1,244 Reasons to Vote Against George Bush
Chimp Boy
Compiled by One Thousand Reasons
Copyright OTR 2004
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
If you're thinking of voting for George Bush, read this first.
The list of of reasons to unseat George Bush is now in book form. This 250
page paperback contains over 1,200 compelling excerpts with links to the
original sources, organized by category. Half of all profits go to
organizations working against Bush, including MoveOn, John Kerry, and the
DNC.
One Thousand Reasons: The Appalling Record of the Bush Presidency
Order securely through Pay Pal. $14.95 plus $1.50 shipping.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----
Reasons are in alphabetical order, by category
Last updated Tuesday, June 15, 2004, 11:23 AM
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. 2004-03-26 link
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. 2004-01-20 link
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. 2003-11-19 link
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. 2003-
11-13 link
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. 2003-10-28
link
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? 2003-10-24 link
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. 2003-10-05 link
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? 2003-10-05 link
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.
2003-10-05 link
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.
2003-10-04 link
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. 2003-
10-04 link
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. 2003-10-04 link
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. 2003-
08-01 link
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. 2003-
07-27 link
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. 2003-07-26 link
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. 2003-07-26 link
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. 2003-07-
25 link
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. 2003-07-25 link
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. 2003-07-17 link
Attitude: 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. 2003-06-02 link
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. 2003-04-17 link
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. 2003-03-31 link
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. 2003-02-06 link
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. 2003-
02-06 link
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. 2002-12-07 link
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." 2002-12-04 link
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. 2002-12-04 link
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.
2002-11-06 link
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). 2002-07-13 link
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. 2002-06-01 link
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. 2002-04-14 link
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. 2002-
04-14 link
Attitude: Hubris led to unrealistic expectations for Iraq war aftermath
What reasons did US policy makers and the pundits have for believing events
in Iraq would follow their expectations? Was it too inconvenient for them
to factor in Iraqi nationalism or resentment? Or were they unaware such
sentiments might become sand in the gears? Their hubris came in projecting
American assumptions (or wishes) upon the realities of Iraq. 2002-03-31
link
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. 2001-09-25 link
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. 2004-06-15 link
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. 2004-04-18
link
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. 2003-10-04 link
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.
2003-04-07 link
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. 2003-03-03 link
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. 2003-03-03 link
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. 2003-03-02 link
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. 2003-03-02 link
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." 2003-02-23 link
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. 2002-07-05 link
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.
2002-07-03 link
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 --. 2002-06-06 link
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. 2002-03-08 link
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. 2001-10-29 link
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. 2001-10-29 link
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. 2004-05-18 link
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. 2004-05-12 link
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. 2004-04-24 link
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. 2004-04-18 link
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. 2004-04-08 link
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. 2004-03-30 link
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. 2004-03-30
link
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. 2004-03-12 link
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." 2004-03-11 link
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. 2004-02-24 link
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. 2004-02-
13 link
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. 2004-02-11 link
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. 2004-02-10 link
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.
2004-02-10 link
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. 2004-02-
09 link
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. 2004-02-05 link
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. 2004-02-03 link
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. 2004-01-21 link
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. 2004-01-09 link
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. 2004-01-07 link
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. 2004-01-07 link
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. 2004-01-06 link
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. 2004-01-05 link
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. 2003-12-06 link
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. 2003-12-05 link
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. 2003-11-30 link
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." 2003-11-17 link
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. 2003-10-23 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-
10-01 link
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. 2003-09-19 link
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. 2003-09-18 link
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." 2003-09-14 link
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. 2003-09-03 link
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.
2003-08-18 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06
link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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.
2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-05
link
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. 2003-08-05
link
Economy: Foreclosures set record highs during Bush recession
Foreclosures are at a record high. 2003-06-21 link
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. 2003-06-11 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-06 link
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. 2003-06-03 link
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. 2003-05-27 link
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. 2003-05-12 link
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. 2003-
05-05 link
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. 2003-04-09 link
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. 2003-03-04 link
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. 2003-03-04 link
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. 2003-
03-04 link
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.
2003-02-10 link
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. 2003-02-04 link
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. 2003-
02-04 link
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. 2003-01-30 link
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.
2003-01-29 link
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. 2003-01-29
link
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. 2003-01-29 link
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. 2003-
01-24 link
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. 2003-01-15 link
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." 2002-12-14 link
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. 2002-12-01 link
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. 2002-
12-01 link
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. 2002-12-01 linkSt.
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. 2002-07-23 link
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? 2002-02-15 link
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. 2002-01-04 link
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. 2001-04-09 link
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." 2004-05-21 link
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. 2004-05-05
link
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. 2004-03-08 link
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." 2004-02-23 link
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. 2004-02-13 link
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. 2004-01-08 link
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. 2004-01-01 link
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. 2003-11-08 link
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. 2003-11-02
link
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? 2003-10-21 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
Education: NCLB does not support informed school choice within public
systems...
