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)

Molly Ivins: DeLay's Fatwa

Tom DeLay, of all people, recently issued a fatwa on the need for good manners, a concept so bizarre there is no metaphor for it. It is itself a metaphor: "... as weird as the time Tom DeLay gave us all a lecture on manners." In his new role as the Emily Post of politics, DeLay informed us, "It is unfortunate in our electoral system, exacerbated by our adversarial media culture, that political discourse has to get so overheated, that it's not just arguments, but motives are questioned." Did someone question his motive in taking an all-expenses-paid vacation from a lobbyist?

Richard Reeves: There Was A Liberal

The unofficial motto of California, the greatest of American states, is "Give Me Men to Match My Mountains." Edmund "Pat" Brown never looked like a man of the mountains. In fact, at one of the many low points of his political career, the 1960 Democratic National Convention, Time magazine dubbed him "a tower of jelly."

That was one of the times Gov. Pat Brown tangled with the Kennedys. And, as usual, he came in second. He had this problem he could never do much about: He was a Roman Catholic who wanted to be president. It turned out, as we all know now, that was Kennedy turf.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Sweet Environmental Victories

In many ways, this Earth Day is a particularly somber occasion. After all, in the past year, we've seen repeated environmental debacles--most notably, the decision to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to drilling for oil. But, with the determination of environmental activists and state legislatures that refuse to bow down to Bush, there are, as always, reasons for hope. Here are five of our top environmental victories in the last year.
(The Nation)

Rice Accused of Suppressing Terror Info

"There appears to be a pattern in the administration's approach to terrorism data: favorable facts are revealed while unfavorable facts are suppressed," Rep. Henry A. Waxman of California said in a letter to the department's acting inspector general, Cameron R. Hume.

The question is "whether political considerations played a role in Secretary Rice's decision" to hand off a State Department report to a government counterterrorism center, Waxman said. He requested an inspector general's investigation.
(Reuters)

Activists Ask Who Led Them From Bush Event

A lawyer for three people removed from a President Bush town hall meeting — allegedly because of a "No More Blood for Oil" bumper sticker on their car — said Friday he is seeking the identity of the man who escorted the activists out, and plans to sue.

"We want to know who this person is, and who trained them, because we're going to sue" both the man and his trainers, said Dan Recht, a lawyer representing activists Alex Young, Karen Bauer and Leslie Weise.

The three belong to the organization Denver Progressives. The day after the president's March 21 town hall meeting, the three were told by the Secret Service they were singled out because they belong to the "No Blood for Oil" anti-war group. They believe the statement was a reference to their bumper sticker.
(Reuters)

Another Republican Backs More Review of Bolton

A spokeswoman for Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said the senator felt the committee "did the right thing delaying the vote on Bolton in light of the recent information presented to the committee."
(Reuters)

Ex-Ambassador Challenges Bolton Testimony; Powell Opposes Bolton

As President Bush tries to shore up support for John R. Bolton among wavering Republican senators, his former ambassador to South Korea is challenging Bolton's Senate testimony and his diplomatic style.

The criticism leveled at the nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations by retired career diplomat Thomas Hubbard, who held the Seoul post during Bush's first term, adds to allegations by several former and current State Department officials that Bolton mistreated them and threatened their careers.

Bolton has denied the charges in sworn testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the Bush administration is portraying Democratic efforts to derail Bolton's troubled nomination as a smear campaign. Still, the committee has delayed its vote on Bolton.
Meanwhile, former Secretary of State Colin Powell has talked to several senators at their request about specific questions that had been raised about Bolton, his spokeswoman Peggy Cifrino said Thursday.

"The general considers the discussions private," Cifrino said.

Among the senators Powell called was Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., who last week said he was inclined to vote for confirmation but this week said the "dynamic" had changed.

Powell was the only former Republican secretary of state who did not sign a letter of support for Bolton that was sent to the committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind.
(AP)

House passes energy reform bill laden with extras for US oil industry

"Unfortunately, this bill goes in the other direction with special interest giveaways and subsidies."

"If Americans believe that they will pay less at the pump because of this bill, they are sorely mistaken," Flake said.

One public interest group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, said in a statement that the only winners in the legislation is the energy industry.

