MY POV

IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED, YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin

How Bush really feels about you.

The Mars Society

Satire has never served a better purpose. Go see.
Before they cart us off to the camps.

"...The Fascist State organizes the nation, but leaves a sufficient margin of liberty to the individual; the latter is deprived of all useless and possibly harmful freedom, but retains what is essential; the deciding power in this question cannot be the individual, but the State alone...."

Benito Mussolini

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

Abraham Lincoln
November 12, 1864

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man."

Martin Luther King Jr., 1963

"CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility."

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."

James Madison
(1751-1836)
4th President of the United States

"Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings."

Heinrich Heine
Almansor, 1823

"Why of course the people don't want war. Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship.

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

Hermann Goering, Nazi Reichsmarschall

"Authoritarian societies inevitably crumble because they silence the critics who could save them from errors of blind hubris. Dissent is not a luxury to be indulged in the best of times, but rather an obligation of free people, particularly when the very notion of dissent is unpopular."

Robert Scheer

"FASCISM: a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership together with belligerent nationalism."

American Heritage Dictionary

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is
neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it
because it is right.

Dr. Martin Luther King

"My life is my message."

Gandhi

Posted: 24 Dec. 2004

Though not a christian myself, I support true christian values, such as this article lays out.

I want my faith back
Getting personal about the political hijacking of religion.
Jennifer Barnett Reed

There’s only one thing on my Christmas list this year:

I want my faith back.

I didn’t come by it easily. I’m a card-carrying liberal, skeptical by nature, with an almost knee-jerk eye-roll reaction to anyone who’s completely comfortable discussing their religious convictions in mixed company. I spent pretty much the entire decade of my 20s in an uncomfortable agnosticism because I just couldn’t make up my damn mind.

So now that I have — now that words like "sinful" spring to mind when I hear about the $40 million budget for George W. Bush’s inaugural soirees, instead of just "disgusting" — I’m starting to take the right wing’s hijacking of my religion very, very personally.

"Certainty is the narcotic of the right wing," Gordon said — and they are marvelously adept at pushing it. They have been much more willing to stand up in pulpits and on TV news shows and proclaim what is right and wrong, selling a brand of Christianity that doesn’t allow room for complexity.

"It is far, far easier to be on the right than in the middle or on the left, because everything is already determined for you," Pulaski Heights Baptist’s Hyde said.

When Ronald Reagan died earlier this year, someone from Fox News called Gordon, looking for a sound bite for a story on Reagan’s religious faith because Gordon had known Reagan’s pastor.

"I said, ‘He didn’t take care of poor people,’ " Gordon said.

The guy from Fox said, "I don’t want to hear about poor people, I want to hear about Reagan’s Christianity."

Gordon replied, "That IS Reagan’s Christianity," and the Fox guy hung up on him.

READ THE REST.

From the Center for American Progress.

by Christy Harvey, Judd Legum and Jonathan Baskin

NAUGHTY AND NICE 2004
The Progress Report makes this year's holiday list and checks it twice

Naughty: Ron Artest, for punching out the front row at an NBA game.
Nice: Mark Cuban and Dallas Mavericks season ticket holders, for offering 140 front row seats to American soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for sending U.S. soldiers into battle without the equipment and armor they need to fight.
Nice: Grassroots charity groups like "Give 2 The Troops" and "Operation Gratitude," for sending care packages, supplies and reminders of home to American troops abroad.

Naughty: Merck, for spending millions to market the pain-reliever Vioxx to consumers long after the company knew it was unsafe.
Nice: Dr. David Graham, of the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, for fighting to keep dangerous drugs off the market.

Naughty: Bernard Kerik, for turning an apartment donated for weary Ground Zero police and rescue workers into a love nest for his adulterous affairs.
Nice: Miramax Films, for putting the kibosh on Kerik's summer blockbuster biopic.

Naughty: Congress, for underfunding the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). allocating "$164 million less than needed to cover the expected 24 percent increase in home heating costs" this winter.
Nice: Richard Hamann and his wife, Donna, for paying the electricity bills for the entire town of Anthon, Iowa, because they wanted to give something back to their community.

Naughty: NRA Radio, for broadcasting anti-gun-control propaganda and calling it legitimate news.
Nice: Ed Schultz, Arnie Arnesen, Tony Trupiano, Thom Hartmann, Wendy Wilde, Al Franken, Katherine Lanpher and the rest of the Air America crew, for showing progressive radio can be thought-provoking, hard-hitting and fun.

Naughty: Department of Homeland Security, for omitting "major sites" like chemical plants and dams from its unfinished national database of potential terrorist targets.
Nice: Department of Homeland Security, for including "water parks and miniature golf courses" in the national database. At your local putt putt, the terrorists never win.

Naughty: The Environmental Protection Agency, for using camcorders to bribe parents into offering up their toddlers as guinea pigs for a study about the dangers of pesticides on children…sponsored by the chemical industry.
Nice: The Natural Resources Defense Council, for fighting to protect kids from the harmful effects of pesticides and chemicals.

Naughty: Right-wing conservatives in the House of Representatives, for changing ethics rules so Tom DeLay (R-TX) could one day be their indicted leader.
Nice: Whistleblowers like Bunnatine Greenhouse, Richard Foster and Paul O'Neill, for holding our government to a higher ethical standard.

Naughty: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, for letting a machine do his work (and not hand-signing condolence letters to grieving families).
Nice: Ashlee Simpson, for letting a machine do her work (and not forcing us to listen to her natural singing voice).

Naughty: Medicare head Tom Scully, Rep. Billy Tauzin, Rep. James Greenwood and trade representatives Ralph Ives and Claude Burcky, for using public service for personal benefit, taking lucrative, top-dollar jobs with the pharmaceutical industry they had formerly regulated.
Nice: Rep. Henry Waxman, for using public service for public benefit, compiling reports on everything from the Halliburton to undue secrecy in the White House.

Naughty: Russian President Vladimir Putin, for single-handedly shutting down the press, jailing his political opposition and trying to validate his hand-picked, fraudulently elected lapdog in Ukraine.
Nice: Viktor Yushchenko and supporters of the Orange Revolution, for fighting against all odds -- including poison -- to bring democracy to the Ukraine

Naughty: Bill "I Like Families" Donahue, for using his pulpit to launch partisan, hate-filled attacks.
Nice: The Reverend Jim Wallis, for teaching us something about real "moral values."

Naughty: Alberto Gonzales, for crafting memos which provided legal justification for torturing detainees.
Nice: The International Committee of the Red Cross, for exposing brutal treatment of detainees in U.S. custody.

Naughty: EPA administrator Mike Leavitt, for blaming pollution on poverty.
Nice: The Union of Concerned Scientists, for giving us the facts about global warming, pollution, clean energy and the Bush administration's ideological approach to science.

Naughty: Sinclair Media, for planning to run an hour long anti-Kerry screed as "news" just before the U.S. presidential election.
Nice: Media Matters and the blogosphere, for forcing Sinclair to change its plans. (And continuing to demand that Sinclair stop broadcasting one-sided political spin.)

Naughty: Sen. Norm Coleman, for using the oil-for-food scandal as an excuse to launch an attack against the United Nations.
Nice: U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, for launching the first serious attempt to reform the United Nations and bring it into the 21st Century.

Naughty: The Kuwaiti Hilton, for giving Halliburton's employees a place to stay while they bilked US taxpayers.
Nice: Paris Hilton, for bringing the "simple life" to Washington, D.C.

Naughty: Bill O'Reilly, for claiming Christmas is "under siege."
Nice: Americans, for not laying siege to Christmas.

Posted: 23 Dec. 2004

Now this is brilliant! Pledge now!

Backfire: Turning Pickets Into Pledges
by Heather Merriam

It's an ingenious idea. Create a no-win situation for anti-choice protesters — the more picketers who demonstrate outside a Planned Parenthood clinic, the more donations the Planned Parenthood clinic receives.

A number of Planned Parenthood affiliates have created different versions of this scenario. Here's how it works at Planned Parenthood of Central Texas (PPCT) in Waco, where the Pledge-a-Picket program is going strong: Each time a protester shows up at the clinic, a donation is made to PPCT. This campaign makes lemonade out of lemons by allowing Planned Parenthood supporters to pledge between 25 cents and one dollar per protester.

Despite the low pledge cap, which is designed to encourage donations, the money adds up, especially since the picketers never go away. Every month, participating donors get a short update on activities and a monthly billing for their pledge. It's like sponsoring a runner in a charity marathon.

Once a week, PPCT puts a sign outside its clinic that says, "Even Our Protesters Support Planned Parenthood." To date, the Pledge-a-Picket program has raised $18,000 for PPCT. While not a significant chunk of its overall revenues, Pledge-a-Picket contributes greatly to PPCT's patient assistance fund, which helps clients who don't have resources get the care they need.

READ THE REST.

The battle for democracy continues.

Ohio electoral fight becomes 'biggest deal since Selma' as GOP stonewalls
by Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
December 22, 2004

COLUMBUS -- As Republican officials stonewall subpoenas and subvert the recount process, Rev. Jesse Jackson has pronounced Ohio's vote fraud fiasco "the biggest deal since Selma" and has called for a national rally at "the scene of the crime" in Columbus January 3.

Another major national demonstration will follow in Washington on January 6, as Congress evaluates the Electoral College. Should at least one US Representative and one Senator challenge the electors' votes, a Constitutional crisis could ensue.
Mean
while, volunteer attorneys have poured into Columbus from around the US to help investigate the bitterly contested presidential vote that has allegedly given George W. Bush Ohio's electoral votes and thus a second term. A lawsuit filed at the Ohio Supreme Court charges that a fair vote count would give the state and the presidency to John Kerry rather than Bush.

READ THE REST.

Posted: 22 Dec. 2004

Help a soldier today! Donate through Operation Uplink.

Bush is at it again, doing his best to misled the public.

Bush Plans a Media Blitz on Social Security
by David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will spearhead an election-style public relations campaign early next year to try to convince Americans that Social Security is in urgent need of change but will keep dollar and cent details deliberately vague, analysts and officials say.

With Bush's political capital riding on a successful overhaul of the popular retirement program, the White House and its allies plan to bombard the public with presidential speeches, television and radio ads, newspaper op-ed articles and grass-roots rallies between now and early 2005.

