"There's no telling how many wars it will take to secure freedom in the homeland."

- George W. Bush

By: Alan Bisbort  

Back in late October 2000, I attended a Society of Professional Journalists convention in Columbus, Ohio. At the time, with the presidential campaign wheezing to a close, a story had just broken in the Wall Street Journal about Dick Cheney's tenure as CEO of Halliburton. The story detailed how during his five years at the helm of this Dallas-based oil-services company, Cheney had openly courted regimes that flagrantly violated human rights - including Iran, Indonesia, Azerbaijan, Libya, Nigeria, and even our latest evil incarnate, Iraq (for those keeping score at home, that's two-thirds, or 66.6%, of George W. Bush's "Axis of Evil").

Furthermore, the Wall Street Journal story offered the grim details of Halliburton's "constructive engagement" with Burma (I refuse to use the name given the country by its illegimate military junta). The WSJ reporter explained how President Clinton had, early in his first term, cut diplomatic ties with Burma for its leaders' myriad human rights violations and that most American corporations had pulled up sticks and left. Not Halliburton. Cheney himself, in fact, personally brokered a deal for a major pipeline in Burma even though, in the opinion of one U.S. federal judge, Halliburton already knew the project would benefit from forced labor and 'numerous acts of violence' by the Burmese military. (You heard that correctly: Mr. Ethics turned a blind eye to slavery.)

By: Molly Ivins  

Some days, you have to believe right-wing ideologues have lost touch with reality completely. Their latest proposal to prevent future Enrons is - ta-da! - cut the capital gains tax.

And exactly what does that do to prevent future Enrons? Nothing. Except Ken Lay won't have to pay taxes on the stock he sold while his company cratered and his employees watched their life savings disappear.

Enron & Etc. are not the consequence of a few greedy executives cutting corners - they are the result of a series of deregulatory measures and other changes in the law that set up the opportunity for theft on a staggering scale, making it not only possible but inevitable...

By: Paul Krugman  

Today, in its Waco economic forum, the Bush administration will try to convince the country that everything is under control - that the economy is mending, that "shady" business practices are no longer a problem. To that end a carefully chosen audience will listen to speeches by administration officials and selected models of corporate probity. Among the speakers announced last week was John T. Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems.

They really don't get it, do they? One could hardly have picked a better example of what's wrong with the administration's whole approach.

White House Big Guns in Sea Battle to Sink Ocean Protection

From:  

The Bush administration is arguing that an environmental law does not apply to a vast tract of oceans under U.S. control.

The move could allow military manoeuvres, oil and gas pipelines, commercial fishing, ocean dumping, and other activities to escape public environmental review.

"The war against terrorism is terrorism. The whole thing is just bullsh*t."

- Woody Harrelson

Editorial from:  

...America is a society built around suspicion of government action, not worship of it. The source of power is popular sovereignty, not a divine right to rule. While popular sovereignty - as the Declaration of Independence announces - presupposes that the people were "endowed by their creator" with their rights, the American state was not conceived as an arm of God.

Almost as remarkable is Justice Scalia's contempt for the past century of Supreme Court opinions concerning the meaning of the Eighth Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment". He laments the court's decisions, for example, abolishing the death penalty for crimes other than murder and imposing age limitations on the penalty's application. These are examples of the "living Constitution", he sneers, the idea that the scope of the prohibition shifts with society's judgments about cruelty. In his view, the Constitution "is not living but dead - or, as I prefer to put it, enduring". It prohibits only those torturous deaths that it banned when adopted. "[The death penalty] was clearly permitted when the Eighth Amendment was adopted (not merely for murder, by the way, but for all felonies - including, for example, horse-thieving, as anyone can verify by watching a Western movie). And so it is clearly permitted today." Translation: Execute children for shoplifting? Fine by the Constitution.

The Court rejected the static vision of the amendment as far back as 1910. Justice Scalia refights an old, and long-lost, battle. Since he has neither sought to reopen this battle in his judicial opinions nor assert that the government's source of power is divine, it may be wrong to put too much weight on the views expressed in this article. But they are worth bearing in mind, the next time Justice Scalia pronounces on the death penalty or on the relationship between church and state.

By: Ron Reed  

How many more hints does the "opposition" need before it wakes up to the fact that the Bush regime is simply running the same scam? And running that scam with the same cast of characters, the same smoke and mirrors, the same deals with and instructions to terrorists, and the same fundamental foreign policy goals. In this case, it is the dismantling of Russia so as to guarantee no future opposition to the U.S. world empire, and the neutralization of China as a potential adversary (even regional powers will no longer be allowed to exist), according to the Rumsfeld doctrine.

It is the same contempt for the people, for the law, and for Constitutional niceties carried to an even further degree. Why is the left wasting its time with niggling objections to the most extreme trial balloons floated by the Nazis in the White House, and then temporarily pulling back to only marginally less objectionable positions? Since when do we allow the enemies of humanity to set the agenda for us?