"Corn Country gets billions, Big Oil gets billions, Nuclear Power gets billions, King Coal gets billions -- and taxpayers get stuck paying record prices at the pump." the group said.
(AP)

Senate GOP Fights for Filibusters Against Wishes of American People

Republicans are moving the Senate toward a final confrontation with Democrats over the blocking of President Bush's judicial nominations, even as internal polling shows that most Americans don't support their plan to ban judicial filibusters.
(AP)

Moore Sets Up Scholarship for Rebels

Filmmaker and Michigan native Michael Moore has established a scholarship for students who defy the administration at California State University, San Marcos — the same school that canceled his talk last year.

The Michael Moore Freedom of Speech Scholarship will award two $2,500 annual scholarships to Cal State San Marcos students "who have done the most to fight for issues of student rights by standing up to the administration," according to a news release issued Wednesday.
(AP)

Republican Chafee Leaning Against Bolton

Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee is ``less likely'' to support John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations because of the allegations he mistreated subordinates, a spokesman for Chafee said.

Chafee's vote against Bolton on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, combined with the united opposition of Democrats, would leave Republicans at least one vote short of recommending his nomination to the full Senate.
(Bloomberg)

NEA Sues Bush Administration for Leaving Children Behind

The nation's largest teacher's union joined school districts in Michigan, Texas, and Vermont in filing a federal lawsuit yesterday charging that the Department of Education has failed to provide adequate funding for the No Child Left Behind initiative.
(Washington Post)

AP Sues Bush Administration to Get Guantanamo Documents

The Associated Press sued the Defense Department on Tuesday to force the government to release transcripts and other documents related to military hearings for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The federal lawsuit, filed in Manhattan, said the AP has been able to report only anecdotally on 558 tribunals conducted since August to let detainees challenge their incarceration at the Cuban base. The news agency said the proceedings were "unquestionably of great interest to the public."

The lawsuit asked the court to order the government to turn over transcripts of all Guantanamo detainees' testimony, along with written statements by the detainees and any documents they have submitted.
(AP)

Santorum Trailing By Wide Margin in Senate Race

Democratic state Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr., who hopes to challenge Republican Sen. Rick Santorum next year, increased his lead to 14 points in a poll released Wednesday.

Casey, the son of a former governor, was favored in the Quinnipiac University poll, taken amid Santorum's high-profile push of President Bush's Social Security overhaul plan and his backing of the recent congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.

Casey was favored by 49 percent of respondents in the telephone poll, conducted April 13 to Monday. Thirty-five percent supported Santorum, while 13 percent were undecided.
(AP)

Bush Signs Bankruptcy Bill, Continues Attack on the Neediest Americans

Those who fought the bill’s passage said the change will fall especially hard on low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly and will remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face crushing medical bills.
(MSNBC)

BREAKING NEWS: GOP FINALLY AGREES TO INVESTIGATE DeLAY

The Republican chairman of the House ethics committee offered on Wednesday to begin an investigation of Majority Leader Tom DeLay to end a stalemate that has kept the panel from functioning this year.
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Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., made the proposal at a news conference flanked by three of the four other Republicans on the ethics panel. The evenly divided committee also has five Democrats.
(MSNBC)

Ari Berman: Downplaying Darfur

According to the American Journalism Review, last year the three major networks devoted five times as much coverage to Martha Stewart as to the genocide in Sudan. The world's worst humanitarian crisis prompted an abysmal 18 minutes of fame. While the BBC reports from Darfur almost daily, renowned CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour had to beg her bosses to let her go. "If few editors could find Rwanda on a map 10 years ago," wrote Carroll Bogert of Human Rights Watch, "Fewer still have found Darfur today."

Newspapers, with a few exceptions (The New York Times, Washington Post, Knight-Ridder), have hardly been better. "Many of the stories on Sudan published in the nation's newspapers tended to be 500 words or less, giving short shrift to a complex conflict with powerful ethnic, religious and economic factors," writes AJR's Sherry Ricchiardi. "Many accounts lacked historical context or perspective, often oversimplifying the bloodshed in Darfur. And few of them appeared on the front page." Laci Peterson made the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle 36 times in 2004, wrote the newspaper's ombudsman, Dick Rogers. Darfur graced the cover thrice.
(The Nation)

Bolton Denied Partnership at Law Firm for Abusive Conduct!

