By: Bill Conroy  

In late November, President Bush tapped Hutchinson, currently the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), to take on a high-level post in the recently created Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Now it seems concerns are being raised about the Drug Czar's track record on the treatment of minorities, specifically Hispanics.

The charges against Hutchinson, in fact, are being advanced by the Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association, or HAPCOA, a group of some 1,100 command-level Hispanic law enforcement officers from across the country and Puerto Rico who work on the local, state, and federal levels. These aren't beat cops; rather, they're the individuals running the show: supervisors, captains, special agents in charge.

By: Winston Smith  

Well la-dee-da. As usual with the press when they report on Bush, the 1100 pound elephant in the room is never addressed. In this case the obvious question to ask is not only why it took our "leader" eight days to respond, but why didn't Bush respond when Lott made the remarks initially? After all, Lott made his odious comments in the White House, with Bush right next to him (strangely though, no video has been shown of Bush's response to Lott at the time of his remarks).

A true leader would have stopped the proceedings right there and then, as would someone who was as outraged as Bush professed to be in his remarks last week. But no. There was silence by Bush as these offensive remarks were made in "his" house. There was silence the day after, and the day after, and the day after. Only when it became clear where the prevailing political winds were blowing did our Rove-bot say his two bits.

By: Joe Conason  

Like Lott, Ashcroft has lent his prestige to neo-Confederate publications and causes, notably the strange interview he gave to Southern Partisan magazine. And like Lott, he has cultivated connections with the Council of Conservative Citizens, which maintains its headquarters in his home state of Missouri.

While Ashcroft was running for reelection to the Senate against the late Mel Carnahan in 2000, he met secretly with a CCC leader named Thomas Bugel to discuss the fate of a CCC member indicted for plotting to murder an FBI agent, among other offenses. When that meeting was exposed following his nomination for Attorney General, Ashcroft claimed through a spokeswoman that he didn't know about Bugel's association with the CCC.

Yet in addition to serving as the local president of the CCC, Bugel was for several years the leading segregationist on the St. Louis school board. Ashcroft had every reason to know exactly who Bugel is, because as Attorney General and Governor of Missouri, he too had played a divisive role in racial disputes...

By: Diane E. Dees  

When Lott was first elected to Congress by the state of Mississippi, one of his first acts was to introduce a bill to halt school desegregation. In the 80's, he lobbied President Reagan on behalf of defending the federal tax exemption for racially segregated institutions. And in both 1975 and 1980, Lott voted against extending the Voting Rights Act. In 1990, he also voted against the continuation of the Civil Rights Act.

One of the things the media has consistently repeated is Lott's association with the Council of Conservative Citizens, whose nickname is "the uptown Klan". Only 10 years ago, in a speech to the CCC, the Mississippi Senator said: "The people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction and our children will be the beneficiaries." Obviously possessed of a very poor memory himeslf, Lott later denied he knew anything about the organization.

By: punpirate  

...the latest, from the Washington Post, is that the upcoming newest policy shift of the Bushies, with regard to taxes, is that the rich pay too much in taxes.

Where's the surprise in this? Kevin Phillips, in his Wealth and Democracy, provides ample evidence that, over the last couple of decades, the very wealthy, in their effective tax rates, pay slightly less in tax percentage of income than do the middle class. The working poor pay less percentage in taxes now, but that's because they have little to pay in without becoming clients of the systems the right-wingers want to destroy; those safety nets are, for the moment, still in place, meager though they may be.

Phillips also describes the decline of empire in very stark terms. The arrogance of acquisitive war and the deficits such wars create, the dependency upon speculative markets, all combine with the attempts of the wealthy to manipulate government to concentrate their wealth, at the expense of nation and people.

The latest attempt by the right wing to shift tax load to the lower classes is nothing new. It's been going on since Roosevelt's New Deal...

By: Bruce S. Ticker  

Lott's remarks raise the question as to whether he is a racist and, by their partnership on many policies, if Cheney and the rest of the gang are a bunch of racists.

It depends on one's definition of racism and bigotry in general. The issues are too clouded to conclude if these people are bigots.

