Joe Conason: John Paul’s Duality: Neither Left nor Right

Unafraid to embrace the possibility of truth and grace in diverse faiths, he inspired multitudes in his campaigning for human solidarity. Immune to cynicism, this great and good man served us all as the tireless apostle of peace and reconciliation—which is why so many people who disagreed with John Paul II will continue to read him, admire him and honor his memory.
(New York Observer)

Bush's Approval Ratings Continue to Plummet, Along with the Republican Congress'

The public's dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress is growing, with ratings dropping amid record high gas prices, war in Iraq, the Social Security debate and the emotional Terri Schiavo case.

The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving. Only 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the work being done by Congress.
(AP)

Short-Handed Agency Limits Its Functions

Some consumer groups criticize the agency as being too business-friendly.

Rachel Weintraub, assistant general counsel for the Consumer Federation of America, faulted the Bush administration for waiting months to nominate Nord.

"Granted, they're very busy," Weintraub said. "But certainly protecting consumers from potentially dangerous products should be a high priority."
(AP)

The Catholic Vote Revisited

Democrats should not abandon "traditional Catholics" but instead meld a message based on party principles that can appeal to this once core constituency. So says Stanley Greenberg, former Bill Clinton campaign pollster, in a 17-page memo on "Reclaiming the White Catholic Vote."

Greenberg's not the only Democratic insider worried about the continuing decline in the party's appeal to Catholics. In fact, when it comes to religion, and particularly the "Catholic Vote," Democrats have become true believers.
(NCR Online)

Fox Now Going After Spitzer

Brenda Buttner, host of the Saturday morning show Bulls & Bears said she didn't think we had "to worry with Buffett," but she thought "Spitzer will have some more [investigations], as he gears up his campaign, definitely."

Cavuto asked Asman how much higher he thought the market would go. Asman said he wasn't good at predicting that sort of thing but, "certain stocks, particularly pharmaceuticals have been beaten down because of the lawyers." Berkshire Hathaway and insurance stocks "have been beaten down because of AIG." (The SEC and Eliot Spitzer are investigating AIG.) (Here is a one year chart of the pharmaceutical index. The "lawyers" and "bureaucrats" aren't affecting the stocks as much as Asman implied.)
(News Hounds)

Sydney Blumenthal: Politics in Red Robes

President Bush, a militant evangelical Protestant, has lowered the American flag to half-staff for the first time at the death of a pope. Also for the first time, a US president will attend a papal funeral. Bush's political rhetoric is deliberately inflected with Catholic theological phrases, in particular "the culture of life", words he used to justify his interference in the case of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman, the removal of whose feeding tube was upheld 19 times by state and federal courts.

In the 2004 election, Bush's campaign helped organise the attack on John Kerry's Catholic authenticity by conservative bishops who threatened to deny him communion. Inside the White House, policy and personnel are coordinated in line with rightwing Catholicism. Not only are issues like international population control, reproductive health and women's rights vetted, but so are appointments.
(The Guardian)

Florida Senator's Aide Resigns Over Schiavo Memo

Sen. Mel Martinez said Wednesday an infamous unsigned memo passed around on Capitol Hill emphasizing the politics of the Terri Schiavo case originated in his office.
(AP)

Harvard cuts Sudan Business Tie

Under mounting pressure from student activists, Harvard University plans to sell an estimated $4.4 million stake in PetroChina, whose parent company is closely tied to the Sudanese government, which the United States has accused of waging a genocidal campaign in Darfur.

Activists say Harvard's intention, which was announced Monday, is the first major victory in a growing national campaign for divestiture of business connections with Sudan. It is also an important decision for Harvard, which has so strongly resisted public pressure on its investments that, unlike many other major universities, it never fully divested itself of companies doing business with apartheid South Africa.

"Divestment is not a step that Harvard takes lightly, but I believe there is a compelling case for action in these special circumstances, in light of the terrible situation still unfolding in Darfur and the leading role played by PetroChina's parent company in the Sudanese oil industry, which is so important to the Sudanese regime," Harvard's president, Lawrence Summers, said in a statement.

The decision was made by the Harvard Corporation, the governing board, of which Summers is a member.

Public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that, as of December, Harvard Management Company owned 67,200 shares of PetroChina, worth about $4.4 million, according to The Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper. The university's total endowment is almost $23 billion.

PetroChina is an oil company owned by the Chinese government.Summers recently told a group of students that Harvard may own additional PetroChina stocks on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which it would not be required to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Crimson reported. Harvard declined Monday to disclose the exact size of its PetroChina investment.

Darfur has become a popular cause for college students, especially at Harvard.Last autumn, students started a divestiture petition, which has garnered about 1,000 signatures. A group of seniors recently unveiled a campaign to encourage classmates to withhold their contributions to the annual senior class gift until Harvard had divested itself of Sudan connections.

About 250 students attended a demonstration in favor of divestiture Monday, timed to coincide with the Harvard Corporation meeting. Harvard announced the decision just as the protest was beginning.Student activists reacted to the news with guarded enthusiasm because Harvard's announcement mentioned only PetroChina and did not say whether the university would divest itself of connections with other companies doing business in Sudan.

"We are really excited, but I'm also really worried that people will think the fight is over," said Matthew Mahan, a Harvard senior and a founder of the campaign to withhold senior gift contributions. "Time will tell whether they really care about genocide in Sudan or only about avoiding a lot of bad press."

In its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Harvard is not obligated to report stocks it owns that are traded on foreign markets, nor does it have to disclose the companies in which it is invested only indirectly, through investment funds.Alan Stone, the university's vice president for public affairs, said Monday that he did not know whether Harvard was invested in other companies doing business in Sudan. He said Harvard Corporation's decision applied only to PetroChina.

The corporation's statement said concerns on campus about PetroChina and the situation in Darfur had prompted Summers to ask the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility, a group made up of faculty, student and alumni members, to study the issue. That group set up a panel, which met with the divestiture proponents, did research and presented a report to the corporation.

Harvard made it clear that the decision on PetroChina did not mean the university's investments should be guided by political considerations, but said it considered the Sudan situation so egregious that it was incumbent upon the university to act."

The university maintains a strong presumption against divesting itself of securities for reasons unrelated to investment purposes and against using divestment as a political tool or a 'weapon against injustice,"' the panel wrote, "not because there are not many worthy political causes or deeply troubling injustices in the world, but because the university is first and foremost an academic institution.

"Harvard did not fully divest itself of South Africa connections despite years of controversy, including sit-ins and hunger strikes, but in 1990 the university sold its shares in companies that manufactured tobacco.

Summers also entered a debate over a drive for divestiture of connections with Israel in 2002, when he said that supporters were "advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their effect, if not their intent."

13 of 16 killed in Afghan crash were U.S. troops

Thirteen of the 16 people confirmed killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Wednesday were U.S. service members, the American military said Thursday.

Bad weather was the suspected cause, the military said.

The other three confirmed dead were civilians employed by U.S. government contractors. Two more U.S. military personnel are missing out of the 18 people listed on the flight manifest.

The names of the dead have been withheld pending notification of relatives.

Cost of Social Security Drive Cited

The Bush administration's ongoing Social Security blitz is unusual in scale in the selling of a domestic policy, mobilizing the president and vice president, four Cabinet secretaries and 17 lesser officials, down to an associate director of strategic planning for the White House budget office.

