Bush
seeks another tax cut for the rich
December 31, 2002 Not
satisfied with last year's huge tax cut package totalling $1.6 trillion,
President Bush will soon be back for more. His
aides are urging him to propose cutting taxes on corporate dividends for
shareholders by about half. The
50 percent tax cut would cost the Treasury more than $100 billion over 10
years, and even more than with the earlier tax cuts, the new tax benefits
would overwhelmingly flow to the nation's very wealthiest taxpayers.
With this new tax cut, Bush would
be pounding another nail into the coffin of one of the nation's most
remarkable achievements of the 1990s — the budget surplus. the.honoluluadvertiser.com
 PARALLELS Those who refuse to learn from
history are condemned to repeat it December
30, 2002 By George Santayana On February 27, 1933, a mentally
deranged Dutch Communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, lit a few small fires in
the German parliament building, the Reichstag, in Berlin — not enough to
set the building alight, but sufficient to get him hanged as the sole
perpetrator afterward. The Nazi SA, with ears everywhere, found out, and,
unbeknownst to van der Lubbe, an SA detachment entered the building
through a disused central heating tunnel. While the Dutchman was busy
lighting insignificant fires, using his shirt as tinder, the SA
planted gasoline and incendiaries, and within minutes, the Reichstag
was burning out of control. Why did the Nazis do this? thepeoplesvoice.org
Claim war will start on Feb 21
December 30, 2002 -- A British tabloid newspaper said that a US-led war on
Iraq would start on February 21 "at midnight". The Sunday
Express said the date and time was given by US President George W Bush to
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a telephone call over Christmas."The
timing is confirmed by British defence chiefs, who have been told to
expect war in the second or third week in February," the newspaper
said. theage.com
Bush's bitter medicine The poor need
cheap drugs, not cheap talk December
30, 2002 -- When pushed to do so, the Bush administration will feign
concern for the world's poor. But its actions speak louder than its words.
The intervention by vice-president Dick Cheney last week to torpedo a deal
to get cheap drugs into poor countries whose populaces have been consumed
by epidemics was a cold-hearted piece of realpolitik. Forget the
honey-coated pledges of support for development and warm declarations that
global prosperity must be shared. The United States was the only country
out of 144 to oppose an agreement that would have relaxed global patent
rules on treatments. The richest nation on the earth backed the arguments
of the drug lobby over the cries of the weak and wasted. In doing so the
US has emptied the current round of trade talks of a meaningful and
substantial proof that globalisation could help the poor. guardian.co
White House Budget Office Thwarts EPA
Warning on Asbestos-Laced Insulation
December 30, 2002 by Andrew Schneider The Environmental Protection
Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics
and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last
minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued.
The agency's refusal to share its knowledge of what is believed to be a
widespread health risk has been criticized by a former EPA administrator
under two Republican presidents, a Democratic U.S. senator and physicians
and scientists who have treated victims of the contamination. stltoday.com
Bush sets course for confrontation with North
Korea 30 December 2002 By Peter Symonds
The Bush administration is preparing to escalate the current standoff over North
Korea’s nuclear program into a full-blown confrontation, with reckless
indifference to the potentially disastrous consequences for the Korean peninsula
and the entire region. According to a report in yesterday’s New York Times,
the US has drawn up “a comprehensive plan to intensify financial and political
pressure on North Korea” aimed at precipitating an economic and political
collapse. “Administration officials said the threat of growing isolation was
the best way to force North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions and, if it
refused to, to bring down the government,” the article explained. Under the
strategy, euphemistically known as “tailored containment,” wsws.org
United States in Worst Crisis
Since World War II
December 30, 2002 From the CEC's Australian Alert Service. The most
indicative "marker" of the magnitude of the economic-financial
crisis in the U.S., is what is happening in the American States. Up
to 46 states have severe fiscal deficits, under conditions where most
American states are obliged, by law, to maintain balanced budgets.
The National Governors Association (NGA), and the National Association of
State Budget Officers (NASBO), have issued their bi-annual survey, fiscal Survey of States,
in which they affirm, "States face the most dire fiscal situation
since World War II." nex.net.au
Bush’s war on terror faces mounting
criticism 30 December 2002,
PARIS— At home and abroad, US President George W. Bush’s “war on
terror” was facing mounting criticism yesterday over fears that
fundamental human rights and freedoms were being eroded. Actors, writers,
lawyers, politicians, and millions of ordinary people worldwide have in
recent weeks all questioned the no-holds-barred US policy which many fear
will be counterproductive. Huge anti-war demonstrations have taken place
in cities across the globe and more are planned for the new year,
including a major one in Washington on Jan. 18. Spain’s top anti-terror
judge became the latest to add his voice to the growing chorus of critics,
warning yesterday of “the risk of a false system of security being put
in place to the detriment of freedoms and rights. “The case of
terrorists held in Guantanamo (the US base in Cuba), Afghanistan and
Pakistan proves that security is trumping every other principle of justice
or rights,” said Baltasar Garzon said. arabnews.com
German writer
Guenter Grass calls Bush a threat to world peace December
30, 2002 Joining the ranks of a growing
number of international celebrities, German writer Guenter Grass, the
winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize for literature, called US President George
W. Bush a threat to world peace, in an interview to appear Sunday in the
Welt am Sonntag paper. The 75-year-old author said that in the current
political situation, the dangerous mix of financial, political and
family-related interests have made him a truly dangerous politician. dw-world
Pat Robertson's Evangelical Propaganda
Hardening the American Heart December
30, 2002 by SALIM RASHID The weeks immediately following the
tragedy of 9/11 showed some of the best features of the American spirit.
