A Rocky First 100 Days for New Bush Term

One hundred days into his second term, President Bush has lost much of the political muscle he boasted about after winning re-election. Gas prices are rising, his approval ratings are sagging and Americans are unhappy with his handling of the economy and Iraq.

Now he's trying to sell a Social Security plan that would cut future benefits for all but low-income retirees — giving opponents fresh ammunition. Even before Bush unveiled his new proposal — and despite a 60-day sales campaign — a majority of Americans thought he had mishandled Social Security, too.
(AP)

Italy, U.S. Disagree on Agent's Iraq Death

Italy and the United States said Friday they had failed to agree on whether U.S. soldiers were at fault in the death of an Italian intelligence agent in Iraq.In a statement, the two countries said their joint investigation into the March 4 death of agent Nicola Calipari had concluded and that they couldn't arrive at any "shared final conclusions." The statement said the case had now be referred to respective national authorities; Italy has launched a criminal inquiry into Calipari's death.

Calipari was killed soon after he had secured the release of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena from Iraqi militants who had held her hostage for a month. U.S. soldiers fired on the Italians' vehicle as it approached a U.S. checkpoint near Baghdad's airport. Sgrena and another Italian agent were wounded.
(AP)

G.I. Denied Conscientious-Objector Status

The Army said Friday it has denied conscientious objector status for a soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq.

Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, filed his objector application Dec. 28, just 10 days before he skipped his unit's deployment flight. The Army mechanic faces a court-martial May 12 on charges of desertion and missing movement.

The conscientious-objector denial came Wednesday from the Army's Headquarters Department, Fort Stewart spokesman Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone said.
(AP)

Arnold Supports Anti-Immigrant Minutemen

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who outraged some Mexican-American groups last week by calling for a closed border, praised the civilian volunteer Minuteman Project for its patrols to spot illegal immigrants.

"Look, they've cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants by a huge percentage," Schwarzenegger told KFI-AM's "The John & Ken Show" on Thursday.
(AP)

Molly Ivins: An Amazingly Bad Choice

Good news! If there is a distinct possibility a Bush nominee is a vile-tempered, lying, ineffective bully, the U.S. Senate is willing to hold off on the vote for two weeks.

John Bolton was an amazingly bad choice for ambassador to the United Nations from the beginning. He has a long record of expressing contempt for and distrust of the United Nations. You may or may not consider that a reasonable position, but it is highly inadvisable in a diplomat. In addition, he was a notable failure as under secretary of state for arms control and international security. The problem of proliferation simply deteriorated under his guidance. Fewer weapons-grade nuclear materials were secured in the two years after 9-11 than in the two years before the attack. North Korea, which then had two nuclear weapons, now has as many as eight. After dealing with Bolton, the North Korean government called him "human scum" and "a bloodsucker," and declined to recognize him as an official of the United States. No one is claiming North Korea has a rational government, but any halfway-skilled diplomat could do better than that, and many have -- including Bill Richardson.

David Corn: A Mess in Iraq....A Mess in Phoenix

Today on NPR's Diane Rehm Show, Colonel Thomas Hammes, who is retiring from the USMC and the author of The Sling and the Stone: On War in the 21st Century, noted that the average modern-day insurgency lasts 10 to 15 years and that the longer insurgencies exist for about three decades. Now, when did anyone in the Bush administration mention that fact to the American public or note what that means for the United States in terms of the lives and money that are to be expended in Iraq? Answer: never. And it's not that the current predicament was unpredicted. Before the war, I asked a Navy admiral how long US troops would have to remain in Iraq. He said, "Two words: South Korea."

Joe Conason: Bush Hides the Truth About Terror, Torture

Responding to the most serious questions we confront as a nation, the Bush administration can routinely be expected to hide, obfuscate and deceive. If credible information indicates that high-ranking government and military officials permitted and even encouraged the horrific abuse of foreign detainees, the administration assures us that a few bad soldiers can be blamed. If honest statistics indicate that the "war on terror" is achieving less than advertised, the administration buries the report in which those numbers are traditionally published.

