Friday, October 29, 2004
Voting Rights and the November Election:
LA Times: Bush Seeks Limit to Suits Over Voting Rights
"Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election.
Veteran voting-rights lawyers expressed surprise at the government's action, saying that closing the courthouse door to aspiring voters would reverse decades of precedent.
Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of groups such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters or the state parties. And until now, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court had taken the view that individual voters could sue to enforce federal election law.
But in legal briefs filed in connection with cases in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the administration's lawyers argue that the new law gives Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft the exclusive power to bring lawsuits to enforce its provisions...
...the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not originally include a private right to sue state officials who discriminated against aspiring black voters. The Justice Department backed the idea of private suits, nonetheless, in a test case that ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969.
In their ruling, the justices said 'the achievement of the act's laudable goal would be severely hampered … if each citizen were required to depend solely on litigation instituted at the discretion of the attorney general,'..."
NOTE: If you're not registered, you can use this LA Times login/password: mstieb/password
AP: Jimmy Carter: Media cowed as Bush exploits 9-11
"President Bush has exploited the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and a timorous American media have not held him to account, former President Carter said in an interview published today.
Carter was asked by the Guardian newspaper why he failed to win re-election in 1980 against Ronald Reagan after Iranian radicals held U.S. citizens hostage for 444 days, while Bush might win re-election despite misgivings over the war in Iraq war.
'The basic reason is that our country suffered, in 9-11, a terrible and shocking attack . . . and George Bush has been adroit at exploiting that attack, and he has elevated himself, in the consciousness of many Americans, to a heroic commander in chief, fighting a global threat against America,' Carter said.
'He's repeatedly played that card and to some degree quite successfully. I think that success has dissipated. I don't know if it's dissipating fast enough to affect the election. We'll soon know.'
Carter said Bush has the advantage of being commander in chief in a time of war.
'And it's just become almost unpatriotic to describe Bush's fallacious and ill-advised and mistaken and sometimes misleading actions,' Carter said..."
Bush Family Values:
LA Times: Doors Opened for Gas Firm Tied to Neil Bush
"When President Bush came into office in 2001, it was a boom time for the energy industry. And one of the many boats lifted was that of a small Texas company in which the president's brother played an important role.
Among other initiatives, the new president had promised to make it easier for companies to build coastal facilities to store liquefied natural gas imported from around the world..."
War Profiteering:
LA Times: Halliburton Contracts Bypassed Objections
"U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commanders awarded a lucrative contract extension to Halliburton Co. this month by circumventing the organization's top contracting officer, who had objected to the proposal, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, questioned a decision by commanders to award a contract extension to Halliburton, the oil services company run by Dick Cheney until he became vice president, without the competitive bidding designed to protect U.S. taxpayers..."
The So-called War on Terror:
The Washington Monthly: The Road to Abu Ghraib
"...The damage done by Abu Ghraib might at least have been minimized had the administration pursued a strategy of publicly and sincerely holding accountable those responsible for it. Instead, it has done something close to the opposite. The Bush administration has condemned the abuses as the work of a 'few bad apples,' while working diligently to get the story off the front pages and out of the presidential campaign. In a meeting with Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth shortly after the scandal broke, reports Hersh, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice argued that the abuses resulted not from the president's policies in the war on terrorism, but from 'implementation of policy' by the military. The various committees and commissions investigating the scandal have more or less abetted this line of defense..."
Reuters: Civilian death toll in Iraq exceeds 100,000
"Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public health experts have calculated in a report that estimates there were 100,000 'excess deaths' in 18 months.
The rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities.
'Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq,' said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.
'The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children,' Roberts told Reuters..."
The Washington Post: Bush to Request $70 Billion More in War Funding
"The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.
White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton emphasized that final decisions on the supplemental spending request will not be made until shortly before the request is sent to Congress. That may not happen until early February, when President Bush submits his budget for fiscal 2006, assuming he wins reelection.
But Pentagon and House Appropriations Committee aides said the Defense Department and military services are scrambling to get their final requests to the White House Office of Management and Budget by mid-November, shortly after the election. The new numbers underscore that the war is going to be far more costly and intense, and last longer, than the administration first suggested.
The Army is expected to request at least an additional $30 billion for combat activity in Iraq, with $6 billion more needed to begin refurbishing equipment that has been worn down or destroyed by unexpectedly intense combat, another Appropriations Committee aide said. The deferral of needed repairs over the past year has added to maintenance costs, which can no longer be delayed, a senior Pentagon official said.
The Army is expected to ask for as much as $10 billion more for its conversion to a swifter expeditionary force. The Marines will come in with a separate request, as will the Defense Logistics Agency and other components of the Department of Defense. The State Department will need considerably more money to finance construction and operations at the sprawling embassy complex in Baghdad. The Central Intelligence Agency's request would come on top of those..."
LA Times: Bush Seeks Limit to Suits Over Voting Rights
"Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election.
Veteran voting-rights lawyers expressed surprise at the government's action, saying that closing the courthouse door to aspiring voters would reverse decades of precedent.
Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of groups such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters or the state parties. And until now, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court had taken the view that individual voters could sue to enforce federal election law.
But in legal briefs filed in connection with cases in Ohio, Michigan and Florida, the administration's lawyers argue that the new law gives Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft the exclusive power to bring lawsuits to enforce its provisions...
...the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not originally include a private right to sue state officials who discriminated against aspiring black voters. The Justice Department backed the idea of private suits, nonetheless, in a test case that ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969.
In their ruling, the justices said 'the achievement of the act's laudable goal would be severely hampered … if each citizen were required to depend solely on litigation instituted at the discretion of the attorney general,'..."
NOTE: If you're not registered, you can use this LA Times login/password: mstieb/password
AP: Jimmy Carter: Media cowed as Bush exploits 9-11
"President Bush has exploited the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and a timorous American media have not held him to account, former President Carter said in an interview published today.
Carter was asked by the Guardian newspaper why he failed to win re-election in 1980 against Ronald Reagan after Iranian radicals held U.S. citizens hostage for 444 days, while Bush might win re-election despite misgivings over the war in Iraq war.
'The basic reason is that our country suffered, in 9-11, a terrible and shocking attack . . . and George Bush has been adroit at exploiting that attack, and he has elevated himself, in the consciousness of many Americans, to a heroic commander in chief, fighting a global threat against America,' Carter said.
'He's repeatedly played that card and to some degree quite successfully. I think that success has dissipated. I don't know if it's dissipating fast enough to affect the election. We'll soon know.'
Carter said Bush has the advantage of being commander in chief in a time of war.
'And it's just become almost unpatriotic to describe Bush's fallacious and ill-advised and mistaken and sometimes misleading actions,' Carter said..."
Bush Family Values:
LA Times: Doors Opened for Gas Firm Tied to Neil Bush
"When President Bush came into office in 2001, it was a boom time for the energy industry. And one of the many boats lifted was that of a small Texas company in which the president's brother played an important role.
Among other initiatives, the new president had promised to make it easier for companies to build coastal facilities to store liquefied natural gas imported from around the world..."
War Profiteering:
LA Times: Halliburton Contracts Bypassed Objections
"U.S. Army Corps of Engineers commanders awarded a lucrative contract extension to Halliburton Co. this month by circumventing the organization's top contracting officer, who had objected to the proposal, according to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Bunnatine Greenhouse, the Corps of Engineers' chief contracting officer, questioned a decision by commanders to award a contract extension to Halliburton, the oil services company run by Dick Cheney until he became vice president, without the competitive bidding designed to protect U.S. taxpayers..."
The So-called War on Terror:
The Washington Monthly: The Road to Abu Ghraib
"...The damage done by Abu Ghraib might at least have been minimized had the administration pursued a strategy of publicly and sincerely holding accountable those responsible for it. Instead, it has done something close to the opposite. The Bush administration has condemned the abuses as the work of a 'few bad apples,' while working diligently to get the story off the front pages and out of the presidential campaign. In a meeting with Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth shortly after the scandal broke, reports Hersh, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice argued that the abuses resulted not from the president's policies in the war on terrorism, but from 'implementation of policy' by the military. The various committees and commissions investigating the scandal have more or less abetted this line of defense..."
Reuters: Civilian death toll in Iraq exceeds 100,000
"Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in violence since the U.S.-led invasion last year, American public health experts have calculated in a report that estimates there were 100,000 'excess deaths' in 18 months.
The rise in the death rate was mainly due to violence and much of it was caused by U.S. air strikes on towns and cities.
'Making conservative assumptions, we think that about 100,000 excess deaths, or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq,' said Les Roberts of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in a report published online by The Lancet medical journal.
'The use of air power in areas with lots of civilians appears to be killing a lot of women and children,' Roberts told Reuters..."
The Washington Post: Bush to Request $70 Billion More in War Funding
"The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.
White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton emphasized that final decisions on the supplemental spending request will not be made until shortly before the request is sent to Congress. That may not happen until early February, when President Bush submits his budget for fiscal 2006, assuming he wins reelection.
But Pentagon and House Appropriations Committee aides said the Defense Department and military services are scrambling to get their final requests to the White House Office of Management and Budget by mid-November, shortly after the election. The new numbers underscore that the war is going to be far more costly and intense, and last longer, than the administration first suggested.
The Army is expected to request at least an additional $30 billion for combat activity in Iraq, with $6 billion more needed to begin refurbishing equipment that has been worn down or destroyed by unexpectedly intense combat, another Appropriations Committee aide said. The deferral of needed repairs over the past year has added to maintenance costs, which can no longer be delayed, a senior Pentagon official said.
The Army is expected to ask for as much as $10 billion more for its conversion to a swifter expeditionary force. The Marines will come in with a separate request, as will the Defense Logistics Agency and other components of the Department of Defense. The State Department will need considerably more money to finance construction and operations at the sprawling embassy complex in Baghdad. The Central Intelligence Agency's request would come on top of those..."
Thursday, October 28, 2004
The November Election:
Greg Palast: Florida computers snatch thousands of votes from Kerry
"Before one vote was cast in early voting this week in Florida, the new touch-screen computer voting machines of Florida started out with a several-thousand vote lead for George W. Bush. That is, the mechanics of the new digital democracy boxes 'spoil' votes at a predictably high rate in African-American precincts, effectively voiding enough votes cast for John Kerry to in a tight race, keep the White House safe from the will of the voters..."
Thomas Friedman:A Hole in the Heart
"...Had the administration been more competent in pursuing its policies in Iraq - which can still turn out decently - the hole in the heart of the world might not have gotten so large and jagged.
I have been struck by how many foreign dignitaries have begged me lately for news that Bush will lose. This Bush team has made itself so radioactive it glows in the dark. When the world liked Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, America had more power in the world. When much of the world detests George Bush, America has less power. People do not want to be seen standing next to us. It doesn't mean we should run our foreign policy as a popularity contest, but it does mean that leading is not just about making decisions - it's also the ability to communicate, follow through and persuade.
If the Bush team wins re-election, unless it undergoes a policy lobotomy and changes course and tone, the breach between America and the rest of the world will only get larger. But all Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney have told us during this campaign is that they have made no mistakes and see no reason to change..."
Greg Palast: Florida computers snatch thousands of votes from Kerry
"Before one vote was cast in early voting this week in Florida, the new touch-screen computer voting machines of Florida started out with a several-thousand vote lead for George W. Bush. That is, the mechanics of the new digital democracy boxes 'spoil' votes at a predictably high rate in African-American precincts, effectively voiding enough votes cast for John Kerry to in a tight race, keep the White House safe from the will of the voters..."
Thomas Friedman:A Hole in the Heart
"...Had the administration been more competent in pursuing its policies in Iraq - which can still turn out decently - the hole in the heart of the world might not have gotten so large and jagged.
I have been struck by how many foreign dignitaries have begged me lately for news that Bush will lose. This Bush team has made itself so radioactive it glows in the dark. When the world liked Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, America had more power in the world. When much of the world detests George Bush, America has less power. People do not want to be seen standing next to us. It doesn't mean we should run our foreign policy as a popularity contest, but it does mean that leading is not just about making decisions - it's also the ability to communicate, follow through and persuade.
If the Bush team wins re-election, unless it undergoes a policy lobotomy and changes course and tone, the breach between America and the rest of the world will only get larger. But all Mr. Bush and Dick Cheney have told us during this campaign is that they have made no mistakes and see no reason to change..."
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Voting In Florida:
BBC: New Florida vote scandal feared
"A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals..."
Iraq's Oil:
Greg Palast: Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq
"Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration's grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it..."
BBC: New Florida vote scandal feared
"A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state's African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals..."
Iraq's Oil:
Greg Palast: Adventure Capitalism - The Hidden 2001 Plan to Carve-up Iraq
"Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops still there? Investigative reporter Greg Palast uncovers new documents that answer these questions and more about the Bush administration's grand designs on Iraq. Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it..."
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
The So-Called War On Terror:
Paul Krugman: A Culture of Cover-Ups
"...Although President Bush's campaign is based almost entirely on his self-proclaimed leadership in that war, his officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy over any information that might let voters assess his performance.
Yesterday we got two peeks under that shroud. One was The Times's report about what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls 'the greatest explosives bonanza in history.' Ignoring the agency's warnings, administration officials failed to secure the weapons site, Al Qaqaa, in Iraq, allowing 377 tons of deadly high explosives to be looted, presumably by insurgents.
The administration is trying to play down the importance of this loss, arguing that because Iraq was awash in munitions, a few hundred more tons don't make much difference. But aside from their potential use in nuclear weapons - the reason they were under seal before the war - these particular explosives, unlike standard munitions, are exactly what a terrorist needs..."
The Shadow-Presidency of Dick Cheney:
Robert Sheer: The Man Behind the Oval Office Curtain: It's Cheney's Administration, and It's a Shame
"Can this nation survive four more years of Dick Cheney running the show? Probably, but it is a risk that few thoughtful Americans, conservatives included, should want to take.
Whatever one thinks of George W. Bush -- do you see a smile or a smirk? -- it is now patently obvious that the most powerful vice president in U.S. history is in charge of the White House. Cheney's ultra-secretive, anti-democratic and crony-capitalist instincts have defined this administration.
Perhaps we should have expected all this from a man who, as head of the Bush vice presidential search team, selected himself. It was a forewarning of the Machiavellian arrogance that has made him the leading individual in an administration that has consistently believed that self-serving ends - such as helping Enron at the expense of California's energy needs or boosting Halliburton's profits at the expense of American troops - justify lying, secrecy and preemptive war..."
The nuclear technology that W's Mars initiative is relying on (but that he failed to mention publicly)...
Pratt & Whitney Thermal Nuclear Rocket Entry: TRITON
Paul Krugman: A Culture of Cover-Ups
"...Although President Bush's campaign is based almost entirely on his self-proclaimed leadership in that war, his officials have thrown a shroud of secrecy over any information that might let voters assess his performance.
Yesterday we got two peeks under that shroud. One was The Times's report about what the International Atomic Energy Agency calls 'the greatest explosives bonanza in history.' Ignoring the agency's warnings, administration officials failed to secure the weapons site, Al Qaqaa, in Iraq, allowing 377 tons of deadly high explosives to be looted, presumably by insurgents.
The administration is trying to play down the importance of this loss, arguing that because Iraq was awash in munitions, a few hundred more tons don't make much difference. But aside from their potential use in nuclear weapons - the reason they were under seal before the war - these particular explosives, unlike standard munitions, are exactly what a terrorist needs..."
The Shadow-Presidency of Dick Cheney:
Robert Sheer: The Man Behind the Oval Office Curtain: It's Cheney's Administration, and It's a Shame
"Can this nation survive four more years of Dick Cheney running the show? Probably, but it is a risk that few thoughtful Americans, conservatives included, should want to take.
Whatever one thinks of George W. Bush -- do you see a smile or a smirk? -- it is now patently obvious that the most powerful vice president in U.S. history is in charge of the White House. Cheney's ultra-secretive, anti-democratic and crony-capitalist instincts have defined this administration.
Perhaps we should have expected all this from a man who, as head of the Bush vice presidential search team, selected himself. It was a forewarning of the Machiavellian arrogance that has made him the leading individual in an administration that has consistently believed that self-serving ends - such as helping Enron at the expense of California's energy needs or boosting Halliburton's profits at the expense of American troops - justify lying, secrecy and preemptive war..."
The nuclear technology that W's Mars initiative is relying on (but that he failed to mention publicly)...
Pratt & Whitney Thermal Nuclear Rocket Entry: TRITON
Monday, October 25, 2004
Iraq:
The Independent (UK) - Massacre at Baquba: 49 Iraqi soldiers executed in attack designed to send message to US
The So-Called War on Terror:
The Independent (UK) - Gary Hart: 'We said September 11 was going to happen. I was angry with myself for not doing more'
NY Times: After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law
"In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.
The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress..."
Zbigniew Brzezinski: How to Make New Enemies
Washington Post: Detainees Secretly Taken Out Of Iraq
"At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation - a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the official said.
The draft opinion, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and dated March 19, 2004, refers to both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in Iraq, who the memo says are protected by the treaty. It permits the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country to be interrogated for a 'brief but not indefinite period.' It also says the CIA can permanently remove persons deemed to be 'illegal aliens' under 'local immigration law.'
