the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with
one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police
were improperly involved in interrogations; even though young
people plucked from civilian life were sent to guard prisoners -
50,000 of them in all - with no training. New York Times Friday
July 23, 2004
1025. Liberty: The CIA's Prisoners
FOR DECADES the United States led the denunciation of
despots whose enemies "disappear" -- vanish into official custody,
with no accounting for their whereabouts or treatment, no
notification of their families and sometimes, no acknowledgement
that they are being held. Now that same term is being applied to
prisoners held by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism.
Washington Post Thursday July 15, 2004
1026. Liberty: Pentagon vs. prisoners
JUST A WEEK after the Supreme Court jolted the Bush
administration by declaring that "a state of war is not a blank
check for the president" to deny rights to prisoners, the Defense
Department has cobbled together a flawed tribunal process for
detainees at Guantanamo. The Pentagon should change course and
meet basic due process standards before another court orders it
to. Boston Globe Friday July 09, 2004
1027. Liberty: Journalists hit by new US visa rules
A crackdown by US authorities on issuing visas to foreign
journalists threatens to cause chaos for overseas broadcasters and
newspapers just five months before the presidential election.
The new rules, which come into force next week, will ban
overseas reporters and news crews stationed in the US from
renewing their visas without leaving the country first. Guardian
Thursday July 08, 2004
1028. Liberty: Lawmakers Take Aim at Part of Patriot Act
WASHINGTON - Lawmakers who say portions of the USA Patriot
Act went too far are taking aim at its provision that made it
easier for investigators to learn what people are reading ?
despite a veto threat from the White House.
The House planned to vote Thursday on a proposal by Rep.
Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., that would prevent the government from
using the Patriot Act to demand records from book stores and
libraries. Yahoo News Thursday July 08, 2004
1029. Liberty: The Court v. Bush
WASHINGTON -- A state of war is not a blank check for the
president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."
With those words, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor confronted the claim
of President Bush that the "war on terror" entitles him to act
without any meaningful check by the courts. She and seven of her
colleagues on the Supreme Court firmly rejected his presumption of
omnipotence. New York Times Tuesday June 29, 2004
1030. Liberty: In 3 Rulings, Supreme Court Affirms Detainees'
Right to Use Courts
WASHINGTON, June 28 -- The Supreme Court ruled today that
people being held by the United States as enemy combatants can
challenge their detention in American courts ? the court's most
important statement in decades on the balance between personal
liberties and national security.
The justices declared their findings in three rulings, two
of them involving American citizens and the other addressing the
status of foreigners being held at the Guant·namo Bay Naval Base
in Cuba. Taken together, they were a significant setback for the
Bush administration's approach to the campaign against terrorism
that began on Sept. 11, 2001. New York Times Monday June 28, 2004
1031. Liberty: Prisoner Abuse Bush Order
Text of order signed by President Bush on Feb. 7, 2002,
outlining treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees:
1. Our recent extensive discussions regarding the status of
al-Qaida and Taliban detainees confirm that the application of
Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of
August 12, 1949, (Geneva) to the conflict with al-Qaida and the
Taliban involves complex legal questions. By its terms, Geneva
applies to conflicts involving "High Contracting Parties," which
can only be states. Yahoo News Tuesday June 22, 2004
1032. Liberty: Disappeared in Iraq
THE COARSENING of US policy since 9/11 is no better
illustrated than by the existence of "ghost detainees" --
prisoners whose status and whereabouts are kept secret from the
International Committee of the Red Cross. Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld personally ordered the Army in Iraq to hold a prisoner in
this arbitrary and unethical way. President Bush should repudiate
the decision, demand a full accounting of detainees, and make US
policy accord with international law and humanitarian practice --
unless he agrees with Rumsfeld's lawless action. Boston Globe
Friday June 18, 2004
1033. Liberty: Prison Interrogators' Gloves Came Off Before Abu
Ghraib
WASHINGTON -- After American Taliban recruit John Walker
Lindh was captured in Afghanistan , the office of Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instructed military intelligence
officers to "take the gloves off" in interrogating him. The
instructions from Rumsfeld's legal counsel in late 2001, contained
in previously undisclosed government documents, are the earliest
known evidence that the Bush administration was willing to test
the limits of how far it could go legally to extract information
from suspected terrorists. Yahoo News Wednesday June 09, 2004
1034. Liberty: Rights Group Says Bush Policies Created Iraq Abuse
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused
the Bush administration of creating the climate for the Iraqi
prison torture scandal when it "cast the rules aside" on prisoner
interrogation techniques. The New York-based watchdog said
Washington circumvented international law and spent two years
covering up or ignoring reports of torture or abuse by U.S. troops
in the war in Afghanistan and occupation of Iraq. Reuters
Wednesday June 09, 2004
1035. Liberty: Legalizing Torture
THE BUSH administration assures the country, and the world,
that it is complying with U.S. and international laws banning
torture and maltreatment of prisoners. But, breaking with a
practice of openness that had lasted for decades, it has
classified as secret and refused to disclose the techniques of
interrogation it is using on foreign detainees at U.S. prisons at
Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a matter of
grave concern because the use of some of the methods that have
been reported in the press is regarded by independent experts as
well as some of the Pentagon's legal professionals as illegal. The
administration has responded that its civilian lawyers have
certified its methods as proper -- but it has refused to disclose,
or even provide to Congress, the justifying opinions and memos.
Washington Post Wednesday June 09, 2004
1036. Liberty: The Roots of Abu Ghraib
In response to the outrages at Abu Ghraib, the Bush
administration has repeatedly assured Americans that the president
and his top officials did not say or do anything that could
possibly be seen as approving the abuse or outright torture of
prisoners. But disturbing disclosures keep coming. This week it's
a legal argument by government lawyers who said the president was
not bound by laws or treaties prohibiting torture. Each new
revelation makes it more clear that the inhumanity at Abu Ghraib
grew out of a morally dubious culture of legal expediency and a
disregard for normal behavior fostered at the top of this
administration. New York Times Wednesday June 09, 2004
1037. Liberty: Rights worth preserving
THE CAUTIONARY TALE of Jose Padilla and the new world of
enemy combatants grew even stranger last week, as the Bush
administration cynically used its Justice Department as a PR
machine for tearing up the rule of law. After government officials
argued for two years that Mr. Padilla's case was too sensitive to
be handled in public via the court system, the Justice Department
called a very public press conference to spill its beans. Deputy
Attorney General James Comey Jr. gave what amounted to the opening
statement of an imaginary trial. Baltimore Sun Friday June 04,
2004
1038. Liberty: You Have Rights -- if Bush Says You Do
This week, the U.S. Justice Department held an extraordinary
news conference. After insisting for two years that details of the
case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen accused of being an
"enemy combatant," had to be kept secret even from the federal
courts, the Justice Department suddenly released detailed
information on his interrogations and their results. What made
this press conference particularly notable was its intended
audience: the U.S. Supreme Court. LA Times Thursday June 03, 2004
1039. Liberty: The Homicide Cases
PRESIDENT BUSH'S persistence in describing the abuse of
foreign prisoners as an isolated problem at one Iraqi prison is
blatantly at odds with the facts seeping out from his
administration. These include mounting reports of crimes at
detention facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan and evidence that
detention policies the president approved helped set the stage for
torture and homicide. Yes, homicide: The most glaring omission
from the president's account is that at least 37 people have died
in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and that at least 10 of
these cases are suspected criminal killings of detainees by U.S.
interrogators or soldiers. Washington Post Friday May 28, 2004
1040. Liberty: Survey Finds U.S. Agencies Engaged in 'Data Mining'
WASHINGTON, May 26 - A survey of federal agencies has found
more than 120 programs that collect and analyze large amounts of
personal data on individuals to predict their behavior. The
survey, to be issued Thursday by the General Accounting Office, an
investigative arm of Congress, found that the practice, known as
data mining, was ubiquitous. NY Times Thursday May 27, 2004
1041. Liberty: U.S.-Led Terror War 'Bereft of Principle' -Amnesty
LONDON (Reuters) - Washington's global anti-terror policies
are "bankrupt of vision" as human rights become sacrificed in the
blind pursuit of security, a leading human rights group charged on
Wednesday. Amnesty International also rapped partners across the
world in the United States' self-declared "war on terror" for
jailing suspects unfairly, stamping on legitimate political and
religious dissent, and squeezing asylum-seekers. Reuters Wednesday
May 26, 2004
1042. Liberty: Justice Memos Explained How to Skip Prisoner Rights
WASHINGTON, May 20 -- A series of Justice Department
memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002
were crucial in building a legal framework for United States
officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties
on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say. The
confidential memorandums, several of which were written or
co-written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law
professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to
keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes
for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. They were
endorsed by top lawyers in the White House, the Pentagon and the
vice president's office but drew dissents from the State
Department. NY Times Saturday May 22, 2004
1043. Liberty: Ashcroft Fishes Out 1872 Law in a Bid to Scuttle
Protester Rights
in April of 2002, a cargo ship, the Jade, was steaming
toward Miami carrying a cargo of mahogany illegally cut from the
Brazilian Amazon. Two Greenpeace activists tried to clamber aboard
the ship and hang a banner that read "President Bush: Stop Illegal
Logging." None of which is unusual. LA Times Friday May 14, 2004
1044. Liberty: Iraq: U.S. Treatment of Detainees Shrouded in
Secrecy
(Baghdad, 2004-04-22)--The United States has failed to
provide clear or consistent information on its treatment of some
10,000 civilians detained in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today.
HRW Thursday April 22, 2004
1045. Liberty: Detainees' rights
IN IRAQ, according to President Bush, the United States is
fighting for democracy. His press conference last week added new
emphasis to this as the currently prevailing rationale: The United
States has positioned a massive army 6,200 miles away because the
world will be far better if the benefits of democracy are felt in
the Middle East. Yet this week Bush sent his lawyers just a few
blocks to argue that some of the most fundamental rights of
democracy should be denied detainees held by the United States at
the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Boston Globe Thursday April
22, 2004
1046. Liberty: Privacy Protecting Programs Killed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two cutting-edge computer projects
designed to preserve the privacy of Americans were quietly killed
while Congress was restricting Pentagon data-gathering research in
a widely publicized effort to protect innocent citizens from
futuristic anti-terrorism tools. As a result, the government is
quietly pressing ahead with research into high-powered computer
data-mining technology without the two most advanced privacy
protections developed to police those terror-fighting tools. "It's
very inconsistent what they've done," said Teresa Lunt of the Palo
Alto Research Center, head of one of the two government-funded
privacy projects eliminated last fall. NY Times Monday March 15,
2004
1047. Liberty: Justice Department demans patient records in search
of illegal abortions
Privacy in Peril: In an attempt to bolster its defense of
the unconstitutional Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003, the Bush
administration has gone beyond its campaign to destroy women's
reproductive rights and has attacked the privacy rights of all
Americans. This assault is being conducted through subpoenas the
Justice Department has issued demanding that at least six
hospitals in New York City, Philadelphia, Illinois and elsewhere
turn over hundreds of patient records for certain abortions. This
egregious intrusion on patients' privacy is being pursued in the
name of defending lawsuits against the abortion ban. Not only is
the information not needed to do that, but it is also a flagrant
example of why Congress and the attorney general have no business
second-guessing sensitive medical decisions made by individuals
and their doctors. NY Times Saturday February 14, 2004
1048. Liberty: School forum leads to subpoenas
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. Common Dreams Saturday
February 07, 2004
1049. Liberty: Feds Win Right to War Protesters' Records
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. Common
Dreams Saturday February 07, 2004
1050. Liberty: Bush Grabs New Power for FBI
While the nation was distracted last month by images of
Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W.
Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI
increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach
of the USA Patriot Act. The Intelligence Authorization Act for
Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain
records from financial institutions without requiring permission
from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court
order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just
cause. Previously, under the Patriot Act, the FBI had to submit
subpoena requests to a federal judge. Wired Tuesday January 06,
2004
1051. Liberty: White House Seeks Secrecy on Detainee
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an extraordinary request, the Bush
administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it keep
its arguments secret in a case involving an immigrant's challenge
of his treatment after theSept. 11 terror attacks. Mohamed Kamel
Bellahouel wants the high court to consider whether the government
acted improperly by secretly jailing him after the attacks and
keeping his court fight private. He is supported by more than 20
journalism organizations and media companies. AP Monday January
05, 2004
1052. Liberty: Law gives FBI too much access
President Bush has signed into law a bill that undermines
Americans' civil liberties needlessly. The objectionable section
of the Intelligence Authorization Act allows the FBI greatly
expanded authority to obtain an individual's financial records
without the person knowing about it and without judicial oversight
or review. The government needs good tools in its important battle
against terrorism. But this law simply goes too far. As quickly as
possible, Congress should revise it. Kansas City Star Sunday
January 04, 2004
1053. Liberty: In Bush's America, Rules of War Trump Civil Law
NEW YORK -- Is the Bush administration's "war on terrorism"
a real war, and thus governed by the rules of armed conflict? Or
is it a law-enforcement effort governed by traditional rules of
criminal justice? Two recent rulings by federal appeals courts
offered answers to these questions. One involved Jose Padilla, a
U.S. citizen who flew from Pakistan to Chicago in May 2002
allegedly to scout targets for a radioactive "dirty" bomb. Rather
than prosecute him, President Bush declared him an "enemy
combatant" and claimed that the government had the right to hold
Padilla without charge or trial until the end of the "war" against
terrorism. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, based in
New York, ruled that, absent explicit congressional authorization,
the president has no such power. LA Times Sunday January 04, 2004
1054. Liberty: Under attack -- by the FBI
If Ashcroft does not understand why it is wrong to engage
the FBI in spying on Americans who demonstrate peaceably for
peace, President Bush ought to call the attorney general into the
Oval Office for a civics lesson. If the core value of genuine
conservatism is to protect the citizen from the overweening power
of the state, then Ashcroft and the FBI have been subverting the
conservatives' credo. Boston Globe Tuesday November 25, 2003
1055. Liberty: F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies WASHINGTON, Nov.
22 -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive
i
Martin Luther King Jr. ">NY Times Saturday November 22, 2003
1056. Liberty: 'Enemy Combatant' Sham
The Bush administration insists that it can hold American
citizens in secret as long as it wants, without access to lawyers,
simply by calling them "enemy combatants." A New York federal
appeals court heard a challenge to that policy this week by the
so-called dirty bomber, Jose Padilla. The administration's
position makes a mockery of the Constitution and puts every
American's liberty at risk. It is important that the court strike
it down, and give Mr. Padilla the rights he has been denied. NY
Times Wednesday November 19, 2003
1057. Liberty: Waiting at Guantanamo
A YEAR AGO, federal officials said the government was nearly
ready to go ahead with military tribunals for detainees at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last May, a senior defense official said,
"Pretty much, we're ready to go." This week, Army Col. Frederic L.
Borch III -- the chief prosecutor for the planned trials --
declared, yet again, that their start was "imminent." In light of
the previous delays, this promise should perhaps be taken with a
grain of salt. The tribunals were announced with much fanfare and
controversy -- and no small sense of urgency -- barely two months
after the 9/11 attacks. Yet the administration's urgency has waned
-- no doubt partly because it has discovered that indefinitely
detaining Taliban and al Qaeda fighters captured abroad is a lot
easier than the messy process of trying them. Nearly two years
after President Bush ordered their preparations, the tribunals are
ever impending but never seem to arrive. Washington Post Monday
November 03, 2003
1058. Liberty: Wronged at Guantanamo
FOR GOOD reason, many voices have been raised against the
Bush administration's detaining of 660 so-called enemy combatants
-- indefinitely and in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions --
at a prison camp on the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
President Bush would best protect Americans and their national
interests if he were to abide by international law and US
traditions. The criticism comes from American allies such as Great
Britain and Australia, from human rights groups and the Red Cross,
and from retired US military and diplomatic officers. The critics
are trying to remind forgetful leaders in Washington why their
predecessors originally signed and ratified the Geneva
Conventions. Boston Globe Saturday October 25, 2003
1059. Liberty: Immigrants are to be finger printed and
photographed
Abstract from Fair.org: Immigration and Naturalization
Service offices around the country have been asking non-green card
holding men from countries regarded as potential sources of
terrorists to come in to be registered.Ý Although many of these
men have pending applications for work permits and green cards,
they are yet to be processed due to Labor Department and INS
delays in implementing an "amnesty of sorts" offered during
President Clinton's term... and as a result, these men are being
detained and arrested en masse. Washington Post Sunday September
14, 2003
1060. Liberty: Patriot Act laws increasingly used against those
charged with common crimes
In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh
powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and
prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not
on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes. New
York Times Sunday September 14, 2003
1061. Liberty: Justice Department defies judge. Accused terrorist
not allowed to question captives
The Justice Department on Wednesday defied a federal judge
for the second time, refusing to allow Zacarias Moussaoui to
question senior al-Qaida captives in preparation for his criminal
trial. Judicial punishment that could damage the prosecution is
likely to follow. AP Wednesday September 10, 2003
1062. Liberty: Administration steps up scrutiny of sex ed groups
Most squarely in the administration's sights are groups that
deal progressively and explicitly with sex education. One of them,
Stop AIDS, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has used
streetwise language to promote HIV prevention among gay and
bisexual men since 1984. Since Bush took office, it has been
audited twice by HHS and forced to submit program materials for
review by the HHS subsidiary Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC), according to Stop AIDS spokesperson Shana
Krochmal. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
1063. Liberty: Groups worry that "condom" may lead to loss of
funding Meanwhile, a
December 2002 letter from the federal government to groups
dealing with HIV prevention and sex education abroad admonished
that all operating units should ensure that USAID-funded programs
and publications reflect appropriately the policies of the Bush
administration. Some nonprofits worry that the smallest conflict
"for instance over the use of words like condom or abortion on a
website" could give the government an excuse to funnel funds to
groups whose views it prefers. Village Voice Wednesday August 06,
2003
1064. Liberty: Iraq relief agencies required to advertise US
generosity
In an interesting but brief mention, OMB Watch also reveals
that groups currently applying for federal grants to provide
humanitarian relief in Iraq are required to advertise the U.S.
government's generosity. Presumably, any criticism of Bush
administration policy would be considered to send the opposite
message. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
1065. Liberty: HHS Secretary silences critics
Bush's Health and Human Services Department (HHS) threatened
advocates of the nonprofit Head Start including parents and
teachers of poor children with monetary sanctions or even
prosecution for speaking out against a presidential proposal.
Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
1066. Liberty: Sex Ed groups may be driven out of business because
of Bush legal challenges
The fight with Washington has forced Stop AIDS to consult
with legal counsel, something many resource-strapped nonprofits
worry about having to do. If CDC prevails, Krochmal says, it will
add another brick in an overall homophobic agenda she sees
building under Bush. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
1067. Liberty: HHS chastises advocacy groups for preventing
"message of hope"
Thompson's deputy, Claude Allen, told The Washington Post at
the time that advocacy groups need to think twice before
preventing a Cabinet-level official from bringing a message of
hope to an international forum. Village Voice Wednesday August 06,
2003
1068. Liberty: Arab and Middle Eastern men required to register
with INS program
Lawyers and human rights groups express their concern about
the mandatory INS registration of Arab and Middle Eastern men. The
program highlights the growing tensions between protecting
citizens from terrorism and upholding civil rights. (Christian
Science Monitor) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1069. Liberty: "The war on terror quickly became a war on
immigrants,"
says the executive director of the American Civil Liberties
Union. The US Justice Department's inspector general admits that
there were "significant problems" with the roundup of hundreds of
illegal immigrants in the months after the 9/11 attacks. (New York
Times) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1070. Liberty: Bush reduces liberties to save liberties
The Bush administration defends its assault on US civil
liberties as a vital measure to protect US security against
terrorists. This Village Voice article argues that it is in fact
US citizens that need to be secure from their own government.
Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1071. Liberty: Justice Department violates civil rights
A Justice Department report identifies dozens of cases in
which department employees engage in serious civil rights and
civil liberties violations. These incidents involve employees
enforcing the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA
Patriot Act. (New York Times) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21,
2003
1072. Liberty: Children held as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay
In a letter to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Human
Rights Watch has expressed concern about children being held as
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. These children are entitled to
rehabilitation, not indefinite detention, said Jo Becker, child
rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. Global Policy
Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1073. Liberty: Cities refuse to participate in Patriot Act rules
A rising number of US cities are passing resolutions to
prevent the erosion of civil liberties caused by the Patriot Act
and the Homeland Security Act. (Washington Post) Global Policy
Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1074. Liberty: Secret detentions undemocratic
Human rights groups condemn a federal appeals court ruling
that allows the government to withhold the names and other
information of Muslim immigrants rounded up after 9/11. Secret
detentions have no place in a democracy, says the Human Rights
Watch US program director. (OneWorld) Global Policy Forum Monday
July 21, 2003
1075. Liberty: US using war on terrorism to justify human rights
abuses
Human Rights Watch expressed its concern about how
governments have used the war against terror to justify human
rights abuses. "Human rights abuses will fuel terrorism, not
defeat it," the global advocacy director for the organization
said. Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1076. Liberty: Patriot Act II could strip US citizens of their
citizenship
Conservatives and Liberals have joined forces to block a new
Patriot Act, which would seriously infringe civil liberties in the
US. Among other things, the new Patriot Act would include the
right to strip US citizens of their citizenship. (Seattle Times)
Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1077. Liberty: War on terror undermines human rights
9/11 marked the birth of a new era in international politics
and the application of human rights law. Legal experts agree that
the war on terrorism undermines human rights around the world.
(Inter Press Service) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
1078. Liberty: Justice Department establishes pattern of deceit
concerning Patriot Act
The Justice Department has made a number of misleading
statements about the scope and authority of the act, establishing
a pattern of deceit. Talk Left Wednesday July 09, 2003
1079. Liberty: Bush undermines civil liberties since 9/11
The changes in US law and policy since 9/11 have disrupted
the constitutional system of checks and balances. What's more, the
media have failed to give consistent and in-depth coverage on how
the Bush government undermines the civil liberties of US citizens.
(Village Voice) Global Policy Forum Friday April 11, 2003
1080. Liberty: Justice Department refuses to identify enemy
combatants
The Justice Department's position on detainees is that if
they are held incommunicado indefinitely without being charged
with a crime, they need not be publicly identified. Find Law
Monday February 17, 2003
1081. Liberty: Allowing the Attorney General to deport an
immigrant to any country in the world
even if there is no effective government in such a country.
ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1082. Liberty: "Sneak and Peek" being applied to criminal cases
that have nothing to do with fighting terrorism
Finally, this new "sneak and peek" power can be applied as
part of normal criminal investigations; it has nothing to do with
fighting terrorism or collecting foreign intelligence. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1083. Liberty: Creating a new category of "domestic security
surveillance"
that permits electronic eavesdropping of entirely domestic
activity under looser standards than are provided for ordinary
criminal surveillance under Title III. ACLU Friday February 14,
2003
1084. Liberty: Allows government to bypass FISA courts
Permitting the government, under certain circumstances, to
bypass the FISA Court altogether and conduct warrantless wiretaps
and searches. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1085. Liberty: The Patriot Act allows sampling and cataloguing of
genetic information
The Patriot Act would allow for the sampling and cataloguing
of innocent Americans? genetic information without court order and
without consent. (Sections 301-306)ÝÝÝÝ ACLU Friday February 14,
2003
1086. Liberty: Creating a new, separate crime of using encryption
technology
that could add five years to any sentence for crimes
committed with a computer. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1087. Liberty: Bush refuses to reveal how the Patriot Act is being
used
Attempts to find out how the new surveillance powers created
by the Patriot Act were implemented during their first year were
in vain. in June 2002 the House Judiciary Committee demanded that
the Department of Justice answer questions about how it was using
its new authority. The Bush/Ashcroft Justice Department
essentially refused to describe how it was implementing the law;
it left numerous substantial questions unanswered, and classified
others without justification. In short, not only has the Bush
Administration undermined judicial oversight of government spying
on citizens by pushing the Patriot Act into law, but it is also
undermining another crucial check and balance on surveillance
powers: accountability to Congress and the public. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1088. Liberty: Completely abolishing fair hearings for lawful
permanent residents convicted of even minor criminal offenses
through a retroactive "expedited removal" procedure, and
preventing any court from questioning the government's unlawful
actions by explicitly exempting these cases from habeas corpus
review.Congress has not exempted any person from habeas corpus --
a protection guaranteed by the Constitution -- since the Civil
War. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1089. Liberty: Expanding nationwide search warrants
so they do not have to meet even the broad definition of
terrorism in the USA PATRIOT Act. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1090. Liberty: Creating 15 new death penalties, including a new
death penalty for "terrorism"
under a definition which could cover acts of protest such as
those used by Operation Rescue or protesters at Vieques Island,
Puerto Rico, if death results. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1091. Liberty: Giving the government secret access to credit
reports
without consent and without judicial process. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1092. Liberty: Enhancing the government's ability to obtain
sensitive information
without prior judicial approval by creating administrative
subpoenas and providing new penalties for failure to comply with
written demands for records. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1093. Liberty: Gagging grand jury witnesses in terrorism cases
to bar them from discussing their testimony with the media
or the general public, thus preventing them from defending
themselves against rumor-mongering and denying the public
information it has a right to receive under the First Amendment.
ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1094. Liberty: Harming fair trial rights for American citizens
and other defendants by limiting defense attorneys from
challenging the use of secret evidence in criminal cases. ACLU
Friday February 14, 2003
1095. Liberty: Further criminalizing association without any
intent to commit specific terrorism crimes
by broadening the crime of providing material support to
terrorism, even if support is not given to any organization listed
as a terrorist organization by the government. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1096. Liberty: Justice Department attempts to evade Fourth
Amendment with FISA Court
The eagerness of many in law enforcement to dispense with
the requirements of the Fourth Amendment was revealed in August
2002 by the secret court that oversees domestic intelligence
spying (the "FISA Court"). Making public one of its opinions for
the first time in history, the court revealed that it had rejected
an attempt by the Bush Administration to allow criminal
prosecutors to use intelligence warrants to evade the Fourth
Amendment entirely. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1097. Liberty: Providing for summary deportations without evidence
of crime, criminal intent or terrorism
even of lawful permanent residents, whom the Attorney
General says are a threat to national security. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1098. Liberty: Patriot Act fails to distinguish between content
and transactional information
Another exception to the normal requirement for probable
cause in wiretap law is also expanded by the Patriot Act. Years
ago, when the law governing telephone wiretaps was written, a
distinction was created between two types of surveillance. The
first allows surveillance of the content or meaning of a
communication, and the second only allows monitoring of the
transactional or addressing information attached to a
communication. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1099. Liberty: Patriot Act circumvents "probable cause" guarantee
Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can secretly conduct a
physical search or wiretap on American citizens to obtain evidence
of crime without proving probable cause, as the Fourth Amendment
explicitly requires. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1100. Liberty: Permitting arrests and extraditions of Americans to
any foreign country
including those whose governments do not respect the rule of
law or human rights, in the absence of a Senate-approved treaty
and without allowing an American judge to consider the extraditing
country's legal system or human rights record. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1101. Liberty: Permitting searches, wiretaps and surveillance of
United States citizens on behalf of foreign governments
including dictatorships and human rights abusers in the
absence of Senate-approved treaties. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1102. Liberty: Patriot Act unconstitutionally authorizes blank
warrants
In addition, this provision authorizes the equivalent of a
blank warrant: the court issues the order, and the law enforcement
agent fills in the places to be searched. That is a direct
violation of the Fourth Amendment's explicit requirement that
warrants be written "particularly describing the place to be
searched." ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1103. Liberty: Providing for general surveillance orders covering
multiple functions of high tech devices
, and by further expanding pen register and trap and trace
authority for intelligence surveillance of United States citizens
and lawful permanent residents. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1104. Liberty: Patriot Act marginalizes the role of the judiciary
Under the Patriot Act pen register/trap and trace (PR/TT)
orders issued by a judge are no longer valid only in that judge's
jurisdiction, but can be made valid anywhere in the United States.
This "nationwide service" further marginalizes the role of the
judiciary, because a judge cannot meaningfully monitor the extent
to which his or her order is being used. ACLU Friday February 14,
2003
1105. Liberty: Terminating court-approved limits on police spying
which were initially put in place to prevent McCarthy-style
law enforcement persecution based on political or religious
affiliation. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1106. Liberty: Sharing personal information with state and local
law enforcement agencies
Permitting, without any connection to anti-terrorism
efforts, sensitive personal information about U.S. citizens to be
shared with local and state law enforcement. ACLU Friday February
14, 2003
1107. Liberty: Sheltering federal agents engaged in illegal
surveillance
without a court order from criminal prosecution if they are
following orders of high Executive Branch officials. ACLU Friday
February 14, 2003
1108. Liberty: The Patriot Act II diminishes public accountability
by increasing government secrecy
Authorizing secret arrests in immigration and other cases
such as material witness warrants, where the detained person is
not criminally charged. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1109. Liberty: Targeting undocumented workers with extended jail
terms
for common immigration offenses. ACLU Friday February 14,
2003
1110. Liberty: The Patriot Act II diminishes corporate
accountability under the pretext of fighting terrorism
specifically, by: Granting immunity to businesses that
provide information to the government in terrorism investigations,
even if their actions are taken with disregard for their
customers' privacy or other rights and show reckless disregard for
the truth.Such immunity could provide an incentive for neighbor to
spy on neighbor and pose problems similar to those inherent in
Attorney General Ashcroft's "Operation TIPS." ACLU Friday February
14, 2003
1111. Liberty: The Patriot Act gives the attorney general
unprecedented new power to determine the fate of immigrants
The attorney general can order detention based on a
certification that he or she has "reasonable grounds to believe" a
non-citizen endangers national security. Worse, if the foreigner
does not have a country that will accept them, they can be
detained indefinitely without trial. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1112. Liberty: The Patriot Act expands sneak and peek searches
The final version of the anti-terrorism legislation, the
Uniting and Strengthening America By Providing Appropriate Tools
Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (H.R. 3162, the "USA
PATRIOT Act") would allow law enforcement agencies to delay giving
notice when they conduct a search. This means that the government
could enter a house, apartment or office with a search warrant
when the occupant was away, search through her property and take
photographs, and in some cases seize physical property and
electronic communications, and not tell her until later. This
provision would mark a sea change in the way search warrants are
executed in the United States. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1113. Liberty: The Patriot Act applies the distinction between
transactional and content-oriented wiretaps to the Internet
The problem is that it takes the weak standards for access
to transactional data and applies them to communications that are
far more than addresses. On an e-mail message, for example, law
enforcement has interpreted the "header" of a message to be
transactional information accessible with a PR/TT warrant. But in
addition to routing information, e-mail headers include the
subject line, which is part of the substance of a communication -
on a letter, for example, it would clearly be inside the envelope.
ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1114. Liberty: Threatening public health
by severely restricting access to crucial information about
environmental health risks posed by facilities that use dangerous
chemicals. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1115. Liberty: The Patriot Act allows unconstitutional search and
seizure
The Patriot Act, however, unconstitutionally amends the
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to allow the government to
conduct searches without notifying the subjects, at least until
long after the search has been executed. This means that the
government can enter a house, apartment or office with a search
warrant when the occupants are away, search through their
property, take photographs, and in some cases even seize property
- and not tell them until later. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1116. Liberty: Undercutting trust between police departments and
immigrant communities
by opening sensitive visa files to local police for the
enforcement of complex immigration laws. ACLU Friday February 14,
2003
1117. Liberty: The Patriot Act transforms protesters into
terrorists
if they engage in conduct that "involves acts dangerous to
human life" to "influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion." ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1118. Liberty: The proposed PATRIOT Act II diminishes personal
privacy by: Making it easier for the government to initiate
surveillanc
under the authority of the shadowy, top-secret Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Court. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1119. Liberty: The Patriot Act opens the door to abuse
The Patriot Act gives the Director of Central Intelligence
the power to identify domestic intelligence requirements. That
opens the door to the same abuses that took place in the 1970s and
before, when the CIA engaged in widespread spying on protest
groups and other Americans. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1120. Liberty: The Patriot Act II undermines fundamental
constitutional rights of Americans under over-broad definitions of
"terrorism
if they provide support to unpopular organizations labeled
as terrorist by our government, even if they support only the
lawful activities of such organizations, allowing them to be
indefinitely imprisoned in their own country as undocumented
aliens. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1121. Liberty: Using an over-broad definition of terrorism
that could cover some protest tactics such as those used by
Operation Rescue or protesters at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico as a
new predicate for criminal wiretapping and other electronic
surveillance. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
1122. Liberty: Bush wants TIA prgram to monitor citizens in a
vast, centralized database
The US Senate blocked funding for the Total Information
Awareness program until the Pentagon explains the program and
assesses its impact on civil liberties. The TIA program would
monitor every US citizen in a virtual, centralized grand database.
(Reuters) Global Policy Forum Thursday January 23, 2003
1123. Liberty: US shirks its human rights commitments
The influential Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 blasts
the United States for shirking its human rights commitments in the
name of the war on terror. The report censures the US for
detaining "enemy combatants" without charges, holding closed-door
deportation hearings, and abusing prisoners in Guantnamo Bay in
violation of the Geneva Convention. Global Policy Forum Tuesday
January 14, 2003
1124. Liberty: Administration denies rights to "enemy combatants"
In the administration's view, a citizen held as an enemy
combatant can be detained without charges or judicial review and
has no right to bail or a lawyer. Common Dreams Friday January 10,
2003
1125. Liberty: The Patriot Act places a gag order on librarians
American Booksellers Association Thursday November 14, 2002
1126. Liberty: Bush wants a national ID system, which would allow
tracking citizens movements about the country
CNET Monday July 22, 2002
1127. Liberty: PATRIOT Act gives excessive power to executive
branch
The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
(USA PATRIOT Act) gives excessive power to the executive branch to
determine who is an enemy combatant. Rense Friday June 28, 2002
1128. Race and Class: Fairness drought / Black farmers still seek
justice after win in court
No federal agency should ever be in the position the U.S.
Department of Agriculture is in now. Seven years ago, in a lawsuit
filed by black farmers, the USDA was found to be rife with
discrimination and was ordered to shape up and pay up. But five
years after the landmark court settlement, the department has not
issued payments to nearly 90 percent of the farmers who sought
compensation.
The Bush administration needs to give the farmers what they
deserve. Post-Gazette Tuesday August 10, 2004
1129. Race and Class: Mr. Keyes the Carpetbagger
WHEN PRESIDENT Bush went before the National Urban League
conference two weeks ago, after blowing off the NAACP convention,
he told the largely African American audience: "I know, I know, I
know. Listen, the Republican Party has got a lot of work to do. I
understand that." The truth of the statement has been brought home
dramatically by the unfolding spectacle of the U.S. Senate race in
Illinois. Facing popular Democratic state Sen. Barack Obama on the
November ballot, the Illinois Republican Party -- after its
candidate dropped out because of some sex-related allegations --
has gone out of state in search of a party member to pick up the
GOP flag. That, alone, ought to be humiliating for a major party
in a big state. But then Republicans in the Land of Lincoln -- and
this is the political party that preaches world without end that
it is race-blind and wedded only to merit -- actively sought out
African American candidates to run against Mr. Obama, also an
African American. Cynical you say? Yes, and tokenism, too. But
then they settled on erstwhile senatorial and presidential
candidate and talk show host Alan Keyes of Montgomery County,
Maryland. Illinois Republican machinations, once amusing, are now
absurd. Washington Post Monday August 09, 2004
1130. Race and Class: The hidden issue of class
SOCIAL CLASS is one of the most explosive issues in American
politics. Like any explosive, it can dramatically transform a
landscape -- or blow up in the user's face.
There are far more ordinary wage-earning people than wealthy
investors and corporate moguls, but the political right has done
far better at using class solidarity to its advantage than the
liberal left. Americans like to view their country as a wide-open
land of opportunity. Most consider themselves middle class, and
most are uneasy thinking in terms of class at all. It's the rich
who understand and act on class interests.
The Bush presidency has intensified a trend that began under
Ronald Reagan -- widening inequality that benefited those at the
very top. Boston Globe Wednesday July 21, 2004
1131. Race and Class: Bush's Not-So-Big Tent
Just as George W. Bush is on track to be the first president
since Herbert Hoover to preside over a net loss of jobs, he is now
the first president since Hoover to fail to meet with the
N.A.A.C.P. during his entire term in office.
Mr. Bush and the leadership of the nation's oldest and
largest civil rights organization get along about as well as the
Hatfields and the McCoys. The president was invited to the group's
convention in Philadelphia this week, but he declined.
That Mr. Bush thumbed his nose at N.A.A.C.P. officials is
not the significant part of this story. The Julian Bonds and
Kweisi Mfumes of the world can take care of themselves at least as
well as Mr. Bush in the legalized gang fight called politics.
What is troubling is Mr. Bush's relationship with black
Americans in general. New York Times Friday July 16, 2004
1132. Race and Class: President Declines NAACP Invite to Speak
PHILADELPHIA - President Bush (news - web sites) declined an
invitation to speak at the NAACP's annual convention, the group
said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People expects more than 8,000 people to attend the convention
opening Saturday.
Democratic challenger John Kerry accepted an invitation to
speak next Thursday on the final day of the convention, the NAACP
said. Yahoo News Thursday July 08, 2004
1133. Race and Class: Maybe We Do Need a Draft
With all this talk about a draft, I thought that, as a
professional soldier, I'd throw my two cents worth in.
Let me begin by saying that I'm against a general draft for
a number of reasons. Conscription makes free citizens into slaves
and the property of the state. A draft also gives the state a
large standing army, and having such an army creates too great a
temptation for politicians to use it.
However, I find it patently un-American and unpatriotic to
place the burden of war on a small stratum of society. Anti-War
Saturday June 19, 2004
1134. Race and Class: White House's taxing dilemma
According to the Bush administration, the huge tax cuts of
the past few years - which the White House is now seeking to make
permanent - will ultimately pay for themselves. The idea is that
they will stimulate the economy, in turn raising tax revenues from
other sources to pay off the country's ballooning federal
deficits. However, a report issued this week by an influential
Washington-based bipartisan group disagrees. The Centre on Budget
and Policy Priorities suggests that not only will someone have to
ultimately pay for the tax cuts, but that the lower income sectors
of society will bear the burden. Guardian Friday June 04, 2004
1135. Race and Class: Hindering homeownership
PRESIDENT BUSH has seized on rising homeownership rates as a
major contributor to economic revival and social stability this
spring. "Homeownership in America is at the highest rate ever," he
said to applause recently in Ardmore, Pa. "It's a fantastic
statement to say that, isn't it?" Well, yes, it is. The president
is right to celebrate the good news on homeownership. The nation's
homeownership rate of 68.6 percent has indeed never been higher.
Perhaps most encouragingly, homeownership rates have risen for
Hispanics and blacks, also to a new -- albeit lower -- high. But
there's a problem with Bush's depictions: Historically low
interest rates, rather than federal housing policy, explain this
bright spot in the national economy. Meanwhile, the hard fact is
that the Bush administration has talked a lot about housing issues
and homeownership, but done very little to advance the cause.
Instead, the administration has undermined a slew of policies that
make rental housing -- the steppingstone to homeownership -- more
affordable. Boston Globe Wednesday May 19, 2004
1136. Race and Class: Voucher Case: No Brown Ruling and No
Solution for Failing Schools
President Bush is praising the Supreme Court's recent
decision upholding a Cleveland voucher program against a First
Amendment challenge. He echoes the arguments of voucher supporters
and proclaimed that the ruling was "just as historic" as the
Court's landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision in its
strategy of providing equal opportunity to all children. Here at
the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., we know Brown v.
Board of Education. We litigated Brown. And the Cleveland voucher
case is no Brown. NAACP Monday May 17, 2004
1137. Race and Class: Bush makes it easier for hospitals to refuse
poor patients
The Bush administration is relaxing rules that say hospitals
have to examine and treat people who require emergency medical
care, regardless of their ability to pay. Under the new rule,
which takes effect on Nov. 10, patients might find it more
difficult to obtain certain types of emergency care at some
hospitals or clinics that hospitals own and operate. New York
Times Tuesday September 02, 2003
1138. Race and Class: Growth hasn't trickled down to the middle
class
In the mid-1990s, the United Nations published a report
showing that the U.S. had already become the most class-stratified
society among all the advanced industrial countries. Now, wealth
in the U.S. is even more concentrated in the hands of a few. "It's
remarkable how little growth has trickled down to ordinary
families," [Paul[ Krugman explained. "Median family income has
risen only about 0.5 percent per year--and as far as we can
tell...just about all of that increase was due to wives working
longer hours, with little or no gain in real wages." Socialist
Worker Online Friday August 01, 2003
1139. Race and Class: Bush tax cuts will reduce the tax rate for
the riches, increase it for others
By 2010, assuming the sunset provisions of Bush's tax cuts
don't kick in, all but the top 5% of US taxpayers will see their
share of federal taxes go up, while the top 1% will see a
reduction of 2.7%. The very richest will see their tax rate fall
by 25%. Citizens for Tax Justice Wednesday June 04, 2003
1140. Race and Class: Bush reluctant to condemn racist Republican
Bush was reluctant to condemn Trent Lott's flattering and
thinly disguised racist remarks about Strom Thurmond's career.
Strom was a leading segregationist most of his long life. News &
Letters Saturday February 01, 2003
1141. Race and Class: Bush opposed to Affirmative Action (unless
it benefits him)
They may not have had an explicit point system at Yale in
1964, but Bush clearly got in because of affirmative action.
Affirmative action for the son and grandson of alumni. Affirmative
action for a member of a politically influential family.
Affirmative action for a boy from a fancy prep school. These forms
of affirmative action still go on. CNN Monday January 20, 2003
1142. Race and Class: Bush opposes Affirmative Action program and
U of Michigan
The Bush administration joined the law suit against the
affirmative action program at the University of Michigan. The
Supreme Court eventually ruled in favor of the school. CBS News
Thursday January 16, 2003
1143. Race and Class: Culture wars distract attention from
economic policies
Class warfare around cultural issues. . . distracts
attention from the grubby details about how certain economic
policies may benefit a rather small group of Americans who just
happen to be the wealthiest Americans. Washington Post Tuesday
January 07, 2003
1144. Race and Class: Bush pits the poor against trial lawyers in
health care speech
The president, for example, loves to bash the rich if they
got that way by being trial lawyers. Arguing for limits on medical
malpractice awards in a North Carolina speech last July, Bush told
the story of Jill and Chet Barnes of Las Vegas. Jill is a student
teacher, Bush said, and her husband is a fireman. Because Nevada
had such high malpractice insurance rates, Jill, who was eight
weeks pregnant at the time, was having trouble finding a doctor --
that's got to be really frightening to a young mom -- and
eventually got one by traveling an hour and a half to Arizona. It
didn't take long for Bush to describe the villain of the piece. He
declared that what we want is quality health care, not rich trial
lawyers. Yes, there's a lot to be said about the malpractice
issue. And you felt bad for the young couple. But if setting up a
teacher and a firefighter against rich trial lawyers is not class
warfare, then Karl Marx is the current editor of the Wall Street
Journal's editorial pages. Washington Post Tuesday January 07,
2003
1145. Race and Class: Republicans often attack "the elite"
Republican class warfare is not confined to trial lawyers.
Almost daily, Republicans attack privileged groups: the cultural
elite, the Hollywood elite, the intellectual elite and, of course,
the liberal elite. Washington Post Tuesday January 07, 2003
1146. Race and Class: Bush appoints racially hostile Republicans
to key civil rights positions
Julian Bond was especially harsh on President Bush, saying
he has appointed racially hostile, conservative Republicans to key
civil rights positions, including the voting rights section of the
Department of Justice. Houston Chronicle Friday July 12, 2002
1147. Race and Class: Bush's Justice Department whittled 11,000
election complaints after the 2000 election to five potential
lawsuits
USA Today Tuesday July 09, 2002
1148. Race and Class: Bush nominates extreme right-wing judges,
outraging NAACP
The NAACP is outraged at Bush's nominations of extreme
right-wing judges. BET Friday March 15, 2002
1149. Race and Class: Administration proposes closing AIDS and
race-relations offices, then denies it
White House officials said Wednesday that President Bush
would leave largely intact the AIDS and race-relations offices he
inherited from the Clinton administration--a seeming reversal
after Bush's chief of staff earlier said they would be closed.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and other senior officials,
moving to quell a public relations squall, portrayed Chief of
Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. as having made a mistake when he said the
two task forces would be abolished. AEGIS Thursday February 08,
2001
1150. Race and Class: Bush takes hits for visit to Bob Jones
For George W. Bush, "Bob Jones University" is becoming a
quick phrase that could saddle him with some serious baggage. Bob
Jones University is a Christian school in Greenville, S.C., the
heart of a conservative tract in the state's northwest corner. In
the 1970s, the university lost its tax-exempt status for failing
to admit blacks. To this day, it bans interracial dating and
marriage among students. Bob Jones Jr., the son of the school's
namesake, once labeled the Pope "the antichrist" and the Catholic
church a "Satanic cult." Detroit News Friday February 25, 2000
1151. Social Programs: Leaving more homeless
IF PRESIDENT Bush wants to end homelessness, he should
protect federal rent subsidies. There are no magic carpets that
whisk people out of homelessness, but subsidies work. Poor people
pay 30 percent of their income in rent with a so-called Section 8
voucher, and the federal government pays the rest.
Unfortunately, Bush's 2005 budget proposal is $1.6 billion
below the amount needed to maintain the current level of
assistance and could cause 250,000 households to lose vouchers,
according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a
nonprofit research organization in Washington.
Bush's budget would also distribute voucher funding in block
grants and loosen the rules. This could lead to states requiring
payments of more than 30 percent of income for rent, an impossible
burden for the poorest residents. Boston Globe Tuesday August 10,
2004
1152. Social Programs: Drug plan overlooks middle class
I really regret that my husband and I were not in the
hand-picked audience last month in Liberty to hear President Bush
tout his new Medicare prescription discount card program.
As he spoke, I spent two hours on my computer at the
suggested www.medicare.gov site comparing cards offered by at
least 40 companies. Kansas City Star Friday July 02, 2004
1153. Social Programs: Feds must restore housing funding
WITH MANY Americans still waiting for a recovering economy
to produce jobs, this is an inopportune time to suddenly slash
federal support for low-income housing. But the Bush
administration seems bent on doing just that by launching an
assault on Section 8, the nation's premier housing assistance
program. SF Chronicle Monday June 28, 2004
1154. Social Programs: Bush's compassion is all talk
WITH A Washington Post/ABC News poll showing his job
approval rating for Iraq and the economy below 50 percent for the
fifth straight month, President Bush returned to campaign ploys
that softened up voters in the 2000 elections.
In a speech this week at a Cincinnati social service center
that specializes in prisoner re-entry and alcohol and drug
addiction, Bush talked anew about armies of compassion. He was
back to pushing faith-based initiatives. He exhumed his education
mantra of "challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. If
you've got low expectations, you're going to get lousy results."
Boston Globe Friday June 25, 2004
1155. Social Programs: Fiscal Shenanigans
President Bush appears to be planning to run for re-election
as a tax cutter without discussing what federal programs will be
sacrificed to make up for the lost revenue. That can't be allowed
to happen. Voters have the right to see the whole picture,
including the downside. Chances are they won't like the view.
While Mr. Bush has been out crowing about spending increases in
some popular programs, his Office of Management and Budget was
instructing federal departments to prepare to pare them down. In a
May 19 memo that was first reported in The Washington Post,
departments were told to trim domestic discretionary spending in
2006, the first complete fiscal year after the November election.
And the administration recently submitted legislation to impose
caps that would result in further reductions in every year after
that through 2009. NY Times Thursday June 03, 2004
1156. Social Programs: And slashing funds at home
PRESIDENT Bush loves to say things like, "When an American
president speaks, he better speak with authority, clarity, and
certainty. And when he does speak, he better mean it." If he means
it about a recent memo, there are mean days ahead for millions of
Americans if he is reelected. Last week The Washington Post
reported that it had obtained a May 19 White House memo that
directs officials of domestic programs to brace for cuts in 2006.