Twice within a single week, in a telling coincidence, the administration displayed its dogged commitment to concealment. On April 15, the State Department admitted that it plans to withhold the data on terrorist incidents compiled for the annual, Congressionally mandated report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, which the department must release at the end of the month. And on April 22, the Army celebrated the first anniversary of the exposure of the Abu Ghraib scandal by announcing that an internal investigation had "exonerated" four senior officers responsible for military prisons in Iraq, despite previous findings of culpability.

Gore Blasts GOP Bid to Block Filibusters

Former Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday blamed Republican "lust for one-party domination" for the GOP campaign to change Senate rules on filibustering judicial nominees, and he assailed religious zealots for driving the effort.

Wading into the political fight that has roiled the Senate, the 2000 Democratic presidential candidate and former Tennessee senator warned that altering rules that have served the nation for 230 years would result in a breakdown in the separation of powers.

"What makes it so dangerous for our country is their willingness to do serious damage to our American democracy in order to satisfy their lust for one-party domination of all three branches of government," Gore said of the GOP in a speech. "They seek nothing less than absolute power."
(AP)

Froma Harrop: On "Personal Accounts"

Are Americans smart enough to manage their own retirement savings? No, as a matter of fact, they're not. Americans are amazingly dumb about investing.

Take my friend John. An auto mechanic, John was an absolute genius under the hood of an Alfa Romeo. But he was vain. A crook called offering to get him into commodity options, and John thought he had entered the gates of high finance. He forked over 10,000 of his hard-earned dollars. Of course, they disappeared.

Now, if John had caught someone stealing the $30 radio in his car, he would have ripped him to pieces. But he accepted his $10,000 loss like a sweet little lamb.

"Aren't you angry?" I asked him. No, John replied. He understood that the investment was risky. Had it gone well, he could have become very rich. John had been rolled and didn't even know it.

That was an out-and-out con, and an extreme case. But every week, fresh evidence bubbles up that Americans don't get the basics of ordinary investing.

Bush Admin Wins Fight Against US Servicemen Tortured in Iraq

The Supreme Court declined yesterday to consider whether U.S. prisoners of war who say they were tortured during the 1991 Persian Gulf War should collect a $959 million judgment from Iraq.

The justices let stand a lower-court ruling that threw out the lawsuit by 17 former POWs and 37 family members. That ruling, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit last year, said Congress never authorized such lawsuits against foreign governments.

The dispute pitted the Bush administration, which argued that the money was needed to rebuild Iraq, against former service members.

The decision by the appellate court "runs roughshod over decades of United States dedication to the laws of war," the National League of POW/MIA Families wrote in a friend-of-the-court filing.

STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON ANNIVERSARY OF ABU GHRAIB SCANDAL

STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDWARD M. KENNEDY ON ANNIVERSARY OF ABU GHRAIB SCANDAL

The sad anniversary of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal is now upon us. It's an appropriate time to reflect on how well we've responded as a nation.

The images of cruelty, and perversion are still difficult to look at a year later. An Iraqi prisoner in a dark hood and cape, standing on a cardboard box with electrodes attached to his body. Naked men forced to simulate sex acts on each other. The corpse of a man who had been beaten to death, lying in ice, next to soldiers smiling and giving a "thumbs up" sign. A pool of blood from the wounds of a naked, defenseless prisoner attacked by a military dog.

Committee Prepares Questions for Bolton

Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee prepared a list of about 20 questions Tuesday for John R. Bolton, including requests for e-mails and telephone logs relating to confrontations he has had with intelligence analysts, according to Senate staff.
(AP)

Dems Rebuff GOP Pleas on Social Security

From the buttoned-down confines of a Senate hearing room to a boisterous outdoor rally nearby, Democrats took on President Bush and his Social Security proposals with gusto on Tuesday and rebuffed pleas for bipartisanship from frustrated Republicans.