Some specialists in international law say the opinion amounts to a reinterpretation of one of the most basic rights of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects civilians during wartime and occupation, including insurgents who were not part of Iraq's military.
The treaty prohibits the '[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory...regardless of their motive.'..."
Sweetheart Deals for HAL:
NY Times: The Billions: Top Army Official Calls for a Halliburton Inquiry
"The top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the 'integrity of the federal contracting program.'
The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, said that in at least one case she witnessed, Army officials inappropriately allowed representatives of Halliburton to sit in as they discussed the terms of a contract the company was set to receive..."
The Independent (UK) - Massacre at Baquba: 49 Iraqi soldiers executed in attack designed to send message to US
The So-Called War on Terror:
The Independent (UK) - Gary Hart: 'We said September 11 was going to happen. I was angry with myself for not doing more'
NY Times: After Terror, a Secret Rewriting of Military Law
"In early November 2001, with Americans still staggered by the Sept. 11 attacks, a small group of White House officials worked in great secrecy to devise a new system of justice for the new war they had declared on terrorism.
Determined to deal aggressively with the terrorists they expected to capture, the officials bypassed the federal courts and their constitutional guarantees, giving the military the authority to detain foreign suspects indefinitely and prosecute them in tribunals not used since World War II.
The plan was considered so sensitive that senior White House officials kept its final details hidden from the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the secretary of state, Colin L. Powell, officials said. It was so urgent, some of those involved said, that they hardly thought of consulting Congress..."
Zbigniew Brzezinski: How to Make New Enemies
Washington Post: Detainees Secretly Taken Out Of Iraq
"At the request of the CIA, the Justice Department drafted a confidential memo that authorizes the agency to transfer detainees out of Iraq for interrogation - a practice that international legal specialists say contravenes the Geneva Conventions.
One intelligence official familiar with the operation said the CIA has used the March draft memo as legal support for secretly transporting as many as a dozen detainees out of Iraq in the last six months. The agency has concealed the detainees from the International Red Cross and other authorities, the official said.
The draft opinion, written by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and dated March 19, 2004, refers to both Iraqi citizens and foreigners in Iraq, who the memo says are protected by the treaty. It permits the CIA to take Iraqis out of the country to be interrogated for a 'brief but not indefinite period.' It also says the CIA can permanently remove persons deemed to be 'illegal aliens' under 'local immigration law.'
Some specialists in international law say the opinion amounts to a reinterpretation of one of the most basic rights of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which protects civilians during wartime and occupation, including insurgents who were not part of Iraq's military.
The treaty prohibits the '[i]ndividual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory...regardless of their motive.'..."
Sweetheart Deals for HAL:
NY Times: The Billions: Top Army Official Calls for a Halliburton Inquiry
"The top civilian contracting official for the Army Corps of Engineers, charging that the Army granted the Halliburton Company large contracts for work in Iraq and the Balkans without following rules designed to ensure competition and fair prices to the government, has called for a high-level investigation of what she described as threats to the 'integrity of the federal contracting program.'
The official, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, said that in at least one case she witnessed, Army officials inappropriately allowed representatives of Halliburton to sit in as they discussed the terms of a contract the company was set to receive..."
Bush's Campaign of Fear:
FactCheck.org - Would Kerry Throw Us To The Wolves?
"A new Bush ad claims Kerry supported cuts in intelligence 'so deep they would have weakened America's defenses' against terrorists, and shows a pack of hungry-looking wolves preparing to attack. Actually, the cut Kerry proposed in 1994 amounted to less than 4 percent, as part of a proposal to cut many programs to reduce the deficit.
And in 1995 Porter Goss, who is now Bush's CIA Director, co-sponsored an even strong deficit-elimination measure that would have cut CIA personnel by 20 percent over five years. When asked about that at his confirmation hearings he didn't disavow it..."
FactCheck.org - Would Kerry Throw Us To The Wolves?
"A new Bush ad claims Kerry supported cuts in intelligence 'so deep they would have weakened America's defenses' against terrorists, and shows a pack of hungry-looking wolves preparing to attack. Actually, the cut Kerry proposed in 1994 amounted to less than 4 percent, as part of a proposal to cut many programs to reduce the deficit.
And in 1995 Porter Goss, who is now Bush's CIA Director, co-sponsored an even strong deficit-elimination measure that would have cut CIA personnel by 20 percent over five years. When asked about that at his confirmation hearings he didn't disavow it..."
Sunday, October 24, 2004
The November Election:
Albuquerque Journal: Some Voters Say Machines Failed, Incorrect Choices Appear on Screens
"Kim Griffith voted on Thursday - over and over and over.
She's among the people in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties who say they have had trouble with early voting equipment. When they have tried to vote for a particular candidate, the touch-screen system has said they voted for somebody else.
It's a problem that can be fixed by the voters themselves - people can alter the selections on their ballots, up to the point when they indicate they are finished and officially cast the ballot.
For Griffith, it took a lot of altering.
She went to Valle Del Norte Community Center in Albuquerque, planning to vote for John Kerry. 'I pushed his name, but a green check mark appeared before President Bush's name,' she said.
Griffith erased the vote by touching the check mark at Bush's name. That's how a voter can alter a touch-screen ballot.
She again tried to vote for Kerry, but the screen again said she had voted for Bush. The third time, the screen agreed that her vote should go to Kerry.
She faced the same problem repeatedly as she filled out the rest of the ballot. On one item, 'I had to vote five or six times,' she said.
Michael Cadigan, president of the Albuquerque City Council, had a similar experience when he voted at City Hall.
'I cast my vote for president. I voted for Kerry and a check mark for Bush appeared,' he said..."
The American Conservative: Kerry's the One
"...George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism. His international policies have been based on the hopelessly naïve belief that foreign peoples are eager to be liberated by American armies - a notion more grounded in Leon Trotsky's concept of global revolution than any sort of conservative statecraft. His immigration policies - temporarily put on hold while he runs for re-election - are just as extreme. A re-elected President Bush would be committed to bringing in millions of low-wage immigrants to do jobs Americans 'won't do.' This election is all about George W. Bush, and those issues are enough to render him unworthy of any conservative support."
George Will: Bush v. Gore, Ticking Bomb
"...Jeffrey Rosen's recent essay 'Rematch: Bush v. Gore, Round 2' (The New Republic, Oct. 4, 2004) is mandatory reading for both campaigns and citizens who want to brace themselves for the storm that could engulf the nation as soon as the polls close Nov. 2. Then the parties might unleash thousands of lawyers, each clutching a copy of Bush v. Gore, to ferret out 'equal protection' violations in every closely contested state..."
Sidney Blumenthal: America's hidden vote
"Passing almost without notice earlier this month, the public release of The Civil Rights Record of the George W Bush Administration - the official staff report prepared by the US Civil Rights Commission - whose submission is required by federal law, was blocked by the Republican commissioners. None the less, it was posted on the commission's website: 'This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words.'
Bush has held the Civil Rights Commission in contempt since its June 2001 report on Election Practices in Florida During the 2000 Campaign. Then it concluded: 'The commission's findings make one thing clear: widespread voter disenfranchisement - not the dead-heat contest - was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election ... The disenfranchisement of Florida's voters fell most harshly on the shoulders of black voters.'
Vast efforts to mobilise or suppress African-American, Hispanic and Democratic voters have already reached a greater level of intensity than in any modern campaign. The Republicans in Ohio, for example, have attempted to toss out new Democratregistrations because it was claimed they were written on the wrong weight of paper, a gambit overruled by a federal court. From Pennsylvania to Arizona, a Republican consulting firm is discouraging new Democratic voters from getting on the rolls...."
The So-Called War on Terror:
The Washington Post: Bush Policies Collide in Iraq, Afghanistan
The Independent (UK) - Three Guantanamo 'judges' removed due to Pentagon bias
"Three members of the military panel established to hear the cases of Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been removed because of concerns about their lack of impartiality. But the officer acting as the senior 'judge', who has close links to the Pentagon official overseeing the hearings, has been allowed to retain his job.
Following criticism from defence lawyers and human rights groups, John Altenburg, a Pentagon official and retired army general, agreed to remove three military officers from the six-member panel. One of the officers had overseen an operation that sent suspected terrorists from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, another was an intelligence officer in Iraq and the third caused controversy earlier this summer when he said he did not know the details of the Geneva Conventions..."
The Environment:
The Independent (UK) - Kyoto treaty to be binding after Russian ratification
"Environmentalists hailed Russia as the world's ecological saviour yesterday after the Russian parliament made good on President Vladimir Putin's promise to endorse the Kyoto climate change pact. Yesterday's vote will see the UN treaty take effect early next year.
The world's industrialised countries (with the exception of America, the largest polluter) will have to cut their collective emissions of six greenhouse gases to 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels in eight years or face stiff penalties and global humiliation..."
Iraq:
Editor and Publisher: Ex-CIA Chief Tenet Comes to Town
"...Addressing the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan Wednesday night, George Tenet, former director of central intelligence, called the war on Iraq 'wrong,' according to Clark's article on Thursday, although it was unclear whether he meant the war itself or mainly the intelligence it was based on.
[Indeed, the newspaper issued a clarification on Saturday, explaining that after an editor examined the reporter's notes, it concluded that Tenet was referring to the intelligence failures. Earlier a spokesman for Tenet had said that he had not declared the U.S. effort in Iraq 'wrong.')
Tenet also said that intelligence on Iraq was 'rightly being challenged,' but the CIA was making important strides toward success in the greater war on terrorism, according to the reporter..."
Corporate Fraud, and Waste of US Taxpayer Dollars:
The New York Times: Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq
"Managers of a security firm that won large contracts in Iraq warned their bosses in February of what they called a pattern of fraudulent billing practices, internal company memorandums suggest.
The memorandums, written primarily by two company managers, charged that the security firm, Custer Battles, repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services or at grossly inflated prices.
The company, which quickly grew to garner security contracts worth $100 million in little more than a year, denies the charges. It argues that the managers confused sincere attempts to document jobs done in a hurry, in a war zone, with deliberate deception and that the company provided all contracted services for the agreed-upon price..."
Oily Politics:
La Libération: Oil at the Root of Corruption
"Corruption in public contracting undermines the global fight against poverty and deprives those countries rich in oil of vital resources for their development, deplores Transparency International (TI) in its annual report published Wednesday. 'If we hope to achieve the Millennium Development Objectives, which are the reduction by half of the number of people living in extreme poverty between now and 2015, governments must seriously tackle corruption in the bidding for public contracts,' declared TI President Peter Eigen. The poorest countries, which for the most part are among those in the lower half of the index, are 'those that most need support in the fight against corruption,' Eigen emphasized.
The level of corruption is high among 'countries rich in oil' which receive 'extremely low' scores on a scale from 10 (high level of probity) to 0 (high level of corruption), observes TI. In these countries, 'the award of public contracts is corroded by the disappearance of revenues that end up in the pockets of the managers of western oil companies, intermediaries, and local officials,' deplores the biggest international NGO devoted to the fight against corruption in the whole world. Consequently, TI warns for Iraq's future (129e - 2.1): 'in the absence of strict anti-corruption measures, reconstruction in Iraq will be undermined by an enormous waste of money diverted by corrupt elites,' in the NGO's evaluation.
Fingers are also pointed at oil-producing countries, including Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Yemen. 'In these countries, contract award of in the oil sector is battered by the disappearance of money into the pockets of western managers, local officials, and intermediaries,' Eigen explained..."
Albuquerque Journal: Some Voters Say Machines Failed, Incorrect Choices Appear on Screens
"Kim Griffith voted on Thursday - over and over and over.
She's among the people in Bernalillo and Sandoval counties who say they have had trouble with early voting equipment. When they have tried to vote for a particular candidate, the touch-screen system has said they voted for somebody else.
It's a problem that can be fixed by the voters themselves - people can alter the selections on their ballots, up to the point when they indicate they are finished and officially cast the ballot.
For Griffith, it took a lot of altering.
She went to Valle Del Norte Community Center in Albuquerque, planning to vote for John Kerry. 'I pushed his name, but a green check mark appeared before President Bush's name,' she said.
Griffith erased the vote by touching the check mark at Bush's name. That's how a voter can alter a touch-screen ballot.
She again tried to vote for Kerry, but the screen again said she had voted for Bush. The third time, the screen agreed that her vote should go to Kerry.
She faced the same problem repeatedly as she filled out the rest of the ballot. On one item, 'I had to vote five or six times,' she said.
Michael Cadigan, president of the Albuquerque City Council, had a similar experience when he voted at City Hall.
'I cast my vote for president. I voted for Kerry and a check mark for Bush appeared,' he said..."
The American Conservative: Kerry's the One
"...George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism. His international policies have been based on the hopelessly naïve belief that foreign peoples are eager to be liberated by American armies - a notion more grounded in Leon Trotsky's concept of global revolution than any sort of conservative statecraft. His immigration policies - temporarily put on hold while he runs for re-election - are just as extreme. A re-elected President Bush would be committed to bringing in millions of low-wage immigrants to do jobs Americans 'won't do.' This election is all about George W. Bush, and those issues are enough to render him unworthy of any conservative support."
George Will: Bush v. Gore, Ticking Bomb
"...Jeffrey Rosen's recent essay 'Rematch: Bush v. Gore, Round 2' (The New Republic, Oct. 4, 2004) is mandatory reading for both campaigns and citizens who want to brace themselves for the storm that could engulf the nation as soon as the polls close Nov. 2. Then the parties might unleash thousands of lawyers, each clutching a copy of Bush v. Gore, to ferret out 'equal protection' violations in every closely contested state..."
Sidney Blumenthal: America's hidden vote
"Passing almost without notice earlier this month, the public release of The Civil Rights Record of the George W Bush Administration - the official staff report prepared by the US Civil Rights Commission - whose submission is required by federal law, was blocked by the Republican commissioners. None the less, it was posted on the commission's website: 'This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words.'
Bush has held the Civil Rights Commission in contempt since its June 2001 report on Election Practices in Florida During the 2000 Campaign. Then it concluded: 'The commission's findings make one thing clear: widespread voter disenfranchisement - not the dead-heat contest - was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election ... The disenfranchisement of Florida's voters fell most harshly on the shoulders of black voters.'
Vast efforts to mobilise or suppress African-American, Hispanic and Democratic voters have already reached a greater level of intensity than in any modern campaign. The Republicans in Ohio, for example, have attempted to toss out new Democratregistrations because it was claimed they were written on the wrong weight of paper, a gambit overruled by a federal court. From Pennsylvania to Arizona, a Republican consulting firm is discouraging new Democratic voters from getting on the rolls...."
The So-Called War on Terror:
The Washington Post: Bush Policies Collide in Iraq, Afghanistan
The Independent (UK) - Three Guantanamo 'judges' removed due to Pentagon bias
"Three members of the military panel established to hear the cases of Guantanamo Bay prisoners have been removed because of concerns about their lack of impartiality. But the officer acting as the senior 'judge', who has close links to the Pentagon official overseeing the hearings, has been allowed to retain his job.
Following criticism from defence lawyers and human rights groups, John Altenburg, a Pentagon official and retired army general, agreed to remove three military officers from the six-member panel. One of the officers had overseen an operation that sent suspected terrorists from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, another was an intelligence officer in Iraq and the third caused controversy earlier this summer when he said he did not know the details of the Geneva Conventions..."
The Environment:
The Independent (UK) - Kyoto treaty to be binding after Russian ratification
"Environmentalists hailed Russia as the world's ecological saviour yesterday after the Russian parliament made good on President Vladimir Putin's promise to endorse the Kyoto climate change pact. Yesterday's vote will see the UN treaty take effect early next year.
The world's industrialised countries (with the exception of America, the largest polluter) will have to cut their collective emissions of six greenhouse gases to 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels in eight years or face stiff penalties and global humiliation..."
Iraq:
Editor and Publisher: Ex-CIA Chief Tenet Comes to Town
"...Addressing the Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan Wednesday night, George Tenet, former director of central intelligence, called the war on Iraq 'wrong,' according to Clark's article on Thursday, although it was unclear whether he meant the war itself or mainly the intelligence it was based on.
[Indeed, the newspaper issued a clarification on Saturday, explaining that after an editor examined the reporter's notes, it concluded that Tenet was referring to the intelligence failures. Earlier a spokesman for Tenet had said that he had not declared the U.S. effort in Iraq 'wrong.')
Tenet also said that intelligence on Iraq was 'rightly being challenged,' but the CIA was making important strides toward success in the greater war on terrorism, according to the reporter..."
Corporate Fraud, and Waste of US Taxpayer Dollars:
The New York Times: Memos Warned of Billing Fraud by Firm in Iraq
"Managers of a security firm that won large contracts in Iraq warned their bosses in February of what they called a pattern of fraudulent billing practices, internal company memorandums suggest.
The memorandums, written primarily by two company managers, charged that the security firm, Custer Battles, repeatedly billed the occupation authorities for nonexistent services or at grossly inflated prices.
The company, which quickly grew to garner security contracts worth $100 million in little more than a year, denies the charges. It argues that the managers confused sincere attempts to document jobs done in a hurry, in a war zone, with deliberate deception and that the company provided all contracted services for the agreed-upon price..."