Led by the White House, the media took pains to distinguish between the
actions of a few and the beliefs of the many. Assuring the Muslim majority
that they were friends abroad and good citizens at home were matters of
principle. By December it had all changed. Unable to comprehend and
discriminate, there was a visible and palpable hardening of American
intellectual arteries, and the policy of the White House fell under those
who felt no embarrassment at villification when faced by a religion they
could not control or understand. The intellectual vacuum was readily felt
and the Press began to engage in a thoughtless drum beat; the idea
"let's Nuke Mecca" was floated. counterpunch.org
G.W.
Bush - Making sure the terrorists have won December
29, 2002 By
Wade Inganamort We
have been told that the terrorists hate our freedom of
speech. Would this be the same freedom of speech that had
Richard Humphreys of Portland, Oregon sentenced to 37
months in prison for "threatening to kill or harm
the President" after
telling a
joke
during a bar room discussion?
Would this be the same freedom of speech that had Secret Service Agents
question a High School student for wearing
a controversial t-shirt,"
treated as a potential threat on the president? Would
this be the same freedom of speech that has political
essayist voxfux on
the run after a
combined task force from the Secret Service, FBI, CIA,
and Major Crimes Unit raided his Long Island home? Would
this be the same freedom of speech that cost TV host Bill
Maher his job for simply pointing out the inverse reality
of Bush's comments after the attacks? I would say yes.
There is no other "freedom of speech" in which
I am familiar. We have been told that they hate our
freedom to assemble. Would this be the same freedom to
assemble that allows protesting at Bush speeches only
while penned inside designated "Free-speech
zones", while Bush supporters are free to join in
the festivities? Would this be the same freedom to
assemble that has had people arrested
simply for protesting his majesty, President Bush and his
brother? Would this be the same freedom to assemble that
demands protesters be videotaped,
often by the
military?
prisonplanet.com
Briton tells of ordeal in Bush's torture jail
where two have died December
29, 2002 Paul Harris and Burhan Wazir The letter
contained only hints of what Moazzam Begg's interrogators
may have done to him. He wrote of hunger and being kept
awake by bright lights. 'I still don't know what will
happen with me,' he lamented to his wife back home in
Birmingham. Begg, 35, was writing from Bagram military
base just outside Kabul. He is the only British prisoner
inside a cluster of metal shipping containers at the
heart of the United States army part of the base, which
serves as a 'jail' for al-Qaeda suspects. Now the camp is
at the centre of a furious row over US behaviour in the
war on terror. Evidence is growing that prisoners inside
the containers are being tortured by American soldiers
and CIA agents. Begg may have written of more damaging
details of his own treatment, but many of his previous
letters were never delivered. It appears the US soldiers
at Bagram have much to hide. Human rights groups are
calling for an inquiry into the methods used by American
interrogators at Bagram and other bases in Afghanistan. observer.co
Soviet Rebuke of US Claim
Deepens Security Council Rift over Iraq
December 29, 2002 Russia deepened a rift on the UN
Security Council over Iraq when it insisted no evidence
had yet been produced to support a US contention that
Iraq is a terrorist threat. "No one can provide the
slightest evidence" that Iraq represented such a
threat, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov was
quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying. That was a
direct challenge to claims by the United States and
Britain of proof that Iraq possesses weapons of mass
destruction, a claim Baghdad vehemently denies. Russia,
one of the five permanent security council members with
veto power, opposes unilateral US military intervention
against Iraq. truthout.com
Bush Discovers Hunger and Looks the Other Way December
28, 2002 by Molly Ivins The only president we've got went down to the
Capitol Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C., the other day for a photo-op with
people who can't afford to eat. "I hope people around this country realize
that agencies such as this food bank need money. They need our contributions.
Contribution are down. They shouldn't be down in a time of need," said
GeeDubya Bush. Right away, we notice real progress. When Bush was running for
the presidency in 2000, the feds released their annual report on hunger in
America, and Texas was once again in its perennial spot at the top of the list,
No. 1 in hunger. Bush thought it was some dastardly scheme by the Clinton
administration to make Texas, and hence Bush, look bad. He denied there were any
hungry people in Texas and said, "You'd think the governor would have heard
if there are pockets of hunger in Texas." Yeah, you would. But look on the
bright side: so he didn't know there's hunger in Texas after six years in
office; after only two years in Washington, he's discovered the problem. Sort
of. Here's what he has done about it:
* Number of seniors who will be cut
off of meal programs because of the Bush budget: 36,000.
* Number of families who will be cut
off of heating assistance because of the Bush budget: 532,000.
* Number of homeless kids who will
be cut off of education programs because of the Bush budget: 8,000.
* Number of kids who will be cut off
of after-school programs because of the Bush budget: 50,000.
* Number of kids who will be cut off of child care because of the Bush budget:
33,000.
Question: Which news got more attention from the media--Bush's photo-op at the
food bank or the facts in his budget? commondreams.org
Bush's War
Against Older Workers
December 28, 2002 by Vermont Congressman
Bernie Sanders, President Bush may or may not go to war against Iraq,
but we do know that he has already declared war against the economic
well-being of the middle class and working families of this country.
While he cuts back on Medicare and the needs of
veterans, he wants even more tax breaks for the very richest people in
this country. While he pushes efforts to privatize Social Security, there
is no attempt to raise the minimum wage above its paltry $5.15 an hour.