NoChildLeft. 2003-10-12 link
Education: NCLB is an insulting, broad brush assault on teachers and
administrators
struggling against difficult challenges. .. NoChildLeft. 2003-10-12 link
Education: NCLB does not build school improvement on a richly defined
foundation of alternatives and strategies...
NoChildLeft. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
Education: NCLB does not emphasize rewards and incentives rather than
sanctions...
NoChildLeft. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-10-12 link
Education: NCLB does not fund enough construction of new schools
within public systems so parental choice is real... NoChildLeft. 2003-10-12
link
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. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-10-12
link
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. 2003-10-12 link
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. 2003-
08-29 link
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. 2003-07-11 link
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. 2003-07-09 link
Education: NCLB does not devote public money to truly public schools
Be careful not to divert funds to reckless experiments or diploma mills.
2003-05-03 link
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. 2003-04-28 link
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.
2003-03-05 link
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"? 2002-12-07 link
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." 2002-06-11 link
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. 2002-03-13 link
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. 2001-12-23 link
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. 2001-03-14
link
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. 2001-
03-14 link
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. 2001-02-01 link
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. 2001-01-29 link
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. 2001-01-04 link
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. 2003-
09-02 link
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. 2003-09-02 link
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. 2003-09-
02 link
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.
2003-09-02 link
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. 2003-08-29 link
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. 2003-08-17 link
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. 2003-08-16 link
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. 2003-04-15 link
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. 2002-08-13 link
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." 2002-04-12 link
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. 2002-02-05 link
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. 2002-02-05 link
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. 2002-02-05 link
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. 2002-02-05 link
Energy: It fails to close the SUV loophole that exempts them from more
stringent CAFE standards
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It fails to set standards for building and appliance efficiency
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It is designed to ensure the dominance of fossil fuels
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It rolls back environmental standards
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It does not realistically assess the economics of nuclear power
generation
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It eases regulation of oil refineries and power plants
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It does not raise funding for DOE energy efficiency programs
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It does not propose raising auto fuel efficiency standards (CAFE)
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It creates new subsidies for coal and nuclear power
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It does not contain significant programs for renewable energy
resources
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It calls for vastly increased oil and gas exploration
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It contains no proposals that would spur utility energy efficiency
programs nationally
2001-05-16 link
Energy: It allows seizing private property for power generation lines
2001-05-16 link
Energy: Bush energy plan fails to assess potential of alternates
It doesn't assess the potential for energy efficiency and renewable energy.
2001-05-16 link
Energy: Bush energy plan fails to block air-conditioner rollback
It fails to block the rollback of air-conditioner efficiency improvements.
2001-05-16 link
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. 2001-05-16 link
Energy: Bush energy plan lacks tax incentives for energy efficiency
It doesn't include tax incentives for energy-efficient technologies. 2001-
05-16 link
Energy: Emphasizes clean coal over zero-emission technologies
2001-05-16 link
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. 2004-06-10 link
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. 2004-06-03 link
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. 2004-05-21 link
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. 2004-05-03 link
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. 2004-05-01 link
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. 2004-04-30 link
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. 2004-04-28 link
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. 2004-04-26
link
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. 2004-04-26 link
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? 2004-04-19 link
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. 2004-04-
12 link
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. 2004-04-07 link
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. 2004-04-06 link
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. 2004-03-31 link
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. 2004-03-30 link
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." 2004-03-12 link
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. 2004-03-09 link
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." 2004-03-05 link
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. 2004-02-25
link
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. 2004-02-08 link
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. 2004-01-19 link
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. 2004-01-08 link
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. 2004-01-08 link
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. 2004-01-05 link
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. 2004-01-01 link
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. 2003-12-31 link
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. 2003-12-30 link
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. 2003-12-23 link
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. 2003-12-16 link
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. 2003-12-14
link
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.
2003-12-13 link
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. 2003-12-11 link
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. 2003-12-08 link
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. 2003-12-03 link
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. 2003-12-02 link
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. 2003-11-20 link
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. 2003-
11-18 link
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. 2003-11-10 link
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. 2003-11-06 link
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.
2003-11-05 link
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. 2003-11-01 link
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. 2003-10-31 link
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.
2003-10-25 link
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. 2003-10-23 link
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.
2003-10-20 link
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. 2003-10-19 link
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. 2003-10-19 link
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. 2003-10-11 link
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. 2003-10-06 link
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. 2003-09-14 link
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. 2003-
09-13 link
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. 2003-09-04 link
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.