"If he's going out to push for privatization, let's help him pack," Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said to cheers from a sun-splashed crowd on the lawn across the street from the Capitol. He was ridiculing Bush's heavily publicized 60-day tour to build support for his proposals.
(AP)

Plane Talk from Tom DeLay

Buckle your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride. Despite a bewildering array of ethics violations and investigations into corruption, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was rewarded today with a coveted seat on Air Force One.

Seems there is just no end to the hypocrisy of the Republican power grab. Having been admonished by the House Ethics Committee three times, Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay failed to take responsibility for his actions and instead had his republican cronies, led by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, purge the Ethics Committee and replace them with members loyal to DeLay. Then they changed the rules to protect him further. The changes have not been able to shield DeLay from additional allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

Frist Rejects Deal

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Tuesday rejected compromise offers that would allow minority Democrats to continue to block judicial nominees, saying all of President Bush's past and future court choices deserve confirmation votes from the GOP-controlled Senate.

"At the end of the day, one will be left standing ... the Constitution, which allows up-or-down votes, or the filibuster," Frist said.
(AP)

Sydney Blumenthal: A Test of Cognitive Dissonance

Once again, President Bush is conducting a grand experiment in cognitive dissonance, testing whether his asserted "truths" can prevail over new and obvious facts. This psychological phenomenon was first defined by sociologist Leon Festinger and a team of social scientists in 1957 who studied the behavior of members of a UFO cult under duress when aliens failed to land on Earth as predicted. Some in the cult dropped out when the announced deadline came and went; others redoubled their conviction in the face of disconfirming evidence.

Bush's latest experiment involves his appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. The cognitive dissonance being tested goes beyond the nominee's oft-stated contempt for the United Nations, and extends to his blatant efforts to twist intelligence. Bush's guinea pigs are the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, as always, the American people.

On Tuesday, John Negroponte, nominated as the first director of national intelligence, pledged in his confirmation hearings before the Senate intelligence committee that he would attempt to ensure reliable information, unlike that provided in the run-up to the Iraq war. "Our intelligence effort has to generate better results," said Negroponte. "That is my mandate, plain and simple ... The things that need to be done differently will be done differently."

Joe Conason: Who's Playing Politics?

In defense of John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the White House is once again exploring the boundaries of "reality-based" perception. The Bush administration and its allies are pretending that opposition to Bolton is strictly partisan and political. Yet what must be clear to anyone observing this process is that Democrats alone could scarcely have stalled Bolton, let alone inflicted what may be fatal damage to his nomination.

Indeed, despite unanimous Democratic misgivings about Bolton's rigid ideology and undistinguished record, he would be on his way to Turtle Bay by now -- except for the serious doubt and strong dissent expressed by Republican legislators and diplomats about his conduct, competence, honesty and temperament.

Washington Post Poll on Bush's Performance:

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Bush is handling:
Approve Disapprove
A. Social Security 31 64
B. Iraq 42 56
C. Economy 40 57
D. Terrorism 56 41
E. Energy Policy 35 54

Chairman of Voting Reform Panel Resigns Over Lack of White House Support

The first chairman of a federal voting agency created after the 2000 election dispute is resigning, saying the government has not shown enough commitment to reform.

DeForest Soaries said in an interview Friday that his resignation would take effect next week.
Though Soaries, 53, said he wanted to spend more time with his family in New Jersey, he added that his decision was prompted in part by what he called a lack of support.

"All four of us had to work without staff, without offices, without resources. I don't think our sense of personal obligation has been matched by a corresponding sense of commitment to real reform from the federal government," he said.
(Reuters)

Bush Shows Support To DeLay

In a show of support, President Bush will give embattled House of Representatives Republican leader Tom DeLay an Air Force One ride to Washington from Texas on Tuesday, a White House spokesman said.

