The Real Richard Clarke

"The hottest places in hell are reserved for those, who in a time of great crisis, maintain their neutrality."

-Dante, as cited by Richard Clarke in his high school yearbook.

Bush vs Public Health

EPA Faulted on Clean-Water Violations: Consumer Interest Group's Study Details Lax Enforcement at Major Facilities:

The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to act against widespread violations of the Clean Water Act by plants and factories across the country, the U.S. Public Research Interest Group said yesterday based on a study it conducted.

More than 60 percent of all major facilities in the United States, or 3,700 out of 6,184, exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits on discharges into waterways at least once between January 1, 2002, and June 30, 2003, according to the report. The facilities include manufacturing and electronic plants, as well as wastewater treatment and sewage plants.

"The numbers point out that enforcement is not a priority for this administration, and clearly little to nothing is being done to deter polluters from breaking the law," said Richard Caplan, the environmental advocate who authored the report for PIRG, a consumer advocacy group.

Those of us who live in Washington, DC where the EPA has helped to hide excessive levels of lead in public drinking water, have a very strong interest in this issue. The Bush administration proves over and over that its priorities are profits over people.

Bush vs Our Troops

Bomb kills five U.S. military personnel; separate attack leaves at least one American and others dead:

In one of the bloodiest days in weeks for the U.S. military, five troops died when a bomb exploded under their military vehicle west of Baghdad on Wednesday. At least four foreign nationals, including one American, were killed in a separate attack and some of the bodies were burned, beaten and hanged from a bridge.

Why are these people dying? What is the justification for this ongoing slaughter? Rumsfeld denied that we needed more troops to maintain the peace. Bush insists that things are better and safer now. The reality on the ground seems to be the last thing anyone in this administration wants to actually face up to. But it's getting harder and harder for them to spin continuing death and violence as something positive.

Bush vs the Facts

In Wisconsin, Bush Offers a Hopeful Assessment of the Economy:

— President Bush campaigned in Wisconsin on Tuesday, saying he was optimistic about the economy and urging Americans to have faith in their ability to compete with the rest of the world rather than taking refuge behind what he called "economic isolationism."

Yes sir, just what we need, a faith based economic policy. It has worked so well over the last three years. Right?

Bush vs Poor Families

Senate backs hike in child-care funds

It seems like a no brainer that if you want to get poor mothers off welfare and back to work, providing some help with child-care is necessary. Otherwise the cost of child-care eliminates any incentive to work. And even worse is the cost on children who are left unsupervised so their mother can work. Both the social and economic costs of lack of adequate child-care for poor families are considerable but have been largely ignored in the past. So it is, in many ways, remarkable that the senate is taking this step. However "the Bush administration opposes the provision and House Republicans did not include it in the version of the legislation that passed the House last year." As always, the very pious Sen. Rick Santorum can be counted on to express the "Christian" view:

$1 billion increase already built into the legislation was sufficient. "The idea that there isn't enough money out there for day care is a ruse," Santorum said. "What this is about is a social policy that people should be more and more dependent upon government."

This is the same Rick Santorum who, on this same issue, famously proclaimed that government shouldn't provide help for child-care to welfare mothers, even as he voted to increase the number of hours of work required to qualify for benefits, because "Making people struggle a little bit is not necessarily the worst thing."

Bush vs World Peace?

Bomb explodes at Australian embassy:

A bomb attack on the Australian high commission in Kuala Lumpur yesterday has raised concerns that anti-Western terrorism may have arrived in Malaysia - a country largely immune from the violent unrest that has spread across South-East Asia over the past few years.

But we're all safer now - right? That is, unless we're in Iraq.

Bush vs Gay Anti-terrorism Advisors

Queer Eye for the al Queda Guy

This from Wonkette:

We have it on semi-reliable authority that the Bush administration's next attempt to discount Richard Clarke's credibility will consist of alleging that he's a big gay. We have a little trouble figuring out how being gay makes you unable to assess threats to a country's national security -- after all, we trust them to tell us what to wear. Still, it is a great strategy.

That is, as long as you don't believe there any other homosexuals on the Bush national security team.

Thank God Clarke isn't married. Then they would charge him with adultry or having a black child - or worse. Since he isn't married it has to be the gay smear. Of course, we all know that gay folk can't be "tough" on terrorists. Remember Gay Edgar Hoover? He didn't even believe there was organized crime, but he did believe there were godless commies under every bed, and that is no doubt why we "won" the Cold War. So sure, we really need more macho guys who are willing to go to war even if it's with the wrong country. It sends a strong message to "the terrorists."

Of course, the message is "these guys are nuts." Does this make you feel safer?

Me neither.

Bush vs Terror Preparedness

Censored Study on Bioterror Doubts U.S. Preparedness

What? Have we not stockpiled enough duct tape?

In a sweeping assessment, the report identifies weaknesses in "almost every aspect of U.S. biopreparedness and response." But perhaps equally significant is the two-year battle over the Pentagon's refusal to release the study. That struggle highlights the growing tension between public access to information and the government's refusal to divulge anything it says terrorists could use to attack Americans.

So you have to ask - every day - what else are they not telling us that we need to know? Why the constant secrecy?

Bush Team vs Law and Order

Republicans under investigation

From Daily KOS we get the following list of Republican legal travails:

The Senate's top cop investigated Republican hacking of Democratic accounts and theft of thousands of documents. After finding probable cause for wrongdoing, the Senate Judiciary Committee recommended the Justice Department undertake its own criminal probe.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees are both investigating intelligence lapses heading up to the Iraq War.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating Bush's pre-war lies about Iraq's WMDs and ties to al Qaida.

Rove, Cheney's entire political team and others are being investigated by a Justice Department special prosecutor for leaking the name of a covert CIA agent (Plame) to discredit her husband -- a critic of the administration's trumped up charges that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger.

Can anyone forget the 9-11 commission?

HHS Inspector General Dara Corrigan is investigating administration lies about the true cost of the Medicare bill. Remember, not only did the Bush Administration undercount the costs (from $395 billion to $521 billion), but then threatened an auditor with his job if he revealed the true numbers.

The General Accounting Office is investigating the fake "news reports" the White House created to promote the Medicare law's new prescription drug coverage provisions.

And being the gift that keeps on giving, the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee and the Justice Department are both (and seperately) investigating bribery allegations as the administration and its congressional allies twisted arms to get the necessary votes in the House to pass the Medicare bill.

Tom DeLay is under criminal investigation on whether his Texas political action committee (Texans for a Republican Majority) improperly financed the GOP's takeover of the Texas legislature. DeLay has already signaled he may be forced to step down from his leadership post (even if just temporarily) if indicted.

Connecticut Governor John Rowland is being investigated by federal prosecutors for a shockingly brazen level of corruption. Even the state's GOP establishment has abandoned the governor, and impeachment proceedings are likely unless he resigns his post.

As he notes, this list does not include a number of lawsuites against the administration such as the effort to get Dick Cheney to turn over his Energy Taskforce notes. You have to keep asking, what are these guys afraid of?

Frist vs Clarke

Bill Frist is a Hypocrite

In his Senate speech attacking Richard Clarke, Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, Tennessee's major current public hypocrite, declared:

"I am . . . troubled that someone would sell a book, trading on their . . . service as a government insider with access to our nation?s most valuable intelligence, in order to profit from the suffering that this nation endured on September 11, 2001."

This from the man whose personal wealth derives - at least in part - from major Medicare fraud and who - shortly after 9/11 - published When Every Moment Counts: What You Need to Know About Bioterrorism from the Senate's Only Doctor.

There is a current campaign to review this book on Amazon.com by simply quoting the words that Frist used to condemn Clarke. Go for it.

Ashcroft an Incompetent?

Terror Convinctions Could Be Overturned:

The jury verdict was hailed by the Bush administration as a major victory in the nation's war on terror. One other defendant was convicted of document fraud; a fourth was acquitted.
But an array of problems now threaten to unravel those verdicts. Among them:

· An ongoing court-ordered review has found the government withheld more than 100 documents from the defense, including CIA intelligence reports. Also withheld was an interview with a man who claimed the prosecution's star witness admitted lying to investigators.
· The government's key witness, Youssef Hmimssa, is a serial con man who was wanted for crimes in Europe and had lied to U.S. authorities before. During 20 hours of interrogating Hmimssa about terrorism--often without his attorney present--FBI agents took few notes.
· Before the trial began, the government deported at least two witnesses who challenged the prosecution's case.
· In at least one file prosecutors handed over to defense lawyers, a page with information critical to the defense was missing, defense lawyers say.
· Violations of a court gag order by Ashcroft and government leaks raise concerns about whether the defendants got a fair trial.

'Democracy' in the Arab World

One of the core Bush administration rationales for regime change in Iraq was that removing Saddam Hussein would allow democracy to flower in Iraq and spread throughout the region. Ignoring for the moment the problem of just what conservative Americans mean when they talk about 'democracy' in other countries, the future for any kind of democracy in Iraq is being called into question by the resistance of the Shitte leader Imam (Ayatollah Ali) al-Sistani who is objecting to the U. S. imposed interim constitution and may call on Iraqis to engage in mass protests and civil disobedience to oppose it. Of course many of us might feel that such actions by masses of individual citizens is the essence of democracy, but you know that is not how it will be seen by the Bushies.

And in the broader set of issues relating to democracy in the Arab world generally, the picture is hardly better. This week a long anticipated Arab summit to address issues of democratic reform was canceled because of extreme disagreement among participating countries over basic issues:

The summit meeting of Arab leaders billed as the first serious effort to make a collective commitment to democratic reforms ended Saturday before it began, with the host nation, Tunisia, insisting that it be postponed indefinitely.

In a statement, the Tunisian government said it felt that the commitment of Arab states toward reforms — from human rights to a greater role for women — was insufficient for the 22 foreign ministers gathered here to hammer out an agreement on common goals that the heads of state would endorse.

The Associated Press has an interesting review: A Glance at the State of Democracy in the Arab World. Pretty high level but a good summary and worth the read. And in the first Muslim country that we brought democracy to: Afghan president says elections to be delayed to September.

Need I say more?

Britain vs Bush

Gay couples win full rights to 'marriage':

The first laws giving gay people the right to 'marry' are to be unveiled this week in one of the most significant changes to Britain's social make-up since the passing of equal opportunities legislation in the 1960s.

I can't wait for the Bush administration to try and spin this one, especially since Bush supporters such as Sen. Rick Santorum have equated such formal recognition as equal to legalizing pedaphilia or beastiality.

Richard Clarke vs the Bush Team

Richard Clarke Interviewed in 'The Guardian':

JB: Condoleezza Rice wrote today in response to your book - that the Bush administration did have a strategy for eliminating al-Qaida and that the administration worked on it in the spring and summer of 2001? Is that true?
RC: We developed that strategy in the last several months of the Clinton administration and it was basically an update on that strategy. We briefed Condi on that strategy. The point is that it was done before they came to office and she never held a meeting on it. It was done before she asked for it.