2003-08-28 link
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. 2003-
08-27 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-08-26 link
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. 2003-08-26
link
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. 2003-08-20 link
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. 2003-08-16 link
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. 2003-08-09 link
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. 2003-08-09 link
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. 2003-08-09 link
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. 2003-08-08 link
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. 2003-07-24 link
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. 2003-07-17 link
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. 2003-07-08 link
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. 2003-06-24 link
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. 2003-06-23 link
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. 2003-06-23 link
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. 2003-06-20
link
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. 2003-06-18 link
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. 2003-
06-09 link
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. 2003-06-05 link
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. 2003-06-02 link
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. 2003-05-15 link
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. 2003-05-14 link
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. 2003-05-14 link
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. 2003-05-13 link
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. 2003-05-08 link
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.
2003-05-05 link
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. 2003-05-05 link
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. 2003-04-03 link
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. 2003-04-03 link
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. 2003-04-01 link
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. 2003-03-26 link
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. 2003-03-25 link
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. 2003-03-21 link
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. 2003-03-18
link
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. 2003-03-18
link
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. 2003-03-
18 link
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. 2003-03-18 link
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. 2003-03-13 link
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. 2003-03-13 link
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. 2003-03-10 link
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. 2003-03-10 link
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. 2003-03-07
link
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. 2003-03-06 link
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. 2003-03-04 link
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. 2003-03-04 link
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. 2003-03-03 link
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. 2003-
02-28 link
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. 2003-02-28 link
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. 2003-02-27 link
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. 2003-02-27 link
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. 2003-02-27 link
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. 2003-02-26 link
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. 2003-02-
25 link
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. 2003-
02-25 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-20 link
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." 2003-02-20 link
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. 2003-02-18 link
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. 2003-02-12
link
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. 2003-02-11 link
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. 2003-02-10 link
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. 2003-02-
10 link
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. 2003-02-07 link
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. 2003-02-07 link
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. 2003-02-06 link
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. 2003-02-06 link
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. 2003-02-04 link
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. 2003-02-04
link
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. 2003-01-31 link
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. 2003-01-30 link
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. 2003-01-30 link
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. 2003-01-
30 link
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. 2003-01-29 link
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). 2003-01-29 link
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. 2003-
01-29 link
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. 2003-01-28 link
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. 2003-01-27 link
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. 2003-01-27 link
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. 2003-01-
21 link
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. 2003-
01-19 link
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. 2003-01-17 link
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. 2003-01-16 link
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. 2003-01-16 link
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. 2003-01-14 link
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. 2003-01-10 link
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. 2003-01-07 link
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. 2003-01-06 link
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. 2003-01-05 link
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. 2003-01-05 link
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. 2003-01-01 link
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.
2002-12-30 link
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. 2002-12-26
link
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. 2002-12-23
link
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. 2002-12-21 link
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. 2002-12-19 link
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. 2002-12-18 link
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. 2002-12-16 link
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. 2002-12-15 link
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.
2002-12-12 link
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.
2002-12-09 link
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. 2002-12-04 link
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. 2002-
12-02 link
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. 2002-11-26 link
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. 2002-11-25 link
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. 2002-11-22
link
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. 2002-11-22 link
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. 2002-11-
18 link
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. 2002-11-12
link
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. 2002-11-11 link
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. 2002-11-11
link
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.
2002-11-09 link
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. 2002-11-09 link
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.
2002-11-06 link
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. 2002-11-05 link
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. 2002-11-01 link
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. 2002-10-31 link
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. 2002-10-31 link
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. 2002-10-31 link
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. 2002-10-29 link
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. 2002-10-28 link
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. 2002-10-28 link
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. 2002-10-16 link
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. 2002-10-10 link
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.
2002-10-09 link
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. 2002-10-08 link
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. 2002-10-08 link
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.
2002-10-08 link
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. 2002-
10-04 link
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. 2002-10-03 link
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. 2002-10-03 link
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. 2002-10-03 link
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." 2002-09-30 link
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. 2002-09-30 link
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. 2002-09-30 link
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. 2002-09-25 link
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. 2002-09-19 link
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. 2002-09-18 link
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. 2002-09-17 link
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. 2002-09-17 link
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. 2002-09-15 link
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.
2002-09-13 link
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. 2002-09-13 link
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. 2002-09-10 link
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. 2002-
09-10 link
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. 2002-09-09 link
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. 2002-09-07 link
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. 2002-09-04 link
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. 2002-09-02 link
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. 2002-08-30 link
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. 2002-08-27 link
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. 2002-08-26 link
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.
2002-08-23 link
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. 2002-08-
22 link
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. 2002-08-22 link
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. 2002-08-22 link
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. 2002-08-21 link
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. 2002-08-19 link
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.
2002-08-15 link
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. 2002-08-13 link
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. 2002-08-12
link
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. 2002-08-10 link
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. 2002-08-07 link
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. 2002-08-03 link
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.