"It's going to be a battle royal, very much like an election campaign but over an issue rather than a candidate," said Stephen Moore, executive director of Club for Growth, a Republican group that hopes to spend $15 million on a media campaign backing the White House.

"This is about winning, and Bush can't afford to lose."

Meanwhile, opponents accuse the White House of exaggerating the issue's urgency, saying it used a similar ploy to justify the war in Iraq by citing an urgent threat from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that have never been found.

READ THE REST.

Liberal media? What liberal media? This notice is from FAIR.

ACTION ALERT:
Tucker Carlson to MSNBC?
Struggling Cable Channel Attempts to Outfox Fox

December 22, 2004

Recent news reports (USA Today, 12/20/04; Daily Variety, 12/21/04) suggest that conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, seen currently on CNN and PBS, might find a new home: a prime-time show on MSNBC.

With the departure of host Deborah Norville, MSNBC is reportedly considering Carlson to fill the 9 p.m. timeslot. His show would lead into Scarborough Country, hosted by former Republican Congressmember Joe Scarborough. This pairing, not balanced by any avowedly liberal or progressive hosts, would arguably make MSNBC's prime-time line-up more right-wing than Fox News Channel.

"The pattern in cable news is to imitate Fox," said FAIR's Peter Hart. "But MSNBC is going beyond that--- it wants to outfox Fox by surpassing Fox's partisanship. Viewers deserve diverse opinions from the media, not an uninterrupted stream of right-wing spin."

This follows a pattern at MSNBC. In 1999, the struggling cable channel added a crew of conservative hosts to its daytime line-up: Oliver North, John McLaughlin and Laura Ingraham. In 2003, MSNBC hired hate radio host Michael Savage for a weekend show; his run ended when Savage expressed some of the bigotry that had seemingly made him a candidate for the job in the first place.

MSNBC's only serious attempt at counter-programming was Phil Donahue's prime-time show. It became MSNBC's top-rated show, flying in the face of industry assumptions about the viability of liberal talk shows. Nonetheless, Donahue's program was cancelled in February 2003 for political reasons. Leaked internal company memos explained (All Your TV, 2/25/03) that Donahue would be a "difficult public face for NBC in a time of war," as his show could become "a home for the liberal antiwar agenda at the same time that our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

FAIR founder Jeff Cohen explained MSNBC's internal policies in a recent speech (11/12/04):

"In 2002, I was an on-air commentator at MSNBC, and also senior producer on the Donahue show, the most-watched program on the channel. In the last months of the program, before it was terminated on the eve of the Iraq war, we were ordered by management that every time we booked an antiwar guest, we had to book two pro-war guests. If we booked two guests on the left, we had to book three on the right. At one meeting, a producer suggested booking Michael Moore and was told that she would need to book three right-wingers for balance. I considered suggesting Noam Chomsky as a guest, but our studio couldn't accommodate the 86 right-wingers we would have needed for balance."

In an October interview with Cox News Service (10/27/04), MSNBC vice president Phil Griffin said the cable channel was "breaking the mold.... We're not doing things the same, old way." But if the rumors about Carlson are correct, MSNBC would be following an old routine: lurching further to the right.

ACTION: Ask MSNBC how it plans to balance the possible addition of Tucker Carlson to its prime-time line-up.

CONTACT:
MSNBC
Phone: 201-583-5000
mailto:viewerservices@msnbc.com

As always, please remember that your comments have more impact if you maintain a polite tone. Please send a copy of your correspondence to fair@fair.org.

Posted: 20 Dec. 2004

Help a soldier today! Donate through Operation Uplink.

Reports from the Center for American Progress.

HUMAN RIGHTS – THE TORTURE MEETING: Newsweek reports Alberto Gonzales, the White House chief counsel who has been tapped to be the next attorney general, held a meeting in July 2002 to discuss just how far the U.S. could go in interrogating suspects. Among the techniques discussed: "Waterboarding," or making a suspect think he's drowning; mock burials, which were deemed a little too harsh; and "open-handed slapping," hailed for its slim chance of bone or tissue damage. Gonzales and the lawyers "discussed in great detail how to legally justify such methods." Far from urging restraint, Gonzales was aggressive, wondering if in fact they were going far enough. The meetings eventually led to the now-infamous August 1, 2002 memo, which concluded that "only severe pain or permanent damage that was 'specifically intended' constituted torture. Mere 'cruel, inhuman or degrading' treatment did not qualify."

INAUGURATION – SHOWERED WITH CORPORATE CASH: "More than $4.5 million from the corporate world has flowed to President Bush's inauguration fund," the Associated Press reports, "much of it from the energy industry and some of its executives in contributions of $250,000 each." Major oil firms Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum each doled out $250,000, while the Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy and advocacy arm of the nuclear industry, gave $100,000. Also giving $250,000 were Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, one of the two primary donors behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, and former Enron President Richard Kinder. Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world's largest personal computer maker, gave $250,000; Dell CEO Kevin Rollins participated last week in President Bush's economic summit, even after news broke three weeks ago that his company had reportedly extorted the state of North Carolina for $242 million in tax breaks and other incentives.

FOREIGN POLICY – REPORT ON MID EAST REFORM 'BLOCKED BY BUSH ADMIN': New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote on Thursday that the release of the third Arab Human Development Report (AHDR) has been delayed since October because Bush administration officials objected to portions in the prologue that criticize the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The AHDR, an independent, Arabic-language report that has previously called for sweeping regional pluralistic reforms, will this year address "governance and misgovernance in the Arab world, and the legal, institutional and religious impediments to political reform." Friedman writes that the criticism of U.S. policy in the report, while heartfelt, "is there to give political cover to the Arab authors for their clear-eyed critique of Arab governance, which is the other 90 percent of the report.…It's just the kind of report that could fuel the emerging debate on Arab reform." On Friday, a U.N. official confirmed Friedman's account of the delay, while U.S. State Department officials claimed they had merely made "inquiries" into whether or not the report would contain remarks critical of the United States.

HOUSING – UNAFFORDABLE RENT: According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Americans working full-time and earning the federal minimum wage "cannot afford the rent and utilities on a one- or two-bedroom apartment." In fact, in "only four of the nation's 3,066 counties could a full-time worker making the federal minimum wage afford a typical one-bedroom apartment, the coalition said. And for a two-bedroom rental, the average worker has to take in at least $15.37 an hour, "nearly three times the federal minimum wage." Figure in skyrocketing utilities – it will cost 24 percent more this year for home heating than last – and stagnant wages, and the housing situation for the country's poor is getting worse. Don't look to the government to help those Americans who can't afford a place to live, though: spending on Section 8 rental vouchers, which helps 2 million low-income Americans pay rent, "hasn't kept up with demand."

DENYING COMPENSATION: A court yesterday denied workers' compensation benefits for a World Trade Center official who rushed from home on Sept. 11, 2001, to help rescue victims of the terrorist attack. Why? They said he was ineligible because he hadn't specifically been ordered to the scene. What happened: The property manager of the Trade Center, Christopher Duff, was home from work on 9/11, waiting for workmen to come to his house. "After learning one of the towers had been hit, Duff traveled to the World Trade Center site and saw the second tower fall." Breathing in dust and smoke, he ran for his life and later became physically ill. He then returned every day throughout the following week, as a volunteer, to assist in the rescue efforts.'' So what's the problem? The New York appeals panel says that since the company hadn't asked Duff to come to the site that day, he doesn't deserve workman's comp.

BAD NEWS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT: According to the LA Times, "The Defense Department, which has won congressional exemptions from environmental laws in the last two years, now wants to change an internal policy that commits the department to sound environmental practices." A draft of the proposal "eliminates the Pentagon's vow to 'display environmental security leadership within DOD activities worldwide.'" Today, DoD "has more facilities on the Superfund National Priorities List than any other entity in the U.S. It is blamed for contaminating billions of gallons of drinking water. A 2003 report by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce concluded that the department was responsible for '28,500 potentially contaminated sites across the country.'" The White House is complicit in this abdication of responsibility: since Bush took office, the Pentagon "has won exemptions from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act." Today, the administration is also seeking exemption "from the Clean Air Act and two toxic waste laws."

Posted: 18 Dec. 2004

Here is a long, amazingly detailed article about the connections between the American government, the Nazis and suppression of hemp production. Eye-opening stuff, well documented.

SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA: The Real Reason the Government Won't Debate
Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization

An Open Letter to All Americans
By R. William Davis

Documented Evidence of a Secret Business and Political Alliance Between the U.S. "Establishment" and the Nazis - Before, During and After World War II - up to the Present.

Posted: 17 Dec. 2004

Help a soldier today! Donate through Operation Uplink.

I feel his pain.

JON CARROLL
San Francisco Chronicle

We are so very boring. We are so very predictable. George Bush has won a second election almost fair and square, so the mood of the country is against us, and our nattering is just counterproductive and we should get with the program. Nobody cares anymore.

I do notice that a lot of media have taken the hint. Disparaging the Bush administration is so very last year, so very John Kerry. Better to, as they say, give the benefit of the doubt. Better to reassess our priorities. Better to understand that faith and family are important.

It's bewildering. I mean that. Here is an administration that so terribly botched the invasion of another country that this nation is now caught in a deadly quagmire with no anti-quagmire weapons. Soldiers are dying because of Pentagon incompetence. And yet the Pentagon is more powerful now than it was a year ago. The war is getting less attention even as it gets more deadly. Why? Because the media failed to understand that faith and family are important.

I think most people who voted for Bush would agree that he's not very good at being president. Polls show that most people understand that the war has been terribly managed, even as they also think that al Qaeda controlled Iraq. But still, they trust George Bush to get us out of the war that he got us into. Why? Because he understands that faith and family are important.

I am afraid that we have a definition problem. I am afraid that my definition of "faith and family" is no longer the dominant definition. I am afraid that "faith" means "Christian" and "family" means "conformist." I am afraid that "small-town values" is code for a whole bunch of stuff, including prudery, insularity and bigotry.

READ THE REST!

Posted: 16 Dec. 2004

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I remain baffled that so many people can be so easily fooled.