JB: What about the claim that the administration did work hard on the issue?

RC: Its not true.

Read the whole interview and you'll agree. The Bush spin machine has finally met its match.

Bush vs Iraq's Future

U.S. Soldier Killed in Countdown to Iraqi Sovereignty:

An American soldier died in a bomb blast north of Baghdad today amid warnings that attacks will increase with fewer than 100 days left before the coalition hands over sovereignty.

"Hands over sovereignty?" We aren't handing over anything and we all know it. When the magic date arrives all that will change is that the mess that is Iraq will get dropped by the Pentagon into the lap of the State Department. We will still have 110,000 troops stationed in Iraq. We will control the economy. We will control the oil. We will control the actions of the puppet government that we have put in place to front for the American embassy staff (planned to be the largest in the world).

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.

What a joke.

Who Does The CIA Work For?

I have to ask that every now and then. It really isn't immediately clear what the answer is.

Bush vs the Rationale for War With Iraq

Bush Jokes About Search for WMD, But It's No Laughing Matter for Critics:

President George Bush sparked a political firestorm yesterday after making what many judged a tasteless and ill-judged joke about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Proving yet again that it's all a bad joke to these guys.

Condi Rice vs the Truth

Condoleezza Rice's Credibility Gap
A point-by-point analysis of how one of America's top national security officials has a severe problem with the truth:

Pre-9/11 Intelligence

CLAIM: "I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." - National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 5/16/02
FACT: On August 6, 2001, the President personally "received a one-and-a-half page briefing advising him that Osama bin Laden was capable of a major strike against the US, and that the plot could include the hijacking of an American airplane." In July 2001, the Administration was also told that terrorists had explored using airplanes as missiles. [Source: NBC, 9/10/02; LA Times, 9/27/01]
CLAIM: In May 2002, Rice held a press conference to defend the Administration from new revelations that the President had been explicitly warned about an al Qaeda threat to airlines in August 2001. She "suggested that Bush had requested the briefing because of his keen concern about elevated terrorist threat levels that summer." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]
FACT: According to the CIA, the briefing "was not requested by President Bush." As commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste disclosed, "the CIA informed the panel that the author of the briefing does not recall such a request from Bush and that the idea to compile the briefing came from within the CIA." [Source: Washington Post, 3/25/04]
CLAIM: "In June and July when the threat spikes were so high we were at battle stations." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: "Documents indicate that before Sept. 11, Ashcroft did not give terrorism top billing in his strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes the FBI. A draft of Ashcroft's 'Strategic Plan' from Aug. 9, 2001, does not put fighting terrorism as one of the department's seven goals, ranking it as a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. By contrast, in April 2000, Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, called terrorism 'the most challenging threat in the criminal justice area.'" Meanwhile, the Bush Administration decided to terminate "a highly classified program to monitor Al Qaeda suspects in the United States." [Source: Washington Post, 3/22/04; Newsweek, 3/21/04]
CLAIM: "The fact of the matter is [that] the administration focused on this before 9/11." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: President Bush and Vice President Cheney's counterterrorism task force, which was created in May, never convened one single meeting. The President himself admitted that "I didn't feel the sense of urgency" about terrorism before 9/11. [Source: Washington Post, 1/20/02; Bob Woodward's "Bush at War"]
CLAIM: "Our [pre-9/11 NSPD] plan called for military options to attack al Qaeda and Taliban leadership, ground forces and other targets -- taking the fight to the enemy where he lived." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: 9/11 Commissioner Gorelick: "There is nothing in the NSPD that came out that we could find that had an invasion plan, a military plan." Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage: "Right." Gorelick: "Is it true, as Dr. Rice said, 'Our plan called for military options to attack Al Qaida and Taliban leadership'?" Armitage: "No, I think that was amended after the horror of 9/11." [Source: 9/11 Commission testimony, 3/24/04]
Condi Rice on Pre-9/11 Counterterrorism Funding

CLAIM: "The president increased counterterrorism funding several-fold" before 9/11. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/24/04
FACT: According to internal government documents, the first full Bush budget for FY2003 "did not endorse F.B.I. requests for $58 million for 149 new counterterrorism field agents, 200 intelligence analysts and 54 additional translators" and "proposed a $65 million cut for the program that gives state and local counterterrorism grants." Newsweek noted the Administration "vetoed a request to divert $800 million from missile defense into counterterrorism." [Source: New York Times, 2/28/04; Newsweek, 5/27/02]
Richard Clarke's Concerns

CLAIM: "Richard Clarke had plenty of opportunities to tell us in the administration that he thought the war on terrorism was moving in the wrong direction and he chose not to." National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: Clarke sent a memo to Rice principals on 1/24/01 marked "urgent" asking for a Cabinet-level meeting to deal with an impending al Qaeda attack. The White House acknowledges this, but says "principals did not need to have a formal meeting to discuss the threat." No meeting occurred until one week before 9/11. [Source: CBS 60 Minutes, 3/24/04; White House Press Release, 3/21/04
CLAIM: "No al Qaeda plan was turned over to the new administration." ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: "On January 25th, 2001, Clarke forwarded his December 2000 strategy paper and a copy of his 1998 Delenda plan to the new national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice." ? 9/11 Commission staff report, 3/24/04
Response to 9/11

CLAIM: "The president launched an aggressive response after 9/11." ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: "In the early days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Bush White House cut by nearly two-thirds an emergency request for counterterrorism funds by the FBI, an internal administration budget document shows. The papers show that Ashcroft ranked counterterrorism efforts as a lower priority than his predecessor did, and that he resisted FBI requests for more counterterrorism funding before and immediately after the attacks." [Source: Washington Post, 3/22/04]
9/11 and Iraq Invasion Plans

CLAIM: "Not a single National Security Council principal at that meeting recommended to the president going after Iraq. The president thought about it. The next day he told me Iraq is to the side." ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: According to the Washington Post, "six days after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush signed a 2-and-a-half-page document marked 'TOP SECRET'" that "directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq." This is corroborated by a CBS News, which reported on 9/4/02 that five hours after the 9/11 attacks, "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq." [Source: Washington Post, 1/12/03. CBS News, 9/4/02]
Iraq and WMD

CLAIM: "It's not as if anybody believes that Saddam Hussein was without weapons of mass destruction." ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/18/04
FACT: The Bush Administration's top weapons inspector David Kay "resigned his post in January, saying he did not believe banned stockpiles existed before the invasion" and has urged the Bush Administration to "come clean" about misleading America about the WMD threat. [Source: Chicago Tribune, 3/24/04; UK Guardian, 3/3/04]
9/11-al Qaeda-Iraq Link

CLAIM: "The president returned to the White House and called me in and said, I've learned from George Tenet that there is no evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11." ? National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 3/22/04
FACT: If this is true, then why did the President and Vice President repeatedly claim Saddam Hussein was directly connected to 9/11? President Bush sent a letter to Congress on 3/19/03 saying that the Iraq war was permitted specifically under legislation that authorized force against "nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11." Similarly, Vice President Cheney said on 9/14/03 that "It is not surprising that people make that connection" between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, and said "we don't know" if there is a connection. [Source: BBC, 9/14/03]

Bush vs Wounded Veterans

Wounded Soldiers May Be Billed Again for Hospital Meals

These people have no shame.

Clarke vs Bush

Trust Clarke: He's right about Bush

Bush vs the Future of Iraq

US military 'cut corners' on Iraq contracts:

The US Department of Defense planned inadequately for the initial stages of postwar Iraq reconstruction and "cut corners" in awarding and monitoring contracts using taxpayers' money, according to a Pentagon report.

The Pentagon last year awarded 24 contracts to companies to provide consulting and media support to the US occupying authorities in Baghdad. But the department's inspector-general was asked to review the $122m of contracts after military auditors found "irregularities".

"The Department of Defense did not plan for the acquisition support that the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance required to perform its mission," the report said. "As a result, supplies and service were quickly acquired and contracting rules were either circumvented or liberally interpreted."

The Bush administration has been plagued by criticism of its handling of post-war Iraq reconstruction with allegations of cronyism and incompetence in the awarding of contracts. The inspector-general has separately launched a criminal investigation into charges that Halliburton, the oil services company formerly run by Vice-president Dick Cheney, overcharged the US government for fuel imports.

Condi Rice is a Temp?

Watch out! A shoe just dropped!:

The White House may have sent a phalanx of top officials to Capitol Hill this week to be grilled by the Sept. 11 panel, but the one official who did not appear publicly has turned out to be the official the panel wanted most: Condoleezza Rice.
As she prepares to leave her job at the end of the year, Ms. Rice, the president's national security adviser, now finds herself at the center of a political storm, furiously defending both the White House and her own reputation.

Josh Marshal raises the question of whether or not we had heard elsewhere any of this "As she prepares to leave her job" stuff - and what it migh mean.

Condi Rice is Such a Bitch

Condoleezza Rice Threatens Jamaica Over Aristide:

Randall Robinson, who accompanied Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on his historic return trip back to the Caribbean, reveals that National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice is telling the Jamaican government if Aristide is not immediately expelled from the country and anything happens to American forces in Haiti, consequences would be exacted against Jamaica in full force by the U.S.

Not content to be against affirmative action and other minority support programs, Rice continues to prove that she is willing to fully support programs that are racist and divisive in the extreme. Aristide is a poor man espousing the rights of poor men. That is his crime. Bush is a rich man working for the benefit of rich men. That is HIS crime. You judge whether it makes any sense to punish Aristide and reward Bush.

Bush vs the Rest of Us

Bush pokes fun at himself at dinner

Bush tries to make a joke of the missing WMDs and manages to insult the 500 plus service men and women who have died because of this very unfunny fiction.

Bush National Security Advisor vs National Security

Brad Delong Imagines Condi Rice Testimony:

As we all know, Condi Rice has refused to appear before the September 11 Commission. But what if she had decided to appear? What would her opening statement have looked like? Let's write some testimony for her!

The Democrats vs Themselves

Democrat Unity Rally for John Kerry on CSPAN2

Oh lord, this is so sad. This event reminds me so much of the last Democratic convention where Dems proved that they are both tone deaf and oblivious to their strengths and their weaknesses. I had hoped for so much more.

OK, some minutes later I may have to take it back. Bill Clinton is front and center pretty much reaming the Repubs a new asshole. I sometimes forget how good he can be. If the Dems fail to use him in a big way in the campaign - as was the case last time - it will really be a shame.