2002-07-26 link
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. 2002-07-25 link
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. 2002-07-
25 link
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. 2002-07-
24 link
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. 2002-07-23 link
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. 2002-07-19 link
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. 2002-07-19 link
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. 2002-07-19 link
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. 2002-07-14 link
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. 2002-07-10 link
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. 2002-07-08 link
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. 2002-07-04 link
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. 2002-
06-30 link
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. 2002-06-25 link
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. 2002-06-25 link
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. 2002-
06-25 link
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. 2002-06-24 link
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. 2002-06-19 link
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." 2002-06-17 link
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. 2002-06-13 link
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. 2002-06-13 link
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. 2002-06-12 link
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.
2002-06-12 link
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.
2002-06-10 link
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. 2002-06-10 link
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. 2002-06-
10 link
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. 2002-06-07 link
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. 2002-06-07 link
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.
2002-06-03 link
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. 2002-05-24 link
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. 2002-05-24 link
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. 2002-
05-23 link
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. 2002-05-23 link
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. 2002-05-21 link
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. 2002-05-16 link
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. 2002-05-14 link
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. 2002-05-14 link
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. 2002-05-10 link
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. 2002-05-09 link
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. 2002-05-08 link
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. 2002-05-07 link
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. 2002-05-03 link
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. 2002-05-03 link
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. 2002-05-03 link
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." 2002-04-30 link
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. 2002-04-28 link
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.
2002-04-22 link
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. 2002-04-19 link
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. 2002-04-18 link
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. 2002-04-17 link
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. 2002-04-16
link
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. 2002-04-12 link
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. 2002-04-11 link
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. 2002-04-11 link
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. 2002-04-07 link
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. 2002-04-05 link
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. 2002-04-04 link
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. 2002-04-02 link
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. 2002-03-29 link
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. 2002-03-
29 link
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. 2002-03-27 link
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. 2002-03-25 link
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. 2002-03-19 link
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. 2002-03-18
link
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. 2002-03-18
link
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. 2002-03-15
link
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," 2002-
03-12 link
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. 2002-03-11 link
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. 2002-03-07 link
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. 2002-03-06 link
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. 2002-03-06 link
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." 2002-03-03 link
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. 2002-02-27 link
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. 2002-02-26 link
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. 2002-
02-23 link
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. 2002-02-22 link
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. 2002-02-21 link
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. 2002-02-16
link
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. 2002-02-15 link
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. 2002-02-14 link
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. 2002-02-14 link
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. 2002-02-13 link
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. 2002-02-11 link
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. 2002-02-07 link
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. 2002-02-04 link
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?" 2002-02-04 link
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. 2002-02-04 link
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. 2002-02-03 link
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. 2002-02-02 link
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. 2002-01-28 link
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. 2002-01-24 link
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. 2002-01-23 link
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. 2002-01-22
link
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.
2002-01-21 link
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. 2002-01-18 link
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." 2002-01-17 link
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." 2002-01-14 link
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. 2002-01-14 link
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%). 2002-01-10 link
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. 2002-01-10 link
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. 2002-01-08 link
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. 2002-01-03 link
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. 2001-12-14 link
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. 2001-12-10 link
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. 2001-12-10 link
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. 2004-02-25 link
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. 2003-10-28 link
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. 2003-07-31 link
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. 2002-
11-01 link
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. 2001-01-17
link
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. 2001-01-17 link
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" 2000-10-19 link
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. 2004-06-07 link
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. 2004-06-04 link
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. 2004-05-31 link
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. 2004-05-
24 link
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. 2004-05-22 link
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. 2004-05-21 link
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. 2004-05-16 link
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? 2004-04-29 link
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. 2004-04-24 link
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. 2004-04-20 link
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". 2004-04-14 link
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. 2004-03-07 link
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. 2004-03-02 link
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. 2004-02-27 link
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. 2004-02-12 link
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. 2004-01-23 link
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. 2004-01-14 link
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. 2004-01-13 link
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. 2004-01-04 link
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. 2004-01-02 link
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. 2003-12-
12 link
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. 2003-11-04 link
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. 2003-10-29 link
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. 2003-10-29 link
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. 2003-10-20 link
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. 2003-09-06 link
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. 2003-08-25 link
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. 2003-08-18 link
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. 2003-07-24 link
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. 2003-07-02 link
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." 2003-
07-02 link
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. 2003-07-02 link
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. 2003-06-12 link
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." 2003-06-02 link
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. 2003-05-
15 link
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. 2003-03-10 link
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). 2003-02-07 link
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. 2003-01-22
link
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.
2002-11-01 link
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. 2002-10-21 link
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. 2002-08-21 link
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. 2002-03-08 link
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. 2002-02-10 link
Global Affairs: Bush equates Palestinians to 9-11 terrorists
US President George W. 2001-09-11 link
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. 2001-09-04 link
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. 2001-01-22 link
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. 2004-06-15 link
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.