Commentary: The Great Divide: The Urban-Rural Rift
George Bush and the Republican Party now claim rural America as their turf, while they impose bigger government and more restrictions on family choice.
By Gerald Rellick

EXCERPTS: It wasn’t long ago that rural voters split their allegiance fairly evenly between Democrats and Republicans. But no more. Rural America has gone red. And the rapidly expanding outer suburbs of major metropolitan areas, already red for decades, have become redder.

These are enormous differences, and they are seen all across the country. They cannot be interpreted as reflecting differences over such substantive issues as the war in Iraq, the economy, health care, or the environment. The simple truth is that these suburban and rural areas live in fear--fear of the reach of big government which they see as threatening their way of life. But the truth is that under George Bush the federal government has extended its reach over the private and personal lives of Americans more than any administration in history.

READ THE REST.

In case you didn't already know that the Bushies live in an alternate reality from the rest of us...

Molly Ivins: Bush fails to address environmental reality

Of all the problems that arise from having an administration that chooses not to believe in reality, the one most likely to have irretrievably disastrous consequences is environmental.

The Bush solution to global warming is to declare it does not exist. While this solves the problem for him in the short term, global warming is highly unlikely to be impressed by the news that we are now an empire and can change history.

Just lately, "history's actors" have made a couple of singular contributions to our future that we in the reality-based community will doubtless be studying for some time to come.

The first allows sewer operators to dump inadequately treated sewage into the nation's waterways. The Environmental Protection Agency (a name that becomes more ironic daily) currently requires sewer operators to fully treat their waste in all but the most extreme circumstances, like during a hurricane. The new plan will allow operators to dump sewage routinely any time it rains.

READ THE REST.

Reports from the Center for American Progress.

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE
Bush Makes You Broke

Today kicks off the start of the White House Conference on the Economy, a two-day, six-panel symposium to set country's economic priorities. Don't look for new ideas from this summit, which will be more style than substance. Independent analysts say instead of providing an open discussion for new ideas, it appears the conference is "designed to provide a highly visible forum for the administration to make the case for its existing initiatives." (As David Brooks writes in the New York Times, "it's important to understand that this week's summit -- unofficial title: Why President Bush Is Right About Everything -- may not feature the widest possible range of views.") That's bad news for the country. Over the past four years, President Bush's economic policies have left Americans broke. Prices and unemployment are up, wages are down, and Americans are struggling to break even with more households than ever declaring bankruptcy. For more on the president's economic summit, read American Progress's, "What the Cheerleaders Won't Tell You."

PROPERTY TAXES ARE UP: With the federal government cutting funding for programs, states are stuck with the tab. Across the country, that means higher property taxes. And according to the Christian Science Monitor, "the levies are squeezing the middle class and senior citizens - leaving them less to spend on everything from restaurants to roof repair." Lehigh County in eastern Pennsylvania, for example, is considering a 70 percent hike in property taxes. In New York, "Mayor Michael Bloomberg is proposing a 25 percent hike, which he says is needed to bridge a projected $6.5 billion budget gap next year. In Westwood Hills, an upscale suburb of Kansas City, residents are facing a 19.2 percent property-tax hike. And in Philadelphia, hundreds of homeowners are appealing recent recent property tax increases as high as 100 percent."

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS COST MORE: According to a new study by the AARP, drug prices over the past year rose an average of 7.4 percent, "or more than three times the 2.3 percent rate of general inflation in that period." The reason? The AARP "didn't examine the reason for the price trends, but noted that the Medicare drug-discount cards came out in June." To get ready for the discount cards created by the White House's industry-backed Medicare bill, many companies decided to protect their profits by jacking up the price of their most popular medications.

COLLEGE TUITION ON THE RISE, PELL GRANTS CUT: It's getting more expensive to go to college and, thanks to the White House, harder to pay for it. The average tuition for a four-year public university "jumped 10.5 percent this year." In the omnibus spending bill President Bush signed last week, the formula used to calculate financial aid in the form of Pell grants has been adjusted to to "adjust" its formulas for calculating financial aid, a move which will "reduce grants for 1.2 million students and cut off aid completely to about 90,000."

MAKING LESS MONEY: The growth in wages fell dramatically over the past four years. In 2000, median weekly wages grew by 4.9 percent. This fell to a mere 2.0 percent in 2003. Adjusted for inflation that means "that wages fell slightly in real terms in 2003 for the first time since 1996." This trend continued in 2004. After taking account of inflation, earnings in October 2004 were below those in December 2003.

JOB TRAINING FUNDS SLASHED: Twenty-five years ago, the federal government spent $27.3 billion on the federal job training program. Today, that's been cut by over 84 percent, to about $4.4 billion. Federal job training budgets have dropped $597 million since 2000 alone, making it that much harder for Americans trapped in poverty to find work and get off government assistance.

BIG DEFICITS MEAN LESS MONEY FOR EVERYONE: President Bush and his friends in Congress have been on a four year spending spree with tax cuts for the wealthy and preemptive war charged to the national credit card. When the nation reached its $7.38 trillion credit limit last month, reckless conservatives simply gave themselves a $650 billion increase in their credit limit. Why this matters: Large-scale borrowing by the federal government means less money is available for average Americans to borrow when they want to buy a house or a car, or pay for college tuition. That smaller pool of money available for loans leads to higher interest rates – which not only puts a squeeze on individual consumers but also slows the rate of economic growth. That means, in the long run, fewer jobs, low wage growth and less money coming into the federal Treasury. Also, interest payments on the mounting debt, which exceeded $321 billion in fiscal year 2004, means less money for other priorities like education and health care.

ECONOMIC CONFERENCE
Laughing Off Victims

Knight-Ridder reports Home Depot CEO Robert Nardelli and President Bush took turns bashing trial lawyers to waves of audience laughter at the White House economic summit yesterday. Nardelli said, "What you have today is business on one side, and you've got the trial lawyers on the other side. You've got deep pockets colliding with shallow principles." But if you ask scores of ordinary American shoppers and workers killed or maimed at Home Depot – or hurt by poisonous Home Depot products - they might not think bashing people's legal rights and refusing to protect innocent victims is so funny. As the Atlanta Business Chronicle has reported, Home Depot reported 185 customer injuries a week in 1998 and has since refused media inquiries into its safety record. The company also uses its vast legal team to bully victims into signing confidentiality agreements about their injuries. The federal government "has recorded nine worker deaths in the past four years at Home Depot stores" and, in 2002, recorded a "45 percent jump" in workplace safety violations. In one high-profile accident, NASA astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien's shoulder was crushed when a 68-pound drill press fell on him from more than 10 feet up – ending his career. Because Home Depot refuses to take adequate safety precautions, "They are creating canyons of death and injury and inviting customers to walk down them," said one attorney representing families of victims. According to that attorney, the company has made a management decision that it is cheaper to pay claims to injured customers than pay for the necessary safety changes.

HEALTH – SCIENTISTS PRESSURED TO APPROVE DRUGS DESPITE RESERVATIONS: The Washington Post reports, "almost one-fifth of the Food and Drug Administration scientists surveyed two years ago as part of an official review said they had been pressured to recommend approval of a new drug despite reservations about its safety, effectiveness or quality." The survey also found "a majority had significant doubts about the adequacy of federal programs to monitor prescription drugs once they are on the market" and "more than a third were not particularly confident of the agency's ability to assess the safety of a drug." The findings "appear to support some portions of the controversial Senate testimony last month by FDA safety officer David J. Graham."

From the on-line green magazine, Grist.

MIGRATE EXPECTATIONS
Climate change taking its toll on North American wildlife

Never mind polar bears and penguins -- turns out global warming is having its way with the feathered and furry throughout North America. A three-year study released yesterday by the Wildlife Society, a nonpartisan group of wildlife experts, suggests that climate change in North America is affecting migration routes, breeding habits, and blooming cycles of animals and plants across the continent. Add to that the destruction of wildlife habitat for development and you get what Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) calls "a deadly combination." The new study, the first comprehensive look at global warming's effects on North American wildlife, adds to the laundry list of evidence suggesting that climate shifts are having a major impact on ecosystems. "We are changing the environment and climate in which our wildlife live like never before," said wildlife ecologist Doug B. Inkley, who oversaw work on the report.

straight to the source: Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 15 Dec 2004

Posted: 14 Dec. 2004

More scary stuff that proves WE MUST KEEP FIGHTING THESE PEOPLE.

Bill Moyers on Health and the Global Environment
Author: Bill Moyers
Published on Dec 4, 2004, 08:00
As difficult as it is, however, for journalists to fashion a readable narrative for complex issues without depressing our readers and viewers, there is an even harder challenge - to pierce the ideology that governs official policy today. One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts.

Remember James Watt, President Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior? My favorite online environmental journal, the ever engaging Grist, reminded us recently of how James Watt told the U.S. Congress that protecting natural resources was unimportant in light of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In public testimony he said, 'after the last tree is felled, Christ will come back.'

Beltway elites snickered. The press corps didn't know what he was talking about. But James Watt was serious. So were his compatriots out across the country. They are the people who believe the bible is literally true - one-third of the American electorate, if a recent Gallup poll is accurate.

...we're not talking about a handful of fringe lawmakers who hold or are beholden to these beliefs. Nearly half the U.S. Congress before the recent election - 231 legislators in total - more since the election - are backed by the religious right. Forty-five senators and 186 members of the 108th congress earned 80 to 100 percent approval ratings from the three most influential Christian right advocacy groups. They include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Assistant Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Conference Chair Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Policy Chair Jon Kyl of Arizona, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and Majority Whip Roy Blunt. The only Democrat to score 100 percent with the Christian coalition was Senator Zell Miller of Georgia, who recently quoted from the biblical book of Amos on the senate floor: "the days will come, sayeth the Lord God, that i will send a famine in the land.' he seemed to be relishing the thought.

Once upon a time I agreed with the Eric Chivian and the Center for Health and the Global Environment that people will protect the natural environment when they realize its importance to their health and to the health and lives of their children. Now I am not so sure. It's not that I don't want to believe that - it's just that I read the news and connect the dots:

I read that the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has declared the election a mandate for President Bush on the environment. This for an administration that wants to rewrite the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act protecting rare plant and animal species and their habitats, as well as the National Environmental Policy Act that requires the government to judge beforehand if actions might damage natural resources.

