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JANUARY
20-8, 03
Archives |
 
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Hundreds
of thousands of people rallied
in Washington DC on Saturday, January 18 to say no to war
with Iraq. 20 January
2003 Speakers at the event evoked the memory of Martin
Luther King in calling for a world without violence, and
for a country that seeks to end hunger among all children
rather than terrozing those whom the Bush administration
opposes. Speakers also said that Bush was killing
the American way of life in this war for oil. The event
in DC was organized by the International ANSWER coaltion.
The signifcance of the event became immediately apparent:
for perhaps the first time in history, a massive march of
people against war was on the loose in the nation's
capitol, controlling the streets and showing no signs of
stopping. A sea of people stretching more than one mile
long and taking up four lanes of roadway marched through
the nation's capitol Saturday in vocal and colorful
opposition to the U.S. government's drive to war with
Iraq. People had traveled
to DC from many parts of the country to participate.
People of diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds braved
frigid weather to peacefully rally in front of Congress
and march in the streets of Washignton DC, to oppose war
and to demand
peace and justice. Speakers at the rally included Ramsey
Clark, Jessica Lange, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and
many others. In the game of estimating
crowd size numbers,
police estimates,
official and unoffical, ranged from 30,000 to 200,000
people participated while organizers put the number at
500,000. Many independent observers estimated about
250-300,000 people participing, which made it twice as
large as the last anti-war rally in DC in October.
Despite this, most media outlets again understated
the amount of demonstrators. Further coverage includes
photo galleries of the demonstrations indymedia.org
Hundreds of thousands protest US war drive vs. Iraq
Demonstrations in Washington, San Francisco and cities
worldwide 20 January
2003 By Kate Randall Hundreds of thousands of
people turned out for demonstrations in Washington DC,
San Francisco and other cities across the US and Canada
on Saturday to protest the Bush administration’s
impending war against Iraq. The protests, which drew
substantially more people than those held last October,
were the largest anti-war demonstrations in North America
since the Vietnam War era, with an estimated half-million
protesters participating. More than 200,000 protested in
the nation’s capital, traveling by bus and car from as
far away as Florida and Iowa. Simultaneous demonstrations
took place in San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Honolulu,
Albuquerque, Des Moines, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Tampa, and
many other US cities. Protesters also took to the streets
in New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, the Netherlands,
France, Italy, Sweden, Egypt and Syria. In both their
size and international reach, the demonstrations were
indicative of rapidly growing anti-war sentiment in the
US and around the world. The protests in the US shattered
the myth promoted by the media of political consensus and
mass support for the Bush administration and its war
policies. The large turnout occurred despite the fact
that the media gave virtually no advance publicity to the
protests, and has systematically suppressed reports of
domestic opposition to the government’s war plans. wsws.org
US marchers take to
streets in echo of 60s As opposition grows, Bush's
ratings slump January
20, 2003 Matthew Engel The spirit of the 60s
returned to the streets of Washington at the weekend with
a massive protest aimed at stopping the war in Iraq. The
rally, the centrepiece of a day of worldwide
demonstrations, was the most impressive show of
opposition to President George Bush's policies in the 16
months of global crisis. Mr Bush was at the presidential
country retreat, Camp David, while the hordes trampled
the National Mall close to the back garden of the White
House. But the roars of the crowd will have reached him
even there, not so much because of the numbers of the
protesters, but because of a growing sense that public
opinion in general may be shifting in their direction.
While the rally was taking place, a new Time-CNN poll was
released, showing the president's approval rating down to
53%, its lowest in any survey since September 11 2001,
with barely half supporting his foreign policy and only
27% believing the economy will improve in the next 12
months. Traditionally, national pessimism dethrones
presidents. guardian.co.uk
Poll shows support for
peace January
20, 2003 By AP Most Americans want the United
States to take more time seeking a peaceful solution in
Iraq rather than moving quickly into a military
confrontation, a new poll says. By 60% to 35%, people in
the Newsweek poll released yesterday said they would
prefer that the Bush administration allow more time to
find an alternative to war. Support for a military option
would be strong, 81%, if the United States were to act
with full allied support and the backing of the United
Nations Security Council. A majority would be opposed
should this country act without the support of the UN and
had no more than one or two allies. People worry about
the impact of the United States' taking military action
against Iraq. More than half in the poll, 54%, said they
expect it would cause serious divisions with allies. And
more than two-thirds thought it would cause serious
problems throughout the Arab countries and would cause
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to use biological or
chemical weapons against Israel. The poll of 1,002 adults
was taken Jan. 16-17. canoe.ca
Nothing
Conservative About It
January 20, 2003 J.G. Schwam One of the
hallmarks of the GOP is their position as so called
fiscal conservatives. White House budget director Mitch
Daniels released a statement that indicated the federal
budget deficit would likely balloon to $300 billion by
next year. This unprecedented level of deficit spending
is a backhanded slap in the face of every conservative
voter that voted for Bush based on his stand as a fiscal
conservative. The Bush White House is demonstrating daily
its inability or unwillingness to act responsibly with
the public coffers. fp.enter.net
January
19, 2003 On January 18, 2003
the world saw the American people stand up and make their voices heard.
