MARCH 10-1, 02 Archives

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Libertarian Candidate for Governor Speaks Out on FBI Shooting in Maryland ANNAPOLIS, Md., March 10 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Libertarian nominee for Governor Spear Lancaster spoke out in the wake of the shooting of an innocent civilian by an FBI agent last weekend. The following are quotes from his statement: "Where is the outrage? It is absolutely astounding to know that agents of the federal government can shoot and terrorize innocent civilians, and be given a pass by the politicians elected to represent those citizens. "I am outraged and horrified at this unjustified overreaching by federal law enforcement. As a 68-year-old resident of this state, I have lived through the depression, several wars, and several disease epidemics, but this is more terrifying. "When the Founding Fathers established this country, they limited the scope of the federal government, and did so for a good reason: they knew humans were bound eventually to abuse their power. "There is no provision in the U.S. Constitution for federal agents to engage in this kind of behavior. Let's get back to the Constitution. Let's have no more terror, and no more shooting of innocent civilians by agents of the national government."  usnewswire.com

FBI Apologizes for Shooting Mistake
Wed Mar 6, By STEPHEN MANNING, AP WOODLAWN, Md. - The FBI apologized Wednesday for shooting an unarmed man during a search for a bank robber. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized statements by an anonymous FBI official to The Washington Post saying the victim made a "threatening" move before he was shot. Joseph Schultz, 20, was wounded by an agent with a rifle Friday after the car his girlfriend was driving was pulled over in Pasadena, about 12 miles south of Baltimore. His attorney said Schultz may have been shot while reaching for his seat belt after he was ordered from the car. Schultz remained hospitalized Wednesday in serious condition with a shattered right cheek and jaw. The car Schultz was riding in was similar to the one FBI agents were pursuing in connection with the robbery. Schultz and his girlfriend also bore resemblance to the suspect and his companion. After the shooting, agents pulled Schultz and his girlfriend from the car and handcuffed them before calling a helicopter to take him to the hospital. The alleged bank robber was captured Sunday. yahoo.com

U.S. Works Up Plan for Using Nuclear Arms March 9, 2002 - Bush Administration, in a secret report, calls for a strategy against at least seven nations: China, Russia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria. By PAUL RICHTER, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration has directed the military to prepare contingency plans to use nuclear weapons against at least seven countries and to build smaller nuclear weapons for use in certain battlefield situations, according to a classified Pentagon report obtained by the Los Angeles Times. The secret report, which was provided to Congress on Jan. 8, says the Pentagon needs to be prepared to use nuclear weapons against China, Russia, Iraq, North Korea, Iran, Libya and Syria. It says the weapons could be used in three types of situations: against targets able to withstand nonnuclear attack; in retaliation for attack with nuclear, biological or chemical weapons; or "in the event of surprising military developments." latimes.com

Bush To America: Mind Yer Own Business By David  Corn 3/9/2002 Every so often, our elected leaders -- or somewhat elected leaders -- get something exactly wrong. Consider the Bush White House's over-our-dead-bodies refusal to release records on Vice-President Dick Cheney's energy task force to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Democrats and Republicans across town have been saying for weeks this is a boner of a move -- from a political vantage. It makes the White House looks guilty, and it continues to draw attention to the Bush-Enron connection. There's no one in the capital -- outside of the White House -- who believes this information won't pop out sooner or later. athena.tbwt.com

Concord Coalition Warns That New Tax Breaks Amount To 'Open Season' On The Budget WASHINGTON, March 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Concord Coalition said today that an expensive, three-year, thirty percent special depreciation allowance in the economic stimulus bill passed by the House and Senate will do very little to provide short-term stimulus but will make it more difficult to achieve a balanced budget after the economy recovers. "Unfortunately, the main effect of this so-called 'stimulus' provision is to signal that it is now open season on the Federal budget. It will be much harder to hold the line on appropriations or anything else after giving away nearly $100 billion on something as dubious as this," said Robert Bixby, executive director of The Concord Coalition. usnewswire.com

