Monday, February 16, 2004
Scandal Follow-up- Keeping up the momentum!
With Plame indictments alleged to be on the way, the Senate has decided to expand its probe to look at whether intelligence analysts were pressured to strengthen the case for war.
In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that it planned to investigate whether White House officials exaggerated the Iraq threat or pressured analysts to tailor their assessments of Baghdad's weapons programs to bolster the case for war.
The move puts claims made by President Bush and other senior officials in his administration squarely in the sights of the committee's investigation, and could add to the White House's political troubles as it tries to keep questions about the war from becoming a drag on Bush's reelection campaign. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-intel13feb13.story
Budget cuts and betrayal of students- Fine Globe piece (excerpts)
(Jim Munn (2/15/2004) The damage from budget/tax cuts keeps getting passed down; the connections- that federal cuts timed with cuts in revenue, i.e. tax cuts, have steadily gutted a variety of services on the local level- are too rarely made.
On can hardly blame the students at Winthrop High School for walking out of school last Tuesday. The spontaneous protest, involving about half of the 600-member student body, came less than 24 hours after residents rejected a Proposition 2 1/2 override that would have provided $6 million to the cash-strapped schools and town.
The decision by voters will result in numerous teacher layoffs and reductions in town services and staff, as well as cause the elimination of all after-school sports, beginning in the fall. It has already caused School Superintendent Thomas Giancristiano and Director of Finance Lester Towlson to resign at a school committee meeting Thursday.
Students feel betrayed, and the sense of community that once was an integral part of high school athletics in Winthrop no longer exists. Like many of his classmates, Eruzione doesn't plan on returning to Winthrop High in the fall. No surprise there. How can any student who loves playing sports get excited over attending a school that offers nothing in the way of after-school athletics?
Today, mandatory user fees have become the policy of nearly every city and town in the Commonwealth. In Gloucester, the charge is $45 per season for any student wishing to participate in sports. In Winthrop, the user-fee scenario is more depressing -- $315 per season. And people wonder why Winthrop's once proud varsity track team was able to suit up only six boys for the winter indoor season? It's a trend sure to follow in many other communities. Having all but picked clean the pockets of the parents of Winthrop student-athletes, residents and town officials have apparently now decided to simply wash their hands of the city's youth altogether.
Students will have to learn to do without after-school sports, just as they have learned to do without painting, ceramics, photography, band, orchestra, chorus, theater, library, and industrial arts programs in school systems elsewhere. Such programs, it seems, have been deemed no longer relevant to the education of the nation's youth. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/15/budget_cuts_and_betrayal_of_students/
What’s Happening, Iraq…and Afghanistan: Security Problems in both countries, well documented. Last week had the worst casualties in Iraq since September, with over 120 Iraqis killed in three bombings. And, 2 more Americans- 540 now.
Thankfully, WBUR’s The Connection addressed the thousands of wounded vets today, how they are slipped into Andrews air force base at night http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/02/20040216_b_main.asp
In Afghanistan, even Administration officials are admitting that at least 1/3 of the country is “insecure.”
Confidential report prepared by the US-led administration in Iraq says that the attacks by insurgents in the country have escalated sharply, prompting fears of what it terms Iraq's "Balkanisation". The findings emerged after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the top US general in Iraq, John Abizaid, on Thursday. "January has the highest rate of violence since September 2003," the report said. "The violence continues despite the expansion of the Iraqi security services and increased arrests by coalition forces in December and Januaryhttp://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982503425&p=1012571727088
Iraqi security forces will be unable to guarantee safety after the planned transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30, a range of Iraqi and Western specialists concluded on Sunday, one day after an audacious raid in Falluja that killed at least 25 people.
A series of bold attacks on military and police forces in Iraq last week culminated in the overrunning on Saturday of a police station in Falluja, about 35 miles west of Baghdad. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/middleeast/16CND-IRAQ.html
The Bush administration has begun suggesting that Afghanistan's elections scheduled for June may have to be postponed because of security problems and the failure to register enough voters.http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/asia/16AFGH.html?hp
More on Iraq: Iraqi health care
The hospitals…mind-boggling, though not surprising after a decade plus of sanctions and a war. The NY Times front page story (Jeffrey Gettleman)
At Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Children, gallons of raw sewage wash across the floors. The drinking water is contaminated. According to doctors, 80 percent of patients leave with infections they did not have when they arrived.