READ THE REST.

A more detailed look at the man who is claiming he was hired to write code that would steal votes in election machines.

More Questions for Florida
by Kim Zetter

A government watchdog group is investigating allegations made by a Florida programmer that are whipping up a frenzy among bloggers and people who believe Republicans stole the recent election.

Programmer Clint Curtis claims that four years ago Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Florida) asked his then-employer to write software to alter votes on electronic voting machines in Florida.

He said his employer told him the code would be used "to control the vote" in West Palm Beach, Florida. But a fellow employee disputed the programmer's claims and said the meetings he described never took place.

Many questions have been raised about Curtis, the 46-year-old programmer, who said he doesn't know if anyone ever placed the prototype code on voting machines. But this hasn't stopped frustrated voters and bloggers from seizing his story. Daily Kos mentioned the allegations, and Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog has written extensively about them.

Staff members for Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) met with Curtis last week to discuss the election allegations. Representatives for Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida) inquired about other allegations from Curtis that his former company spied on NASA.

The FBI in Tallahassee, Florida, has set up a meeting with Curtis, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said it was trying to corroborate his claims about possible election fraud and NASA spying.

READ THE REST.

More stinking censorship.

New York Art Shuttered After Bush Monkey Portrait
By Larry Fine

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A portrait of President Bush using monkeys to form his image led to the closure of a New York art exhibition over the weekend and anguished protests on Monday over freedom of expression.

"Bush Monkeys," a small acrylic on canvas by Chris Savido, created the stir at the Chelsea Market public space, leading the market's managers to close down the 60-piece show that was scheduled to stay up for the next month.

The show featured art from the upcoming issue of Animal Magazine, a quarterly publication featuring emerging artists.

"We had tons of people, like more than 2,000 people show up for the opening on Thursday night," said show organizer Bucky Turco. "Then this manager saw the piece and the guy just kind of flipped out. 'The show is over. Get this work down or I'm gonna arrest you,' he said. It's been kind of wild."

Turco took the show down on Saturday and moved the art work to his small downtown Animal Gallery. Calls to the management of Chelsea Market for comment were not returned.

From afar, the painting offers a likeness of Bush, but when you get closer you see the image is made up of chimpanzees or monkeys swimming in a marsh.

Savido, 23, said he was surprised by the strong reaction to his painting, listed in the catalog at $3,500.

"It seems like people got a kick out of it," Savido said. "When they really see it, they almost do a double-take. I like to get a reaction from people."

The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-bred artist said he was happy for all the attention paid to his work but said the decision to shutter the exhibit was "a blatant act of censorship."

Savido plans to auction the painting and donate proceeds to an organization dedicated to freedom of expression.

"This is much deeper than art. This is fundamental American rights, freedom of speech," Savido said. "To see that something like this can happen, especially in a place like New York City is mind boggling and scary."

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

Reports from the Center for American Progress.

ENVIRONMENT – BIG BUSINESS: 234,937, ENVIRONMENT: 0: The Bush administration announced Friday "it will allow developers to complete construction and other projects even after belated discoveries that the work could endanger protected species." The new rules "give blanket assurances to home builders, timber and mining companies" that once their projects start they will be allowed to continue without additional requirements, no matter what the consequences for endangered species. The move was described as "a victory for business over environmentalists."

MEDIA
A Campaign For Balance At Sinclair

Media Matters and a coalition of progressive groups have launched Sinclairaction.com, a campaign to protest Sinclair Broadcasting's "continued misuse of public airwaves." The campaign aims to spur action against the company's use of television stations to "systematically promote partisan political interests," especially on a nightly "news and commentary" segment, entitled, "The Point," in which Sinclair vice president Mark Hyman "espouses one-sided, conservative rhetoric without any counterpoint." In a letter to Sinclair chairman David D. Smith, the coalition asks the station to present a counterpoint to Hyman's conservative views. In a separate letter, the coalition asks advertisers to encourage Sinclair to balance the content of its news programming, by offering equal air time for a counterpoint.

HEALTH CARE
Medicaid On The Chopping Block

In 2005, President Bush and his congressional allies appear ready to cut spending on Medicaid, "the nation's largest health care program for the poor, disabled and nursing home residents." Despite increases in poverty which make the program more necessary than ever, and budget shortfalls so severe that many states are already making plans to restrict eligibility and benefits and increase co-payments for 2005, the Bush administration has signaled it will slash Medicaid in order to pay down the deficit. Meanwhile, President Bush is discussing ballooning the deficit by borrowing $2 trillion for a costly Social Security overhaul and he has refused to repeal any part of his first-term tax breaks for the wealthy. The deficit may have been caused by tax breaks for the rich, but the president is making sure it will be the poor that pay.

BUDGET – THE $230 BILLION WAR: The Wall Street journal reports that "Pentagon officials...will ask the Bush administration for an additional $80 billion in emergency funding to help pay costs of the military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan." That request would push "the total military costs, since the Iraq war began, to well over $230 billion." The additional funding "comes on top of $25 billion that Congress approved in August to help tide the Pentagon over until it could make a larger supplemental request."

CIVIL RIGHTS – DISCRIMINATION OVERSTATED, SAYS NEW COMMISSION CHAIR: President Bush last week reshuffled the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights after declining to reappoint chair-woman Mary Frances Berry, "who has criticized Mr. Bush's civil rights record and earned a reputation for combativeness in nearly 25 years at the commission." The new chairman, Gerald A. Reynolds, is a conservative African American lawyer from Kansas City and a former employee of two conservative think-tanks in Washington. Reynolds has described affirmative action programs as a "big lie" and believes "traditional civil rights groups…overstate the problem" of racial discrimination in the United States. Not surprisingly, Reynolds also isn't sure he has ever personally experienced discrimination; he told the New York Times that while he "just assume[s] somewhere in my life some knucklehead has looked at me and my brown self and said that they have given me less or denied me an opportunity," the "bottom line is…I am so insensitive that I probably didn't notice." William Taylor of the Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights called Reynolds' appointment "the death of the agency as an independent force and a fair fact-finder."

From the on-line green magazine, Grist.

Ten percent of all birds could go extinct by 2100

By the end of the century, 10 percent of all extant bird species may be extinct, with another 15 percent on the brink, according to a comprehensive new study. The analysis, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, considered the fate of 9,787 living bird species, modeling the effects of habitat loss, invasive species, and climate change. The grim 10 percent figure is actually a conservative estimate; the study's worst-case scenario bumps the number up to about 17 percent, or one in six species. Birds, the study authors stress, play unique roles in ecosystems and their loss can have unexpected and devastating effects on humans, as when the sharp decline of vulture species in India led to an increase in feral dogs and rats (feeding on carcasses), which in turn yielded 30,000 cases of rabies in 1997 alone. "Birds are excellent environmental indicators," said Stuart Butchart of Birdlife International, "and what they are telling us is that there is a fundamental malaise in the way we treat our environment."

straight to the source: USA Today, Dan Vergano, 13 Dec 2004

straight to the source: The Guardian, Tim Radford, 14 Dec 2004

FIRST, DO MORE HARM
Bush admin delays new air-quality rules, pushes "Clear Skies"

The White House has told the U.S. EPA to hold off on issuing the Clean Air Interstate Rule, which would curtail emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide, in deference to a renewed push in Congress to pass the Bush administration's long-stalled "Clear Skies" legislation. Delaying the rule will increase pressure on senators and reps to get Bush's bill moving, an effort led by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Enviros blasted the administration for putting off a rule they say would help clean the air. Administration officials responded that the rule's language is mirrored in provisions of Clear Skies. Enviros responded that, yes, but Clear Skies also contains provisions that weaken the Clean Air Act, postponing public-health deadlines on smog and weakening new-source review provisions. Administration officials responded that, well, tough, we won the election.

straight to the source: The Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin, 14 Dec 2004

straight to the source: ABC News, Associated Press, 11 Dec 2004

Posted: 10 Dec. 2004

This isn't a site that gets a lot of hits. I hope there are at least a few people coming here and that the traffic isn't simply webcrawlers and bots!

I'm wondering if the color scheme of this page makes it hard to read. I went for a "light a candle against the darkness" theme, but I'm thinking of changing the look to something that will be lighter on the eyes and easier to read. I'd like to hear your opinion on the current look and whether or not you find it easy or difficult to read. Please send comments to . Thanks!

From the on-line green magazine, Grist.

HAMBURGER PATTY
Chitchat about food safety

Readers are understandably anxious about the healthfulness and security of the food they eat, and many wrote to Public Citizen's Patricia Lovera lamenting the dearth of reliable information available on the matter. They will be gratified with her responses, which shed light on the dangers of irradiation, issues of food security (turns out a possible terror attack may be the least of our problems), benefits of local produce, and more. She also includes many links to other sources of information, so education can continue apace -- in InterActivist, today on the Grist Magazine website.

today in Grist: Patricia Lovera, food safety crusader, answers readers' questions -- in InterActivist

Posted: 9 Dec. 2004

From the on-line green magazine, Grist.

LOW INCOME, HIGH CONCEPT
Low-income housing starts going eco-friendly

Low-income housing, built in part with money from a special program of federal tax credits, has traditionally been low-cost, low-quality, and low-appeal. But the Enterprise Foundation is trying to change that with its Green Communities Initiative, investing $550 million over five years toward 8,500 units of affordable housing built to eco-friendly standards. Backed by investors ranging from Washington Mutual to Fannie Mae, the initiative aims "to show that, on a large enough scale, building green doesn't cost anything extra," says Enterprise chief Bart Harvey. The foundation has developed its own green building standards, partially based on the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. Some states already give preferential treatment to low-income housing developers who pledge to go green; Enterprise hopes that their initiative will accelerate that trend.

straight to the source: Forbes, Ashlea Ebeling, 08 Dec 2004

SWEET 'N' LOW-DOWN Sugar is causing environmental catastrophes

A high-sugar diet is slowly fattening and sickening American people, but we're getting off easy. Turns out the sweet stuff is outright killing endangered Florida panthers, not to mention the ecosystem in which they live. Almost 700,000 acres of the Florida Everglades have been drained to create the Everglades Agricultural Area, about 80 percent of which is used by the state's powerful sugar industry to grow cane. Phosphorus and nitrates from fertilizers drain from farms into the Everglades, causing grasses to grow rapidly and choke out wading birds, keeping them from feeding while also altering water chemistry so that algae -- the base of the food chain -- can no longer support species that feed on it. The Great Barrier Reef suffers similar effects from Australia's sugar industry. Fertilizer causes massive growths of plankton which support an increase in species that compete with coral for space on the ocean floor. Add in the up to 150 tons per acre of topsoil that can wash from the cane fields into waterways, and sugar looks like the main ingredient in a recipe for disaster.

straight to the source: The Independent, Sanjida O'Connell, 08 Dec 2004

Reports from the Center for American Progress.