It also may be one of the most costly in memory, well into the millions of dollars, according to some rough, unofficial calculations
(Washington Post)

Iraqi Suspect Says U.S. Troops Took Mother Hostage

An Iraqi apparently suspected by U.S. troops of taking part in attacks in Baghdad accused U.S. forces on Tuesday of taking his mother and sister hostage to pressure him and his brothers into surrendering for questioning.
(AP)

Bono Leading Campaign to Fight AIDS

Brad Pitt is among the A-list celebrities featured in new public service announcements for a campaign led by U2 singer Bono to fight poverty and AIDS.



The campaign was not immediately asking for donations but simply raising awareness and recruiting new advocates, Bono said Wednesday at an event announcing the public service announcements.

"We're not just asking for people to put cash in the pot here," Bono said. "Americans are generous, we know they'll do that. We're not actually asking for their money, we're asking for their voice."

Pitt, who visited Africa after being inspired by Bono's advocacy, said he was struck by how extreme poverty there has made it difficult for the sick to gain access to drugs to minimize the effects of AIDS.

"I've seen it, I've been there, and to walk away from it and turn my back makes me culpable," Pitt said. "And I can't do that."

"Do we really believe in our hearts that we're all equal? And if we believe this, what are we going to do about it?" he said.

Pitt said he believed deeply in Bono's effort, titled "ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History."
(AP)

Click here to visit the ONE campaign.

Froma Harrop: Minutemen-Bush's Policy Dupes

I'VE GOT NEWS for the Minutemen tracking illegal aliens in southern Arizona. If you really want to control illegal immigration, you are in the wrong place. The place to go is Washington. And the people to confront are President Bush and Congress, not the Mexican peasants sneaking into the United States.

The Bush administration is using you.

The Minutemen are volunteers who patrol the border in search of illegal immigrants. Their work is utterly futile.

Everyone knows that on the first or tenth try, the illegal alien will get past the circus at the border. From there it's on to Los Angeles, Chicago or Anytown, U.S.A., where he's home free.
Illegal immigrants come for jobs. Were it not for the jobs, 98 percent of them would not be here. It also happens to be against federal law to hire illegal aliens.

How well has the Bush administration enforced that law? Here's the simple answer: There are an estimated 11 million illegal aliens in the United States. Only 124 employers were fined in 2003 for hiring them. That number comes from the Department of Homeland Security, and there are no missing zeros.

Illegal aliens depress the wages of low-skilled citizens and legal immigrants. This situation suits Bush just fine. Bush loves nothing more than cheap labor. For all we know, he may regard illegal workers as a kind of tax break for business.

So the cheap-labor crowd finds great value in keeping the immigration system broken. But there's the political problem. Because illegal immigration angers most Americans, Bush must appear to be doing something about it.

Hence, the big show at the border. In response to the Minutemen publicity, he sent 500 additional Border Patrol agents to the Arizona border. (Actually they're not new agents. He just stripped them from San Diego and other border areas.)

Elsewhere, Bush throws out the welcome mat to illegal immigrants. For example, his proposed temporary-worker program. Everyone correctly read it as a big amnesty plan. Border Patrol agents say the announcement itself set off the recent wave in illegal crossings. They report picking up illegal immigrants who ask where they can sign onto the program.

Despite the new chaos unleashed at the border, the president has said nothing since to clarify his earlier remarks. As far as the world is concerned, the U.S. labor market is open for international business.

Some in Congress demand that Bush do something real about illegal immigration. He has a response. It's a Tony Soprano deal: If Congress gives him the big amnesty and guest-worker program, he'll seriously start enforcing the employer sanctions. Not before.

Of course, most immigration experts don't believe for a minute that Bush would do anything to cut the flow of cheap labor. "If they were serious, they'd be enforcing the law now, so they would have credibility with Congress," says Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

What could the president and Congress do now to enforce the law? For one thing, they could require employers to electronically verify the Social Security numbers and work-eligibility status of prospective hires. This simple process would weed out people with counterfeit documents. The program is already up and running, but is voluntary.

Every year, the Internal Revenue Service gets over a million tax returns on which the taxpayer ID number does not match the Social Security number on the W-2 form. The most likely reason is that the Social Security number was fake or stolen.

In years past, the Social Security Administration would send out "no-match" letters to employers. That helped honest companies weed out undocumented workers. In 2003, however, that program was deemed "too effective," according to Krikorian, and dramatically scaled back. It could be restored.

It should be obvious. The only place to control most illegal immigration is in the federal bureaucracies and their computers. Citizens who get into confrontations with illegal immigrants are playing sucker in a fixed game.

The Minutemen now rail at Bush for calling them "vigilantes." But by drawing the spotlight to the border, they are playing into his hands. If the volunteers want to be effective, they should turn their SUVs in a northeasterly direction and head to Washington. Now that might make an impression.
(The Providence Journal)

Amnesty International: Record Rise in Executions

Close to 4,000 people were executed worldwide in 2004, more than at nearly any other time in the last 25 years, according to human rights organization Amnesty International.
The number of new death sentences imposed by countries also hit its highest level in 10 years, it said.

"This is an alarming rise in executions and the figures uncovered from China are genuinely frightening," Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen told Reuters news agency.
(CNN)

Mueller, Gonzales Still Working Against the Bill of Rights

The Bush administration's two top law enforcement officials on Tuesday urged Congress to renew every provision of the anti-terror Patriot Act. FBI Director Robert Mueller also asked lawmakers to expand the bureau's ability to obtain records without first asking a judge.

"Now is not the time for us to be engaging in unilateral disarmament" on the legal weapons now available for fighting terrorism, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said. He said that some of the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act have proven invaluable in fighting terrorism and aiding other investigations.
(AP)

Reid Accuses GOP of Arrogance on Courts

Congressional Democrats on Tuesday said Republican criticism of the federal courts following Terri Schiavo's death showed an "arrogancy of power" that is leading to a Senate confrontation over filibusters of President Bush's judicial nominees.
AP Photo

"If they don't get what they want, they attack whoever's around," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada. "Now they're after the courts, and I think it goes back to this arrogancy of power."
(AP)

A 3rd DeLay Trip Under Scrutiny

A six-day trip to Moscow in 1997 by then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was underwritten by business interests lobbying in support of the Russian government, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the trip arrangements.

DeLay reported that the trip was sponsored by a Washington-based nonprofit organization. But interviews with those involved in planning DeLay's trip say the expenses were covered by a mysterious company registered in the Bahamas that also paid for an intensive $440,000 lobbying campaign.
(AP)

Molly Ivins: Aiming in on Hypocrisy

Some days, it's hard to pick the outrage du jour, but hypocrisy is always an inviting target, and the United Nations oil-for-food scandal provides a two-fer. We have been hearing much right-wing huffing over the dreadful, terrible, awful, unprecedented, worst-ever scandal in all history. One indignant winger was livid because The New York Times devoted more coverage to the collapse of Enron than to the earth-shaking U.N. scandal.

Those throwing conniption fits over the United Nations' misdeeds (failure of oversight, according to the Volcker Report) might want to meditate a bit on the role of the U.S. government in all this before they further embarrass themselves denouncing perfidious foreigners.