Of course, I would feel a whole lot better if I didn't have to see John Kerry hugging Terry the useless head of the Democratic Leadership Council, to the background music of U2's "A Beautiful Day." Enough already with the pop culture pandering. And when Kerry thanks all the other candidates that competed with him in the primary he ignores Dennis Kucinich. Not good. We have to be better than this.

Squish the Bug-man

DELAY TO STEP DOWN?....:

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) has begun quiet discussions with a handful of colleagues about the possibility that he will have to step down from his leadership post temporarily if he is indicted by a Texas grand jury investigating alleged campaign finance abuses.

...Republican Conference rules state that a member of the elected leadership who has been indicted on a felony carrying a penalty of at least two years in prison must temporarily step down from the post.

Let's hope this conniving SOB gets charged and convicted. He has been a real danger to our democratic processes. He needs to go. Then we can work on Rick Santorum and all the other homophobic, hypocritical, narrow minded, self-righteous, ignorant, bigoted, assholes in congress.

Bush vs the Young

The Coming Draft:

Of course, the Selective Service System doesn't call it a "draft." In their lexicon of acronyms it's a "Registrant Integrated Processing System": RIPS, for short. The acronym's horrible irony ? Rest In Peace, anyone? ? seems to have been lost on the bureaucrats.

You really couldn't make this kind of thing up.

David Kay vs Bush

David Kay to Bush: fess up:

The former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq warned on Monday that the United States is in "grave danger" of destroying its credibility at home and abroad if it does not own up to its mistakes in Iraq.

"The cost of our mistakes ... with regard to the explanation of why we went to war in Iraq are far greater than Iraq itself," David Kay said in a speech at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"We are in grave danger of having destroyed our credibility internationally and domestically with regard to warning about future events," he said. "The answer is to admit you were wrong, and what I find most disturbing around Washington ... is the belief ... you can never admit you're wrong."

The comments by Kay came as the White House sought to fend off accusations from its former anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke, who said President Bush ignored the al Qaeda threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and focused on Iraq rather than the Islamic militant group afterward.

So far, the only government official who has admitted any responsibility for things that have gone wrong is Richard Clarke, and he recognized the war with Iraq was wrong from the start. Let's hope the public recognizes more and more the hypocritical position of the Bush administration in never admitting to any mistake or failure.

Comedian vs the Bush Administration

Does Bill Cosby believe that Condoleezza Rice has cooties?:

At yesterday's Capitol Hill ceremony honoring civil rights icon Dorothy Height, the comedian was supposed to be seated next to President Bush's national security adviser - whose role in the run-up to 9/11 and its aftermath has come under intense scrutiny and heavy fire.

But according to Republican sources, shortly before the proceedings commenced in the Capitol Rotunda - where Bush presented the 92-year-old Height with the Congressional Gold Medal - Cosby's assistant informed an event organizer that Cosby would prefer to sit elsewhere.

The request was accommodated, I'm told.

Oh my!

Bush Administration vs the Truth

Why won't Condi Rice testify under oath?

Josh Marshal keeps the heat on Bush's National Security Advisor who is willing to appear on any TV show and even to declassify memos in order to attack Richard Clarke, but who refuses to testify under oath. Why? What is she afraid of? Her excuse that presidential advisers don't testify before congressional committees is simply a lie. It has happened in every administration in my memory.

So again, what is she afraid of?

Clarke vs Bush

A New Folk Hero

John F. Lehman, the former secretary of the Navy, probably wishes he didn't ask Richard Clarke about Iraq today. By doing so, he not only helped Clarke emerge as a new folk hero. Lehman also increased the chances that historians will view Clarke's devastating critique of Bush's terrorism and Iraq agenda as the beginning of the end of the Bush administration.

The forum for all this was Richard Clarke's testimony in front of the bipartisan commission investigating terrorism and September 11. Clarke, of course, is the giant-killer and tell-all author whose recent release, Against All Enemies, blew the roof off of President Bush's claim to be a war president.

Until Lehman's question, Clarke hadn't mentioned Iraq, though he'd quietly and effectively ripped President Bush to shreds for his failure to take terrorism seriously. "The Bush administration considered terrorism an important issue but not an urgent issue," said Clarke. "George Tenet [the CIA director] and I tried very hard to create a sense of urgency. I don't think it was ever treated that way."

So Lehman, acting like a hatchet man for the White House, which has launched an all-out assault on Clarke, took him on?but on Iraq. In all your 15 hours of classified testimony to the commission before today, he asked, why didn't you say that you felt the president was so wrong about Iraq and the link to terrorism? Clarke was ready. "No one asked me what I thought about the president's invasion of Iraq," said Clarke, matter-of-factly. "By invading Iraq, the president has greatly undermined the war on terrorism."

The amazing thing here for me is that every week for as long as I can remember we have had some insider revelation of lies and bad faith on the part of the Bushies and yet none of them seem to really make a dent in the silly notion that Dubyah is a simple, straight forward, honest, good-old-boy who only wants to do the right thing for America (as opposed to his being a duplicitous, deceptive, rich kid, who only wants to do what he can for himself and his friends).

Bush vs the Public

The public testimony before the 9/11 Commission: useless. These people are an embarrasment. We are being lied to and toyed with. How long will the public take it before we sweep all of these assholes from office?

Bush Allies vs World Peace

Sharon Aids Hamas:

Somewhere, there is someone who may believe that killing an old man in a wheelchair will make Israel safer. The reality is that by killing Ahmed Yassin, Israel will strengthen Hamas at the expense of the Palestinian national movement and the PLO.

Remember what Bush said - Sharon is a "man of peace." Yeah, right. War is peace; you just have to look at it the right way.

Bush vs Medicare

A Dire Report on Medicare Finances:

The Medicare system's financial condition has deteriorated sharply during the past year, according to a government forecast that says the program has been weakened by the new Medicare law that Republicans had said would solidify its future.

This is so typical of Bush administration policies and actions, the actual result is almost directly opposite from what was promised. Tell me again why a lot of Americans still believe this lying bastard.

Bush vs Democracy in Iraq

Our Man in Baghdad:

What a blast we're having in Iraq. And no wonder. Our main man there, Ahmed Chalabi, is less trusted by Iraqis than even Saddam Hussein. A comprehensive new poll of Iraqis (which somehow didn't make big news over here) reveals that Iraqis don't really have a favorite "national leader." Big surprise. But when they were asked, "Which one do you not trust at all?" the leader of the pack was Chalabi, the U.S. stooge who helped propagandize us into invading his ex-country. Chalabi garnered 10.3 percent of the disgust. A distant second was Saddam, with 3.3 percent. Not too good for a tyrant, Saddam. Let's pick up the pace. Oh, I forgot. We captured you and then sent a nattily dressed Chalabi into your cell to grill you when what you really needed was a shave and a shower. If Chalabi has any good qualities, they're harder to find than a WMD. In answer to the question "Which national leader in Iraq, if any do you trust the most?" Saddam fared better than Chalabi again, 3.3 percent to 0.2 percent. (None and Not Sure got nearly 60 percent, and Ibrahim Jaaferi was the leading human with 7.7.)

This is the guy that is supposed to help bring "democracy" to Iraq. Apart from the fact that he is a convicted felon, thief, serial liar, and self-serving imposter, what qualities do our military leaders see in him that makes him worthy to be considered a replacement for Saddam Hussein?

Foreign Leaders vs Bush

Foreign Leaders Do Prefer Kerry Over Bush:

Republicans have demanded he name names of leaders supposedly supporting him, chastised him for taking politics beyond the water's edge and pointed out that overseas cheering sections don't make a whiff of difference in a U.S. presidential campaign.

But the central point that Kerry made and probably wishes he didn't has stood largely unchallenged: that opposition to Bush is widespread in foreign capitals and a variety of politicians are privately - in a few bold cases, publicly - rooting for the president to lose.

Of course, most foreign leaders are not as out front as President Chavez of Venezuela, who called Bush "an asshole." No doubt many would like to.

The Public vs Bush

Criticism of President Bush's motives and decision-making in attacking Iraq last year may be acquiring critical mass with voters:

Political consultants and analysts said Clarke's allegation that Bush ignored the al Qaeda threat before the Sept. 11 attacks and was obsessed by a desire to invade Iraq were especially damaging because they confirmed other previous revelations from policy insiders.

"Each of these revelations adds to the others so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the message gets reinforced with voters," said Richard Rosecrance, a political scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Before Clarke, there was former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who asserted in a book published in January that Bush began laying the groundwork for an attack on Iraq from the moment he took office.

Then came the bombshell from former weapons inspector David Kay that the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that Bush launched the war to find and destroy probably did not exist.

We can only hope this analysis is right. It's about time for the public to wake up to the consistent lies we have been told.

Bush vs the American Economy

U.S. Debt Burden Is Higher Now than During Depression

The Miami Herald gives us the cheerful news that we are broke. But don't worry, the Bush team has a plan - more tax cuts for the rich.

Shiite's vs Bush in Iraq

Shiite Cleric Threatens to Shun U.N. Envoys in Iraq

Well, this was widely predicted before the war in Iraq. The neocon belief that democracy would easily flower was seen by anyone who knew anything about the region's history as pretty optimistic nonsense. Now the leading Shiite cleric has declared that the proposed interim constitution will not be acceptable because it tries to balance political power between Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds. Since Shiites make up a large majority of the population they are naturally not happy with giving minority groups a virtual veto power in the new government.

Hey, somebody needs to talk to bush about what "democracy" really means.

Bush vs Haiti

Haiti Needs Our Help Fostering its democratic institutions

In today's Washington Post, which can never resist giving space to any cynical propaganda piece as long as it is written by "an official source", a piece by presidential bro Jeb Bush calls for America to help Haiti build the democratic and economic institutions necessary for a successful future. He suggests that this can best be done by having the numerous Haitians in Florida return to Haiti because they can provide the expertise and attitude that he feels are lacking there.

This has a familiar ring: we engage in regime change and remove an existing government, replace it with one made up largely of a select group of tame America friendly ex-residents who are largely unfamiliar with the current situation, use military force to impose this regime, and pretend that by making the future safe for foreign business investment we are doing something about "democracy."

Bush makes the following extraordinary set of charges:

We have watched the painful struggle in Haiti over the past 10 years, as Jean-Bertrand Aristide squandered his opportunity to build a foundation for progress. Democracy means more than elections. It means respecting the rule of law and supporting a vibrant, robust civil society. Aristide destroyed these principles in Haiti and replaced them with corruption and violence. Groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus, who claim to support democracy yet focus on Aristide's election, exacerbate his betrayal of the Haitian people.

Where to even start with this crap? Was the Bush administration "respecting the rule of law" when it armed former members of Haiti's military as rebels against Aristide? When it funneled large sums of money through the misnamed National Endowment for Democracy to be used in anti-Aristide organizing and propaganda? When it refused to offer any security help against the violence that we now deplore and blame on the victims? Did we have Haiti's future in mind when we cut off all aid to one of the poorest countries in the world because Aristide refused to totally privatize Haiti's resources?