While he expands our disastrous trade policies that have already cost us
millions of decent paying manufacturing jobs, he is proposing to slash the
pay and benefits of federal employees through a massive and dangerous
contracting-out scheme. While our healthcare system disintegrates and
prescription drug costs soar, his Administration proposes legislation
written by and for the pharmaceutical industry. buzzflash.com
CIA Interrogation Under Fire Human Rights Groups Say Techniques Could Be Torture December 28,
2002 By Alan Cooperman A leading human rights group said yesterday that the CIA's method of
interrogating al Qaeda detainees could constitute torture and result in the
prosecution of U.S. officials by courts around the world. Human Rights Watch, based in New York, sent a letter to President Bush
calling for an investigation of the "stress and duress" techniques
allegedly used by the CIA on some captives at the U.S.-held Bagram air base in
Afghanistan and other facilities overseas. Those techniques, described in a front-page article in Thursday's Washington
Post, include keeping prisoners "standing or kneeling for hours" while
hooded or wearing spray-painted goggles, holding them in "awkward, painful
positions" and depriving them of sleep with a 24-hour bombardment of
lights. In the letter to Bush, Human Rights Watch's executive director, Kenneth Roth,
said those methods "would place the United States in violation of some of
the most fundamental prohibitions of international human rights law." washingtonpost.com
 What the Terrorist Hype Is All About
Introducing December 27, 2002
By Nick Monahan One of a million occurrences
since terrorism became the excuse for abuse. This morning I’ll be
escorting my wife to the hospital, where the doctors will perform a
caesarean section to remove our first child. She didn’t want to do it
this way – neither of us did – but sometimes the Fates decide
otherwise. The Fates or, in our case, government employees.
On the morning of October 26th Mary and I entered Portland International
Airport, en route to the Las Vegas wedding of one of my best friends.
Although we live in Los Angeles, we’d been in Oregon working on a film,
and up to that point had had nothing but praise to shower on the city of
Portland, a refreshing change of pace from our own suffocating metropolis.
At the security checkpoint I was led aside for the "inspection"
that’s all the rage at airports these days. My shoes were removed. I was
told to take off my sweater, then to fold over the waistband of my pants.
My baseball hat, hastily jammed on my head at 5 AM, was removed and
assiduously examined ("Anything could be in here, sir," I was
told, after I asked what I could hide in a baseball hat. Yeah. Anything.)
Soon I was standing on one foot, my arms stretched out, the other leg
sticking out in front of me àla a DUI test. I began to get pissed off, as
most normal people would. My anger increased when I realized that the
newly knighted federal employees weren’t just examining me, but my 7½ months pregnant wife as well.
thepeoplesvoice.org
US mayors’ report chronicles rising
hunger and homelessness 27 December 2002 By
Debra Watson A record number of citizens in US cities were forced to look
for emergency food and shelter this year, according to the United States
Conference of Mayors. Their annual report, “The Status Report on Hunger and
Homelessness in America’s Cities,” was released December 18 in Washington
DC. It shows an increasing percentage of the population of US cities are unable
to afford either shelter or adequate food. In cities across America in 2002,
according to the mayors’ report, the demand for emergency shelter jumped 19
percent, the biggest rise since 1990. In 2001 and 2002 the demand for emergency
food increased by 23 percent and 19 percent respectively, the highest increases
since the recession of the early 1990s. www.wsws.org
Jobless Benefits Expire As White House, Congress
Home For The Holidays; Airline, Boeing Workers Some Of Hardest Hit
Washington, Dec. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following statement was issued today
by Sonny Hall, President of the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO:
"There is no joy this holiday season for the over 830,000 Americans who
will lose their unemployment benefits at the stroke of midnight tonight. The
White House and the Republican leadership in Congress had a chance to help those
who are struggling in our failing economy but instead stonewalled efforts to
extend and improve unemployment benefits and to help laid-off workers pay for
health care insurance. Worst of all, Congress adjourned while working Americans
suffer. usnewswire.com
Emergency
Powers -- The New Paradigm In Democratic America
December 26, 2002 By Franz Schurmann France's
leading newspaper Le Monde has just published a major article
warning of the growing use of emergency powers in democratic
countries. The author cites President Bush's Nov. 13, 2001 military
order on the detention of non-citizens as a prime example of
"sovereign" power over the rule of law. In the week before
Christmas 2002, hundreds, if not a thousand, Middle Eastern
non-citizens were deceptively rounded up in Los Angeles and
disappeared. This time, authorization came directly out of the Oval
Office. And when asked why the roundup occurred the president
answered, to "protect the American people." Agamben points
out that shortly after he took power, Hitler issued a decree on Feb.
28, 1933, that "suspended" the "Weimar
Constitution." Hitler justified his decree as "protecting
the German people and its state." Shortly after Hitler
proclaimed his decree, concentration camps sprang up and were filled
by "enemies of the people". athena.tbwt.com
National Parks Threatened by
Interior Rule, Park Advocates Oppose "Pave the Parks"
Mentality WASHINGTON, Dec. 26
/U.S. Newswire/ -- The Interior Department released a new rule
allowing states and local jurisdictions to use a Civil War era law,
Revised Statute (RS) 2477 to turn old trails, abandoned dirt roads,
and stream beds into new highways, despite potentially devastating
impacts to national parks. Using this new rule, public lands in the
west, including national parks, can be paved at the whim of state
and local governments without public comment or scientific study to
determine damage. usnewswire.com
Bush’s compassionate agenda
lags Dec.
26 By
Dana Milbank President’s
legislative record for disadvantaged wanting — Two
years after winning the White House on a platform of
“compassionate conservatism,” President
Bush so far has achieved few of the items on his legislative agenda
to help the disadvantaged. Action on major welfare,
prescription drug and disabilities legislation was postponed.