For one thing, part of the oversight responsibility was on the United States, as a member of the 661 Committee, which monitored Iraq's compliance with the sanctions. The United States had the power to veto all sales of Iraqi oil and all purchases of goods bought with money from the program. Further, The Washington Post reports, "Diplomats and oil brokers have recently said that the U.S. had long turned a blind eye to illicit shipments of Iraqi oil by its allies Jordan and Turkey. The United States acknowledged this week that it had acquiesced in the trade to ensure that crucial allies would not suffer economic hardships."

Border Patrol: Self-Described 'Minutemen' Disrupting Agency's Mission

Volunteers who have converged on the Mexican border to watch for illegal immigrants are disrupting U.S. Border Patrol operations by unwittingly tripping sensors that alert agents to possible intruders, an agency spokesman complained Monday.
(AP)

Arab Report Sees Little Reform, Faults U.S. Action

In a long-awaited report contested by the United States and Egypt, Arab intellectuals and reformers said they saw no significant advances toward democracy in the Arab world in the year after October 2003.

The third Arab Human Development Report (AHDR), released on Tuesday under U.N. auspices, says most reforms were "embryonic and fragmentary" and did not amount to a serious effort to end repression in the region, which has some of the world's most authoritarian governments.

The United States, which says its policy is to promote democracy in the region, contributed to an international context which hampered progress, through its policy toward Israel, its actions in Iraq and security measures affecting Arabs, it said.

"Overall, there has been no significant easing of the human development crisis in the Arab region," it said.
(Reuters)

Say No to Bankruptcy Bill

As early as Wednesday, your Representative in Congress will vote on a hugely important "Debt Slavery" Bankruptcy Bill (S. 256) that could literally change your life. The bill was written by representatives of the credit card industry, which made $30 billion in profits in 2004--and is now gunning for more.

The legislation would make it much more difficult for people turning to bankruptcy as a last resort to actually discharge their credit card debts under Chapter 7, which pays off debts by liquidating assets, offering a fresh start financially. Instead, it would force people into Chapter 13 with a rigid 5-year repayment plan, even after liquidating all assets.
(The Nation)

Despite Bi-Partisan Opposition Bush's AG Fighting for the Patriot Act

Cooler heads can now see that the Patriot Act went too far, too fast and that it must be brought back in line with the Constitution," said Gregory Nojeim, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office.

The ACLU is part of an unusual coalition of liberal and conservative groups, including the American Conservative Union, that have come together in a joint effort to lobby Congress to repeal key provisions of the Patriot Act.
(AP)

Moving Toward Consensus: Group of Republican Hawks Implore President to Move Towards Alternative Energy Sources

If the U.S. doesn't invest in hybrid cars, the terrorists have already won. Or so says a group of national security hawks, who have formed an unlikely alliance with enviro-friendly outfits like the Energy Futures Coalition and the National Resources Defense Council to call for reduced dependency on foreign oil. In an open letter to the President on Monday, such unlikely Prius advocates as former CIA director James Woolsey, Reagan administration national security advisor Robert C. (Bud) McFarlane, and Center for Security Policy head and Reagan-era Defense Department official Frank Gaffney, asked that the Bush administration pledge $1 billion over the next five years for hybrid technology research.

The hawks acknowledged that they haven't always been so hip to the environmentalist agenda. "I don't often find myself in agreement with those at the Natural Resources Defense Council," Gaffney noted. But according to Woolsey, reducing U.S. oil consumption has moved from a conservationist priority to an area of strategic concern: "[It's] no longer a nice thing to do. It's imperative."
(Salon.com)

Dahlia Lithwick: The Limbaugh Code

I use the word "book" with some hesitation: Certainly it possesses chapters and words and other book-like accoutrements. But Men in Black is 208 large-print pages of mostly block quotes (from court decisions or other legal thinkers) padded with a forward by the eminent legal scholar Rush Limbaugh, and a blurry 10-page "Appendix" of internal memos to and from congressional Democrats—stolen during Memogate. The reason it may take you only slightly longer to read Men in Black than it took Levin to write it is that you'll experience an overwhelming urge to shower between chapters.
(Slate)

US Intelligence Thrown a 'Curveball'

In building its case for the Iraq war, the Bush administration relied on bogus intelligence from a mysterious Iraqi chemical engineer code-named "Curveball," whose dramatic tips about mobile germ labs made their way to top policymakers with little scrutiny.

In its final report issued on Thursday, the presidential commission that investigated intelligence failures in Iraq cast Curveball as the "pivotal" source behind the intelligence community's escalating warnings about Iraq's biological weapons programs before the invasion.
(Reuters)

Republicans Still Seeking to Politicize Schiavo Death

"This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change," House Majority Leader Tom DeLay added in a statement issued hours after Schiavo's death at a Florida hospice.

"The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior," said the Texan. DeLay was a driving force behind legislation Congress passed two weeks ago that gave federal courts jurisdiction in an attempt to save Schiavo's life.
(AP)

Republicans Seek to Censor Subscription-Based Television

Congress is weighing whether to apply broadcast television and radio decency standards -- which limit explicit sexual content and extensive profanity to late night hours -- on subscription television and radio services offered by companies like Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Inc.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican, spent Sunday meeting privately with top cable executives during the industry's annual convention and one aide said he was still "considering his options," referring to potential legislative remedies.
(Reuters)

Former Senator George Mitchell Joins Dem Fight Against Filibuster Ban

Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell on Saturday joined a Democratic offensive against Republicans threats to ban Senate filibusters of judicial nominees.

"All Americans should be concerned about the effort by Republican leaders in the Senate to unilaterally change the rules," Mitchell said in delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address.
(Reuters)

Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)

"And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of resources between peoples and between social classes? And what of the violence inherent not only in wars as such but in the scandalous arms trade, which spawns the many armed conflicts which stain our world with blood?"

Pope John Paul II was the "best front man" the Roman Catholic Church ever had, U2's own front man Bono said Sunday.

The men, both named as nominees for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, campaigned together to end world debt. The lead singer of the Irish rock band once famously gave the Pope his trademark wraparound sunglasses to put on during a meeting, dubbing him "the first funky Pontiff."

"A great show man, a great communicator of ideas even if you didn't agree with all of them, a great friend to the world's poor which is how I got to meet him," Bono said in a statement.

"Without John Paul II its hard to imagine the Drop the Debt campaign succeeding as it did," Bono said, referring to an activist movement which seeks to convince wealthy nations to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries.

The Pope met Bono, along with other pop stars, aid workers and economists, in 1999 to push for rich nations to write off third world debt by the year 2000 and demanded to know why the West was dragging its feet.

"How could you turn this man down?" Bono said at the time.

A fan of popular culture, the Pope once invited Bob Dylan to perform for him at a church congress in Bologna and joined the Eurythmics, Alanis Morissette and Lou Reed at a concert in Rome in aid of debt reduction.

In January last year at the Vatican, the pontiff even presided over a performance of breakdancers from his home country of Poland.
(Reuters)

Peace, Pace, Paix, Paz, Frieden, Pax, Pokoj: Pope John Paul II

This letter from Pope John Paul II to the world's leaders serves as an example of his comittment to world peace...

LETTER OF JOHN PAUL II TO ALL THE HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENTOF THE WORLD AND DECALOGUE OF ASSISI FOR PEACE

To Their Excellencies Heads of State or Government

A month ago, the Day of Prayer for Peace in the world took place in Assisi. Today my thoughts turn spontaneously to those responsible for the social and political life of the countries that were represented there by the religious authorities of many nations.