What has recently taken place in Haiti is Iraq writ small, except that in Haiti we didn't overthrow a tyrant - however much the lying Bush administration wishes to make it out to be so. We overthrew an elected president whose only crimes were trying to raise the living standards of the poor and refusing to give in to Haitian - and foreign - wealthy business interests that have refused for a century to allow any approach to a more equitable distribution of resources. And the Congressional Black Caucus that Bush dismisses? Well, they know very well that this couldn't have happened as it did if Haiti's were not an almost all black population.

Bush vs Iraq's Economic Future

Iraq's Next Shock Will be Shock Therapy

Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, Professor of Economics at Columbia University and formerly Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to President Clinton and Chief Economist and Senior Vice President at the World Bank, believes that the next phase of economic adjustment facing Iraq is the kind of extreme "therapy" we have imposed on numerous third world countries:

With one exception - the actual military "victory," which looks increasingly Pyrrhic - President Bush's Iraqi adventure has been marked by repeated failures. Scant signs of weapons of mass destruction have been found, and, according to David Kay, America's chief arms inspector, the stockpiles either never existed or were destroyed years ago. So Bush simply ignored the data, gathered by Hans Blix's UN inspectors, and the evidence on which he based his case for war seems to have been largely fabricated.

Worse still, it is now clear that Bush never had a plan for when the war ended. Instead of moving towards peace and democracy, the situation in Iraq remains so dangerous that Paul Bremer, the American occupation leader, is using instability as his rationale for avoiding democratic elections this year.

Of course, America tried to keep real order in some places, revealing a lot about what it truly valued in Iraq. When Baghdad fell, the oil ministry was quickly protected, while museums and hospitals were allowed to be looted.

If there was not outright corruption in the $7 billion in contracts awarded to Halliburton, whose former chairman was Vice President Dick Cheney, there was undoubtedly a strong whiff of crony capitalism. Halliburton and its subsidiaries have been ensnared in charges of war profiteering ever since, and have had to pay back millions of dollars to the US government.

Now, everyone agrees, the most important task - beyond creating a democratic state and restoring security - is reconstructing the economy. Blinded by ideology, however, the Bush administration seems determined to continue its record of dismal failures by ignoring past experience.

Despite the fact that no country that has undergone the extreme shock therapy prescribed by the WTO and the World Bank has ever profited from the experience (indeed, they have all suffered from it) the conservative advocates of "free trade" continue to insist that it is the only way for countries to experience the rewards of the modern world. Margaret Thatcher was famous for proclaiming that "there is no other way" but that is simply nonsense. The fastest growing economy in the world for the last decade is China, and China has done exactly the opposite of what the WTO and World Bank recommend.

In a related article, our first civilian head of postwar Iraq, General Jay Garner, maintains that he was fired from the job because he recommended speedy elections and putting more economic control in the hands of the Iraqis themselves:

Jay Garner, the US general abruptly dismissed as Iraq's first occupation administrator after a month in the job, says he fell out with the Bush circle because he wanted free elections and rejected an imposed program of privatization.

Bush vs World Peace

Is George W. Bush 'The Most Dangerous Man in the World'?:

On the news talk shows this morning and in speeches throughout the day, the Bush administration tries to justify the war with Iraq by calling Saddam Hussein “the most dangerous man in the world.”

But the most dangerous man in the world is not sitting in a jail cell somewhere in Iraq,

He is not hiding out in a cave somewhere in Afghanistan.

Not really. The most dangerous man in the world may well be working out of an oval-shaped office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC.

The Public vs George W. Bush

SOB marches with 100,000 of his closest friends in Manhattan

It was a good turnout in Manhattan to mark the anniversary of George Bush's war against Iraq. The police were out in force and the rallies before and after the march were diminished because the city enclosed the protesters in pens along Madison Avenue, so that most participants couldn't either see or hear the speakers. Even though the rally was scheduled for Madison Square Park, no protesters were allowed in the park (which was totally fenced off). This is a glimpse of what the city plans for protesters at the upcoming Rebublican convention.

At one point early in the day, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city's police commissioner strolled down the sidewalk (on the other side of the steel cage that enclosed the protesters) and smirked as they were cursed by those penned in like cattle.

This can only get worse. Stay tuned.

Bush Administration Rewrites History

The Price of Freedom in Iraq

Donald Rumsfeld in today's Washington Post repeats all the same old tired and discredited lies that every one of the Bush administration's talking heads keep repeating. Fact seems irrelevant to these people.

Today, in a world of terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and states that sponsor the former and pursue the latter, defending freedom means we must confront dangers before it is too late. In Iraq, for 12 years, through 17 United Nations Security Council resolutions, the world gave Saddam Hussein every opportunity to avoid war. He was being held to a simple standard: live up to your agreement at the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war; disarm and prove you have done so. Instead of disarming — as Kazakhstan, South Africa and Ukraine did, and as Libya is doing today — Saddam Hussein chose deception and defiance.

Repeatedly, he rejected those resolutions and he systematically deceived United Nations inspectors about his weapons and his intent. The world knew his record: he used chemical weapons against Iran and his own citizens; he invaded Iran and Kuwait; he launched ballistic missiles at Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; and his troops repeatedly fired on American and British aircraft patrolling the no-flight zones.

Since we know he didn't have these WMDs, how was he going to disarm - or prove he already had? He had allowed intrusive inspections and the inspectors were saying there was nothing much to find. It is Bush that forced the inspectors to be withdrawn because he believed they were being deceived. As for our planes being fired at in the "no fly zones", these are, after all, Iraqi air space. What were our planes doing there in the first place, beyond engaging in an ongoing provocation? We (along with the British and French) invented the so called no fly zones. There is no legal basis for such a thing. Further, we bombed Iraq almost weekly during that entire 12 year period. Does it seem reasonable to you that the Iraqis would shoot at planes invading their own air space and bombing sites at will?

The whole history of this mess is beyond belief. Only a truely degraded citizenry would allow itself to be lied to so consistently and for so long without rebelling. Americans would rather watch un-reality TV than to take responsibility for monitering their governments depredations.

Bush vs Children's Health

Tests Show High Lead In D.C. Children's Blood

A combination of over concern for cost and refusal to take responsible action has allowed a collection of government forces including the Bush administration EPA and the Army Corp of Engineers to delay action on dealing with high levels of lead in D. C.'s water supply for more than a year after it was known that the level had risen to dangerous levels:

Hundreds of District children younger than 6 who were tested in recent weeks had blood lead levels at least 47 percent higher than the national average for their age group and health officials should develop more systematic testing to find out why, an expert on lead poisoning said yesterday.

I wonder how many of the creeps who knew about this switched to bottled water during the year they allowed the district's children to continue to drink dangerously polluted water. This is beyond shameful. It is criminal.

Dems vs Bush

Bush has some real opposition

Molly Ivens makes it clear that the current administration has its work cut out for it in the upcoming election.

I May Vomit

Paul Wolfowitz on PBS

Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies, and more lies. Why do people allow this smug, lying, murdering bastard a forum to spread this largely discredited crap - Saddam had ties to Osama? the world is safer because Saddam is in prison? The recent bombings mean that "the terrorists" are "desperate" (damn, they've been desperate for a long time).

One thing you can say about the whole crew of Bush supporting neo-con nitwits, they have no shame and are willing to parrot this nonsense no matter how often and how publicly it has been debunked.

Ordinary Americans vs Bush

On Atrios, a reader characterizes Dubyah this way:

Two-faced, weasel-eyed, snake-tongued, pea-brained, chicken-shit, self-centered, mendacious asshole...swear to Elvis, I do NOT understand what almost half my fellow countrymen see in this..."man". This loathesome puppet. This strutting fool. This puffed-up poppin jay. This disgusting pimple orbiting the asshole of existence. How can anyone, in good conscience and entrusted with the leadership of his fellows, get up in front of those same fellows and lie with such impunity? And then how can that same craven wastrel send kids - KIDS - and men with families to fight and kill and die in a muddled mess of a country for...a lie?

Well, bless his heart, how can you fault someone as eloquent as that? And just to think, I thought I was pissed.

Bush vs American Workers

Powell Reassures India on Technology Jobs:

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, encountering the other side of a tempestuous debate in the United States, sought to assure Indians on Tuesday that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country.

What's going on here? Why would the Bush administration be concerned about reassuring India - rather than its own citizens? This smells.

Bush vs the Truth

Iraq on the Record

Congressman Henry Waxman has produced a database of Bush administration misinformation about Iraq during the prewar period. This database only includes statements that, based on what was known at the time, can be judged to be misleading. Also, it focuses on statements by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice. Taken together, these 237 "lies" taken from 125 different public statements, demonstrate a coordinated effort to mislead the public.

These people really need to pay for this.

Bush vs Everyone Else

"Democracy" must mean undermining any government Bush doesn't like

After the aborted coup in Venezuela, and the embarrassing one we fumbled in Haiti, it looks like the Bushies are trying the classic CIA approach to "regime change" in Syria:

What's happening in Syria has all the hallmarks of a classic, 1950s-era, Cold War-style CIA coup d'etat scheme.

First, on March 7 a gaggle of demonstrators—no more than 20 to 30, according to The New York Times on March 8—was squelched by Syrian police, who arrested not only the demonstrators but swooped up a "junior diplomat from the American Embassy," says the Times. "The United States government protested the detention of the American diplomat to the Syrian government, a spokesman for the embassy told The Associated Press." Now the question is: what was a "junior diplomat" from the United States doing there in the first place. Could he have been from the CIA? (Syria is wondering the same thing.)

Second, the Bush administration is going to announce sanctions against Syria this week, thanks to a law passed by Congress demanding them.

When people decrie what is not taught in American history classes what they should really be concerned about is that Americans are not EVER taught about the coups, the wholesale thefts, genocides, and unconstitutional actions advanced and supported by our government. 9/11 was blowback for specific policies advanced by the first Bush administration against the better judgment of those in the State Department who recognized how dangerous it was to prop up the corrupt Saudi regime by basing American soldiers in Saudi Arabia. What happened was not only predictable - it was predicted. Worse, among the Bushies it was ignored - because it wasn't what they wanted to hear.

We have a great deal to account for. And until we are willing to, we will continue to be victims of the same old con jobs that profit the already wealthy and further impoverish the rest of us. Our real enemy is not "the terrorists" but the "entitled" like George W. Bush, who inherited wealth and influence and genuinely believe they deserve it and are somehow superior to the rest of us. They are not. We need to get back to the place where we realize that the president - and all members of congress - are employees of the public. They work for us - not the other way around. We have long had the cart before the horse. Let's fix that. First we fire the current administration. They are incompetent and corrupt. Then we hire a new bunch and watch their ass every second.