2004-06-14 link
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. 2004-
06-14 link
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. 2004-
06-10 link
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. 2004-05-31
link
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. 2004-05-30 link
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. 2004-05-23 link
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. 2004-05-21 link
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. 2004-05-20 link
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. 2004-05-16
link
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. 2004-05-11 link
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. 2004-05-10 link
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. 2004-04-29 link
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. 2004-04-27 link
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. 2004-04-23 link
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. 2004-04-23 link
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. 2004-04-22 link
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. 2004-04-21 link
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."
2004-04-20 link
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." 2004-04-15 link
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. 2004-04-11 link
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? 2004-04-09 link
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. 2004-04-09 link
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. 2004-03-31 link
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. 2004-03-24 link
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. 2004-03-09 link
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. 2004-03-
07 link
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. 2004-03-03 link
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. 2004-02-28 link
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. 2004-02-25 link
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. 2004-02-25 link
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. 2004-02-23 link
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. 2004-02-20 link
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. 2004-01-17 link
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. 2003-12-16 link
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. 2003-12-10 link
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. 2003-12-07 link
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. 2003-11-23 link
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.
2003-11-22 link
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. 2003-11-12 link
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. 2003-11-08 link
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. 2003-10-25 link
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." 2003-10-05 link
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." 2003-10-05 link
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. 2003-10-04 link
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.
2003-09-18 link
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. 2003-09-16 link
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.
2003-09-16 link
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." 2003-09-16 link
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. 2003-09-16 link
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. 2003-09-12 link
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. 2003-09-10 link
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. 2003-08-08 link
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. 2003-08-08 link
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. 2003-08-03 link
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. 2003-08-03 link
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. 2003-07-01
link
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. 2003-07-01 link
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. 2003-07-01 link
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. 2003-07-01 link
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. 2003-07-01 link
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." 2003-07-01 link
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. 2003-07-01 link
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. 2003-
06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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). 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13
link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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). 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-13 link
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. 2003-06-09 link
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. 2003-05-15 link
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. 2003-04-30 link
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. 2003-03-06 link
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. 2003-03-06 link
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. 2003-03-06 link
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." 2003-02-25 link
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. 2002-10-25 link
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. 2002-10-25 link
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. 2002-10-25 link
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. 2002-10-25 link
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. 2002-10-25
link
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. 2002-10-25 link
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.
2002-09-25 link
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. 2002-09-16 link
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. 2002-09-15 link
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. 2002-08-01 link
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. 2002-03-11
link
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. 2002-03-01 link
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.
2001-07-09 link
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. 2001-06-22 link
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. 2001-06-14 link
Government: The vitality of our faith communities will be hurt
2001-02-20 link
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. 2001-02-20 link
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." 2001-02-20 link
Government: Religion could be forced on those in need of assistance
2001-02-20 link
Government: Federally funded employment discrimination is unfair
2001-02-20 link
Government: Bush's faith-based' initiative plan violates the separation of
church and state
2001-02-20 link
Government: Bush's plan opens the door to federal regulation of religion
2001-02-20 link
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. 2001-02-20
link
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. 2001-02-20 link
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. 2001-01-20 link
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. 2001-
01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-
16 link
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.
2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16
link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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.
2001-01-16 link
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). 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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.
2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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. 2001-01-16 link"> link
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. 2001-01-16
link
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. 2001-01-16 link
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.
2000-11-16 link
Government: As governor, Bush proclaims Jesus Day, claiming all religions
revere Jesus
Governor Bush proclaimed June 10 as Jesus Day. 2000-09-01 link
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. 2000-05-14 link
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. 2004-06-15 link
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. 2004-05-27 link
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. 2004-05-27 link
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.
2004-05-25 link
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. 2004-05-20 link
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. 2004-05-18 link
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.
2004-05-16 link
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. 2004-05-08 link
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. 2004-05-06 link
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. 2004-04-20 link
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.
2004-04-10 link
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. 2004-04-09 link
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. 2004-04-06 link
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. 2004-02-25 link
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.
2004-01-09 link
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. 2004-01-04 link
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." 2003-12-30 link
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. 2003-09-14 link
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." 2003-09-09 link
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. 2003-09-01 link
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. 2004-06-11 link
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. 2004-06-10
link
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. 2004-06-02 link
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. 2004-05-28 link
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. 2004-05-27 link
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.
2004-05-26 link
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. 2004-05-19 link
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. 2004-05-12 link
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. 2004-04-16 link
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." 2004-04-13 link
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." 2004-04-13 link
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." 2004-03-15 link
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. 2004-03-13 link
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. 2004-03-11 link
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. 2004-03-03 link
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. 2004-02-18 link
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. 2004-02-06 link
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. 2003-11-11
link
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. 2003-10-28 link
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. 2003-
09-17 link
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. 2003-09-17 link
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. 2003-09-17 link
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. 2003-09-17 link
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. 2003-09-17 link
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.