Oily Politics:
La Libération: Oil at the Root of Corruption
"Corruption in public contracting undermines the global fight against poverty and deprives those countries rich in oil of vital resources for their development, deplores Transparency International (TI) in its annual report published Wednesday. 'If we hope to achieve the Millennium Development Objectives, which are the reduction by half of the number of people living in extreme poverty between now and 2015, governments must seriously tackle corruption in the bidding for public contracts,' declared TI President Peter Eigen. The poorest countries, which for the most part are among those in the lower half of the index, are 'those that most need support in the fight against corruption,' Eigen emphasized.
The level of corruption is high among 'countries rich in oil' which receive 'extremely low' scores on a scale from 10 (high level of probity) to 0 (high level of corruption), observes TI. In these countries, 'the award of public contracts is corroded by the disappearance of revenues that end up in the pockets of the managers of western oil companies, intermediaries, and local officials,' deplores the biggest international NGO devoted to the fight against corruption in the whole world. Consequently, TI warns for Iraq's future (129e - 2.1): 'in the absence of strict anti-corruption measures, reconstruction in Iraq will be undermined by an enormous waste of money diverted by corrupt elites,' in the NGO's evaluation.
Fingers are also pointed at oil-producing countries, including Angola, Azerbaijan, Chad, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Libya, Nigeria, Russia, Sudan, Venezuela, and Yemen. 'In these countries, contract award of in the oil sector is battered by the disappearance of money into the pockets of western managers, local officials, and intermediaries,' Eigen explained..."
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
The Campaign for President:
AP: Sinclair Axes Journalist Critical of Film
"Sinclair Broadcast fired its Washington bureau chief, saying he revealed company business when he discussed its upcoming program on a documentary critical of John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities..."
Paul Krugman: Feeling the Draft
"...There were two reasons some of us never believed Mr. Bush's budget promises. First, his claims that his tax cuts were affordable rested on patently unrealistic budget projections. Second, his broader policy goals, including the partial privatization of Social Security - which is clearly on his agenda for a second term - would involve large costs that were not included even in those unrealistic projections. This led to the justified suspicion that his election-year promises notwithstanding, Mr. Bush would preside over a return to budget deficits.
It's exactly the same when it comes to the draft. Mr. Bush's claim that we don't need any expansion in our military is patently unrealistic; it ignores the severe stress our Army is already under. And the experience in Iraq shows that pursuing his broader foreign policy doctrine - the 'Bush doctrine' of pre-emptive war - would require much larger military forces than we now have..."
Further Politicizing 9/11:
Robert Scheer: CIA Report on 9/11 Suppressed until after Election
"It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
'It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed,' an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that 'the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward.'
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. 'We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report,' she said. 'We are very concerned.'
According to the intelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, release of the report, which represents an exhaustive 17-month investigation by an 11-member team within the agency, has been 'stalled.' First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was appointed CIA chief by President Bush..."
The Supreme Court:
Washington Post: Supreme Court Clerks Spill Bush v. Gore Details
"The inscription on the front of the Supreme Court building says 'Equal Justice Under Law,' but the court's motto could just as easily be 'What Happens Here, Stays Here.' In a town where confidential information travels fast, the justices protect their internal deliberations fiercely - and, usually, successfully.
But in the October issue of Vanity Fair magazine, former Supreme Court law clerks from the court's 2000-01 term speak out - under cover of anonymity - about what they saw behind the scenes during the fateful case of Bush v. Gore..."
AP: Sinclair Axes Journalist Critical of Film
"Sinclair Broadcast fired its Washington bureau chief, saying he revealed company business when he discussed its upcoming program on a documentary critical of John Kerry's anti-Vietnam War activities..."
Paul Krugman: Feeling the Draft
"...There were two reasons some of us never believed Mr. Bush's budget promises. First, his claims that his tax cuts were affordable rested on patently unrealistic budget projections. Second, his broader policy goals, including the partial privatization of Social Security - which is clearly on his agenda for a second term - would involve large costs that were not included even in those unrealistic projections. This led to the justified suspicion that his election-year promises notwithstanding, Mr. Bush would preside over a return to budget deficits.
It's exactly the same when it comes to the draft. Mr. Bush's claim that we don't need any expansion in our military is patently unrealistic; it ignores the severe stress our Army is already under. And the experience in Iraq shows that pursuing his broader foreign policy doctrine - the 'Bush doctrine' of pre-emptive war - would require much larger military forces than we now have..."
Further Politicizing 9/11:
Robert Scheer: CIA Report on 9/11 Suppressed until after Election
"It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago.
'It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed,' an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that 'the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward.'
When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. 'We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report,' she said. 'We are very concerned.'
According to the intelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, release of the report, which represents an exhaustive 17-month investigation by an 11-member team within the agency, has been 'stalled.' First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was appointed CIA chief by President Bush..."
The Supreme Court:
Washington Post: Supreme Court Clerks Spill Bush v. Gore Details
"The inscription on the front of the Supreme Court building says 'Equal Justice Under Law,' but the court's motto could just as easily be 'What Happens Here, Stays Here.' In a town where confidential information travels fast, the justices protect their internal deliberations fiercely - and, usually, successfully.
But in the October issue of Vanity Fair magazine, former Supreme Court law clerks from the court's 2000-01 term speak out - under cover of anonymity - about what they saw behind the scenes during the fateful case of Bush v. Gore..."
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Iraq:
The Washington Post: Top U.S. Commander in Iraq Warned of Inadequate Supplies
"The top U.S. commander in Iraq complained to the Pentagon last winter that his supply situation was so poor that it threatened Army troops' ability to fight, according to an official document that has surfaced only now.
The lack of key spare parts for gear vital to combat operations, such as tanks and helicopters, was causing problems so severe, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote in a letter to top Army officials, that 'I cannot continue to support sustained combat operations with rates this low.'
Senior Army officials said that most of Sanchez's concerns have been addressed in recent months but that they continue to keep a close eye on the problems he identified. The situation is 'substantially better' now, said Gary Motsek, deputy director of operations for the Army Materiel Command.
Sanchez, who was the senior commander on the ground in Iraq from the summer of 2003 until the summer of 2004, said in his letter that Army units in Iraq were 'struggling just to maintain . . . relatively low readiness rates' on key combat systems, such as M-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, anti-mortar radars and Black Hawk helicopters.
He also said units were waiting an average of 40 days for critical spare parts, which he noted was almost three times the Army's average. In some Army supply depots in Iraq, 40 percent of critical parts were at 'zero balance,' meaning they were absent from depot shelves, he said.
He also protested in his letter, sent Dec. 4 to the number two officer in the Army, with copies to other senior officials, that his soldiers still needed protective inserts to upgrade 36,000 sets of body armor but that their delivery had been postponed twice in the month before he was writing. There were 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at the time.
In what appears to be a plea to top officials to spur the bureaucracy to respond more quickly, Sanchez concluded, 'I cannot sustain readiness without Army-level intervention.'..."
AP: Auditors can't account for Iraq spent funds
"U.S. and Iraqi officials doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds and other moneys for Iraqi projects earlier this year, but there was little effort to monitor or justify the expenditures, according to an audit released Thursday.
Files that could explain many of the payments are missing or nonexistent, and contracting rules were ignored, according to auditors working for an agency created by the United Nations.
'We found one case where a payment ($2.6 million) was authorized by the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) senior adviser to the Ministry of Oil,' the report said. 'We were unable to obtain an underlying contract' or even 'evidence of services being rendered.'
In a program to allow U.S. military commanders to pay for small reconstruction projects, auditors questioned 128 projects totaling $31.6 million. They could find no evidence of bidding for the projects or, alternatively, explanations of why they were awarded without competition.
The report was released by Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee and a leading critic of reconstruction spending to rebuild Iraq.
'The Bush Administration cannot account for how billions of dollars of Iraqi oil proceeds were spent,' Waxman said. 'The mismanagement, lack of transparency, and potential corruption will seriously undermine our efforts in Iraq. A thorough congressional investigation is urgently needed.'
The audit was performed by the accounting firm KMPG for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, created by the United Nations to monitor the stewardship of Iraqi funds..."
DeLay's Texas Redistricting Efforts Under Review:
AP: High court orders review of Texas seats
"The Supreme Court handed Democrats a victory Monday, ordering a lower court to reconsider a Texas redistricting plan that could give Republicans six more seats and a firmer hold on their majority in the House.
The decision won't affect next month's elections, though any GOP gains on Nov. 2 could be wiped out later if the plan ultimately is deemed unconstitutional..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
Do these stories support the idea that the torture of prisoners was the action of a few bad apples, or does it show the deliberate application of White House policy?
The NY Times: Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base
"Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.
The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.
One regular procedure that was described by people who worked at Camp Delta, the main prison facility at the naval base in Cuba, was making uncooperative prisoners strip to their underwear, having them sit in a chair while shackled hand and foot to a bolt in the floor, and forcing them to endure strobe lights and screamingly loud rock and rap music played through two close loudspeakers, while the air-conditioning was turned up to maximum levels, said one military official who witnessed the procedure. The official said that was intended to make the detainees uncomfortable, as they were accustomed to high temperatures both in their native countries and their cells.
Such sessions could last up to 14 hours with breaks, said the official, who described the treatment after being contacted by The Times..."
The NY Times: U.S. Army Inquiry Implicates 28 Soldiers in Deaths of 2 Afghan Detainees
"A newly completed Army criminal investigation has implicated 28 active-duty and reserve soldiers in the deaths of two Afghan men detained at the American air base at Bagram in December 2002, and describes potential offenses ranging from involuntary manslaughter to assault to conspiracy, the Army said Thursday.
One Pentagon official said five or six could face the most serious charges, a decision that now rests with the soldiers' commanders.
Those cited by the investigation include officers - the highest ranking are two captains - noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers, according to Pentagon officials familiar with the report..."
Florida, Again:
AP: Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice
"Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.
In a May 4 e-mail obtained by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer expert Jeff Long told his boss that a Department of State computer expert had told him 'that yesterday they recommended to the Gov that they 'pull the plug' ' on the voter database.
The e-mail said state election officials 'weren't comfortable with the felon matching program they've got,' but added, 'The Gov rejected their suggestion to pull the plug, so they're 'going live' with it this weekend.'
Long, who was responsible for giving elections officials his department's felon database, confirmed the contents of the e-mail Friday to the Herald-Tribune. He said he didn't remember the specifics, but that Paul Craft, the Department of State's top computer expert, had told him about the meeting with Bush.
A software program matched data on felons with voter registration rolls to create the list of 48,000 names. Secretary of State Glenda Hood junked the database in July after acknowledging that 2,500 ex-felons on the list had had their voting rights restored.
Most were Democrats, and many were black. Hispanics, who often vote Republican in Florida, were almost entirely absent from the list due to a technical error.
Bush's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, denied allegations that the governor ignored warnings about the list..."
The Washington Post: Top U.S. Commander in Iraq Warned of Inadequate Supplies
"The top U.S. commander in Iraq complained to the Pentagon last winter that his supply situation was so poor that it threatened Army troops' ability to fight, according to an official document that has surfaced only now.
The lack of key spare parts for gear vital to combat operations, such as tanks and helicopters, was causing problems so severe, Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote in a letter to top Army officials, that 'I cannot continue to support sustained combat operations with rates this low.'
Senior Army officials said that most of Sanchez's concerns have been addressed in recent months but that they continue to keep a close eye on the problems he identified. The situation is 'substantially better' now, said Gary Motsek, deputy director of operations for the Army Materiel Command.
Sanchez, who was the senior commander on the ground in Iraq from the summer of 2003 until the summer of 2004, said in his letter that Army units in Iraq were 'struggling just to maintain . . . relatively low readiness rates' on key combat systems, such as M-1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, anti-mortar radars and Black Hawk helicopters.
He also said units were waiting an average of 40 days for critical spare parts, which he noted was almost three times the Army's average. In some Army supply depots in Iraq, 40 percent of critical parts were at 'zero balance,' meaning they were absent from depot shelves, he said.
He also protested in his letter, sent Dec. 4 to the number two officer in the Army, with copies to other senior officials, that his soldiers still needed protective inserts to upgrade 36,000 sets of body armor but that their delivery had been postponed twice in the month before he was writing. There were 131,000 U.S. troops in Iraq at the time.
In what appears to be a plea to top officials to spur the bureaucracy to respond more quickly, Sanchez concluded, 'I cannot sustain readiness without Army-level intervention.'..."
AP: Auditors can't account for Iraq spent funds
"U.S. and Iraqi officials doled out hundreds of millions of dollars in oil proceeds and other moneys for Iraqi projects earlier this year, but there was little effort to monitor or justify the expenditures, according to an audit released Thursday.
Files that could explain many of the payments are missing or nonexistent, and contracting rules were ignored, according to auditors working for an agency created by the United Nations.
'We found one case where a payment ($2.6 million) was authorized by the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority) senior adviser to the Ministry of Oil,' the report said. 'We were unable to obtain an underlying contract' or even 'evidence of services being rendered.'
In a program to allow U.S. military commanders to pay for small reconstruction projects, auditors questioned 128 projects totaling $31.6 million. They could find no evidence of bidding for the projects or, alternatively, explanations of why they were awarded without competition.
The report was released by Rep. Henry Waxman of California, ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee and a leading critic of reconstruction spending to rebuild Iraq.
'The Bush Administration cannot account for how billions of dollars of Iraqi oil proceeds were spent,' Waxman said. 'The mismanagement, lack of transparency, and potential corruption will seriously undermine our efforts in Iraq. A thorough congressional investigation is urgently needed.'
The audit was performed by the accounting firm KMPG for the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, created by the United Nations to monitor the stewardship of Iraqi funds..."
DeLay's Texas Redistricting Efforts Under Review:
AP: High court orders review of Texas seats
"The Supreme Court handed Democrats a victory Monday, ordering a lower court to reconsider a Texas redistricting plan that could give Republicans six more seats and a firmer hold on their majority in the House.
The decision won't affect next month's elections, though any GOP gains on Nov. 2 could be wiped out later if the plan ultimately is deemed unconstitutional..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
Do these stories support the idea that the torture of prisoners was the action of a few bad apples, or does it show the deliberate application of White House policy?
The NY Times: Broad Use of Harsh Tactics Is Described at Cuba Base
"Many detainees at Guantánamo Bay were regularly subjected to harsh and coercive treatment, several people who worked in the prison said in recent interviews, despite longstanding assertions by military officials that such treatment had not occurred except in some isolated cases.
The people, military guards, intelligence agents and others, described in interviews with The New York Times a range of procedures that included treatment they said was highly abusive occurring over a long period of time, as well as rewards for prisoners who cooperated with interrogators.
One regular procedure that was described by people who worked at Camp Delta, the main prison facility at the naval base in Cuba, was making uncooperative prisoners strip to their underwear, having them sit in a chair while shackled hand and foot to a bolt in the floor, and forcing them to endure strobe lights and screamingly loud rock and rap music played through two close loudspeakers, while the air-conditioning was turned up to maximum levels, said one military official who witnessed the procedure. The official said that was intended to make the detainees uncomfortable, as they were accustomed to high temperatures both in their native countries and their cells.
Such sessions could last up to 14 hours with breaks, said the official, who described the treatment after being contacted by The Times..."
The NY Times: U.S. Army Inquiry Implicates 28 Soldiers in Deaths of 2 Afghan Detainees
"A newly completed Army criminal investigation has implicated 28 active-duty and reserve soldiers in the deaths of two Afghan men detained at the American air base at Bagram in December 2002, and describes potential offenses ranging from involuntary manslaughter to assault to conspiracy, the Army said Thursday.
One Pentagon official said five or six could face the most serious charges, a decision that now rests with the soldiers' commanders.
Those cited by the investigation include officers - the highest ranking are two captains - noncommissioned officers and enlisted soldiers, according to Pentagon officials familiar with the report..."
Florida, Again:
AP: Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice
"Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a flawed felon voter list before it went out to county election offices despite warnings from state officials, according to a published report Saturday.
In a May 4 e-mail obtained by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Florida Department of Law Enforcement computer expert Jeff Long told his boss that a Department of State computer expert had told him 'that yesterday they recommended to the Gov that they 'pull the plug' ' on the voter database.
The e-mail said state election officials 'weren't comfortable with the felon matching program they've got,' but added, 'The Gov rejected their suggestion to pull the plug, so they're 'going live' with it this weekend.'
Long, who was responsible for giving elections officials his department's felon database, confirmed the contents of the e-mail Friday to the Herald-Tribune. He said he didn't remember the specifics, but that Paul Craft, the Department of State's top computer expert, had told him about the meeting with Bush.
A software program matched data on felons with voter registration rolls to create the list of 48,000 names. Secretary of State Glenda Hood junked the database in July after acknowledging that 2,500 ex-felons on the list had had their voting rights restored.
Most were Democrats, and many were black. Hispanics, who often vote Republican in Florida, were almost entirely absent from the list due to a technical error.
Bush's spokeswoman, Jill Bratina, denied allegations that the governor ignored warnings about the list..."
Friday, October 15, 2004
The Last Debate:
William Rivers Pitt: Game. Set. Match.