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis -  March 8 - Sinclair Lewis wrote his now famous satirical political novel and in 1935 became the first American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sinclair Lewis asked the question - what if an extremist right wing politician used a presidential election to make himself into a dictator? The hero, Doremus Jessup, a small-town newspaper editor in Vermont struggles with the new government’s attempts to censor his newspaper and ends up in a concentration camp. Buzz Windrip, the self-made dictator and one-time senator, rules America with the same cruel tactics he had practiced in his own state. The main ally of the fictional dictator is Bishop Peter Paul Prang, a popular right wing radio minnister who endorses Buzz Windrip’s campaign. Doremus Jessup for all his moderation in trying to get along with the right-wing dictatorship, finds himself part of the resistance movement. He blames himself because he did not take Buzz Windrip more seriously when there was still a chance to stop him. editor, thepeoplesvoice.org

AAPS: Unlimited Forced Drugging OK'd By Court; Physician Group Calls Ruling 'Shocking & Inhumane' WASHINGTON, March 8 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Defendants can be forcibly drugged even though they haven't been convicted of any charges and pose no danger to themselves or others. That's the ruling issued yesterday by the Federal Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the case of United States vs. Charles Thomas Sell. (see uscourts pdf) The 2-1 split decision establishes government power to forcibly medicate a person with mind-altering drugs even before trial. "It's a shocking, inhumane decision. Now, all the government needs are allegations and a cooperative psychiatrist to forcibly drug any citizen," said Andrew Schlafly, general counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS). That group filed an amicus brief opposing the government drugging. "It's unprecedented to allow prosecutors to drug peaceful defendants presumed to be innocent. Government cannot force citizens to pledge allegiance to the flag, but now can forcibly medicate them with mind-altering drugs," said Schlafly. usnewswire.com

Bernhard Criticises Bush Friday, 8th March 2002 - Sandra Bernhard, the talk show host and performer, has hit out at president George Bush. She told the Washington Post that the president’s track record is “Pretty dismal and pretty scary." Bernhard continued: “I think Bush is amateurish and self-serving, and frankly it`s disgusting. I think everybody is covering their asses with the Enron scandal and it was very convenient that 11 September came along to deflect the fact that they should never have been in the White House in the first place. What happened in the election was completely corrupt." She went on to deny that she was out of touch with what most Americans thought. Bernhard said: "I`m an intelligent person from America. I was born in Michigan and raised in Arizona, and while I do reside in New York, I travel the country extensively. Any thinking person who lives in the world would be disturbed at what`s going on right now.” rainbownetwork.com

George's journey makes the big screen Friday March 8, 2002 March 8, 2002 Julian Borger in Washington Now that he has evolved into a steely-eyed, firm-jawed wartime leader, it is sometimes hard to recall the callow and goofy figure that George Bush cut on the campaign trail. But today, at the height of his popularity, a ghost of his pre-presidential whimsy will come back to haunt him. A new documentary film made about a year on the Bush campaign trail shows the candidate with his guard down, playing the impish schoolboy with journalists at the back of his plane. News of the film, which has its premiere today at a Texas film festival, sent the White House into a fit of damage limitation. guardian

NLC: Poll Shows 4 in 5 Cities Oppose Bush Budget Cuts to Local Programs
WASHINGTON, March 7 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The National League of Cities (NLC) today released a poll of 180 cities that showed cities oppose key parts of the proposed Bush budget. Four out of five (80 percent) of the surveyed officials believe budget items in four key areas will have a net negative effect on their communities. The four budget categories are homeland security, local law enforcement, transportation, and water infrastructure. Nine percent said the changes would have a net positive effect and 11 percent said the effect would be "no change." usnewswire.com