2003-09-17 link
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." 2003-09-15 link
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] 2003-
09-15 link
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. 2003-
09-15 link
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 Start
program, which offers tutoring to preschoolers and literacy and job
training for their parents? ? the very program he was touting in New
Mexico. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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%. 2003-09-15 link
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.
2003-09-15 link
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?s Treasury 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. Such conversions are highly
controversial. Critics contend that they discriminate against older workers
in violation of federal law? [Washington Post, 12/10/02] 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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) - 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. 2003-
09-15 link
Honesty: Bush expressed his everlasting gratitude to veterans, then cut
their funding
His budget fell $1.5 billion short of needs. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
Honesty: Clark: "One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD.
There are a number of sites."
No additional data. 2003-09-06 link
Honesty: Adelman: "I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of
weapons of mass destruction."
No additional data. 2003-09-04 link
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.
2003-09-03 link
Honesty: Rumsfeld: "We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of
mass destruction in that country."
No additional data. 2003-09-03 link
Honesty: Colin Powell: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep
his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make
No additional data. 2003-09-03 link
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. 2003-08-10
link
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. 2003-08-10 link
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."
2003-08-10 link
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. 2003-08-10 link
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. 2003-08-10
link
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. 2003-08-10 link
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. 2003-08-07 link
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. 2003-07-18 link
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. 2003-07-16 link
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. 2003-07-11 link
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. 2003-07-11
link
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). 2003-07-11 link
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. 2003-06-09 link
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." 2003-06-06 link
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." 2003-06-06 link
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." 2003-06-06 link
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." 2003-06-06 link
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 . 2003-06-01 link
Honesty: Ari Fliescher "We know for a fact that there are weapons there."
No additional data. 2003-06-01 link
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. 2003-06-01 link
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. 2003-05-28 link
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. 2003-05-04 link
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." 2003-04-
26 link
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. 2003-04-26 link
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. 2003-04-26 link
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. 2003-04-26 link
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. 2003-04-26 link
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. 2003-04-26
link
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. 2003-04-16 link
Honesty: Kagan: "Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the
weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and t
No additional data. 2003-04-08 link
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." 2003-03-30 link
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. 2003-03-21
link
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. 2003-03-15 link
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. 2003-03-10
link
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. 2003-02-05 link
Honesty: Bush claimed to place high value on education in New York, then
cut funding for training programs.
2003-02-04 link
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. 2003-02-01 link
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. 2003-01-30 link
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. 2003-01-30 link
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. 2003-01-29 link
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. 2003-01-24 link
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.
2002-12-30 link
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. 2002-08-08 link
Honesty: Bush claimed the Kenneth Lay of ENRON fame, supported his opponent
in Texas, despite Lay's gift of $37,000 to Bush.
2002-01-11 link
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.
2004-02-10 link
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.
2004-01-05 link
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. 2003-11-25 link
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. 2003-11-22 link
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. 2003-11-21 link
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. 2003-11-20 link
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. 2003-11-
13 link
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."
2003-10-05 link
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.
2003-10-05 link
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. 2003-10-05 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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). 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15
link
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.
2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-
09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-
09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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.
2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15
link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
Labor Relations: Bush eliminated a training, equipment and fire prevention
program for local fire departments
but restored funding under pressure from Fire Fighters. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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.
2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-
09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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." 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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." 2003-09-15 link
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." 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
Labor Relations: Bush banned mechanics at Northwest Airlines from
exercising their right to strike
for a fair contract. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-09-15 link
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. 2003-07-29 link
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. 2002-
05-29 link
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. 2002-03-27 link
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. 2002-03-27 link
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. 2004-06-09 link
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. 2004-06-09 link
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. 2004-06-09 link
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. 2004-06-09 link
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. 2004-06-04 link
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. 2004-06-03 link
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. 2004-05-
28 link
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. 2004-05-27 link
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.
2004-05-26 link
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. 2004-05-22 link
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.
2004-05-14 link
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. 2004-04-22 link
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. 2004-04-22 link
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. 2004-03-15 link
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. 2004-02-
14 link
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. 2004-02-07 link
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. 2004-02-07 link
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. 2004-01-06 link
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. 2004-01-05 link
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. 2004-01-04 link
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. 2004-01-04
link
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. 2003-11-25 link
Liberty: F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The
Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive i
Martin Luther King Jr. 2003-11-22 "> link
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. 2003-11-19 link
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. 2003-11-03 link
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. 2003-
10-25 link
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. 2003-09-14 link
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. 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. 2003-09-14 link
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. 2003-09-10 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-
08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-08-06 link
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. 2003-
08-06 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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.
2003-07-21 link
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.
2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-21 link
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. 2003-07-
09 link
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. 2003-04-11 link
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. 2003-02-17 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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." 2003-
02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
Liberty: Threatening public health
by severely restricting access to crucial information about environmental
health risks posed by facilities that use dangerous chemicals. 2003-02-14
link
Liberty: Undercutting trust between police departments and immigrant
communities
by opening sensitive visa files to local police for the enforcement of
complex immigration laws. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-
02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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." 2003-02-14 link
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.