Salon.com - The Cracks in Bush's Crown
Politicizing 9/11:
Thomas Friedman: Addicted to 9/11
"...The Bush team's responses to Mr. Kerry's musings are revealing because they go to the very heart of how much this administration has become addicted to 9/11. The president has exploited the terrorism issue for political ends - trying to make it into another wedge issue like abortion, guns or gay rights - to rally the Republican base and push his own political agenda. But it is precisely this exploitation of 9/11 that has gotten him and the country off-track, because it has not only created a wedge between Republicans and Democrats, it's also created a wedge between America and the rest of the world, between America and its own historical identity, and between the president and common sense.
By exploiting the emotions around 9/11, Mr. Bush took a far-right agenda on taxes, the environment and social issues - for which he had no electoral mandate - and drove it into a 9/12 world. In doing so, Mr. Bush made himself the most divisive and polarizing president in modern history.
By using 9/11 to justify launching a war in Iraq without U.N. support, Mr. Bush also created a huge wedge between America and the rest of the world. I sympathize with the president when he says he would never have gotten a U.N. consensus for a strategy of trying to get at the roots of terrorism by reshaping the Arab-Muslim regimes that foster it - starting with Iraq.
But in politicizing 9/11, Mr. Bush drove a wedge between himself and common sense when it came to implementing his Iraq strategy. After failing to find any W.M.D. in Iraq, he became so dependent on justifying the Iraq war as the response to 9/11 - a campaign to bring freedom and democracy to the Arab-Muslim world - that he refused to see reality in Iraq. The president seemed to be saying to himself, 'Something so good and right as getting rid of Saddam can't possibly be going so wrong.' Long after it was obvious to anyone who visited Iraq that we never had enough troops there to establish order, Mr. Bush simply ignored reality. When pressed on Iraq, he sought cover behind 9/11 and how it required 'tough decisions' - as if the tough decision to go to war in Iraq, in the name of 9/11, should make him immune to criticism over how he conducted the war.
Lastly, politicizing 9/11 put a wedge between us and our history. The Bush team has turned this country into 'The United States of Fighting Terrorism.' 'Bush only seems able to express our anger, not our hopes,' said the Mideast expert Stephen P. Cohen. 'His whole focus is on an America whose role in the world is to negate the negation of the terrorists. But America has always been about the affirmation of something positive. That is missing today. Beyond Afghanistan, they've been much better at destruction than construction.'..."
The November Election:
San Jose Mercury News / The Las Vegas Review-Journal: Republicans Destroy Democratic Voters' Registration Forms
Foreign Policy:
NY Times: A Doctrine Under Pressure: Pre-emption Is Redefined
"Under pressure to explain anew his decision to invade Iraq in light of a damaging report from the C.I.A.'s top weapons inspector, President Bush appears to be quietly redefining one of the signature philosophies of his administration - his doctrine of pre-emptive military action..."
UC Berkeley NewsCenter: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh spills the secrets of the Iraq quagmire and the war on terror
"The Iraq war is not winnable, a secret U.S. military unit has been 'disappearing' people since December 2001, and America has no idea how irreparably its torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has damaged its image in the Middle East. These were just a few of the grim pronouncements made by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour 'Sy' Hersh to KQED host Michael Krasny before a Berkeley audience on Friday night (Oct. 8)..."
Bush's War on the Environment:
Newsday: ERASING THE RULES, PART III -
A facelift at the EPA
"The Bush administration has committed itself to reshaping the EPA by staffing key regulatory posts with industry lobbyists and lawyers..."
William Rivers Pitt: Game. Set. Match.
Salon.com - The Cracks in Bush's Crown
Politicizing 9/11:
Thomas Friedman: Addicted to 9/11
"...The Bush team's responses to Mr. Kerry's musings are revealing because they go to the very heart of how much this administration has become addicted to 9/11. The president has exploited the terrorism issue for political ends - trying to make it into another wedge issue like abortion, guns or gay rights - to rally the Republican base and push his own political agenda. But it is precisely this exploitation of 9/11 that has gotten him and the country off-track, because it has not only created a wedge between Republicans and Democrats, it's also created a wedge between America and the rest of the world, between America and its own historical identity, and between the president and common sense.
By exploiting the emotions around 9/11, Mr. Bush took a far-right agenda on taxes, the environment and social issues - for which he had no electoral mandate - and drove it into a 9/12 world. In doing so, Mr. Bush made himself the most divisive and polarizing president in modern history.
By using 9/11 to justify launching a war in Iraq without U.N. support, Mr. Bush also created a huge wedge between America and the rest of the world. I sympathize with the president when he says he would never have gotten a U.N. consensus for a strategy of trying to get at the roots of terrorism by reshaping the Arab-Muslim regimes that foster it - starting with Iraq.
But in politicizing 9/11, Mr. Bush drove a wedge between himself and common sense when it came to implementing his Iraq strategy. After failing to find any W.M.D. in Iraq, he became so dependent on justifying the Iraq war as the response to 9/11 - a campaign to bring freedom and democracy to the Arab-Muslim world - that he refused to see reality in Iraq. The president seemed to be saying to himself, 'Something so good and right as getting rid of Saddam can't possibly be going so wrong.' Long after it was obvious to anyone who visited Iraq that we never had enough troops there to establish order, Mr. Bush simply ignored reality. When pressed on Iraq, he sought cover behind 9/11 and how it required 'tough decisions' - as if the tough decision to go to war in Iraq, in the name of 9/11, should make him immune to criticism over how he conducted the war.
Lastly, politicizing 9/11 put a wedge between us and our history. The Bush team has turned this country into 'The United States of Fighting Terrorism.' 'Bush only seems able to express our anger, not our hopes,' said the Mideast expert Stephen P. Cohen. 'His whole focus is on an America whose role in the world is to negate the negation of the terrorists. But America has always been about the affirmation of something positive. That is missing today. Beyond Afghanistan, they've been much better at destruction than construction.'..."
The November Election:
San Jose Mercury News / The Las Vegas Review-Journal: Republicans Destroy Democratic Voters' Registration Forms
Foreign Policy:
NY Times: A Doctrine Under Pressure: Pre-emption Is Redefined
"Under pressure to explain anew his decision to invade Iraq in light of a damaging report from the C.I.A.'s top weapons inspector, President Bush appears to be quietly redefining one of the signature philosophies of his administration - his doctrine of pre-emptive military action..."
UC Berkeley NewsCenter: Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh spills the secrets of the Iraq quagmire and the war on terror
"The Iraq war is not winnable, a secret U.S. military unit has been 'disappearing' people since December 2001, and America has no idea how irreparably its torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has damaged its image in the Middle East. These were just a few of the grim pronouncements made by Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour 'Sy' Hersh to KQED host Michael Krasny before a Berkeley audience on Friday night (Oct. 8)..."
Bush's War on the Environment:
Newsday: ERASING THE RULES, PART III -
A facelift at the EPA
"The Bush administration has committed itself to reshaping the EPA by staffing key regulatory posts with industry lobbyists and lawyers..."
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
The November Election:
Factcheck.org - Pro-Bush Puffery on Economy, Medicare"The ad by the pro-Bush group Progress for America Voter Fund claims the economy was already in a recession when Bush took office, but the National Bureau of Economic Research (which dates business cycles) says the recession actually began in March 2001, after Bush took office in January.
The facts also get stretched when the ad claims '41 million seniors now have access to lower cost prescriptions (emphasis added).' Bush's new prescription drug benefit will cover seniors on Medicare for an extra premium of about $35 a month, but not until 2006. Even the currently available drug discount cards have been used much less than expected. Current enrollment is less than 5 million..."
Center for American Progress: 100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From
"During a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted 'maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake].' But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. In the interest of assisting the President with this surprisingly difficult task we've compiled this list of 100 mistakes he has made since taking office..."
KLAS TV, Las Vegas: Democrat Registration Forms Trashed by RNC-Connected Firm
"Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations..."
Questioning the official version of 9/11 events in DC:
The Pentagon Farce
NOTE: This is a short SWF-format film, over 3.4 MB in size, that will fully download before playing (not recommended for modem users).
Factcheck.org - Pro-Bush Puffery on Economy, Medicare"The ad by the pro-Bush group Progress for America Voter Fund claims the economy was already in a recession when Bush took office, but the National Bureau of Economic Research (which dates business cycles) says the recession actually began in March 2001, after Bush took office in January.
The facts also get stretched when the ad claims '41 million seniors now have access to lower cost prescriptions (emphasis added).' Bush's new prescription drug benefit will cover seniors on Medicare for an extra premium of about $35 a month, but not until 2006. Even the currently available drug discount cards have been used much less than expected. Current enrollment is less than 5 million..."
Center for American Progress: 100 Mistakes for the President to Choose From
"During a prime time press conference on April 13, President Bush was asked to name a mistake that he has made since taking office and what he has learned from it. Bush, who was unable to answer the question, admitted 'maybe I'm not as quick on my feet as I should be in coming up with [a mistake].' But weeks later, Bush still hasn't answered the question. In the interest of assisting the President with this surprisingly difficult task we've compiled this list of 100 mistakes he has made since taking office..."
KLAS TV, Las Vegas: Democrat Registration Forms Trashed by RNC-Connected Firm
"Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations..."
Questioning the official version of 9/11 events in DC:
The Pentagon Farce
NOTE: This is a short SWF-format film, over 3.4 MB in size, that will fully download before playing (not recommended for modem users).
Iraq:
Naomi Klein: James Baker's Double Life
"When President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker III as his envoy on Iraq's debt on December 5, 2003, he called Baker's job 'a noble mission.' At the time, there was widespread concern about whether Baker's extensive business dealings in the Middle East would compromise that mission, which is to meet with heads of state and persuade them to forgive the debts owed to them by Iraq. Of particular concern was his relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake.
Until now, there has been no concrete evidence that Baker's loyalties are split, or that his power as Special Presidential Envoy--an unpaid position--has been used to benefit any of his corporate clients or employers. But according to documents obtained by The Nation, that is precisely what has happened. Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion investment from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker's influence as debt envoy being used as a crucial lever.
The secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group, the Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected firms. Under the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle..."
The Independent (UK) - The 45-minute claim was false
"Tony Blair's claim that Iraq was within 45 minutes of launching weapons of mass destruction - a central plank of his case for war - fell apart yesterday as the Foreign Secretary formally withdrew the infamous claim and revealed MI6 had abandoned its source for the bogus intelligence.
In a humiliating climbdown, Jack Straw told MPs in a special Commons statement that MI6 has severed ties with the sources for both the 45-minute claim and intelligence that Saddam Hussein had produced a biological weapons agent in 2000.
The decision to lay to rest the most notorious intelligence claim in the case for war increased pressure from Labour and opposition MPs for the Prime Minister to make a full personal apology for the decision to invade Iraq 'on a false premise'.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: 'The withdrawal of the 45-minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility.'
'The building blocks of the Government's case for military action are crumbling before our eyes,'..."
Iran:
Tom Barry: Is Iran Next?: The Pentagon neocons who brought you the war in Iraq have a new target
"...In the months after 9/11, rather than relying on the CIA, State Department or the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency for intelligence about Iraq’s ties to international terrorists and its development of weapons of mass destruction, neoconservatives in the Pentagon set up a special intelligence shop called the Office of Special Plans (OSP). The founders, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Feith, are fervent advocates of a regional restructuring in the Middle East that includes regime change in Iran, Syria and, ultimately, Saudi Arabia.
Not having its own intelligence-gathering infrastructure, Feith’s office relied on fabricated information supplied by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate who led the Iraqi National Congress (INC). In 1998, Chalabi’s group was funded by the Iraq Liberation Act, a congressional initiative that was backed by neoconservative institutions such as AIPAC, CSP, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
At the same time that Chalabi and other INC militants were visiting Feith’s office, so were Israeli officials, including generals, according to Lt. Col Karen Kwiakowski, who formerly worked in the Near East and South Asia office under Feith’s supervision. Like the neoconservatives in the United States, Israeli hardliners believe that Israel’s long-term security can best be ensured by a radical makeover of Middle East politics enforced by the superior military power of the United States and Israel.
It now appears that Feith’s Office of Policy, which was creating dubious intelligence rationales for the Iraq war, was also establishing a covert national security strategy for regime change in Iran—most likely through a combination of preemptive military strikes (either by the United States or Israel) and support for a coalition of Iranian dissidents..."
The November Election:
Paul Krugman: Checking the Facts, in Advance
"It's not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight lies or distortions you'll hear, and the truth about each..."
The Supreme Court:
Katha Pollitt: Bush's Court Picks: Be Afraid. Very Afraid.
"Democrats haven't made much of what would happen to the courts should Bush win a second term. This is curious, because you'll remember that the Gore campaign was virtually tattooed with the slogan 'Two words: Supreme Court.' Maybe the undecideds of Ohio don't know the President nominates judges, and nobody wants to tell them. After all, when you have a system in which the voters who matter most are the ones who know the least, care the least and pay the least attention, you're taking a risk if you give them too much information at once. They might explode! The conventional wisdom is that only college-educated liberals care about the courts, and they're already on board, but I wonder how true that is. What about those soccer moms, torn between tax cuts and abortion rights, or Arizona's Republican women, who are beginning to revolt against their party's hard-right turn, as Salon's Sidney Blumenthal recently reported? And is it wise to assume that everyone who cares already knows? A friend of mine recently met a Yale senior who supported Kerry, but not enough to register to vote; when she pointed out that Bush would have four years to pack the courts, the young genius acknowledged that this thought had never occurred to him..."
The Bush Administration's Civil Rights Record:
AP: Republicans Block Report on Bush Civil Rights Record
"The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted Friday to wait until after next month's election to discuss a report critical of the Bush administration's civil rights record. Republican members had objected to the report's timing. The report remains posted on the commission's Web site, however, despite objections from GOP commissioners who sought to get it removed.
'I think it's an unfair report, and I think it's a politically biased report, and I think its release at this time is politically motivated,' Commissioner Jennifer C. Braceras said after the commission voted to postpone discussion of the report until Nov. 12.
Another Republican commissioner, Abigail Thernstrom, said she was 'concerned about issuing a report that looked as if it was driven by an impending election,'..."
Bush's Environmental Policy:
Christopher D. Cook: Environmental Hogwash: The EPA works with factory farms to delay regulation of 'Extremely Hazardous Substances'
"...Across the country, thousands of these 'factory farms' - each warehousing thousands of tightly confined hogs, chickens or cows - produce potentially toxic air emissions. These fumes are the byproduct of 1.3 billion tons of waste created annually by the sprawling compounds, which are the top polluters of America’s waterways according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Despite this torrent of manure, and a growing number of lawsuits by sickened neighbors, 'there are essentially no pollution controls on these operations whatsoever,' says Sierra Club attorney Barclay Rogers. 'The environment is being wrecked by these operations.'
But the EPA isn’t ready to stanch this stench anytime soon. According to documents obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act request, the EPA has developed a voluntary air monitoring program in close collaboration with animal-industry groups such as the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the US Poultry and Egg Association. (The cattle industry chose not to participate.)
The plan, still being hashed out internally at the agency 'resolves [participating companies’] civil liability for potential violations' of federal clean air laws. In effect, this would mean a two-year amnesty from enforcement of the Clean Air Ac - as well as immunity from federal Superfund and environmental right-to-know laws. During this time, some of the nation’s largest pig and chicken facilities would gather air emissions data. Only later could they be penalized for exceeding the emmissions limits for ammonia and hydrogen sulfide..."
Naomi Klein: James Baker's Double Life
"When President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker III as his envoy on Iraq's debt on December 5, 2003, he called Baker's job 'a noble mission.' At the time, there was widespread concern about whether Baker's extensive business dealings in the Middle East would compromise that mission, which is to meet with heads of state and persuade them to forgive the debts owed to them by Iraq. Of particular concern was his relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake.
Until now, there has been no concrete evidence that Baker's loyalties are split, or that his power as Special Presidential Envoy--an unpaid position--has been used to benefit any of his corporate clients or employers. But according to documents obtained by The Nation, that is precisely what has happened. Carlyle has sought to secure an extraordinary $1 billion investment from the Kuwaiti government, with Baker's influence as debt envoy being used as a crucial lever.
The secret deal involves a complex transaction to transfer ownership of as much as $57 billion in unpaid Iraqi debts. The debts, now owed to the government of Kuwait, would be assigned to a foundation created and controlled by a consortium in which the key players are the Carlyle Group, the Albright Group (headed by another former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright) and several other well-connected firms. Under the deal, the government of Kuwait would also give the consortium $2 billion up front to invest in a private equity fund devised by the consortium, with half of it going to Carlyle..."
The Independent (UK) - The 45-minute claim was false
"Tony Blair's claim that Iraq was within 45 minutes of launching weapons of mass destruction - a central plank of his case for war - fell apart yesterday as the Foreign Secretary formally withdrew the infamous claim and revealed MI6 had abandoned its source for the bogus intelligence.
In a humiliating climbdown, Jack Straw told MPs in a special Commons statement that MI6 has severed ties with the sources for both the 45-minute claim and intelligence that Saddam Hussein had produced a biological weapons agent in 2000.
The decision to lay to rest the most notorious intelligence claim in the case for war increased pressure from Labour and opposition MPs for the Prime Minister to make a full personal apology for the decision to invade Iraq 'on a false premise'.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, said: 'The withdrawal of the 45-minute claim drives a horse and cart through government credibility.'