Besides, all the so-called champions of civil rights and the vulnerable citizenry are awfully disingenuous to dump on Lott for a few words which were certainly stupid and probably racist. Where have they been after nearly 23 years of tax breaks for the rich and dismantling of the few protections left for the poor in our society?

This is much is clear: Bush, Cheney, Lott, and Thomas are elitists who believe their role is to consolidate power and maintain what amounts to a caste system of the haves and have-nots.

"We lost the election that year [1968] to men who governed without love and without laughter, to men who promised law and order and gave us crime and oppression."

- Jimmy Carter, in a 1976 campaign speech

Clinton Says He Had a Plan to Attack North Korean Reactor in 1994

By: Toby Sterling  

"We had a tense situation with North Korea in my first term", Clinton said. Pyongyang "was planning six to eight" bombs a year.

"We drew up plans to destroy the reactor", Clinton said, and he told Pyongyang the facility would be attacked unless it were frozen.

Clinton urged his successor, George W. Bush, to work with China, Japan, and other nations to pressure the North Koreans on the nuclear issue.

The White House said Friday, Bush intended to stick with a diplomatic approach to the crisis, and ruled out military action to shut the reactor.

By: Ed Hanratty  

Did any of you see the Republican National Convention in 2000? From the great city of Philadelphia, the Republicans, in a desperate and pathetic attempt to prove that they were diverse, rolled out everyone with pigmentation darker than Casper the Friendly Ghost that had ever voted for the GOP, and they gave all 10 of them the chance to speak in prime time. Colin Powell was there, front and center. Condi Rice, cause hey, they're killing two birds with one stone by having an African-American woman speak, right? They had Jeb Bush's half-Hispanic son, George P. Bush speak. (This kid was once introduced by his grandfather, George "The Elected" Bush to then-President Reagan as "the little brown one".) Hell, they even had openly gay Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe speak. Bottom line, they were trying convey: "Forget what you heard from your parents, the Republican Party is open to anyone, not just crusty old rich white men and armed to the teeth pro-life jesusfreaks."

But it's not. Try as they might to deny it, the heart and soul of the Republican Party lies in the belief that there a few chosen ones to whom this country has been entrusted, and its up to them to set the standards for morality, economics, and foreign policy. They practice and believe in exclusion...

By: Paul Krugman  

Of course, the administration insists that the new policy isn't intended to allow government-funded proselytizing. And it would surely deny that by explicitly permitting religious discrimination in hiring - organizations that receive federal contracts can "take faith into account in making employment decisions" - it is opening up a new source of patronage for its friends on the Christian right.

Why am I not reassured?

For one thing, we are well advised not to trust anything the administration says about the goals of its domestic policy. John J. DiIulio, who initially headed the Bush administration's faith-based initiative, told a reporter, Ron Suskind, that this White House had no interest in the substance of policy, caring only about political payoffs: "What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run by the political arm."

From:  

Well, well, well. It should come as no surprise to you that Trent Lott has set a new record for conservative idiocy this week. Captain Combover has managed to take up a valuable eight slots this week, for a variety of different offenses. This doubles the previous best record, held by George W. Bush at four appearances in one week. Not only that, but he's got his hands all over the 9th slot too, which is occupied by People Who Tried To Cover For Trent Lott. Finally, in tenth place we've got a round-up of all the idiots who got pushed aside by Trent Racist-Foot-In-Mouth Lott, so you won't miss anything this week. One final note: we will be taking a break from publishing during the holiday period, so this will be the last Top Ten Conservative Idiots of 2002. Have a great holiday and a Happy New Year, and we'll see you all again in 2003!

By: Jonathan Weisman  

As the Bush administration draws up plans to simplify the tax system, it is also refining arguments for why it may be necessary to shift more of the tax load onto lower-income workers.

Economists at the Treasury Department are drafting new ways to calculate the distribution of tax burdens among different income classes, which are expected to highlight what administration officials see as a rising tax burden on the rich and a declining burden on the poor. The White House Council of Economic Advisers is also preparing a report detailing the concentration of the tax burden on the affluent and highlighting problems with the way tax burdens are calculated for the poor.