The reason is transparent. Bush's invasion and occupation of Iraq
has so badly blown up in his face that the only way he can keep
his tax cuts to the wealthy and face his fellow conservatives on
overall spending is to rob other programs. Boston Globe Wednesday
June 02, 2004
1157. Social Programs: 2006 Cuts In Domestic Spending On Table
The White House put government agencies on notice this month
that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may
include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of
domestic programs, including education, homeland security and
others that the president backed in this campaign year. Washington
Post Thursday May 27, 2004
1158. Social Programs: White House Trumpets Programs It Tried to
Cut
WASHINGTON, May 18 -- Like many of its predecessors, the
Bush White House has used the machinery of government to promote
the re-election of the president by awarding federal grants to
strategically important states. But in a twist this election
season, many administration officials are taking credit for
spreading largess through programs that President Bush tried to
eliminate or to cut sharply. NY Times Tuesday May 18, 2004
1159. Social Programs: Killing Off Housing for the Poor
The Bush administration's tax cuts for the well-to-do have
taken a heavy toll on the nation's most important social programs
for the poor and working class. Prominent casualties include child
care assistance for working mothers and federal aid for needy
college students. The latest victim appears to be Section 8, the
government's main housing program for the poor. The program
provides rent subsidies for two million of the country's most
vulnerable families and encourages private developers to build
affordable housing. NY Times Monday May 10, 2004
1160. Social Programs: Rent controls
CONGRESS thwarted the Bush administration's last attempt to
re-engineer the rent voucher, a linchpin of housing assistance for
the poor. So it should surprise no one that the block grant
proposal is back in a more odious form, just in time for campaign
season. Local housing authorities could do more with less if freed
from cumbersome regulation, the administration theorizes. Under
the new proposal, local agencies would control the program, but on
a shrinking budget. The president's 2005 budget proposal would in
effect cut at least $1.6 billion from the Section 8 program, and
also projects slashing funding about 30 percent by 2009, housing
officials and advocates estimate. Baltimore Sun Friday April 23,
2004
1161. Social Programs: Housing Aid Needs Shelter
It's not surprising that one of the first federal programs
on the chopping block this year is Section 8, the rental
assistance program. Its recipients, some of the nation's most
socially disenfranchised people, have little lobbying clout in
Washington. Created as a Depression-era safety net in 1937 and
expanded by the first Bush administration in 1990, the nation's
primary effort to help the poor find and pay for housing serves
nearly 2 million families nationwide. They pay 30% of their
incomes on rent, usually in private housing, and the government
subsidizes the rest. LA Times Monday April 05, 2004
1162. Social Programs: Senate Backs More Child Care Money for
Welfare Recipients
WASHINGTON, March 30 -- In a direct rebuff to the White
House, the Senate voted today to increase the amount of money
available to provide child care to welfare recipients, who would
be subject to stricter work requirements under sweeping welfare
legislation favored by President Bush and Congressional leaders.
The vote, 78 to 20, expressed broad bipartisan support for a
proposal to add a total of $6 billion to child care programs over
the next five years, beyond the additional $1 billion already
included in the bill. The federal government now earmarks $4.8
billion a year for such child care assistance. The vote came one
day after the Bush administration expressed its objections to
increasing the child care grant, saying in a written statement
that it was not needed. NY Times Tuesday March 30, 2004
1163. Social Programs: Squeezing the Poor for Votes
Destructive fine print is showing through the budgetary
bandwagon President Bush has designed for his re-election drive.
It turns out that hundreds of thousands of poor and low-income
families will lose child care and housing assistance if the
administration's ballyhooed spending cuts take effect. In trying
to campaign as a late-blooming fiscal disciplinarian, the
president is making a show of marking 128 programs -- count 'em,
G.O.P. budget hawks, 128 -- for elimination or cutbacks in many
vital social service areas. As if they are at the heart of the
administration's rolling deficits, which threaten the nation's
economic future. NY Times Wednesday February 18, 2004
1164. Social Programs: An Assault on Housing Vouchers
The Bush administration, which created a record budget
deficit partly through tax cuts for the rich, is threatening to
make up some of the difference by cutting desperately needed
programs aimed at the poor. One candidate for the chopping block
is Section 8, the federal rent-subsidy program whose main purpose
is preventing low-income families from becoming homeless. The
Section 8 voucher program subsidizes families who rent apartments
in the private market. The renters, most of whom live at or below
the poverty level, pay 30 percent of their incomes toward rent,
and the voucher covers the remainder. NY Times Tuesday January 20,
2004
1165. Social Programs: Heartless
Marriage Plans The Bush administration's idea of spending
$1.5 billion promoting marriage is one of those rather expensive
but basically symbolic gestures that presidents like to make in
election years. Mr. Bush's advisers may also hope that it will
divert social conservatives from pressing for a constitutional
amendment banning gay marriages. But as meaningless sops to
powerful voting blocs go, this one is particularly cruel. The
whole idea of encouraging poor people to get married and stay
married through classes and counseling sessions ignores the main
reason that stable wedlock is rare in inner cities: the epidemics
of joblessness and incarceration that have stripped those
communities of what social scientists call "marriageable" men.
Women in poor neighborhoods may find bitter amusement in the idea
that they need the government's encouragement to search for a
husband, or that conflict resolution courses are the way to shore
up troubled unions between two poor people. NY Times Saturday
January 17, 2004
1166. Social Programs: Bush's Budget for 2005 Cuts Domestic
Programs
The president's proposed budget for the 2005 fiscal year,
which begins Oct. 1, would control the rising cost of housing
vouchers for the poor, require some veterans to pay more for
health care, slow the growth in spending on biomedical research
and merge or eliminate some job training and employment programs.
Total federal revenues have declined for three consecutive years,
apparently the first time that has happened since the early
1920's. But in those years, from 2000 to 2003, total federal
spending has increased slightly more than 20 percent, to $2.16
trillion last year. NY Times Saturday January 03, 2004
1167. Social Programs: Hungry and Homeless Hearts
The economy may be generally robust, but hungry and homeless
Americans haven't yet felt the good news. A report released last
week by the United States Conference of Mayors shows that both
unemployment and a lack of affordable housing have driven up the
number of requests for emergency food and shelter this year. This
news tracks with the findings of other hunger-relief agencies. CS
Monitor Tuesday December 23, 2003
1168. Social Programs: States Cut Health Spending on the Poor
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than 1.2 million low-income
Americans, including 500,000 children, have lost health coverage
as a result of state cutbacks in programs for the poor, according
to a new study by a liberal Washington think tank. AP Friday
December 19, 2003
1169. Social Programs: Stalking the Giant Chicken Coop
Today President Bush will sign into law a prescription drug
benefit under Medicare that will introduce the first cold drafts
of bitter reality to the G.O.P.'s long dream of dismantling
Medicare as we've known it. NY Times Monday December 08, 2003
1170. Social Programs: $400 Billion For Medicare Delivers Little
The sad part is that Congress could have done better.
Moderate Democrats like me, and many Republicans as well, were
anxious to support a bill that provided a prescription drug
benefit to seniors, not to drug companies. We would have voted for
a bill that strengthens Medicare, not privatizes it. We would have
supported a bill that reduces costs to seniors instead of
guaranteeing rising stock prices for drug companies. Rep. Steve
Israel (D-Huntington) represents the 2nd Congressional District.
Newsday Wednesday November 26, 2003
1171. Social Programs: The rush to kill Medicare
THE BUSH administration's Medicare bill is a calculated
first step toward ending universal Medicare in favor of vouchers.
President Bush and his congressional allies have deftly baited
this hook with meager prescription drug benefits. With legislators
wanting to go home for Thanksgiving, the White House hopes to
force a vote by this weekend. The haste is understandable: The
more this cynical bill is exposed, the less legislators will fear
voting against it. Boston Globe Thursday November 20, 2003
1172. Social Programs: Critics blast Bush on proposed housing cuts
U.S. lawmakers and fair-housing advocates criticized the
Bush administration Monday for proposing to eliminate hundreds of
millions of dollars to rebuild public housing while sending $87
billion in aid to Iraq. Daily Southtown Tuesday November 11, 2003
1173. Social Programs: Number of Hungry Families in U.S. Rising
WASHINGTON (AP) -- About 12 million American families last
year worried that they couldn't afford to buy food, and 32 percent
of them actually experienced someone going hungry at one time or
another, the Agriculture Department said Friday. It was the third
year in a row that the department has seen an increase in the
number of households experiencing hunger and those worried about
having enough money to pay for food. NY Times Friday October 31,
2003
1174. Social Programs: Bush wants to limit payments for pain and
suffering
President Bush came out with some recent proposals that fall
into our area of expertise. He wishes to limit medical malpractice
recoveries for non-economic damages (pain and suffering and
disability) to $250,000.00. Bush will not attack the interests
that fund his campaign. Consumer Affairs Friday September 19, 2003
1175. Social Programs: GOP Joins Dems, Vets Against Benefit Cuts
Senior Republicans on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee
have joined Democrats and veterans groups in a chorus of protest
against proposals being considered by the Bush administration to
shrink the number of military personnel who qualify for disability
benefits. AP Friday September 12, 2003
1176. Social Programs: Teach for America program cut
George and Laura Bush had gushed over Teach for America.
Surely it would be protected. Besides, the education grants were
so modest, the need so undeniable. Our nation does not exactly
have a surplus of well-educated, enthusiastic people willing to
teach in the most-distressed schools. How wrong I was. Even the
acclaimed Teach for America has not been spared from the
thoughtless politics in Washington right now. Philly News Sunday
August 31, 2003
1177. Social Programs: Bush weakens Head Start
The Bush administration and its foot soldiers in the House
are playing politics with one of America's most successful
programs for low-income families. For the first time, Head Start
reauthorization is being discussed without its historic bipartisan
support. The administration is using state flexibility as a guise
to weaken crucial protections for poor children in Head Start --
just as it is doing for many other programs, such as Medicaid,
foster care and Section 8 housing. Tom Paine Friday July 25, 2003
1178. Social Programs: Republicans cut veterans benefits day after
Iraq war begins
"It is shameful that less than 24 hours after the first
shots were fired in Iraq, House Republicans were trying to cut $28
billion in health care and disability benefits for military
veterans to pay for another huge tax cut for our wealthiest
citizens," said Edwards, a member of the Budget Committee.
Congressman Chet Edwards Friday March 21, 2003
1179. Social Programs: Medicare drug benefit is boon for drug
companies
Health care economists said the drug benefit President Bush
proposed for Medicare yesterday would be a bonanza for the
pharmaceutical and managed-care industries, both of which are huge
donors to Republicans. Washington Post Wednesday March 05, 2003
1180. Social Programs: What the administration really wants is to
privatize Medicare
This means that seniors would be herded into HMOs. The
federal government's annual contribution would be capped. If you
couldn't afford decent HMO coverage (if there is such a thing),
too bad. This strategy neatly serves two conservative purposes.
First, privatize everything possible. Second, cut federal social
outlays, the better to finance tax cuts for upper brackets. Common
Dreams Wednesday March 05, 2003
1181. Social Programs: After-school services for children and
youth would be cut by nearly $400 million
in FY 2004 requiring school and community groups to drop
approximately 570,000 children from after-school activities under
the 21 st Century Community Learning Centers Program next year.
The administration's budget for this program is more than $1
billion below the level promised in the President's No Child Left
Behind education bill. The administration offers this proposal at
a time when 7 million children are left home alone and
unsupervised on a regular basis often during after school hours
when youths are at greatest risk of substance abuse and juvenile
crime. Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1182. Social Programs: Budget makes it more difficult for children
to get free lunches
The Bush administration's budget proposes to increase the
documentation required to enroll certain children in the free or
reduced price School Lunch and School Breakfast programs. It will
make it harder for many children in low income working families
who are not eligible for TANF or Food Stamps to get nutritious
meals at school. National school lunch studies in the past have
found that three-quarters of families that did not respond to
requests for documentation were indeed eligible. Children's
Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1183. Social Programs: Budget cuts funding for teacher quality
improvements
The administration's budget also cuts $81 million from
programs to improve state and local teacher quality despite the
fact that teacher quality is perhaps the single most important
factor in closing the achievement gap between low and high income
children -- a stated goal of the President's education reform
plan. Students in low income, high minority schools are
consistently served by unqualified or underqualified teachers.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1184. Social Programs: Bush cuts counseling, dropout prevention,
and drug-free program funds
The Elementary and Secondary School Counseling Program and
the Dropout Prevention Program would be eliminated and the grant
program to help migrant students get high school diplomas or
equivalency degrees is cut by over 40 percent. A $50 million cut
is proposed for the State Safe and Drug Free Schools program.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1185. Social Programs: Bush budget increases the deficit
The Bush administration's budget worsens the federal budget
deficit, greatly increases the nation's debt, and passes the
mortgage onto the next generation. The Bush administration cuts
back on the very investments that help children grow into strong,
productive and prosperous adults, yet pursues tax policies and
budget choices that will saddle these same children with mountains
of debt and higher taxes. The Concord Coalition, a group of
respected economists and national leaders, recently asked: "Are we
really cutting taxes or just raising them on our kids?" Children's
Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1186. Social Programs: Bush cuts programs for children of
incarcerated parents
And the President did not mention that he also proposes to
eliminate a number of programs now reaching some of these very
same children. Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1187. Social Programs: Bush eliminates Juvenile Accountability
Incentive Block Grant
The Bush administration budget also eliminates the Juvenile
Accountability Incentive Block Grant which has provided funds to
rehabilitate juvenile offenders. With bipartisan support, Congress
acted to significantly strengthen this program last year.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1188. Social Programs: Bush cuts in dividend taxes will reduce
state revenue by $23 billion
Because of linkages between federal and state taxes, federal
tax cuts have added to the loss of state revenue. The
administration's proposal to eliminate personal income taxation on
dividends, for example, would make things worse by reducing state
revenues by $23 billion over the next five years. Children's
Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1189. Social Programs: Bush tax cuts overwhelmingly favor the
richest Americans
The Bush administration's budget moves revenues into the
pockets of the richest Americans and away from a broad range of
services and supports for low- and moderate-income working
families. New tax cuts come on top of the $1.3 trillion tax cut
enacted in 2001 (which will provide 52 percent of its benefits to
the top one percent of taxpayers with average incomes over a
million dollars when fully phased in). The 2004 budget includes a
new round of tax cuts totaling a whopping $1.5 trillion over the
next 10 years. Just a few of the new tax cut provisions will give
the richest one percent of Americans an average of $30,000 each.
On the other hand, a person in the bottom fifth of taxpayers will
get only $6 from the same set of tax cuts. Children's Defense Fund
Friday February 21, 2003
1190. Social Programs: Bush tax cuts lead to states fiscal crises
The fiscal crisis facing states is severe. States are seeing
deeper deficits than they have for at least 50 years. Analysts
predict that budget shortfalls could total between $70 and $85
billion for fiscal year 2004 representing between 14.5 percent and
18 percent of all state expenditures. Among other causes of this
crisis, 43 states made large tax cuts between 1994 and 2001,
resulting in a $40 billion annual net loss of state tax revenue.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1191. Social Programs: Bush reneges on promise to increase funding
for mentoring program
President Bush announced in his State of the Union Address
that he was providing $450 million for mentors for junior high
school students and children whose parents are incarcerated -- a
laudable goal. In fact, the budget provides only $150 million.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1192. Social Programs: CHIP funding cut
The Bush budget also fails to restore $1.2 billion of the
Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) fund Children's Defense
Council Friday February 21, 2003
1193. Social Programs: Child care services for low income children
would be frozen in place for another five years.
While only one in seven children eligible for federal child
care assistance currently gets it, this funding freeze will cause
approximately 30,000 low income children to lose child care help
in FY 2004. Further, the Bush administration's budget acknowledges
it would drop at least 200,000 children from child care over the
next five years. These cutbacks are on top of the 30,000 children
who will be dropped from child care in FY 2003 as a result of the
across-the-board cuts in federal spending for child care and other
children's services. Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21,
2003
1194. Social Programs: Federal budget cutbacks hinder state
programs, placing children and adults in peril
Federal budget cutbacks exacerbate state reductions in
children's services. States already have been forced to cut back
funding for child care assistance, while the need for services and
waiting lists grow. State reductions in Medicaid also are placing
both children and adults in peril, and the safety valve provided
by federal dollars in the past will not be available. Although the
proposed Medicaid CHIP block grant will provide states with
increased funding in the initial years, funds will decrease in
later years and leave states with a permanent cap on federal aid.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1195. Social Programs: Even Start funding reduced
Even Start, which provides literacy help to at-risk children
and families, is cut by $75 million, while Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) pre-school grants for children
with disabilities are frozen. Children's Defense Fund Friday
February 21, 2003
1196. Social Programs: Documentation requirements increased for
low income taxpayers
The Internal Revenue Service would single out some
low-income families and require them to provide additional
documentation in order to receive the Earned Income Tax Credit
(EITC). Extra documentation requirements may deter many of these
families from getting the EITC help for which they are eligible.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1197. Social Programs: Foster care weakened
The Bush administration also proposes to block grant foster
care in order to give states increased flexibility to invest in
alternative prevention services. In this case, the administration
claims to be maintaining core protections and accountability
procedures for vulnerable children, but few details are available.
Without increased resources, strong protections, a guarantee of a
safe home, and a clear commitment to respond when foster care
caseloads escalate, children could be harmed by such a proposal.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1198. Social Programs: Head Start to be dismantled and given to
states
Head Start, the premier early childhood program for
disadvantaged preschoolers, would be dismantled and sent to the
states under the Bush administration's budget without the
performance standards that are the core of the program's success.
The administration's untested experiment gambles with the future
of nearly 1 million children. Further, the FY 2004 funding for
Head Start barely covers the cost of inflation. Children's Defense
Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1199. Social Programs: Housing voucher program weakened
The Bush administration's budget also proposes to turn the
Section 8 housing voucher program into a block grant administered
by the states. Further, the administration would impose new
program requirements that states charge a minimum of $50 a month
for rent, no matter how low the family's income. In a sign that
the administration uses state flexibility as a guise for cutbacks,
states would be denied the flexibility to exempt families from the
new minimum charge, and would instead be required to get approval
from Washington to do so. Children's Defense Fund Friday February
21, 2003
1200. Social Programs: No new funds for welfare to work services
Ignoring the fact that the number of children and families
in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in
the states has started to rise, the administration once again
proposes no new funding for welfare-to-work services while
increasing the required hours of work and the proportion of
parents who must participate. Children's Defense Fund Friday
February 21, 2003
1201. Social Programs: Low-income children's health care
jeopardized
Comprehensive health care services for low-income children
will be jeopardized by the Bush administration's radical plan to
merge the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid
into a new block grant. The plan will give states unprecedented
latitude to scale back coverage of necessary health care for
children and to impose substantial cost-sharing requirements on
low-income families that could restrict their access to care.
Children's Defense Fund Friday February 21, 2003
1202. Social Programs: NCLB underfunded
The Bush administration budget requests far less than needed
to effectively implement the President's underfunded No Child Left
Behind Act. For example, the budget falls $6.15 billion short of
the $18.5 billion planned for Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act under the President's education bill.
Title I is the largest source of federal education aid to
disadvantaged youth and was the centerpiece of the President's
education reform program. Children's Defense Fund Friday February
21, 2003
1203. Social Programs: Bush undermines Medicare and Medicaid
In the guise of extending benefits and making programs more
flexible, the Bush administration is proposing changes that would
effectively undermine both Medicare and Medicaid, the two large
federal health care programs that provide services to the elderly
and to the poor, respectively. WSWS Friday February 14, 2003
1204. Social Programs: HUD budget fails to address serious housing
problems
The Bush Administration's proposed FY2004 budget for the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fails to address
the nation's most serious housing problems; threatens existing
housing resources; and radically restructures the housing choice
voucher program, the nation's most successful housing assistance
program. National Low-Income Housing Coalition Saturday February
01, 2003
1205. Social Programs: Bush wants to privatize Social Security
Notwithstanding the topsy-turvy stock market, the collapse
of high-tech companies, and the notorious Enron debacle, which has
left thousands of current and former employees and retirees
without retirement savings, the President remains firmly committed
to his goal of privatizing Social Security. AFL-CIO Thursday
December 05, 2002
1206. Social Programs: Bush pushes more religious involvement in
social programs
Wading deeper into the church-and-state debate, Bush wants
to further his program to help religious groups win government
contracts to administer social programs such as soup kitchens and
rehabilitation programs for drug addicts and alcoholics.
Washington Post Monday November 25, 2002
1207. Social Programs: Bush bars escape route for poor, abused
women
Two-parent families look good for children because two
incomes mean less poverty. Raising the minimum wage to a livable
wage would do more than any of Bush's gifts to his capitalist
friends to raise women and their children out of poverty. What
Bush and his marriage-happy (except if that marriage is between
those of the same sex) extremist friends ignore is the growing
body of science that shows that poor women, and women on welfare,
suffer much more abuse than wealthier women, with a rate of
violence 3.5 times higher than those with incomes above $40,000.
For many women, leaving an abusive relationship was the true
pathway to independence. Bush, with his Promise Keepers mentality,
would like to bar this escape route for the country's poorest
women. News & Letters Sunday June 02, 2002
1208. Social Programs: Bush denies legal protection for welfare
recipients
The Bush proposal also contains a specific provision aimed
at denying welfare recipients legal protection accorded most
workers. Bush's bill states that welfare payments are not
considered wages for recipients who are working in workfare
programs; that is, working for their welfare checks. WSWS Friday
March 15, 2002
1209. Social Programs: 150,000 lose welfare because of Bush
imposed time limits
The Bush plan does not lift the five-year lifetime limit for
welfare benefits imposed in 1996. One study conducted by the
National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support found that 150,000
families have already had their benefits reduced or permanently
terminated as a result of the five-year limit. WSWS Friday March
15, 2002
1210. Social Programs: Bush proposes $135 million for unproven
abstinence education
The plan also includes $135 million for abstinence
education. Abstinence is the surest way and the only completely
effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancies and sexually
transmitted diseases,; Bush said. When our children face a choice
between self-restraint and self-destruction, government should not
be neutral. WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1211. Social Programs: Bush allocates $300 million to get single
moms to wed
In a nod to his right-wing supporters, Bush is also
proposing a $300 million program to encourage single mothers to
marry and stop what he calls the problem of non-material births.;
According to Bush several of the nation's leading domestic
problems,; including violence and childhood poverty, are caused by
single mothers having children—not by low wages, poor hours, lack
of affordable quality childcare and youth programs, or the lack of
transportation, job training and continuing education. WSWS Friday
March 15, 2002
1212. Social Programs: Bush increases child support penalties for
poor fathers
Bush's bill further criminalizes poor fathers by adding
stiffer provisions for the collection of child support. WSWS
Friday March 15, 2002
1213. Social Programs: Bush makes no allowance for welfare
recipients working low-wage jobs
Bush rejected several proposals that would have allowed
states to stop the clock; for recipients who are working but
because of their low wages still receive some welfare benefits.
WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1214. Social Programs: Bush sets time limit for welfare, freezes
funding
In addition to the increased work requirement, the Bush
proposal maintains the five-year lifetime limit, prevents millions
of immigrants from receiving welfare or food stamps for five years
and freezes funding at $16.6 billion, what it has been since 1996.
WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1215. Social Programs: Bush rejects minimum wage for workers on
welfare
Administration officials initially said welfare recipients
doing community service, including tasks like cleaning up parks
and helping out in offices, would not be covered under the Fair
Labor Standards Act, which sets the national minimum wage at $5.15
an hour. It's intended to give them some work experience and give
them an understanding of work,; said Andrew Bush, a welfare
official in the US Department of Health and Human Services. That
is not something that should be subject to minimum wage laws. WSWS
Friday March 15, 2002
1216. Social Programs: TANF block grants allow states to cut taxes
for wealthy
The bill will also grant states more freedom in using TANF
block grants for other social programs besides those for the poor.
In effect, this allows TANF money to replace general fund money so
that states can grant further tax cuts for businesses and the
wealthy. WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1217. Social Programs: Poor incomes for those forced off welfare
For those who have found jobs, living standards are not much
better and, in many cases, worse than when they were on welfare.
According to a study conducted by the Urban Institute, the
majority of those who were forced off welfare only earn an average
of $7.15 an hour, and most work less than 40 hours a week. WSWS
Friday March 15, 2002
1218. Social Programs: State welfare officials say Bush proposal
unworkable
Welfare officials in many states have argued these goals
cannot be met and would force a costly overhaul of state programs.
WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1219. Social Programs: Welfare proposal requires teen moms to work
40 hours
Teenage mothers will be required to work the same 40-hour
week unless they stay in school. However, most schools do not have
programs or facilities to handle the needs of young mothers. WSWS
Friday March 15, 2002
1220. Social Programs: Vindictive welfare policy keeps 132,000
children from receiving benefits
Other provisions of Bush's bill will maintain the vindictive
policy which bars anyone convicted of a drug offense from
obtaining welfare. 92,000 women and 132,000 children are prevented
from receiving any assistance because of this policy. WSWS Friday
March 15, 2002
1221. Social Programs: Work requirements vastly increased for
welfare recipients
At the heart of the [Bush Welfare] plan are provisions that
vastly increase work requirements already part of the welfare
system. It would raise the percentage of welfare clients who must
hold jobs from 50 percent to 70 percent and increase their
workweek from 30 hours to 40 hours. WSWS Friday March 15, 2002
1222. Social Programs: Bush opposes Affirmative Action at U
Michigan
President Bush's decision urging the Supreme Court to rule
against the University of Michigan's affirmative action program is
the latest evidence that his administration's policies on civil
rights and equal opportunity bear no relation to its rhetoric.
People for the American Way Wednesday January 16, 2002
1223. Social Programs: Bush proposal allows faith-based
discrimination
The American Civil Liberties Union today strongly criticized
the latest revision of President George W. Bush's faith-based
legislation. The ACLU called the changes in the bill's language,
made at the behest of skeptical Republicans, even more dangerous
for civil rights and religious autonomy in America. "It may be
hard to believe, but the Administration has actually made this
bill even worse," said Terri Schroeder, an ACLU Legislative
Counsel. "If this new version were to become law, faith-based
discrimination against people in need would become the norm. The
changes can in no way be called a compromise." ACLU Thursday June
28, 2001
1224. Terrorism: The 9/11 unstated indictment
As the price of bipartisan unanimity, the 9/11 Commission
Report assiduously avoids apportioning blame to individuals, or
naming names. But no one who has actually read the report can miss
its searing indictment. The text of the report documents in
devastating detail the failures of President Bush to defend
Americans from the next terrorist attack.
