Friday, June 25, 2004
“Well, he did a better job than Dick Cheney did when he came to the rotunda. I felt so bad. Cheney brought my mother up to the casket, so she could pay her respects. She is in her 80's, and she has glaucoma and has trouble seeing. There were steps, and he left her there. He just stood there, letting her flounder. I don't think he's a mindful human being. That's probably the nicest way I can put it."- Ron Reagan, Jr., NYTimes Sunday mag, upcoming
Bush Cuba Policy: Rove Strikes Out
For such a supposedly brilliant strategist, Rove can make some walloping mistakes. This one was to go way too far in curtailing visits Cuban-Americans could make to their relatives in Cuba.
Under the changes, United States residents will be allowed to visit relatives once every three years instead of once a year. They will be able to spend $50 a day, down from $167, plus $50 a day for transportation, if needed. Visitors will need a special license that will let them visit immediate family members only, for up to 14 days at a time.
Another change limits gifts sent to the island to food, medical supplies, radios and batteries. Although any American older than 18 can now send up to $1,200 a year, the rules will allow only people with immediate family members in Cuba to send money, and just to those relatives.
"I don't know if we are standing on strong moral ground here," Mr. Garcia said. "Someone who has been as pro family as President Bush should not be affecting family relationships between exiles and Cubans on the islands."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/national/24CUBA.final.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1088129941-9KbiSH8NEp+Q7IXbYdTY+Q
Polls:
CNN/USA: 54% now think invading Iraq was a mistake
Quinnipiac: Pennsylvania: Kerry: 44%, Bush: 43% Nader 7%
American Research Group: Ohio: Kerry 49%, Buah 43%, Nader 2%
Since Nader's vote will actually be between 0 (not on the ballot) and 2%, these results are promising for Kerry.
Nader:
In between vilifying commentaries, there are a few reports of his activity. Here’s one effort:
I wanted to ask readers to join me in a nationwide campaign to open the upcoming presidential debates to include independent candidate Ralph Nader.
A new organization is being launched -- LetNaderDebate.Org -- whose mission is to bring thousands of fellow Americans into an effort to demand that Nader's voice be included in the televised debates, the first of which is scheduled for September.
We have begun by circulating our OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, calling on him to open the debates and demand Nader's inclusion. In order for the debates to be an appropriately engaged forum, Nader's voice must be included. He offers a significantly different perspective on the pressing issues of the day -- including the war in Iraq -- and his participation will surely invigorate the dialogue. You don't have to be a Nader voter to support an open and democratic debate!
To sign the open letter to President Bush go to www.LetNaderDebate.org . You can also join me by giving a gift to this effort (it is a 527 fund, not a campaign fund), and also email emailing your friends and contacts about it.
So let's go and get Nader into the debates. Let me know how it goes.
Energy Task Force:
The basics: Bush administration won't have to reveal secret details of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force before the election, after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a lower court should spend more time sorting out the White House's privacy claim. In a 7-2 decision, justices said the lower court should consider whether a federal open government law could be used to get task force documents. Even if that court rules against the administration, appeals would tie up the case well. (AP/Yahoo)
Upshot: The case isn’t dismissed, so the lower court could return this item to the public spheres prior to November. The Bushies aren’t happy.
Clinton Bashing:
(1) Meet the Press: Clinton the Murderer
(Robert) NOVAK: I don't believe that the Whitewater case was ever fully investigated. People died. The judge that was going to get information out was not questioned.
(Joe) KLEIN: People died?
NOVAK: And as a matter of fact, Joe, I believe that Bill Clinton beat the rap on Whitewater and I think Ken Starr failed on that.
(2) Campaign Commercials:
We in Massachusetts haven’t viewed them, but the Republican ones, already notable for their massive distortions, and their focus on Clinton! As part of the ‘Bush Protects Us Against Terrorists’ theme, the ads attack Clinton for his failure to respond to the first World Trade Center bombing in ’93.
Turkey: Bombings
Bush is headed there next week for the NATO summit, so there’s concern.
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Bombings. The worst ones yet.
And, Robin Wright reports in the Washington Post that U.S. Immunity in Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30. So much for sovereignty.
The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.