The Treasury Department is working up more sophisticated distribution tables that are expected to make the poor appear to be paying less in taxes and the rich to be paying more.

By: Rebecca Knight  

...Bush and company play smash-mouth politics regardless of how many times a Democrat has voted their way and regardless of how patriotic a Democrat is. To them it's not about policy. It's not about political stances. It's not about patriotism. It's about winning.

It's about winning. Period. In a previous column, Why I Am A Democrat, the take-no-prisoners style of the Republican Party was laid out for the reader by using Republican words and strategies from one of their own publications. That column was vindicated by this year's mid term elections. Their attacks on Max Cleland, the Democratic Senator from Georgia and Vietnam veteran who lost limbs in combat, were vicious and disgraceful. Proof positive that they will do anything and say anything to win.

Democrats, meanwhile, stammer, stutter, and squirm out of opportunities to lay claim to issues that are extremely vital to the American public for fear of being labeled unpatriotic. Unpatriotic? How is it unpatriotic to stand up for what is right, for what is best for poor Americans, working-class Americans, and even wealthy Americans. How is it unpatriotic to get the facts out about how policy decisions by the current administration impact the daily lives of every American? Is it unpatriotic simply because we are in a time of "war"?

Hypocrisy is at work here, ladies and gentlemen. Technically we are not at war. Congress has not declared war. Yes, we are fighting terrorism all around the world and God bless our military men and women who serve with honor. But since when did having our military in action prohibit the scrutiny of a sitting President? Apparently, it was prohibited upon the installation of George W. Bush in the White House. Oh, but it was okay to criticize Bill Clinton. Never forget the famous line of Senator Trent Lott in 1999: "We can support our troops without supporting our President."

"And so, in my State of the... my State of the Union... or state... my speech to the nation, whatever you want to call it... speech to the nation. I asked Americans to give 4,000 years... 4,000 hours over the next... the rest of your life, of service to America."

- President Weak & Stupid

From:  

A President Bush doll that says "We're working hard to put food on your family" and "I will not hold this nation hostile" has turned into a huge hit for a small company.

The 12.5-inch-tall likeness, which features clips from Bush speeches and campaign stops, sold out a first shipment of 12,000 this week. A second shipment of the $29.99 doll won't arrive until after Christmas.

"We anticipated it being a very popular item but we just didn't think it was going to take off that quick", said Jim Wessling, co-founder of Irvine-based TalkingPresidents.com Inc.

By: Lia Haberman  

"As a father, an actor, a filmmaker, and a patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation to find my own voice on matters of conscience", said the famously anti-establishment thespian.

Penn has been openly critical of the current administration's hostile approach to Iraq. Last month, Penn paid $56,000 to publish a letter to President Bush in the Washington Post in which he appealed to the Prez as a fellow patriot and family man.

"That bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop", wrote the actor, who signed the missive: "Sincerely, Sean Penn, San Francisco, California."

"America is a free, English-speaking, Western-civilized country. Integrationists seek to Africanize, Mexicanize, Orientalize, and communize it. But integration is immoral and subversive."

- Richard Barrett

"In the fight for freedom, Mississippi has never been and will never be lukewarm. Especially, when it comes to segregation. What is segregation? The moral and common-sense way for different races to touch, without colliding. Another word for "segregation" is "discrimination". Another word for discrimination" is "choice". What is wrong with freedom of choice? It's all about freedom. I segregate myself from dirt, by taking a bath, from snakes by not picking them up and from other countries by living in the good, old USA..."

- Richard Barrett, during a press conference (with Trenchmouth Lott's daughter Tyler present) at Jackson City Hall, Jackson, MS

John Ashcroft Talks in White Supremacist Code

By: Stanley Crouch  

His largely unknown 1998 interview in the quarterly Southern Partisan praises him as a "champion of states' rights and traditional Southern values". For those slow on the updraft, those are code words for white supremacist ideas about the Civil War, segregation, genetics, and so on.

Code is now very important, even to those in the boggiest wilds of the far right. They, too, know that in politics it might be best to move under camouflage until you get where you want and can begin opening serious fire against your enemies.