While the report falls silent when it reaches the point of
issuing an explicit indictment, the bill of particulars it
presents stretches from to A to Z. According to the commissioners
(five Republicans and five Democrats) the Bush administration's
so-called "War on Terrorism" has failed:
To identify the enemy clearly. According to the commission,
terrorism is a tactic; the real enemy is not terrorism, but
Islamic extremists and their roots in an ideology that twists
minds and inspires suicide bombings. Seattle PI Tuesday August 10,
2004
1225. Terrorism: Mr. Bush's Wrong Solution
At a time when Americans need strong leadership and bold
action, President Bush offered tired nostrums and bureaucratic
half-measures yesterday. He wanted to appear to be embracing the
recommendations of the 9/11 commission, but he actually rejected
the panel's most significant ideas, and thus missed a chance to
confront the twin burdens he faces at this late point in his term:
the need to get intelligence reform moving whether he's re-elected
or not, and the equally urgent need to repair the government's
credibility on national security. New York Times Tuesday August
03, 2004
1226. Torture: Making Torture Legal
Reading through the memoranda written by Bush administration
lawyers on how prisoners of the "war on terror" can be treated is
a strange experience. The memos read like the advice of a mob
lawyer to a mafia don on how to skirt the law and stay out of
prison. Avoiding prosecution is literally a theme of the
memoranda. Americans who put physical pressure on captives can
escape punishment if they can show that they did not have an
"intent" to cause "severe physical or mental pain or suffering."
And "a defendant could negate a showing of specific intent...by
showing that he had acted in good faith that his conduct would not
amount to the acts prohibited by the statute." NY Books Tuesday
June 29, 2004
1227. War: The Nuclear Shadow
If a 10-kiloton terrorist nuclear weapon explodes beside the
New York Stock Exchange or the U.S. Capitol, or in Times Square,
as many nuclear experts believe is likely in the next decade, then
the next 9/11 commission will write a devastating critique of how
we allowed that to happen.
As I wrote in my last column, there is a general conviction
among many experts - though, in fairness, not all - that nuclear
terrorism has a better-than-even chance of occurring in the next
10 years. Such an attack could kill 500,000 people.
Yet U.S. politicians have utterly failed to face up to the
danger. New York Times Saturday August 14, 2004
1228. War: Najaf assault turns allies against US
Former US ally and president of the Iraqi Governing Council
(IGC), Muhammad Bahr al-Ulum,Ýhas lost faith inÝthe US-led
occupation.
When the USÝwanted a Shia cleric to strengthen the
credibility of the IGC, it turned toÝBahr al-Ulum, whose family
had lost many members for opposing Saddam Hussein.
But watching his hometown of Najaf come under US bombardment
to crush Muqtada al-Sadr and his supporters, Bahr al-Ulum has lost
faith in US intentions towards Iraq, and says millions of
moderates like him, who welcomed last year's invasion, now regard
Washington as an enemy. Al Jazeera Saturday August 14, 2004
1229. War: 'Star Wars': Pie in the Sky
SOUTH POMFRET, Vt. ã This year, more than two decades after
President Reagan delivered his "Star Wars" speech and initiated a
crusade to protect America against missile attacks, the United
States will finally deploy the first component of a national
missile defense.
If ever there was a case of wasted defense spending, missile
defense is it. LA Times Saturday August 14, 2004
1230. War: US Winning Najaf Battle, Losing Iraq War
Once again, U.S. armed forces appear on the verge of winning
a decisive military victory in Iraq ‚ this time in the holy city
of Najaf. And once again, they appear closer to losing the larger
wars for a stable and friendly Iraq and for an Islamic world that
will cease producing anti-U.S. terrorism.
That is the rapidly growing concern of Middle East and
Islamic specialists as U.S. Marines, after a week of fighting,
captured virtually all of central Najaf on Thursday, including the
home of Mehdi Army leader Moqtada al-Sadr, and launched a final
siege of the Imam Ali mosque, which is considered the world's
holiest shrine by some 120 million Shi'ite Muslims.
Even as the military commanders and Iraq's interim
president, Iyad Allawi, debate whether to wait out Sadr and his
armed followers, who are believed to be inside the shrine, or to
invade its precincts ‚ preferably with Iraqi troops ‚ the end
result is not likely to work in Washington's favor, according to
most experts here. Anti-War Friday August 13, 2004
1231. War: Rumsfeld and Bush Failed Us on Sept. 11
Donald Rumsfeld, one of the chief opponents of investing
real power over purse and personnel in a new national intelligence
chief, told the 9/11 commission that an intelligence czar would do
the nation "a great disservice." It is fair to ask what kind of
service Rumsfeld provided on the day the nation was under
catastrophic attack.
"Two planes hitting the twin towers did not rise to the
level of Rumsfeld's leaving his office and going to the War Room?
How can that be?" asked Mindy Kleinberg, one of the widows known
as the Jersey Girls, whose efforts helped create and guide the
9/11 commission. LA Times Friday August 13, 2004
1232. War: Muslims livid over 'horrifying' U.S. attacks in Shiite
holy city
TEHRAN, Iran -- The U.S. military advance into Iraq's holy
city of Najaf to crush a Shiite rebel uprising aroused anger and
frustration among Shiite Muslims abroad yesterday, with many
blaming the United States for what they described as an
intentional and brutal humiliation by a foreign occupation force
that would provoke outrage if any holy shrines were destroyed.
In neighboring Iran, where the majority of the population is
Shiite, the reaction was particularly vitriolic, with the Foreign
Ministry denouncing the U.S. forces amassed in and around Najaf as
"inhumane and horrifying." Hundreds of Iraqis have been killed in
Najaf fighting over the past week. Seattle PI Friday August 13,
2004
1233. War: A catalogue of violations
Human rights violations in Iraq are a prime example of the
magnitude of the injustice dual standards have inflicted on the
Iraqi people. The history of modern Iraq, from its establishment
following World War II to the present day, is the story of a human
catastrophe in which structural and functional imbalances have
invariably bred deviant human rights behaviour among the rulers,
and not infrequently among the ruled. This article will attempt to
shed some light on the forms of human rights abuses under the
US-British occupation of Iraq. Al-Ahram Thursday August 12, 2004
1234. War: Diplomacy sidelined as US targets Iran
The US charge sheet against Iran is lengthening almost by
the day, presaging destabilising confrontations this autumn and
maybe a pre-election October surprise.
The Bush administration is piling on the pressure over
Iran's alleged nuclear weapons programme. It maintains Tehran's
decision to resume building uranium centrifuges wrecked a
long-running EU-led dialogue and is proof of bad faith.
The US will ask a meeting of the International Atomic Energy
Agency on September 13 to declare Iran in breach of the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty, a prelude to seeking punitive UN
sanctions. Guardian Tuesday August 10, 2004
1235. War: Wounded Soldiers Are Adapting to Altered Lives
Archie Staley sat on a silver stool in a small office in the
depths of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and stared straight into
the eyes of Vince A. Przybyla Jr.
Staley is 20 years old, a U.S. Army tank driver with a quick
wit and an accent lush with the tones of the mountains of western
North Carolina, where he grew up. Staley was nearly killed when a
mortar round exploded and blew him 15 feet into the air on a
roadside north of Baghdad on Easter Sunday. He lost his left eye
and his face was crushed, burned and scarred by shrapnel, which
also pierced his neck, cutting his carotid artery.
Every war has its toll, measured in stark numbers
representing those who are killed and wounded. But the numbers
don't show the emotional toll of war, the impact each death has on
families and the life changes forced on those who suddenly find
themselves without a leg to walk on, a hand to button a shirt or
lace a shoe, or a lung to catch a breath. Washington Post Tuesday
August 10, 2004
1236. War: Back Home, Disabled Vets Fight Injuries, Red Tape
MANASSAS PARK, Va. ã The yellow ribbons are faded and
fraying outside the neatly appointed house where Jay Briseno lies
tethered to a respirator, his nearly motionless, 21-year-old body
a shrunken shadow of the young man who last year went marching off
to war.
Shot in the back of the neck in Baghdad on a sweltering
afternoon in June 2003, Briseno was rushed with all the speed and
efficiency the Army could muster to one hospital after another,
brought back from multiple heart attacks and strokes.
But Briseno isn't a soldier anymore. He is a veteran, facing
a lifetime of excruciating disability. The efficient war-fighting
machine he was a part of has moved on. His care is left to his
parents and sisters, who, bent over his bed day and night, are
struggling to adjust.
For Briseno and his family ã as for thousands of others
wounded in the Iraq war ã the transition from the life they knew
as soldiers to a future as disabled veterans is filled with
frustration and pain. The military is more efficient than ever in
treating its wounded. But after the battle-scarred leave Army
hospitals, they often find themselves on their own in an
unfamiliar and difficult-to-navigate thicket of benefits and
services. LA Times Sunday August 08, 2004
1237. War: Iran intent on being a nuclear threat
The invasion of Iraq, which President George Bush has often
said would help stabilize the Middle East, is now hindering
efforts to deal with a real nuclear threat: Iran. Despite its
ritualistic denials, Iran gives every indication of building all
the essential elements of a nuclear weapons program. And while the
United States has hoped to pressure Iran into halting that
program, the government in Tehran has clearly concluded that it
has little to fear for now from an American government whose
diplomatic credibility has been damaged and whose military
capacities have been stretched by the war in Iraq. Toronto Star
Saturday August 07, 2004
1238. War: Washington's Gift to Bomb Makers
There is no bigger and more urgent threat to the security of
every American than the possibility of nuclear bomb materials
falling into the wrong hands. That is why it is astonishing, and
frightening, that the Bush administration is now pushing to strip
the teeth from a proposed new treaty aimed at expanding the
current international bans on the production of weapons-grade
uranium and plutonium. With talks on the new treaty set to begin
later this year, the administration suddenly announced last week
that it would insist that no provisions for inspections or
verification be included. New York Times Friday August 06, 2004
1239. War: US abuse could be war crime
Repeated abuses allegedly suffered by three British
prisoners at the hands of US interrogators and guards in the
Guant·namo Bay detention camp in Cuba could amount to war crimes,
the Red Cross said yesterday.
The organisation, which maintains a rigidly neutral stance
in public, took the unusual step of voicing its concerns in
uncompromising language after the former detainees, known as the
Tipton Three, revealed that they had been beaten, shackled,
photographed naked and in one incident questioned at gunpoint
while in US custody. Guardian Thursday August 05, 2004
1240. War: $1.9 Billion of Iraq's Money Goes to U.S. Contractors
Halliburton Co. and other U.S. contractors are being paid at
least $1.9 billion from Iraqi funds under an arrangement set by
the U.S.-led occupation authority, according to a review of
documents and interviews with government agencies, companies and
auditors.
Most of the money is for two controversial deals that
originally had been financed with money approved by the U.S.
Congress, but later shifted to Iraqi funds that were governed by
fewer restrictions and less rigorous oversight. Washington Post
Wednesday August 04, 2004
1241. War: Iraqi group claims over 37,000 civilian toll
An Iraqi political group says more than 37,000 Iraqi
civiliansÝwere killed between the start of the US-led invasion in
March 2003 and October 2003.
The People's Kifah, or Struggle Against Hegemony, movement
said in a statement that it carried out a detailed survey of Iraqi
civilianÝfatalities during September and October 2003.
Its calculation was based on deaths among the Iraqi civilian
population only, and did not count losses sustained by the Iraqi
military and paramilitary forces. Al Jazeera Sunday August 01,
2004
1242. War: Why the US granted 'protected' status to Iranian
terrorists
The US State Department officially considers a group of
3,800 Marxist Iranian rebels - who once killed several Americans
and was supported by Saddam Hussein - "terrorists."
But the same group, under American guard in an Iraqi camp,
was just accorded a new status by the Pentagon: "protected
persons" under the Geneva Convention.
This strange twist, analysts say, underscores the divisions
in Washington over US strategy in the Middle East and the war
against terrorism. It's also a function of the swiftly
deteriorating US-Iran dynamic, and a victory for US hawks who
favor using the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO) or "People's
Holy Warriors," as a tool against Iran's clerical regime. CS
Monitor Thursday July 29, 2004
1243. War: An Excuse-Spouting Bush Is Busted by 9/11 Report
Busted! Like a teenager whose beer bash is interrupted by
his parents' early return home, President Bush's nearly three
years of bragging about his "war on terror" credentials has been
exposed by the bipartisan 9/11 commission as nothing more than
empty posturing.
Without dissent, five prominent Republicans joined an equal
number of their Democratic Party peers in stating unequivocally
that the Bush administration got it wrong, both in its lethargic
response to an unprecedented level of warnings during what the
commission calls the "Summer of Threat," as well as in its
inclusion of Iraq in the war on terror. LA Times Tuesday July 27,
2004
1244. War: Bush's 9/11 Farce
BOSTON -- Back before Jonas Salk developed his polio vaccine
in 1952, summer could be a bad time for America's children. The
fear of polio often kept them indoors, away from the beach or out
of the pool. So it came as something of a surprise when the
government somehow ran out of the vaccine and the secretary of
health, education and welfare, Oveta Culp Hobby, uttered one of
the great dumb remarks of American history: "No one could have
foreseen the public demand for the vaccine."
The spirit of Mrs. Hobby lives on in George W. Bush. Almost
three years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the biggest
intelligence failure in U.S. history -- and after his own
administration went to war for reasons that did not exist, the
president has ordered his crack staff to see which of the Sept. 11
commission's recommendations can be implemented fast and without
congressional approval. Washington Post Tuesday July 27, 2004
1245. War: Unbearable Emptiness
SALEM, Ore. -- Ever since a group of Iraqis told me last
year about seeing a redheaded American soldier who was captured,
held naked and then executed, I've been haunted by the question of
his identity.
The first clues were in Nasiriya, Iraq, where in the
aftermath of the war I interviewed the doctors and hospital staff
who had cared for Pfc. Jessica Lynch. They said that the Pentagon
had exaggerated the drama of her rescue, but what I could never
put out of my mind was their tale of another American, whose name
they never knew. New York Times Tuesday July 27, 2004
1246. War: Regime change in Iran now in Bush's sights
PRESIDENT George Bush has promised that if re-elected in
November he will make regime change in Iran his new target.
Bush named Iran as part of the Axis of Evil along with North
Korea and Iraq almost three years ago. A US government official,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said that military action
would not be overt in changing Iran, but rather that the US would
work to stir revolts in the country and hope to topple the current
conservative religious leadership.
The official said: "If George Bush is re-elected there will
be much more intervention in the internal affairs of Iran." Sunday
Herald Tuesday July 20, 2004
1247. War: Exactly How Has Bush's War Made Us Safer?
President Bush claims that his war on Iraq has made
Americans safer. His primary rationale is that by removing from
power a foreign dictator who was supposedly bent on acquiring
weapons of mass destruction, Americans are safer as a result.
Unfortunately for the American people, however, Bush's reasoning
is both false and fallacious. FFF Tuesday July 20, 2004
1248. War: If Bush Has Plans For Another Preemptive War, He Should
Forget It
WASHINGTON -- If President Bush has any grand plan for
another preemptive war, he had better forget it.
Bush has crash landed on the fallacy of the invasion of
Iraq. It will take time for the self-described "war president" to
make a recovery.
It brings to mind an old saying: "Some day they will give a
war and nobody will come." WLKY Monday July 19, 2004
1249. War: Perception Gap in Iraq
Iraq's newly empowered politicians have not stemmed the
violence and instability in their country. But nearly three weeks
of partial sovereignty may have helped the Bush administration's
drive to reduce its political vulnerability on Iraq at home.
Reducing that vulnerability is now the White House's most
urgent goal. What happened at the June 28 handover ceremony in
Baghdad was not so much a transfer of sovereignty as it was a
transfer of political responsibility -- from President Bush to a
willing Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Allawi has kept his part of the bargain with Washington by
repeatedly appearing before U.S. television cameras on two
missions: to thank Bush for freeing Iraq and to take on the
responsibility for answering attacks on U.S. forces and Iraqis.
Washington Post Thursday July 15, 2004
1250. War: The Latest Bush Doctrine
Britain's report on the prewar intelligence assessment of
the Iraqi threat is in and it reached basically the same
conclusions as the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: the
intelligence was seriously flawed and Iraq had no usable weapons
of mass destruction.
Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately accepted ?personal
responsibility.?
President Bush has taken not one ounce of personal
responsibility for the failings of our intelligence. Pathetically,
that is the custom in American politics, but it still reflects
poorly on the president. CBS Thursday July 15, 2004
1251. War: Duped by the neo-cons
AMONG the various rationales the Bush administration has
given for invading Iraq 16 months ago, the most compelling to the
American people was always the claim of a link between Saddam
Hussein and al-Qa'ida. The September11 attacks left Americans
angry, frightened, and ready for justified revenge.
If Saddam was in league with the al-Qa'ida terrorists who
plotted and carried out the 9/11 attacks and a bad guy to begin
with, surely it made eminent sense to take him out. As one White
House adviser recently told The New York Times: "If you discount
the relationship between Iraq and al-Qa'ida, then you discount the
proposition that [the Iraq war] is part of the war on terror. If
it's not part of the war on terror, then what is it - some
cockeyed adventure on the part of George W. Bush?" The Australian
Thursday July 15, 2004
1252. War: U.S. intelligence on Iraq: Cheney just won't let it go
(KRT) - Late last week, yet another august body - this time
the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - issued yet another
massive report again confirming that the U.S. intelligence
establishment got just about everything wrong when it came to
Saddam Hussein's nonexistent biological, chemical and nuclear
weapons.
But buried deep in the Senate report - little noticed and
even less remarked upon - is something important that the
committee credits the intelligence community for getting right.
And it puts the torch to whatever flimsy tissue of credibility the
Bush administration had left:
With respect to contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda during
the 1990s, the committee found that the CIA "reasonably assessed
... that these contacts did not add up to an established formal
relationship." News-Sentinal Thursday July 15, 2004
1253. War: The Erosion of the Rationales
With a bipartisan Senate committee report exposing colossal
blunders by the intelligence community in the run-up to the U.S.
invasion of Iraq, the political debate over whether the United
States went to war on false pretenses took another turn for the
worse for the Bush White House.
The White House spin on the report was to stress its
conclusion that the CIA came to its unfounded claims about Iraqi
weaponry without any obvious White House coercion.
But blaming the CIA has strategic pitfalls for a White House
that is still asserting its decisive leadership -- including its
right to preemptive war based on intelligence findings -- and
hasn't really admitted it made any mistakes in the first place.
Washington Post Monday July 12, 2004
1254. War: Fact of the Matter Is That Facts Didn't Matter
Well, the CIA managed, barely, to get one thing right on
Iraq: There never was a case for linking Saddam Hussein with Osama
bin Laden or the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a key rationale for
President Bush's invasion of Iraq.
In an otherwise scathing report on how American intelligence
agencies fell for misinformation that touted Iraq as an imminent
threat to the United States, the Senate Intelligence Committee
went out of its way to endorse the CIA finding that "the
intelligence community has no credible information that Baghdad
had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks or any other Al
Qaeda strike." LA Times Monday July 12, 2004
1255. War: PAKISTAN FOR BUSH. July Surprise?
Late last month, President Bush lost his greatest advantage
in his bid for reelection. A poll conducted by ABC News and The
Washington Post discovered that challenger John Kerry was running
even with the president on the critical question of whom voters
trust to handle the war on terrorism. Largely as a result of the
deteriorating occupation of Iraq, Bush lost what was, in April, a
seemingly prohibitive 21-point advantage on his signature issue.
But, even as the president's poll numbers were sliding, his
administration was implementing a plan to insure the public's
confidence in his hunt for Al Qaeda. The New Republic Thursday
July 08, 2004
1256. War: 20/20 HINDSIGHT IN IRAQ
NEW YORK -- Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, an
obsessive architect of the war in Iraq, appeared before Congress
last week to say that the big problem out there is cowardly
reporters afraid to leave Baghdad to find out how well the
Bush-driven liberators are doing these days. That, finally, seemed
to get the press's attention about our own role in all this.
To begin with, at least 35 very brave reporters have been
killed in Wolfowitz's excellent adventure. That means, among other
things, that it has been much more dangerous to be a journalist in
Iraq then to be an American soldier or Marine. Yahoo News Thursday
July 08, 2004
1257. War: U.S. must get out of Iraq or draft will soon follow
Reuters carried a Pentagon announcement that was published
in American papers on Saturday, July 3: "U.S. warns Americans to
leave Bahrain."
It was not a subtle hint for families to leave if they feel
insecure; it was "a mandatory evacuation order for non-emergency
American defense employees and family members of American
military."
This is not some obscure outpost; this is the home of the
U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. Capital Times Wednesday July 07, 2004
1258. War: Cold War ideology doesn't work
Why was the U.S. occupation of Iraq such a disaster?
Supporters of the invasion insist that all would have been well
had it not been for poor planning and penny-pinching. But the real
causes are more deep-seated. The Americans have failed because
they are in thrall to a militant cold warrior ideology.
And as long as it retains its influence in the White House,
the United States will stumble from failure to failure. Seattle PI
Wednesday July 07, 2004
1259. War: Ill-Serving Those Who Serve
The Pentagon's decision to press 5,600 honorably discharged
soldiers back into service, mainly in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the
latest example of President Bush's refusal to face the true costs
of pre-emptive war. As with other stopgap measures to paper over
the poor planning of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, this one
demands more from those who have already given the most: volunteer
soldiers and their families. And because this call-up comes
uncomfortably close to conscription, it highlights more than other
emergency deployments the callousness of the administration's
failure to budget for an adequate number of ground troops. NY
Times Tuesday July 06, 2004
1260. War: FBI Delays Interviews in Fighting Terror Plot
WASHINGTON -- More than a month ago, the FBI announced it
would launch a wave of interviews across the country as part of an
urgent effort to root out a suspected terrorist attack planned for
the U.S. this summer.
Preparations for the attack were 90% complete, U.S. Atty.
Gen. John Ashcroft said at the time. Preparations for the
interviews are another story. It's already July, and the FBI is
still weeks away from launching the initiative, law enforcement
officials confirm. LA Times Monday July 05, 2004
1261. War: NOW with Bill Moyers
BRANCACCIO: Welcome to NOW. Tonight we're going to talk
about our troops wounded in Iraq. Just today President Bush
visited an army base and then a military hospital in the state of
Washington, trying to boost morale.
But a NOW investigation has found the Pentagon is not
telling the public the whole story about how many soldiers are
being injured on a daily basis. PBS Monday July 05, 2004
1262. War: Add `sovereignty' to Bush's grand illusions about Iraq
PRIME MINISTER Iyad Allawi and his companions in Iraq's
transitional government must be wondering what kind of used car
they have bought from the Bush administration. They have a
sovereignty that is so limited that they do not control their
country's air space or its ports. The security forces they do
control are so limited, undertrained, and untested that Iraq's new
leaders are completely dependent on foreign soldiers even for
their very lives.
They are being asked to rule a country that has been so
reduced by the incompetence of the Americans that very few lights
turn on at night in the capital, and security is so bad that US
proconsul Paul Bremer had to creep away in a stealth handover,
thus denying the Iraqis the ceremonial dignity of the raising of
the flag in the full view of the Iraqi nation. Boston Globe Friday
July 02, 2004
1263. War: Decision Not to Explore Quashed FBI Investigations
Prior to 9/11 Tarnishes Hearings
At the twelfth and final public session of the 9/11
commission hearings this week in the NTSB building in Washington,
DC, the disappointment was palpable among family members of the
9/11 deceased. A less-than distinguished panel of FBI and CIA
agents took turns praising the ingenuity and resourcefulness of
Al-Qaeda, and offered little hope that future efforts would be
successful in stopping terrorism. But give the CIA and FBI this:
they can still recognize a marketing opportunity when they see it.
Counterpunch Friday July 02, 2004
1264. War: Studies Reveal Holes in Port Security Safety Plans
WASHINGTON - July 2 - As the deadline for U.S. ships and
ports to be in compliance with international security standards
arrives this week, a GAO report finds that the Bush administration
is not only ill-prepared for this week's deadline, but is also
ignoring Coast Guard estimates on the cost of port security. By
allocating a fraction of what will be needed to protect America's
port towards proper security, and leaving many ports un-inspected
by security officials, the administration is leaving the country
open to possible attack. Common Dreams Friday July 02, 2004
1265. War: CIA Felt Pressure to Alter Iraq Data, Author Says
WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, CIA
analysts were ordered repeatedly to redo intelligence assessments
concluded that Al Qaeda had no operational ties to Iraq, according
to a veteran CIA counter-terrorism official who has written a book
that is sharply critical of the decision to go to war with Iraq.