The inspired reflections of these men and women, representatives of different religious confessions, their sincere desire to work for peace, and their common quest for the true progress of the whole human family, found a sublime and yet concrete form in the "Decalogue" proclaimed at the end of this exceptional day.

I have the honour of presenting to Your Excellency the text of this common agreement, convinced that these ten propositions can inspire the political and social action of your government.

I observed that those who took part in the Assisi Meeting were more than ever motivated by a common conviction: humanity must choose between love and hatred. All of them, feeling that they belong to one and the same human family, were able to express their aspiration through these ten points, convinced that if hatred destroys, love, on the contrary, builds up.

I hope that the spirit and commitment of Assisi will lead all people of goodwill to seek truth, justice, freedom and love, so that every human person may enjoy his inalienable rights and every people, peace. For her part, the Catholic Church, who trusts and hopes in "the God of love and peace" (II Cor 13,11), will continue to work for loyal dialogue, reciprocal forgiveness and mutual harmony to clear the way for people in this third millenium.

With gratitude to Your Excellency, for the attention you will be kind enough to give my Message, I take the present opportunity offered to assure you of my prayerful best wishes.

Click here to visit the Pope's web site devoted to world peace.

World Remembers Pope As Man of Peace

At St. Ignatius Church in Tokyo, worshippers recalled how moved they were when the pope, during a 1981 trip to Hiroshima, urged the world to remember the destructive impact of the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city.

"He put his all into working for peace," said church volunteer Kazuko Matsuda, 61. "When he spoke against war in Iraq, he thought of the people, of the children, who would be the victims of the air raids."

The Dalai Lama described the pope as a great spiritual leader in a message of condolence issued by his office in exile in the Himalayan resort town of Dharmsala in north India.
(AP)

Joe Conason: It's All the CIA's Fault

What a surprise -- Bush's Iraq commission absolves his administration of rushing to war on false pretenses that Saddam Hussein had WMD.

For anyone who was astonished when George W. Bush decorated George Tenet with the Medal of Freedom, an explanation has arrived at last. With yesterday's release of the final report of the Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction, the former CIA director and his loyal subordinates have been permanently designated official scapegoats for the falsifications that led to war in Iraq two years ago.
(Salon.com)

Sidney Blumenthal: Political Crackup?

The Bush administration doesn't have a faith-based initiative; it is a faith-based initiative. When President Bush rushed back to the White House from his Crawford, Texas, ranch to show his urgency to sign the congressional bill on Terri Schiavo, who died Thursday at 41, he demonstrated his faith in the infallibility of his political strategy. Just months earlier in the 2004 presidential election he had proven its efficacy. By joining the flag to the cross, Bush's campaign linked the war on terrorism to the culture war. Under these banners Bush marched as the crusader king against barbarian hordes without and within.
(Salon.com)

Staged Right?

RNC Chair Ken Mehlman went to Howard University for a "Conversation with the Community." So why was a student denied entry while an American Petroleum Institute staffer was let in?
(The American Prospect)

Report: Bush Administration's Iraq Intelligence 'Dead Wrong'

In a scathing report on the intelligence community, a presidential commission Thursday said the United States still knows "disturbingly little" about the weapons programs and intentions of many of its "most dangerous adversaries."

The panel also determined the intelligence community was "dead wrong" in its assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities before the U.S. invasion.
(CNN)

Social Security Privatization Hurts Women

Four Democratic women Senators will hold a public town hall meeting today in Seattle, WA, with women from all walks of life to talk about the negative impact that the GOP Social Security privatization scheme would have on American women.

"The President's Social Security privatization plan will hurt women" said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "Women depend on Social Security to make ends meet. More than half of women seniors would be in poverty without its guaranteed benefits. Despite efforts to mislead them, American women know that just as Bush's privatization plan is bad for seniors, bad for younger workers and bad for our nation's finances, it's particularly bad for American women of all ages."

Molly Ivins: Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest.

As a general rule about Bush & Co., the more closely a policy is associated with Dick Cheney, the worse it is. Which brings us to energy policy -- remember his secret task force? In the long history of monumentally bad ideas, the Cheney policy is a standout for reasons of both omission and commission. Dumb, dumber and dumbest.

Ponder this: Next year, the administration will phase out the $2,000 tax credit for buying a hybrid vehicle, which gets over 50 miles per gallon, but will leave in place the $25,000 tax write-off for a Hummer, which gets 10-12 mpg. That's truly crazy, and that's truly what the whole Cheney energy policy is.

Washington Post: Sedate, yet unacceptable, progress in Darfur

And the worst of it all is the low-tech nature of this butchery. Sudan’s government has armed a primitive militia that goes about on horses and camels; the government has supported the militia with rudimentary air power, which NATO could cripple easily. So many lives could be saved with relatively little Western effort. But the killing continues.
(Fort Wayne Journal Gazette)

Bill Bradley: A Party Inverted

March 30, 2005

Five months after the presidential election Democrats are still pointing fingers at one another and trying to figure out why Republicans won. Was the problem the party's position on social issues or taxes or defense or what? Were there tactical errors made in the conduct of the campaign? Were the right advisers heard? Was the candidate flawed?

Before deciding what Democrats should do now, it's important to see what Republicans have done right over many years. When the Goldwater Republicans lost in 1964, they didn't try to become Democrats. They tried to figure out how to make their own ideas more appealing to the voters. As part of this effort, they turned to Lewis Powell, then a corporate lawyer and soon to become a member of the United States Supreme Court. In 1971 he wrote a landmark memo for the United States Chamber of Commerce in which he advocated a sweeping, coordinated and long-term effort to spread conservative ideas on college campuses, in academic journals and in the news media.

To further the party's ideological and political goals, Republicans in the 1970's and 1980's built a comprehensive structure based on Powell's blueprint. Visualize that structure as a pyramid.
You've probably heard some of this before, but let me run through it again. Big individual donors and large foundations - the Scaife family and Olin foundations, for instance - form the base of the pyramid. They finance conservative research centers like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, entities that make up the second level of the pyramid.

The ideas these organizations develop are then pushed up to the third level of the pyramid - the political level. There, strategists like Karl Rove or Ralph Reed or Ken Mehlman take these new ideas and, through polling, focus groups and careful attention to Democratic attacks, convert them into language that will appeal to the broadest electorate. That language is sometimes in the form of an assault on Democrats and at other times in the form of advocacy for a new policy position. The development process can take years. And then there's the fourth level of the pyramid: the partisan news media. Conservative commentators and networks spread these finely honed ideas.

At the very top of the pyramid you'll find the president. Because the pyramid is stable, all you have to do is put a different top on it and it works fine.

It is not quite the "right wing conspiracy" that Hillary Clinton described, but it is an impressive organization built consciously, carefully and single-mindedly. The Ann Coulters and Grover Norquists don't want to be candidates for anything or cabinet officers for anyone. They know their roles and execute them because they're paid well and believe, I think, in what they're saying. True, there's lots of money involved, but the money makes a difference because it goes toward reinforcing a structure that is already stable. To understand how the Democratic Party works, invert the pyramid. Imagine a pyramid balancing precariously on its point, which is the presidential candidate.