Proposals to liberalize immigration were dropped, a plan for
health-care tax credits was not pursued, and efforts to expand
low-income housing are yet to see funding.
msnbc.com
Law Requiring Lower Drug
Prices Is Struck Down Dec. 26 By
ROBERT PEAR State efforts to provide prescription drugs to
low-income people suffered a setback today as the United States
Court of Appeals here struck down a pioneering program established
by the State of Maine. The program, approved by the federal
government nearly two years ago, forced drug makers to give
discounts of 18 percent to 25 percent. Soaring drug costs are a
major contributor to the fiscal crisis engulfing virtually every
state. Employers, insurers and consumers are desperately seeking
ways to reduce drug costs, and no state has been more inventive than
Maine in trying to do that. At least a dozen other states have been
considering programs similar to the one in Maine. Maine officials
described their program, known as Healthy Maine Prescriptions, as an
experimental expansion of Medicaid, which is supposed to be financed
jointly by the federal government and the states. But a three-republican
judge panel of the appeals court ruled that the Maine program was
not permissible nytimes.com
Homeless
People Give Christmas Check to Police Officer
Dec 26, 2002 NEW YORK (AP) - A police
officer got a Christmas gift of $3,000 from homeless people who
wanted to thank him for standing up for them. Officer
Eduardo Delacruz was suspended for 30 days without pay last month
after he refused a sergeant's order to arrest a homeless man found
sleeping in a garage. In gratitude,
organizations for the homeless put together the fund for the
37-year-old officer, his wife and their five children. Homeless
people also contributed change scrounged from passers-by, money
earned from recycling cans and bottles, even a portion of their
welfare checks. ap.tbo.com
Life After Welfare in the Here
and Now of America's Jammed Shelters
December 26, 2002 By FRANCIS X. CLINES ST. LOUIS
The jargon of antipoverty work is as restless as the poor
themselves. And here now come the "working homeless" — a
post-welfare-reform category of strivers fighting to hold onto
low-wage jobs the government shepherded them to, jobs that
perversely afford them too little money to pay for shelter. Ending
welfare as we know it has been followed by the working homeless, if
we care to know them. Social workers are tracking these marginal
breadwinners by the scores of thousands — most of them women with
children, not the stereotypical grizzled street male. They can be
found here spiraling through desperate options when they come up
short for rent money and are displaced. Many serially "couch
surf" with relatives and friends before patience wears thin.
Some live as families in a car or a spare garage space. Chronically,
they turn to the waiting lists for transient shelters that are
always filled to capacity in this hard-pressed but far from atypical
American city. nytimes.com
Don't Let Bush Light Iraq
Fire December 25,
2002 by Linda McQuaig Shooting frogs with BB guns
was apparently pretty standard entertainment for young
boys in Texas in the 1950s. But for added amusement,
George W. Bush and his friends used to tuck firecrackers
into the mouths of frogs, throw them in the air, and
watch them explode. The story — recounted with
fondness by a Bush childhood friend in a long,
flattering New York Times profile of Bush during the
2000 presidential election campaign — never became an
issue on the campaign trail.
Despite psychiatric evidence that children who
are cruel to animals often go on to be abusive adults,
the U.S. media apparently decided that the torture of
frogs was nothing more than a charming little anecdote
from Dubya's early years. (Imagine what the media would
make of a charming little childhood anecdote like that,
if it were in Saddam Hussein's background.)
It should have at least been a clue that Bush —
now the most powerful man in the world — has a taste
for blowing things up, not to mention an insensitivity
to suffering. commondreams.org
'Tis The Season
To Be Bombing?
December 25, 2002 - Dennis Rahkonen -
Christmas is upon us. A time of caring, sharing,
rejoicing, and extending warm wishes to others. Or at
least so it was in the America of my youth. But Scrooge
Herod is in the White House now. And this Holy season
sees him trying to violently overthrow the governments
of two oil-rich nations (Venezuela and Iraq) so that the
moneychangers in whose behalf he dutifully rules can
grab the fabulous wealth they shamelessly covet... journalists.htm
Agent Green Over the
Andes December 25,
2002 by JEFFREY ST. CLAIR Hostile intentions
toward the people of another country. Deployment of
chemical weapons and biological agents. Pursuit of a
scorched earth policy. Sound like Saddam's Iraq? Think
again. This neatly capsulizes the Bush administration's
ongoing depredations in Colombia, all under the shady
banner of the war on drugs. The big difference is that
Saddam's hideous use of poison gas against the Kurds
and, most likely, against Iran occurred more than 15
years ago. Since the Gulf War, Saddam's mad pursuits
have been more on the order of chemistry experiments in
bombed out basements. But the Bush administration's
toxic war on Colombian peasants is happening now, day
after day, in flippant violation of international law. counterpunch.org
The Rich Have
Reason to Rejoice
December 25, 2002 by Kelly
Candaele & Peter Dreier In Dickens's
"A Christmas Carol," Ebenezer Scrooge was
forced to view his own death in order to gain some
self-awareness of his life as the epitome of cruelty and
selfishness. This Christmas it is unlikely that George
W. Bush, Scrooge on the Potomac, will be transformed by
any ghostly visits. Indeed, since the November 5
election (in which the Republicans' narrow majorities in
the Senate and House were mirrored by a slim majority of
the popular vote), Bush and his cronies seem to believe
they have a mandate to outdo themselves in rewarding the
corporate class that helped bring them to power. Yes,
this holiday season--even as Bush prepares the nation
for war--selfishness is back in style for those at the
top of the economic pyramid. Sacrifice and
"compassionate conservatism" are out. thenation.com
Ideology Trumps
Science at FDA; FDA Appointments Are President's
Christmas Gift to Religious Extremists
Dec. 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Following is a statement by
Gloria Feldt, president, Planned Parenthood Federation
of America: "The appointment of Dr. W. David Hager
and at least two other anti-choice doctors to the
eleven-member Food and Drug Administration's (FDA)
Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs is a
frontal assault on reproductive rights that will imperil
women's health. This is only the latest example of the
Bush administration's pernicious web of relentless
attacks on women's reproductive health and rights.
"Dr. Hager wrote, with his wife Linda, Stress and
the Woman's Body, which recommends specific Scripture
readings and prayers for such ailments as headaches and
premenstrual syndrome. He also assisted the Christian
Medical Association in petitioning the FDA to shelve
mifepristone. usnewswire.com
Advisors
Put Under a Microscope
December 25, 2002 By Aaron
Zitner - The Bush
team is going to great lengths to vet members of
scientific panels. Credentials, not ideology, should be
the focus, critics say. -- When psychologist
William R. Miller was asked to join a panel that advises
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, he thought he had
been selected for his expertise in addiction. Then a
Bush administration staff member called with some
unexpected questions. Did Miller support abortion
rights? What about the death penalty for drug kingpins?