DeLay is under fire over allegations that he violated ethics rules by allowing lobbyists to pay for some of his overseas travel, including a May 2000 trip to Britain that included golf at the St. Andrews golf course in Scotland.

The Texas Republican has accused Democrats and the media of conducting a witch hunt, and the White House has called him a friend of Bush and said Bush appreciates the work he is doing as the No. 2 Republican in the House.

DeLay is to attend with Bush an event in Galveston, Texas, on Tuesday about the president's proposals to overhaul Social Security and then will ride back to Washington with him aboard Air Force One, the spokesman said on Monday.
(Reuters)

A test of cognitive dissonance

Once again, President Bush is conducting a grand experiment in cognitive dissonance, testing whether his asserted "truths" can prevail over new and obvious facts. This psychological phenomenon was first defined by sociologist Leon Festinger and a team of social scientists in 1957 who studied the behavior of members of a UFO cult under duress when aliens failed to land on Earth as predicted. Some in the cult dropped out when the announced deadline came and went; others redoubled their conviction in the face of disconfirming evidence.

Bush's latest experiment involves his appointment of John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. The cognitive dissonance being tested goes beyond the nominee's oft-stated contempt for the United Nations, and extends to his blatant efforts to twist intelligence. Bush's guinea pigs are the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, as always, the American people.

On Tuesday, John Negroponte, nominated as the first director of national intelligence, pledged in his confirmation hearings before the Senate intelligence committee that he would attempt to ensure reliable information, unlike that provided in the run-up to the Iraq war. "Our intelligence effort has to generate better results," said Negroponte. "That is my mandate, plain and simple ... The things that need to be done differently will be done differently."

BREAKING NEWS:

GANNON/GUCKERT VISITED WHITE HOUSE 196 TIMES IN TWO YEARS

A conservative writer who quit his job covering President Bush amid criticism for his pointedly political questions visited the White House 196 times in two years, the Secret Service has disclosed.

James D. Guckert, who wrote under the name Jeff Gannon, was Washington bureau chief for Talon News, a conservative online news outlet associated with another Web site, GOPUSA. Guckert posed questions with conservative overtones, attracting scrutiny from liberal bloggers who linked Guckert with online domain addresses suggestive of gay pornography. Guckert resigned in February.

Democratic Reps. Louise Slaughter of New York and John Conyers of Michigan filed a freedom of information request and were given Secret Service records of Guckert's visits to the White House.

(Reuters)

Just What Is the Republican Agenda?

Americans are worried about the economy, skyrocketing gas prices, their kids' education, and healthcare, but Republicans continue to ignore these issues, choosing instead to focus on their power grab.

Just this past Saturday, President Bush even said he couldn't "wave a magic wand" to alleviate gas prices and help American families. Fact is, he's had more than four years to address the problem, but he hasn't. Meanwhile, gas prices have risen by 55 percent, and Americans are watching more and more of their hard earned money drained at the gas pump.

Democrats are fighting to defeat the filibuster and get back to work addressing the real issues people care about - alleviating rising gas prices, providing affordable health care for all Americans, and finding a solution to Social Security that addresses long term solvency without cutting benefits or adding trillions to the national debt.

NEA, School Districts Fight Education Law

The nation's largest teachers union and school districts in three states sued the Bush administration Wednesday over the No Child Left Behind law, aiming to free schools from complying with any part not paid for by the federal government.
(AP)

DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card

The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.
(Washington Post)

Bolton Urged to Withdraw As U.N. Nominee

President Bush's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations should withdraw from consideration or risk embarrassing the president, a Senate Democrat said Sunday. The White House said it stood by John R. Bolton.

A Republican colleague said "it's too close to call" as to whether the Senate will confirm Bolton, who awaits a vote by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 12.

"I think the best policy is to have his nomination come to the full Senate, not decided by a committee because the Constitution says that advice and consent are the province of the Senate itself," said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., on CNN's "Late Edition."
(AP)