CENSORSHIP – U.S. MOVES TO SUPPRESS DISSIDENT LITERATURE: Due to a Treasury Department interpretation of regulations rooted in the 1917 "Trading With the Enemy Act," American publishers can now be fined up to $1 million, and face jail time, for "publishing works by dissident writers in countries under sanction unless they first obtain U.S. government approval." The restriction, "condemned by critics as a violation of the First Amendment," means that books and other works banned by some totalitarian regimes – in the past, such books have included Boris Pasternak's "Doctor Zhivago" and Azar Nafisi's "Reading Lolita in Tehran" – "cannot be published freely in the United States, a country that prides itself as the international beacon of free expression." Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, has joined several American publishing groups in filing suit against the Treasury Department because the regulations "preclude American publishers from helping craft her memoirs of surviving Iran's Islamic revolution and her efforts to defend human rights in Iranian courts."

HOMELAND SECURITY – TERROR LIST BEHIND SCHEDULE: USA Today reports "The Bush administration's effort to create a national database of potential terrorist targets such as dams, pipelines, chemical plants and skyscrapers is far behind schedule and may take years to finish." Members of Congress who have seen parts of the classified list "say it's a haphazard compilation that includes water parks and miniature golf courses but omits some major sites in need of security." Bush instructed the department to develop a database of sites and set priorities to protect them a year ago, but very little progress has been made. Rep. Ernest Istook, (R-OK), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called the list a "joke."

BUDGET – CONSERVATIVES TAKE THE LONG VIEW: According to the Hill, Republicans are pushing to "rewrite budget rules," in an attempt to temper opposition to their proposed reforms to Social Security. The new language would direct the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to "score social security over 30 or more years," rather than the customary five or ten year period. The change could help obscure the up to $2 trillion in expected transition costs, at a time of runaway deficits. "Republicans could also write budget provisions that would remove the program entirely from the budget process." Rep. Bob Matsui (D-CA.), the ranking member on the Ways and Means subcommittee on Social Security, said rewriting the rules would "distort the whole budget process" and that removing Social Security from the budget "would make federal budgets 'meaningless' for the next 25 to 30."

HOMELAND SECURITY – TSA REVERSES NO-BID DECISION AFTER SCANDAL: U.S. News and World Report reports that Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, may have pressured the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to end a competitive bidding process for a contract "to provide logistics support for about 13,000 baggage and checkpoint scanners at 450 of the nation's airports," and instead offer a no-bid contract to Alaska Native firm, Chenega Technology Services Corp. Chenega, whose revenues have increased 10-fold since Stevens entered the Senate in 2001, "retains Stevens's brother-in-law, William Bittner, as a lobbyist and lawyer." U.S. News reports that TSA officials complained about pressure from staffers for Stevens and Alaska's other Republican senator, Lisa Murkowski, and have since reversed their position and "announced plans to put out the contract for competitive bids."

MILITARY
Rumsfeld Says the Darndest Things

Yesterday, America's troops spoke and their message was clear: they are not getting the support they need from the Bush administration. In a question-and-answer session with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, rank-and-file soldiers didn't ask for tough talk, patriotic anthems or American-flag lapel pins. Rather, they told Rumsfeld they needed – but weren't getting – armored vehicles, modern equipment and adequate supplies. Rumsfeld's responses were disgracefully insensitive and condescending. As of today, 6,530 Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan are lacking adequate protection. Our troops deserve better.

TROOPS SENT INTO WAR WITHOUT ARMORED VEHICLES: Spec. Thomas Wilson told Rumsfeld, "A lot of us are getting ready to move north [into Iraq] relatively soon. Our vehicles are not armored. We're digging pieces of rusted scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass that's already been shot up, dropped, busted, picking the best out of this scrap to put on our vehicles to take into combat." Rumsfeld responded that "you go to war with the Army you have...not the Army you might want to wish to have at a later time." But the planning for war in Iraq began in late 2001. In a spin session later in the day, Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita conceded that as late as the fall of 2003, the military was producing just 15 armored Humvees a month, less than 4 percent of today's production capacity. According to Di Rita, one quarter of Humvees in war zones today are unarmored. The bottom line: soldiers in Iraq today don't have armored vehicles because of poor planning and Rumsfeld refuses to accept responsibility.

RUMSFELD SUGGESTS ARMOR FOR VEHICLES ISN'T THAT IMPORTANT: Rumsfeld callously attempted to diminish Spec. Wilson's question, saying, "if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can still be blown up. And you can have an up-armored Humvee and it can be blown up." In response, Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq War veteran who is now with the soldiers' advocacy group, Operation Truth, said, "Having the armor increases your survivability much more than not having it. For [Rumsfeld] to say that is an indication of how little he understands the dangers of the battlefield."

RUMSFELD TRAVELS IN ARMORED VEHICLES, USES THEM AS PROPS: According to Rep. Gene Taylor (D-MS), when Rumsfeld visits Iraq he undoubtedly travels in an armored vehicle. Taylor said, "If it is good enough for the big shots, it is good enough for every American soldier." Col. John Zimmerman, a leader of Spec. Wilson's unit, said, "he and his troops...could not help fuming at the sight of the fully 'up-armored' Humvees and heavy trucks put on display here for Mr. Rumsfeld's visit." Zimmerman noted, "what you see out here isn't what we've got going north [to Iraq] with us."

BUSH PROVIDES NO FUNDING FOR ARMOR KITS: According to testimony by the Army's vice chief of staff late last year, the military needed 8,400 armor kits for Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush responded by submitting a budget in early 2004 that proposed "exactly zero dollars" for Humvee armor kits.

RUMSFELD DEFENDS THE BACKDOOR DRAFT: The military is preventing thousands of people who have completed their service obligation from leaving the military through the "stop loss" program. Rumsfeld expressed no regret that poor planning has forced him to keep troops in war zones involuntarily. Rumsfeld called the program "basically a sound principle" and told the troops that "it will continue to be used." There is so much frustration with the stop loss policy that eight soldiers are suing the government from their camps in the conflict zone.

RUMSFELD TELLS GUARD AND RESERVE SOMEONE HAS TO GET SHORT END OF STICK: When an Army specialist asked Rumsfeld what he planned to do about the disparity in equipment between the National Guard and Reserve and the active duty army, Rumsfeld was "taken aback by the question and a murmur began spreading through the ranks." Rumsfeld told the troops to "settle down, Hell, I'm an old man, it's early in the morning and I'm gathering my thoughts here." He then went on to explain that some "element of the Army is going to end up, at some point, with – you characterize it as 'antiquated' [equipment]."

Posted: 8 Dec. 2004

A rather interesting rant.

'The Christian Dominionistas Just Don't Get It'
By Karl W. B. Schwarz
A Conservative Christian Republican

I know many Christians that need to start weaning themselves from the brainwashing of the Dominionistas and the Republican Neocon Fascists that have taken control of the RNC. Christianity is not about power, greed, entitlement, world conquest, Empire building, or looking the other way on the evil that is going on inside of our government ñ in our name - and wrapping that up in the flag and pretending that evil and wrong conduct is Christianity.

Such a recent example is Congressman Tom DeLay, R-TX, the powerful House Majority Leader who was reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee for shady dealings, is apparently going to be indicted in the State of Texas for election law violations, and articulates a dominionist theological imperative and even spoke of such in a recent interview in Worldview Weekend[4]:

"He [God] is using me, all the time, everywhere, to stand up for a biblical worldview in everything that I do and everywhere I am. He is training me."

Well Tom, next time you pray to God ask him to give you training in Biblical worldview as it relates to Christian love, tolerance, forgiveness, evenhandedness, and even honesty, all words that do not describe your politics or political warmongering in the least bit, and while you are at it, Tom, talk to God about obeying the election laws in the State of Texas, since they are in your own Dominionist views ñ God based. Also, take the God Course of Accountability and when you break the law, do not go running to the majority leadership of the U.S. Congress to grant you a waiver from being held accountable. You talk it, now walk it. Be a man and face your punishment for being a fraud Christian and a dirty politician.

READ THE REST.

report from the Center for American Progress.

MILITARY – TROOPS ASK RUMSFELD THE TOUGH QUESTIONS: Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld was peppered with questions yesterday regarding the short supply of vehicle armor in Iraq and the Pentagon's controversial "stop loss" policy – not by the Washington press corps, but American troops about to enter Iraq. After listening to the secretary's prepared speech, the group of mostly National Guard and Reserve soldiers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait presented Rumsfeld with a few "criticisms of their own – not of the war itself but of how it is being fought." One "complained that active-duty Army units sometimes get priority over the National Guard and Reserve units for the best equipment in Iraq." Another wondered "how much longer the Army will continue using its 'stop loss' power to prevent soldiers from leaving the service who are otherwise eligible to retire or quit." And Army Spc. Thomas Wilson asked, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" as a "big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar."

UNITED NATIONS
The Right-Wing's Smear Campaign

The right-wing has found an excuse to dust off its plans to undermine the United Nations. Without a doubt, the illegal exploitation of the United Nations' oil-for-food program by Saddam Hussein is a serious matter that deserves careful scrutiny. But it does not justify the dishonest and manipulative campaign by the right-wing lynch mob, led by Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), against U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Fox News, predictably, has skipped over the question of whether Coleman's allegations – which he claims oblige Annan to resign – are true, and jumped right to the broader conclusion that the United Nations itself is hopelessly corrupt and incompetent. This Sunday, Fox News' Brit Hume said "The deeper problem here, of course, is the U.N. itself. This scandal is really, really a sign of what the U.N. has become. It is an enormously corrupt bureaucracy up there. It's a world unto itself. Self-dealing, I think, is rampant."