For the first time on this earth all of the nations were united in one
idea, to stop this mad Bush war.
In spite of the corporate media blackout of the true size
and importance of the world wide protests and the manufactured poll data
claiming 87% support for Bush's war, the fact is that this anti-war
protest broke all records. The protest in DC had over a half a million,
the San Francisco protest a quarter million, and there were hundreds of lesser
protests that will go unmentioned.
Now the world knows that the US government no longer speaks
for the American people. Bush and his chicken hawks have lost what ever
remained of the illusion of public support they once enjoyed.
Where were the 87% who support the war? Pro-war 'Free
Republic' managed to scrape up 400 people to protest in favor of the war
in DC. 400 amounts to less than 1% of 500,000, proving resoundingly that
media poll data is crap.
On the fateful day that Bush drags the world kicking and
screaming into this terrible war, we turn our backs on all that made us
great, all that we stood for, our democratic principals. We can no
longer say that we hold any value in freedom or have any respect for the
rule of law. We will be as rogue a state as has ever existed on the
earth.
Other nations which have attempted to dominate the world
militarily have failed and their peoples and their countries were decimated,
never again to achieve their former greatness.
Our Government, against the will of the American people and
the world, is choosing to enter another nation completely unprovoked and
take what is theirs, their oil. This will be seen as criminal aggression.
In the middle eastern world it will be seen as a direct and unprovoked
attack. This violent act of greed and power by one man and his regime
will serve to unite some five hundred million Muslims in their hatred of
America. Editor |
 LIES
TO OUR MILITARY January 19, 2003
by Dan Dvorak
When Bush told the troops that they would have to make a sacrifice, he wasn't
just whistling Dixie Now it comes out that from Gulf I there are over 100,000
casualties of some strange sickness that totally incapacitates you, FOREVER. It
takes six months to see a VA doctor, and new cuts in the budget are going to
make VA services not available to anyone who can afford to pay for medical help.
There is set in place a maximum wage the veterans can earn before they qualify
to wait 6 months to see a doctor about something the government says doesn't
exist. thepeoplesvoice.org
Nation rallies for peace Tens of
thousands in S.F. demand Bush abandon war plans January
19, 2003 From San Francisco to Washington, D.C., from Paris to Tokyo,
hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the world's streets Saturday to
protest potential military action against Iraq by the Bush administration and
its allies. In Washington, where temperatures hovered in the mid-20s, as many as
500,000 protesters rallied outside the Capitol, while in San Francisco tens of
thousands of peace activists marched up Market Street from the Ferry Building to
City Hall. With the Pentagon stepping up military preparations, including
ordering more aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf, thousands of demonstrators
in cities from Moscow to London to Cairo called on the Bush administration to
find a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis. The rallies drew people of all
ages, races, religious denominations and political persuasions -- many of them
saying that this was their first protest. sfgate.com
White
House Cutting $10 Billion in Appropriations for Poverty and Other Programs While
Promoting a $670 Billion Tax Cut January
18, 2003 By U.S. Newswire WASHINGTON, Following is a statement by
Robert Greenstein and Richard Kogan of the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities (CBPP): Cutting $10 Billion in Appropriations for Poverty and Other
Programs While Promoting a $670 Billion Tax Cut: Does This Represent Fiscal
Discipline and Balanced Policy? The omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year
2003 that the Senate is now considering contains a series of cuts that would
adversely affect workers hard hit by the economic downturn, low-income elderly
and disabled individuals and low-income children, and states, which are facing
their worst fiscal crisis in 50 years. thepeoplesvoice.org
Peace activists ready worldwide
rallies to protest Bush war plans 2003-01-18 Associated
Press Fearing war could start in weeks, protesters are massing in
Washington, San Francisco and several other cities around the world to press for
a peaceful resolution to the crisis with Iraq and an end to U.S.' own weapons of
mass destruction. The weekend demonstrations coincide with America's military
buildup in the Gulf region and a time of remembrance for the nonviolent struggle
embodied by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday Monday is a U.S.