Agency analysts never altered their conclusions, but saw the
pressure to revisit their work as a clear indication that Bush
administration officials were seeking a different answer regarding
Iraq and Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the CIA officer said in
an interview with The Times. Common Dreams Friday July 02, 2004
1266. War: Iraq is worse off than before the war began, GAO
reports
WASHINGTON - In a few key areas - electricity, the judicial
system and overall security - the Iraq that America handed back to
its residents Monday is worse off than before the war began last
year, according to calculations in a new General Accounting Office
report released Tuesday. Real Cities Thursday July 01, 2004
1267. War: Rethinking the American Mission
It is becoming clear to conservatives, neoconservatives and
liberals in Washington, and to the majority of Americans outside
the beltway, that George W. Bush's Iraq adventure is the wrong war
at the wrong time. Military Week Thursday July 01, 2004
1268. War: Iraq won't be paying for itself
U.S. officials announced with much fanfare in January that a
new and improved Baghdad stock exchange would be up and running by
the end of the month, signaling a turning point in Iraq's economic
revitalization.
As of Tuesday, a day after those same officials handed
sovereignty back to the Iraqis in a small, secret ceremony, the
Baghdad bourse was still closed for business, a fitting symbol for
the economic morass that will haunt the Iraqis -- and us -- for
years to come. SF Chronicle Thursday July 01, 2004
1269. War: The Costs of Bush's War
The Bush Administration, in a stealthy move designed to
minimize anticipated insurgent attacks, yesterday handed
"sovereignty" to Iraq's interim government two days before it had
been scheduled to do so on June 30th.
The premature hand-off--or what might be called a
sovereignty scam--means that the Bush Team's PR offensive is
certain to kick into high gear in the coming weeks. (When Bush
learned that Paul Bremer had formally relinquished his authority
to the Iraqi government, he added an Orwellian touch to a
hand-written note that his national security advisor Condi Rice
had just sent him. His note said: "Let Freedom Reign!")
Now more than at any time since Bush invaded Iraq,
journalists need to give Americans a clear assessment of the
mounting costs of this war. The Nation Wednesday June 30, 2004
1270. War: Stress Disorders Hit U.S. Troops in Iraq -Study
BOSTON (Reuters) - Nearly a fifth of U.S. troops returning
from the war in Iraq may suffer from post-traumatic stress
disorder and other mental health problems, but many are not
seeking treatment, according to a study released on Wednesday.
The study, published in this week's New England Journal of
Medicine, is one of a very few that have examined the
psychological impact of war so close to the time of deployment. It
has already begun to reshape how soldiers are treated, both in the
field and after they return home, researchers said. Reuters
Wednesday June 30, 2004
1271. War: Who Lost Iraq?
The formal occupation of Iraq came to an ignominious end
yesterday with a furtive ceremony, held two days early to foil
insurgent attacks, and a swift airborne exit for the chief
administrator. In reality, the occupation will continue under
another name, most likely until a hostile Iraqi populace demands
that we leave. But it's already worth asking why things went so
wrong. New York Times Tuesday June 29, 2004
1272. War: Poor performance on Guant·namo
Great that the attorney general has spoken up against the
proposed sham trial system in Guant·namo Bay, and that Tony Blair
is said to be campaigning for the release of the remaining British
nationals (Report, June 26). But what about the British residents
still languishing there?
Bisher al-Rawi, for example, was educated in this country,
and lived here for over 20 years. His family fled here from Iraq
in the 1980s after being persecuted by Saddam Hussein. Bisher was
kidnapped by the Americans while on a business trip to Gambia.
Guardian Monday June 28, 2004
1273. War: Quick school fixes won few Iraqi hearts
BAGHDAD -- The US government lists renovations done on 2,356
Iraqi schools in a $70 million effort as one of its major
accomplishments. The idea behind it was to meet a pressing Iraqi
need and quickly win goodwill from a wide swath of the population.
But many Iraqis, like Mustafa Ibrahim al-Jubari, weren't won
over. Mr. Jubari is the deputy principal of the Zam Zam elementary
school (named after a sacred freshwater well in Mecca). His
two-story building in northern Baghdad smells far from fresh.
Jubari points to a four-month-old paint job already peeling, a
roof that was caulked but leaks, and new porcelain toilet bowls
installed on top of backed-up sewage lines. "You're lucky that
school has been out for a few weeks,'' he says. "When they're
here, the whole place stinks." CS Monitor Monday June 28, 2004
1274. War: The Neo-cons' Manufactured Case for War
Stefan Halper, director of the Donner Atlantic Studies
Program at Cambridge University, was a White House official in the
Nixon and Ford administrations and a deputy assistant secretary of
state under President Reagan. Jonathan Clarke is a Cato Institute
foreign affairs scholar and a former counselor in the British
Diplomatic Service. This article was extracted with the authors'
permission from their new book, Cato Monday June 28, 2004
1275. War: Abu Ghraib 'a win' for terrorists
The "repulsive" abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib jail handed
terrorists the "single most damaging propaganda victory", Tony
Blair told Channel 4. In an interview to mark the handover of
power in Iraq two days early, the prime minister also denied the
coalition had been "bounced out" of Iraq.
At a low-key ceremony in Baghdad, US administrator Paul
Bremer transferred sovereignty to an Iraqi judge.
The move was announced at a Nato summit in Istanbul, Turkey,
on Monday. BBC Monday June 28, 2004
1276. War: The Disaster of Failed Policy
In its scale and intent, President Bush's war against Iraq
was something new and radical: a premeditated decision to invade,
occupy and topple the government of a country that was no imminent
threat to the United States. This was not a handful of GIs sent to
overthrow Panamanian thug Manuel Noriega or to oust a new Marxist
government in tiny Grenada. It was the dispatch of more than
100,000 U.S. troops to implement Bush's post-Sept. 11 doctrine of
preemption, one whose dangers President John Quincy Adams
understood when he said the United States "goes not abroad, in
search of monsters to destroy." LA Tiimes Sunday June 27, 2004
1277. War: 'Failure to account' for Iraq cash
Iraqi money cannot be accounted for by occupying forces
responsible for the funds, according to two new reports.
Discrepancies are highlighted in the handling of $20bn (?11bn)
generated from Iraq's oil and other sources since war ended last
year. BBC Sunday June 27, 2004
1278. War: Memo lists acceptable 'aggressive' interrogation
methods
WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department spelled out specific
interrogation methods that the CIA could use against top al-Qaeda
members in a still-classified August 2002 legal memo, issued as
the spy agency pressed terrorism suspects about possible strikes
on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, current and former
Justice officials said.
CIA officials had demanded specific guidance for handling
"high-value al-Qaeda captives," said a former Justice official who
worked on the memo. The techniques discussed were "aggressive" but
"lawful," the former official said. A current Justice official who
knows the memo's contents said it specifically authorized the CIA
to use "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he
is suffocating. USA Today Sunday June 27, 2004
1279. War: The Paper Trail
This one you'll want to print and save for future reference.
In the past year and half, America hasÝwitnessed firsthand what
happens when politiciansÝdistort intelligence information or use
it irresponsibly. In his push for war, President Bush manipulated
facts, gave credence to false claims and knowingly advanced
unproven information to the American public. Here, national
security expert John Prados follows the president's paper trail
step by deceptive step. Tom Paine Friday June 25, 2004
1280. War: Bush, Torture and American Values in Iraq
During his invasion of Iraq, George W. Bush warned Iraqis
about their treatment of American prisoners of war on 23 March
2003: "I expect them to be treated, the POWs, I expect to be
treated humanely, just like we're treating the prisoners that we
have captured humanely. If not, the people who mistreat the
prisoners will be treated as war criminals." Counterbias Wednesday
June 23, 2004
1281. War: Afghan detainees routinely tortured and humiliated by
US troops
Detainees held in Afghanistan by American troops have been
routinely tortured and humiliated as part of the interrogation
process, in the same way as those in Iraq, a Guardian
investigation has found. Five detainees have died in custody,
three of them in suspicious circumstances, and survivors have told
stories of beatings, strippings, hoodings and sleep deprivation.
Guardian Wednesday June 23, 2004
1282. War: Losing battle? / Staying the course with NATO in
Afghanistan
It is a grim truth that, unless matters in Afghanistan turn
around rapidly, it will become within the next few months an
embarrassing defeat for the United States and for the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization. Post-Gazette Wednesday June 23, 2004
1283. War: U.S. Approved Use of Dogs Against Prisoners
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said he has never
ordered the torture of Iraqi or al Qaeda prisoners as the White
House on Tuesday released secret documents showing the use of dogs
to induce fear was approved among interrogation methods at
Guantanamo Bay and then abandoned. Reuters Tuesday June 22, 2004
1284. War: 'No top terrorists at Guantanamo'
Senior American intelligence and military officials directly
contradicted the Bush administration yesterday, saying not a
single detainee at Guantanamo Bay was a high-ranking terrorist.
The administration has consistently defended indefinite
detention at Guantanamo - a legal black hole thanks to its status
as a United States naval base on Cuban soil - by calling the 595
inmates "the worst of a very bad lot". Telegraph Tuesday June 22,
2004
1285. War: Amnesty slams Gulf rights record
The US-led "War on Terror" has had a "profound and
far-reaching impact" on human rights in the Gulf region, says an
Amnesty International report. The organisation says Gulf states,
along with the US, show a "disturbing disregard for the rule of
law and fundamental human rights standards". It says a region
whose rights record had been improving was now using the war as a
cover for repression. BBC Tuesday June 22, 2004
1286. War: Bush Flirts with Nuclear Disaster, Kennedy Says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) has
turned back years of U.S. efforts to stem the spread of nuclear
weapons and has made the world a more dangerous place, one of the
Senate's leading liberals said on Tuesday. Sen. Edward Kennedy, a
Massachusetts Democrat, called the last four years of nuclear
policy under Bush "a constant flirtation with nuclear disaster"
that has rejected a "half century of success" in nuclear
deterrence and steps toward disarmament. Yahoo News Tuesday June
22, 2004
1287. War: Emergency Law for Iraq's 'Democracy'
CAIRO, 22 June 2004 -- Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad
Allawi has appointed a ministerial panel to study whether Iraqis
should be subjected to curfews and bans on public demonstrations
after the June 30 handover. If Iraqis wake up to emergency law on
July 1, instead of the promised and much vaunted "freedom and
democracy", the move will surely symbolize America's failed
policies in the region like no other. Arab News Monday June 21,
2004
1288. War: Using and Abusing 9/11 Fears to Set National Security
Policy
During a Senate debate last week, Sen. Jeff Sessions
(R-Ala.) reached for the most powerful weapon in any argument over
national security for nearly the last three years. The issue was a
proposal from Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) to bar private
contractors from interrogating military prisoners. Dodd played his
high card by arguing that such a ban could reduce the odds of
another black eye for America such as the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal. But Sessions trumped him by suggesting the ban might
increase the chances of another terrorist attack such as Sept. 11.
LA Times Monday June 21, 2004
1289. War: Torture Policy (cont'd)
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed dismay on
Thursday about editorials in which "the implication is that the
United States government has, in one way or another, ordered,
authorized, permitted, tolerated torture." Such reports, he said,
raised questions among U.S. troops in Iraq, reduced the
willingness of people in Iraq and Afghanistan to cooperate with
the United States, and could be used by others as an excuse to
torture U.S. soldiers or civilians. This was wrong, he said,
because "I have not seen anything that suggests that a senior
civilian or military official of the United States of America . .
. could be characterized as ordering or authorizing or permitting
torture or acts that are inconsistent with our international
treaty obligations or our laws or our values as a country."
Washington Post Monday June 21, 2004
1290. War: Fighting a War in Name Only
According to President Bush, the global war on terror is the
central event of our time, comparable "to the great struggles of
the last century." As prior generations confronted the challenges
of Nazism and Stalinism, so destiny summons the present generation
to defeat global terror. This has become America's mission ? to
"defend the peace through the forward march of freedom."
Yet peeling back the rhetoric reveals a different story. By
historical standards, the enterprise that some have described as
another world war has turned out to be a niggling affair. Bush has
asked nothing and required nothing of Americans. And nothing
pretty much describes what we've anted up to support the cause. LA
Tiimes Monday June 21, 2004
1291. War: U.S. Said to Overstate Value of Guant·namo Detainees
GUANT¡NAMO BAY, Cuba, June 19 -- For nearly two and a half
years, American officials have maintained that locked within the
steel-mesh cells of the military prison here are some of the
world's most dangerous terrorists -- "the worst of a very bad
lot," Vice President Dick Cheney has called them.
The officials say information gleaned from the detainees has
exposed terrorist cells, thwarted planned attacks and revealed
vital intelligence about Al Qaeda. The secrets they hold and the
threats they pose justify holding them indefinitely without
charge, Bush administration officials have said.
But as the Supreme Court prepares to rule on the legal
status of the 595 men imprisoned here, an examination by The New
York Times has found that government and military officials have
repeatedly exaggerated both the danger the detainees posed and the
intelligence they have provided. New York Times Monday June 21,
2004
1292. War: Iraq: The Greatest Ever Failure in US Foreign Policy
BAGHDAD, 20 June 2004 ? An Iraqi friend who feared for his
life because he was close to the Americans used to live inside the
Green Zone, the heavily protected area in central Baghdad where
the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has its
headquarters. One day he fell into conversation with an American
soldier guarding one of the gates. The soldier said he was of
Iraqi origin and could speak Arabic. He added that security was
not quite as tight as it looked since prostitutes were regular
visitors to the zone.
My friend, a little alarmed about this, decided to
investigate. He went to a house being used as a brothel. Arab News
Sunday June 20, 2004
1293. War: Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears
BAGHDAD -- The American occupation of Iraq will formally end
this month having failed to fulfill many of its goals and stated
promises intended to transform the country into a stable
democracy, according to a detailed examination drawing upon
interviews with senior U.S. and Iraqi officials and internal
documents of the occupation authority. Washington Post Sunday June
20, 2004
1294. War: Iraq Is a Hub for Terrorism, However You Define It
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A superpower invaded an impoverished
Islamic nation. Guerrillas responded with AK-47's and
rocket-propelled grenades. A generation of warriors was born,
eager to wage jihad.
"Unfortunately Iraq has become a cause cÈl?bre for radical
jihadists the way that Afghanistan did a decade and a half ago,"
said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism analyst at the RAND Corporation.
"You've got a lot of the same conditions that allowed Afghanistan
to become a hub for terrorists." New York Times Saturday June 19,
2004
1295. War: Show Us the Proof
When the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks
refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between
Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, we suggested that President
Bush apologize for using these claims to help win Americans'
support for the invasion of Iraq. We did not really expect that to
happen. But we were surprised by the depth and ferocity of the
administration's capacity for denial. President Bush and Vice
President Dick Cheney have not only brushed aside the panel's
findings and questioned its expertise, but they are also trying to
rewrite history. New York Times Saturday June 19, 2004
1296. War: Clinton: I told Bush of bin Laden and he changed the
subject
BILL Clinton claims that he warned President George Bush
before he took office that the biggest threat to national security
was Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, in a sensational passage from
his memoirs revealed for the first time yesterday. Scotsman Friday
June 18, 2004
1297. War: War on what?
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks has finally
spelled it out for President George W. Bush, vice president Dick
Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his colleagues at
the Pentagon, Secretary of State Colin Powell and his buds at the
State department and the American public: There was no
"collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda. Working
for Change Friday June 18, 2004
1298. War: Pelosi: 'Bush Administration Misrepresents Depth of
Iraq-al Qaeda Relationship'
WASHINGTON, June 18 /PRNewswire/ -- House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement today after Vice
President Cheney's mischaracterization of the relationship between
Iraq and al Qaeda:
"For nearly three years, the Bush Administration has
misrepresented the depth of the relationship between Saddam
Hussein's Iraq and al Qaeda. They continue to do so, even after
the 9/11 Commission concluded this week that there is no evidence
of a working association between Iraq and al Qaeda, despite
evidence of some contacts over a 10-year period. Boston Globe
Friday June 18, 2004
1299. War: Hiding the gulag
AS THE PRISONER-abuse scandal in Iraq spirals out of
control, it?s all too easy to forget that just last month, the
Supreme Court heard three cases concerning the rights of "enemy
combatants" being held at Guant·namo Bay, Cuba, and in US Naval
brigs off the American coast. One issue at stake in these cases is
whether the government ? specifically President Bush ? should be
trusted to handle prisoners in an appropriate manner. Boston
Phoenix Friday June 18, 2004
1300. War: "In A World of S***"
A remarkable briefing yesterday at the Middle East Institute
by Ahmed S. Hashim, a Naval War College professor just returned
from Iraq, painted in broad outlines the potentially catastrophic
situation that the Bush administration faces in Iraq Ý the next
few months. WithÝpolls showing that just two percent of Iraqis
view the United States as ?liberators,? Hashim?s report was
sobering indeed. Making it clear that he was speaking only for
himself, and not for any U.S. governmentÝ body, Hashim said, ?We
went into Iraq with ideological lenses.?Ý U.S. war planners
avoided thinking about the worst that could happen, he said. ?If
you start with a rosy scenario and work backward, you?re in a
world of shit. And that?s where we are.? Tom Paine Friday June 18,
2004
1301. War: Pressure at Iraqi prison detailed
The officer who oversaw interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison
near Baghdad testified that he was under intense "pressure" from
the White House, Pentagon and CIA last fall to get better
information from detainees, pressure that he said included a visit
to the prison by an aide to national security adviser Condoleezza
Rice. Yahoo News Friday June 18, 2004
1302. War: The dogs of war
DOGS HAVE been such a hideous instrument of state terror
that their use on Iraqi prisoners is cause alone for Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.
Nazis used dogs for everything from intimidation to eating
people alive. Bull Connor's dogs in Birmingham were an icon of the
1960s. South African police used dogs to enforce apartheid.
In 2002 Rumsfeld approved the use of dogs to inspire fear in
detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Boston Globe Friday June 18, 2004
1303. War: No link / The 9-11 commission staff's disagreement with
Bush
The resumed hearings and preliminary staff reports of the
September 11 commission are producing some shocking, hitherto not
public, information regarding the 2001 attacks.
The information is also undercutting a key theme and
repeated message of President George W. Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney -- that there was cooperation between al-Qaida, which
carried out the Sept. 11 attacks, and Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
Post-Gazette Friday June 18, 2004
1304. War: Torture Policy
SLOWLY, AND IN spite of systematic stonewalling by the Bush
administration, it is becoming clearer why a group of military
guards at Abu Ghraib prison tortured Iraqis in the ways depicted
in those infamous photographs. President Bush and his spokesmen
shamefully cling to the myth that the guards were rogues acting on
their own. Yet over the past month we have learned that much of
what the guards did -- from threatening prisoners with dogs, to
stripping them naked, to forcing them to wear women's underwear --
had been practiced at U.S. military prisons elsewhere in the
world. Moreover, most of these techniques were sanctioned by
senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld and the Iraqi theater command under Lt. Gen. Ricardo S.
Sanchez. Many were imported to Iraq by another senior officer,
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller. Washington Post Wednesday June 16,
2004
1305. War: Nation Builders and Low Bidders in Iraq
WASHINGTON -- From the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison to the
mutilation of American civilians at Falluja, many of the worst
moments of the Iraqi occupation have involved private military
contractors "outsourced" by the Pentagon. With no public or
Congressional oversight, the Pentagon has paid billions of dollars
to companies that now have as many as 20,000 employees carrying
out military functions ranging from logistics and troop training
to convoy escort and interrogations. Yet despite the problems and
the widespread accusations of overbilling, it appears the civilian
leadership at the Pentagon has learned absolutely nothing from the
whole experience. New York Times Tuesday June 15, 2004
1306. War: Errors Are Seen in Early Attacks on Iraqi Leaders
WASHINGTON, June 12 -- The United States launched many more
failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders
during the early days of the war last year than has previously
been acknowledged, and some caused significant civilian
casualties, according to senior military and intelligence
officials. Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in
public. All were unsuccessful, and many, including the two
well-known raids on Saddam Hussein and his sons, appear to have
been undercut by poor intelligence, current and former government
officials said. New York Times Saturday June 12, 2004
1307. War: The consent of the Kurds
JUST WHEN it seemed they might have put an end to their long
skein of blunders in Iraq, President Bush and his advisers, bowing
to pressure from the preeminent Shi'ite, Grand Ayatollah Ali
al-Sistani, sabotaged the interim Iraqi constitution they had
trumpeted as America's democratic gift to Iraqis. Boston Globe
Friday June 11, 2004
1308. War: Bunker mentality
AT A TIME when the United States should be doing everything
possible to rid the world of nuclear weapons, it defies common
sense for the Bush administration to push for a new generation of
such arms. The justification for nuclear weapons as a counter to
the Soviet Union's conventional and nuclear forces ended with that
country's collapse. The administration will only encourage
proliferation by pursuing proposals for new, low-yield mininukes
and "bunker buster" bombs. Boston Globe Wednesday June 09, 2004
1309. War: The Wrong Proliferation Message
As the world's strongest nuclear and conventional power,
America should want to freeze weapons development and halt nuclear
proliferation. Yet the Bush administration's proposed military
budget moves in a different and more dangerous direction by
seeking a sharp increase in the funds for research on two new
kinds of nuclear bombs. The Senate should halt this reckless folly
by voting next week for an amendment sponsored by Senators Edward
Kennedy and Dianne Feinstein. New York Times Tuesday June 08, 2004
1310. War: US 'not bound by torture laws'
A Pentagon report last year argued that President George W
Bush was not bound by laws banning the use of torture, according
to the Wall Street Journal. The document also argued that
torturers acting under presidential orders could not be
prosecuted, the paper said. The report was written by military and
civilian lawyers for US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. It came
after staff at Guantanamo Bay complained normal interrogation
tactics were not eliciting enough information. BBC Monday June 07,
2004
1311. War: U.S. Only Wounded Itself When It Betrayed Chalabi
The recent reports detailing the alleged perfidy of Ahmad
Chalabi actually say much more about his accusers in the U.S.
government than they do about Chalabi himself. They reveal
Washington as a faithless friend and its agencies as more
concerned with carrying out vendettas than with pursuing the real
enemies of the United States.