Democrats who run for president have to build their own pyramids all by themselves. There is no coherent, larger structure that they can rely on. Unlike Republicans, they don't simply have to assemble a campaign apparatus - they have to formulate ideas and a vision, too. Many Democratic fundraisers join a campaign only after assessing how well it has done in assembling its pyramid of political, media and idea people.

There is no clearly identifiable funding base for Democratic policy organizations, and in the frantic campaign rush there is no time for patient, long-term development of new ideas or of new ways to sell old ideas. Campaigns don't start thinking about a Democratic brand until halfway through the election year, by which time winning the daily news cycle takes precedence over building a consistent message. The closest that Democrats get to a brand is a catchy slogan.
Democrats choose this approach, I believe, because we are still hypnotized by Jack Kennedy, and the promise of a charismatic leader who can change America by the strength and style of his personality. The trouble is that every four years the party splits and rallies around several different individuals at once. Opponents in the primaries then exaggerate their differences and leave the public confused about what Democrats believe.

In such a system tactics trump strategy. Candidates don't risk talking about big ideas because the ideas have never been sufficiently tested. Instead they usually wind up arguing about minor issues and express few deep convictions. In the worst case, they embrace "Republican lite" platforms - never realizing that in doing so they're allowing the Republicans to define the terms of the debate.

A party based on charisma has no long-term impact. Think of our last charismatic leader, Bill Clinton. He was president for eight years. He was the first Democrat to be re- elected since Franklin Roosevelt. He was smart, skilled and possessed great energy. But what happened? At the end of his tenure in the most powerful office in the world, there were fewer Democratic governors, fewer Democratic senators, members of Congress and state legislators and a national party that was deep in debt. The president did well. The party did not. Charisma didn't translate into structure.

If Democrats are serious about preparing for the next election or the next election after that, some influential Democrats will have to resist entrusting their dreams to individual candidates and instead make a commitment to build a stable pyramid from the base up. It will take at least a decade's commitment, and it won't come cheap. But there really is no other choice.
This piece was originally published in the New York Times.

SCANDAL MAN: Tom DeLay

Meet Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX), the man Republicans have chosen as their Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Tom DeLay is at the center of a bewildering array of investigations into corruption, abuse of power, and ethics violations.

As the courts and committees investigate DeLay's misdeeds and hand down indictments, keeping track of all the scandals can be a full-time job. So we thought it would helpful to offer folks this quick and easy guide.

The Westar Scandal
In 2002, executives at Kansas energy company Westar wrote a memo outlining how they could purchase a "seat at the table" with $56,500 in contributions to political committees associated with Tom DeLay and the GOP. DeLay was later admonished by the House Ethics Committee for creating the appearance of impropriety.

MORE...

Watch the Air America Radio Documentary "Left of the Dial" Tonight on HBO

Air America Radio Celebrates One Year on the Air

"Thanks for shifting to the left side of the dial!" the announcer says on station KPOJ in Portland Oregon.

The network features comedic actress Janeane Garofalo and rapper Chuck D.
Anchoring the network is Al Franken, who has transformed himself from a TV comedy writer to a liberal satirist with two best-selling books roasting conservative media figures like Mr Limbaugh.

Mr Franken rose to prominence as liberal gadfly and media critic with his book "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot" and continued his attack with a follow-up book last year "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right."
(BBC News)

2004 Election Maps Show That Where the Most People Live, Dems Rule

Using County-by-County election return data from USA Today together with County boundary data from the US Census' Tiger database we produced the following graphic depicting the results. Of course, blue is for the democrats, red is for the republicans, and green is for all other. Each county's color is a mix of these three color components in proportion to the results for that county.

American kidnapped with Romanian journalists in Iraq

An American citizen was kidnapped along with the three Romanian journalists abducted Monday in Iraq, the U.S. State Department said Wednesday.

Citing privacy laws, a State Department spokeswoman in Washington said she could not release more information, but called for the "immediate and safe recovery of all hostages in Iraq."
(CNN)

Report: Iraq intelligence 'dead wrong'

"We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," said a letter from the commission to President Bush. "This was a major intelligence failure."
(CNN)

Robert Kuttner: Exposing prolife zealotry

Representative Barney Frank famously declared, ''The right-to-lifers believe that the right to life begins with conception and ends at birth," meaning that if antiabortion militants truly cared about life, they might expend more effort on what happens to children once born. We should now extend Frank's insight to end-of-life care: The religious right should also devote more energy to how society treats its frail and elderly while they are conscious and begging for decent services. (When did you see the religious right lobbying for, say, better nursing care?)

But isn't the religious right winning? The press has been filled with stories of earnest communities where biblical literalism is central to most people's lives. These communities, apparently, are growing, while those that reflect the spirit of the Enlightenment -- rational inquiry, religious tolerance, plural identities, strong civic life -- are shrinking. Many liberals conclude that they must live in a bubble not representative of the country.
(Boston Globe)

Stopbolton.org Launches Ad Campaign in Rhode Island

On Thursday, March 31st Stopbolton.org will air television advertisements on three major Rhode Island TV stations in opposition to the nomination of John Bolton for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
(US Newswire)

Patrick Kennedy Says He Won't Run for U.S. Senate

"I am grateful for the support and encouragement I have received to run for the Senate," Kennedy, 37, a six-term member of the House of Representatives, said in a brief statement.

"But over the past few days, I have determined that I can make the greatest difference in the lives of Rhode Island families by remaining on the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives and fighting for their priorities," Kennedy said.
(Reuters)

Bush critics blocked from presidential events

In Denver, three people say they were booted out of a presidential event last week even though they never uttered a peep, apparently because their car bore a bumper sticker denouncing the war in Iraq.

In Fargo, N.D., last month, local Republicans developed a blacklist of more than three dozen residents, including a city commissioner, who were to be banned from Bush's visit.
(Knight Ridder)

Click Here To Join WELLSTONE ACTION!

Wellstone Action is a non-profit organization dedicated to continuing Paul and Sheila Wellstone's fight for economic justice and progressive social change.

Paul and Sheila Wellstone left us with valuable assets:

Substantial experience in building and training people to build winning campaigns around progressive candidates and issues;

A large national network of committed individuals united by progressive values;
Special relationships with unions, community, advocacy and service organizations around the country;

Their hope and encouragement to carry on despite all odds.

Wellstone Action will capitalize on these huge assets and continue the fight for a better, more just and sustainable future.

Froma Harrop: Social Security mythologies

"Unsustainable" is the favored word. It makes people think that Social Security is in crisis. It conjures up the image of a stagecoach barreling toward a cliff. Snow was all over the airwaves last week saying "unsustainable" and promising heroic efforts to pull Social Security from the abyss.