national holiday. As U.S. military personnel ship out, protesters are packing
Washington-bound buses and organizing local marches and vigils from Tampa,
Florida, to San Francisco. "We are attacking a poor country that has enough
problems," said Al Svitesic, a retired pile driver and World War II veteran
who will be rallying in Pittsburgh next week. "It is unjust." Anti-war
rallies are also planned in Toronto, Brussels and Tokyo. In Germany, activists
have called protests today in Hamburg, Cologne and in front of U.S. Army Europe
headquarters in Heidelberg. etaiwannews.com
Bush
assails medical lawsuits January 17, 2003 By DIEGO
IBARGUEN The issue polarizes two of the
nation's largest and best-funded lobbies -- physicians, with whom the White
House has aligned, and trial lawyers, whom Bush repeatedly has demonized.
One trial lawyer who wants Bush's job challenged his
diagnosis. "The truth is the insurance
industry has done poorly in the market and is simply passing those costs on to
doctors and patients," said Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., He accused Bush of
"once again standing with his insider friends in the insurance industry and
standing against seriously injured children and families." Last
fall, legislation proposing a $250,000 cap on damages for pain and suffering in
malpractice cases passed the House of Representatives but died in the
Democrat-led Senate. The president praised that legislation Thursday, calling on
Congress to take up the issue again. This
time, Bush has a key ally in Senate Republican leader Bill Frist, himself a
physician, and a GOP majority in the Senate. thestate.com
Bush to let states limit
Medicaid Critics of
reversal say it would 'undermine access to essential emergency services' for
children, elderly and disabled January 17, 2003
By
Robert Pear NEW YORK TIMES WASHINGTON
- The Bush administration, in a reversal, has ruled that managed care
organizations can limit and restrict coverage of emergency services for poor
people on Medicaid. The new policy, disclosed in a recent letter to state
Medicaid directors, appears to roll back standards established in a 1997 law and
in rules issued by the Clinton administration, in January 2001, and by the Bush
administration itself, in June 2002. Under the 1997 law, states can require
Medicaid recipients to enroll in health maintenance organizations or other types
of managed care. But certain safeguards for patients were built into that law.
Congress, for example, stipulated that managed care organizations had to provide
coverage for Medicaid patients in any situation that a "prudent
layperson" would regard as an emergency. But now the Bush administration
has decided that states can place limits on coverage of such emergency services.
bayarea.com
US blocks cheap drugs for undeveloped world 17 January 2003
By Barry Mason
World Trade Organization (WTO) talks on the provision of generic drugs to
underdeveloped countries broke down as the United States, on behalf of the major
pharmaceutical companies, blocked agreement at the last minute. The deadline for
an accord was supposed to be December 21, 2002—one year after the WTO
Ministerial Conference meeting at Doha, Qatar had issued its “Declaration on
Trade-Related Intellectual Property (TRIPS) and Public Health”. wsws.org
Bush cuts into green laws
by stealth Regulation
changes favor party's industrial backers
January 17, 2003 Julian Borger The White House is quickly but quietly undermining environmental protection laws
with dozens of small administrative changes in favour of landowners and
corporations, according to a report yesterday. While
the US rejection of the Kyoto treaty on global warming focused world attention
on President Bush's environmental policies, many of the administrative changes
have gone almost unnoticed, although they may have just as much impact. Last
week, the environmental protection agency (EPA) announced it would review how
many US streams and marshes it would continue to protect. Small isolated streams
and ponds which dry up in hot weather - up to 60% of the formerly protected
habitat - might be excluded. guardian.co.uk
Different kind of 'bias' benefited president
January 17, 2003 BY DEBRA PICKETT I've
been counting and, so far, have come up with exactly one thing I have in common
with President Bush: We both went to Ivy League schools, the same ones our
fathers did. Which makes us beneficiaries of one of the coziest little
affirmative action programs this fine country has to offer. Bush
stopped short of actually uttering the words "affirmative action" when
he got us all talking about this Wednesday. Instead, he kept to the specifics of
the University of Michigan admissions formulas that are the subject of a case
now before the Supreme Court, calling them "divisive, unfair and impossible
to square with the Constitution." He
didn't mention anything about the whole deal with Ivy League alumni kids. Bush was a C student. His SAT
score, 1206 out of a possible 1600, while above the national average, was well
below average for Yale's class of 1968. He got in primarily because he was a
"legacy," the son of an alumnus. This might sound divisive and unfair,
especially if you are, let's say, a very smart kid whose parents didn't go to
Yale, but it does square with the Constitution, because Yale, like the
University of Pennsylvania, where I went to school, is a private institution. suntimes.com
National Sanctity of Life Day January 17, 2003
By
John Chuckman (YellowTimes.org) – President Bush has declared National Sanctity of
Human Life Day. I should be forgiven for greeting the news with cynicism, but at least
they included the word "national" in the title. The list of examples demonstrating how life is regarded by Americans with
considerably less than sanctity outside their national borders is painfully
long. There is eloquent testimony in the flesh of tens of thousands of
innocent peasants ripped by metal shards of American landmines and cluster
bombs in a dozen far-off lands. There is America's wanton disregard of Israel's brutal rule over the
Palestinians; its years of wanton disregard of South Africa's brutal
apartheid government; and its years of wanton disregard of official murder
and torture in Chile, in Iran, and in a dozen other lands with governments
bestowed by America's hysterical, witch-hunting interventions. yellowtimes.com
Bush Is Racking Up
“Frequent Liar Miles” 01/17/03
Dennis Hans
Lyndon Johnson is remembered for lying
about Vietnam, Richard Nixon for lying about Watergate, Bill Clinton for
lying about adultery. George W. Bush is known as a “straight shooter.” What’s wrong with that picture? Bush has, after all, racked up more
“frequent liar miles” than any other politician in recent memory.