But that is starting at the end of the story. LA Times
Friday June 04, 2004
1312. War: A Hollow Sovereignty for Iraq
President Bush said yesterday that he would transfer
"complete and full sovereignty" to an interim Iraqi government in
barely a month. But nothing even close to that is likely to
happen. Recent developments suggest that this "sovereignty" will
have little substance and that the president still has no coherent
plan to create the security and political trust required to
negotiate a constitution and hold fair elections. The sovereignty
timetable remains driven by the American electoral calendar and
growing Iraqi impatience with an incompetent and deeply unpopular
occupation. NY Times Saturday May 29, 2004
1313. War: A Real Nuclear Danger
While the Bush administration has been distracted by the
invasion and occupation of Iraq, it has neglected the far more
urgent threat to American security from dangerous nuclear
materials that must be safeguarded before they can fall into the
hands of terrorists. That is the inescapable conclusion to be
drawn from a new report that documents the slow pace of protecting
potential nuclear bomb material at loosely guarded sites around
the world. NY Times Friday May 28, 2004
1314. War: U.S. war policy 'grave error'
LONDON, England--One of the ideological architects of the
Iraq war has criticized the U.S.-led occupation of the country as
"a grave error." Richard Perle, until recently a powerful adviser
to U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, described U.S. policy
in post-war Iraq as a failure. "I would be the first to
acknowledge we allowed the liberation (of Iraq) to subside into an
occupation. And I think that was a grave error, and in some ways a
continuing error," said Perle, former chair of the influential
Defence Policy Boar Thursday May 27, 2004
1315. War: Iraq war's costs spiral beyond 1991 Gulf War
The price of the bloodier-than-predicted war and occupation
of Iraq is nearing twice that of the 1991 Gulf War, and the
economic consequences are complex and far-reaching, analysts have
said. And predictions by an Australian economist and his colleague
that the current conflict would top $US173 billion ($A248.83
billion) appeared closer to the likely cost than some other
estimates. In the runup to the invasion, the White House's
then-Office of Management and Budget director, Mitch Daniels, had
said a war would probably cost $US50 billion ($A71.92 billion) to
$US60 billion ($A86.3 billion). The Age Monday May 24, 2004
1316. War: Pentagon's postwar fiasco coming full-circle?
NEW YORK -- Pentagon mismanagement, which takes the form of
abuses in Abu Ghraib and confusion in dealing with Ahmed Chalabi's
aspiration to political power in Iraq, is part of a disturbing
pattern. Pentagon officials shelved existing postwar plans for the
reconstruction of Iraq - yet had no plan of their own. They
ignored the advice of Iraqis, except Mr. Chalabi. Critical
information was obscured or withheld from Congress. As a result,
national interests have been ill-served, and the promise of
democracy in Iraq has been betrayed. CS Monitor Sunday May 23,
2004
1317. War: Outsourcing Torture and the Problems of 'Quality
Control'
In October 2001 a Yemeni student by the name of Jamil Qasim
Saeed Mohammed, who was suspected of involvement in the bombing of
the USS Cole, was captured and turned over to the United States by
Pakistan. U.S. authorities then flew him to Jordan for
interrogation. Other "high-value" prisoners in our "Global War on
Terrorism" have been shipped off to Egypt, Morocco, and Syria at
the request of the United States. What all four countries have in
common is a history of using torture to extract information from
suspected enemies of the state. Anti-War Saturday May 22, 2004
1318. War: Trucks made to drive without cargo in dangerous areas
of Iraq
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Empty flatbed trucks crisscrossed Iraq
more than 100 times as their drivers and the soldiers who guarded
them dodged bullets, bricks and homemade bombs. Twelve current and
former truckers who regularly made the 300-mile re-supply run from
Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad told
Knight Ridder that they risked their lives driving empty trucks
while their employer, a subsidiary of Halliburton Inc., billed the
government for hauling what they derisively called "sailboat
fuel." Sun-Herald Saturday May 22, 2004
1319. War: Iraqis Say U.S. Attacked Wedding Party
RAMADI, Iraq - Revelers at the wedding party began worrying
when they heard aircraft overhead at about 9 p.m. With jets still
overhead two hours later, they told the band to stop playing and
everyone went to bed. "We began to expect some kind of
catastrophe," said Madhi Nawaf, who lives in the area near Mogr
el-Deeb on the Syrian border. The first bomb hit well after
midnight and the barrage didn't stop until nearly sunrise,
witnesses told The Associated Press. In the end, up to 45 people
were killed in the attack Wednesday, mostly women and children
from the Bou Fahad tribe. Washington Post Friday May 21, 2004
1320. War: U.S. Tries to Get Off the Hook on War Crimes
New York, 2004-05-20 -- The United States is insisting that
its troops be exempt from international war crimes prosecutions
while serving in any U.N. force in Iraq, despite U.S. abuse of
prisoners there, Human Rights Watch said today. Without prior
notice to members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States
yesterday demanded an immediate vote to renew contentious Security
Council Resolution 1487. This measure grants immunity to personnel
in U.N. authorized or approved operations from states that have
not ratified the International Criminal Court (ICC) treaty. HRW
Thursday May 20, 2004
1321. War: Power and vainglory
Misguided from the start, the war in Iraq is spiralling out
of control. Any legitimacy the occupying forces may ever have
possessed has been destroyed, and there are signs that Iraqi
insurgents are coming together to mount a movement of resistance
that could render the country ungovernable. With even more damning
images likely to find their way into the public realm in the near
future, the United States is facing an historic defeat in Iraq - a
blow to American power more damaging than it suffered in Vietnam,
and far larger in its global implications. Independent (UK)
Wednesday May 19, 2004
1322. War: Faulty Terror Report Card
Are we winning the war on terrorism? Although keeping score
is difficult, the State Department's annual report on
international terrorism, released last month, provides the best
government data to answer this question. The short answer is "No,"
but that's not the spin the administration is putting on it.
Washington Post Monday May 17, 2004
1323. War: Unbending bush
BECAUSE HIS policies are so badly off track, President
Bush's repeated assurances that he will soldier on through hard
times sound more like folly than fortitude. "We will stay the
course," he has said time and again. After Nicholas Berg was
killed in Iraq, Bush repeated his resolve: "We will complete our
mission. We will complete our task." Perseverance is an admirable
quality in a national leader facing difficult challenges to a
policy that is fundamentally sound. Churchill comes to mind. But
when the policy is wrong, perseverance compounds the problem,
often disastrously. Boston Globe Saturday May 15, 2004
1324. War: Why America Is Not Safer
Favorable poll ratings in the single digits for the United
States in most Arab countries worry me. Growing anti-Americanism
throughout the Middle East and a Muslim world of 1.4 billion
people also concerns me. Growing anger in a stalled or
counterproductive U.S. public diplomacy campaign is also
worrisome. Of the greatest concern, however, is that many of the
foreign and domestic policies of the U.S. are major sources of
this growing hatred toward the United States. Independent
Institute Friday May 14, 2004
1325. War: U.S.: Systemic Abuse of Afghan Prisoners
London, 2004-05-13 - Mistreatment of prisoners by U.S.
military and intelligence personnel in Afghanistan is a systemic
problem and not limited to a few isolated cases, Human Rights
Watch said today. Afghans have been telling us for well over a
year about mistreatment in U.S. custody. We warned U.S. officials
repeatedly about these problems in 2003 and 2004. It's time now
for the United States to publicize the results of its
investigations of abuse, fully prosecute those responsible, and
provide access to independent monitors. HRW Wednesday May 12, 2004
1326. War: A failure of leadership at the highest levels
Around the halls of the Pentagon, a term of caustic derision
has emerged for the enlisted soldiers at the heart of the furor
over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: the six morons who lost the
war. Indeed, the damage done to the U.S. military and the nation
as a whole by the horrifying photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing
Iraqi detainees at the notorious prison is incalculable. But the
folks in the Pentagon are talking about the wrong morons. Army
Times Monday May 10, 2004
1327. War: Red Cross: Iraq abuse widespread, routine
GENEVA -- Up to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees were arrested
"by mistake," according to coalition intelligence officers cited
in a Red Cross report disclosed Monday. It also says U.S. officers
mistreated inmates at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison by keeping
them naked in dark, empty cells. Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by
American soldiers was widespread and routine, the report finds -
contrary to President Bush's contention that the mistreatment "was
the wrongdoing of a few." Seattle PI Monday May 10, 2004
1328. War: Pentagon OK'd Harsh Prison Techniques at Guantanamo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Defense Department last year
approved interrogation techniques for use at the Guantanamo Bay
prison in Cuba that include forcing inmates to strip naked and
subjecting them to loud music, bright lights and sleep
deprivation, the Washington Post reported on Saturday. The
techniques were approved in April 2003 and require approval from
senior Pentagon officials and in some cases Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld, the paper reported on its Web site, citing
unnamed defense officials. Yahoo News Saturday May 08, 2004
1329. War: Pelosi Statement on Administration's $25 Billion
WASHINGTON, May 6 /PRNewswire/ -- House Democratic Leader
Nancy Pelosi released the following statement yesterday on the
Bush Administration's $25 billion Supplemental Appropriations
request for the war in Iraq: "By requesting just $25 billion in
additional money for our troops in Iraq -- when we know that at
least twice that amount will be needed -- the Bush Administration
is once again keeping the true cost of the war from the American
people. Boston Globe Thursday May 06, 2004
1330. War: New Photos Reveal More About Iraqi Prisoner Abuse
The collection of photographs begins like a travelogue from
Iraq. Here are U.S. soldiers posing in front of a mosque. Here is
a soldier riding a camel in the desert. And then: a soldier
holding a leash tied around a man's neck in an Iraqi prison. He is
naked, grimacing and lying on the floor. Mixed in with more than
1,000 digital pictures obtained by The Washington Post are photos
of naked men, apparently prisoners, sprawled on top of one another
in a pile while soldiers stand around them. There is another
photograph of a naked man with a dark hood over his head,
handcuffed to a cell door. And another of a naked man handcuffed
to a bunk bed, his arms splayed so wide that his back is arched. A
pair of women's underwear covers his head and face Washington
Wednesday May 05, 2004
1331. War: 25 Prisoners Died While Held by U.S. Forces
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Twenty-five prisoners have died while
being held by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and two of them
were murdered in Iraq by Americans, U.S. Army officials said on
Tuesday. An Army official said one soldier was convicted of murder
in the U.S. military justice system for shooting a prisoner to
death in September 2003 at a detention center in Iraq, and another
prisoner was killed at the Abu Ghraib jail near Baghdad in
November 2003 by a private contractor who worked as an
interrogator for the CIA. Yahoo News Tuesday May 04, 2004
1332. War: Iraqi newspaper editor-in-chief quits, saying U.S.
suffocates a free press
BAGHDAD -- The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit
and said yesterday he was taking almost his entire staff with him
because of American interference in the publication. On a
front-page editorial of the al Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief
Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were "celebrating the end of a
nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want
independence. They (the Americans) refuse." Star- Ledger Tuesday
May 04, 2004
1333. War: Torture, Incorporated
The whole package of abuse in Abu Ghuraib Prison is being
soothingly denounced by US generals and the Bush administration as
an "aberration." Hence we have just one mealy line from Bush: that
he is "deeply offended" but certain that "this is not who we
are"-as though we have been attacked by outsiders. For admitting
that the US occupation truly commanded these things would
instantly discredit our claim to bring enlightenment to the
benighted Arab world. Worse, admitting that what we do is part of
who we are would undermine Bush's divinely charged vision in our
inherent cultural superiority, which-in his colonial
mind-legitimizes our grant mission to enlighten the world. But in
posturing this indignant denial, the Bush administration is lying,
again. They knew, months ago, that trouble was up. And they knew
that it went deeper than the few soldiers in these photos, now
being scape-goated. Counterpunch Tuesday May 04, 2004
1334. War: U.S. Probe: Two War Prisoners Murdered by Americans
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has investigated
the deaths of 25 prisoners held by American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan and determined that two prisoners were murdered by
Americans, one an Army soldier and the other a CIA contractor,
Army officials said on Tuesday. Yahoo News Tuesday May 04, 2004
1335. War: Bush's Torturous Logic
George Bush is shocked, shocked that there is torture being
used by U.S. forces on Iraqi prisoners of war, in direct violation
not only of basic human rights but of the Geneva Convention on
Treatment of Prisoners of War of which the United States is not
only a signatory, but a founding writer. So shocked that he had
his Pentagon try to get CBS not to show the pictures of the
shocking behavior. Counterpunch Sunday May 02, 2004
1336. War: TORTURE AT ABU GHRAIB
In the era of Saddam Hussein, Abu Ghraib, twenty miles west
of Baghdad, was one of the world's most notorious prisons, with
torture, weekly executions and vile living conditions. As many as
fifty thousand men and women--no accurate count is possible--were
jammed into Abu Ghraib at one time, in twelve-by-twelve-foot cells
that were little more than human holding pits. New Yorker Sunday
May 02, 2004
1337. War: The privatised occupation
In earlier days, they were simply called mercenaries, and
they were usually linked with some distant war in the bush.
Recruitment was secret, on the rim of legality. Today, these
warriors for sale present themselves as modern, advertising on
websites as "Global Elite Troops" or "consultants" for
"international strategic security", performing "risk management"
or "aggressive security". Internationally active private security
companies are in fashion. Whether it be the guarding of persons,
the protection of property or escorting convoys, one year after
the war on Iraq their services are especially in great demand in
occupied Mesopotamia. Al Ahram Saturday May 01, 2004
1338. War: Bush ignores the horrors of his war
In the spiraling descent into hell in Iraq over the past
several weeks, one disgraceful fact has gone virtually unnoticed.
Hours after pictures of the ghastly scene showing the burned
corpses of four American civilians had been telecast around the
world, President Bush, according to The New York Times on April 2,
"swept into a huge ballroom in one of Washington's most affluent
neighborhoods" on yet another fund-raising venture for his
re-election campaign. Seattle PI Friday April 30, 2004
1339. War: Death to those who dare to speak out
BAGHDAD -- Even under Saddam Hussein, Saad Jawad spoke his
mind. The mild-mannered, political science professor was one of
only four people who dared to sign a petition asking Iraq's
dictator for a more democratic form of government. Today, Dr.
Jawad still speaks out. But like other university professors
across Iraq, he is increasingly afraid that saying what he thinks
- or saying anything political at all - could get him killed. "To
tell the truth, at the time of Saddam Hussein, we used to speak to
our students freely," says Jawad. "Ministers, for example, were
criticized all the time. But now, a lot of people are not willing
to say these kinds of things because of fear." CS Monitor Friday
April 30, 2004
1340. War: Troops Without Armor in Iraq
It's hard to imagine what the Pentagon was thinking when it
told the American Army and Marine replacement divisions bound for
Iraq earlier this year to leave their tanks and other heavily
armored vehicles behind. American military planners seem to have
ignored evidence that armed resistance to the occupation was far
from suppressed. As a result, they failed to anticipate the kinds
of ambushes and urban firefights these troops are now caught up in
and against which tanks and armored personnel carriers afford the
best protection. NY Times Friday April 30, 2004
1341. War: U.S. War Crimes: Torture of Iraqi Prisoners Exposed
On April 29, CBS television's "60 Minutes II"program
screened graphic images of Iraqi prisoners being tortured and
sexually humiliated by US troops at the Abu Ghraib prison near
Baghdad. The photographs, which show American soldiers--men and
women--smiling, laughing or giving thumbs-up signs alongside naked
Iraqi prisoners, expose the sadistic and brutal methods employed
by American forces and provide more evidence of the catalog of war
crimes being committed by US-led forces in Iraq. Tehran Times
Friday April 30, 2004
1342. War: The President's Testimony Before 9-11 Commission
Lacking
It would have been a pleasure to be able to congratulate
President Bush on his openness in agreeing to sit down today with
the independent commission on the 9/11 attacks and answer
questions. Unfortunately, Mr. Bush conditioned his cooperation on
stipulations that range from the questionable to the ridiculous.
NY Times Thursday April 29, 2004
1343. War: U.N.'s Blix: War wasn't justified
Hans Blix, the former chief United Nations weapons
inspector, castigated the Bush administration in a Seattle speech
last night, saying its zeal to go to war despite a lack of
credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction made it "rather
like the witch hunters of previous centuries." Blix said President
Bush and his top advisers willfully disregarded mounting evidence
that such weapons no longer existed in Iraq. Seattle PI Wednesday
April 28, 2004
1344. War: Flawed theological position on the war
As president, George W. Bush commands the armed forces of
the United States. His title in this function is commander in
chief. As a Christian, Mr. Bush says he takes his faith in Jesus
seriously. However, the office of president does not confer any
special status to believers. In other words, Mr. Bush is not
"theologian in chief" -- although it appears that that may not be
entirely clear to him. Mobile Register Monday April 26, 2004
1345. War: What Went Wrong? Bush Team Botches War Planning
On April 11 of last year, just after U.S. forces took
Baghdad, I warned that the Bush administration had a "pattern of
conquest followed by malign neglect," and that the same was likely
to happen in Iraq. I'm sorry to say those worries proved
justified. It's now widely accepted that the administration
"failed dismally to prepare for the security and nation-building
missions in Iraq," to quote Anthony Cordesman of the Center for
Strategic and International Studies -- not heretofore known as a
Bush basher. Just as experts on peacekeeping predicted before the
war, the invading force was grossly inadequate to maintain postwar
security. And this problem was compounded by a chain of blunders:
doing nothing to stop the postwar looting, disbanding the Iraqi
Army, canceling local elections, appointing an interim council
dominated by exiles with no political base and excluding important
domestic groups. NY Times Friday April 23, 2004
1346. War: Ashcroft blames 9-11 commission member for 9-11
Mr. Ashcroft's Smear IN HIS TESTIMONY last week before the
Sept. 11 commission, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft loosed a
remarkable attack on Jamie S. Gorelick, a commission member who
served as deputy attorney general during part of the Clinton
administration. The "single greatest structural cause for the
September 11th problem," Ashcroft said, "was the wall that
segregated or separated criminal investigators and intelligence
agents," and the "basic architecture for the wall . . . was
contained in a classified memorandum" from 1995 -- which Mr.
Ashcroft had conveniently declassified for the hearing. "Full
disclosure," he said, "compels me to inform you that the author of
this memorandum is a member of the commission" -- that is, Ms.
Gorelick. Mr. Ashcroft's allegations, which triggered criticism
and demands for her resignation from prominent Republicans, are
grossly unfair. Washington Post Tuesday April 20, 2004
1347. War: The offense in Bush's 9/11 defense
WASHINGTON -- When terrorists plan to strike America, should
they call in advance and make reservations? If not - if they
aren't specific about time and place - should President Bush and
the rest of the federal government be held blameless for failing
to stop them? That's been the view of the White House for the past
2-1/2 years, although public pressure may be changing that
complacency. We all know by now that, on Aug. 6, 2001, Mr. Bush
received a briefing from the CIA warning about "patterns of
suspicious activity ... consistent with preparations for
hijackings or other types of attacks." That's not a "historical"
document, as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testified
before the 9/11 Commission last week - that's an alarm bell that
should have been heard. CS Monitor Thursday April 15, 2004
1348. War: Critics Say Rush to War in Iraq Hurt U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The deadly insurgency in Iraq is a direct
result of tactical missteps by the United States during the rush
to war a year ago and in the months afterward, some critics say.
President Bush could have spared himself major headaches if he had
heeded the advice of experts who urged him to assemble a larger
force, including Muslim soldiers from Turkey and others countries,
to take into Iraq. He also should have avoided the assumption that
Iraqis would embrace American soldiers as liberators after the
ouster of Saddam Hussein. A healthier regard for Arab perceptions
could have helped, said Nayef Samhat, a government and
international relations expert at Centre College in Danville, Ky.
"The invasion was clearly unprovoked and can be easily seen by
many in the Arab-Islamic world as nothing more than the
reinvention of imperialism," Samhat said. NY Times Saturday April
10, 2004
1349. War: Connecting dots/Bush's culpability for 9/11
National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony to
the 9/11 commission Thursday allows for only one conclusion: The
Bush administration was outrageously derelict in its duty to
protect the American people as the Al-Qaida threat developed.
Consider a few of the many issues on which Rice and the commiss
Thursday April 08, 2004
1350. War: The Other War: Afghanistan
A report commissioned by the Pentagon on the invasion of
Afghanistan was turned away after it concluded there was a wide
gap between how the White House represented the war and what was
actually taking place. We speak with the New Yorker's Pulitzer
prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh who says, "It's a great
trifecta for this administration. In three-and-a-half years of
office, we have destroyed Afghanistan, destroyed Iraq and we are
in the process of destroying the UN too." Democracy Now Thursday
April 08, 2004
1351. War: Iraq war turned Islamic fighters against US
WASHINGTON - The US-led invasion of Iraq has accelerated the
spread of Osama bin Laden's anti-Americanism among once local
Islamic militant movements, senior intelligence officials at the
CIA and State Department now acknowledge. This in turn has
increased the danger to the United States even though Al-Qaeda
itself is unable to mount the attacks. At the same time, the Sunni
Triangle has become a training ground for foreign Islamic
jihadists who are slipping into Iraq to join former Saddam Hussein
loyalists to test themselves against US and coalition forces,
these officials say. Straits Times Tuesday April 06, 2004
1352. War: G.I.'s Padlock Baghdad Paper Accused of Lies
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 28 -- American soldiers shut down a
popular Baghdad newspaper on Sunday and tightened chains across
the doors after the occupation authorities accused it of printing
lies that incited violence. Thousands of outraged Iraqis protested
the closing as an act of American hypocrisy, laying bare the
hostility many feel toward the United States a year after the
invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "No, no, America!" and
"Where is democracy now?" screamed protesters who hoisted banners
and shook clenched fists in a hastily organized rally against the
closing of the newspaper, Al Hawza, a radical Shiite weekly. NY
Times Monday March 29, 2004
1353. War: Injustice in Afghanistan
UNDER PRESSURE from the Supreme Court and many foreign
governments, the Bush administration at last has begun to take
steps toward providing a review process for the prisoners held at
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. But it has yet to address the
less publicized but possibly more serious problems surrounding its
detention of foreign nationals elsewhere in the world. Under the
guise of the war on terrorism, the U.S. military and CIA are
holding hundreds, if not thousands, of suspects in Iraq,
Afghanistan and possibly other locations under conditions of
extraordinary secrecy and without any formal legal process.
Washington Post Saturday March 20, 2004
1354. War: Ex - Adviser: Iraq Considered After 9 / 11
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration considered
bombing Iraq in retaliation almost immediately after the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks against New York and Washington, according to
a new first-person account by a former senior counterterrorism
adviser inside the White House. Richard Clarke, the president's
counterterrorism coordinator at the time of the attacks, said
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld complained on Sept. 12 -- after
the administration was convinced with certainty that al-Qaida was
to blame -- that, "there aren't any good targets in Afghanistan
and there are lots of good targets in Iraq." NY Times Friday March
19, 2004
1355. War: Poland Says It Was Misled Over WMD in Iraq
WARSAW (Reuters) - President Aleksander Kwasniewski said on
Thursday Poland, a staunch supporter of last year's U.S.-led war
on Iraq, felt misled into believing Saddam Hussain had weapons of
mass destruction. "I believe...that Iraq today, without Saddam
Hussein, is a much better place than Iraq with Saddam Hussein,"
Kwasniewski told a news conference. "Of course I feel a certain
discomfort that we were misled about weapons of mass destruction."
Reuters Thursday March 18, 2004
1356. War: Iraqi exiles still getting paid, despite false
intelligence
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Defense is continuing to pay
millions of dollars for information from the former Iraqi
opposition group that produced some of the exaggerated and
fabricated intelligence President Bush used to argue his case for
war. The Pentagon has set aside between $3 million and $4 million
this year for the Information Collection Program of the Iraqi
National Congress, or INC, led by Ahmad Chalabi, said two senior
U.S. officials and a U.S. defense official. Seattle Times Sunday
February 22, 2004
1357. War: C.I.A. Admits It Didn't Give Weapon Data to the U.N.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 -- The Central Intelligence Agency has
acknowledged that it did not provide the United Nations with
information about 21 of the 105 sites in Iraq singled out by
American intelligence before the war as the most highly suspected
of housing illicit weapons. The acknowledgment, in a Jan. 20
letter to Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, contradicts
public statements before the war by top Bush administration
officials. Both George J. Tenet, the director of central
intelligence, and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser,
said the United States had briefed United Nations inspectors on
all of the sites identified as "high value and moderate value" in
the weapons hunt. The contradiction is significant because
Congressional opponents of the war were arguing a year ago that
the United Nations inspectors should be given more time to
complete their search before the United States and its allies
began the invasion. NY Times Saturday February 21, 2004
1358. War: President Revises Rationale For War
Before: Intelligence gathered by this and other governments
leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and
conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," Bush said
in March 2003. After: Saddam Hussein was dangerous, and I'm not
just going to leave him in power and trust a madman," Bush said
yesterday in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that will be
broadcast today. Yahoo News Saturday February 07, 2004
1359. War: Bush, Aides Ignored CIA Caveats on Iraq
In its fall 2002 campaign to win congressional support for a
war against Iraq, President Bush and his top advisers ignored many
of the caveats and qualifiers included in the classified report on
Saddam Hussein's weapons that CIA Director George J. Tenet
defended Thursday. In fact, they made some of their most
unequivocal assertions about unconventional weapons before the
October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) was completed.
Washington Post Friday February 06, 2004
1360. War: Misspending Military Dollars
"The strong defense everybody wants will not come from
throwing ever larger sums into the wrong weapons."If the Bush
administration were at all serious about fiscal responsibility, it
would have sent Congress a Defense Department budget that
reflected the real costs of military operations, cut out
cold-war-era programs and focused on the things the military needs
in the 21st century. Regrettably, none of that happened. The
budget plan is inaccurate, anachronistic and laden with pork, and
Congress is only likely to make things worse. Mr. Bush is
proposing to increase basic Pentagon spending by more than $20
billion over last year's budget, and that does not even count
operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could add a further $50
billion when the bill is presented to Congress after Election Day.