Vote on Bush Nominee Pickering Delayed Mar. 07, 2002(Reuters) - With President Bush facing his first defeat over a judicial nomination, the Senate Judiciary Committee's top Republican on Thursday postponed a vote on Charles Pickering, saying liberal groups had subjected the conservative to a ``lynching.'' But lawmakers said they do not expect the one-week delay to change the likely outcome: Rejection of Bush's bid to elevate Pickering, a veteran federal judge in Mississippi, to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Opponents, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Planned Parenthood, have attacked his record on civil rights and abortion rights, saying he is too conservative and puts personal views above the law. tallahassee.com

"The poor's sense of class superiority over the rich is getting out of hand," said extremist right wing pundit Ann Coulter, but some motivated by logic compassion and a love for their country disagree. The Following is a statement by Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund: "The President says his welfare reform plan is all about getting more parents working but his plan doesn't invest in the supports low-income families need to get and keep a job, such as child care, education, training, and transportation. Right now only one in seven children who is eligible for federal child care assistance gets it. "We think the President's plan misses the opportunity to provide real help for families struggling to get off welfare and into the workforce. "The President's plan does not take into account: -- how many new workers are losing jobs because of the recession. -- that half of the families who have left welfare for work earn below poverty wages. "Families have proven they want to work -- but the President is not offering any support to help them lift themselves out of poverty. We hope the President will put his money where his words are and invest in doubling the number of children able to get child care when their parents work through the Child Care and Development Block Grant. And we're disappointed the President does not provide for one additional child to get a Head Start next year. "We hope he will reconsider. Children can't eat promises. His welfare plan will leave millions of children behind, not ready for school and in unsafe child care when their parents work. We can do better." usnewswire.com

Bush plans jobs paying less than minimum Wage - Part of push to tighten rules on welfare workers  March 6, 2002 Washington -- The Bush administration is moving to allow states to place welfare recipients in jobs that pay less than minimum wage -- a reversal of federal policy that is sparking ire among advocates for the poor. The White House proposes that such cut-rate jobs could take the form of supervised community service. The Bush administration has concluded that this "supervised work experience" does not amount to a real-world job and should not be governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets the national minimum wage at $5.15 an hour. sfgate.com

Earthjustice: EPA Violates Clean Air Act; Agency Attempts to Delay Public Health Protections WASHINGTON, March 6 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by Earthjustice: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved regulations yesterday that violate a key provision of the Clean Air Act. The agency's action will prolong and increase the public's exposure to hazardous air pollutants -- chemicals such as dioxins, mercury, and PCBs that, even in minute quantities, can cause cancer, birth defects, reproductive disorders, and other similarly devastating diseases. "Once again the Bush administration is paying back its friends at the expense of public health," said James Pew of Earthjustice. usnewswire.com

The Twilight Zone, Otherwise Known As George Bush's America 3/6/2002 By Cong. Cynthia  McKinneyMs. McKINNEY  I am worried about what is happening to our great country today. I fear that many of us cannot see what is happening here. Maybe we are too close. Maybe there are even people who do not want us to see; but our friends and allies in Europe and elsewhere are reporting that they are seeing disturbing developments in our country, like the fading of our fundamental constitutional rights, the creation of a war machine that threatens world peace, the spending of a generation of Americans on this war on terrorism, and even an attack on truth in government by forming the Office of Strategic Influence to lie to us and to the rest of the world. The President even asked Hollywood to make these developments palatable to the American people. With this as a backdrop, I would just like to ask that Members close their eyes and imagine being drawn deeper and deeper into black space. You unlock this door with the key of understanding. Beyond it is another dimension, a dimension of hearing that which is not spoken, a dimension of seeing that which is invisible, a dimension of reading that which is not written. We are moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. Welcome. We just crossed over into the Twilight Zone, otherwise known as George Bush's America. For it is here and only here that the White House could receive warning after warning of massive attacks that were going to take place on American soil, the attack happens, and both the President and the Vice President, in separate phone calls to TOM DASCHLE, ask that Congress not investigate what happened and why. That could only happen in the Twilight Zone. athena.tbwt.com