John Bolton was actually voted down by senior partners of Bolton's law firm, Covington and Burling, where he worked before serving in the Department of Justice, because of concerns over his abusive behavior. An individual who would only speak anonymously shared the content of the super-secret partner's meeting with me yesterday.

Pharmacies Balk on After-Sex Pill and Widen Fight in Many States

In some states, legislators are pushing laws that would explicitly grant pharmacists the right to refuse to dispense drugs related to contraception or abortion on moral grounds. Others want to require pharmacies to fill any legal prescription for birth control, much like Governor Blagojevich's emergency rule in Illinois, which requires pharmacies that stock the morning-after pill to dispense it without delay. And in some states, there are proposals or newly enacted laws to make the morning-after pill more accessible, by requiring hospitals to offer it to rape victims or allowing certain pharmacists to sell it without a prescription.
(The New York Times)

DeLay Just Can't Himself, Attacks Justice Kennedy

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay intensified his criticism of the federal courts on Tuesday, singling out Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's work from the bench as "incredibly outrageous" because he has relied on international law and done research on the Internet.
(AP)

Breaking News: Senate Panel Delays Vote on Bolton to U.N.

John R. Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador suffered an unexpected setback Tuesday when a Republican-controlled Senate committee scrapped plans for a vote in favor of a fresh look at allegations of unbecoming conduct.
(AP)

U.N. Nominee Bolton Faces Showdown Vote

Most of the eight Democrats on the committee have said they plan to vote against Bolton on Tuesday. Two of the 10 Republicans — Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska — have said they expect to vote for Bolton despite reservations.

Not even a negative vote or a tie vote in committee would not necessarily thwart Bolton's nomination. The panel could send his name to the floor without a recommendation, or even with a negative recommendation. A tie vote or negative vote would be politically damaging, however.
At least one Democratic senator, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., said he will ask for a closed session so the committee can hear from intelligence officials about information Bolton requested relating to National Security Agency communications.

According to a spokesman for Dodd, Bolton asked for and received the identities of 10 U.S. officials involved in such secret NSA intercepts during the past four years.

"It's not clear what purpose Mr. Bolton was using this information for," said Dodd spokesman Marvin Fast. "The senator is concerned because it's his understanding that this information is rarely requested, and he wants to ensure that it was for official purposes only."
(AP)

The King of Media Manipulation Cries Foul...At the Media!

The media has started applying the horse-race style of campaign coverage to daily reporting on government, leading to adversarial reporting that can obscure the truth just to create conflict, President Bush’s chief political strategist said Monday.

Speaking at a forum at Washington College, Karl Rove said the influx of media outlets and the shrinking shelf life of news in a 24-hour news cycle are to blame.

“We are substituting the shrill and rapid call of the track announcer for calm judgment, fact and substance,” Rove told the crowd of roughly 600 students and local residents.
(MSNBC)

Breaking News: Top Hypocrite of the House Managers to Retire

Republican U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2006.

Hyde, who serves as chairman of the House International Relations Committee, made the announcement on his Web site on his 81st birthday. He was first elected to the House in 1974 from his Bensenville district near O'Hare International Airport.
(AP)

DCCC LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE TO EXPOSE TOM DeLAY.

www.houseofscandal.org

Washington Post Sweeps Away Lott's Racist Record

Mississippi Republican Senator Trent Lott's efforts to rehabilitate his public image were given a valuable boost by the Washington Post, which ran an uncritical profile in its April 14 edition.

Lott lost his position as Senate Majority Leader after comments he made at a December 2002 party for retiring Senator Strom Thurmond were made public. Lott saluted his home state's support for Thurmond's 1948 run for the White House on a Dixiecrat platform staunchly supporting segregation and opposing anti-lynching legislation:

"I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of him. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."
(FAIR.org)

Hillary Wants to Talk About Re-Election

She is leading in the polls for her party's White House nod in 2008. Republican Newt Gingrich ranks her as a formidable presidential candidate. Longtime critics are amassing money and manpower to derail her political career. And all Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wants to talk about is her re-election bid next year.

"'06, '06, '06," the New York Democrat chuckled when asked recently about her presidential ambitions.