Hans Blix vs Bush

Ex-U.N. Inspector Has Harsh Words for Bush:

In a talk to a crowd of 1,200 people on Monday night at New York University, Mr. Blix said he did not share the Bush administrations' view that the war had made the world a safer place.

"Sorry to say it doesn't look that way," he said. "If the aim was to send a signal to terrorists that we are determined to take you on, that has not succeeded. In Iraq, it has bred a lot of terrorism and a lot of hatred to the Western world."

Bush vs the homeless

Seeking Votes in Pa., Bush Talks Housing:

President Bush returned to Pennsylvania on Monday to promote efforts to increase the number of Americans who own their homes. He paid a call to the new house of a woman with six children who cleared up her credit enough to sign a mortgage for the first time last year, but the subtext of his visit was to lavish attention on a state he is working hard to carry in the November elections.
. . .
.Repeating a format he has used often since January to talk up his economic policies, he staged a "conversation" with a small group of people who support his views on housing -- or are success stories themselves.

Increasing the proportion of Americans who can buy a house has been a prong of Bush's agenda of "compassionate conservatism" since his 2000 campaign.

The problem with this is that there is a great gap between those who can afford their own home and those who can't even afford rent in subsidized housing. The number of American citizens living on the street has increased every year of Bush's term in office. Anyone who visits the area surrounding the White House can see the evidence with their own eyes. In the same block of Pennsylvania Ave as the President's residence, homeless people sleep on the steps of the Riggs National Bank, a financial institution that benefits them in no other way.

Funny how Bush's "compassion" is limited to policies that profit his contributors. But then, if the government actually did institute some reasonable program to deal with the homeless, Neil Bush would be first in line to try and profit from it. It is the Bush family way.

Greenspan and Bush vs Ordinary Americans

Greenspan Shifts View on Deficits:

Consumer debt is hitting record levels. The federal budget deficit is yawning ever larger. The trade gap? Don't even ask.

Many mainstream economists are worried about these trends, but Alan Greenspan, arguably the most powerful and influential economist in the land, is not as concerned.

This is in such bad faith. No matter how much Bush and his conservative crew want the current deficit situation to be OK, it isn't. And for Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve's supposed voice of reason, to say that such massive debt is really nothing to be concerned about, is to make a mockery of the Fed's role in being an arbiter of fiscal responsibility.

Bush vs Our Security

Weak on Terror

Paul Krugman has this critique of the Bush approach to the "war" on terrorism:

Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength George Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

This reluctance dates back to Mr. Bush's first months in office. Why, after all, has his inner circle tried so hard to prevent a serious investigation of what happened on 9/11? There has been much speculation about whether officials ignored specific intelligence warnings, but what we know for sure is that the administration disregarded urgent pleas by departing Clinton officials to focus on the threat from Al Qaeda.

Bush can't really justify his unwillingness to separate partisan politics from rational response to terrorism. For this regime, politics trumps rational action every time.

Bush vs the Future of Iraq

Why US Occupation Continues after June:

Bush wants to claim that with the new Constitution passed, power will be turned over to Iraqis after June of this year.

It's a lie.

The new government under the new constitution will be barred from overturning any laws that the US has imposed on the country since the Occupation.

So keep this in mind - returning "sovereignty" to the Iraqis merely means that they will be free to fulfill whatever contractual obligations Bremer and his minions have imposed by Decree during the initial occupation and dictatorship of the CPA.

Bush vs Ordinary Americans

More Government, Not Less

Every now and then Washington Post columnist David Broder wakes from his slumber and actually writes something pointed and insightful. Today was one such day. In a piece in praise of Barney Frank, the 12-term congressman from Massachusetts, he notes that in analyzing the economic shortfalls of the current administration Frank goes beyond other Democrats to actually demand more, not less government. That is, Frank believes that government has been so demonized that politicians no longer actually look to it for solutions, when in fact, promoting the general welfare goes right along with providing for the common defense as reasons for government.

When I asked him in an interview Thursday if he was sending a message to Kerry, Frank said, "It's a message for all Democrats. What I'm saying is we're in a situation now where we need the government, and where is it? We've cut taxes, we've criticized bureaucracy, we've almost condemned the public sector. I'm saying it's time to talk positively about government and use it to do what the private economy is no longer doing."

In a similar vein Tom Hartmann declares that Democracy - Not "The Free Market" - Will Save America's Middle Class:

Here are a couple of headlines for those who haven't had the time to study both economics and history:

1. There is no such thing as a "free market."

2. The "middle class" is the creation of government intervention in the marketplace, and won't exist without it (as millions of Americans and Europeans are discovering).

The conservative belief in "free markets" is a bit like the Catholic Church's insistence that the Earth was at the center of the Solar System in the Twelfth Century. It's widely believed by those in power, those who challenge it are branded heretics and ridiculed, and it is wrong.

In actual fact, there is no such thing as a "free market." Markets are the creation of government.

Democrats need to start hammering the idiot faith-based "free market" believers every time they fall back on this nonsense in opposition to government programs aimed at improving the lives of citizens. Corporations have received excessive support compared to what has been provided to citizens at large. It is criminal that we are the only highly industrialized nation to have no national health plan; we work longer hours, have less vacation, and suffer more poverty and homelessness than our industrial peers. It is time to pay attention to our civic responsibilities - including the necessity of those who are rewarded most paying their fair share of taxes to support the legitimate functions of government.

To expand the focus of this argument from simply domestic issues to the welfare of all the world's people, Joseph Stiglitz, professor of economics at Columbia University, a Nobel prize winner and author of Globalization and Its Discontents' presents this argument:

The war on terrorism and in Iraq has distracted much of the world's attention from the pressing issue of how globalization should be managed so that it benefits everyone. A new report, issued by the International Labor Organization's commission on the social dimensions of globalization, reminds us how far the Bush administration is out of line with the global consensus. The ILO is a tripartite Organization's with representatives of Labor, government and business. The commission, chaired by the presidents of Finland and Tanzania, has 24 members (of whom I was one) drawn from different nationalities, interest groups and intellectual persuasions, including members as diverse as the head of Toshiba and the leader of the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations. Yet this very heterogeneous group was able to crystallize the emerging consensus, that globalization - despite its positive potential - has not only failed to live up to that potential, but has actually contributed to social distress.

The fault lies with how globalization has been managed - partly by countries but, most importantly, by the international community, including institutions such as the World Bank, the World Trade Organization's and the IMF, which are responsible for establishing the "rules of the game". The commission even reached consensus on a number of concrete measures to help put a "human face" on globalization, or at least mitigate some of its worst effects.

The gap between the emerging consensus on globalization, which this report reflects, and the Bush administration's international economic policies, helps explain the widespread hostility towards America's government.

It's past time for us to take responsibility for a wide range of quality of life issues that for some time have been ignored because it was assumed the invisible hand of the "free market" would fix everything. It ain't gonna happen. Markets are only about money and do not address the fundamental issues we need to face concerning how to provide quality education, universal health care, wider participation in public decision making, equitable distribution of rewards for work, justice under the law for all, and a reasonable social safety net to cushion to hard shocks that many will inevitably face. This is a reasonable set of goals for honorable people to strive for. We should be looking for all the ways possible to move us towards these goals - and fight with everything we have against those who want to reduce social and political life to dollars and cents only.

Bush vs Water Safety

EPA Lied About Meeting Water Quality Goals:

The Environmental Protection Agency incorrectly claimed to have met its goals of ensuring that at least 91 percent of the nation's drinking water was meeting federal health-based standards from 1999 to 2002, the agency's inspector general says.
"The agency reported meeting its annual performance goal for drinking water quality even though it concurrently reported that the data used to draw those conclusions were flawed and incomplete," the EPA IG's office said in a report this week. "EPA's own analysis, supported by our review, indicated the correct number was unknown but less than what was reported."

Not that this is any surprise. We have gotten used to finding out that whatever the Bush administration and its various departments report as fact tends to later be contradicted, denied, or disavowed. Their track record for serial mendacity has no equal. The amazing thing is that this administration lies even when it knows that it will be exposed. One has to assume that this is a judgment they make about the intelligence - or at least the focus - of the American public. We can only hope they are not right.

Bush Friends Cheat U. S. Taxpayers

Iraq contract: Halliburton admits faulty pricing:

Pentagon auditors found a Halliburton Co. subsidiary gave faulty cost estimates on a $2.7 billion contract to serve American troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and company officials acknowledged making mistakes, Defense Department documents show.

Profiting from the war is unseemly enough, but padding costs and other deceptive means to make even more money at the public's expense is unconscionable. And this is the company that is still sending Dick Cheney a big check every month.

Bush vs Firefighters

Bush Fights Firefighters with Fire

Molly Ivens thinks the Dems aren't responding to the right offense in Bush's first TV ads:

Living proof that the Democrats haven't gotten any smarter since the last time they ran a candidate for president. Much huffing (and a huffy Democrat is a terrifying sight) over the fact that George W. Bush used images of 9-11 and of the firefighters at Ground Zero to tout his candidacy in his first campaign ad. How crass, said the D's. Exploiting a national tragedy for political purposes – oh, how tacky.

Dammit, the problem is not that the ad is in bad taste, the problem is that Bush screwed the firefighters in a famous case of his favorite bait-and-switch tactic, and now he has the chutzpah to exploit them anyway and that, my friends, is gall. Bait, switch and then claim credit anyway.

For those of you who have forgotten what happened (apparently including the entire Bush campaign): Shortly after the 9-11 attacks, President Bush promised a $3.5 billion aid package to provide equipment and training in dealing with such attacks to local police and fire departments. For over 18 months, no money appeared, and when money finally did appear, it was nowhere near the promised levels (hey, he had to cut those taxes on the richest 1 percent of Americans).

Furthermore, the New York City firefighters who worked Ground Zero were specifically screwed. They were promised $90 million to monitor the long-term health effects of breathing in all that ash for months while they cleaned up. The money was to have been included in the overall post 9-11 aid package for New York City, but it got shifted to another bill that Bush rejected the following August. About half the workers screened before the money ran out suffered from respiratory problems.

Republicans in Congress twice voted down first-responder money. New York's congressional delegation, led by Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, put up a huge battle before the long-promised $90 million was finally pried out of a reluctant Congress and White House, but the responder money is still not fully funded to this good day.

Bush vs Open Government

Bush administration ordered Medicare plan cost estimates withheld:

The government's top expert on Medicare costs was warned that he would be fired if he told key lawmakers about a series of Bush administration cost estimates that could have torpedoed congressional passage of the White House-backed Medicare prescription-drug plan.