'The building blocks of the Government's case for military action are crumbling before our eyes,'..."
Iran:
Tom Barry: Is Iran Next?: The Pentagon neocons who brought you the war in Iraq have a new target
"...In the months after 9/11, rather than relying on the CIA, State Department or the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency for intelligence about Iraq’s ties to international terrorists and its development of weapons of mass destruction, neoconservatives in the Pentagon set up a special intelligence shop called the Office of Special Plans (OSP). The founders, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Feith, are fervent advocates of a regional restructuring in the Middle East that includes regime change in Iran, Syria and, ultimately, Saudi Arabia.
Not having its own intelligence-gathering infrastructure, Feith’s office relied on fabricated information supplied by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi expatriate who led the Iraqi National Congress (INC). In 1998, Chalabi’s group was funded by the Iraq Liberation Act, a congressional initiative that was backed by neoconservative institutions such as AIPAC, CSP, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
At the same time that Chalabi and other INC militants were visiting Feith’s office, so were Israeli officials, including generals, according to Lt. Col Karen Kwiakowski, who formerly worked in the Near East and South Asia office under Feith’s supervision. Like the neoconservatives in the United States, Israeli hardliners believe that Israel’s long-term security can best be ensured by a radical makeover of Middle East politics enforced by the superior military power of the United States and Israel.
It now appears that Feith’s Office of Policy, which was creating dubious intelligence rationales for the Iraq war, was also establishing a covert national security strategy for regime change in Iran—most likely through a combination of preemptive military strikes (either by the United States or Israel) and support for a coalition of Iranian dissidents..."
The November Election:
Paul Krugman: Checking the Facts, in Advance
"It's not hard to predict what President Bush, who sounds increasingly desperate, will say tomorrow. Here are eight lies or distortions you'll hear, and the truth about each..."
The Supreme Court:
Katha Pollitt: Bush's Court Picks: Be Afraid. Very Afraid.
"Democrats haven't made much of what would happen to the courts should Bush win a second term. This is curious, because you'll remember that the Gore campaign was virtually tattooed with the slogan 'Two words: Supreme Court.' Maybe the undecideds of Ohio don't know the President nominates judges, and nobody wants to tell them. After all, when you have a system in which the voters who matter most are the ones who know the least, care the least and pay the least attention, you're taking a risk if you give them too much information at once. They might explode! The conventional wisdom is that only college-educated liberals care about the courts, and they're already on board, but I wonder how true that is. What about those soccer moms, torn between tax cuts and abortion rights, or Arizona's Republican women, who are beginning to revolt against their party's hard-right turn, as Salon's Sidney Blumenthal recently reported? And is it wise to assume that everyone who cares already knows? A friend of mine recently met a Yale senior who supported Kerry, but not enough to register to vote; when she pointed out that Bush would have four years to pack the courts, the young genius acknowledged that this thought had never occurred to him..."
The Bush Administration's Civil Rights Record:
AP: Republicans Block Report on Bush Civil Rights Record
"The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted Friday to wait until after next month's election to discuss a report critical of the Bush administration's civil rights record. Republican members had objected to the report's timing. The report remains posted on the commission's Web site, however, despite objections from GOP commissioners who sought to get it removed.
'I think it's an unfair report, and I think it's a politically biased report, and I think its release at this time is politically motivated,' Commissioner Jennifer C. Braceras said after the commission voted to postpone discussion of the report until Nov. 12.
Another Republican commissioner, Abigail Thernstrom, said she was 'concerned about issuing a report that looked as if it was driven by an impending election,'..."
Bush's Environmental Policy:
Christopher D. Cook: Environmental Hogwash: The EPA works with factory farms to delay regulation of 'Extremely Hazardous Substances'
"...Across the country, thousands of these 'factory farms' - each warehousing thousands of tightly confined hogs, chickens or cows - produce potentially toxic air emissions. These fumes are the byproduct of 1.3 billion tons of waste created annually by the sprawling compounds, which are the top polluters of America’s waterways according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Despite this torrent of manure, and a growing number of lawsuits by sickened neighbors, 'there are essentially no pollution controls on these operations whatsoever,' says Sierra Club attorney Barclay Rogers. 'The environment is being wrecked by these operations.'
But the EPA isn’t ready to stanch this stench anytime soon. According to documents obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act request, the EPA has developed a voluntary air monitoring program in close collaboration with animal-industry groups such as the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the US Poultry and Egg Association. (The cattle industry chose not to participate.)
The plan, still being hashed out internally at the agency 'resolves [participating companies’] civil liability for potential violations' of federal clean air laws. In effect, this would mean a two-year amnesty from enforcement of the Clean Air Ac - as well as immunity from federal Superfund and environmental right-to-know laws. During this time, some of the nation’s largest pig and chicken facilities would gather air emissions data. Only later could they be penalized for exceeding the emmissions limits for ammonia and hydrogen sulfide..."
Monday, October 11, 2004
Again, Bush using pseudo-news to promote his agenda, and bullying the news media:
AP: Bush Ad Appears to Be News Story
"The Bush administration has promoted its education law with a video that comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter involved was paid with taxpayer money.
The government used a similar approach this year in promoting the new Medicare law and drew a rebuke from the investigative arm of Congress, which found the videos amounted to propaganda in violation of federal law.
The Education Department also has paid for rankings of newspaper coverage of the No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda. Points are awarded for stories that say President Bush and the Republican Party are strong on education, among other factors..."
The November Election:
AP: Dems Object to Airing of Anti-Kerry Film
"The Democratic Party and 18 senators are objecting to a broadcasting company's plan to air on 62 TV stations a critical documentary about John Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned home from Vietnam three decades ago.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has asked its television stations - many of them in competitive states in the presidential election - to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary as part of an hourlong program two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Based near Baltimore, the company owns or manages affiliates of major broadcast networks in several states, including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania..."
The Daily Telegraph (UK) - The CIA 'old guard' goes to war with Bush
"A powerful 'old guard' faction in the Central Intelligence Agency has launched an unprecedented campaign to undermine the Bush administration with a battery of damaging leaks and briefings about Iraq.
The White House is incensed by the increasingly public sniping from some senior intelligence officers who, it believes, are conducting a partisan operation to swing the election on November 2 in favour of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and against George W Bush.
Jim Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who retired as a departmental chief in August, said that he cannot recall a time of such 'viciousness and vindictiveness' in a battle between the White House and the agency..."
Lisa Chamberlain: GOP Dirty Tricks in Ohio?
Iraq & Afghanistan, Exhibits 'A' and 'B' for Bush Campaign:
Marjorie Cohn: Close Enough For Gov'mnt Work
"Officials in the Bush administration are singing in unison that the way to neutralize the terrorists is to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. They cite the election set for January 30 in Iraq, and yesterday's election in Afghanistan, as Exhibits A and B.
At the second presidential debate in St. Louis on Friday night, George W. Bush hailed the Afghan election as a 'marvelous thing,' claiming his rout of the Taliban set the table for the milestone in Afghanistan.
During the vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney tried to demonstrate his superior foreign policy acumen by drawing an analogy between the upcoming Afghan elections and those in El Salvador twenty years ago. Cheney claimed a 'guerrilla insurgency controlled roughly a third of the country, 75,000 people dead, and we held free elections.'
It is noteworthy that Cheney said 'we' held those elections, not the Salvadorans. The Salvadoran elections were as phony as a Yankee three-dollar bill. In fact, the United States - and Cheney as a Congressional election observer - was not supporting freedom in El Salvador at that time. Most of those killed were civilians murdered by the U.S.-backed junta and paramilitary 'death squads.' The Salvadoran elections were not free elections. Only conservatives and right-wing parties fielded candidates; the leftist politicians had been assassinated or driven underground..."
Iraq:
Scott Ritter: If you had seen what I have seen - The inspection process was rigged to create uncertainty over WMD to bolster the US and UK's case for war
"...We now know that Iraq's WMD were destroyed in 1991. The problem wasn't the weapons, but verification of Iraq's declarations. The standards of verification set by Duelfer-Blix were impossible for Iraq to meet, thus making closure on the 'cluster' issues also an unattainable goal. This situation answers the second point as well. Since the inspection process was pre-programmed to fail, there would be no way the US or the UK would accept any finding of compliance from the UN weapons inspectors. The inspection process was rigged to create uncertainty regarding Iraq's WMD, which was used by the US and the UK to bolster their case for war.
It appears that there was no way short of war to create an environment where a finding of Iraq's compliance with its obligation to disarm could be embraced by the US and British governments. The main reason for this was that the issue wasn't WMD per se, but Saddam. The true goal wasn't disarmament, but regime change. This, of course, clashed with the principles of international law set forth in the Security Council resolutions, voted on by the US and UK, and to which Saddam was ostensibly held to account. Economic sanctions, put in place by the UN in 1990 after Saddam's invasion of Iraq and continued in 1991, linked to Saddam's obligation to disarm, were designed to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's requirements. Saddam did disarm, but since two members of that Security Council - the US and the UK - were implementing unilateral policies of regime change as opposed to disarmament, this compliance could never be recognised..."
AP: Bush Ad Appears to Be News Story
"The Bush administration has promoted its education law with a video that comes across as a news story but fails to make clear the reporter involved was paid with taxpayer money.
The government used a similar approach this year in promoting the new Medicare law and drew a rebuke from the investigative arm of Congress, which found the videos amounted to propaganda in violation of federal law.
The Education Department also has paid for rankings of newspaper coverage of the No Child Left Behind law, a centerpiece of the president's domestic agenda. Points are awarded for stories that say President Bush and the Republican Party are strong on education, among other factors..."
The November Election:
AP: Dems Object to Airing of Anti-Kerry Film
"The Democratic Party and 18 senators are objecting to a broadcasting company's plan to air on 62 TV stations a critical documentary about John Kerry's anti-war activities after he returned home from Vietnam three decades ago.
Sinclair Broadcast Group has asked its television stations - many of them in competitive states in the presidential election - to pre-empt regular programming to run the documentary as part of an hourlong program two weeks before the Nov. 2 election.
Based near Baltimore, the company owns or manages affiliates of major broadcast networks in several states, including Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania..."
The Daily Telegraph (UK) - The CIA 'old guard' goes to war with Bush
"A powerful 'old guard' faction in the Central Intelligence Agency has launched an unprecedented campaign to undermine the Bush administration with a battery of damaging leaks and briefings about Iraq.
The White House is incensed by the increasingly public sniping from some senior intelligence officers who, it believes, are conducting a partisan operation to swing the election on November 2 in favour of John Kerry, the Democratic candidate, and against George W Bush.
Jim Pavitt, a 31-year CIA veteran who retired as a departmental chief in August, said that he cannot recall a time of such 'viciousness and vindictiveness' in a battle between the White House and the agency..."
Lisa Chamberlain: GOP Dirty Tricks in Ohio?
Iraq & Afghanistan, Exhibits 'A' and 'B' for Bush Campaign:
Marjorie Cohn: Close Enough For Gov'mnt Work
"Officials in the Bush administration are singing in unison that the way to neutralize the terrorists is to spread democracy throughout the Middle East. They cite the election set for January 30 in Iraq, and yesterday's election in Afghanistan, as Exhibits A and B.
At the second presidential debate in St. Louis on Friday night, George W. Bush hailed the Afghan election as a 'marvelous thing,' claiming his rout of the Taliban set the table for the milestone in Afghanistan.
During the vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney tried to demonstrate his superior foreign policy acumen by drawing an analogy between the upcoming Afghan elections and those in El Salvador twenty years ago. Cheney claimed a 'guerrilla insurgency controlled roughly a third of the country, 75,000 people dead, and we held free elections.'
It is noteworthy that Cheney said 'we' held those elections, not the Salvadorans. The Salvadoran elections were as phony as a Yankee three-dollar bill. In fact, the United States - and Cheney as a Congressional election observer - was not supporting freedom in El Salvador at that time. Most of those killed were civilians murdered by the U.S.-backed junta and paramilitary 'death squads.' The Salvadoran elections were not free elections. Only conservatives and right-wing parties fielded candidates; the leftist politicians had been assassinated or driven underground..."
Iraq:
Scott Ritter: If you had seen what I have seen - The inspection process was rigged to create uncertainty over WMD to bolster the US and UK's case for war
"...We now know that Iraq's WMD were destroyed in 1991. The problem wasn't the weapons, but verification of Iraq's declarations. The standards of verification set by Duelfer-Blix were impossible for Iraq to meet, thus making closure on the 'cluster' issues also an unattainable goal. This situation answers the second point as well. Since the inspection process was pre-programmed to fail, there would be no way the US or the UK would accept any finding of compliance from the UN weapons inspectors. The inspection process was rigged to create uncertainty regarding Iraq's WMD, which was used by the US and the UK to bolster their case for war.
It appears that there was no way short of war to create an environment where a finding of Iraq's compliance with its obligation to disarm could be embraced by the US and British governments. The main reason for this was that the issue wasn't WMD per se, but Saddam. The true goal wasn't disarmament, but regime change. This, of course, clashed with the principles of international law set forth in the Security Council resolutions, voted on by the US and UK, and to which Saddam was ostensibly held to account. Economic sanctions, put in place by the UN in 1990 after Saddam's invasion of Iraq and continued in 1991, linked to Saddam's obligation to disarm, were designed to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's requirements. Saddam did disarm, but since two members of that Security Council - the US and the UK - were implementing unilateral policies of regime change as opposed to disarmament, this compliance could never be recognised..."
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Iraq:
NY Times: Report Cites U.S. Profits in Sale of Iraqi Oil Under Hussein
"Major American oil companies and a Texas oil investor were among those who received lucrative vouchers that enabled them to buy Iraqi oil under the United Nations oil-for-food program, according to a report prepared by the chief arms inspector for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The 918-page report says that four American oil companies - Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil - and three individuals including Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. of Houston were given vouchers and got 111 million barrels of oil between them from 1996 to 2003. The vouchers allowed them to profit by selling the oil or the right to trade it..."
Eleanor Clift: Scorched-Earth Strategy
"The rationale for war in Iraq has collapsed, so President George W. Bush has declared another war, this one on John Kerry. Bush's blistering attack on Kerry as weak and wavering on war and the worst kind of tax-and-spend liberal foreshadows the next four weeks. Get ready for a scorched-earth campaign from the Bushies, beginning with tonight's debate in St. Louis.
Bush can't defend his policies, so he's conjuring up an image of Kerry as a looming threat whose 'strategy of defeat' and insistence on global cooperation would 'paralyze America in dangerous times.' The dirty little secret is that Bush, if elected, is more likely to pull out of Iraq once elections are held in January, while Kerry, with his commitment to international norms and behavior, would be inclined to stay the course with the assistance of the world community..."
Des Moines Register Editorial: Orwell goes to war
"We live in Orwellian times, where obvious falsehoods are asserted brazenly as the truth.
The day after the final report of the Iraq Survey Group confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no active programs to produce them, Vice President Dick Cheney blithely asserted that the report justified the invasion of Iraq.
No, Mr. Vice President, the report shattered the last forlorn hope that the war was necessary. It established that Iraq posed no threat to the United States before the 2003 invasion or any time in the foreseeable future.
President Bush, on the very day the report was issued, said, 'There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks.'
No, Mr. President, you don't seem to get it. Saddam had no weapons or materials to give. The chemical and biological weapons were destroyed years ago, and Iraq's capacity to develop nuclear weapons was actually deteriorating at the time of the invasion. Not to mention that Saddam had no meaningful ties with terrorists..."
The Independent (UK) - Pilots toast hit on Iraqi 'civilians'
"The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers whether he should 'take them out'. He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards, the footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. A second voice can be heard on the clip saying: 'Oh, dude.'
The existence of the video, taken last April inside the cockpit of a US F-16 fighter has been known for some time, though last night's broadcast by Channel 4 News is believed to be the first time a mainstream broadcaster has shown the footage.
At no point during the exchange between the pilot and controllers does anyone ask whether the Iraqis are armed or posing a threat. Critics say it proves war crimes are being committed."
The Debates:
William Rivers Pitt: The Scary Little Man
"George W. Bush, still smarting from his embarrassing performance in the Florida debate, decided on Friday night in St. Louis that volume was a good substitute for strength, that yelling would be mistaken for gravitas. The result was an ugly, disturbing, genuinely frightening show..."
Helen Thomas: Terror Fears Only Card Bush Has To Play
"Someday, President George W. Bush may have to explain why he really went to war against Iraq.
But you won't hear it with his re-election at stake and his credibility on the line.
Public opinion polls continue to show a tight presidential race, which suggests to me that voters have devalued the importance of credibility in top government officials.
How else can one make sense of the fact that the president continues to do well in the polls despite the total collapse of his credibility about the reasons for invading Iraq?
This credibility problem was on full display Tuesday night during the spirited debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, his Democratic rival.
During the 90-minute encounter, Cheney made it eminently clear that the administration has only one card to play in this campaign -- terrorism. By keeping the country scared, the administration hopes to be safely ensconced for another four years.