The former first lady and her top aides steadfastly maintain that her focus is on winning a second Senate term. In fact, they have stopped talking publicly about the White House and 2008.
(AP)

Liberal Democrat Deval Patrick Announces Bid to Oust Romney in Massachusetts

The state's 2006 gubernatorial race got off to an early start on Thursday with the announcement from Deval Patrick, a former Coca Cola executive and federal civil rights enforcer, that he would seek to be Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's Democratic challenger.
(Boston Globe)
Click here to visit the Patrick '06 web site.

GOP Lawmaker May Vote Against U.N. Nominee

A top Senate Republican raised the possibility Sunday that he might vote against President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations if more accusations surface about John Bolton's alleged harassment of analysts who disagreed with his views.

With a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote expected Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was asked whether he would endorse Bolton.

"At this point, I will ... but I have been troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," said Hagel, the committee's No. 2 Republican.
(AP)

A top Senate Republican raised the possibility Sunday that he might vote against President Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations if more accusations surface about John Bolton's alleged harassment of analysts who disagreed with his views.

With a Senate Foreign Relations Committee vote expected Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska was asked whether he would endorse Bolton.

"At this point, I will ... but I have been troubled with more and more allegations, revelations, coming about his style, his method of operation," said Hagel, the committee's No. 2 Republican.
(AP)

Ten Ounces of IMF Gold Equivalent to One Human Life

Said ActionAid International policy officer, Romilly Greenhill, "the IMF holds some 100 million ounces of gold in its reserves. Selling only a tenth of this each year could raise vitally needed money for development. If those funds were to be invested in basic healthcare, for example, one million lives a year could be saved. You add it up, and it comes down to the fact that less than ten ounces of unused and un-needed IMF gold, if spent on health, could save one life. In delaying their decision, the IMF has shown that it may value the lives of those living in poverty less than they do gold."

Bolton: Pathological Bully

"His behavior back in 1994 wasn't just unforgivable, it was pathological," wrote Melody Townsel, a businesswoman from Dallas, in a letter to the committee that was made public Saturday by Democrats who opposed Bolton's appointment. "I cannot believe that this man is being seriously considered for any diplomatic position, let alone such a critical posting to the U.N."

Hers is the latest account alleging that Bolton — who faces a key committee vote Tuesday in his nomination to be United Nations ambassador — has been rude and belligerent toward those less powerful than himself, including three intelligence analysts whose views clashed with his.

Also disclosed Saturday was the summary of a committee staff interview with a former national intelligence officer for Latin America. He said that in 2003, Bolton and another State Department official attempted to pressure him to tailor his judgment on Cuba's biological weapons program, and that they attacked his integrity and attempted to have him transferred when he would not do so.
(Los Angeles Times)

Bush, Republicans Push Pro-Pollution Energy Bill

Republicans included two controversial provisions in the House bill: a green light to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and a shield against product liability lawsuits for makers of the gasoline additive MTBE, which has been linked to groundwater contamination.

Democrats have criticized the measure for failing to deal with gas-guzzling automobiles. They also oppose drilling in the Alaskan wildlife refuge — an item that likely would be left out of the Senate's energy bill because it would attract a Democratic-led filibuster and could jeopardize passage of the legislation.
(AP)

Yes, Tom, It's the Democrats' Fault!

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, under fire for alleged ethics violations, accused liberal Democrats and the national media of giving him a hard time in a keynote speech at the National Rifle Association's annual convention Saturday evening.

DeLay only briefly mentioned the ethics accusations, telling members of the gun-rights group that he appreciated their support.

"When a man is in trouble or in a good fight, you want to have your friends around, preferably armed. So I feel really good," the Republican from nearby Sugar Land said.
(AP)

BREAKING NEWS: NEO-CONS GO AFTER JUSTICE KENNEDY

The right-wing has decided that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, who helped throw the election to George W. Bush in 2000, must be impeached. Why? Because his decision overturning Texas's anti-sodomy law "upholds Marxist, Leninist, satanic principles drawn from foreign law," says lawyer-author-wingnut Edwin Vieira. Vieira seems particularly enamored with Soviet totalitarianism, referring to the Supreme Court as the Politburo and drawing inspiration from Stalin's "no man, no problem" mantra. "Death solves all problems: no man, no problem," was the full Stalin saying. A perfect motto for the culture of life crowd.
(The Nation)

Conservative Lawmaker: DeLay Should Quit

"If the majority leader were to temporarily step aside so that these trumped up charges can be dealt with in a less hostile environment, as they have proven to be an unnecessary distraction, it may be a productive move," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo.