The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the year-long occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer is expected to extend Order 17 as one of his last acts before shutting down the occupation next week, U.S. officials said. The order is expected to last an additional six or seven months, until the first national elections are held. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A757-2004Jun23?language=printer
Casualties: Prior to Thursday’s deadly bombings:
U.S. Military Deaths: Between the start of war on March 19, 2003 and June 16, 2004, 952 coalition forces were killed, including 836 U.S. military. Of the total, 693 were killed after President Bush declared the end of combat operations on May 1, 2003. Over 5,134 U.S. troops have been wounded since the war began, including 4,593 since May 1, 2003.
Contractor Deaths: Estimates range from 50 to 90 civilian contractors, missionaries, and civilian worker deaths. Of these, 36 were identified as Americans.
Journalist Deaths: Thirty international media workers have been killed in Iraq, including 21 since President Bush declared the end of combat operations. Eight of the dead worked for U.S. companies.
Iraqi Deaths: As of June 16, 2004, between 9,436 and 11,317 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and ensuing occupation, while an estimated 40,000 Iraqis have been injured. During "major combat" operations, between 4,895 and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers and insurgents were killed. http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/costsofwar/index.htm
Jim Lobe adds that according to the above study, “it will cost the average US household at least US$3,415 through the end of this year. Then there are the inestimable costs of the loss of many thousands of lives, and the resentment generated towards the US. “Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War", also notes that the US$151.1 billion that will have been spent through this fiscal year could have paid for comprehensive health care for 82 million US children or the salaries of nearly 3 million elementary school teachers." http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF25Ak01.html
Legal Scholars Weigh in on Torture Memos
Legal scholars asked to assess the recently released Justice Department memorandums concerning torture all but unanimously agreed that the quality of the legal work in them is poor.
It is unsurprising that law professors, who are generally liberal, should differ with the conclusions reached in the memos, which take a broad view of presidential power. But their attack on the professional quality of the memos was unusually sharp.
Harold Hongju Koh, dean of the Yale Law School, called the memorandums "embarrassing" and "abominable."
Martin Flaherty, an expert in international human rights law at Fordham University, said, "The scholarship is very clever and original but also extreme, one-sided and poorly supported by the legal authority relied on."
Cass Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said: "It's egregiously bad. It's very low level, it's very weak, embarrassingly weak, just short of reckless." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/25LEGA.html?pagewanted=print&position=
PR Offensive:
Mike Allen and Susan Schmidt describe the effort to control the bad news.
President Bush's aides yesterday disavowed an internal Justice Department opinion that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible, saying it had created the false impression that the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law.
Responding to pressure from Congress and outrage around the world, officials at the White House and the Justice Department derided the August 2002 legal memo on aggressive interrogation tactics, calling parts of it overbroad and irrelevant and saying it would be rewritten.
In a highly unusual repudiation of its department's own work, a senior Justice official and two other high-ranking lawyers said that all legal advice rendered by the department's Office of Legal Counsel on the subject of interrogations will be reviewed.
As part of a public relations offensive, the administration also declassified and released hundreds of pages of internal documents that it said demonstrated that Bush had never authorized torture against detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In doing so, the administration revealed details of the interrogation tactics being used on prisoners, an extraordinary disclosure for an administration that has argued that the release of such information would help the enemy.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=1778b7f7ecdffb6f6bdf6a5ac17e6918&lat=1088009478&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE5182EEBA439543FEFDD4A0
Republican Control: Two examples of their power:
The Republican-controlled Senate last night derailed a Democratic demand for the release of more documents dealing with abuse of foreign prisoners as sharp debate erupted on Capitol Hill over the Bush administration's policies and practices on the use of torture.
On a largely party-line vote of 50 to 46, the Senate refused to include the Democratic proposal in the $447.2 billion defense authorization bill for next year, which was on track for Senate approval later in the evening.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=31e80e9cee4222d235e5f8f3976b2daa&lat=1088115844&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE00392EBA439543FED73830
… a 50 to 48 vote to defeat a proposal by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) directing the administration to report to Congress on progress in Iraq, including estimates of the number of U.S. troops who will be there at the end of next year. The Senate approved a Republican alternative requiring a report on other aspects of attempts to stabilize Iraq, but not troop estimates. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=7e5aa19c356097d327f4f66df10aff76&lat=1088115844&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE00194EBA439543FED73830
The latter would have passed except for two Democratic “defectors- the expected Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman.
Michael Moore And William Karel: Two Anti-Bush Films
French Filmmaker Takes Own Stab at Bush (AP)
When "Fahrenheit 9/11" was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, another documentary about George W. Bush was waiting in the wings in case Michael Moore's film wasn't ready in time.