And had he voted for President Bush? Apparently, Miller
said, he did not give enough right answers. He had not,
for example, voted for Bush. He was never appointed to
the panel. latimes.com
New ACLU Report
Profiles Individuals Caught in Post-Sept. 11 Backlash in
Northern California
December 25, 2002 - The American Civil
Liberties Union of Northern California, in collaboration
with a group of local and national advocacy groups,
today released a new report documenting the experiences
of 20 individuals whose lives have been altered by the
backlash following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
"These stories show that, more than a year after
the attacks, the backlash is not over," said
Dorothy Ehrlich, Executive Director of the ACLU of
Northern California. "It lingers on in the stores,
schools and streets of Northern California, and it
continues to touch the lives of people in our
communities in varied, surprising, and often shocking
ways." Ehrlich said that the people profiled in the
report "are the tip of the iceberg" because so
many of those caught in the backlash are afraid to speak
out. "At this crucial time," she said,
"we are calling on local policymakers to take
concrete steps to keep our communities both
safe and free." The report, online
at http://www.aclunc.org/911/backlash.pdf,
is part of the ACLU’s ongoing national campaign to
protect civil liberties in the post-Sept. 11 world. The
ACLU’s campaign, Keep America
Safe and Free, was launched last month
and includes paid television advertising and a massive
mobilization of its members and supporters in a
nationwide effort to protect the Constitution. For more
information on the ACLU’s Keep America Safe and Free
campaign, go to aclu.org
Nearly
half of congressional freshmen are millionaires
December 25, 2002 By
Jonathan D. Salant WASHINGTON
– Close to half the incoming members of Congress are
millionaires and many will face votes that could affect
their financial holdings. For
example, 11 of the 63 first-termers in the House and
Senate have financial interests of at least $15,000,000
in banking or credit card companies, including bank
directorships, according to an Associated Press review
of financial disclosure forms filed during the campaign.
Among the issues the next
Congress is expected to tackle is legislation that would
make it harder for consumers to declare bankruptcy, a
bill pushed by the banking industry. Several
incoming freshmen also have significant financial
holdings in the pharmaceutical and oil industries, both
of which could well be the subject of congressional
action next year. For
example, Congress will consider legislation to help
senior citizens buy prescription drugs. Democrats want
to put the program under Medicare; Republicans and the
pharmaceutical industry want a smaller program run by
private insurers. signonsandiego.com
Trucker Accused Of
Threatening White House
December 25, 2002 DAYTON, Ohio -- A trucker is in jail
in Dayton on Tuesday after being accused of threatening
to blow up the White House. Authorities said Norayr
Avetisyan, 27, of Glendale, Calif., was driving through
Indiana Monday when he allegedly mentioned on his
citizens band radio that he had explosives and was going
to blow up the White House. The trucker is from
California. Someone overheard the conversation and
notified authorities, who opened a truck scale in Preble
County. The trucker was arrested when he stopped there.
No explosives were found in the truck. The 27-year-old
is being held without bond in the Montgomery County
Jail. He's expected to have a court hearing today on a
charge of threatening the president. Avetisyan faces up
to 15 years in prison if convicted of the federal
charge, which was filed in a federal court in Indiana. nbc4.tv/news
Jeffrey
Dahmer, Bush, and Frist, Were All Cruel to Animals
December 24, 2002 - So when he was a kid, George W.
enjoyed putting firecrackers into frogs, throwing them
in the air, and then watching them blow up. Should this
be cause for alarm? How relevant is a man's childhood
behavior to what he is like as an adult? And in this
case, to what he would be like as president of the
United States. Cruelty to animals is a common precursor
to later criminal violence. unknownnews
As a student, Frist adopted stray cats from Boston-area
shelters -- and then dissected them. He later confessed
that it had been "a heinous and dishonest thing to
do." latimes.com
Iraq has blasted what it calls the mad
campaign of "little Bush" December
24, 2002 - The US president threatening to go to war if
Baghdad fails to give up alleged weapons of mass
destruction. War jitters worldwide pushed up the price
of oil and gold. Around Baghdad, UN experts looking for
weapons visited three sites while Iraq said it would
soon receive a first batch of Arab and European
volunteers ready to act as human shields to try to stave
off a US attack. abc.net
Small Mercies
December 24, 2002 CHRISTMAS TIME is the traditional
season for presidential clemency, so it's no particular
surprise that President Bush has belatedly issued the
first pardons of his term. But the churlishness with
which he finally exercised this most magnanimous of
presidential powers deserves note. Mr. Bush avoided
controversy by issuing purely symbolic pardons to people
such as Olgen Williams (a postal worker sentenced to a
year in prison back in 1971 for stealing $10.90 from the
mail) But the pardon power was meant to be grander than
this. And just as a president can abuse the pardon power
-- as Bill Clinton did -- he can also debase it by
underusing it. The power was meant as a check on the
criminal justice system, a vehicle for mercy and for
remedying injustices. The federal inmate population
today is larger than it has ever been; the role of
pardons should be bigger than ever. Yet Mr. Bush could
not find a single inmate who deserved clemency. By
issuing an average of 3.5 pardons a year -- none of
which carries consequence other than forgiveness for
individuals who long ago served their time -- he
announces, in effect, that the American justice system
requires no check, just a Christmas card. washingtonpost.com
Russia says Bush to blame
for North Korea crisis
December 24, 2002 By Andrei Shukshin MOSCOW
(Reuters) - Russia accused U.S. President George W. Bush
on Monday of having ignited a crisis over North Korea by
antagonising the nuclear-capable Stalinist state and
playing on its dire economic situation. Deputy Foreign
Minister Georgy Mamedov said Bush was to blame for North
Korea's erratic policies, including steps to unfreeze
its nuclear programme, because of his decision to brand
it part of his "axis of evil" of hostile
nations. "How should a small country feel when it
is told that it is all but part of forces of evil of
biblical proportions and should be fought against until
total annihilation?" Mamedov told the Vremya
Novostei daily newspaper. news.yahoo.com
Frist Cares Most About
Health of Corporations;
December 24, 2002 - Doctor To Turn House Over To Industry Interests
-- Jamie Court, executive director of the nonpartisan,
nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights,
issued the following statement about the election of
U.S. Senator Bill Frist as Majority Leader:
"Senator Bill Frist, typifies the GOP government's
new health care strategy: care most about the health of
corporations that elect you. If the public does not stop
Frist and K street's hired guns, the gains of the
patients' rights movement will be erased and the
freedoms of drug companies, HMOs and hospital chains
will be expanded at the expense of patients. Frist
sponsored legislation this year limiting legal liability
for drug maker Eli Lilly and other manufacturers of a
mercury-based addictive to vaccines that is linked to
autism in children. The provision drew outrage from
parents of autistic children as special interest
pandering when it passed as part of the Homeland
Security legislation just after the election. usnewswire.com
Planned Parenthood
Statement: Bill Frist Gets An 'F' On Reproductive Rights,
Marches In Lockstep With The Bush Administration
December 24, 2002 -- A statement by Planned Parenthood Federation of
America President Gloria Feldt on Bill Frist: Sen. Bill
Frist's (R-TN) voting record on women's fundamental
civil rights is every bit as onerous as Trent Lott's.