THE SECURITY COUNCIL WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING THE PROGRAM: Coleman and others are calling for Annan's head because he was at the helm of the United Nations bureaucracy while the scandal took place. But the U.N.'s oil for food program was developed and directed "not by U.N. civil servants but by the U.N. Security Council, as are all the organization's sanctions regimes." In other words, the people who ran the program didn't work for Annan, they "worked for the council's member states, including the United States and the four other permanent members." Therefore, diplomats from members of the Security Council – including the United States – are far more culpable for any problems with the oil-for-food program than Annan, who had no direct authority over it.

SECURITY COUNCIL MEMBERS IGNORED U.N. OFFICIALS: Since the Security Council ran the program, its members were responsible for rejecting or accepting contracts to do business with Iraq. On 70 occasions, U.N. officials – who were under the control of Annan – reported evidence of oil pricing scams to the council. The Security Council, including officials from the United States, ignored all of these warnings. They ended up approving 36,000 contracts to do business with Iraq, but didn't hold up a single one on the basis that it could be used to siphon money.

LIES, DAMN LIES AND COLEMAN'S STATISTICS: Coleman issued a press release stating that "Saddam accumulated more than $21 billion through abuses of the Oil-for-Food program and U.N. sanctions." But Coleman fails to specify that two-thirds of this money had absolutely nothing to do with the oil-for-food program. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) explained on CNN on 12/3/04 that $15 billion was acquired by Saddam through "direct oil sales...by Iraq to Jordan and to Turkey and to Syria." This was no secret to the White House or Congress. According to Levin, "both President Clinton and this President [George W.] Bush knowingly waived that problem by notifying Congress that those sales were taking place in violation of the oil-for food program, but nonetheless they didn't want to do anything about it relative to stopping foreign aid," as generally required under United States law.

THE OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM WORKED: The two most important facts are ignored by Coleman, Fox News and rest of the right-wing's anti-U.N. mob. First, according to the administration's hand-picked weapons inspector, the sanctions regime was completely successful in preventing Saddam from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Second, the oil-for-food program mitigated the effect of the sanctions on the Iraqi people. The Financial Times notes, while the oil-for-food program was in place, "malnutrition was halved, whereas since last year's invasion of Iraq it has almost doubled."

COLEMAN'S TORTUROUS HYPOCRISY: Coleman claims that "as long as Mr. Annan remains in charge, the world will never be able to learn the full extent" of the problems. But there is already a comprehensive independent investigation underway "headed by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman" for Ronald Reagan. Coleman has provided no evidence that Annan is impeding the investigation. Moreover, Coleman did not argue that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld step down so the military could make an independent investigation of the Abu Ghraib scandal that occurred under his watch. Instead, Coleman offered Rumsfeld words of support after he testified before Congress (calling his testimony "contrite, candid and thorough") and expressed confidence that a special commission investigating the scandal would be effective.

From the on-line green magazine, Grist. Go, California!

SUIT OF HARMER
Automakers sue California over greenhouse-gas emission regs

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers filed suit against California on Tuesday, charging that the state's new regulations on greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles (requiring a roughly 30 percent cut by 2016) amount to the imposition of new fuel-economy standards, which is the feds' purview. The Schwarzenegger administration has pledged to defend the regulations in court. Automakers predict that the regs will drive average vehicle prices in the state up by some $3,000, restrict consumer choice, and cause the sky to fall. To enviros' chagrin, Toyota, a company actually selling fuel-efficient cars, joined the suit, which demonstrates the degree of opposition within the industry to state-level climate-change regulations. Of course, while the automakers are valiantly defending the feds' turf when it comes to setting fuel-economy standards, they are also aggressively battling any federal efforts to boost such standards, so one might be forgiven for wondering just how much principle is involved here.

straight to the source: The New York Times, Danny Hakim, 08 Dec 2004

straight to the source: The Mercury News, Paul Rogers and Matt Nauman, 08 Dec 2004

Posted: 7 Dec. 2004

From the on-line green magazine, Grist. I'm thinking my next car will be a hybrid.

FOND O' HONDA
Honda ranked as greenest automaker

Of the six largest automakers selling vehicles in the U.S., Honda is the greenest, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Emissions from Honda's 2003 vehicles amounted to less than half the industry average. Nissan, which ranked second, was the most improved in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide. GM, ranked last, was the only automaker whose emissions worsened in the 2003 model year compared to two years previous. A GM spokesflack pointed out that its ranking was low only because it makes bigger vehicles than the others. (As the kids say: no duh.) Meanwhile, Honda has scored a hit in the U.K. -- not a new car, but a song in an ad touting its cleaner diesel engines. The catchy tune "Hate Something" -- sung by Garrison Keillor, to a cutesy cartoon background full of bunnies and rainbows -- has become so popular that there's talk of releasing it as a single.

straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press, 07 Dec 2004

in Gristmill: Hate Something -- Honda ad features catchy ditty

Check out this page. Lots of chunky stories to consider.

Censored 2005: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2003-2004

Speaking of biased news...a report from the Center for American Progress.

MEDIA
Clearly Conservative

Radio news just got a big push to the right. According to reports, the country's largest radio station operator, Clear Channel Communications Inc., chose right-wing Fox News Radio to provide national news for most of its news and talk stations. Clear Channel, which has been criticized in recent months for promoting a conservative agenda, owns and operates 1,200 radio stations across the United States, reaching more than 100 million people. The station currently provides a home to such right-wing radio hosts as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Dr. Laura. This new deal is expected to double Fox's presence on the airwaves, providing more than 100 Clear Channel stations with "a nightly news broadcast, as well as five-minute newscasts at the top of each hour" and coverage "around the clock."

FOX NEWS, FAIRLY UNBALANCED: Fox News has a history of biased, right-wing news coverage. As LA Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote, Fox has become "the most blatantly biased major American news organization since the era of yellow journalism." This bias doesn't do listeners any favors; according to a study conducted last year by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland, people who rely on Fox News for information "are significantly more likely to have misperceptions" about the war in Iraq. In fact, eighty percent of Fox viewers were found to hold at least one misperception, compared to 23 percent of NPR/PBS consumers. The more people watched Fox News, the more likely they were to hold these misperceptions.

FOLLOW THE MONEY: Clear Channel has strong ties to President Bush. The company's founder, R. Steven Hicks, is a Bush Pioneer, having raised more than $100,000 for the president's campaign. His brother, Tom Hicks, also "made Bush a millionaire 15 times over" when he bought the Texas Rangers from him in 1999.

CLEAR CHANNEL PUSHED THE MYTH: One of the biggest criticisms of the media in the days leading up to the Iraq war was they didn't ask enough tough questions. Clear Channel took that a step farther, blurring the lines between news organization and White House cheerleader by organizing pro-war rallies in places like Atlanta, Cincinnati and Richmond.

CONTENT CONTROL: Clear Channel has a past of suppressing speech it doesn't agree with. Some Clear Channel stations banned the Dixie Chicks after the group's lead singer criticized the president. Shock jock Howard Stern charges he was dropped in "retaliation for anti-Bush rhetoric." Other radio hosts were also dropped for their political views, including Roxanne Walker, the South Carolina d.j. fired in April 2003 after being reprimanded for anti-war statements and Phoenix, AZ, talk show host Charles Goyette who was kicked off the air for repeatedly discussing weaknesses in the intelligence in the push to war.

PROJECT BILLBOARD: Clear Channel also owns 770,000 billboards across the country. The company breached a contract by refusing to allow the nonprofit group Project Billboard to buy ad space on one of its public billboards in Times Square during the Republican National Convention last August. The problem with the billboard? It advocated peace.

Also...

SOCIAL SECURITY – BUSH ADMITS HE'LL HAVE TO BORROW: On Monday, the White House said for the first time that President Bush's plan to privatize social security would be "financed in part by new government borrowing that could top $1 trillion." That money will make it difficult for President Bush to honor his campaign pledge to cut the deficit in half. The White House had "once hoped that budget surpluses, projected in 2000 at $5.6 trillion over 10 years, would fund the transition period," but under the Bush administration, "those surpluses have vanished." Last week, White House economic adviser N. Gregory Mankiw admitted President Bush's plan would also "include major cuts in guaranteed benefits for future retirees." Mankiw "flatly rejected raising taxes" as a way to improve benefits for the elderly.

IRAQ – LEAKED CIA CABLE PAINTS GRIM PICTURE: Two classified reports sent late last month by the CIA station chief in Baghdad present "a bleak assessment on matters of politics, economics and security" in Iraq, warning the situation "is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon." The documents, obtained by the New York Times, said "the security situation was likely to get worse, including more violence and sectarian clashes, unless there were marked improvements soon on the part of the Iraqi government, in terms of its ability to assert authority and to build the economy." The assessments "were much more pessimistic than the public picture being offered by the Bush administration." At a White House event on Monday, President Bush described the insurgency as "the few people in Iraq" who are "trying to stop the march toward democracy."

MEDIA – THE FORM LETTER FIRESTORM: Pundits have rushed to proclaim Janet Jackson's breast exposure "the social political event of the year," but new data suggests the political dust-storm was actually kicked up by "a tiny minority with a very focused political agenda…to censor American television and radio." In February, FCC chairman Michael Powell told members of Congress that the number of indecency complaints "had soared dramatically to more than 240,000" in 2003, up from "roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years." Powell didn't mention – "apparently because he wasn't aware" – that "nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 – 99.8 percent – were filed by the Parents Television Council," the activist wing of a conservative media watchdog group headed by L. Brent Bozell. The proportion of FCC complaints filed by Bozell's group stayed as high, "and perhaps intensified," in 2004, Mediaweek reports.

Posted: 6 Dec. 2004

If the information in this article is correct, we're looking at another stolen election and corruption at the highest levels.

Texas to Florida: White House-linked clandestine operation paid for "vote switching" software
By Wayne Madsen

December 6, 2004—The manipulation of computer voting machines in the recent presidential election and the funding of programmers who were involved in the operation are tied to an intricate web of shady off-shore financial trusts and companies, shady espionage operatives, Republican Party politicians close to the Bush family, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contract vehicles.