Tancredo's comments come after Connecticut Rep. Chris Shays, a moderate Republican, urged DeLay to resign from his leadership position at the beginning of the week. Also, Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said DeLay needs to answer questions about his ethics.
(AP)

Families Paying Alternative Minimum Tax Increased 12-Fold under Bush

As taxpayers across the country work to beat tomorrow's tax filing deadline, more middle class families will be writing a larger check to the federal government, because President Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress have refused to address the growing problem posed by the alternative minimum tax.

In fact, more than 12 million families are expected to be ensnared by the alternative minimum tax this year. Just four years ago, when Bush first took office only 1 million families were subject to the higher tax rates, originally intended to apply to only very wealthy taxpayers.

"President Bush and Republicans in Congress are twiddling their thumbs as 12 million middle class families are confronting an income tax increase this year," said DNC spokesman Josh Earnest. "While the President says he cares about tax cuts, it's clear that his party doesn't care about the 12 million middle class families who taxes are going up."

The Bush Economic Plan: Still Failing

Wall Street suffered its worst single day in nearly two years Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average falling 191 points for its third straight triple-digit loss. Deepening concerns over economic growth and higher prices led to the worst week of trading since August.
(AP)

Molly Ivins: Tracking Terrorists

This all started with a report in The New York Times last week that the administration is finding heavy sledding in its efforts to go after terrorist financing. But who could oppose such a worthy endeavor? For starters, this administration. You may recall that Bill Clinton had commenced an international effort to track terrorist money, but the Bushies, upon arriving, denounced it as yet another soft-headed multilateralist initiative and promptly abandoned it. Then came 9-11, and suddenly it was in vogue again, though experts in the field, such as Sen. Paul Sarbanes, criticized the administration's initial efforts as lukewarm and half-hearted.

The Bush Administration's Assault on the Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency seemed likely to miss a court-ordered deadline Friday for issuing new rules intended to improve the views and air quality in 156 national parks and wilderness areas.

EPA officials were considering on Thursday whether to ask a federal court to extend the deadline. They also were consulting with the advocacy group Environmental Defense, which sued the agency to meet cleanup goals that Congress put in place 28 years ago.
(AP)

No Surprise: Bush Backs DeLay

Republicans are engaging in abuse of power and the American people are paying the price," said House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California. Added Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., "The Republicans in the House of Representatives are running the most closed and bitterly partisan House in the history of our country."
(AP)

Bush, House Republicans Continue Their War Against the Have-Nots

"This is the most special-interest-invested bill that I have ever dealt with in my career in Congress," said Rep. John Conyers a Michigan Democrat first elected in 1964. "It massively tilts the playing field in favor of banks and credit card companies and against working people and their families."

The AFL-CIO labor organization denounced the measure as "further proof that big business is steamrolling legislation through Congress."
(Reuters)

SEE THE FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 108

Jonathan Weisman: Erosion of Estate Tax Is a Lesson in Politics

In 1992, when heirs to the Mars Inc. fortune joined a few other wealthy families to hire the law firm Patton Boggs LLP to lobby for estate tax repeal, the joke on K Street was that few Washington sightseers had paid so much for a fruitless tour of the Capitol.

Today, the House is expected to vote to permanently repeal the estate tax, moving the Mars candy, Gallo wine and Campbell soup fortunes one step closer to a goal that once seemed quixotic at best: ending all taxation on inheritances.

"I think this train has an awful lot of momentum," said Yale University law professor Michael J. Graetz, a former senior official in the Treasury Department of President George H.W. Bush.

Last month, Graetz and Yale political scientist Ian Shapiro published "Death By A Thousand Cuts," chronicling the estate tax repeal movement as "a mystery about politics and persuasion."

"For almost a century, the estate tax affected only the richest 1 or 2 percent of citizens, encouraged charity, and placed no burden on the vast majority of Americans," they wrote. "A law that constituted the blandest kind of common sense for most of the twentieth century was transformed, in the space of little more than a decade, into the supposed enemy of hardworking citizens all over this country."