To his credit, Edwards quickly zeroed in on the administration's dishonest propaganda line that we invaded Iraq because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
These words that Edwards directed at Cheney should be emblazoned on every wall:
'Mr. Vice President, there is no connection between the attacks of Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein. The 9/11 commission has said it. Your secretary of state has said it. And you've gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There is not.'..."
Thomas Oliphant: Cheney's fading credibility
Afghanistan:
AP: Panel to Probe Fraud Claims in Afghan Vote
"An independent commission will probe claims by all 15 challengers to interim leader Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud, a top official said Sunday..."
Energy Policy:
The Boston Globe: Energy bill a special-interests triumph
"...A Globe analysis of tens of thousands of pages of lobbying records shows that entities with a stated interest in energy policy spent $387,830,286 lobbying Washington last year. They also paid tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to officials putting together the package at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The Globe analysis shows that the corporations and others, including some universities, were rewarded in the bill with tax breaks, construction projects, and easements of regulations that would save them much more than they spent making their arguments to the government..."
NY Times: Report Cites U.S. Profits in Sale of Iraqi Oil Under Hussein
"Major American oil companies and a Texas oil investor were among those who received lucrative vouchers that enabled them to buy Iraqi oil under the United Nations oil-for-food program, according to a report prepared by the chief arms inspector for the Central Intelligence Agency.
The 918-page report says that four American oil companies - Chevron, Mobil, Texaco and Bay Oil - and three individuals including Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. of Houston were given vouchers and got 111 million barrels of oil between them from 1996 to 2003. The vouchers allowed them to profit by selling the oil or the right to trade it..."
Eleanor Clift: Scorched-Earth Strategy
"The rationale for war in Iraq has collapsed, so President George W. Bush has declared another war, this one on John Kerry. Bush's blistering attack on Kerry as weak and wavering on war and the worst kind of tax-and-spend liberal foreshadows the next four weeks. Get ready for a scorched-earth campaign from the Bushies, beginning with tonight's debate in St. Louis.
Bush can't defend his policies, so he's conjuring up an image of Kerry as a looming threat whose 'strategy of defeat' and insistence on global cooperation would 'paralyze America in dangerous times.' The dirty little secret is that Bush, if elected, is more likely to pull out of Iraq once elections are held in January, while Kerry, with his commitment to international norms and behavior, would be inclined to stay the course with the assistance of the world community..."
Des Moines Register Editorial: Orwell goes to war
"We live in Orwellian times, where obvious falsehoods are asserted brazenly as the truth.
The day after the final report of the Iraq Survey Group confirmed that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction and no active programs to produce them, Vice President Dick Cheney blithely asserted that the report justified the invasion of Iraq.
No, Mr. Vice President, the report shattered the last forlorn hope that the war was necessary. It established that Iraq posed no threat to the United States before the 2003 invasion or any time in the foreseeable future.
President Bush, on the very day the report was issued, said, 'There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks.'
No, Mr. President, you don't seem to get it. Saddam had no weapons or materials to give. The chemical and biological weapons were destroyed years ago, and Iraq's capacity to develop nuclear weapons was actually deteriorating at the time of the invasion. Not to mention that Saddam had no meaningful ties with terrorists..."
The Independent (UK) - Pilots toast hit on Iraqi 'civilians'
"The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians.
The 30-second clip shows the pilot targeting the group of people in a street in the city of Fallujah and asking his mission controllers whether he should 'take them out'. He is told to do so and, shortly afterwards, the footage shows a huge explosion where the people were. A second voice can be heard on the clip saying: 'Oh, dude.'
The existence of the video, taken last April inside the cockpit of a US F-16 fighter has been known for some time, though last night's broadcast by Channel 4 News is believed to be the first time a mainstream broadcaster has shown the footage.
At no point during the exchange between the pilot and controllers does anyone ask whether the Iraqis are armed or posing a threat. Critics say it proves war crimes are being committed."
The Debates:
William Rivers Pitt: The Scary Little Man
"George W. Bush, still smarting from his embarrassing performance in the Florida debate, decided on Friday night in St. Louis that volume was a good substitute for strength, that yelling would be mistaken for gravitas. The result was an ugly, disturbing, genuinely frightening show..."
Helen Thomas: Terror Fears Only Card Bush Has To Play
"Someday, President George W. Bush may have to explain why he really went to war against Iraq.
But you won't hear it with his re-election at stake and his credibility on the line.
Public opinion polls continue to show a tight presidential race, which suggests to me that voters have devalued the importance of credibility in top government officials.
How else can one make sense of the fact that the president continues to do well in the polls despite the total collapse of his credibility about the reasons for invading Iraq?
This credibility problem was on full display Tuesday night during the spirited debate between Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards, his Democratic rival.
During the 90-minute encounter, Cheney made it eminently clear that the administration has only one card to play in this campaign -- terrorism. By keeping the country scared, the administration hopes to be safely ensconced for another four years.
To his credit, Edwards quickly zeroed in on the administration's dishonest propaganda line that we invaded Iraq because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
These words that Edwards directed at Cheney should be emblazoned on every wall:
'Mr. Vice President, there is no connection between the attacks of Sept. 11 and Saddam Hussein. The 9/11 commission has said it. Your secretary of state has said it. And you've gone around the country suggesting that there is some connection. There is not.'..."
Thomas Oliphant: Cheney's fading credibility
Afghanistan:
AP: Panel to Probe Fraud Claims in Afghan Vote
"An independent commission will probe claims by all 15 challengers to interim leader Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud, a top official said Sunday..."
Energy Policy:
The Boston Globe: Energy bill a special-interests triumph
"...A Globe analysis of tens of thousands of pages of lobbying records shows that entities with a stated interest in energy policy spent $387,830,286 lobbying Washington last year. They also paid tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions to officials putting together the package at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The Globe analysis shows that the corporations and others, including some universities, were rewarded in the bill with tax breaks, construction projects, and easements of regulations that would save them much more than they spent making their arguments to the government..."
Friday, October 08, 2004
VP Debate Facts:
FactCheck.org - Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts
"Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted 'for the war' and 'to commit the troops, to send them to war.' He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals.
Edwards falsely claimed the administration 'lobbied the Congress' to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, something the White House never supported, and he used misleading numbers about jobs..."
Capitol Ethics:
The Houston Chronicle: DeLay rebuked again for ethics violations
"For the second time in less than a week, the House ethics committee admonished Republican leader Tom DeLay late Wednesday for two more brushes with House rules.
The lawmaker from Sugar Land was cited for apparently linking political donations to legislation and for recruiting federal aviation officials to help search for Texas House members who fled Austin last year.
Action on a third allegation involving DeLay's political fund-raising practices was deferred until a criminal investigation under way in Austin runs its course.
The ethics committee's findings - prompted by complaints from Rep. Chris Bell, D-Houston - were outlined in a 44-page report recommending no further action against DeLay. The panel's top Republican and Democrat had examined the charges for three months..."
Iraq's Purported WMD's:
NY Times Editorial: The Verdict Is In
"Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked. That is the bottom line of the long-awaited report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, written by President Bush's handpicked investigator.
In the 18 months since President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, justifying the decision by saying that Saddam Hussein was 'a gathering threat' to the United States, Americans have come to realize that Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. But the report issued yesterday goes further. It says that Iraq had no factories to produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing more feeble every year. While Mr. Hussein retained dreams of someday getting back into the chemical warfare business, his chosen target was Iran, not the United States.
The report shows that the international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective. Mr. Hussein hoped to get out from under the sanctions, and the report's author, Charles Duelfer, loyally told Congress yesterday that he thought that could have happened. But his report said the Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons programs if it did..."
Israel - Palestine:
NY Times: Israeli Aide Hints That Gaza Exit Would Freeze Peace Plan
"Israel's proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is intended to put the issue of Palestinian statehood on indefinite hold, a close aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview that was published Wednesday and immediately stirred controversy.
The comments by the aide, Dov Weissglas, who frequently handles delicate diplomatic contacts with the Bush administration, drew sharp criticism from the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's office quickly put out a statement saying the prime minister was committed to the Middle East peace plan, known as the road map, which envisions Palestinian statehood sooner rather than later.
The State Department said it had sought clarification from the Israeli government and accepted Mr. Sharon's statement that he was supportive of the road map.
Mr. Sharon has himself dropped many hints that he is less than enthusiastic about the road map, which would require many concessions from Israel. In a recent newspaper interview, Mr. Sharon said Israel was not following the peace plan, which stalled amid violence shortly after it was introduced in June 2003..."
Former Bush Cheerleader Turns on Bush's Energy Policy:
Thomas Friedman: The Battle of the Pump
"Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.
Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism..."
FactCheck.org - Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts
"Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted 'for the war' and 'to commit the troops, to send them to war.' He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals.
Edwards falsely claimed the administration 'lobbied the Congress' to cut the combat pay of troops in Iraq, something the White House never supported, and he used misleading numbers about jobs..."
Capitol Ethics:
The Houston Chronicle: DeLay rebuked again for ethics violations
"For the second time in less than a week, the House ethics committee admonished Republican leader Tom DeLay late Wednesday for two more brushes with House rules.
The lawmaker from Sugar Land was cited for apparently linking political donations to legislation and for recruiting federal aviation officials to help search for Texas House members who fled Austin last year.
Action on a third allegation involving DeLay's political fund-raising practices was deferred until a criminal investigation under way in Austin runs its course.
The ethics committee's findings - prompted by complaints from Rep. Chris Bell, D-Houston - were outlined in a 44-page report recommending no further action against DeLay. The panel's top Republican and Democrat had examined the charges for three months..."
Iraq's Purported WMD's:
NY Times Editorial: The Verdict Is In
"Sanctions worked. Weapons inspectors worked. That is the bottom line of the long-awaited report on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, written by President Bush's handpicked investigator.
In the 18 months since President Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, justifying the decision by saying that Saddam Hussein was 'a gathering threat' to the United States, Americans have come to realize that Iraq had no chemical, nuclear or biological weapons. But the report issued yesterday goes further. It says that Iraq had no factories to produce illicit weapons and that its ability to resume production was growing more feeble every year. While Mr. Hussein retained dreams of someday getting back into the chemical warfare business, his chosen target was Iran, not the United States.
The report shows that the international sanctions that Mr. Bush dismissed and demeaned before the war - and still does - were astonishingly effective. Mr. Hussein hoped to get out from under the sanctions, and the report's author, Charles Duelfer, loyally told Congress yesterday that he thought that could have happened. But his report said the Iraqis lacked even a formal strategy or a plan to reconstitute their weapons programs if it did..."
Israel - Palestine:
NY Times: Israeli Aide Hints That Gaza Exit Would Freeze Peace Plan
"Israel's proposed withdrawal from the Gaza Strip is intended to put the issue of Palestinian statehood on indefinite hold, a close aide to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview that was published Wednesday and immediately stirred controversy.
The comments by the aide, Dov Weissglas, who frequently handles delicate diplomatic contacts with the Bush administration, drew sharp criticism from the Palestinians. Mr. Sharon's office quickly put out a statement saying the prime minister was committed to the Middle East peace plan, known as the road map, which envisions Palestinian statehood sooner rather than later.
The State Department said it had sought clarification from the Israeli government and accepted Mr. Sharon's statement that he was supportive of the road map.
Mr. Sharon has himself dropped many hints that he is less than enthusiastic about the road map, which would require many concessions from Israel. In a recent newspaper interview, Mr. Sharon said Israel was not following the peace plan, which stalled amid violence shortly after it was introduced in June 2003..."
Former Bush Cheerleader Turns on Bush's Energy Policy:
Thomas Friedman: The Battle of the Pump
"Of all the shortsighted policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, none have been worse than their opposition to energy conservation and a gasoline tax. If we had imposed a new gasoline tax after 9/11, demand would have been dampened and gas today would probably still be $2 a gallon. But instead of the extra dollar going to Saudi Arabia - where it ends up with mullahs who build madrasas that preach intolerance - that dollar would have gone to our own Treasury to pay down our own deficit and finance our own schools. In fact, the Bush energy policy should be called No Mullah Left Behind.
Our own No Child Left Behind program has not been fully financed because the tax revenue is not there. But thanks to the Bush-Cheney energy policy, No Mullah Left Behind has been fully financed and is now the gift that keeps on giving: terrorism..."
Thursday, October 07, 2004
Steve Weissman: Stop Thinking, and See What You're Told, Part II
The VP Debate:
William Rivers Pitt: Cheney's Avalanche of Lies
The VP Debate:
William Rivers Pitt: Cheney's Avalanche of Lies
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Energy Politics:
NY Times: Slow Learner on Energy-Efficiency Front
"In contrast to the United States, where oil consumption initially fell but then ended up rising by a total of 16 percent from 1973 to 2003, in France, despite some increase in recent years, oil use is still 10 percent lower today than it was three decades ago, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. (Germany also matched France's record.)
'Americans have completely abandoned their efforts at energy conservation over the past decade and have been incredibly care-free about oil consumption because they believed they would get access to cheap energy - through force if necessary,' said Pierre Terzian, an energy specialist who runs the Paris-based consulting firm PetroStrategies..."
Iraq's Non-Existant WMD's and the Causus Belli:
BBC News: Report concludes no WMD in Iraq
"The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed, not advanced, since the 1991 Gulf War.
However, the report, published on Wednesday, said Saddam Hussein clearly intended to resume production of banned weapons when UN sanctions were lifted.
US President George W Bush has again defended last year's invasion of Iraq.
Mr Bush, who is hoping to win re-election on 2 November, said the risk of Saddam Hussein passing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to terror groups was 'a risk we could not afford to take'.
Before the March 2003 invasion, the Bush administration cited WMD as the main reason for overthrowing the Iraqi regime, asserting that Saddam Hussein posed a serious and immediate threat.
But the chief US weapons inspector who headed the ISG, Charles Duelfer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq's WMDs were 'essentially' destroyed in 1991..."
NY Times: Slow Learner on Energy-Efficiency Front
"In contrast to the United States, where oil consumption initially fell but then ended up rising by a total of 16 percent from 1973 to 2003, in France, despite some increase in recent years, oil use is still 10 percent lower today than it was three decades ago, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. (Germany also matched France's record.)
'Americans have completely abandoned their efforts at energy conservation over the past decade and have been incredibly care-free about oil consumption because they believed they would get access to cheap energy - through force if necessary,' said Pierre Terzian, an energy specialist who runs the Paris-based consulting firm PetroStrategies..."
Iraq's Non-Existant WMD's and the Causus Belli:
BBC News: Report concludes no WMD in Iraq
"The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said Iraq's nuclear capability had decayed, not advanced, since the 1991 Gulf War.
However, the report, published on Wednesday, said Saddam Hussein clearly intended to resume production of banned weapons when UN sanctions were lifted.
US President George W Bush has again defended last year's invasion of Iraq.
Mr Bush, who is hoping to win re-election on 2 November, said the risk of Saddam Hussein passing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to terror groups was 'a risk we could not afford to take'.
Before the March 2003 invasion, the Bush administration cited WMD as the main reason for overthrowing the Iraqi regime, asserting that Saddam Hussein posed a serious and immediate threat.
But the chief US weapons inspector who headed the ISG, Charles Duelfer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Iraq's WMDs were 'essentially' destroyed in 1991..."
The Strongest NY Editorial Opinion on the Bush White House To Date?
New York Times Editorial: The Nuclear Bomb That Wasn't
Iraq:
Newsday: U.S. may be too quick to blame al-Zarqawi
"Whenever a car bombing, beheading or other spectacular act of violence takes place in Iraq these days, U.S. officials are quick to blame Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. If he hasn't already taken credit himself.
But according to an Arab intelligence assessment, al-Zarqawi is not capable of carrying out the level of attacks in Iraq that he has claimed and that American officials have blamed on him.
Al-Zarqawi's own militant group has fewer than 100 members inside Iraq, although al-Zarqawi has close ties to a Kurdish Islamist group with at least several hundred members, according to two reports produced by an Arab intelligence service. The Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, has provided dozens of recruits for suicide bombings since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the reports say. And while U.S. forces relentlessly pound the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Samarra, claiming to hit al-Zarqawi safe houses, the elusive militant could be hiding in the northern city of Mosul.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, 37, has used the media effectively to inflate his role in the Iraqi insurgency. In recent months, he and his supporters have claimed credit for scores of suicide bombings, attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners, and coordinated uprisings in several Iraqi cities.
The reports say al-Zarqawi is likely responsible for the beheadings of American contractor Nicholas Berg and several other foreigners. But the sheer level of other attacks that he has claimed is not consistent with the number of supporters he has inside Iraq and his ability to move around the country, according to the analysis. The reports say former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime are responsible -- either directly or by paying others to carry them out -- for many of the attacks, especially sophisticated roadside bombings and ambushes of U.S. troops..."
IHT: Poland sets pullout from Iraq in 2005
"In a surprise announcement, Poland said Monday that it would withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of 2005, leaving the U.S.-led multinational forces the task of finding replacements to fill a crucial security role in south-central Iraq.
Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Poland's defense minister, said in an interview with the daily Gazeta Wyborcza that the withdrawal of the 2,500 troops should coincide 'with the expiry of United Nations Resolution 1546 of the Security Council.' Once the troops are withdrawn, South Korea will be the third-largest contributor of soldiers to Iraq..."