These theatrics are totally unnecessary. The Social Security program is not only sustainable, it is easily sustainable. And given the economy's past performance, the odds are better than even that we won't have to lift a finger to keep it going.
(The Providence Journal)

GAO to Investigate Bush Administration Propaganda

The Government Accountability Office plans to investigate payments from the Bush administration to syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, a GAO spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The congressional investigative agency will try to determine whether the Department of Heath and Human Services broke any laws when it paid Gallagher to help promote a marriage initiative, the spokeswoman said.
The GAO is already investigating a $240,000 contract with syndicated columnist/radio host Armstrong Williams from the Department of Education. Williams was being paid to promote the No Child Left Behind law.
(CNN)

Bush Puppet Maggie Gallagher

Bush Leaves Economic Unit With Weak Bench

President Bush has beefed up his national security team with big-name advisers but has left his economic agenda in the hands of lesser known officials whom some consider weak, unproven or inexperienced.
(AP)

59 American Ex-Diplomats Oppose Bolton

"He is the wrong man for this position," they said in a letter to Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Indiana Republican has scheduled hearings on Bolton's nomination for April 7."
(AP)

Slate: The Lesson of Tom DeLay's Mortal Hypocrisy

God may have taken Charles, but his family held the door open. They inferred, without written evidence, that Charles wouldn't have wanted to go on living in this condition. "Daddy did not want to be a vegetable," said Vi Skogen, who at the time was Charles' daughter-in-law. Tom DeLay's mother told the Times, "There was no point to even really talking about it. There was no way [Charles] wanted to live like that. Tom knew—we all knew—his father wouldn't have wanted to live that way."

That was then. This is now. At a press conference on March 18, Tom DeLay denied that quality of life could be valid grounds for withdrawing Schiavo's feeding tube. "It's not for any one of us to decide what her quality of life should be," he said. "It's not any one of us to decide whether she should live or die."

The Village Voice: The Bush Beat

The Iraqi kids are members of families whose homes were pulverized by the U.S. invasion and whose still-homeless clans were squatting in government buildings in Baghdad's Green Zone. Now, those families have been kicked out of the humorously named "Freedom Complex" buildings.

Meanwhile, U.S. soldiers and officials are still living in the Iraqi people's government buildings, including Saddam Hussein's former palaces, where Americans dine under chandeliers and splash around in the ex-dictator's swimming pools.

Richard Reeves: No One is Against Big Government

Was the great conservative, Ronald Reagan, the President who said he would get government off our backs? Yes, he did, as he ran up more deficit spending than all the thirty-nine men who proceeded him in that most powerful of offices. He borrowed that money to finance bigger government, particularly a bigger military. Yes, he did hate government bureaucrats, or at least the idea of them, but he never seemed to understand that a bureaucrat by any other name was still a bureaucrat, even in uniform.
(richardreeves.com)

John Nichols: Now Bush is Picking on Kids

Think of Ann Veneman as the Paul Wolfowitz of food policy.

Just as Wolfowitz used his position as the Bush administration's deputy secretary of defense to spin whacked-out neoconservative theories into the justification for an illegal and unnecessary war, so Veneman used her position as the administration's secretary of agriculture to spin equally whacked-out theories about the genetic modification of food and free trade into disastrous policies for farmers and consumers.
(The Nation)

Arm teachers, NRA official suggests

All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota school shooting that took 10 lives — including making guns available to teachers, a top National Rifle Association leader said Friday.
(MSNBC)

Army’s Own Documents Acknowledge Evidence That Soldiers Used Torture

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union today charged that the government is attempting to bury the torture scandal involving the U.S. military by failing to comply with a court order requiring release of documents to the ACLU. The documents the government does release are being issued in advance to the media in ways calculated to minimize coverage and public access, the ACLU said.

Sidney Blumenthal: A confederacy of shamans

The politics of piety were transparently masked by Republicans attempting to make capital over the fate of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged woman who has been locked in a persistent vegetative state for 15 years and whose feeding tube was ordered to be removed by a Florida state judge at the request of her husband.
(The Guardian)

Joe Conason: Shameless Right-Wingers Exploiting Terri Schiavo

By intervening in the sad dispute over Terri Schiavo between her husband and parents, the President and his Congressional allies have again revealed how little respect they have for any conservative or constitutional principle that doesn’t enhance their partisan power. In the name of defending human life, they have swept aside their own party’s traditional commitment to federalist respect for state law and to the separation of powers between the legislature and the judiciary. In the name of equal protection under the law, they have departed from all traditional notions of legality.
(New York Observer)

Molly Ivins on the Environment

This is one of those stories that I'd really like to start with a loud scream to give people some idea of how terrible it is. As a newspaper story, it has no soundtrack and comes without pictures. It appears to involve some technical aspects of an environmental regulation, and that can be counted on to bore the shoes and socks off people.
(Creators of Syndicate Inc.)

Sen. Reed Visits Iraq

Sen. Jack Reed describes the progress as substantial but indicates that the United States may have to sustain "a huge commitment of resources for years."
(The Providence Journal)

PATRICK KENNEDY EYES A SENATE SEAT IN RI

"It would be a great race. The two are very evenly matched," said Brown University professor Darrell West, who has written a biography of Kennedy, 37. "Chafee is a sitting senator and people like him, but he has an 'R' next to his name in a 'D' state."
(AP)

Surprise, Surprise: A Corrupt Wal-Mart Executive!!!

A high-profile Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board member resigned Friday after an internal probe turned up evidence of financial improprieties of up to half-a-million dollars. Three Wal-Mart employees, including a company officer, also lost their jobs.
(AP)

BU$H FOR SALE

Bush and national Republicans have taken more than $100 million from the pharmaceutical, health services, and insurance industries in the past few years, an investment that has been repaid many times over. Bush has consistently worked to keep the interests of industry ahead of patients' interests, meaning higher costs and fewer protections for American families.

BUSH'S APPROVAL RATINGS CONTINUE TO PLUMMET

Despite President Bush's continued efforts to sell his scheme to privatize Social Security, a new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll shows that the American people just aren't buying it. In fact, Bush's approval ratings have slipped considerably from last week and now stand at 45%, the lowest point in his Presidency.

FOX NEWS: LYING YET AGAIN!
Doctor never nominated for Nobel Prize

Martha MacCallum identified Dr. William Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist who claims he can help Terri Schiavo, as a "Nobel Prize-nominated neurologist," despite the fact that Hammesfahr was never actually nominated for a Nobel Prize.
(Media Matters)

Bush Administration Rolls Back Title IX

The Bush Administration's Department of Education has quietly changed the rules for compliance with Title IX, the statute that bars sex discrimination in athletics at federally funded institutions. President Bush has repeatedly praised the role of women in athletics. Yet these new changes by the Bush Administration undermine the prospects for women's athletics.

Bush Changes Social Security Plan

He warns audiences they will not be able to just cash in their accounts when they retire. He says that the accounts may enhance retirement income for younger workers, but he admits they will not fix the ailing Social Security system over all.
(New York Times)

Romney Moves to the Right at the Expense of Choice

Governor Mitt Romney removed a reference to Roe v. Wade in a proclamation he signed this week, raising eyebrows among abortion rights advocates who say the move corresponds with a rightward shift by Romney as he mulls a presidential bid.
(Boston Globe)

Froma Harrop: One person, or 45 millions? -- Questions for 'pro-life' folks

I HAVE A QUESTION for all those "culture of life" people praying in front of Terri Schiavo's hospital: Where were you last week when President Bush and the Republican Congress were pushing to cut Medicaid? Medicaid is the medical lifeline for the poor. And, by the way, it is picking up some of Schiavo's hospital bills.

Are you aware of your inconsistency? Or are you just pawns of the Republican Party?

You fixate over a woman who has hung in a vegetative state for 15 years, but stand mute as 45 million of your fellow Americans go without any health coverage. Over 18,000 adult Americans die every year for lack of health insurance, according to the Institute of Medicine, in Washington.