Not familiar with “frequent liar miles”? I coined the expression to pay
tribute to the staying power of Bush’s lies. After all, a lie is of no use
to the teller if it is promptly branded a lie and the teller a liar. Not
only does he not benefit from the lie, his now-tarnished image makes it more
difficult to get anyone to believe subsequent lies. fp.enter.net
The United States
of America has gone mad January 17, 2003
Last Friday a friend of mine in California drove to his local supermarket
with a sticker on his car saying: “Peace is also Patriotic”. It was gone by
the time he’d finished shopping. timesonline.co.uk
The Fight for the Future of Music
January 17, 2003 America stands on the cusp of a sweeping set of shifts in federal media
ownership rules that could dramatically alter the nature of what we see, hear
and read, warns Federal Commications Commission member Jonathan S. Adelstein.
Dialogue and debate about these proposed changes must be ramped up quickly if
the public interest is to be protected. thenation.com
HUNDRED YEAR WAR
January 17, 2003 We're beginning what could be a hundred-years war if we
don't change our policy. I don't think a lot of people, particularly in
Washington, particularly in places in the White House, fully understand the
dangers of going to a full-scale war. workingforchange.com
Yes,
Gore DID Win! January 17, 2003 Scads and scads of information detailing the
Gore victory and the Bush coup! legitgov.org
Big
Oil and James Baker target Western Sahara
January 17, 2003 In the midst of America's international campaign against
terrorism, the Bush administration is permitting Big Oil to legitimize the
illegal occupation of an invaded country–Western Sahara. onlinejournal.com
Security,
secrecy and a Bush brother January
17, 2003 A
company that provided security at the World Trade Center, Washington, D.C.'s
Dulles International Airport and United Airlines between 1995 and 2001 was
backed by a private Kuwaiti-American investment firm, whose records were not
open to full public disclosure, with ties to the Bush family. onlinejournal.com
Tech
Stocks Continue to Slide in Early-Afternoon Trade Dow
Jones January 17, 2003
NEW YORK -- Technology shares fell sharply Friday amid disappointment in
earnings reports from industry titans Microsoft and International Business
Machines. quicken.com
Couple held in terror plot on word of witness
seen as unreliable January
16, 2003 Sheila
MacVicar HEIDELBERG, Germany (CNN) -- An
American woman and her fiance arrested this past September on suspicion of
plotting to blow up a U.S. Army base in Germany are still being held in prison,
largely on the word of a witness discredited by others who knew her. Astrid
Eyzaguirre, a U.S. citizen, and her German-born Turkish fiance, Osman
Pekmezci,
were arrested September 5, 2002 after the witness, herself a young American
woman, told authorities the two were making explosives in their suburban
apartment and planning an attack on the military base -- headquarters for the
U.S. Army in Europe -- on the anniversary of September 11. No charges have been
brought against either Eyzaguirre or Pekmezci, but are expected soon. The
prosecution has indicated the two will be charged with terrorist-related
offenses. At the time of the police raid of the couple's apartment, German
officials announced that five pipe bombs, and chemicals to
make explosives had been found. But police documents obtained by CNN, detailing
the search, show no pipe bombs were found. And a forensic analysis of chemicals
found in the apartment carried out by the German prosecution and seen by CNN
states that construction of a bomb would not have been possible. The forensic
analysis of the chemicals shows the fertilizer found was not suitable for use in
bomb-making. cnn.com
Groups Denounce Bush Decision to Keep Media from
Appearance at Hospital with Malpractice Record
NEW YORK, Jan. 16 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Consumer groups are denouncing
President Bush's last-minute decision to close to the press his visit to Mercy
Hospital in Scranton, Pa. on January 16, 2003. The Mercy Hospital System has
recently been the subject of a notorious malpractice case at its Wilkes Barre
facility, for which the CEO has publicly apologized. Bush is later expected to
call for severe limits on the legal rights of children, seniors and others
injured by medical malpractice. usnewswire.com
The Biggest Threat To
Peace
January 16, 2003 Which country really poses the greatest
danger to world peace in 2003? TIME asks for readers' views. Who really
poses the greatest danger to world peace? Washington and Pyongyang are
talking tough but is the biggest danger to peace closer to home? European
antagonism towards Bush's robust stance is now being mirrored in the U.S., with
even those he might normally consider his allies now urging caution. So TIME
asks you: which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003? Click
here to vote and find out the answer
Senate GOP is after
Arctic oil again January
16, 2003 By H. Josef Hebert Leaders
have plan to bypass chance of filibuster, which killed last bill.