The Debate:
Paul Krugman: The Falling Scales
"Last week President Bush found himself defending his record on national security without his usual protective cocoon of loyalty-tested audiences and cowed reporters. And the sound you heard was the scales' falling from millions of eyes..."
More Neoconservative (Mis)adventures Planned In 2nd Bush Term?
Anonymous (A veteran Foreign Service officer currently serving as a State Department official) - The State Department's Extreme Makeover
"Secretary of State Colin Powell is not staying for a second Bush term. When he goes, the last bulwark against complete neoconservative control of U.S. foreign policy goes with him. The implications are enormous, yet the American electorate appears to be blinded by the Bush campaign's deliberate manipulations of 9/11.
Powell has served both as the reasoned voice of career diplomats and the experienced voice of career U.S. military in the Bush administration. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored military advice and excluded Department of State career professionals from Iraq planning. Power was concentrated in the hands of a clique of neocon ideologues he placed in key policy positions, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. In the first term of George W. Bush, protégés of now disgraced former Defense Policy Board member and neocon godfather Richard Perle achieved control or subordination of every executive branch foreign-policymaking body - except the Department of State..."
Drinking Water Quality:
Washington Post: Lead Levels in Water Misrepresented Across U.S.
"Cities across the country are manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk of drinking more of the contaminant than their suppliers are reporting.
Some cities, including Philadelphia and Boston, have thrown out tests that show high readings or have avoided testing homes most likely to have lead, records show. In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those years, according to records.
The result is that communities large and small may have a false sense of security about the quality of their water and that utilities can avoid spending money to correct the problem..."
New York Times Editorial: The Nuclear Bomb That Wasn't
Iraq:
Newsday: U.S. may be too quick to blame al-Zarqawi
"Whenever a car bombing, beheading or other spectacular act of violence takes place in Iraq these days, U.S. officials are quick to blame Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. If he hasn't already taken credit himself.
But according to an Arab intelligence assessment, al-Zarqawi is not capable of carrying out the level of attacks in Iraq that he has claimed and that American officials have blamed on him.
Al-Zarqawi's own militant group has fewer than 100 members inside Iraq, although al-Zarqawi has close ties to a Kurdish Islamist group with at least several hundred members, according to two reports produced by an Arab intelligence service. The Kurdish group, Ansar al-Islam, has provided dozens of recruits for suicide bombings since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the reports say. And while U.S. forces relentlessly pound the insurgent strongholds of Fallujah and Samarra, claiming to hit al-Zarqawi safe houses, the elusive militant could be hiding in the northern city of Mosul.
The Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi, 37, has used the media effectively to inflate his role in the Iraqi insurgency. In recent months, he and his supporters have claimed credit for scores of suicide bombings, attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners, and coordinated uprisings in several Iraqi cities.
The reports say al-Zarqawi is likely responsible for the beheadings of American contractor Nicholas Berg and several other foreigners. But the sheer level of other attacks that he has claimed is not consistent with the number of supporters he has inside Iraq and his ability to move around the country, according to the analysis. The reports say former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime are responsible -- either directly or by paying others to carry them out -- for many of the attacks, especially sophisticated roadside bombings and ambushes of U.S. troops..."
IHT: Poland sets pullout from Iraq in 2005
"In a surprise announcement, Poland said Monday that it would withdraw its troops from Iraq by the end of 2005, leaving the U.S.-led multinational forces the task of finding replacements to fill a crucial security role in south-central Iraq.
Jerzy Szmajdzinski, Poland's defense minister, said in an interview with the daily Gazeta Wyborcza that the withdrawal of the 2,500 troops should coincide 'with the expiry of United Nations Resolution 1546 of the Security Council.' Once the troops are withdrawn, South Korea will be the third-largest contributor of soldiers to Iraq..."
The Debate:
Paul Krugman: The Falling Scales
"Last week President Bush found himself defending his record on national security without his usual protective cocoon of loyalty-tested audiences and cowed reporters. And the sound you heard was the scales' falling from millions of eyes..."
More Neoconservative (Mis)adventures Planned In 2nd Bush Term?
Anonymous (A veteran Foreign Service officer currently serving as a State Department official) - The State Department's Extreme Makeover
"Secretary of State Colin Powell is not staying for a second Bush term. When he goes, the last bulwark against complete neoconservative control of U.S. foreign policy goes with him. The implications are enormous, yet the American electorate appears to be blinded by the Bush campaign's deliberate manipulations of 9/11.
Powell has served both as the reasoned voice of career diplomats and the experienced voice of career U.S. military in the Bush administration. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored military advice and excluded Department of State career professionals from Iraq planning. Power was concentrated in the hands of a clique of neocon ideologues he placed in key policy positions, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. In the first term of George W. Bush, protégés of now disgraced former Defense Policy Board member and neocon godfather Richard Perle achieved control or subordination of every executive branch foreign-policymaking body - except the Department of State..."
Drinking Water Quality:
Washington Post: Lead Levels in Water Misrepresented Across U.S.
"Cities across the country are manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk of drinking more of the contaminant than their suppliers are reporting.
Some cities, including Philadelphia and Boston, have thrown out tests that show high readings or have avoided testing homes most likely to have lead, records show. In New York City, the nation's largest water provider has for the past three years assured its 9.3 million customers that its water was safe because the lead content fell below federal limits. But the city has withheld from regulators hundreds of test results that would have raised lead levels above the safety standard in two of those years, according to records.
The result is that communities large and small may have a false sense of security about the quality of their water and that utilities can avoid spending money to correct the problem..."
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Downstream from the sewage treatment plant...
Mutant fish prompt concern
"When Colorado biologist John Woodling and a team of researchers pulled fish from the South Platte River and Boulder Creek two years ago, they found deformities they'd never seen before.
Some had both male and female sex tissue.
The fish, white suckers native to Colorado, were swimming in the waters downstream of the Denver area's largest sewage plants.
And the team found something else: Females far outnumbered males in these wastewater soups.
'This is the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me,' said Woodling, 58, a retired fisheries biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife now working with the University of Colorado..."
Halliburton Paid Bribes in Nigeria under CEO Cheney
The Independent (UK) - How Cheney's firm routed $132m to Nigeria via Tottenham lawyer
"A lawyer, based in offices in a run-down part of north London, worked with three British executives from the US construc- tion group Halliburton to pay at least $132m (£73m) in 'unjustified' fees to contacts in Nigeria.
These payments, many of which occurred when Halliburton was being run by Dick Cheney, now the American Vice-President, helped a consortium including the US group to win a $12bn contract to build a gas terminal at Bonny Island in Nigeria..."
Iraq:
This is the honesty America needed before Bush's war of choice.
BBC: SecDef Rumsfeld Casts Doubt on Iraq-Al Qaeda Ties
"He was one of the chief architects of the Iraq war - and was characteristically outspoken in his support for a tough approach.
But he has now cast doubt on whether there was ever a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
'To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two,' he said."
The November Election:
Howard Dean: Environmental Policy Affects Health, Economy, Security
Mutant fish prompt concern
"When Colorado biologist John Woodling and a team of researchers pulled fish from the South Platte River and Boulder Creek two years ago, they found deformities they'd never seen before.
Some had both male and female sex tissue.
The fish, white suckers native to Colorado, were swimming in the waters downstream of the Denver area's largest sewage plants.
And the team found something else: Females far outnumbered males in these wastewater soups.
'This is the first thing that I've seen as a scientist that really scared me,' said Woodling, 58, a retired fisheries biologist with the Colorado Division of Wildlife now working with the University of Colorado..."
Halliburton Paid Bribes in Nigeria under CEO Cheney
The Independent (UK) - How Cheney's firm routed $132m to Nigeria via Tottenham lawyer
"A lawyer, based in offices in a run-down part of north London, worked with three British executives from the US construc- tion group Halliburton to pay at least $132m (£73m) in 'unjustified' fees to contacts in Nigeria.
These payments, many of which occurred when Halliburton was being run by Dick Cheney, now the American Vice-President, helped a consortium including the US group to win a $12bn contract to build a gas terminal at Bonny Island in Nigeria..."
Iraq:
This is the honesty America needed before Bush's war of choice.
BBC: SecDef Rumsfeld Casts Doubt on Iraq-Al Qaeda Ties
"He was one of the chief architects of the Iraq war - and was characteristically outspoken in his support for a tough approach.
But he has now cast doubt on whether there was ever a relationship between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda.
'To my knowledge, I have not seen any strong, hard evidence that links the two,' he said."
The November Election:
Howard Dean: Environmental Policy Affects Health, Economy, Security
Monday, October 04, 2004
Voting:
NY Times Editorial: More Troubles for Diebold
"Diebold, the much-criticized electronic voting machine company, got another black eye last week. A federal court in California ruled that it had violated federal law when it falsely charged two students with violating its copyrights by posting critical information about its voting machines on the Internet. The case raises more questions about Diebold's honesty and its commitment to transparency."
Mr. Friedman Surprises On Iraq:
Thomas Friedman: Iraq: Politics or Policy?
"...let's get right down to business: We're in trouble in Iraq.
I don't know what is salvageable there anymore. I hope it is something decent and I am certain we have to try our best to bring about elections and rebuild the Iraqi Army to give every chance for decency to emerge there. But here is the cold, hard truth: This war has been hugely mismanaged by this administration, in the face of clear advice to the contrary at every stage, and as a result the range of decent outcomes in Iraq has been narrowed and the tools we have to bring even those about are more limited than ever.
What happened? The Bush team got its doctrines mixed up: it applied the Powell Doctrine to the campaign against John Kerry - 'overwhelming force' without mercy, based on a strategy of shock and awe at the Republican convention, followed by a propaganda blitz that got its message across in every possible way, including through distortion...
...each time the Bush team had to choose between doing the right thing in the war on terrorism or siding with its political base and ideology, it chose its base and ideology. More troops or radically lower taxes? Lower taxes. Fire an evangelical Christian U.S. general who smears Islam in a speech while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army or not fire him so as not to anger the Christian right? Don't fire him. Apologize to the U.N. for not finding the W.M.D., and then make the case for why our allies should still join us in Iraq to establish a decent government there? Don't apologize - for anything - because Karl Rove says the 'base' won't like it. Impose a 'Patriot Tax' of 50 cents a gallon on gasoline to help pay for the war, shrink the deficit and reduce the amount of oil we consume so we send less money to Saudi Arabia? Never. Just tell Americans to go on guzzling. Fire the secretary of defense for the abuses at Abu Ghraib, to show the world how seriously we take this outrage - or do nothing? Do nothing. Firing Mr. Rumsfeld might upset conservatives. Listen to the C.I.A.? Only when it can confirm your ideology. When it disagrees - impugn it or ignore it..."
The November Election:
Marjorie Cohn: Kerry Hits Nail on Head
"John Kerry cut to the heart of the matter when he said during Thursday's debate with George W. Bush that, 'a critical component of success in Iraq is being able to convince the Iraqis and the Arab world that the United States doesn't have long-term designs on it.' Kerry cited the U.S. construction of 14 military bases in Iraq that are said to have 'a rather permanent concept to them.'
Building these bases belies Bush's protestations that he has 'no ambitions of empire.'
In fact, the neoconservative cabal that drives Bush's foreign policy has long advocated a strategy premised on worldwide U.S. military dominance. Their blueprint for aggressive war first appeared twelve years before George W. Bush tried to reassure the American people that his war on Iraq was not an imperialist endeavor.
Under the direction of Paul Wolfowitz, a 1992 draft of the Pentagon Defense Planning Guidance on post-Cold War Strategy explained, 'We must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.' The draft went on, 'Our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in [the Middle East and Southwest Asia] to preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil.' The neocons reiterated this policy in the September 2000 document of the Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century.
Bush and his minions began plotting how to remove Saddam Hussein from power as soon as Bush removed his hand from the Bible after Chief William Rehnquist swore him in as President, according to both former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former Anti-Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke. This was 8 months before the September 11 attacks - the date the 'war on terror' officially began.
After the U.S. attacked Iraq, Wolfowitz admitted to Vanity Fair in 2003 that weapons-of-mass-destruction was the agreed-upon 'bureaucratic excuse' for seizing that country. He also said it would allow the U.S. to pull its troops out of Saudi Arabia and base them in Iraq.
It is not surprising that Iraqis and people throughout the Arab and Muslim world see the United States as an imperialist invader and occupier..."
NY Times Editorial: More Troubles for Diebold
"Diebold, the much-criticized electronic voting machine company, got another black eye last week. A federal court in California ruled that it had violated federal law when it falsely charged two students with violating its copyrights by posting critical information about its voting machines on the Internet. The case raises more questions about Diebold's honesty and its commitment to transparency."
Mr. Friedman Surprises On Iraq:
Thomas Friedman: Iraq: Politics or Policy?
"...let's get right down to business: We're in trouble in Iraq.
I don't know what is salvageable there anymore. I hope it is something decent and I am certain we have to try our best to bring about elections and rebuild the Iraqi Army to give every chance for decency to emerge there. But here is the cold, hard truth: This war has been hugely mismanaged by this administration, in the face of clear advice to the contrary at every stage, and as a result the range of decent outcomes in Iraq has been narrowed and the tools we have to bring even those about are more limited than ever.
What happened? The Bush team got its doctrines mixed up: it applied the Powell Doctrine to the campaign against John Kerry - 'overwhelming force' without mercy, based on a strategy of shock and awe at the Republican convention, followed by a propaganda blitz that got its message across in every possible way, including through distortion...
...each time the Bush team had to choose between doing the right thing in the war on terrorism or siding with its political base and ideology, it chose its base and ideology. More troops or radically lower taxes? Lower taxes. Fire an evangelical Christian U.S. general who smears Islam in a speech while wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army or not fire him so as not to anger the Christian right? Don't fire him. Apologize to the U.N. for not finding the W.M.D., and then make the case for why our allies should still join us in Iraq to establish a decent government there? Don't apologize - for anything - because Karl Rove says the 'base' won't like it. Impose a 'Patriot Tax' of 50 cents a gallon on gasoline to help pay for the war, shrink the deficit and reduce the amount of oil we consume so we send less money to Saudi Arabia? Never. Just tell Americans to go on guzzling. Fire the secretary of defense for the abuses at Abu Ghraib, to show the world how seriously we take this outrage - or do nothing? Do nothing. Firing Mr. Rumsfeld might upset conservatives. Listen to the C.I.A.? Only when it can confirm your ideology. When it disagrees - impugn it or ignore it..."
The November Election:
Marjorie Cohn: Kerry Hits Nail on Head
"John Kerry cut to the heart of the matter when he said during Thursday's debate with George W. Bush that, 'a critical component of success in Iraq is being able to convince the Iraqis and the Arab world that the United States doesn't have long-term designs on it.' Kerry cited the U.S. construction of 14 military bases in Iraq that are said to have 'a rather permanent concept to them.'
Building these bases belies Bush's protestations that he has 'no ambitions of empire.'
In fact, the neoconservative cabal that drives Bush's foreign policy has long advocated a strategy premised on worldwide U.S. military dominance. Their blueprint for aggressive war first appeared twelve years before George W. Bush tried to reassure the American people that his war on Iraq was not an imperialist endeavor.
Under the direction of Paul Wolfowitz, a 1992 draft of the Pentagon Defense Planning Guidance on post-Cold War Strategy explained, 'We must maintain the mechanism for deterring potential competitors from even aspiring to a larger regional or global role.' The draft went on, 'Our overall objective is to remain the predominant outside power in [the Middle East and Southwest Asia] to preserve U.S. and Western access to the region's oil.' The neocons reiterated this policy in the September 2000 document of the Project for the New American Century, Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century.
Bush and his minions began plotting how to remove Saddam Hussein from power as soon as Bush removed his hand from the Bible after Chief William Rehnquist swore him in as President, according to both former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and former Anti-Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke. This was 8 months before the September 11 attacks - the date the 'war on terror' officially began.
After the U.S. attacked Iraq, Wolfowitz admitted to Vanity Fair in 2003 that weapons-of-mass-destruction was the agreed-upon 'bureaucratic excuse' for seizing that country. He also said it would allow the U.S. to pull its troops out of Saudi Arabia and base them in Iraq.
It is not surprising that Iraqis and people throughout the Arab and Muslim world see the United States as an imperialist invader and occupier..."
Sunday, October 03, 2004
The Rush to War in Iraq:
How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
"In 2002, at a crucial juncture on the path to war, senior members of the Bush administration gave a series of speeches and interviews in which they asserted that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program. Speaking to a group of Wyoming Republicans in September, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States now had 'irrefutable evidence' - thousands of tubes made of high-strength aluminum, tubes that the Bush administration said were destined for clandestine Iraqi uranium centrifuges, before some were seized at the behest of the United States.
Those tubes became a critical exhibit in the administration's brief against Iraq. As the only physical evidence the United States could brandish of Mr. Hussein's revived nuclear ambitions, they gave credibility to the apocalyptic imagery invoked by President Bush and his advisers. The tubes were 'only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,' Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, explained on CNN on Sept. 8, 2002. 'We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.'
But almost a year before, Ms. Rice's staff had been told that the government's foremost nuclear experts seriously doubted that the tubes were for nuclear weapons, according to four officials at the Central Intelligence Agency and two senior administration officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The experts, at the Energy Department, believed the tubes were likely intended for small artillery rockets.