Perhaps you'd like to hear the story of another woman, Annette Arrico. A divorced mother, Arrico ran a tiny beauty parlor in Rhode Island, serving mostly elderly ladies. After expenses, she took home only $150 a week and could not afford health insurance.

Some years ago, Arrico found a lump in her breast. She knew that the lump meant trouble, but she tried to ignore it.

"I had all I could do to bring up our daughter," she said at the time.

Pushed by her daughter, Arrico finally saw a doctor, but by then it was too late to help her. She subsequently died.

There are thousands of Annette Arricos among us today. Lacking health insurance, they do not seek preventive care and avoid getting a diagnosis. That's why the mortality rate from cancer is up to two times higher for uninsured people than for those with coverage, says a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has spent the past year plumping up his "pro-life" credentials with grand displays of hypocrisy. He made a big show of inserting himself into the Schiavo case -- basically denying a husband's rights as his wife's legal guardian. While doing that, Bush presided over the unspeakable act of throwing 105,000 poor children off the state's health-insurance program.

Where were the religious leaders then, and where were their followers?

"I see many religious groups stepping forward and saying it's wrong to take a feeding tube from Terri," says Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics, at the University of Pennsylvania. "I don't hear anything about it being wrong not to vaccinate tens of thousands of children. The Congress still accepts the reality of uninsured children in America, which is beyond the moral pale."

But the "pro-life" advocates have nonetheless rallied to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Wisconsin Rep. James Sensenbrenner as they make political hay off the Schiavo tragedy.

That "leaders" of disability groups would add their praise is beyond comprehension. After all, Americans with disabilities get most of their funding from Medicaid. Frist, DeLay and Sensenbrenner were directing the attack on the program. The disabled might ask why their alleged spokesmen did not stop them.

Here is another question for the "pro-life" folks: Where were you two weeks ago, when the Senate voted to toughen America's bankruptcy laws? The bill made no distinction between debt run up in a casino and debt run up in a hospital. A recent Harvard study found that nearly half of the personal bankruptcies were caused by unexpected medical bills. Funny, but I don't recall any spiritual leaders rushing to protect families in a medical crisis from losing all in a bankruptcy.

Of course, the Schiavo case is ripe for political exploitation. The following memo was sent to Republican senators: "The pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue."

To the pliant members of the "pro-life" base: Follow your orders and get excited over a poor woman who can neither think nor emote and for whom doctors can do nothing. Interfere with a husband's decision to end medical treatment for a wife who has floated between life and death for 15 years.

Then sit back as your political masters try to cut the programs that help the sick, the frail and the dying. Let credit-card companies harass families overwhelmed by medical expenses.

You have every right to call yourselves "defenders of life." Just as long as no one else has to.
(The Providence Journal)

American Official Shot in Sudan

An American foreign assistance official was shot and wounded Tuesday while riding in a four-vehicle convoy in the lawless Darfur region of western Sudan, the State Department said.

The woman, who suffered facial wounds, was treated at a facility in Sudan before being evacuated to another country for additional treatment, said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.
(AP)


Relatives mourning over the body of 1-year-old Ali, who died of malnutrition in a refugee camp in El-Geneina in Darfur, Sudan, 2004. More than 180,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region in the past 18 months, UN humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland told AFP.(AFP/File/Marco Longari)

Bush Administration Acts As Roadblock to Prosecution of Sudanese War Criminals

Most council nationssupport referring war crimes proceedings to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, the world's first permanent tribunal for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.

Yet the administration of US President George W. Bush staunchly opposes the ICC over fears that US citizens could be the target of lawsuits politically motivated by opposition to US policies.

The council has been deadlocked over the issue for two months, since a commission of enquiry found crimes against humanity had likely been committed in Darfur.
(Mideast-AFP)

John Edwards Takes Job As Head of UNC's Poverty Center

"I have a campaign and a cause right now and this is it. This is where I'm going to spend my passion and my energy."
(AP)

AP Photo

Jeb Still Seeking to Gain Political Glory Via Schiavo

Terri Schiavo's parents saw their options vanish one by one Wednesday as a federal appeals court refused to reinsert her feeding tube and the Florida Legislature decided not to intervene in the epic struggle. Refusing to give up, Gov. Jeb Bush sought court permission to take custody of Schiavo.
(AP)

WORLD CRISIS

SHAME: ONE BILLION LACK ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER

"People who can turn on a tap and have safe and clean
water to drink, to cook with and to bathe in often take it for granted, and yet
more than 1 billion of our fellow human beings have little choice but to use
potentially harmful sources of water," said Dr. Lee Jong-Wook, head of the World
Health Organization.

(CNN)

Not-So-Coincidentally, Santorum Re-Thinks Death Penalty Stance

Could it be motivated by polls showing Catholics' opposition to capital punishment is growing dramatically???

Overall, the poll showed that Catholic opposition to the death penalty has grown from 27 percent in 2001 to 48 percent. Opposition jumps to 63 percent among daily Mass-goers -- making it 1 percent above the percentage of daily communicants who voted for Bush in 2004. Of those who say they only attend Mass on holidays, 62 percent support use of the death penalty.

A Letter from the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA

Women Human Rights Defenders

This month on our website, we spotlight the all-important work of four extraordinary women who have made a difference. Two of them are among the twelve women who have received the Nobel Peace Prize. One woman, Mexico’s Digna Ochoa gave her life for her cause. And another will receive Amnesty International USA’s highest award next month. All have sacrificed much for the rights and well-being of others.
Read about these women. »

On every continent, women are rising up to end the abuse, torture and neglect that has long plagued their communities. Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi aroused an entire nation against decades of corruption and abuse. “It is not power that corrupts,” she has said, “but fear.”

Women are often uniquely able to appeal to everyday people and to engage them in collective struggle. Aung San Suu Kyi has written, “It is the cumulative effect of [ordinary people’s] sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote humanity's desire for harmony and justice while restraining less desirable, destructive traits in human nature.”

Wangari Maathai has converted the seemingly mundane and domestic act of planting trees into a continent-wide movement aimed at empowering women and reshaping society’s relationship with the natural environment. Says Maathai: “When you start working with the environment seriously, the whole arena comes: human rights, women's rights, environmental rights, children's rights, you know, everybody's rights. Once you start making these linkages, you can no longer do just tree-planting.”

Please join me in celebrating the heroism of these remarkable women – and the contributions of countless women everywhere who stand up for our rights every day -- by donating in their honor to AIUSA’s Stop Violence Against Women Campaign.

Make a donation now. »
Your donation will help us carry out important life-saving work – to champion needed reforms in international law, to document and report widespread abuses of women’s rights, and engage an ever-wider circle of supporters like yourself.

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Bill Schulz
Amnesty International USA

A Letter from John Edwards

Dear Friend,

Today, at the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I am going to join a group of prominent experts from across the country who have dedicated their careers to fighting poverty. We are going to talk about one of the most important things we can do to help lift people out of poverty and into the middle class - helping people save so that they can start getting ahead instead of just getting by. While poverty is all around us, the first step in eradicating it is to shine a bright light on it.

Here's what we know: 36 million Americans live in poverty today, which is 13 million more than 30 years ago. About one in four working families is earning so little they struggle to make ends meet. And nearly 30 percent of families have less than $10,000 in assets - which means that the value of their savings, their home, and their car altogether is less than $10,000. What we can do as a country is help families build a foundation and a safety net so that if they have a medical emergency, lose a job, or go through a traumatic event like a divorce it doesn't push them off the cliff and into bankruptcy. So today we are going to talk about how we can help families save and put money in the bank.