An exhaustive investigation has turned up a link between current Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney, a customized Windows-based program to suppress Democratic votes on touch screen voting machines, a Florida computer services company with whom Feeney worked as a general counsel and registered lobbyist while he was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and top level officials of the Bush administration.

According to a notarized affidavit signed by Clint Curtis, while he was employed by the NASA Kennedy Space Center contractor, Yang Enterprises, Inc., during 2000, Feeney solicited him to write a program to "control the vote." At the time, Curtis was of the opinion that the program was to be used for preventing fraud in the in the 2002 election in Palm Beach County, Florida. His mind was changed, however, when the true intentions of Feeney became clear: the computer program was going to be used to suppress the Democratic vote in counties with large Democratic registrations.

READ THE REST.

Like we don't know this already, but...

The Generals Speak
Seven retired military leaders discuss what has gone wrong in Iraq
By PAUL ALEXANDER

The nineteen months since the war in Iraq began, some of the most outspoken critics of President Bush's plan of attack have come from a group that should have been the most supportive: retired senior military leaders. We spoke with a group of generals and admirals that included a former supreme Allied commander and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and they all agreed on one thing: Bush screwed up.

Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak
Air Force chief of staff, 1990-94
We have a force in Iraq that's much too small to stabilize the situation. It's about half the size, or maybe even a third, of what we need. As a consequence, the insurgency seems to be gathering momentum. We are losing people at a fairly steady rate of about two a day; wounded, about four or five times that, and perhaps half of these wounds are very serious. And we are also sustaining gunshot wounds, when, before, we'd mostly been seeing massive trauma from remotely detonated charges. This means the other side is standing and fighting in a way that describes a more dangerous phase of the conflict.

The people in control in the Pentagon and the White House live in a fantasy world. They actually thought everyone would just line up and vote for a new democracy and you would have a sort of Denmark with oil. I blame Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the people behind him -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Undersecretary Douglas Feith. The vice president himself should probably be included; certainly his wife. These so-called neocons: These people have no real experience in life. They are utopian thinkers, idealists, very smart, and they have the courage of their convictions, so it makes them doubly dangerous.

READ THE REST.

This is totally disgusting. If you live in Alabama, take action!

Gay book ban goal of state lawmaker
KIM CHANDLER
MONTGOMERY - An Alabama lawmaker who sought to ban gay marriages now wants to ban novels with gay characters from public libraries, including university libraries.

A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would prohibit the use of public funds for "the purchase of textbooks or library materials that recognize or promote homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle." Allen said he filed the bill to protect children from the "homosexual agenda."

Allen pre-filed his bill in advance of the 2005 legislative session, which begins Feb. 1.

If the bill became law, public school textbooks could not present homosexuality as a genetic trait and public libraries couldn't offer books with gay or bisexual characters.

When asked about Tennessee Williams' southern classic "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," Allen said the play probably couldn't be performed by university theater groups.

READ THE REST.

And yet more censorship. News from the Center for American Progress.

MEDIA
Ehrlich's Egregious Edict

The Baltimore Sun is suing Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich for violating the First Amendment. Two weeks ago, Ehrlich sent a directive to Maryland government officials, including public information officers in 19 different state agencies, banning all government employees from speaking with or giving any information to Baltimore Sun columnist Michael Olesker and State House bureau chief David Nitkin. Ehrlich said his order was "meant to have a chilling effect" on the paper. In its lawsuit, the newspaper charged, "The policy will discourage speech by any citizen of Maryland who disagrees with the governor and it will leave the door open for any public official to punish any individual who says something the government does not like." As the Center For American Progress's Eric Alterman and Paul McLeary write, this is a part of an overall pattern where conservatives see themselves as politically invulnerable and the "media are no longer to be treated as a necessary protection of the people's right to know, but rather as a nuisance to be neutered so that power may roll along merrily and unhindered by too many uncomfortable questions." Email Gov. Ehrlich and tell him that freedom of press is not an option, it's a right.

THE SHADY LAND DEAL: The outrage came in part over the Sun's coverage of a shady land deal to sell protected Maryland forest land to the politically connected head of Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., Willard Hackerman. Sun reporter David Nitkin wrote that the Maryland government planned to buy 800 acres of timberland with tax dollars used for the preservation of land. The state planned then to immediately turn around and sell it to Hackerman at a cut-rate price, without any preservation guarantee. State officials at the time claimed Hackerman would preserve the area; documents later released showed they knew Hackerman intended to re-zone the property and build houses. Nitkin also exposed a private fundraiser Hackerman held for Ehrlich at the same time the governor's aides were putting together the deal. After the scheme was discovered, Ehrlich flatly stated that he saw no need for any investigation and none of his aides would face punishment. He would, however, punish Nitkin for his role in exposing the secret deal.

EHRILICH'S LAME EXCUSE: No one has pointed to any factual errors in Nitkin's stories about the land deal. So why the ban? Ehrlich blames a map. Next to one of Nitkin's articles, the Sun ran a map of Maryland which was intended to represent the 3,000 acres of timberland affected. There was a mistake in the graphic's shading and the map accidentally showed all 450,000 acres under state preservation. Nitkin had nothing to do with the map and the Baltimore Sun, realizing the mistake, issued a detailed correction the very next day. That made no difference to Ehrlich, who seized the mistake as justification for banning state officials from talking to Nitkin, saying he was responsible because the original map ran near his story.

EHRLICH MAKES UP MAKING UP QUOTES: In an interview on WBAL Radio, Ehrlich defended banning officials from talking to Sun columnist Michael Olesker, claiming he had "made up quotes," referring to a May 14 column that included quotes from Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele on multiculturalism. Olesker denied the charges, saying, "They are trying to deny having conversations with me that absolutely occurred and that I would never in a million years make up." Ehrlich's administration finally came clean by reversing itself last week and "acknowledged that Steel did have the conversation with the columnist."

WATCH YOUR METAPHORS: The governor's office also tried to attack Olesker for describing the governor's communications director as "struggling to keep a straight face" while testifying that use of taxpayer money in tourism ads was not politically motivated. Ehrlich says Olesker wasn't at the hearing and thus didn't know what Schurick's face looked like; Olesker has explained it was a figure of speech and he didn't mean the phrase to be taken literally. In retribution, Ehrlich used this as his justification for banning the Maryland government from talking to Olesker.

EHRLICH KICKED REPORTERS OUT OF THE STATE HOUSE: This isn't Gov. Ehrlich's first attempt to muscle out journalists. Last summer, he concocted a plan to bodily evict the Maryland press corps from its long-held offices in the State House. (After the resulting uproar, he recanted and reporters were able to stay on site.) He also removed newspaper boxes from the State House for "security" reasons. The Governor "has professed not to read the newspapers, maintains that The Washington Post and The (Baltimore) Sun are biased against him, and has professed a preference for talk radio."

Plus this.

MILITARY – SOLDIERS SUE OVER STOP-LOSS: The New York Times reports eight U.S. soldiers currently serving in Iraq and Kuwait will file a lawsuit today in federal court in Washington "challenging the Army policy known as stop-loss." Marketed as a policy to "promote continuity within deployed units," the Army last spring mandated that "if a soldier's unit is still in Iraq or Afghanistan, that soldier cannot leave even when his or her enlistment time runs out. Since then, a handful of National Guardsmen who received orders to report for duty in California and Oregon have taken the policy to court, but the newest lawsuit is the first such challenge by a group of soldiers." The policy being challenged by the eight soldiers "has barred thousands of soldiers from leaving Iraq this year even though the terms of enlistment they signed up for have run out."

Posted: 3 Dec. 2004

The war begins. Those in power do not want something as free and open as the internet. They want to control it. If the government seizes control of the net, we are screwed. BE AWARE and be prepared to oppose it.

Analysis: Tenet calls for tough cyber security rules
By Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor

Washington, DC, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Former CIA Director George Tenet called Wednesday for tough new security measures to guard against attacks on the United States using the Internet, which he called "a potential Achilles heel for our financial stability and physical security."

"I know that these actions will be controversial in this age when we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," Tenet told an IT security conference in Washington, "but ultimately the Wild West must give way to governance and control."

The national media, including United Press International, were excluded from the event at Tenet's request, organizers said, but UPI was given an account of the speech by a member of the audience. The quotes were verified by a source close to the former director.

READ THE REST.

From the Center for American Progress.

SOCIAL SECURITY – BUSH WAVES GOOD-BYE TO BENEFITS: During his presidential campaign, Bush claimed, "any overhaul should make no changes in the benefits for people in retirement or near retirement." The post-election White House is singing a different tune. Top White House economic adviser Larry Mankiw admitted yesterday that President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security would indeed "include major cuts in guaranteed benefits for future retirees." (Mankiw "flatly rejected" cutting back on Bush's massive tax cuts for wealthy Americans as a tool to save the federal retirement system, emphasizing any plan would "not include raising taxes.")

EMPLOYMENT – JOB GROWTH HITS THE BRAKES: The Wall Street Journal reports, "U.S. employers sharply slowed the pace of hiring in November, surprising Wall Street and rekindling worries about the strength of the economic recovery." The Labor Department said this morning that the economy grew by only 112,000 jobs last month. "That was the weakest gain in five months, and well short of the 200,000 jobs economists had expected, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires and CNBC. The Labor Department also said "employers created 54,000 fewer jobs in September and October than previously thought. Employers added 119,000 jobs in September and 303,000 in October, down from previous estimates of 139,000 and 337,000, respectively."

IRAQ – RUMSFELD'S MISTAKES: Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was asked on Fox News's O'Reilly Factor last night what he thought the two greatest mistakes of the Iraq war had been. His response: "Well, I suppose you could -- one looking at it today with 20/20 hindsight would say not anticipating -- first of all, not finding W.M.D., weapons of mass destruction. And intelligence apparently was wrong or else they're buried or else we'll find out something later. But at the moment, it looks like they weren't there. And I suppose the second one would be, more current, would be the fact of, was it possible to better estimate the insurgency." Rumsfeld neglected to mention that he was one of the chief advocates of these misleading assessments before the war in his push to invade Iraq. In January 2003, for example, he ignored both a 1997 report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that said there was no indication Iraq ever achieved nuclear capability or had any physical capacity for producing weapons-grade nuclear material in the near future, as well as a September 2002 classified Defense Intelligence report that found "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Instead, Rumsfeld stated definitively that Saddam's "regime has large, unaccounted-for stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons -- including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas; anthrax, botulism, and possibly smallpox -- and he has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons." Before the war, he also scoffed at Gen. Eric Shinseki's assessment that hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops would be needed in Iraq, saying just a month before the invasion that the war "could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."