Doctors say they have been beaten up in the emergency room. Blood is in such short supply that physicians often donate their own to patients lying in front of them.
"The word `big' is not enough to express the disaster we are facing," said Ahmed A. Muhammad, the hospital's assistant manager.
…But Iraqi doctors say the war has pushed them closer to disaster. Fighting and sabotage have destroyed crucial infrastructure and the fall of Saddam Hussein precipitated a breakdown in social order.
"It's definitely worse now than before the war," said Eman Asim, the Ministry of Health official who oversees the country's 185 public hospitals. "Even at the height of sanctions, when things were miserable, it wasn't as bad as this. At least then someone was in control." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/international/middleeast/14HOSP.html?ex=1392094800&en=d32a74170d4d
China link to nuclear network
Melbourne, Australia’s The Age (Joby Warrick, Peter Slevin) reports on China’s link to the nuclear network.
Investigators have identified China as the origin of nuclear weapons designs found in Libya last year, exposing yet another link in the chain that passed nuclear secrets through Pakistan to other countries in Asia and the Middle East.
According to US Government officials and arms experts, bomb designs and other papers turned over by Libya have yielded evidence of China's long-suspected role in leaking nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s. The designs were later resold to Libya by Pakistani scientists through a nuclear network that is now the focus of an expanding international probe.
The documents, some written in Chinese characters, have detailed instructions for assembling a nuclear bomb that could fit on a large ballistic missile. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/15/1076779834038.html
Voter Fraud:
Sunday’s NY Times had an editorial that noted
”In 2000, the American public saw in Katherine Harris’s massive purge eligible voters in Florida, how easy it is for registered voters to lose their rights by bureaucratic fiat.” The editorial goes on to quote the US Civil Rights commission’s findings documenting how people falsely designated as felons were struck from the polls.”
It is extraordinarily common and infuriating that the Times, which refused to carry the story back in 2000-2001 and didn’t even report on the Civil Rights Commission which it referenced in the editorial, now goes on record. And, they continue to not make crystal clear that these purged voters were predominantly black, and thus likely to be Gore supporters.
-R
With Plame indictments alleged to be on the way, the Senate has decided to expand its probe to look at whether intelligence analysts were pressured to strengthen the case for war.
In a blow to the Bush administration, the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that it planned to investigate whether White House officials exaggerated the Iraq threat or pressured analysts to tailor their assessments of Baghdad's weapons programs to bolster the case for war.
The move puts claims made by President Bush and other senior officials in his administration squarely in the sights of the committee's investigation, and could add to the White House's political troubles as it tries to keep questions about the war from becoming a drag on Bush's reelection campaign. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-intel13feb13.story
Budget cuts and betrayal of students- Fine Globe piece (excerpts)
(Jim Munn (2/15/2004) The damage from budget/tax cuts keeps getting passed down; the connections- that federal cuts timed with cuts in revenue, i.e. tax cuts, have steadily gutted a variety of services on the local level- are too rarely made.
On can hardly blame the students at Winthrop High School for walking out of school last Tuesday. The spontaneous protest, involving about half of the 600-member student body, came less than 24 hours after residents rejected a Proposition 2 1/2 override that would have provided $6 million to the cash-strapped schools and town.
The decision by voters will result in numerous teacher layoffs and reductions in town services and staff, as well as cause the elimination of all after-school sports, beginning in the fall. It has already caused School Superintendent Thomas Giancristiano and Director of Finance Lester Towlson to resign at a school committee meeting Thursday.
Students feel betrayed, and the sense of community that once was an integral part of high school athletics in Winthrop no longer exists. Like many of his classmates, Eruzione doesn't plan on returning to Winthrop High in the fall. No surprise there. How can any student who loves playing sports get excited over attending a school that offers nothing in the way of after-school athletics?
Today, mandatory user fees have become the policy of nearly every city and town in the Commonwealth. In Gloucester, the charge is $45 per season for any student wishing to participate in sports. In Winthrop, the user-fee scenario is more depressing -- $315 per season. And people wonder why Winthrop's once proud varsity track team was able to suit up only six boys for the winter indoor season? It's a trend sure to follow in many other communities. Having all but picked clean the pockets of the parents of Winthrop student-athletes, residents and town officials have apparently now decided to simply wash their hands of the city's youth altogether.