We will explore ideas like establishing savings accounts for children at birth, like baby bonds, to help them prepare for the future. We'll also look at different types of savings accounts for adults with matching funds to encourage people to save. And we will take a close look at ways to help more families become homeowners while also making sure that predatory lenders don't take away homes families already own. These are some of the many ideas that we will discuss. We will report back on our blog but please let me know what you think we can do to help people save.

Please visit the One America Committee Blog where we have started a new thread entitled: Poverty, Work, and Opportunity and give us your thoughts and ideas about this important issue. Some of our best ideas will come from you! Your input is invaluable, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Your friend,

John

Republicans Hold Mock Town Hall Meeting, Can't Sell the Plan In Real Ones

As members of Congress head back to their districts for recess this week, the GOP leadership has urged Congressional Republicans not to hold town hall meetings or public events and instead to opt for lower profile events. After the disastrous reaction members received during the last recess, Washington republicans are shifting to events they hope will be less likely to highlight growing opposition to Bush's privatization plan. Even Senator Rick Santorum admitted recently in USA Today, that with these lower profile events 'there isn't an opportunity for it to disintegrate into something that's less desirable.'

Randall Terry: Schindler Family Spokesman and Founder of Anti-Abortion Group

In case you were wondering if there was a nexus between the Schiavo case and the anti-abortion movement...

Christian activist Randall Terry has reappeared in the news in recent days as the spokesman for the parents of Terri Schiavo. Terry, founder of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue and the Society for Truth and Justice, appeared on Fox News at least four times in the past four days -- on the March 18 edition of Hannity & Colmes, and during live coverage of the Schiavo case on March 20 and March 21. But Terry has a controversial past that was not fully disclosed in any of his Fox News appearances or on the March 19 edition of National Public Radio's Weekend Edition, which aired a brief clip from Terry. In all but one of those instances, Terry was identified only as the Schindler family spokesman.
(Media Matters)

Vast Majority of Americans Feel Republican Congress Acted Inappropriately in the Schiavo Matter

Seventy percent deemed the congressional intervention inappropriate, while 67 percent said they believe lawmakers became involved in the Schiavo case for political advantage rather than the principles involved.
(Reuters)

Meanwhile, a child was taken off of life support in a Houston hospital under a law signed by then-Governor George W. Bush that allows hospitals to remove life-sustaining apparatus if the family is unable to pay its bills--even if the family objects to such removal.

White House spokesman Scott McClelland said that the issue was a "gray area" in the law. However, once again, this was not true. The law reads as follows:

If the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient is requesting life-sustaining treatment that the attending physician has decided and the review process has affirmed is inappropriate treatment, the patient shall be given available life-sustaining treatment pending transfer under Subsection (d). The patient is responsible for any costs incurred in transferring the patient to another facility. The physician and the health care facility are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day after the written decision required under Subsection (b) is provided to the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient …

ACLU Challenges Anti-Gay Ruling in Michigan

A lawsuit challenging a recent attorney general's opinion that bans public employers from offering benefits to same-sex couples in future contracts was filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan.
(Detroit Free Press)

Brit Hume Lies About Social Security...Again

Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume used a misleading poll on Social Security conducted by a pro-Republican public relations firm to claim falsely that "nearly 60 percent of seniors who know the facts support personal accounts" and accuse Democrats of waging a "disinformation campaign." In fact, far from presenting "the facts" to respondents, the poll Hume cited left out key information about President Bush's likely plan for Social Security, and Hume failed to note the poll itself was sponsored by two pro-privatization advocacy groups.
(Media Matters)

Click here to sign the petition to save the Filibuster (and the Federal Courts).

BOSOX COMPLICIT IN US TORTURE SCHEME?

BREAKING NEWS--JET USED FOR TORTURE RENDITIONS BELONGS TO PART-OWNER OF THE BOSTON RED SOX!

Last June, the Boston Red Sox chartered an executive jet to help their manager make a quick visit home in the midst of the team's championship season. But what was the very same Gulfstream--owned by one of the Red Sox's partners, but presumably without the team's logo on its fuselage--doing in Cairo on Feb. 18, 2003? Perhaps by coincidence, Feb. 18, 2003, was the day an Islamic preacher known as Abu Omar, who had been abducted in Italy the previous day and forced aboard a small plane, also arrived at the Cairo airport.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

THOUSANDS PROTEST THE US WAR IN IRAQ AROUND THE WORLD

Police guard the U.S. Embassy as demonstrators walk past during an anti-war demonstration in central London to mark the second anniversary of the start of war in Iraq (news - web sites), March 19, 2005. REUTERS/Stephen Hird

First Amendment Rights Protected by the ACLU

A VICTORY FOR FREE SPEECH...AT CHENEY'S EXPENSE!
In a victory for free speech rights and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge ruled today that Evansville police violated a protester's constitutional rights by restricting his movement and arresting him for disorderly conduct before a 2002 appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Hudson River Faces Sewage Crisis

Crumbling sewage systems and raw sewage discharges increasingly threaten the health of the Hudson River.

America's Teachers Examine New Ways to Oppose the War in Iraq

"We must be creative in our attempts to counter the action the government has taken," Nancy Romer, a teacher and leader of the American Federation of Teachers, said to open the conference's morning plenary. In practice, during the daylong series of workshops this meant analyzing how Bush's education initiatives have served to advance his military aims. The fact that the majority of soldiers fighting in Iraq are in their mid-20s or younger, and a little less than a year ago there were 2,500 soldiers under the age of 18 serving, hints at a connection between today's education system and military interest among youth.
(The Nation)

New Anti-Labor Rules Threaten National Security

New workforce rules that gut civil service and collective bargaining rights for some 750,000 Department of Defense civilian employees will destroy civilian defense worker morale and threaten national security, AFGE President John Gage told a Senate subcommittee March 15.

Death of a Sales Pitch

Even though President George W. Bush is refusing to detail his plan to privatize Social Security, Washington Republicans are already distancing themselves from the plan. Republican leaders in Congress this week directed Republican members to cancel any open town-hall meetings with constituents out of fear of the increasing public opposition against privatization.

TWO YEARS LATER: TROUBLE IN IRAQ

(Center for American Progress)

NEWSWEEK POLL: BUSH APPROVAL RATINGS AT A TEN MONTH LOW

Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. March 17-18, 2005. N=1,010 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3.

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?"

Approve: 45%
Disapprove: 48%
Don't Know: 7%

DEMS SLAM BUSH ON VETERANS' BENEFITS CUTS

"During this time of war, it is absolutely the wrong time for our federal government to step back from any of its commitments to our veterans. To do so would be penny wise but pound foolish," said Gov. Ed Rendell in the weekly Democratic radio address.
(CNN)

Halliburton Abuses Continue

Authors of the report on Iraq say that most of the anticipated spending on building and procurement has not yet occurred. "If urgent steps are not taken Iraq will become the biggest corruption scandal in history," the authors say.
(Asia Times)

More Idiocy from the President

"In this job you've got a lot on your plate on a regular basis; you don't have much time to sit around and wander, lonely, in the Oval Office, kind of asking different portraits, 'How do you think my standing will be?' "—Washington, D.C., March 16, 2005