When the House of Representatives passed the controversial benefit by five votes last November, the White House was embracing an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395 billion in the first 10 years. But for months the administration's own analysts in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded repeatedly that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion more than that.

Withholding the higher cost projections was important because the White House was facing a revolt from 13 conservative House Republicans who'd vowed to vote against the Medicare drug bill if it cost more than $400 billion.

Rep. Sue Myrick of North Carolina, one of the 13 Republicans, said she was "very upset" when she learned of the higher estimate.

"I think a lot of people probably would have reconsidered (voting for the bill) because we said that $400 billion was our top of the line," Myrick said.

Oh yeah, why would anyone think this gang is the most lying, crooked bunch to have held high office in our lifetime? If the numbers are against what you want to do, just suppress them, ignore them, or - as has happened more than a few times under Bush - just make them up.

Bush vs First Responders

Bush Fights Firefighters with Fire:

Living proof that the Democrats haven't gotten any smarter since the last time they ran a candidate for president. Much huffing (and a huffy Democrat is a terrifying sight) over the fact that George W. Bush used images of 9-11 and of the firefighters at Ground Zero to tout his candidacy in his first campaign ad. How crass, said the D's. Exploiting a national tragedy for political purposes – oh, how tacky.

Dammit, the problem is not that the ad is in bad taste, the problem is that Bush screwed the firefighters in a famous case of his favorite bait-and-switch tactic, and now he has the chutzpah to exploit them anyway and that, my friends, is gall. Bait, switch and then claim credit anyway.

For those of you who have forgotten what happened (apparently including the entire Bush campaign): Shortly after the 9-11 attacks, President Bush promised a $3.5 billion aid package to provide equipment and training in dealing with such attacks to local police and fire departments. For over 18 months, no money appeared, and when money finally did appear, it was nowhere near the promised levels (hey, he had to cut those taxes on the richest 1 percent of Americans).

Furthermore, the New York City firefighters who worked Ground Zero were specifically screwed. They were promised $90 million to monitor the long-term health effects of breathing in all that ash for months while they cleaned up. The money was to have been included in the overall post 9-11 aid package for New York City, but it got shifted to another bill that Bush rejected the following August. About half the workers screened before the money ran out suffered from respiratory problems.

Republicans in Congress twice voted down first-responder money. New York's congressional delegation, led by Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, put up a huge battle before the long-promised $90 million was finally pried out of a reluctant Congress and White House, but the responder money is still not fully funded to this good day.

Despite disingenuous statements put out by the White House ("There's more assistance going to state and local officials than ever before"), Bush is still behind on his initial commitment. You do not have to be an ace Washington reporter to figure this out. Ask your local fire department.

You can see that this is already shaping up as a campaign where the media observe Kerry under a microscope (has he switched to earth-tones yet?) and neglect to point out the obvious facts about Bush's record. Kerry, say the Republicans solemnly, is given to flip-flopping. Kerry is?

Let's just start counting off the top of our heads: George W. Bush was opposed to a commission to investigate how and why 9-11 occurred, but then he changed his mind and backed it. (Political pressure.) He was certainly opposed to a commission to investigate the intelligence failures on Iraq, but then he changed his mind and backed it. (Political pressure.) He now brags, "I went to the U.N. (before invading Iraq)"? Who recalls why he changed his mind about doing that? He originally said he not only did not need to consult the United Nations, he said he did not even have to consult the U.S. Congress.

Anyone remember how Bush, the corporate ethicist of Harken Energy, opposed the Sarbanes-Oxley bill? Sarbanes-Oxley was a mildly reformist piece of legislation deemed slightly necessary in the wake of the staggering accounting scandals that caused the collapse of Enron, Tyco and WorldCom. There seemed to be a new record-bankruptcy every week, but our president didn't think we needed any new laws to prevent such things, my no. When did he change his mind and decide to sign it? After it passed the House of Representatives with one vote against it.

Remember when we weren't gong to negotiate with North Korea? Then we weren't gong to negotiate with North Korea again, but we would "talk" to North Korea, but only in multilateral "talking," until Bush changed his mind yet again and now we're in multilateral negotiations.

Remember when the United Nations was "unnecessary" and "irrelevant," and boy was Bush ever ready to tell them to go jump in the lake? We now think the United Nations is so useful and necessary, we call on it not just for Iraq, but Haiti and other trouble spots, as well.

Remember when we didn't need any civilian or international advice about how to pacify and reconstruct Iraq, our military could do it just fine, thank you?

Remember when "nation-building" was a dirty word?

Boy, that John Kerry, he just flip-flops all the time, doesn't he?

Molly Ivins is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Bush vs Common Decency

It has been remarked by many that this year's federal budget is full of pictures of Bush in poses that can only be described as propagandistic. No president before has ever used the budget document as an election tool.

Now it has been revealed that some of the pictures the Bush administration is using in its presidential campaign literature are the same ones that appeared earlier in the budget document. Really crass.

Bush vs the SEC

Harken my children and you shall hear

If Martha Stewart is guilty of something with regard to her stock trading, why is George W. Bush not hauled before a court? His crime is more severe in all respects - he made a LOT more money and was an actual officer of the company that was defrauded. In simple terms, he is a thief. This is not a trivial charge - it is a verifiable one that has not been pursued only because of his father's political influence at the time.

Bush vs Roberts Rules of Order

How a Bad Bill Becomes Law:

Remember the elementary school lesson "How a Bill Becomes a Law"? Well, George W. Bush and Republican Leadership in Congress redefined lawmaking when they forced their Medicare law through Congress. And a brief look at the gnarled twists and turns taken as this bill became law should make any student of American democracy shudder.

Bush vs Himself

By way of Calpundit
Listening to George Bush is like the sound of a pair of slippers on a wooden floor. Flip flop, flip flop.

George Tenet Should Be Fired

According to a book to be published soon, "House of Bush; House of Saud", after 9/11 Saudi Prince Bandar

desperately hoped that early reports of the Saudi role had been exaggerated -- after all, al-Qaida terrorist operatives were known to use false passports. But at 10 P.M. on the evening of Sept. 12, 2001, about 36 hours after the attack, a high-ranking CIA official -- according to Newsweek, it was probably CIA director George Tenet -- phoned Bandar at his home and gave him the bad news: Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. Afterward, Bandar said, "I felt as if the Twin Towers had just fallen on my head."

So, what was Tenet doing reporting to a foreign national? Doesn't this seem rather strange? And unacceptable?

Bush vs American Workers

Bush Choice for Manufacturing Post in Question:

Six months after promising to create an office to help the nation's struggling manufacturers, President Bush settled on someone to head it, but the nomination was being reconsidered last night after Democrats revealed that his candidate had opened a factory in China.

Isn't this typical of the Bush White House? Promise, postpone, and then try to sabatoge with the stealth appointment of someone who will undercut a program's supposed purpose. How can he have ANY credibility left with the public?

Kerry vs Bush

Democrat calls foes 'crooked' and 'lying':

The Bush campaign is demanding an apology from Sen. John Kerry after the presumptive Democratic nominee called his Republican opponents the "most crooked ... lying group of people I've ever seen."

A Kerry spokesman later said the senator wasn't referring to the president but to those behind what he characterized as a GOP attack "machine."

The Republicans, of course, are demanding an apology. I'm sure their delicate feelings are really hurt. They, of course, have never engaged in aggressive political behavior. But this isn't just mud slinging. Since each of those charges can be easily demonstrated with evidence publicly available, making an issue of Kerry's charges is likely to backfire on the Bushies by keeping the spotlight on whether or not this administration really is - as has become more and more clear to the public "the most crooked", "lying group" any of us have experienced during our lifetimes.

Bush vs the Economy

Trade Deficit Hits New Record

George W. Bush went to Ohio to argue that his "tax relief" for the rich is good medicine for everyone. However:

America's trade deficit mushroomed to an all-time high of $43.1 billion in January as sales of foreign-made goods hovered near record levels.

The trade gap reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday was 0.9 percent larger than the $42.7 billion deficit registered in December.

January's trade deficit swelled as the value of imported goods and services eclipsed the value of U.S. exports.
. . .
The United States' trade deficit with oil-producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, grew to $4.7 billion in January, the highest level since April 2003. The average price per barrel of imported crude oil in January, meanwhile, climbed to $28.55, the highest since March 2003.

The trade deficit is important because it means the rest of world holds IOUs from the United States, usually in the form of government securities.

In other words, instead of Americans saving in U.S. markets, foreigners are, and interest payments and principle on government debt are flowing outside the country.

Since the market for government bonds affects the interest rate, foreign countries could trigger a market crisis in the United States if they suddenly try to unload their U.S. securities. A sudden sell-off of Treasury bills would pressure interest rates to rise dramatically, slowing economic growth.

SO, do we all understand how healthy the U. S. economy is? Are we happy now? No problem.

Bush vs Himself

It's kind of funny, but every attack that George W. Bush has aimed at John Kerry can easily be turned around to become a more damaging attack on him. I think they are going to have a hard time finding the right basis for any consistent attact. It looks like the main determinate might turn out to be the money, and that, for Kerry, could be a problem.

Bush vs Consistency

Bush's flip flops:

Bush is against campaign finance reform; then he's for it.

Bush is against a Homeland Security Department; then he's for it.

Bush is against a 9/11 commission; then he's for it.

Bush is against an Iraq WMD investigation; then he's for it.

Bush is against nation building; then he's for it.

Bush is against deficits; then he's for them.

Bush is for free trade; then he's for tariffs on steel; then he's against them again.

Bush is against the U.S. taking a role in the Israeli Palestinian conflict; then he pushes for a "road map" and a Palestinian State.

Bush is for states right to decide on gay marriage, then he is for changing the constitution.

Bush first says he'll provide money for first responders (fire, police, emergency), then he doesn't.

Bush first says that 'help is on the way' to the military ... then he cuts benefits

Bush-"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. Bush-"I don't know where he is. I have no idea and I really don't care.

Bush claims to be in favor of the environment and then secretly starts drilling on Padre Island.

Bush talks about helping education and increases mandates while cutting funding.

Bush first says the U.S. won't negotiate with North Korea. Now he will

Bush goes to Bob Jones University. Then say's he shouldn't have.

Bush said he would demand a U.N. Security Council vote on whether to sanction military action against Iraq. Later Bush announced he would not call for a vote

Bush said the "mission accomplished" banner was put up by the sailors. Bush later admits it was his advance team.

Bush was for fingerprinting and photographing Mexicans who enter the US. Bush after meeting with Pres. Fox, he's against it.

Bush vs the Common People

Buffett says Bush policy favors the upper class:

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett accused the Bush administration Saturday of pursuing tax cuts that favor large corporations and wealthy individuals.

"If class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning," Buffett said in Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual report.

Except for 1983, the percentage of federal tax receipts from corporate income taxes last year was the lowest since data was first published in 1934, Buffett said.