By: William Rivers Pitt  

When Bush had the warnings, he did nothing, and America lost thousands of civilians. Now, with no warnings nor threats, he prepares for a battle that will slaughter tens of thousands more civilians. This is the paradox.

There are two possibilities. Either George W. Bush is the dumbest, most incompetent, most utterly harebrained human ever to sit in the Oval Office, or he is some dazzling breed of Uberman fiend bent upon dominion over the earth. Either he's a total dimwitted dunderhead who cannot understand a threat when it is wagged in his face, or he is an evil genius who allowed the 9/11 attacks to take place so as to enhance his political power, and now plans to attack Iraq to further entrench that power.

We crossed that bridge to the 21^st century and found a troll living beneath it. It is named George W. Bush, and it is either dumber than a bag of doorknobs, or more fiendishly clever than any comic book supervillain. Neither option is terribly palatable.

By: Paul Corrigan  

The more important question is why is one class of people in America treated separately and unequally? Not even Bush is dumb enough to believe that men and women (but mostly men) who run corporations, and make more in one day than an average worker makes in a year, need tax relief. Is anyone really surprised that the CEO share of the stock ownership pie has increased dramatically at a time when American workers were providing equity to the stock market through 401(k) retirement plans, a transfer of wealth unprecedented in American history. If a ising tide lifts all boats, why are so many wealthy Americans afloat and so many working Americans sunk? Bush told us that for the good of America we had to let these people avoid corporate taxation by setting up de jure but not de facto offices in offshore tax havens, cutting their private tax rates, and eliminating the tax on the transfer of wealth from their estates to their heirs. Bush wants us to believe that he did this after asking himself, what would Jesus do.

This is beyond absurd. Not only does the President have no clothes, the empire has no clothes either. It is a Ponzi scheme. The game is rigged. Raise your hand if you think the unelected President; the underachieving academic with diplomas from Philips Andover, Yale, and Harvard Business School; the failed businessman who used insider trading to turn worthless stock into an interest in a professional baseball team; the presidential candidate that took large sums of cash from Enron; and, the President that supported widespread corporate deregulation; is going to make sure the game isn't rigged anymore.

Anyone with their hand raised is nuts.

From:  

Once again, George W. Bush has hit the trifecta - landing himself on the list three times (1, 5, 10), including a bit of idiocy that was worthy of the cover of Time magazine. But Bob Barr is giving Dubya a run for his money, showing up twice (3, 7), for idiocy involving guns and campaign commercials. Meanwhile, Dick Cheney (2) is spinning Halliburton, Bill Simon (4) is hanging by a thread, and Al Hanson (6) is making an impressive electoral showing for a Republican felon.

Questions Remain on Bush's Service as Guard Pilot

By: Walter V. Robinson  

In fact, Bush only flew with the 111^th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron at Ellington Field in Houston from June 1970 until April 1972. That month he ceased flying altogether, two years before his military commitment ended, an unusual step that has left some veteran fighter pilots puzzled.

What's more, a Bush campaign spokesman acknowledged last week that he knows of no witnesses who can attest to Bush's attendance at drills after he returned to Houston in late 1972 and before his early release from the Guard in September 1973.

The official record that chronologically lists Bush's service includes no evidence of service between May 1972 and October 1, 1973, the official date of his discharge.

"All this trust. All this support. What an opportunity to lead. But in the end to what end? An administration adrift, with polling numbers as their only compass and high approval ratings as their only destination."

- Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic Party

By: Doris "Granny D" Haddock  

In future years, historians will write in amazement that the Bush administration, after colossal incompetence that allowed a historic crime to take 3,000 American lives, took that crime for his political advantage and brought America into its moment of greatest danger. It will be called the time when America almost lost itself, its values, its soul - almost lost the courage of its Constitution - the Constitution that is indeed the First Wonder of the Civilized World, if we can keep it.

I'm not afraid to die for my freedoms, Mr. Bush. Don't make me safe from terrorists at the expense of my freedom. I gladly accept risks for my freedom. I have the courage of my Constitution, because I owe a debt of courage to all who gave their lives for my freedoms. I fear you, Mr. Bush - not Osama, not Sadam - you. You are the threat to America and its Constitution. As one citizen, I ask you to resign for the good of a great nation.

If any of you out there are tipster spies, make a report on what I just said and send it to your block captains. Let them put me in jail. It won't be the first time, and I always meet interesting people there. They have jails enough for us all. This has been coming.

"As for the miners, it was their determination to stick together and to comfort each other that really defines kind of a new spirit that's prevalent in our country, that when one of us suffer, all of us suffers."

- pResident Dumbo, muck'n up his syntax again

Editorial from:  

During the 1970's and 1980's, the federal government constantly spent more money than it collected. This deficit spending forced Washington to borrow billions every month, shoving the national debt into the stratosphere. U.S. borrowing gobbled up much of the nation's investment capital, which otherwise could have created businesses and jobs. During the Reagan-Bush era, federal deficits averaged over $200 billion per year. America became the world's biggest debtor.