Senate Republicans intend to push anew to open an Arctic wildlife refuge to oil
drilling, this time using a legislative procedure that would prevent Democrats
from blocking their move with fewer than 50 votes. Attempts
to lift the ban on oil development in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
were thwarted last year when Democrats vowed a filibuster against the measure,
meaning 60 votes would be needed to get the legislation through. sanmateocountytimes.com
Angelides says Bush plan
will cost taxpayers billions
January 16, 2003 By
JIM WASSERMAN By
eliminating taxes on stock dividends, President Bush's tax relief plan would end
up costing California taxpayers up to $17 billion in higher bond interest
payments over 10 years, state Treasurer Phil Angelides said Wednesday. If
investors didn't have to pay federal taxes on private stock earnings, Angelides
said, they would find tax-free public bonds less attractive, which could drive
up borrowing costs for schools, parks and transit. Angelides
also said the proposed dividend earnings tax cut could reduce the state's
borrowing capacity over the next 10 years by $9.3 billion -- the equivalent of
building nearly 1,000 elementary schools. As
he released one of the nation's first state analyses of the Bush plan, Angelides
predicted that nationally across 10 years it could cost local and state
governments up to $155 billion in higher borrowing costs.''There is no question
we will enter an era if this plan is passed, where interest rates for municipal
bonds will be driven up as we compete for investors with America's
corporations,'' Angelides said. montereyherald.com
“Big Brother” is No Longer a
Fiction, ACLU Warns in New Report January
16, 2003 The United States has now reached the point where a total
“surveillance society” has become a realistic possibility, the American
Civil Liberties Union warned in a report being released today. “Many people
still do not grasp that Big Brother surveillance is no longer the stuff of books
and movies,” said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and
Liberty Program and a co-author of the report. “Given the
capabilities of today’s technology, the only thing protecting us from a
full-fledged surveillance society are the legal and political institutions we
have inherited as Americans,” he added. “Unfortunately, the September 11
attacks have led some to embrace the fallacy that weakening the Constitution
will strengthen America.” aclu.org
Observations On The Cusp Of
Armageddon January 15, 2003 Tony Blair's
support for George W Bush's reckless "moral"
War For Oil in Iraq is not, to update an old Broadway expression,
"playing in Yorkshire". In my previous article, Blair
Bends Over Backwards, I related to you my disgust with his poodle-like
willingness to go along with the Bush Administration's war plans. Well,
since then, he's backed down a bit. Ninety seven percent of the British public
think that Blair is too close to Bush and the backlash is growing. Simply put,
the vast majority of Britons
oppose any war in Iraq. Many people are increasingly
sceptical about the propaganda
being forwarded as a pretext for war. International Development Secretary
Clare Short has come out against the war and has charged Blair with the duty
of stopping Bush in his tracks. Politically, Mr.