Bush vs Ordinary Iraqis: How NOT to Win Hearts and Minds

As U.S. Detains Iraqis, Families Plead for News:

Although the insurgency has cooled, with suicide attacks against civilians now eclipsing armed clashes with American troops, American forces are still conducting daily raids, bursting into homes and sweeping up families. More than 10,000 men and boys are in custody. According to a detainee database maintained by the military, the oldest prisoner is 75, the youngest 11.

Yes sir, you really have to be careful of those geezers and pre-adolescents. I'm sure they are a terrible threat to American soldiers.

Geez. If we're now terrified of children I think it is long past time to bring the troops home. No good can come of this continued nonsense. We have already stolen everything that can be "privatized" for the profit of American corporations and locked up oil profits for years to come, so why not leave and at least save any other poor souls from having to die to protect the profit and property of Halliburton or Bechtel. It isn't what they signed on for and it isn't what the public thought we were all signing up for. Our "free" press will not report the extent of fiscal mischief being perpetrated against the Iraqi public, but the quickest perusal of our appointed ruler, Paul Bremer's, decrees will make clear that he has deprived Iraq of any financial independence for the forseeable future. The only reason there isn't more of an outcry from the interenational community is because, in true Mafia fashion, we have cut many other prominent players in on the deal and many others are still hoping for a cut.

It will really be interesting to see what happens when Iraqis don't have a gun to their heads - if we ever allow that to happen. Since we plan to keep bases in Iraq (forever?) it is doubtful that they will ever not feel "under the gun." That will certainly make them love and respect us. Right?

Bush vs the People of Haiti

Haitians Again Relying on U.S. Military to Bring Order

Isn't this a lot like us having to rebuild Iraq after we broke it? We wouldn't be having to "bring order" if we had not worked so hard to create disorder in the first place.

And will any of the criminals in this administration have to answer for what they have done? Not if the American press has its way.

Bush vs What Is Obviously True

The overtly silly position of the Bush administration that Aristide "resigned" volunterly and allowed himself to be imprisoned in central Africa (without access to a phone or any other means of communicating with the outside world) is really too idiotic to be believed. Colin Powell's role in this should relegate him to the outer rings of hell for all eternity. The Bush administration has this distinction for me: two years ago I was ashamed that they were making Iraq out to be a "threat" so it could be invaded, and now they pretend that the coup in Haiti "just happened" and that they are trying to make things better.

Simple truth - the Bush administration is part of a multigenerational criminal conspiracy - an ongoing effort to steal everything possible from the middle and lower classes while simultaneously making them feel that they aren't contributing their fair share. Haiti is fair game because it is a poor country inhabited almost exclusively by black folk (as opposed to "real" people like us). Sorry. I can't be diplomatic here. Bush is a racist crook. He wouldn't be so blatant if Haiti were not an all black - and poor - situation. As it is, he feels free to manipulate the situation because he thinks that most other "real" (read white, weatlhy, and capitalist) people, agree with his approach. This is very sad, and does not bode well for our survival as a species.

Bush vs Water Safety in D. C.

D.C. Lead Tests Cast Doubt on EPA Standards:

The severity of lead contamination in the District's water reveals serious weaknesses in the federal testing program and raises the prospect that other cities may have similar, undiscovered problems, according to federal officials, scientists and engineers.

The truth is that the Bush administration believes money is more important than people. We can ALWAYS expect that what is profitable for a few will be presented as what is best for all. This is the nature of the beast. And remember, Washington, D. C. is a plantation environment, run by the "master" - Congress - on terms that have nothing to do with the well-being of the citizens and everything to do with the priorities of the masters.

Some things never change. But I live here and have to drink the fucking water. I would really like to be told the truth. But that is not likely.

Sign of the times.

Jimmy Breslin vs Bush

He molests the dead

Jimmy Breslin strongly takes issue with Bush using images of 9/11 and its dead in his political ads. He isn't alone.

Bush SecState Powell vs Democracy in Haiti

Godfather colon Powell: The Gangster of Haiti:

"The deed is done. Haiti has been raped. The act was sanctioned by the United States, Canada and France." - Editorial, Jamaica Observer

colon Powell is "the most powerful and damaging black to rise to influence in the world in my lifetime." - transferals founder Randall Robinson

all the people that supported [Aristide] will be dead in three months.' - Haiti government attorney Ira Kurzban

The new order congeals like blood on the streets of Port-au-Prince. Haiti's dance of death begins anew, a convergence of low-life assassins, high-living compradors, preening French imperialists and global American pirates - an unspeakable bacchanal.

While most Americans continue in their deluded impression of Powell's moderation and honesty, the rest of the world has long come to the realization that Powell is very much, as Harry Belefonte famously characterized him, merely a house slave in the Bush administration - allowed into the master's house only so long as he does the master's bidding - even if it means betraying the only country of black slaves to have ever freed themselves. This, in fact, is Haiti's real crime: poor blacks demonstrating sufficient intelligence and resolve to defeat the "civilized" Europeans that had put them in slavery. Note that France used the Haiti "crisis" as an excuse to get back in the good graces of the Bush administration. France has never forgiven Haiti for defeating Napolean's army sent to put down the slave rebellion.

Colin Powell bears a great deal of responsibility for the current state of affairs in Haiti, not least because he was used by the administration as a public black face to deflect criticism and offer assurances that a true diplomatic solution was being sought. But as we now know about the dubious "diplomatic" efforts related to Iraq, the truth in Haiti is likely that it was all for public consumption by an ill informed American media audience, while what was really happening was not reported. As Secretary of State, Powell is responsible for America's interactions with other countries. How credible can he be after demonstrating, yet again, that he is willing to be the frontman for the worst kind of hypocritical U. S. policy - horror and theft visited on the poorest of the world's peoples? First Iraq, now Haiti. And next - almost certainly Venezuela.

Stay tuned. It's going to get a lot uglier before it gets any better.

Us vs Bush

The world still says NO to war:

Momentum is building for the Global Day of Action against War and Occupation on March 20, 2004—the one-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On that day people all around the globe will take to the streets to say YES to peace and NO to pre-emptive war and occupation. In communities large and small around the United States and across the globe, we will call for an end to the occupation of Iraq and Bush's militaristic foreign policies.

Bush vs Common Decency

For-Profit Patriotism:

Halliburton, a high-powered company formerly led by Vice President Dick Cheney, is under fire. Company employees allegedly overcharged the military for gasoline brought in to Iraq from Kuwait, accepted $6.3 million in kickbacks for steering subcontracts in Iraq to a Kuwaiti firm and stiffed the government for meals not served to soldiers. The company has received billions in Pentagon contracts to handle non-combat tasks, like laundry, meals and base-building in Iraq and Afghanistan, say analysts.

The Defense Department and State Department opened probes of Halliburton in late February. . . According to Hartung's analysis, Halliburton's prime contracts with the Pentagon jumped almost 700 percent, from $483 million in fiscal year 2002 to $3.9 billion in fiscal year 2003. That does not include a $1.2 billion contract to rebuild oil infrastructure in southern Iraq, approved amid concern about wrongdoing. The Pentagon awarded $209 billion in prime contracts in FY 2003, with the overall defense budget soaring to $400 billion a year and climbing, said Hartung.

Bush vs Bush

President George W. Bush has no choice now: either surrender to the United Nations, or lose any chance of being re-elected.:

Iraq is unraveling too fast for the Bush administration to have any hope of salvaging the U.S. position there. Here's my suggestion for U.S. policy: announce a firm date for the pullout of all U.S. forces from Iraq, say, by the end of 2004; state clearly that the U.S. does not want any bases or forward positions in Iraq after that; send Colin Powell to the U.N. to start negotiating the U.S. surrender, asking for a U.N. resolution for an international peacekeeping force led by Arab forces in Iraq; give full authority to Lakhdar Brahimi, the capable U.N. official who has reluctantly taken on the Iraq portfolio, to design both the transitional authority and to organize the elections; and then fire the neoconservatives who got us into this mess.

The U.S. can't prevent the disintegration of Iraq now. Maybe?just maybe?the U.N. can.

Bush vs Reality

What's in a Name? EPA Proposes to Call Sewage Sludge "Compost"

You just couldn't make this stuff up:

The EPA's preferred method of disposal of sewage sludge in the United States is land application. To get the public to accept this has required a concerted effort from government and the sludge-industry to make the public think that sludge is "organic," "nutrient-rich," and otherwise "beneficial." Calling sludge "compost" is the agency's latest trick. The proposal here to "compost" sludge is based on the dependable presence of human feces in sludge. Human feces do indeed consist largely of organic matter. But sludge consists only partly of human feces.

It is the purpose of wastewater treatment to extract from sewage-and to concentrate in sludge-all the pollutants in wastewater. The intended product of wastewater treatment is clean water. Sludge is the inevitable byproduct that, by definition and intention, consists of every waste material a given wastewater treatment plant is capable of removing, or is incidentally removed, from the sewage in the process of treating the wastewater. This means that, besides human urine and feces, tens of thousands of chemicals-organic and inorganic, teratogenic and carcinogenic, toxic and estrogen mimicking-will be present in the sludge.

The idea, therefore, of "treating" sludge so that it can become "compost," a "soil amendment," a "fertilizer"-is disingenuous. Once mixed together, the potential value of each and all of the materials concentrated in the sludge is lost. No "treatment" of sludge can "purify" the human excrement: once mixed with poisons, it too becomes a poison.

Poison. So the Bush administration's Environmental Protection Agency has become merely a propaganda division of the great Karl Rove disinformation machine. Notice that our "free press" - the supposed watchdogs of democracy - haven't even growled about this.

Pathetic.

Global Warming Warning

Insurer warns of global warming catastrophe:

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world's second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, warned on Wednesday that the costs of natural disasters, aggravated by global warming, threatened to spiral out of control, forcing the human race into a catastrophe of its own making.

In a report revealing how climate change is rising on the corporate agenda, Swiss Re said the economic costs of such disasters threatened to double to $150 billion (82 billion pounds) a year in 10 years, hitting insurers with $30-40 billion in claims, or the equivalent of one World Trade Centre attack annually.

"There is a danger that human intervention will accelerate and intensify natural climate changes to such a point that it will become impossible to adapt our socio-economic systems in time," Swiss Re said in the report.

"The human race can lead itself into this climatic catastrophe -- or it can avert it."

The report comes as a growing number of policy experts warn that the environment is emerging as the security threat of the 21st century, eclipsing terrorism.

Scientists expect global warming to trigger increasingly frequent and violent storms, heat waves, flooding, tornadoes, and cyclones while other areas slip into cold or drought.

"Sea levels will continue to rise, glaciers retreat and snow cover decline," the insurer wrote.