2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
Liberty: Targeting undocumented workers with extended jail terms
for common immigration offenses. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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." 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14
link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
Liberty: Giving the government secret access to credit reports
without consent and without judicial process. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
Liberty: Expanding nationwide search warrants
so they do not have to meet even the broad definition of terrorism in the
USA PATRIOT Act. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
Liberty: Creating a new, separate crime of using encryption technology
that could add five years to any sentence for crimes committed with a
computer. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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) 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-02-14
link
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. 2003-02-14 link
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. 2003-01-23 link
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. 2003-01-14 link
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. 2003-01-10 link
Liberty: The Patriot Act places a gag order on librarians
2002-11-14 link
Liberty: Bush wants a national ID system, which would allow tracking
citizens movements about the country
2002-07-22 link
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. 2002-06-28 link
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. 2004-06-04 link
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. 2004-05-19 link
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. 2004-05-17 link
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. 2003-09-
02 link
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." 2003-08-01 link
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%. 2003-06-04 link
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. 2003-02-01 link
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. 2003-01-20 link
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. 2003-01-16 link
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. 2003-01-07
link
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.
2003-01-07 link
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. 2003-01-07 link
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. 2002-07-
12 link
Race and Class: Bush's Justice Department whittled 11,000 election
complaints after the 2000 election to five potential lawsuits
2002-07-09 link
Race and Class: Bush nominates extreme right-wing judges, outraging NAACP
The NAACP is outraged at Bush's nominations of extreme right-wing judges.
2002-03-15 link
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. 2001-02-08 link
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." 2000-02-25 link
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. 2004-06-03 link
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. 2004-06-02 link
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. 2004-05-27 link
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. 2004-05-18 link
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. 2004-05-10 link
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. 2004-04-23 link
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. 2004-04-05 link
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. 2004-03-30 link
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. 2004-02-18 link
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. 2004-01-20 link
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. 2004-01-17 link
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. 2004-01-03 link
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. 2003-12-23 link
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. 2003-12-19 link
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. 2003-12-08
link
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. 2003-11-26 link
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. 2003-11-20 link
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.
2003-11-11 link
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. 2003-10-31 link
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. 2003-09-19 link
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. 2003-09-12 link
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. 2003-08-31 link
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. 2003-07-25 link
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. 2003-03-21 link
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. 2003-03-05 link
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. 2003-03-05
link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-
02-21 link
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. 2003-
02-21 link
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. 2003-02-
21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
Social Programs: CHIP funding cut
The Bush budget also fails to restore $1.2 billion of the Children's Health
Insurance Program (CHIP) fund 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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.
2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-
21 link
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?" 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21
link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-21 link
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. 2003-02-14
link
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. 2003-02-01 link
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. 2002-12-05 link
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. 2002-11-25 link
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. 2002-06-02 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15
link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15
link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-03-15
link
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. 2002-03-15 link
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. 2002-01-16 link
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." 2001-06-28 link
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.
2004-06-15 link
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. 2004-06-12 link
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. 2004-06-11 link
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. 2004-06-09 link
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. 2004-06-08 link
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. 2004-06-07 link
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. 2004-06-04 link
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. 2004-05-29
link
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. 2004-05-28 link
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," 2004-05-27 link
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). 2004-05-24 link
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. 2004-05-23 link
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." 2004-05-22 link
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. 2004-05-22 link
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. 2004-05-21
link
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. 2004-05-20 link
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. 2004-05-19 link
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. 2004-05-17 link
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.
2004-05-15 link
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. 2004-05-14 link
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. 2004-05-12 link
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." 2004-05-10 link
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. 2004-05-10 link
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. 2004-05-08 link
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. 2004-05-06 link
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. 2004-05-05 link
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. 2004-05-04 link
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. 2004-05-04 link
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." 2004-05-04 link
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. 2004-05-04 link
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.
2004-05-02 link
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. 2004-05-02 link
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. 2004-05-01
link
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. 2004-04-30
link
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. 2004-04-30 link
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." 2004-04-30 link
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. 2004-04-30 link
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. 2004-04-29 link
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. 2004-04-28
link
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. 2004-04-26 link
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. 2004-04-23 link
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. 2004-04-20 link
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. 2004-04-15 link
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. 2004-04-10
link
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." 2004-04-08 link
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. 2004-04-06 link
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. 2004-03-29 link
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. 2004-03-20 link
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." 2004-03-19 link
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." 2004-03-18 link
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. 2004-02-22 link
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. 2004-02-21 link
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. 2004-02-07 link
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.
2004-02-06 link
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. 2004-02-05 link
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. 2004-02-05 link
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. 2004-01-08 Full Report"> link
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. 2004-01-01 link
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. 2003-12-29 link
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.