Blair is in trouble, and now he's suddenly scrambling to achieve a
nonmilitary solution by having
talks with Bush. Good luck Tony. You see, Dubya and his handlers don't
give a damn what
the citizens of the U.S. think, let alone "foreigners". members.shaw.ca
The United
States of America has gone mad
January 15, 2003 John le Carré America has entered one of its periods
of historical madness, but this is the worst I can remember: worse
than McCarthyism, worse than the Bay of Pigs and in the long term
potentially more disastrous than the Vietnam War. The
reaction to 9/11 is beyond anything Osama bin Laden could have hoped
for in his nastiest dreams. As in McCarthy times, the freedoms that
have made America the envy of the world are being systematically
eroded. The combination of compliant US media and vested corporate
interests is once more ensuring that a debate that should be ringing
out in every town square is confined to the loftier columns of the
East Coast press. timesonline.co.uk
 The Weeks of Crisis Before Us
January 15, 2003 by Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. For a PDF Version of this
Release Click
Here. We have reached the point at which the institutions of the states of
the Americas and Europe will either end their hysterical denials of economic
reality, or those nations which have not already plunged into an already
accelerating process of disintegration will begin to do so very soon.
The statistic left hanging on the drooping Christmas trees sends a simple,
plain message. The world in general has now been plunged already into the
greatest economic depression since 1929-1932. Up to now, the Congress
and Presidency have shown no interest in any actually competent measures for
dealing with that reality. larouchein2004.net
The
Bush Tax Sham January 15, 2003 by Roger
Hickey On January 7 George W. Bush went to the Economic Club of
Chicago to preview what he has been calling his "jobs and economic growth
package," which he will formally present in his State of the Union
address later this month. The Bush plan repackages old proposals to aid the
wealthy (accelerate some of the tax cuts for the rich already passed) and
newly fashionable ones (exclude dividend income from taxation), while throwing
the rest of us only a few small sops like increasing the childcare credit and
finally supporting extension of unemployment benefits to workers whose
benefits recently ran out. Bush and his advisers are clearly attempting
another neat bait-and-switch: providing more giveaways to the wealthy and
corporations over future decades but selling the package as a quick economic
stimulus that will help working Americans find jobs and economic security. The
Bush economic proposals are a sham. They make the tax system more unfair, they
starve the public sector of resources for needed public investment and they
will not revive growth, spur corporate investment or create jobs. thenation.com
The Pentagon Mindset: Poison Them!
January 15, 2003 Deep inside the sixth of eight glowing articles in its series
"10 Days in September" about what wonderful crisis managers George
W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are, The Washington Post on February 1 buried the
following bit of information: The Pentagon was considering poisoning
Afghanistan's food supply. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld prepared a briefing
for Bush on September 17, Bob Woodward and Dan Balz reported. Rice, head of
the National Security Council, "and Frank Miller, the senior NSC staffer
for defense, went with the President to the Pentagon. "One slide about
special operations in Afghanistan said: Thinking Outside the Box--Poisoning
Food Supply. Miller showed it to Rice. Miller reminded her, It would
effectively be a chemical or biological attack--clearly banned by treaties
that the United States had signed, including the 1972 Biological Weapons
Convention. The Secretary of Defense wanted to propose to the President that
he poison Afghanistan's food supply! progressive.org
 THE
KING HAS NO CLOTHES: BUT SAYING SO
MIGHT LAND YOU IN PRISON January 14, 2003 By: Paul Joseph
Watson The hallmark of an effective dictatorship, whether that be
Stalinist Russia or Hitler’s Germany, is the wholesale silencing of the
opposing voice. Criticism of the government must be eliminated because the
foundation of despots crumbles when their authority is questioned in a sober
and educated manner. For those of us who don’t live in countries like China
or Zimbabwe, a benchmark of how healthy our freedoms are is to judge how our
government reacts to criticism. We should therefore be alarmed that a growing
pretext is being set whereby it is either illegal or an act of political
suicide to criticize President Bush. thepeoplesvoice.org
Iraq links cancers to uranium weapons U.S. likely to use arms again in
war
January 14, 2003 by Robert Collier Baghdad
Something is killing the children in Dr. Emad Wisam's hospital ward, and filling
it up again and again with more sick and dying kids. Walking
a visitor through the halls of Al Mansour Children's Hospital in Baghdad last
weekend, Wisam stopped briefly at his small patients' bedsides to commiserate.