Add that money and the nuclear weapons programs run by the Energy
Department to the Pentagon's $402 billion request, and the total
will approach half a trillion dollars. NY Times Thursday February
05, 2004
1361. War: Sham commission / The nation deserves a real probe of
intelligence
"What Mr. Bush proposes is not just inadequate, it is
duplicitous in its careful political calculation."America's
intelligence function needs to be looked at closely, given its
grave failures with respect to bothSept. 11 and the Iraq war. What
makes President Bush's response to this, the naming of an
investigative commission, so appalling is the fact that it is pure
political tactics -- not adequate or likely to be persuasive in
its results. The argument about whether America's security
agencies should have been able to see the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks
coming is over. They didn't, in spite of having had some $30
billion a year to ferret out what has always been the
highest-priority intelligence of all, a pending attack on the
homeland. Post Gazette Thursday February 05, 2004
1362. War: White House 'distorted' Iraq threat
Bush administration officials "systematically
misrepresented" the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
in the run-up to war, according to a new report to be published on
Thursday by a respected Washington think-tank. These distortions,
combined with intelligence failures, exaggerated the risks posed
by a country that presented no immediate threat to the US, Middle
East or global security, the report says. The study from the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace concludes that, though
the long-term threat from Iraq could not be ignored, it was being
effectively contained by a combination of UN weapons inspections,
international sanctions and limited US-led military action. Full
Report">It says the evidence shows that although Iraq retained
ambition Thursday January 08, 2004
1363. War: Bush doctrine strains global rules
The year 2003 was a year defined by one war. It wasn't the
biggest war of the year (that honour would go to Sudan or Congo,
though both those wars may now be ending), or the fastest-growing
war (that prize certainly goes to Nepal), and it was certainly not
the oldest (probably Colombia, though there have been intermittent
ceasefires over the years). It was a short, low-casualty war whose
outcome was never in doubt, since the defence budget of one side
was 240 times bigger than that of the other side. But 2003 was the
year of the U.S.-Iraq war. It was important because the United
States is the greatest power in the world and everything it does
is important. It was important because Iraq floats on an ocean of
oil, and because it is an Arab and predominantly Muslim country:
The spectre of Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations" haunts
these events. But above all, it was important because for the
first time in almost 60 years a major country has mounted a
deliberate challenge to the authority of the United Nations and
the international rule of law. Toronto Star Thursday January 01,
2004
1364. War: Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting
Chief Warrant Officer Ronald Eagle, an expert on enemy
targeting, served 20 years in the military -- 10 years of active
duty in the Air Force, another 10 in the West Virginia National
Guard. Then he decided enough was enough. He owned a promising new
aircraft-maintenance business, and it needed his attention. His
retirement date was set for last February. Washington Post Monday
December 29, 2003
1365. War: Remember 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'? For Bush, They
Are a Non-issue
WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 -- In the debate over the necessity for
the war in Iraq, few issues have been more contentious than
whether Saddam Hussein possessed arsenals of banned weapons, as
the Bush administration repeatedly said, or instead was pursuing
weapons programs that might one day constitute a threat. On
Tuesday, with Mr. Hussein in American custody and polls showing
support for the White House's Iraq policy rebounding, Mr. Bush
suggested that he no longer saw much distinction between the
possibilities. "So what's the difference?" he responded at one
point as he was pressed on the topic during an interview by Diane
Sawyer of ABC News. NY Times Thursday December 18, 2003
1366. War: Army shells pose cancer risk in Iraq
Depleted uranium shells used by British forces in southern
Iraqi battlefields are putting civilians at risk from 'alarmingly
high' levels of radioactivity. Experts are calling for the water
and milk being used by locals in Basra to be monitored after
analysis of biological and soil samples from battle zones found
'the highest number, highest levels and highest concentrations of
radioactive source points' in the Basra suburb of Abu Khasib - the
centre of the fiercest battles between UK forces and Saddam
loyalists. Guardian Sunday December 14, 2003
1367. War: Rights Group Faults U.S. Over Cluster Bombs
WASHINGTON, Dec. 11 -- The American and British armies could
have prevented hundreds of civilian injuries or deaths during the
war in Iraq by eliminating the use of cluster munitions in
populated areas, according to a study by a leading human rights
group. NY Times Friday December 12, 2003
1368. War: U.S. Bars Iraq Contracts for Nations That Opposed War
WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 -- The Pentagon has barred French, German
and Russian companies from competing for $18.6 billion in
contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, saying the step "is
necessary for the protection of the essential security interests
of the United States." The directive, which was issued by the
deputy defense secretary, Paul D. Wolfowitz, represents perhaps
the most substantive retaliation to date by the Bush
administration against American allies who opposed its decision to
go to war in Iraq. NY Times Tuesday December 09, 2003
1369. War: Card: Prewar intelligence woes 'moot'
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's chief of staff dismissed
as "a moot point" any lingering question about whether Bush relied
on faulty intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. USA Today
Sunday December 07, 2003
1370. War: Bush plans new nuclear weapons
The United States is embarking on a multimillion-dollar
expansion of its nuclear arsenal, prompting fears it may lead the
world into a new arms race. Guardian Sunday November 30, 2003
1371. War: Iraqi Leaders Say U.S. Was Warned of Disorder After
Hussein, but Little Was Done
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 29 -- In the months before the Iraq
invasion, Iraqi exile leaders trooped through the White House, the
Pentagon and the State Department carrying a message about the
future of their homeland: without a strong plan for managing Iraq
after toppling Saddam Hussein, widespread looting and violence
would erupt. NY Times Saturday November 29, 2003
1372. War: The Patriotism Refuge
If patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel, as Samuel
Johnson said, then it is the first refuge of politicians. That at
least is the case with the Republican National Committee -- and by
implication the White House -- which has started running a
television commercial defending George Bush's handling of the Iraq
war, saying the president's various Democratic opponents are
attacking him "for attacking the terrorists." Not really. It's for
doing such a bad job of it. Washington Post Tuesday November 25,
2003
1373. War: Stunning arrogance
The Bush administration's policy on Iraq is an unmitigated
disaster. Last week the administration cobbled together strategy
which will see much of the political process handed back to the
Iraqis in a matter of months. The United States would have us
believe that it has sown the seeds of democracy. It's done nothing
of the sort. The Standard Friday November 14, 2003
1374. War: The hidden cost of Bush's war
Concern about fatalities among Western forces in Iraq tends
to overlook another ghastly statistic: the spectacularly mounting
toll of the severely wounded. The Independent Thursday November
13, 2003
1375. War: Afghan Poppies Sprout Again
There is a palpable risk that Afghanistan will again turn
into a failed state, this time in the hands of drug cartels and
narco-terrorists," wrote Antonio Maria Costa, executive director
of the U.N. anti-drug program. If "energetic interdiction
measures" are not undertaken now, he added, the country's drug
cancer will "metastasize into corruption, violence and terrorism."
Washington Post Monday November 10, 2003
1376. War: WAR AND REMEMBRANCE: A President MIA from Public Grief
Over Casualties
American soldiers are coming home each day, DOA at Dover,
Del. More than 200 of them have been smuggled back into the
country in this fashion since the mission in Iraq was declared
accomplished. Stealth patriots. Their homecomings are off-limits
to reporters, and they come home on the Q.T. without so much as a
greeting by the politicians who sent them to Iraq to meet their
untimely deaths. SF Chronicle Sunday November 09, 2003
1377. War: In Iraq, US ignores human rights lessons
HUMAN RIGHTS hawks are glad that Saddam Hussein is no longer
murdering his citizens. Why, then, are we upset over President
Bush's Iraq policy? Because it ignores the lessons of earlier
human rights wars, is Wednesday November 05, 2003
1378. War: Invasion killed 'up to 15,000 Iraqis'
A study by the Massachusetts-based Project on Defence
Alternatives (PDA) says the available evidence shows approximately
11,000 to 15,000 Iraqis, combatants and non-combatants, were
killed in the course of the US-led invasion. "Of the total number
of Iraqi fatalities during the relevant period, approximately 30%
(or between 3200 and 4300) were non-combatant civilians - that is,
civilians who did not take up arms," says the study released on
Tuesday. Al Jazeera Thursday October 30, 2003
1379. War: U.S. raid nets entire Iraqi village
HABBARIYAH, Iraq -- American troops in helicopters swooped
down on this remote sheepherding village in the desert and
detained nearly all the men, one as old as 81, one as young as 13.
A month after the raid, apparently aimed at preventing terrorists
from slipping across the border from Saudi Arabia, only two of the
79 captives have been freed. Japan Today Thursday October 30, 2003
1380. War: Report Links Iraq Deals to Bush Donations
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies awarded $8 billion in contracts
to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan have been major campaign donors to
President Bush, and their executives have had important political
and military connections, according to a study released Thursday.
NY Times Thursday October 30, 2003
1381. War: Group Faults U.S. Tactics Against Civilians in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Oct. 20 -- U.S. forces have killed at least 94
civilians in Baghdad since May 1 "in questionable circumstances"
but faced investigation in only five incidents, encouraging
soldiers to believe they can fire with impunity, a human rights
group said in a report released Tuesday. Washington Post Tuesday
October 21, 2003
1382. War: Bush Admin. Used Psy-Ops, Propaganda and Information
Warfare In Build-Up to Iraq Invasion
A new report by retired Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner
charges the U.S. and Britain relied on information warfare and
psychological operations to inform the public in the lead-up and
during the invasion of Iraq. He outlines over 50 stories that
appeared in the U.S. media that were either purposely false or
misleading. Democracy Now Monday October 20, 2003
1383. War: Bush threatened Syria while at war on two fronts
With troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush still found the
will to threaten Syria, which frightened Europeans, who "appealed
to American officials to 'cool down' the rhetoric over allegations
against Syria. European foreign ministers said that tough
diplomacy could complicate the situation in post-war Iraq."
Crosswalk Sunday October 05, 2003
1384. War: Bush claims terrorists want to take our freedoms away
We have been told that the terrorists want to take away our
freedoms. First of all, how could this possibly be done? As a
friend recently pointed out: "What do they expect them to do? Come
over here wielding swords, forcing everybody to grow beards?" The
whole idea of a outside entity taking away the freedoms of the
American people is ludicrous. We have been told that the
terrorists hate our freedom of speech. Would this be the same
freedom of speech that had Richard Humphreys of Portland, Oregon
sentenced to 37 months in prison for "threatening to kill or harm
the President" after telling a joke during a bar room discussion?
Would this be the same freedom of speech that had Secret Service
Agents question a High School student for wearing a controversial
t-shirt , treated as a potential threat on the president? Would
this be the same freedom of speech that has political essayist
voxfux on the run after a combined task force from the Secret
Service, FBI, CIA, and Major Crimes Unit raided his Long Island
home? Would this be the same freedom of speech that cost TV host
Bill Maher his job for simply pointing out the inverse reality of
Bush's comments after the attacks? Prison Planet Sunday October
05, 2003
1385. War: Bush's real enemy is "evil"
Ever since 2001-09-11, President George W. Bush has been
struggling to explain to the American people exactly who he thinks
our enemy is and why we should go to war against them. After a few
days of floundering around with vague remarks about "them", he hit
upon his final answer: our enemy is evil . Our war is against evil
. I have to admit that I'm still stumped by this answer. Our war
is against the enemy of evil, Bush says, but how do we tell who is
evil so that we will know who to go to war against? In the war
against evil, will the United States go to war against all
murderers? Against all theives? Against all liars? Irregular Times
Sunday October 05, 2003
1386. War: Women in Afghanistan still not liberated, long after
Taliban overthrow
The ultra-conservative Taliban regime, which was toppled by
a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, had banned women from working and
girls from getting an education. The Afghan government has since
lifted those restrictions, but in rural areas where it has little
authority many women still cannot work and girls still cannot
attend school. "Nearly two years on, discrimination, violence, and
insecurity remain rife, despite promises by world leaders,
including President Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell, that
the war in Afghanistan would bring liberation for women," the
report said. NY Times Sunday October 05, 2003
1387. War: Bush argued that Iraq is a country with abundant
natural resources
The reality: Though it is true that Iraq sits on one of the
largest oil reserves in the world, at this point the country needs
to import oil because of the decrepit state of its oil production
facilities and continuing sabotage. Council for a Livable World
Thursday October 02, 2003
1388. War: Bush argued that other countries opposed to the war
would contribute to Iraq's reconstruction
The reality: Most countries, including France, have been
reluctant to send troops or help pay for reconstruction. Great
Britain reduced its initial contribution of 45,000 troops to about
11,000. There is one Polish-led division of about 9,000 troops
composed of forces from more than 20 countries. In most of the
world, the U.S. intervention remains very unpopular with the
public and the leaders. Council for a Livable World Thursday
October 02, 2003
1389. War: Bush argued that the removal of Saddam Hussein would
improve relations between Israel and Palestine
The reality: There has been no significant change in the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict as a result of Hussein's removal from
power. In fact, if anything, the situation there has only
deteriorated. Suicide bombings and other acts of violence are
still ever-present in the region and the most recent peace plan is
in shambles. Council for a Livable World Thursday October 02, 2003
1390. War: Bush claimed that a large number of U.S. troops would
not be needed in Iraq after the war The reality: U.S. and allied
troo
August -- and 90% were Americans. A number of Members of
Congress are calling for additional American divisions to be
deployed to Iraq. The Administration is seeking troops of other
nations. Council for a Livable World Thursday October 02, 2003
1391. War: Bush claimed that Iraq would be able to shoulder much
of the reconstruction costs
The reality: The Administration's claim was an obvious
misjudgment. The Iraqi economy is presently in shambles,
exacerbated by widespread looting and destruction carried out
after the war that the U.S. was unable to prevent. It will cost
billions of dollars from the United States or other countries to
rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. Congress has already appropriated
$2.5 billion for reconstruction in Iraq, and the administration
recently requested an additional $20 billion for next year.
Council for a Livable World Thursday October 02, 2003
1392. War: Bush claimed that the US was not interested in
occupying Iraq
The reality: Neither the Iraqi people and other nations
around the world are sure about present U.S. intentions; many
Iraqis see the U.S. as occupiers. Council for a Livable World
Thursday October 02, 2003
1393. War: Bush said that Iraqi troops would help keep the peace
The reality: Only a tiny fraction of Iraq's military
surrendered to U.S. forces; the majority melted away. The
remaining Iraqi army was simply disbanded, with some of those
soldiers undoubtedly joining the guerillas opposing U.S.
occupation. Council for a Livable World Thursday October 02, 2003
1394. War: Bush claimed that the war in Iraq would not be very
expensive
The reality: It is now clear that the prediction of $50-$60
billion was extremely low. Last year Congress appropriated about
$70 billion for the war; the latest request is for an additional
$87 billion. It is almost anyone's guess how much the U.S. will
ultimately spend. Council for a Livable World Thursday October 02,
2003
1395. War: Bush said that Iraqis would govern themselves in a
matter of weeks or months
The reality: Iraqis will not govern the country any time
soon. The U.S. is unwilling to establish a timetable for the
handover of authority. Paul Bremer is leading the Coalition
Provisional Authority that appointed an Iraqi Governing Council, a
body that is unelected and has little power. Council for a Livable
World Thursday October 02, 2003
1396. War: U.S. troops will be welcomed in Iraq as liberators.
The reality: Very few Iraqi citizens greeted Americans as
liberators. In fact, many see the U.S. as an occupier. There has
been widespread rioting, looting and demonstrations against the
U.S. A strong guerilla movement has continued to cause many
casualties among American troops. Council for a Livable World
Thursday October 02, 2003
1397. War: Bush said that resistance would fade quickly; hostility
will be short-lived
The reality: Hostility is strong, and growing. During a July
16 interview on "Good Morning America," the head of U.S. Central
Command, Gen. John P. Abizaid, described the situation in Iraq as
"a classical guerrilla-type campaign [being waged] against us.
It's low-intensity conflict in our doctrinal terms, but it's war
however you describe it." Council for a Livable World Thursday
October 02, 2003
1398. War: Bush said that post-war Iraq would be like post-war
France
The reality: There is absolutely no similarity. Council for
a Livable World Thursday October 02, 2003
1399. War: Iraq war failed to achieve its objectives
Another fine mess. Post-September 11, George Bush began an
unwinnable war on multiple fronts against a nebulous enemy. And
two years on, a new study shows, the campaign has had little
impact on its targets. Guardian Thursday September 11, 2003
1400. War: Bush shifts rationale for war
Months after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, when it became
clear that Iraq really had not been an imminent threat to anyone,
the Bush administration began to seek new reasons to justify the
war. As the Bush administration's leading hawk on Iraq, Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz has been a tireless proponent
of the argument that Iraq's possession of weapons of mass
destruction was a compelling enough reason for the United States
to resort to war. These days, his emphasis is different.
Washington Post Thursday September 11, 2003
1401. War: Bush hires thugs to find more thugs in Iraq
Have thugs will travel. America's tax dollars are now being
used by the Bush Administration "to hire the murderers of the
infamous Mukhabarat and other agents of the Baathist Gestapo --
perhaps hundreds of them. The logic, if that's the word," writes
Floyd, "seems to be that these bloodstained 'insiders' will lead
their new imperial masters to other bloodstained 'insiders'
responsible for bombing the UN headquarters in Baghdad -- and
killing another dozen American soldiers..." Working for Change
Wednesday September 10, 2003
1402. War: Bush's war rationale faulty
For more than a year, Bush has framed Iraq as part of the
"war on terror." And for more than a year, he has produced no
evidence for that claim. No evidence of a link between Iraq and
9/11. No evidence of an affinity between Saddam Hussein's secular
tyranny and the fundamentalists of al-Qaida. No evidence of a
terrorist presence in Iraq greater than in other Arab or Muslim
countries. No evidence that Iraq offered weapons of mass
destruction to terrorists. Slate Wednesday September 10, 2003
1403. War: Bush administration now claims that WMDs don't matter
In an interview with The Associated Press, John Bolton,
undersecretary of state for arms control, said that whether
Saddam's regime actually possessed weapons of mass destruction
isn't really the issue. This is a clear reversal of prior Bush
administration claims, and an attempt to justify war after the
fact. Salon Friday September 05, 2003
1404. War: The US has wrecked the task of post-war reconstruction
in Iraq
The US has wrecked the task of post-war reconstruction in
Iraq as in Afghanistan, according to the head of a major charity.
ACF said there were parallels between the failures of US policy in
Iraq and Afghanistan. "We have the feeling that civilian
populations are sacrificed for operations of a political nature,"
said Thomas Gonnet, the agency's director of operations. Relief
Web Wednesday September 03, 2003
1405. War: Bush's man in Baghdad, Paul Bremer, says terrorists are
"right where we want 'em"
Iraq may be spinning out of control, but in the Bush
administration, the spin was strictly controlled. From Baghdad to
the White House, administration spokesmen went to elaborate
lengths to argue that the presence of terrorists in Iraq was
somehow a positive development. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil
administrator in Iraq, adopted a tone of "we've got 'em right
where we want 'em." The administration strained even harder to
find "I told you so" parallels between the bombing of the U.N.
headquarters in Baghdad and the Palestinian suicide bombing on a
bus in Jerusalem that killed 18 people on the same day. "It's
emblematic of the kind of problem that we are fighting," said the
senior official at the White House. Newsweek Monday September 01,
2003
1406. War: Hans Blix intimidated by U. S. before war
Former chief U.N. arms inspector Hans Blix felt Washington
was intimidating him to produce reports that would justify
military action in the run-up to the Iraq war, the head of the
U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday. Colorado Campaign for Middle
East Peace Friday August 29, 2003
1407. War: 9-11 turned into propganda by Bush
Lights, Camera, Exploitation. In the end 9-11 turned out to
be a made-for-TV movie, or rather, the basis for one shameless
propaganda vehicle for our superstar president George W. Bush.
Village Voice Wednesday August 27, 2003
1408. War: Halliburton awarded no-bid contracts in Iraq
Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President
Cheney, has won contracts worth more than $1.7 billion under
Operation Iraqi Freedom and stands to make hundreds of millions
more dollars under a no-bid contract awarded by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, according to newly available documents.
Washington Post Wednesday August 27, 2003
1409. War: U.S. troops short on rifles
U.S. troops in Iraq may not have found weapons of mass
destruction, but they're certainly getting their hands on the
country's stock of Kalashnikovs and, they say, they need them. The
soldiers based around Baqouba are from an armor battalion, which
means they have tanks, Humvees and armored personnel carriers. But
they are short on rifles. Free Republic Tuesday August 26, 2003
1410. War: U. S. blocks UN resolution that could lead to ICC
prosecutions
The United States on Monday opposed a resolution aimed at
protecting U.N. staff because it fears it could lay the groundwork
for prosecutions by the International Criminal Court. News
Observer Monday August 25, 2003
1411. War: Weapons experts say drones weren't designed to deliver
WMDs, as Bush claimed
Huddled over a fleet of abandoned Iraqi drones, U.S. weapons
experts in Baghdad came to one conclusion: Despite the Bush
administration's public assertions, these unmanned aerial vehicles
weren't designed to dispense biological or chemical weapons.
Council for a Livable World Monday August 25, 2003
1412. War: Bush's war in Iraq creates terrorists
The Bush team has now created the very monster that it
conjured up to alarm Americans into backing a war on Iraq. Rushing
to pummel Iraq after 9-11, Bush officials ginned up links between
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. They made it sound as if Islamic
fighters on a jihad against America were slouching toward Baghdad
to join forces with murderous Iraqis. There was scant evidence of
it then, but it's coming true now. Salt Lake Tribune Sunday August
24, 2003
1413. War: Bush fighting to keep money from injured Gulf War vets
Former POWs from the 1991 Gulf War sued Iraq for damages,
and won. Now the US government is fighting their monetary award,
saying the money is needed to rebuild Iraq. Washington Post
Wednesday July 30, 2003
1414. War: Bush eliminates Saudi references from 9-11 report
The 850 page report on intelligence prior to 9/11 is
curiously missing 28 pages. Some say those pages are the ones
highlighting what Bush was told and the role of the Saudis. As one
reader suggests, this may be the equivalent of the 18 minute gap
created by Rosemary Woods to help Nixon cover his Watergate lies.
Indymedia Victoria Friday July 25, 2003
1415. War: Months after the invasion, many in Iraq are without
water and electricity
The Bush administration has yet to provide electricity and
water for these poor people, let alone democracy. Socialist Worker
Online Friday July 18, 2003
1416. War: Rather than speed up democracy in Iraq, Bush favors
more troops
American soldiers are dying almost daily in Iraq. But rather
than speeding up democratic processes, Bush is talking about
sending more troops. Too bad LBJ is not around to offer some
relevant advice about escalating troop levels. Blue Martin Schram
Wednesday July 16, 2003
1417. War: Bush claims that he launched war because Un inspectors
kicked out
"The president's assertion that the war began because Iraq
did not admit inspectors appeared to contradict the events leading
up to war this spring: Hussein had, in fact, admitted the
inspectors and Bush had opposed extending their work because he
did not believe them effective." Salon Tuesday July 15, 2003
1418. War: Bush pushes for tactical nukes
At Bush's urging, Congress voted to lift its 10-year-old ban
on research and development of small, "tactical" nukes, bombs
ranging up to a third the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima on
Aug. 6, 1945. Common Dreams Wednesday July 09, 2003
1419. War: Bush promises democracy for Iraq, fails to deliver
Bush promised democracy to Iraq, but what kind of democracy
is it when Paul Bremer, the US Administrator, hand picks the new
governing body and holds veto power over anything they decide?
News.com. News.Com Tuesday July 08, 2003
1420. War: Bush's "Bring 'em on!" results in soldiers' deaths
"There are some who feel like that the conditions are such
that they can attack us there. My answer is bring them on," Mr.
Bush said. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., called the president's
language "irresponsible and inciteful." CBS News Thursday July 03,
2003
1421. War: Women in Iraq now can't leave their house for fear of
violence
In general, Iraqi locals are antagonistic toward American
occupation. Al Jazeera Tuesday July 01, 2003
1422. War: Bush declares anyone captured near battles as "enemy
combatants"
depriving them of rights Anyone captured on or near battles
in Afghanistan or Iraq have been arbitrarily designated enemy
combatants which means they lose their Constitutional rights, even
if they're American citizens. Thank you, John Ashcroft, for the
cynically named USA PATRIOT Act. Human Rights Watch Monday June
23, 2003
1423. War: By attacking Muslims, Bush diverts attention from
corporate scandals
Bush seems determined to press his crusade against Muslim
nations. He is running a political Ponzi scheme, diverting the
public from the Enron and stock market swindles by invading
Afghanistan, then covering that mess by invading Iraq, and now
trying to cover up the growing Iraq disaster by fanning a new
crisis with Iran. Common Dreams, Sunday June 22, 2003
1424. War: US troops kill Iraqi demonstrators
The military has also confirmed that two people died when
troops fired on a crowd gathered outside the main gate of the
Republican Palace, Saddam Hussein's former presidential compound
and now the headquarters of the American-led administration.