Sen. Frist gets a failing grade on every reproductive
rights vote. (Please see following analysis of Sen.
Frist's record.) His rabidly anti-choice track record
indicates that he marches in lockstep with anti-choice
extremists. The attacks on women's basic human rights
will most certainly continue unabated under the
leadership of the Bush administration's hand picked
majority leader of the U.S. Senate. usnewswire.com
Mickey
Mouse For President December
23, 2002 By: Matilda Lipscomb -
I, too, am sorrry not to be able to support Al Gore
again in 2004, but in his place, I would have made the
same decision. He would be able to win over Bush hands
down if the American media ever decided to investigate
and report the truth. It was the media who defeated Gore
in 2002.....not George W Bush. I realized we didn't have
a chance during the debates where I felt Gore had won
and the media claimed Bush was the winner. I remember
reading the media reports of the debates and wondering
if we had seen and heard the same program. As it is in
America today, even Micky Mouse could win the
presidential election if the press decided to support
him. I'm already feeling sorry for anyone who runs
against George Bush in 2004. His victory (barring a
media turnaround) is a foregone conclusion. And with the
fraudulent voting machines now in use, and other
criminal practices (like another terrorist attack) by
the Republican party, I can't see how anyone would have
much of a chance. enter.net
Bush: 'Are you with us, or are
you with the puffins?'
December 23, 2002 By Andy
Borowitz President
Bush today named Alaska to the "Axis of Evil,"
putting America's northernmost state in the same
category as Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Political
observers considered the move to name Alaska to the Axis
of Evil extraordinary, since no other U.S. state had
received such a nod from the president before. But
Bush defended his decision in a speech to Congress,
declaring that "there is only one word to describe
Alaskan wildlife's determination to prevent oil
exploration and drilling in their habitat: evil."
The president reserved his harshest words for such
arctic birds as puffins, plovers, and phalaropes,
calling the winged creatures "super-evil."
"It
is time for the nations of the world to ask themselves:
Are you with us, or are you with the puffins?" Bush
said. tallahassee.com
America tore out 8000 pages of Iraq dossier
December 23, 2002 By
James Cusick and Felicity Arbuthnot
THE United States edited out
more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page
dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitised
version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United
Nations security council. The
full extent of Washington's complete control over who
sees what in the crucial Iraqi dossier calls into
question the allegations made by US Secretary of State
Colin Powell that 'omissions' in the document
constituted a 'material breach' of the latest UN
resolution on Iraq. sundayherald.com
Iraq hits back
with CIA offer US agents invited to search for weapons December
23, 2002 Ewen MacAskill, Suzanne Goldenberg
Baghdad fought back in the highly charged propaganda
battle with the US and Britain yesterday by inviting its
arch-enemy, the CIA, to enter Iraq and track down the
country's elusive weapons of mass destruction.
The Iraqi offer of unhindered
access to US intelligence agents came after intensive
pressure from Washington that made war early in the new
year appear almost inevitable. After
four days of diplomatic pounding, Iraq hit back
yesterday, accusing the Bush administration of rehashing
old lies. "We
have told the world we are not producing these kind of
weapons, but it seems that the world is drugged, absent
or in a weak position," President Saddam Hussein
said. At
a press conference in Baghdad yesterday, General Amir
al-Sadi, scientific adviser to the president, issued a
challenge to the US and British intelligence to offer up
hard evidence that Iraq has any biological, chemical or
nuclear weapons. guardian.co.uk
US rebuffs Iraq's CIA invitation
December 23, 2002 The United States
administration has dismissed as a stunt Iraq's offer to
admit CIA agents to assist United Nations arms
inspectors.
A White
House official said that the burden of proof rested with
President Saddam Hussein to show that he was not
developing weapons of mass destruction.
news.bbc
Bush Plan To Cut Energy Aid To Low-Income Homes Will
Leave People In The Cold
December
23, 2002 Nationally,
about 532,000 households will be denied emergency
financial aid given to people who've had their utilities
shut off due to non-payment. State officials who run the
grant program in Minnesota, Vermont, and Illinois have
already reported a 20%-70% increase in demand this
December over last. The states with the higest number of
households targetted for cut-off from the program are
New York with 80,000 homes, and Michigan with 65,000.