But the pattern reversed in the 1990's under President Clinton. Slowly, the budget was balanced, then it moved into the black. Clinton's final budget contained a $179 billion surplus. Much of this revenue stemmed from the stock market boom that generated bigger tax collections. National leaders were overjoyed, because the federal government had regained solvency. Long-range forecasts projected surpluses up to $5.6 trillion over the next decade.

By: Arianna Huffington  

First, Bush's and Cheney's reps tried to argue that even though setting up shop in the Caymans is a favorite ploy of companies looking to avoid paying their fair share of taxes - Enron had 692 subsidiaries there - that wasn't the reason Harken or Halliburton had done it. Well, pray tell, what was? A desire to rack up frequent flier miles checking on the company headquarters/PO Box? A desperate longing for a bitchin' tan? Cheaper umbrella drinks for company meetings?

As if this half-hearted evasion weren't lame enough, White House spokesman Dan Bartlett fell back on the classic "Plan B": trying to make friends and win arguments by splitting hairs. Harken's offshore entity wasn't designed to evade taxes, explained Bartlett, it was meant to enhance "tax competitiveness". And to his credit, Bartlett didn't even break out laughing after this claim. Probably waited until he got back to his office. Oh yeah, and also, oral sex isn't - well, you know the drill.

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer even tried the ol' No Harm, No Foul defense, arguing that the reason Bush's company went Caribbean was a "moot question" because Harken never made any money on the Cayman venture. Memo to Fleischer: Arguing that the crime didn't pay isn't a defense. And by the way, thank you, Ari, for further evidence that our first MBA President was an exceedingly poor businessman.

By: Thomas Oliphant  

Normally, consumers of information about the economy pay scant heed to Bush administration officials. In the financial and policy worlds, they have a deserved reputation for ideological blinders, tight political scripts, and poor persuasive skills.

When the jittery country got two tough jolts of disturbing information about the now officially anemic recovery, however, this absence of leadership ability tended to make an upsetting situation worse. The continued inability of President Bush's team to communicate, an inability that begins at the top, is going to make consumers and not just investors even more concerned than the facts would seem to require they be.

The reports, first that the recovery effectively stalled in the second quarter and second that an expected spurt in the number of private sector jobs failed to materialize last month, were each made more disturbing by the atrocious "analysis" with which top officials greeted their publication.

Editorial from:  

The Justice Department all but told a federal judge this week to take his legitimate concerns about civil liberties and stuff them in the garbage pail. The Bush administration seems to believe, on no good legal authority, that if it calls citizens combatants in the war on terrorism, it can imprison them indefinitely and deprive them of lawyers. It took this misguided position to a ludicrous extreme on Tuesday, insisting that the federal courts could not review its determinations.

This defiance of the courts repudiates two centuries of constitutional law and undermines the very freedoms that President Bush says he is defending in the struggle against terrorism. The courts must firmly reject the White House's assertion of unchecked powers.

By: Mike Hersh  

To support Bush, Republicans have to put their party ahead of their country. Each day, more Republicans and Indies realize Bush's Enronomics derailed the economy, and his foreign policies make no sense. They have a choice - support an unelected, unqualified failure, or do what's best for America.

Already, we're seeing Republicans distance themselves from Bush on important issues like campaign finance reform and prescription benefits. The unanimous vote against Bush in the Senate on the Sarbanes business accountability law might have been the turning point. Elected Republicans are unwilling to follow Bush as he tries to mislead them - and us - into the abyss.

Sen. McCain and Sec. Powell are already actively opposing Bush's idiotic policies. I wonder if the frustration factor will lead Bush to explode - as he did with Jeffords - causing similar defections from those two and others who know Bush is ruining the country?

Republicans who have integrity put country ahead of party...

By: Alex Belida  

American scientist Steven Hatfill has gained attention in the U.S. government's investigation into the anthrax mailings last year that killed five people. He is what officials term a person of interest, not a suspect.

One of the factors that has apparently intrigued investigators is that Mr. Hatfill graduated from the Godfrey Huggins School of Medicine in Zimbabwe in 1983.

That was just a few years after the world's largest outbreak of human anthrax in what was then known as Southern Rhodesia. Between 1978 and 1980, nearly 200 people died and more than 10,000 cases were recorded. Researchers characterize the outbreak as suspicious and some believe it may have been the result of deliberate action by white Rhodesian security forces in the waning days of what was a long and brutal war with black liberation fighters.

Mr. Hatfill is reported to have begun his medical studies in the southern African country while the guerrilla war was under way in 1978, the same year he left the U.S. Army.

By: Eric Pianin  

Nearly one-third of major industrial facilities and government-operated sewage treatment plants have significantly violated pollution discharge regulations during the past two years, but relatively few are being prosecuted, according to a study by a watchdog group.

The report found that 10 states - Texas, Ohio, New York, Indiana, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan, and Pennsylvania - had the largest number of major facilities in "significant noncompliance" with discharge requirements during the 15-month period examined. In Texas alone, more than half the 546 major facilities and plants violated the law at least once during that period, the study noted.

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