"The organizers were keen to include our film in the Official Selection but felt it was politically incorrect to have two anti-Bush documentaries at Cannes," says Jean-Francois Lepetit, whose Flach Film produced "Le Monde Selon Bush" (The World According to Bush).
Directed by seasoned documentary maker William Karel, the 90-minute film could scarcely be more different to Moore's Palme d'Or winner. Karel's style is sober, eschewing humor and stunts in favor of heavyweight interviews.
"Le Monde" is a scathing attack on Bush's first 1,000 days in power, and chronicles the first family's alleged links with the oil and arms industries.
Originally made for French public broadcaster France 2, the documentary premiered on television last Friday, but in an unusual move opened theatrically in France on Wednesday. "We wanted to give the film a wider audience," Lepetit explains.
Health Care: Progress in California. Press Release:
KUEHL'S STATEWIDE HEALTH COVERAGE BILL TAKES HISTORIC STEP FORWARD IN ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 921, authored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-23) which would provide comprehensive health benefits to every Californian at no new cost to California's general fund, has been passed by the State Assembly Health Committee by a vote of 12 to 5.
SB 921 would create a single, streamlined reimbursement system for medical care in California that has been projected to save the state about $14 billion dollars in administrative healthcare costs alone. These and other substantial savings make it possible to insure every resident of California with a comprehensive health plan that would include medical, dental, vision, mental health and prescription drug coverage among benefits.
Because SB 921 would cover every Californian, it would offer each patient the freedom to choose among all healthcare providers. Healthcare provision would remain subject to competition and in private hands. The legislation would also require the State of California to use its purchasing power to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to buy prescription drugs in bulk, thus drastically lowering their cost.
African Horror: “It's Happening Again”
The Washington Post, via Senators Mike DeWine and John McCain
Imagine that we could rerun the events that occurred in Rwanda 10 years ago. With the certain knowledge of horrific events to come, would the world's great nations again stand idle as 800,000 human beings faced slaughter? If the recent expressions of grief and regret from world leaders are any indication, the answer is no -- this time things would be very different.
Yet, in 2004, just as in 1994, the international community is on the verge of making a tragic mistake. Mass human destruction is unfolding today in Sudan, with the potential to bring a death toll even higher than that in Rwanda.
Darfur, a Texas-size region in western Sudan, is the site of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Since December the largely Arab Sudanese government has teamed with the Janjaweed, a group of allied Arab militias, to crush an insurgency in Darfur. The methods that the government and the Janjaweed have employed are nothing short of horrific. They are slaughtering civilians in a systematic scorched-earth campaign designed to "ethnically cleanse" the entire region of black Africans. By bombing villages, engaging in widespread rape, looting civilian property, and deliberately destroying homes and water sources, the government and the Janjaweed are succeeding.
The numbers are appalling. Some 1.1 million people have been driven from their homes, and as many as 30,000 are already dead.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=49caf00bd12c026ef112b3b623f41896&lat=1088009478&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE51874EBA439543FEFDD4A0
Just the Facts:
“The [9/11 commission] report said that Mohamed Atta did meet with an Iraqi Intelligence Agency, or agent, in Prague on April 9th of 2001. We've known this for a long time."
--Rush Limbaugh
Ah, the Big Lie...
NY Times Friday Headline:
Kerry's Campaign Theme Is Leaning Toward Center
As if he’s been a liberal?
Clinton Book: Excerpt Illustrates Right’s Attack:
I was genuinely confused by the mainstream press coverage of Whitewater...One day, after one of our budget meetings in October, I asked Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming to stay a moment to talk. Simpson was a conservative Republican, but we had a pretty good relationship because of the friendship we had in common with his governor, Mike Sullivan. I asked Alan if he thought Hillary and I had done anything wrong in Whitewater. 'Of course not,' he said. 'That's not what this is about. This is about making the public think you did something wrong. Anybody who looked at the evidence would see that you didn't.' Simpson laughed at how willing the 'elitist' press was to swallow anything negative about small, rural places like Wyoming or Arkansas and made an interesting observation: 'You know, before you were elected, we Republicans believed the press was liberal. Now we have a more sophisticated view. They are liberal in a way. Most of them voted for you, but they think more like your right-wing critics do, and that's much more important.'
-R
Bush Cuba Policy: Rove Strikes Out
For such a supposedly brilliant strategist, Rove can make some walloping mistakes. This one was to go way too far in curtailing visits Cuban-Americans could make to their relatives in Cuba.