The White House, though, embraced the disputed theory that the tubes were for nuclear centrifuges, an idea first championed in April 2001 by a junior analyst at the C.I.A. Senior nuclear scientists considered that notion implausible, yet in the months after 9/11, as the administration built a case for confronting Iraq, the centrifuge theory gained currency as it rose to the top of the government..."
The November Election:
Peter Beinart: Bush Tries to Shut Off Criticism on Iraq
"This column should not be necessary. A more decent president would not accuse his opponent of assisting terrorists and harming American troops merely because he criticizes U.S. policy. A more decent conservative movement would call such accusations anti-democratic, rather than mindlessly parroting them, as National Review Online's Jed Babbin did this week. But the president is who he is. And so are his supporters. And so, in response to John Kerry's increased criticism of U.S. policy in Iraq, Bush and his surrogates have essentially accused Democrats of helping insurgents kill American troops.
Dana Milbank, The Washington Post's invaluable White House correspondent, recently charted the rise of this grotesque talking point. Last Tuesday, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch told Fox News that Democrats were 'consistently saying things that I think undermine our young men and women who are serving over there.' The chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party recently said the state's Democratic senator, Tom Daschle, has brought 'comfort to America's enemies.' And Bush himself last week warned that Kerry's criticisms can 'embolden an enemy by sending mixed message[s].'
Bush's argument is stupid and repugnant. It's stupid because it involves unsupported assumptions about how the Iraqi insurgents think. Bush suggests that, when Kerry says America is losing in Iraq and must therefore change strategy, he makes America look irresolute - and thus emboldens the killers. But one could just as easily make the opposite argument. Perhaps the insurgents know America is losing. (If our intelligence agencies can figure it out, why can't they?) Maybe hearing Kerry call for a new strategy makes them fear America will fight the war more effectively - which disheartens them.
Republican Representative Tom Cole said in March, 'If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election.' But perhaps bin Laden - like his fellow murderers in Iraq - thinks Bush has been good for business. After all, as London's International Institute for Strategic Studies recently asserted, Al Qaeda recruitment has increased since the Iraq war. In his book, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke - who knows a lot more about bin Laden than Cole - imagines the terrorist kingpin desperately hoping America will invade Iraq and thus divert resources from the hunt for him. So maybe bin Laden would cast his absentee ballot for Bush, in the hopes of getting more of the same..."
Sidney Blumenthal: Retreat into a substitute reality
"After months of flawless execution in a well-orchestrated campaign, President Bush had to stand alone in an unpredictable debate. He had travelled the country, appearing before adoring pre-selected crowds, delivered a carefully crafted acceptance speech before his convention, and approved tens of millions of dollars in TV commercials to belittle his opponent. In the lead, Bush believed he had only to assert his superiority to end the contest once and for all.
But onstage the president ran out of talking points. Unable to explain the logic for his policies, or think on his feet, he was thrown back on the raw elements of his personality and leadership style.
Every time he was confronted with ambivalence, his impulse was to sweep it aside. He claimed he must be followed because he is the leader. Fate, in the form of September 11, had placed authority in his hands as a man of destiny. Scepticism, pragmatism and empiricism are enemies. Absolute faith prevails over open-ended reason, subjectivity over fact. Belief in belief is the ultimate sacrament of his political legitimacy.
In the split TV screen, how Bush felt was written all over his face. His grimaces exposed his irritation and anger at being challenged. Lacking intellectual stamina and repeating points as though on a feedback loop, he tried to close argument by assertion. With no one interrupting him, he protested, 'Let me finish' - a phrase he occasionally deploys to great effect before the cowed White House press corps..."
Paul Krugman: America's Lost Respect
" 'As a result of the American military,' President Bush declared last week, 'the Taliban is no longer in existence.'
It's unclear whether Mr. Bush misspoke, or whether he really is that clueless. But his claim was in keeping with his re-election strategy, demonstrated once again in last night's debate: a president who has done immense damage to America's position in the world hopes to brazen it out by claiming that failure is success.
Three years ago, the United States was both feared and respected: feared because of its military supremacy, respected because of its traditional commitment to democracy and the rule of law.
Since then, Iraq has demonstrated the limits of American military power, and has tied up much of that power in a grinding guerrilla war. This has emboldened regimes that pose a real threat. Three years ago, would North Korea have felt so free to trumpet its conversion of fuel rods into bombs?
But even more important is the loss of respect. After the official rationales for the Iraq war proved false, and after America failed to make good on its promise to foster democracy in either Afghanistan or Iraq - and, not least, after Abu Ghraib - the world no longer believes that we are the good guys..."
Energy Policy:
MSNBC: Refinery report becomes environmental hot potato"A government advisory panel has delayed releasing a report on ways to boost U.S. oil refining capacity, and one source familiar with the report attributed that to the Bush administration wanting to avoid a fight over environmental regulations before the national elections.
The report by the National Petroleum Council to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham had been scheduled for release on Thursday and was eagerly awaited by the oil industry, which saw U.S. crude oil prices hit a record $50.47 a barrel this week.
A spokeswoman for the panel, Carla Byrd, said the report would be delayed because Abraham had a scheduling conflict, as did some other members of the group, that forced this week's meeting to be canceled.
The panel's meeting will be rescheduled probably for the end of November and the report released at that time, Byrd said.
An Energy Department spokeswoman, Jeanne Lopatte, said the Nov. 2 election played no role in the delay. 'There's no big conspiracy here ... it's just a scheduling issue,' she said..."
RMI: U.S. Can Eliminate Oil Use in a Few Decades: "Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, a Pentagon-cofunded blueprint for making the United States oil-free. The plan outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness and boost profits by mobilizing modern technologies and smart business strategies to displace oil more cheaply than buying it..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
LA Times: Homeland Security Has No Viable Terrorist Watch List
"Three years after the lack of coordination among federal security agencies contributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has failed in its effort to create a single, comprehensive 'watch list' of suspected terrorists, according to a government report released Friday.
'DHS is not fulfilling its responsibility under the Homeland Security Act,' said Clark Kent Ervin, inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, whose office conducted the study.
The department's failure to produce a viable terrorist watch list stemmed primarily from a lack of leadership and intelligence agencies' continued failure to coordinate information, the report said.
Without a central database containing the latest information about possible terrorists, border guards and other security personnel are hard-pressed to do their jobs, experts say. The absence of the watch list and information-sharing among agencies has been cited as a major factor in the Sept. 11 attacks..."
LA Times: Defense Board: U.S. Military Is Stretched Too Thin
"The U.S. military lacks sufficient personnel to meet the nation's current war and peacekeeping demands throughout the world in coming years, despite steps being taken by the Army to stretch its ranks and increase the number of soldiers available for combat, according to a Pentagon advisory board.
The report by the Defense Science Board, a panel of outside advisors to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, argues that 'inadequate total numbers' of troops mean the United States can 'not sustain our current and projected global stabilization commitments.' Army initiatives to create more combat brigades out of its 10 active divisions are 'important, but partial, steps toward enhanced stabilization operations,' the panel said.
The report offers several options for easing the burdens on a military strained by missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them are adding substantial numbers of troops and scaling back the number of peacekeeping missions. The board did not specify troop numbers..."
Our Media: Lapdog or Watchdog?
LA Weekly: When Might Turns Right
"On any given day, the major TV networks rarely demonstrate good judgment, much less morality, when it comes to accepting a litany of nauseating advertisements. Hemorrhoid creams. Vaginal ointments. Erectile dysfunction. Army recruiting ads that portray war as a gee-whiz video game. KFC's claim that fried chicken is the new health food. And, lest we forget, Bud Light's farting horse during the Super Bowl.
But ads for the October 5 release of the new Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD?
Now that makes Big Media gag.
L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks' news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why..."
Ethics in Washington: Tom DeLay is treated with kid gloves...
Reuters: Ethics Panel Admonishes House Leader DeLay
"An ethics panel admonished U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday, saying he improperly offered to endorse a lawmaker's son in return for a vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill.
The House ethics committee said while the conduct 'could support a finding' that it violated the chamber's rules, it does not recommend further action against the Texas Republican..."
How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence
"In 2002, at a crucial juncture on the path to war, senior members of the Bush administration gave a series of speeches and interviews in which they asserted that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program. Speaking to a group of Wyoming Republicans in September, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States now had 'irrefutable evidence' - thousands of tubes made of high-strength aluminum, tubes that the Bush administration said were destined for clandestine Iraqi uranium centrifuges, before some were seized at the behest of the United States.
Those tubes became a critical exhibit in the administration's brief against Iraq. As the only physical evidence the United States could brandish of Mr. Hussein's revived nuclear ambitions, they gave credibility to the apocalyptic imagery invoked by President Bush and his advisers. The tubes were 'only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,' Condoleezza Rice, the president's national security adviser, explained on CNN on Sept. 8, 2002. 'We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.'
But almost a year before, Ms. Rice's staff had been told that the government's foremost nuclear experts seriously doubted that the tubes were for nuclear weapons, according to four officials at the Central Intelligence Agency and two senior administration officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The experts, at the Energy Department, believed the tubes were likely intended for small artillery rockets.
The White House, though, embraced the disputed theory that the tubes were for nuclear centrifuges, an idea first championed in April 2001 by a junior analyst at the C.I.A. Senior nuclear scientists considered that notion implausible, yet in the months after 9/11, as the administration built a case for confronting Iraq, the centrifuge theory gained currency as it rose to the top of the government..."
The November Election:
Peter Beinart: Bush Tries to Shut Off Criticism on Iraq
"This column should not be necessary. A more decent president would not accuse his opponent of assisting terrorists and harming American troops merely because he criticizes U.S. policy. A more decent conservative movement would call such accusations anti-democratic, rather than mindlessly parroting them, as National Review Online's Jed Babbin did this week. But the president is who he is. And so are his supporters. And so, in response to John Kerry's increased criticism of U.S. policy in Iraq, Bush and his surrogates have essentially accused Democrats of helping insurgents kill American troops.
Dana Milbank, The Washington Post's invaluable White House correspondent, recently charted the rise of this grotesque talking point. Last Tuesday, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch told Fox News that Democrats were 'consistently saying things that I think undermine our young men and women who are serving over there.' The chairman of the South Dakota Republican Party recently said the state's Democratic senator, Tom Daschle, has brought 'comfort to America's enemies.' And Bush himself last week warned that Kerry's criticisms can 'embolden an enemy by sending mixed message[s].'
Bush's argument is stupid and repugnant. It's stupid because it involves unsupported assumptions about how the Iraqi insurgents think. Bush suggests that, when Kerry says America is losing in Iraq and must therefore change strategy, he makes America look irresolute - and thus emboldens the killers. But one could just as easily make the opposite argument. Perhaps the insurgents know America is losing. (If our intelligence agencies can figure it out, why can't they?) Maybe hearing Kerry call for a new strategy makes them fear America will fight the war more effectively - which disheartens them.
Republican Representative Tom Cole said in March, 'If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election.' But perhaps bin Laden - like his fellow murderers in Iraq - thinks Bush has been good for business. After all, as London's International Institute for Strategic Studies recently asserted, Al Qaeda recruitment has increased since the Iraq war. In his book, former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke - who knows a lot more about bin Laden than Cole - imagines the terrorist kingpin desperately hoping America will invade Iraq and thus divert resources from the hunt for him. So maybe bin Laden would cast his absentee ballot for Bush, in the hopes of getting more of the same..."
Sidney Blumenthal: Retreat into a substitute reality
"After months of flawless execution in a well-orchestrated campaign, President Bush had to stand alone in an unpredictable debate. He had travelled the country, appearing before adoring pre-selected crowds, delivered a carefully crafted acceptance speech before his convention, and approved tens of millions of dollars in TV commercials to belittle his opponent. In the lead, Bush believed he had only to assert his superiority to end the contest once and for all.
But onstage the president ran out of talking points. Unable to explain the logic for his policies, or think on his feet, he was thrown back on the raw elements of his personality and leadership style.
Every time he was confronted with ambivalence, his impulse was to sweep it aside. He claimed he must be followed because he is the leader. Fate, in the form of September 11, had placed authority in his hands as a man of destiny. Scepticism, pragmatism and empiricism are enemies. Absolute faith prevails over open-ended reason, subjectivity over fact. Belief in belief is the ultimate sacrament of his political legitimacy.
In the split TV screen, how Bush felt was written all over his face. His grimaces exposed his irritation and anger at being challenged. Lacking intellectual stamina and repeating points as though on a feedback loop, he tried to close argument by assertion. With no one interrupting him, he protested, 'Let me finish' - a phrase he occasionally deploys to great effect before the cowed White House press corps..."
Paul Krugman: America's Lost Respect
" 'As a result of the American military,' President Bush declared last week, 'the Taliban is no longer in existence.'
It's unclear whether Mr. Bush misspoke, or whether he really is that clueless. But his claim was in keeping with his re-election strategy, demonstrated once again in last night's debate: a president who has done immense damage to America's position in the world hopes to brazen it out by claiming that failure is success.
Three years ago, the United States was both feared and respected: feared because of its military supremacy, respected because of its traditional commitment to democracy and the rule of law.
Since then, Iraq has demonstrated the limits of American military power, and has tied up much of that power in a grinding guerrilla war. This has emboldened regimes that pose a real threat. Three years ago, would North Korea have felt so free to trumpet its conversion of fuel rods into bombs?
But even more important is the loss of respect. After the official rationales for the Iraq war proved false, and after America failed to make good on its promise to foster democracy in either Afghanistan or Iraq - and, not least, after Abu Ghraib - the world no longer believes that we are the good guys..."
Energy Policy:
MSNBC: Refinery report becomes environmental hot potato"A government advisory panel has delayed releasing a report on ways to boost U.S. oil refining capacity, and one source familiar with the report attributed that to the Bush administration wanting to avoid a fight over environmental regulations before the national elections.
The report by the National Petroleum Council to Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham had been scheduled for release on Thursday and was eagerly awaited by the oil industry, which saw U.S. crude oil prices hit a record $50.47 a barrel this week.
A spokeswoman for the panel, Carla Byrd, said the report would be delayed because Abraham had a scheduling conflict, as did some other members of the group, that forced this week's meeting to be canceled.
The panel's meeting will be rescheduled probably for the end of November and the report released at that time, Byrd said.
An Energy Department spokeswoman, Jeanne Lopatte, said the Nov. 2 election played no role in the delay. 'There's no big conspiracy here ... it's just a scheduling issue,' she said..."
RMI: U.S. Can Eliminate Oil Use in a Few Decades: "Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security, a Pentagon-cofunded blueprint for making the United States oil-free. The plan outlines how American industry can restore competitiveness and boost profits by mobilizing modern technologies and smart business strategies to displace oil more cheaply than buying it..."
The So-Called War on Terror:
LA Times: Homeland Security Has No Viable Terrorist Watch List
"Three years after the lack of coordination among federal security agencies contributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has failed in its effort to create a single, comprehensive 'watch list' of suspected terrorists, according to a government report released Friday.
'DHS is not fulfilling its responsibility under the Homeland Security Act,' said Clark Kent Ervin, inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, whose office conducted the study.
The department's failure to produce a viable terrorist watch list stemmed primarily from a lack of leadership and intelligence agencies' continued failure to coordinate information, the report said.
Without a central database containing the latest information about possible terrorists, border guards and other security personnel are hard-pressed to do their jobs, experts say. The absence of the watch list and information-sharing among agencies has been cited as a major factor in the Sept. 11 attacks..."
LA Times: Defense Board: U.S. Military Is Stretched Too Thin
"The U.S. military lacks sufficient personnel to meet the nation's current war and peacekeeping demands throughout the world in coming years, despite steps being taken by the Army to stretch its ranks and increase the number of soldiers available for combat, according to a Pentagon advisory board.
The report by the Defense Science Board, a panel of outside advisors to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, argues that 'inadequate total numbers' of troops mean the United States can 'not sustain our current and projected global stabilization commitments.' Army initiatives to create more combat brigades out of its 10 active divisions are 'important, but partial, steps toward enhanced stabilization operations,' the panel said.
The report offers several options for easing the burdens on a military strained by missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among them are adding substantial numbers of troops and scaling back the number of peacekeeping missions. The board did not specify troop numbers..."
Our Media: Lapdog or Watchdog?
LA Weekly: When Might Turns Right
"On any given day, the major TV networks rarely demonstrate good judgment, much less morality, when it comes to accepting a litany of nauseating advertisements. Hemorrhoid creams. Vaginal ointments. Erectile dysfunction. Army recruiting ads that portray war as a gee-whiz video game. KFC's claim that fried chicken is the new health food. And, lest we forget, Bud Light's farting horse during the Super Bowl.
But ads for the October 5 release of the new Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD?
Now that makes Big Media gag.
L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks' news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why..."
Ethics in Washington: Tom DeLay is treated with kid gloves...
Reuters: Ethics Panel Admonishes House Leader DeLay
"An ethics panel admonished U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom DeLay on Thursday, saying he improperly offered to endorse a lawmaker's son in return for a vote on a Medicare prescription drug bill.
The House ethics committee said while the conduct 'could support a finding' that it violated the chamber's rules, it does not recommend further action against the Texas Republican..."