Appeals court overturns New York police torture convictions 6 March 2002 By Bill Vann A federal appeals court on February 28 overturned the convictions of three out of the four cops found guilty in the 1997 stationhouse torture of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. The stunning decision provoked outrage in New York City’s minority and working class communities alongside claims of vindication from the police officers themselves and their union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association. The decision has in no way, however, called into question the essential facts of the case, nor its broader social significance. The three-judge panel made it clear that it was offering no opinion on the guilt or innocence of the three police officers implicated in the savage assault carried out against Louima in the 70th Precinct stationhouse bathroom in Brooklyn in the early hours of August 9, 1997. Earlier that night, Louima had challenged the authority of cops who had knocked a man to the ground and threatened to beat a pregnant woman while attempting to disperse a crowd outside a Haitian nightclub in Brooklyn’s East Flatbush section. He was grabbed by the cops and beaten inside a patrol car before being taken to the stationhouse. Once there he was marched to the bathroom, his pants around his ankles in front of dozens of police officers. Inside the bathroom, Police Officer Justin Volpe took a broken piece of broomstick and rammed it into Louima’s rectum, causing serious and permanent internal injuries. wsws.org

Bush Should Lay Off Social Security Issue March 5, 2002 GEORGE W. Bush is now pushing Social Security reform-or, as he calls it, "retirement security." That word choice suggests where the president is headed: away from the traditional idea of a public pension program and toward a new idea of a semi-privatized system. "I want America to be an ownership society," he said at the National Summit on Retirement Savings last week. newsday.com

Gephardt Special Order Statement on Social Security WASHINGTON, March 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a Special Order Statement on Social Security by House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt: (As Delivered on the Floor of the House) "Mr. Speaker: I rise to urge a full and fair debate on Social Security. "Three months ago, the President's Commission issued a report. It called for sweeping changes to the Social Security system. It called for the creation of private accounts. It called for three plans to meet these goals. "Then last week, in a speech to the Cato Institute, the Majority leader urged a debate on this issue. He urged us to reform Social Security. He urged us to privatize Social Security. And the President of the United States argued the same in speeches also delivered last week. "Yet in Congress, Republicans are refusing to have that full and fair debate on their schemes of privatization. Do they have something to hide? usnewswire.com

Bush administration is obstructing our right to know TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES Mar. 05, 2002 The war has moved into a new phase: It's David Walker and the War on the Public's Right to Know. Walker is the comptroller general of the United States. His foe is the vice president of the United States. Their battleground is government accountability versus the Bush administration's desire to keep secrets. Of course, to hear the White House spin it, this unprecedented legal showdown between the legislative and executive branches - prompted by the recent filing by the General Accounting Office - isn't really about lifting the veil on the energy industry's influence over the administration's regressive energy policy. It's about protecting freedom, liberty, the Constitution, motherhood, puppies and everything good. tallahassee.com

Judge Sets Timetable for Cheney March 5, 2002 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON (AP) -- A federal judge Tuesday rebuffed the Bush administration on a lawsuit concerning Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force and ordered half a dozen federal agencies to release records within the next two months. Ruling in a case filed nearly a year ago, U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said the Bush administration has had sufficient time to collect thousands of pages of material from its files. Also covered by Friedman's order is the White House Office of Management and Budget. nytimes.com

White House's slow pace on records stirs frustrations Mar. 04, 2002 Washington Post Service The federal judge who ordered the Bush administration to turn over some records related to Vice President Cheney's energy task force wondered ''what in the world'' the Energy Department was doing, acting at such a ''glacial pace'' in response to Freedom of Information Act requests. ''The government can offer no legal or practical excuse for its excessive delay,'' Judge Gladys Kessler of the U.S. District Court in Washington wrote in an order made public on Wednesday. But while Kessler expressed amazement at the Energy Department's response to information requests under FOIA, the 36-year-old cornerstone law for government transparency, the reluctance to provide information has become routine throughout the administration, liberal and conservative public interest groups say. Kessler's order, they say, reflects a growing frustration with the information control tactics used by the Bush administration. They say it is a gathering trend, fed by, but not rooted in, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. miami.com