NATIONAL SECURITY
Ill Communication

More than three years after 9/11, with the country's reputation plummeting worldwide, America's strategic communication is "in a state of crisis." So says a scathing report by the Defense Science Board Task Force, "a Federal Advisory Committee established to provide independent advice" to the Pentagon. The report concludes America has no clear message for the Muslim world, nor a means of communicating that message. "Missing are strong leadership, strategic direction, adequate coordination, sufficient resources, and a culture of measurement and evaluation." The institutions charged with battling the "war of ideas" are neglected, confused, or broken. Conclusion? The United States has lost its "power to persuade." It lacks even one "working channel of communication to the world of Muslims and of Islam."

AIDING ADVERSARIES: The Defense Board concludes America's inept communications strategy has failed in the fundamental non-military objective of the fight against terrorism, "separating the vast majority of nonviolent Muslims from the radical-militant Islamist-Jihadists." American efforts have "not only failed in this respect. They may also have achieved the opposite of what they intended," elevating the stature of radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single-digits in many Arab societies. The toxic combination of bad policy and inept public diplomacy has left America's credibility so badly damaged that "whatever Americans do and say only serves the party that has both the message and the 'loud and clear' channel: the enemy."

COME OUT OF THE COLD: Part of the problem is the Bush administration's over-reliance on Cold War models. "We must think in terms of global networks, both government and non-government," the report says. "If we continue to concentrate primarily on states…we will fail." The report accuses the administration of reflexively adopting "Cold War-style responses to the new threat, without a thought or a care as to whether these were the best responses to a very different strategic situation." Indeed, President Bush's elevation of former National Security Director Condoleezza Rice even further underscores the point – Rice has insisted on using "Cold War techniques" to fight the battle against terrorism.

WHITE HOUSE BURIED THE REPORT: So what did the Bush administration do with the Defense Board's incisive critique of its communication strategies? The report was delivered in September, but not made public until well after the election, when it was "silently slipped" onto the Pentagon web site the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. This didn't stop spokesman Byran Whitman from bragging the report's release was consistent with the Pentagon's "guiding principle of making information available in a timely and accurate manner."

THE BRIEF HISTORY OF THE OSI: The administration did try – briefly – to develop a communications strategy. In late 2001, the Department of Defense created an Office of Strategic Influence (OSI), to wage a "strategic information campaign in support of the war on terrorism." The office, however, was dissolved less than four months later, following reports it was developing plans to plant false news items in the foreign press. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the office had "clearly been so damaged…that it could not function effectively."

THE NEW PLAN, SAME AS THE OLD PLAN: Alarmingly, however, the OSI's central programs were never terminated. This week, the LA Times reported that "much of OSI's mission…has been assumed by offices through the U.S. government," coordinated by Pentagon "misinformation" expert Douglas Feith. Trying to psych out the insurgents, the offices recently duped CNN into reporting the invasion of Fallujah was beginning, even though troops would not cross into the city for three weeks. It is unlikely Feith and his fake stories were what the Defense Board had in mind when it advised the U.S. to "search out credible messengers and create message authority." Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers was been so alarmed by Feith's projects he wrote an internal memo expressing concerns that U.S. military efforts "could suffer if world audiences begin to question the honesty of statements from U.S. commanders and spokespeople."

Posted: 2 Dec. 2004

Please sign the Working Assets petition.

Urge CBS & NBC to Run Anti-Bigotry Ad
Tolerance is Not 'Controversial'

CBS and NBC have refused to air a paid advertisement produced by the United Church of Christ (UCC). The outrageous message that warrants censorship? The denomination wants viewers to know that everyone is welcome at their churches.

CBS states it is will not run the ad because it has a policy not to run issue advocacy ads on topics that are part of a national public debate. Similarly, the rejection by NBC declared the spot "too controversial." The UCC ad apparently ran afoul of the CBS policy by promoting the fact that its churches welcome gay and lesbian members as well as members of other minority groups, youth and seniors. Even if the commercial were deemed a controversial issue ad, CBS has contradicted its policy in the past by running strident anti-marijuana ads as well as ads by the Bush administration touting their new prescription drug program.

Click here to view the ad and judge for yourself.

The ad has been accepted and will air on a number of networks, including ABC Family, AMC, BET, Discovery, Fox, Hallmark, History, Nick at Nite, TBS, TNT, Travel and TV Land. It appears that CBS and NBC have adopted a policy which says that any ad that differs, no matter how tangentially, from the views of the Bush administration has no place on their networks.

Tell CBS and NBC that the increasing visibility of gay and lesbian citizens in our society is not controversial. However, a network's censorship of mainstream views is clearly a violation of the public trust and interest. CBS and NBC should be ashamed.

Sign the Working Assets petition.

While you're at it, also sign with People for the American Way to protest this censorship.

From the Center for American Progress.

DAILY OUTRAGE
State Rep. Gerald Allen (R-AL) has filed a bill intended to ban library books with "gay protagonists and college textbooks that suggest homosexuality is natural." What would happen to those books if the bill passes? "I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them," Allen said.

MEDIA – DOD CIVILIANS PUSH PSY-OPS CAMPAIGN ON AMERICANS: The Pentagon's planned Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) was quickly scrapped in 2002 after reports that it intended to plant false news stories in the international media. Yet the Los Angeles Times reports that "much of OSI's mission ... has been assumed by offices through the U.S. government," part of a "broad effort underway within the Bush administration" to mix PR with psy-ops both abroad and at home. Military officials have taken a tepid view of the strategy. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, wrote an internal memo expressing concerns that U.S. military efforts "could suffer if world audiences begin to question the honesty of statements from U.S. commanders and spokespeople." Myers's warnings "have not been heeded," however, likely because "many top civilians at the Pentagon and National Security Council" support the operations. Indeed, Pentagon officials report that "the strategic communications programs at the Defense Department are being coordinated by the office of the undersecretary of Defense for policy, Douglas J. Feith," who Gen. Tommy Franks once described as "the [expletive] stupidest guy on the face of the planet."

OMNIBUS – IT'S A MATTER OF PRIORITIES: In its massive $388 billion spending bill passed last week, Congress set aside money for crucial projects like making salmon baby food, blueberry research and helping North Dakota shoo blackbirds off sunflowers. Lawmakers, however, completely eliminated funds for Project Safe Neighborhoods, the Justice Department program designed to prosecute black-market gun crimes. "It's a matter of priorities," explained House Appropriations Committee spokesman John Scofield. "There are going to be things you can fund and things you can't." (Maybe that explains why $2 million was set aside to purchase a presidential yacht, but money for a program to track and intercept illegal purchases of guns by kids was erased.) Joe Vince, a former official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said slashing these programs suggested a lack of commitment to cracking down on crimes involving guns. "Across the country, cities are starting to see an increase in gun-related violent crimes, and Project Safe Neighborhoods was a way for local law enforcement to combine their efforts and stem the tide…If you're taking the funding away at a critical time like this, that just doesn't make any sense to me."

HEALTH
Factual Abstinence

The Bush administration is pouring hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars into programs – billed as abstinence-only "education" – that "teach adolescents false and misleading information about reproductive health." A study released yesterday by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) found that 11 of the 13 most commonly used abstinence-only programs contain errors. For example, one popular curriculum teaches students that touching another person's genitals "can result in pregnancy." Moreover, these abstinence-only programs have proven ineffective in reducing teenage sexual activity and increase risky sexual behavior among teenagers. Nevertheless, President Bush – apparently more concerned about promoting right-wing ideology than accuracy or effectiveness – has pushed for significant funding increases for such programs, requesting $270 million for 2005. (For more on the problems with the push for abstinence-only programs, read these columns).

FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT CONTRACEPTIVES: One abstinence-only curriculum teaches students that "in heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time." The program bases that assertion on a 1993 study that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) described as "flawed," based on "serious error" and contradicted by other more recent, larger studies. According to the CDC, the scientific consensus is that latex condoms, used properly, "are highly effective in preventing the transmission of HIV." Another program teaches students that HIV and other STDs can "pass through" condoms. This contradicts the CDC's scientific conclusion that "latex condoms provide an essentially impermeable barrier to particles the size of STD pathogens."

FALSE INFORMATION ABOUT ABORTION: Several abstinence-only programs use taxpayer money to advance a political agenda which criminalizes abortion. One curriculum claims that, after a woman has an abortion, there is a five to ten percent chance she will become sterile and her next child is more likely to be born premature. Scientific obstetrics textbooks reveal that both of these claims are flatly false.

ABSTINENCE-ONLY PROGRAMS DEMEAN WOMEN: Abstinence only programs frequently reinforce false and demeaning stereotypes about women. For example, one program instructs impressionable students that "women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments." Another program lists "financial support" as one of the "5 Major Needs of Women" and "domestic support" as one of the "5 Major Needs of Men." Another program tells the story of a princess who advises a knight to save her from a dragon using poison. The poison works, but the knight feels "ashamed" because he needed the help of the princess. He ends up marrying a village maiden only after making sure she knows nothing about poisons. The moral of the story: "occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

ABSTINENCE-ONLY DOESN'T INCREASE ABSTINENCE AND DISCOURAGES SAFE SEX: Advocates for Youth, a non-profit group, evaluated eleven state abstinence-only programs and found there were "few short-term benefits and no lasting, positive impact." Five programs measured long-term impact on sexual behavior: "No evaluation demonstrated any impact on reducing teens' sexual behavior at follow-up, three to 17 months after the program ended." In at least two states, AFY Evaluators noted that abstinence-only programs' emphasis on the failure rates of contraception, including condoms, "left youth ambivalent, at best, about using them."

ABSTINENCE-ONLY IN YOUR STATE: The fact that abstinence-only programs are ineffective hasn't stopped President Bush from flooding the nation with money for them. The Sexual Information and