The secret of the repeal movement's success has been its appeal to principle over economics. While repeal opponents bellowed that only the richest of the rich would ever pay the estate tax, proponents appealed to Americans' sense of fairness, that individuals have the natural right to pass on their wealth to their children.
The most recent Internal Revenue Service data back opponents' claims. In 2001, out of 2,363,100 total adult deaths, only 49,911 -- 2.1 percent -- had estates large enough to be hit by the estate tax. That was down from 2.3 percent in 1999. The value of the taxed estates in 2001 averaged nearly $2.7 million.

Congressional action since 2001 will likely bring down the number of taxable estates still further. President Bush's 10-year, $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 began a decade-long phase-out of the estate tax. The portion of an estate exempted from taxation was raised from $675,000 in 2001 to $1.5 million in 2004. Next year, the exemption will rise to $2 million for individuals and $4 million for couples.

The impact has been clear, tax policy analysts say. The number of estates filing tax returns is falling sharply, from 123,600 in 2000 to an expected 63,800 this year. And only a small fraction of those will actually be taxed.

Under the 2001 legislation, however, all of the tax cuts, including the estate tax's repeal, would be rescinded in 2011. The vote today is the first to address the sunset provisions.
(Washington Post)

Rip 'em Off Abramoff

Where to begin examining the extraordinary career of Jack Abramoff? His work trying to secure a visa for the great Zairian kleptocrat Mobutu Sese Seko, perhaps, or the bilking of an estimated $66 million out of Native American tribes, clients he described as "monkeys," "troglodytes," and "idiots"? Or his leadership of a 1980s think tank financed, unbeknownst to him apparently, by the intelligence arm of South Africa's apartheid regime?
(Slate)

The Right Wing War Against Liberal Judges

The day after Terri Schiavo died, Gallup pollsters began calling Americans to ask them how various national figures had acquitted themselves in the operatic debate over whether to remove the terminally ill woman's feeding tube. The results seem to provide a simple outline of American opinion on the matter. In short, Americans think the Schiavo case was none of their business. The poll, like all other polls on the case, shows that Americans, by an overwhelming majority, don't think it was the president's or Congress' business, either. Asked what issues matter to them, Americans said pretty much the same thing they've been saying for months -- terrorism, healthcare costs, gas prices and the state of the economy. "Changes to how the federal courts handle moral issues" is an issue deemed "extremely important" by only 20 percent of the nation.
(Salon.com)

Matthew Rothschild: Bush, Cheney, Get Their Whitewash

Another investigation, another whitewash.

The presidential commission on how the U.S. was so wrong about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction gives Bush and Cheney exactly what they wanted: cover.

The Silberman-Robb report lays the blame primarily on the CIA for "poor tradecraft and poor management" and for presenting Bush with "alarmist" information in his daily briefings.

And it essentially exonerates Bush and Cheney from the charge that they cooked the intelligence. "In no instance did political pressure cause [analysts] to skew or alter any of their analytical judgments," it said.

Never mind that Cheney virtually set up camp at the CIA while they were drawing up those judgments.

How his unprecedented lurkings didn't represent political pressure is just beyond me.
(The Progressive)

The President to Provide Treatment for Children with AIDS...President Clinton, That Is

Former US President Bill Clinton's foundation is to spend an additional $10m to fight Aids among children in the developing world, he has announced.

The foundation aims to provide Aids-suppressing drugs to 10,000 children in countries from China to Africa and the Caribbean.

"These children need hope," the former president said, launching the drive.
He said children accounted for one in six Aids deaths worldwide, but only one in 30 receiving treatment was a child.

He said Cipla, an Indian-based company that makes anti-retroviral drugs for children, had agreed to provide medication at less than half the market price.

Paediatric Aids medications can be four to five times more expensive than adult drugs, the foundation said.
(BBC)

A "Kiss-up, Kick-Down Sort of Guy"

John R. Bolton, President Bush's choice to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is a "kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy" who bullied subordinates and threatened to end the career of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him on Cuba's weapons arsenal, a former State Department official testified Tuesday.

Carl W. Ford Jr., the former head of the State Department's bureau of intelligence and research, said that Bolton sought to have analyst Christian Westermann dismissed from his job after Westermann followed "normal procedure" in challenging a statement Bolton planned to make on Cuba's possession of biological weapons.