Daschle irked Congress was kept in dark Bush should have told leaders of 'shadow government,' he says   March 4, 2002 Washington -- The Senate's leading Democrat chastised the Bush administration yesterday for not informing Congress about a "shadow government" that the White House set up after Sept. 11 in case of a catastrophic attack on the nation's capital. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., raised questions after a Washington Post report last week that the administration has dispatched about 100 senior civilian managers to live and work at two fortified secret locations on the East Coast. White House officials were motivated by fear that al Qaeda terrorists might try to explode a nuclear bomb in Washington. sfgate.com

Bush Is Withholding War Information, Daschle Says March 4, 2002 By AARON ZITNER, TIMES STAFF WRITER - THE NATION WASHINGTON -- President Bush has not been forthcoming about progress in the war on terrorism or about a "secret government" operating since Sept. 11, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said Sunday. As a result, lawmakers are finding it difficult to carry out their constitutional duties of approving money for the war and providing oversight of the executive branch, he said. latimes.com March 4, 2002 By AARON ZITNER, TIMES STAFF WRITER - THE NATION WASHINGTON -- President Bush has not been forthcoming about progress in the war on terrorism or about a "secret government" operating since Sept. 11, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said Sunday. As a result, lawmakers are finding it difficult to carry out their constitutional duties of approving money for the war and providing oversight of the executive branch, he said. latimes.com

Bush: "U.S. should prepare for more casualties" Bush:"From the beginning of this, I have cautioned the American people that this is going to take a while." March 4, 2002 Posted: 7:24 PM EST (0024 GMT) EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota (CNN) -- EDEN PRAIRIE, Minnesota (CNN) -- President Bush said Monday he was saddened by the death of at least eight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, but said the nation should expect more military operations in Afghanistan and prepare itself for more casualties. "Obviously I'm saddened by the loss of life," Bush said here during a trip designed to highlight White House education reforms as well as raise money for Minnesota Republicans. cnn.com

Daschle: Congress won't 'rubber-stamp' Bush March 3, 2002 WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Declaring it was not the job of Congress to "rubber-stamp" the president's priorities, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle insisted Sunday that the Bush administration must keep Congress better informed of its plans for the war on terrorism. "We need to support our troops," Daschle said on NBC's "Meet the Press" in a joint appearance with Minority Leader Trent Lott. "They've done an outstanding job, but we also have to ask the right questions. "That is the role of Congress. We're a co-equal branch of government, and I don't think we ought to rubber-stamp any president." Similar comments from Daschle last week raised the ire of several Republicans. He was defended Sunday by fellow Democrats and one prominent Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona. cnn.com

Bush Uses Own Brand of Math on Social Security March 2, 2002 By EDWARD WYATT In promoting the benefits of his proposal to overhaul Social Security, President Bush adopted an example this week that few financial planners would be likely to embrace, and one that more than doubles the potential of the recommendations of his own commission on Social Security. In an address on Thursday to the National Summit on Retirement Savings, Mr. Bush maintained that a person who directed the investment of his Social Security taxes into the stock market would have three times the monthly retirement income of someone who had depended on Social Security. "Someone retiring today after 45 years of work would be entitled to a monthly benefit of $1,128 a month from Social Security," Mr. Bush said. "If that same retiree, if those Social Security taxes had been invested in the stock market over the last 45 years, during the same period of time, that person would now have a nest egg of $590,000, or income of more than $3,700 a month." But to get that $3,700 a month, a person would have to invest every penny of his retirement savings or Social Security payroll taxes in the stock market his entire work life. "That is ill-advised at best and unconscionable at worst," said Harold Evensky, a principal at Evensky, Brown & Katz, a financial planning firm in Coral Gables, Fla., that is part of the Alpha Group, an influential caucus of financial planners. nytimes.com