The Bush administration plans to cut the Low-Income Home
Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by $300 million --
18% below last year's level, despite official reports of
expected higher fuel costs. nex.net.au
U.S. Budget Deficit Leapt
To $59.10 Billion In November
December 23, 2002 The U.S. Treasury Department announced
today that the U.S. budget, when reported on a unified
budget basis, amassed a $59.10 billion deficit in
November, 2002. During the previous month of October,
the U.S. budget ran a $53.99 billion deficit. The
fiscal year 2003 federal budget started
October 2, 2002; thus, through just the first
two months of fiscal year 2003, the U.S. has run an
enormous combined deficit of $113.09 billion. This
is $51 billion greater than the budget deficit it
registered for the first two months of fiscal year 2002.
But the real situation is
worse. The "official" budget deficit that the
Treasury reports on, which is called the "unified
budget," is a sham aglomeration, which illegally
mixes the actual budget, which is called the U.S.
General Revenue Budget, with the off-budget surplus of
the Social Security Trust Fund. But the Social Security
Trust Fund is a special fund, with its own dedicated tax
revenue stream, and should not be mixed in. If one
correctly refuses to count the surplus of the Social
Security Trust Fund, the U.S. government's General
Revenue budget (the real budget) was
$119.72 billion in deficit during the first two
months of fiscal year 2003. It
is realistic to expect that the U.S. government will run
a real General Revenue fiscal year 2003 budget deficit
of $400 to $500 billion. nex.net.au
Global Gulag: New World Order vs. America
December 23, 2002 By
James Hall No longer can the critics of the NWO be
called kooks, believing in a weird conspiracy. That kind
of dismissal will not fly. The press abounds with
admissions from well known politicians, captains of
finance, movers and shakers of all kinds. The need for
silence about reality does not exist. The plan succeeded.
The New World Order rules. Those are the facts, even if
you want to deny them. Debate is over, proof of design is
evident in official policy. The notion of decree from the
top, filtering down to the bottom is indisputable.
Illusions are not needed any longer because the means of
control for society have been achieved. prisonplanet.com
'Why Affirmative Action Continues To Be
Necessary' December
23, 2002 By Shirley J. Wilcher Executive
Director, Americans for a Fair Chance
WASHINGTON While
serving as deputy assistant secretary at the U.S.
Department of Labor in the 1990s, I traveled to meet the
CEO of a company that repaired equipment for the federal
government. The reason for the meeting was to learn how
the company could have tolerated the raffle of a Ku Klux
Klan knife by members of its repair shop. Compliance
officers discovered this behavior during a routine review
of the company's affirmative action program. In
addition to the notorious Klan raffle, we also found
racist and sexist graffiti on the walls of the
lavatories. African Americans were harassed and I was
told that the "N" word was used profusely.
Women who had resigned rather than tolerate sexual
harassment tearfully told me that they were only
permitted to hand out tools, even though some were
trained as licensed mechanics. usnewswire.com
US
Wrecks Cheap Drugs Deal
December 22, 2002 by Larry Elliott and Charlotte Denny
Cheney's intervention blocks pact to help poor countries
after pharmaceutical firms lobby White House. Dick
Cheney, the US vice-president, last night blocked a
global deal to provide cheap drugs to poor countries,
following intense lobbying of the White House by
America's pharmaceutical giants. Faced with furious
opposition from all the other 140 members of the World
Trade Organization, the US refused to relax global patent
laws which keep the price of drugs beyond reach of most
developing countries. Talks at the WTO's Geneva
headquarters collapsed last night after the White House
ruled out a deal which would have permitted a full range
of life-saving drugs to be imported into Africa, Asia and
Latin America at cut-price costs. Also
See: Election
2002 Fallout Drug
Industry Poised to Reap Political Dividends
/ commondreams.org
German TV airs
documentary charging American war crimes in Afghanistan
22 December 2002 By Stefan Steinberg The US State
Department has reacted angrily to the showing of a
documentary on German television alleging that US
soldiers were involved in war crimes in Afghanistan. The
film, Massacre in Afghanistan—Did the Americans Look
On?, was produced by Irish filmmaker Jamie Doran. It was
shown December 18 on one of the main German public
channels—ARD. The 45-minute documentary had previously
been shown by the British Channel 5 and the Italian
station RAI. Prior to the German broadcast, a spokesman
for the US State Department, Larry Schwartz, declared:
“It is a mystery to us why a respected television
channel is showing a documentary in which the facts are
completely wrong and which unfairly depicts the US
mission in Afghanistan.” In fact, the allegations in
Doran’s film have been public for over half a year and
the US government has refused to make any statement or
advance any argument to refute its detailed evidence of
complicity by US soldiers in war crimes. The film makes
the point that the Pentagon has refused numerous requests
by Doran for an interview or comment on the events that
it depicts. wsws.org
Environmentalists
question Bush plan to reduce wildfire risk Dec.