Under the changes, United States residents will be allowed to visit relatives once every three years instead of once a year. They will be able to spend $50 a day, down from $167, plus $50 a day for transportation, if needed. Visitors will need a special license that will let them visit immediate family members only, for up to 14 days at a time.
Another change limits gifts sent to the island to food, medical supplies, radios and batteries. Although any American older than 18 can now send up to $1,200 a year, the rules will allow only people with immediate family members in Cuba to send money, and just to those relatives.
"I don't know if we are standing on strong moral ground here," Mr. Garcia said. "Someone who has been as pro family as President Bush should not be affecting family relationships between exiles and Cubans on the islands."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/national/24CUBA.final.html?pagewanted=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1088129941-9KbiSH8NEp+Q7IXbYdTY+Q
Polls:
CNN/USA: 54% now think invading Iraq was a mistake
Quinnipiac: Pennsylvania: Kerry: 44%, Bush: 43% Nader 7%
American Research Group: Ohio: Kerry 49%, Buah 43%, Nader 2%
Since Nader's vote will actually be between 0 (not on the ballot) and 2%, these results are promising for Kerry.
Nader:
In between vilifying commentaries, there are a few reports of his activity. Here’s one effort:
I wanted to ask readers to join me in a nationwide campaign to open the upcoming presidential debates to include independent candidate Ralph Nader.
A new organization is being launched -- LetNaderDebate.Org -- whose mission is to bring thousands of fellow Americans into an effort to demand that Nader's voice be included in the televised debates, the first of which is scheduled for September.
We have begun by circulating our OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH, calling on him to open the debates and demand Nader's inclusion. In order for the debates to be an appropriately engaged forum, Nader's voice must be included. He offers a significantly different perspective on the pressing issues of the day -- including the war in Iraq -- and his participation will surely invigorate the dialogue. You don't have to be a Nader voter to support an open and democratic debate!
To sign the open letter to President Bush go to www.LetNaderDebate.org . You can also join me by giving a gift to this effort (it is a 527 fund, not a campaign fund), and also email emailing your friends and contacts about it.
So let's go and get Nader into the debates. Let me know how it goes.
Energy Task Force:
The basics: Bush administration won't have to reveal secret details of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force before the election, after the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a lower court should spend more time sorting out the White House's privacy claim. In a 7-2 decision, justices said the lower court should consider whether a federal open government law could be used to get task force documents. Even if that court rules against the administration, appeals would tie up the case well. (AP/Yahoo)
Upshot: The case isn’t dismissed, so the lower court could return this item to the public spheres prior to November. The Bushies aren’t happy.
Clinton Bashing:
(1) Meet the Press: Clinton the Murderer
(Robert) NOVAK: I don't believe that the Whitewater case was ever fully investigated. People died. The judge that was going to get information out was not questioned.
(Joe) KLEIN: People died?
NOVAK: And as a matter of fact, Joe, I believe that Bill Clinton beat the rap on Whitewater and I think Ken Starr failed on that.
(2) Campaign Commercials:
We in Massachusetts haven’t viewed them, but the Republican ones, already notable for their massive distortions, and their focus on Clinton! As part of the ‘Bush Protects Us Against Terrorists’ theme, the ads attack Clinton for his failure to respond to the first World Trade Center bombing in ’93.
Turkey: Bombings
Bush is headed there next week for the NATO summit, so there’s concern.
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Bombings. The worst ones yet.
And, Robin Wright reports in the Washington Post that U.S. Immunity in Iraq Will Go Beyond June 30. So much for sovereignty.
The Bush administration has decided to take the unusual step of bestowing on its own troops and personnel immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts for killing Iraqis or destroying local property after the occupation ends and political power is transferred to an interim Iraqi government, U.S. officials said.
The administration plans to accomplish that step -- which would bypass the most contentious remaining issue before the transfer of power -- by extending an order that has been in place during the year-long occupation of Iraq. Order 17 gives all foreign personnel in the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority immunity from "local criminal, civil and administrative jurisdiction and from any form of arrest or detention other than by persons acting on behalf of their parent states."
U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer is expected to extend Order 17 as one of his last acts before shutting down the occupation next week, U.S. officials said. The order is expected to last an additional six or seven months, until the first national elections are held. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A757-2004Jun23?language=printer
Casualties: Prior to Thursday’s deadly bombings:
U.S. Military Deaths: Between the start of war on March 19, 2003 and June 16, 2004, 952 coalition forces were killed, including 836 U.S. military. Of the total, 693 were killed after President Bush declared the end of combat operations on May 1, 2003. Over 5,134 U.S. troops have been wounded since the war began, including 4,593 since May 1, 2003.