Demonstrators say another person was injured. The Iraqis were
demanding their unpaid wages. CBC News Wednesday June 18, 2003
1425. War: Bush claims WMDs are found, referring to two empty
trailers
President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence
agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons
labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have "found the weapons of mass
destruction" that were the United States' primary justification
for going to war. Washington Post Saturday May 31, 2003
1426. War: Bush declares, prematurely, Mission Accomplished
Bush, declaring the war was over in his pilot's outfit,
wasted a huge amount of money for purely propaganda reason. Not to
mention that he was premature in his announcement. BBC News Friday
May 02, 2003
1427. War: Bush bars UN weapons teams from Iraq
The United States will not permit United Nations weapons
inspectors to return to Iraq, saying the US military has taken
over the role of searching for Saddam's weapons of mass
destruction. In simultaneous briefings in New York and Washington,
both the White House and the US ambassador to the UN said they saw
no role in postwar Iraq for the UN weapons inspection teams. White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington to
"make no mistake about it. The United States and the coalition
have taken on the responsibility for dismantling Iraq's WMD
[weapons of mass destruction]". The Sydney Morning Herald Thursday
April 24, 2003
1428. War: US Troops allowed looting following the invasion of
Iraq
Looting was allowed to take place in Baghdad. Three members
of the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee have
resigned to protest the looting of Baghdad's National Museum of
Antiquities. One of them criticized "the administration's total
lack of sensitivity and forethought regarding the Iraq invasion
and the loss of cultural treasures." Another said in a separate
interview that he saw "a failure on the part of the United States
to interdict what is now an open floodgate." Asia News Friday
April 18, 2003
1429. War: US protected only two sites after Iraq invasion,
including ministry of oil
Only two sites in Iraq were even protected by U.S. troops
after Bush falsely declared the war over-- one being the ministry
of oil. Kilafah Monday April 14, 2003
1430. War: US troops draped US flag over Saddam's statue,
heightening fears of imperialism
American soldiers draped the American flag over Saddam's
statue in a sight thrilling to some Americans. For the Muslim
world, however, the image of the American flag in Baghdad had an
entirely different meaning. On the Arabic language news channel,
Al-Arabiyya, the newscaster covering the fall of Baghdad simply
commented, "That should have been an Iraqi flag." Islam Online
Saturday April 12, 2003
1431. War: US troops shoot up journalists' hotels and Al-Jazeera
headquarters killing and injuring several
TV station al-Jazeera says the US knew the location of its
headquarters and the Palestine Hotel was well-known as the base
for western TV and newspapers since the start of the war. The US
admitted it had made "a grave mistake" bombing al-Jazeera and said
it had opened fire on the Palestine Hotel after coming under
attack from snipers. But that account has been dismissed as
"absurd" by journalists working out of the hotel. The Guardian
Tuesday April 08, 2003
1432. War: Bush threatens North Korea as part of his "axis of
evil"
North Korea is yet another country that Bush has threatened.
According to the Centre Daily Times, "President Bush last year
tagged Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an 'axis of evil' that
threatens world order. " Centre Daily Time Sunday April 06, 2003
1433. War: Bush's general insensitive to Iraqi deaths
When asked how many Iraqis had been killed in the war,
General Tommy Franks said, "We don't do body counts." His callous
indifference hides the estimated 6,000 to 7,000 civilians killed.
Iraq Body Count Thursday April 03, 2003
1434. War: Bush after complete makeover of the middle east
Chaos in the Middle East is not the Bush hawks' nightmare
scenario--it's their plan. In their view, invasion of Iraq was not
merely, or even primarily, about getting rid of Saddam Hussein.
Nor was it really about weapons of mass destruction, though their
elimination was an important benefit. Rather, the administration
sees the invasion as only the first move in a wider effort to
reorder the power structure of the entire Middle East. Washington
Monthly Tuesday April 01, 2003
1435. War: Bush attempts illegal assassination of Saddam
Executive Order 12333 signed in 1976 by President Ford has
not been revoked, meaning that the attempted murder of President
Saddam Hussein by US military forces is illegal under US law. The
Fourth Convention of The Hague stipulates that such actions
violate international law. President George W. Bush is guilty of
the crime of attempted murder. The Fourth Convention of The Hague,
signed in 1907, states that the premeditated assassination of
individuals is illegal under international law, which means that
the strike against the bunker of Saddam Hussein at the beginning
of the illegal attack on Iraq by an Anglo-American coalition,
attempting to take out the Iraqi leadership, violates
international law. Pravda Tuesday March 25, 2003
1436. War: Bush, at neocons behest, remaking the world
While Bush has presented the looming Iraq war as a response
to 9/11, Grow said that to Wolfowitz, it isn't fundamentally about
terrorism or weapons of mass destruction or U.N. resolutions. To
Wolfowitz and the neocons, Iraq represents the weak spot in the
chain of nations to which they plan to bring American notions of
democracy and capitalism, Grow said. In their vision, war with
Iraq is followed by democratization of Iraq, then democratization
-- by military means or otherwise -- of other Arab states, then a
rolling of the momentum into Asia, with special emphasis on North
Korea and China, Grow said. Star Tribune Sunday March 16, 2003
1437. War: Bush calls on God to pull religious right into war
Bush deliberately dresses his war rhetoric in language
designed to appeal to the Christian Right, the key building bloc
of the conservative arm of the Republican Party. And not only his
refrain about evil and evildoers; he repeatedly draws God into an
explicit alliance with the administration's agenda. Financial
Review Tuesday March 11, 2003
1438. War: Bush hid the cost of war until after it began
Bush and his administration refused to estimate the cost of
the war when he was whipping up the fever, but now we see that the
price for the Iraq invasion will be about $100 billion. This is
money that could have been spent on education, health care,
housing, and highways. An expensive deception, indeed. Cost of War
Monday March 03, 2003
1439. War: Bush favors UN irrelevance
Bush warned that the UN would become irrelevant unless they
went along with his war against Iraq, but when they refused, he
defied them and therefore tried to make them irrelevant. But
that's part of the plan; the far-right, which Bush represents, has
always hated the UN. Express News Monday March 03, 2003
1440. War: Bush provided poor intelligence to UN inspectors prior
to Iraq war
Either out of incompetence or to stymie their efforts, the
Bush administration provided poor intelligence to UN inspectors
prior to the war. CBS News Thursday February 20, 2003
1441. War: In most European countries, 80 - 90% of the people were
against the Iraq war
Most heads of state were against the war. Britain, Bush's
only ally, was carried along on the back of a lie, just as
Americans were. BBC Tuesday February 11, 2003
1442. War: "Shock and awe" is really terrorism
They can call it "Shock And Awe" if they want; but- by the
Pentagon's own admission - we've already got a name for this kind
of thing, and it is "terrorism." The Plaid Adder, Friday January
31, 2003
1443. War: Bush demonized Saddam Hussein
In order to generate support for the war against Iraq, Bush
demonized Saddam Hussein, but did so with references to atrocities
he committed a decade ago. Bush, however, implied that Hussein's
crimes were new. ABC News Wednesday January 29, 2003
1444. War: Bush kills suspected terrorists in Yemen, raising
questions of legality
The United States took a bold step in its global war on
terrorism this week when a CIA-operated unmanned aircraft blasted
a vehicle to bits in the Yemeni desert, killing six alleged
members of al-Qaida. However, the killings also raised questions
about the legal underpinning for such tactics -- and whether the
U.S. military has the right to use them anywhere in the world.
MSNBC News Wednesday November 06, 2002
1445. War: Bush questions patriotism of war critics
The Bush administration is dismissing critics of its war
designs, calling them political opportunists and questioning their
patriotism. Mother Jones Monday October 14, 2002
1446. War: Experts argued that Saddam would only use WMDs if
attacked
Although Bush claimed we were going to war against Iraq so
Hussein wouldn't use his WMDs, most analysts thought they would
only be used if Hussein was attacked. Common Dreams Sunday October
13, 2002
1447. War: Bush went to war in Iraq in spite of the will of the
people
According to a CBS News poll before the war, "Americans are
willing to wait for that approval: a majority wants Congress to
wait until the U.N. has acted before voting on a resolution
authorizing military action against Iraq, even if that would take
longer than the few weeks in which the administration wants
action." CBS News Tuesday September 24, 2002
1448. War: Arabs say Iraq Governing Council is illigitimate
Islam's most revered authority of Al-Azhar issued a fatwa
banning Arab countries from dealing with the Iraqi Governing
Council, saying the U.S.-backed body is illegitimate. Islam Online
Monday August 26, 2002
1449. War: Bush's preemptive war policy violates international law
The Bush administration's preemptive war policy, wherein he
claims the right to overthrow any government suspected of being a
danger to the US, goes against international law, specifically the
UN Charter, which prohibits one country from attacking another
unless under imminent threat of invasion. The Guardian, Friday
June 07, 2002
1450. War: Bush says "You're with us, or you're against us"
ignoring subtle foreign policy Catchy sound bites can lead to
shaky foreig
September: "You're either with us . . . or with the
terrorists." But the problem with this black-and-white approach is
painfully obvious when it comes to America's longtime ally and oil
supplier, Saudi Arabia. To judge from a growing body of evidence,
the Saudis have managed to be both "with us . . . and with the
terrorists." So where does this leave the Bush administration? St.
Petersburg Times Thursday May 09, 2002
1451. War: Bush has been trying to limit the probe of intelligence
failures preceding the WTC attacks
Although the president and vice president told Sen. Daschle
they were worried a wide-reaching inquiry could distract from the
government's war on terrorism, privately Democrats questioned why
the White House feared a broader investigation to determine
possible culpability. "We will take a look at the allocation of
resources. Ten thousand federal agents -- where were they? How
many assets were used, and what signals were missed?" a Democratic
senator told CNN. CNN Tuesday January 29, 2002
1452. War: Bush continues the Reaganesque folly of the missile
defense shield
The program will siphon off billions for a system no one
really expects to work. Washington Post Tuesday May 01, 2001
1453. Women's Rights: Betraying Iraqi Women
Despite the Bush administration's assurances to the
contrary, conditions for women have worsened substantially as a
result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its continuing aftermath.
The contrast between the rhetoric and the reality is stunning. One
year ago, in July 2003, Undersecretary of State Paula J.
Dobriansky wrote, "Indeed, the commitment of the United States to
the human rights of Iraq's women is unshakable and manifested
clearly by our activities on the ground as well as our policy
statements." Tom Paine Saturday July 17, 2004
1454. Women's Rights: Expendable Women
One of the uglier aspects of the Bush administration's
assault on women's reproductive rights is its concerted
undermining of the United Nations Population Fund based on the
false accusation that it supports coerced abortions in China.
The fund supports programs in some 141 countries to advance
poor women's reproductive health, reduce infant mortality, end the
sexual trafficking of women and prevent the spread of H.I.V. and
AIDS. Yet under pressure from conservative religious groups, the
administration is expected to withhold the $34 million that
Congress appropriated this year for these vital efforts, much as
President Bush blocked the $34 million Congress approved in 2002
and last year's $25 million allocation. NY Times Monday July 05,
2004
1455. Women's Rights: Where are the women in the new Iraq?
NOW THAT the Iraqi Governing Council has been dissolved, the
transitional government taking its place is being hailed as
"diverse" for its multiethnic, multiconfessional representation.
Yet while outsiders and Iraqi politicians are busy divvying up the
future government along religious and ethnic lines, they are
sidelining the single largest group of Iraqi citizens -- women,
the one constituency with the potential to exert a unifying effect
on the country. Boston Globe Tuesday June 22, 2004
1456. Women's Rights: U.S. Accused of Seeking to Isolate U.N.
Population Unit
WASHINGTON, June 20 - The Bush administration, which cut off
its share of financing two years ago to the United Nations agency
handling population control, is seeking to isolate the agency from
groups that work with it in China and elsewhere, United Nations
officials and diplomats say.
Pressed by opponents of abortion, the administration
withdrew its support from a major international conference on
health issues this month and has privately warned other groups,
like Unicef, that address health issues that their financing could
be jeopardized if they insist on working with the agency, the
United Nations Population Fund. New York Times Sunday June 20,
2004
1457. Women's Rights: Muzzling Abortion
IN THE 2000 campaign, George W. Bush maintained a studiously
moderate stance on social issues. Once he assumed office in
January 2001, he betrayed that position and delighted his
right-wing base by attaching antiabortion conditions to foreign
assistance. These conditions laid down that family planning groups
accepting federal money must not perform abortions, or even
provide information about them to their patients. As we said at
the time, forcing an organization to censor its views as a
condition of receiving government money would be unconstitutional
on free-speech grounds in this country. Mr. Bush's calculation, we
supposed, was that Americans would overlook his contempt for free
speech if the consequences were limited to far-off poor countries.
Washington Post Wednesday June 16, 2004
1458. Women's Rights: Wrong to limit contraception pill
Women deserve easy access to emergency contraception pills.
The Food and Drug Administration has chosen to be an obstacle to
preventing pregnancies and reducing abortions. Politics rules. The
Bush administration talks about science, but acts on
pseudoscience. In refusing to allow emergency contraceptives to be
sold over the counter, the FDA rejected the overwhelming
recommendation of its own scientific advisory panel. The panel
said tests, which included girls under 16, had shown women can use
the so-called morning-after pills safely and effectively without a
doctor's prescription. Seattle PI Monday May 10, 2004
1459. Women's Rights: Analysis: Plan B could reduce abortions
LAKEWOOD, Ohio,
May 7 (UPI) -- The Food and Drug Administration's decision
to deny women direct access to emergency contraception prevents
what many regard as the best opportunity to achieve a real
substantive reduction in the number of abortions in the United
States. Plan B, the emergency contraceptive that was the subject
of the FDA's ruling Thursday, works in two ways: It inhibits or
prevents ovulations and it impairs sperm from fertilizing the egg.
It works best when used within three days of unprotected sex, but
it can work for up to five days after unprotected sex. Most
important, experts said, it prevents pregnancy either before
fertilization or before attachment of the egg to the uterus. It
also cannot harm an embryo that has begun to grow in utero, so
technically it does not cause an abortion. UPI Friday May 07, 2004
1460. Women's Rights: Bush stacks federal courts
President Bush is trying to stack the federal courts with
anti-choice conservative judges. NARAL Prochoice America Thursday
April 08, 2004
1461. Women's Rights: Reproductive Rights Assaulted
At a bill-signing ceremony at the White House, and in
federal courtrooms across the country, the Republican campaign
against women's basic reproductive and privacy rights reached an
ominous new stage last week. In Washington on Thursday, President
Bush signed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which advances the
administration's anti-choice agenda under the guise of law
enforcement. Like numerous similar state laws, the new federal law
makes it a criminal act to harm a fetus, separate from the crime
of attacking a pregnant woman. NY Times Monday April 05, 2004
1462. Women's Rights: Betraying Afghan women
THE BUSH administration should not be encouraging the Afghan
president, Hamid Karzai, to court what he and US officials have
been calling moderate Taliban elements. With an Afghan
presidential election scheduled for June, it may be tempting to
try splitting some Taliban figures away from the main body of the
fundamentalist movement. Part of the calculation behind such a
move by Karzai may be to solidify support among his fellow
Pashtuns, a majority of the country. Moreover, it is within Afghan
traditions to coax one's enemies to change sides. Nevertheless,
this tactic should be dropped both on moral grounds and because it
is unlikely to be effective politically. Boston Globe Sunday
February 15, 2004
1463. Women's Rights: Invasive procedure / Ashcroft goes too far
in seeking medical records
Americans have accepted with relative good humor post- Sept.
11 government encroachments on their civil liberties that have
been presented as necessary to improve security. The latest
offense, however, has nothing to do with security, but is being
pursued by Attorney General John Ashcroft's Justice Department as
part of the Bush administration's religious right-oriented
anti-abortion policy. Post Gazette Sunday February 15, 2004
1464. Women's Rights: Bush steps up attack on women's rights
No one expects George W. Bush to protect a woman's right to
choose -- he's been explicitly anti-choice since 1994. One might
think, however, he could at least commit to supporting the kind of
sexual health information and contraceptive access that reduces
the need for abortion. The administration and anti-choice
hard-liners in Congress actively are attacking family planning and
medically accurate sexual health education, which are proven ways
to reduce the number of abortions and the spread of sexually
transmitted infections, including HIV. This is but a part of a
coordinated assault on women's rights, which began the day Bush
took office and continues to gather steam. Ultimately, anti-choice
politicians hope to stack U.S. courts with justices who will help
them overturn Roe v. Wade -- but they're not waiting for that day
to begin undermining the right to choose. Seattle PI Thursday
January 22, 2004
1465. Women's Rights: Bush cuts Title IX
The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics recommended
sweeping and debilitating changes to Title IX. Feminist Majority
Foundation Thursday January 01, 2004
1466. Women's Rights: Bush further restricts federal aid to
international family planning groups
President Bush on Friday further restricted federal aid to
international family planning groups that counsel abortion,
provoking a new condemnation from a leading abortion rights group.
News Batch, Wednesday October 08, 2003
1467. Women's Rights: Bush diverts funds to promote marriage
A Bush administration proposal to divert almost $2 billion
in scarce welfare funds to promote marriage should be squashed. As
one state's effort shows, jobs and education lead to marriage, not
the other way around. Religious Consultation Wednesday September
10, 2003
1468. Women's Rights: Lack of women in Afghan government leaves
protection of rights in doubt
Noting that the Iraqi constitutional commission is made up
entirely of men, the constitutional experts provided to Iraq by
the Bush administration are all men, and 22 out of 25 members of
the Iraqi governing council are men, Zeitlin said that it is still
unclear whether democratic institutions will take hold in Iraq and
if they do, whether they will include and protect women. Common
Dreams Wednesday August 27, 2003
1469. Women's Rights: Inadequate funding for security and
reconstruction in Afghanistan leaves women unsafe
Another example of the administration's failure to match
action to words is the 2002 Afghan Freedom Support Act. The bill,
passed with overwhelming support by the U.S. Congress and signed
into law by President Bush in December, called for significant
increases in funding for Afghanistan's reconstruction, to enhance
democracy, political and economic stability, and security for
women in the country. However, only a small portion of the funding
has come through, according to Smeal, and the President did not
include a request for full funding in his initial budget request
for this year. OneWorld US, Wednesday August 27, 2003
1470. Women's Rights: Bush administration blocks abortions for
overseas servicewomen
Conservatives have consistently blocked attempts to allow
overseas servicewomen to have abortions without having to return
home. Women's e-News, Sunday July 27, 2003
1471. Women's Rights: Bush supporters claims that abortions cause
breast cancer debunked
Breast cancer researchers attending a three-day conference
at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Maryland, confidently
announced yesterday that the strongest statistical evidence shows
no elevated breast cancer risk in women who have had abortions.
Their findings foil the latest attempts by the Bush Administration
and its anti-abortion supporters to impose conservative ideologies
on science and medicine. MS Magazine Sunday June 01, 2003
1472. Women's Rights: Bush closes women's offices in federal
agencies and defunds programs
Advocates for women agree that Bush is acting to reverse the
modest gains made under Bill Clinton. But the White House is
moving deftly. In the name of budget cutting, it is closing
women's offices in federal agencies, defunding programs that
monitor discrimination, and appointing people who oppose
affirmative action and welfare for single mothers to policy-making
posts. They're not taking legislation to the Hill and putting it
up on high profile, says Martha Burk, who chairs the National
Council of Women's Organizations. They're doing it through regs,
policy changes, executive orders. All of this is under the radar
for most citizens. Village Voice Sunday May 11, 2003
1473. Women's Rights: FDA appointee refuses to discuss
contraception with unwed female patients
David Hager, a physician, refuses to discuss contraception
with unwed female patients. Now he's part of the Reproductive
Health Drugs Advisory Committee at the FDA. An outcry forced Bush
to withdraw Hager's nomination to head that panel, which, under
Clinton, played a major role in legalizing RU-486, the drug that
can terminate a pregnancy at the zygote stage. With the religious
right pressing for repeal of that authorization, it remains to be
seen who will chair this crucial committee. Village Voice Sunday
May 11, 2003
1474. Women's Rights: Bush fights UN programs that mention condoms
The Bush administration has also objected to UN
family-planning and AIDS-prevention programs that offer or merely
mention condoms. Village Voice Sunday May 11, 2003
1475. Women's Rights: Bush opposed rehabilitation program for war
crime victims if it offered abortion information
According to Planned Parenthood, the U.S. even opposed
efforts to provide special rehabilitation for female victims of
war crimes, because the measure might be construed as offering
information about abortion to girls who have been raped. Village
Voice Sunday May 11, 2003
1476. Women's Rights: Republican bill denies doctor-patient
abortion discussion
A bill passed by the Republican House would allow health
care companies to prevent their doctors from discussing abortion.
Here is this decade's version of silence = death. Village Voice
Sunday May 11, 2003
1477. Women's Rights: HHS apointee proposed denyng benefits to
cohabitating couples
At the Department of Health and Human Services, Wade Horn
was put in charge of family support. A firm believer in using
welfare to encourage marriage, Horn has proposed denying benefits
to cohabitating couples and withholding money from single mothers
until all married couples have been served. Village Voice Sunday
May 11, 2003
1478. Women's Rights: On his first day in office, Bush reinstated
the global gag rule to hinder family planning
Bush?s campaign against reproductive rights is not limited
to the United States. On his first day in office, Bush reinstated
the global gag rule, which prevents international family planning
organizations with any U.S. funding from providing abortion
services or counseling, even with non-U.S. funds. Yale Herald
Friday April 04, 2003
1479. Women's Rights: Bush wants legal protection for the fetus at
the expense of maternal health
Physician's treatment of pregnant women is necessarily
influenced by the legal status accorded to the fetus. To the
extent that a fetus is considered a "person" under the law, it may
have legal rights that may be used to restrict the mother's
rights. Recently, anti-choice efforts to elevate the fetus's legal
status have resulted in new laws and policies designed to protect
the fetus at the expense of maternal health. Center for
Reproductive Rights Saturday February 01, 2003
1480. Women's Rights: The Bush administration tried to stop
contraceptive funding for federal employees
Funding for Contraceptive Coverage for federal employees ?
In his FY 2002 budget, President Bush eliminated funding for
contraceptive coverage in the Federal Employee Health Benefits
Plan (FEHBP).Ý The House restored funding for the year, and Bush
did not exclude coverage in his FY 2003 budget.Ý (FEHBP has
covered Viagra since its introduction in 1998.) Rep. Jan
Schakowsky Wednesday January 22, 2003
1481. Women's Rights: Bush administration fights abortion rights
in developing nations to appease anti-choice constituents
Restricting the right to abortion in developing nations is a
major foreign policy initiative of the Bush administration; it
appeases anti-choice constituents without offending more moderate
conservatives. Women's e-News Monday January 20, 2003
1482. Women's Rights: Bush believes discrimination against women
is less serious that racial or ethnic discrimination.
The Truth About George, Monday December 09, 2002
1483. Women's Rights: Under Bush, the U. S. failed to sign the UN
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against
Common Dreams, Saturday August 10, 2002
1484. Women's Rights: The Bush administration inflated charges
against UN Family Planning program
NARAL, Monday July 22, 2002
1485. Women's Rights: House Passes Partial Birth Abortion Bill
The GOP-controlled House on 2002-07-24 passed legislation
that would outlaw partial birth abortions except in cases where it
is necessary to save the woman's life. The bill (HR 4965) was
passed by a vote of 274-151. Critics charged that the bill may be
unconstitutional. The Supreme Court struck down a Nebraska partial
birth abortion law in June 2000, partly because it failed to
provide exceptions protecting the health of the mother. The
Senate, controlled by Democrats, is not expected to consider the
bill. Policy Almanac Tuesday June 18, 2002
1486. Women's Rights: On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Bush
declared National Sanctity of Life day
National Organization For Women, Tuesday January 22, 2002
1487. Women's Rights: Bush tried to shut down the Department of
Labor's network of regional women's offices.
Women's e-News, Thursday December 20, 2001
1488. Women's Rights: White House denies full access to UN's
Special Session on Children
Joining Sudan, Libya and the Vatican, the White House is
fighting to delete language requiring that women and adolescent
girls have full access to affordable, quality reproductive health
care, from the draft document for the UN Special Session on
Children. The U.S. maintains this position despite the fact that
reproductive health care is a proven way to reduce maternal and
infant mortality, which all parties agree is crucial to improve
the lives of children. Center for Reproductive Rights Thursday
August 30, 2001
1489. Women's Rights: Bush closed the White House Office for
Women's Initiatives and Outreach
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University,
Tuesday April 10, 2001
1490. Women's Rights: The Bush administration 2002 budget proposed
cutting child and maternal health program
American Academy of Pediatrics, Monday April 09, 2001
1491. Women's Rights: Administration Restricts Medicaid Coverage
of RU-486
On 2001-03-30 the Bush administration notified state
Medicaid directors that Medicaid funds could not be used to cover
RU-486, the so-called abortion pill, except in cases involving
rape, incest, or when the life of the mother is in danger. The new
policy applies to RU-486 the standards of the 1976 Hyde Amendment,
which restricts the use of federal money for abortions. Policy
Almanac Friday March 30, 2001
1492. Women's Rights: Bush Reveals Opposition to Mifepristone
At an Iowa news conference, Republican presidential
candidate George W. Bush stated that if the FDA approved
mifepristone, he "would not be inclined to accept that ruling by
the FDA. That's abortion." He then reiterated that abortion should
be illegal with the exception of rape, incest and saving the live
of the mother when questioned about his stance on abortion.
Feminist Majority Foundation, Monday January 29, 2001
atomic fireball
<justin...@aol.com> wrote:
>1492 and counting:
>http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
>
>Can any of the repulitards count that high? Let the keyboard
>drool begin:
>
>
Why am I not suprised that someone named "Laura the Astrologist" has a
hardon against Bush?
p.s. If you link to a 16K article, you don't need to *post* the 16K
article, genius