After checking 5-year-old Nur Abdullah, who has a tumor in
his throat, Wisam turned away with a pained look in his eyes. "He
will die soon," he said. "Most of these kids will die. And there's
almost nothing we can do." Iraq has experienced
a dramatic increase in child cancers, leukemia and birth defects in recent
years. Wisam, Iraqi medical authorities and growing numbers of American
activists cast blame on the U.S. weapons containing depleted uranium that were
used in the 1991 Gulf War and in the 1998 missile attacks on Baghdad and other
major cities. They also assert that such munitions -- which were also used by
U.S. forces in Bosnia, Kosovo and Serbia in far smaller quantities -- may be a
cause of Gulf War diseases, elusive maladies that have affected 50,000 to 80,000
U.S. veterans of the 1991 conflict. The
Pentagon says studies it has sponsored have found no evidence that depleted
uranium, known as DU, causes serious illnesses. sfgate.com
Bush's
job approval lowest since 9/11
January 13, 2003
By Richard Benedetto and Susan President Bush's job approval rating as
he nears the middle of his term has dropped below 60% for the first time since
the Sept. 11 attacks, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll has found. The number
reflects a rising uncertainty about a sluggish economy and the prospects of
conflict with Iraq and North Korea. The dip in Bush's rating to 58% from 63%
last week is within the survey's margin of error of +/-3 percentage points,
but it marks a steady decline in his approval numbers. usatoday.com
UN report details humanitarian disaster
expected from war vs. Iraq 13 January 2003 By
Chris Talbot A United Nations report marked “Strictly Confidential”
and dated December 10, 2002, spells out in harrowing detail the likely
humanitarian consequences of US-led war against Iraq. Compiled by UN
planners, the report makes clear that unlike the attack on Iraq in 1991, which
it describes as a “relatively short, aerial bombardment of infrastructure,
towns and cities”, the western powers are now planning “potentially a
large scale and protracted ground offensive, supported by aerial and
conventional bombardment.” Consequently, the potential devastation will be
far greater than in 1991, it reports. Whereas a majority of the population of
26.5 million at that time had family members in work and access to cash and
material assets, this is no longer the case. The result will be unimaginably
dire in a situation where the infrastructure on which the population are so
dependent for government supplies—electricity network, railway system,
roads, bridges and ports—will be, in the report’s terminology,
“seriously degraded”. wsws.
Tens of Thousands Oppose Bush's Wars in LA, Twin Cities, Chicago
13 January 2003 The march and rally on Saturday, January 11 in Los Angeles was
the largest anti-war demonstration in Southern California in decades. Non-LAPD
crowd estimates range from 15,000 to as high as 45,000. The mid-day march
stretched ten city blocks in downtown LA. In sharp contrast to Northern
California, the Los Angeles area has never been known as one of the centers of
American activism. While this has begun to change in recent years (e.g., the
Justice for Janitors struggle in the late 1990s, and then the D2K
mobilizations), SoCal still lags behind its northen neighbors. Thus Saturday's
massive demo, the largest in the US since October 26, suggests the movement to
stop the war on Iraq is growing exponentially. indymedia.org
Establishing the New Resistance to
regain America January 12, 2003 By Bev
Conover Online Journal Editor & Publisher — With the reign of terror
George W. Bush has unleashed on the US, the war he is chomping at the bit to
wage against Iraq and his ongoing destruction of the US economy, this is no
time for deluding ourselves that the Democrats will prove to be our saviors.
Only we still have it within our power to save ourselves from the corporations
and their illegitimate regime in the White House, but time is running out. Our
only hope is to become the New Resistance, toss away the conventional wisdom,
turn a deaf ear to the propaganda that emanates from the corporate media and
think outside the box. And by the New Resistance, I am not necessarily
referring to organizing large, formal groups. Such groups tend to devolve into
ego trips, power plays and turf wars. Let the New Resistance be a guerilla
movement of individuals and small groups—friends, family, neighbors—all
with the same goal of regaining the country and rebuilding it into the nation
Madison, Jefferson and others envisioned: onlinejournal.como
US: 101,000 jobs lost in December 11
January 2003 By David Walsh The US economy continued to hemorrhage jobs
in December, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported January 10 that
employment declined by 101,000 during the month. While the official
unemployment rate remained at 6 percent, analysts had predicted a growth of
20,000 to 30,000 jobs and were surprised by the figures. US bond prices jumped
on the report and the dollar sank to a three-year low against the euro. The
employment loss was the largest single-month total since February 2002, when
165,000 jobs were slashed. The BLS revised its latest report to show a decline
of 88,000 jobs cut in November, as opposed to the 40,000 initially reported.
The US economy eliminated 185,000 jobs in 2002 as a whole. wsws.org
Senate to Repeal Law Shielding Drug Giants
January 11, 2003 By Helen Dewar Frist Makes Deal With 3 GOP Moderates
Senate Republican leaders agreed yesterday to repeal controversial language
approved last year to help shield pharmaceutical giants such as Eli Lilly and
Co. from multibillion-dollar lawsuits in which parents allege that a vaccine
preservative caused autism in their children. The agreement covers two other
hotly contested proposals that had been tucked into legislation creating the
Department of Homeland Security. It was crafted by three GOP moderates in
negotiation with Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Sen. Judd Gregg
(R-N.H.) and other party leaders. www.washingtonpost.com
Key GOP Senators Object to Bush Plan
President Has Harder Sell on Tax Package
January 11, 2003 By Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei Key Republican
senators are raising objections to President Bush's $670 billion tax cut
proposal, an early sign that the White House will face a tougher fight than it
did on two previous rounds of tax reductions. Although the president and his
aides have signaled they intend to fight fiercely, at least five GOP senators
have now voiced serious doubts about Bush's plan, especially the centerpiece
elimination of the dividend tax. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E.