2003-12-18 link
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. 2003-12-14 link
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. 2003-12-12 link
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. 2003-12-09 link
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. 2003-12-07 link
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. 2003-11-30 link
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. 2003-11-29 link
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. 2003-11-25 link
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. 2003-11-14 link
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. 2003-11-13 link
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." 2003-11-10 link
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. 2003-11-09 link
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? 2003-
11-05 link
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. 2003-10-30 link
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. 2003-10-30 link
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. 2003-10-30 link
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. 2003-10-
21 link
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. 2003-10-20 link
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. 2003-10-
05 link
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? 2003-10-05 link
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." 2003-10-05 link
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? 2003-10-05 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
War: Bush said that post-war Iraq would be like post-war France
The reality: There is absolutely no similarity. 2003-10-02 link
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." 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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.
2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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.
2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-10-02 link
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. 2003-09-11 link
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. 2003-09-11 link
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. 2003-09-10 link
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..." 2003-09-10 link
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. 2003-09-05 link
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. 2003-09-03 link
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. 2003-
09-01 link
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. 2003-
08-29 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-08-26
link
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. 2003-08-25 link
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. 2003-08-25 link
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. 2003-08-24 link
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. 2003-07-30 link
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. 2003-07-25 link
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. 2003-07-18 link
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. 2003-07-16 link
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." 2003-07-15
link
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. 2003-07-09 link
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. 2003-07-08 link
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." 2003-07-03 link
War: Women in Iraq now can't leave their house for fear of violence
In general, Iraqi locals are antagonistic toward American occupation. 2003-
07-01 link
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. 2003-06-23
link
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. 2003-06-22 link
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. 2003-06-18 link
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. 2003-05-31 link
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. 2003-05-02 link
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]".
2003-04-24 link
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." 2003-04-18 link
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. 2003-04-14
link
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." 2003-
04-12 link
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. 2003-04-08
link
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. " 2003-04-06
link
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. 2003-04-03 link
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. 2003-04-01 link
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. 2003-03-25 link
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. 2003-03-16 link
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. 2003-03-11 link
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. 2003-03-03 link
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. 2003-03-03 link
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. 2003-02-20 link
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. 2003-02-11 link
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." 2003-01-31 link
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. 2003-01-
29 link
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. 2002-11-06 link
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. 2002-10-14
link
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. 2002-10-13 link
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." 2002-09-24 link
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. 2002-08-26 link
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. 2002-06-07 link
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. 2002-05-09 link
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. 2002-01-29 link
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. 2001-05-01 link
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. 2004-05-10 link
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. 2004-
05-07 link
Women's Rights: Bush stacks federal courts
President Bush is trying to stack the federal courts with anti-choice
conservative judges. 2004-04-08 link
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. 2004-04-05 link
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. 2004-02-15 link
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. 2004-02-15 link
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. 2004-01-22 link
Women's Rights: Bush cuts Title IX
The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics recommended sweeping and
debilitating changes to Title IX. 2004-01-01 link
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. 2003-10-08 link
Women's Rights: Bush divers 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. 2003-
09-10 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-08-27 link
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. 2003-07-27
link
Women's Rights: Bush supporters claims that abortions cause breat 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. 2003-06-01 link
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. 2003-05-11 link
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. 2003-
05-11 link
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. 2003-05-11 link
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. 2003-05-11 link
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. 2003-05-11 link
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. 2003-05-11 link
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. 2003-04-04 link
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. 2003-02-01
link
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). The House restored funding
for the year, and Bush did not exclude coverage in his FY 2003 budget.
(FEHBP has covered Viagra since its introduction in 1998.) 2003-01-22 link
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. 2003-01-20 link
Women's Rights: Bush believes discrimination against women is less serious
that racial or ethnic discrimination.
2002-12-09 link
Women's Rights: Under Bush, the U. S. failed to sign the UN Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
2002-08-10 link
Women's Rights: The Bush administration inflated charges against UN Family
Planning program
2002-07-22 link
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.
2002-06-18 link
Women's Rights: On the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Bush declared National
Sanctity of Life day
2002-01-22 link
Women's Rights: Bush tried to shut down the Department of Labor's network
of regional women's offices.
2001-12-20 link
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. 2001-08-30 link
Women's Rights: Bush closed the White House Office for Women's Initiatives
and Outreach
John F. 2001-04-10 link
Women's Rights: The Bush administration 2002 budget proposed cutting child
and maternal health program
2001-04-09 link
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. 2001-03-30 link
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. 2001-01-29 link
http://www.thousandreasons.org/listB.html
--
Impeachment was created for people like G.W Bush
http://www.votetoimpeach.org/
"The big elephant sitting in the corner is that George W. Bush is
simply unqualified for the job... What's his accomplishment? That he's no
longer an obnoxious drunk?"
-Ronald Reagan Jr.