Contractor Deaths: Estimates range from 50 to 90 civilian contractors, missionaries, and civilian worker deaths. Of these, 36 were identified as Americans.
Journalist Deaths: Thirty international media workers have been killed in Iraq, including 21 since President Bush declared the end of combat operations. Eight of the dead worked for U.S. companies.
Iraqi Deaths: As of June 16, 2004, between 9,436 and 11,317 Iraqi civilians have been killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and ensuing occupation, while an estimated 40,000 Iraqis have been injured. During "major combat" operations, between 4,895 and 6,370 Iraqi soldiers and insurgents were killed. http://www.ips-dc.org/iraq/costsofwar/index.htm
Jim Lobe adds that according to the above study, “it will cost the average US household at least US$3,415 through the end of this year. Then there are the inestimable costs of the loss of many thousands of lives, and the resentment generated towards the US. “Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War", also notes that the US$151.1 billion that will have been spent through this fiscal year could have paid for comprehensive health care for 82 million US children or the salaries of nearly 3 million elementary school teachers." http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FF25Ak01.html
Legal Scholars Weigh in on Torture Memos
Legal scholars asked to assess the recently released Justice Department memorandums concerning torture all but unanimously agreed that the quality of the legal work in them is poor.
It is unsurprising that law professors, who are generally liberal, should differ with the conclusions reached in the memos, which take a broad view of presidential power. But their attack on the professional quality of the memos was unusually sharp.
Harold Hongju Koh, dean of the Yale Law School, called the memorandums "embarrassing" and "abominable."
Martin Flaherty, an expert in international human rights law at Fordham University, said, "The scholarship is very clever and original but also extreme, one-sided and poorly supported by the legal authority relied on."
Cass Sunstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago, said: "It's egregiously bad. It's very low level, it's very weak, embarrassingly weak, just short of reckless." http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/25/politics/25LEGA.html?pagewanted=print&position=
PR Offensive:
Mike Allen and Susan Schmidt describe the effort to control the bad news.
President Bush's aides yesterday disavowed an internal Justice Department opinion that torturing terrorism suspects might be legally defensible, saying it had created the false impression that the government was claiming authority to use interrogation techniques barred by international law.
Responding to pressure from Congress and outrage around the world, officials at the White House and the Justice Department derided the August 2002 legal memo on aggressive interrogation tactics, calling parts of it overbroad and irrelevant and saying it would be rewritten.
In a highly unusual repudiation of its department's own work, a senior Justice official and two other high-ranking lawyers said that all legal advice rendered by the department's Office of Legal Counsel on the subject of interrogations will be reviewed.
As part of a public relations offensive, the administration also declassified and released hundreds of pages of internal documents that it said demonstrated that Bush had never authorized torture against detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In doing so, the administration revealed details of the interrogation tactics being used on prisoners, an extraordinary disclosure for an administration that has argued that the release of such information would help the enemy.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=1778b7f7ecdffb6f6bdf6a5ac17e6918&lat=1088009478&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE5182EEBA439543FEFDD4A0
Republican Control: Two examples of their power:
The Republican-controlled Senate last night derailed a Democratic demand for the release of more documents dealing with abuse of foreign prisoners as sharp debate erupted on Capitol Hill over the Bush administration's policies and practices on the use of torture.
On a largely party-line vote of 50 to 46, the Senate refused to include the Democratic proposal in the $447.2 billion defense authorization bill for next year, which was on track for Senate approval later in the evening.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=31e80e9cee4222d235e5f8f3976b2daa&lat=1088115844&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE00392EBA439543FED73830
… a 50 to 48 vote to defeat a proposal by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) directing the administration to report to Congress on progress in Iraq, including estimates of the number of U.S. troops who will be there at the end of next year. The Senate approved a Republican alternative requiring a report on other aspects of attempts to stabilize Iraq, but not troop estimates. http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=7e5aa19c356097d327f4f66df10aff76&lat=1088115844&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE00194EBA439543FED73830
The latter would have passed except for two Democratic “defectors- the expected Zell Miller and Joe Lieberman.
Michael Moore And William Karel: Two Anti-Bush Films
French Filmmaker Takes Own Stab at Bush (AP)
When "Fahrenheit 9/11" was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, another documentary about George W. Bush was waiting in the wings in case Michael Moore's film wasn't ready in time.