Congress Not Advised Of Shadow Government March 2, 2002; By Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writers.Key congressional leaders said yesterday the White House did not tell them that President Bush has moved a cadre of senior civilian managers to secret underground sites outside Washington to ensure that the federal government could survive a devastating terrorist attack on the nation's capital.Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said he had not been informed about the role, location or even the existence of the shadow government that the administration began to deploy the morning of the Sept. 11 hijackings. An aide to House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said he similarly was unaware of the administration's move. washingtonpost.com

Patriotic stupor: White House junta is undermining democracy March 2, 2002 News-Journal editorial News-Journal editorial In the months following Sept. 11 the debate about waging war on terrorism has been understandably mute. With rare exceptions, the question boiling out of the nation's anger hasn't been whether to fight a war or where to fight it, but how quickly. Once it began, President Bush's strangely paradoxical promise that the war would certainly be won but that its duration would be open-ended should have been the first warning that such a colossal national commitment deserves less vagueness and clearer strategy, if not accountability. Nothing of the sort has happened. The president has instead redefined success to mean whatever his administration says it means. Victory was attained in Afghanistan, even though Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader are still at large and anarchy promises to be the Afghan spring's bitterest crop. news-journalonline.com

Sen. Kerry Chides GOP on War Comments, Bashes Bush March 2, 2002 9:40 pm EST By Christopher Noble CONCORD, N.H. (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. John Kerry, in New Hampshire to support Democratic candidates for Congress, on Saturday accused Republicans of hiding behind a "false cloak of patriotism" as they attacked Democrats for questioning White House plans to expand the war on terrorism. The Massachusetts liberal was speaking at a party fund-raiser in New Hampshire, whose first-in-the-nation presidential primary will play a key role in choosing the Democrat who will challenge President Bush in 2004. news1.iwon.com

ABC News’ "Missed Opportunities" evades central questions of government role in September 11 attacks
March 2, 2002, By Kate Randall - On February 18-20, the ABC News evening program World News Tonight broadcast a three-part series titled “Missed Opportunities,” which purported to explain the lapses in US intelligence that opened the way for the September 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. wsws.org

Democrats Raise Questions On War Daschle, Byrd remarks draw rebuke from GOP March 1, 2002 By Elaine S. Povich and William Douglas BUREAU; Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said there seems to be "expansion without clear direction" of the war. He told reporters it would not "do anybody any good to second-guess what has been done to date. I think it has been successful. But I think the jury is still out about future success." Daschle added that before Congress commits additional resources to the war, "I think we need to have a clearer understanding of what the direction will be." He also said the war will not be a success until Osama bin Laden and other leaders of al-Qaida are found. Daschle's comments came on the heels of criticism from Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), who pointedly asked administration defense officials about their plans for continuing or ending the war. "If we expect to kill every terrorist in the world, that's going to keep us going beyond Doomsday," Byrd said. "How long can we afford this?" newsday.com

New Report Cites Worsening Abuses of Growing Contingent Workforce; Hear from Policy Experts, Exploited Workers at Briefing on Monday 1 Mar U.S. Newswire News Advisory: A report to be released next week by the National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support documents worsening trends in the abuse of temporary workers, day laborers and other low-wage contingent workers who toil in this growing and unregulated industry where most existing protective laws are not enforced. Policy experts and exploited workers will speak at the briefing. usnewswire.com

Democrats' questions about war anger GOP Posted on Fri, Mar. 01, 2002 BY STEVEN THOMMA WASHINGTON - In the first partisan fight over the war on terrorism, congressional Democratic leaders on Thursday questioned whether the war is on the right track as it broadens beyond Afghanistan.The questions brought an angry response from congressional Republicans, who accused the Democrats of being unpatriotic. miami.com In the first partisan fight over the war on terrorism, congressional Democratic leaders on Thursday questioned whether the war is on the right track as it broadens beyond Afghanistan.The questions brought an angry response from congressional Republicans, who accused the Democrats of being unpatriotic. miami.com