Let's see Bush ignore this. He can always dismiss "flawed" science but for this administration, money talks, and no group has more of it than insurance companies.

Bush vs the Environment

U.S. Requests Exemptions to Ozone Pact for Chemical:

The United States is seeking to make more American farmers and industries exempt from an international ban on methyl bromide, a popular pesticide that damages Earth's protective ozone layer, Bush administration officials said yesterday.

Bush vs Science

Bush Policy on Human Stem Cells Faces New Challenges:

The White House's policy on research with human embryonic stem cells has been put under new pressure by the dismissal of a leading biologist from the President's Council on Bioethics last week and by the development, announced today, of new stem cell lines by a Harvard researcher.

Bush vs Public Health

Official Tells of Investigation Into Mad Cow Discrepancies:

The Agriculture Department tested fewer than 21,000 cows last year — compared with millions in Europe — but Secretary of Agriculture Ann M. Veneman has repeatedly said that amount is enough to assure that the country's beef is safe because it focuses on downers, which were more likely to be diseased. If the disease was found in a walking cow, the premise behind the testing system would be undermined.

Bush vs His Duty

Documents prove that Bush ignored his commitment to the United States military:

March 4, 2004—On Tuesday, February 10, the White House released copies of George W. Bush's Texas Air National Guard "retirement points" and payroll records from the years 1992 and 1993. During the daily press briefing that day, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan asserted no less than 12 times that the documents that were released showed that "the president [sic] fulfilled his duties.".

This is simply false. The criteria McClellan used had nothing to do with "fulfillment" of Bush's duty. And the documents demonstrate that Bush failed to do his duty under the laws and regulations of the United State and its Air Force during the last third of his six-year term.

The documents also demonstrate that, even under McClellan's incorrect criteria, Bush failed to do his duty during his last full year of service.

Bush vs the Modern World

President George Bush and the Gilded Age:

At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him. In my class, he declared that "people are poor because they are lazy." He was opposed to labor unions, social security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission were unnecessary hindrances to "free market competition." To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was "socialism." Recently, President Bush's Federal Appeals Court Nominee, California's Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain, Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New Deal.

Some Things Never Change

"If there is no struggle, there is not progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground...This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both mental and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand."
— Frederick Douglass

Bush vs My Peace of Mind

I wake up in the morning with a sense of dread and it takes me a few minutes to remember why: oh yeah, I now live in a country that maintains concentration camps, detains people for unspecified reasons, denies them access to legal representation, plans to "try" them in secret (if it tries them at all), and says that it can detain them forever without having to explain to anyone why.

I don't find this acceptable. No, I find it antithetical to everything I thought America stood for. As a citizen I find it to be a personal affront; an assault on my sense of values and the prospect for a free and autonomous future. And I am certainly not alone.

This administration is walking a strange tightrope where they have to present two seemingly mutually exclusive beliefs at the same time:

1. we are safer because Bush and his policies are in place, and

2. we are in danger because it is an unsafe world full of evildoers who wish us harm.

In truth, while terrorists do exist and do wish us harm, the actual threat to any individual citizen is much less than the possibility of their winning the lottery. Conversely, Bush's policies are likely (and this has been confirmed by the military and intelligence communities) to actually increase terrorist activity and long term hostility to America. See, most people don't view dropping high explosives on a densely populated urban environment as a way of demonstrating one's devotion to "peace" or "moral clarity." And killing whole families who don't understand English - and therefore don't know how to respond to a roadblock manned by nervous adolescent Americans - is no way to convince Iraqis that we are really looking out for their own good.

Sorry. We've really fucked this one up big time. There is no way we will get out of this without being blamed for all eternity as the smug Westerners who jumped into a situation they didn't understand and made it much worse than it was. And now we are planning on turning it over to thieves like Amed Chalabi, a convicted felon but trusted associate of Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Perle.

Oh yeah, thieves are us!

Bush vs the Common Defense

Is the US safer now?:

One year after its founding, the US Department of Homeland Security has just begun to grapple with one of its most challenging problems: defining what "homeland security" should mean to Americans decades hence.
. . .
But it's a Washington truism that huge security holes remain. Few shipping containers entering the country are inspected, for instance. National biodefense plans may be woefully incomplete. Overall, say some experts, the department lacks a vision. It's a question of time, as much as effort. DHS, as the department is called, needs to methodically

study threats, rank possible responses, and allocate limited funds accordingly, over time - as the Pentagon does for its operations. "Everyone knows the Department of Homeland Security was created out of 9/11, but we're not quite sure what it will look like 20 or 30 years from now," says Juliette Kayyem, a domestic preparedness expert at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. "Was it the flavor of the week, or will it have a cohesive strategy.

Bush vs Justice

MARTHA STEWART: IT HURTS A LOT

There is only one thing to be said about the government's prosecution of Martha Stewart - Ken Lay. OK?

Bush vs the Truth in Iraq

With friends like Ahmad Chalabi, the United States doesn't need enemies:

Chalabi is the Iraqi exile who now brags that his years of lobbying and coaxing American officialdom into war against Iraq have paid off.

He achieved his goal of dethroning Saddam Hussein by feeding the Bush administration his smarmy "intelligence" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. His neo-conservative friends here, mostly in the Pentagon, eagerly lapped up his blathering because they were looking for an excuse to attack Iraq. Chalabi, who can claim parenthood of the U.S.-led invasion, headed the Iraqi National Congress, which was formed in exile and nurtured with U.S. financial aid.

Last week, he gave an interview to London's Daily Telegraph that added to the embarrassment of the Bush administration. The fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been uncovered, he declared, is of no importance.

Come to think about it, that's just what the administration is saying while keeping up the pretext that it is still scouring Iraq for those doomsday weapons. That is the same arsenal that just a year ago posed such a danger to the United States that President Bush said he was required to order an attack.

"As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful," Chalabi told the newspaper. "That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The Bush administration is looking for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords if he wants."

Chalabi seems like the perfect Bush supporter - a convicted felon with a selfish personal agenda and no regard for the truth.

Let the good times roll.

Bush vs Peace in Iraq

Deadly attacks rock Baghdad, Karbala:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Suspected insurgents killed scores of people Tuesday in well-organized, simultaneous attacks in Baghdad and the holy city of Karbala on the holiest Shiite Muslim day of the year, U.S.-led coalition officials said.

Iraqi authorities swiftly blamed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian who is suspected of calling for attacks on Shiites to promote the fight against the U.S.-led coalition.

It was the deadliest day in Iraq since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1, 2003.

At least 100 people were killed in Karbala with about 300 wounded, a doctor at a hospital told CNN.

Yes, we were assured by the Bushies that we didn't have to worry about the aftermath of a war in Iraq because the Iraqis would be so happy to see the American liberators that Peace and Democracy would immediately blossom and everyone in the Middle East would live happily ever after.

What a crock of shit.

Bush vs Public Health

USDA Reports Amount of Mad-Cow Tainted Beef Four Times Earlier Estimates:

The amount of beef potentially contaminated by the nation's first mad-cow case was nearly four times higher than the federal government initially reported, The U.S. Department of Agriculture has said.

When the USDA launched the recall of affected meat Dec. 23, officials put the total at 10,400 pounds, or 5.2 tons, a figure they repeated for nearly two months. But the actual amount was 38,000 pounds, or 19 tons, the agency now acknowledges.

The government has offered multiple reasons for the delay in reporting the actual numbers, but the fact remains that long after it was known that the threat of tainted beef was greater than initially reported the public was still being given a minimized version of the threat. How many times do we experience this kind of thing before we start to assume that we are always being lied to?

Oh, right, we're already there.

Venezuela's Chavez Calls Bush an Asshole

Chavez slams 'asshole' Bush:

Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called United States President George Bush an "asshole" on Sunday for meddling, and vowed never to quit office like his Haitian counterpart as troops battled with opposition protesters demanding a recall referendum against him.

Chavez, who often says the US is backing opposition efforts to topple his leftist government, accused Bush of heeding advice from "imperialist" aides to support a brief 2002 coup against him.

"He was an asshole to believe them," Chavez roared at a huge rally of supporters in Caracas.

As much of a vindictive, hostile, and thin-skinned person as Bush the Younger has proven to be, and the quick willingness he has shown to personalize international relations, can we really expect that he won't soon be doing everything he can to strike back at Chavez? He must already be pissed that his previous meddling wasn't successful and that Chavez is still there. Now that Chavez is giving him the finger - well, I just don't think it's going to be pretty.

Bush vs Democracy In Venezuela

Venezuelan Leader, Battling a Recall, Mocks Bush

In light of what is going on in Haiti, where the U. S. government has worked behind the scenes to bring about "regime change" by forcing the resignation and flight of a democratically elected president out of favor with the Bush administration, it is useful to look closely at the situation in Venezuela. Here the Bushies have already supported an abortive military coup and used CIA covert activities to try and destabilize the economy. Now we learn that U. S. taxpayers are helping to finance a recall election against Venezuela's democratically elected president:

President Hugo Chavez railed against the Bush administration on Sunday in a speech before tens of thousands of supporters, accusing it of meddling in Venezuelan affairs and supporting antigovernment forces trying to remove him from office.

Mr. Chavez, whose language has become increasingly hostile in the face of American support for a recall referendum, warned that if the Bush administration carried out what he called American aggressions, "the people of the United States should know that they will not get another drop of oil from Venezuela." The American energy market is heavily reliant on Venezuela, one of the top four providers of petroleum to the United States.
. . .
The government here has been incensed since it was recently disclosed that Sumate, an opposition group that helped plan the recall effort, received $53,000 from the United States government. The money came from the National Endowment for Democracy, which had funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to groups opposed to Mr. Chavez.

Given the historically negative consequences of such meddling in other country's affairs and the serious costs American citizens have borne as a result of the ensuing distrust and hostility, isn't it time for the public to demand that our supposed representatives stop interfering with the democratic process in other counties?

Bush vs Democracy in Haiti

Dems slam White House on Haiti policy

As well they should.

Bush vs Democracy in Iraq

Iraqis agree basic law draft:

Iraq's Governing Council has agreed on an interim constitution and is expected to sign the document after the end of the Shiite feast Ashoura on Wednesday.

This is what "democracy" means to Bush - a governing council appointed by the U. S. has worked up a "constitution" that is really a set of interim rules and regulations to be followed until a fully elected Iraqi government can write a permanent constitution. The ultimate irony is that this faux constitution has to be approved by Paul Bremer - himself an appointed official neither selected nor elected by the public that pays his tab.

This is a joke, and except for the expense and misery it is causing would be amusing to watch. As it is, it is a painful drama that, at each step in its unfolding, reveals another ugly aspect of U. S. policy in the Middle East, and casts further doubt upon the ability of this administration to extricate itself from the trap it forced its way into.