Grassley (R-Iowa) said yesterday, "we may not be able to sell it." washingtonpost.com
 SAVE
THE BILL OF RIGHTS CAMPAIGN January
10, 2003 Drafted by Daniel V. Dvorak
Resolution Title: Waldo FloridaLiberty
Preservation Resolution. Summary: Resolution to Oppose the USA
Patriot Act, Homeland Security's Activation of NORTHCOM, the
Designation of the United States as a Nation under Military Law
under the NORTHCOM, and Related Unconstitutional Executive Orders
and Presidential Decision Directives. WHEREAS, the City of
Waldo was founded and exists according to the laws of the Florida
State Constitution and the United States Constitution and Bill of
Rights, both of which guarantee the citizenry the protection of the
unalienable rights granted them by their Creator; and WHEREAS,
the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights and the Florida
State Constitution guarantee all persons living in the United States
these inviolate rights including - freedom of speech; freedom of
religion, assembly and petition; the right of privacy under the
Fourth Amendment protecting the population from unreasonable
searches and seizures; due process and equal protection to all
people; equity before the law and the presumption of innocence; the
right to hear the charges against you and to face your accuser;
access to council and judicial proceedings; and the right to a fair,
speedy and public trial; thepeoplesvoice.org
Bush school law worries Quakers
PRIVACY: January 10, 2003 Parents
can keep names from recruiters, group says. The Associated Press
Juneau -- A Quaker organization wants the Juneau School District to
tell parents about their right to opt out of a portion of the No
Child Left Behind Act. The group, Juneau Friends Meeting, is
concerned about a portion of the sweeping law that requires schools
to give out the names and contact information on students. They want
the district to inform parents of their right to keep the
information private. The law allows parents to opt out of the
provisions and keep the information from recruiters. "The
concern is that there has been a very strong military presence
generally in the schools, and the School District has been required
by its own policies to keep student information confidential. This
new law kind of overrides that," said Amy Paige, a member of
the group. No Child Left Behind was promoted by President Bush and
passed into law last year. The law establishes new accountability
measures that include yearly testing of students and allows students
to transfer from substandard schools. The act also requires public
and private high schools to turn over names, telephone numbers and
addresses of all students to recruiters. With the information,
recruiters can make unsolicited calls, send literature and visit
homes without a parent's initial consent. adn.com
Americans may be held as 'enemy
combatants,' January 9, 2003 Appeals
court rules welcomes Government ruling upholding presidential power
RICHMOND, Virginia (CNN) -- A federal appeals court Wednesday ruled
President Bush has the authority to designate U.S. citizens as
"enemy combatants" and detain them in military custody if
they are deemed a threat to national security. Judicial review does
not disappear during wartime but the review of battlefield captures
in overseas conflicts is a highly deferential one," said the
opinion of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling
reverses a lower court decision ordering the government to produce
more information to defend its holding of Yaser Hamdi, a U.S.
citizen accused of fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and
dismisses the complaint of his attorneys. The appeals court ruling
was immediately hailed by the government. "I applaud today's
decision, which reaffirms the president's authority" said
Attorney General John Ashcroft. cnn.com
Bush Cuts
$300 Million to Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, But
Provides Billions in Tax Breaks for the Rich January
8, 2003 Congressman
urges Bush not to abandon Vermonters this winter. Burlington,
VT – Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in a letter sent today
urged President Bush to restore the $300 million that the Bush
Administration has cut from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance
Program (LIHEAP) and to immediately release an additional $300
million in available emergency LIHEAP funding. Sanders
said, “Cutting heating assistance by $300 million and not
releasing emergency LIHEAP funds that Congress has provided exposes
once again the sham of this so-called 'compassionate' conservative
agenda. Apparently, the President’s compassion does not extend to
the thousands of Vermonters, including many senior citizens, who
rely on LIHEAP to keep warm in the winter. In the richest country on
earth, it is a disgrace that there seems to be enough money for tax
breaks to billionaires, but not enough to help people with their
heating bills” bernie.house.gov
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