Ford, a government intelligence agent for more than 30 years who described himself as a "loyal Republican, conservative to the core," told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had "real questions about Bolton's suitability" to serve as chief U.S. spokesman at the United Nations.

"I have never seen anyone quite like Mr. Bolton," Ford said. "He abuses his authority with little people." Ford described Bolton as a "serial abuser" of people who disagreed with his views.

"Mr. Bolton needs anger management at a minimum," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.

But Bolton's path to confirmation seemed to be open after Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island said he was "still inclined" to join the nine other committee Republicans in voting for Bolton's promotion.

Democrat Threatens to Block Bush's Choice for USTR

A U.S. Senate Democrat threatened on Tuesday to block President Bush's choice for U.S. trade representative unless leaders allow a vote on legislation aimed at slapping duties on subsidized imports from China.

"I decided to take this step because I cannot sit idly by while American workers and companies continue to be victimized by foreign countries who violate our trade agreements with impunity," Sen. Evan Bayh, an Indiana Democrat, said in a statement.

"Everyday American workers get up in the morning and already have one hand tied behind their backs because of illegal Chinese subsidies."
(Reuters)

Froma Harrop: The Bankruptcy Bill

The bankruptcy bill in a nutshell: If you get in over your head in debt, and still have a decent income, you can't wipe the slate clean with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Instead, you will be shunted into what's called Chapter 13. There, lawyers will find a way for you to pay back what you owe. That means you will write your creditors checks month after month and, if necessary, year after year.

Richard Reeves: The Fall of Tom DeLay

DeLay is finished but he does not yet realize that, either. He was well-defended by his own as long as he only played bully-boy in the House of Representatives, pushing around Republicans grateful to him helping their careers along with fund-raising and parliamentary manuevering. It even seemed he could weather the ethical storms about his casual purloining of the political funds he raised with great energy and ingenuity. After all, taking trips around the world from lobbyists and putting his wife and daughter on the payroll were not exactly his own inventions. But taking on the judiciary -- his reaction to court inaction in the sad case of the life and death Terri Schiavo -- is a bit over his pay grade. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt failed when he tried to bring the judiciary to heel by “packing” the Supreme Court, adding liberals to neutralize the conservative majority created by Republican presidents earlier in the century.

Bush's Trade Deficit Hits $61.04 Billion in Feb.

The U.S. trade deficit hit a record monthly high of $61.04 billion in February as imports of oil and textiles surged while American exports barely budged.

The deficit figure sent tremors through Wall Street with investors worrying that the huge amount of foreigners' money America needs to finance the deficit could at some point trigger a freefall in the dollar and aggravate U.S. inflation problems.
(ABC)

Kerry: Trickery Kept Voters From Polls

"Last year too many people were denied their right to vote, too many who tried to vote were intimidated," the Massachusetts senator said at an event sponsored by the state League of Women Voters.

"There is no magic wand. No one person is going to stand up and suddenly say it's going to change tomorrow. You have to do that," he said.

Kerry supporters have charged that voting irregularities in largely Democratic areas made it difficult for voters to cast ballots in the November election. A lawsuit in Ohio cited long lines and a shortage of voting machines in predominantly minority neighborhoods, but the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed the suit.
(AP)

N.Y. GOP Mounts 'STOP HILLARY' Effort

Clinton, who has said she is not looking beyond her Senate re-election effort, has countered with fund-raising appeals of her own, including a March 31 e-mail warning supporters she is "the No. 1 target for the right-wing attack machine."

Spokeswoman Ann Lewis said Sunday that the Clinton campaign was "not surprised that the Republican Party has chosen to wage a personally negative campaign. They don't want to talk about Hillary's record of working for New Yorkers, throughout the state and in the Senate."
(AP)

Suddenly, Bolton Tries to Change His Tune

John R. Bolton, a blunt diplomat whose nomination as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is opposed by most Democrats and some in the foreign policy establishment, pledged Monday to help strengthen an institution that has occasionally "gone off track."

The Bush administration is committed to the success of the U.N., Bolton, the undersecretary of state, said on the first day of his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He told lawmakers that "we view the U.N. as an important component of our diplomacy."
(AP)

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.

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