A Democratic senator goes nuclear on the White House March 1, 2002 By Jake Tapper By Jake Tapper | WASHINGTON -- Nevada's Harry Reid talks with Salon about why he joined the GAO lawsuit against Dick Cheney and why he called George W. Bush a liar. It's nuclear war. Or nuclear waste war, at any rate. It began on Feb. 15, when President George W. Bush announced that he would formally recommend Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, as the site where the United States would bury its nuclear waste. And it has accelerated this week, as Sen. Harry Reid, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, filed a "friend of the court" brief with the General Accounting Office's lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, which seeks to compel Cheney to provide information to the Congress about the meetings that task force had with energy executives while formulating the policy. salon.com

Judge bangs gavel on Bush-Cheney stonewalling March 1, 2002 By Anthony York Environmentalists cheer, expect to find dirty laundry list of corporate polluters in secret energy plan documents.|  You know that if Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe and the National Review are finding common cause on an issue, the Bush administration is in real trouble. But the unusual coalition leaning on the White House to come clean about the energy task force doesn't stop there. Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has joined forces with the Sierra Club, conservative Andrew Sullivan with neo-liberal Arianna Huffington, all to demand that the White House turn over documents concerning the formation of the administration's energy plan. salon.com

ADL Says Billy Graham's Anti-Semitic Views On Nixon Tape Are 'Chilling And Frightening' NEW YORK, March 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called the anti-Semitic views the Rev. Billy Graham shared with President Richard Nixon "chilling and frightening even today, 30 years after the statements were made." ADL was shocked to learn from the just released tapes that the spiritual advisor to American Presidents believed and espoused age-old classical anti-Semitic canards. usnewswire.com

First Amendment Center / U.S. Comedy Festival Survey: Nearly 4 In 10 Americans Favor Gov't Limit On Humor After Incidents Like WTC Attack 1 Mar U.S. Newswire ASPEN, Colo., March 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Nearly 40 percent of Americans favor the government stepping in to block comedy routines that make light of events such as the World Trade Center attacks, according to a new nationwide survey by the First Amendment Center. Results were released here today at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, which runs through March 2. usnewswire.com

Study Reveals Wide Gaps Among States in Child Poverty, Children's
Well-Being; Economic Boom Failed to Help Most Poor Children 1 Mar. U.S. Newswire News Advisory: Children at Risk: State Trends 1990-2000, is the first analysis of conditions affecting the nation's children based on new data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Population Reference Bureau, the study provides a sweeping look at state-by-state trends in child well-being over the past decade. The new study finds huge gaps among the states in child poverty rates, with child poverty rising dramatically in several states from 1990 to 2000. National child poverty rates remain among the highest in the developed world. usnewswire.com


Bush Renews Push to Partially Privatize Social Security March 1, 2002 By ELISABETH BUMILLER WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 ˜ Wading into what is expected to be a major battle of the 2002 midterm elections, President Bush today promoted his plan to let workers invest part of their Social Security money in the stock market. Mr. Bush also spoke out for pension changes in the wake of the filing for bankruptcy protection by Enron that cost thousands of workers their retirement savings but left top executives with millions of dollars from selling the company's stock. nytimes.com

US troops deployed to former Soviet republic of Georgia 1 March 2002 By Patrick Martin Two US Air Force planes brought forty American military personnel to Tbilisi, capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, on February 21, marking the first deployment of US combat forces in the Caucasus region, adjacent to one of the world’s largest oilfields. According to a report by the security intelligence service STRATFOR.com, “[T]he personnel include Special Forces troops, who specialize in counterterrorism operations, and Air Force logistics personnel normally based at Incirlik, Turkey.” STRATFOR cited an account of the arrival in the Russian newspaper Nezavisimoe Voennoye Obozrenie. wsws.org

 

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