Students will have to learn to do without after-school sports, just as they have learned to do without painting, ceramics, photography, band, orchestra, chorus, theater, library, and industrial arts programs in school systems elsewhere. Such programs, it seems, have been deemed no longer relevant to the education of the nation's youth. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/02/15/budget_cuts_and_betrayal_of_students/
What’s Happening, Iraq…and Afghanistan: Security Problems in both countries, well documented. Last week had the worst casualties in Iraq since September, with over 120 Iraqis killed in three bombings. And, 2 more Americans- 540 now.
Thankfully, WBUR’s The Connection addressed the thousands of wounded vets today, how they are slipped into Andrews air force base at night http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/02/20040216_b_main.asp
In Afghanistan, even Administration officials are admitting that at least 1/3 of the country is “insecure.”
Confidential report prepared by the US-led administration in Iraq says that the attacks by insurgents in the country have escalated sharply, prompting fears of what it terms Iraq's "Balkanisation". The findings emerged after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the top US general in Iraq, John Abizaid, on Thursday. "January has the highest rate of violence since September 2003," the report said. "The violence continues despite the expansion of the Iraqi security services and increased arrests by coalition forces in December and Januaryhttp://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1075982503425&p=1012571727088
Iraqi security forces will be unable to guarantee safety after the planned transfer of sovereignty to an Iraqi government on June 30, a range of Iraqi and Western specialists concluded on Sunday, one day after an audacious raid in Falluja that killed at least 25 people.
A series of bold attacks on military and police forces in Iraq last week culminated in the overrunning on Saturday of a police station in Falluja, about 35 miles west of Baghdad. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/middleeast/16CND-IRAQ.html
The Bush administration has begun suggesting that Afghanistan's elections scheduled for June may have to be postponed because of security problems and the failure to register enough voters.http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/16/international/asia/16AFGH.html?hp
More on Iraq: Iraqi health care
The hospitals…mind-boggling, though not surprising after a decade plus of sanctions and a war. The NY Times front page story (Jeffrey Gettleman)
At Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Children, gallons of raw sewage wash across the floors. The drinking water is contaminated. According to doctors, 80 percent of patients leave with infections they did not have when they arrived.
Doctors say they have been beaten up in the emergency room. Blood is in such short supply that physicians often donate their own to patients lying in front of them.
"The word `big' is not enough to express the disaster we are facing," said Ahmed A. Muhammad, the hospital's assistant manager.
…But Iraqi doctors say the war has pushed them closer to disaster. Fighting and sabotage have destroyed crucial infrastructure and the fall of Saddam Hussein precipitated a breakdown in social order.
"It's definitely worse now than before the war," said Eman Asim, the Ministry of Health official who oversees the country's 185 public hospitals. "Even at the height of sanctions, when things were miserable, it wasn't as bad as this. At least then someone was in control." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/14/international/middleeast/14HOSP.html?ex=1392094800&en=d32a74170d4d
China link to nuclear network
Melbourne, Australia’s The Age (Joby Warrick, Peter Slevin) reports on China’s link to the nuclear network.
Investigators have identified China as the origin of nuclear weapons designs found in Libya last year, exposing yet another link in the chain that passed nuclear secrets through Pakistan to other countries in Asia and the Middle East.
According to US Government officials and arms experts, bomb designs and other papers turned over by Libya have yielded evidence of China's long-suspected role in leaking nuclear know-how to Pakistan in the early 1980s. The designs were later resold to Libya by Pakistani scientists through a nuclear network that is now the focus of an expanding international probe.
The documents, some written in Chinese characters, have detailed instructions for assembling a nuclear bomb that could fit on a large ballistic missile. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/15/1076779834038.html
Voter Fraud:
Sunday’s NY Times had an editorial that noted
”In 2000, the American public saw in Katherine Harris’s massive purge eligible voters in Florida, how easy it is for registered voters to lose their rights by bureaucratic fiat.” The editorial goes on to quote the US Civil Rights commission’s findings documenting how people falsely designated as felons were struck from the polls.”
It is extraordinarily common and infuriating that the Times, which refused to carry the story back in 2000-2001 and didn’t even report on the Civil Rights Commission which it referenced in the editorial, now goes on record. And, they continue to not make crystal clear that these purged voters were predominantly black, and thus likely to be Gore supporters.
-R