John Hickey, executive director of the Missouri Citizen Education Fund, and his staff have been researching Ashcroft for the last few years. They have found that Southern Partisan "supported South African apartheid, prints racist theories presented in The Bell Curve and gives positive coverage to former KKK leader David Duke."

By: David Barboza  

Even as Enron's top executives were insisting that the company did not engage in speculative trading, Enron was reaping the bulk of its profits during the California energy crisis by betting on the direction of gas and electricity prices, according to company records and interviews with former Enron traders and executives.

A result of the speculation, the records show, was one of the most stunning runs ever for a corporate trading operation - some $7 billion in net trading profits for Enron during a power crisis that wreaked havoc on consumers in 2000 and 2001 and forced rolling blackouts in some parts of California. That tally included days with immense trading losses, including a $550 million reversal just a week after the $485 million gain. Former Enron executives said the company hid its speculative activities to shield it from criticism that it was profiting from California's energy woes.

By: David Espo  

While Republicans squirmed, Democrats did what they could to raise questions about Lott's views on civil rights in an attempt to maximize the political pain for him and his party.

With Lott speaking favorably of the Dixiecrat campaign of 1948, for example, Democrats turned up a document marked as a sample ballot distributed to Mississippi voters that year, when Thurmond ran as a segregationist alternative to Democratic President Harry Truman.

A vote for Truman's presidential electors, the sample ballot said, amounts to a vote for "passage of Truman's so-called civil rights program in the next Congress". That means, it added, that "anti-lynching and anti-segregation proposals will become the law of the land and our way of life in the South will be gone forever".

By: David Podvin  

The last time Republicans controlled the federal government, they launched a political assault that became known as "McCarthyism". In theory, the effort was intended to prevent communist infiltration of the United States. In reality, McCarthyism was a partisan tool designed to stifle dissent and destroy anyone who opposed the right wing agenda. After ruining the lives of many innocent people, the smear campaign ultimately failed - not as a result of stalwart opposition from the left, but because Joseph McCarthy was an alcoholic who self-destructed.

In January, the Republicans will again have Washington completely under their control, and they are now laying the groundwork to resume the unholy crusade of Tail Gunner Joe. The party's chief propagandist, Rush Limbaugh, recently delivered a diatribe that was classic McCarthyism in its demagoguery and malevolence...

"What Trent Lott said was true. If the country had elected Strom Thurmond in 1948, we 'wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years'... Lott may never have meant, as happily charged in the press, that we would have been better off with a segregationist President, but I wish he had. It is true, and it is time someone says so. Flippant feminist columnist Kathleen Parker went into hysterics, asking just what kind of 'problems' Lott meant. Using silly references to Hitler, she wrote: 'Wonder which problems Herr Lott had in mind? That darned black vote? Those integrated public schools? Hip-hop? White flight? Black crime? The blind date that darkens the door of the white family room?' Not bright enough to realize it, she was giving all the correct answers. To think that white parents are not concerned about the racial makeup of their families and passing down inherited traits from generations back is to exhibit a profound ignorance of the importance of race in this country and in the world.

- Michael Andrew Grissom, from an article posted on the Council of Conservative Citizens' website

By: Mike Schiller  

Senator Lott knows that racial tensions have a unique electoral resonance in states where conservative politicians get elected. It is probable that after witnessing Mary Landrieau's late-year victory, Mr. Lott grew nervous that conservative white voters might not be turning out in large enough numbers. His remark was a rallying cry, not a blunder.

That said, it is unlikely that he would have consulted any of his fellow Republicans before making such an obnoxious comment. While some of his fellow Republicans may agree with him on racial issues, and some might disagree, none who do agree would dare voice such an opinion in public. Any sane political strategist would have advised against it. Yet it's highly likely that Senator Lott, as an incoming majority leader, might feel empowered enough to develop his own strategy for padding the Republican majority by swelling support among southern white voters. Especially with an economy that is on a continual downward spiral. How many unemployed white males in southern rural states may believe their employment prospects might improve if segregation had continued? That's a question Senator Lott may be pondering, and a possible issue he may wish to exploit.

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