"The organizers were keen to include our film in the Official Selection but felt it was politically incorrect to have two anti-Bush documentaries at Cannes," says Jean-Francois Lepetit, whose Flach Film produced "Le Monde Selon Bush" (The World According to Bush).
Directed by seasoned documentary maker William Karel, the 90-minute film could scarcely be more different to Moore's Palme d'Or winner. Karel's style is sober, eschewing humor and stunts in favor of heavyweight interviews.
"Le Monde" is a scathing attack on Bush's first 1,000 days in power, and chronicles the first family's alleged links with the oil and arms industries.
Originally made for French public broadcaster France 2, the documentary premiered on television last Friday, but in an unusual move opened theatrically in France on Wednesday. "We wanted to give the film a wider audience," Lepetit explains.
Health Care: Progress in California. Press Release:
KUEHL'S STATEWIDE HEALTH COVERAGE BILL TAKES HISTORIC STEP FORWARD IN ASSEMBLY HEALTH COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 921, authored by State Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-23) which would provide comprehensive health benefits to every Californian at no new cost to California's general fund, has been passed by the State Assembly Health Committee by a vote of 12 to 5.
SB 921 would create a single, streamlined reimbursement system for medical care in California that has been projected to save the state about $14 billion dollars in administrative healthcare costs alone. These and other substantial savings make it possible to insure every resident of California with a comprehensive health plan that would include medical, dental, vision, mental health and prescription drug coverage among benefits.
Because SB 921 would cover every Californian, it would offer each patient the freedom to choose among all healthcare providers. Healthcare provision would remain subject to competition and in private hands. The legislation would also require the State of California to use its purchasing power to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to buy prescription drugs in bulk, thus drastically lowering their cost.
African Horror: “It's Happening Again”
The Washington Post, via Senators Mike DeWine and John McCain
Imagine that we could rerun the events that occurred in Rwanda 10 years ago. With the certain knowledge of horrific events to come, would the world's great nations again stand idle as 800,000 human beings faced slaughter? If the recent expressions of grief and regret from world leaders are any indication, the answer is no -- this time things would be very different.
Yet, in 2004, just as in 1994, the international community is on the verge of making a tragic mistake. Mass human destruction is unfolding today in Sudan, with the potential to bring a death toll even higher than that in Rwanda.
Darfur, a Texas-size region in western Sudan, is the site of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today. Since December the largely Arab Sudanese government has teamed with the Janjaweed, a group of allied Arab militias, to crush an insurgency in Darfur. The methods that the government and the Janjaweed have employed are nothing short of horrific. They are slaughtering civilians in a systematic scorched-earth campaign designed to "ethnically cleanse" the entire region of black Africans. By bombing villages, engaging in widespread rape, looting civilian property, and deliberately destroying homes and water sources, the government and the Janjaweed are succeeding.
The numbers are appalling. Some 1.1 million people have been driven from their homes, and as many as 30,000 are already dead.
http://65.54.186.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=49caf00bd12c026ef112b3b623f41896&lat=1088009478&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fletters%2ewashingtonpost%2ecom%2fW5RH05AE51874EBA439543FEFDD4A0
Just the Facts:
“The [9/11 commission] report said that Mohamed Atta did meet with an Iraqi Intelligence Agency, or agent, in Prague on April 9th of 2001. We've known this for a long time."
--Rush Limbaugh
Ah, the Big Lie...
NY Times Friday Headline:
Kerry's Campaign Theme Is Leaning Toward Center
As if he’s been a liberal?
Clinton Book: Excerpt Illustrates Right’s Attack:
I was genuinely confused by the mainstream press coverage of Whitewater...One day, after one of our budget meetings in October, I asked Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming to stay a moment to talk. Simpson was a conservative Republican, but we had a pretty good relationship because of the friendship we had in common with his governor, Mike Sullivan. I asked Alan if he thought Hillary and I had done anything wrong in Whitewater. 'Of course not,' he said. 'That's not what this is about. This is about making the public think you did something wrong. Anybody who looked at the evidence would see that you didn't.' Simpson laughed at how willing the 'elitist' press was to swallow anything negative about small, rural places like Wyoming or Arkansas and made an interesting observation: 'You know, before you were elected, we Republicans believed the press was liberal. Now we have a more sophisticated view. They are liberal in a way. Most of them voted for you, but they think more like your right-wing critics do, and that's much more important.'
-R