22, 2002 - They don't find fault with individual
projects, but some environmentalists are questioning the
Bush administration's plan to speed thinning projects in
fire-prone forests. The plan, which includes two pilot
projects in the Pacific Northwest, would allow officials
to skip time-consuming environmental assessments, as well
as some public comment. That would allow thinning and
forest-restoration projects to proceed in a matter of
months, rather than years. Eight of the 10 pilot projects
are in the West, including plans to clear brush and dead
limbs on 152 acres at the Leavenworth National Fish
Hatchery in central Washington and thousands of acres of
federally owned land along the Rogue River in
southwestern Oregon. azcentral.com
Casualties of an
'Undeclared War'
Civilians Killed and Injured as U.S. Airstrikes Escalate
in Southern Iraq
December 22, 2002 By Peter Baker
BASRA, Iraq -- She flinches just a bit when the air
raid siren comes on. Not because it is unusual, but
because it is not. And because it reminds her of that day
just a few weeks ago. The sirens sound most every day,
once, twice, sometimes more. They are followed by the
sound of jet planes soaring overhead. Then the soft puffs
of antiaircraft fire off in the distance. What Nahla
Mohammed remembers from that day, however, is not the
sirens or the jet planes, but running into her son on the
street just after she finished shopping for supper. He
asked what she would fix, she recalled. Meat, vegetables
and soup, she answered. He headed off, anticipating the
family meal. Ten minutes later, according to a cousin who
was there, a powerful blast slammed him to the ground as
metal shards sliced through his body. Mohammed Sharif
Reda, a 23-year-old mechanic married just two months and
planning to build a house for his family, was among four
people who Iraqi officials said were killed Dec. 1 in
what they call an "undeclared war" being waged
here in southern Iraq. washingtonpost.com
Al Gore and the politics
of oligarchy 22
December 2002 By Barry Grey Al Gore’s
announcement that he will not seek the Democratic
presidential nomination in 2004 says a great deal about
the state of the American political system and the
Democratic Party. The former vice president and nominal
head of the Democrats, who captured the votes of 50
million Americans and won the popular vote in the 2000
presidential race, chose a December 15 interview on the
CBS program “60 Minutes” as the venue for publicizing
his decision. That Gore, by far the best known of all
likely Democratic presidential aspirants, should remove
himself from contention at this early stage shows the
degree to which the political system is controlled by an
elite of media and political decision-makers, who are
themselves answerable to the American financial
oligarchy. wsws.org
 Americans
Revolt in Pennsylvania - New Battle Lines Are Drawn
December 21, 2002 by Thom Hartmann The good citizens of
Pennsylvania have done it again. Back in 1776, they hosted at
Liberty Hall in Philadelphia a gathering of people radicalized by the predations
of the East India Company. The world's first multinational corporation then held
a virtual stranglehold on commerce and politics in North America, and brazenly
used British troops as its enforcers. On the first week of December, 1600, when
she created the East India Company, Queen Elizabeth I became the first CEO
monarch, and by 1776 King George II was following in her footsteps with his
sizeable holdings in and open advocacy of corporate rule. The American colonists
were offended by the idea they should be vassals of a corporation and a kingdom
that supported and profited from it. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence, which explicitly stated that humans were born into this world
endowed by their Creator with certain rights, that governments were created by
humans to insure only humans held those rights, and "That whenever any form
of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people
to alter or abolish it…" thepeoplesvoice.org
Bush to propose requiring
ISPs to monitor Net Dec.
20, 2002 By John Markoff and John Schwartz The
Bush administration is planning to propose requiring Internet service providers
to help build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet
and, potentially, surveillance of its users. The proposal is part of a final version of a report,
``The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace,'' set for release early next year,
according to several people who have been briefed on the report. It is a
component of the effort to increase national security after the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks. siliconvalley.com
Bush labels Santa an "enemy combatant" and
includes the North Pole in the "axis of evil"
December 20, 2002— By Bev Conover Online Journal Editor &
Publisher Having drawn the ire of George W. Bush, Santa Claus could find himself
and his reindeers shot down by a JDAM missile as they enter United States'
airspace on Christmas Eve. It isn't what Santa has done that has earned him a
place at the top of the Bush administration "Kill List," knocking
Saddam Hussein out of first place and dropping Osama bin Laden to third, but
what he has refused to do, according to White House Press Secretary Ari
Fleischer. onlinejournal.com
Air Traffic Controllers Will Distribute Leaflets to Travelers as Part of
Nationwide Campaign About Dangers of Privatization
Dec. 20, 2002 Members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA)
will conduct an information campaign Friday at National Airport, talking with
holiday air travelers and providing literature about the dangers of the Bush
Administration's intent to sell off air traffic control to the lowest bidder.
They will be joined by hundreds of other controllers at dozens of other airports
around the nation. usnewswire.com
US fears Saddam will
raze Iraq Dec.
20, 2002 By Tim Reid in Washington, Philip
Webster and David Charter THE Bush Administration
has “solid evidence” that Saddam Hussein will unleash
a “scorched earth” policy if he faces removal from
power, including the blowing up of oil wells, power
plants and food storage facilities. The
Pentagon also has firm evidence that the Iraqi President
has decided to launch chemical and biological attacks on
US troops, Iraq’s Shia and Kurd minorities and the
people of Kuwait if he faces defeat, intelligence
officials told The Times yesterday. timesonline.co.uk
Let Them Eat Cake TV blames Africans for famine
Dec. 20, 2002 By Zeynep Toufe A famine is raging through southern
Africa--a famine that Doctors Without Borders has called among the worst in
Africa in the past decade. The international relief organization CARE reports
that the famine "is largely the result of one of the worst droughts in a
decade" and that "severe hunger--even starvation--threatens millions,
particularly among the most vulnerable: children, the elderly, and pregnant and
nursing women" in Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
This is occurring against the backdrop of an AIDS epidemic in Africa that has
claimed 25 million lives and counting, leaving behind about 14 million orphans.
It's a tragic story, full of suffering, especially of children. But it's not
good television, apparently. An analysis of transcripts of news programs for the
six months between March 11 and September 11, 2002, by the three major broadcast
networks--including daily news shows and such weekly programs as Nightline and
60 Minutes--demonstrates a striking lack of attention to the plight of Southern
Africa. The rare stories were almost always without any substantive reference to
the role of rich countries, transnational corporations and the international
finance system in triggering or worsening the crisis. Analysis seemed to be
present to the degree that blame could be put on the shoulders of African
nations--fairly or not. fair.org
ACLU Calls Immigrant Registration
Program Pretext for Mass Detentions
December 19, 2002 WASHINGTON – In a development that confirms the
American Civil Liberties Union’s initial fears about a controversial immigrant
fingerprinting and registration program, the Immigration and Naturalization
Service is apparently using the program as a pretext for the mass detention of
hundreds of Middle Eastern and Muslim men and boys. aclu.org
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